#heard it in epidemiology and have never stopped saying it | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

holidaywishes · 3 years

Text

the best is yet to come...

part thirteen: the best is yet to come...

Summary: “As excited as I am that we’re now Stanley Cup Champions, I have to listen to my body and say my goodbyes to the team and to the league.”

Warning: fluff and I think that’s it! It definitely got a little gushy at the end <3

Author’s Note: Welcome to the Finale! We’re jumping ahead five years ahead to when Freddie has decided to retire after the team wins the Stanley Cup and he feels like he’s done all he can for now. It’s a little bittersweet but in all honesty, I think it’s a good way to end this little series, so I hope you enjoy it! Also, for those of you reading my Gally fic, or like Gally in general and are interested in Gally content, I was going to finish off the last three chapters of that series once this one was done but with 9-1-1 coming back on Monday, I wanted to finish that series because I’m only making that series 15 parts because that seems like enough. So, once those two chapters are done, I will move onto finishing my Gally series. So, that’s all the explaining I’ll do for now! Hope you like this Finale chapter! Stay golden, loves!

masterlist

the other masterlist

Five Years Later

Vita had grown up so fast and you were trying your best to relish every moment -- taking too many pictures, buying matching outfits that included Freddie, filming all her birthdays and taking her to all of Freddie’s games -- but that meant that a lot of your friends were getting tired of seeing it all

“So...” your best friend, Miranda, sighed as she was forced to leave a voicemail for you when you missed her call, “I think we need to get together. But, here’s the caveat, you have to leave Vita with Freddie or a babysitter.” You furrowed your brow at her request and looked at your daughter who was watching an interview that Freddie had done this morning, earning a smile from you, “I love Vita, you know that, but I feel like I haven’t seen you without her since the day she was born. And I miss you, I miss us being able to hang out without talking about kids or looking at family photos. So, call me back and let’s set something up!” You understood where she was coming from, you were in different places in your lives and often it made it difficult to connect with the friends you had before you got pregnant, but you appreciated her being honest with you and making an effort to see you. So, you called Freddie and asked what day he would be free because you really didn’t want to find a babysitter, and luckily he had some free time this weekend, so you quickly called Miranda back. When you finally met up with Miranda, you sat in silence for a while before either of you knew what to say

“So--” you both said, laughing at the awkward interaction

“Can I get you two anything to drink while you look through the menu?” the server asked when he came over to the table

“I’ll have a sweet tea” Miranda said

“Can I get a Coke?” you smiled before thanking the server and turning back to Miranda, “so how have you been?”

“Good!” she smiled, “I went back to school to get my Master’s”

“No way! That’s awesome, what in? Sticking with something in Nursing?” you asked

“Sort of,” she smiled, “with everything that happened during the Pandemic, I felt like I wasn’t doing enough, that I didn’t know enough, so I decided to get my Masters in Public Health, specializing in epidemiology.”

“Miranda! That’s incredible!” you exclaimed, both of you thanking the server as they set down your drinks, “you have always been so smart and motivated, I know you’ll kick ass in that Masters program!”

“Thank you,” she smiled, “yeah I’m excited!”

“That’s really wonderful, I’m so proud of you.”

“So what about you? How have you been?” she asked and you hesitated, trying to figure out how to talk to her without talking about Vita

“I’ve been good! Work’s going well, Freddie’s excited to be getting a shot at the Cup again”

“Yeah, I’ve been watching, the team looks really good this season”

“Right? They definitely look more cohesive,” you laughed, “Fred’s thinking this year might be his last though”

“No way! How come?”

“This reason or that reason,” you chuckled, “he says that he’s getting too old and that any injury he gets could impact him more than it used to. He wants to be around for us and to be able to still play Hockey once he retires. He wants to retire on his own terms”

“That makes sense”

“I feel bad for him though,” you admitted, “I feel like he doesn’t know who he is without Hockey but he knows that he’s on the older side than the majority of goalies now. I mean I still think he’s amazing at everything he does but I don’t want him to get hurt or do it if he doesn’t love it anymore...“

“I’m sure he knows what he’s doing”

“Definitely”

“Alright alright, how’s the baby?“ she sighed

“Vita’s good, but we don’t have to talk about her” you smiled

“No no, I didn’t mean that you couldn’t talk about her. I just would rather see you alone, without her. I know that sounds awful”

“I get it,” you confessed, “kids are not always the best company. They’re loud and can burst out into tantrums without any real cause and even if they’re the most adorable things ever, they just irritate you.” The two of you laughed together for a minute before you told her about Vita and how everything was going -- her first days of Kindergarten, the friends she was making, how obsessed she was with Hockey and how much Freddie had become wrapped about her finger.

“They’re adorable together. He’s such a giant next to her, it’s so cute to see.”

“He loves her so much,” you smiled, “and I’ve never been happier.”

“I’m so happy for you. And I’m happy that you haven’t lost yourself in them,” she said and you furrowed your brow, “you’re still you. You still have a job that you love, you still have your own interests and your own friends and you still love your husband. You’re not just... a mom or a wife for the sake of it. I really admire that about you. You’ve always been such an incredible person and I was worried that being a mom would somehow take that away from you.” You tilted your head in response before putting your hand on hers

“Thank you,” you smiled, “it’s not like it’s easy. There was a minute like five years ago, just after my grandparents died, that I thought I was losing myself and I told Freddie. So, we worked together and became a team. Which is how it’s supposed to be and it seems to be working for us. A little give and take.” The rest of the day seemed to go by pretty quickly and you were sad to say goodbye but Miranda told you she’d call you to make this a weekly thing to which you eagerly agreed, “god yes! I need more adults in my life,” you laughed and Miranda smiled in return, “look. You totally don’t have to, but we’re having a birthday party for Vita and it would be great if you could be there. It’s next Saturday at noon, it won’t be too big but a lot of the team will be there because they’ve all fallen in love with Vita too”

“I’d love to” she replied, hugging you goodbye before she got into her car and drove off. It felt good to have your friend back in your life even if you had gone in different directions. When you got home, you found Freddie and Vita playing peek-a-boo, earning a laugh from you before you rushed to them

“How was lunch?” he asked

“It was good! Great actually,” you smiled, “how was everything here?”

“It was great! We played games, we watched T.V., we went skating...”

“Skating?” you asked, shocked

“Yeah, I thought it was time to teach her” he laughed

“How’d she do?”

“She was a champ,” he smiled, “obviously.”

“She didn’t fall or break any bones?” you joked

“No way!” he smiled, looking at Vita before looking back at you, “she had so much fun. I think she’s gonna be a great athlete some day”

“If she wants to be” you insisted

“Of course,” he added, standing up and walking to the kitchen to get a glass of water while you followed him in, “but I think she might want to...”

“Let’s ask her,” you smirked, stopping when he started to run back to Vita, “not now!” you laughed, “later, let’s just let her have a bit of a childhood first okay?”

“Okay okay” he smirked, kissing your cheek and sitting on the couch away from his daughter, watching the two of you play and laugh with each other. Moments like this were often few and far between so you cherished them when you could and you couldn’t help but feel so incredibly lucky.

Freddie’s P.O.V

“We want you to be careful,” the team doctors demanded as they examined an injury that had crept up on you within the last few games, “don’t put too much stress on your leg. Sit out of a few games and you’ll be back in no time”

“I can’t sit out of a few games...” you argued, “we’ve finally made it into the playoffs”

“That’s what back up goalies are for” they replied

“I’m fine,” you insisted, “I will listen to my body, I promised (Y/N), but I need to play”

“Freddie,” Sheldon sighed, “you are an integral part of our team. We don’t want you to feel like you have to play through an injury just because of where we are in the series.”

“I want to play”

“You’re injured”

“I’m fine”

“Fred, don’t make us forbid you from playing”

“I’m fine. I want to play, I need to play.” Sheldon and the doctors looked back and forth between each other for a moment before reluctantly agreeing to your request

“Fine,” Sheldon said, “but we’ll be watching you closely. Making sure you’re not in any pain or pushing yourself too hard.” You nodded to let them know that you heard them before heading out of the office and to your car. Once you got home, you called to (Y/N) and she hopped down the stairs to meet you

“Hey!” she greeted you with a kiss, “we have about an hour until Vita comes home; you smirked before picking her up but were forced to stop when she saw you wince, “what’s wrong?”

“I just.. I have a small fracture in my knee. Nothing to get too worked up about but it’s a little sensitive” you admitted, though not completely honestly

“A small fracture? And you’ve been playing on it even though we agreed--”

“I promise,” you started, “I’m not putting any strain on it”

“Freddie!” she exclaimed, pushing you away, “we talked about this. You told me that you were going to listen to your body. This doesn’t sound like you’re listening to your body...”

“I am,” you assured, “I know it seems like I’m not but I am. Everyone is keeping an eye on me and the injury. I’ll be fine, I am fine.”

“Freddie...” she sighed, turning her body away from yours, “I don’t know about this... If you get hurt because of this you might not be able to play again”

“I know”

“So why risk it?”

“My career is almost over”

“You might not ever be the same”

“I know” you repeated

“So, again, I ask,” she huffed, “why risk it?”

“Because I need to do this. I want to play. We’re in the playoffs, we’re so close to the cup, I can taste it.” You explained, hoping she understood your point, “I believe in our team, they’re playing well and we’re all supporting each other. I believe that our chances of winning are better than they’ve ever been.”

“Please don’t hurt yourself” she pleaded

“I won’t” you said softly, taking her hands in yours and grazing your thumb across her skin as you spoke, “I want to come home to you and Vita. I want us to be able to celebrate together and enjoy everything so, I can guarantee, I won’t hurt myself.” She laughed at your insistence but leaned in to kiss you once more as her hands found their way around your neck. Two weeks later, the Leafs were in the final game of the Stanley Cup playoffs against the Avalanche. Win or lose, the series would end tonight and you’d either be holding that cup over your head or you wouldn’t. You took a deep breath before heading out of the dressing room and making your way onto the ice, completing your pre-game ritual as per usual before taking your place in net. The game was heated and intense the whole way through, neck in neck with barely any reprieve or rest; You were beginning to feel the strain on your knee, looking into the crowd to see (Y/N) and Vita standing in front of the glass, waiting for you to find them, leading you to call a timeout so you could head back to the bench for a minute

“Everything okay?” the medical staff asked and you nodded before wincing, “I think we need to get you out the net”

“There’s only three minutes left and we’re only up by 1 -- let me finish this game,” you pleaded, “I just needed a second but I’m fine now.” And you were. Mitch scored the game winning goal and you were officially a Stanley Cup champion, after all this time. Everyone was running and jumping and celebrating, this was all you’d all be waiting for and you were so happy, happier still when you saw your baby girl cheering you on and the love of your life smiling brightly in your direction. This moment was perfect and you knew it was time to say goodbye. You spent the next few months celebrating with the team and having your fun with the Cup, taking the obligatory photo of Vita sitting in the bowl and mocking (Y/N) by having her stand beside it to showcase just how short she was in comparison. It wasn’t long before your time with the Cup was up and your end with the Leafs nearing closer and closer; it was time to make your announcement but first you had to talk to the team.

When Freddie told you that he was going in to talk to Sheldon and tell him that this would be his last season, you were surprised but you knew it was right for him. You were going to support him because you knew that this was what he wanted

“Are you ready?” you asked Freddie as you stood with Vita beside you, her little hand holding yours

“I think so” he sighed, straightening his suit jacket

“I’m so proud of you,” you cooed, “for everything. We love you so much and we’re always here for you. You know that right?”

“I know” he smiled, guiding you out to the car so you could be on your way. Freddie bit his lip as he waited for Sheldon to invite him in and you had to put your hand on his knee to calm him down

“It’s okay, baby” you assured him

“I’m just nervous about what he’s going to say...” he confessed

“He’s going to say he understands,” you replied, “he’s going to say he’s sad to see you go but he gets it.”

“Fred?” Sheldon finally called Freddie in and you nodded to him, knowing that it was probably better if you stayed outside. It was your turn to be nervous now, feeling like you and Vita had been waiting for hours for Freddie to come out of Sheldon’s office but once the two of them finally did, they were all smiles. You stood up quickly and rushed to Freddie’s side

“Thank you, Coach,” Freddie smiled, “I’ll miss all of this but I think it’s time... I’ve got my family now and I want to share my best days with them. You know?”

“I get it” Sheldon replied and you smiled up at your husband as if to say ‘I told you so,’ “we’ll set up a press conference so you can tell the media but you’ll tell the team first. They’ll be sad to see you go but hopefully they’ll understand

“I’m sure they will” Freddie said, shaking Sheldon’s hand once more before the three of you went home. His announcement to the team was more emotional than he expected, he told you, and a lot of the guys were tearing up as you said goodbye

“But it’s not goodbye,” you said, “you just won’t be playing anymore”

“I didn’t think I’d be so upset to retire,” he admitted, “even if it was on my own terms.”

“I know,” you whispered as you rubbed his shoulder, “but I am so proud of you. Of everything you’ve accomplished. Of everything you are. I love you, we love you.”

“I love you, too.” He replied, kissing your forehead as you snuggled into him. When the day came for Freddie to finally announce his retirement to the media, he asked for you and Vita to be by his side to which you eagerly agreed.

“Hello, everyone,” Freddie greeted nervously, clearing his throat so his voice could reach the end of the room, “I want to first thank you all for being here and for holding your questions to the end of the announcement. I’m sure we’re all well aware of the rumours that have been spreading since the end of the season and, as I’m sure you’ve realized, those rumours are true.” A stillness ran through the room as the reporters remained quiet, the only sound coming from the shutters of the cameras, “As excited as I am that we’re now Stanley Cup Champions,” the group cheered and Freddie had to bring them back to his announcement, “I have to listen to my body and say my goodbyes to the team and to the league. I’ve been so fortunate to be part of this incredible organization and it saddens me to be making this announcement but my family and I, along with the Maple Leafs Staff, agree that the time has come for me to walk away.” he took a second to look at you and Vita before taking a breath to finish his speech, “I mean, we all know that I’m lucky to have made it this far in the league without any broken bones in my old age. That being said, getting out now, ensures that I don’t injure myself to a point where I cannot repair those injuries. So, with that, I say thank you all and I wish the team and the staff the very best going forward.” As soon as his announcement was finished, the room erupted in questions, each reporter yelling over the other to get theirs answered first.

“What will you do?” A reporter asked from the Toronto Sun

“Golf,” he laughed at first before giving a bit more of a serious answer, “maybe take a few vacations with the girls. Swim in the Sea, I’ve always wanted to spend a summer in Greece and now I can.”

“Do you think you’ll stay in Toronto or go back to Denmark?” another asked

“We’re not sure yet. Both (Y/N) and I have friends here but our families are in both Canada and Europe.” He admitted, smiling at you when he looked back once more

“What about the future? Will you stay connected to the League? Perhaps take a coaching position?”

“If it comes up, I’d consider it” he said simply. The questions got a little repetitive after a while but Freddie was keeping the answers light while still being clear. When a reporter asked you a question, you were taken aback and Freddie had to encourage you to step forward

“How do you feel about his retirement?” the reporter asked

“I’ll be happy to have him home, safe and sound. Though I can imagine if he doesn’t find a hobby, he’ll drive us all crazy,” you laughed nervously, “but in all honesty, I’m proud of him for choosing to take care of himself, especially when I know how much he loves this game and the people he has been able to work with over the years.”

“Do you expect Vita will take in her father’s footsteps?” another asked

“It does seem to run in the Andersen blood,” you chuckled, “but we’re gonna let her decide and see what happens.” Freddie thanked everyone once more before guiding you and Vita off the stage, heading back to the car to prepare for the party that you had set up for Freddie to say goodbye.

Freddie’s P.O.V

When everyone started showing up, you made sure you were socializing with as many people as you could before you stood up to make your speech. You hated speeches, you hated being the centre of attention, but because this party was about you, you knew that you had to. You fielded questions about why you were retiring, whether or not you actually wanted to retire, if this was your choice or (Y/N)’s and too many more of the same type; gladly letting (Y/N) take over when she saw that you were getting overwhelmed

“How are you feeling about all of this?” Stephanie asked

“I’m good,” she replied, wrapping her arm around your waist to pull you close to her, “I think that we’re both on the same page with all of this. At the end of the day, if he’s happy, I’m happy.”

“She’s happy because she’ll have an extra babysitter” you joked

“It’s not babysitting when it’s your own kid” you chuckled

“I know,” he laughed, kissing your forehead, “speaking of, I should go get her before I make this speech”

“Okay,” she smiled as you kissed her cheek, “thanks, babe.” When you came back with Vita, you had to take a deep breath and prepare yourself for what was to come

“Daddy, what’s wrong?” your little girl asked sweetly

“Nothing’s wrong, sweet girl,” you replied, kissing her cheek, “daddy just has to make a speech and I’m not very good at it...”

“I think you’ll do AMAZING!” she exclaimed, earning a laugh from you

“Well thank you, love,” you laughed, “but just in case, I’ll take you and mommy up with me, okay?”

“Okay” she smiled before tucking herself into your neck

“You two are so cute!” (Y/N) cooed as she met up with you near the front of the group where you were going to speak, “You ready?” You nodded before letting out a nervous sigh and grabbing a glass of Champagne

“Everyone!” you called to get everyone’s attention, “Can I get your attention?”

“HEY BIG RED!” Willy and Mitch called out, forcing you to laugh to yourself and take a sip of your drink as (Y/N) wrapped her arm around your waist again

“Hey,” you finally replied, “thank you all for coming out today. We really appreciate you coming to hang out with us for a bit. I just wanted to say a few words to leave you all with; I know that I’m not dying or anything but I’m not going to see you all everyday so it feels like we need a way to say goodbye. First off, I want to say thank you for bringing the cup home to Toronto while I was here and letting me enjoy that feeling if only for a little while. Next, I want everyone to know that this wasn’t a snap decision. I have been thinking about this for a while, both on my own and with (Y/N), and this year just seemed to be the right time to take the hint that my body has been trying to give for a while now; that I’m just too old.” You joked, letting the group now that this wasn’t a somber occasion, “I just want to wrap up this already-too-long speech by saying I have been incredibly lucky to know all of you as players and as people and to see how far everyone has come -- knowing that you’re all going to just keep getting better. I look forward to seeing this team continue to grow and build and bring home another cup but I also look forward to seeing each of you grow individually. I truly believe that the sky is the limit for all of you and your talent and, as for me and mine, I can only say that the best is yet to come... So, yeah,” he chuckled, “thank you all. Skål!”

“SKÅL!” The group repeated as you leaned down to kiss (Y/N)

“Good job, daddy!” Vita exclaimed, wrapping her little arms around your neck, making you and (Y/N) laugh

“Thanks, sweetheart,” you cooed, lettng her down finally, “why don’t you go play?” She nodded and ran to play with Jake’s daughter in the yard while you hugged your wife close, kissing the top of her head in pure bliss

“Can you believe we’re here? After everything?” she asked

“What do you mean?”

“I mean we got pregnant unexpectedly and now have a beautiful daughter who seems to love us very much. We got married during a Pandemic!” she laughed, “we had our ups and downs but it was all worth it, right? For this.”

“My retirement?” you joked

“No, you dork,” she scoffed, “to be here with everyone and to see how much everyone cares about you; how much of an impact you had on this team. It’s very heartwarming”

“Yeah, I think so too.” You smiled, looking out at your friends and teammates, “I’m proud of what we have. I’m proud of us. I’m proud of you”

“Aww,” she cooed jokingly, “I’m proud of us, too. Of all of this. I’m so incredibly proud of you”

“Yeah, it’s been a good run,” you smirked, “but this was the right time.”

“I agree” she smiled as she looked up to you, wrapping both her arms around you

“Good job, mommy” you said as you kissed the tip of her nose, garnering a cute little laugh from her

“Good job, daddy” she reciprocated before leaning up to kiss your cheek.

#Frederik Andersen #NHL #Freddie Andersen #Frederik Andersen Imagine #Frederik Andersen fic #Freddie Andersen fic #Frederik Andersen series #TML #Toronto Maple Leafs #Freddie Andersen imagine #Freddie Andersen series #masterlist #the other masterlist #Finale #Frederik Andersen finale

19 notes · View notes

elwingflight · 4 years

Text

Coronavirus: Information & Guidelines

What you can do now, and what to prepare for

There seems to be a lack of what-to-do suggestions on tumblr beyond handwashing, so I thought I’d put something together. I’ve never actually encouraged people to reblog something of mine before, but this might be the time. To be clear: I am not personally a public health expert of any kind. Both my parents are (epidemiology/global health degrees, worked for CDC) and I’ve run this by them. My information is coming from disease researchers on twitter and official public health guidelines online. Sources at the end of the post. This is mostly directed at people in countries where COVID-19 has been reported (I’m in the U.S.), but is not *yet* widespread in the community. Written Mar. 1st 2020, last updated 3/9 (shorter, helpful twitter thread here, helpful NPR article here)

General Info

Firstly, a lot of politicians are *still* trying to sugarcoat things, but it should be clear by now that the new coronavirus is spreading widely and will continue to do so. Because of the incubation period, and in the U.S. at least the delay in testing, the number of cases is almost certainly going to increase rapidly in the near future no matter what we do now. Official government sources are helpful, but its also good to look at what experts on viral epidemics who aren’t directly government-affiliated are saying. Their agenda is purely informing the public in the most constructive way possible, without politics getting in the way.

Two key points- COVID-19 can have a long incubation period (the time from when you catch the virus to when you start showing symptoms) and most people don’t get severe symptoms. Some are entirely asymptomatic, but most people get typical flu-like symptoms. Specifically, the early symptoms to watch out for are a fever and dry cough (meaning, a stuffy nose is probably just a regular cold). Its possible but unlikely to transmit the virus while asymptomatic, most transmission happens when you have heavier symptoms.

The most vulnerable people are the elderly (~ over 60) and those with preexisting health conditions (i.e. cardiovascular disease, respiratory condition, diabetes), or a simultaneous infection with something else (NOT kids in particular!) So far the mortality rate has been about 1-2% (compared to 0.1% for the general winter flu - yes, this really is worse). However, that might be an overestimate, both because people with mild cases aren’t getting tested (the denominator should be bigger), and because the early situation in Wuhan, where a lot of our numbers come from, was especially bad in regards to availability of healthcare.

This is an emotional, difficult situation. Don’t panic. The world didn’t end in 1918, and its not going to end now. But it is very serious, and we need to be thinking about it rationally, not pretending everything is just going to be okay, or uselessly pointing blame. Take care of your mental health, and check in with each other. Epidemics test our generosity and selflessness. Those qualities are needed right now, but don’t neglect yourself either.

What You Can Do Now

There is stuff everyone can do both to prevent yourself from getting infected, and to prepare if you do. ***The big picture to keep in mind is that the biggest risk of epidemics is that they overwhelm our system, especially our healthcare system. What I mean by this is that our society is built to deal with a certain volume of things happening at once- people buying groceries, getting sick, etc. If we suddenly all rush to do something, we overburden these systems and they won’t be there for the people who need them most. Therefore our goal is to slow down the spread of disease, buying time and lowering the overall burden on these systems. This is called “flattening the curve”. It looks like this, and I cannot stress how important this is.***

A very helpful thread on preparedness

Staying Healthy

Like similar viruses (think colds and flu), COVID-19 is mostly transmitted from person to person, usually by close contact but sometimes from an infected surface. More here.

Wash your hands. Everyone has heard this one- 20 seconds, soap all over your hands, wash the soap off. If you can’t wash your hands use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer (at least 60% alcohol). But handwashing is absolutely better. Also- cough into your elbow/shoulder, not your hand, and avoid shaking hands- try elbow bumps or maybe a polite nod instead! If you’re handwashing so much that you’re hands are threatening to crack and bleed though, consider washing more strategically or using hand sanitizer instead.

In combination with hand-washing- stop touching your face, especially while out! This takes practice, everyone does it all the time without thinking. A good practice is to avoid touching your face while out, then wash your hands thoroughly as soon as you get home.

Similarly, avoid touching surfaces as much as possible! Particularly bad are door handles, elevator buttons, that kind of thing. The virus can probably (based on studies of related viruses) last a while on these. Regular gloves can help a bit. Use a tissue then throw it away, use your elbow, etc.

Do Not buy face masks! There’s mixed evidence on whether they’re at all helpful when used by the general public to prevent catching a virus, but actual medical professionals who need them are facing shortages (that’s probably part of why so many healthcare workers got sick in Wuhan), so our buying them up is really bad. The only times you should be wearing them is if you yourself are sick (they do help then!) or if you’re looking after a sick person. Seek instruction in that case in how to use them properly. (Thread on why buying those fancy masks is not good).

If COVID-19 is in your community, try to stay 6 feet from people, which basically means going places as little as possible. See below.

Planning Ahead

Its also a good idea to prepare in case you need to self-quarantine. Self-quarantine is necessary if you’ve potentially been exposed to COVID-19, or if you’re sick but not enough to need to go to the hospital. Follow local guidelines- if there’s lots of transmission in your area, nonessential workers will probably be advised to stay home as much as possible.

If you’re able, get medication now. Don’t go crazy and buy out the drug store, just a reasonable amount. Try to get at least a month’s worth of any prescription medications. This can be hard at least in the U.S. - your doctor may well be able to prescribe more, but insurance companies and drug stores can be terrible. I’ve found trying a different drugstore can sometimes help. Try your best. They may also be reluctant to prescribe more to avoid causing shortages. Idk what the right answer is here.

Don’t go crazy and buy out the store, but start getting a little extra shelf-stable or frozen food. Even some root vegetables that will last a few weeks. You want enough for 2 weeks in case of self-quarantine, but you do NOT want to empty out stores. Panic buying is definitely a stress on the system. Just add a few extra things each time you shop. Don’t forget about pets. You can always eat the food and replenish it over time.

Make a plan with your family/community. If someone gets sick or needs to self-quarantine, is there a corner of the house they can stay in? Who can take care of them? etc. I haven’t focused on plans for schools/religious communities/workplaces etc but those are very important too! This is one place where keeping an eye on local and national news is important. In the U.S., for example, school systems are planning ways to make food available to kids if they’re not going to school.

If COVID-19 is starting to spread in your community, think about how else you can be a good community member. Cancelling nonessential doctor’s appointments, surgeries etc may be very important, for example. If schools are closed, can you help out neighbors with childcare? Do you have a cleaner who may need to be payed in advance if there’s a quarantine?

If You Might Be Sick/Need to Quarantine

See likely symptoms above. Remember, normal colds still exist, and if you go to the doctor for every one of those you will overwhelm the system.

Don’t just go to a hospital! Call ahead to your doctor/clinic/hospital and get instructions on what to do. Getting healthcare workers sick is something we really want to avoid. That said, DO get tested as soon as possible, and act as if you are contagious. The health coverage situation is the U.S. is not yet clear (and ofc its not something the current admin is eager to clarify). Hopefully testing will be covered financially by the government, but I can’t promise that at this time.

In the meantime, stay home and quarantined if you show any symptoms of illness if you possibly, possibly can. This is especially difficult in the U.S. if you don’t have sick leave/childcare, but please. Do your utmost.

Look after yourself. Skype/google hangouts/etc is great for keeping connected. Have some chocolate/chicken broth/other sick foods ready.

The Big Picture

Coronavirus/COVID-19 has not been declared a pandemic yet, but it probably will be before long. This is almost certainly going to get worse before it gets better. We don’t yet know if warmer weather will slow its spread, and a vaccine will probably take about 1-1.5 years to be developed and tested. As I mentioned before, the best thing we can do to keep the world working, minimize mortality, etc is to slow the spread as much as we can, and minimize the strain on the system. Hospitals are going to be overwhelmed. There aren’t infinite unoccupied beds or ventilators, or people to operate them, and supply chains could get disrupted. Thinking about these things is scary, and it will take time to adjust to what’s happening. Start that process now, and help everyone you know reach the point where they’re able to act, not panic. Another reassuring thing- if we slow the spread of COVID-19, in addition to fewer total people getting sick, you will soon have people who are recovered and almost certainly immune. These people will be invaluable as helpers in their communities.

Now that the practical stuff is out of the way, I want to say from a U.S. perspective that yes, our lack of social welfare other countries take for granted is going to hurt us. Lack of access to childcare, no guaranteed paid sick leave, and of course expensive healthcare are massive problems that will make it much harder to limit disease transmission. Help each other in any way you can, and vote for candidates that support implementing these policies! And of course, watch out for propaganda of all kinds, whether its using the virus as an excuse for racism, calls to delay elections, etc. So far my biggest concern is a lack of willingness to admit how serious this is, but we can do this. Lets put extra pressure on politicians to be honest and change policies to actually help people. But, yes, lets also stay united. We need each other now (just, you know, 6 feet apart).

A few sources

In general, the Guardian is a great, free, reliable source of news. In the U.S., NPR (website as well as radio) is another great source. The Washington Post and Seattle Times have made their coronavirus-related coverage open access, not sure about other national newspapers.

twitter thread from World Health Organization (WHO)

U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) COVID-19 homepage (not being updated in some ways it should be, like total # of tests)

A reality check from some non-Governmental experts (basically, what governments don’t want to say yet, which is that this virus is going to spread, and the goal now is to infect as few people as possible, as slowly as possible. Read this.)

Why you should act now, not when things get bad in your area (we’re always operating on outdated information)

If you want the latest technical info, The Lancet (major medical journal group) has all of their content compiled here, open access.

I can do my best to answer questions (i.e. ask my dad) but those or other reliable, readily find-able sources should have you pretty well covered. Do let me know if anything on here is wrong or needs to be updated! Stay safe, stay positive, we can do this.

#coronavirus #covid19 #covid-19 #healthcare #actually important shit

150 notes · View notes

butterfly-winx · 4 years

Note

its probably the helia stan in me but id love to read an origin story! idk if youre planning one for all of them but i really like your worldbuilding so id read them! and i know others would too! 💞 (also that fairy sketch was beautiful and if youre planning on it id love to hear more about him 👀)

Aahh ugh, I don’t actually have a lot fleshed out for Cyanox, except that he is the Guardian of Prometia and neutral to a fault. And also unintentionally the reason for why/how Layla gained the ability to modify Sirenix into Crystal Sirenix to adapt to cold and high pressure environments.

I am far too disorganised to make one collection post for the backgrounds of all characters I messed with, so I guess, here goes nothing. *cracks knuckles* Buckle in for the ride! (content warning for death and lethal illnesses)

Helia was born on Lynphea in a middle sized settlement in the moderate-warm Eastern Forests of Lynphea. I talk about the zones, culture and dangers of Lynphea here, so I don’t want to repeat myself too much, but Helia’s village was much closer to the borders of the Death Zone the virus has claimed for itself than what would have been advisable. Back then, they thought Viaj would exhaust the surrounding natural resources and its people would move on long before the spread of the virus would become a danger to them. Oh how wrong they were. All it took was the change of the wind one summer.

Helia had been only five and then some and the world was still too vivid in his eyes, lights filtering through leaves a spectacle every day he accompanied one of his caretakers on a simple errand. He was the one who found the earliest warning sign, a fungal growth on a long leaf of gras that was the manifestation of the plague befalling its plant hosts. Not quite comprehending what that meant in his young age, Helia struggled for a long time with guilt about the terror his discovery brought, wishing he would have never played in the prairie. Like that would have avoided anything.

The inhabitants of Viaj actually gained a head start through his discovery though that potentially spared other communities, however it couldn’t help theirs. They quarantined immediately, drew up a magic barrier to protect everyone from the airborne spores that carry the virus from plants to humans. But doing so they gave up hunting and gathering and were entirely reliant on the rations the other communities would send with the quarantine workers. Though even those trickled to a stop when the first person fell sick with the cough and the tell-tale black spots formed on their mucous membrane. People saw no use in wasting resources on people who were damned to die. The best they could do now was limit travel to the edge of the Eastern Forest and set more scientists on recalculating the projected spread of the virus.

Lynpheans practice a philosophy of “live and let die” not hanging onto things beyond their lifespan, so this was seen as neither cruel or unusual, but show me one person who is truly prepared to die such a horrific, slow death in order to upkeep the natural order. The people of Viaj didn’t want to die, and they certainly didn’t deserve to die. But people fell like flies, until about three months later only Helia, Naoqi, the last adult, and Tsilla, the very last baby born in midst of all that, were alive. Naoqi cared for Helia and the baby as best as he could and in doing so became a replacement parental figure in Helia’s eyes. He did everything he could to make the horrible experience slightly lighter to bear for the children, but when the magic barrier keeping the wind away fell, there was little he could have done to stave off the inevitable.

Helia was left alone, with a not even five moth old baby and no way of feeding himself or the baby. With nothing else left, he braved the forest and looked for the quarantine workers who were no doubt overseeing the area, which marked the last time Helia ever walked in the forests of his home. The quarantine workers were more than surprised by the tenacious boy with a baby in his arms and finding out he was still alive after what they thought was final exhaustion has set in.

The next thing after that that Helia actually remembers is waking up on Magics with Saladin greeting him, introducing himself as a distant relative. The truth was a lot more complicated than that. The quarantine workers have taken Helia to the nearest hospital to treat him for the effects of starvation, because miraculously, the disease had still not taken hold of him after five months of exposure. Hermetically locked in a wing of the hospital, he was the most prised and most dangerous person and study artefact on the whole planet. His comatose slumber was watched from behind plexi glas and every then available humoral test was run on him to find out why he of all people had proved to be immune. If he was immune at all.

Meanwhile Saladin arrived on planet as he heard the news of the demise of his hometown, of his family. Even back then he had not been the pride of the planet and his relationship with his family had been strained because of the wars he had chosen to be involved in. All of that didn’t matter the instant lives were on the line and Saladin wanted nothing more than one last exchange of letters he would never get to make everything alright again. No power in the world would ever grant him that, but having powerful friends in the right circles granted him something else. Information, that a young Viaj boy was still alive in the Epidemiology Research Centre. He may be the future, the solution to all of their problems with a DNA hiding the secrets to immunity. Saladin immediately inquired, dug deeper demanding to see the boy, but the Council denied him visitation rights. He had to strike an underhanded deal with the co-leader of the research project under a false name to find out Helia wasn’t even awake, but held in a magically induced coma for observational purposes. The scientist talked on and on about the possibilities and what they would do after they go the genes needed but Saladin blew up at that point. How dare they treat this boy like an object, like his loss wouldn’t be felt by anyone, should one of the procedures go wrong. Like all his life could hold from now on was an ultimate sacrifice for the benefit of the many. He wouldn’t even be able to comprehend that if told. With Saladin blowing a fuse, the research centre blew up too and he fled the planet that night with an unconscious Helia in his arms.

So what felt like a night of knocked-in-the-head-by-a-horse sleep to Helia was actually close to four weeks in real world time. He has no concrete memory of what Saladin saved him from, but enough peripheral perception of what transpired planetside to make sense of the ramifications. Technically, Helia’s DNA is public property of the Lynphea Council, and technically both him and Saladin have an arrest warrant hanging over their head for the destruction and property damage caused. If Helia were to ever set foot on Lynphea again (or even go to a country that has an extradition treaty with them) he would be taken back to the Research Centre to be dissected to the smallest molecules until he yielded answers.

While Helia was able to grow up in Magics in relative safety, the virus was still wreaking damage on Lynphea. Saladin (and to a lesser extent Helia) made the incredibly difficult decision to reject the experimentation on Helia and thus deny the population of their home a potential treatment to an otherwise lethal infection. It is an incredibly heavy burden and no day passes that they don’t question the rightness of their choice.

Helia can certainly appreciate the moral conflict now, but as a child he was much more difficult to manage. The switch from a huge nurturing family to one primary carer to rely on was harsh on Helia, who was already traumatised and needing love and affection. Saladin did the best he could, but running a school and otherwise being a Universe-wide known hero didn’t help. After they grew close on the tail end of Helia’s childhood, they explosively drew apart during his tweens, Helia not able or reluctant to understand the restrictions Saladin placed on his life.

First, he was unwilling to share as much about Lynphean culture and way of life as Helia wished to know, saying that he wouldn’t be able to apply it there on Magics anyway. The deeper reason for that is more likely buried in his resentment for Lynphea rejecting him as harshly as they did after he helped save the Universe from the Ancestresses, but Helia of course knew nothing of that. Then when he moved over to adapting to life on Magics “in the Magics” way, he begged to be taught magic for which he had developed a budding talent. Saladin refused again for related trauma reasons. He didn’t want Helia to wield a power that could potentially make him a weapon in someone else’s crusade. Being his only personal student would only paint a target on Helia’s back.

Helia was having none of that, fiercely objecting to the treatment. He had his own trauma to deal with. Like death by illness. (People falling ill was a lasting trigger he has been continuously working to overcome, but the first time Saladin came home with a cough Helia immediately worked himself into a panic attack so severe he couldn’t stop vomiting and had to be taken into a hospital himself. ) He shouldn’t have to shoulder the repercussions of Saladin’s problems too!

People who say old teens and their wilfulness are hard to deal with, haven’t met twelve year old Helia yet. To think he actually mellowed out by the time he hit Red Fountain. In any case, Helia and Saladin weren’t really speaking civilly with each other anymore by the time Helia met Krystal. (More on her side of things here) Krystal, ten and absolutely blind to seeing obstacles, offered Helia her books on basic witchcraft and with that the opportunity to take his magic learning into his own hands. After all, sorcery required a lot of detailed instruction, but witchcraft was available to any odd fool who could set up a passable reaction equation. It took half a year of trials and encouragement for his efforts to yield a result and for Krystal and Helia’s friendship to bloom. It took Saladin much longer than that to catch on to Helia’s secret tinkering. The old man should have suspected something to be up after their disagreements magically disappeared after Helia and Krystal met twice. The aftermath was ugly and lead to Helia and Krystal reluctantly parting ways.

Helia was inconsolable an dedicated a large part of his life to making it as difficult for Saladin as possible. His grades dropped, his art got angry and choppy and he had to be escorted home by peace keepers for having snuck into places he shouldn’t have been in. Year fourteen and fifteen of Helia’s life have been by far the most difficult to deal with with no improvement in sight. Under pressure from his school and Saladin to choose a path for higher education after his year nine exams, Helia thought it would be most spiteful to chose...nothing. He would simply stop going to school at 15 years of age and just become whatever. Maybe a full-time artist or a busker. “Hah, that’ll show Saladin!”- he thought, but he severely miscalculated.

Saladin had often threatened with making Helia enrol in his school if he didn’t behave and Helia never though he would make good on his words until he was dropped off at the main entrance with all his bags like the other freshmen filtering in through the gates. Being the headmaster, Saladin allowed Helia some liberties, trying to demonstrate to him that he shouldn’t see this as a punishment, but as an opportunity to further his life. Cue Helia’s biggest pièce de resistance, showing just how much he didn’t think so. As mentioned a few asks ago, he was given the liberty to chose where he lived and which team he chose, but not like that goddamit! He took shameless advantage of the loose wording Saladin used and hopped between rooms and teams completely ignoring conventions. He was the bane of the school, found on the roof, in supply closets and in the middle of hallways. Teams feared him, because they knew if Helia was assigned to them they might as well have been one person short, his flaky nature making it hard for them to work with him. Codatorta wrote as many warnings for Helia in that one year as he did in his whole career before that. Students at Red Fountain tended to be disciplined and dedicated to becoming Specialists, but Helia was the absolute antithesis to them. At the end of the year no amount of Saladin’s half-hearted excuses could save Helia from the overwhelming force of the teaching staff getting him sacked. Not that Helia minded, though. It was exactly what he wanted.

Saladin more or less gave up on him then. If he wanted to be on his own then fine. Saladin would help him with finding an own apartment and give him his first moth of rent, but after that Helia could go and find himself a purpose in the world alone. Fine. Fine. Alright!

It was not alright at all, but it was buried under a very thick layer of “I’ll show ya” which made Helia want to live his best liberal artist life. He enjoyed creating as much art as he wanted, but he craved social contact and being engaged in something with a common goal, so he started getting involved with local pacifist groups. He had always preached a path of non-violence, which was about the only thing that had been ingrained in him from his Lynphean upbringing. There he started to expand his horizon beyond what his gut feeling taught him about pacifism and got into reading theory seriously. He was surprised how many of those books shared around had originally belonged to the Red Fountain library and even more so that they have ben written by the founders of the Red Fountain Cavalry. And that was when Helia bust down Saladin’s office door.

“All of this theory was in the school’s library the whole time!!?? And all everyone was ever talking about was warfare!! Why was I never told the best pacifist philosophers of the century were all Red Fountain members???” “You never showed up to any of the philosophy lectures! How am I to blame?” A deep breath from Helia, re-evaluating all of his 17 years of life choices. “Dada Saladin, you have to let me back into your school please.”

And Saladin refused. To let him back without repercussions that is. Helia had to prove that he took his education seriously and was ready to commit by taking the entrance exam like everybody else to earn his place at the institute. He scraped the bottom of the scoreboard with his first results, but took the first year foundation course with a mile long stride. He was allowed to skip quite a few modules and ended up in the same year as the protag specialist boys with quite a reputation to his name. In the process of reacquainting himself with the school and its philosophy, he learned humility, respect, and when to keep his head down and mouth shut. The upperclassmen from his original year group barely believed he was supposedly the same person they got to know as an absolute menace . There are many rumours about twin brothers, brainwashing and Saladin’s terrifying magic might turning him into this new person.

Helia has come an extremely long way becoming the well-tempered and balanced person known from the show’s timeline. It is almost as if he compressed a lifetime of angst into three years, thus min-maxing his character development coming out more adult in the end at 18 years old than many people at 30. He lived through a lot of things and it shows in how he behaves and what he cares about. He is a passable fighter, but his main aim is always to protect and to avoid conflict if possible. He is a trained negotiator for that purpose and prefers to act as tactical support for his team. It all changes however once Riven and Sky both decide to quit the team leaving Helia, Brandon and Timmy with a very difficult decision on how to go on after that.

(Aand we have arrived at present day for my AU timeline with this. I hope you made it this far, I‘ve never written this much for a tumblr post before)

#winx club #winx helia #asks #see this is why I can't make a nice neat summary post about my headcanons because as soon as I start talking it becomes a word vomit #helia #butterfly fic #Anonymous

27 notes · View notes

ill-will-editions · 4 years

Photo

THE FUNERAL OF SALVATORE RICCIARDI: Celebrating a friend and comrade, while taking over public space again

WU MING

A final farewell to Salvo, to the songs of Su, communists of the capital! "This rebellious city, never tamed by ruins and bombings…"

Of all the measures taken during this emergency, the ban on funeral services is among the most dehumanizing.

In the name of what idea of "life" have these measures been taken? In the prevailing rhetoric of these past few weeks, life has been reduced almost entirely to the survival of the body, to the detriment of any other dimension of it. In this there is a very strong thanatophobic connotation (from the Greek Thanatos, or death), a morbid fear of dying.

Thanatophobia has permeated our society for decades. Already in 1975, the historian Philippe Ariès, in his landmark History of Death in the West, noted that death, in capitalist societies, had been "domesticated", bureaucratized, partly deritualized and separated as much as possible from the living, in order to "spare [...] society the disturbance and too strong emotion" of dying, and maintain the idea that life "is always happy, or at least must always look like it”.

To this end, he continues, it was strategic "to shift the site where we die. We no longer die at home, among family members, we die at the hospital, alone [...] because it has become inconvenient to die at home". Society, he said, must "realize as little as possible that death has occurred". This is why many rituals related to dying are now considered embarrassing and in a phase of disuse.

