Wednesday, May 13, 2020

COVID-19 CONVERSATIONS WITH APHA AND NAM


American Public Health Association and National Academy of Medicine present a series of webinars called "COVID-10 Conversatons: Responding to COVID-19, A Science Based Approach."

https://covid19conversations.org


At this website you can watch these webinars in real time and eventually access past webinars. 
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WHAT'S IN A WORD? THREE TERMS YOU NEED TO KNOW!

Isolation.  Quarantine.  Community Containment.

What do these terms mean?  

Here's a link to an article in the British Journal of Travel Medicine published by Oxford Academic Press. 

https://academic.oup.com/jtm/article/27/2/taaa020/5735321

This table from that article discusses these terms. It's wider than the page of this blog but I think its importance justifies this!   

To see it all, please scroll sideways, back and forth! 




CDC REOPENING PLAN -- A PARTIAL LEAK?

PLEASE NOTE:  More recent "Reopening Plans" and "Guidances" are on this Blog.  Check them out! 

See, for instance,  
https://joanscovid19blog.blogspot.com/2020/05/reopening-plans-update.html 

and

https://joanscovid19blog.blogspot.com/2020/05/cdc-guidance-of-may-14-2020.html


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first printed here on May 11, 2020  The efforts of the Trump administration to bury the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report which was to be published on May 3, 2020 is discussed in this story published on May 6.   This article includes a copy of that plan.

https://apnews.com/7a00d5fba3249e573d2ead4bd323a4d4

In that article you will find this detailed reopening chart:
https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/6883736/CDC-documents.pdf


Also see the this CDC Interim Report referenced in the above article:  

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6883734-CDC-Business-Plans.html

To print (or save) follow these instructions:
To print the document, click the "Original Document" link to open the
original PDF. At this time it is not possible to print the document with
annotations.

Here is a link for the White House "Opening Up American Again" referenced in the AP News article above.  It was published a month earlier but, as the AP article notes, was less detailed.  
https://www.whitehouse.gov/openingamerica/

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THE U.S. CORONAVIRUS WEBSITE


The U. S. Coronavirus website sponsored by the CDC, FEMA and the White House, offers information on How to Prepare and Protect Yourself,  What to Do if You Think You Are Sick, and links to other resources:   www.coronavirus.gov

Tuesday, May 12, 2020

PUBLIC CITIZEN ON COVID-19

PUBLIC CITIZEN, A PERENNIAL SOURCE OF SOUND INFORMATION (WHERE I WAS PROUD TO WORK MANY YEARS AGO), OFFERS AN AWESOME ARRAY OF ARTICLES ON MANY ASPECTS OF COVID-19.  THE LINK BELOW IS DEFINITELY WORTH A LOOK!
  https://www.citizen.org/?s=Covid  

A LIMERICK FOR MY COVID-19-BURDENED BIRTHDAY

THANK YOU, LOYAL READER, FOR THIS GRAPHIC! 

May 12, 2020

The unceasing news of a virus, 
Is sure to do nothing but tire us.  
But if we're not grouchy, 
And listen to Fauci, 
I'm certain the world will admire us!

Sunday, May 10, 2020

A POETIC TRIBUTE TO GOVERNOR CUOMO

Although I live in Illinois, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo's daily TV talks give me the incentive to get through another day in self-isolation.   Sir Walter Scott's poem "Lochinvar" is one of my favorites, so this is for you, Governor Cuomo!  (And please see another vote of thanks to Governor Cuomo at: https://joanscovid19blog.blogspot.com/2020/05/another-vote-of-thanks-to-governor-cuomo.html)


With Apologies to Sir Walter Scott

Oh Governor Cuomo came out of the East, 
Preparing to slaughter the cruel COVID beast,
And save for his microphone, weapons had none —
He spoke off the cuff, his language was tough, 
For letting us know, where our country should go - 
There ne'er was the like of Andrew Cuomo!   

He didn’t pull punches, He gave facts with verve, 
He showed the crowd how they had flattened the curve!
But the President watching, became made as hell,
Because he could never give speeches so well! 
And Ivanka was thinking: “‘t'were better I know, 
To have dumped feckless Jared for Andrew Cuomo!”

Parody (c) 2020 Joan D. Levin
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The above verse was inspired by one of my favorite poems.  Here are a few verses from the original by Sir Walter Scott.  

Read it all at: 
O young Lochinvar is come out of the west, 
Through all the wide Border his steed was the best; 
And save his good broadsword he weapons had none, 
He rode all unarm’d, and he rode all alone. 
So faithful in love, and so dauntless in war, 
There never was knight like the young Lochinvar. 
————————
So stately his form, and so lovely her face, 
That never a hall such a galliard did grace; 
While her mother did fret, and her father did fume, 
And the bridegroom stood dangling his bonnet and plume; 
And the bride-maidens whisper’d, “’twere better by far 
To have match’d our fair cousin with young Lochinvar.” 

Sir Walter Scott








Thursday, May 7, 2020

ILLINOIS PIRG URGES ACTION!

Visit the Illinois PIRG (Public Interest Research Group) website to see the great work they are doing!  https://illinoispirg.org/    

At the "Issues" tab, click on COVID-19 which will take you to U. S. PIRG for things you can do during this COVID-19 crisis.  
https://uspirg.org/feature/usp/responding-crisis.

