fortune--2020-04-23--4 ways to prepare your career to recover from coronavirus

With layoffs in the U.S. climbing to levels not seen since the big recession more than a decade ago, unemployment in the stratosphere, and more uncertainty ahead, no one’s career is safe from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Even if you’re still working in the same job as before the virus struck, that might change. As of the first nine days of April, more than a third (35%) of employers were considering furloughs within the next 60 days, according to a Mercer survey of more than 400 companies, while about one-fourth were planning layoffs.
The same study says that 48% of employers now have hiring freezes in place. Dept. of Glass Half Full: That means, of course, that a little over half are still trying to fill job openings. And, although no one can predict when the economy as a whole will bounce back, everyone can agree that it’s going to happen.
When it does, will you be ready? Here are four ways to prepare now for the recovery that’s (eventually) coming:
1. Start learning some new skills
One way to figure out which skills your industry will need in the future is to study the requirements in job ads. Since companies try to hire for tomorrow as well as today, keep a list of “which skills employers ask for, over and over again,” says Allison McLean, a career counselor at online coding school Springboard.
Look, too, at what might have changed at the company where you work now. The pandemic has reshaped the landscape for so many businesses that this is the moment to “think about how the business model of your industry has changed, and is likely to continue changing over the next six to twelve months,” says Nicholas Wyman, CEO of the nonprofit Institute for Workplace Skills and Innovation. He adds that almost everyone “needs to upgrade their digital literacy, and master the platforms their companies use now.” Luckily, classes in virtually every tech skill employers want are available online, at sites like Coursera and edX.
2. Get in touch with recruiters and former employers
Right now is a good time to contact recruiters in your field because, pandemic or no, they need to “keep building their ‘pipeline’ of potential candidates,” says Allison McLean at Springboard, a former recruiter herself. “Make sure they know who you are, with a clear, concise idea of what you’d like to find in your next opportunity.”
That next gig might well turn out to be at a company where you worked in the past. “As an economic rebound starts up, organizations will need people who can be productive quickly,” says James Sinclair. That means alumni, who already know the ropes, often have an edge.
Sinclair is CEO of a firm called Enterprise Alumni. As the name suggests, EA creates and manages alumni networks for employers like Google, Procter & Gamble, Nestle, and Marriott. One of his biggest clients is already preparing for a recovery by contacting former employees, including recent retirees, and asking if they’d consider returning. “If you’ve ever worked for a company that you loved,” Sinclair says, “they may want you back.” It’s worth asking.
3. Expand your information-gathering network
Already stepped up your virtual networking game since social distancing started? Great! Now do more of it. When it comes to being ready for an economic recovery, says Allison McLean, “I really can’t stress networking enough—especially if you now take the time to set up informational interviews with people on LinkedIn and elsewhere who can refer you to others” who know where hiring is happening, or seems poised to recover.
Another way to keep an eye on who’s hiring now, and who will be adding headcount as time goes on: Check out this LinkedIn newsfeed. Another site, called Candor, keeps a crowdsourced, alphabetized tally of companies that shows who’s hiring and who’s got a freeze on—for now.
Staying in touch with people you already know matters a lot, of course, but McLean also recommends seeking out ways to explore new groups who share your interests. A global list of Slack communities, for instance, could introduce you to contacts in a wide variety of specific fields, industries, and regions.
4. Accept the idea that the future will be different from the past
Hard as it is to contemplate, the “new normal” may not seem normal at all—especially if a job loss means having to move on to a different role, or even a whole new career.
Virginia Buckingham, author of a new book called On My Watch, knows firsthand what that’s like. She was head of the Massachusetts Port Authority (including, crucially, Boston’s Logan Airport) on September 11, 2001. In the aftermath of the terror attacks, Buckingham lost her job and, over the next several years, “had to rewrite my story, and apply my core skills in entirely new situations,” she says.
“Let go of any preconceived idea of what your [post-recovery] career will look like,” suggests Buckingham, now vice president of corporate affairs at Pfizer. “It may well look completely different.” If that turns out to be the case, she adds, “Be patient with yourself. Your path forward will come at its own pace.” Good to know.
More must-read careers coverage from Fortune:
—How to write a professional bio
—How Fortune 500 companies are stepping up during the pandemic
—3 ways to put your best foot forward on a video job interview
—Everything you need to know about furloughs—and what they mean for workers
—An internship during the coronavirus pandemic is a crash course in adaptability
—WATCH: 401(k) withdrawal penalties waived for anyone hurt by COVID-19
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fortune--2020-04-23--Beyoncé and Twitter’s Jack Dorsey donate $6 million for African-Americans’ mental health during the

Beyoncé and Twitter’s Jack Dorsey donate $6 million for African-Americans’ mental health during the coronavirus pandemic

Why the coronavirus crisis makes moral leadership more important than ever

Beyoncé Knowles-Carter has joined forces with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to donate $6 million in relief for essential workers on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic.
The funding will be sent to organizations providing mental wellness services, spearheaded by the singer’s charity initiative, BeyGOOD, along with Dorsey’s own COVID-19 relief fund, Start Small. In a statement on Beyoncé’s website, BeyGOOD said the funding is targeted for African-Americans working in major cities, citing a “disproportionate number of workers in these indispensable occupations.”
Knowles-Carter spoke about this issue during Saturday’s star-studded One World: Together at Home global broadcast. “Black Americans disproportionately belong to these essential parts of the workforce that do not have the luxury of working from home,” she said. “And African-American communities at large have been severely affected in this crisis.”
While full data on the racial breakdown of coronavirus cases in the United States have yet to be released, early reports show that African-Americans are both contracting and dying from COVID-19 at higher rates.
In partnership with the effort is the University of California at Los Angeles and the National Alliance on Mental Illness, the latter of which will provide local support in Houston—Beyoncé’s hometown—New York, New Orleans, and Detroit. Support categorized as personal wellness will benefit the United Memorial Medical Center, Bread of Life, Matthew 25, and others, the statement said.
The statement from BeyGOOD, which was launched in 2017 to help victims of Hurricane Harvey, added that the funding will also cover coronavirus testing and medical services, food supplies, and food deliveries, “both during and after the crisis.”
Dorsey’s Start Small is a limited liability company founded earlier this month. On Twitter, the chief executive said he would move $1 billion worth of his equity from Square—which Dorsey also cofounded and where he serves as CEO—into the Start Small fund. That sum, Dorsey said, amounted to about 28% of his total net worth.
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—Elective surgeries—mostly paused as a result of the pandemic—are critical to hospital finances
—World Health Organization says 3 more coronavirus vaccines are in human trials
—Late payments soar, revealing the extent of coronavirus pain on European companies
—14% of women considered quitting their jobs because of the coronavirus pandemic
—Forget “wet markets” and bats: For scientists, failing environmental policies have created a boom time for outbreaks
—Out of work, but not unemployed: How much Europe is paying its idled workers
—PODCAST: COVID-19 might have upended the concept of the best companies of the year
—VIDEO: 401(k) withdrawal penalties waived for anyone hurt by COVID-19
Subscribe to Outbreak, a daily roundup of stories on the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on global business, delivered free to your inbox.


fortune--2020-04-23--The Coronavirus Economy: What it’s like to run a seasonal tourism business during a pandemic

What to know if your small business is applying for Round 2 PPP loans from the SBA

