Category Archives: Human Behavior

Human Behavior

Tomlinson: Texas and its leaders failed the COVID-19 test – Houston Chronicle

Thousands of Texans are falling ill, hundreds will suffer disabilities, and dozens will die because of a small group of people who were too selfish, vain or greedy to slow the COVID-19 pandemic.

The irony, of course, is these super-spreaders of disease and disinformation also set back the economic recovery they promised to kickstart.

Anti-government libertarians and anti-science conservatives made the most political noise in April and late May. They convinced our cowardly leaders in Austin to ignore the experts, overrule local authorities and reopen Texas businesses before the public health system was ready.

Sure, Gov. Greg Abbott initially promised to follow White House guidelines but threw them out. He didnt wait until we had enough contract tracers or testing. When the infection rate doubled, he broke his promise and kept reopening more and more businesses.

TOMLINSONS TAKE: COVID-19 is killing cheap airfare by emptying seats in vicious cycle

On May 29, I warned that June could be the most consequential month in our lifetimes, and sadly, I was right. The answer to whether Americans can be trusted to act responsibly in the face of a debilitating disease is, unfortunately, a bold case no.

Remember when Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick called on senior Texans to risk their lives for the good of the economy? He wasnt asking; apparently, he was telling. His push to reopen has put us all at higher risk after the state ordered hospitals to stop elective surgeries.

The percentage of positive cases compared to the total number tested, known as the positivity rate, is skyrocketing, proving undoubtedly that the pandemic is worsening. Abbott said he would have to roll back the reopening of businesses if the rate exceeded 10 percent. He did not act until it was nearly 14 percent.

The disease is closing in on us. HEB grocery stores are watching staff fall ill. Small-town Texas is seeing the coronavirus take hold. Oil and gas operations centers report infected staffers. Essential workers deserve hazard pay because they are getting sick.

Pity the epidemiologists and the infectious disease doctors. They have spent their careers preparing for this moment, doing the research, running the models, understanding human behavior. When their time to shine came, our craven politicians shut them down, and now they can only watch in horror.

Texans should be angry. We saw what happened in China, South Korea, Italy, Spain, Germany, Washington, New York and Michigan. We could have prepared, but our leaders put slogans and ideology ahead of facts and science.

Abbott and Patrick caved for their whack-job supporters and the money, of course. They did it for folks like Steven Hotze, a Patrick supporter who sued Abbott to reopen the state and stop contact tracing.

Patrick, meanwhile, booked time on Fox News to kowtow to President Donald Trump, who still thinks the problem will go away if we just stop testing so much. Thanks to our elected leaders, Americans are banned from Europe, and Texas has become the nations COVID-19 basket case.

Hospitals are filling up, businesses are re-shuttering, workers are remaining at home, and the jobless claims keep piling up. Every time someone celebrates the positive economic growth rates month-over-month, they need to look again at how we are doing compared to last year.

Where are our leaders now? Patrick is missing in action, and Abbott does his best to avoid tough decisions for fear the fringes of his party might get upset. Meanwhile, the majority of Texans have to deal with idiots who refuse to wear masks and have to contribute to the health care and economic costs of those who refuse to act responsibly.

TOMLINSONS TAKE: After failing with COVID-19, U.S. health care system needs a new focus

Leadership matters. When I was a sergeant, my evaluation report included a section on moral courage. The Army defined that as doing the right thing when it was hard and unpopular. Texas needs moral courage by the barrel right now.

Community spread is out of control. We need to shut down non-essential activities that gather more than 10 people in the same room and then test like mad. No more 100-person choirs singing at political rallies.

Weve got to isolate the ill until we get to a 5 percent infection rate. Epidemiologists say we need at least 30 contact tracers per 100,000 people. Texas has 10.8 thanks to the state putting a Republican crony in charge. No reopening until we get staffed up.

Lastly, and this has always been Center for Disease Control protocol, a non-partisan public health professional should take charge with daily briefings. No more politicians speechifying. Texans need a daily science class until we stop infecting one another.

To save the economy and Texas businesses, our leaders must start respecting science now. Our lives and livelihoods depend on it.

Tomlinson writes commentary about business, economics and policy.

twitter.com/cltomlinson

chris.tomlinson@chron.com

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Tomlinson: Texas and its leaders failed the COVID-19 test - Houston Chronicle

Human Behavior

Stanford professor says rise in COVID-19 cases is proof that virus is tracking human behavior – YourCentralValley.com

STANFORD, Calif. (KRON) There are several factors behind the rise in COVID-19 cases, including testing, contact tracing, and people interacting more as shelter-in-place orders get relaxed.

But as we continue to track the virus a Stanford University professor says the new numbers are proof that the coronavirus is also tracking us.

I think the virus is tracking peoples behavior, Dr. Robert Siegel said.

Stanford University professor of microbiology and immunology Dr. Robert Siegel

says wear your mask, accounting for the recent rise in COVID-19 case numbers like this.

The virus would be very happy if we all went back and started socializing, Dr. Siegel said.

In other words, says Dr. Siegel, the virus doesnt care about what matters to people and that is the key to reopening.

The reopening is not working perfectly because as things open people are being more lax in their behavior like fewer people wearing masks, Dr. Siegel said.

Its called mask fatigue or quarantine fatigue.

Dr. Siegel points out that new cases are not spiking among one high risk group in particular, health care workers.

People are very carefully watching health care providers and their rate of infection is really, really low so they have a high exposure but they are being very careful and they are not getting infected, Dr. Siegel said.

If anything, Dr. Siegel says more testing is showing the recent uptick in cases is real.

He says there is scant evidence warmer weather has made much of a difference.

The key is, we have to continue to do the public health measures of wearing masks, social distancing and washing hands, using hand sanitizers and basically being smart, Dr. Siegel said.

Dr. Siegel says outsmarting the coronavirus starts with admitting that its still here and what you can do could save your life or someone elses life.

