vox--2020-04-24--Why your pet is acting like a weirdo during quarantine, explained by animal behaviorists

When Theo Savini , a human resources assistant in Chicago , started working from home last month , he began noticing a pattern : His dog Zelda — a corgi and English bulldog mix — would lie on his lap all day as he cycled through meetings .
But the instant he stood up to use the bathroom , Zelda would start whining and scratching at the door as though he ’ d disappeared for hours .
Since Illinois issued its stay-at-home order on March 21 , Zelda also can ’ t seem to get enough of the outdoors .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ she acts as though it never happened .
“ As soon as we get in , she runs right back to the door as if she wants to go out again , ” Savini says Savini is spending too much time working ?
Whine .
Her usual meal isn ’ t satisfying enough ?
Whine .
When they go out for walks , she fights against the leash .
And while she used to be frightened of heights — you ’ d be hard-pressed to find her so much as jumping off Savini @ @ @ @ @ @ @ leaps onto the oversized trampoline in the backyard .
Across the globe , as the quarantine period advised by public health experts to fight the spread of the coronavirus stretches from weeks into nearly two months for some , pet owners are reporting that their furry companions are leaving old habits in the dust .
Some pets are growing clingy .
Others are pouncing on exercise equipment , gliding across countertops , or hiding in corners and shooting their owners concerned stares .
Shannon Shoaf , a writer in Clearwater , Florida , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ running into walls and bouncing off of them — something he had never done before .
All four of her cats have begun hissing and growling , and even their purring seems louder than usual .
Ramona Misilei , a student in New Zealand , tells Vox that her cat , named Catia , used to spend all of her time in the backyard .
Now Catia barely goes out , instead opting to smother with affection the family members she had long chosen to ignore , even Ramona ’ s 6-month-old cousin @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we adopted her , this is the first time she has behaved like this , ” Misilei says .
In Italy , where people have remained under lockdown since late February or early March , pets are also reportedly struggling with their new routines .
One woman told Politico that she and her husband normally travel often , so the switch to a permanent homebound life has alarmed her dog .
“ He hasn ’ t really gotten over it and still spends much of the day on the sofa giving us suspicious @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pet owner said that her cat tackles her yoga mat whenever she tries to do burpees .
This isn ’ t the first time that pets have weathered a pandemic lockdown .
During the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic , pet owners put face masks on their cats and dogs , a physical representation that pets were struggling with the outbreak just as much as people were .
“ She has made the best of it in good spirit , as we all have , ” one pet owner who masked a 5-year-old bulldog @ @ @ @ @ @ @ A century later , we aren ’ t exactly masking our German shepherds or Scottish folds , but that doesn ’ t mean they aren ’ t affected .
“ Just like people , pets can respond with a wide variability to any change , ” says M. Leanne Lilly , a professor of veterinary behavioral medicine at Ohio State University .
Some pets , Lilly says , are reveling in the constant attention that comes with their owners being marooned at home .
Some don ’ t seem to have any idea @ @ @ @ @ @ @ — or if they do , they don ’ t care .
But still others are finding the sudden disruption to be a stressful experience .
Their owners being at home 24/7 “ does increase the number of opportunities for interactions a pet may not feel comfortable with , ” she says .
At least for dogs , the sudden spike in foot traffic outside their homes as people walk their pets more frequently is raising their alarms that an intruder is coming : “ Everyone being out with their dogs can make @ @ @ @ @ @ @ homes.
” It ’ s too soon to tell what these reported new behaviors mean , if anything .
One possibility is that because people with nonessential jobs are at home more , they ’ re finally noticing strange patterns of behavior in their pets that always existed , says Zenithson Ng , a professor of animal clinical sciences at the University of Tennessee .
But animal cognition research does offer some potential guidance .
Although we don ’ t know yet the extent to which quarantine is triggering pet anxieties , a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ what veterinary scientists call “ displacement behaviors.
” Displacement behaviors are the tics that pets adopt to cope with new stressors .
“ In dogs and cats , these may present as mounting , pacing , vocalizing , scratching , or patterned behaviors like spinning , ” says Lilly .
“ Just like we may play with our hair , pace in a circle , or chew our fingernails.
” Think of when dogs shake their fur like they ’ re trying to dry themselves off , even when they ’ re totally @ @ @ @ @ @ @ displacement behavior , and so is paw lifting or repeated “ jumping at objects , grabbing them and shaking.
” In birds , displacement behaviors manifest in speaking more or striking crouching postures .
Young horses , meanwhile , might gum at an adult horse with their mouths when they ’ re anxious .
One displacement behavior — yawning — turns up in cats , dogs , reptiles , and birds under duress .
Several studies have concluded that humans , too , yawn more often when they ’ re nervous , although @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
One leading theory is that yawning increases blood circulation , funneling air into the body and cooling the brain ever so slightly .
Displacement behaviors , however , raise the question : Why would animals be stressed at all ?
Yeah , they ’ re living in a pandemic — but they don ’ t even know it .
To be sure , plenty of pets are reveling in the onslaught of human attention .
“ I actually think that most pets benefit from work-at-home orders , because they get to enjoy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” says Ng .
That goes for pets of all stripes : While we might stereotype dogs as the primary attention seekers , research from last year concluded that even most cats — paragons of social distancing in normal times — enjoyed human interaction more than all other tested stimuli , including food and toys .
But there many reasons a separate cross-section of pets might become anxious under this extended quarantine .
Disrupted routines are one ; the same way quarantine is messing with human psychology , trickling into our dreams , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sudden disruptions to their at-home schedules .
Vets are recommending that pet owners try to maintain consistent feeding times to give pets as much structure as possible .
Other contributors are different walk schedules and a sudden lack of personal space at home .
Even pets that adore attention might need some distance from time to time .
“ It ’ s really important that as owners we try to stick to ‘ business as usual ’ when it comes to the daily routines our pets are used to , and to ensure @ @ @ @ @ @ @ places they can go throughout the day , ” says Lauren Finka , a cat behavior researcher at Nottingham Trent University in England .
“ Their normal routine will be disrupted , which can cause anxiety because their sense of predictability and control may be challenged.
” Pets might also be internalizing some of the anxious signals that their owners — concerned about their health , their jobs , their loved ones , their rent payments — are broadcasting .
According to a paper published in January from Fabricio Carballo , an animal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Salvador , dogs experience higher levels of anxiety when their owners are reeling from stress , a process called “ emotional contagion.
” A 2019 study in the UK found a similar pattern in cats : When you ’ re stressed out , cats will pick up on it .
Pets might also be internalizing some of the anxious signals that their owners — concerned about their health , their jobs , their loved ones , their rent payments — are broadcasting What all this means is that we humans might be part @ @ @ @ @ @ @ possible that owners are the ones behaving strangely , and their dogs are trying to adapt , ” says Carballo .
They “ may be bored and ask their pets to perform new tricks , pushing them to behave strangely.
” If the internet is any indication , there ’ s plenty of evidence to back that theory up .
TikTokers are turning their dogs into makeup influencers .
Other internet users are remixing famous paintings with their pets as models — maybe none more successfully than the Dog With ( out ) @ @ @ @ @ @ @ gallery .
Very little about this moment can pass for normal .
“ With owners working at home , the relationship and dynamic can certainly change .
Perhaps there are more walks , more cuddles , and more overall attention , ” says Ng .
But Ng ’ s biggest concerns center on what happens when the lockdown eases .
For pets with separation anxiety , the transition out of a routine where their owners are home 24/7 and into one where pets may again be alone for long stretches won ’ t @ @ @ @ @ @ @ making it a smoother transition by gradually increasing the time away from home , ” he says .
“ Also being sure to make more visits home or having a pet sitter come more frequently throughout the day may help.
” Humans are not the only ones attuned to the widespread societal shifts brought by the pandemic .
As we look ahead to a gradual return to some aspects of regular life , we shouldn ’ t forget that our choices may have psychological effects on our pets .
For the most anxious @ @ @ @ @ @ @ routines could just fuel those bouts of whining at the bathroom door .
Michael Waters is a writer covering the oddities of politics and economics .
His work has appeared in the Atlantic , Gizmodo , BuzzFeed , and the Outline .
Every day at Vox , we aim to answer your most important questions and provide you , and our audience around the world , with information that has the power to save lives .
Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment : to empower you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is reaching more people than ever , but our distinctive brand of explanatory journalism takes resources — particularly during a pandemic and an economic downturn .
Your financial contribution will not constitute a donation , but it will enable our staff to continue to offer free articles , videos , and podcasts at the quality and volume that this moment requires .
Please consider making a contribution to Vox today .

When Theo Savini, a human resources assistant in Chicago, started working from home last month, he began noticing a pattern: His dog Zelda — a corgi and English bulldog mix — would lie on his lap all day as he cycled through meetings. But the instant he stood up to use the bathroom, Zelda would start whining and scratching at the door as though he’d disappeared for hours.
Since Illinois issued its stay-at-home order on March 21, Zelda also can’t seem to get enough of the outdoors. Even after a 30- to 40-minute walk, she acts as though it never happened. “As soon as we get in, she runs right back to the door as if she wants to go out again,” Savini says.
Savini is spending too much time working? Whine. Her usual meal isn’t satisfying enough? Whine. When they go out for walks, she fights against the leash. And while she used to be frightened of heights — you’d be hard-pressed to find her so much as jumping off Savini’s bed — now, Zelda leaps onto the oversize trampoline in the backyard.
Across the globe, as the quarantine period advised by public health experts to fight the spread of the coronavirus stretches from weeks into nearly two months for some, pet owners are reporting that their furry companions are leaving old habits in the dust. Some pets are growing clingy. Others are pouncing on exercise equipment, gliding across countertops, or hiding in corners and shooting their owners concerned stares.
Shannon Shoaf, a writer in Clearwater, Florida, says her male cat has started running into walls and bouncing off them — something he had never done before. All four of her cats have begun hissing and growling, and even their purring seems louder than usual.
Ramona Misilei, a student in New Zealand, tells Vox that her cat, named Catia, used to spend all of her time in the backyard. Now Catia barely goes out, instead opting to smother with affection the family members she had long chosen to ignore, even Ramona’s 6-month-old cousin. “In the four years since we adopted her, this is the first time she has behaved like this,” Misilei says.
In Italy, where people have remained under lockdown since late February or early March, pets are also reportedly struggling with their new routines. One woman told Politico that she and her husband normally travel often, so the switch to a permanent homebound life has alarmed her dog. “He hasn’t really gotten over it and still spends much of the day on the sofa giving us suspicious looks,” she said. Another pet owner said that her cat tackles her yoga mat whenever she tries to do burpees.
This isn’t the first time that pets have weathered a pandemic lockdown. During the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, pet owners put face masks on their cats and dogs, a physical representation that pets were struggling with the outbreak just as much as people were. “She has made the best of it in good spirit, as we all have,” one pet owner who masked a 5-year-old bulldog told the Seattle Star in 1918.
A century later, we aren’t exactly masking our German shepherds or Scottish folds, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t affected. “Just like people, pets can respond with a wide variability to any change,” says M. Leanne Lilly, a professor of veterinary behavioral medicine at Ohio State University. Some pets, Lilly says, are reveling in the constant attention that comes with their owners being marooned at home. Some don’t seem to have any idea that their owners’ routines have changed — or if they do, they don’t care. But still others are finding the sudden disruption to be a stressful experience.
Their owners being at home 24/7 “does increase the number of opportunities for interactions a pet may not feel comfortable with,” Lilly says. At least for dogs, the sudden spike in foot traffic outside their homes as people walk their pets more frequently is raising their alarms that an intruder is coming: “Everyone being out with their dogs can make dogs feel much less safe in their homes.”
It’s too soon to tell what these reported new behaviors mean, if anything. One possibility is that because people with nonessential jobs are at home more, they’re finally noticing strange patterns of behavior in their pets that always existed, says Zenithson Ng, a professor of animal clinical sciences at the University of Tennessee. But animal cognition research does offer some potential guidance. Although it’s unknown yet the extent to which quarantine is triggering pet anxieties, a potential culprit of these sudden changes is what veterinary scientists call “displacement behaviors.”
Displacement behaviors are the tics that pets adopt to cope with new stressors. “In dogs and cats, these may present as mounting, pacing, vocalizing, scratching, or patterned behaviors like spinning,” says Lilly. “Just like we may play with our hair, pace in a circle, or chew our fingernails.”
Think of when dogs shake their fur like they’re trying to dry themselves off, even when they’re totally dry. Overgrooming is also a common displacement behavior, and so is paw lifting or repeated “jumping at objects, grabbing them and shaking.” In birds, displacement behaviors manifest in speaking more or striking crouching postures. Young horses, meanwhile, might gum at an adult horse with their mouths when they’re anxious.
One displacement behavior — yawning — turns up in cats, dogs, reptiles, and birds under duress. Several studies have concluded that humans, too, yawn more often when they’re nervous, although the reason why is a bit opaque. One leading theory is that yawning increases blood circulation, funneling air into the body and cooling the brain ever so slightly.
Displacement behaviors, however, raise the question: Why would animals be stressed at all? Yeah, they’re living in a pandemic — but they don’t know it.
To be sure, plenty of pets are reveling in the onslaught of human attention. “I actually think that most pets benefit from work-at-home orders, because they get to enjoy the extended company of their owners,” says Ng.
That goes for pets of all stripes: While we might stereotype dogs as the primary attention seekers, research from last year concluded that even most cats — paragons of social distancing in normal times — enjoyed human interaction more than all other tested stimuli, including food and toys.
But there are many reasons a separate cross-section of pets might become anxious under this extended quarantine. Disrupted routines are one; the same way quarantine is messing with human psychology, trickling into our dreams, our pets are also reeling from the sudden disruptions to their at-home schedules. Vets are recommending that pet owners try to maintain consistent feeding times to give pets as much structure as possible. Other contributors are different walk schedules and a sudden lack of personal space at home. Even pets that adore attention might need some distance from time to time.
“It’s really important that as owners we try to stick to ‘business as usual’ when it comes to the daily routines our pets are used to, and to ensure that they still have quiet, undisturbed places they can go throughout the day,” says Lauren Finka, a cat behavior researcher at Nottingham Trent University in England. “Their normal routine will be disrupted, which can cause anxiety because their sense of predictability and control may be challenged.”
Pets might also be internalizing some of the anxious signals their owners — concerned about their health, their jobs, their loved ones, their rent payments — are broadcasting. According to a paper published in January from Fabricio Carballo, an animal cognition researcher at the University of El Salvador, dogs experience higher levels of anxiety when their owners are reeling from stress, a process called “emotional contagion.” A 2019 study in the UK found a similar pattern in cats: When you’re stressed out, cats will pick up on it.
Pets might also be internalizing some of the anxious signals that their owners — concerned about their health, their jobs, their loved ones, their rent payments — are broadcasting
What all this means is that we humans might be part of the problem. “It is possible that owners are the ones behaving strangely, and their dogs are trying to adapt,” says Carballo. They “may be bored and ask their pets to perform new tricks, pushing them to behave strangely.”
If the internet is any indication, there’s plenty of evidence to back that theory up. TikTokers are turning their dogs into makeup influencers. Other internet users are remixing famous paintings with their pets as models — maybe none more successfully than the Dog With(out) A Pearl Earring or this gerbil-size art gallery. Very little about this moment can pass for normal.
“With owners working at home, the relationship and dynamic can certainly change. Perhaps there are more walks, more cuddles, and more overall attention,” says Ng.
But Ng’s biggest concerns center on what happens when the lockdown eases. For pets with separation anxiety, the transition out of a routine where their owners are home 24/7 and into one where pets may again be alone for long stretches won’t be easy. “We might recommend making it a smoother transition by gradually increasing the time away from home,” he says. “Also being sure to make more visits home or having a pet sitter come more frequently throughout the day may help.”
Humans are not the only ones attuned to the widespread societal shifts brought by the pandemic. As we look ahead to a gradual return to some aspects of regular life, we shouldn’t forget that our choices may have psychological effects on our pets. For the most anxious pets, another sudden rewrite of their routines could just fuel those bouts of whining at the bathroom door.
Michael Waters is a writer covering the oddities of politics and economics. His work has appeared in the Atlantic, Gizmodo, BuzzFeed, and the Outline.


vox--2020-04-24--What it’s like to work at a career center during mass unemployment

It is difficult to fully contextualize the labor crisis that has stricken the United States in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic .
More than 26 million Americans have lost their jobs since the start of the outbreak .
Experts believe the current jobless rate may be 15 percent or higher .
It remains unknown how much longer stringent social distancing measures will be in place , but if nonessential businesses remain closed and consumer demand continues to spiral , the Trump administration has estimated that as many as one-fifth of the American workforce could soon be out of a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ director of workforce development for the city of Detroit , has seen all of those dire projections .
It ’ s her duty , she says , to stem the tide .
Like so many others in the public sector , Sherard-Freeman ’ s responsibilities — managing recruitment fairs , training programs , and job placement — were turned upside-down by coronavirus in a matter of days .
On March 23 , Michigan Gov .
Gretchen Whitmer signed a state-wide stay-at-home order , restricting residents to vital travel only .
The state was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in 10 Michiganders have filed for unemployment since the beginning of March — as movie theaters , bowling alleys , and gyms were forced to close their doors .
This is the outcome for any state that ’ s prioritized public health over the local economy ; the same fate has found New York , California , and Washington .
Now , Sherard-Freeman and her team have been tasked with connecting Detroiters with work in the middle of a pandemic .
Some businesses are still hiring .
Grocery stores and medical centers are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to staff up , and there are work-from-home positions available for Detroit At Work ’ s older and immunocompromised clients .
But matching people up with the right jobs is more complicated in the era of social distancing : Career centers , like the Detroit At Work offices around the city she oversees , have traditionally relied on person-to-person contact .
It ’ s a challenge to get people placed , interviewed , and hired remotely .
We talked about all of that , and what it feels like to be on the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ work stoppages in American history .
When did the threat of the pandemic hit your department ?
When did you start to notice a massive influx of layoffs ?
Was there a moment where that hit home ?
We ’ re operating in some sort of time warp .
It was probably [ early March , ] but it feels like six months ago .
It occurred to me that we were approaching this time when I did a whirlwind tour of our Detroit At Work career centers .
It occurred to me @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on the frontlines of service , but also that we were going to need to ask them to work from home , because of the conditions that they could be nervous about .
I went to seven of the nine of our offices , [ because ] two of them had already closed .
That ’ s when it hit me that we ’ ve just turned a corner .
How much has demand increased for your offices , compared to two or three months ago ?
When things were really starting to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ get nervous , the traffic at the career centers was almost exclusively related to unemployment insurance .
Employers were sending workers directly to us .
It ’ s one example of how confusing this situation can be .
Sometimes those workers weren ’ t feeling healthy , and the employer said , “ Go file for unemployment.
” It was a mishmash of traffic in the first couple days .
It ’ s leveled off .
I think we ’ ve done a fairly decent job of getting the word out that you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the office .
You can file online , or call the number .
“ One of the dynamics we forget at this time is a lot of businesses are hiring .
They need to replace workers that need time off.
” Last week we stood up an initiative at Detroit At Work called Ready To Hire .
This was for essential businesses that need to hire right now .
One of the dynamics we forget at this time is a lot of businesses are hiring .
Their businesses are expanding , they need @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
We ’ ve got more than 1,000 jobs available .
So we ’ ve seen an uptick in traffic on the web and in the call center — some folks are just curious and want to see what ’ s out there , and others are just ready for opportunity .
That ’ s one of the things I wanted to ask you .
Who is hiring right now ?
Obviously with nonessential businesses shuttering , that causes a huge windfall of job loss .
But with grocery stores operating beyond their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ there are some employment options still out there .
Yeah , that ’ s exactly it .
We ’ ve got 35 employers so far as part of Ready To Hire .
We ’ ve got health care systems — things like patient transfer workers , environmental services , certified nurses — they ’ re interviewing this week .
We ’ ve got delivery driver positions .
Companies hiring for restaurant delivery .
We ’ ve also got some really small businesses , like Mike ’ s Fresh Market on the eastside of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ Look , if you can help us with staff , we ’ ll open up special hours for senior citizens only.
” I think that ’ s one of the things about Detroit .
We have drive and determination , but we do it in a way that ’ s built around taking care of each other .
No matter how we expand our businesses , we want to take care of the community .
Traditionally , career center appointments are handled in person ; someone comes into the office and speaks @ @ @ @ @ @ @ untenable right now .
So how has social distancing impacted the pure nuts and bolts of your outreach ?
The state of Michigan has taken some creative measures .
Things like , “ If your last name starts with J , call between these hours.
” Or if you ’ re going online , try to do it in the middle of the night , because the system is less likely to crash .
But as far as delivering services , thankfully we were already about a year into figuring out how to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ — working on your résumé , polishing up your interview skills , digital literacy skills — online .
That wasn ’ t because of Covid-19 , that was how the mayor wanted to deliver our services .
So we were able to get our services up and running in a week .
I remember that milestone .
A week in , we were able to say to Detroiters that if you got time on your hands , go to DetroitAtWork.com .
We ’ re telling our residents that this is your time .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ you to be ready .
Let ’ s say someone loses their job and they ’ re in their 60s , or they have health issues , and they ’ re tentative about going back to work at a job that might elevate their risk of exposure .
What are some of the solutions you have for people in that demographic ?
A very real example is that I just had a conversation with the head of talent acquisition at Flagstar Bank .
Their call center has moved [ to be totally virtual @ @ @ @ @ @ @ home with the right equipment .
They ’ re going to use us for call center support and bilingual call center support ; it ’ s the perfect situation for immunocompromised folks .
Have you guys had to cancel any in-person events like job fairs ?
Or were you able to move those to digital as well ?
“ Call center support is the perfect situation for immunocompromised folks ” Yeah , that ’ s exactly what we did .
We moved it online .
But we know there are people out there @ @ @ @ @ @ @ plan that ’ s large enough to accommodate video streaming — even though most carriers have been good about taking the caps off their data usage .
We ’ re working on a 100 percent paper-only solution .
So we just moved to a different service delivery method .
I ’ m curious to hear more about that .
For the people who aren ’ t quite as tech literate , this is an especially weird time .
How do you address that issue ?
If you don ’ t even have a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
If you don ’ t have a tablet , or don ’ t have friends that do .
If you call us , we will figure out a way to work with you .
Will it be slower than what you can do online ?
[ But ] we need to figure out a solution for everyone .
For you personally , when you see some of these unprecedented projections of what our unemployment rate might be in this country , and the sheer number of businesses going under right now , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ all ?
This is a trying time for anyone who works in the labor sector , does it ever get to you ?
I ’ m just going to give you my honest answer : I don ’ t process things that way .
I think it has to do with the way I ’ m wired .
I don ’ t have time to sit and look at the numbers and say , “ Oh my gosh , what does that mean for us ?
What does that mean for Detroit ?
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ be on the ground , figuring out a way to fix it .
I have to distill those numbers into problems that I can solve .
Otherwise , it ’ s just not useful .
Every day at Vox , we aim to answer your most important questions and provide you , and our audience around the world , with information that has the power to save lives .
Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment : to empower you through understanding .
Vox ’ s work @ @ @ @ @ @ @ but our distinctive brand of explanatory journalism takes resources — particularly during a pandemic and an economic downturn .
Your financial contribution will not constitute a donation , but it will enable our staff to continue to offer free articles , videos , and podcasts at the quality and volume that this moment requires .
Please consider making a contribution to Vox today .

It is difficult to fully contextualize the labor crisis that has stricken the United States in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. More than 26 million Americans have lost their jobs since the start of the outbreak. Experts believe the current jobless rate may be 15 percent or higher.
It remains unknown how much longer stringent social distancing measures will be in place, but if nonessential businesses remain closed and consumer demand continues to spiral, the Trump administration has estimated that as many as one-fifth of the American workforce could soon be out of a job. Nicole Sherard-Freeman, the executive director of workforce development for the city of Detroit, has seen all of those dire projections. It’s her duty, she says, to stem the tide.
Like so many others in the public sector, Sherard-Freeman’s responsibilities — managing recruitment fairs, training programs, and job placement — were turned upside-down by coronavirus in a matter of days.
On March 23, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed a state-wide stay-at-home order, restricting residents to vital travel only. The state was quickly flooded with layoffs — about one in 10 Michiganders have filed for unemployment since the beginning of March — as movie theaters, bowling alleys, and gyms were forced to close their doors. This is the outcome for any state that’s prioritized public health over the local economy; the same fate has found New York, California, and Washington. Now, Sherard-Freeman and her team have been tasked with connecting Detroiters with work in the middle of a pandemic.
