of previous sales, she said, despite its plea for patrons to donate the cost of their tickets or exchange them for future shows. Perhaps the most controversial cut came Friday, when the 96 musicians of the NSO were told their last paycheck will be April 3 and pay will not resume until the center reopens. The news was blasted on social media by musicians and orchestra supporters. The musicians say they were blindsided by the news. They said they had contacted NSO Executive Director Gary Ginstling to negotiate some cuts but didn’t hear back. Instead, Rutter informed them that they would be furloughed after this week until the arts center reopened. The musicians said she also told them their health care would be cut off after May 31, though Rutter says no such decision has been made. “That was part of the shock. The musicians thought they were going to a meeting to have a conversation and instead they had the door slammed in their face,” Ed Malagna, president of the Metropolitan Washington DC Federation of Musicians, AFM Local 161-710, said. “The trust that’s been violated. That’s going to be hard to restore.” The union filed a formal grievance, stating the move is illegal because the orchestra’s contract has no force majeure clause and requires management to give a six-week notice of pay cuts. Rutter said she’s had multiple conversations with the entire Kennedy Center staff about pending cuts and the “shared sacrifice” ahead. “The musicians already have not been working for four weeks and were paid 100 percent for those weeks,” she said. The 10-day NSO tour to China and Japan this month was canceled because of the outbreak, and it was followed by scheduled vacation time, several musicians said. She also disputed the union’s interpretation of the six-week requirement. “If we were to terminate the contract, it would take six weeks,” she said. “In our effort to save the entire organization, it is important to act quickly and not go through a six-week debate about whether the circumstances of this worldwide health crisis are exigent.” A union lawyer called that position “baseless.” “Even if there were merit in the center’s position that it could stop paying musicians because of exigent financial circumstances — which there most assuredly is not, wholly apart from the $25 million appropriation to the center under last week’s federal legislation that was, by its


Sports Illustrated endures another round of layoffs, this time prompted by the coronavirus

with only a handful of editors, would be able to continue producing the monthly print magazine. One also noted that the company was in union negotiations and the organizing committee received no warning about layoffs from management. Another said three female staffers were part of the editorial cuts, leaving a predominantly male newsroom with even less diversity. The blow is the latest for a reeling media brand that for decades was the standard-bearer for sports journalism. Maven, a digital platform that publishes SI, Jim Cramer’s financial publication The Street and a constellation of other websites, purchased the publishing rights to SI last year. As part of the deal with magazine publisher Meredith Corporation, around 40 editorial staffers — roughly a third of the staff — were laid off. Staffers across Maven’s network have also been wary of Maven’s management and underlying financial health. Last month, the company’s monthly checks to its nationwide network of contract writers were issued late, and several of those writers worried about how the sports hiatus would affect them. Presented with those concerns by The Washington Post last week, Heckman described them as “pretty silly” in an email. “We are a $150 million business, continue to forecast a profitable year and our traffic continues to scale up,” he wrote then. Sports Illustrated was not the only sports publication to feel the pain of no games and announce cutbacks. Popular and wonky baseball website FanGraphs announced Monday that without the baseball season, its traffic has fallen dramatically, as has ad revenue. The site suspended publication of another website under its management, the Hardball Times, laid off all contributors and asked for donations to help maintain the site and the jobs of the 10 full-time staff members. “Starting March 12, after the announcement that Opening Day would be postponed, we have seen a steep decline in our site traffic that has led to a correspondingly dramatic decline in revenue,” CEO and founder David Appleman wrote in an open letter. “We are a small business. We rely on the revenue generated by site traffic.” Read more from Tokyo Olympics set to begin on July 23, 2021, organizing committee says Spring-sport athletes can officially receive an extra year of eligibility after NCAA Division I Council vote NFL owners to formalize 14-team playoffs on Tuesday conference call The best sports books to read right now, according to the Post Sports staff


People rush to raise backyard chickens amid egg shortages, coronavirus concerns

of interest for broilers, chickens that are bred and raised for meat. McMurray’s Hatchery noted a rise in “homesteaders types,” or buyers with small farms and acreage who want to raise their own meat sources. “This has to do with the perceived hoarding that is going on,” Bud Wood, McMurray’s owner and president, said of the uptick. “People are afraid they won’t be able to buy eggs and chickens in the grocery store, and they don’t want to have to go to the store and possibly be infected.” Egg prices have soared as the coronavirus has confined people to their kitchens and stoked a panic-buying frenzy. As of Thursday, wholesale egg prices for “Midwest Large” eggs had hit an all-time high at $3.09 per dozen. That was up from $1.03 per dozen only three weeks ago, according to Brian Moscogiuri, the marketing director at Urner Barry, a marketing reporting service. As a result, grocery stores nationwide are attempting to remain stocked by imposing limits on commonly hoarded products such as milk and eggs. “Some stores are only letting shoppers get two dozen to limit hoarding,” Moscogiuri said. “Inventories are completely depleted as producers are basically running as many eggs out of the hen house and to their customers as possible.” As longtime chicken owners like Jill Watt know, caring for backyard chickens is an investment of time and money. Baby chicks require starter feed, water and a temperature-regulated coop. Once they are fully grown, they need fresh food in the morning, regular water changes and an evening meal. “We are so happy we have chickens right now,” said Watt, who lives outside of Charlottesville, with 11 birds of her own and three more on the way. “I have seen the aisles in the grocery story with no eggs and whatnot. We never have to worry about that.” While chicks tend to cost $3 to $5 each, paying for the additional costs of coops, feeders and nourishment can quickly become expensive. It will be a long time before egg production covers the initial costs of the endeavor. Day-old chickens that arrive from hatcheries take about 17 weeks to start laying eggs, while ready-to-lay hens are more expensive but will provide eggs much sooner. Once the laying begins, owners can expect about five eggs per chicken each week. Some experienced chicken owners like Diana Phillips hope people will consider renting a coop


Staying together — six feet apart. Immunocompromised families grapple with coronavirus.

complications, experts said. The category includes cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy, people with untreated HIV, and those with chronic lung, liver or kidney disease, said Clifton Bingham, a physician, professor of medicine and director of the Johns Hopkins Arthritis Center. To varying degrees, people with rheumatoid arthritis — an autoimmune disease that affects 1 percent of the population — lupus, multiple sclerosis, inflammatory bowel disease and even psoriasis could also be at higher risk, Bingham said. Age itself is a risk factor. Many immunocompromised individuals are practicing extreme versions of the hand hygiene, social distancing and symptom monitoring recommended for the general population. Thomas Alfano, 62, who has a genetic primary immunodeficiency disorder, and his wife, a primary-care physician named Yasmin Panahy, increased their already meticulous germ-control regimen about three weeks ago, fearful that her work would bring her into contact with covid-19 patients. She returns to their Bethesda home wearing a mask and gloves and takes a shower right away. Her work clothes go into a special bag for cleaning, and she emerges wearing fresh clothes and a different mask. They stay six to 10 feet apart at all times and decontaminate their mail using medical-grade wipes. Otherwise, he’s cloistered in his 25-year-old son’s old bedroom; she’s got the master. “We have actual walls and virtual walls,” Alfano said. “If she gets anywhere near me, I just back away or tell her ‘Back up.’ We’re very careful about it because the downside is so dramatic.” Panahy considered moving out until the threat abates, but that option seemed too expensive, Alfano said. He’s so worried that the virus could kill him that he told his son, who lives in Germany, not to fly home for a funeral. “For us, it’s all about mitigating the risk,” Alfano said. “If I get it, I just don’t have anything to fight it with. I’m not quite ready to go out.” When the coronavirus hit New York in early March, Rick Miskovsky, a 59-year-old retired mail carrier who was treated last year for advanced kidney cancer, got strict orders from his doctor to stay home and avoid most people. The doctor was worried that Miskovsky’s compromised immune system would make him easy prey. “I’ve kept you alive a year and a half, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to let the coronavirus kill you,” his oncologist, Charles Drake of the New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical


Can Deborah Birx save us from the coronavirus?

2008 financial crisis. This time, covid-19 could prompt a surge of funding to prevent the next global outbreak — which is needed, but not at the expense of the fight against AIDS. “There could be a divestment from one struggle that isn’t over yet; that would be a real mistake,” Byanima predicts. In the immediate term, UNAIDS is urging all countries to adopt “multi-month” prescriptions that will allow people living with HIV to get medications to cover an extended period of time. With Birx’s new temporary role, she and Achrekar are physically split up, but they check in every day, with Achrekar keeping her mentor and boss apprised of the progress in the PEPFAR planning process that was underway in Johannesburg. “We are doubling down to protect the gains in the HIV response,” Achrekar told me via email, a few days before PEPFAR released guidance for all of its countries about how to adjust for the covid-19 response. They’re focusing on maintaining continuity of care for people on treatment, minimizing spread of covid-19, including by sharing the PEPFAR-supported lab capacity for testing, and protecting the U.S. staff and partners who work on the program every day. “We’re both moving very quickly, as we normally do,” Achrekar said of her and Birx. If Birx’s experience with PEPFAR is, or should be, reassuring to the American public, her work on covid-19 is reassuring to many in Africa. When she was appointed, “we were happy, we were excited as advocates,” says Yvette Raphael, a South African AIDS activist. Having the PEPFAR head, who’s intimately aware of the ins and outs of every country’s treatment program, in charge of the coronavirus outbreak might just make the difference — for not just one epidemic but two. If Birx has her way, it will, no matter what that requires. “When I see something wrong, I just rail against it,” she once said to me, about her work with HIV. “I don’t really expect anything from anyone else that I wouldn’t do myself. I’m very careful that way. ... But I’m willing to do anything to change the course of this pandemic. I mean anything.” Clarification: This story has been updated to attribute to PEPFAR the assertion that a PEPFAR program called the DREAMS Partnership is responsible for recent drops in rates of new HIV infections among adolescent girls and young women. Emily Bass’s history of America’s


