Men who hoarded over 17,000 hand sanitizer bottles donate stockpile amid price-gouging probe

Jason Gonzales, Nashville Tennessean

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Two Tennessee men who hoarded over 17,000 bottles of hand sanitizer have donated their stockpile amid backlash and a price gouging investigation.

On Sunday morning, Matt Colvin, an Amazon seller outside Chattanooga, helped volunteers from a local church load two-thirds of his stockpile of hand sanitizer and antibacterial wipes into a box truck for the church to distribute to people in need across Tennessee, according to The New York Times.

Officials from the Tennessee attorney general’s office took the other third. The office is investigating him for price gouging.

Colvin and his brother Noah became the subject of national scorn after The New York Times published a story about how they cleaned out stores of sanitizer and wipes in an attempt to profit off the public’s panic over the coronavirus pandemic.

The article says while people across the country have stockpiled items such as hand sanitizer or antibacterial wipes, internet companies like Amazon and eBay have enacted strict measures to stop those looking to price gouge.

Noah Colvin, of Hixson, took a 1,300-mile road trip in early March across Tennessee and Kentucky, racking up thousands of bottles of hand sanitizer to resell online.

Meanwhile, Matt stayed at home, waiting for pallets of antibacterial wipes and even more sanitizer to be shipped, according to a New York Times article.

The two then sold sanitizer online at a steep markup – $8 to $70 a pop. Amazon quickly removed their listings amid a larger effort to stop coronavirus-related price gouging.

The Tennessee Attorney General's Office ordered the brothers to stop buying and selling medical goods and products following the reports of possible price gouging while an investigation into their actions is underway. 

© USA TODAY If you can't find hand sanitizer for coronavirus prep, you can make it at home. To make homemade hand sanitizer, use two-thirds cup of 99% rubbing alcohol and one-third cup of aloe vera gel. You can add 8 to 10 drops of essential oil like grapefruit, lavender or peppermint.

"We will not tolerate price gouging in this time of exceptional need, and we will take aggressive action to stop it," said Attorney General Herbert H. Slatery III. "During this pandemic, we ask that you report suspicious activity to the Division of Consumer Affairs and refrain from threatening or hostile communication with individuals or businesses you may suspect are price gouging. Our team will review complaints closely and we are prepared to act to protect Tennesseans."

The Colvins told The New York Times that Noah Colvin hit “little hole-in-the-wall dollar stores in the backwoods. The major metro areas were cleaned out.”

Matt Colvin said he was simply fixing “inefficiencies in the marketplace.” Some areas of the country need the products more than others, he said to the Times, and he’s helping send the supply toward the demand. On Sunday he expressed remorse for his actions and said he didn’t realize the gravity of the coronavirus outbreak, or the severe shortage of sanitizer and wipes when he began buying the supplies.

“I’ve been buying and selling things for 10 years now. There’s been hot product after hot product. But the thing is, there’s always another one on the shelf,” he told the Times. “When we did this trip, I had no idea that these stores wouldn’t be able to get replenished.

Contributing: Olivia Krauth, Louisville Courier Journal. Follow Jason Gonzales on Twitter @ByJasonGonzales.







Slide of 20: A man walks next to the empty shelves of a supermarket, as a result of purchases for quarantine due to the Coronavirus, in Buenos Aires, on March 15, 2020. Argentina announced its second coronavirus-related death on Friday and will increase land border controls to prevent the entry of foreigners who have been in areas of high coronavirus circulation. © RONALDO SCHEMIDT, AFP via Getty Images

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Men who hoarded over 17,000 hand sanitizer bottles donate stockpile amid price-gouging probe

He Has 17,700 Bottles of Hand Sanitizer and Nowhere to Sell Them

An Amazon merchant, Matt Colvin, with an overflow stock of cleaning and sanitizing supplies in his garage in Hixson, Tenn.Credit...Doug Strickland for The New York Times

By Jack Nicas
Published March 14, 2020 Updated March 15, 2020

He Has 17,700 Bottles of Hand Sanitizer and Nowhere to Sell Them

Amazon cracked down on coronavirus price gouging. Now, while the rest of the world searches, some sellers are holding stockpiles of sanitizer and masks.

On March 1, the day after the first coronavirus death in the United States was announced, brothers Matt and Noah Colvin set out in a silver S.U.V. to pick up some hand sanitizer. Driving around Chattanooga, Tenn., they hit a Dollar Tree, then a Walmart, a Staples and a Home Depot. At each store, they cleaned out the shelves.

Over the next three days, Noah Colvin took a 1,300-mile road trip across Tennessee and into Kentucky, filling a U-Haul truck with thousands of bottles of hand sanitizer and thousands of packs of antibacterial wipes, mostly from “little hole-in-the-wall dollar stores in the backwoods,” his brother said. “The major metro areas were cleaned out.”

Matt Colvin stayed home near Chattanooga, preparing for pallets of even more wipes and sanitizer he had ordered, and starting to list them on Amazon. Mr. Colvin said he had posted 300 bottles of hand sanitizer and immediately sold them all for between $8 and $70 each, multiples higher than what he had bought them for. To him, “it was crazy money.” To many others, it was profiteering from a pandemic.

The next day, Amazon pulled his items and thousands of other listings for sanitizer, wipes and face masks. The company suspended some of the sellers behind the listings and warned many others that if they kept running up prices, they’d lose their accounts. EBay soon followed with even stricter measures, prohibiting any U.S. sales of masks or sanitizer.

Now, while millions of people across the country search in vain for hand sanitizer to protect themselves from the spread of the coronavirus, Mr. Colvin is sitting on 17,700 bottles of the stuff with little idea where to sell them.

Thanks for reading The Times.Subscribe to The Times


“It’s been a huge amount of whiplash,” he said. “From being in a situation where what I’ve got coming and going could potentially put my family in a really good place financially to ‘What the heck am I going to do with all of this?’”

[Update: Matt Colvin has decided to donate his bottles of hand sanitizer.]

Mr. Colvin is one of probably thousands of sellers who have amassed stockpiles of hand sanitizer and crucial respirator masks that many hospitals are now rationing, according to interviews with eight Amazon sellers and posts in private Facebook and Telegram groups from dozens more. Amazon said it had recently removed hundreds of thousands of listings and suspended thousands of sellers’ accounts for price gouging related to the coronavirus.

Amazon, eBay, Walmart and other online-commerce platforms are trying to stop their sellers from making excessive profits from a public health crisis. While the companies aimed to discourage people from hoarding such products and jacking up their prices, many sellers had already cleared out their local stores and started selling the goods online.

