© 2020 Dow Jones & Company. All Rights Reserved. THEWALL STREET JOURNAL. Friday, March 13, 2020 | R1

As the U.S. faces a pandemic, the advice is consistent and clear: Don’t panic, but be smart.Understand the risks and take the necessary precautions. This Wall Street Journal specialreport is designed to do just that—help you navigate through the tricky weeks ahead. What dowe know about the virus and how dangerous it is? How can you best protect yourself and yourloved ones? What are some tips for working from home? What’s the best way to deal withquarantine? In this report, you’ll find the answer to these and other questions. We encourageyou to read these articles, and continue to stay informed online atWSJ.com.

How to NavigateThe Coronavirus

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.A SPECIAL SECTION OF

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Who’s MostAt RiskWhat are underlyingconditions? And howmany people have them?

older individuals and those withchronic conditions,” says Mark Mul-ligan, director of NYU LangoneHealth’s division of infectious dis-eases and immunology in New York.Morbidity is the rate of a disease’spresence in a population.Older people are generally at

higher risk of becoming severely illfrom infectious diseases, such as theflu, Dr. Mulligan notes. As people age,the immune system undergoes “im-munosenescence,” gradually losing itsability to mount a response to an in-fection as robustly as it once did. Pre-cisely how that happens is an activesubject of study. Among the changes,the thymus, an organ of the immunesystem, shrinks starting at youngadulthood. T-cells, soldiers of the im-mune system which mature in thethymus, lose some of their function.Older people often don’t develop

high fevers as a result—and a tem-perature not regularly recognizedas a serious fever may be missed ormistaken for another problem, saysXinQi Dong, director of the Institutefor Health, Health Care Policy andAging Research at Rutgers Univer-sity. Thus, says Dr. Dong, “100.5may be a true fever” possibly indi-cating the presence of Covid-19.Lung function also declines with

age, making respiratory diseases aparticularly serious threat for olderpeople, he says.Older people are more likely to

have serious underlying conditionsthat also put them—and youngerpeople—at risk of complicationsfrom Covid-19. Cardiovascular dis-ease, diabetes and lung diseases alltax the body, making infectionsharder to fight off, says Bruce Rib-ner, director of Emory UniversitySchool of Medicine’s Serious Com-municable Diseases Unit. “The sys-tem is just not able to put up withthat much of an assault,” he says.High blood glucose impairs the

ability of white blood cells to fightinfections in people with diabetes,Dr. Ribner says. Viruses can settlemore easily into people whose lungsare impaired from a lung disease.Scientists say they are trying to

learn more about the apparent linkseen in China between severeCovid-19 and high blood pressure.People with cardiovascular diseaseoften have lung diseases, too, andgenerally are more susceptible to fluand viral pneumonia, experts say.U.S. health officials have urged

Americans who are vulnerable tolimit travel and avoid large crowds.The U.S. government has urged

nursing homes to restrict visitor ac-cess, to reduce the risk of spread.People at higher risk should heed

the same precautions that exist foreveryone—wash hands regularly,stay away from sick people andkeep up-to-date on vaccines for fluand pneumonia, the U.S. CDC andinfectious-disease experts say.

Ms. McKay is a reporter for TheWall Street Journal in New York.She can be reached atbetsy.mckay@wsj.com.

What Works (and Doesn’t Work)To Boost Your Immune System

As the new coronavirus contin-ues to spread across the country,having an optimally functioningimmune system is more importantthan ever.Medical professionals say it is

important not to rush to buy sup-plements and vitamins that prom-ise to enhance your immune sys-tem; there isn’t much evidencethat such products do any good.Instead, they say, stick with mun-dane, but proven, approaches:

•Keep your stress levels down.It’s a bit of a vicious cycle: Themore you stress about the virus,the more likely you are to sufferfrom it. “Stress can certainly hurtyour immune system,” says Mor-gan Katz, an assistant professor ofinfectious diseases at Johns Hop-kins University.Andrew Diamond, chief medical

officer of One Medical, a nation-wide network of primary-careproviders, says the stress hor-mone cortisol turns off cells inyour immune system. He recom-mends engaging in activities thatpeople find relaxing, such asmeditation.

•Exercise. Low- and moderate-in-tensity exercise naturally lowerscortisol levels and helps with im-mune-system function, says Dr. Di-amond. One Medical recommends30 to 60 minutes of exercise a day.If you’re apprehensive about germsin the gym, walk or run outside.But it is important not to go

overboard. A recent study foundhigh-performance athletes havean increased risk of infection, saysElizabeth Bradley, medical direc-tor of the Cleveland Clinic’s Cen-ter for Functional Medicine.

•Get adequate sleep. Foradults, that means getting sevento eight hours of sleep a night.Children should get more, de-pending on their age.

•Make sure your vaccines areup-to-date, especially the fluvaccine.

•Eat plenty of plain yogurt ev-ery day. “It’s really an easy wayto boost your probiotics and helpsupport your microbiome,” Dr.Katz says. “It helps to support thegood bacteria that live in your

body, which help to fight bad bac-teria or viruses.”

•Watch your diet. Stick to ahealthful, balanced diet filled withlots of colorful fruits and vegeta-bles to ensure you’re gettingenough zinc and vitamin D andother important vitamins and min-erals. Most experts say you shouldbe able to get enough of these vita-mins and minerals through yourdiet, and extra supplementationisn’t necessary. But because vita-min D deficiency is relatively com-mon, experts do recommend sup-plementation if levels are low.Your immune system needs fuel,

so avoid ultralow-carbohydrate di-ets, experts say. Drink lots of waterand reduce alcohol consumption.

•Stop smoking or vaping. Smok-ers and those with respiratory dis-ease have a higher rate of seriousillness and complications from cor-onavirus. —Sumathi Reddy

Ms. Reddy writes the Your Healthcolumn for Personal Journal. She canbe reached at sumathi.reddy@wsj.com.

SPECIAL REPORT | NAVIGATING THE CORONAVIRUS

As the new corona-virus spreadsaround the world,health officials arerepeatedly assuringthe public: Yourrisk of getting seri-

ously ill or dying is very low—un-less you are older or have an under-lying condition.That is a lot of people, including

millions of Americans.Data from China, where the epi-

demic began, show death rates thatare startlingly higher than the aver-age for people age 60 and over, as

well as for people with high bloodpressure, diabetes, asthma andother chronic conditions. In onelarge study by the Chinese Centerfor Disease Control and Prevention,14.8% of people 80 and older and 8%of people 70 to 79 died. For peoplewith cardiovascular disease, themortality rate was 10.5%, and 7.3%for those with diabetes. Those ratescompared with a 2.3% mortalityrate in the overall population of44,672 patients studied throughFeb. 11, China’s CDC says.Those categories potentially ap-

ply to a vast and growing swath of

the U.S. population. The number ofAmericans 65 and over rose 27% be-tween 2011 and 2018 to 52.4 million,according to the U.S. Census Bu-reau, while the under-65 cohortgrew 2%. Older Americans make up16% of the U.S. population.About 46% of American adults

have high blood pressure, accordingto guidelines by the American Col-lege of Cardiology and the AmericanHeart Association. About 34.2 mil-lion people, or 10.5% of the U.S.population, have diabetes, accordingto the U.S. Centers for Disease Con-trol and Prevention.China’s statistics are from the

early weeks of an explosive epi-demic in which hospitals were over-whelmed and doctors struggled tofigure out how best to care for pa-tients struck with a new disease.Death rates in less-hard-hit parts ofChina have been lower, and have

come down for the whole countryover time, according to the WorldHealth Organization.Precise death rates are also un-

clear because it isn’t known howmany people have actually been in-fected. Many have either not been illenough to suspect they had the dis-ease, or haven’t had access to a test.Still, the data show that people

with aging or taxed immune systemshave a far more difficult time fight-ing off Covid-19, the respiratory dis-ease caused by the new coronavirus.“It’s very clear that this virus has

greater mortality and morbidity in

Lung function declines with age, making respiratorydiseases a particularly serious threat for older people.

BY BETSYMCKAY

Your questionsanswered

?

THE BACKGROUND

What is a coronavirus?The virus behind the current pandemic belongsto a family known as coronaviruses. Namedfor the crown-like spikes on their surfaces,they infect mostly bats, pigs and smallmammals. But they mutate easily andcan jump from animals to humans, andfrom one human to another. In recentyears, they have become a growing player ininfectious-disease outbreaks world-wide.Seven strains, including the new coronavirus, are

known to infect humans, causing illnesses in the respi-ratory tract. Four of those strains cause common colds.Two others rank among the deadliest of human infec-tions: severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, andMiddle East respiratory syndrome, or MERS.This new virus is called severe acute respiratory syn-

drome coronavirus 2, or SARS-CoV-2. The disease itcauses is called Covid-19. (The number stands for 2019,the year it emerged.)

Where did the newcoronavirus come from?The new virus likely came originally from bats, scien-tists say. It isn’t known exactly where or how it jumpedto humans, though. Viruses from bats often infect an-other mammal first and then mutate to become moretransmissible to humans. One hypothesis is that the in-termediary animal for this new virus may be a pangolin,a small mammal sold in wildlife markets, prized for itsmeat and scales. Health officials believe the outbreakoriginated in a large animal and seafood market in Wu-han, China.

WHAT TO WATCH FOR

What are the symptomsof the illness and how doyou know if you have it?The virus infects the lower respiratory tract. Patientsinitially develop a fever, cough and aches, and can prog-ress to shortness of breath and complications frompneumonia, according to case reports. Other reportedsymptoms include fatigue, sore throat, headache andnausea, with vomiting and diarrhea. Some people be-come only mildly ill or are infected but don’t get sick.Others are mildly ill for a few days, then rapidly developmore severe symptoms of pneumonia.Some patients haven’t had a fever initially or might

develop a “walking pneumonia,” meaning they mightspread their infection to others because they aren’t sickenough to be in a hospital.

What is theincubation period?People become ill between two and 14 days after infec-tion, according to most estimates. One report describeda person who became ill 27 days after infection. How-ever, most start showing symptoms about five days af-ter infection, according to a large study by disease ana-lysts at Johns Hopkins University.

THE DANGERS

Who is most at risk?Adults of all ages have been infected, but the risk of se-vere disease and death is highest for older people andthose with other health conditions such as heart dis-ease, chronic lung disease, cancer and diabetes.The virus appears to be less serious for children, says

Vanessa Raabe, a pediatric and adult-infectious-diseasespecialist at NYU Langone Health. Only 2% of reportedcases so far have been in children, according to a newstudy. Children who have gotten the virus have hadmilder symptoms, she says, and there have been no re-ported deaths in children under age 9.

How deadly is it?The mortality rate has ranged between2% and about 3.4%, according to calcula-tions of confirmed cases and deathsworld-wide, which change daily. But thetrue rate won’t be known until epidemiol-ogists can determine how many peoplehave actually been infected.The overall mortality rate may be less

than 1%, U.S. health officials suggested recently in theNew England Journal of Medicine, if the number of as-ymptomatic or mildly ill cases is several times greaterthan that of reported cases. That is still deadlier thanseasonal flu, which has a mortality rate of about 0.1%.Covid-19 appears to be less deadly than SARS, which

erupted in China in 2002 and spread globally in 2003.SARS killed about 10% of the people it infected. The newcoronavirus is also far less deadly than MERS or Ebola.

For more questions and answers on the coronavirus, as well as continuing updates, go to wsj.com/livecoverage/coronavirus.Order copies of this special print section at wsjshop.com. For large quantity reprints of articles, visit djreprints.com. IC

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SPECIAL REPORT | NAVIGATING THE CORONAVIRUS

Efforts to contain theoutbreak’s spread areraising questions foremployees and employers

The new coronavirus’sspread is taking the rela-tionship between employersand workers into new terri-tory—in which both sidesare trying to sort out theirrights and responsibilities incontaining the outbreak.

