This video details the one policy held by most developed countries across the world except for the United States, paid sick leave for all employees, that may further determine how bad Covid-19's impact will be on the US. Most other developed countries, including Italy and Germany, have a policy where every employee must receive paid sick leave from either their employer, the government or both. This ensures that any disease an employee may have, not just Covid-19, doesn't spread to the company or anyone it serves. The US doesn't have a policy like this and many Americans make the choice every day to go to work sick in order to have enough money to live. This can prove to be detrimental in this outbreak as people continue to go to work and continue to get others sick or don't go to work and lose their job, house, and all their savings. Contingency plans have been in the works since the government started acting on this virus, but most if not all bills requiring paid sick leave have been edited to contain loopholes or become vague in order to appease republican lawmakers.

One of the most interesting things to come out of this pandemic is that illegal and illicit trade between North Korea and China has likely been halted due to North Korea's fear of the coronavirus. Satellite images show an unusual amount of ships sitting idle outside of Nampo, North Korea, where North Korea takes in sanctioned shipments of coal and oil forbidden by the United Nations. These ships could either be Chinese ships waiting for ports to open or Korean ships sitting idle after being pulled back from sea trading with China. North Korea was sanctioned by the UN in the first place because they were putting much of its revenue into nuclear weapons development. This could also have an impact on North Korea's agricultural industry as they depend on illicit oil to power their machines. To North Korea, the coronavirus has become more threatening than United Nations sanctions.

Spain is now the fourth most hard-hit country in the world with Coronavirus, and their death toll is skyrocketing much like it did in Italy. People are panic buying groceries much like in the US. Essential businesses are forced to have much more rigorous cleaning procedures and options available to keep the virus from spreading through them. Much like the US, it's been a struggle to get proper supplies and to have enough room for those infected with the virus, including many health workers. However, some good has come out of the crisis, at eight o'clock every night those quarantined in their homes take to their open windows and balconies to applaud and thank healthcare workers and the police. It's interesting to see the similarities and differences between our situation here in the US and the one in Spain.

This video comes from three different patients suffering from or who had suffered from coronavirus. The first is a woman in the hospital currently recovering from it, the second is an older gentleman who was on the Diamond Princess and has recovered, and the third is another man recovering from the Diamond Princess. They talk about their symptoms and their experiences with doctors. The woman said her family is in quarantine and she hasn't seen them. The older gentleman talks about being on oxygen and experiencing treatment for a virus that doesn't currently have a cure, receiving only pain medicine and a lot of Gatorade. The other gentleman says everyone needs to take this seriously. It's very interesting to hear from people who are actually dealing with this virus and how they see the whole situation from their point of view.

This is a good update video from Elmhurst Hospital in Queens, New York City. It's a raw update on just how underprepared we are for this epidemic at this point.

While the Coronavirus poses a threat to our health a new infection is growing, racism related to the epidemic. Since the virus came to our country racism again Asian Americans has been on the rise. There have been reports of physical attacks and viral videos of verbal attacks and passive comments against Asian Americans that play into racial stereotypes and cause harm, even in our schools. There has been no help from the media or the countries leaders as they directly or indirectly play into these stereotypes and blame China and the Chinese for spreading the virus. Xenophobia has occurred with other epidemics before but that doesn't mean we shouldn't fight against bullying or discrimination based on race just because the virus originated in China.

Amid this Coronavirus crisis, Mexican citizens are unconcerned and looking the other way despite already having four deaths in their country. The problem stems from the lack of concern from the government and the president who don't see it as a huge issue, saying things like "you have to hug" and continuing to hold political rallies. Meanwhile, healthcare personnel are trying to warn both the president and the public about the true concerns with the virus and their lack of preparedness for the soon to occur explosion of cases. It's a wild thing to see compared to the reaction by the US government, which could arguably be an underreaction as well.

Under New York City's Central Park sits a neighborhood previously inhabited by an African American community after the abolition of slavery in New York. Seneca Village was created after former slaves were made uncomfortable or cast out of what was NYC at the time. Over time, it became very populated, becoming one of the first integrated communities with Irish immigrants moving in, sharing a similar goal of finding a new way of life. In 1853, however, the idea and plans for Central Park were proposed by the NYC elites who wanted something like Kensington Park for their own city, right overtop of Seneca Village and other homes. The cities newspapers portrayed Seneca Village as a no man's land filled with dirty people in shacks and huts living off the land, unimportant and easily removed, before forcing people out of their homes and leveling everything into a park. A recent archeological dig unearthed a rich history revealing it wasn't a shanty town but a rich middle-class community of educated and even rich individuals. Many fought to keep their property but due to their skin color they were entirely disregarded and forced out by the end of the summer.

