Category: Worldwide

One of the biggest issues in treating those affected by COVID-19 is a lack of medical equipment. Italy, the country second hardest-hit by the pandemic, has faced shortages in equipment and hospital beds.

This puts doctors in the terrible position of having to decide who gets treatment and who does not.

One of the most important tools in the fight against COVID-19 are ventilators.

“A ventilator is a fairly fancy piece of technological equipment which is designed to breathe for somebody who is unable to breathe effectively on their own,” David Hill, a pulmonologist who sits on the board of the American Lung Association, said according to PBS.

In severe cases of COVID-19, a patient’s lungs become inflamed and filled with fluid which makes it difficult for them to breathe and oxygenate their blood.

A ventilator could mean the difference between life and death.

Due to the shortage of ventilator masks in northern Italy, a doctor reached out to Cristian Fracassi and Alessandro Romaioli, engineers at Isinnova, a 3-D printing company, with the idea of making masks out of scuba equipment.

In just three hours, the engineers created a prototype for a 3-D printed valve that successfully converts the scuba gear into a ventilator mask.

“We had never made valves before, but we wanted to help,” they said according to The Independent.

The engineers then reached out to French sporting goods retailer Decathlon to see if they could use the Subea Easybreath snorkeling mask for the project. The company was “immediately willing to cooperate.”

The first fully-working prototype was tested at the Chiari Hospital and proven to be effective. After the successful test, the engineers printed 100 more valves.

The engineers quickly patented the valve, but then made the 3-D printing files free so anyone with a printer can produce them during the crisis. “We clarify that our initiative is totally non-profit, we will not obtain any royalties on the idea of the link, nor on the sales of Decathlon masks,” the engineers said.

The valves cost about a dollar to make according to The Independent.

via Cristian Fracassi / YouTube

While the engineers are proud of their success in creating the ventilator masks, they stress they are just a stop-gap solution.

“We are reiterating that the idea is designed for healthcare facilities and wants to help in realization of an emergency mask in the case of a full-blown difficult situation, where is not possible to in find official healthcare supplies,” the engineers said.

Neither the mask nor the link are certified and their use is subject to a situation of mandatory need,” they continued. “Usage by the patient is subjected to the acceptance of use of an uncertified biomedical device, by providing a signed declaration.”

The engineers at Isinnova are a fantastic example of the powerful ways that out-of-the-box thinking combined with partnerships between healthcare and outside industries can help us get through the pandemic.

As the U.S. slogs through the second week of widespread social distancing, many of us are feeling the impact of cabin fever and near-constant family togetherness. For many families, the past 10 days have felt like a combo of “Yay, more quality family time!” and “OMG, more social distance in this house, please.”

We’re also all looking for bright lights of joy in the midst of all the pandemic uneasiness and uncertainty and the Starkey family in Denver, Colorado has provided some of that joy this week.

Chris Starkey posted a video to Facebook on Monday of himself and his daughter Brooklyn doing a dance-off to Flo Rida’s “Low”—and it’s unexpectedly awesome. Starkey wrote, “My daughter challenged me to a dance off and said I don’t have it anymore. See that closet in the back she is still crying in it!!!” So much silly shade thrown around in this family, it’s delightful.

When you see their fun banter and Starkey’s middle-aged-man moves, you’ll see why the video has been shared more than 280,000 times in two days. Starkey wrote in a comment that the reaction has brought tears to his eyes and encourages everyone to “Give back to your community” right now. He also says another video will be coming on Monday.

Excellent. We need this kind of levity right now more than ever.

Are people in your community being vigilant about the social distance measures we’re being asked to practice?

If you just peer out your windows or walk around your neighborhood, it’s hard to get an accurate gauge. Perhaps that close group of people you see is a family who lives together getting some fresh air, or maybe they’re friends rebelliously gathering in public. The two guys you saw smoking off the same joint and then shaking hands with a random person on the street (true story) could be indicators of widespread ignorance, or they may just be a few fluke fools.

