Talk:COVID-19

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Ideas on COVID-19 response?

Share your ideas, planned, or existing efforts on utilizing the Wikimedia projects to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Message from User:Pine

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Hi @GVarnum-WMF: Thank you for setting up this page. I think that this page is a good idea, with the exception of the forceful template that I removed from the top of the page and for the photo which I will soon change. Please sign your comments on this talk page. Thanks. ↠Pine (✉) 06:10, 18 March 2020 (UTC) @Pine: This was not a comment from me, it is a placeholder for the talk page. Additionally, please do not remove the notification as we are using it to convey important information and was added at the request of community members who I discussed this page with while in draft. Finally, please discuss any photo changes on this talk page before making it. Thank you. --Gregory Varnum (Wikimedia Foundation) [he/him] (talk) 06:15, 18 March 2020 (UTC) @GVarnum-WMF: OK, I'm fine with a placeholder for the talk page, although some different wording would make that clearer. Thanks for the new header. I already made an edit to this page before I saw your note; you may revert it if you disagree with the reasons that I mentioned in my edit summary: Template:Navigation header/COVID-19. Regarding community discussion of a draft, I'm glad that there was a discussion, but I would have guessed that the discussion would be public on this talk page so that other people know that it happened and could see the reasoning. If there was a draft then it could have been marked as a draft while the discussions were ongoing. The current page doesn't show a community discussion of a draft. I realize that this is a somewhat fast moving situation and I am not trying to make things unnecessarily difficult, but I would recommend having discussions about the draft of this page be public. At the moment, there is no evidence of such a discussion, and such a nonpublic discussion is not binding on anyone here. I'm not trying to make your job difficult, but this is a community wiki and I expect community norms to be followed. Thanks, ↠Pine (✉) 06:32, 18 March 2020 (UTC) @Pine: Thank you for not trying to make my job difficult. I look forward to seeing where folks are able to take this discussion and portal page. --Gregory Varnum (Wikimedia Foundation) [he/him] (talk) 06:43, 18 March 2020 (UTC) @Pine: I think you have a reasonable point about image, but encourage discussions about changes to start here. Regarding drafting, as we often do for a lot of complex reasons, the drafting began on another wiki (in this case Office Wiki). As I often do when drafting pages like this, I shared it privately with some community members to see if I missed anything major in drafting. I imagine you also have private chats with people about things you are drafting, this hardly strikes me as a unique approach and one I come across daily across the movement. However, regardless of where the idea came from, the idea remains valid, there are planned uses for that message, and I would ask you to keep it. I am not going to share the comments from drafting as they are not relevant to the future of this page. I obviously encourage folks to make additions to this page (as is noted on the page), but removing or changing things should be done more carefully (as I would hope folks would always do with pages on Meta-Wiki of this collaborative nature). Be bold, absolutely, but please also be careful and considerate. --Gregory Varnum (Wikimedia Foundation) [he/him] (talk) 06:53, 18 March 2020 (UTC) Hi @GVarnum-WMF: I'll start a discussion below regarding the template image; I'm fine with having a discussion about it. To clarify my comment above, I'm fine with people having nonpublic discussions regarding current, planned, or former public content; however, those nonpublic discussions usually shouldn't be cited as evidence of consensus, and in this case I think it would be beneficial to have those discussions be public on this talk page. It's probably too late now to fix that in this case, but please keep this in mind for future pages, particularly ones that go onto Meta or another community wiki instead of a WMF wiki. I don't like the header template but I don't feel strongly enough about it to start a formal discussion regarding it. I'll start the discussion regarding the image in a few minutes in a new section on this talk page. ↠Pine (✉) 07:08, 18 March 2020 (UTC) @Pine: I did not intend to cite it for consensus, I cited it as a source of an idea to convey a fair amount of thought went into its inclusion and its removal should ideally not be done so casually and based on one person's reaction. I apologize if that was confusing for you. I appreciate your feedback, however circumstances often dictate things far more than our pursuit of perfection. Look forward to discussion on image and any other potential changes. --Gregory Varnum (Wikimedia Foundation) [he/him] (talk) 07:15, 18 March 2020 (UTC) Hi @GVarnum-WMF: I have no further suggestions for changes at this time. I started a discussion below regarding the lead image for the page. Thanks again for starting this page; I think that the concept is a good idea. ↠Pine (✉) 07:28, 18 March 2020 (UTC)

