Inequality is a hotter subject than ever. Burgeoning creativity in all its guises can be a source of optimism – especially when applied to effective therapeutic responses to COVID-19. Why, when the US takes a back seat, the world is a more dangerous place.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK
‘The months ahead will be difficult. But the medical cavalry is coming, and the rest of us know what we need to do.” – Donald McNeil from the NYT (about his relative optimism regarding the pandemic)

Vann Newkirk, Earth’s New Gilded Era
(The Atlantic, 15 October 2020)
Not a cheerful read but prescient! The point in a nutshell: as the world gets hotter, the divide between rich and poor gets bigger. As the author puts it: “In the coming century, when wealth inequality will likely increase and the spaces where humans can live comfortably will shrink, the heat gap between rich and poor might be the world’s most daunting challenge. It will not only reflect existing wealth disparities but will also deepen them”. Read on – plenty of examples vividly make the point (about 15 min).
Click here to read the full article.

Donald McNeil, A Dose of Optimism, as the Pandemic Rages On
(The New York Times, 12 October 2020)
Since he began covering the pandemic, the NYT science reporter has been consistently gloomy, but events are now moving faster than he thought possible and he’s become “cautiously optimistic”. He now believes, like many experts, that the pandemic will be over far sooner than expected, possibly by the middle of next year (in the US). The cavalry is coming: vaccines and monoclonal antibodies that are likely to be far more effective than non-pharmaceutical interventions like wearing masks and physical distancing (reads in 7-8 min).
Click here to read the full article.

Jonah Shepp, Armenia and Azerbaijan Are at War. Does President Trump Even Know?
(New York Magazine, 10 October 2020)
The regional conflagration around Nagorno-Karabakh (which has already claimed hundreds of lives) is the canary in the mine of future conflicts in a post-COVID / US retrenching world. As this article explains, the US’s lack of attention and involvement is contributing to the conflict’s rapid escalation and diminishing the prospects for its speedy resolution (reads in 5-6 min). Mid next week more analysis will be available on the Monthly Barometer website following the Armenian Summit of Minds we held on Saturday 10th October.
Click here to read the full article.

Kelly Bjorklund and Andrew Ewing, The Swedish COVID-19 Response Is a Disaster. It Shouldn’t Be a Model for the Rest of the World
(Time, 14 October 2020)
For non-experts, it’s becoming exceedingly difficult to make sense of different policies pursued around the world to contain the pandemic. Often, Sweden is hailed as a unique and interesting example of a country willing to pursue a strategy of herd immunity. This well-researched and authoritative article puts to rest the idea that Sweden’s experiment was a success – quite the opposite. Read on to understand why (10-12 min).
Click here to read the full article.

Steven Shapin, The rise and rise of creativity
(AEON, 12 October 2020)
The Harvard historian looks at how creativity, once seen as the work of genius, has become an engine of economic growth and a corporate imperative – A wonderful work of erudition that can be digested in less than 8 min.
Click here to read the full article.