The massive bailout package that the U.S. government passed last week to stave off an economic collapse from measures put in place to mitigate the spread of the COVID-19 epidemic is giving out billions to American small businesses. But startups that received venture capital money could be left out.

So the nation’s investment organizations and lobbying firms are stepping up their efforts to get clarification around the specifics of the loan programs established under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.

Image: https://techcrunch.com - Matt McClain

Who would have imagined that a 73-year-old novel called The Plague would have more than metaphorical significance in our own time? Yet here we are, beset by the coronavirus and still in possession of Albert Camus’s gorgeous and profound meditation on life in the shadow of death.

Image: Photograph by Jose A. Bernat Bacete

COVID-19 has forced us to adopt large-scale remote working with far less preparatory time than any of us would expect or want.

The good news is that we have learned a lot over the years, the tools and technologies supporting us have improved dramatically, and all of us are more familiar and comfortable with interacting online. There are three overarching challenges we face with this situation, requiring distinct solutions:

“I walk on untrodden ground,” George Washington wrote 230 years ago. One of America’s greatest Founding Fathers was blazing a trail in which his actions (and their consequences) had no precedent.

Today, innovators and designers solve challenges that require new paradigms, processes and/or inventions for which there are no blueprints. As pioneers, they bear the risk of ruin from failure, while pursuing the lofty goal of changing the world.

David Spinks is exactly the sort of person many startup leaders could use in their corner right now. As a repeat founder, he bootstrapped CMX (a network for community professionals that offers support and education) until it was acquired by Bevy (a community platform powering event programs for companies like Salesforce, Atlassian and Duolingo). Now in his role as the software provider’s VP of Community, Spinks is building on more than a decade spent advising hundreds of organizations on community strategy. His sweet spot? Partnering with founders and community builders as they look to scale that intangible magic of getting groups together — while making an impact on the bottom line.

Robots are more prevalent in daily life than ever before. Digital assistants control smartphone apps, while physical bots teach students in schools, sanitize hospitals and deliver food. Scientists have long been studying human-robot interactions to learn how these machines can influence individuals’ behavior, such as altering how well someone completes a task or responds to a robotic request. But new research shows the presence and actions of robots also affect the way humans relate to other humans—in this case, swaying team members to communicate better.

Early on, sometime in February, (COVID-19) was something that people were thinking about. And worried about. Certainly, the worries were not what they are now. But hospital-wise, we had a bit of an earlier jump on it, because we recognized that this was a potential threat. We’re nestled on the intersection of a lot of different neighborhoods — one of which is Brooklyn Chinatown. In February we started having people trickle in who were concerned they had the coronavirus.

Image: "It's not easy being a patient, especially in your own hospital." Dr. Laura Mulvey, who practices emergency medicine, in her isolation unit in the ICU at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn on March 26, 2020. Benjamin Norman for TIME

Spoiler alert. Three (humble) predictions on behavioral change, rediscovering a grand classic: the Maslow’s pyramid. Technology will create better ways to climb up and down the old ladder, post Covid-19.  

A third of the global population is on a coronavirus lockdown, and dramatically re-prioritizing their needs. Here’s our view on what this may mean for the future.

We still remember, while studying in college, the deep sense of enlightenment when we got exposed to the – now outdated – Maslow’s pyramid (for a quick refresh, check: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow%27s_hierarchy_of_needs.)

Image: maslow’s hierarchy of needs By David Bruel & Frank Pagano

While side hustles become more popular, only a few people have managed to turn their passion projects into multi-million-dollar corporations. 

Some of the most recognizable companies that have raked in millions — or billions — of dollars have started as a small side project ... sometimes in a garage, in a basement, or even at a larger company. 

Image: Apple was Steve Jobs' side hustle. Kristy MacDonald/AP

Amid the coronavirus outbreak, angels are telling founders to scrutinize their sales forecasts, hiring plans, costs and every other assumption about their business. Upheaval can also create opportunities, as changing markets and obstacles create new challenges to solve and ways for startups to scale their companies. 

