PPE and pestilence: The origins of medical masks Agence France Presse
If I had only a few books that I could read for the rest of my life, I would want one to be Ted Kooser’s Winter Morning Walks. As the title suggests, the poems in this collection record the experience of one season in a year of Kooser’s life. For this poet, the season was literal as well as metaphorical, and it can be so for the reader, as well. While we are currently surrounded by the beauty of spring, we’re also in the middle of a kind of winter we have not experienced before.
Spared
“Every literature possesses, besides its great national gallery, a cabinet of minor pieces, not less perfect in their polish, possibly more so. In reality, the characteristic of this class is elaborate perfection—the point of inferiority is not in the finishing, but in the compass and power of the original creation, which (however exquisite in its class) moves within a smaller sphere.”
A cabinet of minor pieces
What is the “clean hand, dirty hand” technique? Penn State University video – “CIDD’s Dr. Beth McGraw explains the concept of “clean hand, dirty hand,” a useful tactic that can help you keep potential contaminants away from your clean personal areas. To see more coronavirus questions answered by experts at the Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics, submit a question of your own, or learn how you can do your part to #flattenthecurve, visit http://askcidd.psu.edu.”
Spared
“Every literature possesses, besides its great national gallery, a cabinet of minor pieces, not less perfect in their polish, possibly more so. In reality, the characteristic of this class is elaborate perfection—the point of inferiority is not in the finishing, but in the compass and power of the original creation, which (however exquisite in its class) moves within a smaller sphere.”
A cabinet of minor pieces
What is the “clean hand, dirty hand” technique? Penn State University video – “CIDD’s Dr. Beth McGraw explains the concept of “clean hand, dirty hand,” a useful tactic that can help you keep potential contaminants away from your clean personal areas. To see more coronavirus questions answered by experts at the Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics, submit a question of your own, or learn how you can do your part to #flattenthecurve, visit http://askcidd.psu.edu.”
Economist data journalist James Tozer via Twitter – “NEW, FREE DATA: We have just published the code and data behind our excess mortality tracker on Github. We believe this is the first public resource to provide this information, and we hope academics and journalists can use it for their research https://github.com/TheEconomis t/covid-19-excess-deaths- tracker. For several weeks @martgnz and myself have been cleaning, analysing and presenting this data on our tracking page @TheEconomist, which provides interactive charts and is free to read. Excess deaths are now being widely used to analyse the covid-19 pandemic, as the most comparable measure across countries. But as @MaxCRoser pointed out yesterday, none of this data has been turned into a public resource yet. Eagle-eyed readers might note that we have several countries in our Github repo that are not included yet on the tracking article page @TheEconomist. We are redesigning the page and will be launching it next week. I will be keeping this repository updated throughout the pandemic. If you have any suggestions, either for things to change or countries to add, please email me: jamestozer@economist.com.”
ABSURD DECISION
Benin investigative
journalist Ignace Sossou remains in jail over a factual tweet today. His
sentence was reduced from 12 to six months, but his fine was increased to $800
– ten times the average monthly salary of a journalist in Benin! His lawyers are
outraged, and say the “absurd” decision “testifies to a
serious attack on the freedom of the press.”
ANOTHER EPIDEMIC
There is fresh hope for
sugar cane workers, and other laborers, that small changes can yield
life-saving health benefits after a new study found a worker safety program –
consisting of rest, water, and shade – reduced the rate
of chronic kidney disease by more than 70%. Jason Glaser, one of
the study’s authors, said the results showed the effectiveness of worker safety
measures in tackling a mysterious illness that has killed tens of thousands – a
lesson that could be applied to the coronavirus.
ALLERGAN WARNED
The United States health
authority has issued a warning
to breast implant manufacturer Allergan for not properly conducting post-market
studies. Allergan did not meet standards for recruiting and following up with
patients, which included a type of implant that was recalled last year due to
cancer risks. Allergan announced a recall of its Biocell products in the wake
of our Implant Files investigation.
PUNISH CHINA
U.S. lawmakers want to sanction Chinese
officials deemed responsible for human rights abuses against
Uighurs and other ethnic minorities. The bill was approved by the Senate last
week, but must go back to the House of Representatives before hitting President
Donald Trump’s desk. It would give the administration 180 days to identify officials
responsible for mass internment camps and other abuses in China’s northwestern
Xinjiang Province.
MISINFORMATION STORM
One of our Ecuadorian
members, Arturo Torres, and his team at Código Vidrio have been investigating
the use of social media to manipulate public opinion. At the head of one
operation they found former president Rafael Correa. Correa has since targeted
Torres on Twitter, condemning the findings. But the work has inspired a
national campaign against misinformation in Ecuador with residents
taking to the streets.
A heartwarming and interesting “CBS Sunday Morning” piece
about “CBS This Morning’s” Tony Dokoupil and MSNBC’s Katy Tur, a married couple
both doing their TV shows from their home basement makeshift studio while
taking care of their 1-year-old.’
The Washington Post’s
Ariana Eunjung Cha and Chelsea Janes with “The Girl Who Died Twice” — the story of a
12-year-old who survived two heart attacks that might have been caused by the
coronavirus.
With somber photos
from Philip Montgomery and text by Maggie Jones, The New York Times Magazine
asks, “How Do You Maintain Dignity for the Dead in a Pandemic?”
Are coronavirus deaths
in the U.S. undercounted or overcounted? Appearing on ABC’s “This Week,” FiveThirtyEight founder Nate Silver gives his thoughts.