Thursday, April 30, 2020

PPE 'designed for women' needed on front line

ONE SIZE DOES NOT FIT ALL

By Zoe Kleinman Reporter, BBC News 29 April 2020

In a video posted on Twitter, US Dr Arghavan Salles described having "a small head" for PPE. — Image captionIn a video posted on Twitter, Dr Arghavan Salles joked about having "a small head" for PPE.

There is growing concern that standard personal protective equipment (PPE), which often has a unisex design, doesn't always fit women properly.

PPE is essential for protecting frontline workers exposed to Covid-19.

The Department of Health said the kit is designed to protect "both genders".

However, healthcare workers are saying that even the smallest sizes are too big for some women - who make up 77% of the NHS workforce, according to NHS Digital figures from 2018.

If it is too big it can be less effective in providing a complete barrier to the virus.

"PPE is designed to be unisex and offer protection for both genders, although some products are available in different sizes to enable fit to both small and larger frames," said the Department of Health, in a statement.

But the Royal College of Nursing has described "one-size-fits-all" personal protective equipment as "problematic" and "restrictive" when it can be worn for up to 12 hours during shifts. PPE includes gloves, masks, gowns and face shields.

"Nurses can find it very difficult to treat patients if this equipment is so uncomfortable it makes them hot and unwell," said Rose Gallagher, professional lead for infection prevention and control.

Some female NHS workers have taken to social media to share photos of themselves wearing badly-fitting PPE.

'What else comes in just two sizes?'

Dr Arghavan Salles, scholar-in-residence at Stanford University School of medicine, is currently working in the intensive care unit of a hospital in New York.

"There are only two sizes of the N95 mask, which is bizarre," she said.

"What else comes in just two sizes? We're suggesting that all faces on the planet are one of two sizes."

Dr Salles said the smaller size fits her but is harder to find.

"Yesterday I was working with someone whose N95 strap broke - we couldn't find her a new one [in the small size] so she had to go home," she said.

Dr Salles said she was given two masks to last her two weeks. She added that the smallest-sized gloves and goggles are also often too large.

"My hands are a size 6, I'm wearing a 6.5 glove," she said.

"The goggles have a really good [protective] seal but they just don't fit."

'Weird shape'

The growing call for more PPE specifically designed for women, sits against a backdrop of issues getting hold of PPE overall.

Author Caroline Criado-Perez researched the issue while writing her book Invisible Women, before the pandemic.

"The vast majority of personal protective equipment has been designed to fit the male body, so when you have for example 'small' - that's actually small for men rather than small for women, or just average for women," she said, in a New Scientist podcast.

"That's particularly an acute problem in this context because the majority of healthcare workers are female and they get told things like, 'your face is a weird shape' - well it's not a weird shape, it's a female shape."

Former Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood issued a statement calling on the Welsh government to source better PPE kit for women.

She described it as "a scandal within the scandal" of general PPE availability.

"We are asking women to put their lives on the line in the NHS and in care settings for the good of society and we cannot even provide them with PPE - or when we do, it is not the right size," she said.

The Women's Equality Party tweeted that it was "utterly shameful" that women were wearing kit designed to fit men.

In a report published in 2017, trade union association the TUC noted that "most PPE is based on the sizes and characteristics of male populations from certain countries in Europe and the United States".

"As a result, most women, and also many men, experience problems finding suitable and comfortable PPE because they do not conform to this standard male worker model," it said.

It's an issue that is being noted by consumers as well: political journalist Marie Le Conte tweeted her frustration at having to search specifically for women's masks "because all the 'standard' ones I bought online a few weeks ago are just very clearly too big for my face", she said.

BC Portrait photographer Anna Soriano turns making protective masks into a family affair

by Carlito Pablo on April 29th, 2020 STRAIGHT.COM

Anna Soriano learned how to sew as a young woman, which has come in handy during the pandemic.Photographer

As a portrait photographer, Anna Soriano shows people at their best.

With women, she likes to take it a notch higher through glamour. This is why she makes gowns for them to wear for the shoot.

“I want them to look like celebrities,” Soriano tells the Georgia Straight in a phone interview. “I want them to look like they just walked out of an Oscars awards night.”

Sewing is one of the survival skills she acquired as a young woman. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit and masks fell into short supply, the craft became useful for the South Surrey mom and realtor.

Soriano began making cloth face masks, and she donated dozens of her creations to a seniors’ assisted-living facility in White Rock, where there was a virus outbreak.

Word spread about what the Filipino woman was doing, and soon her friends were paying for her masks so they could also give away face coverings to frontline health workers across the Lower Mainland.

Soriano recalls that she started before the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the U.S. and the Public Health Agency of Canada in April recommended the use of nonmedical masks to help contain the spread of the novel coronavirus.

“I knew that it would be a preventative measure,” she says.

Soriano relates that she always reminds the people receiving her masks that the face covering is just one way of protecting everyone’s health.

“You still have to wash your hands, and you don’t put your hands on your face,” she says.

In order to continue her personal donations of face masks to various institutions, Soriano sets aside a portion of what she gets from paying clients.

She has heard that a similar thing is being done by Winnie Tan, a personal fitness trainer and a common acquaintance with photographer-friend Dean Guzman, both also Filipinos.

Guzman provided the Straight with a copy of a letter from the Langley Food Bank, thanking the Tri-Cities-area-based Tan and family for their donation of cloth face masks to the facility.

“Your masks are wonderful and will help protect our staff as we are handing our food to the less fortunate,” the letter reads.

Winnie Tan models one of her favourite Pretty Wings mask creations.

As someone with an economics degree, Soriano observes that shortages in medical-grade masks and protective equipment during this pandemic have exposed the risk of relying on other countries to produce essential products.

“Why are we not making these ourselves?” she asks.

She has raised six children, and three of them are living at home with her. Her 86-year-old mother is also with them. They’re tight-knit, and making masks has become a family activity that has brought them even closer together.

According to Soriano, her children have learned to live simply during this pandemic. They have also acquired a greater appreciation of the value of charity.