Four passengers have died, two test positive for covid-19 on cruise ship stranded off the coast of Panama

Prevention warned Americans, particularly those with underlying health conditions, to avoid cruise travel on March 8. Zaandam was one of several ships still at sea Friday trying to make their way back to ports that would allow passengers to disembark. As of late Wednesday, there were about 15 ships from operators that belong to the Cruise Lines International Association, according to the group. Most did not report any sick passengers on board. The last time anyone had been off the Zaandam was March 14 in Punta Arenas. Passengers have been confined to their rooms and getting food delivered since Sunday, when 42 people reported to the medical center with flu-like symptoms. By Tuesday, that number had risen to 77. Holland America is working to get permission for the Zaandam to sail through the Panama Canal and head to Fort Lauderdale, but it’s still not clear whether they will be allowed to dock there. The Associated Press reported that Panama had denied the request to use the canal, but Holland America said the company was still working with authorities there on approval. “That’s probably the most frustrating thing is the not knowing, the uncertainty,” said Kathy Leighton Carton, of St. Cloud, Minn., on board with her husband, Andy Vinson. They managed to see penguins in the Falkland Islands and Chile, and go on a couple of wine tours before the World Health Organization declared a pandemic and ports started shutting down to cruise traffic. But she said if they’d known how rapidly the disease would spread after they left home on March 4, they would never have gotten on the ship. Already worried by the uncertainty around the ship’s plans and news of sick passengers, family members of those on board were shaken by Friday’s developments. Hayley Johnson, 24, from Oxford, England, said her grandparents were on the ship; because her grandmother has a cough, she said, they will not be allowed to leave the Zaandam for the Rotterdam. “There is no clear plan … how to manage this, and the uncertainty is making us all the more scared,” she said in an email. “In light of the four deaths already, Holland America need to get everyone off this ship and to shore safely, as a humanitarian act if nothing else.” Suzanne Termaat, a consultant in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, said her dad and stepmom, Charles Borg and Alyse Danis, had been


Third death reported at Va. rehab facility; Md. extends school closures through April 24; cases in D.C. region top 1,000

The tally of known coronavirus cases in the District, Maryland and Virginia stood at 1,051 on Wednesday after Maryland reported an additional 74 cases Wednesday morning, bringing the state’s total to 424. Virginia reported 101 more cases Wednesday for a total of 392. The District reported 48 new cases Wednesday, bringing its total to 235. Here are some of the most significant and recent developments as the region responds to the pandemic of the novel coronavirus, which causes the disease covid-19: • The latest Virginia fatalities from covid-19 come from a rehabilitation facility with many seniors, where 14 residents and four health-care workers have tested positive for the coronavirus. Officials announced a third death Wednesday involving a person at the facility. • Maryland extended the closure of public schools by four weeks, through April 24. • Virginia added 101 new cases of coronavirus on Wednesday. The District reported a third death and 48 new cases Wednesday, including an eight-week-old child. • Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam said he would issue an executive order to all hospitals requiring them to postpone elective surgeries to free up space for covid-19 patients. He said his staff has also been scouting locations around the state, in concert with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, to find sites where temporary hospitals can be built. Coronavirus in the DMV: What you need to know Earlier updates: March 13 | March 14 | March 15 | March 16 | March 17 | March 18 | March 19 | March 20 | March 21 | March 22 | March 23 | March 24


For the marathon community, what’s best in the long run isn’t great for long runs

In a sports world virtually put on hold, going on a run outside feels like one of the few aspects of life that hasn’t been disrupted by the novel coronavirus pandemic. But for many runners, from the global elite to the recreational athlete, the daily outings build toward a goal, whether it’s an annual pinnacle or a lifelong pursuit: a marathon. The scrubbing of marathons from the spring calendar was to most people just another tiny shard in the virus-triggered implosion of normal life. But the consequences rippling through the quirky, grass-roots sport illustrate how something as small as canceling a race can be devastating for those who have so much riding on one or two dates a year. “The disruption,” said David Monti of distance-running data and news service Race Results Weekly, “is just massive.” The pro athletes at the front of the pack may lose half of their annual incomes. The hordes of runners who line up behind the elites would feel exactly like Charlie Brown when Lucy yanks away the football — if he had spent four exhausting months powering toward that kick. And the directors of the races that were canceled or postponed face at best a logistical nightmare and at worst a financial catastrophe. Very few runners make a living running marathons, and even fewer make a truly good living at it. “The people at the top of the food chain … they typically run two marathons a year,” said Monti, who recruited elite athletes for the New York City Marathon for 19 years. “They typically have large and generous shoe company contracts, which not only pay them a salary but also give them bonuses for performance. A person like [world record holder] Eliud Kipchoge [of Kenya] is losing hundreds of thousands of dollars for one appearance that is missed.” But Kipchoge and the relatively few like him will be fine, Monti said. The pacesetters and folks a rung or two down in the rankings will be most affected by lost opportunities. The marathon world has majors, similar to tennis and golf. They are six large races that offer prestige and big payouts, and pro runners hoping to cash in can choose Tokyo, Boston or London in the spring. This year, only Tokyo occurred, and just barely — organizers booted the roughly 35,000 citizen runners who entered and allowed fewer than 200 elites to run


a logistical nightmare and at worst a financial catastrophe. Very few runners make a living running marathons, and even fewer make a truly good living at it. “The people at the top of the food chain … they typically run two marathons a year,” said Monti, who recruited elite athletes for the New York City Marathon for 19 years. “They typically have large and generous shoe company contracts, which not only pay them a salary but also give them bonuses for performance. A person like [world record holder] Eliud Kipchoge [of Kenya] is losing hundreds of thousands of dollars for one appearance that is missed.” But Kipchoge and the relatively few like him will be fine, Monti said. The pacesetters and folks a rung or two down in the rankings will be most affected by lost opportunities. The marathon world has majors, similar to tennis and golf. They are six large races that offer prestige and big payouts, and pro runners hoping to cash in can choose Tokyo, Boston or London in the spring. This year, only Tokyo occurred, and just barely — organizers booted the roughly 35,000 citizen runners who entered and allowed fewer than 200 elites to run an eerily quiet race. It turned out to be the only spring marathon that offered big winnings, series points and large appearance fees. With Boston and London moving to fall, joining Berlin, Chicago and New York City, five of the six majors will occur in a seven-week span. So why don’t runners just suck it up and do two of those in the fall? A few may try — heck, prolific distance runner Michael Wardian of Arlington, Va., said he hopes to do all five — but most human bodies don’t work that way. Racing 26.2 miles usually requires at least 16 weeks of hard training, and the all-out effort on race day leaves even top athletes needing months to recover. Oddly, thanks to the way the U.S. chooses its Olympic team, most U.S. pros caught an unusual break. Unlike many countries, which choose their Olympic marathon teams based on spring performances, the United States staged an Olympic Trials marathon in February, and nearly all the best marathoners in the country ran it. The overwhelming majority of marathoners run for reasons other than a payday. They set their spring race goal months ago and rearranged their lives to try to


To salvage the semester, college professors make a rapid pivot to teaching online

artificial intelligence to modern poetry. Even before the pandemic, many educators had “flipped” their classes, giving students lectures online that they could review on their own time so that class hours were freed for discussion and projects. It is common, of course, for universities to offer entire courses and even degrees online. Those ventures typically require months of planning. What makes the coronavirus crisis unique is the sudden prohibition of in-person classes, with scant time to adapt. Even St. John’s College in Annapolis has made the shift. At the 500-student liberal arts school, faculty members are called tutors, and classes are conversations about the great works of Western civilization. Some tutors are so tech-averse that they don’t use email. Yet the college in Maryland’s capital, shuttered for face-to-face teaching, has resumed via video with only a few cuts to the reading list because of lost time. (Out are Aristotle’s “Poetics” for freshmen and Rousseau’s “The Social Contract” for juniors.) “I’ve been just elated,” said Panayiotis Kanelos, the college’s president. “It’s doable. There are things that are lost and things that are gained.” For many public universities, the scale of the mid-semester switch is staggering. U-Va. has more than 16,000 undergraduates and U-Md. more than 30,000. Both flagships also have thousands of graduate students whose coursework and research have been disrupted under the orders to stay home. The universities have taken steps to secure computer and WiFi access for students who lack those tools. Officials say they are working to help those with disabilities and special needs. Both schools also are making undergraduate courses pass-fail unless students choose to receive a letter grade. There is no single formula for remote teaching at schools with thousands of seminars, laboratories, lectures, performances and courses in other formats. In general, educators say, many lab classes will rely on data collected from experiments underway or finished before the coronavirus shutdown. They’ll move to data analysis. Likewise, professors and students in performing arts and other fields oriented to physical gatherings and activities must shift gears. At College Park, classes resumed Monday after an extended spring break to give faculty time to prepare. For Tammatha O’Brien, a senior lecturer in entomology, the transition is not daunting. She has used video lectures for years to maximize the value of face time with students. The lectures are, in essence, narrated slide decks. “They can pace it, slow it down,


