COVID-19 Update

World

New Cases:   405,329 (⬆︎ .33%)
New Deaths:      6,023 (⬆︎ .26%)

USA

New Cases:   45,748 (⬆︎ .15%)
New Deaths:       636 (⬆︎ .11%)

Vaccination Scorecard

Total Vaccinations:          82.8 million (⬆︎ 1.72%)
Total Priority Population: 68.0%
Total Population:             24.9%

The 7-day average for Daily New Deaths (1,036) continues to trend downward, dropping back to the level of early November 2020, but the Daily New Cases average appears stuck on a plateau at about 56,000 - still partly good news since it's down around the numbers for mid-October 2020, but worrisome given the Pent-Up Party Demand and our tendency to behave stoopidly.

Meanwhile, humans are proving to be plucky and optimistic - almost as if we're rising to the occasion as the COVID virus has challenged our position as the planet's dominant life form.

WaPo: (pay wall)

World Happiness Report is out, with a surprising picture of global resilience

In a conclusion that even surprised its editors, the 2021 World Happiness Report found that, amid global hardship, self-reported life satisfaction across 95 countries on average remained steady in 2020 from the previous year. The United States saw the same trend — despite societal tumult that yielded a national drop in positive emotions and a rise in negative ones. The country fell one spot, to 19th, in the annual rankings of the report, which was released Saturday.

The report is good news regarding global resilience, experts say.

“I don’t want to leave an impression that all was well, because it’s not,” said one of the report’s editors, Jeffrey Sachs, an economics professor at Columbia University. But while the use of national averages masks individual well-being disparities, Sachs said, the data suggests that “people have not thrown up their hands about their lives.”

The happiness report relies on the Gallup World Poll, which asks respondents to rate their current life satisfaction on a zero-to-10 “ladder” scale, with a 10 representing “the best possible life for you.” It’s a “longer view” of happiness, as Sachs put it, and its steadiness aligns with what other U.S. Gallup polling and some European polling has found during the pandemic.

- more -

The pandemic proves we all should know ‘psychological first aid.’ Here are the basics.

Address basic bodily needs.

If you know people who are struggling to get enough food, water or shelter, help them directly or indirectly (by steering them toward community resources).

As far as your own needs, make a conscious effort to consume nutritious foods, stay hydrated, get enough sleep, do some form of physical activity every day, and avoid using substances such as alcohol or cigarettes to cope, advises Kaushal Shah, a psychiatric researcher at Griffin Memorial Hospital in Norman, Okla., who has done research on PFA. Besides being important for your overall health, these healthy lifestyle practices are a vital part of PFA. “Finding a baseline routine that works for you and maintaining it helps align the body’s equilibrium with your psychological equilibrium,” Shah explains.

Avoid further harm.

Protecting people from additional distress is a key aspect of PFA, and there are several ways you can do this for yourself and others. First, check to make sure conditions are physically safe, then take steps to ensure emotional “safety” by treating others and yourself with respect and compassion. “Remind yourself that whatever you’re feeling or going through right now is perfectly normal,” advises Nancy Haugen, a clinical psychologist in San Francisco. “That [acknowledgment] tends to bring down some anxiety.”

In addition, try to protect yourself from information overload. New research, involving 6,514 adults in the United States, found that people who have higher daily hours of covid-19-related media exposure and exposure to conflicting covid-19 information in the media are at greater risk for pandemic-related acute stress and depressive symptoms. To prevent this effect, limit your media exposure. In particular, Haugen recommends turning off the TV news, because upsetting images add to the feelings of stress. “Every time you see these images you are re-traumatized,” she says.

Keep calm to carry on.

Maintaining a gentle tone of voice can have a calming effect on distressed people around you. In addition, remind yourself and encourage others to do a relaxing activity — such as yoga, mindfulness meditation, deep breathing or progressive muscle relaxation — every day. This will help you de-stress in a given moment and maintain your psychological equilibrium, Shah says.

At regular intervals throughout the day — or when you feel stress-overload coming on — hit the pause button on what you’re doing and focus on deep breathing. “You can override stress with deep breaths that cause the diaphragm to go up and down. Then the brain starts to calm down,” explains Haugen. Moreover, research has found that engaging in diaphragmatic breathing reduces stress hormone levels and blood pressure, as well as subjective measures of stress.

Set priorities.

In tumultuous times, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed with worries and fears. That’s why PFA encourages people to consider their most urgent needs, including how to prioritize and address them, versus what can wait. To that end, it helps to distinguish between what you can and can’t control and to encourage loved ones to do the same. Then focus on the situations you can do something about, such as how you protect yourself and your family, how you behave toward others and how you spend your free time. To help with this resilience-building shift, Haugen recommends framing your goals as “I choose,” which involves a sense of agency, instead of “I want.”

Build hope.

Especially during periods of uncertainty, it’s important to stay positive with learned or active optimism and remain forward-focused, Everly says. One effective way to do this is to consciously focus on what’s going right in your life now. Research has found that having a ratio of three positive emotions to every negative emotion helps people flourish. You can stack the deck in your favor by “looking for positive moments and holding onto them throughout the day,” says Haugen, who is also an associate professor of psychiatry at the UCSF Medical School. These moments could be as simple as appreciating a compliment from a friend or the scent of flowers on a walk, or watching a favorite movie. If you want to formalize the process, consider keeping a gratitude journal. A 2019 study found that adults who did this for 14 days experienced an increase in positive moods, happiness and life satisfaction, as well as a decrease in negative moods and depressive symptoms.

Connect with others.

“The single best predictor of human resilience is support from other people,” Everly says. So, help people identify sources of social support in their lives with a reminder that the goal is to practice “physical distancing,” not “social distancing,” during the pandemic. Reach out to friends and family members on social media and make an effort to rekindle old friendships by phone, text, email or video conferencing. Also, consider establishing your own coronavirus-safe pod or bubble so you can spend in-person time with supportive people.

Practice good communication.

When people are distressed, practice active listening by giving them your undivided attention and letting them take their time expressing themselves, rather than pressuring them to talk or immediately providing advice. These are key PFA skills. “It’s about being able to hear, rather than just listen,” Haugen says. Try to truly understand the person’s concerns and feelings and show empathy, and use supportive words and phrases that reflect the key points he or she made.

Active or reflective listening “helps validate the other person’s emotions, which helps ease distress, and helps the person prioritize how to address the issues that are upsetting him or her,” Shah says.

Reinforce coping skills.

Ask someone who is distressed how he or she coped with difficult situations in the past and encourage the person to use those strengths and strategies to handle the current situation. (Do the same exercise yourself.) This contributes to a sense of confidence and competence that will allow them to face and manage the current challenge. It also builds resilience.

After handling hardships, “some people come out stronger,” Everly notes. With any luck, you and your loved ones could be among them. And PFA practices may be among the coping skills you call upon to face another difficult situation in the future.