Covid-19 for Dummies: Don’t look now, but the dummies could be winning

The NPC Healthbiz Weekly has launched. It's your weekly briefing on topics pertinent to healthcare marketers and executives published in cooperation with Peak Pharma Solutions. From Chronicle Companies, organizers of the 14th National Pharmaceutical Congress, which continues today and on Wednesday, Nov. 4. More info at pharmacongress.info

⇒ Issue #128 (In numerology, 128 is all about your dreams and desires.)

⇒ Confirmed Covid cases in Canada as of 10/28: 225,703*
⇒ Confirmed Covid fatalities in Canada as of 10/28: 10,052*
⇒ Worldwide Covid cases as of 10/28: 44,010,870*

⇒ Worldwide Covid fatalities as of 10/28: 1,167,817*

October 28, 2020—Hello all you dedicated followers of the Daily CurveFlattener. It’s Editorial Director Allan Ryan at the wheel today, and the question is how is it possible that some people are just so danged stupid? 

We could start in the U.S., where on Monday night (10/26) the POTUS stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the country’s new Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett as she took her constitutional oath in front of a crowd of about 200 observers. Neither the president nor the new justice wore masks. It was obvious to viewers that the mother of seven was uncomfortable with the fact that a recently recovered Covid-19 patient was exhaling next to her—you could almost see her trying to hold her breath. But, of course, there was no issue in the mind of the POTUS—that’s the distinction between bad judgment and no judgment at all.

Closer to home, it’s been mostly poor judgment. In Ontario’s Niagara Peninsula, a local Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) is under fire for appearing mask-less in a group photo (see right) taken at a family gathering. MPP Sam Oosterhoff later said he was sorry but, attention voters, it does make one wonder about the quality of his thought processes. The prexy of the Ontario Hospital Association, Anthony Dale, called for Mr. Oosterhoff to lose his job as Parliamentary Secretary to the Provincial Education Minister. Mr. Dale wondered in a tweet how many healthcare workers gathered for an indoor party of 40 people last weekend? His unstated answer is none because they all would have known better.

And in the Who’s In Charge? Dept: In nearby St. Catharines, Ont., Niagara Public Health is investigating a local church that posted a video of its Sunday service, a video that clearly showed elderly parishioners sharing a communion spoon. Niagara’s acting medical officer of health, Dr. Mustafa Hirji, told the St. Catharines Standard newspaper: “A spoon that multiple people would use really wouldn’t be recommended at any point in time, and during Covid-19 it’s something that certainly shouldn’t be done.” 

The NPC Healthbiz Weekly has launched. It's your weekly briefing on topics pertinent to healthcare marketers and executives published in cooperation with Peak Pharma Solutions. From Chronicle Companies, organizers of the 14th National Pharmaceutical Congress. More info at pharmacongress.info

COVID CHRONICLE 10/28/2020

• A study in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases has suggested that while the novel coronavirus can live on human skin for up to nine hours, an 80 per cent ethanol sanitizer has been shown to kill the virus in about 15 seconds.

• According to this new study in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, more than 80 per cent of 216 coronavirus patients admitted to hospital in Spain between Mar.10 and Mar. 31 had a Vitamin D deficiency. Co-author Dr. Jose Hernandez told CTV News: “There are numerous pieces of evidence in the literature that support the beneficial effect of vitamin D on the immune system, especially regarding protection against infections, including viral infections.” 
• A study published this week in Cardiovascular Research indicates that long-term exposure to air pollution may be linked to 15% of Covid-19 deaths around the world. Health and disease data from the U.S. and China relating to air pollution, COVID-19, and SARS were analyzed, as was satellite data related to global exposure to particulate matter and ground-based pollution monitoring information. They determined that “exposure to particulate matter in air likely aggravated co-morbidities that lead to fatal outcomes.” 

WHAT CHRONICLE IS WORKING ON TODAY

Today (Wednesday, Oct 28, 2020) is the second session of this year’s 14th annual National Pharmaceutical Congress NPC. The Congress this year is completely virtual and gets underway in a few hours at 11 a.m. EDT. You can learn more here.

TONIGHT WE ARE READING...  

Tossing and turning? Waking up in the middle of the night in a panic? Here’s an idea: Blame Covid. Deirdre Barrett’s new book Pandemic Dreams concludes that Covid might just be influencing the way we dream, and the types of nightmares we experience. In fact, the associate professor of psychology in Harvard’s Department of Psychiatry suggests that the dreams of many people actually have common features triggered by the pandemic. Dr. Barrett, a dream researcher, used an online survey to collect stories about Covid dreams. 

LATER WE ARE LISTENING TO...

Let’s stay with the dream theme. So many great tunes about dreams:

"All I Have to Do Is Dream," The Everly Brothers 

"Dreams," The Cranberries 

-- but the winner tonight is this 1986 chart climber and wistful tune from The Moody Blues, "Your Wildest Dreams." 

ARE YOU THIRSTY FOR THURSDAY?

After no doubt toasting the success of today's National Pharmaceutical Congress session, Mitch Shannon will hammer together tomorrow's CurveFlattener to keep us all ahead of Covid-19 news.

Please make use of 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.