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Human Behavior

Why the panic over toilet paper – another case of death denial? – Open Democracy

This essay was originally published on April 9 2020 in The Arrow: A Journal of Wakeful Society, Culture & Politics.

The toilet paper aisle at my local grocery store was the first to go barren. Similar scenes of scatalogical scarcity are now the norm across North America and many other parts of the world as consumers prepare for months of physical distancing to slow the spread of COVID-19.

You can find footage online of shoppers fighting over the last roll, and the New York Times recently reported on a toilet paper shipment requiring police escort. Just when you thought the panic-buying was over, the Los Angeles Times reported this week on home hacks such as newspaper and gathered leaves if the shortages continue. It is peculiar that in the early days of this crisis, a pooping accessory took priority over food. Survival instincts appear low in late capitalism.

Fortunately, there is a body of social psychology that helps explain the collective impulse to put our heads in our asses in this moment of genuine crisis and its called Terror Management Theory (or TMT). TMT is rooted in the work of Ernest Becker, who won a Pulitzer for his 1973 book the Denial of Death. According to Becker, the intense existential fear caused by the reality of death compels us to psychologically buffer ourselves with fantasies of supremacy that compensate for the overwhelming powerlessness most of us feel in the face of mortality.

The illusions of human supremacy, white supremacy, male supremacy, and class supremacy are, for Becker, all shaped by death denial. The real world is simply too terrible to admit, he writes in the Denial of Death, it tells [humans] that they are small trembling animals who will decay and die. Illusion changes all this, makes [humans] seem important, vital to the universe, immortal in some way. Protecting ourselves from the terror of mortality with fantasies of supremacy is dangerous for others and, obviously, irrational death will still come. Yet according to Becker, it is what we regularly do to survive the idea of death, if not real death itself.

Since the early 1990s, terror management researchers have been experimentally testing Beckers theories. Although a recent canonical TMT experiment did fail a replication effort, to date, over 500 experiments in 25 countries have consistently supported his account of how fear of death shapes human behavior. It is clear that continued study of terror management is of great importance.

The COVID-19 pandemic is a real-life terror management experiment. In the lab versions, a test group is reminded of their mortality either with explicit or subliminal reminders of death and then tracked for how they respond to different situations or written statements. In recent weeks we have all been subject to constant death reminders as we read local and international news of the virus spread, crowding young and old into underfunded hospital systems, causing unnecessary death (with the elderly and immuno-compromised especially vulnerable, along with frontline, often racialized workers in health care, grocery stores, delivery). The phrase flattening the curve is a euphemism for slowing the kill rate given the limited supply of hospital beds and ventilators. These are anxious times.

So why in the midst of this genuine panic did North American consumers turn first, en masse, to toilet paper? Part of the answer may simply be the social contagion of seeing depleted aisles and joining the stampede (this depletion aggravated by supply chain delays). But it wasnt rice, nuts, or oranges that people snapped up first, it was toilet paper. From a terror management perspective, two-ply is an understandable balm because, along with toilet training in general, it serves to distinguish us from animality. From TP to bidets, we manage our excrement carefully, seeking to distance ourselves from the decay and disgust many of us read into it.

We believe that we are not animals, not poop anarchists (like my golden doodle for example): We are civilized! At a time when industrial human societies are being ground to a halt by a microscopic more-than-human force, it makes sense that we would cling to primary and visceral cultural reminders of our human exceptionalism. We are not powerless in the face of earthly forces such as disease, death, or calls of the wild we wipe.

Numerous TMT experiments have explored the link between death-fear and attachments to human supremacy. For example, one study found that death reminders increased participant support for the killing of animals. According to the researchers: The idea that humans are different from and superior to other animals is a fundamental part of most worldviews, and this is certainly true of the mainstream American view.

COVID-19 should tame illusions of human supremacy. And indeed, our survival and thriving as a species depends on human cultures, especially high-consuming Euro-American ones, transforming our relationships with the more-than-human world into mutually beneficial ones.

The animal holocaust in the recent Australian wildfires (nearly a billion individuals killed) is partly a product of fossil fuel companies treating our precious atmosphere without which earthly life would be nil as an emissions dump.

Climate change is also being accelerated by the felling of forests. Given the recent run on toilet paper, it is worth noting that TP is a major driver of global deforestation. U.S. Americans are the biggest buyers. Even in simpler, pre-pandemic times, they accounted for 20% of global consumption while only comprising 4% of world population. Paper companies that use virgin wood when alternatives are available such as Kirkland (Costcos house brand) are literally flushing forests down the toilet. At least U.S. bidet sales have skyrocketed in response to TP shortages, a good news story amidst these dark days.

Clinging to toilet paper in this time of crisis is not merely a cultural curiosity, it is also accelerating key drivers of future pandemics. Felling trees for paper product, or to make way for animal agriculture, or to facilitate oil and mineral extraction, all encroach on ecosystems, making it easier for zoonotic viruses like COVID-19 to jump from wildlife to domesticated animals and then to humans.

Youd think that runaway climate change and killer pandemics would force a rethink of capitalist extractivism and the illusions of human supremacy at its core. But TMT warns of a darker likelihood: that these fear-inducing events will lead people to double down on their illusions of supremacy, with morbid socio-ecological effects. The toilet paper panic is exemplary.

Rapprochement with the more-than-human world requires new cultural orientations towards death. Death is not alien; it is fundamental to earth processes. To deny death is to deny life. Capitalist destruction of earth systems is that denial materialized.

In the same year that Ernest Becker published the Denial of Death, Dakota scholar Vine Deloria Jr. who is an intellectual inspiration for contemporary Indigenous resurgence movements such as the water protectors at Standing Rock wrote that [r]ather than fearing death tribal religions see it as an affirmation of lifes reality. Deloria Jr. continued: The Indian ability to deal with death was a result of the much larger context in which Indians understood life. Human beings were an integral part of the natural world and in death they contributed their bodies to become the dust that nourished the plants and animals that had fed people during their lifetime.

For Deloria Jr., Indigenous approaches to mortality are linked to non-supremacist worldviews that position humans as fundamentally integrated with the natural world, feeding other life forms upon their physical death.