Unfortunately, it will be weeks before we can determine by infection numbers how well our social distancing measures have worked. But in the meantime, we have data that can give us an idea of how well people are following the directives to stay home and away from other people as much as possible.

Unacast is a company that uses smartphone GPS and mapping tools to track human activity for various data usage. (The founders originally wanted to find out where people went to concerts so they could create a better user experience for their music-streaming service in Norway.) And thanks to the ubiquity of cell phones with GPS and no one reading the fine print on where that information goes, they’ve created a tool to track whether or not people are socially distancing the way they should be.

To simplify the data, they’ve created an interactive map that’s updated daily called the Covid-19 Social Distancing Scoreboard. According to how people’s movement changes, they give each state and county a letter grade to let people know how social distance measures are being followed.

The county-specific information is helpful, especially in large states. My state gets a nice solid B, for example, but my county gets a big old F. Lovely.

Unacast.com

One thing that keeps coming up in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic is the need for data. Who has the virus? Where are they located? How long have they been contagious? Who have they been in contact with?

Without data, we are flying blind. And though social distancing is just one piece of the puzzle, having a data-driven picture of where people are practicing it and where people aren’t can help us know where we need to get the word out and perhaps even where to look for potential hot spots in the near future.

Click here to access the interactive map and see how social distancing is going in your community.

Under normal circumstances, hand-washing would make a boring topic for a video, but in the age of pandemic hyper-hygiene simple soap and water scrubbing has taken on a whole new pertinence. Add in a taste of Alton Brown’s entertaining way of educating, and suddenly a video about something we’ve all (hopefully) done every single day of our lives becomes downright fun and informative family programming.

The “No Cleaver!” reference in the title apparently alludes to a previous version of this video, which involved a cleaver and some sort of grizzly ending. No idea. But this version is excellent, highly informative, and yet simple enough for anyone to understand. I’m not sure that I’ve ever learned these details about how basic soap and water work to destroy and remove viruses from your hands, despite spending four decades of my life soaping up and rinsing off, so even if you know you’re supposed to wash your hands, this video helps drive home exactly why and how it works.

He also shows a helpful 30-second hand-washing demonstration. Show the kids. Tell them it’ll turn them into a life-saving superhero. (Which might actually be true right now.)

Enjoy:

AB’s Hand Washing Demo: No Cleaver!

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Well-written parodies are gold, but they can be hard to come by. Everyone and their at-risk-for-coronavirus grandma thinks they’re a great parody writer, but only a chosen few can pull it off successfully.

Enter Twitter user @daniAWESOME. She wrote a near-perfect coronavirus parody of Bare Naked Ladies’ “One Week,” and posted it on Twitter. (Of note: She doesn’t have a huge Twitter following, but she IS being followed by President Barack Obama—for real—so well done, sister. ALLL the high fives.)

She generously invited whoever felt inclined to put the lyrics to music, and someone named Pepper Coyote took her up on it. Ah, the beauty of social media. Twitter can be a cesspool, but then incredible gems like this come out of it.

Here are the full lyrics so you can sing it on your own, followed by the video rendition. (A few of the verses have been changed a bit in the recorded version, but it’s great.)

It’s Been

Five days since you FaceTimed me

Saying
Be symptom free or don’t come and see me

Three days since the living room
Became my office
and work moved onto all Zoom

Yesterday you’d abandoned me
But it’ll still be two months till we get to be free

Wash your hands in the kitchen sink
Don’t wanna be the link
That gives Corona to your fellow man

I don’t have snacks but I wish
I had stocked up on tuna fish
I cleared my pantry
Well before the worst had yet began

Don’t run your errands during peak times
Use Amazon Prime
As long as postal service comes through

Good thing we still have Netflix
Barnett’s a dipshit
Love may be Blind but it is dumb too

Gonna be a flake and skip spring break
Because Miami’s an outbreak
Full of sick college kids whose conduct could be safer