The virus is still very much present and you just have to look at the numbers, we are breaking records every day so in terms of risky behavior, you are more at risk for being in social settings without a mask than you ever were, Dr. Siegel said.

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Stanford professor says rise in COVID-19 cases is proof that virus is tracking human behavior - YourCentralValley.com

Human Behavior

New normal: Why people act as if the pandemic is over – The Jakarta Post – Jakarta Post

With the highest number of infections and largest death toll in Southeast Asia,the Indonesian government should be careful in handling the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the "new normal" began several weeks ago, people have otherwise eased restrictions and neglected the health protocols.

Recently, when I went out for the first time after three months of self-seclusion, I wondered how people could behave like this amid a pandemic.

I saw people in Jakarta eating out without even practicing social distancing, a lot of people roaming without face masks in public spaces, children playing on streets even in red zones, and my social media account was overwhelmed by other peoples updates on gatherings and social events.

Even many promiment Indonesian figures ignored the health protocols in the wake of the new normal. For example, the media reported that Corruption Eradication Commission chief Firli Bahuri did not wear a mask in public, and Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan shook hands with people during Jakartas anniversary celebration on June 22. Although such acts look "simple" or "less important" they show that the much-needed behavioral changes to slow the spread of the virus remain challenging.

After about four months since Indonesia announced the first COVID-19 infection, the severity of the pandemic has worsened, with around 1,000 people infected on a daily basis. Despite the fact that Indonesia tops the number of infections and death rates in Southeast Asia, the government and the people seems to choose a relatively "soft" approach in the fight against the pandemic.

This pandemic shows how predictably irrational we are as humans. Despite the upward infection curve, we have already eased restrictions required to contain the virus transmission to allow the economy and social life to resume.

Lockdown, social and physical distancing have been hard to bear for most of us. The more restrictive the government measures, the more people want to break the rules. The high compliance needed to beat the pandemic is difficult to achieve.

Several behavioral science insights might explain the phenomena, which may not be characteristically Indonesia.

* Mass hyperbolic discounting

Hyperbolic discounting refers to the tendency for people to value a smaller-sooner reward over a larger-later reward as the delay occurs sooner rather than later. In this case, they value small freedoms rather than long-term community health later. Many behavioral scientists suggest that if we start to adopt stricter rules to change peoples behavior amid the pandemic and incrementally ease restrictions, it will have a more significant impact on peoples overall happiness, rather than starting with light restrictions and gradually intensify them.

In Indonesias case, the government has taken a relatively soft and ambiguous approach since the outbreak began. In early January and February 2020, when neighboring countries declared the first case of infection and started to impose behavioral engineering to halt the virus spread. Indonesia was still busy confirming whether there was an outbreak, although several foreigners had reportedly been infected in Bali.

When the ASEAN neighbors implemented national lockdowns, the Indonesian government opted to leave the policy to local authorities. Even President Joko Widodo called on the nation to not panic and coexist with the virus. Hence, from the behavioral perspective insight, the softer the approach, the more difficult it is for people to comply with the new normal protocols.

*The overoptimism bias

The very basic stimuli of human behavior are often generated by the reward and reinforcement principle. We change our behavior following reward or something that reinforced us, getting praise, money and credit, and not getting sick could make us stick to the rules. If we did not fall ill in the very first place, we would lack reinforcement to maintain our health and the health of our community in the long run.

This is supported by our overoptimism bias, like the "Oh, those horrible things won't happen to me and my family" mindset may develop as time passes and our perception of threat significantly declines.

*The bandwagon effect

Besides individual psychology, our behavior is really affected by cultural and social factors. In a time of radical uncertainty like this, we take the behavioral guidelines from others, like friends, peers, neighbors, influencers and leaders as they set the social norms on what is right to do or not. This behavioral example creates a bandwagon effect.

With so much confusion about what is right to do and "what is not", we follow other peoples examples. Seeing our friends and influencers on social media hold birthday parties, religious gatherings, and visiting shopping mall with their small kids, we may be tempted to follow suit.

The governments new normal campaign is easier said than done. Many have realized there is nothing new about the new normal as they have been social distancing, wearing masks and washing hands frequently since the beginning of the pandemic.

As we may notice, the new normal is a difficult trade-off between health and economy. We need to get back to work, spur the economy while maintaining our own health. Hence do not let the "new normal" framework turn into normalization. We need to change our habits and the way we coexist.

The question is how to make people comply with a set of new rules.

Research conducted by Bott et al (2019) on taxpayers shows that making the normatively appropriate behavior known could make a significant impact on increasing the number of taxpayers that comply with the government advice.

Oftentimes, there is still confusion over whether we should go outside for exercise. While economic and cultural have started to reopen, we do not know whether it is actually safe to go out and or how to behave in public spaces. Hence, making sure that appropriate behavior is known by the public could be an alternative to increase peoples compliance with the protocols.

Second, ensuring the rules are clearly defined. The research by Shcweitzer and Hsee (20002) shows that individuals are more willing to exhibit dishonest behavior if there is ambiguous "room" to do that. Hence, setting clear rules on what is right and what is not is effective to change peoples behavior in public spaces.

Third, urging leaders and influencers to demonstrate compliant behavior. This has been a challenge for most of us. We have seen those role models not wearing masks or wearing them improperly, and standing close to others during a photo session.

Finally,we must assess our own behavior to determine whether it is rationally justified or just emotionally-driven. How far, how long, and how fast the spread of COVID-19 is crucially depends on our own behavior, hence the responsibility is ours to ensure this will pass.

***

The writer is a former journalist, with a masters in economic psychology from University Paris 1 Panthon-Sorbonne & University Paris 5 Paris Descartes

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post.

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New normal: Why people act as if the pandemic is over - The Jakarta Post - Jakarta Post

Human Behavior

It’s kind of terrifying how little has changed – North Carolina Health News

This June marks the 50th anniversary of the first Pride parade, which arose in protest against police brutality and for the rights of LGBTQ people. Health equity has always been an indispensable part of that struggle.