In the 1960's Mao Zedong's influence and health were on the decline in Communist China; many thought he was in very ill health or possibly even dead and his approval was low, which sparked a media campaign thanks to the Yangtze River. The Chinese people were still trying to recover from the Great Leap Forward and the millions of deaths it brought before it's ending. Meanwhile, the SU was going through a period of DeStalinization after the death of Stalin, something Mao did not want after his own death. Mao swam in the Yangtze again to show his health, but it also symbolized the beginning of another huge government campaign, similar to his swim before the implementation of the Great Leap Forward. This time his swim signaled the Cultural Revolution, a campaign to purge government officials not dedicated to Maoism and spark zeal for Mao in the Chinese youth. The Red Gaurd of the Maoist youth went out destroying what they called "the four olds" and rewriting history under Mao. The Cultural Revolution was just as chaotic as Mao's previous campaigns and resulted in countless deaths, but it got Mao what he wanted, respect after his death as opposed to the scrubbing Stalin's history received. His swim symbolized more than his physical strength, it symbolized a revitalization in the Chinese Communist government and his last revolution.

Here is a video about the Covid-19 epidemic that details the symptoms, how it's spreading, and how we can and should keep the disease from overwhelming the health system and causing unnecessary deaths. It's slightly out of date with some of its information but it still contains information valuable and universal about this epidemic. Avoidable deaths occur when the health system is overwhelmed by huge amounts of cases in short periods of time and can not care for those who are sick and could be saved as well as people who are in desperate need of hospital care for other reasons like car accidents or shootings. More avoidable deaths occur when more people get sick so the biggest thing that prevents them is preventing the spread of the disease. This means not leaving your home if you are sick or have had contact with someone who was sick, act as though you already have it even if you don't. Social distancing saves lives by preventing avoidable deaths and slowing the pandemic in a way that doesn't overwhelm hospitals with cases, it keeps those with a chance who would have died because they couldn't get medical help alive.

Here is a video that may help some better understand what it means to "social distance". Though its not very clear what it means and doesn't mean to some people, social epidemiologist Carolyn Cannuscio explains its taking every opportunity you can to limit contact with the public sphere to help limit transmission to you and others around you. The rule of thumb from her is "if you don't have to do it, then don't do it". She also stresses finding ways to interact with friends and loved ones without putting them at risk like calling them, face-timing them, speaking out the window, sending them letters and packages, and doing whatever you can to keep them safe. The biggest thing we as a country can do to fight the epidemic is to limit the amount of contact we and those around us have with places the virus can and will be which means only going out for the bare necessities, washing your hands often, and staying home.

This is a video about one of the scariest aspects of this Coronavirus outbreak, who is allowed to go on a ventilator in the case of shortages in America's hospitals and how do hospitals make that decision? From where we stand now, this isn't a decision we need to make right away, but doctors in New York state with the Department of Health are looking to guidelines they created before to help doctors make those decisions should the time come. The guidelines state that all ventilators should be reserved for the purpose of the disease, meaning no more elective surgeries and assessing stockpiles from both the state and country and that their use should be on the people sick enough to need a ventilator, but generally well enough that the ventilator will actually help them recover as opposed to just keeping them alive. The guidelines state that the decision to use or not use a ventilator on a patient would be made by a panel of unbiased and unassociated doctors who make that decision based on the information they are given about the patient and the benefit the patient would have from that ventilator. These guidelines are not in place yet and they are voluntary but it's extremely important that we have them so the most people can come out of this epidemic alive and well and the doctors and nurses on the front lines who are already overstretching themselves can make sound decisions they can feel more comfortable with. These are extremely hard choices that no one should have to make but in the case of an epidemic like this one, these may be choices that have to be made with the worst of consequences.

This is a video from New York Times' series Retro Report about the Covid-19 outbreak and how other outbreaks were dealt with in the past, specifically the eradication of smallpox across the world. Doctors would hold public events and campaigns to spread awareness so those infected could be quarantined and treated accordingly. Doctors offered rewards for reported cases and walked around with pictures of those affected asking if community members saw anyone who looked like the picture. This helped especially with hidden cases, or cases that were unidentified that resulted in spreading in a community unaware of what the virus really was. The video also addresses how not to deal with epidemics or disease eradication with the antivaccination campaigns based in political or religious distrust in Africa and the Middle East that lead to the rise of polio. These epidemics and how they were addressed can help with the response to Covid-19 as we learn from history instead of ignoring it.

On this day in 1945, Pvt. Eddie Slovik was executed for desertion of the US army, he was the first to be tried and executed since the Civil War and he was the only American soldier executed for desertion. He was drafted into the army and submitted a confession of desertion after getting lost with a companion on his way to the front lines. He was encouraged to repeal it multiple times but refused, hoping it would get him out of combat and put in military prison, before he was tried and sentenced to execution. He appealed to officers as high as Truman but never recieved a pardon and was executed in France.

On this day in 1948 Mohandas Gandhi was assassinated by a Hindu extremist who was unhappy with how he advocated for a bond between Hindu and Muslim Indians. It was just a year after he aided India in its quest for independence from Britain. Rioting ensued shortly after and many people desperately wanted to see his body before he was cremated. His killer and a coconspirator were arrested and killed a year later for the assassination.

In 1988, sixteen-year-old Tawana Brawley was found wrapped in a plastic bag with signs of being raped and sodomized. She accused a police officer in the area for her rape and multiple civil rights activists including Rev. Al Sharpton came to her side to support her case and portray it as a racial crime. The case turned out to be fake setup and many false reports and accusations arose against the police in the area. Ultimately, the accusations went too far and those entirely uninvolved were accused of heinous crimes. The biggest victim of the case was the family of the police officer she accused of raping her, Harry Christ, who killed himself briefly after her attack. Brawley and the civil rights activists who were with her were charged with defamation of some of the people they accused and all parties have yet to explain themselves in full.

On January 28, 1986, the Challenger space shuttle exploded shortly after take-off when two fuel tank seals failed, releasing fuel into a space where it could rapidly combust. This was NASAs first serious disaster and the first time a regular person, a teacher who was going to teach a lesson from space, onto a mission. The disaster rocked NASA, but not enough to prevent another disaster due to carelessness or pressure to launch in less than 30 years. If you'd like to know more about the behind the scenes of this tragedy and what was done to stop it in the future, I previously posted a video detailing the disaster and its causes.

A rather interesting and gross discovery recently occurred in the ancient city of Herculaneum, the lesser known of the two cities destroyed by Mount Vesuvius, archeologists found a glassy substance in the skull of a body thought to be a cooked brain. The "glass" contained fatty acids and oily secretions often found on the human scalp and in the brain and nervous system. It's hypothesized that the room the body was found in heated up enough to melt the brain tissue into a liquid, rather than burning it, and rapidly cooled somehow to produce glass.

Dutch holidays consisted not only of the fun festivities of St. Nicholas Day, but also a relatively recent new character called Black Pete, traditionally a slave to St. Nicholas and a racist caricature often played by white Dutchmen from the Dutch colonial days. Many arguments have been made for the keeping of Black Pete as a part of the celebration including that black Dutchmen were okay with it (many were not and found it offensive and insignificant enough to be removed from celebrations), that the coloring was not meant to represent skin tone but soot from climbing around in chimneys (which was also not historically true as the author wrote him as a slave from Spain who helps St. Nicholas), that children enjoyed it too much to remove it (as one woman said in the video, Black Pete often scared children because of his stories of hitting or kidnapping naughty children). Black Pete was meant to be removed from celebrations and replaced with an adapted version, Chimney Pete, who is a white Dutchman not in full blackface but with smudges of soot to actually go with the story people have been trying to use to justify its continued use in holiday celebrations after a poll found black children were actually being discriminated against by their peers for looking like Black Pete

On this day in 1924, Vladimir Lenin was killed by a brain hemorrhage. Lenin was the leader of the Russian revolution at the end of WWI. His body was embalmed and buried near the Kremlin and Petrograd was renamed Leningrad in his honor