Americans who are biased against Asians are more likely to fear the coronavirus

pandemic, before the general lockdowns, the news media reported significant drops in visits to Chinese restaurants. More recently, Asian Americans are increasingly reporting being verbally or physically attacked. Yet it remained unclear how broadly xenophobia was shaping early responses to the coronavirus in the mass public in the United States. We designed a survey to find out. How we did our research Between March 12 and 15, we conducted an online survey of over 4,000 Americans using Lucid. The survey was stratified along demographics and then weighted to ensure it represented the U.S. population. Our survey included widely-used questions tapping into xenophobia that we combined into a scale, what researchers call “feeling thermometers” that measure how “warm” or favorable respondents felt toward Chinese people, Asian Americans and other groups, and a series of coronavirus-related behavior and attitude questions. We first looked at the association between xenophobia, anti-Asian attitudes and a respondent’s being “very worried” about themselves or a family member contracting the coronavirus. After controlling for level of education, interest in politics, party affiliation, economic concerns and more, we found that people with xenophobic attitudes are more likely to be very worried about contracting the illness. More important, we found that people with unfavorable attitudes toward Chinese people, and toward Asian Americans more generally, are significantly more likely to report being “very worried” about coronavirus than those who feel more warmly toward the groups. In contrast, we find no relationship in our models between unfavorable attitudes toward Latinos or African Americans and concerns about coronavirus. Next, we looked at whether being around Asian Americans led to being more worried about catching the virus. The answer is yes. Even after controlling for population density and several other factors, respondents who said they had casual contact with Asian Americans “every day” were eight percentage points more likely to be “very concerned.” In other words, just being around Asian American people strikes some people as threatening. On the other hand, those who reported more intimate social contact with Asian Americans, such as sharing a meal are statistically less likely to say they are “very concerned,” again controlling for group-specific prejudice and xenophobia. Meaningful interactions, therefore, might help dispel stereotypes and inoculate the public against xenophobic elite rhetoric. Can anti-Asian rhetoric about the pandemic “activate” prejudice and encourage mistreatment? Our models rely on the assumption that worrying about the coronavirus doesn’t itself cause people


Yes, covid-19 treatment must be free for all. But that’s not enough.

It shouldn’t have taken a global pandemic to highlight the failings of our health-care system. And yet, here we are with the novel coronavirus and its disease, covid-19. In light of the highly contagious covid-19, with no known cure or vaccine, many Americans will need advanced medical care. Yet, about 28 million Americans do not have health insurance, while many who do are underinsured, meaning the amount of money they would need to pay out of pocket is so high that their insurance coverage does not protect them from financial disaster. This reality will not only hinder many Americans’ access to care, but it may increase the spread of the disease. Our individualistic outlook toward health care shapes this situation. We prize our own health and are proud of taking steps to preserve it — think kombucha and yoga. As researchers have pointed out, being healthy is seen as a moral imperative. When others fall ill, we may blame their poor choices and lifestyles. Individuals with disabilities, smokers, people who struggle with drug abuse, overweight individuals and many others are subject to harsh societal criticism that fails to acknowledge the many barriers people face when they seek to improve their health. This sense shapes policy: Rather than advocating for health care as a human right, policymakers have questioned why some Americans should be on the hook financially for the perceived poor choices of others. Conservatives have consistently argued that health care is a commodity to be purchased, and they eschewed visions of shared responsibility. The global coronavirus pandemic has exposed the limits of such an individualistic approach — we realize now that we are only as healthy as the least healthy member of our community. If our uninsured neighbor becomes infected, our own health may be at stake. In the United States, in the face of health policy crises, we have historically responded by carving out exemptions to our individualistic health-care system, rather than rethinking our overall approach. In the early 1960s, as hemodialysis for individuals in end-stage kidney failure became a possibility, communities were shocked by early attempts at rationing this technology. As dialysis machines were in short supply, ad hoc committees evaluated different patients and based on their perceived social value, determined who would be granted access to this lifesaving technology. A 1962 exposé in Life, “They decide who lives and who dies” shocked the nation and led


A quarter of those who contract the coronavirus may not show it — meaning it may be closer than you think

Speaking to NPR on Monday, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert R. Redfield explained that his agency continued to learn new information about the coronavirus, which is thought to have originated in China late last year and is spreading quickly in the United States. “One of the [pieces of] information that we have pretty much confirmed now is that a significant number of individuals that are infected actually remain asymptomatic. That may be as many as 25 percent,” Redfield said. “That’s important because now you have individuals that may not have any symptoms that can contribute to transmission, and we have learned that in fact they do contribute to transmission.” Those who ultimately do show symptoms, he added, might actually transmit the virus for two days before symptoms appear. The upshot? Lots of people may be infecting others without even knowing that they’re sick. Lots of people. As of writing, there are nearly 200,000 confirmed cases of the virus in the United States. The country has focused primarily on testing those with symptoms and/or a known relationship to someone else who has been confirmed to have contracted the virus. That means that relatively few of the cases above are asymptomatic carriers. If we assume that the number of confirmed cases accurately reflects the number of symptomatic cases in the country — not a fair assumption, given the slow pace of testing — and if we further assume that there is one asymptomatic case for every three cases that have been confirmed, we already have more than a quarter of a million cases in the country. In the abstract, this is a subtle distinction. A jump from 0.06 percent of the country’s population to 0.08 percent doesn’t seem like a particularly broad expansion. But consider what it might mean on a local level. Johns Hopkins University has been compiling county-level data on the number of confirmed cases. Grouped by the scale of cases, the spread of the virus looks something like this: Introduce an estimate of those who are asymptomatic, and the increase even on local levels becomes obvious. We can look at this another way. Darker colors on the map below indicate a higher population of individuals who have contracted the virus. When we transition from the hard count provided by Johns Hopkins University to a broader estimate of possible cases that include those without symptoms, even places


28 University of Texas spring breakers who flouted public health advice test positive for coronavirus

As stores and offices closed throughout March, many people watched with anger as thousands of college students poured into tropical locales, crowding beaches and bars to party during their regularly scheduled spring breaks. Now, as the pandemic has spread further, many people’s fears have been realized as college students by the dozen have tested positive for covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. About 70 students from the University of Texas at Austin, all in their 20s, chartered a plane to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, in late March. They took the trip despite public health advice to avoid crowding as well as nonessential air travel. On Tuesday, Austin public health officials announced 28 students, more than a third of the young people who took the trip, had returned and tested positive for the coronavirus. Many of the remaining students are under public health monitoring, according to officials. For public officials who have repeatedly told people to stay home, the news was frustrating. “Quit being an a--,” Texas House Speaker Dennis Bonnen (R) told KXAN. “Get over yourselves. Whether you think this is an issue or not, it is. Whether you think it could affect you or not, it does. The reality of it is, if I’m a college kid who’s going to spring break in Mexico, you’re affecting a lot of people. Grow up." Despite early reports the coronavirus would largely spare the young, dozens of spring breakers have returned to their college towns in places like Texas, Florida and Wisconsin and tested positive for it. At least five students from the University of Tampa who went on spring-break trips together tested positive for the coronavirus last month after Florida officials faced intense scrutiny over their decision to keep beaches and bars open while spring breakers poured into the state. At the University of Wisconsin at Madison, multiple students tested positive after developing symptoms since returning from a spring-break romp in Nashville and Gulf Shores, Ala., WKRG reported. “If I get corona, I get corona” was the unofficial rallying cry of thousands of young adults who viewed the government’s social distancing guidelines as a draconian overreaction to the coronavirus pandemic, which exploded from fewer than 100 cases nationwide on March 1 to more than 180,000 by the end of the month. But some of those young people have since expressed regret. “Life is precious,” wrote Brady Sluder, the spring


the University of Wisconsin at Madison, multiple students tested positive after developing symptoms since returning from a spring-break romp in Nashville and Gulf Shores, Ala., WKRG reported. “If I get corona, I get corona” was the unofficial rallying cry of thousands of young adults who viewed the government’s social distancing guidelines as a draconian overreaction to the coronavirus pandemic, which exploded from fewer than 100 cases nationwide on March 1 to more than 180,000 by the end of the month. But some of those young people have since expressed regret. “Life is precious,” wrote Brady Sluder, the spring breaker from Ohio who said he would not let a global pandemic stop him from partying. “Don’t be arrogant and think you’re invincible like myself." Although most of the serious cases of covid-19 occur in older people and those with underlying health conditions, young and otherwise healthy adults have also been hospitalized with the coronavirus. In Travis County, Tex., home of UT-Austin, nearly half of the coronavirus-related hospitalizations involved people between the ages of 20 and 40, public health officials said. Young people have accounted for a significant number of coronavirus hospitalizations nationwide. While deaths are concentrated among older adults, some counties have reported fatalities among young people and even children. The 28 Texas students who have tested positive are self-isolating, and others who went on the trip are being monitored for symptoms by public health officials. Four of the coronavirus-infected patients did not show any symptoms, Austin public health officials said. “The virus often hides in the healthy and is given to those who are at grave risk of being hospitalized or dying,” Austin-Travis County Interim Health Authority Director Mark Escott said in a statement. “While younger people have less risk for complications, they are not immune from severe illness and death from covid-19.” Even more concerning for many officials is the risk to older Americans posed by infected young people, who may not show severe symptoms. “They’re coming back and they may not have the illness themselves, but they could spread it to their grandmother, grandfather, they could spread it to their favorite aunt,” Bonnen said. “And that is the danger of covid-19. While many of us can act responsibly, while many of us can stay at home, while many of us can socially distance, all it takes is 70 college kids to act irresponsibly. It’s time to grow up.”


