Category Archives: Corona Virus

Governor Eric Holcomb gives COVID-19 update on Tuesday, March 23, 2021. Indianapolis Star

Before the first case of COVID-19 reached the United States, Barry McNulty kept a close watch onthe virus' development in China in January, 2020.

McNulty, administratorof the Hamilton County Health Department, told his son Zach he had little doubt it would soon be a local problem.

From the beginning he knew it would come to the U.S., Zach McNulty said.

Twelve months later, the disease came for McNulty. He died Dec. 17 at Riverview Health in Noblesville after nearly a month in the hospitalbattling coronavirus. The death shocked friends and families who knew McNulty, 59, as a healthy and robust outdoorsman as well as a fastidious health professional who guided the county through the height of the deadly pandemic.

He was constantly helping us understand how serious this thing was so we could know what protocols to put in place, said Hamilton County Commissioner Mark Heribrandt. He was stressing handwashing, mask wearing, all off it. We went mobile, had virtual meetings very quickly because of him.

The first coronavirus death in Hamilton County was onMarch 30, 2020, and the county had recorded 407 deaths as of Thursday.

Zach McNulty said the irony of his fathers death was also instructive: it highlighted the perniciousness of the deadly disease and the value of cherishing the day and loved ones.

COVID-19 vaccine: How to get a shot in Indiana

This virus has changed all of our lives, but in many it has brought focus back onto what is most important and essential to us, McNulty, 32, said at A Night of Reflection, Hamiltons Countys tribute to coronavirus victims March 13, his first public comments on the cause of his fathers death.

McNulty said Wednesday the event, which was attended by county health workers, politicians, and police and firefighters, was a way to tell them to carry on his mission.

The Night of Reflection was also a chance for Zach to eulogize his father for those who knew the popular McNulty but couldnt attend the limited attendancememorial in January.

Barry McNulty was an adventure traveler, hunter, fisherman, boater, beekeeper and rock climber. He coached youth baseball and was a longtime member of the Noblesville First United Methodist Church and the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity.

He was a husband,father of two sons and brother to three siblings. Henever stopped dreaming of his next adventure.

In his day job, McNulty seamlessly switched from turkey vest to lab coat as an employee of the health department for 33 years, 24 of them spent as director. He served as a Noblesville city councilman for eight years and on the Noblesville Board of Zoning Appeals for more than 30 years.

McNulty took annual hunting and fishing trips, such as fly fishing in Wyoming or hunting in the Dakotas, and often brought along Zach, who is now a naturalist for the Hamilton County parks.

My love of the outdoors started with my parents, McNulty told IndyStar.

Barry McNulty also had an endless list of things he wanted to do -- some which he got to and some he didnt -- such as attending the Rose Bowl to seehis alma mater Purdue play, or dove hunting in Argentina.

He hunted for pheasant, turkey and deer in southern Indiana, where he had a property, and raised bees and had served as vice president of the Beekeepers of Indiana.

McNulty had been considering retirement before he got sick and bought the boat of his dreams, a 43-foot North Pacific yacht. He and his wife of 35 years, Ann, planned on trying to complete the Great North Loop, a 6,000-mile course extending from the eastern seaboard up through the Great Lakes, down the Mississippi River and around the Gulf Coast.

Indiana COVID map: Slight virus spread improvement as state plans to lift restrictions

The retirement plans got more serious the longer McNulty spent in the hospital when it became apparent hed have a long recovery, his son said.

They might have been thinking about being snowbirds in Florida, he said.

In the days before his death, things were looking up and it appeared he may be released, said Heirbrandt, who kept in touch with McNulty throughout the hospitalization.

He was telling me Im going togo home for Christmas, Heirbrandt said.

Zach said he couldnt see his father when he was hospitalized because he had contracted COVID-19, too. His mother was able to see her husband during his last four day,but McNulty was short of breath and it was hard to speak. Instead, they communicated with notes, which she has saved.

Zach last spoke to his father through a Facetime call the day before he died.

Jason LeMaster, who worked with McNulty for 24 years and has succeeded him as health administrator, said McNulty kept in touch through texts the entire time, usually with words of encouragement rather than instruction.

If anyone in the department got a text they would share it with everyone else.

He mentored me and he put people in place who he was sure knew what to do, said LeMaster, who was good friends with the director, learned to hunt with him and last year began to raise bees.

He said December was a busy time --coronavirus caseloads were spiking and the department was planning how to distribute the first shipments of the Moderna vaccine.

But McNulty had built the department to meet just such challenges, he said.

McNulty sent his last textto LeMaster a week before he died. LeMaster made a 10x12 inchprint of the words set against a backdrop of a mountain range -- which he framed -- to remind him of his friend and to remind him to stay dedicated to public health.

So proud of all of you, I have always said we have the best PH team in the state, it read.

Call IndyStar reporter John Tuohy at 317-444-6418. Email at john.tuohy@indystar.com and follow on Twitter and Facebook.

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Hamilton County health director led the fight against COVID-19. Then it took his life. - IndyStar

As the editor-in-chief of The Verge, I can theoretically assign whatever I want. However, there is one topic I have failed to get people at The Verge to write about for years: robotic process automation, or RPA.

Admittedly, its not that exciting, but its an increasingly important kind of workplace automation. RPA isnt robots in factories, which is often what we think of when it comes to automation. This is different: RPA is software. Software that uses other software, like Excel or an Oracle database.

On this weeks Decoder, I finally found someone who wants to talk about it with me: New York Times tech columnist Kevin Roose. His new book, Futureproof: 9 Rules for Humans in the Age of Automation, has just come out, and it features a lengthy discussion of RPA, whos using it, who it will affect, and how to think about it as you design your career.

What struck me during our conversation were the jobs that Kevin talks about as he describes the impact of automation: theyre not factory workers and truck drivers. Theyre accountants, lawyers, and even journalists. If you have the kind of job that involves sitting in front of a computer using the same software the same way every day, automation is coming for you. It wont be cool or innovative or even work all that well itll just be cheaper, faster, and less likely to complain. That might sound like a downer, but Kevins book is all about seeing that as an opportunity. Youll see what I mean.

Okay, Kevin Roose, tech columnist, author, and the only reporter who has ever agreed to talk to me about RPAs. Here we go.

This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.

Kevin Roose, youre a tech columnist at The New York Times and you have a new book, Futureproof: 9 Rules for Humans in the Age of Automation, which is out now. Welcome to Decoder.

Thank you for having me.

Youre ostensibly here to promote your book, which is great. And I wanna talk about your book. But theres one piece of the book that I am absolutely fascinated by, which is this thing called robotic process automation. And Im gonna do my best with you on this show, today, to make that super interesting.

But before we get there, lets talk about your book for a minute. What is your book about? Because I read it, and it has a big idea and then theres literally nine rules for regular people to survive. So, tell me how the book came together.

So, the book is basically divided into two parts. And the first part is basically the diagnosis. Its sort of, what is AI and automation doing today, in the economy, in our lives, in our homes, in our communities? How is it showing up? Who is it displacing, who is at risk of losing career opportunities or, you know, other things to these machines? What do we think about the arguments that this is all gonna turn out fine, whats the evidence for that? And the second half of the book is really the sort of practical advice piece, thats the nine rules that you mentioned.

And so it was my attempt to basically say, What can we do about AI and automation? Because I think you and I have been to dozens of tech conferences, and theres always some talk about AI and automation and jobs. And some people are very optimistic, some people are very pessimistic, but at the end theres always this chart that shows how many jobs could be displaced by automation in the next 10 years. And then the talk ends.

[Laughs]

Everyone just goes to lunch, you know? And its like, Okay, but... Im sitting there like, What do I do? I am a journalist, I work in an industry that is employing automation to do parts of my job; what should I, what should anyone, do to prepare for this? So, I wanted to write that, because I didnt see that it existed anywhere.

