San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
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In a week when Google, Facebook and Twitter all faced lots of pressure from the federal government, this also happened:
Costco’s website said members now have two options for at- home saliva PCR tests manufactured by Azova, which offers online instructions on how to use them. The company says the self- administered coronavirus tests, priced at $ 129 and $ 139 for an added video observation function, are accurate with a sensitivity of 98% ( positive tests are correct) and a specificity of 99% ( negative tests are correct). Results will be available within three days.
Did Quibi ever have its 15 minutes of fame, or was it only five to 10?
Home construction rose a solid 1.9% in September after having fallen in the previous month, as home building continues as one of the bright spots of the economy. The increase last month pushed home construction to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.42 million homes and apartments after a 6.7% drop in August, the Commerce Department reported. Applications for building permits, a good barometer of future activity, rose an even stronger 5.2% to 1.55 million units. New York University’s Langone Medical Center said it will strip the Sackler name from its biomedical institute after the Justice Department’s announcement that Purdue Pharma, the company founded by the Sackler family, will plead guilty to federal criminal charges over the company’s role in the opioid epidemic. The federal deal does not release any of the Sackler family members who own Purdue Pharma from criminal liability, and a criminal investigation is continuing. Family members have said they acted “ethically and lawfully.”
For the first time in nearly 50 years, older workers face higher unemployment than their midcareer worker counterparts, according to a study by the New School university in New York City. Researchers found that during the pandemic, workers 55 and older lost jobs sooner, were rehired slower and continue to face higher job losses than their counterparts ages 35 to 54.
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