Social Distance Digest: Weekend Reading to Better Understand the Pandemic

While at times you need to tune out the news for the sake of our own sanity, at others it's better to face it head-on. That doesn’t mean scrolling through endless headlines about the virus and letting unanswered questions fester in your mind; it means diving deep into the facts that hopefully add context to the situation.

We have gathered together some of the week's best writing on the coronavirus to add to your reading list for another weekend of social distancing.

Anatomy of a Pandemic

Even though only a portion of the population is infected, everyone is affected. Physician Kevin Patterson reflects on the wider consequences of the coronavirus outbreak in this detailed article for Canadian non-profit publication, The Walrus.

The Deadliest Virus Ever Known

In an effort to provide some historical context on our current situation, Longform.com has dug up this 1997 the New Yorker piece by Malcolm Gladwell on the Spanish Flu, covering virtually everything we know (how we know it) about the lethal illness that sprouted up in 1918.

Copper Destroys Viruses and Bacteria. Why Isn’t it Everywhere?

Known for asking all the weird questions, Vice.com has thrown a curveball of a suggestion: Fill the world with copper to fight the virus. Surprisingly, a lot of it makes sense.

US Coronavirus Death Toll Passes 100

As the United States seems on track to become the next Italy, The Washington Post offers this exposé on the country’s situation.

Coronavirus: Why You Must Act Now

Like the Post piece above, this sobering Medium.com article gives an excellent view of the pandemic in the present moment and how things got here, but this time from a worldwide perspective, and with plenty of data to chew on.

Coronavirus' Looming Psychological Crisis

As people are forced to isolate themselves, people's mental wellbeing will take a toll. In China, social distancing is already well underway but now countries around the world are being forced to ask what will happen in the minds of their population as people sit at home and avoid contact with others. Political Scientist David Faris, writing for The Week, walks us through the implications.

READ: You No Longer Need to Wear a Mask... Except When Within Kissing Distance

Images: David Lezcano via UNSPLASH, the Walrus, the New Yorker, Vice.com, the Washington Post, the Week