Writing about COVID-19

This guidance on writing about coronavirus and COVID-19 comes from the Associated Press. Italicized terms and phrases are used for emphasis here; in general, the terms should not be italicized.

• Coronavirus is not a proper noun and should not be capitalized (unless at the beginning of a sentence, of course).
• COVID-19 is the name of the disease caused by the coronavirus, so make sure that is how you treat it. All caps, hyphen, numbers.
• Do not refer simply to coronavirus without the article the. Not: She is concerned about coronavirus. But: She is concerned about the coronavirus. Omitting the is acceptable in uses such as: He said coronavirus concerns are increasing. (Because you are referring to the concerns, not the virus.)
• COVID-19, which stands for coronavirus disease 2019, is caused by a virus named SARS-CoV-2. When referring specifically to the virus, the COVID-19 virus and the virus that causes COVID- 19 are acceptable. But, because COVID-19 is the name of the disease, not the virus, it is not accurate to write a new virus called COVID-19.

Conferences

APA also released some guidelines about referencing conference presentations that were cancelled or changed to online formats.

If the conference was cancelled:

Author or authors. (Year, Month Dates). Title of presentation [Conference session]. Name of conference, City, State, Country. Link (Conference cancelled)

Boissy, A., Davis, C., & Montori, V. (2020, March 13–22). Keeping healthcare human in the digital era [Conference session]. SXSW Conference, Austin, TX, United States. https://schedule.sxsw.com/2020/events/PP98262 (Conference canceled)

If the conference was moved online only, reference these as normal. Include the original city so it is easier to identify. There is no need to mention that it was online only:

Author or authors. (Year, Month Dates). Title of presentation [Conference session]. Name of conference, City, State, Country. Link

Kullgren, K., Carter, B., Caplin, D., Ramirez, L., Williams, S., Marsac, M., Judd-Glossy, L., & Brown, M. (2020, March 19–-21). Pediatric psychology consultation: State of the art and future directions [Conference workshop]. Society of Pediatric Psychology Annual Conference, Dallas, TX, United States. https://societyofpediatricpsychology.org/node/726

If the conference occurs, either in-person or online only, but you cannot attend or present:

Author or authors. (Year, Month Dates). Title of presentation [Poster session cancelled]. Name of conference, City, State [if applicable], Country. Link

Akamine, A. H. (2019, June 10–15). Immunopathology lab work [Poster session canceled]. 24th World Congress of Dermatology, Milan, Italy. https://www.wcd2019milan-dl.org/news-from- wcd2019/wcd-final-programme-WEB.pdf

If the conference is postponed, then simply revise the dates and reference as normal.