Further fallout from the coronavirus

The Trump administration’s proposed budget for fiscal 2021 with a large cut to the international affairs budget was a mistake, and this novel coronavirus pandemic we’re now going through is evidence as to why. Part of the funding provided through the international affairs budget helps fight pandemic diseases. And if we learned anything from previous pandemics — the 1918 flu pandemic, which has a debated country of origin, though many historians believe it started in the United Kingdom or France; the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, which started in Veracruz, Mexico; and now this coronavirus, which started in Wuhan, China — it’s that diseases don’t have borders and what affects the international community affects all of us at home. Yet President Trump, every year he has been in office, has proposed drastic cuts to the international affairs budget, something baffling to me. Congress must, as it has the past few years, again recognize the importance of international affairs funding, especially now. While one may read the words “international affairs budget” and not think of how relevant it is to our response to the coronavirus, it really is. Natalie Coyne In his March 27 op-ed, “A stimulus that ignores the rest of the world,” Josh Rogin observed that only a tiny portion of the new $2.2 trillion stimulus package is targeted to those outside the United States’ borders, an abdication of our role as a world leader. I disagree. It is well known by economists that there is a strong relationship between the U.S. budget deficit and the U.S. trade deficit — meaning that a large portion of the increase in the budget deficit will, in fact, stimulate the economies of foreign countries by aiding their export and import-competing industries. This result may not have been intended by Congress when it passed the stimulus package, but it is likely to be one of the outcomes, and it will provide substantial help to get our trading partners back on their feet when the crisis has passed. Gail Makinen The ongoing concern about the availability of testing for the novel coronavirus is highlighted by recent experiences at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. While asymptomatic members of Congress and various professional sports teams, among others, have been able to obtain rapid diagnostic tests, military veterans, including those who are symptomatic and in high-risk groups, can wait more than a week for results of their tests.


No, coronvirus doesn’t live on surfaces for 17 days. No, Queen Elizabeth didn’t test positive. That and more news literacy lessons.

This is the latest installment of a weekly feature on this blog — lessons from the nonprofit News Literacy Project, which aims to teach students how to distinguish between what’s real and fake in the age of digital communication and a president who routinely denounces real news as “fake.” The material comes from the project’s newsletter, the Sift, which takes the most recent viral rumors, conspiracy theories, hoaxes and journalistic ethics issues and turns them into timely lessons with discussion prompts and links. The Sift, which publishes weekly during the school year, has more than 10,000 subscribers, most of them educators. The News Literacy Project also offers a program called Checkology, a browser-based platform designed for students in grades 6-12 that helps prepare the next generation to easily identify misinformation. Now, during the coronavirus pandemic, the project is offering access to Checkology Premium at no cost to educators and parents in the United States. In just two weeks of the offer, more than 1,100 educators and parents in 49 states and Washington, D.C., have registered to use the platform with as many as 90,000 students. You can learn more about the News Literacy Project and all of the educational resources it provides in this piece, but here’s a rundown: Founded more than a decade ago by Alan Miller, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter at the Los Angeles Times, the News Literacy Project is now the leading provider of news literacy education. It creates digital curriculums and other resources and works with educators and journalists to teach middle school and high school students how to recognize news and information to trust — and provides them with the tools they need to be informed and engaged participants in a democracy. It uses the standards of high-quality journalism as an aspirational yardstick against which to measure all news and information. Just as important, it provides the next generation with an appreciation of the First Amendment and the role of a free press. The following lessons come from the March 30 edition of the Sift and relate to the coronavirus pandemic that has shut down public life in much of the world, including in the United States. One of the lessons involves the amount of time that the novel coronavirus lives on surfaces. A new study by the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, UCLA and Princeton University scientists says


which takes the most recent viral rumors, conspiracy theories, hoaxes and journalistic ethics issues and turns them into timely lessons with discussion prompts and links. The Sift, which publishes weekly during the school year, has more than 10,000 subscribers, most of them educators. The News Literacy Project also offers a program called Checkology, a browser-based platform designed for students in grades 6-12 that helps prepare the next generation to easily identify misinformation. Now, during the coronavirus pandemic, the project is offering access to Checkology Premium at no cost to educators and parents in the United States. In just two weeks of the offer, more than 1,100 educators and parents in 49 states and Washington, D.C., have registered to use the platform with as many as 90,000 students. You can learn more about the News Literacy Project and all of the educational resources it provides in this piece, but here’s a rundown: Founded more than a decade ago by Alan Miller, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter at the Los Angeles Times, the News Literacy Project is now the leading provider of news literacy education. It creates digital curriculums and other resources and works with educators and journalists to teach middle school and high school students how to recognize news and information to trust — and provides them with the tools they need to be informed and engaged participants in a democracy. It uses the standards of high-quality journalism as an aspirational yardstick against which to measure all news and information. Just as important, it provides the next generation with an appreciation of the First Amendment and the role of a free press. The following lessons come from the March 30 edition of the Sift and relate to the coronavirus pandemic that has shut down public life in much of the world, including in the United States. One of the lessons involves the amount of time that the novel coronavirus lives on surfaces. A new study by the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, UCLA and Princeton University scientists says that “severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was detectable in aerosols for up to three hours, up to four hours on copper, up to 24 hours on cardboard and up to two to three days on plastic and stainless steel.” NO: YES: YES: YES: Tip: NO: NO: NO: YES: YES: Note: Tip: Twitter Note: Related: Discuss: Resources:


Coronavirus cases reported at D.C.’s St. Elizabeths Hospital, homeless shelters

executive director of the D.C. Nurses Association, whose membership includes nurses at St. Elizabeths, said the hospital is “not really equipped to handle patients with this type of virus.” He said he worried the hospital might not have enough equipment such as N95 masks. Smith also said the city’s coronavirus protocols, which do not recommend testing for those not showing symptoms, are not adequate for a facility such as St. Elizabeths, which has about 700 staff members and 270 patients on its campus in Southeast Washington. “No place as far as I know is testing nurses exposed but not having any symptoms,” he said. “That needs to change. It needs to change fast.” Andrea Procaccino, a staff attorney at Disability Rights DC, which advocates for patients at St. Elizabeths, said the agency has received several calls from patients with concerns about the health scare. “St. Elizabeths does not have as robust of an infectious disease department as medical hospitals do,” she wrote in an email. “We are concerned that the infectious disease staff is not prepared for an outbreak and will not have adequate resources and personnel.” As city officials responded to cases at St. Elizabeths, coronavirus cases also were reported among residents of the city’s shelter system. Bowser said five homeless people have tested positive and 49 people are in quarantine because of their exposure to them. The positive cases, first reported by Washington City Paper, were found at the Harriet Tubman Women's Shelter in Southeast Washington, Patricia Handy Place for Women in Northwest Washington and the Community for Creative Non-Violence, the city’s largest shelter, near Judiciary Square. Schroeder Stribling, a member of the city’s Interagency Council on Homelessness and chief executive of the nonprofit N Street Village, which runs the Patricia Handy shelter, said a woman at the facility was isolated at an off-site location maintained by the city after becoming ill. She later tested positive for the coronavirus, Stribling said, and those with whom she interacted have self-quarantined. Tests are not being performed on residents without symptoms, Stribling said. “The inside and out of why we don’t have more tests in our country sort of escapes me,” she said. “For whatever reason, they are not available unless people are symptomatic. It’s holding true for the women that we serve just as it has been at my doctor.” Amanda Chesney, executive director of housing and homeless services for


What we need to know before we can end social distancing

much school closures help. If we find that children — who often have few symptoms — don’t tend to infect other people and that school closures did not tamp down infections, we could open schools earlier and get relief for parents pulling double duty. Another question is whether closing restaurants and bars has a meaningful impact on rates of infection. Right now, we suspect that taking the economic hit is worth it in terms of lives saved. But a clearer sense of that calculation will be enormously important for small businesses across the country. Getting rigorous evidence from these natural experiments will require massive, real-time data collection. We need as much information as we can get on infections and hospitalizations from public health departments, hospitals and clinics. But we also need anonymized data from cellphones, social media and domestic travel to measure whether people actually stayed put. Researchers have already combined data such as this to analyze the impact of China’s distancing policies in Wuhan. Efforts to gather data on mobility in the United States and examine similar questions are also underway. This isn’t just an academic exercise. Our epidemiological models point to the possibility of another outbreak in the fall. Social distancing keeps people from getting infected, but it also means that many people will still be vulnerable to covid-19 when they are allowed to venture out of their homes. So even after we get through this first wave, we likely have another one coming, and maybe more after that. This means that we could again face this set of choices about what to lock down, when and for how long. And we might have to make these decisions over and over until we have an effective, widely distributed vaccine, a large fraction of the population has been infected, or we develop other interventions to manage the disease and its spread. Figuring out the answers to all of these questions is especially important to protect our most vulnerable individuals and communities, including older adults in nursing homes and the millions of Americans with underlying health issues. There will likely be high-risk communities that do not experience much infection, and therefore do not have many immune people to prevent the disease from taking off. This could lead to a disaster as distancing policies wind down if not done carefully. If we can combine data on covid-19 cases and the effectiveness


Data shows we’ve found a new normal. That doesn’t mean we’ve hit bottom.

will be due in the next few days — weeks before the first stimulus checks are expected to arrive — and many won’t have enough to cover it. Before the downturn, in 2018, a Federal Reserve survey showed about 17 percent of U.S. adults said they expected to skip at least one bill during the month they were surveyed. Many groups are under even more pressure — the comparable number for black Americans with a high school education or less was 34 percent. How would they fare if they missed a paycheck? We can guess: That same survey asks how those numbers would change if they had to cover a $400 emergency expense. Coincidentally, $400 is just a bit more than the average restaurant or bar worker earned in February, Labor Department data shows. If they were hit with a $400 emergency, 29 percent of Americans would have to skip a bill. For the hardest-hit group, which again is black Americans with a high school education or less, that jumps to 58 percent. And that’s after missing just one week’s pay. Data from Transit shows the national slowdown has been going on for several weeks, and most restrictions on activity are expected to continue at least through the beginning of May. As workers struggle, their pain will radiate outward to the businesses that depend on them and the cycle will continue. Trains and buses are the first public spaces many lower-income Americans will encounter once their city or state’s lockdown ends and will be an early signal of the coming thaw. In China, subway traffic is picking up, albeit with temperature checks at the entrances. And when people are comfortable riding public transit in large numbers once more, we’ll know the old normal is back. Transit ridership isn’t the first number we should watch. Experts say transit data depends on another variable: stay-at-home orders and restrictions on public activity. Those restrictions ultimately depend on one thing: coronavirus infection totals. Since the earliest days of the outbreak, economists have cited stopping the spread of the virus as the top economic priority. Until we’ve addressed the public-health catastrophe, and people are willing to ride the 7 train or take the bus to the 7-Eleven without fear of spreading a deadly virus, nothing will recover. If you want to know when things are going to turn around, wait for new cases to subside.


