different possibilities now.” In the District, acting D.C. city administrator Kevin Donahue told members of the D.C. Council on a weekly phone call: “We are in the middle of a national wave that’s going to continue to get worse.” A total of 5,522 new infections were reported Wednesday in the greater Washington region: 2,697 in Maryland, 2,718 in Virginia and 107 in the District. The rolling seven-day average of new cases shows Maryland with 2,334, Virginia with 2,495 and D.C. with 150. So far this year, the region’s total case count is just short of 435,000. Deaths reported in the District from covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, increased by four Wednesday to 677. In Maryland, 37 additional deaths were reported, bringing to cumulative total to 4,518. In Virginia, the death toll rose 29, to 4,008. More than 34,000 patients have been hospitalized with covid-19 since the pandemic came to the region. About 3,000 remain in hospitals in Virginia, Maryland or D.C. Maryland continues to lead the region in the number of cases per 100,000 residents. Its seven-day average of cases is 38. D.C. reports 21 cases per 100,000 and Virginia reports an average 29 cases per 100,000 over a seven-day period. While it’s easy to get lost in the statistics, people who watch the numbers closely warn that the data over the next few days may vary greatly. Numbers will probably flatten or drop for several days around Thanksgiving as people put off testing, wrote Erin Kissane at the Covid Tracking Project. Then, next week, testing, case reports and deaths will rise, “which will look like a confirmation that Thanksgiving is causing outbreaks to worsen.” “But neither of these expected movements in the data will necessarily mean anything about the state of the pandemic itself,” Kissane wrote. “Holidays, like weekends, cause testing and reporting to go down and then, a few days later, to ‘catch up.’ ” Any infections resulting from Thanksgiving exposures probably won’t start showing up in the data until the second week of December, Kissane said. Succeeding waves of infections from holiday gatherings are likely to roll in for weeks. And that has implications for the future. “This will not dissipate by Christmas, or any of the holidays at the end of December,” Marcozzi said. “I don’t think there’s a recognition that we’re all a risk to each other. We are our brothers’ keepers.”


How the legacy of colonialism shaped the last global Ebola epidemic

to fight the pandemic this year. In both West Africa and the United States, distrustful populations resisted government edicts: Americans decline to wear masks, despite science that proves they work to slow the coronavirus’s spread. West Africans, similarly, resisted sending loved ones to Ebola treatment units from which they were unlikely to emerge, partly because they believed that the White strangers in their midst were stealing people. (It is hard to blame West Africans for such convictions when that is exactly what had taken place during the slave trade.) The global responses to Ebola and the coronavirus have cast light on the importance of what Farmer calls the “staff, stuff, space and systems” of public health. What good does it do for a well-meaning organization to build a new hospital in Sierra Leone if there are no doctors or nurses to staff it? What about the irony that those few medical professionals in West Africa lacked gloves to protect themselves, when the latex in those gloves is extracted from their soil by American companies that manufacture gloves overseas? How many died because health systems collapsed under the weight of Ebola and therefore could not treat more prevalent diseases like cholera and malaria? Today, the countries that have handled the coronavirus with relative success are those that were prepared with the staff, stuff, space and systems. Germany and South Korea launched massive testing campaigns early and kept their outbreaks relatively small. Taiwan, Thailand and Singapore have had some of the lowest death rates in the world. America, by contrast, had a shortage of personal protective equipment early in the pandemic, a shortage that continues to plague some states and counties. Like others who have examined the toll of pandemics — the 1918 flu, the Black Plague, the AIDS pandemic — Farmer offers the familiar warning that Ebola and the coronavirus are but chapters in the endless story of humankind’s battle with disease. As our world becomes more globalized and interconnected, as the climate changes, and as we urbanize into previously undisturbed natural settings, we will discover new pathogens that challenge our collective health. “Human history is one long messing with the natural world,” Farmer concludes. The zoonotic events that result in health catastrophes will become increasingly common in what he calls nature’s “basket of deplorables.” Ebola and the Ravages of History By Paul Farmer Farrar, Straus and Giroux 526 pp. $35


