Cowboy Who?

Assistant Professor
Department of Internal Medicine
Tufts Medical Center
Tufts University School of Medicine
Boston, Massachusetts

This is the third installment of our new series, Flattened By the Curve, which features the voices of doctors, nurses, healthcare workers, and others on the front lines against COVID-19. For information on how to submit, click here.

The Pandemic Has Laid Bare a System In Shambles

In the before times, the New York Times published a visual depiction of what all the Democratic candidates’ plans for the health care system looked like. Medicare for All. A public option. Expanding the Affordable Care Act. The image represented varying degrees of change to an already abysmal system.

I am a primary care doctor and researcher. My research area of expertise is how well the health care system is equipped to face social challenges faced by our patients. A question I hear frequently in my line of work is if the health care system should even be in the social care space at all. I spend a lot of my time asking patients about this. I have asked social service organizations and providers about this too. That was in the before times.

Now my research is unfolding in front of me. I have spent two of the last three weeks taking care of patients who were admitted to the hospital during a pandemic, but not for coronavirus. The patients fall into two categories. In the first category are patients who are so sick, no amount of fear could keep them home. They needed to be seen, admitted, and treated. Patients with sepsis, bleeding ulcers, heart attacks, strokes. This is bread-and-butter medicine — the stuff I was trained to do in medical school and residency.

The second category include the people who showed up to the hospital out of fear. In a time of a global pandemic, they had no safe place to live. I received no training on this in medical school. (Despite a former dean suggesting it would have been a waste of time anyway. Twice. I digress.) My team took care of people facing homelessness in one of the scariest times in recent history to be homeless. Whether or not hospitals should be acting as social service providers is moot. We are, by default. We kept patients a day, maybe two, longer than “medically necessary.”

The health insurance companies started calling, telling us they were no longer going to pay for unnecessary hospital days. Hospital administrators would email, instructing my team to discharge the patients. If they were medically cleared, we wouldn’t get paid for any more days. Across the country, sites were set up to shelter homeless patients who tested positive for the coronavirus. I had to break the news over and over again to the patients, all who tested negative. I had no other option to offer besides the local shelter. It was an unpopular option. The hospital could not afford to also be a home for the homeless.

My hospital is losing millions of dollars caring for patients during the pandemic. We are hardly alone. The CARES act allocated 100 billion dollars to hospitals to save the health care system. As I round on my patients, I keep thinking about all the arguments from the before times about why we couldn’t overhaul our health care system. It doesn’t work very well, and the current incentives make it a terrible social service system. You know the arguments against reform. People were afraid to lose their beloved insurance. Change needed to be incremental. And we certainly couldn’t afford to make big changes.

Now that the system is imploding, I don’t understand the barriers to building a better system. The health care system is broken. The safety net is gone. The work of doctors and nurses is driven by a for-profit system that has seen a 3200% increase in administrators in my lifetime. The business of medicine is built on insurance companies reimbursing for how much we “do” – a hip replacement, an x-ray, a stress test. Hospitals are going bankrupt providing pandemic care because those procedures, what insurance companies pay highest for, have stopped. Talking to my patient about why her mother kicked her out, brainstorming where else she might be able to go, has a very low reimbursement rate. It’s zero.

Contrary to our system’s design, doctors and nurses take care of people, not a collection of diseases. We ask our patients, now more than ever, if they have a safe place to live and enough food to eat. Providing care to maximize the health and wellbeing of my patients requires that I take all of these factors into account. It also requires that the health care system sees value in these activities so I can keep doing it.

I find myself scanning articles by thought leaders on health care reform, looking for the call to arms, a need to start from scratch and build a health care system that works, that is fair, and that prioritizes health instead of sickness. Instead I find articles about alternative payment models, re-opening insurance enrollment periods, and hospitals furloughing non-essential employees. Luckily, the employee to remind me to add the diagnosis code for “acute kidney injury, acute” to make sure we can bill for it is still around to do her job.

Elena Byhoff is a primary care doctor and health services researcher at Tufts Medical Center. Her research focuses on where social services and primary care meet. She lives in Massachusetts with her husband and daughter, who both had helpful contributions when trying to come up with a title for this essay.

“Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp announced on Monday that gyms, hair salons, nail salons, barbershops, and bowling alleys will be allowed to reopen in the state on Friday — even as the number of cases of coronavirus in the state continues to rise.” — The Daily Beast, 4/20/20

As governor of your great state, it’s my responsibility to figure out what can hurt us, when it will happen, and what I can do with the powers vested in me to immediately provide the most aid to those in need. As I’m sure you are all aware, we’re currently dealing with what’s being called a “pandemic” nationwide. While I’ve yet to ask anyone exactly what that word means, I want you to know, directly from me, that we’re all going to be fine.

Virus or no virus, I just want to remind you that while my commitment to your health and safety remains paramount, I’m not going to stop opening up our economy just because a few of you suckers are going to die.

Look, I’m just a simple, God-fearing American trying to do the best for my state, and the fact of the matter is that I just know my constituents much better than the biased, liberal media that’s trying to paint me as incompetent does. I’m not a scientist — who among us is? Heck, I haven’t even googled any of this. So even though they can take my words out of context and pretend like I don’t know even the basics of how this world-altering plague is ravaging the country and killing so many, one thing they’ll never be able to twist is my urgent belief that the state should open up as soon as humanly possible, at whatever human cost. I was elected on the promise that I would bring economic prosperity to this state, and if it means killing one, five, or ten thousand of you — you better believe I’m up to the task.

It is my solemn promise that even though we have lost a great number of hardworking Americans to this vicious supervirus for which there is no vaccine or effective treatment, I will not blink an eye if our state loses even one person who would not vote for me.

I’ve got too many other things on my plate than to worry about this flu everyone is squawking about. I have to make sure only the rich and privileged can participate in the political process. I have to devise ways to take healthcare away from as many people as possible, so in the event people actually do get sick, they can’t get treatment. And when I’m done with that, I still have to deprive women of contraception and safe spaces to receive life-saving care.

Rest assured, I will never let those side projects interfere with my ability to simultaneously ignore acting on a global public health crisis while reopening an economy that will not properly function because every single person in my state is terrified of dying. The reality is we can all die at any time, whether by crossing the street, eating a hot dog, or by failing to take necessary, easily accomplished steps to avoid perishing in the hallway of an overwhelmed, ill-equipped, and understaffed hospital. Truthfully, if I could trade every one of your lives for a point on the DOW, we’d be in a bull-market!

So in this time of national need, I urge you to ignore the anti-American critics that don’t know a thing about our beautiful state. Celebrate what makes us great. Go out to your local bar or restaurant with your buddies. Enjoy our parks and public spaces. Buy a military grade-assault rifle. And please know that whatever happens, I refuse to compromise the will of the people who elected me in the first place.

You can bet your life on it.

As the coronavirus crisis stresses almost every facet of American life, we’re featuring the stories of people who are struggling to stay afloat, finding unexpected financial opportunities or simply changing the way they’re thinking about money, the economy and our country’s social safety net. To do that, we need your help — we want to hear how the coronavirus crisis is affecting you economically. Please share your experience with us.

Overnight stockers at supermarkets were among the first Americans to see how the novel coronavirus might change people’s habits.

Charles Rodriguez, a 26-year-old employee of a supermarket chain in the Greater San Antonio area, had an early indication. Just over a month ago, he walked out of the store to help unload the delivery truck that brought in the next day’s shipment. The sight stopped him dead in his tracks. “It looked like a holiday truck,” he said, filled to the brim. But it was March 12 — not Thanksgiving or Christmas.

The store was preparing for the high volume of shoppers that would flood its aisles as the virus began to shut down many aspects of American life. Still, Rodriguez and his co-workers had no clue how quickly their workload would ramp up to meet the increased demand.

He went from working 32 hours a week to eclipsing 40 hours, even earning some overtime pay. “We’d normally unload two pallets of low-velocity items [like canned foods and peanut butter]. But then we started getting 17 pallets,” Rodriguez said. “What was usually an eight-hour shift started becoming nine or 10 hours because of all the extra stuff.”

That phenomenally busy streak for Rodriguez, who makes just over $15 an hour,⁸ went on for two weeks. But then it ended with a thud.

The supermarket chain started shifting other workers into overnight stocking, both to cut down on paying overtime and to make better use of employees in less essential departments. For instance, it’s neither necessary nor safe for store employees to hand out food samples right now, so instead of laying those people off, the store has them refilling the shelves after closing. Since then, Rodriguez and many others in his department have actually lost hours.

