fortune--2020-03-25--The podcast everyone in business should be listening to during the coronavirus pandemic

Everything you need to know about the coronavirus stimulus checks

This is the web version of raceAhead, Fortune’s daily newsletter on race, culture, and inclusive leadership. To get it delivered daily to your inbox, sign up here.
I lead today with some breaking, personal news.
Starting next week, I’ll be joining Fortune CEO Alan Murray on our newest podcast, Leadership Next. You can find the podcast here.
The podcast was launched pre-pandemic, but Alan’s original concept is more on point than ever.
“I launched this podcast because I’m convinced something big is happening in the world of business,” he recently told the CEO Daily audience. “The rules of the game have changed. I’ve covered the intersection of business and society for four decades, but it’s only in the last few years that I’ve started hearing the best leaders talk more earnestly about how to increase their positive impact on society.”
Alan has already recorded some great interviews—with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson, and Regeneron’s president and chief science officer George Yancopoulos on fighting COVID-19. But now, as we watch governments around the world address the pandemic with varying degrees of efficacy and success, the need for business to step up is clear.
I’d argue it always was. Please stay tuned.
As always, I want to hear from you. How are you faring? What do you need to hear, read, learn?
To inclusion and beyond,
Ellen
Ellen McGirt
@ellmcgirt
Ellen.McGirt@fortune.com
On Point
Maurice Berger, ground-breaking curator who made it his mission to call out white supremacy in the art world, dies of coronavirus He was by all accounts a fearless ally, a historian and essayist who sounded the call for inclusion long before it was popular. “I’m very interested in writing about the things that would normally not be written about—like the issues of race people have not been comfortable with,” Berger said in a 2018 documentary, as reported by ARTnews. His most famous essay, "Are Art Museums Racist?” was published in a 1990 issue of art world stalwart Art in America. His takeaway: Yes. “Sad to say, with regard to race, art museums have for the most part behaved like many other businesses in this country—they have sought to preserve the narrow interests of their upper-class patrons and clientele.” He was 63.
ARTnews
What does it mean to be Black in the age of pandemic? Anthropologist Philip L. McKenzie, a regular columnist for MediaVillage, offers some “Lessons from Club Quarantine.” The heart of the matter is compassion, empathy, and love. “[M]uch-needed solace has come not just from the comfort of family, friends, and other loved ones, but also from artists and creatives,” he writes. “Black culture, in particular, has answered the call and carried the weight of creating incredible moments in the age of coronavirus.” He focuses on the online sensation that is DJ D-Nice's "Club Quarantine" Instagram Live dance party, where famous Black folks mingled virtually with the locked-down world. He warns that there may not be any big marketing “takeaways” from the success of the event. “Culture is more than a tool of brand commerce; it is a necessary salve in trying times,” says McKenzie. “We don't look to brand messaging in uncertain times; we look to each other.”
MediaVillage
The racial divide in speech recognition is a problem As the world begins a crash course in work-from-home and other assistive technologies, it’s going to become clearer and clearer where those tools fall short—for some. According to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the speech recognition systems from the giants of tech—Amazon, Apple, Google, IBM, and Microsoft—were close to twice as likely to misidentify words spoken by Black speakers than white ones. The survey is unusually comprehensive and worth reading in full. Prepare to feel very frustrated. “I don’t understand why there is not more due diligence from these companies before these technologies are released,” Ravi Shroff, a professor of statistics at New York University who explores bias and discrimination in tech told the New York Times. “I don’t understand why we keep seeing these problems.” Mysterious.
New York Times
On Background
Everything old is new again The Tenement Museum is a beloved NYC institution and a must-visit once we’re all going outside again. While the history it preserves—it quite literally tells the story of voluntary immigration in the U.S. — is vital, the public health context it provides is equally illuminating. In our new series, The Coronavirus Economy, Morris Vogel, public health historian and president of the Tenement Museum, explains the many ways the new coronavirus isn’t actually that novel at all. “Public health has a real race and class and gender overlay,” he says ticking through some historical examples, including the mosquito-borne Yellow Fever epidemic of 1793. Even then, certain Americas considered the country to be exceptional, with diseases brought in or spread by the filthy “other.” “The key takeaway from the 1793 yellow fever epidemic for our moment is the degree to which political parties used it to build support,” he says. “And there is a terrific risk today of blame replacing effective action, of political leaders heightening xenophobia by reassuring at least some Americans that some other group (even a group that lives among us as fellow citizens) is the cause of our problems.”
Fortune
Let’s all learn to swim Jazmine Hughes, a story editor for the New York Times Magazine, is a 28-year-old Black woman and a bright light in journalism. She can also swim! In this beautiful essay, she effortlessly weaves her late in life journey to be able to authentically identify as a swimmer into a bigger story of finding her emotional land legs. People in her family can swim, where did she go wrong? “I was the water’s groupie, shyly hanging on its outskirts, waiting for the gumption—or invitation—to go in,” she writes. It is with the same tenderness that she describes the liminal space (there’s that word again!) between the time she identified as straight, to the moment she accepted herself as queer—or as she jokes, a Kinsey 5. “My months of learning how to swim followed a two-year period of learning how to date women, which I was better at,” she says, despite the haunting presence of “an omnipresent and homophobic God.” A resplendent must-read.
New York Times
Tamara El-Waylly produces raceAhead and manages the op-ed program.
Quote
“It was literally two weeks before they were going to make the partnership decision. Everything was fine. I go in, I sit down, and they have this facilitator who turns to me at one point and says, ‘Julie, you’re a senior woman in the world. Have you ever experienced any of these things, unconscious biases?’ I opened my mouth to speak… and I started sobbing. Big loud sobs, and I could not get myself under control. I got up, went back to my office, and shut the door. Maybe half an hour later, the first woman corporate partner, a good friend of mine, came in. And she said, ‘Okay, the men have met. They asked me to come see if you’re okay.’”
—Julie Sweet, now Accenture CEO, on attending a session on unconscious bias when she worked at white-shoe law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore in 1999, in a Fortune Q&A.


fortune--2020-03-25--Silicon Valley VC firm offers to expedite coronavirus tests to its investors

The podcast everyone in business should be listening to during the coronavirus pandemic

Subscribe to Outbreak, a daily newsletter roundup of stories on the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on global business. It’s free to get it in your inbox.
Venture capital firm DCVC sent out an email to its investors on Tuesday, offering them special access to coronavirus testing kits, which are in short supply across the country.
“First, please let us know as soon as possible if you are experiencing COVID-19 symptoms and are unable to get tested. Through a unique relationship with one of our portfolio companies, we will expedite delivery of a test kit,” said the DCVC email.
The coronavirus testing offer, which was sent in the context of a broader email updating investors about DCVC, also said the test would be in the form of a cheek swab, and that recipients would receive results in one to three days via mail.
DCVC’s offer of coronavirus tests set off a firestorm on Twitter after Michael Arrington, a well-known tech entrepreneur, tweeted about it, expressing frustration that Silicon Valley insiders were getting an inside track.
Got the email today that a lot of Silicon Valley insiders received. That we can have access to private testing immediately. I HATE that certain people can get immediate testing based on who you are or who you know. — Michael Arrington (@arrington) March 25, 2020
“It just seems that the tests should go to people who need them, not people with connections,” Arrington said in a message to Fortune.
After word got out, DCVC published a blog post describing its email to investors as “boastful” and claiming that “no one is jumping in line.”
“Was our language a little boastful? Yes, no excuses. And we’re sorry if folks got the wrong idea,” says the blog post, which did not rescind its offer to its investors. DCVC tells Fortune that the firm is not retracting its offer, claiming that there was no offer to begin with.
In the blog post and a phone interview with Fortune, DCVC mentioned Carbon Health, which offers patients in-person and telehealth services.
DCVC’s blog post also calls attention to Curative, a startup that produces coronavirus test kits that have yet to be approved for home use by the FDA. According to a Wall Street Journal story published Monday, Curative was founded two weeks ago to perform coronavirus testing, and it has a partnership to provide patients with Carbon Health.
According to DCVC’s spokesperson, Curative’s test is currently being deployed at drive-thru testing centers in Los Angeles, which is permitted because the site has clinical supervision.
The controversy over DCVC offering coronavirus tests to its investors comes as Americans in pandemic-stricken regions like New York City and Washington State scramble to get tested. Meanwhile, people with the right connections—including celebrities and NBA players—appear to have enjoyed an inside track in obtaining the tests.
More coronavirus coverage from Fortune:
—Will ‘The Great Cessation’ be worse than the Great Recession?
—The U.S. needs more ventilators. Why can’t it make them in time?
—Which stores are open—and closed—during the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S.?
—College students struggle to find housing as the coronavirus pushes them off campus
—How to upgrade the background of your video chats
—IBM and The Weather Channel debut coronavirus map
—Listen to Leadership Next, a Fortune podcast examining the evolving role of CEO
—WATCH: World leaders and health experts on how to stop the spread of COVID-19
Subscribe to Outbreak, a daily newsletter roundup of stories on the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on global business. It’s free to get it in your inbox.


fortune--2020-03-25--Markets rally for a second day, pushing Apple’s market cap back above $1 trillion

Subscribe to Outbreak, a daily newsletter roundup of stories on the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on global business. It’s free to get it in your inbox.
Investors have gotten a long-awaited respite this week, as stocks rebounded on Tuesday and inched up higher Wednesday. And after the coronavirus crash had previously left Microsoft as the sole member of the trillion-dollar market-cap club, Apple reclaimed its status in the group.
Markets rallied for a second day in a row, with the Dow and S&P 500 closing up over 2% and 1% respectively on Wednesday. Despite a hectic last few minutes of trading on Wednesday prompted by Bernie Sanders threatening to stall the $2 trillion stimulus bill, indexes managed to stay in the green. The bill would provide payments and jobless benefits for individuals, and funds and bailouts for states and businesses.
And following a sharp selloff, Apple was rewarded with a roughly 9% pop from Monday’s close through Wednesday. Apple had traded down about 25% since the market peak on Feb. 12, due in large part to how the coronavirus has impacted the company’s supply chain and consumer demand. Amid the pandemic, people are now focused more on “their health, groceries, and hand sanitizer,” not buying iPhones, Wedbush’s Dan Ives suggested to Fortune on Wednesday.
Fellow former $1 trillion club member Alphabet is still a ways off from reclaiming its membership in the elite group—the Google parent company still needs to recover roughly 25% to rejoin the tech titans.
More must-read stories from Fortune:
—Why the extraordinary dollar surge spells more trouble for the global economy
—These estimates of how much COVID-19 will hurt the economy are terrifying
—The NYSE is closed because of the coronavirus. What that means for investors
—How thinking like a golfer can help you ride out market mayhem
—Listen to Leadership Next, a Fortune podcast examining the evolving role of CEO
—WATCH: U.S. tax deadline moved from April 15 to July 15
Subscribe to Fortune’s Bull Sheet for no-nonsense finance news and analysis daily.


fortune--2020-03-25--3 reasons you shouldn’t be worried about America’s food supply right now

As the coronavirus continues to spread across the country, Americans are being forced to alter their lives. We currently face health concerns, economic uncertainties, and lifestyle and travel restrictions that seemed unimaginable just a few months ago. This new reality is leading many people to ask a sobering question: Will my family and I have access to enough food during these trying times?
I believe Americans can take comfort in the fact that our country has an incredibly strong food supply chain. Manufacturers, distributors, and retailers have already been working around the clock to keep store shelves stocked in every state and territory. Just like we’ve done during past national emergencies, the food sector is working to rise to the occasion and keep the country fed.
While demand has surged in recent weeks, distributors—such as my company—have increased their output and taken a number of steps to keep food readily available throughout this pandemic’s life cycle. We’re poised to remain at the heart of the national effort to move food in a safe, secure manner from producers to grocery stores.
The first thing that Americans should know about this national effort is that it’s anchored by strong public-private collaboration. My colleagues and I are spending a considerable amount of time engaging with federal, state, and local government officials. This includes interacting directly with the White House, Agriculture Department, Federal Emergency Management Agency, and local health officials around the country and in Canada about what needs to be done in the weeks and months ahead.
To keep the supply chain well fortified, many leaders in the sector have sought support from federal, state, and local governments in encouraging responsible consumer purchasing, keeping essential and healthy associates at work, and ensuring highways and roads remain open to cargo trucks. Thankfully, these authorities have responded by beginning to adopt many of our requests, including publicly discouraging hoarding and declaring food workers as essential. We hope that additional measures, such as providing workers access to affordable childcare, will be implemented in due course.
A second cornerstone of the national effort is the tremendous output being delivered by frontline workers and drivers. They continue to go the extra mile and put the needs of the American consumer first, despite long hours and heavy workloads.
Manufacturers and food producers are working day and night to restock orders and get products back into the supply chain. On any given day, my company carries more than 250,000 different types of products to meet every possible consumer need. Although certain items have taken on greater importance right now, our discussions with suppliers have reassured us that there is ample food available and no reason for Americans to be concerned.
Whenever grocery stores do run out of goods such as bathroom tissue, flour, or rice due to exceptionally high demand, you can rest easy knowing that distributors are working behind the scenes to restock inventory. It’s also noteworthy that we have seen limited price increases during this emergency, and where we have experienced them, we’ve been diligent in working to understand the basis for such increases from our suppliers.
Lastly, distributors are establishing new protocols to provide assurance, safety, and support to workers. My company has implemented robust hygiene and social distancing requirements at our distribution centers and retail locations. We’ve also encouraged associates to prioritize their health and well-being, including through providing paid leave to any associate who is diagnosed with the coronavirus or impacted by potential facility closures.
Keeping our workforce healthy also means making sure our 21,000 associates aren’t permanently pulling lengthy shifts without relief. This is one of the main reasons why we’re hiring an additional 1,000 workers at this time. We also recently formalized agreements with two other food supply-chain companies, which are providing us as-needed access to additional labor, drivers, and trailers.
Bottom line: Americans can trust that a sizable and well-coordinated national effort is underway to keep food accessible. This means that hoarding and mass purchasing is not advisable or necessary.
Amid all of the other anxieties triggered by the coronavirus, there is no need to fear a lack of access to affordable and high-quality food. There are tens of thousands of food workers, lawmakers, and regulators committed to meeting the country’s needs.
I encourage everyone to thank the drivers, retail workers, warehouse associates, and all others working tirelessly to keep deliveries of food flowing into local grocery stores and communities. Without their unwavering commitment, the shelves would be empty.
Steven Spinner is CEO and chairman of United Natural Foods.
More coronavirus coverage from Fortune:
—Will ‘The Great Cessation’ be worse than the Great Recession?
—The U.S. needs more ventilators. Why can’t it make them in time?
—Which stores are open—and closed—during the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S.?
—College students struggle to find housing as the coronavirus pushes them off campus
—How to upgrade the background of your video chats
—IBM and The Weather Channel debut coronavirus map
—Listen to Leadership Next, a Fortune podcast examining the evolving role of CEO
—WATCH: World leaders and health experts on how to stop the spread of COVID-19
Subscribe to Outbreak, a daily newsletter roundup of stories on the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on global business. It’s free to get it in your inbox.


fortune--2020-03-25--Tony Awards postponed amidst coronavirus pandemic

Subscribe to Outbreak, a daily newsletter roundup of stories on the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on global business. It’s free to get it in your inbox.
With Broadway shuttered amid the coronavirus pandemic, producers of the annual Tony Awards have postponed this year’s celebration of American theater.
The show was originally scheduled for June 7 but the virus forced all 41 Broadway theaters to go dark and caused turmoil in the Tony schedule. The awards show will be “rescheduled at a later date,” according to producers.
Broadway theaters abruptly closed on March 12, knocking out all shows on the Great White Way but also 16 that were still scheduled to open, including “Diana,” “Mrs. Doubtfire” and “Company.” Already some shows scheduled to open this spring have abandoned their plans, including “Hangmen” and a revival of Edward Albee’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”
Broadway producers have vowed to resume musicals and plays the week of April 13, but that would be only 10 days before the official cut-off for eligibility for the Tonys. There was no word on whether the original timetable will stay but all signs indicate the eligibility date will also have to shift.
Other awards shows postponed by the virus include the 2020 iHeartRadio Music Awards and the Academy of Country Music awards.
For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia and death.
More coronavirus coverage from Fortune:
—Will ‘The Great Cessation’ be worse than the Great Recession?
—The U.S. needs more ventilators. Why can’t it make them in time?
—Which stores are open—and closed—during the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S.?
—College students struggle to find housing as the coronavirus pushes them off campus
—How to upgrade the background of your video chats
—IBM and The Weather Channel debut coronavirus map
—Listen to Leadership Next, a Fortune podcast examining the evolving role of CEO
—WATCH: World leaders and health experts on how to stop the spread of COVID-19
Subscribe to Outbreak, a daily newsletter roundup of stories on the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on global business. It’s free to get it in your inbox.


fortune--2020-03-25--95% of Americans support paid sick leave for coronavirus victims

Subscribe to Outbreak, a daily roundup of stories on the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on global business, delivered free to your inbox.
Ninety-five percent of Americans support some form of emergency paid leave for workers affected by the coronavirus pandemic, according to a survey by Lean In and SurveyMonkey.
Lean In, the organization founded by Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg, with SurveyMonkey polled about 2,700 adults on March 20 and 21. When they were asked, “Who do you think should have access to paid leave for illness or quarantine related to the coronavirus?,” 95% of those respondents picked at least one type of worker. Only 5% said none of the above.
The respondents overwhelmingly supported paid leave for health care workers, emergency responders, grocery store employees, pharmacy employees, and childcare workers, with at least 70% in favor of paid leave for each group. Sixty-seven percent supported paid leave for workers at all businesses that are open during the pandemic.
“These findings should send a strong message to lawmakers that people need and want paid sick leave to help them through this crisis,” LeanIn.Org CEO Rachel Thomas said in a statement. “Paid leave would help people take care of their families and stay home if they are sick. These are basics that everyone deserves, no matter what they do for a living or the size of the company they work for.”
Before the coronavirus crisis, Americans didn’t have access to paid sick leave at the national level, although California and a handful of other states guarantee the benefit. President Trump last week signed into law the the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, which requires some employers to provide two weeks of fully paid sick leave for employees who are quarantined or experiencing COVID-19 symptoms and two weeks of leave at two-thirds pay to care for a quarantined family member. The legislation also guarantees 10 weeks of paid family and medical leave at two-thirds pay for workers, employed for at least 30 days, who need to care for a child whose school or childcare provider is closed because of the crisis.
Large employers with more than 500 workers are exempt from the requirement.
Lean In also polled survey respondents on that legislation; 79% said the law should go further to expand paid leave.
More coronavirus coverage from Fortune:
—Will ‘The Great Cessation’ be worse than the Great Recession?
—The U.S. needs more ventilators. Why can’t it make them in time?
—Which stores are open—and closed—during the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S.?
—College students struggle to find housing as the coronavirus pushes them off campus
—How to upgrade the background of your video chats
—IBM and The Weather Channel debut coronavirus map
—Listen to Leadership Next, a Fortune podcast examining the evolving role of CEOs
—WATCH: World leaders and health experts on how to stop the spread of COVID-19
Subscribe to Outbreak, a daily roundup of stories on the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on global business, delivered free to your inbox.


fortune--2020-03-25--Germany’s coronavirus death rate is much lower than Italy’s. Why experts warn against reading too mu

Germany’s coronavirus death rate is much lower than Italy’s. Why experts warn against reading too much into that

Subscribe to Outbreak, a daily roundup of stories on the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on global business, delivered free to your inbox.
The coronavirus contagion has impacted Europe in very different ways, and nobody is entirely sure why.
If you go by a cursory read of the numbers, Germany appears to be experiencing a less fatal outbreak than that of Italy. What jumps out is the death rate—the German rate is 0.4% compared with 9.5% in Italy. There is no shortage of theories as to why that might be.
Dig deeper into the numbers, and more stark differences appear. As Bloomberg has noted, just 18% of German cases involve people over 60 (the group most at risk) while 56% of Italian cases fall into that category. Both countries have an aging population, so it doesn’t appear to be a mere question of demographics. Italian elders are more likely to live with their children, however, so perhaps that’s why a larger proportion of them are getting sick. Or maybe it’s the fact that Germany carried out widespread testing and containment from the early stage of its epidemic.
It appears that young Germans returning from their holiday have sparked the outbreak in that country. Maybe, as German virologist Christian Drosten has suggested, the Italian figures are skewed because they miss a lot of infected but asymptomatic young people who never felt the need to go to the hospital, where most of the Italian testing takes place. As the Guardian has pointed out, Italy is also conducting more widespread testing of the dead than Germany does, which could partially explain the disparity.
Don’t forget to throw into the mix the fact that Germany’s outbreak apparently began weeks after Italy’s, so its health care system is a lot less overwhelmed for now, making it easier to keep COVID-19 sufferers alive.
This is a dizzying array of potential factors. So what conclusions should be drawn at this point? This is where the experts urge a lot of caution, and stress that this pandemic is only in its early stages.
“I think we will have a clear understanding of the situation when it is all over. The numbers and counts are made at the end,” Giovanni Maga, professor of molecular biology at the University of Pavia, Italy, told Fortune.
Lothar Wieler, president of Berlin’s Robert Koch Institute—which is taking the lead on coronavirus statistics-gathering in Germany—also said it was far too soon to analyze the figures definitively. “We are at the beginning of the epidemic, and the number is growing,” he said at a Wednesday press conference, adding that it is “open-ended how this epidemic will develop” in Germany.
Is it a major problem that different countries use disparate methods for tabulating coronavirus infections and deaths? Not really, said Lauren Gardner, the civil and systems engineering professor who leads the team behind Johns Hopkins University’s much-cited dashboard showing COVID-19 cases around the world.
“The varied reporting generally does not impact policy, as the discrepancies in reporting are only temporary, and simply due to varying update frequencies across sources,” Gardner said in an emailed statement. “Over time, the reports align, and the policymakers are aware of this.”
Gardner said many U.S. states and other countries are improving their reporting mechanisms to publish accurate coronavirus counts more quickly. “As these come online, and prove accurate, we will incorporate them directly into our reporting system, so we expect the consistency to improve moving forward,” she said.
A spokesperson for the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control also pushed back against the idea that countries’ different testing approaches—such as those in Germany and Italy—are problematic when trying to judge the relative scale and impact of the outbreak.
“It is normal that some variations in implementation of such case definitions happen on national and subnational levels,” the spokesperson said. “Detailed surveillance is challenging in such rapidly evolving epidemic situations.”
More coronavirus coverage from Fortune :
—All the moves the Fed is making to bolster the economy
—The 2020 Tokyo Olympics will be delayed by about one year due to coronavirus
—Which stores are open—and closed—during the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S.?
—As the U.K. goes into lockdown, London faces isolation—and clear skies
—17 companies that are hiring during the coronavirus crisis
—President of the Tenement Museum on what we can learn from previous pandemics
—Listen to Leadership Next, a Fortune podcast examining the evolving role of CEOs
—WATCH: World leaders and health experts on how to stop the spread of COVID-19
Subscribe to Outbreak, a daily roundup of stories on the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on global business, delivered free to your inbox.


fortune--2020-03-25--The difference between gender equity and equality—and why it matters

The theme of this year’s International Women’s Day was centered around the notion that “[a]n equal world is an enabled world.” Indeed, there has been global progress toward a world that has gender equality; nearly 68% of the countries (101 of 149) included in the World Economic Forum’s latest Global Gender Gap Report showed improvements in their scores for gender parity for 2019.
But despite this progress, education is one of many areas in which men and women are still not equally enabled. So while the world is close to reaching gender parity in terms of access to primary education, girls still face more obstacles to their education than boys in low- and middle-income countries. Laws may enable girls to attend school, but in many countries there are still other barriers limiting girls’ education, such as families prioritizing boys’ education and cultural beliefs that girls should be limited to a future of raising children.
The key to removing such barriers is to shift the mindset away from gender equality to one of gender equity. While gender equality is simply focused on providing men and women with the same equal opportunities (like making it legal for women to own land, or even attend school), gender equity works to correct the historical wrongs that have left women behind (such as societal restrictions on employment). Gender equity also means giving women the tools to succeed, like programs that offer conditional cash transfers to women. A focus on equity bridges the gaps in equality through laws and policies and gender-focused programs that don’t just level the playing field, but also work to change the culture to be more supportive of women.
This cultural shift requires all people, from leaders to individual community members, to understand the difference between equity and equality and provide extra support to women, rather than just offer them the same opportunities as men. And it starts with each of us recognizing and breaking down the lingering barriers that prevent those opportunities from becoming a reality for many women.
By investing in their education, women gain more access to leadership positions, which also empowers them to improve the lives of people within their communities. The profound impact gender equity has is evident: When the status of women improved in low- and middle-income countries, for instance, there was a 47% reduction in childhood mortality, according to a 2015 study published in Biodemography and Social Biology.
In my country, Rwanda, the government and civil society have worked to promote an equity agenda, by not only ensuring equitable access to education, employment, and health care for women, but also promoting women as leaders in society. In medical school admissions in Rwanda, female candidates have been prioritized, with female enrollment rates increasing from 20% in 2017 to 48% in 2018. Today, at the University of Global Health Equity in Rwanda, we are continuing these efforts to promote gender equity in our programs, by prioritizing that at least two-thirds of our medical students are women. And as these female physicians become leaders in our society, they will leverage their positions to lift other women up.
Further, as a constitutional requirement in Rwanda, a minimum of one-third of positions in Parliament and all public institutions must be held by both genders, a policy enacted in 2003, a time when women held very few leadership positions. Today 61% of Parliament is made up of women (the highest in the world). Through efforts such as these, Rwanda has come closer to gender equality. According to the World Economic Forum, Rwanda holds the rank of the most gender equal country in sub-Saharan Africa, and the ninth-most gender-equal country in the world. In turn, promoting women in our society and, with a mindset of gender equity, ensuring they have the support they need to access education and quality health care have contributed—at least in part—to a decrease in maternal mortality by 80% from 2000 to 2017 and childhood mortality by 75% from 1992 to 2015.
But Rwanda is just one example of progress toward both gender equity and equality, and there is still work to be done to reach a fully equitable global society. The world has failed on the promises made in the Beijing Declaration over the last 25 years to achieve true gender equality globally—and that failure stems from not having equity at the center of countries’ approaches.
Today, our global society still has 10 years left to reach the goal of gender equality set by the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. To achieve this, it is time for all of us to shift from an equality to equity agenda and ensure that all are actively promoting and supporting women, in education and in all aspects of life. Only then can an equal and truly enabled world be achieved.
Dr. Agnes Binagwaho, MD, M(Ped), Ph.D., is vice chancellor of the University of Global Health Equity in Rwanda.
More opinion in Fortune:
—Why the U.S. oil and natural gas industry doesn’t want tariffs right now
—Combating coronavirus starts with keeping health workers well
—6 steps to sustainably flatten the coronavirus curve
—Coronavirus economic relief proposals are overlooking the 57 million Americans who are self-employed
—Listen to Leadership Next, a Fortune podcast examining the evolving role of CEO
—WATCH: CEO of Canada’s biggest bank on the keys to leading through the coronavirus
Listen to our audio briefing, Fortune 500 Daily