Some businesses are still hiring. Grocery stores and medical centers are operating beyond their usual capacity and need to staff up, and there are work-from-home positions available for Detroit At Work’s older and immunocompromised clients. But matching people up with the right jobs is more complicated in the era of social distancing: Career centers, like the Detroit At Work offices around the city she oversees, have traditionally relied on person-to-person contact. It’s a challenge to get people placed, interviewed, and hired remotely. We talked about all of that, and what it feels like to be on the ground during one of the most seismic work stoppages in American history.
When did the threat of the pandemic hit your department? When did you start to notice a massive influx of layoffs? Was there a moment where that hit home?
We’re operating in some sort of time warp. It was probably [early March,] but it feels like six months ago. It occurred to me that we were approaching this time when I did a whirlwind tour of our Detroit At Work career centers. It occurred to me that I needed to thank the folks on the frontlines of service, but also that we were going to need to ask them to work from home, because of the conditions that they could be nervous about. I went to seven of the nine of our offices, [because] two of them had already closed. That’s when it hit me that we’ve just turned a corner.
How much has demand increased for your offices, compared to two or three months ago?
When things were really starting to hit, and small businesses started to get nervous, the traffic at the career centers was almost exclusively related to unemployment insurance. Employers were sending workers directly to us. It’s one example of how confusing this situation can be. Sometimes those workers weren’t feeling healthy, and the employer said, “Go file for unemployment.”
It was a mishmash of traffic in the first couple days. It’s leveled off. I think we’ve done a fairly decent job of getting the word out that you don’t have to come into the office. You can file online, or call the number.
“One of the dynamics we forget at this time is a lot of businesses are hiring. They need to replace workers that need time off.”
Last week we stood up an initiative at Detroit At Work called Ready To Hire. This was for essential businesses that need to hire right now. One of the dynamics we forget at this time is a lot of businesses are hiring. Their businesses are expanding, they need to replace workers that need time off. We’ve got more than 1,000 jobs available. So we’ve seen an uptick in traffic on the web and in the call center — some folks are just curious and want to see what’s out there, and others are just ready for opportunity.
That’s one of the things I wanted to ask you. Who is hiring right now? Obviously with nonessential businesses shuttering, that causes a huge windfall of job loss. But with grocery stores operating beyond their usual capacity, I would imagine that there are some employment options still out there.
Yeah, that’s exactly it. We’ve got 35 employers so far as part of Ready To Hire. We’ve got health care systems — things like patient transfer workers, environmental services, certified nurses — they’re interviewing this week. We’ve got delivery driver positions. Companies hiring for restaurant delivery. We’ve also got some really small businesses, like Mike’s Fresh Market on the eastside of Detroit. They’ve said, “Look, if you can help us with staff, we’ll open up special hours for senior citizens only.”
I think that’s one of the things about Detroit. We have drive and determination, but we do it in a way that’s built around taking care of each other. No matter how we expand our businesses, we want to take care of the community.
Traditionally, career center appointments are handled in person; someone comes into the office and speaks to a representative. That’s untenable right now. So how has social distancing impacted the pure nuts and bolts of your outreach?
The state of Michigan has taken some creative measures. Things like, “If your last name starts with J, call between these hours.” Or if you’re going online, try to do it in the middle of the night, because the system is less likely to crash.
But as far as delivering services, thankfully we were already about a year into figuring out how to deliver the majority of what we do — working on your résumé, polishing up your interview skills, digital literacy skills — online. That wasn’t because of Covid-19, that was how the mayor wanted to deliver our services. So we were able to get our services up and running in a week. I remember that milestone. A week in, we were able to say to Detroiters that if you got time on your hands, go to DetroitAtWork.com. We’re telling our residents that this is your time. When the restart happens, we want you to be ready.
Let’s say someone loses their job and they’re in their 60s, or they have health issues, and they’re tentative about going back to work at a job that might elevate their risk of exposure. What are some of the solutions you have for people in that demographic?
A very real example is that I just had a conversation with the head of talent acquisition at Flagstar Bank. Their call center has moved [to be totally virtual]. People are setting up at home with the right equipment. They’re going to use us for call center support and bilingual call center support; it’s the perfect situation for immunocompromised folks.
Have you guys had to cancel any in-person events like job fairs? Or were you able to move those to digital as well?
“Call center support is the perfect situation for immunocompromised folks”
Yeah, that’s exactly what we did. We moved it online. But we know there are people out there who don’t have a data plan that’s large enough to accommodate video streaming — even though most carriers have been good about taking the caps off their data usage. We’re working on a 100 percent paper-only solution. So we just moved to a different service delivery method.
I’m curious to hear more about that. For the people who aren’t quite as tech literate, this is an especially weird time. How do you address that issue?
If you don’t even have a cellphone. If you have a landline. If you don’t have a tablet, or don’t have friends that do. If you call us, we will figure out a way to work with you. Will it be slower than what you can do online? [But] we need to figure out a solution for everyone.
For you personally, when you see some of these unprecedented projections of what our unemployment rate might be in this country, and the sheer number of businesses going under right now, do you have an emotional reaction at all? This is a trying time for anyone who works in the labor sector, does it ever get to you?
I’m just going to give you my honest answer: I don’t process things that way. I think it has to do with the way I’m wired. I don’t have time to sit and look at the numbers and say, “Oh my gosh, what does that mean for us? What does that mean for Detroit?” It’s my calling to be on the ground, figuring out a way to fix it. I have to distill those numbers into problems that I can solve. Otherwise, it’s just not useful.


vox--2020-04-24--How common is Covid-19? What 2 controversial antibody studies can and can’t tell us.

The question of how many people in the US currently have or already had the Covid-19 coronavirus is one of the most urgent questions scientists need to answer .
It ’ s agonizing to not have this information because it could stop more people being infected and help policymakers figure out when it ’ s safe to reopen the economy .
Recently , two research groups in California from Stanford University and the University of Southern California ( with some overlap between them ) took a stab at estimating just how much the virus has spread in two populations : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Angeles County .
Their results are preliminary and haven ’ t been peer-reviewed by other scientists nor published in a journal .
But they suggest that there were vastly more infections than the number of confirmed cases in those areas , perhaps as many as 85 times more .
If their estimates are correct , the virus is far more prevalent in the population than previously thought , but also that the disease is far less deadly .
However , other scientists noted there were major flaws with these studies and quickly picked @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ranged from how the researchers recruited participants to the accuracy of the tests they used .
While a finding that Covid-19 isn ’ t as dangerous as once thought may be reassuring , the evidence presented by these studies may do more to obscure than to clarify the situation .
Health officials are still struggling to control the pandemic and there is immense pressure for information needed to make critical decisions .
But for a survey of the spread of the disease to be useful , it needs to be conducted on a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The Covid-19 antibody surveys found that the virus is more common and less dangerous than previously thought One of the biggest problems with figuring out how many people have been infected with Covid-19 is how stealthy this virus can be .
It spreads easily between people , and many can be infected without showing any symptoms at all .
So estimating the prevalence of the virus in a population based just on hospitalizations , deaths , and positive tests vastly underestimates its spread .
As of April 22 , the US has reported @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The researchers behind the two California studies wanted to fill in this blank .
They tested people for antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 , the virus that causes Covid-19 , by screening blood serum , the liquid part of blood that ’ s left behind after clotting .
Such serology tests can reveal who was previously infected with the virus , even if the virus is no longer present in their body .
The test could also show who is now immune to the virus .
In Santa Clara County ( population 1.9 million @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 3,300 participants , 2,718 adults and 612 children .
Based on the number of people that tested positive for antibodies to the virus , the researchers concluded that between 2.49 percent and 4.1 percent of Santa Clara residents had been infected — between 48,000 and 81,000 people .
That ’ s 50 to 85 times more than the number of confirmed cases at the time of the study .
Scientists expect more people have been infected with the virus than have been confirmed by tests , due to low levels of testing and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ But this number is much higher than previous estimates , and other researchers have been critical of the result .
Meanwhile , the antibody survey in Los Angeles County ( population 10 million ) didn ’ t specify the number of people tested but concluded that between 2.8 percent and 5.6 percent of adults in the county carry antibodies to the virus .
There were 7,994 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the county at the start of the study , so the projection indicated that 28 to 55 times more people may have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The California studies are preliminary , but they still have significant problems that overshadow their findings The Santa Clara study is a pre-print report , meaning that it hasn ’ t been peer-reviewed .
The study , like many on Covid-19 , was hosted on a pre-print website so that other scientists could take a look without waiting months for the review process to run its course .
That can be helpful in a rapidly moving crisis like the Covid-19 pandemic .
But the methods , data analysis , and results haven @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and could have significant flaws that would have been corrected in a published paper .
The LA County results , meanwhile , haven ’ t even been written up as a paper ( they were announced in a press release ) , and researchers say they are still testing more people .
Questions started to emerge about the conclusions of both studies shortly after they were posted .
For one , they didn ’ t follow best practices for study design .
In the Santa Clara study , researchers acknowledged these limitations .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ ad , so it wasn ’ t a random sample of the population , and they tested people at a drive-thru site , so participants had to have access to a car .
The sample overrepresented younger white women and underrepresented Hispanic and Asian people .
The study also didn ’ t control for age .
“ The overall effects of such biases is hard to ascertain , ” authors wrote .
As a result , they likely sampled people who were motivated to be tested , oftentimes people who thought they may @ @ @ @ @ @ @ boosted the prevalence rate of antibodies in the sample .
The Los Angeles study recruited participants through a marketing firm from a database that is representative of the population .
The tests themselves also pose a problem .
Right now , there is only one serology test for Covid-19 that ’ s been approved by the Food and Drug Administration , and even that was only under emergency use guidance ( which means it didn ’ t go through the full validation process ) .
The antibody test used in these studies from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ FDA approved .
Researchers in the Santa Clara study reported it to be 80.3 percent sensitive to SARS-CoV-2 antibodies and 99.5 percent specific to them .
The problem is that even seemingly accurate tests don ’ t do well when the thing they are looking for is scarce .
Right now , there ’ s still only a tiny fraction of the population that has ever been infected with SARS-CoV-2 , so false positives end up making a disproportionately large share of the total number of positive results .
“ So if you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and you have a test that ’ s only 99 percent specific , that means that when you find a positive , 50 percent of the time will be a real positive and 50 percent of the time it won ’ t be , ” said Deborah Birx , the White House Covid-19 response coordinator , at a press conference on April 20 .
Other researchers said they found problems in the calculations conducted in the study .
Andrew Gelman , a statistics and political science professor at Columbia University , criticized the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ think the authors of the above-linked paper owe us all an apology , ” he wrote .
“ We wasted time and effort discussing this paper whose main selling point was some numbers that were essentially the product of a statistical error.
” The estimates reported in these surveys don ’ t line up with real-world data on deaths Based on these studies ’ conclusions , the deadliness of Covid-19 should be way lower than we ’ ve actually seen .
The low-end estimates of the infection fatality rate — that is , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who later died from the virus — were barely above the percentage of the total population killed in Covid-19 hot spots .
( The infection fatality rate is distinct from the case fatality rate .
The latter focuses on fatalities based on reported cases whereas the former is based on all infections , including those that resulted in no symptoms and went unreported . )
The first study would put the Santa Clara infection fatality rate for Covid-19 between 0.12 percent and 0.2 percent .
For the Los Angeles study , that would @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 0.13 percent and 0.27 percent .
By comparison , seasonal influenza has an infection fatality rate of roughly 0.1 percent .
These estimates don ’ t comport with the actual results seen in Covid-19 hot spots like Italy and New York .
In Lombardy , Italy , for instance , more than 12,500 people have been killed out of a population of 10 million , meaning 0.12 percent of the total number of people there have died from Covid-19 .
If one were to limit the denominator to just the number of people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ much higher .
Similarly , New York City has already seen 0.12 percent of its total population die due to Covid-19 .
It stands to reason the infection fatality rate is much higher , since only a fraction of the population has been infected .
Across the board , one would expect the infection fatality rate from Covid-19 to be higher than the population fatality rate , so the estimates based on the California studies seem suspiciously low .
Why we need to be careful about using hasty results It would be handy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this coronavirus and might be immune to it — we ’ re in a unique moment where huge public health decisions need to be made swiftly for when to lift social distancing measures .
So it ’ s important to make sure the studies on these critical topics are robust .
The studies didn ’ t lay out the implications for the response to Covid-19 .
But one of the authors , Stanford University epidemiologist John Ioannidis , has previously suggested that a lack of information about the Covid-19 pandemic may be causing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” if the fatality rate is much lower than previously thought .
“ It ’ s like an elephant being attacked by a house cat , ” Ioannidis wrote in a March 17 editorial for Stat News .
“ Frustrated and trying to avoid the cat , the elephant accidentally jumps off a cliff and dies.
” But if they ’ re wrong , people ’ s health and lives are at risk .
And they might very well be wrong .
Even if the coronavirus ’ s infection fatality rate is in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ matter if social distancing restrictions end too soon .
And the debate over the specific value of the infection fatality rate is tangential for health workers on the ground who are on the front lines of this pandemic .
Covid-19 is clearly dangerous and deadly .
Already some of the top health care systems — in Northern Italy and New York City — have been overwhelmed by Covid-19 patients .
With inadequate resources to care for patients , the rate of complications and death will rise .
The vast majority of people remain @ @ @ @ @ @ @ clear : The conclusions of these surveys could be pointing in the right direction .
Covid-19 could be way more prevalent and far less deadly than anyone has realized .
But the evidence presented by the Santa Clara and Los Angeles studies isn ’ t enough to make a decision about relaxing social distancing or other pandemic control measures .
Serological surveys are critical to the public health response to Covid-19 .
However , weak studies do little to satiate the desperate need for information about the pandemic .
Assessing the spread of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ essential step , but it needs much more rigorous research to yield anything worthwhile .
Such studies could be strengthened by sampling larger numbers of people within a population and truly randomizing who is tested .
The problem of false positives and negatives can be countered by repeated testing of participants .
Conducting a study like this would be more time-consuming and expensive .
And one study alone won ’ t cut it ; multiple serological surveys are needed around the world to illuminate the true extent of the disease .
To this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have their own large serological surveys underway for Covid-19 .
NIH is recruiting up to 10,000 volunteers across the US .
The CDC is also conducting a national survey , as well as targeting Covid-19 hot spots and people at higher risk of exposure to the virus .
There is no definite timeline for when these studies will wrap , but they stand to yield a sharper picture of the spread of the new coronavirus .
And from there , health officials can start to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ back to normal .
Every day at Vox , we aim to answer your most important questions and provide you , and our audience around the world , with information that has the power to save lives .
Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment : to empower you through understanding .
Vox ’ s work is reaching more people than ever , but our distinctive brand of explanatory journalism takes resources — particularly during a pandemic and an economic downturn .
Your financial contribution will not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ enable our staff to continue to offer free articles , videos , and podcasts at the quality and volume that this moment requires .
Please consider making a contribution to Vox today .

The question of how many people in the United States currently have, or have already had, the novel coronavirus is one of the most urgent that scientists need to answer.
It’s agonizing to not have this information because it could stop more people being infected and help policymakers figure out when it’s safe to reopen the economy.
Recently, two research groups in California from Stanford University and the University of Southern California (with some overlap between them) took a stab at estimating just how much the virus has spread in two populations: residents of Santa Clara County and Los Angeles County.
Their results are preliminary and haven’t been peer-reviewed by other scientists or published in a journal. But they suggest there were vastly more infections than the number of confirmed cases in those areas, perhaps as many as 85 times more.
If their estimates are correct, that suggests the virus is far more prevalent in the population than previously thought, but also that the disease is far less deadly. However, other scientists noted there were major flaws with these studies and quickly picked apart the findings on Twitter.
What a weird turn to see John Ioannidis pushing one of sloppiest studies in the deluge of Covid-19 papers. If he weren't an author I would expect the Stanford serostudy to show up in one of his talks as a particularly potent cocktail of bad research practices. — alex rubinsteyn (@iskander) April 19, 2020
Critiques ranged from how the researchers recruited participants to the accuracy of the tests they used.
While a finding that Covid-19 isn’t as dangerous as once thought may be reassuring, the evidence presented by these studies may do more to obscure than clarify the situation.
Health officials are still struggling to control the pandemic, and there is immense pressure for information needed to make critical decisions. But for a survey of the spread of the disease to be useful, it needs to be conducted on a larger scale and with more rigor.
The Covid-19 antibody surveys found that the virus is more common and less dangerous than previously thought
One of the biggest problems with figuring out how many people have been infected with Covid-19 is how stealthy this virus can be. It spreads easily between people, and many can be infected without showing any symptoms. So estimating the prevalence of the virus in a population based just on hospitalizations, deaths, and positive tests vastly underestimates its spread. As of April 24, the US has reported more than 895,000 confirmed cases of Covid-19.
The researchers behind the two California studies wanted to fill in this blank. They tested people for antibodies to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, by screening blood serum, the liquid part of blood that’s left behind after clotting. Such serology tests can reveal who was previously infected with the virus, even if the virus is no longer present in their body. The tests also could give scientists information on possible immunity to the virus.
In Santa Clara County (population 1.9 million), researchers conducted serology tests in 3,300 participants; 2,718 adults and 612 children. Based on the number of people who tested positive for antibodies to the virus, the researchers concluded that between 2.49 percent and 4.1 percent of Santa Clara residents had been infected — between 48,000 and 81,000 people.
That’s 50 to 85 times the number of confirmed cases at the time of the study. Scientists expect more people have been infected with the virus than have been confirmed by tests, due to low levels of testing and many people only having mild cases. But this number is much higher than previous estimates, and other researchers have been critical of the result.
Meanwhile, the antibody survey in Los Angeles County (population 10 million) didn’t specify the number of people tested but concluded that between 2.8 percent and 5.6 percent of adults in the county carry antibodies to the virus. There were 7,994 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the county at the start of the study, so the projection indicated that 28 to 55 times more people may have been infected than previous testing had confirmed.
The California studies are preliminary, but they still have significant problems that overshadow their findings
The Santa Clara study is a preprint report, meaning that it hasn’t been peer-reviewed. The study, like many on Covid-19, was hosted on a preprint website so that other scientists could take a look without waiting months for the review process to run its course. That can be helpful in a rapidly moving crisis like the Covid-19 pandemic. But the methods, data analysis, and results haven’t been critiqued by other researchers and could have significant flaws that would have been corrected in a published paper.
The LA County results, meanwhile, haven’t even been written up as a paper (they were announced in a press release), and researchers say they are still testing more people.
Questions started to emerge about the conclusions of both studies shortly after they were posted.
Addendum: Folks commenting that people self-selected into the survey because they had been sick and wanted confirmation. Agreed, this is what I meant by “consent bias.” This is expected w/ volunteer studies. How to adjust/avoid it? Household samples are great but take longer. — Natalie E. Dean, PhD (@nataliexdean) April 18, 2020
For one, they didn’t follow best practices for study design. In the Santa Clara study, researchers acknowledged these limitations. They recruited their participants through a Facebook ad, so it wasn’t a random sample of the population, and they tested people at a drive-through site, so participants had to have access to a car. The sample overrepresented younger white women and underrepresented Hispanic and Asian people. The study also didn’t control for age. “The overall effects of such biases is hard to ascertain,” authors wrote.
As a result, they likely sampled people who were motivated to be tested, oftentimes people who thought they may have been infected. That may have boosted the prevalence rate of antibodies in the sample.
The Los Angeles study recruited participants through a marketing firm from a database that is representative of the population.
The tests themselves also pose a problem. Right now, there are only four serology tests for Covid-19 that have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration, and even those were only under emergency use guidance (which means they didn’t go through the full validation process).
The antibody test used in these studies, from a company called Premier Biotech, was not FDA-approved. Researchers in the Santa Clara study reported it to be 80.3 percent sensitive to SARS-CoV-2 antibodies and 99.5 percent specific to them.
The problem is that even seemingly accurate tests don’t do well when the thing they are looking for is scarce. Right now, there’s still only a tiny fraction of the population that has ever been infected with SARS-CoV-2, so false positives end up as a disproportionately large share of the total number of positive results.
“So if you have 1 percent of your population infected and you have a test that’s only 99 percent specific, that means that when you find a positive, 50 percent of the time will be a real positive and 50 percent of the time it won’t be,” said Deborah Birx, the White House Covid-19 response coordinator, at a press conference on April 20.
6/7 In a low risk population, false positives quickly outnumber true positives that the results are very difficult to interpret. Even with a positive test, you're more likely than not to be negative. This all has implications for the use of antibody tests for "immune passports." — Natalie E. Dean, PhD (@nataliexdean) April 23, 2020
Other researchers said they found problems in the calculations conducted in the study.
I have been corresponding with the authors of the well-known Santa Clara County COVID-19 preprint, and I am alarmed at their sloppy behavior. The confidence interval calculation in their preprint made demonstrable math errors - *not* just questionable methodological choices. — Will Fithian (@wfithian) April 21, 2020
Andrew Gelman, a statistics and political science professor at Columbia University, criticized the findings on his blog. “I think the authors of the above-linked paper owe us all an apology,” he wrote. “We wasted time and effort discussing this paper whose main selling point was some numbers that were essentially the product of a statistical error.”
The estimates reported in these surveys don’t line up with real-world data on deaths
Based on these studies’ conclusions, the deadliness of Covid-19 should be way lower than has been actually seen. The low-end estimates of the infection fatality rate — that is, the percentage of people who were infected who later died from the virus — were barely above the percentage of the total population killed by the disease in Covid-19 hot spots. (The infection fatality rate is distinct from the case fatality rate. The latter focuses on fatalities based on reported cases, whereas the former is based on all infections, including those that resulted in no symptoms and went unreported.)
The first study would put the Santa Clara infection fatality rate for Covid-19 between 0.12 percent and 0.2 percent. For the Los Angeles study, that would put the infection fatality rate roughly between 0.13 percent and 0.27 percent. By comparison, the World Health Organization estimates seasonal influenza has an infection mortality rate “well below” 0.1 percent.
The estimates from these serology surveys don’t comport with the actual results seen in Covid-19 hot spots like Italy and New York.
In Lombardy, Italy, for instance, more than 12,500 people have been killed out of a population of 10 million, meaning 0.12 percent of the total number of people there have died of Covid-19. If one were to limit the denominator to just the number of people infected, the fatality rate would be much higher.
Similarly, New York City has already seen 0.12 percent of its total population die due to Covid-19. It stands to reason the infection fatality rate is much higher, since only a fraction of the population has been infected.
Across the board, one would expect the infection fatality rate from Covid-19 to be higher than the population fatality rate, so the estimates based on the California studies seem suspiciously low.
Why we need to be careful about using hasty results
It would be handy to know how many people have had this coronavirus and might have some immunity to it — we’re in a unique moment where huge public health decisions need to be made swiftly about when to lift social distancing measures. So it’s important to make sure the studies on these critical topics are robust.
The studies didn’t lay out the implications for the response to Covid-19. But one of the authors, Stanford University epidemiologist John Ioannidis, has previously suggested that a lack of information about the Covid-19 pandemic may be causing officials to overreact with “draconian countermeasures” if the fatality rate is much lower than previously thought.
“It’s like an elephant being attacked by a house cat,” Ioannidis wrote in a March 17 editorial for Stat News. “Frustrated and trying to avoid the cat, the elephant accidentally jumps off a cliff and dies.”
But if they’re wrong, people’s health and lives are at risk. And they might very well be wrong.
Even if the coronavirus’s infection fatality rate is in fact this low, that will hardly matter if social distancing restrictions end too soon, because the fatality rate is also related to access to health care. With more person-to-person contact, the number of infections would grow, sending more people to hospitals. If there aren’t enough beds and equipment for this surge, the fatality rate will rise as a share of the number of people infected.
And the debate over the specific value of the infection fatality rate is tangential for health workers on the ground who are on the front lines of this pandemic. Covid-19 is clearly dangerous and deadly. Already some of the top health care systems — in Northern Italy and New York City — have been overwhelmed by Covid-19 patients. Yet the vast majority of people, even in pandemic hot spots, remain vulnerable to the virus.
Whether seroprevalence is 2% or 3% is mostly of academic interest. What’s clear is that the notion that we all got infected and didn’t know it and now we are near herd immunity is completely unrealistic. Our communities are still almost completely susceptible. 2/ — Caitlin Rivers, PhD (@cmyeaton) April 22, 2020
To be clear: The conclusions of these surveys could be pointing in the right direction. Covid-19 could be way more prevalent and far less deadly than anyone has realized. But the evidence presented by the Santa Clara and Los Angeles studies isn’t enough to make a decision about relaxing social distancing or other pandemic control measures.
Serological surveys are critical to the public health response to Covid-19. However, weak studies do little to satiate the desperate need for information about the pandemic. Assessing the spread of the virus within a population is an essential step, but it needs much more rigorous research to yield anything worthwhile.
Such studies could be strengthened by sampling larger numbers of people within a population and truly randomizing who is tested. The problem of false positives and negatives can be countered by repeated testing of participants.
Conducting a study like this would be more time-consuming and expensive. And one study alone won’t cut it; multiple serological surveys are needed around the world to illuminate the true extent of the disease.
To this end, the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have their own large serological surveys underway for Covid-19. NIH is recruiting up to 10,000 volunteers across the US. The CDC is also conducting a national survey, as well as targeting Covid-19 hot spots and people at higher risk of exposure to the virus.
There is no definite timeline for when these studies will wrap, but they stand to yield a sharper picture of the spread of the new coronavirus. And from there, health officials can start to focus on how to let things go back to normal.


vox--2020-04-24--This weekend's coolest concert is happening in Fortnite

In 2020 , you likely either play Fortnite or you don ’ t .
The expansive multiplayer shooter video game attracted massive media attention in 2018 for its popularity with more than 250 million players of all ages .
All those eyes on Fortnite helped the game grab the attention of people with more clout than the average teen .
Celebrities like Joe Jonas , Josh Hart , and Drake got in on the Fortnite craze , livestreaming with some of the most popular players in the game ’ s community .
Eventually , developer Epic Games started incorporating some @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , hosting live concerts and album listening parties inside different areas of the game ’ s world .
Most memorably , DJ Marshmello ’ s live concert in Fortnite set the record for the highest number of people playing at the same time , with almost 11 million people checking it out in February 2019 .
Travis Scott ’ s live Fortnite shows , however , are very different from the previous musical experiences the game ’ s had to offer .
The rapper , who is also known as Kylie Jenner ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Fortnite , and he ’ s celebrating the release of a new single .
With everyone stuck inside right now , he ’ s probably been playing a lot more Fortnite lately than usual .
So why not combine the music drop with the game ?
Scott has hooked up with Epic Games for a unique virtual concert tour within the game .
Since the night of Thursday , April 23 , and through the night of Saturday , April 25 , a giant avatar based on Scott is appearing in one @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ Sweaty Springs ” ) to perform his newest song , “ The Scotts , ” and a few hits from 2018 ’ s album Astroworld .
( Yes , everyone ’ s favorite “ Sicko Mode ” was on the setlist . )
The event is billed Astronomical , probably both in reference to Astroworld and the size of Scott ’ s avatar in-game .
He towers over any player who gets the chance to enter the Sweaty Springs area to watch his character lip sync to the songs as psychedelic visuals @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to note here that Epic Games temporarily removed the ability for players to kill each other or cause damage to the “ concert venue ” during the show . )
Anyone who shows up is treated to a surreal , 10-minute show , where Giant Travis Scott suddenly gains godlike powers to fling players into outer space , underwater , and a colorful series of dimensions .
Fortnite fully becomes an Astroworld of its own during this special show , and it looks beautifully and shockingly immersive .
And for every Fortnite fan @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at the same time , it seems like quite the unforgettable event .
All of these visuals are timed to the music , so Scott isn ’ t actually playing his songs live .
But players who tuned in during his first show Thursday night could watch Scott experience his Fortnite show at the same time as everyone else over Instagram Live .
( His 2-year-old daughter , Stormi , even briefly interrupted the stream . )
Fortnite is a free-to-play game that ’ s available on all computer and smart device operating @ @ @ @ @ @ @ game console .
So if you ’ re a Travis Scott fan but also a Fortnite newbie , you should still be able to check out the show .
A lot of people have already made the effort to turn out , with the first show setting the new all-time player record , as 12.3 million players logged on to watch the Travis Scott experience inside of Fortnite .
But what ’ s most fascinating about Scott ’ s Astronomical experience in Fortnite is how it contributes to the growing genre of virtual @ @ @ @ @ @ @ artists are unable to play live shows or embark upon planned tours due to the novel coronavirus pandemic , so they ’ ve been finding creative ways to bring their music to fans .
Instagram Live and YouTube have both been popular streaming platforms , but musicians are increasingly turning to multiplayer games to host a special type of live show .
There was a music festival in Minecraft , a listening party in Club Penguin , and now a show in Fortnite whose visuals rival the trippiest Cirque Du Soleil performance .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ chances to check out Travis Scott ’ s Astronomical show .
The remaining dates and times are listed below — as is an archive of the first performance .

In 2020, you likely either play Fortnite or you don’t. The expansive multiplayer shooter video game attracted massive media attention in 2018 for its popularity with more than 250 million players of all ages.
All those eyes on Fortnite helped the game grab the attention of people with more clout than the average teen. Celebrities like Joe Jonas, Josh Hart, and Drake got in on the Fortnite craze, livestreaming with some of the most popular players in the game’s community.
Eventually, developer Epic Games started incorporating some of its famous fans into Fortnite itself, hosting live concerts and album listening parties inside different areas of the game’s world. Most memorably, DJ Marshmello’s live concert in Fortnite set the record for the highest number of people playing at the same time, with almost 11 million people checking it out in February 2019.
Travis Scott’s live Fortnite shows, however, are very different from the previous musical experiences the game’s had to offer. The rapper, also known as Kylie Jenner’s partner, is a big fan of Fortnite, and he’s celebrating the release of a new single. With everyone stuck inside right now, he’s probably been playing a lot more Fortnite than usual lately. So why not combine the music drop with the game?
Scott has hooked up with Epic Games for a unique virtual concert tour within the game. Since the night of Thursday, April 23, and through the night of Saturday, April 25, a giant avatar based on Scott is appearing in one of Fortnite’s areas (called “Sweaty Springs”) to perform his newest song, “The Scotts,” and a few hits from 2018’s album Astroworld. (Yes, everyone’s favorite, “Sicko Mode” was on the setlist.)
Travis Scott’s Fortnite concert experience is 10 minutes of beautiful surrealism
The event is billed as Astronomical, probably both in reference to Astroworld and the size of Scott’s avatar in-game. He towers over any player who gets the chance to enter the Sweaty Springs area to watch his character lip sync to the songs as psychedelic visuals play. (It’s good to note here that Epic Games temporarily removed the ability for players to kill each other or cause damage to the “concert venue” during the show.)
Anyone who shows up is treated to a surreal, 10-minute show, where Giant Travis Scott suddenly gains godlike powers to fling players into outer space, underwater, and a colorful series of dimensions. Fortnite fully becomes an Astroworld of its own during this special show, and it looks beautifully and shockingly immersive. And for every Fortnite fan who gets to see it in-game together at the same time, it seems like quite the unforgettable event.
All of these visuals are timed to the music, so Scott isn’t actually playing his songs live. But players who tuned in during his first show Thursday night could watch Scott experience his Fortnite show at the same time as everyone else over Instagram Live. (His 2-year-old daughter, Stormi, even briefly interrupted the stream.)
Fortnite is a free-to-play game that’s available on all computer and smart device operating systems, as well as every video game console. So if you’re a Travis Scott fan but also a Fortnite newbie, you should still be able to check out the show. A lot of people have already made the effort to turn out, with the first show setting the new all-time player record, as 12.3 million players logged on to watch the Travis Scott experience inside Fortnite.
But what’s most fascinating about Scott’s Astronomical experience in Fortnite is how it contributes to the growing genre of virtual, live “quarantine concerts.” Musical artists are unable to play live shows or embark upon planned tours due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, so they’ve been finding creative ways to bring their music to fans. Instagram Live and YouTube have both been popular streaming platforms, but musicians are increasingly turning to multiplayer games to host a special type of live show. There was a music festival in Minecraft, a listening party in Club Penguin, and now a show in Fortnite with visuals rivaling the trippiest Cirque Du Soleil performance.
There are just a few more chances to check out Travis Scott’s Astronomical show. The remaining dates and times are listed below — as is an archive of the first performance.