Remote school is leaving children sad and angry

the street, which recently shut down because of a lack of customers. When things get too sad or weird, the siblings like to lose themselves in video games. The nice thing about a video game, Creedence said, is that it lets you shape the world the way you want it to look — or, he clarified, the way you need it to look. But as soon as he closes the console, the same fear surges back. “We might never be able to go back to some of our favorite restaurants, because they closed down, and we might never really see our friends again, because they moved away,” Creedence said. “This may never get back to normal.” At the start of the school year, Karen James tried to make things as normal as she could for her 7-year-old daughter, Olivia Gabriela James. She took first-day-of-school photos and dressed her up in nice school clothes. Olivia was right on time to her at-home workstation, in the dining room of the family’s home in Alexandria, Va. But as time went by, James found there were holes she could not fill. Sometimes the mother felt helpless. “Hands tied, I can’t change anything myself,” she thought. “And I’m doing the best that I can. Right? Which on some days doesn’t seem good enough.” A single mom, James had to balance helping her daughter with her own demanding work-from-home responsibilities. Olivia complained about technology (“It’s glitchy”) and missing her friends (“It’s really hard”). She longed to be in the same room with her teacher. The death of George Floyd added a layer of pain that Olivia, who is Black, is barely able to process. The second-grader glimpsed some of the news footage, and her mother felt forced to talk with her about injustices years before she would have liked. “George Floyd died, and it just made me really sad, upset,” Olivia said. She knows exactly what happened. “The officer put his knee in his neck so he couldn’t breathe.” The hardest blow came just before Olivia’s birthday, on Aug. 2, when James had to tell Olivia that her grandfather would not be coming to the house for her party. He comes every year, so when James told her daughter that he wouldn’t be showing up this year, she feared Olivia would think it was a trick, setting up some kind of super-special surprise. “No, baby, really,


Americans celebrate Thanksgiving, while cities and counties set records for coronavirus infections

population by mid-2021, according to Voice of America. John Nkengasong, director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said it will cost about $10 billion to $12 billion, including costs for buying vaccines and distributing delivering the vaccines to achieve the goal, the outlet reported. In the meantime, dramatic increases have been reported in many major U.S. cities in recent weeks, with some surpassing even their previous peaks. In Cook County, where Chicago is located, the seven-day average of new cases hit a record high of 4,654 on Nov. 17 — outpacing the peak of 1,690 during the spring. A similar surging trend can be observed in metropolitan areas across the country. In recent weeks, counties home to large cities, including Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Detroit, Las Vegas and Minneapolis, have seen record highs in case numbers. Miami-Dade County has seen a recent uptick, and Salt Lake County is experiencing its first major peak. In Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix, the seven-day average of new cases, which hovered around 500 a day in late October, exceeded 2,000 on Monday. “The dreaded fall wave, in many places, is upon us,” said Josh Michaud, an epidemiologist and associate director for global health policy at the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation, told The Washington Post. “And that includes in metropolitan areas.” The country’s two largest states Wednesday broke the nationwide record for most new coronavirus infections reported in a single day, with California tallying 18,350 and Texas nearly 16,100. The records come amid surging trends in infections, hospitalizations and deaths across the country. Wednesday was the 33rd consecutive day that the United States set a record in its seven-day average of reported cases, according to data compiled by The Post. Nearly 90,000 people are in hospitals with covid-19, another record. The United States logged nearly 2,300 coronavirus-related fatalities Wednesday — the highest single-day increase since May 6. Total U.S. deaths now exceed 262,000. In the meantime, the world watches with bewilderment and disbelief as scores of Americans decide to travel to visit family and friends for this weekend’s holiday, despite health officials’ recommendations and a staggering number of cases and fatalities. Others have hesitated over which are the best and safest ways to spend the holiday. As the public experiences fatigue after a grueling year with months of social-distancing measures and disease affecting millions, along with colder weather, experts say it is becoming