“We enjoy what we’re doing,” Soriano says.

Follow Carlito Pablo on Twitter @carlitopablo

Vancouver fashion designer Jason Matlo moves into making face masks and visor units for volunteers
by Janet Smith on March 27th, 2020 STRAIGHT.COM

From bespoke clothing to assembled masks: Jason Matlo's gear for volunteers (left) contrasts with looks from his high-end Matlo Atelier (right).

He's created everything from high-end womenswear and menswear to stunning bridal gowns to atelier-based bespoke clothing, but now Vancouver fashion designer Jason Matlo is putting his skills to a new in-demand look: face mask and visor units.

Driven by a new Gofundme campaign, the gear will be directed to volunteers who are grocery shopping and making deliveries to those in isolation through MAV (Mutual AID Vancouver). Matlo is assembling the units with a team of volunteers, each living and working in isolation to avoid contamination

To date his project has made 71 face mask and visor units, with purchased supplies for an additional 100 units.

Until now, the units have been purchased by MAV volunteer. Funds raised on Matlo's campaign will go to reimburse them for their purchases, as well as purchase new supplies for assembly of one-time-use masks.

"Please note: we are purchasing supplies that ARE NOT deemed PPE, to ensure we are not taking away supplies from medical and health professionals who need them, and we ARE NOT distributing these to medical professionals as this is against current legislation and moral ethics," Matlo has clarified on the site.

Any proceeds left over from the assemblies will be donated to a Vancouver-focused COVID-19 relief charity.

For those concerned about visiting a doctor's office because of the pandemic, a telehealth provider can put them in contact with physicians and other health-care professionals

From mountain tops to hospital corridors: Arc'teryx and other B.C. outdoor brands join to pump out protective medical gowns

by Janet Smith on April 22nd, 2020 STRAIGHT.COM

Arc'teryx's new medical gown, ranked at badly needed level 3 isolation.JAMES KIM

At first glance, Vancouver’s thriving outerwear industry might seem far removed from that of protective surgical gowns. One apparel is designed to take adventurers outdoors, across glaciers and through rainforests; the other, as we see every night on the television news, is confined to a strictly indoor world with its own invisible hazards.

But at Arc’teryx and other local outdoor-gear companies, the similarities are coming sharply into focus.

Applying the materials, techniques, and innovation that’s made it a go-to in extreme-adventure sports, Arc’teryx has managed to pivot within 10 days to manufacturing badly needed Level-3 isolation medical gowns for Vancouver Coastal Health. Under the health authority’s guidance, it’s joined in the effort by likeminded Mustang Survival (which makes protective gear for water rescue and mariners) and Boardroom Clothing (known for technical clothing and sustainability) in the B.C. Outdoor Apparel and Gear project. Each company has committed to making 30,000 gowns—90,000 in total.

“When we were given the technical specs [from the health authority] we started to recognize the tests for water resistance and spray penetration, the breathability,” Shirley Chan, senior director of product commercialization, who’s leading the project at Arc’teryx, explains over a video call. “What we do has nothing to do with pathogens, but it’s about barrier protection.

“We’re known for our waterproof, breathable technology,” Chan says, adding that’s achieved mostly through using Gore-Tex. “But it’s really about managing weather and the ability to sustain comfort in inclement weather. If you are comfortable, you will last longer at what you’re doing—whether that’s on a mountain top and you want to perform better or longer, or in protective gear at a hospital. You’ll generally feel safer as well; gear shouldn’t be something you think about.”

Like outdoor wear, she stresses, hospital gowns have to allow for as much range of movement as possible. One of the challenges of the surgical gowns is its universal fit for all shapes and sizes of frontline healthcare workers; cuffs need to be able to be pushed up and ties have to sit in the right place.

Machinery was moved apart and safety measures were instituted at Arc'teryx's manufacturing facility in New West.JAMES KIM

Developing a pattern was relatively easy, though, compared to finding a material that would live up to the protective grade needed. “We weren’t wanting hundreds or thousands but hundreds of thousands of metres,” she stresses. Between Arc’teryx, Boardroom, and Mustang, they tested numerous materials in stock for quality, but some were too waterproof or too heavy or too thin, she explains. That’s when Delta-based KenDor Textiles stepped in with a type of breathable Softshell.

At Arc’teryx’s ARC’One manufacturing facility in New Westminster, the company has sourced enough to deliver more than 1,500 Level-3 isolation gowns at a below-market rate. KenDor tapped a mill in China, whose new shipment should arrive by boat by the beginning of May to fill the rest of the orders within four to six weeks.

Arc’teryx had initially been forced to lay off about 450 workers from its New West facility when the pandemic struck. Now it’s been able to bring some of those workers back, wearing medical masks and assigned to spread-out work stations.

The project moved so fast, Chan relates, “we were literally cutting fabrics and moving machines simultaneously.” The company is already looking at the possibility of making more gowns for other districts once this batch is delivered.

Developing patterns and prototypes, then delivering product within 10 days would normally be unthinkable in the high-end, extreme outdoor-wear industry. Not so with the medical gowns.

As much as it’s been a smooth transition, there is one huge difference between what Arc’teryx normally does and this project: the idea that sewers, sample makers, pattern makers, and engineers could finish prototypes and kick a design into production in only 10 days would be almost unthinkable in the world of high-end adventure apparel. Chan laughs that, normally, it takes Arc’teryx two years to design and take a piece to market. “But then it’s blue sky—your options are limitless,” she says. “With this item the specs were predetermined.”

For now, while the medical gowns start to roll off the assembly line, Arc’teryx’s blue-sky creatives are working from home to create fall 2021 and spring 2022 collections.

“This is a bit of a hiatus on the world, but when the pandemic ends, we’re going to have to be ready to go,” Chan says.

Canadian physicians remain concerned about PPE supplies and COVID-19 testing: survey

Meanwhile, B.C.'s Health Minister has reported that the province has received more supplies from vendors and donors
by Craig Takeuchi on April 29th, 2020 STRAIGHT.COM

JJ GOUIN/GETTY IMAGES
A recent national survey has found that the vast majority of responding Canadian physicians remain worried about the levels of COVID-19 testing and availability of personal protective equipment (PPE).