Brad Batch was at a party in Garner when he first heard about the virus.

The 30-year-old had recently moved back home after a few years in New Orleans.

A friend approached him and asked a strange question about his old college boyfriend, who was now living in New York.

Did you hear Richard has the gay flu?

This June marks the 50th anniversary of the first Pride parade, which arose in protest against police brutality and for the rights of LGBTQ people. Health equity has always been an indispensable part of that struggle.

Richard would be one of many million people to die in the global epidemic caused by human immunodeficiency virus, also known as HIV/AIDS. Batch, who is now 68, would eventually test positive for the virus himself.

But Pride looks different in 2020. Its a year where yet another pandemic has ravaged the LGBTQ community and a year where many of the people disproportionately impacted by it have already taken to the streets to protest for their lives.

Many experts say things are not that different from the last time they faced a pandemic.

Its kind of terrifying how little has changed actually, said Derrick Matthews, who researches health inequities experienced by LGBTQ people, particularly around HIV prevention and treatment for Black men, at the Gillings School of Global Public Health at UNC Chapel Hill.

Several comparisons have been made between the rise of the HIV pandemic in the United States in the 1980s and 90s and the current COVID-19 pandemic. Both diseases have ravaged vulnerable communities, particularly people of color. Both have been exacerbated by public health responses from government leaders and civilians, and both are still ongoing.

NC Health News spoke to a survivor of the HIV pandemic, a former CDC staffer who worked at the agency when the outbreak first hit, a public health researcher, and a local LGBTQ advocate. They reflected on how their understanding of the United States public health response to the HIV pandemic shapes their perspective of this present moment for members of the Black and LGBTQ community.

Gene Matthews was in the room when a director at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention first reported the strange incidence of the then-rare pneumocystis pneumonia in five gay men in Los Angeles in 1981.

I remember it like yesterday, said Matthews. It was right around this time of year.

Matthews, now a senior investigator at the North Carolina Institute for Public Health, was the chief legal officer at the organization at the time. He said hed grown up in the age of the antibiotic bubble in the United States, following the invention of the polio vaccine.

There wasnt anything that science, and hence in the private sector of pharmaceuticals, couldnt cure or protect us from, recalled Matthews. And all of a sudden, Mother Nature robbed us of that illusion, rather dramatically.

Matthews would continue with the agency throughout much of what would become known as the HIV pandemic.

Heres a disease thats spreading, were not quite sure how its spreading, you die a horrible death, there is no treatment, there is no cure. There is no vaccine. Does that sound familiar?

From his experience, Matthews said pandemics are always political.

Public health messages become weaponized in a highly polarized political environment, said Matthews. HIV was like catnip to politicians. It was called a gay disease there was pressure by Republicans to try to spin AIDS in a way that helped the 1984 re-election.

The administration of Ronald Reagan has been widely criticized for its response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Reagan himself did not publicly acknowledge HIV until 1985, when over 12,000 citizens had already died of the virus. The federal government ignored, and sometimes laughed at, the HIV pandemic, said Matthews, largely because of who was first experiencing it. The presidents base had little interest in fighting the virus they believed they could not contract and were suspicious of government spending that interfered with the free market economy.

Sound familiar? Matthews again added. COVID doesnt have the same stigma, but it is at least as politicized now.

All of the people NCHN spoke to talked about seeing the same collective willful ignorance, as Matthews described it, to the novel coronavirus pandemic.

The comparisons Ive noticed are less the disease itself and more about our kind of social-cultural response to it, said Derrick Matthews of UNC, who shares no relation to Gene Matthews. I think that we see a lot of parallels with the kind of very poorly coordinated response.

Though the countrys initial response to COVID-19 was much faster than it was to HIV/AIDS, eventually leading to a nationwide shutdown, the United States remains disproportionately represented in the global pandemic death count accounting for 5 percent of the worlds population but 25 percent of total COVID-19 deaths due, in part, to the delayed response of the federal government to early warnings about the threat of the viruss spread.

Even today, as COVID-19 cases spike in 22 states, the pushes to reopen continues. President Donald Trump is considering ending the national coronavirus emergency and depending on political affiliation, citizens may disagree about the severity or in some cases, existence of the disease at all.

I think people have a tendency to go into denial mode. You can see it right now in Raleigh, said Batch, who continues to live in the area. Theres crowds of 20-and-30-somethings where a lot of the restaurants and bars are, and theyre not wearing masks and theyre not doing social distancing.

Theyre not worried about it, because theyre young they think it cant happen to them. A similar thing happened with HIV, where people said, Well, Im not gay, so Im not going to get it, he said. Of course, there were some unpleasant surprises about that.

Public health emergencies always ask us to confront our nations ongoing relationship with racism and bigotry, experts said.

The kind of hatred and bigotry thats surrounded a lot of conversations about the virus is just pure racism, said Derrick Matthews. You know, it seems like forever ago, but at the beginning of 2020 this was the Chinese virus, or the Wuhan virus.

That naming of it really made me think of HIV because you know the early name for HIV even the CDC had called it the 4H Disease.

Before the agency had an official name for HIV/AIDS syndrome, the public often referred to the virus as the 4H Disease the primary risk groups were Haitians, hemophiliacs, heroin users, and homosexuals.

It was very pejorative, said Gene Matthews. I dont like to repeat it. Because there was a certain racial undertone, particularly when talking about homosexuals and heroin users, of Theyre getting what they deserve.

But just like now, the virus attacks those with less health care resources.

The novel coronavirus has disproportionately impacted people of color in the United States. Black people account for over 30 percent of all hospitalizations from the virus nationally, despite making up just 18 percent of the population. In North Carolina, with currently available racial data, 34 percent of COVID-19 deaths are Black people, who make up just 22 percent of the state population.

Theres very much a segregation of whos becoming sick and dying, said Derrick Matthews.

And though many of the historical narratives around HIV have predominately featured white gay men, Derrick Matthews said HIV was no different.

