COVID-19 Update
Masks: Wearing a mask does not protect you 100% from transmitting or catching the virus, but it CAN help when out on essential tasks or if you are taking care of someone ill. Here is a good VIDEO on the subject including how to make a home-made one. When out, wear a mask and practice disciplined Social Distancing. Wash your hands. Stay at Home.
Bill Gates: is spending BILLIONS to build factories for 7 promising coronavirus vaccines. The Gates Foundation – with its deep expertise in infectious diseases – can mobilize faster than governments. Gates is picking the top 7 from the available vaccine candidates and building manufacturing capacity for them. They plan to fund factories for all seven – but only use around two – so they don’t waste time. Simultaneously testing and building manufacturing capacity is essential to reach the best-case fastest developed version of a vaccine. Bill and Melinda Gates have already pledged $100 million towards fighting the coronavirus, and the Gates Foundation has shipped at-home coronavirus test kits to people in Washington State. Gates also urged the government to enforce stricter lockdown measures in every state, and estimated that the US will need another 10 weeks of nationwide shutdown to effectively deal with the crisis. (Business Insider)
“Now, in a divided country, efficient and farsighted government is necessary to overcome obstacles unprecedented in magnitude and global scope. Sustaining the public trust is crucial to social solidarity, to the relation of societies with each other, and to international peace and stability.”
The University of Pittsburgh: School of Medicine scientists today announced a potential vaccine against SARS-CoV-2, the new coronavirus causing the COVID-19 pandemic. When tested in mice, the vaccine, delivered through a fingertip-sized patch, produces antibodies specific to SARS-CoV-2 at quantities thought to be sufficient for neutralizing the virus. (Science Daily)
Giving Back: The feel-good effects of giving begin in the brain. The response is triggered by brain chemistry in the mesolimbic pathway, which recognizes rewarding stimuli. Philanthropy doles out several different happiness chemicals including dopamine, endorphins that give people a sense of euphoria and oxytocin, which is associated with tranquility, serenity or inner peace. Evolution isn’t merely the survival of the fittest individual but is dependent on the group or community living and working together. This evolutionary theory of group selection could help explain why the brain responds to generosity in a similar way as it does to behaviors necessary for life. One study revealed volunteerism reduced mortality rates more than exercising four times weekly. Charitable donations trigger the mesolimbic system in much the same way.
I’m excited to get y’all’s feedback!