Physician pandemic concerns

On April 28, the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) released the results of a survey of almost 2,500 physicians conducted on April 20 and 21 as a followup to a previous poll conducted of 5,000 physicians in late March.

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COVID-19 update: B.C. talks about obtaining personal protective equipment as Canada provides national outlook

From mountain tops to hospital corridors: Arc'teryx and other B.C. outdoor brands join to pump out protective medical gowns

The recent poll found that approximately half of the respondents felt that their concerns could be reduced by increases or improvements in availability of medication (54 percent), virtual care options (53 percent), and peer support (49 percent).

The survey also revealed that 84 percent of physicians feel that more COVID-19 testing would help reduce their anxieties and almost 90 percent felt more availability of PPE would help to reduce their concerns.

About one-third of physicians in community practices responded that they only had two days or less of key PPE (including eye or faceshields, respirators, gowns, or goggles or glasses) or had already run out.

The percentage remains the same as the results found from the late March poll, which also found that over two-thirds of physicians in community care had tried to order supplies but less than 15 percent received confirmation that the supplies were being sent or had been received.

Where physicians expressed variation in responses in the recent poill was whether or not they’ve seen PPE supply amounts improve in recent weeks.

While 29 percent said that supplies had worsened, the same amount felt they had improved. Meanwhile, 42 percent reported not seeing any change.

“The anxiety experienced by health care providers is compounded by a lack of information and assurance that everything possible is being done to protect them and understand the spread of the virus among Canadians,” CMA president stated in a news release. “We know that governments are working hard to improve the availability of personal protective equipment, but physicians continue to be gravely concerned about their ability to provide care safely.”

The CMA is requesting to meet with federal Health Minister Patty Hajdu about improving supplies reaching frontline workers, including more organizations and transparency between federal and provincial governments and governments providing assurances to hospital administrators of supplies.

B.C. provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix

PROVINCE OF BRITISH COLUMBIA

PPE in British Columbia

In B.C.’s daily COVID-19 update on April 9, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix explained that obtaining PPE for the medical system is not simply a matter of purchasing and distributing the items.

Dr. Henry said that they have specific requirements for the type of N95 mask that they need. In addition, Dix talked about how they have to inspect and test all PPE before distributing it in order to avoid problems and risks that have been experienced in some jurisdictions.

For example, on April 7 the City of Toronto had to recall about $200,000 worth of defective face masks that were sent to longterm care homes, including one with a COVID-19 outbreak.

On April 24, Global News reported that Chinese suppliers had to replace one million defective masks and contaminated testing swabs sold to the Canadian government.

Although Canada has received several planeloads full of PPE, the Public Health Agency of Canada has to certify that the equipment meets Canadian standards.

During the daily B.C. COVID-19 update on April 21, Dix said that they had received three million N95 masks, three-quarters of a million KN95 masks, and other supplies

During the April 28 daily update, Dix said that since that time, B.C. has received more PPE from suppliers and donors, including over 170,000 N95 respirators; over 350,000 pieces of eye protection, including face shields and goggles; over 100,000 surgical masks; over 185,000 gowns; and almost five million pairs of gloves.

Dix said that since that since the start of the pandemic, B.C. has not had to resort to using any alternate N95 respirators in the healthcare system.

You can follow Craig Takeuchi on Twitter at @cinecraig or on Facebook.

For those concerned about visiting a doctor's office because of the pandemic, a telehealth provider can put them in contact with physicians and other health-care professionals.

Leaked Vancouver School Board document recommends against use of masks, gloves, and gowns in dealing with kids with complex needs

by Charlie Smith on April 26th, 2020 STRAIGHT.COM

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Even though surgical masks can be obtained at a relatively low price, Vancouver school board staff are being told they're not necessary when dealing with kids with complex needs.AMAZON

In normal times, K-12 educators face challenges in dealing with children with complex needs and behavioural problems.

But that can be magnified during a pandemic when the consequences can be deadly.

This is particularly so for teachers and aides with compromised immune systems, including cancer survivors and those with heart disease or diabetes.

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Additional School and Childcare Safety Protocols for Working with Children with Complex Needs (COVID-19)

Yet despite these health concerns, a 21-page Vancouver school board document recommends against the use of personal protective equipment—including masks, gloves, and gowns—for staff in the educational sector. (See the PDF link at the left of this article if you're reading this article on a desktop computer.)

The document, which was leaked to the Georgia Straight, purports that there is "no benefit from wearing masks in public settings or in schools".

Elsewhere, it states that physical distancing "is not an expectation in a childcare or K-12 educational setting".

In contrast, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that people wear cloth face coverings in public settings where other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain.

"The cloth face coverings recommended are not surgical masks or N-95 respirators," the CDC emphasizes on its website. "Those are critical supplies that must continue to be reserved for healthcare workers and other medical first responders, as recommended by current CDC guidance."

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offers instructions on its website for how to create a cloth mask.U.S. CDC

Spitting risk deemed low for asymptomatic kids

Additional School and Childcare Safety Protocols for Working with Children with Complex Needs (COVID-19) also states that masks are not recommended for children unless advised by a health-care provider.

"In young children in particular, masks can be irritating and may lead to increased touching of the face and eyes," it says.

Under "Spitting Recommendations", the document acknowledges that this behaviour is "challenging".

Then it adds: "if the student is asymptomatic and healthy, the risk of transmission is low, especially if the behaviour is paired with handwashing and cleaning."

In fact, asymptomatic transmission of COVID-19 has been deemed a serious problem by researchers. It was even described as the "Achilles' heel" of current control strategies in a recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine.

That's due to the high-level of shedding of the virus in the upper respiratory tract, even in presymptomatic patients.

Yet the VSB document states that no additional personal protective equipment is required by those working in the educational sector "unless identified on a case by case basis by the health authority".

The document also says that face masks are not required for rendering first aid if there are no flulike symptoms.