Caught between trying to keep the vi-rus out of workplaces and minimizingbusiness disruptions, employers are issu-ing all sorts of edicts unthinkable justweeks ago, from worker quarantines to of-ficewide remote work and even personal-travel reporting requirements.Many employees, meanwhile, are won-

dering just how far their bosses have to goto protect them from the outbreak’sspread, and what calls go too far.To better understand what is permissi-

ble—and required—in confronting a pub-lic-health crisis in the workplace, TheWall Street Journal consulted employ-ment lawyers and other workplace ex-perts. The answers often lie somewhere inthe murky balance between the Ameri-cans with Disabilities Act, or ADA, whichaims to safeguard individuals’ privacy,and Occupational Safety and Health Ad-ministration standards, designed to pro-tect workers’ safety. But the body of laborrules and regulations suggest it’s wise tostick to the following guidelines, the ex-perts say.Here are answers to some of the most

common questions from employees:

Personal travelCan my employer cancelmy vacation time?In most workplaces, yes. Vacation time

isn’t guaranteed under federal law, andmost employers are within their rights tocancel a vacation and require workers toreturn to the job, says Kenneth G. Dau-Schmidt, a professor of labor and employ-ment law at Indiana University Blooming-ton. The exception is if an employee iscovered by a union contract or specificemployment agreement that includes cer-tain time-off protections, he says.Still, most bosses know that pulling a

vacation is bound to be an unpopularmove. “People can get upset if vacationsare canceled,” Prof. Dau-Schmidt says.“That would be the major limit on it.”

What if my boss tells me to cancelpersonal travel plans. Is that legal?Employers can’t dictate how you spend

your personal time, even if they do makea recommendation against travel tocertain regions, says Roberta Matuson,an executive coach and author of “Ev-ergreen Talent: A Guide to Hiring andCultivating a Sustainable Workforce.”

Does the company have topay for a canceled trip?If a boss insists on an employee

cutting a trip, go ahead and ask for re-imbursement. Some employers will seethat as a reasonable request. But le-gally, they aren’t required to pay un-less an employment contract specifi-cally calls for it, Mr. Dau-Schmidtsays.

Working remotelyI really feel uncomfortable aboutcommuting. Do I have the right towork from home?Employers generally don’t have an ob-ligation to allow telecommuting, saysMitch Boyarsky, a labor and employ-ment lawyer with Nelson Mullins Riley &Scarborough. An exception is an employeewho qualifies under the ADA to work re-motely to accommodate a disability. An-other might be if the government is or-dering a quarantine, other lawyers say.

I feel totally fine and don’t think I’mat risk, but my boss is insisting Iwork from home. Do I have to?Yes. Employers are within their rights

to ask employees to work remotely, aslong as they’re not applying a policy in away that could be deemed discriminatory,says Angela B. Cornell, a clinical professorat Cornell Law School and director of the

BY RACHEL FEINTZEIGAND CHIP CUTTER

The Virus and Work:What Bosses Can andCan’t Make You Do

school’s Labor Law Clinic.For example, it’s OK to ask

workers who have recently trav-eled to China, Italy, Iran or an-other country especially hard hitby the outbreak to work fromhome for a given period. But it’snot all right to ask workers overthe age of 70 to work fromhome—even if the intentions arewell-meaning—because age is aprotected class under federal law.

My employer has requestedthat I work from home. Doesthat mean they can order menot to run errands or go tochurch?While your boss can ask you not to

come into the office, they can’t bar youfrom going to other places or, say, hop-ping on the subway.

On the jobMy job requires me to have a lotof close contact with manycustomers. Am I protected if Isay I can’t perform my job becauseof the outbreak?Workers are protected from retaliationfrom an employer if they refuse whatthey consider an unsafe work assign-ment, says Howard Mavity, an Atlanta-based partner in the workplace-safetypractice of law firm Fisher & Phillips.It becomes less straightforward,

though, if a “reasonable” employeewould otherwise deem the assignmentsafe, Mr. Mavity says. If a hotel house-keeper, for example, has received thenecessary training to protect againstCovid-19, along with proper gloves andequipment, it may not be considered

reasonable to refuse to clean a hotelroom. If a hotel is known to be housingguests with Covid-19, it’s a differentstory, and housekeepers might be ableto refuse the assignment, he says.

Do I have to takethat business trip?Minnesota employment lawyer Kate

Bischoff says your boss can requireyou to go on a business trip.Her advice for workers: Come up

with a strong case for how technologycould make a virtual meeting effective.For employers, she urges caution.

“Making such an ultimatum is going to

spread like wildfire through your organi-zation,” she says, prompting lots ofworkers to rethink their ties to the com-pany. “It is a strategic mistake.”It could also be a legal mistake, de-

pending on the circumstances.Daniel Schwartz, a partner withlaw firm Shipman & Goodwinwho mainly represents Connecti-cut employers, points to a case inConnecticut where the court in-dicated it could be illegal to re-quire a worker to travel some-where unsafe.

Can my employer take my tempera-ture at work?The Equal Employment Opportunity

Commission says that, according to theAmericans with Disabilities Act, measur-ing an employee’s temperature generallyis considered a medical examination, andusually beyond the bounds of what anemployer can do or require. But in an es-pecially severe or widespread influenzaoutbreak, such a check is permissible.That rule is likely to apply to a coronavi-rus epidemic as well.

What if I catch Covid-19 at work? Ismy employer liable?Unlikely—because it’s usually hard to

prove. Generally, a staffer must provethat the disease was caused by “condi-tions peculiar to the work” and therewere no other opportunities for expo-sure, according to guidance by Fisher &Phillips to employers.

PrivacyMy employer knew a co-worker con-tracted the virus but didn’t informthe rest of staff right away.Weren’t they required to?Generally, yes. Companies have an ob-

ligation to warn those who may havecome in contact with someone diagnosedwith Covid-19, says Ms. Cornell. Localhealth authorities may also want thepublic to know.But it’s highly unlikely a company

would identify the employee in questionby name. That could violate confidentialityrequirements under the ADA, Mr. Mavitysays. Employers are more likely to notethat a staffer on a certain floor or part ofthe building contracted the virus. “It willtake about a 12th of a second for everyoneto know you’re talking about Joe, but youdon’t say Joe,” Mr. Mavity says.

If I come down with Covid-19, do Ihave to tell my employer? Can’t Ijust say I need sick time?There may not be a legal requirement,

but there is an ethical one, Ms. Matusonsays. If you work in an office or interactwith colleagues in person, it’s a good ideato alert your company so managers cantell others. If you work remotely and havehad no direct contact with colleagues, cli-ents or other people through your job,though, such a disclosure may not be nec-essary, Ms. Matuson says. “I would justsay, ‘I’m not feeling well,’ ” she says.

Ms. Feintzeig and Mr. Cutter are WallStreet Journal reporters in New York.Email rachel.feintzeig@wsj.com andchip.cutter@wsj.com.

Your questionsanswered

MONEY MATTERS

Who is paying fortesting?For now, most people with health insurance

will likely have the cost of coronavirustesting covered in the way that anyother type of care is covered—in-cluding whatever they may owein copays, coinsurance or under adeductible. While tests given by

public-health departments may befree, private labs or hospitals are likely tocharge. A growing number of big insurers—including Cigna Corp., CVS Health Corp.’sAetna and Anthem Inc., and Cambia HealthSolutions’ Regence plans—are pledgingthat members will pay no out-of-pocket

charges for coronavirus testing.Some states, including Cali-fornia, New York and Wash-ington, have gone further.

They have said that insurersshould waive charges not just for the labtests but also for doctor or emergency-roomvisits that patients make to get tested forthe virus.However, the states’ rules don’t apply to

all kinds of coverage. They don’t regulateMedicare plans or self-insured employer cov-erage, for instance.Federal regulators note that lab testing

generally doesn’t involve out-of-pocketcharges for those covered by Medicare, butbeneficiaries could still owe their deductiblesand coinsurance for other diagnostic care re-lated to the coronavirus, such as imagingtests.

Who is payingfor treatment?Care for those who are diagnosed withCovid-19 is likely to be covered by health in-surers and programs like Medicare in thesame way that other care is covered.

That could change if the big coro-navirus-related legislative packagethat President Trump signed Fri-day leads to federal help with thecost of such care. The package in-

cludes $2.2 billion for the CDC to con-tain the outbreak, but the details aren’t yetclear. Also, the Trump administration is con-sidering using a national disaster program topay hospitals and doctors for their care of un-insured people infected with the coronavirus.Meanwhile, some items, like masks used

to prevent infection, may be paid forthrough flexible-spending and health-sav-ings accounts, says Jody Dietel, a seniorvice president at HealthEquity Inc., a pro-vider of such accounts. But, she says, handsanitizer and soap aren’t generally eligible ex-penses, nor are over-the-counter medications,unless prescribed by a doctor.

Who is payingfor sick leave?The U.S. is one of the few industrializedcountries that doesn’t have a national lawproviding sick leave for workers. Kathy Dud-ley Helms, an employment lawyer based inColumbia, S.C., recommends that employeesdouble-check their company policy. If theyare out of sick days or working somewherethat doesn’t offer sick leave, they shouldcheck the laws in their state.Workers who are out sick for an extended

period may also qualify for short-term dis-ability coverage, says Jeff Levin-Scherz, aleader of the health-management practice atWillis Towers Watson.Who is paying if you have to self-quaran-

tine?To self-quarantine is to take on potential

costs for missing work, arranging child careand temporarily relocating.Dr. Levin-Scherz says that a Willis Towers

Watson survey of large employers showedthat the majority kept paying salaries andbenefits for workers furloughed from workin China and other parts of Asia due to thecoronavirus. But if quarantines spread in theU.S., “each employer will have to make theirown determinations,” he says.So far, disability insurers are also signal-

ing that their coverage is for those who aresick or disabled, not healthy people kept athome by quarantine, he says.

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Do’s and Don’ts OfWashing HandsMost people don’t do it the rightway. That is, if they do it at all.

grip from your hand when water isadded. The study of college stu-dents, however, showed only two inthree people used soap. The restjust rinsed their hands.Dr. Larson suggests half a tea-

spoon of liquid soap is enough, or aglob about the size of a quarter, al-though bigger hands might needmore. Health experts say that toomuch soap can remove your skin’snatural oils, which have helpful an-tibacterial properties.The CDC says studies haven’t

shown that soaps with antibacterialingredients provide any health ben-efits or remove more germs thanplain soaps. All soaps, however, candeactivate a coronavirus so it canno longer infect you.The new coronavirus, coined

SARS-CoV-2, is a spherical structurewith spiky proteins attached to amembrane, or envelope, that pro-tects the pathogen’s genetic mate-rial. Once it comes into contact withsoap, this envelope dissolves, leav-ing behind a dysfunctional virus.“The envelope is a machine that

allows the virus to sneak into humancells,” says Jonathan Abraham, anassistant professor of microbiologyat Harvard Medical School. “Withoutit, the virus cannot infect you.”

Scrub all surfaces ofyour handsPeople on average wash their handsfor only about six seconds, accordingto several studies. Twenty seconds iswhat’s recommended—or, the lengthof the “Happy Birthday” song sungtwice—though it depends on whatyou touched and how often.And even 20 seconds “is not

helpful if you’re not washing theright places,” Dr. Larson says. “It’sabout quality, not quantity.”The most vulnerable parts of

your hands are your fingertips, be-tween your fingers, the backs ofyour hands and under your nails.Rubbing these surfaces with enoughforce is critical, health experts say.People who have longer nails shouldbe extra cautious, they add.Scrubbing too hard or too fre-

quently can damage your skin bymaking it dry and more susceptibleto cracking, Dr. Larson says. Cutsand cracks give germs the perfectspot to set up shop. To avoid skindamage, Dr. Larson recommends us-ing a moisturizer after washing.Studies have shown that water

temperature doesn’t affect howmany germs are removed. The CDCsays warm or cold water will do, butsome experts warn that when wateris too hot, it can also damage skin.After a thorough scrub with soap,

remove all suds by rubbing everysurface of your hands under run-ning, clean water to ensure thatpathogens get washed away, Dr.Abraham says. Leaving some soapbehind may also soak up moisturefrom your hands, leaving them dryand more likely to crack.

Dry your handscompletelyNow it’s time to dry your hands asthoroughly as you can, because moisthands give living organisms a betterchance of surviving and spreading toothers, Dr. Abraham says.The CDC says there is not enough

data to confirm whether a signifi-cant amount of germs are trans-ferred from the faucet knob to yourhands. Some experts suggest usinga paper towel to turn the water off,while others discourage it becauseit wastes paper towels.Automatic blowers and paper

towels both dry hands well.

