When Safety Measures Lead to Riskier Behavior by More People
How safety measures can backfire.
Politico – The White House is unlike any other office — a decision to have staff telework could ripple across governments and the nation…setting the tone for other officials, state governments and corporations to make their own telework determinations. A less-populated White House complex also risks sending a startling signal to the nation about the severity of the coronavirus. And it presents a logistical nightmare — classified meetings are not easily held via videoconference..Across the government, federal agencies like NASA have taken some initial telework steps, conducting trial runs for employees. OPM has also sent out guidelines asking agencies across the country to review their telework policies…Other federal agencies, including the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Housing Finance Agency, have asked employees to telework for a day to test it out, according to internal memos and emails obtained by POLITICO…The OCC is also suspending all non-essential domestic travel for events like trainings, conferences and speaking engagements…”
- See also The Hill – Top Trump officials adopt more urgent tone as coronavirus spreads“…Testifying before the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday, Dr. Anthony Fauci, [the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases] made clear the virus would continue to spread across the country…The World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday declared the virus a pandemic and local governments are increasingly banning large gatherings…”
- See also – “Another forecast, developed by former CDC director Tom Frieden at the nonprofit organization Resolve to Save Lives, found that deaths in the United States could range widely, depending on what percentage of the population becomes infected and how lethal the disease proves to be. Frieden, who oversaw the U.S. response to the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic, the 2014 Ebola epidemic and the 2016 Zika epidemic, says that in a worst-case scenario, but one that is not implausible, half the U.S. population would become infected and more than 1 million people would die…”
- See also FT.com via Twitter – The spread of COVD-19 among Western countries seems to follow the same trajectory as Italy.
- See also Washington Post – Washington, DC declares state of emergency over coronavirus and Italy announces it will stop almost all commercial activity, Merkel warns virus could infect two-thirds of Germany [Note – the Washington Post is publishing continuous updates from around the world – check in regularly – the information is startling and unlike any wake up call that many Americans have ever heard – echoing across all sectors, states and localities – every aspect of life is impacted – stay informed – be safe – help others – share resources – thank you.]
- See also CNN – Fact check: A list of 28 ways Trump and his team have been dishonest about the coronavirus
Media Paywalls Dropped for COVID-19 Crisis Coverage
I In recent years, many media outlets have joined publications like the WSJ and NY Times in erecting paywalls around their online offerings, giving visitors access to a few articles a month before asking them to pay for unlimited access. Due to the continuing worldwide COVID-19/coronavirus crisis and in order to make information about the pandemic more accessible to the public, several publications have dropped their paywalls specifically for their coronavirus coverage (thanks to everyone who responded to my tweet about this).
Among them are The Atlantic, WSJ, Talking Points Memo, Globe and Mail, Seattle Times, Miami Herald(and other McClatchy-owned properties), Toronto Star, Stat, Dallas Morning News, Medium, and several medical/science journals. Notably, The Guardian relies on online subscription revenue but doesn’t put anything behind a paywall, including their coronavirus coverage.
In addition, a group of archivists have created an online directory of scientific papers related to coronaviruses, available for free download.
“These articles were always written to be shared with as many people as possible,” Reddit user “shrine,” an organizer of the archive, said in a call. “From every angle that you look at it, [paywalled research] is an immoral situation, and it’s an ongoing tragedy.”
Kudos to those media organizations for doing the right thing — this information can save people’s lives. Let’s hope others (*cough* NY Times *cough* Washington Post) will soon follow suit. And if you find the coverage helpful, subscribe to these outlets!
BTW, like The Guardian, kottke.org is supported by readers just like youwho contribute to make sure that every single thing on the site is accessible to everyone. If you’re a regular reader, please consider supporting this experiment in openness.
