Economy
100,000: An Incalculable Loss (jdargis)
America is fast approaching a grim milestone in the coronavirus outbreak – each figure here represents one of the nearly 100,000 lives lost so far. But a count only reveals so much. Memories, gathered from obituaries across the country, help us reckon with what was lost.
Scientists vs politicians: The reality check for “warp speed” vaccine research (tmn)
“Manufacturing is not the hurdle. It’s taking the time to collect enough efficacy and safety data,” he says. “The Operation Warp Speed language coming out of the White House and biotechs and pharma companies [saying] that they will have a vaccine by the fall—or in weeks or days—does so much damage.”
Keeping Your Business Going May Mean Both Growing and Shrinking (jdargis)
Then, this March, the stay-at-home orders in New York and Connecticut were enacted, and his business changed again. With the massive increase in demand for deliveries and shortly thereafter, pickups, it boomed in a way he never imagined nor was equipped to handle. He went from having 200 to 250 orders a week to 5,000. He also became one of the main outlets for a half-dozen farms that had been selling their meat, breads and produce to high-end restaurants, which were now closed.
5 Ways You Can Help Stop The Coronavirus ‘Infodemic’ That’s Hurting Everyone (Michael S.)
Social media users are spending more time online than ever before. It is imperative that they do their part to stop the spread of false and fake news, which will likely continue to proliferate even beyond the end of this containment.
IBM laying off thousands, seeking “flexibility” during COVID-19 crisis (TS)
HPE also announced its cost-cutting plans on Thursday as part of its more recent quarterly earnings report. The company will cut some salaries through at least October 31, with executives seeing pay cuts of 20 to 25 percent. The company, like younger tech brethren such as Facebook and Twitter, says it will further save money by embracing remote work in the longer term, allowing it to shutter some offices.
What Lockdown? World’s Cocaine Traffickers Sniff at Movement Restrictions (tmn)
But OCCRP reporters have found that the world’s cocaine industry — which produces close to 2,000 metric tons a year and makes tens of billions of dollars — has adapted better than many other legitimate businesses. The industry has benefited from huge stores of drugs warehoused before the pandemic and its wide variety of smuggling methods. Street prices around Europe have risen by up to 30 percent, but it is not clear how much of this is due to distribution problems, and how much to drug gangs taking advantage of homebound customers.
Horowitz: The CDC confirms remarkably low coronavirus death rate. Where is the media? (Nate)
More importantly, as I mentioned before, the overall death rate is meaningless because the numbers are so lopsided. Given that at least half of the deaths were in nursing homes, a back-of-the-envelope estimate would show that the infection fatality rate for non-nursing home residents would only be 0.1% or 1 in 1,000. And that includes people of all ages and all health statuses outside of nursing homes. Since nearly all of the deaths are those with comorbidities.
It’s Not Obesity. It’s Slavery (tmn)
Reliable data are hard to come by, but available analyses show that on average, the rate of black fatalities is 2.4 times that of whites with Covid-19. In states including Michigan, Kansas and Wisconsin and in Washington, D.C., that ratio jumps to five to seven black people dying of Covid-19 complications for every one white death.
Despite the lack of clarity surrounding these findings, one interpretation of these disparities that has gained traction is the idea that black people are unduly obese (currently defined as a body mass index greater than 30) which is seen as a driver of other chronic illnesses and is believed to put black people at high risk for serious complications from Covid-19.
In two memos, one in late March and a second in early April, Attorney General William Barr directed the Federal Bureau of Prisons, which is part of the Justice Department, to begin identifying inmates who could safely be released to home confinement — essentially house arrest. They instructed prison officials to grant “priority treatment” to inmates deemed to present minimal risk to the public.
Separately, however, the Bureau of Prisons had drafted a 20-page policy document this year that altered a standard adopted only a year ago and made it harder for an inmate to qualify as minimum risk.
17 Forgotten Preservation Hacks that Will Save You Money (thc0655)
If you have any leftover tomato paste, place it on a baking sheet. Depending on how much you use per meal, you can make a different number of portions. Then roll each portion as a candy, put all your “candies” in a Ziploc bag, and put it in the freezer. You will be able to use it for up to 5 months.
Trump’s Latest Farm Bailout Is Great—If You’re a Huge Corporate Farmer (merle2)
Small and medium farms like Kimmel’s—the kind that supply farmers markets, community-supported agriculture (CSA) boxes, and farm-to-table restaurants—have had a wild ride during the COVID-19 crisis. They’ve seen booming demand for their goods even as their normal sales channels close down, forcing them to improvise new ways to meet their customers. In a recent national poll of small-scale farmers commissioned by New York chef Dan Barber, nearly a third of respondents reported they’d face bankruptcy if farmers market and restaurant sales are still way down in August.
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