Even before the state of emergency we are experiencing, the rituality of dying had been reduced to a minimum. That is why we have always been so impressed by the manifestations of its re-emergence. Think of the worldwide success of a film like The Barbarian Invasions by Denys Arcand.

Forty-five years ago, Ariès wrote: "no one has the strength or patience to wait for weeks for a moment [death, Editor's note] that has lost its meaning". And what does the 2003 Canadian film depict if not a group of people waiting for weeks - in a context of conviviality and re-emerging secular rituality - the passing of a friend?

Eight years ago we undertook, together with many others, to set up an environment of conviviality and secular rituality around a dear friend and companion, Stefano Tassinari, in the weeks leading up to his death and in the ceremonies that followed. Much of our questioning on this subject dates back to that time.

If the rituality linked to dying was already reduced to a minimum, the ban on attending the funeral of a loved one had finally annihilated it.

Back on March 25th we shared a beautiful letter from a parish priest from Reggio, Don Paolo Tondelli, who was dismayed at the scenes he had to witness:

"And so I find myself standing in front of the cemetery, with three children of a widowed mother who died alone at the hospital because the present situation does not allow for the assistance of the sick. They cannot enter the cemetery, the measures adopted do not allow it. So they cry: they couldn't say goodbye to their mother when she gave up living, they can't say goodbye to her even now while she is being buried. We stop at the cemetery gate, in the street, I am bitter and angry inside, I have a strong thought: even a dog is not taken to the grave like this. I think we have exaggerated for a moment in applying the rules in this way, we are witnessing a dehumanization of essential moments in the life of every person; as a Christian, as a citizen I cannot remain silent [...] I say to myself: we are trying to defend life, but we are running the risk of not conserving the mystery that is so closely linked to it".

This "mystery" is not the exclusive prerogative of the Christian faith nor of those possessing a religious sensibility, since it does not necessarily coincide with the belief in the immortal soul or anything else, but something that we all ask ourselves, when we ask, 'what does it mean to live?' 'What distinguishes living from merely moving on or simply not dying?

That said, those who are believers and observers have experienced the suspension of ritual ceremonies - including funeral masses - as an attack on their form of life. It is no coincidence that among the examples of clandestine organization that we have heard about these days, there is the catacombal continuation of Christian public life.

We have direct evidence that in many parishes the faithful continued to attend mass, despite the signs on the doors saying they were suspended. One finds the "hard core" of the parishioners in the refectory of the convent, or in the rectory, or in the sacristy and in some cases in the church. Twenty, thirty people, summoned by word of mouth. In particular last Thursday, for the Missa in coena Domini.

The same can be said of funerals. In this case as well we have direct testimonies of priests who officiated small rites, with close family members, without publicity.

In the past few days, we have identified three types of disobedience to some of the stupidest and most inhumane features of the lock-down.

Individual disobedience

The individual gesture is often invisible but occasionally it is showy, as in the case of that runner on the deserted beach of Pescara, hunted by security guards for no reason that has any epidemiological basis. The video went viral, and had the effect of demonstrating the absurdity of certain rules and their obtuse application.

Continuing to run was, objectively and in its outcome, a very effective performance, an action of resistance and "conflictual theatre". Continuing to run distinguishes qualitatively that episode from the many others which offer "only" further evidence of repression. As Luigi Chiarella "Yamunin" wrote, the video brings to mind,

"a passage from Crowds and Power by Elias Canetti on grasping, which is indeed a gesture of the hand but also and above all is 'the decisive act of power where it manifests itself in the most evident way, from the most remote times, among animals and among men'. Later, he adds - and here comes the part pertinent to the episode of the runner - that 'there is nevertheless a second powerful gesture, certainly no less essential even if not so radiant. Sometimes one forgets, under the grandiose impression aroused by grasping, the existence of a parallel and almost equally important action: not letting oneself be grasped". The video [...] reminded me how powerful and liberating it is not to let yourself be caught. Then I don't forget that if you run away you do it to come back with new weapons, but in the meantime you must not let yourself be grabbed."

Clandestine group disobedience

These are the practices of the parishioners who organize themselves to go to mass on the sly, of the family members of a dearly departed person who agree with the parish priest to officiate a funeral rite... but also of the groups who continue in one way or another to hold meetings, of the bands who continue to rehearse, and of the parents who organize themselves together with a teacher to retrieve their children's school books. It's an episode that happened in a city in Emilia, which we recounted a few days ago.

In order to retrieve the books from a first grade school that had been left at school for the last month, a teacher came to the school, took the books out hidden in a shopping cart, and entrusted them to two parents who live near a baker and a convenience store respectively, so that the other parents could go and pick them up with the "cover" of buying groceries, avoiding possible fines. The books were given to the individual parents by lowering them with a rope from a small balcony and stuffed into shopping bags or between loaves of bread, as if they were hand grenades for the Resistance. In this way those children will at least be able to follow the program on the book with the teacher in tele-education, and the parents will be able to have support for the inevitable homeschooling.

After a phase of shock in which unconditional obedience and mutual guilt prevailed, sectors of civil society - and even "interzone" between institutions and civil society - are reorganizing themselves "in hiding". In this reorganization it is implicit that certain restrictions are considered incongruous, irrational, indiscriminately punitive.

Furthermore: at the beginning of the emergency, parental chats were, in general, among the worst hotbeds of panic, culture of suspicion, toxic voice messages, calls for denunciation. The fact that now some of them are also being used to circumvent delusional prohibitions - why shouldn't a teacher be able to retrieve the textbooks left in the classroom? why should a dad or a mom have to resort to subterfuge, self-certification, etc. to retrieve those books? - is yet another proof that the "mood" has changed.

Provocative group disobedience

The performance of the trio from Rimini - a man and two women - who had sex in public places and put the videos online, accompanied with insults hurled at the police, is part of this rarefied case history.

The police have since held a grudge against the case, as exemplified by their official social channels.

The only thing missing from this catalog of disobedience is, of course...

Claimed group disobedience

Here we have in mind visible, and no longer merely clandestine collective disobedience.

For a moment we feared that the fascists would be the first to bring it into play. Forza Nuova attempted to leverage the dismay of believers in the prospect of an Easter “behind closed doors,” and without the Via Crucis. However, when leaflets circulated calling for a procession to St. Peter's Basilica tomorrow (Sunday 4.12), accompanied by mottos such as "In hoc signo vinces" and "Rome will not know an Easter without Christ", they were dismayed to find that it wasn't the Fascists who were behind them. Instead, it was our comrades and friends from Radio Onda Rossa and the Roman liberatory movement who, this morning, in S. Lorenzo, greeted Salvatore Ricciardi with what in effect became the first political demonstration in the streets since the beginning of the emergency.

Salvatore Ricciardi, 80 years old, was a pillar of the Roman antagonist left. A former political prisoner, for many years he was involved in fights inside prisons and against prison conditions. He did so in a number of books and countless broadcasts on Radio Onda Rossa, which yesterday dedicated a moving four-hour live special to him. He continued to do so until even a few days ago, on his blog Contromaelstrom, writing about imprisonment and coronavirus.

Headlines about this morning's events can already be read in the mainstream press. A precise chronicle, accompanied by some valuable remarks, can be heard in this phone call from an editor of Radio Onda Rossa [here]. Among other things, our comrade points out: "here there are rows of people standing in front of the butchers shop for days and days, yet we cannot even bid farewell to the dead? [...] We're in the open air, while in Rome there's not even a requirement to wear a mask and yet many people had masks, and there were only a few people anyway"...Yet the police still threatened to use a water cannon to disperse a funeral ritual. The part of the district where the seditious gathering took place was closed and those present were detained by police.

During this emergency, we’ve seen so many surreal scenes - today, to offer just one example, a helicopter took to the sky, wasting palates of public money, in pursuit of a single citizen walking on a Sicilian beach - and even still, this morning's apex had not yet been reached.

For our part, we say kudos and solidarity to those who run, and are out running great risks to claim their right to live together - in public space that they have always crossed with their bodies and filled with their lives - out of pain and mourning for the loss of Salvo, but also out of happiness for having had him as a friend and companion.

"Because the bodies will return to occupy the streets. Because without the bodies there is no Liberation."

That's what we were writing yesterday, taking up the “Song of el-'Aqila Camp”. We reaffirm our belief that it will happen. And the government fears it too: is it by chance that just today Minister Lamorgese warned against "hotbeds of extremist speech"?

In her telephone interview, the Radio Onda Rossa editor says that the current situation, in essence, could last a year and a half. Those in power would like it to be a year and a half without the possibility of protest. They are prepared to use health regulations to prevent collective protests and struggles. Managing the recession with sub iudice civil rights is ideal for those in power.

It is right to disobey absurd rules

We should point out once again that, whilst keeping a population under house arrest, while prohibiting funerals, and de jure or de facto preventing anyone from taking a breath of fresh air - which is almost a unique phenomenon in the West, since only Spain follows us on this - and while shaming individual conduct like jogging, going out "for no reason", or shopping "too many times"...while this whole little spectacle is going on, Italy remains the European country with the highest COVID-19 mortality rate. Good peace of mind for those who spoke of an "Italian model" to be imitated by other countries.

Who is responsible for such a debacle? It is not a hard question to answer: it was the people who did not establish a medical cordon around Alzano and Nembro in time, because the owner asked them not to; it was those who spread infection in hospitals through an impressive series of negligent decisions; those who turned RSAs and nursing homes into places of mass coronavirus death; and lastly, those who, while all this was happening, diverted public attention toward nonsense and harmless behavior, while pointing the finger at scapegoats. This was blameworthy, even criminal behavior.

Everywhere in the world the coronavirus emergency has presented a golden opportunity to restrict the spaces of freedom, settle accounts with unwelcome social movements, profit from the behavior to which the population is forced, and restructure to the detriment of the weakest.

Italy adds to all this its standard surfeit of irrational ravings. The exceptionality of our "model" of emergency management lies in its complete overturning of scientific logic. For it is one thing to impose - for good (Sweden) or for bad (another country at random) - physical distancing as a necessary measure to reduce the possibility of contagion; it is quite another to lock the population in their homes and prevent them from leaving except for reasons verified by police authorities. The jump from one to the other imposed itself alongside the idea - also unfounded - that one is safe from the virus while "indoors", whereas "outdoors" one is in danger.

Everything we know about this virus tells us exactly the opposite, namely that the chances of contracting it in the open air are lower, and if you keep your distance even almost zero, compared to indoors. On the basis of this self-evidence, the vast majority of countries affected by the pandemic not only did not consider it necessary to prevent people from going out into the open air generally, as they did in France, but in some cases even advised against it.

In Italy, this radius is, at best, two hundred meters from home, but there are municipalities and regions that have reduced it to zero meters. For those who live in the city, such a radius is easily equivalent to half a block of asphalt roads, which are much more crowded than in the open space outside the city, if it could be reached. For those who live in the countryside, however, or in sparsely populated areas, a radius of two hundred meters is equally absurd, since the probability of meeting someone and having to approach them is infinitely lower than in an urban center.

Not only that: we have seen that very few countries have introduced the obligation to justify their presence outdoors by authorizations, certificates, and receipts, even calculating the distance from home using Google Maps. This is also an important step: it means putting citizens at the mercy of law enforcement agencies.

We have recorded cases of hypertensive people, with a medical prescription recommending daily exercise for health reasons, fined €500; or people fined because they were walking with their pregnant partner, to whom the doctor had recommended walking. The list of abuses and idiocies would be long, and one may consult our website for further examples.

Legal uncertainty, the arbitrariness of police forces, the illogical limitation of behavior that presents no danger to anyone, are all essential elements of the police state.

Having to respect an illogical, irrational norm is the exercise of obedience and submission par excellence.

It will never be "too soon" to rebel against such obligations.

It must be done, before it’s too late.

Translated by Ill Will Editions

#Italy #COVID19 #defiance #coronavirus #state of exception

33 notes · View notes

jackryanfanfic · 4 years

Text

I, His Isthmus | Chapter Two

Pairing | Jack Ryan x Cathy Muller

Genre | H/C, Angst, Friendship, Romance

Warnings | Blood, PTSD, Nightmares, Medical procedures

Word Count | 2K+

Rating | T

Summary: In which Jack takes an unexpected nap and Cathy battles her demons.

Cathy snipped the last stitch on Greer's wound and reached for a cloth to wipe away any remaining blood. Once she had sterilized the area yet again, she applied a patch bandage and removed her gloves.

Leaning back in her chair, she stretched, lips turning up in amusement as she watched Jack pace the limited floorspace.

He looked a little better now; it seemed he'd had a clean set of clothes in his backpack, if not a comb.

Something twisted at Cathy's heart and her smile faded. Jack's very posture exuded a weariness deeper than mere physical exhaustion. His eyes held that distant, haunted expression she had once tried so hard to chase away. How long it had been since he'd slept?

She pursed her lips, remembering his response to her message.

Jack caught her looking. "My turn?"

"Yeah, almost." She paused, crossing her arms. "Um, earlier, when you said you were relatively okay...What exactly did that mean? Because we've already established that your idea of relatively okay and mine are very different."

He shook his head. "A few cuts and bruises. Nothing significant. I think somebody's bullet must've nicked my arm at some point."

"Let me see."

He sat on the vacant bed and began to unbutton his shirt. "Let the record state that compared to him," he nodded in Greer's direction, "I'm just peachy." Wincing, he pulled his left arm from its sleeve. A once-white washcloth was sloppily folded over his bicep, held in place with a few rounds of masking tape.

Cathy snorted. "Don't quit your day job. This is a shoddy piece of work." She tugged at the tape.

"My day job is the reason you broke up with me."

And there it was.

"Jack..." She sighed. "No, this is the reason I broke up with you." She gestured to his arm, now bleeding freely. "That's the reason I broke up with you." She swept her hand back to include Greer. "I can't do this, Jack. You can't even do this. Look at you--it's eating you up now, just like it was then. I wanted to help you, Jack. I did. But you wouldn't let me in, and I..." She shook her head. "It wasn't healthy. For either of us." Her fingers stilled, voice softening. "I had to get out, Jack."

He bowed his head. His face was turned away, but she could see that her words had cut deep.

The tense quiet that followed gave Cathy more than enough time to agonize over her choice of words.

Jack broke it, his voice a whisper. "I miss you."

She looked up. Jack's eyes were on her face, his intent gaze disarming. A second that felt like an eternity passed, but then he gave a half-hearted smirk and turned away.

"I miss you too," Cathy said softly, surprising herself with her sudden transparency.

He let out a sigh so deep that Cathy had to move her hands away for a moment to avoid hurting him. She passed her hand over his shoulder. "Try and sit still for me?"

"Sorry."

"You'll need stitches." Turning his face toward the room's single lamp, she examined the cut on his cheek. "Maybe here, too." Their eyes met suddenly, and she removed her hand. "But that can wait until after the transfusion."

"Right," he said, rising.

"Ah--you will want to be lying down."

He complied.

Moving the chair so it sat between the beds, she set up her equipment on Jack's. She frowned, scanning the room for something she could repurpose as an IV pole. There was a coat hanger in the corner. That'll do.

Dragging it over, she hung up two plastic pouches, one empty, and one filled with a clear liquid. She rubbed an alcohol wipe over Greer's wrist and inserted a needle, which she taped in place and then connected to the full bag via a thin rubber tube. "Fluids," she explained, "water, electrolytes, et cetera." Two more tubes were connected to the empty bag. "Now for the tricky part. I hope you don't get queasy around blood?" Now there was something that had never come up over dinner at Buster's.

He chuckled. "Not lately."

Greer was now hooked up to the second bag, and she moved over to Jack. "Roll up your sleeve? You will experience moderate to severe dizziness and/or nausea, possibly fainting or a tingling sensation." She tied a band just above his elbow, pulling it tight and proceeding to swab the crook of his arm. "All are perfectly normal with a procedure like this. Make a fist for me?" She found his vein and inserted the needle, quickly connecting the last available tube to the needle's small attachment. She shifted the empty bag a bit. "Alright. That should do it."

Sure enough, blood began to flow almost immediately through the tube and up to the bag on the coat hanger. Cathy nodded in satisfaction.

"Wow. That stuff makes good time," Jack observed as Cathy crossed to the other side of the bed.

She sat, re-opening the small case that held her suture equipment and resumed her work on his arm. "Mm. So, why don't you tell me what happened? And why you're in this charming establishment with me instead of at a hospital with an on-duty doctor who specializes in something other than epidemiology?"

He hesitated. "Suffice to say I stumbled across a paper trail that incriminated some very powerful people. I guess I got too close. Greer picked me up at the airport today, and on the way back to Langley...all hell broke loose." He sighed. "They'd, uh...They'd look for us at the hospitals."

She nodded. "Okay. So what's next? What will you do after this? Greer is in no condition to go running around chasing terrorists, or whatever this is."

"I know a guy who can set us up with a safe house. I guess...I guess we'll go from there." He gently grasped her wrist, effectively halting her work. "I didn't plan this, Cathy."

Her expression softened. "I know. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to accuse. What you do...it's important. I know that. And I know it's necessary." She attempted a smile. "I just hate to see you in trouble."

He opened his mouth to speak, but afraid of what he would say, Cathy beat him to it.

"Try not to move that." She nodded towards his arm. "You'll jostle the needle and tear the vein. Then you'll be needing a transfusion."

He let her wrist go, gingerly repositioning his arm at his side.

Well, that's one way to kill a moment.

After a few minutes of Cathy working in silence and Jack staring at the ceiling, he started, hands bracing against the mattress.

"What's wrong?" Cathy asked in alarm.

He blinked a few times. "You weren't joking about the dizziness," he huffed, slowly settling into the mattress once more. "Sorry."

She waved his apology away. "Nothing quite like feeling like you're going to fall when you're already lying down." Checking the monitor clipped to Jack's IV, she added, "It won't be too much longer."

His eyelids fluttered. "Tha's probably a good thing."

She squeezed his shoulder. "You know, you're probably saving his life."

A few more moments passed, Jack struggling to remain conscious. Cathy put a hand on his face, trying to draw his focus. "Jack. Hey, it's okay. You're safe here, and you need rest. You can let go."

His eyes found hers once more before they rolled back and his lids slipped closed.

She rubbed her thumb in a circle over his cheek. Tears sprang into her eyes. Seeing him again, in pain and alone, left her with the same cold hopelessness she felt when there was a patient who was beyond her help. It was a pain that even the practiced professionalism which shielded her from so much else in the workplace had never been able to fully shut out. But this was worse. The tears spilled over, and she swiped them away, refocusing her attention on Jack's arm.

She completed the stitches and had just finished wrapping it in gauze when she spotted something.

A white tear in the skin of his left shoulder, about three inches below his collar bone. She stopped short. The last time she had seen that scar, it was still a red and angry wound. She had tended to it herself. It healed better than she had expected it to--Jack hadn't done the best job of limiting his movement in the weeks after his injury, notably prolonging the healing process. A week or two before they parted ways, she had given him a salve to help with the scarring. She never expected him to actually use it, but looking at it now...The corners of her mouth turned up of their own accord. He must have been using it.

She looked at his battered face, and her heart swelled until she thought she could not bear it. She loved him.

A sliver of doubt about her decision wormed its way into her mind, and for the first time since she had left him, she didn't push it away. "I truly do miss you," she whispered.

Why did you leave? The voice was accusatory. "I loved you," she whispered, looking at his face, which somehow seemed much younger in sleep. No, the voice rebuked, not loved.

The truth socked her in the gut.

I love you.

She pressed a hand to her face as guilt broiled up inside of her. "That's why I left," she whispered. It had been a pattern in her life--a lesson she learned early on. The people she loved would leave or betray her, breaking her heart and making implicit trust nearly impossible. It was easier to shut people out before the inevitable hurt they would cause. She still remembered the way her father had slurred the words at her on the night her mother died, his hot breath reeking of scotch in her face. "You can' trust anybody, Cathy girl; the people y' trust always come back ta bite'cha."

He had proved that statement time and time again himself as she grew up. The disappointments and broken promises piled up as she watched him become swallowed up by a business where success depended on being the first to strike and the last one standing. There was no trust, just business. If she had a dollar for every time she'd heard him say that..."It's just business, just business, just business."

So she learned. She kept everyone at arm's length, too far for a double-crossing to cause much pain, all the while vowing that she would never be like her father. Her work relationships were just that--work relationships. There had been times over the years when she found herself speaking to a date in her "doctor" voice, and there were times when her date responded in kind. Just business.

She had armored herself in loneliness and told herself she was happy that way. Pathetic.

Jack had been...different. He was honest, genuine. Perhaps too much so. In an environment where half-truths and cryptic answers were all too common, she had been drawn to it like a moth to a flame. He took her off guard, kept her guessing, made her laugh. She learned, of course, that part of his honesty was an act--he had skeletons and secrets just like everyone else, but those core virtues remained true of him. Her walls had crumbled. For the first time she could remember, she hadn't felt so alone. She was happy--not merely satisfied or content, but happy.

Then a terrorist tried to blow up the hospital she worked in, and Jack had been shot. It was a minor wound that would cause little-to-no lasting issues, but if that bullet had hit two inches to the right?

Even now, she closed her eyes against the thought.

Now, alone and without the excuse of distraction, she could see that the pain she felt had been as much her own fault as Jack's. She had drawn away, gradually, subconsciously allowing her fear to dictate her next move.

Remorse burned her throat, and she angrily smeared at the tears that were now dropping rapidly. Jack needed her. He had told her once, a few weeks after he had opened up to her about the crash. She asked him about the nightmares, cautiously, afraid he would shut her down with an "it's fine, I'm fine, don't worry about me." Instead, he met her gaze, a small smile on his face and an enormous glow in his eyes. "Yeah, uh...They've been a little better."

And she had left him alone because she was scared. Scared she would lose him, scared he would leave, scared of the vulnerability they were opening themselves up to. Her lip curled down in scorn. Selfless Doctor Cathy.

On auto-pilot, she stood, checking the monitor and disconnecting Jack and Greer from the transfusion equipment. You messed up. Fix it. Her mind raced for an answer, and she desperately tried to quiet it as she checked on her patients.

Greer's color was a bit more human, but Jack's skin was now pale, cast yellow by the dim glow of the lamp. She pressed her thumb and index finger to her eyes, trying to rub away the dull ache developing behind them. "Electrolytes," she muttered. They'll need electrolytes. Gatorade?

She thought she had seen a vending machine at the end of the hall. Neither showed signs of waking any time soon, so she snatched the key from the nightstand, her wallet from her purse, and stepped into the hall, locking the door behind her.

Sure enough, there was an ancient vending machine rumbling against the far wall. As she neared, she saw that the face of the machine was dented and cracked, as though the people who had come before her had held boxing matches with the poor thing rather than getting drinks.

Scanning the options, she was relieved to see Gatorade. She fed in two dollars and smacked the appropriate button, waiting as it hissed a sputtered before releasing the bottle with a clunk loud enough to make her jump. Struggling with crumpled bills, she repeated the process. This time she braced herself for the clunk.

She checked the expiration date on the bottles, just to be sure. Grabbing her change, she turned to go--

And hesitated.

The hall suddenly seemed like far too short of a walk. The questions she had momentarily pushed aside descended upon her once more like smog.

Breathing deeply, she lifted her chin and walked.

Her feet moved slowly even as her mind raced, and by the time she reached the door, she had reached a decision.

________________________________

A/N: I hope this brought some enjoyment to everyone’s quarantined lives. Thank you so much for taking the time to read this chapter! Chapter three should be up soon--it’s all written, I just have to find the time to post. :)

If you missed any preceeding chapters, I’ll link them here. Questions/comments/crit always very welcome. Also, ask box is open for requests/prompts anytime!

Be well, yall. Take your vitamins, drink your water, and hang in there. The sun will shine on us again. ;) <3

P.S. I have a couple fanarts for this fandom. I was considering posting them here, but they’re not fanfiction, so...thoughts?

Prologue:

https://jackryanfanfic.tumblr.com/post/611939538664882176/pairing-jack-ryan-x-cathy-muller-genre-hc

Chapter One:

https://jackryanfanfic.tumblr.com/post/612751574766321664/i-his-isthmus-chapter-one

Request Guidelines:

https://jackryanfanfic.tumblr.com/post/190676569367/taking-requests-yayyy

#Jack Ryan #jack ryan fanfic #John Krasinski #fanfc #tom clancy's jack ryan #abbie cornish #fanfiction community #fanfiction #writers on tumblr #angst #romance #h/c #emotional h/c #cathy muller

14 notes · View notes

hegner8l8b-blog · 4 years

Text

How to Cut Down Your Alcohol Consumption

While smoking increases exposure to risks of common cold, “smart drinking” reduces the occurrence of common cold among nonsmokers. According to a study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, researchers found that taking eight to 14 glasses of red wine weekly reduces the risk of getting a cold by 60 percent. This is primarily due to the presence of antioxidants in wine. Why then do some say that you should avoid alcohol if you suffer from anxiety, unless you are not able to even communicate with other people if you are not fully plastered. It just doesn’t make any sense, when drinking a little, you almost instantly calm down and can have a nice chat with your, perhaps, next-to-be “friend”. Plan ahead when preparing a party; that you have plenty of non-alcoholic drinks available and that you also have plenty of food. Draw up a plan on who is going to drive home; someone who will not be drinking alcohol, or taking drugs. Arrange to call a taxi, organize a car pool. Smart drinking is saving lives. Knowing your limits is a huge preventative factor when it comes to drinking and driving. A 2 day hangover could be a sign you are drinking way to much or that your body isn't responding well to the amount of alcohol you are consuming. Never the less it is a worry and you should see a medical professional. Some hangovers do last two days so if you want to wait it out then that can be done as well, my advice however is just go get some professional medical advice. And also make sure you drink adequate amounts of water and get back into the swing of eating normal healthy meals. You might have heard the phrase “One drink a day keeps the doctor away”. Even if there is http://bit.ly/smartdrinking supporting the claim, that drinking something along the lines of 1 to 2 drinks a day, helps improve your health, you should consider quitting drinking altogether if you can not follow smart drinking. The reason for this is that the health benefits are far outweighed by other risks, such as certain types of cancer and different, perhaps very serious, injuries that occur when you are slightly drunk. Drinking and driving causes accidents and fatalities every day. For instance, in the U.S., 3 out of 10 people are involved in accidents that are related to drunk driving at least once during their lifetime. Stop denying to yourself that you are not an alcoholic because you don’t fit the stereotype. Get real and then when you are able to say yes to am I an alcoholic, or even maybe, commit to change.

#alcohol #booze #hangover

1 note · View note

gettingvetted · 6 years

Note

why does it have to be a one-upmanship though? I've never heard people say doctors are better than vets, and even if some do, surely smugly saying 'we know so much more' makes you just as bad? Can't we accept that they are both very demanding, difficult jobs in their own ways? There are so many differences I think it's hard to even compare them.

Mk, I told you I wasn’t going to discuss this anymore unless you came off anon, but I think this is important because I know I have a few medblr followers and a lot of not-medical-at-all followers.

This is not one-upsmanship. “Real doctors treat more than one species” is a joke - in response to being treated like we’re not as good as MD’s. You can literally buy T-shirts and bumper stickers with that on them. As I stated when I responded to your original ask, all of us in the veterinary profession have respect for doctors. Another common saying in the field is “I’m in vet med because humans are gross.” But somebody has to treat them, and we’re glad it’s not us. Many of us would prefer that animals come in sans owners. During the rest of this post, keep in mind that I (and the vast majority of vets) respect MD’s because we need them just as much as they need us. But that doesn’t make us any less than them.

You say it’s hard to compare them - you must be on the human medical side. Want to know some similarities?- We go to school for the same amount of time.- The prerequisite courses for getting into school are nearly identical.- We accumulate approximately the same amount of debt from our schooling.- We learn much of the same material. Anatomy, histology, general/systemic pathology, clinical pathology, physiology, neurology, pharmacology, immunology, toxicology, bacteriology, virology, radiology, theriogenology (aka veterinary gynecology), ethics, business, medicine/treatment, surgery, public health, nutrition, epidemiology… except we learn it for every species, not just one. More on that later.- Vets have to learn about humans too, because we have to know how animals can infect humans. For example, we have to know how every single veterinary parasite in our 3-credit, semester-long parasitology class can potentially affect/not affect humans. Med students spend one or two lectures on parasites.

But you’re right, there’s a lot of differences.- Vet schools are 3-4x harder to get into than medical schools.- Vet school is harder, full stop. Not only are we learning the same things as med students, we have to learn it for every animal species plus some human stuff, and we have to be prepared to actually practice after four years of education without an internship or residency to catch us after school is over. Yes, some students will choose to go the internship/residency route, but the majority will not. Another common joke in vet school, which my professors have literally said to my entire class more than once, is “if you wanted it to be easy you should have gone to medical school.”- An MD is unlikely to be injured by their patients on an average day. A vet is.- When I graduate, I will have performed upwards of 50 surgeries on at least 4 species of animals, despite the fact that I have no intention of specializing in surgery. A human medical doctor has to wait until their residency to do even one surgery, and that’s only if they’re specializing in a field that requires surgery on a routine basis.- Upon graduation, for any given patient I may have to be a general practitioner, gastroenterologist, dermatologist, cardiologist, pediatrician, emergency doctor, radiologist, orthopedist, oncologist, behaviorist, endocrinologist, surgeon, dentist, neurologist, internist, pathologist, pharmacologist, pulmonologist, anesthesiologist, OB/GYN, physical therapist, opthalmologist, and more during their lifetime. Medical doctors have to specialize in a single one of these things. Lucky me, I don’t have to choose. Poor me, I have to know every single one of these specialties for every single animal. Hence, knowing more and doing more than MD’s.- Show me a human general practice clinic (or even hospital) where I can come in with a bellyache, vaginal discharge, and diarrhea and have an exam, bloodwork, x-rays, ultrasound, and emergency hysterectomy all in the same department, within 2-3 hours of arrival, and go home the same day if absolutely necessary or at least the next day. Yeah, not gonna happen.- Vets have to pay for equipment/supplies, building expenses/upkeep, and staff salaries in addition to their own salaries, and this is incorporated in the cost of vet care. Human clinics are subsidized so they don’t have to worry about this…- … and still charge upwards of 5-10x as much for the same procedure that a vet does. Here’s a total hip replacement comparison, for example.- Because of the two above points, if a client stiffs a doctor, it’s not a big deal - the government and the practice insurance will cover it. The lights will not go off. If a client stiffs a vet… well that one client might not make the lights go off, but now the vet isn’t going to be able to offer clinic-based payment plans because they simply can’t afford to be stiffed anymore. Some practices won’t even send a bill and instead require payment up front, because collections cost more than the bill is worth (that’s how low veterinary bills tend to be, comparatively), and these clinics will still get slammed on Facebook/Yelp/Google for “only caring about money and forcing me to pay upfront when my puppy was dying.”- Humans are required to have insurance, but pets are not. This leads to a lot of emotionally demanding decisions for both the vet and owner (I can’t afford his care - do I put him down? surrender him to the clinic if they’re able to take him? bring him home and let him die? toss him to a shelter and let him suffer?) and a lot of emotionally demanding owners ( “If you really loved animals you would treat him for free” - well yes Becky, but I have to eat and pay my student loans/mortgage too…)- Despite our similar educational debt load, my average salary will be less than half of an MD’s. And people still think we charge too much and make too much and try to guilt us into performing services or giving items at a discount or for free.- Vets can put patients down. While this is usually a blessing, it does mean that patients we’ve treated since they were babies are now dying because we can’t do anything to save them, whether due to owner finances or inability to cure a terminal illness. That’s hard enough as it is, but then you get clients who are moving, had a baby, don’t want the pet for whatever reason, and demand you put the animal down instead of doing something else to try to rehome it - “convenience euthanasias.” Both types take an emotional toll on vets, and euthanasias happen every day, usually multiple times.- A vet’s work-life balance is notoriously terrible. Non-ER MD’s can turn away people who walk in at 4:55 when the practice closes at 5. Vets often can’t (or don’t). Because our patient care is so much more involved, it’s rare for vets or vet staff to be able to leave on time even from general practice, and that says nothing for emergency care or the many vets who are on call nights, weekends, holidays… At the first practice I worked at, staff members got to choose one (1) holiday PER YEAR to get off, and were expected to work every weekend.- Due to the previous 5 points, suicide and mental illness in the veterinary field is at an all-time high. Vets are twice as likely to commit suicide than an MD. It’s alarming, and the field is working to change it, but not much can be done on a national scale.

In fact, maybe you’re right. Maybe there really is no comparison. If you read all that, I think you’ll understand that vets have earned a little bit of wiggle room to poke some harmless fun at their “real doctor” colleagues.

Oh, and not to mention the biggest difference between MD’s and DVM’s, but...

#ask #anon #vet med #vet school #vet

1K notes · View notes

aviannabrooks · 5 years

Text

Name: Avianna Cecelia Brooks Age: 26 FC: Candice Patton Class standing: First Year Graduate Student Major: Epidemiology Personality: ( + ) Driven, ( + ) Practical, ( - ) Skeptical, ( - ) Hot-tempered

Aesthetics ‣

The bright sound of a whistle between fingers and the screech of tires along the bustling streets of the city that never sleeps. Warm knitted scarves and sweaters that keep out the chill of an autumn breeze. Books with rainbows of highlighted notes and dog-eared pages. Chipped nail polish on bitten fingernails. The smell of a warm meal cooking on the stove as the low hum of the evening news rumbles in the living room. A crisp lab coat. Strong arms, tight hugs, bright smiles and shared laughter.

Extracurriculars ‣

To be determined.

Bio ‣

Avianna Brooks considers herself just another one of your run-of-the-mill, born and bred New Yorkers. With a fast walking pace that matches her mouth, she’s always felt at home amongst the skyscrapers and crowds of one of the most famous cities in the world. But New York City is expensive, and with debts hanging over her head from her undergrad, it was looking as if grad school would be a long-term dream. Living at home with her mother and grandmother was not unwelcome, and the free rent was a relief, but her mother’s catering business did not appeal to Avianna as much as her chosen career path did. A random online search one day in a moment of boredom had Avianna looking into much more affordable options abroad, and that was when she stumbled upon St. Amelie. It wasn’t so much the opportunity to attend school with the world’s most affluent youth that drew her interest as it was the generous scholarship for the incoming class of commoners that would be allowed to attend for the first time since the school’s inception. Avianna supposed she could stomach stepping out of her precious city for a few years if it meant a near-free education and a future in the medical field when she returned.

It wasn’t easy, as Avianna worked multiple jobs in the application period, tucking away every penny she could spare in an attempt to save for the journey to Genovia, a country she’d hardly heard of before applying. Hard work, however, was never something Avianna shied away from. “We Brooks women know how to work.” Was often something she’d heard her grandmother say when loading up the company van with armloads of pots and pans or her mother mutter when scribbling notes in the books, punching numbers into a worn calculator. And work Avianna did, determined to forge her own dreams into stone cold reality just as they had done before her. She didn’t have her grandmother’s passion for cooking, nor her mother’s entrepreneurial skills, but she had a skill and passion for the medical field and she would be damned if a few more student loans stood in her way. Hell, not even the Atlantic Ocean would stop her.

Mun ‣

Name: Jessie Age: 23 Timezone: EST

#avianna #inspo.avianna #about

1 note · View note

your-dietician · 3 years

Text

Madelyn's Testimonial - Overcome Menopause Symptoms Naturally

New Post has been published on https://depression-md.com/madelyns-testimonial-overcome-menopause-symptoms-naturally/

Madelyn's Testimonial - Overcome Menopause Symptoms Naturally

Comments: 0 | October 29th, 2020

Dr. Hotze is joined by guest Madelyn Garza on his podcast who shares her testimonial about overcoming her severe menopause symptoms naturally. After being diagnosed with breast cancer and taking chemotherapy, she went into menopause. She also suffered from painful vaginal atrophy, extreme fatigue, brain fog, anxiety, depression, hair loss, and more. Conventional doctors only prescribed prescription drugs that did not help her symptoms. Madelyn took charge of her health and with the help of Dr. Hotze and his staff, is feeling almost 100% again after only 3 months of treatment.

youtube

Podcast Highlights:

5:10: So, it’s thought that the estrogen dominance has an adverse effect on the production causing women to produce breast cancers because they have their estrogen or progesterone out of balance.

5:23: There was a study done in John Hopkins University School of Epidemiology that showed that women that had the lowest levels of progesterone had a thousand times increase of all cancers, a 600% increase in breast cancer.

6:07 …just very tired, extreme tired, very anxious and jittery, brain fog, no focus, feeling down and depressed. My hair was falling out, it felt very thin and dry. Muscle atrophies, moodiness, just irritable, just all kinds. I mean, just mainly emotionally it hit me. Urethral incontinence, I had muscle atrophy. I had vaginal atrophy, severe vaginal atrophy. My bones and joints hurt.

7:01: Listen, this is what the common doctor does right now, the conventional doctor. When you have symptoms, multitude like Madelyn had, they just say, “Oh, she’s just depressed” as if all these symptoms were caused by low level of antidepressants or anti-anxiety or sleep medication. Nobody’s sick because they have low levels of pharmaceutical drugs in their body.

13:38: Well, I started noticing right away, my mood was lifted. I don’t know, I felt wonderful. I didn’t have the brain fog. I did not have the anxiousness that I was feeling. My hot flashes have really gone down considerably.

14:15: I get on the vaginal, the estriol cream, that Dr. Ellsworth prescribed and the second week I started feeling a difference. Then I went for my annual checkup with my OBGYN and she said, “Your vaginal atrophy has improved.”

14:41: But I can’t believe within gosh, three weeks, my vaginal atrophy had already improved. And that was real important for me.

17:57: I feel wonderful. And the thing is, I can call here anytime and no one gets irritated because I ask a lot of questions. So that everyone’s been very patient, very kind and just wonderful.

Podcast Transcription:

Stacey Bandfield: Welcome to Dr. Hotze’s Wellness Revolution. I’m Stacy Bandfield here with Dr. Steven Hotze, founder of the Hotze Health & Wellness Center. We’ve got a great guest on today. She’s only been a guest of ours for a few months but has had a remarkable transformation and I know Dr. Hotze Is looking forward to sharing her story, Dr. Hotze.

Dr. Steven Hotze: Thank you, Stacey. And thank each one of you for joining us today on Dr. Hotze’s Wellness Revolution. I believe that you and everybody really needs a physician and a staff of professionals who can coach you on a path of health and wellness naturally, so as you mature, you have life, you have energy and you have enthusiasm. That’s the important thing, energy, life and enthusiasm. And that’s what we want to help you do. So we have a simple program and that’s done without pharmaceutical drugs. So we have a simple program that we encourage our guests to follow.

Today, I’m pleased to have Madelyn Garza who’s been a guest only for a very short time since July of this year. So she’s been a guest for about three or four months right now, and she has a very interesting story. So Madelyn, why don’t you just tell us about your health journey? I know you had problems 10 years ago. Why don’t we start back there? How many children do you have, by the way?

Madelyn Garza: I have two sons and a daughter.

Dr. Steven Hotze: Okay. And tell me what kind of work you’ve been in during your life, besides the work of raising a husband and raising three kids.

Madelyn Garza: Oh, I mean, just work wise, I did work for Enron at one time. From there, I went over to work at St. Thomas High School and then from there I took a little break and then I started back there again and now I’m home.

Dr. Steven Hotze: Good. So tell us about your health. Are you from here in town, by the way?

Madelyn Garza: I’m a native Houstonian.

Dr. Steven Hotze: Really? Where’d you go to high school?

Madelyn Garza: I went to Reagan High School.

Dr. Steven Hotze: Did you really?

Madelyn Garza: And I grew up in the Heights. My dad went to Reagan High School and we all grew up in the Heights.

Dr. Steven Hotze: That’s something. My son lives over there now in the Heights.

Madelyn Garza: Yes. My mom and dad still live there.

Dr. Steven Hotze: So you got married, had three kids and then about 10 or 12 years ago, you started to have some health issues. What happened?

Madelyn Garza: Well, before that I was having very heavy periods, just very heavy and very painful and they were very long.

Dr. Steven Hotze: And you would’ve been how old at that time?

Madelyn Garza: About 47. Yes, in 2009. And then I went in to see my OBGYN and she had done an endometrial ablation and that was all that she did. She put me on some estrogen and progesterone. Then that following year, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. So stage 3, which metastasized to my lymph nodes and it was ER positive. And they started me on Tamoxifen right away.

Dr. Steven Hotze: Now Tamoxifen is a chemotherapeutic drug that stops the production of any estrogen in the body and binds the estrogen receptors, which in itself has a host of side effects. But the whole concept is, if you’re estrogen sensitive, that the idea is to stop any estrogen from affecting breast cancer in an adverse way.

Madelyn Garza: Right.

Dr. Steven Hotze: So you started on the Tamoxifen, how’d you do on the Tamoxifen? How’d you feel?

Madelyn Garza: Not good. It puts you into automatic menopause, just did not feel good.

Dr. Steven Hotze: And I might add, you mentioned that as you were maturing into your forties, your periods started to get heavier with clotting and all that. And that’s a classical feature of estrogen dominance. Almost every woman will experience this to one degree or another. The estrogen becomes out of balance with the progesterone. That’s the ying and yang, so to speak, of the hormones.

You make estrogen all month long and then in mid cycle when you ovulate, if you do ovulate, you make progesterone that balances the estrogen. Estrogen proliferates the inner lining in the womb, progesterone matures at waiting for a pregnancy. But if you don’t make any progesterone and you don’t, by it not ovulating during the month as happens to women, as they move between 38 and 50, they start having anovulatory cycles. So they don’t ovulate, they don’t make any progesterone and all you have is the proliferative effect of the estrogen.

And so, the periods will become heavier, they’ll go from three to five days, mild five to seven days, moderate seven to nine days. They get clotting and then you get an intermenstrual bleeding and cramping and mood swings and fluid retention, weight gain, and headaches and all these things happen. And it’s because your hormones are out of balance and they can be easily balanced with natural progesterone early on. 5:10: So, it’s thought that the estrogen dominance has an adverse effect on the production causing women to produce breast cancers because they have their estrogen or progesterone out of balance.

5:23: There was a study done in John Hopkins University School of Epidemiology that showed that women that had the lowest levels of estrogen/progesterone had a thousand times increase of all cancers, a 600% increase in breast cancer. So it’s when women have this imbalance in their hormones, that they are more susceptible to developing cancer of the breasts. So anyway, you ended up having surgery then put on Tamoxifen and that blocks the estrogen. So what were some of the symptoms that you were experiencing for which you saw your…I’m sure you saw your OB GYN and some other doctors about this. What kind of symptoms were you experiencing?

Madelyn Garza: And they didn’t go away afterwards but 6:07 …just very tired, extreme tired, very anxious and jittery, brain fog, no focus, feeling down and depressed. My hair was falling out, it felt very thin and dry. Muscle atrophies, moodiness, just irritable, just all kinds. I mean, just mainly emotionally it hit me. Urethral incontinence, I had muscle atrophy. I had vaginal atrophy, severe vaginal atrophy. My bones and joints hurt. And then my knees, especially, which they found after I was off chemo. Because it started with chemo but after I got off chemo, they said my knees were bone on bone, after I got off. So it’s just, I didn’t feel good. It’s just, I had a lot of symptoms.

Dr. Steven Hotze: And so you saw your oncologist and talked to him about that. And you talked to your OBGYN doctor and you saw some other physicians. What did they tell you? What did they recommend?