The severity of that inequity was so intense, that I think part of the reason the faces of Black gay man and Black trans folks are so erased from that retelling is because, well, theyre gone, he said. As devastating as it was to gay men and queer men broadly, my friends and colleagues and I talk about this: We didnt have an entire generation of people who could mentor us on what it would mean to walk through the world in this country as a gay Black man.

The first known person to die of HIV may have actually been Robert Rayford, a 16-year-old Black boy from St. Louis, in 1969. (His strain of the virus slightly differed from the one that led to the HIV pandemic in the 80s and continues to infect people today.)

HIV definitely affected the African American community, and still affects African Americans, much more than the non-Hispanic white community, recalled Batch, who himself is white. Gay Black men and women had a double whammy, but they were not only oppressed by society for being gay.

Evolving ideas around intersectionality have paved the way for broader understanding of how different identities interact a person can be both gay and a person of color, for example.

In the 80s and early 90s, there were kind of the gay concerns around HIV and there were kind of Black concerns around HIV, said Derrick Matthews. When in fact, people who had identities rooted in both their Black race and their gay sexual orientation were the ones who were doing the work. Yet they were the very ones who were being ignored.

The HIV crisis, and the federal governments response to it, spurred LGBTQ people to protest for better health conditions. The pandemic politicized many members of the LGBTQ community, and the work the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) and other queer organizers led to changes in health policy such as faster and more widespread availability of experimental treatment drugs.

J. Clapp, executive director of the LGBTQ Center of Durham, points out that Black LGBTQ people have continued that work. Two of the three founders of the Black Lives Matter movement, Alicia Garza and Patrisse Cullors, identify as queer. From the beginning, organizers have stated defending LGBTQ life was a key part of the movement.

He believes that the current COVID-19 pandemic may have further politicized members of the Black LGBTQ community contributing to more widespread participation in the recent spate of protests following the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade and other people of color killed at the hands of law enforcement.

Black people are just tired, said Clapp. They were at Stonewall, they were there to fight Reagan during the HIV epidemic in the 80s and 90s. And here we are again, fighting for Black Lives Matter, in the middle of COVID.

The pandemic has put on display how intimately racism is tied to health. Its also given some LGBTQ people unprecedented space to engage in activism.

I dont know that this protest would be so large and prolonged without COVID, said Clapp, noting that many LGBTQ people, particularly those of color, were disproportionately impacted by gig economy and restaurant closures, creating opportunity and added incentive for them to participate in protests. Because racism is the actual public health crisis.

Derrick Matthews echoed these sentiments.

COVID-19 and police violence are essentially two sides of the same epidemic of racism, he said. The criminally negligent response to COVID is certainly a kind of more covert form of racism, but I think this is the critical piece people are not getting: These protesters recognize fully the threat of COVID, because its affecting their communities more. And theyre outside, marching, anyway.

Its a completely logical, and I think on-point assessment that racism and all of its poison fruit are the real threat to peoples health and safety, he added. COVID is just another manifestation of it.

Both pandemics are still ongoing.

A lot of people think that because PrEP is a reality, the HIV pandemic is over, said Clapp, referring to the treatment-as-prevention drug regimen that can arrest the spread of HIV. But there are still new transmissions. There are still people who are living with untreated HIV. Were on a good path, but we still continue to struggle to get PrEP and other resources into the hands of our most marginalized, which typically include people of color and trans people of color.

COVID-19 may even worsen the ongoing HIV crisis.

Im worried were going to see a lot of people fall out of HIV care and really start to undo the progress that weve made, said Derrick Matthews. So much of health insurance is tied to employment, and we know that people of color were among the ones to lose their jobs the most.

Many queer and trans people were in the service and gig economies. It puts these groups in even more jeopardy.

As scientists race for a vaccine for COVID-19, some members of the LGBTQ community remain similarly concerned about who will have access to it.

I cant help but wonder if, just like HIV, well come up with this really great solution thats really effective, but its going to get into the hands of people that need it the most, less, said Derrick Matthews. If it ever gets there at all.

I hope this really does get people thinking more broadly about what it means to live in a country that does not prioritize the health of its citizens? And I think were finding out.

If a vaccine occurs, its going to be difficult getting it out. And theres gonna have to be a bit of sorting about who gets it first, said Batch. I hope its done on a vulnerability basis, and not some dog whistle criteria where you dont come out and say, Well, were not gonna vaccinate you because youre Black or brown or Spanish or undocumented, but were gonna do some other criteria that basically means theres only like 2 percent of you that can get it.

Changing human behavior in the face of a pandemic is difficult.

It is not that easy to inspire or require the harm reduction behaviors that are appropriate to the new normal, said Dr. Myron Cohen, director of the Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases at UNC, at a June 24 health briefing on COVID-19. Were being asked to do a thing inconsistent with the general behavior of our species.

We have had the same problems with HIV in inspiring risk reduction behavior. We know how the virus is transmitted, and as weve known how its transmitted weve had to inspire lots of behavior changes, which when used, are very effective. But theyre hard to sustain.

And with COVID-19, prevention behaviors depend on everyone, not just those at high risk for suffering the worst outcomes of the virus.

Gene Matthews, the former CDC official, said the HIV pandemic had to move out of marginalized communities for the majority of the public to take notice.

We got to a point where the majority of people in the country knew somebody with AIDS, said Matthews. Of course, AIDS was a death sentence.

Im not quite sure were there yet, where everybody in this country knows somebody personally that died of COVID. But believe me, we surely will be, unless some miracle [behavior change] occurs.

Derrick Matthews, of UNC, said hes often wondered if the public would be more concerned if the face of COVID-19 looked different. Yet at the same time, he, like the other Matthews, is worried there may be a bigger cultural problem.

There are literally people who think its made up, said Matthews. Literally. I hope we dont have to have to get to the point where basically everyone needs to know someone who died of COVID. But it feels like thats where were heading. And thats strange.

