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THURSDAY, March 26, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- With bogus information about the new coronavirus spreading fast online, how can you separate fact from fiction? A communications expert at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg said identifying reliable and useful sources of information is key. Here's her advice: "Be skeptical of social media posts about the COVID-19 virus, even those that have the superficial look of news items, and check their sources and accuracy," said Adrienne Ivory, associate professor of communication at Virginia Tech. "If you are not sure whether a source of information can be trusted, check multiple news sources to see if the information is consistent across them." Always check social media claims about coronavirus prevention and treatment against official sources such...

THURSDAY, March 26, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- In a bit of good news about the novel coronavirus, one expert says it looks like livestock and poultry don't appear to be at risk from COVID-19. The coronavirus most likely jumped from an animal species into humans and mutated into a virus that mostly affects people, said Jim Roth, director of the Center for Food Security and Public Health at Iowa State University. "If livestock were getting the virus and getting sick we'd most likely know that from what's gone on in other countries," Roth said in a university news release. "It does seem to be pretty species-specific to people," said Roth, a professor of veterinary microbiology and preventive medicine. Researchers are examining the possibility that livestock might develop minor...

THURSDAY, March 26, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- It has spread across the globe in just a few short months, sickening hundreds of thousands, but the new coronavirus has the dubious distinction of not really being a living organism, biologists say. "Viruses aren't considered alive -- in class, I call them pseudo-alive," said Eric Mendenhall, an associate professor of biological sciences at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. "They require a host to even begin to function. However, since they use DNA or RNA to pass information to the next round of viruses the cell makes for them, they are subject to some of the same principles of evolution and selection that alive organisms are subject to," he explained in a university news release. "A virus usually enters the cell through a protein...

THURSDAY, March 26, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- In a lesson for what can be achieved with social distancing, researchers report that school and workplace closures in Wuhan, China, reduced the number of coronavirus cases there. And officials are extending those measures until April now instead of March, which could hold off a second wave of cases until later this year, the researchers noted. Experts say there are vital lessons in the Wuhan experience for the United States and other countries around the world. "The unprecedented measures the city of Wuhan has put in place to reduce social contacts in school and the workplace have helped to control the outbreak," said study leader Kiesha Prem, from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, in England. "However, the city now needs...