Related: How newsrooms can tone down their coronavirus coverage while still reporting responsibly

Go to the source.

News that Vice President Mike Pence has been put in charge of the official U.S. response to the coronavirus concerned Caplan.

“I think there should be scientists and doctors vetting Pence, not the other way around,” he said.

But the government institutions themselves haven’t politicized the issue, Linden said. As with Ebola, Dr. Yasmin said, one basic way to get sound information holds up. Namely — Go directly to the institutions devoted to the issue.

Caplan agreed, “but I would try to get information from more than one source.”

Those government and professional sources include:

Caplan also recommended checking your local universities or academic health centers for information that’s relevant to where you live. Many have shared information about the coronavirus. Some examples:

Be skeptical of what you read online using a few simple tricks.

You know the stories you see on Facebook that look outrageous and super clickable and are from outlets you’ve never heard of before? You can still read them, but you can also be skeptical of what you see with a few questions from IFCN’s Tardáguila.

– Does the headline match the article itself?

“When the headline doesn’t match, it means it’s just catching you,” she said. “There’s no content there. It wants your click but there’s no reliable information.”

Yep, that’s clickbait. We all fall for it.

–What date was the article published? People share quickly and don’t always see if the story they’re sharing is old and still holds up. Look at that timestamp.

– Who wrote it? If you’re not familiar with the author’s work, Google them, Tardáguila said. Do they usually write about this topic? In the case of the coronavirus, is this person a health reporter? What else have they written about the subject?

– Look for signs of sensationalism. Journalists who write hard news don’t deal much with exclamation points.

“We try hard to narrate, we try to go to facts. We don’t put qualities on it,” Tardáguila said. “Exclamation marks are people screaming. So if you find those, be aware.”

– Are they quoting reliable sources? Just like you’d check the author’s byline, look up their sources. Do they hold up?

–Follow the hyperlinks. Assuming the piece links out, where does it take you? If it leads to the information mentioned in the link, and if that source is solid, that’s a good indicator. It should not lead to an ad or something unrelated.

– Do the numbers hold up? Tardáguila wants to see numbers and percentages together. Why? You need context. If something is 100% bigger, you need to know if that means it just went from one to two.

– Consider historical data. With coronavirus, knowing how many cases there are this month compared with last is useful information. Look for data that adds context and helps you understand something.

“If you can find that information in an article, you’re probably looking at a good piece,” Tardáguila said.