Prolonged lock-down is proving not to be my cup of tea

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 #51
⇒ Confirmed Covid cases in Canada as of 06/10: 98,241*
⇒ Confirmed Covid fatalities in Canada as of 06/10: 7,970*
⇒ Worldwide Covid cases as of 06/10: 7,284,866*
⇒ Worldwide Covid fatalities as of 06/10: 411,879*

June 10, 2020—It has been a stressful week for your correspondent, Chronicle senior editor John Evans. My go-to solution for jangled nerves is a soothing cup of aromatic tea. As I sat drinking a hot cuppa of lapsang souchong, it occurred to me that my province of residence, Ontario, was considering opening up more places of business this coming Friday in a partial relaxation of Covid-19-related regulations. Would I soon be able to restock my loose-leaf supply or get a reservation at a tea house?

The answer is no, it seems, as here in Toronto we have not done as good a job as the rest of the province in flattening the curve, so our business restrictions are not being reduced.

Regulations put into place to slow and stop the spread of this virus have had a wider impact on tea than just forcing me to buy mass-market tea bags from the grocery store.

The need for social distancing has driven the adoption of a digital auction system for tea buyers in Sri Lanka [Story here]. And while commodity tea businesses have stockpiles of the prepared leaves to keep them going through shortages, specialty tea providers are facing challenges. A news report from Forbes from May 26, 2020, notes that while many specialty producers have already adopted e-commerce platforms that allow them to fill orders on-demand directly to customers, there just is less tea being picked. Lockdowns are preventing plantation workers from getting to the tea bushes in the narrow window of time that the new leaves need to be picked in. The news article says estimates of the decline in tea exports from India this year range from 6 per cent to as high as 20 per cent.

Worrying. I think I need another cup.

COVID CHRONICLE 06/10/20

• In a virtual press conference on June 8, 2020, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus noted that while the Covid-19 situation is improving in some regions, such as Europe, the worldwide situation is getting worse. “More than 100,000 cases have been reported on 9 of the past 10 days. Yesterday [June 7, 2020], more than 136,000 cases were reported, the most in a single day so far.” Ghebreyesus said that nearly 75% of those 136,000 cases came from 10 countries, mostly in the Americas and South Asia. 
• Cancer researchers at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) have adapted tools typically employed in the development of cancer immunotherapies in order to identify regions of the Covid-19 virus to target with a vaccine. Their method was to use an approach employed to elicit an immune response against cancer cells to stimulate an immune response against the virus. The researchers say they believe that using this strategy could result in a vaccine that would provide protection across the human population and drive a long-term immune response. 
• A study from epidemiologists at Imperial College London published in Nature has estimated that shutdown measures, such as lockdown orders and school closures, have saved approximately 3.1 million lives in 11 European countries, including 500,000 in the U.K. 

STORIES CHRONICLE IS WORKING ON TODAY

I have just recently wrapped up an article on the use of micro-needling as a treatment for non-hypertrophic scars.

RIGHT NOW WE ARE LISTENING TO. . .

The Run Lola Run soundtrack. Driving, surreal, and full of weird late-'90s aesthetics, this is what I need to get jazzed up after the tea relaxes me. Yes, that seems paradoxical. Don't judge me. 

LATER WE ARE WATCHING. . .

Andrew Marr's History of the World, Ep. 1: Survival. This BBC documentary series bills itself as “An epic journey through of 70,000 years of human history.” BBC docs rarely disappoint me, I find.




HOW IS YOUR WEEK GOING?
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That's it for now. Stay in touch, stay safe and make this a tolerable Tuesday. My colleague Kylie Rebernik will inform you all tomorrow.