Seattle Times (February 9)
“The prospect of a fourth wave propelled by new variants is something many scientists and modeling groups are warning about.” For example, the University of Washington now forecasts “an additional 200,000 deaths nationwide through June 1.” There is “one bright spot… hospitalizations and death rates are likely to be lower during any fourth wave than in previous surges because many older people are getting vaccinated.”
Tags: Death rates, Deaths, Fourth wave, Hospitalizations, Modeling, New variants, Older, Scientists, Surges, Warning
New York Times (February 8)
“Grim as things sound, there is great reason to hope right now. More vaccines are coming, and case counts and death counts are finally leveling off.” There is, however, also reason for great haste. “The nation remains locked in a desperate contest, between its own ability to vaccinate people as quickly as possible and the virus’s ability to mutate and spread ever faster. Right now, the virus still has the lead.”
The Economist (February 6)
Wall street is undergoing revolution. “Information technology is being used to make trading free, shift information flows and catalyse new business models, transforming how markets work…. And, despite the clamour of recent weeks, this promises to bring big long-term benefits.”
Tags: Business models, Clamour, Information flows, IT, Markets, Promises, Revolution, Trading, Wall Street
Wall Street Journal (February 5)
“Basing eligibility in stages from oldest to youngest from now on is simple, scientific and fair. As supply increases, this will be the fastest way to inoculate the most people, reduce demands on the health-care system, and allow more businesses to reopen. Interest groups will complain, but the public will understand and politicians won’t take the inevitable grief for favoritism.”
Tags: Businesses, Eligibility, Fair, Fastest, Health-care system, Inoculate, Oldest, Reopen, Scientific, Simple, Supply, Youngest
Los Angeles Times (February 4)
“Television was long considered the lower form of entertainment, but the COVID-19 pandemic and its stay-at-home rules hastened TVs challenge to film as the more vibrant and resonant medium. It took a decade or more of platform fragmentation and a boom of creative, daring and sometimes deeply flawed programming, but it’s safe to say that television is now the bolder, sexier, more glamorous medium than film.”
Tags: Glamorous
Financial Times (February 3)
“The pandemic’s devastating impact on Big Oil was illustrated yesterday when some of the world’s largest energy groups reported record annual losses, marking a brutal 12 months of an industry under mounting pressure to speed up a transition to cleaner fuels.”
Tags: Big oil, Brutal, Cleaner fuels, Devastating, Energy, Impact, Largest, Losses, Pandemic, Pressure, Record, Transition
Institutional Investor (February 2)
“What happens when a company gets an A from one ESG rater and an F from another? With the explosion of ESG data and ratings, there’s little agreement on what makes a company good or bad.”
Boston Globe (February 2)
“More than 10 months into a pandemic that has all but emptied downtown towers, the long-term future of offices in Boston remains unclear. Vacancy rates downtown are the highest they’ve been in a decade. There’s more than 3.5 million square feet available for sublease from companies holding long-term leases on space they’ve decided they no longer need. Rents, after climbing steadily for years, are starting to fall.”
Tags: Boston, Companies, Downtown, Emptied, Future, Leases, Long term, Offices, Pandemic, Rents, Sublease, Towers, Vacancy
Washington Post (February 2)
The emerging new strains of the novel coronavirus “are a powerful reminder that we must remain vigilant in fighting the virus, even as vaccines promise an end to the pandemic. And they are a warning that if the world doesn’t bring the virus under control everywhere, this nightmarish pandemic could continue for years longer than it needs to.”
Tags: Control, Emerging, Fighting, Nightmarish, Novel coronavirus, Pandemic, Strains, Vaccines, Vigilant, Warning
USA Today (February 1)
The COVID-19 vaccine was created with “unheard-of-speed.” No vaccine had ever been created in under four years. “The real credit for the rapid turn-around belongs to a series of uncelebrated discoveries dating back at least 15 years—and a constellation of unsung scientists” who’d been working on vaccines for Zika, Nipah, SARs and other infectious diseases. “By virtue of incredible luck and incredible foresight,” these scientists were “prepared for one virus more than almost any other: a coronavirus.”
Tags: Foresight Coronavirus.
