coronabuzz

Tuesday CoronaBuzz, April 28, 2020: 26 pointers to new resources, useful stuff, research news, and more.

Wash your hands and stay at home as much as you can. Please be careful. I love you.

NEW RESOURCES – MEDICAL/HEALTH

KOKH: American Red Cross offers free mental health support during coronavirus pandemic. “The American Red Cross Training Services is offering a free Mental Health First Aid Course. The training will show you how to manage stress, and how you can offer support to family members, friends, and coworkers.”

News-Medical: A new website launched to track landmark coronavirus studies. “The Company of Biologists is delighted that a group of early-career researchers in the preLights community have launched a new website, covidpreprints.com, to track landmark coronavirus studies throughout the ongoing pandemic.”

Chronicle-Tribune: New website provides Hoosiers free expert mental health resources during COVID-19. “The site is designed to address the increase in anxiety, depression and other mental health issues caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, including both first-time issues as well as preexisting mental health concerns.” This is for residents of Indiana.

NEW RESOURCES – EDUCATION/ENTERTAINMENT

Guwahati Plus: National Digital Library of India Gives Open Access to All. ” In order to help the students as well as the public to utilize the lockdown period in various literary and academic activities, the Union Ministry of Human Resources has given free access to the National Digital Library of India (NDLI)for all. As such over 3,82,00,000 books and periodicals available with the library can now be accessed by the general public.” There does not appear to be a geographical restriction; I was able to access an Elsevier article. However I did have to have cookies enabled.

Red Tricycle: Lin-Manuel Miranda Announces New School Program, #EduHam at Home. “Lin-Manuel Miranda just announced an extension of the Hamilton Education Program, a classroom initiative that walks through Miranda’s Hamilton creation process and ends with students making and performing their own musical theatre pieces. #EduHam at Home is an extension of the program. While schools are closed, the #EduHam allows students to be creative theater artists while adhering to social distancing guidelines.”

9to5 Google: Google wants to help cure your boredom with its most popular Doodle games. “Over the years, Google has featured an impressive number of games and minigames on its homepage, all of which have been carefully preserved and archived on the Google Doodle Blog. Starting April 27 and running for two weeks, Google is launching a new series of ten Doodles, each one a callback to one of the company’s popular games.”

Broadway World: British Museum Revamps Collection Online. “The British Museum today launches a major revamp of its online collection database, allowing over 4 million objects to be seen by people anywhere in the world. This new version of the online database – officially called the British Museum Collection Online – has been unveiled earlier than planned so that people who are currently under lockdown measures due to Covid-19 can enjoy the treasures from one of the world’s great collections from the comfort of their own home.”

NEW RESOURCES – OTHER

WZDX: Hundreds share recipes on “Quarantine Cookbook” Facebook page. “Are you tired of cooking and eating the same meals during the quarantine? There’s a new Facebook group that can help! The group, Quarantine Cookbook, was created by an Albertville woman. Ansley Cash created the group so people can share recipes during the stay-at-home order.”

KKTV: New website for Colorado business owners breaks down best practices for when and how to open back up. “The governor’s office is hoping to clear up any confusion for business owners and residents across the state with a new website. Click here for the safer at home website. The website covers a variety of questions and provides resources for a number of business owners.” This article also links to information on Colorado businesses that are still open.

USEFUL STUFF

Boston City Life: The Coolest Ways to Experience Boston Museums Virtually Right Now. “Beyond virtual museum tours available for free via Google Arts & Culture, Boston’s best museums are rolling out plenty of innovative new ideas and activities this spring. From a digital music playlist that animates an urban art exhibit, to an interactive game that lets history buffs play sailor, check out these exciting ways to engage online with Boston’s museums right now.”

NBC News: Virtual Kentucky Derby at Home Party: Date, start time, TV, how to watch, live stream. “On May 2, Churchill Downs will empty on the first Saturday in May for the first time since 1945. The 146th Kentucky Derby has been moved from May 2 to Saturday, September 5 due to the coronavirus pandemic, but the party will still go on—from home. Fans can stay healthy at home as NBC Sports and Churchill Downs partner for a virtual Kentucky Derby at Home Party, which includes The First Saturday In May: American Pharoah’s Run to the Triple Crown, a look back at American Pharoah’s 2015 Derby win en route to his historic Triple Crown, and The Kentucky Derby: Triple Crown Showdown, a socially distant, computer-simulated edition of the Run for the Roses that pits all 13 Triple Crown winners against each other.”

UPDATES

TechCrunch: The ‘Wikipedia of COVID-19’ has launched a crowdfunding drive to keep going. “The Handbook has created a free online library, not unlike Wikipedia, where technologists, doctors and other specialists can find projects, share best practices, and communicate. This prevents them from wasting time working on the same problems associated with the pandemic, or at least seeing how others have solved them before attempting anything new. The CTH is already at over five hundred pages, including everything from community finance tools to ventilator designs and has now been viewed over 500,000 times in the UK and abroad. The launch of the Handbook has enabled UK doctors to advise their peers in Ecuador on developing safe personal protective equipment; mutual aid groups in the UK to sharing ways of organizing volunteers and their finances; and the exchange of models, data and infographics charting the progress in stopping the virus.”

