The pandemic upended the present. But it’s given us a chance to remake the future.

repeats, “Nothing is written.” The world that is being ushered in as a consequence of the covid-19 pandemic is new and scary. The health crisis has accelerated a number of forces that were already gathering steam. Most fundamentally, it is now blindingly clear that human development as it is happening now is creating ever-greater risks. The backlash from nature is all around us, from wildfires to hurricanes to pandemics, of which covid-19 may simply be the first in a series. The pandemic has intensified other trends, too. For demographic and other reasons, countries will likely see more sluggish economic growth. Inequality will get worse, as the big get bigger in every sphere. Machine learning is moving so fast that, for the first time in history, human beings might lose control over their own creations. Nations are becoming more parochial, their domestic politics more isolationist. The United States and China are headed toward a bitter and prolonged confrontation. It is a dangerous moment. But it is also in times like these that we can shape and alter such trends. To complete the story of our future, we must add in human agency. People can choose which direction they want to push themselves, their societies and their world. In fact, we have more leeway now. In most eras, history proceeds along a set path and change is difficult. But the novel coronavirus has upended society. People are disoriented. Things are already changing and, in that atmosphere, further change becomes easier than ever. Think about the changes we have accepted in our own lives in response to the pandemic. We have agreed to isolate ourselves for long stretches. We have worked, attended meetings and had deeply personal conversations by talking to our laptops. We’ve taken online courses and have seen doctors and therapists using telemedicine. In a month, companies changed policies that would normally have taken them years to revise. Overnight, cities turned avenues into pedestrian walkways and sidewalks into cafes. Attitudes toward people previously ignored or overlooked are shifting, as can been seen in the newly adopted phrase “essential workers.” And governments have opened up their coffers in ways that were once unimaginable and could lead to much greater willingness to invest in the future. These changes could be momentary blips — or the start of something new. We could continue with business as usual and risk cascading crises from climate change


Most covid-19 patients don’t check themselves into hospitals. This is how experts say it usually works.

be assessed, he said. “The amount of variability and nuance in this is extraordinary,” Shapiro said. “This is very complex decision-making that is fed through kind of tried-and-true pathways. We set it up that way so that we can mitigate risk, reduce risk of error and try to do the right thing for the patient so that they’re getting what they need.” Instead of heading straight to the hospital or a medical clinic after testing positive for the coronavirus, doctors say people should follow widely promoted public health guidelines. If you are asymptomatic or have mild symptoms, you should isolate at home to prevent potentially spreading the virus to others, including medical professionals, Arora said. She added that hospitals can also be “dangerous for some people.” “I know many people who go to the hospital who feel worse after going to the hospital because of how hard the hospital stay is,” she said. While isolating at home, it’s important to monitor your symptoms closely, Shapiro said. To help with this process, Mayo Clinic hospitals have been sending kits to patients who are flagged as high-risk, which include a medical-grade thermometer, pulse oximeter and blood-pressure cuff, said Ravindra Ganesh, an internist and director of the clinic’s covid-19 front-line care team in the Midwest. People who receive the kits are also given a cellular tablet that syncs with the monitoring equipment and sends the results to the clinic twice a day, Ganesh said. O’Horo recommended that patients concerned about their symptoms call their primary care providers or hospital system for guidance before showing up at an emergency room. “That’s helpful not only for that triage piece, but if they are going to be going to the emergency room or other health-care areas, it’s always helpful for the receiving facility to know, so that they can have appropriate precautions in place and try to keep other people from getting sick,” he said. Shapiro added that “the health-care system in the United States would be overwhelmed immediately” if people start to go to hospitals because they think they have covid-19 or “they’ve tested positive and they’re otherwise doing okay.” “We don’t have the capacity to provide inpatient care for anywhere close to those numbers of people,” he said, “and then the people that are ill with any number of other things, covid or otherwise, would not be able to get the care they need.”


Local congressional members seek stricter White House safety protocols as D.C. records most new virus cases since June

Don Beyer of Virginia. They urged the Trump administration to disclose the number of infected White House personnel, expedite contact tracing of people exposed to the president and others, and mandate face coverings and social distancing on White House grounds. The lawmakers objected to President Trump’s playing down of the virus. “The American people will never trust the Administration to keep them safe if the White House cannot protect its own staff,” the lawmakers wrote. Norton, D.C.’s nonvoting representative to Congress, separately wrote a letter to White House physician Sean Conley asking why his office has declined the city government’s offer to help conduct contact tracing. She also asked whether anyone in the Trump administration had directed him to rebuff the city’s efforts to help. “Many White House staffers live in the District, and it is imperative that their D.C. neighbors are aware of the risks associated with this ongoing outbreak at the White House,” Norton wrote. Local leaders in the Washington region continued to voice concerns that the White House outbreak could reach their jurisdictions. Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff C. McKay (D-At Large) said Tuesday that county health officials haven’t been notified of confirmed cases with ties to the outbreak. He criticized the White House’s lack of transparency in recent days, which he said is putting lives at risk in Virginia’s most populous locality. “I am concerned about how the White House’s COVID outbreak could impact our residents, many of whom are administration employees,” McKay said in a statement. “Also, our community has responded to the need to protect one another by social distancing, masking, and following health guidelines and we should be able to expect the same care from the President.” In Maryland, Anne Arundel County Health Officer Nilesh Kalyanaraman said he was looking into whether the jurisdiction would release information if a county resident contracted the virus during the Rose Garden event. The greater Washington region on Tuesday recorded 1,143 new infections and 21 virus-related fatalities. Virginia had 625 new cases and 15 deaths, and Maryland had 413 new cases and six deaths, in addition to D.C.’s 105 new cases and zero deaths. The seven-day rolling average of new coronavirus infections across Virginia, Maryland and D.C. has ticked slightly upward in recent days, standing at 1,416 cases Tuesday — up from about 1,300 one week ago. While Virginia’s average daily caseload has held steady


The Daily 202: Trump’s coronavirus battle exemplifies America’s drift toward gerontocracy

2 and 4), one of whom has autism.” The president’s son “was questioned under oath on Monday as part of a civil investigation by New York’s attorney general into whether the Trump family’s real estate company committed fraud,” the Times reports. “While the interview was not made public, the mere fact that it happened before Election Day was a victory for the attorney general, Letitia James, whose inquiry is one of several legal actions the president and his company, the Trump Organization, are facing. Ms. James’s office declined to comment about what was discussed in the deposition, which was conducted remotely and ended around 5 p.m. It was unclear when the questioning began.” “Mr. LaPierre was paid $2.2 million by the NRA in 2018, the most recent year available, the nonprofit group’s public filings show. His total reported pay from 2014 to 2018 was $11.2 million. In August, he was charged in a civil suit by [New York's attorney general] with taking millions of dollars of allegedly undisclosed compensation from the NRA and its vendors,” the Wall Street Journal reports. “Asked at a news conference announcing the lawsuit whether she believed Mr. LaPierre had evaded personal taxes, Ms. James declined to comment but said she was referring the matter to the IRS." All the scandals plaguing the gun lobby hobble them at a time when they'd ordinarily be a major force in the campaign. No outside group, for example, supported Trump in 2016 as much as the NRA. “The revocation of Ukrainian fixer Andrii Telizhenko’s visa comes as U.S. officials crack down on Russian efforts to influence the November vote. The revocation, which hasn’t previously been reported, came shortly before the Treasury Department sanctioned a different Ukrainian who was cooperating with Giuliani — lawmaker Andriy Derkach — and dubbed Derkach an ‘active Russian agent for over a decade’ and said he was trying to interfere in the election,” Ellen Nakashima, David Stern, Natalie Gryvnyak and Paul Sonne report. “Telizhenko was unable to board a Sept. 9 Ukrainian International Airlines flight from Kyiv to New York … Telizhenko accompanied Giuliani during a trip to Kyiv late last year, which included a meeting with Derkach. Derkach’s visa was pulled by the State Department earlier this year.” The conservatives on the court said mail-in ballots must contain a witness’s signature, something federal courts had said should be waived because of the coronavirus. “The


Peking duck isn’t the same without the tableside show, but it’s still mighty fine

Dining at a Michelin-starred restaurant is theater, where you are both audience and actor, where a cast of dozens (pre-pandemic accounting here) creates a space in which every element has a role to play: the calm anonymity of the music, the spare naturalism of the dining room, the enveloping comfort of the chairs, the heft of the silverware, the ivory canvas of the china, the charm of the servers, the quality of the ingredients. For a price, you are dropped into another world, where you become someone who’s waited on like a member of the landed aristocracy, even if you’re a middle-class grinder like me. This experience is largely what we are missing during the pandemic with restaurants: the ability to escape our gnarly existence for a couple of magnificent hours. I was reminded of this recently when, out of nowhere, I had a desire for Peking duck. I’m not trying to compare Duck Chang’s (4427 John Marr Dr., Annandale. 703-941-9400; duckchangs.com), a 45-year-old strip-center institution in Northern Virginia, with the Inn at Little Washington. Yet, there’s no denying the drama of a server working the sharp edge of duck slicer to break down a lacquered bird at the table: It’s one of those rare moments when you get to witness knife technique inside a restaurant. But more than that, the ritual is a link to the past, to Chinese imperial kitchens, where Peking duck was created and where the knowledge of its preparation and carving began to spread to common restaurants. From there, the techniques were handed down from one generation to another and another, over centuries, until they finally arrived at your table in the D.C. suburbs. Peter Chang (no, not that one) is the second-generation proprietor of Duck Chang’s, the place his father, Man Ming Chang, debuted in 1975 after establishing his reputation at several Washington restaurants. Man Ming first learned his trade at his family's restaurant in northern China, but when the communists took control of Beijing, he fled to Hong Kong and then to Thailand, where he would become the chief banquet chef to King Bhumibol Adulyadej. Man Ming later immigrated to the United States to work at The Empress, Imperial Garden and China Gate, Peter Chang tells me. It was within these kitchens that he earned the nickname “Duck” Chang. “Chang himself brings the fowl directly from the oven to the guest — it


