vox--2020-12-09--A book critic read 150 Trump-era books. Here’s what he learned.

Back in 2016 , a book critic for the Washington Post told his editor he wanted to read all of Donald Trump ’ s old books .
The idea — hope , really — was that combing through all those books would reveal something useful about Trump .
Over the next four years , Carlos Lozada ’ s project ballooned into something much broader .
In the end , he read something like 150 — yep , 150 !
— books not just about Trump himself but about this entire cultural moment .
Why would any thinking person sign up @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , perhaps .
But for Lozada , it ’ s something a little nobler .
He wanted to map out an intellectual history of this bizarre period — he dryly calls it a survey of “ Trump Studies.
” The result of his efforts is a fantastic new book called What Were We Thinking : A Brief Intellectual History of the Trump Era .
This is not another “ Look at how crazy the Trump White House is ” book , and it isn ’ t another lamentation on the death of democracy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to cultural criticism .
The question isn ’ t so much what happened , but rather how it was even possible in the first place .
I reached out to Lozada to talk about what he learned from digging through all these books , what their weaknesses reveal about our intellectual culture , and what a truly authoritative book on this era would look like .
I also ask him which books stood out as uniquely interesting or revelatory , and what they explained about this moment that the others didn ’ t @ @ @ @ @ @ @ conversation follows .
What the hell we were thinking , Carlos ?
In some ways , we weren ’ t thinking that hard .
In some ways we were thinking this could not happen , right ?
Trump happened because so many people and institutions thought it was impossible and therefore in some senses enabled it or allowed it to happen .
I think the inordinate coverage he received during his campaign was a reflection of the notion that this was a sideshow .
That was definitely one part of it .
Another @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the things that we wanted to think and that we were predisposed to think .
A lot of the response to Trump as seen through these books reflects that .
People say , “ Look , this just proves everything I ’ ve been saying all along.
” You see that in so many of the Trump books , whether it ’ s from the left or right or whatever .
Trump is seen as a confirmation of or a natural outgrowth of all the trends the author has been writing about forever @ @ @ @ @ @ @ you really dig into all these books is that a lot of the writing was for ourselves , was for like-minded audiences and communities .
You see this in the “ resistance ” books that kind of hunkered down and made no effort to really move beyond or even understand what was happening beyond these communities and some groups that for absolutely legitimate reasons felt that they were under attack in the Trump era .
But also a lot of the pro-Trump industrial complex publishing that emerged .
The silos we talk about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the books of Trump .
I don ’ t want to say that Trump ’ s the perfect manifestation of American society , or that he even represents a majority of it , but he ’ s absolutely a uniquely American product and I ’ m not sure enough of the literature has wrestled with the implications of that .
No , I think that is absolutely correct .
I would use Trump ’ s own biography and chronology to make that same case .
Trump came of age in the ’ 70s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in New York clubs .
He spent the ’ 80s making a name for himself as a business tycoon .
He spent the ’ 90s in his marriage struggles .
He spent the 2000s as a reality television star .
He spent the 2010s as a social media phenom .
He ’ s every American obsession in excess .
He is uniquely American , and every phase of his life embodies what was going on culturally during those periods .
I actually read your book as a critique of our collective failure to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sustain the conditions that make national self-understanding possible .
Am I projecting , or is that how you see it ?
I think that that ’ s a good approximation of where I ended up .
There were wonderful books in this lot , and we can get into some of those later if you want .
I don ’ t want to sit here and pass judgment in a very negative way on all the cultural intellectual output of this time .
But I think in many cases we were inclined to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ biases and misconceptions , and an unwillingness to engage with the larger picture .
You ’ ve hit this a couple times now , so can you offer an example of what you have in mind here ?
In the opening chapter of the book , for example , I cover all these books that came out about the white working class .
I call it the “ Heartlandia ” genre of literature .
There was a book called The Great Revolt by Salena Zito and Brad Todd that profiled a bunch of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ form .
Let ’ s just go out and talk to a bunch of Trump voters and see what they were thinking .
They profile this guy Ed Harry in Luzerne County , Pennsylvania , who ’ s a former Democrat , former labor organizer , was even a delegate to the convention that nominated Bill Clinton in ’ 92 .
He switched to Trump .
In that book he switched to Trump because he ’ s an economic populist .
He ’ s fed up with trade deals and thinks Democrats have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s suspicious of political dynasties like the Clintons and Bushes .
So he ’ s become a Trump guy .
That ’ s fine .
That ’ s the story .
A few months later , I ’ m reading another book like this called The Forgotten by Ben Bradley Jr. , who was at the Boston Globe for a long time .
And suddenly I ’ m encountering this guy who was a longtime Democrat , labor organizer , and delegate to the ’ 92 convention in Pennsylvania .
I was like @ @ @ @ @ @ @ person .
How do I know this person ?
” I start looking back in those books and it hits me : He ’ s the same guy !
It ’ s this guy named Ed Harry who was profiled in The Great Revolt .
And that ’ s not just a sign of how formulaic and repetitive this kind of book can be .
It speaks to how different the motivations of the authors are and how those motivations are reflected in the characters they cover .
In the second book , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ different .
He ’ s a 9/11 truther .
He ’ s a cultural warrior .
He worries that George Soros is funding Black Lives Matter secretly , and he rails against transgender bathrooms .
His motives for supporting Trump are so different , and those differences are reflections of the author ’ s perceptions of why Trump won .
I ’ m not saying that these writers are writing in bad faith .
I am suggesting that sometimes we see that which we want to see , and we see that which @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Why do you say the best books about Trump aren ’ t really about Trump at all ?
I think it has to do with the shortcomings of the books that obsess over Trump .
After a while , all the books about the chaos of the Trump White House or the books that obsess over the day-to-day drama feel incredibly repetitive .
They are shocking and entirely unsurprising at the same time .
The books that cede the spotlight to Trump let him dictate the way we think about this time .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ need to do that .
I don ’ t think that he ’ s earned that , or that anyone has .
For me , the most useful books of the Trump era are the ones that put the fights that we ’ re having — over race and immigration and institutions and identity and culture — into the long arc of the American story .
The books that show that these are ever-present battles in the history of this country .
I ’ m thinking of a book like America for Americans @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who shows how right alongside the nation of immigrants tradition is just as strong a strain of xenophobia and a rejection of outsiders .
A book like One Person , No Vote by Carol Anderson , which shows the long history and struggle for voting rights and the insidious evolution of forms of voting suppression .
Or a book like These Truths by Jill Lepore , which shows how we ’ ve struggled to live up to the founding ideals and how that ’ s not just a shortcoming of America but is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ books aren ’ t just useful for context .
They ’ re useful to sort of explain and understand right now even when they don ’ t obsess over what ’ s happening day-to-day in the Oval Office .
That ’ s why I found them to be useful .
They weren ’ t beholden to this moment , which is why they end up explaining so much about this moment .
What about the books written by Never Trumpers ?
Did they reveal the same sorts of blind spots that other resistance @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of books about what was happening on the right during the Trump years .
I imagine I ’ ll be reading a lot of books about the fights on the left during the Biden years .
The Never Trumpers were in a tough spot .
They were rejected by the new powers that be on the right .
They were always kind of looked at vaguely suspiciously on the left .
They became homeless , and they started writing these pained breakup letters to the conservative movement , to the Republican Party .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ t wrestle as fully as they could have , or should have , with their own role in enabling Trump and Trumpism to arise in the first place .
Why was the Republican Party , the conservative movement , so ripe for that kind of takeover ?
I think that in many cases , some of these writers either ignored or just looked the other way at some of these forces that were overtaking the Republican Party .
Now they ’ re writing all these mea culpas about how awful it is , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ significant role in that .
“ Trump happened because so many people and institutions thought it was impossible and therefore in some senses enabled it or allowed it to happen ” I ’ ll give a little credit to Stuart Stevens , the former GOP operative , who I think did wrestle with these exact questions in his book .
I was not able to include Stuart Stevens ’ s book in my book ; it came out too late .
There were several really good books that I wish I had more @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Stevens does that mea culpa to perhaps a greater degree than some of the others .
But that was my main response to the Never Trump books .
Among the books on the right , they were the best ones , but I still felt that the sense of shock they displayed was a little naive .
It does seem as though the polarization of the era is very much reflected in the writing of American intellectuals , and that was maybe one of the biggest recurring themes I noticed in your book @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s right .
There ’ s not much effort to step beyond our intellectual corners .
I feel like the country is stuck in this divide and it hinders our analytical capacity to grasp what ’ s really happening .
Are there any books that stand out to you for bucking this particular trend ?
One is called A Time To Build by Yuval Levin , who ’ s a conservative intellectual who typically writes high-level political theory stuff , but this is a book that emphasizes , without much partisan gloss , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ institutions become more performative than formative .
His concern is that political and cultural institutions both shape and restrain our behavior , and when they become platforms for performance art , we lose that .
He sees that happening throughout the government now .
But his book is trying to do something bigger than some of these other books we ’ ve talked about .
Another that was helpful for me was Unmaking the Presidency by Susan Hennessey and Benjamin Wittes .
It takes up this obsession we all have with political norms @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are crucial to making the system work , and gives a history of where all these norms came from , how they built up around the presidency , and the dangers of seeing them torpedoed .
So , like Levin ’ s book , it stepped way back and gave critical context that I found very useful in this moment .
What do you think we will most regret about the Trump era when we look back on it ?
