Tech:NYC Digest: October 19

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Tuesday, October 19, 2021

In today’s digest, FDA to open up more booster shot options, NYC public school COVID rates far lower than city average, and how to prepare for imminent OSHA vax guidelines. 

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By the numbers:

• New positive cases statewide: 2,892 (-111)

  • New positive cases, NYC: 1,042 (+355)

• Statewide Fatalities: 29 (+1)

• NYC Positivity Rate: 1.2 percent (no change)

• Statewide Vaccine Progress:

  • Percentage of adults (18+) with at least one dose: 86.1 percent

  • Percentage of total population with at least one dose: 73.0 percent 

Today’s latest: 

• The FDA is planning to approve a “mix and match” approach when it comes to booster doses. (New York Times) 

  • Americans will be able to receive a different COVID-19 vaccine as a booster than the one they initially received, a move that could reduce the appeal of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine and provide flexibility to doctors and other vaccinators.

  • The government isn’t recommending one shot over another, but vaccine providers could use their discretion to offer a different brand, something state health officials have been requesting for weeks.

• The average weekly positive rate among students in New York City public schools is 0.25 percent — well under the city’s daily average rate of 2.43 percent. The city’s COVID safety plan appears to be working, but some experts say the city may not be testing enough students to get an accurate picture. (New York Times)

• The city’s Public Design Commission voted unanimously on Monday to remove a circa-1833 statue of former President and slaveholder Thomas Jefferson from the City Council chamber in City Hall. (Gothamist)

  • Efforts to remove the statue of the third president — who owned about 130 enslaved people when he died in 1826 — were renewed during the nationwide racial reckoning that followed the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis last year. (NBC News)

• Data is just emerging about how much people who have tested positive for COVID-19 may be protected against another infection. A growing body of research suggests infection plus vaccination provides the strongest protection against a wide range of variants, possibly for a long time. (USA Today)

In other reading:

• Mix-and-Match COVID Boosters: Why They Just Might Work (New York Times)

• Move Over, Fake Vaxx Card — Here Comes an Anti-Vaxx Business Directory (New York Magazine)

• The coronavirus is still mutating. But will that matter? (Washington Post)

Remember when Pres. Biden announced workplace vaccination rules would be coming? OSHA has been parsing out the details of those rules over the last month and a half, and it appears full guidance could come any day now. 

Here’s the latest: The rules are now written and under review. OSHA submitted the text of the new rules to the Office of Management and Budget, a procedural step before they can be approved. (CNN)

• The review could take another few weeks, but once the OMB concludes its work, the rule will be published in the Federal Register, at which point it will go into effect. 

No official release date has been announced, but when it is, states — and therefore employers — have just 30 days to enact the new requirements.

• In the meantime, New York has pulled ahead with its own rules. Earlier this month, the New York State Dept. of Health renewed the proper designations to require employers to enact certain health and safety protocols for office workers in accordance with the NY HERO Act. 

• If federal OSHA rules aren’t released by the end of the month, it’s likely these designations will be continued into November, as well.

Even with the imminent release of the guidance, we’re far from the finish line: Implementation and enforcement questions will continue to arise. (NBC News) Several governors (where OSHA allows state-level agencies to enforce their own workplace safety standards) have also vowed to challenge them in court, potentially staving off final procedures for months longer. (Bloomberg Law)

Our takeaway: Blanket FDA approval for booster shots of all three authorized vaccines in the US is expected any day now. We’d venture a guess it isn’t coincidence that those approvals are happening around the same time as the federal workplace mandates. So for companies hesitant to institute their own policies, pretty soon, the only option left will be compliance.

In other reading:

• Some Workers Want Covid-19 Recovery Accepted as Evidence of Immunity (Wall Street Journal)

• The Great Resignation Is Accelerating (The Atlantic)

• The Zoom Room Design (New York Times)

• Clyde, a New York City-based product lifecycle platform, raised $25 million in Series B funding. Headline led the round and was joined by Vulcan, Spark Capital, Crosslink, and others.

• Electric, a New York City-based maker of IT technology for small and medium-sized businesses, raised $90 million in Series D funding. GGV led the round and was joined by Bessemer Venture Partners, Primary Venture Partners, Greenspring Associates, 01 Advisors, Atreides Management, Vintage Investment Partners, and Slack.

• Insurights, a New York City-based employee health management startup, raised $22 million in seed funding. Group 11 led the round and was joined by Cresson Management, Good Company, and Insurtech Israel.

• Seafair, a New York-based maritime recruitment startup, raised $5.7 million in new funding. General Catalyst led the round and was joined by FirstMinute Capital, Signal Ventures, TA Ventures, SV Angel, SpeedInvest, and FJ Labs.

• October 20: In-person: Cybertech NYC, with Congressman Ritchie Torres, former CIA director Gen. (Ret.) David Petraeus, US Dept. of Energy CIO Ann Dunkin, NYCEDC president and CEO Rachel Loeb, and others. Use special Tech:NYC code “fullnyc21a4” for a free “full event pass” ticket. Register here.

• October 21: Virtual: The New Benefits Package, with Upwork chief people officer Zoe Harte, Paradigm IQ managing director Dr. Evelen Carter, and others. Hosted by Protocol. Register here.

• October 22: Virtual: FutureProof Tech Summit, with Aclima CEO Davida Herzl, Twitter head of ethical AI Rumman Chowdhury, Lerer Hippeau investor Meagan Loyst, and more. Hosted by the Startups & Society Initiative. Register here.

• October 28: In-person: NYC: Reborn Summit, with Tech:NYC executive director Julie Samuels, Common founder and CEO Brad Hargreaves, MTA acting chair and CEO Janno Lieber, and others. Hosted by the Manhattan Institute. Register here.

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