Tech:NYC Digest: October 8

Tech:NYC Digest: October 8

October 08, 2021 • Estimated Reading Time: 10 minutes

Friday, October 8, 2021

In today’s digest, COVID-19 death rates are finally falling, booster shots overtake first doses, and why companies are still waiting on OSHA vax mandate rules.

Was this digest forwarded to you? Subscribe here.

By the numbers:

  • New positive cases statewide: 5,654 (+411)

    • New positive cases, NYC: 1,317 (-248)

  • Statewide Fatalities: 1.4 percent (no change)

  • NYC Positivity Rate: 42 (+19)

  • Statewide Vaccine Progress:

    • Percentage of adults (18+) with at least one dose: 85.0 percent

    • Percentage of total population with at least one dose: 72.0 percent

Today’s latest: 

  • A nice milestone to start the long weekend: the number of New Yorkers with at least one dose of the vaccine hit 85 percent today. (NYS)

  • COVID-19 cases have been falling across the US for weeks — and now deaths are finally on the decline, too. (Axios)

    • The country is now averaging 102,000 cases per day, a 22 percent drop over the past two weeks, and death rates are down about 13 percent with roughly 1,800 daily deaths reported on average.

  • Home health care agencies across New York are bracing for possible staffing shortages as another COVID-19 vaccine mandate takes effect. Workers in adult care facilities, home health agencies, long-term home health care programs, and hospice care had until Thursday night to get their first COVID shot. (ABC New York)

    • There are about 250,000 home health aides statewide, and with about one in five remaining unvaccinated, as many as 50,000 were not permitted to work beginning today.

    • Meanwhile, a federal judge considers whether the state’s vaccination mandate must accommodate requests for religious exemptions, in a case that could guide similar policies in other states. (Wall Street Journal)

  • According to the CDC, more people are receiving a booster dose of a COVID-19 vaccine each day than those getting their first or second shots. Data shows more than six million fully vaccinated Americans have received a booster dose of a Covid-19 vaccine. (CNN)

    • An average of 390,444 people are getting a booster shot each day, while only 288,105 people start their vaccination series and 276,539 people become fully vaccinated.

  • NYC’s “gifted and talented” education program will be phased out, following criticisms that the program further segregated classrooms and learning opportunities across the city. Students already enrolled in the program will not be affected, but no new classes will be admitted and the program will be completely eliminated when those students complete elementary school. (New York Times)

In other reading:

In September, President Biden asked the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to write rules that would require companies with more than 100 employees to mandate vaccinations or weekly testing. (New York Times)

  • Tomorrow will mark a full month since the federal mandates were announced, and since then, HR, legal, and operations leads inside tech companies have been standing by for official guidance on how they’ll be implemented.

Why it’s taking more time: OSHA has to build standards that will pass legal muster, which includes a number of rigorous, time-consuming steps, like demonstrating that workers face a grave danger at work and that a rule is necessary to address the danger. 

  • The agency is also working through the long list of questions that business groups have sent seeking guidance on implementation steps — questions like who will pay for testing, if vaccine mandates will include boosters, and whether independent contractors count toward the 100-employee threshold.

When they are released, the OSHA standards would take the burden of responsibility away from companies that have so far been reluctant to announce mandates on their own, either because of potential employee blowback or legal liability concerns.

  • Many big employers, including those in tech, have instituted limited mandate policies that apply only to workers who have returned to the office in-person, but the OSHA rules may encourage them to make those mandates more universal.

In the meantime, Pres. Biden is continuing to urge businesses to impose their own mandates, citing data showing that the ones in place for certain workforces, like teachers and healthcare workers, have worked. (New York Times)

What to look for next: Implementation will be challenging, and enforcement perhaps even more so. Some employers wary of mandates might still not act at all, betting that they won’t face consequences because of the agency’s limited enforcement resources or that the standards will get bogged down in court for the foreseeable future.

In other reading:

  • Why tech is feeling the labor market crunch (Axios)

  • Here’s how to deal with the good and bad effects of remote work (Fast Company) 

  • Animal Crossing for work: Is Shopify Party the future of the office? (Protocol)

  • Chronosphere, a New York City-based app monitoring tech company, raised $200 million in Series C funding. General Atlantic led the round and was joined by investors including Addition, Greylock, Lux Capital, and Founders Fund. (TechCrunch)

  • Estuary, a New York City-based real-time data pipeline, raised $7 million in seed funding. FirstMark Capital led the round and was joined by a roster of angel investors including Datadog CEO Olivier Pomel and Cockroach Labs CEO Spencer Kimball. (VentureBeat)

  • Facemoji, an avatar startup, raised $3 million in seed funding. Play Ventures led the round and was joined by Twitter and Roosh Ventures. (TechCrunch)

  • IT Central Station, a technology peer review platform, raised $30 million in Series A funding. Invictus Growth Partners led the round. (Wall Street Journal)

  • Persuit, a New York City-based platform for sourcing outside legal counsel, raised $20 million in Series A funding. OpenView led the round. (Reuters)

  • Toch, an AI-driven digital video content platform, raised $12 million in Series A funding. The round was joined by Moneta Ventures, Baring Private Equity India, Binny Bansal, Saikiran Krishnamurthy, Ventureast, Huashan Capital, 9 Unicorns, Anthill Ventures, Cathexis Ventures, SOSV, Artesian, and Innoven Capital. (PR Newswire)

  • October 12: Virtual: Early-stage Fundraising Workshop, with Tribeca Venture Partners co-founder and managing partner Brian Hirsch. Hosted by Tribeca Venture Partners and Silicon Valley Bank. Register here.

  • October 13: Virtual: NY's Newest Green Energy Projects and What’s Next, with NYSERDA president and CEO Doreen Harris, New York Power Authority president Philip Toia, Transmission Developers CEO Don Jessome, and others. Hosted by the Regional Plan Association. Register here.

  • October 20: Virtual: Startup Marketing $0 to $100M+, with Snyk chief marketing and customer experience officer Jeff Yoshimura. Hosted by Work-Bench. 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.

Any feedback or suggestions of things to add? Get in touch here. Was this digest forwarded to you? Sign up to receive it directly here.