Alcohol-basedsanitizers in a pinchIf you’re on the go, alcohol-basedsanitizers are great alternatives tosoap and water. They cannot kill allviruses, like the norovirus, whichlacks a dissolvable envelope. But asanitizer can kill any coronavirus onyour hands as long as it’s made up ofat least 60% alcohol, health expertssay. Plain rubbing alcohol also works,but sanitizers maintain a balance ofalcohol and other ingredients to helpkeep skin healthy and moisturized.It’s important to use enough sani-

tizer to cover the entire hand. Dr.Larson suggests half to one teaspoon.Sanitizer also works only when

it’s still wet, so health experts ad-vise against using paper towels todab your hands. Give the product atleast 10 seconds to complete its job,then rub your hands together or letthem air-dry.

Ms. Camero is a reporter forThe Wall Street Journal in NewYork. She can be reached atkatie.camero@wsj.com.

Tips for Sanitizing Your HomeFor many people, staying safe from thenew coronavirus means staying home. Butinfectious germs can live in your house,too.To minimize the risk of getting sick, the

Centers for Disease Control and Preven-tion recommend taking action to disinfecthigh-touch surfaces, such as countertops,doorknobs, cellphones and toilet flushhandles, since some pathogens can live onsurfaces for several hours.However, many people don’t disinfect

properly, says Brian Sansoni, head of com-munications for the American Cleaning In-stitute, a Washington trade group thatrepresents product manufacturers. First,you might need to clean—removing greaseor grime—before you disinfect. Second,the disinfectant needs to remain on thesurface, often for several minutes, beforeit dries or is wiped off. “Check the labelfor wait times to make sure the virus killis effective,” Mr. Sansoni says.In recent days, bleach and other clean-

ing products have been in short supply.Mr. Sansoni says manufacturers havecranked up production to keep up with de-mand. That said, he cautions against over-using chemical cleaners and, worse, mix-ing cleaners in hopes of boosting theireffectiveness.“There is no need to panic-clean,” he

says. Just read the labels on everydayproducts to clean and disinfect the rightway. “They’ll do what they’re supposedto do.”Here are some other tips for staying

safe at home:The CDC recommends washing hands

vigorously with soap and water for atleast 20 seconds. As a backup, use handsanitizers that are at least 60% alcohol.

The Environmental ProtectionAgency recently released a list of ap-proved disinfectants to kill coronavirus.For surface cleaning, look for productssuch as wipes, sprays and concentratesthat say “disinfectant” on the label and in-

clude an EPA registration number. Theseare required to meet government specifi-cations for safety and effectiveness.

For a homemade disinfectant, theCDC recommends mixing a quarter-cup ofhousehold chlorine bleach with one gallonof cool water.

After disinfecting food-prep surfacessuch as cutting boards and countertops,rinse them with water before use.

For laundry, use detergent andbleach (for white loads) or peroxide orcolor-safe bleach (for colors) to kill germs.(Be sure to read clothing labels to avoiddamaging garments.) To boost the effect,some washing machines have sanitize orsteam settings that kill germs. Dryinglaundry on the dryer’s hot cycle for 45minutes also is effective.

If possible, operate dishwashers onthe sanitizing cycle. Machines certified byNSF International (formerly the NationalSanitation Foundation) must reach a finalrinse temperature of 150 degrees andachieve a minimum 99.999% reduction ofbacteria when operated on that cycle.

Household air purifiers and filtersthat advertise the ability to kill or captureviruses can be useful but shouldn’t be asubstitute for cleaning. Some purifiers useultraviolet light, which has been shown tohave germicidal effects, but their overalleffectiveness can vary depending on theirdesign, according to a 2018 technical sum-mary of residential air cleaners by theEPA. While some filters advertise the abil-ity to capture things like viruses, smokeand common allergens, they don’t neces-sarily kill microorganisms.—Beth DeCarbo

Ms. DeCarbo is a reporter for The WallStreet Journal. Email her atbeth.decarbo@wsj.com.

Public-health officials across theglobe are urging people to washtheir hands, calling it one of thebest methods to prevent furtherspread of the new coronavirus.But decades of research tell a so-

bering truth: People need to learn a thing ortwo about personal hygiene. Many don’t knowproper handwashing technique. They do it fortoo little time, or they don’t do it at all.Proper handwashing means scrubbing hands

with soap and water for at least 20 seconds,according to the Centers for Disease Controland Prevention.Yet just 5% of people spent more than 15 sec-

onds washing their hands after using the rest-room, and 10% didn’t wash their hands at all, ina study of 3,749 college students published inthe Journal of Environmental Health in 2013.Hands are villages to thousands of germs—

including bacteria and viruses. All it takes is afriendly handshake to spread respiratory dis-eases like Covid-19, the disease caused by the

new virus. Respiratory dropletsfrom coughs and sneezes can alsospread these germs, as can touch-ing surfaces like doorknobs andphones where those droplets mayhave landed.“I don’t think we need to panic,”

says Elaine Larson, professor emer-ita of nursing research at the Co-lumbia School of Nursing, who hashelped the World Health Organiza-tion develop handwashing guide-lines. “But we do need to be re-minded about basic hygiene.”The virus’s fate is in your

hands—literally—so experts say it’stime to start practicing what sci-ence is preaching.

Use soapBefore applying soap to your hands,run water over them. Soap and wa-

ter together, with rubbing, is whathelps rinse organisms off yourhands and down the drain. Don’tworry about removing hand jewelry,Dr. Larson says. Those need to bewashed, too.Soap acts as a surfactant: a sub-

stance that helps release bacteria’s

The CDC says studies haven’t shown that soapswith antibacterial ingredients provide any healthbenefits or remove more germs than plain soaps.

BY KATIE CAMERO

SPECIAL REPORT | NAVIGATING THE CORONAVIRUS

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THE BIG PICTURE

How worried should I be?Most people who are infectedmight become only mildly ill, datasuggest. But “mild” can be any-thing from a fever, cough andaches to pneumonia that doesn’t

become too severe. So for most people it is proba-bly not just a few sniffles. And mild or not, you’llhave to be isolated or quarantined. Of 44,672 casesin China, 81% had mild or moderate symptoms,13.8% were severely ill, and 4.7% were critically ill,according to the Chinese CDC. All of those who diedwere in critical condition.

How long will thisvirus last and remaina potential threat?Most forecasters are reluctant to predict—at leastpublicly—how this will play out over months or evenyears. Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at Johns Hop-kins Center for Health Security, says the outbreakis still in the first inning. It isn’t yet clear how manypeople have the disease, how quickly it is spreadingor even how deadly it is.The SARS coronavirus strain was gone within

months, notes Dr. Poland. But that didn’t happenwith the MERS strain.

THE WAY IT TRAVELS

How is the virus spreadamong humans?It transmits through “respiratory droplets” when aninfected person speaks, coughs or sneezes, accord-ing to the World Health Organization. The dropletsspread through the air and can land on another per-son’s mouth or nose, or possibly be inhaled intotheir lungs, infecting them. The droplets can alsosettle on nearby surfaces like a desk, counter, ordoorknob, where they can survive for a period. Aperson can become infected by touching a contami-nated surface, then touching their mouth, nose oreyes. Respiratory droplets are heavy and don’ttravel far in the air, so transmission is believed tooccur mostly through close contact, meaning within6 feet of an infected person.

How easily doesthe virus spread?Disease-modeling experts have estimated that, onaverage, each infected person has transmitted thevirus to about 2.6 others, though the range is be-tween 1.5 and 3.5. Those rates are higher than forseasonal influenza but far lower than measles, inwhich one infected person can transmit the virus to12 to 18 other people.

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Protection WithoutGetting FleecedAs products becomeunavailable, here’s howto cope

As retailers struggleto keep disinfectingsupplies in stock,prices are soaringonline for in-demandgoods like masks,sanitizers, isopropyl

alcohol, cleaning wipes and even toi-let paper, as opportunists seek toprofit from the panic.How can people protect themselves

from the virus and avoid gettingfleeced during the pandemonium?

If you can wait, wait. Productswill eventually be back on shelves, sothere’s no need to overpay, saysChuck Bell, programs director at Con-sumer Reports. “This situation will goon for many months. If there areshortages, one can reasonably expectthat manufacturers will respond.”He also notes that panicked shop-

pers should keep in mind the peoplewho need prioritized access to cer-tain supplies.

Soap can be more effectivethan sanitizer. According to theCenters for Disease Control and Pre-vention, washing hands with soapand water is more effective thanhand sanitizer for removing certainkinds of germs. Sanitizer also losesits effectiveness when hands becomesoiled or greasy, the CDC says.

Shop local—but don’t trustwebsites showing “in-store”inventory. Prices at brick-and-mor-tar retailers haven’t skyrocketed theway they have online, so you couldget a better deal on products in per-son—if you can find them.When I used the “in-store” filter

on some major retailer websites,Walmart, Target and Walgreensshowed items in stock locally, whileThe Home Depot indicated “limitedavailability.” Over the phone, however,in-store staff delivered the disap-pointing news: There were no prod-ucts on shelves, and the websitesweren’t up-to-date.A Home Depot spokeswoman clar-

ified that, while a store’s stock is up-dated on the app within minutes,“limited availability” indicates that in-ventory is very low, so in-store pickupis disabled. The Home Depot appdoes let you sign up for email alertswhen the item is restocked.

Not sure which retailers sellwhat? Try a comparison shop-

ping service. BuyVia and GoogleShopping (also available as apps) aredesigned to help shoppers compareproducts and prices across multipleretailers. BuyVia is better at compar-ing offerings from online sources likeAmazon and Chewy. Google Shoppingreveals brick-and-mortar stores thatmight have what you’re looking for.Select “Available nearby” for resultsfrom retailers near you.

Instacart can show up-to-dateinformation on what’s in stock.I did, finally, chase down some handsanitizer, at a Safeway across town. Ifound it using Instacart’s grocery-de-livery app. The app notified me thatthe item was running low and pre-emptively requested an approval fora replacement.A $10 minimum was required for

checkout and the sanitizer was only$5.79, so I decided to trek to Safewaymyself. Indeed, there was a 32-ouncebottle on the shelf.Instacart says it uses real-time

shopper input, plus historical pur-chase data, to keep its catalog as up-to-date as possible. During peakshopping times, that data offers agood picture of hour-by-hour changes.

If you must buy online, consultprice trackers to avoid beinggouged. CamelCamelCamel showsan item’s price history and emails youwhen there’s a price drop on Amazon.One issue: You’ll receive an alert only

for that specific item, while theremight be hundreds of listings for thesame or similar products.Keepa has a browser extension

that displays an item’s price historyright on the Amazon product page.

Sign up for Amazon product-availability alerts. For some out-of-stock products on Amazon, a sign-up button will appear where the “Buy”button typically is. It’s important tonote that the alert doesn’t reserve theproduct for you, so you’ll need to actquickly when you receive it. You canview your product availability alerts inyour Amazon Account settings.

Before you checkout, takenote of shipping costs. In oneAmazon listing for an 8 oz. bottle ofPurell, the cost of shipping ($14.49)was nearly as much as the productitself ($15).

Watch for how Amazon sellersrepresent (or misrepresent)stock and quality. An item mightappear available, but take a look atits shipping time, below the price.One Amazon listing for Wet Onesshowed “In stock on April 9, 2020.”And even that is sometimes wishfulthinking on the seller’s part.A product page may also say an

item is “by” Purell, Clorox or Lysol,but that only indicates the product’sbrand, not the listing’s seller—a con-fusing but important distinction.Look for small text that reads,

“Ships from and sold by.” If the selleris a third party, it’ll say, “Sold by[seller’s name] and Fulfilled by Ama-zon.” Click the link attached to thethird party’s name to read its re-views. Is it a mix of very positive andvery negative reviews? (A potentialred flag.) No reviews at all? (A defi-nite red flag.) Do reviews mention

that received items were expired orappeared counterfeit? (Walk away.)You’ll need to apply the same level

of vetting on Walmart’s website,which also carries items from third-party sellers. A Walmart.com listingwill indicate the product is “Sold &Shipped by” a specific seller. Clickingon the seller name will reveal its re-turn policy, reviews and shipping costs.