You just said, Were journalists, its an industry that employs automation to do parts of our job. I think that gets kinda right to the heart of the matter, which is the definition of automation, right?

I think when most people think of automation, they think of robots building cars and replacing factory workers in Detroit. You are talking about something much broader than that.

Yeah. I mean, thats sort of the classic model of automation. And still, every time theres a story about automation and I hate this, and its like my personal vendetta against newspaper and magazine editors every time you see a story about automation, theres always a picture of a physical robot. And I get it. Most robots that we think of from sci-fi are physical robots. But most robots that exist in the world today, by a vast majority, are software.

And so, what youre seeing today in corporate environments, in journalism, in lots of places, is that automation is showing up as software, that does parts of the job that, frankly, I used to do. My first job in journalism was writing corporate earnings stories. And thats a job that has been largely automated by these software products now.

So an earnings story is, just to put in sort of an abstract framework, a company releases its earnings, those earnings are usually in a format, because the SEC dictates that earnings are released in a format.

You say, Okay, heres the earnings per share, here is the revenue. Heres what the consensus analyst estimates were. They either beat the earnings or didnt. You can just write a script that makes that a story, you dont really need a person in the mix because theres almost no analysis to that. Right?

Right. And thats not even a very hard form of automation. I mean, that technology existed years ago, because its very much like filling in Mad Libs. You know, its like, Put the share price here, put the estimate here, put the revenue here.

But now, what were seeing with GPT-3 and other language models that are based on machine learning, is that its not just Mad Libs anymore. These generated texts are getting much better, theyre much more convincing and compelling. Theyre much more original, theyre not just sort of repeating things that theyve picked up from other places. So I think well see a lot more AI in journalism in the coming years.

So, we cover earnings at The Verge, we do it with a very different lens than a business publication, but we pay attention to a lot of companies. We care about their earnings, we cover them. If I could hire the robot to write the first two paragraphs of an earnings story for a reporter, I think all of my reporters would be like, Great. I dont wanna do that part. I wanna get to the fun part where Tim Cook on the call said something shocking about the future of the Mac. Right? And thats the part of the story thats interesting to us, anyway.

It seems like a lot of the automation story is doing jobs that are really boring, that people dont necessarily like to do. The tension there is, Well, shouldnt we automate the jobs that people dont like to do?

Yeah, this is the argument for automation in the workplace, is that all the jobs that are automatable are repetitive and boring and people dont wanna be doing them anyway. And so thats what youll hear if you call up a CEO of a company that sells automating software, I mean, RPA (robotic process automation) software. And thats what I heard over and over writing this book. But its a little simplistic, because automation can also take away the fun parts of peoples jobs that they enjoy.

Theres a lot of examples of this through history, where a factory automates, and the owners of the factory are like, This is great for workers, they hated lugging big pieces of steel and so now well have machines do that and theyll be able to do the fun and creative parts of the job. And then they install the automation and the robots, and it turns out that the workers dont like it because that was part of the job that they enjoyed. It wasnt necessarily lugging the pieces of steel, but was the camaraderie that built around that. And the downtime between big tasks.

Ideally, it would be the case that automation only took away the bad and boring and dull parts of peoples jobs, but in practice thats not always how it works. And now, with things like RPA, were seeing automation that is designed not just to replace one task or two tasks, but is really designed to replace an entire humans workload. The RPA companies now are selling what they call digital workers.

So instead of automating earnings reports, you can automate entry-level corporate journalism. Or you can automate internal communications. There are various ways that this is appearing in the corporate world. But I think theres a gap between what the sort of utopian vision of this is, and how its actually being put into practice.

Lets talk about RPA. Im very excited. Youre the only person whos ever wanted whos ever volunteered an hour of their life to talk about RPA with me. So, RPA is robotic process automation, which is an incredible name. In my opinion, made to sound as dull as possible.

Its like ASMR, if you wanna fall asleep you could just read a story about RPA.

[Laughs] The first time anyone told me about RPA, it was a consultant at a big consulting firm, and they were like, Our fastest growing line of business is going into hospitals and insurance companies where they have an old computer system, and it is actually cheaper and easier for us to replace the workers who use the old computer system, than it is to upgrade the computer system.

So, we install scripts that automate medical billing, and are basically KVM switches, so keyboard-video-mouse switches that use an old computer, like they click on the buttons. The mouse moves around and clicks on the old computer system, and that is faster and easier to replace the people, than it is to migrate the data out of the old system into a new system. Because everyone knows how complicated and expensive that is, and this is our fastest-growing line of business.

And I thought that was just the most dystopian thing Id ever heard. But then it turns out to be this massive industry that has grown tentacles everywhere.

Yeah, its amazing. I mean, my introduction to this world was sort of the same as yours. I was talking to a consultant. I was actually in Davos. Thats not my favorite way to start a story.

[Laughs]

But well go with it. And in Davos, you know, its this big conference. I call it the Coachella of capitalism. Its like a week-long festival of rich people and heads of state. The main drag, the promenade, is all corporate-sponsored buildings and tents and, you know, corporations rent out restaurants and turn them into sort of branded hang-out zones for their people and guests during the week. And by far the biggest displays on the promenade the year that I went were from consulting companies. Consulting companies like Deloitte and Accenture and Cognizant and Infosys, and all these companies that are doing massive amounts of business in RPA, or what they sometimes refer to as digital transformation. Thats sort of a euphemism.

They were spending millions of dollars and bringing in millions of dollars. And it was like, What is going on here? Like, What are these people actually selling? And it turns out that a lot of what theyre selling is stuff thatll plug into your Oracle database, thatll allow it to talk to this other software suite that you use. The kind of human replacement that youre talking about. Its very expensive to rebuild your entire tech stack if youre an old-line Fortune 500 company. But its relatively cheap to plug in an RPA bot thatll take out, you know, three to five humans in the billing department.

One of the things in your book that you mention, you call this boring bots. And you go into the process by which, yeah, you dont show up to work one day and theres a robot sitting at your desk. As a company grows and scales, it just stops hiring some of these people. It lets their jobs get smaller and smaller, it doesnt give them pathways up.

I see that very clearly, right? Like if their entire job is pasting from one Excel database, one Excel spreadsheet to another Excel spreadsheet all day, they might themselves just write a macro to do it. Why wouldnt you as a company be like, Were just gonna automate that? But all that other stuff in an office is the stuff that youre saying is important. The social camaraderie, the culture of a company. Is that even on the table for these digital transformation companies?

Its not really what theyre incentivized to think about. I mean, these consulting firms get brought in to cut costs. And cut costs pretty rapidly. And so thats their mandate and thats what theyre doing. Some of the way that theyre doing that is by taking out humans. Theyre also streamlining processes so that maybe you can reorg some of the people who used to work in accounts payable into a different division, give them something to do. But a big piece of the sales pitch is like, you can do as much or more work with many fewer people. And I talked to one consultant in Davos, and Im sorry, this is the last time I will ever mention Davos on this podcast.

Im putting your over/under on Davos mentions at five.

[Laughs] Its like the worst name drop in the world. But I talked to one consultant and he said that executives were coming up to him and saying, How can I basically get rid of 99 percent of the people that I employ? Like the target was not, How do we automate a few jobs around the edges? How do we save some money here and here? It was like, Can we wipe out basically the entire payroll?

And Is that plausible? And how do we get there as quickly as possible?

How big is the total RPA market right now?

Its in the billions of dollars. I dont know the exact figure, but the biggest companies in this are called UiPath and Automation Anywhere and there are other companies in this space, like Blue Prism. But just UiPath alone is valued at something like $35 billion and is expected to IPO later this year. So, these are large companies that are doing many billions of dollars in revenue a year, and theyre working with most of the Fortune 500 at this point.

And the actual product they sell, is it basically software that uses other software?

