A clinician offers tips for lovers in a dangerous time

Announcing the Summer Webinar of the National Pharmaceutical Congress: "Pharma's Purpose, People & Process Post-Covid. Who Will Thrive? Who Will Be Left Behind?" Featured panellists are Ronnie Miller, Hoffman-La Roche; Mike Egli, Aspen Healthcare Canada; Claude Perron, Amicus Therapeutics; Danielle Portnik, Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals; Peter Brenders, Kontollo Health [lead panellist]; Mitch Shannon, Chronicle Companies [host.] Mark the date of Tuesday, June 23, 11:00 to noon (EDT.) Registration is free. Space is limited. Sign up here.

⇒ Issue #50
⇒ Confirmed Covid cases in Canada as of 06/09: 97,779*
⇒ Confirmed Covid fatalities in Canada as of 06/09: 7,910*
⇒ Worldwide Covid cases as of 06/09: 7,138,885*
⇒ Worldwide Covid fatalities as of 06/09: 406,925*

June 9, 2020 — Tuesday morning greetings from the wrong side of town, CurveFlatteners, where things have finally come to this: Health Canada is instructing you to throw away your hand sanitizer, and Harvard Medical School researchers are telling you to wear a mask during coitus. Oh, and kindly knock off the kissing. 

We'll begin with hand sanitizer because it's a safe subject to discuss in case any children are reading this newsletter. (By the way, it's Mitch Shannon conveying the news today.)

Remember back in April, how you had to line up in the parking lot for an hour at the Kwik-e-Mart, only to be price-gouged for a tiny bottle of hand sanitizer? You may recall how it made Ontario Premier Doug Ford so darned angry that he set up a telephone hotline (1-800-889-9768) so you could drop a dime on the retail goniffs.

Now there's some added indignation. Canada's federal health regulator this week recalled several product brands because they contain unauthorized industrial-grade ethanol that may cause skin damage. The banned products are manufactured by Contract Packaging Distributions, Eltraderm, Sanilabs, Walker Emulsions, and the ironically named Nature's Own Cosmetic Company. Health Canada named and shamed the brands on their website, and wants you to follow regional guidelines on "how to dispose of chemicals and other hazardous waste." 

Intimacy during a time of physical distancing may sound like an oxymoron, but Dr. Jack L. Turban and colleagues have enumerated and categorized five sexual behaviours during the Covid era in a recent article in Annals of Internal Medicine. The doctors are concerned about those in the category of what they primly label "Sex with Persons Other Than Those with Whom One is Self-quarantined." Dr. Turban and co-authors offer that group two blunt words of advice: "alcohol wipes." (Er, better read the preceding paragraph, doctor.) Among other useful patient resources offered in the article are clinical advisories to always wear a mask during sex, and "avoid kissing." 

You know, it's double-entendre occasions such as this that serve to remind us how much we regret that Netflix doesn't carry re-runs of the old Benny Hill TV program. Quickly, then. Cue Benny's music, and we'll get on to other news.

COVID CHRONICLE 06/09/20

• Glabrous and unwell: Newly published research suggests follicly-challenged males may be more susceptible to Covid-19. Carlos Gustavo Wambier, MD, PhD, of Brown University, is the lead author of "Androgenetic Alopecia Present in the Majority of Hospitalized Covid-19 Patients," a study recently published in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology. He tells The Telegraph newspaper of London: "We really think that baldness is a perfect predictor of severity." Researchers theorize that androgens may be a factor in both alopecia and virulence of the virus. A study co-author is Jerry Shapiro, MD, the alopecia researcher formerly of the University of British Columbia. 
• Safety or privacy? Which one would you choose? A study by researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign suggests the information technology industry is favouring the first over the second. Writing in the journal Nature Medicine, authors Masooda Bashir and Tanusree Sharma said, "Governments' use of such tracking technology -- and the possibilities for how they might use it after the pandemic -- is chilling to many. Notably, surveillance mapping through apps will allow governments to identify people's travel paths and their entire social networks."
• It has been nearly three months since the Canada-U.S.A. border was closed to non-essential travel owing to Covid concerns, but some exemptions to that ban will be lifted at midnight tonight. Canada's Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino said immediate-family members of citizens and permanent residents will once again be allowed into Canada, with certain provisions. Arriving visitors will be screened at the border and will be subject to a 14-day quarantine. 

STORIES CHRONICLE IS WORKING ON TODAY

Jeremy Visser is lining up interviews for a timely article for The Chronicle of Healthcare Marketing, dealing with healthcare marketers cutting spending and shifting marketing priorities due to Covid-19.

RIGHT NOW WE'RE LISTENING TO...

Up-and-coming Canadian singer-songwriter James Ingvar Thomas just released a new track, "Soldiers of Fortune," as a response to current political events. It's a simmering protest song that brings to mind a hypothetical collaboration between Stevie Wonder and Ed Sheeran, perhaps with Donovan Leitch Sr. nodding his encouragement. A great tune.

LATER WE'RE READING

The Elements of Eloquence: How to Turn the Perfect English Phrase by Mark Forsythe (Icon books, Cdn$16.) Forsythe, a self-described U.K etymologicon, has turned his humble literary blog into a mini-media empire, and has produced a small shelf of intriguing works, including the recent "Short History of Drunkenness." Eloquence may be a devalued commodity during this inarticulate Era of Trump -- the president would opine that effective speech is bad, very, very bad -- but Forsythe makes facility with language palatable to mainstream readers through his breezy approach to the subject. 

HOW IS YOUR WEEK GOING?

Use the comments section at 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 your colleagues.

That's it for now. Stay in touch, stay safe and make this a tolerable Tuesday. Our John Evans occupies this space tomorrow.