Written by: Greg Ellifritz
Since I don’t have TV in my house, I spend a lot more time reading than the average American. I have more than 400 websites programmed into my RSS reader. On the average day I scan about 1200 articles in my feed. I deeply read more than 100. You can guess that my feed in recent days has been almost completely full of Covid-19 articles. I’ve been reading an insane quantity of material with regards to the virus and its likely future consequences.
There are lots of good coronavirus articles out there on the internet. With that said, I don’t want to share the articles that everyone else is sharing, doom and gloom porn, or wild speculations. Instead, I will share the truly unique and valuable pieces I find while scanning the internet.
Check out the links below to learn something new. These are the most informative pandemic resources I have seen in the past few days.
Michael Osterholm, Ph.D.: COVID-19—Lessons learned, challenges ahead, and reasons for optimism and concern
This podcast conversation between two absolutely brilliant doctors is the best discussion I’ve seen so far with regards to the coronavirus. Take the time to listen to it. It’s not all doom and gloom, but you won’t enjoy contemplating their predictions.
The lessons Italy has learned about its COVID-19 outbreak could help the rest of the world
“The biggest mistake we made was to admit patients infected with COVID-19 into hospitals throughout the region,” said Carlo Borghetti, the vice-premier of Lombardy, an economically crucial region with a population of 10 million.
“We should have immediately set up separate structures exclusively for people sick with coronavirus. I recommend the rest of the world do this, to not send COVID patients into health-care facilities that are still uninfected.”
“That policy of testing was wrong,” said Guido Marinoni, president of the Medical Association of Bergamo, the hardest-hit city. “We should have extended testing to the relatives of positive people and the contacts of those relatives, at the very least.”
Supply run in the Philippines during a pandemic
It’s interesting to me to see the different ways other countries are dealing with the pandemic. These travel bloggers were quarantined for two weeks at a beach resort in the Philippines.
This was their first post about local conditions after they finished their quarantine period.
Be grateful that we don’t have security guards checking for “quarantine passes.”
I was really considering a visit to the Philippines later this year. I might have to rethink that destination. Their president ordered the police/military to shoot anyone violating the quarantine order.
The Best Defense Survival #3 – With Special Guest Dr. William Aprill
Michael Bane creates yet another episode filled with quality information from some exceptional sources.
Cleaning Clothes of COVID-19 Patients
A topic that most people aren’t discussing. The authors’ book is a very good medical resource to have on hand in times like this.
If you want some more information about dealing with contaminated clothing, please read Why you are LESS likely to catch COVID-19 from clothes (as long as you wash them).
COVID-19, Chloroquine, Clinical Trials….
Some of you are confused about the off-label usage of chloroquine against the coronavirus. This article links to all of the published scientific studies on the drug related to Covid-19. For more information, read about one doctor’s 100% success rate using chloroquine and Chloroquine for COVID-19 Patients. Finally, you might also check out I think this is the beginning of the end of the pandemic’.
I have some left over chloroquine that I had been prescribed as an anti-malarial medication. I’ve taken it for a combined duration of nearly a year with all my foreign travels. I have no negative side effects from this particular medication. You can bet that I will begin taking some of my little stash if I end up with a fever and upper respiratory tract infection symptoms.
And while on the topic of drugs, we should also look at anti-aging remedies as well as de-worming meds if they may be helpful.
DIY mask meta-guide: the best online resources for making masks for yourself & others
A few of days ago, the CDC issued an advisory urging people to wear masks when out in public. Those masks are in very short supply. Here’s an instructional article explaining how to make some masks at home that may be somewhat protective for you and essential in terms of you not infecting others. According to this article, making a homemade mask from standard blue shop towels is two to three times more effective than one made out of cotton clothing fiber.
While on the topic of masks, you might find Transmission of COVID-19 by aerosol, implications for public health to be a valuable read.
Coping with COVID-19, Kevin Gilmartin PhD
I’ve enjoyed Robb Wolf’s (of the Paleo Diet fame) podcasts for many years. On this one he interviews Dr. Kevin Gilmartin about how to best handle coronavirus stress. Dr. Gilmartin describes why this crisis is different from many others we’ve experienced in the past and provides some essential hints to help you keep your life on the rails despite the quarantine.
For what it’s worth, I took a class from Dr. Gilmartin almost 20 years ago. It was the single most useful class I’ve ever taken in more than 4000 hours of documented training. His advice (consolidated in the book Emotional Survival for Law Enforcement) really helped me through a dark portion of my work career. If you are a first responder of any type, you will benefit greatly from the content in the good doctor’s book or his training classes.
Listen to this podcast and pay attention to Dr. Gilmartin’s advice.
Yuval Noah Harari: the world after coronavirus
I think Yuval Harari is one of the smartest people on the planet. Here is his take about the way forward through this pandemic.
“In this time of crisis, we face two particularly important choices. The first is between totalitarian surveillance and citizen empowerment. The second is between nationalist isolation and global solidarity.”
Businesses That Are Going To Fail
Michael Z. Williamson provides a depressing outline of a dystopian future.
[COVID-19] One Important Recommendation You May Not be Hearing
“Being afraid is literally making you even more susceptible to getting sick.”
A couple of additional comments before I let you go…
Last week I started noticing some strange statistics with regards to this site’s page views and advertising revenues. Page views have gone up dramatically (30%) in the past couple weeks. Despite the big surge in visits, my ad revenue has taken a massive hit. Almost 50% less ad revenue per day despite many more visits.
What’s going on? I started digging a little deeper. I found out that advertisers don’t want their products to be associated with the coronavirus or COVID-19. Many won’t place ads on pages that discuss anything at all about the pandemic. This article explains some of the advertisers’ thought processes.
My content for the last few weeks has been heavily weighted to providing you all with the best information I can find on the virus. That strategy is killing my ad revenues.
I’m not writing this to complain about the ad money that I am losing. Instead, I want you to understand the consequences of this worldwide issue.
We will see less information coming out about the virus from independent sources in the future. The big news sites aren’t nearly as affected, but many independent bloggers will stop posting content that harms their financial bottom line. I worry that we will lose a prime source of objective information and analysis during a time when we all need that information the most.
I will keep providing good information despite the revenue drop. Please remember to support the people who provide you with the high quality content that you prefer to consume.
Some of the above links (from Amazon.com) are affiliate links. As an Amazon associate I earn a small percentage of the sale price from qualifying purchases.
If you would like to further support my work, head over to my Patreon page.
