Prognosis: Misconception

The global economy could lose up to $22 trillion in 2020 alone due to Covid-19, according to Australian economist Warwick McKibbin. He predicts that successive waves of coronavirus infections will mean the world will continue to count the cost of the pandemic for years. McKibbin explains to Jason Gale that the pandemic will result in lasting changes to the way we work, live and interact.

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The future of the commercial real estate market has been under serious question. That’s thanks to the virus itself, a potential mass migration out of cities, and the new realities of working from home. For Bloomberg’s Odd Lots podcast, hosts Tracy Alloway and Joe Weisenthal spoke with Mosaic Real Estate Partners Managing Partner Ethan Penner, who has been described as the father of Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securities.

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Recently, Sweden won praise from the World Health Organization for its unusual approach to battling Coronavirus. The Nordic nation imposed far fewer restrictions on movement than other countries, and instead relied on Swedes to act responsibly and embrace the guidelines laid out by the country’s health authorities.

The strategy has been controversial. Sweden’s Covid-19 death rate is considerably higher than in many other countries, at 57 per 100,000. But the pace of new infections and deaths has slowed markedly since the end of June. Stockholm based reporter Niclas Rolander explains where the country has gone right--and wrong.

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The coronavirus has swept through South Africa. But the country was already carrying a heavy burden of chronic and infectious diseases. Its healthcare system is fragile. Johannesburg-based reporter Janice Kew explains what happened when the country went into a strict lockdown to prevent the spread of Covid-19 from overwhelming its medical facilities.

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This weekend, Stephen Hahn, the commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, attracted criticism when he substantially overstated the benefits of an experimental Covid-19 therapy. At a press conference with Trump, Hahn said that a treatment using blood plasma from recovered patients could save 35 of every 100 people who would have died. Those high-profile remarks were incorrect, and they were repeated by others in the Trump administration. Hahn late Monday clarified some of what the data on blood plasma actually show.

But the episode has raised questions about how the agency will review a vaccine, as well as its scientific independence. Senior Editor for Health Care Drew Armstrong spoke to Hahn about the agency’s role in an increasingly politicized federal virus response.

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President Donald Trump expanded access to a coronavirus treatment that involves blood plasma donated by people who’ve recovered from Covid-19. But while convalescent plasma, as it’s known, is a promising therapy, researchers don’t yet fully understand how well it works. Michelle Fay Cortez explains what the announcement means, and the concerns that agencies like the FDA are letting pressure from the White House, rather than science, guide their decisions.

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One thing the pandemic seems to have rendered obsolete, at least for now, is mass tourism. Beach towns lined with hotels that boast hundreds of rooms are struggling in a socially distanced age. Jeannette Neumann reports one tourist hotspot in Spain that once drew throngs of young people is trying to reinvent itself for a future of tightly controlled and intimate trips.

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Before the novel coronavirus, the world was focused on another killer respiratory virus: influenza.The flu kills hundreds of thousands of people globally each year. The Covid-19 pandemic hit the U.S. after flu cases had peaked. But with the next flu season only a couple of months away, doctors are worried that a flu epidemic on top of a Covid pandemic could stretch medical resources to the breaking point. Jason Gale reports that countries like Australia and New Zealand can be a model for dealing with the flu.

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About a dozen student athletes have experienced heart inflammation after being diagnosed with the disease. The NCAA’s chief medical officer discussed the cases of myocarditis, a heart condition that can cause sudden death in young athletes, at a briefing last week. His remarks came two days after the Big Ten and Pac-12 announced they would postpone fall sports. Angelica LaVito reports that the new complication is casting a shadow over college athletics, and creating questions about what the disease does to young people.

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In the fight against COVID-19, so many are pinning their hopes on a vaccine. But how long will it take? Russia’s super-fast-tracked COVID-19 one is technically the first in the world. But the first vaccine may not be the best one. And even with other vaccine trials underway around the globe, it would be wrong to think we can resume normal life as soon as we have one. Bloomberg healthcare reporter Michelle Fay Cortez explains why Russia’s approach to vaccine development is so different, and why the world may be expecting way too much from an inoculation.

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