Tech:NYC Digest: September 20

Tech:NYC Digest: September 20

September 20, 2021 • Estimated Reading Time: 10 minutes

Monday, September 20, 2021

In today’s digest, Pfizer says vax is safe for kids 5-11, international travel to the US reopens, the business case for the four-day work week, and Climate Week NYC kicks off today.

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By the numbers:

  • New positive cases statewide: 3,432

    • New positive cases, NYC: 1,269

  • Statewide Fatalities: 32

  • NYC Positivity Rate: 2.0 percent

  • Statewide Vaccine Progress:

    • Percentage of adults (18+) with at least one dose: 82.7 percent

    • Percentage of total population with at least one dose: 70.0 percent

Today’s latest: 

  • Pfizer today announced its COVID-19 vaccine has shown to be safe and highly effective in young children aged five to 11 years, one week into NYC children returning to in-person learning at public schools. (New York Times)

    • The data must be reviewed by the FDA before children can be inoculated, but if approved, the two-dose shot is expected to become available to those children by Hallowen. (Washington Post)

  • The United Nations General Assembly convenes this week in NYC, but it will still look a little different due to the threat of the Delta variant and ongoing COVID-19 protocols. (Bloomberg)

    • The Biden administration worries that this year could become a COVID-19 "superspreader event" as world leaders descend on the city without necessarily abiding by local vaccine requirements. (CBS New York)

  • New York City will introduce weekly coronavirus testing at all public schools starting next week as officials try to strengthen safety protocols. Unvaccinated students who are masked and at least three feet apart will not have to quarantine if they had close contact with a student who tested positive. The new rules will take effect on Sept. 27. (New York Times)

    • Parents and students have already begun expressing a combination of relief and continuing anxiety as they head into their second week. Hundreds of classrooms and at least one entire school in New York City have already been shuttered due to COVID-19 cases. (Politico)

  • The Biden administration will lift travel restrictions starting in November on foreigners who are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, reopening the country to thousands of people, including those who have been separated from family in the US during the pandemic. (New York Times)

In other reading:

  • They Shunned COVID Vaccines but Embraced Antibody Treatment (New York Times)

  • The days of full COVID coverage are over. (Washington Post)

  • Some Rich People Are Counting Their Antibodies ‘Like Calories’ (New York Times)

  • Is it time to cancel your next family vacation? (The Points Guy)

The average American's workweek has gotten 10 percent longer during the pandemic, according to a new Microsoft study published in Nature Human Behaviour.

  • Microsoft calculated the length of the workday based on the time between Teams users' first email, message, or work call and their last. The takeaway: longer workweeks don't necessarily mean more working. (Axios)

  • People may be spending more time logged on because they are distracted with other obligations during the day while working from home.

Burnout comes into the picture when the lines between work-life and home-life are increasingly blurred.

  • Longer working hours are a key part of the pandemic-induced crisis of burnout — and workers are quitting in droves.

However, the pandemic has pushed a growing number of firms — and entire nations — to experiment with four-day workweeks.

  • Other studies have shown that workers are happier and more focused with shorter workweeks, increasing productivity while they are at work.  For example, Chicago design firm Minimal had one of its best years ever after switching to a four-day week, proving that even a small business can afford to give its workers another day off during the summer.

But for this model to be universally successful, experts say we need to stop seeing the four-day workweek as a perk only able to be implemented in tech. (Insider)

  • The idea of reduced working hours needs to work for every level of the economy — rather than a shift that happens exclusively among those who already have high levels of job security. Otherwise, trials could reinforce inequalities that already exist within society.

In other reading:

  • Let’s Redefine “Productivity” for the Hybrid Era (Harvard Business Review)

  • The Future Of Work Has Arrived. Now What? (Forbes)

  • How Many Americans Are WFH? Another Truth About Remote Work (The Atlantic)

  • Altana AI, a supply chain AI startup, raised $15 million in Series A funding. GV led the round and was joined by Floating Point, Ridgeline Partners, Amadeus Capital Partners, and Schematic Ventures. (VentureBeat)

  • Blueground, a provider of short-term furnished apartment rentals, raised $140 million in equity funding. WestCap Group led the round and was joined by Geolo Capital, VentureFriends, and Prime Ventures. It also secured $40 million in debt funding from SVB. (Bloomberg)

  • ClickHouse, a database management software company, raised $50 million in Series A funding. Index Ventures and Benchmark co-led the round and were joined by investors including Yandex. (BusinessWire)

  • Cortical.io, an AI-powered contract intelligence platform, raised $6 million in Series A funding led by Ezpada. (MarTech)

  • Near Space Labs, a geospatial intelligence company, raised $13 million in Series A funding. Crosslink Capital led the round and was joined by Toyota Ventures, Leadout Capital, and Wireframe Ventures. (Forbes)

  • September 22: Virtual: How to Revive NYC’s Economy, Spark Good Jobs, and Build a More Equitable City, with Glitch CEO Anil Dash, Per Scholas president and CEO Plinio Ayala, United Way of NYC president and CEO Sheena Wright, and more. Hosted by Center for an Urban Future. Register here.

  • September 30: Virtual: Decoding Product-Led Growth Success with GitLab product group manager Sarah Waldner, Figma product manager Katie Szeto, and Airtable product lead Kelly O’Shaughnessy. Hosted by Work-Bench. Register here.

  • September 30: Virtual: Q3 Female Founder Office Hours, for 1:1 meetings with early-stage female founders and Tribeca Ventures Partners’ investment team. Register here.

  • October 6 – 7: Virtual: Future Imperfect Summit 2021, with WNYC editor in chief Audrey Cooper, Partnership on AI head of AI and media integrity Claire Leibowicz, The Knowledge House CEO Jerelyn Rodriguez, and others. Hosted by NYC Media Lab. Register here.

  • October 6: Virtual: The Future of New York City, with Brooklyn Borough President (and Democratic nominee for Mayor) Eric Adams. Hosted by Savills. Register here.

officially starts today, bringing together business and government leaders to take action against climate change. Gov. Kathy Hochul kicked things off at the opening ceremony (which you can

), and there are plenty of ways to get involved this week, virtually or in-person.

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