fortune--2020-12-11--Nutrition faces a racial reckoning

Nutrition faces a racial reckoning

The nutrition science field faces a racial reckoning, while Latin America faces a malnutrition crisis. And when will publishing pay Black authors? Meanwhile, education philanthropists get serious about racial justice and an Indigenous coast guard is poised to save Canada’s shores.
But first, here’s your socially distanced Hanukkah/Chanukah week in review, in Haiku.
The light is still here.
Enjoying Mama’s latkes,
while missing Mama.
The light is still here.
Candle by candle, one by
one, from a distance
The light is still here.
As are the stories of all
the wonderous deeds.
The light is still here.
The sweets are still sweet, the songs
can still delight us
though we are apart.
A plague cannot extinguish
the light: It’s in us.
Wishing you a hopeful and illuminating weekend, and a sweet holiday to all who celebrate.
Ellen McGirt
@ellmcgirt
Ellen.McGirt@fortune.com
On Point
Re-thinking white bread nutrition Does it matter that the dietician profession is predominantly white? Yes, says dietician Jessica Wilson, who was once the only Black student in her dietetics program at the University of California, Davis. Long bullied for her body shape, she found herself joining an industry that shamed “ethnic diets” and found the patients she treated, many of whom were people of color, immigrants or identified as queer, feeling erased by the recommended food remedies.“It makes people feel so guilty for not being able to eat what Goop would recommend,” she told the New York Times. “I was no longer able to use the tools that had been given to me in school with good conscience.” With a new focus on nutrition, inclusive dietitians are finding new ways to counsel patients using foods they love with respect for their backgrounds.
New York Times
Latin American countries face an epidemic of malnutrition A new report from the United Nations that analyzes Latin American food security for the five years ending in 2019, finds that the number of people experiencing hunger in the region has been steadily growing. In the age of COVID, it’s likely to get much worse. "If the projections we have of the impact of the pandemic occur, we could be going back to the [malnutrition] levels of the 1990s,” Julio Berdegué, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization's regional representative, told NPR. “We could lose 30 years in the fight against hunger in Latin America and the Caribbean. This is what we are talking about. It is a tragedy of unfathomable magnitude for millions of human beings." You can read the report in Spanish here.
NPR
Racial justice is now a top goal in education philanthropy A new survey of foundations conducted by Grantmakers for Education finds that nearly 40 percent of the foundations surveyed said that racial justice in education should be the primary focus of philanthropy over the next three-year period. It’s a significant stake in the ground: Some 24 percent said that K-12 education improvements should be prioritized; 17 percent said post-high-school workforce and college success was most important; creating and maintaining an equitable society came in at 14 percent; and civic education came in at 5 percent. “Our members have felt the call to action of the racial-justice reckoning that is happening right now and are very interested in being supportive of that and thinking about the ways that translates to support schools,” the executive director of Grantmakers for Education says.
Chronicle of Philanthropy
It’s time to pay Black authors In the aftermath of the eye-opening Twitter thread #PublishingPaidMe, which laid bare the shocking disparity in book advances offered to white and Black authors (here’s an example involving bestselling author Roxane Gay), the New York Times crunched the numbers after a year when a few books by Black authors became runaway bestsellers. Just how many Black authors are there, and how are they faring? “Of the 7,124 books for which we identified the author’s race, 95 percent were written by white people,” they find. “[W]e were shocked by the extent of the inequality once we analyzed the data.”
New York Times
Canada’s first Indigenous coast guard is already saving lives The British Columbia-based Coastal Nations Coast Guard Auxiliary is newly on the job and have been deftly translating their deep knowledge of the environment into successful rescue missions. Five nations—Ahousaht, Heiltsuk, Gitxaala, Nisga’a and Kitasoo—comprise Canada’s first Indigenous coast guard auxiliary. While it's newly operational, they were part of a four-year plan from Canada’s Oceans Protection Plan to preserve and protect the country’s coastline. Come for the heart-pounding rescue tales, stay for the inclusive vision.
The Narwhal
On background
Meet the descendants of formerly enslaved people who live in Mexico Eighty-six year old Lucia Vazquez Valdez is part of the Mascogo tribe in Northern Mexico. Her people fled slavery in the mid-nineteenth century, across a barely remarkable border. While she speaks almost entirely Spanish, she still sings hymns in English, a remnant of an earlier time. The Washington Post has put together an enormously moving portrait of Valdez and the little village that holds a key to our own troubled past: Nacimentos de los Negros, or Birth of the Blacks. She is the oldest member of her tribe, and the youngest among them, fully Mexican now, migrate back across the border to find agricultural work.
Washington Post
When you’re born a problem Susan Harness was just a girl, an American Indian girl, when she was taken away from her mother and given to a white family to raise. She was part of the “Indian Problem” as defined by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Forced assimilation was the only way forward. But for Harness and thousands of other adoptees – including three of her siblings from whom she was separated – it was a path to permanent alienation. “I felt stupid, inept and ‘less than’ in the white world; I felt shame,” she writes in this essay about her book Bitterroot: A Salish Memoir of Transracial Adoption. And the experience of forced removal has cemented ugly stereotypes, says the author and cultural anthropologist. "We are remembered for not being white enough… We are remembered for being poor and costing the government too much money… We are remembered for being too broken to raise our own children.”
High Country News
What makes Taika tick? Fans were delighted to learn that Oscar and BAFTA winner Taika Waititi had been tapped to write a feature script expanding the Star Wars universe. (Here’s all the Disney investor day news in one place.) Waititi has been such a refreshing, creative voice, so I went looking for more of his maker philosophy, which I found in this wonderful TEDx talk from 2010. It’s as much a standup performance as it is a master class in harnessing your own creativity. “I’m attracted to the idea of the outsider,” he says. “A lot of the themes in my work is exploring this idea of people who don’t belong.” He’s attracted to anyone who looks at the world through an unspoiled, innocent point of view. And don’t be afraid to have some damn fun. “If I can try and make it fun, that’s for me what being creative is all about. Looking at life through the eyes of a child.” Waititi says he came from a background where people told him he had to have one job, and do one thing, for the rest of his life. “I wanted to try everything.”
TEDx Doha
raceAhead is edited by Aric Jenkins.
Today's mood board


fortune--2020-12-11--Oracle moves its headquarters to Texas, adding to Silicon Valley exodus

Google ’ s ouster of a top A.I .
researcher may have come down to this

Oracle said it has moved its headquarters to Texas, from its home state of California to give employees more flexibility on where they do their jobs.
The move to Austin from Redwood City “means that many of our employees can choose their office location as well as continue to work from home part time or all of the time,” Oracle said Friday in a regulatory filing. The company will continue “to support” its other U.S. office locations in Santa Monica, California, Seattle, Denver, Orlando and Burlington, Massachusetts, according to the filing.
The spread of the coronavirus has prompted many companies to give staffers flexible arrangements, including the ability to work from home. The software maker said it had 135,000 employees as of the end of May. Some companies, executives and employees are ditching California because of concerns over the state’s tax rates and high cost of living, as well as arduous commutes in some locales.
Oracle’s shift of resources away from California dates at least to 2018, led by Chairman Larry Ellison and the late co-Chief Executive Officer Mark Hurd. That year, Oracle opened a campus in Austin, featuring an on-site apartment building for employees, in an effort to recruit a younger and less costly workforce. The campus could eventually host 10,000 staffers, Oracle said at the time.
Started in 1977, Oracle has been a foundational company in Silicon Valley and its silver-blue cylindrical buildings in Redwood City, visible from U.S. Highway 101, are the rare landmark in the otherwise sprawling region. It follows other tech innovators in de-emphasizing their California roots. Server maker Hewlett Packard Enterprise said Dec. 1 that it would move headquarters to a Houston suburb, where it is building a new campus. Palantir Technologies Inc. has relocated to Denver this year, from Palo Alto, California.
Tesla founder Elon Musk said this week that he’s moved to Texas to focus on big projects under way for Tesla as well as Space Exploration Technologies Corp., which he also runs. He previously moved his private foundation, which was based in California, to Austin. Moving carries enormous tax implications for high net worth individuals. Texas has no personal income tax, while California imposes the highest personal income levies in the nation on its richest residents.


fortune--2020-12-11--Live events industry lost $30 billion due to pandemic

Due to the global coronavirus pandemic, concert trade publication Pollstar puts the total lost revenue for the live events industry in 2020 at more than $30 billion.
Pollstar on Friday released its year-end report, explaining that the live events industry should have hit a record-setting $12.2 billion this year, but instead it incurred $9.7 billion in losses. The company added that the projected $30 billion figure in losses includes “unreported events, ancillary revenues, including sponsorships, ticketing, concessions, merch, transportation, restaurants, hotels, and other economic activity tied to the live events.” Those losses accounted for more than $8 billion.
In March hundreds of artists announced that their current or upcoming tours would need to be postponed or canceled because of the pandemic. While a small number of performers have played drive-in concerts and others have held digital concerts, the majority of artists have not played live in 2020.
With just a few months on the road, Elton John’s “Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour” tops the year’s Top 100 Worldwide Tours list with $87.1 million grossed between Nov. 30 through March 7. John’s tour ranked No. 2 last year with $212 million grossed.
Celine Dion came in second this year with $71.2 million, followed by Trans-Siberian Orchestra ($58.2 million), U2 ($52.1 million) and Queen + Adam Lambert ($44.6 million). Post Malone, Eagles, Jonas Brothers, Dead & Company and Andrea Bocelli rounded out the Top 10.
“It’s been an extraordinarily difficult year for the events industry, which has been disproportionately impacted by the coronavirus. As painful as it is to chronicle the adversity and loss our industry and many of our colleagues faced, we understand it is a critical undertaking toward facilitating our recovery, which is thankfully on the horizon,” Ray Waddell, president of Oak View Group’s Media & Conferences Division, which oversees Pollstar and VenuesNow, said in a statement Friday.
“With vaccines, better testing, new safety and sanitization protocols, smart ticketing and other innovations, the live industry will be ramping up in the coming months, and we’re sure that at this time next year we’ll have a very different story to tell.”


