Category Archives: Health
Health Podcasts: Hospital Ventilator Shortage Forces Doctors To Make Difficult Choices (WSJ)
Facing shortages of critical equipment, medical workers must make life-or-death decisions about who receives care. WSJ’s Joe Palazzolo reports from an emergency room that’s running short on ventilators, and Chris Weaver explains the plans hospitals are putting in place to decide who gets them.
Arthur Caplan, a bioethicist at NYU’s School of Medicine, talks about how hospitals think about these difficult choices.
Health & Fitness: “What Is Exercise Physiology?” (Penn Medicine Video)
Exercise physiologists are healthcare professionals that work with patients who are deconditioned or have a variety of different health complications. They work with pulmonary and cardiac patients, as well as competitive athletes with a wide range of fitness issues.
Penn Medicine’s Christopher J. Kusmiesz, MS describes his role as “assessing a patient’s fitness level and providing recommendations and guidance so they can improve and reach their health and fitness goals.”
Exercise physiologists at Penn uses patient test results, recommendations from their cardiologist and the patient’s own goals to create an exercise program that is unique to each patient.
New Literary Podcasts: Author James Shapiro On “Shakespeare And Plagues”
Octavian Report “Rostrum” spoke with him about a major theme in Shakespeare’s work and life: disease. Specifically, pandemic plagues, which ravaged London repeatedly throughout Shakespeare’s career, shuttering the theaters, and which appear (obliquely and otherwise) in some of his greatest plays.
The latest episode of the Rostrum’s coronavirus series features James Shapiro, the Larry Miller professor of English and comparative literature at Columbia University, and a leading expert on Shakespeare. Shapiro has published widely on this subject, most recently Shakespeare in a Divided America. He is also an advisor to the Royal Shakespeare Company and to the Public Theater.
James S. Shapiro (born 1955) is Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University who specialises in Shakespeare and the Early Modern period. Shapiro has served on the faculty at Columbia University since 1985, teaching Shakespeare and other topics, and he has published widely on Shakespeare and Elizabethan culture.
Culture & Coronavirus: “Livraria Lello” In Porto Opens World’s First “Drive-Thru Bookstore”
From April 1st, between 10 am and 12 noon, from Monday to Friday, Livraria Mais 
Bela do Mundo will offer one book from its “The Collection” per day to all readers who subscribe the day before to which they intend to address the “Drive-Thru” of Livraria Lello.
Bela do Mundo will offer one book from its “The Collection” per day to all readers who subscribe the day before to which they intend to address the “Drive-Thru” of Livraria Lello..
The same should be done until 6 pm, to the email info@livrarialello.pt , sending your personal data (name, address, email and telephone contact).
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On the day of the survey, the reader will only have to stop the car in front of Livraria Lello and the delivery will be made by a collaborator directly through the window.
On the day of the survey, the reader will only have to stop the car in front of Livraria Lello and the delivery will be made by a collaborator directly through the window.
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This is a true act of “Love in the Times of Cholera” by Livraria Lello and her team towards their readers, their city, which is their world. A way to give the community some comfort and some encouragement in these difficult times.
Survey: Most Americans “Feel Sleepy” 3+ Days Per Week, With Negative Impact On Daily Life (NSF)
Just 16 percent say they don’t feel sleepy at all in a typical week (this excludes sleepiness at bedtime and when waking up). About half, by contrast, feel sleepy anywhere from three to seven days a week. That includes a big gender gap: Women report feeling sleepy 3.4 days a week, on average; men, 2.7 days.
Among the approximately three in 10 Americans who have feelings of sleepiness on five to seven days a week, 52 percent report often or sometimes experiencing irritability when sleepy; 40 percent, headaches; and 34 percent, feeling unwell apart from headaches. Each is far higher than among those with fewer experiences of sleepiness.
Podcasts: How Foreign Governments Are Facing Covid-19 (The Economist)
A selection of essential articles read aloud from the latest issue of The Economist. This week, the role of big government in the time of covid-19, (10:20) assessing the havoc the pandemic is causing in emerging countries, (17:45).
In just a few weeks a virus a ten-thousandth of a millimetre in diameter has transformed Western democracies. States have shut down businesses and sealed people indoors. They have promised trillions of dollars to keep the economy on life support. If South Korea and Singapore are a guide, medical and electronic privacy are about to be cast aside. It is the most dramatic extension of state power since the second world war.
Media: How The Global Press Is Covering The Coronavirus Pandemic
Monocle 24’s Tyler Brûlé is joined by Benno Zogg and Juliet Linley for a look at how the global press is covering the pandemic and whether the tone of the discussion needs a rethink. Plus: Andrew Mueller’s look at what we learnt this week.
Hospitals & Coronavirus: Emergency Room Doctor Discusses Preparing For Cases In Miami Area (NEJM)
NEJM talks with Dr. Julian Flores, who works in a Broward County, Florida, emergency room.
When he was interviewed, the count of Covid-19 cases stood at 412, less than 12 hours later, the new number was 505. He’s expecting the wave to hit hard there. Broward is home to Fort Lauderdale (think spring break) and Pompano Beach (think aging retirees). Couple those demographics with a lack of easy testing for the virus, and you’ve got a worrisome situation.
Health: Scripps Research “DETECT” Wearable APP Study – A Viral Illness Early Warning System
When your heart beats faster than usual, it can mean that you’re coming down with a cold, flu, coronavirus, or other viral infection. That’s the conclusion of recent medical research.
So wearable devices that measure your resting heart rate—made by Apple, Fitbit, Garmin, and others—might help scientists spot viral outbreaks, and also give you more insight into your own health.
Scripps Research designed DETECT (Digital Engagement & Tracking for Early Control & Treatment), a study that will monitor your heart rate and allow you to record symptoms like fever or coughing.
Boomers Daily 