Be extra careful on eBay. Becausemany transactions on eBay are user touser, it’s hard to know the source ofthe product you’re buying. Plus, manylistings on the site don’t include theitem’s expiration date, and many sellersaren’t offering returns for consumableproducts like hand sanitizer.An eBay spokesperson said the

site is working on removing listingsfor items like masks and sanitizer, toavoid violating price-gouging laws instates that have declared a state ofemergency. On Sunday, there wereover 2,000 listings for sanitizer onthe platform.

Don’t fall for ads making coro-navirus-related medical claims.Facebook and the Advertising Stan-dards Authority in the U.K. recentlybanned these kinds of exploitativeadvertisements, but there are stillpromotions hawking medical facemasks and miracle cures floatingaround the ether.“If there’s a breakthrough in treat-

ment, we can expect to hear about itfrom the CDC or other reliable healthorganization—not through a bannerad on the internet,” Mr. Bell says.

Ms. Nguyen is a Wall Street Journaltechnology columnist in SanFrancisco. If you’ve found creativeways to track down hard-to-findgerm-zappers, email her atnicole.nguyen@wsj.com.

SPECIAL REPORT | NAVIGATING THE CORONAVIRUS

BY NICOLE NGUYEN

Working From Home? There AreWays to Stay Sane and Productive

What’s the best way to work effectivelyfrom home? That has suddenly becomean urgent question as employers aroundthe world tell staffers to work remotelyin an effort to stem the spread of thenew coronavirus.Here’s some advice.

—Make sure you have all the tools youneed: The right laptops, network access,passcodes and instructions for remotelogin.—Minimize distractions and noises fromothers in your household. Separate yourworkspace from your personal space asmuch as possible. Use noise-cancelingheadphones. On conference calls, muteyour microphone when you aren’t speak-ing. If videoconferencing, be mindful ofwhat the camera is picking up behind you.—Use digital collaboration tools to com-municate with colleagues. Schedule groupmeetings by videoconference and set upgroup chats via programs like Slack or Mi-

crosoft Teams. If email isleading to a misunderstand-ing, pick up the phone andhave a conversation.—Talk with your managerabout child-care challenges.If you’re asked to work fromhome and your children’s school or day-care shuts down, that might affect yourability to do remote work during normalbusiness hours. In some cases, children maybe old enough to fend for themselves. Butyounger children will need more attention.One possibility might be to set up shifts athome, where one parent works remotelyand the other parent cares for the child,and then they switch.—Take steps to improve your internetspeed. You may encounter slowdowns dur-ing periods of heavy use, like when you’retrying to work from home while your chil-dren are watching videos or playing games.Switch to Ethernet if you can. If not, move

as close as possible to your Wi-Fi router.—Fight the feeling of isolation. While youwant to minimize distraction from yourfamily members or roommates, you alsowant to avoid feeling like you are alone allday. Maintaining social connection is trickywhile trying to create social distance tostave off the virus. But there are ways tomaintain your mental health: Call people onthe phone or videochat, and break up theday with some exercise. Some employershave also begun offering online resiliencetraining to address the challenges of work-ing from home during the outbreak.

—Joanna Stern, Rachel Feintzeig,Chip Cutter and Te-Ping Chen

An itemmightappear to beavailable,but take alook at itsshippingtime.

American shoppershave seen a lot ofempty shelves forsome itemsrecently.

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Coronavirus vs.Flu: A Comparison

said. That would show how manypeople had been infected, he said.Two blood tests have been li-

censed in China to conduct suchstudies, according to the WHO.The new coronavirus, called SARS

CoV-2, infects the lower respiratorytract. About 80% of people in a co-hort of nearly 56,000 people inChina had either mild or moderateillnesses, according to the report bythe experts who traveled to China.Those illnesses started with a fever,dry cough, fatigue and other flulikesymptoms, but sometimes includedshortness of breath and progressedto a mild form of pneumonia, ac-cording to the report.An additional 13.8% became se-

verely ill, requiring oxygen, and 6.1%were critical, meaning respiratoryand organ failure, according to thereport. People over the age of 60and those with underlying condi-tions such as cardiovascular disease,chronic lung disease, diabetes andcancer were at highest risk, the re-port says.There are contradictory reports

of how transmissible Covid-19 is.The disease does not seem tospread as easily as the flu, accord-ing to the WHO, which found thatmost of the spread in China wasthrough close contacts like familymembers. Other disease modelingsuggests the new virus is moretransmissible than the flu.Experts say the new coronavirus

may appear to be more transmissiblethan flu right now because peoplehave at least some immunity to sea-sonal flu viruses, since the flu goesaround every year, and there is a fluvaccine.About 34 million people in the

U.S. have had the flu this season,which isn’t over yet but is startingto ease, according to the latest flureport from the Centers for DiseaseControl and Prevention. Of them,about 20,000 have died.Flu strains change slightly every

year, and the number of deaths de-pends on how severe the strains thatare circulating that season are, ac-cording to the CDC. The most severeflu pandemic in recent history killedtens of millions of people in 1918 and1919, meaning more than 2.5% ofthose it infected, according to CDCresearch.

Ms. McKay is reporter for The WallStreet Journal based in New York.She can be reached atbetsy.mckay@wsj.com.

The new coronavirus andthe seasonal flu are simi-lar in many ways. Both arerespiratory diseases thatspread through droplets offluid from the mouth and

nose of someone who is infected.Both are contagious, produce similarsymptoms and can be deadly.But there are some major differ-

ences. While both produce many ofthe same symptoms—fever, coughand muscle aches—and are particu-larly hard on the elderly, they comefrom two different families of vi-ruses. People have more protectionfrom the flu because there is a vac-cine and they are exposed to flu vi-ruses every year.There is no vaccine yet to protect

people against Covid-19, the diseasecaused by the new virus.“I think what we’re seeing with

Covid-19 is what influenza wouldlook like without a vaccine,” says

Neil Fishman, chief medical officerat the Hospital of the University ofPennsylvania and an infectious-dis-ease specialist.Scientists haven’t yet established

exactly how deadly or transmissiblethe new virus is. But so far the newcoronavirus appears to be deadlierthan the seasonal flu, which killsthousands of Americans every season.Calculations of the mortality rate

for Covid-19 have ranged between2% and 3.4% since the virus wasidentified in China in January, ac-cording to World Health Organiza-tion data. Those percentages are de-rived by dividing the number ofconfirmed deaths globally into thenumber of confirmed cases.By contrast, the seasonal flu has a

death rate of approximately 0.1%.Covid-19’s higher death rate is one

reason that billionaire global-healthphilanthropist Bill Gates recentlywarned in an article in the New Eng-land Journal of Medicine that“Covid-19 has started behaving a lotlike the once-in-a-century pathogenwe’ve been worried about.”But public-health scientists say

the real death rate is probably lowerthan the current estimates. U.S.health officials suggested in anotherarticle in the New England Journalof Medicine that the death ratecould be well below 1%. (Other esti-

mates have ranged between 1% and2%.) That’s because current calcula-tions are based on tallies of peoplewho were ill enough to be tested,they wrote.Epidemiologists say they are cer-

tain there are many more peoplewho were infected but didn’t receivea test—either because they weren’till enough to get one or didn’t haveaccess to a test. Problems with a testdeveloped in the U.S. means manypeople haven’t been able to get one.Studies suggest there are also

people who were infected but had nosymptoms—a common occurrencewith many viral infections.“We don’t know the proportion of

mild or asymptomatic cases,” MarcLipsitch, professor of epidemiologyat Harvard T.H. Chan School of Pub-lic Health and director of the Centerfor Communicable Disease Dynamics,said in a recent teleconference.In addition, the mortality rate has

differed by region and by intensityof transmission, according to a re-port by an international mission toChina of experts led by the WHO. Itwas 5.8% in an explosive initial out-break in Wuhan. But in other, less-hard-hit areas of China, which hadmore time to prepare to care for pa-tients, it was 0.7%. The rate in China

has come down over time, the reportsaid. In South Korea, which has hadmore than 7,000 cases, the mortalityrate is 0.7%.To calculate the “infection fatality

rate”—meaning an infected person’srisk of death—will require large-scale studies to determine how manypeople in an area where there hasbeen an outbreak have antibodies tothe virus in their blood, Dr. Lipsitch

People have more protection against the flu,because of exposure to it and vaccines for it.

BY BETSYMCKAY

They have somesimilarities. But somemajor differences.

What CanYouDo toHelp Contain Coronavirus?With the new virus at pandemic levels, public health experts say healthy individuals can help prevent the spreadwith good hygieneand some social distancing in their everyday lives.

HomeWash your hands oftenwith soap andwater for at least 20 seconds.Cover coughs and sneezes.Avoid touching your face.Disinfect frequently-touched surfaces and objects.

Public transportationYou can try to avoid rush hour, or walk if it's a short trip. You couldwipe down the subway pole before holding on. But experts saythe best advicemay be towash your hands or use hand sanitizeronce you’re off (and, seriously, try not to touch your face).

SchoolSchool-age children are generally thegroup that has themost contact withothers, making school closures animportant early step in preventing thespread of respiratory diseases.

OfficeIf you can, work remotely or in staggered shifts. Butmany people can’t work from home. In that case, stopshaking hands and stay home if you’re sick.Use disposablewipes to clean frequently-used surfaces,such as keyboards and desks.

Cars and taxisIf you are diagnosedwith Covid-19 orthink youmay have it, you shouldn’tuse ridesharing apps, taxis or any typeof public transportation.

Community eventsBe prepared to postpone or cancel events andservices. If you’re older or have underlying healthconditions, you should stay home if there’s anoutbreak in your community. Try to avoid publicplaces and gatherings.

If you’re a parent or caretaker, arrange childcare in case schools close. If classes aresuspended, students should also cancelextracurricular activities and other gatherings.

If someone you livewith gets sick, avoid sharingfood and other personal items. Have themuse aseparate room and bathroom if possible.

Keep a fewweeks’ worth ofmedications and othersupplies, in case you need to stay home.

Sources: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Joël Mossong (Laboratoire National de Santé) Research: Vivien Ngo and Francesca Fontana/Graphic: Alberto Cervantes/THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

ewith gets sick, avoiivewith gets sick avoidnal items. Havel it H

Your questionsanswered

How VulnerableAre Children?So far, kids seem to berelatively safe. But theyare key transmitters.

As the new coronavirusspreads, many parentsare worried about keep-ing their kids safe. Sofar, children seem to besurprisingly less vulnera-

ble to severe infection.But scientists suspect children

could play a key role in transmittingthe disease: Reports have shownchildren have the virus in their se-cretions for up to 22 days. So it’sstill vital to try to prevent themfrom getting it and spreading it toothers.Only 2% of the patients in a re-

view of nearly 45,000 confirmedCovid-19 cases in China were chil-dren, and there were no reporteddeaths in children under 10, accord-ing to a study published in JAMAlast month. (In contrast, there havebeen 136 pediatric deaths from in-fluenza in the U.S. this flu season.)Three percent of Covid-19 cases oc-curred in people over 80, while 87%were in those 30 to 79 years-old.About 8% of cases were in people

in their 20s. Those 10 to 19 years

old accounted for 1% of cases andthose under 10 also accounted foronly 1%. A separate study lookingat the number of infants hospital-ized for Covid-19 in China betweenDec. 8 and Feb. 6 found only nineinfected babies.“You would think [children] do

worse as they do with seasonal in-fluenza but that hasn’t been re-ported yet,” says Gregory Poland, di-rector of the Mayo Clinic’s VaccineResearch Group in Rochester, Minn.In the JAMA China study, mor-

tality rates were higher among theelderly: Of confirmed cases, therewas a 14.8% fatality rate in pa-tients who were older than 80 andan 8% rate for patients in their70s. The overall rate was 2.3%. Themortality rates for patients 10 to19 years old was 0.2%, and it was0.2% for patients in their 20s and30s, as well. It was 0.4% for peoplein their 40s, 1.3% for those in their50s, and 3.6% for people in their60s.A World Health Organization re-

port on China concluded that casesof Covid-19 in children were “rela-tively rare and mild.” Among casesin people under age 19, only 2.5%developed severe disease while0.2% developed critical disease.“At this point the evidence sug-

gests that children have a reducedrisk of developing symptomatic in-fections,” says Karen Kotloff, head

BY SUMATHI REDDY

A securitymember checkedthe temperatureof a passengerat an airport inPalmira,Colombia, thisweek.

