sonia | Links: COVID-19 hard truths

To start, a couple of articles from small local papers. I saw a disclaimer that maybe they're less reliable, but I think they're more reliable. This is what's actually happening on the ground, not theories or extrapolations from afar.

A wholesome activity leads to infection: Square dancing by Zachariah Bryan in The Herald, Everett, WA, 15 Mar 2020. There's a lot of overlap between Washington and Oregon dance communities, and a lot of overlap between square dancers and folk dancers. I probably know people who knew Pete Anderson. This sobering article got forwarded around to all the folk dance lists, and convinced many people to shut down their dance groups.

Life at the epicenter of N.J.’s coronavirus outbreak by Tom Bergeron, Teaneck, NJ, 14 Mar 2020. "Holy Name [Medical Center] CEO Maron, with 11 current cases and six patients in the ICU, says state may not realize how serious this is: ‘There is absolute reason to be extremely cautious, to be very concerned’" via

umadoshi.

Coronavirus Symptoms: Defining Mild, Moderate And Severe by Pien Huang, 17 Mar 2020.

Visualizing the History of Pandemics by Nicholas LePan, 14 Mar 2020. Very cool data visualization of relative sizes of pandemics. They are updating the size of the COVID-19 ball over time. It's already much bigger than when I first saw it.

Tangentially, Why the Black Death was not the bubonic plague. by Seanan McGuire, LiveJournal, 08 Oct 2008. A filk song laying out the case for the Black Death being hemorrhagic, and spread by droplets, not fleas.

Coronavirus: The Hammer and the Dance by Tomas Pueyo, 19 Mar 2020. "What the Next 18 Months Can Look Like, if Leaders Buy Us Time." A more hopeful plan than "stay at home until they make a vaccine available." This is a followup to Coronavirus: Why You Must Act Now, 10 Mar 2020, which I'm re-linking because it was just that good.

The Doctor Who Helped Defeat Smallpox Explains What's Coming by Steven Levy, 19 Mar 2020. "Epidemiologist Larry Brilliant, who warned of pandemic in 2006, says we can beat the novel coronavirus—but first, we need lots more testing." It's heartbreaking that this situation could be so much better if only people had listened and prepared.

The Leader of the Free World Gives a Speech, and She Nails It, article by Justin Davidson, 18 Mar 2020. Fantastic speech by Angela Merkel. Video, 12 minutes. English subtitles. Why can't we have a good leader?!?!