Readers critique The Post: A picture of all that’s wrong with our affairs

of the all-time greatest tennis players, it is not a matter of disliking Nick Kyrgios but, rather, questioning Kyrgios’s commitment to the game because of his on-court antics and disrespect for himself, the game, his opponent and fans. To suggest that the two players don’t like each other was incorrect. After Nadal’s win over Kyrgios at this year’s Australian Open, he said he enjoyed watching Kyrgios play during the tournament and was complimentary of his opponent. Nadal, winner of the Association of Tennis Professionals Sportsmanship Award, is always gracious and demonstrates the highest level of sportsmanship not only in his victories and defeats but also with opponents who are disrespectful and provoke him. Kathy Wagner ● I was surprised that the Feb. 1 editorial “Lost in space” did not mention SpaceX, Elon Musk’s private rocket and space exploration company. While NASA and Congress dither over whether, when and how to send humans to Mars, SpaceX is already building prototypes of a Mars rocket called Starship. The purpose of this massive new rocket, whose development is being self-funded by SpaceX, is ultimately to transport humans to Mars. Lest anyone doubt SpaceX’s capabilities, I point out that SpaceX, with its reusable Falcon 9 rocket, has reportedly captured two-thirds of the international commercial launch market. In addition, SpaceX is well on the way to constructing a constellation of thousands of Starlink satellites to provide high-performance Internet access anywhere in the world. SpaceX is also on the verge of ferrying astronauts to the International Space Station using its Crew Dragon capsule atop a Falcon 9 rocket. Remarkably, SpaceX developed the Falcon 9 from scratch for the ridiculously low cost of $300 million. Compare that with NASA’s estimate of $3.6 billion for building a comparable rocket using its traditional contracting processes. NASA and Congress may be lost in space, but SpaceX most assuredly is not. Roy Mariuzza ● Why did the media, The Post included, put such emphasis on Iowa and New Hampshire? The number of electoral votes these two states have together is less than 2 percent of the electoral college, and the states are not representative of the diversity of Democratic voters. And if a candidate doesn’t do well in these nonrepresentative states, it can sink the candidacy. These states should get little or no media attention. Donald Gross ● The Feb. 4 obituary for Peter Serkin, “Piano prodigy bridged old and new


The Cybersecurity 202: The U.S. is going after Huawei, but it isn’t changing allies’ minds

5G infrastructure — including for some of the United States’ closest allies. There was a muted response from abroad, suggesting the United States is becoming increasingly isolated as it battles to restrict Chinese influence over a broad range of technological developments that could increase its spying power ranging from 5G to artificial intelligence and quantum computing. The United Kingdom has already announced Huawei will build less-sensitive portions of its 5G networks and France appeared poised yesterday to strike a similar deal. The only indication this week’s developments have made any difference came in Canada where conservative opposition lawmakers pushed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who hasn’t made a final decision on Huawei, to ban the firm. Only a handful of allies, including Australia, New Zealand and Japan, have followed the U.S. lead in completely banning Huawei from their next-generation networks. The silence from key allies is a major blow to U.S. officials who have warned Huawei control over 5G networks could give China broad power to spy on government officials, steal innovations from other nations’ companies and even sabotage foreign companies to benefit their Chinese competitors. The issue is especially vital because 5G will carry exponentially more data than earlier generations of telecom networks and hook into a new breed of Internet-connected devices such as driverless cars, connected homes and smart factories. The new indictment alleges Huawei and two of its U.S. subsidiaries violated the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO, a law typically used to charge organized crime syndicates, as part of a conspiracy to steal technology for Internet routers and antennas that would give the company an unfair competitive advantage. It’s an escalation of a case announced in January 2019, when U.S. prosecutors charged Huawei and its chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, with bank and wire fraud. They also charged Huawei with violating U.S. sanctions on Iran and conspiring to obstruct justice. Huawei and Meng denied all those charges. U.S. lawmakers used the indictment to make a final pitch to allies to steer clear of the Chinese firm. “Countries should think twice before trusting Huawei to adhere to the rule of law & protect data,” Rep. Michael McCaul (Tex.), top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, tweeted. Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) called it “shameful” that U.S. allies continue to work with Huawei: Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and ranking Democrat Mark Warner (Va.) also


Health-care workers are the front-line warriors against coronavirus. We must protect them.

Michael T. Osterholm is a regents professor and director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. Mark Olshaker is a writer and documentary filmmaker. They are the authors of “ This article has been updated. Of all our endless wars, the most protracted is our war against dangerous microbes, of which the covid-19 coronavirus is the latest battle. Just as we honor our fallen warriors on the battlefield, we should honor 34-year-old Li Wenliang, the Wuhan physician who died of the disease last week after defying Chinese authorities by trying to get the word out about the growing outbreak. Hospitals themselves are amplification points for the virus’s spread, as evidenced by the more than 1,700 confirmed cases of health-care workers stricken with the disease, including six deaths, the Chinese government reported on Friday. The most effective way we can respect the efforts of those who fell ill and the memory of those who have died is to protect their fellow health-care workers around the world and develop responses. China is a significant provider of personal protection equipment for the world, and the Chinese are running out themselves, which will leave the rest of the countries scrambling. A scary scenario indeed. While public-health officials have not declared this outbreak a pandemic, we believe it is in the early stages of becoming just that: a worldwide epidemic. It has reached 24 other countries so far and is spreading like the influenza virus does each winter. Trying to stop influenza transmission is like trying to stop the wind. Nothing in our experience gives us hope we can halt an emerging worldwide epidemic spreading person-to-person like this coronavirus. It appears that on average, a case transmits to two people. After 10 doubling generations, which takes just 60 days total, that original infected individual has started a chain of more than 3,500 cases. Effective vaccines are many months, if not years, away. Border closures, quarantines and airport screenings have, at best, slowed the disease, but they hardly stopped it. So what can governments and individuals do as the situation inexorably progresses? If we are to have any real impact on this emerging crisis, we must safeguard the health-care workers who put their lives on the line treating patients. On Jan. 20, the Chinese National Health Commission revealed a covid-19 outbreak among 13 nurses and one physician, all related


the countries scrambling. A scary scenario indeed. While public-health officials have not declared this outbreak a pandemic, we believe it is in the early stages of becoming just that: a worldwide epidemic. It has reached 24 other countries so far and is spreading like the influenza virus does each winter. Trying to stop influenza transmission is like trying to stop the wind. Nothing in our experience gives us hope we can halt an emerging worldwide epidemic spreading person-to-person like this coronavirus. It appears that on average, a case transmits to two people. After 10 doubling generations, which takes just 60 days total, that original infected individual has started a chain of more than 3,500 cases. Effective vaccines are many months, if not years, away. Border closures, quarantines and airport screenings have, at best, slowed the disease, but they hardly stopped it. So what can governments and individuals do as the situation inexorably progresses? If we are to have any real impact on this emerging crisis, we must safeguard the health-care workers who put their lives on the line treating patients. On Jan. 20, the Chinese National Health Commission revealed a covid-19 outbreak among 13 nurses and one physician, all related to the care of a single infected patient. An investigation published in the Journal of the American Medical Association shows that 40 of the first 138 patients diagnosed at Wuhan University Hospital were health-care workers, their infections related to caring for infected patients. Additionally, 17 patients treated for other conditions contracted the infection simply by breathing contaminated hospital air. Numerous Chinese physicians have spoken publicly over the past week on the major shortage of equipment necessary to protect workers and patients. In a very real sense, what happens to our health-care workers will be the metric of how we respond to this unfolding crisis. If we don’t do all we can to protect them, they will quickly transition from providers to patients, further stressing already overburdened facilities. We are no more prepared to deal with the rapid increases in coronavirus patients needing hospitalization in the United States than in China. If doctors, nurses and first responders are faced with coming to work without such equipment as respirators, gloves, eye protection and disposable suits, will they? And if hospitals become places where coronavirus is spread more than contained, will the public panic? It is no longer useful to debate how long


Maryland open houses Feb. 15-16

Farm Lane 8809 Bealls Farm Lane 8805 Bealls Farm Lane 8801 Bealls Farm Lane WALKERSVILLE 21793 107 Polaris Dr HOWARD COUNTY COLUMBIA 21044 5812 Wyndham Cir #105 21046 8853 Blue Sea Dr 9624 Green Moon Path ELLICOTT CITY 21042 2626 Vardon Lane 21043 8315 Spring Breeze Ct 7719 Graystone Ct 4938 Montgomery Rd 1102 Oella Ave 8002 Hillsborough Rd 7998 Hillsborough Rd 7839 Twin Stream Dr 5026 Avoca Ave GLENWOOD 21738 3330 Sharp Rd JESSUP 20794 2007 Citrus Ave MONTGOMERY COUNTY BARNESVILLE 20838 22420 Old Hundred Rd BETHESDA 20814 4977 Battery Lane #1-610 7500 Woodmont Ave #s208 5225 Pooks Hill Rd #708 South 20816 5818 Madaket Rd 4610 Overbrook Rd 20817 5856 Marbury Rd 9220 Seven Locks 9220 Seven Locks Rd 5804 Walton Rd CHEVY CHASE 20815 7208 Ridgewood Ave CLARKSBURG 20871 23522 Overlook Park Dr #201 23516 Overlook Park Dr #00704 23524 Overlook Park Dr #1504 23524 Overlook Park Dr #1604 23510 Overlook Park Dr #00204 23514 Overlook Park Dr #00504 13036 Martz St 13040 Martz St 21840 Woodcock Way 21836 Woodcock Way 12646 Piedmont Trail Rd 23520 Overlook Park Dr #101 23518 Overlook Park Dr DAMASCUS 20872 10203 Crosscut Way GAITHERSBURG 20878 210 Decoverly Dr #20503 428 Salk Cir 20882 8600 Plum Creek Dr 20886 18602 Pier Point Pl GERMANTOWN 20874 20309 Century Blvd #0 20307 Century Blvd #0 20305 Century Blvd #0 20361 Century Blvd #173 20346 Peacemaker Dr 3322 Provider Way 3324 Provider Way 20530 Anndyke Way 20876 21929 Boneset Way 21933 Boneset Way #0 21937 Boneset Way #0 22056 Boneset Way #0 22068 Boneset Way #0 HYATTSVILLE 20781 6025 44th Ave 20782 1005 Chillum Rd #205 20784 7749 Emerson Rd KENSINGTON 20895 4012 Spruell Dr MONTGOMERY VILLAGE 20886 18007 Royal Bonnet Cir POTOMAC 20854 12009 Wetherfield Lane ROCKVILLE 20850 919 King Farm Blvd #0 12500 Park Potomac Ave #504s 585 Shorthorn Way 921 King Farm Blvd #0 20855 16636 Crabbs Branch Way SILVER SPRING 20904 13114 Musicmaster Dr #67 20905 15104 Snowden Dr 20906 4041 Chesterwood Dr 1707 Nordic Hill Cir PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY BOWIE 20715 4908 Ridgeview Lane 20716 3908 Norway Lane 20720 12204 Quadrille Lane 20721 1710 Crimson Pl CAPITOL HEIGHTS 20743 7013 Fresno St CLINTON 20735 12807 Carolina Meadow Lane 4931 Plata St DISTRICT HEIGHTS 20747 1720 Bradmoore Dr 7005 Foster St 2317 Roslyn Ave 1805 Forest Park Dr FORT WASHINGTON 20744 1401 Adams Dr 1713 Taylor Ave 1559 Potomac Heights Dr


