recovering from a rare heart condition believed to be triggered by an inflammatory response to covid-19. A nasal swab confirmed she also had a second viral infection, adenovirus. (Gerald Herbert/AP) They wrote about a previously healthy 12-year-old, Juliet Daly, who survived after twice going into heart failure because of the rare condition. She was among the first known children in the United States to develop the syndrome. “It was still relatively early in the outbreak, April 6, and the hospital hadn’t seen other children in this condition. But the doctors knew enough about the pathogen’s effects on adults that they immediately suspected the coronavirus,” they write. “Cases like Juliet’s, a puzzling inflammatory syndrome in children believed linked to covid-19, had been popping up in different parts of the world for months, but it wasn’t until recently that health authorities began tracking the phenomenon.” “Heartbeats are controlled by electrical impulses that travel down the right and left branches of the heart at the same speed. Somewhere in Juliet’s heart, a block was causing the system to go haywire,” they write. “A team of pediatric cardiology specialists gave Jennifer a name for her daughter’s condition: acute fulminant myocarditis — a sudden onset of heart failure, shock or life-threatening arrhythmias.” Later, her nasal swabs came back positive for the coronavirus and adenovirus. In an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, former FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb cited the rare condition as an example of “how much we don’t know about Covid-19.” He wrote that data on covid-19 patients “isn't being streamlined and shared with the public quickly.” “There are shortcomings in our ability to access the electronic systems designed to help glean facts from clinical data," he wrote. "CDC hasn’t been filling its traditional role of promptly publishing medical findings that may help doctors care for patients. Instead, a lot of this information is being passed around social media, by email or even through word of mouth. It’s trial and error on a global scale.” OOF: At least ten facilities operated by one of the largest nursing home chains violated federal standards meant to curb the spread of disease. Government inspectors found there were breakdowns in infection control and prevention in at least ten homes operated by Life Care Centers of America. The inspections were run by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Debbie Cenziper, Sidnee King, Shawn Mulcahy and Joel Jacobs report.


The Health 202: The ACLU gives a thumbs down to coronavirus 'immunity passports'

of heart failure, shock or life-threatening arrhythmias.” Later, her nasal swabs came back positive for the coronavirus and adenovirus. In an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, former FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb cited the rare condition as an example of “how much we don’t know about Covid-19.” He wrote that data on covid-19 patients “isn't being streamlined and shared with the public quickly.” “There are shortcomings in our ability to access the electronic systems designed to help glean facts from clinical data," he wrote. "CDC hasn’t been filling its traditional role of promptly publishing medical findings that may help doctors care for patients. Instead, a lot of this information is being passed around social media, by email or even through word of mouth. It’s trial and error on a global scale.” OOF: At least ten facilities operated by one of the largest nursing home chains violated federal standards meant to curb the spread of disease. Government inspectors found there were breakdowns in infection control and prevention in at least ten homes operated by Life Care Centers of America. The inspections were run by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Debbie Cenziper, Sidnee King, Shawn Mulcahy and Joel Jacobs report. A person is loaded into an ambulance at the Life Care Center in Kirkland, Wash. (Ted S. Warren/AP) The breakdowns occurred in the past six weeks, as covid-19 began to spread in Life Care's facilities nationwide. That's according to batch of inspection reports obtained by The Post of more than two dozen Life Care homes. At these nursing homes, inspectors have since then discovered staff members who did not wash their hands or enforce social distancing guidelines. Life Care, based in Tennessee, has said that no amount of preparation could have kept the virus at bay and that administrators worked early and often with health authorities to contain the spread of infection. There's no national data to determine whether Life Care's infection and death writes are higher than other chains or whether other chains have been cited for violations since the pandemic began. The discoveries don’t include “deficiencies found at the Life Care Center of Kirkland in Washington state, which suffered the country’s first reported outbreak of the novel coronavirus in February,” our colleages write. Federal officials say they will collect data weekly on coronavirus deaths in nursing homes. Facilities will have to start reporting the number of cases and


D.C. is six days from meeting reopening metrics, mayor says; Virginia Beach to reopen Friday

The number of known coronavirus cases in the District, Maryland and Virginia was 78,172 on Monday, with 39,762 cases in Maryland, 31,140 in Virginia and 7,270 in the District. The number of virus-related deaths reached 2,023 in Maryland, 1,014 in Virginia and 392 in the District, for a total of 3,429 fatalities. Here are some of the most significant recent developments as the region responds to the pandemic of the novel coronavirus, which causes the disease covid-19: • D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) said the city has seen eight days of declining community spread of coronavirus and may announce by Thursday when it would begin to reopen. While the nation’s capital has already met some criteria necessary to reopen — including a hospital capacity below 80 percent and an ability to test certain high-risk groups — officials also want to see a two-week decline in the “community spread of the virus.” • Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam announced that he would allow the city of Virginia Beach to open its beaches to sunbathing and swimming on Friday. No group sports, alcohol, tents or large groups will be allowed, and parking areas will be limited to 50 percent capacity, Northam said at a news conference with Virginia Beach Mayor Bobby Dyer. • The District, Maryland and Virginia combined to report 1,857 additional known coronavirus cases Monday, as well as 45 additional deaths. The daily death toll was the lowest in the three jurisdictions since April 13. • As part of its effort to return to operations that largely ground to a halt because of the pandemic, D.C. Superior Court ramped up its capacity to hold virtual hearings in criminal, juvenile, civil and domestic relations cases. Officials said it was not clear when juries may again be seated, and there are no immediate plans to hold trials in criminal cases. When will D.C. reopen? | When will Virginia reopen? | When will Maryland reopen? | Known coronavirus cases in the region | How to get tested | Have you tested positive for coronavirus? Share your experience.


The Health 202: The hopeful news about Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine is extremely preliminary

cases of covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, for four weeks,” they write. “In addition, such facilities must ensure that they have enough protective gear and access to coronavirus tests, and that nearby hospitals have sufficient space in intensive care units and other wards in the event cases spike again.” Long-term care facilities are among the hardest-hit settings for covid-19. The federal government is also gathering data on covid-19 deaths in such facilities. Maria reported. In Canada, 81 percent of coronavirus deaths have occurred in nursing homes. That’s true even as officials say there are signs the virus’s spread is slowing in many parts of the country, Amanda Coletta reports. “But its ruthless whip through long-term care facilities continues — prompting calls for public inquiries, the deployment of military troops to hard-hit homes in Ontario and Quebec, and an admission from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that Canada is ‘failing’ its elderly,” Amanda writes. “ … Several factors — a frail and elderly resident population, old buildings with little space for separating the sick from the healthy, cramped living quarters, and frequent contact between residents and caregivers — make long-term care facilities petri dishes.” The problem reaches far beyond Canada. “The World Health Organization said half of Europe’s covid-19 deaths occurred in such facilities,” she adds. “Nearly 40 percent of all U.S. deaths have occurred in nursing homes, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. At least 1 in 10 U.S. nursing homes have reported outbreaks, according to a Washington Post analysis.” The president said he’s been taking the controversial drug, despite the dearth of evidence it prevents people from contracting the illness. Whether it is effective for treating covid-19 is unproven, and doctors have warned the drug can have deadly side effects. “The president said he began taking the anti-malaria drug about 10 days ago after he told the White House physician he would like to start taking hydroxychloroquine,” Anne Gearan, Laurie McGinley, Lenny Bernstein and Ariana Eunjung Cha report. “That timing would put the start of Trump’s drug regimen at roughly the same time as news broke that two White House staffers had tested positive for the virus, and the White House later released a letter from Trump’s in-house doctor that linked his drug regimen to one of those cases.” “I think it’s good. I’ve heard a lot of good stories. And if it’s not good, I’ll tell you


Moderna’s claim of favorable results in its vaccine trial is an example of ‘publication by press release’

patient can be sure they are doing the right thing. Another paper, published the same day, found that remdesivir had no measurable effect on patient survival or the amount of virus detectable in nasopharynx and lung secretions. What then should a practicing physician do? Follow the unsupported advice of a news announcement or a medical report published in a leading scientific journal? This is not an idle question: The NIH announcement triggered a global stampede for limited supplies of the drug. The case is more nuanced for the vaccine developed by the Jenner Institute at Oxford University, though the mileposts remain the same: It started with a public pronouncement of favorable results from an early study, this time in monkeys, well before any data was publicly released. An NIH scientist working on a trial of the Oxford vaccine gave an interview to the New York Times, claiming the drug was a success. But the data, released as a prepublication version more than two weeks after the story ran, didn’t quite live up to the early claim. All of the vaccinated monkeys became infected when introduced to the virus. Though there was some reduction in the amount of viral RNA detected in the lungs, there was no reduction in the nasal secretions in the vaccinated monkeys. So the positive result reported by the Oxford group turned out not to be protection from infection at all, something most would agree is what a successful vaccine would do. Instead, it lowered only the amount of virus recoverable from the vaccinated monkey’s lung. To the Jenner Institute’s credit, it does warn visitors to its website that there have been many false reports about the progress of its vaccine trial. Still, having a scientist working on the trial paint preliminary results in such a positive manner without having yet released the full data is cause for concern. We all understand the need to share scientific and medical data as rapidly as possible in this time of crisis. But a media announcement alone is not enough. There are ways to share the data quickly and transparently: posting manuscripts before review or acceptance on publicly available websites or working with journals to allow an early view. Publishing in this manner allows doctors and scientists to reach their own conclusion, based on the evidence available. The media also bears responsibility. Asking experts to opine on unsubstantiated claims is


