Corona-zona

  One day last summer, I was washing dishes and noticed some pain in my fingertip. I looked at it and there was a small cut. I assumed I had accidentally nicked myself with a knife. I applied some liquid bandage to cover it, and didn't give it another thought. Then a week or so later, I noticed a similar cut on my thumb, but this time I hadn't been in proximity to knives. Because they are on my fingertips, these little cuts hurt like hell, especially when I get hand sanitizer—a.k.a cut finder —in there.  The same thing has happened to a number of my friends, and it turns out that we are victims of skin fissures . They are caused by dry skin, and are especially common on fingertips because the skin there is less elastic than elsewhere. From what I've been able to learn, the dryness could be caused by atopic dermatitis (eczema) but might also be due to less dramatic causes.  Since this just started happening over the past year, I wondered if it could be pandemic related....