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.
Masks, Respirators, and COVID19
Morgan put more than 100 hours of research into this 9,000 word article. It is the most definitive reference I’ve seen on the use of masks and respirators.
Everything You Are Doing Regarding COVID is Stupid
A perspective that is in stark contrast to what you hearing in the big media.
Coronavirus: Surviving the Looming Mental Health Crisis
“And when I find myself spiraling emotionally, I remind myself of some basic facts. First, that my grandfather stormed a beach in Italy and watched pretty much everybody with whom he had spent the past year die in front of him in a matter of hours. My great uncle, at age 19, had to financially support his three younger siblings because my great-grandparents could no longer feed all of their six kids during the Great Depression. A generation before that, the flu pandemic of 1918 ripped through nearly 50 million people worldwide and killed 500,000 in the US, mostly young adults and children. Just a couple of generations before that, over 600,000 Americans died fighting over the right for some people to own other people as property. Another generation before that, over three million people died because an egomaniacal (and short) Frenchman wanted to give everybody the metric system. Hell, the black plague in the 14th century killed an estimated 125 million people, that was 20% of the global population.
So yeah, I can sit on my fucking couch for a few months. No problem.”
Covid-19 had us all fooled, but now we might have finally found its secret
A doctor friend of mine forwarded this article to me. Very interesting and unconventional ideas. Unfortunately, my three undergraduate biology classes 25+ years ago did not equip me with enough knowledge on the topic to offer intelligent commentary.
This article takes an alternate view of the issue.
The Best Defense Survival – Roundtable #4
Michael Bane leads another excellent discussion about pandemic survival. The psychological insights these experts provide are incredibly astute.
Esther Perel — Tactics for Relationships in Quarantine | The Tim Ferriss Show
Speaking of psychology, I found this discussion very valuable. Those of you who are trying to maintain relationships in these trying times may enjoy it. If you don’t want to listen to a two-hour podcast, here are Esther Perel’s written tips covering relationships in quarantine.
5 Civil Rights Americans Lost to the COVID-19 Panic
“Currently, your government has made the decision that it’s going to be you and your liberties that must suffer for the possibility that they can save some people who are sick with a virus that most people recover from. There is no plan in place to save those of you who become sick from worry, depression, poverty, and the chaos the government and the experts have created.”
Law Enforcement & COVID-19:Key Legal & Operational Considerations
A free webinar covering critical information that police supervisors and administrators should understand.
For an additional law enforcement perspective, read Crackdowns on Lone Surfers and Paddleboarders Threaten to Erode Respect for Law Enforcement Even Further.
My cop friends should also read Suggested Officer Involved Shooting Protocol During the Pandemic.
How soon does it end?
Interesting research that indicates this virus lasts about two months no matter what type of “social distancing” precautions are employed.
A couple of additional comments before I let you go…
A few weeks ago 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 month 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.