But Brad Batch said hes hopeful about individuals who are changing their behavior.

Im 68 years old. Ive looked back, and Ive seen this kind of stuff before, said Batch, who said he lost count of the number of people he knew who died of HIV. The thing is, you need to have hope. How do you respond to pandemics? You roll up your sleeves and get down to work.

With HIV, we marched, we did ACT UP, we handed out condoms on the street corners. They say you need to wear a mask, and you have a mask shortage? Well, you make some damn masks. And thats how you get through this. Im confident well get through this.

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It's kind of terrifying how little has changed - North Carolina Health News

Human Behavior

Accenture CEO Julie Sweet – remote working is here to stay, but don’t sell off the office space just yet… – Diginomica

(via Accenture )

We're in the big shock, right?

That comment from Julie Sweet, CEO of Accenture, might apply to so many of us right now, including herself. As she noted last month, shed only just got her feet under the top table at the services giant when COVID-19 kicked in and everything changed. As organizations now look to re-open workplaces and strive for some form of new normal, the Accenture leaders assessment of the situation has evolved:

This crisis is unique in two ways. First, it has created the largest ever change in human behavior, at scale and almost instantaneously, requiring companies to fill new demand trends, change how they engage with customers and adapt quickly to volatile market conditions, all of which require a strong digital foundation just as they also face massive cost pressures.

Second, the pandemic is happening during a period of exponential technology change, which was already driving entirely new ways of doing business. In our Future Systems research last year, we identified the top 10% of companies in terms of tech adoption, depth and culture where the leaders are performing twice as well, and the bottom 25%. We believeCOVIDimmediately widened that gap. We see the leaders doubling down on their investments, while the laggards recognize the need to accelerate the pace of their transformation.

One transformative impact of the virus has, of course, been the widely-seen shift to remote working, a prime example of what Sweet refers to when she talks about a change of human behavior. The question for business leaders now is what happens as workplaces are refitted to be COVID-safe? Will employees want to return to the office? Are the trust levels there to make that happen? Or do CEOs have some strategic re-thinking to do around HCM?

In her view, Sweet reckons that remote working is here to stay at what she calls a pretty high level for some time to come. This means, she suggests, there is a task ahead in working with Accenture clients to help them to understand and adjust to this changed reality. Its a step-by-step learning experience, but not rushing into selling off office space is good starting point, she cautions:

I give a lot of advice to CEOs about this because there are some who've got really excited about, Let's get rid of all our real estate!. Back in the '90s, we [at Accenture] pioneered remote working and we called it hoteling, and, particularly in the US, we took out a lot of real estate because we said, Our people are at our client sites and/or they could be home. And what we found, in fact, over the last five years when I was running North America, we started gradually to expand the [real estate] footprint again because there is a benefit of bringing people together as well.

There are likely to be different attitudes to remote working in different parts of an organization as well, she adds:

I was just talking to a technology company yesterday where what they've said is, Look, everything is working pretty well, except R&D, not because R&D needs to be in the office, but they're just struggling to collaborate as wellWhat ithas helped CEOs really understand is some of the areas in some industries that have resisted - say, finance and accounting - and certain areas saying, No, no, no, we need to have the teams together!, is to recognize that they can really re-think what should they do in-house.

Of course, the shift to remote working has also been a business opportunity for Accenture:

We've enabled lots of companies to work remotely. Whether it was an aerospace and defense company on G-Suite, 100,000 people, or the NHS hospital system with Teams, over one million people, companies have really adapted. Where we have the advantage is because we've been remote and because we are a global company and have a strong tradition of working with our clients around the globe, we've just adapted very quickly.

Sweet also points to Accentures work on the People+Work Connect analytics platform, created in association with Chief Human Resources Officers (CHROs) from Lincoln Financial Group, ServiceNow and Verizon:

This platform is a global online employer-to-employer initiative to bring together, at no cost, companies that have laid off or furloughed people with organizations in urgent need of workers. Designed by CHROs, including our own extraordinary CHRO Ellyn Shook, Accenture built the platform in only 14 days. The response has been overwhelming - more than 1300 organizations across approximately 80 countries have engaged with the currently about 400,000 positions already on the platform, which are balanced between open needs and availability.

For its part, around 95% of Accentures workforce has operated remotely over the past few months as almost every geography in which the firm has a presence entered lockdown. That workforce has also seen some changes of its own in responding to the skills needs of servicing clients during the crisis. Sweet explains:

Since the beginning of March, when we hitCOVIDand we saw the shift in demand in technology, we have re-skilled 37,000 people in hot areas, like cloud. These are in sort of 15 to 20-hour modules of re-skilling to pivot. We've taken our Strategy and Consulting people and pivoted to some of the needs for operations in the public sector, because those require those insights.

The resiliency of a business like ours, because we're in multiple industries, multiple types of work, [means] were able to seamlessly move people who are used to working in these multi-dimensional teams anyway. And by the way, our people love it, because they get great new opportunitiesWe think we're going to come out much stronger because of how we're delivering for our people.

A lot of what we're doing now is taking all of our learning capabilities and building that in for our clients to help them rotate their talent, which they need to do as well.

The re-training of so many Accenture employees is an impressive talent management response to crisis conditions. That said, the firm is having to take tough new world of work decisions of its own. Start dates for some new hires have been pushed back, some promotions have been put on hold and hiring in general has slowed down, other than to meet the need to replace sub-contractors. Those are operational learnings in their own right that other organizations will have to take on board as they engage with their own return to work decisions.

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Accenture CEO Julie Sweet - remote working is here to stay, but don't sell off the office space just yet... - Diginomica

Human Behavior

Experts say there’s an ideal income for happinesshere are three ways you can reach it – Financial Post

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Whoever said money cant buy you happiness clearly hasnt found the perfect salary, but experts say theyve pinpointed the exact amount of money you actually need to be happy.

Its not just for the lifestyles of the rich and famous.