Now both the physical and digital shelves are nearly empty.

Mikeala Kozlowski, a nurse in Dudley, Mass., has been searching for hand sanitizer since before she gave birth to her first child, Nora, on March 5. When she searched stores, which were sold out, she skipped getting gas to avoid handling the pump. And when she checked Amazon, she couldn’t find it for less than $50.

“You’re being selfish, hoarding resources for your own personal gain,” she said of the sellers.

Sites like Amazon and eBay have given rise to a growing industry of independent sellers who snatch up discounted or hard-to-find items in stores to post online and sell around the world.

These sellers call it retail arbitrage, a 21st-century career that has adults buying up everything from limited-run cereals to Fingerling Monkeys, a once hot toy. The bargain hunters look for anything they can sell at a sharp markup. In recent weeks, they found perhaps their biggest opportunity: a pandemic.

As they watched the list of Amazon’s most popular searches crowd with terms like “Purell,” “N95 mask” and “Clorox wipes,” sellers said, they did what they had learned to do: Suck up supply and sell it for what the market would bear.

Initially, the strategy worked. For several weeks, prices soared for some of the top results to searches for sanitizer, masks and wipes on Amazon, according to a New York Times analysis of historical prices from Jungle Scout, which tracks data for Amazon sellers. The data shows that both Amazon and third-party sellers like Mr. Colvin increased their prices, which then mostly dropped when Amazon took action against price gouging this month.

At the high prices, people still bought the products en masse, and Amazon took a cut of roughly 15 percent and eBay roughly 10 percent, depending on the price and the seller.

Then the companies, pressured by growing criticism from regulators and customers, cracked down. After the measures last week, Amazon went further on Wednesday, restricting sales of any coronavirus-related products from certain sellers.

“Price gouging is a clear violation of our policies, unethical, and in some areas, illegal,” Amazon said in a statement. “In addition to terminating these third party accounts, we welcome the opportunity to work directly with states attorneys general to prosecute bad actors.”

Mr. Colvin, 36, a former Air Force technical sergeant, said he started selling on Amazon in 2015, developing it into a six-figure career by selling Nike shoes and pet toys, and by following trends.

In early February, as headlines announced the coronavirus’s spread in China, Mr. Colvin spotted a chance to capitalize. A nearby liquidation firm was selling 2,000 “pandemic packs,” leftovers from a defunct company. Each came with 50 face masks, four small bottles of hand sanitizer and a thermometer. The price was $5 a pack. Mr. Colvin haggled it to $3.50 and bought them all.




Hand sanitizer that Mr. Colvin is keeping in a storage locker.Credit...Doug Strickland for The New York Times


He quickly sold all 2,000 of the 50-packs of masks on eBay, pricing them from $40 to $50 each, and sometimes higher. He declined to disclose his profit on the record but said it was substantial.

--------The success stoked his appetite. When he saw the panicked public starting to pounce on sanitizer and wipes, he and his brother set out to stock up.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Elsewhere in the country, other Amazon sellers were doing the same.

Chris Anderson, an Amazon seller in central Pennsylvania, said he and a friend had driven around Ohio, buying about 10,000 masks from stores. He used coupons to buy packs of 10 for around $15 each and resold them for $40 to $50. After Amazon’s cut and other costs, he estimates, he made a $25,000 profit.

Mr. Anderson is now holding 500 packs of antibacterial wipes after Amazon blocked him from selling them for $19 each, up from $16 weeks earlier. He bought the packs for $3 each.

Eric, a truck driver from Ohio who spoke on the condition that his surname not be published because he feared Amazon would retaliate, said he had also collected about 10,000 masks at stores. He bought each 10-pack for about $20 and sold most for roughly $80 each, though some he priced at $125.

“Even at $125 a box, they were selling almost instantly,” he said. “It was mind-blowing as far as what you could charge.” He estimates he made $35,000 to $40,000 in profit.

Now he has 1,000 more masks on order, but he’s not sure what to do with them. He said Amazon had been vague about what constituted price gouging, scaring away sellers who don’t want to risk losing their ability to sell on its site.

To regulators and many others, the sellers are sitting on a stockpile of medical supplies during a pandemic. The attorney general’s offices in California, Washington and New York are all investigating price gouging related to the coronavirus. California’s price-gouging law bars sellers from increasing prices by more than 10 percent after officials declare an emergency. New York’s law prohibits sellers from charging an “unconscionably excessive price” during emergencies.

An official at the Washington attorney general’s office said the agency believed it could apply the state’s consumer-protection law to sue platforms or sellers, even if

Tennessee, where Mr. Colvin lives, has a price-gouging law that bars people from charging “unreasonable prices for essential goods and services, including gasoline, in direct response to a disaster,” according to a state website. On Saturday, after the The Times published this article, the Tennessee attorney general’s office said it had sent investigators to Mr. Colvin’s home, given him a cease-and-desist letter and was now investigating his case.




Image
Noah Colvin, Mr. Colvin’s brother, moving boxes of hand sanitizer from his brother’s storage locker on Thursday.Credit...Doug Strickland for The New York Times


Mr. Colvin does not believe he was price gouging. While he charged $20 on Amazon for two bottles of Purell that retail for $1 each, he said people forget that his price includes his labor, Amazon’s fees and about $10 in shipping. (Alcohol-based sanitizer is pricey to ship because officials consider it a hazardous material.)

Current price-gouging laws “are not built for today’s day and age,” Mr. Colvin said. “They’re built for Billy Bob’s gas station doubling the amount he charges for gas during a hurricane.”

He added, “Just because it cost me $2 in the store doesn’t mean it’s not going to cost me $16 to get it to your door.”

But what about the morality of hoarding products that can prevent the spread of the virus, just to turn a profit?

Mr. Colvin said he was simply fixing “inefficiencies in the marketplace.” Some areas of the country need these products more than others, and he’s helping send the supply toward the demand.

“There’s a crushing overwhelming demand in certain cities right now,” he said. “The Dollar General in the middle of nowhere outside of Lexington, Ky., doesn’t have that.”

He thought about it more. “I honestly feel like it’s a public service,” he added. “I’m being paid for my public service.”

As for his stockpile, Mr. Colvin said he would now probably try to sell it locally. “If I can make a slight profit, that’s fine,” he said. “But I’m not looking to be in a situation where I make the front page of the news for being that guy who hoarded 20,000 bottles of sanitizer that I’m selling for 20 times what they cost me.”

