by Today I’ve translated part of The Magic Finger into Romanian as an exercise, I’ve practised some Serbian, I’ve worked on my book, I’ve written six short fill-in-the-gaps stories for my newest student, and I’ve been up and down the stairs eight times. I also had a quick walk this afternoon – noticeably more people were out than a month ago, but the quiet was still lovely, and I caught the first whiff of Timișoara’s distinctive late-spring and early-summer aroma. In some ways I’d prefer the lockdown to continue beyond this coming Friday.
In one of John Campbell’s latest videos, he talks about the higher mortality rate from coronavirus among people with darker skin, even when you remove the effects of underlying health conditions. The pattern is repeated all over the world, and the excess mortality rate increases progressively as one’s skin gets darker. He is convinced that this is because people with higher melanin levels (i.e. darker skin) produce immunity-boosting vitamin D more slowly, and is frustrated that this biological effect isn’t being talked about. It’s OK to talk about the socio-economic factors (which are massive too) but skin colour is somehow off-limits; you can’t go there, even if going there would save lives. Although I have white skin, I’m taking 2000 international units of vitamin D per day.
It’s time to call my brother again.