Below, a child ischecked with athermal scanner atan airport in Dhaka,Bangladesh, onMarch 11.

an infectious disease specialist atNYU Langone Health, says there’s notenough data to say that’s the case.As people age, their immune sys-

tems typically weaken, so that couldplay a role, says Dr. Raabe. Childrenalso don’t smoke, which appears tobe a risk factor for those experienc-ing serious illness.However, even if they’re not suf-

fering severe symptoms themselves,children may “shed” large amountsof virus and may do so for manydays, case reports have found, saysJames Campbell, a professor of pe-diatrics at the University of Mary-land School of Medicine. Childrenhad virus in their secretions for sixto 22 days, or an average of 12 days.Shedding virus doesn’t always

means you’re able to transmit thevirus, he notes. But prolonged shed-ding, high viral loads and childrenwho have no or few symptoms makefor a potentially risky combinationas families may be unaware theirchildren are contagious.Some of the best ways to limit

the spread, experts say: Make surekids are washing their hands fre-quently, keep them out of schooland away from other people if theyare sick, and clean surfaces often.With influenza, children are a ma-

jor source of transmission in thecommunity. Studies have shown thatif school-based vaccination for theflu happens, there is a decrease inthe rate of infections among adults,says Dr. Kotloff. “We don’t have abroad enough experience testingpeople, especially kids who don’thave symptoms, to have any ideawhether that’s true” for Covid-19,says Dr. Kotloff. “But it’s possiblethat that could be a role that kidsplay and that has implications.”If they produce a lot of virus they

could “be a powerful vehicle fortransmission,” says William Schaff-ner, a professor in the division of in-fectious diseases at Vanderbilt Uni-versity Medical Center.School is a breeding ground for

spreading infectious diseases. Chil-dren, even if they aren’t severely sick,

could spread Covid-19 to more vul-nerable populations. That is why clos-ing school is an effective strategy totry to contain the virus, experts say.“You’re trying to decrease the

chain of transmission,” says Dr. Po-land. “Children are still transmittingthe virus to people who have ahigher likelihood, based on age andother conditions, of having a severecase or even dying of it.”Typically if you don’t have a lot

of symptoms, you’re less likely to in-fect someone else since you aren’tcoughing or sneezing as much, Dr.Raabe says. But children aren’t asgood at covering their nose ormouth when they sneeze or cough.“So it’s concerning that they couldbe transmitting,” she says.

Ms. Reddy writes the Your Healthcolumn for Personal Journal. Emailsumathi.reddy@wsj.com.

of the division of pediatric infec-tious disease at the University ofMaryland School of Medicine.“They seem to be less likely to be-come infected and when they getinfected they seem to be less likelyto develop severe disease.”Trends in South Korea so far look

similar. Among nearly 6,300Covid-19 cases reported by the KoreaCenters for Disease Control & Pre-vention on March 8, there were noreported deaths in anyone under 30.Only 0.7% of infections were in chil-dren under 9 and 4.6% of cases werein those ages 10 to 19 years old.

Typically with the flu and otherrespiratory viruses, children under2 are at risk of suffering from com-plications such as bronchitis orpneumonia because their airwaysare narrow. These viruses typicallycause swelling and inflammation ofthe airways, says Dr. Poland.Even though respiratory dis-

eases, such as asthma, are an un-derlying medical condition thatpose a greater risk of serious ill-ness, there haven’t been any re-ports so far of asthmatic childrenbeing hospitalized or dying ofCovid-19.Dr. Poland said some experts

speculate that children may nothave the same density of the recep-tors to the virus that adults have.There has also been speculationthat children may have more pro-tection due to exposure to othercoronaviruses. But Vanessa Raabe,

Reports have shown that children have the coronavirusin their secretions for as long as 22 days.

SPECIAL REPORT | NAVIGATING THE CORONAVIRUS

How should I treatpackages from China?Is it possible totransmit the virus throughthe mail?The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has saidthere is likely very low risk that the virus can be spreadfrom products or packaging shipped from China, becauseof poor survivability of coronaviruses on surfaces, aspokesman for the U.S. Postal Service says. Also accord-ing to the CDC, he says, there currently is no evidence tosupport transmission of the coronavirus associated withimported goods, and there have been no reported casesof the virus in the U.S. associated with imported goods.

What steps can we taketo minimize the risk oftransmission of Covid-19on public transportation?Experts say keeping your distance from people who arecoughing and sneezing may help. Wiping down a subwayor bus pole is something that can be done, says WilliamSchaffner, a professor in the division of infectious dis-eases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Tennes-see. Better yet, if it’s a short enough distance, walk andget some fresh air and exercise. The best advice, expertssay, may be to avoid touching your face as much as pos-sible while on public transport and washing your handsor using hand sanitizer as soon as you’re off.

IF I HAVE SYMPTOMS…

What do I do if I amcoughing or have a feverand wonder if it might bethe new coronavirus?Contact your doctor if you have concerns. Right now, theodds are greater that your cold or fever is caused by in-fluenza or another respiratory disease, says Gregory Po-land, director of the Mayo Clinic’s Vaccine Research Groupin Rochester, Minn.

When should I go to thehospital?Experts say you should go to a hospital if you’re sickenough that you think you should be admitted. The tell-tale sign is difficulty breathing or shortness of breathcombined with a fever of 101 degrees or higher, says Wil-bur Chen, an associate professor of medicine at the Uni-versity of Maryland School of Medicine.

If my child or anyone else inmy household is coughing orhas a fever, should I keepthem home? For how long?Absolutely. Of all times to keep children at home whenthey are ill, now is the time, says Cameron Wolfe, associ-ate professor of medicine in the division of infectious dis-eases at Duke University Health System. “The youngerthe child, the less capable they are of keeping their ownsecretions and snot to themselves, so parents have to bemindful of that,” says Dr. Wolfe.Dr. Raabe at NYU Langone Health says for any illness,

children should be home until there is no sign of infection,which is when their symptoms have resolved and they arefever-free without any medications for at least 24 hours.

What, if any, precautionsshould be taken bypregnant women?Experts say pregnant women fall into the vulnerable cat-egory of people more likely to get seriously ill with thenew virus. Avoid large public gatherings if you’re in anarea with new coronavirus cases, says Dr. Poland. “theprecautions should be heightened.”Dr. Wolfe says to make sure you have an influenza

shot if you are pregnant and reach out to your doctor tosee if they have contingency plans if new coronaviruscases escalate, such as conducting a virtual visit throughtelemedicine when possible.

WHAT SUPPLIES YOU NEED

Should I buy amask or gloves?Not unless you or someone in your household comesdown with the new coronavirus. Dr. Raabe says there’s noevidence that masks help if you’re healthy. While the N95masks used in hospital settings can be effective, expertssay they need to be fitted for the individual. That occursfor health-care workers in hospitals but not when peoplebuy such masks online or over the counter. You couldconsider wearing a mask, Dr. Raabe says, if you’re sick orin close contact with an ill child or loved one.Gloves also are only useful if you’re taking care of an

ill child or loved one and are in contact with bodily fluids.Wearing them day to day for prevention is not helpful, aswe touch our hands, eyes, and mouth frequently.FR

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Outside theLife CareCenter inKirkland,Wash., thecenter of theoutbreak inWashingtonstate, onMarch 10.

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SPECIAL REPORT | NAVIGATING THE CORONAVIRUS

How Best to CleanYour SmartphoneThen again, somepeople say not to evenbother cleaning it

question right now is, where do youBUY the wipes?Samsung advises Galaxy owners

to dampen a cloth with a disinfec-tant or alcohol-based solution andwipe gently. It says not to apply liq-uid directly onto your phone.Can you use soap and water on

your phone, as many have askedme? Sure, but avoid using rough pa-per towels or sponges on thescreen. And never use bleach.

Can I damage mysmartphone by cleaning it?The big cleaning-solution fear citedby smartphone makers is damage toyour phone screen’s oleophobiclayer. This is a protective coating onyour screen that repels both waterand oil.Using a brand-new iPhone 8, I

wiped the screen 1,095 times withClorox disinfecting wipes. I figuredthat’s the equivalent of wipingdown your phone every day forthree years. The only thing showingany wear after all that wiping? Mypoor, wrinkly fingers.When cleaning with disinfecting

wipes, however, avoid getting liquidin the ports. Even if most phonesare now water resistant, that resis-tance wears over time.

What about my phone case?Apple provides good advice oncleaning the various materials itscases are made of at support.ap-ple.com. (Search for “How to cleanyour Apple products.”) Even if youdon’t have an official Apple case,these tips can be helpful.When I was at a hospital last

week, I met a nurse who had aphone case especially for work. (Shestill cleans it every day.)

A dedicated phone-cleaninggadget. Really?!If you’re not into getting yourphone and hands all wet, you cantry a UV sanitizing gadget like the$100 PhoneSoap Go. Pop yourphone in the tiny tanning bed for10 minutes and the companyclaims to kill 99.9% of bacteria andgerms on it.Why use this instead of a wipe?

Well, because apparently we suck atcleaning. People don’t cover thewhole phone well with disinfectingsolutions, according to PhoneSoapchief executive and co-founder Wes-ley LaPorte. Plus, if you don’t letthe cleaning solution sit for awhile—Clorox recommends fourminutes on its container—somebacteria might survive.“This disinfects in a consistent

manner,” Mr. LaPorte says.The microbiologists I spoke with

said UV light can be an effectiveway to kill bacteria.Samsung is fine with you using

PhoneSoap or its competitors—andis even offering free UV cleaning atselect Samsung stores, if you feellike venturing out. Apple doesn’texplicitly offer in-store cleaning,but store employees are known toclean gadgets using wipes with 70%isopropyl alcohol.Our anxieties are at an all-time

high, understandably. If cleaningmakes you feel better, grab somewipes and go to town. Wipe forhours—even days. Your phone willbe just fine. Just remember, you re-ally don’t need to. Unless you’re oneof those crazy phone lickers.

Ms. Stern is The Wall StreetJournal’s personal technologycolumnist. She can be reached atjoanna.stern@wsj.com. KennyWassus contributed to this column

BY JOANNA STERN

Your questionsanswered

The world is onfire, but don’t youworry, I’m here totell you how to cleanyour smartphone.That is, if you re-

ally want to cleanyour phone. Three people I spokewith over the past week said theydid not clean their smartphones—and they’re all leading experts onmicrobiology and infectious disease.WAIT! WHAT? I thought smart-

phones were dirtier than a toiletbowl. Heck, even academic studies,like one from the February issue ofthe Journal of Hospital Infection,

have found considerable amounts ofbacteria, including fecal matter, onphone screens.And yet all these experts said

some variation of the same thingwhen I asked about combating coro-navirus: thoroughly clean yourhands; don’t touch your face; don’tworry about your phone.Sure, except what if you’re one of

those people where your smart-phone is basically an extension ofyour hand? What if I touch a dirtysubway pole, then touch my phone,then my phone touches my face?What if I’m the kind of person wholicks my phone? (Don’t judge.) A re-cent study found that, on surfacessuch as metal, glass or plastic, coro-navirus can survive for anywherebetween two hours and nine days.“It’s possible, theoretically, for

this to live on a smartphone. If youhad it out and someone sneezed orcoughed on it and then you handledthe phone, you could pick up infec-tion that way,” says Daniel R. Ku-ritzkes, chief of the Division of In-

fectious Diseases at Brigham andWomen’s Hospital. “People shouldkeep their phones close to them-selves. There is very little risk in-volved then.”“My phone is the least of my

concerns,” says Alex Berezow, a mi-crobiologist and vice president atthe American Council on Scienceand Health.After days of disinfecting my

phone like a surgical tray, I wasshocked. Phone cleaning is certainlynot as cut and dried as you thought.After hours of research, I’ve comeup with some basic lessons for whatyou can do—and not do—with thatpetri dish phone of yours.

Should I clean mysmartphone?Let’s be very clear: Even when thereisn’t a pandemic sweeping theglobe, your phone can get dirty.Generally, that filth is not an is-

sue, says Emma Hayhurst, a micro-biologist at the University of SouthWales and co-author on the afore-mentioned Journal of Hospital In-fection paper. “We were trying toavoid mass panic about muckyphones. When you are healthy, it’sreally not a problem.”Translation: You should clean

your phone—just not compulsively.