fortune--2020-03-25--4 ways to keep networking while social distancing

Ready for a glimmer of good news amid the general gloom? How about this: Even if you’re one of those outgoing types who’s used to growing your professional network face-to-face, at the kinds of events and gatherings now called off for the duration, you can still maintain your connections—and cultivate new ones—at a safe distance.
“Networking remotely isn’t difficult at all,” notes Rosina Racioppi, CEO of Women Unlimited, whose leadership-development training and consulting is focused on advancing women at companies like American Express, Google, Cisco Systems, and Microsoft. Adds Racioppi, who wrote a forthcoming book about networking called Relationships Matter, “The only obstacle to building a great network virtually is that so many people working at home, especially for the first time, forget to do it.”
That’s understandable, considering the barrage of pressures and distractions we’re enduring now, but strengthening professional ties and seeking out new ones could pay dividends after the pandemic has receded into history. In the meantime, here are four ways you can keep networking.
1. Contact clients you haven’t heard from in a while
Karen Wickre, former editorial director at Twitter and author of Taking the Work Out of Networking: Your Guide to Making Connections That Count, suggests taking a few minutes a day to contact clients you haven’t recently kept in touch with. “Ask how they’re faring, and let them know you’d like to help, if you can,” she says. “It’s not a sales call, it’s a goodwill call. They will remember it later.”
Likewise, Wickre says, take a brief daily break from work to send short notes to former colleagues and other contacts “to say you’re thinking about them and ask how they’re doing. If you know their personal tastes, send along music, or movie or reading lists. It’s a friendly gesture that keeps you in touch”—even if they’re too swamped with work and worry to reply right now.
2. Thoroughly update your LinkedIn
Let’s suppose you (like most of us) haven’t taken the time to make the most of LinkedIn since the last time you were looking for a job. Now is a good moment to make sure your profile is up-to-date, ask contacts for recommendations, join groups you’re interested in, and comment on other people’s posts.
The point is to be as visible as you can. Why? These days, recruiters of all stripes—including those looking for possible new board members and future conference speakers, as well as potential hires—are spending even more time combing through social media than they normally do. It’s smart to make sure they can spot you.
3. Approach new contacts
You ended up with some time instead of a long daily trek to the office? One constructive use for it: Think creatively about new contacts you could add to your current network—but, says Racioppi at Women Unlimited, make sure they’re the right ones. The networking mistake most people make, by her lights, is gravitating toward “connecting to what’s comfortable for us, validating our own views, and confirming what we already know.”
By contrast, Racioppi’s research shows the most successful businesspeople get where they are by building a broad network of knowledgeable connections, both inside and outside their own fields and industries. “You need people who can be sounding boards for your ideas and plans, and who will challenge your thinking and question your assumptions,” she says. “Without a wide variety of points of view, it’s too easy to get stuck in ‘silo thinking,’ where everyone in your network sees things the same way you do. That drastically limits what you can learn—and how far you can go.”
Racioppi observes that many people, especially (but not only) women, decide not to approach someone whose work they admire—by sending a request to connect on LinkedIn, for example—out of fear of rejection, or simply from a reluctance to impose on the other person’s time and attention. But if you send a request with a thoughtful note, ideally one that briefly asks for advice on a specific business issue or situation, “most people are receptive,” says Racioppi. “Never assume a no.”
4. Set up informational interviews
The COVID-19 crisis might turn out to be a weirdly apt moment for informational interviews with a few of your networking contacts, old or new. If you’ve been mulling a new job or career that might interest you, suggests Karin Bodewits, “take this time to reach out to professionals who currently hold those jobs.”
A cofounder of a Munich-based global online network of academics in the sciences, Bodewits notes that while you can’t meet up at your local Starbucks, “you can ask for a quick phone call or Skype chat. The reality is that the people you’d like to speak with may be working from home too. What’s more, they may be itching for more social contact.” Too true.
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—Listen to Leadership Next, a Fortune podcast examining the evolving role of CEO
—WATCH: Can you be a leader and an introvert?
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fortune--2020-03-25--How Nike is overcoming the coronavirus impact on its China business

The coronavirus crisis is proving to be a disaster for retailers around the world. But as Nike is proving in China, brands can mitigate the pain with the help of strong tech and swift and decisive moves.
Nike reported its latest quarterly results on Tuesday evening, saying that sales in the period ended Feb. 29 had dropped 5% in Greater China, which also includes Hong Kong and Taiwan. Mass store closings there as the coronavirus spread in late January overwhelmed a strong start to the period and ended a 22-quarter streak of sales increases of at least 10% in that region.
But as newly minted chief executive John Donahoe told Wall Street analysts, Nike is bouncing back quickly, helped by its tech firepower, both in terms of e-commerce and training apps, its supply-chain prowess, and its approach to reopening stores. As of Tuesday, 80% of its 7,000 stores in Greater China have reopened, including one in Wuhan, and digital sales are booming, the company said.
Nike shares shot up 10% on Wednesday in early trading.
All of this is informing Nike’s approach to how it is dealing with the coronavirus pandemic in North America and Europe, where the outbreak has come later, and stores are largely closed. This is critical: North America and Europe together generate 67% of company revenues compared to 15% in Greater China.
“We’re seeing the other side of the crisis in China,” said Donahoe, who took the reins in mid-January. “We now have a playbook that we can use elsewhere.” That approach has led to similarly quick returns to form in Japan and South Korea.
The crisis struck not even two weeks after Donahoe became CEO. Nike quickly closed stores in Greater China. By early February, 5,000 stores, 75% of the fleet there, were closed entirely, and the others stayed open with limited hours. About two weeks later, Nike started to gradually reopen stores.
But during the closures, Nike’s e-commerce stepped up, led by its workout apps and trainers that offer Nike Training Club workouts. There was an 80% increase in users within the quarter to get customers active at home and paying attention to Nike. Because Nike’s fitness and e-commerce apps are particularly well integrated, it fueled a 30% increase in digital sales.
Nike, which closed its stores in the U.S., Canada, and other Western markets on March 15, is hoping that will be the case in those markets too. Over the weekend, Nike waived the fees for the premium version of its Nike Training Club, which offers on-demand workouts and tips from trainers, for 90 days. (The basic version is free.) Under Armour is making a similar bet with its MyFitnessPal and MapMyRun apps. That company’s stores are also closed.
Nike also had to manage the delicate matter of reopening stores to minimize losses but not doing so too soon, lest it be seen as insensitive to customer health. That helped bolster Nike’s brand in this crucial market, Donahoe said, citing the head of Nike’s business in Greater China: “It’s become quite clear to me that when Nike says we are a brand of China for China, it’s really true.”
Nike has recovered there to the point that fourth-fiscal-quarter (March through May) sales in that market should be on par with the year-earlier period. In a research note, Jefferies praised “the continued power of this global brand, its growing digital strategy, and the benefits from robust innovation.”
As for North America, Nike has taken a similar approach to managing store closings. The company initially planned to reopen stores in the West on March 27 but now plans to reopen stores in North America and across Europe “on a location-by-location basis.” It is paying employees at stores and distribution centers for the duration of the disruption, while most other companies have committed to two weeks.
Just like it did in China, Nike has been able to quickly move merchandise destined for physical stores—its own or those of wholesale partners, many of which have closed stores—to its e-commerce sites, a move one executive called “expanding our digital pipe.”
On the marketing side, it has encouraged people to abide by the authorities’ exhortation to stay indoors to minimize the extent of the outbreak, rather than just go for a sales bump by directing people to its site. It continues efforts by Nike to be seen as a good corporate citizen.
“If you ever dreamed of playing for millions around the world, now is your chance. Play inside, play for the world,” read a Nike ad.
“We know in times like these that strong brands get even stronger,” Donahoe said. “No one is better equipped than Nike to navigate the current climate.” Some other brands might beg to differ, but Nike’s handling of a pandemic in a major market helps it make that claim.
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—Will coronavirus finally get Americans to embrace the bidet?
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fortune--2020-03-25--After the coronavirus selloff, there is only one $1 trillion company left in the U.S.

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Since this story was reported, Apple regained its $1 trillion market cap.
Over the past month, the coronavirus has ravaged the stock market—knocking billions of dollars off companies’ market caps. Now, there’s only one trillion-dollar U.S. company left: Microsoft.
The software behemoth held on to a market cap of $1.03 trillion as of Monday, as its former trillion-dollar peers struggled (and failed) to keep their market caps above the venerable mark. Apple, Amazon, and Alphabet have since fallen behind Microsoft (which was the third company to hit the $1 trillion mark initially in April 2019. Saudi Aramco is the only other company, not based in the U.S., to have a market cap of $1.5 trillion).
Since the market peaked on Feb. 12, Microsoft’s stock is down roughly 19%, while Apple and Alphabet are both down around 25%.
But why is Microsoft the standout? For Wedbush’s Dan Ives, who covers companies like Microsoft and Apple, the answer is simple: cloud. “Part of why Microsoft has almost been the Rock of Gibraltar in this dark storm is because of how exposed and leveraged they are to the cloud theme,” Ives tells Fortune.
Ives suggests that the shift to remote working and remote learning is going to be a long-term overall catalyst for cloud-based infrastructure—something that makes up about 70% of Microsoft’s business, he says.
Although the company’s traditional PC business is more exposed to supply chain and consumer headwinds, Microsoft’s cloud business is shored up by enterprise. That’s why Ives estimates 80% to 90% of Microsoft’s valuation is cloud-driven.
That enterprise aspect stands to bolster the titan’s cloud and software businesses (like Azure, Redmine, and Office 365). “Microsoft is one where the trend to move to cloud is such a high-priority purchase in terms of the pecking order, they’re just going to be less exposed to the headwinds than some consumer-driven companies like an Alphabet or an Apple,” Ives says. That almost “provides a floor on the stock,” he says, thanks to a “Teflon-like spending area, as enterprises now have to accelerate their move to the cloud.”
Companies like Apple are not only facing supply chain pressure, but consumer demand pressure, as people are now focused on “their health, groceries, and hand sanitizer,” not the new iPhone, Ives suggests. And for Alphabet, the COVID-19 environment is creating less consumer disposable income and less advertising from companies—something that’s going to hurt Alphabet’s advertising revenue.
As the workforce (and world) shifts to the cloud, Ives believes the impacts will be permanent. And for investors, Microsoft, which boasts a 1.4% dividend yield as well, is both a “defensive and offensive name.”
Still, if markets can pick up in the near future, the others aren’t too far off from reclaiming the $1-trillion-company title: Apple would need to rise roughly 2% to recapture its $1 trillion market cap, while Alphabet would need to rise roughly 27%, based on Monday.
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fortune--2020-03-25--The Coronavirus Economy: How the pandemic fast-tracked a shift to telehealth

