Tech:NYC Digest: February 22

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Tuesday, February 22, 2022

Happy Twosday! In today’s digest, Gov. Hochul and Mayor Adams announce new cybersecurity center, studies show COVID-19 booster shot protections are long-lasting, and why some workers prefer WFH more than others. 

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By the numbers:  

• New positive cases statewide: 1,619  

  • New positive cases, NYC: 538

• NYC Positivity Rate: 1.3 percent (no change)

• NYC Hospitalizations: 882 (-35)

• Statewide Vaccine Progress: 

  • Percentage of all New Yorkers with least one dose: 88.6 percent

  • Percentage of all New Yorkers who are fully vaccinated: 75.2 percent

Today’s latest: 

• The statewide COVID-19 positivity rate fell below two percent for the first time this past weekend since Omicron was named a “variant of concern” last fall. (New York Post)

• Several new studies suggest that people may not need a fourth COVID-19 shot for several months, if not years. Three doses of a COVID-19 vaccine are enough to protect most people from serious illness and death for longer than previously known. (New York Times) Federal officials are not planning to recommend a fourth dose for most Americans anytime soon.

• A new Siena College poll found that a majority of New Yorkers want the state to wait for more information before the Hochul administration decides whether to lift a statewide mandate on mask-wearing in schools. (NY State of Politics)

• New York will delay enforcement of a mandate expected to go into effect today that healthcare workers receive a booster shot to keep their jobs. The state Dept. of Health blamed the impact on staffing levels and will reassess a new deadline in three months, if at all. (Gothamist)

• Mayor Adams and Gov. Hochul, together with the mayors of several other New York cities, unveiled a new Brooklyn-based hub for coordinating efforts to reduce cybersecurity threats across the state. (NY State of Politics)

In other reading:

• How Worried Should We Be About the BA.2 Omicron Subvariant? (New York Magazine)

• The Science Behind Why Children Fare Better With Covid-19 (Wall Street Journal)

• What To Expect from Variants to Come (New York Magazine)

The impetus for working from home has shifted considerably since 2020, and with two years of WFH behind us, more workers now say they’re staying remote by choice rather than necessity. But those shifts aren’t universal, and who returns to work as corporations reopen offices may impact the course of employees' careers. (Axios)

Women and people of color are more likely than their white, male counterparts to want to continue teleworking, according to new Harris Poll data of professional employees across the US.

• 52 percent of women say they enjoy working remotely and would like to do so in the long term, compared with 41 percent of men. Just 15 percent of women say working in person allows for more camaraderie among colleagues, compared with 25 percent of men.

• 52 percent of Black workers and 50 percent of women say WFH is better than working in the office when it comes to advancing in their careers, compared with 42 percent of men.

The primary reason: WFH makes it easier for these employees to balance work and personal life.

• Women are about twice as likely as men to say WFH has made it easier to advance in their job (19 percent vs. 9 percent). And while about half of women who are new to telework say WFH has made it easier to get their work done and meet deadlines, 37 percent of men say the same, according to the Pew Research Center.

For those who have at least some in-person interactions at work, concerns about COVID-19 exposure vary across demographic groups.

• Black and Hispanic workers are more likely than white workers to express at least some concern about being exposed to the coronavirus at work (72 percent and 65 percent vs. 43 percent, respectively), according to the Pew Research Center study.

Because in-office workers have greater interaction with managers and executives, a hybrid workplace has the potential to become inequitable.

• Executives are nearly three times as likely as employees to want to work in person, and experts fear hybrid workplaces will become two-tiered, with leadership and white, male employees engaging in person as remote workers are left behind.

The takeaway: Return to office mandates, if not done carefully, could undo many of the DEI gains companies have made in the last few years.

In other reading: 

• Big Tech Makes a Big Bet: Offices Are Still the Future (New York Times)

• Tech Companies Face a Fresh Crisis: Hiring (New York Times)

• Beyond Identity, a New York City-based password identity management system, raised $100 million in Series C funding. Evolution Equity Partners led the round and was joined by New Enterprise Associates, Jim Clark, Potentum Partners, Expanding Capital, and HBAM. (VentureBeat)

• Facilio, a New York City-based property operations software provider, raised $35 million in Series B funding. Dragoneer led the round and was joined by Brookfield Growth, Accel India, and Tiger Global. (VentureBeat)

• Minded, a New York City-based mental health medication prescription specialist, raised $25 million in seed funding. Participating investors included Streamlined Ventures, Link Ventures, The Tiger Fund, Unicorn Ventures, Trousdale Ventures, Gaingels, SALT Fund, and The Fund. (TechCrunch)

• Zoomo, a New York City-based maker of electric last-mile delivery vehicles, raised $20 million in additional Series B funding. Collaborative Fund led the round and was joined by Mitsubishi UFJ, SG Fleet, WIND Ventures, COPEC, and Akuna Capital. (TechCrunch)

• February 24: Virtual: Gen Z’s Workforce Wishlist, with Linkedin chief economist Karin Kimbrough, Chipotle chief diversity, including and people officer Marissa Andrada, and others. Hosted by Axios. Register here.

• February 24: Virtual: The Face of a Founder Summit, with Backstage Capital founder Arlan Hamilton, Fanbase CEO Isaac Hayes III, Wellthi CEO Fonta Gilliam, and others. Hosted by Black Women Talk Tech. Register here.

• March 3: Virtual: Recruiting and retaining talent in the new world of work, with Slack SVP Brian Elliott, Cisco VP of talent acquisition Zohra Yafai, and others. Hosted by Protocol. Register here. 

• March 4: Virtual: Sharing America’s Role in a Post-Pandemic World, with Meetup CEO David Siegel, Bolster co-founder and CEO Matt Blumberg, and others. Hosted by 8W8 Global Business Builders. Register here.

• March 5 – 6: In-person: NYC School of Data 2022, with Council Member Gale Brewer, Cornell Tech Urban Tech Hub director Michael Samuelian, and others. Hosted by BetaNYC with the NYC Mayor’s Office of Data Analytics. Register here.

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