When a pandemic gets personal
Good morning, friends! Picking up where we left off...
Last week, we asked for your untold stories about the COVID-19 crisis. Little did we know that one of us at Lioness had an untold COVID story of her own:
Two days ago, my partner and I received confirmation yesterday that our ~3 days of chills, body aches, headaches & fever are cases of COVID-19. We are lucky to not have any respiratory issues, and neither of us are immunocompromised. A reminder to everyone that symptoms of COVID might not arise until 14 days after you have come into contact with the virus.
We've been quarantining in our LA apartment for 11 days (+ 2 quick grocery visits) — but before that, we were in NYC finding a new home, and suspect we contracted it while traveling there. There's not much to do at this point other than stay at home, rest, monitor fevers/coughs, and take Vitamin C & Tylenol.
We spoke to a UCLA epidemiologist who confirmed that symptoms should lessen after ~1 week (or worsen after ~1 week - though hopefully not). He also assured us that we cannot contract or pass on the virus after we recover. I'm sure this is is up for some debate?
But if true, it is a small silver lining... it means that if we are immune, we can help others in our families or community who might become ill once we are in the clear. It would be cool for someone to start tracking recovered cases for these purposes.
I feel very lucky to be in a position to work from home, and to have friends offering contactless drop-offs if we need it. We absolutely need to be prioritizing testing & universal paid sick leave so we can get a more accurate picture of cases, and ensure people can recover.
Lioness founder Ariella is on the mend, and is hoping that the UCLA epidemiologist is indeed correct about future immunity. (Perhaps this is an appealing insight to all the billionaires chasing immortality, who are currently coping with the pandemic by buying up bunkers equipped with bowling alleys.)
As the rest of us experience anxiety over potential symptoms, anger that the government has still not passed a stimulus, or stir-craziness with new stay-at-home orders — it can help to connect with others in this time of isolation, even strangers. Please don’t hesitate to share your own COVID stories, especially if you are or know someone who is:
A grocery store worker clocking in every day to keep the rest of us fed
A mental health professional helping people with their anxiety
A small business owner who has had to make some tough employment decisions
A landlord making decisions about their tenants’ rent
A data scientist or statistician with novel insight into COVID or economic data
A pregnant woman or family expecting a baby in the next few months
A public transit worker ensuring essential workers can get to work
We’ll be sure to share these stories next week. The more stories that come to light from around the world, the more we can understand what is needed to support people, and the more we feel joined together in this as a global community.
Here are a few stories that journalists in our greater network are asking for. Shoot us an email with your story, and we’ll work to connect it with the journalists — or feel free to reach out to them directly!
What else are we reading this week?
We picked out a few under-the-radar articles that might help you get through this day (and the one after, and the one after that)…
Instead of providing checks to every American, the government should provide interest-free 5-year “bridge loans” for small businesses if they commit to keeping 90% of their workforce, argues Aaron Ross Sorkin in the New York Times.
We are only seeing the tip of the iceberg as it relates to confirmed cases in the United States. While it may seem scary to uncover the true numbers around confirmed cases and deaths, testing for those who are asymptomatic or have mild cases is absolutely necessary for us to make educated public health decisions about this pandemic, according to a professor of epidemiology in Stat News. In the meantime, yes, stay at home— but let’s get more people tested, please!
Plague or no plague, life remains absurd, random, and chaotic. Philosopher Alain de Botton writes about how the randomness of suffering can breed joy and gratitude.
Tweets of the week
We’re a newsletter about unsung stories, so we generally want to refrain from sharing too many CEO takes. But the reality of the world is that CEOs have power, and we are especially grateful that the CEOs of Postmates and Gravity Payments are calling out BS this week when they see it:
Last but not least: Lioness client Kasey Edwards of Helpr published an op-ed this week in Fortune Magazine about the travesty of unpaid caregiving, a problem which has been accentuated by school and daycare closures in the time of COVID. Calling for an end to this unpaid subsidy to companies and the economy, she notes that “every year, we generate $3.67 trillion of care work, but we only pay for $393 billion of it.”
If you have the means to help, a Coronavirus care fund has been set up for domestic workers. But as Kasey aptly points out, going forward we as a society need to give our caregivers more than our donations in a crisis.
See you next week...
… for a brief respite from COVID-19 coverage, as we discuss a series of recent articles documenting the leadership styles of female founders and CEOs venture-backed, mission-driven companies.