fortune--2020-12-30--Why Sen. Hawley’s objection matters—even if he can’t stop Biden from being President

Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri announced on Wednesday that he will object to the certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the Electoral College when Congress meets for a joint session next week. The move will force a vote in both the Senate and House following a floor debate, which some Republican lawmakers are keen to avoid.
The vote itself is all but determined already, as a successful challenge would have to win in both the Senate and House—the latter of which Democrats control. Biden will still be certified the winner of the election and take office on Jan. 20 as planned. But Hawley’s challenge, and the debate it triggers, will force some Republicans to express their thoughts on President Trump’s baseless allegations of election fraud. That could put the party in an awkward position going forward.
According to Hawley, some states, including key battleground state Pennsylvania, “failed to follow their own state election laws.” Almost all of the legal claims have been thrown out in court.
“At the very least,” the senator added in a statement, “Congress should investigate allegations of voter fraud and adopt measures to secure the integrity of our elections. But Congress has so far failed to act.”
Hawley’s statement will appeal to certain Republican voters, particularly ardent supporters of Trump. But his comments are at odds with top Republican leadership, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who publicly accepted the results of the election and advised fellow party members against the move earlier this month. McConnell has been concerned that dragging the dispute out could harm Republican votes ahead of two crucial Senate runoff elections in Georgia just a day before Congress would convene on Jan. 6.
On the other hand, some Republican legislators could stand to benefit from going on the record in support of Trump. GOP senators up for reelection in 2022 could find it difficult to win another term if they break from Trump and state that they believe the 2020 election was conducted fairly.
The move could also be a ploy by Hawley to drum up support from Trump’s base. The senator has been floated as a potential presidential candidate in the 2024 election.
One thing is clear: The Republican Party is at a crossroads as it decides whether to remain loyal to Trump—and his fervent fan base—or project an air of integrity ahead of the Georgia runoffs, which will largely determine if Biden can pass liberal legislation in the first two years of his administration.
Biden’s camp dismissed Hawley’s objection and said the role of Congress in certifying the Electoral College’s vote is “merely a formality.”
“The American people spoke resoundingly in this election, and 81 million people have voted for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris,” a Biden spokesperson said Wednesday. “Congress will certify the results of the election as they do every four years.”


fortune--2020-12-30--Cracking the code of biological aging could solve America’s health care crisis

Everything jobless Americans need to know about the $ 300 unemployment benefit

What should we do about the financial burden of health care? This question has vexed our political class for decades. Not even the passage of Obamacare in 2010 has managed to settle the issue. Now President-elect Biden will get a turn to address our nation’s most intractable long-run challenge. To succeed where others have failed, Biden should focus on a solution that improves health outcomes while reducing the cost of care—treating biological aging.
The fundamental problem with health care in the U.S. is that it is expensive. In 2018, the latest year for which data is available, national health expenditures stood at 17.7% of GDP—$3.6 trillion. Politicians vigorously debate whether and to what extent consumers, employers, or the government should pay for care, but victory by any side only papers over rising costs. The reality is that we all pay $3.6 trillion a year one way or another—through higher taxes if the government pays, through lower wages if employers pay, or directly with our own money in out-of-pocket scenarios. To solve the problem, we need to slash the $3.6 trillion cost of care.
Not all methods of reducing costs are equal. The few times politicians have tried to control health costs, they have done it through rationing. This is inevitably unpopular and politically unsustainable. Obamacare’s Independent Payment Advisory Board—remember “death panels”?—was repealed in 2018. Unlike rationing, which generates lower costs through a reduced supply of care that almost invariably leads to worse health outcomes, we need solutions that keep people out of hospitals and doctors’ offices in the first place, by making them so healthy that they don’t need as much care.
The most exciting opportunity for such an improvement in health productivity is to understand and address the biology of aging. Our population is getting older—by the mid-2030s, there will be more Americans over 65 than Americans under 18. Age is the biggest risk factor for cancer, cardiovascular disease, and neurodegeneration. Without treatments to slow or reverse aspects of biological aging, an aging population means we are in for a health care cost tsunami. With such treatments, Americans would experience more healthy, productive years of life. Chronic diseases would be delayed, a phenomenon public health experts call “compressed morbidity.” This translates into lower medical bills.
Already, there is promising scientific research on reversing aspects of aging, some of which is not far from clinical application. Most notably, the Conboy Laboratory at UC Berkeley has shown that molecules circulating in the blood plasma of elderly humans and mice make our tissues display signs of age. By removing a portion of the circulating plasma in mice and replacing it with a solution of albumin and saline, researchers were able to dilute these harmful molecules and cause muscle, liver, and brain tissues to behave as if they were younger. The researchers also studied tissues from a small number of human subjects receiving similar treatment and found consistent results. This plasma exchange procedure is simple, dirt cheap, and already approved by the Food and Drug Administration for a number of conditions (although not as a treatment for aging).
Treating the thymus could also drastically change the aging process. The thymus is critical for immune system health, as it is the source of T cells that kill viruses and cancer cells. As we age, the thymus gradually turns into a lump of fat, no longer producing new T cells, and our immune system starts to falter. But in a study released in 2019, scientists were able to rejuvenate the thymus in a group of men between the ages of 51 and 65. A cocktail of human growth hormone, zinc, and a few other cheap off-patent drugs and supplements appeared to revive the thymuses, and the researchers’ analysis of DNA methylation, an age-dependent chemical change to DNA molecules, showed that the subjects gained approximately two years of expected lifespan.
A paper released this year proposed a new hallmark of aging; the stiffening of the “extracellular matrix.” As we age, the scaffolding on which our cells sit accumulates protein buildup that makes it stiffer. This less flexible medium causes our cells to change behavior, exhibiting signs of old age. By developing new drugs that can clear the buildup of these protein crosslinks, a nontrivial but achievable task, we could make our tissues young again. There is even speculation that this extracellular matrix stiffening could be an upstream cause of several of the other hallmarks of aging, making it one of the most promising targets for future research.
While all this research represents thrilling progress, we invest far too little in research that could help us go further in understanding and treating aging. Of the National Institutes of Health’s $40 billion per year budget, less than 1% goes to the National Institute on Aging’s Division of Aging Biology. This is a scandalously low level of funding for a research area that could pay such enormous dividends. If a billion dollars of funding (more than three years’ spending at the current rate) were to reduce elderly morbidity and health spending by 1%, it would pay for itself in Medicare savings alone within two months.
What about the longer term? The idea of targeting aging for medical intervention has stirred the imagination—might we ever discover a path to perpetual youth? While this kind of breakthrough is likely decades away, there is no reason in principle to believe it would be unachievable. All of the known hallmarks of aging appear to be addressable. But even if they are not, understanding the underlying biology is well worth it if it results in a few extra years or even decades of healthy and productive life.
With COVID-19 hopefully soon to be behind us, why not launch an Operation Warp Speed for biological aging? As the Biden administration takes power, it will face many challenges, but it will also have an opportunity to set priorities. By prioritizing the study of aging, the new administration could chart a new trajectory for health care spending, make our politics less divisive, and—best of all—offer Americans more healthy trips around the sun.
Eli Dourado is a senior research fellow at the Center for Growth and Opportunity at Utah State University.


fortune--2020-12-30--Timeline: From the first coronavirus cases to the first vaccinations