Arikara scholar Michael Yellow Bird has written about rituals that his nation used to rehearse for death. In one such ritual, someone would be chosen to represent death (e.g. dressing up and painting their bodies). They would leave the village and prepare themselves in isolation to return as death incarnate. As the ritual closed, death would disappear into the hills. Elders would then talk with fellow community members about how the encounter impacted them.

It is vital that non-Indigenous people learn from Indigenous ontologies and ceremonies without stealing knowledge in the same way that land has been violently stolen in settler colonial contexts such as the U.S. and Canada. Yellow Bird presents one possible way forward: He sees deep resonances between Indigenous ritual and Buddhist-inspired mindfulness practices that are increasingly available in the Euro-Americas.

A recent TMT study shows how mindfulness meditation can reduce defensive responses to death-fear and compensatory illusions of supremacy. The study goes even further, pinpointing the mechanism that likely allows for reduced defensiveness: the conscious experiencing of death-fear.

According to previous TMT studies, defensive responses to death arise due to thought suppression. Instead of directly facing death-anxiety, people tend to repress the fear into their unconscious. There, the felt powerlessness that death-fear can produce is alchemized into comforting illusions of supremacy. This particular study found that meditation halted thought suppression, allowing death-fears to be experienced consciously. This conscious experiencing appears to have been a key factor facilitating the non-defensive response to death-reminders.

Meditation alone will not undo death-anxiety or compensatory illusions of human supremacy and its deadly material effects. For mindfulness to support a new cultural orientation towards mortality in the Euro-Americas, it needs to be embedded in collective movements and institutions capable of culture change.

I have worked to limit my toilet paper panic in recent days, but I remain troubled by mortality. Buddhist meditation has helped, but I continue to struggle. As an asthmatic, Ive noticed my lungs constrict in fear when reading COVID-19 stories about 40-somethings like me needing ventilators to continue breathing.

Ive found succor in a dream I had two years ago when rampant wildfires darkened Vancouver Island skies. In the dream, I watched a bomb detonate some metres away. Time slowed down as the flames flew forward. I knew it was my end. I knelt down and placed my palm on the earth. In that moment I was home, at peace. The flames consumed me.

It is notoriously hard to die in a dream. This was no exception. There was a scene change and I was suddenly in some elsewhere, both relieved that the threat had passed, and disappointed that my union with primordial energy had ended. And this too shall pass. Even endings end. The show goes on. Energy transforms.

Why does this dream comfort me? Because death will come. Hopefully a long time from now. But it is a part of my life. Acknowledging the reality of death means accepting myself and this earth from which I come. This acknowledgement is not morbid; on the contrary, it promotes more life. Just like shit itself, compost for new growth.

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Why the panic over toilet paper - another case of death denial? - Open Democracy

Human Behavior

Future of Work Expert Cheryl Cran Provides Insights on How Coronavirus Is Impacting the New Normal of Work – PRUnderground

While no one could have predicted the COVID-19 coronavirus crisis the disruption has created daily dialogue and there are many ideas being shared on how to respond and recover both for people and for businesses. NextMapping Founder and #1 Future of Work expert Cheryl Cran is a highly sought after thought leader on helping leaders and teams navigate the now and prepare for the next. Cran and her NextMapping team have spent decades of research on human behavior, digital transformation and cutting-edge strategies to help companies be ready for the fast-changing future.

Over a decade ago NextMapping research found that 50% of the workforce would be remote by the year 2020. That research was just one of the predictions shared by Cran and her team that has come true based on future of work research.

Some of the current questions being asked as we tackle the coronavirus disruption include:

Cheryl Cran has the answers to the above questions and provides provocative, practical insights and solutions. NextMapping as a future of work consultancy provides online course solutions and other tools to help leaders and teams be agile and adaptable to disruptions now and in the future.

Cran has been featured in Readers Digest, Financial Post, Globe and Mail, Vancouver Sun, The Province, BIV, BCTV, Global TV, CKNW, and CityTV. She is the author of 9 books including the bestselling, NextMapping- Anticipate, Navigate and Create The Future of Work.

Cheryl Cran is available for in depth interviews virtually via Zoom, Skype, phone or FaceTime.

For more information be sure to visit http://www.nextmapping.com.

Contact Author:

Cheryl Cran

604-682-3100

Email: info@nextmapping.com

Cheryl Cran

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About Cheryl Cran

Cheryl Cran is the founder of NextMapping/NextMapping.com and the CEO of parent company Synthesis at Work Inc. She is recognized as the #1 Future of Work influencer by Onalytica, and the author of 7 books including NextMapping Anticipate, Navigate & Create The Future of Work.

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Future of Work Expert Cheryl Cran Provides Insights on How Coronavirus Is Impacting the New Normal of Work - PRUnderground

Human Behavior

The surprising similarities between the coronavirus and the bubonic plague – EL PAS in English

The pandemic originated in a foreign land and extended quickly through all the ports where infected passengers arrived whether asymptomatic or not. There was no medical cure available to stop it, all residents were confined to their homes to avoid contagion, the economy ground to a halt, the army was deployed on the streets, exhausted physicians worked themselves to the bone, and there were thousands of daily victims whose bodies went without burial for days on end, because diggers could not work fast enough...

This is not an account of the coronavirus pandemic of 2020. It is the chronicle provided by the historian Procopius of Caesarea about the outbreak of bubonic plague that befell the known world between 541 and 544, under Byzantine Emperor Justinian I. The disease swept across a vast territory, from China to the port cities of Hispania, as the Romans called the Iberian Peninsula.

An epidemic broke out that nearly wiped out the entire human race and which is impossible to find an explanation for with words

A new study called La Plaga de Justini, Segons el Testimoni de Procopi, (or The Plague of Justinian According to the Testimony of Procopius), by Jordina Sales Carbonell, a researcher at Barcelona University, adds new relevance to this ancient tale written 1,500 years ago.

As of April 1, 2020, certain similarities and parallels observed in human behavior with regard to a virus and its consequences seem so familiar and contemporary that, despite the tragedy we are all personally experiencing, it remains a source of wonderment how history repeats itself, writes this archeologist and historian Sales Carbonell, who works at the universitys Institute of Medieval Culture Research.