Police investigate fatal shooting at gas station in Northwest Washington

Police are trying to determine whether the same people involved in the fatal shooting of a man early Monday at a gas station in upper Northwest Washington also shot and wounded a 75-year-old Uber driver hours earlier and a mile south in Tenleytown. “We are exploring the possibility,” said Brianna Jordan, spokeswoman for D.C. police. She said detectives “are very early in the investigation.” Police said robbery is a possible motive in both incidents. The shootings on well-traveled roads have worried residents in some of the District’s more affluent neighborhoods and come amid a 15 percent increase in homicides from this point in the year in 2019. No arrests have been made. Police identified the man who was slain as Alexander Nwogu, 23, of Blacksburg, Va. One of his best friends and classmates said Nwogu graduated in May from Virginia Tech with an engineering degree and had just started working at a consulting firm in Northern Virginia. A police report said Nwogu suffered blunt trauma to the back of his head and a single gunshot wound to the middle of his back. He was pronounced dead at the scene. D.C. Council member Mary M. Cheh (D-Ward 3) said she and her constituents are worried that the crimes were random. “Shootings, murders are not the normal fare in Upper Northwest,” Cheh said, adding that the two incidents “look like random street crimes. That’s the worst, because you really can’t protect yourself. It could happen to anybody.” The shootings come two weeks after a man was fatally shot Sept. 24 in nearby Friendship Heights in what police described as a robbery involving marijuana. Nwogu was shot about 1:30 a.m. at a Shell gas station in the 4900 block of Connecticut Avenue NW, at Fessenden Street, on the border of the Chevy Chase and Forest Hills neighborhoods. Crime statistics from police show few violent crimes in those communities this year and no slayings before Monday. The gas station is open 24 hours. It’s next to a fire station on a busy stretch of road just south of a popular strip of retail shops. that include the Politics and Prose bookstore and Comet Ping Pong pizza. Television news reports showed what appeared to be the victim’s vehicle being towed away from the gas station by police. At a community meeting Monday evening, police Cmdr. Duncan Bedlion, who oversees the 2nd District station, told residents


An interactive guide to traveling safely for the holidays

including faucets and handles. Keep toiletries inside of a toiletry bag instead of unpacking them onto a towel on the counter. Airbnb responded to the pandemic There are individual sanitation steps you can take as well. Nasia Safdar, the medical director of infection control at the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics, recommends wiping down common surfaces with disinfecting wipes. Consider cleaning the other items you have brought with you into the rental, too, such as phones, computers and luggage. The pandemic has also prompted Airbnb to change its cancellation policy. The retooled extenuating circumstances policy accounts for coronavirus issues, and it applies to reservations made after March 14, 2020, through check-ins on or before Jan. 19, 2021. However, the company has more recently said that to be more fair to hosts, “guests with reservations of stays and Airbnb experiences with a check-in or start date on or after January 20, 2021, will no longer be eligible to cancel under the policy for a refund due to personal circumstances.” (Select all that apply) If you’re flying with luggage Consider mailing gifts ahead of time. If you do choose to travel with gifts, it may be a good idea to sanitize any boxes or bags before presenting them to others. Alvin Tran, an assistant professor of health at the University of New Haven, says that even though research shows the coronavirus spreads more easily from person-to-person transmission than by touching contaminated surfaces, “it’s never a bad idea to wipe any objects down.” 'Tis the season of feasting, If you need to travel with food this holiday season, special pathogens expert Syra Madad recommends “packing your food in a way where other people are not touching it and handling it.” Keep food wrapped securely or sealed in an airtight container to prevent any droplet contamination. If possible, opt for cooking or baking at your destination, to minimize the number of people the food may come in contact with. Coronavirus tests are at the top of pre-trip checklists these days, Two kinds of tests exist to look for active infections. There are a variety of places offering coronavirus testing, including urgent care centers, travel clinics, fire stations, pop-up sites, pharmacies and most hospitals. Lin Chen, a doctor and director of the Travel Medicine Center at Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, Mass., says potential travelers should check in with their primary care provider, who


Leaders in Washington region ask White House to follow safety protocols as coronavirus outbreak spreads

highest number of coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic, released a set of task force recommendations Monday for how to emerge stronger from the pandemic. County Executive Angela D. Alsobrooks (D), who created the task force in the summer, accepted the vast majority of the recommendations, which cover the county’s health system, the economy, education, social services and government operations. The changes are scheduled to be implemented before Jan. 1. “We are living in the milieu of what is truly a triple pandemic,” said Joseph Wright, chief medical officer of University of Maryland Capital Region Health, which oversees Prince George’s Hospital Center in Cheverly, referring to the coronavirus, economic recession and racism. Wright, who headed the task force’s health recovery subcommittee, said the effects of the coronavirus on the health of residents in the majority-Black county combined with the economic recession have made clear the “underlying structural and systemic inequities that lead to the disparities we all know so well.” His group’s recommendations include highlighting funding gaps in the county Health Department, which a recent study by the Rand Corp. found was underfunded compared with those of neighboring counties; requiring groups that receive county funding through the departments of health, social services and family services to collect specific data to address diversity; and requiring a streamlined procedure for acquiring personal protective equipment. Among the economic recommendations were fast-tracking projects near completion to show the county is “open for business” and helping small and minority-owned businesses apply for financial relief. The government operations team recommended transitioning from hard copies of documents to digital; the social services team recommended a mask distribution program and a public service announcement alerting renters about their rights; and the education team urged that public school students receive an iPad or laptop. The work group will release two more reports with long-term goals and recommendations. The greater Washington region on Monday recorded 1,216 new infections and six additional virus-related fatalities. Virginia had 687 new cases and three deaths, Maryland had 501 new cases and three deaths, and the District had 28 new cases and no deaths. The seven-day rolling average of new coronavirus infections across Virginia, Maryland and D.C. has ticked upward over the past week, standing at 1,451 cases Monday. That’s up from 1,293 one week ago. The number of daily deaths in the region on Monday was the lowest since Sept. 13 and


CDC says airborne transmission plays a role in coronavirus spread in a long-awaited update after a website error last month

proximity, within six feet, they are exposed to the whole spectrum of spray that can cause infection. “It’s not just big goobers, but everything that’s exhaled, big and tiny,” said one CDC scientist who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the record. Now, the CDC is saying infection can also spread through exposure to smaller virus-containing droplets and particles that can remain suspended in the air over long distances and time. “There is evidence that under certain conditions, people with COVID-19 seem to have infected others who were more than six feet away,” the updated Web page states. “These transmissions occurred within enclosed spaces that had inadequate ventilation. Sometimes the infected person was breathing heavily, for example while singing or exercising.” “Under these circumstances,” the Web page says, “scientists believe that the amount of infectious smaller droplet and particles produced by the people with COVID-19 became concentrated enough to spread the virus to other people. The people who were infected were in the same space during the same time or shortly after the person with COVID-19 had left.” In a statement, the agency said it “continues to believe, based on current science, that people are more likely to become infected the longer and closer they are to a person with COVID-19.” The CDC added: “Today’s update acknowledges the existence of some published reports showing limited, uncommon circumstances where people with COVID-19 infected others who were more than 6 feet away or shortly after the COVID-19-positive person left an area.” The agency said transmission took place in “poorly ventilated and enclosed spaces that often involved activities that caused heavier breathing, like singing or exercise. Such environments and activities may contribute to the buildup of virus-carrying particles.” The agency said its recommendations for avoiding the virus remain the same. People can protect themselves by staying at least six feet away from others, wearing a mask that covers their nose and mouth, washing their hands frequently, cleaning touched surfaces often and staying home when sick, the CDC said. People should also avoid crowded indoor spaces and ensure indoor spaces are properly ventilated by bringing in outdoor air as much as possible, the agency said. Although many experts have already pointed to mounting evidence that airborne transmission plays a role in spreading the virus, the official acknowledgment from the CDC is certain to add to public


French Open plays on amid new coronavirus restrictions in Paris

5 days of the previous results.” On Sunday, tournament organizers said two players in the junior girls’ tournament beginning this week tested positive for the virus and were removed from the draw. Zverev, who took a medical timeout during his match, said he regretted taking the court. “To be honest, I warmed up today, I shouldn’t have played,” he said. “But I was hoping maybe for a three-set win or something like that, but I knew from the beginning that it wasn’t going to be easy.” With new citywide restrictions beginning Tuesday, Djokovic doesn’t feel the French Open will be affected given the controlled nature of the tournament. The French Tennis Federation confirmed in an email Monday that 1,000 daily spectators will still be allowed on site. The world’s top-ranked player has had his own experience with the coronavirus. Djokovic tested positive following a series of exhibition matches he organized in June, one of at least four players who participated in his Adria Tour who tested positive for the virus. His wife, Jelena, and his fitness coach tested positive as well. In Paris on Monday, the 33-year-old reiterated how grateful he is for the chance to compete at all, even amid new restrictions, given tennis’s five month-long hiatus in spring and early summer. “I mean, it’s hard to see these things unfold again after six months. It’s hard to believe that we’re going to go through that again,” Djokovic said. “I’m just hoping that people will be able to stay mentally sane because we have an opportunity to work and earn money, do what we love. But majority of the people doesn’t have that opportunity. I mean, actually the driver here in Roland Garros that has been driving me and my team for last couple years, he said he had one day of work in the last seven months. “It puts things in perspective, really, makes you more appreciative, I think more grateful that we actually have an opportunity to compete. … I don’t think it can get much better than this considering the circumstances that we have in the world right now.” McAuley reported from Paris. Read more on Jackets, tights and Rafa in sleeves: Welcome to the cold, dreary 2020 French Open Serena Williams withdraws from the French Open with Achilles’ tendon injury At a different French Open, Rafael Nadal looks to tie Roger Federer’s 20 Slam titles


