About this Issue of the Nett Report

As you can see from the quote above, this edition of the Nett Report is taking a little different direction than intended when we first started to republish this newsletter on March 27. Who would have guessed that a virus that ostensibly evolved from a bat in Wuhan, China, would lead to global unrest over social and economic inequities?

You might say, and rightly so, that the spark that started the fire was the death of George Floyd, but the tinder for that fire was put in place by the virus when it:

• Inequitably exposed many in lower income service workers who couldn’t work from home,
• Created economic uncertainty for those whose jobs and businesses were deemed not essential, causing them to join the ranks of the unemployed, often people of color, and
• Negatively affected other vulnerable people living in environments where social distancing was difficult.

Those affected are more likely to be non-white, economically on the lower end of the income scale, and, as a result, less educated. The virus and its economic and health repercussions brought these vulnerable people and others to the street, demanding change over long-held cultural norms dating back centuries. See more below.

More pandemic big picture

Speaking of tinder, here’s what Rice University historian Douglas Brinkley told the Washington Post: “The United States is simultaneously gripped by a pandemic, massive unemployment and widening social unrest — a multifold crisis unlike any in recent history. “The threads of our civic life could start unraveling, because everybody’s living in a tinderbox.”

 

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Black Americans face higher Covid-19 risk

The Pew Research Center has also addressed the impact of Covid-19 on black Americans who account for a disproportionate share of Covid-19 deaths, 13% of the U.S. population but 24% of coronavirus deaths. Pew reports the following as reasons:

• A higher rate of pre-existing health conditions,
• Long-standing inequities in health care access and outcomes, and
• Social and economic factors that contribute to health risk.

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Migrant farm workers at risk

Another group of vulnerable people is the border farm workers who harvest produce for the nation. According to Civil Eats, laborers from San Luis del Rio Colorado, Sonora, are crowded into buses to harvest lettuce and onions in Yuma County, Arizona, are unlikely “to be given “clear, audible, culturally appropriate instructions about the spacing and health precautions that might help them avoid being infected with Covid-19 while they are in the fields, or back at home.”

In Mexicali, Reuters reports that “every night, hundreds of farm workers in Mexico crowd for hours in a cramped tunnel to a border station to reach day jobs in Imperial Valley, California, with no social distancing enforced despite coronavirus cases saturating hospitals in the region.”

In Imperial County, across the border from Mexicali, farm workers have been provided PPEs, but, in just the month of April, California’s Economic Development Department reported 8,600 of the region’s 10,600 farm workers lost their jobs because of lessened demand for produce as a result of stay at home orders throughout the nation.

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Water to wash hands not available

We have all been advised to wash our hands regularly to address the pandemic but how do you do that regularly if you are one of the “more than two million Americans who live without running water and basic indoor plumbing?” According to a report by the U.S. Water Alliance, these “low-income people in rural areas, people of color, tribal communities, immigrants – have fallen through the cracks.”

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Half of lower-income American report wage or job loss.

An analysis by the Pew Research Center, determined 52% of lower-income Americans say someone in their household has lost a job or taken a pay cut due to the Covid-19 outbreak. Only 23% have emergency funds that would last for three months. Pew says that “overall, 43% of U.S. adults now say that they or someone in their household has lost a job or taken a cut in pay due to the outbreak, up from 33% in the latter half of March.”

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A direct link between education and unemployment

The startling rise in U.S. unemployment has exposed how disparities in education affect who will become unemployed. Norm Miller, the Hahn Chair of Real Estate Finance at the University of San Diego, provided these statistics about the rate of unemployment by education level in a June 2, 2020, presentation to Lambda Alpha International.

• 21% - less than high school education
• 17% - high school graduate
• 14% - associate degree
• 8% - bachelor’s degree
• 7% - graduate or professional degree
• 3% - doctoral degree

 He also said the overall unemployment rate is likely 25% with 45 million people underemployed or unemployed.

Suffocating hope

CNBC reported on June 1, 2020,  that the Ford Foundation’s Darren Walker believes there is a growing cynicism about American ideals of opportunity and mobility. “Throw out the old playbook,” he urged corporate CEOs. “Hope is the oxygen of democracy. We are asphyxiating optimism and hope by our economic policies and priorities that have privileged people like me at the expense of workers that we now deem essential.”

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Covid-19 predicted to cause mental health issues

A report summarized in the June 11, 2020, State of Reform newsletter “predicts up to 60% of the population will experience some form of depression because of the pandemic. About ‘half of the individuals who experience a behavioral health diagnosis will develop a substance-related disorder.’ ‘Behavioral health symptoms including anxiety, trouble sleeping, stomach aches, and headaches will be consistent in the general population in the summer months of 2020.’"

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Blood type might determine the severity of coronavirus cases

A story in BGR says that several studies have shown that blood type might be a factor in the severity of symptoms in patients with COVID-19. An international collaboration of researchers “discovered that Type A blood appears to be a risk factor for Covid-19 complications. The study seems to confirm similar research from China that determined that patients with Type A blood were more likely to experience a severe case.” The researchers have no answer as to why this might be the case.

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Bald men at higher risk of severe coronavirus symptom

Although not typically classified as a vulnerable population, according to the New York Post, bald men might have a higher risk of suffering severe coronavirus symptoms. In one study, almost 80% of coronavirus patients in three Madrid hospitals were bald. Scientists believe androgens — male hormones like testosterone — might boost the ability of coronavirus to attack cells. “The same androgens are also understood to be behind baldness, making it a signal of vulnerability to the disease.” There could be a positive outcome, numerous studies are seeing if treatments to suppress the hormones might help slow down the virus.

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How will our children make sense of this?