In 2019, a pathogen reared its head. By the end of 2020, the novel coronavirus had changed the world—perhaps permanently.
The dizzying cascade of COVID-related events has consumed our lives, and with vaccines now being deployed to some (however unceremoniously), it can be difficult to keep track of just what happened and when.
Stories can mutate just like a virus. Some day in the future, it might be easy or convenient to forget the mental-health toll that COVID has taken on our collective psyche, the unprecedented medical collaboration across public and private entities that birthed the first vaccines, or the grim reality that the United States holds the dual mantles of creating a COVID vaccine and utterly bungling the pandemic as a whole compared to most other nations.
But a world-changing pandemic deserves a chronology. Here’s to posterity.
Nov. 17, 2019
The South China Morning Post reported that China’s first confirmed COVID case traced back to Nov. 17, 2019.
There’s still some conflicting evidence about the precise date since many COVID symptoms resemble the flu, a fact that some politicians and media figures seized on to downplay the pandemic’s urgency.
Jan. 11, 2020
This was a critical day that set the stage for the entire world’s COVID response.
On Jan. 11, Chinese scientists shared the genetic code of the novel coronavirus, back when it was still unclear whether or not it could be transmitted among humans rather than just from an animal to a human.
The scientists shared this code with the world, facilitating COVID drug development efforts centered on this information. The code of the virus would eventually lead to the first COVID vaccines by signifying which biological foe to target.
Jan. 20, 2020
By Jan. 20, the first case was reported in the U.S., per the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), in Washington State. But evidence compiled later suggests the coronavirus may have been circulating in America already in December 2019.
Feb. 12, 2020
February was likely the most important month for global health agencies and governments to get their act together to quell the pandemic. It was largely wasted.
In the U.S., the virus was instantly politicized: The federal government underplayed the nature of the threat, creating a sharp partisan divide. Trump administration officials had to walk a fine line of dealing with the President’s off-the-cuff and unproved remarks while simultaneously maintaining public safety without causing widespread panic.
This lack of focus hurt the early efforts. On Feb. 12, it had become abundantly clear that the CDC’s coronavirus test just didn’t work. In the initial months of the pandemic, companies such as Quest Diagnostics, LabCorp, Abbott, and others had to step up to fill the void left by the federal government’s failure.
The CDC decision to create its own unique test (which led to the initial supply-chain bottleneck) remains a matter of mystery. Multiple other nations were already deploying their own tests at the time and thus were able to get a handle on their pandemic needs—or at the very least a basic understanding of the data.
In the end, companies had to take up the bumpy task in the U.S. Testing turnaround times took days or even weeks toward the end of the summer, depending on where you lived and what your local government decided appropriate.
It wasn’t just the U.S. that was late to the game. The World Health Organization (WHO) wasn’t ready to dub COVID-19 a pandemic even at the end of February. A pandemic is defined as an infectious disease outbreak that occurs over a wide swath of geography—a fitting description.
March 11, 2020
While the pandemic had begun months before—infectious diseases are always lagging indicators since it takes time to get sick, be hospitalized, or die—the extent of this outbreak didn’t really hit until March in the U.S.
On just a single day, March 11, Trump announced a ban on travelers from Europe; Tom Hanks was diagnosed with COVID; and the National Basketball Association (NBA) announced a temporary shutdown.
The coming weeks brought more calamity with office closings, statewide lockdowns, work-from-home routines, and school and business shutdowns. On March 12, the NCAA said it would be canceling its famed March Madness collegiate basketball tournament.
March 27, 2020
As reality set in, the U.S. Congress finally took some action.
Hospitalizations and COVID deaths were surging at this point, and the economy began its pandemic free fall. In response, Trump signed the CARES Act into law on March 27, a $2.2 trillion stimulus package that included direct checks to most Americans and extended unemployment benefits, as well as significant relief for large corporations and small business via loan forgiveness.
The law has its share of critics who say it gives too much to companies and too little to average Americans, who received up to $1,200 depending on their salary. It would also be followed up by subsequent stimulus measures, including a $900 billion bill signed by Trump on Dec. 27.
April 29, 2020
By the end of April, the U.S. had documented 1 million confirmed COVID cases.
May 1, 2020
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was facing the same pressures as the pharmaceutical industry at this point: Get a drug—something, anything—to the market.
Biotech giant Gilead delivered a modest boost to COVID-containment efforts with its experimental drug remdesivir, which goes by the brand name Veklury. The FDA authorized it for emergency use on May 1 to treat some of the sickest, hospitalized COVID-19 patients.
Trump received the drug, alongside several other experimental treatments, when he was hospitalized with COVID in early October.
Oct. 15, 2020
Airlines and the hospitality industry were absolutely decimated by the pandemic as travel plummeted and restrictions were put in place.
But companies eventually had to embrace the reality of the outbreak as it persisted well into the fall. In mid-October, United Airlines even started a contact tracing program at the San Francisco International Airport, a major travel hub, for those who travel to Hawaii.
It’s a voluntary effort that allows customers to bypass Hawaii’s strict requirements, such as a mandatory quarantine, with a rapid COVID test, which can be taken at the airport.
Oct. 22, 2020
The FDA granted full approval for Veklury to treat certain COVID patients, specifically, older children and adults who are hospitalized with COVID-19. It was the first-ever drug to receive an official approval to treat the disease, as the agency’s earlier emergency authorization has a lower regulatory threshold.
Nov. 8, 2020
The United States documented more than 10 million cases.
Dec. 11, 2020
Pfizer and German biotech partner BioNTech did what many thought impossible: They developed a COVID vaccine with extraordinary clinical trial results in less than one year.
The science behind this vaccine, as well as a similar one from biotech Moderna, is extraordinary. It harnesses messenger RNA (mRNA) to instruct your body’s cells to create the necessary biological blocks that produce an immune response. Basically, it instructs your internal components on how to react when the real coronavirus villain comes knocking at the door.
The FDA gave the Pfizer vaccine emergency authorization on Dec. 11, setting up a rollout program for high-priority groups within a week. On Dec. 23, the U.S. government reached a deal with Pfizer to procure an additional 100 million doses of its vaccine.
Dec. 13, 2020
Vaccines officially started going out to the high-risk groups identified by the CDC on Dec. 13, including health care workers and nursing home patients.
Doling out the doses presents its own logistical nightmares, however, including ones that states are dealing with to this day. Prioritization of states, medical facilities, and the staff within those facilities are complex decisions that require a thorough examination of personnel and what their duties entail.
It’s like checking off items on a to-do list, except that not everyone has the same conception of what needs to be done. The federal government is coordinating with logistics firms and vaccine manufacturers before shipping doses out to state governments.
Those state governments must then make individual decisions about how to disperse these doses, requiring leaders to figure out how to allocate them to people who need a COVID vaccine most. The federal government has not provided a clear-cut road map; it is a series of suggestions.
Dec. 18, 2020
The FDA authorizes Moderna’s mRNA-based COVID vaccine.
Dec. 21, 2020
President-elect Joe Biden, following other major political figures who have pledged to do the same such as former Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush, and Bill Clinton, receives a COVID vaccine on live television to build public trust.
Dec. 29, 2020
President-elect Joe Biden slammed the U.S. COVID vaccination effort at the end of the year.
Alongside Vice President–elect Kamala Harris, Biden criticized the merely 2.1 million doses that have been distributed to date—a far cry from the 20 million promised. He says that under his administration, 100 million doses should be distributed to Americans based on priority and in a speedier fashion, in his first 100 days.
Vaccines still aren’t expected to be available to the mass public until at least the late spring, and perhaps not even until the early fall of 2021, according to Vivek Murthy, Biden’s pick for surgeon general.
Dec. 30, 2020
As of Dec. 30, there were more than 19.5 million COVID cases in America and nearly 340,000 COVID-related deaths, according to Johns Hopkins.
Cases began surging again in the late fall in the midst of pandemic fatigue, the holiday season, and colder weather forcing people to be indoors, where the virus may spread more easily.


fortune--2020-12-30--California governor offers plans to reopen in-person schools

California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday encouraged schools to resume in-person education next year, starting with the youngest students, and promised $2 billion in state aid to promote coronavirus testing, increased ventilation of classrooms and personal protective equipment.
The recommendation was driven by increasing evidence that there are lower risks and increased benefits from in-person instruction particularly for the youngest students, he said. It comes amid increased pressure on schools to reopen campuses based on those rationales.
“As a father of four, I know firsthand what parents, educators and pediatricians continue to say: in-person is the best setting to meet not only the learning needs, but the mental health and social-emotional needs of our kids,” Newsom said in a statement.
The proposal comes as California remains consumed by a growing pandemic crisis, with hospitals, particularly in Southern California, increasingly stretched by soaring cases that are expected to grow in coming weeks. But hope is on the horizon as vaccines begin rolling out, with educators among those recommended for shots after the initial round goes to health care workers and those in congregate care facilities.
Newsom called for a phased approach focusing first on those in transitional kindergarten through second grade, as well as children with disabilities, those who have limited access to technology at home and those who he said “have struggled more than most with distance learning.”
Other grades would be phased in during the spring, but remote learning would continued to be allowed if parents and students wish, and for those who have health vulnerabilities that make it risky to return to the classroom.
Aside from the $2 billion in assistance that Newsom said he will include in his proposed budget next month, he said his administration will push for safety measures.
Those include frequent testing for all students and staff, up to weekly testing in areas with high rates of virus transmission. All students and staffs should have masks, there should be increased contact tracing for those who test positive for the virus, and he backed making school staff a priority for vaccinations.
Dr. Naomi Bardach, a University of California, San Francisco, pediatrician and expert on school safety, will lead what Newsom is calling a Safe Schools for All Team composed of state health, education and occupational safety representatives. He said the team will help schools with their safety plans and provide support materials for educators.
The state will also have a website where parents and students can see their school’s reopening status, state funding, and any school outbreaks. It will also have a way for educators and parents to report any problems or concerns, which he said will allow the state to impose what his office called “escalating levels of intervention beginning with technical assistance and ending with legal enforcement.”
California State PTA President Celia Jaffe, in a statement provided by Newsom’s office, said the plan “is rooted in science, health and safety — all key tenets to any conversation about returning to in-person instruction.”
His office also had other statements of support from state lawmakers, educators and health experts.
The move comes even as the state’s most densely populated area continues to set new death and hospitalization records and will remain under strict stay-home orders for the foreseeable future as another hospital-filling coronavirus surge looms in mere weeks.
California’s top health official, Dr. Mark Ghaly, announced Tuesday an extension of the Dec. 6 lockdown restrictions for LA County and 22 others in Southern California and the agricultural San Joaquin Valley. The regions have about 60% of the state’s population of 40 million and also have seen COVID-19 surges since the Thanksgiving holiday that have left hospitals struggling to find beds for emergency room and intensive care unit patients.
Some hospitals have set up tents to hold ER patients and one converted a disused cafeteria to handle patients.
State officials notified hospitals late Monday they should prepare for the possibility that they will have to resort to “crisis care” guidelines established earlier in the pandemic, which allow for rationing treatment when staff, medicine and supplies are running short.
Ghaly and other health officials have said people ignoring social distancing to gather with friends and relatives over Thanksgiving led to a “surge on top of a surge” that has resulted in the medical crisis.
The hospital rates appeared to be stabilizing in general statewide but they remained explosively high in the south, and Ghaly urged people to stay home on New Year’s to avoid an even worse surge in January and early February.


fortune--2020-12-30--Now is not the time to repeal Section 230, but it should be soon

President Trump, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and other GOP leaders have suddenly flipped positions on stimulus payments. Now they’re insisting that the (unrelated) repeal of obsolete protections for social media companies is a sudden condition for voting to boost assistance to Americans in distress over the coronavirus pandemic.
This is, of course, a canard tossed in the last week of the year, with the House now out of session. It’s a clever PR maneuver to influence the upcoming Georgia Senate runoff elections. Trump had created daylight between himself—with a demand for $2,000 payments to Americans—and fellow GOP leaders who have been largely frozen on $600 payments. This was a way to attempt to close that gap and maneuver around a Democratic push to vote with Trump on the stimulus check increase.
Democrats should call the GOP’s bluff.
At the same time, more closely regulating social media companies is a good idea. But now—while Americans are desperately waiting for relief—is not the right time to haphazardly push through such changes.
The regulation of technology is considered by many on the left and on the right to be a taboo, a bureaucratic assault on entrepreneurship, and a neo-Luddite undermining of U.S. competitiveness. However, screening of Internet communications is common around the world. It is completely possible to require private accountability for hate speech and inciting violence without curtailing the First Amendment. No constitutional rights are limitless—and the repeal of Section 230 has nothing to do with freedom of speech.
Early U.S. Internet legislation became law as part of the Communications Decency Act (CDA) of 1996, or more officially, Title V of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, formally codified as Section 230 of the Communications Act of 1934. Section 230 generally provides immunity for website publishers from what’s contained in third-party content. Section 230 is an anachronism intended to protect Internet service providers (ISPs), not social media companies. Few could have foreseen the rise and eventual dominance of these companies back in 1996.
Unlike the ISPs of the 1990s, the social media platforms of the last 20 years are primarily electronic publishers—perfectly parallel to print publishers and broadcasters. There is no reason that these platforms should not be held to the same libel standards as print publishers, broadcasters, or cable channels.
Why should Facebook, Google, Apple, Snap, Twitter, and others evade the same accountability of traditional print publishers now online, such as the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, Fortune, and Bloomberg?
The Section 230 exemption needlessly protects social media publishers with the phrasing, “No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.”
In fact, social media platforms often host content that is far more pernicious than that of their fellow, unprotected electronic publishers. A trucking company that carries a load of cocaine on interstate highways is liable for drug trafficking, as would be a drug company whose products caused opiate overdoses. Why shouldn’t it be the same for social media platforms?
Since the landmark Supreme Court case New York Times v. Sullivan, the lines have been clearly drawn for when the public, even public officials, can sue for defamation. Specifically, it held that if a plaintiff in a defamation lawsuit is a public official or person running for public office, not only must they prove the normal elements of defamation—publication of a false defamatory statement by a third party—they must also prove that the statement was made with “actual malice,” meaning that the defendant either knew the statement was false or acted with reckless disregard for the truth.
Like any private publisher, social media companies are entitled to edit, censor, or block content at will—whether it be around legality, truth, political ideology, or taste. They have control over what goes on their platforms, and if they exercise that control responsibly, they should have little to fear from defamation lawsuits.
Repealing Section 230 is not a threat to the First Amendment. As long as anyone is free to launch their own platform, they must also shoulder the obligation to keep it safe and respectful.
Instead, these platforms have largely eschewed their editorial duties, promoting outrage to boost engagement and ad revenues. In the process they have fueled hate speech and division in the fever swamps of the extreme right and left, aided at times by Russian, Iranian, and North Korean disrupters. This is why civil rights groups such as the Anti-Defamation League, NAACP, and Color of Change support major reform of Section 230.
It’s time to equalize the ground rules for print journalists, electronic journalists, and social media posters.
Jeff Bewkes is the former chairman and CEO of Time Warner.
Jeffrey Sonnenfeld is a senior associate dean and professor of management practice at the Yale School of Management, where he is president of the Chief Executive Leadership Institute. Follow him on Twitter.


fortune--2020-12-30--The fight for a $2,000 stimulus check could cost Republicans the Senate

It’s all hands on deck in Georgia with just one week until two runoff elections that will determine the fate of the Senate and President-elect Joe Biden’s first two years in office.
Politicians and political strategists, meanwhile, worry that an ongoing debate over stimulus checks will be a determining factor in the two races between incumbent GOP senators Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue and their Democratic opponents, Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock. Republicans agreed to individual stimulus checks up to $600 for all qualifying Americans until President Trump intervened last week and said he would veto any bill that didn’t provide $2,000.
By asking for the extra money, which Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will block in the Senate and which mainstream Republicans oppose, the President is setting expectations too high and making Republicans look bad ahead of the Georgia election next Tuesday, GOP legislators say.
Republican Sen. John Cornyn told reporters this week that by focusing on extra stimulus money, Trump was distracting voters from celebrating Republican achievements. “I think focusing on the $900 billion that we’ve already approved, and that [Treasury] Secretary Mnuchin helped us negotiate, which now he has now signed, instead of taking appropriate credit for those good things, focusing on this I think undermines…the very positive impact that we’ve already done,” he said.
To add to the troubles, new numbers out of Georgia show a record-breaking surge in early voting, which tends to bode well for Democrats, as Republicans are more likely to vote day-of. Over 2.3 million people had voted by Tuesday morning through mail-in ballots or in-person early voting, more than any other runoff election in the state’s history. Black voter turnout made up a higher percentage of the electorate than it did in November’s general election, and turnout in Democratic congressional districts was also higher.
That means that in order to win, Republicans need to drive turnout and focus on Election Day. It also means any ongoing struggles between Trump and McConnell over the $2,000 stimulus check will impact Republican voters more than Democratic voters.
The outcome of the Georgia races will determine the majority party in the Senate and could make huge differences in future COVID relief plans, health care bills, and student debt forgiveness.
Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will campaign in the Peach State this week, and former President Barack Obama and musician John Legend released a new campaign ad for Ossoff.
Both Loeffler and Perdue have said they support the $2,000 stimulus check proposal. Meanwhile, the Treasury issued a statement on Tuesday saying that physical checks for the already approved $600 stimulus would be mailed starting Wednesday.


fortune--2020-12-30--NFL player ‘paid in Bitcoin’ as price nears $30,000

Carolina Panthers offensive tackle Russell Okung boasted on Tuesday that he is now receiving half of his $13 million NFL salary in Bitcoin. The arrangement involves Okung using a startup that converts payroll direct deposits into cryptocurrency and comes as Bitcoin shatters new price records.
Okung used Twitter to declare he was being “paid in Bitcoin,” framing the development as a fulfillment of a 2019 wish.
The price of Bitcoin currently floats around $28,000—a once unthinkable mark for the digital currency, which surpassed the $20,000 milestone for the first time only two weeks ago. Bitcoin is famously volatile and has experienced numerous dramatic crashes, including in 2018 when it dropped to around $3,000 after hitting $19,000 months before.
But Okung is hardly the first professional athlete to embrace digital currency. During the 2017 bull run, for instance, boxer Floyd Mayweather suggested he would change his nickname from “money” to “crypto.” Meanwhile, the CEO of Zap—the startup that arranged Okung’s Bitcoin deposits—told the trade publication CoinDesk that members of the New York Yankees and Brooklyn Nets have asked him about being paid in Bitcoin too.
Like many other Bitcoin boosters, Okung has claimed the cryptocurrency is superior to traditional currencies because governments can’t deflate its value.
You can make “x” a year and watch it slowly erode with inflation or you can protect your hard earned money with #bitcoin — russ (@RussellOkung) December 30, 2020
I’m freeing myself from fiat.
You can too. — russ (@RussellOkung) December 29, 2020
Athletes are not the only converts to Bitcoin who have helped to define the current rally. In the last year, major companies like PayPal and Square have embraced the currency, as have billionaire investors like Ray Dalio and Paul Tudor Jones. This marks a change from 2017, when the traditional corporate and financial world largely shunned cryptocurrency.
For Okung, the personal triumph of being “paid in Bitcoin” may offset a professional disappointment: His Carolina Panthers are 5-10 and officially eliminated from the upcoming NFL playoffs.


fortune--2020-12-31--What we are looking forward to in 2021

What we are looking forward to in 2021

Normally at this time of year, most of us are concerned with figuring out our New Year’s resolutions (that we probably won’t keep beyond the first week of January). But as every single person knows, 2020 was not a normal year, and this is not a normal New Year’s Eve.
Instead of resolutions, this might be a time to think about what we can look forward to in 2021. Some of these ideas might be more wishful thinking than others. (It truly remains to be seen if concert halls and Broadway theaters can reopen in the next 12 months.) But with several vaccines already in production for mass distribution and out the door, 2021 is full of far more possibility than the preceding year.
Here’s a list of submissions from Fortune’s editorial staff about what we are looking forward to (or hoping for) most in 2021.
Goodbye, 2020. Hello, 2021. Getty Images
I sit here every day hoping and wishing for my return to the Amalfi Coast. I know it is simple, but miss it so much. —Scott DeCarlo, list editor
There’s a concept in childbirth called “kangaroo care,” which reduces infant mortality and strengthens the bond between mother and child. The key is skin-to-skin contact. I think adults need kangaroo care too, and I’m sincerely looking forward to hugs and handshakes again. —Robert Hackett, senior writer
I am really looking forward to the return of spontaneity. During the pandemic, everything takes so much planning. I can’t wait to run out my front door without a mask to meet a friend last-minute again. That’s what I really miss. —McKenna Moore, assistant audience engagement editor
I really miss random work events and wacky press parties and the resulting conversations with strangers I would otherwise never interact with. (Somehow Zoombombing isn’t quite the same.) Some other ones from my wish list: getting on a plane and going somewhere, anywhere new; shopping for new, non-athleisure clothes; and staying home with a good book or to watch Netflix because it’s a choice, and not the only safe option. —Maria Aspan, senior writer
I can’t wait to see live music again. It’s magic when musicians come together in a space to perform in front of other people. The world is worse without it. —Andrew Nusca, digital editor
In 2021, I will never, ever, EVER pass up an opportunity to watch live music in a crowd of other people who also love it. —Matthew Heimer, senior features editor
I am desperately looking forward to the return of massive outdoor shows like the Def Leppard/Mötley Crüe tour. I am looking forward to the return of large in-person marathons, like Boston and New York. I am desperately looking forward to being able to visit Canada without having to quarantine at some motel near the border. —Phil Wahba, senior writer
Sports! Can’t wait to have a hot dog and a beer at a ballgame. —Rey Mashayekhi, reporter
Sure, not being able to safely go to the gym is a bummer, but group yoga—particularly the hot, indoor kind—has been for some of us an even more profound loss. My first stop after COVID is under control will be a small, tightly sealed room where I and 20 strangers will do glorified push-ups while bathing in delirium-inducing heat, pseudospiritual blather, and each other’s sweat. It will be glorious. —David Z. Morris, tech writer
Enough rain and snow to keep California from burning yet again. That city streets closed to cars during the pandemic to create more open space are kept closed permanently. Not talking about COVID. —Verne Kopytoff, senior editor
In Rome, a flat with a terrazzo (terrace) is key. I’ve squeezed onto many a narrow Roman balcony to dine with friends, clinking wineglasses as the sun sets on another scorcher of a day. The setting can turn even the humblest home-cooked meal into a decadent Italian affair. I long for the return of Roman dinner parties. It’s where I get my best story ideas—some even publishable.
And this is a long shot, but perhaps the ski gods will hear my plea. For years, I’ve been planning to ski with my daughters the famed Sellaronda, a 40-kilometer route that circumnavigates the breathtaking Sella massif in the Italian Alps. The village-to-village tour takes the entire day. At the midway point is the stunning little gem of Arabba, where you can find a little refuge that serves a mean bombardino and thick hot chocolates. 2021 is supposed to be our first time skiing it together. —Bernhard Warner, senior editor
I’m looking forward to (hopefully!) spending less time hashing out logistical challenges and nuances and fallacies [in regard to] COVID, but I’m optimistic that the crash course society took in the complex implications of this unforeseen virus will translate into people being better communicators about future problems that affect us collectively.
I’m also looking forward to feeling relieved of a vague sense of dread. While there are plenty of problems in the world to worry about and address outside of (or now exacerbated by) COVID, pre-March I never could shake the idea that we, as a society, were hurtling toward some sort of breaking point [or] come-to-Jesus moment that would force us to reflect on our priorities and trajectories. It will be a relief to be on the other side of a moment like this, but until then, I really can’t predict which aspects of my former lifestyle I’ll resume and which I’ll drop. —Lydia Belanger, production editor


fortune--2020-12-31--The biggest conspiracy theories of 2020 (and why they won’t die)

Between the prolonged coronavirus pandemic and an unusually intense U.S. presidential election, 2020 conspiracy theorists had plenty of fuel to burn.
It will hardly end in 2021, according to those who study misinformation. Experts predict that several of these theories will enjoy unusually long lifespans into the new year. They also believe that growing amplification of conspiracy theories by partisan media outlets, social media algorithms, and politicians will continue.
“We’re moving to a new era of alternative facts,” said Yotam Ophir, assistant professor at the University of Buffalo who studies misinformation. “There is a sense that we can’t trust anyone anymore and that any argument is as good as the next.”
2020 was a milestone year for conspiracy theories for three reasons, according to experts. Extreme partisanship in the U.S. turned several nonpolitical events into political flashpoints. Partisan news sources and politicians as senior as President Trump became more willing to amplify misinformation as long as it aligns with their politics. And algorithm-driven social media destinations deepened their penchant to become echo chambers for like-minded people to confirm their biases, evolving into strategic tools for politicians and conspiracy theorists to rapidly spread misinformation and influence the populace.
All of these elements came together during a year burdened by global uncertainty and social anxiety—environments in which conspiracies thrive, Ophir said. What’s more, the real-world harm that could result from conspiracy theories tends to hit underrepresented communities harder, said Nicol Turner-Lee, the director of the Center for Technology Innovation at the Brookings Institution.
“They suppress some voices in communities where [the consequences] really matter,” she said. “Some of the things that were put out were emboldened by our political climate and racial division.”
Experts say several changes must be made to combat the rapid rise of conspiracy theories. There needs to be a public educational effort to help people discern real news from fake news. Social media companies have to do a better job at fighting misinformation and conspiracy theories. And the general public must genuinely question what they see and read, rather than merely seek to confirm what they hope is true. Until that happens, conspiracy theories will proliferate unabated.
Without further ado, here are three of 2020’s biggest conspiracy theories:
1. Coronavirus Everything
After a new strand of COVID led to a pandemic in 2020, conspiracy theories emerged about everything from the virus’ origin to the latest vaccines and treatments.
Conspiracy theorists suggested that the new 5G wireless broadband standard may have caused or spread the coronavirus, leading arsonists in the U.K. to set 5G towers on fire. Some conspiracists suggested the coronavirus was created in Chinese lab as an attempt to create a bioweapon against enemies. Another conspiracy promulgated in China suggested that U.S. military members visiting Wuhan brought the virus to China. Even Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates couldn’t escape conspiracist scrutiny: one theory suggested the billionaire, who has spent much of his post-Microsoft life investing in health initiatives in underserved areas of the globe, was responsible for creating the virus in order to profit off a vaccine.
For a while, many Americans bought into the mistaken idea that the coronavirus was a politically motivated hoax meant to take down President Trump—or that it was a virus akin to influenza and therefore not a big deal (even though “big deal” is relative—the flu kills anywhere from 10,000 to 60,000 people each year). Both of these suggestions were amplified by conservative politicians, including President Trump.
As for treatment and prevention, conspiracy theorists suggested that masks would somehow awaken a dormant coronavirus living inside people’s bodies. (Uh, no.) Others suggested that drinking or injecting bleach would cure the disease. (An extremely dangerous proposition, according to every poison control center in the nation.) The most recent theories argue that the vaccine (which measures about 125 nanometers) contains a microchip to allow the government to monitor Americans, that the drug (which uses mRNA to provoke an immune response) will alter people’s DNA, or that people’s immune systems are far better than any vaccine.
Almost 2 million people worldwide have died from COVID-19 to date.
Over time, experts predict many of theories will slowly fade, but some fear that the latest conspiracy theories about the coronavirus vaccine will lead to strengthening the antivaxxer movement.
“COVID will come and go,” Ophir said. “But what about all the other vaccines? Will there be a spillage to the HPV vaccine? To the flu vaccine?”
2. QAnon Goes Mainstream
QAnon, a disproven conspiracy theory involving an alleged global child sex-trafficking ring, used to be associated with the far-fringy right. In 2020, though, it gained new life—as well as two mouthpieces in a newly elected U.S. Congress who could amplify the message further.
Some QAnon theories describe President Trump as a savior figure elected to end these nefarious activities—all of which have been perpetrated by the left, naturally—and bring alleged members to justice. (Who, might you ask? Oprah Winfrey, Tom Hanks, Hillary and Bill Clinton, and a raft of other high-profile, big-ticket Democratic donors.)
The conspiracy theory should have died when it first emerged in 2016—naturally, the year Trump was elected U.S. president—but 2020 saw politicians and churchgoers alike revive parts of it. Kelly MacFarland, director of programs and research at Georgetown University’s Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, says he expects QAnon to be the most long-lasting and dangerous conspiracy theory, citing a conspiracy theorist who shot at a Washington, D.C., pizzeria in 2016 believing it was tied to the child trafficking sex ring.
“It’s the most dangerous because of its following and reach, its complete disassociation from truth and reality, and we have an actual real-life example [of violence],” MacFarland said.
3. A Rigged Presidential Election
Though 2020 set a new bar for claims that the U.S. presidential election was rigged, President Trump helped originate the idea before he entered the White House in 2016.
After several polls inaccurately predicted that Hilary Clinton would win the 2016 presidential election, Trump suggested that the election was rigged, tweeting that there was “large scale voter fraud” occurring in battleground states. Trump went on to win the election, of course—though not the popular vote—and such claims went quiet.
But with Trump facing reelection, the theory took on new fervor in 2020. The president began building momentum early, suggesting that mail-in voting would lead to widespread fraud. Conservative commentators quickly echoed his remarks. The effort carried all the way through to Election Day, when armed Trump supporters showed up at some polling locations urging that election officials stop counting ballots. After several court cases and recounts, the theory was dismissed—but that hasn’t stopped conspirators from alleging faulty counting machines and deliberate manual miscounts.
In the wake of Trump losing the election to Democratic challenger Joe Biden, Trump and his allies have lost nearly 60 legal battles pertaining to election integrity. Still, Trump has not backed down from his stance that the election was a fraud and stolen from him.
“Because it has gotten so much attention from the highest level of the U.S. government, this is going to emerge as part of the pantheon of conspiracy theories,” said Joshua Tucker, co-director of New York University’s Social Media and Political Participation lab. “Whether Biden actually won the election will [be grouped] with the JFK shooting and whether we landed on the moon … which is crazy.”


fortune--2020-12-31--S&P 500 rallies to close the year at a record high

U.S. stocks climbed to a record high on the year’s final trading day amid thin trading. The dollar eked out an advance.
The S&P 500 Index and Dow Jones Industrial Average turned positive in the afternoon and ended at all-time highs. Volume was about 15% below average on the S&P. Financial companies were among the best performers, while energy producers slumped. European stocks dipped. Markets in Japan, Germany and South Korea were shut for New Year’s Eve.
In Asia, China’s benchmark CSI 300 Index closed at a five-year high as officials gave the green light to its first coronavirus vaccine for general public use and data showed a steady economic recovery. The offshore yuan strengthened to the highest since June 2018.
The S&P 500 ended the year up more than 16%, leaving equities at rich valuations amid expectations that widespread vaccine distribution in 2021, central bank support and government aid will reignite economic growth and boost corporate profits. The gains were global, with the MSCI World Index of stocks at a record high after having risen 14% in 2020.
“Investors are breathing a sigh of relief that some stimulus is getting out there,” said Chris Gaffney, president of world markets at TIAA Bank. This “has been an unprecedented year, and I think that some of the risks that we entered into 2020 with, we’re leaving without those risks.”
While volume on the S&P 500 was subdued Thursday relative to the norm for this year, it would’ve looked like an active day in 2019. Last year, an average 7 billion shares changed hands a day across U.S. exchanges. This year, a typical day has seen 10.8 billion shares trade.
Against a subdued backdrop in stocks this week, the frenzy in cryptocurrencies shows no signs of slowing down. Bitcoin vaulted above $29,000 on Thursday before pulling back. The digital asset has advanced about 50% in December for the biggest monthly jump since May 2019.
On the coronavirus front, global deaths from Covid-19 passed 1.8 million. New York state and Florida both shattered their previous daily records for cases. California became the third state to pass 25,000 fatalities, after New York and Texas. Governments across the globe urged people to celebrate the New Year at home.
“You’ve seen kind of a few blissfully un-volatile days after what I think we can all agree was quite a year,” said Giorgio Caputo, senior fund manager at J O Hambro Capital Management. “It’s given market participants a holiday gift.”
These are the main moves in markets:
Stocks
The S&P 500 Index rose 0.6% as of 4 p.m. in New York.
The Stoxx Europe 600 Index fell 0.3%.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index was little changed.
The MSCI Emerging Market Index rose 0.1%.
Currencies
The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.1%.
The euro decreased 0.7% to $1.2213.
The British pound rose 0.3% to $1.3663.
The Japanese yen fell 0.1% to 103.27 per dollar.
Bonds
The yield on 10-year Treasuries fell one basis point to 0.91%.
Germany’s 10-year yield was little changed at -0.575%.
Britain’s 10-year yield decreased two basis points to 0.19%.
Commodities
West Texas Intermediate crude was little changed at $48.42 a barrel.
Gold rose 0.2% to $1,898.50 an ounce.
— With assistance by Andreea Papuc, Anchalee Worrachate, and Claire Ballentine


fortune--2020-12-31--20 Things That Went Strangely, Wonderfully Right in 2020

So long, annus horribilis. Farewell, O rotten plague year. Dominus vobiscum. But as we utter our long-practiced goodbyes to 2020, let us pause for a moment to reflect upon the glad tidings that lay hidden in its miasmic haze. Yes, surprising as it may seem, there were some things that turned out darn well in 2020—and a few that even reaffirmed that the arc of history is bending the right way. Here’s a not-so-short list.
20. Dolly Parton helped fund a coronavirus vaccine. With 10 Grammy wins, a half-century-long parade of country music accolades, and more lifetime achievement awards than any mere mortal could achieve in a lifetime, Parton may not have much room on her mantle for another statuette. But surely she deserves two more—one for generosity, the other for prescience. In April, the grandest of Ole Opry singer-songwriters gave $1 million to Vanderbilt University Medical Center to support research into treatments for COVID-19. Some of that money, as it happens, went to fund early investigations for a revolutionary coronavirus vaccine that biotech company Moderna would ultimately produce by year’s end. And Parton’s gift came at a critical moment. As one Vanderbilt researcher told the New York Times: “Her money helped us develop the test that we used to first show that the Moderna vaccine was giving people a good immune response that might protect them.”
19. Murder hornets were not as murderous as feared. When news broke in May that a species of serial-killer wasps had descended in North America, it felt very much on brand for 2020 and its seeming calendar of calamity. But so far, these bee-colony marauders haven’t been the disaster many feared. (Not yet anyway.) In October, entomologists in Washington state and at the USDA cleverly tracked down and eradicated one nest of the hornets, offering hope for a viable containment plan. And, well, others suggested that maybe the threat wasn’t so dire in the first place.
18. Chess became cool. A Netflix limited series did what generations of grade-school grand masters could never do: make chess binge-worthy. “The Queen’s Gambit,” Netflix’s record-breaking show based on the 1983 novel by Walter Tevis, has reportedly led to a boom in sales of chess sets and visitors to sites like Chess.com. The secret sauce for the game of kings, it turns out, is a queen.
17. Women physicists got a spotlight. Physicists have long debated the matter of glass’s form of matter. Is it a liquid? A solid? An amorphous in-between, as some have defined it? Whatever the case may be, it’s clear that in science—as in many other professions—glass can form a pretty durable ceiling. 2020 didn’t exactly undo that, but it did offer some opportunity for giving credit where credit is due. In January, the American Physical Society presented its highest award, the Medal for Exceptional Achievement in Research, to Myriam P. Sarachik (now 87), who is only the fifth recipient of the prize. (The award was announced the previous August.) Sarachik, who shares some of her cinematic life story here, did pivotal experiments at Bell Labs in the 1960s demonstrating why certain metallic substances resist the conductivity of electric current and helped solve a number of other physical mysteries in her long career. (The Times’ Kenneth Chang has a nice write-up here.) At the other end of the age spectrum, two MIT physicists, Tracy Slatyer and Netta Engelhardt, received major prizes—the first for her seminal work on dark matter (the stuff that makes up more than 80% of the universe); the second for helping to “calculate the quantum information content of a black hole.”
16. Someone learned how to make vodka from air.
15. We welcomed colleagues into our living rooms, kitchens, and basements. The WFH evolution has brought with it an epidemic of Zoom fatigue and a blurred line between “work” and everything else. But at the same time, it has also erased the hierarchies of office culture and brought a new familiarity among coworkers as colleagues have become regular house guests too. In the backgrounds of our videoconference lairs, we spot the signals of once-hidden selves, of unknown habitats and hobbies, of unseen family and friends—and we are comforted to know that there’s life in the work-life mélange after all.
14. The Moon, Mars, and stars got a little closer. Even as our personal space may have shrunk in the pandemic age, the edge of outer space seemed nearer than ever. In May, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft, carrying astronauts Douglas Hurley and Robert Behnken, docked with the International Space Station, marking the first time that NASA astronauts had made such a journey—blasting off from American soil in a craft built and operated by a private U.S. company (one founded, of course, by Fortune’s 2020 Businessperson of the Year, Elon Musk). The flight, part of NASA’s public-private “Commercial Crew Program”—which has partnered the government space agency with SpaceX and Boeing—puts America one step closer to the moon (again), and ultimately to Mars.
13. It happened: the octogenarian sex symbol. In the plague year, there seemed to be nothing that slowed Dr. Anthony Fauci down—not the pressure of being the public face in the war on COVID-19, not being caught in the political crossfire, and apparently not turning 80, which the good doctor did on Christmas Eve. A September poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 68% of Americans have “a great deal” or “a fair amount” of faith in Dr. Fauci to provide reliable information about the coronavirus—making him a rare entity in the pandemic era: somebody trusted by the vast majority of the country. But it was “Saturday Night Live” that captured the fullness of Fauciphilia in its Dec. 12 “cold open.” As the Kate McKinnon-played physician tried to deliver news about the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine, enraptured women threw their bras at him. Said the faux Fauci: “Any other year, I’m a two. This year, I’m a 10.”
12. Americans voted in record numbers. More than 158 million Americans—or 66.3% of those eligible to vote—cast a ballot in the 2020 presidential election, the highest turnout in over a century. The share this year was more than six percentage points higher than it was in 2016 and included record-breaking turnout in 42 states and the District of Columbia, according to the Washington Post. Whomever you voted for, it’s an unalloyed good thing that so many Americans put their faith in masks and mailboxes and exercised their sacred right to vote.
11. Courts upheld the rule of law. As impressive as voter participation was in the November election, efforts to discredit it in the weeks since then have been equally dispiriting—that is, except for one thing: U.S. courts have consistently and overwhelmingly quashed this prolonged assault on voter rights. In the 60 state and federal court cases that have been decided so far, judges in 59 of them—many of them appointed by Republicans, and some by President Trump himself—have rejected an unending chain of spurious claims of election fraud. In late November, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit unanimously dismissed one such case challenging Pennsylvania’s election results with a scathing rebuke: “Free, fair elections are the lifeblood of our democracy,” wrote Circuit Judge Stephanos Bibas, whom Trump appointed to the court in 2017. “Charges of unfairness are serious. But calling an election unfair does not make it so. Charges require specific allegations and then proof. We have neither here.”
10. From monolith to Gingerlith, mystery-makers reigned. It started in late November, with the discovery of a nearly 10-foot metal pillar in Utah’s Red Rock country. A crew of state public safety and wildlife workers found the slim, sun-glazed tower while doing an aerial tally of bighorn sheep in a craggy and remote section of southeastern Utah. Then, just a few days later, it was gone. The global fascination was such that the “Utah monolith,” as it became known, earned its own Wikipedia page. Soon, other monoliths began popping up (and disappearing) across the world, from a flower bed in Fayetteville, North Carolina, to a hill in northeastern Romania. But the pièce de resistance of this performance art was the 7-foot iced gingerbread tower, dubbed the “Gingerlith,” that appeared in San Francisco’s Corona Heights Park on Christmas Day. Phil Ginsburg, general manager of the city’s recreation and parks department, said for his part, he would “leave it up until the cookie crumbles.” And that it did the very next day.
9. We learned about the odd things we missed. In April, as the harsh reality of social distancing was becoming clear to millions, actor Seth Rogen tweeted out a sentiment that elegantly captured what was being lost: “Really looking forward to being bad at making eye contact again.” Over the past several months, social media has offered a collective confessional of the unexpected things we find ourselves longing for—from the rituals of daily commutes to a litany of once-familiar, but now-faded smells. With that has come a recognition, for many, of how extraordinary everyday life actually was—and that itself is a worthy thing to emerge from 2020’s lonely caverns.
8. A Nobel Prize went to CRISPR’s true discoverers. On Oct. 7, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna for discovering a “tool for rewriting the code of life,” the committee said. That tool, a genetic scissors known as CRISPR/Cas9, is already being used to develop pinpoint cancer treatments, fix inherited genetic disorders, and create superfast diagnostic tests for COVID-19. The awesome lifesaving potential of CRISPR, a molecular technique borrowed from the ancient arsenal of bacteria, has been celebrated for years—since Doudna and Charpentier published their landmark 2012 paper in the journal Science. But until the Nobel committee’s October announcement, there had been swirling questions about who would receive the ultimate peer acknowledgment for the discovery, given the competing claims from rival scientists at MIT, Harvard, and elsewhere. (You can read about the often-bitter battle over CRISPR-related patents here and here.) The awarding of the Nobel Prize to Charpentier and Doudna is a bang of history’s gavel, however. It may not end the legal wrangling, but it is a clear verdict from the community of science.
7. The Mandalorian, Season 2. Enough said.
6. A.I. solved the protein-folding problem. Sure, the victories against Go masters a few years back were impressive. But in what may be the clearest example yet of what artificial intelligence can achieve, a team at Alphabet’s DeepMind A.I. unit solved an enigma that scientists have been struggling to decode for half a century—predicting precisely how a protein will bend and coil and twist upon itself based on its building blocks of amino acids. The unique and often wildly intricate shape of a protein is critical to its function. Misfolded proteins (if they aren’t fixed or destroyed by the body) can cause a host of human diseases. And so understanding what can go wrong (or even how to construct a viable protein from scratch) is an important goal with a multitude of scientific and medical implications. Given the task of predicting the structure of more than 100 proteins, DeepMind’s A.I. software, as Fortune’s Jeremy Kahn reported in November, identified the conformation in some two-thirds of cases “to within about an atom’s width of accuracy,” and was highly accurate predicting most of the rest.
5. Science prevailed. On Jan. 12, the genetic sequence of the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, was published. On Dec. 11, the FDA approved the first vaccine, one developed by Pfizer and the German firm BioNTech, for emergency use. A week later, the FDA gave the go-ahead to a second vaccine, this one from Moderna. (A third vaccine, by AstraZeneca in collaboration with Oxford University, was approved by UK regulators on Dec. 30.) The speed of this progress—trouncing every land-speed record for vaccine development in history—has been nothing short of mind-blowing. Consider, for context, that the infectious agent that causes malaria has been known for 140 years and there still, as yet, is no approved vaccine to prevent the disease. Same goes for tuberculosis, and for more newly discovered scourges such as AIDS. Making a truly effective and safe vaccine can be an arduous and vexing process, as Fortune’s Erika Fry chronicles in her jaw-dropping feature on Sanofi’s efforts to develop a vaccine against dengue fever. So the success in developing several different versions against COVID-19 is all the more remarkable. At the same time, 2020 saw research scientists and a host of others across industry, government, academia, and philanthropy race to produce antiviral medicines, monoclonal antibodies, and other therapies to treat COVID-19, rapid tests to diagnose it, and medical strategies to heal those who have gotten sickest from it. All of that has helped bring case fatality rates down sharply since April. As terrible as the pandemic has been, the call to arms against it has been a thing to celebrate.
4. Collaboration proved its worth. As brilliant and unyielding as medical science has been in its war against COVID-19, it has had an assist from a, perhaps, unlikely source: a collaborative spirit among companies, academic institutions, and governments. Corporate rivals have come together. New partnerships have formed on the fly around the world. And in the case of the vaccine race, the sudden embrace of cooperation in the pharma industry has been particularly noteworthy. “I have never seen the level of collaboration that’s going on today,” Bristol Myers Squibb CEO Giovanni Caforio told the gathering at Fortune’s Brainstorm Health event this summer. “So,” he went on to ask, “how do we take what we’ve learned in the last six months and apply it to cancer?” That’s the question for 2021.
3. Air pollution levels dropped. In November, researchers at NASA revealed that computer models had shown a sharp drop in nitrogen dioxide levels in the Earth’s atmosphere, echoing other research findings. While it makes sense that, during a period of lockdowns around the globe, there would be a decrease in the chemical (which is produced by the combustion of fossil fuels), the amount of the drop surprised the NASA team. Various analyses in the spring showed little decline in air pollution, despite the steep decrease in traffic and economic activity—and some areas, like Southern California, remain as smoggy as ever. But by year’s end, it seems, at least a sliver of blue sky emerged on the climate front. In a report published on Dec. 11, the Global Carbon Project estimated that the world will have thrust some 37 million metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere in 2020. As frightening as that figure sounds, it’s actually 7% less than was produced the year before. Indeed, this year’s drop in emissions may be the biggest ever. (Unfortunately, when economic activity and travel resume full bore, CO2 will spew anew, the researchers say.)
2. Nonviolent protest worked. Eight minutes and 46 seconds. That was how long it was initially thought that a white Minneapolis police officer kept his knee pinned on George Floyd’s neck. A later analysis of eyewitness videos by the New York Times put the time at eight minutes and 15 seconds. But whatever the precise duration of this deadly assault was, it was enough to kill Floyd and trigger something else in cities and towns across the world. The slow-motion suffocation of Floyd—following the police killings of Breonna Taylor, Freddie Gray, Michael Brown, Walter Scott, Philando Castille, Eric Garner, and so many others—brought widespread outrage over something that had long been known: that our system of policing is plagued by a deep-seated and enduring racial bias. Black men are anywhere from 2.5 times to 3.2 times more likely to die at the hands of police than white men, according to various studies. In the wake of Floyd’s killing, though, the cries turned into crowds. Between May 26, the day after Floyd’s death, and Aug. 22, there were “over 7,750 demonstrations linked to the Black Live Matters movement across more than 2,440 locations in all 50 states and Washington, DC,” according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project. Roughly 93% were absent of any violence, according to ACLED. There will be those who will say these peaceful rallies and marches did nothing to alter the landscape of racism in this country. But history is replete with examples of the power of such nonviolent protest. If 2020 marks the beginning of change, it will be something to say thanks for.
1. The world didn’t end. Happy New Year, everyone.