Rodriguez said he appreciates his employer finding a way to avoid letting employees go, even if it means that he gets fewer hours and less pay. But it’s been tough for his department. “Now my shifts are closer to six hours per day, and I’m losing about eight hours per week,” he said. “My co-workers are hurting, and some of the original overnight stockers are kind of upset to have the extra help, because they want to hit their hours.”

Now that he’s only working around 24 hours per week, Rodriguez said he’s been far more conscious about his spending. His lawn mower stopped working — “The grass in our yard is really starting to grow,” he said — but he’s holding off on buying another one as long as he can. Similarly, his 2005 Kia Optima is on its last legs and has required a few trips to the mechanic. Rodriguez and his wife, Hilary, had been saving for a more environmentally friendly vehicle, but they have decided to put off that purchase for the time being.

Rodriguez is fully aware of the risks involved in continuing to work as the virus spreads, and his mother is worried about him. But he’s more concerned about what would happen if he lost his job: He would lose his health care coverage, which helps him pay for the medication that treats his hypothyroidism.

But Rodriguez and his wife are grateful that their situation isn’t worse. They are living at the house of his father — who is in the military and is stationed elsewhere — so they aren’t facing the pressure of paying a mortgage or monthly rent. And as Charles’s income has decreased during the pandemic, Hilary’s has increased because of it.

Hilary works for a grocery-delivery service, and with people increasingly reluctant to leave their homes, she is fielding almost more orders than she can handle. “Before, she was happily working 28 hours a week. Now she’s at 40,” and making about $17 an hour, Charles said. “We basically switched places: She’s making what I got on my old paycheck, and I’m now making what she did before.”

If there’s an upside to working inside a grocery store these days, it’s that the couple have been able to shop for themselves before or after their shifts, rather than making separate trips to pick over whatever might be left at busier shopping times. Workers can shop before the store opens each morning by showing their employee badges. (There are still strict item limitations, though, to prevent hoarding.)

Rodriguez and his wife have a storage bin of essentials in their home, just in case of emergency situations like this. “We still haven’t touched it yet,” he said.

Similarly, he hopes that his already-diminished hours at work won’t drop any further. Grocery stores are among the most bustling businesses in the country at the moment, but even the workers who saw that boom coming are worried about the future.

Teacher’s Portfolios of Library Skills
Weisburg and Toor
1985

Happy National Library Week, everyone. Over the years, we here at the ALB home office like to use NLW as an annual reminder about professional collections. Yes, I realize most of us are sequestered due to COVID-19, so take a note for when we get back to the books and patrons.

This little gem is from 1985. It was weeded in February 2020. If this is something you are using in 2020, I think it might be time to update your lesson plans. For those of us of a certain age, this is a nice nostalgic visit to libraries of yore. Note the entire chapter on those fun card catalogs.

If you are going to do a professional collection, then do it right. Weed it. Also, is your professional collection being used? If it isn’t, then maybe it is time to rethink how a print collection works as part of overall professional development.

Mary

The post Library Skills for the Kids appeared first on Awful Library Books.

New Haven, CT
Yale-New Haven Health

This is the second installment of our new series, Flattened By the Curve, which features the voices of doctors, nurses, healthcare workers, and others on the front lines against COVID-19. For information on how to submit, click here.

On the screen, I click through his life. I review his multiple aggressive treatments and lengthy course of rallying against an unrelenting disease. He and his family had made a decision recently. They would pursue peace.

He would die at home with comfort, surrounded by the faces of those who love him.

No one had anticipated this virus, though, and one by one these faces developed sore throats and coughs and fevers. They could no longer provide this comfort while also caring for themselves. He could no longer remain in his home.

He was rolled into the ED, the emergency department, and placed in a room.

He had no sore throat. No coughs. No fevers.

His wife was rolled into a separate room.

She had a sore throat. She had a cough. She had a fever.

The oxygen in her blood was too low. Usually we can fix that. However, this virus blenders up our tools and toys. It likes to mock us.

We’re accustomed to the elderly needing to borrow our machines and we are even familiar with the intermittent tragedy when the young get involved. However, this virus brings us people of all ages. We’re not accustomed to this.

What was once a tragedy is now a Monday.

I can’t touch my face. My mask gets in the way. And I can’t risk rubbing some bit of some virus into my eye.

So I squeeze my right eye shut, followed by a tip of the head to greet my shoulder. I repeat this for the left.

