Eric Strauss: You are my right-hand person at ABC News, the most talented producer, the most diligent head of the ABC medical unit, and the greatest work partner. While you may speak softly and slowly, you get more accomplished than anyone I’ve ever met.
My coauthor, Sarah Toland: Working and writing with you is a personal and professional privilege. You are a beast on a deadline, a brilliant writer, and the best collaborator I could ask for.
My team at HarperCollins/William Morrow, including Lisa Sharkey: You always have your finger on the pulse of what people are interested in; and Matt Harper: You are a brilliant editor who is also just a really nice person.
My attorney, Bob Barnett: You are always calm, cheerful, and focused.
My medical practice, including my practice administrator, Carole Gittleman, and my medical assistant, Ana Olivera. We have worked together for more than fifteen years and are literally the three musketeers. Thank you for your commitment to our patients and for your friendship and support, both personally and professionally.
My patients: You inspire me every single day with your hunger for knowledge, your bravery, and your spirit. Your kind words of support mean the world to me.
My friends: Dr. Jennifer Haythe, Dr. Alice Kim, Dr. Patricia DeSalvo, Dr. Luis Diaz, Dr. Jeff Rapaport, and Dr. Adam Smith.
My family: my parents, Dorothy Garfein and Dr. Oscar Garfein; my brother, Dr. Evan Garfein; and my children, Alex and Chloe: I learn from you both every day, am inspired by you, and proud of the hearts and the minds you both have.
My favorite infectious disease experts: Dr. Todd Ellerin, vice chairman of medicine and director of infectious diseases at South Shore Health in Boston: Your medical insights and clinical expertise have been invaluable to me during this time. Your support means the world to me, before, during, and after COVID-19; Dr. Simone Wildes: You are a true role model to any girl who dreams of becoming a doctor; and Dr. Anthony Fauci: Knowing you and communicating directly with you throughout this (and other) historic viral outbreaks has been one of the most significant professional experiences in my medical career. Your elegance, along with your calm, warm, modest, and collegial personality, will always be remembered, and your service to the United States and the world’s public health sphere has made a profound impact that will never be forgotten.
And to everyone, everywhere, who has been affected by or changed by COVID-19: You are not alone. I believe we will become more resilient as a result of COVID-19, we will learn from our mistakes, we will celebrate our triumphs, and we will be more prepared for the next pandemic. We will get through this because we are all in this together.
Notes
Chapter 1: Body
1 Christopher H. Herbst, Reem F. Alsukait, Mohammed Alluhidan, Nahar Alazemi, and Meera Shekar, “Individuals with Obesity and COVID-19: A Global . . . ,” Wiley Online Library, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/obr.13128, accessed August 26, 2020.
2 Christopher M. Petrill, Simon A. Jones, Jie Yang, Harish Rajagopalan, Luke O’Donnell, Yelena Chernyak, Katie A. Tobin, Robert J. Cerfolio, Fritz Francois, and Leora I. Horowitz, “Largest US Study of COVID-19: Obesity Single Biggest Chronic Factor,” Physician’s Weekly, April 14, 2020.
3 Roni Caryn Rabin, “Obesity Linked to Severe Coronavirus Disease, Especially for Younger Patients,” New York Times, April 16, 2020.
4 David C. W. Lau, “Practical Approaches to the Treatment of Obesity,” Julia McFarlane Diabetes Research Centre, https://www.accrockies.com/downloads/slides/2012/1_Sunday/Sunday_04_Lau_Obesity_Rx.pdf, March 11, 2012.
5 “COVID-19 Study Shows More Than 4 Times In-Hospital Mortality Rate and Increased Length of Stay for Patients with Diabetes and Hyperglycemia,” Business Wire, April 17, 2020.
6 Sara Rigby, “Coronavirus: High Blood Pressure Could Double Risk of Death,” BBC Science Focus Magazine, June 5, 2020.
7 “High Blood Pressure Linked to Increased Risk of Dying from COVID-19,” European Society of Cardiology, June 5, 2020.
8 “Facts About Hypertension,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, September 8, 2020.
9 “Million Hearts® Undiagnosed Hypertension,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention, November 8, 2019.
10 Brunilda Nazario, “Coronavirus and High Blood Pressure: What’s the Link?” WebMD, September 23, 2020.
11 Bruce Goldman, “High Blood Pressure Drugs Don’t Increase COVID-19 Risk, Stanford Study Finds,” Scope 10k (blog), Stanford Medicine, July 14, 2020.
12 Emily Ihara, Health Policy Institute, Georgetown University, February 13, 2019.
13 Roengrudee Patanavich and Stanton A. Glantz, “Smoking Is Associated with COVID-19 Progression: A Meta-Analysis,” Nicotine & Tobacco Research 22, no. 9 (September 2020): 1653–56.
14 Erin Digitale, “Vaping Linked to COVID-19 Risk in Teens and Young Adults,” Stanford Medicine News Center, Stanford Medicine, August 11, 2020.
15 Serena Gordon, “Vaping-Related Lung Injuries Still Happening—And May Look Like COVID-19,” U.S. News & World Report, June 30, 2020.
16 “Chronic Diseases in America,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, October 23, 2019.
Chapter 2: Mind
1 Joel Achenbach, “Coronavirus Is Harming the Mental Health of Tens of Millions of People in U.S., New Poll Finds,” Washington Post, April 2, 2020.
2 William Wan, “The Coronavirus Pandemic Is Pushing America into a Mental Health Crisis,” Washington Post, May 12, 2020.
3 James Hamblin, “Is Everyone Depressed?” The Atlantic, May 22, 2020.
4 “Substantial Investment Needed to Avert Mental Health Crisis,” World Health Organization, May 14, 2020.
5 Robin Wright, “How Loneliness from Coronavirus Isolation Takes Its Toll,” The New Yorker, March 23, 2020.
6 Daisuke Nishi, Shigenobu Kanba, and Tadafumi Kato, “Mental Health Issues Associated with COVID-19 Outbreak,” virtual issue, Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, Wiley Online Library, April 20, 2020.
7 Wright, “Loneliness from Coronavirus Isolation.”
8 “Loneliness and Social Isolation Linked to Serious Health Conditions,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, May 26, 2020.
9 “The ‘Loneliness Epidemic,’ “ U.S. Health Resources & Services Administration, January 10, 2019.
10 “The Rise in Alcohol & Drug Relapses from Coronavirus,” Banyan Treatment Centers, June 15, 2020.
11 Kristen Monaco, “Mental Health Challenges After COVID-19 Recovery,” Medical News and Free CME Online, MedpageToday, May 18, 2020.
12 Lisa L. Colangelo, “ ‘Not Alone’: Mental Health Experts Help Patients Cope After COVID-19,” Newsday, June 29, 2020.
13 Melinda Smith, Lawrence Robinson, and Jeanne Segal, “Coping with Grief and Loss,” HelpGuide, September 2020.
14 Judith Rodin, The Resilience Dividend: Being Strong in a World Where Things Go Wrong (New York: PublicAffairs, 2014).
Chapter 3: Healthcare
1 William Booth, Aaron Gregg, and Isaac Stanley-Becker, “Americans Warned of ‘Pearl Harbor Moment’ as Trump Tells Parts of the Nation to Brace for ‘Peak,’” Washington Post, April 6, 2020.
2 Alejandro de la Garza, “Emergency Room Visits Plunge During COVID-19 Pandemic,” Time, June 4, 2020.
3 Will Stone and Elly Yu, “Empty ERs Worry Doctors as Heart Attack and Stroke Patients Delay Care,” U.S. News & World Report, May 8, 2020.
4 Alexandra Galante, “After Man, 38, Dies of Heart Attack, Wife Shares Urgent Message: ‘Go to the ER,’” TODAY.com, June 16, 2020.
5 Kathleen P. Hartnett, Aaron Kite-Powell, Jourdan DeVies, Michael A. Coletta, Tegan K. Boehmer, Jennifer Adjemian, and Adi V. Gundlapalli, “Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Emergency Department Visits—United States, January 1, 2019–May 30, 2020,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, June 11, 2020.
6 Steven H. Woolf, Derek A. Chapman, and Roy T. Sabo, “Excess Deaths from COVID-19 and Other Cause
s, March–April 2020,” JAMA, August 4, 2020.
7 “More People Are Dying During the Pandemic—And Not Just from COVID-19,” American Heart Association, June 16, 2020.
8 Greg Jaffe and Amy Brittain, “Obama: ‘We Can’t Give in to Hysteria or Fear’ of Ebola,” Washington Post, October 18, 2014.
9 Stephanie Evans, Emily Agnew, Emilia Vynnycky, and Julie V. Robotham, “The Impact of Testing and Infection Prevention and Control Strategies on Within-Hospital Transmission Dynamics of COVID-19 in English Hospitals,” MedRxiv, May 20, 2020.
10 Rich Daly, “Preventable ED Use Costs $8.3 Billion Annually: Analysis,” Healthcare Financial Management Association, February 11, 2019.
11 Lori Uscher-Pines, Jesse Pines, Arthur Kellermann, Emily Gillen, and Ateev Mehrotra, “Deciding to Visit the Emergency Department for Non-Urgent Conditions: A Systematic Review of the Literature,” September 5, 2014.
12 Oleg Bestsennyy, Greg Gilbert, Alex Harris, and Jennifer Rost, “Telehealth: A Quarter-Trillion-Dollar Post-COVID-19 Reality?” McKinsey & Company, June 1, 2020.
