Daybreak Wednesday 4/1/20

RABBIT RABBIT, UPPER VALLEY!

Dry, mostly sunny... These days, what more could you ask? Okay, don't answer that. Whatever we want, today what we get is mostly sunshine into the afternoon, with more clouds arriving as a low pressure system makes its way up from the Carolinas. Showers will eventually be pushing toward us from the east, but we shouldn't see much of anything until early tomorrow, and we'll talk about that then. Highs in the high 40s today, winds from the northeast. Down into the mid or low 30s overnight. Here's where things stand in the twin states:

Since we're talking numbers... This is a pretty intriguing visualization that shows the growth in numbers of cases both for individual countries and for individual US states. You can highlight the curve you want to see, and toggle between logarithmic and linear scales. It shows in stark terms the difference between the growth curve in the US and elsewhere, and lets you compare VT and NH growth rates (and trends) to other states. It's updated daily, using the Johns Hopkins dataset. (Thanks, JP!)Meanwhile, the number of fevers seems to be abating. Though there are hot spots. This is a map created by a company called Kinsa Health, which makes internet-connected thermometers and since a bit over a week ago has been tracking them on a national map. Their data suggests that stay-home and social distancing measures may be having an impact, the NYT reports. But here's the thing to remember: This is not a map of Covid-19 cases, but a tool (in the absence of universal testing) that identifies trends that might be related to the virus, or to seasonal viruses as a whole. We'll know more in a few weeks.D-H joins worldwide trial of anti-viral med for COVID-19 treatment. The medicine is Remdesivir, which was originally used to treat Ebola, and has been "identified by the World Health Organization as being the most promising agent against COVID-19 disease," the hospital says in its press release. The team, which ramped up in 6 days, will be running two trials: one for those with moderate symptoms of COVID-19, and a second for those with severe advanced symptoms."It's a little, tiny store but you can find everything." That's Thetford's Nancy Witkowski to WCAX, describing Dan & Whit's in Norwich. The store has become even more of a community hub than usual at a time when connections count. "We know all our customers, we know all the families who live here and they support us as much as we support them," says Dan Fraser. Not only does the store offer delivery and curbside pickup, but it's organizing community events, and Fraser has helped set up a network of neighborhood captains around town to check in on residents.WRJ's Trail Break to go to new seating model once this is all over. Two guests per day, seated luxuriously and at a safe distance from employees...in the walk-in beer cooler. "Seatings will be $1500 per person, plus tax and gratuity, and on a reservation-only basis," writes owner Topher Lyons in a Facebook post that went up early this morning.Don't ink that surgery in your calendar. VPR's Emily Corwin looks at the moving target of "elective" procedures at DHMC, which has been trying mightily to preserve protective equipment while still meeting the needs of patients. "If we can pause doing some of these elective procedures for a period of time ... while waiting for additional shipments to come in – we're hoping that works,” Ed Merrens, the hospital's chief clinical officer, tells her. "At the same time, we're talking about this impending tsunami of this novel coronavirus and the impact on a pretty limited health care system in northern New England.”"The LEAST you can do is come in with a sense of purpose, get what you need, and get yourselves HOME." That's an Upper Valley Facebook group post from a big-box worker that takes aim at people browsing as normal in the stores. "Every customer who walks in our doors PUTS US AT RISK. We really don't want to be here, but we realize that we are needed. YOU don't see how many times a day we wash and sanitize our hands to try to keep ourselves safe. YOU don't see our upset co-workers in the break room struggling to keep their composure." No, you won't get pulled over just for driving. The VN's Anna Merriman surveyed local law enforcement officials, who say they're focused more on awareness than on enforcing the stay-at-home-unless-necessary orders from the twin states' governors. “We’re not a police state," Grafton County Attorney Marcie Hornick tells her. If officers hear about a large gathering with people deliberately disobeying the order, Leb Chief Richard Mello says, they have the right to issue summonses, but “we’re not going to utilize those powers unless it’s a unique situation and there’s no other way to resolve it.”Oh, hey Vermonters: Green-Up Day's postponed. It was supposed to happen May 2, but has been pushed back to May 30. For now.At least three dozen VT healthcare workers have coronavirus. In the absence of public numbers from the state, Seven Days reporter Derek Brouwer went hospital by hospital, asking directly. The numbers include 22 hospital employees (16 of them at UVM Medical Center) and 14 staffers at Burlington Health & Rehabilitation Center, the nursing home at the center of the state’s largest outbreak.Most NH manufacturers are still open, but on tenterhooks. They're considered essential businesses: "Closing down a manufacturer in one market could disrupt the supply chain of others," NH Business Review's Bob Sanders explains. They worry about infection spreading — while they're trying to keep workers safe, by its nature manufacturing often requires people to work near one another — and are seeing some disruption to their own supply chains. Still, Sanders says, over 100 companies have responded to the state’s request for protective equipment and medical supplies.“For the past 10 days, it’s been crazy with people coming up from Mass., Rhode Island and New York. It’s been absolutely ridiculous.” That's a pharmacist in Conway, NH, talking to the Conway Sun's Tom Eastman about the bump in business she's seen from people arriving from elsewhere. While some locals are preaching patience, Eastman writes, there's clear frustration among locals. Though Police Chief Ed Wagner reports he's seen no outright hostility. “Everything has been eerily quiet,” he says.NH newspapers persevere. NHPR's Annie Ropeik surveys the scene as small papers throughout the state cover the pandemic and struggle with lost income. "Frankly, you know, our business depends on life happening,” the VN's Maggie Cassidy tells her. Yet Cassidy adds, "The feedback that we've gotten from readers over the past three weeks is unlike anything I've ever experienced in terms of how grateful readers have been to have a local news source that is staying on top of this pandemic in our own backyard.”And not just at the Valley News... Seven Days publisher Paula Routly reports that in recent weeks more than 1,100 people have signed up as one-time or recurring donors. "We've been floored by the response," she says. "The donations that have poured in over the past few weeks have helped us to keep going — figuratively and literally." They include, I'm guessing, some of you (thank you!), as well as former Democratic governor Madeleine Kunin and GOP Gov. Phil Scott, who on Sunday called on Vermonters to support local news. “Things are changing on a daily basis." That's what a spokeswoman for the chain that runs Price Choppers and Market 32 stores in Vermont tells VTDigger's Kevin O'Connor. They're setting up screens to protect checkout clerks, plastering the stores with physical-distancing signs, instituting curbside pickup, and doing pretty much everything they can to keep both workers and shoppers safe while dealing with unprecedented demand. Meanwhile, small farmers scramble to adjust to losing restaurants. Sales at craft cheesemaker Jasper Hill Farm are down 45 percent, CEO Mateo Kehler tells the Free Press, and they've had to disperse the farm's herd of 45 Ayrshire cows to cut costs. "A the end of the day, Jasper Hill is a collection of people," says Kehler. "If it's a choice between cows or people, we're going to choose people." Meanwhile, sales at Sugar Mountain Farm in West Topsham, which sells pork, saw a similar drop, but has seen a boost in sales to families.Wait, just one measly mention of maple syrup? Seven Days asked chefs, market managers, home cooks and others, "What three ingredients are essential to your quarantine cooking?" There's a surprising range of answers, from eggs and lemons to organic gummy bears, to rice, to Chatpate (a Nepali snack) to locally raised meat. "I think the farmers all stayed up all night last Wednesday and built websites," the co-chair of Slow Food Vermont says, about farmers adapting to the loss of restaurant business. "It's so emblematic of the genius and entrepreneurialism of farmers,"