China’s leaders shake up political ranks as coronavirus cases pass 63,000; Japan announces second virus fatality outside China

down. But on Thursday, Chinese officials announced a sudden revision in the total case number for Hubei province, the epicenter of the outbreak. They credited the uptick, an additional 15,000 cases, to a new diagnostic methodology that would no longer rely solely on laboratory tests for confirmation. The dramatic rise shook global markets Thursday amid fears that the spread of the virus could be more severe than had been suspected. But Isaac Bogoch, an infectious disease specialist at Toronto General Hospital, cautioned that the uptick is probably a reflection of what many public health experts knew all along — that China’s initial data vastly underestimated the breadth of the outbreak from the beginning. “People who have been following this closely knew that this was much bigger than the reported numbers,” Bogoch said. “We knew we were dealing with a health-care system that was exceeding its capacity, and I don’t think this comes to anyone’s surprise.” Bogoch said that very few details have emerged on Hubei province’s new methodology. But he cast doubt on claims that medical professionals in Hubei are now relying on CT scans to make diagnoses. Such scans are a “very labor-intensive pursuit,” he said. “It’s not like … you just snap a picture and walk away.” China’s health system is overburdened. Patients are seeking treatment wherever they can find a bed — which sometimes means in makeshift clinics in converted gymnasiums and conference centers. Realistically, he said, it seems more likely that medical professionals are relying for the most part on clinical diagnoses based on symptoms and patient history. Until China reveals more about its process, it will be difficult to assess what exactly the latest data means. But for now, Bogoch said, it’s promising that China was at least willing to reevaluate its methodology to respond to the reality on the ground. “It would certainly be a welcome sign if there is malleability in their response and they’re able to perhaps adapt to an emerging need, and in this case that emerging need was to redefine how cases were being defined,” he said. “We just need to know what exactly the definition is.” By: Siobhán O’Grady 1:15 PM: E-commerce company Alibaba warns of decline to come Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group warned Thursday that it expected the coronavirus outbreak to exert a negative impact on its revenue growth as the country’s consumers, sellers and producers continue


severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) virus. A team headed by the prominent Chinese researcher Zhong Nanshan said Thursday it isolated the coronavirus from a stool sample of an infected patient. Similar findings have been announced in recent days by scientists at China’s National Health Commission and in Hong Kong. The prospect of the virus replicating in the digestive tract and spreading through fecal matter is particularly worrisome for Asia’s vertical cities. Panic erupted in Hong Kong 17 years ago after cases emerged of SARS moving through plumbing inside apartment towers. Hong Kong officials this week evacuated an apartment block after residents living directly on top of each other on different floors became infected, leading local officials to worry that the virus may have wafted out of vertical sewage pipes or been carried onto different floors in liquid droplets. Zhao Jincun, deputy director of China’s National Key Laboratory for Respiratory Illnesses, told reporters Thursday that isolating the virus in stool “indicates there may be new transmission methods for the coronavirus, but we need further study.” Chinese National Health Commission spokesman Mi Feng said Thursday there was no evidence of significant “fecal-oral” transmission, adding that most infection arose from touching contaminated surfaces. By: Gerry Shih 3:30 AM: China’s confirmed virus cases top 59,000 as number of dead hits 1,367 BEIJING — China’s National Health Commission said the total number of confirmed coronavirus cases as of the end of Wednesday jumped to 59,804 and the death toll rose by 254, to 1,367. Commission spokesman Mi Feng announced the nationwide figures Thursday afternoon amid intense speculation over whether China would significantly adjust its infection and death tally. Earlier Thursday, Hubei province, the center of the outbreak, revised its case numbers far higher to reflect coronavirus diagnoses made by doctors’ holistic assessments rather than the results of nucleic acid testing kits. Chinese experts have argued that the testing kits, which sample mucus swabbed from the upper respiratory tract, are both inaccurate and lacking in supply, and therefore do not reflect the true number of infections and deaths from the coronavirus. Mi told reporters Thursday that Hubei province changed its diagnosis criteria from every other region so that its patients could receive the appropriate care sooner and more efficiently. So far, jurisdictions beyond Hubei have not switched to the looser diagnosis guidelines. The steep rise in nationwide figures announced by Mi were almost completely attributed to


the sharp rise in cases reported by the virus-stricken province. By: Gerry Shih 3:05 AM: Questions emerge over drastic change in Hubei case numbers BEIJING — Confusion set in Thursday after Hubei, the Chinese province at the center of the coronavirus outbreak, abruptly changed its diagnosis criteria and reported a drastically higher infection and death count. Meanwhile, other regions quickly said they would not follow Hubei’s lead and revise their figures. Officials from Shanghai and Fujian — a bustling province in China’s southeast — told reporters they would stick to the old diagnosis requirement of only reporting coronavirus cases that have been confirmed using nucleic acid tests. Chinese health experts have acknowledged shortcomings in nucleic acid tests, including the prevalence of inaccurate results. Some top officials concur that Hubei’s new guidelines of allowing doctors to make judgment calls about coronavirus diagnoses may be more accurate. Asked about the change in reporting methodology in Hubei, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told reporters on Thursday to ask relevant departments, rather than his ministry. The abrupt revision in Hubei came just hours before the Chinese Communist Party announced a shake-up that would replace two top Hubei officials, leading political observers to wonder if the newly announced statistics carried political undertones, as statistics often do in China. On WeChat, one widely circulating post suggested that Hubei’s new party bosses released the higher figures because they wanted a fresh start. Other analysts wondered why there was a discrepancy between the various provinces in reporting methodology. Carl Minzner, professor of Chinese law and politics at Fordham Law School, said Thursday’s developments suggested a “certain lack of coordination” within the party. “In a one party political system that is now obsessively focused on controlling the narrative regarding the epidemic, you’d expect a data release of this magnitude to be accompanied by a much clearer propaganda narrative for public consumption,” Minzner told The Washington Post. Minzner speculated that central leaders may be hesitant about letting every jurisdiction revise its numbers upward under the looser guidelines. “Perhaps party authorities themselves remain somewhat uncertain to what extent they want to authorize more sweeping case counting methods outside Hubei, which might produce both larger and possibly inaccurate totals as well as fuel resistance to their ongoing efforts to restart China’s economy,” he said. By: Gerry Shih 2:44 AM: Australia prolongs travel ban on arrivals from China Australia on Thursday extended


Vietnam Airline says it is losing $11 million a week due to travel curbs HONG KONG — The coronavirus outbreak is delivering a huge hit to the global tourism industry, with airlines, hotels and restaurants all reporting a dent to business after countries imposed travel restrictions to try to curb the epidemic. Vietnam Airlines became the latest carrier to quantify the financial impact, saying Thursday that it was losing almost $11 million a week in revenue, according to Reuters. “The epidemic has significantly reduced the travel demand of domestic and international tourists in the Vietnam network,” the company told the news agency in a statement, adding that it was cutting costs to try to ride out the turbulence. The airline has suspended all flights to and from mainland China, Vietnam’s largest source of tourists. Cathay Pacific said earlier this month that passenger numbers had collapsed by half, as the Hong Kong-based airline cut China routes and ordered staff to take unpaid leave. U.S. carriers and others have also slashed flights to China, including Hong Kong. By: David Crawshaw 12:22 AM: China removes Communist Party leaders at outbreak’s epicenter BEIJING — China removed senior officials in the virus-stricken province of Hubei, as the Communist Party leadership looks to tighten control over its epidemic response and assuage public furor over authorities’ handling of the crisis. The ruling party's Central Committee announced Thursday that Jiang Chaoliang, a former banker and Party secretary of Hubei province since 2016, had been fired. He will be replaced by the Shanghai Mayor Ying Yong, a 62-year-old ally of President Xi Jinping who served as a judge on the Zhejiang province high court before being appointed to top positions in Shanghai. Ma Guoqiang, the party boss overseeing Wuhan, the city at the heart of the outbreak, has also been replaced by Wang Zhonglin, an official from eastern Shandong province with a background in the security and legal apparatus, according to state media. News of the reshuffle came hours after China announced a massive spike in infection numbers in Hubei province. Chinese citizens have widely demanded official accountability in the wake of a slow and fumbled government response in the early days of the epidemic that may have contributed to its spread. Jiang, the Hubei party boss who has been widely mocked on social media, was seen attending a Lunar New Year variety show on Jan. 21, even as