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When you run a seasonal tourism business, there’s no making up the revenue later.
Colleen Stephens, president of Stan Stephens Glacier & Wildlife Cruises in Valdez, Alaska, grew up with that knowledge. Her parents, Stan and Mary Helen, founded the company in 1971. By 1978, Stephens and her two sisters were all working alongside their parents, introducing travelers to the wildlife and glaciers of Prince William Sound.
As the coronavirus epidemic started to spread this past winter, Stephens watched carefully to see how it might end up impacting Alaska’s short tourism season. The company—which has three other full-time employees and a team of seasonal employees, all from the town of Valdez (population 4,000)—usually sends day cruises out between mid-May and mid-September. That’s just four months to take in a year’s worth of revenue with the company’s two 149-passenger vessels. Approximately 75% of the day-cruise passengers come from outside Alaska.
Fortune spoke with Stephens for a new series, The Coronavirus Economy, to find out how she’s navigating the pandemic for her business and crew. The following Q&A has been condensed and lightly edited for clarity.
Colleen Stephens runs a cruise company in Valdez, Alaska, that was founded by her parents in 1971. Alan Steed
Fortune: Before you’d ever heard of COVID-19, what was your job and a typical day like for you at this time of year?
Stephens: We do lots of work and preparation pre- and post-season. What we’re constantly working on operationally is vessel maintenance and vessel repairs as well as getting the boats ready for the season. It’s kind of a yearlong program.
The other thing we do is recruit employees and make sure we’re properly staffed. We have about 30 local people from Valdez who come on during the summer.
We’re also actively recruiting customers. We’re taking reservations, we’re putting marketing pieces out there to travel trade as well as direct to customers. This is usually a very good booking season. People have made the decision to come to Alaska, and now they’re putting the parts and pieces of their trips together. From January onward, we see a big spike in independent booking as well as booking partner reservations.
What has this year been like?
In mid-February, we were still trending ahead of last year. People still had that confidence to travel. Things were also looking very good with contract work. Because the Alaska Marine Highway [the state’s ferry system] isn’t running in Prince William Sound [because of the state’s financial issues and needed repairs on the aging fleet], we had some charter work. We had a five-day charter where we were taking 200 kids and all their band equipment to Cordova. We needed to get the necessary crew to do that trip.
Because of all of that, we were looking at sending boats out a month ahead of where we normally would have been. Needless to say that didn’t happen.
When did you see things really start to change for your business and Alaska’s summer tourism season?
With just how dynamic this world has been [during the coronavirus pandemic], around the second week of February, we had cruise ships add Alaska for departures and ports of call.
All of a sudden, we were going to start operating tours May 4 because people were pulling vessels out of some locations and moving them and adding departures. So not only were normal bookings tracking nicely, but we had all this other stuff. Nobody is going to argue with extra bookings when you have a short season.
When did things change?
That next Monday. It was literally over the weekend we stopped seeing things come in on the booking site and started seeing everything roll in on the cancellation side.
We saw companies that were starting to reposition cruise ships to places that may not have had infection at that moment in time all of a sudden looking at all of the world to be a place they needed to consider.
Alaska is very dependent on our cruise companies and cruise partners. As they started to modify things for cruise and land, that starts to effect folks even if you don’t have a port of call. Those [travelers] are still moving through our state. You could track the trend of cancellations as far as what country was having spikes.
The other thing we saw a few weeks into it was all of our tour operator partners came to us to look for assistance. They were trying to get people instead of canceling to rebook. We were asked to shorten cancellation periods and just be adaptive to what their needs were. We decided that if they were going to ask for it, we were going to give it to them.
So, now, is the season canceled? Or is there business for the latter part of the summer?
It’s ever-changing. There is nothing concrete yet, which I think is the challenge for any seasonal operator in Alaska or anywhere.
I don’t think anyone wants to start moving people until it’s safe for the communities and it’s safe for the guests. Nobody really wants to push it. Lots of people are hoping for whatever they can and are adapting as we see change in our country and across the world.
I was on a teleconference with other tourism people, and some were like, “Well, when is this going to stop?” We’re all planners, and the part that sucks about all this is you just can’t plan. Or you have to plan three wild guesses of when we might be able to operate, what our volume might be if we operate, or a scenario of not running at all this year.
Even if we start operating June 15, who is to say what our bookings will be? And if we’re still in a social distancing place, we can’t even take our capacity. We don’t know.
How are you handling all of this as a business owner and a community member? And as somebody who employs so many people within the town?
I am super privileged in multiple ways. One is I serve on state and national boards that are trade associations. Being that involved does occupy a ton of your time. I literally live with earphones in on teleconferences three to four hours a day. It lets me know we aren’t alone in Alaska. This is happening across the country and in some places way faster, and across the world. It allows us to tell stories to one another of what we’re doing and how we’re learning, and how another business is adapting. And it gives you some of the first knowledge of relief packages that are out there. If I didn’t have that connection or wasn’t one that didn’t go out and find that connection, I don’t believe I would be as sane as I am.
The associations’ webinars are open to everyone, not just their partners. For businesses, look to your trades. Look to those people who are supporting you. If they’re not, look to your neighbor or a business like you. We all need to survive together.
If there are no boats this summer, you’ve all been through tough stuff—Exxon Valdez, 9/11, the recession. How long can your company survive?
One thing that’s unique and that we’re having to plan for that’s different than all those other things is that, in those situations, people were still moving, just at a reduced rate. You knew you were operating for the summer.
The planning and the calculation are uniquely different. It’s not just reduced revenue, it’s the possibly of no revenue.
I think we are pretty darn resilient. We have an amazing team. We will survive.
We’re not making any promises to anyone, but our goal is to keep our seasonal staff as intact as it can be. We’re looking at this community to try and support them.
How old are your seasonal employees?
Sixteen to 30.
How much interaction do you have with them through all of this?
My theory as this all started to unravel was the more communication the better, with the employees, our tour partners, the bank. What we started doing is, every Friday, dropping our employees an email. Because of their ages I have to text them all and tell them that an email is coming.
Two of us that are full-time gave everyone our personal phone numbers, and we’ve had close to 50% of the staff contact us to look for guidance and resources.
We also ask them for information, so as we look at different relief packages, we know what they need.
A lot of the Friday emails start with, “We know nothing new, but here’s some other information we want to share.” We send them information from the CDC or the community or other government agencies, reminding them to protect themselves so we can be healthy and out on the sound at some time.
Anything else you want to mention?
The other piece that this has brought forward to everyone is our interconnectivity. I’ll use a tourism example. We need Seattle to be healthy to get our guests to Alaska. We need Canada to be healthy to get our guests to Alaska. We need ourselves healthy. As each of those things started to roll and you could see a deterioration and high infection rate, we’re completely tied together.
More coronavirus coverage from Fortune:
—The trillion-dollar question: How far will GDP fall?
—How Fortune 500 companies are utilizing their resources and expertise during the pandemic
—Thermal-imaging tech is on the rise. Can it help fight the coronavirus?
—Privacy concerns split Europe’s push to build COVID-19 contact-tracing apps
—5 veteran investors on how to approach the coronavirus stock market
—More surveillance and less privacy will be the new normal after the pandemic has abated
—Looking for a travel refund? Here’s what airlines, hotels, and theme parks are offering
—PODCAST: COVID-19 might have upended the concept of the best companies of the year
—VIDEO: 401(k) withdrawal penalties are waived for anyone hurt by COVID-19
Subscribe to Outbreak, a daily roundup of stories on the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on global business, delivered free to your inbox.


fortune--2020-04-23--‘Nobody has come by this morning:’ As German car dealers learn, the great reopening will take time

What if you opened a car showroom and nobody came?
That’s the dilemma facing many car dealers across Germany, who were given the all-clear to reopen this week or next—the timing depends on the authorities in specific states.
More than a month after the coronavirus lockdown forced them to suspend sales, auto showrooms—like small shops and certain retail sectors such as florists and DIY stores—are largely open to the public again. But customers are few and far between.
“Since Monday, I think we have had 10 customers in the showroom,” says Joachim Niersmann, manager of La Linea showroom in Saarbrücken, near the German border with France, on Wednesday afternoon. In better times, the normal footfall would have been on the order of 20 to 25 customers a day.
“Nobody has come by this morning,” says Rasoul Behkalam, owner of Damax Automobile Berlin in the capital’s Wilmersdorf district, also on Wednesday—the Berlin authorities only allowed limited store reopenings for the first time on that day. “People are distancing. We don’t expect much business this year.”
The dealers’ experience highlights one of the many problems facing businesses even once they are allowed to reopen—customer confidence around Europe remains desperately low as the scale of the economic fallout becomes ever more apparent, and as uncertainty remains over the trajectory of coronavirus infections.
The engine of the German economy
In the case of the 435 billion euro German auto industry, still reeling from the diesel scandal and ever-tightening emissions standards, the problem is particularly acute.
“As before the virus, customers don’t know what they have to buy: hybrids or electric vehicles or diesel,” says Niersmann. “I think it will be better in coming times, but this week they don’t want to make a mistake with the car, or with the virus.”
Germany’s Association of Independent Auto Dealers (BVfK) sounds more upbeat about the situation, insisting that ever more customers are visiting showrooms—but conceding that numbers are down since before the crisis struck. “It’s very difficult, but we are optimistic,” says Ansgar Klein, the trade group’s chairman.
There’s no mistaking how bad the crisis has been for Germany’s auto sector, and indeed for the wider economy—IHS Markit’s economic-activity statistics, released Thursday, showed a record low that far outstripped analysts’ fears. At the start of April, Germany’s vehicle licensing authority said March car sales were down 38% year on year. In March, industry veteran Ferdinand Dudenhöffer of the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland told Fortune that the Western European market for passenger cars would take around a decade to return to pre-crisis levels.
Unlike most factories in Germany, which have kept running thanks to the imposition of strict hygiene and organizational measures, the country’s car factories largely shuttered in mid-March and are only now starting to fire up again. Daimler, for example, this week reopened powertrain plants in Hamburg, Berlin, and Stuttgart, and its Kamenz battery factory near Dresden.
‘Let’s not gamble’
Germany’s federated nature has led to some inconsistency in the lifting of restrictions. Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose administration signaled the cautious relaxation of coronavirus restrictions a couple of weeks back, warned Thursday that some states could be moving too quickly as they try to get their economies humming again. “Let’s not gamble what we’ve achieved and risk a setback,” she said. “We are not in the final phase of this pandemic; we’re just at the beginning.”
BVfK chairman Klein is also critical of the way state authorities have handled auto showroom reopenings in piecemeal fashion; for example, the state of Saarland gave the all-clear for last Monday, Berlin for Wednesday, and Bavaria for Monday next week. “Unfortunately this is very inconsistently organized,” he says. “The problem lies in [Germany’s] federal structure. It would be better if the [federal] government could prescribe these things uniformly.”
Spain, Italy, and Denmark enter ‘Phase 2’
How to reopen the economy has become a big debate beyond Germany.
In Spain, which has imposed one of the tightest lockdowns in Europe, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has warned the reopening will be “slow and gradual,” and if there are signs of new outbreaks, the “de-escalation” may be reversed.
The hard-hit country, which has the third highest confirmed COVID-19 death toll in the world at over 22,000, allowed some “nonessential” businesses—including factories and construction sites—to reopen after Easter. And, beginning Sunday, children up to 14 years of age will be allowed to leave their homes for the first time in six weeks, to take walks of up to an hour with an adult. (Yes, the rules are that precise.)
On Wednesday, Spain extended its “state of alert”—which gives the government the power to impose the lockdown—until May 9.
Meanwhile, Italy’s Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte took to Facebook earlier this week to alert Italians that the lifting of Europe’s longest ongoing lockdown is imminent. “A reasonable expectation is that we will apply it from May 4,” he said on Monday.
So far, details have been scant on what “Phase 2,” as it’s being called in Italy, would look like.
After Easter, the government gave the green light to garden shops, children’s clothing retailers, and bookstores. Across the street from L’Università degli Studi Roma Tre, one of Rome’s biggest universities, bookshops opened their doors this week to few customers. With classes suspended indefinitely, however, students are staying home; the few people walking past the bookshops were all donning masks and were in no mood to browse for new titles.
One European country that’s ahead of most of its neighbors is Denmark, where the government reopened schools on April 14, a move that caused a bit of a stir. Groups of parents protested the move, even forming a Facebook group called “My kid is not going to be a guinea pig.”
The Danes aren’t the only ones advocating a go-slow return to normal life.
Germany’s business lobby is calling for the reactivation of the country’s economy to take place with extreme caution, lest it trigger a second wave of COVID-19. “A new shutdown would have unforeseeable consequences for the country,” said Dieter Kempf, president of the Federal Association of German Industry, last week.
Additional reporting from Ian Mount in Madrid and Bernhard Warner in Rome.
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—These publicly traded companies took millions in PPP loan money
—How Home Depot and Lowe’s are preparing for their busy home improvement season during pandemic-era uncertainty
—Which companies’ stocks will thrive after the coronavirus crash?
—Late payments soar, revealing the extent of coronavirus pain among European companies
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—VIDEO: 401(k) withdrawal penalties waived for anyone hurt by COVID-19
Subscribe to Outbreak, a daily roundup of stories on the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on global business, delivered free to your inbox.


fortune--2020-04-23--How to watch the NFL Draft live online for free—and without cable

The NBA hasn’t played a game since March 11. Major League Baseball has yet to have its opening day. And the NHL has been in cold storage for over a month. So, for sports fans, the start of the NFL Draft on Thursday could be as big a draw as the Super Bowl.
This year’s NFL Draft was originally supposed to be a glitzy production emanating from the Las Vegas strip, with players being ferried through the Bellagio fountain on boat. Those plans, of course, are out the window now and the draft will be more of a virtual affair, with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell announcing the first-round picks from his basement.
Last year, nearly 50 million people watched the NFL Draft, and that number could be considerably higher this year as people remain sports starved. Aware of that audience, the league is also hosting a Draft-A-Thon to raise money for charities.
Obviously, you’re not going to be out and about when the draft airs this year, but there are plenty of ways to watch from your couch.
When does the 2020 NFL Draft take place?
This year’s NFL Draft will begin Thursday, April 23 and run through Saturday, April 25. Round one picks will be announced Thursday. Rounds two and three are announced Friday. And Saturday will air the final four rounds.
What time does the 2020 NFL Draft start?
That depends on which day you’re watching.
Thursday’s coverage will begin at 8:00 p.m. ET.
Friday’s coverage will start at 7:00 p.m. ET.
Saturday’s coverage will begin at 12:00 p.m. ET.
Which network or networks are airing the 2020 NFL Draft?
You’ve got lots of options. ABC, ESPN, and NFL Network will each air all of the 2020 NFL Draft.
How can I watch the NFL Draft for free?
The best way to watch any sort of network programming for free on a big screen is with a good HD antenna. And with ABC airing the draft this year, that means you’ll be able to watch even if you don’t have a cable subscription. To ensure you’re getting the most reliable signal, you’ll want to test the antenna in multiple locations in your home.
Can I watch the 2020 NFL Draft online?
There are loads of online options to watch the 2020 draft—some completely free and others with free trial periods. If you’re not near a TV, you can log on to the ABC app, the WatchESPN app, the NFL app, or the NFL Network app.
Prefer another option? Here are a few alternatives:
Locast.org
This free service lets you watch local broadcast channels with no monthly fees or contracts. The hiccup is: It only services part of the country.
Sling TV
Dish Network’s Sling is one of the OG cord cutter options. The lower tiered “Orange” plan will run you $30 per month. That will get you ESPN, but you might want to add a few more channels with Sling’s “Blue” plan, which bumps the cost to $45 per month. You’ll have a seven-day free trial first.
Sling is also offering free access to the first round of the 2020 NFL Draft, with no credit card required. Sign up for the Sling Happy Hour and you can use the service for free from 5 p.m. through midnight.
AT&T TVNow
Formerly known as DirecTV Now, AT&T’s streaming service will run you $65 per month and up after a seven-day free trial.
Hulu with Live TV
You can try the service free for a week. Once that’s up, you’ll pay $45 per month.
YouTube TV
After a seven-day trial, you can expect monthly charges of $50.
Fubo TV
This sports-focused cord cutting service comes with a seven-day free trial, followed by monthly charges of $55.
Does the NFL offer any service for me to watch the 2020 NFL Draft?
Kind of.
NFL App
The NFL App will let you stream games that are being broadcast locally in your market on Sundays. If you want to watch an out of market game, you’ve got two choices.
There are a couple hitches with this service. You can’t use it to watch live games, but you can watch anything once its main broadcast ends. There’s a seven-day free trial, after which you’re looking at a $100 charge per season.
DirecTV customers have access to it, but if you’re not a subscriber and live in an area where it’s not available, you can watch any NFL game live, online, or on TV for $73.49 per month or $293.36 for the entire season.
Can I watch the 2020 NFL Draft on Amazon?
Sadly, no. While NFL games sometimes air on Amazon, that agreement does not extend to the draft.
What’s the draft order for selections in 2020?
The order will vary by round, but here’s how things are shaping up for Round One:
1. Cincinnati
2. Washington
3. Detroit
4. NY Giants
5. Miami
6. LA Chargers
7. Carolina
8. Arizona
9. Jacksonville
10. Cleveland
11. NY Jets
12. Las Vegas
13. San Francisco f/IND
14. Tampa Bay
15. Denver
16. Atlanta
17. Dallas
18. Miami f/PIT
19. Las Vegas f/CHI
20. Jacksonville f/LAR
21. Philadelphia
22. Minnesota f/BUF
23. New England
24. New Orleans
25. Minnesota
26. Miami f/HOU
27. Seattle
28. Baltimore
29. Tennessee
30. Green Bay
31. San Francisco
32. Kansas City
Which players are first-round favorites in the 2020 NFL Draft?
Part of the thrill of the NFL Draft is how quickly things can change. Las Vegas odds makers, though, say these are the players most likely to go quickly, in this order:
Joe Burrow, LSU – The Bengals are expected to make the Heisman Trophy winning quarterback their first pick.
– The Bengals are expected to make the Heisman Trophy winning quarterback their first pick. Chase Young, Ohio State – The Redskins are favored to grab the defensive end who boasted 16.5 sacks and 6 forced fumbles last season.
– The Redskins are favored to grab the defensive end who boasted 16.5 sacks and 6 forced fumbles last season. Jeffrey Okudah, Ohio State – The cornerback is a 4:5 odds favorite to join the Lions.
– The cornerback is a 4:5 odds favorite to join the Lions. Jedrick Wills, Alabama – The offensive tackle is expected to be an early pick, putting the Giants in a prime spot to grab him.
– The offensive tackle is expected to be an early pick, putting the Giants in a prime spot to grab him. Tua Tagovailoa, Alabama – The Crimson Tide quarterback and Oregon’s Justin Herbert are both high on odds makers lists, but Tagovailoa is slightly favored by bookmakers.
More must-read entertainment coverage from Fortune:
—Hollywood artists are creating PPE for the medical community
—The best streaming services for live TV in 2020, according to critics
—Succession actors get a pay raise: Report
—China’s movie theaters are closed—again. For studios, the anxiety is unbearable
—Why Mrs. America and the 1970s fight over the ERA are more relevant than ever
—Listen to Leadership Next, a Fortune podcast examining the evolving role of CEO
—WATCH: One on one with Grace Potter
Follow Fortune on Flipboard to stay up-to-date on the latest news and analysis.


fortune--2020-04-23--What employers need to know about employees microdosing cannabis at work

As medical marijuana moves into the mainstream in many states, it puts employers in a tricky situation: How do you handle it when an employee takes small amounts—known as microdoses—of THC throughout the workday to manage a medical condition, whether it’s headaches, anxiety, or pain?
Is it the same as taking a Tylenol? Is it safer than an opiate? And do employers need to know?
“This is an unbelievably complicated issue,” said Mary Kay O’Neill, a senior clinical consultant for HR consulting firm Mercer.
In fact, complying with marijuana laws is one of the biggest challenges facing employers in 2020, according to a survey of 700 HR professionals by XpertHR, an online HR resource site. Nearly a quarter said they are extremely challenged by federal, state, and local medical and recreational marijuana laws and managing employee drug use, compared with 5.7% in 2017. Rapidly changing laws, they said, have created complications for employers who want to implement drug-free workplace policies.
It’s almost impossible for national companies to navigate this territory when they’ve got workers scattered across multiple states—including those where marijuana is still illegal. Employers with federal contracts must also be careful to abide by federal Drug Enforcement Administration rules. “It’s just a hodgepodge out there,” said O’Neill.
Though medical marijuana is legal in 33 states, the drug is still illegal at the federal level and is categorized as a schedule I drug by the DEA. And because of that, there’s very little research showing the efficacy of cannabis for a variety of medical conditions, whether it’s multiple sclerosis, neuropathy, anxiety, or depression, said Reema Hammoud, director of clinical pharmacy at health insurer Sedgwick.
That hasn’t stopped people from taking large—and small—doses of THC. Oklahoma, for instance, saw the number of people with medical marijuana cards surge to 200,000 in a matter of three months last year—making up at least 5% of the state’s 4 million citizens. Meanwhile, U.S. sales of small-dose THC products—usually oils and edibles that deliver 2.5 milligrams to 5 milligrams of THC at a time—jumped 45% last year, and 23 new small-dose products hit the market, according to BDS Analytics, which tracks marijuana sales. But those sales were still at the micro level, representing 1.3% of the overall $1.13 billion edible market.
“You’d be surprised how many people are microdosing during the workday,” said Bonni Goldstein, a doctor who runs Canna-Centers, an L.A.-area medical marijuana clinic, and a medical adviser to WeedMaps.
The goal of microdosing is not necessarily to get high. Cannabis can be psychoactive—though not always intoxicating—meaning it alters a person’s perception of pain, anxiety, ADHD, insomnia, depression, and more. The effects of 2.5 milligrams or 10 milligrams will vary person to person, depending on the balance of their natural cannabinoid receptors. True patients, Goldstein said, are not looking for an intoxicating effect. “They’re seeking a balanced state.”
But how can an employer know the difference? And should they even ask if a worker is microdosing on the job?
The answer differs case by case. Using THC at work would be more worrisome for a truck driver or bulldozer operator, while a microdosing receptionist may be of less concern.
As marijuana becomes more prevalent, however, employers are changing their stance toward the drug. A number of big companies—such as AutoNation, the largest U.S. car retailer, and Excellence Health, a Las Vegas–based health care company with 6,000 employees—have stopped drug testing and axed their zero-tolerance drug policies.
That’s in part because testing for marijuana isn’t perfect: Cannabis may stay in the blood system for days after a person has used the drug—even if he or she is not high. A weekend joint is considered by many to be the same as a couple of beers.
“A lot of great candidates were failing the test,” AutoNation spokesman Marc Cannon told the Los Angeles Times last year. “Marijuana is just like alcohol.”
But when it comes to using on the job—even in small doses—employers have mixed reactions. A small dose of THC may get one person very high while it may not affect another. And without industry standards from the Food and Drug Administration, the real THC dosing can vary by product and experience.
“I think it’s a situation of, ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell,’” said Chris Golden, CEO of Rye Electric, an L.A. construction company that dropped its zero-tolerance policy for employees in 2018. “I honestly don’t want to know.”
Some experts even suggest that employees don’t necessarily need to divulge their habit of taking small doses of THC during work hours. If a person took medication for high blood pressure or a kidney problem, for instance, that would be considered private health information.
Not surprisingly, most workers find themselves tiptoeing around the issue of THC at work. Kevin, a 30-year-old pharmacist who asked to be identified only by his first name, informed his employer that he takes 2.5 milligrams to 5 milligrams of THC oil each day for neuropathic pain in his leg, stemming from a car accident as a teenager. Kevin said his employer was okay with his medicinal use of the drug, but he seldom tells others about his microdosing. A key reason: There’s still a stigma when it comes to cannabis.
Though Kevin has a prescription for various painkillers and opiates, he prefers a microdose of cannabis instead, because he doesn’t get high. “A little bit of THC at a very low dose makes the pain more manageable, but I’m not impaired,” he said.
Not long after his accident, at 17, doctors offered him methadone for pain, but he declined. As he left the clinic that day, the doctor caught up to him in the hallway. “He said, ‘Hey, I’m going to tell you something you didn’t hear me say. But go buy a bag of weed.’ And I did and thought, ‘Holy crap, it really works.’”
Many employees don’t divulge their microdosing of cannabis for fear of being passed over for promotions or even fired. Yet in the past couple of years, the courts increasingly are siding with employees in marijuana discrimination cases.
New Jersey’s Appellate Court, for instance, recently ruled in favor of an employee and required his employer, a construction company, to cover the cost of medical marijuana used to treat pain resulting from a workplace injury. And, under state civil rights laws, at least 19 states now provide legal protection for employees in cases of discrimination when it comes to marijuana use.
“We’re advising employers on a case-by-case situation,” said Dori Stibolt, a Florida employment attorney at Fox Rothschild. “Tread carefully. What you can decide for one employee may not be fit for another.”
As anxiety mounts—with more people working from home amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and marijuana dispensaries remaining open under state lockdown orders—experts predict that the prevalence of microdosing may only grow.
“As a society we trust people with very dangerous medicines,” said Goldstein. “It’s up to people to be responsible.”
More must-read stories from Fortune:
—Big Pharma has the chance to come to the world’s rescue
—American companies laid off 22 million in the past month. Europe chose a different path
—The CEO of PayPal says the coronavirus is giving his business “a tremendous surge”
—Everything you need to know about furloughs and what they mean for workers
—Filing for unemployment benefits? What to know before you start your claim
—PODCAST: COVID-19 might have upended the concept of the best companies of the year
—WATCH: The U.S. Postal Service is in deep financial trouble. Here’s why
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fortune--2020-04-23--Where that coronavirus text from ‘a friend in the military’ really comes from

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In mid-March, a family member forwarded a suspicious message to my family’s group chat. She prefaced the note by saying someone else had “just texted us this. Not sure if it’s accurate but sharing just in case.”
The message warned of imminent national lockdown. The note said someone’s “friend from the military” had inside knowledge that “a two week quarantine will be initiated by Trump pursuant to the Stafford act. So make sure you have enough everything for 14 days.”
Awooga! My journalistic skepticism-sensors blared. President Trump declared a national emergency over the then-already rampaging coronavirus on March 13th, a few days prior to my receipt of the message. He did so under the auspices of the legislation in question, which allows the federal government to deploy aid and resources more quickly in the event of disaster. The Stafford act says nothing about the legality of the executive branch implementing country-wide quarantines. (Look to the Commerce Clause of the Constitution, or this section of the U.S. Code, which details the Surgeon General’s powers, for the basis of that possible, though contestable, authority.)
I fired back with a link to a tweet from the White House’s National Security Council. “Text message rumors of a national quarantine are FAKE. There is no national lockdown,” it said, urging people to follow the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention’s Twitter account for more accurate information.
I was one of many, many Americans to receive that erroneous text message, so clearly designed to incite panic. Other iterations proliferated, many attributing advance knowledge of a lockdown to sources in national security-focused federal agencies. (Did you come upon a note like this too?)
Now we know at least partly why such messages ran so rampant. While the exact origins of the bogus claims remain unclear, American officials across six agencies believe Chinese agents amplified the messages, borrowing tactics from Russia’s divisive online disinformation campaigns by using fake social media accounts and distribution to fringe political groups, the New York Times reports. The U.S. intelligence community is allegedly investigating whether spies in Beijing’s diplomatic offices helped covertly propel the propaganda through other means too. (A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said the allegations were “complete nonsense and not worth refuting.”)
State-sponsored disinformation peddlers are adapting their tactics to stay under the radar for longer. They’re turning to more private, encrypted messaging channels, where they’re less likely to be caught, versus public websites. Like the novel coronavirus itself, which infects far and wide thanks in part to unwittingly contagious, asymptomatic patients, disinformation is spreading stealthily.
As propagandists’ strategies evolve, disinformation will become harder to contain. Earlier this month, Facebook started limiting the number of chats to which frequently forwarded messages can be sent—a welcome measure to fight the proliferation of fake news, but by no means a cure-all. It’s also going to take a concerted effort on individuals’ part to counter threats such as these.
My best advice: Do your part and check the veracity of a claim before spreading it. Be on guard for falsities, and do for the mind what health officials recommend for the body.
Self-quarantine, disinfect, repeat.
***
In case you didn’t tune into yesterday’s enlightening discussion between this newsletter’s usual author, Adam Lashinsky, and Fortune‘s Erika Fry on the admirable responses of Seattle and San Francisco to the pandemic, here’s a recording. Expect to see more virtual events hosted by our team.
Robert Hackett
Twitter: @rhhackett
Email: robert.hackett@fortune.com
THREATS
iCame, iSaw, iPatch. The default email app in Apple iPhones and iPads is said to be vulnerable to two exploitable security bugs that allow attackers to infect and take control of devices. Researchers at the San Francisco-based firm ZecOps discovered the problems, which appear to date back to 2012. Apple plans to patch the bugs in an upcoming software release, but the discoverers say they believe at least six organizations have already been targeted using them, including executives at a Fortune 500 company in North America and one at a telecom carrier in Japan.
Soviet voting bloc. The Senate Intelligence Committee has unanimously endorsed the findings of the U.S. intelligence community about Russian meddling during the last presidential election. In a highly-redacted, 158-page report, both Republican and Democratic leaders agreed that Moscow interfered to boost Donald Trump at the expense of his opponent, Hillary Clinton. The committee affirmed that "analysts were under no political pressure to reach specific conclusions."
Doctor WHO? Nearly 25,000 email addresses and passwords associated with the World Health Organization, the National Institutes of Health, the Gates Foundation and many other groups fighting the coronavirus pandemic have been circulating online. Someone apparently pulled the credentials from old data leaks, as the New York Times' Nicole Perlroth determined. And they did so sloppily: The list contains completely unrelated email addresses referencing things like the British sci-fi series Doctor Who.
My way or the Huawei. The British foreign ministry's top official says the country has made a "firm decision" that "is not being reopened" regarding Huawei. The United Kingdom will allow the Chinese telecom firm to help build the country's 5G networks. In its earnings report, Huawei said its revenue growth slowed to a meager uptick of 1.4% to $25.8 billion this year versus galloping 39% growth a year ago as the company has contended with the coronavirus pandemic and U.S. supplier blacklisting, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Chasing Zoom away with a broom. Lots of companies are banning Zoom, the surprise tech darling-turned-tech-bugaboo of the pandemic, due to reported security flaws. Daimler, Ericsson, and Bank of America have joined early naysayers, such as Tesla and Google, in forbidding the ultra-popular software. (Dropbox is unsurprised.) Meanwhile, Zoom says it will debut a new version of the app with more encryption features next week.
Raising hack-les. Personal data has leaked of nearly 8,000 aid-seekers who applied to the Small Business Administration’s Economic Injury Disaster Loan program. Millions of credit card numbers spilled online through an improperly secured database belonging to Paay, a New York-based payments processing firm. Hackers are hijacking people's Nintendo accounts. And Microsoft published an academic paper explaining how it uses machine learning techniques to triage the tens of thousands of bug reports it receives each month.
Dungeons & Dragons & Zoombombs, oh my!
ACCESS GRANTED
Will the "contact tracing" measures now pursued by governments, tech companies, and researchers actually help stop the spread of COVID-19, or will they merely expand the encroachment of the surveillance state? Mike Giglio at The Atlantic interviewed national security experts, former intelligence officials, and leading privacy advocates about the approach's risks. It's a balanced consideration.
The risk is getting distracted—much as America did after 9/11—from addressing the real issues that led to the problem in the first place. “What do you think doctors and nurses need today? Do they need facial recognition, or do they need masks?” [former FBI agent Ali] Soufan asks. “We need more hospital beds, not more smart cameras surveilling people. We need more scientists. We need an international system that can deal with this kind of problem.”
FORTUNE RECON
Inside Lyft’s coronavirus response team by Emma Hinchliffe
Furlough vs. layoff? As more workers lose their jobs, here’s what to know about your rights and benefits by Lance Lambert
Once hot startup Magic Leap lays off half its workers by Ed Hammond
These publicly traded companies took millions in PPP loan money by Chris Morris
New PPP small business loan bill excludes fintech lenders, threatening the smallest businesses by Jen Wieczner
Which companies’ stocks will thrive after the coronavirus crash? by Adam Seessel
Facebook jumps back into tech’s fight for India’s consumers by Lucinda Shen
ONE MORE THING
Sports-famished quarantiners will be delighted to know the NFL Draft starts today. This is the first time ever the football league will conduct the event virtually. The organization and its 32 teams now face a new challenge: making sure their videoconferencing lines are secure. After all, you never know when Conan O'Brien might crash the party.


fortune--2020-04-23--‘True History of the Kelly Gang’ director, stars on their hypnotic outlaw saga

Australia’s answer to Robin Hood (or Jesse James, depending on whom you ask), bushranger Ned Kelly still looms large in the country’s folkloric memory, 140 years after his final, armor-clad shootout with police in the small town of Glenrowan, Victoria, and subsequent hanging in Melbourne. There he is, adorning coasters and key rings, emblazoned in tattoo form across the backs of countless Aussie men; amusement parks and neighborhood pubs are named after Kelly, as is a popular meat pie.
“In a way, Ned Kelly’s just a part of our childhood,” explains director Justin Kurzel, whose bleak and bracing portrait of the outlaw, True History of the Kelly Gang, is out Friday (at select drive-in theaters, as well as across VOD platforms). Kurzel grew up outside Adelaide, hearing tales of Kelly’s vicious life and complicated legacy, and remarks that “he’s become a bit of a carnival as well.”
So when Kurzel read Peter Carey’s 2000 Booker Prize–winning novel, from which his film takes its title and more, he was riveted by its framing as an autobiography, written by Ned to his daughter on the eve of his hanging. Carey’s book—though itself a work of fiction, with fragments of fact—addresses Kelly’s (imagined, yet plausible) fears that his story might be lost to time, or seized and distorted by those who never knew him.
“You really feel a sense of truth, and a person there,” says Kurzel, “because of how Peter Carey writes that first-person view of someone speaking to his unborn daughter about his own history, knowing it’s about to be stolen. I found that fascinating, how we use these historical figures for our own ways of identifying who we are [culturally]. In that, for some reason, this felt like the most honest book I’d read about him.”
George MacKay plays Ned Kelly in “True History of the Kelly Gang,” which hits select drive-ins and VOD on April 24. Courtesy of IFC Films
Kurzel’s film adaptation is fevered and bellicose, an expressionistic take on Carey’s novel that follows Kelly from the age of 12 through his violent death a short 13 years later. In adolescence, eerily unflappable newcomer Orlando Schwerdt plays Kelly. In adulthood, and for the majority of the film, he’s portrayed by British actor George MacKay, best known for 1917, with a wild-eyed stare (and, purists will note, without that iconic Kelly beard).
Like its source material, this outlaw epic makes no serious claims to historical accuracy, mostly because it’s after something richer and less literal: the story of a man who would become a myth, allusive and highly reflexive, steeped in bilious atmosphere and littered with references to evading or embracing one’s fate. In this pursuit, True History goes so far as to anachronistically scrawl an approximation of a William Faulkner quote—“The past is not dead, it’s not even past”—across the location of the gang’s last stand in Glenrowan.
“We wanted to chase the feeling that he could have been anyone,” says Kurzel, who worked from a script by Shaun Grant. “What happened at Glenrowan, and what happened in terms of his hanging, was always going to happen. There was no way he was going to be able to change that destiny. It was marked in stone. And that became a really interesting discussion. Can you ever outrun your destiny? Can you ever outrun your fate? Are you always marked to be a certain thing, no matter what you do?”
Across his career, Kurzel’s become associated with a kind of fire-and-brimstone poetry, and his films share a grim fascination with understanding what makes men brutal. The Snowtown Murders, his pitiless debut, depicted the murders committed by notorious serial killer John Bunting with a nightmarish inexorability, heightened by an overcast color palette that could be described as gunmetal. His punishingly dark Macbeth adaptation seemed to descend into the pits of hell alongside its ill-fated tyrants, its third act a miasma of black blood and squelching mud. Even video game adaptation Assassin’s Creed, Kurzel’s less-acclaimed foray into blockbuster territory, furthered his penchant for all things bleak and baroque, cloaking its violence in dust and shadow.
But True History of the Kelly Gang is undoubtedly Kurzel’s most ambitious undertaking yet, from a visual standpoint as well as a narrative one. Haunting aerial shots present the film’s setting as a barren, almost alien landscape. Kurzel shot in areas of Australia that will be less familiar to nonnatives, fanning out into the wildlands in search of particularly sparse and striking vistas, ones that could externalize the desolation and dread dogging Ned at every turn.
From left: Russell Crowe as Harry Power; Essie Davis as Ellen Kelly; Schwerdt as young Ned Kelly; and Kurzel on the set of “True History of the Kelly Gang.” Courtesy of IFC Films
“I’m always inspired by landscape first, with film,” he says. “I do a lot of prep to determine what that landscape is going to bring to the film in terms of character. You almost decide to do the film when you find them, because you know you’ve got them and that they’re going to give you so much.”
In the Central Highlands of Victoria, up snow slopes, Kurzel and his crew found a winter wetland strewn with trees that had been fire-ravaged in the summer months. “The environment there created these landscapes with scorched, fingerlike trees that just went on for miles and miles,” he recalls. “There was something so evocative about it that also played into the psychology of Ned and these nightmares he has.”
It was in this desiccated land that Kurzel placed the Kelly homestead, a blackened tin shed that stands out against the austere backdrop of cracked earth and dead trees. There, Ned is raised by his domineering mother, Ellen (The Babadook’s Essie Davis, who’s married to Kurzel in real life), once his Irish-convict father, Red (Ben Corbett), exits the picture.
Of particular importance in True History’s exploration of the Kelly mythology is the bushranger’s volatile bond with Ellen. Ned’s attracted to his mother, perhaps overly so, but equally repulsed when he witnesses her turning tricks to ensure their family protection from the local constable (Charlie Hunnam), who long tormented Red. As Ned grows into a man, Ellen’s often the one whispering in his ear, instilling in him her fiercely held hatred of coppers and going so far as to sell him into the employ of Harry Power (Russell Crowe), Australia’s most legendary bushranger—before Ned, that is.
“She has to stand up when her husband has fallen down, and she has to use Ned to protect her and her family as well,” explains Davis by phone, describing Ellen as “mercurial” and a born survivor, albeit one who’d rather risk her son’s life than risk losing sway over him. “Whether they’re thieves or not is irrelevant. She wants her children to grow up as good, loyal people, as opposed to what she sees the lawmakers, constables, and sergeants as, which is that they’re all bad, depraved predators.”
Davis as Ellen Kelly with Schwerdt as young Ned Kelly. Davis describes the love between the two characters as “deep and sensual and proud.” Courtesy of IFC Films
But Ellen’s relationship with Ned crackles with another, less savory kind of tension, a dynamic that Kurzel, Davis, and MacKay were all keen to explore—especially given that the real Ellen Kelly did at one point marry and have three more children with a man the same age as her eldest son.
“She is a sensual and sexual being, and deeply feminine,” adds Davis. “[The love] between her and her son is not necessarily Oedipal—though it might be from his point of view—but it’s deep and sensual and proud. It’s also love that’s like being entranced by a snake charmer: ‘Don’t even think about leaving me, because if you do, you will have become one of them, and I’ll take you down.’”
For MacKay, who also spoke with Fortune by phone, Ned’s relationship with Ellen became the core of the character, beneath the exploits and armor. “He loves that woman more than anything,” says the actor, 28. “And because of the failings of his father, he has become his mother’s man, as a young boy. In becoming a man for his mother, he’s then in turn stunted in his growth when he does eventually become a man.”
In Kurzel’s staging of events, Ned’s fateful attack on Glenrowan—a dizzyingly impressionistic climax to the film that strobes the screen in hot white flashes as bullets perforate the gang’s hideout—is seen as a response to his mother’s imprisonment by police. “The curse of Ned’s past is this commitment to his mother, which eventually is what runs him into the ground,” explains MacKay.
As he makes his last stand, Ned dons a suit of makeshift armor, fashioned from stolen plow moldboards, and charges out into a hail of bullets. It’s the first image that comes to mind for many Australians when they picture Kelly, who’s sometimes nicknamed “old buckethead.”
But throughout True History, Kurzel latches onto a very different kind of armor the outlaw and his gang wear during their most infamous exploits: namely, women’s clothing. In one early scene, Kelly gallops on horseback through the Australian wasteland, the camera pushing in until it’s clear that he’s clad in a scarlet chiffon gown; later, as the gang ambushes police officers during what would become known as the Stringybark Creek massacre, their dresses flow out behind them, consciously subverting the audience’s traditional notions of bushrangers as ruggedly, impenetrably male. This is a prominent invention of Carey’s book, though it’s not without grounding in historical fact; Steve Hart, a member of the Kelly gang, was notorious for wearing dresses in order to disguise his identity.
“As soon as we read that the gangs had worn these dresses, and that the dresses were also worn as a form of intimidation, it was really interesting,” says Kurzel. “For the actors, when they started putting on the dresses, it was incredible how liberated they became. It seemed to free them up. They weren’t constrained by who they were.”
When MacKay was first approached by Kurzel about the project, back in the summer of 2017, the actor was fascinated by the idea of complicating Ned Kelly’s myth in this way, specifically unpacking his status as a paragon of masculinity.
“Ned’s a symbol—who is therefore in some ways known by everyone but not known by anyone—and almost just his own silhouette and his own name,” explains MacKay. “Rather than trying to fill the boots of this massive, respected silhouette, the idea was almost to have a slightly ironic take on it, flip it on its head a little bit.”
MacKay spent two-and-a-half months down under, working with horses and studying Australian culture in preparation to play the bushranger. There are more biographies about Ned Kelly than any other Australian historical figure, and his story’s been told on screen nearly dozen times before—including in the world’s first feature film, 1906’s The Story of the Kelly Gang. Mick Jagger has played him, as has the late Heath Ledger. For MacKay, it became important to build his own version of the character absent the cocksure swagger past performers have brought to the role.
Hunnam as Sergeant O’Neil in “True History of the Kelly Gang.” Courtesy of IFC Films
“This is the most immersed I’ve ever been in a project and in building a character,” he says.
Financing fell out a little more than a week before production was set to begin, and Kurzel was forced to reimagine his story on half of its original budget. In the interim, MacKay took on another film, all the while continuing to toy with Ned in the back of his mind. Once the project came back together a few months later, the cast and crew had four weeks to rehearse before cameras rolled in Victoria. During that time, Kurzel put his actors—especially MacKay, Sean Keenan as Joe Byrne, Louis Hewison as Steve Hart, and Nick Cave’s son Earl as Ned’s younger brother Dan—through their paces in unexpected ways.
Outlining that he viewed the Kelly gang as a group of young punks, joined together against the establishment of their day, Kurzel told his leads on day one of rehearsal that he had booked them a gig a few weeks down the line, at the Gasometer Hotel in nearby Collingwood. As prep, they were to form a band, come up with a name, and write songs to play live. When the time came for their group (cheekily named Fleshlight) to perform before a crowd of almost 300, they did so raucously, wearing women’s dresses, ash streaked across their faces like war paint.
“He wanted to make this film in the spirit of what these men would have felt,” says MacKay, who says the director’s gambit paid off. When he and the other actors came to set a few days later, they felt fired up and thoroughly comfortable with one another.
That kind of intimacy was essential to re-creating the time period, notes Kurzel. “There weren’t many women, and men were spending a lot of time with each other,” he says. “When you look back, there was much more affection between men, much more comfort in being around men and hugging and naturally being close, no matter your sexual orientation.”
Kurzel acknowledges that those who lionize Kelly as a model of machismo will likely take issue with these playful, homoerotically charged elements of his film. But to the director, a massive draw of True History is that it interrogates a kind of masculinity particular to Australian men, whom he describes as overridingly “alpha” and inflexible.
“That kind of Australian masculinity can be quite toxic, so there was a little rebellion in the dresses,” he says. “Our film is a provocation. In Australia, Ned Kelly represents the classic, white, male, larrikin, masculine alpha. And he’s hailed in a certain way, through tattoos and beer. To learn they wore dresses, I thought, ‘Well, that’s bloody interesting.’”
Kurzel points out that, as sensational as certain elements of Ned Kelly’s life were, his cross-dressing should be especially far from a dealbreaker for those Down Under. Australian men still dress up in women’s clothes on occasion, especially at the end of football season.
“We have these things called Mad Mondays, where all the footballers let their hair down, drink, and dress up,” says Kurzel. “A good half of those footballers dress up as women. That’s always been very curious to me, that a place known for having the strongest kind of masculine, alpha culture would express itself on days off by dressing up as a woman. It’s almost a comfortable protest of their own masculinity.”
More must-read stories from Fortune:
—Hollywood artists are creating PPE for the medical community
—China’s movie theaters are closed again, causing anxiety for studios
—How Mrs. America designers revived a ’70s feminist showdown
—How movie theaters can make a comeback after the coronavirus pandemic has receded
—After Fleabag, Vicky Jones was ready to Run toward a tricky HBO thriller-comedy
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fortune--2020-04-23--Closed by coronavirus, businesses launch wave of lawsuits to force insurers to pay for lockdown loss