For me it ’ s the opportunity costs — all the things we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ t do because this singularly terrible human being seized so much of our collective attention .
God , I wish I knew .
I mean , there are ongoing slow-motion crises that we didn ’ t deal with , like climate change .
But I think in some ways we managed to skate by bigger challenges and bigger problems .
Like , every day I woke up , and thought , well , at least we ’ re not in some unexpected war — and that felt like a good day when we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s so uniquely unfit and impulsive and unprincipled .
But , of course , this luck ran out with the pandemic .
And I think the human cost of having someone at the helm who , in so many ways , refused to engage honestly with this crisis is just immense .
For three years , we managed to get by , but then suddenly we couldn ’ t anymore .
And the cost of this is escalating every day , and it ’ s no less horrific simply because we ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the authoritative book on the Trump era is ever written , what ’ s the biggest question you think it will answer ?
I would hope that an authoritative Trump book in the future would not try to be comprehensive in covering the day-to-day White House madness , the one-damned-thing-after-another history approach , because I think that ’ s been a huge part of the problem with so many of the books on Trump .
What I want to read is a book that is more selective , that tries to tell me @ @ @ @ @ @ @ which this period has transformed our culture and politics and the governance of this country , and the ways in which it has accelerated changes that were already underway .
I don ’ t want more crazy stories about Trump in the White House .
We ’ ve had enough of that .

Back in 2016, a book critic for the Washington Post told his editor he wanted to read all of Donald Trump’s old books. The idea — hope, really — was that combing through all those books would reveal something useful about Trump.
Over the next four years, Carlos Lozada’s project ballooned into something much broader. In the end, he read something like 150 — yep, 150! — books not just about Trump himself but about this entire cultural moment.
Why would any thinking person sign up for so grotesque a task? Masochism, perhaps. But for Lozada, it’s something a little nobler. He wanted to map out an intellectual history of this bizarre period — he dryly calls it a survey of “Trump Studies.”
The result of his efforts is a fantastic new book called What Were We Thinking: A Brief Intellectual History of the Trump Era.
This is not another “Look at how crazy the Trump White House is” book, and it isn’t another lamentation on the death of democracy; instead, it’s closer to cultural criticism. The question isn’t so much what happened, but rather how it was even possible in the first place.
I reached out to Lozada to talk about what he learned from digging through all these books, what their weaknesses reveal about our intellectual culture, and what a truly authoritative book on this era would look like. I also ask him which books stood out as uniquely interesting or revelatory, and what they explained about this moment that the others didn’t.
A lightly edited transcript of our conversation follows.
Sean Illing
What the hell we were thinking, Carlos?
Carlos Lozada
In some ways, we weren’t thinking that hard. In some ways we were thinking this could not happen, right? Trump happened because so many people and institutions thought it was impossible and therefore in some senses enabled it or allowed it to happen. I think the inordinate coverage he received during his campaign was a reflection of the notion that this was a sideshow. That was definitely one part of it.
Another is that I think we were thinking the things that we wanted to think and that we were predisposed to think. A lot of the response to Trump as seen through these books reflects that. People say, “Look, this just proves everything I’ve been saying all along.” You see that in so many of the Trump books, whether it’s from the left or right or whatever. Trump is seen as a confirmation of or a natural outgrowth of all the trends the author has been writing about forever.
So something that becomes clear when you really dig into all these books is that a lot of the writing was for ourselves, was for like-minded audiences and communities. You see this in the “resistance” books that kind of hunkered down and made no effort to really move beyond or even understand what was happening beyond these communities and some groups that for absolutely legitimate reasons felt that they were under attack in the Trump era. But also a lot of the pro-Trump industrial complex publishing that emerged. The silos we talk about in our politics were very well-reflected in the books of Trump.
Sean Illing
I don’t want to say that Trump’s the perfect manifestation of American society, or that he even represents a majority of it, but he’s absolutely a uniquely American product and I’m not sure enough of the literature has wrestled with the implications of that.
Carlos Lozada
No, I think that is absolutely correct. I would use Trump’s own biography and chronology to make that same case. Trump came of age in the ’70s. He spent the ’70s partying in New York clubs. He spent the ’80s making a name for himself as a business tycoon. He spent the ’90s in his marriage struggles. He spent the 2000s as a reality television star. He spent the 2010s as a social media phenom. He’s every American obsession in excess. He is uniquely American, and every phase of his life embodies what was going on culturally during those periods.
Sean Illing
I actually read your book as a critique of our collective failure to understand our own culture, or to sustain the conditions that make national self-understanding possible. Am I projecting, or is that how you see it?
Carlos Lozada
I think that that’s a good approximation of where I ended up. There were wonderful books in this lot, and we can get into some of those later if you want. I don’t want to sit here and pass judgment in a very negative way on all the cultural intellectual output of this time. But I think in many cases we were inclined to interpret what was happening through our own biases and misconceptions, and an unwillingness to engage with the larger picture.
Sean Illing
You’ve hit this a couple times now, so can you offer an example of what you have in mind here?
Carlos Lozada
In the opening chapter of the book, for example, I cover all these books that came out about the white working class. I call it the “Heartlandia” genre of literature. There was a book called The Great Revolt by Salena Zito and Brad Todd that profiled a bunch of Trump voters. That was a common form. Let’s just go out and talk to a bunch of Trump voters and see what they were thinking. They profile this guy Ed Harry in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, who’s a former Democrat, former labor organizer, was even a delegate to the convention that nominated Bill Clinton in ’92. He switched to Trump. In that book he switched to Trump because he’s an economic populist. He’s fed up with trade deals and thinks Democrats have forgotten the working class. He’s suspicious of political dynasties like the Clintons and Bushes. So he’s become a Trump guy. That’s fine. That’s the story.
A few months later, I’m reading another book like this called The Forgotten by Ben Bradley Jr., who was at the Boston Globe for a long time. And suddenly I’m encountering this guy who was a longtime Democrat, labor organizer, and delegate to the ’92 convention in Pennsylvania. I was like, “Wait, I know this person. How do I know this person?” I start looking back in those books and it hits me: He’s the same guy! It’s this guy named Ed Harry who was profiled in The Great Revolt.
And that’s not just a sign of how formulaic and repetitive this kind of book can be. It speaks to how different the motivations of the authors are and how those motivations are reflected in the characters they cover. In the second book, Ed Harry’s motivations are entirely different. He’s a 9/11 truther. He’s a cultural warrior. He worries that George Soros is funding Black Lives Matter secretly, and he rails against transgender bathrooms. His motives for supporting Trump are so different, and those differences are reflections of the author’s perceptions of why Trump won.
I’m not saying that these writers are writing in bad faith. I am suggesting that sometimes we see that which we want to see, and we see that which we are inclined to believe already.
Sean Illing
Why do you say the best books about Trump aren’t really about Trump at all?
Carlos Lozada
I think it has to do with the shortcomings of the books that obsess over Trump. After a while, all the books about the chaos of the Trump White House or the books that obsess over the day-to-day drama feel incredibly repetitive. They are shocking and entirely unsurprising at the same time. The books that cede the spotlight to Trump let him dictate the way we think about this time. And I don’t think we need to do that. I don’t think that he’s earned that, or that anyone has.
For me, the most useful books of the Trump era are the ones that put the fights that we’re having — over race and immigration and institutions and identity and culture — into the long arc of the American story. The books that show that these are ever-present battles in the history of this country. I’m thinking of a book like America for Americans by Erika Lee, the historian, who shows how right alongside the nation of immigrants tradition is just as strong a strain of xenophobia and a rejection of outsiders. A book like One Person, No Vote by Carol Anderson, which shows the long history and struggle for voting rights and the insidious evolution of forms of voting suppression. Or a book like These Truths by Jill Lepore, which shows how we’ve struggled to live up to the founding ideals and how that’s not just a shortcoming of America but is the definition of America.
... Those books aren’t just useful for context. They’re useful to sort of explain and understand right now even when they don’t obsess over what’s happening day-to-day in the Oval Office. That’s why I found them to be useful. They weren’t beholden to this moment, which is why they end up explaining so much about this moment.
Sean Illing
What about the books written by Never Trumpers? Did they reveal the same sorts of blind spots that other resistance books revealed?
Carlos Lozada
I read a lot of books about what was happening on the right during the Trump years. I imagine I’ll be reading a lot of books about the fights on the left during the Biden years. The Never Trumpers were in a tough spot. They were rejected by the new powers that be on the right. They were always kind of looked at vaguely suspiciously on the left. They became homeless, and they started writing these pained breakup letters to the conservative movement, to the Republican Party.
But I felt that they didn’t wrestle as fully as they could have, or should have, with their own role in enabling Trump and Trumpism to arise in the first place. Why was the Republican Party, the conservative movement, so ripe for that kind of takeover? I think that in many cases, some of these writers either ignored or just looked the other way at some of these forces that were overtaking the Republican Party. Now they’re writing all these mea culpas about how awful it is, when I feel that they played a significant role in that.
“Trump happened because so many people and institutions thought it was impossible and therefore in some senses enabled it or allowed it to happen”
Sean Illing
I’ll give a little credit to Stuart Stevens, the former GOP operative, who I think did wrestle with these exact questions in his book.
Carlos Lozada
I was not able to include Stuart Stevens’s book in my book; it came out too late. There were several really good books that I wish I had more time to include. And I think Stevens does that mea culpa to perhaps a greater degree than some of the others. But that was my main response to the Never Trump books. Among the books on the right, they were the best ones, but I still felt that the sense of shock they displayed was a little naive.
