Boston College Medical Humanities Minor

Great read from the New Yorker! If you have some free time, consider listening or reading to how pandemic can not only create havoc but also a sense of open-mindedness...

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/07/20/how-pandemics-wreak-havoc-and-open-minds?utm_source=nl&utm_brand=tny&utm_mailing=TNY_Daily_071320&utm_campaign=aud-dev&utm_medium=email&bxid=5e864cef7e553f39e2204901&cndid=60472120&hasha=5565a65340e487be55bdbebbccc17403&hashb=d5171be633dda97d1e91ddc4cef729cfc5cd6a6a&hashc=bcbb6938b3ef3280273e8f708889167dcb6a2b03520edaeee4d508771428bfc9&esrc=Auto_Subs&utm_term=TNY_Daily

Join us for an online discussion about ways narrative and the humanities can help us better understand the pandemic!

Learn from speakers, Paula Krebs, Rita Charon and Aakriti Pandita as they delve into a conversation about how we can make medicine smarter, more equitable and more effective.

Sign up for this webinar here:

https://outreach.mla.org/webinars/ Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Duis rhoncus volutpat lacus vel elementum. Sed quis nibh nisl. Nam mauris nisl, pharetra id ultrices sed, viverra in purus. 

At such a pivotal time in history, it is important to continue personal education on both anti-racism as well as the ongoing pandemic.

Writer Rachel Aviv was recently published "Punishment by Pandemicin" in the New Yorker.

Check out the article here: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/06/22/punishment-by-pandemic?utm_source=nl&utm_brand=tny&utm_mailing=TNY_Daily_061720&utm_campaign=aud-dev&utm_medium=email&bxid=5e864cef7e553f39e2204901&cndid=60472120&hasha=5565a65340e487be55bdbebbccc17403&hashb=d5171be633dda97d1e91ddc4cef729cfc5cd6a6a&hashc=bcbb6938b3ef3280273e8f708889167dcb6a2b03520edaeee4d508771428bfc9&esrc=Auto_Subs&utm_term=TNY_Daily

Please, feel free to share your thoughts with us or recommend further reading either comments or through direct message.

Punishment by Pandemic In a penitentiary with one of the U.S.’s largest coronavirus outbreaks, prison terms become death sentences.

"Reading is an infection, a burrowing into the brain: books contaminate, metaphorically, and even microbiologically."

Writer, Jill Lepore, explains that although contagion literature is a genre that has truly come to life during the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, she also makes the argument that, "the existence of books, no matter how grim the tale, is itself a sign, evidence that humanity endures, in the very contagion of reading."

You can listen to or read her article published in The New Yorker, here:

What Our Contagion Fables Are Really About In the literature of pestilence, the greatest threat isn’t the loss of human life but the loss of what makes us human.

"The recent police killing of George Floyd was not an isolated incident but part of a history of structural and interpersonal racism inseparable from American history. The health inequities brought into devastating relief by the COVID-19 crisis are part of that same history, and they further confirm the daily and multigenerational reality of devaluation and constrained opportunity faced by communities of color in the United States. Amid nationwide unrest, deep distrust, and renewal of long-ignored calls for systemic change, how do we mobilize efforts to create a society in which the color of your skin is not the difference between life and death? Camara Phyllis Jones RI ’20 and David R. Williams will explore how we might overcome, in Jones’s words, “the somnolence of racism denial,” dismantle the system of racism, and put in its place a system in which all people can thrive."

Please consider signing up and doing your part to continue educating yourself on issues of racism in order to make meaningful, effective change.

https://harvard.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_fY7oZYmrROSHyin4y5MV-w

Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: Naming Racism. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar.

Michael Sandel, the famous Harvard Political Philosopher, weighs in on his thoughts of how the Common Good fits into the Covid-19 pandemic.

Opinion | Finding the ‘Common Good’ in a Pandemic The Harvard political philosopher Michael Sandel offers his take.

This article is a great read, exposing the silver linings of the outbreak. There is no need to go to a board meeting Los Angeles when a Zoom conference can do the job.

Opinion | Forget the Trump Administration. America Will Save America. The federal government bungled its response to the coronavirus. But leaders around the country give us reason to hope.

Another interesting article, since hey, we all have some time now.

History in a Crisis — Lessons for Covid-19 | NEJM Perspective from The New England Journal of Medicine — History in a Crisis — Lessons for Covid-19

Another great piece on how other nation have contained Covid-19 in innovative and strategic ways.

Opinion | They’ve Contained the Coronavirus. Here’s How. Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong have brought outbreaks under control — and without resorting to China’s draconian measures.

As we are embarking in these unprecedented times, it is important to follow CDC protocol and practice social distancing so we can, as they say, "flatten the curve" and decrease the stress on our healthcare infrastructure. Stay safe from your friends in the Boston College Medical Humanities

Opinion | Please, Don’t Go Out to Brunch Today Gathering in groups right now is selfish and puts the lives of others at risk.