A small study reported by researchers in Beijing and the United States found that 50% of patients treated for COVID-19 infection still carried the virus for up to eight days after their symptoms had disappeared. The authors, reporting their results in American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, say they don’t yet know whether the virus might still be capable of transmission at the late stages of disease. However, the results indicate that quarantine periods might need to be lengthened in some recovered patients.

Image: NIAID

“The coronavirus situation highlights a unique tension in the patent system, which can at once incentivize and spur research and development activities in response to a health crisis and also draw the ire of public health advocates, who see patents as barriers to better patient health outcomes.”

Since China announced the first fatality caused by a virus about which little was known at the time, coronavirus and the disease it causes, COVID-19, has grown to pandemic proportions. In the less than three months since that first death, this new strain of the severe acute respiratory syndrome-related (SARS) coronavirus has shuttered social gatherings, precipitated a mandatory work-from-home revolution and decimated large parts of the world’s economy.

Jenny Spinner is reworking assignments for the journalism seminar she’s suddenly teaching online. She’s grappling with how to use media coverage of the coronavirus pandemic as a learning opportunity without asking students to follow it so closely that it harms their mental health. And because Spinner also runs her department’s internship program, she’s advising students whose work experiences have been upended.

Image: Tracie Van Auken for The Chronicle Jenny Spinner, a professor at Saint Joseph’s U., works with her son Finnian McGahey, a first-grader, on a spelling lesson outside her home, in Drexel Hill, Pa.

Empty classrooms are a defining feature of the coronavirus crisis on college campuses. Empty research labs are another.

Many major research universities have halted all but essential research in what amounts to an unprecedented stoppage of academic science in modern memory. Among the universities that have shut down all nonessential research operations are Harvard, Johns Hopkins and Yale Universities, as well as the Universities of Michigan and Pennsylvania, among others.

The United States has just reached an unwanted milestone in the coronavirus pandemic: with more than 85,000 positive diagnoses, it now has more confirmed cases of Covid-19 than any other country. Although more people have died from the disease in other countries—Italy has now registered more than 8,000 fatalities, compared with 1,301 in the US—the world's third-largest country is now officially the source of the world’s largest outbreak. 

Image: https://www.technologyreview.com

As COVID-19 has forced a large percentage of the global workforce to work and/or lead from home, many are interfacing with a new work system that has actually been one of the fastest growing trends in business.

Join Bryan & Shannon Miles, Co-Founders of BELAY, who lead the nation’s most prolific all-remote (virtual) company as they speak with Entrepreneur's Editorial Director Dan Bova about practical, actionable, how-to tips on working/leading from home that apply to business leaders and company owners of of all sizes and industries.

Get all the latest news on coronavirus and more delivered daily to your inbox. Sign up here.

Dr. Thomas Inglesby, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, warned that the U.S. is "still at the beginning" of the coronavirus outbreak, and outlined five conditions that must be met before the country should consider relaxing social distancing practices.

Inglesby noted that a lot of the necessary information remains unknown, which makes it "hard to predict" a date for this, but pointed to the need for greater resources for medical professionals and signs of fewer cases in at least part of the country as necessary factors before life starts to go back to normal.

Image: https://www.foxnews.com

The coronavirus outbreak is first and foremost a human tragedy, affecting hundreds of thousands of people. It is also having a growing impact on the global economy. This article is intended to provide business leaders with a perspective on the evolving situation and implications for their companies. The outbreak is moving quickly, and some of the perspectives in this article may fall rapidly out of date. This article reflects our perspective as of March 25, 2020. We will update it regularly as the outbreak evolves.

A number of venture capital firms said they’re still open for business, in spite of the Covid-19 pandemic. But deal-making has slowed substantially, as companies weigh what will be needed to survive the coming months. How you invest in the midst of a health crisis that has left a third of the U.S. population stuck at home, and with many businesses struggling?

With the coronavirus pandemic tightening rules and restrictions around the world, it’s natural for entrepreneurs and businesses to see a growing concern rise with respect to surviving this market. Indeed, it’s safe to say that it will get challenging over the next couple of months until we resolve the issue at hand. During these rough times, it is vital to take some time and understand the financial position of your business, and plan for multiple possible scenarios expected. If you are worried about the outcome of this slowdown, there are some financial moves you can make to protect your position. Here’s how: