It involved the designation of wild animals as “natural resources” by the Chinese government, which caused a large increase in wildlife farming, with many more and different kinds of animals being put into contact with humans and each other on a regular basis. Add illegally trafficked animals into the mix, and you’ve got the right conditions for diseases to jump from the animals to humans. Then potentially infected animals and their meat, accompanied by potentially infected humans who raised those animals and butchered that meat, are then brought to the wet markets for sale to the public. "Unless China bans wildlife farming for good, this will keep happening.”

The answer is 'No.' I might be wrong here, but I think it’s exactly the right time to put our needs and desires for fun and camaraderie aside and think of the big picture. We’re likely just a matter of days before we begin a more strict lockdown and “distancing” becomes “isolation.” As we try to flatten the infection curve, I think we should stay ahead of the curve and avoid any kind of group activity.

Most cases are not life-threatening, which is also what makes the virus a historic challenge to contain.

We live in an interwoven, interconnected world where an injury to one is truly an injury to all. We must confront the coronavirus with solidarity and fight for a society where the health of all is more important than profits for a few. --- The scramble reveals a class system in which a mark of relative status is the power to withdraw. If you have wealth or a salary from an institution that values you, and enough space at home, you might be able to pull off the essentially absurd trick of isolating yourself for a few months by drawing down the global web of commodities on display at Costco and Trader Joe’s. But for the 50 percent of the country that has no savings and lives paycheck to paycheck, or in small apartments with little food storage, or has to hustle every day to find work, this is simply impossible. People will be out every day, on the subways, at the gas stations, choosing between epidemiological prudence and economic survival, because they have no choice but to make that choice. […] “Wash your hands” is good advice but also a poignant reminder that this is not the sort of problem that personal responsibility can solve. Epidemiology is a political problem. It’s not hard to sketch the steps that would ease our cruel situation: a work stoppage, massive income support (unemployment payments with some universal basic income in the mix), a moratorium on mortgage foreclosures and evictions. Treatment for coronavirus and potentially related symptoms should be free and comprehensive, no questions asked (about immigration status, for instance), so that no one goes untreated because of fear or poverty. This is all, in the most straightforward sense, good for everyone. It is also how people look out for one another’s vulnerability and need when they see one another’s problems as their own. […] It takes a vast and intricate infrastructure to keep us all running in one another’s service, and in the ultimate service of return to capital: from highways to credit markets to the global trade regime. The fact that these interwoven systems are tanking financial markets around the world at the prospect that people might need to spend a few months sitting at home rather than hurrying around exchanging money shows how finely calibrated they are to profit, and how totally lacking in resilience to shifts in human need.

Compiled and updated by Thursday Bram.

A big Google Document full of helpful tips for online meetings, classes, and events. Friends, as we scramble to move our offline interactions online, this is an emerging initial place to share, curate and organize resources. It could really use the loving attention of a great curator!

As I drove to my parents' home yesterday - trunk full of disinfectant, hand sanitizer, thermometer, nutritious meals for their freezer - I couldn't stop thinking about how our definition of "acts of love" needs to change during this crisis.

for anyone with covid19 cabin fever, here's some of my fav walking tour youtube channels 🧵 i love having these ~1hr vids the background when working on my computer or cleaning. gives a great sense of exploration of other people/cities…

Restaurants and bars that closed or switched to takeout-only service in the Portland area over concerns from the novel coronavirus, COVID-19.

These guidelines are intended to help Flatten the Curve with the COVID19 outbreak, to help limit spread and reduce the load on hospitals and other healthcare.

A guide to maintaining good mental health for new remote workers. With the spread of COVID-19, many tech companies are sending employees home to work remotely. As someone who has worked remotely for multiple companies, in different setups, I wanted to offer some assurances and tips for maintaining your mental health while adjusting to this new life.