Gotta stop the shows
Cause if they go
Then the Pandemic’s gonna grow
Cause they are dangerous
By order of the mayor

I cannot help it if I got Corona from my dad
Trying hard not to cough and I feel bad

I’m just trying to avoid my own funeral
Can’t even go out to eat
Or I’ll get ill

I called my senator for universal sick leave
I have a growing need to keep paying my bills

It’s been
One week since COVID 19
Threw our plans in the air and killed our parties

Five days since emergency
We flatten the curve or be Italy

Three days since we all cocooned
We realized we can’t beat this and no one’s immune

Yesterday, someone coughed on me
And now it’s eighteen months till we can all be free

Over in China, when some got stricken
They all got locked in and COVID stopped tickin’

Walking the dog with a mask on
When everyone’s gone
And if I see somebody I run

At grocery stores I’m feeling panic
At home I’m manic
At doctor’s offices I’m terrified

Like Idris Elba I’m feeling ill
Kay I don’t feel ill
That’s hypochondria all magnified

Gonna shut down all the fitness clubs
And shutter all the social hubs
And tell deBlasio stay home to work your hamstrings

Gotta make a joke but its too soon
Cases balloon between the Boomers and the sick
Until we get some vaccines

How can I stop watching news because it makes me sad
Need to know but all signs pointing to bad

We help our fellow man, and friends, that is beautiful
Drop off some food like a queen
For good will

We need the science and we need the people to believe
We need the tests before more people get hurt

It’s Been

One week since the distancing
Dropped our lives to the side for our wellbeing

Five days since the testing grew and yet
Still not as much as all the other nations do

Three days since the briefing room
He said he’s not the one to blame, and what can we do?

Yesterday, you just texted me
Cause it’ll still be two weeks till we break quarantine

It’ll still be two months till we break quarantine

It’ll still be two years till we break quarantine

Close the stadium, sports are on deep freeze

Well done @daniAWESOME and @peppercoyote. Thanks for keeping us all entertained while we hole up in our homes.

One Week of COVID 19 – Barenaked Ladies parody – Lyrics by @daniAWESOME

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Brady Sluder, the SoundCloud rapper who proudly partied his butt off for spring break in Florida last week, seemed right out of central casting.

Ever defiant with his backwards hat and midday cheap beer buzz, he told a reporter the coronavirus wasn’t going to get between him and a good time.

“Whatever happens, happens. If I get corona, I get corona,” Sluder with total sincerity. “At the end of the day, I’m not going to let it stop me from partying.”

After all, this party was a long time coming so he was going to fight for his right to be there when it happened.

“I’ve been waiting, we’ve been waiting for Miami spring break for a while,” he added. “About two months we’ve had this trip planned, two, three months, and we’re just out here having a good time.”

Sluder unintentionally became the spokesperson for the thousands of twenty-somethings and teens that partied on the beach in south Florida while most of the country was either winding down their activities or on total lockdown.

The partiers became the source of national scorn and embarrassment for not adhering to the nationwide call to practice social distancing.

If Sluder’s decision to put partying before his health only affected him, then there’d be no real reason to get too mad at the kid. But that’s not how the coronavirus works. Sluder and the rest of the spring breakers were at risk of contracting the disease and then unknowingly spreading it back home.

After being shamed by most of the planet, Sluder has come out and apologized.

“Don’t be arrogant and think you’re invincible like myself,” the spring breaker wrote on Instagram. “I wasn’t aware of the severity of my actions and comments.”

He spoke to the danger that can happen when young people refuse to practice social distancing.

“Like many others, I have elderly people who I adore more than anything in the world and other family members who are at risk, and I understand how concerning this disease is for us all,” he said.

“Our generation may feel invincible, like I did when I commented,” he added. “But we have a responsibility to listen and follow the recommendations in our communities.”

Sluder’s post begs an important question: Why do young people think they’re invincible?