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Paige Bellenbaum never could have anticipated how COVID-19 would impact the health care organization that’s the culmination of her life’s work.
A licensed master social worker, Bellenbaum is the founding director of The Motherhood Center, which provides supportive services for New York City women suffering from perinatal mood and anxiety disorders (PMADs). These afflictions affect some 20% to 25% of expectant and new mothers, and are the No. 1 complication associated with childbirth.
Having suffered from severe postpartum depression after the birth of her son, Bellenbaum became committed to advocating for women with PMADs, drafting legislation regarding education and screening that was signed into law in New York in 2014.
Fortune spoke with Bellenbaum for a new series, The Coronavirus Economy, to ask about how COVID-19 has affected The Motherhood Center’s work and its patients, her employment status, and her plans for the future as well as to get a sense of how she has been handling this news, both emotionally and financially.
Paige Bellenbaum is the founding director of The Motherhood Center, which provides supportive services for New York City women suffering from perinatal mood and anxiety disorders. Lorin Klaris
Fortune: Can you describe the mission and clientele of The Motherhood Center?
We’re essentially the only organization in New York City—and one of just a handful nationwide—providing clinical treatment and support to both pregnant women and new mothers with PMADs, which most people traditionally refer to as postpartum depression. Its diagnoses include depression, anxiety, OCD, bipolar disorder, personality disorder, and rarely, postpartum psychosis.
Having treated over 4,000 people since opening our doors in 2017, we offer everything from support groups to individual therapy to medication management with reproductive psychiatrists specializing in pregnancy and postpartum medication. We’re also licensed in New York State to run a day program—a five-day-a-week partial hospitalization program that’s an intermediate level of care between inpatient and outpatient—which makes us very unique.
When and how did your staff mobilize in response to the coronavirus threat?
Thankfully, some of our staff jumped on the panic bandwagon before the rest of us and said, “We need to get in front of this now.” The past three weeks have been a literal around-the-clock scurry to create virtual treatment in real time at all of our treatment levels. We made the final decision to go entirely virtual on March 13, and it was all hands on deck that weekend so we’d be ready to launch on March 16.
Had you planned to launch a virtual program this year?
Before the coronavirus, we’d explored the idea of telehealth—and considered slowly rolling out outpatient treatment as a potential option in 2021—but we never thought we’d include the day program because of these women’s illness level.
Then, the week of March 9, the New York State Department of Mental Health issued a slew of in-real-time guidelines and new regulations for telehealth—directly in response to the current crisis—to ensure that residents’ mental-health care needs would be met. The coronavirus forced us to go all-virtual.
What did creating a virtual program entail?
Finding and implementing Zoom was easy—building out a virtual curriculum was the labor-intensive part. We run five groups daily, including a skills group and expressive therapies like art therapy (we sent all our moms home Friday with bags of art supplies so they can do virtual sessions). We had to reinvent our entire curriculum with two people running a virtual class instead of the usual one in person, to ensure we’re providing as much safety and security as possible.
“We’re essentially the only organization in New York City—and one of just a handful nationwide—providing clinical treatment and support to both pregnant women and new mothers with PMADs,” says Bellenbaum. Andres Orozco
What are the complexities of offering this kind of treatment virtually?
We work with a highly acute population—many of whom have suicidal ideation or have been hospitalized with psychosis. So we had to devise a whole system of what to do if somebody zooms out without notice or is offscreen for 10 minutes. We created a call tree, and made sure that we have everyone’s phone number and emergency contact information.
Also, traditionally a therapist would walk into a group session when time permitted and pull someone for individual therapy. Now every patient in the day program has an assigned time slot when they come out of the virtual room and enter a new room to meet with their therapist or psychiatrist.
In addition, we’re creating a virtual nursery where moms can pop in and get advice from our nursery director around sleeping and eating.
Is the coronavirus impacting your actual curriculum?
Yes. We’ve started offering brand-new programming in relation to the coronavirus, including a webinar called “Managing anxiety in the time of coronavirus as a parent,” for which we’ve been inundated with registrations. We’re offering virtual support groups to capture moms with underlying PMADs who are also anxious about the coronavirus. We’re rapidly adding onto what we already offer, and can’t keep up with the emails requesting additional coronavirus resources and support.
Are these treatment options available outside New York State?
In response to this crisis, we’re opening up our support groups, webinars, and similar offerings to mothers across the country. If someone outside of New York State needs or requests individual therapy or a higher level of care, we work closely with Postpartum Support International, which has coordinators and resources around the world.
Is the coronavirus complicating your staffing issues?
Everyone’s working from home, and we’re taking this day by day. If childcare becomes an issue, we’ll figure it out. We always knew we had a phenomenal team, but the amount of work they’ve put in to make sure these women get the care they need at such a critical time has been amazing.
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fortune--2020-03-25--Need to defer your student loan payment due to coronavirus? Here’s how

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Students and recent grads breathed a sigh of relief last week when the government announced it would suspend federally held student loans as a result of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. But to take advantage of the 60-day suspension, you’ll have to take a few steps.
The Department of Education has dropped the interest rate on student loans to 0% for at least the next 60 days.
That’s good news, since it means you won’t accrue additional debt if you do obtain a forbearance. And, given the government action, skipping a few payments won’t hurt your credit score, if you follow the proper procedure.
Government-held student loans
Step one is reaching out to your lender. The Department of Education has contact numbers for servicers of federally held loans listed on its website. If you’re not sure who holds your loan, call the Federal Student Aid Information Center (FSAIC) at 1-800-433-3243 or visit StudentAid.gov/login.
Once you’ve found the right lender, ask them for an administrative forbearance. That will allow you to stop making payments without being marked delinquent. You won’t have to worry about extending that forbearance if the government extends the loan suspension program, either. That will be done automatically once you’ve called.
After the suspension lifts, though, you will have to resume making payments. If you use auto-debit payments, you’ll need to restart those. They will not automatically resume.
Already behind on your debts? There’s good news there. If you were at least 31 days behind on your payment as of March 13, 2020, or become more than 31 days delinquent after that date, you’ll automatically be placed in administrative forbearance.
Privately held student loans
It’s critical to note that last week’s announcement has no authority over privately held loans, such as those held by Sallie Mae or Citi Student Loan Corp.
You can still request a forbearance to temporarily postpone or reduce your payments, but as of now, you could still face late fees, and interest will accrue. And a payment might be required to obtain the forbearance.
(Sally Mae, in a statement to Fortune, said “customers facing financial difficulties due to the pandemic are encouraged to contact us for assistance, which includes a three-month suspension of student loan payments, that does not impact their credit standing.”)
Still, if you face penalties with your private lender, it’s still better than defaulting on the loans.
More than 44 million Americans have $1.5 trillion in outstanding student loan debt at present. It’s one of the largest consumer debt categories. That’s a 33% increase from 2014.
Some 69% of the class of 2018 took out student loans. They graduated with an average debt of $29,800 per student.
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—Will ‘The Great Cessation’ be worse than the Great Recession?
—The U.S. needs more ventilators. Why can’t it make them in time?
—Which stores are open—and closed—during the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S.?
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—WATCH: World leaders and health experts on how to stop the spread of COVID-19
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fortune--2020-03-25--Sobriety is the new black: How musicians are upending the usual narrative surrounding addiction

