Talk:COVID-19 pandemic

Name of the disease

The WHO announced on February 11 that the official name of the disease is "COVID-19." I think we should use that name whenever possible in the body of this article. (I am not talking about the title right now.) The disease has not been around very long, so exactly what its common name is is still fluid. I think it will be clear from context that we mean the same thing as "Wuhan virus" and all the other unofficial names. As the WHO officials say, there is also the risk of spreading unnecessary stigma about Chinese people and Wuhan. Darkfrog24 (talk) 17:13, 13 February 2020 (UTC)

Keeping number of cases/deaths up to date?

The table with the caption COVID-19 outbreak data by territory, affecting 28 countries and territories Is not being updated regularly. It is a shame since this article is being read by more and people. (see: https://tools.wmflabs.org/pageviews/?project=simple.wikipedia.org&platform=all-access&agent=user&range=latest-20&pages=2019–20_coronavirus_outbreak)

It would really help if someone added a ref pointing to a reliable source that keeps tally of the numbers as they change from day to day, so that editors can keep the numbers up to date.

Also there is a redlink titled 2019–20 Wuhan coronavirus outbreak by country and territory at the bottom of the table - what its purpose? Thanks in advance, Ottawahitech (talk) 22:00, 25 February 2020 (UTC)

Just to let everyone know I have removed the redlink from the table.Ottawahitech (talk) 19:26, 26 February 2020 (UTC)

since no one was updating the table I removed it yesterday, but shortly thereafter user:Zaxxon0 reistated it. The problem is we now have two sets of different numbers for this article: one derived from the John Hopkins source and the other from EcDC. As f now the total number cases displayed on those sources differs by 2,000! Ottawahitech (talk) 18:28, 6 March 2020 (UTC)

First death in the United States

Washington state declares emergency after first patient dies from coronavirus in US Ottawahitech (talk) 02:16, 1 March 2020 (UTC)

one death in the United States and one in Australia have been added to the article. Ottawahitech (talk) 20:10, 1 March 2020 (UTC)

"6 people have now died from coronavirus disease in Washington state; King County buying a motel to house isolated patients" Ottawahitech (talk) 22:45, 2 March 2020 (UTC)

Best source for up-to-date numbers?

I have been using the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control as a source for daily updates. Is there a better one? Ottawahitech (talk) 20:13, 1 March 2020 (UTC)

Complexity of article

Dear users, this is the Simple Wikipedia! Why then all the technical jargon? It is surely not meant to mirror the en:wp. --Aliwal2012 (talk) 20:19, 1 March 2020 (UTC) 2020 (UTC)

@Aliwal2012::

Finally someone else is here. It was starting to get kind of lonely :-) I agree that this article needs a lot of work - and it is not only the removal of jargon that is required. I personally would like to see it organized better. The introduction has grown too long, the tables overshadow the text, the table with country information has not been updated since 7 February 2020; important information should be added such as economic impact, sections by country, how to protect oneself, ongoing work on vaccines, and more…

What technical jargon would you like simplified? Is it easy to fix? Ottawahitech (talk) 19:25, 2 March 2020 (UTC)

Another section that would be nice to have is outbreak timelines. I found a ref] on the Seattle Times, but it is interactive and I don't have a sophisticated enough gadget to see it properly. Help anyone? Ottawahitech (talk) 21:01, 3 March 2020 (UTC)

I was about to post this - 2 years later. Please Someone do something about this JacobTheRox (talk) 09:10, 18 May 2022 (UTC)

Intro shortened / timelines (by country) added

I hope I did not "massacre" this article, after attempting to improve it, but I am sure it could use help. Anyone? Ottawahitech (talk) 21:47, 5 March 2020 (UTC)

I also removed outdated information that no one has been able to update. Feel free to re-add it, if you have the time to keep it up-to-date (this is a long term commitment, it appears :-) Ottawahitech (talk) 22:06, 5 March 2020 (UTC)

More conspiracy theories

The one I have a source for is the idea of Iranians believing the Americans made SARS-CoV-2. I've also vaguely heard about Americans thinking the Chinese made it. Darkfrog24 (talk) 17:30, 29 March 2020 (UTC)

technically there not wrong

2019

I don’t get it. Why is it called the 2019 coronavirus pandemic, when it wasn’t even a pandemic until March, it was first aknowleged on December 31, 2019, and even then, 38 people had it. The first death was January 23, and yeah. This pandemic could also easily last until 2021, so can we get rid of dates altogether? 2600:387:5:80D:0:0:0:50 (talk) 21:03, 5 April 2020 (UTC)

Race and racism

In the United States, the statistics showing that black Americans are more likely to catch COVID-19 and to die from it if they do have made the news. Has anything similar been found for other countries? China has lots of ethnic groups other than its Han majority. Italy and Britain do too. Darkfrog24 (talk) 12:50, 17 April 2020 (UTC)

Take a look at this - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-52219070 . It shows that mainly the people who die are Black and Pakistani. However, I am struggling to find something which proves that Chinese people are disproportionally affected by the virus. Despite that, I dont think it has anything to do with racism, I think that it is mainly to do with location and pre-existing health issues --Haris920 (talk) 07:51, 23 June 2020 (UTC)

I agree, but China is a good example. Like Britain and America, it has one dominant ethnic group (Han Chinese for China and white people for Britain and America) and lots of minority ethnic groups, like Uighur and Hakka. I doubt the Chinese government would release information about racial disparities in care while this is going on, but if they do, it would be appropriate to include here. Japan has racial minorities too: Burakumin, Ainu, ethnic Koreans... Darkfrog24 (talk) 05:10, 25 June 2020 (UTC)

Okay, you got my brain working... It's late here, so I'll put these links here for now... Kachins in Myanmar, Taiwan and Japan if anyone wants to run with them while I'm out. Darkfrog24 (talk) 05:18, 25 June 2020 (UTC)

Taiwan article's a bust. Darkfrog24 (talk) 12:22, 25 June 2020 (UTC)

Studies

This is a new study of the "well of course" variety, in that it confirms something that people already know: That people with collective mindsets help end the pandemic faster. Anyone think it's important enough to include here? Darkfrog24 (talk) 14:59, 2 July 2020 (UTC)

Everything ok here?

I thought I was on the wrong page here. There where several talk comments here every day - but the history shows some ancient only. And the article lacks plenty of former information, while the article history does not show a significant change. What did I miss? Or is the article and history broken? --Traut (talk) 05:27, 10 August 2020 (UTC)

John Snow memorandum

This memo would make an excellent source: https://www.johnsnowmemo.com/

Darkfrog24 (talk) 14:44, 26 October 2020 (UTC)