USDA reposts animal welfare records it purged from its website in 2017

In December, U.S. lawmakers passed a spending bill that ordered the USDA to bring back the searchable database and use it to publish various animal welfare records. “The purge left Americans in the dark and was clearly an attempt to keep groups like ours from holding the USDA accountable,” Kitty Block, chief executive of the Humane Society of the United States, and Sara Amundson, president of the Humane Society Legislative Fund, wrote in a blog post. They called it “an important win for animals, for American consumers, and for animal advocates who fought long and hard for this outcome.” But the Humane Society and other animal welfare organizations emphasized that the USDA’s announcement Tuesday still left several kinds of records unpublished. The agency said it would take up to 60 days to post those documents, which include enforcement records, inventories of animals at individual facilities and “teachable moments.” The teachable moments note violations by facilities, such as insufficient drinking water or dirty cages, but do not count them as citations. “We’re making use of what’s available now, and we’re holding our breath and waiting to see what will come within 60 days and ultimately how they will seek to interpret the language” of the spending bill, said Cathy Liss, president of the Animal Welfare Institute. The agency’s use of teachable moments has risen, and citations have dramatically declined, amid a Trump administration push to deregulate industry. Critics, including animal protection groups and former USDA animal welfare inspectors, say the approach puts animals at risk. The agency says it allows inspectors to help animal owners fix problems more quickly. The removal of welfare records in 201teac was criticized even by some facilities regulated by the USDA, including the national chain Petland and the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, which argued that transparency gave the public more confidence in their operations. But the purge was welcomed by others, such as the Tennessee walking horse industry, members of which had sued USDA over the publication of records they said sullied the names of horse owners before they had an opportunity to defend themselves. On Tuesday, the Pet Industry Joint Advisory Council echoed that. “This is a positive move toward restoring transparency that will allow the regulated individuals and facilities to demonstrate that they are responsible and accountable animal caretakers,” its president and chief executive, Mike Bober, said. “We are concerned, however, that the


A local’s guide to Budapest

After the fall of the Berlin Wall, Budapest emerged from the communist era as the poor, shabbily dressed sister of cities like Vienna and Paris. But Hungary’s 2004 entry into the European Union has helped transform its capital since, injecting it with foreign investment and new development. Today, there’s a fitting duality to this city, divided by the river Danube into Buda, on the west side, and Pest on the east: It’s an open, colorful and international metropolis, but it showcases its history, too. More and more neighborhoods and buildings are regaining their centuries-old glory — and, in some cases, suffering the consequences of gentrification. Meanwhile, with an influx of internationally educated young chefs and a rejuvenation of Hungarian vineyards, the city’s food-and-wine culture has returned. If there is a hip neighborhood in Budapest, it’s Erzsebetvaros, the historic Jewish district. The iconic “ruin bars,” housed in old, derelict buildings, spiced up the neighborhood and stoked its nightlife over the past two decades, but today it is much more than a party zone. Vintage stores, specialty coffee shops, craft beer joints and alternative theater companies color the area, too. There are plenty of Airbnb rentals here, even if not all residents are thrilled about it. Find this neighborhood. label: IN THE ACTION The museums, churches and monuments draw a lot of tourists to the Castle District during the day. There aren’t many bars or nightclubs in the area, though, which means that most of the visitors leave by evening — and allow you to wander the romantic cobblestone streets in peace. A few high-class hotels here will suit guests who love history and a quiet night equally. Find this neighborhood. label: LOW-KEY You have to enter one of the historical inner-city residential blocks to find this tiny cafe in the courtyard, but the sign in the street will make sure you don’t miss the gate. Fekete opened as a “new-wave” cafe specializing in quality espresso, but since then, it’s become one of Budapest’s best breakfast spots, with organic ingredients, pastries, waffles and homemade cakes. If you like a hearty and savory start to the day, don’t miss the homemade quiche. BTW: Label: BREAKFAST address: 1053 Budapest, Muzeum korut 5, Hungary latlng: phone: 011-36-30-758-5849 website: https://feketekv.hu/ Twitter: instagram: feketekv This Parisian-style cafe and restaurant is near the “Budapest Broadway” and is popular with actors and actresses from nearby theaters. In addition to


Coronavirus infections increase among cruise ship passengers brought to U.S.

Twenty-eight U.S. residents flown home The passengers from the ship, along with three infected people previously returned from Wuhan, China, bring the total number of evacuees with the virus in the United States to 31. An additional 13 people in the United States either picked up the infection by traveling to China or from close contact with a family member who had been in China. The passengers, who had been quarantined aboard the cruise ship in Japan, are “considered at high risk of infection and we do expect to see additional cases,” Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said in a media briefing. The sharp rise in the number of U.S. patients came on a day of grim news about the spread of covid-19, the viral respiratory disease that has afflicted more than 76,000 people and killed more than 2,300, mainly in China. The number of cases in South Korea surged to 346, with more than half linked to a secretive religious movement with a messianic leader. Iran confirmed 18 cases, including four deaths, centered in Qom, a Shiite holy city south of Tehran. In Beijing, two hospitals were put under quarantine amid fears of a coronavirus outbreak in China’s capital, with one district reporting an “infection density” second only to Wuhan, the epicenter of the epidemic. Messonnier said 18 of the Americans who were quarantined aboard the Diamond Princess in Yokohama harbor had positive results in CDC tests. Ten others were positive in tests conducted by the Japanese. The CDC won’t formally add those people to its count until U.S. tests confirm the findings, but Messonnier announced them Friday. The Japanese government quarantined 3,700 passengers and crew members aboard the Diamond Princess for nearly two weeks, a decision that allowed the virus to sweep through the ship, which one Japanese expert has said was plagued by poor infection control. Now, 634 of those onboard have tested positive — the second-largest number in any place outside China. Last weekend, the State Department flew 329 U.S. residents home from the ship on two chartered flights. The Washington Post reported Thursday that the evacuation was delayed for hours by a last-minute disagreement among government officials. As the passengers arrived at the airport in buses, test results came back indicating 14 people waiting to evacuate were infected with coronavirus. CDC officials did not want to put


Why the Russians still prefer Trump

Friday dismissed the findings of the U.S. intelligence community about Russia’s desire to aid his reelection campaign as a “hoax” and “misinformation campaign.” It’s true, as Republicans say, that Trump sent anti-tank missiles to Ukraine — but only under conditions that make them useless against Russia. Trump has made clear that Russia’s enemy, Ukraine, is no friend of his. Indeed he promulgates a Russian disinformation campaign blaming Ukraine, rather than Russia, for interfering in the U.S. election. Kurt Volker, Trump’s former envoy to Ukraine, testified that Trump said of the Ukrainians: “They are all corrupt, they are all terrible people. They tried to take me down.” Trump only released military aid to Ukraine once Congress started asking questions about why he was holding it up, and he still refuses to grant Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky the White House meeting he desperately craves to buttress his standing in negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Putin doesn’t care about Trump’s sanctions on Iran, which indirectly help Russia by boosting the price of oil. But he does care that Trump has strengthened Russia’s longtime ally in Syria, Bashar al-Assad. In July 2017, Trump ended a covert program of training and supplying moderate Syrian rebels — “a move long sought by Russia,” as The Post noted. More recently, in October, Trump did Putin another solid by moving U.S. forces out of northern Syria, allowing Assad’s troops and their Russian allies to move in. Pictures of Russian troops occupying abandoned U.S. bases show the changing of the guard in the Middle East. Trump has facilitated Russian designs not only in Syria but also in Libya, where the Russian-backed strongman Khalifa Hifter is trying to overthrow a United Nations-backed government in Tripoli. The U.S. government ostensibly supports the regime in Tripoli, but Trump called Hifter and gave him a green light for his offensive. Trump is making Russia great again in the Middle East for the first time since Egypt expelled Russian advisers in 1972. What about the fact that the United States has tightened sanctions on Russia since Trump came to office? True but irrelevant. It happened over Trump’s opposition. To this day, the administration is fighting efforts in Congress to strengthen sanctions, even while lifting sanctions on companies linked to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, who worked with Trump’s crooked former campaign chairman Paul Manafort. Far from strengthening NATO, as he now boasts, Trump has


Coronavirus-infected Americans flown home against CDC’s advice

coronavirus (officially, SARS-CoV-2) is extremely contagious. Experts estimate that without protective measures, every infected person will spread it to an average of slightly more than two additional people. The disease has been fatal in roughly two out of 100 confirmed cases. Travelers have already spread it to more than two dozen countries, where it has infected more than 75,000 people and killed more than 2,000. The Diamond Princess left Yokohama for a 15-day cruise on Jan. 20. One man from Hong Kong left the ship when it docked there five days later, and checked into a hospital. On Feb. 1, officials confirmed he was infected with the coronavirus. Spencer Fehrenbacher, 29, an American studying for his master’s degree in China, signed up for the cruise with friends as a break between semesters. Just a couple of days in, they became alarmed about reports of the virus spreading in China. In Vietnam, he came down with a fever. It lasted only 24 hours, but he feared he might have the virus. He decided not to get off at the next two stops, in Taipei and Okinawa, because he was afraid he’d wind up quarantined. The ship sped back to Yokohama and docked Feb. 3. Japanese authorities told passengers they could not leave. The next day, they mingled onboard. Many ate a buffet dinner, but the casino was closed and the evening show canceled. That night, the captain ordered passengers to return to their cabins and stay there until quarantine officers came to see them. Over the next several days, test results trickled in: Dozens had become infected. Fehrenbacher kept fearing the worst. “I was sitting there all day waiting for what I call the knock of doom on the door,” he said. Fehrenbacher stayed in his room — every day, all day. He had a balcony and that was good enough. He started using the word “optimistic” when he spoke to friends and family, because “positive” carried a bad connotation. He recorded a video and sent it to his brother to share with his family in case he was hospitalized and unable to communicate, or even died. “Mom, Dad, I love you, I miss you. I’m sure everything will be okay,” he recalled saying. Five days after the ship reached port, the CDC wrote a letter to the American passengers saying that “remaining in your room is the safest option to


