#quarantinelife week 9 -- opening up, who's getting money, herd immunity, and "Under Pressure"

This week’s news seems to blur with last's just as the days have blurred from one to the next. Yet, the headlines are still focused on the virus, though we’ve transitioned from who’s closing to who’s opening up. Mall of America is slated for June 1, said ABC News. 

We are also starting to learn more about the disease, especially as it relates to children. Forbes was just one outlet to discuss the coronavirus-related inflammatory syndrome impacting our precious kids. 

And across America this week we heard the darkest winter in modern history is approaching, according to ousted Health and Human Services official Dr. Rick Bright as reported by VOX. 

I don’t know about winter, but I can attest the Bay Area is facing the coldest week of May in some time and we have yet a few more rainy days ahead of us starting Sunday. Thankful for today’s sun on my morning run! 

Here's the rest of what happened in our ninth week of sheltering in place, including insights into what is grabbing headlines and events worth your viewing time and participation.

Media drum beat. We are holding somewhat steady at 1.33 million headlines containing coronavirus or COVID-19. Need I say more?

Everyone has an opinion. This week’s opinion piece comes from Noah Smith at Bloomberg, who tells us why America needs another New Deal.

Genetics, generics and lymphocytes. 23andMe, according to STAT, is expanding a study on the role genetics play in COVID-19, first unveiled last month. They are recruiting the sickest people to participate and opening up the study beyond their customers. Also this week, STAT reported that Gilead is licensing remdesivir to 127 countries for generics. And finally, T-cells found in COVID-19, according to Science, bode well for long-term immunity.

A tale of ~15 states. The CDC released somewhat watered-down guidelines for reopening, according to AP. This as more than one-third of U.S. states moved toward opening up, as reported in USA Today. Now you can get your hair done and visit a bar in Alabama, play professional sports or go to a movie in Arizona, and in California you can pick up your "merch" from the mall curbside. Progress. In CNBC, Marc Benioff attributed its contact tracing product to work that Salesforce did for the state of Rhode Island’s governor. 

What’s happening in the (home) office? Twitter announced they would allow employees to work from home forever, wrote BuzzFeed. Many in the real estate industry predict the office will return, though slowly and with some changes, CNBC reported here and here. And when we do return to the office, this piece in The New Yorker explains how businesses might open up based on one of the safest environments we know: hospitals and how they handle their workers. Fast Company also ran a byline by the Global Innovation Evangelist at Salesforce offering a step-by-step guide to reopening and emphasizing the role that technology will continue to play in the future workplace. Bloomberg also looked at some questions raised by new work-from-home orders: Will Silicon Valley and San Francisco residents flee their high-rent districts now that working from home is the norm? And if they do, will employers continue to pay Bay Area salaries to those who move out of state? But as we work from home, there is another price to pay, and that is getting steeper for families with young children who need care, according to TIME.

Speaking of the Office. There was an Office reunion on this’s week’s episode of Some Good News with John Krisinski, CNET reported. This is a keeper that will make you smile.

PPP for the littler guy. Finally some good PPP news. Silicon Valley Bank got it right. They serviced more than $2 billion in loans, helped those later stage companies deal with repaying when it made sense, and donated their obligations fees totaling $5.5 million to Covid relief efforts, Silicon Valley Business Journal reported.

Uber’s land grab for Grubhub and more. Uber is going on a land grab with its latest purchase attempt, Grubhub, as many including Fortune reported. The company is facing controversy (again) as its CEO refused pay cuts in favor of layoffs, reported by The Information. Meanwhile, as the New York Post  shared, a tearful HR executive laid off 3,500 employees on Zoom. This is just a week after they bought Lime. "Just let them eat cake," Uber said. But Uber isn’t the only company seeing value in the food market. Slice just scored $43 million to bring pizza to your house, according to TechCrunch. And to temper it down a bit, The Information interviewed Floodgate’s co-founder Ann Miura-Ko on the fundamental reset facing startups and talked about the next round of layoffs facing them.

A little bit of funding outside the food delivery world. It may not be a huge surprise that CB Insights reported a 4% increase in healthcare funding in their Q1 20 State of Healthcare Report. And The Information just reported that Facebook bought Giphy to add to its Instagram organization.

Disinformation.  Speaking of Facebook, CNBC reported that "for those who might be financially, politically or otherwise motivated to spread false information, the coronavirus has provided an unprecedented opportunity.” Blurring the lines between groups that once were fragmented, fringe activists and conspiracy theorists are uniting around similar distrust of institutions like public health organizations and government agencies. Good read for anyone interested in what the experts have to say about the rise in false news and factless claims on platforms so many of us use.

Herd immunity. A much-debated topic today is whether we are going to get out of this pandemic through immunity and how long it will take to reach that point. I turned to Johns Hopkins, one of the most trusted sources for health information, as a credible source for a better understanding of herd immunity. The Economist wrote this on the experiment in herd immunity we are all watching play out in Sweden. And Business Insider chimed in on why it won’t work in the U.S. Needless to say, some reports are out, like this in Bloomberg, that Sweden is making adjustments as the disease terrorizes their elderly population.

Marketing or virtual events. HLTH founder Jonathan Weiner announced their plan for HLTH 2020 (and 2021) on LinkedIn. I will be shocked if the event happens in a staged event format, and applaud his transparency in laying out the vision for what is happening now and how they will address sponsorship in the event it is canceled (please take note: sponsorship dollars will be transferred to next year's event if there is a cancellation, not refunded). So much of this is a work in progress for all. To that, The Information published a piece on how to more successfully run a virtual event, with tips and tricks including some you might expect, like shorter presentations and having back up programming for when an issue occurs. Comments included perhaps moving away from the standard day-long events to a daily hour-long event over the course of the week, to break it up. Lots of good ideas out there. Speaking of virtual, VentureBeat announced that VB Transform will happen July 15-17 on your computer. And my favorite "virtual event" this week was the collaboration of Brendon Urie, Roots and Jimmy Fallon in the “Under Pressure” Remix on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. My heart is happy.

People making a difference. This disease is not political, and yet so much of our focus is just that. So in recognition of someone making a difference, this week I want to pay tribute to someone we all know. Maybe your person isn’t named Kimberly Bartel, but you all know someone like her. Kim is a high school art teach who once sprinted circles around an oval patch of grass with me, I think for the first time in 7th grade. When I see her posts come up on Facebook, I DO pay attention to the students she is calling out. It’s her way of recognizing their accomplishments in a world that is so connected and yet so distant. Kim Bartel is to me the epitome of the greatness that teachers are bringing to so many students from afar. Thank you, Kim.