COVID Article Roundup: April 1-5

Here are some of the most interesting/intriguing sources I have found these past days, in no particular order, except for the first one that is about mental health.

• The One You Feed is another podcast I enjoy that deals with mental health and mindfulness. This episode I am sharing is a compilation of experts sharing their strategies to cope with emotional issues. All podcast episodes help me think about priorities and how I personally deal with adversity, but this specific episode is a good one to start thinking about how to deal with the stress of our current situation. 
• This Al Jazeera's The Listening Post episode is very interesting, talking about the geopolitical for the COVID narrative. Al Jazeera is always interesting to me since it many times rejects the narratives established in the West and in the East, providing a critical view of how we collective "see the world."
• This Nature article highlights four Global South countries and their approach to prepare for the pandemic. This quote highlights the overall strategy for the countries highlighted in the article: "Without the luxury of well-funded hospital systems, Nigeria and other low- and middle-income countries began ramping up measures to keep COVID-19 from spreading as soon as they confirmed their first cases of the disease — in some cases, even before. That includes shutting down most activities with the threat of arrest, quickly rolling out tests to detect genetic sequences from the virus and a willingness to deploy rapid, easy-to-use tests — even if they are not as accurate as the conventional variety, which requires more laboratory capacity."
• I got the Nature article above from the Nature Podcast (link to the episode here). They now have a Coronapod version dealing solely with the pandemic. So far this has been a pretty good resource to hear from experts some interesting insights. 
• Speaking of podcasts, Science Vs is one of my favorite podcasts out there, and the episodes on the pandemic have been very interesting too. The last episode (Is Coronavirus Airborne?) discusses aspects of the virus that I was not really thinking about.
• File this one under creepy but interesting: this Endgadget article is talking about Google's Comunity Mobility Reports. "The reports show location data from folks who have agreed to share their location history with Google in order to show places that are following instructions to shelter in place -- or not." This is a short article and at the end they have a short paragraph discussing other policy strategies that include using cell location data: "Location tracking has been used by nations like Korea and Taiwan to track movements of quarantined and healthy citizens. However, such actions are of limited use alone. Those countries have also been testing a high percentage of their populations and implementing stricter social distancing rules as well."
• This is an interesting Atlantic article (I have seen other similar articles) talking about the environmental consequences of the worldwide shutdown. Here is my favorite quote: "A quick search for the phrase birds are louder on Twitter reveals that many other people have been wondering the same thing I have lately: Are the birds chirping more fiercely these days, or am I losing my mind? With spring migration in full swing in the Northern Hemisphere, there are certainly more birds around. But the reduction in noise pollution—and, in some places, its total absence—might make it easier to notice the usual trilling and squawking."
• This Guardian article revisits Italy since the beginning of lockdowns. The title of the article says it all: Singing stops in Italy as fear and social unrest mount. This quote shows the issues that are arising since the lockdown: "Tensions are building across the poorest southern regions of Campania, Calabria, Sicily and Puglia as people run out of food and money. There have been reports of small shop owners being pressured to give food for free, while police are patrolling supermarkets in some areas to stop thefts. The self-employed or those working on contracts that do not guarantee social benefits have lost salaries, and many small businesses may never reopen."
• Two last podcast recommendations are related to the economy. Planet Money and their sibling podcast The Indicator have been focusing a lot on the economy (US focus but some global discussions too) and the unemployment situation in the US. A lot of insightful stuff.