Planners talk about resilience in the face of climate change. We need to start using a different R word.

our best efforts fail. Doing both is the only responsible course of action. It is not overly alarmist to start thinking about exit strategies that work under the most severe scenarios. Moving existing cities, retrofitting old ones for explosive growth, creating new settlements and mitigating thousands of miles of polluted shorelines will be expensive and complicated. Even if properly planned, this will be a messy and even brutal process; if unplanned and ad hoc, in all likelihood, it will descend into a chaos straight out of science fiction. Steven’s firm, Concordia, led the politically and emotionally charged planning process in post-Katrina New Orleans, a city with a pre-storm population of 485,000. (Today, that number stands at about 390,000.) That was certainly a difficult and unprecedented effort, but it was nothing compared to the simultaneous challenges facing coastal towns and cities in the decades ahead. And our problems don’t stop at the water’s edge. Many places inland will see water become increasingly scarce, putting immense stress on settlement patterns and agriculture. Mass migrations will inevitably become a part of our children’s and grandchildren’s futures. Sadly, few of our politicians will “go there” yet, because their planning for the future extends precisely as far as the next election. It’s time for architects and planners to sound the alarm. Time, in other words, to get real. The irony is that as we dawdle, energy and insurance companies, along with the Pentagon, are turning to face what’s coming. In the real world, that’s called risk management. And while many cities have begun the process of resilient planning, it is time for them to join with states and regions, as well as the civilian side of federal government, to be sure the unavoidable disruptions are anticipated and managed as humanely and fairly as possible. An inundated coastline is not just a national security issue; it’s not just an actuarial challenge for the insurance industry. It’s our future, and it’s upon us. Read more Read a letter in response to this piece: How the federal government should handle climate change Jennifer Mills: We’ve moved past climate denial in Australia. It’s now about blame. The Post’s View: Trump shows no concern for the planet. The world is suffering because of it. Katrina vanden Heuvel: The climate movement is gaining momentum in spite of Trump The Post’s View: World leaders are failing our future generations on climate change


A local’s guide to Amsterdam

club, full stop. Think 24-hour techno in a poorly lit cellar. But if that’s not your thing, there’s also an industrial-chic restaurant in this former technical school. You’ll have the choice of a three-, five- or seven-course meal, with a different menu to choose from every month. The restaurant, a spacious and bright former workroom for auto mechanics in training, has within just a few years become known for great, affordable food and good service. BTW: Label: Dinner address: De School, Dr. Jan van Breemenstraat 1, 1056 AB Amsterdam latlng: phone: 011-31-20-737-3197 website: https://www.deschoolamsterdam.nl/en/restaurant twitter: instagram: deschoolamsterdam Located between Westerpark and the historic Spaarndammerbuurt neighborhood, this small and unremarkable place is easy to bypass, if only because it’s beside a busy intersection. But the food at Dumplings is not something you want to miss. The Chinese chef serves tasty dumplings, crepes, bao bao buns and spring rolls, but even if you have a bigger appetite, this is the right place. Dumplings also has noodle and rice dishes on the menu. BTW: Label: Late-night address: Dumplings, Nassauplein 60, 1052 AH Amsterdam latlng: phone: 011-31-64-750-3366 website: dumplings-chinese.nl twitter: instagram: A little slice of Berlin in Amsterdam, but not the cool kind. And that’s just the point. Named for German playwright Bertolt Brecht, this bar looks like your great-grandmother’s living room, complete with vintage fabric lampshades and armchairs. Consider it a subtle rebuke of strained efforts elsewhere in the city to be hip. At Brecht, you can enjoy a variety of German beers (naturally) and snacks like pretzels. But there’s room for other influences: The cheeses are local, and the coffee’s from Italy. Important soccer matches are shown on the big screen — and no, not just when Die Mannschaft (the German men’s national team) is playing. BTW: Label: Late-night address: Brecht, Weteringschans 157, 1017 SE Amsterdam latlng: phone: 011-31-20-627-2211 website: www.cafebrecht.nl twitter: cafebrecht instagram: Old in years, but young in spirit, Kriterion is one of the most notable cinemas in town. Its operators have everything to do with that: Kriterion is a student-run cooperative. It’s part of a range of businesses that includes another cinema and club, a restaurant and a gas station (really). They were founded in 1945 to help students pay their way through college. You can catch new releases and classic films here, but Kriterion is also just a great local hangout to have a coffee or craft beer.


What Machiavelli would do about climate change

Major climatic shifts have long been a feature of human society. But the scientific evidence overwhelmingly points to man-made rather than cyclical causes of contemporary climate change. And with those changes, we’ve seen nearly annual rises in global temperature averages. Today’s climate change has also caused general climate instability resulting in water supply shortages and devastating droughts; tropical systems dumping feet of water on cities such as Houston; and people freezing to death during cold snaps linked to the polar vortex. Our experiences with climate-related extreme weather are reminders that even as we invest in long-term solutions looking forward, we should also look to the past for information about how human societies attempted to mitigate the disastrous immediate effects of climate change in their own times. One place to look is the age of Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel, Borgia and Medici popes and Niccolò Machiavelli’s “The Prince.” The Italian Renaissance, often seen as the dawn of our own modern age, occurred during one of the greatest periods of climatic instability, known as the Little Ice Age, which lasted from 1300 to 1850. As historian Brian Fagan argues, heightened volcanic and seismic activity, a decrease in solar radiation and shifts in ocean current patterns caused a general global cooling. The Little Ice Age brought with it cooler and wetter summers, longer and colder winters, and violent storms that caused widespread and intense flooding. Few places were hit by the floods of the Little Ice Age quite like Renaissance Italy. Many of its cultural centers, including Rome and Florence, are on major rivers. Rome’s Tiber River was especially prone to flooding. A January 1310 flood that struck Rome, for example, was an astounding 50 feet above sea level. Monuments such as the Colosseum and the Roman Forum were inundated. When the father of the Renaissance, Francesco Petrarch, arrived in Rome in 1337, he found a city that had been ravaged by floods directly resulting from the Little Ice Age. Petrarch lamented that the city’s dire state was the result of the papacy’s relocation to Avignon, a small city in southern France. The popes moved there in 1305 after Pope Clement V, a Frenchman, refused to return to Rome because of his allegiance to King Philip IV and because of the lawlessness of Rome’s nobles. The ensuing political vacuum only exacerbated the Roman response to climate-related disasters. The combination of climate change and poor


Israel’s fear of coronavirus spread jumps as election day approaches

JERUSALEM — Concerns of a widening threat from coronavirus are growing as millions of Israelis are preparing to gather at polling places for national elections next week, after reports that a group of South Koreans who had visited some of the country's most popular religious and tourist spots tested positive for the infection. Dozens of students who might have been in proximity to the South Korean tourists were directed to stay in home-based quarantine for two weeks, as were hotel housekeepers and employees of Masada, Tel Beer Sheva and other national parks. Israeli officials, who had expressed cautious optimism that Israel could avoid significant risk from the global epidemic, immediately increased restrictions on those entering the country. Non-Israeli travelers from South Korea and Japan have been barred from entering, according to local media reports, and Israelis arriving from any of several Asian countries face two weeks of mandatory quarantine. Officials added South Korea and Japan to the list, which had included China, Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore and Macao. Authorities scrambled to address the sudden increase in risk. A Health Ministry official released the itinerary of the South Korean group at a hastily called news conference Saturday night and beseeched anyone who might have been within six feet of the group for at least 15 minutes to isolate themselves for two weeks. As many as 200 people reportedly entered quarantine based on that criteria. Others who might have overlapped with the group from a greater distance were advised to monitor themselves for fever or other symptoms of covid-19 infection. “We have an opportunity here to stay on top of the virus,” said Moshe Bar Siman Tov, the ministry’s deputy director, according to the Jerusalem Post. “The potential that someone caught the virus from the tourists is high; whoever doesn’t enter quarantine is endangering the public.” The group of 77 South Koreans was reportedly on a nine-day pilgrimage of Christian sites in Israel and the West Bank, including more than a dozen churches in Jerusalem’s Old City, Bethlehem and Hebron. It was only after the group flew home in mid-February that nine tested positive for the virus. The South Korean government alerted Israel. The move to bar Korean travelers sparked complaints from Seoul, where officials reportedly summoned the Israeli chief of mission to explain after some 200 South Korean nationals were turned away at Ben Gurion Airport. Cases of coronavirus infection have


Coronavirus outbreak edges closer to pandemic status

In South Korea, cases of the new coronavirus surged eighteenfold over a week, creating the largest center of infection outside China. In Singapore, clusters of infections have been traced to two churches, a hotel business meeting, a health products shop and a construction site. In Italy, health authorities confirmed more than 50 cases over two days in the biggest hot spot in Europe so far. In Iran, an outbreak has seeded new cases in Lebanon and Canada — a worrisome sign that the virus could be spreading more widely than earlier realized. There are outbreaks. There are epidemics. And there are pandemics, where epidemics become rampant in multiple countries and continents simultaneously. The novel coronavirus that causes the disease named covid-19 is on the verge of reaching that third, globe-shaking stage. Amid an alarming surge in cases with no clear link to China, infectious disease experts believe the flulike illness may soon be impossible to contain. The World Health Organization has not declared covid-19 a pandemic, and the most devastating effects, including more than 2,400 deaths, are still in China. But the language coming from the organization’s Geneva headquarters has turned more ominous in recent days as the challenge of containment grows more daunting. “The window of opportunity is still there, but the window of opportunity is narrowing,” WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Friday. “We need to act quickly before it closes completely.” At the beginning of any disease outbreak, public health experts painstakingly trace the contacts of every person who becomes sick. The experts build a family tree of possible illness, with branches that include anyone who might have shaken hands with, or been sneezed on, by an infected person. But with confirmed infections approaching 80,000 people, tracing contacts on a case-by-case basis could soon be impractical. If the coronavirus becomes a true pandemic, a large proportion of the human population — a third, a half, two-thirds even — could become infected, although that doesn’t necessarily mean that all will become ill. The word “pandemic” evokes fear, but it describes how widespread an outbreak may be, not its deadliness. “If we went across the whole world and had a magic ball and were able to detect everyone who’s positive, we’d see it in lots of countries,” said Michael Mina, an infectious disease specialist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. “It’s never clear until it’s