Madelyn Garza: Well, at the beginning it was either antidepressants or anti-anxiety, which I didn’t want to do. Because I had heard from other women, breast cancer survivors that were on that and it didn’t help much. And then, or it would make things worse and then they had a hard time getting off of it. So I said, “No. I just said, okay.” And then from then on, I never ever said what my symptoms were. I never told them because I knew that it was going to be…I remember around that time I talked about my hot flashes, because I would feel like I was burning up at night and they said, “Okay, well we can give you an antidepressant.” And I said, “No.”

Dr. Steven Hotze: 7:01: Listen, this is what the common doctor does right now, the conventional doctor. When you have symptoms, multitude like Madelyn had, they just say, “Oh, she’s just depressed” as if all these symptoms were caused by low level of antidepressants or anti-anxiety or sleep medication. Nobody’s sick because they have low levels of pharmaceutical drugs in their body. But this is the way the doctors are trained to think, “Oh, we’ll give a drug to solve the problem.” Instead of addressing the problem upstream and solving the problem at its root, they try to mask the symptoms, which leads to a host of other side effects. And you were wise enough, Madeline, not to take the bait.

Madelyn Garza: Right.

Dr. Steven Hotze: But you still felt bad and you had told me your biggest problem was with the vaginal atrophy you had. What kind of problems did that cause?

Madelyn Garza: I mean, that was ongoing and that would make me feel down because I was in pain 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And it just wouldn’t go away. And so, I would have to carry a bottled water or a small little container and refractionated coconut oil because that’s the only thing that did not irritate me in that area. But I carried that and did water washes a lot. And then with my husband, we were not able to have intercourse for five years.

Dr. Steven Hotze: And why was that?

Madelyn Garza: Because number one, it was painful. Number two, I would get a UTI immediately afterwards…

Dr. Steven Hotze: That’s a urinary tract infection.

Madelyn Garza: …where I was in the emergency room in excruciating pain and urinating blood. And then I’d be put on antibiotics and I got a yeast infection. It was just one vicious cycle and it was just to the point, was just too painful.

Dr. Steven Hotze: Right. And that’s why you had to quit having relations with your husband because it caused you to get sick. So, and this is not an uncommon problem we see in women and most people aren’t going to be as frank as Madelyn has about her problem. But this was a big problem for her.

Madelyn Garza: Yes it was.

Dr. Steven Hotze: And she wanted to get it solved. So of course, she went and saw her OBGYN. What did the OBGYN tell you?

Madelyn Garza: Well, my OBGYN is the one that put me on the water washes, ice packs and refractionated coconut oil. And then finally my oncologist approved an estrogen cream and I started that but then it irritated me. And then I saw a homeopathic doctor who gave me another cream, which did not bother me as much but there was not much of an improvement. So I continued the other cream. I stopped the one the OBGYN gave me but then I started the other one. But there was still not much improvement.

Dr. Steven Hotze: Okay. So how did you end up deciding to come in? What made you decide to come to the Hotze Health & Wellness Center?

Madelyn Garza: Well, I just wasn’t feeling well and it was just getting worse. So then the homeopathic doctor I was seeing at the time recommend I get bioidentical hormones and then my husband and said, “Okay.” He was a little nervous about it. And he says, “You know, I really would feel comfortable if you got a second opinion and I’d really like for you to go see Dr. Hotze because I’ve heard a lot about him.” So to get a second opinion. So excuse me, I went on ahead and did that and things just started changing rapidly.

Dr. Steven Hotze: Okay. You saw Dr. Ellsworth when you came in.

Madelyn Garza: I saw Dr. Ellsworth.

Dr. Steven Hotze: Okay. Coming to our center, what difference did you notice? Just walking into the center, coming upstairs, the reception room, how was that any different from any other medical facility you’d been in?

Madelyn Garza: It was just a blessing and I felt wonderful. It’s like, they know, they genuinely care about you. They listen to you. It was just wonderful. It was wonderful. I felt like a queen. I felt very…I felt wonderful.

Dr. Steven Hotze: Well, we like everybody that’s a guest of ours. We don’t call our patients, patients. We call them guests because strangely enough, we got out of the medical practice in 1997 and decided to go in the hospitality industry. And within that context, provide medical care. So we call our patients, guests, and what you name somebody is what you think about them. If you call somebody an idiot all the time, you’re going to think they’re an idiot. If you call them, “Boy, you’re bright and intelligent. You’re a really great articulate guy.” Well guess what? That’s where you’re going to see him and if you think that about whatever you think about yourself. So we call our patients guests and it changes the way we treat people just because the mind is a powerful thing. And when you have a guest in your home, you want everything to be nice.

You want it to be nice accommodations. You want to provide nice refreshments. You want to have a smile on your face. You greet them and bring them into your home and you want them to feel welcomed. You want to be hospitable. So they go, “Boy, those are the most hospitable people, they’re so welcoming. I loved being there.” And that we wanted to create that environment because I happen to believe the way we treat our guests, like you Madelyn, is as important, if not more important than the treatment we prescribe. And that’s very important. But people want to be listened to, they want to be heard, they want to be understood, they want to be affirmed and they want to be given hope that they can solve the problems.

Most people, like Madelyn, had seen other physicians and just hadn’t solved the problem because those doctors were all treating downstream. They were treating the symptoms rather than going upstream and treating the underlying cause of the problem. So we put you on some vaginal estrogen cream, put you on progesterone, put you on some testosterone, we also put you on a little bit of thyroid medication and got you on a good, healthy eating program. Got you on some vitamins and minerals. Okay, it’s been three months. Has there been any change in three months?

Madelyn Garza: Yes. 13:38: Well, I started noticing right away, my mood was lifted. I don’t know, I felt wonderful. I didn’t have the brain fog. I did not have the anxiousness that I was feeling. My hot flashes have really gone down considerably. I mean, just everything overall. And then what really surprised me, which happened very quickly, is my vaginal atrophy. Because here I was at two years off of the aromatase inhibitor and nothing seemed to be helping, at all. 14:15: I get on the vaginal, the estriol cream, that Dr. Ellsworth prescribed and the second week I started feeling a difference. Then I went for my annual checkup with my OBGYN and she said, “Your vaginal atrophy has improved.” So I thought, “Oh my gosh.” She says, “I think you can start having intercourse with your husband again.” But she wasn’t very sure about the UTI’s yet. 14:41: But I can’t believe within gosh, three weeks, my vaginal atrophy had already improved. And that was real important for me.

Dr. Steven Hotze: Well, that is important. Now, you mentioned to her, and I’d like you to bring this out, when you told your doctor, your doctor said, “Well, I guess the oil I gave you was working.” And what’d you tell her?

Madelyn Garza: Well, I really didn’t. Because after that, I told her that I was coming to see Dr. Ellsworth at Hotze Wellness and he was giving me an estriol cream. And then after that, she didn’t want to hear it. She did not like it, that I was seeing an integrative doctor. She said she was not happy.

Dr. Steven Hotze: Well, in fact, you kind of explained to you how she should read you the riot act. And how did you handle that?

Madelyn Garza: I said a prayer while I was sitting there asking God, “Give me peace here,” because she was not happy. It was a difficult thing.

Dr. Steven Hotze: It’s pretty bad when you go to your doctor and the doctor’s talking to you in such a way, you have to say, “Lord, please help me tolerate this without blurting out or anything I shouldn’t say.”

Madelyn Garza: Yes, it was. It was difficult.

Dr. Steven Hotze: So this is what we see with conventional doctors. They know nothing about natural approaches to health. They just don’t. Why? Because they’re not taught that way. And I had a Professor of Internal Medicine and when we used to give him answers, said, “You guys got it all wrong.” He said, “You know what’s wrong with you all? You’re basically…you don’t like to think. And you know why you don’t like to think?” This is Dr. Fred, God rest his soul. He said, “Because you’re lazy and it’s hard work.” So I learned from him to ask, why? Always question everything. When I had guests, before I called them guests, they were patients. When I had patients back in the old days before I did natural bioidentical hormones, they had all these problems. I was treating for allergies. I was just going to take care of their allergy problem.

They had all these problems going on and I kept asking, “Why? What’s going on?” And that’s when I learned about natural thyroid hormone supplementation. And that’s when I learned about natural female hormone replacement. And what a difference that has made in the lives of our guests over the last 31 years, it’s amazing.

We’ve had 33,000 guests come through. Does everyone do well? No. You know why? A lot of them just, they pay money to come in and get on the program, and a certain percent, five or 10%, just going, “I don’t want to do it, I can’t follow the recommendations.” Or maybe they get home and their husband goes, “Oh, you’ve been to 10 doctors already. You went to another one and spent a fortune. You’re never going to get well, that doctor was right. You’re crazy as a bedbug.”

And so, you’re not getting support at home. And that’s why the guests that we have tend to do the best for guests that have been referred by somebody else who’s done extremely well because they have some support and that’s very important. But we’re here to support you. We’re here to have your back. We view ourselves as health coaches. You’re the health athlete. We wanted you to get in the health Olympics. You were in it, the health Olympics. We wanted you to get a gold medal in the health Olympics. You’ve been on the program three months now and I’ve looked at some additional things we can do to even get you to the next level. But in three months, you’ve really made remarkable progress.

Madelyn Garza: Yes, yes. 17:57: I feel wonderful. And the thing is, I can call here anytime and no one gets irritated because I ask a lot of questions. So that everyone’s been very patient, very kind and just wonderful.

Dr. Steven Hotze: Well, I want to congratulate Madelyn. Madelyn, I congratulate you because you took charge of your health. That’s the most important thing you can do, is you have to realize your health belongs to nobody else but you. You can decide if you want to be healthy or not. And with all this stuff going on and people worried about infectious diseases and viruses and all that, instead of being reactive, “I’m going to wear a mask, I’m going to social distance, I’m not going to go out anywhere.” Why don’t you just build up your system, get your immune system healthy. Why don’t you get on good vitamins and minerals and nutrients. We have a Dr. Hotze’s Immune Pak that we recommend and all our guests are taking vitamins and minerals. I do, too. I’ve treated a number of people that had symptoms of viral illnesses, may have had coronavirus, but you know what? I’ve been around them.

Look for 44 years, I’ve been in medicine. I did emergency medicine for six years, so I saw people with viral and bacterial meningitis, viral and bacterial pneumonia, viral and bacterial gastrointestinal disorders, strep infections, staph infections all over the body, boils, cysts, pseudomonas infections in the lungs and tuberculosis. I never, for one day in the emergency room or in my office, ever wore a mask. I never quarantined myself. I went home and I didn’t quarantine my family. Nobody in my family ever got any of those illnesses, I didn’t either. Now, how is it that some virus that they think comes from China is the worst thing since the Bubonic Plague. It’s ridiculous. And it’s ridiculous because you can be healthy and your immune system’s meant to fight off viruses and bacteria.

By the way, every one of you and there’s some germophobes out there that are listening to this, you’re not going to want to hear it. You are covered with a trillion bacteria right now. Staph epidermis from the top of your head to the tip of your toes, all over your body, yet can’t wash it off with soap and water. In your mouth, in your sinuses, you’ve got viruses and bacteria by the billions and trillions. In your colon, you’ve got four to five pounds of bacteria in your colon. Why aren’t you sick? Because you got an immune system. God gave you an immune system. I heard some leftist say, “All that stuff about the immune system is just a right wing conspiracy.”

I want to go. “You’ve got to be kidding me.” I mean, there are books about immunology, the immune system. Do they really believe, “Well, we can’t really get well unless we get a vaccine.” No, you can be well, you don’t need a vaccine. You can be healthy and well. And if you get a viral illness, there’s methods that that can be treated naturally. And we’ve done that and with some medication, as well. Hydroxychloroquine, Avermectin, the President used Regeneron. Look at the president. They said he was going to die. Remember, “Oh my gosh, who’s going to replace him as president. Will it be …” Was Pence going to get it and he’s going to die. And then it will be … And they were promoting Nancy Pelosi’s going to be the president when they both die of this terrible … And the president had a fever for a day or two, they took him to the hospital, precautionarily.

I would not have gone if I were him. If he’d had been here, I’d treat him at home like I do everybody else. Within two days, I mean, he was up in the hospital. He was up and out and doing fine, held a rally this week. And they ought to be saying, “See, you know what? Trump was right, take your vitamins.” And he was taking a lot of vitamin D, which is very important for the immune system. Vitamin D3, five to 10,000 international units a day is really critical to build up the immune system.

They’ve done studies around the world, people with low levels of vitamin D are more susceptible to viral illnesses and respiratory viruses like flu and the coronavirus, if they have low levels of vitamin D. And believe it or not, most of us have low levels of vitamin D because we’re inside all the time. I’m sitting in a room. I sit inside all day long, I’m not out in the sun. So I have to take, myself, I have to replenish my vitamin D. We test all our guests. Invariably, every one of them is at a low level. They are in a low range of normal.

You need to be up around 70 or above 70 to a hundred. That would be nanograms for ML. That’s where you need to be. And that can be tested easily but you can safely take 5,000 international units of vitamin D3 every day. Take your vitamin C, take vitamin A, take B complex. Take vitamin C, vitamin D. Make sure you take some Zinc and you can take probiotics and you can take Magnesium. Those are the keys to build up your immune system. And I want to highly recommend you doing that. And that’s an aside from what a Madelyn’s been talking about but it was a good segue. So what she has done, what Madeline has done, is she took charge of her health. She knew the government wasn’t in charge of her health, the insurance companies weren’t in charge of her health. Her doctor wasn’t in charge of her health, her husband wasn’t in charge of her health.

Only Madeline was in charge of her health. And when she decided to take action and to make a change, instead of swimming, them being downstream, drowning in a river, she went upstream and she started to get at the root of the problem. And so, in three months she’s really had a remarkable recovery. Does everybody have remarkable coverage in three months? Not necessarily. We have to adjust the hormones and the vitamins and you got to get on a good, healthy eating program. Got to get on an exercise program, got to get a good, night’s sleep, got to get the stress out of your life. There are a lot of things that are components with feeling badly. But Madelyn, you have done remarkably well.

Madelyn Garza: Praise God.

Dr. Steven Hotze: I Congratulate you and I appreciate the fact that you’re an outspoken Christian and that you give God the glory. What you wrote us back on your answers to your questions about your faith in Christ. And I just think that’s remarkable and I think that’s wonderful.

Madelyn Garza: That’s right. You got to keep your eyes on God.

Dr. Steven Hotze: Right. And you know, we have a choice in life. We can fear. All of us, now listen to me, should be fearful. The question is, of what should we be fearful? Should we be fearful of a man? Should we be fearful of viruses and bacteria? Or should we be fearful of God? In the fear of God, there’s strong confidence. It says in the fear of God, there’s life, there’s vitality. He promises these things for those that’ll walk with him. So I want to encourage you, put your faith in God and you don’t have a spirit of fear when you fear God and put your confidence in Him. You have power and love and a sound mind, you can think clearly because you’re not worried about what people are going to do to you. About what some virus might do to you. Just walk in faith rather than in fear, right?

Madelyn Garza: I agree.

Dr. Steven Hotze: I should’ve been a preacher.

Madelyn Garza: Yes.

Dr. Steven Hotze: Thank you guys for joining us today. It’s been a privilege and I thank you, Madelyn.

Madelyn Garza: Thank you so much.

Dr. Steven Hotze: You’re a dear, you’re a sweetheart. God bless you.

!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s) if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function()n.callMethod? n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments); if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0'; n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0; t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)(window, document,'script', 'https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js'); fbq('init', '391742731206178'); fbq('track', 'PageView'); Source link

0 notes

k00250550 · 3 years

Text

Design and Culture Essay In order to keep our culture strong, it’s best that some things are left out of the ads

Let me begin by telling you a story.

One day a few cavemen went out on the hunt. They came across a gorgeous cow. Strangely enough this cow was all alone but she seemed to be pregnant! Somehow the cavemen convinced this vulnerable creature to come home with them.

They fed her delicious fruit everyday while building a spacious pin around her, chopping trees directly from that area for the finest material and perfect animal storage. They finished building the fence right before the gentle cow had her calf. The cavemen saw what a beautiful connection the mother had with her baby but they were hungry.

They ate the calf and started drinking it’s milk. Regardless of the cow’s emotions/trauma her body still thought it was feeding her baby.

When other cavemen heard about these geniuses they immediately searched for healthy looking cows and bulls to breed and humankind never looked back!

Until the bloody vegans came along……………...

When it comes to eating animals, not only do we kill animals who are living their wildlife but humans are so intelligent that they managed to capture and breed animals for the sole purpose of becoming what some people like to call food. Does anyone want to know what their life is like before they’re sitting on the tesco shelf? What goes on behind closed doors?

Who kills animals everyday and why are they willing to do it?

Many people feel as though they have no other way to earn to feed their families and commonly undocumented immegrants who have little to no choice.

Slaughterhouses are one of the most dangerous working environments with risks from amputations to catching diseases. Not to mention PTSD.

This is what you see when you search “slaughterhouse workers” on Google Scholar (first 5)

Sickness absence and work strain among Danish slaughterhouse workers: An analysis of absence from work regarded as coping behaviour - ScienceDirect

Occurrence of carpal tunnel syndrome among slaughterhouse workers on JSTOR

Neck and upper limb disorders among slaughterhouse workers: an epidemiologic and clinical study (jstor.org)

High prevalence of nasal MRSA carriage in slaughterhouse workers in contact with live pigs in The Netherlands (cambridge.org)

Body discomfort in poultry slaughterhouse workers (iospress.com)

Sickness absence and work strain among Danish slaughterhouse workers: An analysis of absence from work regarded as coping behaviour - ScienceDirect

Occurrence of carpal tunnel syndrome among slaughterhouse workers on JSTOR

Neck and upper limb disorders among slaughterhouse workers: an epidemiologic and clinical study (jstor.org)

High prevalence of nasal MRSA carriage in slaughterhouse workers in contact with live pigs in The Netherlands (cambridge.org)

Body discomfort in poultry slaughterhouse workers (iospress.com)

Irish culture vs Chinese culture

In Ireland we accept the idea that pigs are “food” and dogs are pets (I believe animals should be wild). I do not agree with the idea of human supremacy. I don’t think it's moral to breed/ take ownership of anybody other than our own.

In Chinese culture they think it is normal to eat cats and dogs. What’s the difference between dogs and pigs?

Did you know that pigs are extremely intelligent?

“Pigs are indeed physiologically similar to humans” (pig cognition, Mendl, Held, Byrne)

Did you know that most pigs in Ireland are in factories where they barely see the light of day? Same goes for the 70 million chickens reared in Ireland each year (plus 2 million hens) agritours.ie boasts all about how successful Ireland is when it comes to taking advantage of species that are less important than human animals.

Chickens were developed from the red jungle fowl, who naturally lay about 12 eggs per year, I’ll let you think about the amount of hormones and genetical engineering was required for them to lay daily, as well as the fact that egg shells are 100% calcium meaning the hens we see today would die of osteoporosis if we don’t kill them soon enough/but the hens are killed before they get the chance to develop osteoporosis)

Perdue made it clear in his ads that his chickens were bred from the best to make the best.

“the better the breeding, the better the eating”, “bred from a lot of different chickens to give you the best of them all”

Perdue Chicken Ads 1970s

“It takes a tough man to make tender chicken”

Eating animals has been promoted as manly and essential in order to be strong.

Yet gorillas are herbivores…………….

ADVERTISING

We see dead animals advertised all over the world but we just think we’re looking at food. Thanks to the paradigm.

I remember the pleasure that comes with eating animals just like I remember the pleasure that comes with smoking tobacco.

Why are certain dead animals better known as meat?

When you walk into burger king, they don’t use photographs of cute and healthy bullocks (a bull that got the chop) nor do they show the conditions in which the cow got milked (most likely poop everywhere)

Instead they show us the delicious looking melted cheese on a burger of a blended animal in crispy buns with the best sauce and lettuce.

People don’t have to make the connection.

No reminder of slaughter in the design - god forbid kids know the origin of nuggets.

How do we view animals?

How do predators see their prey?

Why do videos of animals being slaughtered make people uncomfortable?

I don’t think a lion would care whether or not his prey is happy nor would they stop and think it’s cute… then again I don’t think a lion would capture and breed another species. They would have no need to hunt if they simply made zebras have sex with eachother and didn’t let them escape an area. They could even use their milk as a source of calcium when the babies are fat enough to be eaten.

Thanks to advertising, most people don’t even have to think about the fact that cows need to carry a baby for 9 months before it being taken away so they can make money from their milk.

The paradigm: Why are we constantly reminded that milk contains calcium for strong bones? We are all very familiar with Avonmore “for healthy growth and strong bones” who sponsor RTE weather! Are you familiar with the mother of your milk? Are you a feminist?

The dairy industry has convinced us that their milk is an important source of calcium, obviously milk for a developing calf is nutritious but does that mean it is suitable for a grown/developing human?

What wild animal would stand around and let you milk it?

Why would our natural bodies require another mammals milk?

Collard greens, seaweeds and sesame seeds have more calcium than cow’s milk and strangely enough they are not a source of bad cholesterol. Drink milk though, it's important!

Health risks/ Nutrition (The Encyclopedia of Healing Foods, pg 575)

Dr. Murray says milk “does much more harm than good at the average amount consumed” and that it is not a necessary source of calcium like they made it seem.

He also states that “milk and cheese are often loaded with fat and cholesterol which can lead to obesity, heart disease and cancer” something I’ve never seen included in advertising.