How should I clean mysmartphone?All my new infectious-diseasefriends say that to effectively killthe virus on a surface, you need dis-infectant solution—for instance,something with at least 55% isopro-pyl alcohol.On Monday, I reported that Apple

now gives the OK to use a 70% iso-propyl alcohol wipe or Clorox disin-fecting wipe on the surface of allApple products. Google also con-firmed that it’s OK to use isopropylalcohol or Clorox wipes to clean itsPixel devices. Of course, the big

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What else can I doto protect myself?The most important thing you can do is wash yourhands frequently, for at least 20 seconds each time.Wash them regularly when you are at the office, whenyou come home, before you eat and other times thatyou are touching surfaces. You can also use an alco-hol-based hand sanitizer. Don’t touch your eyes, noseor mouth—viruses can enter your body that way.Maintain a distance from people who are sick.Wipe down objects and surfaces frequently with

household cleaner, which will kill the virus. Dr. Polandsays if it is a surface exposed to sunlight outside, thevirus likely only lives for a few minutes or up to anhour. But if it is indoors and a dry environment, germscan live up to a day or two.If someone at home is sick, the CDC recommends

cleaning surfaces that are touched frequently, such asdoorknobs and countertops, every day. Regular house-hold disinfectant wipes and cleaners should suffice.Anything with alcohol or bleach works.Get a flu shot, if you didn’t get one already. Stock

up on some supplies in case you have to stay home,infectious-disease experts say. To avoid cleaning outstore shelves, just buy a few extras on your regular or-ders or trips to the store. Items to consider includeshelf-stable foods like cans of beans, packages of riceand pasta, and beverages; pain relievers and othercommon medications; extra prescription medications;and hygiene and cleaning products.

AVAILABLE TREATMENTS

Are there drugsto treat the newcoronavirus?There aren’t any drugs or vaccines approved specifi-cally for the new virus. But several are in developmentor being studied. Two clinical trials in China and one inthe U.S. are evaluating remdesivir, an antiviral drugfrom Gilead Sciences Inc. that was also tested for Eb-ola.A hospital in Wuhan is conducting a clinical trial us-

ing a combination of two drugs for HIV that had beentested on MERS patients in Saudi Arabia. The therapy,sold under the brand name Kaletra in the U.S., is nor-mally used to treat HIV patients and belongs to a classof drugs known as protease inhibitors, which block akey enzyme that helps viruses replicate. In addition, afew vaccine makers are developing products targetingthe virus.

Is there a test for the virus?Yes, there are diagnostic tests, which are the only wayto confirm for certain whether a patient has the newcoronavirus or another infection. Right now in the U.S.,a test is hard to get. Because symptoms of Covid-19are like those of the flu, the tests are given only topeople who doctors or public-health officials believemay have the disease. More tests are being distrib-uted, and the CDC says doctors may decide whethera patient should be tested.

STAYING OUT OF CIRCULATION

What if I haveto self-isolate?If you are told to self-isolate,you will need to stay at homeand avoid contact with othersfor 14 days. Try not to stay inthe same room with others at the same time, theU.K’s National Health Service recommends. Stay in awell-ventilated room with a window that can beopened. Don’t share towels, utensils or dishes withothers, and wash them thoroughly after use. Cleanbathrooms and surfaces regularly. Wash your handsbefore and after contact with pets.Don’t go out to public places; ask family members or

friends to get groceries, medicines and other suppliesfor you. Ask delivery people to leave items outside.

—Betsy McKay, Sumathi Reddy, Julia Carpenterand Anna Wilde Mathews

At the Gym, Keep Apart,Wipe the Equipment andClean Your Hands

The gym, an escape and haven in theday-to-day lives of millions, has be-come yet another source of anxiety inthe age of coronavirus.As cases of Covid-19 rise in the

U.S., health officials are urging peo-ple to practice social distancing. Thatcould make spin classes and yoga ses-sions seem more harmful thanhealthy. Yet many fitness fanaticscrave exercise more than ever andare forging forward, while taking pre-cautions.Tony Maloney, the fitness-center

manager at the National Institute forFitness and Sport in Indianapolis,says people should be exercising nowmore than ever. “When endorphinlevels go up, it can counteract the

stress responsethat is so damagingto the immune sys-tem,” he says.Madison Mitte-

ness still braves thetreadmill at her gym in New York, butsays she won’t touch the dumbbells orweight machines for fear of germs. Herlogic—that the more people touchshared objects, the higher their risk oftransmitting a virus—isn’t unfounded.But according to the U.S. Centers

for Disease Control and Prevention,coronavirus spreads more easily be-tween people standing within about 6feet than through contact with con-taminated surfaces. Cleaning and dis-infecting surfaces appears to lower the

chances of transmission.Gregory Poland, director of the Vac-

cine Research Group at the MayoClinic in Rochester, Minn., says thegym isn’t necessarily riskier than anyother communal area, but peopleshould remain vigilant. His tactic atthe gym has been to use hand sani-tizer—at least 60% alcohol-based—lib-erally every time he touches a piece ofequipment. In general, things like gymtowels, he says, are less risky, since

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THEWALL STREET JOURNAL. Friday, March 13, 2020 | R9

If You Really Need toTravel, Here’s How to Do ItAnd Protect Your Health

point, and certainly before you touchyour eyes, nose or mouth.Be wary of the many risks of ex-

posure at the checkpoint. Airline offi-cials have pointed out that TSA isn’tcleaning its checkpoints nearly as ag-gressively as airlines are cleansingairplanes. You hand your ID or board-ing pass to the agent wearing gloves.What if the traveler five people infront of you sneezed on his license,transferring virus to the agent’sgloves? Think about those X-ray binsand the benches for getting yourshoes back on as collection points forsneezes and coughs. TSA checkpointsare public spaces where people are inclose quarters and sharing surfaces.Three TSA screeners working at

Mineta San Jose International Airportin California have tested positive forCovid-19, the disease that resultsfrom the new coronavirus. Co-work-ers they came in contact with arequarantined at home for 14 days.

On the airplaneOpen the air vent and aim it in frontof your face. Air on planes runsthrough hospital-grade filters thatcapture 99.9% of contaminants, includ-ing viruses. You may freeze, but youwant to be breathing that air. It maybe the cleanest air you get all day.Wipe down surfaces like tray tables

and arm rests to disinfect. Airlineshave stepped up cleaning of airplanes,but much of it comes overnight. Thatdoesn’t protect you if the plane youare boarding has just landed.Wash or sanitize hands after

touching public surfaces like bath-

room doorknobs, sink handles andoverhead-bin latches.Consider a window seat. Some re-

search shows passengers in windowseats stay put more than people inaisle seats, and so are exposed tofewer people. Also, there’s a risk ofsomeone infected walking down theaisle and sneezing or coughing on theperson in the aisle seat.Medical studies show the hot zone

on an airplane is two seats aroundyou in any direction. If someone nearyou is coughing or sneezing, move—there should be plenty of empty seats.

At the hotel andelsewherePractice all of the CDC-recom-mended precautions as frequentlyas you can.Wash hands with soap for at least

20 seconds (sing the alphabet songto make sure you wash long enough).Use hand sanitizer that’s at least

60% alcohol. Avoid touching youreyes, nose and mouth with unwashedhands. Avoid close contact with peo-ple who are sick.

More questionsansweredWhat if I have tickets but don’twant to travel?There are ways you can recover

airline change fees and cancellationpenalties. It does get complicated—each airline or travel seller may haveits own rules and fees. But here aresome general guidelines:If you bought your ticket before

March and planned to travel in Marchor April, most big airlines will waivecancellation or change fees. Delta,United and American began doingthis March 9. In most cases, you’ll geta voucher good toward future travel.Pay close attention to when thevoucher expires. It may be one yearfrom when you bought the ticket,which by now may not be much time.If you bought a ticket before

March and plan to travel in May orlater, most airlines have not yet is-

sued waivers from fees. Sit tight.There will be time to cancel, unlessyou face other deadlines for cruisesor hotel bookings. If the pandemiccontinues for several months, waiverswill be coming. If it subsides, you maywell feel safe traveling this summer.If you buy a ticket now, almost all

airlines are selling tickets withoutchange fees or cancellation penalties.(Southwest does all the time, whichgives you the most flexibility.) If youchange your mind, you likely won’tget a refund, just a voucher.

Does travel insurance cover you?Not for coronavirus cancellations. Atthis point, the threat is well-known,so not insurable. Besides, most poli-cies exclude pandemic, and the WorldHealth Organization has officiallymade that classification.The one insurance product that

experts say still offers some coverageis Cancel for Any Reason insurance.You have to buy it within a week ortwo of your first payment on a trip. Itcosts more and it typically coversonly 60% to 70% of your losses. Butit’s the only travel insurance for fear.

How can I get a refund on a nonre-fundable ticket?If an airline cancels your flight (andyou still have a ticket for it), the air-line has to refund what you paid. It’ssimple: The airline isn’t delivering theservice you bought.If an airline changes its schedule

and you don’t want the new flights,you will be entitled to a refund inmost cases. At American, for exam-ple, a schedule change of 61 minutesor more gives you the option to get arefund. (Alternatively, you can chooseto accept the new flights offered, ofcourse.) At United, rules are chang-ing: United has gone from a two-hourthreshold to now saying that theschedule has to be “significantly” dif-ferent to get a refund.

Mr. McCartney writes The MiddleSeat column for The Wall StreetJournal. He can be reached atmiddleseat@wsj.com.

SPECIAL REPORT | NAVIGATING THE CORONAVIRUS

Travel exposes you tocrowds of people, in-creasing the risk ofexposure to coronavi-rus. In addition, traveltransports the virus,increasing the risk for

communities. The widespread reduc-tion in travel is painful for those whowork in the industry and those whorely on moving around for livelihoodand pleasure. But it also seems to begood public-health strategy.But what if you need to travel—for

your job or your family? Here aresome tips, based on advice from theCenters for Disease Control and Pre-vention, public-health experts, medi-cal studies on aircraft disease-spreadand ventilation, and common sense:

PackingTake extra supplies of any medica-tions in case your travel gets dis-rupted and you can’t get home orend up getting quarantined.Take lots of hand sanitizer, some in

travel-size bottles and some in yourchecked luggage or TSA liquids bag.Take disinfecting wipes, cold medi-

cine, a thermometer and health-insur-ance documentation in case you getsick, and extra work, reading and en-tertainment in case you get delayed.

At the airportSanitize or wash hands immediatelyafter going through the Transporta-tion Security Administration check-

BY SCOTTMCCARTNEY

Bewary ofthe risks ofexposure atcheckpoints.TSA isn’tcleaning itscheckpointsnearly asaggressivelyas airlinesare cleansingairplanes.

Take disinfectingwipes, cold medicineand a thermometer incase you get sick.

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fewer people touch them.“If someone with the virus has

coughed or sneezed and then touchesan inanimate object like a dumbbell oreven the pen for a sign-in sheet, thereis an increased chance of transmission,but no more than the flu,” he says.If you live in a city with an outbreak,

Dr. Poland suggests skipping the studioand getting your endorphin fix at homethrough an online class or app. Outdoorexercise also is safe, he says, as long asyou keep a distance from people. “A tri-athlon where you are jammed up withothers wouldn’t be smart,” he says.However, if you live someplace that

hasn’t experienced an outbreak, he sug-gests taking the same precautions youwould during flu season. He recom-mends getting a flu vaccine and work-ing out in areas with a minimum of 3to 5 feet between pieces of equipmentor other people.

Continuedfromthepriorpage And don’t just rinse your hands.Wash them for at least 20 seconds. “Ihave never seen a lay person washtheir hands properly,” he says. “Youput your fingertips, not your palms, inyour eyes, nose or mouth. No onewashes their fingertips.”Gyms and fitness studios across the

country have stepped up hygiene mes-saging and measures to give memberspeace of mind.Barry’s Bootcamp advised clients to

avoid “kissing, hugging and the sharingof cups and water bottles” at the gym.And Equinox says it is disinfecting allclubs with a hospital-grade solutionthree times a day. It has asked instruc-tors to eliminate skin-to-skin contactsuch as adjustments in yoga.Nathan Reyna, a member of Elite by

NYSC, an upscale offshoot of New YorkSports Club, says he feels that hisgym’s management is taking the coro-navirus threat seriously.