fortune--2020-12-31--$2000 checks are ‘socialism for rich people’ says McConnell, killing hope of extra stimulus

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Thursday snuffed any hope that the current Congress will deliver extra stimulus money. In a speech on the Senate floor, McConnell repeatedly decried proposals to provide $2,000 to millions of Americans as “socialism for rich people.”
Despite claims by President Trump and members of Congress that many Americans need the extra money to stay afloat in the coming months, McConnell denounced the calls for $2,000 as profligate and unnecessary.
“Borrowing from our grandkids to do socialism for rich people is a terrible way to get help to families who actually need it,” said McConnell on the Senate floor, according to Politico.
The speech came after McConnell repeatedly blocked efforts by Democrats to arrange a stand-alone vote on the proposal to increase forthcoming relief from $600 to $2,000—one that has already passed the House of Representatives. Instead, the Majority Leader has proposed tying the measure to suggested legislation on social media rules and investigations into election fraud for which there is no evidence.
Political observers have described the social media and election proposals as poison bills that would doom the extra stimulus measure. The upshot is that McConnell appears to have decided to run out the clock on stimulus discussions, since the current session of Congress ends on January 3, and there is effectively no time to pass complicated legislation before then.
McConnell’s remarks about “socialism for rich people” drew a sharp retort from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Va). According to the Politico report, Sanders accused McConnell of hypocrisy, remarking, “The majority leader helped lead this body to pass Trump’s tax bill. You want to talk about socialism for the rich, Mr. Majority Leader?”
Sanders’ comment came after the Democratic Senator blasted McConnell on Wednesday for suggesting that changes to the social media law—known as Section 230—are as urgent or important to Americans as the stimulus measures.
Sen. Bernie Sanders: "Do you think that all over America people are saying, 'My God, we have to repeal Section 230 of the 1996 Telecommunications Act, my God, that is a major national priority'
Nobody even knows what that is." pic.twitter.com/pW3zUI4aIe — The Hill (@thehill) December 30, 2020
McConnell’s decision to bar a stand-alone vote on the $2,000 measure came after a handful of Republican Senators had said they would support the extra stimulus, which meant that bill might have achieved the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster. By refusing to allow a vote at all, McConnell chose to side with deficit hawks in his party who claimed the measure would be too expensive.
For now, this means that single Americans who make under $75,000 will only receive the initial $600 disbursement. Those who make slightly more will receive a reduced amount, and those who make $87,000 or more will receive nothing. The cutoffs are higher for those with children.
The incoming Congress, which will be the first under President-elect Joe Biden, could renew efforts to increase the stimulus amount, but that would likely succeed only if Democrats take power in the Senate by winning both special elections that are taking place in Georgia on January 5.