Ableds, hi, hello, wish we could have met under better circumstances, but here we are. Generally speaking people don’t care about ableism until it affects them so you are probably panic-following myself and a bunch of other disabled people Here’s a crash course. Thread 1/? You’re probably experiencing a lot of different emotions based on how the government is treating the #COVIDー19 pandemic and watching in horror as people around you dismiss your fear as irrational. I would love to say I’m going to hold your hand through this thread, but 2/? We simply don’t have the time. What you’re experiencing is ableism on a national scale. Early on, many wrote off the #coronavirus as something “just elderly and disabled (sick) people die from.” People felt they didn’t have to take action because only the most disposable 3/? Would be harmed. People tend not to care bc restrictions based on illness/disability are usually “someone else’s” problem,” those affected just need to “pull themselves up by their bootstraps” and “overcome.” This virus doesn’t give a fuck about the American Dream mythos. 4/? This is all our problem so undoing your unconscious bias towards disability and disabled people is critical. Here are some things you’ve probably noticed since the crisis hit: 5/? Disability Accommodations/accessibility are “special treatment” right up till nondisabled people need them. I wrote a thread about this a few days ago, but the gist of it is, all of the institutions that previously failed disabled people? Suddenly accessible. Shocking. 6/? Things are more expensive now that you need them to survive. Disabled people call this #CripTax. Not only are the things you need more expensive, but there’s now an added cost to get them delivered since your health depends on you staying home. 7/? People you thought were your friends are kind of assholes. People in your life don’t quite understand why you’re staying home and making a big deal out of nothing. If they’re not goading you into unhealthy behavior then they’re telling you it’s not a “big deal.” 8/? The government doesn’t know what to do with you. They have fumbled the response to the virus, so while it scrambles for approval ratings, you’ll have to rely on complete strangers for help and guidance opening you up to be taken advantage of. 9/? Why demand competence and accessibility from your elected officials when “There’s always someone to help.” 10/? Your environmental stewardship has been cut off at the knees. You saw the turtle and the straw, but have you ever seen the Clorox wipe and the fish. Your going to have to ask yourself: was your environmentalism performative morality now you need single-use plastics? 11/? Finally, a complete group of strangers on the internet are the only people who seem to validate how you feel about this experience and are sharing resources and knowledge simply to see you survive. because your previous life was previously accessible doesn’t mean anything. 12/? Disabled people have been dealing with your shaken new realities our entire lives. Things are more expensive, people around you change, and the world is completely inaccessible until it decides not to be. You should be listening to disabled people not only in a crisis but 13/? Every single day. No one does worse because people, places and things are MORE accessible. I hope this current crisis challenges all of you to do better. Fin 14/14

All over America, the coronavirus is revealing, or at least reminding us, just how much of contemporary American life is bullshit, with power structures built on punishment and fear as opposed to our best interest. Whenever the government or a corporation benevolently withdraws some punitive threat because of the coronavirus, it’s a signal that there was never any good reason for that threat to exist in the first place.

Multnomah County has at least 4,000 people living in shelters, cars and on the street on any given night. Health officials say they are among the most vulnerable in a pandemic like the one sweeping through Oregon.

For centuries, the United States has resisted a centralized public health policy. This week, as protective measures against the coronavirus varied county to county, Americans saw the cost.

One thing I’ve learned in therapy is that in times when the world around us feels terrifyingly beyond our control, we turn to small expressions of control over our thoughts, our bodies, and our time. Two big ways that desire to regain a sense of autonomy & control can manifest is spending money, and physically going places. If your aging parents (for example) insist on going to the grocery store unnecessarily, it’s possible they’re doing it to (unconsciously) soothe anxiety! If a person needs to spend money and/or leave their house to feel a sense of control over themselves, telling them not to do it is a direct threat to this assertion of autonomy. Of course they’re going to push back, of course they’re not going to “listen to reason.” So much of being the adult child of aging parents is the art of benevolent manipulation. (Sorry Mom & Dad, if you’re reading this.) Instead of telling them not to go to the grocery store, full stop, redirect their impulses — buy a cozy sweater online, take a walk through a park There are ways to both spend money and leave the house that don’t put you or others at risk! Sometimes people ignore good & urgent advice because they’re assholes or idiots! More often, they’re just scared, and don’t necessarily realize they’re scared, and don’t necessarily realize they’re making their choices in an attempt to calm their fear. NB grocery shopping can also be soothing because (if the person doesn’t live alone) it’s not just spending, it’s spending *to care for loved ones*. Buying a sweater online doesn’t scratch that itch—in that case maybe the move is buying books or games as gifts for friends/family This is especially ~a thing~ with many older women, who can have a hard time centering themselves when soothing their own anxieties. (“I’m cold, go put on a sweater!”) I don’t want to make this all about older generations though! Those beautiful young idiots still packing into bars and restaurants are asserting autonomy. I usually hate leaving the house and lately all I want to do is take the dog for a walk, or go for long drives. Our brains are always running background programs to rebalance and recalibrate. The best thing you can do is learn how to see it in your loved ones (and yourself! but that’s um many many years of therapy) and gently help them fulfill those self-soothing needs in less harmful ways

Our health system will not be able to cope with the projected numbers of people who will need acute care should we not muster the fortitude and will to socially distance each other starting now. On a regular day, we have about 45,000 staffed ICU beds nationally, which can be ramped up in a crisis to about 95,000. Even moderate projections suggest that if current infectious trends hold, our capacity (locally and nationally) may be overwhelmed as early as mid-late April. Thus, the only strategies that can get us off this concerning trajectory are those that enable us to work together as a community to maintain public health by staying apart.

