SWC’s Fast Five

A busy week, as we learned more about life-saving COVID-19 drugs, the Supreme Court made a landmark civil rights ruling and more.

So, here’s this week’s Fast Five:

1 The persistent U.S. racial wealth gap burdens black Americans and the economy

Black leaders in business and finance say unrest has ties to both racial injustice and racial disparity in income and wealth between African Americans and whites in the U.S.

2 Coronavirus: Dexamethasone proves first life-saving drug

In a trial led by a team from Oxford University, dexamethasone cut the risk of death from 40 percent to 28 percent of patients on ventilators, 25 percent to 20 percent of patients needing oxygen. The drug is part of the world’s biggest trial testing existing treatments to see if they also work for coronavirus.

3 Why experts were wrong when they said U.S. hospitals would be overwhelmed by COVID-19 patients

Early data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggested that for every person who died of COVID-19, more than 11 would be hospitalized. A subsequent model released in April assumed seven hospitalizations per death. Both ratios were too high. The current ratio is about four hospital admissions per death.

4 Supreme Court ruling protects LGBT people from discrimination in employment

The court decided by a 6-3 vote that a key provision of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 known as Title VII that bars job discrimination because of sex, among other reasons, encompasses bias against LGBT workers.

5 Bicycles are the new toilet paper. Good luck finding one.

Dust off the old Schwinn if, like millions of people around the globe, you’ve decided bicycle riding solves your commute, exercise or entertainment challenges during the pandemic – they’re hard to find. Bicycle sales in the last two months saw their biggest U.S. spike since the 1970s oil crisis.