I have become a bobble. When my head steadies again, I stare at his wife.

The test we’ve done is positive. She needed more oxygen and a safe place for this to be administered, which means the Intensive Care Unit. A place where the rooms are spacious and the nurses always within ten feet. A place where the beeps and boops and chirps and blurts of machines echo over intermittent human voices. She needed tubes placed throughout her body and blood pulled and maybe put back.

He needed peace. No pokes. No pain. No machines. We have a place like that in the hospital too, but it’s both too medically and functionally far apart from the Intensive Care Unit.

We slide their stretchers together into the same room within the ED because we can. In different times this would not be allowed. But in this moment, we see wrong and the right.

I punch numbers into the phone and speak with one of the couple’s loved ones. I describe to them how they are together. They are holding hands. I promise to care for them both.

We will provide him comfort. We will provide her everything.

Bobble.

We ask the ICU to do the absurd.

Please accept them both. Please put them in the same room.

Please give everything to one and give comfort to the other.

We know this is a precious room with precious resources.

I expect swift dissent; however, we receive no immediate answer.

I swivel and spy one of the ICU doctors far across the emergency department, staring.

Bobble.

Hours pass and we receive a call.

It will take time but the absurd can be done.

They will remain side by side. He, who expected to die at home, and his wife, who expected to be home with him, seeing him through the end of this life. Now they are together in the ICU with no certainty of who will leave this world first.

It’s time for me to go home now. I watch them from behind glass. He reaches over and takes her hand. I see his lips move.

I love you.

I leave the hospital and enter my car. I wipe down the surfaces and apply burning chemicals to the cracking skin covering my hands.

I drive home and enter through the basement, strip down and place everything in the washer.

I nimbly climb the dark stairs and enter the shower.

The hot water hits my face and I begin scrubbing.

Bobble.

Ryan is an Emergency Medicine Resident Physician in New Haven, CT. He’s insistent that New Haven’s pizza really is the best pizza and enjoys going for walks with Stefanie and their dog, Benny.

Citizens rejoice! Our tremendously virile country is being led by a man who bragged about his penis size at a presidential debate. We, who put our trust and faith in President Trump, were really thinking ahead. Now tens of thousands of Americans have died from coronavirus — a death toll larger than that of any other country.

The Fake News Media will have you believe that the tragic number of fatalities is President Trump’s fault, just because he ignored the warnings about the coronavirus pandemic. They think that if only President Trump had acted back in January, our great nation might have been better prepared to contain the virus. But they completely ignore the fact that in his infinite, well-endowed-according-to-him wisdom, our leader was doing the very important job of investigating Hunter Biden and valiantly defending himself against the Deep-State Democrat impeachment.

Everyone knows that President Trump isn’t responsible for the country’s epic failure to contain the virus. The blame rests squarely on the shoulders of Barack Obama, who urged parties to put aside partisan differences in 2014 to prepare for a pandemic, but we know he didn’t really mean it because his middle name was “Hussein” and also he never bragged about his penis size. The World Health Organization, which started warning about the virus in January, completely forgot to mention their manhood, which must be why President Trump did nothing for the next two months. And let’s not forget the pandemic team. If only they had had the foresight to convince the president of their phallic prowess, he would have never disbanded them. What were they thinking?

After eight painful years of enduring a president who had more melanin than I did, I will never regret casting my vote for Donald J. Trump. One only need to look beyond our borders to see how lucky we really are. All over the world, countries are being run by leaders who have never said one word about their man lances, and you can see where that got them! Even worse, there are crazy nations that actually elect lady leaders without joysticks, and now they’re paying the price with organized quarantines, fewer deaths, and cogent explanations for why flattening the curve is essential.

Speaking of cogent explanations, every blessed day, President Trump takes time out of his busy schedule to hold an essential Coronavirus Task Force press briefing. It’s hard to believe, but not one of the so-called reporters in attendance ever asked him about his snake size. Instead they ask nasty, terrible, threatening questions. Yet despite all, the president is thoughtful and patient, consistently offering considered, not-at-all crazy answers. I know I speak for every American when I say that his behavior behind the podium offers a stark contrast to that terrible day of Aug. 28, 2014, when Obama caused so much suffering by wearing a tan suit.

