Democracy begins with elections. Will it end with banning recovered Covid patients from enlisting?

NOW: More tickets are available for the National Pharmaceutical Congress Spring 2020 Webinar, "After This Rude Interruption: What the Life Sciences Will Look Like After the Covid Crisis" Wed., May 20, 11 a.m. to noon (EDT.) Panel discussion of thought-leaders from the Canadian Life Sciences and physician communities to discuss and determine the way forward. Faculty includes: Wendy Adams, Galderma Canada; Peter Brenders, Kontollo Health (lead panellist); Dr. Wayne P. Gulliver, Memorial University of Newfoundland & Labrador; Robin Hunter, Malinckrodt; Richard Lajoie, Bausch Health; Mitch Shannon, Chronicle Companies (host.) Registration is free. Register now at http://tiny.cc/NPC-Spring

May 13, 2020 -- Hump day has arrived, CurveFlatteners. This is Chronicle’s Cory Perla reporting today, and, like you, my plan for the day is to get over it and past it. Look out, Thursday.

As a tax-paying resident (and how!) of New York State, I’m happy to report that since my last CurveFlattener instalment, our New York presidential primary election has been reinstated by rule of a district court judge. Democracy lives on, despite the results of a new study that has found the death-toll in New York may be worse than the official tally reflects.

In other developments from the Lower-48 desk, the U.S. Military Entrance Processing Command has circulated a memo that states that having a history of Covid-19 will be “permanently disqualifying” for new recruits attempting to join the ranks. This, according to a report in Newsweek magazine. 

However, there's always a silver lining somewhere, and for some hopeful first-time home-buying millennials, depressed real estate prices resulting from the pandemic may offer them a “once-in-a-lifetime chance to buy,” according to the Vice news site. 

If you are reading this from your work-from-home office and after seven weeks you still have not gotten around to optimizing your office environment, here are a few more tips. And when the five o'clock whistle fails to blow, you might just consider relaxing with an adult-use product (if legal in your jurisdiction, of course, and if appropriate for your needs and lifestyle), because according to developing Canadian research, an occasional puff may help strengthen your system against coronavirus.

COVID CHRONICLE 05/13/2020

• In a first time assessment of organ donation and transplant rates during the coronavirus crisis, researchers found that the amount of organ transplant proceduress in the U.S. and France have dropped significantly in the last month. In April 2020, organ transplants decreased by 51.1 per cent in the U.S. and by more than 90 per cent in France, compared to March 2020. According to the study, published in the Lancet, kidney transplants dropped the most though heart, lung, and liver transplants did not lag far behind. 

• A survey of 2,200 adults in the U.S. conducted by the tech company Morning Consult, found that 14 per cent would refuse to get a coronavirus vaccine if one were to become available. The survey also found that eight per cent know someone who has died from coronavirus while one per cent of respondents say they have had it. 

• Men may be more susceptible to contracting coronavirus than women due to higher levels of ACE2 enzymes in their blood, according to a study published online in the European Heart Journal (May 10, 2020). However, the study of also found that ACE inhibitors did not increase the risk of contracting Covid-19. 

STORIES CHRONICLE IS WORKING ON TODAY...

Assistant editor Cory Perla (a.k.a. your obedient servant) is interviewing Canadian pediatricians on how the Covid crisis has spurred the growth of telemedicine in the pediatric world.

RIGHT NOW WE'RE READING...

Enjoy Your Symptom by Slavoj Žižek. Not the kind of symptom one might experience from the coronavirus, more like the psychoanalytic symbolic symptom; the unconsciously perceived morsel of meaning in language or action that we refuse to or fail to perceive consciously. In his book, the Slovenian author analyzes these symptoms as identified in Hollywood movies from the films of Hitchcock to The Matrix.

LATER WE'RE LISTENING TO...

All 23 minutes of Kraftwerk's extended version of "Autobahn." Florian Schneider, founding member of the hugely influential German electronic kraut-rock band, Kraftwerk, died of cancer at the age of 73 last week. Requiem en pace to one of the first and finest 'bots. 

TONIGHT WE ARE COOKING...

Creamy roasted cauliflower soup: roasted cauliflower, garlic, onion, vegetable stock, salt pepper, vegan butter, and a little bit of lemon juice. Boil it all together and then throw it in a blender. (Sorry if you were expecting more precise measurements and descriptions, along with some beautiful food photography to accompany this paragraph, but what were you expecting? Rachel Ray? You've come to the wrong newsletter.)

TOMORROW AND TOMORROW

Please make use of the comments section at the Daily CurveFlattener, to let us know what you're up to in your social distance. Or feel free to check in via LinkedIn, email, or your choice of connector. By all means, pass this newsletter along to your colleagues.

That's it. Stay in touch, stay safe. The CurveFlattener will be back tomorrow, helmed by my virtual lunch-buddy Dhiren Mahiban.