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This info was accurate at press time, and were continuing to update ourcoronaviruscoverage as we learn more.

Humans crave social interaction but a coronavirus quarantine isnt exactly the best way to cater to thator is it? Experts note that during this time of social distancing and staying in, you dont have to let your relationships fizzle. There are many ways in which you can keep up connections with your friends and family. It just might require a little bit of creativity.

Its important to our health, well-being and stress levels that we dont confuse the necessary physical distancing with social isolation, explains Sally Anne Carroll, a life and career reinvention coach, Portland, Oregon. We all need each other and maintaining our social connections as much as we can is a must to functioning well through this crisis.

Here are 40 suggestions on how to keep the party goingsafelywhile doing your part to help contain the virus.

1. Stay in contact: Social distancing, says Heather Cosimin, an associate professor of psychology at the College of Arts & Sciences at Johnson & Wales University, doesnt mean you should cut yourself off. Continue to connect with friends and loved ones by text, email and phone, she adds.

Related:Love in the Time of Coronavirus6 Tips to Protect Your Marriage While Quarantined

2. Celebrate milestones with a virtual hangout: My friend, Matt Bordofsky, turned 42 today and approximately 29 friends (and their dogs) showed up via Zoom to celebrate with him, says Keren Poznansky, a publicist in Los Angeles. She noted that this celebration brought together friends from all across the globe the furthest person was from Lithuania. The party, says Poznansky, started at 8:30 p.m. We poured some drinks and toasted the birthday boy. We made each other laugh by putting up our favorite vintage photos of the man of the hour as backgrounds from the 80s, 90s, etc. We all sang happy birthday and he blew out the candles on his Commissioner Gordon Batman 89 cake, she shares. Matt made a speech, he thanked everyone for coming, we all cheered and it ended around 9 p.m.

3. Keep up with your workout buddy: Workout with friends, suggests Stephanie Newman, PhD, a psychologist, psychoanalyst and author of Barbarians at the PTA. If solitary exercise is a downer, set up a common time to practice yoga or cardio by videoconference, she says.

4. Share a toast with a virtual happy hour: To keep up with her network, Renee Paczkowski, an administrative assistant in Troy, Michigan, is meeting up with friends for scheduled virtual happy hours. Two of my friends and I used to regularly go to trivia or local breweries, but hadnt had the chance to lately because life got too busy. And, as all of us are working at home to some extent, and its not possible to go out, I suggested that we have a virtual happy hour over either FaceTime (we all have iPhones) or Hangout, she says. The first one is scheduled for Friday and for Packowski, the drink of choice will be whiskey.

Related: Here Are All the Distilleries Making Hand Sanitizer Instead of Booze

5. Be extra neighborly: Connect with neighbors by bringing lunch or dinner to the bottom of your driveway, your porch, deck or other safe distance location and waving to each other, recommends Carroll. She says that while many of our neighborhoods look like ghost towns, it can be comforting to know we are all here, making the best of a difficult situation and reducing the feeling of isolation.

6. Teach each other a new skill: Sarah Agajanian, an artist in Los Angeles, recently logged onto FaceTime to have her pal, Michele Hodeda, led her in a cooking class. She taught me how to make mushrooms and walnut tacos. Shes an amazing cook. And it was such a cool experience! she says, joking that while the chef prepared to teach, the student watched and jump roped in her parking garage. It really made time go by quickly an truthfully felt like a full blown hangout session, adds Agajanian.

7. Volunteer from afar: If youre looking for ways to give back while getting involved with others, Newman suggests starting challenges with friends. Identify those in need and raise money.Or start a movement: Drive traffic to a Facebook page or social sites set up to thank first responders of healthcare professionals, she says. Newman adds that this can be a great time to send a little love those who are on the front lines of fighting the coronavirus. Each person can take a photo or film a round of applause with a message of thanks and pass it on.Its clich but helping someone else makes us feel good, she explains.

Related:Deep BreathsHow to Stay Happy and Avoid Coronavirus Anxiety When Social Distancing

8. Take weekly meetups into the virtual world: My choir teacher Greg Delson leads a community choir where we meet every Tuesday and we had our first virtual choir session this week. We decided its still a nice way for our community to stay connected and do the thing we love mostsing! says Tanya Khani, aka the Soulful Publicist. She adds that shes also been popping in on her teachers virtual sing alongs/variety show for the past two nights and sang with him. It was soul nourishing, she reveals.

9. Swap some stories with an online community: To get through the solitude of the coronavirus lockdown, Jennifer Brody, author of The Continuum Trilogy, is turning to the support of her online authors group, BookPod. We have a newsletter and ongoing community. We may start some virtual workshops too during this time. Its become a real support, she says.

10. Meet up for an almost in-person meal: My mom, brother and I all got into separate cars and parked in a deserted lot by the beach to have a picnic! We were able to wave, see each other, and talk (kind of) face-to-face, says Southern California-based musician, Ariana Savalas. She jokes that during this time while she dined on chips and soda, the dogs were confused, but at least it was something!

11. Make some fun future plans with pals: You arent jetting off to Europe anytime soon but why not put together your dream trip with your favorite travel buddies. Planning travel or local outings that you want to do together when the crisis is over is a great way to tap into anticipation and positive emotion, says Carroll. Dream up which restaurants you will dine at and what you will eat, the essential landmarks to see, and all of the excursions that you want to embark upon while you are out of town. The trip will be waiting for you when the coronavirus pandemic dies down.

12. Engage your kids: Ive been organizing FaceTime play dates with my daughters friends, says Paula Hoss, founder and CEO of Cln & Dirty Natural Skincare. Each day, she says, her kids are treated to a surprise call with a friend or family member. They get three clues as to who it is and theyve loved guessing who is up next.

Related:20+ Best Food Delivery Apps to Get You Through the Coronavirus Pandemic

13. Honor your monthly book club: Youvefinallyread the book and this months group got canceled. Now what?Slip into your cozy slippers and host it online, says Ellen Wasyl, an executive life coach at Priv-Swiss Wellnessin Connecticut. She suggests using a platform like Zoom, Google Hangout or Skype to arrange the meetup. And this is a great way to discuss something other than the coronavirus.

14. Reacquaint yourself with good some old-fashioned letter writing: Giving and receiving, yes please! If you dont have the materials on hand or cant get out to the post office for stamps and mailing, there are online options, says Wasyl. Her personal favorites? Postableand Greetabl.

15. Rediscover your connections from the past. Call your long-lost cousins, friends, coworkers, colleagues, classmates who have been on the back burner of your life for a few years. Have reunions! Someone will be glad to hear from you, says Val Walker, author of 400 FRIENDS AND NO ONE TO CALL: Breaking Through Isolation and Building Community. This, she says, can mutually help alleviate anxiety and loneliness, as well as strike up some fun and heart-warming companionship. You can probably Skype or videoconference your visitbut at least call them, adds Walker.

16. Host a virtual game night:Line up a few friends or couples and break out a trivia game, Wasyl says. Make your own snacks, get your own drinks ready, divide up into teams and do your best to conquer.

Related: The 22 Best Online Games to Play With Friends

17. Get Crafty: Another idea, says Walker, is to make personalized gifts and thoughtful cards for loved ones and friends. Get crafty with paintings, decorated boxes, hand-beaded jewelry, pillows, knitted wear, quilts, kids puppets, clothing and fabric, decorated with fabric-markers, she suggests. Pinterest is full of fun craft ideas for families, kids, seniors. Take photos and send these too. Walker explains that crafting, hands-on projects and making art, doodling and coloring books are very healing and calming for anxiety.

18. Make a lunch date: Pick a day and time to virtually eat lunch together once a week, says Dr. Amanda Holdsworth, the director of PR and brand strategy for Reink Media Group in Royal Oak, Michigan, who has been doing this with her friends over Google Hangouts Meet for the past few Tuesdays. She also engages in virtual coffee sessions with colleagues. Recently, I was incredibly bummed out when my familys dream trip to Copenhagen was canceled. But, one of my colleagues suggested having our morning coffee together via Hangouts the next day, just like we would if we were in the office. It sure helped my mental and emotional state! she reveals.

19. Dance it out together: Melissa Drake, the author of TranscenDANCE: Lessons From Living, Loving, and Dancing and a life coach recently hosted her first virtual dance party to help others commune and dance.The Mid-Week Dance Day Quarantine Style was a great way for her network to come together to literally shake it off.

Related:30 Adult Coloring Books to Keep Your Hands Busy and Your Mind at Ease

20. Family time: Silvia M. Dutchevici, president and founder of Critical Therapy Center in New York City, says a coronavirus quarantine can be the perfect time to rally the family together for some cozy time together. Projects such as: arts and crafts, drawing, reading, or even watching a movie together and then discussing, it can feel less scary, she explains. Another great activity to do with your clan, per Dutchevici, is to think of ways that you can help either leaving some canned food for a neighbor, or volunteering to take a walk with a lonely friend or neighbor while keeping your distance. These acts of kindness, she says, will make us feel connected to one another, and ultimately less lonely.

21. Wrangle your network and share your favorite movies, music playlists, books, podcasts, and blogs: Then, Walker says to follow up by talking about the shared experience by phone Lots of folks love to talk about a mutually inspiring and favorite movie or book together. Or set up a Facebook chat group to talk about the things that are helping us all hold on during these times.

22. Connect with like-minded individuals to discuss interests and experiences: Try an app of forum that connects you with a community of those in your same shoes. Peanut, for instance, provides moms with a safe networking and open dialogue space. And if you are into plant-based eating, you can join a community like Vegan Recipes for Beginners.

Related: Best Free Livestreaming Workouts

23, Get the gang togethervirtually: Dont let the coronavirus keep your group from continuing to bond. Khani and her girlfriends have found a new way to connect by scheduling girl gang weekly video calls. Its a time of support and hearing each other out and sharing new insights on whats really happening with us emotionally and spiritually while we are on this new journey together, she says.

24. Keep your support groups going: If youve been counting on a weekly or monthly support group to get you through the hard times, youll likely need it more than ever in the midst of all of the coronavirus panic. Thus talk to group organizers to get meetings like AA, NA, Al-Anon, step studies, church groups, etc. set up virtual meetings. This, says Jessica Tate, the regional clinical director at Landmark Recovery, will help to limit the in-person interaction, while still receiving the benefits of social interaction.

25.Get outdoors: Hiking and walking is fine, as long as you keep a 6-foto distance from those around you. TheAllTrails app helps connect users to local trails, something that can help us all feel a little more normal right now, says Suzanne Bartlett-Hackenmiller an integrative medicine physician and OBGYN. Share new favorite hikes with outdoorsy friends and challenge them to try the same ones, while also providing recommendations for others that have been given their official stamp of approval.

Related:5 Things You Can Do to Help Your Kids (And You!) Adjust to Stay-At-Home Lifeand How to Talk to Them About Coronavirus

26. Plan the same activities with your friends: My friend, Briana, and her sons drew pictures of leprechauns for St. Patricks Day. Briana sent a photo to me and my friend, Marisa, of their family holding the finished creations. She also sent us the link to the YouTube video How to Draw a Leprechaun, says Ali Wenzke, the Chicago-based author of The Art of Happy Moving. Inspired by the activity, Wenzke reveals that she and her kids then took a turn at drawing leprechauns, which they were then inspired to share. We sent each other photos and it felt so good to be connected, she recalls.

27. Spend meaningful technology-free time with the people you live with: When was the last time you put your phone away and watched a movie with your significant other? Or turned your phone off and colored with your child? Use this time to disconnect from technology and spend face-to-face time with the people around you, says Chad Brandt, PhD, a clinical psychologist at the Houston OCD Program.

28. Get thankful with your community: When the Corona Virus pandemic started, I saw how many people were scared and decided that I would start a 14 day gratitude challenge on Facebook because one of the biggest antidotes to fear is gratitude, says Jocelyn Kuhn, a certified transitional life coach and the author of Thriving Through Transitions. She notes that by the end of the first day, there were 150 people in the group. Now I get to interact with people everyday for 14 days who are either like-minded and were looking for something positive to be a part of, or who are in need of support and were looking for a place to find hope, she adds.

29.Dont forget about your coworkers: While many of us have been sent off to work from home, you may be feeling isolated and cut off from your normal water cooler talk. Thus, Krista Neher, CEO of Boot Camp Digital, suggests setting up a video meeting with your coworker. We take for granted how much our work life is a part of our social life. Seeing people makes a big difference so try for audio instead of video, she advises.