In the year 541, under the Byzantine ruler Justinian, there was an outbreak of bubonic plague in the empire. The alarm was sounded in Egypt, from where the infection expanded quickly and lethally. Procopius reflected it in his book History of the Wars, where he recounted Justinians military campaigns in Italy, Northern Africa and Hispania, and how soldiers spread the disease throughout the ports where they stopped fundamentally in Europe, North Africa, the Sasanian Empire (Persia) and from there as far as China.

As the legal advisor to Belisarius, Justinians chief military commander, Procopius tagged along on the latters campaigns and thus became a privileged witness to the effects of a pandemic that came to be known as the Plague of Justinian.

It remains a source of wonderment how history repeats itself

An epidemic broke out that nearly wiped out the entire human race and which is impossible to find an explanation for with words, not even with thoughts, except to put it down to the will of God, wrote Procopius. This epidemic did not affect a limited portion of the Earth, nor a specific set of men, nor was it reduced to a specific season of the year [...], but instead spread and attacked all human life, no matter how different the individuals might be, without regard for nature or age. The disease reached every far corner of the world, as though afraid that it might miss a spot.

A year after first being detected, the plague reached the capital of the empire, Byzantium (modern-day Istanbul), ravaging it for four months. There was complete confinement and isolation, writes Sales Carbonell in her study. It was absolutely mandatory for ill people. But there was also a sort of spontaneous and intuitively voluntary self-confinement, largely motivated by the circumstances.

It was not at all easy to see anybody in public spaces, at least in Byzantium; instead everyone who was healthy was at home, caring for the sick or crying over their dead, wrote Procopius.

Meanwhile, the economy was taking a nosedive. Activity ceased and craftsmen dropped all the work they had been doing. Unlike today, however, authorities were unable to guarantee the supply of essential services. It seemed very hard to obtain bread or any other kind of food, so that, in the case of some patients, the end of their life was no doubt premature due to the lack of essential items, wrote Procopius in History of the Wars.

Many died because they had nobody to care for them, he added. The caregivers of the era dropped from exhaustion because they were unable to rest and were constantly suffering. Because of it, everyone felt more sorry for them than for the sick.

In light of the desperate situation, the emperor sent out groups of palace guards to patrol the streets and the bodies of people who died alone were buried at the expense of the imperial coffers, wrote the historian. Even Justinian himself fell prey to the plague, but he overcame it and continued to reign for over a decade.

The mortality peaks rose from 5,000 to 10,000 victims a day and more, so that, although at first everyone cared for their dead at home, chaos became inevitable and corpses were also thrown inside the graves of others, either by stealth or using violence. In time, the bodies began to pile up inside the wall towers, and there were no funeral services for them.

When the pandemic finally ended, one positive thing came out of it.

Those who had backed the various political factions dropped the mutual reproaches. Even those who had previously been given to low and evil acts abandoned all evil in their everyday lives, because imperious need made them learn about honesty, wrote Procopius.

This element of poetry offers a modicum of hope that maybe we will get through this and not trip again over the same stone, says Sales Carbonell, sounding more hopeful than sure of herself.

English version by Susana Urra.

Given the exceptional circumstances, EL PAS is currently offering all of its digital content free of charge. News related to the coronavirus will continue to be available while the crisis continues.

Dozens of journalists are working non-stop to bring you the most rigorous coverage possible and meet their mission of providing a public service. If you want to support our journalism, you can do so here for 1 for the first month (10 from June). Subscribe to the facts.

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The surprising similarities between the coronavirus and the bubonic plague - EL PAS in English

Human Behavior

Certified Behavior Analyst Offers Tips for Parents Homeschooling Children with Autism During the Pandemic – Seton Hall University News & Events

ABA program director Frank Cicero, Ph.D., suggests parents take a moment to consider and maybe try a few new practices in their "school" at home.

As students across the country continue to "attend school" from home, it is important to remember that children with autism spectrum disorder and related disabilities are also affected. Whereas this is a stressful situation for all families, parents of children with autism face additional challenges when it comes to maintaining an effective learning environment in the home. Although there are no quick fixes, the following ideas may be helpful for parents of children with autism to use during these difficult and unique times. And now, more than a month into the time of COVID, is a good time to take a moment and reflect, review and maybe institute a few of these practices in your "school."

Structure the day with a visual or written scheduleChildren with autism are often more at ease when their routines are structured and predictable. It is important to keep in mind that the pandemic has completely disrupted all structure. Children are waking up and going to sleep at different times, meal times are changed, parents are working from home, they are no longer seeing their teachers or classmates, they no longer go to familiar stores, see their babysitters or grandparents, and might not have access to familiar foods or activities. This sudden change in structure leads to an increase in anxiety and stress in children with autism. In order to re-establish predictability and structure, parents should create a regular routine for each day. Keep the weekday routines as similar as possible and make the weekend schedule different. Make sure you stick to the schedule. In order to make the child aware of the daily schedules, display the order of activities through pictures or a written list and clearly post the schedule in a place where the child can see.

Scatter school assignments throughout the dayFor many children, schoolwork is less preferred than free time. Although the school assignments for the day may total three to four hours' worth of work, parents will likely see an increase in problem behavior and a decrease in focusing over time if they try to push through all three hours in one sitting. It will also lead to an increase in frustration for both the child and the parents. Instead of doing the work in one sitting, try breaking up the work sessions into shorter blocks of time. How long each work session should be depends on how much the child enjoys the activity, the difficulty level of the assignments, and the child's tolerance level. Parents may need to speak with their child's teacher about doing work on a modified schedule from the rest of the class.