Coral Princess cruise ship heads to Florida with sick passengers, as Zaandam awaits its fate with the same port

be medically evacuated Monday and Tuesday from three different cruise ships. For weeks, passengers on the Coral Princess have been frustrated but relatively comfortable, even as the rest of the world largely went into lockdown and port after port closed to the ship. With no reports of the novel coronavirus on board, guests were free to mingle, dine and take part in activities: line dancing, shows, tai chi, according to a passenger. Some gathered to applaud health-care workers back home, even as they tried frantically to figure out how they would get there. Early Tuesday, that all changed when the ship’s captain announced everyone would be required to stay in their staterooms. According to an update from Princess Cruises, which has dealt with the largest cruise coronavirus outbreaks of the pandemic, the medical center had reported “a higher-than-normal number of people presenting influenza-like symptoms.” The operator said “many” of those tested positive for influenza, but did not provide numbers for how many were sick or how many had the flu. “Given the concern surrounding covid-19 (coronavirus), and out of an abundance of caution, guests have been asked to self-isolate in their staterooms and all meals will now be delivered by room service,” the company said. “Crew will remain in their staterooms when not working.” Coral Princess left March 5 from Santiago, Chile, on a South American voyage. Global cruise lines suspended operations and started working to bring ships back to ports on March 13. On March 19, all passengers were expecting to leave the ship when it was docked in Buenos Aires. But according to updates from the cruise line, only some were allowed to leave, including those with passports from Argentina and some who had confirmed flights leaving that day. The ship left late March 19 after a presidential decree that would have forced it to stay in port “for an indeterminate number of days” without letting anyone off. Efforts to disembark passengers in the following days in Uruguay and Brazil were unsuccessful, and Princess said the ship would go directly to Fort Lauderdale. For passengers, the new restrictions were a blow that added to the uncertainty that has persisted for much of the trip. “The mood is more resigned than anything as nothing we can do,” passenger Gill Morgan, 66, said in an email. “Disappointed as we were nearly there.” Morgan, who works part-time for the National Health


Borders are closing to fight the coronavirus. Now this village is split in two.

an effort to curb transmissions, officials say, but could be extended if the outbreak worsens. (Gambia had four cases as of Tuesday, and Senegal had 175.) International traffic fuels a “high risk of contracting the disease,” the Gambian president’s office warned residents last week in a statement. The beige stone of Ngunta has become a risky red line. Travel bans around the world have scrambled markets, doomed business deals, wrecked study-abroad plans and canceled untold vacations, but the impact here is more intimate. Families are separated. Boys are hatching illicit plans to see girls. Rice merchants cannot reach their regular customers, and food supplies are dwindling. Villagers on the Gambian side say they no longer have easy access to drinking water. Usually, they send horse carts a quarter-mile over the border to fill jugs. Now people are anxiously sneaking into Senegal with pots. The path is clear when officers are not around. “We need to do the illegal thing to get clean water,” said Dem, the village head. People are worried they could be arrested or worse, they said in interviews. Some have seen videos of security forces in Senegal and other countries beating people who break the new coronavirus laws. Authorities have apprehended two Senegalese fishermen trying to float into Gambia and escorted them into a state quarantine hold, officials said Monday. Waiting for normalcy to return does not feel like an option, the chief said. The main road tying Ngunta to the rest of Gambia is in rough condition. Travel, already a hassle, can be dangerous once the rainy season kicks off in June. The isolated economy does not work when it is split in half. Buba Dem, 37, a sugar salesman, said he cannot afford to lose customers. (Dem, a popular surname in the village, belonged to the brothers who settled here in 1930.) His wife surveys the horizon. She will shout his name, he said, if she sees anyone in uniform. That strategy worked last week when he stepped onto Senegalese soil to get change. “I’m scared of getting caught,” he said. “The patrol team could be around at any time.” Alagie Nije, 14, stuck to his phone this week, trying to persuade his girlfriend on the other side of town to sneak over. His buddies did the same with their love interests. The teenagers made a pact to look out for each other. “Tonight, we


I returned to the U.K. from Thailand in January with a fever of 103. I wasn’t tested for coronavirus.

LONDON — “We won’t be triggering protocol because you haven’t been to China,” the doctor said. I gazed back at him, attached to an IV and wheezing into a face mask, the pain in my throat so bad it hurt to even contemplate a reply. A bowl filled with green mucus and specks of blood sat on the table next to me. I’d just returned from a two-week trip to Thailand. My family and I arrived in the northern Thai city of Chiang Rai on Jan. 10, where we spent a week at my aunt and uncle’s house. Eight days later, we flew to Phuket and then to Bangkok, hearing occasional snippets about a mysterious outbreak in Wuhan, China. The general feeling back then was that this disease was a domestic issue in China. Social and sporting events continued in Thailand and elsewhere, schools remained open, and most of the world went about its business as usual. But the covid-19 pandemic coincided not only with my trip, but with Lunar New Year — a period when hundreds of millions of people are on the move within China and heading abroad for vacation. The Guardian estimates that more than 25,000 people arrived in Thailand from Wuhan and other Chinese cities affected by the virus between Jan. 3 and Jan. 27. The first recorded case of the virus outside China was reported in Thailand on Jan. 13; more cases soon followed. My symptoms began three days later. It felt as though I had a cold coming on. I had chills and body aches and woke up with night sweats — something I’d never experienced before. My face and back were aflame, and my sheets were drenched, but I felt freezing. I took my temperature. It was 102 degrees. The next morning, I began vomiting. I had sharp, shooting pains in both temples. I took the day off work and lay on the sofa shivering, checking my temperature every few hours. It continued to creep upward. By Jan. 31, I knew something was seriously wrong. The vomiting had subsided, but my throat felt as though it was littered with razor blades. I still had a severe headache, my fever hadn’t come down, and my bones were aching. It hurt to exist. I dialed 111, England’s non-emergency medical helpline, and told the National Health Service my travel history and that I’d been feeling unwell


Simone Biles wept at Olympic postponement, now worries about delay’s mental toll

whether she was questioning going forward. She started her morning with an interview on the “Today” show via Skype from her home just north of Houston, telling hosts Hoda Kotb and Savannah Guthrie that she wept when she learned, via a text message during a break in training, that the Games were being postponed because of the novel coronavirus pandemic. “I cried,” Biles said. “But ultimately it was the right decision. We need to make sure that everyone in the U.S. and around the world is healthy and safe.” Speaking by telephone afterward, Biles elaborated on her process of absorbing the news and acknowledged that she considered, at least for a bit, not sticking with her pursuit of a second Olympics. “It’s just the mental strain of going in the gym day-in day-out, day after day putting in that work going toward that goal,” Biles said. “I feel right now we’re kind of emptying our gas tank. I was so ready to have that experience in three months; now it’s pushed back another 15 months. That takes a toll on your mind.” For months, she had looked forward to getting on with life following the 2020 Olympics. “I was ready to see who I was as a person rather than as an athlete,” Biles said. “What other adventures I wanted to take on. To see what my other skill sets were.” But she decided to forge ahead with training and defer those big-picture questions about life’s next chapter until the fall of 2021. Still, even with nine days to process news of the delay and three days to reflect on the new starting date (July 23, 2021, rather than late 2020, as many gymnasts would have preferred), Biles said she wonders about the mental toll the delay will exact, testing her in ways no other gymnast has. “I’m still struggling with that,” Biles said. “Can I actually do it? I’m not sure. The physical part is not going to be the problem.” At 4-foot-8, Biles will be one of the biggest names among the roughly 11,000 Olympians scheduled to compete in Tokyo — a five-time Olympic medalist and five-time world all-around champion who has claimed an unprecedented 30 Olympic and world medals. Postponing the Olympics 12 months will have an unusual impact on female gymnasts, whose competitive life span is brief. With rare exception, obsolescence comes early in sports in


Wimbledon canceled for the first time in decades as coronavirus outbreak continues

added. “We have begun distributing medical equipment and offered the use of our facilities to the NHS and to the London Resilience Partnership, the collection of agencies in London fighting the battle against COVID-19.” The announcement reduces the number of Grand Slam tournaments from four to three and presents a challenge for stars such as Roger Federer, Serena Williams, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic — who are battling both age and younger rivals. Federer, an eight-time men’s singles champion, used one word to describe his reaction to the cancellation: “Devastated.” His response was tempered by reality, however, as he went on to urge an emphasis on “health and family.” Williams, a seven-time women’s singles champion, had her own reaction. Wimbledon officials were caught in a pinch after the French Open, the second Slam, was moved from May 24 to Sept. 20. That means that the French Open is scheduled to start one week after the conclusion of the U.S. Open, which is traditionally the final Slam event of the calendar year. Finding a spot for Wimbledon, the third event on the traditional calendar, became increasingly difficult. Players who reach the final weekend of the U.S. Open, for instance, and play the rescheduled French Open would have to contest four weeks of Grand Slam-caliber matches — for men, best-of-five-set matches; for women, best-of-three — on two radically different surfaces over a five-week span. Wimbledon is played on yet another surface, grass. That, compounded by weather, makes it extremely difficult for Wimbledon, with only two covered courts, to be rescheduled. “It’s almost impossible,” said Hall of Famer Donald Dell, a former U.S. Davis Cup captain turned sports agent and a co-founder of the Association of Tennis Professionals. “With the U.S. Open and French Open being so close, in some ways I wouldn’t be surprised if the top 20 players select the one with the surface that’s best for them. Federer’s best chance is on concrete. Some players are much better on clay, like Nadal and [Dominic] Thiem. Djokovic, it seems, can play on water!” The U.S. Open is scheduled for Aug. 24 to Sept. 13 in New York. The Australian Open took place earlier this year. Wimbledon has never been canceled for a reason other than war. It was not held from 1915 to 1918 because of World War I; it was suspended from 1940 to 1945 because of World War II.