If a student begins to show flulike symptoms, certified first aid attendants should remain two meters away and "discreetly" move the person to a private isolation room and alert the principal or supervisor.

The Vancouver School Board's document makes no accommodation for staff who may have compromised immune systems due to cancer, diabetes, heart disease, multiple sclerosis, or other conditions.

Vancouver Coastal Health reviewed document

Additional School and Childcare Safety Protocols for Working with Children with Complex Needs (COVID-19) was originally developed by the Langley school district in cooperation with others, including Fraser Health Authority.

The document states that Vancouver Coastal Health has reviewed this adapted version for use in its jurisdiction, which includes Vancouver, Richmond, the North Shore, Sunshine Coast, and Sea to Sky corridor.

It also claims that COVID-19 has "a very low infection rate in children", estimated at one to five percent worldwide.

But this statement does not acknowledge that many countries, provinces, and states have not been testing representative samples of the populations, preferring to focus diagnostic efforts on health-care workers and those deemed to be at higher risk.

In addition, the document states that there's "no conclusive evidence that children who are asymptomatic pose a risk to other children or to adults".

It correctly notes that children infected with the novel coronavirus have milder symptoms, if any. And a very low number of them become critically ill.

According to WorkSafe B.C., employees have "the right to refuse work if they believe it presents an undue hazard".

"In those circumstances, employers need to consider the refusal on a case-by-case basis, depending on the situation," WorkSafe B.C. states on its website. "For more information, see Occupational Health and Safety Guideline G3.12."

Richmond students manufacture personal protective equipment at J.N. Burnett secondary school

by Carlito Pablo on April 29th, 2020 STRAIGHT.COM

Grade 12 student Christopher Lam makes face shields and ear savers with 3D printers.

A change of plans was not going to keep Christopher Lam away from the fight against COVID-19.

Lam, a Grade 12 student at J. N. Burnett Secondary School in Richmond, is a volunteer with St. John Ambulance, a first-aid and safety charity.

He was expecting to be deployed with one of its teams to the Vancouver Convention Centre. That’s where the provincial government has set up a temporary health facility to serve patients not sick with the virus, in case hospitals are overrun with COVID-19 cases.

But that situation didn’t appear to be happening, so Lam decided to focus his efforts elsewhere.

The high-school student then began making face shields with a 3-D printer at home.

“I wanted to do something to help the community, to help those on the frontlines,” Lam tells the Straight in a phone interview.

Lam began in March, and before long he was able to produce hundreds of face shields, which he gave to hospitals and care homes.

Sean Uy, another Grade 12 student at J. N. Burnett, also started to make face shields at home. Lam says that he later inquired whether the school’s 3-D printers could be put into action as well.

School principal Wennie Walker supported the initiative and got in touch with the Richmond school district to get more printers for the cause.

Lam, Uy, and a third student, Adriano Carvalheiro-Nunes, are actively involved in this school-based project, with support from technology teacher Wes Bevan and other school staff.

Adriano Carvalheiro-Nune, Chris Lam, Sean Uy, and J.N. Burnett principal Wennie Walker have been supported by the Richmond school district.

The students are producing face shields and ear savers, a mask accessory that reduces skin irritation. According to Lam, they want health workers in care homes to get the devices.

“They’re a major part of what we’re supporting, because they don’t get as much provincial support as hospitals,” Lam says.

On Tuesday (April 28), Lam had made more than 100 ear savers that day.

Lam also says they need more materials to keep going. Specifically, these are PETG sheets and filament, and clear polycarbonate sheets. (PETG is polyethylene terephthalate glycol plastic, a durable material used for 3-D printing.)

No one knows for sure where the world is headed with the COVID-19 pandemic, but that is not about to stop Lam.

“For me, I’m already a licensed paramedic, so if all education goes down, I will just end up joining either the ambulance service or a private service to help with the situation,” Lam says.

by Charlie Smith on April 28th, 2020 STRAIGHT.COM

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Dr. Joseph Finkler's daughter Laura, a palliative care nurse at St. Paul's Hospital, was unable to do work in the community for 14 days after her dad contracted COVID-19 because she also had to be isolated.

One of the tragedies of the novel coronavirus pandemic has been the impact on front-line workers’ health. Many have contracted COVID-19 and some have died.

Dr. Joseph Finkler considers himself one of the lucky ones—the St. Paul’s Hospital emergency room physician is back at work after recovering from the disease and coming out of quarantine just over a week ago.

He concedes that it sort of snuck upon him.

“I didn’t recognize the symptoms because I had been working a whole bunch of night shifts,” Finkler told the Straight by phone. “I felt really crummy and tired.”

The 62-year-old doctor said he had a persistent cough for months. But on March 26, he decided to stop working and get tested after feeling a fever, chills, and night sweats.

After being diagnosed, he worried for a “fleeting moment” that he might develop lower interstitial pneumonia.

That, he feared, could bring on a “cytokine storm”, in which immune-system cells attack other cells in the body, perhaps forcing him to go on a ventilator.

According to the New Scientist, these cytokine storms are common complications of COVID-19 and other respiratory diseases.

Fortunately, he avoided that fate but it still troubled him that he couldn’t help patients during his period self-isolation. He even had to remain at a distance from his partner and two daughters, who all amazingly avoided infection even though they live in the same house.

One of those daughters, Laura, is a palliative care nurse at St. Paul’s Hospital. She was restricted from going into the community because she was also required to remain isolated.

“My radioactivity not only resulted in their lifestyles being restricted for 14 days, but also they were stigmatized by their connection with me,” Finkler noted.

He acknowledged that upon his return to work, some colleagues were not keen to be too close to him.

“I understand it,” he said. “There’s a disconnect between what we know in science and what we might feel.”

Finkler explained that because of the pandemic, it’s become far more complicated dealing with patients in the emergency ward.

In early March, he said, staff were wearing gloves and sometimes wearing a surgical mask if they were swabbing patients.

By the time he was diagnosed later that month, doctors and nurses were not only using surgical and N95 masks, but also wearing protective eye shields and disposable gowns over layers of clothing.