A lot of it is that. A lot of it is, this bot will convert between these two file formats or itll do sort of basic-level optical character recognition so that you can scan expense reports and import that data into Excel, or something like that. So, a lot of it is pretty simple. You know, a lot of AI researchers dont even consider RPA AI, because so much of it is just like static, rule-based algorithms. But a lot of them are starting to layer on more AI and predictive capability and things like that.

So you get some that are, you know, this plugs into your Salesforce and allows it to talk to this other program that maybe is a little bit older. Some of it is converting between one currency and another. But then there are these kind of digital workers, like you can hire Im making air quotes you can hire a tax auditor, who you just install, its a robot, and theoretically that can do the work that a person whose job title was tax auditor, did before.

So lets say I run like a mid-size manufacturing company, Im already thinking about Okay, on the line, there are lots of jobs that are dangerous or difficult or super repetitive, and I can run my line 24 hours a day, if I just put a robot on there. Then Im looking at my back office and Im saying, Oh, Ive got a lot of accountants and tax lawyers, and, I dont know, invoice preparers and all these people just doing stuff. I wanna hire Automation Anywhere, to come in and replace them. What does that pitch look like from the RPA company?

Well, I went to a conference for Automation Anywhere. This was pre-pandemic when conferences were still a thing.

And, you know, there were executives on stage talking to an audience of corporate executives and telling them that they could save between 20 and 40 percent of their operating costs by automating jobs in their back and middle offices. And so that pitch, you know, some companies might save less than that, some companies might save more than that, but thats the sales pitch: You can be more productive, you can free up workers to focus on higher-value tasks. Oh, and also you can shave 20 to 40 percent off your operating budget.

And so they would come in and they would assess, okay, you use Salesforce, you use an old database, you use some other program, right? I mean, at the end of the day back office work is people sitting down in front of a Windows PC and using it. So theyre like, which of these tasks are repetitive?

Yeah. Which are repetitive? What are the steps involved? There are some stories that Ive heard of people being sort of asked to train their robot replacements.

To kind of like, walk the RPA vendor or the consultant through the steps of their jobs so that, that can then be programmed into a script. So theres a lot of that, but theres also sort of reimagining processes and like, Do you really need people in three separate offices touching this piece of paper or could it be one person and a bot? I think part of what they market as digital transformation, is just going in and asking people, What outdated stuff are you using and how could we modernize that a little bit?

One of the themes here is that maybe the entire national political and cultural conversation about automation is pointed at blue-collar work. Right? Its a deindustrialized society, we dont make a lot of things here. Blue-collar workers are hurting all over America. You are talking very much about white-collar workers in corporate America getting replaced by, I mean, lets be honest, very fancy Windows scripting programs.

Yeah, thats where the sort of excess is in the economy. I mean, if you go into a factory today, theyre very lean. Most of the jobs in factories that could be automated were automated many years ago. And especially if you go to places like China, I mean, therere factories that have very few humans at all, its mostly robots. So there isnt a lot of excess there to trim.

On the other hand, a lot of white-collar workplaces are still brimming with people in the back office who are doing these kinds of repetitive tasks. And so thats sort of the strike zone right now. If you are doing repetitive tasks in a corporate environment, in a back office somewhere, your job is not long for this world. But now theres also some more advanced AI that can do kind of more repetitive cognitive work.

One example I talk about in the book is theres a guy I met, whos making essentially production planning software. So this would be not replacing the people in the factories who are working on the assembly line, itd be replacing their bosses who tell them, Okay, this part needs to be made in this quantity, on this day, on this machine. And then, you know, Two days later were gonna switch to making this part and we need this many units, and they need to go to this part of the warehouse.

All that used to be done by supervisors. And now that work can be mostly automated too. So its not purely the kind of entry-level data clerks that are getting automated, its also their bosses in some cases.

That feels like I could map it to a pretty familiar consumer story. Youve got a factory, its got some output. Its almost like a video game, right? Youve got a factory, its got some output, you need to make X, Y, and Z parts in various quantities and you need to deliver on a certain time. And to some extent, your job is to play tower defense and just fill all the bins at the right time. Or you could just play against the computer and the computer will beat you every time. Thats what that seems like. It seems very obvious that you should just let the computer do it.

Totally. And thats the logic that a lot of executives have. And I dont even know that thats the wrong logic. Like I dont think we should be preserving jobs that can be automated just to preserve jobs. The concern, I think I, and some other folks who watch this industry have, is that this type of automation is purely substitutive.

So in the past weve had automation that carried positive consequences and negative consequences. So the factory machines put some people out of their jobs, but they created many more jobs and they lowered the cost of the factories goods and they made it more accessible to people and so people bought more of them. And it had this kind of offsetting effect where you had some workers losing their jobs, but more jobs being created elsewhere in the economy that those people could then go do.

And the concern that the economists that Ive talked to had, was that this kind of RPA, like replacing people in the back office, like its not actually that good.

Its not the good kind of automation that actually does move the economy forward. Its kind of this crappy, patchwork automation that purely takes out people and doesnt give them anything else to do. And so I think on a macroeconomic level, the problem with this kind of automation is not actually how advanced it is, its how simple it is. And if we are worried about the sort of future of the economy and jobs, we should actually want more sophisticated AI, more sophisticated automation that could actually create sort of dynamic, new jobs for these people who are displaced, to go into.

One of the things I think about a lot is, yeah, a lot of white-collar jobs are pretty boring, theyre pretty repetitive. One of my favorite TikTok paths to go down is Microsoft Excel TikTok. And theres just a lot of people who are bored at work who have come up with a lot of wild ways to use Excel and they make TikToks about it. And its great. And I highly recommend it to anyone.

But their jobs are boring. Like the reason they have fodder for their TikTok careers is because Excel is boring and theyve made it entertaining. Those jobs, apart from the social element, are sort of unfulfilling, but at the same time, those are the people who might catch mistakes, might come up with a new way of doing something, might flag a new idea. Is that cost baked into the automation puzzle?

No. And in fact, Ive heard some stories from companies that did a big RPA implementation, you know, took out a bunch of workers, and then had to start hiring people back because the machines were making mistakes and they werent catching errors and the quality suffered as a result. So I think theres a danger of overselling the benefits of this kind of automation to these companies. I think some of the firms that are doing this, its a little more snake oil than real innovation.

So yeah, I think there is a danger of kind of over-automating. But I think the problem is that executives in a lot of companies, and I would say this applies largely outside of tech, this is largely in your beverage companies, hotel chains, Fortune 500 companies that maybe are running on a little bit of outdated technology.

I think the executives at those companies have come to view labor as purely a cost center. Its like, youre optimizing your workforce the same way that you would optimize your factory production. Youre trying to do things as efficiently as possible and I dont think theres a lot of appreciation for the benefit that even someone like an Excel number cruncher could have in the organization. Or maybe if you retrain that person to do something different, they could be more productive and more valuable to the organization.

But right now its just a numbers game. Theyre trying to hit next quarters targets and if automating 500 jobs in the back office is the way to do that, then thats what theyre gonna do.

You just brought up retraining. In the book youre not so hot on retraining. You dont think it has a lot of benefits. How does that play out?

Well, the data just isnt there on retraining. I mean, this is the sort of go-to stock response when you ask politicians or corporate executives, what do we do about automation and AI displacing jobs? And theres re-skilling, theres up-skilling.

Theres telling journalists to learn to code.

Right, theres telling journalists to learn to code. [laughing]

And like, you know, you hear these heartwarming stories about coal miners who got laid off and then went to coding bootcamp and became Python engineers, and started doing front-end software development. But those are the exception rather than the rule. Theres a lot of evidence that re-skilling programs actually dont have a long-term positive impact on the people who go through them, in economic terms. And some of that is probably, you know, about the kind of humans who are participating in them.

If you are a coal miner, your skill set is maybe not well-matched to be a software engineer. Its not that theyre not smart enough to do it, its that they frankly sometimes dont want to do it. Its not rewarding in the same way that the old job was. So the long-term benefit of these re-skilling programs is still something that we dont have a lot of evidence for. And theres been some estimates that say private sector re-skilling, companies retraining their own workers, thereve been some estimates that something like only one out of every four private sector workers can be profitably retrained.

So were really talking about something that needs to happen at the federal level if its gonna happen at all. And right now theres no momentum on that from either side of the aisle in Washington, to do any kind of federal retraining program.

The politician who comes to mind, first and most clearly in this conversation is obviously, Andrew Yang, who ran in the Democratic primary. He only talked about automation, basically. Hes advocated for universal basic income because he says automation is coming for all of our jobs. Is his approach more focused on the boring bot white-collar automation? Or is it at the manufacturing level?

No. And I think this is a place where he and I disagree. I mean, I like Andrew. I think he was right on a lot, but I think, you know, when hes talking on the trail about automation, hes largely talking about blue-collar automation. He talks a lot about truck drivers and manufacturing workers and even retail workers. And Im sort of sold on this idea that those industries are actually not the issue right now; the more pressing and urgent issue is white-collar automation.

And I think something like self-driving trucks is a great example of something that I am not as worried about as he is, because absolutely there will be self-driving trucks, and absolutely some truck drivers will lose their jobs. And the same goes for self-driving cars and, you know, taxi drivers and delivery drivers. I mean, theres going to be disruption there, but those are actually like gigantic technological achievements.

They will unlock huge new industries. I mean, you can just imagine, when there are self-driving cars, there will be self-driving hotels and restaurants and gyms, and therell be all kinds of jobs popping up for people who are making and selling these cars, who are repairing them, who are programming them, who are developing the hospitality around them. Its like, theres gonna be a lot of dynamism in that industry. So while, yes, it will crush some jobs, it will also save lives because itll be safer than the human drivers and itll open up new opportunities for people. So thats an area where Im actually not as pessimistic as Andrew Yang is.

What do you think about universal basic income?

I think its a pretty good idea. I mean, what were learning now with the stimulus checks is that giving people direct cash transfers is a really good idea in times when things are perilous and you need to give people a way to stay afloat. And there are other ideas that I think are wise too. I mean right now the tax rate for labor is a lot higher than for capital and for equipment. So companies are actually financially incentivized to automate more jobs because they get taxed less on money that they spend on robots versus on employing humans. So I think equalizing those tax rates could be a way to deal with this on a policy level.

But ultimately I think we have a long way to go on any of this stuff. There arent really a lot of politicians agitating for this except for Andrew Yang. So I think my goal is not to give people perfect policy recommendations. Im assuming some sort of stasis on the government level, and Im trying to convince people that its in their interest to take this into their own hands and come up with their own plans. Because I dont think the cavalry are coming.

One of the things that I have talked about, on maybe every episode of the show is how trends have accelerated in the pandemic. And obviously were moving to remote work, were out of offices. Even maybe three years ago, I was at a Microsoft event and I saw Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft. And he was talking about all the things they were doing, and at the end hes like, And I just heard about this robotic process automation. It sounds amazing.

And now its like, oh, everyones doing it. Microsoft is in that business. He went from, I thought it was interesting to, If youre writing robots to use Excel, were gonna write the robots for you. That is a huge business. Thats a great business for Microsoft to be in. Googles doing it. You mentioned the other two companies that are already big. How much has the pandemic accelerated this curve?

A huge amount. I mean, I talked to a bunch of consultants who get these calls to come in and automate, you know, the call center or the finance department at big companies. And they said, there are basically two reasons why things have accelerated. One is that, I think, the pandemic has created a lot more demand for certain types of services and goods and created some supply chain issues. And so companies actually need to automate parts of their operations just to keep up with the demand.

But they also mention that theres been this kind of political cover that the pandemic gave the executives, because a lot of this technology, the RPA technology, is not new. Like this has been around. Its not sophisticated, its not mind-blowing in its complexity. But its fairly obviously displacing workers, and so a lot of executives have resisted it because, you know, it doesnt save them that much money, its not that much more productive or accurate than the humans doing those jobs, and if they implement RPA in normal times, workers get freaked out. Theres a backlash, maybe the mayor of their city calls and asks them why theyre automating jobs. Its a political headache in the instances when it happens publicly.

But during COVID theres been no real backlash to that. In fact, customers want automation because it lets them get goods and services without coming into contact with humans who might potentially be sick. So it kind of freed up executives to do the kind of RPA automation that they had been wanting to do and have been capable of doing for years. And so the consultants I talked to said, Yeah, were fielding calls from a lot of people who are saying, Yeah, lets do that automation project we talked about a couple years ago. Now is the right time.

Youre gonna come into our back office, while everyones out of the office, and figure out which accountants we dont need anymore.

Exactly, and you know, theres some precedent for this. I mean, economic disruption is often when big changes happen in the workplace. Youve already seen millions of jobs disappearing during the pandemic, and some of those jobs might not come back. It might just be that these companies are able to operate with many fewer people.

So youve called them boring bots. You say the technology is not so sophisticated. The industry calls it RPA. Like, theres a lot of pressure on making this seem not the most technologically sophisticated or exciting thing. It comes with a lot of change, but Im wondering, are there any stories of RPA going horribly wrong?

Im just imagining like, I think the most consumer-facing automation is, you call the customer support line and you go through the phone tree. It makes all the sense in the world on paper: if all I need is the balance of my credit card, I should just press 5 and a robot will read it to me, but like I just want to talk to a person every time. Because that phone tree never has the options I want or its always confused or something is wrong. There has to be a similar story in the back office where the accounting software went completely sideways and no one caught it, right?

Yeah, I mean, theres several stories like that in the book. Theres a trading firm called Knight Capital that had an algorithm go haywire and it lost millions of dollars in milliseconds. There was actually just a story in the financial markets I forget who it was, it was one of the big banks accidentally wired hundreds of millions of dollars to someone else and couldnt get it back. And so it was just like, they just lost that. Im sure that automation had some role in that, but that might have been a human error.

But there are also lower-level instances of this going haywire. One of the examples I talk about in the book is this guy Mike Fowler, who is an Australian entrepreneur who came up with a way to automate T-shirt design. So, I dont know if you remember like five or six years ago, but there were all these auto-generated T-shirts on Facebook that were advertised. So, you know, itd be like, Kiss me, Im a tech blogger who loves punk rock. You know, and those would just be like Mad Libs, you know?

Hang on, I gotta buy a T-shirt.

[Laughing] Or like, My other car is a flying bike, or whatever. You know, it was just the weirdest, most nonsensical combinations of demographic targeting IDs, like plugged into T-shirt designs and uploaded to the internet. And Mike Fowler was one of the people who was making that, and he pioneered this algorithm that would take, you know, sort of catchphrases, and plug words into them and then automatically generate the designs and list the SKUs on Amazon and make the ads for Facebook.

And so he made a lot of money doing this, and then one day it went totally wrong because he hadnt cleaned up the word bank that this algorithm drew from. So there were people noticing shirts for sale on Amazon that were saying things like Keep calm and hit her, or, Keep calm and rape a lot. Like just words that he had forgotten to clean out of the database, and so as a result, his store got taken down. He lost all his business. He had to change jobs, like it was a traumatic event for him. And thats a colorful example but there are, Im sure, lots of more mundane examples of this happening at places that have implemented RPA.

Is that cost baked in? Im imagining, you know, the mid-sized bottling firm in the Midwest and the slick top five consulting companies selling RPA, Everythings gonna be great. Then they leave. The software is going sideways. No one really knows how to use it. Like, is that all baked into the cost? Is that just, the consulting company gets to come back in and charge you more money to fix it?

I think thats how its going a lot of the time. The consulting companies end up sort of playing a kind of oversight role with the bots when they malfunction. Because there just isnt a whole lot of tech expertise in a lot of these companies, and certainly not for things like this. So, yeah, the consulting companies are making money hand over fist on this. Theres no question about it. And this has been a transformative line of business for them because its actually like, its not that hard, frankly.

