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Sports columnist brought low by the virus; we can learn from this
I started the day intending to write about something other than the pandemic. Then I read Bill Plaschke’s column in this morning’s Los Angeles Times. He caught the covid-19 illness. He lives to tell about the experience. It was a tough one. I don’t want to go through the same thing, and neither do you. Read his story.
Wearing face masks and using hand sanitizer are commonplace. Wearing gloves, too, for some people. What else can and should be done?
Risks are unavoidable, but they can be mitigated. I see employees in restaurants and stores being vigilant about cleaning just-vacated tables and often-touched surfaces, wearing face masks and maintaining distance. Patrons and visitors are generally respectful, supportive and well-behaved (with some unfortunately glaring exceptions).
But we all share the same air, inside the closed confines of buildings. Air cannot be cleaned with a few swipes of disinfectant and a cleaning cloth. This insidious pathogen is taking advantage of that fact—living things have an imperative to perpetuate the species, and a virus is a living thing—in ways that are better understood now than just a couple of months ago.
Scientists and practitioners working in environmental engineering are providing some ideas on mitigating airborne risks. Some of these ideas came to my attention recently in an article written by Linsey C. Marr, a professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Virginia Tech University.
This isn’t a substitute for reading Dr. Marr’s article, but here is a summary of the highlights:
The virus is much more easily airborne than previously-recognized.
Standard exhalation is enough to launch the virus (coughing and sneezing not required).
The hazard of infection due to close-range contact with simple exhalation is greater than early studies had implied.
Good indoor ventilation (in addition to masks and distance) is preventative.
Consider upgrades to ventilation systems, such as: Better filters; germicidal ultraviolet air cleaners; portable air cleaners.
We all just want to feel safe and stay safe. Using knowledge and tools as described in Dr. Marr’s article can help to accomplish those things. Businesses and organizations that do this are more likely to prosper than those that do not.
Garry Herron
Chief Business & Economics Advisor
A lifelong resident of Southern California and a UCLA graduate, Garry Herron's experience with business and economics spans a first career in big business and a second career in small business. Now retired from both enterprises he volunteers his time to help others, especially students enrolled at local institutions of public higher education. He has found that combining four decades' worth of experiences in business with research on how national and global economics impact business success is key to helping college students transition from education to career.
Contact Garry | Visit Garry’s personal blog | Learn more about Garry
Recent Blog posts by this author
Pandemic surprise — rich people stop spending
This is my first pandemic. Yours, too, I’m guessing. So, to some extent at least, everything about it is a surprise, even though in retrospect it mostly shouldn’t be. Hindsight is crystal-clear, isn’t it?
It surprised me to learn that the biggest reason for the drop in consumer spending is that the most prosperous Americans are responsible for most of the decline.
Higher income people have more discretionary wealth available to them than do lower and middle income people. And, as a group, their job losses are proportionally fewer. The fall-off in consumer spending at the start of the pandemic crisis should have been more modest for the higher income population than for the lower and middle income populations, and the spending recovery should be greater.
In fact, current spending records show exactly the opposite is happening.
This comes from a Harvard University research program. Check it out here.
The site provides an interactive national map that presents spending information nationally and by individual state, and is also broken down by a half-dozen broad industry categories.
Businesses whose offerings lean towards fulfilling the desires of the higher income people are in for a slower recovery than those that provide for the more basic needs. Employment in those businesses will follow the same trajectory.
This could continue for a while yet. And, if the pandemic eases off for a while and then resumes, will the spending patterns repeat?
I don’t know, but it’s a good guess that they will, at least in aggregate. At the level of the individual business it could be different. Forewarned is forearmed.
Garry Herron
Chief Business & Economics Advisor
A lifelong resident of Southern California and a UCLA graduate, Garry Herron's experience with business and economics spans a first career in big business and a second career in small business. Now retired from both enterprises he volunteers his time to help others, especially students enrolled at local institutions of public higher education. He has found that combining four decades' worth of experiences in business with research on how national and global economics impact business success is key to helping college students transition from education to career.
Contact Garry | Visit Garry’s personal blog | Learn more about Garry
Recent Blog posts by this author
California re-opening guidelines: State-wide industry guidance
The California Department of Public Health has published an extensive set of guidelines for business resumption and continuity with enhanced safety protocols in the COVID-19 environment.
These guidelines are tailored for more than two dozen industry environments. Most include two- or three-page “checklists” to help guide ownership and management in planning and taking actions needed to meet the guidelines.
“Statewide industry guidance to reduce risk” is the portal. It is available here.
Industries covered are:
Agriculture and livestock.
Auto dealerships.
Childcare.
Communications infrastructure.
Construction.
Day camps.
Delivery services.
Energy and utilities.
Food packing.
Hotels and lodging.
Life sciences.
Limited services.
Logistics and warehousing.
Manufacturing.
Mining and logging.
Music, film and TV production.
Outdoor museums.
Places of worship.
Ports.
Professional sports (without live audiences).
Public transit and intercity passenger rail.
Real estate transaction.
Retail.
Schools.
Shopping centers.
Two are for cross-industry and general use:
Office workspaces.
Support for working families.
Garry Herron
Chief Business & Economics Advisor
A lifelong resident of Southern California and a UCLA graduate, Garry Herron's experience with business and economics spans a first career in big business and a second career in small business. Now retired from both enterprises he volunteers his time to help others, especially students enrolled at local institutions of public higher education. He has found that combining four decades' worth of experiences in business with research on how national and global economics impact business success is key to helping college students transition from education to career.
Contact Garry | Visit Garry’s personal blog | Learn more about Garry
Recent Blog posts by this author
The pandemic is probably just getting started: Five ideas for business success in the new world
As I write this, much of the news is focused on how “things are getting back to normal.” Social and business restrictions are being loosened. Key pandemic-related measurements of new infections, hospitalizations and mortality are showing improvements. “Social distancing” (I prefer the term “physical distancing”) and determined usage of face masks, hand washing and disinfectants seem to have imposed control over the likelihood of increasing infections and caused the waning of COVID-19.
Are you confident that a global pandemic can be beaten so quickly? I am not.
The pandemic is probably not done with us. The odds are that over the next few months the pandemic will recede in some places and grow in others. Some of the growth will be overlooked. Eventually, later this year or sometime in 2021 the pandemic will reassert itself. It could be worse.
That was the pattern followed by the most recent previous pandemic, the global flu that started over a century ago during the First World War. As Spring 1918 turned to Summer, the flu seemed to have run its course in the United States. Extraordinary measures, including the wearing of face masks and limiting gatherings of groups of people, were relaxed and concluded because people thought that the need had passed.
A few months later the flu returned. It was worse, and persisted into 1919. Eventually, about one-third of the world’s population had been infected with the illness.
As you do what you have to do for the here-and-now, try to carve out some time to look at what your business needs beyond the next few weeks. Here are some ideas:
Financial
How much cash-on-hand is available? What are my borrowing options?
Business outlook
How is COVID-19 changing the demand for those things that my business sells? Should I prepare other lines of business for the future?
Marketplace position
How competitive is my current position with respect to other businesses that compete for my customers, and what can I do to improve my competitiveness within the business outlook of my particular marketplace segment?
Operations
Am I doing enough of the right things to maintain high enough levels of healthy staffing (with paid sick leave and health care) and safe and clean working conditions such that the business operations do not cause illness for the customers?
Community stress
How does community-wide uncertainty with respect to safety affect the demand for my business offerings within the next month, and then within the next two months, and then within the next three months, and beyond three months away?
Garry Herron
Chief Business & Economics Advisor
A lifelong resident of Southern California and a UCLA graduate, Garry Herron's experience with business and economics spans a first career in big business and a second career in small business. Now retired from both enterprises he volunteers his time to help others, especially students enrolled at local institutions of public higher education. He has found that combining four decades' worth of experiences in business with research on how national and global economics impact business success is key to helping college students transition from education to career.
Contact Garry | Visit Garry’s personal blog | Learn more about Garry
Recent Blog posts by this author