Coronavirus and COVID-19 Information: Santa Clara County and Bay Area, California

When so many people are scared or feel threatened, rumors and misinformation fly wild. It's best to look up the scientific evidence (or at least scientific rationale) behind advice about slowing the spread of coronavirus and keeping healthy in this pandemic. If you can't verify the science, fact-check it. When in doubt, stick to trusted sources of information like the resources linked in this guide.

If you see something that looks to be from a trustworthy source, double check directly by searching that source's webpage. (For example, this advice did not come from someone at Stanford Hospital, as it claims.)

Some - but not all - claims that people are unable to wear a face covering when required are fraudulent. Accommodating that claim may be required under the ADA, but that does not mean facilities must allow someone into their premises without a face covering. Curbside pick-up or delivery is a totally acceptable accommodation by stores, for example. Any document that claims exemption from a specific ordinance (like this one) is fake.

Unfortunately, frauds  spread almost as fast as the novel coronavirus, in these scary times. Here's how to protect yourselves from scammers:

The SantaClara County Department of Public Heath's website is updated daily on the number of cases that have tested positive in the county, the number of deaths from COVID-19, and how many people have been tested in the county.

City of San José staff are creating multilingual Flash Reports from the daily Emergency Notifications.

The Santa Clara County Public Health Department's Dashboard includes a map of cases across the county, searchable by zip code. It also provides graphs and data on demographic distribution (cases by age group, by gender, or by ethnicity  /race), and on cases in long-term care facilities (assisted living facilities, nursing homes, etc.), on cases in hospitals, and on hospital capacity.

At present, the most accurate data maps of this disease across the U. S. and worldwide comes from Johns Hopkins University.

(Dashboard above, including data and maps,  copyright Johns Hopkins University Global Health Network.)

The World Health Organization has collected a lot of useful information:

These more specialized resources are also useful.

 - Data and medical research news on the pandemic:

This disease spreads exponentially -- but what does that mean, actually? The Washington Post has a good animated article explaining why so many sources talks urge us to "flatten the curve", available in several other languages besides the English and Spanish versions linked here (click on the first link to find all versions).

 - The numbers of medical research reports and clinical medical articles on this disease are exploding exponentially, too. These sites helpfully collect and organize the latest biomedical research information:

- Vaccines

 As researchers frantically work to find a vaccine for SARS-CoV-2, the news will be full of reports on trials and other speculation. McGill University's COVID-19 Vaccine Tracker collects the latest verified information on vaccine trials worldwide. 

PlaneTree Health Library's webpages and social media will include information on vaccines once they are proven effective. Until then, these sources of information on how vaccines work and on how epidemiology  looks at immunity, may be useful to help make sense of trending news:

 - Legal (and financial and regulatory) matters relating to the pandemic :

 - Research and public policy: