Weekend edition—How to help India, inspecting Basecamp, 2×2 matrix

Plus: Moderna’s founder on the future of mRNA treatments. [Quartz]( Good morning Quartz readers! Just as we thought we might see the end of Covid-19, the virus has reared its ugliest head in India. The carnage is unimaginable. In big cities, hospitals are overwhelmed. Critically ill people line up outside trying to get oxygen, while admitted patients are amassed two per bed. In rural areas, [entire generations]( are being wiped out by the virus, and [villagers die breathless]( before even getting a diagnosis. Doctors, lacking ways to treat patients amid [shortages of oxygen](, are suggesting home remedies. The tragedy has left the world speechless, and fearful of new virus variants that might emerge from India and jeopardize global progress against Covid-19. Yet Indian prime minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) continue to deny the gravity of a situation for which they are responsible. In the past few months, the government failed to equip hospitals with oxygen production capabilities, prioritized an international [vaccine diplomacy program]( over local immunization, and encouraged [mass religious and political gatherings]( even as the virus spread was surging. Now, official numbers of deaths are undercounted by a magnitude that is near impossible to estimate. The government reported an average of 3,000 Covid-19 deaths a day in the past week, but the reality might be [five to 10 times]( that number, or more. Ministers continue to claim there are no shortages of oxygen, hospital beds, [or vaccines](, and to [promote bogus treatments](. Meanwhile, [the police clamped down]( on those asking for Covid-19 help on social media and the central government has [no concrete plan]( for an emergency it’s refusing to acknowledge. In a country with little in the [way of independent press](, even the Modi-controlled media is finally calling the government out on its lies. The international community should follow suit. The scale of this crisis was avoidable, and the way it’s being handled is criminal. As the world wonders [how to help India]( through this nightmare, the first order of business should be clear: Hold the government accountable and demand better. It is the least we can do to honor the dead who were denied even an honorable disposal, and their loved ones who are mourning unacknowledged losses while fearing for their own lives. —Annalisa Merelli SHARE TO EARN SWAG Coffee cups, tote bags, free membership, and more. Refer the Quartz Daily Brief to friends, family, and coworkers to earn all of these premium prizes. [Share the Daily Brief today]( and start reaping the rewards. Five things from Quartz we especially liked A disaster unfolds. The Covid-19 crisis in India is one of the worst disasters of the pandemic yet. Ananya Bhattacharya and Amanda Shendruk produced [a timeline of hospital capacity through March and April](, showing key moments that resulted in nearly 100% of all available beds being occupied. Reports of people dying outside hospitals or traveling to other cities suggest the situation is even worse than it appears. —Katherine Ellen Foley, science and health reporter Medicine man. Commercial healthcare often deserves its reputation for putting profits before patients, so we occasionally forget many of the men and women behind these companies got into medicine to save the world. Derrick Rossi, a founder of Moderna, has come closer than most, as Annalisa Merelli [discovered in an interview]( that touches on the future of mRNA treatments, his interest in curing snake bites, and why he never gave much thought to vaccines. —Oliver Staley, business and culture editor Basecamp inspection. A deeply troubling trend is developing in corporate culture: CEOs banning workplace discussion of weighty political and social issues deemed tangential to a company’s core purpose. In this sharp piece, Sarah Todd and Heather Landy analyze [the latest such pronouncement](—a “new rules” memo from the leaders of Basecamp—from the point of view of an employee (Sarah), who sees two company heads consolidating power with blatantly political moves, and a manager (Heather), who finds relatable intentions amid the dubious decisions. Fortunately, our employer encourages healthy discourse. —Lila MacLellan, senior reporter Climate colonialism. Rich countries, including the US, are pledging bigger amounts to help their poorer counterparts deal with global warming. But, as Tim McDonnell writes, they’re [going about it the wrong way](. The money, which is still far from enough, often comes with strings attached. And it doesn’t address the need for other crucial resources in the fight against climate change, like technology and power at the international institutions that drive global policy. —Ana Campoy, deputy finance and economics editor Beyond empty platitudes. The Purpose Industrial Complex is bigger than ever. But to what end? Moving the needle on company purpose takes a lot more than a mission statement. As SYLVAIN founder and CEO