The answer is their brains aren’t completely developed. This is especially true for men.

Young people’s brains are still in a process of neuronal myelination, which is a fancy way of saying that the frontal lobe isn’t completely connected to the rest of the brain. This process is usually complete in women by the age of 25, but men go through it until they are 30.

So guys like Sluder are able to party in a danger zone with zero worries because their brains are underdeveloped. Dumping a bunch of alcohol into the mix doesn’t help things much either.

“Essentially, your frontal lobes tell you that it’s a bad idea to drink alcohol and drive or to ignore the consequences of taking heroin,” Gary L. Wenk Ph.D. wrote in Psychology Today.

“When your frontal lobes finally complete their process of myelination, they begin to work properly and you stop doing dangerous things,” he continued. “Most importantly, you stop feeling immortal.”

If you know anything about Sikhism, this news will not surprise you. If you don’t, you’re about to learn about a religion with a long history of humanitarianism.

Sewa, or “selfless service” is a way of life for Sikhs. It means helping others with no expectation of anything in return or hope of gain in any way. Through sewa, Sikhs demonstrate the equality of all people, show love and respect towards others, and protect themselves from selfish vices.

And during a time of global crisis, sewa from everyone is more needed—and appreciated—than ever.

Knowing the impressive capacity for service in the Sikh community, the New York Mayor’s office reached out to New York Sikhs with a request for food packages. The Sikh Center of New York kicked it into high gear, preparing and packaging more than 30,000 home-cooked vegetarian meals for Americans currently self-isolating.

Beans, lentils, and rice were cooked in humongous pots before being served into to-go containers to be distributed to elderly and immunocompromised people in isolation. Strict food hygiene practices were observed, and social distancing measures practiced as much as possible during the food preparation.

“The meals were prepared on Sunday and was packaged and loaded for delivery, ” Himat Singh, coordinator of American Gurudwara Prabhandak Committee (east coast) told Asian News International (ANI). “The distribution starts on Monday in the morning, by local authorities. Volunteers who prepared and packaged the meal had a medical check and have been approved by physicians and health authorities.”

Sikh communities across the nation have stepped up to help out their neighbors.

“Once we heard people were having a problem with food when they go shopping, they can’t find food in the shopping center, then we started reaching out to people in our personal capacity in the Bay Area.” Dr. Pritpal Singh, coordinator of American Gurudwara Prabhandak Committee (west coast) told ANI.

Sikhism is a monotheistic religion founded in India in the 15th century. There are about 27 million Sikhs in the world. More than three quarters live in the state of Punjab, India. Approximately 500,000 Sikh live in the U.S., primarily in California, New York, and Washington state—all hard-hit areas in the coronavirus outbreak.

Many thanks to the Sikh community for your sewa during this time.

Coronavirus: Sikhs prepare over 30,000 free meal packets for Americans in self-isolation

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In his 67 years as the play-by-play announcer for the Brooklyn / Los Angeles Dodgers, Vin Scully, 92, was known for his poetic turn-of-phrase in the broadcaster booth. He has a special knack for weaving in historical anecdotes and folksy wisdom in between balls and strikes.

Scully is not only revered for being the greatest baseball announcer ever, but he’s also grandfatherly figure to the countless people who’ve grown up listening to his soothing voice that’s synonymous with summer days.

To help soothe his soul and that of his readers, Los Angeles Times sports columnist Bill Plaschke called Scully to get his perspective on the coronavirus.

“He reminds us that this country has endured and triumphed over great troubles,” Plaschke wrote. “He knows from personal experience. Born in 1927 and growing up during the Great Depression, he has been part of that journey.”

Scully picked up the phone.

Scully compared the moment we’re living in to others he’s experienced over his long life.

“From depths of depression we fought our way through World War II, and if we can do that, we can certainly fight through this. I remember how happy and relieved and thrilled everybody was,” Scully said.