Scroll down to learn more, and take action, on COVID-19 related issues, including Comprehensive Testing, Emergency Election Procedures, Safe Reopening, Protecting Consumer Credit, Stopping Bad Bailouts, and ideas for things kids can do at home!

These are all things you can learn and do while sheltering in place that will make a difference!  


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FROM JOHNS HOPKINS SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH


An informative website from Johns Hopkins School of Public Health (my public health alma mater):     https://www.jhsph.edu/covid-19/

Also, listen to (or read transcripts of) lectures by Johns Hopkins Public Health Faculty:
http://bit.ly/publichealthoncall

A wealth of information while you are sheltering in place!  

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Wednesday, May 6, 2020

GOVERNOR PRITZKER ANNNOUNCES PLAN FOR ILLINOIS

On Tuesday, May 5, 2020, Illinois Governor J.B Pritzker announced a Five Phase Plan to reopen Illinois.  Read it here:

https://coronavirus.illinois.gov/sfc/servlet.shepherd/document/download/069t000000BadS0AAJ?operationContext=S1

This chart is included in that plan. 




Keep up-to-date at: https://coronavirus.illinois.gov/s/
  
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Monday, May 4, 2020

VIEWING LIFE WITH COVID-19 THROUGH THE MYERS-BRIGGS LENS

THIS POST DRAWS HEAVILY ON MY EXPERIENCE AS A QUALIFIED USER OF THE MYERS-BRIGGS TYPE INDICATOR WHICH I USED TO TEACH AS PART OF A U.S.OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT TRAINING TEAM.  It is not intended diagnose or treat anything for anyone.  It is simply an account of my impressions formed over many months of living in the shadow of COVID-19.

More information about Myers-Briggs products and services -- protected by copyright -- maybe found here: 

https://www.themyersbriggs.com/en-us/products-and-services/myers-briggs


There are many sources of information about this instrument online.  For convenience, here is one, with descriptions of the sixteen Myers-Briggs type about the sixteen Myers-Briggs types: 

https://www.verywellmind.com/the-myers-briggs-type-indicator-2795583

Information on my type, ENTP, may also be found at many sources, including: 
https://www.verywellmind.com/the-entp-personality-type-and-characteristics-2795982

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For over two years as of this writing I have been living a mostly solitary life.  

First as a result of the medically-caused fractures discussed elsewhere in this blog, and, more recently and more drastically, as a result of the restrictions entailed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

I live in a high rise apartment, which has  (wisely in my opinion) taken many preventive steps to protect residents from this virus.  These include strictly limiting elevator access to building staff and emergency personnel.  Which means that no visitors may access my apartment. 

But even before that, as a result of these fractures, I had been quite limited by pain when sitting or standing in what I could do. And now, except for occasional telephone calls with friends, and rare telephone calls with family, the only human beings with whom I have regular contact are the staff of this building with whom I exchange pleasantries when I get the mail and cab drivers and health care  personnel during the course of routine medical and dental visits.

As a Myers-Briggs E (which stands for Extraversion) I am energized by relationship with others, which include conversations, and the give and take of routine interactions.  But none of this is possible on a regular basis  now. 

Right now may conversations are many with a few stuffed animals, characters in my fantasies, and TV personalities.  

(to be continued)   

Saturday, May 2, 2020

DJT WELCOMES A GUEST

Come in, COVID-19!  Make yourself at home
While I look for my big boy pants! 


(Joan's original montage, also posted at:

www.joanspix.com

Friday, May 1, 2020

IMMUNE RESPONSE AND COVID-19: TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING?

Are the undesirable reactions to COVID-19 the result of immune response?  

Here is an interesting article from the medical school at University of Southern California (USC) dated May 1, 2020.   

https://keck.usc.edu/timing-of-immune-response-to-covid-19-may-contribute-to-disease-severity/

The cited study raises an intriguing question as to whether temporarily suppressing immune response might be protective.  

JAMA COVID-19 RESOURCE

JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) now has a COVID-19 resource at:
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/pages/coronavirus-alert
(I have not explored this yet but plan to do so soon.)

HOW ANOTHER PRESIDENT RESPONDED IN SIMILAR CIRCUMSTANCES




The following lines are from an article about the role of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt -- himself disabled by polio -- in helping to conquer this scourge.   

The remainder of this article, published on April 12, 2020 (the anniversary of Roosevelt's death), is in the website below.  It is well worth reading and considering!  

"No president can end an epidemic single handedly, but they can inspire a popular movement that eradicates a disease. Such was the case with Franklin Roosevelt and polio.

Seventy-five years ago, on April 12, 1945, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and died at the “Little White House” in Warm Springs, Georgia. His administration’s achievements, such as Social Security and unemployment relief, are woven into the fabric of American government. Pundits still measure new presidents against FDR’s First Hundred Days, and present-day politicians slap the “New Deal” label on ambitious agendas. Donald Trump, like FDR a wealthy New Yorker presiding over turbulent economic times, has recently cast himself as a “wartime president” in his predecessor’s mold."

Read the remainder of this History News Network article here: 
https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/174983

EXERCISE IMPORTANT IN TIME OF COVID-19

READ ARTICLE AT:  https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/986761?src=WNL_trdalrt_pos1_230111&uac=327196BT&impID=5079424 IT IS PASTED BE...