| |
| |
| |
| Presented By Google |
| |
| Axios AM |
| By Mike Allen ·Mar 09, 2021 |
| ☕ Good Tuesday morning. Smart Brevity™ count: 958 words ... < 4 minutes. 🗳️ Please join Axios' Russ Contreras and Alexi McCammond tomorrow at 12:30 p.m. ET for a Hard Truths virtual event on systemic racism in politics, featuring Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio) and NALEO Educational Fund CEO Arturo Vargas. Sign up here. |
| |
| |
| 1 big thing: Americans will be slow to unmask |
 Data: Axios/Ipsos poll. Chart: Danielle Alberti/Axios A year after the virus abruptly shut down the country, most Americans say they're in no rush to drop new health habits, Axios managing editor David Nather writes from a new installment of the Axios/Ipsos Coronavirus Index. - Just 7% of respondents said they plan to stop wearing masks in public after they've been vaccinated. Only 13% said they plan to stop social distancing.
- 81% said they'll keep wearing masks, and 66% said they'll keep social distancing until the pandemic ends — even after they've gotten the shot.
- 87% said they'll keep frequently washing their hands until the pandemic ends.
- 25% of this week's respondents reported that they had gotten vaccinated — the highest share since we started tracking that question.
Between the lines: "People remember the start, but there's no clarity on the finish," said Cliff Young, president of Ipsos U.S. Public Affairs. "Right now there's just murkiness." 🎧On this afternoon's episode of "The Week America Changed," L.A. schools superintendent Austin Beutner tells Axios Re:Cap about the moment he knew he'd have to shut down the country's second-largest public school district. Subscribe here. |
    |
| |
| |
| 2. Cyberwar scales up |
 |
|
| Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios |
| |
| Last week's revelation of a cyberattack on thousands of small businesses and organizations, on top of last year's big SolarWinds hack, shows we're in a new era of mass-scale cyberwar, Axios managing editor Scott Rosenberg writes. - Why it matters: In a world that's dependent on interlocking digital systems, we're all potential victims.
Until recently, sophisticated, state-backed hacks were typically aimed at narrow targets. Now, harm from the new nation-state cyberfights is regularly spilling over to unprecedented numbers of users. - The new incident — targeting flaws in Microsoft's Exchange Server, widely used by small and medium-sized organizations — affected 30,000 Exchange customers in the U.S., and many more around the world, according to Brian Krebs of Krebs on Security.
- Microsoft pinned the attack on a new group it dubbed Hafnium, with ties to the Chinese government.
Share this story. |
| |
| |
| |
| 3. Space's new gatekeepers |
 |
|
| Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios |
| |
| Wealthy private citizens are increasingly becoming the arbiters of who can go to space — and some of them want to bring the average person along for the ride, Axios Space correspondent Miriam Kramer writes. - Why it matters: Space is being opened up to people who wouldn't have had the prospect of flying there even five years ago. These missions have far-reaching implications for who determines who gets to make use of space — and for what.
NASA and other space agencies had been the sole gatekeepers of who could fly to space and when. But now: - Businessman Jared Isaacman is chartering a flight to orbit with SpaceX, and is giving away three of the four seats. Isaacman says his team reached out to business associations representing historically underserved populations to make members aware of the contest.
- Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa is looking for eight people to accompany him on a trip around the Moon for his dearMoon mission. Maezawa opened applications for interested people last week.
Share this story. |
| |
| |
| |
| A message from Google |
| Google.org Impact Challenge for Women & Girls granting $25M |
| |
 |
| |
| COVID-19 has exacerbated gender inequity, and organizations around the country are working to support economic empowerment for women and girls. The Google.org Impact Challenge for Women and Girls will provide $25M in funding and assistance to help support these organizations. Apply now. |
| |
| |
| 4. New portrait of power |
 |
|
| Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images |
| |
| Vice President Harris speaks in the East Room at an International Women's Day event celebrating the nomination of Air Force Gen. Jacqueline Van Ovost (left) and Army Lt. General Laura Richardson as four-star combatant commanders. - They'll become the second and third women in American history to lead combatant commands. Go deeper. ... Biden remarks.
|
| |
| |
| |
| 5. Lingo: "Hub and home" |
Rendering of redesigned Salesforce workspace. Under a "hub and home strategy" being tried by a big employer in suburban Minneapolis, most employees will continue working from home 50% to 65% of the time. Teams will meet in the office on certain days of the week or month, Axios Twin Cities reporter Nick Halter writes. - Why it matters: This is a new sign that big corporations won't need nearly as much space as they did pre-COVID.
