2020-03-16_Bloomberg_Businessweek_Asia_Edition

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

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genetically identical to the original except for three

minor mutations in the virus. And it contained a key

genetic variant that was present in only two of 59

viral samples from China. This type of circumstan-

tial evidence stops just short of proving a chain of

transmission. It’s possible the Washington cluster

didn’t derive from the known patient zero, but from

another case that came into Washington at the same

time and went undetected. Still, Bedford calculated

a 97% probability the new case was a direct descen-

dant—one that hadn’t been spotted because of the

narrow testing at that time, he wrote in a blog post

on March 2. “This lack of testing was a critical error

and allowed an outbreak in Snohomish County and

surroundings to grow to a sizable problem before

it was even detected,” he wrote.

Education and health services Other services Retail trade* Leisure and hospitality

Lowest weekly wages ▶

*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

Do they have health

benefits?

Do they work from

home?

Income bracket: Lowest Second Third Fourth Highest

2008 2018 2008 2018

Can they handle a

financial emergency?

How Americans would cover an

unexpected $1,000 expense

41%

Savings

37%

Borrowing

13%

Reduce

spending

7%

Something

else/don’t

know

75%

50

25

0

How old are they?
◼A more than 20%
increase in workers
from 2008-18

16 to 24

21m workers

25 to 34

38m

35 to 44

34m

45 to 54

33m

55 to 64

28m

65+

11m

Box width = 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

found that infections were doubling roughly every

six days, and that for every three to four rounds

of transmission—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

have been tested because he didn’t meet the cri-

teria. But the results showed up in the Seattle Flu

Study, a project on which Bedford is a lead scientist.

The new case, announced on Feb. 28, was