Selection of the page header image

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Image which shows an "elbow bump" greeting Map of confirmed Covoid-19 cases per capita as of 17 March 2020 What image should be in the page header? I think that the elbow bump image should be removed. I'm no longer seeing elbow bumps being recommended on the World Health Organization pages that I checked, and https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/php/risk-assessment.html is recommending "social distancing" of at least 6 feet for people who are not "high risk". I suggest File:COVID-19 Outbreak World Map per Capita.svg as a replacement image for the page, but would welcome other suggestions also. ↠Pine (✉) 07:26, 18 March 2020 (UTC) Pine Makes sense to me TMorata (talk) 13:55, 18 March 2020 (UTC) Thanks TMorata. A few days have passed with no objections. I will make this change now, and I am pinging User:GVarnum-WMF to make him aware. ↠Pine (✉) 21:02, 21 March 2020 (UTC) Hi @GVarnum-WMF: The change to the template isn't propagating to COVID-19 or to the translated headers. Do you know how to fix that? Thanks, ↠Pine (✉) 21:16, 21 March 2020 (UTC)

New article related to preventive measures for those who work in health care? Other occupations?

I could not locate Wikipedia article dealing with preventive measures for those who are exposed at work. There is well-based concerned over the need to protect health care workers.

Some sources could be:

• https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/emres/2019_ncov.html
• https://blogs.cdc.gov/niosh-science-blog/2020/03/16/n95-preparedness/
• https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/2018-130/pdfs/2018-130.pdf?id=10.26616/NIOSHPUB2018130

Also, perhaps for other occupations:

• https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/03/15/business/economy/coronavirus-worker-risk.html The NYT is open accces for COVID19 coverage
• https://www.osha.gov/Publications/OSHA3990.pdf

I tried adding specific external links related to Coronavirus disease 2019 article but got removed. I then added them to 2019-20 coronavirus pandemic article. It is still there. In the meantime I have been adding information so articles on occupational hazards in specific populations, like dentists.

I would love some feedback. Thanks for all who have been working on this! TMorata (talk) 14:44, 18 March 2020 (UTC)

• Hi @TMorata: please see en:2019–20 coronavirus pandemic#Prevention and en:Coronavirus disease 2019#Prevention. If you think that there should be new subsections regarding preventing exposures at work then I think that you could start them under the "Prevention" sections. ↠Pine (✉) 22:10, 21 March 2020 (UTC)

• Hello @Pine: Really good work on the articles you mentioned! I think it might be better to create a new section, something like "Risk across different professions", to alert those at greater risk, since the prevention info might be the same. Thanks. TMorata (talk) 14:50, 23 March 2020 (UTC)

Hi @TMorata: that would be a good suggestion to make on the talk pages of the respective articles, at en:Talk:2019–20 coronavirus pandemic and en:Talk:Coronavirus disease 2019. ↠Pine (✉) 06:50, 25 March 2020 (UTC)

• @TMorata: There is a Wikiproject on enwiki for all editors involved in the develpment of contents related to all aspects of COVID-19. I thought it would be easy to locate a wiki-link to this wproj at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:2019–20_coronavirus_pandemic but I cannot find it in the walloftext on that page. Anyway, wprojects are a great way to develop new content for a particular topic. There are a lot of automated tools that keep track of which new pages (articles, categries,etc) have been recently added, which ones are proposed for deletion, and much much more. Am I making sense? Ottawahitech (talk) 16:06, 2 April 2020 (UTC)

Hi @Ottawahitech: and @Pine:Thanks! So much going on... I will add some info in the project pages, as more publications are coming out on the topic. TMorata (talk) 14:41, 21 May 2020 (UTC)

First reported on 17 November 2019?

