Bloomberg Businessweek

in brief

President Trump said he’s taking a daily dose of hydroxychloroquine, the anti-malaria pill he’s promoted as a possible cure for the coronavirus. Medical experts have cautioned against using the drug because its benefits are unproven and it can have dangerous side effects. Moderna reported positive test results from a vaccine it’s developing for the coronavirus, prompting its stock to rise as much as 30% on May 18. The euphoria wore off a day later when health website Stat highlighted the early nature of the vaccine data and cautioned that more of the drug would need to be made available by the company before drawing conclusions on its efficacy. Amphan, the biggest cyclonic storm in two decades, crossed the coasts of India and Bangladesh on May 20, forcing millions to evacuate and impeding…

low wages make nursing homes hotbeds for covid-19

Residents of nursing homes or similar facilities account for at least one-quarter of U.S. deaths from Covid-19. The true figure might be a lot higher. The coronavirus has spread to more than 7,000 nursing homes in all 50 states. In at least six, more than half of all Covid-19 deaths took place in long-term care facilities, according to state reports compiled by the Kaiser Family Foundation. That’s because older people are more susceptible to the infection; viruses spread quickly in crowded, closed environments; and many facilities still lack tests and personal protective equipment for employees. But one factor has received too little attention: Low-paid care workers often take jobs at multiple facilities to make ends meet—and can spread the virus from one to another. That probably happened in Washington state, where…

a collective debt plan

India’s central bank sets interest rates on June 5. The world’s second-most populous country is pushing a massive economic stimulus as coronavirus cases multiply. Virtual Brexit negotiations between the U.K. and the EU continue on June 1, with both sides trying to overcome an increasingly desperate stalemate. The ECB decides on interest rates on June 4. With borrowing costs already at zero, a dip into negative-rate territory looks more likely in an attempt to reboot the economy. Utility PG&E, found negligent in California’s deadliest wildfire, in 2018, will be sentenced on 84 counts of manslaughter on May 26 in state court in Chico. Deutsche Bank hosts its annual dbAccess Conference on June 3-4 in Berlin, albeit in a virtual format, to discuss trends in the banking industry and ways to finance a recovery. Tired of…

the myth of the empty campus

Purdue is a school that, in the words of its president, Mitch Daniels Jr., “promotes density of our population.” The current enrollment of the university in West Lafayette, Ind., is more than 44,000, up 25% since he took over in 2013. Purdue keeps tuition under $10,000 for in-state students, and room and board costs are lower than those of any other school in the Big Ten. Its football stadium holds 60,000 people. Its theater is larger than Radio City Music Hall. Like every other American university, Purdue sent its students home as the coronavirus swept through the country in March, switching to online classes to finish the semester. Its commencement also took place virtually. But when the university restarts for the 2020-21 school year, professors and students—including the second-largest freshman class…

can anybody beat health costs?

When Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and JPMorgan Chase announced the formation of Haven Healthcare in January 2018 to stem the rise of employer healthcare spending, the world expected big results. The mere prospect of Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffett, and Jamie Dimon joining forces so worried investors that the shares of established health insurers and pharmacy benefits managers tumbled on the news. A little more than two years later, those concerns feel like a distant memory. Rather than disrupting health care, Haven finds itself in disarray, with its top two executives departing in the past year and the venture giving few clues as to how it’s going to slow the upward march of health costs in America. On May 13, Chief Executive Officer Atul Gawande, a surgeon, Harvard professor, and high-profile expert in…

a cold summer for beer

On a typical Friday evening in May, the White Horse pub in London’s Brixton neighborhood might go through 20 or more kegs of lagers and ales as hundreds of revelers stand four and five deep at the bar and spill out onto the terrace into the wee hours. But with London in lockdown, the pub has been shuttered since March 20, when owner Matt Ward—knowing he had to empty the taps—offered happy-hour discounts and at the end of the evening started pouring pints for free. And he was one of the lucky ones: Some pub owners who couldn’t sell their beer had to dump it down the drain. Ward now worries that when he reopens this summer, social distancing guidelines will force him to cut occupancy by about 90%, to…