We're en route to the future, one day at a 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; 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, and the sign-up site opens tomorrow.

Photo public domain via Wikimedia Commons

June 1, 2020— Welcome to June, Curveflatteners. Or, as I am calling it, "March, Episode IV: A New Hope." 

Whether the hope is warranted or not, I — Chronicle senior editor John Evans — have my fingers crossed that despite some hiccups around the local reductions of restrictions on public places, some of the promising trends we have seen in the reduction of new Covid-19 cases will continue. (I write while glaring accusingly out the window at a city that briefly forgot that whole "social distancing" thing when public parks were open on a gorgeous holiday weekend here in Toronto.)

The social, economic, and health impacts of this crisis are wide-ranging and weirdly mixed, with some people paradoxically coming out ahead. The good people behind the Zoom video conferencing software are experiencing a boom from shelter-in-place orders that they would likely have never encountered otherwise. No doubt the data collected on these social and economic changes will provide meat for PhD theses for decades. Here are a couple of examples in the news this week:

Harm reduction initiatives that aim to help people with substance abuse challenges are making changes during the Covid-19 situation which could represent a significant improvement in patient quality of life if carried forward past the crisis, according to a recent news report. These include moving individuals into hotel rooms, the initiation of mobile therapy programs to treat patients in their homes, and a call coming from physicians for greater patient access to prescription pharmaceutical alternatives to street drugs. 

For people looking for a new place to live in Canada, rents are down across the country. Global News reports that in Toronto and Vancouver average rents were down by five per cent and nine per cent respectively in April compared to the same period in 2019. The article attributes this to a drop in short-term demand, as travel restrictions have cut down on the number of international students, seasonal workers, and other temporary residents looking for a place to stay. The decrease in demand for short-term accommodation may also be pushing landlords to try and entice more long-term occupants, according to the article.

COVID CHRONICLE 06/01/2020

• There has been a fair bit of talk about how a loss of the senses of smell and taste is an early symptom of Covid-19. To quantify that aspect of the condition, a group from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Va. conducted a U.S.-wide survey. They found that 37.7 per cent of respondents reported changes in smell and taste as the initial or sole presentation of their condition. Most also had other symptoms suggestive of Covid-19 when they experienced the sensory loss. 
  
  
• Chest CT findings among pediatric patients with laboratory-confirmed coronavirus disease (COVID-19) are likely to be negative, according to a recent paper in American Journal of Roentgenology (May 22, 2020;1-9, online ahead of print). The authors note that in pediatric Covid-19 patients that do have positive CT findings, bilateral, lower lobe-predominant ground-glass opacities (GGOs) are common. 
• While house pets can become infected by Covid-19, transmission from pets to humans is unlikely, says University of Alberta veterinary epidemiologist Simon Otto, an assistant professor with the U of A's School of Public Health, in a press release. As a result, it is recommended that house pets be kept away from other animals outside the home for the sake of the pet's health, but humans in the home—even those who may be immunocompromised—should not be concerned about having pets nearby. 
• Researchers from the U.S. Food and Drug Administrations (FDA) have published a review article in Frontiers in Immunology (May 29, 2020), compiling all currently known key immunological factors underlying the clinical stages of COVID-19 illness that could potentially be targeted by existing therapeutic drugs.

STORIES CHRONICLE IS WORKING ON TODAY

My colleague Jeremy Visser is working on an article for Pediatric Chronicle on the clinical characteristics of adolescents with product use–associated lung injuries from e-cigarettes or vaping (known as EVALI.)

RIGHT NOW WE ARE LISTENING TO...

The history of medicine podcast "Sawbones." In this recent episode, “The Most Dangerous Parade”, the topic is the Philadelphia Liberty Loans Parade in Sept. 1918. The parade, organized to raise funds to support allied troops in World War I, was perhaps not a great idea during the Spanish Influenza epidemic of 1918. It is estimated that some 200,000 people attended the parade, and it resulted in 12,000 deaths from the infection. You know the saying: Learn from history or be doomed to repeat it, &c.

LATER WE WILL BE WATCHING...

Have a Good Trip: Adventures in Psychedelics on Netflix. This new documentary claims that it: “explores the pros, cons, science, history, future, pop-cultural impact, and cosmic possibilities of hallucinogens.” As I am working on an article about the potential medical psychedelics market, this caught my attention. Hopefully, it will go into some depth on the science side of things. 

TONIGHT I WILL BE EATING...

I like to bake a chicken thigh in a casserole dish with sliced onions and apples and serve it over rice. My choice of seasonings change on a whim when I am preparing this, but this time I'm thinking a generous shake of hot paprika and tomato paste is in order. I don't have a name for the dish, but if you want to call it "Chicken Evans," I won't be offended. Just as long as you pay your royalty to the creator.

THE WEEK AHEAD...

We are running through the last few days of Spring, and the weather is getting hot. When you are out for your walks, try to stay in shade, and wear a hat and sunscreen. Touching your mask reduces its effectiveness, so try drinking water before going out and after returning, rather than mid-walk. Tomorrow, my colleague Kylie Rebernik will be reporting.