After The Times published this article on Saturday morning, Mr. Colvin said he was exploring ways to donate all the supplies.
More on Coronavirus Shortages
The World Needs Masks. China Makes Them — But Has Been Hoarding Them.March 13, 2020

Coronavirus Has Caused a Hand Sanitizer Shortage. What Should You Do?March 11, 2020

Some Hospitals Are Close to Running Out of Crucial Masks for CoronavirusMarch 9, 2020

Panicked Shoppers Empty Shelves as Coronavirus Anxiety RisesMarch 13, 2020


Jack Nicas covers technology from San Francisco. Before joining The Times, he spent seven years at The Wall Street Journal covering technology, aviation and national news. @jacknicas • Facebook

SEE
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/03/iconic-distilleries-turn-to-hand.html
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/03/loreal-announces-plans-to-produce-hand.html
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/03/from-vodka-and-gin-to-hand-sanitizer.html
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/03/dior-and-givenchy-to-use-perfume.html
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/03/he-has-17700-bottles-of-hand-sanitizer.html
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/03/new-yorks-solution-to-hand-sanitizer.html

Social distancing: It’s not about you, it’s about us

Jim Sergent, Janet Loehrke and George Petras, USA TODAY

Wash your hands and keep your distance

SOCIAL DISTANCING

© Veronica Bravo


OK IT'S ABOUT YOU
                   NOT SOCIAL DISTANCING

       DO WHAT WE SAY NOT WHAT WE DO

Those are two of the best tools we have right now to slow the spread of coronavirus around the U.S., according to federal health officials.

Washing your hands has long been recommended to combat illnesses like the seasonal flu, but keeping your distance or social distancing is a new tactic that schools, sports teams and government officials fully embraced this week with unprecedented cancellations.

It’s not so much about keeping you healthy as it is about minimizing the number of Americans infected at the same.

The strategy has arisen largely from the coronavirus's long incubation period: the time between exposure to infection and when infection symptoms appear. People start to feel sick five to 12 days after they’ve been infected, according to a study issued by Johns Hopkins University on March 9. However, it's still not clear when infected people can infect others.

Preliminary research suggests those with the virus can unknowingly infect others before symptoms appear, some as soon as two days after infection. Patients are able to spread the infection until they recover.

While coronavirus transmission methods are still being analyzed, the CDC says it's likely spread from person to person by water droplets discharged by sneezes or coughs of an infected person.

Those droplets can be inhaled or even land in the mouths or noses of those nearby. Personal contact is usually between two people six feet apart or less. The virus can also live for hours or days on hard surfaces like desks or doorknobs.

That's why using social distancing to avoid crowds is recommended.

           SIX FEET OF SEPARATION 

Social distancing is different from being quarantined or isolated. While the latter two contain the spread, social distancing is a tool of intervention and mitigation, a way of reducing the viral impact on society by limited personal contact.

NOT SOCIAL DISTANCING

DO WHAT WE SAY NOT WHAT WE DO

It doesn't eliminate the virus but makes it easier to deal with. Social distancing reduces the number of infections and spreads them out over a longer period of time. The results are fewer infections and fewer deaths.

Isolating the sick from the healthy is part of human history, starting in the 14th century when the practice of quarantine began in Europe. With the present-day coronavirus, isolation is used to hospitalize and treat infected people. Isolation lasts until the patient recovers.

Quarantine is separation for those without symptoms, but are suspected of being infected, especially if returning from an infected region. They are placed in a restricted space, their movements are limited, and they are monitored to determine whether they are sick.

People are quarantined until it's certain they're not infected. The standard quarantine period is 14 days.

Both quarantine and isolation are strict measures of bottling up the virus, keeping it in a confined space.

Social distancing is a routine of avoiding crowds, public gatherings, or any place you closely or frequently encounter large groups of people. Public places include schools, shopping malls, sports stadiums, movie theaters and outdoor events.

A number of schools have already canceled classes in favor of online instruction. Cities have blocked events and limited public gatherings and businesses are encouraging employees to work from home. Sports events have been canceled. Some churches have halted worship services.

Social distancing is designed to contain the highly contagious coronavirus. Spreading infection is known as "virus shedding," but time frames differ among diseases.

That means social distancing includes keeping adequate space between you and others, at work and elsewhere. It's meant to protect not only you, but the greater public as well, by eliminating transmission routes of the virus.

SOURCE Annuals of Internal Medicine, March 10, 2020; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; statnews.com; MIT Technology Review; U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration; Harvard Medical School

Biden allies see Warren as potential running mate

Amie Parnes and Max Greenwood

Several of Joe Biden's allies say they could see the former vice president picking Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) as his running mate to help unify the centrist and progressive wings of the party. 

© The Hill Biden allies see Warren as potential running mate

The speculation comes after Biden pledged to pick a woman as his running mate during the Democratic primary debate on Sunday.

Picking Warren would have its drawbacks, however, putting two septuagenarians at the top of the ticket from safe blue states.

"I think she represents a sort of bridge between the moderate land and progressive lane," said one longtime Biden ally who is in touch with the campaign.

"I'm hoping he goes with Kamala," the ally added, referring to Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calf.), who is one of several women mentioned as potential running mates. "I just don't think he'll do it."

Another Biden ally, who has also spoken to the campaign regularly, said Warren "makes the most sense."

"There are a lot of qualified women but she would be the best choice without a doubt," the ally said.

Warren herself before ending her presidential campaign sought to present herself as a unity candidate who could help the Democratic Party's fractious branches come together against President Trump.

"The way I'm going to win is I'm going to unite our party, because we have to have a united party," Warren said at a town hall in New Hampshire last month. "We can't have a repeat of 2016."

"She would definitely help shore up some of his support on the left flank and with women, and especially in the coronavirus crisis [it] definitely helps show a ticket that is qualified, has plans to deal with it," said Democratic strategist Eddie Vale.

Vale and other Democrats said it would be foolish for Warren to not be on a short list for Biden, particularly as Biden has largely embraced her position on bankruptcy as he did in recent days.

Warren hasn't yet endorsed a candidate in the race, though both Biden and his chief rival for the nomination, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), are angling for her support.

Over the weekend, Biden endorsed Warren's bankruptcy plan, saying "few people in the country understand how bankruptcy hurts working families more" than the Massachusetts senator. And in the Democratic debate Sunday, he also acknowledged having a conversation with Warren about the plan over the weekend.

At the same time, Biden has indicated that he wants to pick a running mate with a similar vision for the country as his. That may make Warren a difficult pick.

