Scammers have utilized every tool at their disposal to pry credit card numbers, passwords, and Medicare information out of consumers during the covid-19 outbreak: robocalls, phishing emails, and texts masked as World Health Organization PSAs; e-commerce facades advertising household items; sham charities; and, especially, promises of a non-existent vaccine. This weekend, the Department of Justice…
Tag: Covid-
With Covid-19, Tech Is Making History Repeat Itself
I have been a professional epidemic watcher for nearly 30 years. I’ve researched seven centuries of pandemics. Yet ever since late January, I have been gobsmacked by the Covid-19 crisis. This surreal disbelief began with the news of China imposing a draconian quarantine on its people—first in Wuhan, where the epidemic began, and then 14…
Covid-19 Is Nothing Like the Spanish Flu
Coverage of the novel coronavirus pandemic teems with monstrous and sometimes contradictory statistics. Among the most vexing figures flitting across our screens, and spreading via text and tweet, is the case fatality rate (CFR)—the proportion of known infections that result in death. Early in the Covid-19 pandemic, World Health Organization officials announced an average CFR…
The Best Sources for COVID-19 Information
Times Square on March 7, 2020.Photo: Kena Betancur ((AFP via Getty Images)The reality of covid-19 has finally started to hit the U.S. hard. Just yesterday, the World Health Organization decided to describe the outbreak of a novel coronavirus that’s reached over 100 countries as a pandemic. Following that decision, U.S. states around the country canceled…