Hatice Cengiz: 500 days without love or justice

me, for his family, for his colleagues. On Oct. 2, 2018, confused and devastated, I waited for the world to react. But this year I’m pushing beyond my own sadness, still trying to understand the dark and deplorable age we are living in right now. Because that day, inside and near the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, we were both assassinated. The killers who took Jamal’s life also interrupted and usurped mine. The world didn’t remain silent, but the condemnation was not enough to punish the true murderers. And those who stayed silent and decided to look away are also responsible for the trauma I have experienced. Powerful segments have decided to betray human rights for political convenience and greed. And that is why I still continue to seek justice for Jamal. Loving requires loyalty, even if you’ve lost your loved one. Even though he is not coming back, I still need to demand what’s right. If your loved one is taken from you unjustly, brutally and in a way that does not fit any human value or definition, then your love can turn into a quest and struggle for justice. This is my answer to those who constantly insist on asking me: "Why are you still looking for something for Jamal?” Because I want to live like a dignified human being. I can’t just forget and move on and continue with my life — and decent people everywhere should feel the same way. I want to cause fury against those who did this. I can never represent Jamal’s face and voice, and I have no such intention. But reminding the world of the brutal injustice that was done to him, to me, is the only dignified thing I can do for him. When your life goes on normally, anything that is experienced or gained becomes a part of your life story. But if you lose a loved one, then you inevitably carry their torch. If there is anything else left that I can do out of my love for Jamal, it is to not forget and to keep demanding justice. Read more: Global Opinions: Jamal Khashoggi: A missing voice,a growing chorus David Ignatius: What happened on the way to Khashoggi’s horrifying final seconds? Ezzedine Fishere: Jamal Khashoggi symbolized the promise of reconciling political Islam and democracy David Von Drehle: Hollywood loves triumphant journalism stories. This isn’t one of them. Karen


Woman stuck on cruise live tweets while ship roams at sea amid coronavirus fears

Christina Kerby was corralled aboard a massive luxury cruise ship, charting a meandering course somewhere in the South China Sea, when she began thinking about the apocalypse. Luckily, the WiFi on Holland America’s MS Westerdam was plentiful. She tapped out a tweet. “Here’s a science fiction plot line for ya,” she wrote. “Amidst a global epidemic that wipes out the earth’s population, it’s up to the people aboard one cruise ship — the only safe place on earth — to repopulate the planet. **Passengers onboard the #Westerdam begin eyeing each other nervously**” It was an idea befitting her new dystopian reality — but instead of a sci-fi thriller, she was going for lighthearted comedy. The way she saw it, there wasn’t much else she could do, as her long-planned vacation was ensnared in a global frenzy over a fast-spreading disease and the story of her cruise ship had spiraled into international news. Kerby boarded the ship in Hong Kong on Feb. 1, but hundreds of other passengers had been cruising since Jan. 21, riding a route that was supposed to ferry them north, from Cambodia to Japan. Soon after Kerby got on, plans began to change. Four times the Westerdam tried to dock at ports across East and Southeast Asia, and four times it was turned away, rebuffed by governments frantically trying to protect their countries from the spread of coronavirus, now known as covid-19. Authorities are wary of cruise ships after infections rose aboard the Diamond Princess, which is quarantined at a port in Yokohama, Japan. Strict new measures have also banned from cruise ships anyone who has recently traveled in China. Even after the cruise line decided to cancel the rest of the trip, it struggled to find a country nearby that would allow its legions of passengers and crew to disembark and catch flights home. Holland America tried to reassure officials in Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines and Thailand: The ship is virus-free, the company said again and again, with no known or suspected cases on board. On Monday, the crew told passengers they’d be able to get off in Bangkok, the cruise aborted but fully refunded. But by the next day, they’d been told once more they were unwelcome. They’d have to keep floating, with no end in sight. That’s about when Kerby, a 41-year-old who works in health-care communications, decided to start tweeting. “I felt like


Chardonnay in the shoe department: Retailers are increasingly serving alcohol to woo shoppers

taken on new life in an era of e-commerce, where making an impulse purchase is as easy as tapping a button on your phone. Websites like eBay and Gilt, and shopping channel QVC, have all reported a spike in nighttime purchases that executives say may be alcohol-aided. But there are also signs of a broader backlash against alcohol driven by wellness-seeking Americans. Hashtags like #DryJanuary and #SoberSeptember have become popular markers of abstinence, while a growing sober curious movement is encouraging adults to become more deliberate about when, and why, they drink. U.S. beer sales have declined for five straight years, while wine sales recently fell for the first time in 25 years. (Demand for low- and no-alcohol beer, meanwhile, rose nearly 7 percent last year, according to IWSR.) Restaurants and bars are increasingly offering nonalcoholic alternatives to popular cocktails, in hopes of appealing to those who’d rather abstain. So while selling shoppers a drink or two might help increase sales in the short term, analysts say it might not be the best long-term strategy for ailing retailers, which last year announced a record 9,300 store closures. “It’s a gimmick,” said Mark Cohen, director of retail studies at Columbia Business School. “Handing someone a cocktail gets them to spend more, but it’s not a sustainable way to sell clothes.” Diana Miller orders beer at Whole Foods Market, champagne at Neiman Marcus, and prosecco with Grand Marnier at Nordstrom. These indulgences, the Dallas resident says, are among her “absolute favorite things to do.” “It’s, like, ‘Hey, it’s 3 o’clock. I’m going to grab a drink at Whole Foods and do my grocery shopping,’ ” said Miller, 38, and no relation to Kathy Miller. “I stay longer because I want to savor the drink — and of course I buy more things than I need to." Once, after a few glasses of sauvignon blanc, she picked up a crown roast of lamb that ended up in the freezer for six months. Another time, she says, she left the Dior counter at Neiman Marcus with “an entire skin-care line for a skin problem I don’t have.” But on the whole, Miller says, the promise of a drink or two is enough to pull her away from her computer and into the store. (Whole Foods is owned by Amazon, whose founder, Jeff Bezos, also owns The Washington Post.) At the Shops at La Cantera,


has a bar or restaurant on each of its seven floors and also allows customers to place orders with sales staff. Another 13 locations have a storewide liquor license. (And while executives say the availability of alcohol generally translates to higher sales, a spokeswoman for Nordstrom declined to comment on whether there’s been a corresponding uptick in returns.) Food and drink sales make up nearly 1 in 4 transactions at Nordstrom stores, making it an important and growing part of the Seattle-based retailer’s business, according to David Kim, director of food and beverage. Staffers, he said, are trained “in safe and responsible alcohol service,” which means they check for valid IDs and won’t sell drinks to anyone who seems intoxicated. And though there are some restrictions on exactly where customers can drink — alcoholic beverages are prohibited on the ground floor in New York, for example — Kim said the company is generally unfazed when it comes to a spill or broken glass. “We don’t focus on guarding against mishaps,” he said. “We understand that accidents can happen, but we trust our customers in our stores." Danielle Vogel knew she wanted to include a bar at the front of her store when she opened Glen’s Garden Market in Northwest Washington in 2013. She just didn’t expect that it would become the store’s main attraction. “We quickly realized we had to start getting people off of the bar stool and into the grocery store,” she said. She began handing bar patrons a token good for a 10 percent discount on anything in the store — except more booze. So far, she says, the strategy has worked. The neighborhood grocery store has a steady stream of regulars who stop in to drink, shop or do both. Increasingly, she said, customers are carrying their wine or beer with them while they browse the shelves. (Next on her wish list: pint-glass holders for the store’s shopping baskets.) “Having a drink takes the chore out of grocery shopping,” she said. And it makes business sense: “After a craft beer or two, a $10 jar of jam seems like a great idea.” Mikki Kendall says she absolutely hates grocery shopping. But sipping wine while she fills her cart at Mariano’s, a Chicago-area supermarket chain, makes it tolerable. “Having a drink while you shop is the adult version eating samples at the grocery store,” the 43-year-old writer


store when she opened Glen’s Garden Market in Northwest Washington in 2013. She just didn’t expect that it would become the store’s main attraction. “We quickly realized we had to start getting people off of the bar stool and into the grocery store,” she said. She began handing bar patrons a token good for a 10 percent discount on anything in the store — except more booze. So far, she says, the strategy has worked. The neighborhood grocery store has a steady stream of regulars who stop in to drink, shop or do both. Increasingly, she said, customers are carrying their wine or beer with them while they browse the shelves. (Next on her wish list: pint-glass holders for the store’s shopping baskets.) “Having a drink takes the chore out of grocery shopping,” she said. And it makes business sense: “After a craft beer or two, a $10 jar of jam seems like a great idea.” Mikki Kendall says she absolutely hates grocery shopping. But sipping wine while she fills her cart at Mariano’s, a Chicago-area supermarket chain, makes it tolerable. “Having a drink while you shop is the adult version eating samples at the grocery store,” the 43-year-old writer said. “You are walking around, enjoying something yummy.” That’s not to say there isn’t an occasional downside. “A glass or two of wine does lead me to the fancy food aisle,” Kendall said. “I sometimes come home with more than my share of fig preserves and prosciutto." Mariano’s, which is owned by Kroger and has bars at 21 of its 44 stores, is known for its $3 draft beers and $5 mimosas. Shopping carts are outfitted with cupholders to accommodate multitasking. “The bar is full by 4 o’clock,” said spokeswoman Amanda Puck. “People come in to drink, to hang out and, oh, buy groceries on their way out.” The company has a “glass retrieval system” for the wine and beer empties that materialize along store shelves and at checkout lines, she said. People otherwise, “tend to be responsible." Nick Coffeen was introduced to boozy shopping at a Mariano’s opening party a few years ago, when he and a few friends strolled through the aisles with vodka-La Croix cocktails. It wasn’t long before they began thinking of the supermarket as a place to hang out, drink and buy an ill-advised cookie cake — or three. “It’s really amplified the whole shopping


Economic fallout from China’s coronavirus mounts around the world

case, an individual who had been in quarantine in Texas since arriving on a State Department-chartered aircraft from Wuhan on Feb. 7. And Japan reported its first coronavirus death. It also said 44 more people had tested positive for the illness aboard the quarantined cruise liner Diamond Princess, bringing to 218 the number of ship-borne infections. The coronavirus struck China as many U.S. corporations were reconsidering their global footprints. President Trump’s tariffs on roughly 70 percent of all Chinese goods, imposed during a two-year trade war with Beijing, raised doubts about the future of trans-Pacific supply lines. “We were already hitting the pause button on globalization,” El-Erian said. “This [virus] disrupts the movement of goods and it disrupts the movement of people, making companies reassess how international they want their supply chains to be.” After initially dismissing the epidemic as principally a Chinese problem, U.S. policymakers in recent days acknowledged it will damage the global and U.S. growth outlooks. Federal Reserve Board Chair Jerome H. Powell said this week that there will “very likely be some effects on the United States” from the epidemic, which has closed thousands of Chinese factories that supply American companies. Among the first tangible effects in the United States is a decline in the number of Chinese tourists. Visitors from China represent a lucrative market for U.S. airlines, hotels, luxury retailers and entertainment venues, with average spending of about $6,500 per person. As of Feb. 7, the number of passengers flying between North America and China was 75 percent below last year’s level and was shrinking by the day, according to Quandl, a financial data provider. At Sino American Tours, a Manhattan travel agency that caters to Chinese Americans, bookings have plunged by 20 to 30 percent, said Charles Man, vice president for marketing. “Of course, we’re impacted,” he said. “A lot of people canceled trips back to Beijing, Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Taiwan and Singapore.” Chinese officials, meanwhile, are growing increasingly concerned that their efforts to contain the virus are strangling the economy. President Xi Jinping this week instructed subordinates to avoid “overreactions” that interfered with China’s development goals. Huang Qifan, an influential economic policymaker, has said the ongoing supply chain disruptions are more costly than the two-year U.S.-China trade war, according to Trivium, an economic research firm in Beijing. Indeed, the battle to contain the epidemic brought much of the world’s second-largest economy to


New Astros GM James Click stays upbeat, deflects questions about implicated front office members

two remaining members of the front office — director of advance information Tom Koch-Weser and senior manager for team operations Derek Vigoa — as central characters in the cheating plot. A reporter asked whether Click could retain them given their history. “Any new GM coming in would want to take a full view of the baseball operations staff, the whole staff, and figure out how we take the awesome people that we have here and maximize them and put them in the right position for all of us to succeed,” he said. “It’s something that’s definitely on the front burner.” Another reporter followed up: Do you have a policy to cleanse your organization of the people responsible for this sign-stealing scheme? “It’s a good question,” Click started. “I’ve just gotten here; it’s my first week. I want to get to know people.” Do you want them to stay? “It's a good question,” he repeated, “and I'm not going to know the answer to that until I talk to the staff.” The interview soon lapsed. Click looked downcast from the earlier challenge. Then he rebounded. “Anybody want to talk about the three-batter minimum?” he said, grinning, referencing a new rule MLB instituted for pitchers this season. No one did, and soon Click was talking around the finer points of how much cheating could actually help. He had given the topic some thought. Four months earlier, the Astros ended his old club’s season in the decisive Game 5 of the American League Division Series. The Astros beat the Rays, 6-1, in large part because they pounded starter Tyler Glasnow for four runs in the first inning. Apparently, the right-hander was “tipping,” a baseball term for telegraphing his next pitch by a mannerism with his body or glove. MLB’s two-month investigation found no evidence the Astros cheated in the 2019 postseason, but the performance left questions. Click said he believed the Astros didn’t cheat in the ALDS. He established a vision for winning now while building a core despite MLB forcing them to forfeit their first- and second-round draft picks in 2020 and 2021. He praised the players for their emotional clubhouse meeting Wednesday, the first time they had been together since the scandal broke. “It was as honest and sincere contrition and taking [of] ownership and responsibility as I ever could've hoped for,” he said. “It exceeded my expectations.” The questions petered


Where to find the best vegan dining in Manhattan

biggest players in the plant-based patty game, disrupting the fast-food industry. According to Barclays, the plant-based meat substitute category is expected to be worth $140 billion in the next decade. Vegan cooking is making its mark on Manhattan, a place that’s historically been identified with foods that are the opposite. (See: pastrami, pizza, hot dogs, and bagels with lox and a schmear.) And in typical New York style, it’s being done with ferocious creativity. In 2005, before any of this was au courant, Ronen Seri was simply looking for a restaurant that could support his vegan diet. The Israeli expat was studying acting in New York, and his restaurant quest continually came up empty. So he opened his own, Blossom, first in Chelsea in 2005 and then on the Upper West Side in 2007. In a comic twist, the latter is located a few storefronts up from a restaurant called the Viand, a nod to the French term for meat. Ronen has a unique perspective, having watched his long-standing diet become more mainstream over time. “Years ago when we opened, you’d say ‘vegan’ and it was almost taboo,” Ronen told me. “Now ‘plant-based’ sounds more exotic. Vegan was this old-school hippie Woodstock-y kind of thing. ‘Plant-based’ sounds more like Jay-Z.” I visited the casually elegant Upper West Side location on a blustery Sunday. It was bustling. My favorite part about exploring Manhattan’s vegan fare is hearing restaurant staff describe each dish. Vegan cooking is an exercise in sleight of hand, in hoodwinking your senses in ways that bewilder carnivores like myself. Things are not always what they seem, vegan chefs want to remind. And so it goes at Blossom, where the salmon and scallop entree is made of beet-marinated, flame-grilled tofu surrounded by trumpet mushrooms that, by tricks of grilling and seasoning, become stand-ins for scallops. Approximating steak, cheese, eggs and seafood is one approach to plant-based fare. The other is to simply take veggies, fruits and beans and put them front and center, like shining the spotlight on performers who’ve sung backup their whole lives. “How often do you see a meal where butter beans are the main focus?” said the waiter at abcV as he delivered a plate of applewood-smoked butter beans that sat atop a butter bean puree accompanied by crispy maitake, a curlicue mushroom, fried capers and ginger-rosemary vinaigrette. AbcV, two blocks from Union Square, is


Most coronavirus cases are mild, complicating the response

The coronavirus has killed more than 1,300 people, brought a huge swath of central China to a standstill and rattled millions around the globe with hints of a pandemic seen in Hollywood fantasies. But the virus’s destructive potential has overshadowed one encouraging aspect of this outbreak: So far, about 82 percent of the cases — including all 14 in the United States — have been mild, with symptoms that require little or no medical intervention. And that proportion may be an undercount. Health authorities managing the outbreak are trying to understand what that critical fact portends. Are the 60,000 sick people tallied so far just a portion of a vast reservoir of uncounted victims, some of whom may be spreading the disease? And do the mild illnesses reveal characteristics of the virus itself — something that could be useful in crafting a more effective response? “The fact that there are so many mild cases is a real hallmark of this disease and makes it so different from SARS,” said Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Center for Health Security. “It’s also really challenging. Most of our surveillance is oriented around finding people who require medical intervention.” In China’s Hubei province, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, the number of new infections rose by 14,840 in a count released Thursday, with 242 new deaths, as health officials there broadened the criteria they are using to confirm cases. World Health Organization expert Michael Ryan said in a news briefing this week that, outside of Hubei province, the virus’s behavior did not seem to be as aggressive or accelerated. For those who study viruses, the large number of mild cases is reason for optimism. “This looks to be a bad, heightened cold — I think that’s a rational way of thinking about it,” said Matthew Frieman, a virologist at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. “Not to diminish its importance — it’s in the middle between SARS and the common cold.” Though the virus was identified just six weeks ago, some of its characteristics are becoming clear. For the elderly and those with underlying heart disease, diabetes or other conditions, the disease can be quite severe. They are the ones dominating the ranks of the dead, often after pneumonia or other respiratory problems that lead to organ failure. Others are not suffering nearly as much.


been looking so hard,” she suggested, “we might not have found them.” Another possibility, said William Schaffner, a professor of preventive medicine and health policy at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, is that the U.S. patients were a self-selected sample of fairly healthy people — hardy enough, at least, to travel to Wuhan and back. Twelve of the U.S. patients were such travelers, while two others were spouses who came in contact with them after they returned. Schaffner also noted that in China, where the vast majority of deaths and illnesses from the “covid-19” disease have occurred, air pollution and a higher smoking prevalence may contribute to the severity of the disease. Many experts have said early phases of outbreaks like this one tend to have a large number of severe cases, as the sickest people flock to hospitals and come to doctors’ attention. And in Wuhan, where the health-care system is overwhelmed, people have complained they cannot find a hospital to test them for the virus, let alone to treat their symptoms. So patients with milder versions may be at home, uncounted, waiting out the epidemic. In its latest “situation report,” released Wednesday, the World Health Organization listed 45,171 confirmed cases in 25 countries including China, with just 441 of the cases outside China. The WHO classified 8,204 of the Chinese cases as severe, meaning virtually all the rest are mild. The WHO does not break down the cases outside China, but some countries do. Singapore, for example, has reported that 15 of its 50 patients have fully recovered and been discharged. Most of the others still hospitalized are “stable or improving,” while eight are in critical condition in intensive care. Currently, the death rate of the disease is hovering around 2.5 percent, a remarkably high level, about the rate of the 1918 flu pandemic that killed roughly 50 million people around the world. Normal seasonal flu kills less than one-tenth of one percent of people who contract the virus. But experts have said the coronavirus fatality rate is likely to decline substantially as they compile a more accurate count of the people who contract the virus and survive. At the Aspen Institute presentation, Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said he hoped the rate could decline toward 1 percent. Either figure makes the virus much less deadly than severe acute respiratory syndrome