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"First reported on 17 November 2019" - just because the guardian says this, doesn't make it so? Ottawahitech (talk) 19:35, 1 April 2020 (UTC) Ottawahitech, what sort of citation would you want to see? The Guardian isn't the only source to have reported that specific date. Nikkimaria (talk) 01:06, 3 April 2020 (UTC) @Nikkimaria: I could only find two mentions of this date in connection to covid: one was a guardian article from March 12 or 13, I think, that was kind of strange in that it had spelling errors in it, I think. The other was south china daily which is what the guardian article pointed to as the source of the "report", but it only said something about a mysterious government source, and went on to question that source later in the article. I believe we need something more substantial than that before we take sides. After all, President Trump has been blaming the Chinese all along, and I think something official from the wmf should not appear to favour one nation over another. What sources did you find? Thanks in advance, and thanks for pinging me. Ottawahitech (talk) 01:56, 3 April 2020 (UTC) Ottawahitech: [1] and [2] for example. There are also a number of scientific studies modeling for a mid-November patient zero, eg [3]. Nikkimaria (talk) 02:03, 3 April 2020 (UTC) @Nikkimaria: You are way too quick for me LOL. I'll read those articles when I get a chance, but regardless I think we should get the opion of some of our mainland chinese editors, as well as others to gauge the consensus on this controversial view which I have not seen in the wikipedia introduction. again just my $.02 Ottawahitech (talk) 02:12, 3 April 2020 (UTC) @Nikkimaria: I would normally wait longer to see if anyone else weighs in, but this a fast moving subject. Anyway, just to let you know I went through all the links you provided above and it seems they are all related to to the same story in the Chinese daily? Ottawahitech (talk) 15:57, 5 April 2020 (UTC) Many sources cite that one, yes. The academic ones mostly base the mid-November date on their modeling. Nikkimaria (talk) 16:15, 5 April 2020 (UTC)

Wrong map for France data Apr. 1st

On link https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9e/COVID-19_Outbreak_Hospitalized_in_France_13_Regions_&_DomTom.svg

Data displayed on map regions are those from March 27th

Correct data can be get on https://geodes.santepubliquefrance.fr/#bbox=-144597,6478702,779170,482344&c=indicator&f=0&i=covid_hospit.hosp&s=2020-04-01&selcodgeo=11&t=a01&view=map1

Wikimedia Foundation funding any Wikimedia community projects?

Has the Wikimedia Foundation published anything or made any public statements about funding any community responses to COVID-19?

Blue Rasberry (talk) 15:33, 7 April 2020 (UTC)

@Bluerasberry: I'm not sure what you're referring to regarding "community responses to COVID-19". Could you be more specific? We are still funding some activities through our grant programs-- (see Grants:Project/Rapid/WMPT/Wiki Love Earth 2020 as an example), but I'm not sure if this is what you mean. I JethroBT (WMF) (talk) 19:04, 8 April 2020 (UTC)

@I JethroBT (WMF): Yes, after the model of the Wikimedia Foundation doing any other sort of funding campaign around a common theme, is the WMF now or might the WMF consider offering funding to encourage the development of content around the theme of COVID-19?

So for example, "apply now in this way, receive funding to fulfill proposals around COVID-19 related proposals, rapid grants available etc."