Now, as our country plans to reopen despite the lack of testing, the failure to provide essential protective gear to front line medical workers and the sensible reluctance of 81% of Americans, it’s time to acknowledge the greatest president in American history who made all this possible with his excellent theories, sound medical advice, and brain metrics.

Thanks to President Trump, our country’s international standing is as impressive as his meat show. Our economy is as robust as his tallywhacker. Our national unity is as sound and secure as his bone-spurred soldier. Just as he promised, America is as great as his borscht whistle and not at all redolent of a Zombie apocalypse.

God Bless America.

New comic!

I'm just glad we could reunite Goofy with his homeland: a world of wretched nightmare creatures.

Hey, wait a minute... This is supposed to be a video call.

On reopening the economy, defunding the WHO and adjourning Congress, the president's style — aggressive strides forward in rhetoric, then a more realistic step back — was on display.

(Image credit: Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

Click here to go see the bonus panel!

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If I get in one more sodomy joke this month I hit the Sodomy Hat Trick.

This pandemic will go down as one of the biggest tragedies in history. In such dark times, it can be easy to feel hopeless. But if you look hard enough, you can see some breaks in the clouds, like how the crisis has reinforced the beautiful solidarity among our nation’s rich.

Love them or hate them, you can’t ignore how elites have successfully taken advantage of this tragic situation. Through their shared vision of consolidating wealth and power, they have reminded the working class of their lower value while at the same time lifting themselves to new levels of fortune and privilege.

Money equals value in America, and everybody has value. Some people are just worth a billion times more than others, and that’s okay.

Solidarity means working with one another hand in hand with a common goal. It means having each other’s back when things get tough, and fighting for a shared vision. People are more powerful in numbers, and people are the most powerful in numbers when they collectively own 80% of the wealth.

When the elites work together they show the working men and women of America, just how disenfranchised they really are. The rich have a unique way of standing up to the little guy and saying, “Nope!” It’s truly humbling.

From the Koch brothers to Jeff Bezos, from Senate Republicans to my dad, the rich and powerful have closed their ranks and coalesced to make a better world, full of love, wealth, and happiness for themselves. Now, that is something we can all get behind.

Some of the wealthiest people in this country could single-handedly get a bill or two passed to enrich themselves. But when working in numbers, they are able to come up with a plan to “save” the economy by pumping bailout money into their very own pockets.

Here are just a few of their recent achievements during this tragedy:

• After private briefings on the coronavirus, Senators Richard Burr and Kelly Loeffler sold off millions of dollars in stocks. Some would call that insider trading; I call it having your friends’ backs. Fortunately, there seems to be no repercussions so far because homies don’t let homies fall. Whether it’s true or not, the support they received from other millionaire politicians is what made the lack of investigation possible, and that’s a win in my book.
• Sometimes our fellow elites in office get worried about staying in power, and it’s natural to have those feelings. That’s where this act of solidarity comes in. Some voters in Illinois and Wisconsin couldn’t appreciate things the way they are. They wanted to “stay safe” and mail in their ballots. That’s when powerful politicians and institutions stood up with one voice and let them know that they could either wait hours in line terrified of getting sick, or choose to stay home and give up their right to vote. Voter suppression? No, more like helping make the right decision for them.
• With the support of their corporate brothers and sisters, Congress managed to pull off a huge win, giving over $800 billion to businesses. Some weaker nations like Canada succumbed to peer pressure and agreed to a livable monthly stipend of $2000 for their citizens to pay for rent and food. But in America, the 1% fought tirelessly for the underdogs on Wall Street, giving the greedy workers a one-time payment of $1,200 and the rest of the money to the real victims, the shareholders. Just look at that solidarity.

This is the dream folks like the Rockefellers, Andrew Carnegie, Henry Ford, Richard Nixon, and Ronald Reagan hoped to see for America. And if it took the coronavirus to make this happen, then maybe it was all worth it.

In the words of the great American thinker, Helen Keller, “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much. Also, if you got billions in the bank, you can kill whoever you want and totally get away with that shit LOL.”

Season 1, Episode 9
“You’re Not A Real Doctor”

When Cuddy opens a new department specializing in viral outbreaks, Dr. House feels it’s a waste of money, and undermines them until they all quit medicine and the department is closed. Cuddy is frustrated with House, but eventually forgives him because he diagnoses and cures a boy who’s becoming a tree.