Related: 25 Best Learning Apps

30. Post about your local small businesses: Many businesses are taking a hit right now and social media is a powerful word-of-mouth tool. Thus, Mae Karwowski, founder & CEO of influencer marketing agency, Obviously, suggests using your social media accounts right now to make local recommendations to a friend or family. Post about a good delivery menu at a family-owned restaurant, encourage people to buy gift cards to your favorite small boutique, or post about your hairstylist so they still have a pipeline of referrals even while things are on hold. Ask your network for referrals as well. This will give everyone something to look forward to when things get back up and running again.

31. Take your dog for a walk: Going out to get some exercise and fresh air is not only good for you physically but it provides opportunities to interact with others (from a safe distance). As you stroll through your neighborhood, speak to your neighbors while remaining 6-feet away. Ask them how theyre doing. And if you see older folks who may have trouble getting out, make a special effort to find out how theyre doing, says Jeanne Hurlbert, PhD, president of Hulbert Consulting and chief data officer of Smart Counseling in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

32. Connect with your overseas crew: is the best time to connect with friends or family overseas. Mike Hanski, a teacher and online tutor for high school students with Bid4Papers, explains that life gets busy and catching up with those outside of your time zone can be a challenge. But now that that youre both likely on house arrest, he suggests taking this chance to catch up and talk. Youll both be thankful to have had this opportunity, he explains.

33. Try something new: During the coronavirus pandemic, and our current state of encouraged and/or mandated quarantine, its a perfect time to try something new, says Jay Shifman, an addiction and mental health speaker, writer, consultant, and advocate in Daniel Island, South Carolina. I had to cancel an in person workshop I was leading, so I am moving it online and inviting another leader to join me, he says. A comedian friend and I are going to start a daily Trivia game on Instagram Live to entertain people and give people a chance to feel connected and intertwined with others while quarantined. Dont be afraid, says Shifman, to use this time to get creative because were all experimenting trying to find ways to continue our work and connect with others!

34. Make some 5-year plans: During this time of hunkering inside, Kathryn Ely, an associate licensed counselor, coach, and podcaster, suggests getting together with your partner and talking about the future. Create a one, five, and 10 year plan, she says, adding that hoping and dreaming for the future will keep you from getting too caught up in what is going on right now and will help you remember this too shall pass.

35. Go to the movies together: Select a film to stream and set up your own little watch party on social media. Invite friends and tweet comments about shows as you are watching them, suggests Dr. Richelle Whittaker, an educational psychologist, mental health therapistin Houston, Texas. Or just hop on the phone, Skype, or FaceTime with others as you are movies.Its connection through a different medium, she says.

36. Netflix and chill together: Theres a Google Chrome extension that allows you to watch Netflix with other people by using your own personal invite link, says Lindsay Musgrove, a certified peer specialist in Houston, Texas. To do this, she says, you need Google Chrome, and the Netflix Party extension through the Google Chrome store within the same browser. Install it, and you are able to watch Netflix with someone long distance, as well as having a dedicated personal chat room with them. It may seem like they are far away, but that doesnt mean you cant Netflix and Chill apart.

Related: All the TV Series and Movies You Need to Binge Watch on Netflix Before They Leave

37. Share your skills with the world virtually: Jessica Meyrowitz is helping others learn to knit, and relax, via her newly created virtual Yummy Mindful Knitting I provide group workshops via video conferencing, she says, noting that this allows participants to be socially distant and still be connected. I instruct participants each step of the way and they are able to socialize with the other video conference attendees, she says.

38. Make some time for play: Danielle Maack, Ph.D., a licensed clinical psychologist with Licensed Clinical Psychologist with Delta Autumn Counseling, challenges those staying at home to engage their partner or family (or via video conferencing if quarantined alone) to get in touch with their artistic sides. Give yourself permission to try out that new recipe, make some playdough and create a priceless sculpture. Bring out that guitar you bought last year and swore you would play and actually play. Sing together! she says. Being actively creative, adds Maack, can help to slow down daily pressures, open a door to experimenting, offer opportunities to connect with others about new experiences, and provide you an excuse to play, even in difficult times.

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39. Start a garden with your family: Gardening is a great way to bond, and its also been shown to decrease anxiety, explains Viktor Sander, a counselor at. SocialPro, in Gothenburg, Sweden. He suggests getting your family together and asking everyone what they want to growit could be something edible, beautiful, or fun. Order the seeds online. This, he says, gives you all a common purpose, a sense of personal pride, and makes you a stronger family.

40. Share Coping Strategies with Social Network: Maggie Lee Baker, a small business owner of Magali Designs decided to host a weekly Zoom call with her Facebook network.This is a bit of a social experiment to see who of my Facebook network of 773 friends would reply to my post asking for a virtual Zoom call to discuss how we are all coping with the current reality, she says. Topics such as working from home, recipe swapping, keeping kids busy and not crawling up the walls, and how people are tackling care of their mental health are all on the table, Lee Baker says. What we wont be discussing are topics such as politics, Covid-19 symptoms, scary statistics or anything else that we can find in the news.I want to keep uplifting, constructive and personal, she explains. The first session is scheduled for Thursday and will, per Lee Baker, include people from all walks of her life from old co-workers, to childhood friends to family in California, North Carolina and Hawaii.I will end the call asking each person to commit to one small act of kindness in the coming week to report back on.

Next,7 things to do if you run out of toilet paper.

View post:
40 Ways to Stay Social During the Coronavirus Quarantine How to Stay Connected When Social Distancing - Parade

The proportion of U.S. adults at high risk for blindness has grown over a 15-year period and so has the share who say they cannot afford eyeglasses, according to a new study.

Between 2002 and 2017, the number of people at high risk for vision loss seniors, people with diabetes and those with eye disorders rose from 65 million to 93 million, but 40% of adults said they hadnt been getting yearly eye exams, researchers report in JAMA Ophthalmology.

Nearly 1 in 10 also said they couldnt afford eyeglasses.

We have a large number of adults at high risk for vision loss and at high risk for not receiving recommended eye care, said study leader Sharon Saydah of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The solution is to really improve access, awareness and the affordability of eye care.

Saydah and colleagues looked at nationally representative surveys of 31,000 adults in 2002 and nearly 33,000 adults in 2017.

The proportion at increased risk for vision loss grew between the two surveys: adults over age 65 rose from about 51% to 53% of the total, and those with a diabetes diagnosis rose from about 21% to 25%.

People reporting vision problems or eye diseases such as age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, or eye injury grew from 9% in 2002 to almost 11% in 2017, the study found.

Among all adults, the proportion who said they couldnt afford eyeglasses rose from 8.3% in 2002 to 8.7% in 2017.

While not having corrective lenses wont lead to vision damage, it can lead to injury, Saydah said. Having poor vision and not being able to see properly can contribute to falls and can lead to other disabilities, she said.

A major factor leading to vision loss in seniors is high blood sugar, Saydah said. But if diabetes is managed properly and blood sugar levels are controlled, that can help reduce vision loss, she added.

While U.S. seniors are covered by Medicare, the original version of the federal health insurance program for those 65 and older doesnt cover regular eye exams unless the patient has diabetes or is at high risk for glaucoma.

In 2017, among adults at high risk of blindness, 57% reported visiting an eye care professional annually and 60% had received a dilated eye examination.

This study highlights critical gaps in eye care access and affordability in the United States, and indicates these gaps have persisted despite shifts in our health insurance landscape, Bonnielin Swenor, of the Wilmer Eye Institute and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, said in an email.

This study is not examining a question about improving eye conditions, but instead focuses on access and affordability of eyeglasses, said Swenor, who wasnt involved in the study.

Currently most medical insurance and Medicare do not cover the costs of eyeglasses, which this data support as an important gap for the American population.

Unless something changes, the problem is likely to get worse, said Dr. Syed Mahmood Ali Shah, an associate professor of ophthalmology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

While there was a slight increase over the past 15 years in the percentage of patients getting examined, the number of elderly with diabetes is expected to double by 2040, said Shah, who was not involved in the new research.

Shah suspects cost is the big reason for patients skipping eye exams. Even among those with some coverage, there can be a significant copay, he said, which not everyone can afford.

Read this article:
Number of U.S. adults at risk for blindness on the rise - The Union Leader

Colour blindness may not remain a roadblock for driving anymore as the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways on Monday drafted a notification for issuing license to people suffering from colour vision deficiency. "Being sensitive to the issues raised and considering the demand of such citizens, the Ministry has issued a draft notification GSR 176 E, dated 16 March 2020 for amendment to Form 1 and 1A of Central Motor Vehicles Rules 1989 for soliciting comments and suggestions," ministerial officials told ANI.

"The matter was sympathetically examined consulting the Medical experts. It had been reported that the citizens with certain degree of colour blindness can be provided with driving license and this is being done in many countries of the world," they added.

The issue was brought to the notice of the ministry that the colour blind are unable to own a license for driving.

The draft norms have been prepared after ophthalmologists from the All Indian institute of Medical sciences suggested its positive recommendations.

According to the new draft regulations, the question of distinguishing between pigmentary colours, red and green, 'Yes/No,' shall be omitted.

However, the certification of medical fitness regarding the applicant's colour vision have been mandated. The applicant needs to prove whether he/she have been found suffering from severe or total colour blindness.

This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.

See the rest here:
Driving license might soon be issued to those with colour blindness - Livemint

When the plague came to London in 1665, Londoners lost their wits. They consulted astrologers, quacks, the Bible. They searched their bodies for signs, tokens of the disease: lumps, blisters, black spots. They begged for prophecies; they paid for predictions; they prayed; they yowled. They closed their eyes; they covered their ears. They wept in the street. They read alarming almanacs: Certain it is, books frighted them terribly. The government, keen to contain the panic, attempted to suppress the Printing of such Books as terrifyd the People, according to Daniel Defoe, in A Journal of the Plague Year, a history that he wrote in tandem with an advice manual called Due Preparations for the Plague, in 1722, a year when people feared that the disease might leap across the English Channel again, after having journeyed from the Middle East to Marseille and points north on a merchant ship. Defoe hoped that his books would be useful both to us and to posterity, though we should be spared from that portion of this bitter cup. That bitter cup has come out of its cupboard.

In 1665, the skittish fled to the country, and alike the wise, and those who tarried had reason for remorse: by the time they decided to leave, there was hardly a Horse to be bought or hired in the whole City, Defoe recounted, and, in the event, the gates had been shut, and all were trapped. Everyone behaved badly, though the rich behaved the worst: having failed to heed warnings to provision, they sent their poor servants out for supplies. This Necessity of going out of our Houses to buy Provisions, was in a great Measure the Ruin of the whole City, Defoe wrote. One in five Londoners died, notwithstanding the precautions taken by merchants. The butcher refused to hand the cook a cut of meat; she had to take it off the hook herself. And he wouldnt touch her money; she had to drop her coins into a bucket of vinegar. Bear that in mind when you run out of Purell.

Sorrow and sadness sat upon every Face, Defoe wrote. The governments stricture on the publication of terrifying books proved pointless, there being plenty of terror to be read on the streets. You could read the weekly bills of mortality, or count the bodies as they piled up in the lanes. You could read the orders published by the mayor: If any Person shall have visited any Man known to be infected of the Plague, or entered willingly into any known infected House, being not allowed: The House wherein he inhabiteth shall be shut up. And you could read the signs on the doors of those infected houses, guarded by watchmen, each door marked by a foot-long red cross, above which was to be printed, in letters big enough to be read at a distance, Lord, Have Mercy Upon Us.

Reading is an infection, a burrowing into the brain: books contaminate, metaphorically, and even microbiologically. In the eighteenth century, ships captains arriving at port pledged that they had disinfected their ships by swearing on Bibles that had been dipped in seawater. During tuberculosis scares, public libraries fumigated books by sealing them in steel vats filled with formaldehyde gas. These days, you can find out how to disinfect books on a librarians thread on Reddit. Your best bet appears to be either denatured-alcohol swipes or kitchen disinfectant in a mist-spray bottle, although if you stick books in a little oven and heat them to a hundred and sixty degrees Fahrenheit theres a bonus: you also kill bedbugs. (Doesnt harm the books!) Or, as has happened during the coronavirus closures, libraries can shut their doors, and bookstores, too.

But, of course, books are also a salve and a consolation. In the long centuries during which the plague ravaged Europe, the quarantined, if they were lucky enough to have books, read them. If not, and if they were well enough, they told stories. In Giovanni Boccaccios Decameron, from the fourteenth century, seven women and three men take turns telling stories for ten days while hiding from the Black Deaththat last Pestilentiall mortality universally hurtfull to all that beheld ita plague so infamous that Boccaccio begged his readers not to put down his book as too hideous to hold: I desire it may not be so dreadfull to you, to hinder your further proceeding in reading.