The U.S dairy industry tells us that everybody needs milk through an enormous annual advertising budget and as result: humans have a huge love affair with the addictive milk for calf growth (Dr. Neal Barnard: The Cheese Trap - Break the addiction)

“Milk products may also be contaminated with pesticides, dioxins, drug residues and concern is growing about the use of hormones in cows to boost milk production leading to cancer and asthma” “In addition, good evidence exists that milk consumption actually increases the risk of osteoporosis, the very disease that the dairy industry uses as a selling point in its ads”

Oh the Avonmore ad is on again, do do dooooo :) what a lovely guitar :)

“Countries with the highest rate of hip fractures per capita have the highest dairy intake”

Similar proof applies to osteoporosis. (All outlined in the Encyclopedia of healing foods)

Happy cows produce the best milk but I wanna know what kinda cows produce the most milk!

Bovine Growth Hormone (Encyclopedia of Healing Foods, pg 598)

Estimated 80-90% of U.S. dairy supply is contaminated (rBGH injections to increase milk production) and about 40% of “beef” used to make hamburgers comes from ‘old’ dairy cows. In Ireland, dairy cows also get sent for slaughter when they are no longer capable of having more babies.

Do you know where Cadbury’s source their milk? Cadburys is owned by Monsanto, the same American company who owns Philadelphia cream cheese. Have you ever wondered how they treat their animals?

The politics of meat (The Encyclopedia of Healing Foods, pg 600)

1 in 6 people go hungry

70% of U.S grain goes to feed livestock

50% of U.K cereal crops used for animal food

Each kilo of meat represents several kilos of grain/corn/wheat that could be consumed directly by humans

People are so focused on animal products (thanks to advertising I’d say) that they seem to disregard/ forget the importance of plant food!

Anyway this book of healing food wholey praises plants while warning about the consumption of dead animals and their excretions. Yes “meat and dairy” have nutritional value but does that mean we should eat them?

When you think about it, thanks to animal agriculture and all the land it requires, humans are homeless and hungry while farm animals are fed and sheltered (in captivity)

Bibliography:

The Encyclopedia of Healing Foods, Dr. Michael Murray and Dr. Joseph Pizzorno with Laura Pizzorno

Pig Cognition, Michael Mendl, Suzanna Held and Richard W. Bryne

Poultry Farming in Ireland (agritours.ie)

Perdue Chicken Commercials - 1970's - YouTube

Dr. Neal Barnard, The Cheese Trap - Break the Addiction, YouTube

0 notes

jayayebeeayebee · 4 years

Text

Charles Eisenstein’s “The Coronation” is an Ode to Human Potential in uncertain times

Charles Eisenstein’s books and recorded lectures have inspired us for years. His new essay about the Coronavirus is an ode to the potential of humanity in uncertain times. Will we respond to the COVID-19 pandemic by becoming more insular, or will we look beyond ourselves to support those around us?

“COVID-19 is like a rehab intervention that breaks the addictive hold of normality. To interrupt a habit is to make it visible; it is to turn it from a compulsion to a choice. When the crisis subsides, we might have occasion to ask whether we want to return to normal, or whether there might be something we’ve seen during this break in the routines that we want to bring into the future.” -Charles Eisenstein, “The Coronation”

Writer and speaker Charles Eisenstein’s essay “The Coronation” skillfully expresses the pitfalls that led to this pivotal moment and the opportunities that await us if we are willing to see them. In his essay, Eisenstein urges us not to lose sight of the forest for the trees. The virus is a very real threat that will require scientific research, careful planning, and co-operation on a global scale to neutralize it. This is not to say, however, that we can’t take advantage of this moment to better understand the environment that produced it (that is, the systems and practices that allowed the pandemic to take hold) and make improvements. “The popular name for the pandemic offers a clue: coronavirus. A corona is a crown. ‘Novel coronavirus pandekmic’ means ‘a new coronation for all.’”

We are excited to bring this to you today with Eisenstein’s permission. Please note that the essay was written in March and some of the medical information is slightly outdated. We have created an abridged version here that omits outdated facts and figures (you can view them by going to the original essay page linked here). Enjoy.

– Cyrus and the Korduroy TV team

The Coronation | Charles Eisenstein

For years, normality has been stretched nearly to its breaking point, a rope pulled tighter and tighter, waiting for a nip of the black swan’s beak to snap it in two. Now that the rope has snapped, do we tie its ends back together, or shall we undo its dangling braids still further, to see what we might weave from them?

Covid-19 is showing us that when humanity is united in common cause, phenomenally rapid change is possible. None of the world’s problems are technically difficult to solve; they originate in human disagreement. In coherency, humanity’s creative powers are boundless. A few months ago, a proposal to halt commercial air travel would have seemed preposterous. Likewise for the radical changes we are making in our social behavior, economy, and the role of government in our lives. Covid demonstrates the power of our collective will when we agree on what is important. What else might we achieve, in coherency? What do we want to achieve, and what world shall we create? That is always the next question when anyone awakens to their power.

Covid-19 is like a rehab intervention that breaks the addictive hold of normality. To interrupt a habit is to make it visible; it is to turn it from a compulsion to a choice. When the crisis subsides, we might have occasion to ask whether we want to return to normal, or whether there might be something we’ve seen during this break in the routines that we want to bring into the future. We might ask, after so many have lost their jobs, whether all of them are the jobs the world most needs, and whether our labor and creativity would be better applied elsewhere. We might ask, having done without it for a while, whether we really need so much air travel, Disneyworld vacations, or trade shows. What parts of the economy will we want to restore, and what parts might we choose to let go of? Covid has interrupted what looked to be like a military regime-change operation in Venezuela – perhaps imperialist wars are also one of those things we might relinquish in a future of global cooperation. And on a darker note, what among the things that are being taken away right now – civil liberties, freedom of assembly, sovereignty over our bodies, in-person gatherings, hugs, handshakes, and public life – might we need to exert intentional political and personal will to restore?

For most of my life, I have had the feeling that humanity was nearing a crossroads. Always, the crisis, the collapse, the break was imminent, just around the bend, but it didn’t come and it didn’t come. Imagine walking a road, and up ahead you see it, you see the crossroads. It’s just over the hill, around the bend, past the woods. Cresting the hill, you see you were mistaken, it was a mirage, it was farther away than you thought. You keep walking. Sometimes it comes into view, sometimes it disappears from sight and it seems like this road goes on forever. Maybe there isn’t a crossroads. No, there it is again! Always it is almost here. Never is it here.

Now, all of a sudden, we go around a bend and here it is. We stop, hardly able to believe that now it is happening, hardly able to believe, after years of confinement to the road of our predecessors, that now we finally have a choice. We are right to stop, stunned at the newness of our situation. Of the hundred paths that radiate out in front of us, some lead in the same direction we’ve already been headed. Some lead to hell on earth. And some lead to a world more healed and more beautiful than we ever dared believe to be possible.

I write these words with the aim of standing here with you – bewildered, scared maybe, yet also with a sense of new possibility – at this point of diverging paths. Let us gaze down some of them and see where they lead.

* * *

I heard this story last week from a friend. She was in a grocery store and saw a woman sobbing in the aisle. Flouting social distancing rules, she went to the woman and gave her a hug. “Thank you,” the woman said, “that is the first time anyone has hugged me for ten days.”

Going without hugs for a few weeks seems a small price to pay if it will stem an epidemic that could take millions of lives. Initially, the argument for social distancing was that it would save millions of lives by preventing a sudden surge of Covid cases from overwhelming the medical system. Now the authorities tell us that some social distancing may need to continue indefinitely, at least until there is an effective vaccine. I would like to put that argument in a larger context, especially as we look to the long term. Lest we institutionalize distancing and reengineer society around it, let us be aware of what choice we are making and why.

The same goes for the other changes happening around the coronavirus epidemic. Some commentators have observed how it plays neatly into an agenda of totalitarian control. A frightened public accepts abridgments of civil liberties that are otherwise hard to justify, such as the tracking of everyone’s movements at all times, forcible medical treatment, involuntary quarantine, restrictions on travel and the freedom of assembly, censorship of what the authorities deem to be disinformation, suspension of habeas corpus, and military policing of civilians. Many of these were underway before Covid-19; since its advent, they have been irresistible. The same goes for the automation of commerce; the transition from participation in sports and entertainment to remote viewing; the migration of life from public to private spaces; the transition away from place-based schools toward online education, the destruction of small business, the decline of brick-and-mortar stores, and the movement of human work and leisure onto screens. Covid-19 is accelerating preexisting trends, political, economic, and social.

While all the above are, in the short term, justified on the grounds of flattening the curve (the epidemiological growth curve), we are also hearing a lot about a “new normal”; that is to say, the changes may not be temporary at all. Since the threat of infectious disease, like the threat of terrorism, never goes away, control measures can easily become permanent. If we were going in this direction anyway, the current justification must be part of a deeper impulse. I will analyze this impulse in two parts: the reflex of control, and the war on death. Thus understood, an initiatory opportunity emerges, one that we are seeing already in the form of the solidarity, compassion, and care that Covid-19 has inspired.

The Reflex of Control

Nearing the end of April, official statistics say that about 150,000 people have died from Covid-19. By the time it runs its course, the death toll could be ten times or a hundred times bigger. Each one of these people has loved ones, family and friends. Compassion and conscience call us to do what we can to avert unnecessary tragedy. This is personal for me: my own infinitely dear but frail mother is among the most vulnerable to a disease that kills mostly the aged and the infirm.

[Two paragraphs of outdated medical information on COVID-19 has been removed here]

Every day the media reports the total number of Covid-19 cases, but no one has any idea what the true number is, because only a tiny proportion of the population has been tested. If tens of millions have the virus, asymptomatically, we would not know it. Further complicating the matter is that Covid-19 deaths may be overreported (in many hospitals, if someone dies with Covid they are recorded as having died from Covid) or underreported (some may have died at home). Let me repeat: no one knows what is really happening, including me. Let us be aware of two contradictory tendencies in human affairs. The first is the tendency for hysteria to feed on itself, to exclude data points that don’t play into the fear, and to create the world in its image. The second is denial, the irrational rejection of information that might disrupt normalcy and comfort. As Daniel Schmactenberger asks, How do you know what you believe is true?

Cognitive biases such as these are especially virulent in an atmosphere of political polarization; for example, liberals will tend to reject any information that might be woven into a pro-Trump narrative, while conservatives will tend to embrace it.

In the face of the uncertainty, I’d like to make a prediction: The crisis will play out so that we never will know. If the final death tally, which will itself be the subject of dispute, is lower than feared, some will say that is because the controls worked. Others will say it is because the disease wasn’t as dangerous as we were told.

To me, the most baffling puzzle is why at the present writing there seem to be no new cases in China. The government didn’t initiate its lockdown until well after the virus was established. It should have spread widely during Chinese New Year, when, despite a few travel restrictions, nearly every plane, train, and bus is packed with people traveling all over the country. What is going on here? Again, I don’t know, and neither do you.

Whatever the final death toll, let’s look at some other numbers to get some perspective. My point is NOT that Covid isn’t so bad and we shouldn’t do anything. Bear with me. As of 2013, according to the FAO, five million children worldwide die every year of hunger; in 2018, 159 million children were stunted and 50 million were wasted. (Hunger was falling until recently, but has started to rise again in the last three years.) Five million is 200 times more people than have died so far from Covid-19, yet no government has declared a state of emergency or asked that we radically alter our way of life to save them. Nor do we see a comparable level of alarm and action around suicide – the mere tip of an iceberg of despair and depression – which kills over a million people a year globally and 50,000 in the USA. Or drug overdoses, which kill 70,000 in the USA, the autoimmunity epidemic, which affects 23.5 million (NIH figure) to 50 million (AARDA), or obesity, which afflicts well over 100 million. Why, for that matter, are we not in a frenzy about averting nuclear armageddon or ecological collapse, but, to the contrary, pursue choices that magnify those very dangers?

Please, the point here is not that we haven’t changed our ways to stop children from starving, so we shouldn’t change them for Covid either. It is the contrary: If we can change so radically for Covid-19, we can do it for these other conditions too. Let us ask why are we able to unify our collective will to stem this virus, but not to address other grave threats to humanity. Why, until now, has society been so frozen in its existing trajectory?

The answer is revealing. Simply, in the face of world hunger, addiction, autoimmunity, suicide, or ecological collapse, we as a society do not know what to do. That’s because there is nothing external against which to fight. Our go-to crisis responses, all of which are some version of control, aren’t very effective in addressing these conditions. Now along comes a contagious epidemic, and finally we can spring into action. It is a crisis for which control works: quarantines, lockdowns, isolation, hand-washing; control of movement, control of information, control of our bodies. That makes Covid a convenient receptacle for our inchoate fears, a place to channel our growing sense of helplessness in the face of the changes overtaking the world. Covid-19 is a threat that we know how to meet. Unlike so many of our other fears, Covid-19 offers a plan.

Our civilization’s established institutions are increasingly helpless to meet the challenges of our time. How they welcome a challenge that they finally can meet. How eager they are to embrace it as a paramount crisis. How naturally their systems of information management select for the most alarming portrayals of it. How easily the public joins the panic, embracing a threat that the authorities can handle as a proxy for the various unspeakable threats that they cannot.

Today, most of our challenges no longer succumb to force. Our antibiotics and surgery fail to meet the surging health crises of autoimmunity, addiction, and obesity. Our guns and bombs, built to conquer armies, are useless to erase hatred abroad or keep domestic violence out of our homes. Our police and prisons cannot heal the breeding conditions of crime. Our pesticides cannot restore ruined soil. Covid-19 recalls the good old days when the challenges of infectious diseases succumbed to modern medicine and hygiene, at the same time as the Nazis succumbed to the war machine, and nature itself succumbed, or so it seemed, to technological conquest and improvement. It recalls the days when our weapons worked and the world seemed indeed to be improving with each technology of control.

What kind of problem succumbs to domination and control? The kind caused by something from the outside, something Other. When the cause of the problem is something intimate to ourselves, like homelessness or inequality, addiction or obesity, there is nothing to war against. We may try to install an enemy, blaming, for example, the billionaires, Vladimir Putin, or the Devil, but then we miss key information, such as the ground conditions that allow billionaires (or viruses) to replicate in the first place.

If there is one thing our civilization is good at, it is fighting an enemy. We welcome opportunities to do what we are good at, which prove the validity of our technologies, systems, and worldview. And so, we manufacture enemies, cast problems like crime, terrorism, and disease into us-versus-them terms, and mobilize our collective energies toward those endeavors that can be seen that way. Thus, we single out Covid-19 as a call to arms, reorganizing society as if for a war effort, while treating as normal the possibility of nuclear armageddon, ecological collapse, and five million children starving.

The Conspiracy Narrative

Because Covid-19 seems to justify so many items on the totalitarian wish list, there are those who believe it to be a deliberate power play. It is not my purpose to advance that theory nor to debunk it, although I will offer some meta-level comments. First a brief overview.

The theories (there are many variants) talk about Event 201 (sponsored by the Gates Foundation, CIA, etc. last September), and a 2010 Rockefeller Foundation white paper detailing a scenario called “Lockstep,” both of which lay out the authoritarian response to a hypothetical pandemic. They observe that the infrastructure, technology, and legislative framework for martial law has been in preparation for many years. All that was needed, they say, was a way to make the public embrace it, and now that has come. Whether or not current controls are permanent, a precedent is being set for:

The tracking of people’s movements at all times (because coronavirus)

The suspension of freedom of assembly (because coronavirus)

The military policing of civilians (because coronavirus)

Extrajudicial, indefinite detention (quarantine, because coronavirus)

The banning of cash (because coronavirus)

Censorship of the Internet (to combat disinformation, because coronavirus)

Compulsory vaccination and other medical treatment, establishing the state’s sovereignty over our bodies (because coronavirus)

The classification of all activities and destinations into the expressly permitted and the expressly forbidden (you can leave your house for this, but not that), eliminating the un-policed, non-juridical gray zone. That totality is the very essence of totalitarianism. Necessary now though, because, well, coronavirus.

This is juicy material for conspiracy theories. For all I know, one of those theories could be true; however, the same progression of events could unfold from an unconscious systemic tilt toward ever-increasing control. Where does this tilt come from? It is woven into civilization’s DNA. For millennia, civilization (as opposed to small-scale traditional cultures) has understood progress as a matter of extending control onto the world: domesticating the wild, conquering the barbarians, mastering the forces of nature, and ordering society according to law and reason. The ascent of control accelerated with the Scientific Revolution, which launched “progress” to new heights: the ordering of reality into objective categories and quantities, and the mastering of materiality with technology. Finally, the social sciences promised to use the same means and methods to fulfill the ambition (which goes back to Plato and Confucius) to engineer a perfect society.

Those who administer civilization will therefore welcome any opportunity to strengthen their control, for after all, it is in service to a grand vision of human destiny: the perfectly ordered world, in which disease, crime, poverty, and perhaps suffering itself can be engineered out of existence. No nefarious motives are necessary. Of course they would like to keep track of everyone – all the better to ensure the common good. For them, Covid-19 shows how necessary that is. “Can we afford democratic freedoms in light of the coronavirus?” they ask. “Must we now, out of necessity, sacrifice those for our own safety?” It is a familiar refrain, for it has accompanied other crises in the past, like 9/11.

To rework a common metaphor, imagine a man with a hammer, stalking around looking for a reason to use it. Suddenly he sees a nail sticking out. He’s been looking for a nail for a long time, pounding on screws and bolts and not accomplishing much. He inhabits a worldview in which hammers are the best tools, and the world can be made better by pounding in the nails. And here is a nail! We might suspect that in his eagerness he has placed the nail there himself, but it hardly matters. Maybe it isn’t even a nail that’s sticking out, but it resembles one enough to start pounding. When the tool is at the ready, an opportunity will arise to use it.

And I will add, for those inclined to doubt the authorities, maybe this time it really is a nail. In that case, the hammer is the right tool – and the principle of the hammer will emerge the stronger, ready for the screw, the button, the clip, and the tear.

Either way, the problem we deal with here is much deeper than that of overthrowing an evil coterie of Illuminati. Even if they do exist, given the tilt of civilization, the same trend would persist without them, or a new Illuminati would arise to assume the functions of the old.

True or false, the idea that the epidemic is some monstrous plot perpetrated by evildoers upon the public is not so far from the mindset of find-the-pathogen. It is a crusading mentality, a war mentality. It locates the source of a sociopolitical illness in a pathogen against which we may then fight, a victimizer separate from ourselves. It risks ignoring the conditions that make society fertile ground for the plot to take hold. Whether that ground was sown deliberately or by the wind is, for me, a secondary question.

What I will say next is relevant whether or not SARS-CoV2 is a genetically engineered bioweapon, is related to 5Grollout, is being used to prevent “disclosure,” is a Trojan horse for totalitarian world government, is more deadly than we’ve been told, is less deadly than we’ve been told, originated in a Wuhan biolab, originated at Fort Detrick, or is exactly as the CDC and WHO have been telling us. It applies even if everyone is totally wrong about the role of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in the current epidemic. I have my opinions, but if there is one thing I have learned through the course of this emergency is that I don’t really know what is happening. I don’t see how anyone can, amidst the seething farrago of news, fake news, rumors, suppressed information, conspiracy theories, propaganda, and politicized narratives that fill the Internet. I wish a lot more people would embrace not knowing. I say that both to those who embrace the dominant narrative, as well as to those who hew to dissenting ones. What information might we be blocking out, in order to maintain the integrity of our viewpoints? Let’s be humble in our beliefs: it is a matter of life and death.

The War on Death

My 7-year-old son hasn’t seen or played with another child for two weeks. Millions of others are in the same boat. Most would agree that a month without social interaction for all those children a reasonable sacrifice to save a million lives. But how about to save 100,000 lives? And what if the sacrifice is not for a month but for a year? Five years? Different people will have different opinions on that, according to their underlying values.

Let’s replace the foregoing questions with something more personal, that pierces the inhuman utilitarian thinking that turns people into statistics and sacrifices some of them for something else. The relevant question for me is, Would I ask all the nation’s children to forego play for a season, if it would reduce my mother’s risk of dying, or for that matter, my own risk? Or I might ask, Would I decree the end of human hugging and handshakes, if it would save my own life? This is not to devalue Mom’s life or my own, both of which are precious. I am grateful for every day she is still with us. But these questions bring up deep issues. What is the right way to live? What is the right way to die?

The answer to such questions, whether asked on behalf of oneself or on behalf of society at large, depends on how we hold death and how much we value play, touch, and togetherness, along with civil liberties and personal freedom. There is no easy formula to balance these values.

Over my lifetime I’ve seen society place more and more emphasis on safety, security, and risk reduction. It has especially impacted childhood: as a young boy it was normal for us to roam a mile from home unsupervised – behavior that would earn parents a visit from Child Protective Services today. It also manifests in the form of latex gloves for more and more professions; hand sanitizer everywhere; locked, guarded, and surveilled school buildings; intensified airport and border security; heightened awareness of legal liability and liability insurance; metal detectors and searches before entering many sports arenas and public buildings, and so on. Writ large, it takes the form of the security state.

The mantra “safety first” comes from a value system that makes survival top priority, and that depreciates other values like fun, adventure, play, and the challenging of limits. Other cultures had different priorities. For instance, many traditional and indigenous cultures are much less protective of children, as documented in Jean Liedloff’s classic, The Continuum Concept. They allow them risks and responsibilities that would seem insane to most modern people, believing that this is necessary for children to develop self-reliance and good judgement. I think most modern people, especially younger people, retain some of this inherent willingness to sacrifice safety in order to live life fully. The surrounding culture, however, lobbies us relentlessly to live in fear, and has constructed systems that embody fear. In them, staying safe is over-ridingly important. Thus we have a medical system in which most decisions are based on calculations of risk, and in which the worst possible outcome, marking the physician’s ultimate failure, is death. Yet all the while, we know that death awaits us regardless. A life saved actually means a death postponed.

