General News 

According to the New York Times, Americans will today get a closer look at new statistical models for COVID-19 that led governors and mayors across the country to order more than 250 million people to stay home. The information is expected to be grim. Meanwhile, in an interview with NPR, CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield says that according to the data his agency is seeing, approximately one in four of those infected with the virus remain asymptomatic. 

Some of the most striking images related to this outbreak demonstrate how public life has essentially vanished as nations around the globe practice social distancing. A New York Times photo essay shows the current scenes at Pike Place Market in Seattle.  

Science News 

An article in STAT News takes a closer look at testing challenges as we enter the next phase of the epidemic and how we might address them. 

The entire research community is rightly concerned about how COVID-19 will impact scientific progress as countless labs have paused or closed down non-coronavirus studies. CNN published a story highlighting those concerns. And labs aren’t the only places where science has come to a halt. Here’s a story in Undark about the impacts on field studies.    

Townhall carried an opinion piece today with a title that says it all: “Dr. Fauci, Not PETA Should Determine How We Find a COVID-19 Cure”

Impacts on Education

School closures and the use of distance learning has parents around the globe worried about the effects on education. USA Today investigated the options for “catching up,” once the threat has subsided. At the same time, one journalist at The Guardian asks whether temporary changes forced by the COVID-19 provide an opportunity to transform university education for better.  

In Other News 

There is admittedly a lot of disturbing news today, so here are a couple of more positive stories. 

The first shows how doctors and nurses rallied together to provide medical services in one small Kansas community after a city hospital suddenly closed without warning as the outbreak expanded.

And from NPR, the shortage of toilet paper is one of the more puzzling and admittedly frustrating aspects of the COVID-19 outbreak. However, it’s served to revive the career of a paper mill worker in Bangor, Maine who previously worked at a factory that shuttered in 2014. The man has now formed a new company named Tissue Plus, which is churning out toilet tissue and paper towels 18 hours a day.