The literature of contagion is vile. A plague is like a lobotomy. It cuts away the higher realms, the loftiest capacities of humanity, and leaves only the animal. Farewell to the giant powers of man, Mary Shelley wrote in The Last Man, in 1826, after a disease has ravaged the world. Farewell to the arts,to eloquence. Every story of epidemic is a story of illiteracy, language made powerless, man made brute.

But, then, the existence of books, no matter how grim the tale, is itself a sign, evidence that humanity endures, in the very contagion of reading. Reading may be an infection, the mind of the writer seeping, unstoppable, into the mind of the reader. And yet it is alsoin its bidden intimacy, an intimacy in all other ways banned in times of plaguean antidote, proven, unfailing, and exquisite.

Stories about plagues run the gamut from Oedipus Rex to Angels in America. You are the plague, a blind man tells Oedipus. Its 1986 and theres a plague, friends younger than me are dead, and Im only thirty, a Tony Kushner character says. There are plagues here and plagues there, from Thebes to New York, horrible and ghastly, but never one plague everywhere, until Mary Shelley decided to write a follow-up to Frankenstein.

The Last Man, which is set in the twenty-first century, is the first major novel to imagine the extinction of the human race by way of a global pandemic. Shelley published it at the age of twenty-nine, after nearly everyone she loved had died, leaving her, as she put it, the last relic of a beloved race,my companions, extinct before me. The books narrator begins as a poor and uneducated English shepherd: primitive man, violent and lawless, even monstrous. Cultivated by a nobleman and awakened to learningAn earnest love of knowledge... caused me to pass days and nights in reading and studyhe is elevated by the Enlightenment and becomes a scholar, a defender of liberty, a republican, and a citizen of the world.

Then, in the year 2092, the plague arrives, ravaging first Constantinople. Year after year, the pestilence dies away every winter (a general and never-failing physician), and returns every spring, more virulent, more widespread. It reaches across mountains, it spreads over oceans. The sun rises, black: a sign of doom. Through Asia, from the banks of the Nile to the shores of the Caspian, from the Hellespont even to the sea of Oman, a sudden panic was driven, Shelley wrote. The men filled the mosques; the women, veiled, hastened to the tombs, and carried offerings to the dead, thus to preserve the living. The nature of the pestilence remains mysterious. It was called an epidemic. But the grand question was still unsettled of how this epidemic was generated and increased. Not understanding its operation and full of false confidence, legislators hesitate to act. England was still secure. France, Germany, Italy and Spain, were interposed, walls yet without a breach, between us and the plague. Then come reports of entire nations, destroyed and depopulated. The vast cities of America, the fertile plains of Hindostan, the crowded abodes of the Chinese, are menaced with utter ruin. The fearful turn to history too late, and find in its pages, even in the pages of the Decameron, the wrong lesson: We called to mind the plague of 1348, when it was calculated that a third of mankind had been destroyed. As yet western Europe was uninfected; would it always be so? It would not always be so. Inevitably, the plague comes, at last, to England, but by then the healthy have nowhere left to go, because, in the final terror of pandemic, there is no refuge on earth: All the world has the plague!

Go here to read the rest:
What Our Contagion Fables Are Really About - The New Yorker

The Be My Eyes app which connects the blind and low-vision community to sighted volunteers

In the age of coronavirus, it is more important than ever before to help the blind and low-vision community feel supported and safe. Be My Eyes is a free mobile app with one main goal: to make the world more accessible for blind and low-vision people. The app connects blind and low-vision individuals with sighted volunteers (over 3.7 million and counting) and companies from all over the world through a live video call.

Progressive and forward thinking brands like Microsoft, Google and Procter and Gamble have also started partnering with Be My Eyes to create dedicated customer experiences. According to the WHO, the estimatednumberofpeople visually impairedin theworldis 285 million: 39 millionblindand 246 million having low vision. They represent a hugely underserved market for brands wishing to reach new customers and build unique new experiences and content.

I caught up with Will Butler, VP of Community to find out more about his journey and how brands can work with this inspiring platform.

Afdhel Aziz: Will, welcome. Please tell us about your personal journey, and how it lead you to your work at Be My Eyes?

Will Butler: Ive been dealing with changing vision most of my life. I used only one eye all throughout high school, but mostly maintained as a regular "sighted" person. I drove a car, did all the normal things a sighted person would do. It wasn't until I was 19 that my "good eye" finally gave out on me that I had to really start confronting the idea. But it took me four more years to finally take the most important step: adopting a white cane.

I wrote about this in this Times piece, but the cane is so stigmatized, it is really hard for us as newly blind people to admit that we need the tools that are available. It's like accepting defeat. But once you adopt the tools, it's far beyond defeat: it's total empowerment.

That's what I'd like to think we're doing here with Be My Eyes: giving people a tool that can change their life. An app that allows you to randomly harness the power of someone else's eyes for on-demand assistance with no strings attached? That means not leaning on friends, loved ones, or colleagues to overcome your most common daily barriers. That's pretty powerful when utilized, and I think many of our users who use the app often would testify that it has changed their lives for the better.

Will Butler, VP of Community for Be My Eyes

Aziz: Thank you for sharing that Will. Is it true that Be My Eyes is the largest online blind community out there? How do we get more members of the blind or low vision community to join?

Butler: Yes there are very few communities that have a self-selecting blind/low vision membership like ours, and certainly none that serve users in almost 200 languages. With the power of crowdsourced volunteerism and translation, we were able to scale up our UI quickly in terms of translation to meet the needs of a global community, not just a U.S.-based or westernized community. We're very proud of that and it's particularly rewarding to see Be My Eyes utilized in parts of the world where there are little to no services it truly becomes a lifeline for blind people in rural and underdeveloped parts of the world.

Due to regulations around medical data and privacy considerations, many companies have no idea who their blind users are. That's why companies even big ones with their own video chat apps, like Microsoft and Google come to Be My Eyes for that portal into the blindness community. Be My Eyes is known around the world as the go-to hub for getting support as a blind person, and for that reason companies join our platform as support providers to meet customers and users where they already are.

At the end of the day, we grow as a community by word of mouth: the power of our message, both from the volunteers and other blind users, is what propels us forward as a community. Growing the blind community is a fascinating and difficult challenge which is one that I take most of the responsibility for at Be My Eyes. We have strong connections with blindness organizations around the world who provide direct services, making sure they know about us. We attend and speak at conferences. And we use the same digital marketing tools as anyone else!

Historically blind people have been very isolated having a very custodial relationship with their sighted friends and family and haven't been directly connected to traditional information channels. Today, it's different. Blind people have incredible accessible technology natively running on iOS and Android devices. So you can reach blind people directly, searching by interests, the same way you reach someone who likes cats or sports or golf. That's pretty cool, and a sign that blind people have come a long way in terms of participation in society.

Aziz: That is pretty cool. There is something heartwarming about the fact that you have so many sighted volunteers (4 million) - why do you think that is?

Butler: I don't care what anyone says: Helping other people is the most fundamental aspect of human nature. We all tend to our needs: food, water, sleep, etc. But helping others having an understanding of ourselves in relation to other beings is the thing that elevates us beyond animals. Be My Eyes gives people who are searching for meaning and let's be honest that's all of us an opportunity to get out of the "smartphone zombie" loop and connect with a real human in a powerful way.

There's the simple task at hand: a straightforward, solvable A to B interaction. Then there's the knowledge that you helped someone, the feeling of connection and meaning it provides. I've never seen such a dopamine rush come from any other app. That's why we're approaching 4 million volunteers, and it's why people so freely and openly take to social media to share their experiences. I couldn't think of a better bridge between humans for these strange virtual times we're now living in.

In Part 2 of this interview (click here), we explore how brands like Microsoft, Google and others are working with Be My Eyes to create unique customer experiences.

See the rest here:
The Power Of Purpose: How Brands Can Work With Be My Eyes To Help The Blind And Low-Vision Community (Part 1) - Forbes

Fortunately, the unusual insects, who live on every continent except Antarctica, are readily available as subjects.

"It's a very prevalent invasive species that can be found all throughout California, including right here on campus, Ramirez said. "All of our specimens we study were collected when they're out and about at night around the nearby creek, since they're nocturnal."

Colors are an important part of a stick insects camouflage defense. When these stick insects first hatch, theyre brown. As they mature and go through successive molts, they may change to an array of vibrant colors from light green to a much darker brown.

"Having adults in a variety of colors allows them to occupy and better survive in different parts of a plant, Ramirez said. "Having a darker stick insect may allow it to blend in more with the trunk of a tree or the darker stems of ivy and blackberry. On the other hand, lighter green stick insects have an advantage on greener surfaces such as the bottom of leaves or greener stems of plants."

These differences in color also affect how well they can escape predators. A darker stick insect can use another means of defense behavioral mimicry if it feels threatened. Once it tucks in its limbs, itll fall down to the ground and "look like a dead twig," Ramirez said.

One puzzle Ramirez is trying to solve is why theres such a colorful palette of Indian walking sticks. Theyre parthenogenic, which means the females dont need males to reproduce. They can actually clone themselves.

"So to see a wide variety of different colors in the stick insects is very interesting because if they're clones of the mother they should all be the same exact thing, but they're not," he said.

"That's something that's really interesting to explore and would definitely require more genetic analysis, which we haven't gotten to quite yet. But hopefully someday that'll be possible in the future," he added.

One reason could be due to genetic mutations.

"There are plenty of other species that undergo parthenogenesis such as aphids, species of bees, ants, wasps, flies, and others which all go through similar asexual cloning mechanisms and can have mutations," Ramirez said. "However, these insects contain very little or do not have any noticeable color variation compared to the Indian stick insects."

Ramirez said he hopes to use the CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing tool to try and unlock the mysteries behind the Indian walking stick.

Hes also planning to apply to dental school after he graduates later this year, with the goal of using what hes learned studying walking sticks. His background in genetics and gene editing will help him in emerging fields of research, such as bioengineering human teeth using stem cells.

"This would be revolutionary for dentistry as patients who have lost their permanent teeth could have them replaced," Ramirez said.

View post:
Walking Sticks Stop, Drop and Clone to Survive - KQED

President Donald Trump is optimistic a vaccine for the novel Coronavirus COVID-19 may soon be forthcoming, but his White House Coronavirus response coordinator says the only thing we have right now is the amazing ingenuity and compassion of the American people.

WASHINGTON, D.C.America is at war against the novel Coronavirus COVID-19, President Donald Trump said March 18.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is at a level-one response nationwide, withconfirmed COVID-19 cases in all 50 states.

On Monday, March 16, Trump and the Centers for Disease Control announced 15 days to slow the spread by practicing social distancing, listening to state and local authorities, and staying home if sick, or if someone in a household has tested positive or is displaying symptoms.

All of our experts continue to believe that if every American will do their part and embrace and put into practice these principles that we can significantly limit the reach of the Coronavirus in the weeks and months ahead, Vice President Mike Pence said March 18.

The genetic sequence of the virus was first published in January, and human trials for vaccine have been reached just eight weeks later, the fastest development in history, Trump said.

But since we dont currently have a vaccine or a therapeutic to address this novel Coronavirus,the only thing we have right now is the amazing ingenuity and compassion of the American people, said Amb. Deborah Birx, the White Houses Coronavirus response coordinator.

Trump deployed the USNS Comforta U.S. Navy hospital ship with about 1,000 rooms and operating roomsto New York harbor, adjacent to New York City, to expand hospital capacity amid what some have warned could be a crushing wave of yet-to-be-diagnosed new cases. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo earlier raised alarms that his states hospital capacity is not prepared to handle a surge of critically ill patients, and New Jersey and all states have mirror concerns.

Trump said the country is working to acquired more ventilators and medical supplies for front-line emergency personnel and hospitals.

Its all over the world, said Trump, of COVID-19. Itsincredible whats happened in such a short time.

Trump said, August, could be July, maybe longer than that, when asked to speculate on when society may return to normalcy.

Financial markets have plummeted given the circumstances, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropping more than 10,000 points and wiping out all gains under the Trump presidency.

The White House is seeking $500 billion in direct payments to taxpayers and President Trump invoked a wartime law to press companies to make medical supplies, The New York Times reports.

Its a tough situation[Six weeks ago] we had the besteconomy weve ever had, Trump said, then you have to close it down to defeat this enemy.

If everyone makes this change, or these critical changes and sacrifices now, we will rally together as one nation and we will defeat the virus. And were going to have a big celebration all together, Trump said.

