COVID-19 Resources

C O V I D - 1 9 R E S O U R C E S

How to stay safe:

• Wash your hands often and for at least 30 seconds each time. Here’s a video by the World Health Organization that shows the correct way to wash your hands. 

• Avoid touching your face (especially your eyes, nose and mouth). 

• Limit your travel.

• Work from home or remotely, if you have the privilege to do so. 

• Do not attend public events. You may be young and healthy, but that is no reason to ignore the warnings. Until we know it’s safe, try to think of others who might not be so lucky. 

• Don’t panic. Stress reduces your immune system’s ability to ward off illness. Find ways to stay calm during the pandemic. Communicate with friends and family. Meditate. Take a bath. Read a book. I’ll list some helpful options below! 

• Make sure you have your prescriptions on hand. Try to avoid going to the pharmacy. 

• Exercise! This helps boost the immune system, as well as mental health. 

• Stay informed, but make sure you’re taking time to de-stress and help others as well. It’s also important not to read into misinformation. 

• Use a tissue to cover your nose and mouth when you sneeze/cough. If you don’t have a tissue, sneeze/cough into the crook of your elbow. 

• Avoid going to urgent care or the hospital if you can. If this pandemic reaches the projected numbers, there will not be enough room at hospitals for everyone. Stay home if you can. 

How to help others:

• Do not hoard supplies. There is a limited supply of essentials right now, so practice the art of sharing.

• If you are healthy, do not buy face masks. There is a shortage of these and healthcare professionals need everything they can get. 

• Donate to your local food bank.

• Donate blood if you are healthy. With the amount of intake hospitals will be dealing with in the coming weeks, there may be a shortage. 

• Check in with your neighbors, family members and friends. There are a lot of people out there that need to stay away from public places like grocery stores -- ask if you can pick something up for them. Ask how you can help those in your community that may not have the same privilege as you do. This Seattle Facebook page is a great example.

• Stay up-to-date on apps like NextDoor to see how you can help your neighbors in need. 

• Contact your local homeless shelter and see what donations they’re in need of. 

• Ask your local politicians what they’re doing to help the homeless population during this time. There should be a moratorium on encampment sweeps that displace already displaced households and that often cause the loss of personal property that includes medication and other life-sustaining items. (source)

• Support small businesses. Local businesses, restaurants, theaters, etc… are all struggling right now and will continue until this passes (which could be awhile). Consider buying a gift card to a business you know you’ll visit once this is all over. Order takeout from a local business that needs it, while they’re still open. If you’ve been thinking about purchasing something from a small business, this is the time to buy (as long as you have the means)!

• A lot of people will not be paid during this time. Freelancers, people that are unable to extend their sick leave, etc… may not be able to make their rent or buy supplies that are needed to get buy. Ask how you can help and offer what you can. 

• Support healthcare workers, teachers, janitors, grocery store and Amazon workers (or anyone else that’s job requires them to be there, surrounded by crowds of people). Have a friend that’s a nurse? Ask them what they need. They may not be stressed yet, but it might get pretty bad for this in the coming weeks. Offer to grab them groceries or meals.

Symptoms of COVID-19/Coronavirus:

• Fever

• Dry cough

• Fatigue

• Shortness of breath

• Less common: aches & pains, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, diarrhea

Source: Worth Health Organization

What to have on hand, in case you come down with Covid-19/Coronavirus:

• Kleenex

• A thermometer 

• Acetaminophen (Tylenol) in 350mg tablets

• Ibuprofen (Advil) in 200mg tablets

• Mucinex

• Robitussin or Dayquil/Nyquil (or whatever your choice of cough medicine is)

• Humidifier (or take a steam in a hot shower)

• If you have asthma, make sure that your prescription inhaler isn’t expired. And have a spare one on hand, if possible. 

What to do if you suspect you have Covid-19/Coronavirus:

• Stay home. Call your doctor or a healthcare professional to assess next steps. For most people, Covid-19 is minor. Do not put others at risk. 

• Seclude yourself from other people and animals in your home. 

• Cover your coughs and sneezes.

• Wash your hands often. 

• Stay hydrated.

• Get plenty of rest. 

• Monitor your symptoms and take your temperature multiple times a day. 

• If you have been in contact with others, let them know so that the can take extra precautions. 

Suggestions for keeping your immune system as strong as possible:

• Vitamin C (I use this lypo-spheric vitamin C)

• Oregano Oil

• Gaia Herbs Quick Defense

• Rainbow Light Counter Attack

• Stay hydrated.

• Rest as much as you need (more than normal).

• Exercise/sweat regularly if you can. 

• Eat lots of fruits + vegetables.

• Avoid sugar and alcohol if you need some immune help.

• Practice activities that reduce your stress levels (meditation, taking a bath, taking a walk in nature, baking, communicating with loved ones, etc…)

Helpful Resources:

• Why Outbreaks Like Coronavirus Spread Exponentially and How to Flatten the Curve by The Atlantic

• Coronavirus Live Dashboard

• The Case for Canceling Everything by The Atlantic

• Coronavirus: Why You Must Act Now by Medium

• Covid-19 Freelance Artists Resources

• Slow Factory Covid Open Resources

• How Canceled Events and Self-Quarantines Save Lives by Vox

• Preparing for Coronavirus to Strike the U.S. by Scientific American

• Want to do something about Coronavirus? Here are 5 ideas by Vox

• The Coronavirus Pandemic: 5 Ways You Can Help Others by Harper’s Bazaar

Things to do when you’re stuck at home:

• Give your home a deep clean.

