Betty Williams, Nobel laureate and leader of peace movement in Northern Ireland, dies at 76

During the Troubles that wracked Northern Ireland in the late 20th century, Betty Williams saw a stray bullet strike a toddler astride a tricycle. Two of her cousins were killed in the sectarian conflict, which pitted British loyalists, who were mainly Protestant, against Irish republicans, who were largely Catholic, in a violent struggle over whether the region would remain part of the United Kingdom or separate to form a united Ireland. But it was the carnage that Ms. Williams witnessed on the afternoon of Aug. 10, 1976, that moved her to abandon her anonymous life as a Belfast mother of two for one of full-time advocacy. On that day, a British soldier shot the driver of a getaway car belonging to the paramilitary Irish Republican Army. The car veered onto the sidewalk, striking a woman and three of her four children, including a 6-week-old baby. Two of the children were killed instantly; the third died soon after. The mother, Anne Maguire, was severely wounded and later died by suicide. In the days after the children’s deaths, Ms. Williams, who was already active in a local nonviolence campaign, undertook a grass-roots effort to stop the slaughter. With Mairead Corrigan, one of Maguire’s sisters, she began organizing petitions and marches that drew thousands and then tens of thousands, with participants from both sides of the conflict. The Troubles would go on for decades. But Ms. Williams and Corrigan — along with Ciaran McKeown, a journalist who helped them found the organization that became known as the Peace People — attracted worldwide attention to their cause and were credited with reducing the violence, which is estimated to have taken more than 3,500 lives. Ms. Williams, a co-recipient with Corrigan of the 1976 Nobel Peace Prize, died March 18 at a hospital in Belfast. She was 76. Gerry Grehan, the current chairman of the Peace People, confirmed her death and said the cause was viral pneumonia. Ms. Williams was in her early 30s when she was thrust to international renown with the awarding of the Nobel Prize. She made a compelling representative for the cause of peace in Northern Ireland: The daughter of a Protestant father and a Catholic mother and the granddaughter of a Jew, she was raised Catholic and defied entrenched societal conventions by marrying a Protestant. The Troubles — the term used to describe the three decades of guerrilla-style conflict in


Trump again downplays coronavirus by comparing it to the seasonal flu. It’s not a fair comparison.

with the coronavirus, given its novelty: It’s spreading quickly and threatening the ability of hospitals to handle the caseload. As flu season ramps up, so do reports of possible flu cases. The CDC tracks reports of “influenza-like illnesses” on a weekly basis. You can see how, in the last few months of 2019, the number of weekly reports increased. The escalation of confirmed coronavirus cases, meanwhile, has happened much more rapidly. There’s also been some speculation that increased reports of flu-like illnesses in recent weeks — the little uptick on the top line — might be a function of people presenting symptoms of coronavirus infection. We see a much faster rate of spread from the coronavirus than we did in 2009 from the H1N1 strain that emerged that year. While the total estimate of loss of life from that pandemic was above 12,000, that again is a total that was estimated after the fact. As the virus spread, there were similar reports to those we now see on a daily basis, tracking the number of cases and the number of deaths that resulted. The World Health Organization published regular reports on the spread of the virus in the United States. Here’s how they compared with the emergence of the coronavirus in the days since the 60th infection was reported. You see clearly that the novel coronavirus is expanding more quickly than did H1N1. The R0 for that virus, the rate at which it spread, was between 1.2 and 1.6, meaning that each infected person might be expected to infect 1.2 to 1.6 other people. The R0 for the novel coronavirus is estimated to be around 2.3. So it spreads more quickly. But you probably also noticed the higher death toll. That’s because the mortality rate of the H1N1 virus was much lower. The seasonal flu is also much less deadly. Using the CDC’s estimates of this flu season, the mortality rate of the seasonal flu this year is somewhere between 0.04 percent (23,000 deaths out of 53 million infections) or 0.16 percent (59,000 deaths out of 38 million infections). Data compiled by Johns Hopkins University put the current mortality rate of the coronavirus in the United States at about 1.2 percent — 600 deaths from about 50,000 cases. That may be high. Many coronavirus infections don’t present significant symptoms, and many existing cases haven’t been confirmed. The more cases there


The coronavirus threatens all of humanity. All of humanity must fight back.

Mark Lowcock is the United Nations’ under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is director-general of the World Health Organization. To stop the covid-19 pandemic, nations must look beyond their own borders. The coronavirus is now reaching places where people live in war zones, cannot easily get their hands on soap and clean water, and have no hope of a hospital bed if they fall critically ill. If countries with strong health-care systems are buckling under the pressure of coronavirus outbreaks, imagine what will happen in countries beset by deep humanitarian crises caused by war, natural disasters and climate change. Leaving covid-19 to spread freely in these countries would jeopardize millions and risk tipping whole regions into chaos — giving the virus the opportunity to circle back around the globe. On Wednesday, the United Nations system is launching a humanitarian campaign to fight the virus in the world’s most vulnerable countries. The coronavirus knows no borders, and we are only as strong as the weakest health system. Countries now battling the pandemic at home are rightly prioritizing those living within their borders. But the hard truth is that they will fail to protect their own people if they do not act to help the poorest countries protect themselves against covid-19. More than 16,000 Although older people are the hardest hit, younger people are not spared. Data from many countries clearly show that people under 50 make up a significant proportion of patients requiring hospitalization. In places where children are malnourished and already suffering from communicable diseases, that proportion is almost certain to grow. Our teams are working round the clock to fight the pandemic. The World Health Organization is coordinating with governments and industry to boost the production of personal protective equipment. It has shipped this essential equipment to 68 countries and has sent 1.5 million coronavirus test kits to 120 countries. Now, the United Nations system is joining forces to expand the fight, specifically to help countries with weaker health systems. The campaign will need funding from the world’s wealthier countries to protect its most vulnerable — the right thing to do on humanitarian grounds but also as a matter of simple self-protection. The effort will deliver essential gear, including laboratory equipment to test for the virus and medical equipment to treat people. It will install hand-washing stations in camps and settlements and establish airbridges and hubs across Africa,


Postponing the Tokyo Games was the right call, even if it is heartbreaking now

Australia told athletes to prepare for the Games in 2021. USA Swimming and USA Track & Field wrote letters urging postponement, giving a firm push in the back to the cautious U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee, which after initially refusing to take a stand issued this creeping statement Monday night: “It’s more clear than ever that the path toward postponement is the most promising, and we encourage the IOC to take all needed steps to ensure the Games can be conducted under safe and fair conditions for all competitors.” The foot dragging was apparently caused by fears over liability and cost. There are reports that the IOC wanted Tokyo organizers to be the ones to pull the ripcord, to protect itself with insurers and in case of any potential litigation. The IOC, perhaps understandably, wanted to insulate itself and partners such as NBC as much as possible from lasting financial damage over an event estimated to cost $25 billion. But the messaging mattered. Whatever the public sees elite athletes do, it is likely to do as well. They are some of our chief influencers, the makers of manners. The longer the IOC stalled, the more it seemed to soft-pedal the threat and suggest that maybe the pandemic wouldn’t be that bad or of very long duration. The more it risked becoming a carrier of the pandemic itself and jeopardizing athlete health. There was just one plain speaker in the IOC, longtime executive Dick Pound, and he deserves deep respect for it. I’ve had vehement differences with Pound on everything from anti-doping to overly massive TV contracts and the grotesque growth of the Games, but he has a reflexive outspokenness you have to admire. And he was an honest and candid messenger right from the start. “This is the new war, and you have to face it,” he told the Associated Press back in February. ” … I’d say folks are going to have to ask, ‘Is this under sufficient control that we can be confident about going to Tokyo or not?’ ” No. It is not under sufficient control. There was no option. Even supposing enough countries around the globe could get a grip on the pandemic in the next few weeks — a ludicrous supposition given that India is going into lockdown and the World Health Organization projects the United States will become a new epicenter — did the


The coronavirus isn’t mutating quickly, suggesting a vaccine would offer lasting protection

The coronavirus is not mutating significantly as it circulates through the human population, according to scientists who are closely studying the novel pathogen’s genetic code. That relative stability suggests the virus is less likely to become more or less dangerous as it spreads, and represents encouraging news for researchers hoping to create a long-lasting vaccine. All viruses evolve over time, accumulating mutations as they replicate imperfectly inside a host’s cells in tremendous numbers and then spread through a population, with some of those mutations persisting through natural selection. The new coronavirus has proofreading machinery, however, and that reduces the “error rate” and the pace of mutation. It looks pretty much the same everywhere it has appeared, the scientists say, and there is no evidence that some strains are deadlier than others. SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the disease covid-19, is similar to coronaviruses that circulate naturally in bats. It jumped into the human species last year in Wuhan, China, probably through an intermediate species — possibly a pangolin, an endangered anteater whose scales are trafficked for traditional medicine. Scientists now are studying more than 1,000 different samples of the virus, Peter Thielen, a molecular geneticist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory who has been studying the virus, told The Washington Post. There are only about four to 10 genetic differences between the strains that have infected people in the United States and the original virus that spread in Wuhan, he said. “That’s a relatively small number of mutations for having passed through a large number of people,” Thielen said. “At this point, the mutation rate of the virus would suggest that the vaccine developed for SARS-CoV-2 would be a single vaccine, rather than a new vaccine every year like the flu vaccine.” It would be more like the measles or chickenpox vaccines, he said — something that would likely confer immunity for a long time. “I would expect a vaccine for coronavirus would have a similar profile to those vaccines. It’s great news,” Thielen said. Several vaccines against covid-19 are in development, but experts estimate it will be at least a year to 18 months before one becomes available. Two other virologists, Stanley Perlman of the University of Iowa and Benjamin Neuman of Texas A&M University at Texarkana, both of whom were on the international committee that named the coronavirus, told The Post that the virus appears relatively


I probably have a ‘mild to moderate’ case of covid-19. I don’t think I could survive worse.