The earning and life satisfaction of 1.7 million people living in 164 countries was compiled into a bank of data by World Gallup Poll. The resulting data was analyzed by psychologists from Purdue University and the University of Virginia who came to the conclusion that the ideal income for individuals is $130,000 CAD ($95,000 USD) a year for life satisfaction, while $82,000 to $102,000 CAD ($60,000 to $75,000 USD) a year was determined as the ideal income for emotional well-being.

The study, published in Nature Human Behavior, found that once an individual hit the threshold for life satisfaction, any additional pay increases were associated with reduced happiness. So, theres yet another reason to go after that salary bump in your job this year. To help, weve gone ahead and identified three things you can do to give yourself an edge.

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Experts say there's an ideal income for happinesshere are three ways you can reach it - Financial Post

Human Behavior

Misplaced Analogies: COVID-19 Is More like a Wildfire Than a Wave – Scientific American

New coronavirus infections have soared to their highest levels in five states, as some leaders pause plans to reopen businesses further. The record highsin Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Nevada, and South Carolinamark a concerning rise in cases that is now stretching into its third consecutive week. More than 2.5 million people in the United States have been infected with coronavirus and at least 125,000 have died, greater than any other country.

Early in the pandemic, Sarah Cobey, an epidemiologist and evolutionary biologist at the University of Chicago, pivoted her own research on influenza to model the dynamics of COVID-19. Here she answers some questions from Scientific American contributor Marla Broadfoot about why we are seeing an uptick in casesand whether they herald a dreaded second wave of the disease.

[An edited transcript of the interview follows.]

This month more than 20 states have reported a rise in daily coronavirus cases. Is this uptick part of a first or second wave? Or are those categories even a useful way of looking at this pandemic?I think this is a hard question, because I am not sure that it is that useful to think about the dynamics that we are seeing as waves. We know that influenza and many other respiratory pathogens cause these wavelike epidemics, where the crests and troughs of the waves are set by the fraction of the population that is susceptible. Epidemics start declining when the susceptible population falls below the threshold for herd immunity. And they can take off again once the susceptible fraction rises above it. But what we are looking at here is a virus that obviously has not been circulating in a population for a long timeand to which most of us are still susceptible. There is no reason that we should be seeing the kind of wavelike epidemic dynamics that we have seen for other respiratory pathogens. Instead what we are seeing is a massive epidemic that could burn through the population rapidly unless we do something to slow transmission, which is what we are currently doing with interventions such as social distancing and masks. It is possible that, over time, COVID-19 could start developing cyclical, flulike waves. But that is years away.

If we were to use the wave terminology that is in common parlance, what sorts of dynamics with the disease should we expect to see next?We could see all different kinds of resurgences or waves. And it really depends on what we do. We could have just one big wave like Japan, which seems to be managing the virus extremely well, if we adhered to similar interventions until a vaccine is developed. We could see something like a second wave if people just gave up entirely, for instance, on social distancing or wearing masks. But I do not think that is consistent with our behavior.

Some experts and politicians have suggested the new coronavirus might die down in the summer. Yet new cases are still on the rise. Do these recent trends tell us anything about the seasonal nature of the pathogen?Most respiratory viruses that have been studied seem to have higher rates of transmission in the winter and lower rates in the summer. And we know that this seasonality is not completely driven by human behavior. It looks like there are these other forces that are influencing this seasonal timing, such as temperature, humidity and sunlight. I think it would be strange if the new coronavirus were not similarly sensitive to the seasons. If you just looked at the basic math here, however, changes in human behavior are going to have a far greater impact on transmission. As you pointed out, we are seeing transmission picking up in many states. But I suspect things would be even worse if it were not for summer.

What lessons could be gleaned from past flu epidemics to understand what we are seeing right now with the COVID-19 pandemic?One thing we have already talked about is seasonal effects. For instance, the H1N1 flu pandemic of 2009 had a spring wave that died out over the summer and then came back rather early in the fall. The summer weather could similarly affect the transmission of COVID-19. But what we have here is a virus that is extremely transmissible. That makes it hard to draw a direct comparison to any other epidemic we have had before. All previous flu pandemics have been in populations with preexisting immunity, so even though it was a new virus, people already had a lot of immunity built up from exposure to previous flu viruses.

Another thing we are seeing is variation in the size and timing of COVID-19 epidemicsamong not just states but countriesthat can be traced to different interventions that had been in place in those regions. That is something that we also saw with the 1918 flu pandemic. We are seeing again that the timing of these waves is probably under our control. It will depend on how much we are going to pull back on our own interventions.

Read more about the coronavirus outbreakfromScientific Americanhere. And read coverage from ourinternational network of magazines here.

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Misplaced Analogies: COVID-19 Is More like a Wildfire Than a Wave - Scientific American

Human Behavior

The U.S. Isn’t in a Second Wave of Coronavirus The First Wave Never Ended – Discover Magazine

After sustained declines in the number of COVID-19 cases over recent months, restrictions are starting toease across the U.S. Numbers of new cases are falling or stable at low numbers in some states, but theyare surging in many others. Overall, the U.S. is experiencing a sharp increase in the number of new cases a day, and by late June, had surpassed the peak rate of spread in early April.

When seeing these increasing case numbers, it is reasonable to wonder if this is thedreaded second wave of the coronavirus a resurgence of rising infections after a reduction in cases.

The U.S. as a whole is not in a second wave because the first wave never really stopped. The virus is simply spreading into new populations or resurging in places that let down their guard too soon.

Seven day rolling average of number of people confirmed to have COVID-19, per day, as of June 29, 2020. Johns Hopkins university doesn't provide reliable data for March 12 and March 13. (Credit: Johns Hopkins CSSE via the Conversation)

A wave of an infection describes a large rise and fall in the number of cases. There isnt a precise epidemiological definition of when a wave begins or ends.

But with talk of asecond wave in the news, as anepidemiologist and public health researcher, I think there are two necessary factors that must be met before we can colloquially declare a second wave.

