Thursday, May 28, 2020

Coronavirus News (123)




Thinking About Flying? Here’s What You Need to Know Now Airplane travel is inching back, but staying safe remains a concern. Here’s how to think about approaching a trip. ........ From the curb to the plane, each portion of the journey has new rules and new things to think about. ............ you should carry — and use — a mask, wipes and hand sanitizer. ........ Some experts suggest wearing gloves ....... Most airlines suggest that travelers download their app for touchless boarding, which will minimize the number of times you have to hand over documents or touch screens. .........  touchless kiosks that allow customers to print bag tags using their own devices to scan a QR code. ......... Airports have been cleaning everything from the floors and surfaces to the air more rigorously. ........ not all airlines are serving food on flights, so you may want to bring your own food for the plane. ....... Do as much of the process on your airline’s app as you can. Bring hand sanitizer in case you need to hand over documents or your phone, or if you need to key anything in at a kiosk. Pay attention to the floor markers indicating the proper social distancing. Even though crowds have been thin, maintaining social distancing may be difficult, so wear your mask. .................. After scanning, you should hold your boarding pass up for an agent to inspect it. ........ If you have food, don’t put it into your carry on. Put it into a clear plastic bag and then put that bag into a bin. ...........  To reduce the number of things that go into the reusable plastic bins, put items, including belts, wallets, keys and phones, into your carry-on bags, rather than into a bin. ....... most airlines are asking passengers to wear masks to board and on flights. .......... airlines say they have stepped up the deep cleaning of planes, sometimes between every flight .........  On average, flights are carrying about 39 passengers, down from the first two months of the year, when flights were carrying about 85 to 100 passengers. ........  most flights — about 73 percent — are less than 50 percent full. How to build mental strength for endurance sports, from ultra running to mountaineering and ocean rowing You are not born mentally strong, but develop grit over time and you can increase that strength like any other muscle with practice ........ The unquantifiable quality of mental strength, or grit, is undeniably a component in endurance sports, and the longer you go, the more important it becomes. ........ To make a muscle stronger, you have to repeatedly put it under stress and push it to its maximum capacity. The same goes for the mind. You do not wake up mentally strong, you become mentally strong.......  Always finish what you set out to do ...... Quitting is a habit. If you practice completing your training, even when you want to quit, you will find it easier to finish your race or challenge even when your body screams to drop out. .......... you always need to finish your session, no matter what. .......  Train when you are mentally drained ......... sometimes you train for your heart, sometimes for your head. By training when you are low on mental energy, you will practice for the latter end of a race or challenge, when your mental stores are depleted. .........  plans long, tough training sessions for post-work on a Friday. The long week will have taken its toll, and all you want is a beer, a relax and a chance to recharge. This is the perfect time to get out and push your mind. ......... Get comfortable being uncomfortable  ....... Be mindful of past experience  ....... When you are in training, practice talking to yourself (even if it’s just in your head), with positive reinforcement and mantras. Have specific times you overcame adversity in your mental armoury, ready to deploy when you hit the pain cave. ......... Don’t beat yourself up ...... understand, internalise and remember what went right when you hit your goals and use that for fuel next time. When you come up short, draw a line under it, go and relax and have a beer.

Want the U.S. to Go Back to Work? Here's How — The critical role of employers as America reopens ...........    despite our best efforts at prevention, infections will strike in the workplace. What should employers do then? ......... employers must take a comprehensive approach to COVID-19 that goes well beyond the current focus on workplace safety. .......... four key pillars: prevention, early detection and expedited testing, clinical support and recovery, and contact tracing and isolation. ........... How employees are managed across the virus's life cycle -- from symptom detection to diagnosis to management and recovery -- will have a material impact on the next wave of the pandemic. .......... the best way to achieve early detection is through on-site testing ......... Generalized fatigue and weakness, which can negatively impact employees' capacity to work, can persist after the infection has cleared. ...........  Success also requires that employers have high rates of engagement with employee communications. New policies won't have the intended impact if they don't drive timely changes in employee behavior. We recommend that employers create multiple channels for pandemic-related communications, such as dedicated email addresses or team work-space channels for COVID-19-related questions, and rigorously track open, click-through, and view rates to continuously iterate and improve their communications. 


Huge Study Throws Cold Water on Antimalarials for COVID-19 — No support for continued use seen in analysis of 15,000 patients who got controversial drugs

Autopsies Turn Up Strange Feature of COVID-19 Lungs — Study finds more thrombi and a new puzzle in the vessels


Masks and Morality — ZDoggMD explains why COVID-19 is so divisive .......... family members are at each other's throats. Everyone online is hating everyone else. Are masks good or are they the devil? Is lockdown good? Is it a disaster? Does the economy matter? Do people matter? Is there a difference? All these questions we see all the time, it's polarized across the cable news networks, which are designed to polarize us, and in social media, which is designed to polarize us. ...........  how we can transcend this to actually be better citizens, more productive, less angry, and actually have debates instead of shutting down debates saying, OK, let's actually talk about this. Because we're all gonna assume that we're coming from a place where we wanna do good in the world. .......... you'll have psychopaths, you'll have extremists who are so entrenched that you cannot reach them. .........    "Elephant and Rider," elephant being our unconscious emotional mind and rider being our conscious strategizing, planning mind that's much smaller and newer to the scene. .......... humans are not rational creatures. We are emotional, moralizing creatures. ..........  so that we can understand why it is people go so nuts about the whole mask thing 


Trump is courting a landslide defeat US president’s bungled coronavirus response has alienated crucial older voters .......... Donald Trump’s 2016 victory caught most people by surprise, including him. ....... 
Mr Trump’s worsening odds can be gauged by his rising sense of panic. ....... Twice this year, including on Mother’s Day, Mr Trump tweeted more than 100 times when most of America was asleep. ........  I cannot find an example in any country, including the US, where an elected head of government has claimed their own system is rigged against them. ........ It is almost as hard to find instances of leaders trying to shrink voter turnout. ........ older voters are turned off by Mr Trump’s pandemic record. In late February, Mr Trump had a double-digit lead over Mr Biden among voters aged over 65. Average recent polls showed Mr Biden 10 points ahead. .........   Even deeply Republican Georgia and Texas show Mr Biden within striking distance. Were such numbers to hold in November, Mr Trump would lose by a landslide. .......  Two things could prevent this. The first is Mr Biden. The November election will be a referendum on Mr Trump. All Mr Biden need do is not interrupt the president while he is defeating himself.  ........... Mr Biden suffers from foot-in-mouth disease. So far the coronavirus is playing to Mr Biden’s advantage by keeping him off the hustings.  

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Coronavirus News (122)

A Brazilian man praying at the grave of his grandfather, who died  from Covid-19.

Coronavirus Spread Speeds Up, Even as Nations Reopen: Live Coverage In just the last week, even as come countries move to reopen, 700,000 new infections have been reported as the virus takes firmer hold in Latin America and the Middle East. ........  The pandemic is growing at a faster pace. .........  A new outbreak in South Korea has led to new restrictions. .......  It was only last Thursday that the world crossed the dispiriting threshold of 5 million cases, after it took nearly two weeks for a million more infections to become known. ......... Outbreaks have accelerated especially sharply in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and Peru, with caseloads doubling in some countries about every two weeks. On Tuesday, the World Health Organization said it considered the Americas to be the new epicenter of the pandemic. ........  case counts have lately been swelling in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. ....... even in some of the world’s hardest-hit cities, the vast majority of people remain vulnerable to the virus. .........  In the United States, where the virus death toll has surpassed 100,000, large-scale testing did not happen as the virus spread with ferocity from late January to early March. The result was a lost month, when the world’s richest country — armed with some of the best-trained scientists and infectious disease specialists — missed a chance to contain the virus’s spread. ..........   South Korea reduced one of the largest outbreaks outside China to a trickle through widespread testing and contact tracing. But recently dozens of new cases have raised fears that another wave of infections is imminent, and drawn calls for a new lockdown to be imposed. ........ “We’re all adults, we’re all responsible, we’re all aware of what’s going on,’’ Mr. Cassea added, describing the apérue and other acts of “civil disobedience” as a reaction to the government’s “catastrophic” handling of the epidemic. “Treating us like kids doesn’t work for long.” ......... People are allowed on “dynamic beaches,” meaning that they can’t sit, much less lie down. ....... “If we cannot contain this spread, we will have no option but to return to the social distancing,” Park Neung-hoo, South Korea’s health minister, said. ........ restrictive measures appear to bring the virus under control, then as the rules are eased, new outbreaks appear, forcing officials to take swift action again. .......   Mexico’s broken hospitals put patients and health workers at high risk. ............  Years of neglect had hobbled Mexico’s health care system, leaving it dangerously short of doctors, nurses and equipment to fight a virus that has overwhelmed far richer nations. Now, the pandemic is making matters even worse, sickening more than 11,300 health workers in the country — one of the highest rates in the world — and further depleting the thin ranks in hospitals. Some hospitals have lost half their workers to illness and absenteeism. Others are running low on basic equipment. ...........  “It’s not the virus that is killing them. It’s the lack of proper care.” Patients die because they are given the wrong medications or the wrong dose, health workers said. Protective gloves at some hospitals are so old that they crack the moment they’re slipped on, nurses said. 




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Beijing's Hong Kong Move Will Ignite A Tussle With The US

  fighting buffalo | Two Buffalo Bulls Fighting (With images ...


I don't know if I would say Cold War. There is not going to be a repeat of the US-USSR. That was Cold War. But the US and China are economic rivals. And that rivalry will likely intensify after this move by Beijing. 

I don't think this is Beijing responding to the Hong Kong protests. I see this as Beijing reacting to the pandemic and how it is hammering the Chinese economy as every other economy. 

That also explains the border tensions in Ladakh. 

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Coronavirus News (121)



As it happened: Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on pandemic, ‘new Cold War’ and Hong Kong National People’s Congress concluded with resolution to proceed with controversial law for Hong Kong Premier said that China supports independent inquiry into coronavirus origin ........  The main points from Li’s press conference: The central government will stick to the principle of “one country, two systems”, and “Hong Kong people governing Hong Kong” with a high degree of autonomy. The NPC’s resolution for a national security law for Hong Kong is designed to safeguard “one country, two systems” instead of abandoning it. .......... On China-US tensions, China rejects a “Cold War mentality” and the two nations should promote cooperation ........... “peaceful reunification” was still Beijing’s policy and the mainland was open to further exchanges with Taiwan. ...........  he did not address ongoing anti-government protests in Hong Kong, or respond to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s announcement on Thursday that Washington no longer considered Hong Kong to be autonomous from Beijing. ........ He also did not refer to a tense stand-off between China and India in the Himalayas  ....... Li said the pandemic had hit the world severely, greatly reducing exchanges between countries. ........ “As the saying goes, the people are the foundation of a state and when the foundation is solid, the state enjoys tranquility.” ....... the country was still determined to reach its goal of eliminating poverty by 2020 .......  there were some 5 million people living below the poverty line before the outbreak ............ Li said the central government must work hard to help business flourish, aiming at having 10,000 new enterprises registered each day. ........ there had been a surge in new kinds of businesses, such as online platforms, during the pandemic, and some of these businesses had seen their revenue grow by two-thirds. ........   Decoupling was not good for either country or the world ......   trade and economic cooperation should be based on market forces. There were differences in each other’s systems, and conflicts were inevitable, but the key was how to handle the problems. ........ The US had in recent days issued a strategic policy that appeared to signal that Washington had abandoned its engagement policy towards Beijing. ....... About one-third of recent comments left on the State Council’s website were on employment. ....... University students are expected to graduate and enter the workforce in record numbers this year. ....... He said Beijing remained committed to the 1992 consensus – the political understanding that there is only “one China” but that each side has its own understanding of what this means. ....... Li said the government’s measures to counter the coronavirus would focus on employment and livelihoods, and not infrastructure construction. .......  Li said China had successfully controlled the coronavirus within its borders and Beijing had acted in a transparent and timely manner throughout the pandemic. ........  Li said there were two main challenges in the pandemic: controlling the virus outbreak and reopening the economy. International cooperation was important for both. .........  “We may have to live with Covid-19 for some time to come” ......   China also believed it was important to find the source of the pathogen. ........ a clear, scientific understanding of the source of the virus could contribute to global public health. .......  the World Health Assembly’s endorsement of an independent review into the World Health Organisation’s handling of the pandemic and its animal origins. .........  Li said the Chinese economy was deeply integrated into the global economy, so China would not be immune from the impact of the coronavirus. ........ The United States said on Thursday that Hong Kong was no longer autonomous from China, a decision that could end the city’s special trading status with the US.


Hong Kong national security law: city awaits Trump’s response, casting shadow over long-term economic status China’s move to further absorb Hong Kong will have small direct economic effect, but will damage city’s status as an international hub in long term, analysts say Chill viewed as a continuation of a tough period for foreign business, setting up a ‘gradual diminution of Hong Kong as an economic centre for south China’ .........  Economists, diplomats and business figures were scrambling on Thursday to quantify the effect of Washington’s decision to deem Hong Kong “no longer autonomous” from China, with many gaming out the “nuclear option”, in which the United States revokes the city’s special trading status.
.......... “Hong Kong cannot be replicated, the unique density of professionals, the transparency of the system, the rule of law, the kind of debate possibilities, the openness. They’re definitely important for developing business in China, for many of us it’s being challenged right now” .........  you’re going to see the gradual diminution of Hong Kong as an economic centre for south China ........  Many are shocked by the speed with which the situation has deteriorated, but are also resigned to it worsening further still, as the wider US-China relationship continues to sink to unforeseen lows. .........  “Trump is not interested in anything but himself and [compared] to slaughtering the Trans-Pacific Partnership, to dismantling the WTO or pulling out of the [World Health Organisation], actually changing the state of Hong Kong is a small piece for him. It’s another tool in the box and he will use it if deemed necessary” ..........  “Hong Kong’s WTO membership is decided by the WTO members collectively, not one member such as the US. ........... “So, Hong Kong's exports to the US were as impacted by US tariffs on China as China’s exports were. Raising the tariff rate on the last 1 per cent of exports will have virtually no impact on Hong Kong's economy.” 

Two Sessions 2020: national security law for Hong Kong a step closer after NPC endorses resolution National People’s Congress paves way for Standing Committee to tailor-make a law for city Vote came hours after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo asserted that Hong Kong was no longer suitably autonomous from China ........ China’s top legislature has endorsed a resolution authorising its Standing Committee to tailor-make a national security law for Hong Kong. .........    with 2,878 deputies from around the country voting in favour and one voting against, while six abstained. ....... The Standing Committee, which last met in late April, convenes every two months and is expected to hold its next meeting as early as June. That would be the earliest date at which the legislation could be advanced. .........  The city’s Bar Association has also questioned the legality of Beijing’s move, saying it was “entirely unclear” how the suggestions of having mainland agencies set up to safeguard national security in Hong Kong would comply with Article 22 of the Basic Law, which states that no department under the central government can interfere in Hong Kong matters.

Will Hong Kong’s rule of law survive the challenge of Beijing’s national security legislation? From its process of enactment – apparently bypassing the local legislature and ignoring public opinion – to its future implementation and enforcement, the law is incompatible with the city’s common law tradition Hong Kong’s courts will be severely tested in trying to uphold the rule of law ........  The claim that public officials are reliable people who will only go after the bad guys underlies the People’s Republic of China’s tradition of rule by law. It presumes that a society of laws is one where officials issue the right directives and everyone else is bound to follow them. Such use of law as only an instrument of control is not the rule of law as known in Hong Kong. .......... For common law Hong Kong, under the Basic Law, such laws should be the product of a proper legislative process with enforcement and oversight in the ordinary courts. ...........   Claims by mainland officials that the law will be narrowly drawn are hardly reassuring, given the extreme application of national security laws to silence opposition on the mainland. ........ The scope of intrusion on Hong Kong’s autonomy, rule of law and human rights is breathtaking.   



Hong Kong must choose ‘lesser of two evils’ – US retaliation or foreign investment exodus due to unrest, former justice secretary says Elsie Leung also says barring of foreign judges from security cases would violate city’s Basic Law, though seeking Beijing’s interpretations is ‘normal’ Another legal heavyweight questions if local courts will have authority to declare provisions of Beijing’s new national security law unconstitutional ........ Hong Kong must choose “the lesser of two evils”, American retaliation or a foreign investment exodus from an “unstable society” that lacks a security law, a former justice secretary has argued in the wake of the United States declaring the city is no longer autonomous. ......... The city’s highest court, the Court of Final Appeal, has 23 judges, 15 of whom are foreign, mostly from other common law jurisdictions such as Britain, Canada and Australia. ........  “The most extreme thing the US can do is to abolish Hong Kong’s peg to the US dollar … but I don’t think they will go that far,” he said. Hong Kong’s dollar has been pegged to its US counterpart since 1983, and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority keeps the currency trading between 7.75 and 7.85 to the US dollar. The arrangement is thought to have brought financial stability to the city. ............. The IEEPA allows the US president to impose a wide range of economic penalties on individuals or countries they deem related to “any unusual and extraordinary threat” to their country. Since it was enacted in 1977, the IEEPA has targeted countries including Iran, Colombia, Syria and, most recently, Nicaragua. 




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Wednesday, May 27, 2020

Coronavirus News (120)

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Coronavirus News (119)

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Don't Just Throw Together a Webinar — The Virtual Events Crash Course You Need  that intangible magic of getting groups together .......... “Like all the founders, marketers, event organizers and community builders across the country, we’re in this suspended state, pausing offline efforts while we work to bring events online as quickly as we can.” ........ “Everyone, even community experts, are still in the ‘figuring it out’ stage,” says Spinks. “Some, of course, have been doing virtual events already, but it wasn’t their core strategy so it’s still a big shift.” .......  “The startups in the other group are starting from scratch right now and thinking ‘Crap. Our typical sales and marketing channels are drying up, our trade shows are getting canceled. We’ve got to figure online events out, fast.’ But it’s not as simple as just hosting a webinar. There’s a lot more to a virtual event than that.” ..............   targeted tactics for making the virtual discussions format more valuable, from the tools to use to the techniques that will help you encourage engaging conversation. ..........  wealth of wisdom drawn from over a decade spent deepening the moat of community. ........  now there’s this perfect storm of companies having no choice but to go virtual, and everyone being stuck at home, online and looking for ways to stay engaged and learn. That's making virtual events work really well right now. Most folks are seeing through-the-roof engagement. The jury’s still out though on whether virtual events will work as well after the dust settles. .............    “At the very least, in-person events seem to be on hold for the next few months. So pausing conferences and meetups, until at least the fall, is advisable. While this is a really difficult time for a lot of community teams and event organizers, you can also look at this as an opportunity to sharpen your virtual event chops” ..........   you can hit a lot of the same value points of in-person events and lean into some of the unique advantages of virtual gatherings ...............  Move quickly. “Everyone’s going to be organizing virtual conferences over the next six months. There will be more competition for attention than ever before. ............  “You don't need a big group to start a community, and you don't need to have a fully-fleshed out community engagement plan to start hosting events. Just start gathering, learning and iterating,” says Spinks. “Growing a community is more like growing a tree than building a house. You don’t need to have blueprints for what it will all look like from day one. Just start bringing people together and over time your community will organically find its form. ..........  when you bring the right group of people together into a shared space, with the right purpose, it’s almost impossible for magic to not happen. ................   you just want to get people talking to each other right now and make sure they have a space to do that. ..........   “People are organizing meetups, dance parties, music festivals, singing circles and all kinds of different virtual experiences right now. ............   targeted, high-quality content that’s focused on real pain points that real people are experiencing .........  It’s much easier to build a community if you’ve already built an audience. To build an audience, start helping people. To turn it into a community, start helping those people help each other. ........    online, stage space is unlimited, and attendees can choose their own adventure. Rethink the entire experience .........  "Instead of a tote bag, create a digital version where sponsors can include gifts, discounts, gift cards or donations to organizations in need right now. Instead of welcoming everyone into one big room, why not match up every attendee with a relevant buddy? Think about the things you can do at scale online, that you couldn’t do in an offline event.” ...........  Ask yourself: What problem are you solving? How are virtual tools uniquely positioned to provide that value? .........  there’s always been a tension between cultivating authentic communities and bringing it back to the business results. “Business and community building have to be integrated. As warm and fuzzy as it may feel, it’s naive to say ‘We're just going to build community and not worry about any business objectives.’ ...........   Your members answer support questions and teach others how to use your product, resulting in reduced support costs and customer expansion. ...........    Members offer feedback and ideas for improving your product offering. .........  The community drives awareness, leads and prospects. ...........   The community contributes content, code or products to your platform. ..........  As a result of participating in your community, customers become more loyal, increasing retention.  ........   If you’re also measuring the impact on the business, that doesn’t make it less of an “authentic community” initiative. In fact, it’s critical to be able to show the value of your community, because that’s what will help you justify and grow your investment in serving your members. .........................    Make sure you’re actually trying to solve a problem, not just take advantage of an opening. Set both community and business goals and stay accountable to both ..........  Measure, measure, measure ..............      you can actually gather deeper data with virtual events. .........  With your virtual events, you can go deeper and track who attended each session. Then use surveys to measure community health. Questions like: Do you feel like you belong in this community? Do you feel welcome in this community? ............. Discussion groups have become one of my favorite formats for building community. They’re genuine and intimate. Something about having a small group of people listening makes folks feel like they can be more open and vulnerable. And the networking value is huge. I’ve met so many high-quality humans and formed lasting relationships through discussion groups” .........   Stay under 10 and over 30. .......... Keep the “small” in small group discussion. Stick to 8 or fewer people and extend the conversation to 60-90 minutes so you have the room to dig deeper. ........... When a participant starts taking up all the airspace, you’re the only one in a position to step in, and ask them to step back ........ Finish the call by asking each participant to share one commitment they will make as a result of the discussion, or a next action they will take. ..........  “Sometimes it’s important to just let the silence sit, and leave it to your participants to fill it in with their voice.” ...........  We need to be much more explicit than we think we need to be in virtual discussions ......... “That means directing specific questions to specific participants. As Nina says, open-ended questions like ‘What do you think about this?’ posed to the whole group is a recipe for radio silence or worse — the dreaded conference call cacophony of multiple participants trying to speak at the same time.” ..............    “Even if you’re an extrovert, organizing and interacting all day can be incredibly draining. And what we're seeing right now is unprecedented” ...........   “We're adapting to quarantines that could go on for months, shuttered businesses and nonstop worries about our friends and family. For all of us overachievers in the startup world, we already had full plates — and we just had a lot more to worry about dumped onto them.” ...........   Reset your lifestyle for the new norm and build habits so that you can continue to take care of yourself for the foreseeable future while this crisis plays out ...............   “Social media right now is the most stressful place in the world. There are updates every second about new numbers, sad stories and what the government’s doing. It's really important to control how you're consuming information right now, because it all feels important but it’s easy to get overwhelmed .............     “I'm also trying to lean into my meditation practice, sitting for longer than usual and taking my time in the mornings. And I’m exercising every day, getting my runs in while we're still allowed to go outside unimpeded.” ..............   the number one priority is being a resource and helping people right now. It’s not to make more money out of this, or take advantage of opportunities. It's to be there for your community. People around the world are experiencing helplessness, loss of normalcy and lack of connection in a difficult way right now. How can our businesses be that resource for people? How can we create safe spaces for people to come together now when they need it most? .............   “There's nothing that builds community as strongly as shared struggle. If you're canceling events, your business is struggling, and you're having to change up your strategy, bring your community into that process. Be transparent with them about what's happening. Let them help and get involved. You'll be shocked at what your community is capable of when you give them a chance to rally together.”   


Why you shouldn’t fear the gray tsunami Many worry that aging populations will doom the world economy and make life miserable for everyone. Here’s why that’s wrong. ..........  The aging of the world is happening fast. Americans 65 and older are now 16% of the population and will make up 21% by 2035. At that point, they will outnumber those under 18. ............  Japan leads—more than a quarter of its population is 65 or older—but Germany, Italy, Finland, and much of the rest of the European Union  aren’t far behind. A quarter of the people in Europe and North America will be 65 or older by 2050. ........  Not only is the overall population aging; you will probably spend much more of your life being old. .........   on the basis of data from 1980 to 2010, that a 10% increase in the population age 60 and older has decreased growth in GDP per capita by 5.5%. .........  if the past is any lesson, that the aging US population could slow economic growth by 1.2 percentage points this decade and 0.6 percentage points in the next. Some of this will be because fewer people are working, but two-thirds of it will be because the workforce is less productive on average. ............  it’s not that workers become less productive as they age, but that the most productive ones stop working. .........  a big drop in productivity isn’t inevitable. New technologies and business policies might keep talented people working longer. .........  Teams made of both young and old people, with diverse experiences, might even be more productive ......... Countries with aging workforces have been quicker to adopt industrial robots to compensate. The resulting boost to productivity is “softening the doom and gloom around aging” ............   they could help us stay healthier longer in old age. ............  “The most important thing is extending the healthy life span” ........  Beyond being scientifically disingenuous, the aging-as-a-disease crowd is promoting a dangerous message. Not only does treating aging as a disease cast a negative light on getting old, but it distracts us from the most pressing issue: How do we keep ourselves productive and healthy as we grow older? ...........  Academic research indicates that Zuckerberg and Khosla are wrong. In a rigorous study that looked at 2.7 million company founders, economists at MIT, the US Census Bureau, and Northwestern University concluded the best entrepreneurs are middle-aged. The fastest-growing startups were created by founders with an average age of 45. In a 2018 paper they found that a 50-year-old entrepreneur was nearly twice as likely to build a highly successful company as a 30-year-old. And contrary to Khosla’s tweet, it turns out that industry experience was a significant positive in predicting success. ............    Blatant age bias might also explain why Silicon Valley has done such a terrible job of creating startups in biomedicine, clean energy, or other areas requiring scientific expertise and knowledge. ...... most great scientific achievements in the physical sciences and medicine come in middle age, not from the precocious young. ...........  Ageism is a particularly pernicious bias because it is a fear of our own selves. We’re all going to get old (if we’re lucky) and die. 


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Coronavirus News (118)


Bill Gates, at Odds With Trump on Virus, Becomes a Right-Wing Target The Microsoft co-founder turned philanthropist has been attacked with falsehoods that he created the coronavirus and wants to profit from it. ...........   have instead seized on the video as evidence that one of the world’s richest men planned to use a pandemic to wrest control of the global health system. .........  the star of an explosion of conspiracy theories about the coronavirus outbreak. .........  Mr. Gates has emerged as a vocal counterweight to President Trump on the coronavirus. ........  On YouTube, the 10 most popular videos spreading lies about Mr. Gates posted in March and April were viewed almost five million times. .........  Mr. Gates, who is worth more than $100 billion, has effectively assumed the role occupied by George Soros, the billionaire financier and Democratic donor who has been a villain for the right. That makes Mr. Gates the latest individual — along with Dr. Anthony Fauci, the leading U.S. infectious disease expert — to be ensnared in the flow of right-wing punditry that has denigrated those who appear at odds with Mr. Trump on the virus. ............  “He’s able to function as kind of an abstract boogeyman.” ..........  “There’s no question the United States missed the opportunity to get ahead of the novel coronavirus” ...........   was “distressing that there are people spreading misinformation when we should all be looking for ways to collaborate and save lives.” .........   the narratives “have the potential to kick off coordinated and sophisticated online campaigns that turn people against taking a virus vaccine.” .........   As of 2018, the Gates Foundation had a $46.8 billion endowment, making it one of the world’s largest private charitable organizations. ........  The foundation has worked to distribute vaccines in developing countries, advocated family planning through greater use of contraceptives and funded the development of genetically modified crops. Those efforts have prompted unfounded accusations that Mr. Gates was hurting the world’s poor with unnecessary drugs and harmful crops while trying to suppress the global population. ..........   “Both times he wanted to know if there was a difference between H.I.V. and HPV, so I was able to explain that those are rarely confused with each other” ..............   Covid-19 was behaving like a once-a-century pathogen. ........ his foundation would fund factories for the seven most promising potential vaccines. .........   The idea spread. From February to April, conspiracy theories involving Mr. Gates and the virus were mentioned 1.2 million times on social media and television broadcasts, according to Zignal Labs. That was 33 percent more often, it said, than the next-largest conspiracy theory: that 5G radio waves cause people to succumb to Covid-19. ......... By April, false Gates conspiracy theories peaked at 18,000 mentions a day 




COVID-19 Update: 62,000 Health Workers Infected; New Vax Plans; PPE Hucksters



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Coronavirus News (117)


Hit the Emotional Gym — The Founder's Framework for Emotional Fitness   In the face of long hours, the turbulent financial path to building a new company, and pressure to make key decisions, founders confront a unique set of mental wellbeing challenges. They're often walking a thin tightrope between self-belief and self-doubt — the steadfast optimism in their vision to change an industry, and the fear that they don’t have the chops to pull it off. ......... if founders make taking care of their mental health an ongoing and proactive practice, it will reverberate through their companies, forging more resilient startups with healthier cultures and happier employees .......... strong companies take shape when emotionally fit founders are sitting at the top. ..........  “Here’s what I mean by emotional fitness: Beyond having good coping mechanisms to deal with anxiety, depression, self-doubt and a series of curveballs that are completely out of your control, a founder must be able to form and maintain good relationships. You must be able to communicate effectively with co-founders, investors and employees” ..........  “Studies show that 72% of entrepreneurs have mental health concerns — but I very much doubt that a similar proportion of founders are currently in therapy. And far too often we see the consequences of a failure to do that work when startups implode, whether it’s due to a toxic work culture, co-founder conflict, or deep-seated leadership challenges.” ............ building a mental fitness community that offers therapist-led group classes (typically in person, but now virtual) ........ “That one hour a week you set aside to tend to your emotional health frees up so many hours that would have otherwise been spent on thoughts that were subtly pulling you away from your work.” ...........  A founder’s path has always been paved with big emotional boulders, but it’s particularly fraught now. ..........   seven specific traits of emotional health, why they’re important for founders and a set of “exercises” for building up each of those muscles. ............  when you work on your physical fitness, you get stronger and you’re less likely to get sick later .........   Many people wait until they’re having debilitating anxiety before they start to think seriously about taking action. Maintaining emotional fitness is an ongoing, proactive practice that increases self-awareness, positively affects relationships, improves leadership skills and prevents mental and emotional health struggles down the line. Think about it less like going to the doctor and more like going to the gym ............  “I understand the need to keep going and stay focused — but I also know that the very things that make founders successful are also the things that can get in their way. Whether it’s the ability to work autonomously, push through exhaustion, or not let criticism deter you, these strengths can quickly become weaknesses that cause you to make unnecessary mistakes and miss important perspectives.” ........  Emotionally fit leaders are self-reflective. ...... They are patient, resilient and willing to be vulnerable with others. They can tolerate frustration and manage their emotions. They understand that the feelings they have about others have a lot to do with their own selves. ........   “Starting a meditation habit, focusing on your yoga practice or journaling every day can be impactful and I love these practices. And, sometimes you also need to dig deeper to get the support you need,” she says. “But you don’t want your company to become the catch-all for your unprocessed emotions. And that’s where therapy can help get you centered.” ......... We need to shift the narrative of therapy from something you access only when you're unwell to something you proactively do to promote wellness ........ “As a founder, it's extra important to take care of yourself because you're also responsible for so many other people. Therapy provides a space to process anxiety, frustration and other feelings, so that they don’t leak into the business and onto employees.” ........  An Olympic athlete wouldn’t be expected to reach their full potential without a coach. But for some reason, many founders think that they should be able to soldier on and shoulder their emotional burdens without any support. ............   Emotionally fit leaders can (and do) put themselves in others’ shoes on a regular basis. They recognize that what they feel about things might not necessarily be what others feel, and they strive for empathy even when it is difficult. .........  A founder is someone who’s used to running through walls, at the expense of their own health sometimes. I’ve seen founders face issues where employees say, ‘It’s clear that you want to keep pushing, but we’re at our limit” ........  When we’re in a crisis, we often skip over the work of uncovering what others may be going through. Overcoming these blindspots is key to cultivating empathy. .........  deploying an Emotional Fitness Survey to get a fuller picture of your team’s experience. ...........  empathy does not mean that your problem is now my problem, or that I have to change the feeling. It just means I'm present in it with you  ......  boundaries and empathy are not mutually exclusive. Learn to be clear about what you can offer others, and what you don't have the capacity to give in any particular moment. ........  “There is a psychological concept called psychosomatization, which means the physical manifestations of emotional states. If you’re feeling lethargic and don’t physically have the energy throughout your day that you’re used to, it could be because your empathy stores are dwindling. In other words, we store our issues in our tissues.”  ........  Emotionally fit leaders understand and encourage the importance of play. Play sparks spontaneity and creativity, and is a crucial part of emotional health and interpersonal cohesiveness. Playing means trying on thoughts or concepts to see how they feel. It means having a free exchange of ideas and meeting of the minds. ..........  it’s actually okay and really important that there is lightness, silliness and levity in their work as well  ........  Emotionally fit leaders understand and tolerate the difference between what they want to be true and what is true, and they make it a habit to ask questions and be curious, even when the answers to those questions are uncomfortable. ........  Curiosity is at the core of what drives the entrepreneurial spirit — the belief that you can solve problems with unique solutions and innovate on the status quo. Building a company relies on curiosity about testing different hypotheses and continuously iterating. .............  curiosity is the best skill to counteract defensiveness. .......  cultivating your listening skills .........  Instead of focusing on what you’re going to say next, stay present in the conversation. ........  Allow for pauses and silence so the speaker can reflect on what they’re saying and expand upon it. The first thing a person says is often not what they really want you to know. ......... Don’t feel compelled to fix things or give advice right away. When in doubt, ask what the speaker needs — whether it’s comfort, solutions or they’re just looking to vent. ........ Emotionally fit leaders can sit with and process through discomfort. They are able to have tough conversations, be transparent about uncomfortable information, share complicated feedback and sit with a problem until it has been fully thought through. ..........  strengthening mindfulness to how the practice of yoga involves holding your body and settling into poses that might feel uncomfortable in the moment .........   You do not need to break every silence, fix every issue immediately or avoid difficult conversations ......  In addition to encouraging founders to take up a yoga or meditation practice to continue building this muscle for tolerance, she also presses upon the importance of self-care. ....... if you want to lead and help others through times of struggle, you need to put on your own oxygen mask first. .......  Write down what you appreciate about three people you love. Send it to them. .........   Schedule a “worry hour.” Block off a slot on your calendar where you get to be as worried as you want for that amount of time. ........  As a founder, you often make the mistake of allowing yourself to slip into tomorrow’s worries instead of handling the challenges of the moment. You’re suffering future pain, needlessly. ........  ‘You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can still make the whole trip that way.’ .........  Emotionally fit leaders know that more is to be learned from failure than success, and can bounce back during trying times and can take in difficult feedback. Their desire to grow is genuinely greater than their desire to avoid criticism or failure. They are flexible and can adapt quickly. ........  the importance of leaning on your network of other founders and entrepreneurs .......  talk back to your harsh inner critic. ........  you have the argument again, but switch positions  .........  a founder's emotional fitness is where it all starts. “It will reverberate through the company, make it better for everyone who works there and everyone who uses the product. Not only will people look to you as the founder to understand the culture of the company, but your beliefs will seep into your choices without you even realizing it” .........  It’s like how a parent’s emotional health will drastically affect their child's emotional health. The more work the parent does on themself, the better it is for the kids. ...........  “One way I’ve started thinking about this world-shaking crisis is that it‘s blanketing our society with fresh snow, which means we all have the opportunity to create new tracks — new tracks for how we treat each other, the planet and ourselves. For example, I hope for a world where we're taught and supported to think deeply about our thoughts and feel our feelings — even the messy ones. What kind of new tracks do you want to create?”




Coronavirus may never go away, even with a vaccine Embracing that reality is crucial to the next phase of America’s pandemic response, experts say. ........   Even after a vaccine is discovered and deployed, the coronavirus will likely remain for decades to come, circulating among the world’s population. ........ Experts call such diseases endemic — stubbornly resisting efforts to stamp them out. Think measles, HIV, chickenpox. ........  The long-term nature of covid-19, they say, should serve as a call to arms for the public, a road map for the trillions of dollars Congress is spending and a fixed navigational point for the nation’s current, chaotic state-by-state patchwork strategy. ........... There are already four endemic coronaviruses that circulate continuously, causing the common cold. And many experts think this virus will become the fifth — its effects growing milder as immunity spreads and our bodies adapt to it over time. .........  “This virus is here to stay,” said Sarah Cobey, an epidemiologist and evolutionary biologist at the University of Chicago. “The question is, how do we live with it safely?” ..........   Combating endemic diseases requires long-range thinking, sustained effort and international coordination. Stamping out the virus could take decades — if it happens at all. Such efforts take time, money and, most of all, political will. ..........  U.S. leaders and residents keep searching for a magic bullet to bring the pandemic to an abrupt end: Drugs that show even a hint of progress in the petri dish have sparked shortages. The White House continues to suggest summer’s heat will smother the virus or that it will mysteriously vanish. A vaccine — while crucial to our response — is not likely to eradicate the disease ..........  Challenges to vaccination are already becoming clear, including limited supply, anti-vaccine opposition and significant logistical roadblocks. .........  “People keep asking me, ‘What’s the one thing we have to do?’ The one thing we have to do is to understand that there is not one thing. We need a comprehensive battle strategy, meticulously implemented.” ........   a future with an enduring coronavirus means that normal no longer exists. ......   Arriving at this moment of transition required countrywide shutdowns, soaring unemployment and devastating blows to our economy and mental health. All that effort was supposed to buy us time to think, plan and prepare ........   I don’t see any signs the federal government has learned any lessons and is doing anything differently to prepare for the next waves .......     Leaders desperately need to shift their response from short-term crisis management to long-term solutions .........  Communities should be thinking about installing doors that don’t require grasping a handle, and re-engineering traffic signals so pedestrians don’t have to push crosswalk buttons .........  Families may have to make diagnostic tests routine ahead of visits to grandparents. Once-mocked work cubicles of a bygone era may become the rage again, replacing open-floor plans found in many offices. Paid sick time might become a necessity for jobs of all types. And heading to work while under the weather may no longer be seen as an act of admirable American can-do spirit but instead a threat to co-workers and the bottom line. ...........   One hospital in New York tested every pregnant woman who came in to deliver and found 15 percent had the coronavirus. Most of those testing positive — 88 percent — showed no symptoms .......   “The psychological recovery is going to be as important as economic and logistical parts of this.” .......   America’s yearning for a quick fix has turned in recent days toward a vaccine, now being portrayed as a solution that will quash the virus once and for all. ......... But the world has achieved that only once, with smallpox — a measure of just how difficult it is for vaccines to wipe out diseases. And it took nearly two centuries after the discovery of a vaccine — and an unprecedented international effort — to vanquish smallpox, which stole hundreds of millions of lives. ........  emerging plans for vaccination are already stretching as far out as a decade. .......   Without international agreements worked out beforehand, the short supply could devolve into bidding wars, hoarding and ineffective vaccination campaigns. .......   America already has vaccines for measles and the seasonal flu, which can be deadly. And yet the health-care system struggles every year to convince people to get those shots. ......   We know that smoking can kill us. Yet, it is still responsible for 1 of every 5 deaths in the United States. ...............   The CDC has been sidelined by the White House and blocked from holding public briefings. Meanwhile, the Trump administration has made clear its priority is restarting the economy. ......... many Americans won’t make the shift toward long-range thinking until the virus spreads more widely and affects someone they know. .......   Eventually, everyone is going to know someone who got infected or died from this virus.






 
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