The news: Keeping people two meters apart from each other is far more effective than just one at reducing the risk of spreading coronavirus, according to a new analysis in The Lancet. The researchers combed through 172 observational studies across 16 countries and then applied statistical analysis to pull out estimates of infection risk. The models they used on nine key studies found that the transmission risk when people stood at least one meter away was an average of around 3%, but rose to about 13% when people were standing within one meter. The risk of transmission roughly halves for every extra meter of distancing up to three meters, the modeling suggested.

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As Winston Churchill said, “Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.” We are seeing some faint signs of progress in the struggle to contain the pandemic. But the risk of resurgence is real, and if the virus does prove to be seasonal, the effect will probably be muted. It is likely never more important than now for boards of directors and executive management teams to tackle the right questions and jointly guide their organizations toward the next normal.

After months of delays, hospitals are starting to schedule patients for their medical procedures. Starting in early May, patients in about 20 states are getting rebooked for non-emergency procedures like hip and knee replacements, tumor removals and organ transplants, which had been delayed until further notice.

Australians are using less cash than ever. We’ve stopped taking money out of ATMs. We’ve stopped using it to buy coffee.

And while other societies stubbornly cling to old-fashioned payment methods, we’ve taken up contactless tap-and-pay with great enthusiasm. And now, as COVID-19 has induced a fear of physical contact, that’s set to accelerate.

The best practices for controlling an infectious disease like COVID-19 aren’t easy to follow—keeping six feet apart from others, wearing face masks in public, and, if you’re a health care worker, wearing shields to protect your eyes as well.

But in a study published Monday in The Lancet, researchers provide the strongest evidence yet that these practices do indeed lower the risk of spreading the virus.

Last year marked records for venture investment in a number of emerging private capital markets, including Africa, Southeast Asia, Latin America, India and CEE and CIS , according to a recent report by EMPEA.

In fact, venture capital in emerging markets has more than doubled (in dollar terms) to $27.4 billion in 2019 compared to $12.6 billion in 2014, the report said.

John Hopkins Vice Dean for Public Health Practice Josh Sharfstein discusses the impact of the coronavirus on children as schools begin to reopen globally, and evidence of Covid-19 attacking blood vessels. He speaks with Bloomberg’s Francine Lacqua on “Bloomberg Surveillance.” The Bloomberg School of Public Health is supported by Michael R. Bloomberg, founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News. (Source: Bloomberg)

The term “gig economy” was coined by the former New Yorker editor Tina Brown in 2009. It described how workers in the knowledge economy increasingly were pursuing “a bunch of free-floating projects, consultancies, and part-time bits and pieces while they transacted in a digital marketplace.”

In the past few days, a haze has spread across the nation, and world, but one foundation of reliable and a clear thought is found in the South Dakota State Department of Health daily teleconference, which took place Monday, June 1 in Pierre.

The haze taking over the nation now has spread to South Dakota too, as protests against police brutality developed in Sioux Falls and Rapid City during the weekend. Protesters also arrived at the State Capitol in Pierre Monday afternoon.

Emerging technology is giving police departments new ways to track suspects and head off possible crimes. It's also rapidly expanding the scope of police surveillance of civilians.

Police across the country are using tech to widen the scope of people and platforms that they monitor. This surveillance is rarely publicized given the sensitive nature of police investigations, but details of police tactics have regularly surfaced through lawsuits, public records disclosures, and success stories touted by police departments as examples of successful crime prevention.

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Like most businesses around the world, start-ups are encountering challenging times as the coronavirus hurts business sentiment and dries up funding. Small- and medium-sized businesses have been more adversely affected in most places, but large corporations have also started slashing jobs.

Entrepreneurs currently trying to build their businesses have to understand how the pandemic is going to shift user behavior in the future and adapt, Rajan Anandan, a managing director at Sequoia Capital India, told CNBC.

Many small business owners who have been approved for Paycheck Protection Program loans (“PPP”) are realizing that the loan isn’t as forgivable as they’d hoped.

The amount a small business can qualify to have forgiven must primarily be payroll costs. The SBA’s rule making has stated that at least 75% of the forgiveness request must be payroll costs but can also contain up to 25% of other approved expenses under the law such as rent, mortgage interest and utilities. That rule seems to be widely understood and so long as small business owners are spending 75% of their PPP funds on payroll this rule won’t frustrate small business owners when it comes time to forgiveness. Unfortunately, there is an additional restriction on loan forgiveness requests which penalizes a small business if they do not bring back the same number of workers they had before the pandemic.

There has never been a more important time for entrepreneurship and innovation. Globally innovative solutions will be needed for the challenges of a post-pandemic world. Graduates will be facing into an uncertain future with a recession looming, but recessions always breed innovation. As graduates and students have fewer opportunities open to them compared to 6 months ago many students have decided to see if they can be the masters of their own destiny and start their own business.

As an investor, innovation is a term I certainly like to hear these days, but many of you entrepreneurs try to take it to the next level, by claiming to have a “disruptive innovation.” What you probably don’t realize is that the term disruptive brings its own set of baggage, implying to investors extra high risk, high market building costs, and a long slow ramp before payback.

Consulting giant Deloitte will cut 5 percent of its U.S. workforce amid a slowdown in business caused by the national shutdown in response to the coronavirus pandemic, sources told CRN.

The cuts were announced in all-staff calls by the CEOs of the firm’s various divisions Friday morning. With a total headcount in the U.S. of more than 106,000 in more than 100 cities, that would mean potentially 5,300 workers could be affected.

Image: https://www.crn.com

Imagine a world in which we can produce meat without animals, cure previously incurable diseases by editing the genetic fabric of an individual, and make industrial chemicals in yeast factories. The foundational technologies that could make all this possible largely exist. This is a Bio Revolution that could transform economies, societies, and our lives—and is already helping to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The speed with which scientists sequenced the virus’s genome—weeks rather than months—bore witness to the power of biological innovations.

Let me ask you something. After the virus from Wuhan, China, wreaked havoc emotionally, physically and economically, do you see what I see coming?

I intuit a massive rise in entrepreneurship. Here’s why. Aside from chaos, the worldwide confinement has ignited the Law of Contrast. Meaning when you think of something it typically activates the exact opposite thought. Hot, cold. Light, dark. Etc. Contrast is highly effective. You learn what you do and don’t want, pronto. Keep people captive in their homes for two months. What happens?

Image: Paila M. Parker

If we don’t prepare for the possibility, we risk complete chaos.

The pandemic has caused many students to hit pause on their education while colleges work to determine whether they can reopen for in-person instruction this fall.

Uncertain enrollments and potentially high summer melt have driven colleges to announce a variety of tuition discounts and scholarship programs to entice prospective students and to keep those already enrolled. Whether the programs will pay off is still to be determined.

If you were born in 1960, it turns out you had bad timing. A portion of the Social Security benefit formula is based on national average wages for each cohort of 60-year-old workers. It’s not yet certain how long double-digit unemployment rates will last, but it’s a safe bet that record job losses will bring down average wages this year. That means a middle-income worker who was born in 1960 could see her Social Security benefits reduced in retirement by 14 percent, or $3,900 a year, according to a study from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.