Soap absolutely annihilates the coronavirus, a chemistry professor explains. --- One side of the soap molecule (the one that’s attracted to fat and repelled by water) buries its way into the virus’s fat and protein shell. Fortunately, the chemical bonds holding the virus together aren’t very strong, so this intrusion is enough to break the virus’s coat. “You pull the virus apart, you make it soluble in water, and it disintegrates,” he says. Then the harmless shards of virus get flushed down the drain. And even if it the soap doesn’t destroy every virus, you’ll still rid them from your hands with soap and water, as well as any grease or dirt they may be clinging to. Soap will also wash away bacteria and other viruses that may be a bit tougher than coronavirus, and harder to disintegrate. The trick is this all takes a little time to happen, and that’s why you need to take at least 20 seconds to wash your hands.

We must learn to do good for the good of the stranger now. We now have to live as daily evidence that we believe there is value in the lives of the cancer patient, the elderly person, the disabled one, the ones in unthinkable living conditions, crowded and at risk. Total misery in the coming days is not a total inevitability: we have a capacity to respond today. We can practice excellent hygiene, stop leaving messes for cleaners, disinfect our common spaces. We can try our best to get what we need to get by for a while. We can -- today, right now -- organize mutual aid networks among our existing social contacts, make plans to care for the vulnerable, prepare supplies for those who will get sick. We can provide shelter for the people who don't have it, offer to be a support for anyone feeling crazy from the news, promise to take care of someone's pets or kids if they get sick. We can provide important information to those who have been deceived or ignored. We can protect those who are unfairly stigmatized and discriminated against. We can sew masks and make disinfection kits to give to those who will be caring for the sick at home.

Donald Trump is running for reelection on an anti-socialist message. But the COVID-19 outbreak demonstrates the emptiness of ideological labels.

The coronavirus could spread with frightening rapidity, overburdening our health-care system and claiming lives, until we adopt serious forms of social distancing. This suggests that anyone in a position of power or authority, instead of downplaying the dangers of the coronavirus, should ask people to stay away from public places, cancel big gatherings, and restrict most forms of nonessential travel. […] For a few days, while none of your peers are taking the same steps, moving classes online or canceling campaign events will seem profoundly odd. People are going to get angry. You will be ridiculed as an extremist or an alarmist. But it is still the right thing to do.

The Kardashians and the Real Housewives are talking about premade Judy survival kits. Are they any good? --- Clearly, people need supplies like food and water in the wake of any disaster, but as Redlener sees it, typical advice tends to flatten these events into a one-size-fits-all mold, particularly when you look at prepackaged kits. Take the first kit that appears on an Amazon search. Available for $114.99, it promises a “100% satisfaction guarantee” for surviving for three days after “earthquake, hurricanes, floods + other disasters.” It’s a bold claim, considering the myriad variables not only in the disasters described but also when you take into account who might be purchasing the item and the specific needs they have. “In some ways, they just somehow misrepresent themselves as being ‘disaster preparedness.’ So people think, ‘I’ll buy a kit for my car and another for my house, and I won’t have to think about it again.’ Really a false sense of security,” Redlener says. […] Judy is largely being marketed as a trendy new tool your favorite influencers are excited about. The success of that approach hinges on the fact that Americans are keener to follow in Kim Kardashian’s footsteps than FEMA’s. This, despite the fact that she exists in an income bracket that is less likely to be deeply affected by climate change. […] In the US, lower-income communities are also already dealing with a higher rate of pollution in the air and in their water sources, which makes them more vulnerable to any additional issues brought on by climate change. Globally, a similar situation is playing out between higher- and lower-income nations. If the emergency items market continues to grow as projected, it’s hard to imagine the costs won’t continue to increase, as well, responding to a more competitive and eager market — potentially pricing out the consumers that need them most. That stark contrast in who is able to afford to not only evade disaster but also to recover from them is already clear in the postmortems of recent disasters. […] “It’s taking a moment to take stock, which is what the preparedness kits can do, but also taking a moment to to to know who’s in your community, and how you can help and how they can help you,” she says. “Not only be prepared for really, really bad things, but to also be prepared for the day-to-day stress. And so you’re investing when you’re doing this and not just, ‘Oh, well, when is the big, big bad thing going to happen?’ You’re actually doing something that makes you and your community healthier.”

We should prepare, not because we may feel personally at risk, but so that we can help lessen the risk for everyone. We should prepare not because we are facing a doomsday scenario out of our control, but because we can alter every aspect of this risk we face as a society. That’s right, you should prepare because your neighbors need you to prepare—especially your elderly neighbors, your neighbors who work at hospitals, your neighbors with chronic illnesses, and your neighbors who may not have the means or the time to prepare because of lack of resources or time. […] Here’s what all this means in practice: get a flu shot, if you haven’t already, and stock up supplies at home so that you can stay home for two or three weeks, going out as little as possible. The flu shot helps decrease the odds of having to go to the hospital for the flu, or worse yet, get both flu and COVID-19; comorbidities drastically worsen outcomes. Staying home without needing deliveries means that not only are you less likely to get sick, thus freeing up hospitals for more vulnerable populations, it means that you are less likely to infect others (while you may be having a mild case, you can still infect an elderly person or someone with cancer or another significant illness) and you allow delivery personnel to help out others.