COVID-19 is a highly contagious and potentially deadly disease that has spread rapidly around the world since its discovery in December 2019‎. While most people infected with COVID-19 experience no symptoms or mild to moderate respiratory symptoms, older individuals or those with underlying conditions such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, or chronic respiratory illness in particular face an elevated risk of more serious complications or even death. COVID-19 was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization in March 2020, and as of July 2020 there have been over 10 million confirmed cases and half a million deaths recorded worldwide.

This pandemic is the greatest public health crisis of the 21st century, and it is especially important to learn about because there remains much we do not yet know about this disease. For example, while we know that COVID-19 is a novel type of coronavirus - a family of viruses affecting humans as well as animals that includes the common cold - we do not fully understand what makes its symptoms so unusual. And, while we know that the main way the virus is transmitted is through droplets of saliva, there is still much we need to learn about how community spread occurs.

Unless and until an effective vaccine is discovered,‎ it will be critical for everybody to continue learning about how to reduce the spread of the COVID-19. To the extent that there have been successes in “flattening the curve” of transmission, they have been the result of individuals around the world collectively taking action in accordance with evolving public health knowledge of this unprecedented pandemic. This ongoing process of learning - and the accompanying fight against the spread of misinformation about the virus - will remain essential to protecting life for the foreseeable future.

Mounting an effective response to COVID-19 isn't just a job for doctors treating patients on the front lines, or for scientists working to develop a vaccine. Because the steps required to manage the spread of this highly contagious disease touch on so many aspects of our lives, an understanding of COVID-19 is important for professionals across a diverse range of fields. Policymakers have to balance public health protections with potential concerns about impacts on the economy and civil liberties; logistics and operations managers have had to maintain essential supply chains while implementing new safety protocols; and educators have had to transition to online learning while also determining whether, when, and how to return to in-person schooling.

Outside of doctors themselves, epidemiologists have been perhaps the most important health professionals helping to navigate our response to the pandemic. These public health experts, including high profile officials such as Dr. Anthony Fauci of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, study the way diseases ‎spread and help develop solutions to mitigate their impacts. Because health statistics are central to epidemiology, these professionals often rely on Python programming and other data science tools to uncover patterns and assist with data analysis. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, epidemiologists typically have a masters degree in public health and earn a median annual salary of $70,990.

Absolutely. The pandemic has made online education more important in all areas, and Coursera now offers a variety of courses on COVID-19 to help learners from all backgrounds better understand this disease. These include courses on topics such as COVID-19 clinical studies, contact tracing, mental health, and more offered by top-ranked universities such as Johns Hopkins University, the University of Houston, the University of Florida, and Imperial College London.

If you’re interested in data science, Coursera also offers Guided Projects with hands-on tutorials to demonstrate how data analysis is used in epidemiology. And, if you aspire to a career in epidemiology or public health yourself, you can even pursue a full-fledged Master of Public Health (MPH) degree from Imperial College London, a leading institution in global efforts to understand this pandemic.