Community deaths

Commissioners Band at dance halls, fraternity houses and cabarets. He played with the Howard Theatre house band and occasionally filled in with bands of jazz greats passing through Washington. A former resident of Cheverly, Md., he moved to Hernando, Fla., in 2015. Mary Hager, 86, a journalist who covered science, medicine, the environment, space and health for Newsweek magazine, died Aug. 4 at a hospice center in Arlington, Va. The cause was septic shock, said a daughter, who also is named Mary Hager. Mrs. Hager, a resident of Falls Church, Va., was born Mary Grant in Los Angeles. She was an editor for Life magazine and a reporter in California before moving to the Washington area in 1976. She was a freelance journalist and a Newsweek staffer for more than 20 years, retiring in 2000. From 2005 to 2017, she was a water aerobics instructor at the McLean (Va.) Racquet and Health Club. David Carstater, 86, a Navy civilian scientist who specialized in energetic materials and rocket propellants, died July 26 at a hospital in Jacksonville, Fla. The cause was complications from covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, said a son, Glenn Carstater. Mr. Carstater was born in Minneapolis and grew up in the Washington area. He spent 30 years as a Navy scientist and retired in 1989 as an adviser to the assistant secretary of the Navy for manufacturing technology, quality and productivity. A former Northern Virginia resident, he moved to Atlantic Beach, Fla., in 1996. Elizabeth Switzer, 88, a budget analyst at the Department of Agriculture in the 1960s who worked at the Pepperidge Farm store in Springfield, Va., in the 1970s, died July 30 at a hospital in Falls Church, Va. The cause was complications from the novel coronavirus, said a daughter, Darby Falls. Mrs. Switzer was born Elizabeth Utz in Philadelphia and grew up in the Washington area. She lived in Fairfax County. John Moore, 90, a professor of agricultural and resource economics at the University of Maryland who retired in 1995 after 33 years on the faculty, died July 17 at a hospital in Silver Spring, Md. The cause was sepsis, said a son, Andrew Moore. Dr. Moore, a resident of College Park, Md., was born in Columbus, Ohio. At U-Md., he was assistant provost for international programs at the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources for 15 years. — From staff reports


How to do Oktoberfest at home: Beer kits, recipes and live streams — lederhosen optional

including beer-garden decor, pretzel- and cocktail-making video guides, recipe ingredients, and everything needed to play the German drinking game flunkyball. For beer lovers, there are a number of limited-time seasonal brews on offer, some coming with other goodies. With its Oktoberfest stein kit, the Open Bottle in Chicago is offering 32 ounces of Revolution Brewing’s seasonal beer, along with two traditional stoneware mugs designed for the occasion. Giant Jones Brewing Company in Madison, Wis., is offering German Fest kits for a DIY Oktoberfest, complete with a 6-pack of beer as well as bratwurst, beer mustard and sauerkraut. For a compelling virtual tasting experience, Devil’s Backbone brewery in Virginia is offering Oktoberfest tasting-note video guides — led by a cellarman in lederhosen, no less. All you’ll have to do first is pick up the seasonal bottles at your local store and, according to the brewery, wear a pretzel necklace for optimal tasting. Oktoberfest is a great excuse to have fun in the kitchen. Try frying up your own crispy schnitzel or fermenting cabbage for sauerkraut to pair with some traditionally cooked sausages. Voraciously, from The Washington Post, has five beer-friendly options here that bring home the fall festivities of Munich. While the world’s largest Oktoberfest is off, the largest in the United States will still hold some activities in person and virtually through Sunday. Cincinnati’s Oktoberfest Zinzinnati will be live-streaming musical performances nightly and holding the world’s largest Oktoberfest prost, or cheers, on Saturday. (It already held the world’s largest chicken dance last weekend.) There’s also a dachshund photo competition running until Sunday, in lieu of Zinzinnati’s annual “Running of the Wieners.” If you want to learn more about the world’s largest fall festival, travel provider EF Go Ahead Tours recently launched a line of fully remote “Online Escapes,” starting with a live Oktoberfest experience offered through Oct. 4. The one-hour interactive “tour” is led by a seasoned Oktoberfest guide and covers the event’s history, as well as traditional songs, food, costumes and relevant customs. Among them? How to prost and the right way to eat a traditional German sausage. Read more: Halloween shops seeing little demand for costumes: ‘I’ve never been this worried’ Lufthansa to roll out rapid coronavirus testing, a move that could change pandemic air travel If you’re traveling for the holidays, now is the time to book flights 7 questions about getting your passport right now, answered


How covid-19 has affected school budgets so far — and what lies ahead without more federal aid

A coalition of education groups is urging Congress to provide at least $200 billion to help schools weather the covid-19 pandemic at a time when state revenue is lagging and school districts are facing unprecedented needs. School superintendents have been warning for months that they need more help from the federal government for the 2020-21 school year to adapt to the new learning environments that are necessary to keep students engaged during the pandemic. Congress has passed several stimulus packages, which have helped districts significantly for the first semester of the academic year, but has been unable to yet agree on a new deal that school districts say must include substantial help for them. The Democratic-led House is now pushing for a package that would include $225 billion for education, but the Republican-led Senate has indicated it doesn’t want to spend nearly as much. And it is unclear whether any compromise will be made before the November election, which would significantly affect school districts trying to plan for next semester. A letter signed by 19 major education organizations says that school districts must have the following: This post It was written by Michael Griffith and William Berry. Griffith is a senior researcher and policy analyst at the Learning Policy Institute, a California-based nonprofit that conducts research to improve education policy and practice. Berry is a doctoral student in education policy at George Washington University. The post was originally published by the Learning Policy Institute, and I was given permission to publish it. It has been more than six months since the coronavirus changed just about everything in our lives. How we work, play, and learn have all been dramatically altered since March. The pandemic has also upended state education budgets, leaving policymakers and analysts unsure how to plan for coming needs. Although cuts to school budgets have not yet been as severe as originally predicted, the evidence indicates that much more severe challenges lie ahead. This blog post explains how covid-19 has affected state education budgets — and explores the implications for public education funding this year and into the future. Protecting education funding Why are state education budgets looking better than some have predicted? Simply put, federal and state moves to infuse new funds and implement stopgap measures have been effective at stabilizing public education budgets — for now, at least. But without additional federal funds, we should prepare


stabilize state revenue during some trying months. Additionally, consumers spent much of these additional resources in their local communities, supporting local businesses and thus generating additional sales tax revenue. State action While additional federal funding helped, it was not enough. States still had to tap reserves or take other steps to balance their budgets. For example, during this recession, as in past recessions, states have enacted one-time budgetary moves to avoid cutting education budgets. These maneuvers included tapping reserve accounts, delaying spending on specific activities, or even delaying payments to districts. While states had record amounts in their reserve accounts before the downturn, those funds are now significantly depleted. Many states used these funds to stabilize their fiscal year 2019—20 budgets and help avoid or minimize cuts to their 2020—21 budgets. However, these funds alone will not be enough to weather the current economic storm that could bring with it more severe education cuts in 2021 and beyond. During bad economic times, states commonly reduce or cancel spending on individual programs (such as capital projects or pension payments). One last way that governments have chosen to deal with a reduction in education funding is to postpone some payments to districts until the next fiscal year. Deferring funding to districts allows states to balance their books for the current year, but school districts pay the price for this one-time budgetary move. For example, California will be delaying $11 billion (13.5 percent) in public education spending in the 2020—21 school year until the 2021—22 school year. What all of these state budgetary maneuvers have in common is that they can only be used once and thus are only a short-term solution to a long-term problem. The unpredictability of state revenue during covid-19 Another issue that state policymakers are facing is the unpredictability of revenue streams. Why? Because no one working in government today has ever dealt with the financial impact of a pandemic. State and local “stay-in-place” orders resulted in an almost total shutdown of commerce in April and May. After those orders were lifted in June, states saw a burst of economic activity unheard of during traditional economic downturns. For example, some states, like Massachusetts and Texas, experienced increases in sales tax revenue this summer. However, in some states the opening up of the economy was accompanied by a surge of covid-19 cases, which in turn forced additional rounds of economic


Google, Oracle square off on landmark copyright case at the Supreme Court

developed the competing iOS technology, did not. “They spent the billions of dollars necessary. Presumably, you could have,” Sotomayor said. But the code was so basic to the way applications interoperate with Android that Google had no other choice but to use the Java code, its lawyer Thomas Goldstein said. “We couldn’t write a computer program that would respond to the developers’ instructions without reusing this limited set of instructions,” Goldstein said. Justice Neil M. Gorsuch pressed Goldstein on a similar point, that because Java was more “particularly elegant, efficient or successful,” Google wanted to “ride on their innovation.” Questioned later by Justice Elena Kagan, Goldstein described the Java code that Google used as “connective tissue between computer programs,” adding that “it is at the most barely creative.” Google has won the support of several tech companies, including Microsoft, which argued in its own brief that the appeals court ruling in Oracle’s favor “risks upsetting long-settled expectations” that have allowed the tech industry to flourish by enabling programs to interoperate. Oracle’s toughest questioning came from Justice Stephen G. Breyer, who wondered whether the code that Google used was more like the development of the “QWERTY” keyboard, something of a utility that isn’t deserving of copy protection and would disrupt the marketplace if companies needed to license it. “At this point in time, it’s really tough, just like the QWERTY keyboard, to go backwards,” Breyer said. “And very bad consequences will flow if you don’t see that distinction.” Oracle lawyer Joshua Rosenkranz countered that the analogy wasn’t apt. “This is not like the QWERTY keyboard. There was never anything expressive in QWERTY,” Rosenkranz said. “It was purely mechanical.” The solicitor general, who represents the federal government before the court, filed a brief in support of Oracle’s case and presented an oral argument on the company’s behalf. Breyer pressed the government on his QWERTY keyboard analogy, as well, asking if a ruling in Oracle’s favor would be akin to giving monopoly power over something that is already in wide use. Unlike the Java code Google used, the QWERTY keyboard is “not sufficiently creative," deputy solicitor general Malcolm Stewart argued. Oracle has long had a close relationship with the Trump administration, and separately is seeking to secure a stake in the popular video app TikTok, which has sought U.S. investors to stave off a ban in the country over President Trump’s security concerns.


