THE VACCINE RACE, EXPLAINED
Humankind has never had a more urgent task than creating broad immunity for coronavirus.
By Bill Gates| April 30, 2020
One of the questions I get asked the most these days is when the world will be able to go back to the way things were in December before the coronavirus pandemic. My answer is always the same: when we have an almost perfect drug to treat COVID-19, or when almost every person on the planet has been vaccinated against coronavirus.
The former is unlikely to happen anytime soon. We’d need a miracle treatment that was at least 95 percent effective to stop the outbreak. Most of the drug candidates right now are nowhere near that powerful. They could save a lot of lives, but they aren’t enough to get us back to normal.
Which leaves us with a vaccine.
Humankind has never had a more urgent task than creating broad immunity for coronavirus. Realistically, if we’re going to return to normal, we need to develop a safe, effective vaccine. We need to make billions of doses, we need to get them out to every part of the world, and we need all of this to happen as quickly as possible.
That sounds daunting, because it is. Our foundation is the biggest funder of vaccines in the world, and this effort dwarfs anything we’ve ever worked on before. It’s going to require a global cooperative effort like the world has never seen. But I know it’ll get done. There’s simply no alternative.
Here’s what you need to know about the race to create a COVID-19 vaccine.
The Covid-19 crisis has middle managers squeezed. You’ve had to take a pay-cut, lay off employees, and deliver bad news up and down the org chart. You’ve been working from home for weeks and feeling stressed because there’s no light at the end of the tunnel. What can you do to stay focused and upbeat during this uncertain time? How can you learn to reframe the situation you’re facing? Who can you vent to? And, what can you do to recharge when most of your usual outlets aren’t available?
What the Experts Say
The current health emergency is taking a toll on managers’ psyches, says Jacob Hirsh, assistant professor at the University of Toronto. “This is a period of great uncertainty,” he says. “As a manager, you aren’t sure what you’re supposed to do and how how’re supposed to do it.” Successfully weathering the current crisis lies in your ability to manage those emotions, says Rich Fernandez, CEO of the Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute, a nonprofit organization that delivers mindfulness and emotional intelligence programs. At times like these, the quality of your leadership is dependent on “how you perceive stress and how well you’re able to adapt to, and navigate, adversity,” he says. Here are some recommendations for how managers can cope right now.
A new survey from IBM shows that, for a majority of Americans, remote work is here to stay.
Last week, IBM released the results of a study it conducted about how American's views are changing as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. There are too many interesting takeaways to possibly write about all of them, but I did want to touch on one thing that stuck out.
American's aren't going to be interested in going back to work. At least, they aren't necessarily excited about going back to work in an office. According to the survey, 54 percent of Americans want to keep remote work as their primary mode of work, and 70 percent say they'd like it to at least be an option.
I've been working remotely for years, and I enjoy it, but that stat is staggering to me. Is your business ready for this to be a long-term way of work, as opposed to a temporary solution to a short-term challenge? Those are, after all, two very different things, and they require different approaches.
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