vox--2020-04-24--Facebook’s latest ripoff product is a Zoom clone called “Rooms”

Facebook is rolling out its own video conferencing service called Messenger Rooms .
The chat tool looks and works a lot like the popular ( but troubled ) video chat app Zoom .
You might even say Facebook ripped off all of the good features that made Zoom so successful while dumping the ones that made it so controversial .
Facebook does this all the time .
Like many other apps , Messenger Rooms lets multiple people video chat at the same time .
Rooms allows for up to 50 people to join , which is more than the 32 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ than the 100 people who can join a Zoom meeting .
Unlike Zoom , which caps free sessions at 40 minutes , Messenger Rooms has no time limit .
You can create rooms from within a Facebook Group , create one as an event and invite certain users to attend , or start one through your News Feed .
Facebook says your invitees don ’ t even have to have a Facebook account to participate , nor will they have to download an additional app to use it .
They can just access @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is the kind of seamless ease of use that made Zoom the king of video chatting apps , and now Facebook appears to want the throne .
“ Facebook has felt the demand for real-time video , ” the company said in its blog post announcing the feature , which is one way of saying that we ’ re all locked inside our homes and so must seek the human contact , for which we are increasingly desperate , through remote means .
“ Spending time with each other should be spontaneous , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ argues .
It looks as though Facebook wants to set itself apart with the privacy and security features built into Rooms — features that seem to be inspired by Zoom ’ s missteps .
The room creator can control the room ’ s visibility , members , and lock it to prevent outsiders from joining to avoid Zoombombers ( or Roombombers , as they ’ d be called in this case ) .
Facebook says it will only ask for a name for users joining rooms who are not logged into Facebook , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ purposes of identifying them to fellow room members .
It will collect device data from all users , but that ’ s typical of every website and app .
Beneath the surface , Facebook says it has made room links “ difficult for hackers to guess ” — an issue for Zoom that predates its pandemic popularity .
The company also claims that it will not use any audio or video from Rooms to “ inform ads.
” Finally , Rooms content is encrypted , as is all Messenger content .
Facebook stresses @ @ @ @ @ @ @ due to the difficulties of doing this for video chats with multiple participants .
( For what it ’ s worth , Zoom is also not end-to-end encrypted , even though it once claimed it was . )
It ’ s ultimately a bit ironic to see Facebook positioning itself as a videoconferencing service that ’ s more secure than Zoom , which has been plagued by privacy issues lately .
Facebook ’ s had more than a few privacy issues of its own .
Just hours before announcing Rooms , Facebook actually @ @ @ @ @ @ @ $ 5 billion settlement with the Federal Trade Commission , the culmination of the FTC ’ s investigation into Facebook ’ s role in the Cambridge Analytica scandal .
Part of the settlement includes compliance and oversight requirements .
Facebook has already implemented most of these , which actually puts it ahead of Zoom when it comes to instituting such measures .
Rooms is not Facebook ’ s first attempt to get into the group video chat space .
It ’ s not even the first time Facebook has been inspired to knock @ @ @ @ @ @ @ service .
Earlier this month , Facebook debuted a desktop-only app for group video chats , something that looked a bit like the group video chat feature for Messenger that Facebook introduced back in December 2016 .
At the time , that effort seemed suspiciously similar to the then-nascent and younger-user-skewing Houseparty app ( which has also seen its popularity grow during the pandemic ) .
This was years after Facebook partnered with Skype to introduce a video chatting feature to the social media platform ( but not anymore ) .
Facebook Rooms @ @ @ @ @ @ @ long line of products that Facebook has copied from its competitors .
Facebook offerings like Stories , Marketplace , Live , and Pay are versions of features first found on Snapchat , Craigslist , Periscope , and Venmo , respectively .
In the case of photo sharing and encrypted messaging , Facebook simply bought the leading competitors : Instagram and WhatsApp .
In fact , it ’ s hard to think of a Facebook feature or product that is original — including Facebook itself , which was just an iteration of earlier social @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Rooms will start to go live this week .
Depending on which country you live in , it might be a few weeks before it comes to you .
Facebook says you ’ ll be able to create a room from Facebook and Messenger only at first , but it ’ s working on integrating Rooms with its Instagram , WhatsApp , and Portal apps .
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Every day at Vox , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ questions and provide you , and our audience around the world , with information that has the power to save lives .
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Facebook is rolling out its own video conferencing service called Messenger Rooms. The chat tool looks and works a lot like the popular (but troubled) video chat app Zoom. You might even say Facebook ripped off all the good features that made Zoom so successful while dumping the ones that made it so controversial. Facebook does this all the time.
Like many other apps, Messenger Rooms lets multiple people video chat at the same time. Rooms allows for up to 50 people to join, which is more than the 32 people who can FaceTime simultaneously and less than the 100 people who can join a Zoom meeting. Unlike Zoom, which caps free sessions at 40 minutes, Messenger Rooms has no time limit.
You can create rooms from within a Facebook Group, create one as an event and invite certain users to attend, or start one through your News Feed. Facebook says your invitees don’t even have to have a Facebook account to participate, nor will they have to download an additional app to use it. They can just access the room through a link. This is the kind of seamless ease of use that made Zoom the king of video chatting apps, and now Facebook appears to want the throne.
“Facebook has felt the demand for real-time video,” the company said in its blog post announcing the feature, which is one way of saying that we’re all locked inside our homes and so must seek human contact, for which we are increasingly desperate, through remote means. “Spending time with each other should be spontaneous, not strained,” the blog post argues.
It looks as though Facebook wants to set itself apart with the privacy and security features built into Rooms — features that seem to be inspired by Zoom’s missteps. The room creator can control the room’s visibility, members, and lock it to prevent outsiders from joining to avoid Zoombombers (or Roombombers, as they’d be called in this case). Facebook says it will only ask for a name for users joining rooms who are not logged into Facebook, and that’s only for the purposes of identifying them to fellow room members. It will collect device data from all users, but that’s typical of every website and app.
Beneath the surface, Facebook says it has made room links “difficult for hackers to guess” — an issue for Zoom that predates its pandemic popularity. The company also claims it will not use any audio or video from Rooms to “inform ads.” Finally, Rooms content is encrypted, as is all Messenger content. Facebook stresses that it isn’t end-to-end encrypted due to the difficulties of doing this for video chats with multiple participants. (For what it’s worth, Zoom is also not end-to-end encrypted, even though it once claimed it was.) It’s ultimately a bit ironic to see Facebook positioning itself as a videoconferencing service that’s more secure than Zoom, which has been plagued by privacy issues lately. Facebook’s had more than a few privacy issues of its own.
Just hours before announcing Rooms, Facebook announced that a federal court approved its $5 billion settlement with the Federal Trade Commission, the culmination of the FTC’s investigation into Facebook’s role in the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Part of the settlement includes compliance and oversight requirements. Facebook has already implemented most of these, which actually puts it ahead of Zoom when it comes to instituting such measures.
Rooms is not Facebook’s first attempt to get into the group video chat space. It’s not even the first time Facebook has been inspired to knock off another company’s video chat service. Earlier this month, Facebook debuted a desktop-only app for group video chats, something that looked a bit like the group video chat feature for Messenger that Facebook introduced back in December 2016. At the time, that effort seemed suspiciously similar to the then-nascent and younger-user-skewing Houseparty app (which has also seen its popularity grow during the pandemic). This was years after Facebook partnered with Skype to introduce a video chatting feature to the social media platform (but not anymore).
Facebook Rooms is actually just the latest in a long line of products that Facebook has copied from its competitors. Facebook offerings like Stories, Marketplace, Live, and Pay are versions of features first found on Snapchat, Craigslist, Periscope, and Venmo, respectively. In the case of photo sharing and encrypted messaging, Facebook simply bought the leading competitors: Instagram and WhatsApp. In fact, it’s hard to think of a Facebook feature or product that is original — including Facebook itself, which was just an iteration of earlier social networking sites Myspace and Friendster.
Messenger Rooms will start to go live this week. Depending on which country you live in, it might be a few weeks before it comes to you. Facebook says you’ll be able to create a room only from Facebook and Messenger at first, but it’s working on integrating Rooms with its Instagram, WhatsApp, and Portal apps.
Open Sourced is made possible by Omidyar Network. All Open Sourced content is editorially independent and produced by our journalists.