The ultimate fulfillment of civilization’s program of control would be to triumph over death itself. Failing that, modern society settles for a facsimile of that triumph: denial rather than conquest. Ours is a society of death denial, from its hiding away of corpses, to its fetish for youthfulness, to its warehousing of old people in nursing homes. Even its obsession with money and property – extensions of the self, as the word “mine” indicates – expresses the delusion that the impermanent self can be made permanent through its attachments. All this is inevitable given the story-of-self that modernity offers: the separate individual in a world of Other. Surrounded by genetic, social, and economic competitors, that self must protect and dominate in order to thrive. It must do everything it can to forestall death, which (in the story of separation) is total annihilation. Biological science has even taught us that our very nature is to maximize our chances of surviving and reproducing.

I asked a friend, a medical doctor who has spent time with the Q’ero in Peru, whether the Q’ero would (if they could) intubate someone to prolong their life. “Of course not,” she said. “They would summon the shaman to help him die well.” Dying well (which isn’t necessarily the same as dying painlessly) is not much in today’s medical vocabulary. No hospital records are kept on whether patients die well. That would not be counted as a positive outcome. In the world of the separate self, death is the ultimate catastrophe.

But is it? Consider this perspective from Dr. Lissa Rankin: “Not all of us would want to be in an ICU, isolated from loved ones with a machine breathing for us, at risk of dying alone- even if it means they might increase their chance of survival. Some of us might rather be held in the arms of loved ones at home, even if that means our time has come…. Remember, death is no ending. Death is going home.”

When the self is understood as relational, interdependent, even inter-existent, then it bleeds over into the other, and the other bleeds over into the self. Understanding the self as a locus of consciousness in a matrix of relationship, one no longer searches for an enemy as the key to understanding every problem, but looks instead for imbalances in relationships. The War on Death gives way to the quest to live well and fully, and we see that fear of death is actually fear of life. How much of life will we forego to stay safe?

Totalitarianism – the perfection of control – is the inevitable end product of the mythology of the separate self. What else but a threat to life, like a war, would merit total control? Thus Orwell identified perpetual war as a crucial component of the Party’s rule.

Against the backdrop of the program of control, death denial, and the separate self, the assumption that public policy should seek to minimize the number of deaths is nearly beyond question, a goal to which other values like play, freedom, etc. are subordinate. Covid-19 offers occasion to broaden that view. Yes, let us hold life sacred, more sacred than ever. Death teaches us that. Let us hold each person, young or old, sick or well, as the sacred, precious, beloved being that they are. And in the circle of our hearts, let us make room for other sacred values too. To hold life sacred is not just to live long, it is to live well and right and fully.

Like all fear, the fear around the coronavirus hints at what might lie beyond it. Anyone who has experienced the passing of someone close knows that death is a portal to love. Covid-19 has elevated death to prominence in the consciousness of a society that denies it. On the other side of the fear, we can see the love that death liberates. Let it pour forth. Let it saturate the soil of our culture and fill its aquifers so that it seeps up through the cracks of our crusted institutions, our systems, and our habits. Some of these may die too.

What world shall we live in?

How much of life do we want to sacrifice at the altar of security? If it keeps us safer, do we want to live in a world where human beings never congregate? Do we want to wear masks in public all the time? Do we want to be medically examined every time we travel, if that will save some number of lives a year? Are we willing to accept the medicalization of life in general, handing over final sovereignty over our bodies to medical authorities (as selected by political ones)? Do we want every event to be a virtual event? How much are we willing to live in fear?

Covid-19 will eventually subside, but the threat of infectious disease is permanent. Our response to it sets a course for the future. Public life, communal life, the life of shared physicality has been dwindling over several generations. Instead of shopping at stores, we get things delivered to our homes. Instead of packs of kids playing outside, we have play dates and digital adventures. Instead of the public square, we have the online forum. Do we want to continue to insulate ourselves still further from each other and the world?

It is not hard to imagine, especially if social distancing is successful, that Covid-19 persists beyond the 18 months we are being told to expect for it to run its course. It is not hard to imagine that new viruses will emerge during that time. It is not hard to imagine that emergency measures will become normal (so as to forestall the possibility of another outbreak), just as the state of emergency declared after 9/11 is still in effect today. It is not hard to imagine that (as we are being told), reinfection is possible, so that the disease will never run its course. That means that the temporary changes in our way of life may become permanent.

To reduce the risk of another pandemic, shall we choose to live in a society without hugs, handshakes, and high-fives, forever more? Shall we choose to live in a society where we no longer gather en masse? Shall the concert, the sports competition, and the festival be a thing of the past? Shall children no longer play with other children? Shall all human contact be mediated by computers and masks? No more dance classes, no more karate classes, no more conferences, no more churches? Is death reduction to be the standard by which to measure progress? Does human advancement mean separation? Is this the future?

The same question applies to the administrative tools required to control the movement of people and the flow of information. At the present writing, the entire country is moving toward lockdown. In some countries, one must print out a form from a government website in order to leave the house. It reminds me of school, where one’s location must be authorized at all times. Or of prison. Do we envision a future of electronic hall passes, a system where freedom of movement is governed by state administrators and their software at all times, permanently? Where every movement is tracked, either permitted or prohibited? And, for our protection, where information that threatens our health (as decided, again, by various authorities) is censored for our own good? In the face of an emergency, like unto a state of war, we accept such restrictions and temporarily surrender our freedoms. Similar to 9/11, Covid-19 trumps all objections.

For the first time in history, the technological means exist to realize such a vision, at least in the developed world (for example, using cellphone location data to enforce social distancing; see also here). After a bumpy transition, we could live in a society where nearly all of life happens online: shopping, meeting, entertainment, socializing, working, even dating. Is that what we want? How many lives saved is that worth?

I am sure that many of the controls in effect today will be partially relaxed in a few months. Partially relaxed, but at the ready. As long as infectious disease remains with us, they are likely to be reimposed, again and again, in the future, or be self-imposed in the form of habits. As Deborah Tannen says, contributing to a Politico article on how coronavirus will change the world permanently, ‘We know now that touching things, being with other people and breathing the air in an enclosed space can be risky…. It could become second nature to recoil from shaking hands or touching our faces—and we may all fall heir to society-wide OCD, as none of us can stop washing our hands.” After thousands of years, millions of years, of touch, contact, and togetherness, is the pinnacle of human progress to be that we cease such activities because they are too risky?

Life is Community

The paradox of the program of control is that its progress rarely advances us any closer to its goal. Despite security systems in almost every upper middle-class home, people are no less anxious or insecure than they were a generation ago. Despite elaborate security measures, the schools are not seeing fewer mass shootings. Despite phenomenal progress in medical technology, people have if anything become less healthy over the past thirty years, as chronic disease has proliferated and life expectancy stagnated and, in the USA and Britain, started to decline.

The measures being instituted to control Covid-19, likewise, may end up causing more suffering and death than they prevent. Minimizing deaths means minimizing the deaths that we know how to predict and measure. It is impossible to measure the added deaths that might come from isolation-induced depression, for instance, or the despair caused by unemployment, or the lowered immunity and deterioration in health that chronic fear can cause. Loneliness and lack of social contact has been shown to increase inflammation, depression, and dementia. According to Lissa Rankin, M.D., air pollution increases risk of dying by 6%, obesity by 23%, alcohol abuse by 37%, and loneliness by 45%.

Another danger that is off the ledger is the deterioration in immunity caused by excessive hygiene and distancing. It is not only social contact that is necessary for health, it is also contact with the microbial world. Generally speaking, microbes are not our enemies, they are our allies in health. A diverse gut biome, comprising bacteria, viruses, yeasts, and other organisms, is essential for a well-functioning immune system, and its diversity is maintained through contact with other people and with the world of life. Excessive hand-washing, overuse of antibiotics, aseptic cleanliness, and lack of human contact might do more harm than good. The resulting allergies and autoimmune disorders might be worse than the infectious disease they replace. Socially and biologically, health comes from community. Life does not thrive in isolation.

Seeing the world in us-versus-them terms blinds us to the reality that life and health happen in community. To take the example of infectious diseases, we fail to look beyond the evil pathogen and ask, What is the role of viruses in the microbiome? (See also here.) What are the body conditions under which harmful viruses proliferate? Why do some people have mild symptoms and others severe ones (besides the catch-all non-explanation of “low resistance”)? What positive role might flus, colds, and other non-lethal diseases play in the maintenance of health?

War-on-germs thinking brings results akin to those of the War on Terror, War on Crime, War on Weeds, and the endless wars we fight politically and interpersonally. First, it generates endless war; second, it diverts attention from the ground conditions that breed illness, terrorism, crime, weeds, and the rest.

Despite politicians’ perennial claim that they pursue war for the sake of peace, war inevitably breeds more war. Bombing countries to kill terrorists not only ignores the ground conditions of terrorism, it exacerbates those conditions. Locking up criminals not only ignores the conditions that breed crime, it creates those conditions when it breaks up families and communities and acculturates the incarcerated to criminality. And regimes of antibiotics, vaccines, antivirals, and other medicines wreak havoc on body ecology, which is the foundation of strong immunity. Outside the body, the massive spraying campaigns sparked by Zika, Dengue Fever, and now Covid-19 will visit untold damage upon nature’s ecology. Has anyone considered what the effects on the ecosystem will be when we douse it with antiviral compounds? Such a policy (which has been implemented in various places in China and India) is only thinkable from the mindset of separation, which does not understand that viruses are integral to the web of life.

To understand the point about ground conditions, consider some mortality statistics from Italy (from its National Health Institute), based on an analysis of hundreds of Covid-19 fatalities. Of those analyzed, less than 1% were free of serious chronic health conditions. Some 75% suffered from hypertension, 35% from diabetes, 33% from cardiac ischemia, 24% from atrial fibrillation, 18% from low renal function, along with other conditions that I couldn’t decipher from the Italian report. Nearly half the deceased had three or more of these serious pathologies. Americans, beset by obesity, diabetes, and other chronic ailments, are at least as vulnerable as Italians. Should we blame the virus then (which killed few otherwise healthy people), or shall we blame underlying poor health? Here again the analogy of the taut rope applies. Millions of people in the modern world are in a precarious state of health, just waiting for something that would normally be trivial to send them over the edge. Of course, in the short term we want to save their lives; the danger is that we lose ourselves in an endless succession of short terms, fighting one infectious disease after another, and never engage the ground conditions that make people so vulnerable. That is a much harder problem, because these ground conditions will not change via fighting. There is no pathogen that causes diabetes or obesity, addiction, depression, or PTSD. Their causes are not an Other, not some virus separate from ourselves, and we its victims.

Even in diseases like Covid-19, in which we can name a pathogenic virus, matters are not so simple as a war between virus and victim. There is an alternative to the germ theory of disease that holds germs to be part of a larger process. When conditions are right, they multiply in the body, sometimes killing the host, but also, potentially, improving the conditions that accommodated them to begin with, for example by cleaning out accumulated toxic debris via mucus discharge, or (metaphorically speaking) burning them up with fever. Sometimes called “terrain theory,” it says that germs are more symptom than cause of disease. As one meme explains it: “Your fish is sick. Germ theory: isolate the fish. Terrain theory: clean the tank.”

A certain schizophrenia afflicts the modern culture of health. On the one hand, there is a burgeoning wellness movement that embraces alternative and holistic medicine. It advocates herbs, meditation, and yoga to boost immunity. It validates the emotional and spiritual dimensions of health, such as the power of attitudes and beliefs to sicken or to heal. All of this seems to have disappeared under the Covid tsunami, as society defaults to the old orthodoxy.

Case in point: California acupuncturists have been forced to shut down, having been deemed “non-essential.” This is perfectly understandable from the perspective of conventional virology. But as one acupuncturist on Facebook observed, “What about my patient who I’m working with to get off opioids for his back pain? He’s going to have to start using them again.” From the worldview of medical authority, alternative modalities, social interaction, yoga classes, supplements, and so on are frivolous when it comes to real diseases caused by real viruses. They are relegated to an etheric realm of “wellness” in the face of a crisis. The resurgence of orthodoxy under Covid-19 is so intense that anything remotely unconventional, such as intravenous vitamin C, was completely off the table in the United States until two days ago (articles still abound “debunking” the “myth” that vitamin C can help fight Covid-19). Nor have I heard the CDC evangelize the benefits of elderberry extract, medicinal mushrooms, cutting sugar intake, NAC (N-acetyl L-cysteine), astragalus, or vitamin D. These are not just mushy speculation about “wellness,” but are supported by extensive research and physiological explanations. For example, NAC (general info, double-blind placebo-controlled study) has been shown to radically reduce incidence and severity of symptoms in flu-like illnesses.

As the statistics I offered earlier on autoimmunity, obesity, etc. indicate, America and the modern world in general are facing a health crisis. Is the answer to do what we’ve been doing, only more thoroughly? The response so far to Covid has been to double down on the orthodoxy and sweep unconventional practices and dissenting viewpoints aside. Another response would be to widen our lens and examine the entire system, including who pays for it, how access is granted, and how research is funded, but also expanding out to include marginal fields like herbal medicine, functional medicine, and energy medicine. Perhaps we can take this opportunity to reevaluate prevailing theories of illness, health, and the body. Yes, let’s protect the sickened fish as best we can right now, but maybe next time we won’t have to isolate and drug so many fish, if we can clean the tank.

I’m not telling you to run out right now and buy NAC or any other supplement, nor that we as a society should abruptly shift our response, cease social distancing immediately, and start taking supplements instead. But we can use the break in normal, this pause at a crossroads, to consciously choose what path we shall follow moving forward: what kind of healthcare system, what paradigm of health, what kind of society. This reevaluation is already happening, as ideas like universal free healthcare in the USA gain new momentum. And that path leads to forks as well. What kind of healthcare will be universalized? Will it be merely available to all, or mandatory for all – each citizen a patient, perhaps with an invisible ink barcode tattoo certifying one is up to date on all compulsory vaccines and check-ups. Then you can go to school, board a plane, or enter a restaurant. This is one path to the future that is available to us.

Another option is available now too. Instead of doubling down on control, we could finally embrace the holistic paradigms and practices that have been waiting on the margins, waiting for the center to dissolve so that, in our humbled state, we can bring them into the center and build a new system around them.

The Coronation

There is an alternative to the paradise of perfect control that our civilization has so long pursued, and that recedes as fast as our progress, like a mirage on the horizon. Yes, we can proceed as before down the path toward greater insulation, isolation, domination, and separation. We can normalize heightened levels of separation and control, believe that they are necessary to keep us safe, and accept a world in which we are afraid to be near each other. Or we can take advantage of this pause, this break in normal, to turn onto a path of reunion, of holism, of the restoring of lost connections, of the repair of community and the rejoining of the web of life.

Do we double down on protecting the separate self, or do we accept the invitation into a world where all of us are in this together? It isn’t just in medicine we encounter this question: it visits us politically, economically, and in our personal lives as well. Take for example the issue of hoarding, which embodies the idea, “There won’t be enough for everyone, so I am going to make sure there is enough for me.” Another response might be, “Some don’t have enough, so I will share what I have with them.” Are we to be survivalists or helpers? What is life for?

On a larger scale, people are asking questions that have until now lurked on activist margins. What should we do about the homeless? What should we do about the people in prisons? In Third World slums? What should we do about the unemployed? What about all the hotel maids, the Uber drivers, the plumbers and janitors and bus drivers and cashiers who cannot work from home? And so now, finally, ideas like student debt relief and universal basic income are blossoming. “How do we protect those susceptible to Covid?” invites us into “How do we care for vulnerable people in general?”

That is the impulse that stirs in us, regardless of the superficialities of our opinions about Covid’s severity, origin, or best policy to address it. It is saying, let’s get serious about taking care of each other. Let’s remember how precious we all are and how precious life is. Let’s take inventory of our civilization, strip it down to its studs, and see if we can build one more beautiful.

As Covid stirs our compassion, more and more of us realize that we don’t want to go back to a normal so sorely lacking it. We have the opportunity now to forge a new, more compassionate normal.

Hopeful signs abound that this is happening. The United States government, which has long seemed the captive of heartless corporate interests, has unleashed hundreds of billions of dollars in direct payments to families. Donald Trump, not known as a paragon of compassion, has put a moratorium on foreclosures and evictions. Certainly one can take a cynical view of both these developments; nonetheless, they embody the principle of caring for the vulnerable.

From all over the world we hear stories of solidarity and healing. One friend described sending $100 each to ten strangers who were in dire need. My son, who until a few days ago worked at Dunkin’ Donuts, said people were tipping at five times the normal rate – and these are working class people, many of them Hispanic truck drivers, who are economically insecure themselves. Doctors, nurses, and “essential workers” in other professions risk their lives to serve the public. Here are some more examples of the love and kindness eruption, courtesy of ServiceSpace:

Perhaps we’re in the middle of living into that new story. Imagine Italian airforce using Pavoratti, Spanish military doing acts of service, and street police playing guitars — to *inspire*. Corporations giving unexpected wage hikes. Canadians starting“Kindness Mongering.” Six year old in Australia adorably gifting her tooth fairy money, an 8th grader in Japan making 612 masks, and college kids everywhere buying groceries for elders. Cuba sending an army in “white robes” (doctors) to help Italy. A landlord allowing tenants to stay without rent, an Irish priest’s poem going viral, disabled activists producing hand sanitizer. Imagine. Sometimes a crisis mirrors our deepest impulse — that we can always respond with compassion.

As Rebecca Solnit describes in her marvelous book, A Paradise Built in Hell, disaster often liberates solidarity. A more beautiful world shimmers just beneath the surface, bobbing up whenever the systems that hold it underwater loosen their grip.

For a long time we, as a collective, have stood helpless in the face of an ever-sickening society. Whether it is declining health, decaying infrastructure, depression, suicide, addiction, ecological degradation, or concentration of wealth, the symptoms of civilizational malaise in the developed world are plain to see, but we have been stuck in the systems and patterns that cause them. Now, Covid has gifted us a reset.

A million forking paths lie before us. Universal basic income could mean an end to economic insecurity and the flowering of creativity as millions are freed from the work that Covid has shown us is less necessary than we thought. Or it could mean, with the decimation of small businesses, dependency on the state for a stipend that comes with strict conditions. The crisis could usher in totalitarianism or solidarity; medical martial law or a holistic renaissance; greater fear of the microbial world, or greater resiliency in participation in it; permanent norms of social distancing, or a renewed desire to come together.

What can guide us, as individuals and as a society, as we walk the garden of forking paths? At each junction, we can be aware of what we follow: fear or love, self-preservation or generosity. Shall we live in fear and build a society based on it? Shall we live to preserve our separate selves? Shall we use the crisis as a weapon against our political enemies? These are not all-or-nothing questions, all fear or all love. It is that a next step into love lies before us. It feels daring, but not reckless. It treasures life, while accepting death. And it trusts that with each step, the next will become visible.

Please don’t think that choosing love over fear can be accomplished solely through an act of will, and that fear too can be conquered like a virus. The virus we face here is fear, whether it is fear of Covid-19, or fear of the totalitarian response to it, and this virus too has its terrain. Fear, along with addiction, depression, and a host of physical ills, flourishes in a terrain of separation and trauma: inherited trauma, childhood trauma, violence, war, abuse, neglect, shame, punishment, poverty, and the muted, normalized trauma that affects nearly everyone who lives in a monetized economy, undergoes modern schooling, or lives without community or connection to place. This terrain can be changed, by trauma healing on a personal level, by systemic change toward a more compassionate society, and by transforming the basic narrative of separation: the separate self in a world of other, me separate from you, humanity separate from nature. To be alone is a primal fear, and modern society has rendered us more and more alone. But the time of Reunion is here. Every act of compassion, kindness, courage, or generosity heals us from the story of separation, because it assures both actor and witness that we are in this together.

I will conclude by invoking one more dimension of the relationship between humans and viruses. Viruses are integral to evolution, not just of humans but of all eukaryotes. Viruses can transfer DNA from organism to organism, sometimes inserting it into the germline (where it becomes heritable). Known as horizontal gene transfer, this is a primary mechanism of evolution, allowing life to evolve together much faster than is possible through random mutation. As Lynn Margulis once put it, we are our viruses.

And now let me venture into speculative territory. Perhaps the great diseases of civilization have quickened our biological and cultural evolution, bestowing key genetic information and offering both individual and collective initiation. Could the current pandemic be just that? Novel RNA codes are spreading from human to human, imbuing us with new genetic information; at the same time, we are receiving other, esoteric, “codes” that ride the back of the biological ones, disrupting our narratives and systems in the same way that an illness disrupts bodily physiology. The phenomenon follows the template of initiation: separation from normality, followed by a dilemma, breakdown, or ordeal, followed (if it is to be complete) by reintegration and celebration.

Now the question arises: Initiation into what? What is the specific nature and purpose of this initiation? The popular name for the pandemic offers a clue: coronavirus. A corona is a crown. “Novel coronavirus pandemic” means “a new coronation for all.”

Already we can feel the power of who we might become. A true sovereign does not run in fear from life or from death. A true sovereign does not dominate and conquer (that is a shadow archetype, the Tyrant). The true sovereign serves the people, serves life, and respects the sovereignty of all people. The coronation marks the emergence of the unconscious into consciousness, the crystallization of chaos into order, the transcendence of compulsion into choice. We become the rulers of that which had ruled us. The New World Order that the conspiracy theorists fear is a shadow of the glorious possibility available to sovereign beings. No longer the vassals of fear, we can bring order to the kingdom and build an intentional society on the love already shining through the cracks of the world of separation.

Charles Eisenstein is a teacher, speaker, and writer focusing on themes of civilization, consciousness, money, and human cultural evolution. His online writings have generated a vast following; he speaks frequently at conferences and other events, and gives numerous interviews on radio and podcasts. Eisenstein graduated from Yale University in 1989 with a degree in Mathematics and Philosophy, and spent the next ten years as a Chinese-English translator. He currently lives near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania with his family. You can view his website here, his YouTube here, and his podcasts here.

