Parents should focus on engaging, not educating kids

CBC News: The National

Published on Apr 9, 2020

Educators are reminding parents that just because their children aren’t in a formal classroom because of COVID-19, they don’t need to become teachers overnight.

Spillover Warning: How We Can Prevent the Next Pandemic – Yale E360

 

Author David Quammen has tracked the spillover of viruses from animals to humans for more than a decade. To avoid future pandemics, he says, we must rethink our relationship with nature and recognize how our choices can lead to dangerous disruptions of the natural world.

By Roger Cohn • April 9, 2020

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Email

As the novel coronavirus has emerged and spread around the globe, science writer David Quammen has not been surprised. He’d warned of just such a scenario in his unsettling 2012 book, Spillover, which detailed how — as we continue to disrupt the natural world — viruses are increasingly spreading from wild animal populations to humans.

A global pandemic like COVID-19 was inevitable, Quammen says in an interview with Yale Environment 360. What was not inevitable, given the alerts that scientists have been issuing for a decade or more, was the utter lack of preparedness. “I am surprised at how unprepared we’ve been and how badly we, meaning this [Trump] administration but also state governments, have managed this,” he says.

For his reporting, Quammen has crawled into bat caves with researchers in search of emerging viruses, visited wild animal markets in China that are prime hot spots for viral transfer, and traveled to African villages ravaged by Ebola. The heart of the issue, he tells e360, is “our relationship with the rest of the natural world, which is consumptive, intrusive, and disruptive.”

“All the choices that we make — what we eat, how much we travel, how many children we have, what we buy… ,” he says, “all of these choices have consequences for our contact with the rest of the natural world.”

Yale Environment 360: When you wrote Spillover in 2012, you warned that we were going to face basically the same situation we’re faced with now — a virus that spills over from animals into humans and spreads around the globe. And scientists warned us three years ago about the emerging novel coronavirus. Yet the world now finds itself unprepared for this outbreak. Has that surprised you at all?

David Quammen: Yes, the lack of preparedness is the only thing about this whole situation that has surprised me. I didn’t have any illusions that the people who control the wheels of power and government were listening carefully to the scientists, but I thought they were listening at least enough to have some preparedness. And in this country, of course, I knew that [President] Trump was trying to defund the Centers for Disease Control as much as he could and had gotten rid of the key people on the National Security Council who were in charge of pandemic preparedness.

…(read more).

Outside Of The Spotlight, Coronavirus Spreads Through Rural America | Rachel Maddow | MSNBC

MSNBC

Apr 9, 2020

Rachel Maddow looks at how the coronavirus is spreading to rural areas of the United States where smaller populations do not necessarily mean greater safety and where hospital resources can be more challenging. Aired on 04/08/2020.

Failed US Federal Response To COVID-19 Manifests As International Disaster | Rachel Maddow | MSNBC

MSNBC

Apr 9, 2020

Rachel Maddow looks at the where national coronavirus policy in the U.S. is still falling short and how the consequences of the Trump administration’s failures stand out in the data on the impacts of the worldwide spread of the virus. Aired on 04/08/2020.

How Will COVID-19 Shift the World Order? | Amanpour and Company

Amanpour and Company

Apr 6, 2020

China, the original epicenter of COVID-19, appears to be cautiously opening up from lockdown. Authorities, however, are warning that risk reamins high. Bestselling author Parag Khanna has been studying the spread across Asia. He speaks with Hari Sreenivasan from his home in Singapore about the lessons the U.S. could learn from China and whether this pandemic will have a lasting impact on the global order. Originally aired on April 6, 2020.

Atmospheric Sciences Webinar Series Part 4 of 8: From the Past Into the Future

AGU

Apr 9, 2020

To celebrate past accomplishments and highlight future challenges at the Fall 2019 meeting, the Atmospheric Sciences Section hosted an all-day session of oral presentations by a diverse group of invited speakers – both established and emerging leaders in the field – and all excellent communicators. Topics included ozone depletion and recovery, weather and climate prediction, detection and attribution of climate change, and extreme events, among others. The webinar series will repeat each Tuesday (3 March to 21 April). Each session will feature two speakers (25-minute talks + 5 minutes for questions), and last from 12-1 PM EST. The 24 March webinar, Part 4 of 8, features presenters Susan C van den Heever (Past Achievements and Future Challenges in Understanding, Observing and Modeling Cloud Processes) and Sonia I Seneviratne (Weather and Climate Extremes).

Republican Strategist Denounces the Party’s Response to COVID-19 | Amanpour and Company

Amanpour and Company

Mar 31, 2020

Republican strategist Stuart Stevens is known for advising key GOP campaigns like Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential bid. Now he has written a powerful mea culpa for the Washington Post, laying the blame for what he regards as President Trump’s failed response to the coronavirus pandemic squarely at the feet of all Republicans. Michel speaks with Stevens about all this and about his new book, “It Was All a Lie: How the Republican Party Became Donald Trump.” Originally aired on March 31, 2020.

When Pandemic Strikes Rural America | Amanpour and Company

Amanpour and Company

Apr 2, 2020

Nowhere is the fragility of the U.S. healthcare system more apparent than in America’s poorer communities. Regina Benjamin served as U.S. Surgeon General under President Obama and founded the BayouClinic, serving a poor fishing community on the Gulf Coast of Alabama. Having worked through Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Benjamin talks to Walter about the lessons learned on what to do when disaster strikes rural America. Originally aired on April 2, 2020.

The Remarkable Research Being Done to Create a COVID-19 Vaccine | Amanpour and Company

Amanpour and Company

Apr 7, 2020

Jon Cohen is an award-winning journalist who has been reporting on infectious diseases for 40 years. He tells Hari Sreenivasan about the remarkable research being done now–even as many still seem determined to ignore the facts–and about his recent, revealing conversation with Dr. Anthony Fauci. Originally aired on April 7, 2020.

Why Are Black Americans Hit Harder by Coronavirus? | Amanpour and Company

Amanpour and Company

Apr 9, 2020

Coronavirus has hit Louisiana hard, with new data revealing that it has affected African Americans particularly badly: The state’s black community accounts for 70% of the deaths, even though they make up only 33% of the population. The Mayor of New Orleans, LaToya Cantrell, says this disparity is reflected nationwide because of systemic problems with poverty traps and lack of resources. Mayor Cantrell speaks with Walter Isaacson–and explains why Mardi Gras went ahead as a pandemic loomed.