First, the virus would have to be controlled and transmission brought down to a very low level. That would be the end of the first wave. Then, the virus would need to reappear and result in a large increase in cases and hospitalizations.

Many countries inEurope and Asia have successfully ended the first wave.New ZealandandIcelandhave also made it through their first waves and are now essentially coronavirus-free, with very low levels of community transmission and only a handful of active cases currently.

In the U.S., cases spiked in March and April and then trended downward due to social distancing guidance and implementation. However, the U.S. never reduced spread to low numbers that were sustained over time. Through May and early June, numbers plateaued atapproximately 25,000 new cases daily.

We have left that plateau. Since mid-June, cases have been surging upwards. Additionally, the percentage of COVID-19 tests that are returning positiveis climbing steeply, indicating that the increase in new cases is not simply a result of more testing, but the result of an increase in spread.

As of writing this, new deaths per dayhave not begun to climb, but some hospitals intensive care units haverecently reached full capacity. In the beginning of the outbreak, deaths often lagged behind confirmed infections. It is likely, as Anthony Fauci, the nations top infectious-disease specialist said on June 22, thatdeaths will soon follow the surge in new cases.

Looking at U.S. numbers as a whole hides what is really going on. Different states are invastly different situations right nowand when you look at states individually, four major categories emerge.

Places where the first wave is ending: States in the Northeast and a few scattered elsewhere experienced large initial spikes but were able to mostly contain the virus and substantially brought down new infections.New Yorkis a good example of this.

Places still in the first wave: Several states in the South and West see Texas and California had some cases early on, but are now seeing massive surges with no sign of slowing down.

Places in between: Many states were hit early in the first wave, managed to slow it down, but are either at a plateau likeNorth Dakota or are now seeing steep increases likeOklahoma.

Places experiencing local second waves: Looking only at a state level, Hawaii, Montana and Alaska could be said to be experiencing second waves. Each state experienced relatively small initial outbreaks and was able to reduce spread to single digits of daily new confirmed cases, but are now all seeing spikes again.

The trends arent surprising based on how states have been dealing with reopening. The virus will go wherever there are susceptible people and until the U.S. stops community spread across the entire country, the first wave isnt over.

Men wearing masks outside the U.S. Army hospital in Fort Porter, New York, during the 1918 flu pandemic. The images and memories we preserve from COVID-19 are still to be determined. (Credit: Everett Historical/Shutterstock)

It is possible though at this point it seems unlikely that the U.S. could control the virus before a vaccine is developed. If that happens, it would be time to start thinking about a second wave. The question of what it might look like depends in large part on everyones actions.

The1918 flu pandemicwas characterized by a mild first wave in the winter of 1917-1918 that went away in summer. After restrictions were lifted, people very quickly went back to pre-pandemic life. But a second, deadlier strain came back in fall of 1918 and third in spring of 1919. In total,more than 500 million people were infectedworldwide and upwards of50 million diedover the course of three waves.

It was the combination of a quick return to normal life and a mutation in the flus genome that made it more deadly that led to the horrific second and third waves.

Thankfully, the coronavirus appears to be much moregenetically stablethan the influenza virus, and thus less likely to mutate into a more deadly variant. That leaves human behavior as the main risk factor.

Until avaccine or effective treatment is developed, the tried-and-true public health measures of the last months social distancing,universal mask wearing, frequent hand-washing and avoiding crowded indoor spaces are the ways to stop the first wave and thwart a second one. And when there are surges like what is happening now in the U.S., further reopening plans need to be put on hold.

Melissa Hawkins is a professor of public health and director of the Public Health Scholars Program at American University. This story originally appeared on The Conversation. Read the original article.

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The U.S. Isn't in a Second Wave of Coronavirus The First Wave Never Ended - Discover Magazine

Human Behavior

The Power of Empathy as Told by the Empathy Queen – BrownGirlMag

4 min read

I am an Empath and I identify as an American Bengali. My family and I have always been a part of various ethnic communities and groups and have been instilled with the value of respect in Islam owed to every human being regardless of age, race, gender, status, or belief. Being born in America in a heavily-populated Middle-Eastern community while being raised with the languages of Bangla, Arabic, Urdu, Hindi, and of course English, I was always vastly intrigued by diversity, languages and the way different humans interacted with one another allowing me to have an open mind along with an accepting and approachable nature.

I have always been the one to never really fit in and tend to be the odd one out. Ive been criticized and teased for not being like the majority, for my sensitive nature, my skin tone, my heritage, for my chosen career path, and just overall unapologetically being myself. My captivation with different ethnicities led me to be shocked at the way I was negatively viewed growing up and the experiences I had no idea were in store for me. Life has consistently shocked me with the way humans, including myself, communicate, act, and react. What seemed so simple to me, seemed so different from others. What came naturally to me, came difficult to others. This led to my frustration of not understanding why people do certain things they do/say, developing my fascination with psychology and human behavior.

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Owning this voice, Leads me to own this choice. The choice to lead with grace. The choice to go at my own pace. The choice to silence every form of negativity & carry on, with my light, empathy & positivity. ? From a young age, Ive had a deep interest in the world of Psychology & its role on human behavior so I graduated with my degree in Psychology and English & then obtained my certification in Therapy. Growing up with sound morals/values & having a business-oriented mindset has allowed me to not only persevere, but overcome the countless obstacles & challenges trialed through-out lifes beautiful journey. Despite being an American-born citizen, having a Bengali heritage in a community where being South-Asian was looked down upon, I became used to being the out-cast wherever I went. I havebeen judged, harassed & have faced unspeakable discrimination & racism since my youth which continued to spiral through my teens & into my adulthood. I have been through hell & back on countless occasions since I was young; only to come back stronger each time because of the certainty I had in myself, my integrity & the life-lessons I learned along the way, all-encompassing elements of Emotional Intelligence. ? All the challenges Ive been through has allowed me to turn my MESSES into MESSAGES as Ive learned from my personal experiences, along with my professional expertise to UPLIFT & EMPOWER people to BLOSSOM from their BATTLES leading them to be their best authentic self by improving mental health through increasing their Emotional Quotient (EQ) levels by learning, developing & mastering Emotional Intelligence. ? I am SO humbled for every single one of you for joining me as I continue on this journey. Every one of you is SO special in their own way, so unique, so talented & so valuable. If you disagree, I am here to remind you of your potential. I am here to tell you, you are ALREADY enough. I am here to EMPOWER & SUPPORT you on the journey to being the best version of yourself. Thank you dearly, I look forward to sharing so much more with you all! ? Use my CODE: empathyqueen to get 30% off sitewide @thebossbabesco??