Use a timer/break systemLet's say a parent has decided to do schoolwork in one-hour blocks of time. Sixty minutes is still a long period of time for a child with autism to maintain their motivation and focus on an activity that is not preferred. The parent will likely get more work completed and of a higher quality if they give the child frequent but short breaks from instruction throughout the hour. Although parents may see this as just wasting more time, the key is to set a standard of quality that must be met before a break is earned. For example, set a timer for 7 minutes. The child must focus 100% on his or her schoolwork for the full 7 minutes. If he or she produces quality work for the full 7 minutes, a break will be earned for 3 minutes. The child can leave the table during the break, however, I wouldn't have them go too far. They return after 3 minutes and continue this way until the end of the one-hour work period. If, however, the child begins to engage in problem behavior during the 7 minutes, the parent stops and resets the timer back to the start. The timer will start again once the child begins their schoolwork. In the long run you get more work completed with short bursts of full attention than a long drawn out period filled with problem behavior.

Use privileges as rewardsThe foundational principle of behavior analysis is that behavior that is rewarded will increase. Behavior that is not rewarded will decrease. So, if a parent wants his or her child to increase appropriate schoolwork at home, that is the behavior that should be rewarded. Keep in mind that buying children toys, giving them money, and taking them to fun places outside of the home are not the only rewards available to parents. Having children earn free privileges in the home, when they complete their schoolwork for the day, is often more rewarding than buying them things. Some examples include earning later bedtimes, more time on electronics, choice of food for dinner, having a pajama day, picking a movie for movie night, facetiming a favorite relative, or having a dance party with the family. Juts make sure that you don't give out the privileges for free. They need to be earned for good working and good behavior.

Stay calm, stay neutral, and maintain controlLet's face it, most children are not used to their parents being their teacher. It is only natural for teachers to have established more control over children's academic behavior than their parents. Children with autism are no different. Although when told to do work they might listen to their teachers in the classroom, that does not mean they will suddenly listen to their parents in the home. This is expected and parents should not be upset or embarrassed. When children are giving parents a hard time, parents should remain calm and emotionally neutral. Refrain from any yelling, threatening, or punishing. These behaviors are indications that the parent is losing, not gaining control. Do not, however, allow the child's behavior to get him or her out of the task at hand. Prompt them to remain at the table and with the required task in front of them. Parents should use the strategies above to guide them in remaining in control and providing rewards only when appropriate behavior occurs.

Partner with a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA)Parents should not feel hesitant to seek out assistance when needed. At this point, the future is very unclear and the timeline for when children might go back to school is uncertain. Although most services have moved into a remote format, behavior analysts are still working. Parents should partner with a board certified behavior analyst to assist their children in continuing to grow and learn despite the current situation. Parents who do not already have a relationship with a BCBA, may be able to find one through the Autism Speaks provider directory.

About Seton Hall's Applied Behavior Analysis ProgramsFrank Cicero, Ph.D., BCBA, LBA(NY), is an assistant professor at the College of Education and Human Services and the director of Seton Hall's ABA program, which includes both graduate degree and certificate options. The programs, he says, are helping to decrease the gap between the large number of children with autism needing services in New Jersey and the number of certified and qualified professionals available to provide those services. If you want to learn more about becoming an applied behavior analyst, and this program, please contact Dr. Cicero at frank.cicero@shu.edu.

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Certified Behavior Analyst Offers Tips for Parents Homeschooling Children with Autism During the Pandemic - Seton Hall University News & Events

Human Behavior

Eva Murray: Baking bread and watching chickadees – PenBayPilot.com

Anybody, these days, might understandably feel conflicted. A resourceful and resilient citizen cheerfully looking for silver linings to the crisis one minute, singing with others on the computer and taking up new hobbies (I keep getting online ads to sign up for study of quantum physics or Norwegian) is the next moment ready to strangle the idiot who posts yet another chipper little meme about purple finches or sourdough starter. People are out of work, out of money, and sometimes out of patience. They may be really, really worried, both about getting sick and about getting evicted. Most with a financial cushion are still in a state of upheaval. Dr. Nirav Shah of the Maine CDC and the other medical experts keep telling us, Its perfectly fine to not feel fine.

I have been asked about a hundred times recently how I am doing, and the fact is, Im fine. Hesitant to be mocked as being hopelessly nave, I usually remember to add, when asked, that Of course, our comfort, meaning our groceries and freight and mail and access to health care, depends to a great extent upon the health and safety of the air service pilots. Long term, everyone here is concerned about what will happen to the lobster industry. And of course, if anybody on this island gets dangerously ill with this virus, we are set up to manage that maybe once. Thats a big maybe.

The fact is we have always been a community of people who keep a good stock of supplies, who volunteer, and who respond to each others emergencies whether we like each other or not. We will keep each other fed, at any rate. We have always had people among us who dared to do scary things, like venture out into storms to rescue mariners in distress. Whether we dare risk exposing ourselves to each others infectious diseases, I cannot say.

There is so much about human behavior we cannot anticipate. The toilet paper hoarding thing seemed inexplicable to me at first as this was never, even in the more cartoonish media outlets, advertised as an outbreak of amoebic dysentery.

I am baking bread because I happened to have flour and yeast on hand before those commodities became scarce. If you can tolerate a maddeningly upbeat observation, given the genuine fear and illness and hunger in the world, I feel Ive been granted an extension on the start of the busy season and I dont mind that one bit. Thankfull,y my husband and I dont mind each others company, either, and we have enough to eat, and were having a good time watching the chickadees, and the International Space Station, and listening for the woodcock in the evening.

Is it wrong to count the blessings and enjoy the warm bread while others suffer? Is it unfeeling to write about the first peepers when friends are at risk of hunger, poverty, and dangerous illness? I dont know. It really might be.

Hard times bring out the best and the worst in society. People are emotionally fatigued, and many are truly exhausted, so we have to cut our friends a little slack when they lose their temper. I have heard people say things like, Its all about looking out for yourself; coronavirus doesnt care if you act like a jerk. OK, if thats how you want to look at it, but there is a limit. Certain panicky denizens of Dark-Age Europe nailed their neighbors doors shut on account of the plague. We can take measures to better our odds without becoming prejudicial bullies or a public menace.

Social media is overflowing with judgement, including criticism of both gross governmental overreach and gross governmental apathy. Everybodys an expert. People are raging against folks they see at the grocery store wearing N95 masks as though said random food shopper had probably bludgeoned some nurse upside the head and stolen the mask, when, in fact, two months ago our shopper had been sanding floors and owned the mask anyway. Then, there is the hot-button issue of the outta-stater license plates seen in Maine grocery store parking lots, state parks, ferry lines and so on.