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The robots are coming for your office - The Verge

Fish have a sensory system known as the lateral line, which allows them to detect movements, vibrations and pressure gradients in the water. Scientists have now given a robotic fish its own version of that system, letting it determine the best swimming speed.

The study involved researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems (Germany), Seoul National University and Harvard University. They created a soft-bodied fish-inspired robot, which was able to swim in place against a water current passing through a tank.

Its undulating swimming motion was made possible thanks to a series of linked silicone chambers, located along either side of its body. Air was alternately pumped into the chambers on one side and out of those on the other this caused the inflated side to expand and curve outwards, while the deflated side curled inwards.

The robot's lateral line system consisted of two liquid-metal-filled silicone microchannels, running the length of each side. As each of those channels stretched while that side of the body curved, the electrical resistance of the liquid metal within increased. Therefore, by monitoring the changes in resistance, it was possible to determine how much a given amount of air pressure caused the robot's body to undulate.

The scientists proceeded to set up a self-learning loop, in which a computer connected to the robot measured the changing water current velocity, then automatically adjusted the air pressure in response to that information. Doing so allowed the robot to continuously maintain a swimming speed which matched that of the current. In a natural environment such as a river, this would keep the robot from being swept downstream when not proceeding forward.

"This robot will allow us to test and refine hypotheses regarding the neuromechanics of swimming animals as well as help us improve future underwater robots," says Max Planck's Dr. Ardian Jusufi. "In addition to characterizing the soft strain sensor under submerged dynamic conditions for the first time, we also developed a simple and flexible data-driven modelling approach in order to design our swimming feedback controller."

A paper on the research was recently published in the journal Advanced Intelligent Systems. The robot can be seen in action, in the video below.

Source: Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems

From a real fish to a soft robotic model - a publication in Wileys Advanced Intelligent Systems

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Robotic fish learns to match its swimming speed to the current - New Atlas

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) Michigan has reported 4,801 more confirmed cases of coronavirus and six more related deaths.

The Monday update, which includes two days worth of data, brings the total number of cases in the state to 629,612 and the total number of associated deaths to 15,903.

On Saturday, labs tested 28,843 samples for the virus and 2,332, 8.09%, were positive. On Sunday, 26,394 samples were tested and 2,538, or 9.62%, were positive.

The number of positive tests is not the same as the number of new cases because people may be tested more than once. Additionally, testing numbers are from a single calendar date, while the number of new cases lists the increase since the last time the state compiled the data; these two time frames do not match up precisely.

The state has started tracking 65 more coronavirus outbreaks at K-12 schools, colleges and universities, bringing the total number of such outbreaks to 231. Portage Central High School and Portage Central Elementary are tracking outbreaks of 20 or more people, NorthPointe Christian School has at least 30 cases and Forest Hills Central 34 cases, while East Grand Rapids High School has an outbreak of more than 40.

The number of outbreaks in schools is rising as the state also sees a sharp uptick in the number of confirmed cases among people age 10 to 19. For the first time last week, the number of new outbreaks in schools was larger than the number of outbreaks in long-term care facilities. Public health officials attribute this, in part, to more kids participating in sports and other extracurricular activities.

Two West Michigan counties reported one additional death each over the weekend: Barry and Oceana counties have now had 48 and 49 deaths, respectively. Barry County has had 3,219 total cases and Oceana County 1,846.

The death toll in Ottawa County was revised down by one to 323. This has not been uncommon as cases are double-checked and sometimes moved between jurisdictions. It has had 22,093 total cases.

Kent County confirmed 246 more cases of the virus for a total of 50,999. The number of deaths remained unchanged at 668.

Wayne County, where Detroit is, reported 998 more confirmed cases, bringing its total to 101,951. Its number of deaths remained unchanged from Saturday at 3,988. Oakland County has had 69,632 cases (740 more than were reported Saturday) and 1,935 deaths (no change). Macomb County has had 60,184 cases (655 more) and 1,900 deaths (no change).

Key virus metrics are showing concerning increases in Michigan: The case rate has been on the rise for a month and the average positive testing rate is nearing 7%, more than twice the 3% that public health officials look for to show community spread is controlled.

Hospitalization rates are also on the uptick. More than 1,400 adults were hospitalized Monday, confirmed to have the virus. Thats about twice as many as a month ago and an increase of more than 460 in the past week. The peak during the fall surge, which happened Dec. 1, was 3,884 patients.

As of Monday, Michigan had received more than 4.3 million doses of the vaccine and nearly 3.6 million doses had been administered statewide, reaching about 28.5% of the population over the age of 16. Last week, the state averaged about 67,500 shots given each day; that rate has been increasing fairly steadily week over week.

Several counties have vaccinated a higher percentage of their population than the state average. Those above that 28.5% mark are Kalamazoo, Muskegon, Kent, Ottawa, Berrien and Van Buren counties.

As of Monday afternoon, Cass County is making the slowest progress statewide at 16% of residents vaccinated. The county is grouped with Van Buren for its district health department, which has vaccinated 29% of residents.

Those falling below the statewide progress arent far off. Much of the difference can be attributed to local health departments handling distribution as the sole provider in the area before more pharmacies receiving shipments.

The health department is really the only provider in the jurisdiction that is able to provide vaccine to the community members, Allegan County Health Department Public Information Officer Lindsay Maunz told News 8. So knowing that, weve really leveraged partnerships across the sectors and learned throughout this response that those community partnerships are key.

She noted ACHD previously gave some doses to Meijer to help with a clinic prior to the company receiving federal allocation.

Were working to identify those solutions and those barriers, Maunz said.

Effective Monday, everyone age 50 and up and everyone 16 and up with a preexisting health condition is eligible to get vaccinated in Michigan. The state will open up access to everyone, regardless of health status, April 5. However, be aware that it could still take a while to get an appointment because supply is still limited.

Later this week, the federal government will open a mass vaccination site at Ford Field in Detroit. Meijer, which is helping run the site, said Monday it had already registered 110,000 people to get their shots there and set appointments for 14,000. To register, go to Meijers website or call the state COVID-19 hotline at 888.535.6136.

News 8s Lynsey Mukomel contributed to this report.

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Michigan reports about 4,800 coronavirus cases over the weekend - WOODTV.com

MinnPost provides updates on coronavirus in Minnesota Sunday through Friday. The information is published following a press phone call with members of the Walz administration or after the release of daily COVID-19 figures by the Minnesota Department of Health.

Here are the latest updates from March 22, 2021:

There are no new deaths of COVID-19 to report in Minnesota, the Minnesota Department of Health said Monday.

MDH also said Monday there have been 506,376 total cases of COVID-19 in Minnesota. The number of positives is up 1,152 from Sundays count and is based on 19,381 new tests. The seven-day positivity average, which lags by a week, is 4.5 percent, up from 3.6 percent the week prior. You can find the seven-day positive case average here.

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The state reports 1,430,349 people roughly 25.7 percent of Minnesotas population have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, including 78.9 percent of those 65 and older. The most recent data also shows 850,829 people 15.3 percent of the states population have completed their vaccinations.

The most recent data available show 77 Minnesotans are hospitalized in intensive care with COVID-19, and 241 are in the hospital with COVID-19 not in intensive care. You can find more information about Minnesotas current ICU usage and capacity here.

More information on cases can be found here.

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MDHs coronavirus website: https://www.health.state.mn.us/diseases/coronavirus/index.html

MDHs phone line for COVID-19 questions: 651-297-1304

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Coronavirus in Minnesota: zero new deaths reported in the state - MinnPost

JACKSON COUNTY, MI -- Hundreds of millions of dollars will soon be sent to Jackson County communities as part of the newest federal government stimulus package, but they have yet to determine how or when theyll be able to spend that money.

