Welcome to Plugging the Gap (my email newsletter about Covid-19 and its economics). In case you don’t know me, I’m an economist and professor at the University of Toronto. I have written lots of books including, most recently, on Covid-19. You can follow me on Twitter (@joshgans) or subscribe to this email newsletter here.
Over the past little while, I have collected some items that I don’t have anything particularly insightful to say about but that I think might be worth your time. I thought I’d just direct you to them today.
Screening
On the screening front, an article in the Wall Street Journal described how Austria were keeping schools open: you guessed it, screening.
On a continent still struggling with high Covid-19 rates, one small Alpine country is trying something new to reopen its schools: Require that students test themselves twice a week before they can attend class.
But here is the kicker:
Children collect their samples by turning a swab in their noses before inserting it into a cartridge, dropping a few drops of liquid on it and waiting 15 minutes for the result. Austria’s government has so far ordered 24 million such tests from a Chinese manufacturer at €2.40, equivalent to $2.90, apiece. Children whose parents refuse the test must continue remote learning.
Eight-year-old Dylan Moriarty, who goes to school in Salzburg, western Austria, said the test is easy and even “a bit cool.”
The kids are administering the screens! And the initial results:
Of 1.3 million tests across Austria last week, 364 children and 172 teachers were positive. Officials said the low rate could be because the children were emerging from a monthslong lockdown, but some scientists considered the possibility that children weren’t collecting samples correctly. Scientists say Austria’s school survey, which will resume next month and uses PCR tests on gargle samples, should provide more clarity.
We will keep tabs on this experiment. (In the meantime, Austria eyes extending twice weekly screening to its entire population).
Another interesting pandemic read is this piece from The New Yorker that tries to understand why so many countries have done better, much much better, than others in Covid-19 fatalities. The answer is: they don’t know but the process is interesting.
Also, on that same front, my book, The Pandemic Information Solution: Overcoming the Brutal Economics of Covid-19, is now available in physical form and should be selling at a discounted price (as low as I could make it). It is available everywhere but in some locations, the physical book may take a little time to ship. The eBook is, of course, available.
Crazy Vaccine News
First up, there are fake vaccine confirmations on the market. This is the least surprising thing ever but I am happy that getting the vaccine is now being seen as more valuable.
Then, if you don’t want to fake it, you can do what these two thirtysomethings did in Florida — impersonate much older people. And there we were being told the young people didn’t want the vaccine.
This isn’t vaccine related but it is on the crazy front. I always maintained that the pandemic has made life much harder for burglars.
Non-Pandemic Stuff
When I am not immersed in Covid-19 (and that still happens), I do some other work on digital economics. Here are two pieces I wrote over the last week in the realm of “what cheeses me off".”
My piece on why I don’t like Australia’s new news media bargaining code that led to Facebook blocking news there this week.
My piece on why I hate Amazon’s new receipts that don’t list what was ordered. I now have a petition on Change.org that you can sign to lobby Amazon to change them back. Yeah, it ain’t a big social issue but if you don’t fight the power over minor annoyances, you get minor annoyances at scale!
What to Watch
I have been watching the TV series, It’s a Sin that tracks some young people as they navigate AIDS in the UK in the 1980s. It is extraordinarily good but also, expectedly, heavy.
Here’s the thing. I, like so many people, was not really impacted by AIDS. It was in the background. And while we all are not happy with our current situation, it could be so much worse. AIDS is that worse. If you think things have gone wrong now, everything was worse about AIDS. The lack of science, the stigma coupled with prejudice and uncaring about the sick. It was terrible in the 1980s and remains terrible today. It is a reminder that, as bad as Covid-19 is, it is not as bad as it could be. That is something worth remembering. It is well worth watching especially with your older kids.