To be sure, if you are one from anywhereany state -- who believes that, I can just flee to my 9000 square foot vacation cottage and start my summer two months early, and buy out the tiny local store, because I can run from reality and be safe and damn the little people why, then, sure: Ill sniff disdainfully and question your right to be here. But weve got to watch our prejudices. We may need to back off a little on our quick judgement of strangers.

Many who are being insulted and scorned are hard at work: nurses, linemen, Coast Guard members and such, and others are just going about their business and doing no harm. The license plate is no gauge of the intentions, or the usefulness, of the person in the car. Stooping to the level of acting the bully is never the right way for us to handle our fears.

You may have noticed that it is not the low-paid CNAs and store clerks and delivery drivers who are escaping the hotspots by fleeing to their vacation homes. I am as resentful of this class distinction as anybody. But no matter how Bolshevik our opinions, xenophobia is a bad thing, full stop. Our response to being worried should not be to grow mean. Maine sure doesnt need to greet traveling nurses and power company workers with insult.

While some demand government edicts, and formal directives to businesses to manufacture necessities, others resent and mistrust big-G Government telling anybody what to do whatsoevereven the physical distancing--because next thing you know, they might march us off to concentration camps or try to take away our guns. OK, lets keep this horror movie in perspective. Abuse of power is always a valid worry. Ill be among the first to speak up against treatment of citizens in any way similar to what China did in their enforcement of rules related to the pandemic-- for example, the manhandling of citizenseven if those draconian tactics supposedly helped. That having been said, this is not the time for defiance of common sense just because we resent being told what to do.

Reader, you will likely never meet anybody more resistant, more bristly at the very idea of being given an order than yours truly (just ask my parents). But physical distancing on account of a contagious disease is not akin to sheep-like obedience for its own sake, or citizens blindly following unethical and criminal directives, or Americans giving up our civil rights. This is Stay out of crowds because there is a contagious disease. Stay away from other people for this legitimate reason. Make yourself a mask for when you have to go to the store. We do, seriously, have to protect our civil rights. We also have to extend to other people their rights, including their right to be safe from us. We can do both.

How is it that some people think they have the right to toss their used masks and gloves in the street? Is boorish and callous behavior an expression of their civil rights? No, and nobody thinks it is. If were going to live in civilization, in community with others, then we have to manage a certain degree of restriction on our actions. Not because we are commanded tothe hair stands up on the back of my neck to even think of such a thing!but because we know it could help us all.

We have to do the right thing not because we have been told to, but because it is the right thing. L.L. Bean (to mention only one of many Maine businesses trying to help out) is not manufacturing that safety equipment because it was ordered to.

Above all we must make our best efforts to maintain safety without becoming participants in behavior we would not countenance in calmer times. The mob is not, as a rule, a good leader. As Ive said in other papersand I say this as a part-time, quasi-professional, somewhat-trained disaster-preparedness nerd-- this is not every man for himself, because no disaster ever is.

Eva Murray lives on Matinicus

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Eva Murray: Baking bread and watching chickadees - PenBayPilot.com

Biochemistry

Opinion Pieces Discuss Various Aspects Of COVID-19 Pandemic, Response, Including Impacts On Food Systems, WASH, Role Of WHO – Kaiser Family Foundation

The Atlantic: We Need an Atlantic Charter for the Post-coronavirus EraRichard Fontaine, chief executive officer of the Center for a New American Security (4/16).

The Conversation: Drug-resistant superbugs: A global threat intensified by the fight against coronavirusLori L. Burrows, professor of biochemistry and biomedical sciences at McMaster University (4/20).

The Conversation: Busting coronavirus myths will take more than science: lessons from an AIDS studyDavid Dickinson, professor of sociology at the University of the Witwatersrand (4/17).

The Conversation: Malnutrition and epidemics are intertwined. That makes fixing food systems crucialStuart Gillespie, senior research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) (4/20).

Devex: Opinion: COVID-19 The anatomy of community-centered responseKatherina Thomas, global health researcher and visiting researcher at MIT and Harvard University, and Angie T. Dennis, Liberian health researcher and Ebola survivor (4/20).

Foreign Policy: Why Jair Bolsonaros Coronavirus Denialism Wont Hurt HimEduardo Mello, assistant professor of politics and international relations at the Fundao Getulio Vargas in So Paulo (4/20).

The Hill: How COVID-19 must transform U.S. global health strategyChris Collins, president of Friends of the Global Fight Against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and Mitchell Warren, executive director of AVAC (4/21).

IPS: BCG Vaccine Fighting Coronavirus in South AsiaDarini Rajasingham-Senanayake, independent researcher affiliated with the International Centre for Ethnic Studies (ICES) in Sri Lanka (4/20).

National Interest: Why Taiwan Belongs in the World Health Organization (WHO)Vincent Yi-hsiang Chao, director of the political division at the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States (4/20).

New York Times: Beware of Politicians Who Declare War on the CoronavirusAdam Westbrook, producer with Opinion Video at the New York Times (4/20).

Project Syndicate: The Grim Truth About the Swedish ModelHans Bergstrom, professor of political science at the University of Gothenburg and member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (4/17).

STAT: Managing a pharma company during three crises: lessons learned for Covid-19Mahesh Karande, president, CEO, and board director of Omega Therapeutics (4/20).

Wall Street Journal: The Coronavirus Hits the Global SouthWalter Russell Mead, James Clarke Chace professor of foreign affairs and the humanities at Bard College, Ravenel B. Curry III distinguished fellow in strategy and statesmanship at the Hudson Institute, and the Wall Street Journals Global View columnist (4/20).

Washington Post: How to speed up testing? A shark tank for government.Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, and Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), chair of the Senates health appropriations subcommittee (4/20).

Washington Post: Our people are hungry. We need a leader who will feed them.Jos Andrs, owner of ThinkFoodGroup and founder of World Central Kitchen (4/20).

