by Harvard Medical School researchers suggesting the coronavirus was spreading in China as early as August, well before local health workers publicly rang the alarm. The methodology is circumstantial, based on satellite imagery of hospital parking lots in the city of Wuhan, the outbreak’s epicentre, and queries for terms like “diarrhoea” and “cough” on local search engine Baidu. It found uptrends in both kinds of traffic beginning in the late summer of 2019.
It’s hardly conclusive, but the report keeps media spotlight on the bungled first phase of China’s virus response, a subject Beijing would like to move on from. But Harvard’s academic brand is exceptionally strong inside China: the university has banked truckloads of tuition fees from mainland citizens, including President Xi Jinping’s daughter. The institution’s sterling reputation inside Chinese officials’ families means it might get off lightly.
Admittedly, some deals were probably negotiated before the pandemic. But venture capitalists at least had the confidence to finalise them. And with the S&P 500 now flat this year, large pension funds won’t have to rip money away from less frequently valued private investments, like venture capital, to offset losses elsewhere, as they did in the last crisis. Crucially, the report’s authors reckon that just 10% of UK startups will see a “prolonged” impact from the virus.
The $12 billion group has already spent 386 million pounds on property this year and plans to use the cash to invest over 1 billion pounds into buying assets through 2021. Given that demand may increase as retailers emerge from lockdown, this makes sense. But deep-pocketed private-equity group Blackstone has more than $13 billion of dry powder. Upcoming deals won’t come cheap. A pharmacist holds prescription painkiller Hydrocodine Bitartrate and Acetaminopohen, 7.
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