Closed by coronavirus, businesses launch wave of lawsuits to force insurers to pay for lockdown losses

A once-bustling bar and grill tucked below a Michigan Avenue overpass famously inspired a Saturday Night Live skit starring John Belushi and Bill Murray. But the money the Billy Goat Tavern is losing during the coronavirus outbreak is no joke.
The tavern and millions of other shuttered businesses nationwide have turned to their insurers to help recoup their losses following state-mandate closures, which combined may exceed $300 billion a month. But insurers have widely rejected the claims, so the Billy Goat joined a growing line of businesses, including barbershops and casinos, suing insurers to force them to pay.
“These businesses are in the most trying times in their history and are going to their insurance company to get what they paid for,” said Chris Esbrook, a lawyer for the landmark tavern, which opened in 1934 and, as legend goes, cursed the Chicago Cubs.
Insurers say policies for natural or man-made disasters don’t cover virus outbreaks that bring economies to a standstill, and high-stakes battles in courtrooms coast to coast are sure to follow. What’s at stake could be the survival of thousands of businesses if insurers don’t pay and the insolvency of big-name insurance companies if they do.
“Pandemic outbreaks are uninsured because they are uninsurable,” David A. Sampson, president of the American Property Casualty Insurance Association, said this month.
No revenue is flowing into the Billy Goat, which previously drew hundreds of tourists a day, including some who remember the best-known line from a series of late 1970s SNL skits in which restaurant staff rebuffs patrons ordering anything but the house specialties: “Cheezborger, cheezborger, cheezborger! No Coke … Pepsi!”
As many as 30 million small businesses straining to survive with little to no revenue could submit virus-related claims worth up to $430 billion, the insurance association estimated. Those unprecedented numbers would be multiple times higher than claims following the Sept. 11 attacks.
The expectation is that insurers will continue to reject the vast majority of claims, triggering waves of lawsuits from businesses in nearly every town and city. Such a filing frenzy could add to logjams in courts when they reopen fully after the pandemic eases.
Among dozens of lawsuits filed to date is one by the Choctaw Nation casinos in Oklahoma and another by the Los Angeles law firm of celebrity attorney Mark Geragos.
“You pay insurance for decades for precisely the unthinkable, and when it happens these insurance companies do the unconscionable” by rejecting claims, Geragos told The Hollywood Reporter.
Forcing insurers to pay hundreds of billions of dollars a month could quickly deplete the $800 billion set aside to cover future home, auto and other losses, according to the insurance association.
The attorney for the Billy Goat, which expanded from its flagship site to include establishments around Chicago, says he has little sympathy for insurers.
“They are in the business of selling people insurance for exactly this kind of situation,” Esbrook said. “They can’t now cry they’re poor when the very situation they are insuring arises.”
President Donald Trump recently expressed sympathy for businesses asking insurers to pay up for business interruption coverage.
“When they finally need it, the insurance company says, ‘We’re not going to give it,’” he said at a coronavirus task force news conference. “We can’t let that happen.”
Similar conflicts are playing out in Europe and Asia, though they aren’t likely to see the torrent of lawsuits sure to come in the litigious United States.
The question on which many cases will hinge is whether the presence of the virus in or near a business can be categorized as direct physical damage, something that would otherwise be clearly covered. It’s a question courts haven’t definitively answered.
Proving a microscopic virus was ever even on a business’s premises, never mind damaged it, could pose a challenge to plaintiff attorneys.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court last week may have inadvertently helped business owners make their case when it upheld a state order closing nonessential businesses during the pandemic, likening the coronavirus to hurricanes in its ruling.
“COVID-19 pandemic is, by all definitions, a natural disaster and a catastrophe of massive proportions,” the majority opinion said.
Insurance companies say most policies that cover unanticipated interruptions to a business’s operations specifically exclude pandemics. Such exclusions became more common after a SARS virus outbreak in the early 2000s devastated businesses in parts of Asia.
A message seeking comment from the insurer the Billy Goat is suing, Society Insurance, wasn’t returned.
A note to policyholders on the website of Travelers Indemnity, the insurer Geragos is suing, reads like a blanket denial of virus shutdown claims because they’re “not a result of direct physical loss or damage.” It also cites virus exclusions in its policies.
But such exclusions don’t mean businesses don’t have valid claims, the business lawyers contend. They point to separate policy provisions requiring that insurers pay losses when civil authorities intervene during emergencies and order businesses to close.
The Billy Goat Tavern’s legal team says their case may be that much stronger because their insurer did not write in a virus exclusion and then still denied coverage.
Pressure on insurers isn’t only coming in the form of lawsuits.
State lawmakers, including in Illinois, New York and New Jersey, have proposed laws that would dictate insurers accept business claims for coronavirus damage, in some cases even if policies exclude pandemics.
Industry advocates say such mandates could drain insurance funds needed to pay claims during upcoming hurricane season and when other natural disaster inevitably strike. The laws, they argue, also would undermine the contract law upon which free markets rely.
“If elected officials require payment for perils that were excluded, never underwritten for, and for which no premium was ever collected, catastrophic results will occur,” said Charles Chamness, president of the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies.
More coronavirus coverage from Fortune:
—These publicly traded companies took millions in PPP loan money
—How Home Depot and Lowe’s are preparing for their busy home improvement season during coronavirus uncertainty
—Which companies’ stocks will thrive after the coronavirus crash?
—Late payments soar, revealing extent of coronavirus pain on European companies
—5 veteran investors on how to approach the coronavirus stock market
—Forget “wet markets” and bats: For scientists, failing environmental policies have created a boom time for outbreaks
—Is A.I. better at diagnosing illnesses than doctors? Don’t believe all the hype
—PODCAST: COVID-19 might have upended the concept of the best companies of the year
—VIDEO: 401(k) withdrawal penalties waived for anyone hurt by COVID-19
Subscribe to Outbreak, a daily newsletter roundup of stories on the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on global business. It’s free to get it in your inbox.


fortune--2020-04-23--A storied venture capitalist won’t be joining Benchmark’s next fund

