fortune--2020-08-07--‘A strange power’: The secretive Presidential committee that could kneecap TikTok

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President Trump issued an executive order on Thursday that could bar U.S. citizens from transacting with TikTok, the wildly popular Chinese-owned video sharing app. The move follows a recent declaration by Trump that Microsoft—which is in talks to buy TikTok—should pay a kickback of sorts to the U.S. Treasury for facilitating the proposed deal.
All of this is extraordinary from a business and geo-political perspective, and raises the question of how the President is able to level such pressure on companies like TikTok in the first place. The answer lies with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, an obscure but powerful body that has taken on vast new influence under the Trump Administration.
The committee—known by its unmelodic acronym CFIUS (“Siff-ee-us”)— is unfamiliar even to many lawyers and government officials. But legal experts familiar with its operations explained to Fortune how CFIUS emerged from obscure 1970s origins to a force that is now reshaping U.S. commerce.
A Ford-era relic reborn
CFIUS is led by the U.S. Treasury Secretary and composed of the heads of nine powerful agencies, including the Pentagon, the Justice Department and the Department of Energy. Several White House offices, including the National Security Council also participate in CFIUS business, while other agencies, including the Department of Agriculture, are reportedly vying for a seat at the table.
The committee has the power to block or unwind deals involving foreign investors, and the President of the United Sates has ultimate authority over its decisions. CFIUS does not have to share reasons for its decrees—or even disclose their existence.
CFIUS has been around for decades but, despite its formidable powers, the committee has received little attention until recently.
“CFIUS was pretty lethargic for a long time,” explains Amy Westbrook, a law professor who has written about its evolving role.
Westbrook—who describes CFIUS investigations as “a strange power”—notes that the committee came into existence under President Gerald Ford amid concern about foreign companies obtaining leverage over U.S. oil supplies, but that it only received a formal mandate from Congress in 1988.
“As a country we like to think of ourselves as very open on foreign investment,” says Westbrook, adding that people long thought of CFIUS—to the degree they thought about it all—in the context of select industries like airlines or weapons.
The committee briefly received national attention in 2006 when members of Congress—with 9/11 in mind—called on the Bush Administration to use CFIUS to block the sale of American ports to an entity owned by the United Arab Emirates. The controversy fizzled out, however, after the UAE company voluntarily gave up its plans for the ports.
CFIUS would make news again six years later in an episode that underscored both the power and the secrecy of the committee. The episode in question involved the construction of Chinese-built wind farms in coastal Oregon, which led the U.S. Navy to call on President Obama to stop the project.
The Obama Administration did exactly that, giving the U.S. company that had commissioned the wind farms only 90 days to unwind the project, all without providing an explanation for the decision or the process behind it. The company sued over the process but the case settled quietly.
Such interventions, though, have been a rarity—until 2018 that is. That year coincided with growing tensions between President Trump and China, and with a new law that expanded the scope of CFIUS oversight. The targets of the new law, called FIRMMA, include real estate transactions and those involving personal data. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said final FIRMMA regulations, issued in January, “strengthen national security and modernize the investment review process”—though the measures fell short of what China hawks like Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fl) have called for.
In any event, the expansion of CFIUS appears to have facilitated the Trump Administration’s investigations into TikTok’s operations, which have been underway since 2019.
The specific legal transaction driving the CFIUS investigation has been the purchase by TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, of the app’s predecessor, Musical.ly. The latter was a Shanghai-based company with an office in Santa Monica, California, which acquired numerous U.S. based companies.
Thanks to CFIUS, President Trump has the power to order Byte Dance to unwind the Musical.ly transaction and divest itself of U.S. customers. While TikTok has threatened to sue over the Trump Administration’s new executive order, citing lack of due process, it’s unclear if the company would have a case.
‘National security’ evolves from oil to social media data
In the last two years, CFIUS has morphed from an occasional concern to a fixture for lawyers overseeing foreign investment in the U.S.
“Since the law changed and expanded, my guess is there have been 200 filings this year alone,” says Veny Simidjiyska, a corporate attorney with Fox Rothschild.
The filings are not just tied to transactions involving geo-political rivals like China, but for investments made by investors from the U.K. and other U.S. allies.
Simidjiyska added that it’s impossible to know the precise number of filings since CFIUS provides little or no data about its activities. Likewise, she says there is little formal guidance about who or what is driving CFIUS interventions such as the one in the TikTok case. But the source of investigations is not hard to guess.
“Officially we don’t know how decisions and directions are passed down to CFIUS, but unofficially it’s pretty obvious the instructions are from Congress or the President,” says Simidjiyska.
Byte Dance’s purchase of Musical.ly is not the only recent transaction to land in the cross-hairs of CFIUS. Other conspicuous interventions have involved the gay dating site Grindr and the medical site Patients Like Me, both of which were bought by Chinese companies.
Simidjiyska notes that Grindr and Patients Like Me’s possession of sensitive personal data has made them a national security concern—not least because that data could be fodder for blackmail by foreign governments.
In response, she says her firm has been advising clients to be more pro-active in seeking approval from CFIUS for transactions.
A go-ahead notice from CFIUS can be a critical legal shield for companies in the future. If a company fails to seek one, the transaction can be subject to a sudden order of unwinding down the road—the very threat that appears to be looming over TikTok.
Perhaps the most striking aspect of the CFIUS process is the total lack of transparency. For other corporate deals that are subject to federal oversight—notably for antitrust concerns—there are a long-established legal regimes that set out the rules involved, and a process for companies to challenge them.
CFIUS, by contrast, is a black box since its decisions are nominally informed by national security concerns. But in the case of some CFIUS investigations, there may be other considerations at play. Westbrook, the law professor, says knows of at least one recently scuttled merger where he thinks board members for one firm may have used the specter of a CFIUS investigation as a “poison pill” of sorts to get out of the deal.
Both Westbrook and Simidjiyska say the CFIUS regime should feature more transparency, in part because foreign investors are wary of triggering an investigation—including a politically driven one—and seeing their deals unravel unexpectedly.
“The opacity of the process is disturbing,” says Westbrook. “There’s a great deal of opportunity for mischief.”
More must-read finance coverage from Fortune:


fortune--2020-08-07--What to watch this weekend on Netflix, broadcast TV, and more

Why are Black-owned businesses twice as likely to close during the pandemic ?

Between traditional television, video-on-demand releases, and a growing number of streaming services, it can be hard to keep up with what one should watch week to week. Fortune is here to help you keep track of new releases as well as the occasional older title worth checking out. Take a look at this weekend’s notable arrivals, a couple you may have missed earlier in the week, and what else is coming soon:
Netflix
Netflix’s “Nailed It! Mexico” is hosted by Omar Chaparro, center, who with head judge Anna Ruiz, judges home bakers in Mexico with terrible track records, who take a shot at re-creating edible masterpieces.
Nailed It! Mexico: The second season of the Mexico-based version of this baking competition returns Aug. 7, with some potentially epic cake fails.
Work It: Seeking a new teen dance comedy in your life? This new flick starring Sabrina Carpenter and Liza Koshy will be on the streaming service Aug. 7.
Wizards: Tales of Arcadia: The final installment of the Guillermo del Toro animated Tales of Arcadia trilogy comes to Netflix Aug. 7, bringing everything “full circle.”
Some other new titles on Netflix this weekend include The Magic School Bus Rides Again Kids in Space; Selling Sunset (season 3), and Tiny Creatures (season 1).
Earlier this week, docuseries Immigration Nation also arrived on the streaming service.
On TV
Dakota Fanning and Luke Evans in TNT’s “The Alienist: Angel of Darkness.” Kata Vermes—TNT
The Alienist: Angel of Darkness concludes on TNT on Aug. 9 at 9 p.m. Read Fortune’s interview with production designer Ruth Ammon here.
HBO’s Perry Mason, which has now been renewed for a second season, will close out its current season on Aug. 9 at 9 p.m. ET (and can also be streamed via the HBO and HBO Max apps). Read Fortune’s interview with the series’ production and costume designers here.
Surviving Jeffrey Epstein will air in two parts on Aug. 9 and 10 on Lifetime at 8 p.m. ET.
HBO Max
Sarah Snook and Seth Rogen star in HBO’s “An American Pickle.” Hopper Stone—HBO
Comedy film An American Pickle, starring Seth Rogen as a 1920s Polish immigrant who falls into a vat of pickle brine and emerges from it a century later (encountering his great-grandson…also played by Rogen), debuted on the streamer Thursday.
Peacock
Thursday also saw the debut of U.K. comedy series Hitmen, starring Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins (of Great British Baking Show fame), on Peacock.
On VOD
The Tax Collector: The film starring Shia LaBeouf and Bobby Soto as “tax collectors” for a crime lord arrives on VOD Aug. 7. (The reviews are not particularly strong for this one.)
The Secret Garden: A new adaptation of the beloved Frances Hodgson Burnett novel, starring Colin Firth, Julie Walters, and Dixie Egerickx, will be on VOD Aug. 7.
Additional VOD titles out Aug. 7 include: Waiting for the Barbarians (also a bit poorly reviewed), Made in Italy; Black Water: Abyss; She Dies Tomorrow; and Out Stealing Horses.
Coming soon
The newest season of sports documentary series Hard Knocks comes to HBO on Aug. 11, this time focusing on the Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers.
Australian comedy-drama series Five Bedrooms will come to Peacock on Aug. 13.


fortune--2020-08-07--This moon landing video is fake

This moon landing video is fake

Former Richard Nixon sounds pained as he delivers the speech that he probably dreaded ever giving. In somber tones, Nixon reveals that the Apollo 11 moon landing mission has failed and astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin have been lost.
“In ancient days, men looked at stars and saw their heroes in the constellations. In modern times, we do much the same, but our heroes are epic men of flesh and blood,” Nixon says in a video of the speech. “Others will follow, and surely find their way home. Man’s search will not be denied. But these men were the first, and they will remain the foremost in our hearts.”
No, you say, Armstrong and Aldrin weren’t lost—they made it to the moon and back again. “One small step for man” and all that. What in the world is this Nixon video?
Turns out it is a fake, a deepfake, as we now call A.I.-manipulated media. MIT’s Center for Advanced Virtuality created the false Nixon video using an A.I. app that combines real footage with an actor’s reading of an unused speech that was actually prepared in case tragedy struck. The video, titled In the Event of Moon Disaster, was cooked up last year, but the MIT team put it online this week to mark the 51st anniversary of the July 20, 1969 moon landing.
The MIT team says it’s meant to serve as a warning of the coming wave of impressively realistic deepfake false videos about to hit us that use A.I. to convincingly reproduce the appearance and sound of real people (you may remember this deepfake of former President Obama from a few years ago).
“It’s our hope that this project will encourage the public to understand that manipulated media plays a significant role in our media landscape, and that with further understanding and diligence we can all reduce the likelihood of being unduly influenced by it,” project co-leader Halsey Burgund says in a statement accompanying the video.
But my fear is just the opposite. Making such a convincing false video is an encouraging road map for those who would pollute the public discourse with deepfake “evidence.” Reuters recently uncovered deepfake photos of a freelance op-ed writer who seemingly doesn’t exist, for instance. Strap in, it’s going to be a bumpy ride for the truth over the next few years.
Aaron Pressman
@ampressman
aaron.pressman@fortune.com
This edition of Data Sheet was curated by David Z. Morris. Check out The Ledger, the fintech newsletter he edits weekly.
NEWSWORTHY
Facebook (finally) slaps down disinformation trolls. Late Thursday, Facebook announced that it was banning hundreds of accounts that were part of a foreign "troll farm." The fake accounts posed as Black supporters of Donald Trump and supporters of the unhinged Qanon conspiracy theory, which the President and his allies have repeatedly referenced. Accounts associated with far-right website The Epoch Times were also banned. The bans came just one day after Facebook, for the first time, deleted a post by President Trump that contained misinformation about the coronavirus.
Blackstone Group to buy Ancestry.com for $4.7 billion. The private equity firm announced late Thursday that it will buy Ancestry.com for a reported $4.7 billion. The deal represents a big (huge) bet on consumer DNA services, which can both help trace family trees and identify potential health risks. Blackstone may be shouldering a lot of risk, though—privacy concerns have begun to erode consumer appetite for products like Ancestry’s, and Ancestry in March laid off a substantial number of staff.
Nintendo turns a billion-dollar profit. When is a story about coronavirus? When it’s about Animal Crossing, apparently. The mobile game sold 10.6 million copies for Nintendo, helping the Japanese videogame titan pull off its best Q2 in 12 years. Sales of the Switch platform also surged so sharply amid global lockdowns that brief shortages and eBay flippers emerged.
Google discontinues Pixel 4 before announcing next generation. Google has announced the discontinuation of the Pixel 4 and Pixel 4XL, its flagship phones. Strangely, this comes just ten months after the phones were released. Google says it is sold out of inventory of its fourth generation phones, though some might still be available at retailers. Gizmodo reasonably speculates that the surprising move may be due to global supply chain disruptions. Google has said the Pixel 5 is on its way this fall, but it’s unknown when.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
‘[I]t’s really almost very hard to get commercial flights back [to Nebraska],’ LaPierre explained, and his niece’s husband ‘had to get back to work.’
This is from a sprawling complaint filed yesterday by New York Attorney General Laetitia James against NRA leadership. In this section, CEO Wayne LaPierre explained why he frequently chartered private jets to fly his niece and her husband to and from Nebraska using NRA funds—in one case, to babysit the couple’s children while the niece worked on NRA business.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Facebook deletes a Trump post for the first time ever By Barbara Ortutay
Can startups that tackle healthcare scale globally? By Jonathan Vanian
You car’s autopilot isn’t as good as you think By Tom Krisher
What would it be like if the internet suddenly went dark? By Robert Hackett
(Some of these stories require a subscription to access. Thank you for supporting our journalism.)
BEFORE YOU GO
Many poll workers are older, and will be rightly taking precautions against coronavirus this November. That leaves a huge need for younger or low-risk volunteers to replace them, since a lack of poll workers can cause voting delays. Axios has assembled an interactive map with information on how to volunteer in every state.


fortune--2020-08-07--Could the next ‘American Idol’ star come from TikTok?

“American Idol” creator Simon Fuller is turning to TikTok to find the next pop superstar, a sign of how much clout the controversial app has gained in the music world.
Fuller said Friday that he’ll conduct an audition process over TikTok, the short-form video app that has become a kingmaker in the music industry — and a focus of President Donald Trump’s widening crackdown on Chinese technology. He didn’t disclose how the auditions would take place, or whether they would be recorded for a television show, but Fuller has a long track record of marrying TV with pop music.
Already, record labels scour TikTok for new talent, looking to find the next Lil Nas X, Benee or Doja Cat — artists who gained stardom and millions of fans after their songs went viral on the app.
“With the help of the TikTok audience, I will bring together a lineup of incredible artists to shape the next level of pop fandom,” Fuller said in a statement.
After years of working as a record label executive and a manager of artists including the Spice Girls, Fuller created the British series “Pop Idol” in 2001. The competition show pitted aspiring musicians against one another in front of judges, including a record executive named Simon Cowell. Adapted for U.S. audiences into “American Idol,” the program became the most popular show in the nation. Along the way, host Ryan Seacrest, Cowell and many contestants turned into global celebrities.
Fuller has since formed a new company to manage entertainers and was the executive producer for “So You Think You Can Dance.”
The partnership with TikTok comes at a fraught moment for the company. Trump has threatened to ban the app, prompting its owner ByteDance to explore a sale of the U.S. version. On Thursday, Trump signed an executive order barring any transactions with its parent company starting in 45 days.
But TikTok has a loyal following among users in their teens and 20s, and its influence has only grown in the music industry.
“Together with Simon Fuller, we have the opportunity to find the next stars, many of whom are on TikTok today, and empower them to become a cultural phenomenon,” said TikTok Chief Executive Officer Kevin Mayer.


fortune--2020-08-07--How realistic is a 45-day sale for TikTok?

