We hope you and your family are safe and healthy.
Although Genexa is an “essential business,” we have closed our office for all “non-essential” activities, which means that most of our team is working remotely.
We have thought long and hard about when we should reopen our own office, both because we have a higher level of productivity when we work from the office, but also because working from home is often less fun, and sometimes lonely – especially for people that are single or far from family. Being homebound has also created a surge in domestic violence.
A few days ago, we read that the Governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, plans to reopen the Texas economy to “restore livelihoods.”
Do we really face a choice between choosing life and choosing livelihoods, which is really the ability to support oneself and enjoy life?
Of the many questions COVID-19 has made us ask ourselves – from how we shop for groceries to who we reach out to either to help or for help – it seems like yes, the virus is making us choose between safety and the economy, between (generally speaking) protecting vulnerable, high-risk individuals vs. protecting the jobs and businesses of the nation.
While we don’t have answers to these questions and still likely know little about COVID-19 relative to what we will know a year from today, we personally lean towards safely, slowly, reopening the economy as soon as possible. Recently, California Governor Gavin Newsom shared a framework for incrementally lifting stay-at-home orders in the region as daily reported cases begin to flatten. We are hopeful that this will happen in the coming weeks!
We think COVID-19 will likely be here to stay at some level, and that we should start thinking of how to begin to adjust our lifestyles to living with and protecting ourselves against this disease, which is one of many dangers – from car accidents to cancer – that we have to protect ourselves against.
While Max is high-risk himself (he has asthma), we are concerned that society is sacrificing its economy, education systems and health by staying home in order to protect vulnerable people like him. Additionally, when some countries in East Asia (like Taiwan) have successfully contained COVID-19 without having to lock down their societies, we are starting to question whether there could be other ways of containing COVID-19 without forcing everyone into extended quarantine.
On a positive note, we know that the situation created by COVID-19 has inspired us to get in touch with friends, family and acquaintances with whom we have not spoken to in years. It has brought a lot of people together!
We’d love to know more about how you all are doing and how we can help you in this difficult time. We also recently started a community give-back program for people that can’t access or afford Genexa products. Email or text us at 310-254-2339 to find out more information.
Can you please call or text us at 310-254-2339 to let us know how you are doing and feeling?
By the way, for those who want to get important updates about cleaning up pharma over text, click here.
We are all in this together!
All the best,
David and Max
Founders, Genexa