3/26 Covid-19 Update: "Listen to the science. Do your part and take care of each other."
Hi all,
At the risk of sounding like a walking advertisement for Bill (I'm sure he really was in desperate need of my marketing assistance), just a heads up that he's going to be on Anderson Cooper tonight at 6pm PST // 9pm EST as part of CNN's Coronavirus Town Hall Series. Given how hard it is to get credible, evidence-based information from the US government right now (shoutout to Seattle NPR affiliate KUOW for no longer carrying the WH covid briefings on its airwaves), I continue to recommend seeking out information from reliable sources. When it comes to pandemic preparedness/response, I'm not sure there's a more reliable source than Bill Gates and I think you should watch if you can!
In related news (and also a sign that we are fully living in the upside down) - Steph Curry interviewed Anthony Fauci today ("a taste of what a White House briefing from the coronavirus task force would be like if only the doctor, not President Trump, answered questions" // "Barack Obama and Justin Bieber were among the approximately 50,000 people watching and commenting on the live chat. Obama posted a wave emoji and later thanked Curry and Fauci, adding, "Listen to the science. Do your part and take care of each other.")
Recommended Reading:
‘God Will Protect Us’: Coronavirus Spreads Through an Already Struggling Pakistan-- If the coronavirus spreads much further, Pakistan's entire health care system may melt down. In Karachi, a city of some 20 million people, there are only 600 intensive care beds, 1700 ventilators across the country, and last week, only 15,000 N95 masks
For those of you who like data, IHME released new models today: https://covid19.healthdata.org/ (there's some encouraging news there about how Washington state is actually flattening the curve). Less encouraging news for other parts of the country.
Inside the Story of How H-E-B Planned for the Pandemic: The grocer started communicating with Chinese counterparts in January and was running tabletop wargame simulations a few weeks later. (But nothing prepared it for the rush on toilet paper.)
NYC Rabbi 'Romi' Cohn, a Holocaust survivor, dies of coronavirus complications at 91: New York City Rabbi Avraham Hakohen "Romi" Cohn, who survived the Holocaust and saved dozens of families from the genocide, has died of complications from coronavirus.
Experts: Trump’s plan to lift coronavirus restrictions by Easter would kill hundreds of thousands: President Donald Trump's plan to lift coronavirus restrictions by Easter against the advice of medical experts would result in hundreds of thousands of additional deaths from the new coronavirus, according to a model epidemiologists built for The New York Times.
Things I saw today that made me feel better/less alone:
Cheers fill Atlanta's streets each night to praise medical professionals fighting the coronavirus
This incredible twitter sleuth who figured out why Triscuits are called Triscuits
Also, this cartoon (thanks Colleen) didn't exactly make me feel better, but it did make me feel less alone. :)
COVID-19 Poem of the Day:
Things
What happened is, we grew lonely
living among the things,
so we gave the clock a face,
the chair a back,
the table four stout legs
which will never suffer fatigue.
We fitted our shoes with tongues
as smooth as our own
and hung tongues inside bells
so we could listen
to their emotional language,
and because we loved graceful profiles
the pitcher received a lip,
the bottle a long, slender neck.
Even what was beyond us
was recast in our image,
the storm an eye,
the cave a mouth
so we could pass into safety.
-Lisel Mueller
---
I think I officially became the first person in America to run out of toilet paper last night. The situation has now been remedied. Thank you for your prayers.
Alison
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