We have formed an Emergency Response Task Group to monitor the situation regarding the spread of COVID-19 and its consequences. This statement outlines our response in several key areas and provides links to important information on the novel coronavirus:

FEMS subscribes to the Wellcome Statements on the novel COVID-19 virus and will make all research in our journals related to the COVID-19 outbreak fully Open Access. This event has the potential to show the value and impact of scientific collaboration.

Updated: For the safety and welfare of our attendees and staff during the SARS-CoV2/COVID-19 pandemic, FEMS has cancelled all physical events in 2020 and 2021. All FEMS events to be held in 2022 are currently scheduled to go ahead as planned, following an assessment of circumstances and risks involved. The safety and welfare of our attendees and staff  is our top priority. Consequently, FEMS will continue to review the advice and information from the relevant professional and governmental bodies who are monitoring the situation and update participants regularly.

FEMS will follow all government, World Health Organization (WHO) and National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) recommendations on the potential impact of COVID-19 on international events.

For more Q&A see the RIVM and the FEMS expert update on SARS-CoV2 and COVID-19.

COVID-19 obliges everyone to be responsible and to be cautious. We welcome, encourage and support the scientific collaboration that is working to manage this difficult situation.

Further resources:

World Health Organization (WHO) dashboard for tracking COVID-19 cases 

John Hopkins University (JHU) dashboard for tracking COVID-19 cases

All expert reactions to the COVID-19 outbreak from the Science Media Centre UK: https://www.sciencemediacentre.org/tag/covid-19/

All expert reactions to the COVID-19 outbreak from the Science Media Center Germany (in German): https://www.sciencemediacenter.de/alle-angebote/coronavirus/

Research:

• Our journal, Pathogens and Disease, has published a priority paper on coronaviruses (including SARS-CoV2) from a range of experts in response to the outbreak: Coronaviruses: a paradigm of new emerging zoonotic diseases
• Free access to OUP publications on novel coronavirus and COVID-19: https://academic.oup.com/journals/pages/coronavirus
• Free access to Springer-Nature publications on novel coronavirus and COVID-19: https://www.springernature.com/gp/researchers/campaigns/coronavirus
• Free access to Elsevier resources on the novel coronavirus and COVID-19: https://www.elsevier.com/connect/coronavirus-information-center
• LitCovid is a is a curated literature hub for tracking scientific information about COVID-19: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/research/coronavirus/
• The Lancet COVID-19 Resource Centre: https://www.thelancet.com/coronavirus
• Free to access FEMS Journals research on coronaviruses can be accessed via this link: http://bit.ly/2UdD6Jq
• The Microbiology Society (UK and Ireland), have put together this collection of free to access research on coronaviruses: http://microb.io/2O2AsC2
• Information from the Gesellschaft für Virologie e.V. (Society for Virology, German-speaking regions) on 2019-nCoV coronavirus (in German): https://www.g-f-v.org/node/1232
• Information from the Sociedad Española De Virología (Spanish Society of Virology, Spain) on the 2019-nCoV coronavirus outbreak (in Spanish): http://sevirologia.es/prensa/