reported that 15 of its 50 patients have fully recovered and been discharged. Most of the others still hospitalized are “stable or improving,” while eight are in critical condition in intensive care. Currently, the death rate of the disease is hovering around 2.5 percent, a remarkably high level, about the rate of the 1918 flu pandemic that killed roughly 50 million people around the world. Normal seasonal flu kills less than one-tenth of one percent of people who contract the virus. But experts have said the coronavirus fatality rate is likely to decline substantially as they compile a more accurate count of the people who contract the virus and survive. At the Aspen Institute presentation, Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said he hoped the rate could decline toward 1 percent. Either figure makes the virus much less deadly than severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), which killed more than 9 percent of the people who contracted it in 2003, and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), which kills nearly 35 percent of its victims. The mild nature of many illnesses, some experts said, may stem from the properties of the pathogen itself. For reasons scientists still don’t fully understand, one virus may be a nuisance and a very similar one can be deadly. While two different coronaviruses produced SARS and MERS, four others cause about 30 percent of all common colds. The severity of the resulting illness is “inherent in the virus,” said Frieman, the University of Maryland virologist. One coronavirus that causes cold symptoms, called NL63, uses the same doorway into cells and infects the same cells as SARS, he said. “One gives you a runny nose and the other gives you lethal pneumonia,” Frieman said. “No one studies this.” A major question to be answered is who is most at risk. While many are focused on the overall death rate from the virus, Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, said it is important to focus on the fatality rate in vulnerable groups. “SARS was 10 percent overall, but it was 50 percent among older people,” Hotez said. Figuring out who is most at risk is essential for creating the right public health strategy. “If you really want to address this epidemic, it’s especially important we protect the vulnerable groups,” Hotez said. leonard.bernstein@washpost.com carolyn.johnson@washpost.com


Why Trump shouldn’t be allowed to dictate how federal buildings are designed

The guidelines would apply not only to new construction but also to remodeling and rebuilding projects. They could effectively limit the number of architects who would compete for federal projects, giving the government fewer options when it considers proposals. And they would limit the flexibility of architects to find efficient solutions to basic problems. When news of the proposed order first leaked last week, it seemed like an Ozzie-and-Harriet document, a nostalgia-propelled diktat meant to make America look like every building was a bank or library built in 1920. But this isn’t the architectural equivalent of requiring federal workers to wear knee breeches and a tricorn hats. It is the architectural equivalent of making every federal contractor use a hammer and nails, exclusively; no other tools allowed. It is an attempt to mandate (with only a few exceptions) a single solution to all architectural problems. Consider the range of those issues, especially today, when architects who design for the federal government must not only produce buildings with the requisite office space and other functions but also buildings that are secure from terrorist threats; buildings that create a healthy, livable environment for their users; buildings that are sensitive to their context and minimize the costs and other impacts of energy use. Retrofitting Washington to deal with terroristic threats has effectively subverted the symbolism of classical buildings like the U.S. Supreme Court, where visitors no longer use the main porticoed entrance — a symbol of openness, dignity and access — and must enter through the sides, where they can be screened. Energy-efficient buildings use an array of design elements that were never a part of the architectural vocabulary of Michelangelo and Palladio, two of the architects mentioned as representative of the preferred classical style. It isn’t clear that the public considers these green elements, including access to outdoor spaces and the incorporation of natural elements and materials, to be dehumanizing. But this isn’t about giving the public what it wants. It’s about sending everyone to their default battle lines, making it seem as if there is no middle ground between liking traditional architecture and liking contemporary architecture. And that’s what makes the new document almost as risible as the old fulminating style of the National Civic Art Society partisans a decade ago. It is so old-fashioned. Contemporary architecture is in a pretty good place right now, with old ideological arguments about classicism,


Gwyneth Paltrow’s ‘Goop Lab’ is horrible. The medical industry is partly to blame.

what we find is at best, a waste of money and at worst, harmful methods that actually compromise your health. Research has shown that for those with cancer, using alternative therapies such as homeopathy or specialized diets led to people opting away from proven treatments and an increased risk of dying from that cancer. Make no mistake: What wellness sells is by no means harmless. For doctors such as myself, the rise of this brand of wellness is distressing. However, medicine as a profession and a science has no doubt played a part in the genesis and growth of big wellness. For virtually the whole of its existence, medicine has disenfranchised women and, to varying degrees, continues to do so. Even as medicine has modernized with an emphasis on autonomy and resolving bias, it remains, at times, paternalistic and patriarchal. It comes as no surprise then that women are overrepresented in the wellness industry, both as consumers and providers. Medical care has not accounted for what women need and want. Women are more often dissatisfied with medical care, feeling that it has failed to recognize their autonomy and unique biological and social needs. Women are more likely to have chronic illness and autoimmune diseases, both of which can be challenging to treat from a doctor’s point of view but even more challenging to live with. Even among diseases for which we have made tremendous strides in treatment, female patients are often left behind. Women who experience heart disease are more likely to be subjected to misdiagnosis, inadequate treatment and poor outcomes. In the realm of pain management, women are more likely to be given anti-anxiety medication than painkillers, diminishing their experience with pain. Even in endometriosis, women face a wait of seven years on average until diagnosis. Women also remain underrepresented in research trials, with that absence translating to science that serves men well but lacks understanding of women’s bodies and experiences. These differences are not explained wholly by biology but rather structural biases across the medical industry. If you feel excluded by medicine, why wouldn’t you look elsewhere? The wellness industry has filled a gap in health and well-being that the practice and science of medicine have left wide open. The wellness industry purports to be everything that conventional medicine is not; egalitarian, hopeful and accessible. Even though it is elitist, privileged and full of falsehoods, it does not


What is sign stealing? Making sense of Major League Baseball’s latest scandal.

world just learned of the Astros’ cheating. Inside baseball, it was an open secret. • Baseball wanted accountability and remorse from the Astros. That didn’t happen. Sign-stealing is a long-standing baseball practice in which one team tries to decode the signs of its opponent. Those signs could be relayed from the catcher to the pitcher, or from the dugout to the catcher, or from one infielder to another, or from a base coach to a batter or runner. There is a constant exchange of signs by both the hitting team and fielding team during a baseball game. Figuring out what even one of them means — in the Astros’ case, the signs from catcher to pitcher, the most frequent target for sign-stealing — can give a team a major advantage, allowing batters to know, for example, if the next pitch will be a fastball or a breaking ball. Nope. It’s accepted tradition. Players and coaches try to steal their opponents’ signs, but they’ve traditionally done so mostly by watching the other team and trying to recognize patterns or sequences. Sign-stealing is as old as baseball itself. But stealing signs using camera, binoculars or other objects foreign to the game is illegal. Major League Baseball took steps to curtail sign-stealing in the digital age during the most recent offseason, according to multiple media reports. That followed a series of allegations of teams stealing signs using electronic means. In 2017, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred had warned teams about electronic sign-stealing, while fining the Boston Red Sox for “sending electronic communications from their video replay room to an athletic trainer in the dugout.” The Astros used a camera positioned in center field at Minute Maid Park to decode the signs from the catcher to the pitcher and inform the batter what kind of pitch was on the way. That camera was used by the team’s replay room, whose operators were supposed to help Hinch decide whether to challenge an umpire’s call. But in addition to those duties, former bench coach Cora instructed the replay room to relay the decoded information to a player, who would share it with teammates. That information was variously shared using the dugout phone, the cellphone of a staff member on the bench or another cellphone stored nearby. Eventually, the Astros installed a video monitor displaying the same footage just outside the dugout so players could look at the


Trump is again asking Congress to slash Amtrak funding

the United States if this was implemented,” Jeans-Gail said of Trump’s budget. “But we have successfully beaten this in the last three years, and I have a high degree of confidence we will be able to do the same thing this year.” The Transportation Trades Department, a coalition of 33 labor unions representing transportation workers, said it is joining efforts “in pushing back on this absurd idea." “Amtrak has become a vital lifeline to home, work, and school for millions of Americans. For some rural communities, Amtrak’s national network is the only public transportation option available,” the group tweeted Tuesday. The Rail Passengers Association said it expects Congress to once again ignore Trump’s request to slash Amtrak funding but said it will “not take this attack lying down.” The group is mobilizing a campaign to push back against Trump’s proposal and seek a funding increase for the railroad system. It also plans to use the surface transportation reauthorization process this year to urge Congress to make the existing service map statutory as the minimum required passenger rail service in the network. “So we don’t have to spend every year arguing about whether it should exist,” Jeans-Gail said. “We should talk about how we can build service out along urban corridors where it makes sense and provide this base level of service in perpetuity.” The administration has said that Amtrak should focus on improving its Northeast Corridor service, where it serves more densely populated areas between Washington and Boston. But critics say Trump’s stance is hypocritical because his administration has stalled funding on a key infrastructure project along the route that would improve service and facilitate higher-speed trains. Trump has sparred with Democratic lawmakers over a $13 billion project to rebuild and repair tunnels and bridges in the New York City area. In budget documents released Monday, the White House said restructuring the Amtrak system could result in better service at a lower cost, “by focusing trains on better-performing routes, while providing robust intercity bus service connections.” Besides the $936 million in direct grants to Amtrak, the budget includes $550 million in transitional grants for states and Amtrak to begin the restructuring process. The White House said the subsidy to Amtrak’s national network would be significantly reduced over time “as Amtrak is able to right-size its network.” Amtrak carried a record 32.5 million passengers in fiscal year 2018, with record growth