“Not only have they emailed tips onhow to combat the virus, but they haveamped up deep cleans,” he says.

TIPS TO KEEP HEALTHY AND FITGyms and fitness studios are urging

members to follow the CDC guidelinesfor preventing the spread of Covid-19,the disease caused by the coronavirus.Beyond washing your hands often

with soap and water for at least 20seconds and not touching your eyes,nose and mouth with unwashed hands,here’s what fitness companies andhealth experts are suggesting people doto stay clean while exercising:

If you or someone in your house-hold is sick, stay home from the gym.

Cover your cough or sneeze with atissue, then throw the tissue in thetrash.

Avoid the sauna and steam room.Those with colds often use them tobreak up congestion.

Use the disinfectant wipes avail-able at the gym to wipe down equip-ment before and after each use.

For surface cleaning, check withyour gym to see if its products say“disinfectant” on the label and includean EPA registration number.

Use hand sanitizers that are atleast 60% alcohol.

Bring your own yoga mat to class. Avoid contact such as hands-on

assists, passing over membership cardsat check-in or high-fives.

Avoid packed classes where stu-dents are shoulder-to-shoulder. Try tomaintain 6 feet of distance from otherpeople.

Work out at home using a jumprope or an app or streamable workout.

—Jen Murphy

Ms. Murphy is a writer in Boulder,Colo. Email her at reports@wsj.com.

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As the Virus Spreads,Drugmakers Hunt forEffective TreatmentsAnd Vaccines

Dozens of drugmak-ers are scrambling todevelop vaccines thatcould prevent peoplefrom contracting thenew coronavirus, ortherapies to treat peo-

ple infected with the respiratory dis-ease it causes.Testing of several potential drugs

and vaccines has already started, andmore trials are in the works. Addi-tional studies could follow if re-searchers find that products ap-proved for other uses, or even onesthey discarded, show promise intheir labs tackling the virus.“You’re seeing the industry wheel

into action,” says Jeremy Levin, chair-man of the Biotechnology InnovationOrganization trade group and chiefexecutive of Ovid Therapeutics Inc.The development process will be

slow, however. Anthony Fauci, direc-tor of the National Institute of Al-lergy and Infectious Diseases, hassaid it would take at least 12 monthsto 18 months to know if a vaccine issafe and effective. Industry officialsagree that the time horizon for anyindication of the drugs’ effects ismonths away. And in drug develop-ment, most therapies fail beforereaching the market.

Battling the unknownThere aren’t any drugs or vaccines ap-proved for Covid-19, the respiratorydisease caused by the new coronavi-rus. Industry and academic research-ers ramped up their discovery effortsin January, after scientists in Chinaprovided the virus’s genetic sequence.At least 35 potential vaccines are

under development by companies oracademic researchers, according tothe World Health Organization. Morethan 40 life-sciences companies havevirus-related projects, Dr. Levin says.There are nearly 400 global clinicaltrials related to the coronavirus un-der way, according to the WHO.

The newness of the virus is com-plicating research efforts. Research-ers face the challenge of properly de-signing trials in a short period for arelatively unknown virus, industry of-ficials and analysts say. That makes itharder to determine what measure-ments will indicate a patient’s re-sponse to a therapy, says Yaron Wer-ber, an analyst at Cowen Inc. Already,finding patients eligible to undergotesting hamstrung one trial in China.“We’re trying to run large ran-

domized studies in a very quick pe-riod in a disease that we barely un-derstand,” says Michael Yee, ananalyst at Jefferies LLC.

Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc. plansto begin testing its experimental vac-cine in healthy volunteers nextmonth and publish its human clini-cal-trial data this fall. Healthy volun-teers in the Seattle area have begunenrolling in a trial testing ModernaInc.’s experimental vaccine.Emergent BioSolutions Inc. said

Wednesday it is trying to developtreatments, one of which would bederived from the blood of coronavi-rus patients who have recovered.“Everyone recognizes that a vaccinewill really not be available for thenext year to year and a half, and thequickest path to a product that is go-ing to provide some benefit is sometype of therapeutic product,” ChiefExecutive Robert Kramer said in aninterview.Some of the most advanced pro-

grams are exploring whether drugsdiscovered for other uses might beeffective treatments for Covid-19.Among them: an antiviral therapyfrom Gilead Sciences Inc., called rem-desivir, that was developed to treatthe Ebola virus but then scrapped af-ter proving less effective than rivaldrugs during testing.

Researchers revived the drug afterthe Covid-19 virus was found to be-long to a family of coronaviruses. Inmice, remdesivir had worked againstMiddle East respiratory syndrome,another coronavirus.Researchers in the U.S. and China

have started testing remdesivir inpeople infected with the coronavirus.The company says it will start itsown late-stage studies this month.Gilead has given the experimentaldrug—though it hasn’t been provedto work—on a compassionate basisto several hundred patients withconfirmed, severe Covid-19 infectionsin the U.S., Europe and Japan, a com-pany spokesman says.

Other approachesAlso under study are some approvedHIV drugs, like Kaletra from AbbVieInc. and Prezcobix from Johnson &Johnson, to see whether they couldwork against new-coronavirus infec-tions. In January, both companiessupplied their drugs to Chinese au-thorities for testing. Media in Chinahave reported that AbbVie’s Kaletrais proving effective, but the companysays it can’t confirm the reportswithout access to data from the trial.A J&J spokesman says the companydidn’t have an update on the Chinaresearch.Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc.

and Sanofi SA are taking steps to startstudying in patients whether theirdrug Kevzara, approved to treat rheu-matoid arthritis, could treat symptomsof new-coronavirus infections.Roche Holding AG is exploring

conducting U.S. studies of its similar-acting rheumatoid-arthritis drug,Actemra.Researchers in China have already

begun a study, according to a spokes-woman for Roche’s Genentech sub-sidiary. Pfizer Inc. and Merck & Co.say they are assessing whether theirassets may be potentially worth us-ing toward coronavirus. J&J aims tobegin a trial later this year with itsexperimental vaccine candidate,while Sanofi hopes to potentially en-ter trials with its own within a yearand a half.Recent history suggests that drug-

makers will have a rough road ahead.In epidemics such as severe acute re-spiratory syndrome, Ebola and Zika,researchers and companies mobilizedfor vaccines and treatments, al-though the results were mixed.For companies spending heavily

on Covid-19 drugs and vaccines, oneissue that could affect responses tofuture pandemics is the return on in-vestment, especially if the pandemichas run its course by the time aproduct has been approved for real-world use.If Covid-19 ends up being a sea-

sonal or recurring disease, therecould be a stronger commercial op-portunity for companies, whichmight be inclined to charge higherprices, Mr. Yee says, though he ex-pects the opportunity to be minimalfor now given the public-healthemergency.He says Gilead is likely to employ a

“humanitarian approach” with a priceto merely recoup its developmentcosts. Gilead said it hasn’t yet set aprice for its drug and is focused on re-sponding to the coronavirus outbreak.

Mr. Hopkins is a Wall Street Journalreporter in New York. He can bereached at jared.hopkins@wsj.com.

The Internet Can’t SaveUs From LonelinessIn a Pandemic

I’ve worked remotely for most of my professional life,collaborating exclusively through screens, and I know afew things about how lonely that can be.All of us sense that the internet is no cure for lone-

liness, and research supports our intuition. But whatare we to do when connecting with people online isour only option? With the arrival of the coronavirus,studying and even relaxing with friends remotely

seems, for millions of people the worldover, the only option.It is beyond debate that these remote

collaborations may be less fruitful than in-person meetings; the learning less effectivethan what we absorb in hands-on environ-ments; and the socializing markedly lesssatisfying than the alchemy of face-to-faceconnections. But why these online-onlyconnections don’t quite cut it remainssomething of a mystery to social scientists.For anyone who has ever been reas-

sured by a text from a friend, laughed ata colleague’s joke in Slack or had theirmind changed by an exchange on socialmedia, it is clear that the richness of amedium isn’t the sole determinant of howit makes us feel.If the richness (or lack) of a medium

can’t explain why the quest for connectionon the internet can be so fruitless, per-haps another, older theory does. In 1956,sociologists Donald Horton and RichardWohl coined the phrase “parasocial inter-action.” It characterized the emotional tiesmillions of people had developed with per-formers and personalities through thethen-new medium of television.The problem was that all these rela-

tionships were one-sided. Parasocializingwith our favorite news anchors or sitcom

BY JARED S.HOPKINSAt least 35potentialvaccines forthe virusare underdevelopmentby companiesand academicresearchers.

characters didn’t confer the same benefitsas socializing with real people. With theadvent of the internet, all relationships,even ones with people who know us,gained the potential to become parasocial.Social media makes it easy to hang

onto and follow along with “friends” withwhom we rarely or never speak. With so-cial media, our primate brains generatethe illusion that we are participating in ourfriends’ lives, just as our parents instinc-tively felt a closeness to the voices in thelittle box. Communicating through the in-ternet also necessitates the constructionof a digital self, which is by nature incom-plete and often false.The internet also creates a mental

equivalence between everything and ev-eryone on a given network, one thaterases the boundaries between our inter-personal relationships and parasocial ones.The antidote to the slow poison of

parasocialization is, of course, socialization.Live and in the flesh. And unfortunately,millions of us are about to find out justhow long we can survive without it.

—Christopher Mims

Mr. Mims writes The Wall StreetJournal’s Keywords column. He can bereached at christopher.mims@wsj.com. FR

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Workers Worry TheirSick Time Won’t BeNearly What They Need

Millions of Ameri-can workers haveno paid sick time,and millions morewho do are won-dering if they willhave enough to

cover a severe illness. While some ofthe country’s biggest companies areadjusting their policies because ofthe coronavirus, there are still manyemployees who worry that falling illwill leave them in a precarious finan-cial position.The incubation period for confirmed

cases of coronavirus can be up to 14days, a significant stretch of time totake off from work. Many hourly andblue-collar jobs offer no paid sickleave at all, and even in industriesknown for high salaries or union regu-lation not all workers are covered, ac-cording to the Bureau of Labor Statis-tics. That means many workers mayfeel they have no choice but to cometo work even when they are ill.Robert Samples, who works as a

graduate assistant at the Universityof Connecticut, gets three paid sick

days per semester. He says he wasshocked by an email from his human-resources department explaining thatpeople who needed more time offwould have to exhaust other accruedleave, like vacation days.“They offered no assurance that

people with confirmed Covid-19 caseswould receive paid leave,” Mr. Sam-ples says. “If you’re an academic, andyou think you might lose your vaca-tion benefits, if you’ve got the snif-fles, you might come to work, andthat’s a dangerous precedent to set.”A university spokeswoman says

the school has the flexibility to allowsick leave beyond what union con-tracts guarantee in a coronaviruscase, and that the email was sent toemphasize that anybody who wassick should stay home.

Adjusting policiesIn 2019, more than 33 million U.S.workers had no access to sick leave,federal data show. Many of them arefood and cleaning staff who are morelikely to get infected or be a vectorfor disease—and don’t have the op-tion of working from home.

The consequences of going intowork while sick can be huge when in-fectious diseases are involved. A re-port by the Institute for Women’sPolicy Research estimates that em-ployees who went to work while sickwith H1N1, also known as the swineflu, caused the infection of as manyas seven million co-workers in 2009.As the coronavirus outbreak inten-

sifies, companies from Walmart andTrader Joe’s to Darden RestaurantsInc., which operates roughly 860 Ol-ive Gardens in the U.S., are rolling outspecial sick-time benefits to theirworkers, who number in the millions.Trader Joe’s encouraged workers

to stay home if they are sick, sayingthose days wouldn’t come out of em-ployees’ paid sick-day bank. Themove isn’t a permanent change topolicy, the company says.Walmart Inc. says it is waiving its

attendance policy through the end ofApril, telling workers who are sick orfeel uncomfortable coming to work tostay home using their paid time off.Any employees required to quaran-tine, either by Walmart or a govern-ment agency, will receive up to twoweeks of pay. If a Walmart associatetests positive for coronavirus—as astore worker did in Cynthiana, Ky.,last week—that person will receive upto two weeks of pay. After that, ifthe employee can’t work, that personmay receive pay for up to 26 weeks,the company says.Darden, the Florida company that

runs Olive Garden and LongHornSteakhouse, says its 180,000 hourlyworkers would accrue one hour of

paid sick time for every 30 hoursworked. It is granting workers a bank ofpaid leave based on their most recent26 weeks worked, and the benefit canbe used immediately.