For updates: cdc.gov/coronavirus; or http://www.nj.gov/health.

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'Slow The Spread': All Americans Summoned in COVID-19 Response Pascack Press & Northern Valley Press - Pascack Press & Northern Valley Press

Global Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) Market, by Technology (Whole Genome Sequencing, Whole Exome Sequencing, RNA Sequencing, Targeted Re-sequencing, and Others), by Application (Drug Discovery, Personalized Medicine and Genetic Screening, Disease Diagnosis, Agriculture and Animal Research, and Others), by End User (Hospital, Research Centers, Pharma and Biotech Firms, and Others) and by Region (North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East, and Africa) is projected to exhibit a healthy CAGR over the forecast period (2019 2025)

Get Research Insights @Next Generation Sequencing Market Size 2019-2025

Reducing NGS capital cost associated with declining sequencing cost, developments in NGS platforms and developing scenario of reimbursement and regulatory for diagnostic tests based on NGS are projected to fuel the next-generation sequencing market growth. Industry of next-generation sequencing is a market that contains infinite companies present in the production of consumables & kits, instruments and advancement of software to foster the NGS market growth in the coming years.

In addition, the usage of the cloud computing in NGS for the management of data in evolving economies are projected to offer opportunities to the manufacturers of next generation sequencing in the coming future. Developments of technology in cloud computing and data integration, demand for clinical diagnostic and increase in demand for scientific research are the factors that are responsible for the growth of global next generation sequencing market.

In addition, growing acceptance of next generation sequencing technology in several end-users and increasing funds in the activities of research & development is boosting the growth of next-generation sequencing market. Moreover, developing applications of NGS in personalized medicine and food testing is anticipated to drive the next generation sequencing market growth in the coming years. Although, scarcity of the skilled professionals are hindering the next generation sequencing market growth.

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Legal and ethical discussions are the part of medical research. Journals and funding agencies are submitting the genomic data from the research contributors to the databases are allowing the investigators for controlling the data. The samples and data are sent from databases without the approval of participant by pushing them at risk. Unidirectional flow of data are creating the sense of distrust and exploitation. As a result, ethical and legal issues are hampering the next generation sequencing market growth.

Development of next generation sequencing market is accredited to the significant reduction in the costs of sequencing. For instance, price of sequencing in 2006 was approximately $15 Billion, which ultimately reduced to $6000 Billion in 2014. Several key players like Illumina and Roche have announced the techniques of sequencing which have decreased the cost related to sequencing.

Growing attention of NGS is projected to fuel the usage of precision medicine in oncology on the basis of research setting to the clinical cancer is increasing the growth of global next generation sequencing industry. Market players are involved in studying the novel and existing tests to create the criteria for medical necessity for medical and clinical policies. Global next generation sequencing market trends are developed understanding of the genetic markers of resistance and virulence offered by next generation sequencing is estimated to boost the demand for the technology of diagnosing the infectious disease.

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Global next generation sequencing market are end-user, application, technology, product & service and region. On considering the end-user, market is divided into biotechnology & pharmaceutical companies, clinics & hospitals, academic institutes and research centers and more. On the basis of application, market is divided into animal & agricultural research, drug discovery, other diagnostic applications, reproductive health diagnostics, infectious disease diagnostics, cancer diagnostics, diagnostics and much more. Based on technology, market is divided into nanopore sequencing, single-molecule real time sequencing, ion semiconductor sequencing, sequencing by synthesis and more. By product & service, market is divided into bioinformatics, sequencing services, services for NGS platforms, NGS platforms, NGS consumables and pre-sequencing products and services. Bioinformatics further subdivided into NGS storage management & cloud computing solutions, NGS data analysis services and NGS data analysis workbenches & software whereas sequencing services are divided into De Novo and Whole genome sequencing, RNA sequencing, Custom Panels and Exome and Targeted Sequencing. NGS platforms are further sub-divided into Oxford Nanopore Technologies, Pacific Biosciences, ThermoFishcer Scientific, Illumina and others. Pre-sequencing products & services market is divided into quality control, target enrichment & library preparation, size selection, A-tailing, End Repair and DNA fragmentation.

Geographically, regions involved in the global next-generation sequencing (NGS) market analysis are Europe, North America, Asia Pacific and Rest of the World. North America holds the largest global next generation sequencing market share followed by Europe. Asia Pacific is expected to rapidly grow in the coming years.

Key players involved in the next generation sequencing market are Agilent Technologies, New England Biolabs, Oxford Nanopore Technolgies Limited, Thermo Fischer Scientific and more.

Key Segments in the Global Next Generation Sequencing Market are-

By End-User, market is segmented into:

By Application, market is segmented into:

By Technology, market is segmented into:

By Product & Service, market is segmented into:

By Regions market is segmented into:

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What to expect from the Global Next Generation Sequencing Market report?

Who should buy this report?

Venture capitalists, Investors, financial institutions, Analysts, Government organizations, regulatory authorities, policymakers ,researchers, strategy managers, and academic institutions looking for insights into the market to determine future strategies

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Adroit Market Research provide quantified B2B research on numerous opportunistic markets, and offer customized research reports, consulting services, and syndicate research reports. We assist our clients to strategize business decisions and attain sustainable growth in their respective domain. Additionally, we support them with their revenue planning, marketing strategies, and assist them to make decisions before the competition so that they remain ahead of the curve.

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Before the start of business,Just Securityprovides a curated summary ofup-to-the-minute developments at home and abroad. Heres todays news.

CORONAVIRUS

There were more than 341,000 global cases of thenovel coronavirus as of today and over 14,700 deaths worldwide, according todatafrom Johns Hopkins University. The number of Covid-19 cases in the U.S. has now gone past 35,000, with 417 deaths. CNN reporting.

President Trump announced yesterday that members of the National Guard will be activated to New York, California, and Washington state to help the states fight the coronavirus crisis. The Federal Emergency Management Agency will cover the costs for the deployment to the states, which so far have been hit hardest by the pandemic. Trump approved a disaster declaration for California later last night following previous declarations for New York and Washington state. Allan Smith reports for NBC News.

The presidents move came hours after New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo appealed to Trump to nationalize the effort to acquire masks and other critical protective supplies that are dwindling. I think the federal government should order factories to manufacture masks, gowns, ventilators, the essential medical equipment that is going to make the difference between life and death, Cuomo said during a news conference Sunday in Albany, New York. Its not hard to make a mask or PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) equipment or a gown, but you need companies to do it. Devan Cole and Chandelis Duster report for CNN.

The healthcare system is reaching a breaking point and frontline medical workers are running out of protective equipment, placing them at risk of getting infected. Dr. Melissa Bender and Co-Editor-in-Chief Ryan Goodman report on hospitals policies, including tensions with current guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (C.D.C.), at Just Security.

New York is now the epicenter of the U.S. outbreak, accounting for almost half of the countrys confirmed infections and 5% of cases worldwide.In an effort to curb the crisis, Cuomo ordered New York City to crack down on people gathering in public. The governor also announced measures aimed at preparing for a wave of patients, including establishing temporary hospitals in three New York City suburbs and constructing a massive medical bivouac in the Jacob Javits Center on Manhattans West Side. The startling spike is partly the result of increased testing efforts: thousands of tests continued to be carried out, even as officials instructed hospitals to restrict coronavirus testing and save resources for treating patients. Jesse McKinley reports for the New York Times.

The Senate failed to pass a $1.6 trillion emergency coronavirus stimulus bill yesterday after pushback from Democrats who criticized the main elements of the package. Senate Democrats claimed that the measure favored big business over the rights of workers. The bill, which is intended to cushion the economic impact of the new coronavirus and needed 60 votes to advance, was blocked by a split Senate with a 47-47 vote. Marianne Levine and John Bresnahan report for POLITICO.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said the House will introduce its own legislative package after congressional leaders failed to reach an agreement yesterday, adding that she was still hopeful for a bipartisan congressional deal on a coronavirus economic relief bill. Heather Caygle, Sarah Ferris and Marianne Levine report for POLITICO.

The Department of Justice (D.O.J.) has privately asked Congress for the authority to ask chief judges to hold people indefinitely without trial during emergencies part of a drive for new powers amid the pandemic. Documents reviewed by POLITICO lay out the departments requests to lawmakers on an array of topics, including the statute of limitations, asylum and the way court hearings are conducted. Betsy Woodruff Swan reports for POLITICO.

The intelligence community was warning of the global danger posed by the new coronavirus throughout January and February as the White House minimized the threat and was slow to roll out nationwide measures, according to U.S. officials familiar with spy agency reporting. The reports did not clarify when the virus might spread in the U.S. or recommend specific steps to mitigate it, but they did track the international spread of the coronavirus and warn that China was initially playing down the seriousness of the outbreak. Shane Harris, Greg Miller, Josh Dawsey and Ellen Nakashima report for the Washington Post.

A Defense Department contractor has died from coronavirus, the first military-related fatality from the illness. The Virginia-based contractor, who worked inside the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (D.S.C.A.), died on Saturday, the Pentagon said in a statement yesterday. Ellen Mitchell reports for the Hill.

Rand Paul (R-Ky.) hasbecome the first U.S. senatorto test positive for Covid-19. Natalie Andrews and Lindsay Wise report for the Wall Street Journal.

The D.O.J. announced yesterday that it was taking measures to close down a website falsely claiming to have access to vaccine kits supposedly made by the World Health Organization (W.H.O.) to prevent coronavirus. In a press release, Justice Department officials accused the unidentified operators of coronavirusmedicalkit.com of engaging in a wire fraud scheme seeking to profit from the confusion and widespread fear surrounding COVID-19. John Bowden reports for the Hill.

Four U.S. senators are under scrutiny over allegations they used insider knowledge about the impending coronavirus crisis to sell shares before the virus-induced market meltdown. Republicans Richard Burr (N.C.) and Kelly Loeffler (Ga.) face calls to leave office after dumping millions of stocks last month. The BBC reporting.

A government watchdog is evaluating the Department of Health and Human Services (H.S.S.) response to the coronavirus outbreak and appraising nursing home preparedness after a number of elderly residents became poorly and died, a spokesperson for the H.H.S. inspector general said. Priscilla Alvarez reports for CNN.

Irans Supreme Leader has rejected Americas offer of aid to help the country with its battle against coronavirus. In a televised speech, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei hinted at a conspiracy theory, also voiced by some Chinese officials, that America was responsible for the pandemic. I do not know how real this accusation is but when it exists, who in their right mind would trust you to bring them medication? Khamenei said. Possibly your medicine is a way to spread the virus more. Without offering any evidence, he also alleged that the virus is specifically built for Iran using the genetic data of Iranians which they have obtained through different means. Al Jazeera reporting.

The U.S.-led military coalition in Iraq is pulling out some troops partly due to the coronavirus pandemic, the coalition confirmed Friday. The coalition is adjusting our positioning in Iraq for two reasons: long-planned adjustments to reflect success in the campaign against Daesh; and short-term moves to protect the force during the coronavirus pandemic, the coalition said in a statement, using a substitute name for the Islamic State group (ISIS). Looking ahead, we anticipate the coalition supporting the Iraqi Security Forces from fewer bases with fewer people, it added. Rebecca Kheel reports for the Hill.

Trump sent a letter to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un seeking to maintain good relations and offering help in the countrys fight against the coronavirus, Kims sister said yesterday, but she warned it was not enough to boost relations. A senior Trump administration official confirmed Trump sent a letter to the North Korean leader, saying that the move was consistent with his efforts to engage global leaders during the ongoing pandemic. Min Too Kim reports for the Washington Post.

Health officials in Syria have announced the first coronavirus infection in the country after weeks of rejecting opposition claims that the disease had already reached a nation with a wrecked healthcare system and thousands of Iranian-backed militias and Shiite pilgrims. The arrival of the global pandemic in Syria in addition to the Gaza Strip has sparked fears it could spread rapidly in some of the most vulnerable areas in the Middle East. Reuters reporting.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she was self-quarantining after coming into contact with a doctor who has the virus. Her government also banned gatherings of more than two people, excluding families. Katrin Bennhold and Melissa Eddy report for the New York Times.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday accused China, Russia and Iran of spreading disinformation about the coronavirus pandemic, in what is a supposed effort to plant fear and confusion. Speaking at the White House, Pompeo described the disinformation campaigns as being pretty diffused, saying that the government has observed individuals, as well as the three foreign foes, circulate false information online. There are coordinated efforts to disparage what America is doing and our activity to do all the things President Trump has set into motion, the secretary said during a press briefing on the coronavirus. Olivia Beavers reports for the Hill.