The world of private travel offers social distancing in the sky — at a premium

new members and their families during the past two months who see the value in PS now more than ever.” Private aviation, just like its commercial counterparts, has suffered from an unprecedented lull in demand due to the coronavirus pandemic. Activity levels for business aircraft are only a third of what they were at the same time last year, according to WingX Advance, an aviation research firm. Long-range business jets were the hardest hit, down 40 percent year over year. As a result, Olson sees aggressive bidding among corporate providers to secure the action that remains. “It’s probably the cheapest it’s ever been to fly private,” he contends. Still, he pegs a one-way flight from Teterboro, N.J., (the mecca of corporate travel) to Los Angeles at about $40,000 aboard a Gulfstream G500. Not exactly competitive pricing. And prominent charter services such as NetJets have been stalling since mid-March. The private aviation group recently slashed its planned new aircraft deliveries from 60 to 25. On April 16, competitor JetSuite grounded its entire fleet and furloughed staff. Yet more than 190,000 private flights are still taking off monthly. To sustain that clientele, companies are enhancing sanitizing protocols and implementing strict social distancing guidelines. NetJets now treats its cabin interiors with an antimicrobial product before each flight and moves crews between departure points using its own aircraft, to avoid exposure in commercial terminals. JSX caps passengers at 20 across its fleet of Embraer aircraft, which typically max out at 30. This week, it became the first U.S. carrier to implement SafePointe TSS, a thermal screening system that takes body temperatures without customers having to stop and look at a camera or device. The company has held on to customers through the pandemic with a model that eschews much of the indulgences of FBOs in favor of a semiprivate experience — offered at prices on par with commercial fares. For example, customers can travel regionally between its West Coast hubs for as little as $89 per flight. “The champagne and caviar you might see on a private jet in the movies is a bit of a fiction,” Wilcox says. “Most flights are about speed and convenience.” Matt Morley, a corporate pilot currently on furlough, says, “There are large chain FBOs like Signature and Atlantic, or there are mom-and-pop shops. Most chain FBOs have a certain standard … but you don’t always get what you


Context is key to understanding and using covid-19 data to guide policy

The covid-19 crisis has prompted new appreciation of how the public thinks about numbers during an epidemic. Tracking daily reports of cases and deaths, making sense of how different models predict trajectories and engaging in “social distancing” measures intended to “flatten the curve” testify to how an awareness of disease data has transformed our thinking as well as daily behavior. The 1918 influenza epidemic was also marked by an unprecedented attention to statistics as the crisis unfolded. Newspapers across the United States provided daily reports on the number of cases and deaths, particularly as numbers accelerated in the acute weeks of the epidemic. Readers of newspapers in the fall of 1918, much like today’s consumers of digitally mediated news, could follow the epidemic at the national level and in their own communities. Understanding how influenza statistics were reported in 1918 can inform our understanding of the data circulating about covid-19. The key lesson? Context matters. Death toll statistics are much more useful when broken down by categories such as race and age, and the case fatality rate — the number of deaths among those sick or (in the case of covid-19, with positive tests) — is more useful than raw death totals. And, these numbers don’t tell the story of the people battling disease and treating patients with the pressure of the media spotlight on their every action. Washington newspapers at the peak of the influenza epidemic anticipated what we see now in reports on covid-19. On Oct. 14, for example, a front-page article in the Evening Star included a table showing the daily number of influenza cases and death since Oct. 1, adding up to a total of 12,847 cases and 544 deaths in just two weeks. On the same day, a front-page headline in the Washington Times declared 96 influenza deaths in 24 hours was “the biggest toll recorded.” These reports appeared day after day in the weeks that followed, recording the number of cases and deaths as a narrative of escalating loss. The numbers were reported by the District Health Office, but the newspapers emphasized their significance with banner headlines, boxed tables and lists of individual deaths, all of which marked a significant break from the usual reporting practices. The daily toll for October 1918 can be illustrated using a chart familiar to anyone tracking the first weeks of covid-19. On Oct. 1, the city health office


differential impact along race and class lines. Yet these numbers do tell another, perhaps more comforting, story of survival amid devastating loss. The nearly 25,000 cases of influenza reported by physicians and hospitals in just one month, October 1918, represented nearly six percent of city’s population. But having influenza was far from a sentence of death — though the banner headlines and hundreds of deaths might have made it seem to be the case. In reality, the vast majority of those who became ill with influenza survived. In fact, based on official reports from physicians and hospitals, more than nine out of every 10 victims survived falling ill with influenza during this deadly epidemic. And this number is slightly misleading — in a positive way. As city health officials later acknowledged, the reported cases represented a fraction of the total number of cases, which they estimated to be closer to 50,000 cases of influenza, making up 10 percent of the total population. The officially reported totals never acknowledged the number of Washingtonians recovering or never becoming ill, who nonetheless had influenza. Given that the case reports understated the actual number ill with influenza, the survival rate was certainly higher than official calculations. Even in the deadliest epidemic in world history, in other words, only about 10 percent of the District population fell ill and more than 90 percent of the sick did survive. The toll of the 1918 epidemic can be counted in total numbers, as fatality rates and as stories of individual loss. City health officers emerged from the influenza epidemic with renewed confidence in their ability to use data to anticipate and manage disease outbreaks. The impact of these daily reports on the population is more difficult to determine from the newspapers. Oral histories with influenza survivors describe the personal experience of hearing about numerous deaths or seeing frequent funerals, but rarely address how the news was reported (which is partly a consequence of survivors usually having been quite young in 1918). The history of the 1918 influenza epidemic is also a story of survival, even in the midst of unprecedented losses. As we enter into the next stage of covid-19, which may include a spike in cases as states start to reopen and social distancing eases, these numbers from the 1918 influenza provide a context for understanding how history can shape our expectations for the future, and


Brasil y el coronavirus. El síndrome que afecta a niños. Suspendida la cerveza en México

Hablan un periodista de O Globo en Sao Paulo, una doctora en el Amazonas, un infectólogo pediatra en Connecticut, un vendedor de cerveza en el DF y la corresponsal del Post en México y Centroamérica, Mary Beth Sheridan


Sales soar at Walmart and Home Depot during the pandemic

Even as the coronavirus pandemic has devastated much of the retail industry, some of the nation’s largest chains are thriving as customers stock up on groceries, home appliances and other essentials at unprecedented rates. Retail giants Walmart and Home Depot on Tuesday reported big boosts in quarterly sales, propped up by panic-buying as Americans hunkered down at home. Walmart said online sales surged 74 percent, lifting overall sales by nearly 9 percent from February to April. Meanwhile, Home Depot said its revenue rose 7 percent. On the other side of the spectrum: Kohl’s. The department store chain posted a 41 percent drop revenue for the quarter, offering a stark reminder of how the pandemic is boosting some retailers while hastening the demise of others. Consumer spending has dropped precipitously in the weeks since the pandemic took hold. U.S. retail sales fell a record 8.3 percent in March, then plunged 16.4 percent in April, according to Commerce Department data, as Americans stopped spending on clothing, furniture, housewares and other nonessentials. Retailers temporarily closed more than 260,000 stores because of the coronavirus outbreak, all but bringing business to a halt for many companies that rely on in-store shoppers to drive the bulk of their sales. Four major retailers — J. Crew, Neiman Marcus, Stage Stores and J.C. Penney — have filed for bankruptcy this month, and analysts say they expect others to follow as more companies run out of cash and the economy continues to sour. Pier 1, which had filed for bankruptcy weeks before the shutdowns, announced Tuesday it would cease operations altogether. It had planned to closed 450 of its 936 stores and shed 40 percent of its workforce and find a buyer, but the pandemic ended those hopes. “It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy: the bigger, stronger players are taking even more market share,” said Mickey Chadha, senior credit officer at the rating agency Moody’s. “And the companies that were weak to begin with, they are only going to become weaker.” But spending on groceries has continued to climb. Walmart, the country’s largest grocer, said profits rose 4 percent, to $3.99 billion, during the first quarter. Demand has been so brisk that Walmart has hired more than 235,000 workers since mid-March, according to chief executive Doug McMillon. All 5,355 of the company’s U.S. stores have remained open during the pandemic. “More than ever, the news this quarter is our amazing associates,”


We’re flattening the coronavirus curve. We can flatten the climate curve, too.

Flatten the curve! Flatten the curve! It has become a rallying cry for dealing with the novel coronavirus across the world. This approach appears to be largely endorsed, being accepted and being acted upon to different degrees in most parts of the world. And, importantly, we can see that it is having the intended effect. Which makes us, as meteorologists and climate scientists, wonder: Can this approach be used successfully to address our climate change challenge? There are many similarities between covid-19 and climate change. Both present problems that are global in scale. The detrimental effects of both are faced by everyone, albeit to different degrees. Granted, the time scales for the two problems are different: In the case of the virus, it is measured in weeks and months. For climate change, it is decades to centuries. But the general features are eerily similar. The scientific community generally knows what to do. To flatten the curve for covid-19, we stop transmission by avoiding contact with others (distancing). For climate change, we flatten the curve by limiting the emissions of greenhouse gases. In both cases, the rationale for action is the same — disaster mitigation. We are buying time to avoid a catastrophe. For the virus, we seek to avoid overwhelming our medical systems. For climate change, we provide time to enable society to manage a hotter world with rising seas and more extreme events. And in both cases, we are using the time to allow societies to adapt. For the virus, we are racing to develop effective treatments and vaccines that will allow us to live in (adapt to) a pandemic-ridden world. For climate change, we are working to develop innovative non-carbon technologies and societal approaches that are cost-effective and suitable. So solving both virus and climate change problems involve mitigation and adaptation: The two strategies are inseparable. Both issues have latency periods when nothing seems to be happening but are critical to what happens subsequently. For the virus, transmission happens unseen for a few weeks before the spread of disease becomes evident. If we did nothing to prevent the spread a few weeks back, we face the consequences today. If we don’t take action today, we can expect the consequences in a few weeks or a month. With our climate, the consequences of past inaction determine what we have today. Just as important, what we do today will determine


