Smith+Nephew April sales halve as elective surgeries take backseat

Smith+Nephew April sales halve as elective surgeries take backseat
Reuters: Health
British medical products maker Smith+Nephew said on Wednesday sales in April nearly halved as more patients delayed elective surgeries, such as hip replacements, due to coronavirus-driven lockdowns.

Czech population's coronavirus immunity low, antibody study shows

Czech population's coronavirus immunity low, antibody study shows
Reuters: Health
Immunity to the novel coronavirus is building up very slowly in the Czech Republic and likely does not cover more than 4-5% of the population, the health ministry said on Wednesday.

AstraZeneca's diabetes drug gets FDA nod to treat heart failure

AstraZeneca's diabetes drug gets FDA nod to treat heart failure
Reuters: Health
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved AstraZeneca Plc's diabetes drug to reduce the risk of cardiovascular death and hospitalisation for heart failure in certain patients, the drugmaker said on Wednesday.

What you need to know about coronavirus right now

What you need to know about coronavirus right now
Reuters: Health
Here's what you need to know about the coronavirus right now:

Mandatory mass testing may deliver unwanted results: Experts

Mandatory mass testing may deliver unwanted results: Experts If test results lead to ostracisation and discrimination from accessing employment, mobility or even healthcare, it will push people with possible Covid-19 infection to go underground. Interventions of universal precautions such as social distancing, masks and general hygiene, along with voluntary testing is the way ahead to deal with the pandemic. https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

How to Stay Sane While Staying Home: Advice from an Introvert

For loners, recluses, and other solitary types such as myself, sheltering-in-place feels natural and normal.

However scary other aspects of this pandemic might be, for us, this aspect isn’t.

Working from home? Making our own meals? Amusing ourselves? Contactlessness? Not a problem. Not boring. Not weird.

With stay-home orders issued worldwide and offenders arrested for attending funerals and weddings, it’s time that society learned a thing or two from introverts.

That’s new. The mainstream has always mocked, punished, and pathologized us. Society loves … well, society, with all its conversation, eye contact, and crowds.

This is an evolutionary legacy: Our prehistoric ancestors survived by forming clans. Down the millennia, it took whole villages to build barns and defend themselves. Whoever could or would not help with harvests, rituals, or wars was seen as heartless, evil, weird.

Fast-forward to this century, when declining a party invitation sparks rage and misdiagnoses—“Come out of your shell!” “Think you’re too good for us?” “Are you depressed?”—and serial killers promptly inspire such headlines as “Las Vegas Gunman Was a Loner” and “Loner Student Shoots 10.”

But, now, thanks to a microscopic onslaught, extroverts are being forced to act like introverts.

And we, the homebodies and avid solitarians, have the advantage of knowing how to thrive under conditions that feel to the world-at-large like jail or hell.

States of being we always welcomed—isolation, separation, distance—are being required of everyone. For us, a day inside alone is just another lovely day. For extroverts, it means stifling their true natures and doing things they find painful and weird—as if pandemics were not weird enough.

Here are eight recluse-tested tips that anyone can use to make the best of these new isolated, mainly-indoor days:

Catch Up

Whether it’s reading, viewing, learning, or any of those other “ings” you once vowed to sustain but that got submerged in the rush of adult life … dust off those old National Geographics, those thick novels. Now’s the time to watch those kung fu films or car-repair tutorials you’ve bookmarked, and to teach yourself Morse code once and for all.

Clean Up

That messy, overflowing attic, dresser, kitchen, closet, car, desk, shed, garage: Year after year, we dread and thus ignore the dire ordeal of cleaning them, telling ourselves we’re “too busy right now.” Guess who’s not busy anymore? Guess who has tons of time? It feels good to finally scrub, declutter, and reorganize.

Plan Ahead

Quarantine lends us the leisure to ask, then answer, our own questions. Where should I go when travel becomes possible again? What is its history, its botany, and its cuisine? How should I get there, and what should I bring? Which new sport or practice might I explore? These days were made for research. Give your future self the gift of being well-prepared.

Make Stuff

Home sick from school, were you the sort of child who made birdhouses and strung beads? Rekindle that innate creative spirit. Use whatever you can find around your home—no shopping trips required!—to craft, cook, build, and fix. Lonely? Connect with others by creating things to give away or trade or share someday.

Experience This Moment

And the next. That sounds so obvious, but mindfulness is easily forgotten in a crowded world. Take inspiration from sadhus and monks who meditate in treasured solitude. Or make it informal and fun: No need for mudras or mantras; just notice colors, textures, the expansiveness of minutes, and your transient moods and thoughts.

Celebrate Silence

It’s not required under quarantine, but given how close together most of us live, silence is polite. For some, it’s off-putting and unfamiliar. But sit still amid it and you’ll notice microsymphonies: birdsong, the hum of distant highways, rustling leaves, machines—and exquisite spans of strange, vivid soundlessness.

Embrace Acceptance

We’ve been placed into the rare state of having no choice. Unless we want to risk infection or arrest, we must abide by weird new rules. Social distancing and wearing masks and all the rest teaches a larger lesson: how to live with what we have and make the most of it.

Reinvent Yourself

What better time than now—when no one’s watching—to create a virtual chrysalis, rest for a while inside it, then emerge transformed? What would you most want to shed, alter, upturn, adopt? How might you make that possible? In private, dreams start coming true.

This post courtesy of Spirituality & HealthSpirituality & Health.

Photo: Viktor HanacekViktor Hanacek

Give us first-hand information to fight virus, Taiwan asks WHO

Give us first-hand information to fight virus, Taiwan asks WHO
Reuters: Health
Taiwan's health minister asked the World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday to ensure the island had access to first-hand information about the coronavirus, saying that not having the full picture slows down epidemic-prevention work.