"For me, I think the most important thing in choosing the vice president is whether or not the person is simpatico with me in terms of where I want to take the country," Biden told MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell in an interview last week.

"We can disagree on tactic but not on strategy," he added. "And so that's the first test. And there are a number of women and African Americans as well who would meet that criteria for me."

Biden himself has pointed to a few possible contenders for the vice president's slot. At a town hall in Iowa in November, when asked whom he would choose as his running mate if he wins the Democratic nomination, he rattled through a list of potential picks, including former acting Attorney General Sally Yates and Stacey Abrams, the 2018 Democratic nominee for Georgia governor.

Other names that have been floated as potential running mates, including Rep. Val Demings (D-Fla.) and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

Some Democrats said that Biden shouldn't just aim to choose a woman as his running mate, but rather a woman of color. Doing so, they argue, would be a nod at the role that African American voters have played in resurrecting the former vice president's campaign in recent weeks.

"I think Joe Biden has to pick a person of color for his VP slot," Michael Starr Hopkins, a Democratic strategist, said. "If you look at what happened in South Carolina and the fact that the African American community saved his candidacy, I don't think it would just be a bad political move to not pick an African American candidate, but it would be a slap in the face."

Starr Hopkins said that the former vice president would be wise to take a serious look at Demings as his eventual running mate.

Demings, a second-term congresswoman and one of the House managers in President Trump's impeachment trial, has been floated as a potential running mate for the eventual Democratic nominee for months. Her clout in Central Florida, a crucial battleground in the state, could help Democrats in their bid to recapture the state in November.

"There needs to be more focus on the map itself when we talk about these VP candidates. It's going to be a close race," Starr Hopkins said. "Democrats need to be thinking about not just these national numbers but how the running mate is going to contribute to the electoral vote."

While Biden's pledge to choose a woman as his running mate may be an acknowledgement of the current mood of the Democratic Party, it's unclear how or whether his eventual choice will play in the general election.

Christopher Devine, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Dayton in Ohio, said that there's little if any evidence that picking a woman running mate has an effect on overall electoral outcomes, noting that in 1984 and 2008, when women were on the ballot as vice presidential candidates, women voters were no more likely to cast their ballots for the Democratic or Republican tickets.

Devine, who's co-authoring a forthcoming book entitled "Do Running Mates Matter?," said that Biden's decision to choose a woman as his running mate is more significant because of what it communicates to voters.

"What this does for Joe Biden is it helps shape how voters are thinking about him," Devine said. "And by pledging to pick a woman running mate, he's saying that he gets it; that he values the contributions of women in his White House and in the policies he carries out."

Dr. Oz Says He'll 'Never Understand' Hoarding Toilet Paper amid Coronavirus Pandemic: 'Stay Calm'

Dr. Mehmet Oz is speaking out about those who have been hoarding toilet paper amid the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.

The health expert went shopping on Saturday evening and came across a scene that has become all too common in stores across the United States: empty shelves that were once stocked with toilet paper.

“I went shopping today and there was no toilet paper. (Much to my chagrin there was plenty of soap.) Why we buy out toilet paper is something I’ll never understand,” he wrote on Facebook alongside a photo of empty store shelves. “Humans are hearty bunch. We’ve fixed problems far under the sea and on the face of the moon…yet we panic buy more toilet paper than we can possibly fit in our carts and cars.”

The physician added, “(1) Don’t panic — keep your distance from people, and if you feel sick, stay home. (2) Buy the essentials for two weeks, no more. Leave supples [sic] for everyone else. (3) Trust in the fact that if you somehow run out of toilet paper, a friendly neighbor would find a way to safely deliver you some.”

Oz also reminded his fans and followers to “stay calm” amid the global pandemic.

“And if it really came to it, our ancestors survived without TP. This is my way of telling you to stay calm and keep your head down. We’ve faced plenty of challenges before, and we’ll figure this one out too,” he concluded.

RELATED: Secretary of Health and Human Services Jokes About Toilet Paper Shortage Amid Coronavirus Pandemic  

© Provided by People Dr. Oz/Facebook; Getty Images

Around the country, stores are struggling to keep their toilet paper in stock. The New York Times reported that a Whole Foods supermarket in Somerville, Massachusetts, limited shoppers to two packages of toilet paper each, a move that is being adopted by more stores around the nation.

Psychologist Mary Alvord, who is also an associate professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the George Washington University School of Medicine, told TIME that this panic buying can be explained by people’s desire for a sense of comfort amid the chaos.

“There is comfort in knowing that it’s there,” Alvord said. “We all eat and we all sleep and we all poop. It’s a basic need to take care of ourselves.”

RELATED: House Passes Trump-Backed Coronavirus Relief Bill, Senate Expected to Vote Monday  

© Provided by People Covid March 14th, Coronavirus

Another health expert, Dr. Steven Taylor, author of The Psychology of Pandemics, also told The Independent that “sensitivity to disgust increases” during a pandemic.

“They are more likely to experience the emotion of disgust and are motivated to avoid that,” he told the outlet. “Disgust is like an alarm mechanism that warns you to avoid some contamination. So if I see a hand railing covered in saliva I’m not gonna touch it, I’m gonna feel disgust. And that keeps us safe.”

“So there is a very tight connection between fear of getting infected and disgust,” Taylor said. “And what better tool for eliminating disgusting material than toilet paper. I think this is how it became a conditioned symbol of safety.”

RELATED: Donald Trump Declares National Emergency — ‘Two Very Big Words’ — Over Coronavirus Pandemic

Similarly, the panic appears to come from the worry of having to be confined to one’s home and not being able to readily stock up on supplies, according to Dr. Jay Zagorsky who told The Boston Globe: “Bulk buying toilet paper eliminates the small risk of running out if quarantined. People might not be able to eliminate the risk of catching coronavirus but they can eliminate the risk of running out of toilet paper, which makes most people feel they have control in this very uncertain situation.”

The New York Times reported that manufacturers and paper industry executives are raising production to meet the demand.

Government and health officials also urge Americans to follow protocols outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to help contain the spread. This includes washing your hands often and social distancing for the time being.

Coronavirus Health Crisis: What It Is, How to Stay Safe and What's Next
As information about the coronavirus pandemic rapidly changes, PEOPLE is committed to providing the most recent data in our coverage. Some of the information in this story may have changed after publication. For the latest on COVID-19, readers are encouraged to use online resources from CDC, WHO, and local public health departments and visit our coronavirus hub.

