This will be an ongoing, weekly post that will highlight the things you should have read (at least in MY opinion).

Articles you might have missed:

1. Why the Coronavirus Is So Confusing, by Ed Yong at The Atlantic. Few journalists have been as good as Ed in covering this pandemic. This week saw another not-to-be-missed contribution from him.
2. U.S. Coronavirus Death Toll Is Far Higher Than Reported, C.D.C. Data Suggests, by Josh Katz, Denise Lu and Margot Sanger-Katz at the NYT. I’m clearly biased when it comes to the work of The Upshot, but this article makes clear that we are likely deeply underestimating the death toll from the pandemic.
3. How to Keep Workers Healthy on the Job, by Scott Gottlieb and Stephen Ostroff at the WSJ. Gottlieb has been an unbelievable resource in the pandemic, and while many government organizations have failed to provide guidelines on how we might move forward, articles like this fill the gap.
4. The race for coronavirus vaccines: a graphical guide, by Ewen Callaway at Nature. This article reviews the eight paths by which we could get to a vaccine, and more than 90 efforts underway to get there.
5. How Long Will a Vaccine Really Take?, by Stuart A. Thompson in the NYT. This is a remarkable piece of interactive data journalism that lets you explore how long it might take to make a vaccine under different circumstances.
6. How Coronavirus Mutates and Spreads, By Jonathan Corum and Carl Zimmer in the NYT. Another amazing data journalism piece that explains how this virus has mutated, and what that means.

Documents for your review:

• You really need to make time to review Public Health Principles for a Phased Reopening During COVID-19: Guidance for Governors, by the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. They’ve been putting out policy statements on how we should move forward since the beginning of the pandemic, and this document will be the one every state will be looking to when they make their plans to re-open safely.
• A number of ex-health officials released the Bipartisan Public Health Leaders Letter on COVID19 Tracking and Tracing. In it, they argue for much bigger investment in both testing infrastructure and the public health workforce we’re going to need for contact tracing and isolation.

What I’m writing:

• My column at the NYT on Sunday discussed how the way forward in the coronavirus crisis keeps getting framed as a choice between saving lives or saving the economy. That’s a false choice. The only way to save the economy is to take the steps that will also save lives.

What I’m reading:

• My Restaurant Was My Life for 20 Years. Does the World Need It Anymore? by Gabrielle Hamilton at the NYT Magazine. This is long, but it’s really worth your time. A successful chef reflects on how the pandemic led to her closing her successful restaurant, and her thoughts on her profession may change for good. She can also really write.