How to Keep Things Open

Here we go again

The start of this year may seem uncomfortably similar to the beginning of 2021, with surging coronavirus case counts, event cancellations and companies revising their return-to-office plans. But in 2022, there are important differences in the path of the pandemic — and the policy response to it.

“We want to make sure there is a mechanism by which we can safely continue to keep society functioning while following the science,” Rochelle Walensky, the director of the C.D.C., said recently. The Omicron variant, while highly contagious, is seemingly less severe than previous strains of the coronavirus. As the government pushes to keep the U.S. economy open despite record cases — but lower hospitalization and death rates — it raises new questions for businesses preparing for a third year of the pandemic.

Government policies are set to change:

• Dr. Anthony Fauci said yesterday that it’s “much more relevant” to focus on Covid hospitalizations instead of total cases, since many infections are asymptomatic, and he is more worried about potential strains on hospital systems.

• While the C.D.C. has halved its recommended isolation time for asymptomatic infections to five days from 10, a move that sparked criticism (and memes), Dr. Fauci said the agency may revise its guidelines yet again.

• The Biden administration is signaling that it may change the definition of “fully vaccinated” to require booster shots, a prospect that could affect what 140 million Americans can and can’t do in public.

That leaves companies with a lot to consider. Some, like Goldman Sachs, are changing their vaccination policies: Goldman will require a booster for all employees and visitors entering its offices beginning Feb. 1. Employers will also need to rethink their policies if they want to bring infected workers back to the office more quickly. This makes testing the next big issue, with the administration scrambling to increase supply amid shortages. Some big firms have been buying tests in bulk to give to employees, but smaller companies may not have similar capacity. Deciding whom to prioritize for tests, who pays for them, and how to verify the results will bedevil many boardrooms in the coming months.

If Broadway shows, sporting events and conferences are anything to go by, keeping things open won’t be easy.

More pandemic news:

• Some people are getting fourth or fifth vaccine doses, despite qualms about their effectiveness and safety.

• Mayor Eric Adams of New York City said he may require city employees to get booster shots.

• The pandemic child tax credit, which economists say has bolstered the U.S. economy, has expired amid bickering among Washington lawmakers.

HERE’S WHAT’S HAPPENING

Trading in Evergrande’s stock is halted. The embattled Chinese property developer hasn’t yet revealed why trading of its shares in Hong Kong was paused, though Chinese media reported that the company would be forced to demolish a residential development. Last month, the credit ratings agency Fitch declared Evergrande in default.

U.S. telecom giants decline a government request to delay 5G expansion. Verizon and AT&T said yesterday that they would not again postpone plans to widen their next-generation wireless coverage, despite transportation officials’ worries that the new signals would interfere with airport communications. The carriers instead offered to temporarily limit 5G’s use around airports.

Twitter permanently suspends Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene’s personal account. The social network’s move came after it had temporarily locked the Georgia Republican four times for spreading misinformation, most recently about Covid vaccines. On the social media platform Telegram, Greene called Twitter an “enemy of America.”

Tesla says it nearly doubled deliveries last year. The electric-car maker reported yesterday that it delivered 936,000 vehicles in 2021, up 87 percent, even as the auto industry suffered from a shortage of computer chips and other parts. The company also quietly disclosed last week that it planned to recall nearly half a million cars over potential safety issues.

Lots of states are raising their minimum wages. At least 20 states started 2022 with an increase. Democrats in Washington are pushing for the federal minimum wage, currently $7.25 an hour, to reach $15, matching the level set by some states and municipalities, including New York City.

Biden’s hiring to-do list

Like many employers, the Biden administration is having trouble filling key roles. And more vacancies are appearing, with the latest announced on Friday when the chairwoman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Jelena McWilliams, announced that she would step down next month. The Trump appointee is cutting her term short after a recent clash with Democratic banking regulators. Martin Gruenberg, a former F.D.I.C. chairman who sits on the agency’s board, will become acting head.

Finding a replacement to lead the F.D.I.C. may not be easy, if last year was any indication. McWilliams’s departure means that three of the main banking regulators will have acting directors in their top regulatory positions. Michael Hsu, the acting comptroller of the currency, was expected to cede his position to Saule Omarova, but the law professor recently withdrew from consideration after strong Republican opposition and a lack of united support from Democrats, demonstrating the difficulty of nominations in an evenly divided Senate. The White House has also not named a candidate for vice chair for supervision at the Fed, after the departure of Randal Quarles. (It reportedly has some names in mind.)

Other seats at financial regulators need filling, with S.E.C. commissioner Elad Roisman announcing that he would leave the agency this month. There are also three open commissioner positions at the C.F.T.C. The administration has named potential replacements, but it is unclear how fast positions that need Senate approval can be filled this year, given the fraught political and hiring environment.