Good morning, Term Sheet readers. Tech writer Danielle Abril here, filling in for Lucinda.
I’m watching the clock as time ticks away for TikTok.
On Thursday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that would ban the social media app (plus separately Chinese-owned WeChat) in the U.S. if it isn’t sold within 45 days.
That’s left TikTok’s owner ByteDance with about six weeks to attract suitors, hammer out complex negotiations, and sign a deal.
Fortunately for TikTok, Microsoft is champing at the bit. Meanwhile, ByteDance CEO Zhang Yiming reportedly told its employees that leadership was working “around the clock” to achieve the “best outcome,” according to Bloomberg. But he believes the timeline is “unreasonable” and that Trump’s “real objective” is to move forward with a ban.
So how practical is Trump’s six-week deadline?
Two experts gave us some insight on the matter: Six weeks is fast, but how fast is debatable.
Adam Haller, a partner who leads Bain & Co.’s tech and M&A practices, said he’s seen deals get done in as quickly as two weeks, though that’s not necessarily the norm. “Every deal is unique, and every deal has its own complexities,” Haller said. “Forty-five days is quick but very much in the window of a normal deal.”
This deal may be a little more complicated, though, Haller added. Potential government inquiries or negotiations during the sale could delay the process.
Chris Griner, chair of the national security and compliance group at Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP, said he sees many acquisitions take an average of six months. In cases where there are national security concerns, the government sometimes requests that the company be put into a trust while it searches for a buyer. This helps mitigate the security risk without rushing a deal.
But there’s no two ways about it: TikTok’s sale defies the norm, Griner said. “You have to think of it more as a forced divestiture of a Chinese company,” he said. “That’s what differentiates it.”
Microsoft will likely spend the next few weeks reviewing TikTok’s finances and technical infrastructure and understanding how ByteDance intends to separate TikTok from its business. Microsoft will also have to figure out financing—will it involve a stock swap? Is it an all-cash deal? Does Microsoft need lenders?
And ByteDance will be trying to get the most money out of whatever company ultimately buys TikTok without dragging the process beyond the deadline. Then the deal has to get the blessing of the U.S. government.
Completing a deal like this one boils down to one thing, Griner says: “A lot of midnight oil for some lawyers.”
Danielle Abril
@DanielleDigest
danielle.abril@fortune.com
Anne Sraders curated today’s Term Sheet.
VENTURE DEALS
-Epic Games, the Cary, N.C.-based company that created popular video game Fortnite, raised $1.8 billion in funding, which includes a $250 million investment from Sony, from investors including BlackRock, Fidelity, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board, Baillie Gifford, T. Rowe Price Associates, KKR, Smash Ventures, and investor David Tepper. Read more.
-Aerovate Therapeutics, a Boston-based drug developer focused on rare cardiopulmonary disease, raised $72.6 million in Series A funding. Sofinnova Investments led the round, and was joined by investors including Atlas Venture, Cormorant Asset Management, Surveyor Capital, and Osage University Partners.
-Mode Analytics, a San Francisco-based advanced data analytics platform, raised $33 million in Series D funding. H.I.G. Growth Partners led the round, and was joined by investors including Valor Equity Partners, Foundation Capital, REV Venture Partners, and Switch Ventures.
-TemperPack, a Richmond, Va.-based thermal packaging company, raised $31.3 million in Series C funding. Wheatsheaf Group led the round, and was joined by investors including Revolution Growth, Harbert Growth Partners, SJF Ventures, Arborview Capital, Tao Capital, Third Prime Capital and Greenhouse Capital. Read more.
-AppHarvest, a Morehead, Ky.-based indoor farming and greenhouse operator, raised $28 million in Series C funding. Narya led the round, and was joined by investors including ValueAct Capital’s Spring Fund, Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, Equilibrium, Lupa Systems, Breyer Capital, S2G Ventures, Black Capital, and Endeavor Catalyst.
-Big Run Studios, an Oakland, Calif.-based online games developer, raised $5.3 million in seed funding. Transcend Fund led the round, and was joined by Galaxy Interactive.
-Obsidio, a Columbia, S.C.-based preclinical medical device developer focused on embolotherapy, raised $3 million in funding. IAG Capital Partners led the round, and was joined by investors including Good Growth Capital and angel investors.
-HyperQube Technologies, an Arlington, Va.-based platform that gives IT teams the ability to copy entire cloud networks for testing, raised $2.5 million in seed funding led by Leawood Venture Capital.
PRIVATE EQUITY
-OceanSound Partners recapitalized Netrix, a Bannockburn, Ill.-based cloud infrastructure and IT services platform for small and midsize enterprise companies. Financial terms were not disclosed.
-Alpenglow Rail and Connor, Clark & Lunn Infrastructure acquired USA Rail, a Texas-based rail terminals operator. Financial terms were not disclosed.
-Presidio Petroleum, owned by Morgan Stanley Energy Partners, acquired the oil and natural gas assets of Templar Energy, an Oklahoma City, Okla.-based oil and natural gas exploration and production company that recently filed for bankruptcy, as well as some affiliates in the Anadarko Basin. Financial terms were not disclosed.
-Northstar Capital invested in Yale Cordage, a Saco, Maine-based synthetic rope manufacturer owned by River Associates. Financial terms were not disclosed.
-Novacap acquired an interest in FortNine, a Montreal-based online marketplace for motorcycle and powersports gear. Financial terms were not disclosed
OTHERS
-Dan Friedkin, an American billionaire and CEO of The Friedkin Group, will buy AS Roma, a Serie A Italian football club for €591 million ($700 million). Read more.
-TGS has offered to buy the data library of its rival PGS, a Norway-based seismic surveyor, for $600 million.
-Q CELLS acquired Geli, a San Francisco-based energy storage systems software provider. Financial terms were not disclosed.
IPOS
-Jacobio Pharmaceuticals, a Beijing-based cancer treatment biotech, is planning an IPO in Hong Kong to raise up to $400 million, Bloomberg reports citing sources. Read more.
-Duck Creek Technologies, a Boston-based software platform for property and casualty insurers, plans to raise $300 million in an IPO by offering of 15 million shares priced between $19 and $21. The firm posted $171.3 million in sales and net losses of $16.9 million for the year ending August 2019. Apax (40.8% pre-offering), Accenture (25.9%), and Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management (8.5%) back the firm. It plans to list on the Nasdaq as “DCT”. Read more.
-PMV Consumer Acquisition, a Palm Beach, Fla.-based blank check company formed by the Gabelli Group, plans to raise up to $175 million in an IPO. It is targeting investments in the consumer industry with $200 million to $3.5 billion valuations. It plans to list on the NYSE as “PMVC.U”. Read more.
-Freeline Therapeutics, a U.K.-based clinical stage gene therapy company focused on liver diseases, raised $159 million in an IPO by offering 8.8 million American Depositary Shares (ADS) priced at $18. Syncona Portfolio Limited (64.7% pre-offering) and Novo Holdings (6.6%) are among the company’s backers. It plans to list on the Nasdaq as “FRLN”. Read more.
-ARYA Sciences Acquisition III, a New York City-based blank check company formed by Perceptive Advisors, raised $130 million in an IPO by offering 13 million shares priced at $10. It is targeting investments in healthcare. It plans to list on the Nasdaq as “ARYA”. Read more.
-Broadstone Net Lease, a Rochester, N.Y.-based single tenant commercial REIT in the U.S. and Canada, plans to raise up to $100 million in an IPO. It plans to list on the NYSE as “BNL”. Read more.
-IBEX, a Hamilton, Bermuda-based outsourced customer support services provider, raised $90 million in an IPO by offering 4.8 million shares priced at $19, lower than its expected range of $20 to $22. The Resource Group backs the firm. It plans to list on the Nasdaq as “IBEX.” Read more.
-Checkmate Pharmaceuticals, a Cambridge, Mass.-based clinical-stage biotech focused on immunotherapies for people living with cancer, raised $75 million in an IPO by offering 5 million shares priced at $15. It plans to list on the Nasdaq as “CMPI”. Read more.
EXITS
-Intercontinental Exchange (NYSE: ICE) agreed to acquire Ellie Mae, a Pleasanton, Calif.-based cloud-based mortgage lending platform, from Thoma Bravo, valuing the company at $11 billion.
-Marlin Equity Partners agreed to acquire Unifaun, a Stockholm-based cloud delivery solutions provider for transportation management, from Vitruvian Partners. Financial terms were not disclosed. Read more.
-ValueAct Capital Management has reportedly sold all of its 4.5% stake in Rolls-Royce Holdings, the U.K.-based aerospace engineering company, the Financial Times reports citing sources. Read more.
F+FS
-MetaProp, a New York City-based venture capital firm, plans to raise $200 million for its fund Growth Select I, according to a regulatory filing.
PEOPLE
-Silver Falcon Capital added Paul Funkhouser as a vice president. Funkhouser was previously at Houlihan Lokey and Piper Sandler.


fortune--2020-08-07--Eyeballs, asthmatics, and 3D-printed organs: New discoveries about COVID-19 abound

In general, the public’s interest in research related to COVID-19 is focused on a single issue: Is there a vaccine, and when is it going to be ready?
It’s a massive question, of course. But it is not the only one that scientists and medical experts are asking. Every day, researchers around the world are cranking out papers related to COVID-19—and the truth is, we are making progress in understanding this disease.
With more than 4.8 million cases and about 160,000 deaths in the U.S., the information their research is uncovering could not be more timely. Here are some of the most recent and interesting findings, drawn both from preprints—non-peer-reviewed articles—and published trials.
The eyes have it
Can the coronavirus infect us through our eyes? It appears likely. A team of Chinese researchers has mapped the genes for the ACE2 receptor (the specific protein that allows the virus to infect human cells) to the cornea of the eye.
These receptors are found also in the lungs, heart, gastrointestinal tract, kidneys, and elsewhere, but we now know they are in the eyes too. In fact, another team examined the eyes of deceased COVID patients and found that ACE2 receptors were located on both the surface and cornea of the eyes. The studies, published as preprints, don’t prove that someone could catch the virus from the eyes, but they certainly demonstrate that it’s possible.
This has important implications for all of us. As we mask up, eye-protective strategies may be a significant consideration. A recent, large systematic review published in The Lancet found that wearing eye coverings, like goggles, glasses or face shields, reduced COVID-19 and other viral transmission by nearly three times compared to individuals not wearing eye protection.
Hearts, attacked
Three studies released this month show that the coronavirus is infecting the hearts of some of its victims fairly commonly. That is a finding that bears watching.
According to a study published in JAMA Cardiology, autopsies of more than three dozen elderly victims of the disease showed that 61% of the patients’ hearts had virus present within the heart muscle. A German study, meanwhile, showed cardiac involvement in 78% of patients (average age 49) who had recently recovered from COVID-19. And a third study of 139 health care workers with past COVID-19 infection found a combined 40% incidence of heart inflammatory conditions, known as pericarditis or myocarditis, in those who were stable or asymptomatic nearly three months after their initial diagnosis. This is a bit unnerving.
Clearly, these studies are concerning for both the magnitude and apparent persistence of cardiac involvement in coronavirus patients. One of the next questions to answer is what the long-term consequences might be. Will surviving patients go on to develop heart failure, for example, or will their hearts fully recover? We just don’t know yet.
3D printing organs: It’s real
Although this sounds like something from a sci-fi movie, we now have the ability to 3D print human tissue. The process is known as 3D bioprinting.
Scientists have been able to 3D print living skin, complete with blood vessels, which one day will be helpful in treating burns and sizable wounds in patients. Now, as reported in the New York Times, researchers are 3D printing miniature organs for COVID-19—“thousands an hour”—in order to test potential medicines to combat the virus.
This is a remarkable development. These “organoids,” or tiny lungs and colons, may be used by laboratories to solve the COVID riddle.
Hand sanitizer versus soap
We’ve been told by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to wash our hands with soap and water when possible, rather than using hand sanitizer. But a new meta-analysis concludes differently. While both methods reduce germ transmission, the researchers state that direct and indirect evidence “suggest hand sanitizer might be more effective in practice.”
A word of caution, though: Some hand sanitizers have been labeled as containing ethanol, but they actually contain dangerous concentrations of methanol (also known as wood alcohol). These products, often made in Mexico, have been recalled by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) because of serious toxicity that can result in blindness, cardiac issues, seizures, and even death. Here’s a link to the FDA’s do-not-use list.
Potential good news for asthmatics
Although it has been suggested otherwise, surprisingly little evidence exists that asthmatics have higher infection rates of COVID-19, or more severe disease, than people without asthma.
A study published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology last month showed that asthma patients were no more likely to be hospitalized or experience higher mortalities than patients without asthma. Researchers wonder whether asthma patients’ younger age, fewer comorbid conditions like heart disease or diabetes, or use of inhaled steroids may play a role in modulating SARS-CoV-2 infectivity.
One study just released as a preprint did show somewhat higher inpatient mortality among asthmatic patients, but these patients were older and had more comorbidities than those without asthma, so the playing field wasn’t exactly level. The study also demonstrated that out of more than 71,000 patients with asthma, only 1.4% had contracted COVID-19.
That is an impressively low rate—and during these difficult times, it’s news worth sharing. COVID-19 is certainly a disease where we want to follow the science, and fortunately, scientists from around the globe are on the case.
Carolyn Barber has been an emergency department physician for 25 years, is cofounder of the homeless work program Wheels of Change, and is a nationally published author.


fortune--2020-08-07--Jobless rate sits at 10.2% as Congress debates replacement for expired $600 unemployment benefit

