Finding Reliable Information During a Pandemic

The whole world is talking about the COVID-19 coronavirus, but it’s not always obvious where people are getting their information (and who to trust!). As an institution, the Pawling Library is monitoring the latest news about the virus in order to make informed decisions about how we can avoid contributing to the problem.

For local information, we are following the lead of the Dutchess County Department of Behavioral & Community Health: (https://www.dutchessny.gov/Departments/DBCH/dbch.htm). They have a page devoted specifically to COVID-19: (https://www.dutchessny.gov/Departments/DBCH/2019-Novel-Coronavirus.htm). So too does the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: (https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nCoV/summary.html).

Did you know that the National Institutes of Health’s U.S. National Library of Medicine maintains a list of mobile apps that can be used in times of emergency (https://disasterinfo.nlm.nih.gov/apps)? Even if we don’t know for sure what the future holds, each of us can get prepared and can adopt the World Health Organization’s best practices: (https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public). This way, we can play our role in being part of the solution, not part of the problem.