The Week’s End // Coronavirus Edition

This week has been overwhelming, to say the least. A lot of us have been away from work, friends and family, and a lot of us have been working overtime to keep society moving and to care for those most in need. The weekend is on the way now, and my hope is that all of us get a chance to rest and to catch up.

I know we’re all tired of hearing about the coronavirus but I felt it was important to do my part this week by sharing a round up of thoughtful, informative, and trustworthy articles and information on the rapidly spreading virus and our current situation.

I promise that if I post a round-up next week, it will be about anything but this pandemic, but for now, here are some interesting things on the coronavirus outbreak I found around the web this week:

1. “‘The Plague’ isn’t trying to panic us, because panic suggests a response to a dangerous but short-term condition from which we can eventually find safety. But there can never be safety—and that is why, for Camus, we need to love our fellow damned humans and work without hope or despair for the amelioration of suffering. Life is a hospice, never a hospital.” — Opinion | Camus on the Coronavirus Bonus: What We Can Learn (and Should Unlearn) From Albert Camus’s The Plague

2. “The Centers for Disease Control recommends we all take steps to clean and sanitize high-touch surfaces in our homes. Below, we get into the weeds of how long the virus might last on surfaces, which disinfectants may kill it, and the steps you should take to keep clean.” — How to Disinfect Everything: Coronavirus Home Cleaning Tips

3. “But social distancing is really better characterized as physical distancing — the social part of it just needs to become more virtual for the time being. Social solidarity has never been more needed.” — Coronavirus: Why social distancing is a thankless task

4. “No one would ever wish for a pandemic to create this scene, which is inextricable from an unfolding financial collapse, extreme social isolation and an untold cost in lives. Yet as leaders grapple with how to heal society in the wake of this extraordinary crisis, and prepare for a future that still includes climate change, it might offer an image of what is possible.” — The Mobility Impacts of Coronavirus

5. “This is not the last major outbreak we’re ever going to see. There’s going to be more outbreaks, and there’s going to be more epidemics. That’s not a maybe. That’s a given. And it’s a result of the way that we, as human beings, are interacting with our planet.” — Why COVID-19 is hitting us now—and how to prepare for the next outbreak

6. “The novel coronavirus is affecting more and more people every day. Businesses are closing. Jobs are on the line. The Red Cross is running low on blood supply. Fortunately, there are ways to help ease some of the burden for others.” — Coronavirus pandemic: 6 things you can do to help Bonus: Go to smile.amazon.com and choose a charity to support with a small percentage of anything you buy.

7. “So now isn‘t a time for panic, but it is a time for preparation—to be ready for weeks or even months when much is shut down.” — Preparing to shelter in place for coronavirus: A printable guide to what you need at home

8. “All over America, the coronavirus is revealing, or at least reminding us, just how much of contemporary American life is bullshit, with power structures built on punishment and fear as opposed to our best interest. Whenever the government or a corporation benevolently withdraws some punitive threat because of the coronavirus, it’s a signal that there was never any good reason for that threat to exist in the first place.” — The coronavirus is exposing the arbitrary, cruel realities of America’s rules.

9. “Hence, today, there is almost no sphere or arena of American life in which the values of predatory capitalism don’t predominate or monopolize. Because society is made up more or less only of predatory capitalism, only those values can ever be expressed. Not even in, say, media, not healthcare, not education — which, in other rich countries, because they are not run for profit, are arenas in which softer and gentler qualities can be expressed, like decency, reason, dignity, purpose, meaning, belonging, truth, care, mercy.” — The Origins of America’s Unique and Spectacular Cruelty

10. “That said, the president and his administration are responsible for grave, costly errors, most especially the epic manufacturing failures in diagnostic testing, the decision to test too few people, the delay in expanding testing to labs outside the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and problems in the supply chain. These mistakes have left us blind and badly behind the curve, and, for a few crucial weeks, they created a false sense of security.” — Peter Wehner: The Trump Presidency Is Over

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Have you read, watched, written, or posted an interesting or inspiring thing this week? Has something on the internet made you feel strongly, think deeply, or see the world in a new light? If so, drop a link in the comments, we’d love to check it out!

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Photo by Roman Kraft on Unsplash