Eva Dou joins The Washington Post as China correspondent

Announcement from Foreign Editor Douglas Jehl, Deputy Foreign Editor Eva Rodriguez and Asia Editor David Crawshaw: We’re very pleased to announce that Eva Dou will join The Post as a China correspondent, with a focus on business and technology. This is a new position, part of our international expansion. Eva will be based in Beijing, where she will join Anna Fifield, the bureau chief; Gerry Shih, a China correspondent; and a team of outstanding researchers to add to our coverage of China, its 1.4 billion people, and its pivotal role in the world and the global economy. Eva comes to us from the Wall Street Journal, where she has spent the last seven years reporting business and political news from Beijing and Taipei. She has done standout work on multiple fronts, including an investigation into China’s use of forced labor from Xinjiang in textile and food supply chains, and reporting on China’s surveillance technologies. As the child of adventurous parents, she grew up in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Florida and Michigan, speaks Chinese, and is a graduate of the University of Missouri, where she majored in economics and journalism. Eva will report to Foreign, under David Crawshaw, our Hong Kong-based Asia editor, and will also work closely with Business. She will start work in the newsroom on March 23, and will return to Beijing to take up her new posting once she gains the necessary accreditation.


China’s early warning system didn’t work on covid-19. Here’s the story.

cases into the info system, and this information needs to reach the China CDC within hours. A dedicated team at the China CDC headquarters monitors the information flows 24/7 and reports to the CDC leadership at least once a day. This sentinel system for infectious diseases helped China tackle various outbreaks — including H1N1, avian flu and malaria. Successive China CDC directors have taken great pride in this system. In a March 2019 interview, Gao Fu, the China CDC director general, said he was “very confident that the SARS incident will not recur. This is due to our country’s well-built infectious disease surveillance network; we can block the virus when it appears.” The system worked, according to local authorities The official story in Hubei and Wuhan is that, after identifying atypical pneumonia cases, the Wuhan and Hubei CDCs forwarded the information on a timely basis to the national CDC at the end of December. To drive home this message, the Hubei authorities on Feb. 4 announced a merit award to Zhang Jixian for getting her hospital to report several cases to municipal and provincial authorities on Dec. 29, 2019. The Wuhan Health Commission (WHC) began to release information on its website on the atypical pneumonia cases on Dec. 31, 2019. But local authorities didn’t tell the full story The China CDC official line, however, suggests a different timeline. According to Feng Zijian, deputy director general of the China CDC, the direct reporting system was “not activated that expeditiously.” In fact, the award to Zhang for reporting on Dec. 29 reminds us that the pre-Dec. 29 cases were not reported, let alone filed into the disease reporting system in real time. Two separate sources reveal that Gao himself was the real sentinel of the coronavirus outbreak. In the evening of Dec. 30, Gao Fu noticed from scanning group-chats that the WHC had just issued two internal notices on atypical pneumonia cases. Alarmed that such information had not been submitted to the national reporting system, he called the Wuhan CDC head and learned that the number of cases was well above the threshold for reporting. Troubled by what he heard — and didn’t hear — Gao immediately alerted the National Health Commission (NHC) leadership. The following day, Dec. 31, the NHC dispatched a national team of experts to Wuhan to investigate. Local authorities also silenced whistleblowers As the national team was on


The weather helps disprove the flat-Earth hypothesis

a total lunar eclipse, with dim sunlight passing through the atmosphere bathing the moon in its eerie glow. Lunar eclipses are much more readily visible than solar eclipses. But Flat Earthers have an alternate explanation for what makes a lunar eclipse. In reality, it’s an alignment in which the Earth intercedes between the sun and moon, eclipsing moon-bound sunlight. But such a lineup wouldn’t be possible, according to Flat Earthers, who say the sun and moon are constantly drifting in circles above a flat Earth’s surface. Instead, their hypothesis is that a “shadow object” orbiting the sun enters a lineup between the sun and the moon. This shadow object, also dubbed the “antimoon,” apparently is translucent. That, they say, filters out some — but not all — of the light. But wait a second … ignoring for the moment the fact that the sun would never set on a flat Earth, this is still impossible. When we see the partial phases of a lunar eclipse, we witness the moon disappearing behind the round edge of Earth’s shadow — not a flat shadow. However, if the flat-Earth theory were true, millions of people perpendicular to the sun-moon lineup would see a fully eclipsed first- or last-quarter moon. That doesn’t happen. Flat Earthers also struggle to explain moon phases. If their theory were correct, everyone on Earth would see a different moon phase at the same time depending on which “side” of the supposedly 32-mile-wide moon they were on. That simply doesn’t happen. The jet stream forms over steep temperature gradients at the mid-latitudes; it’s driven by the thermal wind, which helps distribute heat energy through the atmosphere. The swiftly moving river of air screams eastward, its poleward tendency balanced by the Coriolis force. The Coriolis force stems from the Earth’s rotation. In the Northern Hemisphere, the Coriolis force deflects air parcels to the right; south of the equator, it’s to the left. But without a rotating system, we’d have no jet stream snaking its way about the poles. We’d have no big sprawling storm systems like nor’easters. We’d have no spinning areas of high or low pressure. Those air masses might still exist, but there would be no “rule” to their orientation or spin. Any weak spin would be random. Despite this, tornadoes and waterspouts could still exist on a flat Earth. Those depend on smaller-scale wind dynamics and can’t “feel”


Is this the week that Trump panics about covid-19?

At the end of last month, the hard-working staff here at Spoiler Alerts noted that President Trump has underreacted to crises during his presidency, a sharp contrast to his overreactions as a presidential candidate in 2015 and 2016. His response to the new coronavirus, now labeled covid-19, was typical of that trend, like when he claimed on CNBC, “We have it totally under control.” This observation came with two warnings, however. First, ″Trump, now that he is president, wants to minimize any possible emergency that would blow back on him, rather than call attention to the possibility of something serious. … Trump hates to admit error, so he’s locked in now.” Second, “If Trump starts to overcorrect to the coronavirus, the results are likely to be counterproductive.” I’m beginning to wonder if this is the week that Trump overcorrects. There are signs that the coronavirus will be difficult to contain from here on out. Over the weekend, Italy and South Korea reported significant spikes in confirmed cases. My Washington Post colleagues Carolyn Y. Johnson, Lena H. Sun, William Wan and Joel Achenbach wrote a somewhat disconcerting story about how covid-19 is no longer an outbreak, or even an epidemic. The proliferation of emergent cases that cannot be traced back to China suggests that the spread of the new coronavirus is entering pandemic territory, defined as epidemic-level infections across countries and continents. According to the Post article, “Amid an alarming surge in cases with no clear link to China, infectious disease experts believe the flulike illness may soon be impossible to contain. The language coming from the [World Health Organization’s] Geneva headquarters has turned more ominous in recent days as the challenge of containment grows more daunting.” Given the long incubation period, this seems pretty likely. Note that categorizing something as a pandemic is about its pervasiveness, not its lethality. This is a technical term that is not meant to evoke autopsies of Gwyneth Paltrow or Brad Pitt trapped on a plane with the living dead. Still, it is possible that up to two-thirds of the world’s population will be infected with covid-19. And no, before you ask, travel bans will not stop it. Is the Trump administration prepared to cope with a pandemic? There are some reasons for concern. My other Post colleagues reported on the conflicted decision-making involving the return of Americans who had been quarantined on a cruise


The Health 202: Artificial intelligence use is growing in the U.S. health-care system

divulge intimate medical details, and previous occupants of the White House have not always done so. Woodrow Wilson kept it a secret when strokes paralyzed his left side. Franklin Roosevelt famously masked the effects of polio. And John F. Kennedy hid chronic back pain and Addison’s disease behind a front of youthful vitality,” Matt and Lenny write. “…In general, however, presidential candidates have felt an obligation to assure voters that they are physically up to the job and unlikely to make an early departure — an issue that weighs especially heavy this year.” OOF: In Loudoun County, Va., the concerns about youth vaping are being incorporated into a driver’s education program. Officials in the Northern Virginia school system worked with the sheriff’s office to add vaping information to a mandatory driving seminar, our Post colleague Loudoun County Sheriff Mike Chapman called it a first for his office. “The department has never incorporated warnings about other forms of substance abuse into its driver’s education program, which it has offered in Loudoun County schools for at least as long as he has been sheriff. Chapman took the job in 2012,” Hannah reports. “The idea emerged from discussions Chapman held with staff members last summer, he said, shortly after Virginia enacted a law making it illegal for people under 21 to buy ‘nicotine vapor products,’ including e-cigarettes. The sheriff convenes senior officers for a chat every morning to discuss ‘what’s on people’s minds’ — and, in the weeks after the legislation took effect, one topic dominated.” Ashley L. Merianos, an associate professor at the University of Cincinnati who studies public health education, called it a “novel way to go.” She told Hannah she had not heard of any other school districts including such warnings in driver’s education. OUCH: Walgreens pharmacy employees told consultants last year about making prescription mistakes as a result of high stress and “unreasonable” expectations. But company leaders asked the consultants working on a report not to mention those concerns in a presentation made at corporate offices, the New York Times’s Amy Bixler, the director of pharmacy and retail operations at Walgreens, told the consultants, for example, to remove a bullet point from the presentation that referenced employees dodging or ignoring “proper procedures to meet corporate metrics.” In another slide, details about “errors resulting from stress” were left off. The underlying issues related to staffing, stress and high expectations have


