This semester I’ll be learning about Covid-19 from the world’s foremost experts. The MIT course COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, and the Pandemic is open to MIT students (who get to ask questions) and the general public (who don’t).

I just watched the live version of the first lecture in the course, by Bruce Walker — physician-scientist and professor at both MIT and Harvard. It is a mar­vel­ously compact introduction to the disease, its origins, its operation, the body’s immune response, therapies, and vaccines, all condensed into 45 min­utes. Dr. Walker mentioned research papers that came out yesterday.

Other lectures in the series will feature Michael Mina, whom we have met before here, and Anthony Faucci. The lectures are available online once completed. Here is the first one: Sept. 1.

The outline for the semester is below. I learned about the course from Jason Kottke — just about 30 minutes before the first lecture began.