Coronasode: All (Washed) Hands on Deck -- How to Help Yourself & Others Right Now with Dr. Michael F. Wells

but I'm going to read it here too. Virologist doctor Shannon Bennett wrote me on March seventeenth, and let me know, quote, daily, new confirmed cases are growing in number exponentially here in the US. And that is in light of one of the lowest per capita testing rates worldwide by country, twenty six tests per million people as of March tenth. That means that, even though we all recognize that confirmed cases are just the tip of the iceberg of the actual

infections in the US, our iceberg is particularly submerged. In short, she said, it's time to take social distancing seriously and flatten the curve. So that was an update from doctor Shannon Bennett of the virology episode. So, in light of the lack of testing, especially comparatively, plenty of us here in Great Old America are asking where are the tests?

How can we get the tests? So one guy, a neurobiologist and postdoctoral fellow at Harvard's Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology and the Road Institute, said we'll shoot. We have so many ologists out there, let's just see

who wants to help. I'm paraphrasing, and he put together a Google form just as a private citizen, working completely independently, not as an employee of Harvard or the broad and within hours had an army of scientists who are ready to combat SARS covy two, the virus that causes COVID nineteen, which we covered in virology. In case that confuses you, I get it. So if only we can use the strengths we have and come together, will be in a

much better place. So rather than just retweeting the URL to the Google form, I thought we'd make an episode out there for anyone who wants to help but just doesn't know what to do. And for anyone out there who could use some advice on taking care of their own mental health during this weird time, which we probably all could use. So, as disastrologist doctor Sam Montano said in her episode, people are much more pro social in

a crisis than we expect them to be. That's great news, and in mister Rogers' words.

So this is a bonus episode, so it's ad free, but a donation was still made to the LA Food Bank, and I would not be able to do those things or make the donations to causes each week without the folks at patreon dot com slash ologies, So while I was at it, I asked patrons how people have been helping them, how they are helping family and friends and maybe strangers, and for some of their self help suggestions, which I'm all heirs for and just a heads up.

So this episode has fewer asides than usual, just for a much quicker turnaround, and it's more of a raw conversation than most episodes. Also, the first ten minutes or so, I asked this ologist a bunch of questions about his backstory because he's really amazing and relatable and inspiring and it's just really interesting. And I want us all to remember that scientists and neighbors and healthcare workers and grocery stockers are all people with these incredible stories. And the

more we remember that, the less alone we feel. So if you need some updates on this illness and a healthy dose of hope, you have come to the right place. So hunker down, get cozy, and prepare to feel inspired by the folks out there who have our backs, including de facto community organizer working from an extra desk in his apartment, and professional neurobiologist doctor Michael F. Wells. So, Hi, thanks for talking to me.

say from your blood or your hair. Some have started taking it from urine, and we can convert those cells into stem cells. And then we can take those cells and make them into many, many different cell types so that we can study diseases in these cell types that are actually impacted by that disease. And so the disease I've been studying for the past four years or so

has been the xgovirus infections. So I take stem cells and I make them into fetal brain cells, or at least cells that resemble fetal brain cells.

lumpy brains helping other lumpy brains. Sometimes be a mice, just like, what.

more interested in studying the human condition. And I also became quite severely allergic to mice over the course of the Yeah, so if you work with mice for eight hours a day for six years, you know they will get their revenge on you if you don't properly cover your mouth and make sure you're not inhaling all the irritants that they release taste it. So yeah, I can still work with my suges, has to be quite limited interaction with them.

treatment for abies. So we now have if you get raby's, it's no longer death sentence because of Louis Pasture's discovery. And so I remember being five or six years old and just thinking like, oh wow, this one guy in a lab like dramatically changed the course of human history by eliminating this disease from the list of things I could wipe us out if it spreads. And so that

influenced me at a pretty young age. You know, I didn't really come from a family that had a lot and so it was mainly through books that I developed this interest in science, and so by the time I was in high school, I was more interested in biology and trying to understand how the human body works. And I thought I was going to go to college to

prepare for medical school. But I quickly realized that I can't see someone having their blood drawn, and even talking about it, you can hear my voice slowing down and I'm trying not to pass out. And I realized that if I can't see a blood trawl, yeah, I probably shouldn't go into a field in which that is something that you will see commonly. Even if you're not doing yourself,

you will see it. So I remember I went home for thanksgaving break while as a sophomore at the university that are Dame, and this is kind of when I realized, like, I don't want to be a medical doctor. And so I went home and on my bed was a National Geographic magazine and the cover was a guy with all these electrodes on his head, and so I was like, okay, I'll do that. I'll be a neuroscientist. And that's pretty

much all the thought that I put into it. It was just something that I just I saw a picture. I'm like, Okay, I'll do that. And so I think you're seeing a theme here that I'm easily influenced by media.