Members of Congress should be allowed to vote remotely during the coronavirus emergency, Justin Ling argues at Foreign Policy, citing a powerful letter from three elective representatives urging House leadership to change the rules.

A compelling case for action to be taken through the Defense Production Act is made out by former Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces and National Security Council (N.S.C.) Legal Adviser James E. Baker at Just Security.

A look at what the Act would allow for and why Trump is reluctant to wield his federal powers is provided by Amber Phillips at the Washington Post.

A map and analysis of all confirmed cases of the virus in the U.S. is available at the New York Times.

U.S. and worldwide maps tracking the spread of the pandemic are available at theWashington Post.

A list of the measures taken by other countries to contain the spread of the new coronavirusis compiledby Al Jazeera.

Latest updates on the pandemicatThe GuardianandNBC News.

AFGHANISTAN

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo landed in Kabul today on an unannounced visit to help bridge a political impasse that has undermined a U.S. peace deal with the Taliban, struck at the end of February. Pompeo is expected to meet separately with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and his chief political opponent, Abdullah Abdullah, who is attempting to set up a parallel government, before the two Afghan rivals are due to come together for a one-on-one meeting. AP reporting.

Afghan government officials met by videoconference yesterday with Taliban delegates to discuss a prisoner exchange that is a part of a broader push for peace, the U.S. special envoy for Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, said in a message sent Twitter, offering some prospect of a breakthrough on a matter that has paralyzed the two sides and threatened a budding peace process. The two sides deliberated for over two hours in a Skype meeting facilitated by the United States and Qatar, officials said. Reuters reporting.

IRAN

The White House apparently is divided over whether to escalate military action against Iran, with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and national security adviser Robert C. OBrien calling for a strong response to rocket attacks that had killed two American soldiers at a base north of Baghdad, and Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, arguing that the Pentagon and intelligence agencies lacked clear evidence that the attacks, launched by the Shiite militia group Khataib Hezbollah, had been directed by the Islamic Republic. The New York Times reporting.

The Trump administration yesterday condemned France for releasing an Iranian man wanted for prosecution by the United States in an apparent prisoner swap with Iran. The State Department said it deeply regrets the unilateral French move to free Jalal Rohollahnejad, who was the subject of a U.S. extradition request on charges of breaching American sanctions on Iran. Spokesperson Morgan Ortagus said in a statement that France had failed to uphold its commitments under a joint extradition treaty and harmed the cause of justice. AP reporting.

ISRAEL-PALESTINE

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Saturday offered to step down next year as part of a proposed power-sharing accord with his chief rival meant to guide the country through the coronavirus crisis and end a year-long political standoff. Netanyahu made his proposal during a nationally televised interview, calling for the creation of a three-year emergency unity government with the rival Blue and White Party. Netanyahu told Channel 12 TV that he would stay as prime minister for the first 18 months, and allow opposition leader Benny Gantz to assume the post for a second year-and-a-half term in September 2021. He said each party would have an identical number of seats in the Cabinet. AP reporting.

Netanyahus political opponents yesterday asked Israels Supreme Court to block what they described as a power grab by the caretaker government under the pretense of tackling the coronavirus epidemic. The petitioners asked the court to force parliament to resume its full activities, despite restrictions imposed by Parliament Speaker Yuli Edelstein, a member of Netanyahus ruling Likud party, because of public health concerns, citing a threat to Israeli democracy. Isabel Kershner reports for the New York Times.

OTHER DEVELOPMENTS

Lora Shiao, a career U.S. intelligence officer, has been tapped as the next acting director of the National Counterterrorism Center, the governments principal clearinghouse for intelligence on terrorist threats, Trump administration officials said. The New York Times reporting.

The United States carried out a successful test on an unarmed prototype of a hypersonic missile, a nuclear-capable weapon that could speed up the arms race between superpowers. The Pentagon on Friday said a test glide vehicle traveled at hypersonic speeds more than five times the speed of sound, or Mach 5 to a designated impact point. AFP reporting.

North Korea on Saturday test-fired two presumed short-range ballistic missiles into the sea, South Koreas military said, as it continues to expand military capabilities following two months of relative silence. Al Jazeera reporting.

An excerpt from the untold story of Saudi Arabias Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and his unchecked rise to power, written by the Beirut bureau chief for The New York Times, is available at The Times.

A look at what is driving the political resistance to repatriating the thousands of foreign fighters who fought on behalf of ISIS in Syria and what might be done to curb such resistance is provided by Dan E. Stigall at Just Security.

The rest is here:
The Early Edition: March 23, 2020 - Just Security

The dose makes the poison.

Thats a shortened version of a quote by Paracelsus (1493-1541), a doctor often referred to as a Father of toxicology the study of the nature, effects, and detection of poisons. His teachings are that every medicine is a poison, and every poison, a medicine: it all comes down to dose.

With traditional medicines, dose is decided by research on the effects of certain substances, both on the general population, and the individual to be treated.

But cannabis has put a strain on this notion. While the number of studies is increasing, there isnt enough research yet to fully understand its effects, even as patients successfully add cannabis to their treatment plans. But some are under the misconception that cannabis is safe and natural; unfortunately, cannabis can come with a downside.

For instance, you may have heard of an incident in 2018, a man accused of the murder and beheading of his father. Though he voluntarily pled guilty to the charge of murder, the plaintiff in the case added to the record his defense: cannabis-induced psychosis.

While this is a controversial opinion because it assumes a one-time induction of a psychotic state that spurred the event, rather than cannabis causing the onset of chronic issues, there is a need for concern around cannabis use, especially when it is not from a recognized source or when the dose isnt properly considered.

Psychosis and cannabis

Psychosis and cannabis have been linked for some time more than a century, in fact. Psychosis is described as a disturbance in brain functioning that results in the sufferer feeling unsure as to what is real, and what is not. It can cause thought disorders, hallucinations both visual and auditory and delusions. Schizophrenia is, in its simplest description, chronic psychosis.

Cannabis is considered connected to schizophrenia by Health Canada, and in their cannabis Resource Series, they point to several risk factors, like the age of the person upon first use is important, especially if they are under 16.

As well, they state cannabis consumption by those with a family history of psychosis mean they are 2.5 to 10 times more likely to develop schizophrenia than non-users with the same family history. Also an issue is the frequency of use, and incorrect dosing using too much of a high potency strain.

But while they are sure about some aspects, it is clear that there is much more research to be done. Even Health Canada is specific that while there is strong evidence that cannabis will increase your risk: The exact underlying mechanism is still largely unknown

In June of 2019, Ian Hamilton, a specialist in Health Sciences from the University of York (UK) and Mark Monaghan, specialist in Social Policy at the University of Birmingham (UK) wrote an paper summarizing what has been understood so far, and what holes are left within the research surrounding cannabis and Psychosis specifically Schizophrenia.

Current thinking

They described three hypotheses that are re-occurring in research. The first is direct, cannabis causes schizophrenia; that it would trigger the illness in someone who would not have developed it had they not been exposed to cannabis. The second is that individuals with a pre-disposition to schizophrenia use cannabis to mitigate its early symptoms, and that is why there is link.

A third suggests that one might have childhood trauma that could trigger schizophrenia in itself, then paired with the desire to medicate the effects of the trauma with intoxicants. They are not connected, but could be seen that way.

The issues with proving these hypotheses come in the measurement of data, done mostly through observation and subjective assessment.

Gaps in the current research include gender - as in many medical research studies, the sample groups are mostly male and that the studies focus on western-world usage, skewing the data based on cultural influences.

There's also the role of tobacco. Currently, tobacco is also appearing as an independent risk factor for psychosis, and cannabis and tobacco are often used in combination.

In 2016, an estimated 192 million people worldwide used cannabis, and thats before Canadian legalization; but that only brings cannabis to third in popularity, behind alcohol and tobacco. There is a need for cannabis and tobacco to be uncoupled for further study.

However, there is an ever-increasing number of conditions treated with cannabis, and because of this, there are many people looking for help without understanding the risk.

Cannabis as medicine

Sudbury physician Dr. Lionel Marks De Chabris has been prescribing cannabis to his patients since 2007, and though there are risks associated with cannabis as medicine, he notes that the risks of other medicines specifically pain medicines like opiates could be quite higher, while also less effective.

He has read the research available and says, in his belief, cannabis doesnt cause schizophrenia, but if you have a genetic risk for having schizophrenia i.e. you may well develop it at some point in your life and if you use cannabis, you can trigger that at an earlier age. Thats not trivial; Schizophrenia is a terrible, life-altering disease.

He is careful to screen his patients for any personal or family history of psychosis, mental illness, and schizophrenia, and will advise those patients to refrain from cannabis completely. For others, he explains how to safely consume it.

Understanding dose

Because most recreational consumers are looking for the high, many are looking to find the highest THC (the hallucinogenic compound, Tetrahydrocannabinol) possible, and then consuming extremely excessive amounts. Marks De Chabris points to this when it comes to issues of psychosis: its not the potency of the strain, it is the amount consumed that will hurt you.

He compares it to alcohol. You wouldnt consider beer to be better for you than wine because of its lower alcohol content, you would change the amount you consumed. Its like when you ask for a glass of whiskey, you dont ask for a pint. You ask for a single ounce.

But dosing becomes difficult when the drug supply is from disreputable sources. Ive spoken to patients who tried particularly some of the edibles that are currently illegally available that have huge amounts of THC in them, he said. Ive seen edibles online that 150mg of THC in one little gummy the starting dose for a nave user is 10. So, one gummy has fifteen doses.

Take one candy, and you could be in real trouble.

What you need to know

Thankfully, Marks de Chabris says most of them time the answer to over consumption discomfort and other unwanted side effects of cannabis is to simply go to sleep. He also notes: If youre feeling anxious, if youre feeling paranoid and you understand that the reason for that is youve taken too much THC, just that knowledge can help to offset some of the fear around that excessive dosing.

Of course, if you believe something much worse is happening, getting medical attention is your best chance, and one without risk now that cannabis is legal. If its really bad then going to an emergency department and getting some medication to help sedate you is reasonable, but that would be very rare.

But he also notes the steady rise is consumption, and the lack of corresponding rise in psychosis.

We know that the use of cannabis in the western world has gone up, I think the last study I saw was 700 per cent over the last 20 years, so thats a huge increase in the use of cannabis, he said.

Over that same period, the rate of schizophrenia has not changed in fact it may have gone down a little. So, if cannabis was causing Schizophrenia, where are all the patients with schizophrenia?

As for his safe consumption recommendations: Start low and go slow. Aim for low THC with at least some Cannabidiol (CBD) to mitigate any unwanted effects, and wait, as it takes a 30 minutes to feel the effects of smoking, and up to two hours for ingestion.

And while the research is ever-increasing, currently, safe consumption seems to come down to this: know your source, know yourself, buy informed and buy legally. After all, you wouldnt buy moonshine from your neighbours bathtub without at least thinking deeply about your life choices.

Jenny Lamothe is a freelance writer, proof-reader and editor in Greater Sudbury. Contact her through her website,JennyLamothe.com.

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Discover: What is the link between cannabis and psychosis? - Sudbury.com

Ever since the novel coronavirus, or COVID-19, was first reported in China's Wuhan city, the virus has spread to more than 196 countries and territories around the world with393,284 confirmed cases and17,161 deaths so far. In India, the maximum number of cases has been reported in the state of Maharashtra.The number of coronavirus cases in the country has risen to 519, with 10 deaths.

It is the need of the hour to find a solution for coronavirus.

Clinical trials in China are already testing the efficacy of stem cell therapies for COVID-19. Arecent clinical trialwith seven COVID-19 patients showed that a stem cell product improved patient outcome. According to research published in the peer-reviewed journalAging and Disease,mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) therapy could be effective in treating COVID-19.

Coronaviruses (CoV) belong to a large family of viruses leading to respiratory illnesses, such as common coldto more severe diseases such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) and Severe Acute RespiratorySyndrome (SARS-CoV).

Earlier this year, a new strain of coronavirus was discovered, which was not previously identified in humanbeings, also known as the novel coronavirus (nCov). The symptoms of the infection are respiratory issues, fever, cough, shortness of breath, and breathingdifficulties. More severe cases of COVID-19 can cause pneumonia, severe acute respiratory syndrome, and kidneyfailure.

In recent years, scientific research hasshown that MSCs have properties that maymake them very useful to repair damaged tissues in the patients respiratory system and promotefaster healing and recovery.Umbilical cord tissueis particularly rich inthese cells, which is why many parents arechoosing to store them at birth.