“It’s like walking in molasses, or underwater,” he said. “It’s so crazy because it’s so restrictive. It really slows down the process.”

Dr. Joseph Finkler says that treating patients has become more complicated during the pandemic because of all the protective gear that health workers must wear.

At the same time, Finkler acknowledged that all this protective gear is necessary to prevent the spread of COVID-19 to patients and colleagues, even if it has slowed the delivery of health care somewhat.

Patients often have to be separated when they arrive in the emergency room. Those who may be showing symptoms of respiratory problems or anyone who is critically ill is transferred to an area called "COVID", which has 12 beds where they can remain isolated.

This keeps them away from other patients who might be suffering from acute mental-health issues or other problems unrelated to the novel coronavirus.

Finkler said that there's a perception among some that if you contract COVID-19, it's a death sentence. In fact, the death rate is only a little over one percent in Canada if all the fatalities are divided by the number of positive test results.

"But if we include a whole bunch of asymptomatic people [who have the virus] we haven't tested, it's actually way lower," he added.

Finkler applauded the way that everyone in the health-care system has “locked arms and come up with creative solutions” to the crisis.

“Our planners did a ton of work—our department heads, operations managers, program managers, vice presidents of medicine, administrators, CEOs—they moved mountains to prepare us,” Finkler said. “Even though we’ve not had to deal with the tsunami [of cases], I think that was incredible.”

He Worked As A Janitor At The University Where He Was Studying. He Died From The Coronavirus Just 20 Credits Shy Of Graduating.

“He was a good person who wanted to leave a mark on the world,” said his fiancé. “And he has done just that.”

Kadia GobaBuzzFeed News Reporter April 28, 2020,

Wayne State University Darrin Adams

Darrin Adams made a living cleaning the halls of Wayne State University in Detroit. As a custodian there for six years, he helped keep the school tidy.

But he was also there to make a new life for himself.

The 54-year-old had spent several stints in prison on theft and drug offenses, according to his fiancé, Raejean Woolfork.

But Adams was determined to turn his life around.

After a couple of years working at the school, he enrolled himself in 2016. He chose to major in sociology, pursuing a bachelor of arts degree.

Eager to learn, he sat in the front rows of his classrooms, dressed in the college's sports swag. He asked nuanced questions and spoke poignantly about issues of race. He had a 3.64 GPA. The university said he was “an all-star student.”

For Adams, this new beginning was sacred. “He made a pact with God that if he got out this time, he would make changes and wouldn’t go back [to prison],” Woolfork told BuzzFeed News.

Adams, though, was not able to finish his dream.

His story of redemption ended on April 3 when he died after nearly a month of having COVID-19 symptoms, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. He was just 20 credits shy of graduating.

Instead, on Friday, Wayne State University officials announced Adams would be posthumously awarded his bachelor’s degree.

“Adams’ commitment to his education and community will be remembered and missed,” officials said.

Tim Boscarino / Michigan State Historic Preservation Office / Creative Commons / Via Flickr: mishpo Wayne State University
Adams first began to experience symptoms on March 13. Three days later, he and his fiancé, with whom he shared a home, came down with fevers — his at 102 and hers at 101. The couple sought help.

They made two separate trips to urgent care. “We had a hard time because nobody would let us in because we had fevers,” said Woolfork, who also tested positive for COVID-19 and is currently awaiting results after quarantining for nearly a month.

After landing at the Ascension Providence Hospital emergency room, each of them tested negative for the flu. They were given antibiotics and instructed to quarantine, according to Woolfork.

“It was crippling," she said. “Our bodies were aching. We were sweating. We had fevers. We couldn’t eat, and the Z-Paks weren’t doing it. So I said, ‘We got to go back and find out what’s going on.’ That’s when I started getting worried. I’d never felt like this before.”

Two days later, the couple returned to the hospital.

During this trip, Adams was diagnosed with double pneumonia and sent home with a prescription for an inhaler and other medications. The comments on his discharge papers noted “worsening conditions,” according to documents BuzzFeed News reviewed. Woolfork said Adams had a history of bronchitis and asthma.

“I just watched him just decline,” said Woolfork. “I mean, I was sick too, but not as sick as he was — because he was having problems breathing.”

She said her fiancé struggled to find a comfortable resting position because of his respiratory complications. He finally resigned himself to sleeping on the living room sofa, where he’d lay until March 23 at 5:30 a.m., when emergency services knocked on the door, responding to his call.

“They didn’t even come inside, because they said they couldn’t get contaminated or whatever,” Woolfork said.

So Adams walked outside of his one-family house and down two steps from his porch; he was put onto a stretcher and admitted to Sinai-Grace Hospital.

“That was the last time I saw him,” said Woolfork.

The same day, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer directed all nonessential businesses to close and signed a statewide stay-at-home order, which went into effect on March 24 at midnight.

Adams died some 10 days later.

Friends and family members characterized Adams as a hard worker, a jokester, and someone who loved to dance. “He always repped the men in the dance battles,” his cousin Darryl Franklin told BuzzFeed News. “He was the life of the party.”

“When he came into the room, he was like a ball of energy,” Woolfork said of her fiancé, who was affectionately called Redd by friends and family.

Adams was also a member of the AmeriCorps Urban Safety Program, working to increase public safety throughout his city. As part of the initiative, he helped board up more than 200 abandoned homes, many of which line routes that children in Detroit walk each day to get to school.

Adams is survived by his own two children — a daughter, Layla, 17, and son, Darrin, 33 — as well as his fiancé and four siblings.

“He was a good person who wanted to leave a mark on the world,” said Woolfork. “And he has done just that.”

“What The Fuck?” Elon Musk Calls Coronavirus Shelter-In-Place Orders “Fascist.”

In an earnings call, the Tesla CEO called public health orders in the Bay Area an "outrage."

Ryan Mac BuzzFeed News Reporter April 29, 2020, at 9:02 p.m. ET

Hannibal Hanschke / Reuters

After an 18-hour span on Twitter, in which he blocked at least one prominent doctor, exchanged tweets with a far-right influencer, and demanded that the US be set “FREE,” Tesla CEO Elon Musk did what he does best. He doubled down.