know what the job entails. And if they did know those two things, they don't necessarily know the third factor, which just had to get into this system. You know, Academia is very competitive and there's a lot of internal challenges you have just feeling like you belong. I'm actually a Salvador in my mom's from Al Salvador, and I actually never felt like I mean, you could see in this skype, I'm not that dark skin to like all

my family is much tanner than me. If I never felt like I was being held back because I was a minority. However, I did feel like I was being held back because I did not come from a house that had a lot a lot of money or power

or whatever how you refer to it. And that becomes very challenging in academia because you are working with people whose parents were biochemists or you know, mathematicians, and you know they might come from from different from backgrounds that made it a little easier for them to get to where they are and to feel comfortable where they are. And I think that is you hear this term a lot imposter syndrome in academia, and it comes from people not feeling that they belong because they see what the

backgrounds of those around them in academia. And I do think that the most powerful way of overcoming that and getting our field beyond that is through early science communication.

Also Mission Unstoppable another great science show for kids, particularly girls. I don't work on it, but it's very good. Also, my friend Emily Grassley makes great YouTube videos on her channel Brainscoop. Doctor Joe Hanson hosts It's Okay to Be Smart for PBS. I love his stuff. My friend Derek Muller hosts veritassium videos on YouTube. Lepidopterology guest Phil Torres

has his Jungle Diaries YouTube series. I'm going to make a list of links in case you need kid friendly things to watch that don't have swear words, which I'm trying very hard to avoid in this episode, so that you pass it around to other people and we fix this problem. Okay, let's get back to Mike. So he has a manuscript he needs to be working on right now, but he's working from a small office at home to

become this community organizer with this project. And he has a little experience in this, having worked on the Obama campaign in two thousand and eight. But he did have to cut the job short halfway through his six week stint, because I'm gonna let him explain.

rid of that option like six months ago. So I was trying to save up for grad school at the point at that point, so I had to quit and I ended up working in a daycare center for the rest of the summer, teaching kids science.

I again, I've been studying zecovirus for four years now, so I have all the skills necessary to perform the COVID nineteen testing, and so I was really hoping that at some point, as places start ramping up their testing capacities, that I would have the opportunity to start working at a facility to just help out, you know, in the efforts. And so I you know, I'm pretty active on Twitter, and I've seen that there were these sign up forms

in Seattle and in the Bay area. I later learned there's one that was being widely distributed for the New York area. But what I hadn't seen yet was something for Boston. And I hadn't seen anything that was trying to aggregate all these different sources into one central location.

And so essentially what I did was I created a form in which I'm asking for contact information from scientists, asking them if they have experience in certain techniques that are required for testing, and then asked them if they have any sort of reagents or kits or equipment that they can donate to these testing facilities.

who is in the band glitch Mob. They're like an EDM group. One is a musician based in la Her name is Eloheim. And another's my friend Michael Angelakis, who's the lead singer of the band Passion Pit. What I did was, after I created the form, I texted them and said, I'm about to post something on Twitter. Can you please retweet it? So it is their audience, and

you know, they have thousands of thousands of followers. And then Justin actually then reached out to a man by the name of Tim Ferriss, who has one point six million followers. So once that happened, he retweeted it. Then Drew Carey, a comedian that I've adored since I was a child, he retweeted, so it reached a very very wide audience. And then you, of course retweeted my efforts a few hours later, So it reached a very wide audience and have been a very short period of time.

And I think that's what really helped accelerate this because then once those scientists started filling out the form, they then send it to other scientists that they know.

there's an additional two thousand today, so it is growing exponentially. Obviously, can hit a plateau once all the scientists do who do have these abilities are reached and they built the form of they're willing to so it will hit a plateau hopefully that hopefully doesn't happen in silicresta as wide an audience as possible.

do not have to write that down. It's linked in the show notes. Wyoming.

the virus. And these are areas that if you did have the virus, it's likely the virus be present in your spit. It's like to be present in the back of your knows. The reason for that is this virus, in particular, it tends to infect the respiratory system. We would take that sample and in this case it's RNA. This is an RNA virus. So you may be aware

of what DNA is. I think most people know what DNA is, what RNA is, What the DNA becomes when you're trying to make a protein, you have this intermediate step of RNA. So this virus is just an RNA virus. That's pretty much what is being transferred for one person to another. It's a piece of RNA that is encapsulated by an envelope. And this is why when you wash your hands, you kill the virus because that envelope gets degraded by soap, and RNA not last a very long

time without that envelope. So this is why it's so important to wash your hands. So essentially what happens is we then will take that sample extract the RNA. And that's a very key step that I'll get to in a second. We extract the RNA, we convert it back to DNA, and then we run what's called a plimerase chain reaction. So you might have heard a PCR. Someone won a Nobel Prize in nineteen ninety three, I believe, for creating this machine that amplifies DNA.