Case in point: Prime Therapeutics, a pharmacy benefits manager, employs 2,200 people in the Twin Cities, including a 400,000-square-foot HQ. - The company polled employees last summer and found that 93% of them were OK or better working from home. But two-thirds wanted to also spend time at the office.
- So under the new plan, there'll be no more assigned desks. Rooms will have movable furniture, so teams can reconfigure the space.
The bottom line: Prime Therapeutics will only need two-thirds as much office space. |
| |
| |
| |
| 6. Stat 1: Seniors are getting their jabs |
 Data: CDC, Census Bureau. Chart: Andrew Witherspoon/Axios More than two-thirds of Americans 75 and older have received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine, as have more than half of those 65-74, Axios Vitals author Caitlin Owens writes from CDC data. - Why it matters: Millions of older Americans — and their loved ones — can breathe a collective sigh of relief for the first time in a year.
Share this graphic. |
| |
| |
| |
| 7. Stat 2: BMI is severe COVID risk |
 |
|
| Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios |
| |
| About 78% of people who were hospitalized, placed on a ventilator or died from COVID were overweight or obese, Marisa Fernandez writes from a CDC report. |
| |
| |
| |
| 8. Trump vs. GOP over "Trump" |
| Donald Trump checks his look in the mirror before going onstage at CPAC in Orlando on Feb. 28. Photo: Erin Schaff/The New York Times. Licensed by Axios Former President Trump escalated his fundraising fight with establishment Republicans, issuing a statement last night that says: "No more money for RINOS" — Republicans in name only, as the hard right calls moderates. - "They do nothing but hurt the Republican Party and our great voting base — they will never lead us to Greatness," Trump's statement says. "Send your donation to Save America PAC at DonaldJTrump.com."
Trump had sent cease-and-desist letters to the RNC, the NRSC and the NRCC forbidding use of his name in fundraising — an unheard-of provocation for any senior party figure, let alone an ex-president. - A top Trump adviser told me: "Relatively straightforward: nobody wants their likeness used without their permission."
The RNC yesterday defended its right to use Trump's name: The party asserted that it has "every right to refer to public figures as it engages in core, First Amendment-protected political speech." |
| |
| |
| |
| 9. 🇬🇧 London breakfast |
 |
| |
| Go deeper: "Britain's royals silent as 'Megxit' crisis rages after bombshell interview" (Reuters). |
| |
| |
| |
| 10. 1 smile to go: Electric food truck reborn as mobile vaccine unit |
 |
|
| Sketch of electric vaccine vehicle. Image: Ayro |
| |
| A compact electric truck originally marketed for college food delivery is now a mobile vaccine unit, Axios Navigate correspondent Joann Muller writes. - The battery-powered Ayro vehicle has ultra-low temperature freezer and refrigeration units, including Bluetooth-enabled data loggers.
🚕 Spotted on the streets of London: A "Vaxi Taxi" helps people who may be reluctant to get vaccinated. They're ferried to a pop-up clinic — and don't even need to leave the backseat to get the jab. See pictures. |
| |
| |
| |
| A message from Google |
| Google.org Impact Challenge for Women and Girls: Apply now |
| |
 |
| |
| Applications are open for the Google.org Impact Challenge for Women and Girls, which is providing $25M in funding and support to organizations supporting economic empowerment. In addition, the best and boldest ideas will receive the opportunity for mentorship and other support. More. |
| |
| 📬 Thanks for starting your day with us. Please urge your friends to sign up for Axios AM/PM. |
No comments:
Post a Comment