eating indoors

A wonderful coworker went to Iceland last week. It sounds like she may have caught Covid right away. She definitely had Covid by the time she returned because that is when she tested herself. You no longer need to test negative to fly home, which means you can fly all the way home, maskless and contagious and right next to other people for hours and hours. 

Covid is so exciting and presents in so many ways and, in her case, seems to have presented as vicious, debilitating nausea her entire trip. 

One of her friends is a nurse and was baffled at how they caught it. It was obvious to my friend:  they caught it in a restaurant. They all wore masks on the plane to Iceland. In Iceland. It was in restaurants when they were indoors, for extended periods, without masks, surrounded by other people. 

Now she is back and she is still sick. 

She did get to see puffins?

During the last administration there was a rush on therapists. Usually people are traumatized and then they see a therapist. This was an unusual situation because the trauma was ongoing and the therapists were being traumatized too. 

Now, in Ukraine, for the therapists that are there, the situation is similar. The trauma is ongoing and the therapists are being traumatized as well. Israeli psychotherapists are offering free support to Ukrainian colleagues. Kate Pokrovskaya, a Ukrainian psychotherapist, reached out and found it incredibly helpful. The Israeli group was started by Jenya Pukshansky, a Ukrainian-born psychologist in Israel. She organized hundreds of Israeli mental-health professionals who volunteered, first as crisis support and then as longer-term guidance to therapists in Ukraine. They are trying to help address the mental health consequences of the war as the war is ongoing. 

The Russian soprano Anna Netrebko is trying to rehabilitate herself. She is a Putin supporter and he has supported her. In 2014 she donated to an opera house in a city in Ukraine controlled by Russian separatists and was photographed holding a separatist flag. Now her career is in disarray. She is no longer welcome at the Metropolitan Opera in NY because she wouldn't criticize Putin. The Met worked to rally support for Ukraine, hosted a benefit concert, and helped form an orchestra of Ukrainians. Overnight her appearances were called off, her contracts canceled. She has faced boycotts and protests. A singer who was booked years in advance, she just sang at a little operate house when a singer got Covid and their efforts to bring in two other replacements failed. But they loved her performance. After clear support for Putin she is now trying to put a little distance there, including saying she didn't vote in the last election and didn't campaign for him. he is finally saying she is against the war. 

The EU has backed candidate status for Ukraine.