So according to his sadly recent twenty nineteen obituary in the La Times, Carrie B. Mullis was an LSD dropping climate change denying, astrology believing SURFA Nobel Prize winning chemist who was both widely respected and equally criticized for his

controversial views. So what did he do? All right? His history changing process involves taking a segment of DNA and heating it until it unzips, and then looking for a specific segment of DNA and then zipping it back together via an enzyme or polymerase with free floating building blocks, the AGTC nucleotides, and then doing a chain reaction of that so that each copy makes two copies, and so on and so on, and you're able to replicate a

ton of that segment, so a polymerase chain reaction PCR. Now, Mullis came up with the idea while driving down the highway. Just came up with this idea that changed the world. He once said, quote, I think really good science doesn't come from hard work. The striking advances come from the people on the fringes, being playful, he playfully said, from the fringes side. Note, he was drunk the morning he found out that he won the Nobel Prize alongside chemist

Michael Smith, who was probably not drunk. Mollis then celebrated the win by going surfing. I am trying so hard not to swear during this episode. So hm, hot dog, what a life? Maybe let that be a lesson to just chill out while in isolation. Don't work so hard, play horseshoes, learn an Irish jig, just get high and eat some raw biscuit dough. Read a novel you don't think you deserve too. Either way, you're avoiding the virus. You might even end up winning a Nobel Price. Just

don't surf drunk. I guess now, what if you're sick? How does the test work?

amplified by this system. And then after every cycle that it runs, it will take a picture and it will measure the intensity of that die and you should use you as green so it will tell you how much green fluorescence is present in this system in your well. And then you can use that green readoubt as a way of measuring the amount of viral RNA present in the sample. So that is the basic testing system that is in play right now. It's looked at whether or

not viral RNA is present in the sample. Having said that, as a result of the national emergency being declared, there are now loosened restrictions on the types of protocols you can use to test for COVID nineteen and so some universities have found ways that are much faster than the thing I just subscribe to you, and so they are in the process of getting approval through the FDA, through their state and local authorities to use that as a

test in their community. And so I do anticipate that we're going to actually learn a lot about ways, different ways to test for these viruses, to make these tests more efficient, because the need is so clear right now for us to do this very quickly and safely and accurately. So that's what's going on right now with the testing. If you want to know why there are no tests going on. That's a million dollar questions. There are, but

they're not where they need to be. That's primarily from what I've heard, an issue with the lack of reagents. So that are an a extraction step, which is for most calls, it's the first step. Those are usually made available through a kit, and the most commonly uses this kit from a company called Kyagen, which is based in Europe.

There are very very few Coyagen kits available for these labs, and so one of the things we including the database was a question that we asked all these scientists, do you have RNA extraction kits that you're willing to donate from your lab to a facility that is currently testing and the need of those types of kits?

not good. That is not going to be helpful. If you look at what happened in Yuhan and how they eventually got control over the virus to the point where they're now having very few new cases each day. Part of it was because of a very aggressive testing system they put in place in which they would actually go door to door and determine if someone is showing symptoms and if they were showing symptoms, they would administer a test right there and get them the results back as

quickly as possible. We are nowhere near that in this country. And even with that aggressive approach that they took, which also included something called centralized quarantining, even with that aggressive approach. They still are not looking at a coronavirus free environment until mid May, and they had the outbreak start in January, so even then it's taking them five to get rid

of this thing. We are all just now on the early stages of this and we are not being as aggressive as them, So it's likely this is going to last longer than what took place in China.

Kayagen that makes these kids. There's a lot of them out there, which is something that kind of makes it a little more challenging as well, because different facilities in the United States are using different kids, are using different qPCR reagents, machines, all it's kind of all over the place right now. There's no real agreed upon protocol.

the absolute first thing I learned was PCR. And so you know, this is not something where you need a PhD to do. There are technicians who show up, who are undergraduates at a university who immediately learn these things. I had a high school student in our lab two three years ago who was able to run qPCR, you know, in his first week.

you know, putting themselves a risk. So that is something that each facility is presumably going to take care of. That is something that's heavily regulated for good reason. So if it's much more regulated, they are much more stringent with certain aspects of the procedures. And so you know, this is why again you don't want to just hire

anybody off the street to do this. Ideally, pick someone from this three three and ninety two person who has experiencing these techniques and we'll be able to pick it up very very quickly.

chosen from my lab to be that person. I'll be going in tomorrow. I can be there for three hours, I can feed this specific set of cells, and then I have to leave. And they regulate all this because most of these buildings have key cards, so they can toggle my access and I couldn't, for example, just walk in right now because I'm not authorized to go in on this date.

later stages of fighting this virus. Having said that, there are a lot of companies and a lot of organizations building the infrastructure for vaccines, and I'm sure you're aware that earlier this week they've already started testing this in Seattle. One of the vaccines is available. Hopefully it works. I will say that vaccine development is very tricky. There are viruses out there that we still don't have good vaccines for. So you know, there's no vaccine for e. Zica, even

though there's a lot of interest in developing that. And so when doctor Fauci says that we are twelve to eighteen months away from a vaccine, I think that's accurate because it's not just developing the vaccine, it's testing it, making sure it's safe and effective, and then it's mass producing it.

you know, sells a huge journal. And there's certain clinically approved protease that helps cleave parts of the viral envelope and then doing so prevents the attachment of the virus to lung cells. But you know, I could also list one hundred drugs that will probably work on ZECA. There is a bottlenecke from what we find in the laboratory and what actually makes it to patients, and there's a

lot of things that can stop that from happening. It could be that the drug you know, might work in a dish, but the second you put into a human being that goes through their liver, it stops working. It could be that it actually causes more harm than good. There are some things that we look at in addition and says, hey, this looks like this struggle reduce infection ends up makes you more prone to infection, or it

makes you more susceptible to a bacteria or something. So there are all these different aspects of it that are very hard to predict. Clorkquin has been around for a long time. It'd be nice if it worked for this, but I still think, you know, before doctors in the United States start prescribing it, there's probably other hurdles that need to be passed before they can start doing that.

But regardless, people are clamoring now to get this drug, with several reported accidental overd on it well, also leaving the patients who actually need it for autoimmune disorders not able to find it. What is my point, it's cooler jets. Let's all cooler jets on this. So far, it's in the flim flam bucket until there's some actual proof of efficacy. Right now, what people need is to isolate, not get or spread the virus. And for people who maybe carriers,

access to actual testing. And now what if people have items that they can donate from their lab. What kind of things are you guys looking for?

So right now they really want unopened unexpired kits. That could change five months from now where they become more desperate for these kits. It could be that we don't care if it's been opened. We just really really need this kit right now. So I've anticipated that sort of need, which is why didn't ask people do you have an unopened, unexpired kit? I just had a sublanket question, do you have this kit that you're willing to donate?

healthcare workers on the front lines. And I'm going to read part of his letter because it felt like getting kicked in the stomach by a horse. But it also woke me up a lot. So doctor Josh Learner said, please don't tell me that. And the richest country in the world in the twenty first century, I'm supposed to fashion my own face mask out of a cloth because other Americans hoard supplies for personal use, and so called

leaders sit around in meetings hearing themselves talk. I ran to a bedside the other day to incubate a crashing likely COVID patient. Two respiratory therapists and two nurses were already at the bedside. That's five and ninety five masks, five gowns, five face shields, and ten gloves for one patient at one time. I probably saw fifteen to twenty patients that shift. If we're going to start rationing supplies,

what percentage should I wear precautions for? Make no mistake, the CDC is loosening these guidelines because our country is not prepared sending healthcare workers to the front line asking them to cover their face with a bandana, is akin to sending a soldier to the front line in a T shirt and flip flops. I don't want talk, I don't want assurances. I want action. I want boxes of N ninety five's piling up donated from the people who

hoarded them. I want billion dollar companies like three Am halting all production of any product that isn't PPE, to focus on PPE manufacturing. I want Procter and Gamble and the makers of other soaps and detergents stepping up to We need detergent to clean scrubs, hospital linens and gowns. We need disinfecting wipes to clean desk and computer services. What about plastics manufacturers? Plastic gowns aren't some high tech device.

They are long shirts, smocks made out of plastic. Get on it, let's go money talks in this country, he says. Executive millionaires, why don't you spend a few bucks to buy back some of these masks from the hoarders and then drop them off of the nearest hospital. We need to divert viral culture media for COVID testing and research. Netflix and Chill, he says, is not enough. While my family,

friends and colleagues are out there fighting. Our country won two World Wars because the entire country mobilized, we out produced, and we out manufactured while our soldiers out fought the enemy. We need to do that again because make no mistake, we are at war. Healthcare work are your soldiers, and the war has just begun. So that was a letter from doctor Josh Lerner, who is a pediatric er doctor. So the folks on the front lines need help, and we can help by sharing info and making some noise

so our government takes action. What would be your dream in terms of who picks up the database, Like, what would be the best case scenario of where all this information that you have now collected over the course of fifty hours ago.