NBC News: Pug in North Carolina tests positive for coronavirus, may be first for dog in U.S.. “A pug in North Carolina has tested positive for the coronavirus, which may the the first such case for a dog in the U.S. The dog, Winston, was part of a Duke University study in which a whole family in Chapel Hill, the McCleans, were tested for the virus. The mother, father, son, and pug tested positive, while the daughter, another dog and a cat tested negative, according to NBC affiliate WRAL in Raleigh.”

SOCIETAL IMPACT

New York Times: Top E.R. Doctor Who Treated Virus Patients Dies by Suicide. “A top emergency room doctor at a Manhattan hospital that treated many coronavirus patients died by suicide on Sunday, her father and the police said. Dr. Lorna M. Breen, the medical director of the emergency department at NewYork-Presbyterian Allen Hospital, died in Charlottesville, Va., where she was staying with family, her father said in an interview.”

KRDO: Toymaker Hasbro is making thousands of face shields for health care workers. “Hasbro, known for its popular boards games such as Monopoly and Scrabble, is shifting its efforts from creating games and toys for kids to making plastic face shields for health care workers. On Saturday, the company announced its plan to partner with Cartamundi, a card and board game manufacturer, to produce 50,000 face shields per week for front line health care workers.”

Reuters: Exclusive: More than 2,200 Indonesians have died with coronavirus symptoms, data shows. “More than 2,200 Indonesians have died with acute symptoms of COVID-19 but were not recorded as victims of the disease, a Reuters review of data from 16 of the country’s 34 provinces showed.”

The Appeal: As The Coronavirus Spreads, Prisoners Are Rising Up For Their Health. “It began with a trickle, then a cascade: The spread of the highly contagious novel coronavirus has sparked a wave of spontaneous protests inside jails, prisons, and detention centers across the U.S. Since March 17, the date of the first known COVID-19-related prison hunger strike, there have been more than 75 protests and uprisings, according to tracking data at Perilous Chronicle, a digital media project documenting prisoner unrest since 2010 that two of us maintain. And the actual number is most likely much higher. Taken together, these actions have involved approximately 3,000 incarcerated people, with many more ‘outside’ supporters participating in solidarity call-ins and demonstrations.”

National Catholic Reporter: US bishops wrestle with whether or how to open churches. “For the past few Sundays, Bishop Peter Baldacchino has been celebrating Mass from a stage located in front of the church. There he prays near the cathedral parking lot, every other space filled to assure proper distancing, with ushers pointing directions to driver worshipers. Many of the parked parishioners hear the liturgy via their car radios. Some close their windows in recognition of the pandemic. The host is distributed at each car via ministers in masks and gloves.”

INSTITUTION / CORPORATE / GOVERNMENT

New York Times: China Police Detain Three Linked to Censored Coronavirus Archive. “Chinese police have detained two people who contributed to an online archive of censored articles about the coronavirus outbreak, a friend and a family member of one told Reuters on Monday. The two – Chen Mei and Cai Wei – have been out of contact since April 19, when police detained them in Beijing, Chen Kun, Chen Mei’s brother, told Reuters.”

ABC News: Turkey: Over 400 detained for pandemic social media postings. “Turkey has detained 402 people in the past 42 days for allegedly sharing ‘false and provocative’ social media postings concerning the coronavirus outbreak, officials said Monday.”

RESEARCH

CNN: Coronavirus could be tied to a rare but serious illness in children, UK doctors say. “A small but rising number of children are becoming ill with a rare syndrome that could be linked to coronavirus, with reported cases showing symptoms of abdominal pain, gastrointestinal symptoms and cardiac inflammation, UK health care bosses and pediatrics specialists have warned.”

CNET: How you talk about coronavirus actually impacts its spread. “[Vicky Chuqiao] Yang and other researchers argue anecdotes like this show just how complicated the spread of COVID-19 is. Beyond coughs and contaminated surfaces, its movement also depends on the spread of information through the media and online, which can change human behavior and the trajectory of the epidemic.”

WTVD: Popular heartburn medicine being studied as treatment for coronavirus. “Over the past few weeks researchers have been discreetly studying a new potential treatment for COVID-19 — and it might not be what you expect. The treatment in question is called famotidine, and it’s the active ingredient in Pepcid, an over-the-counter medication commonly used to alleviate heartburn.”

POLITICS AND SECURITY

Washington Post: President’s intelligence briefing book repeatedly cited virus threat. “U.S. intelligence agencies issued warnings about the novel coronavirus in more than a dozen classified briefings prepared for President Trump in January and February, months during which he continued to play down the threat, according to current and former U.S. officials. The repeated warnings were conveyed in issues of the President’s Daily Brief, a sensitive report that is produced before dawn each day and designed to call the president’s attention to the most significant global developments and security threats.”

Jay Inslee, Washington Governor: Inslee announces Colorado & Nevada will join Washington, Oregon & California in Western States Pact. “Gov. Jay Inslee announced today that Colorado Governor Jared Polis and Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak are joining Washington, Oregon and California in the Western States Pact — a working group of Western state governors with a shared vision for modifying stay at home orders and fighting COVID-19.”

New York Times: How Trump and His Team Covered Up the Coronavirus in Five Days. “The strongest critics of the Trump’s administration’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic point to its flat-footedness and the consequences of time lost. But the full account looks worse. Over the last five days of February, President Trump and senior officials did something more sinister: They engaged in a cover-up. A look at this window of time gives insight into how several members of the president’s team were willing to manipulate Americans even when so many lives were at stake.”

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