MSCs can reduce the overproduction of immune cells caused by a reaction to the virus and reduce excessive levels of inflammatory substances, thus regulating the immune system.

Currently, many vaccines or drugs are being tested to deal with coronavirus. There is widespread fear and phobia among the population. Why not use your own defence system rather than searching for drugs to tackle the virus?

MSCs are multi-potent cells that have been widely used for tissue regeneration and immunomodulation, and can be a potential solution. The infusion of autologous and allogenic MSCs has been proven safe and effective in tissue repair and disease modulation. MSCs have anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial properties; therefore, they have the potential to control inflammatory conditions, possibly viral diseases, and may reduce mortality.

Another interesting therapeutic avenue is immunotherapy. Natural killer (NK) cells, a component of our innate immune system, play an important role in tackling malignancies as well as virally infected cells. These cells serve to contain viral infections while the adaptive immune response is generating antigen-specific cytotoxic T cells that can clear the infection. Thus, NK cell therapy can be safe and effective in the management of COVID-19.

We need to ensure control of person-to-person transmission of the infection. Therefore, stringent isolation/quarantine measures are important until complete recovery of an infected individual.

(Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of YourStory.)

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Can cell-based therapy be helpful in tackling coronavirus? - YourStory

SOUTH CHINA SEA - Members of Navy Forward-Deployed Preventive Medicine Units (FDPMU) and Naval Medical Research Center (NMRC) embarked several 7th Fleet ships March 14 to help combat the risk of and provide laboratory batch testing for COVID-19 aboard the ships.

Teams are embarked on the amphibious assault ship USS America (LHA 6), the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71), the U.S. 7th Fleet flagship USS Blue Ridge (LCC 19) and have the ability to batch test Sailors onboard who present with influenza-like illness symptoms, instead of only sending samples to be tested ashore.

This capability provides early-warning surveillance for the medical teams to be able to identify if a COVID-19 case is onboard a ship, but does not individually diagnose Sailors. If a batch were to test positive for COVID-19, the medical teams would take additional measures, such as isolating the Sailors whose samples were in the batch, and depending on the Sailors symptoms, potentially medically evacuating them off the ship to a shore facility for testing.

To date, no cases of COVID-19 have been diagnosed aboard any U.S. 7th Fleet Navy vessel.

The team here in 7th Fleet has taken COVID-19 seriously from the beginning and has many public health measures already in place, said Capt. Christine Sears, U.S. 7th Fleet surgeon. The FDPMU and NMRC augmentation teams provide additional depth in our ability to combat this virus.

Teams embarked the ships to provide at-sea testing and to ensure the U.S. 7th Fleet operating forces are ready to combat a possible outbreak while maintaining mission readiness. The teams provide additional capabilities in addition to the U.S. 7th Fleets isolation procedures.

The teams are comprised of a variety of specialized Navy Medicine personnel to ensure force health protection of the fleet, and may include: a microbiologist, medical laboratory technician, preventive medicine officer, preventive medicine technician.

As a medical service corps microbiology officer, this embark gives us the chance to demonstrate some of our skillsets to the fleet, and what we bring to the fight, said Lt. Cmdr. Rebecca Pavlicek, Blue Ridge COVID-19 testing team lead. This capability allows us, the Navy, to protect mission readiness and protection of our Sailors.

To ensuring force health protection of the fleet, other medical specialties or logistical components can be scaled up or down to meet mission specific requirements in the mitigation, health surveillance, and casualty prevention.

This is the most advanced laboratory capability that Navy Medicine has placed forward deployed, said Lt. Cmdr. Danett Bishop, leader and microbiologist for the preventative medicine team aboard America. We can make force health decisions in real time, enhancing the health of the crew while minimizing any potential outbreak of COVID-19.

The FDPMU teams aboard the USS America and the USS Blue Ridge are from Navy Environmental Preventative Medicine Unit 6 based out of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and work to facilitate and educate using preventive medicine practices and provide additional laboratory capabilities. The team embarked with USS Theodore Roosevelt is assigned to the Naval Medical Research Center based in Silver Spring, Maryland.

Currently, the teams are only authorized to perform surveillance testing and not individual testing. This means that the results cannot be linked to a particular patient for diagnostics, but would enable the team to detect COVID-19s presence on the ship based off of the results.

Since we are performing surveillance testing, the results of COVID-19 present, or not present can help inform the force health protection posture and provide valuable insight for the senior medical officer and outbreak response team, said Pavlicek.

The teams are equipped with two testing capabilities, including the BioFire Film Array and the Step One RT-PCR System. The BioFire Film Array will test for a dozen different respiratory diseases, while the Step One RT-PCR System allow for complex COVID-19 tests at sea, if necessary.

As the U.S. Navy's largest forward-deployed fleet, 7th Fleet operates roughly 50-70 ships and submarines and 140 aircraft with approximately 20,000 Sailors.

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Navy preventive medicine teams embark ships in 7th Fleet - navy.mil

PADUCAH Each day, more information comes out about COVID-19. It's hard to know what's fact and what's fiction.

Dr. J. Kyle Turnbo has been visiting the Local 6 studio to answer your questions about the virus. Turnbo is triple board certified in family, occupational and preventative medicine.

He was back in the studio on Monday to help us better understand the novel coronavirus. During Local 6 at Five, he joined Local 6 evening anchor Todd Faulkner.

Turnbo explained the difference between isolation and quarantine.

Isolation

Isolation is for sick people who have the disease. Patients are put in isolation to keep them away from healthy people.

It helps prevent the direct spread spread of the virus. The goal for people in isolation is to keep them from having any contact with other people that they could spread the disease to. They only come out of isolation when they are no longer contagious. Dr. Turnbo says for COVID-19, that time period is typically 14 days.

Quarantine

Quarantine is for people who are well but were potentially exposed, because they were in contact with someone who has been diagnosed with the virus. Those who self-quarantine are not confirmed to have the disease or have no symptoms. In quarantine, people keep themselves away from others as a precaution.

If you are quarantined at home, Turnbo says you should stay home, separate yourself from others in your household, call ahead before you show up to your doctor's office to tell your medical provider about your concerns and follow their advice, cover your coughs and sneezes, wash your hands thoroughly, avoid sharing germs and monitor your symptoms.

For our other Q&A sessions with the doctor, check out the links below.

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Dr. Turnbo explains the difference between isolation and quarantine - WPSD Local 6

(CNN) What are the telling signs that you may have the novel coronavirus, also known as Covid-19?

The main list of acute symptoms at this time is actually quite short and can appear anywhere from two to 14 days after exposure to the virus, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Were emphasizing fever plus a notable lower respiratory tract symptom cough or trouble breathing, said infectious disease expert Dr. William Schaffner, a professor of preventative medicine and infectious disease at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville.

CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE:

Being able to identify those symptoms and act upon them when necessary is critical. Heres what you need to know.

Fever is a key symptom, experts say. Dont fixate on a number, but know its really not a fever until your temperature reaches at least 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.7 degrees Celsius) for children and adults.

There are many misconceptions about fever. Average daily temperature is 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit (37 degrees Celsius), but we all actually go up and down quite a bit during the day as much as half of a degree or a degree, said Dr. John Williams, chief of the division of pediatric infectious diseases at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Childrens Hospital of Pittsburgh.

So 99.0 degrees or 99.5 degrees Fahrenheit is not a fever, he stressed.

When you check for fever, dont rely on a temperature taken in the morning. Instead take your temp in the late afternoon and early evening.

Our temperature is not the same during the day. If you take it at eight oclock in the morning, it may be normal, Schaffner explained.

One of the most common presentations of fever is that your temperature goes up in the late afternoon and early evening its a common way that viruses produce fever.

Coughing is another key symptom, but its not just any cough, said Schaffner. It should be a dry cough that you feel in your chest.

Its not a tickle in your throat. Youre not just clearing your throat. Its not just irritated. Youre not putting anything out, youre not coughing anything up, Schaffner said.

The cough is bothersome, its coming from your breastbone or sternum. and you can tell that your bronchial tubes are inflamed or irritated, he added.

Shortness of breath can be a third and very serious manifestation of Covid-19, and it can occur on its own, without a cough. If your chest becomes tight or you begin to feel as if you cannot breathe deeply enough to get a good breath, thats a sign to act, experts say.

If theres any shortness of breath immediately call your health care provider, a local urgent care or the emergency department, said American Medical Association president Dr. Patrice Harris.

If the shortness of breath is severe enough, you should call 911, Harris added.

In addition to difficulty breathing or shortness of breath, the CDC lists emergency warning signs for Covid-19 as a persistent pain or pressure in the chest, bluish lips or face which indicates a lack of oxygen and any sudden mental confusion or lethargy and inability to rouse.

Get medical attention immediately, the CDC says.

This trifecta of symptoms fever, cough and shortness of breath are not the only signs of sickness that have been seen in cases of Covid-19.

Many other symptoms can resemble the flu, including headaches, digestive issues, body aches and fatigue, which can be severe. Still other symptoms can resemble a cold or allergies, such as a runny nose, sore throat and sneezing.

Most likely, experts say, you simply have a cold or the flu after all they can cause fever and cough too. One possible sign that you might have Covid-19 is if your symptoms, especially shortness of breath, dont improve after a week or so but actually worsen.

At this moment, the current guidance and this may change is that if you have symptoms that are similar to the cold and the flu and these are mild symptoms to moderate symptoms, stay at home and try to manage them with rest, hydration and the use of Tylenol, Harris said.

That advice does not apply if you are over age 60, since immune systems weaken as we age, or if you are pregnant anyone with concerns about coronavirus should call their healthcare provider, according to the CDC.

Its unclear whether pregnant women have a greater chance of getting severely ill from coronavirus, but the CDC has said that women experience changes in their bodies during pregnancy that may increase their risk of some infections.

In general, Covid-19 infections are riskier if you have underlying health conditions such as diabetes, chronic lung disease or asthma, heart failure or heart disease, sickle cell anemia, cancer (or are undergoing chemotherapy), kidney disease with dialysis, a body mass index (BMI) over 40 (extremely obese) or an autoimmune disorder.

Older patients and individuals who have underlying medical conditions or are immunocompromised should contact their physician early in the course of even mild illness, the CDC advises.

To be clear, you are at higher risk even if you are young if you have underlying health issues.

People under 60 with underlying illnesses, with diabetes, heart disease, immunocompromised or have any kind of lung disease previously, those people are more vulnerable despite their younger age, Schaffner said.

A history of travel to an area where the novel coronavirus is widespread (and those parts of the world, including the US, are going up each day) is obviously another key factor in deciding if your symptoms may be Covid-19 or not.

If you have no symptoms, please do not ask for testing or add to backlog of calls at testing centers, clinics, hospitals and the like, experts say.

We do not test people with no symptoms because its a resource issue, Schaffner said about the assessment center at Vanderbilt.

However, we are emphasizing that people who have this small cluster of important symptoms fever and anything related to the lower respiratory tract such as cough and difficulty breathing reach out to be evaluated.

If you do have those three signs, where should you go?

If you have insurance and youre looking for a provider or someone to call or connect with, theres always a number on the back of your insurance card; or if you go online, there is information for patients, Harris said.

If you dont have insurance, you can start with the state health department or the local community health centers, those are officially known as federally qualified health centers, Harris advised, adding that some states have a 1-800 hotline number to call.

If there is a testing and assessment center near you, you can go there directly, Schaffer said. Its always good to notify them that youre coming. Otherwise, you need to call your healthcare provider and they will direct you what to do.

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LIST: Here Are The Symptoms Of Coronavirus And When To Seek Help - CBS Baltimore

Tired of washing your hands for 20 seconds each time? Fingers starting to prune or feel like sandpaper?

The world is counting on you to help stop the spread of Covid-19, the deadly new disease caused by SARS-CoV-2, or severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2.

Take heart that while you're scrubbing, you're also killing off a host of other nasty bacteria and potentially lethal viruses that have plagued humans for centuries -- including influenza and a number of different coronaviruses.

"There are four coronaviruses that circulate in humans regularly, almost every year," said virologist Dr. John Williams, chief of the division of pediatric infectious diseases at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh.

"And they mainly cause colds; in fact, they cause about a third of common colds. They don't kill people," he added.

Coronaviruses aren't the only nasty parasites that succumb to a vigorous application of soap and water. Influenza -- which kills millions around the world each year -- and the human metapneumovirus, which causes a respiratory infection that can lead to pneumonia, also break down and die.

How did such a simple thing as soap and warm water -- and alcohol-based sanitizers -- obtain such power over these parasites?

The answer lies in their "skin" and your scrubbing technique.

