A recent poll shows that 78% of Americans support stay-at-home orders. As the economy comes crashing down to levels not seen since the Great Depression, our social fabric will begin to rip, and the public will change its mind.

As an avid reader of the New York Times, it pains me greatly to read about a familiar subject that has so many errors and misconceptions. Especially when COVID-19's impact on society is being discussed.

So much news, so much confusion and so many questions – especially those around what different terms mean. What exactly is a therapy for COVID-19? Is it a cure, or something else, like a vaccine? To help sort it out, we prepared this summary; it may help a bit. And to go with it, a riddle: What do you call anti-vaxxers once a coronavirus vaccine becomes available?

The coronavirus pandemic has devolved into just another partisan battle. In the process, it has revealed how poorly served Americans are by their leaders and the media.

While recognizing the Centers for Disease Control’s missteps in handling this epidemic, I also understand that the agency could still provide critically important leadership in getting us out of this mess. However, its botched attempt at providing testing for public health labs around the U.S. was clearly a major roadblock to establishing the kind of robust testing we would have needed early to contain the outbreak. I miss the CDC I used to know. 

ACSH, among others, has been criticized as “racist” for using the “Wuhan virus” early in the pandemic, before COVID-19 became the universal descriptor. We were using a description based on location, like Lyme Disease, from Lyme, Connecticut, not a racial description.

To understand how severe and lethal COVID-19 really is, we need to know how many have been infected, which, in this equation, is the "denominator." An early study from Stanford of Santa Clara County says we may be underestimating how many cases there already are, which inaccurately gauges COVID-19’s infectivity and eventual mortality.

Early clinical trial results from Gilead show that its antiviral drug, remdesivir, has promise in treating patients with severe COVID-19. Though there are major caveats, there is good reason for cautious optimism.

Why are basic questions about the biology of SARS-CoV-2 so hard to answer?

Dr. Derek Lowe, arguably the finest and most influential chemistry blogger in the universe, has put together an excellent summary of the complex and confusing clinical data of hydroxychloroquine, which he published recently in his blog in Science and Translational Medicine. We thank Derek and AAAS for allowing us to reprint this important article.