Lesbian officers sue Michigan corrections department for discrimination

Michelle Wood worked for the Michigan Department of Corrections for 26 years, and she had hoped to make it an even 30. But Wood, 52, said she was forced to leave her job as a prison guard in October 2018 after being subjected to discrimination and harassment because of her sexual orientation. 

© Courtesy Loretta Smith and Michelle Wood Loretta Smith and Michelle Wood.

"The job in and of itself is extremely dangerous and stressful," Wood told NBC News. "It just made it to the point where there was no joy in going in there anymore."

Wood worked at the Thumb Correctional Facility in Lapeer, Michigan, with her girlfriend, Loretta Smith, 53, who was transferred to the facility in 2015. Wood said she was frequently targeted by co-workers, who she said called her derogatory terms for being a lesbian.

The harassment was more than just verbal, Wood recalled. "When I would leave the computer, people would go over and change my screensaver when I wasn't looking," she said. "It just got ridiculous."

Wood took three months of medical leave for stress in 2018 after she was allegedly stalked by a co-worker known to make derogatory statements about gay men. Wood said she was scheduled to make an early morning trip to Flint to get emergency medical care for an inmate when she realized she was being followed.

"It was pretty dark, and he was creeping around between the vehicles," she said of the co-worker. "When my partner was trying to back up, he just jumped right there and scared both of us."

After taking early retirement later that same year, Wood filed a lawsuit in the Wayne County Circuit Court last Monday, in which she alleged that the Michigan Department of Corrections knew about the mistreatment she had been facing and failed to intervene. She said she had reported the incidents to the warden, who declined to get involved, and then eventually escalated her complaints to Heidi Washington, director of the Michigan Department of Corrections.

According to Wood, nothing was done and reporting the harassment only spurred retaliation. She said she started being written up for minor infractions, such as carrying an eyeglass case that her superiors claimed was against regulations, and she was investigated for an alleged sexual relationship with a male prisoner.

"They knew that I was lesbian," she said. "I've been in a committed relationship for 17 years. It was just an onslaught of anxiety and stress."

Wood's attorney, Jonathan Marko, said he has handled approximately 30 cases against the Michigan Department of Corrections and claimed his client's case is the "most heinous, shameful and downright wrong harassment" he's ever seen.

"I represent a lot of people within the prison system," he said. "A common theme in every case is if you're a minority, if you're gay or lesbian, or if you're different, you're not going to be treated the same way as everybody else. Clients referred to it as a 'good old boy' system. It's a macho, white-male-dominated environment."

Marko is also representing Wood's partner, who the attorney said also experienced discrimination and retaliation at Thumb Correctional Facility. After Wood began complaining about mistreatment, Smith was abruptly moved to the "graveyard shift."

"It's the unwanted shift," Marko said. "It's the island of undesirables. Nobody wants to have to work overnight. You have to sleep during the day and go to work at night."

Wood said the abuse they both suffered took an extreme toll on their mental health and their relationship. "Our household has suffered greatly," she said. "It's very difficult to turn that on and turn off when you get home."

The Michigan Department of Corrections, which potentially faces six charges of workplace discrimination over the alleged mistreatment Wood and Smith experienced, has declined to comment on the case. However, a representative of the department told local news outlet Michigan Live that harassment and retaliation are "not tolerated in this department."

"The MDOC takes allegations of discrimination in the workplace, no matter what type — race, sex, orientation, identity — seriously and investigates such claims as soon as they become known to the department," spokesman Chris Gautz told the outlet.

While the couple is seeking damages, Wood said her goal in filing the lawsuit is to help push for fully inclusive nondiscrimination protections in Michigan. The state is one of 29 in the U.S. that has yet to pass a comprehensive state law explicitly banning bias in the workplace on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, according to the Movement Advancement Project, an LGBTQ think tank.

However, last year, the state's newly elected attorney general, Dana Nessel, who is gay, stated that it is her opinion that Michigan's 44-year-old civil rights law, the Elliott-Larsen Act, does include sexual orientation and gender identity in its definition of sex discrimination. This case is likely to test Nessel's interpretation of the law, which her predecessor as attorney general, Bill Schuette, had claimed did not protect LGBTQ people.

Wood hopes that her case helps set a precedent to ensure that she and her partner have the same rights as all other Michigan residents.

"We're people, we're human beings," Wood said. "We just happen to be in a lesbian relationship. We have the same feelings and the same emotions as everyone else. I just would like to see them extend the law to cover us as a protected group."

Cash handouts are gaining support in Congress as best virus fix

Cash handouts to all American households are gaining support in Congress as the best way to shore up an economy brought to a near-standstill by the coronavirus.

Republican Sen. Mitt Romney gave his backing to the idea on Monday, proposing to immediately send $1,000 checks to every adult American, and Republican Senator Tom Cotton also said he is working on legislation that would provide cash stipends. Several House Democrats also back sending checks as the best way to help households.

Among economists, the idea of across-the-board cash handouts as a response to the epidemic has been rapidly gaining support. That’s mainly because the scale of the shock has become much clearer, as swaths of the economy -- from air travel to bars and restaurants -- essentially shut down.

As a result, analysts worry that some of the virus-relief proposals already in the pipeline will be too narrow.

A bill to expand paid sick leave, for example, is now awaiting a vote in the Senate, but many service-industry employees will be stuck at home because their workplace is closed, not because they’re ill. And people in temporary work may be excluded.

Sending checks to all Americans would also help households keep current with bills, from rent to payments due on various kinds of loans, while the economy powers down. It’s a way of ensuring that people don’t lose their homes or see their credit scores tumble because of a severe but temporary downturn caused by an epidemic.

The checks could also help prevent loan defaults, which can ripple through the financial system and cause further losses as happened during the 2008 crisis.

© Bloomberg A "Closed" sign is displayed outside of a business in New Rochelle, New York on March 16.

The White House is interested in the idea. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who brokered the most recent coronavirus bill with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, has said the administration might be open to such payments in the form of a refundable tax credit, noting on Fox News Sunday,: “That has certain advantages of we can inject money really quickly.”

Democratic Representatives Tim Ryan of Ohio and Ro Khanna of California are proposing to send checks to Americans who earn less than $65,000, which would mean approximately two-thirds of households would qualify. Those checks would range from $1,000 to $6,000 depending on income.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said Monday he will propose a $750 billion package that would would “mainline money into economy and directly into the hands of families that need it most.”

The proposals are an alternative to a payroll tax cut, which President Donald Trump has advocated for in recent weeks. Proponents say it is more effective because it gets the money into taxpayers hands more quickly and doesn’t require someone to be employed to get the benefit.