fortune--2020-12-11--Stimulus update: $600 checks are gaining support

On Tuesday, the White House unveiled a $916 billion stimulus plan that would send most Americans a $600 stimulus check.
That proposal was quickly shot down by Democratic leadership, given that it didn’t include money for enhanced unemployment insurance for the more than 19 million Americans still receiving jobless benefits.
“He’s going to step in and give a stimulus check—but then he’s going to go off and cut unemployment. That would be a disaster for workers,” Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden told Yahoo Finance.
Nevertheless, the White House’s addition of $600 stimulus checks marks a turn in the debates, as it revives the notion that checks could conceivably be included in the next aid package. Previously that prospect had dimmed considerably: Last week a group of bipartisan senators put forward a $908 billion package—which didn’t include stimulus checks—a plan that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said could be a framework for a final deal. That was the first time Democratic leadership had publicly suggested they’d be open to passing a package that didn’t include direct payments.
Democratic leadership reaffirmed this week they’d still prefer the next package to include direct payment. But whether or not it ultimately ends up in the final package, Pelosi said this week, would be “up to the President.” Last week, President-elect Biden told reporters that stimulus checks “may still be in play.”
And while some rank-and-file legislators on both sides are pushing for the checks to be added in the next package, there are no guarantees it’ll make the final bill. Keep in mind that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has yet to support a proposal that included a second round of checks.
But if Congress ultimately included stimulus checks in the economic aid package they pass, aid could come quickly if the last go-around is any indication. After the passage of the $2.2 trillion CARES Act on March 27, Americans started to receive their stimulus checks as early as the week of April 13.
The long waits shouldn’t happen this time. Back in the spring, millions of Americans, including those on Social Security, saw their checks delayed until they provided additional information. Since this payment would be based on the same tax year, it’s unlikely more information will need to be verified—at least among those who received their first round of payments.
And the Trump White House could even ask the Treasury Secretary to speed up the distribution of the checks given that the system is already in place. That is exactly what the Trump White House discussed prior to losing the election.


fortune--2020-12-11--Bankers were the villains of the last recession. They can be heroes in this one

Banks didn’t start the coronavirus recession, and so far they’ve been part of the rescue effort. But with the next round of federal relief uncertain, ordinary Americans are bracing for bigger financial troubles on the horizon—and bankers are facing a moment of truth.
Despite months of job gains, the number of people receiving unemployment benefits is still nearly twice the Great Recession peak more than a decade ago.
So far, government aid has significantly blunted financial stress for millions of Americans. But federal relief programs such as student-loan deferrals and extended unemployment insurance have expired or soon will wind down. By next spring, if federal relief isn’t extended, up to 20 million Americans will see their incomes fall to zero, according to the latest Department of Labor weekly jobs report. And many of them will also see their cost of housing go up dramatically as mortgage forbearance programs come to an end.
The government will likely grant a fresh round of aid at some point. But the price tag will have to be large, and the rollout swift, to prevent severe stress in households already suffering from the recession. The blunt instrument of fiscal policy isn’t likely to keep everyone afloat for much longer. Even small gaps in income can lead quickly to deep levels of financial strain. Before the coronavirus recession, 37% of American households didn’t have enough cash on hand to cover a hypothetical $400 expense, according to a 2019 Federal Reserve study. And the pandemic, of course, has only underscored how dangerously close to the line of insolvency so many Americans live.
In short, millions more Americans could soon fall behind on mortgages, credit cards, and car payments. When that happens, attention will shift to banks.
U.S. mortgage lenders bore much of the blame for the last recession, and many top executives ended up losing their jobs. This time, banks have been part of the solution—the public face of Paycheck Protection Program loans and other measures that have helped millions of Americans stay solvent. But when customers begin missing loan payments, bankers will be forced to take actions that could flip the script and turn them into villains once again.
Alternatively, they can choose to be remembered as benevolent innovators. There are three ways banks can both help their customers in the short term and perform for their shareholders in the long term.
First, they can seize this opportunity to put empathetic client care and long-term relationship building ahead of short-term profits.
When borrowers start missing payments, banks will have every legal right to try to claw back every dollar they are owed. But that might be unwise. Most banks have already set aside billions of dollars in reserves and are optimistic they won’t need to earmark more. If they overzealously collect on delinquent loans, the public relations and regulatory cost could be high—at a time when the monetary value of trying to collect on many of those loans is at an all-time low. The math of being as lenient as possible for borrowers who are truly without fault has never been more persuasive.
Second, bankers have an opportunity to become more flexible. After the mortgage meltdown of the 2000s, regulators imposed so many new rules and restrictions that banks decided it was better to standardize their operations to avoid any missteps. If they continue down that path in the coming months they will risk being seen as robotic and ineffective. Bankers have a chance to set a new course toward customized client care and advice, which would help strengthen relationships and avoid perceptions that they are looking only after their own interests.
Third, they can become emergency lenders. The current stalemate in Congress is the third in the past two years to leave households facing a short-term cash crunch even though help from the federal government was almost certainly on the way—the others being the government shutdown at the end of 2018 and the delay in the rollout of the CARES Act earlier this year. It seems unlikely this will be the last such occasion.
Banks can help solve this problem by making short-term loans at reasonable interest rates to tide people over until the federal relief arrives. That would help customers in the near term and solidify long-term relationships.
Whether or not the coronavirus recession turns out to be worse than the Great Recession, the number of stressed American households is about to increase sharply. Bankers will be under a microscope like never before as they decide how—or whether—to help customers. If they succeed, they will build relationships for life. If they stumble, they risk doing damage not only to their customers and shareholders but also their own careers.
Aaron Fine is a partner at Oliver Wyman and head of the consultancy’s retail and business banking practice in the Americas. Ahmet Hacikura is a partner in the practice.


fortune--2020-12-11--How will tech’s biggest policy fights play out in 2021? This VC has some predictions

This is the web version of Term Sheet, a daily newsletter on the biggest deals and dealmakers. Sign up to get it delivered free to your inbox.
Happy Friday, Term Sheet readers. It’s been one heck of a week in unicorn debuts, with shares of Airbnb more than doubling in its first public trade Thursday.
Now valued at over $100 billion on a fully-diluted basis, even Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky couldn’t quite find the right words on live TV when told shares were gearing up to open at $139 (it ended up opening even higher at $146). “That’s the first time I’ve heard that number,” the chief executive started while on Bloomberg. “In April, when we raised money, and it was debt financing, that price would have priced us around $30. So I don’t know what to say, that is… I’m very humbled by it.”
And this is key: Chesky then cogently summed up the flip side of attaining such a high valuation: “The higher the stock price, the higher the expectations.” He’s right. No one wants to be the company whose stock was hyped during the IPO process but gets rebalanced after its first earnings call.
Of course, what happens beyond that is the question—not just for Airbnb, but for all of dealmaking. Tusk Ventures’ Bradley Tusk, known for helping startups with their regulatory issues, has a few thoughts on how 2021 may play out for tech and its legislative battles.
For his guest column, Tusk makes his predictions for how the tech community will grapple with the policy fights that await in 2021 (Disclosure: Tusk Ventures is invested in or works with companies that are impacted by these trends, including medical cannabis company Eaze and esports startup Kanga):
1. E-sports. States across the country will legalize mobile sports betting, e-sports betting and, casino and gaming expansions across the board. They desperately need the revenue in the pandemic. In good times, legislators worry about the political fallout of supporting gaming. In bad times, they know that gaming is a lot less painful than spending cuts or higher taxes.
2. Cannabis. States across the country will legalize recreational cannabis and reduce barriers to psilocybin use. Social norms are continuing to shift and again, states need the revenue. We may even be on a path on which drugs other than cannabis become legal, regulated, and sold commercially in the next 5 to 10 years.
3. Cities fight the tech exodus. Local hostility to tech startups will wane as the need to create jobs and tax revenue surpasses the political benefits of being anti-tech in cities like San Francisco, Seattle, and New York. The effects of startups leaving major tech hubs like San Francisco for climates that are friendlier to business (lower taxes, less regulation, less hostility) will start to be felt.
4. Congress. The Democratic-led House in Washington D.C. will take up new regulations on privacy (to create a U.S. version of the GDPR), antitrust, and worker classification. None will get through the Senate, even if the Democrats do win both special elections in Georgia, but Biden’s agencies (the Department of Labor, Department of Justice, and Federal Trade Commission) will look for administrative solutions.
5. Section 230. The repeal of Section 230 may actually make it through the entire legislative process. Democrats should want to repeal the protections afforded to social media platforms in Section 230 because Facebook has revolutionized how the political right organizes. Republicans are convinced that the platforms are biased against them and want revenge. Biden already supports a repeal. Betting on anything to ever actually happen in D.C. is probably a bad idea, but this really could.
6. Proposition 22. Prop 22‘s tailwinds will be strong. Labor groups will try to recreate the opposing California Assembly Bill 5—which would have required gig-economy companies to treat workers like employees—in states like New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Illinois, and Washington. And despite support from Democratic lawmakers, the momentum that spurred legislation in California will be blunted by Prop 22’s overwhelming victory at the polls. But lawmakers will continue pushing for legislation classifying gig workers as employees rather than the legalization of portable benefit plans that gig-economy companies have championed.
7. Flying cars. A city somewhere will promulgate flying car regulations. The technology is not there yet, but it’s coming, and the political benefit of being the first to tackle the issue will prove too enticing for some politicians not to pursue.
8. Drones. The impact of COVID-19 will propel delivery drone regulation to the forefront. Though surface transmission of COVID-19 is highly unlikely, the next pandemic could spread that way, and having ways to deliver packages without any risk will be appealing to voters and members of both parties. This could also give a boost to autonomous taxis.
9. Big Tech. The Biden Justice Department will seriously reconsider the antitrust prosecution of Google. Facebook is an easier target and the timing around Trump and Barr’s decision to go after Google (right before the election) is suspicious. With that said, it’s not impossible that the DOJ pursues multiple antitrust cases at once.
10. Ed tech. Even though remote schooling was difficult in most places, its existence (and failings) give a boost both to ed tech activity and funding, and to government interest in finding ways to better utilize technology. If there ever was a moment for an ed tech boom, this is it.
Lucinda Shen
Twitter: @shenlucinda
Email: lucinda.shen@fortune.com
VENTURE DEALS
- Tempus, a Chicago-based company applying artificial intelligence to precision medicine company, raised $200 million in funding valuing it at $8.1 billion. Investors included Baillie Gifford, Franklin Templeton, Google, Novo Holdings, and T. Rowe Price.
- Cityblock Health, a Brooklyn, N.Y.-based healthcare provider for lower-income communities, raised $160 million in Series C funding. Investors included General Catalyst Wellington Management, Kinnevik AB, Maverick Ventures, Thrive Capital, and Redpoint Ventures.
- CHAI, a South Korean payments startup, raised $60 million in Series B funding. Hanhwa Investment & Securities led the round and was joined by investors including SoftBank Ventures Asia, SK Networks, and Aarden Partners. Read more.
- LeafLink, a New York-based marketplace for the cannabis industry, raised $40 million in Series C funding. Founders Fund led the round
- Turing, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based maker of an A.I.-based platform to help evaluate prospective engineers for remote teams, raised $32 million in Series B funding. WestBridge Capital led the round. Read more.
- Scale Computing, a Indianapolis-based edge computing company, raised $30 million in funding. Elevate Ventures led the round.
- Gorgias, a San Francisco-based customer service company, raised $25 million in Series B funding, valuing it at $300 million pre-money. Sapphire Ventures led the round and was joined by investors including SaaStr, Alven, Amplify Partners, CRV and Greycroft. Read more.
- Orbex, a U.K.-based maker of micro satellites, raised $24 million in funding. BGF and Octopus Ventures led the round and were joined by High-Tech Gründerfonds, Heartcore Capital and Elecnor S.A. Read more.
- Boast.ai, a San Francisco-based company automating the process of getting research and devleopment tax credits, raised $23 million in Series A funding. Radian Capital led the round.
- UserLeap, a San Francisco-based user research platform, raised $16 million in Series A funding. Accel led the round and was joined by investors including Elad Gil, Dylan Field, Ben Porterfield, Akshay Kothari, Jack Altman, and Bobby Lo.
- HomeLister, a Los Angeles-based digital brokerage for homeowners to list and sell their properties online, raised $4.5 million in seed funding. MetaProp and Homebrew invested.
- Cosmos Video, a London-based maker of virtual rooms for social gatherings, £2 million ($2.6 million) in seed funding. LocalGlobe led the round and was joined by investors including Entrepreneur First, Andy Chung, Phillip Moehring (AngelList), and Omid Ashtari (ex-President, Citymapper).
PRIVATE EQUITY
- Bioclinica, backed by Cinven, agreed to merge with ERT, a Philadelphia-based clinical trial tech company backed by Nordic, Astorg and Novo Holdings.
- Enhanced Healthcare Partners invested in Hallmark Health Care Solutions, a New York-based provider of physician compensation and workforce management software for health systems. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
EXITS
- Hyundai Motor Group agreed to acquire a controlling stake in Boston Dynamics, a Waltham, Mass.-based robotics company, from SoftBank Group. The deal values the firm at about $1.1 billion.
- Wolters Kluwer Governance, Risk & Compliance agreed to acquire eOriginal, a Baltimore, Md.-based digital lending software company backed by LLR Partners for about $280 million.
- Twitter acquired Squad, a San Francisco-based video-chat app. Its investors included First Round, betaworks, and Halogen Ventures. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
- Norwest Equity Partners acquired Red Monkey Foods, a Springfield, Mo.-based provider of spices and seasoning, from San Francisco Equity Partners. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
- Quad-C Management acquired Learners Edge, an Eagan, Minn.-based maker of continuing education classes for teachers, from L Squared Capital Partners. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
OTHER
- Gilead Sciences (Nasdaq: GILD) acquired MYR, a Germany-based biotech focused on developing treatments for chronic hepatitis delta virus, for about €1.2 billion ($1.4 billion).
- Next Insurance, backed by venture firms including Zeev and TLV, acquired Juniper Labs, a Denver-based underwriting technology firm focused on small businesses. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
IPOs
- Certara, a Princeton, N.J.-based maker of biosimulation software, raised $668 million in an offering of 29.1 million shares (about 49% sold by existing shareholders). EQT Investor and Arsenal Investors back the firm. Read more.
- AbCellera Biologics, a Canadian drug discovery company working with Eli Lilly & Co. on its Covid-19 drug, raised the range of its offering. It now plans to raise $403 million in an offering of 23 million shares priced between $17 to $18 apiece. DCVC, Viking Global, and Peter Thiel back the firm. Read more.
- 4D Molecular Therapeutics, an Emeryville, Calif.-based maker of gene therapies, raised the range of its offering. It plans to raise $158 million via an offering of 7 million shares priced between $22 to $23. Viking Global and Pfizer back the firm. Read more.
- Nanobiotix, a French biotech developing cancer therapies, raised $99 million in an IPO of ADSs. Read more.
SPAC
- EV Charged B.V., a French subsidiary of ENGIE that provides electric vehicle charging, will go public via merger with TPG Pace Beneficial Finance Corp., a SPAC formed by TPG valuing the company at $1.4 billion.
- Electric Last Mile, a Detroit-based electric vehicle company focused on last mile logistics, plans to go public via merger with Forum Merger III Corporation, a SPAC. The deal would value the combined firm at $1.4 billion.
- Lightning eMotors, a Loveland, Co.-based provider of charging docks for electric vehicles, plans to go public via merger with GigCapital3, a SPAC. The deal raised $125 million in gross proceeds including a commitment from BP Technology Ventures. The combined company has an approximate value of about $823 million.]
- Innoviz Technologies, an Israel-based maker of LiDAR sensors and software for autonomous driving, plans to go public via merger with Collective Growth Corporation, a SPAC. Antara Capital is leading a $200 million PIPE. The deal values the firm at $1.4 billion.
- WM Holding Company, a California-based marketplace for cannabis consumers and businesses,agreed to merge with Silver Spike Acquisition Corp., a SPAC. the deal values the firm at $1.5 billion.
- CBRE Acquisition Holdings, a SPAC formed by CBRE, raised $350 million.
PEOPLE
- Sandbox Industries, a venture capital firm, Gretchen Hayes as managing director.


fortune--2020-12-11--GSK and Sanofi shares fall as the pharma giants delay COVID-19 vaccine until late 2021

One of the big hopes for a coronavirus vaccine, the candidate from Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline, will only appear late in 2021 at the earliest.
Shares in the French and British pharma firms dived Friday, after they said initial trials of their vaccine had generated an insufficient immune response in older adults. They said they were still confident that the vaccine would pan out but—pending successful improvements—its availability is now only penciled in for Q4 next year.
Sanofi’s share price fell more than 2% on the news, while GSK was down more than 1.4%, underperforming the wider European markets.
Friday’s announcement is a blow for those hoping to vaccinate the planet as quickly as possible.
Despite the fact that Pfizer and BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine is already being deployed in the U.K., and although Moderna’s candidate has shown very promising results, a multitude of vaccines will be needed to complete the task.
Sanofi and GSK are among the participants in the U.S.’s Operation Warp Speed vaccine-development program; the Trump administration pledged $2.1 billion for 100 million doses of their shot. The European Union has an order in for 300 million doses. Both will have to wait.
“The results of the study are not as we hoped,” said GSK vaccine chief Roger Connor in Friday’s statement. Sanofi Pasteur executive VP Thomas Triomphe said the companies were disappointed, but “all our decisions are and will always be driven by science and data.
“We have identified the path forward and remain confident and committed to bringing a safe and efficacious COVID-19 vaccine,” said Triomphe. “Following these results and the latest encouraging new preclinical data, we will now work to further optimize our candidate to achieve this goal.”
Sanofi/GSK’s candidate should carry the advantage of not requiring extra-cold refrigeration, as Pfizer/BioNTech’s does. This is a characteristic shared by candidate vaccines from Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca, which are seen as crucial to the success of Operation Warp Speed.
AstraZeneca’s candidate, which was developed alongside the University of Oxford, has puzzled many observers by proving more effective when the first of its two doses is only a half-dose. The British company is now planning to conduct new trials in order to figure out what’s going on.
Meanwhile, also on Friday, the Australian biotech firm CSL and the University of Queensland halted trials of their candidate vaccine, and the Australian government canceled its order for 51 million doses. Part of the vaccine was made from the human immunodeficiency virus, and some trial participants got false positives in HIV tests.


fortune--2020-12-11--Why Airbnb is great for Wall Street, but not so great for everyone else

The rickety elevator was a bit scary, making the tiny top floor apartment in Rome’s Monti neighborhood more of a sixth-floor walkup. In Edinburgh, the spacious abode with brightly colored walls and twee decorative touches seemed like the set of a Wes Anderson movie. A Vancouver skyrise provided amazing views of sunrise and sunset. And in Florence, oh, Florence, a comfy, cozy home base was perfect for exploring that amazing city.
Airbnb says it has facilitated 825 million visits in its 13-year history, but without me and my family, it would only be about 824,999,910. Either way, it’s an amazing achievement. The Internet has proven fertile ground for sprouting new markets and super-charging some old fashioned ones, whether for short-term stays, car rides across town, or selling your collection of Beanie Babies.
Aaron Pressman/Fortune
This week, we’ve seen the spectacular stock market debuts of two of those businesses. DoorDash raised $3.4 billion pricing its stock at $102 only to see it jump to $186 on Wednesday. Airbnb got $3.5 billion selling shares at $68. The stock closed at almost $145 yesterday. That puts the company’s stock market value at over $100 billion, more than Marriott, Hilton, InterContinental, Hyatt, Choice, Wyndham, GreenTree, and Red Lion combined (though only more than the top two or three if you include debt).
On one hand, you can understand why investors showered Airbnb with love this week. Before the pandemic, revenue was growing at 30% to 40% a year with gross margins around 75%. Marriott’s revenue last year was up just 1%, and it has to pay expenses for the more than 7,000 hotels with 1.4 million rooms that it owns whatever happens. Of course, Marriott also reported a 2019 profit of $1.3 billion while Airbnb lost $674 million.
Which would you rather own for the next 10 years? Investors say Airbnb.
That’s not necessarily a good thing. Despite my enjoyable stays around the world, many studies have found that the company’s service has an appreciable impact on raising rents by reducing the amount of housing available to residents of major cities (though Airbnb disputes the studies and points out that some were funded by the hotel industry). That means that although travelers may save a bit by avoiding hotels, the cost to residents is likely greater. And while Airbnb may bolster local tourism, it has also been bringing visitors to neighborhoods sometimes ill-equipped to deal with the onslaught (in much the same way Waze has turned some neighborhood streets into overcrowded commuter race tracks). Can this be fixed with regulation and/or taxes? I’m not sure.
The question on more people’s minds right now seems to be whether the Airbnb IPO, following DoorDash, Snowflake and other high-tech high flyers, signals that the stock market has entered a speculative bubble that could end poorly like the Internet bubble 20 years ago. I’ll just point out that while 19 IPOs have doubled on their first day of trading this year, according to CNBC’s ace IPO reporter Leslie Picker, the number was 78 in 2000 and 115 in 1999. And the story that popped the Internet bubble was a Barron’s piece calculating that new companies were burning cash so quickly many would soon be out of business. Airbnb has shown positive cash flow from operations pre-pandemic and currently has over $6 billion on its balance sheet. Now maybe electric vehicle stocks are in the danger zone and some of the high-profile new IPOs, but overall it looks less volatile.
Finally, I would be remiss if I didn’t direct those of you seeking a more in-depth look at DoorDash and Airbnb to check out some of Danielle’s coverage this week. I don’t know if she sleeps at all, but in addition to covering the Facebook antitrust lawsuit, she interviewed DoorDash CEO Tony Xu, wrote up the initial market reception of both DoorDash and Airbnb, and will have a feature-length look at DoorDash out real soon. Have a great weekend.
Aaron Pressman
@ampressman
aaron.pressman@fortune.com
***
On the latest episode of Fortune’s Brainstorm podcast, we discuss how tech is powering the holidays. Retailers with services like curbside pickup are faring far better than others, says Fortune’s Phil Wahba. Brainstorm hosts Brian O’Keefe and Michal Lev-Ram also speak with Loren Padelford, vice president and general manager at Shopify, and Ben Jones, CEO of Ohi. His smart warehousing company enables same-day delivery for smaller brands looking to compete with Amazon and Walmart. Listen to the episode here.
NEWSWORTHY
When I left you, I was but the learner. Whatever you think of AT&T's decision to stream all its major movies online next year, the company remains an underdog in the streaming wars. Disney displayed its much stronger position on Thursday, raising the price of Disney+ by $1 per month and disclosing it has 87 million subscribers (versus 13 million active users on AT&T's HBO Max). The House of Mouse also said it would bring back Darth Vader and other iconic characters in new streaming shows for Disney+ with 10 Star Wars series spinoffs and 10 new Marvel series.
Ah, might as well jump. Those scary dog-like robots sure do get around. Hyundai Motor Group is buying a controlling stake in robot (and YouTube video) maker Boston Dynamics, paying SoftBank $1.1 billion. SoftBank bought the MIT spinout three years ago from Google for an undisclosed price.
A midsummer night's Aeon chair. Who is going back to the office in Silicon Valley and when? Apple CEO Tim Cook says it's unlikely his workforce will be required back before next June, Bloomberg reports. And Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg told his employees that they won't be required to get a COVID-19 vaccination before returning. The social network has said everyone can work remotely until at least next July.
Dream of the soft look your eyes had once. Forget those fresh-faced IPO stocks. Some much older tech companies reported results on Thursday. Adobe said its revenue rose 14% to $3.4 billion, slightly better than analysts expected. Its shares, already up 47% this year, were unchanged in pre-market trading on Friday. Oracle's revenue gained just 2% to $9.8 billion, about as forecast by Wall Street. Its shares, up 13% in 2020, gained 2% on Friday morning.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
There aren't many more crucial government functions that the National Weather Service. But insanely, as Washington Post reporters Jason Samenow and Andrew Freedman warn, the service is talking about making major cutbacks to its website and online data due to a tiny lack of funds.
The Weather Service held a public forum Tuesday to discuss the proposal and answer questions. When asked about the investment in computing infrastructure that would be required for these limits to not be necessary, agency officials said a one-time cost of about $1.5 million could avert rate limits. The NOAA budget for fiscal 2020 was $5.4 billion.
FOR YOUR WEEKEND READING PLEASURE
A few great long reads I came across this week:
A billion dollars from a junkyard (Forbes)
Advanced technology is not only making cars safer and easier to drive, it’s also making them nearly impossible to repair. Cashing in? Dallas-based Copart and the father-and-son-in-law duo who pioneered selling wrecks on the Internet.
The Real Queen’s Gambit: Catching Chess Cheaters (Wall Street Journal)
The popularity of chess boomed because of the pandemic and a hit Netflix show. So did cheating—making chess narcs the game’s most important figures.
Requiem for a Dream (Vanity Fair)
Keith McNally has opened many restaurants in New York City and closed them amid COVID. None has pained him quite like Balthazar, writes the restaurateur.
Wonder Women (Hazlitt)
The fight for female superheroes in Hollywood.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky could be worth over $11 billion after IPO By Anne Sraders
Why Intuit bought Credit Karma in one of the biggest fintech deals of 2020 By Jen Wieczner
Europe goes all in on its net-zero pledge, backing tough new emissions targets —but not without a fight By Katherine Dunn
Shopify is ready for the holiday season. Just don’t call it the ‘anti-Amazon’ By Emma Hinchliffe
U.K. startup’s breakthrough could aid quantum computers in the hunt for exotic materials By Jeremy Kahn
The Facebook and Google antitrust suits are a warning shot for all corporate giants—not just Big Tech By Janet Guyon
(Some of these stories require a subscription to access. Thank you for supporting our journalism.)
BEFORE YOU GO
Are you fan of the mysterious street artist Banksy? I have been ever since watching the brilliant documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop. The pandemic has not slowed Banksy. He's taking credit for a wall mural in Bristol, England, of a big sneeze. Don't forget to wear your mask and we'll see you on Monday.


