Bob Schwartz

Published just after the 2016 election, this post of mine is very popular this week. Maybe because it remains more pertinent than ever. Or maybe it’s the precious photo.

Republicans Wake Up to Find Themselves Married to Trump

…Married to Trump, they know that if he screws up, come the next election—or sooner—they will get the blame and take the hit. Trump may now be head of the household, but his new family is going to try to make sure he doesn’t burn down the house. Because they know he just loves to play with fire.

Brown University president Christina Paxson published the following opinion piece in the New York Times.

Every college has its own circumstances and resources, so every college is crafting its particular plan. This plan is articulate, straightforward, and grounded in what we know and what we know works. It will not serve every college. But it is an excellent place to start.

College Campuses Must Reopen in the Fall. Here’s How We Do It.

It won’t be easy, but there’s a path to get students back on track. Higher education will crumble without it.

By Christina Paxson, president of Brown University.

April 26, 2020

Across the country, college campuses have become ghost towns. Students and professors are hunkered down inside, teaching and learning online. University administrators are tabulating the financial costs of the Covid-19 pandemic, which already exceed the CARES Act’s support for higher education.

The toll of this pandemic is high and will continue to rise. But another crisis looms for students, higher education and the economy if colleges and universities cannot reopen their campuses in the fall.

As amazing as videoconferencing technology has become, students face financial, practical and psychological barriers as they try to learn remotely. This is especially true for lower-income students who may not have reliable internet access or private spaces in which to study. If they can’t come back to campus, some students may choose — or be forced by circumstances — to forgo starting college or delay completing their degrees.

The extent of the crisis in higher education will become evident in September. The basic business model for most colleges and universities is simple — tuition comes due twice a year at the beginning of each semester. Most colleges and universities are tuition dependent. Remaining closed in the fall means losing as much as half of our revenue.

This loss, only a part of which might be recouped through online courses, would be catastrophic, especially for the many institutions that were in precarious financial positions before the pandemic. It’s not a question of whether institutions will be forced to permanently close, it’s how many.

Higher education is also important to the U.S. economy. The sector employs about three million people and as recently as the 2017-18 school year pumped more than $600 billion of spending into the national gross domestic product. Colleges and universities are some of the most stable employers in municipalities and states. Our missions of education and research drive innovation, advance technology and support economic development. The spread of education, including college and graduate education, enables upward mobility and is an essential contributor to the upward march of living standards in the United States and around the world.

The reopening of college and university campuses in the fall should be a national priority. Institutions should develop public health plans now that build on three basic elements of controlling the spread of infection: test, trace and separate.

These plans must be based on the reality that there will be upticks or resurgences in infection until a vaccine is developed, even after we succeed in flattening the curve. We can’t simply send students home and shift to remote learning every time this happens. Colleges and universities must be able to safely handle the possibility of infection on campus while maintaining the continuity of their core academic functions.
Debatable: Agree to disagree, or disagree better? Broaden your perspective with sharp arguments on the most pressing issues of the week.

They must also be sensitive to the particular challenge of controlling the spread of disease on a college campus. A typical dormitory has shared living and study spaces. A traditional lecture hall is not conducive to social distancing. Neither are college parties, to say the least. We must take particular care to prevent and control infection in this environment.

Although a vast majority of residential college students will experience only mild symptoms if they contract the coronavirus, students regularly interact with individuals on and off campus who are at high risk of severe illness, or worse. Administrators should be concerned not only for the students in their charge, but also for the broader community they interact with.

I am cautiously optimistic that campuses can reopen in the fall, but only if careful planning is done now. Fortunately, evidence-based public health protocols for the control of infectious disease have been known for decades. They can be applied to college campuses provided the right resources are in place and administrators are willing to make bold changes to how they manage their campuses.

Testing is an absolute prerequisite. All campuses must be able to conduct rapid testing for the coronavirus for all students, when they first arrive on campus and at regular intervals throughout the year. Testing only those with symptoms will not be sufficient. We now know that many people who have the disease are asymptomatic. Regular testing is the only way to prevent the disease from spreading silently through dormitories and classrooms.

Traditional contact tracing is not sufficient on a college campus, where students may not know who they sat next to in a lecture or attended a party with. Digital technology can help. Several states are working to adapt mobile apps created by private companies to trace the spread of disease, and colleges and universities can play a role by collaborating with their state health departments and rolling out tracing technology on their campuses.

Testing and tracing will be useful only if students who are ill or who have been exposed to the virus can be separated from others. Traditional dormitories with shared bedrooms and bathrooms are not adequate. Setting aside appropriate spaces for isolation and quarantine (e.g. hotel rooms) may be costly, but necessary. It will also be necessary to ensure that students abide by the rigorous requirements of isolation and quarantine.

Aggressive testing, technology-enabled contact tracing and requirements for isolation and quarantine are likely to raise concerns about threats to civil liberty, an ideal that is rightly prized on college campuses. Administrators, faculty and students will have to grapple with whether the benefits of a heavy-handed approach to public health are worth it. In my view, if this is what it takes to safely reopen our campuses, and provided that students’ privacy is scrupulously protected, it is worthwhile.

Our students will have to understand that until a vaccine is developed, campus life will be different. Students and employees may have to wear masks on campus. Large lecture classes may remain online even after campuses open. Traditional aspects of collegiate life — athletic competitions, concerts and yes, parties — may occur, but in much different fashions. Imagine athletics events taking place in empty stadiums, recital halls with patrons spaced rows apart and virtual social activities replacing parties.

But students will still benefit from all that makes in-person education so valuable: the fierce intellectual debates that just aren’t the same on Zoom, the research opportunities in university laboratories and libraries and the personal interactions among students with different perspectives and life experiences.

Taking these necessary steps will be difficult and costly, and it will force institutions to innovate as we have never done before. But colleges and universities are up to the challenge. Campuses were among the first to shutter during the Covid-19 pandemic. The rapid response that occurred across the country stemmed from our concern for the health of our students and communities, and our recognition that college campuses pose special challenges for addressing infectious disease.

Our duty now is to marshal the resources and expertise to make it possible to reopen our campuses, safely, as soon as possible. Our students, and our local economies, depend on it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/26/opinion/coronavirus-colleges-universities.html

Many folks are appreciative of the inspirational corporate messaging and offers during the pandemic, especially when combined with corporate generosity. Still, once in a while, the kind reaction may be: okay, we get it, you are a genuinely enlightened company. Thanks.

This latest development from Mattel may seem like more of the well-intentioned same. But with heroes keeping us safe, healthy, fed and supplied, you can never run out of ways to remind us—and our kids.

Adweek:

Mattel Commemorates the Heroes of the Pandemic With New Line of Action Figures

Fisher-Price honors delivery drivers, nurses, EMTs, doctors and grocery workers

Step aside, G.I. Joe. Make way, Captain America. Wonder Woman, you can take a break. The coronavirus pandemic has called for a new squadron of real-life heroes to protect the planet on the frontlines of the crisis.

Mattel’s latest special edition collection, #ThankYouHeroes, is adding a few new faces to the classic action figure hierarchy by commemorating delivery drivers, nurses, EMTs, doctors and grocery workers. These Covid-19 warriors, who are diligently working to keep communities up and running, will now fight to keep playtime fun too.

Proceeds from the new Fisher-Price line of 16 action figures and five Little People Community Champions will go to #FirstRespondersFirst, an initiative created by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Thrive Global and the CAA Foundation to support first responders. Mattel is also providing toys to Bright Horizons daycare centers, which recently opened in partnership with #FirstRespondersFirst for the children of first responders.

According to Mattel, these topical toys will be the first of several brand efforts designed to support today’s everyday heroes, with others kicking off in the coming weeks as part of the California-based company’s broader platform for social responsibility.

“Whether these toys are given as a gift to recognize someone working on the front lines, or used as a tool to help children have conversations about how they are feeling, it is our hope that Fisher-Price toys, and play in general, can ultimately make these difficult times easier for both kids and adults,” said Chuck Scothon, SVP of Fisher-Price and global head of infant and preschool for Mattel, in a statement.

In addition to #ThankYouHeroes, Mattel is producing face shields and cloth face masks, and has provided toy donations to nonprofit partners domestically and around the world including Baby2Baby, Feed the Children, LA Family Housing, Partners for Pediatric Vision and UCLA Mattel Children’s Hospital.

Mike Pence visited the Mayo Clinic today. The Mayo Clinic requires staff and visitors to wear a protective mask during the COVID-19 pandemic. Mike Pence refused. We see him in a group of visitors, the only one not wearing a mask.

Mike Pence works for a REAL MAN who doesn’t ever wear a mask and doesn’t practice distancing. The president demands that Mike Pence not wear a mask either, even if it is required.

Real men

Actual quote from Trump at today’s briefing:

“So supposing we hit the body with a tremendous — whether it’s ultraviolet or just a very powerful light — and I think you said that hasn’t been checked because of the testing. And then I said, supposing you brought the light inside the body, which you can do either through the skin or some other way, and I think you said you’re going to test that, too.”

“I see the disinfectant that knocks it out in a minute, one minute. And is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside or almost a cleaning? As you see, it gets in the lungs, it does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it would be interesting to check that.”

We don’t know exactly how many people have needlessly died from COVID-19 because of Trump’s mishandling of the crisis. We don’t know exactly how many more will die because of it, or because of the misguided movement to “liberate” America from the current helpful restrictions. Little doubt it is in the thousands of deaths.

Each of these lives is important. Those lives also represent accomplishments that will remain forever unfulfilled in all realms. So if you are one of those who follows some socio-political movement like Trumpism, consider this:

You know that person you hadn’t yet heard about but who could be “the next Trump”? He died from COVID-19, though if Trump had acted sooner and more competently, he wouldn’t have.

DJT is not FDR. Or Abraham Lincoln. Or any other crisis president. Or any other non-crisis president.

FDR faced not one but two monumental crises—the Great Depression and World War II.

In his First Inaugural Address, FDR uttered these famous words:

This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today. This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.

“Nothing to fear” was something of a lie. In the depth of the Depression, Americans had plenty to fear. There was the possibility that recovery might never come and that things would get even worse. There was the possibility, predicted by some, that Americans would actually revolt in desperation.

The lie was beneficent in a couple of ways. It was spoken in a context of hard truths that FDR wouldn’t and couldn’t deny because Americans were experiencing them first-hand. And it was clear that FDR was speaking from a place of competence, strength and empathy, so that the lie was, as some lies can be, inspiring.

In a time of crisis, hard truths and inspiring lies have a valuable place. Hidden truths and uninspiring, self-serving lies don’t.

Excuses, excuses, excuses. Millions sick, thousands dead, much of it was preventable by timely and responsible executive management. Even a child knows that eventually they will get caught. And punished.

General George B. McClellan, fired by President Lincoln during the Civil War

War is the crucible for generals. They have worked their entire careers, demonstrating courage and competence, to reach that level. Those qualities are never more tested than in battle.

Winning every battle is hoped for but not expected. Loss is a natural part of war. But a general who leads the army into a costly and catastrophic loss knows that their leadership position is on the line. Generals who make those kinds of mistakes are fired, both to avoid further losses and to increase the chances of victory.

When the failing general can’t be fired, we do what we can, we hope that other leaders will step in, and hope that the losses can be minimized. The enemy, we know, will not give up.