There was a news headline a few days ago, stating that a conference about Coronavirus was cancelled, due to Coronavirus.

Many viewed the tweet as comical, but it also reflects a reality of the crisis happening right now.

With all the panic surrounding COVID-19 (Coronavirus), it can be hard for some people to tell fact from fiction. There’s not a lot of research about it, because it’s such a new virus.

In perfect timing with other emerging online classes, a university in London just released a free online course all about the Coronavirus. Luckily, it can’t be cancelled that way.

The course uses a combination of approaches from:

• epidemiology
• public health
• health economics
• medicine
• social science

in order to provide a comprehensive overview of the situation.

Are there any hidden fees?

“Science Matters: Let’s Talk About COVID-19” is entirely free, and differently from other Coursera courses, there is not a paid option.

Currently, there is only content for 4 weeks’ worth of the 8-week-long course. The rest of the weeks show a message of “coming soon”.

So, the current sections are the following:

• Introduction to Science Matters: Let’s talk COVID-19
• Overview of the Epidemic and the Basic Reproduction Number (R0)
• The Case Fatality Rate: Why it Varies, and Why that Matters
• Phylogenetic Analysis & The World Economic Forum on the Bigger Picture on COVID-19

Those add up to approx. 40 minutes of video content, in addition to some readings in each section.

If you or a loved one feels overwhelmed with all the information, the course can serve as a valuable resource. As a collateral benefit, it can help people become used to online courses, now that many schools are implementing them.

Unlike other sources of information, the course might not be the most current (some of the videos are from early February). However, there are thorough analyses that help students understand the nature of the epidemic, in-depth.

The course is all in English, but it counts with close captioning, and additional subtitles in Hungarian. Hopefully in some time they can begin to add subtitles in other languages.

What other resources are you using during this time? Do you prefer social media, as a more current source of information?

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