Pandemic
In Elemental. More on Medium.
Whether it becomes more or less deadly is the big question now
Someday, the Covid-19-causing coronavirus might be no more of a nuisance than the common cold, circulating seasonally and causing what’s known as an endemic disease that amounts to little more than sniffles in some children. That’s the most likely endgame, many experts have said. But it’s not inevitable. Meanwhile, the longer the SARS-CoV-2 virus is allowed to circulate willy-nilly, the more deaths and suffering are inevitable.
The steep rise in new cases shows no signs of peaking yet, says National Institutes of Health director Francis Collins. “Here we are with [the] delta variant, which is so contagious, and this heartbreaking…
A conversation with Stanford epidemiologist Steven Goodman on the perpetual pandemic
“We’re not done with this,” warns Stanford epidemiologist Steven Goodman about the Covid-19 pandemic. I believe my brother.
In March 2020, as the Covid-19 pandemic was spreading and lockdowns were being imposed, I asked Steven to join me on The Vermont Conversation, the radio show and podcast that I host, to share publicly what he was telling me privately about this novel virus.
While former President Trump assured us that the coronavirus would “miraculously go away” with the arrival of warm weather, Steven warned that what was coming would be “an impending catastrophe.” …
You aren’t lazy. You are suffering the aftershocks of pandemic stress.
There’s a kind of pleasant fatigue that comes from a day of physical activity — hiking, biking, swimming, running. But this? This isn’t it. You feel exhausted, overwhelmed, anxious and even depressed. The heaviness of your limbs is only second to a heaviness of mind, a feeling of alienation, of isolation. You might say you are tired, but in truth, you feel utterly drained; everything is an effort, a drag.
Usually, this cluster of symptoms would be diagnosed as burnout, and a regimen of self-care recommended: take some time off, stay home for a few days, do something nice for…
The hard-to-capture research is in: children’s birthdays were linked to higher infection rates in counties that already had more cases
Epidemiologists regularly warned of the risks of small group gatherings, particularly indoors, during the pandemic before vaccines were available. News stories about superspreader family events popped up now and then, and infectious disease experts warned that these small indoor gatherings were a substantial driver of infections.
But the evidence was limited because this phenomenon is an incredibly difficult one to study. It’s hard to know how many gatherings are happening, and people may not be forthcoming about having hosted or attended a gathering when local policies advised against it or outright forbade it.
Recently, a group of researchers figured out…
Simply put, they’re magic
Not to brag about being ahead of trends, but I started wearing a mask on airplanes four years ago, well before Covid even existed in humans. It’s not that I’m prescient. What happened is that winter after winter I had been struck down by bronchitis and sinus infections and even pneumonia, and I was worn out from it. As fall rolled around (the witching season, for my respiratory system) I decided I had to figure out a way to avoid getting sick. To make matters more urgent, I was about to leave on a twenty-city book tour, which meant flying…
The longer the wider world remains unvaccinated, the greater the risk that a devastating new variant will emerge
In a letter recently obtained by The Guardian newspaper, more than 100 former presidents and heads of state urged the leaders of the world’s wealthiest countries to do much more — to commit more money, in particular, but also more aid and resources — toward making and distributing vaccines across the globe.
“No one anywhere is safe from Covid-19 until everyone is safe everywhere,” the letter’s signatories wrote, according to The Guardian.
That’s not just lofty talk, and it’s not just a plea for the sake of the unvaccinated. That is cold reality.
Apart from the deadly threat that the…
Anyone need a 25-gallon drum of hand sanitizer?
Every era leaves behind its flotsam and jetsam—posters, buttons, Livestrong rubber bracelets, hot pants, leaflets, what-have-you. The Covid Era will be no different. In fact, it might be the most flotsam-y and jetsam-y of all eras, if the looks of my front hallway are any indication.
For most of us, the beginning of the pandemic was a shopping frenzy. First, when Covid was still a weird, distant flu that cropped up in a nursing home or two, I began buying cute cloth masks. This was an innocent moment when I was still self-conscious about wearing a mask and wanted to…
It will take time and patience to reemerge from the collective crisis of the pandemic with our mental and physical health intact
When I met Darren Sudman six years ago, at an event in Palm Springs, I didn’t expect that his story would be one that I would return to time and again as I began examining what makes us thrive and heal after difficult times.
Sudman introduced himself as a former lawyer and a founder of a nonprofit. In 2004, Sudman and his wife, Phyllis, experienced every parent’s worst nightmare: Their three-month-old son, Simon, was found motionless in his crib. …
Here’s what living with it feels like
You know the doctor’s appointment isn’t starting well when the nurse looks at the blood pressure cuff and frowns. “Did I put it too tight,” she asks, “Is your circulation all right?”
“Oh, I don’t know,” I reply absently. “I haven’t been able to feel that arm in a couple of days.” I show her the lump in my elbow and explain there’s one in my neck and one in my back. They’re everywhere, as a matter of fact. And those lumps mean one thing to me: no feeling, or if I’m lucky, pins and needles.
The evolutionary argument for happy hour
Did you find yourself drinking too much during Covid shutdown? You’re not alone. Well, metaphorically at least. From mid-March to mid-May 2020, during the initial phase of the pandemic, alcohol sales around the world skyrocketed, increasing anywhere from 40% to 60% over pre-pandemic levels, with distilled liquor sales increasing more rapidly than sales of wine and beer. Some analysts argued that this retail surge merely reflected a shift from drinking at bars and restaurants to imbibing at home, but this in itself is a serious concern.
That is because, even if we were not alone in drinking more or drinking…
Elemental
Your life, sourced by science. A publication from Medium about health and wellness.