On a call with analysts and investors following the company’s quarterly earnings announcement, Musk bashed government officials and the Bay Area counties’ shelter-in-place orders, overshadowing what was otherwise a positive quarter for the electric car maker.

“The extension of the shelter in place or frankly I would call it ‘forcibly imprisoning people in their homes against all their constitutional rights’ — that’s my opinion — and breaking people’s freedoms in ways that are horrible and wrong and not why people came to America or built this country,” Musk said in response to a question from an analyst about the company’s liquidity. ”What the fuck? Excuse me. Outrage. It’s an outrage.”

Since calling the coronavirus panic “dumb” in early March, Musk has repeatedly downplayed the impact of a pandemic that has killed 57,505 people in the US alone. He’s said the fatality rate from the disease is “greatly overstated,” pushed potential treatments that hadn’t been properly vetted, and predicted that the United States would have zero new cases by the end of April. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 23,901 new US cases on Wednesday.

Ryan Mac 🙃@RMac18

Musk’s prediction on March 19 vs. reality06:48 AM - 29 Apr 2020
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Musk’s comments on Tesla's public earnings call were his most belligerent denouncement of the government’s response to the outbreak, and came after his company’s factory in Fremont, California, had spent more than a month out of commission because of officials’ shelter-in-place order. That order, which was extended by Alameda and other Bay Area counties to the end of May, infuriated Tesla’s CEO.

"But to say they cannot leave their house and they will be arrested if they do, this is fascist,” he said. “This is not democratic. This is not freedom. Give people back their goddamn freedom."

Despite what Musk said, Alameda County’s shelter-in-place order does not require that people remain in their homes around the clock, and does include provisions allowing them to go out to exercise or shop for goods. The county also allows businesses that have been deemed “essential” — including grocery stores, pharmacies, and banks — to continue operating. Despite an initial period of confusion, Tesla was not given that distinction.

“We are a bit worried about not being able to resume production in the Bay Area,” Musk said. “And that should be identified as a serious risk. We only have two car factories right now: one in Shanghai and one in the Bay Area, and the Bay Area produces the vast majority of our cars.”

Further adding to the chaos of the call, Tesla’s phone line was cut off minutes after Musk delivered his tirade, leaving a bewildered operator wondering where the Tesla CEO and his executives had gone. They later returned to the call to finish answering select questions.

The Tesla CEO’s earnings call rant came after he spent part of Tuesday night tweeting that the government should “give people their freedom back” and “FREE AMERICA NOW.”

Tesla reported earnings of $1.24 a share on revenue of $6 billion during the first quarter of 2020, a period in which analysts anticipated a loss. The carmaker’s shares were up nearly 9% in after-hours trading.

Below are excerpts from Elon Musk from Tesla's Wednesday earnings call:

In response to an analyst's question about Tesla's financial position and liquidity at the end of April:

We are a bit worried about not being able to resume production in the Bay Area. And that should be identified as a serious risk. We only have two car factories right now: One in Shanghai and one in the Bay Area, and the Bay Area produces the vast majority of our cars. All of S and X and most of the 3 and all of the Y.

The extension of the shelter in place or frankly I would call it "forcibly imprisoning people in their homes against all their constitutional rights" — that’s my opinion — and breaking people’s freedoms in ways that are horrible and wrong and not why people came to America or built this country. What the fuck? Excuse me. Outrage. It’s an outrage. It will cause great harm, not just to Tesla, but to many companies. And while Tesla will weather the storm, there are many small companies that will not. And all of people’s — everything they’ve worked for their whole lives has been destroyed in real time. And we’re going to have many and have many suppliers that are on super hard times, especially the small ones, and it’s causing a lot of strife to a lot of people. Yeah.

In response to an analyst's question about Musk's message to lawmakers coming out of the health crisis and whether or not there was an opportunity for the country to grow:

I think it’s high time we invested in infrastructure in this country. We have a lot of crumbling highways and bridges and frankly, when I visit China, I see their infrastructure as being much better than ours. It’s great. Europe has better infrastructure. It’s really quite sad the US infrastructure, especially roads and highways with where it is today. And airports in a lot of cases are an embarrassment. It’s not just a question of money, it’s a question of will. Sometimes we spend a lot of money on these things, but what do we gain for it? We really need to figure out where is the transportation of the future and not the transportation of the past. You know, if this was 1920, do you want to be investing in steam engines or internal combustion engines? Obviously not steam engines.

This is a time to think about the future and also to ask is it right to infringe upon people’s rights as what is happening right now. I think people are going to be very angry about this and are very angry. If somebody wants to stay in their house, that’s great. They should be allowed to stay in their house and they should not be compelled to leave. But to say they cannot leave their house and they will be arrested if they do, this is fascist. This is not democratic. This is not freedom. Give people back their goddamn freedom.

Rudy Giuliani, The Right-Wing Media, And Conspiracy Theorists Are Using American Grants To Chinese Labs To Undermine Anthony Fauci. Here's What They Are Missing.

The National Institutes of Health has given millions of dollars to scientists studying coronaviruses. That funding didn't cause the COVID-19 pandemic.

Jane Lytvynenko BuzzFeed News Reporter April 29, 2020

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Right-wing media and conspiracy theorists have seized on a series of grants awarded over the course of six years to study coronaviruses to undermine Dr. Anthony Fauci, the immunologist who’s been at the helm of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984. The narrative moved to the spotlight at the White House when, during a press conference on April 17, a reporter with Newsmax asked President Donald Trump about the grants, totaling $3.7 million since 2014.

The Daily Mail, a British tabloid known for publishing unreliable stories, first reported the $3.7 million figure on April 11. The paper wrote a story on the funding, parts of which went to the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China. Although the article stated that there’s no evidence the novel coronavirus leaked from the lab, it implied a correlation between the grants and the pandemic: "The revelation that the Wuhan Institute was experimenting on bats from the area already known to be the source of COVID-19 — and doing so with American money — has sparked further fears that the lab, and not the market, is the original outbreak source."

