Sunday, November 01, 2020

Coronavirus News (304)

 


A federal ban on evictions also ends after December, meaning workers who have a tough time paying rent could get kicked out. 

U.S. reports record 99,321 new coronavirus cases as scientists warn latest surge just beginning the pandemic worsens in nearly every corner of the nation. ........  “December’s probably going to be the toughest month.” ........ hospitalizations are also rising and deaths are gradually following ..........  the country is still grappling with its original wave of infections. ......... the U.S., unlike other countries, never reported an average of less than 20,000 daily Covid-19 cases at any point in the pandemic ........... continue wearing face masks, practice social distancing, wash their hands, avoid crowds and spend time outdoors over indoors as much as possible 

A once restrained Fauci unleashes on White House coronavirus approach days before election "All the stars are aligned in the wrong place" as the country heads indoors in colder weather, Fauci told the newspaper in an interview late Friday -- a day when the US set a global record for the most daily cases and the nation surpassed 229,000 deaths. "You could not possibly be positioned more poorly." ............. "New interview. Lockdowns, facts, frauds ... if you can't handle truth, use a mask to cover your eyes and ears," Atlas tweeted Saturday, sharing the interview in which he also criticized public health experts. Atlas did not have clearance from the White House for the interview -- which RT said was done on White House property ...........  On Sunday, Atlas tweeted an apology for doing the interview with RT, saying he "was unaware they are a registered foreign agent." "I regret doing the interview and apologize for allowing myself to be taken advantage of. I especially apologize to the national security community who is working hard to defend us," Atlas said in the tweet. ...........  "It's unacceptable and breaking with all norms for Dr. Fauci, a senior member of the President's Coronavirus Taskforce and someone who has praised President Trump's actions throughout this pandemic, to choose three days before an election to play politics" ............. Biden's campaign, he was quoted as saying, "is taking it seriously from a public health perspective," while the Trump campaign is viewing the virus through the lens of "the economy and reopening the country." ...........  Not only is there not enough data yet to understand the long-term consequences on patients who have contracted the disease, but about 2.5% of people in the US who tested positive for Covid-19 have died from it ..........  "He's jealous of Covid's media coverage and now he's accusing doctors of profiting off this pandemic -- think about that," Obama said. "He cannot fathom, he does not understand the notion that somebody would risk their life to save others without trying to make a buck." ............ some of the areas where the President has held rallies have seen spikes in cases. He mocked Trump's "obsession" with crowd size in the midst of a pandemic.  

Coronavirus News (303)

With Covid-19 Under Control, China’s Economy Surges Ahead Exports jumped and local governments engaged in a binge of debt-fueled construction projects. Even consumer spending is finally recovering.

Can Raphael Warnock Go From the Pulpit to the Senate? The pastor at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, where Martin Luther King Jr. once preached, is betting that Georgia is ready to send a religious progressive to Washington. ............  the South’s most prominent Black preacher ......... He castigated them for neglecting “the poorest of the poor” while providing for “the richest of the rich.” He accused them of distracting the country with bigotry and division. He took care to poke fun at himself when he got carried away by emotion. (“Y’all be careful,” he said. “It’s Sunday.”) And he called, as he so often has, for the expansion of the Affordable Care Act. “I’ve read the Gospels a few times, and Jesus spent a lot of time healing the sick,” he said. “Even those with pre-existing conditions.” .................  Dr. Warnock considers himself a disciple of the flesh-and-blood Dr. King, who was not only an avatar of nonviolence, but also a rabble-rousing champion of the poor. ........... the Savannah, Ga., housing project where he grew up with 11 brothers and sisters, and declares that children there today “have it harder now than I did back then. That’s got to change.” ............  his future vocation seemed so obvious in high school that his friends called him “Rev.” ........... Black liberation theology, a system Dr. Cone once described as “an interpretation of the Christian Gospel from the experience and perspectives and lives of people who are at the bottom in society — the lowest economic and racial groups.” ...............  He supports abortion rights and gay marriage  



Hearings Behind Them, Republicans Close In on Barrett Confirmation The Senate Judiciary Committee lined up a vote for Oct. 22 on Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination to the Supreme Court, as Democrats warned Republicans would rue the day. 