The Daily 202: Bernie Sanders built a diverse coalition to win Nevada. South Carolina offers a tougher test.

did not set a date for the meetings, known collectively as the ‘Two Sessions.’ It will be the first time since 1997 that the meetings have not started in the first week of March.” President Xi Jinping said that the outbreak is a crisis that will test the Chinese economy. “No victory should be lightly announced until there is a complete win,” he said during a speech to Communist Party members in Beijing on Sunday, adding the situation remains grim and complex. “A notice by Wuhan’s epidemic prevention and control headquarters said Monday that it would ease some of the more draconian travel restrictions on the locked-down city at the heart of the epidemic, allowing for the return of some residents trapped outside Wuhan since late January and permitting visitors stuck in the city to leave. But hours later, Wuhan’s city government declared the earlier announcement invalid, saying it had been released without authorization,” Adam Taylor reports. “Official figures released Monday showed there had been 409 new cases of the novel coronavirus and 150 new deaths from the outbreak by the end of Sunday, bringing the total confirmed cases to 77,150 with a cumulative death toll of 2,592.” “Co-authored by researchers from three Chinese institutions including the Chinese Academy of Sciences and published on the academy’s website last Thursday, the study attempts to trace how the virus emerged and evolved. The authors analyzed the genomic data from 93 samples of the novel coronavirus and concluded that it was likely to have spread to the market from somewhere else,” Tiffany Liang reports. “It also pointed out that human-to-human transmission of the virus might have existed in Wuhan as early as late November. The market was closed on Jan. 1.” “More than half of South Korea’s covid-19 cases have been traced to a regional branch of the secretive Shincheonji Church of Jesus, formally known as the Temple of the Tabernacle of the Testimony. But authorities were having difficulty locating members, many of whom are probably in hiding,” Min Joo Kim reports. “The South Korean government on Sunday announced 169 new coronavirus cases and two more deaths, bringing the totals to 602 cases and six deaths. … South Korean President Moon Jae-in said the country’s coronavirus crisis has entered a ‘totally different phase since the mass infection at Shincheonji.’ Hundreds of thousands signed a petition calling for the church to be dissolved. Moon


Coronavirus infections in China exceed 75,000; cases surge in South Korea

to Australia is not unexpected, despite all of the health screening before departure,” Murphy wrote. By: Michael Brice-Saddler 6:20 PM: Kuwait Airways suspends all flights to Iran, citing coronavirus fears Kuwait Airlines announced Thursday that it has indefinitely suspended all flights to Iran after three new cases of coronavirus were reported in the country Thursday. In a statement, the airline said it had received instructions from the Kuwaiti Health Ministry and civil aviation authority. On Wednesday, two Iranians infected with the virus died in the city of Qom, a holy city and pilgrimage site for Shiite Muslims. Iraq’s Health Ministry prompted the government to stop issuing tourist visas to Iranian nationals, citing the new coronavirus cases across the border. By: Michael Brice-Saddler 5:23 PM: U.S. citizens should ‘reconsider’ cruise ship travel to East Asia, State Dept. says The U.S. Department of State urged U.S. citizens Thursday to reconsider travel via cruise ship to or within the East Asia and the Asia-Pacific region. The department cited countries that have implemented strict screening procedures amid the spread of the novel coronavirus, adding that those traveling by ship “may be impacted by travel restrictions affecting their itineraries or ability to disembark, or may be subject to quarantine procedures implemented by the local authorities.” “While the U.S. government has successfully evacuated hundreds of our citizens in the previous weeks, repatriation flights should not be relied upon as an option for U.S. citizens under the potential risk of quarantine by local authorities,” the department wrote. “Passengers who plan to travel by cruise ship should contact their cruise line companies directly for further information on the current rules and restrictions, and continue to monitor the Travel.state.gov website for updated information.” By: Michael Brice-Saddler 4:45 PM: FBI spends $40,000 on health supplies to mitigate possible coronavirus spread in U.S. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is trying to avert the spread of coronavirus in the United States by purchasing $40,000 worth of hand sanitizer and face masks, according to CNBC. An acquisition document acquired by the news station showed that the intelligence agency ordered its “pandemic preparedness” hand sanitizer and masks from two contractors in case coronavirus spreads across the United States. The face masks from manufacturing conglomerate 3M and hand sanitizer from medical device company PDI Healthcare will be delivered to the FBI on Friday, according to CNBC. The items were ordered directly from the companies due


Lenny Bernstein, Shibani Mahtani and Joel Achenbach 3:10 PM: Iran urges restricting religious gatherings in holy city after spike in coronavirus cases Iranian health officials urged the holy city of Qom to suspend religious gatherings Thursday after Iran reported a sudden spike to five coronavirus cases, the semiofficial news agency ISNA reported. Two people on Thursday tested positive for the virus in Qom, south of the capital Tehran, and another in Arak, a city about 100 miles southwest of Qom, Iran’s health ministry spokesman reported. Two other Iranians died of the coronavirus in Qom on Wednesday, just hours after authorities first reported the infections. Kianush Jahanpur, the health ministry spokesman, told ISNA that the infected patient in Arak was a doctor from Qom. Qom is a holy seminary and pilgrimage site for Shiite Muslims, who are the majority in Iran. Worshipers from all over gather in the revered city to pray and study. Jahanpur told ISNA that the health ministry recommended restricting traffic to Qom’s major shrines, mosques and other pilgrimage places, as well as temporarily canceling seminars, conferences, camps and touristic trips in the city. Iranian authorities reported that they still don’t know how the patients contracted the virus. But in other places, such as Hong Kong and South Korea, religious sites such as churches have been cited as clusters for infections. Last week, the Catholic Church in Hong Kong announced it was suspending Mass as a precaution to prevent the virus’ spread. By: Miriam Berger 2:40 PM: The coronavirus outbreak in China has caused a boom in the U.S. preparedness industry Steve Conlee always had a habit of collecting reserves of food, water and other essentials at his home in case of the unknown. Now his Salt Lake City-based preparedness company, Emergency Essentials, is riding a rise in people across the United States looking to buy stashes of items such as water filters, face masks and stores of food amid fears over how far the coronavirus outbreak could go. “The coronavirus has definitely sparked a huge demand across the board for companies like ours,” Conlee said. “We suspect this will be a longer-term demand spike, as opposed to something like hurricanes,” when demand rises for just a few weeks. The preparedness industry, which targets a contingent often called “preppers,” markets the goods and advice needed to survive anything from a tornado to a quarantine to a full-blown apocalypse.


Nagoya scales back women’s marathon, cancels city race TOKYO — The Japanese city of Nagoya said it would only allow elite runners to compete in its women’s marathon on March 8, recognized as the largest women’s marathon in the world, due to fears of spreading the new coronavirus, while an open city marathon due to take place on the same day was canceled. The decision follows a similar decision taken by Tokyo on Monday, which also decided to restrict its March 1 race to elite runners. On their websites, the organizers of the twin marathons in Nagoya said the races had been expected to attract 40,000 runners, but “cannot help but create crowded areas and close contacts between runners and visitors.” “Much to our regret, we reached a conclusion that it is extremely difficult to stage a safe and secure event that all runners can participate [in] without worries,” it said, explaining that only elite runners who can complete a marathon in under three hours will be allowed to compete in the women’s race. “We are terribly sorry for our nonelite runners who have been practicing hard for the race and for everyone else who were looking forward to seeing and cheering runners on race day,” the organizers said. Meanwhile, the Japan Para Sports Association (JPSA) postponed a boccia tournament that doubles as a test event for the Tokyo Paralympics, to protect athletes. Boccia is a game, similar to bowls and pétanque, involving throwing small blue and red leather balls, toward a white jack, and is open to people with severe physical disabilities. The JPSA “concluded that further time is necessary to fully analyze the potential impacts should the novel coronavirus affect an athlete,” Tokyo 2020 said in a statement, adding that it will nevertheless will carry out the test event “in some form, after ensuring a safe and secure environment.” The decisions are the latest in postponements and cancellations of pre-Olympic and other sporting events due to coronavirus fears, underlining the uncertainties surrounding the summer Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games. By: Simon Denyer 6:14 AM: Westerdam crew members tested negative, says Cambodia Hundreds of crew members aboard a cruise ship docked in Cambodia have all tested negative for covid-19, the vessel’s operator said, despite fears they had possibly been exposed to coronavirus while aboard. In a statement Thursday, Holland America Line said that all 747 crew members on the


the department of infectious disease management at the Ministry of Health, told the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA). Another health official, Massoud Mardani, said family members of the two deceased patients, both of whom were elderly, were placed under quarantine. One of the victims was a 65-year-old war veteran who suffered from the lingering effects of exposure to chemical weapons during the Iran-Iraq War, the Mehr News Agency quoted Iran’s health minister as saying. “It is likely that many more people among the relatives and friends of the two deceased victims in Qom are infected,” said Mardani, a member of the Health Ministry’s infectious diseases committee, the Iranian Students’ News Agency reported. In Qom, authorities closed schools and universities and cleared two hospitals to receive patients suspected of having contracted the virus. In Tehran, 10 hospitals were designated to receive suspected cases, state media reported. By: Erin Cunningham 4:15 AM: New coronavirus could be around for a long time, warns Chinese expert BEIJING — The coronavirus may never disappear fully and instead come around seasonally like the flu, a Chinese expert said Thursday. Wang Chen, vice director of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said in a popular state television talk show “News 1+1” that unlike its viral sibling, the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) coronavirus that spread for several months before fading away in 2003, the novel species may simply never go away. “It could become chronic and coexist with humans like the flu,” Wang said. “We have to make good preparations for this.” Wang said the new coronavirus, technically known as SARS-CoV-2, appears less lethal to humans than its predecessor. The disease caused by the virus has been named covid-19 by the World Health Organization. The original SARS “kills its host, and then it’s eliminated itself,” said Wang, as he called for more resources to be spent on researching the pathogen. Researchers worldwide are racing to study the structure of SARS-CoV-2 and develop a vaccine after Chinese scientists shared its genome in a database earlier this month. An approved vaccine remains far off. Two firms, Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen pharmaceutical unit and Sanofi Pasteur, said this week they are partnering with the Department of Health and Human Services to work on a vaccine. By: Gerry Shih 3:37 AM: South Korea reports first coronavirus death SEOUL — South Korea reported its first death from the coronavirus outbreak on Thursday.


Welcome bugs into your yard. You might just save the world.

plants support the life cycles of 10 to 100 times more insect species than nonnative plants, and a few plants (such as native cherries and willows) serve as hosts for 10 to 100 times more insects than most other native varieties. You can find out which plants are best at supporting food webs in your county by visiting the Native Plant Finder at the National Wildlife Federation website. When you’re working to maintain that garden with all of its native vegetation, you should strive to minimize insecticide use. Homeowners use more insecticides per acre than farms do, and nearly all of them are unnecessary. Your goal is to bring bugs to the yard, not keep them away! Avoid mosquito fogging, which, contrary to what many companies tell you, relies on pyrethroids that kill nearly all the insects they contact, not just adult mosquitoes. Mosquitoes are best controlled in the larval stage with targeted products like mosquito dunks (Bacillus thurengiensis) that kill nothing else. You can also build pollinator gardens — groups of plants with blooms that supply the pollen and nectar that critical insects require. We need diverse communities of pollinator insects not only because they are important to human crops but because they pollinate 80 percent of all plants. Although declines in honeybee populations have gotten a lot of press, 4,000 species of native bees pollinated the vast majority of the plants in North America before we introduced the honeybee from Europe. Most of these native bees are suffering from our tendency to replace blooming native plants with lawn and concrete. Plants like goldenrod, asters, sunflowers, violets, evening primrose and native willows are best at supporting native bees, and they attract generalist pollinators like honeybees and bumblebees as well. Lastly, you can put motion sensors on your security lights or replace white bulbs with yellow LEDs. White lights draw insects all night long, exhausting them and making them easy prey for bats and birds, but yellow bulbs attract few insects. If each of the millions of lights we turn on in this country, mostly out of habit, kills just a few insects each night — well, you can do the math. We can no longer leave conservation to professional conservationists; there simply are not enough of them. Along with land ownership comes responsibility for stewarding the life associated with that land. The task is not as enormous as it


New developments suggest coronavirus incubation could be longer than 14 days, as global infections rise

self-isolate. ● China on Sunday local time reported 648 new cases and 97 additional deaths. There continues to be a great deal of skepticism about China’s numbers as the criteria for diagnosing coronavirus keep changing. ● Thousands of Russian-linked social-media accounts are leading a disinformation campaign to cause alarm about the outbreak, the AFP reported. BEIJING — Scientists were studying a case in China that suggested the incubation period for coronavirus could be longer than 14 days, potentially casting doubt on current quarantine criteria even as the epidemic moved into new regions. The potential for a longer incubation period was linked to a patient in China’s Hubei Province, where the virus was first detected in December. A 70-year-old man was infected with coronavirus, but did not show symptoms until 27 days later, the local government reported. South Korea and Japan both reported a sharp spike in cases Saturday, while an additional 97 people died of the virus in China, and a sixth person died in Iran. Italian authorities Saturday said the country was seeing a sudden rise in coronavirus cases, with at least 58 confirmed in the past two days — an outbreak that represents the largest across Europe. Meanwhile, scientists in China reported indications that the virus might be transmissible through urine. Almost 78,000 people worldwide have been diagnosed with the coronavirus, with the vast majority of cases located in mainland China, according to the World Health Organization. Roughly 1,400 cases have been tallied outside China. WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Saturday that WHO experts were due to arrive that day in Wuhan, China, the center of the coronavirus outbreak. The team has visited three Chinese provinces this week, Tedros said in a speech in Geneva. Outside China, Tedros said that the WHO is concerned about the number of cases without a clear epidemiological link, such as recent travel to China or contact with a person known to be infected. The organization also has been sending medical supplies to Africa and training the continent’s health-care workers to prepare them for the virus’s possible arrival there, Tedros said. The only confirmed case of the coronavirus in Africa is in Egypt. “Our biggest concern continues to be the potential for covid-19 to spread in countries with weaker health systems,” Tedros said. Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who has not visited Wuhan since the outbreak began, was briefed that the situation


along with Turkey, imposed restrictions on travelers who had recently arrived from Iran. Kuwait Airways said Saturday that it would be chartering special flights to evacuate citizens from Mashhad, Iran. As fears mounted, Israel announced Saturday that nine South Koreans who had recently returned home from a tour in Israel tested positive for the virus. Israeli and Palestinian authorities on Saturday urged anyone who may have interacted with the group visiting from Feb. 8 to 15 to self-quarantine as they work to trace who may have had contact with the tourists, who visited major cities including Jerusalem. Israel’s ambassador to China, Zvi Heifetz, was among those who self-quarantined, the Jerusalem Post reported, citing Israel’s foreign ministry. Heifetz took the same flight to Seoul as the South Korean tourists and is quarantined in Beijing, the report says. Roughly 200 students and teachers who came into contact with the South Koreans have also self-quarantined, according to the Times of Israel. A spokeswoman for Israel’s Population and Immigration Authority said Saturday that all non-Israeli citizens arriving on a direct flight from Seoul to Tel Aviv that evening would be denied entry. Israel’s Health Ministry has ordered Israelis returning from South Korea to self-quarantine. Meanwhile, tests are continuing on the crew members on board the Diamond Princess. At least 74 crew members have so far been found to have the virus. All of the passengers have now been tested and almost all have left the ship, either to go home if they tested negative, to local hospitals or government facilities if they have the virus, or back to their home countries. Some passengers were asked to stay on board to serve an additional quarantine if their cabin mate contracted the virus, but they are also disembarking Saturday to serve out the rest of their quarantine in a government facility, local media reported. More than 200 port calls in Japan by international cruise ships have been canceled since the beginning of February due to the coronavirus outbreak, a Kyodo News survey showed Saturday, with the lost revenue from passengers coming ashore dealing another blow to Japan’s weak economy. The 83-year-old woman who tested positive for the coronavirus when she arrived at Kuala Lumpur airport after disembarking in Cambodia from the MS Westerdam cruise ship has recovered, Malaysia health authorities said Saturday. The woman “is showing good improvement and signs of recovery, however, she is still


Wildlife killing contest ban considered in Maryland

scientific basis. Bans have also been proposed in New Jersey, New York, New Hampshire and Colorado. Stein’s bill will have a hearing Wednesday in the House Environment and Transportation Committee. He said the legislation has received support from constituents in Baltimore County. But he is expecting some opposition from communities where hunting is common. Deer are exempted from the bill, in part because of overpopulation concerns from the farming community, Stein said. Participants in the wildlife contests typically try to kill the most animals, or the heaviest animals, animal rights advocates say. Common targets are predators, including foxes, bobcats and coyotes. Hunters sometimes use automated “calls” that mimic the sound of animals in distress to draw in the prey and make it easier to shoot them. At the contest in Unionville, Md., a community about 45 miles north of the District, participants said they were “helping the balance of nature” by killing the foxes, said the Humane Society investigator, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to maintain their undercover status. But Humane Society chief executive Kitty Block said there is no evidence to suggest that wildlife-killing contests are effective methods for animal control. And the investigator said the main purpose for most of the young men who participated seemed to be bragging rights and having fun. The investigator used a hidden camera to take photos and video of the event, where contestants killed about 250 red foxes, coyotes and raccoons. Participants talked about dumping the animals in a nearby landfill after they were counted, the investigator said. There were children present, including one young girl dragging a dead fox. A group called Predator Hunters of Maryland organized the event. Administrators of the group’s Facebook page did not respond to requests for comment from a reporter Wednesday. By the next day, the page no longer appeared to be public. The Humane Society said there was a similar contest this month in the Charles County community of Waldorf, about 25 miles southeast of the District. It is not clear who organized that event. “This is really not something that is accepted — it’s something that is happening in the shadows,” Block said. Her organization began focusing on the issue in 2017 and has identified 600 competitions across the country in recent years, including the two in Maryland this winter. Block noted that Maryland otherwise has very strong animal protection laws. Christopher


Old diseases, other public health threats reemerge in the U.S.