Those questions have had real effects. Politico reported on April 27 that the National Institutes of Health would be revoking grants given to New York–based nonprofit organization EcoHealth Alliance in 2019, including funds for 2020 that the nonprofit now has to return.

But in reality, the grants appear to have nothing to do with the coronavirus pandemic. In fact, they were awarded after a different kind of coronavirus — SARS — spread across the world in 2003. The NIH also didn’t give the funds directly to the Wuhan Institute, instead awarding them to EcoHealth Alliance, which invests in health research globally. The money helped support research that led to 20 research papers on coronaviruses published over the six years, according to the NIH. It’s not clear whether Fauci was personally involved in the grants in any way.

Aside from the Wuhan Institute, those funds also went to research facilities in Shanghai, Beijing, and Singapore. The grants were meant to “support research that aims to understand what factors allow coronaviruses, including close relatives to SARS, to evolve and jump into the human population and cause disease (called a spillover event),” an NIH spokesperson told BuzzFeed News.

“Most emerging human viruses come from wildlife, and these represent a significant threat to public health and biosecurity in the US and globally, as demonstrated by the SARS epidemic of 2002–03, and the current COVID-19 pandemic,” the spokesperson said. “The project includes studying viral diversity in animal (bats) reservoirs, surveying people that live in high-risk communities for evidence of bat-coronavirus infection, and conducting laboratory experiments to analyze and predict which newly discovered viruses pose the greatest threat to human health.”

The grant also wasn’t the first awarded to EcoHealth Alliance. The NIH has been funding infectious disease research projects through the nonprofit since 2005.

But the Daily Mail failed to note that context, as did the Newsmax reporter, who on April 17 asked Trump: "There was also another report [saying] that the NIH under the Obama administration in 2015 gave that lab $3.7 million in a grant. Why would the US give a grant like that to China?”

Newsmax reporter Emerald Robinson did not return a request for comment.

For Joan Donovan, the director of the Technology and Social Change Project at Harvard's Shorenstein Center, the attacks and conspiracies are part of a larger narrative undermining Fauci and his work. “If you don’t trust the scientist, you don’t trust the science,” Donovan said.

And the right-wing media and conspiratorial YouTube channels have used the grants to stoke that distrust.

On April 26, Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani called for an investigation of the grant on a New York morning radio show. Falsely and without evidence, the former mayor of New York implied the virus was created as a biological weapon, blaming Fauci and the administration of President Barack Obama.

“China for the last 10 to 12 years has been carrying on these experiments, including in this Wuhan laboratory, with animals, and actually making this virus more dangerous,” Giuliani said on the show. “You could say that’s for scientific purposes, or you could say that’s for the purpose of weaponizing them.”

“'Paid for the Damn Virus That’s Killing Us': Giuliani Rips Fauci Over Grants to Wuhan Laboratory,” said a Washington Examiner headline on April 26, gathering over 150,000 Facebook likes, shares, and comments.

“Anthony Fauci Should Explain '$3.7 Million to the Wuhan Laboratory'” read a headline in the Washington Times on April 27, which received over 165,000 Facebook likes, shares, and comments.

Rep. Matt Gaetz and Newsweek may have also perpetuated the falsely shaded narrative, but the most popular piece of content about the grants came from the Next News Network, a YouTube channel known for circulating baseless claims, including a fabricated story about President Bill Clinton sexually assaulting a teenager. Hosted by commentator and conspiracy theorist Gary Franchi, the channel has over a million subscribers and surpassed a billion views in December, according to Forbes.

On April 19, the Next News Network posted a video about the grants, which has received over 2.3 million views. In it, osteopath Rashid Buttar drew a direct line between the grant, Fauci, and the pandemic. According to YouTube, the video did not violate the social media company's policies.

“Is Fauci directly responsible for this pandemic?” Franchi asked Buttar in the clip.

“I’m going to say this: I’ve seen some petitions going around." Buttar responded. “I think he’s a criminal. He’s going against the law. He’s going against the government.”

Franchi told BuzzFeed News he was asking Buttar "to clarify his belief that Dr. Fauci’s work with coronaviruses has led to the pandemic.”

He added: “The video as a whole revolves around President Trump responding to a reporter that he is investigating the widely reported 3.7 million dollars sent to the Wuhan Lab in 2015 by the NIH to continue coronavirus research after a moratorium was placed on such research in the United States and Dr. Fauci’s involvement with the funding of that research.”

In addition to spreading conspiracy theories about the pandemic, Buttar has a history of action taken against him by medical authorities. In 2010, the North Carolina medical board reprimanded him for, among other complaints, three cancer patients who sought treatment from him and paid for treatment that had “no known value for the treatment of cancer.”

“Buttar has spent years selling skin drops at $150 a bottle as a treatment for diseases ranging from autism to cancer,” WCNC reported at the time.

In 2013, the FDA sent Buttar a warning letter for promoting and distributing unapproved medical products on his websites and YouTube videos.

Buttar did not respond to a request for comment on his statements about Dr. Fauci.

"The medical board and FDA have a responsibility to make sure doctors don't push too close to the edge," he said in an emailed statement to BuzzFeed News. "The regulatory bodies serve an important function and are needed to safeguard the public."

‘An Ivanka idea’: Internet slams ‘White House’ for selling $100 commemorative COVID-19 coins

April 29, 2020 By Matthew Chapman

On Wednesday, The Daily Beast reported that the White House is now selling $100 commemorative COVID-19 coins, emblazoned with phrases such as “World vs The Unseen Enemy” and “Everyday HEROES Suited Up.”

The proceeds will reportedly be donated to hospitals. Nonetheless, the sales pitch did not impress commenters on social media, who slammed the White House for its crassness.

Time to fleece the rubes on unemployment
— Jim reilly (@daddyjimyanks) April 29, 2020

If true… sounds like an Ivanka idea for sure.

