What You Need to Know About the Coronavirus
Editor’s Note: The Atlantic is making vital coverage of the coronavirus available to all readers. Find the collection here.
Updated at 3:28 p.m. ET on April 23, 2020.
By all estimates, the novel coronavirus is quickly becoming the most disruptive pandemic in more than a century. New developments and warnings are being issued every day. The uncertainty of this moment has also led to abundant misinformation, some coming from the president himself. As you sort through the onslaught, here are some stories to help you make sense of life during a pandemic. The Atlantic is choosing to make these freely available to all readers, even those who don’t subscribe. This list will be updated with our continuing coverage.
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The Real Reason to Wear a Mask, by Zeynep Tufecki, Jeremy Howard, and Trisha Greenhalgh
Face masks can serve two purposes: protecting the wearer by preventing infectious particles from coming in, and protecting those around the wearer by preventing particles from coming out. Homemade masks (think sewing up a cotton bandanna) are not nearly as effective as medical-grade masks at keeping the wearer safe, but they can still keep nearly 99 percent of particles from escaping the mask. That’s why the CDC recommends that Americans wear them outside the home: If just 80 percent of the population protects those around them, the rate at which the coronavirus spreads could be halved.
Think of the coronavirus pandemic as a fire ravaging our cities and towns that is spread by infected people breathing out invisible embers every time they speak, cough, or sneeze. Sneezing is the most dangerous—it spreads embers farthest—coughing second, and speaking least, though it still can spread the embers. These invisible sparks cause others to catch fire and in turn breathe out embers until we truly catch fire—and get sick. That’s when we call in the firefighters—our medical workers. The people who run into these raging blazes to put them out need special heat-resistant suits and gloves, helmets, and oxygen tanks so they can keep breathing in the fire—all that PPE, with proper fit too.
If we could just keep our embers from being sent out every time we spoke or coughed, many fewer people would catch fire. Masks help us do that. And because we don’t know for sure who’s sick, the only solution is for everyone to wear masks. This eventually benefits the wearer because fewer fires mean we’re all less likely to be burned. My mask protects you; your masks protect me. Plus, our firefighters would no longer be overwhelmed, and we could more easily go back to work and the rest of our public lives.
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Why Some People Get Sicker Than Others, by James Hamblin
One of the most frightening aspects of the coronavirus is the seemingly random and erratic trajectories it takes. While some people fall ill and slowly recover, others start to feel better before their health takes a nosedive. Even some of the symptoms vary, all without clear patterns or variables. In many cases, steep declines during a COVID-19 infection seem to be caused by an overactive and self-destructive immune response to the illness, specifically an immune event called a cytokine storm. These so-called storms require a careful and difficult balancing act to treat. Understanding why they’re triggered in some people and not others could help make treatment more effective, but depends on research and health-care resources that aren’t available to Americans right now.
Deciding on the precise method of modulating the immune response—the exact drug, dose, and timing—is ideally informed by carefully monitoring patients before they are critically ill. People at risk of a storm could be monitored closely throughout their illness, and offered treatment immediately when signs begin to show. That could mean detecting the markers in a person’s blood before the process sends her into hallucinations—before her oxygen level fell at all.
In typical circumstances in the United States and other industrialized nations, patients would be urged to go to the hospital sooner rather than later. But right now, to avoid catastrophic strain on an