Katie Toupin had quit drinking two-and-a-half years before the singer, songwriter, and guitarist felt ready to address the subject in her music. By contrast, Bethany Cosentino, singer for the California indie-pop duo Best Coast, wrote about getting sober before she actually did it.
Both singers are among a wave of musicians, from folk singers to indie rockers, who are talking openly on social media, in their music, and even in promotional material for their albums, about giving up drugs and alcohol. That’s a change from years past, when artists tended to be more circumspect about that kind of thing, short of something like an attention-grabbing public incident or a trip to rehab that upended tour dates.
“I think we understand addiction and alcoholism and things more, so it’s talked about more,” says Toupin, who wrote her catchy new single “Don’t Wanna Die” about the last night she got drunk. “It used to be a little bit like, ‘It’s not cool to be sober,’ and now the trend is ‘It is cool to be sober.’”
“Our heroes keep dying, and I think people want to pave a new way,” says Toupin. Thomas Crabtree
It’s a trend that’s been steadily building, at least since Metallica singer James Hetfield addressed his struggles with addiction in the 2004 documentary Metallica: Some Kind of Monster. Other high-profile musicians have also talked publicly about giving up drugs and alcohol, including Eric Clapton, David Bowie, Tom Waits, and Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, though the topic hasn’t come up in their songs. And Rocketman, last year’s Elton John biopic, advances the story through flashbacks while the singer opens up during a group therapy session in rehab.
Despite those big names, countless other musicians have struggled with addiction, and drugs and alcohol have taken their toll over the years. In just the past decade, Prince, Tom Petty, Whitney Houston, and Stone Temple Pilots singer Scott Weiland died of accidental drug overdoses, while substance abuse was a factor in the deaths of Cranberries singer Dolores O’Riordan, Soundgarden singer Chris Cornell, the musician and producer Richard Swift, and the rappers Lil Peep and Mac Miller, among others.
“Our heroes keep dying, and I think people want to pave a new way,” says Toupin, 31.
The 2017 death of Lil Peep from an overdose of Xanax and fentanyl jolted Cosentino, who had friends in common with the 21-year-old performer. “He was really a kid,” she tells Fortune. “I was really sad because I was like, Man, who knows what would have happened if he would have gotten the help that he needed.”
Though Cosentino, 33, wasn’t yet sober then, it was around the same time that she wrote the song “Everything Has Changed,” which seemed to foretell her decision 14 months later to give up drugs and alcohol.
“I think that almost subconsciously, it was already in my head that I had an issue and that I probably needed to address it at some point,” Cosentino says.
Though Cosentino was determined at first to avoid mention of her sobriety when promoting Always Tomorrow, Best Coast’s first new album in five years, she quickly changed her mind. “I realized, like, I can’t really tell the story of this album without mentioning the fact that I got sober, because it’s such a big part of why I was gone for the last five years,” she says.
She has also built enough of a reputation for openness on social media that keeping it private didn’t seem realistic. “I was pretty public about how much I drank and the drugs I did,” Cosentino says. “Now I try to be as open as I can because I know that there are people looking at me that may be in a place where they wake up every day thinking it’s always going to be like this. And I just feel like my message is to tell people that change is possible.”
That’s part of the reason Lilly Hiatt is open about her sobriety, too. The daughter of a sober musician, it was a familiar concept when Hiatt, 35, was growing up. When she found her own way to sobriety at 27, though, she didn’t know many peers in her position. Encountering other musicians her age who had been through it “gave me a lot of hope and made me feel not so alone in it,” says Hiatt, who releases the new album Walking Proof on March 27. “So it’s almost like a bit of a duty, I feel like, for me to talk about my experience, which hasn’t been a perfectly straight and narrow experience, but it’s been a very impactful and formative one.”
“I wasn’t drunk all the time,” says Hiatt. “But, you know, I was drunk enough of the time to miss some stuff going on around me.” Alysse Gafkjen
There’s also an accountability factor. Twelve-step programs like Alcoholics Anonymous emphasize the idea of taking responsibility for one’s behavior as part of an effort to stay sober. Talking about sobriety online, or with fans at shows, has a similar effect. “It reminds me there’s a sort of accountability there that is necessary,” Hiatt says.
For a long time, the uncharitable line about musicians who had quit drinking or drugs was that their music was better when they were under the influence. Toupin, Cosentino, and Hiatt strongly disagree.
“I think I’m a much better writer now,” Hiatt says. “I think there’s a sense of observation in the new record that I wouldn’t be capable of if I was still drunk all the time. I mean, I wasn’t drunk all the time. But, you know, I was drunk enough of the time to miss some stuff going on around me.”
That’s been Toupin’s experience, too. “Making music is a lot more fun,” she says. “I’ve just gotten rid of so much fear and doubt, and I feel so much freer, just having more confidence without second-guessing myself.”
Cosentino recently went on her first sober tour, and after shaking off initial jitters about the possibility of stage fright or performing in front of people without the cushion of a buzz, she tells Fortune it’s far easier to be on the road and not wasted.
“Honestly, I feel a lot more connected to what I do now,” she says. “I get out there, and I have that time to just do my thing onstage. And I get an adrenaline rush from that that I used to get from drinking and doing drugs.”
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fortune--2020-03-25--How does America pay for a $2 trillion coronavirus relief bill? With two shiny coins, this lawmaker

How does America pay for a $2 trillion coronavirus relief bill? With two shiny coins, this lawmaker argues

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If a 5¢ coin is a nickel, 10¢ a dime, and 25¢ a quarter, what is a $1 trillion coin?
Call it an emergency plan. The minting of such mammoth mammon isn’t just a thought experiment—it’s an actual draft bill being floated in Congress. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a Democrat representing Michigan’s 13th district, put forward a plan that would have the U.S. Treasury strike two $1 trillion coins to raise funds for a stimulus package designed to provide economic relief from the devastation of the coronavirus pandemic.
Under the plan, the Treasury would mint the two $1 trillion coins, then deposit them at the Federal Reserve. Forced by law to recognize the coins as legal tender, the Fed would add $2 trillion to the Treasury’s account. The Treasury would then use this money, under Congress’s direction, for stimulus.
If the government wants money, why doesn’t it just—poof!—make the money? In this case, the $2 trillion would fund prepaid debit cards for “every person in America,” as Rep. Tlaib’s so-called Automatic BOOST to Communities Act says. The cards would come loaded with $2,000 and be topped up with another $1,000 every month until a year after the end of the crisis. Problem solved, right?
That $2 trillion isn’t an invented number. The White House and Senate overnight reached an agreement on a coronavirus aid package that would cost at least that. A lot is unknown with that plan, including how will it be financed.
The $1 trillion coin solution seems so simple, so obvious, so frankly silly, surely there must be a catch. Surely, some restriction prevents the government from creating as much money as it likes out of thin air all willy-nilly. Isn’t this why the U.S. has protracted political battles over debt ceilings and fund appropriations and allocations?
Yet there is a legal basis for the idea.
Laying down the law
While trillion-dollar coins may sound fanciful, their legitimacy is rooted in reality. “We’re not proposing something fictional or utopian,” says Rohan Grey, a Cornell Law School JSD student who coauthored the bill. “It already exists in the law.”
Grey points to a provision in the arcane bylaws of the U.S. Mint. The statute—31 U.S. Code § 5112—allows the Treasury to create platinum coins of any denomination. While strict rules set limits on the amount of paper currency that can be in circulation as well as the denominations of coins made of other metals, platinum, for whatever reason, has no cap. A platinum coin can be worth a penny, a sum equivalent to the gross domestic product of Indonesia (roughly $1 trillion), or anything else. It’s fully up to the Treasury Secretary’s “discretion,” per the code.
Detractors of the trillion-dollar coin idea view this interpretation as an absurd loophole with dangerous repercussions rather than as a legitimate policy proposal. George Selgin, director of the Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank based in Washington, D.C., is one such opponent.
Selgin argues that Rep. Tlaib’s plan jeopardizes the independence, autonomy, and stability of the Fed. As the Treasury “forces coins down the Fed’s throat at a trillion dollars a shot,” Selgin says, it’s loading the Fed’s balance sheet with lame duck assets that earn no income, threatening the organization’s ability to self-finance. At least bonds, the Fed’s usual coin of the realm, accrue interest and can be bought or sold, yielding earnings.
The problems compound from there. After the Treasury disburses that $2 trillion to Americans, whatever doesn’t get spent will likely wind up in people’s bank accounts, Selgin wagers. Since the Fed must pay interest on commercial banks’ reserves, that means it will become saddled with interest-paying liabilities. While this wouldn’t do much harm in the short term, with interest rates at near-zero, it could eventually become an existential threat that causes irreparable damage down the line.
The trillion-dollar coin gambit “could gut the Fed if it were abused,” Selgin warns. And it may set a perilous precedent, allowing governments to raise unlimited funds for whatever pet projects they please in the future.
Yet even Selgin concedes “there’s no question this couldn’t be made legal.” Congress has the power of the purse, after all.
Breaking the debt ceiling
Rep. Tlaib’s proposal, while innovative, is not new.
The trillion-dollar coin idea first arose during the 2011 debt ceiling crisis. The option was devised as a way for the U.S. government to secure funding and avoid default. Congress won’t sign off on the budget? Go around it.
While just about everyone acknowledged the idea’s zaniness, it gained currency nevertheless. As Paul Krugman, the Nobel Prize–winning economist and New York Times columnist, put it, “Why not?” Or as Neil Irwin, then a journalist at the Washington Post, once framed the situation: “[It] is an idiotic solution to an idiotic problem,” but it “may indeed be less bad than the alternatives.”
Even Philip Diehl, the former U.S. Mint director and Treasury chief of staff who helped write the law containing the unintentional loophole, endorsed the idea. “It’s an ingenious use of the law to avoid a ridiculous and irresponsible situation, in which the country would be driven to default,” he told Wired in 2013.
Ultimately, the Treasury opted not to go the platinum route. Democrats and Republicans struck a deal that staved off economic ruin, albeit temporarily. That deal laid the groundwork for future disputes over government spending and ballooning debt to erupt.
Why is today any different?
When the Obama administration was considering the trillion-dollar coin, it was intending to circumvent Congress. Rep. Tlaib’s version of the idea, on the other hand, puts Congress front and center.
In her bill, Congress would mandate that the Treasury takes action, basically forcing the Treasury and the Fed to do this transaction, like a parent forcing fighting siblings to kiss and makeup. Neither the Federal Reserve Board nor the Treasury Department responded to Fortune’s request for comment.
Why go this route at all? Cato’s Selgin notes that effectively the same outcome can be achieved through the usual route: the Treasury selling debt as bonds to be bought by the Federal Reserve. That would avoid all the complications and uncertain ramifications of trillion-dollar coins. If Congress can agree on the stimulus, no jumbo coins are necessary to make it happen behind the scenes.
Grey, the bill’s coauthor, sees things differently. He notes that the last time the government funded a large scale bailout with debt, a reactionary movement, the so-called Tea Party, sprouted up in opposition. The group rallied together calling for a reining in of national debt. Grey believes the trillion-dollar coin idea could be a palatable alternative to laypeople, shifting the conversation away from talk of austerity and toward an acknowledgment that the government effectively, at the end of the day, has unlimited funds.
“It’s designed to make the point to people that the Treasury really does have an infinity sign” on its budget, Grey says. He counters that the typical means of federal funding is far more befuddling and even damaging. “The real gimmick is where the Treasury issues debt to sell to a primary dealer that sells it to the Fed, which holds that debt indefinitely. That’s confusing. That’s the wizardry,” he says.
The trillion-dollar question
Given a Republican-controlled Senate, Rep. Tlaib’s plan for a trillion-dollar coin seems unlikely to move forward. (The odds were further dashed when Senate Democrats and Republicans hammered out a deal of their own late on Tuesday.) But the bill does signal that the proposal isn’t going away anytime soon. As long as that strange, platinum loophole remains on the books, enterprising legislators will continue to consider exploiting it.
Nathan Tankus, a colleague of Grey’s at the Modern Money Network, a student-driven economics initiative, hopes the trillion-dollar coin idea will eventually win approval. He says the effect on inflation would be no different than the Treasury issuing bonds, a point he also makes in a recent blog post.
Why two coins and not just one worth $2 trillion? The proposal specifically opts for two in order to establish a legal precedent, legitimizing the maneuver as a valid funding option, Tankus notes. One can imagine the premise being invoked by future administrations to cover the cost of ambitious, expensive projects, like the Green New Deal or Democratic presidential contender Bernie Sanders’ Medicare for All plan.
It’s exactly this kind of thinking that worries Selgin so. “They think this is free money, a free lunch,” he says of the trillion-dollar coins’ backers. “Overall, the bottom line is this is not a necessary idea, it doesn’t accomplish anything for the current crisis, and it could ultimately be the start of something that does a lot of harm.”
Grey, for his part, is focusing on the here and now. “We’re not proposing unlimited spending on anything all the time—we’re not trying to be ridiculous here,” he says. “We’re trying to provide emergency cash relief at the depths of a crisis.”
The competing ideologies boil down to those of hard-nosed accountants versus modern monetary theorists, a school of economic thought that believes the sky is the limit when it comes to government spending. It’s a battle, in other words, between flinty bean-counters and farmers of magic beans.
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fortune--2020-03-25--Anheuser-Busch funnels sports and entertainment budget into coronavirus relief efforts

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Anheuser-Busch is redeploying the money it normally would spend on sports and entertainment sponsorships to relief efforts for the coronavirus pandemic.
The brewer announced Wednesday it would shift the budget to nonprofit partners, including the American Red Cross. Anheuser-Busch is the country’s largest sponsor of sporting events and concerts.
One of the first tangible effects of the move will be converting arenas and stadiums into temporary blood drive centers. The $5 million donation to the Red Cross will also see the brewer’s tour centers in St. Louis and Merrimack, N.H., converted and Anheuser-Busch donating airtime for public service announcements.
“COVID-19 has changed how we all live our lives,” said Michel Doukeris, CEO of Anheuser-Busch U.S., in a statement. “While we can’t solve this crisis on our own, we are proud to do what we can to serve and support our communities in need…We invite other companies to use their unique capabilities to join us in this effort, however they can, so that together we can make a difference.”
The announcement comes days after the brewer said it would begin making hand sanitizer on its production line to help ease shortages throughout the country. That will be donated to the Red Cross as well.
Anheuser-Busch is expecting its earnings will take a big hit in the wake of COVID-19, saying this quarter will be the worst in a decade.
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—Will ‘The Great Cessation’ be worse than the Great Recession?
—The U.S. needs more ventilators. Why can’t it make them in time?
—Which stores are open—and closed—during the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S.?
—College students struggle to find housing as the coronavirus pushes them off campus
—How to upgrade the background of your video chats
—IBM and The Weather Channel debut a coronavirus map
—Listen to Leadership Next, a Fortune podcast examining the evolving role of CEOs
—WATCH: World leaders and health experts on how to stop the spread of COVID-19
Subscribe to Outbreak, a daily roundup of stories on the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on global business, delivered free to your inbox.


fortune--2020-03-25--The coronavirus pandemic reveals how prepared the U.S. is for cyber conflict

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Plan for the worst. Better yet, rehearse.
The disruptions to life caused by the coronavirus pandemic provide valuable insight into how countries might react during a cyber crisis. People are being forced to stay at home, they’re relying on businesses’—and online delivery companies’—logistics networks to sustain them, and Internet connectivity maintenance is a top priority everywhere.
Members of the military are paying close attention to worldwide responses to the crisis. Jan Kallberg and Stephen Hamilton of the Army Cyber Institute at West Point note the similarities between now and what might occur during a cyber conflict. In a smart op-ed for the cybersecurity news site Fifth Domain, they write that governments must tamp down on panic while keeping their citizenry informed. Businesses must operate stably. And first responders and law enforcement must keep their cool while doing their jobs.
Can governments maintain law and order? Can businesses continue to produce and deliver under pressure? Can the population keep its anxieties in check? The U.S. is learning the answers.
So are its rivals. “Likely, our potential adversaries study carefully how our society reacts to COVID-19,” write Kallberg and Hamilton. “For example, if the population obeys the government, if our government maintains control and enforces its agenda and if the nation was prepared.”
Kallberg and Hamilton warn that any fractures in the system will become apparent and should be addressed. “If the population questions the government’s ability to protect, the government’s legitimacy and authority will suffer,” they write.
It’s unlikely the U.S. will get wrecked by a “Cyber Pearl Harbor,” a single, massive devastating blow to the system. Networks are too complicated, too asynchronous, for such a simplistic disaster scenario. But broad-based, opportunistic attacks against public infrastructure and industries are guaranteed. They’re inevitable.
The country should learn these lessons now so it can be more resilient later.
Robert Hackett
Twitter: @rhhackett
Email: robert.hackett@fortune.com
THREATS
Big Tech gets bigger. Social distancing has increased people's reliance on services from the world's biggest tech giants. Facebook usage is skyrocketing, even as its advertising sales falter. Amazon, whose stock has weathered the market sell-off better than most peers, says it is hiring 100,000 workers to deal with a surge in online orders. Microsoft's online collaboration software, Microsoft Teams, is booming—and its supply chain is "getting back on rails," says CEO Satya Nadella. Netflix streaming is hitting all-time highs. Meanwhile, Apple is looking to start reopening stores in April.
WHO's there? The World Health Organization is seeing twice as many hacking and phishing attempts as usual, the group's chief information security officer, Flavio Aggio, told Reuters. Some unnamed cybersecurity experts seemed to think a set of attacks were coming from a group called DarkHotel, who some people attribute to North Korea. Among other troublemaking, the hackers are setting up fake websites in an attempt to steal staffers' passwords.
Getting kicked while down. It's not just the WHO in hackers' crosshairs. Cybercriminals and spies are opportunistically using the global health crisis as a launchpad for attacks all over. Cybersecurity experts warn the fallout may not become apparent for weeks.
Barbarians at the Gates. In an interview with TED, Microsoft founder Bill Gates warned that loosening social distancing measures and restarting the economy earlier, an idea President Trump has floated, would be "very irresponsible." Gates, a major philanthropist focused on pubic health, added, "There really is no middle ground, and it’s very tough to say to people, ‘Hey, keep going to restaurants, go buy new houses, ignore that pile of bodies over in the corner.'"
Beware "zoombombing."
ACCESS GRANTED
The data economy's ill effects—privacy infringement, opacity, scarce content moderation—derive from tech companies' business models. Many are consequences of targeted advertising. So, why don't we just ban targeted ads? In Congressional testimony this January, David Heinemeier Hansson, cofounder of Basecamp, a Chicago-based tech firm, offered this intriguing idea, as Wired relates.
The solution to our privacy problems, suggested Hansson, was actually quite simple. If companies couldn’t use our data to target ads, they would have no reason to gobble it up in the first place, and no opportunity to do mischief with it later. From that fact flowed a straightforward fix: “Ban the right of companies to use personal data for advertising targeting.”
If Hansson’s proffer—that targeted advertising is at the heart of everything wrong with the internet and should be outlawed—sounds radical, that’s because it is. It cuts to the core of how some of the most profitable companies in the world make their money.
FORTUNE RECON
There’s a global sprint to design thousands of ventilators by Clay Chandler
With 5G, wearable devices are expected to become even more sci-fi by Jennifer Alsever
How will Tesla weather the coronavirus storm? Quite nicely, analysts predict by David Z. Morris
17 companies that are hiring during the coronavirus crisis by Chris Morris
This is not a drill: The coronavirus pandemic is testing A.I.’s ability to handle extreme events by Jeremy Kahn
ONE MORE THING
If you've looked out the window or stepped outside lately, you're probably seeing many more masks on people's faces. You might be surprised to learn the mask's medical history dates back to a time when people believed that smell itself carried diseases like the bubonic plague. As Fast Company explores in this origin story of the N95 mask, physicians in the 17th century wore creepy bird-beak masks loaded with incense to protect themselves from sickness.


fortune--2020-03-25--Leagues and networks forced to reevaluate TV deals due to sports blackout