High-profile economists backing stimulus checks as a response include Gregory Mankiw, an economic adviser to President George W. Bush, and his Harvard colleague Jason Furman, who played the same role for the Obama administration.

Mankiw wrote in a blog post last week that many Americans don’t have any savings, and it’s hard to identify “the truly needy,” so blanket handouts make sense in the current crisis. “Sending every American a $1000 check asap would be a good start,” he wrote.

Read more: Why Central Banks Can’t Fight a Virus Slowdown Alone: QuickTake

Furman made a similar proposal in a March 5 article in the Wall Street Journal, calling for payments of $1,000 per adult and $500 for each child. He said sending out checks is a better fix than payroll-tax cuts, which Furman said would be “too slow and dispersed.”

However, taxpayers may not see cash in their bank accounts immediately, said Mattie Duppler, a senior fellow at the National Taxpayers Union, said. Stimulus checks sent out in 2009 as a response to the financial crisis took more than two months to reach taxpayers -- President Barack Obama signed it into law in February and checks hit the mail in May.

”Seventy days is a long time right now,” Duppler said.

There's an unlikely beneficiary of coronavirus:

 The planet

By Rebecca Wright, CNN








china pollution

Factories were shuttered and streets were cleared across China's Hubei province as authorities ordered residents to stay home to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

It seems the lockdown had an unintended benefit -- blue skies.

The average number of "good quality air days" increased 21.5% in February, compared to the same period last year, according to China's Ministry of Ecology and Environment.

And Hubei wasn't alone.

Satellite images released by NASA and the European Space Agency show a dramatic reduction in nitrogen dioxide emissions -- those released by vehicles, power plants and industrial facilities -- in major Chinese cities between January and February. The visible cloud of toxic gas hanging over industrial powerhouses almost disappeared.


"This is the first time I have seen such a dramatic drop-off over such a wide area for a specific event," says Fei Liu, an air quality researcher at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. "I am not surprised because many cities nationwide have taken measures to minimize the spread of the virus."

A similar pattern has emerged with carbon dioxide (CO2) -- released by burning fossil fuels such as coal.

From February 3 to March 1, CO2 emissions were down by at least 25% because of the measures to contain the coronavirus, according to the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), an air pollution research organization.

As the world's biggest polluter, China contributes 30% of the world's CO2 emissions annually, so the impact of this kind of drop is huge, even over a short period. CREA estimates it is equivalent to 200 million tons of carbon dioxide -- more than half the entire annual emissions output of the UK.

"As a measure that took place effectively overnight, this is more dramatic than anything else that I've seen in terms of the impact on emissions," said Lauri Myllyvirta, lead analyst at CREA.

But while lockdown measures designed to stem the spread of the virus have caused a momentary uptick in China's pollution levels, experts warn that when the county starts to reboot its economy the toxic chemicals could up to higher levels than before the epidemic hit.

Coal consumption falls

A fall in oil and steel production, and a 70% reduction in domestic flights, contributed to the fall in emissions, according to the CREA. But the biggest driver was the sharp decline in China's coal usage.

China is the world's biggest producer and consumer of coal, using this resource for 59% of its energy in 2018. As well as running power plants and other heavy industries, coal is also the sole heat source for millions of homes in the vast rural areas of the country.

The country's major coal-fired power stations saw a 36% drop in consumption from February 3 to March 1 compared to the same period last year, according to CREA analysis of WIND data service statistics.

"The largest consumers of coal -- coal-fired power plants -- have been affected a lot because electricity demand is down," said Myllyvirta. "I think it's clear that this effect will continue for the next weeks and months, because there has also been a major impact on the demand side of the economy."

In 2017, President Xi Jinping promised to make combating pollution one of China's "three battles," and the following year the Ministry of Ecology and Environment was created.

The policies have resulted in a significant impact, with overall pollution levels 10% lower across Chinese cities between 2017 and 2018, according to a report released last year by Greenpeace and AirVisual.











Slide 1 of 49: WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND - MARCH 17: Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern speaks to media at a press conference following a COVID-19 financial response package announcement at Parliament on March 17, 2020 in Wellington, New Zealand. The New Zealand finance minister Grant Robertson has announced a $12.1 billion package in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The package contains an initial $500 million for health services, $8.7 billion in support for businesses and jobs and $2.8 billion for income support and boosting consumer spending.
1/49 SLIDES © Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images
The world is battling an outbreak of a new coronavirus called COVID-19, which started in the city of Wuhan, China, and has been spreading since. The virus has claimed more than 5,000 lives and infected more than 100,000 people around the world. The World Health Organization declared a global pandemic on March 11.
Slideshow by photo services


Climate activists say the crisis could provide a window to ramp up these promised reforms.

"We would very much advocate for China to foster this opportunity to transform its economy, to break apart from the old," said Li Shuo, a senior climate policy adviser for Greenpeace East Asia. 

"Revenge pollution"

The concern, Li said, is that once the coronavirus threat has passed, China will be solely focused on restarting its economy, which was already hurting in the wake of the US-China trade war. That could come at the expense of the environment.

"There might be a round of economic stimulus which would inject cheap credits to heavy industries in China, and as a result of that we might see increasing pollutants and also carbon emissions in the second half of this year," Li added.


This bounce-back effect -- which can sometimes reverse any overall drop in emissions -- is something Li calls "revenge pollution." And in China it has precedent.


In 2009, the Chinese government launched a giant $586 billion stimulus package in response to the global financial crisis -- the majority of which went to large-scale infrastructure projects.

But the resulting explosion in pollution in the following years -- particularly in the "airpocalypse" winter of 2012-2013 -- led to a public outcry which ushered in the Chinese government's first national air pollution action plan in September 2013.

President Xi has made clear that workers and factories need to ramp up activity as soon as possible if the country is to avoid a steeper economic downturn.

Myllyvirta hopes China has learned lessons from the past.

"It was really those previous episodes where it boiled over," says Myllyvirta, who also warns of a public backlash if the skies turn gray again.

"The reduction in air pollution has been very clear so if the pollution does come back, because of stimulus measures, because of heavy industry going into overdrive to make up for lost time, there could be a counter reaction."
Hong Kong pollution falls

In neighboring Hong Kong, air quality has also improved since the city entered partial shutdown mode to combat the spread of the coronavirus.

Key air pollutants dropped by nearly a third from January to February, according to data from Hong Kong University School of Public Health, which was analyzed by environmental organization Clean Air Network.

