Media Coverage

There is light at the end of the coronavirus tunnel. States like California have released their phased reopening plans and others, like Georgia, have already started reopening their states. In these phased responses, the first phase has typically consisted of reopening  lower-risk businesses and venues. Voluntary compliance with virus transmission mitigation practices like hand washing, social distancing and face mask use has been in everyone’s best interest and will continue to be since a resurgence of cases may lead governors to reinstate shelter-in-place orders, effectively squelching any economic rebounds. With that said, every state reopening represents an opportunity to collect data and identify best practices that can benefit other states.  

With millions of people and counting have filed for unemployment benefits in the past three weeks. Most states in the country are under stay-at-home orders which have meant nonessential businesses have shut their doors and laid-off workers. 

Jonathan Cotliar knew he was ahead of the curve four years ago when he joined Science 37, a company that supports virtual clinical trials conducted mostly online. The firm in Los Angeles, California, was growing slowly before March, receiving about a dozen calls a week from potential clients. But since the COVID-19 pandemic began, Science 37 has been running at fever pitch.

Often, a crisis brings about a re-evaluation of basic systems.  As the world wrestles with the multi-faceted impacts of COVID-19, the global supply chain has come under very close scrutiny.  

The rug has been pulled out from beneath us. Doing things the same way we’ve always done them will no longer serve us, so we can’t simply put it back in its place. In fact, the definition of pulling the rug out from underneath someone is that doing so causes their plans to fail, because they have little recourse or time to respond adequately. It’s a fitting metaphor for the world’s supply chains, which have always had to figure out how to respond rapidly in the face of rug-tugging disruptions, although none at the scope of the current one. We can count on disruption occurring again, in some form, so the only way to respond is to build in the supply chain agility necessary to be able to respond more effectively next time our rug is yanked.