Harvard announced its commitment to the COVID-19 Technology Access Framework, which allows the use of non-exclusive and royalty-free licenses of intellectual property rights for products aimed at combating the coronavirus pandemic.

The COVID-19 Technology Access Framework is a set of technology licensing principles designed to “incentivize and allow for the most broad and equitable access to university innovations” during the public health crisis, according to a statement posted Tuesday to the Office of Technology Development’s website. Stanford and MIT have also signed onto the Framework.

Image: Harvard's Office of Technology Development is located within the Smith Campus Center. By Delano R. Franklin

Starting a company has always involved making critical decisions with imperfect information. From running board meetings and raising money to building amazing products that people will love (even if they don’t know it yet), founders have to master a breathtaking array of domains in an incredibly short amount of time. Even repeat founders consistently face unforeseen challenges. But this notion of forging ahead without all the answers has rarely felt more apt. With a future that’s more cloudy than clear, these increasingly unmooring circumstances are the ultimate test of a leader’s resilience.

With COVID-19 we are going through something practically no living soul has ever experienced. It may be forging new realities, and could place us at the edge of a big change —politically, economically, culturally, and spiritually. What this will look like nobody really knows, but there are some things we can glean about the emerging future.

A few months ago, I decided to quit my cushy job in a multinational corporation and take destiny into my own hands, leaving petty office politics behind. I went from having someone to answer to, to being someone to answer to. I chose to live a life of financial uncertainties and become an entrepreneur. But on top of all the stressful collateral in which this life-changing decision entails, the COVID-19 virus decided to make its entry to the world stage at almost the same time.

When Chloe Fu, 24, went for a run on Monday evening, the streets of Stockholm were filled with people drinking on restaurant patios, enjoying the first warm day of sunshine after a long winter.

“When you walk around, there is a total and utter absence of panic,” Fu says, who moved to Sweden from the United States last year. “The streets are just as busy as they would have been last spring.”

Business leaders have rightly focused on the most urgent issues regarding Covid-19, such as the safety of their employees and customers, and the security of their supply chains. The critical next step is to try to keep cash flowing by managing near-term revenue and expenses.

Alex Lazarow, venture capitalist at Cathay Innovation, says that start-ups in cities around the United States and the world are creating their own rules for success. While Silicon Valley companies have sparked key innovations and generated huge wealth over the past few decades, not everyone should use them as a model going forward. In fact, we can learn a lot from frontier entrepreneurs, who are thinking more creatively about raising capital, sourcing talent, and pursuing social impact. Lazarow is the author of the book Out-Innovate: How Global Entrepreneurs–from Delhi to Detroit–Are Rewriting the Rules of Silicon Valley.

Only a week after ARCH Venture Partners and Flagship Pioneering raised huge venture capital funds aimed at life sciences, Deerfield Management announced the closing of the Deerfield Healthcare Innovations Fund II with $840 million. The fund will focus on investing in science startups related to new therapies and technology related to “improve the way healthcare is delivered to patients.”

Now that the CDC has recommended everyone wear a mask or a face covering when going into a populated area, the need for them is growing. 

A 21-year-old student at Eastern Kentucky University decided to help out the deaf and hard of hearing by creating face masks that are usable for people who speak American Sign Language. Traditional masks are difficult for people who rely on ASL (American Sign Language), because facial expressions are imperative for communication. 

The majority of coronavirus patients were infected by someone who wasn't showing any symptoms of the deadly virus, a new study of cases in China found.

Researchers from the Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine estimated how long it was taking for someone to become infected with COVID-19. 

Using mathematical modelling, the team found that 79.7 per cent of people with the deadly virus caught it from someone not showing any symptoms. 

The team also found that the average time someone has the virus and can pass it on before showing symptoms is 3.8 days - earlier than previously assumed. 

Just as many schools around the nation began shuttering for the year last month due to the pandemic, top officials at Children's National Hospital were quickly mounting their own response to address COVID-19 concerns among kids. 

"We heard from our pediatricians in late February, early March that they were very worried about what they were seeing in the community," said Children's National Chief Operating Officer Kathleen Gorman during a virtual roundtable with FierceHealthcare this week.

Image: https://www.fiercehealthcare.com

With nearly a fifth of the globe’s population on lockdown, many of us have replaced our morning routine of getting ready for the day and then taking public transportation or the car to the office with rolling out of bed and onto the sofa to start work. Those routines and rituals that take us from home to work have changed, as has the content of many executives’ jobs. Operations professionals, for example, normally ensure products move through the line smoothly, but they may now be faced with the prospect of closing several factories while trying to keep another one open. The shape of work itself has been disrupted. And uncertainty about what the future holds is unprecedented.

The NIH is deeply concerned for the health and safety of people involved in NIH research, and about the effects on the biomedical enterprise in the areas affected by the HHS declared public health emergency for COVID-19. Due to the potential exceptional impact, we want to assure our recipient community that NIH will be doing our part to help you continue your research.

The EpiShuttle, a hospital gurney enclosed in a bubble of plastic and studded with sealed access ports, keeps contagious patients isolated while on the move—eliminating the need to disinfect ambulances and helicopters after each run. EpiGuard, the Norwegian startup behind it, is racing to satisfy the hundreds of orders that have been placed amid the coronavirus pandemic, says founder Fridtjof Heyerdahl, a doctor who began to develop the equipment after the 2014 Ebola epidemic in West Africa.

Image: A new European agency has funded Norwegian startup EpiGuard, which makes gurneys that isolate patients. EPIGUARD

Companies with product portfolios tend to constantly iterate on their products because it’s cost-effective and lucrative, sometimes called constant innovation. Think of Apple’s continuous string of iPhone releases.

Those product launches are typically planned a year or more out and the production schedules are essential to the company’s business plan and profitability.

The coronavirus will be the end of the handshake as we know it, if Dr. Anthony Fauci has his way.

The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, one of the leading experts in the fight against COVID-19 the U.S., told the Wall Street Journal podcast on Tuesday that when the country begins to loosen lockdown restrictions, some behaviors must change.

In one of the first such efforts in the country, San Francisco is assembling a task force to interview and trace the interactions of all people who test positive for covid-19. The goal is to find who gave it to them and whom they may have given it to, in the hopes of isolating infected patients, alerting those potentially exposed, and ultimately halting transmissions.

As Maryland responds to COVID-19, Adventist HealthCare and other health systems in the region continue preparing for the anticipated surge of patients who will require hospitalization and recovery in our facilities. Gov. Larry Hogan has called for Maryland’s hospitals to increase their bed capacity to ensure that all Marylanders have access to care. At these facilities, teams are working around the clock to add patient beds, stand up dedicated COVID-19 units and find caregivers. Though, according to the Daily Record, more than 5400 volunteers have registered through the Maryland Responds Medical Reserve Corps, responding to COVID-19’s rapid rise in the state presents a significant staffing challenge. 

Tim Draper, the famous billionaire venture capitalist from Silicon Valley’s very first investor family, the Draper Dynasty, said in his recent interview with InnMind that the coronavirus crisis presents several prospective opportunities for the venture capital industry and technological innovations such as Bitcoin and smart contracts.

Image: https://www.cryptopolitan.com

The COVID-19 pandemic is spawning business crises at an alarming rate. As you experience sudden, unexpected change to your company and industry, you may find yourself at the helm of such a crisis and in uncharted territory if you've not managed one before.

Ever wonder what happens behind the scenes in a crisis manager's mind? On TV, Ray Donovan, Olivia Pope and Eli Gold handle crisis communications with incredible (if scripted) ease--making quick calculations as they overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles.