Coronavirus News (274)

July Is the New January: More Companies Delay Return to the Office From Ford to Microsoft, white-collar companies are increasingly extending working from home through next summer. ...........  and acknowledged the inevitable: The pandemic isn’t going away anytime soon. .............  as the coronavirus shatters work norms and upends assumptions about where workers need to be to achieve maximum productivity ............ “The reality is hitting that, ‘There won’t be a vaccine as I expected very quickly. This is going to be my life, and I’d better learn how to do this.’” ........... likened the situation to waiting at an airport terminal for a flight that is continually delayed ..........   Much of corporate America is now following the lead of Silicon Valley tech companies like Google and Facebook. They were among those that allowed employees to work from home even before the pandemic hit in full force in March. Since then, Facebook has set the tone in planning for permanent remote work .............  announcing the June 2021 return date to employees prompted a “collective sigh of relief inside the company” .......... Remote work has been productive ... and people like not having to commute. But a mix of in-person and remote is probably the most popular option for employees when life returns to normal ... because they also miss the social interaction of an office space. ........... Zoom “is not the same thing, and it’s exhausting,” Ms. Burke said. “By 7 o’clock last night, I was Zoomed out.” .........  digital work is often simpler for people to conduct via laptops and teleconferences than by being on site .............  how productive its employees have been remotely   

Trump’s False Claims as He Resumes His Rallies After Hospitalization In Florida, the president made a series of inaccurate claims about his election opponent, the coronavirus pandemic, the Nobel Peace Prize and Cuba, among other topics.  

Vaccine, Chaos, Confusion It’s tempting to look at the first vaccine as President Trump does: an on-off switch that will bring back life as we know it. .......... But vaccine experts say we should prepare instead for a perplexing, frustrating year. .............  The first vaccines may provide only moderate protection, low enough to make it prudent to keep wearing a mask. .......... Each company is running its own trial, comparing its jab with a placebo. .......... some wanted to test a number of vaccines all at once, against each other — what’s known as a master protocol. ........... Some researchers, including Dr. Fauci, advocated a design much like the W.H.O.’s. ............ The authorization of a vaccine will depend on how much protection the vaccine provides in the Phase 3 trial — what scientists refer to as its efficacy. In June, the F.D.A. set 50 percent efficacy as the target for a coronavirus vaccine. ..............  Operation Warp Speed was on track to have up to 700 million doses of various vaccines by March or April — enough, he said, for “all Americans who wish to get it.” .......... “We’ll have to continue to use a mask for some of these vaccines” ..........   a group of older people could all have strokes shortly after being vaccinated 

Chinese President Xi Jinping urges push towards hi-tech independence Xi says self-reliance is essential because the country is ‘on the cusp of unprecedented changes’ Comments come ahead of address to mark Shenzhen Special Economic Zone milestone