cities in recent weeks, with some surpassing even their previous peaks. In Cook County, where Chicago is located, the seven-day average of new cases hit a record high of 4,654 on Nov. 17 — outpacing the peak of 1,690 during the spring. A similar surging trend can be observed in metropolitan areas across the country. In recent weeks, counties home to large cities, including Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Detroit, Las Vegas and Minneapolis, have seen record highs in case numbers. Miami-Dade County has seen a recent uptick, and Salt Lake County is experiencing its first major peak. In Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix, the seven-day average of new cases, which hovered around 500 a day in late October, exceeded 2,000 on Monday. “The dreaded fall wave, in many places, is upon us,” said Josh Michaud, an epidemiologist and associate director for global health policy at the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation, told The Washington Post. “And that includes in metropolitan areas.” The country’s two largest states Wednesday broke the nationwide record for most new coronavirus infections reported in a single day, with California tallying 18,350 and Texas nearly 16,100. The records come amid surging trends in infections, hospitalizations and deaths across the country. Wednesday was the 33rd consecutive day that the United States set a record in its seven-day average of reported cases, according to data compiled by The Post. Nearly 90,000 people are in hospitals with covid-19, another record. The United States logged nearly 2,300 coronavirus-related fatalities Wednesday — the highest single-day increase since May 6. Total U.S. deaths now exceed 262,000. In the meantime, the world watches with bewilderment and disbelief as scores of Americans decide to travel to visit family and friends for this weekend’s holiday, despite health officials’ recommendations and a staggering number of cases and fatalities. Others have hesitated over which are the best and safest ways to spend the holiday. As the public experiences fatigue after a grueling year with months of social-distancing measures and disease affecting millions, along with colder weather, experts say it is becoming more difficult for the public to follow precautionary measures. “From Australia, this looks like a mindbogglingly dangerous chapter in the out-of-control American COVID-19 story,” Ian Mackay, an associate professor of virology at the University of Queensland, wrote in an email to The Post. “Sadly, for some, this will be a Thanksgiving that is remembered for all the wrong reasons.”


Coronavirus cases are skyrocketing again in cities

Bessel said, but the coming weeks are expected to be markedly different from previous years and even the Sun Belt’s summer surge. “The entire country is surging at the same time,” she said. Health officials attribute the virus’s resurgence in cities to several factors, including eased restrictions, increased gatherings and what’s being called “covid fatigue.” Eight months into the pandemic, “there is no longer that sense of urgency,” said Mouhanad Hammami, chief health strategist in Wayne County, home to Detroit. “When you live with something, it is no longer urgent, and you tend to get desensitized to it.” Some authorities in Chicago blamed rock-bottom hotel prices and the state-imposed indoor dining ban, suggesting it may have caused parties to relocate to hotel rooms or other spaces, such as Airbnb rentals. On Nov. 12, Lightfoot told reporters that current restrictions apply to both. “I know the hotel industry was hit hard and is in many instances is on life support, but that cannot include parties,” she said. “I urge the hotel industry to be much more diligent about who is coming in. … People think it’s party time. It’s not.” Officials in many hard-hit cities also point to increasingly widespread transmission across the United States, which has been reporting record-setting numbers of infections. Over the past week, the country had well over 150,000 new cases each day. Ahead of Thanksgiving, traditionally a time of significant travel and extended family get-togethers, health experts feared the number would only continue to climb. “We would love to be that shining city on the hill where we’re avoiding all this,” said Philadelphia Department of Public Health spokesman James Garrow. “But I don’t know that anybody’s going to be able to avoid this.” Mortality rates have improved from earlier in the pandemic — a change attributed to improved therapeutics and knowledge of how to handle covid-19, the disease caused by the virus. Still, authorities in areas that are seeing spiking infections have reacted with alarm, noting that the explosion in cases will inevitably drive up the death toll. In Los Angeles County, where hospitalizations are up and deaths increased slightly last week, Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer on Friday described the data as looking “really bad right now” and added that the county had experienced “three terrible days in terms of case rates and increases in hospitalizations.” She said health officials were hoping deaths “don’t go


U.S.-made technologies are aiding China’s surveillance of Uighurs. How should Washington respond?