The unemployment rate dropped from 11.1% in June to 10.2% in July, as the economy added nearly 1.8 million jobs last month, soundly beating consensus estimates. Equities futures and the dollar gained on the news.
That marks a third straight month of solid hiring and a falling jobless rate after it topped out at 14.7% in April—the highest level since 1940.
This points to an economy that continues to rebound since states began easing lockdowns. The 10.2% unemployment rate, while still weak, comes in far better than the 10.6% consensus estimates of economists compiled by Bloomberg. The improvement will be good news for the White House, but it’s clear it will take years before the U.S. labor market returns to pre-pandemic levels.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) jobs report finds the total number of unemployed Americans stood at 16.3 million in July, much improved from the 23.1 million unemployed in April. But the number of Americans out of work is still around three times greater than the February figure (when 5.8 million were unemployed), and indicates the much-hoped-for V-shaped recovery is far from likely.
Jobless Americans were receiving an extra $600 weekly in unemployment benefits from the federal government. That benefit expired, however, without a replacement the week ending July 25.
Congress has yet to come to an agreement for extending or replacing the 600-buck supplement, which paid its final benefit for the week ending July 25. Democratic and Republican party leaders are making little progress in their talks for another stimulus package, and enhanced unemployment benefits are among the most disputed negotiating points in the bill. Democrats want the $600 benefit extended through the end of the year, while Republicans want it scaled back, arguing that it’s so generous it’s deterring the jobless from seeking work.
The July jobs numbers also show the economic slump is still hitting some communities harder than others. The jobless rate among white workers is 9.2%, compared with 12% for Asian workers, 12.9% for Hispanic workers, and 14.6% among Black workers. Among adult men, the rate is 9.4%, compared to 10.5% among adult women.
While the number of unemployed Americans is going down, the number of “permanently” unemployed Americans remained at 2.9 million in July. That number had risen in May and June as employers converted some of their furloughs into layoffs—something that could impede the recovery.
This official unemployment rate of 10.2% is likely undercounting the actual level of joblessness from July. The BLS defines the unemployed as people without jobs who are also looking for new positions. So laid-off workers who are receiving unemployment benefits but aren’t looking for a job, aren’t considered unemployed.
The report highlights other abnormalities in the labor market. For example, in July, the BLS found that 16.3 million Americans were unemployed. However, U.S. Department of Labor data finds 30.5 million were receiving the $600 enhanced unemployment benefit before it expired in July.


fortune--2020-08-07--18 anti-racist books that aren’t ‘White Fragility’

This is the web version of the Broadsheet, Fortune’s daily newsletter for and about the world’s most powerful women. To get it delivered daily to your in-box, sign up here.
Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Tish James takes on the NRA, Doris Buffett left a legacy of philanthropy, and we have some book suggestions. Have a relaxing weekend.
– Reading is fundamental. With the weekend at our doorstep, are you hoping to spend some time away from your screens—maybe even with a good book?
I have some suggestions to pass on, though I admit that none are the usual light beach fare many of us gravitate to this time of year. Then again—this is not exactly a typical year, and I suspect that this summer, as many of us are stocking our beach bags with anti-racist reading as with whodonits and frothy romance novels (though I love those too!).
The recs come from sociologist Tsedale Melaku, who I interviewed last month at a From Day One virtual event dedicated to workplace equity. Melaku is the author of You Don’t Look Like a Lawyer: Black Women and Systemic Gendered Racism, a book that explores the experiences of Black female attorneys and the many deeply-entrenched barriers that hold them back in the legal world.
One of the essential concepts laid out in Melaku’s book is the “invisible labor clause”—the requirement that Black women do additional, unseen and uncompensated work to “fit in” to traditionally white male arenas like corporate law firms—and the associated “inclusion tax,” in the form of time, money, and energy spent on those tasks. An example: spending hours (and dollars!) at the hair salon in order to have a style that a white institution deems “professional.”
Melaku is an academic, and the book is rich with theory and scholarly research. But she also spent hours interviewing Black female lawyers about their own experiences at work—and for me, that’s the beating heart of the text. The women, who are painfully candid with Melaku, share tales of being tagged a “diversity hire,” getting repeatedly passed over for good assignments and sponsorship, being mistaken for a secretary, feeling uncomfortable and excluded at work-related social events, biting their tongues at racist comments—the list goes on and on. And while the women interviewed are all attorneys, it’s easy to imagine that Black women in other segments of corporate America would relate.
Toward the end of our discussion, Melaku encouraged non-Black women who want to better understand—and begin dismantling—the systems that foster these experiences to educate themselves. Reading is one essential way to do that, she said (though she urged people to look beyond the wildly popular White Fragility!). Melaku’s book is obviously a great place to start, but she also helpfully provided a full reading list. Hopefully it will come in handy!
Of course, reading up is only one part of the puzzle: “Build your own knowledge base and then listen,” Melaku said. “It doesn’t hurt to listen.”
Kristen Bellstrom
kristen.bellstrom@fortune.com
@kayelbee
Today’s Broadsheet was curated by Emma Hinchliffe.
ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
- AG takes on NRA. New York Attorney General Letitia James announced yesterday a landmark lawsuit intended to completely dissolve the National Rifle Association. Her 18-month investigation found the gun rights organization to be "fraught with fraud and abuse." The NRA calls the lawsuit a "baseless premeditated attack." NPR
- Behind the billions. Doris Buffett, the older sister of Warren Buffett who led the family's philanthropy, died at 92 on Tuesday. Buffett directed her own money and her brother's toward the causes of education, mental health, poverty, and women fleeing domestic abuse. She also coined the term "S.O.B.'s" for the beneficiaries she wanted to avoid: symphonies, orchestras, and ballets. New York Times
- The VP race heats up. As some reports claim that Joe Biden's VP search in narrowing to Susan Rice and Sen. Kamala Harris, the WSJ notes that, though Rice has never held elected office, she has more experience in the corporate realm than the others on Biden's longlist of potential running mates. Rice sits on the board of Netflix and worked at McKinsey & Co.
- Graduation emotion. Malala Yousafzai's graduation from Oxford University this year wasn't exactly what she pictured. In this reflective piece, Yousafzai, the advocate for girls' education, writes about how school and university closures were so upsetting to students because education is about much more than studying. Vanity Fair
MOVERS AND SHAKERS: Carbon CMO Dara Treseder joins Peloton as SVP, head of global marketing and communications. Bon Appétit hired Sonia Chopra, former director of editorial strategy for Eater, as executive editor; meanwhile, three Bon Appétit video stars, including Priya Krishna and Sohla El-Waylly, announced they would leave the media brand's video operation over its compensation practices for people of color. Shannon Brayton, former CMO of LinkedIn, joins the board of Quizlet. Dena Mayne joins Ergotron as CMO. Andréa Richardson, former senior director for multicultural and diversity engagement for Hilton’s corporate communications and global affairs team, joins the Glover Park Group as SVP. Tara Donaldson, editorial director of Sourcing Journal, was named executive editor, WWD and head of diversity, equity and inclusion, Fairchild Media.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
- In the driver's seat. GM, led by CEO Mary Barra, last month launched a partnership with the Girl Scouts of America, encouraging girls to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and math. At a virtual event this week, Barra encouraged girls to enter the auto industry. "We need you," she said. Detroit Free Press
- Feeling it. Michelle Obama said on her podcast this week that she's feeling "some form of low-grade depression" because of quarantine, racial strife, and watching the "hypocrisy" of the Trump administration. "I've gone through those emotional highs and lows that I think everybody feels," the former first lady said. NPR
- Getting the GIG. What should Joe Biden be looking for in his vice president? "Leadership muscle," argue management professor Ella Bell Smith and writer Constance Hale. More than which voters these candidates will bring to the ticket, their "grit, influence, and grace"—or "GIG"—will be crucial in Biden's race, the pair write. Fortune
ON MY RADAR
Real-life horror stories from the world of pandemic motherhood New York Times
Getting divorced in the pandemic is complicated. For Orthodox Jewish women, there’s an additional obstacle The Lily
Pope appoints six women to top roles on Vatican council in progressive step Guardian
Witnessing nuclear carnage, then devoting her life to peace New York Times
PARTING WORDS
"I'm up in the bleachers, not on the field."
-Zendaya on contributing for the movement for racial justice as an actress, not a full-time activist


fortune--2020-08-07--Uber has a new training requirement for drivers

Following widespread complaints of rape and harassment on its service, Uber plans to require all of its U.S. and Canadian drivers to complete sexual assault and misconduct training.
Drivers will have to sit through six online videos about safety that are intended to reduce assaults and creepy behavior against passengers and drivers.
The new program comes eight months after Uber published its first-ever report detailing the number of murders and sexual assaults against both drivers and passengers. Between 2017 and 2018, 19 people using the service were murdered, and nearly 6,000 said they were sexually assaulted.
“We have taken bold actions for several years now,” Tracey Breeden, Uber’s head of women’s safety and gender-based operations, said about the new training program. “This is really about raising the bar and being consistent in the actions we’re taking.”
Drivers will have six months after reactivating their accounts—many drivers are currently inactive due to the coronavirus—to complete their training requirement. New drivers won’t have to complete the program until logging a minimum number of rides.
The ride-hailing giant’s new educational program was developed in partnership with the anti–sexual assault nonprofit Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN). It will start rolling out next week in English to active Uber drivers, with subtitles for Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, Mandarin, and French Canadian.
The new training videos feature Uber drivers who cover topics including respecting the privacy of others, conversational boundaries, respecting others’ personal space, sexual violence awareness, and bystander intervention.
Prior to the new training program, Uber drivers were required to agree to Uber’s community guidelines, which include sections about sexual misconduct and links to tools for reporting it. Those guidelines outline inappropriate behavior like winking, whistling, or commenting on appearances, along with providing links to an anti–sexual assault campaign created in partnership with a nonprofit organization.
In addition to reminding drivers about those policies, Uber’s new videos dive deeper into more nuanced issues like why it’s inappropriate to ask someone if they’re married. Also, the videos counsel drivers against asking whether passengers are on their way home, which would provide insight into that person’s home address.
“This training [includes] those subtle things that create an environment where people feel unsafe,” said Breeden, who worked for 15 years in law enforcement prior to joining Uber.
Uber has been working with anti–sexual assault organizations since 2017 on training for riders and drivers. In 2017, the company committed $5 million to sexual violence prevention programs. The following year, it sent related information to riders and drivers as part of a partnership with No More. And last year, Uber and RAINN teamed up to create videos that are sent to riders and drivers who are accused of more minor sexual misconduct, like inappropriate conversations.
RAINN advised Uber to create the new sexual misconduct training, explaining that education is one of the best ways to prevent sexual violence. Clara Kim, RAINN’s vice president of consulting, said the videos let Uber do more than just react to the problem.
“Ten or 15 years ago, before ride share, [sexual misconduct] would be something you’d think about before you get into a stranger’s car,” she said. “But now that dynamic is different. … So yes, education and awareness [are] critical.”
Uber said it intends to continue working with partners to develop more educational programs. The current training is a one-time requirement, but Breeden said the company is considering whether Uber should make it more of a recurring part of driver training.
“It’s about allowing experts to inform us and continuing to improve on those efforts,” Breeden said.
In addition to releasing its safety report last year, Uber also debuted a way for passengers and drivers to text 911 for help. It also created a system that lets drivers and riders verify their rides using PIN numbers along with a reporting tool for riders to report nonemergency safety issues during a ride. The company is also testing a hotline for people who experienced sexual misconduct during an Uber ride to get psychological help, and if needed, information about how to get physical help through RAINN in several cities.