fortune--2020-12-11--Why Tiffany Haddish turned down the Grammys

This is the web version of the Broadsheet, Fortune’s daily newsletter for and about the world’s most powerful women. To get it delivered daily to your in-box, sign up here.
Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Global climate talks leave out women in top roles, fixing childcare could add $1.6 trillion to U.S. GDP, and Tiffany Haddish would like to be paid. Have a restful weekend.
– Thanks, but no thanks. It sounds like a dream gig for any entertainer: hosting the three-hour pre-telecast ceremony for music’s biggest night, the Grammys, which are scheduled for Jan. 31.
But when it was offered to Tiffany Haddish, the comedian turned it down. The reason? She says she was expected to work for free. Worse still, she’d have to cover other expenses related to the job, like hair, makeup, and wardrobe.
“All of that would have to come out of my pocket,” she told Variety. “I don’t know if this might mean I might not get nominated ever again, but I think it’s disrespectful.” (Haddish is up for Best Comedy Album this year, her second nomination.)
The Recording Academy, a not-for-profit that puts on the Grammys, is responsible for the pre-telecast ceremony and says that previous hosts have performed for free. But interim CEO of the Academy Harvey Mason Jr. said in a video posted to Instagram that it was wrong for the talent booker to tell Haddish that the organization wouldn’t even cover her expenses for the event.
“That was wrong,” Mason said. “It was a lapse in judgment. It was in poor taste. And it was disrespectful.”
The story smacks of past instances in which Hollywood has woefully underpaid female artists compared to their male counterparts. See: Michelle Williams, Gillian Anderson, Claire Foy, Octavia Spencer, and far too many others.
Plus, it’s a serious black eye for the Recording Academy, which is trying to shake a reputation for being sexist, discriminatory, and out-of-touch.
Not even a year ago, it put its first-ever female president and CEO Deborah Dugan on leave five months after hiring her due to a “formal allegation of misconduct.” Dugan countered with an EEOC complaint that said her suspension was retaliation for her calling out sexual harassment, corrupt voting procedures, and conflicts of interest among board members at the organization. At the time of the filing, the Academy didn’t respond directly to Dugan’s claims, but it formally fired her in March after investigating her tenure at the organization, citing her “consistent management deficiencies and failures.”
The Academy had hired Dugan as it was trying to clean up another mess. In 2018, then-president Neil Portnow triggered fierce blowback when he said more women needed “step up” if they wanted to be recognized at the Grammys.
If the Academy is looking to move past these scandals; to signal that it values female talent, whether among executives or recording artists, asking Haddish to pay her way onto the Grammys stage is clearly a step backwards.
Claire Zillman
claire.zillman@fortune.com
@clairezillman
Today’s Broadsheet was curated by Emma Hinchliffe.
ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
- Chancellor's compromise. German Chancellor Angela Merkel brokered a compromise allowing the EU to agree on a $2.2 trillion budget and stimulus package. Germany holds the bloc's rotating presidency. The deal had been held up by Hungary and Poland, which refused to sign onto rules that would allow the body to strip either country of EU funds based on their treatment of democratic institutions. The Christine Lagarde-led European Central Bank, meanwhile, unveiled its own new stimulus package. New York Times
- Tough negotiations. Next year's international climate talks, the COP26 conference, are set to take place in Glasgow. World leaders and climate activists are calling on the organization's leadership to include more women in top roles at the global event. Forty-five percent of senior management there are set to be women, but many are in "supporting and communications roles" rather than negotiating positions, the group says. Financial Times
- Diaper duty. Fortune's Maria Aspan talks to Shazi Visram, founder of the baby food business Happy Family Organics, who has now pivoted to selling a "cleaner diaper." That mission involves getting the approval of advocacy organization the Environmental Working Group for a product that touches a child's "largest organ"—the skin—for the first years of their life. Fortune
- Childcare in crisis. Bloomberg goes deep on the childcare crisis, forecasting that fixing access to childcare could add $1.6 trillion to U.S. GDP. That number comes from measuring the rate at which women would enter and stay in the workforce with access to subsidized childcare. Bloomberg
MOVERS AND SHAKERS: Susan Rice will join the Biden administration as director of the White House Domestic Policy Council; to take up that role, the former ambassador will depart her position as a board director for Netflix. Stephanie Schriock will step down as president of EMILY's List. Mellody Hobson's Ariel Investments hired Edelman's Arielle Patrick as chief communications officer. Lucid promoted Stephanie Comardelle to chief of staff. Jennifer Smith, former Alfresco Software CMO, joined Brightcove in the same role. Anna Palmer joins seed-stage venture capital firm Flybridge as general partner.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
- Been saying yes instead of no. Taylor Swift at midnight today released evermore, her second surprise album in less than six months. The pop star calls the new album a sister record to July's folklore; the strategy is also in line with industry trends, with artists releasing music more frequently and casually. Wall Street Journal
- One for the ages. The New Yorker's Jane Mayer takes on a sensitive issue: the aging of U.S. lawmakers. Specifically, Mayer reports on Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who is, at 87, the oldest member of the Senate. In prior eras, any cognitive decline among members of Congress was ignored or not talked about—an approach that's no longer possible with broadcast hearings and social media. The New Yorker
- Antitrust solidarity. EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager offered her support to the U.S. officials who have taken on Facebook's dominance in a new lawsuit. Vestager, known for her tough regulation of tech giants in Europe, says the move is a "sign that the debate on tech dominance has been shifting over the last couple of years." Fortune
ON MY RADAR
I was certain I wanted two children. Then the pandemic happened Elle
How reality TV made middle-aged women aspirational Guardian
The new abortion rights advocates are on TikTok New York Times
Trump’s ‘Muslim ban’ policy had real consequences on birth outcomes, a new study shows The Lily
PARTING WORDS
"It’s something that I could have never expected, given what I was told. And I believe I had something to do with it. I’ve crafted some part of this moment in time."
-Actor Frances McDormand on appearing on the cover of Vogue at 63


fortune--2020-12-11--Europe goes all in on its net-zero pledge, backing tough new emissions targets—but not without a fig

Europe goes all in on its net-zero pledge, backing tough new emissions targets—but not without a fight

The European Union further strengthened its targets for cutting emissions on Friday—despite internal resistance from poorer countries within the union that threatened to scupper the deal.
The new goal is to cut 2030 emissions by at least 55%, the most ambitious target in the world and involving the bloc’s 27 members—excluding the U.K., which has its own target. The passing of that 2030 target—which was tabled as an amendment in September and only needed final approval—is part of the EU’s broader goal to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, which was laid out exactly one year ago as part of the union’s Green Deal.
Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, tweeted that the target “puts us on a clear path towards climate neutrality in 2050.”
Great way to celebrate the first anniversary of our #EUGreenDeal!
#EUCO has endorsed our ambitious proposal for a new EU climate target.
Europe will reduce emissions by at least 55% by 2030.
It puts us on a clear path towards climate neutrality in 2050. — Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) December 11, 2020
But efforts to pass the new 2030 target also highlighted the growing rift within the union that mirrors larger divisions worldwide—between richer countries who want to push for more ambitious targets, and the EU’s poorer members in the east—Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic—who are still more dependent on coal-fired power.
All three of those countries had initially withheld their support Thursday for the deal, asking for more support from the bloc to help transition their economies. The deal was only passed on Friday morning after Poland, the last holdout, received further assurances of funding for the energy transition.
That division among member states is not just about emissions targets. Earlier this week, the European Commission adopted a €750 billion ($910 billion) post-pandemic recovery fund and a €1.8 trillion ($2.1 trillion) seven-year budget—but only after weeks of uncertainty, with threats from Brussels that Poland and Hungary could be cut off from the funds after they threatened to sink the deal. The governments of both countries had objected to rule-of-law stipulations for the funding. Poland and Hungary have both been under fire for moves to restrict the freedom of the press and for stacking the courts with government loyalists, shifts that have long been flagged as overtly undemocratic and violating the principles of the European Union.
Friday’s announcement of the target also comes ahead of this weekend’s climate summit, which marks the fifth anniversary of the signing of the landmark Paris Agreement.
Despite the pressures of the COVID-19 pandemic, this has been a landmark year for net-zero climate commitments by governments (and by companies), from Japan to Canada, although many of the details of how those targets will be achieved are still vague. The next country to watch is the U.S., with President-elect Joe Biden pledging to reenter the Paris Agreement when he takes office early next year, paving the way for the possibility of firmer U.S. emissions cuts.


fortune--2020-12-12--The American heartland needs jobs. Could Bitcoin mining become its next savior?

