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    Opinion: Misinformation about an outbreak like Covid-19 is important public health data

    Disease epidemics are shaped by unique interactions between biological and social factors. #Covid19 is a case study in the interplay between contagion, information, misinformation, and behavior.
    by Laurent Hébert-Dufresne and Vicky Chuqiao Yang Apr 07, 2020 4 minutes
    People attend a vigil in Hong Kong on Feb. 7 for Li Wenliang, the doctor whom the Chinese public consider the whistleblower of the coronavirus pandemic. He died in Wuhan after contracting the virus while treating a patient.

    One of us (L.H.-D.) heard the first official news of the coronavirus outbreak in China while attending an international conference in Tokyo. Western tourists began donning precautionary face masks and network scientists were brainstorming preliminary analyses. As we all adjusted our travel plans based on the incoming information, it seemed like the virus had reached many residents of Wuhan faster than the news of its emergence.

    The spread of information — and misinformation — has been playing a crucial role throughout the unfolding coronavirus outbreak and should serve as a wake-up call for scientists who model epidemics. With every outbreak of a new pathogen comes a race to estimate its transmissibility, which scientists, the media, and the public use to compare the new

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