Rachel Buchholz, editor in chief and vice president of National Geographic Kids Magazines, Digital, and Family, reflects the view of many in a June 3, 2020, National Geo newsletter. “I’m having a hard time making sense of all this: that people are still having to forcefully demonstrate against issues their parents and grandparents have already protested; that racism—blatant or unintentional—continues to crop up in a country that many of us wrongfully assumed had overcome it; that at this moment, when we should all be fighting the pandemic together, we’re fighting each other instead. And I wonder … if I can’t make sense out of all this, how will children ever be able to?”

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As always, lawyers look to be the winners

That privileged group, lawyers, “are among that small group of people on the planet who really truly loved lockdown,” according to Fortune. “The pandemic, and mandatory working-from-home measures, have reversed (at least temporarily) the grueling culture of long hours and mandatory face time that comes at the expense of family and work-life balance. Many are hoping the shift will be permanent.”

Product News

Plexiglass boom. The Wall Street Journal reports that Plexiglas is now the in demand item following the rush on hand sanitizer, toilet paper, and PPEs “as companies—and hospitals—have searched for ways to keep their employees safe.” There's also demand for social-distance signage, cardboard dividers, and door handle covers.

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Golf carts. The pandemic has even affected golf carts. To help keep social distancing on the course, ESPN reports that a company called Phat Scooters has designed a “golf specific scooter designed for one rider. Forbes reports that Club Car has developed a robotic bag carrier that “follows you around the course with a steady distance of four feet from your body. You run and it picks up the pace. Slow down or stop and it does, too.”

Solutions

So what is society to do to address the pandemic, its economic affects and long-held inequities that suppress people of color and the economically oppressed? Here is some new thinking.

Will stakeholder capitalism grow? Stakeholder capitalism is a system in which corporations serve the interests of all their stakeholders including customers, suppliers, employees, shareholders and local communities. Fortune’s Alan Murray in his June 1 CEO Daily asked this: “Will the pandemic accelerate the business community’s move toward stakeholder capitalism? Or slow it down as companies focus on short-term financial pressures?” His answer: Most of the forces that have led to the stakeholder movement have become stronger during the pandemic. Among them:

• The shift toward talent as the most important source of corporate value has continued. “The pandemic seems to be leading an increasing number of talent-forward companies to take an “employees first” approach.”
• Demands for systemic change have intensified. “The pandemic exposed flaws in our hyper-efficient approach to global markets, and it is deepening the divisions—both within countries and between them—that undercut support for the current economic system. Business leaders need to respond, or risk losing their license to operate.”
• The dearth of leadership is ever more evident. “In the U.S. in particular, our political ideologies have proven poorly suited for the moment. Practical-minded business leaders can, and should, step up to help fill the gap.”

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Do we need national service? New York Times Columnist David Brooks says “There is now a vast army of young people ready and yearning to serve their country. There are college graduates emerging into a workplace that has few jobs for them. There are more high school graduates who suddenly can’t afford college. There are college students who don’t want to return to a college experience. This is a passionate, idealistic generation that sees the emergency, wants to serve those around them and groans to live up to this moment. … We need a Covid response that fits the kind of people we are. National service is an essential piece of that response … We have a generation of knights in waiting.”

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How about a green recovery? Triple Pundit reports that more than 350 health organizations signed an open letter to world leaders in the G-20, which represents both industrial and developing nations, calling for a "healthy recovery" that limits air pollution and mitigates climate change.

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What about a climate corps? Putting together national service with green recovery could create a climate corps. Grist reports “tens of millions of Americans lost their jobs in recent months, and ending shelter in place orders won’t bring them all back anytime soon. It’s the perfect moment to create a 21st-century jobs corps, with climate starring front and center.” Grist says other countries have already begun enacting jobs programs with climate-smart projects. For example, 63,000 Pakistani workers were reemployed as tree planters. In New Zealand, a jobs package is being proposed “to rehab ecosystems to help people hurting from job losses in New Zealand’s normally bustling tourist sector.”

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Breathing easier and more human touch. While broad solutions like those above could have sweeping impacts, sometimes the little things can make life better. The Miami Herald tells us how to make it easier to wear a face mask in the hot summer months. In a similar vein, the New York Times teaches its readers how to hug during a pandemic.

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Tracing on steroids. New Zealand has declared itself free of the coronavirus. One of the key actions this island nation took was requiring people to sign in at every business they entered. This allowed full contact tracing when testing identified someone who was infected.

Who is helping?

Cross border health workers. Even while there is concern about cross-border transmission of the virus at the U.S. Mexico border, thousands of healthcare workers cross the border every day to assist in addressing the pandemic. In the May 31, 2020, issue of the New York Times, Paola Avila, vice president of international business affairs at the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce reported that "from the receptionist to nurses, doctors, surgeons, and pharmacists, there's cross-border workers in every single stage," The Times article said that “more than one thousand workers clean contaminated hospital rooms and biotech labs; wash doctors' scrubs and patients' bedsheets; and provide in-home care to the elderly and others vulnerable to the virus.”

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Border philanthropies. According to the Border Philanthropy Partnership, foundations along the U.S. Mexico border have secured more than $45 million to support families and communities impacted by Covid-19.  “Since the beginning of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, community, public, and private foundations along and across the region from California to Texas have answered the call to support the growing and emerging needs of families and communities in the age of Covid-19. “

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Closing Quotes

“We have to make an effort in the United States, we have to make an effort to understand, to go beyond these rather difficult times… What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence or lawlessness; but love and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or they be black.” From State of Reform, the words of Robert Kennedy on April 4, 1968, the night of Martin Luther King’s death, from the back of a truck before a largely black audience in Indianapolis.

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“A society becomes great when old men plant trees in the shade of which they know they shall never sit.” A Greek proverb, author unknown. What figurative trees will you plant this year?