Sean Illing
It does seem as though the polarization of the era is very much reflected in the writing of American intellectuals, and that was maybe one of the biggest recurring themes I noticed in your book.
Carlos Lozada
Yeah, I think that’s right. There’s not much effort to step beyond our intellectual corners. I feel like the country is stuck in this divide and it hinders our analytical capacity to grasp what’s really happening.
Sean Illing
Are there any books that stand out to you for bucking this particular trend?
Carlos Lozada
One is called A Time To Build by Yuval Levin, who’s a conservative intellectual who typically writes high-level political theory stuff, but this is a book that emphasizes, without much partisan gloss, the risks of what happens when our institutions become more performative than formative. His concern is that political and cultural institutions both shape and restrain our behavior, and when they become platforms for performance art, we lose that. He sees that happening throughout the government now. But his book is trying to do something bigger than some of these other books we’ve talked about.
Another that was helpful for me was Unmaking the Presidency by Susan Hennessey and Benjamin Wittes. It takes up this obsession we all have with political norms, which we’ve all learned are crucial to making the system work, and gives a history of where all these norms came from, how they built up around the presidency, and the dangers of seeing them torpedoed. So, like Levin’s book, it stepped way back and gave critical context that I found very useful in this moment.
Sean Illing
What do you think we will most regret about the Trump era when we look back on it? For me it’s the opportunity costs — all the things we didn’t do or couldn’t do because this singularly terrible human being seized so much of our collective attention.
Carlos Lozada
God, I wish I knew. I mean, there are ongoing slow-motion crises that we didn’t deal with, like climate change. But I think in some ways we managed to skate by bigger challenges and bigger problems. Like, every day I woke up, and thought, well, at least we’re not in some unexpected war — and that felt like a good day when we have someone in the White House who’s so uniquely unfit and impulsive and unprincipled.
But, of course, this luck ran out with the pandemic. And I think the human cost of having someone at the helm who, in so many ways, refused to engage honestly with this crisis is just immense. For three years, we managed to get by, but then suddenly we couldn’t anymore. And the cost of this is escalating every day, and it’s no less horrific simply because we’re getting used to it.
Sean Illing
If the authoritative book on the Trump era is ever written, what’s the biggest question you think it will answer?
Carlos Lozada
I would hope that an authoritative Trump book in the future would not try to be comprehensive in covering the day-to-day White House madness, the one-damned-thing-after-another history approach, because I think that’s been a huge part of the problem with so many of the books on Trump.
What I want to read is a book that is more selective, that tries to tell me the most essential and lasting ways in which this period has transformed our culture and politics and the governance of this country, and the ways in which it has accelerated changes that were already underway. I don’t want more crazy stories about Trump in the White House.
We’ve had enough of that.


vox--2020-12-09--The class of 2020 was full of hope. Then the pandemic hit.

Julie Francis feels stagnant .
She has been stuck , quite literally , in her parent ’ s home in Michigan since May .
It isn ’ t the worst thing in the world , she acknowledges ; many people have suffered worse fates in 2020 .
But for the past few months , the drudgery of the job-search process has exhausted Francis , a Kettering University graduate in electrical engineering .
She logs onto Indeed , Glassdoor , and LinkedIn day after day to submit the same résumé and slightly tailored cover letter , crossing her fingers for a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
I was applying everywhere , ” the 22-year-old , who graduated this year , said .
“ I kept a list of every company I spoke to , and I applied to over 200 places and interviewed with five.
” To pass the time , Francis got a minimum-wage job at a local apple orchard where she was employed in high school .
It was a far departure from her original vision of post-grad life .
She had lined up a controls engineering job in March , but when Michigan went under @ @ @ @ @ @ @ date to April .
Then , they changed it to June .
The Saturday before Francis ’ s third reappointed start date , she was notified over email that her offer was rescinded .
“ I was confident I ’ d be able to find a job before the pandemic , ” Francis said .
“ My school has a co-op program , so I graduated with three years of relevant engineering program .
That , along with having a decent GPA and being a woman in STEM , made me think I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the country , recent graduates are seeking employment in one of the worst job markets since the Great Depression .
The national unemployment rate is 6.7 percent , as of November 2020 , compared to a 50-year low of 3.5 percent last November .
This number , however , fails to show how devastating the downcast economy is to most Americans , especially for young adults — recent graduates of high school , trade school , or undergraduate and master ’ s programs — with little or no full-time work experience .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to 27.4 percent in April and has only dropped to 11.7 percent , as of October .
The job hunt varies by region and sector , but according to employed graduates , securing a position often boils down to luck , timing , and a robust professional network .
Meanwhile , some of their peers — who hold degrees in nursing , communications , psychology , and engineering , to name a few — are struggling to find decent-paying work in their respective fields , which adversely impacts their student loan payments .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ three to five job applications a day since March , and I ’ ve only had four interview requests , two of which never got back to me , ” said Kyle Arguello , a 24-year-old graduate of the University of New Mexico , who is searching for jobs in academic advising .
“ I ’ ve probably applied to around 1,400 positions in the Albuquerque metro area .
That number sounds crazy , but that ’ s pretty much all I ’ ve been doing.
” Arguello ’ s anecdote , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is one of desperation , of realizing that the uncertainty of the present supersedes any five- or 10-year career plans .
While there ’ s a plenitude of online job listings , Arguello said he is either deemed underqualified , competing with candidates with years more experience , or overqualified for entry-level , minimum-wage positions .
According to Michigan State ’ s Collegiate Employment Research Institute survey of 2,408 employers , a quarter of responders ceased recruitment efforts or rescinded full-time offers to recent graduates .
Similarly , about 25 percent of surveyed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ colleges , at least until 2021 .
This diminished outlook from employers , which mirrors that of the 2008 recession , can have lasting effects on the next generation of adults .
It leads to a phenomenon Georgetown economist Nicole Smith calls “ a failure to launch.
” “ If you look at a generation ago , by the time people were in their late 20s , you would ’ ve had your first major job .
You were probably making major purchases , like a home or automobile , and getting married @ @ @ @ @ @ @ told me .
“ When you create an economy with triple-digit negative growth and double-digit unemployment , it ’ s much harder for young people to launch careers.
” Smith pointed to the Affordable Care Act ’ s extension of dependent coverage to 26-year-olds in 2008 as a sign of how young adults are increasingly reliant on their parents .
When financial independence is delayed , that adversely affects one ’ s long-term earnings , student loan payments , and milestones like home or car ownership .
Arguello and his girlfriend have considered @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are , on average , lower than in other states .
But regardless of where they end up , Arguello is worried that his own “ failure to launch ” has begun to impact his life trajectory .
“ Will I ever own a house because right now , the positions I do qualify for barely pay enough to live , ” he said .
“ My girlfriend and I have cried about it .
Are we going to have a shot at a life the older generation has ?
” “ Are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a life the older generation has ?
” The tough labor market puts young adults in a sticky situation , said David Grusky , director of Stanford University ’ s Center on Poverty and Inequality .
Some have no choice but to enter the job market and take a lower-than-average wage , which could diminish their long-term earnings potential .
And as a result of starting at a lower wage , there ’ s a “ scarring effect ” over time .
“ There ’ s a good body of evidence showing that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ market in a downturn , it ’ s not just transitory financial damage .
It ’ s enduring , ” Grusky told me .
“ Not everyone has the financial resources or wealth to wait for a better paying job.
” The pandemic-induced recession has not hit all sectors and workers equally .
Research has shown that the Great Recession hurt Black college graduates more than their peers , widening already existing racial gaps in unemployment and wealth .
With many Americans staying home in 2020 , the hospitality and tourism industries , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the biggest blows .
The pandemic ’ s job losses are also disproportionately affecting Black and Hispanic low-wage workers , especially women .
But as Covid-19 cases skyrocket across the country , even entry-level jobs in the medical field can be hard to come by .
It was an unexpected turn of events for Amanda Pataky , a 22-year-old graduate of Adelphi University ’ s nursing program , who thought hospitals would allow nurses to bypass their board exams to be put to work .
“ As a new grad , you ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pole for a job because hospitals don ’ t have time to train you since Covid numbers are rising again , ” Pataky , who worked as a contract nurse at a New York hospital in April , told me .
“ The seasoned nurses usually get picked .
Some hospitals are also having freezes , and I ’ ve been told even people employed there couldn ’ t move to different units.
” Six months after virtual commencement , some unemployed members of the undergraduate class of 2020 are eyeing graduate programs @ @ @ @ @ @ @ additional degree will grant them an edge in next year ’ s recovering job market — and a potential salary boost .
Others feel they have no other option , signaling a parallel to the surge of grad school applicants in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis .
“ Based on what I ’ ve seen , I ’ m worried that students will take on more loans , only to re-enter a compromised labor market , ” said Grusky of the Center for Poverty and Inequality .
Among his chief concerns @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the wealth gap since 2008 , which diminished homeownership rates for Black people and led to significant income decline in low-income communities .
The next generation of young adults – especially those without family wealth – will struggle to reach the materialist milestones , he said , compared to their parents and grandparents .
But this delay in independent adulthood could motivate them to envision not just their careers , but social and personal priorities differently .
“ The Great Recession was quite the disaster for student debt , ” Grusky added .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ got out of graduate school , they couldn ’ t find jobs that paid enough to pay off their debt.
” However , most young adults have little choice but to focus on the present and the potential benefits of an additional degree .
Matt Duffy , a University of Florida graduate student , is optimistic that the extra year of schooling will help define his career path .
“ I ’ m trying to take a look at the options available to me and realizing that the traditional path is out the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ told me .
“ If I ’ m not able to get a job because places aren ’ t hiring , I need to figure out how to survive.
” Through a recent class assignment , he has cultivated a Facebook community with more than 100,000 members called Born Zillennial , as a space for young adults born in the mid to late 1990s .
The page ’ s sudden growth , primarily driven by his TikTok promotion , inspired Duffy to rethink how he can monetize his digital skills .
“ Before @ @ @ @ @ @ @ even know what a community leader was , ” he said .
“ Now with the group growing and the skills I ’ m learning in this course , I ’ m realizing how a community leader can be a job .
I could start making money off the page somehow , maybe do some consulting , and bring value into the group.
” While the job prospects for young adults seem uniquely bleak , the current economic circumstances , while exhausting , have sparked a mutual understanding .
Many are growing comfortable @ @ @ @ @ @ @ dream job ” and are opting to take on work that pays the bills .
“ We ’ re all in this together , ” Duffy said of the sentiments expressed on the Born Zillennial Facebook group .
“ Time will tell if it ’ s an advantage or disadvantage that we start our careers not knowing what ‘ normal ’ used to be .
”

Julie Francis feels stagnant. She has been stuck, quite literally, in her parent’s home in Michigan since May. It isn’t the worst thing in the world, she acknowledges; many people have suffered worse fates in 2020. But for the past few months, the drudgery of the job-search process has exhausted Francis, a Kettering University graduate in electrical engineering. She logs onto Indeed, Glassdoor, and LinkedIn day after day to submit the same résumé and slightly tailored cover letter, crossing her fingers for a response.
“I had no preference. I was applying everywhere,” the 22-year-old, who graduated this year, said. “I kept a list of every company I spoke to, and I applied to over 200 places and interviewed with five.”
To pass the time, Francis got a minimum-wage job at a local apple orchard where she was employed in high school. It was a far departure from her original vision of post-grad life. She had lined up a controls engineering job in March, but when Michigan went under lockdown, the company delayed her start date to April. Then, they changed it to June. The Saturday before Francis’s third reappointed start date, she was notified over email that her offer was rescinded.
“I was confident I’d be able to find a job before the pandemic,” Francis said. “My school has a co-op program, so I graduated with three years of relevant engineering program. That, along with having a decent GPA and being a woman in STEM, made me think I was in a great position.”
Across the country, recent graduates are seeking employment in one of the worst job markets since the Great Depression. The national unemployment rate is 6.7 percent, as of November 2020, compared to a 50-year low of 3.5 percent last November. This number, however, fails to show how devastating the downcast economy is to most Americans, especially for young adults — recent graduates of high school, trade school, or undergraduate and master’s programs — with little or no full-time work experience. The unemployment rate for 15- to 24-year-olds jumped to 27.4 percent in April and has only dropped to 11.7 percent, as of October.
The job hunt varies by region and sector, but according to employed graduates, securing a position often boils down to luck, timing, and a robust professional network. Meanwhile, some of their peers — who hold degrees in nursing, communications, psychology, and engineering, to name a few — are struggling to find decent-paying work in their respective fields, which adversely impacts their student loan payments.
“I’ve been averaging about three to five job applications a day since March, and I’ve only had four interview requests, two of which never got back to me,” said Kyle Arguello, a 24-year-old graduate of the University of New Mexico, who is searching for jobs in academic advising. “I’ve probably applied to around 1,400 positions in the Albuquerque metro area. That number sounds crazy, but that’s pretty much all I’ve been doing.”
Arguello’s anecdote, and that of many others his age, is one of desperation, of realizing that the uncertainty of the present supersedes any five- or 10-year career plans. While there’s a plenitude of online job listings, Arguello said he is either deemed underqualified, competing with candidates with years more experience, or overqualified for entry-level, minimum-wage positions.
According to Michigan State’s Collegiate Employment Research Institute survey of 2,408 employers, a quarter of responders ceased recruitment efforts or rescinded full-time offers to recent graduates. Similarly, about 25 percent of surveyed companies are not planning to recruit from colleges, at least until 2021.
This diminished outlook from employers, which mirrors that of the 2008 recession, can have lasting effects on the next generation of adults. It leads to a phenomenon Georgetown economist Nicole Smith calls “a failure to launch.”
“If you look at a generation ago, by the time people were in their late 20s, you would’ve had your first major job. You were probably making major purchases, like a home or automobile, and getting married to start a family,” Smith told me. “When you create an economy with triple-digit negative growth and double-digit unemployment, it’s much harder for young people to launch careers.”
Smith pointed to the Affordable Care Act’s extension of dependent coverage to 26-year-olds in 2008 as a sign of how young adults are increasingly reliant on their parents. When financial independence is delayed, that adversely affects one’s long-term earnings, student loan payments, and milestones like home or car ownership.
Arguello and his girlfriend have considered leaving New Mexico, since wages there are, on average, lower than in other states. But regardless of where they end up, Arguello is worried that his own “failure to launch” has begun to impact his life trajectory. “Will I ever own a house because right now, the positions I do qualify for barely pay enough to live,” he said. “My girlfriend and I have cried about it. Are we going to have a shot at a life the older generation has?”
“Are we going to have a shot at a life the older generation has?”
The tough labor market puts young adults in a sticky situation, said David Grusky, director of Stanford University’s Center on Poverty and Inequality. Some have no choice but to enter the job market and take a lower-than-average wage, which could diminish their long-term earnings potential. And as a result of starting at a lower wage, there’s a “scarring effect” over time.
“There’s a good body of evidence showing that when you’re entering a job market in a downturn, it’s not just transitory financial damage. It’s enduring,” Grusky told me. “Not everyone has the financial resources or wealth to wait for a better paying job.”
The pandemic-induced recession has not hit all sectors and workers equally. Research has shown that the Great Recession hurt Black college graduates more than their peers, widening already existing racial gaps in unemployment and wealth. With many Americans staying home in 2020, the hospitality and tourism industries, for example, have suffered some of the biggest blows. The pandemic’s job losses are also disproportionately affecting Black and Hispanic low-wage workers, especially women.
But as Covid-19 cases skyrocket across the country, even entry-level jobs in the medical field can be hard to come by. It was an unexpected turn of events for Amanda Pataky, a 22-year-old graduate of Adelphi University’s nursing program, who thought hospitals would allow nurses to bypass their board exams to be put to work.
“As a new grad, you’re at the bottom of the totem pole for a job because hospitals don’t have time to train you since Covid numbers are rising again,” Pataky, who worked as a contract nurse at a New York hospital in April, told me. “The seasoned nurses usually get picked. Some hospitals are also having freezes, and I’ve been told even people employed there couldn’t move to different units.”
Six months after virtual commencement, some unemployed members of the undergraduate class of 2020 are eyeing graduate programs. They’re hopeful that an additional degree will grant them an edge in next year’s recovering job market — and a potential salary boost. Others feel they have no other option, signaling a parallel to the surge of grad school applicants in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis.
“Based on what I’ve seen, I’m worried that students will take on more loans, only to re-enter a compromised labor market,” said Grusky of the Center for Poverty and Inequality. Among his chief concerns is how the 2020 recession might exacerbate the wealth gap since 2008, which diminished homeownership rates for Black people and led to significant income decline in low-income communities.
The next generation of young adults – especially those without family wealth – will struggle to reach the materialist milestones, he said, compared to their parents and grandparents. But this delay in independent adulthood could motivate them to envision not just their careers, but social and personal priorities differently.
“The Great Recession was quite the disaster for student debt,” Grusky added. “It was troubling that when students got out of graduate school, they couldn’t find jobs that paid enough to pay off their debt.”
However, most young adults have little choice but to focus on the present and the potential benefits of an additional degree. Matt Duffy, a University of Florida graduate student, is optimistic that the extra year of schooling will help define his career path. “I’m trying to take a look at the options available to me and realizing that the traditional path is out the window,” Duffy, 22, told me. “If I’m not able to get a job because places aren’t hiring, I need to figure out how to survive.”
Through a recent class assignment, he has cultivated a Facebook community with more than 100,000 members called Born Zillennial, as a space for young adults born in the mid to late 1990s. The page’s sudden growth, primarily driven by his TikTok promotion, inspired Duffy to rethink how he can monetize his digital skills.
“Before this class, I didn’t even know what a community leader was,” he said. “Now with the group growing and the skills I’m learning in this course, I’m realizing how a community leader can be a job. I could start making money off the page somehow, maybe do some consulting, and bring value into the group.”
While the job prospects for young adults seem uniquely bleak, the current economic circumstances, while exhausting, have sparked a mutual understanding. Many are growing comfortable with shirking the idea of a “dream job” and are opting to take on work that pays the bills. “We’re all in this together,” Duffy said of the sentiments expressed on the Born Zillennial Facebook group. “Time will tell if it’s an advantage or disadvantage that we start our careers not knowing what ‘normal’ used to be.”


vox--2020-12-09--The “two dose” problem for Covid-19 vaccines, briefly explained

Evidence-based explanations of the coronavirus crisis , from how it started to how it might end to how to protect yourself and others .