fortune--2020-08-07--Why Fat Tire beer costs $100 per six-pack on International Beer Day

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Beer drinkers in Colorado and Minnesota may experience the biggest sticker shock of their life Friday, which also happens to be International Beer Day. In some stores, a six-pack of Fat Tire beer will ring up for a stunning $100, instead of the usual 12 bucks or so.
Thirsty shoppers don’t need to panic, at least not quite yet. The change is a temporary effort by Fat Tire’s creator, New Belgium Brewing, to highlight the impacts of climate change. The $100 price tag, the brewer says, is what a six-pack of beer could cost in 50 years if more decisive action isn’t taken against carbon emissions.
According to CEO Steve Fechheimer, New Belgium is already grappling with those impacts on a daily basis, and it’s far from alone.
“Frankly, our entire agricultural supply chain is already being pretty impacted by climate change,” Fechheimer tells Fortune. “In any given year, that’s drought or floods that wipe out part of our barley or hops crop, or … a freeze in Florida that means we can’t get access to the citrus fruits we had contracted for the year. They’re happening way more frequently and way more severely than in the past.”
A store display featuring Fat Tire beer’s new price: $100 per six-pack. The price change, limited to certain stores, is part of an effort to highlight the threat of climate change. New Belgium Brewing
New Belgium’s repricing stunt is also meant to draw attention to the recent certification of Fat Tire as a carbon-neutral product. The company says it’s the first nationally available beer to earn that distinction. The carbon-neutral certification is issued by SCS Global Services, which also oversees gluten-free and non-GMO certifications. Fechheimer says it’s an arduous process that involves measuring carbon outputs at every point of a product’s supply chain, buying credits to offset what can’t be eliminated quickly, and outlining a plan to get rid of the rest.
New Belgium’s efforts to combat climate change and earn that carbon-neutral certification have included powering its brewing plants with solar and other renewables, and working with suppliers—particularly bottle manufacturers—to reduce their impact.
When customers take a sixer of Fat Tire to the checkout at certain partner stores (New Belgium wouldn’t say how many), the beer will ring up at the climate change–inflated price. The customer will then get some marketing materials explaining the motive for the stunt, but, a spokesperson says, will ultimately be able to get his or her suds for the usual price.
“The point is to really highlight what all of us are feeling as brewers, and make it clear to consumers how severe this is,” Fechheimer says. “And maybe get them to think about the issue in a slightly different way.”
The U.S. has experienced a craft beer renaissance in recent decades, which New Belgium helped create since its founding in 1991. But Fechheimer warns that the smaller brewers his company paved the way for could be the most impacted by the costs of climate change.
“The small and medium-size [breweries] are the ones that get squeezed,” he says; bigger operations get better access to the shrunken output of disrupted harvests.
If Fechheimer wants to get consumers’ attention, that’s a scenario likely to do the trick. The post–climate change world won’t just mean grappling with constant natural disasters and mass forced migration: You might also be limited to drinking Coors.


fortune--2020-08-08--How Ghislaine Maxwell’s arrest upended the filming of ‘Surviving Jeffrey Epstein’

Postponing elective surgeries due to COVID-19 might have pushed the opioid crisis to the next level

The filmmakers behind “Surviving Jeffrey Epstein” moved quickly when Ghislaine Maxwell was arrested on federal charges that she acted as a recruiter for the financier’s sexual abuse.
The fourth episode of the new Lifetime docuseries, which was intended to be a round-table with survivors, was redone to focus on Maxwell’s alleged crimes and her grooming of potential victims.
Filmmakers also incorporated more of Maxwell’s story into the series overall and conducted additional interviews. The four-part series was delivered at Lifetime just days before its Sunday premiere.
“If your timing can be great, our timing was great,” said executive producer Robert Friedman.
This combination of photos released by Lifetime shows participants in the new docuseries “Surviving Jeffrey Epstein.” Top row from left: Virginia Roberts Giuffre, Teresa Helm, Jena Lisa Jones, Kiki, Rachel Benavidez, Marijke Chartouni, Chaunte Davies, and Courtney Wild. The series premieres on Sunday. Lifetime via AP
This wasn’t the first time the filmmakers had to regroup. Production was underway when the 66-year-old Epstein killed himself in his New York City prison cell last August after his arrest on sex trafficking charges. He had pleaded not guilty to sexually abusing girls as young as 14 and young women in New York and Florida in the early 2000s. In lawsuits, women say the abuse spanned decades.
Ricki Stern, a co-producer and co-director, said Epstein’s death “opened up the opportunity to say to their interview subjects, ‘You don’t have to hold anything back. The guy is dead.’ We can now speak in some ways more openly and honestly and with details that I think had he not been found dead, there may have been more legal maneuvering and careful consideration around.”
However, adds co-producer and co-director Anne Sundberg, for the victims, “there was a feeling of real helplessness in the wake of Epstein’s death and with all the battles over the settlement of his estate, there was a sense there will never be any clarity or justice. To finally have a shot at it (after Maxwell’s arrest) is remarkable.”
Maxwell’s arrest just a month before the series’ premiere triggered “a race, but definitely worth it” said Sundberg. ”We’re about to pass out,” joked Friedman. “The team has been great. We’re working to tell a story basically in real time.”
Maxwell, 58, incarcerated since her July 2 arrest at her New Hampshire estate, has pleaded not guilty to charges alleging she sometimes joined in the abuse of the girls, which included one who was 14.
As Maxwell’s case plays out in court, Friedman says the intention is “to tell this as a continuing story.”
Lifetime is also responsible for the Peabody Award-winning and Emmy-nominated “Surviving R. Kelly.” It wasn’t until after the airing of that series in 2019 that the investigation into the singer intensified under a global spotlight. Kelly is now in jail, facing charges on a variety of crimes in three states.
Lifetime has partnered with Rise, which hopes to create a bill of rights for sexual assault survivors, to run a public service announcement featuring Epstein survivors during the airings of the documentary to call for a sexual assault survivors’ bills of rights. It will also air a PSA from the anti-sexual assault organization, RAINN, to provide hotline information and resources for those in need.


fortune--2020-08-08--Is it safe to swim during the coronavirus pandemic?

Is it safe to go swim in public pools during the COVID-19 outbreak? How about lakes, rivers, and oceans?
There are few better ways to stay in shape or beat the heat than swimming. But fears about COVID-19 have scared many people off because of the risk of exposure to the virus in the water plus fears of the inevitable crowds.
In fact, infectious disease experts say that swimming, in itself, is low risk. What people have to be careful about is what happens outside the water: the socializing with friends, sharing of towels, and using locker rooms.
To state the obvious: When outside of the water and near others, it’s important to wear a mask. But people shouldn’t wear them while swimming, because, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention blandly notes, “Masks can be difficult to breathe through when they’re wet.”
Here’s what you need to know about swimming during the coronavirus era:
Is swimming in public pools safe?
Because most well-maintained public pools contain chlorine and salt, the chances of contacting the coronavirus in them is very low, said Dr. Ellen Eaton, a University of Alabama at Birmingham assistant professor who focuses on infectious diseases. As she explained, the water in a well-maintained public pool “should kill the virus.”
The virus is typically spread through droplets in the air when people sneeze, cough, or speak closely to one another, according to the Harvard Medical School. To avoid that risk, swimmers should stay six-feet apart while outside the pool, Eaton said.
She’s more concerned about activities around swimming pools, like changing clothes in a locker room or waiting in line at concessions stands.
When Eaton takes her family to the public pool (“to keep my boys sane,” she said) she tries to “go first thing in the morning” or later during the evenings to avoid crowds. She said her family gives each other plenty of space, they don’t have meals with others at the pool, and they don’t “sit under other people’s umbrellas.”
Dr. Wilbur Chen, an adult infectious disease specialist at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, said that there have been some cases of coronavirus outbreaks at pools due to behavior outside the water like big pool parties when young adults fail to follow common sense.
Of course, parents should make sure that kids don’t spit water at each other’s faces.
“I’m not saying it’s easy,” Chen said.
Is swimming in the ocean safe?
The good news about swimming in the ocean, or any large body of water, is that “the volume is so expansive that it would be really impossible for any significant quantity of the virus to be inhaled” in the water, Eaton said.
Still, just like at the swimming pool, you should avoid crowded beaches and sitting close to people outside of your bubble. And it’s a bad idea to share drinks with others and sit on another person’s towel.
Unfortunately, lifeguards who monitor beaches and pools are at risk of contracting COVID-19, because of the chance they must perform mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on people who are infected with the virus, both Chen and Eaton said.
“They have to put their lives on the line for people who might be going to the beach and they might have COVID,” Chen said.
Is swimming in lakes and rivers safe?
Just like public pools and the ocean, swimming in lakes and rivers should be safe, “as long as it’s not a crowded situation,” Chen said. He typically tries not to swim within 15 feet of anyone else to avoid running into them.
“You can maintain that distance in a river,” Chen said.
He said he’s not as concerned with catching the virus in the water, but rather from other activities, like toweling off next to someone else. Keep in mind that inner tubing or canoeing may put people too close together.
Ultimately, Chen said that physical activity is healthy as long as people take the necessary precautions.


fortune--2020-08-08--69% of Americans think the way they work has changed forever