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With basketball, hockey and baseball on hold because of the coronavirus, conversations about sports these days focus on economics, not the standings or playoffs.
TV is the No. 1 source of revenue for sports—exceeding the value of tickets, merchandise, beer and peanuts. Networks like Walt Disney Co.’s ESPN pay billions of dollars for the rights to broadcast games, sell advertising to car and snack companies, and charge pay-TV providers to carry their telecasts. Ultimately, fans watching from their couches bear the cost by sitting through commercials and paying their cable bills.
All that has been upended by the suspension of major sports. At last count, Comcast Corp.’s NBC had sold more than $1.25 billion in ads for the Tokyo Olympics — games that have now been postponed until 2021. NBC’s arrangements, along with other networks’ deals for basketball, baseball, hockey and countless lesser sports, will all have to be reworked.
“You’ve never had three major leagues that provide content all shutting down at once,” said Lee Berke, a sports-media industry consultant. “Ultimately, you’re going to get settlements done, and potentially refunds provided.”
In TV lingo, that means there will be lots of make-goods. The leagues will have to offer networks such as CBS, Fox and NBC concessions in return for missed games. Similarly, networks will have to provide relief to cable operators, who, in theory, would pass along savings to their customers.
Cable and satellite providers like Dish Network Corp., Altice USA Inc. and Charter Communications Inc. pay ESPN more than $8 a month per subscriber. That money comes from fans at home, who right now aren’t seeing LeBron James versus Giannis Antetokounmpo on TNT or ESPN. Instead, they’re seeing programming like a six-hour “National Puppy Day” marathon.
“It’s still premature, but we are monitoring the situation closely,” Charter said in an email.
Talks to redress canceled programming probably won’t begin in earnest until a major league actually cancels its season. So far, the NBA and NHL have put their regular seasons on hold with a goal of salvaging some portion of the campaign, even if it’s just the playoffs. Baseball has postponed the start of its season. CBS and AT&T Inc.’s Turner were expected to pay the NCAA $992 million for March Madness, according to S&P Global.
CBS has been showing classic March Madness games to fill part of its schedule.
Basis for Talks
Negotiations surrounding make-goods could include anything from refunds to extra programming to the extension of deals without a price increase. ESPN and Turner pay the NBA about $2.6 billion annually.
Michele Roberts, executive director of the union that represents NBA players, said “more than a significant” amount of the league’s annual revenue is generated during the postseason, which makes staging playoffs crucial, even without fans in the stands.
The most difficult discussions, Berke said, will involve regional sports networks, some of which carry teams from multiple leagues. While ESPN can air “SportsCenter” and specials, and dip into a trove of archives, RSNs have few options outside of classic games. RSN contracts with cable operators usually call for a minimum number of games and teams.
‘Serious Discussions’
“If they’re not hitting those minimums, there are going to be serious discussions,” Berke said.
That’s bad news for Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc., which paid $9.6 billion last year for the 21 regional sports networks that were once part of the Fox sports empire.
The networks, in cities like New Orleans, Detroit and Indianapolis, have local rights to more than 40 NHL, NBA and MLB teams, plus smaller leagues and clubs. They had about 74 million subscribers and generated $3.8 billion in revenue in 2018.
Additionally, AT&T is seeking to sell four RSNs.
Most of the contracts governing professional sports include a force majeure clause to protect against disasters, though inexact language can lead to disputes. The NBA’s labor contract with its players, for instance, specifically mentions epidemics and allows owners to withhold players’ salaries for games that aren’t played.
“It’s hard for any media company to try and manage what is happening right now,” David Levy, the former president of AT&T’s Turner division, said via email. “Some advertisers do not have any idea if they will be in business in three months. Creativity is going to be a must!”
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—All the moves the Fed is making to bolster the economy
—2020 Tokyo Olympics will be delayed by about one year due to coronavirus
—Which stores are open—and closed—during the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S.?
—As the U.K. goes into lockdown, London faces isolation—and clear skies
—17 companies that are hiring during the coronavirus crisis
—President of the Tenement Museum on what we can learn from previous pandemics
—Listen to Leadership Next, a Fortune podcast examining the evolving role of CEO
—WATCH: World leaders and health experts on how to stop the spread of COVID-19
Subscribe to Outbreak, a daily newsletter roundup of stories on the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on global business. It’s free to get it in your inbox.


fortune--2020-03-25--‘Cacophony of coughing’: Inside NYC’s virus-besieged ERs

A “cacophony of coughing” in packed emergency rooms. Beds squeezed in wherever there is space. Overworked, sleep-deprived doctors and nurses rationed to one face mask a day and wracked by worry about a dwindling number of available ventilators.
Such is the reality inside New York City’s hospitals, which have become the war-zone-like epicenter of the nation’s coronavirus crisis.
Faced with an infection rate that is five times that of the rest of the country, health workers are putting themselves at risk to fight a tide of sickness that’s getting worse by the day amid a shortage of needed supplies and promises of help from the federal government that have yet to fully materialize.
“You’re on 100% of the time—no matter what,” said Dr. Jolion McGreevy, medical director of The Mount Sinai Hospital emergency department. “It’s been a month of full force, and that’s certainly very stressful.”
Patients initially showed up with fairly mild symptoms, ranging from a runny nose to a mild fever, concerned they contracted coronavirus. That shifted over the past week, McGreevy said, and now hospitals are receiving far sicker patients in need of life-saving intervention.
“These are people in severe respiratory distress, needing to be intubated and needing the intensive care unit,” he said. “We knew it was coming. We saw it in Italy and other places so we were prepared for it, and now we’re seeing it.”
Columbia University chief surgeon Dr. Craig Smith wrote in a note to colleagues: “To think we could mimic Italy seemed risible a week ago. Not today.”
Nearly 14,800 people in New York City have been diagnosed with coronavirus as of Tuesday, accounting for more than half the cases in the hardest-hit state in the nation.
More than 2,800 people in the city were hospitalized because of the virus—double the figure from three days earlier—and more than 600 were being treated in intensive care. The death toll rose to 192, and officials from the governor on down warned it will get worse before it gets better.
“We are not slowing it. And it is accelerating on its own,” said Gov. Andrew Cuomo, predicting the state could be as close as two weeks away from a crisis that sees 40,000 people in intensive care. Such a surge would overwhelm hospitals, which now have just 3,000 intensive care unit beds statewide.
“One of the forecasters said we were looking at a freight train coming across the country. We’re now looking at a bullet train,” he said.
Bristling at President Donald Trump’s notion that Americans should be prepared to go back to work in weeks for the sake of the economy, Cuomo said that would essentially sacrifice the lives of the elderly and the most frail among us. “That’s not the American way,” he said. “That’s not the New York way.”
And Cuomo appeared to mock the federal government for congratulating itself for sending the city 400 desperately needed ventilators from the national stockpile.
“What am I going to do with 400 ventilators when I need 30,000?” he asked.
Khalid Amin, a doctor at Methodist Hospital in Brooklyn, treated seven COVID-19 patients on Tuesday, ranging from 25 to 72, and he is struck by the way the disease has laid each low in the same way—the fatigue, the way they grasp for air with the slightest movement.
One patient in his 50s, moving from the bathroom to his bed, a space of less than 12 feet, seemed to struggle at one point, his chest rising and falling rapidly.
“You seem short of breath?” Amin asked. Then came the reply, so low, Amin could barely hear him though he was inches away. “Yes.”
Moments later, a stethoscope on the patient’s back, Amin heard the same telltale sound he had been hearing in other patients that day: “It’s a crackle, like crumpling paper.”
Dr. Craig Spencer, who survived a bout of Ebola in 2014 and now is director of global health in emergency medicine at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center, tweeted Tuesday of a “cacophony of coughing” in the ER, saying nearly every patient he encounters has the same symptoms, regardless of age: a persistent hack, shortness of breath, and fever.
“You’re afraid to take off the mask,” he wrote. “It’s the only thing that protects you.”
Smith said hospitals in the New York-Presbyterian system are burning through about 40,000 masks a day amid the crisis—about 10 times the normal amount—and have begun issuing staff members just one each day.
Mayor Bill De Blasio said about 2.2 million masks were delivered to hospitals Monday, with additional supplies en route from the state and federal governments. But he said there would have to be a lot more where that came from.
“If we run out of it, it’s like sending a soldier into war where everyone else has armor and we don’t have armor,” said Dr. Joseph Habboushe, an emergency room physician at NYU Langone Medical Center.
The city’s health department last week advised health professionals to continue working after exposure—rather than self-quarantining—unless they show symptoms.
“The more we hear about doctors and nurses getting sick, the more we get nervous,” said Dr. Eric Cioe-Pena, director of global health at Northwell Health. “It’s definitely on the mind of every health care worker in America. We don’t want to be in a position where we’re making decisions based on resources rather than the clinical care of patients.”
Cioe-Pena has been following what he calls a “decontamination routine” after every shift, in which he wipes down his phone and washes both his scrubs and street clothes.
“We’ve ventured into a battle,” he said.
Across the city, health care workers, hospital administrators, and public officials were scrambling to preserve precious gear and find more treatment space before they were overwhelmed. The Jacob K. Javits Convention Center was being converted into a 1,000-bed hospital, and a fully staffed and equipped Naval hospital ship, the USNS Comfort, was expected to arrive within two weeks to provide another 1,000 beds, not for coronavirus patients but to provide relief to hospitals dealing with them.
NYU Langone’s Habboushe said that while ER physicians deal with potential danger all the time, there’s concern about what’s to come with the coronavirus. While the vast majority recover from the illness, older adults and people with existing health problems are particularly vulnerable and could suffer more severe illness or even death.
“The anxiety and stress that I think all of us in society are feeling right now—we are feeling it all the more so in the hospital,” he said. “How can we deal with the idea that this is going to be worse and worse before it gets better?”
Among the biggest looming concerns, Habboushe said, is the prospect of medical professionals having to decide which patients get the potentially life-saving machines such as ventilators and which do not.
“It’s one of those things you learn about. It’s hard to imagine you actually would face that,” he said. “And now we’re all realizing there’s a really high chance we’ll be facing that, and that breaks my heart.”
More coronavirus coverage from Fortune:
—All the moves the Fed is making to bolster the economy
—2020 Tokyo Olympics will be delayed by about one year due to coronavirus
—Which stores are open—and closed—during the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S.?
—As the U.K. goes into lockdown, London faces isolation—and clear skies
—17 companies that are hiring during the coronavirus crisis
—President of the Tenement Museum on what we can learn from previous pandemics
—Listen to Leadership Next, a Fortune podcast examining the evolving role of CEO
—WATCH: World leaders and health experts on how to stop the spread of COVID-19
Subscribe to Outbreak, a daily newsletter roundup of stories on the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on global business. It’s free to get it in your inbox.