Letter from New York: Learning to dodge pathogens

[An experimental podcast based on this post is available for downloading and listening here.]

April 2, 2020 — Dodging Covid is only one of a new set of unforeseen challenges we all have to now navigate in this Brave New World.  

If you’re working from home, and you ought to be, you’ll also want to dodge any leaks of your personal information from Zoom, and figure out how to navigate other work from home issues, like the new changes—good ones by most accounts—implemented to Slack this week.

Today's Daily Curveflattener is reported by Cory Perla. As the senior-most, best-qualified and, indeed, only member of the Chronicle team in New York state (in the historic and welcoming lake-port city of Buffalo, jocularly known as a "drinking town with a sports problem"), it’s nice to know that one upside to the Covid crisis is that my downstate friends in the U.S.A. epicenter, New York City, can worry a little less about getting into a car accident these days. Unfortunately, bike accidents are up due to fewer people using mass transit.

And then there is the unexpected question we never thought we'd be forced to consider: Whether or not our telegenic state governor, Andrew Cuomo has his nipples pierced. It’s going to be difficult to navigate all of these unpredictable repercussions, new questions, and changes but we’ll get through it together.

For those who are new here, welcome to our new daily Coronavirus blog... and we hope you tune in frequently, and share this link with your colleagues and friends.

COVID CHRONICLE 04/02/2020

• Rumors that ibuprofen and other NSAIDs might worsen symptoms of Covid-19 were addressed in a recent study by researchers at King’s College in London. They found no evidence for or against the use of ibuprofen for patients with Coronavirus. 
  

• Confusion over seasonal allergies and Covid-19 symptoms may be in store for those with allergies this spring. Though the two conditions do not share many similar symptoms, they share enough to create worry among allergy sufferers. Here is how some are dealing with it.

• Buffalo, N.Y. braces to become a coronavirus battleground, even as Governor Andrew Cuomo seeks statewide help for New York City, so says the Washington Post. Despite this, Cuomo may need to tap into the pool of doctors in Western New York to help out in New York City.

STORIES CHRONICLE IS WORKING ON TODAY

What effect will Coronavirus have on telemedicine? New adopters are bound to crop up in the form of both patients and physicians and they will face new ways to work and receive treatment. In an upcoming issue of The Chronicle of Skin & Allergy we will talk to experts in the field about the challenges and future outlook of the technology. 

RIGHT NOW WE’RE LISTENING TO…

12 hours of spiritual jazz music. A mix of jazz music spanning the decades was amassed by Black Classical into a four part series dubbed the “History of Spiritual Jazz Music.” It’s full of songs by John Coltrane, Sun Ra, Gil Scott-Heron, Don Cherry (no, not that Don Cherry), and about a hundred more artists. It should keep you occupied for a while under quarantine.

LATER WE’RE READING…

Fernando Pessoa's The Book of Disquiet. Pessoa’s “factless autobiography,”  finds the author—thinly veiled as a series of heteronyms—mostly sitting in his apartment alone in Lisbon, Portugal basking in his own misery and losing himself in soliloquies about the nature of the universe, reality, sensation, humanity, and relationships. The narrator seems to enjoy his self-imposed quarantine as he pontificates—in small bursts of prose—about the superiority of his own imagination to actual experience.

TONIGHT WE’RE COOKING…

Chicken soup. Soup season is drawing to a close, and we could use the boost to our upper respiratory systems right now. Here's what is described as the best recipe ever. Culinary hyperbole? I don't think so.

HOW ARE YOU DOING?

Please make use of the comments section of the Daily CurveFlattener, to let us know what you’re up to today. Or feel free to check in via LinkedIn, email, or your choice of connector. By all means, pass this newsletter along to you colleagues, and when you’re done, please wash your hands. 

That’s it. Stay in touch and stay safe, until tomorrow.