Dear <<First Name>>,
So, as you try to grasp the mind-boggling reality of several more months of the limitations we've had for the past two months, where do you dream of going when you can, well, go?
For veteran pope-watcher and journalist extraordinaire John Allen, Jr., it's a no-brainer to speculate where the late Pope John Paul II, who would have turned 100 next week (May 18), would go. In spite of all his world travels, the getaway of his dreams was not far from Rome - but clearly a world away.
[P]erhaps one way to seek a fresh approach to the Pope John Paul story is to imagine him alive today, and to situate him in the context of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. What would he be thinking and feeling right now?
Not as the pontiff, necessarily, but personally, as someone like the rest of us chafing under quarantine, sitting in the papal apartments and dreaming of what he might do as soon as movement without restriction is possible again.
Though there’s no way to know for sure, I’m willing to bet real money I know the answer. . . . Pope John Paul’s thoughts naturally would turn to his summer vacation — unlike Pope Francis, he actually took summer breaks — and, for 10 of his 26 years, he would head off in July for the tiny hamlet of Les Combes d’Introd in the far northern Italian region of Val d’Aosta, nestled at the foot of the Italian Alps.
For myself, my modest dreams are to reunite with some of the people I love and have missed, and spend some quiet afternoons with them watching birds and butterflies and whatever else happens to be in the neighborhood.
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[P]erhaps one way to seek a fresh approach to the Pope John Paul story is to imagine him alive today, and to situate him in the context of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. What would he be thinking and feeling right now?
Not as the pontiff, necessarily, but personally, as someone like the rest of us chafing under quarantine, sitting in the papal apartments and dreaming of what he might do as soon as movement without restriction is possible again.
Though there’s no way to know for sure, I’m willing to bet real money I know the answer. . . . Pope John Paul’s thoughts naturally would turn to his summer vacation — unlike Pope Francis, he actually took summer breaks — and, for 10 of his 26 years, he would head off in July for the tiny hamlet of Les Combes d’Introd in the far northern Italian region of Val d’Aosta, nestled at the foot of the Italian Alps.
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For myself, my own modest dreams are to reunite with some of the people I love and have missed during this time of isolation, and spend some quiet afternoons with them watching birds and butterflies and whatever else happens to be in the neighborhood.
FYI, although we keep reading of disastrous spread of COVID in senior care facilities, the very stringent lockdown and other safety measures undertaken here at Nazareth House by the administration and the staff have so far kept the virus - at least any symptoms of the disease - far away. Lockdown is strictly enforced here - the last time I was off-campus was March 13 - and everyone's (staff and residents) temperature and overall well-being are carefully monitored every day. Kudos to all who are keeping us safe and healthy.
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Every week or so, my personal physician, Dr. Terry Schaack, sends all his patients an update on what exactly is happening in the medical/scientific world of the coronavirus. I find his information both reliable and informative - the kind of stuff it's hard to finds in the media and political whirlwind. With his permission, I'm sharing his latest, which points out some of the hopeful progress being made:
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May 13, 2020
Dear Patients,
I hope you are all well and enjoying these beautiful Spring days. Many of you have been coming in for COVID-19 antibody testing. Thus far, our office has performed nearly 100 tests with only six positives. Four of the positives were from a single-family home and all had little to no symptoms. On a personal note, it has been unfortunate to provide 78 patients with a “bad news” negative test!! Truly weird times!! Clearly our patients are behaving with physical distancing….
Situation: 4.2M diagnosed cases worldwide. Approximately 1.4M in the US. Lastly, approximately 70k cases in California. On a good note, the incidence of cases continues to decline in New York with NYC reporting its lowest since March 18, 2020. Interestingly, since “stay at home” orders fully lifted in Alabama, Texas, and Tennessee, they are now seeing an increased incidence in cases; however, some of this may be due to increase in testing availability. In Los Angeles, the numbers of COVID-19 patients in ICU’s continues to decrease.
There is a new concern about a condition seen in children involving inflammation of the blood vessels similar to a rare condition called Kawasaki’s disease in association with COVID-19 infection. Kawasaki’s disease usually manifests as high fever, rash, abdominal pain in the setting of a viral illness. The information is too limited at this time to draw any conclusions but I will be following these reports.
Testing: The FDA just approved the Sophia 2 SARS Antigen FIA rapid test for diagnosis of acute infection. This was developed by Quidel Corp of San Diego, CA. It is a nasal swab and takes 15 minutes to complete with results. Where it differs from previous tests is that this particular one tests for proteins unique to COVID-19 whereas the others test for genetic material. It has an extremely low false positive rate but still some false negatives do occur. Again, we will NOT be doing testing for acute COVID-19 in our office to protect our patients and staff.
Research: Clearly, we are learning more at a fast rate and building an armory to minimize morbidity and mortality. Here are several recent trials to note:
- A triple-antiviral therapy regimen of interferon-beta1, lopinavir/ritonavir, and ribavirin shortened median time to COVID-19 viral negativity by 5 days in a trial from Hong Kong. They also saw in the triple regimen group shorter hospital stays and decreased levels of IL-6 which is partly responsible for the cytokine storm that afflicts these patients.
- Remdesivir: this is Gilead’s drug that had a recent randomized placebo controlled trial stopped prematurely due to favorable results. Similarly, they found it shortened hospital stays and mortality. In addition, the NIH is launching a study looking at the combination of Remdesivir and Baricitinib from Eli Lilly Co which is an anti-inflammatory. They are expecting to enroll 1000 hospitalized patients.
