Hi, Everyone,
Whew.
The last few days have been a rollercoaster for me—and I imagine that might be true for you, as well.
I’ve had moments of deep sadness and grief as I contemplate the enormous impact that COVID-19 has already had, and will continue to have.
Yet I’ve also had many moments of joy and gratitude as I witness people coming together to support each other; moments of connection and solidarity with my friends, family, and colleagues; and moments of peace and calm in nature and in meditation.
It’s important for me—and, I think, for all of us—to give permission to feel the sadness and grief, rather than just pushing it away.
Elizabeth Kubler-Ross famously defined five stages of grief that we must pass through in order to heal and move forward: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. With COVID-19, that might look like:
- Denial: This isn’t a big deal, everyone is overreacting. (Unfortunately, our current administration seems stuck here.)
- Anger: You can’t make me stay home! It’s [x person or group]’s fault!
- Bargaining: Okay, I’ll social distance for two weeks, but only if life goes back to normal after that!
- Depression: It’s hopeless. COVID-19 has ruined my life and I’ll never be happy again.
- Acceptance. This is happening, whether I like it or not, so I need to figure out how to adapt.
Acceptance is not the same as submission. It doesn’t mean that we give up. It’s simply the honest recognition of what is. Without acceptance, we become stuck in or overwhelmed by grief and sadness—whether we are conscious of it or not.
For more on the importance of addressing our collective grief, check out this interview with grief expert David Kessler. It’s well worth a read.
Update on vitamins A & D
Last week I sent an email recommending against megadoses of vitamins A & D. To clarify, I’m not suggesting that you avoid A & D entirely. On the contrary, it’s important to get enough of these nutrients. A can be obtained from liver, cod liver oil, salmon, tuna, and pasture-raised dairy products. D can also be obtained from some fish and pasture-raised dairy, but many people may need to supplement to maintain a blood level of 40–60 mg/dL. 500–2,000 IU/d of D should be enough to maintain that for most people, and I don’t consider that to be a megadose.
The US now leads the world in COVID-19 cases
Yesterday the US became the epicenter of COVID-19, with >86,000 confirmed cases as of the time of this writing.
The number of deaths is doubling at an alarming rate—every 2.6 days. If we don’t get this under control, that will mean 10,000 deaths by next Friday, April 3rd, and 100,000 deaths by Easter Sunday (April 12th). This is the nature of an exponential pandemic.
In what will almost certainly be viewed as the biggest public health catastrophe in the history of our country, we have utterly failed to enact all four WHO-recommended steps for reducing the spread of COVID-19: contract tracing, massive testing, social distancing, and quarantining of known cases.
Food safety
I’ve received a lot of questions about food safety with COVID-19. Here are my two favorite resources:
Are more people already infected?
Some have argued that COVID-19 infections are much higher than typically believed. If this is true, then the morbidity and mortality rates would be much lower than current estimates suggest—and maybe we should relax the stringent social distancing measures now in place.
Not so fast, according to Tyler Cowen. He explains why we can’t count on this being true, and how dangerous it is to let our guard down now.
Resource guide
My team has put together an amazing ”ADAPTing to COVID-19 Resource Guide” with ideas on staying connected and engaged, keeping your kids occupied, physical activity at home, finding support, having fun, and more. We’re updating it regularly, and it’s completely free. Click here to check it out.
In health,
Chris
P.S. Through this pandemic, you may have missed that we’re running an early bird special on the ADAPT Health Coach Training Program which saves you $1,000 off the annual price. Early bird enrollment ends in just a few days, March 31st. Click here to schedule a call with an enrollment advisor to see if the ADAPT program is right for you.