What happens next? Some policy watchers believe that despite all the vacancies and acting directors, President Biden has enough financial regulators in place to push ahead with his agenda in areas like cryptocurrencies and shadow banks, where many Democrats believe more rules are needed. Last month, Biden’s Senate confirmations rose above the total at the same point in President Donald Trump’s term, but remained below the Obama and Bush administrations.

“The pandemic has given many companies license to reduce their focus on the quality of the experience they’re delivering to the customer.”

— Jon Picoult, the founder of Watermark Consulting, a customer service advisory firm. As the pandemic persists, people are increasingly losing it when faced with disappointment as they shop or travel, creating a “great chorus of American consumer outrage,” The Times’s Sarah Lyall writes.

The week ahead

► Holmes trial: Today is the seventh day of deliberations for jurors in the trial of Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of the blood testing start-up Theranos. So far, the jury has submitted two questions: It asked whether it could take jury instructions home (no), and it asked to listen to audio exhibits of Holmes talking with investors.

► Fed minutes: On Wednesday, the central bank will publish minutes from its policy-setting meeting last month, in which officials decided they would cut back more quickly on stimulus as concern about high inflation grew.

► Jobs report: On Friday, the Labor Department will publish hiring data for December. Economists expect that 400,000 jobs were gained, which would double the amount reported for November. Economists will look for signs that the Omicron variant may have discouraged people from returning to the work force.

What’s to blame for airline cancellations?

As thousands of flights per day continue to be canceled, who should take the blame: Airlines or Omicron? Yesterday, an additional 2,700 flights in the U.S. were nixed, bringing the total number of flights canceled since Dec. 24 to nearly 15,000, as airlines dealt with bad weather and worker shortages linked to cases of the highly contagious new coronavirus variant. Last year, the number of holiday flights canceled was in the hundreds, not thousands.

Part of the blame lies with the airlines, according to Peter Coy of Times Opinion. A number of airline executives said the pandemic had taught them how to do more with less, which now looks potentially misguided. The government support worth tens of billions that airlines received over the past two years was also intended to help them maintain their services and staffing levels.

• Gerald Laderman, the C.F.O. of United Airlines, said that the carrier could increase its flight schedule by 10 percent at prepandemic staffing levels.

• Robert Isom, who is expected to take over as C.E.O. of American Airlines this year, said that his company saved $1.3 billion a year by flying 10 percent fewer planes but maintaining the same capacity as before the pandemic.

• Ed Bastian, Delta’s C.E.O., said that his airline’s staffing, while down from prepandemic levels, was “exactly where I want it to be.”

But Omicron caught everyone off guard, not just the airlines. And the strength of the rebound in demand for travel was also hard to predict. Savanthi Syth of Raymond James said that trends in Omicron infections explained more of the recent cancellations than airlines’ overextending themselves.

Cancellations appear likely to stretch into this month. More than 1,700 flights into, out of or within the U.S. have been canceled today, according to FlightAware. Last week, JetBlue said it was preemptively canceling nearly 1,300 flights through mid-January. The airline’s management in an internal memo predicted that cancellations would get worse over the next few weeks because most of its workers are based in the Northeast, where coronavirus case counts have been spiking.

THE SPEED READ

Deals

• The investment frenzy in tech start-ups is leading venture capitalists to invest in ever-younger companies. (WSJ)

• The number of junior lawyers leaving top law firms jumped nearly 50 percent last year, as the deal boom led to more burnout. (FT)

• Monzo, the British digital bank, raised new money from investors including Tencent at a valuation of nearly $5 billion. (Bloomberg)

Policy

• The E.U. will propose classifying some nuclear power and natural gas plants as green investments, drawing criticism from environmental activists. (NYT)

• The fate of Aduhelm, Biogen’s controversial Alzheimer’s drug, could be determined this month when Medicare officials decide whether to cover its high cost. (NYT)

• A former Facebook executive is working with Congress on legislation that would force tech giants to reveal more about their inner workings. (NYT)

• Chief Justice John Roberts backed calls to review federal court policies that have led to consequential patent cases being filed before just one judge in Waco, Texas. (Bloomberg)

Best of the rest

• Jimmy Cayne, the cigar-chomping, bridge-loving broker who was chairman of Bear Stearns when it collapsed in 2008, died last week. He was 87. (NYT)

• The pandemic may force Sri Lanka into insolvency. (Guardian)

• “Can Paper Replace Plastic? A Packaging Giant Is Betting It Can” (WSJ)

• Why New York City’s suburbs saw “crazy bidding wars” for houses last year, which have since cooled down. (NYT)

• A minor-league baseball team owner in Iowa ended 2021 by surprising his 23 full-time employees with $600,000 in bonus payments. (NYT)

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