A startup called Core Scientific announced this week that it has raised $23 million to expand its cryptocurrency mining operations. The company, based in Bellevue, Wash., is already running crypto mines in North Carolina, Georgia, and Kentucky, and plans to open more before long.
It’s not hard to understand why. Right now, a single Bitcoin—the digital mining equivalent of a gold nugget—is worth around $20,000. Mining a single Bitcoin block brings a reward of 6.25 of them, or about $125,000.
If Core Scientific’s mining ventures are successful, the company will not just make a lot of money. It will also help to repatriate crypto production to the United States, where Bitcoin got its start.
The recent resurgence in crypto mining feels like a good-news story. Mining companies like Core Scientific are in a position to make money and create jobs in rural areas, while also ensuring more Bitcoin—which is becoming a strategic asset—ends up in American hands.
But there are also reasons for caution. The last crypto-mining boom promised similar benefits but resulted in fly-by-night companies leaving a trail of scams and environmental degradation in their wake. Will the outcome be any different this time?
Digital picks and shovels
Mining cryptocurrency is different from conventional mining in some obvious ways. There’s no excavating and hauling ore. And the tools of the trade are not pickaxes and dynamite. Instead, crypto miners rely on two things to make a living: custom-designed computer chips and a torrent of electricity. A crypto-mining operation looks like this:
An array of crypto-mining servers. Photo: Courtesy of DCG
In order to find a digital nugget, crypto miners pit their computers against others around the world in a race to solve complex math problems. The computer that solves the problem broadcasts the solution to others on the network and, in doing so, adds a block to the blockchain—a tamperproof ledger that serves as a public record of transactions. For their trouble, the owner of the winning computer pockets the “block reward,” which is 6.25 Bitcoins in the case of Bitcoin plus transaction fees. The process is repeated every 10 minutes or so.
In the early days, when it was still viable to mine Bitcoin with a home laptop, a large proportion of crypto mining took place in the U.S. But as the computer power needed to solve the math problems increased, Chinese mining operations came to dominate.
The Chinese miners enjoyed two advantages: easy access to cheap power, including in places like Mongolia, and a domestic manufacturing base capable of cranking out so-called mining rigs—computers with custom chips made just for mining. While there are other mining operations around the globe, China remains far and away the leader, as can be seen in this chart from the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance:
Now, some U.S. companies believe they can wrest some of the mining pie back from China. In the case of Core Scientific, it has struck arrangements for cheap power across five sites, spanning over 100 acres in total, in Dalton, Ga., Marble, N.C., and Calvert City, Ky. The firm has also cut deals with Chinese manufacturers to get first dibs on the newest mining rigs, and plans to mine not just Bitcoin but so-called alt coins like Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, Zcash, and Ethereum.
Core Scientific is now one of the biggest U.S. miners, but its operations are part of a still larger plan. That plan is being steered by an outfit called Foundry, which is behind the just announced $23 million investment in Core Scientific. Foundry is a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group (DCG), a sprawling crypto conglomerate that recently announced it would spend $100 million on mining initiatives.
According to Foundry CEO Mike Colyer, boosting crypto production in the U.S. will serve to strengthen Bitcoin’s network by diversifying the miners who maintain it.
“The only way Bitcoin works is when it’s distributed through the world and when it’s decentralized,” says Colyer, who predicts the share of U.S.-produced Bitcoin could rise to 25% in the next few years.
Put another way, the U.S. mining ventures will help ensure that no consortium of miners can collude to manipulate the blockchain network. Such collusion requires a single entity to control over 50% of the network—a risk that is is remote in the case of Bitcoin, but which has transpired in the case of smaller digital currencies.
Foundry’s mining initiatives offer the promise of strengthening Bitcoin’s network—and, of course, giving the company a chance to make money—but may also reflect another strategic imperative. Namely, as demand for Bitcoin increases in the market, more companies may wish to have a private supply of it to facilitate trading operations. In the case of DCG, which has a giant consumer Bitcoin business, Foundry’s ventures may help facilitate vertical integration.
“Mining is a great way to accumulate Bitcoin. With the correct setup, you can mine it cheaper than you can buy it,” says Amanda Fabiano, who formerly oversaw mining operations at investment giant Fidelity and now does the same for crypto-trading firm Galaxy Digital.
The best use of power in a “carbon-challenged world”?
To get a different perspective on Bitcoin mining in North America, I spoke to Steve Wright, the general manager of a public utility in Chelan County, Wash. During the last big Bitcoin boom in 2017, Wright had to contend with a crush of mining companies asking to tap into the county’s ample hydroelectric resources.
“We had a lot of companies come in and say, ‘We’re going to do great things,’ and then they would be gone from the face of the earth,” Wright recalls. “People would say, ‘We’re here for long term,’ and then nobody would pick up the phone.”
Problems also came in the form of reckless operators who overloaded transformers, triggering fires. Meanwhile, the crypto miners who wanted to set up shop demanded the low electricity rates available to locals. For Wright, agreeing to those demands risked undercutting the profits the utility earned from selling its hydropower at higher rates to outside markets.
Wright also faced pushback from county residents who questioned whether it was ethical to expend energy on something like Bitcoin mining.
“When you have a green supply of power and you have a carbon-challenged world, people were asking if this is the best use of that power,” said Wright, whose job involves overseeing Columbia River dams like the one below.
The debate over the environmental impact of crypto mining is not restricted to Chelan County. The payment giant Square, which recently bought $50 million of Bitcoin for its corporate treasury, announced a $10 million pledge this week to support a “Bitcoin Clean Energy” initiative as part of a larger plan to become carbon neutral by 2030.
Meanwhile, other U.S. companies are finding creative ways to reduce Bitcoin’s environmental impact. Fabiano of Galaxy Digital pointed to three firms in the oil-and-gas field—Crusoe Energy, Great American Mining, and Upstream Data—that are capturing the energy typically wasted through flaring (when shale drilling rigs burn off excess natural gas) to power crypto mining.
All of this may help assuage critics who view Bitcoin mining as an environmental disaster. But firms like Core Scientific also have to overcome another public relations problem: that mining operations are run by shifty carpetbaggers who will leave local communities in the lurch.
This perception is another legacy of the 2017 Bitcoin boom when digital miners—who typically share the libertarian, borderless worldview of the larger crypto community—took towns across the country for a ride. The most famous example is Rockdale, Texas. The town became the subject of a Wired magazine feature about how a Chinese firm, Bitmain, touted a new Bitcoin venture that would help replace jobs and revenue that had been lost when an Alcoa plant closed. Rockdale town officials put on lavish dinners to make the mining executives feel welcome but, as happened in Chelan County and elsewhere, they vanished into the night.
As for jobs, cryptocurrency mining operations may provide a handful of new positions for local residents. But Wright says the employment opportunities are nothing like what a recently closed aluminum plant used to provide—meaning his county has less reason to roll out a welcome mat for crypto companies.
Colyer, the Foundry CEO, acknowledges the crypto-mining industry must overcome deep levels of mistrust. But he insists ventures like Core Scientific are a different breed from past fly-by-night operations.
“In 2017, there were lots of people making huge promises, running around the company, and scaring local governments. A lot of those people have disappeared, and the companies that are left are legitimate,” he says.
But even if the North American mining companies can overcome public skepticism, they will also have to prove they can succeed in a venture that has mostly been defined by failure.
Relying on Chinese chips
A successful crypto-mining operation requires the use of new machines built with ASIC chips—a type of computer chip custom-built for a specific purpose. In the case of Bitcoin mining rigs, the chips are specially designed to crunch the math problems that build the blockchain.
This raises an obvious question: If a company can manufacture the best mining rigs, why would it sell them rather than set up a Bitcoin-mining operation of its own?
And indeed Bitmain, one of the two Chinese companies that makes most of the machines, has faced past accusations of passing off used mining rigs as new. Meanwhile, the company is the subject of an ongoing class action lawsuit that claims it surreptitiously mined Bitcoins purchased by its customers.
The allegations are unproven, and Bitmain denies wrongdoing. But the situation appears to pose a risk for the likes of Foundry and Core Scientific, which are not only undertaking their own mining operations but plan to supply machines to other companies.
Colyer of Foundry says that such concerns were valid in the past but that the mining industry has evolved to eliminate self-dealing by the Chinese manufacturers. One reason, he says, is that the manufacturers have come to recognize that distributing mining power across the globe benefits the broader Bitcoin economy.
Fabiano, the mining expert with Galaxy Digital, says the industry has become more trustworthy in part because there is now intense competition between Bitmain and the other big manufacturer, MicroBT.
But Fabiano adds that accessing state-of-the-art mining rigs, which can cost between $2,600 and $2,800 apiece, has become difficult as a result of supply chain issues. She notes that the companies obtain their chips from Taiwan-based TSMC and Samsung, and that those companies have hundreds of other clients—including the likes of Apple—that may receive priority over Bitcoin companies. The upshot, says Fabiano, is that new machines may not be available until next July.
In the long term, Core Scientific executives predict that chipmakers like TSMC may set up production in the U.S. and provide a domestic source of mining equipment. But Fabiano suggests that China will always have the manufacturing edge and that Colyer’s prediction of the U.S. obtaining a 25% share of mining capacity is optimistic.
The bottom line is that aspirations for a booming crypto-mining industry in the U.S. is risky and fraught with uncertainty—much like Bitcoin itself.


fortune--2020-12-12--‘The Mozart of fungi’: For ages, truffle hunting has been one of the most challenging pursuits on ea

‘The Mozart of fungi’: For ages, truffle hunting has been one of the most challenging pursuits on earth. Then the pandemic hit

The prized Italian white truffle continues to shatter records.
This precious fungus—nicknamed, white gold—has long been a symbol of gastronomic decadence, ranking, gram for gram, as one of the most expensive foods in the world—up there with Iranian beluga caviar and saffron.
This year is no different. A collapse in restaurant dining, worldwide travel bans, and a global recession haven’t stopped well-heeled gastronomes from splashing out huge sums on the prized tuber magnatum pico.
Last month, at an annual white truffle auction—held in truffle town: Alba, Italy—a bevy of bids flooded in from around the world for a handsome 2-pound specimen. Never mind that the hopefuls couldn’t smell the goods, or eyeball it for imperfections. (Like everything else in 2020, it was a virtual affair).
Still, the truffle on display went for €100,000 ($121,000).
“The Mozart of funghi”
The law of supply and demand explains such out-of-whack prices. The mighty white truffle can only be found in select places on Earth—well underground, drawing nutrients from the roots of oak, beech and poplar trees. Once dug up, it rapidly loses moisture and that mesmerizing earthy essence. It’s been said freshly unearthed truffles have the qualities of an aphrodisiac, adding to the myth and mystique that this is, as the ancients crowned it, the “food of the gods.” It was a luxury in the finest courts of Renaissance Europe. The 18th century Italian composer Gioachino Rossini called it the “Mozart of funghi.”
Alba in Northwest Italy is the most famous of the white truffle’s haunts, but there are also hot spots in the Apennines of Central Italy that span Tuscany, Umbria and Rossini’s homeland, Le Marche. Most of these patches are under threat. Climate change and the rapid loss of the white truffle’s woodlands habitat are combining to bulldoze supply just as global demand soars.
In this way, escalating truffle prices aren’t just a benchmark for epicurean status. The inflation is also an indicator for the health of a threatened woodland ecosystem in an age of mass urbanization and factory farming and dwindling green spaces.
The elusive white truffle can be found in scattered patches in the hills of Amandola, in central Italy. Original photo: Bernhard Warner Original photo: Bernhard Warner
Into the woods we go
“It’s been a difficult year,” Renzo Baldoncini, a tartufaio (truffle hunter) hailing from Amandola, Italy, told me. Over the years, Baldoncini has been my most reliable truffle supplier. This year he agreed to take me into the woods to forage for these precious tubers. Joining us were Luna and Scilla, two dogs with a special, highly attuned nose to unearth (hopefully) these aromatic wonders.
Luna and Scilla come from a long line of truffle hunters. They are of the Italian hunting dog breed, the Lagotto Romagnolo. A few years ago, Luna unearthed a tomato-sized white truffle that Baldoncini later sold to a truffle broker for €350.
Scilla, meanwhile, is a champion slipper-eater. At seven months old, she’s still a truffle hunt rookie. She’s also the newest member of the Warner family, our pandemic puppy. (It was our girls who lobbied hard for a dog once lockdown hit. I had one condition: I’ll only consider a Lagotto. My rationale: I want a pup that could put food on our table every now and then.)
A mud-coated Luna, a Lagotto Romagnolo truffle dog. Original photo: Bernhard Warner
Luna (pictured above) is a pro. She has all the traits you want in a truffle dog. She is focused, fearless and determined. She puts her exceptional olfactory powers to quick work; she can pick up the scent of a truffle from a distance of several yards.
Once we entered the woods, Baldoncini directed Luna with a volley of rapid-fire one-word commands: vai (go ahead!), su (climb up!), giù (come down!). She covered remarkable ground, over tough, steep terrain. My Scilla kept up, admirably darting after Luna. They glided over muddy slop. They scrambled under fallen tree limbs. They hopped over trunks. They found holes in a wall of thick brambles, and splashed through streams. Scilla circled back frequently to check on me. You gonna make it, old man?, her expression seemed to say.
Every now and then, Luna would catch the whiff of something promising. She’d put her nose to the ground and move the earth away with a paw. She’d sniff again. Another jab with her paw. And another.
The anticipation was electric. Maybe it was the up-hill march—my heart was pounding. More than once I caught myself day-dreaming about a big find, something we could shave onto a dish of risotto or tagliatelle.
Scilla, meanwhile, showed her inexperience. We’d trained her just once, dousing cotton balls in white truffle oil before burying them in the yard. If she picked up the scent, we’d give her a treat. She did okay in these practice settings, enough for me to remark she’s got the right genes for this kind of work.
But when it came to the real thing, Scilla was, as the Italians say, “un disastro.” From the moment we got to the secret truffle spot, Scilla was more interested in playing with Luna than going on a serious hunt. Every chance she got, she would playfully swat at Luna with her front paws, and expect Luna to reciprocate. Luna was having none of it. Whenever Luna stopped to study the wooded surroundings for clues, Scilla would try to distract her.
Scilla, a Lagotto Romagnolo pup, leaps over the forest brush as Luna (at right) picks up the scent of something interesting. Original photo: Bernhard Warner
And now that Luna had her nose to the ground, zeroing in on what we hoped was a big score, Scilla went wild. She zipped around and around her four-legged friend in tighter and tighter concentric circles. “Scilla, calma, calma,” I implored her in Italian. Calm down. Scilla barked at me, and then at Luna, excitedly.
My heart sank. With the game on the line, she was that distracted Little Leaguer, the one who runs the wrong way, to third base, after hitting a dribbler to the pitcher. Or that’s how I felt, anyhow. Luna gave up. Scilla swatted at her again.
I apologized to Baldoncini. He grinned, and waved me off. “Not a problem,” he said reassuringly.
We walked out of the woods empty-handed. Covered in mud, the dogs trotted ahead in the direction of Baldoncini’s Fiat Panda.
All kinds of big scores have been unearthed in the woods around Amandola over the years. A fair number of truffles have been sold on to restaurants all over the country. The best of the best travel further, exported abroad. They land on the menu of Michelin-star restaurants in Hong Kong, London or Las Vegas. There would be no such big score for us.
The next morning, I went into the village of Amandola to see about buying a white truffle to take back to Rome. At Baldoncini’s advice, I found a shop just down the road from the main piazza. I was in luck, the shopkeeper told me. He pulled a plastic container out of the refrigerator and lined up a cluster of warty wonders. “From this morning,” he said proudly. The room filled with the scent of truffle, penetrating the protective layers of my face mask.
“Where’d you find them?” I asked, knowing he’d never reveal his secret spot. “Nearby,” he said after a slight hesitation.
In an all-cash transaction, I paid him €60 for a few nuggets. They added up to 45 grams, enough for a decent lunch.
Fresh white truffles from Amandola. Original photo: Bernhard Warner Bernhard Warner
The next day my wife made a simple risotto. I shaved the truffle nuggets over our dishes and let the aroma do its job, overtaking my senses.
A lunch like this at a fancy restaurant, my wife calculated, would set us back a small fortune. Next year, I over-promised, Scilla and I will bring home one of our own.


fortune--2020-12-12--U.K.-China relations are at a critical point. Here’s what Britain’s new Ambassador to China is prior

U.K.-China relations are at a critical point. Here’s what Britain’s new Ambassador to China is prioritizing

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U.K.-China relations are at a critical juncture, going from what British Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne described as a “golden era” in 2015 to a period rife with conflict over technology and geopolitics.
The sweeping new national security law that Beijing imposed on Hong Kong in June is one major trouble spot. The U.K. says the law violates an agreement China and Britain signed in 1997, when the U.K. passed sovereignty of Hong Kong, its former colony, to China. In response to the law, the U.K. extended British citizenship rights to some Hong Kong residents in July, a move that Beijing condemned as foreign interference in domestic affairs.
Another point of tension is the U.K.’s treatment of Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei Technologies. The U.K. announced in July that British telecoms providers will be banned from using Huawei equipment in the U.K.’s 5G mobile network, citing national security risks. (Huawei has previously denied allegations that its products pose security risks.)
That was the state of play when Caroline Wilson, a diplomat with previous posts in Beijing, Brussels, Moscow, and Hong Kong, was tapped to become British Ambassador to China in June; and she formally assumed the role in October.
“It’s a difficult time and I sometimes have to manage differences and controversial, sensitive aspects of the relationship,” Wilson said in an interview at Fortune China’s Most Powerful Women Summit in Shanghai on Thursday. “We’re not always going to be able to agree on everything, but basically there’s so much that we have to do together.”
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Wilson identified public health and climate change as two vital issues she plans to address in her role as ambassador. She said China can “do more” to ensure the world’s poorest countries have access to COVID-19 vaccines.
On the vaccine front, “China does a huge amount globally,” Wilson said, citing China’s participation in COVAX, a global initiative to ensure equitable access to coronavirus vaccines. “But we think they could do even more and be even more effective,” she said.
Climate change is another area where she hopes the U.K. and China can pool their efforts, Wilson said.
In November, she visited China’s southern metropolis of Shenzhen to advocate for more climate change collaboration between the U.K. and China through projects like a joint tech lab for offshore wind.
“Showing that we can get global action on climate change is going to be very important,” Wilson said, pointing out that both countries are scheduled to host major environmental summits in 2021—the UN biodiversity conference in Kunming, China, in May, and the UN Climate Change Conference, also known as COP26, in Glasgow in November.
Chinese President Xi Jinping’s September announcement that China will aim to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2060 and peak carbon emissions by 2030, Wilson added, “is very, very significant” for global climate goals.
In laying out her top priorities, Wilson said the coronavirus pandemic has shown that countries need to work together on global issues like public health and the environment “more than ever.”
“I want to build a strong relationship between the U.K. and China. To do that, I want to show that this is a relationship that delivers, both for people in China and for people in the United Kingdom,” Wilson said.
Still, she acknowledged that the rocky period in the U.K.-China relationship called for “frank dialogue…to allow for management of differences and divergence of view.”
And Wilson, a fluent Mandarin speaker who flitted between English and Chinese while answering audience questions, says she’s well-suited for the challenge.
“At the present time, the personality of the ambassador is quite important,” she said. This moment in history calls for “the human touch—showing that we are all human and that we have more interests in common than [what] divide us,” she said.


fortune--2020-12-12--Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine is first to win U.S. approval

Pfizer Inc. gained emergency U.S. authorization for its Covid-19 vaccine, becoming the first shot that will be deployed to Americans amid soaring virus-related hospitalizations and deaths.
The Food and Drug Administration authorized use of Pfizer and partner BioNTech SE’s vaccine on Friday, according to an agency statement.
With the emergency clearance, the U.S. becomes the latest country to authorize the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. The U.K. raced ahead of the U.S. and European Union and cleared the vaccine on Dec. 2, and began immunizing older people and health-care workers this week. The shot is under review in the European Union.
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The FDA has faced pressure from the White House for weeks to quickly authorize a vaccine, including as recently as Friday when White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows told FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn his job could be on the line if the agency didn’t get it done soon.
Following a Thursday vote by an advisory panel of outside experts backing the vaccine for use in people 16 and older, the FDA was weighing how to address reports of serious allergic reactions in the U.K., where the vaccine was approved earlier this month. Officials there have since told people with a history of significant allergic reactions not to get the vaccine. Marion Gruber, director of the FDA’s Office of Vaccines Research and Review, told the advisory panel Thursday that the FDA was seeking more information on the reactions from regulators in the U.K.
Pfizer’s vaccine, like one from Moderna Inc. that could also gain clearance next week, uses a new technology called messenger RNA that turns the body’s own cells into vaccine-producing factories to fight the coronavirus.
In a trial of almost 44,000 people, the Pfizer vaccine was 95% effective at preventing symptomatic cases of Covid-19, and protected people of all ages and ethnicities. It was able to prevent the most severe infections, according to clinical trial results.
Side effects in Pfizer’s clinical trial were mild and developed more frequently in younger participants in the study, specifically those aged 55 and younger, with no signs of serious safety concerns, according to an FDA staff report on the vaccine’s safety and efficacy. After the second injection, fatigue and headache were the most common systemic reactions, occurring in 59% and 52% of the younger participants, compared with 51% and 39% in those over age 56. Pfizer said patients in the trial did not experience serious allergic reactions.
It’s unclear whether the vaccine is effective at preventing Covid-19’s spread, according to the FDA staff report. It’s possible the shot didn’t work as well at preventing cases where people didn’t have symptoms, meaning there will likely be a continued need for basic public-health measures such as wearing masks and social distancing.
With initial supply very limited, the vaccine is expected to be given first to health-care workers and residents of long-term care facilities. Countries are clamoring for more doses, said Sean Marett, BioNTech’s chief business and commercial officer, in an interview.
“Everybody wants all their doses on January 2nd of next year, but that’s not practical,” he said in an interview. “This is a new technology, there does not exist a manufacturing network. We are building it.”
The shot requires special freezers to be kept extra cold temperatures until a few days before use, making distribution more complicated. Pfizer has developed special dry-ice containers to make it easier to store for facilities that don’t have the needed equipment.
Among the vaccine front-runners, the Pfizer-BioNTech shot is the only one that didn’t take funding from the White House-led Operation Warp Speed program to accelerate development, manufacturing and distribution of Covid-19 shots. However, the two companies have secured a $2 billion deal to supply 100 million doses to the U.S., with an option for 500 million more.


