4/16 Covid-19 Update: "Starting here, what do you want to remember?"
Some good news today! Many of you have now responded to the Owl City joke and have risen back into the ranks of my top friends (and shout out to Colin who liked the Bono joke)! Turns out the fastest way to my heart is being entertained by the same nonsense twitter content that I am! Bless you all. In that spirit, I'm going to try to start out with some uplifting links.
Recommended viewing:
If you haven't watched Andrea Bocelli singing in an empty Duomo in Milan on Easter, do yourself a favor and find 20 minutes to watch it. It's one of the most moving things I've seen/listened to in a really long time. His version of Amazing Grace out on the steps at the end...
"On the day we celebrate the trust in a life that triumphs, I'm honored and happy to answer 'si,' " Bocelli said. "Thanks to music, streamed live, bringing together millions of clasped hands everywhere in the world, we will hug this wounded Earth's pulsing heart."
John Krasinki's "Some Good News" episode 3 (for any of you weirdos who like baseball, I think you'll like this one). He's also going to be DJ'ing a virtual prom for high schoolers tomorrow night.
Disney is hosting a family singalong on ABC tonight. I think I'm most excited for Darren Criss's version of "I Wanna Be Like You."
Lady Gaga is co-hosting "One World: Together At Home" on Saturday with Global Citizen, and it has quite the lineup. It could be great, it could be terrible. But you can tell your grandkids you witnessed it either way (sidenote: Prince refused to participate in "We Are the World" in 1985 and continues to inspire, even in death: “He felt like the song was horrible...And he didn’t want to be around ‘all those muthaf—kas.”
Recommended reading:
Obesity Linked to Severe Coronavirus Disease, Especially for Younger Patients: "(The research is preliminary, and not peer reviewed) but it buttresses anecdotal reports from doctors who say they have been struck by how many seriously ill younger patients of theirs with obesity are otherwise healthy. “Obesity is more important for hospitalization than whether you have high blood pressure or diabetes, though these often go together, and it’s more important than coronary disease or cancer or kidney disease, or even pulmonary disease,” said Dr. Leora Horwitz, the paper’s senior author and director of the Center for Healthcare Innovation and Delivery Science at NYU Langone.Obesity also appears to be a factor for higher risk of death from Covid-19, though to a lesser degree, Dr. Horwitz said."
Long Before COVID-19, Dr. Anthony Fauci 'Changed Medicine In America Forever'"At the height of the AIDS epidemic, Dr. Anthony Fauci worked with activists to implement a policy shift that increased the number of patients who had access to experimental HIV/AIDS treatments - and saved countless lives."
Universities begin considering the possibility of canceling in-person classes until 2021I keep thinking back to the advice Bill Gates gave in the New England Journal of Medicine in February - "hope for the best, prepare for the worst." I know it's not fun to consider worst case scenarios, but given the likelihood that the situation we're in now goes on for some time, I don't think it hurts us to start confronting the reality of what that might look like.
Putin’s Long War Against American Science: If you're looking for someone to be mad at this week and you've temporarily exhausted your anger toward Trump, might I suggest redirecting it toward Vladimir Putin? Also, if you or someone you know is tempted to direct that anger toward the WHO or Bill Gates, please call me so I can tell you why that's a bad idea. :) "A decade of health disinformation promoted by President Vladimir Putin of Russia has sown wide confusion, hurt major institutions and encouraged the spread of deadly illnesses."
Things that made me feel better/less alone
"As parts of your life slip beyond your reach, know those parts don't define you. You aren't your work. You aren't what you own or where you live. You aren't even your relationships. Don't think for a minute that your you-ness has slipped away, too. You're right here. Keep moving." -Maggie Smith
This next joke is going to speak to the rare individual who is compulsively following Andrew Cuomo's (poetic) press conferences and also deeply familiar with mid 2000s rap. If that is you, please identify yourself so you can claim your status as my new favorite person.
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Covid-19 Poem of the Day
You Reading This, Be Ready
Starting here, what do you want to remember?
How sunlight creeps along a shining floor?
What scent of old wood hovers, what softened
sound from outside fills the air?
Will you ever bring a better gift for the world
than the breathing respect that you carry
wherever you go right now? Are you waiting
for time to show you some better thoughts?
When you turn around, starting here, lift this
new glimpse that you found; carry into evening
all that you want from this day. This interval you spent
reading or hearing this, keep it for life.
What can anyone give you greater than now,
starting here, right in this room, when you turn around?
– William Stafford
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Last night's sunset from Boulevard Park in Bellingham. Sending love.
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