Congress American Rescue Plan, the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package, includes $350 billion for state and local governments. More than $10 billion of that could be coming to Michigan, according to preliminary estimates shared by officials.

But just how that aid can be spent still is a mystery, officials said. City and county officials say they have not received federal guidance on the exact value of the aid, how it can be used and if theyll get it in installments or all at once.

Read more: See how much stimulus money your town gets; Michigan splits $10.3B in funding

That makes it difficult for municipalities to plan, Jackson County Board of Commissioners Chairman Steve Shotwell said. The county appreciates the revenue -- preliminary estimates say it will receive $30.7 million -- but Shotwell said hes staying reserved until federal guidance is shared.

You dont want to get caught in a situation where you spend money on a project and have to pay it back, Shotwell said. Then you short-change other revenue down the line.

County department leaders will prepare by recommending projects that could be funded, then recommend them to the board once the federal parameters are set, Shotwell said.

The preliminary estimate of $32 million for the city of Jackson from this coronavirus aid came as a surprise to the administration. By comparison, the citys general fund revenue for this fiscal year is about $26 million.

In April 2020, the city received $756,020 from the CARES Act for coronavirus relief, but this stimulus is bigger in part because population, poverty rates and housing instability for a city were included in determining the aid.

Related: Jackson granted $750,000 from feds to aid fight against coronavirus

No plans have been set for the money because of the lack of spending requirements. In city hall, the conversations are stabilizing the operating budget to address the expected losses of city income tax. More information will be shared with residents, possibly through public input sessions, in the future, City Spokesman Aaron Dimick said.

Its a really big amount of money, but when you look at the overall impacts that were going to see over the next 10 years, we may need that much money to overcome these obstacles at the city level, and also help our community overcome obstacles, Dimick said.

Here is a breakdown of aid estimates for Jackson communities:

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See the rest here:

Tens of millions in coronavirus relief aid expected for Jackson County communities - MLive.com

(Reuters) - AstraZeneca will release the most up-to-date results from its latest COVID-19 vaccine trial within 48 hours after U.S. health officials publicly criticised the drugmaker for using outdated information in a press release earlier this week.

FILE PHOTO: A man undergoes the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) test at a testing site which is temporarily set up at City Hall Plaza in Seoul, South Korea December 18, 2020. REUTERS/Heo Ran/File Photo

DEATHS AND INFECTIONS * Eikon users, see COVID-19: MacroVitals here for a case tracker and summary of news.

* The European Union health commissioner urged other countries manufacturing vaccines to contribute to global supply and facilitate the good functioning of supply chains.

* Germany is extending its lockdown until April 18 and calling on citizens to stay at home over the Easter holidays to try to break a third wave of the pandemic, Chancellor Angela Merkel said, as the country races to vaccinate its population.

* The French hospital system could face an unprecedented violent shock in about three weeks if the country fails to curb its vertiginous rise in cases, the president of the French hospital federation said.

* France will lower the age from which people can be vaccinated against the virus to 70 from 75, Emmanuel Macron said.

* Norwegian police said they have begun questioning Prime Minister Erna Solberg over a birthday party she held last month, which could lead to a fine of 10,000 crowns ($1,165) for breaking social distancing rules.

* Uruguay confirmed that it had detected the presence of two coronavirus variants that originated in neighbouring Brazil as the tiny South American nation faces a spike in cases and deaths.

* India will expand its vaccination campaign from April 1 to include everyone aged above 45, a minister said, to meet a demand by many states grappling with a second surge in infections.

* Several South Korea provinces and cities continued to require coronavirus testing for foreign workers, despite a request from the national government that prompted Seoul to end its mandate amid international outcry.

* South Koreas President Moon Jae-in received AstraZenecas vaccine ahead of an overseas trip.

* Vietnam has approved Russias Sputnik V vaccine for use, Russias RDIF sovereign wealth fund said.

* Russian developers of the Sputnik V vaccine said they have applied for domestic approval of a single-dose light version, and that trials of it in Russia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE)and Ghana have already begun.

* The UAE said unvaccinated private sector workers in five industries must get a PCR test every two weeks, in a bid to encourage vaccine uptake.

* A COVID-19 vaccine candidate being developed by a unit of Chinas Livzon Pharmaceutical Group Inc has gained clinical trial approval from the Chinese regulator, Joincare Pharmaceutical Group Industry said.

* More producers of COVID-19 vaccines should follow AstraZenecas lead and license technology to other manufacturers, the World Health Organizations head said, as he described continuing vaccine inequity as grotesque.

* New late-stage trial data show Regeneron and Roches antibody cocktail against COVID-19 cut hospitalisation or death by 70% versus a placebo in non-hospitalised patients, the Swiss drugmaker said.

* Oil prices slumped and shares slipped from a one-year peak as a wave of infections, a fresh lockdown in Germany, and U.S. and European sanctions over China combined to curb risk appetite worldwide.

* Prospects for a recovery from the COVID-induced economic slowdown are uncertain and uneven, with some emerging economies and almost all low-income countries at risk of lower growth, the IMFs managing director said.

* Consumer confidence in Brazil registered its third largest monthly fall on record, a survey indicated, hammered by a deadly second wave of the pandemic and near collapse of the public health system in several cities.

Compiled by Federico Maccioni and Jagoda Darlak; Editing by Edmund Blair and Emelia Sithole-Matarise

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Factbox: Latest on the worldwide spread of the coronavirus - Reuters

The latest:

British Columbia's top doctor is again calling on people to follow the current guidelines andnot gather inside,pointing to the increased transmissibility of the B117 variant and saying it is"much easier to spread it with even minimal contact in indoor settings."

As of Monday evening, a tracking site maintained by federal officials showed 1,240 reported cases of the B117 variant in B.C. alone. Across the country, there have been 5,117 reported cases of the variant, which was first reported in the U.K.

Dr. Bonnie Henry said indoor gatherings of "any size" remain a risk and urged people to follow public health guidelines and only gather in small groups of up to 10 outside.

"The areas where we know it spreads most quickly and most dangerously are the same as they were last yearbut now there's even less a margin for error," Henry said Monday as she provided updated COVID-19 figures for the weekend.

"This is a time where we need to take those little sacrifices all of us so that we can continue to keep those important workplaces open,we can continue to support our children to be in school, and we can continue to support our immunization programs so that we can all be safe very soon."

Under the current restrictions in place in B.C., social gatherings of any size aren't allowed inside homes with "anyone other than your household or, if you live alone, your core bubble."

Henry said that while morepeople are getting their shots every day, it's important for people to understand that the risk "for all of us remains high."

Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada's chief public health officer, said Monday on Twitter thatAlberta, Ontario, British Columbia and Quebec are reporting the highest numbers of COVID-19 cases involving more transmissible variants.

Variants of concern are "moving quickly," Henry said. "To counter that, we continue to be slow and steady and to find our balance, our path to get to those brighter days which are not that far away now."

As of Monday, COVID-19 hospitalizations in the province stood at303, including 80 in critical care, Henry said.

Adrian Dix, the province's health minister, reiterated Henry's call and said indoor gatherings remaina "major problem" in B.C.

"If you are thinking of going out for a birthday celebration or someone invites you to a wedding celebration somewhere do not go right now."

-From CBC News and The Canadian Press, last updated at 7 a.m. ET.

WATCH |3rd COVID-19 wave hitting young Canadians harder:

As of 1p.m. ET on Tuesday, Canada had reported 940,929 cases of COVID-19, with 36,096 cases considered active. A CBC News tally of deaths stood at22,729.

In Atlantic Canada,Prince Edward Islandreported two new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, both in people under the age of 19.

The island, which has not recorded any COVID-19 related deaths since the pandemic began, had eight active cases as of Tuesday, officials said.

InNova Scotia, meanwhile, health officials reported one new case of COVID-19 on Tuesday.Newfoundland and Labradorreported no new cases.