Is the COVID-19 situation the sort of situation in which funding through the routine and established open call grants process might enable community engagement? Thanks for your consideration. Blue Rasberry (talk) 19:57, 8 April 2020 (UTC)

@Bluerasberry: Hi Lane, sorry to leave you hanging here for a while without a response. No, we haven't done any wider messaging around an open call grants process to enable community engagement specific to COVID-19. As a campaign idea, it is interesting and one I know some active projects who are specifically focused on these topics. I will explore what capacity we might have to do something like this, but I will be warn that our team's capacity to initiate new projects or campaigns is significantly limited at this time. I JethroBT (WMF) (talk) 19:51, 20 April 2020 (UTC)

@I JethroBT (WMF): Thanks. This will not be the last time a disaster strikes and the Wikimedia community needs to act quickly. If not for COVID-19, then perhaps take lessons learned here and organize a drive to prepare for future disaster response in recognition of the Wikimedia community's response to COVID. In that way you get your time, wiki community gets recognition, and we address future challenges. I am especially interested in increasing capacity to mobilize translations.

I could be biased and not seeing the whole picture, but so far as I can recognize, the Wikimedia community organization around COVID-19 is unprecedented in number of participants, depth of engagement, and the diversity of collaboration. Interlanguage knowledge gaps are vast, countries with less money get less info, and simultaneously those poorer places would have been the easiest to improve with financial intervention, and yet nothing is available for this particular crisis.

I appreciate your advocacy in doing what you can. Please speak up to develop triggers for deploying emergency response funds for getting out information in crisis for the future. Thanks. Blue Rasberry (talk) 20:36, 20 April 2020 (UTC)

COVID-19 information in all languages - sharing data and code

Looking in language versions of en:2019–20_coronavirus_pandemic many don't have up to date pandemic status. For example as of now:

• ru:Пандемия_COVID-19#Статистика_заболеваний_по_странам_и_территориям 11/4/2020
• ml:2019-20_കൊറോണ_വൈറസ്_പാൻഡെമിക് 9/4/2020
• am:2019-20_ኮሮናቫይረስ_ወረርሽኝ#ቫይረሱ_የሚገኝባቸው_አገራት 8/4/2020
• ca:Pandèmia_per_coronavirus_de_2019-2020 3/4/2020
• ro:Pandemia_de_coronaviroză_(COVID-19)#Epidemiologie 29/3/2020

I created a Lua module to generate table automatically based on data from commons (he:Module:CoronaTable), but unfortunately it isn't possible to share modules across wikis other than copy&paste. eranroz (talk) 13:11, 11 April 2020 (UTC)

Alert on new resource: just published Cochrane review on PPE

Content that could be added to several of the COVID-related articles: https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD011621.pub4/full Personal protective equipment for preventing highly infectious diseases due to exposure to contaminated body fluids in healthcare staff Cochrane Systematic Review - Intervention Version published: 15 April 2020 see what's new https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD011621.pub4 TMorata (talk) 14:14, 24 April 2020 (UTC)

Semi protected edit request on 4 May 2020

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Hey, would you change the English Wikipedia link page to "COVID-19 pandemic"? Because the page has been renamed to that. Also, would you change the picture for the steps to this one, I think that this image is much more detailed. 112.173.110.38 03:01, 4 May 2020 (UTC)

Steps to stop the spread of COVID-19

Links updated, please start a separate conversation for a consensus about the image.  — billinghurst sDrewth 04:14, 4 May 2020 (UTC)

Should we change the image regarding the tips for COVID prevention?

I think that the CDC one (above) is much better than the current one, because I think that it's more descriptive and has further steps taken to it. How about you?

New World Health Organization Content collaboration

Hi all. We are happy to announce a collaboration w/ World Health Organization to get open access media for Commons: https://wikimediafoundation.org/news/2020/10/22/world-health-organization-and-wikimedia-foundation-expand-access/. We need your help identifying useful files for improving coverage of COVID: please share ideas on the Collaboration page on Commons. This involved a lot of long-term behind the scene conversations with World Health Organization. Thank you for everyone involved, and please help us identify and use the content from the organization. Astinson (WMF) (talk) 14:50, 22 October 2020 (UTC)

Should translated versions accommodate verying advice relevant to the area where it is spoken?

I.e in Wales, we are specifically told to NOT go to hospital if we have COVID-19 symptoms, which differs from the advice given in the article. Ned LW (talk) 21:42, 3 November 2021 (UTC)