The COVID-19 pandemic has, among other things, made me aware of how effective not being on social media is at keeping one insulated from what is going on around the world. This is normally a good thing for original thinking and deep work, but in this pandemic I think there are strong reasons to stay up to date as the situation rapidly evolves.

How to do this? News outlets are prone to hype and sensationalism1 without going into much detail and social media is full of uninformed opinions, so subscribing to BBC and going back on Facebook will not provide the whole picture.

My best answer is informed individuals, who can filter and curate the data they are seeing in their fields. For example, speaking to my friends in the the NHS2 has been very informative about the situation at the frontlines. But this is only part of the picture - what about public health, epidemiology, economics, politics? I don’t know anyone working in these fields personally.

Then I heard Tyler Cowen say recently on the Tim Ferriss Show:

The returns on investment of knowing how to build a good Twitter feed are very high right now.

I think that makes a lot of sense - I don’t know of any other network that lets you connect with people in a professional capacity in the same way, and many of these professionals tweet their professional opinions. The replies and retweets are also a good way to get acquainted with the different points of view on a topic.

So, after a few weeks of trawling the networks of legit3 people I know of by recursively-twitter-trawling4 their follows and retweets, I’ve found a growing number of individuals who seem to report accurate data and opinions on the various facets of this global crisis, and made a list.

I’ll be updating it as I go along. So far, it has been a good source of updates, and almost entirely free of hype and sensationalism, and keeps me informed. Let me know any suggested edits.

Footnotes:

  1. I’ve been watching Boris Johnson’s daily briefings and taking my own notes, then comparing them against what BBC, Sky, Guardian headlines and articles say and the difference can be striking. ↩

  2. Just to state what I hope is obvious to everyone by this point: these highly altruistic people (and their counterparts in healthcare worldwide) are risking their lives for complete strangers by working non-stop, wearing little to no protection, to do everything they possibly can for anyone who comes in. Do your part to help them and stay home. If you want to help further, see the COVID-19 List. ↩

  3. Based on my hype/bullshit detector. Exercise good judgement and high levels of skepticism before believing anything you read: do background research, find primary sources, corroborate with informed third parties. ↩

  4. I hope I’m the first to come up with this phrase. ↩

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