Banks brace for millions of small-business loan requests as Trump coronavirus plan is put to test

Main Street,” said Tom Sullivan, vice president of small-business policy for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Business owners across the country are besieging bankers for loan information. On Monday, the National Federation of Independent Business, an industry group, had 13,000 members join an online meeting about the program. If borrower demand exhausts the $349 billion, the administration will ask Congress for more, Mnuchin has said. “We’re inundated with everything from hairdressers to hardware stores to multimillion-dollar businesses,” said Cynthia Blankenship, corporate president of Bank of the West. “We expect to be flooded with requests, and we’re seeing that already.” The Grapevine, Tex.-based lender has fielded calls from about 50 of its small-business clients asking to delay loan payments during the shutdown. “There’s a real desire to get it done, but the problem is, it isn’t as easy as it looks,” Blankenship said of the paycheck program, adding that verifying even the stripped-down paperwork could take time. Some banks may be turned off by the 0.5 percent interest rate that the standardized loans will carry, she said. To arrest the economy’s slide, the paycheck aid must move faster than typical government programs, officials said. One-quarter of the nation’s small businesses can survive just 13 days before exhausting their cash reserves, according to a 2016 JPMorgan Chase Institute study. “These programs don’t do any good for Americans three or four months from now,” Mnuchin told Fox Business on Monday. Administration officials said they had streamlined the loan application process by abandoning the SBA’s customary requirement for borrowers to post collateral or offer a personal guarantee. Companies with fewer than 500 workers are eligible to participate and can apply by completing a two-page form, which is available at sba.gov. The banks will not be expected to assess a borrower’s ability to repay the loan, only to establish that the business was operational on Feb. 15, said the officials, who briefed reporters on the condition that they not be identified by name. The SBA’s only role will be to verify that the borrower has not already received a paycheck loan, leaving the approval, disbursement and servicing of the transaction to the financial institutions. One senior administration official said the banks are bracing for “millions of applications” on Friday. “It’s going to depend on the banks,” said a second official, who added that loans could be approved “almost in real time.” The administration is trying


The Energy 202: Worry spreads among national park staff after seven workers contract coronavirus

THE LIGHTBULB The Trump administration's decision to keep some national parks open during the coronavirus pandemic is rankling some rangers and other park employees, as well as lawmakers on Capitol Hill. The concerns are spiking since the agency confirmed that at least seven National Park Service employees tested positive for the disease as of Monday. As Darryl Fears, Juliet Eilperin and I report The Park Service has But more than 300 sites remain open, and the government has waived entrance fees. A potential rush of visitors at a time when social distancing guidelines are in place across the country has many workers extremely concerned about their exposure. Trevor Wright learned last week, along with tens of thousands of other park workers, that park employees had already contracted the coronavirus. “Thankfully these employees are doing well and we send them our best wishes,” David Vela, the Park Service’s deputy director, said during the staffwide teleconference call on March 25. One day later, Wright got another scare. Staffers at the Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park, where Wright has done masonry, carpentry and other maintenance work for the past five years, were suddenly told to go home for the day over concerns they might be exposed to the virus. Wright then asked managers around the office why some parks, including his in central Texas, were staying open during the pandemic, but said he got no satisfactory answer. So Wright began emailing ever wider circles of park employees — first everyone at his park, then everyone in the intermountain region stretching from Montana to Texas, then nearly every park employee across the country — to raise awareness about workers’ fears of going to work during this crisis. “I was so very tired of hearing non-answer answers as to why we were doing this,” Wright said in an interview Monday evening. “No one could tell me why the risk was acceptable or what the perceived benefit was.” Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are also getting involved. In a sign of the potential risk some employees face, the Interior Department has authorized environmental hazard pay for some workers At the same time, Bernhardt sent a note to department employees Monday reiterating the importance of keeping operations going despite the pandemic. The Park Service has determined the risk posed by infected employees to others was low. But many of the restrictions were implemented after visitors crowded onto


With baseball postponed, MASN workers left without pay are uncertain what comes next

is at MLB’s mercy right now,” the email, which was obtained by The Washington Post, said in part. “Any freelancer who is emailing [executive producer] Chris Glass and asking about compensation he has told them unfortunately that is not the plan for now. I understand we may lose some individuals who go looking for other jobs and I totally understand that.” “They told us we could go look for new jobs, but where are we going to go?” one freelancer said. “There are people relying on this money to pay their rent and their bills." The Post interviewed five MASN workers who have been affected by the decision, all of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity out of concern for their future job prospects. They said MASN’s decision, as well as the network’s lack of communication, has been particularly difficult as they watched other networks announce support for their freelance production staffs. CBS and Turner will pay their crews for the missed NCAA tournament games; CBS will pay for four postponed PGA Tour events as well. Asked about its freelance production workers, an ESPN spokesman said people have generally continued to be paid. A spokesman for NBC Sports Group, which owns a number of regional sports networks around the country, said the company has been paying its freelance production crews and will continue to do so for “the upcoming weeks.” Sinclair Broadcast Group is extending interest-free loans of $2,500 to workers at the roughly 20 regional sports networks it owns, though that announcement came only after the Detroit Free Press published an article in which workers at the Sinclair-owned Detroit network were critical of the company for not providing assistance to them. (On Wednesday, the union representing sports broadcast technicians released a statement calling the terms of the loans too onerous: "It is a bad deal unless you need to feed your family. It is a last resort.”) The global pandemic and ensuing sports hiatus has halted the flow of billions of dollars through sports — among fans, networks and leagues — and left many in limbo. Freelancers across the sports industry have been particularly affected by the break in games, from journalists to TV production staffs to food vendors. Each Major League Baseball team, including the Orioles and Nationals, has donated $1 million to a fund to assist stadium workers, while several NBA players took the lead on


Coronavirus on the border: Why Mexico has so few cases compared with the U.S.

to 15 times as many common flu cases each year as reported, López-Gatell noted. But the raw numbers aren’t the point, he maintained. What matters, he said, is identifying when and where the virus starts to grow exponentially. Figuring that out is a bit like conducting a presidential election poll, he said. “You don’t interview 300 million Americans,” he said. “There’s a scientific method to know what is the size” of the sample needed for an accurate survey. From the start of the outbreak, Mexican authorities tested likely coronavirus carriers — people with symptoms such as fever and dry cough who had recently visited a country with known cases. When a diagnosis was confirmed, officials tried to track and isolate the victim’s contacts. Authorities also watched for unusual spikes in seasonal flu cases. They didn’t spot any. On March 24, Mexico declared that the virus had moved to a new phase and was spreading unchecked in communities. Since then, monitoring stations around the country — in hospitals and primary-care centers — have been testing about 10 percent of suspected coronavirus patients with mild symptoms. Everyone with serious symptoms is tested, said López-Gatell. “This allows you to have the information to construct estimates,” he said. In total, Mexico has conducted about 65 tests per million inhabitants. That compares with 2,250 per million in the United States. Mexico’s approach varies dramatically from the much-praised model of South Korea, which blunted the coronavirus curve through mass testing and aggressive tracking and isolation of victims and their contacts. Carlos del Rio, an epidemiologist at Emory University in Atlanta, says Mexico has moved too slowly. “Countries that have done [extensive] testing are doing better than those that don’t,” said del Rio, the former head of the National AIDS Council of Mexico. Alejandro Macias, Mexico’s former national flu commissioner, said there was not enough early testing to confidently determine when community transmission began. “I don’t think there was enough of a budget,” he said. Others say testing has been overemphasized. “It’s as though doing tests will solve the problem. That’s not clear at all,” said Samuel Ponce de León, an infectious-disease specialist at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. “No one has been able to replicate” South Korea’s success, he said. Of course, pinpointing when coronavirus cases started to explode was supposed to be only the first step in trying to tame the pandemic. The second


At a time when spring sports should be blooming, high school athletes are left bitter