Virus takes big toll on China’s health workers

More than 1,700 Chinese medical workers have contracted the covid-19 Amid widespread shortages of protective equipment for health care workers in China’s Hubei province, Friday’s announcement highlighted the challenges Beijing faces as its overwhelmed heath care system tries to contain the epidemic. At the same time, officials noted the infection rate among health care workers is in line with that of previous respiratory viruses, including the 2003 SARS outbreak. The total appeared to be a count of infections that have occurred over many weeks, rather than a sudden escalation of the crisis. “This isn’t surprising, if I’m being honest,” said Saskia V. Popescu, senior infection prevention epidemiologist for Honor Health, a hospital system in Phoenix. “It is very, very easy to have failures in infection control.” Michael Ryan, executive director of the World Health Organization’s Health Emergencies Program, said he believes the cases peaked in the third and fourth week of January and have declined since because of improved training and awareness. “It’s a lower percentage than has occurred in other coronavirus outbreaks,” Ryan said. “Now that’s not a guarantee that it won’t change.” A total of 1,716 Chinese medical providers were infected as of Feb. 11, 3.8 percent of the confirmed cases, Chinese health authorities said. Six have died. One health care worker in Singapore also was infected. The Feb. 7 death of Li Wenliang, an ophthalmologist at Wuhan Central Hospital who had warned fellow medical school graduates in a private chat of an outbreak of the virus, prompted a national outpouring of grief and rage toward authorities. He died after being detained and released by police for speaking out. By acknowledging the toll on health professionals, Beijing is trying to signal some transparency on a flash point issue, and letting ordinary people know officials share their sense of alarm. “It might raise a red flag about how serious the situation is,” said Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations. “And hopefully that leads to a more effective government response.” But Huang cautioned against seeing the figure as the final word on medical workers. “If it is coming from an official source, we have to take it always with a grain of salt,” he said. Concerns about how medical personnel are faring in this crisis have been front and center from the start. Photos and video from Wuhan have shown exhausted doctors


the confirmed cases, Chinese health authorities said. Six have died. One health care worker in Singapore also was infected. The Feb. 7 death of Li Wenliang, an ophthalmologist at Wuhan Central Hospital who had warned fellow medical school graduates in a private chat of an outbreak of the virus, prompted a national outpouring of grief and rage toward authorities. He died after being detained and released by police for speaking out. By acknowledging the toll on health professionals, Beijing is trying to signal some transparency on a flash point issue, and letting ordinary people know officials share their sense of alarm. “It might raise a red flag about how serious the situation is,” said Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations. “And hopefully that leads to a more effective government response.” But Huang cautioned against seeing the figure as the final word on medical workers. “If it is coming from an official source, we have to take it always with a grain of salt,” he said. Concerns about how medical personnel are faring in this crisis have been front and center from the start. Photos and video from Wuhan have shown exhausted doctors and nurses working in overflowing hospitals. At Zhongnan Hospital in Wuhan, 40 health care workers were infected with the virus in January, according to a JAMA study. The majority worked in the general wards, but seven were assigned to the emergency room and two worked in the intensive care unit. In one case, a single patient infected more than 10 health care workers. Still the toll on front line workers appears to be smaller than it was in other lethal coronavirus outbreaks. When SARS emerged in 2002, health care workers accounted for a fifth of the cases. A study of MERS infections from 2012 to 2018 found that health care workers made up a similar share — 415 of the 2,223 confirmed cases. “Patients need to be wearing a mask. Physicians taking care of them need to be protected themselves — not only medical doctors or nurses, but people who work in the hospitals: the transporters, the person who is at the front desk. All these individuals are at risk,” said Charles Dela Cruz, a pulmonary and critical care physician at Yale University School of Medicine. To date, covid-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, has caused more than


William Barr thinks China is stealing American technology. Can the U.S. halt the exchange of knowledge?

research and the researchers producing it. One example: Four Chinese researchers working in Microsoft’s Beijing office wrote the most highly cited paper in artificial intelligence research over the past five years. And it’s not clear that countries can actually monopolize access to their technology in the modern era. Contemporary firms depend on global value chains — which often source the components of a single product from suppliers in as many as 10 or 20 different countries. For high-tech products, in particular, the successful operation of these chains requires the continuous exchange of information, including scientific knowledge, between suppliers and assemblers in different countries. It is difficult to stem such flows of information without bringing modern business to a halt. The differences in how knowledge travels are key A more precise understanding of the differences among these kinds of knowledge transfers helps clarify the trade-offs associated with inhibiting such flows of information. Direct industrial espionage poses a stark challenge to U.S. firms, which use their intellectual property to capture a lot of the value from global supply chains — although this may change as other countries become more sophisticated. Limiting assertive industrial policy poses a different set of issues for the United States and China that turn on how we define fair trade. Government subsidies may give some Chinese companies unfair advantages, but one economist points out that those subsidies partly mirror U.S. subsidies to firms developing new defense technologies — innovations that often spill over to the civilian economy. But perhaps the most poorly understood trade-offs involve ordinary exchanges of knowledge in the scientific and technological communities. Here, too, there are security risks to mitigate. But everyone may suffer if scientific progress stalls because researchers from different communities could not exchange scientific information or collaborate with each other. Recent U.S. government actions may divert flows of the best Chinese research talent toward other countries or back to China. Although the data suggest that this is not yet happening, some Chinese scientists are concerned about the viability of their careers in the United States, and the result could be a significant brain drain. The final choice of how to manage these trade-offs is a political one. U.S. firms legitimately seek legal protection and a level playing field. But if measures designed to achieve those objectives do not distinguish among the various ways in which knowledge travels within the multifaceted U.S.-China technology


An eight-point buck turned up dead in a D.C. backyard. It had been shot.

up in the neighborhood, which bumps up against the D.C.-Maryland line, it is normally the casualty of a car crash, Thies said, not a shooting. “I assumed at first that it got hit by a car, but when I took a closer look at it, I realized there was no way,” he said. The buck’s body was intact — no broken bones or mangled flesh. A hole on either side of the animal revealed where a bullet had entered and exited. “There’s no hunting around here, anywhere,” Thies said. “But we do hear a good amount of gunfire.” D.C. police said they had no record of gunshots reported in the area Friday. The Department of Public Works, whose animal disposal team picked up the carcass Saturday afternoon, declined to comment further. Thies has a theory: Sometimes, he said, people will take guns out into the woods near St. Anselm’s Abbey and fire off a few rounds. White-tailed deer are everywhere around there, Thies said, especially at dusk. “My guess is, maybe around sunset, there were some guys in the woods who saw the deer and shot at it,” Thies said. “And then the deer ran out here, bleeding.” The District has struggled for years to curb a swollen deer population, especially in and around Rock Creek Park. The deer, who feast on vegetation and young tree seedlings in the District’s 1,754-acre forest, numbered about 77 per square mile at the population’s height in 2013. Since then, the Park Service has routinely sent sharpshooters into the park at night to hunt the animals — a tactic agency biologists say is needed to protect the park’s vegetation despite objections from animal rights groups. This year, NPS officials will run population-control hunts in the park through March 31, but spokesperson Katie Liming said Saturday that the agency had not conducted an operation for more than a month. Regardless, she added, it is unlikely a mortally wounded deer ran from Rock Creek Park into Crespo’s backyard, more than three miles away. “It’s sad, you know?” Thies said. “I know they eat people’s vegetable gardens, and they can be a bit of a nuisance, but this is a beautiful, beautiful animal.” Thies, who grew up hunting with his father in New Jersey, posted several images of the animal on Twitter early Saturday, including one video in which he removes the buck’s antlers with an electric


As U.S. plans evacuations for American travelers on cruise ship in Japan, a passenger from another ship turns up with coronavirus

ship. The woman was not identified by name. The cruise ship said the passengers had been tested regularly onboard, and 20 were checked once more after the boat docked, with no positive cases. Cambodian health officials had cleared the woman on Friday to travel on to Malaysia, Reuters reported. The woman and her husband, like 143 other passengers from the ship, flew to Malaysia on their way home. None of the other passengers showed coronavirus symptoms. The woman was sent to isolation in a hospital and was in stable condition, the Malaysian health ministry said, according to Bloomberg News. Her husband, 85, tested negative for the virus but is under observation, the ministry said. Holland America said in a statement Saturday that it was “awaiting secondary testing for confirmation” of the American’s case, and working with Malaysia, Cambodia and CDC authorities. As the virus continues to spread rapidly in China, the country’s leaders — after initially trying to suppress or play down the severity of the virus but discovering that belated efforts to contain it were not working — are trying to show that they are on top of the outbreak. Beijing is also increasingly worried about the impact on China’s economy, which was already slowing. All residents returning to Beijing are required to stay at home “or submit to group observation” for 14 days, and those who refuse “will be held accountable under law,” according to a notice issued Friday by the capital’s virus prevention working group. Analysts saw this as a sign that the virus is still spreading, but also that the Communist leaders are growing increasingly nervous about party meetings scheduled for the first week of March. The “Two Sessions” attract thousands of party members from around the country to Beijing’s Great Hall of the People. In Wuhan, authorities moved to seal all residential compounds. The city’s 11 million residents had been placed under a kind of emergency law, which stipulates that only one member of each household could go out once every three days to buy groceries and other supplies. But now, only people who are seeking medical treatment or working on epidemic prevention and control will be allowed to leave residential complexes. Other cities in Hubei province — including Huanggang, Xiaogan and Honghu, with a combined population of 11 million — have instituted similar “wartime measures” for the next 14 days. In Shanghai, people returning