For much of the 20th century, medical progress seemed limitless. Antibiotics revolutionized the care of infections. Vaccines turned deadly childhood diseases into distant memories. Americans lived longer, healthier lives than their parents. Yet today, some of the greatest success stories in public health are unraveling. Even as the world struggles to control the coronavirus, U.S. health officials are refighting battles they thought they had won, such as halting measles outbreaks, reducing deaths from heart disease and protecting young people from tobacco. These hard-fought victories are at risk as parents avoid vaccinating children, obesity rates climb and vaping spreads like wildfire among teens. Things looked promising for American health in 2014, when life expectancy hit 78.9 years. Then, life expectancy declined for three straight years — the longest sustained drop since the Spanish flu of 1918, which killed about 675,000 Americans and 50 million people worldwide, said Steven Woolf, a professor of family medicine and population health at Virginia Commonwealth University. Although life expectancy inched up slightly in 2018, it hasn’t yet regained the lost ground, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “These trends show we’re going backwards,” said Sadiya Khan, an assistant professor of cardiology and epidemiology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. While the reasons for the backsliding are complex, many public health problems could have been avoided, experts say, through stronger action by federal regulators and more attention to prevention. “We’ve had an overwhelming investment in doctors and medicine,” said Sandro Galea, dean of the Boston University School of Public Health. “We need to invest in prevention — safe housing, good schools, living wages, clean air and water.” The country has essentially split into two states of health, often living side by side, but with vastly different life expectancies. Americans in the fittest neighborhoods are living longer and better — hoping to live to 100 and beyond — while residents of the sickest communities are dying from preventable causes decades earlier, which pulls down life expectancy overall. Superbugs With deadly new types of bacteria and fungi emerging, CDC Director Robert Redfield said the world has entered a “post-antibiotic era.” Half of all new gonorrhea infections, for example, are resistant to at least one type of antibiotic. The CDC warns that “little now stands between us and untreatable gonorrhea.” That news comes as the CDC also reports a record number of combined cases of gonorrhea,


Coronavirus claims lives of two passengers from Diamond Princess cruise ship, Japanese media says

San Diego Health said in a statement. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notified UC San Diego Health that a patient at the facility had fully recovered. The facility has worked closely with the CDC to receive individuals with symptoms to rule out the coronavirus infection. “Patients who are cleared for hospital discharge have been confirmed through rigorous testing that includes consecutive negative test results provided by the CDC,” UC San Diego Health wrote in a statement. The facility said the patient discharged Wednesday is no longer under federal quarantine or isolation commands. UC San Diego Health was scrutnized last week when a confirmed coronavirus patient was mistakenly discharged due to a laboratory error. The patient was among three evacuees from China placed in isolation at the facility in early February and underwent testing after showing signs of the novel coronavirus. By: Michael Brice-Saddler 6:30 PM: How epidemics like COVID-19 end (and how to end them faster) A coronavirus, recently named COVID-19, has infected more than 70,000 people since it was first reported in late 2019. To predict how big the epidemic could get, researchers are working to determine how contagious the virus is. As governments and public health agencies work to treat infected people and control the spread of COVID-19, researchers are using mathematical models to estimate how contagious it is and how far it could spread. One such model has indicated that the number of cases may peak this month. Read more here. By: Joe Fox, Youjin Shin and Armand Emamdjomeh 5:20 PM: Amid coronavirus outbreak, mask producers fear shortages As the number of coronavirus cases in China skyrocketed in the past week, a small Texas manufacturer was inundated with orders from 8,000 miles away. Then, Stephen K. Bannon reached out. Prestige Ameritech, the largest full-line domestic surgical mask manufacturer, was producing 600,000 masks each day but struggling to meet demand. Mike Bowen, the company’s executive vice president, received cold calls on his cellphone from people saying they represented foreign governments and wanted to make bulk purchases. The Hong Kong government and Hong Kong International Airport wanted more. Everyone was hunting for masks. Instead of celebrating the business boom, Bowen was indignant. This is the precise scenario he began warning about almost 15 years ago, when he pleaded with federal agencies and lawmakers to boost U.S. production of medical masks. He had predicted an eventual health scare


agencies work to treat infected people and control the spread of COVID-19, researchers are using mathematical models to estimate how contagious it is and how far it could spread. One such model has indicated that the number of cases may peak this month. Read more here. By: Joe Fox, Youjin Shin and Armand Emamdjomeh 5:20 PM: Amid coronavirus outbreak, mask producers fear shortages As the number of coronavirus cases in China skyrocketed in the past week, a small Texas manufacturer was inundated with orders from 8,000 miles away. Then, Stephen K. Bannon reached out. Prestige Ameritech, the largest full-line domestic surgical mask manufacturer, was producing 600,000 masks each day but struggling to meet demand. Mike Bowen, the company’s executive vice president, received cold calls on his cellphone from people saying they represented foreign governments and wanted to make bulk purchases. The Hong Kong government and Hong Kong International Airport wanted more. Everyone was hunting for masks. Instead of celebrating the business boom, Bowen was indignant. This is the precise scenario he began warning about almost 15 years ago, when he pleaded with federal agencies and lawmakers to boost U.S. production of medical masks. He had predicted an eventual health scare and not enough manufacturers. He was right. So there Bowen was last week as a guest on Bannon’s “War Room: Pandemic” podcast, tormented that no one in power had listened. Bannon, a former top adviser to President Trump, has long cautioned about the decline of U.S. manufacturing. “What I’ve been saying since 2007 is, ‘Guys, I’m warning you, here’s what is going to happen, let’s prepare,’ ” Bowen said on the program. “Because if you call me after it starts, I can’t help everybody.” The coronavirus outbreak has led to a health crisis, a diplomatic fiasco and, increasingly, an economic mess. It has also exposed major vulnerabilities in the medical supply chain. Many U.S. companies, especially hospitals and pharmaceutical firms, rely on Chinese manufacturers for products ranging from the active ingredients of prescription drugs to protective gear like masks and gloves. Now, much appears upended. Read more here. By: Lena H. Sun and Rachel Siegel 4:15 PM: Chinese American neighborhoods are free from coronavirus but not its effects Halfway around the world, the covid-19 outbreak is negatively affecting Chinese businesses in New York and San Francisco, and some Chinese community members are feeling targeted. Watch more here: By: Joyce Lee,


care on Jan. 30, but her health declined further. The woman was sent to the intensive care unit, then transferred to an isolation ward where she was diagnosed with coronavirus Wednesday, officials said. Authorities confirmed that the woman hadn’t been abroad for about two years. Health officials said they planned to investigate her contacts and activities over the past two weeks, in an effort to identify where she contracted the infection. By: Lateshia Beachum 10:30 AM: How exactly does coronavirus kill? The mounting death toll from the coronavirus raises a basic question: How does the virus make people sick, and why is it fatal for some? Scientists’ understanding of the new coronavirus is in flux, but it’s important to keep a few facts in mind: Most people who contract covid-19 — 80 percent, according to a study from Chinese public health officials — will experience only mild illness and recover. Based on early numbers, about 2 percent of people who are infected die — but that estimate comes with a huge caveat, given how hard it is to estimate fatality rates early in an outbreak. The difference between a lethal infection and one that feels like a bad cold probably hinges on the interaction between the virus and a person’s immune system, say researchers, who are relying on their knowledge of other similar illnesses, including severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). “What you get is the initial damage and rush of inflammatory cells, but the damage is so extensive that the body’s immune response is completely overwhelmed — which causes even more immune response, more immune cells and more damage,” said Matthew Frieman, a University of Maryland virologist. Coronaviruses that cause common colds are excellent at infecting the upper airway, while the virus causing SARS tended to go deeper in the lungs. As the coronavirus gains strength, Frieman said, dead cells are sloughed off and collect in the airway, making breathing difficult. In the patients who recover, the immune system’s response has worked: It has cleared the virus, with inflammation receding. Yet experts don’t know the long-term outcome for these individuals. It’s possible they will gain immunity and be protected from reinfection. Or they might get a less severe case in the future — or not be protected at all. They also might just gain temporary immunity. It’s yet another unanswered question about the coronavirus. Read more here: How exactly does


the coronavirus, the country’s first known infections, local media reported Wednesday. Kianush Jahanpur, a Health Ministry official, said the cases were detected in the holy city of Qom and that a number of other people with flu-like symptoms have been isolated and are undergoing testing, according to the Iranian Students’ News Agency (ISNA). Jahanpur did not divulge the nationalities of those infected or elaborate on the number of people suspected of having the virus. He said that specialized medical teams were deployed to Qom to detect potential cases of the virus, which first emerged in China in December. “In the past two days, suspicious cases of influenza were detected in the city of Qom,” Jahanpur said, ISNA reported. “Initial testing showed two positive cases for coronavirus, while some other [patients] were reported to have Type B influenza,” he said, adding that further testing was being conducted. Earlier this month, Iran evacuated more than 50 Iranian nationals — as well as Iraqi, Lebanese and Syrian nationals — from the Chinese city of Wuhan where the outbreak of the virus originated. The evacuees were flown to Tehran and quarantined for two weeks, according to local media reports. The report came just hours after WHO officials in Cairo noted that no new countries have been added to the list of those affected in a few days. By: Erin Cunningham 6:06 AM: WHO details efforts to step up virus preparedness in North Africa and the Middle East The World Health Organization (WHO) said Wednesday that it was working to increase preparedness in North Africa and the Middle East for a possible outbreak of the coronavirus, promising the delivery of more essential medical supplies. Egypt recently reported its first case of the virus, amid mounting concerns that it could spread in other parts of Africa, which analysts have cautioned are ill-equipped to handle an outbreak. More than 1 million Chinese citizens are estimated to work in Africa. Speaking in Cairo on Wednesday, Richard Brennan, a regional emergency director with the WHO, said laboratories in 20 out of 22 countries in the Eastern Mediterranean region are now capable of diagnosing the virus. Speeding up tests has been considered crucial in quickly confirming cases and identifying other individuals who were potentially exposed to the virus. Brennan also said the WHO was distributing essential supplies, including gloves, masks, medical gowns and respirators. “There has been a tendency for


A native plant guru’s radical vision for the American yard

Landscape,” explores designed plant communities in more detail. My take? In recent years, gardening has moved away from its traditional realm of pure aesthetics toward something more ecologically driven. Gardening for pollinators and other desired wildlife is in vogue. The trophy lawn is still cherished across the land, but people, I sense, are more relaxed about weeds in their grass, use fewer pesticides and want to plant for beneficial insects. No informed gardeners would continue to use plants that are known to be invasive in their area. This is all to the good, but a garden is not a nature preserve; it’s a designed space created to give us pleasure, emotional sanctuary and an appreciation for nature. For me and many others, a large part of that joy aligns with Tallamy’s goal — in welcoming and harboring animal life, especially birds, amphibians, reptiles and invertebrates. I love native plants and their cultivated varieties, but I couldn’t limit myself to them. Tallamy says you can still have 30 percent of nonnative varieties and accrue the ecological benefits of a native plant landscape, at least in a study of Carolina chickadee breeding conducted by one of his students, Desirée Narango. Assuming you can have the best of both worlds, a garden for people and for wildlife, what is needed now is the practical guidance and the model gardens that will light the way, says Claudia West, a landscape architect whose firm, Phyto Studio, specializes in ecologically functioning design. West worries that those who want to live in a Homegrown National Park will think that a naturally inspired landscape means one that will look after itself. She is the co-author with her colleague Thomas Rainer of “Planting in a Post-Wild World,” which argues that ecologically driven landscapes require more, not less, proficiency than traditional landscapes. “I’m a huge fan of Doug Tallamy, and what he’s doing is exactly what we need, a big cultural change,” West says, “but what we need now are the models to bring this down to the reality of the culture, people who don’t garden, for example.” One place where that is being done is the former Dupont estate near Wilmington, Del., named Mt. Cuba Center. The public garden includes a meadow, woodland and aquatic gardens, and, in the formal area close to the house, a traditional herbaceous border, but one planted in native plants. Tallamy says residents can


How Pete Buttigieg went from war protester to ‘packing my bags for Afghanistan’

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — They don’t get a lot of officer material through the Navy recruiting center here, a one-room office next to a vape shop on the outskirts of town. Those headed for a commission are more likely to enter the ranks through ROTC programs or Annapolis. But one day in 2009, a rare prospect did walk in: Buttigieg, Peter, 27-year-old Harvard grad. Polyglot Rhodes scholar. McKinsey management consultant. Nordic poetry fan. Hometown boy. A decade later, Buttigieg, P., is better known as South Bend’s Mayor Pete, a first-name-only pol thanks to his tongue-twister surname (BOOT-edge-edge). Mayor Pete is finishing his second term as he campaigns for the Democratic presidential nomination. He remains one of the few luminaries to start military service at this modest recruiting outpost. “We got Mayor Pete and we had an admiral once — that’s pretty much it,” said Zach Blakeman, the recruiter on duty on a recent summer day, sitting at a desk stacked with the high school diplomas of his more typical enlistees. Because of his pedigree, Buttigieg glided straight into the Navy Reserve’s direct-commission officers program, bypassing the more time-consuming training route of other branches. “We can tell within two hours whether you’re qualified or not,” Blakeman said. It took Buttigieg far longer to figure that out. The moment he stepped up on that white Health O Meter scale was a pivot point for him personally and politically. As he was weighed and measured, a process began that would not only put him in potential danger but force him to confront a lifelong conflict at the center of his identity — his sexuality. It would allow him to yield to a revered family calling of military service. And, just months before he launched a career in electoral politics, it would let him add a valuable new credential to his résumé: veteran. Today, in a crowded field, Buttigieg is one of only four Democratic candidates with experience in uniform. He would be the first presidential candidate with overseas military service elected in three decades. And he has already foreshadowed how he could wield his dog tags in a race against President Trump, who used medical deferments to avoid service in Vietnam. “I was packing my bags for Afghanistan while he was working on Season 7 of ‘The Apprentice,’ ” he said in May. Sitting down with a recruiter came after years of uncertainty


Unilever to Buy Ben & Jerry’s

Grab a spoon and pass the Chunky Monkey! Counterculture capitalists Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield agreed yesterday to sell their Ben & Jerry’s ice cream company to Unilever PLC. And Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Inc. was just a $326 million dessert for the European consumer products giant. Like many a yo-yo dieter, Unilever announced it would wash down the Ben & Jerry’s with $2.6 billion worth of Slim-Fast diet shakes. In purchasing two icons of America’s love-hate relationship with food, Unilever is continuing its effort to shed poorly performing products to concentrate on its 400 best-selling brands. With 45 percent of the $1.3 billion diet food market and $611 million in sales, the privately held, Florida-based Slim-Fast Foods Co. now becomes Unilever’s sixth-largest brand. Purveyor of such household names as Ponds, Vaseline, Ragu and Lipton Tea, Unilever is also the world’s largest maker of ice cream, owning the Breyer’s and Good Humor premium brands. Ben & Jerry’s niche is superpremium, selling its Cherry Garcia and Chubby Hubby flavors in all the major grocery chains nationwide and through about 215 scoop shops. The company, which tempered capitalism with a spoonful of whimsy and a healthy dollop of social consciousness, had $237 million in sales last year. Selling out to corporate “suits” is an ironic ending for the company founded in 1978 by two former hippies with $12,000--$4,000 of it borrowed. Cohen and Greenfield took the company public in 1985. Although they had fended off takeover offers in the past, it had become clear to the founders that Ben & Jerry’s needed more resources and broader distribution channels. Last December, to the dismay of many Vermonters and some of its franchisees, the company let it be known it was considering other opportunities. “Neither of us could have anticipated, 20 years ago, that a major multinational would someday sign on, enthusiastically, to pursue and expand the social mission that continues to be an essential part of Ben & Jerry’s,” Cohen and Greenfield said in a news release. Social activism will continue under Unilever, the Ben & Jerry’s release pointed out, possibly in anticipation of critics of the move. Specifically, the company will stay headquartered in Vermont and will continue to buy growth-hormone-free milk from family farmers in the state. It also will still hand out 7.5 percent of pretax profits to the company’s charitable foundation. Unilever’s commitment to these practices comes with something


Apps have turned restaurant work into a gig-economy hustle. Here’s how one cook chases a paycheck.

woke up at 5:30 to gigs whose wages teased incrementally higher amounts, and he beat himself up for not letting them take over his day off. “There’s always a part of you that’s screaming inside ‘WHY?! WHY DID YOU PASS ON SO MUCH MONEY?!’ ” he wrote in his diary about potential $108 and $195 payouts, “but learning to step away and rest is important, too. Instead I slept in and did some gardening with my roommate in the afternoon.” On a recent Saturday on Pared, Bouchon Bakery at Rockefeller Center posted a prep cook ad at 7:35 a.m. offering $20 an hour — increasing to $22 at 8:02 a.m. Later that morning, Belcampo put up a 10:19 a.m. post for an $18-an-hour line cook gig that crept up to $24 by 11:03 — a $6-an-hour raise in just 45 minutes. Similarly, an event-cook gig at Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center went from $20 an hour at 3 p.m. to $26 by 9 p.m. Planned-ahead gigs are less attractive to cooks because they offer minimal payouts. And day jobs are difficult because the gigs demand cooks be on-call at all times. Pared is not Uber for kitchens; it is Uber surge pricing for kitchens. It’s a system that, whatever Pared’s intent, seems to prioritize desperation and urgency for both management and labor. And it’s gaining popularity — now operating in New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Washington, with more expansions planned. Pared was founded in San Francisco in 2015 by Dave Lu, a marketing and product veteran at Apple, Cisco, eBay and Yahoo; and Will Pacio, who was a chef at Thomas Keller’s Per Se, then at his French Laundry, before running IT for the Keller restaurant group. While Pared has rivals — Instawork, Jitjatjo, Qwick, Shiftgig — it has emerged as an industry gold standard trusted by high-profile restaurant leaders, including Keller (who, along with a Taco Bell executive, is also an investor), José Andrés, Tom Colicchio, Dominique Crenn and Jean-Georges Vongerichten. More than 30 Michelin-starred restaurants use Pared. Even Washington’s famously woke Busboys and Poets uses it. Like much of Silicon Valley, built on the disruptive philosophy to “move fast and break things,” Pared touts choice, convenience, entrepreneurship, flexibility and opportunity. Like many apps before it, its compelling engagement has had unintended — and largely unmentioned — consequences. The company line is that Pared is LinkedIn with


CDC raises South Korea travel advisory to highest level as coronavirus cases surge globally

no agency has been inhibited in response efforts due to resources or authorities. However, much is still unknown about this virus and the disease it causes,” acting White House Office of Management and Budget Director Russell T. Vought wrote to congressional leaders. “The administration believes additional federal resources are necessary to take steps to prepare for a potential worsening of the situation in the United States.” The request reflects the fast-evolving nature of the crisis confronting the administration, which until recently had insisted no additional funds were necessary. But Democrats immediately slammed the request as too low, with House Appropriations Chairwoman Nita M. Lowey (D-N.Y.) calling it “woefully insufficient.” Read more here. By: Erica Werner, Jeff Stein and Lena H. Sun 8:59 PM: U.S. and South Korean military officials may scale back training exercises due to outbreak Asked about the possibility of altering upcoming joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises due to the coronavirus outbreak, Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper said on Monday that U.S. and Korean military leaders were “looking at scaling back the command post training due to concerns about the coronavirus.” Speaking to reporters during a visit to the Pentagon by his South Korean counterpart, Esper said the two countries would “remain fully ready to deal with any threats that we might face together.” The South Korean minister, Jeong Kyeong-doo, said U.S. and South Korean officials would “make the right decision through close coordination,” adding that regardless of the circumstances the two countries would work to strengthen their military ties and prospects for peace on the Korean Peninsula. By: Missy Ryan 8:09 PM: CDC raises South Korea travel advisory to highest level The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday raised its travel advisory for South Korea to its highest level after the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the country surged past 800. The Level 3 warning means Americans should avoid all nonessential travel to South Korea, which has the highest concentration of coronavirus infections outside China. The CDC is instructing people who must travel to talk to their doctors first and avoid contact with sick people once they arrive, saying there is limited access to adequate medical care in affected areas. China, where the outbreak originated, is the only other country with a Level 3 travel warning. South Korea is battling a rapidly growing wave of new Covid-19 cases, the majority in Daegu, the country’s


little to do.” Elsewhere across the north, most major gatherings have been called off, from soccer matches to school, and it is unclear for how long the closures will last. Milan’s landmark cathedral and opera house both shut down, and the Carnival of Venice was suspended two days before its planned conclusion. Read more here: Coronavirus explodes in Italy; cases surge from 3 to more than 200 in a few days By: Chico Harlan 7:35 AM: Afghanistan confirms first case of coronavirus and announces state of emergency KABUL — Afghanistan confirmed its first case of coronavirus on Monday and announced a state of emergency in the western city where the virus was detected, according to the Afghan Health Ministry. On Sunday, Afghanistan closed its border with Iran and halted flights between the two countries after three men who recently came from Iran were suspected of being infected. The three elderly Afghan men had crossed into the western province of Herat from neighboring Iran and were hospitalized Sunday after they showed signs of being infected with the virus. Following blood tests in Kabul, Ferozuddin Feroz, the minister of public health, told a news conference in Kabul that one man was diagnosed with coronavirus. Feroz said the man is in quarantine, under the care of doctors in Herat, where he announced a state of emergency after consultation with international health institutions and local authorities. He said people living in Herat should avoid visiting other parts of the country and that those wishing to travel to Herat should refrain from doing so. Herat’s public health chief, Abdul Hakim Taman, said he was concerned about the virus’s spread in Afghanistan on Sunday. Thousands of people travel back and forth every day between Afghanistan and Iran for trade and employment and due to family ties. Afghan officials were testing all people crossing the border for coronavirus symptoms. But many use informal routes to travel between the two countries where screening does not take place. By: Sayed Salahuddin 7:00 AM: Israel disinvites some marathon runners JERUSALEM — Israeli officials disinvited almost 3,000 international runners who had signed up for the upcoming Tel Aviv Marathon, one of several restrictive measures the country has taken in response to growing fears that the virus could gain a foothold in the country on the eve of national elections on March 2, according to local media reports. The Health Ministry allowed


the annual race — with an expected field of 40,000 — to go ahead as planned Friday, but without the hefty contingent of racers planning to travel from outside Israel, the daily Maariv newspaper reported. Officials also barred non-Israelis from reentering the country if their travels had taken them to South Korea or Japan in the two weeks before returning, the paper said. And Health Minister Yaakov Litman told Army Radio on Monday that his agency was weighing mandatory quarantine measures for anyone arriving from Italy or Australia. The moves follow a spike in coronavirus anxiety after members of a group of South Korean tourists tested positive for the infection after completing a nine-day tour of popular religious and natural sites across Israel. More than 200 Israelis who might have overlapped with the group — including schoolchildren, hotel workers and tour guides — have begun to quarantine themselves at home. Israeli voters are a week away from heading to the polls for their third national election in a year. Election officials said they were readying special voting places for citizens under isolation orders and preparing other steps to reassure the electorate. Correction: Due to a translation error, an earlier version of this update said officials had barred Israelis from reentering the country if their travels had taken them to South Korea or Japan in the two weeks before returning. However, only non-Israelis are affected. By: Steve Hendrix 6:35 AM: Italy reports more than 200 coronavirus cases, as confirmed infections surge ROME — In an unnerving four-day span, the coronavirus has arrived with force in Italy, with case numbers spiking almost hourly and the virus jumping from one region to the next across the country’s north. Four days ago, Italy had only three confirmed cases of the virus. Now, it has the largest known outbreak outside Asia, pushing the world closer to a pandemic, in which epidemics spread across multiple countries and continents at the same time. Italy’s experience — with more than 200 confirmed cases as of Monday and four deaths — shows how the virus can slip into a new continent undetected, only to then erupt as a sudden crisis, while bringing with it the interruptions and fears that once felt far away. Some infectious disease experts have speculated that the virus was already in Italy for weeks, carried by one or more people with negligible symptoms, before it


Tom Sietsema’s 8 favorite places to eat right now

create a restaurant that felt like a fun dinner party. Mission accomplished, I say. 1101 Pennsylvania Ave. SE. 202-544-4368. emiliesdc.com. Shareable entrees, $27 to $45. Attention, fine diners: Fabio Trabocchi is closing his flagship Italian restaurant in July so he can give it a facelift. That gives you four months to enjoy one of the richest dinners around, either in the small Ezio Room off the bar, where the list is a la carte, or in the main dining room, where you choose from four- to seven-course tasting menus. Less is more, as far as I’m concerned; Trabocchi is such a generous chef, even if you’ve ordered a couple dishes, you can expect a bevy of extras to find their way to your table, starting with three irresistible house-baked breads and concluding with enough sweet somethings to stock the window of a gourmet candy shop. Some of you might wish to throw caution to wind and boy, have I got a game plan for you! It’s the Grand Tasting Menu, and it embraces some of the most decadent dishes in town. Strap on the (silk) feed bag for thin-sliced foie gras staged with poached, pickled or caramelized apples and a pinwheel of fried bread; branzino on buttery shredded leeks, to which a server adds oysters in a froth of zabaglione and prosecco; veal Rossini, aflutter with black truffles and . . . by now you get the point: Decadence is part of the chef’s DNA. 601 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. 202-525-1402. fioladc.com. Main dining room tasting menus, $135 (four courses) to $220 (seven courses). There are few drawbacks to being paid to eat in a city as delicious as Washington. One of them (and poor me) is not getting to be a regular anywhere — not when hundreds of restaurants are demanding my attention, anyway. The regret comes to mind every time I eat at Hanumanh, the delightful Laotian watering hole created by Seng Luangrath and Boby Pradachith, whose good works around the area include the popular Thip Khao. At their latest attraction, the mother-son team have created a dynamite little menu that stars steamed Cornish hen lapped with a dark red sauce, abuzz with prickly ash and ablaze with fried chiles, and a red curry distinguished from the pack with pickled lime and a crown of fried banana blossoms. Come to think of it, just about every dish demands a


This is the definitive way to use self-checkout lanes

I’m a control freak. So it should come as no surprise that I’m also a fan of self-checkout lanes, those registers found in grocery stores and other retailers where customers can scan, bag and pay for their items without encountering a cashier. Steve Adams feels the same way. A public relations account executive in Annapolis, Md., Adams was an early adopter of self-checkout. “The benefit is convenience and empowerment, but also I have fun doing it,” he says. Shoppers unfamiliar with the practice, however, or those who have tried it before and were inconvenienced, are often reluctant to self-check. They reason that a cashier can do it more quickly and efficiently, and they want to avoid making a mistake that will force them to request help from a staffer — and hold up the line. But everyone can become a self-checkout pro. All you have to do is follow these tips. A typical self-check stand contains a touch-screen monitor, bar-code scanner/weighing scale, bag stand, payment module and credit card pad. Shoppers are guided by images on the touch screen and a recorded voice prompt to scan, bag and pay. A “help” button summons a store attendant. Every retailer is different, so you may have to ask an attendant for the order of checkout steps. Most want you to scan any loyalty cards or input your phone number first. If you’re using manufacturers’ coupons, you may need to scan those before beginning the payment process; however, some companies ask you to use coupons after you’re ready to pay but before inserting final payment. Self-checkout is the most efficient option on express-size orders of 15 items or fewer. Because most self-check bagging areas are small, if your cart is more than half full, it’s probably best to opt for the regular line. As tempting as it can be, you don’t have to be a scanning speed demon. Self-check registers are multitasking computers and must perform a number of functions — identifying the product, calculating the price, weighing the item, applying any discount — before they can move from one item to the next. “Each time you scan an item, let the system ‘think’ for a second or two and then continue. It sounds strange, but this really helps speed the process,” says Donna Thomas, a former cashier and now director of front-end operations for Albertsons Companies, one of the largest food retailers


For Hong Kong refugees, new life in Taiwan means traversing a legal twilight zone

Kong national has publicly stated his intention to stay in Taiwan. Lam Wing-kee, a bookseller who arrived last year amid fears he could be extradited from Hong Kong to face criminal charges in China, plans to open a bookstore in Taipei. Some Hong Kongers view Lam as a test case should they, too, seek to stay in Taiwan permanently. But he is on a tourist visa and insists that Hong Kongers should understand the limitations of Taiwan's government. "Most of them are very impatient and anxious. I've been trying to talk to them and calm them down," Lam said in an interview. "I'm using myself as an example and sharing my experience." Last July, he identified one case of a student protester who, upon arriving in Taiwan, was approached by a man purporting to be a national security agent. Lam, and the student's companions, feared the man was trying to "buy off the protesters." Ho Ming-sho, a sociology professor at National Taiwan University, said Hong Kong protesters wary of spies and police infiltrating their ranks carry those fears to Taiwan, potentially leaving them "prone to rumors and scams." Domestic rights groups have called for Taiwan to utilize Article 18 of its Act Governing Relations With Hong Kong and Macao, which allows the government to assist those "whose safety and liberty are immediately threatened for political reasons." Taiwan has not publicly used the article, instead deferring to existing immigration laws. "They're trying to be cautious," Ho said. But Taiwan has quietly created avenues for Hong Kongers to stay, ranging from a pilot program for students to less-publicized measures such as unofficially loosening restrictions on tourist visa extensions. "We have elastic ways to deal with that," said Wang Ting-yu, a legislator in Taiwan's ruling Democratic Progressive Party. "This kind of rescue system, this help system, we have that. It's happening now." Joseph Wu, Taiwan's foreign minister, said in December that Taiwan would consider adjusting its assistance if China's military invaded Hong Kong. For now, Wang said, a formal process to accept Hong Kong refugees would "offer Beijing an excuse to accuse Taiwan of being behind this movement." While the government says it cannot publicly open its doors to Hong Kong protesters, Wang said it is ensuring that those doors are not closed completely. "We have an obligation to help them," he said. "But we have our own way to help them." foreign@washpost.com