What does flying look like right now? 6 travelers share their experiences.

Air travel is in flux. At the beginning of the pandemic, photos of nearly empty planes circulated as the Transportation Security Administration hit record-low passenger numbers in the spring. By summer, flights were going viral for the opposite reason: They were so packed that one even inspired a U.S. senator to propose a bill to ban airlines from booking middle seats during the pandemic. Now that airlines are adding flights back into their schedules and more travelers are flying, what is actually happening on planes? With the holiday travel season just around the corner and as people gauge their comfort levels while coronavirus risks remain, we spoke with six travelers about their recent domestic and international flying experiences. Kyle Potter is the editor of the travel site Thrifty Traveler. Based in Minneapolis, Potter has been limiting air travel as much as possible during the pandemic, but he has recently flown to California to see family and has taken a few work trips to compare flying experiences. “It felt safe, it felt fine, and I’m still not eager to get on a plane again soon, which is very rare,” he says. Potter says that while he has experienced full flights, airports have been emptier than he has ever seen before. However, “there are areas in every airport that you may want to avoid,” he says. “Checking in at the airport desk and getting in line to drop off baggage and then getting to the baggage carousel where people also congregate — these are the only places in the airport really where there are any crowds whatsoever.” To avoid some of those crowded hot spots, Potter recommends travelers stick to carry-on bags instead of checked luggage during the pandemic. After comparing how four airlines — American, Delta, United and Southwest — were approaching their coronavirus measures, Potter says travelers can feel more safe or less safe depending on the airline they take. “If people are going to travel or are thinking about it, they need to do their research … because every single airline is doing things drastically differently right now in terms of blocking middle seat, how they clean, what kind of service you get on board, whether they’re boarding the plane from back to front or boarding as normal,” Potter says. For her first work trip of the pandemic, Amanda Burroughs flew from her home in D.C. to Houston on


We’re suing the Pentagon to find out where U.S. troops are deployed

President Trump has repeatedly said he’s terminating “the era of endless wars” and bringing troops home. But is that at all true? And if troops are returning home as quickly as Trump has claimed, is he being upfront about what’s going on in the countries they leave behind? The Defense Department has claimed any reduction of U.S. forces abroad will be guided by conditions on the ground. In early September, the Pentagon announced new drawdowns of U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. In Iraq, the military said the number of U.S. troops would fall from 5,200 to 3,000. In Afghanistan, the number is supposed to fall to 4,500 by November. In June, the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan was reportedly at 8,600. These drawdowns are occurring right before the presidential election. And like Trump’s unrealistic vaccine promise and his missing health-care plan, it requires scrutiny from the news media and the American public to understand whether Trump is actually delivering, and whether these troop movements are responsive to what’s happening on the ground or are politically motivated to help Trump secure a second term. But the Trump administration stopped releasing data on troop deployments in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria starting in December 2017, which makes it extremely difficult to see whether they’re really withdrawing troops as the president said they would. Before then, under both Republican and Democratic administrations, the Defense Department made publicly available the number of U.S. civilian and military personnel serving in these countries in quarterly manpower reports. To restart the release of this information, we filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request in April, but the Pentagon failed to respond. So we sued the U.S. government Wednesday to release this data, as well as information that shows why these records were kept hidden from the American public. The Project on Government Oversight will be filing a complaint as well in the coming days. As our lawsuit states, “This data served as a critical source of specific and consistent official information about the U.S. military presence in key combat zones. Transparency on troop levels has been essential for public oversight and accountability concerning the progress of military operations in the Middle East and South Asia.” To understand what’s going on in these war zones, Americans need access to this vital information. Is Trump keeping his pledge? As U.S. military personnel are drawn down, are the


Bringing the chill of the cosmos to a warming planet

bring it into the world. The company produces SkyCool panels that can be incorporated into existing cooling systems. Water running through the panels is chilled by the film, then transported into the air-conditioning system, where it lowers the temperature of the refrigerant. This reduces the amount of electricity needed to turn hot air into cold. It wasn’t difficult to convince Jesus Valenzuela, store manager at the Stockton, Calif., Grocery Outlet, to test the technology. Between the deli case, the dairy aisle, the freezer section and all the backroom storage, cooling alone cost him more than $100,000 a year. On top of that, the California native was worried by the disasters climate change had already wrought on his state. An offer from Lime Energy to pay the installation fee sealed the deal. If the film worked, Valenzuela would only owe SkyCool Systems the savings from his electricity bill for the first two years. The panels were installed this spring. Though Eli Goldstein, SkyCool’s co-founder and CEO, explained the technology to him, he didn’t quite get how the coldness of space could help chill chicken cutlets and freezer pizza. “There’s a lot of technical things I don’t know about,” he said. But that didn’t matter: The SkyCool panels had lowered his electric bill by about $3,000 over the course of the summer, he said. “All I know,” Valenzuela said, “is that it’s saving me money.” The SkyCool technology still needs to be refined, Atkinson said, and it must become significantly cheaper before it can be deployed widely. But the big scientific hurdle has been surmounted, he said. The rest is mostly business. Meanwhile, Goldstein, Raman and their colleagues are working on further applications of the film. With a grant from the California Energy Commission, they have contracted with the California State University System to replace all the air conditioners in a school building — hoping to cool the entire structure with just the sky. In May, Raman published a journal article on the possibility of modifying off-the-shelf paints to enhance radiative cooling; if it works, building owners could simply paint their roofs to make the structures significantly cooler. Raman has even researched the possibility of using radiative cooling to create light. In a study last year in the journal Joule, he demonstrated how cooling one side of a thermoelectric generator while keeping the other at air temperature could create a temperature gradient


France and Germany to propose sanctions on Russia after Navalny poisoning

Swedish laboratories that Navalny had been poisoned by a nerve agent in the same family as Novichok, a chemical weapon developed by the Soviet Union. Traces in Navalny’s blood and urine “have similar structural characteristics” as the toxic chemicals in the Novichok family, the OPCW said. Novichok was also used in the poisoning of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter two years ago in Salisbury, Britain. After Western intelligence linked that attack to Russian state security agents, the European Union sanctioned two Russian military intelligence chiefs and the two men Britain suspected of being responsible for carrying out the poisoning. The Trump administration imposed sanctions on a wide range of exports. In his first media interviews, Navalny has directly blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for the attack. “I assert that Putin was behind the crime,” he told the German magazine Der Spiegel. “I have no other explanation for what happened. Proposing individual sanctions indicates that the Nord Stream 2 pipeline may be spared. The project, which will bring Russian gas to Germany under the Baltic Sea, has faced increasing scrutiny amid worsening relations between Berlin and Moscow. Just last month, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper, “I hope the Russians won’t force us to change our position regarding Nord Stream 2.” But Navalny himself advocated for individual sanctions targeting oligarchs and other members of Putin’s inner circle rather than punitive economic measures that could hurt everyday Russians. “The most important thing is to impose entry bans on profiteers of the regime and freeze their assets,” Navalny told the German daily Bild. “They embezzle money, steal billions and at the weekend they fly to Berlin or London, buy expensive apartments and sit in cafes.” In the interview, Navalny singled out Valery Gergiev, chief conductor of the Munich Philharmonic, who supported Putin in the last election, and former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, who now works for Russian energy firms. Berlin has also accused Russia of being behind the brazen daylight assassination of Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, a Georgian citizen of Chechen descent, in a Berlin park last year. He had previously fought with Chechen rebels against Russia. The 55-year-old Russian accused of carrying out the murder, named by prosecutors as Vadim K., went on trial in Berlin on Wednesday. “Our findings show this was a contract murder by Russian state authorities,” prosecutor Ronald Georg told reporters.