For Louisiana, pandemic a ‘2-black-swan event’ battering economy

said Moncla. Even still, "There's no doubt about it. We might not make it." Louisiana is heavily reliant on two of the industries hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic: tourism and energy. With the economic fallout from stay-at-home orders and other restrictions mounting nationwide, this state is perhaps the most vulnerable, economists say. Though Louisiana began a gradual reopening process last week, few people came out to experience the partial return of nightlife to the French Quarter on Saturday. Economic projections remain grim: One in five of the state's restaurants, a cornerstone of the tourism industry, may not survive until people feel safe traveling again, said Stan Harris, president of the Louisiana Restaurant Association. The number of visitors to New Orleans could plummet 75 percent this year, with the city already losing $200 million a week in tourist spending, said Stephen Perry, president of New Orleans & Co., the convention and visitors bureau. New Orleans now has more restaurants than it did before Hurricane Katrina in 2005 — 1,400 by some estimates, which is more than a city of 390,000 can support without tourists. "We expect that certainly by October of this year, we could well lose at least 500 of those restaurants," Perry said. The oil money that lubricates the region's economy is drying up, too. With crude now scarcely $30 per barrel — break-even for an oil company is at least high $30s — half the companies surveyed this month by the Louisiana Oil & Gas Association said bankruptcy is likely. "The virus has crushed the broader economy, but nowhere has the damage been more severe than in travel, tourism and energy," said Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody's Analytics. He called the pandemic "a two-black-swan event" for Louisiana, with New Orleans also being one of the earliest hot spots of coronavirus infections in the United States. "A lot of infections, on top of a collapse in tourism/travel, and the complete wipeout in the energy sector — that's pretty cataclysmic," Zandi said. "I can't think of another place that's been nailed that hard." The distress is starting to show up in the state's finances. Louisiana expects to lose about $1 billion in taxes, oil leases and other sources during the fiscal year starting in July — or nearly 10 percent of the general fund budget. Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) has lobbied for a federal bipartisan proposal that


Restaurants are suing insurance companies over unpaid claims — and both sides say their survival is at stake

This month, the proprietors of more than 10 restaurants, bars and bakeries in Washington, including the Michelin-starred Gravitas and Pineapple and Pearls, sued their shared insurance company, joining a growing list of restaurateurs who are seeking relief from an industry they thought would protect them from any unpredictable event, including a pandemic of historic proportions. The owners are pressing carriers to honor business-interruption policies during an outbreak that has wreaked so much financial havoc that it could bankrupt insurance companies and put at risk claims not related to covid-19. One side has few cash reserves and a trickle of revenue from takeout and delivery. The other side has an $800 billion surplus that, despite its size, could vanish in a matter of months, insurers say, if they start paying out these claims. Both industries say they’re fighting for survival. “I want to be there for my customers,” says Tiffany MacIsaac, pastry chef and owner of Buttercream Bakeshop, one of the plaintiffs in the D.C. complaint. “But if I could avoid doing that and just be home and know that I was safe, I mean it’s kind of a no-brainer because all of the rent and everything would be covered by the interruption insurance.” After governments shut down dining rooms, restaurants large and small started taking their insurance cases to the courthouse: Boston-based Legal Sea Foods sued Strathmore Insurance Co. The owners of Musso and Frank, the century-old Los Angeles institution, sued Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance. A Houston restaurant company sued Scottsdale Insurance Co. Some complaints seek class-action status. Others have been filed by a single operator, such as Thomas Keller, the mastermind behind the three-star Michelin restaurants Per Se in New York and the French Laundry in California, who sued Hartford Fire Insurance Co. These operators’ claims have usually been denied for one of two reasons: The policy specifically excluded viruses or the property had not suffered any physical damage, like after a flood, hurricane or other natural disaster. Attorneys for the restaurants don’t think the denials are as clear as the carriers say, especially with all-risk policies, those with limited coverage for viruses (like Keller’s) or those that cover “civil authority” actions such as when a city, county or state shuts down in-person dining. All-risk policies, says Michael C. Davis, one of the attorneys representing the Washington restaurants, are “supposed to cover every single risk. It doesn’t matter whether the


The Cybersecurity 202: Barr ramps up encryption war with Apple over Pensacola shooter’s phone

for director of national intelligence, Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-Tex.), Donna Cassata reports. The administration’s order restricts global computer chip suppliers with U.S. ties from selling to Huawei, but companies can easily get around the rules, China experts told Bob David and Dan Strumpf at the Wall Street Journal. For instance, those companies could sell chips to Huawei suppliers rather than directly to the Chinese telecom itself. An earlier Commerce Department ban on U.S. companies selling to Huawei also had less impact than expected. Huawei lambasted the new rule yesterday as “arbitrary and pernicious” and claimed it would put maintenance and expansion of the company’s global networks on hold. State officials announced the decision during a hearing yesterday, according to Penny Venetis, the lead attorney for activists challenging the use of such tools. The New Jersey secretary of state’s office did not respond to an email asking to confirm the decision. New Jersey is among three states that announced plans to pilot Internet voting systems during primaries this year, despite experts’ warnings the systems are highly vulnerable to hacking. New Jersey’s online system was made available to voters with disabilities in local elections earlier this month, but only one person actually used it to vote, state officials said, according to Venetis, who directs Rutgers University Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic. The Health and Human Services Department will have more discretion in deciding whether to fine community-based testing sites if they expose user data collected for covid-19 testing purposes, according to a notice posted in the Federal Register. The agency still strongly recommends providers take reasonable precautions including using secure technology to transmit medical records, the notice states. More government news: Hackers have spent decades trying to steal data from banks and financial services firms but are now expanding to industry sectors that haven’t spent as much effort improving their digital defenses, according to the company’s 2020 Data Breach Investigations Report. Some examples include education services and the hospitality industry. “There are certain industries where cybersecurity is not as much of a priority because they’ve not been in the crosshairs in the past,” John Loveland, Verizon’s global head of cyebrscurity strategy and marketing, told me. Verizon also found that money was the prime motivator for more than 80 percent of hacks Brevity is the soul of bits, after all. Yale law professor Scott Shapiro: Here’s a cooking “hack” for you :)


Revisiting one of many debunked efforts to minimize the scale of the coronavirus pandemic

Fox News host Laura Ingraham has been a frequent and energetic perpetrator of misinformation over the course of the coronavirus pandemic. Her repeated advocacy of the drug hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for the virus included her personally appealing to President Trump on its behalf and almost certainly helped solidify the president’s belief that the risky medication might serve as an effective prophylactic treatment. Her efforts to downplay the scale of the pandemic have included ridiculous insinuations of a conspiracy theory to inflate the number of deaths from covid-19, the disease caused by the virus. And then there was this, from earlier this month. At this point, you can see the “edit” in the description of the linked article, an amendment added after the fact to acknowledge, to as small a degree as possible, that the premise of the article was entirely wrong. That was obvious in the moment, as The Washington Post’s Aaron Blake made clear. What the article was insinuating was that the running total of covid-19 deaths compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was far smaller than what the media was reporting. At the time, the CDC listed about 37,000 deaths; media outlets were reporting something closer to 66,000. This was presented as the CDC having “cut” its estimate of the number of deaths from the virus — perhaps an acknowledgment that things weren’t as bad as they seemed. But, again, this was nonsense. Each day, the CDC publishes the number of deaths in a given week from covid-19. Many states and third-party aggregations of virus death tolls report the number of newly discovered deaths each day. If a hospital learns that a death the prior Thursday was a function of the virus, that death is included in the count for today, Tuesday. That’s not how the CDC does it. Instead, the CDC uses official confirmation of deaths from death certificates and ascribes deaths to the days on which they occur, meaning that Thursday’s death would be attributed to Thursday, even if we learned about it on Tuesday. See where this is going? That means that last week’s numbers will go up more this week — and that the CDC’s numbers aren’t offered in real time. Comparing its total with compiled state reports’ total, in other words, is apples to oranges. Now, two weeks after Ingraham’s elevation of this obviously wrong theory, we can show


Old homes and old friends in a historic Anne Arundel County neighborhood

the area for 60 years with his wife and raised three children and grandchildren here. He fondly remembers events and activities that have continued through the years, ranging from youth sports teams to horseback riding to concerts, parades and fairs. “My favorite event is the community fair, held for the past 30 years on the field across from St. John Lutheran Church,” Glendenning said. The fair, hosted by the Woman’s Club of Linthicum Heights, occurs the last Saturday in September and features food, games, rides and music. The Woman’s Club of Linthicum Heights, a local volunteer organization, also hosts a free summer concert-in-the-park series for residents. When her mother lived with her, Kacey Wetzel would walk to the park with her to hear the concerts, a memory she treasures. Before Baltimore-Washington International Marshall Airport and Interstates 295 and 695 were built, farms and forests surrounded Linthicum Heights. “Back where the airport parking is was all just land and woods, we used to ride our horses all through there,” said Lynn Nichols, a real estate agent with Fathom Realty, who grew up in the area and has been selling homes there since 2007. The airport, which began operating in 1950, is just south of the neighborhood. Despite the closeness of the airport, most residents say noise from the planes isn’t a problem, and many have adjusted to it. “The noise is not bad at all,” David Coleman said. “I think that they changed the flight paths so they don’t actually fly directly over the homes.” Major transportation routes through the area have increased, leading some older residents to worry about the potential for more. A proposal for a high-speed superconducting magnetic levitation train between Washington and Baltimore has met with opposition from the Linthicum-Shipley Improvement Association. Some residents also have expressed concern about what they see as a link between crime and transit service. Although the coronavirus is keeping most would-be home buyers inside, real estate has been thriving in Linthicum Heights. “Sales have been up, pricing has increased, and inventory is very low, with only 1.1 months of inventory,” Nichols said. “It is clearly a seller’s market.” Living there: According to Nichols, 157 homes have sold in Linthicum Heights in the past year. The lowest-priced was a two-bedroom, one-bathroom house for $138,175. The highest-priced was a four-bedroom, three-bathroom house for $524,570. The average sales price was around $315,000. There are


Temperature scans, self-serve kiosks, less human contact key for return of air travel

Air travel in the age of covid-19 will probably be a more socially distant, do-it-yourself experience, relying on travelers to wear masks, submit to temperature scans and check their own bags, according to a “road map” outlined Tuesday by international aviation experts. Airports, airlines and health officials, too, will have a role — in developing systems to track and contact passengers in the event a traveler is diagnosed with the novel coronavirus, in guaranteeing that people maintain proper distance as they move through airports, and in ensuring the spaces through which they travel are thoroughly cleaned and sanitized. The goal of the plan outlined by the International Air Transport Association is to assure a jittery public that once travel restrictions and stay-at-home orders are lifted, it will be safe to resume flying. The gradual reopening of air travel requires changes to an industry that for years has thrived on volume. More passengers meant more revenue for airports and airlines. The size of the average airplane seat shrank as airplanes were reconfigured to accommodate more passengers. But officials, now operating in a world where social distancing has become the norm and where hand sanitizer, gloves and masks are no longer considered extras but essentials, acknowledge that the coronavirus pandemic will change the old ways of doing business. “Meeting this challenge will mean making significant changes across the air travel experience, be it preflight, at the departure airport, on board and post-flight,” said Nick Careen, senior vice president for airport, passengers, cargo and security at IATA. “It will require governments to assume broad new responsibilities.” IATA, which represents nearly 300 carriers in 120 countries, has been collaborating with aviation organizations around the world for nearly two months to develop a plan it hopes will be embraced worldwide by governments, airlines and airports. The hope is to finalize details by the end of this month. “Even as the pandemic continues, the foundations for an industry restart are being laid through close collaboration of the air transport industry with the [International Civil Aviation Organization, the [World Health Organization], individual governments and other parties,” Alexandre de Juniac, director general and chief executive of IATA, said Tuesday during a briefing with reporters. “Much work, however, remains to be done.” By creating uniform guidelines, officials hope to avoid the piecemeal approach that dogged efforts to revamp security in the months and years after the Sept. 11, 2001,


Fighting covid-19: A tale of two countries

In Jordan, a strict lockdown. In Sweden – an opposite approach. And, the social tensions created by Canada’s “double bubble” policy.


Limited workouts, centralized locations part of plans as area’s pro soccer teams plot return

and San Jose. Barred from using its facility in suburban Chester, Pa., the Philadelphia Union opted for the field outside the 76ers’ NBA base in Wilmington, Del. United spokesman Zachary Abaie said the team is “continuing to work with local governments and hoping to be able to use our facilities soon for voluntary training.” As The Washington Post was first to report last week, MLS is aiming to bring all 26 teams to Orlando early next month for several weeks of training and a month of matches. The players and staff would stay in a controlled environment at a Disney resort for six to eight weeks and use the ESPN Wide World of Sports complex. The MLS Players Association must sign off on any such plan. At the same time, the league and union are negotiating an economic settlement to help offset MLS’s losses during the shutdown. Over the weekend, The Post learned, the players offered $103 million in relief through salary cuts, deferments and, among other things, a freeze on terms of the collective bargaining agreement in 2020-21. The league had been seeking more than $150 million in cuts. United played two games before the health crisis shuttered sports leagues around the world. Fourteen of the remaining 32 matches have been postponed. How many will be rescheduled remains unclear, though MLS has suggested extending the season into the winter if necessary to play as many as possible. United still continues to look for roster help, though the pandemic’s impact on schedules around the world has complicated the search. Defenders Bakaye Dibassy (Amiens, France) and Derrick Williams (Blackburn Rovers, England) remain on the radar, but U.S. national team forward Bobby Wood (Hamburg) has fallen off. Unless MLS alters the transfer window, teams will not be able to sign players from overseas or make trades until July 7 through Aug. 5. Barred from using Maryland SoccerPlex in Montgomery County, players are engaged in individual workouts at a private location in Haymarket in Virginia’s Prince William County, three people familiar with the arrangement said. Three weeks ago, in anticipation of workout restrictions beginning to lift, the National Women’s Soccer League instructed players to return to their home markets. U.S. national team star Rose Lavelle is expected to be in the area soon, becoming the last Spirit player to report after spending the past two months in her hometown of Cincinnati. The NWSL’s


Independent and chain restaurants press Trump on relief efforts at White House meeting

told The Washington Post. Instead, the IRC sent Will Guidara, who helped turned Eleven Madison Park into a three-star Michelin destination before parting ways with co-owner Daniel Humm last year. Guidara was there to promote a stabilization fund to help get the industry back on its feet during a period when restaurateurs are uncertain whether the public has an appetite for dining out again. Colicchio expected that when they reopen, restaurants would earn only 20 to 30 percent of their usual business, which he called unsustainable. “There is a lot of expense that we’re going to have to incur to sanitize the places. We’re going to have to put a bunch of other things in place to open up,” Colicchio said. “So we’re opening up into a severely depressed market, and we need capital to kind of float the restaurants until business comes back. “This is a point that I would have made if I were there,” Colicchio continued. “If you want to put a stimulus package through to make sure the economy continues to grow and get through this, the best thing to use is the restaurant industry, because we employ 11 million people and because of all the farmers and fishermen and cheesemakers and winemakers that we support. Plus, the fact that 95 cents of every dollar that we take in goes out the door. That has a stimulative effect.” In the independent restaurant industry’s view, a stabilization fund would serve it better than the Paycheck Protection Program, which requires owners to spend 75 percent on payroll over eight weeks, even as many restaurants aren’t open or are operating at half capacity or less. (The PPP money converts to a loan if it’s not used according to the terms.) “We’ve been fighting to make that work for us, because it doesn’t work, at all,” Colicchio said of the PPP. At the meeting, Marvin Irby, interim chief executive of the National Restaurant Association, asked the administration to extend the period when the PPP money could be spent, from eight weeks to a minimum of 24 weeks. According to a press pool report, the restaurant executives were unified in their request for the extension. In addition to Guidara and Irby, participants included Texas and Tennessee restaurateur Tim Love, Jose Cil from Restaurant Brands International (Burger King, Popeyes), James Bodenstedt of Muy Restaurants (Taco Bell, Wendy’s), Niren Chaudhary of Panera Bread,


James Weaver, who helped bring music to the Smithsonian museums, died after contracting covid-19

History, he helped bring American musical theater, jazz, hip-hop, folk music and early electric guitars into the museum. He was also involved in the community, as an organist and choir master for several D.C. and Maryland churches. “He had one foot in the classical camp and one foot in the popular camp,” said Kenneth Slowik, the curator of the musical instrument collection at the Museum of American History. His wide-ranging interests, which stood out even in a museum full of curious intellectuals, gave Weaver an ability to talk to anyone. Slowik describes him as an “omnivorous extrovert” who was “a great schmoozer, in the good sense of the term.” He kept a tuxedo ready to go in case of any last-minute invites. He was a beloved boss, the type who gave his colleagues wide space to pursue their ideas. But he also wasn’t afraid to dive into the details of a project to help push it forward. He once accompanied Marvette Perez, the late curator of Latino history at the museum, to Puerto Rico to pick up and prepare a collection of artifacts for a project on Latino history. “ ‘No’ was not really part of Jim’s vocabulary. The question was ‘how,’ ” said Slowik, who is also the artistic director of the Smithsonian Chamber Music Society that Weaver founded. In the massive bureaucracy of the museum, Weaver would “find those open spaces and make something big happen, like an acorn cracking through.” He was known as a mentor to aspiring musicians and curators. After winding down his role in the museum in the early 2000s, Weaver became the director of the Organ Historical Society. He also spent nearly eight years working with the Federal City Council, an influential nonprofit that promotes development in Washington, to push for the creation of a museum of music. It was one of his rare efforts that did not pan out. After more than five decades in the Washington area, Weaver moved with his husband, Samuel Baker, to Rochester, N.Y., last year. It was there that he caught the coronavirus in April. After a visit to the doctor, he was admitted to the hospital, where his condition deteriorated rapidly. He died April 16. One of the hardest things, according to close friends, is that, because of social distancing restrictions, they cannot get together to commemorate his life with the music that he so loved.


In surprise move, a top Disney executive will run TikTok

The worlds of entertainment and social media came together unexpectedly Monday as Kevin Mayer, the head of Disney Plus, said he was leaving the company to take the chief executive role at Chinese-owned viral-video titan TikTok. The move gives a shiny Hollywood face to a company that has come under harsh criticism from lawmakers over its Beijing influence and also raises questions about succession at Disney Plus, a core part of that firm’s strategy. TikTok parent ByteDance said Mayer will also become chief operating officer of that company, a growing juggernaut with some 60,000 employees around the world, in a newly created role. Mayer’s “wealth of experience building successful global businesses makes him an outstanding fit for our mission of inspiring creativity for users globally,” ByteDance chief executive Yiming Zhang said in a news release. In addition to TikTok, which has become massively popular with teenagers, ByteDance owns the trending-video platform TopBuzz, the photo app FaceU and the social app Helo, among other properties. Mayer will start June 1 and will be based in Southern California. Alex Zhu, TikTok’s former leader, will become a vice president of product and strategy at ByteDance. In response to Mayer’s exit, Disney said it would promote company veteran Rebecca Campbell, currently president of Disneyland Resort, to take his place. Campbell had previously been an executive at the streaming division, focusing on the Disney Plus launch in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Mayer leaves Disney after he failed to be named to the chief executive spot following the departure of Robert Iger in February. Bob Chapek, who runs the theme-park division, was named to the role, prompting speculation at the time over whether Mayer would seek to leave the conglomerate. Mayer said in a statement that he was “excited to help lead the next phase of ByteDance’s journey as the company continues to expand its breadth of products across every region of the world.” The executive was credited with helping to develop and launch Disney Plus, which has been a consumer if not yet profit success story with 54 million paid subscribers as of earlier this month, according to Disney. But his skills are a more unexpected fit with TikTok, which is far from the high-gloss professional content of Disney Plus, instead focused on a heavy volume of homemade videos. Analysts say one question to watch will be whether Mayer will push the site


Ocean City amid a pandemic: No Senior Week, but plenty of reckless behavior

course there was no mask. “I don’t want tan lines this early,” she explained. She lost her food service job when the restaurant she worked at in Iowa shut down, so she moved back in with her parents in Cecil County. She’s driven an hour and a half every day since Ocean City opened to get to it. “I’m sick of it. Sick of being inside. I feel like it’s all unnecessary. People get the flu every day. People get cancer every day,” she said. “And you don’t see everything closing up because of that. What’s the difference with this one?” Um, maybe read a newspaper while working on that tan, hon. It’s the people like Lynn — though they’re bringing him business by buying his fried Oreos and funnel cakes — that scare business owner Teoman Aksu. “We are happy to have everything go back to normal, of course,” he said, while serving my son a ball of fried ice cream soaked in chocolate syrup. “But we are also scared of it. I’m just curious what’s going to happen in two weeks. And what this means for our summer.” I asked him what the mask ratio was. I was seeing about half the crowd in masks on Sunday. “Nah. I’d say it’s 10 and 90,” he said. “Only 10 percent are wearing masks.” Aksu wasn’t the only business owner I spoke to who was withholding unbridled joy. He’s worried that it may be too soon and a second wave of infection could shut down the summer traffic he’s counting on. Maryland has had more than 39,000 people who tested positive and 2,023 covid-19 deaths as of Monday. There is a huge infection hot spot not far from Ocean City, where an outbreak at a poultry plant in Salisbury got at least 240 people sick. But with its slow open, Maryland is also attracting visitors from places still shut down. “New York. New Jersey. They came from all over,” said Madison McLain, who runs a piercing shop on the boardwalk. “That’s what I’m worried about. We’re going to get a second wave with all these people coming down here.” The signs tried to tell them. On that long stretch of highway to Ocean City, the overhead signs didn’t welcome people to the beach or warn them of beach traffic jams. They read: “Stay home, hon. It saves lives.” Twitter: @petulad


For most of Afghanistan war, U.S. ‘never really fought to win,’ Trump declares

President Trump on Monday declared that the United States had “never really fought to win” in Afghanistan, except early in the nearly two-decade-long war, making a sweeping statement about military efforts as thousands of U.S. troops continue to serve, and sometimes die, in counterinsurgent operations there. In a series of tweets, the president pushed back against a May 17 Wall Street Journal editorial cautioning against abrupt decisions regarding Afghanistan, where U.S. officials are seeking to facilitate a peace deal between Taliban militants and the Afghan government ahead of a planned reduction in U.S. forces. “Could someone please explain to them that we have been there for 19 years,” Trump wrote. “The Taliban is mixed about even wanting us out. They make a fortune $$$ out of having us stay, and except at the beginning, we never really fought to win.” “We are more of a police force than the mighty military that we are, especially now as rebuilt. No, I am not acting impulsively!” he said. Since the war began in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, more than three-quarters of a million Americans have deployed to Afghanistan, and more than 2,300 U.S. troops have died. During President Barack Obama’s troop surge, about 100,000 military personnel were arrayed across the country, fighting to win remote areas from Taliban control. Over the past year, the military mission has focused on pummeling militants with airstrikes and supporting Afghan forces in an effort to induce the Taliban to embrace political talks outlined in a Feb. 29 U.S.-Taliban deal. That deal halted U.S. attacks on the Taliban and outlined a path toward an American departure. Officials have declined to give an exact number for the U.S. force, which serves there as part of a NATO-led coalition, but said the number is being brought down to 8,600 this spring as an initial step in the recent agreement. While officials have acknowledged that the war has been locked in an extended stalemate and that many hard-won battlefield gains have not been sustained, Trump’s commentary was unusual for a commander in chief. Typically, presidents have heaped praise on military efforts no matter their outcome. At other moments, Trump has also lauded the military effort in Afghanistan, including during a surprise Thanksgiving visit last year. Speaking to troops at a U.S. airfield outside Kabul, Trump praised troops who had deployed to “defend liberty” since the start


The U.S. should pay people to get tested for covid-19

Michael Greenstone is the Milton Friedman distinguished service professor of economics and director of the Becker Friedman Institute for Economics, both at the University of Chicago. We should start paying people to get tested for covid-19. Nearly everyone agrees that more testing is critical, but months into the crisis there is no plan for how to do it. The United States does not have the infrastructure to conduct millions of tests per day and aggressive contact tracing of the sort South Korea and Taiwan have done. The programs those countries employed are also not an easy fit with U.S. civil liberties and privacy protections. An alternative is to learn about covid-19’s prevalence among all Americans. It’s unclear what share of the population is currently infected. Nor do we know how many have been exposed and developed antibodies, which would indicate how far we are from the approximately 70 percent necessary to attain herd immunity. This basic question has enormous influence on the pace at which society can confidently reopen — yet we are not even on a path to answers. In at least a dozen states, testing capacity outstrips the supply of patients. Another approach is urgently needed. No existing or planned covid-19 surveys meet the two fundamental conditions for testing results to reveal the true rate of spread. First, the people invited to be tested must be representative of the general population. They should be drawn randomly. So far, much of what is known about U.S. cases comes from specialized populations: the sick and symptomatic, and essential workers. In Taiwan, 158 tests have been conducted for every confirmed case. In the United States, the rate is just eight and drawn largely from the groups mentioned above Second, among those invited to be tested, those who show up must also be representative of the general population. Current approaches fall apart here because only a fraction of those able or invited to be tested follow through. The major covid-19 prevalence studies to date — Santa Clara, Iceland and even ongoing National Institutes of Health testing— have relied on the self-motivated or volunteers. The problem is that volunteers differ from people who choose not to volunteer in ways that cannot be readily observed. This is why reliable polling is not based on specialized populations, such as people who have a particular interest in a topic, but on random sampling from the general


D.C. sees potential reopening on horizon as Virginia Beach set to reopen Friday

Bowser calls the “community spread” of the virus. City officials calculate that by examining when patients first experienced covid-19 symptoms and excluding cases in nursing homes and other institutions where people are not likely to spread the infection outside their facilities. The city does not publicly release its calculation of “community spread,” but Bowser said Monday that it has been on the decline and the city needs six more days of that decline for it to reopen. Virginia reported 752 new coronavirus infections and five new deaths Monday, four of them in Northern Virginia. Statewide, 1,014 people have died of the disease caused by the novel coronavirus and 31,140 have been confirmed sick. Virginia also has detected its first case of the inflammatory syndrome that has afflicted some children who have covid-19, said Oliver, the state’s health commissioner. He said the case involved someone younger than 18 but did not have further details Monday. Regardless of Northam’s decision to keep restrictions in place in Northern Virginia, some businesses that had voluntarily shuttered for weeks there decided now was the time to reopen, as permitted under state guidelines. Lights flickered on Monday throughout Tysons Corner Center, a sprawling mall in Fairfax County. “We had our safety measures in place so we decided it was time to reopen,” said Barbara Noe, store manager at the mall’s newly reopened L.L. Bean. “Plus, the state had planned on opening around now so it made sense.” In Maryland, one local leader who had opted out of Hogan’s reopening plan was building out his own plans for when to reopen. Anne Arundel County Executive Steuart Pittman (D) announced an advisory panel to help him decide. Maryland reported 958 new infections and 31 new deaths on Monday, including seven in Prince George’s County and five in Montgomery County. Statewide, 39,762 people have tested positive for the coronavirus, and 2,023 people have died of it. The outbreak among inmates in the Maryland prison system expanded to more than 100 confirmed cases and five deaths, state corrections officials said Monday. The fifth inmate to die was a man in his 60s who had been serving time at the Patuxent Institution in Jessup, officials said. He had been transferred to a hospital recently. Earlier, inmates from Dorsey Run Correctional Facility, Roxbury Correctional Institution and Jessup Correctional Institution had died of covid-19. Citing privacy laws, officials have not identified the inmates.


Haiti, spared a major coronavirus outbreak so far, now a ‘tinderbox’ set to ‘explode’

work in the Dominican Republic; remittances sent home by all Haitians abroad make up a third of Haiti’s GDP. As the Dominican Republic closed down in response to its coronavirus outbreak, it suspended the temporary legal status of more than 150,000 of those Haitian workers. Undocumented Haitians also lost jobs. Around 27,000 Haitians have returned home since March 17, according to the International Organization for Migration. “This is now the main vector of the disease,” said Sandra Lamarque, the head of mission for Doctors Without Borders in Haiti. The Haitian government and international NGOs rushed to set up facilities along the border to screen returnees. But most entered the country through informal crossing points, and even some of those who showed symptoms at official crossings quietly continued into the interior of the country. “Haitian people are being forced out of the Dominican Republic and also running from the virus there,” Pape said. “Border crossings and the inability to practice social distancing and refusal by large parts of the population to wear masks in public make this epidemic undeniable.” Jhonny Jean Baptiste, 22, was working at a call center in the Dominican city of San Francisco last month when his bosses told him the center was closing and that he should return to Haiti. “I had no choice,” he said. “The Dominican government wanted us out.” Baptiste took a minibus to the border, where he saw hundreds more Haitians also heading home. “I thought, ‘Haiti isn’t infected like the DR,’ ” he said. “But now we’ll see what happens.” Haiti has four medical centers with a total of 200 beds treating patients with covid-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus. The government and NGOs are planning to set up more facilities, but several communities have opposed the construction of such centers, which they worry could spread the virus in their neighborhoods. “There are 200 beds, and models predict that we will need up to 9,000 beds at the peak,” Pape said. “The number of predicted cases is as high as 313,000. Haiti is not prepared — many hospitals are refusing to work to diagnose and treat covid patients due to lack of [personal protective equipment], stigma and no preparation.” Haiti has tested about 1,300 people and confirmed 234 cases. For the first time this week, the virus registered exponential growth. The Dominican Republic has confirmed 11,320 cases. The United States, meanwhile,


Restricted by the covid-19 pandemic, this photographer is creating an intensely personal ‘Quarantine Ballad’

life sometimes events follow one another without giving you a chance to breathe. The news of my partner’s pregnancy; a mourning that has deeply affected us; the inability to receive a hug from friends and relatives; Italy, and the whole world, paralyzed by a pandemic. So came the need to breathe, to return to the place where I grew up, which has always represented a safe haven, a happy island, immersed in an unreal tranquility, just a few kilometers away from the areas most affected by the epidemic. “Cocconato d’Asti, in the hills of Lower Monferrato, Piedmont. Set in the second region in Italy for number of deaths for covid-19, a few kilometers from some of the most affected areas of northern Italy, here everything seems immersed in a surreal calm. “And it is in this reality, as if suspended in time and space, that ‘Quarantine Ballad’ was born, a sort of rural ballad, a personal narration of these weeks, which talks about me, my roots, those around me but above all of the tension that pervades our lives in this period, and of this historical moment that will represent a clear break in our society and in our way of life.” “The world is still dealing with the rough realities the covid-19 pandemic has unleashed on us. As of this writing, there have been over three million confirmed cases and more than two hundred thousand deaths. There is still no vaccine or effective treatment for the virus and our lives, for the foreseeable future, have been turned upside down. As Clavarino’s ballad shows us, it is as good a time as ever to reflect — on who we are and what our place in the world is and also who we want to be in the coming years as life will most likely look much different than it once did.” In Sight is The Washington Post’s photography blog for visual narrative. This platform showcases compelling and diverse imagery from staff members and freelance photographers, news agencies and archives. If you are interested in submitting a story to In Sight, please complete this form. More on In Sight: These photos explore how rising sea levels are affecting Miami ‘Human overconsumption of the planet’s animals and natural resources imperils life as we know it, leading to the potential extinction of nearly everything.’ What life is like under lockdown in northern Italy


Elderly covid-19 patients on ventilators usually do not survive, New York hospitals report

study published in the Clinical Infectious Diseases journal in early April, patients with a BMI over 30 were almost twice as likely to be admitted to a hospital with covid-19, and if their BMI was higher than 35, they were three times as likely to die as someone with a healthy BMI. Jennifer L. Lighter, a hospital epidemiologist at NYU Langone who was the lead author on the Clinical Infectious Diseases study, said she believes different parts of the world have different vulnerabilities to the coronavirus. In China, she said, it was pollution and smoking. In Italy, the large older population and the fact that many live in multi-generational households contributed to mortality. “In the United States, it’s obesity. That’s our Achilles’ heel when it comes to this virus,” Lighter said. She said a number of theories may explain why obesity is implicated in amplifying the effects of the coronavirus. It could be because people who are obese are more likely to have compromised lung function to begin with and other issues that make them more vulnerable to a virus. They may also be more vulnerable to inflammation. It could also be that the virus attaches to something known as ACE receptors, which are highly expressed in fat cells. “So maybe the virus has more opportunities to attack,” she said. The Lancet report found a high rate of problems not related to the respiratory system, notably kidney injury, evident in nearly a third of covid-19 patients and a clear signal that the novel coronavirus is distinct from influenza in the way it attacks multiple organs. The Lancet study looked at hospitals that drew heavily from predominantly Hispanic and African American neighborhoods, and 62 percent of the critically ill patients were Hispanic. O’Donnell noted one racial and ethnic trend: White patients who are not Hispanic came to the hospital after three days of symptoms, on average, while Hispanics arrived after five days on average and African Americans after seven days. “Part of this may speak to access to care,” O’Donnell said. When someone delays going to the hospital, he said, “you’re more likely to come in critically ill.” Harlan Krumholz, a professor of medicine at Yale School of Medicine, said the Lancet study “gives a perspective on the devastating nature” of covid-19, and “should give pause to anyone who wants to dismiss SARS-CoV-2 as less than a major threat to health.”


NASA’s human spaceflight chief resigns a week before the first launch of astronauts in a decade

not easy, nor for the faint of heart, and risk-taking is part of the job description.” He wrote that he took “a risk earlier in the year because I judged it necessary to fulfill our mission. Now, over the balance of time, it is clear that I made a mistake in that choice for which I alone must bear the consequences.” In an interview, Loverro declined to discuss the exact details of why he resigned. “It had nothing to do with commercial crew,” he said. “It had to do with moving fast on Artemis, and I don’t want to characterize it in any more detail than that.” Artemis is NASA’s program to return people to the moon. Last month, NASA awarded three contracts, worth nearly $1 billion combined, to a team led by Blue Origin, a team led by Dynetics and to SpaceX. (Blue Origin is owned by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, who also owns The Washington Post.) Loverro said there were “no sour grapes” and that he holds “NASA in great respect. I hope they can continue on everything they started and will follow through on their plans.” On May 27, SpaceX is scheduled to launch two NASA astronauts on a test flight of the Dragon spacecraft to the space station. In a statement Tuesday, NASA indicated the launch would proceed without delay. “Next week will mark the beginning of a new era in human spaceflight with the launch of NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the International Space Station,” the agency said. “This test flight will be a historic and momentous occasion that will see the return of human spaceflight to our country, and the incredible dedication by the men and women of NASA is what has made this mission possible.” The statement did not say what led to Loverro’s resignation. Earlier in the day, Vice President Pence praised NASA for “renewing American leadership in space” and said he was looking forward to the launch. He and NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine gave no indication of the shakeup. The news sent shock waves through the space community, and there were concerns over whether NASA should proceed with the launch in the wake of such a tumultuous development. Steve Jurczyk, NASA’s associate administrator, will chair the readiness review meeting on Thursday. Loverro said he thought “it was absolutely safe to proceed.” He added he had “100 percent faith”


Air travel during a pandemic can make for a strange and confused state

A gates looked completely abandoned. This emptiness prompted me to wonder once again whether I was in the right place. This didn’t look like any airport I’d ever seen; I felt like an extra in a movie about Armageddon. On our puddle jumper from Seattle to Spokane, I was too tired to sleep. I fidgeted nervously with my third Purell packet. I was still trying to process what I’d seen that day: Sharing a terminal with passengers who all seemed to be traveling to a funeral. Boarding an almost empty plane to cross the Atlantic. Walking through a deserted customs area. Entire terminals shut down, seemingly forever. I asked my kids what they thought of the adventure. They just offered a collective shrug, the default response of a teenager. Okay, maybe they don’t have half a lifetime of memories of full airports and a vibrant travel industry. They just know that they’re back in America after being trapped abroad for months. But maybe they’re onto something. Instead of focusing on what’s changed, I should think about what hasn’t. The planes are still flying. The airports are still open. People are traveling. All along the way, we saw signs of an imminent comeback. If passenger numbers continue to grow at this rate, our Air France plane to LAX will be full by June and they’ll add another flight, and then another. It’s just a matter of time before Terminal 3 is back in business in Los Angeles. And for every downbeat passenger, we also met people like the family from Alabama who were on our last leg from Seattle to Spokane, who acted like it was just another flight. Except they were all wearing face masks, of course. What’s it like to fly during the outbreak? It’s weird and emotionally exhausting. Two days after arriving in the United States, my kids and I are symptom-free. But we’ll stay in my uncle’s basement during our two-week self-quarantine, just to be sure. And then, who knows? I’d like to document the recovery of America’s tourism industry — if my kids let me. Elliott writes the Travel section’s Navigator column. More from Travel: How to protect your next trip against a pandemic A world of small-screen adventure: Here are the best travel TV shows for streaming A spate of lawsuits could help travelers battling airlines and cruise lines. Here’s what you need to know.


Skittish Treasury Hobbles Small-Business Loan Plan

capital from the Treasury, designed to support $600 billion of Fed lending. This allows for a default rate of around 13%. That loss rate implies that the program’s portfolio will be heavy on companies whose solvency is not in question. But economic recovery is the goal and solvency is the problem. If Treasury and the Fed are serious about addressing the problem, then losses are inevitable. Indeed, under the terms of the program put in place by the Fed and Treasury, it’s not clear which businesses would qualify for help that couldn’t already access a standard commercial loan. By requiring banks to hold 5% to 15% of loans, the program encourages banks to use normal credit standards. Furthermore, the Main Street program requires borrowers to show that they have highly rated debt, with an internal risk rating equivalent to “pass.” By requiring banks to use normal commercial lending standards, Treasury may discourage borrowers and lenders from participating in the Main Street program at all. A new Congressional Oversight Commission created by the March relief legislation known as the Cares Act released its first report on Monday. It found that barely any money appropriated to the Treasury has been lent out under any of the Fed’s pandemic response programs. Mnuchin may be wary of taking on risk in the Main Street program to avoid the public perception of corporate bailouts. If so, he is overlearning lessons from the 2008 financial crisis, when voters rebelled against bank bailouts under the Troubled Asset Relief Program even though the government recouped nearly all the money it disbursed. Loans to businesses today are going to be much riskier because of the shutdown. He may also be underlearning a different lesson. After the 2008 crisis, the Fed faced political blowback from the perception that it rescued the financial system but didn’t do enough for Main Street. If today’s Main Street program doesn’t work — if few loans get made, or if funds from the program don’t reach the businesses that need it the most — the political ramifications could be more severe because the lockdowns put in place to slow the spread of Covid-19 have created a true Main Street recession. To reach mom and pop shops, and not just much larger mid-size businesses, other changes will have to be made. For example, the program has a minimum loan size of $500,000. Many small businesses in


Feeling a little cooped up? Try raising chickens.

to do it carefully and with as little stress and pain as possible. We use a cone with the tip lopped off, attached to a board, pointy side down. The bird goes in head first, and one quick swipe with a very sharp knife cuts the blood vessels in her neck (without cutting the trachea or esophagus). She bleeds out in about 30 seconds. Opting for killing your birds when their laying days are over has a couple other advantages. First, it makes it easier to re-flock. Introducing new chickens into an existing flock is a thankless job; they’re not kind to newcomers. We did it with our first flock, but subsequent ones went to the Cone of Silence and from there to the stew pot. It also gives you the opportunity to make a chicken-plucker out of an old washing machine. When we did that, we accidentally threw out the wiring diagram and had to use the console. To pluck a chicken you had to turn the knob to “spin,” which worked fine until it caught fire. Don’t expect your eggs to taste better Nothing I’ve ever written has made people angrier than the report of the blind taste test that pitted my backyard eggs against a variety of store-bought ones. Nobody could tell the difference. This is the result of every blind taste test because, although your backyard eggs will look different, with a more vibrant yolk and more viscous whites, they will taste like other eggs. Don’t raise chickens for tastier eggs. Do it for eggs that come from hens who have a good life. Do it for the pleasure of going out in your bathrobe in the morning and coming back with breakfast. Do it so your kids can have a responsible, fulfilling job. Do it as a reminder that food has to come from somewhere, and spare a thought for the whole food chain — from farmer to grocery store worker — that has been making sure that, pandemic or no pandemic, we all get to eat. More from Food: If you’re trying to decide what food to grow yourself, here are 8 places to start Being stuck at home may have an upside when it comes to eating: You can take control Animal happiness matters, but how do we know what that is? Backyard eggs vs. store-bought: They taste the same Unearthed column archive


Digest

AIRLINE INDUSTRY FAA to change reviews of aircraft design The Federal Aviation Administration released multiple steps it plans to take to change how it reviews aircraft designs, a process that was criticized after two fatal crashes on Boeing’s 737 Max. The agency is planning on updating regulations to require better internal safety systems at plane makers and is reexamining how it assumes pilots will react to failures, the agency said in a report to the Transportation Department on Tuesday. The report is a response to a blue-ribbon panel’s review in January that found agency needed to update its practices. The 737 Max, Boeing’s best-selling jet, was grounded in March 2019 after the second of two fatal crashes linked to a system malfunction that drove down the nose. The FAA said the report had found its existing safety processes are generally sound, but they highlight areas where improvement is needed. — Bloomberg News CYBERSECURITY EasyJet: Data breech affected 9 million EasyJet said email addresses and travel data of about 9 million customers had been accessed in a “highly sophisticated” cyberattack, one of the biggest data breaches to hit the airline industry. Credit card details for 2,208 customers had also been accessed, easyJet said in a statement Tuesday. It said it has closed off the unauthorized access and will contact customers over the next few days. Cyberattacks against businesses and their employees have surged this year as hackers take advantage of the disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Airlines have had several high-profile breaches in recent years. EasyJet is already battling the effects of covid-19, which have forced it to ground planes and triggered a revolt by its founder and biggest shareholder, Stelios Haji-Ioannou. An influx of employees working from home has opened up new network vulnerabilities for many companies, and phishing emails purporting to be from trusted health agencies prey on employees looking for information. — Bloomberg News TECHNOLOGY Microsoft unveils cloud for health care Microsoft unveiled a package of cloud software designed for health-care systems, starting with a free trial to help the industry weather a viral pandemic that is both increasing the need for technology solutions and putting hospitals in financial peril. Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare includes tools that allow for digital triage, telemedicine and coordination of care using Internet-based services, chat and conferencing apps. The product, unveiled Tuesday, is Microsoft’s first industry-specific cloud-computing offering. It’s available now via


The Daily 202: Trump appears emboldened by paltry GOP pushback to IG purges

well as low-income residents, suffered the highest death rates. (NYT) In New York City, 145 kids have the rare Kawasaki-like disease linked to the virus. Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) announced the cases while noting the CDC confirmed the illness is linked to the virus, the New York Post reported. “Common symptoms … include persistent fever, irritability or sluggishness, abdominal pain, diarrhea, or vomiting, rash, red or pink eyes, enlarged lymph node gland on one side of the neck, red cracked lips or red tongue, and swollen hands and feet. ‘That’s a lot to be aware of,’ de Blasio said, adding, ‘Any of those symptoms you see in your child, call your health care provider.’” Cases have been confirmed in 19 states and D.C., including two children in South Florida, one in Indiana, two in Iowa and four in Los Angeles. A 5-year-old British girl who suffered — and recovered — from a mild bout of covid-19 is now in intensive care because of the inflammatory syndrome. Her stepfather said on “Good Morning Britain” that she was “fit and well” beforehand but now has been given a 20 percent chance of survival. In Louisiana, the pandemic has become a “two-black-swan event.” “Louisiana is heavily reliant on two of the industries hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic: tourism and energy. With the economic fallout from stay-at-home orders and other restrictions mounting nationwide, this state is perhaps the most vulnerable,” David Montgomery and Richard Webster report. Struggling restaurants across the U.S. are beginning to tack on a “coronavirus surcharge” to the bill. Despite sparking controversy, the move is already being adopted by other industries as more businesses reopen, including dental offices and hair salons charging to cover the cost of PPE and sanitation. (Antonia Farzan) New polling data by SurveyMonkey shows that 49 out of 50 governors have significantly higher approval ratings for their pandemic responses than Trump does. The exception is Georgia’s Brian Kemp (R). (Aaron Blake) States could lose more than 40,000 National Guard members on June 24 who are currently helping them test residents for the virus and trace the spread of infections, when the Trump administration’s deployment order ends. That’s one day shy of the 90-day threshold for many members who could then become eligible for early retirement and education benefits under the Post-9/11 GI Bill. (Politico) The Oregon Supreme Court stayed a ruling by a judge nullifying


Experts offer blueprint for a return to air travel

Air travel in the age of covid-19 will probably be a more socially distant, do-it-yourself experience, relying on travelers to wear masks, submit to temperature scans and check their own bags, according to a “road map” outlined Tuesday by international aviation experts. Airports, airlines and health officials, too, will have a role — in developing systems to track and contact passengers in the event a traveler is diagnosed with the novel coronavirus, in guaranteeing that people maintain proper distance as they move through airports, and in ensuring the spaces through which they travel are thoroughly cleaned and sanitized. The goal of the plan outlined by the International Air Transport Association is to assure a jittery public that once travel restrictions and stay-at-home orders are lifted, it will be safe to resume flying. The gradual reopening of air travel requires changes to an industry that for years has thrived on volume. More passengers meant more revenue for airports and airlines. The size of the average airplane seat shrank as airplanes were reconfigured to accommodate more passengers. But officials, now operating in a world where social distancing has become the norm and where hand sanitizer, gloves and masks are no longer considered extras but essentials, acknowledge that the coronavirus pandemic will change the old ways of doing business. A screen shows a thermal-imaging system at Ben Gurion International Airport in Israel. (Ronen Zvulun/Reuters) “Meeting this challenge will mean making significant changes across the air travel experience, be it preflight, at the departure airport, on board and post-flight,” said Nick Careen, senior vice president for airport, passengers, cargo and security at IATA. “It will require governments to assume broad new responsibilities.” IATA, which represents nearly 300 carriers in 120 countries, has been collaborating with aviation organizations around the world for nearly two months to develop a plan it hopes will be embraced worldwide by governments, airlines and airports. The hope is to finalize details by the end of this month. “Even as the pandemic continues, the foundations for an industry restart are being laid through close collaboration of the air transport industry with the [International Civil Aviation Organization, the [World Health Organization], individual governments and other parties,” Alexandre de Juniac, director general and chief executive of IATA, said Tuesday during a briefing with reporters. “Much work, however, remains to be done.” By creating uniform guidelines, officials hope to avoid the piecemeal approach that