- IL-6 inhibitors: Roche/Genentech has tocilizumab (brand name Actemra) and sarilumab (brand name Kevzara) from Sanofi and Regeneron. One of the causes of severe illness in COVID-19 patients is the “cytokine storm.” It is a rapid release of inflammatory chemicals that lead to organ failure including acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). IL-6 is a mediator of this “storm.” However, in studies thus far, both IL-6 inhibitors did not show a beneficial effect though further research is being done.
Vaccines: Currently many (>70) companies worldwide are collaborating and working actively to solving this issue. As B. Graham MD PhD from the NIAID stated in Science: “Judicious evaluation of candidate vaccines in healthy adults in parallel with vaccine studies in animal models and coincident process development to scale-up production capacity provides a path forward with minimal risk to human subjects and the potential for enormous benefit through accelerated COVID-19 vaccine availability.” In other words, our best and brightest will need to work collaboratively and think outside the box in vaccine development utilizing both human and animal research in parallel.
Escape: Now that the hiking trails, golf courses, and beaches have opened and we have perfect So Cal weather, clearly it is time to take advantage of some fresh air.
Wishing you all great health,
Terrys Schaack, M.D.
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Spotting bogus information
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There is so much FAKE NEWS, most of it coming from those who slap that label on anyone who disagrees with them. I have lost some "friends" when I've pointed out falsehoods being propagated on social media. Here are some rules of thumb that I recently ran across for spotting misinformation.
- A shady URL: Fake news sites sometimes use legitimate brand names, but their domain names may end with “.com.co,” “.ma” or “.co.” ABCNews.com.co, now a defunct site, was a famous example.
- Grammatical errors: Fake news writers aren't exactly wordsmiths, so one big giveaway is the number of typos and grammatical errors that make it into their stories.
- Unverifiable information: If an article’s information were legitimately outrageous, plenty of other news outlets would have written about it, too. When in doubt, do a Google search to check if trustworthy publications have reported the same information.
Apply these rules to the next conspiracy theory or sure coronavirus prevention that arrives in your inbox, and see how it fares. And - following a cardinal rule for authenticity - here's the source.
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When you can't go out, go in.
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Since nearly the beginning of this "COVID Confinement," I've been trying to bring regularity into my life by being sure that I get up in the morning in time to produce and post a time-lapse video of each day's sunrise. I haven't missed a morning since March 20. Each video compresses the hour so so around dawn into 30 seconds. Here's the playlist with all 59 of them. All are taken from my second-floor east-facing room. The two days before I started doing this had absolutely spectacular sunrises that I wish I had captured. Two months later, I'm still waiting for one like those. With few exceptions, they have been gray and cloudy or cloudless with the sun popping up into an even blue sky. All are nice, with some variation. But I'm still waiting for a real show.
I'm also doing a daily "Coffee with Fr. Tom" Facebook live chat at 9 am, which runs to about a half-hour. It's usually a somewhat rambling reflection on going deeper inside ourselves to find God-in-action, especially when the external signs of His Presence seem to be lacking. Here's the playlist for all of them. Today, I started something a little new. I had a guest. It's kind of a makeshift arrangement, but I think we had a good conversation. What do you think?
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We began by praying to Our Lady of Fatima for her intercession: Mary shows her mother's love. Mary is our mother simply because she is the mother of the WHOLE Christ, and we are His Body. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure that out. Well, you do have to be a mystic, though. We're often put off by the word "mystic" or "mysticism." We shouldn't be. It's not some "airy-fairy," "new-agey," "head-in-the-clouds" type of thing. It's simply a deepening awareness of the presence of God in one's life, which leads to an awareness of one's unity with God and all creation. Probing those depths is never-ending. Then a few thoughts on "how do we serve?" during these times. "How do we step outside ourselves on behalf of the other?" Especially when it isn't easy . . . (Note: I recommend Richard Rohr's daily meditations. You can find them and subscribe here: https://cac.org/category/daily-medita...) |
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A physician, an engineer, and a politician were discussing who among them belonged to the oldest of the three professions. Each one of them thought they had this in the bag. The physician said, "Remember, on the sixth day God took a rib from Adam and fashioned Eve, making him the first surgeon. Therefore, medicine is the oldest profession." The engineer replied, "But, before that, God created the heavens and earth from chaos and confusion, and thus he was the first engineer. Therefore, engineering is an older profession than medicine." Then, the politician spoke up. "Yes yes, this is all well and true." he said. "But who do you think created all of the chaos and confusion?
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A mechanic was removing a cylinder head from the motor of a Harley motorcycle when he spotted a well-known heart surgeon in his shop. The surgeon was there waiting for the service manager to come take a look at his bike when the mechanic shouted across the garage, "Hey, Doc, can I ask you a question?" The surgeon, a bit surprised, walked over to where the mechanic was working on the motorcycle. The mechanic straightened up, wiped his hands on a rag. "So Doc, look at this engine. I open its heart, take the valves out, repair any damage, and then put them back in, and when I finish, it works just like new. So how come I get such a small salary and you get the really big bucks, when you and I are doing basically the same work?" The surgeon paused, smiled, leaned over, and whispered to the mechanic...
"Try doing it with the engine running."
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Blessings, Peace, and Love,
P.S. If you might like to be a guest on my "Coffee with Fr. Tom" Facebook LIVE - 9 am every morning except Sunday, send me an email and we'll work out the logistics.
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