What should you read about COVID-19? We asked an epidemiologist

With a barrage of information and misinformation about COVID-19 coming our way, it can be hard to evaluate what sources are trustworthy and where to go for reliable medical news. So for this new episode of the Modern Law Library, the ABA Journal's Lee Rawles called her friend Mary Lancaster, an epidemiologist for the federal government.

They discuss how to evaluate social media claims, the best books and podcasts for people who want to know more about infectious diseases—and their recommendations on good fiction reads for people who need to take a break from the coronavirus news.

Lancaster also shared a list of some of the people she follows on Twitter, for more breaking news. She broke them into categories:

Bioethics, Health Law, Policy

• Alexandra Phelan
• Rogue Bioethics
• Beth Cameron
• Caitlin Rivers
• Marc Trotochaud
• Marc Eccleston Turner
• Jennifer Nuzzo

Outbreaks

• Outbreak Observatory
• Johns Hopkins Global Health Observatory
• Jeremy Konyndyk

Epidemiologists and Infectious Disease Experts

• Ellie Murray
• Tara Smith
• MM Fill
• Saskia Popescu
• Marc Lipsitch
• Steven Riley
• James Phillips
• Syra Madad
• Seema Yasmin

Virologists and Microbiologists

• Joseph Fair
• Peter Hotez
• Kai Kupferschmidt
• Jonathan Eisen
• Ian Mackay
• Angela Rasmussen
• Peter Daszak

In This Podcast:

Lee Rawles
Mary Lancaster manages the Strategic Engagements and Emerging Threats portfolio for the Biological Threat Reduction Program at the Defense Threat Reduction Agency. Previously, Lancaster was the AFRICOM science manager for the BTRP, managing its cooperative biological research portfolio in Africa and working with collaborators in 10 countries to strengthen biosurveillance capabilities and reduce the threat of pathogens of security concern. She also led the development of the 3rd Africa One Health Congress, held in Johannesburg in February 2019. From 2010 to 2015, Lancaster was a research scientist at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Prior to joining the PNNL, Lancaster was the regional epidemiologist in the West Tennessee Region of the Tennessee Department of Health from 2006 to 2010.