Washington Post: Future pandemics can be prevented, but thatll rely on unprecedented global cooperationMichael C. Lu, dean of the School of Public Health at the University of California at Berkeley (4/17).

Washington Post: In a global emergency, women are showing how to leadZoe Marks, lecturer in public policy at Harvard Kennedy School (4/21).

Washington Post: Trumps covid-19 performance is an encapsulation of his entire presidencyHenry Olsen, Washington Post columnist and senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center (4/20).

Washington Post: Covid-19 is a wake-up call for Indias cities, where radical improvements in sanitation and planning are neededGregory F. Randolph, PhD candidate in urban planning at the University of Southern California and founding partner of the JustJobs Network, and Sahil Gandhi, postdoctoral scholar at the Lusk Center for Real Estate at the University of Southern California and visiting scholar at Brookings India (4/20).

Washington Times: World Health Organization peddled Chinese Communist Partys liesRobert Knight, columnist at the Washington Times (4/19).

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Opinion Pieces Discuss Various Aspects Of COVID-19 Pandemic, Response, Including Impacts On Food Systems, WASH, Role Of WHO - Kaiser Family Foundation

Biochemistry

When Labs Become Recordings: Students Adjust to Virtual Hands-On Lab Classes – Cornell University The Cornell Daily Sun

For Cornells STEM students, hands-on lab classes are a crucial part of life. Yet with students away from campus, professors now must teach classes based on in-person experiments.

Professors are solving this problem in different ways: Some are recording lab experiments from their homes, while others have eliminated labs altogether.

For entomology major Benjamin Burgunder 22, the transition to virtual classes has meant taking his entomology lab classes Larval Insect Biology and Insect Physiology online.

Both of his lab classes have replaced dissections and other hands-on work with lectures and research papers.

You cant really do dissections over Zoom, Burgunder said. You can learn how a system works, but you cant see what components connect to what.

Despite the class restructuring, Burgunder said he is not too worried about missing out on skills he will need in future classes because the techniques like larval identification and phylogeny are fairly specialized.

Burgunder said he misses the lost portions of the lab courses, but remained impressed with his professors efforts to adapt to virtual learning.

I think my professors are doing the best job possible in converting what would have been half a semester of in-person labs into online lessons, Burgunder said.

Other courses, like Molecular Biology and Genetics 4400: Biochemistry Lab, still have a focus on lab activities, in which professors record the labs for students. Pooja Reddy 20 said she enjoys the low pressure atmosphere of online learning, but misses the social component of lab classes.

I miss having a [lab partner] to do experiments with, Reddy said. The professor records himself doing all the protocols and talks to us about how to do everything, so even though Im not physically doing it, I feel like Im learning the techniques.

Reddy said she found the recording and written instructions for lab protocols to be a sufficient replacement for the in-person version.

She added that she is also particularly impressed that the professor is running each of the 20 lab groups different CRISPR experiments a genetic manipulation technique so students can analyze data from their individual projects.

Despite efforts to adapt the class to an online setting, some students miss the physical work of implementing their own experiments.

Andrew Brodrick 20, who calls himself a lab guy, said lab work is meditative for him. Watching his professor complete these labs fails to recreate the same satisfaction of completing the work himself.

Even though Brodrick worked at the veterinary colleges Parker lab and practiced skills taught in a biochemistry lab, he expressed worry for the students with less prior lab experience, who now dont have the opportunity to physically practice the tasks themselves.

I really feel for the people who dont get a chance to do [the lab techniques] hands on, Brodrick said, because it is an important learning experience and also an enjoyable thing to do.

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When Labs Become Recordings: Students Adjust to Virtual Hands-On Lab Classes - Cornell University The Cornell Daily Sun

Biochemistry

IDPH Hiring Additional Staff for Carbondale Lab and 2 Others – WSIU

The State of Illinois is trying to ramp up testing for COVID-19.

The Illinois Department of Public Health has hired a consulting group to help find additional staff for state labs in Carbondale, Chicago and Springfield. The Carbondale lab needs 56 workers.

Jennifer Watson with the SIU-Carbondale Human Resources Department says they're seeking low, medium and high level lab technicians and supervisors.

"Typically you have your lower, medium level lab techs that will require an associates degree and your higher level lab techs actually require a bachelor's degree and your supervisors require some kind of master's or a PhD."

But, Watson says there are exceptions. She says relevant candidates can be students with three or more years of biology, chemistry, biochemistry or senior medical students.

Watson says she can accept applications for all three sites.

"While Carbondale is the big push, we don't want to exclude if we have anyone in the area that is interested in the Springfield or Chicago labs either."

To apply for one of the lab tech positions, email Watson at jlwatson@siu.edu.

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IDPH Hiring Additional Staff for Carbondale Lab and 2 Others - WSIU

Immunology

Global Market for Biosimilars in Immunology: In-depth Assessment of Key Players in the Space Across the 9 Major Markets – ResearchAndMarkets.com -…

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The "Biosimilars in Immunology" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

This report combines key opinion leader insight and interviews with players in the US, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK, Japan, India and South Korea to provide an in-depth review of the biosimilars market for major autoimmune diseases. The report includes an assessment of ongoing clinical trials, the geographical location of trial sponsors, discussion of the key players in the medical marijuana space as well as insights from industry experts discussing market challenges and considerations of stakeholders in the arena.

Europe leads the way for immunology biosimilars in the 7MM, and India is at the forefront in the emerging markets. In terms of immunology biosimilar penetration, the 5EU and India demonstrate the highest favorability towards uptake of biosimilars.

Japan and South Korea have an intermediate biosimilar penetration index, while the US market is the least favorable towards biosimilars. Pricing is a key issue for expensive-to-develop biosimilars entering an increasingly crowded autoimmune disease market.Biosimilars are intended to relieve healthcare-associated cost burdens; however, the economic effects of incorporating them into clinical practice are unclear, due to increased time and staff costs required for switching patients onto biosimilars.

Pricing can be a differentiating strategy among different biosimilars and larger discounts over originator brands can boost greater uptake of specific biosimilars. Quotas dictate prescribing patterns in the 5EU; however, physicians show concern about switching to a biosimilar from the originator brand. The majority of KOLs interviewed by indicated that they used biosimilars mostly for new patients. KOLs also cited reluctance to switch existing patients to biosimilars, highlighting that they did not want to change a biologic treatment that was working for the patient.

