In the Meantime, Covid-19 Continues

The Southern Hemisphere skipped flu season in 2020

On September 12, 2020, The Economist reported that the Southern Hemisphere skipped flu season in 2020. The thinking is that practices preventing Covid spread all but eliminated the flu season in places like Australia, Chile, and South Africa, a welcome side effect to the pandemic.

---

COVID testing stumbles

The Wall Street Journal reported on September 15, 2020, that two dozen U.S. nursing homes using a COVID-19 test received false-positive results. This could be catastrophic because they might lead to uninfected people being placed with infected people and catching the coronavirus. In a related story, Bloomberg News reports that challenges in the U.K. include the inability to be tested in Covid-19 hotspots like the city of Manchester. “This is challenging,” admitted Home Secretary Priti Patel in an interview. “There is no magic solution to say this is all going to be perfect.”

---

Choosing and washing your mask and mask recognition tech

On September 7, 2020, Vox provided information about how to choose a mask and that you should wash it after every use. In a new twist, National Geographic reports that "many software companies are pioneering mask recognition” as a way to compel compliance in mask wearing.

---

Fauci warns that earth has entered a “pandemic era”

The online publication NeoScope reports that Dr. Anthony Fauci has co-authored a paper suggesting that human activity has become a major contributor to the emergence of new deadly diseases.“COVID-19, recognized in late 2019, is but the latest example of an unexpected, novel, and devastating pandemic disease,” Fauci wrote. “One can conclude from this recent experience that we have entered a pandemic era. The causes of this new and dangerous situation are multifaceted, complex, and deserving of serious examination. “He further wrote that “there are many examples where disease emergencies reflect our increasing inability to live in harmony with nature."

---

Covid-19 might have been in the U.S. weeks earlier

The Washington Post’s Coronavirus Update newsletter on September 10, 2020, reported that by counting the word “cough” in electronic health records in Los Angeles, “a team of researchers found evidence that Covid-19 may have been spreading in the United States weeks earlier than was previously suspected … From this, they learned that respiratory failure hospitalizations spiked in late December last year and remained above historic levels for the next 10 weeks … This is consistent with the growing body of data that suggests that there’s been community spread much earlier than we had anticipated,” 

Covid and the Economy

Work from home is here to stay

According to a September 11, 2020, story in CEO Daily, a J.D. Power study found that “86% of 124 customer service organizations surveyed say they plan to implement permanent work-from-home models even after the pandemic passes.” Customer satisfaction ratings were good, but they “may have been boosted by the fact that many callers were seeking deferred payment arrangements during the pandemic—and getting them.”

---

Online grocery shopping is here to stay, too

Fox Business reported on September 11, 2020, that the trend to online grocery shopping is here to stay. Instacart President Nilam Ganenthiran told Fox Business "we believe the growth we’re experiencing marks a long-term shift in consumer adoption of grocery delivery and pickup services." Instacart order volume has increased 500% since the start of the pandemic. Whole Foods CEO John Mackey agrees, saying that “when things return to normal, there will be a lot of people who don’t go back to shopping in-person.”

---

The costs of lost learning during the pandemic

The New York Times in its September 10, 2020.The Morning Newsletter reported that the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has authored a report that says “whenever schools around the world manage to reopen, children in many countries will emerge from the coronavirus lockdowns having lost large amounts of classroom time.” The report attempts to quantify the costs of that lost time and lost learning.

---

The economic impacts of Covid-19

San Diego economist Alan Nevin has produced a succinct report for the Xpera Group that addresses the economic impact on San Diego and the nation. The report addresses unemployment, Covid-19, and real estate data in a very quick read.

---

Foundations turning to bonds to meet Covid-19 needs

Morgan Stanley reports that “foundations are asking investors to finance grant-making to nonprofits, which are essential to a post-pandemic recovery and more equitable future.” The firm wrote that “to meet that extraordinary need, large private foundations—such as the Ford Foundation, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the MacArthur Foundation—have turned to a nontraditional source of funding: the public bond market.

---

The economic cycle according to Robert Samuelson

While not focused on Covid, retiring Washington Post columnist Robert Samuelson penned his final column on September 13, 2020, providing some valuable insights. He wrote that “the business cycle hasn’t been conquered yet and possibly never will be. That’s my main conclusion from a half-century of economy-watching. For at least three reasons, I see this cycle of overpromise continuing."

• First, the quest for economic status and power pushes economists and their political sponsors toward exaggerated promises that lead to widespread public disappointment.
• Second, people have a hard time changing their minds.
• Third, modern democracies have a hard time making sacrifices in the present for gains in the future.

---

Wildfires, hurricane Sally, Covid-19 and Lulumon

From the September 17, 2020, CEO Daily: athletic apparel retailer Lululemon “now has more U.S. stores closed due to environmental risk—fires in the West, hurricane in the Gulf, etc.—than due to COVID 19.”