When we talk about the Covid-19 vaccines , we aren ’ t necessarily talking about people getting one shot , then being done and good to go .
Both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines — which are the closest to approval — have two-dose regimens .
You get one shot , and then a few weeks later , you ’ re supposed to get another one .
Among all the logistical challenges in distributing and administering @ @ @ @ @ @ @ one of the biggest .
That ’ s because , based on research that evaluated compliance with other multi-dose vaccines , patients are really , really bad at getting their second dose .
Bad as in , as many as half of patients never do .
Studies conducted in both the US and UK on the hepatitis B vaccine — which , like the Covid-19 vaccines , is supposed to have around a one-month period between the first and second doses — found that roughly 50 percent of patients failed to get their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ first .
Given the urgency of ending the pandemic , we can hope for better compliance with the Covid-19 shots .
But those findings are , as Ateev Mehrotra at Harvard Medical School put it to me , “ humbling.
” “ While I recognize the situation now is different and the rates of completion will almost certainly be much higher , these prior studies highlight that the logistical barriers with a two-dose vaccine are enormous , ” he said over email .
The results from the UK study , written by researchers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are worse than even I had expected , ” Mehrotra said , with 46 percent of patients receiving the second dose within the recommended period ( one month after the first dose ) .
Even when the follow-up period was extended out to 13 months , just 54 percent of patients had been vaccinated with both doses as recommended by the manufacturer .
Adherence was dismal in the US study as well , which was also conducted with Merck ’ s support .
It was actually a bit worse than in the UK @ @ @ @ @ @ @ second dose within one month , and a full year later , barely half ( 51 percent ) had received the second shot .
If you want more evidence , research on the three-dose HPV vaccine has also found that a significant portion of adolescents who get their first dose fail to get all three .
There seems to be a pattern across different conditions and locations : Patients aren ’ t good at following up on their vaccines .
That could be a problem for our hope of a Covid-19 vaccine ending @ @ @ @ @ @ @ US , are already facing substantial hesitancy from residents who worry the vaccine approval process was too rushed or politically motivated .
Scientists are encouraged by the results from these clinical trials , which should hopefully help alleviate those concerns .
But if a large number of the people who begin their vaccination course fail to get full protection because they skip a second dose , then it ’ s only going to be more difficult to stop the coronavirus ’ s spread .
That doesn ’ t mean the Covid-19 vaccination campaign @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , new clinical trial results show these two-dose vaccines might still be somewhat effective if the patient gets only one dose .
But full compliance would of course be the ideal , and the US government is already working on plans to try to encourage better adherence to the two-shot schedule .
We need people to get their second dose — or hope a single dose is still effective There is another complication in getting people their second dose : side effects .
The hepatitis B vaccines do not really have meaningful side @ @ @ @ @ @ @ do .
“ These new vaccines do result in a lot of flu-like symptoms .
That is a sign that the vaccine is working , but I do fear that will be a barrier for people getting the second shot , ” Mehrotra told me .
“ It is harder to get a shot when you know it may knock you out for a day.
” So communication will be important .
As Stat ’ s Helen Branswell reported earlier this year , experts have been telling political and public health leaders that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ what side effects to expect ( the main culprits are headaches , sore arms , fatigue , chills , and fever ) and remind them those symptoms are actually a sign that the vaccine is doing its job .
Beyond this sort of communication , public officials can do more to make sure people get both of their shots .
As part of Operation Warp Speed , the federal government is already planning to send vaccine kits to doctors and health clinics that include paper cards to help patients keep track of their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ week .
Local and state health departments are still coming up with their messaging plans for a second dose , based on my conversations .
Philip Huang , director of the Dallas County health department in Texas , told me his agency has been holding frequent calls with the state , hospitals , and local health care providers to plan their vaccine distribution , including the challenge of making sure people get two doses .
Huang ’ s department and state authorities will have access to a public database with every person who @ @ @ @ @ @ @ which vaccine they received — and that information could be used to , for example , send text messages to patients reminding them to get their follow-up dose .
But he also told me that unless state and local health departments receive more money from Washington to support these efforts , their work will be more difficult .
The funding his agency received from the CARES Act is set to expire at the end of the year .
“ We are definitely trying to look at our resources , juggle our resources , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ action on some of this is pretty important as we ’ re moving into this stage of wanting to get a vaccine distributed.
” Certain interventions ( such as reminders from doctors , school-based programs , social marketing , etc . )
have been found to increase compliance for the HPV vaccine , according to a 2015 study .
Even so , experts are worried .
“ You ’ ll see a bunch of ideas on how to improve compliance , ” Mehrotra told me .
“ But I don ’ t think @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to the levels we might want.
” That raises the question : What happens if somebody gets only one dose of a two-dose Covid-19 vaccine ?
The Food and Drug Administration reported some tentatively good news Tuesday on that issue , releasing results that show one dose of the Pfizer vaccine still provides some protection against Covid-19 and that having only one dose is safe for the patient .
The Pfizer vaccine was found to be more than 50 percent effective after the first dose .
However , that is still far from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ recommended two doses .
As immunology experts quickly pointed out on Twitter , it is still clearly preferable for people to receive both doses because that is their best chance to get long-term protection from Covid-19 .
There is a risk of serious socioeconomic and racial disparities , already present in the case and death rates during the Covid-19 pandemic , cropping up with vaccinations , too .
Black Americans are more skeptical about receiving a Covid-19 vaccine , and they are less likely to have a primary care doctor than white Americans @ @ @ @ @ @ @ care doctors following up with their patients might not have the same reach with that population .
It ’ s not difficult to imagine a scenario in which not only are fewer Black Americans getting vaccinated in the first place , but fewer are getting the second dose that will give them the fullest protection against the virus .
Eventually , we may have a one-dose vaccine .
Johnson & Johnson has been working on one , and though the company is behind Pfizer and Moderna in the approval process , it is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ next year .
But today , the most proven vaccines we have require two doses to be most effective .
There are already plenty of unknowns about how well these vaccines will work — namely , how long they ’ ll provide protection from the virus — but one thing everybody could do is make sure we ’ re diligent about our follow-up appointments .
That ’ s not something people are ordinarily very good at .
But it will be critical to bringing Covid-19 under control .

When we talk about the Covid-19 vaccines, we aren’t necessarily talking about people getting one shot, then being done and good to go. Both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines — which are the closest to approval — have two-dose regimens. You get one shot, and then a few weeks later, you’re supposed to get another one.
Among all the logistical challenges in distributing and administering a Covid-19 vaccine, this looks like one of the biggest.
That’s because, based on research that evaluated compliance with other multi-dose vaccines, patients are really, really bad at getting their second dose. Bad as in, as many as half of patients never do. Studies conducted in both the US and UK on the hepatitis B vaccine — which, like the Covid-19 vaccines, is supposed to have around a one-month period between the first and second doses — found that roughly 50 percent of patients failed to get their follow-up shot within a year after their first.
Given the urgency of ending the pandemic, we can hope for better compliance with the Covid-19 shots. But those findings are, as Ateev Mehrotra at Harvard Medical School put it to me, “humbling.”
“While I recognize the situation now is different and the rates of completion will almost certainly be much higher, these prior studies highlight that the logistical barriers with a two-dose vaccine are enormous,” he said over email.
The results from the UK study, written by researchers for the pharma giant Merck, “are worse than even I had expected,” Mehrotra said, with 46 percent of patients receiving the second dose within the recommended period (one month after the first dose). Even when the follow-up period was extended out to 13 months, just 54 percent of patients had been vaccinated with both doses as recommended by the manufacturer.
Adherence was dismal in the US study as well, which was also conducted with Merck’s support. It was actually a bit worse than in the UK. Only one-third of patients got their second dose within one month, and a full year later, barely half (51 percent) had received the second shot.
If you want more evidence, research on the three-dose HPV vaccine has also found that a significant portion of adolescents who get their first dose fail to get all three. There seems to be a pattern across different conditions and locations: Patients aren’t good at following up on their vaccines.
That could be a problem for our hope of a Covid-19 vaccine ending the pandemic. Countries, including the US, are already facing substantial hesitancy from residents who worry the vaccine approval process was too rushed or politically motivated. Scientists are encouraged by the results from these clinical trials, which should hopefully help alleviate those concerns. But if a large number of the people who begin their vaccination course fail to get full protection because they skip a second dose, then it’s only going to be more difficult to stop the coronavirus’s spread.
That doesn’t mean the Covid-19 vaccination campaign is doomed, though. For one, new clinical trial results show these two-dose vaccines might still be somewhat effective if the patient gets only one dose. But full compliance would of course be the ideal, and the US government is already working on plans to try to encourage better adherence to the two-shot schedule.
We need people to get their second dose — or hope a single dose is still effective
There is another complication in getting people their second dose: side effects. The hepatitis B vaccines do not really have meaningful side effects. But these new Covid-19 vaccines do.
“These new vaccines do result in a lot of flu-like symptoms. That is a sign that the vaccine is working, but I do fear that will be a barrier for people getting the second shot,” Mehrotra told me. “It is harder to get a shot when you know it may knock you out for a day.”
So communication will be important. As Stat’s Helen Branswell reported earlier this year, experts have been telling political and public health leaders that they need to educate the public on what side effects to expect (the main culprits are headaches, sore arms, fatigue, chills, and fever) and remind them those symptoms are actually a sign that the vaccine is doing its job.
Beyond this sort of communication, public officials can do more to make sure people get both of their shots. As part of Operation Warp Speed, the federal government is already planning to send vaccine kits to doctors and health clinics that include paper cards to help patients keep track of their dosages, as Business Insider reported last week.
Local and state health departments are still coming up with their messaging plans for a second dose, based on my conversations. Philip Huang, director of the Dallas County health department in Texas, told me his agency has been holding frequent calls with the state, hospitals, and local health care providers to plan their vaccine distribution, including the challenge of making sure people get two doses.
Huang’s department and state authorities will have access to a public database with every person who’s received a vaccine — and which vaccine they received — and that information could be used to, for example, send text messages to patients reminding them to get their follow-up dose. But he also told me that unless state and local health departments receive more money from Washington to support these efforts, their work will be more difficult. The funding his agency received from the CARES Act is set to expire at the end of the year.
“We are definitely trying to look at our resources, juggle our resources,” Huang said. “The congressional action on some of this is pretty important as we’re moving into this stage of wanting to get a vaccine distributed.”
Certain interventions (such as reminders from doctors, school-based programs, social marketing, etc.) have been found to increase compliance for the HPV vaccine, according to a 2015 study. Even so, experts are worried.
“You’ll see a bunch of ideas on how to improve compliance,” Mehrotra told me. “But I don’t think we have any solutions that increase this to the levels we might want.”
That raises the question: What happens if somebody gets only one dose of a two-dose Covid-19 vaccine?
The Food and Drug Administration reported some tentatively good news Tuesday on that issue, releasing results that show one dose of the Pfizer vaccine still provides some protection against Covid-19 and that having only one dose is safe for the patient. The Pfizer vaccine was found to be more than 50 percent effective after the first dose.
However, that is still far from the 95 percent efficacy found after the recommended two doses. As immunology experts quickly pointed out on Twitter, it is still clearly preferable for people to receive both doses because that is their best chance to get long-term protection from Covid-19.
The estimated vaccine efficacy after the 1st (82%), between 1st and 2nd (52.4%) and after the second dose (95%) are all impressive! However, high affinity Ab and long term immunity likely require the 2nd dose and we should all adhere to the recommended regimen. (2/n) pic.twitter.com/hSmSURkVTD — Prof. Akiko Iwasaki (@VirusesImmunity) December 8, 2020
There is a risk of serious socioeconomic and racial disparities, already present in the case and death rates during the Covid-19 pandemic, cropping up with vaccinations, too. Black Americans are more skeptical about receiving a Covid-19 vaccine, and they are less likely to have a primary care doctor than white Americans.
So compliance campaigns based on primary care doctors following up with their patients might not have the same reach with that population. It’s not difficult to imagine a scenario in which not only are fewer Black Americans getting vaccinated in the first place, but fewer are getting the second dose that will give them the fullest protection against the virus.
Eventually, we may have a one-dose vaccine. Johnson & Johnson has been working on one, and though the company is behind Pfizer and Moderna in the approval process, it is still likely to seek FDA approval early next year.
But today, the most proven vaccines we have require two doses to be most effective. There are already plenty of unknowns about how well these vaccines will work — namely, how long they’ll provide protection from the virus — but one thing everybody could do is make sure we’re diligent about our follow-up appointments.
That’s not something people are ordinarily very good at. But it will be critical to bringing Covid-19 under control.


vox--2020-12-09--How do you handle a tiny living space? We asked a Below Deck crew member.

Winter will suck .
We gathered some of Vox ’ s coziest minds to help you make it suck less .
When New York City went into a shelter-in-place directive in March 2020 , I learned that I am impossibly terrible at living in a confined space .
New Yorkers don ’ t expect to spend 23 hours of their days inside their apartments , and doing that in 750 square feet from March until the end of April is not something I recommend .
I went stir crazy .
I was anxious about my toilet paper .
I was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ coronavirus at least six separate times , all at night , all after I went to the grocery to buy some fruit .
I was , I ’ m guessing , not a fun roommate to be around .
And now , with the way the pandemic is intensifying and the lack of clear and forthright leadership from the US government , it looks like another set of lockdowns might be looming , and my apartment hasn ’ t gotten any bigger .
Determined not to turn into a roommate monster and realizing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ my control , I decided to consult an expert — someone who could tell me what it ’ s like to live in small spaces , someone who could tell me how not to be a garbage person , someone who was adept at dealing with garbage people , and someone who could do all of this with a service-level smile on their face .
I spoke to Below Deck ’ s Courtney Skippon , who answered my questions via email .
Skippon was a steward on the seventh season of the Bravo @ @ @ @ @ @ @ people go yachting , focusing on the crew that makes these naval dreams happen .
The rich guests can be demanding , the other crew members can be awful ( Skippon ’ s season was stocked with misogynistic jerks , one of whom kicked sand at a woman steward like an adult toddler ) , and the working and filming hours can be relentless .
Still , Skippon made it through the season as a fan favorite .
If there ’ s anyone who could teach me how to survive a winter in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , I figured it would be her .
Below Deck must be kind of a weird experience to live through — being filmed every day , being around a group of people seemingly every hour , being on a boat — can you talk about that ?
Being on Below Deck was a whirlwind , and as a byproduct , it taught me lessons I feel impossibly grateful for .
Among them , it gave me a much surer sense of myself and my boundaries , and — after experiencing such an absence @ @ @ @ @ @ @ toward empathy .
You worked with some people I wouldn ’ t ever want to work with .
But unlike a regular job , you can ’ t leave a terrible coworker at the office on Below Deck .
How did you cope with that ?
Nothing bonds two people like mutual hatred ( especially for another coworker ) .
It can be galvanizing for you and other members of the team who are being tormented by the same *insert problematic adjective here* person .
Take comfort in them ( thank you , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Bonus wellness tip : Don ’ t rule out the catharsis of crying yourself to sleep at night .
Bonus wellness tip : Don ’ t rule out the catharsis of crying yourself to sleep at night Do you have any tips on how to live with someone who ’ s irritating and not murder them ?
I ’ m extremely docile and nonconfrontational , so in a shared space I often accommodate others at the expense of my own sanity .
I encourage you not to do this .
Know your boundaries @ @ @ @ @ @ @ communicate them if they aren ’ t being respected — tell them if you need them to be quieter , or if their hair clogging up the drain floods the bathroom and makes you gag .
Know when it ’ s easier to just put up with it and set aside some time in the day to meditate* about it .
It ’ s also a great lesson in appreciating those in your life who don ’ t irritate you to the point of lunacy .
*rage-text anyone who will listen How about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ do anything to make that feel a little less claustrophobic ?
The best you can do is bring things that give you comfort and create a space within the shared environment that feels like it ’ s exclusively yours ( even if it ’ s just a shelf in the bathroom cabinet or a bunk ) .
Do you have any tips from Below Deck that people living in small apartments or with significant others could use ?
I try to be conscious of how I move through a space ( especially when @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that impacts others I try to be conscious of how I move through a space ( especially when it ’ s small ) and how that impacts others .
The energy I bring into a room ; how my actions affect those around me ; taking time to metabolize my emotions so they don ’ t spill over .
It ’ s a pendulum swing , so take accountability for what you bring to the space and consider that when reacting to the actions of others .
Sharing a space with someone is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ union it requires communication and compassion .
It ’ s a great test in compatibility — this applies to work too— so know when it ’ s time to call it quits and move on to something better suited .
Given that you ’ ve weathered your fair share of miserable winters , living in Vancouver , is there any advice that you could give Americans who are about to have a rough one ?
• Take a vitamin D supplement — a naturopath told me that Vancouverites need to be supplementing double @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a SAD [ seasonal affective disorder ] light — I love waking up with the sun , so its absence can wreak havoc on my mental health .
• Get some good-quality weather-friendly gear — going outside will be much more tolerable if you ’ re prepared but also cute .
• Everyone ( hopefully ) learned to cook this year , but it ’ s always been my favorite thing to do on a rainy day with a glass of wine and family or friends .
• Make a reading list — @ @ @ @ @ @ @ see also : occasionally depressing ) than hearing the pelt of rain from the warmth of indoors .
A cup of tea and a good book in bed or at a coffee shop will cure multitudes .
• Online shopping gives you something to look forward to .
Fill voids in your life with quality nonessentials , I always say !
And do you have anything planned this winter ?
This winter I ’ m planning to read a lot , enjoy good wine and food with family and a few friends ( @ @ @ @ @ @ @ whenever ( if ever ) it ’ s not raining .

Winter will suck. We gathered some of Vox’s coziest minds to help you make it suck less.
When New York City went into a shelter-in-place directive in March 2020, I learned that I am impossibly terrible at living in a confined space. New Yorkers don’t expect to spend 23 hours of their days inside their apartments, and doing that in 750 square feet from March until the end of April is not something I recommend. I went stir crazy. I was anxious about my toilet paper. I was irritable. I was sure I contracted coronavirus at least six separate times, all at night, all after I went to the grocery to buy some fruit. I was, I’m guessing, not a fun roommate to be around.
And now, with the way the pandemic is intensifying and the lack of clear and forthright leadership from the US government, it looks like another set of lockdowns might be looming, and my apartment hasn’t gotten any bigger.
Determined not to turn into a roommate monster and realizing there’s only so much within my control, I decided to consult an expert — someone who could tell me what it’s like to live in small spaces, someone who could tell me how not to be a garbage person, someone who was adept at dealing with garbage people, and someone who could do all of this with a service-level smile on their face.
I spoke to Below Deck’s Courtney Skippon, who answered my questions via email.
Skippon was a steward on the seventh season of the Bravo show, which exposes how exorbitantly rich people go yachting, focusing on the crew that makes these naval dreams happen. The rich guests can be demanding, the other crew members can be awful (Skippon’s season was stocked with misogynistic jerks, one of whom kicked sand at a woman steward like an adult toddler), and the working and filming hours can be relentless. Still, Skippon made it through the season as a fan favorite. If there’s anyone who could teach me how to survive a winter in a tiny space without becoming a goblin, I figured it would be her.
Below Deck must be kind of a weird experience to live through — being filmed every day, being around a group of people seemingly every hour, being on a boat — can you talk about that?
Being on Below Deck was a whirlwind, and as a byproduct, it taught me lessons I feel impossibly grateful for. Among them, it gave me a much surer sense of myself and my boundaries, and — after experiencing such an absence of it — a much greater inclination toward empathy.
You worked with some people I wouldn’t ever want to work with. But unlike a regular job, you can’t leave a terrible coworker at the office on Below Deck. How did you cope with that?
Nothing bonds two people like mutual hatred (especially for another coworker). It can be galvanizing for you and other members of the team who are being tormented by the same *insert problematic adjective here* person. Take comfort in them (thank you, Kate) and your shared experience.
Bonus wellness tip: Don’t rule out the catharsis of crying yourself to sleep at night.
Bonus wellness tip: Don’t rule out the catharsis of crying yourself to sleep at night
Do you have any tips on how to live with someone who’s irritating and not murder them?
I’m extremely docile and nonconfrontational, so in a shared space I often accommodate others at the expense of my own sanity. I encourage you not to do this. Know your boundaries and don’t be afraid to communicate them if they aren’t being respected — tell them if you need them to be quieter, or if their hair clogging up the drain floods the bathroom and makes you gag. Know when it’s easier to just put up with it and set aside some time in the day to meditate* about it. It’s also a great lesson in appreciating those in your life who don’t irritate you to the point of lunacy.
*rage-text anyone who will listen
How about that tiny bedroom situation, did you do anything to make that feel a little less claustrophobic?
The best you can do is bring things that give you comfort and create a space within the shared environment that feels like it’s exclusively yours (even if it’s just a shelf in the bathroom cabinet or a bunk).
Do you have any tips from Below Deck that people living in small apartments or with significant others could use?
I try to be conscious of how I move through a space (especially when it’s small) and how that impacts others
I try to be conscious of how I move through a space (especially when it’s small) and how that impacts others. The energy I bring into a room; how my actions affect those around me; taking time to metabolize my emotions so they don’t spill over. It’s a pendulum swing, so take accountability for what you bring to the space and consider that when reacting to the actions of others.
Sharing a space with someone is a partnership, so like any other union it requires communication and compassion. It’s a great test in compatibility — this applies to work too— so know when it’s time to call it quits and move on to something better suited.
Given that you’ve weathered your fair share of miserable winters, living in Vancouver, is there any advice that you could give Americans who are about to have a rough one?
Take a vitamin D supplement — a naturopath told me that Vancouverites need to be supplementing double the suggested amount year-round.
Get a SAD [seasonal affective disorder] light — I love waking up with the sun, so its absence can wreak havoc on my mental health.
Get some good-quality weather-friendly gear — going outside will be much more tolerable if you’re prepared but also cute.
Everyone (hopefully) learned to cook this year, but it’s always been my favorite thing to do on a rainy day with a glass of wine and family or friends.
Make a reading list — there’s nothing more comforting (see also: occasionally depressing) than hearing the pelt of rain from the warmth of indoors. A cup of tea and a good book in bed or at a coffee shop will cure multitudes.
Embrace the après ski* (*wine).
Online shopping gives you something to look forward to. Fill voids in your life with quality nonessentials, I always say!
And do you have anything planned this winter?
This winter I’m planning to read a lot, enjoy good wine and food with family and a few friends (if permissible), and get outside whenever (if ever) it’s not raining.


vox--2020-12-09--Why the US government wants Facebook to sell off Instagram and WhatsApp

On Wednesday , the US Federal Trade Commission and 48 US state attorneys general filed major lawsuits against Facebook that argue the social media giant is a monopoly whose anti-competitive practices harm Americans .
The two lawsuits , which follow more than a year of investigations , are the biggest antitrust challenge Facebook has faced .
They both essentially call for Facebook to be broken up by forcing it to undo its acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp , which together have billions of users .
The lawsuits allege that such action may be necessary because Facebook has crushed its competitors @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and that this limits American consumers ’ choices and reduces their access to privacy protections .
“ They stifled innovation , and they degraded privacy protections for millions of Americans , ” New York Attorney General Letitia James , who led the states ’ lawsuit ( which includes 46 states plus Washington , DC , and Guam ) , told reporters on Wednesday .
“ No company should have this much unchecked power over our personal information and our social interactions.
” Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the company on Wednesday called the lawsuits “ revisionist history.
” The company emphasized that its acquisitions of WhatsApp and Instagram were approved by the FTC years ago , and said allowing a “ do-over ” would raise a concerning precedent that “ no sale will ever be final.
” Their cases focus in particular on Facebook ’ s acquisitions of Instagram , a photo-sharing app it purchased for $ 1 billion in 2012 , and the global messaging app WhatsApp , which it bought for $ 19 billion in 2014 .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to become the monopoly it is today , giving it the power to crush competitors it does not acquire .
“ For almost a decade , Facebook has had monopoly power in the personal social networking market in the United States , ” the AG suit argues .
“ Facebook illegally maintains that monopoly power by deploying a buy-or-bury strategy that thwarts competition and harms both users and advertisers.
” The FTC ’ s case comes to the same conclusion .
“ Not content with attracting and retaining users through competition on the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ position by buying up companies that present competitive threats and by imposing restrictive policies that unjustifiably hinder actual or potential rivals that Facebook does not or can not acquire , ” says the suit .
It ’ s a compelling argument , Will Kovacic , a former FTC member and a professor of law and policy at George Washington University , told Recode .
“ Both of them are premised on the idea that the main source of dominance for Facebook was the acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp in particular , and that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ company ’ s current market position .
And the only way to repair that is to create a new enterprise.
” The lawsuits come at a pivotal time for Big Tech , as the public , regulators , and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are scrutinizing these companies and their impacts on society and the economy .
In October , the House Antitrust Committee concluded a 16-month investigation by releasing a wide-ranging report that found that Facebook and its fellow tech giants Amazon , Apple , and Google have antitrust practices @ @ @ @ @ @ @ A still unresolved question is whether antitrust laws written decades ago are up to the task of regulating companies in the age of the internet .
Though the findings are similar , Wednesday ’ s lawsuits are different from the lawmakers ’ report , which makes recommendations but can ’ t do much to enforce those suggestions .
These suits , however , could lead to Facebook being forced to take certain actions , like paying fines or selling off WhatsApp and Instagram based on existing laws .
Still , it ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of these lawsuits will be .
Why the US government says Facebook is bad for Americans Though the cases from the FTC and attorneys general aren ’ t exactly the same , the parties collaborated , and their cases lay out similar claims about why Facebook is anti-competitive .
Essentially , they find that Facebook is a powerful social media monopoly that collects a massive amount of data on American users that the company uses to sell advertisements .
While the lawsuits zero in on the Instagram and WhatsApp acquisitions , both say @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of a broader pattern .
Much of the evidence in the cases cite commentary from the company ’ s top executives , including CEO Mark Zuckerberg , as proof that Facebook is intentionally anti-competitive .
For instance , the FTC ’ s case cites an email Zuckerberg sent to a colleague on the day Facebook announced it was buying Instagram .
“ I remember your internal post about how Instagram was our threat and not Google+ .
You were basically right .
One thing about startups though is you can often acquire them @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ What the lawsuit means is that Facebook ’ s monopoly power and personal social networking was not just a result of innovation or being the best product or service out there , but rather that Facebook has broken the antitrust laws in order to ensure that it doesn ’ t face any meaningful competition , ” Sally Hubbard , of the Open Markets Institute , told Recode .
The cases also call out Facebook ’ s treatment of developers .
They accuse the company of allowing producers of other software to use @ @ @ @ @ @ @ own apps and connect them to its service , which benefited Facebook because it incentivized more people to join and use Facebook more often .
But Facebook would then shut out those apps if it eventually deemed them to be a threat to its own business .
“ You ’ re not allowed to offer something to every company that ’ s kind of a critical input for competing , ” Hubbard explains , “ but then cut it off when a company dares to compete against you , which is what Facebook @ @ @ @ @ @ @ networking services have suffered and continue to suffer a variety of harms as a consequence of Facebook ’ s illegal conduct , including degraded quality of users ’ experiences , less choice in personal social networks , suppressed innovation , and reduced investment in potentially competing services , ” the AG lawsuit states .
It argues that another consequence of all this was to harm Americans ’ right to privacy because Facebook stifled competitors that might have offered better privacy protections .
( In 2019 , Facebook agreed to pay a record-breaking $ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ settlement with the FTC over allegations of privacy violations . )
Any potential breakup of Facebook is a long way off So what ’ s the solution for undoing some of the harm these lawsuits say Facebook is causing its users and the market ?
The suits both argue that the social media giant should basically have to break itself up .
