Hi everyone! This page is intended to help us stay entertained, informed, and/or optimistic amidst the SARS-CoV2 pandemic. Please check out the few articles and books I’ve listed here, and comment with recommendations of you own!
I’ve broken this down into the following sections:
1) Three Books
2) Scientific literature on SARS CoV-2
3) Running articles
4) Bonus section!
Three Books:
1) Jane Austen’s, Pride and Prejudice – because it makes me feel better about sitting around all day, and I find it fun to relate the characters to their modern-day counterparts. There are several excellent candidates for Mrs. Bennett.
2) Voltaire’s Candide – because the COVID19 situation is happening, even in the best of all possible worlds.
3) David Sedaris’, Dress your Family in Corduroy and Denim – It’s a compilation of essays on his unique life experiences woven together into a single (dark) humor piece. It reminds me that although life seems nuts now, it’s regularly teeming with absurdity.
Scientific literature about SARS CoV2:
Below is a link to Nature’s pick of coronavirus papers:
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00502-w
I’ve selected a few of them here to point out two of the many questions I’ve had:
1) How Practical are masks?
Wearing face masks can reduce transmission of coronaviruses in general, which includes SARS CoV2. (N. H. L. Leung et al. Nat. Med. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-020-0843-2; 2020).
2) How soon until we have a vaccine?
-A group of researchers took blood plasma from people who had recovered from COVID19, and injected it into severely ill patients with the disease. The amount of virus in the blood 70% of patients dropped after about a week. K. Duan et al. Preprint at medRxiv http://doi.org/dqrs; 2020).
Additionally, Alexandra Walls et al., have solved the protein crystal structure of SARS-CoV2. This is important because it provides accurate knowledge of the protein shape and locations important for infection. Both of these pieces of info are an essential starting point from which to develop vaccines for SARS-CoV2. Check it out: “Structure, Function, and Antigenicity of the SARS-CoV-
2 Spike Glycoprotein” Walls et al. Cell Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2020.02.058
(somewhat random) questions for followers:
Do you already wear masks in public? How about outside by yourself?
Thoughts on vaccine options?
Has anyone read about how our immune response to SARS-CoV2 is modulated by toxins in the environment?
Has anyone come across papers about the intermediate host species between bats and humans?
I’ve read one paper that proposes pangolins. (We should probably stop exploiting exotic creatures… *cough* Tiger King *cough* cough*) I digress. Here is the reference: Zhang et al., Cell. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32197085.
OK! Now we can move on to the more fun reads!
On running:
1) Oiselle Blog. Oiselle is a company by and for female runners. I love them because they work to destigmatize running and conceptions of our physiology (e.g. body weight, mensuration. pregnancy).
2) This piece by Talya Minsberg for the New York Times. This article seems to toe a line between encouraging and elitist, but I think it is overall optimistic.
3) How to start running: I wish everyone could discover the joy of running, but I know it’s hard to just start. For those of you who prefer a plan to adhere to, I recommend checking out the RunnersWorld article on the topic.
Reminder: adhere to social distancing guidelines for running 🙂 6 feet apart, or solo!
Bonus section!
This is important too: The article I read this morning includes some very important Q and A with advice we should all heed, “because the more everyone commits to social distancing, the faster we can all get back — and down — to business.”
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