Season 2, Episode 4
“There Is No Need To Wash My Hands”

After Chase points out that the hospital could do with more hand sanitizer stations, House seeks to prove a point by going an entire day without washing his hands. Everybody is angry at House, but they all forgive him when he successfully diagnoses a patient who’s sick because the hospital is too clean. The request for more hand sanitizer stations is denied, and everybody agrees that House never needs to wash his hands again.

Season 3, Episode 11
“We Only Need Three Facemasks”

When Cuddy puts in an order for 30,000 face masks, House sabotages the order so that only three arrive. When asked to explain himself, House puts a mask on an intern then shoots them in the leg to demonstrate face masks are a waste of time. The hospital threatens to fire House, but decides to keep him on because he brilliantly diagnoses a bullet wound in an intern’s leg.

Season 4, Episode 15
“Destroy The Ventilators”

When somebody shows up claiming to have an incredibly rare, long-dormant disease, Dr. House destroys a number of the hospital’s ventilators in an attempt to prove it’s actually an insurance scam. When he’s proven wrong, the rest of the doctors destroy more ventilators to show that they’re still behind House anyway.

Season 4, Episode 16
“Give Me All The Ventilators”

When somebody shows up with what seems like a common cold, House immediately commands the hospital’s diminished supply of ventilators, suspecting instead that it’s a rare and long-dormant disease. When he’s proven wrong, he destroys the remaining ventilators because… god knows why.

Season 6, Episode 3
“Pandemonium”

House deliberately infects himself with a rare infectious disease because, well, he’s House, isn’t he? When Cuddy wants to put him in quarantine, House ignores her advice and hosts a barbecue in the ICU because… I don’t know, I guess he’s got his reasons? Everybody forgives House because he lifts a witch’s curse from an old woman, and agrees that he can barbecue in the ICU whenever he likes.

Season 7, Episode 20
“Invest All Of The Hospital’s Money Into Airline Stock”

When Cuddy wants to fund a new wing of the hospital, House invests all of their money into airline stocks, claiming the airline industry is bulletproof. Everybody is angry at House until they see the initial gains they make. Cuddy reluctantly apologizes to House and promises that all the hospital’s money will be invested into airline stock.

Season 8, Episode 22
“Let Us All Go Outside and
Cough In Each Other’s Faces
Because It Is Sunny”

Seeking to prove that sunshine is nature’s great healer, House invites all the patients of the hospital to gather outside on a sunny day and cough in each other’s faces. The other doctors are all furious, but it’s the final episode, so what are you going to do? The series ends with House hosting another barbecue in the ICU and destroying the rest of the ventilators.

Click here to go see the bonus panel!

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Of course, now and then the Universe forgets to check its calendar and so the cat just stays alive.

Art lovers playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons now have an easy to way display famous paintings in their virtual homes. The Getty Museum has opened up its collection to players, allowing them to create custom patterns directly from its art pieces using a tool it calls the “Animal Crossing Art Generator.”

All players have to do is use the tool to search for a particular piece or to choose from Getty’s gallery of favorites, which includes van Gogh’s Irises and Manet’s Jeanne (Spring). Doing so gives them a QR code that they can scan using the Switch app on their phones — their characters can then download the pieces within the game using a NookPhone.

Players can use the artwork they download not just to create virtual paintings on canvases, but also as designs for shirts, walls and floors. The virtual versions aren’t quite as clear as the originals, though, so some pieces like abstract art may not look that recognizable.

It’s worth noting that those looking to import pieces from other museums could use Getty’s Art Generator, as well, so long as the piece they’re eyeing supports the International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIFF). They simply need to get the piece’s IIIFF URL and paste it into the tool to get a QR code they can scan.

Hey #AnimalCrossing fans! Hang Van Gogh’s “Irises” on your wall, wear Manet’s “Spring” on your shirt, or decorate your island with ancient sculpture.

Add art to your game using Getty’s new custom pattern-making tool: https://t.co/0014ri2rTO pic.twitter.com/iWoJCdj3jr

— Getty (@GettyMuseum) April 16, 2020

As Google and Apple prepare to team up on surveillance tech to help track the spread of Covid-19, privacy watchdogs at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) are urging the government and tech companies to take a tougher stance on privacy. 