Startups, It’s Time to Think Like Camels — Not Unicorns  growth-at-all-costs methodology, which the Valley’s top players are exceptionally good at, only works in the strongest bull markets, in the most optimal conditions. ............ Camels are able to survive for long periods without sustenance, withstand the scorching desert heat, and adapt to extreme variations in climate. They survive and thrive in some of Earth’s harshest regions. ...............  three strategies: they execute balanced growth, they take a long-term outlook, and they weave diversification into the business model. ............ Right-pricing from the start. .......... Cost management through the life cycle. ......... Changing the trajectory. ......... camels don’t avoid growth or venture capital funding, but their scaling trajectory and associated burn rates will be less extreme. ......... Survival is often the primary strategy. This allows time to build the business model, find a product that resonates with the market, and develop an operation that can scale. Competition will exist. But the race is about who will survive the longest, not about who goes to market first. ................... Quizlet just raised a $30 million Series C round, which valued the company at $1 billion in May of this year. The company did not take any funding until 2015, when it raised a Series A for just $12 million after 10 years in business. ............ As we prepare for the tough challenges ahead, the answers won’t be found within Silicon Valley’s insular bubble, but by learning from camels at the Frontier, who have had the solution all along. 


To Foster Innovation, Cultivate a Culture of Intellectual Bravery   Intellectual bravery is a willingness to disagree, dissent, or challenge the status quo in a setting of social risk in which you could be embarrassed, marginalized, or punished in some way. When intellectual bravery disappears, organizations develop patterns of willful blindness. Bureaucracy buries boldness. Efficiency crushes creativity. From there, the status quo calcifies and stagnation sets in. ..............  Whether or not your company has a culture of intellectual bravery depends on your ability to establish a pattern of rewarded rather than punished vulnerability. ........... the team members didn’t seem worried about social risk and spoke up regardless of hierarchy and power with energy and enthusiasm. I watched a new team member push back on a senior leader’s suggestion. Another person asked a naive question. Another shared a mistake she had made and wanted to discuss. In short, the level of psychological safety in the room matched the level of personal exposure required to challenge the status quo. ..................  the team’s ability to maintain creative abrasion and constructive dissent without collapsing into debilitating tension, personal attacks, or silence. ............  assign specific members of your team to challenge a course of action or find flaws in a proposed decision ........... connect things that aren’t normally connected. Of course, you must manage the process carefully and discern when constructive dissent is giving way to destructive derailment. .............. Speaking first when you hold positional power softly censors your team. ........... Encouraging psychological safety isn’t easy; it requires a high level of emotional intelligence and a highly controlled ego. Arguably, a leader’s most important job — perhaps above that of creating a vision and setting strategy — is to nourish a context in which people are given air cover in exchange for candor. That’s how you create a culture of intellectual bravery. 

A Framework for Leaders Facing Difficult Decisions Many decision-making frameworks aim to help leaders use objective information to mitigate bias, operate under time pressure, or leverage data. But these frameworks tend to fall short when it comes to decisions based on subjective information sources that suggest conflicting courses of action. And most complex decisions fall into this category. ............ 

CDC study says tons of people catch COVID-19 in the one place that’s supposed to be safe 102 out of 191 people who came in contact with a sick person contracted COVID-19, with transmission likely occurring inside the home. ............ The novel coronavirus spreads with ease in indoor settings. ........... public health experts keep recommending the same measures that can reduce the risk of transmission, including face masks, social distancing, and frequent hand washing. ............. the most dangerous place for someone to be when it comes to coronavirus transmission is the home ......... People are unlikely to wear masks at home, and social distancing isn’t always possible. If one person in a household is infected, others are likely to get COVID-19 as well. One of the reasons that favor infection is the fact that a person can be contagious before the onset of symptoms, which might warn others that transmission is possible. ............... household COVID-19 transmission occurs rapidly, with secondary cases appearing even faster than expected. ......... COVID spreads very rapidly and very quickly inside a home.” .......... “Once it’s in your house, it’s very hard to keep from spreading, and you don’t know who in your home will be susceptible, and they’ll need to be hospitalized.” ............. young children and teenagers can infect other members of the family just like adults. .............. persons should self-isolate immediately at the onset of COVID-like symptoms, at the time of testing as a result of a high-risk exposure, or at the time of a positive test result, whichever comes first” .............  “Concurrent to isolation, all members of the household should wear a mask when in shared spaces in the household.” .........  researchers advise isolation inside the home whenever possible and avoiding contact with the outside world. ........... persons who suspect that they might have COVID-19 should isolate, stay at home, and use a separate bedroom and bathroom if feasible. Isolation should begin before seeking testing and before test results become available because delaying isolation until confirmation of infection could miss an opportunity to reduce transmission to others. .............. “If you or anyone in the family goes outside the bubble and does anything that’s risky — large groups, bars, not wearing your mask — they can come back into that bubble and put everyone in that bubble at risk”

As Washington delays stimulus, the Fed is running out of ways to help the economy  In the four-month March-through-June period as the pandemic began, the Fed’s balance sheet grew 66% to $7.13 trillion

Millions poised to lose unemployment benefits in ‘enormous cliff’ at year’s end