But getting there will be difficult , and if it happens , it will take time .
The Open Market Institute ’ s Hubbard told Recode that litigation over Facebook being @ @ @ @ @ @ @ would likely take years ; other experts told Recode that a trial likely wouldn ’ t even start until next year , or as late as 2022 .
Another complication : Facebook is continuing to intertwine its apps , which would presumably make them harder to separate if it gets to that point .
In 2019 , Facebook announced that it would start merging the technical infrastructure of the direct messaging systems used by WhatsApp , Instagram , and Facebook .
The company also has more ambitious hopes for WhatsApp , and it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and Instagram advertising business with the messaging platform .
In a tweet on Wednesday after the lawsuits were announced , Facebook pushed back against their claims , emphasizing that the FTC had approved the acquisitions of WhatsApp and Instagram years ago .
“ We ’ re reviewing the complaints & will have more to say soon , ” the company tweeted just after the lawsuits were announced .
“ Years after the FTC cleared our acquisitions , the government now wants a do-over with no regard for the impact that precedent would have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ people who choose our products every day.
” In a blog post published subsequently , the company also argued that it faces competition for advertising spending from other platforms like Google and TikTok .
But those aren ’ t the only defenses at Facebook ’ s disposal .
“ Facebook ’ s core answer is , ‘ Look what we did with the firms we acquired .
Did we just put them on the shelf ?
Did we stick them in the deep freeze ?
We took relatively small — promising enterprises but @ @ @ @ @ @ @ uncertain part of their development , and we turned them into something special , ’ ’ said Kovacic .
Still , he said the cases “ create a very serious possibility that the firm will be restructured.
” Now , the groundwork will likely be laid for the case to go to a trial .
It ’ s too early to say how this will all play out , but experts told Recode that a forced sale is certainly a possibility .
So while accusations that Facebook engages in anticompetitive behavior aren ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the company ’ s critics even more to work with .
They also signal that the push to more strictly regulate Big Tech won ’ t go away when President-elect Joe Biden takes office in 2021 .
Open Sourced is made possible by Omidyar Network .
All Open Sourced content is editorially independent and produced by our journalists .

On Wednesday, the US Federal Trade Commission and 48 US state attorneys general filed major lawsuits against Facebook that argue the social media giant is a monopoly whose anti-competitive practices harm Americans.
The two lawsuits, which follow more than a year of investigations, are the biggest antitrust challenge Facebook has faced. They both essentially call for Facebook to be broken up by forcing it to undo its acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp, which together have billions of users.
The lawsuits allege that such action may be necessary because Facebook has crushed its competitors and achieved dominance by buying potential rivals, and that this limits American consumers’ choices and reduces their access to privacy protections.
“They stifled innovation, and they degraded privacy protections for millions of Americans,” New York Attorney General Letitia James, who led the states’ lawsuit (which includes 46 states plus Washington, DC, and Guam), told reporters on Wednesday. “No company should have this much unchecked power over our personal information and our social interactions.”
Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But a blog post published by the company on Wednesday called the lawsuits “revisionist history.” The company emphasized that its acquisitions of WhatsApp and Instagram were approved by the FTC years ago, and said allowing a “do-over” would raise a concerning precedent that “no sale will ever be final.”
Their cases focus in particular on Facebook’s acquisitions of Instagram, a photo-sharing app it purchased for $1 billion in 2012, and the global messaging app WhatsApp, which it bought for $19 billion in 2014. The suits claim Facebook depended on these acquisitions to become the monopoly it is today, giving it the power to crush competitors it does not acquire.
“For almost a decade, Facebook has had monopoly power in the personal social networking market in the United States,” the AG suit argues. “Facebook illegally maintains that monopoly power by deploying a buy-or-bury strategy that thwarts competition and harms both users and advertisers.”
The FTC’s case comes to the same conclusion. “Not content with attracting and retaining users through competition on the merits, Facebook has maintained its monopoly position by buying up companies that present competitive threats and by imposing restrictive policies that unjustifiably hinder actual or potential rivals that Facebook does not or cannot acquire,” says the suit.
It’s a compelling argument, William Kovacic, a former FTC member and a professor of law and policy at George Washington University, told Recode. “Both of them are premised on the idea that the main source of dominance for Facebook was the acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp in particular, and that those are the key pillars of the company’s current market position. And the only way to repair that is to create a new enterprise.”
The lawsuits come at a pivotal time for Big Tech, as the public, regulators, and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are scrutinizing these companies and their impacts on society and the economy. In October, the House Antitrust Committee concluded a 16-month investigation by releasing a wide-ranging report that found that Facebook and its fellow tech giants Amazon, Apple, and Google have antitrust practices and need to be better regulated. A still unresolved question is whether antitrust laws written decades ago are up to the task of regulating companies in the age of the internet.
Though the findings are similar, Wednesday’s lawsuits are different from the lawmakers’ report, which makes recommendations but can’t do much to enforce those suggestions. These suits, however, could lead to Facebook being forced to take certain actions, like paying fines or selling off WhatsApp and Instagram based on existing laws. Still, it’s too soon to say what the impact of these lawsuits will be.
Why the US government says Facebook is bad for Americans
Though the cases from the FTC and attorneys general aren’t exactly the same, the parties collaborated, and their cases lay out similar claims about why Facebook is anti-competitive.
Essentially, they find that Facebook is a powerful social media monopoly that collects a massive amount of data on American users that the company uses to sell advertisements. While the lawsuits zero in on the Instagram and WhatsApp acquisitions, both say Facebook’s anticompetitive behavior is part of a broader pattern.
Much of the evidence in the cases cite commentary from the company’s top executives, including CEO Mark Zuckerberg, as proof that Facebook is intentionally anti-competitive. For instance, the FTC’s case cites an email Zuckerberg sent to a colleague on the day Facebook announced it was buying Instagram. “I remember your internal post about how Instagram was our threat and not Google+. You were basically right. One thing about startups though is you can often acquire them,” the lawsuit quotes Zuckerberg.
“What the lawsuit means is that Facebook’s monopoly power and personal social networking was not just a result of innovation or being the best product or service out there, but rather that Facebook has broken the antitrust laws in order to ensure that it doesn’t face any meaningful competition,” Sally Hubbard, of the Open Markets Institute, told Recode.
The cases also call out Facebook’s treatment of developers. They accuse the company of allowing producers of other software to use Facebook’s data to develop their own apps and connect them to its service, which benefited Facebook because it incentivized more people to join and use Facebook more often. But Facebook would then shut out those apps if it eventually deemed them to be a threat to its own business.
“You’re not allowed to offer something to every company that’s kind of a critical input for competing,” Hubbard explains, “but then cut it off when a company dares to compete against you, which is what Facebook did.”
“Users of personal social networking services have suffered and continue to suffer a variety of harms as a consequence of Facebook’s illegal conduct, including degraded quality of users’ experiences, less choice in personal social networks, suppressed innovation, and reduced investment in potentially competing services,” the AG lawsuit states. It argues that another consequence of all this was to harm Americans’ right to privacy because Facebook stifled competitors that might have offered better privacy protections. (In 2019, Facebook agreed to pay a record-breaking $5 billion fine as part of a settlement with the FTC over allegations of privacy violations.)
Any potential breakup of Facebook is a long way off
So what’s the solution for undoing some of the harm these lawsuits say Facebook is causing its users and the market?
The suits both argue that the social media giant should basically have to break itself up. But getting there will be difficult, and if it happens, it will take time. The Open Market Institute’s Hubbard told Recode that litigation over Facebook being forced to divest from Instagram and WhatsApp would likely take years; other experts told Recode that a trial likely wouldn’t even start until next year, or as late as 2022.
Another complication: Facebook is continuing to intertwine its apps, which would presumably make them harder to separate if it gets to that point. In 2019, Facebook announced that it would start merging the technical infrastructure of the direct messaging systems used by WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook. The company also has more ambitious hopes for WhatsApp, and it has signaled it may link its Facebook and Instagram advertising business with the messaging platform.
In a tweet on Wednesday after the lawsuits were announced, Facebook pushed back against their claims, emphasizing that the FTC had approved the acquisitions of WhatsApp and Instagram years ago.
“We’re reviewing the complaints & will have more to say soon,” the company tweeted just after the lawsuits were announced. “Years after the FTC cleared our acquisitions, the government now wants a do-over with no regard for the impact that precedent would have on the broader business community or the people who choose our products every day.”
In a blog post published subsequently, the company also argued that it faces competition for advertising spending from other platforms like Google and TikTok.
But those aren’t the only defenses at Facebook’s disposal. “Facebook’s core answer is, ‘Look what we did with the firms we acquired. Did we just put them on the shelf? Did we stick them in the deep freeze? We took relatively small — promising enterprises but small enterprises — in a fragile, uncertain part of their development, and we turned them into something special,’’ said Kovacic.
Still, he said the cases “create a very serious possibility that the firm will be restructured.” Now, the groundwork will likely be laid for the case to go to a trial.
It’s too early to say how this will all play out, but experts told Recode that a forced sale is certainly a possibility.
So while accusations that Facebook engages in anticompetitive behavior aren’t new, the new lawsuits give the company’s critics even more to work with. They also signal that the push to more strictly regulate Big Tech won’t go away when President-elect Joe Biden takes office in 2021.
Open Sourced is made possible by Omidyar Network. All Open Sourced content is editorially independent and produced by our journalists.