Oct
23
Lessons of the Pandemic

Do we dare believe that we are on the downward slope of this pandemic? We are cautiously optimistic that we may have turned the corner, but lesser so than the glee we felt after the mass vaccination rollout began at the start of the year. One by one, the precautions that returned when COVID-19’s Delta variant surged appear to be loosening their grip on our lives as the number of new cases drops.

This may be a good time to reflect on the lessons we learned as a society. Failure to do so dooms us to more disruption the next time we face a public health crisis. Here are some of the conclusions I’ve reached…

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Aug
02
Confidence, Persuasion and Authenticity

When I first got to Auburn for college, I was fortunate to have a mentor, an older guy named Burson Dixson who took me under his wing and showed me the ropes, as the saying goes. Maybe he saw this awkward skinny kid integrating into his group of friends and decided it would be good karma to make sure I graduated with not only a degree but also an education on life.

He taught me many things, but the one that stands out right now is his advice on asking for forgiveness rather than permission. Specifically, our tendency as human beings to perceive that someone belongs somewhere if they appear to belong. “Faking it until making it,” if you prefer.

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Jul
15
Support the Local Journalism Sustainability Act

Support the Local Journalism Sustainability Act

Please Contact Your Congressman Today!

The Local Journalism Sustainability Act (H.R. 3940) has now been reintroduced into Congress. I am asking you to take a moment and reach out to your US Congressional Representative to ask them to cosponsor H.R. 3940. This is a bipartisan bill that both Democrats and Republicans are working on.

Time is of the essence, so please contact them today. A phone call is best, but emails can also be effective. If you aren’t sure who is your representative, click here.

Why This is Needed…

The newspaper I publish is more fortunate than a lot of others, who are really struggling financially. We have the benefit of loyal subscribers whose choice to advertise and subscribe is an expression of caring about our community.

Still, it’s impossible to ignore the “elephant in the room” as people frequently ask me what it is like to be the publisher of a community newspaper during a time of tremendous disruption for our business model.

The internet has had a devastating impact on the print advertising industry. In about the last decade, America has seen more than 1,800 newspapers vanish. Even in the newspapers that have survived, about half of newsroom staff journalists have been let go, leaving publications as shells of their former selves.

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Apr
29
A New Hope, Hopefully

Will April 29, 2020 go down as the day that we turned a corner? Or a temporary blip on a long timeline of misery?

As I write this, there is reason to feel some optimism after a couple of months of bleak headlines about death and economic collapse. Like those first rays of warm sunshine after a cold and wet winter, I crave a true, real springtime with the social component it brings.

A New Hope

There’s a drug called Remdesivir made by Gilead Sciences Inc. that has shown some effectiveness in treating the COVID-19 novel coronavirus. Gilead said Covid-19 patients taking its drug Remdesivir had a speedier recovery than patients taking placebo in a large U.S. government-funded study. The company didn’t release detailed data showing the magnitude of the benefit, saying federal researchers would do so later.

Remdesivir, by the way, is a nucleotide analog, specifically an adenosine analogue, which inserts into viral RNA chains, causing their premature termination. In 2015, the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) announced preclinical results that Remdesivir had blocked the Ebola virus in Rhesus monkeys. The drug was rapidly pushed through clinical trials due to the West African Ebola virus epidemic of 2013–2016, eventually being used in people with the disease.

Dr. Anthony Fauci from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases was so impressed by the study results that he touted the effectiveness of the drug.

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Copyright Steven Stiefel 2018. All Rights Reserved