Langley girls’ lacrosse coach Bucky Morris gathered his players on their practice field in McLean on March 12, uncertain of the next time he would see them. Morris was anticipating an announcement the following day from Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D) that would close the state’s schools for two weeks. He told his players to practice as if it were their last time together. The players didn’t want to believe it, still hoping to come together later in the spring to defend their Class 6 state championship. It didn’t feel right to the seniors for their careers to end that suddenly. But after the closure of classes was extended this week through the end of the school year, effectively ending the spring sports season before it truly began, reality set in. “It’s pretty hard going back and thinking that it really was our last day,” senior Caroline Bean said. “We all kind of wish we knew.” Langley’s players are among the many high school athletes in the Washington area affected by postponements and cancellations because of the novel coronavirus pandemic. Virginia postponed its spring season and said it will decide in May whether it will be feasible to resume play after the academic year. Maryland and the District have suspended their seasons. In addition to missing out on the enjoyment of playing sports, some athletes believe their offseason work was put to waste and they missed out on recruiting opportunities. “This isn’t how I saw it going in any of my dreams,” Riverdale Baptist sophomore shortstop Christopher Owens Jr. said. “It’s really heartbreaking.” Since Owens was a 4-year-old playing T-ball, he has dreamed of reaching the major leagues. Now simply playing at the college level seems ambitious after another high school season without baseball. Out of middle school, Owens attended the Academy of Health Sciences at Prince George’s Community College, where he could earn a high school diploma and an associate degree within four years. But his program didn’t offer sports, so after one year, he put his academic goals aside to pursue baseball. He transferred to Riverdale Baptist, which fields one of the area’s most accomplished programs. Owens figured to be a top player for the Crusaders as he helped to revive the program after it failed to field a varsity squad last year. Then Maryland’s state athletic association postponed spring sports, and schools are now closed until at


Hogan calls Trump testing claims ‘just not true’ as region’s virus cases continue surge

of covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. That brings the total of known covid-19 fatalities in the greater Washington area to 63. But there also was good news. Maryland reported that 53 covid-19 patients had been released from isolation by Tuesday afternoon. The District reported that 121 of 405 covid-19 patients had recovered as of Monday evening. Virginia has not compiled recovery data. Maryland and Virginia have significantly ramped up testing in recent weeks, which is one reason for the surge in the number of new cases. In Maryland, more than 16,500 tests have been conducted, about 90 percent of which have been negative. In Virginia, 13,400 tests have been administered, about 91 percent of which have been negative. The District had reported its most new cases in a single day — 94 — on Monday, and the most new test results received, 674. It has reported nine fatalities. With health-care providers struggling to keep up, D.C. officials said Tuesday that they would start shipping personal protective equipment to city hospitals, long-term-care facilities and doctors. Assistant City Administrator Jay Melder said the city planned to release 70 percent of its stock of equipment, including hand sanitizer, more than 18,000 gloves and more than 300,000 masks. First responders and essential D.C. government agencies are also eligible to receive supplies. Baltimore-based athletic-wear company Under Armour said it is manufacturing masks, face shields and fanny packs for nearly 28,000 health-care workers at the University of Maryland Medical System. The medical system, which has 13 hospitals statewide, has “a baseline supply of personal protective equipment,” also known as PPE, but will need more in coming weeks and months, spokesman Michael Schwartzberg said in a statement. Bob Atlas, president of the Maryland Hospital Association, said leaders at Maryland’s four dozen hospitals are “very concerned” about supplies to shield front-line workers. “Trying to predict right now is an imperfect science,” Johns Hopkins epidemiologist Aaron Milstone said. “Patients are still coming in faster than they are going home. If the number of new patients stops or slows, we are in good shape. If it sustains for weeks or increases, it is going to test the system.” One of the biggest outbreaks in the state so far is at the Pleasant View Nursing Home in Carroll County. Seventy-seven of the 95 residents at the facility have tested positive, and five people have died, including two men in


gloves and more than 300,000 masks. First responders and essential D.C. government agencies are also eligible to receive supplies. Baltimore-based athletic-wear company Under Armour said it is manufacturing masks, face shields and fanny packs for nearly 28,000 health-care workers at the University of Maryland Medical System. The medical system, which has 13 hospitals statewide, has “a baseline supply of personal protective equipment,” also known as PPE, but will need more in coming weeks and months, spokesman Michael Schwartzberg said in a statement. Bob Atlas, president of the Maryland Hospital Association, said leaders at Maryland’s four dozen hospitals are “very concerned” about supplies to shield front-line workers. “Trying to predict right now is an imperfect science,” Johns Hopkins epidemiologist Aaron Milstone said. “Patients are still coming in faster than they are going home. If the number of new patients stops or slows, we are in good shape. If it sustains for weeks or increases, it is going to test the system.” One of the biggest outbreaks in the state so far is at the Pleasant View Nursing Home in Carroll County. Seventy-seven of the 95 residents at the facility have tested positive, and five people have died, including two men in their 70s and a woman in her 60s whose deaths were announced Tuesday. The National Guard has deployed a medic unit to the nursing home to help with screening, and a county physician is also on-site to treat patients, the Carroll County Health Department said in a statement Tuesday. The 18 residents who tested negative are being cared for in a separate part of the facility. “As tragic as it is, it’s not an unusual situation,” Hogan said in a C-SPAN interview. “It’s sort of happening in other places around the country.” To boost bed space in Northern Virginia, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has identified three possible sites for temporary hospital facilities, according to a briefing Tuesday from Prince William County Executive Christopher Martino. They are: the National Conference Center in Loudoun County (capacity 1,000 beds), the Dulles Expo Center in Fairfax County (capacity 500 beds) and an unnamed facility at George Mason University in Fairfax City (capacity 500 beds). Maryland and Virginia officials said they are consulting various computer models to get a sense of when the outbreak might peak. D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) said the city will release a projection this week. To help


Open or closed? Essential businesses during the coronavirus pandemic

As of Wednesday, April 1, the entire national capital region will be under “stay-at-home” orders, which ban residents from leaving their homes except to perform “essential activities” and interact with “essential businesses.” What exactly is an essential business? Each jurisdiction has its own list, but in general, local and state officials are abiding by guidance provided by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. An advisory from the agency lists jobs and industries that are essential to the country’s coronavirus response, including health care, communications and government facilities. In Maryland and D.C., most retail stores have been asked to close, but big box stores like Home Depot are allowed to remain open, along with auto-repair shops and bike shops. Virginia allows brick-and-mortar retail stores to stay open as long as they serve fewer than 10 people at a time. Food is still considered essential, so is alcohol. In addition to supermarkets, groceries and liquor stores being open, restaurants can still offer delivery and takeout, though table service is prohibited. Here are the official orders from the District, Maryland and Virginia. And here’s a quick listing of what you need to know throughout the region: ●●●Healthcare providers like hospitals and clinics. ●Grocery stores, convenience stores, pharmacies, and farmers markets with restrictions. ●State parks in Virginia and Maryland, and Rock Creek Park in the District. ●Banks and other financial institutions. ●Laundromats and dry cleaners. ●Home improvement stores (like Home Depot), hardware stores, building supply retailers, auto repair shops. ●Plumbers, electricians, HVAC service and cable, phone and Internet providers. ●Pet stores. ●Restaurant takeout and delivery. Food trucks are also allowed to continue operating. ●Beer, wine and liquor stores. ● Stores that help people maintain modes of transport, such as bike shops and auto-repair shops. ●Theaters, performing arts centers, nightclubs, concert venues, museums and other indoor entertainment centers. ●Fitness centers, gyms and other indoor sports facilities. ●Beauty salons, barbershops, tanning salons, tattoo shops, spas, massage studios. (In Maryland, they do not need to close but must regularly disinfect and follow CDC guidelines on social distancing.) ●Casinos, racetracks and historic horse-racing facilities. ●Bowling alleys, skating rinks, arcades, amusement parks, trampoline parks, fairs, arts and craft facilities, aquariums, zoos, escape rooms, indoor shooting ranges, public and private social clubs. ●Recreation centers and playgrounds, public parks, athletic fields and basketball courts. ●Door-to-door solicitations and tour services. ●Clothing stores. This file will be updated as new information becomes available.


If you couldn’t find what you’re looking for at the grocery store, head to these local eateries

During the coronavirus pandemic, you may be spending more time over the stove — which means keeping the fridge and pantry well-stocked at all times. Grocery stores are doing their best to keep their shelves stocked with such high demand, but thankfully there’s already another string of businesses that have had to maintain these standards for a while: restaurants. With the restaurant industry looking for inventive ways to keep the lights on with takeout service and other offerings, some have started selling their locally curated supplies directly to you. Some of the available items are in flux on a daily basis, so check appropriate social media accounts and websites as necessary to ensure that the item you want is in stock. These are some of the most varied and interesting options around the District, and all require advance online purchase for pickup. All-Purpose Last month, the pizzeria’s Shaw outpost started offering a community-supported agriculture (CSA) box from Earth n Eats, a family farm in Waynesboro, Pa., that supplies many area restaurants, for takeout on Tuesdays: Think milk, eggs and potatoes, among other seasonally appropriate produce ($20.83). The CSA shares have been popular, and will be available again on Friday with plans to expand pickup locations to the Navy Yard shop and Red Hen, All-Purpose’s sister restaurant in Bloomingdale. For those who are looking for a cooking project, All-Purpose is also selling a make-your-own pizza kit ($15) daily while supplies last — and for the desperate, you can buy up to two rolls of toilet paper ($1 apiece). 1250 Ninth St. NW; 79 Potomac Ave. SE. Big Bear Cafe Were you unable to snag that last bag of flour, rice or beans at the store? Bloomingdale’s Big Bear is offering up sundries from various artisanal vendors, including whole wheat flour by the pound as well as satchels of brown rice and black beans to stock your cabinets. You can also find cafe staples such as quarts of oat milk and packs of granola to start your morning. 1700 First St. NW. Emilie’s One of the District’s new dining hot spots has turned into a different beast during the pandemic. At Emilie’s, you can browse a carryout menu inspired by chef Kevin Tien’s Vietnamese heritage, but some of the best finds can be found in the Capitol Hill restaurant’s pantry and snack selection, which includes fresh pasta and bread. You can pair


Leading scientists say NOAA plan to improve U.S. weather forecasting is incomplete

