While we must grudgingly accept the new normal within the business community for at least the next few weeks, we don’t have to like it. So, please be aware that The Business Journal and bjournal.com maintain our commitment to providing you with news and information to help you do business, even if you (and we) are doing it from remote locations.
We are fortunate that if this pandemic had to hit, it hit in a time when we may all share files, communicate, and meet with digital media tools. We pledge to you that we will keep our lines of communication open and will continue to report on the events that shape your business.
We ask that you also keep us posted on what’s happening in your business news@bjournal.com. Knowledge is power for us all, and as we spend less time in face-to-face dialogue with each other, the sense of community we share in Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia can be maintained by keeping each other up-to-date as technology allows.
We need to share the good news and the not-so-welcome news with each other, so that our community is honestly aware of the challenges we face, while being uplifted by the successes we continue to amass.
We plan to continue our normal publication schedule. Also, as of this time, there are no changes to report in our schedule of special events, including Healthcare Heroes (the number of whom work in our community swells daily) and 40 Under Forty.
Because accuracy matters more than ever
Because the COVID-19 phenomenon is the most talked-about event of our time, it is also the least accurately talked-about event of our time. We encourage you to do what good journalists do and go to the primary sources of information as directly as possible.
For worldwide and national statistics on the numbers of cases and fatalities, visit www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ which aggregates data and links directly to its primary sources in each country.
For more information on COVID-19 — symptoms, preventative measures and “social distancing” recommendations — go to the CDC website at CDC.gov.
For the Tennessee Department of Health, click here.
For the Virginia Department of Health, click here.
If you are in northeast Tennessee or southwest Virginia and believe you may be ill with COVID-19, call 833.822.5523.
A final word
Tomorrow will belong to those who make the best use of their time today. Change, even unwelcome change, brings opportunities. Gaps will arise in the marketplace. New ways of doing things will present themselves. Those who use this uncomfortable time to observe those changes and prepare for their effects in the marketplace will be far more likely to find prosperity on the other side. Stay healthy, stay vigilant, and never allow complacency to set in.
We wish good health to all our readers and business partners and we look forward to the day we can shake hands with you again and together begin seizing the new opportunities awaiting us on the other side of this crisis.
– The Business Journal team