A post shared by Emotional Intelligence Coach ? (@empathyqueen) on Apr 29, 2020 at 10:07am PDT

I went to a private Islamic school for 10 years where I was an outcast due to being one of the very few desis in a school where you were often underhandedly judged or looked down upon if you were not Arab such as the majority. I often received racist and discriminatory jokes from friends when anything revolving around my culture was brought up. To this day, I remember begging my mom not to pack me biryani for lunch to avoid getting teased for being called the curry girl due to the beautiful aromatic smell of our cultures food. Why do you look like that? Why is her skin so dark? Do all desis have dark skin? Your mom is so light she looks Arab! At the time I didnt think anything of it, I just thought to myself, Why are people so focused on things that dont matter. Why are people so mean?

When I was 12 years old, my parents went through a divorce that spiraled into backlash and toxicity from the desi community my family and I were a part of due to the divorce being such a taboo topic in our culture. This led to my mother, sister and I being forced to leave Chicago and relocate to New York near relatives until things had calmed down. We moved nine times, across two different states and I changed schools two times all within a year. From one culture shock to another, this was probably one of the toughest times of my life that have really shaped my character. I was held at gunpoint in NY for refusing to show my hair to a group of guys harassing me while walking home from school calling me bald and threatening me. The racism and discrimination I experienced through life as I grew older came in different forms and spiraled more into my professional life. I have had job offers rescinded upon discovering my religious background. I have had promotions declined due to the political image that would be conveyed through having a Muslim Woman in leadership.

However, all this no longer affects me. The stares no longer bother me. The passive-aggressive comments no longer shake me. The discrimination, I have become numb to, no longer breaks me. I know my worth. I know my value. I know who I am. Ive been told to dream more realistically, Ive been laughed at when talking about my passion and have been doubted by peers, friends, family the list goes on.

My experiences in life, my religion, coupled with my educational and professional background have shaped me into a strong empath transforming my MESSES into MESSAGES as I now hold space for individuals and lead them to blossom from their battles through being a counselor/therapist and spreading kindness in my path. I have taken back control in my life by relishing in my passion through unapologetically being myself and providing service to others as I continue learning with life being the greatest teacher there can be. I am proud of the woman I am today, I am proud of my heritage, and I am grateful for the obstacles I have overcome.

It has taken me 26 years to develop, understand, and master E. I through my own experiences and traumas, coupled with my education and professional background as I continue learning through life being the greatest teacher. I am currently leading Emotional Intelligence Training in my professional work and also utilizing my talents and hobbies to help guide those who are dealing with their own struggles and searching for relief because as a true Empath, I truly understand and know how it feels to be mistreated, judged, harassed and neglected.

THAT is why I do what I do. Because I know how desperate it can feel to search for any sign of hope that things will get better. These morals and values from Islam are what has gotten me through lifes most challenging and difficult times. This piece of cloth is a statement. Its a statement that I am PROUD to be an American-Bengali-Muslim-Hijabi Woman hoping to continue building mountains high enough so the people after me can lead too.

Beneath every behavior, there is a feeling. And beneath each feeling, is a need. And when we meet that need rather than focus on the behavior, we begin to deal with the cause, not the symptom. Sometimes, good hearts choose poor methods. Through judging, we separate. But through understanding, we C-O-N-N-E-C-T.

Tarmim Khan is a first-generation American Bengali woman who has transformed her messes into messages spreading kindness through being a Behavioral Therapist/Counselor and leading Emotional Intelligence training in her community. Tarmim uses her talents and hobbies to guide people who are looking to improve their mental health and blossom from their battles by raising awareness through the concept of EI.

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The Power of Empathy as Told by the Empathy Queen - BrownGirlMag

Human Behavior

Alabama coronavirus exposure notification app to be released in July, early August – WAAY

Alabama's coronavirus exposure notification app is set to be released sometime in July or early August as part of the "Stay Safe Together" platform.

The app uses technology from Apple and Google, and lets you know if you've come in contact with someone who tests positive for coronavirus.

"Human behavior is fundamentally at the foundation of this, but we're going to add all the tools possible to make this future and our fall workable to our students, faculty and staff as well as our business community across the state of Alabama," Dr. Selwyn Vickers, the Dean of Medicine at the University of Alabama in Birmingham where the platform started, said.

The platform includes coronavirus health checks, so you can check your health and symptoms regularly, as well as the exposure notification app that'll alert you if you've been around someone who tested positive for coronavirus. It's all anonymous.

Vickers' team is working to make the Stay Safe platform available to all universities across the state as students return in the fall.

As of right now, universities aren't required to use the platform, but Vickers say it's best if they do.

"It's not required yet. We are going to highly recommend it because we think it's a powerful tool for allowing individuals to know when they've been in contact with individuals who are positive, and it's a tool to support our state's effort for traditional contact tracing," he said.

One student told WAAY 31 he hopes schools plan to use it, so that students can come back to campus.

"That's an amazing thing for students, and I know there are a lot of students trying to come back. They want to be around their friends and get back in class and all this stuff," Elijah Oshin-Banjo, a college student, said.

The launch is expected in July or early August.

It was first launched at UAB in April for testing.

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Alabama coronavirus exposure notification app to be released in July, early August - WAAY