Other reasons against switching included lack of incentives for physicians, lack of switching data, and placebo effects. Biogen, Sandoz, Pfizer, and Amgen are dominating the immunology biosimilars field. The immunology biosimilars space is dominated in developed markets by established brand names, including Biogen, Sandoz, Pfizer, and Amgen. In India and South Korea, major biosimilar players include Celltrion, Cipla, and Zydus Cadila.

Scope of the report:

Key report benefits:

Key Topics Covered:

1. Preface

2. Executive Summary

2.1 Key Findings

2.2 KOL and Payer Insights

3. Introduction

3.1 What Is a Biosimilar?

3.2 Timeline of Immunology Biosimilar Development

3.3 Marketed and Pipeline Immunology Biosimilars in the 9MM

4. Biosimilar Regulatory Pathways Across Geographies

4.1 Biosimilar Regulatory Pathways

4.2 US Biosimilar Regulatory Pathway

4.3 EU Biosimilar Regulatory Pathway

4.4 Japan Biosimilar Regulatory Pathway

4.5 South Korea Biosimilar Regulatory Pathway

4.6 India Biosimilar Regulatory Pathway

5. Biosimilar Country-Specific Dynamics, 9MM

5.1 Biosimilar Country-Specific Dynamics, 9MM

5.2 US Biosimilar Market Potential

5.3 5EU Biosimilar Market Potential

5.4 Japan Biosimilar Market Potential

5.5 South Korea Biosimilar Market Potential

5.6 India Biosimilar Market Potential

6. Important Indications in Immunology

6.1 Biologic Use in Immunology

6.2 Rheumatoid Arthritis

6.3 Psoriatic Arthritis

6.4 Axial Spondyloarthritis

6.5 Ulcerative Colitis

6.6 Crohn's Disease

6.7 Plaque Psoriasis

7. Major Players

7.1 Importance of Manufacturer Reputation

7.2 Sandoz

7.3 Celltrion

7.4 Amgen

7.5 Mylan and Biocon

7.6 Pfizer

7.7 Biogen

8. Biosimilars - Key Clinical and Commercial Concepts

8.1 Cost Savings and Market Access

8.2 Patient Type

8.3 Prescription Quotas

8.4 Biosimilarity and Interchangeability

8.5 Brand Preference

8.6 Extrapolation of Data

9. Opportunities for Biosimilar Manufacturers

9.1 Strategies for Increasing Uptake of Biosimilars

9.2 Differentiation by Pricing

9.3 Differentiation by Innovation

10. Appendix

Companies Mentioned

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/ucnl0i.

About ResearchAndMarkets.com

ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.

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Global Market for Biosimilars in Immunology: In-depth Assessment of Key Players in the Space Across the 9 Major Markets - ResearchAndMarkets.com -...

Immunology

Who Is Immune to the Coronavirus? – The New York Times

Among the many uncertainties that remain about Covid-19 is how the human immune system responds to infection and what that means for the spread of the disease. Immunity after any infection can range from lifelong and complete to nearly nonexistent. So far, however, only the first glimmers of data are available about immunity to SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes Covid-19.

What can scientists, and the decision makers who rely on science to inform policies, do in such a situation? The best approach is to construct a conceptual model a set of assumptions about how immunity might work based on current knowledge of the immune system and information about related viruses, and then identify how each aspect of that model might be wrong, how one would know and what the implications would be. Next, scientists should set out to work to improve this understanding with observation and experiment.

The ideal scenario once infected, a person is completely immune for life is correct for a number of infections. The Danish physician Peter Panum famously figured this out for measles when he visited the Faroe Islands (between Scotland and Iceland) during an outbreak in 1846 and found that residents over 65 who had been alive during a previous outbreak in 1781 were protected. This striking observation helped launch the fields of immunology and epidemiology and ever since, as in many other disciplines, the scientific community has learned that often things are more complicated.

One example of more complicated is immunity to coronaviruses, a large group of viruses that sometimes jump from animal hosts to humans: SARS-CoV-2 is the third major coronavirus epidemic to affect humans in recent times, after the SARS outbreak of 2002-3 and the MERS outbreak that started in 2012.

Much of our understanding of coronavirus immunity comes not from SARS or MERS, which have infected comparatively small numbers of people, but from the coronaviruses that spread every year causing respiratory infections ranging from a common cold to pneumonia. In two separate studies, researchers infected human volunteers with a seasonal coronavirus and about a year later inoculated them with the same or a similar virus to observe whether they had acquired immunity.

In the first study, researchers selected 18 volunteers who developed colds after they were inoculated or challenged, as the term goes with one strain of coronavirus in 1977 or 1978. Six of the subjects were re-challenged a year later with the same strain, and none was infected, presumably thanks to protection acquired with their immune response to the first infection. The other 12 volunteers were exposed to a slightly different strain of coronavirus a year later, and their protection to that was only partial.

In another study published in 1990, 15 volunteers were inoculated with a coronavirus; 10 were infected. Fourteen returned for another inoculation with the same strain a year later: They displayed less severe symptoms and their bodies produced less of the virus than after the initial challenge, especially those who had shown a strong immune response the first time around.

No such human-challenge experiments have been conducted to study immunity to SARS and MERS. But measurements of antibodies in the blood of people who have survived those infections suggest that these defenses persist for some time: two years for SARS, according to one study, and almost three years for MERS, according to another one. However, the neutralizing ability of these antibodies a measure of how well they inhibit virus replication was already declining during the study periods.

These studies form the basis for an educated guess at what might happen with Covid-19 patients. After being infected with SARS-CoV-2, most individuals will have an immune response, some better than others. That response, it may be assumed, will offer some protection over the medium term at least a year and then its effectiveness might decline.

