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Bloomberg Opinion

1 Jun, 11 tweets, 6 min read

After months stuck at home, many of us are dreaming of a vacation abroad.

But while vaccines will certainly hasten the return of international travel, we'll need more than shots to get back to some kind of normal trib.al/zc4cuvu

The European Union, with its close borders and intergovernmental relationships, can help pave the way.

Testing and travel guidelines for its own region could set a standard for the rest of the world, if done well trib.al/c8czIUE

EU states currently differ over:

📆Quarantine periods
⏳Mandatory testing intervals
💉Treatment of vaccinated individuals
🗝Ability to test out of quarantine

Consistency is likely to improve compliance and lead to better results trib.al/c8czIUE

EU nations should settle on standardized testing protocols before, during and after travel. Rapid antigen tests are preferable to PCR tests because they’re:

➡️Faster
➡️Easier to give at the point of care
➡️Particularly adept at detecting infectious people trib.al/c8czIUE

The EU could contribute more to international genomic-sequencing efforts to provide a better assessment of emerging variants.

Currently there is too wide a gap between genomic surveillance even within developed nations trib.al/c8czIUE

More comprehensive and timely genomic-sequencing data would ensure that travel guidelines reflect current Covid risks trib.al/c8czIUE

Currently, infection rates are a key measure of risk in traveling to a given destination. But vaccination rates are also important.

An outbreak of mild Covid-19 in a country where most people are vaccinated is less dangerous, for example trib.al/c8czIUE

We need a better set of tools to decide which countries are at risk and which are not.

Europe can help set a standard for the world to follow, such as setting thresholds for Covid-19 cases based on growth rates relative to absolute levels trib.al/c8czIUE

The EU should also establish a health passport.

It’s already proposed a Digital Green Certificate, which would track test results and vaccination status in all member states trib.al/c8czIUE

A QR code that says “I’m vaccinated” is just the start. There’s work to be done to:

💉Agree on standards
💉Prevent certificate fraud

Passports will also have to expire depending on future discoveries about the longevity of protection trib.al/c8czIUE

Without set protocols and standards, it’ll be difficult to go back to the levels of international travel we enjoyed pre-Covid.

Europe can make travel within the continent both easier and more secure, while serving as an example for others to follow trib.al/c8czIUE

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Bloomberg Opinion

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3 Jun

By now, we’ve all heard about the gender gaps in pay and wealth.

But what’s not often spoken about is the ambition penalty, which punishes women who try to close these gaps trib.al/5fl82a0

On average, for every $1 earned and owned by a man, women in the U.S.:

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The disparities are even wider for women of color trib.al/5fl82a0

Women themselves tend to be blamed for these gaps. These are examples of real headlines:

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What if we never learn whether the virus that causes Covid-19 escaped from a lab or jumped to humans from animals?

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Some scientists worry that laboratory scientists are getting too little oversight on projects that could potentially start pandemics.

Others worry about the global proliferation of labs that work with dangerous viruses and other pathogens trib.al/kwok8bt

SARS-CoV-2’s closest relative appears to be in horseshoe bats — yet there are no horseshoe bat colonies close to Wuhan, China, where the pandemic was first identified.

However, Wuhan hosts a lab holding the world’s largest collection of bat coronaviruses trib.al/kwok8bt

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Bloomberg Opinion

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India’s nightmarish second wave of Covid-19 finally seems to be ebbing, but the pandemic’s scars won’t be easily erased.

Other developing nations must learn from India’s experience if they don’t want to repeat it trib.al/0Hg2tAH

The first and most obvious lesson is to avoid overconfidence.

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Globally, Covid cases have fallen since a terrifying peak last month.

It is too soon to declare victory, but the current trend is encouraging trib.al/wJUg2W2

🇪🇺The European Union suffered a nasty new wave of cases in early spring.

The trend is now emphatically lower as its vaccine rollout gathers pace trib.al/wJUg2W2

🇮🇳It looks as though that outbreak in India has peaked, even if the number of people falling ill remains appallingly high trib.al/wJUg2W2

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Bloomberg Opinion

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23 May

Global warming has increased human activity at the top of the world, and fueled interest from non-polar China.

How it’s overseen must reflect that bloom.bg/3wvp3hU

Warmer temperatures are heralding ice-free summers for the Arctic, opening up all sorts of economic opportunities:

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It is still possible to shield the region from rising tensions elsewhere.

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Bloomberg Opinion

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22 May

And the pandemic winner is … Florida and its governor, Ron DeSantis.

Can anyone doubt it? As America tries to recover from the pandemic, psychologically as well as economically, Florida is way ahead of just about every other state in the U.S. trib.al/AR1mgQR

As of March, its unemployment rate was 4.7%, compared with New York’s 8.5% and California’s 8.3%.

The Census Bureau reports that more than 250,000 people moved to Florida last year, second only to Texas
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