Adjusting to Life During the COVID-19 Pandemic

When coming across new information, it is important to acknowledge and evaluate the source. You have probably been warned not to believe everything you see or hear. This is especially true during a pandemic, a worldwide outbreak of a disease. To help HNU students find trustworthy sources for COVID-19, Cushing Library staff have put together the following tutorial. 

We recommend looking for public health information provided by government jurisdictions. These jurisdictions are divided by geographical size (city, county, state, country) and also by different departments and agencies. Government websites are good sources for answering some of these frequently asked questions:

1. Is ______ effective in preventing the spread of COVID-19?
2. What does the latest county/state order say about ______?
3. What is the latest positive COVID-19 case count or percentage in ______?
4. What public services are available in ______?
5. What is the government doing to protect its citizens?

When searching Google (or another search engine) you want to narrow your search to avoid irrelevant and potentially harmful sources. Government websites usually have the URL ending ".gov" but may also end in ".org"

To find a governmental website concerning COVID-19, type the following words in the search box with quotes. 

•  "covid-19" AND "your city/county/state/country" AND "gov"

NOTE: The top result for the search "Oakland" is Oakgov.com; this website is for Oakland County, Michigan. The Oakland, California website is oaklandca.gov and the COVID-19 page is oaklandca.gov/topics/covid-19

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES: You can also find information on evaluating sources (books, articles and websites) for scholarly research here.

Answers to Frequently Asked Questions about Coronavirus from the CDC

Ask a scientist at the Federation of American Scientists