• Read the books you’ve been planning to read. 

• Try out some new meal or baked good recipes if you have the ingredients on hand (and share with your neighbors)!

• Call your family + friends. You can also use FaceTime, House Party, Google Hang, Zoom or Skype to videochat with them.

• Do a puzzle.

• Catch up on documentaries, movies, tv shows, etc… that you’ve wanted to watch.

• Exercise -  find some at-home workouts to try out!

• Go through your closets and do a little sale. Donate your earnings to organizations that need it if you’re able to!

• Create a Netflix Party and watch something with friends!

Community

I thought it might be nice to create an online community during this time of social distancing. If you’d like to join, I created a slack for us to chat, share funny videos, ask questions, etc… If you’ve never used slack, it’s an app you can download to your phone and computer. Let me know if you have any questions about it! 

Funny videos to take your mind off of everything: 

Here’s a youtube playlist I made with some of my faves.

Sharing some of my favorite books and books on my to-read list (no need to order through these links -- you can most likely find these used or through your local bookstores that could definitely use the business right now):

• A Girl Called Echo

• All The Light We Cannot See

• All About Love

• Americanah

• Bad Feminist

• Belonging: A German Reckons with History and Home

• Beloved

• Beneath a Scarlet Sky

• Berlin

• Between the World and Me

• Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel

• The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma

• Boy Erased

• The Book Thief

• The Boys in the Boat

• Brain on Fire

• Buzz: The Nature and Necessity of Bees

• Choked: Life and Breath in the Age of Air Pollution

• Clearing The Air

• Climate Justice: Hope, Resilience, and the Fight for a Sustainable Future

• The Complete Cosmicomics

• Contact

• Cosmos

• Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions

• The Devil in the White City

• Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reduce Global Warming

• Eating Animals

• Educated

• Environmental Justice in a Moment of Danger

• Erosion: Essays of Undoing

• Everything Is Illuminated

• Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

• Falter

• Fashionopolis: The Cost of Fast Fashion and the Future of Clothes

• The Giver

• The Great Alone

• The Great Believers

• Heart Berries

• The Hidden Life of Trees

• The History of Love

• How to Change Your Mind

• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

• In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto

• In Search of the Canary Tree

• Inconspicuous Consumption: The Environmental Impact You Don’t Know You Have

• Inferior: How Science Got Women Wrong

• Just Kids

• Killing Rage, Ending Racism

• Know My Name

• Little Fires Everywhere

• M Train

• Maus

• The Mental Load

• Merchants of Doubt

• Night

• The Nightingale

• The Omnivore’s Dilemma

• The Outsiders

• The Overstory

• Pale Blue Dot

• Policing Black Lives

• Possessing the Secret of Joy

• Sapiens

• Secondhand: Travels in the New Global Garage Sale

• The Secret Wisdom of Nature

• Slouching Towards Bethlehem

• The Soil Will Save Us

• Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism

• Swing Time

• The Tattooist of Auschwitz

• There is No Planet B

• There There

• The Things We Cannot Say

• The Uninhabitable Earth

• Their Eyes Were Watching God

• This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate

• Waste

• Waste Not

• The Water Will Come: Rising Seas, Sinking Cities, and the Remaking of a Civilized World

• We Should All Be Feminists

• Wear No Evil

• Whereas

• The White Album

• White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism

• White Teeth

• The Will to Change

• Woman World

• The Year of Magical Thinking

• You Can’t Touch My Hair

What to watch: 

• Follow @remoteviewingcinema to watch films sourced by a film programmer here in LA. They’ll be sharing double features sourced from free or commonly subscribed to services like Kanopy, Amazon Prime, Netflix, Hulu, Tubi, Hoopla, Pluto, Youtube and Vudu. They’ll occasionally feature a “premium” double feature with titles from Criterion Collection or titles available for rent. Their hope is to build community around cinema while cinemas around the world are closed. 

• If you can watch for free, I’ll put the streaming service next to the items below:

• 13th

• 30 Rock (Hulu)

• American Factory

• Ask Dr. Ruth (Hulu)

• Atypical (Netflix)

• Booksmart

• Broad City (Hulu)

• Cheer (Netflix)

• Couples Therapy (Showtime)

• Dirty Money (Netflix)

• The Farewell

• Gilmore Girls (Netflix)

• Honeyland

• High Fidelity (Amazon)

• High Maintenance (HBO)

• The Keepers (Netflix)

• Little America (Apple TV+)

• The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Amazon)

• Minding The Gap

• Modern Love (Amazon)

• The Morning Show (Apple TV+)

• The Office (Netflix)

• Parasite

• Parks and Recreation (Netflix)

• Pen15 (Hulu)

• Schitt’s Creek (Netflix)

• Seinfeld (Hulu)

• Sex Education (Netflix)

• Special (Netflix)

• The Great British Baking Show (Netflix)

• Visible: Out on Television (Apple TV+)

Links of people helping that you can take part in:

• If you’re in Utah, this is a great resource for fostering dogs!

• Skylight Books is offering free shipping on media mail, so order a book you’ve been wanting to read and support a small business!

• Taylor Kitto is offering free meal plans and tips on how to make meals with what you have available. She’s a certified health coach!

This list is a work in progress. I’ll be continuing to add to it in the coming days/weeks/months.

*Note that I’m not a healthcare professional. I’m sharing research that I’ve found through the World Health Organization and other sources. If you find anything inaccurate, let me know! This is an open conversation and nothing is set in stone.