Anxiety About Pandemic Triggering Eating Disorders

NPR: Pandemic's Stress Is Pushing A Rise In Eating Disorders 
For most of her 34 years, Stephanie Parker didn't recognize she had an eating disorder. At age 6, she recalls, she stopped eating and drinking at school — behavior that won her mother's praise. "It could have started sooner; I just don't have the memory," says Parker. In middle school, she ate abnormally large quantities, then starved herself again in the years after. This spring, it all came to a head: She was confined and alone in her New York City studio apartment, as COVID-19 ripped through the city. The pandemic fomented fear and, for Parker, called up past trauma and aggravated the obsessive compulsive disorder that had started to become apparent years earlier. She realized then her relationship with food was life-threatening. (Noguchi, 9/8)

The Washington Post: For Women And Children, A Double Plague: Coronavirus And Domestic Violence 
Zoila fell fast for the soft-spoken day laborer, moving in with him last year just two weeks after their first date. But after El Salvador imposed a strict coronavirus lockdown, she says, the man she thought she knew became an inescapable menace. “The quarantine changed everything,” she said. (Faiola and Vanessa Herrero, 9/6)

The New York Times: The Pandemic Of Work-From-Home Injuries 
Elizabeth Cuthrell, a Manhattan-based film producer, used to work in an ergonomic office space: comfortable desk chair, monitor at eye level, external keyboard. Then came Covid-19. During stay-at-home she worked on a laptop from a wicker chair, or sometimes on a couch with “cushions like marshmallows.” A month later she felt pain in her neck, wrist and shoulders that sent her to a chiropractor. “It’s hard to quantify, but this has been a really, really big issue for a lot of my patients,” said Karen Erickson, the chiropractor who treated Ms. Cuthrell. Chiropractors report a surge of injuries and discomfort stemming from the nationwide push to work from home, as millions of workers have spent months clacking away on sofas and beds and awkward kitchen counters. Out with ergonomics, in with hunching over laptops. (Wilser, 9/4)

The Washington Post: Deep Cleans And Disinfecting Mists Might Not Keep Us From Getting The Virus, But They Sure Make Us Feel Better
No one is touching anything, and everyone is cleaning everything. Despite initial reports warning people that the novel coronavirus can be transmitted from contaminated surfaces, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has told Americans in no uncertain terms that the virus is primarily transmitted person-to-person, through breathing, speaking, shouting and singing. While it may be possible to catch the coronavirus from a doorknob or a package, it’s a long shot, and “not thought to be the main way the virus spreads,” says the agency. (It still recommends disinfecting high-touch surfaces.) Yet, six months into the pandemic, Americans seem determined to Clorox their way to absolution. They’re wiping down soccer balls, Lysoling beach chairs, touching PIN pads with “touch tools” and gloves, and cleaning bags of Tostitos with diluted bleach. (Judkis, 9/7)

Tampa Bay Times: After A Sneeze, 6 Feet May Not Be Enough To Keep You Safe From Coronavirus
As a doctoral engineering student, Kai Lui had never really thought about what the invisible spray of a human sneeze looks like. But that’s what he spends most of his time analyzing lately. Working from his apartment, he punches numbers into a program linked to a supercomputer at the University of Florida. He follows a list of equations developed by an international team of researchers, tweaking measures to simulate how saliva particles move through the air. (Reeves, 9/8)

AP: What Should I Look For In A Hand Sanitizer?
What should I look for in a hand sanitizer? Pick one that contains mostly alcohol, and has few other ingredients. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says hand sanitizers should be at least 60% ethyl alcohol or 70% isopropyl alcohol. Other approved ingredients may include sterile distilled water, hydrogen peroxide and glycerin, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. You should avoid anything with methanol or 1-propanol, both of which can be highly toxic. The FDA also warns people to watch out for hand sanitizers packaged in food and drink containers, since accidentally ingesting them could be dangerous. (9/8)

The Wall Street Journal: Can You Get Covid-19 From Your Dog? Here’s What Disease Experts Say 
Animals can catch the coronavirus, but that doesn’t mean you need to keep your distance from the family pet. Disease experts say the chance of your pet catching the virus from you or another pet in the neighborhood or at the park is tiny. If they do, the chance they get sick is smaller still. And the chance you catch the virus from your pet is close to zero. (Douglas, 9/7)