"Complexity in emotion — ebullience, subtle melancholy, even thrill..." To keep themselves (and us) distracted, NYT writers are highlighting one short film or odd clip a day, and yesterday's was "Curses," by Dartmouth film prof and experimental filmmaker Jodie Mack. It's from 2016, "a quasi-music video for the bedroom pop band Roommate," writes the Times's Kyle Turner. (Thanks, LM!)And while we're on Dartmouth, it looks like the hockey team will be down one star player next year. Sophomore Drew Connor, who was co-Ivy player of the year — he led the team with goals (21), points (33), power play points (10), power play goals (7), short handed goals (1) and shots on goal per game (4.74) — has just signed with the Pittsburgh Penguins, and is moving on to the pros."My peers and heroes in the genre community are rising to the challenges of an era that rivals the best speculative fiction in its outlandishness." That genre is speculative fiction, and the quote's from spec-fic star Sam Miller, who's just been named judge for the 2020 Neukom Institute Literary Arts Awards. He'll be choosing from a short list compiled by computational science prof and award creator Dan Rockmore, Dartmouth colleagues Eric Schaller, Tarek El-Ariss, and Peter Orner, as well as the Santa Fe Institute's Jessica Flack. You gotta wonder: Should they be adding a non-fiction category?Remember yesterday's item about PCBs in Squam Lake? Granite Geek David Brooks notes that it's been over four decades since we stopped making PCBs in the US, yet here they are, in the fish people catch. Quite naturally, he wonders where it's coming from. The state's chief aquatic biologist says, "There are a few working hypotheses such as legacy oil used on dirt roads for dust suppression and multiple high-water events that may have flushed remnant soil into the lake....The only thing we can say for sure is that we now have evidence of PCBs in loons, fish, crayfish, and sediment from Squam Lake."Sheer water reflecting blue sky, clouds... William Daugherty was out with his drone over the 12A wetlands in Plainfield yesterday. Spring's coming!This has nothing to do with us, but we're talking goats, people! So everything's fair game. Andrew Stuart, a video producer for the Manchester Evening News, has been reporting on the Welsh town of Llandudno, where people are sheltering in place, leaving the streets free for goats to roam. Which they've been doing. Here's his Twitter (and video) thread, starting last Thursday with, "I think I just got a group of goats in Llandudno arrested."

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If you want a striking visual explanation of one reason a growing number of public health figures and the CDC are reconsidering the advice against wearing face masks out in public, 

this JAMA Network video pretty much brings it home

. It's a sneeze, filmed at 2000 frames per second, and it shows droplets traveling as far as 26 feet. 

But look, the world continues to be a pretty great place. For instance:

Go have a lovely day out there, whatever you're doing. See you tomorrow.

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