“It’s the life of the world, the ups and downs, this is a down, we’re going to have to realistically accept it at what it is and we’ll get out of it, that’s all there is to it, we will definitely get out of it,” he continued.

The eternal optimist, he prefers to focus on the positive side of things.

“A lot of people will look at it, it might bring them closer to their faith, they might pray a little harder, a little longer, there might be other good things to come out of it,” he said.

“And certainly, I think people are especially jumping at the opportunity to help each other, I believe that’s true, so that’s kind of heartwarming, with all of it, it brings out some goodness in people, and that’s terrific, that’s terrific,” he added.

But he still misses being close with his family during these hard times. “It’s a very difficult time to go without hugs,” he said.

But Scully looks forward to the future when all of this is behind us and the boys of summer can once again throw on their caps and run onto the field at Dodger Stadium.

“That will be so wonderful,” he says, “that will be a rainbow after the storm, that, yeah, things are going to get better.”

Although he’s been retired for the past three seasons, there’s no doubt Scully will be there for opening day, letting everyone know that “It’s time for Dodgers baseball,” once again.

Italy is the second hardest-hit country by coronavirus pandemic and has experiences the single largest loss of life so far with 63,927 confirmed cases and over 6,000 deaths.

Italian leaders have implemented an aggressive lockdown throughout the entire country to curb the spread of the virus. However, some oblivious Italians are violating the lockdown by taking walks through the empty streets or hanging out by the seaside.

Their leaders aren’t mincing any words when it comes to calling out lockdown violators. “This isn’t a movie,” one mayor says.”You are not Will Smith in ‘I Am Legend.’ Go home.”

In the video below, the mayors of Bari, Messina, Lucera, Gualdo Tadino, the governor of Campania, and the mayor of Reggio Calabria mock lockdown violators, confront them in public and, yes, even threaten them with flamethrowers.

When the coronavirus finally subsides and life gets back to normal, we will all praise the heroes — medical workers, grocery store clerks, that guy who gave you a dab of hand sanitizer — and we will shame the hoarders.

The image that bests sums up this strange and terrible era will be the people with gigantic Costco carts filled with sky-high stacks of toilet paper. Their eyes filled with fear that one day they will have to resort to cleansing themselves with Kleenex or, worse, a Starbucks napkin.

The Holly Hoarders struck hardest at Costco, so now the retail giant is striking back by forcing them to live with their selfish decisions. Costco now refuses to allow its customers to return any of the hoarders’ favorite purchases: toilet paper, paper towels, water, rice, Lysol, and sanitizing wipes.

Buyer’s remorse is a dish best served cold. Costco is serving it in bulk.

Costco cares about its customers so it has a 100%-satisfaction guarantee and usually accepts returns on just about everything but alcohol and tobacco products. But these are unusual times.

Costco has drawn a line and refuses to grant 100% satisfaction to the folks who thought they could take all of the bum wipe for themselves.

As if America didn’t love Costco enough, they’re heaping extra praise on the company on Twitter.

Some folks suggested that the hoarders can atone for their greed by donating their ill-gotten loot to a local shelter or food bank.

Now that the hoarders are being punished, we need to know what inspired their heinous deeds so it never happens again.

Why in the hell did people hoard toilet paper of all things? Water, food, and hand sanitizer make sense, they can mean the difference between life or death. But toilet paper? Not so much.

Andrea Greenman, the president of the Contemporary Freudian Society, says it goes back to control and, of course, a child’s anal phase.

“Controlling cleanliness around B.M.s is the earliest way the child asserts control,” Greenman told The New Yorker.

“The fact that now we are all presumably losing control creates a regressive push to a very early time,” she added. “So, I guess that translates in the unconscious to ‘If I have a lifelong supply of toilet paper, I’ll never be out of control, never be a helpless, dirty child again.’ “

Costco could maximize profits while helping these hoarders with their fears of regressing into being dirty children by offering them Freudian psychoanalysis. It could set up a chaise lounge right next to the guys who sell air conditioners and solar panels.