KANSAS CITY — I am thankful for my mild to moderate symptoms. Are they covid-19 symptoms? I certainly think so. I’ve been reading descriptions of other cases, mild to moderate — that’s what the authorities say most of us have in store — and those portraits of the novel disease involve endless fevers, shocking weakness, full-body aches, utter exhaustion, stomach distress, constant dehydration. That picture makes a pretty good match with my miserable little case. Of course, I don’t know for sure that I have covid-19, because there is no testing where I live. People talk about testing on TV all day long. Usually, I’m listening through a scrim of fitful sleep. It’s like being stuck in the Loch Ness Monster programming on basic cable. There is no Nessie and no testing, but the talk goes on and on and on. The closest I came to being tested was on Saturday. After my wife spent an entire day on the phone, a nice doctor met me in an emergency room parking lot and taught me to put on a mask. Then she had me stand by the car while she listened to my lungs. She smiled under her mask and said, “Given your symptoms, we’ll assume that you have it. Come back if you get worse.” I don’t want to come back, even if I might get a test. My mild to moderate symptoms are plenty for me. How was I exposed? I did not travel during the outbreak. I don’t mix in large groups. (On second thought, there was a college basketball game.) I earn my living by solitary work from my own home, and I adopted every recommended hygiene and distancing technique weeks before the president took the pandemic seriously. Bottom line: I don’t know where I picked it up. It’s everywhere. The first symptom was fever. I figured I had the flu. No such luck. The mild to moderate symptoms of this coronavirus make garden-variety flu seem like a tea party. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.) described the relentless, soul-sapping fever as being hit by “a ton of bricks.” It’s funny: Thirty years ago, Mario was a hotshot young politician and I was a hotshot young reporter in Miami. I don’t think either one of us spent much time thinking about malaise. Now we are a couple of aging gentlemen flattened by a ton of bricks. My image


Japan, International Olympic Committee agree to postpone Tokyo Games

premature” to decide the fate of the Tokyo Games, and as other major sports events and leagues have suspended operations and canceled play, Olympic officials had resisted calls to alter the Games’ schedule. They spent the past several weeks weighing options, as athletes and sports federations began voicing their concerns. The chorus only grew after Bach sent a letter to Olympic athletes Sunday, acknowledging for the first time that postponement was a possibility but refusing to make a decision for the next four weeks. The Canadian Olympic Committee said Sunday it would not send its athletes to Tokyo this summer, delivering a devastating blow to the IOC’s hopes to stick to its schedule. Australia’s national committee also urged its athletes to begin preparing for an Olympics in 2021, and Sebastian Coe, the influential head of World Athletics, the international governing body for track and field, called on the IOC to delay the Summer Games by a year. The national Olympic committees of Brazil and Slovenia had called for a one-year postponement, and Norway had balked at sending its athletes to Japan with the current state of the pandemic. The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee finally put its weight behind the movement Monday evening, saying that “the path toward postponement is the most promising.” The committee had surveyed 1,780 of its American athletes and found that nearly 7 in 10 did not feel the Olympics could be fairly contested this summer because of health and safety concerns and training disruptions related to the covid-19 outbreak. The loudest early calls for postponement came from athletes, who faced the closure of training facilities, government restrictions and safety hazards while they continued preparations. Han Xiao, a table tennis player who chairs the USOPC’s Athletes’ Advisory Council, said the process could have been smoother had athletes been listened to earlier, but that ultimately officials made the right decision. “This will give our athletes more certainty and allow them to plan and prepare accordingly moving forward while taking all necessary precautions to protect themselves and their communities,” Xiao said in an email. “There are still uncertainties we will work to resolve and concerns we will be bringing forward, such as whether athletes and teams who have already qualified will have their quota spots protected.” USOPC CEO Sarah Hirshland sent an email to U.S. athletes after the IOC’s decision, telling them that her heart broke for them


Hogan, Bowser, Northam blast Trump’s take on virus; four new deaths reported

Washington-area leaders slammed President Trump on Tuesday for defying health experts by calling for the United States to return to normal by Easter, and announced plans to further restrict business and improvise solutions for medical equipment and bed space as the coronavirus outbreak claimed more lives. D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D), who has largely refrained from criticizing Trump, said the city is fighting coronavirus “absent any national direction” and condemned the president’s about-face. “Clearly it is alarming to hear the president say that — without medical and health guidance — that he would put the economy and starting the economy ahead of saving lives,” said Bowser, who ordered the closure of nonessential businesses as of 10 p.m. Wednesday, following similar orders in Maryland and Virginia on Monday. She also lowered the threshold for prohibited mass gatherings from 50 people to 10. “While we are confronting and trying to blunt the spread of the virus in our city, we are also looking ahead on how we are going to recover from this,” Bowser said. “And we think the president has to do that, too.” Bowser has extended the closure of D.C. schools and the ban on mass gatherings through the end of April so health officials can determine whether social distancing measures are working. “I think it would be, based on everything that I’ve read and been advised, premature to go back to normal before we have seen a blunting of the curve in the United States,” she said. In Maryland, where a Prince George’s County man became the state’s fourth virus-related fatality, Gov. Larry Hogan (R) said the messaging coming out of the White House was “pretty confusing” and didn’t seem to match up with actions by the federal and state governments. “We don’t think we are going to be in any way out of this in five or six days or so, or whenever this 15 days is up, from the time they started this imaginary clock,” Hogan said in an interview on CNN. In Virginia, which announced three coronavirus-related deaths Tuesday, Gov. Ralph Northam (D) also took issue with Trump’s comments, saying residents need to understand the need for continued sacrifice and not hear “mixed messages.” “We all want our lives to return to normal as fast as possible, but I think we have to use science, we have to use data . . . and really


Two former college basketball players die, reportedly of coronavirus

Two former college basketball players with New York City roots have died of complications of the novel coronavirus pandemic. David Edwards, who set Texas A&M’s single-season record for assists as a guard in the early 1990s, has died of complications from covid-19. A university official confirmed the news for the Dallas Morning News after Charles Henderson, a former Aggies teammate, wrote about it on Facebook. Lee Green, a guard who played for St. John’s in the early 1990s, died of the disease, according to the school’s assistant athletic director for sports medicine and a former teammate. “Never in a million years would I have even imagined my backcourt teammate would go before his time. I just got the news that Dave Edwards passed away. For those that have been praying for him, he is now in a better place,” Henderson wrote on Facebook. “This coronavirus has hit me in the heart. Dave was one of the fiercest competitors and best point guards that I’ve ever met. Nearly unstoppable. Learned how to become tough as nails competing against him everyday and shaking off adversity." Edwards, who was from New York, transferred to A&M from Georgetown before the 1991-92 season and averaged 13.5 points, 7.1 assists and 4.9 rebounds in 85 games with the Aggies. His 265 assists as a senior is still a Texas A&M record. He is one of six players at the Division I level to have recorded a triple-double in consecutive games, accomplishing the feat March 5 and 10, 1994. Green, 49, was a retired police officer in Brooklyn and was a Parade all-American in high school. He played for two St. John’s NCAA tournament teams from 1991 to 1994. “He was our defensive lockdown guy,” Ron Linfonte, the school’s assistant AD for sports medicine and its longtime team trainer, told the New York Post. “He could score if he needed to. He was one of the guys who really relished the role of, ‘Give me your best player, and I’ll lock him down.’ He sacrificed his offense a lot for the good of the team, and he was everybody’s favorite.” He averaged 2.9 points over his three seasons. “My brother, my teammate; it’s kind of hard,” Lamont Middleton, a close friend of Green’s, told the New York Post. “Cool guy. Everywhere he went Lee had a smile. He had a big personality.” Green was believed to have


Chloroquine isn’t a miracle cure. A tiny amount can poison you.

with other medicines. Malarial parasites quickly developed resistance, and the drug was taken out of circulation. The decades-long effort failed. It was a classic trick played on a world too prone to magic-bullet thinking. In today’s covid-19 world, we need to listen when public health officials tell us that this drug has downsides. The recent French and Chinese studies on chloroquine and covid-19 may show no notable side effects in their small sample sizes — patients hospitalized with pneumonia in China and in various stages of the disease in France. Both studies used different variants of the old chloroquine: The French used slightly less toxic hydroxychloroquine, and the Chinese used chloroquine phosphate. But we know that the large doses used in their studies can be unsafe. So even if chloroquine proves useful in stopping the virus in severe covid-19 cases, it could prove more dangerous than the virus itself in many people with milder coronavirus infections. That’s why real research is needed, and that takes time. New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D) said he obtained 750,000 doses of chloroquine and 70,000 doses of hydroxychloroquine to begin trials immediately. Other trials are ongoing elsewhere. If the studies pan out, strict supervision of the drug’s administration may be the protocol, not over-the-counter sales to treat the masses. Experts know too well what is likely to happen: Chloroquine will fail to magically stop the coronavirus madness. The good news, however, may be that it ends up saving some lives. We should learn from past mistakes. Federal officials after World War II failed to listen to public health experts about the limitations of chloroquine. Our top political leaders today should avoid the same error. President Trump should let Fauci do all the talking on the prevention and treatment aspects of coronavirus. Many other areas are up for grabs for those podium-hungry members of his covid-19 task force. Supplies, hospital preparedness, national emergency spending, economic stimuli: These are all important areas for our political leaders to talk to us about. But for the sake of honesty about what is really happening in the search for a treatment, we need to hear the experts and amplify their voices so the rest of us may be protected from the charlatans. We all want to be saved from this nightmare, but not falsely. No magic, please. No tricks that tap our deepest desires. Just solid, reliable information.


Olympic postponement lays a body blow on an unsuspecting target: NBC streaming service Peacock

NEW YORK — When NBC revealed its streaming-war entry Peacock to investors in January, presenters made no secret of their big weapon: the Tokyo Olympics. A band played the Olympic theme song as executives spent a sizable amount of time talking up programming for this summer: three daily shows, more sports than you could dream of, and the opening and closing ceremonies would be aired live (unlike on the network). Even the launch month — July — was calibrated around the Olympics. “With 190 days to go to Tokyo, we can proudly say ‘let the games begin,' ” Olympics host Mike Tirico told the investors and journalists who had packed a studio at NBC’s 30 Rockefeller Plaza headquarters to hear about Peacock, before retiring to a cocktail party where he talked informally to guests about the network’s plans. With the postponement of the Tokyo Olympics as a result of the coronavirus Tuesday — the International Olympic Committee and Japanese officials said they hoped to stage them by the summer of 2021 — whether Peacock should launch as planned on July 15 is suddenly in question, too. “I think there’s a pretty massive effect to this on Peacock,” said Stephen Beck, the founder of management consultancy Cg42 and close observer of the streaming world. “This could lead to a real shift in terms of their strategy — and rightfully so. The Olympics is just an absolutely giant property to be able to connect to.” Officially, NBC said it’s moving forward as planned. A spokeswoman declined to comment beyond that. But analysts are questioning whether that is wise. When details for Peacock were formalized last year, some realities quickly emerged: It was coming late to the game — launching after HBO Max in May and Disney Plus and Apple TV Plus, which both launched last year. It didn’t have the mega-franchises that Disney had, such as Marvel and Pixar. It also didn’t come with hundreds of millions of devices, like Apple — its reach came in the form of the traditional cable boxes of its parent company Comcast. The one thing it clearly had: Olympics content. The plan was to build Peacock around the Olympics, not just with programming but in promotion: The Tokyo Games meant a captive audience of potential Peacock subscribers it could appeal to consistently for more than two weeks. Four years ago, the Rio Olympics were watched by


Dialysis patients are at high risk during covid-19 outbreak

their lungs and hearts. They “are older and by and large they have co-morbidities like diabetes and chronic heart disease and chronic lung disease,” said Alan Kliger, a nephrologist who is co-leading a task force that is trying to work out preparations for dialysis patients. “They are the primary at-risk group for covid-19.” At Patty Danielson’s Fresenius dialysis clinic in Portland, Ore., about 25 chairs are grouped in “pods” of four about three or four feet apart — less than the minimum six feet recommended for effective social distancing during the pandemic. There is one enclosed chair for patients with infectious diseases who need to be isolated from the rest, she said. Danielson, 61, who has been on dialysis for more than 12 years, leaves work as a psychiatric nurse manager precisely at 4 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays so she can be in the chair at 4:45 and out by 9:15. Since the outbreak, staff members at the dialysis center have begun distributing surgical masks to each patient to prevent droplet transmission and are taking temperatures at the door. Patients with fevers above 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit are not allowed in. With her immune system already compromised, “it was quite a sobering moment to think that if I get this virus I could die,” Danielson said. “It made me think about getting my funeral planned.” Which she did. Planners are working on a variety of approaches, none of them ideal, for the time when the virus invades dialysis centers. Shannon Novosad, acting team lead for the CDC’s dialysis safety team, said that to accommodate patients infected with covid-19, centers may have to fill fewer seats to enforce six feet of distance between people receiving treatment. All may need masks to prevent infecting other patients. Another possibility is to send all infected patients to one center or group them in one four-hour “shift” where they can’t harm one another, Kliger said. But many dialysis patients depend on ride services or ambulettes to get to their facilities, and experts worry that drivers will not want to transport patients they know are infected, especially groups of them. In vans, infected patients may be sitting with uninfected people. Patients with jobs may have difficulty changing their shifts abruptly. Already, some infected patients have been admitted to hospitals and must get their care there, Novosad said. “In some regions, capacity and hospital beds will


Katie Ledecky resets Olympic focus on 2021 after frustrating, uncertain wait

Katie Ledecky woke up Tuesday to the news that the 2020 goals and dreams she had been working toward for more than three years had been kicked down the road. And given the turbulence and uncertainty of the preceding few days, she couldn’t have been more relieved. The postponement of the Tokyo Olympics to 2021 brought a sense of relief and calm as much as anything. Athletes such as Ledecky had July 2020 circled on their calendars for the past 3½ years. Her training was designed for her to peak then, and mentally she had been locked in on this summer. But the past several days made clear how untenable that would be. “Definitely overwhelming” is how Ledecky described the dizzying 1½ weeks that led to Tuesday’s unprecedented Olympic postponement. “It felt like each day has been months,” Ledecky said in a telephone interview. She was poised to be one of the most visible faces of the Tokyo Games, probably pursuing five Olympic medals, which would match her haul from the Rio de Janeiro Games in 2016. But like top swimmers across the country — athletes across the world, really — the novel coronavirus completely disrupted her preparations. Ledecky struggled to find a place to train, and she faced daily uncertainty about the fate of the Tokyo Games — originally scheduled to begin July 24 — and constant frustration that athletes were put in such a precarious predicament. “There were some mixed messages from some of the higher-up organizations and committees,” she said. “We wanted to put our health and the health of others first. But while people were telling us to do that, they were also sending mixed messages about what might happen this summer and saying we should keep training. Just a lot of uncertainty. “Honestly, it took a toll on all of our mental health. I think that’s something that was underestimated by some of the higher-ups. Ultimately, it became clear that everyone around the world is facing the same thing, and we need to pull together to change this.” Ledecky, 23, had her last practice session at Stanford on March 13. Then the campus effectively closed, shutting down access to school facilities, including the pools Ledecky trains at almost daily. That sent Ledecky and Olympian Simone Manuel, a fellow professional swimmer who trains alongside Ledecky and the Stanford swim team, scrambling. They trained for a day


What it’s like being a New York ER doctor during this pandemic

put her on life support now, before things get much worse. You’re getting set up for that when you’re notified of another really sick patient coming in. You rush over. He’s also extremely sick, vomiting. He needs to be put on life support as well. You bring them back. Two patients, in rooms right next to each other, both getting a breathing tube. It's not even 10 a.m. For the rest of your 12-hour shift, nearly every hour, you get paged: Stat notification: Very sick patient, short of breath, fever. Oxygen 88 percent. Stat notification: Low blood pressure, short of breath, low oxygen. Stat notification: Low oxygen, can’t breathe. Fever. All day ... Sometime in the afternoon, you recognize you haven’t drunk any water. You’re afraid to take off the mask. It’s the only thing that protects you. Surely you can last a little longer — in West Africa during Ebola, you spent hours in a hot suit without water. One more patient ... By late afternoon, you need to eat. The restaurant across the street is closed. Right, everything is closed. But thankfully the hospital cafeteria is open. You grab something, wash your hands (twice), cautiously take off your mask and eat as fast as you can. Go back. Mask up. Walk in. Nearly everyone you see today is the same. We assume everyone is infected. We wear gowns, goggles and masks at every encounter. All day. It’s the only way to be safe. Where did all the heart attacks and appendicitis patients go? It’s all covid-19. When your shift ends, you sign out to the oncoming team. It’s all covid-19. Over the past week, we’ve all learned the signs — low oxygen, abnormally low lymphocytes, elevated protein fragments known as D-dimer. You trade messages with doctor friends throughout the city without PPE, personal protective equipment. Hospitals running out of ventilators. Before you leave, you wipe everything down. Your phone. Your badge. Your wallet. Your coffee mug. All of it. Drown it in bleach. Everything in a bag. Take no chances. Still, you aren’t sure you got it all. Wipe it down again. Can’t be too careful. You walk out and take off your mask. You feel naked and exposed. It's still raining, but you want to walk home. It feels safer than the subway or bus, plus you need to decompress. The streets are empty. This feels nothing


More than 50,000 Americans overseas are seeking help getting home

More than 50,000 Americans are asking the U.S. government for help getting home from foreign countries where commercial flights are suspended, U.S. officials said Wednesday. Ian Brownlee, the Consular Affairs official heading the State Department’s repatriation task force, said 66 flights are planned over the next nine days to bring at least 9,000 Americans back to the United States. That is double the number who already have returned on flights arranged by embassies and consulates around the world. Brownlee said the State Department is struggling to assist stranded travelers in getting home. Demand has soared as an increasing number of countries have sealed their borders and closed their airports. Brownlee said the State Department is seeking assistance from the Defense Department to arrange aircraft operated by civilian air companies to rescue Americans marooned abroad with no way to get home. “As it is truly an unprecedented event. The State Department’s capacity to do this is being strained,” Brownlee told reporters. The State Department has been ramping up its efforts to assist Americans stuck in foreign countries in the middle of the global coronavirus pandemic. It is prioritizing seats for the most vulnerable — the elderly and those who may be medically compromised. One logjam appears to have been broken in Peru, where some 5,000 Americans have been stuck since the government suspended both international and domestic flights. More than 1,000 Americans have been repatriated in recent days. Two U.S.-bound flights left Wednesday, one from Lima and one from Cusco. Brownlee said U.S. officials are working with their Peruvian counterparts to arrange more flights this week. Brownlee said one cause of the delay is that approvals from senior Peruvian government officials did not trickle down to the regulatory agencies who issue landing permits. One American Airlines flight headed to Lima had to turn around as it was about to enter Peruvian airspace because it lacked permission, he said. Peru has shut down the civilian side of its international airport, but the smaller military side of the facility remains open. The United States has offered a hangar usually used by U.S. International Narcotics and Law Enforcement officials, and is arranging chairs with socially distant spacing so the space can be used to process passengers. Brownlee said the State Department is also sending a team of consular officers and a senior official from the Western Hemisphere Affairs bureau to Peru to assist in


Grocery store throws out $35,000 worth of food it says woman deliberately coughed on

The past few weeks have been tough for Gerrity’s Supermarket, a small family-owned chain in northeastern Pennsylvania. Like grocers nationwide, it has been deluged with orders and has struggled to keep basics such as chicken breasts and toilet paper on the shelves. Employees have been working overtime, pausing only for five-second breaks to wipe everything down with disinfectant wipes. Then, on Wednesday afternoon, a woman came in and deliberately coughed all over the produce section, meat case and bakery department, co-owner Joe Fasula said. The store had to throw away more than $35,000 worth of food. “Today was a very challenging day,” Fasula wrote in a message to shoppers on Facebook. “While there is little doubt this woman was doing it as a very twisted prank, we will not take any chances with the health and well-being of our customers." With most other businesses shuttered in an attempt to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus, grocery stores have found themselves on the front lines of the global pandemic. Numerous supermarket employees nationwide have already tested positive for covid-19, and fears about being exposed to the virus run rampant. Meanwhile, a disturbing trend has emerged: People deliberately coughing on workers, other shoppers or the food. On Wednesday, Fasula posted pictures of employees carrying away carts full of fresh cucumbers, bell peppers, eggplants, onions and potatoes that were destined for the trash. “It truly saddens us,” he wrote on Twitter. “We are doing our best to provide everyone a safe environment & the items they need during this time including our seniors & those who are immunocompromised when there is already panic w/ supply & hoarding. To have to waste food due to this breaks our hearts!” Retailers have been slammed by anxious shoppers trying to stock up on dried pasta and canned beans, and Gerrity’s is no exception. “It is crazy. It’s even worse than it is during the holidays. It’s so busy,” employee Amanda Witzel told WNEP last week. “We can’t even take a breath.” But as pictures of empty grocery store shelves have fueled hoarding and panic-buying, the chain has won praise for being transparent about the unprecedented challenges of the moment. In a message to shoppers last week, Fasula expressed frustration about not having enough manpower to take orders from senior citizens over the phone, and noted that his wife and a few personal friends had stepped


Anne Arundel County and Howard County home sales

Georgia Ave. NW, Hardmoore Ct., Juneberry Way, Marlboro Rd., Raylene Ct., Turn Loop Rd., GLEN BURNIE-MARLEY CREEK AREA Baltimore Annapolis Blvd., Carroll Rd., Cedar Point Dr., Creekside Village Blvd., Heritage Crossing, Hollins Chapel Ct., Kempton Rd., Marley Station Rd., Phelps Ave., Pond View Dr., Rapid Water Way, Timbercross Lane, Williams Grove, HANOVER AREA Forest Creek Way, Ohio Ave., Terraview Ct., Wolcott Way, JESSUP AREA Rappaport Dr., LAUREL AREA Cecilton S., Lost Creek Blvd., Old Line Ave., Spring Rd., LINTHICUM HEIGHTS AREA Baltimore Annapolis Blvd., Forest View Rd., Mountain Rd., LOTHIAN AREA Ed MILLERSVILLE AREA Gearing Ct. W., Norwood Dr., Point Field Dr., Williamstowne Dr., ODENTON AREA Barred Owl Way, Chessington Dr., Estuary Dr., Gregory Ct., Isaac Chaney Ct., Leeds Creek Cir., Regiment Ct., Settlers View Dr., Upper Patuxent Ridge Rd., OWENSVILLE (WEST RIVER) AREA Elm Dr., PASADENA-ROCK CREEK AREA Almondbury Dr. E., Clear Blue Lane, Deering Rd., Hillcreek Rd., Kurtz Ave., Meadow Rd., Paradise Beach Rd., Queen Anne Rd., Riverside Dr., Rugby Rd., Sedge Ct., Southwest Rd., Second St., RIVA AREA Riverview Dr., SEVERN AREA Amalfi Lane, Chestnut St., Grandison Way, Jacobs Rd., Paul Dr., Severn Rd., University Dr., SEVERNA PARK AREA Brentwood Ave., Dill Rd., Grinstead Rd., Kennedy Dr., Persimmon Ct., Severnside Dr., Ticonderoga Ave., SHADY SIDE AREA Aspen St., Shady Side Rd., These sales data recorded by the Maryland Department of Assessments and Taxation in November were provided by Black Knight Inc. For information about other residential real estate transactions, visit washingtonpost.com/homesales. CENTENNIAL-BENSON AREA Ashmede Dr., Carrigan Dr., Crescent Rd., Folly Quarter Rd., Huckleberry Row, Jonathan Rd., Macalpine Rd., Old Ellicott Cir., Reed Lane, State Route 99, Whitetail Lane, CLARKSVILLE AREA Crows Nest Rd., Russell Zepp Dr., COLUMBIA (EAST) AREA Carriage House Lane, Distant Rock Path, Majors Lane, Moongong Ct., Racegate Run, Sidelong Pl., Sunfleck Row, Tidesebb Ct., Wild Apple Ct., COLUMBIA (WEST) AREA Columbia Rd., Crystal Run, Harpers Farm Rd., Little Patuxent Pkwy., Red Keel, Swansfield Rd., Wincopin Cir., DAYTON AREA Ten Oaks Rd., ELKRIDGE AREA Cedar Grove Lane, Darby Downs, Elkridge Crossing Way, Hunt Club Rd., Pale Morning Dun Rd., Rowanberry Dr., Wesley Lane, ELLICOTT CITY AREA Carls Ct., Coachlight Lane, Falling Leaves Ct., Lee Hollow Pl., Mayfair Cir., Pine Run Ct., Stone Crop Dr., Talbot Dr., Zuni Ct., FULTON AREA Tilghman St., HANOVER AREA Adcock Lane, HIGHLAND AREA Prestwick Dr., KINGS CONTRIVANCE VILLAGE AREA Amherst Ave., Evergreen Ave., Keepsake Way, Rainleaf Ct., MARRIOTTSVILLE AREA Sophia


‘Our QuarBNB’: How short-term rentals are being used for self-quarantines during the coronavirus outbreak

When George Washington University junior Matt Zachary had to quickly leave his study-abroad program in Chile, he and his parents knew it wouldn’t be wise for him to immediately return to the family home. With his parents at a higher risk for serious complications from covid-19, the disease caused by the fast-spreading coronavirus, everyone decided Zachary should wait a couple weeks to make sure he was healthy after returning to Austin, where the family lives. So his dad booked him an Airbnb for two weeks, and his parents stocked it with food before he arrived last week. Now, the 21-year-old is doing online coursework, watching movies and old NBA games and visiting with his parents from afar. They bring food, leave it on a back deck and stand a safe distance away while they catch up most days. “It’s been pretty rough,” Zachary said. The last several weeks have been devastating for the entire travel industry, as hotels have seen bookings plummet, airlines have slashed flights and cruise lines have stopped sailing worldwide. Airbnb is no exception, but customers like Zachary — as well as those seeking refuge from crowded coronavirus hot spots — are providing some of the middling business that remains. “These are different forms of financial lifelines for these hosts who have seen their other reservations disappear,” says Henry Harteveldt, a travel industry analyst at Atmosphere Research Group. According to research from AirDNA, which provides data about short-term rentals, vacation-rental revenue in many major U.S. cities was “declining or sharply declining” by the week of March 15, and the picture in Europe was “extremely bleak.” “It is an absolute bloodbath out there for these vacation-rental managers and vacation-rental owners,” says Scott Shatford, CEO of AirDNA. “The cancellation rates over the last couple weeks are astronomical.” But data out Monday showed that although revenue is down in dense urban centers like New York, Boston and Chicago, numbers are up in less-populated suburban and rural areas that can be easily reached from those cities. “Vacation rentals are providing safe havens for an entirely new demographic,” AirDNA said in a blog post. “Whether it’s retirees looking for refuge in remote hideaways, professionals looking for an interim workspace, or stranded travelers in need of a quick plan B — vacation rentals are becoming an extremely reliable fallback plan. Ironically, ‘vacation’ rentals may have officially outgrown their original name and purpose.” For


Stop calling covid-19 a foreign virus

As concerns over the novel coronavirus spread across the United States with the pandemic, unfortunately an old face has reared its ugly head: xenophobia. Before widespread physical distancing measures shuttered many restaurants, for example, Houston’s Chinatown businesses experienced a radical drop in customers because of associations of the coronavirus with the Chinese population, something President Trump has encouraged in his tweets and speeches. Even after the president stressed that the spread of the virus was not the fault of Asian Americans and said he would stop using the “Chinese” label for the virus, his administration reportedly made a similar label a condition for an international agreement with the G-7 countries. It’s clear that the administration has used the pandemic to foster a sense that foreign-born people threaten this nation — rather than working to slow the spread of the illness within it. This turn toward medical xenophobia and the effort to articulate racial differences with the language of disease is not new, and it has dangerous ramifications. By framing groups of people as inherently unhealthy and vectors for disease, officials in the 19th century Texas borderlands justified intrusive, harmful treatment of Mexican and Mexican American people as a medical necessity. They then used this to intensify beliefs of white supremacy and construct racially driven stereotypes of unhealthy Mexicans. By echoing this practice today with border closures and casting the coronavirus as a foreign threat, the Trump administration is exacerbating the crisis and undermining best public health practices. The result could be deadly, not only for targeted groups, but for all of us. From the moment the United States arrived in South Texas, Anglo-Americans cast Mexican people as medically suspect. After the U.S.-Mexico War, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ceded the northern half of Mexico to the United States in 1848. Anglo-Americans worked to incorporate the Rio Grande Valley into the nation and build white American settlements at the outer limits. Successful new settlements hinged on health. At this time, before scientists identified germs as sources of disease, people believed a healthy environment, defined by a range of markers, made individual bodies healthy. In 1848, for example, Massachusetts-native Helen Chapman moved to Brownsville, Tex., with her husband, Lt. William Warren Chapman, and she wrote glowing letters to her mother about the medical effects of the Texas climate. “I am in almost robust health,” Chapman wrote. “The extreme dryness of this summer


