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Welcome to the tenth 2020 edition of The Nett Report. Given the uncertainty of the coronavirus crisis, we are publishing this report to provide our clients and friends with new perspectives and insights in hopes of stimulating creative thinking in the weeks and months to come. Feel free to share with friends! Links to the first nine 2020 reports can be found here.


Poll: tell us what you think about how and when the pandemic will end

There are many good, well-informed minds who receive this newsletter. We are wondering what you think about the following three questions and have created a poll to get your input. All responses will be anonymous.

  • When do you think the pandemic will be over, and we will get back to normal?
  • When will we be able to attend group gatherings like sporting events, movies, concerts, etc.?
  • What do you think needs to be done to end the pandemic?

Please click on this link to take the survey.


Since this is the tenth issue of the 2020 Nett Report, we thought it might be worth looking back to the first issue, on March 27, not long after the lockdown began, to see what has changed.

A look back – what did we think at the beginning of the pandemic?

In the first issue, we reported that the first U.S. case was reported on January 19, and, that little more than two months later, on March 23, the CDC reported 33,404 cases and 400 deaths. On March27, after only four more days, the CDC reported 85,356 cases and 1,246 deaths. This was worrisome enough to lockdown the economy except for essential services. At the same time, we included CDC’s flu data. On August 7, the CDC reported 4,858,596 Covid cases and 158,887 deaths. Here’s a chart that compares the original data with today’s numbers.

 

1/19/2020

3/23/2020

3/27/2020

8/6/2020

Covid Infections

1

33,404

85,356

4,858,596

Covid Deaths

0

400

1,246

158,887

Flu Infections

 

 

38-54 million

39-56 million*

Flu Deaths

 

 

23-58 thousand

24-62 thousand*

We also reported on the answer to this question on March 27: How could the coronavirus numbers ever become worse than those for the flu?

  • Coronavirus is more infectious and easier to transmit.
  • A greater percentage of people need to be hospitalized.
  • It is more lethal.

Those answers have proven to be true.


We warned about issues regarding the right to assemble

We wrote that “Discussions about the First Amendment have traditionally focused on freedom of speech and the press. What about ‘the right of the people to peaceably assemble?’ While the current restrictions on public gatherings are critical to slowing the spread of the coronavirus, they have effectively over-ridden this First Amendment right. We should be all be vigilant in making sure that right is not lost as we come out of the coronavirus crisis.” Our concerns about that issue were right on the mark, as public gatherings have been the subject of concern, from protestors to churchgoers.


Guidelines for getting back to work were addressed.

In the beginning, it was thought there would be simple strategies to ending the pandemic; that it didn't last long. From an article by opinion columnist Thomas Friedman of the New York Times, "A Plan to Get America Back to Work," we provided these guidelines for getting America back to work from his interview of Dr. Dale L. Katz of Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center, essentially a two-week isolation strategy.

  • Those who have symptomatic infection should then self-isolate — with or without testing, which is exactly what we do with the flu.
  • Those who don’t have symptoms, if in the low-risk population, should be allowed to return to work or school, after the two weeks end.
  • High risk populations, the elderly or those with underlying conditions would remain isolated until the infection rate reached near zero.

Friedman’s story said “this would allow the majority of the population to go back to work after the two-week isolation period, thereby protecting the economy.” How did that work out?


 

“For What It’s Worth” - Is it 1967 all over again?

  • “There's something happening here, What it is ain't exactly clear …
  • “There's battle lines being drawn, Nobody's right if everybody's wrong …
  • “We better stop, hey, what's that sound, Everybody look what's going down”

Buffalo Springfield - For What It's Worth 1967 - YouTube

If the lyrics above sound familiar to what we hear on the news now and heard in the 1960s (see and hear all the lyrics here), then it appears the “something’s happening here” is more than just about the pandemic. We might not be going back to the life we knew and took for granted, but to a new way of living. As a result, The Nett Report from time-to-time will include reporting on “what’s going down” by sharing stories that provide non-partisan insights into the turmoil that’s ripping into our nation and the world even as we continue writing about topics related to the pandemic. We hope you will keep reading.

 
 
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Issues

Pandemic puts water high up on America’s corona recovery list

From Politico on July 29, 2020: “The coronavirus economic crash is tightening the financial vise on utilities that supply water and sanitation across the country, potentially putting water companies on the verge of financial insolvency while millions of Americans struggle to pay their utility bills.”


Americans are getting more nervous about what they say in public

According to The Economist, in a July 28, 2020, story, some 62% of Americans now believe the political climate prevents them from expressing their true beliefs.


Pandemic delays movie productions

The pandemic has affected Hollywood, too. According to Fortune in a July 27, 2020, article, “with the ebb and flow nature of American case rates, studios are finding it impossible to plan guaranteed release dates.”

 
 

 
 

News Bites

How’s working at home working out?

On July 31, 2020, Fortune reported on some new numbers on work-from-home, based on a survey of Americans in collaboration with SurveyMonkey. The takeaways:

  • 46% of U.S. workers say they’ve been able to work remotely during the pandemic.
  • 29% of remote workers say they feel less productive since the pandemic began, while only 24% say they feel more productive. The rest say they are “equally productive.”
  • 41% of remote workers say they would choose to exclusively work from home this fall if the decision were up to them.

Oh, how far Karens have fallen

The New York Times reports that In 1965, the name Karen was the third-most-popular baby name in the U.S. In 2018, it was the 635th, and today it’s even less popular. “In 2020, Karen is no longer ‘an easy name’ and instead has morphed into a symbol of racism and white privilege.”


Goodbye, jeans. The pandemic is ushering in an era of comfort

In a July 28, 2020, Washington Post article, the paper revealed that “jeans sales have been sluggish for five years, but the pandemic has taken a real toll. True Religion, Lucky Brand and G-Star RAW have all declared bankruptcy since April, while the parent company of Joe’s Jeans and Hudson Jeans filed for Chapter 11 protection in May. Levi’s this month posted a 62 percent drop in second-quarter revenue and announced plans to cut 700, or 15 percent, of its corporate workforce.” Leggings, joggers and sweatpants are replacing jeans as people no longer need to wear pants while working at home.


Need a yacht?

I don’t know if any of our readers need a yacht, but Royal Caribbean has one of its cruise ships on sale for $150 million, according to Port and Terminal. This price is less than many new yachts, prompted by the coronavirus’ impact on the cruise ship industry.


West Wing; knowing reality needed to solve pandemics and other problems

At Nettleton Strategies, we always advise starting from a clear base of understanding the environment surrounding the problem to be solved. This Fortune article discusses the importance of that through a West Wing (the TV series) story when the fictional TV White House debates adopting a new global map that more realistically shows the sizes of countries, instead of the distorted view of the Mercator Projection. What realities do we have to know to solve the pandemics and other critical global crises like climate change?

 
 

 
 

Solutions

U.S. Chamber provides guide for parents working at home

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation has released a report, Piecing Together Solutions: Working Parents, Childcare, and COVID-19, that finds “COVID-19 has altered the work environment of nearly 90% of working parents and caused two-thirds to adjust their childcare arrangements.” Click here to view the full report. Among other insights, the report finds that:

  • 75% of working parents currently have children staying at home with a parent during work hours.
  • Two-thirds of parents have changed their childcare arrangement due to COVID-19
  • 60% of parents will need to change their current childcare arrangement within the next year.
  • 22% of parents are unsure whether they will return to their pre-COVID-19 working situation.

NFL safety equipment now includes plexiglass mouth shield

According to the Plastic News Kickstarter's August 7, 2020, newsletter, the NFL now has developed, with Oakley, “a thin, clear piece of polycarbonate that fits inside the helmet to cover players' mouths in a move to help fight the spread of the coronavirus.” The news was released in an NFL Player Health & Safety post. Use of the shield will be optional.


Will millennials and the Gen Z generation lead us to a better normal?

The Deloitte Global Millennial Survey 2020 reveals that “in the face of unprecedented health and economic disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, millennials and Gen Zs express resolve and a vision to build a better future."


Caltech student tool configures social-distancing in classrooms

While the debate rages about whether to open schools, Forbes reported on July 31, 2020, that a Caltech student has developed a tool to help educators optimize the distance between students in classrooms. The student’s mom is a teacher, and “he spent a month developing an interactive Excel worksheet powered by advanced algorithms to help his mother out. She could plug a room’s dimensions and social distancing parameters into the worksheet, and the most efficient configuration of students for a designated classroom would automatically be mapped out.” And the tool became a company: Pandemic Analytics.

 
 

 
 

Quotable

“We are burning up a lot of social capital built up when people were working together, How to rebuild that capital while people are apart is a challenge."

                                                   Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO

 
 

 
 

Nettleton Strategies - Helping You Navigate the Big Reset

This is a challenging time for all of us, in a way we have never experienced before. At Nettleton Strategies, our philosophy has always been that we need to know two things to find solutions and move forward:

  • A clear understanding of the status of the current situation.
  • A clear vision of how you want your world to be in the future.

With those two benchmarks, we can create a path from your current status to the future imagined status, eliminating the obstacles and identifying processes and resources needed to reach the future state.


Take This Time to Imagine Your Future

We encourage you to use this time to begin imagining a post-coronavirus future. Visualize a time when you can begin to realize your dreams in a sustainable way. If we can help you find opportunities to navigate your Big Reset, please contact us.

 
 

 
 

 

 
 

 
 
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Nettleton Strategies

P.O. Box 22971
San Diego, CA 92192-2971
U.S.A.
+1 858-353-5489
info@nettstrategies.com
https://www.nettstrategies.com/

 
 

 
 

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