Other evidence supports this model. A recent peer-reviewed study led by a team from Erasmus University, in the Netherlands, published data from 12 patients showing that they had developed antibodies after infection with SARS-CoV-2. Several of my colleagues and students and I have statistically analyzed thousands of seasonal coronavirus cases in the United States and used a mathematical model to infer that immunity over a year or so is likely for the two seasonal coronaviruses most closely related to SARS-CoV-2 an indication perhaps of how immunity to SARS-CoV-2 itself might also behave.

If it is true that infection creates immunity in most or all individuals and that the protection lasts a year or more, then the infection of increasing numbers of people in any given population will lead to the buildup of so-called herd immunity. As more and more people become immune to the virus, an infected individual has less and less chance of coming into contact with a person susceptible to infection. Eventually, herd immunity becomes pervasive enough that an infected person on average infects less than one other person; at that point, the number of cases starts to go down. If herd immunity is widespread enough, then even in the absence of measures designed to slow transmission, the virus will be contained at least until immunity wanes or enough new people susceptible to infection are born.

At the moment, cases of Covid-19 have been undercounted because of limited testing perhaps by a factor of 10 in some places, like Italy as of late last month. If the undercounting is around this level in other countries as well, then a majority of the population in much (if not all) of the world still is susceptible to infection, and herd immunity is a minor phenomenon right now. The long-term control of the virus depends on getting a majority of people to become immune, through infection and recovery or through vaccination how large a majority depends on yet other parameters of the infection that remain unknown.

One concern has to do with the possibility of reinfection. South Koreas Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently reported that 91 patients who had been infected with SARS-CoV-2 and then tested negative for the virus later tested positive again. If some of these cases were indeed reinfections, they would cast doubt on the strength of the immunity the patients had developed.

An alternative possibility, which many scientists think is more likely, is that these patients had a false negative test in the middle of an ongoing infection, or that the infection had temporarily subsided and then re-emerged. South Koreas C.D.C. is now working to assess the merit of all these explanations. As with other diseases for which it can be difficult to distinguish a new infection from a new flare-up of an old infection like tuberculosis the issue might be resolved by comparing the viral genome sequence from the first and the second periods of infection.

For now, it is reasonable to assume that only a minority of the worlds population is immune to SARS-CoV-2, even in hard-hit areas. How could this tentative picture evolve as better data come in? Early hints suggest that it could change in either direction.

It is possible that many more cases of Covid-19 have occurred than have been reported, even after accounting for limited testing. One recent study (not yet peer-reviewed) suggests that rather than, say, 10 times the number of detected cases, the United States may really have more like 100, or even 1,000, times the official number. This estimate is an indirect inference from statistical correlations. In emergencies, such indirect assessments can be early evidence of an important finding or statistical flukes. But if this one is correct, then herd immunity to SARS-CoV-2 could be building faster than the commonly reported figures suggest.

Then again, another recent study (also not yet peer-reviewed) suggests that not every case of infection may be contributing to herd immunity. Of 175 Chinese patients with mild symptoms of Covid-19, 70 percent developed strong antibody responses, but about 25 percent developed a low response and about 5 percent developed no detectable response at all. Mild illness, in other words, might not always build up protection. Similarly, it will be important to study the immune responses of people with asymptomatic cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection to determine whether symptoms, and their severity, predict whether a person becomes immune.

The balance between these uncertainties will become clearer when more serologic surveys, or blood tests for antibodies, are conducted on large numbers of people. Such studies are beginning and should show results soon. Of course, much will depend on how sensitive and specific the various tests are: how well they spot SARS-CoV-2 antibodies when those are present and if they can avoid spurious signals from antibodies to related viruses.

Even more challenging will be understanding what an immune response means for an individuals risk of getting reinfected and their contagiousness to others. Based on the volunteer experiments with seasonal coronaviruses and the antibody-persistence studies for SARS and MERS, one might expect a strong immune response to SARS-CoV-2 to protect completely against reinfection and a weaker one to protect against severe infection and so still slow the viruss spread.

But designing valid epidemiologic studies to figure all of this out is not easy many scientists, including several teams of which Im a part are working on the issue right now. One difficulty is that people with a prior infection might differ from people who havent yet been infected in many other ways that could alter their future risk of infection. Parsing the role of prior exposure from other risk factors is an example of the classic problem epidemiologists call confounding and it is made maddeningly harder today by the fast-changing conditions of the still-spreading SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.

And yet getting a handle on this fast is extremely important: not only to estimate the extent of herd immunity, but also to figure out whether some people can re-enter society safely, without becoming infected again or serving as a vector, and spreading the virus to others. Central to this effort will be figuring out how long protection lasts.

With time, other aspects of immunity will become clearer as well. Experimental and statistical evidence suggests that infection with one coronavirus can offer some degree of immunity against distinct but related coronaviruses. Whether some people are at greater or lesser risk of infection with SARS-CoV-2 because of a prior history of exposure to coronaviruses is an open question.

And then there is the question of immune enhancement: Through a variety of mechanisms, immunity to a coronavirus can in some instances exacerbate an infection rather than prevent or mitigate it. This troublesome phenomenon is best known in another group of viruses, the flaviviruses, and may explain why administering a vaccine against dengue fever, a flavivirus infection, can sometimes make the disease worse.

Such mechanisms are still being studied for coronaviruses, but concern that they might be at play is one of the obstacles that have slowed the development of experimental vaccines against SARS and MERS. Guarding against enhancement will also be one of the biggest challenges facing scientists trying to develop vaccines for Covid-19. The good news is that research on SARS and MERS has begun to clarify how enhancement works, suggesting ways around it, and an extraordinary range of efforts is underway to find a vaccine for Covid-19, using multiple approaches.

More science on almost every aspect of this new virus is needed, but in this pandemic, as with previous ones, decisions with great consequences must be made before definitive data are in. Given this urgency, the traditional scientific method formulating informed hypotheses and testing them by experiments and careful epidemiology is hyper-accelerated. Given the publics attention, that work is unusually on display. In these difficult circumstances, I can only hope that this article will seem out of date very shortly as much more is soon discovered about the coronavirus than is known right now.

Marc Lipsitch (@mlipsitch) is a professor in the Departments of Epidemiology and Immunology and Infectious Diseases at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, where he also directs the Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics.

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Who Is Immune to the Coronavirus? - The New York Times