What did you do in the pandemic, daddy?

Good afternoon and welcome to the first edition of the Daily CurveFlattener from Chronicle Companies. (This is Chronicle publisher Mitch Shannon, writing in Toronto. Other Chronicle reporters and editors will pick up the effort, beginning tomorrow.)

Normally at this time of the day, we'd be occupied publishing print and digital medical and life sciences periodicals and organizing conferences and learning opportunities for healthcare practitioners and the life sciences industry. However, there's nothing going on right now that might be confused with normal. And that is the reason and purpose behind this new daily newsletter.

Like you and your business, our team is adjusting to changed and challenging circumstances. We are working remotely, and huddling through the day using Zoom, Trello and Slack. We carry on with our work activity, while navigating co-habitation space with spouses, children, pets (shout-out to Ms. Snowball, out in Oakville and the Ryan beagle-pack in Welland.) Like you, we worry about parents, friends and family, business partners and our global medical colleagues -- especially those working selflessly in high-risk locales.

Those clinicians each serve a higher calling, and perhaps it's odd that it would require a crisis of the current magnitude to drive that point home. After all, it's human nature to take so many things for granted, right up to the moment when something changes.


There we were, just last week, anticipating a good meal in a nice steakhouse during a conference in a distant city, in the company of some eminent physicians that we're fortunate to think of as our friends.

And here we are now. Obediently socially-distanced. Wondering how we're all going to get through this challenge, and concerned about what our corner of the world will look like when "normalcy" resumes.

Here we are now: at this moment.

Right now, we're all in need of a bunch of things: patience, professionalism, faith, and perhaps a fortifying ration of rum after the five o'clock whistle fails to blow. There's no question that we'll find ways to get through this. But until such time as the curve flattens there's some stuff we're going to need.

And that's where this newsletter comes in. Each weekday, the Daily CurveFlattener will curate, report and supply content to inform and assist in getting through and past this crisis. Each morning, one member of our Chronicle team of medical writers will take the lead on this report, but it's intended to be a shared effort. We want you to be a part of this endeavor. We want to know what you've seen and heard, what you're learning, and how you're managing your work and life during these unexpected circumstances. Join in by adding a comment to these posts, by sharing this newsletter on social media, or by getting in touch by phone, text, email, Skype or FaceTime.

It helps to think that we're helping to flatten the curve by exchanging knowledge and experiences. It helps to think of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo's recent vow that we're going to "kick coronavirus's ass." With a bit of sustained discipline and a decent measure of luck, the services of the Daily CurveFlattener may not be required for much longer. Wouldn't that be excellent? Meanwhile, read on... 

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COVID CHRONICLE 03/30/2020

• The former commissioner of the U.S. FDA, Scott Gottlieb, MD, has proposed a four-phase road map toward resuming workplace and commercial re-openings once the virus has been contained. His conclusions are predictably at odds with the happy talk coming from the U.S. president, and the implications of his report are that this is going to take some time. Read his report here.
• Giacomo Grasselli, MD and colleagues describe the early experience of emergency response to the covid outbreak in northern Italy. 
• Epidemiology in Real Time: More than 20,000 participants have contributed to Stanford University's online study of how Covid-19 is affecting communities. Take part in the survey here.
• An article in JAMA Pediatrics offers guidance for doctors counselling patients during the crisis. Among the advisories: stock two weeks worth of food, water, medicines and necessities and limit your children's exposure to media reports of the pandemic. (Have you experienced difficulty finding supplies? Please share your experiences in the comments section of this blog.)

STORIES CHRONICLE IS WORKING ON TODAY

• For psoriasis patients diagnosed with Covid-19, the International Psoriasis Council recommends physicians discontinue or postpone use of immunosuppressant medications. Others, including committees of the American College of Dermatology, are less certain of this advice. Chronicle's Dhiren Mahiban is speaking with thought-leaders.

RIGHT NOW WE'RE LISTENING TO...

• Bob Dylan's 18-minute opus on the cultural impact of the Kennedy assassination, just released to critical head-scratching. That put us in the mood for more of what influenced Dyl, so we found the archives of his old XM Radio show. Jackpot! And here it is for y'all.

LATER WE'RE READING...

• Robert Polito's 1996 biography of pulp novelist Jim Thompson, Savage Art. It's not nearly as much fun as reading Thompson, of course, but Polito did a fine job of interviewing the writer's contemporaries, all in old age.

TONIGHT WE'RE COOKING...

• Jambalaya. Probably shouldn't admit this, but the news videos of the Covid hot-spot of New Orleans kind of gave us a hankering. Here's a recipe, but remember not to use Old Bay seasoning if you've got Zatarain's.

That's it. Stay in touch and stay safe.