1. Americans are worried about, well, everything.
We are living through a deadly pandemic that has already claimed the lives of more than 150,000 people in America. It’s no surprise that 82% of U.S. adults say they’re concerned about their physical health. But it’s also taking a toll on mental health, at 68%. For those who are extremely concerned about either, the percentages are incredibly close: 22% say that’s the case about their physical health, and 21% say the same thing about their mental health.
The jobless rate (11.1%) remains above double digits, and 59% of U.S. adults are concerned about their job security. The economic power in America has quickly shifted from employees to employers: It was easier to job-hop and not have to put up with a bad employer when the economy was strong before COVID-19. Expect employers to ask for more production and perhaps even chip away at benefits—like 401(k) matches.


fortune--2020-08-08--Postponing elective surgeries due to COVID-19 might have pushed the opioid crisis to the next level

69 % of Americans think the way they work has changed forever

Knee replacement. Cancer surgeries. Organ transplants. Worldwide, tens of millions of elective surgeries have been postponed because of the coronavirus. Public health officials have had to balance patients’ urgent need for treatment against the very real danger of potentially immune-compromised individuals being exposed to the virus in a hospital setting, and the need to reserve hospital capacity for COVID-19 patients.
But the decision to postpone these so-called elective surgeries may have severe consequences—including deepening the opioid crisis. Based on what we already know about the connection between preoperative pain management and opioid dependency, the coronavirus pandemic is creating a perfect storm.
Before the virus hit, we had hardly even begun to grapple with the opioid crisis. And now, the coronavirus crisis risks sending millions more people down the road to medication dependency.
When most people hear the word “elective,” they typically assume that means “cosmetic.” But in hospital terms, an elective surgery is simply any surgery that’s scheduled—in other words, not an emergency. In most cases, these are not cosmetic procedures; they are urgently needed surgeries to deal with serious medical issues. And right now, all kinds of procedures, including cancer surgeries, organ transplants, and other lifesaving treatments, have been postponed. Some hospitals have started scheduling elective surgeries again, but the very real risk of a second wave of coronavirus cases could put these patients at risk once more.
The population potentially at risk is enormous: In a typical year, 51 million people have inpatient surgery, whether elective or emergency, and over 80% of them are prescribed opioids after surgery—even when the surgery was low risk. Most patients with upcoming surgeries are prescribed opioids to manage their pain while awaiting treatment. For example, opioids are commonly prescribed for hip, knee, and shoulder surgeries; for neurosurgical and orthopedic spine patients (including people suffering from chronic back pain); for colorectal surgeries, including tumor removals; and for thoracic, head, and neck cancer patients.
Delaying surgery means patients will be taking these medications for longer before they’re treated, greatly increasing the odds that they’ll become dependent. Even patients who’ve never used opioids before surgery have a 10% chance of becoming dependent. But patients who’ve been using opioids to manage pain before surgery have a 70% chance of remaining on opioids years later. Cancer patients who need chemotherapy after their surgeries are also at a higher risk of long-term opioid use.
Right now, the risk of long-term dependence is likely even higher, because of the severe anxiety associated with delaying cancer treatment in particular. Anxiety and catastrophizing tend to make pain harder to manage. And if patients are prescribed benzodiazepines, such as Valium, Ativan, or Xanax, for anxiety, their risk is compounded. The risks associated with benzodiazepines (or “benzos”) aren’t as well known as the risks of opioid use, but there is a significant risk of long-term dependency even for new users of these medications. People who use both opioids and benzodiazepines at the same time are at risk of respiratory depression and even death. And even if patients escape those severe consequences, benzodiazepines are also known to make opioids stronger—potentially setting off a vicious, even deadly, cycle.
Patients whose surgeries have been delayed urgently need support throughout the period they’re using opioids, including pre-surgery and eventually post-surgery. They need evidence-based solutions that will help them manage their pain. For some patients, injections have enormous potential as a highly focused way to block pain receptors. For others, physical therapy or mindfulness practices can help manage pain and anxiety. A growing body of evidence shows that mindfulness can reduce chronic pain, and it’s also proven to have a significant positive impact on depression and quality of life issues. Cognitive behavioral therapy has also been proven to be effective at treating anxiety, depression, and chronic pain.
In many cases, with evidence-based interventions like these, patients can manage their postsurgical pain with non-opioid medications. (Lucid Lane offers telehealth counseling services for people with medication and substance dependence and other mental health disorders, and could benefit financially from some of the treatments described in this article.)
Opioids do have a role to play in pain management, including the management of chronic pain. But even after years of headlines over the opioid crisis, these drugs remain worryingly overprescribed and undermonitored. One study of post-surgery prescriptions from 2011–2016 found little change during the period, despite increasing awareness of the long-term risks of even a short period of opioid use. Doctors and surgeons still need more training in both how to manage pain and how to help patients safely taper off these medications once their surgeries have been performed. Patients need support to ensure that circumstances beyond their control don’t send them down the path to a lifelong struggle with chemical dependency.
The COVID-19 crisis has created a host of unprecedented challenges for us as a society. We’re struggling with record unemployment, political unrest over the question of when and how to reopen businesses, and deep, painful questions over racial divisions. But another crisis is looming behind all these urgent problems—a crisis that, if we do not face it head on, could also be with us for years to come.
Without strong, evidence-based support for patients awaiting surgery, the COVID-19 crisis risks creating an enormous new wave of the opioid crisis. These patients are in pain. They need our help to manage that pain without creating a dependency problem that could haunt them for the rest of their lives.
Adnan Asar is CEO of Lucid Lane, founding chief technology officer of Livongo, and former global head of technology at Shutterfly.


fortune--2020-08-08--One of the world’s top COVID-19 vaccines is ‘stuck’ in customs—Is the delay deliberate?

On May 16, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that Canada approved its first vaccine for Phase I clinical trials in a landmark partnership between Canada and CanSino Biologics, a Chinese vaccine manufacturer.
“If these vaccine trials are successful, we can produce and distribute it right here at home,” Trudeau said at a press conference. “Research and development take time and must be done right, but this is encouraging news.”
Nearly three months later, Canada is still waiting for the vaccine to ship.
Health Canada, a government agency that oversees the country’s health policy, told Fortune that the shipment has “not yet been approved by Chinese customs for shipment to Canada.” Dalhousie University in Canada, which is partnering with CanSino Biologics to conduct the trials, told Fortune that its Canadian Center for Vaccinology is “prepared and ready” to begin the trials once the supplies arrive, but doesn’t have a timeline as to when that might be. CanSino did not respond to requests for comment.
The stalled shipment has set Canada back months—and maybe longer—in its effort to carry out testing of one of the world’s leading vaccine candidates and distribute it to its citizens. It also comes amid worsening relations between the two countries, bringing to fruition the looming fear that geopolitics will undermine science’s extraordinary campaign to bring a COVID-19 vaccine to a world population eagerly awaiting it.
The relationship between China and Canada has soured in recent months over the case of Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer at Chinese telecom equipment maker Huawei and daughter of company founder and CEO Ren Zhengfei. Canadian authorities detained Meng in Vancouver in December 2018, owing to a U.S. extradition order related to charges that Meng helped Huawei violate U.S. sanctions with Iran. (She and Huawei deny the accusations.)
Justin Trudeau, Canada’s Prime Minister, touted the country’s partnership with Chinese vaccine maker CanSino. But shipments of the vaccine never showed up. David Kawai—Bloomberg/Getty Images
Days after Meng’s arrest in Canada, Chinese authorities arrested two Canadians living in China, businessman Michael Spavor and former diplomat Michael Kovrig, and accused them of engaging in espionage. China has denied that the arrests were related to Meng’s detention, but a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said in June that Kovrig and Spavor, who remain in custody, may be released if Meng were set free.
On May 27, just two weeks after CanSino and Canada announced their Phase I trials, Canadian courts made their first major ruling in Meng’s case, deciding in the U.S.’s favor and clearing a hurdle for her potential extradition to the U.S.
If any company could bridge the divide between Canada and China, Tianjin–based CanSino seemed uniquely positioned to do so.
The company was founded by Yu Xuefeng, a scientist with decades of experience in Canada’s pharmaceutical industry, along with other Chinese executives well-versed in foreign pharmaceutical markets. After growing up in China, Yu lived in Canada for nearly 20 years. He got a Ph.D. at McGill University in Montreal before working for nine years at French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi Pasteur’s Toronto facility. He left Sanofi in 2009 to return to China and start CanSino, in what he says was an attempt to connect China’s booming vaccine development sector with consumers abroad.
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But Yu’s close ties to Canada didn’t assuage those unsure about Canada’s decision to pair with a Chinese firm. Some public health experts in Canada were especially disturbed by CanSino’s ties to China’s military. In developing its COVID-19 vaccine candidate, CanSino has partnered with the Beijing-based Academy of Military Medical Sciences, which is run by the People’s Liberation Army.
CanSino’s military connection drew skeptics, but it also got results.
In June, CanSino’s vaccine became the first to complete Phase II trials, putting it in the same company as especially promising candidates from Moderna and AstraZeneca. In late June, China approved use of the CanSino vaccine for members of its military.
The CanSino vaccine seemed set for more Phase I trials in Canada—the country requires that Chinese vaccines undergo Phase I, II, and III trials within Canada—until the Canadian press reported last month that the vaccine shipments had never arrived.
Chinese customs is a notoriously opaque agency, and it’s possible that the shipment has been delayed owing to some sort of routine inspection, David Mulroney, a former Canadian ambassador to China, told Canada’s National Post. But he and other prominent observers have raised the possibility that the holdup is politically motivated.
“It’s likely that the shipment is being delayed as part of China’s retaliation against Canada over the Meng [Wanzhou] arrest,” Mulroney said.
Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, told Fortune he can’t imagine any reason for such a long delay in Chinese customs “other than political reasons.” China has mobilized significant resources to rapidly produce a vaccine, he says, so delaying the shipment makes little sense unless it’s due to political considerations.
For every day the vaccine shipment is delayed, the likelihood of a China-Canada partnership dims.
CanSino may have lost interest in collaborating with Canada on vaccines now that it seems to have locked in alternative venues for more advanced trials, Huang says.
In mid-May, CanSino executive director and cofounder Qiu Dongxu said in a speech that the company was involved in talks with Brazil, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Chile to conduct Phase III trials, which is the last stage before commercial approval. In recent weeks, CanSino has fallen behind other COVID-19 vaccine developers since it hasn’t yet launched a Phase III trial. Six other vaccine candidates have reached that stage, including three other candidates from China.
Canada’s relative success in battling COVID-19 also puts it at a disadvantage compared with the other venues CanSino is considering, says Jennifer Bouey, an epidemiologist and Tang Chair in China Policy Studies at the Rand Corporation, a U.S.-based research organization. Phase III trials typically involve thousands of healthy volunteers, and they work better in areas with higher levels of community spread of the virus. At least some trial volunteers need to encounter the virus to ensure the vaccine works.
Canada, for its part, now appears to be looking elsewhere for its vaccine supply.
On Wednesday, the Canadian government signed two separate deals with American vaccine manufacturers Pfizer and Moderna to secure millions of doses of their vaccine candidates once the candidates gain regulatory approval. It marked Canada’s first endorsement of international vaccine candidates besides CanSino’s, though the government has also provided support for several domestic projects in preliminary testing phases.
The deals make it appear as though CanSino is “out” in the eyes of Canada’s government, said Aidan Hollis, an economist of pharmaceutical markets at the University of Calgary.
The potential failure of CanSino’s collaboration with Canada reinforces experts’ worry that politics may determine the final stages of vaccine development and distribution.
In China, Huang says, there “are already real signs that [Beijing] is using vaccines as a diplomatic instrument.” Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, for example, pleaded with China in late July for preferential access to a potential vaccine and, shortly thereafter, announced support for China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea. In response, China vowed to comply with Duterte’s vaccine request and hailed his comments on the South China Sea.
The increasingly frosty relations between China and countries like Canada, the U.S., and Australia may mean that when vaccines are distributed “we may see a divided world,” Huang said.


