Social distancing marks the occasion of 420 Day

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Monday, April 20, 2020 -- Greetings to CurveFlatteners — or shall I say "four-hundred-and-twenty greetings?" — on this day designated annually for the celebration of what some call cannabis culture. Reporting from Toronto on 420 Day is yr. obt. svt. Mitch Shannon, whose day job coincidentally involves publishing Chronicle's Canadian Journal of Medical Cannabis. 

420 Day celebrations took place in dozens of North American cities

last year. That was then

Of course, canna-culture is just one more casualty included on that constantly expanding list of things that have been upended by the Covid-19 pandemic. While sales of legal cannabis for adult use have reportedly tripled during the past month, the customary 4/20 public display of bacchanalia will not happen, due to social distancing, not to mention the somber tone of current events. 

Accordingly, we can now move the following into the sub-category of Artifacts No One Needs to Care About Anymore: multi-hued undershirts, Phish bumper-stickers on VW Micro buses, hookahs meant to be shared, tattered copies of The Realist, and both Garcias (Jerry as well as Cherry.) These accouterments endured for half a century, and all it took to paint an antiseptic beige primer over the day-glo Woodstock sensibility was one highly fatal virus. 

But if it makes you feel better to tie-dye your p95 face-mask: well, whatever turns you on, man.

COVID CHRONICLE 04/20/2020

• A thorough review article by University of Texas pharmacologists published last week in JAMA looks at the state of therapeutic research into potential Covid-19 treatments and concludes, "No therapies have been shown effective to date." Following up on the JAMA review, a Washington Post report contextualizes recent investor enthusiasm for Covid-19 Tx candidate remdesivir (Gilead Science) against other remedies in development. The University of Chicago medical school, which is conducting trials, issued this statement: “Drawing any conclusions at this point is premature and scientifically unsound.” 

• What could be worse than therapies and medical supplies being tough-to-come-by during the Covid pandemic? How about grifters eager to unload counterfeit drugs and phony diagnostic products on desperate health systems? An international commission ratified by 16 countries, known as the Medicrime Commission, last week issued an advisory intended to stop the scammers. Among the recommendations: HCPs and regional health services must ensure that they don't buy supplies from unverified sources. 

• Physicians in Canada's most populous province are experiencing a financial pinch, as patients defer elective surgery and, heeding social distancing directives, avoid doctors' waiting rooms. Exacerbating the cash-crunch is a technical glitch in the Ontario government's reimbursement process, according to newspaper reports. It seems that newly-issued billing codes for virtual patient visits through tele-medicine, er, don't work, meaning the province's 32,000 docs may not get their fees until July. They aren't happy. Some medicos are threatening to shutter their practices. Says Ontario Medical Association prexy Dr. Sohail Gandhi: “That will be a disaster for healthcare.”

• Remember when everyone's big concern was our creeping loss of privacy at the hands of pervasive, all-seeing technology? That was so pre-Covid, as it turns out. An Ipsos survey in the UK commissioned by the Financial Times newspaper says two out of three Britons now say it's OK if Big Brother tracks infected parties through their mobile phones, and advises others who may have been in proximity. 

STORIES CHRONICLE IS WORKING ON TODAY

In an article being developed for both The Chronicle of Skin & Allergy and The Chronicle of Neurology & Psychiatry, our John Evans is following a Korean study that found an increased risk of Alzheimer's disease (AD) in patients with psoriasis. John notes the finding that AD risk was reduced in those receiving systemic Tx for psoriasis. 

RIGHT NOW WE'RE LISTENING TO ...

Cab Calloway, knocking them out with "Everybody Eats When They Come to My House." I'm trying to remember who was first to attack the other with a razor, right after the recording session was completed. Probably it was Dizzy Gillespie who lunged at Cab. The bandleader was a teetotal law-school graduate from a genteel neighborhood of Rochester, N.Y., and I just can't picture him initiating violence, no matter how irritating Diz must have been.

JUST FINISHED READING...

"Unknown Man No 89" by Elmore Leonard. Leonard, who died in 2013, cranked out dozens of formulaic, dialogue-driven page-turners, and his large audience continues through episodic TV series on streaming services, including "Justified" and "Get Shorty." This 1977 novel, typically set in decaying Detroit City and featuring a working-stiff protagonist, has the author breaking a few of his famous rules of writing. "Use dialect sparingly if ever," instructs the Dickens of Detroit, but here he has entire pages of his winos, pimps and hustlers intoning unconvincing Superfly-lingo, to an extent that will embarrass the 21st century reader. For that, it's a nifty period-piece to revisit from the perspective of this transformational  quarantine.

TONIGHT WE’RE COOKING...

Most likely something involving the store-brand Campfire Baked Beans with Canadian Whiskey, a delicacy sold in select Ontario locations by the Farm Boy chain. If anyone happens to drop over just before the dinner hour, I will describe the item as cassoulet and will inquire if the visitor thought to bring along a duck leg and some merguez sausage. But, who's kidding who? No one's dropping over this month. 

STAY IN TOUCH DURING THE WORKING WEEK AHEAD

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That's it. Stay safe, you lot. The Daily CurveFlattener is back tomorrow.