The post Charles Eisenstein’s “The Coronation” is an Ode to Human Potential in uncertain times appeared first on Korduroy.tv.

from Sports https://www.korduroy.tv/2020/charles-eisensteins-the-coronation-is-an-ode-to-human-potential-in-uncertain-times/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=charles-eisensteins-the-coronation-is-an-ode-to-human-potential-in-uncertain-times via http://www.rssmix.com/

#sports

0 notes

un-enfant-immature · 4 years

Text

May we live in interesting times

It’s never a good sign when, in order to discuss the near future of technology, you first have to talk about epidemiology–but I’m afraid that’s where we’re at. A week ago I wrote “A pandemic is coming.” I am sorry to report, in case you hadn’t heard, events since have not exactly proved me wrong.

The best current estimates are that, absent draconian measures like China’s, the virus will infect 40-70% of the world’s adults over the next year or so. (To be extra clear, though, a very sizable majority of cases will be mild or asymptomatic.)

I've updated my thread on the 40-70% statement I made to @WSJ and @TheAtlantic. Tl;dr I'd now say likely 40-70% of adults (kids uncertain) unless very effective and long-lasting (thus burdensome) control measures can be sustained. https://t.co/lXSfl6VyUl

— Marc Lipsitch (@mlipsitch) February 26, 2020

This obviously leads to many questions. The most important is not “can we stop it from spreading?” The answer to that is already, clearly, no. The most important is “will its spread be fast or slow?” The difference is hugely important. To re-up this tweet/graph from last week:

The ultimate goal of such measures is to reduce the intensity of an outbreak, flattening out the epidemic curve and therefore reducing strain on the health system, and on social economic well-being (see this graphic representation). pic.twitter.com/fWOCq453Bx

— Josh Michaud (@joshmich) February 22, 2020

A curve which looks like a dramatic spike risks overloading health care systems, and making everything much worse, even though only a small percentage of the infected will need medical care. Fortunately, it seems likely (to me, at least) that nations with good health systems, strong social cohesion, and competent leadership will be able to push the curve down into a manageable “hill” distribution instead.

Unfortunately, if (like me) you happen to live in the richest country in the world, none of those three conditions apply. But let’s optimistically assume America’s sheer wealth helps it dodge the bad-case scenarios. What then?

Then we’re looking at a period measured in months during which the global supply chain is sputtering, and a significant fraction of the population is self-isolating. The former is already happening:

Port of Los Angeles is projecting a 25% drop in container volumes this month, as the economic impact of the coronavirus spreads across shipping operations and foreign supply chain. Imagine if 1 in 4 goods imported from Asia suddenly stopped coming. Impact just starting.

— Eric Lipton (@EricLiptonNYT) March 1, 2020

It’s hard to imagine us avoiding a recession in the face of simultaneous supply and demand shocks. (Furthermore, if the stock markets keep dropping a couple percent every time there’s another report of spreading Covid-19, we’ll be at Dow 300 and FTSE 75 in a month or two–I expect a steady, daily drip-feed of such news for some time. Presumably traders will eventually figure that out.) So what happens to technology, and the tech industry, then?

Some obvious conclusions: technology which aids and enables remote work / collaboration will see growth. Biotech and health tech will receive new attention. More generally, though, might this accelerate the pace of technological change around the world?

A little over a year ago I wrote a piece entitled “Here comes the downturn” (predicting “Late 2019 or early 2020, says the smart money.”) To quote, er, myself:

The theory goes: every industry is becoming a technology industry, and downturns only accelerate the process. It’s plausible. It’s uncomfortable, given how much real human suffering and dismay is implicit in the economic disruption from which we often benefit. And on the macro scale, in the long run, it’s even probably true. Every downturn is a meteor that hits the dinosaurs hardest, while we software-powered mammals escape the brunt.

Even if so, though, what’s good for the industry as a whole is going to be bad for a whole lot of individual companies. Enterprises will tighten their belts, and experimental initiatives with potential long-term value but no immediate bottom-line benefit will be among the first on the chopping block. Consumers will guard their wallets more carefully, and will be ever less likely to pay for your app and/or click on your ad. And everyone will deleverage and/or hoard their cash reserves like dragons, just in case.

None of that seems significantly less true of a recession caused by a physical shock rather than a mere economic one. My guess is it will be relatively short and sharp, and this time next year both pandemic and recession will essentially be behind us. In the interim, though, it seems very much as if we’re looking at one of the most disconcertingly interesting years in a very long time. Let’s hope it doesn’t get too much moreso.

#TechCrunch

0 notes

bigyack-com · 4 years

Text

How to Stop a Disease From Crossing Borders

In nearly 20 years with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Rear Adm. Nancy Knight, director of the agency’s global health protection division, has led the development, coordination and implementation of public health policies and programs in countries including Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa. Before joining the C.D.C., Dr. Knight was a Peace Corps volunteer in Lesotho and trained as a family physician. In 2008, Dr. Knight helped start in Nigeria the C.D.C.’s Field Epidemiology Training Program, training “disease detectives” to identify diseases and how to respond to them. When Ebola came to Lagos, she returned to Nigeria and worked with the government and the “detectives” to deal with the disease. “Those people we trained were instrumental in fighting Ebola because they were leading the effort on the ground, looking at daily cases and running that response within those communities,” she said. Dr. Knight talked about the coronavirus, what travelers can do to avoid it and how the C.D.C. works with governments and other groups around the world to help countries stay prepared for the possibility of an outbreak of a contagious disease, and to tackle those diseases when they occur.

What does your department do at the C.D.C.?

My division and the work that we do focus on working with countries to achieve global health security and keep people safe from outbreaks. Updated Feb. 10, 2020 What is a Coronavirus? It is a novel virus named for the crown-like spikes that protrude from its surface. The coronavirus can infect both animals and people, and can cause a range of respiratory illnesses from the common cold to more dangerous conditions like Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS. How contagious is the virus? According to preliminary research, it seems moderately infectious, similar to SARS, and is possibly transmitted through the air. Scientists have estimated that each infected person could spread it to somewhere between 1.5 and 3.5 people without effective containment measures. How worried should I be? While the virus is a serious public health concern, the risk to most people outside China remains very low, and seasonal flu is a more immediate threat. Who is working to contain the virus? World Health Organization officials have praised China’s aggressive response to the virus by closing transportation, schools and markets. This week, a team of experts from the W.H.O. arrived in Beijing to offer assistance. What if I’m traveling? The United States and Australia are temporarily denying entry to noncitizens who recently traveled to China and several airlines have canceled flights. How do I keep myself and others safe? Washing your hands frequently is the most important thing you can do, along with staying at home when you’re sick.

How do you do that?

We do this through collaborations with partners, particularly governments in countries where we are working. We work together to strengthen core public health systems and find ways to prevent and respond when there are outbreaks. Through the decisions of Global Health Protection and other experts, we work with countries on some critical aspects of their public health systems. The four aspects that we really focus on are: developing strong disease surveillance systems; making sure there are adequate laboratory networks; making sure there are people with expertise in epidemiology — we call them disease detectives; and ensuring that there are strong emergency response structures. We have such an interconnected world today, and it’s shocking how quickly people and things can move from country to country. In as little as 36 hours an individual can move from a small village on any continent to any country in the world. With that comes a risk of movement of diseases within our borders and across them.

That’s scary.

It is. There’s always going to be fear of diseases, especially when it’s a new disease we’ve never heard of before or one we know about, but it helps to be able to detect them quickly. We want to be equipped to know what it is, stop it, mitigate it and keep it from spreading as quickly as possible. Another thing that can be kind of frightening is not only the health impact and the lives that can be affected or the people who die, but there’s also a big economic concern. These diseases can affect human health, animal heath, economies. They can affect relations with neighboring countries, trade and tourism.

Are there any examples of that economic fallout?

More than 11,000 people died of Ebola — that’s a huge toll on human life, and the cost on the global economy was more than $53 billion. Severe acute respiratory syndrome — SARS — costs countries $40 to 45 billion.

How many people are involved in containing a disease once we know it’s out there?

Thousands and thousands. It’s a worldwide issue. After the SARS outbreak in 2003, countries around the world recognized that not everyone was prepared to address an outbreak like that when it occurs, so the World Health Organization and countries in it put into place the international health regulations. But a majority of countries were not prepared to respond. They knew what they agreed to, but they were missing the road map. The global health agenda was established, so many countries that wanted help figuring out how to know their gaps in an objective way could get that information.

People are concerned about the coronavirus. How do decision makers go from one level of seriousness to the next when a virus is spreading?

The C.D.C has three levels when a health threat occurs: Watch, alert and warning. Level One is watch. It’s when you should practice usual precautions for this destination, as described in the Travel Health Notice and/or on the destination page. This includes being up-to-date on all recommended vaccines. Level Two is alert, when you should practice enhanced precautions for this destination. Level three is warning, when we say people should avoid nonessential travel to this destination. At Level Three the outbreak is of high risk to travelers and no precautions are available to protect against the identified increased risk. Travelers should remember that there is limited access to adequate medical care in affected areas, and older adults and people with underlying health conditions may be at increased risk for severe disease. Travelers with an immune-suppressed system should consult with their health care providers for additional guidance before travel. Currently, there is no vaccine available to protect against 2019-nCoV. There is no specific antiviral treatment recommended for 2019-nCoV infection. People infected should receive supportive care to help relieve symptoms. If you were in Wuhan and feel sick with fever, cough or difficulty breathing within 14 days after you left Wuhan, you should seek medical care right away. Before you go to a doctor’s office or emergency room, call ahead and tell them about your recent travel and your symptoms. This interview was edited and condensed for clarity. Read the full article

#borders #Crossing #Disease #health #HealthNews #Stop

0 notes

watsonhealthproject · 7 years

Text

A Little of a Lot a Bit Later Than Usual

Hello there and happy September :)

This post is overdue in that I have not written in over a week. That said, this is an especially long piece filled with stories from distinct experiences in and out of the hospital. I hope you enjoy!

Note: In many ways, a lot of my writing for this week is observational rather than reflectional. I give my input in some places but for the sake of not writing a novel, I am leaving the interpretation part up to you. Anecdotes are hardly ever representative but they offer us the opportunity to think critically about the circumstances that led to a particular event and its outcome. In that way, we can learn loads from anecdotes and I hope that you take the time to consider some of the implications of the stories I am sharing with you.

I look crazy in this picture but it is an insider look at one of my rotations in the hospital (I don’t usually take pictures in the hospital because it feels so unnatural. Convincing myself to ask the doctor for this picture took a while). I learned all about nuclear medicine and in this particular instance, was posing in front of a treadmill that is used as a “stress test” prior to taking “pictures” of the heart.

Complications of Cancer Treatment in Ecuador

**During a radiation oncology rotation, the doctor explained to me that in all of Ecuador, there are only 4 cities that have radiation oncology units. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this topic, radiation therapy is a treatment that is administered every weekday for a set amount of time (usually 5 to 8 weeks). The side effects vary depending on what part of your body receives the treatment. It is very important to note that this is an outpatient treatment, which means that the patient has to go to the hospital everyday but is not hospitalized. What does this mean? If you live outside of the 4 cities and radiation is part of your treatment, you have to travel everyday or find a place to live in one of the cities with the appropriate technology for the duration of your treatment. What happens if neither of these are options - you don’t receive the potentially life-saving treatment.

I heard two stories (of opposite extremes) related to this reality in Ecuador.

- A female patient in her mid-thirties was diagnosed with cervical cancer. She had two children and her husband left her shortly after the news of her diagnosis. Unfortunately, this patient lived 6 hours (via bus) from the closest radiation facility. She decided that it was more affordable to make the 12 hour trip to and from the hospital every day for the entire duration of her treatment (as opposed to finding temporary housing in the city). Since she did not have any familial support, she had no choice but to leave the kids home. It was a tragic situation for all involved parties.

- An elderly male patient (83 y.o) was diagnosed with cancer and had to receive radiation therapy. However, he could not travel alone and none of his children were able to take him to the hospital daily for reasons that were not explained. As a result, this patient simply did not get treatment. After the disease progressed, the family reached out to the hospital again to try and restart the radiation. While this may sound like good news, a more advanced cancer is a lot harder to treat and therefore, the prognosis is not as good as it was the first time radiation was presented as a possibility.

There were also stories between the extremes:

- Many patients stop going to radiation because it makes them feel worse than they had before they started or traveling to the hospital each day becomes too burdensome.

- Hospital runs out of medications that are used in conjunction to radiation therapy (for prostate cancer in particular) so unless the patient can buy them elsewhere, they have no choice but to remain unmedicated until the medicine becomes available at the hospital.

Why do these stories matter? Getting the news that you have cancer is a devastating thing in and of itself. We have tools to combat the disease but unfortunately, their lack of availability leaves already vulnerable people with impossible decisions.

“Foro De Vacunas 2017″

I had the pleasure of attending a conference that was focused on pediatric vaccination strategies in Latin America, the progress of vaccination programs, challenges of implementation, and the continued importance of building a culture that prioritizes preventative medicine, and in this particular case, vaccinations. There was a lot of information that was passed on but here are a few things/ideas/points that stood out to me:

- There were representatives from the Ministry of Public Health present and when they spoke, it was very clear that the audience of medical professionals was skeptical of their performance. I even asked those around me why they were scolding and they told me that the presenters were lying and omitting important information. Specifically, those around me pointed out that a strategy is one thing and that the reality of implementation is another. The Ministry defended themselves saying that they are in a process of revitalization and that progress takes time. A doctor pointed out that it is non-sensical that the ministry develops, implements, and evaluates all of their programs internally. According to him, there should be an independent civilian and professional entity that assesses the progress of the ministry.

- One doctor on a panel said “En vacuna no se gasta. Se invierte” (With vaccines, we do not spend, we invest). In my opinion, this doctor’s words reflect a particular way of thinking about how money is used to achieve public health goals - spend more now to save later. It is a preventative, long term, and forward-looking framework. This was in direct contrast to something another doctor explained: He argued that politicians are not always willing to approve vaccination programs (as well as other long term health projects) because the results are not realized within their political terms and therefore, do not necessarily serve their agendas. In this case, public health expenses and projects are contextualized within short-term and politicized frameworks that prioritize quick results over more fundamental, systematic changes.

- The relationship between climate change, infectious disease, and public health is huge. Among many other things, increasing temperatures have led mosquitos to reproduce in new and larger geographic areas.

- “The lack of access to HPV vaccination, which helps prevent cervical cancer, for young latin american women is simply violence against women. It is unacceptable” - Paraphrased from a presenting doctor.

- This conference had a massive emphasis on the importance of data collection, analysis, and use. Epidemiological data was presented at the forefront. I absolutely agree that evidence-based methodologies are essential for effective public health programs. However, after my medical anthropology class last semester, I recognize that this science-centered rationalization of medicine is just one of many ways of understanding healthcare. The scientific evidence very clearly shows that vaccinations are a safe and effective means for reducing infectious disease and as a person who believes in the biomedical model of medicine, I am convinced that we need to continue improving national vaccination programs. However, for some people in the general public, depersonalized numbers have little meaning. They do not necessarily convince one to prioritize getting vaccinated. That said, I found the conference to be lacking in the discussion of cultural and educational factors that contribute to the challenges of vaccination program implementation. Just last week a doctor was explaining to me that people refused to go to the hospital in a town she worked in because it was a common belief that ‘the hospital kills.” In this community, a successful program would require a nuanced approach that takes into account the fear of biomedical institutions that has been passed down for many generations. As with most large scale programs, standards are important but uniformity is dangerous.

- “Vaccines and vaccination are not the same thing. It is easy to buy vaccines and tons of money is already being invested in this endeavor. However, vaccinating an entire population is very difficult because it requires the consideration of many moving parts that are not always within the control of those tasked with implementing vaccination strategies.” - Paraphrased from a presenting doctor.

Understanding Health Outcomes: Why Do Patients Stop Taking Prescribed Medications?

Here are some of the most common responses patients have given with regards to this question:

- Medication runs out (at home / at hospital / in town)

- Symptoms stop being burdensome so patient assumes medication is no longer necessary

- Side effects are too burdensome

- Patient never obtains medications (misunderstandings / financial restrictions)

- Patients take medication, but not as instructed

- Use of alternative medical remedies instead of prescribed medications

- Don’t understand the purpose or importance of taking a particular medication.

Chronic Disease Management: A topic of increasing interest

Marginalization, access, and healthcare are exceptionally broad topics. In creating a plan for my Watson year, I embraced this broadness as an opportunity to follow my interests and figure out where I fit in in the efforts to improve healthcare access for all. The more time I spend in Ecuador, the more I find myself perplexed and intrigued by the challenges of chronic disease management. Why? This is an issue for the institution of medicine that, based on my observations, is better equipped for the treatment of acute problems. At the same time, it is an issue for those affected because disease management often requires changes in one’s lifestyle that are often very difficult to make. That said, it seems like a topic area where innovation and leadership are very necessary (aka my middle names).

Palliative Care:

I had the wonderful opportunity of spending some time at a foundation in Quito that focuses almost exclusively on providing palliative care services to terminally ill patients. Unlike the rest of medicine, palliative care is not intended to prolong life but rather, to improve the quality of it through medical, spiritual, and emotional support. Palliative care normalizes death and gives patients the opportunity to pass in a painless and dignified manner. To be honest, before I arrived I was afraid of the feelings that might strike me. In the end, I found that it is a deeply human specialty area. There are simply no other words to describe it.

Rural(ish) Healthcare:

Exciting news! Thanks to a partnership with Manna Project International, I will have the opportunity to speak to community members (formally and informally) to learn more about their perspectives on the healthcare services available to them. This is a particularly exciting opportunity because what I learn will not only inform my own explorations but also, possibly contribute to the development of programs at Manna based on what community members say. With a little bit of help at home, I am developing a set of questions that I want to ask to guide some of the conversations I will be having. My first conversation will happen next week. Updates on how it goes are surely to come!

The very cute sign that welcomes all visitors into the hub of Manna Project International.

An impressively bad picture of me on the bus home from my first of hopefully many trips to el Valle de los Chillos.

Updates on My Life as a Dancer:

I am kind of obsessed and not really sure what to do or what to make of this. It is a little crazy because for most of my life, I could not imagine a life outside of medicine. However, somehow my love of dance runs so deep that I could picture, for the first time, another thing to which I could dedicate a substantial amount of my time to. This is not to say that I am calling it quits on becoming a doctor or that I even want to. Rather, it serves to show how much of an impact this particular activity has had on my sense of self.

I try to be really reflective about where my feelings come from. Is it simply the sense of community that draws me or is there something else? The more I think about it, the more I realize that music and dance are very tightly knit to my own sense of “latinidad.” How so? I was the child that refused to dance at family parties and had a significantly stronger affinity for all things “english.” I don’t think I really came to consider what being a latina meant to me until I got to college and for the first time, I was not surrounded by a million things “latino.” The first time I felt like an outsider at Bowdoin was not during orientation or in a class but in the dining hall, after spending a weekend away at a conference for dominican students. I realized my “otherness” as a student of color at Bowdoin and rather than feeling ashamed and trying to fit in more, I did the exact opposite. I started to more intentionally explore my “dominicanness” and a huge part of that took the form of music and dance. Therefore, dancing is not simply fun, it is the means through which I understand and explore what it means for me to be a young dominican-american woman. I understand my body to be a political statement and dance allows me to simultaneously engage with and convey the history of my ancestors. To the unknowing passerby, bachata may seem like just another sensual dance. However, as far as I am concerned, the intimacy with which bachata is associated goes beyond the dancing pair. I like to say that bachata is in my blood, and when I dance, I feel intimately connected to my family and our small country in the caribbean. I feel more whole and grounded. Dancing bachata makes me proud to be a Dominican. This is why I love it so much.

It would be naive to ignore the sexism and misogyny that is tightly interwoven into the culture of latino dance and music because there have been many moments, in my time in Ecuador alone, when I have found myself cringing. However, I will leave this topic for another time :) For now we can appreciate the positives.

Life Outside of the Medical Questions

Burger King in Ecuador <3

I went to the disco with my dance group and it was loads of fun. When we got to the place, they refused to let me in because a NY driver’s permit is not considered valid identification. I was ready to go home after it was obvious that the guy wasn’t going to change his mind but then Yesi (the girl next to me) offered to go out of her way and drive me to and from home to pick up my passport. When I finally got inside, I was so happy because there were some amazing dancers everywhere (like doing tricks on the dance floor amazing!)

I finally managed to find decently priced books in spanish that I can read. When I finish this book, it will be the first novel I have ever read from start to finish in spanish! I wonder what I felt when I finished a book by myself for the first time. I am almost certain it was something similar to what I will feel when I get to the end of this novel.

The Challenges of this Nomadic Life

It makes me really sad to know that I have to leave eventually. When I went out with my dance friends, we were talking about going to Guayaquil (another city in Ecuador) for a dance conference of sorts. I was under the impression that the event they were talking about was at the end of September and so I was talking as if I was going to be in attendance. However, someone mentioned that it was in November and without thinking, I announced that I could not go. When the instructor looked at me with furrowed brows, I clarified that I would no longer be in Ecuador. His (exact) response was “Mariely no me haga esto” (Mariely don’t do this to me). There was a general pause and the moment passed quickly but it was so heartbreaking because it was a reminder of how temporary my time is here.

If thinking about leaving is hard, it is even harder to think about having to start the process of making friends and integrating myself into the community all over again. Of course this constant change during the Watson experience is expected and comes with its rewards. However, I am not even leaving yet and it feels like “ahhhhh.”

I digress because sometimes I think too far ahead in the future. Since I know my time is limited, it gives me all the more reason to live, love, and laugh with all of my heart and mind, to be at all times, fully in the present.

Things to Look Forward To:

Conferences: I have managed to find a few medical conferences that are free and that address some of the things I am exploring and interested in. I have realized that FB events is a very useful resource!

And of course, this post would not be complete without a quote for the week:

"Wherever you go becomes a part of you somehow.” - Anita Desai

#Watson Fellowship

1 note · View note