onfocus

“New York needs more ventilators, and we are answering their call for help,” Brown wrote. “We’ll be sending 140 ventilators to help NY because Oregon is in a better position right now. We must do all that we can to help those on the front lines of this response.”

Very happy to see this! I could read stories like this or this or this all day.

"If we lift the restrictions and risk rising cases again without being prepared in our hospitals, we have the potential to expose our doctors and nurses to the same thing that they’re going through now—which is basically a crisis. In many places, they’re not well protected or they’re running out of equipment. So we need to make sure that the supply-chain problems have been sorted out before we begin to experiment with lifting social distancing."

This is a Johns Hopkins health security expert on how we get to less physical distancing. And on wearing masks:

"This is an unprecedented epidemic, and we should be leaning toward doing things even if we’re unsure of their full benefit. If the downside is perceived to be low, and there’s demand for an additional preventative benefit, I think we should do it."

We have a ways to go.

Improvised filters with household materials. Short answer: pillowcases and t-shirts work best.

"By the end of the month, wearing a face mask should be like wearing a shirt—a routine social behavior that is expected of everyone and gets you weird looks if you don't do it."

Yes, time for masks! I just made my first mask today and I can barely sew.

"People actually do need to buy significantly more toilet paper during the pandemic — not because they’re making more trips to the bathroom, but because they’re making more of them at home."

This is more than I ever thought I’d need to know about toilet paper supply chain logistics. This is useful for thinking about other shortages we have now too.

"H-2A workers have been deemed essential by the government, and should be allowed to work in the United States. These workers don't seem to be avoiding coming to the United States for fear of catching Covid-19 — the economic incentive is just too large to give up, Carr said. But workers may eventually decide it's too risky to enter the United States."

Interesting look at how agriculture could be disrupted.

Tests to detect antibodies will also be able to identify those who have had infections in the past and may now be immune. In the short term, this will be important because it will permit the authorities to identify who may return to their jobs without risk of infecting others.

This is good news.

"With an immunization specifically targeted against the pandemic-causing Covid-19 disease at least a year away, the World Health Organization says it’s important to know whether the BCG vaccine can reduce disease in those infected with the coronavirus, and is encouraging international groups to collaborate with a study led by Nigel Curtis, head of infectious diseases research, at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute in Melbourne."

Encouraging research.

"The third scenario is that the world plays a protracted game of whack-a-mole with the virus, stamping out outbreaks here and there until a vaccine can be produced. This is the best option, but also the longest and most complicated."

If you haven’t read this one yet it’s worth your time. The Atlantic has consistently had the best reporting and thinking about this from the beginning.

“This is a really dire situation statewide and I was really impressed by how OSU responded,” said Mike Bamberger, Oregon State University’s emergency preparedness manager. “We gathered everything from a single box of gloves to a pallet of them. University programs really stepped up at a time of great need.”

Happy to see Oregon State contributing resources like this!

"Illustrators and designers know the power of good design to communicate a message or a feeling or an idea," Morris explained. Right now everything is changing so fast, and there is so much uncertainty and so much information flying around, I think everyone is really hungry for clarity and understanding.

I've seen these illustrations all over social media but it didn't register they were by the same team: cartoonist Toby Morris and microbiologist Siouxsie Wiles. These are great!

"Our primitive mind knows something bad is happening, but you can’t see it. This breaks our sense of safety. We’re feeling that loss of safety. I don’t think we’ve collectively lost our sense of general safety like this. Individually or as smaller groups, people have felt this. But all together, this is new. We are grieving on a micro and a macro level."

This message about grief was good to hear and something I need to keep in mind.