The ACLU published a lengthy white paper outlining privacy concerns they say need to be taken into account in order for contact tracing tech to be effective. Apple and Google’s proposal would use bluetooth data to detect phone owners’ potential exposure to people who have tested positive for Covid-19. The companies say they will take a “privacy-preserving” approach to data collection. 

“While some of these systems could offer public health benefits, they may also cause significant risks to privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties,” the ACLU’s Surveillance and Cybersecurity Counsel Jennifer Stisa Granick wrote in a blog post. “If such systems are to work, there must be widespread, free, and quick testing available.”

While Apple and Google’s proposal “offers a strong start,” the companies could do more, Granick writes. Among the concerns: giving phone owners more control over how and when their data is used. This “voluntariness,” will help ensure enough people use the tech in order for it to be effective. But if some of the more “coercive and scary” proposals are implemented, it could result in people intentionally avoiding the tracing tech by turning off their phones or disabling location data.

Other principles include use limitations, in order to ensure data isn’t used for advertising or non-public health purposes; minimization, to prevent unnecessary data collection; data destruction, so user data isn’t saved longer than necessary; and transparency, so people know how the government is using data.

The group is also concerned about government use of the data, and the potential to exploit the surveillance tech for other purposes. The ACLU also sent a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Centers for Disease Control (CDC), requesting records of its communications with tech companies.   

Among their concerns: “mission creep” — that contact tracing efforts used to track the spread of Covid-19 will continue long after the coronavirus pandemic.

“In emergencies, we understand that many previously unacceptable practices may be adopted temporarily,” the ACLU writes in its FOIA request. “But details matter, and it’s critical that the government be transparent with the public about its plans to use location data or health data during the crisis.”

I got a haircut back in February. Still have mixed feelings about it.

1. Going out to dinner is completely out of the question.

2. Pants are optional.

3. What used to be a simple trip to the grocery store now ends in everyone having to bathe and change clothes immediately upon returning home.

4. You know exactly how many rolls of toilet paper you have.

5. The people who said it wouldn’t be a big deal were wrong.

6. You made the mistake of posting about it on Facebook and now you’ve had to block five people.

7. Your house smells like Clorox.

8. You never thought you’d say this, but it might be fun to go to Disney World when it’s all over.

9. You find yourself muttering, “I’m sick of this shit.”

10. At any given moment, someone is crying.

11. You know you’re not supposed to use junk food as a reward, but you’ve already gone through ten bags of M&M’s.

12. You’re doing okay during the day, but the nights are still hard.

13. You’ve become adept at turning on the faucet with your elbow.

14. The day isn’t complete until you’ve sung “The Wheels on the Bus” at least 246 times.

15. You spend a lot of time looking out the window remembering how it used to be no big deal to leave the house.

16. Even the experts have conflicting advice about the best path forward.

17. You have a sudden urge to call your mom and tell her how much you appreciate her.

18. It’s comforting to remember that a lot of people throughout history have endured something similar.

19. You promise yourself no more Google searches that include the phrase “worst-case scenario.”

20. The highlight of your week is finding an unopened bag of wipes in the back of a drawer.

21. The person who makes or breaks this whole thing is impulsive, irrational, attention-seeking, self-absorbed, prone to temper tantrums, and needs endless praise for the smallest of accomplishments. It’s not looking good.

Living Through a Pandemic: 1-21
Potty Training a Toddler: 1-21

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Jackie Olden’s Cookin’ With Crisco Oil
Olden
1986

Submitter: Mom and I both collect and use vintage cook books. Great for home libraries, not for public ones. I often snatch up old ones that have been discarded from libraries at book sales. […] And we do use them, though sometimes we alter the recipes because some of the stuff mentioned doesn’t exist anymore. Or to personalize them. Just recently I used her really old Pillsbury cookbook to make some bread, then added in my own twist – shredded cheese, olive oil, garlic salt, dried parsley, dried basil, and diced oil packed sundried tomatoes. So old recipe books, great for personal libraries, terrible for public ones! (But if any library wants to send me their old recipe books…. LOL)

Holly: I like vintage cookbooks too! I love those old church fundraisers with the spiral bindings (a.k.a. the library kiss of death, and you know there will be about a hundred of them waiting in your donation piles, which are accumulating on your libraries’ front porches while you’re away). They always use ingredients like “oleo” and suggest “a small pinch” as a measurement.

The post Vintage Cookbooks: The ALB Home Edition appeared first on Awful Library Books.

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