best to contact state officials. Basically, it's cold emailing them and saying like, hey, I have this thing, you may need it in the future. I'm more than happy to give you access to it. I just need to know who to give it, who exactly needs it. So that's honestly been the hardest part so far. Obviously, the response from three four hundred and eleven people came very quickly, but so far I've only been able to share this

database with health officials in Massachusetts and North Carolina. I'm also working with a group in New York who has been using it because they're setting up organizational groups in New York to help recruit these scientists. And I'm also working with an organization known as end Coronavirus, so the endcronavirus dot org, and we're trying to find ways to distribute these this database to others. We built this thing, I really wanted to be in the hands of people

who can turn this database into action. But this is actually the first Google form I've ever made, so I'm kind of learning as I go along and how to run this thing.

them something. He clearly is a New Yorker. Also, you can send electronic gift cards or food to hospital staffs. I did that today with doctor Natter's team, and he facetimed me from the nurses station saying thank you, which was completely unnecessary. But in the background, one of the nurses stepped into frame in full ppe mask, face shield gown, and it was so surreal. It just looked like a scene from a movie. And these people are literally risking

their lives to save ours. So just like, buy them a frickin' panini, you know. But better stresses that you should not go to the hospital to drop anything off. Contact the hospital via phone or email first to ask what you can deliver and how. But yes, electronic gift cards for dinner clutch now I also asked y'all what you advised how to help in these times? And I put this up on my Patreon and just a deluge

of great ideas came up. So I thought I would read some of them off because there are so many things I didn't even know or think about. So let's get right anyway. So, when it comes to donating something, what better resource than your own hot, squishy, sloshy bag

of blood. So patrons Ashley Herbel, William Andrews, and Aubrey Lebert said, hospitals and the American Red Cross is in desperate need of blood donations, so they've had to cancel donating events and a good chunk of their regular donors are sixteen old or Aubrey said, So if you can and it's safe to do so, you can please donate to your local blood bank. You can call ahead and

ask about their protocol if that's a concern. Now, if you are afraid of some needles but not other types of needles, so what and so masks a ton of patrons, including Joe Alexander, Shirley Dark, William Pence, Amanda Richards, Mary Kumro, Heather Orlans, Laura Shulty suggest grabbing some fabric, nice looking fabric and looking up patterns online and seeing if you can churn out some face masks. Now, are these cloth masks as effective as N ninety five's No, of course not,

but they're better than literally nothing. Now, some healthcare workers are being asked to use one mask for days and days at a time in some hospitals, when usually they would be changed out after each patient, and Natalie Mastik says, adding onto this, my friend has been making masks for her husband and his colleagues in the er. There is definitely a need for them, and she recommends making some for some other hospitals, but checking on their needs prior

to dropping anything off. Now, what if you don't sew, but you have a three D printer. Well, my cousin, Nate Bronick is a bit of a maker himself, and suggested looking into the maker community pages to see if there are any face shield needs locally that you can help fabricate. He says, there are several groups that are trying to three D print masks or face shields for local health care providers. So you can google that and I'll put a link to that in the show notes.

But wait, what's that? What? You have? Actual real medical gear just lying around because you're really into some creepy cosplay or maybe you stockpiled and you feel bad now, don't feel ashamed. Zach Stricklin, a patron, wrote in and said, my mom is an RN and a director of clinics for our rural hospital system. If you have any PPE you could donate, gloves, masks, anything, contact your local clinic and see if they could use it. Masks do not have to be N ninety five to be of use

to healthcare staff, Za says. Eric Polk also wrote in and says I'm an RN in an emergency room. Ah, thank you, Eric, and I can confirm the need for PPE is critical. Masks are normally used once per patient and then discarded, but due to the current shortage, he says, we are using the same mask for twelve hours countless. Pat So please, if you have PPE, contact your local hospital. It's a desperate need. What about those close to you,

like in your community? Well, Patron Scott Sheldon says, I have several elderly or compromise individuals near me, and I'm heading to the store tomorrow morning to get what they need. Scott says this isn't a blizzard to prepare for, It's a winter or even longer, and patrons Kathleen Sachs, Julia Hayman, Rachel Lynn seconded this. Charmaine h wrote in Great Story said share your stuff, they said. I ordered from Who Gives a Crap at the beginning of the year and

still had about thirty to forty toilet rolls left. So I have divided them up and given them to my family members as most of my family is classed as vulnerable and at risk of getting COVID nineteen and I'm disabled. So whilst there's not much I can do, I'm trying to find ways of helping them, and by giving them this toilet paper, it means they can now stay home. You can't spare three square. No, I don't have a

square to spare. I can't spare a square. I'm down to three rolls, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. Others mentioned to keep an eye out for WICK items at the grocery store. WICK stands for women, infants, and children, and it's a program to make sure that food insecure kiddos and pregnant folks get the food they need. Adam Weaver said avoid buying things labeled Wick. We can switch to a different brand, but people that depend on Wick can't, so keep an eye out for that in

the grocery shore when you're buying things. Speaking of victuals, if you can donate a little to a food bank, do so. I just found out today one hundred bucks makes four hundred meals, so just think a twenty five dollars donation to a food bank could get one hundred people dinner now. You can also check with your local ones to see if they're taking any items if you

have extra stuff in your pantry. Tyler Q and Antonio olivera'z, Kaylas Simpson, Nadia Jackson, Chloe w All suggested this, and Adam Weaver simply said local food pantries are really hurting, please donate what you can. A bunch of patrons also suggested putting your money where your mouth isn't and shopping local, even if you're just getting gift cards or delivery from nearby restaurants, just to keep them in business. Heather mcnernan

and kat Lindsay both said simply shop local. Chelsea is also doing this, and Dale Lamaster wrote in and said, being retired, my income is fixed, so I send checks to local small businesses for the amounts I would have been spending with them if not for social distancing. Dale also says keep calm and carry on loving and living. Now for a straight up direct deposit effect on people. A lot of folks are venmoing others who could use

a little cash. Alreadie Laying is using venmo. Michael Paskira says, I suggest visiting go fundme to look for campaigns to help your local restaurant and hospitality workers who have lost their employment during this miserable epidemic. And Nadine Duke says, I'm a waitress or was before four days ago, and my fellow service folk and I have got a lot of GoFundMe pages and the like, and we're all being very good about sharing each other's stuff on Facebook and

Instagram feeds. Not many of us can afford to donate to each other, but we'll be sharing the hell out of each other. We service folk seem like a bunch of degenerates, but damn do we have each other's back when the COVID hits the fan, Nadine says, Megan nance says, yes,

I love this so much. And Rob Hover said that the people who provide support to those who work in office buildings likely need help too, Like the incredibly kind shoeshine man that works in our lobby our office took up a collection and with a lot of contributors, we were able to put together enough to at least help them scrape by for a week or so. And what if you're like Ward, I am not flush with cash. I'm freaking out about it. Get it, I get it

one thousand percent. Now, if you want to volunteer your time for zero dollars, somehow, Chase Pennix and Michelle Kreb's started websites or Facebook groups where people can connect and share resources. You can also volunteer, like Chris Calderelli says, Meals on Wheels needs volunteers, and I checked with Meals on Wheels and right now they are really in need of food delivery drivers as well as people who can

perform welfare checks on older folks. Now, if you would like to volunteer but not see or get near other human beings understood, Meals on Wheels said it could also use people willing to write cards or create gift boxes to show seniors currently in isolation that there are people

who care. Oh, you can do that, just contact Meals on Wheels and patron Misha Kovalchuk says that if you're an ologist who wants to volunteer from AFAR ologists, they say share your expertise with some kiddos via video conference. Krista Avanpado, a patron, said, I'm chatting with a fourth grade class about biomimicry work. And also the nonprofit Skype of Scientist run by your favorite squid expert, toothologist Sarah McNulty is amazing at connecting brainiacs with kiddos. So look

into Skype of Scientists too. Now consider your skills. What have you to offer others well? Patron Helen Babawash has a lot and says I volunteered to file income tax returns for low income Indigenous families. Although our government extended the tax filing deadline, Helen says, low income families still need to file to ensure that they continue receiving the most benefits they can get. So I'll file their tax return electronically and email them PDF copy of their text return.

Thank you, Han pabawash that rules. Let's talk animals. Patron Nathaniel Cossi is doing whatever their dog wants to do. I second that I'm holding my dog right now as I record these assites. Ashley Curtin and Rob Hoover say that shelters are closing down and volunteers can't be there, So consider maybe fostering a pet for a while. Maybe you'll adopt it, maybe you won't, but froster it, just

do it. Joni Waldrip says, if you know someone who's in a more precarious financial position than you are, who also has pets, consider maybe buying them some pet food or litter or whatever supplies they might need. What a treat help mister whiskers? Now, how can we make sure that the humans who take care of humans are taken care of?

see you, You've got this. Megan Guthrie and Sephira echoed this, and Spira added, also, please remember that, in addition to doctors and nurses, healthcare is also leaning heavily on the less visible people who are equally important, like the dietary staff who feed our patients and the maintenance and housekeeping staff who are working around the clock to keep up with the requirements to keep everyone as safe as possible. That's a great point. Saphira also added, wash your hands

another great point. So yes, take care of others and take care of yourself. Let's talk self care. I was like, patrons, what are we doing for self care? Let's talk about it, and patron Ester Cohen says, I think self care truly varies person to person. For some folks, it's sitting and watching Netflix all day. For some folks, it's structure and scheduling. For me, Esther says, setting a schedule with achievable tasks each day and walking walking, walking for hours on end

has been soothing. Kelly King has been rearranging furniture and has plans to paint the living room, and yesterday, while walking the dog, they made a short video tour and shared it to a mental health group they belong to. Since they say, I know many people are unable to leave their homes a virtual walk if you will. Now in terms of hitting the pavement, other patrons are like

heck ya. Mike Monikowski says, I've taken a page from how incarcerated people deal with being confined by working out at home, and I found that exercise actually does help with depression. It gives you something to do when you'd

normally be doing something else, even without equipment. There are thousands of exercise plans and video lessons available online for every level of experience and preference, ranging from calming yoga to calisthenics screamed at you by a drill sergeant and side note, may I suggest you're at Sleeper's Quarantine klistenics. Every day at noon Pacific time, my wonderful man friend is leading a workout on Instagram Live. No equipment needed, and he is usually in short shorts, so if you

tune in, you're going to get a good workout. You'll also see me in the background or me leaving saucy embarrassing comments as I work out in another room. So Jarrett underscore sleeper on Instagram Quarantine calisthenics every day Pacific at noon. On Saint Patrick's Day, he wore one of my green T shirts as a half shirt and then he gave orders at a leprechawn voice, get into it.

It's a trying time. I love it now for a more mellow experience, Artie Lang says that they just get an early cup of coffee and go for a morning walk while no one's outside, and Kelly King says, I've been making sure to do yoga or ti chi daily for my mental health. Heather Densmore says that their yoga class moved to the beach so then they can stay

at least six feet away from each other. That sounds amazing now if you're not near a beach, but you're near a screen, everyone says online parties have just been getting their extra version Itch scratched. Stephanie Birherdes, Sarah Michelle, Julie Barrt, Julie Brown, Angelus Cartusio, Artie Lang all say their video chatting the Google Chrome extension Netflix party, that's where all of your friends watch a Netflix thing at

the same time and can comment on it. It's kind of like you're in a movie theater, only you're allowed to talk and if you throw popcorn you have to clean it up. There's also the Amazon Chime portal, or there's Zoom. You can always go old school and FaceTime.

I've been doing that. What if you need to disconnect no screens, you say, write a letter, says em and Liz Ropekey says that they have been doing this too, because it's always nice to just get a letter in the mail, and this way you don't have to be on your phone to communicate if you don't want to be. Liz also adds anyone interested in an Ologi's pen pell group. If you're on the Facebook group the ologies podcast Facebook group, there is an address swap there. Y'all can write each

other letters if you like. I love that idea. I think it's cute as hell. Now, Suzanne ca chimed in to say, I hope this is not too late. SUZANNEK No, it's not. Along the lines of self care, Suzanne says, I've been listening to a podcast called Mindful fifteen apps or podcasts that are guided to help with relaxing your body and ads, don't forget the beauty around you. That's a great idea of Suzanne k. Maybe write a poem

about it where you could journal. Mariah Mchager says, I've been journaling to both help me sort out my feelings, but also in the aftertimes. First hand accounts will be helpful for future generations to understand the situation. Mariah says, whether you donate the journal to an archive in twenty years or just have something around to refresh your memory to tell stories to young ones, it's an important part of the historical record. Wow, what a time we're living in.

Will we want to remember it? Probably once some time passes. Concetta Gibson says, I started journaling specifically to document what's going on locally and to sort through my thoughts. But it's done. Wonders for helping me keep track of what date, even it is. Other creative outlets, Conchetta says, helping too, like painting and Minecraft. You know what, Maybe it's Minecraft, Maybe it's getting lost. In comedies, Scott Sheldon says, it's okay to laugh. It's okay to laugh even at our

current situation. Being able to uncontrollably. Cackle is a great medicine to boost your morale immune system. You know what else is sparkly lights. Ben mcnell says, there's a thing people are doing in my hometown in Canada putting up Christmas lights again so families can drive around without contact and enjoy family time. So as long as everyone's feeling lonely and no one will see you for several weeks, there's never been a better time to cut banks and

text your crush. Grow out of mustache or your pit hair for fun, or shave the back of your head. Shave the front of your head will Pleawa says, I shaved off my beard so I can get fit tested for an N ninety five mask. I was an ICU nurse a few years back, so I'm going to be ready to get back in the trenches. It is a war and we'll win it by working together. And I salute you all. I also message with my good friend Colleen Flanagan. I've known we were twelve, and she's a

nurse in northern California. She's currently home on sick leave with what she calls a beast of a lung infection, a fever and fatigue. She says it's worse than when she got this swine flu and pneumonia. So she's awaiting her COVID nineteen test results, but she's pretty sure she's got it. And I asked what people could do, and she sent me a link to a National Nurse's United petition urging Congress to help nurses get the protection they need. But Colleen also sent me this message, which was so

beautiful and chilling. She said a little perspective for those who aren't sick and don't have to risk their lives and health at their job. Self care and societal care advice. If you're not sick, feel blessed for your wellness. Don't obsess or worry about if you become sick. Don't obsess about getting a test. If you're not sick. If you're sick of being indoors, feel blessed you're indoors and not homeless. If you're blessed enough to have a deck patio window,

enjoy your private fresh air. If you're blas enough to be well, enjoy the extra time to do things you love and communicate with people you love. If you've ever wanted to try yoga, now is a good time, good for the body, mind, soul, and community. Thinking beyond ourselves is the key to getting through this in many ways. And what does an ologist want non ologists to do?

Is there anything else any if someone is not a scientist and they can't run these tests, is there any other way that they can help or donate, or any kind of words of wisdom for people who are like I want to do something.

feels awful. And you know, we're in it for much longer than three days, and we have the added anxiety of the fact that there's something going around killing people, potentially people you know, potentially people in your family. So I know it's tough, but the best thing you can do is just stay away from other people as much as you can. Because so many cases are asymptomatic. I think the estimate from China was between eighty and eighty five percent of the cases where asymptomatic. This is not

like other viruses. This is something that you can be infected for two whole weeks and have no idea, but that whole time you can be spreading it to other people. We have never seen anything like this in the United States. It's my hope we never see anything like it again. So yeah, my advice that people was just stay home and you know wat you watch your show on Netflix. One hundred hundred Cubans just came out the other day. I just saw that. Congratulations all things.

we really really need to start behaving differently. We all need to stay inside. You need to be constantly washing our hands. Whenever you go outside and come back. Keep your distance from people six feet at least. If you do have to go in public, try to keep that distance. I learned how to wash my hands as a result of this outbreak. I didn't know that my whole life. I've been doing it incorrectly, and now I know, like, oh yeah, you should probably clean it with your fingernails

by like scrape from them against your palm. And all those.

But if you are thirsty for more info on this pandemic, my virology episode with virologist doctor Shannon Bennett explains the basics of the disease and how it spreads, and she has a top notch backstory. Who really one of the best I've ever heard now. That transcript is also live on my website at aliwar dot com in the ologies extra page. Thank you Emily White and all the transcribers for getting that turned around. I love you so much. Also,

my friends at this podcast will kill you. The Doctor's Aaron from the epidemiology episode, released a coronavirus episode and they're doing a shockingly amazing six pack of minisodes dropping on Monday, addressing all kinds of SARS COVID two issues. They are wonderful and they are the originators of the Quarantini, so you can check that out. Thank you Aaron Talbert for admitting the ologies Facebook group. There's a thread there where people are sharing links to people are causes who

need help. Thank you Shannon Felts and Bonnie Dutch, who hosts the comedy podcast You Are That for managing merch at oligismerch dot com. Thank you Jared Sleeper of mind Jam Media and the mental health podcast Make Good Bad Brain for giving your whole day over to the production of this episode and standing right next to me as

I'm recording these asides. And as always, thank you to the wonderful Stephen Ray Morris of the Dino podcast see Jurassic Right and the Kitty theme percast for scooting this to the top of the queue. He's staying up late tonight to upload it and to master it last minute for us and Nick Thorburn wrote and composed the theme music, and he's in a great band called Islands in case you need some new tunes to listen to in Isolation.

In each episode I tell you a secret, and this week the secret is that I like to an embarrassing degree I can't stop listening to the new Grimes album mis Anthropoiscene. It's so good, so many good jams, such good just listening and driving around and walking around music. So listen to it. Maybe tweeted her boyfriend to start making some ventilators. I hear he's kind of a nerd. Her heard he's a little bit of a tinkerer. So get in the garage. Egghead's figure this out. Okay, Tuesday

coming up, just a couple of days, new episode. I'll be swearing like usual, So stay inside. Let's kick this covid in the rump together apart by bye very proud of pacodermatology, abiology, hYP doo, zoology, lithology, technology, meteorology, paratology, anthology, seriology, ethology.