What soap and warm water do

Under the microscope, coronaviruses appear to be covered with pointy spires, giving them the appearance of having a crown or "corona" -- hence the name. Beneath the crown is the outer layer of the virus, which is made up of lipids, or what you and I would call fat.

Now imagine that coronavirus is your butter dish, covered with buttery fat.

"You try to wash your butter dish with water alone, but that butter is not coming off the dish," Williams explained. "You need some soap to dissolve grease. So soap or alcohol are very, very effective against dissolving that greasy liquid coating of the virus."

What does getting rid of that outer layer do to the germ?

"It physically inactivates the virus, so it can't bind to and enter human cells anymore," Wllliams said.

Just how soap accomplishes this feat is rather strange and fascinating science.

It's all about how soap molecules are formed -- each looks much like a tiny sperm, with a head and tail. The head bonds with water but the tail rejects it, preferring oil and fat.

Frantically trying to escape water, the tail of the soap is drawn to the fatty outer layer of the virus and begins to pry it open, much like we might use a crowbar to separate two pieces of wood.

Once the virus or bacteria splits open, it spills its guts into the soapy water and dies.

Water and scrubbing with your hands are important to this process because the combination creates more soap bubbles, which disrupt the chemical bonds that allow bacteria, viruses and other germs to stick to surfaces.

You want to scrub, build up bubbles and scrub some more, getting into every crack and crevice of your hands and fingers, including your fingernails, for 20 seconds, which is about as long as it takes to sing Happy Birthday twice. (But if you're tired of that ditty, there are songs from every decade you can sing instead.)

Now, when you rinse your hands, all the germs that have been hurt, trapped or killed by soap molecules are washed away.

"All those bubbles and foam ... literally pick germs up and wash them down the drain," said Dr. William Schaffner, a professor of preventative medicine and infectious disease at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville.

You often hear that the water you wash with should be warm, but why? After all, even hot water does not kill bacteria or viruses until you get to a temperature that would scald the skin.

"Cold water will work, but you have to make sure you work really vigorously to get a lather and get everything soapy and bubbly," said chemist Bill Wuest, an associate professor at Emory University who studies disinfectants.

To do that, you might need to sing "Happy Birthday" three times instead of two.

"Warm water with soap gets a much better lather, more bubbles," Wuest said. "It's an indication that the soap is ... trying to encapsulate the dirt and the bacteria and the viruses in them."

What alcohol-based sanitizers do

Alcohol-based hand sanitizers can be as effective as soap if they are used properly, Schaffner explained.

"They need to have at least 60% alcohol in them," Schaffner said. "It's the alcohol that's the virus killer."

Just putting a little dollop in the palm of your hand and wiping quickly isn't good enough, Schaffner said.

"You've got to use enough and get it all over the surfaces," he said. "Rub it all over your hands, between your fingers and on the back of your hands."

"That's because alcohol is a different chemical property," Wuest said. "It helps break up the germ membranes, but you need to make sure it gets into direct contact with the bacteria or virus."

But there are situations in which soap and water are best, Williams said, because of the ability of soap and water to trap and wash microorganisms away.

"Alcohol is pretty effective at killing germs, but it doesn't wash away stuff," he said. "So you know, if somebody's just sneezed into their hand, and their hand is covered with mucus, they would have to use a lot more alcohol to inactivate that bacteria or virus.

"So if somebody's hands are visibly or grossly contaminated, soap and water are better," Williams said.

That's especially important because there are nasty germs and bacteria out there that don't have soft, fatty bellies that soap bubbles can attack -- such as hepatitis A virus, poliovirus, meningitis and pneumonia.

So the next time you wash your hands for the umpteenth time, take pride in all those soapy bubbles you're creating -- and enjoy the pleasure of imagining those microscopic, dead creatures circle the drain.

Link:
Why soap, sanitizer and warm water work against Covid-19 and other viruses - The Albany Herald

What a year last week was! Life still resembles itself, but only vaguely. I vowed not to touch the V-I-R-U-S keys in preparing this weeks column. Obviously, my fingers and my brain are not in sync or maybe they are: here I am writing about the developments of a mindboggling week.

Complicating matters, during those jumbly, confusing days when symptoms of the coronavirus were incessantly enumerated on TV, in the print press, and on social media, I was fogged and clogged by a full-blown cold. Through a cloud of wadded-up tissues and cough drop wrappers, I washed my hands and wiped down surfaces, while alternating between the uncertain certainty of COVID-19 and the back-to-sanity realization that I was simply suffering the Shirley-version of the common cold.

Longer than I should have, I allowed myself to be almost mentally incapacitated by the all-coronavirus-all-day coverage of the cable news outlets and the wildly-varying overreactions and underreactions I found on Facebook. I felt dismay at the panic to which too many of us succumbed and anger at the selfishness of some. Even as I worried about our elderly population in the high-risk category, I had to repeatedly remind myself I am an elderly person in the high-risk category!

Then I happened upon a news briefing by Governor DeWine. He and Dr. Amy Acton, Director of the Ohio Department of Health, presented the latest and most essential information I had heard anywhere in a calm but compelling manner. At that point, I took control of my media exposure, determining to listen to their daily 2 PM briefing as my major source of information along with one evening newscast for perspective.

I feel fortunate that our governor has surrounded himself with a team of medical professionals with whom he digs for facts. As reported in the UDC, Mike DeWine has been ahead of other elected officials across the nation, basing his approach to COVID-19 on the successful, life-saving approach of St. Louis during the deadly Spanish influenza of 1918.

My feelings of good fortune continue each time I listen to Dr. Acton speak. Armed with degrees in preventative medicine and public health, this mother of six has moved beyond the debacle testing has become in attempting to flatten the curve, in preparation for the surge yet to come: when hospital facilities and their limited supplies of personal protective equipment may very well be overwhelmed. Dr. Acton explains well, makes crucial points, talks down to no one, is clearheaded and forthright. By the way, two previous holders of her position were a lawyer and a marketing director.

Based on events of this past week, I agree with Governor DeWines assessment of his fellow Ohioans: We are resilient. We will rally. We will make it. When the governor closed the schools, administrations jumped into action to formulate delivery systems of breakfasts and lunches to their students. Unencumbered by state red tape, teaching staffs designed online lessons for their own students. All manner of websites popped up with virtual safaris and drawing lessons. When the governor closed dine-in restaurants, Facebook filled with carry-out and delivery instructions from local eateries. Some stores have established elderly-only shopping hours.

And we have so many heroes to support: as always, we thank the first-responders, but also the truck drivers and farmers as well as every healthcare professional willing to risk serving under the most difficult of conditions, many of which are yet to occur.

Sometimes the little things become even more important. There was a Facebook photo of a son visiting his father at the nursing home, each on either side of a window chatting on their cell phones. Another picture showed a little boy playing tic-tac-toe with his elderly neighbor on two sides of a glass door with grease pencils on a board outlined by painters tape. Snowbird friends of mine returning from Florida noted electronic billboards in every state recommending limited travel to stop the spread of COVID-19. Only in Ohio did they see the additional message of: We are all in this together.

I checked in with Ingrid in Germany, where toilet paper is also in short supply. She will not, for the foreseeable future, babysit for her granddaughters. Our conversation reminded me of my reason for promoting international exchange: people in all countries are much more similar than different. Residents of most nations have experienced/are experiencing/will experience COVID-19. Perhaps through sharing fears, concerns, and solutions with our global neighbors, we can all move a little closer to sharing in other areas of life on our planet.

At home, my Great-Depression-survivor father often criticized our pickiness about food: You are too well fed. His phrase eventually stretched to cover a general lack of appreciation for all that we have. For many, these extraordinary times are thus far an exercise in inconvenience although true sacrifice and shortage may be just down the road a piece. I recalled my fathers assessment, when a former student suggested the merely inconvenienced remember people whose lives are at stake, those with childcare flexibility remember people with no options, those of us settling in for quarantine remember people who have no home.

I think, however, that for the next weeks and months or however long this new normal continues for that amount of time I will hold on to the oft-repeated words of my mother: This, too, shall pass.

Shirley Scott, a 1966 graduate of Graham High School, is a native of Champaign County. After receiving degrees in English and German from Otterbein College, she returned to GHS in 1970 where she taught until retiring in 2010. From 1976-2001 she coordinated the German Exchange Program with the Otto-Hahn-Gymnasium in Springe.

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Facing it all together - Urbana Daily Citizen

The chatter about a promising drug to fight Covid-19 started, as chatter often does (but science does not), on Twitter. A blockchain investor named James Todaro tweeted that an 85-year-old malaria drug called chloroquine was a potential treatment and preventative against the disease caused by the new coronavirus. Todaro linked to a Google doc hed cowritten, explaining the idea.

Plus: How can I avoid catching it? Is Covid-19 more deadly than the flu? Our in-house Know-It-Alls answer your questions.

Though nearly a dozen drugs to treat coronavirus are in clinical trials in China, just oneremdesivir, an antiviral that was in trials against Ebola and the coronavirus MERSis in full-on trials in the US. Nothing has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. So a promising drug would be greatand even better, chloroquine isnt new. Its use dates back to World War II, and its derived from the bark of the chinchona tree, like quinine, a centuries-old antimalarial. That means the drug is now generic and is relatively cheap. Physicians understand it well, and theyre allowed to prescribe it for anything they want, not just malaria.

Todaros tweet got thousands of likes. The engineer/tech world picked up the idea. The widely-read blog Stratechery linked to Todaros Google document; Ben Thompson, the blogs editor, wrote that he was wholly unqualified to comment but that the anecdotal evidence favored the idea. Echoing the document, Thompson wrote that the paper was written in consultation with Stanford Medical School, the University of Alabama at Birmingham medical school, and National Academy of Sciences researchersnone of which is exactly true. (More on that in a bit.) One of Todaros coauthors, a lawyer named Gregory Rigano, went on Fox News to talk about the concept. Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeted about it, citing an explanatory YouTube video from a physician whos been doing a series of coronavirus explainers. To be fair, Musk wasnt all-in on the idea absent more data, though he wrote that hed received a life-saving dose of chloroquine for malaria.

Its the definition of big if true. Part of the story of Covid-19, of the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, is that it is novel. Humans dont have any immunity to it. Theres no vaccine, no drug approved to treat it. But if a drug did existif a cheap, easy drug can stave off the worst, ventilator-requiring, sometimes-fatal complications of coronavirus infection, or maybe prevent that infection in the first place, what are we all socially isolating for, like suckers?

That ifas the saying goesis doing a lot of work. The Covid-19 pandemic is causing, reasonably, a worldwide freak-out as scientists and policymakers race to find solutions, not always competently or efficiently. Its the kind of thing that rankles the engineer-disruptor mindset. Surely this must be an easily solved problem thats primarily the fault of bureaucracy, regulation, and people who dont understand science. And maybe the first two things are true. The third thing, though, is where the risks hide. Silicon Valley lionizes people who rush toward solutions and ignore problems; science is designed to find solutions by identifying those problems. The two approaches are often incompatible.

What happened here, specifically, is that Rigano sought Todaro out. Todaros tweet identified Rigano as being affiliated with Johns Hopkins; Riganos LinkedIn profile says hes on leave from a masters degree program there in bioinformatics, and has been an advisor to a program at Stanford called SPARK, which does translational drug discoveryfinding new uses and applications for approved drugs. I have a very unique background at the crossroads of law and science, Rigano tells me. I have been working with large pharmaceutical companies, universities, biotechs, and nonprofits in the development of drugs and medical products. He says those contacts told him about the use of chloroquine against Covid-19 in China and South Korea, so he started reading up on it.

(Johns Hopkins did not return a request for comment; a spokesperson for Stanford Medical School emails: Stanford Medicine, including SPARK, wasnt involved in the creation of the Google document, and weve requested that the author remove all references to us. In addition, Gregory Rigano is not an advisor with Stanford School of Medicine and no one at Stanford was involved in the study.)

It turns out that people have been pitching chloroquine as an antiviral for years. In the early 1990s researchers proposed it as an adjunct to early protease inhibitor drugs to help treat HIV/AIDS. A team led by Stuart Nichol, the head of the Special Pathogens Unit at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, published a paper in 2005 saying that the drug was effective against primate cells infected with SARS, the first big respiratory coronavirus to affect humans. Thats an in vitro test, not live animalsjust cells.