Halted stimulus talks undercut already ailing airlines and transit systems

Flynn told lawmakers last month that if Congress does not provide the supplemental funding, even more dramatic reductions across the company would be necessary to “stave off bankruptcy.” The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority also could be forced to make steep cuts. “With 1,700 jobs on the line, we are devastated to learn that negotiations to continue Covid Relief Funding have been abruptly cut off, likely for weeks,” Metro spokesman Dan Stessel said. “Let’s be clear: Metro is out of time. This will impact riders and hurt transit employees — the same heroes who were on the front-lines transporting nurses, first responders, federal employees, and small business owners every day of this pandemic — who now face the imminent threat of layoffs as service cuts go into effect.” The potential cuts would affect not only Metro, but transit agencies across the United States and will be tough on workers and riders, advocates said. Union leaders said job losses and onboard safety are both at stake. Fewer buses will lead to “overcrowding, which is going to create more of an issue with the spread of the coronavirus. I’ve lost 89 members already, and this is going to do more,” said John A. Costa, international president of the Amalgamated Transit Union. Costa said the billions in additional aid for transit would, in addition to staving off layoffs, have gone toward needed personal protective gear for drivers and other workers, and for equipment to make vehicles safer. The American Public Transportation Association said a recent survey of its members showed “that 6 in 10 public transit systems will need to reduce service and furlough employees in the coming months without emergency federal funding from Congress.” It said nearly half of businesses in the public transit industry expect layoffs, and a nearly third “are concerned that they may go out of business” without additional aid. “There are millions of workers in American cities who will be stranded if transit agencies don’t get relief, and this decision today is going to be devastating for agency budgets,” said Ben Fried, a spokesman for the research and advocacy organization TransitCenter. “The front line transportation workers who have been at the center of COVID-19 relief efforts have real financial and health and safety needs that deserve immediate congressional action,” said Larry Willis, president of the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO, a coalition of 33 unions. “The game President Trump


The secret to innovation is freedom — and that’s reason for optimism

for growing polio virus in minced monkey kidneys. One thing led to another, and to a vaccine, and the almost complete eradication of polio. These mind-opening vignettes are from Ridley’s “How Innovation Works: And Why It Flourishes in Freedom.” There are others: Pre-coronavirus pandemic, more than 10 times as many people were flying as in 1970, when the number of air fatalities was more than 10 times higher than today. This safety improvement, Ridley writes, “has happened in an era of deregulation and falling prices. Far from leading to cut corners and risk taking, the great democratization of the airline industry over the past half-century, with its fast turnarounds, no-frills service and cheap tickets, has coincided with a safety revolution.” Increased competition also increased innovation. In the half-century between 1960 and 2010, the acreage needed to produce a given quantity of food declined about 65 percent because of agricultural innovations. If this had not happened, most acres of forest, wetland and nature reserve would be turned to agriculture. Instead, most are increasing. Innovation has driven “dematerializing,” doing more with fewer resources: “By 2015 America was using 15 percent less steel, 32 percent less aluminum and 40 percent less copper than at its peaks of using these metals, even though its population was larger and its output of goods and services much larger.” There are more bank tellers — and they are doing more interesting things than counting out money — than before ATMs arrived. It is serendipitous that the new book by Ridley, who has a keen sense of serendipity’s role in scientific and (hence) societal advances, arrives during the pandemic. “The main ingredient in the secret sauce that leads to innovation,” he writes, “is freedom. Freedom to exchange, experiment, imagine, invest, and fail.” The vast and lingering damage done by the global lockdown will include governments’ opportunistic expansions of their controls of almost everything, and an increased tendency of people to look to government for shelter from all uncertainties. But one enormous benefit may result: There is an unflattering contrast between the tardy, lumbering, often blunderbuss response of many governments to the coronavirus and the nimble adjustments of individuals in their behavior and of commercial entities in their arrangements. So, perhaps there will be a healthier appreciation of the creativity of a free society’s unplannable spontaneous order. Read more from George F. Will’s archive or follow him on Facebook.


D.C., White House officials begin talks on contact-tracing efforts after outbreak

The Trump administration and D.C.’s top public health official had their first conversation this week about contact-tracing efforts tied to an expanding coronavirus outbreak at the White House. The communication comes after Mayor Muriel E. Bowser sent a stern letter to the White House on Tuesday requesting a conversation about the outbreak. While the ranks of administration officials testing positive continue to grow, local leaders across the Washington region have said there’s no evidence of a widespread caseload rise tied to the outbreak. Bowser (D) on Wednesday said the White House and D.C. Health Director LaQuandra Nesbitt discussed contact tracing the previous day, although it wasn’t clear what action might emerge from the talks. “I can tell you that Dr. Nesbitt asked them about their processes. She shared with them our capabilities and how we could be supportive, as well, and I suspect that that dialogue will continue,” she said. Bowser said Monday the city reached out to the White House last week about the outbreak but had received no response. Asked Wednesday about the outbreak that involves more than a dozen people — including President Trump, first lady Melania Trump, several aides and journalists — Bowser said officials are “concerned about the spread of covid-19 in our city, regardless of where it happened.” She encouraged anyone who works at the White House who thinks they might have been exposed to the novel coronavirus to get tested at a city-operated testing location, a private doctor or through the White House. “All D.C. residents should recognize that D.C. Health protects their information, and so D.C. Health will not talk about a specific White House staffer to anybody,” said Bowser, who Wednesday extended the city’s public health emergency through the end of the year. In a phone call with members of the D.C. Council, Nesbitt said she expects to have more discussions with White House officials about the outbreak. “They have clarified for us what their contact-tracing process is, and our conversations will continue to be ongoing to ensure that we are getting all of the information that is necessary and the contact tracing and testing infrastructure is sufficient to capture everything that needs to be done,” she said. During the call, Nesbitt noted that of 246 recent interviews with D.C. residents who have tested positive for the coronavirus, 22 percent contracted it at a workplace, 13 percent while traveling, 19 percent


at a restaurant and 22 percent at a social gathering. The Rose Garden event Sept. 26 suspected of being at the center of the outbreak came as D.C.’s seven-day rolling average of new cases dropped below 40 this month, the lowest since early July. The rolling average of new cases stood at 53 on Wednesday — the highest since Sept. 17 — stemming mostly from a one-day spike Tuesday of 105 additional cases. The figure of 45 new D.C. cases announced Wednesday was near the city’s recent average, while the 1,014 new daily cases reported across the greater Washington region was the lowest since Sept. 28. D.C. officials have said Tuesday’s jump could be the result of a backlog of more than 8,000 coronavirus test results the city recently received on a single day, rather than having any White House connection. Health officials said they are looking for trends in new infections but have warned against drawing conclusions after a single-day increase. The growing spotlight on the White House outbreak has led to a rise in residents seeking coronavirus tests this week, with numbers up at the city’s free testing sites. In response to the surge in demand at public testing locations, Bowser spokeswoman Susana Castillo said LabCorp is providing the city with 17,200 tests for the week, exceeding the 10,000 normally allotted. Virginia Department of Health officials said Wednesday that they weren’t aware of any positive cases in the state connected to the outbreak, while Maryland health officials said they wouldn’t disclose such information. Health officials in Maryland’s Prince George’s County said they weren’t aware of any virus infections with White House connections. And officials in Montgomery County on Wednesday urged residents who work in the White House or U.S. Capitol, or who attended the Rose Garden ceremony, to get tested for the coronavirus. Montgomery health officer Travis Gayles said the state’s most populous jurisdiction expects to see an increase in people getting tested and “may very well see an increase in cases secondary to those exposures.” “We do know that over the weekend, we did have a number of folks reach out to the state and to the local jurisdiction asking where they could get tested, particularly related to rapid tests,” he said during a news conference. County Executive Marc Elrich (D) said it’s unclear how many people connected to the White House or the Rose Garden event


No, Mr. President. Covid-19 is not easy for everyone to overcome.

More than 210,000 people have died of covid-19 in the United States, a morbid landmark that reveals the profound effect of this pandemic on American lives. Yet, despite testing positive for the coronavirus last week, President Trump is still downplaying the virus’s impact. During a recent rally in Ohio, he even claimed “it affects virtually no one.” Even on Monday, as he was preparing to leave Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, he counseled Americans not to let the virus “dominate your life,” because his administration had developed “some really great drugs & knowledge.” Trump said he felt better than he had 20 years ago — seeming to equate his unprecedented care with that available to average Americans. But especially for communities of color disproportionately, access to the kind of medical care Trump got is limited. Ignoring the health of Black people, and discounting their deaths as a consequence, is nothing new. Black health in the U.S. South from the colonial period throughout much of the 20th century has mostly been a history of self-reliance and governmental neglect. The history of the 1849 cholera pandemic, for example, exposes how White elites blamed the victims of pandemics to maintain the economy — in this case cotton and sugar production. In 1833 and 1849, the United States, like much of the rest of the world, suffered from unprecedented cholera epidemics. Across the nation, the pandemic struck the working class the worst. Historians have long written about how doctors during this period often blamed victims of cholera, instead of their own inadequacy in treating the disease. During the first half of the 19th century, White physicians in New York City censured the supposed immorality of the immigrant poor rather than addressing the illness that they knew little about and certainly could not cure. Enslaved Black people in the rural South were similarly vulnerable to cholera. Despite laboring outside, enslaved people often lived in tightly packed quarters. This dynamic increased the likelihood of interpersonal spread of the intestinal ailment. No simple mortality rate exists for the South’s 1849 epidemic, but even the imperfect historical record reveals a disproportionate toll on Black southerners. Both in number of cases and deaths, Black people suffered disproportionately more than Whites in the South. Yet, cholera on plantations was at least partially preventable. Few enslavers built privies or outhouses for enslaved laborers. As a result, human waste often was


The Health 202: Genetic tracing could show how coronavirus spread through White House

colleagues Sarah Kaplan, Desmond Butler, Juliet Eilperin, Chris Mooney and Luis Velarde, tumor geneticist Paraic Kenny sequenced samples taken from people in the small town of Postville, Iowa. By looking at variants in their genetic coding, he was able to identify a cluster of cases that all originated from one meatpacking plant. “Infectious particles swabbed from a patient’s nose carry small but distinctive differences in its genome that can be used, like a molecular bar code, to track where the virus came from and how it had been transmitted,” More White House staffers announced yesterday that they have been infected. They include senior policy adviser Stephen Miller, who tested positive along with several others who helped Trump prepare for last week’s debate. Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who checked himself into the hospital after testing positive, has said masks were not worn while prepping the president. NBC News's Kelly O'Donnell: There's also news that a military aide who traveled with Trump to Bedminster, where the president mingled with more than 200 people at a campaign fundraiser, also tested positive: A Coast Guard aide is also infected. Jennifer Jacobs, senior White House reporter for Bloomberg News: Others who have contracted the virus also include assistant press secretary Jalen Drummond, who attended a Sept. 26 Rose Garden event where Trump announced Amy Coney Barrett as his Supreme Court nominee. While others who attended that event – including Republican Sens. Mike Lee and Thom Tillis – later tested positive, several White House press aides are also infected. From the New York Times's Maggie Haberman: The Rose Garden event has prompted speculation it may have turned into a so-called “superspreader event” where the virus was transmitted to many people. The White House could do genetic tracing for those attendees, as well as people who attended a ceremony one day later in the East Room of the White House. That event, which recognized the families of deceased service members, was attended by Trump, Vice President Pence, Defense Secretary Mark Esper, and top generals and admirals. Now some of them are isolating after Adm. Charles W. Ray, the vice commandant of the Coast Guard, tested positive for the virus on Monday, the service announced yesterday. Attendees were tested before the event, but most attendees didn’t wear masks or maintain social distancing, according to White House photographs. The vice president, who leads Trump's coronavirus task force,


who headed the powerful Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, was abruptly reassigned in April to a lesser position at the National Institutes of Health,” Stat News’s Nicholas Florko writes. “Bright has alleged he was moved after raising concerns about the Trump administration’s response to Covid-19 and nepotism within the Department of Health and Human Services.” In May, Bright filed a whistleblower complaint against HHS in which he said he was pressured to allow for the distribution of hydroxychloroquine, an unproven covid-19 treatment championed by Trump. On Tuesday, Bright amended his complaint to include his decision to resign. The amended complaint said that, since being reassigned, the former pandemic preparedness leader had only been given one assignment to complete. “Dr. Bright has been assigned no meaningful work since September 4, 2020, when he completed the one assignment given to him at NIH,” the amended complaint states. “He has been idle for weeks … The federal government is paying Dr. Bright, one of the nation’s leading experts in pandemic preparedness and response, and an internationally recognized expert in vaccine and diagnostic development, to sit on his hands during a global pandemic that has, to date, killed one million people globally and over 210,000 people within the United States.” Trump said he intends to participate in next week’s presidential debate on Oct. 15 in Miami. But with at least 11 positive virus cases linked to last Tuesday’s debate, the prospect of a nominee showing up for an in-person debate only 10 days after leaving the hospital has some worried. Biden indicated that he would not debate if Trump still had covid-19. In remarks to reporters on Tuesday, he said he would follow recommendations from doctors and the Cleveland Clinic. The Centers for Disease Control has said people with mild to moderate cases of covid-19 remain infectious for no longer than 10 days after symptoms start, but the time can be doubled for those with severe cases, the New York Times's Sydney Ember reports. Biden’s running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) will face off with Pence in a debate tonight. After disagreement over public health precautions, the two camps have agreed to debate at a distance of 12 feet with plexiglass barriers. With health care expected to be a central concern in today’s vice-presidential debate, the Times reviewed Harris’s record opposing mergers between large health-care groups and anticompetitive behavior by hospital systems and


Restaurant industry scrambles for solutions as Trump administration waffles on stimulus talks

the idea that anyone was coming to save us as an industry back in April,” Ian Boden, chef and owner of the Shack in Staunton, Va., wrote on Facebook. “We like always are on our own.” Bobby Stuckey, co-founder of the Frasca Hospitality Group with restaurants in Denver and Boulder, Colo., sent an email statement to The Post, saying, “I have received countless texts from people in the industry who are crushed by this news. The uncertainty is killer for many businesses who have been accumulating tons of debt for months. With colder temperatures making outdoor dining impossible, no vaccine in sight and rising positivity rates in many states, many restaurant owners have no choice but to close.” It’s hard for restaurateurs to know exactly where the Trump administration stands on a stimulus package, particularly after the president reversed course again late Tuesday in a string of tweets, saying he was ready to sign at least a partial stimulus package for Americans and small business. Trump previously said that “immediately after I win, we will pass a major Stimulus Bill that focuses on hardworking Americans and Small Business,” but he is also trailing in the polls. Many speculated that, should Trump lose, an economic stimulus package may not arrive until after Joe Biden is inaugurated in January, “There’s been no indication right now whether or not in a lame duck session, he would pass" a relief bill, said Colicchio. "You would think that the Republicans, even post-election, would want to have some sort of win, and they can say they pushed this through. But who knows?” Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), who introduced the original Restaurants Act, said he’s still working with colleagues on both sides of the aisle to get legislation passed in the House and Senate. “Despite the tweets, restaurant relief is still very much in play as the administration tries to make sense of Trump’s incoherent positions," the Congressman said in an email to The Post. "He’s already walked back some of his comments after massive blowback. I think we’ll see the same with restaurant relief given the broad bipartisan support and urgent need in the industry.” Read more on Voraciously Wildfires claim a Michelin-three-star restaurant and multiple wineries in Napa Valley Diners angry about masks and other coronavirus rules prompt training for restaurant workers In the quest for a pandemic coping mechanism, I’ve become a cookie monster


Nobel Prize in chemistry awarded to two women who developed CRISPR, a revolutionary gene-editing tool

A pair of scientists — Jennifer A. Doudna, a biochemist at the University of California at Berkeley, and Emmanuelle Charpentier, a French microbiologist — won the 2020 Nobel Prize in chemistry Wednesday for their work developing a revolutionary gene-editing tool that can change the DNA of plants and animals with extraordinary precision. The technique, called CRISPR -Cas9, is already being used as a cancer therapy and to cure inherited diseases. “This year’s prize is about rewriting the code of life,” said Goran K. Hansson, secretary general of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. This was the first time two women jointly won a Nobel in chemistry. “I wish that this will provide a positive message, specifically, to young girls who would like to follow the path of science,” Charpentier told reporters Wednesday morning. “I’m over the moon, I’m in shock, I couldn’t be happier,” Doudna said at a University of California at Berkeley news conference. She said she and Charpentier are “waving to each other across the Atlantic right now.” Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, said this prize was a long time coming. The 2012 publication of the scientists’ paper describing CRISPR is one of the most-cited studies in modern science. “Every year we are like: ‘Okay, is this going to be the year?’ ” he said, adding that he was “absolutely thrilled at 5:30 in the morning” to see the Nobel committee recognize the two researchers. Ancient microorganisms developed the first version of CRISPR as their immune system. Because bacteria use it to slice out foreign genetic material once viruses invade, CRISPR-Cas9 is frequently likened to molecular scissors. It can hunt for specific sections of DNA and snip those out: The human cell contains about 6 billion chemical units of DNA, called base pairs. CRISPR’s tremendous power is that it can find and cut just one. What’s more, when manipulated by scientists, CRISPR has the flexibility of a word processor — with functions such as find-and-replace, find-and-delete or simply find. “We can now change the genetic information in any cell in any organism,” said Claes Gustafsson, chairman of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry. Since its discovery eight years ago, the tool has been widely deployed in research laboratories. It has transformed the patterns of butterfly wings and allowed scientists, for the first time, to mutate ants. It also has been used for plant breeding and


swirl of genetic material taken from a nasal swab. That has the potential to be a faster and more precise tool than the tests that use a technique called PCR, Collins said. CRISPR’s great power has also spurred controversy. In 2018, a researcher in China used CRISPR to edit human embryos in an attempt to make them immune from HIV, an approach Doudna and other scientists condemned as reckless and unethical. Those embryos were carried to term, with twin babies. A Chinese court sentenced the scientist, He Jiankui, to three years in prison. And the tool has sparked a long-running patent battle between two groups that claim ownership, one led by the University of California that includes the two prize winners, and the other by MIT and Harvard’s Broad Institute. A biochemist there, Feng Zhang, pioneered the use of CRISPR in animal and plant cells. Doudna said she did not think the Nobel award would affect the ongoing patent case. Many scientists also considered Zhang a contender for the Nobel Prize. At Wednesday’s announcement, Gustafsson declined to answer whether the Nobel committee considered other CRISPR researchers for this year’s prize. “It’s a big field, and there’s a lot of good science. … I can only say that,” he said. Geneticist Eric Lander, director of the Broad Institute, tweeted: “Huge congratulations to Drs. Charpentier and Doudna on the @NobelPrize for their contributions to the amazing science of CRISPR!” Since 1901, the Nobel Committee has awarded 112 prizes in chemistry to 186 people. Seven, including Doudna and Charpentier, were women. “I’m proud of my gender,” Doudna said. “For many women there’s a feeling that, no matter what they do, their work will never be recognized as it might be if they were a man. I’d like to see that change.” Last year, John B. Goodenough became the oldest person to win a Nobel — he was 97 — for his work developing lithium-ion batteries, an award he shared with chemists M. Stanley Whittingham and Akira Yoshino. Charpentier and Doudna split a prize of 10 million Swedish kronor, or about $560,000 each. The University of California at Berkeley also awarded Doudna a free parking space on campus. Read more: American Andrea Ghez, 2 others win Nobel Prize in physics for discoveries about black holes Nobel Prize in medicine awarded for work on hepatitis C Scientists debate the ethics of an unnerving gene-editing technique


Trump is losing his new ‘Cold War’ with China

authoritarian strongmen and disdains democratic leaders. He threatens to cut off alliances with South Korea and Japan unless they fulfill his whims. He treats America’s soldiers like mercenaries for hire. Trump transfers defense funds to his wall against Mexico instead of investing in new technologies and weapons to deny China’s domain in the sea in the event of conflict. Nor can Trump grasp how economic ties can boost security. He trashed the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which would have deepened economic ties with 11 friends while advancing economic rules that China needs to respect. Trump has no interest in human rights. His acolytes think that throwing out journalists, shutting down a consulate and imposing sanctions on Chinese officials show strength. Instead, the United States signals fear and weakness. China cannot compete with America’s appeal as an open society. The United States can compete successfully with China, which faces huge economic, demographic, health and environmental problems. China’s global bullying offers opportunities for deft, not daft, diplomacy. For example, the best way to challenge China’s intimidation in Hong Kong would be to open freedom’s door to the people of Hong Kong. America’s competitive strength begins at home. The United States should be a magnet for people, ideas, innovation, investments and trade. America’s internal arguments — for example about the #MeToo and Black Lives Matter movements — spark global debates. When a democratic America overcomes problems, the country shines as a beacon. The United States needs to draw others to our side by listening, offering respect and prodding action in pursuit of common interests. “America First” should not mean America alone. Countries around the Indo-Pacific want the United States to compete with China, not to pretend to contain it. While China has been working within international organizations to advance its national interests, the United States has been disengaging, and occasionally stomping away in frustration. The United States should be the world’s leader in biological security; inclusive economic growth; environmental safety; cybersecurity, data privacy and digital opportunity; nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction; and fostering free societies. That agenda can rebuild the Atlantic alliance; the combined weight of America and Europe can push back against China. But there’s also room for cooperation with China. Trump ceded the fight, retreating through decoupling and state-directed trade. But the United States should be insisting on reciprocity through rules. For example, China’s new intellectual property courts are finding for foreigners


Nike was born on the track. Scandal and the pandemic may change its running business.

bit of money into track and field.” Even before the coronavirus pandemic forced Nike to temporarily close its retail stores, the company was trying to emerge from a tumultuous period that saw employees protest on its campus, former female executives file a discrimination lawsuit and athletes draw attention to complaints about company policies that penalized women for getting pregnant. Amid that turmoil, things are quickly and dramatically changing at the company’s Beaverton, Ore., campus. Even as running continues to serve as one of Nike’s biggest sources of revenue, the company has shifted its business model, hired a new chief executive and shaken up staff — including the team devoted to its track and field efforts. Craig Masback, a former executive from USA Track and Field, and Tim Phelan, who had spent more than two decades at Nike, left the company recently. But it was the departure of vice president John Capriotti, the company’s global director of running track and field and long considered one of the most powerful figures in the sport, that caused the biggest shock waves. He had worked at Nike since 1992 and controlled the company’s track and field purse strings. The Oregonian once reported that he had “likely dispensed more money to more runners, jumpers and throwers than anyone else in history.” Aggressive and colorful, Capriotti had no shortage of friends and enemies in track. (He made headlines in 2015 for threatening to kill a running coach sponsored by another shoe company.) After Capriotti’s departure was announced, Sally Bergesen, chief executive of Oiselle, a women’s sports apparel company, tweeted that “his reign was defined by exploiting pro women athletes who became pregnant, and abusive contract maneuvers to pro runners of all kinds. May T&F start healing and see better days.” Capriotti has not spoken publicly since his departure and did not respond to messages seeking comment. In a statement, the company said Capriotti “has retired from Nike but will consult and continue to play an important role in our relationship with athletes.” It did not respond to several follow-up questions about its investment in track. But the tumult already appears to have shaken up Nike’s priorities. In October 2019, a month after Salazar was slapped with a four-year suspension, chief executive Mark Parker announced he would step down. As the company began to chart a new course, it was suddenly being led by a boss who


eye-popping 23-year commitment. Nike also began pouring money into two long-distance running teams at its company headquarters. It wanted to return the United States to the top of the race podium. Instead, one of those teams, the Nike Oregon Project, would make the company a target for criticism across the running community. Nike’s roster of athletes has included some of sports’ most recognizable names: Jordan, LeBron, Tiger, Kobe. It’s also a who’s who of busted dopers and cheats: Barry Bonds, Marion Jones, Lance Armstrong, Justin Gatlin. While some scandals generated bigger headlines, the Salazar affair led to the shuttering of Nike’s high-profile running club, exposed an insidious underbelly to the company’s role in the sport and tainted Parker, the chief executive and an avid runner himself. In 2001, Nike executive Tom Clarke and Salazar lamented the performances of U.S. athletes at the Boston Marathon and made it a mission to cobble together Nike’s resources, technology and expertise to revolutionize the approach to running. The result: the Nike Oregon Project. Hart documents the project’s rise and fall, detailing the corners Salazar cut in his search for an edge. The book draws heavily from the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency’s investigation into Salazar and casts suspicion on some of Salazar’s most accomplished runners, including Galen Rupp, the two-time Olympic medalist who began working with the coach as a teenager. Rupp has never tested positive for a banned substance and has praised Salazar’s coaching techniques. Salazar’s coaching philosophy matched the company ethos, Hart said in an interview: Win at all costs, stay ahead of the competition, innovate. Salazar’s experimental nature was hardly a secret on the Nike campus. He had his sons, both of whom were also employed by Nike, apply a testosterone cream and run on a treadmill. “We are next going to determine the minimal amount of gel that would cause a problem,” Jeffrey Brown, a Texas-based endocrinologist who treated Salazar’s athletes, wrote to Parker, according to USADA. Salazar also tested a supplement that turns fat into energy called L-carnitine, arranging for an assistant coach to receive an infusion of 1,000 mL, well over the permissible limit of 50 mL. In December 2011, he emailed Armstrong, the disgraced cyclist, saying: “Lance, call me asap! We have tested it and it’s amazing! You are the only athlete I’m going to tell the actual numbers to other than Galen Rupp. It’s too incredible. All completely


The Technology 202: Here are seven takeaways from the House's sweeping report concluding Silicon Valley is too powerful

which has also been a key driver in misinformation about the coronavirus. Facebook launched a more limited sweep of 3,000 QAnon-related pages in August that violated its policies around violence and hate speech. But the content quickly resurfaced in new ways. “We aim to combat this more effectively with this update that strengthens and expands our enforcement against the conspiracy theory movement,” the company said in its blog post. Facebook's decision to strengthen its policy drew cautious optimism. "It’s really important that they pushed beyond that to see that this conspiracy was being pushed in other places,” said Vanita Gupta, president of the Leadership Conference on Civil & Human Rights. “Ultimately the real test will be whether Facebook actually takes measures to enforce these new policies — we’ve seen in myriad other contexts, including with respect to right-wing militias like the Boogaloos, that Facebook has repeatedly failed to consistently enforce its existing policies,” said Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-Va.). Th federal agency is probing if the diversity commitment constitutes unlawful discrimination, Microsoft announced in a blog post. The probe follows an executive order from the White House cracking down on diversity training and racial sensitivity programs by federal offices and contractors. Microsoft, which is a federal contractor, announced in June that it would invest more than $100 million in internal diversity and inclusion programs and work to double its number of Black managers and leaders by 2025. Dev Stahlkopf, corporate vice president and general counsel, at Microsoft said that the company "emphatically" believes its diversity programs fall within the law. “We also have affirmative obligations as a company that serves the federal government to continue to increase the diversity of our workforce, and we take those obligations very seriously,” said Stahlkopf. “We have decades of experience and know full well how to appropriately create opportunities for people without taking away opportunities from others.” The investigation could open the door to similar probes at other tech companies that do government business. The Department of Labor did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The court will decide on a 2010 lawsuit from Oracle against Google alleging that the rival stole code it owns to build the Android operating system. Google, which claims that the code was technical and not a unique property, initially won a California court ruling after Oracle sued it for $9 billion in 2010. But an appeals


Americans are not going to agree on covid-19. But that doesn’t mean anyone deserves to get sick.

Soon after President Trump’s covid-19 diagnosis and admission to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, reporting and analysis quickly morphed into speculation and recrimination. The shaming took two forms — an almost gleeful mocking of Trump for contracting the coronavirus, and head-shaking over the fact that attitudes of most Trump supporters about covid-19 seemed not to have changed despite it. The latter was summarized quite accurately by a Post article Saturday that noted Trump’s die-hard backers “reacted to his illness with a fatalistic shrug about what that meant for him and for them.” Wisconsin GOP Treasurer Brian Westrate said, “If the leader of the free world can get this, I think it’s kind of silly for the rest of us to pretend a $3 handkerchief from Walmart is going to protect us.” The assumption that Trump contracting covid-19 would rattle his base into adopting a more serious attitude about the illness springs from the notion that the president’s supporters are a cult whose thoughts or actions depend on the fortunes of its leader. In fact, they are overwhelmingly independent, strongly opinionated Americans who align with Trump not because he tells them what to think but because he thinks like they do. They wonder why it’s big news any time someone famous contracts the novel coronavirus. Like Trump, most of them consider it a serious virus, but hardly one deserving plague-like news coverage or so much disruption of our daily lives. And they aren’t shamed into changing their opinions even when the media talks of almost no other subject or condescendingly lectures them, a la Fox News’s Chris Wallace yelling: “Wear the damn mask!” Trump’s supporters cheer him when he produces videos from the hospital without a mask on, or shocks everyone by briefly leaving Walter Reed to ride by and wave to his supporters camped outside (yes, he should have notified the press, which tracks his movements on behalf of all Americans), or is discharged from the hospital after just a long weekend stay, all to the dismay of his critics and many in the medical community. Why? Because Trump’s backers will love him all the more for treating covid-19 with the same level of concern — no more, no less — even after contracting it himself. “Don’t be afraid of Covid. Don’t let it dominate you,” Trump tweeted Monday, in line with a statement he reportedly dictated to his