Health officials inNew Brunswickhad not yet provided updated figures for the day.

Ontarioon Tuesday reported 1,546 new cases of COVID-19 and nine additional deaths. According to provincial data, the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations stood at 868, with 324 in intensive care units.

People aged 75 years and older in Ontario on Mondaybegan booking their vaccine appointments through a provincial online portal and call centre, while pharmacies in three public health units started administering AstraZeneca-Oxford shots to those aged60 and older.

InQuebec,health officials reported 656 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday and four additional deaths. Hospitalizations in the province stood at 519, with 113 COVID-19 patients reported to be in intensive care units.

In the Prairie provinces,Manitobaofficials said they are keeping the province at the highest level of restrictions inthe pandemic response system, though a few restrictions will be loosenedbeginningFriday.

The limits on outdoor gatherings, weddings and funerals is increasing to 25 people from 10, and the maximum capacity forstores is increasing to 500 people from 250, although stores may not exceed 50 per cent capacity.People will also be allowed to leave their vehicles while attending drive-in events.

The decision to keep the province at code red is due tofeedback from Manitobans, concerns over rising numbers of more transmissible coronavirus variants, and the need to maintain stability in the health-care system, the province said in a news release. Manitobareported 66 new cases and one additional death on Monday.

WATCH |Should Canadians be wearing N95-style masks?

Meanwhile, inSaskatchewan,health officials reported 205 new cases of the illness caused by the novel coronavirus and no additional deaths.Concerns about a growing number of the more infectious COVID-19 cases in the Regina area have prompted some school divisions to restart online learning.

InAlberta, health officials on Monday reported 456 new cases and five additional deaths. The update came as Health Minister TylerShandroannounced the province would not be moving into the next phase of its reopening, saying that will happen only when hospitalizations are under 300 and on a "clear downward trajectory."

"Today, while hospitalizations are indeed below 300, they've risen in recent days," he said Monday."The decline that we saw in January and early February has stopped. Alberta now sits at 280 COVID hospitalizations, which is a rise of 16 from a week ago."

Across the North, Nunavut reportedno new cases on Tuesday. TheNorthwest TerritoriesandYukonhave not yet reported updated figures for the day.

-From CBC News and The Canadian Press, last updated at 1p.m. ET

As of Tuesday afternoon, more than 123.8million cases of COVID-19 had been reported worldwide,with 70.2 million cases listed as recovered, according to a tracking tool maintained by Johns Hopkins University. The global death toll stood at more than 2.7 million.

InEurope,the French hospital system could face an "unprecedented violent shock" in about three weeks if the country fails to curb its vertiginous rise in cases, the president of the French hospital federation said.

A leading European Union official has lashed out at the AstraZeneca vaccine company for its massive shortfall in producing doses for the 27-nation bloc, and threatened that any shots produced by them in the EU could be forced to stay there.

Sandra Galina, the chief of the European Commission's health division, told legislators on Tuesday that while vaccine producers like Pfizer and Moderna have largely met their commitments, "the problem has been AstraZeneca. So it's one contract which we have a serious problem."

The European Union has been criticized at home and abroad for its slow vaccine rollout, standing at about a third of jabs given to their citizens compared to nations like the United States and United Kingdom.

Galina saidthe overwhelming responsibility lies with the AstraZeneca vaccine, which was supposed to be the workhorseof the drive, because it is cheaper and easier to transport and was supposed to be delivered in huge amounts in the first half of the year.

"We are not even receiving a quarter of such deliveries as regards this issue," Galina said, noting thatAstraZeneca could expect a response from the EU. "We intend, of course, to take action because, you know, this is the issue that cannot be left unattended."

The EU already closed an advance purchasing agreement with the Anglo-Swedish company in August last year for up to 400 million doses.

Meanwhile, Germany is extending its lockdown until April 18 and calling on citizens to stay at home over the Easter holidays to try to break a third wave of the pandemic, Chancellor Angela Merkel said, as the country races to vaccinate its population.

In theAsia-Pacificregion,with new infections on the rise the past few weeks,India will start vaccinating everyone over the age of 45 starting on April 1.

Federal information minister Prakash Javadekar made the announcement on Tuesday, when more than 40,000 new cases were detected in the last 24 hours. Most infections are in Maharashtra state in India's western coast. But cases have spiked in other states like Punjab, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in has received his first shot of AstraZeneca's vaccine as he plans to attend June's Group of Seven meetings in Britain.

Moon on Tuesday received his shot at a public health office in downtown Seoul along with his wife and other presidential officials who plan to accompany him during the June 11-13 meetings.

Moon's office said he was feeling "comfortable" after receiving the shot and complimented the skills of a nurse who he said injected him without causing pain. The office said Moon will likely receive his second dose sometime around mid-May.

South Korea launched its mass immunization program in February and plans to deliver the first doses to 12 million people through the first half of the year, including elders, front-line health workers and people in long-term care settings.

Officials aim to vaccinate more than 70 per centof the country's 51 million population by November, which they hope would meaningfully slow the virus and reduce risks of economic and social activity.

In theAmericas,Dr. Anthony Fauci is warning that a surge of coronavirus cases in Europe could foreshadow a similar surge in the United States. Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease doctor, is urging Americans to remain cautious while the nation races to vaccinate its citizens.

In an interview on ABC's Good Morning America,Faucisaidhe is "optimistic" of the vaccines' effectiveness and expressed hope that AstraZeneca's vaccine could join the arsenal of inoculations.

He deemed it an "unforced error" that the company may have used outdated data in a clinical trial, perhaps casting doubt on its effectiveness. But he says Americans should take comfort knowing the FDA would conduct an independent review before it was approved for use in the United States.

Uruguay confirmed that it had detected the presence of two coronavirus variants that originated in neighbouring Brazil as the tiny South American nation faces a spike in cases and deaths.

InAfrica,Nigeria suspended the airline Emirates from flying into or out of its territory last week after the carrier imposed additional COVID-19 test requirements on passengers from the country, the aviation minister said.

In theMiddle East, the United Arab Emirates said unvaccinated private sector workers in five industries must get a PCR test every two weeks, in a bid to encourage vaccine uptake.

-From The Associated Press and Reuters, last updated at 12:15p.m. ET

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Coronavirus: What's happening in Canada and around the world on Tuesday - CBC.ca

(March 23, 2021) Fourteen new coronavirus cases were reported on Nantucket Tuesday morning, increasing to 1,294 the total number of positive tests on the island since the pandemic began a year ago.

The results also included 111 negatives. One-hundred-three new COVID-19 cases have been reported on the island since March 1, and 27 in the past week. Health officials attributed the most recent surge to school-break-related travel. The public schools' winter break ended three weeks ago.

People ignored the travel orders and traveled anyway, Nantucket health director Roberto Santamaria said. This is the consequence of that.

Some of those who returned to the island infected with the virus then passed it on to others, he added.

"Though the people who were traveling may not be showing symptoms, they passed it on to other people, which has nowresulted in a secondary outrbeak. We must reiterate, mask orders, travel orders, social distancing, workplace orders and safety regulations are there not only to protect you, but to protect those who you come in contact with," Santamaria said.

"It is an understatement that no surge in cases is welcome. We must also recognize we are going to be particularly vulnerable in the coming weeks as the number of individuals on Nantucket climbs dramatically," Nantucket Cottage Hospital president and CEO Gary Shaw said in a statement to the community Friday.

"If the surge is not controlled it is not inconceivable that measures taken last year to stop the spread be reconsidered by the Department of Public Health, the town, and our Board of Health. Bells are ringing that we might listen and reflect on curbing behaviors that spread the virus."

Click here to read Shaw's complete statement.

The 27 new cases reported in the past week represent a 6.0 percent positivity rate.

"Our biggest line of defense is you working together with us to help prevent the spread of this heinous virus. We are in the 24th mile of a full marathon. The end is near, but we cant quit now," Santamaria said in a recent Twitter message.