13 Ibid.
14 Kimberly Lankford, “4 Ways Telehealth Can Save You Money,” U.S. News & World Report, April 6, 2020.
15 Ana Blasco, Montserrat Carmona, Ignacio Fernández-Lozano, Carlos H. Salvador, Mario Pascual, Pilar G. Sagredo, Roberto Somolinos, et al. “Evaluation of a Telemedicine Service for the Secondary Prevention of Coronary Artery Disease,” Journal of Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation and Prevention 32, no. 1 (2012): 25–31.
16 Mary Van Beusekom, “In Pandemic, Many Seeing Upsides to Telemedicine,” Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, University of Minnesota, May 21, 2020.
Chapter 4: Food
1 Junxiu Liu, Colin D. Rehm, Renata Micha, and Dariush Mozaffarian, “Quality of Meals Consumed by US Adults at Full-Service and Fast-Food Restaurants, 2003–2016: Persistent Low Quality and Widening Disparities,” The Journal of Nutrition 150, no. 4 (2020): 873–83.
2 Megan Meyer, “2020 Food and Health Survey,” Food Insight, International Food Information Council, July 7, 2020.
3 Ibid.
4 Anagha Srikanth, “Americans Are Gaining Weight and Buying More Fitness Equipment in Quarantine, But Are They Using It?” The Hill, July 6, 2020.
5 Rajeshni Naidu-Ghelani, “Comfort Food: Women More Likely to Admit to Overeating, Under Exercising amid COVID-19,” Ipsos, May 28, 2020.
6 Josie Delap, “Why Sourdough Went Viral,” The Economist, August 4, 2020.
7 Rasha Ali, “New Quarantine Cooking Trend Alert: Get Ready to Dig into a Bowl of Pancake Cereal,” USA Today, May 16, 2020.
8 Kim Severson, “7 Ways the Pandemic Has Changed How We Shop for Food,” New York Times, September 8, 2020.
9 Debbie Koenig, “Quarantine Weight Gain Not a Joking Matter,” WebMD, May 21, 2020.
10 Srikanth, “Americans Are Gaining Weight and Buying More Fitness Equipment in Quarantine.”
11 Sarah Maslin Nir, “Tailors Know New Yorkers’ Pandemic Secret: ‘Everybody Got Fat!’” New York Times, July 25, 2020.
12 Alexandra Ashbrook, “Nearly 60 Percent Increase in Older Adult Food Insecurity During COVID-19: Federal Action on SNAP Needed Now,” Food Research & Action Center, July 31, 2020.
13 Gianna Melillo, “Hyperglycemia Is an Independent Risk Factor of COVID-19 Mortality,” The American Journal of Managed Care, July 18, 2020.
14 E. J. Mundell, “COVID-19 May Spike Blood Sugar, Raising Death Risk,” WebMD, July 13, 2020.
15 “COVID-19 and Diabetes,” International Diabetes Federation, August 27, 2020.
16 “How Much Sugar Is Too Much?” American Heart Association, n.d.
17 Sara Chodosh, “Sorry, Keto Fans, You’re Probably Not in Ketosis,” Popular Science, June 8, 2020.
18 Adrian R. Martineau and Nita G. Forouhi, “Vitamin D for COVID-19: A Case to Answer?” The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology 8, no. 9 (2020): 735–36.
19 “Office of Dietary Supplements—Vitamin D,” NIH Office of Dietary Supplements, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, September 11, 2020.
20 Megan Meyer, “COVID-19 Pandemic Transforms the Way We Shop, Eat and Think About Food, According to IFIC’s 2020 Food & Health Survey,” Food Insight, International Food Information Council.
21 “Study Suggests Home Cooking Is a Main Ingredient in Healthier Diet,” Center for a Livable Future, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, November 17, 2014.
22 Hans Taparia, “How Covid-19 Is Making Millions of Americans Healthier,” New York Times, April 18, 2020.
23 Severson, “7 Ways the Pandemic Has Changed How We Shop for Food.”
24 Mary Knight, “How Much Money Do You Save by Cooking at Home?” Wellio, July 10, 2018.
25 “Cooking at Home Tonight? It’s Likely Cheaper and Healthier, Study Finds,” ScienceDaily, March 14, 2017.
26 “Happy Couples: How to Keep Your Relationship Healthy,” American Psychological Association, January 1, 2020.
27 Steven Reinberg, “Typical Restaurant Meal Loaded with Fats, Salt, Calories: Studies,” WebMD, n.d.
28 “Meals at 92 Percent of Dining Establishments Tip the Scales,” ScienceDaily, January 20, 2016.