‘plumbing’ of numerical weather prediction and supporting outreach, with little mention of scientific innovation,” Cliff Mass wrote in an email. Mass is a professor of atmospheric science at the University of Washington and a longtime critic of NOAA’s modeling approach. “There is … no mention of how to bring the weather research community together, nor any requirement to demonstrate progress in providing the nation with better weather forecasts.” “I hope that everyone remembers that the 'I' in EPIC is for innovation, and facilitating that may be its most important function,” Gary Lackmann, a professor of atmospheric science at North Carolina State University who has advised NOAA on modeling efforts, wrote in an email. “So, while I recognize the need to discuss computing, the cloud, and software engineering, I do think greater emphasis is needed on the mechanism for reaching out to the community to draw on the potential innovations that are out there.” NOAA’s response to this feedback is that the request is intended to identify a partner who can help it establish and sustain a process for tapping outside innovation but isn’t about conducting the innovation itself. “The role of EPIC is to manage the process by which external innovation is integrated,” NOAA spokesman Chris Vaccaro wrote in an email. In public forums, NOAA acting administrator Neil Jacobs, the architect of EPIC, has made this point, telling partners a computing infrastructure must first be established before innovation is brought in. Weather community leaders say that if scientific innovation is not a focus of the request for proposals, it must come next and NOAA and Congress should strongly back it. “NOAA must increase its support for R&D [research and development] on weather and climate prediction, in order to be able to take best advantage of EPIC’s software developments,” wrote Jim Kinter, who directs the Center for Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Studies at George Mason University. Fred Carr, professor emeritus of meteorology at the University of Oklahoma, wrote that the computing aspect of EPIC is “absolutely a vital component.” But he noted the request for proposals provides no funding for the underlying science, so “it is also vital that Congress continues to support the NOAA programs that fund such R&D.” In an email, Tony Busalacchi, president of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, called the request “just the first step” in the government’s effort to recapture U.S. supremacy in weather forecast modeling. But some


The Finance 202: Trump administration is struggling to distribute coronavirus stimulus money to people and small businesses

low, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. “Forty-one Democratic senators sent the White House a letter Wednesday asking why the Trump administration is placing this ‘significant burden’ on senior citizens and the disabled. GOP Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri called it ‘ridiculous.’” The tax agency confronts an even thornier problem as it tries to distribute $250 billion to about 150 million Americans as quickly as possible. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has pledged most will receive payments within three weeks. And indeed, the IRS will directly deposit cash for taxpayers with bank account information on file with the agency. But that will leave about 70 million Americans — the so-called unbanked and underbanked — waiting potentially much longer for their own share,according to an estimate by Aaron Klein, a former Treasury official now at the Brookings Institution. “Solutions to these problems abound, if only policy makers would prioritize them,” Klein writes. “The response to COVID is exposing a lot of problems ignored for too long. Add our basic banking and payment systems to this growing list.” Digital payment companies including Square and PayPal are pitching their wares to Treasury as solutions One former White House economist argues mobile payments may be the best option “Mobile payments preserve the value of the per-person amount distributed by the government by limiting high fees associated with using bank alternatives,” she writes, adding the platforms “can get cash out fast, particularly to the most vulnerable.” The administration is staring down a different challenge distributing $349 billion in loans to smaller businesses to keep them afloat. But some big institutions are registering “ The banks’ concern: “The Treasury Department has said it expects lenders to verify borrower eligibility, and take steps to prevent fraud, money laundering and protect customer information under the Bank Secrecy Act, sources said. Banks are worried they could face regulatory penalties or legal costs down the line if things go awry in the haste to get money out the door, or get blamed for not moving funds fast enough if they perform due diligence the way they would in ordinary times, the sources said.” A crush of applications already was threatening to “swamp the Trump administration’s effort to speed money to cash-strapped small businesses Firms can start submitting applications Friday for loans entirely backstopped by the government. And the feds will forgive loans for those that preserve their pre-pandemic


Crowdfunding is an imperfect weapon against the pandemic

Nora Kenworthy is an associate professor in the School of Nursing and Health Studies at the University of Washington Bothell. As the infection rate of covid-19 has exploded across the United States, the growth of charitable crowdfunding campaigns has seemed similarly exponential. More than 35,000 covid-19 related fundraisers have appeared on GoFundMe, the New York Times reported last week, raising $60 million. There are campaigns to support unemployed workers, to purchase personal protective equipment for health-care workers, and, of course, to cover personal medical expenses. Some are sponsored by influencers and celebrities; others by people struggling to just get by. The terrain of covid-19 crowdfunding is evolving rapidly, with Yelp, for example, trying to capitalize on the platform to offer unsolicited help to small businesses. For those of us who have studied medical crowdfunding — and indeed for anyone well enough, physically and financially, to consider contributing to covid-19 campaigns — the cacophony of charitable appeals presents hard questions about how help should be sought and offered online. The depth of this impending economic and health crisis compels all of us to respond — but are donations to well-meaning campaigns just Band-Aids on bullet holes? Because decades of government austerity measures have eroded this country’s already limited safety nets, many Americans are forced to seek help wherever they can find it. Even before the current crisis, medical crowdfunding campaigns were more prevalent in states that did not expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. Similarly, we’ve seen precarious workers affected by covid-19 turning to crowdfunding as other systems have failed to protect their income, health coverage or benefits. As one uninsured crowdfunder seeking money for insulin told me last year, “That’s all you can count on ... taking a shot in the dark.” What should not escape notice, as we scroll through pleas on social media, is how much of the covid-19 crisis was preventable. The health-care system safeguards that might have limited widespread infections were systematically undermined by deliberate political choices. Similarly, our reluctance to lower drug and health insurance prices and to expand health coverage makes insulin dependence an acute economic crisis for many Americans. It’s worth remembering that the bullet holes that crowdfunding seeks to patch arise from deliberate societal choices. Crowdfunding is rarely a fair or ethical solution to complex problems. About 90 percent of medical campaigns fail to reach their goals — and those that


We were caught unprepared by a pandemic 9/11. The failures began long before Trump.

This week the United States reached a grim milestone when the number of deaths from the coronavirus pandemic surpassed 2,977 — the number killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Now that a pandemic 9/11 has befallen out nation, we need to ask ourselves: Why does it always seem to take a tragedy to wake us up to danger? Before 9/11, we had many warning signs that our homeland was in peril. Terrorists had launched a string of escalating attacks: the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center; the 1996 attack on the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia; the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania; and the 2000 attack on the USS Cole in Yemen. Despite the warnings, we didn’t take the coming danger seriously enough — and were caught unprepared on 9/11. The same is true with covid-19. Before this pandemic, we had many warning signs that our homeland was in peril: the 2002 SARS outbreak; the 2003 resurgence of H5N1 avian flu; the 2009 H1N1 swine flu outbreak; the 2012 MERS outbreak; the 2014 Ebola outbreak. Despite the warnings, we didn’t take the danger seriously enough — and were caught unprepared for covid-19. At least on 9/11, we had an excuse for being surprised. Few could have expected that terrorists armed with box cutters would turn planes into missiles and use them to strike us here at home. The failure to anticipate 9/11 was, like Pearl Harbor, a failure of imagination. But it required no imagination to foresee today’s coronavirus pandemic. In November 2005, following the SARS and avian flu outbreaks, I worked on a speech that President George W. Bush delivered outlining our national pandemic strategy. He warned: “Scientists and doctors cannot tell us where or when the next pandemic will strike, or how severe it will be, but most agree: At some point, we are likely to face another pandemic. .... Our country has been given fair warning of this danger to our homeland and time to prepare.” Yet here we are, almost 15 years later, caught unprepared by the pandemic we all knew was coming. So how did we fail so badly? Many are blaming the Trump administration’s slow initial response, but as with 9/11, the failures stretch back much further. In 2003, the Strategic National Stockpile was created so that we would have ready supplies of respirators, masks, protective equipment,


Postponing the Olympics is disappointing, but there was no other choice

I wrote a column a couple of weeks ago saying that kids (and adults) would have to use the lessons we learn from sports during the crisis caused by the novel coronavirus. We were all going to have to listen, be good teammates and deal with disappointment. One of those disappointments has arrived: The 2020 Summer Olympics has been postponed until 2021. It’s a disappointment, because kids love the Olympics. The Summer Games are great because there are so many sports — from archery to wrestling and plenty of events in between. Nearly 50 sports. This year the Games were going to introduce several new Olympic sports, including sport climbing, surfing and skateboarding. I am sure the Summer Olympics have inspired millions of kids watching on television to say, “That sport looks like fun; maybe I could do it.” In addition, the Summer Games put the spotlight on athletes who don’t get enough recognition during non-Olympic years. Gymnast Simone Biles and swimmer Katie Ledecky (from Bethesda) are among the most dominant athletes in the world. But let’s face it, they don’t get half the attention that Tom Brady or LeBron James gets — except during the Olympics. The Summer Olympics is also one of the few times when female athletes get the same amount of attention on television as male athletes. Of course, that may be because the American women do so well they can’t be ignored. During the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the Americans won the most gold medals with a total of 46. U.S. women won 29 of those gold medals, or 63 percent of the total. So take a deep breath; we will have to wait a year for all of that good stuff. But the International Olympic Committee had no choice. The novel coronavirus has spread to six of the seven continents (it’s not in Antarctica). The Summer Games in Tokyo expected to host more than 11,000 athletes from around the world. But it’s not just the athletes. Thousands more people from the countries’ delegations would accompany the athletes to the Games. Then there would be fans traveling to Tokyo from around the world. That’s too many people traveling to and from one spot during a pandemic. In addition, the athletes couldn’t just stay in their homes before the Olympics. They would have to train for the Games. A survey by the U.S.