What a shakeup.
One of the most storied venture capitalists, Bill Gurley, will not be joining his firm Benchmark Capital as an investor in its next fund.
The 53-year-old investor, known for his bets in Uber, Stitch Fix, and Grubhub among others, won’t be a partner in Benchmark’s tenth fund, as first reported by the Wall Street Journal. Sources confirm to Term Sheet that the fund plans to raise about $425 million—some of which may be deployed to late stage or public tech companies in order to take advantage of lower valuations amid the coronavirus.
Gurley led Benchmark’s 2011 investment in Uber’s $11 million Series A round—a deal that’s led to massive gains for the firm despite the exhausting legal fallout. And in recent years, Gurley has been known for his outspoken views: He’s lambasted companies for staying private for too long, and more recently championed direct listings.
Granted, Gurley is expected to still be involved in Benchmark. He is still on the board of some 11 companies and is expected to continue influencing investing decisions. And while such a move typically signals a shift towards retirement for venture capitalists—he will continue to influence in Silicon Valley.
“Given his insatiable curiosity I’m sure he has plenty more ideas to come,” says Stitch Fix CEO and founder Katrina Lake. Gurley was an early investor in the firm and now sits on the board.
Benchmark’s tenth fund will be managed by four general partners, at least from the outset: Peter Fenton, Eric Vishria, Sarah Tavel, and Chetan Puttagunta.
How to walk away from an acquisition: That’s a huge question as the pandemic razes valuations, especially in the retail and hospitality sectors.
Retail and consumer private equity firm Sycamore Partners is seeking to end its takeover of Victoria’s Secret, per a lawsuit filed by Sycamore in Delaware court Wednesday.
Just before the coronavirus hit the country full force, Sycamore agreed to acquire a majority stake in Victoria’s Secret, from L Brands, for $525 million. But as the pandemic hit, Sycamore tried to renegotiate at a lower price—which didn’t work, per reports.
Interestingly enough, the acquisition agreement specifically excluded pandemics from being a “material adverse effect” that could instantly kill the deal. So Sycamore is arguing that Victoria’s Secret violated terms by furloughing employees and making other changes related to the coronavirus that don’t follow the “ordinary course” of business.
L Brands says it will “vigorously defend the lawsuit and pursue all legal remedies to enforce its contractual rights.”
Lessons from Seattle: The west-coast city was the first epicenter of the coronavirus in the U.S—and it’s been surprisingly successful at containing the pandemic compared to other cities, thanks in part to strong coordination between government and mega corporations. So how do you flatten the curve, and hopefully keep it flat? Senior writer Erika Fry has an excellent conversation with executive editor Adam Lashinsky (over Zoom) about what it takes.
VENTURE DEALS
- Noah, a San Francisco-based company for equity sharing contracts among homeowners, raised $150 million in funding. Institutional investors including pension funds participated.
Accent Therapeutics, a Lexington, Mass.-based biopharmaceutical company developing treatments for cancer patients, raised $63 million in Series B funding. EcoR1 Capital led the round, and was joined by investors including GV, AbbVie Ventures, The Mark Foundation for Cancer Research, NS Investment, and Droia Ventures.
- SwanBio Therapeutics, a Bala Cynwyd, Penn.-based developer of adeno-associated virus based gene therapies for neurological diseases, raised $51 million in expanded Series A funding. Syncona was the investor.
- Nitrome Biosciences, a San Francisco, Calif.-based biopharmaceutical company targeting Parkinson’s disease and other age-related disorders, raised $38 million in Series A funding. Sofinnova Partners and AbbVie Ventures led the round, and were joined by investors including Dementia Discovery Fund, Mission Bay Capital, and Alexandria Venture Investments.
- FreeWire Technologies, a San Leandro, Cali.f-based maker of power solutions for the grid edge, raised $25 million in Series B and venture debt funding. Existing investor BP Ventures led the round, and was joined by existing investors including ABB Technology Ventures and Energy Innovation Capital.
- Fishtown Analytics, a Philadelphia-based company behind open-source data engineering tool dbt, raised $12.9 million in Series A funding. Andreessen Horowitz led the round. Read more.
- Peak, a Manchester, U.K.-based enterprise AI system, raised $12 million in extended Series A funding. MMC Ventures and Praetura Ventures led the round.
- MigVax Corp., an Israel-based biopharma firm which plans to develop a novel COVID-19 vaccine and is an affiliate of the The Migal Galilee Research Institute, raised $12 million in funding. OurCrowd led the round.
- Granulate, an Israel-based firm which aims to optimize infrastructure performance and costs through AI, raised $12 million in Series A funding. Insight Partners led the round.
- Laird Superfood, an Sisters, Ore.-based firm that creates plant-based food products, raised $10 million in funding. Danone Manifesto Ventures was the investor.
- Form, a Vancouver-based maker of AR-enhanced swim goggles, raised $8.5 million ($12M CAD) in Series A funding. Investors included Silicon Valley Bank. Read more.
- XRHealth, a Boston-based VR telemedicine platform, raised $7 million in funding. Investors include Bridges Israel, Flint Capital, and 20/20 HealthCare Partners. Read more.
- Hugo, a San Francisco-based connected meeting notes platform,raised $6.1 million in seed funding. Gradient Ventures led the round, and was joined by investors including Slack Fund, Founder Collective and Entrée Capital.
- DbVis Software, a Stockholm-based database management and analysis tool, raised €5.3 million ($5.7 million) in funding. Industrifonden and Fairpoint Capital led the round.
- Paige, a New York-based provider of computational pathology for the diagnosis and treatment of cancer, raised an additional $5 million in Series B funding. Goldman Sachs Merchant Banking Division invested, bringing the round total to $50 million.
- Comet.ml, a New York-based machine learning experimentation platform, raised $4.5 million from existing investors including Trilogy Equity Partners, Two Sigma Ventures, and Founder's co-op.
- Reworks, a Helsinki-based mobile games studio, raised €4 million ($4.3 million) in funding. EQT Ventures led the round, and was joined by investors including Play Ventures and Anton Gauffin, CEO of Huuuge Games.
- ampUp, a Cupertino, Calif.-based maker of electric vehicle charging tech, raised an undisclosed amount. Investors include SAIC Motors, Hyundai Motor Company, and Forest Ventures.
PRIVATE EQUITY
- Apollo Global Management, Oaktree Capital Management and BGH Capital are reportedly among those interested in restructuring Virgin Australia Holdings, per Reuters citing sources. Read more.
- Prometheus Group, backed by Genstar Capital, acquired WorkTech, a Cambridge, Mass.-based provider of contractor management and productivity solutions software. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
- Maxburg Capital Partners acquired a majority stake in Saracus Consulting, a German IT consultancy. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
OTHERS
- Medallia plans to acquire Voci Technologies, a Pittsburgh, Penn.-based speech-to-text startup, for $59 million in cash.
- Even Financial acquired LeapLife, a San Francisco-based insurtech platform and digital life insurance agency. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
- TapClicks acquired AdStage, a San Francisco-based provider of marketing and advertising intelligence solutions for campaign optimization. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
- Asklepios BioPharmaceutical acquired BrainVectis, a Paris-based gene therapy company focused on restoring brain cholesterol metabolism as a treatment for Huntington's disease. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
F+FS
- York Capital Management announced capital commitments of about $800 million for York Special Opportunities Fund III.
- Venrock raised $447 million via its Venrock Healthcare Capital Partners fund. Read more.
- Brewer Lane Ventures raised $120 million for its first fund. The fund is targeting $200 million. Read more.
PEOPLE
- York Private Equity hired Harish Nataraj as a Managing Director. He was previously Partner and Managing Director at Angelo Gordon’s Private Equity Group.
- Mayfield Equity Partners promoted Paul Reading to Managing Director.


fortune--2020-04-23--Divided Europe can’t decide how to save itself as it meets to design $2 trillion coronavirus recover

Divided Europe can’t decide how to save itself as it meets to design $2 trillion coronavirus recovery plan

More than 100,000 people are dead, the euro area is headed for its deepest ever recession — and Europe’s leaders are still talking about what to do.
It’s a strange way to tackle their worst emergency since World War II when it’s already been going on for a couple of months. But in the European Union it seems it can’t be any other way. Even a 2 trillion-euro ($2.2 trillion) recovery plan drawn up by the bloc’s civil service may take months before it sees the light of day. If it does at all.
While such a way of operating seems baffling to those more used to watching individual governments at work, European insiders insist it’s all part of a necessary process. The national leaders who will hold a videoconference Thursday afternoon have conflicting priorities and, in many cases, voters ready to give them a kicking if they’re seen giving away too much, however noble the cause.
And yet, it’s a riddle that all of them have to find a common way to solve — whether you are Mark Rutte of the fiscally conservative Netherlands or Giuseppe Conte of heavily indebted Italy, or even Viktor Orban, who has restricted democratic freedom in Hungary.
So it’s no surprise that two months and four virtual meetings on from the first coronavirus death in Europe, expectations are low.
Finance ministers have lined up a 540 billion-euro package, unprecedented in itself, to address the continent’s immediate needs. Progress on the longer-term rebuilding program is likely to be incremental at best.
Officials with knowledge of the preparations said that while agreement is growing around the perimeter of a economic recovery plan, squabbling over the details will probably be the dominant feature. And they won’t set deadlines.
That doesn’t mean that, slowly but surely, a compromise isn’t emerging. It always does.
“Everyone is aware that the future of the EU is at stake in how we respond to this extraordinary crisis,” French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said at a briefing in Paris on Tuesday. “All we’ve done to support our economies will be useless if we aren’t able to decide on a massive, immediate and simple stimulus.”
Europe is entering what is projected to be the steepest recession in living memory and the timing of the recovery will depend on factors largely outside the control of policy makers, such as the availability of a vaccine or a cure for the disease.
The fallout from the pandemic is once more tearing at the fabric that holds the disparate group of nations together. That was the case in the Greek crisis a decade ago, with the 2015 influx of more than a million refugees and most recently with Brexit.
In short, the EU’s been caught in the jaws of a permanent existential crisis for years and the process of staving off such threats can seem bewilderingly slow.
As the death toll increases, ideas about how to take on such an unprecedented menace have already been batted back and forth between leaders, their finance chiefs, envoys in Brussels and the bloc’s often lampooned bureaucracy.
At the heart of the discord over financing the recovery lie diverging views over how the EU should really work. Hard-hit southern countries like Italy and Spain are demanding joint debt issuance — to spread the financial strain across the whole bloc — but a group of governments led by Germany and the Netherlands has rejected this over fear that they’d be stuck with the bill.
Sticking Plasters
In an effort to bridge the gap, France proposed a temporary fund financed by joint issuance, but operated for only a few years to kick-start the economy. That’s the structure that leaders are converging on, but it’s still not clear whether it will achieve what France (and many other countries) are hoping for.
The Germans and the Dutch want to offer low-interest loans which would still leave highly indebted countries saddled with even more liabilities. French officials said this week that however the fund is structured, it has to offer handouts not loans. There is also still debate on the size of the fund, how it will be financed and what the money will be spent on.
With the issue of joint debt unresolved, focus has shifted to another program: the EU’s seven-year budget that’s set to kick in in January. That’s the only significant option in the EU toolkit for making direct transfers of public money from one country to another.
For that reason, talks on the longterm budget are notoriously acrimonious and it’s all the more complex this time round as the U.K.’s departure from the EU that has left a hole in its finances.
“The instrument we can do it with is the EU budget. It must be possible to do things quickly in a crisis situation and then of course conduct a refinancing in the years after,” German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said in an interview with ZDF television Thursday. “That’s the best way to do it and it’s in line with European treaties, which is also very important.”
While leaders have not yet received any specific proposals, the commission is floating a plan to mobilize about 2 trillion euros using both the next seven-year budget and a new financing mechanism. The compromise proposal was set out in an internal commission document seen by Bloomberg News.
Any solution must “be dedicated to deal with this unprecedented crisis” EU Council President Charles Michel, who will chair the discussion, said in a letter to leaders. “It should be of sufficient magnitude, targeted toward the sectors and geographical parts of Europe most affected.”
More must-read international coverage from Fortune:
—Controversy around privacy splits Europe’s push to build contact-tracing apps
—Crude math: Why $10 oil could be worth less than nothing
—Why China will recover faster from the coronavirus pandemic than the U.S.
—Coronavirus lockdown diets look the same the world over
—Listen to Leadership Next, a Fortune podcast examining the evolving role of CEO
—WATCH: The global crisis in recycling
Catch up with Data Sheet, Fortune’s daily digest on the business of tech.


fortune--2020-04-23--Bill Gates explains how to beat the coronavirus pandemic

Bill Gates has offered his most comprehensive take yet on the coronavirus pandemic—and it’s strikingly optimistic. The 6,000–word “memo,” as the billionaire philanthropist calls it, which was posted on his GatesNotes blog this morning, lays out in plain-spoken language why the pandemic spread so quickly (and differently) around the world, why we didn’t “overreact” in our response, and what we still need to learn in order to lessen the damage.
Gates is candid about the challenges “the first modern pandemic” will continue to bring. “Every week,” he writes, “you will be reading about new treatment ideas that are being tried out, but most of them will fail.” Nonetheless, he is characteristically upbeat about how the world will get through this ordeal—and that’s through a collective can-do spirit. The word “can,” by my count, appears thirty times in his essay: with verb teams like “can work,” “can accelerate,” “can be scaled up,” and “can save trillions” driving his argument forward from the start.
That spirit, in turn, will inevitably drive optimism—just as it did in the last great war the world endured. “During World War II, an amazing amount of innovation including radar, reliable torpedoes, and code-breaking helped end the war faster,” Gates writes. “This will be the same with the pandemic.” The novel coronavirus has pit “all of humanity against the virus,” he says. “This is like a world war, except in this case, we’re all on the same side.”
While the loss of life and economic damage have been staggering, he writes: “Everyone can work together to learn about the disease and develop tools to fight it. I see global innovation as the key to limiting the damage. This includes innovations in testing, treatments, vaccines, and policies to limit the spread while minimizing the damage to economies and well-being.”
For the 64-year-old Gates, who has spent much of the past quarter-century waging war on infectious diseases in the poorest regions of the planet—and who has spent close to $50 billion of his own money doing so—such optimism isn’t mere rhetoric. It’s fuel. Indeed, that fuel, as I wrote in my profile of Gates last April, has powered efforts that have vastly reduced childhood deaths from malaria, diarrheal disease, tuberculosis, and other age-old scourges and has brought polio, once endemic in 125 countries, to the brink of eradication.
To fight the latest pandemic, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is continuing to find and fund promising scientific efforts to develop treatments for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, as well as create viable vaccines. Already the global effort is sprawling, with more than 100 research groups doing work on each. “We are funding a subset of these but tracking all of them closely,” Gates says. “It is key to look at each project to see not only its chance of working but also the odds that it can be scaled up to help the entire world.”
Some other key takeaways from his memo:
On the exponential rise and decline of coronavirus infection:
“A lot of people will be stunned that in many places we will go from hospitals being overloaded in April to having lots of empty beds in July…As we get into the summer, some locations that maintain behavior change will experience exponential decline. However, as behavior goes back to normal, some locations will stutter along with persistent clusters of infections and some will go back into exponential growth.”
On how blood plasma from survivors may help:
“One potential treatment that doesn’t fit the normal definition of a drug involves collecting blood from patients who have recovered from COVID, making sure it’s free of the coronavirus and other infections, and giving the plasma to people who are sick…A variant of this approach is to take the plasma and concentrate it into a compound called hyperimmune globulin, which is much easier and faster to give a patient than unconcentrated plasma. The foundation is supporting a consortium of most of the leading companies that work in this area to accelerate the evaluation and, if the procedure works, be ready to scale it up.”
On the challenges of vaccines:
“Many of the vaccine approaches will fail because they won’t generate a strong enough immune response to provide protection. Scientists will get a sense of this within three months of testing in humans by looking at the antibody generation. Of particular interest is whether the vaccine will protect older people, whose immune systems don’t respond as well to vaccines.”
Please be sure and read the Gates’ full essay here.
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Dive into stories from Fortune’s print edition:
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—How each industry is fueling the U.S. unemployment rate in one chart
—What we can learn from China’s color-coded apps for tracking the coronavirus
—The retailers that are smartest about tech will finish on top after the coronavirus
—Big Pharma has the chance to come to the world’s rescue
—More surveillance and less privacy will be the new normal after the coronavirus
—WATCH: Ford CEO Jim Hackett on the company’s pivot to combat coronavirus
Subscribe to Outbreak, a daily newsletter roundup of stories on the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on global business. It’s free to get it in your inbox.


fortune--2020-04-23--Elective surgeries—mostly paused due to the pandemic—are critical to hospital finances

In these times of crisis, you might expect that hospitals are raking in the profits. After all, they are, literally, on the front lines of dealing with the pandemic. Wouldn’t it make sense that they’re also reaping the rewards?
The reality is far more complicated. The COVID-19 outbreak’s effect on the hospital industry has been harsh. Two of the country’s largest health systems, Tenet Healthcare and HCA Healthcare, have seen their stock value decline 30% to 50% so far this year.
That’s a significantly worse outcome compared to broader markets. Financial pressure has led to a dynamic wherein a critical medical sector has had to consequently lay off workers—while still expected to lead the charge in the midst of a crisis.
One driving reason is a monumental decrease in major hospital systems’ most profitable enterprises: so-called elective surgeries.
To parse the terminology: An elective surgery isn’t necessarily a cosmetic or purely optional surgery. It can be an operation scheduled in advance to improve your quality of life, according to Johns Hopkins. That might not be an immediately life-threatening event—but that doesn’t mean it’s insignificant. The range of elective procedures could be anything from removing a kidney stone to hip replacements to biopsies for cancer patients.
Such elective procedures were initially paused given space constraints at medical facilities and the public health risks of exposing people to the coronavirus. But the downstream financial effects have been significant. Elective surgeries bring in, on average, $700 more per patient admission than an emergency room stay, according to one study conducted by George Washington University researchers.
On Tuesday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that certain hospitals in the state (ones outside of New York City, the current epicenter of U.S. coronavirus cases) could “resume performing elective outpatient treatments on April 28.” He’s not alone—Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said earlier this week that certain outpatient procedures could begin resuming within a week in accordance with new federal government guidelines.
These announcements come with a whole lot of caveats. For instance, 19 of New York’s 62 counties will still face restrictions when it comes to such procedures, and individual hospitals will be subject to metrics such as recent COVID-19 hospitalizations.
The perfect storm of factors is hitting the industry hard.
“Lost revenue is due in large part to the cancellation of nonemergent care and the deferral of other nonurgent treatments and visits,” a spokesperson for the American Hospital Association, the industry’s main trade group, told Fortune. “Decisions about these procedures should be determined at the state, local, and community level in consultation with hospitals and the clinical recommendations of physicians and nurses.”
In short: Hospitals are in a precarious position as they’re overwhelmed with coronavirus patients and been forced to put their biggest moneymakers on the back burner. And that’s not a purely financial problem—it’s a personnel issue too.
“This strain has resulted in some hospitals having to furlough or lay off health care workers to respond to this public health crisis,” an AHA spokesperson said.
More coronavirus coverage from Fortune:
—These publicly traded companies took millions in PPP loan money
—How Home Depot and Lowe’s are preparing for their busy home improvement season during coronavirus uncertainty
—Which companies’ stocks will thrive after the coronavirus crash?
—Late payments soar, revealing extent of coronavirus pain on European companies
—5 veteran investors on how to approach the coronavirus stock market
—Forget “wet markets” and bats: For scientists, failing environmental policies have created a boom time for outbreaks
—Is A.I. better at diagnosing illnesses than doctors? Don’t believe all the hype
—PODCAST: COVID-19 might have upended the concept of the best companies of the year
—VIDEO: 401(k) withdrawal penalties waived for anyone hurt by COVID-19
Subscribe to Outbreak, a daily newsletter roundup of stories on the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on global business. It’s free to get it in your inbox.