fortune--2020-12-12--OnJuno, a new online bank aimed at Asian-Americans, offers a 2.15% savings rate

U.S. consumers are awash in banking choices with the growing popularity of digital-first brands like Chime, Revolut, and Goldman Sachs’ Marcus. Meanwhile, fintech companies like SoFi and Venmo are offering debit cards, even as traditional banks like Chase and Citi remain ubiquitous. Do consumers need yet another option?
The founders of OnJuno believe they do. The new arrival offers consumers yet another digital bank option, one that dangles the promise of “high interest.” These days “high interest” is a relative concept, but OnJuno’s 2.15% rate is quite attractive, especially compared to the piddling 0.5% return that Marcus—which likewise touts itself as a high-yield bank—is offering. (For regulatory reasons, OnJuno prefers to describe the amount it pays out as a “savings bonus” rather than interest.)
OnJuno has two flavors of account: a basic one that caps the 2.15% interest rate to balances up to $5,000, and a premium “metal” one that offers the rate up to $30,000. The metal account comes with a $10 monthly fee that OnJuno is waiving for the first six months. Both versions offer cash-back rewards and no-fee ATM access—services that are becoming table stakes for most challenger banks.
I spoke with Varun Deshpande, one of the OnJuno cofounders, why he thinks Americans are ready for another digital bank. He acknowledged that the market is a crowded one, but he believes there is a niche for OnJuno among Asian-Americans.
He says that those in this diaspora community (including both South Asians and East Asians) number about 20 million, and that they differ from the typical U.S. consumer in several respects. First off, he says, their average income is considerably higher, at around $50,000 a year. Deshpande adds that Asian-Americans are also typically more averse to risk and credit—meaning they are likely to keep more cash on hand—and have shown a willingness to embrace technology.
OnJuno’s thesis—that they can move in on the challenger bank market by targeting a specific niche of consumers—is consistent with what Mark Goldberg, a partner at Index Ventures who specializes in fintech, recently told Fortune. According to Goldberg, the market is saturated and some banks are unlikely to survive, but those like Greenlight, whose niche is debit cards for kids, still have a chance to flourish.
Deshpande, whose experience includes building cryptocurrency projects, says OnJuno has another advantage in that he and his team are located in India, where costs are lower.
OnJuno says it expects to spend around $200 to $300 to acquire each new customer and is relying on unorthodox marketing strategies—including paying star chess players as influencers—to spread the word. The startup has raised $3 million so far, including from Sequoia’s Surge Fund and Polychain Capital.


fortune--2020-12-12--COVID-19 could change clinical trials for the better

In the race to find effective COVID-19 treatments, scientists are setting up clinical trials that test multiple drugs simultaneously, in the hopes of quickly determining which ones work best.
These “platform” trials have already led to important breakthroughs.
One, sponsored by the University of Oxford, tested multiple treatments, including the antimalarial hydroxychloroquine, HIV protease inhibitors lopinavir and ritonavir, and steroid dexamethasone. The conclusion? Hydroxychloroquine and the protease inhibitors don’t work—but dexamethasone significantly reduces mortality among hospitalized patients. Many people credit this steroid for President Trump’s speedy recovery.
Another platform trial at the National Institutes of Health this spring found antiviral remdesivir could shorten COVID-19 patients’ hospital stays by four days, on average—a game changer in the battle to keep our health care system from being overwhelmed with coronavirus patients.
These platform trials are far superior to traditional trials—and it’s ridiculous that it took a global pandemic to spur their widespread adoption. Making platform trials the industry standard would help patients battling conditions from Alzheimer’s to cancer to rare diseases.
Traditional trials evaluate whether a single experimental treatment improves patient outcomes compared to a placebo or existing standard of care. This approach is scientifically sound, but quite inefficient.
That’s because if multiple experimental drugs are ready for human testing at roughly the same time, those treatments must be evaluated individually. Each traditional trial requires its own funding sources, collaborating physicians, and patients. And since data collection techniques might vary across those trials, it’s difficult to make head-to-head comparisons about which drug works best.
By contrast, in platform trials, researchers test multiple interventions simultaneously. The most promising candidates move on to the next stage of the trial, while treatments that don’t perform well get dropped. And researchers can introduce new potential treatments at each phase.
This approach has a number of advantages. It’s quicker, uses fewer participants, requires fewer patients to receive either a placebo or the standard of care as part of the control group, and allows for head-to-head comparisons.
Here in the U.S., North Carolina–based Wake Forest Baptist Health recently became the country’s first hospital to enroll patients in a platform trial. And the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston is in the early stages of its own COVID-19 platform trial.
Platform trials would prove especially helpful in rare disease research. Since these illnesses affect small to very small numbers of patients, traditional trials requiring large groups of participants aren’t feasible. Rare diseases also tend to attract less funding. Platform trials can provide high-quality evidence without a large participant pool—and at a lower cost than standard trials.
Recognizing these benefits, the Children’s Tumor Foundation, where I serve as president, recently launched INTUITT-NF2. This innovative platform trial is able to evaluate treatments for multiple tumor manifestations in neurofibromatosis type 2 (NF2) at the same time. NF2 is a rare genetic disorder that results in the growth of tumors on the nerves and in the brain.
Our organization is also playing a key role in the EU Patient-Centric Clinical Trial Platforms (EU-PEARL) project, a public-private partnership aimed at promoting the use of platform trials.
While this promising approach is hopefully becoming mainstream, the drug industry will need to be incentivized to collaborate. Specifically, the legal departments at competing pharmaceutical firms will need to find acceptable ways to work together in co-designing and co-executing drug trials without compromising any company’s intellectual property.
Such challenges are well worth overcoming. Patients’ lives are at stake.
Platform trials are already playing a vital role in beating back the COVID-19 pandemic. Making them the industry standard would bring lifesaving treatments to patients quicker, more efficiently, and more often.
Annette Bakker, Ph.D., is president of the Children’s Tumor Foundation.


fortune--2020-12-13--Sweden’s frontline health care workers are quitting in worrying numbers as COVID cases spike

Sweden faces a shortage of health-care workers as the number of resignations ticks up after a relentless year of caring for Covid patients.
Sineva Ribeiro, the chairwoman of the Swedish Association of Health Professionals, says the situation is “terrible.”
Even before the first wave of the pandemic back in March, there was “a shortage of specialist nurses, including at ICUs,” she said in a phone interview.
The development shows that even countries with universal health-care systems are now struggling to keep up with the Covid crisis. This week, Stockholm’s intensive care capacity hit 99%, sending the city into a panic and prompting calls for outside help.
But even if more ICU beds are provided, the bigger concern now is whether Sweden has enough health-care workers with the skills needed to look after the country’s sickest patients.
Ribeiro says that already back in May, members of her union “warned of an untenable situation.” There are fewer qualified people available now than there were in the spring, “which makes it harder to expand ICU capacity,” she said.
Health-care professionals have emerged as the heroes of the Covid crisis, often drawing cheers from grateful onlookers as they emerge from hospitals after long and grueling shifts.
But increasingly, staff are so desperate for some real time off that they see resignation as the only way out, Ribeiro said. A survey by broadcaster TV4 showed that in 13 of Sweden’s 21 regions, resignations in the health-care profession are now up from a year ago, at as many as 500 a month.
The Army
Stockholm County Mayor Irene Svenonius says the situation is “extremely tense.” In an interview with Dagens Nyheter on Friday, she acknowledged that health-care workers are overworked, and that there’s a need to add staff. “There’s fatigue,” she said. “You can’t ignore that, so it’s extremely important to get more people.”
It’s uncertain where that extra capacity will come from. Stockholm has asked for additional health-care staff from Sweden’s armed forces, but it’s not clear the military has the resources to help. In the meantime, over 100 staff from a children’s hospital have reportedly been redeployed to intensive care units, meaning that children who had been due to receive non-emergency surgery will now be forced to wait.
Sweden, which has avoided a lockdown since the pandemic started, is also turning to other Nordic countries for help. On Saturday, neighboring Finland said it’s ready to assist by freeing up space for Swedish ICU patients.
The worry is that, despite scientific strides that allow medics to better understand and treat Covid-19, there aren’t enough professionals left to put that knowledge into practice.
“We don’t have the staff to do it,” Ribeiro said. She described the current health-care crisis facing the country as “unprecedented.”
Nurse’s Pay
Part of the problem is that nurses in particular are increasingly unwilling to subject themselves to the hours and conditions facing them during the Covid crisis, given the average pay level. Sara Nordin, once an assistant nurse at an intensive care unit, told Bloomberg in October that she quit because she couldn’t make ends meet on the $33,600 basic pay she got a year.
“I talked to members in August who said they would resign because it was the only way to get some time off and recover,” Ribeiro said. “We see high rates of sickness, symptoms of exhaustion and members who have been infected.”
For Sweden, the danger now is that more people will die because there aren’t enough qualified health-care professionals left to look after them.
“In a work environment where you are so tired, the risk of mistakes increases,” Ribeiro said. “And those mistakes can lead to patients dying.”