Against the Astros and their reputation, suspicious Nationals felt they had to assume the worst

is common for teams to have alternate signs when a runner is on second base and can see the catcher put down his fingers. But the Nationals called every at-bat as if a runner was on second base. New wrinkles were put in, such as telling pitchers to obey the signs that followed two fingers from the catcher or changing signs on a hitter-to-hitter basis. This planning added time and layers to preparation, forced the team to use wristbands with the sign sets printed on them and made it easy for pitchers and catchers to get mixed up. But there were just a handful of instances in which that happened, players said. MLB’s report revealed that the Astros cheated in 2017 and 2018. Their sign-stealing scheme at one point included banging of trash cans to tell hitters what pitch was coming. The Nationals, though, were not worried about trash can banging. They were more concerned about whistling and clapping from the dugout, according to three people in the organization. Catcher Kurt Suzuki on Thursday accused the Astros of cheating during the World Series, telling The Washington Post that he heard whistling from the Astros’ dugout and that he felt the Astros had devised more effective ways to conceal illegal practices. On Saturday, on the other side of a shared spring training facility, Astros shortstop Carlos Correa offered a sharp rebuke. “You have the audacity to tell the reporters, yeah, they were cheating because we heard the whistles?” Correa told reporters. “The fans whistle in the game. The fans are whistling all the time in the game. What does a whistle mean? So don’t go out there telling reporters that we were cheating, and don’t go above MLB, the investigation, the lawyers, the report, when there was obviously nothing going on.” Gomes does not believe the Astros were doing anything untoward during the World Series. Yet the plausibility of normal baseball stadium sounds perhaps being a covert cheating code speaks to the potential impact of this scandal. Multiple Nationals reflected on how it will now be more difficult to suspend disbelief. Unusual outcomes, such as hitters making good swings on tough pitches, could prompt moments of doubt. Did the hitter know that was coming because of pitch-tipping or because of a runner picking up signals from second base? Or was it cheating? In the World Series, the Nationals felt they always


Governments haven’t managed to reduce greenhouse gases. Here’s who’s taking charge in the next phase.

When BlackRock, the world’s largest money manager, announced in January that climate risks would become central to its investment strategy, it was a sign of the times. Multiple events in the past few months indicate that we’re in a new phase in the global effort to address climate change. The action is happening largely outside the United Nations’ negotiations. What changed, and what are the consequences? In the 1990s, national governments led the charge, trying to stop climate change by building formal treaties with legally binding targets to greenhouse gas emissions. That first phase ended with the slow failure of the Kyoto Protocol. In the second phase, cities, businesses and other organizations tried to fill the void, working to restrict emissions through loose networks and voluntary agreements. The 2015 Paris agreement was an effort to make progress in the absence of binding national targets. But we’re now entering a third — and very different — phase. This time, an informal coalition of technocrats and business elites is taking the lead. The tools are also different. Rather than working through formal treaties or informal networks, they are using high finance and international trade to achieve their aims, putting central banks, border taxes and financial arrangements to work. Previous approaches have not cut emissions Stopping climate change requires international cooperation, as no country can cut enough emissions on its own to solve this global problem. Unilateral cuts have few benefits and many costs. That’s why national governments signed the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change in 1992 and the Kyoto Protocol in 1997. The U.N.’s intergovernmental process will continue with COP26 in Glasgow in November 2020. But countries either refuse to accept meaningful commitments or break their promises. The second phase of climate efforts tried to make a virtue out of necessity. There was no world government to enforce climate rules, so other groups took voluntary actions. This approach yielded some results. People experimented with carbon markets. A network of cities promoted sustainable development. As political scientists showed, companies, nongovernmental organizations and private organizations used “entrepreneurial authority” to set standards, coordinate actions and develop norms. But this approach had clear limits. Markets do a better job at addressing private interests than supplying public goods (such as a stable atmosphere). Cities compete against one another, so they can’t demand too much greenness on their own. Divestment campaigns and fossil fuel subsidy reforms have


SpaceX rocket booster misses its landing

A rocket booster that SpaceX hoped would make its 50th successful landing after launch on Monday missed the autonomous ship in the Atlantic Ocean where it was supposed to come down, the company said during an Internet broadcast. For decades, rocket boosters had been ditched into the ocean after propelling their payloads to orbit. But SpaceX has sought to change that dynamic by developing a rocket that could not only blast off to space, but then autonomously reorient itself and fly back to Earth, touching down with pinpoint precision. Monday’s launch went off smoothly, the company said, and its booster fell back through the atmosphere, slowing itself down by refiring its engine. But a camera on board the floating platform, known as an autonomous spaceport droneship, showed that the booster did not touch down. “We clearly did not make the landing this time,” Lauren Lyons, a SpaceX engineer, said during the live broadcast. SpaceX had successfully landed its booster 49 times previously. The launch from Cape Canaveral delivered 60 satellites that the company hopes will become part of a constellation of thousands in low Earth orbit that are intended to beam the Internet to remote corners of the world not served by broadband. The satellites deployed as expected, the company said. With Monday’s launch, SpaceX has now launched 300 small satellites that are part of what it calls its Starlink constellation, as the company hopes to transform itself into an Internet service provider. Companies such as OneWeb and Amazon also plan to launch constellations of their own, raising fears about possible collisions in space as Earth orbit becomes crowded with many new spacecraft. (Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.) Monday’s launch at 10:05 a.m. was the fourth flight of the booster in the past year. It was not immediately clear why the landing did not go as planned.


For years, the National Zoo was home to polar bears. Let’s meet a few of them.

In the early 1960s, when I was living on Kenyon Street NW, I often took my two small children to the nearby National Zoo. One of the inhabitants we particularly enjoyed watching was the polar bear. My younger friends and regular zoo visitors tell me they have no recollection of polar bears at the National Zoo. When was the polar bear exhibit terminated, and what happened to the bears? — Kathryn Scott, Bethesda For most of its history, the National Zoo, in Rock Creek Park, has been home to the large white carnivores whose natural habitat lies primarily within the Arctic Circle: Ursus maritimus. Polar bears drew visitors to the zoo. They also provided reliable copy for newspaper reporters, who saw in the ice-loving creatures a good hook during a heat wave. Many newspapers featured stories every summer about how the zoo’s polar bears were faring. In an 1895 hot spell, the Evening Star reported that the zoo’s polar bear was fine, cooling itself with frequent baths in its pool. The writer noted one oddity: Unlike the domestic bears, it wouldn’t go under an awning in its enclosure. It was thought that the polar bear had no concept of shade, since he came from a land without it. By 1896, that bear had died — of eczema, it was reported. The zoo had a replacement the following year. In November 1901, the zoo took ownership of another bear, purchased from a German wild-animal merchant called Hagenbeck. When the zoo wasn’t buying polar bears, it was receiving them as gifts. In 1905, another cub came its way, picked up during a mission to rescue members of the Ziegler Expedition, which had failed to reach the North Pole. In 1959, a cub was found wandering on the ice of the Arctic Ocean about 180 miles east of Point Barrow by the Fish and Wildlife Service, which said the zoo could have the bear if it paid the airfreight. The zoo couldn’t, so WMAL-TV (today’s WJLA) stepped in to foot the bill. A viewer contest was held to come up with a name. The winner was Snowstar, suggested by 5-year-old Desha DeVor of Takoma Park. Her family won a trip to Alaska. (Snowstar died in 1980.) The next cubs arrived in 1962 courtesy of two wealthy, well-connected Washingtonians. And here is where cold climate meets the Cold War. Ralph E. Becker Ronne chartered


of two wealthy, well-connected Washingtonians. And here is where cold climate meets the Cold War. Ralph E. Becker Ronne chartered a 97-foot seal boat and arranged to procure cubs in Svalbard, the remote Norwegian archipelago. “Our cover was we were going to Spitsbergen to get polar bears,” said Ronne’s daughter, Karen Ronne Tupek, who was an 11-year-old Sidwell Friends student when she went on the trip with her parents. The Becker and Ronne families socialized regularly at Sweeney’s house, where another guest was often U.S. intelligence official Richard Helms. Svalbard, Tupek said, is “a very strategic location for any potential U.S. attack on Russia over the Arctic and vice versa.” A treaty allowed Russians to mine coal in Barentsburg, a town of a few hundred. The expedition got permission to visit the settlement, where they were welcomed with much fanfare. “What we were looking for was any evidence of radar systems,” said Tupek. “We concluded that there was some stuff underground, probably. Of course, they weren’t going to show that to us, but obviously there was more going on than just mining coal.” On their return, Tupek’s father wrote a long memo to the CIA. She is certain the trip was largely funded by the agency. In addition to snooping out Soviet resources, the expedition procured four cubs: two for Detroit’s zoo and two for Washington, where they joined middle-aged bear Old Joe. The new cubs were called Cookie, the childhood nickname of the Sweeneys’ daughter Harriet, who was also on the expedition, and Donny Boy, after the Beckers’ son Donald, who was not. Said Tupek: “I was hoping to get a bear named Karen but never got one.” In 1978, a polar bear named Mary came to the National Zoo from Chicago’s Brookfield Zoo. In 1986, all the bears left. The south-facing enclosure was deemed too hot for animals with such thick fur. Mary returned to Chicago along with Donny Boy; they remained there until their deaths in 1990 and 1988, respectively. Cookie went to the Detroit Zoo and died in 1996. If you want to see polar bears, they’re close. The Maryland Zoo in Baltimore is home to half sisters Neva and Amelia Gray, who arrived in 2018 from the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium in Ohio. In 1992, a rather different sort of exhibit opened where the National Zoo’s polar bear enclosure had been: Amazonia. john.kelly@washpost.com Twitter: @johnkelly


Man fatally shot in Northeast Washington

A 31-year-old man was found fatally shot Monday inside a home in Northeast Washington, authorities said. D.C. police said the incident unfolded around 5:27 p.m. in the 2100 block of I Street near Maryland Avenue NE in the Carver-Langston area of the city. Authorities said they responded to a report of a man who was said to be unconscious. When officers arrived at a home, they found him inside. He had been shot and was pronounced dead on the scene. The victim was later identified as Cordaro Pierre Chambers of Northeast Washington. Police said they’re looking for suspects and trying to determine a motive. A reward of up to $25,000 for information that leads to an arrest and conviction is being offered. This year, the District has had 22 homicides. That’s the same number of killings as there were for this time last year, according to D.C. police. dana.hedgpeth@washpost.com


Afghan president and his rival both declare victory after delayed election results

KABUL — Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and his chief rival both declared victory after election results were announced Tuesday, nearly five months after Afghans cast their ballots. “We not only obtained this victory through the steadfastness of the people, but also foiled internal and external conspiracy,” Ghani told hundreds of supporters in a speech carried by state television. Hours later, his main challenger, Afghan Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, addressed his own supporters, declaring: “We announce our victory.” Abdullah dismissed the official results as “illegal” and said, “Today’s announcement is a coup.” The contested results come at a critical time for Afghan politics. U.S. and Taliban negotiators have announced a conditional peace deal that could be signed by the end of the month. And substantial challenges to the vote may plunge Afghanistan into a political crisis just as the government needs to unify ahead of intra-Afghan peace talks with the Taliban insurgents. Ghani appeared to acknowledge the importance of unity as the government prepares to negotiate with the Islamist militant group. “We call on all Afghans to consolidate together the foundations of the republic . . . and join hands for serving the nation,” he told his supporters. “We want peace, lasting peace, which is the aspiration of the nation, and, God willing, this team will bring peace to all of Afghanistan.” He won with 50.64 percent of the votes, just enough to avoid a second round of voting, Afghanistan’s Independent Election Commission said Tuesday. According to the Afghan constitution, a presidential candidate needs more than 50 percent of the vote to be declared the winner. The September vote was marred by widespread accusations of fraud, misconduct and mechanical error, requiring time-consuming recounts that delayed the announcement of the final results. Many of those accusations revolved around ballot stuffing and new technology used to verify the identities of voters using biometrics. Since Afghanistan began holding elections following the 2001 ouster of the Taliban from Kabul after five years of brutal rule, voting has been riddled with fraud. New technology was intended to change that, but it has inadvertently complicated the vote-counting process. Many Afghans had called for the election to be postponed because of security concerns. But Ghani wanted the vote to go ahead, saying that an elected Afghan leader with a strong mandate would be needed to enter peace talks with the Taliban after the U.S. peace deal. The September


Walmart posts disappointing holiday sales, says it is keeping a close watch on the coronavirus

Walmart disappointed on multiple fronts Tuesday, falling short of its fourth-quarter targets and full-year outlook after shoppers scaled back on clothing, toys and video games during the holiday shopping season. But analysts say a key question remains: How will the coronavirus affect the world’s largest retailer? The retail giant — which has hundreds of stores in China and gets about 15 percent of its products from factories there — says that while it is monitoring the outbreak, it has no immediate plans to lower its sales forecast because of it. Although consumers continue to prop up much of the U.S. economy, there are mounting fears the public health crisis in China will have a cascading economic impact. A number of major companies, including Tesla, Nike and Disney, have warned that the virus could take a long-term toll on earnings, and Apple this week said it would miss its quarterly revenue goals because of slowing iPhone production in China. Global markets remained jittery on Tuesday as investors looked for signs that other major brands may also take a hit. “Potential supply chain pressures, in light of virus related challenges in China,” continue to present a wild card for the company, Michael Lasser, an analyst for UBS, wrote in a note to clients Tuesday. “Make no mistake: If anything is going to dent the world economy, it’s coronavirus,” said Bob Phibbs, chief executive of the Retail Doctor, a New York-based consulting firm. “It’s going to hit all retailers, but the problems are especially magnified for Walmart.” With $524 billion in annual sales, Walmart is a closely watched bellwether for the rest of the industry. Its share price remained largely flat Tuesday as investors digested the news. So far, Walmart executives said Tuesday, sales in China have not been affected even as the country is largely on lockdown. Residents have become increasingly reliant on the company for home delivery of groceries and other supplies. The majority of Walmart’s 438 stores in China are operating on reduced hours and have shifted their inventory to focus on fresh food and necessities instead of toys and apparel, chief executive Doug McMillon said in a meeting with investors Tuesday. “We don’t know what’s going to happen next,” he said. “One of the reasons we couldn’t put it in our guidance is because there are so many moving parts right now, including sourcing coming out of China, not


The coronavirus is about to hit Africa. Here are the big challenges.

The number of cases of covid-19 — the newly named coronavirus — has topped 70,000 globally, with over 1,800 deaths. The World Health Organization declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on Jan. 30, citing the lack of scientific knowledge about the new virus, as well as the need to increase preparation in “vulnerable countries and regions.” As of mid-February, 29 countries have reported cases, including Egypt — with the first confirmed case on the African continent. Trade and migration between Africa and China, as well as the presence of roughly 1 million Chinese nationals on the continent, mean it is possible that other covid-19 cases will appear. How will Africa respond? My research in five African countries on the politics of health sheds light on how trust, power and the actions of African governments and communities could shape a future response to the virus. Trust matters for public health Studies on race and health in the United States and global immunization campaigns indicate that trust is an all-important element. Without trust, people tend not to heed health information or follow treatment advice. Distrust of public health institutions meant people avoided health-care centers during West Africa’s 2014-2016 Ebola outbreak, for instance. Corruption within public services deepens people’s suspicions of government health actions, and it undermines health-care access. When new diseases such as Ebola in West Africa or covid-19 emerge, a lack of scientific knowledge or patient personal experience also can undermine confidence in health-care institutions. As my research in Ghana shows, patients may question medical approaches to health issues with “unseen” causes such as mental health disorders. A lack of confidence in public health services is one reason people with chronic conditions such as mental health disorders delay seeking care. Trust can depend on who delivers the health message Surveys show that people in Africa tend to place greater confidence in traditional or religious leaders than government officials. This pattern could present a challenge with covid-19, if distrust leads citizens to discount public health authorities. Experience suggests that the potential for the virus to spread will be much higher if community leaders are not part of the public health response. In the West Africa Ebola outbreak, cases began to decline when religious leaders and village chiefs started to educate people about social distancing and bringing the sick to Ebola treatment units. Trust in outside organizations also matters In Africa,


for instance. Corruption within public services deepens people’s suspicions of government health actions, and it undermines health-care access. When new diseases such as Ebola in West Africa or covid-19 emerge, a lack of scientific knowledge or patient personal experience also can undermine confidence in health-care institutions. As my research in Ghana shows, patients may question medical approaches to health issues with “unseen” causes such as mental health disorders. A lack of confidence in public health services is one reason people with chronic conditions such as mental health disorders delay seeking care. Trust can depend on who delivers the health message Surveys show that people in Africa tend to place greater confidence in traditional or religious leaders than government officials. This pattern could present a challenge with covid-19, if distrust leads citizens to discount public health authorities. Experience suggests that the potential for the virus to spread will be much higher if community leaders are not part of the public health response. In the West Africa Ebola outbreak, cases began to decline when religious leaders and village chiefs started to educate people about social distancing and bringing the sick to Ebola treatment units. Trust in outside organizations also matters In Africa, where donors provide sizable amounts of health funding and the WHO plays a significant role in providing technical assistance and support, trust in these organizations can affect health responses. Trust relates to past actions — and many African health officials may be somewhat circumspect about the WHO’s capacity, given its perceived foot-dragging on the Ebola outbreak in 2014. After that outbreak, donors called for pandemic preparedness. They devised multiple programs like the World Bank’s Pandemic Emergency Financing Facility. Yet their limited financial commitments to these programs undermined trust among health experts and policymakers. The bank’s delayed release of financing for the 2019 Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo brought criticisms. Some African politicians question whether the global health security agenda is most concerned with protecting people in high-income countries from diseases that originate abroad. Years of donor-promoted market-based reforms that cut public health budgets and capped salaries — as well as a focus on disease-specific programs like those for AIDS — have meant less funding for primary health care. The resulting staff shortages, facility overcrowding, medication shortages and poor patient care in most African public health systems exacerbate people’s unwillingness to rely on available medical services. African leaders


African leaders have to consider how donors might react if they are slow to respond to pandemics. In Tanzania in 2019, the WHO reported a possible Ebola case in the country, which the government denied. When Tanzania refused to share patient laboratory results, the United States and the WHO issued strong criticisms. This example illustrates how power undergirds global health. Through resources, the United States and the WHO exert the power in helping African countries be prepared for covid-19. But power also affects how we see health issues and whose expertise we value. As my colleagues and I argue, power means that issues with nascent scientific knowledge, limited advocacy and no strong government backer — such as mental health — gain little attention. Similar forms of invisible power — evident in negative portrayals of Africa in the global media and Western societies — promote the idea that African countries are not up to the task of covid-19. Global collaboration rooted in African knowledge can challenge such views. As Emma-Louise Anderson and I find in our research on AIDS programs in Zambia and Malawi, even when constrained by aid dependence or diplomacy, African health professionals have considerable capacity to shape health programs in locally relevant ways. For the coronavirus, African health authorities have tested and reported possible cases to the WHO. The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, created after the West African Ebola outbreak, is emerging as a regional leader with the interest and capacity for cooperative responses to outbreaks. And its efforts to build national public health institutions benefit public health beyond disease outbreaks. As global institutions prepare for what inevitably may be more covid-19 cases in Africa, recognizing the ability of African community groups and governments to act will be key to a successful — and collaborative — response. Don’t miss anything! Sign up to get TMC’s smart analysis in your inbox, three days a week. Amy S. Patterson is professor of politics at University of the South and author of “ Read more: Why China’s politics makes it easier — and harder — to control disease outbreaks Is China ready for this major global health challenge? China’s coronavirus outbreak has prompted some travel restrictions. That could backfire. Here’s why Ebola has been so hard to contain in Eastern Congo Ebola is back — and a threat to people in Congo. Are African public health systems ready?