Navigating pandemic-era air travel: Here’s what it’s like to fly internationally right now


pulse oximeter covid-19 coronavirus

pulse oximeters cost $200 or more, but consumers can find them for about $50 at pharmacies, big-box stores and online. Even the lower-cost versions are considered a fast and reliable way to measure how well you are oxygenating. Correct usage is key to a trustworthy reading, however, which can fluctuate based on a number of factors — what you are doing physically (sitting versus running), proper device placement and the altitude you live at. Artificial nails and nail polish, especially gel-based, can produce inaccurate measurements of SpO₂, as they block the light transmission. Cold hands or poor circulation can also interfere with the light and produce false numbers, because pulse oximeters need a steady flow of blood beneath the sensor. Pulmonologist Federico Cerrone, managing physician at Overlook Medical Center in Summit, N.J., says people with chronic health issues may want to get a pulse oximeter at this time because it can be a helpful tool for regularly checking in with a doctor via telemedicine. Patients with covid-19 who are discharged from a hospital also may be given a pulse oximeter so they can monitor their numbers to see if they are improving or getting worse. “It can be a reassurance or a harbinger of issues indicating you may need to return to the hospital,” Cerrone says. Unless you have an underlying condition or are recovering from covid-19, however, you probably don’t need to add one to your collection of home health supplies. “It’s a convenience, not a necessity. If you are short of breath or have a cough, you can usually call your physician and have a drive-through check of your oxygenation,” says Cerrone. He also cautions against the use of oximeter apps that purport to tell you various medical readings because their performance has not been validated in scientific studies. A recent University of Oxford study found no evidence that any smartphone technology is accurate for the measurement of blood oxygen saturation. In fact, the study states, “oxygen saturation levels obtained from such technologies should not be trusted.” There are potential drawbacks to widespread usage of pulse oximeters. Seides says that some patients who possess them become compulsive and check their saturation levels too often. “In the hands of nervous patients, the device creates anxiety and confusion without much probative value, because even with a small dip in readings they call their physician. It’s important to recognize that a


Another covid-19 casualty: Our standard of living

that no matter what the government does, it will be quite some time before a majority of Americans can consume what they did three months ago. At best, the government can redistribute some of the pain. In this bad news, there are two pieces of less bad news, though I wouldn’t go so far as to call them “good.” The first is that we entered this crisis very rich. America’s per-capita gross domestic product stood at $58,392 in the fourth quarter of 2019. If that were to decline by a third, that would put our per-capita income back to roughly where it was at the end of 1993. Needless to say, 1993 was not a Hobbesian dystopia where lives were nasty, brutish and short. [ The Opinions section is looking for stories of how the coronavirus has affected people of all walks of life. Write to us. ] The second is that even such a steep decline is apt to sharply reverse if covid-19 is conquered. Most recessions are amplified by uncertainty — people hunker down atop their savings because they have no way of knowing when the bad times will end. With covid-19, we have a very clear marker: If we develop an effective treatment or vaccine, we can all come out of our houses and resume what we were doing. True, this recession will have hastened the decline of dying firms in industries such as retail. And a restaurant that has gone out of business won’t be there the moment the first covid-free crowds are ready to go out and play. But we should still expect a swifter-than-normal economic recovery if we can get the virus under control. Until then, however, we are all going to have to learn to live with a lot less than we’re used to. Read more from Megan McArdle’s archive, follow her on Twitter or subscribe to her updates on Facebook. Read more: Robert J. Samuelson: Trump’s failure of leadership makes a feeble economy and resurgent virus more likely Catherine Rampell: The White House is presenting the Fyre Festival of pandemic responses Robert J. Samuelson: The sad death of the ‘hot’ economy Henry Olsen: Signs of rebirth are everywhere. They are simultaneously scary and wonderful. Catherine Rampell: Saving lives in the pandemic will also save the economy in the long run Bill Gates: Here are the innovations we need to reopen the economy


Lawmakers’ stark choice

conduct mass contact tracing, track symptoms to see hot spots, measure compliance with social distancing directives and more. Just as the coronavirus crisis has revealed how useful this knowledge can be, it has also revealed how sensitive this knowledge always has been — and how essential it is to ensure the outbreak doesn’t become an excuse for exploitation. Encouragingly, lawmakers in both chambers appear to recognize this risk, along with the need to boost civilians’ trust so that they’ll actually adopt essential new services. [ Full coverage of the coronavirus pandemic ] Both These debates shouldn’t be allowed to derail the need to protect from abuse today, and there’s probably room for compromise. Democrats might acknowledge that allowing citizens to sue runs the risk of deterring innovative strategies for saving lives. Republicans, in turn, might recognize wholesale preemption as less of a priority for a problem that will largely be managed on the local level. There are other gaps between the proposals that legislators should bridge. Neither bill seeks to regulate public health authorities; both give those officials plenty of leeway to respond to the emergency and home in instead on what companies are doing on their own, in case what looks like a good-faith intervention is really a pretext for vacuuming up more information. But restrictions in Democrats’ plan would apply to other government authorities to guard against mission creep, whereas Republicans target only private actors. Democrats also explicitly prohibit using covid-19-related data for advertising or e-commerce, as well as for discriminating in traditionally protected areas such as employment, credit, education and places of public accommodation. [ The Opinions section is looking for stories of how the coronavirus has affected people of all walks of life. Write to us. ] Congress is faced with a choice: fail as it has failed so far to safeguard the data of those it represents, or prove it can compromise in a crisis — and then, even better, channel that spirit toward producing a comprehensive law at last. Read more: The Post’s View: Location data could help fight covid-19 — but privacy must be protected Mark Zuckerberg: How data can aid the fight against covid-19 The Post’s View: Apple and Google’s tools alone aren’t enough for contact tracing David Ignatius: How to avoid a pandemic Patriot Act The Post’s View: California’s privacy law was supposed to spur Congress to act. It flubbed instead.


Maryland to expand coronavirus testing for asymptomatic people, another step toward lifting restrictions

A health care worker registers patients to be tested for the novel coronavirus at Unity Health Care testing site in the District on Tuesday (Salwan Georges/The Washington Post) Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan said Tuesday that people who have been exposed to the novel coronavirus but show no symptoms can get tested at state-run sites, an expansion that follows complaints from local leaders that a lack of testing has made it more difficult to ease shutdown restrictions. Although the number of hospitalizations and deaths have mostly flattened across Maryland, Virginia and the District, dozens of fatalities are still reported each day, including the death over the weekend of a 15-year-old girl from Baltimore County. Sean Naron, a spokesman for the county government, said the girl was admitted to Johns Hopkins Hospital on May 11 and died there on Saturday from a multi-system inflammatory syndrome linked to covid-19. It is the same syndrome documented in New York and elsewhere, which has been described by medical professionals as a Kawasaki’s-like illness. Virginia officials said Monday that they were monitoring a single instance of the same syndrome in a patient under age 18, but released no further details. “Any loss of life from this virus is tragic, but the loss of a child is devastating,” Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski (D) said in a statement. “This is a stark reminder that this virus spares no one, and that we all must remain vigilant in our efforts to stay home, socially distance, and limit the spread of this deadly disease.” The District, Maryland and Virginia on Tuesday announced 93 new covid-19 fatalities, the highest in five days after the usual weekend dip in reported deaths. Maryland reported 58 fatalities and 1,784 new cases — which is the highest single-day increase in confirmed infections since the pandemic started. The spike in cases coincides with more than 7,100 new test results received, which is also one of the highest one-day totals since Hogan (R) set a goal of testing 10,000 daily. Maryland now has 41,546 known cases and 2,081 deaths. Virginia disclosed 27 new deaths and 1,005 new cases, which are both higher than the seven-day average for new fatalities and positive test results. That brings the total to 1,041 deaths and 32,145 cases. The District reported eight new fatalities — all people over the age of 60 — bringing its death toll to 400. The city


The Technology 202: TikTok's new chief executive's success may hinge on allaying Washington's concerns

with Tonya Riley Washington lawmakers already want to put TikTok's new chief executive in the hot seat. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) welcomed former Disney executive Kevin Mayer into his new role with an invitation on Twitter to appear in front of Congress. Hawley has long pressed TikTok to send its top executive to testify amid worries that the app's .@tiktok_us previously told me they couldn’t attend hearings and testify because executives were located in #China. But this new executive lives in the USA. I look forward to hearing from him. Under oath. https://t.co/XPfiVpo9Ta — Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) May 18, 2020 The chilly welcome underscores the challenge facing Mayer to boost TikTok's image in Washington. The company is bringing Mayer on as it's confronting a barrage of scrutiny over its privacy practices that threatens to derail its meteoric surge in popularity – which is only growing as Americans around the country spend more time on social media during widespread stay-at-home orders. ByteDance is betting a seasoned executive from a trusted company like Disney could be the right messenger as it tries to distance itself from long-running controversies. “ByteDance has so many problems — and an ambitious global expansion agenda — that it desperately needs a ‘Magic Kingdom’ fix,” said Jeffrey Chester, the executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, a consumer protection group. “They want to use the Disney family-friendly branding that Kevin Mayer provides to calm down unhappy regulators — and nervous investors — about TikTok's numerous privacy difficulties.” Kevin Mayer will leave Disney to join TikTok as CEO. (Damian Dovarganes/AP) Kids' privacy is a central focus of advocates' concerns. The Center for Digital Democracy recently partnered with other consumer groups to accuse TikTok of failing to keep the terms of an settlement that it brokered with the Federal Trade Commission last year, according to the New York Times. The company promised to obtain a parent’s permission before collecting a child’s personal information and to delete the personal information – including videos – of users identified under 13. But the consumer groups identified several videos posted by children under 13 in 2016 that remain on TikTok, as well as issues with the company's age verification system. TikTok told the Times in the statement: “We take privacy seriously and are committed to helping ensure that TikTok continues to be a safe and entertaining community for our users.” Some privacy advocates