A short list of useful coronavirus resources

Believe it or not, the current coronavirus crisis is affecting Get Rich Slowly too. Things are slow around here. Traffic is down. Revenue is down. Production is down. Plus, I have a big deadline at the end of the month. My project for Audible and The Great Courses is due on March 31st.

So, just like the rest of the world, we’re going to press “pause” for a couple of weeks. I will return next Wednesday with my annual birthday article, but you’ll have to scroll down to see it. I’m going to pin this post to the top of the front page.

The break will allow me to focus my full attention on the FIRE course. Meanwhile, my partner Tom can work on behind-the-scenes stuff (including the nearly-completed site redesign!) without worrying that I’ll mess things up haha. And, best of all, maybe we can get ahead on our publication schedule for once. We have two new staff writers. I have some articles planned. Tom has some articles planned. It would be great to resume in a couple of weeks with a backlog of material!

Note: During this break, I’ll continue updating the “spare change” links on the front page and Jim and I will continue publishing Apex Money every weekday.

While we’re on hiatus, I’ll use this post to collect useful coronavirus resources. Some of this will be general info, but I’ll also bookmark stuff related to personal finance and the economy.

I’m going to be very selective about what I list here. I’m only going to share the best of what I find. If you know of a resource that should be included, please share it in the comments.

General Coronavirus Information

First up, here’s some of the best general coronavirus info I’ve found.

Our World in Data has an amazing page with coronavirus statistics and research. This is the best comprehensive resource I’ve found for coronavirus facts and figures. It features up-to-date info on growth and spread, plus other essential info. Here’s a sample chart from the site.

You can find reliable info regarding the health aspects of COVID-19 at the World Health Organization coronavirus hub. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also have a useful COVID-19 info center.

The FluTrackers forum is collating coronavirus news from around the world, including news from each U.S. state. I’ve been using this coronavirus live dashboard for a week now, although I cannot vouch for the veracity of its data.

The Emory University school of medicine has created a quick and dirty coronavirus checker. (I’ve been feeling blah lately, but it’s almost surely just my annual tree allergies. This checker gave me this result: “It is unlikely you have coronavirus.”) And, if you’d like to play with possible scenarios, this epidemic calculator uses a classical infectious disease model to project disease spread based on variables that you can tweak.

Here are a few other articles and resources that you might find informative:

• Coronavirus: Why you must act now by Thomas Pueyo on Medium. Also, his follow-up: The hammer and the dance.
• Imperial College London paper on taking steps to reduce the spread of COVID-19 (and some criticisms of said paper).
• How to clean and disinfect yourself, your home, and your stuff at Wired.
• A comprehensive guide to the coronavirus at Ars Technica.

To fight misinformation about the current situation, check sketchy claims at Snopes (here are the Snopes search results for ‘coronavirus’) or the World Health Organization coronavirus mythbusters page.

Coronavirus Financial Information

As I’ve written recently, this situation is going to wreak havoc on many families. The financial outfall of COVID-19 is likely to be severe. Here are some of the best resources I’ve found for tackling the money side of this situation.

• Broke Millennial: Coronavirus/recession relief hub. Erin Lowry is collecting an extensive list of financial resources. She’s placed them in a spreadsheet that includes pages for topics like food, job leads, shelter, mental health, charitable giving, and more. This is a terrific tool.
• I ♥ Budgets has a list of financial resources for those affected by coronavirus.
• A hub for help during the coronavirus crisis at The New York Times.
• Frugalwoods: How we’re managing our money during the coronavirus pandemic. While this is mostly about how Liz and Nate our handling things themselves, it also contains useful tips for other folks, especially those that need to cut costs right now.

Lastly, here’s a podcast episode in which Brandon, the Mad Fientist, interviews J.L. Collins about the coronavirus stock market crash (and what to do about it).

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