Opinion: Hospitals, governments need more data to prepare for the new coronavirus outbreak
In the six weeks since an outbreak of a novel coronavirus was first recognized in Wuhan, China, scientific discovery has unfolded at an unprecedented rate. Genomes of 73 samples of the virus, known for now as 2019-nCoV, from 12 countries have already been published, as have at least five academic papers describing clinical and epidemiological features of the disease.
Despite these efforts, there are critical information gaps that make planning for the outbreak more challenging and uncertain. In addition to a better understanding of severity and case fatality, as well as rigorous examination of the mechanisms by which the virus spreads (all of which have been called for elsewhere), we see three other urgent priorities: understanding health care worker infections, understanding the circumstances around deaths from these coronavirus infections, and the surveillance strategy for 2019-nCoV across China.
