Misinformation around the COVID-19 pandemic is all over the place, including social media. But it’s not a complete wasteland. While Twitter has its share of problems, it’s also a place plenty of people go to share their expertise.
In addition to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organization, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, the Infectious Diseases Society of America, your state’s health department, and, sure, Steak-umm, there are plenty of epidemiologists and public health experts to follow. We put together a starter list, but pay attention to the people they retweet, and pretty soon you’ll have a packed list of experts who can explain the rapidly changing world we’re living in.
Dr. Trevor Bedford
And thank you to the groups from all over the US and the world who have generously shared sequence data via @GISAID to be analyzed with @nextstrain. 18/18
— Trevor Bedford (@trvrb) April 12, 2020
Dr. Trevor Bedford is a biologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. He’s been tracing virus outbreaks based on their genomes to figure out how they’re spreading.
Dr. Carl Bergstrom
Dr. Carl Bergstrom is a professor of biology at the University of Washington. He’s been specializing in debunking all kinds of misinformation for years and is co-author of a forthcoming book, Calling Bullshit: The Art of Skepticism in a Data-Driven World.
Dr. Nahid Bhadelia
Dr. Nahid Bhadelia is an infectious diseases physician at Boston University School of Medicine. She’s also the medical director of the Special Pathogens Unit there, and she started preparing to treat COVID-19 patients there in early February.
Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett
Our (co-inventors @McLellan_Lab) COVID-19 vaccine (spike delivered by @moderna_tx's mRNA) was just injected into the 1st human in phase 1 trial, only 66 days after viral sequence release… a testament to rapid vaccine development for emerging diseases🦠💚https://t.co/2DLZsdirAD
— KizzyPhD (@KizzyPhD) March 16, 2020
Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett is a viral immunologist and research fellow at the Vaccine Research Center at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. She and her team have already started first-stage clinical trials of a COVID-19 vaccine.
Dr. Tom Inglesby
Dr. Tom Inglesby is the director of the Center for Health Security at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He and his colleagues are already working on ways to better respond to public health crises like the current pandemic.
Dr. Akiko Iwasaki
An immunobiology professor at the Yale School of Medicine, Dr. Akiko Iwasaki is studying the immune system’s response to COVID-19, an essential part of finding treatments for the disease.
Dr. Ashish Jha
Dr. Ashish Jha is a professor of health policy at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He’s an advocate for widespread testing for COVID-19.
Dr. Krutika Kuppalli
It’s like we haven’t learned from what defunding CDC, NIH, Fogarty, and HRSA has done let’s now go and defund WHO. Additionally when it comes to a public health crises i would always count on WHO, the problem POTUS doesn’t get is how challenging science is esp infectious disease https://t.co/y13UVGuH2M
— Krutika Kuppalli, MD FIDSA (@KrutikaKuppalli) April 15, 2020
Dr. Krutika Kuppalli is an infectious diseases expert and vice chair of the Global Health Committee at the Infectious Diseases Society of America. She has experience with pandemic preparedness and infection control.
Dr. Adam Kucharski
Dr. Adam Kucharski is an associate professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He has a timely book out, The Rules of Contagion: Why Things Spread — and Why They Stop.
Dr. Benhur Lee
Dr. Benhur Lee is a professor of microbiology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He has a page on his lab’s site dedicated to explaining COVID-19.
Dr. Marc Lipsitch
Dr. Marc Lipsitch is the director of the Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He’s been laying out the ways the U.S. needs to respond to the pandemic.
Dr. Maimuna Majumder
Dr. Maimuna Majumder is a faculty member at the Computational Health Informatics Program, part of Harvard Medical School and Boston Children’s Hospital. She’s a computational epidemiologist, digging into the data around the virus.
Dr. Ellie Murray
Our #COVID19 info sheet is now available in 11 languages! Check them out on my github:https://t.co/axLndK6KHC
Huge huge thanks to everyone who helped translate, copy, and proofread!!
cc @BenjaminLinas @The_BMC pic.twitter.com/1sueZBiELY
— Dr Ellie Murray, ScD (@EpiEllie) March 18, 2020
Dr. Eleanor Murray is an assistant professor of epidemiology at Boston University School of Public Health. She uses statistical methods to study the effectiveness of treatments for a range of diseases.
Dr. Saad Omer
Dr. Saad Omer is the director of the Yale Institute for Global Health. He’s conducted clinical trials for potential vaccines for a wide array of diseases.
Dr. Alexandra Phelan
Dr. Alexandra Phelan is an assistant professor at the Georgetown University Center for Global Health Science and Security. She works on legal and policy issues related to infectious diseases.
Dr. Saskia Popescu
Dr. Saskia Popescu is an infectious disease epidemiologist and infection preventionist. She offers guidance on curbing infection spread in hospitals.
Dr. Angela Rasmussen
Dr. Angela Rasmussen is a virologist at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. She studies host response to infection for many diseases, including newly emerging ones like COVID-19.
Dr. Carlos del Rio
Dr. Carlos del Rio is a professor of medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Emory University School of Medicine. He and his colleagues have suggested steps to help end the pandemic.
Dr. Caitlin Rivers
Dr. Caitlin Rivers is a computational epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. She researches ways to improve epidemic preparedness and response.
Dr. Faheem Younus
Dr. Faheem Younus is the chief of infectious diseases at the University of Maryland Upper Chesapeake Health. He’s been trying to combat COVID-19 myths with his tweets.