fortune--2020-08-08--Why China’s catastrophic floods will barely dent its economy

The waters of China’s mighty Yangtze River have inched upward in recent weeks, cresting banks, flooding adjacent land, and displacing millions of people from their homes.
Parts of China’s Three Gorges Dam, the world’s largest hydroelectric power station built in 2003 to tame the Yangtze, were deformed by the surge. The dam’s operator said it was on “wartime footing” as Three Gorges neared its maximum intake capacity.
Highways and riverside pavilions in the city of Wuhan disappeared beneath the surging waters of the river, which divides the city in two.
In some rural villages just south of Wuhan, local governments dispatched teams of rescuers on boats to pick up residents from their submerged homes.
Fed by torrential rains, the flooding threatened to unleash humanitarian and economic catastrophe on the 480 million residents and sprawling metropolises—Shanghai, Wuhan, Chongqing—that sit in the Yangtze’s 700,000-square mile basin, an area that accounts for one-third of China’s annual economic output.
Residents on July 15, 2020, ride a boat past a damaged house near Poyang Lake. Torrential rains caused flooding in Poyang county, Shangrao city in China’s central Jiangxi province. STR/AFP/Getty Images
The flooding, which started to recede in late July, inflicted the worst natural disaster in a decade on a country still recovering from the pandemic. At least 158 people have died or gone missing and 4 million have evacuated their homes. But so far, it has not dealt a knockout blow to the economy. In fact, Li Yao, a fellow at the East Asia Institute at the National University of Singapore, estimates in preliminary research that the 2020 flood will shave 0.17% from China’s 2020 GDP, far less damage than in previous crises.
“It should not be hard for China to digest the overall economic loss caused by the flood,” Li said.
The flood’s minor dent to China’s economy is no accident. In recent years, Beijing has nurtured new wetlands and built new dams to counter such threats. The trajectory of the floodwaters mirrors government priorities, with newly constructed infrastructure protecting cities and industrial centers at the expense of farmland and rural villages.
Spring and summer rains in China pose annual flooding risk, costing the country an average of $10 billion per year in direct damages. The research firm China Water Risk estimates that China incurs more losses per year due to floods than any other country.
Climate change has upped China’s flooding risks in recent years, says Jennifer Turner, director of the Wilson Center’s China Environment Forum. She says heavy rains in China have increased by about 4% in each of the past five decades amid a changing climate.
A fisherman rows his boat past the roof of a submerged house in a flooded area of Longkou village in China’s central Jiangxi province on July 16, 2020. HECTOR RETAMAL—AFP/Getty Images
China’s most devastating flood occurred in 1998, when an overflowing Yangtze River killed more than 4,000 people and left 14 million more homeless. In 2016, Yangtze floods killed nearly 700 people and cost the country over $30 billion in damages.
The 1998 disaster slashed 1.90% from China’s annual economic output, while the 2016 flood saw GDP shrink 0.30%.
By comparison, this year’s floods are expected to hurt the economy to a far lesser degree, though Li warns “it may still be early to estimate its final economic impacts.”
To be sure, this year’s floods disrupted global supply chains to some extent, shuttering production lines and causing delays in various industries. The region is an important agricultural and construction hub of China, and it hosts factories for car manufacturers, medical suppliers, and steel producers.
On July 16, Reuters reported that the floods delayed shipments of personal protective equipment, or PPE, to the U.S., which desperately needs the supplies to protect against the coronavirus.
In late July, representatives from several shipping companies told Supply Chain Dive that some inland shipping terminals along the Yangtze River had been closed, and shippers on the coast were also operating at diminished capacity.
As of now, however, the floods’ harm to the region’s supply chain appears limited.
Li says there’s some slack in the supply chains of goods like laundry detergent, shampoo, and medical face masks. Factories along the Yangtze manufacture such products, but any interruptions they experienced can be made up by factories in other regions, she said.
Renaud Anjoran, a supply-chain expert at China Manufacturing Consultants in Shenzhen, works with foreign companies that have factories on the Yangtze River. He says that car parts factories would be vulnerable to severe flooding problems, but as of now he hasn’t heard of any major disruptions.
“Either manufacturers got lucky,” Anjoran told Fortune, “or the flooding was directed in nonindustrialized areas.”
Luck had little to do with it.
“China’s flood fighting strategy is to discharge flood [waters] to farmland,” as a means to secure cities and industrial areas, says Li.
The Wangjiaba sluice gates were opened to divert the floodwater of Huaihe River into the Mengwa area in the Anhui province of China, pictured here, on July 21, 2020. Zhang Yazi—China News/Getty Images
China has over 98,000 dams in total, more than any other country on earth. In response to 1998 flooding, the central government created seven river basin committees to provide funding for infrastructure projects and plan flood control measures along major waterways. The initiative doubled-down on China’s reliance on its vast network of dams along the Yangtze and its tributaries, the most direct method Beijing uses to control floods and insulate cities.
The strategy was on display on July 19, when authorities in central China’s Anhui province opened sluice gates of the Wangjiaba dam, a move that protected cities and more populous areas downstream but flooded acres of farmland and forced the immediate evacuation of thousands of rural residents.
In the town of Youdunjie, which lies on a small river just south of the Yangtze in China’s eastern Jiangxi province, floodwaters reached the second story of homes in mid-July after authorities in a nearby province discharged their floodwaters, according to Sixthtone. Residents of Youdunjie were relatively defenseless to the onslaught, as local authorities lacked the infrastructure or resources to divert floods from the village.
On July 22, Reuters reported that a 55-year-old dam collapsed in the southern province of Guangxi, leaving downstream communities vulnerable to flooding.
Aerial photo taken on July 27, 2020, shows floodwater being discharged from the Three Gorges Dam in central China’s Hubei province. Zheng Jiayu—Xinhua/Getty Images
Li estimates that the 2020 crisis has flooded over 20,000 square miles of Chinese farmland and says there are early signs the 2020 floods have destroyed some crop harvests. The 2016 floods covered nearly the same amount of farmland, while 1998 floods submerged over 80,000 square miles of agricultural land, according to Li.
Darin Friedrichs, a commodity analyst at StoneX Group in Shanghai, says that vegetable and pork prices climbed in China in mid- and late-July as a result of the floods. Seafood is likely to be the worst hit—given the disruption to lakes and rivers—as well as rice, the most common crop in the region. The timing of the flood saved some crops like canola and wheat, which were “harvested before the flooding got bad,” Friedrichs said. Overall, the market doesn’t seem “too worried yet” about flood-induced shortages, he said.
The farmers who tend to those crops, however, are a source of concern.
Hundreds of thousands of them have been displaced by the floods and face enormous obstacles in recovering from the crisis, says Turner.
“There are no focused flood mitigation standards and nature-based solutions in rural areas [of China],” Turner said. In response to previous floods, Turner said, the central government launched the “sponge city” program in 2015, which mandates that urban centers create wetlands, rain gardens, and other porous landscapes to soak up excess rain. Such policies have not yet been implemented in rural areas, leaving smaller cities, villages, and farmland at the mercy of a rising Yangtze.
The current crisis is the result of an “unfortunate perfect storm” of climate change and human action, Turner said.
The rise in heavy rains due to climate change is testing China’s dam strategy, which seems to assume that “sheer force of hard labor and will” can hold back the surge of water, said Judith Shapiro, an environmental politics professor at American University and author of China Goes Green: Coercive Environmentalism for a Troubled Planet.
There’s worry that the small dams that collapsed this season foreshadow what would be the Big One, a failure of Three Gorges.
The dam, a source of national pride, has so far weathered this year’s crisis, but the cracks it showed mean Beijing may need to reconsider its strategy.
“Not even the Three Gorges Dam has been built strongly enough that we can be certain it will withstand the flooding China has seen in recent weeks,” said Shapiro. “If the dam were to break it would be a disaster of cataclysmic proportions,” she said, one that China’s economy could not escape.


fortune--2020-08-08--A weakening U.S. dollar makes these 3 assets more attractive for your portfolio