Alain Sylvain cogently argues, it [requires some healthy obsessing](. —Heather Landy, executive editor One membership thing that made us 🍪 The end of the third-party cookie. The technology that shaped digital advertising and media is going away. Here’s a look at the cookie, by the digits: [$336 billion:]( Valuation of the digital advertising industry, according to one estimate [72%:]( Americans who worry that what they do online is being tracked by companies [40%-60%:]( The (rather low) accuracy rate when two companies try to match the cookie data they have on the same set of consumers [2.7%:]( Increased likelihood that a person will buy something from an ad that uses cookies vs. one that does not, according to one study [40%:]( Web traffic that comes from users who block third-party cookies ✦ Where will the cookie go, and what will it mean for the digital advertising industry? Find out [in our latest field guide](. Ads are one way Quartz keeps its business running, but we also rely on memberships. [Try one free for a week](. We’re obsessed with the 2×2 matrix Putting two and two together. It’s a diagram. It’s a decision-making tool. It’s social commentary. It’s the 2×2 matrix! Perhaps you don’t know it by that name—it has many others—but you surely have run into it. The four-quadrant display has been used to parse everything from the priority of tasks (urgent vs. important) to the promise of business ventures (growth vs. market share) to pandemic grocery essentials. The simple box is a pretty clear-cut way to make sense of squishy data. [The Quartz Weekly Obsession will help you decide what you think about it](. Get the Weekly Obsession email sent to your inbox, for free! [⚡ Sign me up!]( Subscribe with one click. Five things from elsewhere that made us smarter India’s Covid-19 crisis is a crime against humanity. Booker-prize winning writer Arundhati Roy [minces no words]( in naming its prime accused—prime minister Narendra Modi. In her trademark incisive writing style, Roy encapsulates the collective grief and anger that Indians are experiencing, while the government tries hard to silence them. Writing in the Guardian, Roy punctuates her narrative with personal stories, and walks us through the bloody intersection of politics and the pandemic, which continues to be at the heart of the Covid-19 crisis in India. —Manavi Kapur, Quartz India reporter If a tree falls in the carbon offset forest… In California, landowners can earn cash by preserving forests, a natural greenhouse gas sink, and selling carbon offset credits to oil companies and other polluters. Forest offsets are a cornerstone of the state’s strategy for fighting climate change, but as Lisa Song and James Temple report for ProPublica, accounting errors have led to [a massive pile of bogus credits](, essentially giving polluters a free pass to spew as much as the annual emissions of 8.5 million cars. —Tim McDonnell, climate and energy reporter Above the fruited plain. Joe Biden’s vision of a US electrical green grid full of solar panels and wind turbines seems simple enough and has a great ring to it. But as Dave Merrill’s [beautiful, dynamic cartography]( illustrates for Bloomberg, the amount of land needed to install it all is enormous, and so is the distance between where clean power comes from and where it needs to go. Luckily, as Merrill shows, the US has a lot of land to spare. —David Yanofsky, Things editor Exit interview with the MTA’s chief bean counter. Just before the New York Metropolitan Transit Authority’s longtime chief revenue officer Al Putre turned in his badge, Curbed’s Christopher Bonanos visited him in the agency’s secret “money rooms” where about $1.5 billion of subway and bus fares are processed each year. Among the highlights of [the engrossing profile]( is the labyrinth of money-counting gadgets Putre oversaw. Fun fact: Counterfeit coins are sold for scrap-metal. —Anne Quito, design reporter Thrifting can be ethically fraught, too. A lot of people (including myself) enjoy secondhand shopping both for the lower price tags and for environmental reasons. But as Terry Nguyen reports for Vox, the growing popularity of Depop is [raising concerns about the gentrification of thrifting](, with middle- and upper-class shoppers buying far more than they need in order to resell clothes online. The surge in demand, Nguyen explains, means that “low-income shoppers might be priced out of thrift stores in their area.” —Sarah Todd, senior reporter Our best wishes for a relaxing but thought-filled weekend. Please send any news, comments, ethical secondhand shoes, and full platitudes to hi@qz.com. Get the most out of Quartz by [downloading our app]( and [becoming a member](. Today’s Weekend Brief was brought to you by Susan Howson. [facebook]( [twitter]( [external-link]( Enjoying Quartz Daily Brief? Forward it to a friend! They can [click here]( to sign up. If you’re looking to unsubscribe, [click here](. Quartz | 675 Avenue of the Americas, 4th Fl | New York, NY 10010 | United States Copyright © 2021 Quartz, All rights reserved.