In the U.S., states — not science — decide what counts as a coronavirus outbreak

Teachers. Without guidance from the CDC, she argued, reopening policies are being set according to state officials’ political preferences. The governors of all four states that have ordered schools to reopen are Republicans. Of the nine jurisdictions with state-ordered closures, all but West Virginia have Democratic governors. The lack of CDC guidance has also put the onus of developing a pandemic response on local health departments, most of which have far less expertise than the federal agency. Jennifer Rombalski, public health director for La Crosse, Wis., said her staff members spent the first few months of the pandemic developing their own guidelines for nursing homes, tools for business and dashboards for reporting coronavirus data. “In a time like covid-19," she said, "for us to be all working on creating guidance materials at the same time when it should just be so much more coordinated has been really frustrating.” Even in California, where three confirmed coronavirus infections in a workplace count as an outbreak, this information doesn’t always become public. Foster Farms, a major poultry processing plant in the Central Valley, started reporting coronavirus infections among its workers to the Merced County Department of Public Health in April, but it took more than two months for the department’s officers to inspect the 1,400-person facility, Director Rebecca Nanyonjo-Kemp said. The department has not listed precise case counts at the plant or other specific facilities since July. And the company’s practice of reporting deaths as “resolved” cases meant that the county was not aware of the true number of fatalities until seven people had died. Nanyonjo-Kemp said that her office received support from California’s attorney general and other state authorities but that it was difficult to navigate unfamiliar terrain without clear federal guidance. Except for a partial shutdown between Sept. 1 and 7, the plant has remained open throughout the outbreak. A total of 396 workers have become infected with the virus, and nine have died. All the while, Foster Farms’ workers were never informed about the cases among their colleagues or the health department’s determination of an outbreak, said United Farm Workers organizer Elizabeth Strater, whose union represents some of the company’s employees. “Looking back," she said, “it’s like a horror movie, and we just weren’t aware of the other scenes.” Desmond Butler contributed to this report Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly reported the dates of Foster Farms closure.


The philosophical case against hoping Trump suffers

miserable in prison. That’s not to say that he should be tortured or abused, of course, but a certain degree of unhappiness is part of the punishment. The retributivist argument for wanting Trump to suffer analogizes his situation to Weinstein’s. (Set aside that Weinstein’s punishment will not include possible organ failure and death.) Trump has deliberately and culpably failed to protect the American people from covid-19. If anyone deserves to experience the pain this virus causes, it is Trump. So why should we not “wish him the absolute worst”? But there is a key difference between Weinstein’s case and Trump’s. When Weinstein suffers in prison, this is a structured punishment. Weinstein has been put on trial and is being held accountable for the crimes he has committed, in a sentence tailored to those misdeeds. When Trump suffers from covid-19, on the other hand, this is not a criminal sentence: It is a random (if predictable, in this case) act of nature. This difference matters. There is a wide gap between the view that it is good for bad people to suffer, period, and the view that it is good for bad people to suffer as part of a socially sanctioned punishment for their wrongdoing. (Both of these views can be called retributivism, but as it happens, most philosophical retributivists opt for the latter variant.) Perhaps the suffering of evil people — whatever the cause — makes the universe more just in some extremely abstract sense. But this is an unattractive conception of justice. Justice is not about balancing some karmic points-sheet. A better, more grounded way of thinking about justice is as an ideal of human relationships. Think of the situation of Weinstein’s victims in the far too many years that his actions went unpunished. As long as Weinstein walked free, the women he assaulted were forced to live in a society that allowed their fundamental rights to be violated without consequence. We, as a society, were not living on just terms with Weinstein’s victims. To adequately recognize their rights, we had to hold Weinstein to account for violating those rights. Punishing him allowed us to express our collective condemnation of Weinstein’s actions and, thereby, affirm the rights and equal standing of his victims. This does not undo the harm Weinstein inflicted, but it does take us a step toward restoring justice in the relationship between our society, Weinstein and


Should a condo association prohibit pool use because of covid-19?

of people using the pool, you can certainly bring that information to the board. But beyond state and local guidelines, your association board is tasked with a single job: Manage the association. And it has broad authority to handle the affairs of the association in the best interest of its members. They can decide to be more cautious than other associations or pool clubs and can decide to restrict pool usage to a greater degree than other associations. As Ilyce’s mom used to tell her when she was a kid, “I don’t care what the other parents do.” You and your fellow residents voted in the board and they represent you. If a significant number of your fellow residents feel that state and local guidelines about pool usage are safe enough, you should let your association board know that. There are ways to handle the (very real) safety concerns. If the board knows most residents want to use the pool, and using the pool doesn’t break any laws or regulations, the association can set up specific guidelines for pool use. They can limit pool use to owners only (no guests) and have pool owners sign a document detailing the new pool rules. They could require a negative covid-19 test before pool usage and limit the hours. Some associations have unit owners sign a liability waiver whenever they use workout equipment and other recreational facilities. The board could add some language to their documents letting owners know there may be a higher risk of contracting covid-19 by using the pool and the owners swim at the pool at their own risk. According to the CDC’s website guidance as of July 2020, “there is no evidence that covid-19 can be spread to humans through the use of recreational waters.” But that doesn’t mean you can’t catch covid-19 or, if you have it, spread it to other pool users. There is a lot that isn’t known about the disease. Your board is erring on the side of caution, perhaps because some of your fellow residents may be more at risk or perhaps because they can’t agree on how much risk the association should take. Remember, their job is to represent all homeowners, not just the vocal ones or those who swim. Being on an association board is a balancing act — and, generally, a thankless one. Ilyce Glink is the author of “


When will it be safe to travel again?

a real increase in people traveling in recreational vehicles with their families,” says Dale Bratzler, the University of Oklahoma’s chief covid-19 officer. But what about flying? “Airline travel is most certainly safer now than it was at the start of the pandemic,” Bratzler says. “However, transmission of the infection has clearly been documented during flights. If you are traveling by plane, you need to make sure you wear a mask from the time you arrive at the airport until you leave the airport at your destination.” Despite these and other best practices for staying safe in transit, many travelers are unwilling to risk it until we reach one — or all — of the major benchmarks for travel safety: ●When governments lift their warnings. ●When a covid-19 vaccine is available. ●When the pandemic ends. So when should you feel safe traveling? That depends on who you are. An older traveler in a higher-risk group might feel reluctant to leave home without a coronavirus vaccine. But younger travelers like Gregg Jaden, a photographer based in Manhattan Beach, Calif., are ready to go now. He says he has almost died twice, once in a car accident and once with emergency neck surgery, and feels as if he is living on borrowed time. He is planning to visit Canada and Turkey soon. “I don’t want to waste any of my life worrying about something that may — or may not — affect me,” he says. “I’m not trying to be insensitive to anyone with health challenges, but this is the reality of life. If I have a chance to live, I want to live while I still can.” If nothing else, the travel industry hopes you will start planning your next vacation soon. In September, it launched an initiative called Let’s Go There to encourage Americans to begin booking their next trip. When it comes to feeling safe when you travel, there is no one-size-fits-all answer. It depends on your age and the state of your health, where you are planning to visit, and your risk tolerance, according to experts. You also have to keep a sense of perspective about the dangers of travel. “I don’t think it was ever completely safe to travel to begin with,” says Ryan Jones, owner of Here We Go Travel, a travel agency in Greensboro, N.C. “But if you never let go, you will never go far.”


U.S. faces shortage of up to 8 billion meals in next 12 months, leading food bank says

Correction: An earlier version of this story was out of date at time of publication and failed to note that President Trump has signed a temporary measure passed by Congress that will extend Pandemic EBT through the end of September 2021. That temporary measure also enabled the U.S. Agriculture Department to continue allowing all states to issue emergency supplements to SNAP because of pandemic-related economic conditions until the end of September 2021. In addition, the story suggested that no food banks received federal funding. While many do not, some do. These errors have now been corrected. Bill Blackmer lost his job in telecommunications on April 18. Blackmer lives with his wife, Mary, and two young daughters in Weymouth, Mass. “I waited until after dinner, once everything had settled down, to tell her,” he remembers. “Mary didn’t say anything, just grabbed her stomach and took three steps back and sat down.” He is among tens of millions of Americans who have turned to a local food bank for help after becoming newly food insecure because of the pandemic and its fallout. About 10 percent of American adults, 22.3 million, reported they sometimes or often didn’t have enough to eat within the past week, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s most recent Household Pulse Survey fielded between Aug. 19 and 31. That is up from 18 million before March 13. Feeding America, a nationwide network of more than 200 food banks, projects a 6 billion to 8 billion meal shortfall in the next 12 months, a deficit that may be magnified with federal food assistance programs set to expire in the coming weeks and months. The Feeding America analysis estimates the total need for charitable food over the next year will reach 17 billion pounds, more than three times last year’s distribution. At 41, Blackmer says he’s been through quite a bit. His wife has a disability and he has been the primary breadwinner for a number of years. He has suffered from anxiety and depression for some time, once taking unpaid leave for a hospitalization. Since losing his job, he has liquidated his 401(k), used his $1,200 stimulus check to pay down some bills, and opted into a special payment plan with his mortgage lender. But even with the extra $600 per week in unemployment the Cares Act provided, things have been tight. “Shopping went out the door, we weren’t taking