Bloomberg Businessweek - USA (2020-03-16)

◼ COVID-19 / GOVERNMENT Bloomberg Businessweek March 16, 2020

19

geneticallyidenticaltotheoriginalexceptforthree

minormutationsinthevirus.Andit containeda key

geneticvariantthatwaspresentinonlytwoof 59

viralsamplesfromChina.Thistypeofcircumstan-

tialevidencestopsjustshortofprovinga chain of

transmission.It’spossibletheWashingtoncluster

didn’tderivefromtheknownpatientzero,butfrom

anothercasethatcameintoWashingtonatthesame

timeandwentundetected.Still,Bedfordcalculated

a 97%probabilitythenewcasewasa directdescen-

dant—onethathadn’tbeenspottedbecauseofthe

narrowtestingatthattime,hewroteina blogpost

onMarch2. “Thislackoftestingwasa criticalerror

andallowedanoutbreakinSnohomishCountyand

surroundingstogrowtoa sizableproblembefore

it wasevendetected,”hewrote.

Educationandhealthservices Otherservices Retailtrade* Leisureandhospitality

Lowestweeklywages▶

*TRANSPORTATION IS CATEGORIZED WITH UTILITIES AND WHOLESALE TRADE IS CATEGORIZED WITH RETAIL TRADE FOR WORK-AT-HOME AND PAID LEAVE DATA RELEASED BY THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS. DATA: BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS, AMERICAN COMMUNITY SURVEY, BANKRATE JANUARY 2020 FINANCIAL SECURITY INDEX

Dotheyhavehealth

benefits?

Dotheyworkfrom

home?

Incomebracket: Lowest Second Third Fourth Highest

2008 2018 2008 2018

Cantheyhandlea

financialemergency?

HowAmericans would cover an

unexpected $1,000 expense

41%

Savings

37%

Borrowing

13%

Reduce

spending

7%

Something

else/don’t

know

75%

50

25

0

Howoldarethey?
◼A morethan20%
increaseinworkers
from2008-18

16 to 24

21mworkers

25 to 34

38m

35 to 44

34m

45 to 54

33m

55 to 64

28m

65+

11m

Boxwidth= number of workers

1m 10m

95% 5%

85 3

75 1

spent weeks analyzing genomes of patients from

around the world, tracing minor mutations to deduce

how Covid-19 emerged and spread. The early work

foundthatinfectionsweredoublingroughlyevery

sixdays,andthatforeverythreetofourrounds

oftransmission—or once every 20 to 30 days—one

minor mutation was occurring, Bedford said in an

interview on Feb. 13. “We are watching very care-

fully for more local transmission,” he said. They

soon found it: a teenager with mild symptoms who

attended a high school about 15 miles from where

the first case was identified—someone who wouldn’t

havebeentestedbecausehedidn’tmeetthecri-

teria.ButtheresultsshowedupintheSeattleFlu

Study,aproject on which Bedford is a lead scientist.

The new case, announced on Feb. 28, was