Monitoring of stations in the busiest areas of Hong Kong, including Central, Causeway Bay and Mongkok, revealed that the fine particle pollutant PM2.5 decreased by 32%, while the larger particle pollutant PM10 fell by up to 29%, and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) was reduced by up to 22%.

Pollution in the city is mostly caused by motor vehicles, marine vessels, and power plants in Hong Kong and around the Pearl River Delta, the government says.

The declines in harmful pollutants came in direct correlation with the Hong Kong government's introduction of measures including working from home procedures, the closure of some public facilities, and a partial closure of the border with China. A drop in pollution in mainland China during this period also resulted in less regional smog from the industrial powerhouse cities in the southern province of Guangdong.

"There are lots of people who work from home, and that has reduced the traffic and the traffic congestion," said Patrick Fung, chairman of the Clean Air Network. Hong Kong's measures were nowhere near as drastic as those in mainland China, but there was still a significant impact.

Fung has been campaigning about the long-term health impact of the air pollution in Hong Kong, which he says causes on average 1,500 premature deaths per year in the city.

"For the last decade, Hong Kong's air pollution has been double the World Health Organization's recommended safe level," Fung says. "Especially at the roadside, where a lot of pedestrians and commuters are exposed to that kind of toxic and carcinogenic air pollutants."

Hong Kong's government did introduce a raft of green policies in its recent budget, including a roadmap on cleaner public transport vehicles. Fung says the announcement was a good "first step," but much more needs to be done.

Now, Fung believes this brief period of cleaner air should send a message for people to push for longer-term changes. "If we want the children, the elderly, who could live healthily in Hong Kong, then we should think how to make business as usual change," Fung says. 

-

Ecosystems the size of Amazon 'can collapse within decades'

Jonathan Watts Global environment editor

The research reveals that once a tipping point has been passed, breakdowns do not occur gradually like an unravelling thread, but rapidly like a stack of Jenga bricks after a keystone piece has been dislodged.

The authors of the study, published on Tuesday in the Nature Communications journal, said the results should warn policymakers they had less time than they realised to deal with the multiple climate and biodiversity crises facing the world.

To examine the relationship between an ecosystem’s size and the speed of its collapse, the authors looked at 42 previous cases of “regime shift”. This is the term used to describe a change from one state to another – for example, the collapse of fisheries in Newfoundland, the death of vegetation in the Sahel, desertification of agricultural lands in Niger, bleaching of coral reefs in Jamaica, and the eutrophication of Lake Erhai in China.

© Getty amazon rainforest, ecuador. 

(Photo by: Prisma by Dukas/UIG via Getty Images)

They found that bigger and more complex biomes were initially more resilient than small, biologically simpler systems. However, once the former hit a tipping point, they collapse relatively faster because failures repeat throughout their modular structure. As a result, the bigger the ecosystem, the harder it is likely to fall.


Based on their statistical analysis, the authors estimate an ecosystem the size of the Amazon (approximately 5.5m km2) could collapse in approximately 50 years once a tipping point had been reached. For a system the size of the Caribbean coral reefs (about 20,000 km2), collapse could occur in 15 years once triggered.

The paper concludes: “We must prepare for regime shifts in any natural system to occur over the ‘human’ timescales of years and decades, rather than multigenerational timescales of centuries and millennia.

“Humanity now needs to prepare for changes in ecosystems that are faster than we previously envisaged through our traditional linear view of the world, including across Earth’s largest and most iconic ecosystems, and the social-ecological systems that they support.”

The paper says this could be the case in Australia where the recent Australian bushfires followed protracted periods of drought and may indicate a shift to a drier ecosystem.

© Getty Bush fire near Charter Towers in Queensland, Northern Australia. (Photo by: David Tipling/UIG via Getty Images)

Scientists were already aware that systems tended to decline much faster than they grew but the new study quantifies and explains this trend.

“What is new is that we are showing this is part of a wider story. The larger the system, the greater the fragility and the proportionately quicker collapses,” John Dearing, professor in physical geography at the University of Southampton and lead author of the study, said.

“What we are saying is don’t be taken in by the longevity of these systems just because they may have been around for thousands, if not millions, of years – they will collapse much more rapidly than we think.”

Dearing said he was concerned that one of the possible implications of the study was that complete destruction of the Amazon could occur within his grandchildren’s lifetimes.

© Reuters Indigenous people from the Mura tribe show a deforested area in unmarked indigenous lands, inside the Amazon rainforest near Humaita, Amazonas State, Brazil August 20, 2019. Picture taken August 20, 2019. REUTERS/Ueslei Marcelino

“This is a paper that is satisfying from a scientific point of view, but worrying from a personal point of view. You’d rather not come up with such a set of results,” he said.

A separate study last week warned the Amazon could shift within the next decade into a source of carbon emissions rather than a sink, because of damage caused by loggers, farmers and global heating.

Experts said the new findings should be a spur to action.

“I think the combination of theory, modelling and observations is especially persuasive in this paper, and should alert us to risks from human activities that perturb the large and apparently stable ecosystems upon which we depend,” said Georgina Mace, professor of biodiversity and ecosystems at University College London, who was not involved in the studies.

Gallery: 50 endangered species that only live in the Amazon


“There are effective actions that we can take now, such as protecting the existing forest, managing it to maintain diversity, and reducing the direct pressures from logging, burning, clearance and climate change.”

These views were echoed by Ima Vieira, an ecologist at Museu Emílio Goeldi in Belém, Brazil. “This is a very important paper. For Brazil to avoid the ecosystem collapse modelled in this study, we need to strengthen governance associated to imposing heavy fines on companies with dirty supply chains, divestment strategies targeting key violators and enforcement of existing laws related to environmental crimes. And we have to be quick.”

However, the methodology was not universally accepted. Erika Berenguer, a senior research associate at the University of Oxford and Lancaster University, said the regime shifts paper relied too much on data from lakes and oceans to be useful as an indicator of what would happen to rainforests.

“While there is no doubt the Amazon is at great risk and that a tipping point is likely, such inflated claims do not help either science or policy making,” she said.

The authors said their study was not a forecast about a specific region but a guide to the speed at which change could occur.

Mysterious bone circles made from the remains of mammoths reveal clues about Ice Age

by University of Exeter

The majority of the bones found at the site investigated, in the Russian Plains, are from mammoths. A total of 51 lower jaws and 64 individual mammoth skulls were used to construct the walls of the 30ft by 30ft structure and scattered across its interior. Credit: Alex Pryor

Mysterious bone circles made from the remains of dozens of mammoths have revealed clues about how ancient communities survived Europe's ice age.