— Robin (@Robin7850) April 29, 2020

“Everyday heroes suited up“, in garbage bags cause of no PPE. @realDonaldTrump
— merrie (@merrieinNYC) April 29, 2020

Trump doesn’t know any heroes but he is well acquainted with liars and degenerates
— oflairkjs (@oflairkjs) April 29, 2020

That is sick!!! Can this administration stoop any lower! What a bunch of losers!!!
— Steelers78/90fan (@Steelers7890fan) April 29, 2020

Suzanne, it was designed by graduates of Trump University.
— [linket] (@Linket2) April 29, 2020

New information comes to light on Trump’s business dealings with the Bank of China: Politico

April 29, 2020 By Alex Henderson, AlterNet

On Friday, April 24, Politico published an article that discussed President Donald Trump and the Trump Organization’s business dealings in Mainland China. Politico journalists Marc Caputo, Meridith McGraw and Anita Kumar originally reported that Trump owed the Bank of China tens of millions of dollars, but Politico later updated the article to include new information. And another Politico article, published on April 27, offers some clarification on the subject.

The original headline for the April 24 piece read, “Trump Owes Tens of Millions to the Bank of China — and the Loan Is Due Soon.” But that headline has since been changed to “Trump Owed Tens of Millions to Bank of China.” Politico changed the headline from present tense to past tense, and the April 27 piece explained why.

“The article cited a nearly $1 billion refinancing deal from several banks, including the Bank of China, struck in 2012 with a New York City real estate venture in which the Trump Organization has a substantial minority interest,” Politico explained on April 27. “We reported that President Trump, through the Trump Organization, owes the Chinese state-owned bank tens of millions of dollars on a loan that comes due in 2022.”

Politico’s April 27 article went on to say, “This assertion, which was referenced in the headline as well as the story, was based on public documents related to the deal as well as property records. We sought comment from the Vornado Realty Trust, the primary investor, which didn’t respond to our request before publication. The White House and the Trump Organization declined to comment on the record after being told what we intended to report.”

But on Friday night, April 24, Politico received a statement from a Bank of China USA representative, who said the bank had sold off or securitized its debt shortly after the 2012 deal discussed in the April 24 article.

According to Politico, “A spokeswoman said the bank has no current financial interest in any Trump Organization properties. We updated the body of the article to take account of the bank’s statement.”

However, the April 24 article — even after the update — still had a sub-headline reading, “The President’s Financial Dealings With the State-Owned Bank Complicate His Attacks on Biden.” Trump has been vehemently critical of former Vice President Joe Biden’s dealings with Mainland China. But Politico’s article, even after the update and new headline, points to the fact that Trump himself has had business dealings with that country — and that attacking Biden over China is hypocrisy

Wednesday, April 29, 2020

Introduction: Response to the Plague in Early Modern Italy: What the Primary Sources, Printed and Painted, Reveal
Franco Mormando
https://www.francomormando.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Mormando-Response-to-Plague.pdf

“Will you believe such things, oh posterity, when we ourselves who see them can scarcely believe them and would consider them dreams except that we perceive them awake and with our eyes open and that after viewing a city full of funerals we return to our homes only to find them empty of our loved ones?” Francesco Petrarca, Rerum familiarum libri, VIII:7, Letter to His “Socrates” on the Black Death

Plague and Art: The Subject of this Exhibition

The Role of Art in Times of Disaster
Unlike the chroniclers (medical or otherwise) of the period, early modern painters did not
primarily seek to document the gruesome effects of the contagion, its horror and destruction.

This was deemed alien to the nature and purposes of what we now call “fine art.” Rather, during these times of social crisis, the role of plague-related art – whether commissioned by confraternities, communes, or private citizens – was, above all, to be an instrument of healing and encouragement, a mirror and a channel of society’s search for solace and cure from the heavens, that is, from God and the saints. While inevitably reflecting society’s anxieties and sufferings in the face of the unconquerable scourge, art served to remind the viewer of the necessity, availability, and efficacy of the various “celestial cures” at their disposal, thus offering comfort and hope in times of despair. Furthermore, specifically ex-voto works of plague art (e.g., cats. 7, 29, 36) rendered another form of comfort and hope inasmuch as they represented for the faithful effective oblational offerings to God or the saints. Let us note that even those works commissioned by civic authorities are explicitly religious in nature, the products of a society utterly defined by Roman Catholicism.

Drawing from a wide reading of the abundant primary sources, this essay will look at
early modern Italian beliefs surrounding the nature and cause of the plague and examine the varied, pro-active measures recommended by civil, medical, and ecclesiastical authorities in the face of the plague or threat thereof. In contemporary parlance, these measures were called “rimedi” (remedies) and we find them repeatedly described in the most widely disseminated, influential primary sources in print. Plague rimedi fall into two categories: “temporal” or “human” remedies (rimedi temporali, umani), that is, medical-social-political measures taken to contain the epidemic, and “spiritual remedies” (rimedi spirituali), those enunciated and mandated by the Church.

Among the latter were special prayer, to Christ, the Virgin Mary, and other heavenly intercessors and protectors against plague; confession and public penitential processions; fasting; almsgiving and other acts of charity (the traditional “corporal works of mercy”); and prayerful meditation upon the inevitability and omnipresence of death and the vanity of this world as well as reward and punishments in the next life. All of these rimedi spirituali, in turn, we find depicted or alluded to in many of the plague-related images produced Hope and Healing in the period for, again, such was the role of art in time of plague, to remind viewers of these efficacious ecclesiastical rimedi at their disposal.

Scholarship on the plague has been largely epidemiological or sociological in nature,
focused primarily on temporal remedies, that is, public health measures (quarantine, sanitation, hospitals, law enforcement, etc.) and political-economic consequences of the pandemics.

This in spite of the fact that there was virtual unanimous agreement among early modern
Italians that the only really effective remedies were spiritual. These spiritual remedies have
received far less attention in modern scholarship than they receive in the primary sources,
printed and painted. This essay – and indeed this catalogue and the exhibition – strives to
correct the balance by focusing on the rimedi spirituali considered central in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries.

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment