Henry Kissinger, Gen. Jim Mattis, Riley Bechtel, Rupert Murdoch: Each invested in Elizabeth Holmes, whose company Theranos promised it could conduct myriad tests from just a finger prick of blood. That propelled Theranos to a $9 billion valuation in ‘15; Holmes was pegged at $4.5 billion. Transparency was an issue, though, since Holmes preferred to tell, not show, when people questioned the tech. Her fraud trial begins Aug. 31. Kissinger et al. may testify against her.
36 million, 118,067: At press time, the U.S. reached 36 million confirmed cases of COVID-19. The 7-day average of new cases was 118,067, up 86 percent from late-July. Deaths doubled since late June. Speaking with us in early July, before the Delta variant took hold, Ken Fields of FleishmanHillard and Ben LaBolt of Bully Pulpit Interactive said COVID will remain on crisis pros’ radar indefinitely (p.8).