Stop calling covid-19 a foreign virus

They then used this to intensify beliefs of white supremacy and construct racially driven stereotypes of unhealthy Mexicans. By echoing this practice today with border closures and casting the coronavirus as a foreign threat, the Trump administration is exacerbating the crisis and undermining best public health practices. The result could be deadly, not only for targeted groups, but for all of us. From the moment the United States arrived in South Texas, Anglo-Americans cast Mexican people as medically suspect. After the U.S.-Mexico War, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ceded the northern half of Mexico to the United States in 1848. Anglo-Americans worked to incorporate the Rio Grande Valley into the nation and build white American settlements at the outer limits. Successful new settlements hinged on health. At this time, before scientists identified germs as sources of disease, people believed a healthy environment, defined by a range of markers, made individual bodies healthy. In 1848, for example, Massachusetts-native Helen Chapman moved to Brownsville, Tex., with her husband, Lt. William Warren Chapman, and she wrote glowing letters to her mother about the medical effects of the Texas climate. “I am in almost robust health,” Chapman wrote. “The extreme dryness of this summer climate and unvarying temperature affects me most favorably.” Likewise, Surgeon S.P. Moore, a military doctor, found Brownsville “decidedly healthy,” and he basked in the “delightful Gulf breeze from the east every morning during the summer, which is the harbinger of health.” Along with environments, Anglo settlers and physicians also believed that morality made people healthy. They promoted certain qualities — hard work, cleanliness and temperance — that allegedly helped individuals acclimate to new environments. The problem? This medical idea reflected dominant cultural ideas of proper behaviors associated with the 19th-century white middle class. So if a person didn’t display these behaviors, especially in a multiracial place like Texas, they could be cast as unhealthy. Working to build healthy, moral societies in the Lone Star State, Anglos viewed their Mexican neighbors as culturally and morally defective and saw them as dirty, promiscuous and therefore unhealthy. In another letter, Helen Chapman wrote, “They are a strange people, these Mexicans, good hewers of wood and drawers of water, but low on motive power.” Anglos interpreted Mexicans’ so-called laziness medically, which implied that the entire population was inherently unhealthy. These ideas gave birth to the image of the “dirty Mexican,” an enduring U.S. racial


Stop calling covid-19 a foreign virus

and superstitious.” This depiction came a few years after the 1849 cholera epidemic struck the area. There were structural reasons the disease spread through Mexican neighborhoods, as poor, dense living conditions facilitated cholera’s transmission. However, Moore ignored this, making racial arguments instead that reinforced perceptions of ethnic Mexicans as racially inferior to whites. Race then became justification for medical action. In the 1880s, for example, the U.S. Marine Hospital Service responded to a yellow fever epidemic by quarantining predominantly Mexican towns in South Texas and cutting them off from the rest of the state. Doctors didn’t know the mosquitoes transmitted the disease. So quarantining didn’t work. In fact, it exacerbated a sense that public health initiatives didn’t work to protect Anglos, which intensified discrimination. In Dr. Moore’s description of Brownsville and its population decades earlier, he underscored the medical dangers that these Mexican spaces and Mexican peoples posed to Anglo Americans, an idea continuously applied in Texas. Even though Mexicans had lived in Texas for generations, Anglos came to see all Mexicans as foreign as a result of these medical-racial assumptions, which then became justification for imperialism and violent treatment at the hands of Anglo Americans. The same scripts repeated later in the 19th century and into the 20th, as Anglos continued to frame Mexican people as a threat to American health, at border crossings and during epidemics. The United States then used this approach at ports of entry for foreign-born people more broadly. Immigration officials conducted intrusive and humiliating exams among entire groups of people that it marked as disease carriers. On Angel Island in California, and at the U.S.-Mexico border, for example, U.S. authorities stripped Chinese and Mexican immigrants naked to examine their bodies, applied toxic sprays and sent them to kerosene baths. As we grapple with covid-19 and, later, assess our responses, we should resist the president’s insistence that the pandemic we face is a foreign import. By casting the disease as foreign, the administration has sought to avoid responsibility for dealing with all of the homegrown problems that make containing the spread of the illness so difficult: our poor health care system, our lack of social safety net and the administration’s own failure to provide testing. Two centuries ago Anglo-Americans invented the idea of the “foreign virus” to package as scientific the violent expansion of the nation for white Americans. We can’t let this happen again.


As study abroad students scramble home, these American teens are still stuck in Peru

“We don’t know when we’re going.” Last week, with the spread of the coronavirus pandemic wreaking havoc around the globe, the State Department warned Americans not to travel abroad and advised those overseas to return immediately — or expect to be forced to stay where they were indefinitely. Closed borders and canceled flights upended travel plans and stranded travelers — including American students, from teenagers to post-grads, studying abroad around the world. Many have managed to get home. A group of university students, also stranded in Peru, finally got on a chartered flight from inland Cusco to Lima on Wednesday afternoon and landed in the United States that night. But that took the efforts of four university presidents working with government officials. The 19 students and teachers in Huanchaco, far from Lima’s international airport, are still stranded. “Everything is happening so fast,” said Chandra Rosenthal, whose 15-year-old daughter, Kiki, is among the stranded teens. “It all started cascading. I expect that to continue, and I’m worried for the girls’ safety.” Zara Ali, a student at Kenyon College in Ohio, wasn’t worried about the coronavirus when she left for a study abroad program in Buenos Aires on March 1. Back then, the outbreak seemed isolated to a few places in Asia and Europe. When it became clear the disease was spreading, her host family tried to talk her out of leaving. Conditions were worse in New York, they said, and the travel home to Brooklyn could expose her to more risk. But flying was only becoming more fraught, so she booked a flight home after less than three weeks. “The worry we all had was just getting stuck in Argentina,” she said. Anna Barr, a student from Michigan on the same program, initially chose to stay, even after university officials advised students to come home. When the private program was canceled outright, she booked a flight home for later that week, only to hear from U.S. officials that she should go to the airport immediately and try to fly home. Her host mom made her mate, an herbal tea, to calm her down, and advised her in Spanish how to fold her clothes as she rushed to pack. She got on the flight, but it was diverted to Sao Paulo, Brazil, for an emergency medical situation, and then to San Juan, Puerto Rico, for a crew change, before finally landing in


A ‘negative’ coronavirus test result doesn’t always mean you aren’t infected

of a false negative result should be considered in the context of a patient’s recent exposures and the presence of clinical signs and symptoms consistent with COVID-19." People who test negative may find it confusing and hard to believe the result. Laura Frazelle, a 34-year-old violinist from Virginia, found out her test was negative after a week in the hospital and 10 days after being tested. She was grateful to be home, but even more worried about covid-19 given the severity of the unspecified illness she had just survived. ″My final diagnosis was pneumonia in both lungs due to an unspecified infectious organism,” Frazelle said. “Yes, it’s a pretty big coincidence that I happened to be hospitalized for an infection that has all of the symptoms of a current global pandemic.” There are a number of reasons a test might be negative when a person is sick with the coronavirus. It might be too early in the illness, when the amount of virus in the airway is still small. It could be a problem with how the swab was done. Different types of swab collection — the back of the nose, the throat, the outer nose — may also have different levels of accuracy, an issue doctors are actively debating given limited evidence. Then, there could be issues with the handling or transport of the swab. There could be laboratory error. “Let’s say you had a swab that wasn’t obtained very well. … The person has the virus. But the nurse or physician just barely puts it into the nose because the person is backing up — we would not have a good specimen, so it could create a false negative in the test,” said Gary Procop, director of molecular microbiology, virology, mycology and parasitology at the Cleveland Clinic. Early reports suggested that the genetic test used in China — which was a different design than the one developed by the U.S. CDC — was not very sensitive, meaning many cases were missed. There have been reports of sick people who had to be swabbed multiple times to test positive in China. Chinese clinicians used CT imaging scans of people’s lungs to diagnose the disease because those were found to be more sensitive — they missed fewer cases. But the experience in the United States appears to be different, so far. Jeffrey P. Kanne, chief of thoracic imaging at the


U.S. diplomats race to get Americans home while they can

After a slow start to a rapidly spreading pandemic, U.S. embassies and consulates around the world are diverting most of their resources to the task of evacuating U.S. citizens. In Ecuador, the U.S. consul general and ambassador have gone to the airport in the middle of the night to smooth hitches for jittery Americans departing on chartered flights. The U.S. Embassy staff in Morocco has handled baggage check-ins for airlifts of American tourists. Consular officers in Peru are converting a hangar used by U.S. narcotics control officers into a processing center for evacuation flights. And in Brazil, where 9 in 10 embassy employees are teleworking, consular officers in the port city of Recife got more than 100 vacationing Americans off a “sick” cruise ship with two infected passengers and put them on a bus to the airport. Similar scenes are underway at many other diplomatic missions, with the entire world under a State Department do-not-travel advisory. The suddenness with which some countries sealed their borders and suspended international flights amplified an unprecedented challenge for the State Department. Its routine crisis-response exercises for natural disasters and civil unrest typically envisioned getting Americans and diplomats to safety in nearby countries. In a world swept by the coronavirus, nowhere is entirely safe. As lawmakers and marooned travelers complained that the State Department wasn’t doing enough to get people home quickly, diplomats were enlisted for tasks normally handled by commercial airlines. Bilateral negotiations focus on ways to maneuver around local rules and regulations to allow empty aircraft to fly rescue missions into countries and depart with stressed-out travelers. “It’s never been on a global scale like this,” a diplomat in Ecuador, a veteran of 17 years in the Foreign Service, said after apologizing for sounding groggy after sleeping only four hours the previous night. “This requires a lot of creativity, talking with the department, outreach to American citizens.” The State Department is scrambling to catch up. In January, it took several days to arrange the evacuation of 800 Americans. Every day now, thousands of Americans board chartered aircraft arranged by U.S. diplomats. Since January, more than 10,000 Americans have been evacuated. At least 66 more flights are scheduled in coming days. Another 50,000 Americans In some countries, large numbers of Americans are clamoring for assistance. Honduras, Ecuador and Peru, for example, each has thousands of U.S. citizens seeking to get on flights. Though more


Post Opinión to publish Spanish-language coronavirus newsletter

[Leer en español] Post Opinión Released Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday each week, the newsletter will curate headlines on the pandemic and provide timely commentary from local voices across Latin America, Spain and elsewhere on the way covid-19 is impacting regional communities. “As we continue to see how this unprecedented event affects lives globally, we want to offer a quick digest of reliable reporting and notable perspectives that will help readers understand the way their governments and institutions are responding, the local health and economic impacts, and the emerging science on this strain of the virus,” said Eli Lopez, Senior Global Opinions Editor. Subscribe to the newsletter here.


