4/15 Covid-19 Update: "Let's save the post office and write each other love letters"
I have two disappointing pieces of news. 1)Lindsay is the only person who commented on the (hilarious) Owl City/Postal Service joke in the last newsletter, so she is now my favorite friend and everyone else has been demoted. 2)I've tried really hard not to share any false/misleading information in this newsletter and be really careful about the sources that I point to, and today I have to issue a public retraction. Last week I told you that the City of Seattle was no longer issuing parking tickets during covid, and I can now tell you from personal experience that is not true. I regret the error, but rest assured that crusade against Seattle parking enforcement continues.
FAQs
Is it okay/safe to go to parks? I can tell you that this article comes with the endorsement of Harvard's top epidemiologist, and the short answer is yes. Maintain physical distancing, be courteous, be mindful of what you touch, but --- "The science could not be clearer: The benefits of getting outside vastly outweigh the risk of getting infected in a park. Study after study has shown that time spent in contact with nature has important and positive psychological effects" (plus the positive effects Vitamin D and fresh air have on our immune systems).
What happens if we start lifting social distancing policies and just let people slowly get infected/build up immunity before there's a vaccine? Sweden has been trying something similar, and it's not going great. The government there is now looking at adopting stricter measures, leading to a cycle of "start/stop" that is challenging for any economy to adjust to, and leading to increased burdens on its healthcare system.
Did Bill Gates develop coronavirus in the basement of the Gates Foundation? No. :)
Recommended reading:
Bill Gates’s efforts to fight coronavirus, explained - In case you're wondering what the Gates Foundation is actually doing to fight coronavirus (Tl;dr: better testing, developing drugs and vaccines, helping poor countries get ready for what's coming), this article has a good explanation. It also highlights some interesting/important critiques of the foundation's approach and influence. "From the top down, the official US government response has been slow, incompetent, and poorly suited to what was at stake...until the problems that produced this government response are fixed, I’m opposed to tearing down the philanthropic safety net that has been there to catch us when the Trump administration failed. But, it’s important that we target our accolades at the projects that actually are effective. We don’t want to uncritically praise or uncritically criticize — we want to ask questions, elevate the best projects, and assign credit where it’s due. Whatever the source of a large-scale response is, we should direct scrutiny at it."
The East Coast, Always in the Spotlight, Owes a Debt to the West -- “News in this country flows east to west, always has and always will, but political and cultural movements flow west to east,” said Averell Smith, a longtime Democratic strategist who worked in campaigns nationwide and grew up in San Francisco, where his father was the district attorney. The different responses that have been on display during these difficult weeks also illustrate the cultural, political and philosophical ways in which California, Washington and Oregon are distinct from the rest of the nation"
The Coronavirus Class Divide: Space and Privacy -- “Shelter in place” is a dictate that assumes the existence of shelter — the safe, stable, controlled environment that poor people often lack... “The pandemic is a reminder that privacy is at a premium among the poor — hard to find and extremely valuable,” said Stefanie DeLuca, a sociologist at Johns Hopkins University. “Living in crowded conditions not only increases the risk of infection but can also impose serious emotional and mental health costs. The ability to retreat into one’s own space is a way to cope with conflict, tension and anxiety.”
Things that made me feel better/less alone:
Dr. Anthony Fauci says he wants Brad Pitt to play him on SNL
"Let's save the post office and write each other love letters" - @summerbrennan
"Rita Wilson believes both she and Hanks are now immune, and both have donated blood to aid research for a vaccine. Wilson is also helping the MusicCares Covid-19 Relief Fund by recording a remix of Naughty By Nature's "Hip Hop Hooray."
Covid-19 Quote of the Day:
Frodo: I wish none of this had happened.
Gandalf: So do all who live to see such times but that is not for them to decide. All you have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to you.
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Last night's sunset from West Seattle. xoxo.
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