fortune--2020-12-31--New Year’s Eve will be a dud for restaurants

In a fitting end to what has been a nightmare 2020 for the dining industry, restaurants and bars will largely miss out on what should be one of the most lucrative nights of the year.
New Year’s Eve—famous for overpriced meals and plenty of alcoholic beverages—will be a quiet affair as restaurants grapple with occupancy limits, early curfews and, in many parts of the U.S., a total ban on indoor dining.
“In past years, the run-up to the holidays was the time for everyone in the business to make money to carry us through the lean months of winter,” said Kip Michel, general manager of renowned Brooklyn pizza joint Roberta’s. “It’s a tough time this year.”
Quiet night
Restaurants from New York to Chicago to Los Angeles are bracing for another blow as the coronavirus pandemic continues to keep people away from crowded places and confined largely to their homes. Just 7% of Americans intend to go to a restaurant for New Year’s Eve, according to a Morning Consult survey, while the most common plans were to cook dinner at home or stream a movie.
There’s a lot on the line for restaurants, which tend to do big business on the last night of the year. Visitors to Outback Steakhouse jumped 48% last New Year’s Eve compared to an average day in 2019, while Olive Garden’s traffic climbed 29% and Applebee’s rose 18%, according to an analysis by data tracking firm Placer.ai. Based on 2020 trends, those chains may see declines in excess of 30% this year, the firm said.
“It’s going to be a dramatic loss of revenue,” said Andrew Rigie, executive director of the NYC Hospitality Alliance, which represents restaurants and bars in New York, a mecca for New Year’s revelers. That will hurt the businesses as well as workers, he added, “with employees either out of work or making a fraction of the tips they would normally make.”
Special menus
Restaurants are looking for creative ways to make up for reduced sales, such as Zoom calls with magicians or special takeout and delivery menus with high-end fare. Del Frisco’s Grill in Hoboken, New Jersey, is offering a to-go package of filet mignon, steamed lobster tail and truffle mac and cheese. At Chicago’s D.S. Tequila Co., there’s a New Year’s package of fried chicken and Champagne.
“This night is normally huge for us because we do a food and drink package and sell out,” said Dusty Carpenter, director of operations and managing partner for Another Round Hospitality Group, which owns D.S. Tequila. For many patrons, New Year’s Eve this year is “an afterthought.”
Many restaurants are grappling with curfews that come before the ball drops, putting another damper on the celebrations.
Toasting 2021
Papillon 25 in South Orange, New Jersey, has to close by 10 p.m. due to state-imposed restrictions. The restaurant has struggled to book any reservations at all for New Year’s Eve, when it would normally bring in as much as $20,000, according to co-owner Yanick Ranieri. It has scrapped the traditional New Year’s Eve special menu but is offering a free Champagne toast.
“This year if we make $3,000, we’ll consider ourselves lucky,” Ranieri said.
Porter, which just opened a few weeks ago in nearby Weehawken, New Jersey, will have two seatings at reduced capacity beginning at 4 p.m. And since diners have to leave before midnight, the restaurant is offering to-go wine at 15% off so guests can continue the party at home.
‘Such a detriment’
Still, to-go alcohol, which has buoyed some bars and restaurants through the pandemic, can only help so much. “Covid overall has been such a detriment to the industry,” said Lynne Collier, an analyst with Loop Capital Markets. “The impact from New Year’s Eve just compounds that situation.”
Indoor dining is off limits entirely across the Hudson River. In Manhattan’s Times Square—ordinarily such a tourist draw that the Olive Garden location can charge $400 a head on New Year’s Eve—the police have erected barriers to keep people away.
Andrew Carmellini, a chef and owner of Noho Hospitality Group, which has 18 restaurants and bars, mostly based in New York, said he expects to bring in just 25% of the usual revenue this New Year’s Eve. His locations have had to use creative Covid-driven workarounds just to bring in even a fraction of the typical sales, including glass-walled chalets on the sidewalk to give diners an indoor feel outdoors.
“One of the most overused words of the year is pivot,” Carmellini said. “But you have to pivot in the smartest way possible.”
Owners also need to take weather into consideration. Like Carmellini’s chalets, Boston’s Woods Hill Pier 4 has set up dining “igloos” to help patrons brave the cold temperatures, which are forecast to drop to a low of 27 degrees Fahrenheit. Diners preferred open-air eating in the warmer months, but now are grateful for the interior-lit pods, said owner Kristin Canty.
“If it’s cold, they love it,” she said.
‘Still here’
In Beverly Hills, where restaurants have been closed for all but takeout food, the celebrity-mainstay La Scala came under fire for promoting a “speakeasy” style indoor dinner on New Year’s Eve with invitations stuck in delivery bags.
After an image of the invitation went viral, the city reached out. In a statement posted on its website, the restaurant said it was considering an event only if virus-related restrictions were lifted before the holiday and that the person who wrote the invitation mistakenly said the party would be indoors.
“If everyone would turn their hate to love and direct it to people that need it instead of attacking small businesses trying to survive, that would be a better use of their time,” the restaurant said.
At the Atlanta steakhouse known as Bones, New Year’s Eve would typically mean a full house of 600 people booked throughout the evening. But the restaurant, a meeting place for the city’s power elite for over 40 years, has now capped its capacity at 300 diners to allow for social distancing. Even on New Year’s Eve, prospective diners have been happy to accept a reservation for as early as 5:30 p.m. to allow for additional diners as the evening goes on.
“It’s been a different kind of year, and everybody is excited about celebrating the new year,” said Isabel Kane, customer relations manager at the restaurant. “People are so grateful that we’re still here.”
— With assistance by Tom Moroney, Leslie Patton, Gerald Porter Jr., Elizabeth Campbell, Christopher Palmeri, and Brett Pulley


fortune--2020-12-31--Everything to know about allergic reactions to COVID vaccines

Like all new drugs, the Covid-19 vaccines that have been authorized in Western countries come with some safety concerns and side effects. Many people who’ve received the first two shots deployed, one from Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE and another from Moderna Inc., have experienced fever, headache and pain at the site of the injection. These side effects generally disappear quickly. As many as 10 people have had a serious allergic reaction, called anaphylaxis, to the vaccines.
1. What is anaphylaxis?
The body fights foreign invaders through a variety of mechanisms that include making protective proteins called antibodies, releasing toxins that kill microbes, and marshaling guardian cells to battle the infection. As in any conflict, sometimes the effort to repel an infection can itself be damaging. In rare cases, it can produce runaway inflammation and swelling of tissues in a serious allergic reaction called anaphylaxis. As much as 5% of people in the U.S. have had such a reaction to various substances. It can be fatal if, for example, the person’s airway swells shut, though deaths are rare. Allergies to insect stings and foods can provoke it, though drug reactions are the most common cause of anaphylaxis fatalities in the U.S. and U.K.
2. Where have Covid vaccines triggered cases?
A Dec. 19 presentation from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention referenced two cases of anaphylaxis associated with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in the U.K. and six in the U.S. A health-care worker in Alaska who received a shot had to be hospitalized overnight. Later in the month, in Israel, which is deploying the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, a man suffered anaphylactic shock an hour after receiving a shot, according to the Jerusalem Post. He said he’d had earlier reactions to penicillin, the paper reported. And a physician in Boston with a shellfish allergy reported having an anaphylactic reaction to Moderna’s vaccine. None of the reactions resulted in death.
3. Has anaphylaxis been connected to vaccines before?
Yes. A 2016 study in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology found 33 confirmed vaccine-triggered anaphylaxis cases that occurred after 25,173,965 doses of inoculations, a rate of about 1.31 per million doses. So far, the rate for known cases connected to administration of approximately 3 million doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines appears to be more than double that, but still very low.
4. How long does the risk last?
Usually not long. Anaphylactic reactions normally occur within minutes to hours of exposure to a specific substance, said Michael Kinch, a drug development expert and associate vice chancellor at Washington University in St. Louis. Of the 29 cases where the time lag was documented in the 2016 study, symptoms of anaphylaxis began within 30 minutes in eight cases, within the next 90 minutes in another eight, within two to four hours in 10 cases, within four to eight hours in two cases, and the next day in one.
5. What’s being done about the risk?
The U.K. and U.S. have advised people who have allergies to any component of a Covid vaccine not to receive it. Anaphylaxis can be quickly countered with antihistamines and adrenaline injectors like Mylan NV’s Epi-Pen that slow or halt immune reactions, and health workers giving the vaccine are keeping such items at the ready. These treatments don’t cancel out the beneficial effects of vaccines. In the U.S., health workers are observing anyone who has received the vaccine for at least 15 minutes post-injection to watch for signs of a reaction. People who have had reactions to a first dose of vaccine shouldn’t receive a second, according to the CDC.
6. Do we know what in the shots is causing the reactions?
That isn’t clear. The two leading candidates are polyethylene glycol — a chemical found in many foods, cosmetics and medications — and lipid nanoparticles that encapsulate the messenger RNA, a genetic component in the vaccines, according to Eric Topol, a clinical trials expert and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute. Polyethylene glycol has been previously linked to a handful of anaphylaxis cases. Once a cause has been narrowed down, it may be possible to make Covid vaccines even safer than they are now, Topol said. If other serious non-allergic side effects crop up, he said, “they, too, are likely to be quite rare and the net benefit of vaccination overwhelmingly positive.”


fortune--2020-12-31--Great Gatsby, Agatha Christie and more: Famous works from 1925 enter public domain

The start of a new year means the end of copyright protection for a variety of books, songs and movies—and a bonanza of free titles for pop-culture fans. For 2021, these will include works by novelists F. Scott Fitzgerald and Virginia Woolf, actor Buster Keaton, composer Irving Berlin and mystery master Agatha Christie.
These are some of the more famous names that will join the likes of Shakespeare and Beethoven in the public domain. Others include jazz musicians and poets from the Harlem Renaissance, and literary characters like Ernest Hemingway’s Nick Adams.
All of the newly-free works were first published in 1925. You can find a more comprehensive list on the website of the Center for the Study of the Public Domain, a Duke University project that tracks copyright expirations. Meanwhile, sites like Project Gutenberg offer a way to download e-versions of books like The Great Gatsby that, as of January 1, are free forever.
The new status of these works is significant because 2021 will mark the second year the public domain is being replenished after a two-decade drought when no new works became available.
The recent dearth of new public-domain works came about because of a decision by Congress in 1998 to extend copyright protection from 75 years to 95 years. Critics of the change have pointed out that it didn’t do much to incentivize the creation of new works—the nominal purpose of copyright—and that it appeared to be a sop to Disney, which sought to resist surrendering intellectual property over early Mickey Mouse films.
This year’s slate is also especially important because of the pandemic. The temporary closing of many libraries, along with a push by the publishing industry to impose new limits on ebook lending, has made it harder for many in the country to access books. A new infusion of public-domain works will help alleviate that.
And in 2022, the copyright will expire on a series of other notable works, including Winnie-the-Pooh and The Sun Also Rises.


