Tech:NYC Digest: October 29

Tech:NYC Digest: October 29

October 29, 2020 • Estimated Reading Time: 12 minutes

Thursday, October 29, 2020As NYC’s reopening and recovery efforts continue, the digest focuses on the resources that help you make decisions about your businesses and your lives as New Yorkers.Was this digest forwarded to you? Subscribe here.

The latest: Global COVID surge continues, prompting new restrictions from Boston to Berlin; Dr. Fauci says don’t expect normalcy until 2022 at the earliest; new data shows 10 percent of Manhattanites have returned to the office, lower than expected; read how Mira is making health insurance accessible for all in our latest Company to Watch.

Confirmed Cases:

  • New York State: 503,176 (+2,499) 

  • New York City: 261,607 (+1,060)

  • Statewide Fatalities: 25,792 (+19) 

  • Daily NYC Infection Rate: 1.4 percent (+0.1 percent)

General Updates:

  • Yesterday, New York recorded almost 2,500 new cases, a number the state hasn’t seen in months. (NBC New York) Elsewhere in the country, new coronavirus cases in the US are remaining consistently high, with nearly 72,000 people testing positive on average every day over the past week. (Axios)

  • Those levels are pushing many states to impose a new round of restrictions to fight back against the surge — Massachusetts suspended in-person school attendance in Boston and several other cities, and Rhode Island will announce a slate of new restrictions tomorrow. (Washington Post)

  • Europe isn’t faring well either: France will reimpose a national lockdown and Germany is closing bars and restaurants, among other measures, as a second wave emerges. (New York Times) For months, many European countries have been trying more targeted restrictions in hopes of avoiding lockdowns like the ones imposed in the spring, but so far they haven’t been able to halt rising hospitalizations.

  • But there is one silver lining: despite climbing infection and hospitalization rates, medical advances and preparation times have significantly improved death rates. (New York Times)

  • The US budget shortfall from 2020 to 2022 could amount to about $434 billion. (Wall Street Journal) New York’s projected shortfall of $59 billion has forced the state to hold back scheduled payments to schools and social services and postpone worker raises. The MTA is just one of two borrowers to tap loans offered by the Federal Reserve as part of aid packages.

  • More than 75 million people have now voted in the presidential election. (New York Times) Nearly 1.5 million of those votes were cast in New York. (Democrat & Chronicle)

A couple good reads: our local leaders are taking important conversations national as we head into Election Day: a heartfelt essay from State Sen. Brad Hoylman, drawing contrast between his troubled relationship with his father and the love Joe Biden shows for his sons; and an important profile of Ritchie Torres, soon-to-be the first openly gay, Black member of Congress, on his own mental health journey. (We talked with Ritchie recently about his career, you can listen to that conversation here.)

The latest results: Many companies are establishing policies and workplace benefits to make it easier for their workers to vote. What are your work plans for Election Day?

Today’s poll: So far, New York has avoided a statewide surge of coronavirus infections like those happening in many other states. Recent cases have so far been isolated to hotspot zones, but high daily numbers like today’s may dispel confidence in the state’s response strategy. What do you think New York’s forecast looks like?

  • *|SURVEY: New York will be able to maintain current positivity rates and lockdown measures|*

  • *|SURVEY: New York will see increasing positivity rates and require more targeted lockdown measures|*

  • *|SURVEY: New York will see increasing positivity rates and require more citywide lockdown measures|*

Find the poll results from all previous editions of this newsletter here.

Reopening:

  • Rising infection rates are coming at a time that could complicate holiday travel in the New York area. (Crain’s NY) Neighboring states have reached positivity rates that qualify them for New York’s travel advisory, but quarantine enforcement is practically infeasible and essentially relies on the honor system for individual travelers to self-isolate and complete health forms.

  • A new report forecasts that MTA proposals to cut service and improvement projects in the wake of the agency’s budget crisis could cost the region 450,000 jobs by 2022 and upwards of $50 billion in lost earnings. (New York Times)

  • Dr. Fauci recently said he predicts that the US won’t return to any “semblance of normality” until 2022. (The Cut) His reasoning is that, while he expects to have a vaccine developed in the next few months, a substantial proportion of people won’t be able to get the vaccination until the middle of next year.

  • Here’s a very helpful visualization of how COVID-19 spreads in indoor spaces and among small gatherings. (El País) It also has some good tips for how to minimize risk as we head into winter.

  • And here’s another very helpful resource: a Google doc that shows you the NYC restaurants with heaters set up. (Time Out)

Related reading:

  • The Difference Between Feeling Safe and Being Safe (The Atlantic)

  • Decades of American pandemic planning actually has saved lives, just not the ones at home. (New York Times)

Working:

  • New survey results from the Partnership for New York City are tempering return to office expectations even further than expected:

    • The results show that just 10 percent of Manhattan office workers have returned to the office as of late October, up slightly from eight percent in August. (The Real Deal) Previous projections suggested 26 percent of workers would return by the end of the year, but that has been adjusted to around 15 percent.

    • The number of employees expected to return by July 2021 was also adjusted down from 54 to 48 percent. It’s a grim outlook for the borough’s one million office workers, who cited no vaccine availability and few office building testing strategies as the primary reasons for continuing WFH policies. (New York Post)

    • Tech employers reduced their future expectations by a third, with only 49 percent of employees expected to return by July, down from the 74 percent estimated in August. Finance employers expect 52 percent of employees to return by July. (Crain’s NY)

  • The rise in remote work has fast tracked plans for more than 14 million Americans who say they are planning to relocate to a new city. (CNBC) According to the survey, the majority, 54.7 percent, want to relocate over two hours away or more from their current location, indicating they expect remote work to be a permanent option for them in the long term.

One Company to Watch:MIRA

What does your company do?

Mira founder and CEO Khang T. Vuong: Mira is the first health benefits solution that costs less than your cable bill. We radically reinvent what it means to access healthcare, regardless of insurance status. The traditional health insurance model works by having a healthy pool, which creates an adverse relationship between your healthcare utilization and the insurer’s profitability. But we know that for certain services like preventative, primary care, and even urgent care, the earlier you get them, the less “sick” you will become down the road.

You got your start working in large health systems, which are notoriously complicated and hard to navigate. What’s one tech solution healthcare in the US should adopt to make their services better?

KV: I don't think US healthcare is broken — we actually have very good medicine. The problem is that it’s very expensive, and technology in healthcare tends to make things more expensive, not cheaper. There is literature out there suggesting that, for example, there is a correlation between rising costs and new MRI machines being added at hospital systems. I am cautiously optimistic that tech like AI will make medicine better — but not necessarily healthcare. We can have the best tech, but if people don’t have access to it (because they don’t have insurance), it only makes life better for a few, not all. Read the full interview here.Request: please let us know as your return-to-office policies are developed and what considerations your companies are taking for developing them. Sharing this information is helpful to companies and employees across the NYC ecosystem and can be kept anonymous.

Recruit: A tech talent and job opportunities board from Tech:NYC and AlleyCorp compiles NYC tech workers looking for new roles and NYC-based tech companies hiring open positions. To contribute to the board, click here.

Events:

  • November 5: Virtual: What Does the Presidential Election Mean for NYC?, with ABNY CEO Melva Miller, Citizens Budget Commission president Andrew Rein, and more. Hosted by Crain’s. (Details)

  • November 17: Virtual: What’s Next for Policing and Public Safety, with Center for Policing Equity co-founder Tracie Keessee and Elucd CEO Michael Simon. Hosted by Tech:NYC. (Details)

Check these sources for verified information from government agencies and public health authorities:

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