The fate of Wimbledon, a holdout among coronavirus postponements, to be decided next week

the year “is not without significant risk and difficulty.” “The AELTC has been contingency planning since January, working closely with the UK government and public health authorities to follow their advice and understand the likely impact of covid-19 and the government’s emergency measures on The Championships, and our thoughts are with all those affected by this crisis at this time,” the club said. “Based on the advice we have received from the public health authorities, the very short window available to us to stage The Championships due to the nature of our surface suggests that postponement is not without significant risk and difficulty.” Wimbledon is the third of tennis’s four Grand Slams. The Australian Open was held in January, before the virus took hold, and the French Open, the second Slam event, was moved from May to Sept. 20-Oct. 4. That comes hard on the heels of the U.S. Open, the year’s final Slam that runs Aug. 31-Sept. 13. Last week, U.S. Open organizers announced that “we are not implementing any changes to the 2020 U.S. Open” but acknowledged “that circumstances surrounding the covid-19 virus are rapidly changing.” The compressed schedule would present a challenge for players, who would have to play on New York’s hard courts, then France’s clay courts, with Wimbledon’s grass-court tournaments either preceding or following those two Slams. The three tournaments typically stretch over four months. Both the Association of Tennis Professionals and the Women’s Tennis Association suspended events until June 7, which would leave precious little time to prepare for Wimbledon’s grass courts. In addition, the grass courts at All England Club, Wimbledon Park Golf Club and Raynes Park are closed, with only maintenance and security personnel on site. Although the postponement of the Tokyo Olympics opened a two-week slot from late July through early August, it seemed unlikely that Wimbledon would consider it, and moving the tournament later in the year is unlikely as well. The club has only two covered courts, and weather makes a later date even more unlikely. “The single most important consideration is one of public health,” said Richard Lewis, the club’s chief executive, “and we are determined to act responsibly through the decisions we make.” The people who schedule major events across all of sports are eyeing the summer calendar and jockeying for position, hoping to pulled off a jam-packed fall sports calendar if the coronavirus is under control.


How to talk to others about not traveling during the coronavirus pandemic

As the coronavirus spreads, people around the world are being told by health and government officials to stay at home to curb the problem. But not everyone is following that advice. You may see the evidence on social media, watching friends, acquaintances or loved ones posting real-time photos from airplanes or hotels. Or maybe you know someone who’s about to go on a trip, despite the blatant warnings. We spoke with travel, health and relationship experts about the best way to persuade people to stay home. The person traveling or about to travel may not understand the gravity of the pandemic. While there have been more than 500,000 confirmed cases of covid-19 worldwide as of Thursday, they may believe it’s not a problem in their community or the place they plan to visit. Special pathogens expert Syra Madad, who was recently featured in Netflix docuseries “Pandemic: How to Prevent an Outbreak,” has advice on how to suggest otherwise. “Everybody should operate under the pretense that there is coronavirus disease in their community, even in areas that may not be reporting widespread transmission,” she says. “You don’t know who’s sick and who’s not.” Madad says those more at risk in the pandemic — the elderly and people with compromised immune systems — should not be traveling at all, and everyone else should stay home unless a trip is absolutely essential. “You’re at risk of spreading the disease,” she says. “At this point, everybody should avoid all nonessential travel." Remind the potential traveler that many states are under stay-at-home orders; that the White House has said citizens should avoid discretionary travel; and that the State Department has asked that everyone avoid all international travel until further notice. Experts are warning people to avoid nonessential travel. Perhaps people considering it are unclear on what the term means. There’s no strict definition, because the concept is subjective. What’s essential is different from person to person. Work or family responsibilities may feel essential to people even during a pandemic. “It depends on the context,” Madad says. “But at the same time, we want to also make sure that people realize it is their own personal responsibility.” Is your friend or family member’s travel essential? Ask them. If their trip is not necessary, remind the person that it doesn’t matter what destination they’re considering; any travel is a bad idea. “We’re getting to a point where


From Mexico’s newest superhero to Iran’s most elegant hand-washer: Watch how countries are promoting coronavirus safety

In Mexico, it was time for a superhero. The coronavirus had arrived. Given the country’s warm Latin culture — 130 million people relentlessly slapping backs, hugging and kissing — the government needed reinforcements. Meet Susana Distancia — her name a pun on the Spanish for “your healthy distance.” The cartoon heroine is now popping up on Mexican radio, TV ads and, of course, the Internet to teach kids to battle “the evil coronavirus.” Imagine your own superpower, she says: creating an invisible bubble around yourself, keeping everyone else at least 1.5 meters away. How do you persuade people to change their behavior to combat the spread of covid-19? From Iran to Vietnam, from Senegal to Guatemala, public service announcements are using music, cartoons and the occasional herbivorous mammal to drive home the new reality. In Vietnam, health authorities worked with lyricist Khac Hun to repurpose a pop hit into a lesson on social distancing and cleanliness: “Wash your hands — rub, rub, rub evenly.” The tune went, well, viral. And it inspired a dance challenge on TikTok. The announcements are trying to break through in a way that traditional government announcements might not. “The intention is to create a form of communication that’s direct, friendly, outside traditional parameters,” says Jesús Ramírez, a spokesman for the Mexican government. “In an emergency situation that causes panic, what’s better than someone friendly?” Well, it’s hard to deny these guys are friendly. They’re from the Bangkok Train Service — the other BTS — doing the “Dance Against the Virus.” Some messages are closely tailored to local culture and needs. Check out this announcement running on Egyptian TV. It features old film footage of one of the country’s favorite actors, Adel Imam. In Senegal’s capital, Dakar, neon murals add color to ubiquitous concrete walls. Now graffiti artists are partnering with a university to produce public health messages. “Visuals can be stronger than words,” says Serigne Mansour Fall, who goes by Mad Zoo. In this African country, not everyone has access to a radio, much less TV. Some struggle with reading. “Many don’t understand the seriousness of the situation,” Fall says. “So we are trying to create messages that people understand.” Nothing like an afrobeats public service announcement to spread the word. This one features Ugandan singers Bobi Wine and Nubian Li. In Mexico, the decision to go with a superhero reflects cultural traditions. The country


The Daily 202: Government experts warn of a second wave of coronavirus cases, as the health system struggles

accepting elevated risk in a crisis and the threat of discipline from employers. Confrontations and difficult personal decisions are occurring as hospital administrators enforce rationing of masks, face shields and other equipment for workers worried about protecting themselves,” Lenny Bernstein and Ariana report. “Labor unions have noted that in China, where supplies were more plentiful, health-care workers were told to double up on gowns and other protective equipment. They have warned of a catastrophe if many health-care workers fall ill.” “In several hours on Tuesday, Dr. Ashley Bray performed chest compressions at Elmhurst Hospital Center on a woman in her 80s, a man in his 60s and a 38-year-old who reminded the doctor of her fiancé. All had tested positive for the coronavirus and had gone into cardiac arrest. All eventually died,” the Times reports. “Elmhurst, a 545-bed public hospital in Queens, has begun transferring patients not suffering from coronavirus to other hospitals as it moves toward becoming dedicated entirely to the outbreak. Doctors and nurses have struggled to make do with a few dozen ventilators. Calls over a loudspeaker of ‘Team 700,’ the code for when a patient is on the verge of death, come several times a shift. Some have died inside the emergency room while waiting for a bed. A refrigerated truck has been stationed outside to hold the bodies of the dead.” “In the U.S., state and county authorities are responsible for collecting data on cases of COVID-19 and deaths. The data is then reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In California, one ER doctor who works at multiple hospitals in a hard-hit county [said] ‘those medical records aren’t being audited by anyone at the state and local level currently and some people aren’t even testing those people who are dead,’” BuzzFeed News reports. ”’We just don’t know. The numbers are grossly under-reported. I know for a fact that we’ve had three deaths in one county where only one is listed on the website,’ the doctor said.” Dozens of immigrant physicians who enlisted through a Pentagon program meant to harness their medical skills are stuck taking out trash and filing paperwork, even as the military mobilizes doctors to fight the growing coronavirus pandemic. Six recruits with relevant training — a pulmonary specialist, an epidemiologist and two internal medicine practitioners, among others — are frustrated that the glacial pace of security checks has slowed


at the Conservative Political Action Conference, Mulvaney had already received a coronavirus test, at the recommendation of the White House physician,” Juliet Eilperin, Michael Scherer, Josh Dawsey and Seung Min Kim report. “The easy access … high-ranking politicians have gotten to coronavirus tests highlights the extent to which members of America’s elite continue to have greater access to medical care during the pandemic, even as federal officials emphasize that testing should be reserved for health care providers and people who are seriously ill.” “Spain announced 738 new deaths, taking its total to 3,434. That was the biggest overnight jump anywhere in the world and took Spain past the official tally of 3,285 deaths in China,” Pamela Rolfe and Loveday Morris report. “Italy remains the world’s worst-hit country, with more than 7,500 dead. Italian authorities, though, indicated Wednesday that their outbreak may have peaked, with the daily death toll dipping to 683 in the previous 24 hours.” “In every region, under all kinds of political systems, governments are turning to increasingly stringent measures — and deploying their armed forces to back them up,” Kevin Sieff reports. “Countries as varied as China, Jordan, El Salvador and Italy have sent service members into the streets. … At no time since World War II have so many nations wrestled with what it means to be in a state of emergency and how to impose fundamental and sudden changes in human behavior.” “Russia has pulled some tools from its authoritarian toolbox to battle the disease, including the use of facial-recognition technology to track people ordered into self-isolation. The government is also developing a system using geolocation data from mobile operators to monitor individuals,” Robyn Dixon reports. “Teams of police and doctors have been conducting raids on hotels, student dormitories and apartments to track people who traveled from China before the border closure, according to Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin.” “A central part of the narrative is that Wuhan, the onetime center of the outbreak and the site of a recent visit from Chinese leader Xi Jinping, has stopped transmission in its tracks. It went five days without reporting new, local cases. On Monday, Wuhan reported one new case,” Emily Rauhala reports. “But Wuhan’s near-zero count is being called into question by independent reporting and received with suspicion from experts.” Talks among members of the U.N. Security Council over a joint resolution related to the coronavirus have


My hometown showed us how a pandemic begins. Could it also show us how one ends?

health workers from 29 provinces went to Wuhan to support the city at great personal risk. As the city focused its efforts on the coronavirus, there were trade-offs and costs. Hospitals, including some treating cancer patients, had to vacate beds to make space for covid-19 patients, which meant many urgent treatments were disrupted. Some people with even the mildest cold-like symptoms were forced into home quarantine with their doors sealed or loaded into buses headed for quarantine centers. Eventually, the number of new cases stabilized to a few hundred a day, almost four weeks after total lockdown. Though the numbers might not have captured the full picture — China’s tally does not include asymptomatic patients, for example — the spread of the virus seemed to have subsided. By this point, the outbreak had changed people’s lives profoundly. The entire country, from major international firms like iPhone manufacturer Foxconn to China’s leading electric carmaker BYD, pivoted to producing medical supplies. Telecom companies tracked the movement of Wuhan residents, who reported their vitals on a health bar code that flashed green when one was allowed to go out. Video gaming and online education businesses boomed. Everyone, even the elderly, learned to order food and groceries in chat groups for community volunteers to deliver. Those who did not contract the coronavirus had to endure either loneliness or intense daily squabbles. Occasionally, one would hear a random cry of release from neighbors and shrug it off. Two months after the lockdown, there have been more than 40,000 recoveries and 2,500 deaths in Wuhan. Now, the city is gearing up for a reboot. On Monday, buses ran empty to test out the routes. Cleaners disinfected the subway for operation. Some residential complexes gave each family one entry permit per day to buy groceries; those with zero cases allowed residents to roam freely in the compound. And an inspection team has been evaluating applications to reopen businesses, ensuring offices follow precautionary measures such as temperature-taking at the entrance, social distancing lines in hallways and elevators, and disinfecting routines. There was a rare moment of relief as things improved, but there are still fears that a second wave of cases could emerge. Many are reacting by continuing to self-isolate. Still, as the city slowly recovers from the horror, the rest of the world can look to the resilient people of Wuhan for reassurance that when there’s a


Man’s body found hanging from tree in Northwest Washington

D.C. police are investigating after a man’s body was found hanging from a tree Thursday morning in Northwest Washington, according to authorities. Karimah Bilal, a police spokeswoman, said investigators think the man killed himself. The medical examiner will perform an autopsy to determine an official cause of death. The body was discovered about 7 a.m. in the 7200 block of Seventh Street NW, a residential street in the Takoma neighborhood. The man was pronounced dead at the scene. Police declined to comment further on the case. To reach the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, call 1-800-273-TALK (8255). You can also text a crisis counselor by messaging 741741. peter.hermann@washpost.com


WNBA to hold draft as planned next month

The WNBA will hold its draft April 17 as originally scheduled, the league said Thursday, even as it continues to examine whether the novel coronavirus pandemic will affect the scheduled opening of training camps later next month and the start of the regular season in May. The regular season isn’t set to begin until May 15, so the pandemic has not affected daily operations as much as in other professional leagues. The WNBA, however, has been evaluating its schedule, with training camps slated to begin April 26. “One, with the prospects in mind, this would be a dream for them to, hopefully, be drafted into the WNBA,” Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said. “The draftees, the prospects, deserve to be drafted like they would have been. We also have teams strategizing around their rosters. I think this is the fairest way to do it as we planned.” Underclassmen must declare their intentions to enter the draft 10 days before the event, so the league wanted to announce its decision as early as possible to give them a clear timetable. The NCAA canceled the rest of its winter and spring sports seasons but has yet to announce how it will handle eligibility issues. Engelbert said she is optimistic the NCAA will decide before the end of the month. The WNBA draft will be held without players, guests or media in attendance but will air live on ESPN2 beginning at 8 p.m. Engelbert will announce the picks. Individual teams are expected to have virtual draft rooms online and will continue to call in their picks as in previous years. The NFL plans to hold its draft as scheduled beginning April 23 but without any live events. There are some concerns within the NFL leading up to the draft about teams’ inability to conduct physicals or workouts for players. The WNBA doesn’t have that issue because its draft is typically held shortly after the NCAA Final Four, which this year would have ended April 5. “With technology today, everybody has the same access to technology and data,” Engelbert said. “No concerns at all.” The league is still evaluating its options as training camps and the regular season approach. “We have some time to put forth all the various scenario plans for medical safety, physical health, training,” Engelbert said. “So we have a little more time than those who had to suspend their seasons. As we


Locals want tourists to stay home because of coronavirus. But some are going to the Texas desert anyway.

end of the earth to practice a kind of extreme social distancing to avoid catching the novel coronavirus and find some respite from the unsettling headlines, even if it is only between pockets of working cellular coverage. On a recent afternoon, Sarah McGraw, a 41-year-old photographer from Greenville, S.C., pulled up in a large white van that she had purchased about a year ago to travel across the country, hiking and backpacking in national parks. But the purchase has taken on a new usefulness in recent weeks. McGraw, who specializes in pet portraiture for personal and commercial clients, had been in Phoenix for an assignment when the coronavirus pandemic began shutting down much of the country. She retreated into her van and began a slow journey back east, stopping off to visit and hike in mostly deserted national parks where the visitor centers were closed but the trails were open. She’d gone to the Grand Canyon and to White Sands National Park in New Mexico and was slowly driving her way around this empty part of Texas. “It’s kind of nice because I get to stay isolated. I don't have to get a hotel. I make every meal in there,” McGraw said. “I've been more isolated than most people, going to these national parks.” But the rapid spread of the novel coronavirus has started to prompt new limits on access to the parks. On Sunday, Big Bend National Park closed its campgrounds, sending away visitors who had descended on the area to escape. Though the trails remained open, park officials for days had been signaling to the public to stay away. In recent days, officials in three Texas counties that include the park have ordered all hotels and lodging, including Airbnbs and campgrounds, to close for at least a week. While there have been no local cases of covid-19, they cited fears that an outbreak could overwhelm their rural medical system. Big Bend Regional Medical Center, in nearby Alpine, has just 25 beds, and officials there say they already struggle to meet demand for everyday medical issues. Among those who left the park were Tim Kosaka, 23, and Jason Burke, 27, who had driven from the Dallas-Fort Worth area on a last-minute trip after Kosaka’s family canceled their planned vacation to San Francisco amid the coronavirus pandemic. For four days, they had camped and hiked, soaking in the hot springs.


USOPC asked for $200 million in the coronavirus stimulus bill to ‘sustain American athletes’

Filippone did not detail the calculations that informed the $200 million request. USOPC CEO Hirshland, in her statement explaining the figures, wrote: “On short notice we surveyed NGBs and then made additional assumptions about the current and future impact of the pandemic on athlete financial support.” In phone interviews, officials with NGBs involved with the survey process defended the figures as accurate. While the Olympics are not canceled, just postponed to 2021, these officials said, Olympic sport NGBs depend on non-Olympic events held year-round for income. “The losses are real, and there aren’t a lot of other places [in NGB budgets] to trim back,” said Max Cobb, chief executive of the U.S. Biathlon Association, who helped oversee the survey effort last week. Cobb acknowledged, however, that the $150 million figure was something of a rough estimate; several NGBs didn’t reply to USOPC requests to fill out a survey disclosing estimated financial losses. Of the 55 NGBs surveyed, Cobb said, 41 replied, detailing an estimated $121.8 million in lost revenue because of cancellations from March through June. “We did back-of-the-envelope estimates for what might be losses for the group that we hadn’t heard from, and that took us close to $150 million,” Cobb said. He declined to release per-sport data because the NGBs were not told in advance the information could become public. Cobb did provide anonymized data — the total amounts reported lost by each NGB, without disclosing which sport reported which figure. More than $100 million in losses were reported by nine NGBs, while the remaining 32 organizations that replied estimated more modest losses. For U.S. Biathlon, Cobb said, the losses would be about $44,000 for an organization with a roughly $2.6 million annual budget. As the coronavirus became a global concern this month, U.S. Biathlon had to back out of two events in Europe and cancel its national and North American championships, which were scheduled for this week in West Yellowstone, Mont. USA Swimming, USA Track and Field and USA Gymnastics declined to disclose figures they reported to the USOPC as lost revenue because of the coronavirus pandemic. USA Wrestling chief executive Rich Bender said his organization reported about $1.5 million in estimated losses, with $500,000 because of the indefinitely postponed Olympic trials. “It totally will force us to reimagine how we operate and run our business,” Bender said. “Our sport has been brought to a screeching halt.”


Why the United States is emerging as the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic

To a large extent, the problem with the coronavirus pandemic is one of scale. Is the number of cases in a country or region growing faster than the area can deal with it? Is the virus spreading more rapidly than existing systems can accommodate? That’s the issue at the heart of the effort to flatten the curve, reducing the number of emerging cases to a level where health-care facilities can manage them. It’s why the crisis is much more problematic in some areas than others. In northern Italy, where systems were overwhelmed, the number of cases and deaths has spiked. In South Korea, where the scope of the outbreak was better contained, the situation has been much less dire. For several weeks, the question facing the United States was which of those paths we were approaching. Would we be able to contain the virus and limit its scale? Or would we be less able to control its growth, straining our systems? Could we adjust our systems in time? It’s still too early to answer that question for the country broadly, but it’s clear that, in at least some places, we’re replicating Italy and not South Korea. New York City, for example, has seen a spike in cases and a strain on its hospitals. Washington, once the most-affected state, has been better able to contain the virus. The interactive below uses per-day data from Johns Hopkins University to compare the spread of the virus in different states and countries over time. (These data are archived as of Wednesday.) We can start with a comparison of the United States, Italy and South Korea. It’s immediately apparent how the number of cases in the United States has grown more rapidly even than they did in Italy. If you change “type of data” to “cases per million,” though, the picture is slightly different: As a percent of total population, the United States trails Italy. Now add New York state. (The state/country selector allows for multiple entries.) As a function of population, the situation in New York is escalating much more rapidly than in the United States generally or in Italy. The lines are colored relative to the average change in the past week. Blue lines have seen limited relative recent growth while red lines get darker as the rate of increase grows higher. The Financial Times has created a graph that has become the


example, has seen a spike in cases and a strain on its hospitals. Washington, once the most-affected state, has been better able to contain the virus. The interactive below uses per-day data from Johns Hopkins University to compare the spread of the virus in different states and countries over time. (These data are archived as of Wednesday.) We can start with a comparison of the United States, Italy and South Korea. It’s immediately apparent how the number of cases in the United States has grown more rapidly even than they did in Italy. If you change “type of data” to “cases per million,” though, the picture is slightly different: As a percent of total population, the United States trails Italy. Now add New York state. (The state/country selector allows for multiple entries.) As a function of population, the situation in New York is escalating much more rapidly than in the United States generally or in Italy. The lines are colored relative to the average change in the past week. Blue lines have seen limited relative recent growth while red lines get darker as the rate of increase grows higher. The Financial Times has created a graph that has become the emblematic indicator of the spread by country. You can approximate the Financial Times graph by setting “timescale” to “relative” and “display scale” to “modified logarithmic” on the above interactive. You’ll get something like this, depending on the countries you choose to display. The flatter a line, the slower the rate of increase in confirmed coronavirus cases. The United States’ line continues to increase at an exponential rate. If you again add New York, you see part of the problem: The growth of cases in the Empire State is faster than nearly anywhere else. Compare New York with Washington state, and you can see a stark difference. Washington’s line is significant flatter, which is also why its line is a lighter-colored red than New York’s. The virus is being better contained in that state. But Washington may be the exception. Add in Florida, Louisiana and New Jersey, and their lines look a lot more like that of New York. You may notice, too, that we’ve included data from the H1N1 pandemic that emerged in 2009. Set the “timescale” to “relative,” and you can compare the speed and mortality of the current outbreak with contemporaneous reports from that year. Over the past


Slowing the spread of the novel coronavirus in an apartment community

Individuals and families across the nation are acting to protect their communities and working to prevent the spread of covid-19. We must all come together to slow the spread of the pandemic. For those living in apartments, it’s important to consider ways to protect yourself and your neighbors. While everyone is learning new information about the novel coronavirus and protective measures daily, there are steps you can take as residents to slow the spread. Many apartment communities are sharing regular updates with residents, urging them to follow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s guidance and reduce contact with others. Based on risk assessments and guidance from local health authorities, many properties are closing common areas and taking other measures to limit interaction between residents and staff. Be sure to check your email, community websites and apps for updates about leasing hours, fitness center use, package deliveries and maintenance requests. Keep in mind maintenance requests may be prioritized depending on urgency and effects on daily living. Even for those who haven’t been exposed to or tested positive for the virus, limiting contact with others can benefit you, your neighbors and community. If possible, working remotely can help contain the potential spread through public transportation, face-to-face meetings and close contact. Avoiding communal areas as much as possible and washing hands immediately before and after leaving home or work also can reduce the spread of germs. Try to limit contact with high-touch surfaces as much as possible and wash your hands immediately before and after touching doorknobs, keypads, mailbox handles, elevator buttons and the like. Take advantage of Facebook community groups, a helpful resource for sharing questions and ideas with your neighbors for keeping children occupied, engaging students in virtual learning, staying active and maintaining routine. You can also swap book suggestions, music playlists, podcasts and more to help fill the time. Some communities are launching Facebook Live events and other digital experiences to help residents connect with one another. Check to see what your community is doing and how you can participate. As information concerning the spread of the coronavirus evolves, it is essential to stay informed through reliable sources. We’re encouraging all apartment community members, including staff and residents, to stay up-to-date on the latest guidance from the CDC and the World Health Organization. These websites provide regular updates about where outbreaks are happening, as well as guidance about prevention.


The $2 trillion relief bill is massive, but it won’t prevent a recession

and business owners fast enough to prevent a chain reaction of pain where one person goes out of business and that triggers another failure and another. Bullard, the St. Louis Fed president, is optimistic that the economy will bounce back in the second half of 2020. He compares this to driving a car 70 miles per hour on the highway and then having to slow to a crawl for a construction zone. The hope is that the car can regain speed quickly, after exiting the construction zone, but it’s not a given. “It’s not enough to have Congress pass something or to have the Fed put new programs into place to preserve liquidity, it’s actually the execution of those programs” that matters, he said. To get a reality check on what’s happening to the U.S. economy, call a small-business owner. Nearly all will tell you that business is severely down — or closed — and that they have no clue when that will change. In recent days, most of these owners have talked to anyone they can think of — bankers, insurers, politicians, friends, customers, Small Business Administration officials — about getting a loan or aid. But everyone is waiting to see what Congress does first, leaving business owners fearful that they will run out of money before help arrives. John Russell co-founded Webconnex, at small tech company, in 2008, but he says this crisis is even harder to navigate than the Great Recession, because it’s so uncertain when it will end and whether the recovery will be fast or slow. His company, which employs 41 people, makes affordable software for fundraising and events and processed about $1 billion in credit card payments last year. Now most of its 2020 events are canceled, leaving almost no money coming in. “If we don’t get relief from this bill in Congress, we have no choice but to do massive layoffs,” Russell said. “Our team is like our family. For us, 100 percent of our focus is on saving those jobs.” Russell has taken an ax to his budget. Advertising spending is gone. He cut up the credit cards. The company managed to end its lease in Sacramento at the end of the month. All trips are canceled. Those decisions are already rippling across the economy, cutting revenue for other businesses. If he has to lay off employees, like so many restaurants and


Brazil’s Bolsonaro, channeling Trump, dismisses coronavirus measures — it’s just ‘a little cold’

RIO DE JANEIRO — He said self-isolation was "mass confinement." He called the novel coronavirus a "little cold." He asked, if only people older than 60 are at risk, "why close the schools?" This was Jair Bolsonaro, leader of Latin America’s largest country, calling on Brazilians to return to jobs, public spaces and commerce amid the coronavirus pandemic, contradicting not only his own health officials, but also the global consensus on how to see countries through the pandemic without a crippling loss of life. It was a portrait of Bolsonaro isolated and unbound: Alone before the camera, attacking the media, undermining political opponents, indulging talking points he’s used since the crisis began even as the disturbing reality overtook his sanguine predictions. “Most of the media has been countervailing,” he declared in a national address Tuesday. “They spread the sensation of dread, with their flagship the high number of victims in Italy. The perfect scenario to be used by the media to spread hysteria.” “In my particular case,” the 65-year-old former army officer added, “with my history as an athlete, if I were infected by the virus, I wouldn’t need to worry. I wouldn’t feel anything or, if very affected, it would be like a little flu or little cold.” Rather than calming panic and confusion, Bolsonaro’s pronouncements appear to be only fueling them. As confirmed cases and deaths mount — Brazil leads Latin America in both — fear is growing over whether the country’s institutions and leaders will rise to the challenge of a historic moment, with far less room for error than wealthier countries already in the full grip of coronavirus. The minister of health has warned the health system will collapse by the end of April. Millions of already impoverished people face weeks without income. Hunger could sweep the country. Rio and Sao Paulo clang each night with the sound of panelaços, pot-and-pan-banging protests against Bolsonaro’s dismissal of the virus. But to Bolsonaro, things aren’t that bad. He says the measures being taken by state governors to slow the disease’s spread — encouraging social isolation, closing churches, malls and schools, banning large crowds — are needlessly excessive. “It will pass shortly,” he predicted Tuesday. He called on businesses and schools to reopen. “Our lives have to continue; jobs should be maintained.” Bolsonaro appears to be making a high-stakes bet, risking what public health analysts warn could be mass


Spain’s coronavirus deaths surpass China and make it the world’s hardest-hit country behind Italy

March 8. “There were thousands” of women in attendance, said Mitjà. “That could have been the trigger and the reason why Madrid is the number-one place affected. We did not work quick enough with control strategies.” Calvo, the deputy prime minister, had urged people to attend the march. Other high-profile attendees — including the prime minister’s wife, Begoña Gómez, and two other female ministers — have since tested positive. Some experts have also pointed to Spain’s particularly social culture and love of late-night gatherings as factors that may have helped the disease take hold. Lockdown measures in Spain have reduced transmission rates, Mitjà said, but they remain high enough to sustain the virus, with each infected person passing the virus on to an average of 1.7 people. Covid-19, the disease that develops from the novel coronavirus, is particularly dangerous for the elderly and has swept through the country’s nursing homes. The military took control of all residential facilities this week, making chilling discoveries when they did so. In a television interview, Defense Minister Margarita Robles said soldiers had found elderly residents abandoned by staff and left “dead in their beds.” “We are going to be extremely firm with this kind of negligence,” she said. But staff members have complained they do not have the proper protection to tend to the sick or move bodies. More than 22 people died at the Santa Hortensia nursing home in Madrid, according to Spanish media reports. The availability of such protective supplies has been a persistent complaint during the outbreak. “This is an overwhelmed system,” said Angela Hernández Puente, deputy secretary general of the Madrid doctors union AMYTS. She said front-line medical workers had been “overworked and overextended for weeks now.” “They are angry,” she added. She said that two family physicians had died after contracting the coronavirus, and she expected more deaths of medical workers to follow. A group of national medical associations sent an open letter to Spanish authorities Tuesday, decrying the lack of protective equipment. “We health workers find ourselves in a situation of complete insecurity and lack of protection while conducting our duties of assistance and prevention . . . given the inadequate and very risky health conditions, and the lack of protective material and equipment supplies necessary to guarantee the precise safety of ourselves, as well as the patients,” they wrote. With the international medical market struggling to keep