fortune--2020-12-31--Why the PPP still falls short for small businesses

Last weekend, President Trump signed the new pandemic relief bill into law. In addition to long-awaited stimulus checks for Americans, it promises a dose of relief for thousands of small businesses struggling to survive another COVID-19 surge. In 2020, my company helped more than 4,000 small businesses get funding through initial rounds of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).
Although many changes in this bill will be beneficial for businesses, on the whole, the new round will still fall far short for too many small businesses. (My company could benefit from increased business if the policy changes advocated for in this piece are enacted.)
In April, I wrote a letter to Congress outlining how to best use emergency funding to support small businesses through the year ahead. In the ensuing weeks and months, my team saw firsthand how the congressional legislation fell short for the majority of companies.
Ultimately, this round of stimulus money isn’t shaping up to be significantly different. The improvements are too little and too late. On top of that, the U.S. banking system simply isn’t designed or incentivized to serve small businesses, and the PPP makes that glaringly clear.
The burden placed on business owners to navigate the PPP is overwhelming. The onus on lawmakers shouldn’t just be to provide money; it should also be about making funds truly accessible. Look at stimulus checks for individual citizens. The final amount they’ll get in early 2021 is still in flux, but the process is simple and clear: If you qualify based on tax information, you get money automatically.
Why is this not the case for small businesses?
Instead, overworked business owners—with median cash buffers of less than a month—are forced to exert herculean effort to even apply for relief or forgiveness. A Government Accountability Office study from September found that forgiveness applications can take up to 15 hours for small and midsize (SMB) owners to complete and more than three days for lenders to review.
These businesses barely have the resources to keep running, let alone to dedicate days to an intimidating application process. In a survey of small businesses from December, Nav found that the smallest companies found the application paperwork to be the “most frustrating” part of the PPP. Compare this to larger midsize businesses who were more frustrated by not getting the right terms or amount.
Changes this time—like a simplified forgiveness application for those who secured less than $150,000 previously—are important, but not enough. Small businesses should be able to automatically qualify for aid based on tax information. That way, we can avoid thousands of companies dying out simply because they can’t handle the paperwork.
Separately, there’s a blatant disconnect between those designing the PPP process and the businesses trying to benefit from it. Watching lawmakers from both sides of the aisle design this bill illuminated a fundamental lack of understanding of small businesses’ operations and needs.
First, the definition of small businesses is flawed. About 98% of businesses in the U.S. employ fewer than 100 people. The bill’s definition of a small business, however, is anything under 300 employees for second-time PPP borrowers and under 500 for first-time borrowers. Companies with over 100 employees need support too, but such a broad definition increases the risk that the most vulnerable will get left out.
It also underscores how legislation doesn’t account for the fact that SMBs are not made equal. A restaurant with two dozen employees to pay may need to spend its money quite differently than a local gym owner who needs to upgrade facilities and equipment to stay afloat. Payroll is critical for some, but not all.
Thankfully, there’s a bit more flexibility allowed this time around when it comes to how businesses can apply their funds—but the program still paints SMBs with too broad a brush. This disconnect is unreasonable. Nearly all businesses in the U.S. are SMBs, which account for 1.5 million jobs annually and drive about 44% of U.S. economic activity. Our systems and lawmakers should make decisions reflective of these facts.
Finally, the system isn’t set up for banks to prioritize small businesses. In the initial rounds of the PPP, my team helped several thousand small business owners attempt to access loans. Through that process, we saw banks prioritize customers they already had loans with first, then their larger accounts, and then, maybe, SMBs. At the end of the day, SMBs weren’t a priority. Our recent survey backed this up. Many SMBs assumed they should go to banks first, and did so. But of those planning to apply again, many said they’ll instead opt for online or alternative lenders first.
On the flipside, banks, too, are fatigued. Their processes aren’t set up for the PPP. Except for the very largest chains, most banks are struggling to contend with demand. Lender associations warned of lender fatigue for the application and forgiveness processes months ago. From a business perspective, it’s a distraction from banks’ core operations and objectives, which keep them profitable. Incentives aren’t aligned, and ultimately, the effort to participate in the PPP and help the smallest of small businesses just isn’t worth it for a lot of traditional banks.
At the end of the day, this new round of stimulus is welcome, needed, and an improvement. But it has also illuminated just how large the banking gap for small businesses has become. In the last PPP round, it was sad to see thousands of hard-working small business owners turn to banks for help first, only to be met with a system that wasn’t set up to help them. Too many, ultimately, didn’t get the money they needed. Roughly one in five small businesses have closed—more than 160,000 of them between April and September alone. Many more still will.
Fixing the PPP won’t be easy. But SMBs are the economic foundation of our country and integral to our local communities. We need to collectively design a system that prioritizes, accommodates, and truly understands small businesses.
Greg Ott is CEO of Nav.


fortune--2020-12-31--Communication and courage: The top 5 corporate leadership lessons from 2020

This time last year, I was optimistic about starting 2020, excited to enter both a new year and a new decade. Like other corporate leaders, I finalized visions and planned to move along traditional pathways of success. But for all of us, those pathways would quickly change into a road that wound through challenging, uncertain terrain.
Even as the world ramped up to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, corporate leaders would find other insurmountable challenges waiting in the wings—such as an economic downturn, racial unrest, and one of the most important elections of our time.
Still, as I look back on 2020, I see a year of great reflection, awakening, and resiliency. Here are the top five corporate leadership lessons I learned in 2020.
Building transparency, communication, and connection
Most leaders strive to create transparent work environments that offer open communication and authentic engagement between employees and management. The trials of 2020 quickly put this commitment to the test. Whether coping with COVID’s economic impacts or with protests about racial injustice, leaders had to find ways to quickly communicate and genuinely engage with employees. Building transparency and connections proved critical to the pulse and survival of organizations and their people. As leaders found themselves addressing financial impacts with layoffs, or managing virtual teams of overworked and stressed employees, they were forced to tap their emotional intelligence (EI) by connecting more deeply on a human level. We observed corporate leaders putting “business as usual” messaging aside and stepping up by having honest and tough conversations and listening sessions on topics like race, politics, and the importance of voting, child care, mental health, and employee financial burdens.
Lesson learned: Having a high EI IQ that takes into consideration empathy and compassion can go a long way in leadership. From employees losing loved ones to COVID-19 to women leaving the workforce at alarming rates to educate and care for children, 2020 taught leaders to quickly address issues, have thoughtful plans, and put resources in place to support the holistic well-being of their people.
Redefining agility and trust
An ongoing corporate leadership trend has involved building agile organizations. This year demonstrated the importance of agility in a particularly vivid way, as companies of all sizes had to integrate creative solutions to implement transitions of people and their work environments. Having to scale up and move entire corporate organizations remotely in a short period of time as COVID took over the globe proved challenging, but doable.
Lesson learned: Agility is no longer an option. It’s a requirement for success. To sustain agility, companies must trust their employees and shift away from traditional workplace and work-setting models. Employees have earned that trust, demonstrating that jobs and functions that their leaders had long thought could not be done outside of the office could, in reality, work on a remote basis and at a highly productive level. Through this experience, corporate leaders gained more confidence in their teams’ skills and abilities. But building an agile organization never stops. True agility requires building flexible business models that involve enhancing current infrastructures, creating new working models, and acquiring technologies that enhance productivity.
Creating boundaries
COVID-19 redefined the idea of corporate work/life balance. Whether dealing with screaming kids while on work Zoom calls, or caring for an elderly family member, parents and caregivers felt and continue to feel the challenges and burdens of balancing work and family. I vividly recall holding a briefing for a client, only for my 4-year-old to interject with requests for apple juice and Paw Patrol. Like many working parents trying to keep it together, I apologized, got the apple juice, and proceeded with my brief.
Lesson learned: This year taught leaders the importance of tapping into their emotional intelligence by demonstrating more awareness, compassion, and flexibility. There is no such thing as true work/life balance in the age of COVID-19: It’s all intertwined, and employees are trying their best to keep afloat and perform. For leaders, being flexible and encouraging employees to set clear boundaries (e.g., by modifying daily work schedules and taking staycations or mental-health days) is critical to creating a happy and healthy work environment.
Redefining impact and allyship in diversity
Racial and civil unrest boiled over in 2020. It forced leaders to take a hard look at their diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) programs. It’s a test that many didn’t pass. Some corporate leaders publicly claimed they were unable to find diverse talent. Others adopted optical allyship stances, like the companies that posted symbolic black squares without backing them up with action plans. These gestures illustrated leaders’ lack of transparency and commitment to nurturing diversity at all levels. And this year’s events confirmed that leaders have much more work to do to address workforce parity, for women and for employees of color.
Lesson learned: Leaders learned that change starts with empathetic understanding, addressing personal bias, and redefining goals in order to enable meaningful results where diversity is concerned. Whether they were redesigning DE&I action plans, launching new recruiting models, or being intentional about engaging employees from diverse backgrounds (through coaching or mentoring, for example), some leaders showed that they can do the work to move the needle around diversity. But 2020 proved that those leaders must be accountable and want to be a part of leading the change.
Leading fearlessly
After publishing the piece “Why I’ve decided to stop playing the ‘safe’ Black professional role in corporate America” in August, I underwent an awakening of my own on what it means to embrace authentic leadership in 2020. To be quite honest, leading from a place of vulnerability and fearlessness is often lonely, and yet it’s extremely gratifying and absolutely necessary. Fearless leaders aren’t worried about “staying on message” because it’s on trend or makes others feel comfortable. Fearless leaders push and encourage people to think, reflect, react, and embrace accountability.
Lessons learned: To lead in 2020 and beyond, you must be transparent, build authentic connections, and demonstrate courage with your employees. You have to be willing to stand up, have hard conversations, and ask tough questions, even when that means voicing an unpopular response or opinion. This year taught me and other corporate leaders to be resilient, acknowledge flaws and challenges, embrace the unknown, and create collaborative safe places where we can build long-lasting and sustainable solutions—not just for the present, but for our future.
Katherine Thompson is a business transformation and organizational change management expert. She works with public and private sector clients to implement Agile software platforms and IT-modernization programs. The views in this article are that of the author.


fortune--2020-12-31--20 things that went strangely, wonderfully right in 2020