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Chloroquine May Fight Covid-19and Silicon Valleys Into It - WIRED

Israel's inability to handle a pandemic crisis was known prior to the global outbreak of the coronavirus, according to information published Monday by the State Comptroller.The report focused on the possibility of an influenza pandemic but showed that Israel was not ready to fight any pandemic, including the novel coronavirus, while highlighting the countrys lack of strategic planning. Before the outbreak of the current pandemic, hospital occupancy rates in Israel were already the highest in the developed world, while its mortality rates from infectious diseases, which doubled in the past two decades alone, are not only higher than in every other developed country, they are 73% higher than the second-ranked country, said Prof. Dan Ben-David, president and founder of the Shoresh Institution for Socioeconomic Research and a faculty member at Tel Aviv Universitys Department of Public Policy. The healthcare system has been under-budgeted for many years, medical staff and all other resources were overloaded even before the pandemic, added Dr. Yotam Rosner, head of Information, Research and Development for Physicians for Human Rights. So, we are not fully prepared to handle the coronavirus.In general, the state comptroller report highlighted the lack of intensive care beds, medical staff and equipment, which would enable effective treatment in the case of a pandemic, and bolster capabilities to manage other major outbreaks. It also showed that hospitals are overcrowded year-round.The prime minister was quick to respond that the report is irrelevant to the current coronavirus outbreak, as there has been no such event in the last century and no country in the world could have predicted or prepared for the spread of the virus, while claiming that under his tenure the health system in Israel has been significantly improved. But Rosner said that the report sheds a bright light on Israels unreadiness for this epidemic. He said that some people have referred to the novel coronavirus as a black swan, though the coronavirus is not one. Rosner said that these types of epidemics occur in cycles around three times each century and health professionals know that. The report acknowledged that the system is overloaded, which we have said many, many times and means that there are no reserves whatsoever in hospital beds or ventilation machines and which means that effectively when we do have address this pandemic, everything else has to be stopped and delayed because now you need to direct all your medical staff toward this pandemic.Israel quickly postponed all voluntary medical procedures and cancelled any non-essential surgeries or other health visits. Moreover, Rosner explained that public healthcare does not center only around hospitals and clinics but also preventative medicine, public awareness and health literacy, all of which the report indicated were challenges. For example, the report indicated that during the recent global measles outbreak in 2018-2019, Israel had the seventh highest morbidity rate worldwide. Some 60% of 4,300 infected individuals were children aged up to nine years old. Three Israeli citizens died during the outbreak.Moreover, following a growing trend of anti-vaccine sentiment, the Health Ministry estimates that a total of 1.1%-1.7% of the population is not vaccinated against measles today, compared to 0.6% in 2011. During the recent measles outbreak, among infected patients aged between two and 19 years old, at least 49% were children of vaccine refusers. Half of all those infected were residents of Jerusalem, of which 80% were from the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community.Rosner said that communication between all minorities and subcultures and the Health Ministry is lacking and therefore all the populations that are in the periphery of society were even less prepared and the government is struggling to obtain their adherence. The level of health literacy is low, which means they are not following the guidelines, even ones that are crucial for them to follow, Rosner said. Their level of accessibility to the Health Ministry and their ability to prepare for quarantine is very low.For example, quarantine requires that people have a separate room for anyone infected or potentially infected, which does not exist for many communities and it is unclear what alternatives exist for them.Many in the Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) and Arab communities have ignored government directives to remain at home and police have been used multiple times to break up large gatherings by members of these communities. Rosner said that there is no strategic planning in healthcare and he compared it to the Defense Ministry, which recently released a five-year strategic plan that consists of its vision and goals. One of the reasons for that is that the budget is so small for the HMOs that they are already so overloaded and all of their financial resources are for the here and now and not for what is needed in five or 10 of 15 years, which could be a pandemic, he said.According to Rosner, every year the HMOs have to appeal to the Finance Ministry for additional funding just to pay for their day-to-day operations.Investing in a 10- or 15-year plan or innovation or infrastructure? It is almost difficult to imagine, he said. Health Ministry Direct-General Moshe Bar Siman Tov promised to study the comptroller report and learn from it. In the meantime, as Ben-David explained, We shut the country down to deal with something that we neglected for decades.

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Israels inability to handle coronavirus known before pandemic arrived - The Jerusalem Post

On Monday, outraged Egyptians took to social media to decry those poisoning stray cats and dogs on the streets as well as owners who are abandoning their pets over fears of coronavirus transmission, but, putting the inhumanity and cruelty of these practices aside, does this claim hold?

Well, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), since the beginning of the outbreak, there has been only two instances in Hong Kong, where a dog was infected; however, further investigation showed that there is no evidence that a dog or a cat can transmit COVID-19.

When a 17-year-old Pomeranian in Hong Kong tested weakly positive, the internet exploded in fear. The dog was promptly quarantined, where it showed no symptoms of the infection. Another dog living in the same house was examined over a period of time, and it consistently tested negative, suggesting perhaps that COVID-19 is not transmittable from a canine host. Three days after the dog tested negative and was released from isolation, it died.

Dr. Dana Varble, chief veterinary officer for theNorth American Veterinary Community, believes that the exact cause of death can not be determined because there was no autopsy. She made note of the dogs old age and its multiple underlying health conditions.

Another dog in Hong Kong, a German Shepherd this time, tested positive for the COVID-19; however, it is worth mentioning that a mixed-breed dog at the same house tested negative, and that both dogs showed no symptoms of the illness.

Experts all over the world are reassuring the public that humans cannot get the virus from pets; according to a CNN interview with Dr. William Schaffner, a professor of preventative medicine and infectious disease at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, the current data on our hands shows that the coronavirus is not spreading among pets or farm animals.

A recent study tested thousands of cats and dogs for the coronavirus and found no positive results. Therefore, scientists are assuming that the possibility of dogs and cats contracting the illness is extremely low.

Another healthcare concern raises the question of whether a pets fur could be contaminated by the virus, if, for instance, an infected person sneezed on it. Well, since there is a lot we do not know about this virus, experts are recommending that owners should not get in contact with other peoples pets and keep their own household companions away from other pets and owners. A rule of thumb is to apply the rules of social distancing to pets as well.

But should we stop petting our own dogs altogether? Dr. John Williams, chief of the division of pediatric infectious diseases at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Childrens Hospital of Pittsburgh, told CNN that it is uncalled for.

Embrace your pets, Williams advised. Pets play a vital psycho-psychological role for their owners, specially now when everybodys feeling so isolated and alone.

In Egypt, a rumor that stray animals transmit COVID-19 has pushed some owners to abandon their pets and the uninformed to poison strays. Heartwarming images and videos of house cats lost on the streets and dogs looking for their owners were more than enough to spark outrage all over social media.

Sherine Hamdy, Tv Presenter of the show ON SET on ON TV, appeared on an IGTV video scolding owners abandoning their pets and informing the public that based on the current data, we do not have any reason to believe that pets transmit COVID-19. Her video shows how heartbreaking it is to think of all these helpless animals either dying or getting stranded because of a baseless rumor.

To all pet owners out there, choosing to have a pet is a sacred responsibility. Once you allow an animal into your house, you are their shelter, abandoning them on the streets is a death sentence; household animals do not have the skill set to survive on their own after spending a lifetime well fed and cared for.

As for the uninformed poisoning the streets, well, there are animal welfare laws, but unfortunately, these are, in most cases, not applied. It is a responsibility on the rest of us to raise awareness and spread the truth about these lovely animals; either way, if enough of us are voice are outrage, maybe the message will get across.

WE SAID THIS: Speaking of animals, here is a list of shelters in case you know about any pets in need!

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To Those Abandoning Their Pets During the Pandemic, Cats and Dogs DO NOT Transmit the Virus - SCOOP EMPIRE

COVID-19, better known as coronavirus, has trampled its way across Asia, swept through Europe and, to much Americans dismay, touched down in the USA.

As of March 16, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported cases in 49 states with a total of 3,487 infected persons and 68 deaths.

With cases popping up across the country and social media spreading some of the pandemics darkest rumors and conspiracies, its no surprise citizens are stocking up on hand sanitizer and hoarding face masks and toilet paper. But are these measures enough to ward off a community outbreak and stop future transmissions?

To answer this question, its important to first understand who among the population is at risk.

According to the CDC, early information out of China shows that some people are at higher risk for serious illness than others. Those people are older adults and people who have serious chronic medical conditions like heart disease, diabetes, and lung disease. Studies show young, healthy persons may not be as susceptible to COVID-19; an unsettling twist for scientists considering asymptomatic persons may be unknowingly spreading the disease within their communities.

Everyone thinks that theyre going to die if they catch it (COVID-19) but thats just not true, said Dr. Robert Finberg, chair of the Department of Medicine at UMass Memorial Medical Center and UMass Medical School in Worcester. Healthy young people are not at high risk. Its the elderly, specifically those over 80, and those with severe immune dysfunctions, who are dying. Its our responsibility as a community to protect them.

People are becoming overly consumed about self-preservation when, in reality, the data shows illness will be mild for the majority who get sick, Finberg said.

UMass Memorials biggest concern is there will not be enough resources should everyone flock to the hospital when they develop symptoms.

We simply dont have enough beds, said Finberg about UMass Memorial Medical Group. We are recommending that people who are not in high-risk groups (young people) not come to the hospital if they think they have the virus.

This may seem like a contradictory statement, coming from a healthcare facility, but its one that is being echoed across the country. According to the CDC, people who are mildly ill should be isolated at home for the duration of their illness and only seek medical attention should symptoms worsen.

So, what should young, non-immunocompromised people do to ward off sickness and prepare for an outbreak?

Wash your hands! Gosh, we are taught this in kindergarten! says Angela Wilson, clinical microbiology instructor at Old Dominion University in Virginia.

Wash your hands and keep them away from your mouth, nose, eyes, and portals of entry. Stay away from those who are infected and dont touch contaminated surfaces, Wilson said.

As face masks continue to fly off the shelf, a global shortage is predicted to only get worse. This is a serious problem for medical personnel who rely on masks to prevent viral spread. However, contrary to popular thought, masks are not recommended as a preventative measure, and the CDC does not advise healthy people to wear them.

If youre healthy, it doesnt really make sense, said Finberg. If you get the virus on your hands and then adjust the mask therefore touching your face you are effectively bypassing the mask and rendering it useless. If youre not washing your hands, the face mask wont help you.

If youre sick, a mask could help contain the spread, but its not something that we are recommending healthy people go out and buy, said Finberg.

Besides handwashing, another way to protect yourself from contracting COVID-19 is to be cognizant of what youre touching.

CDC suggests whenever possible to avoid high-touch surfaces in public places and to practice routine cleaning of frequently touched surfaces within your home. Surfaces like doorknobs, light switches, handles, faucets, sinks and cell phones.

To ensure youre cleaning with the right products, the Center for Biocide Chemistries has produced a list of COVID-19 Fighting Products. This list, which can be found on the CDCs website as well as on the American Chemistry Councils website, includes brands such as Purell, Clorox, Lysol, and Simple Green regulated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

This is a voluntary listing of products that are EPA regulated, said Komal Jain, executive director of the Center for Biocide Chemistries. The EPA sets forth criteria that says these companies must provide data proving that the product destroys a virus that is harder to kill than COVID-19.

According to the American Chemistry Council, viruses can be generally categorized into three groups, according to the structure. Coronaviruses are enveloped viruses, meaning they are one of the easiest types of viruses to kill. All of the fighting products on the COVID-19 Fighting Products list have been proven strong enough to neutralize the virus.

Despite preventative action, the pandemic of COVID-19 has reached our borders and, collectively, health professionals are all saying the same thing communal outbreaks are inevitable.

The number countries are on the CDCs Avoid Non-essential Travel list has risen to about 30, including China, Iran, Italy, and South Korea. Most recently, the U.S. Department of State advised U.S. travelers, particularly those with underlying health issues, avoid cruise ship travel.

Considering the risk of a localized outbreak, the CDC recommends all persons take the below immediate preparedness steps:

Its important to stay calm, said Wilson. The word outbreak tends to breed panic. This is an old virus, but its spreading in a new way. People need to keep things in perspective, keeping in mind that those who are not faring well would also not fare well against the flu virus, but no one is talking about that.

The disease is currently thought to spread via respiratory droplets, warranting precautions against COVID-19 should mimic that of seasonal flu prevention. Consistent handwashing, habitual disinfecting of frequently touched surfaces, and, within reason, avoidance of public gatherings, is the best way to protect yourself from getting sick.

This is not the apocalypse, said Finberg. But it is an unfortunate pandemic that we are going to suffer through. We are asking that people focus on protecting their older relatives, especially those who are infirm. Focus on sanitation, that is whats vital.

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Protect and prepare: As coronavirus spreads, health officials urge people to be smart and think about how their actions impact others - Worcester...