About 70 of these structures are known to exist in Ukraine and the west Russian Plain.

New analysis shows the bones at one site are more than 20,000 years old, making it the oldest such circular structure built by humans discovered in the region. The bones were likely sourced from animal graveyards, and the circle was then hidden by sediment and is now a foot below current surface level.

The majority of the bones found at the site investigated, in the Russian Plains, are from mammoths. A total of 51 lower jaws and 64 individual mammoth skulls were used to construct the walls of the 30ft by 30ft structure and scattered across its interior. Small numbers of reindeer, horse, bear, wolf, red fox and arctic fox bones were also found.

Archaeologists from the University of Exeter have also found for the first time the remains of charred wood and other soft non-woody plant remains within the circular structure, situated just outside the modern village of Kostenki, about 500km south of Moscow. This shows people were burning wood as well as bones for fuel, and the communities who lived there had learned where to forage for edible plants during the Ice Age. The plants could also have been used for poisons, medicines, string or fabric. More than 50 small charred seeds were also found—the remains of plants growing locally or possibly food remains from cooking and eating.

The majority of the bones found at the site investigated, in the Russian Plains, are from mammoths. A total of 51 lower jaws and 64 individual mammoth skulls were used to construct the walls of the 30ft by 30ft structure and scattered across its interior. Credit: Alex Pryor

Dr. Alexander Pryor, who led the study, said: "Kostenki 11 represents a rare example of Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers living on in this harsh environment. What might have brought ancient hunter gatherers to this site? One possibility is that the mammoths and humans could have come to the area on masse because it had a natural spring that would have provided unfrozen liquid water throughout the winter—rare in this period of extreme cold.

"These finds shed new light on the purpose of these mysterious sites. Archaeology is showing us more about how our ancestors survived in this desperately cold and hostile environment at the climax of the last ice age. Most other places at similar latitudes in Europe had been abandoned by this time, but these groups had managed to adapt to find food, shelter and water."


The last ice age, which swept northern Europe between 75-18,000 years ago, reached its coldest and most severe stage at around 23-18,000 years ago, just as the site at Kostenki 11 was being built. Climate reconstructions indicate at the time summers were short and cool and winters were long and cold, with temperatures around -20 degrees Celsius or colder. Most communities left the region, likely because of lack of prey to hunt and plant resources they depended upon for survival. Eventually the bone circles were also abandoned as the climate continued to get colder and more inhospitable.

Previously archaeologists have assumed that the circular mammoth bone structures were used as dwellings, occupied for many months at a time. The new study suggests this may not always have been the case as the intensity of activity at Kostenki 11 appears less than would be expected from a long term base camp site.

The majority of the bones found at the site investigated, in the Russian Plains, are from mammoths. A total of 51 lower jaws and 64 individual mammoth skulls were used to construct the walls of the 30ft by 30ft structure and scattered across its interior. Credit: Alex Pryor

Other finds include more than 300 tiny stone and flint chips just a few millimetres in size, debris left behind the site's inhabitants as they knapped stone nodules into sharp tools with distinctive shapes used for tasks such as butchering animals and scraping hides.

The research, conducted by academics from the University of Exeter, University of Cambridge, Kostenki State Museum Preserve, University of Colorado Boulder and the University of Southampton, is published in the journal Antiquity.

Discovery of rare Roman cattle bones sheds new light on ancient farming

The potential of lucid dreaming and virtual reality to treat combat-related PTSD

by Ingrid Fadelli , Medical Xpress

Credit: Shahzin Shajid, Unsplash.

In recent years, experts in the field of transcultural psychiatry have been trying to identify alternative approaches for treating mental health disorders that could enhance traditional Western psychotherapeutic practices. One of these alternative techniques is lucid dreaming, which entails teaching individuals to become aware that they are dreaming and potentially gain control over a dream's narrative.

Some science fiction movies, such as "Avatar" and "Inception," introduced imaginative examples of how lucid dreaming or entering virtual realities could help to treat a particular segment of the population: soldiers affected by post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The high-tech and imaginary realities portrayed in these movies inspired independent researcher Susan Smith to write a paper focusing on the potential use of lucid dreaming for treating post-combat PTSD, which was published in SAGE's Transcultural Psychiatry journal.

"My initial academic interest started with looking at disability and the wounded war hero in science fiction, which then led my research to the medical humanities and psychiatry," Smith told MedicalXpress. "In my recent study, I take on a critical medical humanities approach with the main objective of raising awareness about the healing potential of transcultural psychiatry for treating PTSD, while critiquing the inherent bias of war underpinned by military-funded medicine in Western society."

Smith's recent study stems out of her past work focusing on disability, rehabilitation and military medicine, as well as on their relatable representation in science fiction stories. In her considerations, she combines theoretical constructs and ideas rooted in different disciplines, including psychology, psychiatry and media studies.

"Popular science fiction movies "Avatar' and "Inception' provide a cultural register for imagining how alternate treatments like lucid dreaming or virtual worlds have the potential to empower soldiers to manage and cope with long-term combat related mental health conditions," Smith explained.

Over the past decade or so, a number of media articles claimed that the United States military is experimenting with technologies and techniques depicted in popular science fiction movies, including "Avatar" and "Inception," assessing their potential in helping war veterans affected by PTSD to better cope with disturbing nightmares "Inception," a renowned sci-fi movie directed by Christopher Nolan and released in 2010, portrays a reality in which experts can alter people's thoughts by entering their dreams using technology that vaguely resembles virtual reality (VR). Similarly, in "Avatar," a movie directed by James Cameron and released in 2009, the consciousness of a disabled soldier is transferred into a genetically engineered body, which acts as his avatar during a war.

In her study, Smith discusses the potential of using similar techniques to assist war veterans affected by PTSD, teaching them to manipulate their unconscious and conscious mind. While her work is primarily based on theories and speculation, it highlights some of the possible benefits that these techniques could have in psychotherapeutic settings. Her considerations could pave the way for further transcultural psychiatry studies aimed at devising innovative therapeutic approaches that integrate the use of lucid dreaming, VR or other techniques resembling to those depicted in science fiction movies.

"My paper suggests that a critical engagement with rehabilitation medicine and military psychology and psychiatry is essential for confronting western society's culture of war, which continues to present the American soldier as salvageable and invincible," Smith said. "In my future work, I plan to investigate this topic further by analyzing recent media reports on the robot psychiatrist/virtual therapist currently trialled in military medicine for assessing the mental health and wellbeing of soldiers returning from active duty to civilian life.