There have been four COVID-19 Nantucket deaths since last March, the most recent Dec. 22, 2020, a man in his mid-80s.

The second round of Phase 2 vaccinations began in early March. Appointments for teachers, childcare workers and school staff opened March 11, and front-line workers and those over 60 March 22. The state last week rolled out its plan for vaccination of the general public, which is scheduled to begin April 19. (Click here for story.

As of Monday, 4,105 first doses and 1,483 second doses of vaccine have been administered on Nantucket.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on March 8 issued its first set of guidelines for fully-vaccinated people. Click here for more.

Free asymptomatic testing under the state's "Stop the Spread" program is administered indoors at the VFW on New South Road from 8-10 a.m. Monday-Saturday, but is limited to 75 tests per day.

Symptomatic testing is provided at the hospital's drive-through portico on Prospect Street from 7:30 a.m.-11:30 a.m. Monday through Friday.

Hospital staff have collected 28567 nasal swabs for testing since the start of the pandemic. In addition to the 1,294 positive tests 4.53 percent of the total number returned 27,261 have come back negative, and 12 are awaiting results.

The Board of Health on Dec. 11, 2020 established a COVID-19 task force to better enforce and raise awareness of coronavirus regulations (Click herefor story).

Gov. Charlie Baker late last month lifted the 9:30 p.m. statewide restaurant closing time, and in early March increased capcacity limits for restaurants, theaters, museums and other indoor locations. Additional capacity increases took effect March 22 (Click here for story).

Part-time in-class learning for Nantucket public-school students resumed Jan. 14 after being remote only since before Christmas. State officials are targetting April 5 for a full return to in-class learning for elementary-school students, and later in April for middle- and high-school students.

"I ask everyone on Nantucket to take personal responsibility and do all you can to reduce the potential for transmission in our community. That means wearing masks, staying physically distant, washing your hands, and not hosting or attending gatherings with people outside your immediate households," Shaw said recently.

"Most of all, we want our community to stay healthy, we want our economy to remain open, we want our public schools to be able to return to in-person learning. To that end, we must work together and apply the simple preventive measures that will keep this situation from spiraling out of control."

There have been 1,231 coronavirus cases confirmed on Nantucket in the past six months, beginning Sept. 9, 2020 with a spike linked to workers in the trades, followed by a second surge in late September tied to a church function in which a communal meal was shared.

A third spike in early November was again tied to workers in the trades, followed by significant surges related to holiday gatherings and travel at Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's.

Prior to Sept. 9, Nantucket had one of the lowest COVID-19 rates in the state per 100,000 population, and the fewest confirmed cases of any county in Massachusetts.

The state's current travel order requires all those entering Massachusetts from out of state, excluding Hawaii, to quarantine for two weeks or produce a negative COVID-19 test from the most recent 72 hours upon arrival. Failure to comply could result in a daily $500 fine.

The Board of Health on Oct. 6, 2020 voted to require all people on publicly-accessible property across the island to wear a mask, not just downtown and in Sconset, as was previously mandated, and limited public gatherings to 10 people or less indoors and outside

It decided in mid-November against tightening restrictions to limit the total number of workers on a job site to six in an attempt to stop the spread (Click here for story).

Nantucket Cottage Hospital does not have an intensive-care unit and only five ventilators. Shaw has said patients in need of acute respiratory care would be transferred to mainland hospitals if at all possible.

The criteria for symptomatic drive-up testing at the hospital includes at least one of the following signs or symptoms consistent with a viral respiratory syndrome: subjective/documented fever, new sore throat, new cough, new runny nose/nasal congestion, new shortness of breath, new muscle aches or anosmia (new loss of sense of smell). Close contacts of COVID-19 positive patients and pre-procedure patients can also be tested.

For more information about symptomatic and asymptomatic testing, click here.

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Fourteen new coronavirus cases reported on Nantucket Tuesday - The Inquirer and Mirror

Open the Government, a nonpartisan coalition seeking to make the government more transparent and accountable, issued a report on Monday about challenges to government transparency during the pandemic, particularly with Freedom of Information Act requests. Agencies such as the State Department, Office of Legal Counsel, Department of Health and Human Services, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Customs and Border Protection, Food and Drug Administration, Environmental Protection Agency, etc. blocked access to information, failing to honor expedited processing for coronavirus-related requests, even after granting the requests in the first place, said the organization. Also, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention inappropriately rejected standard FOIA requests, claiming requests were too vague or too broad in scope a recurring theme for denials.

There are several recommendations at the end of the report to reform FOIA law and encourage transparency at the agencies. Here are some of the other recent headlines from over the weekend and today that you might have missed.

AstraZeneca announced on Monday that its vaccinethat it developed with the University of Oxfordis 79% effective and there arent any safety concerns, following a large clinical trial in the United States, Chile and Peru. The company will continue to analyze the data and plans to apply for emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration in the coming weeks. The U.S. Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority and National Institutes of Health provided funding for the trial.

Several European countries recently paused their rollouts of the vaccine due to concerns of blood clots, but the European Medicines Agency determined last week the benefits outweigh the risks, Stat News reported on Monday. Also the new study did not see a specific type of clot in blood vessels near the brain that the [European Medicines Agency] said might be associated with the vaccine. However, this type of clot, called a cerebral venous sinus thrombosis, is so rare it might not be expected to occur in even a large clinical trial.

The Office of Management and Budget sent a memo to agencies on Friday on how to effectively implement the American Rescue Plan while also ensuring good stewardship of taxpayer funds. It says agencies should use existing financial transparency and accountability mechanisms established by OMB in April 2020. It also outlines actions for equity, payment integrity and compliance with oversight bodies.

Pete Buttigieg, Transportation secretary, published an article in The Wall Street Journal on Saturday about the lessons and challenges of telework during the pandemic. Im among the Americans who have learned some surprising lessons of telework: that a video meeting can be less intimate than a phone call, that not commuting to work can be strangely exhausting, and that having more time doesnt mean getting more done, he wrote. Ultimately, I learned how little of what we have to tell each other is communicated in words, even in word-heavy disciplines like politics and academia.

Tom Vilsack, Agriculture secretary, launched an agency-wide review to determine what positions could be completely virtual after the pandemic, Federal News Network reported. In a memo, obtained by the outlet, he said, the change in 2018 that severely restricted telework had significant negative impacts on employee morale and retention.

Most of President Bidens senior aides wont qualify for relief payments under the new stimulus package, according to new financial disclosures, The Associated Press reported on Saturday.

HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra brought on Kristina Schake to be counselor for strategic communications, leading the agencys public education campaign on the pandemic, Politico reported on Monday. She was previously global communications director for Instagram, communications director for former First Lady Michelle Obama and deputy communications director for Hillary Clintons 2016 presidential campaign.

Demetre Daskalakis, former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention division on HIV/AIDS prevention, is taking on a newly established role to lead the agencys vaccine equity efforts, The Washington Post reported on Friday.

Following the killing of eight people last week in Georgia, including six Asian American women, Biden on Friday asked Congress to pass the COVID Hate Crimes Act. He said in a statement: While we do not yet know motive, as I said last week, we condemn in the strongest possible terms the ongoing crisis of gender-based and anti-Asian violence that has long plagued our nation. [The act] would expedite the federal governments response to the rise of hate crimes exacerbated during the pandemic, support state and local governments to improve hate crimes reporting, and ensure that hate crimes information is more accessible to Asian American communities.

Upcoming: White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki will give a briefing at 12:30 p.m.

Help us understand the situation better. Are you a federal employee, contractor or military member with information, concerns, etc. about how your agency is handling the coronavirus? Email us at newstips@govexec.com.

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Coronavirus Roundup: Transportation and Agriculture Secretaries Discuss Telework; OMB Advises Agencies on Good Stewardship of Relief Funds -...