Since late March the U.S. dollar has fallen almost 10% against a basket of other currencies around the globe. Some of this selloff may have to do with the fact that the dollar shot up so much at the outset of the crisis, as people saw the dollar as a safe haven.
But some investors are now wondering if this is a sign of a long-term trend reversal. The dollar has been rising steadily since the end of the Great Recession as the U.S. has been seen by many as the cleanest shirt in a dirty laundry hamper.
That may be changing if for no other reason than currency moves are cyclical. There are other reasons to consider a new cycle could be starting. Gold is now hitting all-time highs last seen in 2011. People are worried about the potential for inflation now that we’ve experienced so much fiscal stimulus.
No one knows for sure whether the dollar decline will continue, but if it does there would be a number of implications for your portfolio.
A weak dollar would benefit foreign stock market companies and funds held by U.S. investors. Those who own international stocks are subject to currency fluctuations, so if the dollar falls, that means your foreign stocks are worth more once they’re converted to our currency. One of the biggest reasons international stocks have badly lagged U.S. stocks in recent years is because the dollar has been so strong.
The performance of the dollar, U.S. stocks, and foreign stocks by decade offers a clear picture of this relationship:
The dollar’s impact can also be seen on a number of other asset classes including gold and emerging markets:
When the dollar is up, gold, foreign developed, and emerging-market stocks tend to perform poorly. And when the dollar is down, gold, foreign developed, and emerging-market stocks tend to perform admirably.
In years of dollar weakness, foreign stocks have risen 85% of the time, gold is up 80% of the time, and emerging markets have advanced 65% of the time.
On the other hand, in years of dollar strength, foreign stocks are up just 62% of the time, gold is only up 42% of the time, and emerging markets rose just 50% of the time.
This makes sense if you consider how things work from the perspective of a U.S. traveler going overseas (hopefully, we can do that again in the near future). When you convert your U.S. dollars into the foreign currency for spending purposes, your money goes further when the dollar is rising. Alternatively, when the dollar is falling, your money doesn’t buy as much internationally.
The dollar is, of course, not the only variable that affects these markets and prices, but it plays a larger role than most investors realize. And although currencies are volatile in the short-term, over the long-term the changes between countries tend to work themselves out. In fact, the dollar is basically at the same point now as it was in the year 1978.
It’s still too early to tell if the recent dollar weakness is a sign of things to come or a short-term blip on a longer-term uptrend. Either way, it’s worth remembering that everything in the markets is cyclical—from asset class returns to economic growth to long-term currency fluctuations.
Ben Carlson, CFA, is the director of institutional asset management at Ritholtz Wealth Management. He may own securities or assets discussed in this piece.


fortune--2020-08-09--How can bricks and mortar reinvent itself for an unknown future?

Sweden ’ s top virologist has a message on how to defeat coronavirus : Open schools and no masks

As restaurants, retail, offices, and other public spaces reopen their doors after an entire season of shutdowns, guests can expect to enter a new reality of sneeze guards, cubicle seats, six-feet floor markers, and more. Unfortunately, many small businesses and even large corporations were not equipped to weather the initial storm of COVID-19, but if those still standing want any chance of survival during and after a modern pandemic, they’ll need to think beyond these sterile quick fixes.
How do these businesses, built on human connection and interaction, redesign their physical spaces to ensure safety, without evoking a scary dystopian cityscape?
With no real end in sight, brick-and-mortar businesses are forced to not only make hasty design choices that will allow them to reopen, but also consider an unknown future. They’ll need to move away from the former trend of creating a flashy, Instagramable experience to focus on core values that directly consider and benefit customers, employees, and the environment’s well-being. (The architecture firm I run could financially benefit from organizations redesigning their physical spaces.)
So, how can these business owners think beyond getting through the next few months and prepare their locations for a long-term customer experience that feels safe, human, on brand, and aesthetically inspiring?
Make it safe
Judging by anyone’s Facebook feed, it’s clear that people have varying levels of comfort in the current physical environment. Some are ready to eat indoors, while others barely feel safe with curbside pickup; some are eager to try on clothes in a dressing room, while others are just fine ordering online. For a brick-and-mortar location, it’s imperative to communicate that guests can safely move through the space. Many of the ways a business needs to adjust its space will go unseen by employees and guests, so it’s important to ensure messaging and signage convey these choices.
The good news is that there are a variety of solutions to fit every budget. While the gold standard for ventilation and airflow would be the installation of expensive UV-C light air purification in the mechanical system, an improvement in air quality can also be achieved in an existing system by installing higher-efficiency air filters, consistently running the air conditioning, utilizing fresh air intake, and simply keeping windows and doors open.
Material choice is another major consideration in redesigning for a post-COVID world. Bleach-cleanable materials and textiles (typically used in health care settings) are becoming the norm for commercial settings and are readily available to ship on demand without long lead times. Additionally, copper, an on-trend material in the design world right now, is also naturally antimicrobial. Manufacturers have quickly adapted their product lines to include cost-effective options for the utilization of copper such as peel-and-stick solutions, which allow for a quick application that can be completed in a matter of minutes.
Make it human (at a distance)
Many small businesses are the cornerstone of their local communities. How do public spaces where community members gather and connect maintain this purpose in an environment that makes them inherently unsafe? In response to widely accepted social distancing guidelines, making ample space for personal boundaries is key to maintaining the health and safety of employees and customers. The challenge is translating those design choices without losing a sense of connection.
The primary areas of concern for most businesses and offices are common spaces like reception waiting areas, dining areas, meeting rooms, and break rooms. All of these gathering rooms will require a little creative thinking to draw a new floor plan to accommodate social distancing. Seat counts will need to be reduced and should remain adaptable to increase or decrease depending on future social distancing rules. Design choices should also emphasize privacy, with solutions like portable dividers that offer screening between seating.
Technology will also be a major tool in bridging the gap in human connection from six feet away. Smartphone apps will continue to gain momentum, as most small businesses have moved operations online while closed, presenting an opportunity to foster community through a digital experience. Strategically installing viewing monitors at contact points can aid communication of key information between employees and guests.
A successful socially distanced guest experience will also include clear signage directing customers. A more long-term solution than floor marker stickers could be creating clear, yet seamless, flooring and ceiling transitions that more subtly tell people where to go without distracting from the overall design of the space.
Make it pretty
Even though the catalyst for these design updates is grim, it doesn’t mean the aesthetic needs to reflect fear or sterility. Creating a post-COVID space that feels comfortable and inviting is no small feat, but it’s possible to make a space both safe and aesthetically pleasing.
In the current climate, most people have readily adopted outdoor distanced socializing. This shift has created an environment where people associate being outside with safety. So, moving forward, indoor design modifications should bring in more nods to biophilia—an approach to architecture that seeks to connect building occupants more closely to nature—to help create a sense of safety. Our design team predicts that the stark, minimalist interiors that have dominated trends over the past couple of years will start to recede as the public longs for this reconnection to the environment.
Redesigning to incorporate wood grains and a softer color palette adds simple sophistication to an airy environment. Shades of grassy green bring fresh pops of color into the space, while hints of earthy clay and natural metals throughout add underlying balance and warmth. Utilizing real plants and functional art as partitions are a creative way to create a safe distance between guests that feels intentional.
All of this said, any visual communications or design solutions put in place by brick-and-mortar spaces should be flexible and nonpermanent. We have not yet learned all about this virus, and we must give organizations the ability to adjust their spaces to meet the shifting demands of state mandates and guests’ comfort levels.
Lauren Chipman is CEO of Chipman Design Architecture.


fortune--2020-08-09--Second-home prices soar in Aspen and Martha’s Vineyard as the affluent flee megacities

How can bricks and mortar reinvent itself for an unknown future ?

Anthony Hitt, CEO of Engel & Völkers Americas, was riding a four-wheeler around on his family’s 80-acre homestead farm in Missouri, where he’s working remotely these days, when he took my phone call to discuss luxury real estate. This was our first time chatting since we met—back when in-person was still a thing—in Midtown Manhattan in 2019.
When we last spoke, luxury units in cities like San Francisco and Seattle were still ablaze in bidding wars. But these days, the pandemic that dispersed recently transitioned remote workers, like Hitt, out of big cities to all corners of the country is creating a second-home boom.
“Business is heavy in vacation markets and second-home markets. People with the ability to buy in those areas are using those areas as getaways,” Hitt says.
From the onset of the pandemic, second-home markets, like the Hamptons, saw short-term rental prices spike as the affluent fled urban centers. But as the virus and office shutdowns linger on, homebuyers are now driving up prices in those second-home markets.
“They’re learning they can do their job as effectively [while working] remote,” Hitt says. So these second-home shoppers are making the long-term decision that their post-pandemic life will include a mix of in-office and remote work, he adds, and they’re taking the plunge and buying. “They want that Manhattan property but also that getaway in Park City [Utah].”
Looking at realtor.com data, Fortune analyzed real estate in the 103 zip codes with median price per square foot above $1,000—a.k.a. luxury neighborhoods. Among those places, second-home markets saw by far the biggest gains. In fact, nine of the 10 luxury zip codes with the biggest gains in median price per square foot are in second-home markets. Only San Jose’s 95129 zip code is not a second-home market.
The biggest jump in home price occurred in the 89402 zip code in Crystal Bay, Nev., where median price per square foot soared 72.2% year over year. Deep-pocketed Californians have long swooped in there to buy waterfront second homes with breathtaking views of the blue shores of Lake Tahoe. The pandemic has only intensified that trend in Crystal Bay.
At the onset of the pandemic, Northeast states like New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts were the epicenter of the country’s fight against the deadly virus. So it makes sense that second-home markets in the Northeast were the first to boom. Prices per square foot jumped 30.6% in Chilmark, Mass. (02535 zip code), on Martha’s Vineyard, and 29.8% in Sagaponack, N.Y. (11962 zip code), in the Hamptons.
“The Hamptons, they are very busy right now,” Hitt says. And it isn’t just Sagaponack. The second-quarter report by Douglas Elliman finds median sales prices are up 27.1% in the Hamptons, to a record high of $1.1 million. Places like the Hamptons have a lack of inventory right now, so buyers are forced to bid up prices if they want to snag something.
Will this second-home boom last? The affluent were already becoming more inclined to incorporate more remote work and seek out second homes, Hitt says. The pandemic just accelerated that trend into the present.
But that doesn’t mean the “death of cities” narrative will come to fruition. Hitt thinks the well-off still want to live and work in San Francisco and New York. But they might downsize their city home, he says, so they can spend more on that second home in, say, Jackson Hole or Vail.
Surging prices for second homes also highlights a sharp economic divide: While prices in the Hamptons hit record highs, millions of Americans are facing eviction following the end of the federal moratorium on July 25.