Chapter 5: Exercise
1 Jacob Meyer, Cillian McDowell, Jeni Lansing, Cassandra Brower, Lee Smith, Mark Tully, and Matthew Herring, “Changes in Physical Activity and Sedentary Behaviour Due to the COVID-19 Outbreak and Associations with Mental Health in 3,052 US Adults,” Cambridge Open Engage, 2020.
2 Jamie Ducharme, “COVID-19 Is Making Americans Even More Sedentary: The Effects Could Be Long-Lasting,” May 12, 2020.
3 Ibid.
4 “Survey Reveals Gyms Will Never Be the Same After Coronavirus,” LIFEAID Beverage Co. Blog, June 27, 2020.
5 Jade Scipioni, “59% of Americans Don’t Plan to Renew Their Gym Memberships After Covid-19 Pandemic: Survey,” CNBC.com, July 23, 2020.
6 “Survey Reveals Gyms Will Never Be the Same.”
7 “COVID-19: Exercise May Help Prevent Deadly Complication,” UVA Health Newsroom, University of Virginia Health System, April 15, 2020.
8 University of Bath, “Regular Exercise Benefits Immunity—Even in Isolation,” ScienceDaily.
9 “Exercise Is an All-Natural Treatment to Fight Depression,” Harvard Health Publishing, Harvard Medical School, July 2013.
10 “Exercise for Stress and Anxiety,” Anxiety and Depression Association of America.
11 Rachel P. Tillage, Genevieve E. Wilson, L. Cameron Liles, Philip V. Holmes, and David Weinshenker, “Chronic Environmental or Genetic Elevation of Galanin in Noradrenergic Neurons Confers Stress Resilience in Mice,” Journal of Neuroscience 40, no. 39 (2020): 7464–74.
12 Lawrence Robinson, Jeanne Segal, and Melinda Smith, “The Mental Health Benefits of Exercise,” HelpGuide, June 2019.
13 ABCNews, “Ohio Man Builds Exercise Equipment from Timber After Gym Shuts Down over Coronavirus,” YouTube.com, April 8, 2020.
14 John Hanc, “Keeping Clients Fit During the Pandemic by Going Virtual,” New York Times, May 26, 2020.
Chapter 6: Sleep
1 “Sleep Habits Post Lockdown in the U.S.,” Sleep Standards, May 2020.
2 Natana Raj, “Sleep Aids: Technologies and Global Markets,” BCC Research, April 2020.
3 “Sleep Habits Post Lockdown in the U.S.”
4 Ibid.
5 Ibid.
6 Dan Hurley, “Sleep Neurologists Call It ‘COVID-Somnia’—Increased Sleep Disturbances Linked to the Pandemic,” Neurology Today 20, no. 13 (2020).
7 James M. Lang, “Kids Are Spending More Hours on Screens Than Ever: Should Parents Worry?” Fast Company, July 20, 2020.
8 Kelli Miller, “COVID and Sleep: Sweet Dreams Aren’t Made of This,” WebMD, May 27, 2020.
9 Eric J. Olson, “Can Lack of Sleep Make You Sick?” Mayo Clinic, Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, November 28, 2018.
10 Samir Deshpande and Walter Reed, “A Full Night’s Sleep C
ould Be the Best Defense Against COVID-19,” Health.mil, Military Health System, March 23, 2020.
11 Elizabeth Fernandez, “Sleep Affects Potency of Vaccines,” University of California San Francisco, August 1, 2012.
12 Chun Shing Kwok, Evangelos Kontopantelis, George Kuligowski, Matthew Gray, Alan Muhyaldeen, Christopher P. Gale, George M. Peat, et al. “Self-Reported Sleep Duration and Quality and Cardiovascular Disease and Mortality: A Dose-Response Meta-Analysis,” Journal of the American Heart Association 7, no. 15 (2018).
13 “What Temperature Should Your Bedroom Be?” Sleep Foundation, July 28, 2020.
14 Julie Corliss, “Mindfulness Meditation Helps Fight Insomnia, Improves Sleep,” Harvard Health Blog, Harvard Health Publishing, June 15, 2020.
15 Deirdre Barrett, “The ‘Committee of Sleep’: A Study of Dream Incubation for Problem Solving,” Dreaming 3, no. 2 (1993): 115–22.
16 “COVID-19 TV Habits Suggest the Days Are Blurring Together,” Comcast Corporation, May 6, 2020.
17 Ibid.
18 “Coronavirus Pandemic and Americans Sleep (2020 Data),” Sleep Standards, June 11, 2020.
19 “COVID-19 TV Habits.”
20 “Long-Term Ambien Use and Severe Addiction,” American Addiction Centers, September 30, 2019.
Chapter 7: Health Fears
1 “Pedestrian Fatalities on Interstate Highways, United States, 1993–2012,” AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, September 14, 2012.
The New Normal Page 24