Different tiersPaid sick time breaks down along wagelines. Among workers with salaries thatput them in the top 10% of earners,93% have paid sick days, according toan analysis of federal data by the Eco-nomic Policy Institute. For people whoare in the bottom 10% of earners, thatfalls to 30%.Even among salaried workers, sick

policies can vary significantly. Roughly4% of U.S. private-sector workers withpaid sick time have an unlimited num-ber of days to use, federal data show.An additional 32% have days that canbe used for any purpose, which canmean making the choice between tak-ing a sick day or going on vacation; 65%are granted a fixed number of sick daysa year. And, with many white-collarworkers, time off can vary based on anemployee’s relationship with a manager.Employers are aware of the pitfalls of

their bespoke arrangements with work-ers, says Rich Fuerstenberg, senior part-ner at Mercer LLC, a consulting firm.Some have pushed to reduce variationsin how paid time-off policies get applied,but coronavirus is forcing them to evalu-ate situations individually, he says, andbuild in contingencies for emergencieslike this one.“One of the things that the coronavi-

rus response requires is to be, numberone, flexible—which is something thatcorporate America tends not to be verygood at,” Mr. Fuerstenberg says.Workers without paid sick days are

faced with a dilemma—go to work sick,or risk losing wages or even their job ifthey stay home—but some localitieshave tried to build a safety net.Eleven states and Washington, D.C.,

as well as 22 cities and counties, havelaws that require employers to giveworkers paid sick days, usually betweenfive and seven days a year, that accrueover time and can be used to recoverfrom an illness, care for a sick familymember or seek preventive medicalcare, according to the Center for Lawand Social Policy.Workers in Seattle, where Dick’s

Drive-In Restaurant operates a popularburger chain that employs 310 people,are covered by both city and state sick-time regulations. The company’s hourlyemployees are eligible for paid sickleave, and managers mandate thosefeeling ill to stay home, says JasmineDonovan, the company’s president.If employees use up their sick time,

they may also be able to tap into vaca-tion time or unemployment benefits ifthey are forced to quarantine, Ms. Dono-van says, adding that it remains unclear.“We’re charting that territory as we

speak,” she says.

Ms. Dill is a Wall Street Journalreporter in New York. She can bereached at kathryn.dill@wsj.com.Te-Ping Chen, Chip Cutter and HeatherHaddon contributed to this article.

enough cash on hand to be self-sufficientfor a few days under any circumstance, Ms.de Thomas says.Consumers also may prefer to pay with

digital wallets, such as Apple Pay or GooglePay, to avoid touching bills and coins duringthe outbreak.Most smartphones already come with

some form of a digital wallet already in-stalled, making the process easier.Most phones will allow you to enter your

credit- or debit-card details manually, ortake a photo of your card, and will automat-ically fill in the required information.

—Veronica Dagher

Ms. Dagher is the host of The Wall StreetJournal’s Secrets of Wealthy Womenpodcast. She can be reached atveronica.dagher@wsj.com.

BY KATHRYN DILL

AS THE NUMBER OF coronavirus cases in the U.S.continues to rise, anxiety is prompting some peopleto make emergency preparations for possible shut-downs. Besides stockpiling cleaning products andcanned goods, some might wonder if they shouldhave some extra cash on hand.After all, according to a 2019 study by the Federal

Reserve, cash continues to be used extensively forsmall-value purchases, representing nearly half ofall payments under $10, and 42% of payments lessthan $25.When it comes to cash, though, the virus fears

cut both ways: There are those who also worry thatthe cash itself could be a source for transmission.Experts say such fears are understandable—but

overblown.Though many transactions are now cashless, the

desire to hold more physical cash during a time ofcrisis may give some people a sense of control overthe situation, says Shelle Santana, a professor atHarvard Business School who researches the psy-chology of money. “Cash provides a certain level ofcontrol and certainty that digital and electronic pay-ments don’t,” she says.According to financial advisers, online outages at

financial companies such as Robinhood, Vanguardand Fidelity in recent weeks are also causing somepeople to feel disconnected to their savings.FR

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Still, while the coronavirusoutbreak is pressuring finan-cial markets and global growth,it isn’t currently expected toaffect banking operations theway natural disasters can.For those who seek the re-

assurance of paper money anyway, healthexperts say they need not be concerned thatthe money itself is dangerous.“I wouldn’t expect coronavirus to travel

far and wide on money,” says Emily Martin,an associate professor of epidemiology atthe University of Michigan School of PublicHealth.How much to withdraw is a personal

choice, financial advisers say. Meir Statman,a professor and behavioral-finance re-searcher at Santa Clara University in Cali-fornia, says the important thing is not topanic, because that can lead to bad financialdecisions.When one of Jennifer de Thomas’s cli-

ents expressed concern about havingenough cash at home because of coronavi-rus, the Portland, Ore., financial plannertold her she should have cash available, butnot because of the virus. Aim to have

Are You Safer CarryingMore Cash—or Less?

33million U.S.workershad noaccess to sickleave in 2019

As thecoronavirusspreads,Walmart andmany othercompanies arerolling outspecial sick-timebenefits toworkers.

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R12 | Friday, March 13, 2020 THEWALL STREET JOURNAL.

How One Family IsDealing With Life,DisruptedIn Hong Kong, theyface closed schools andfacilities, shortages ofsome necessities—anda small apartment

HONG KONG

Inever realized how much I en-joyed sending my children off toschool and going to work in themornings until I could no longerdo either.Hong Kong’s government

closed schools on Feb. 3 as thespread of the coronavirus was ac-celerating in mainland China, andthey have yet to reopen. The semi-autonomous city had fewer than 20confirmed cases in early February,but they were enough to trigger clo-sures of government offices, touristhot spots and many public facilities.Dow Jones, the parent company ofThe Wall Street Journal, followedgovernment advisories and closedits Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijingoffices for a month. Employeeswere told to work from home andavoid congregating.It is an experience many in the

U.S. are now facing, to one degreeor another: sudden school and of-fice closures, event cancellations,shortages of toilet paper and clean-

by the building’s managementOn the first day of virtual school,

I felt my stress level rising as mykids called out for me to help themas I tried to answer emails and mes-sages from work. “Leave them tome,” said my husband, a full-timedad, and I left the apartment to findan alternative venue. I texted a co-worker and asked if I could come toher flat to work. She obliged, thoughI felt like I was contravening officerules about working remotely andworried that I might unknowinglyinfect her if I caught the virus onthe subway en route to her home.As a stopgap measure, my com-

pany rented two small rooms in ahostel and set up screens and work-stations for staffers who couldn’twork from home. I spent severaldays there, before the rooms wereabruptly closed when Hong Kong’shealth authorities said there was aconfirmed coronavirus case in anearby building.I eventually found another loca-

tion—the studio apartment of an-

other co-worker who was out of thecountry. It was a quiet respite frommy home, but hunching over a smalllaptop and working in isolation fordays on end, with contact with co-workers limited to emails andphone calls, brought its own diffi-culties. Many, including myself,struggled with concentration andthe lack of face-to-face interactions.We organized several online groupmeetings so that people could shareexperiences and stay in touch witheach other.I also felt guilty that my spouse

was shouldering the burden of get-ting the children through theirschoolwork, so I stayed in somemornings to help. But trying to geta 5-year-old to sit in front of ascreen and watch his teacher talkfor more than 10 minutes is a chal-lenge in itself. One day, I let himpaint a picture while he listenedpassively to a 45-minute online mu-sic lesson (we turned off the iPadcamera so that the teacher couldn’tsee him).

Sticking to the familiarWith libraries, gyms, museums,theme parks and most sports facili-ties closed, in our leisure time wehave been going hiking, hanging outat the beach and cycling in the sun.We still eat at our favorite restau-rants on weekends. I carry handsanitizer and wipes everywhere, buthave accepted that I can’t keep allour hands clean all the time. (Mychildren have also refused to wearmasks, complaining they are un-comfortable.)We’ve had to make other adjust-

ments. When food and cleaningsupplies were in short supply in

stores last month, I bought a half-li-ter bottle of hand sanitizer from aneighbor who had stocked up on itduring a work trip in Finland. Myhusband went to the supermarketevery few days at its 8 a.m. openingtime to buy rice, toilet paper andwipes before panic buyers came andcleared the shelves. During this pe-riod, my second-grader had to use“scrounge” in a sentence for pho-nics class. He wrote: “I have toscrounge for T.P.!”(That turned into a delicate sub-

ject. I gave a few rolls of toilet pa-per to co-workers who were unableto buy them. One gave me Purellwipes that she had bought fromAmazon.com in return.)Dow Jones partially reopened its

Hong Kong and China offices at thebeginning of March, bringing back asense of normalcy for staffers. Em-ployees have to use a sign-up sheetto reserve spots, go through dailytemperature checks at the office re-ception, and wash or sanitize theirhands upon arrival.

The earliest date Hong Kongschools will reopen is April 20. Thecity likely has to go through at least14 days without a new coronavirusinfection before the governmentwill let students and teachers con-gregate again. That has yet to hap-pen; Hong Kong this week reportedmore than a dozen new infections,raising its total cases to around 130.Friends who lived in Hong Kongduring the 2003 SARS epidemicpredict that schools won’t reopenuntil the next academic year beginsin August. It is a prospect I dread,but we will probably go on doingwhat we’re doing.As our new normal has set in,

I’ve learned to appreciate the smallfreedoms we still have and how re-silient my children have been. I pre-viously had only a vague idea aboutwhat they were learning in school,and now I can see every detail ofevery lesson. Last week, the boyswrote poems, came up with allitera-tive sentences, sketched animals,and submitted math worksheetsand recordings of themselves read-ing to their teachers.A few days ago, my 7-year-old

figured out how to email me atwork during his virtual school day.“hi mom don’t forget to sendthings!” he wrote in a string ofemails, to which I replied withemojis and asked him to focus onhis lessons. At 3 p.m., the emailchain concluded with his last mes-sage: “END OF SCHOOL!!!1!1!!!!YAY!!!!”

Ms. Ng is The Wall Street Journal’sAsia finance editor in Hong Kong.She can be reached atserena.ng@wsj.com.

On the first day of virtual school, I felt my stress levelrising as my kids called out for me to help them as Itried to answer emails and messages fromwork.

BY SERENA NG

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ing supplies, and fears about beingexposed to the contagious respira-tory virus. Parents are worryingabout how they’ll manage child careand remote-work arrangements,and how long all this could last.And we are all learning that we willhave to be very adaptable for theforeseeable future.

Finding the spaceLiving under the new restrictionsmeant spending a lot of time athome—and making it serve as an of-fice and a school, as well as a livingspace. It wasn’t an ideal fit: a 650-square-foot, two-bedroom flat, acluttered space shared by two adults,two rambunctious boys and a cat.The children initially cheered

upon learning about the school clo-sures, thinking that meant an ex-tended holiday. We all sighed whenthe American international schoolmy sons attend said that virtual les-sons would be conducted over thecourse of each school day.There would be live teaching via

Google Hangouts, assignments thatstudents had to complete in settime frames, and online music, artand physical-education classes. Par-ents were told to download educa-tion and reading apps and weregiven links to folders with slide pre-sentations, video recordings, onlinemeetings and numerous worksheets.My sons—ages 5 and 7—couldn’t

take part in live lessons concur-rently from our singlefamily computer, so Iwent out and boughtan iPad and a printer.At the shop, a salesmansaid he had sold morethan a dozen printersthat same day “to peo-ple just like you, whohave kids that will beschooling at home.”Then there was the

question of workspace.With no space forstudy desks in the bed-rooms, the childrenhave been using thedining table, couch andcoffee tables for virtualschool lessons onweekdays.Initially, I thought I

could set up my worklaptop in a commonarea in my apartmentcomplex with tablesand chairs after clean-ing them with disin-fecting wipes—but thatvenue was also closed

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The dining table, couch and coffee table are virtual schoolrooms.

The author’s children initially cheered upon learning about Hong Kong’s school closures, thinking that meant an extended holiday. It didn’t work out that way.

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