THE SWEEPING surveillance China has brought to bear against its Uighur Muslim minority is staggering. An overwhelming number of cameras generates an overwhelming amount of footage. Until recently, it was unclear how authorities sifted through it to serve their repressive ends. Now the New York Times has provided an answer: with the help of U.S.-made technologies. An investigation published this past week reveals how supercomputers chug away inside a cloud computing complex in the Xinjiang region. Purportedly, these computers can analyze 1,000 video feeds simultaneously and search more than 100 million photos in a single second. The aim is to monitor cars, phones and faces — putting together patterns of behavior for “predictive policing” that justifies snatching people off the street for imprisonment or so-called reeducation. This complex opened four years ago, and it operates on the power of chips manufactured by U.S. supercomputer companies Intel and Nvidia. Intel and Nvidia say they were unaware of this exploitation of their technology — which is entirely plausible and entirely implausible at the same time. On the one hand, the supply chains and sales arrangements in the computing industry are complex. Often, as in this case, a buyer of U.S. products supplies both everyday firms and Chinese military and security forces, and the hops from a chip’s original manufacturer to the state are difficult to map. On the other hand, it doesn’t take much imagination to predict how a dual-use technology will be misused by a government with a record of digital authoritarianism. Many U.S. companies likely are not on the lookout for links between their products and human rights abuses because they don’t want to find those links. President-elect Joe Biden will confront this quandary when he takes office in January: how to impose export controls and sanctions without doing collateral damage to businesses that sell technologies with harmless applications. The current administration got a start on blacklisting entities, including with restrictions on semiconductor sales to certain Chinese companies. The next one will have to refine the flawed list and keep it updated — perhaps in part by requiring companies to track the ultimate destinations of their products and forcing them not to close their eyes any longer. The president-elect will also have to avoid doing collateral damage to the global system more generally. China has already begun to build up its own ability to craft semiconductors . While the commonly


Transcript: A Washington Post Live Special: Barack Obama In Conversation With Michele Norris and Elizabeth Alexander

has to be lived. But I try to describe to Malia and Sasha one of the great gifts of getting to be my age now is I'm just not afraid of much, because I've kind of--I've been knocked down a bunch of times. I've embarrassed myself. I've, you know, publicly failed and people have written entire articles about my failings, and I've been criticized and ostracized and demonized. And you know, but I'm still here. You know, I'm okay. And that's a hard thing to internalize in your 20s or your 30s. But to the extent that the book can help a young person say, okay, you know what, it's worth me taking a chance, it's worth me trying hard things, it's okay when I screw this up because, you know, that's part of the process, yeah, then I think it's worth it for me to be able to share that to them. MS. NORRIS: Elizabeth has one left, final quick question. MS. ALEXANDER: Yes, the most beautiful moment in the book to me is when you're in Oslo, you've won the Nobel Peace Prize, you look out the window and a sea of people holding candles aloft. And you say--and if I may, I'll read your words--"Whatever you do won't be enough, I heard their voices say. Try anyway." What do those words mean to you now? MR. OBAMA: I think that's what we tell ourselves hopefully every morning when we get up, right? It's--that's not unique to politics. Life will throw stuff at you. There will be disappointments. There will be pain, and there will be loss. And we know at the end of the day, we die. That's the one certainty that we have, that this is temporary. And yet, there's this massive possibility of joy along the way, as long as we try, as long as we're open to it, as long as we experience it. And more than anything, as long as we reach out and are sharing this time on earth with others that we love and we care about and that hopefully we're continually expanding the circumference of that love and concern to reach more and more people, because that fills us up. You know, that's not just a--that's not just a political point of view. That's a writerly point of view, and ultimately, a spiritual point of view, right? That's how--that's how--that's


Transcript: The Path Forward: Combating COVID-19 with Anthony S. Fauci, Director, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

wearing a mask, you don't have the kind of ventilation and moving of air that you have on the outside, and we are actually seeing, in reality, not hypothetically but in reality, we're starting to see a considerable number of instances of cases where you have that same sort of innocent family-and-friends gathering indoors that are turning into places where the virus is spread. So, to the extent possible, as difficult as it is from a social standpoint, to avoid that, please try to avoid that and constrain the kinds of things you do to the immediate family and people that you're sure that they are being careful. MR. COSTA: Dr. Fauci, are there ways to be vigilant even in small settings? You said people could be asymptomatic, but are there any telltale signs or minor symptoms people should be on the lookout for this week? DR. FAUCI: Well, yes. I mean, obviously, the early symptoms of COVID-19 disease are very similar to a flu-like syndrome. You may or may not have fever, and I don't think you need to rely on fever, that if you don't have a fever, you're okay, because plenty of people in the very early period of time don't have fever. But it's something like a sore throat, kind of a scratchy feeling, maybe some fullness in your upper airway, some muscle aches, a feeling of fatigue. And then many people now have this curious loss of smell and taste. So, if any of those symptoms appear, people should be careful and either stay home, try to get tested if you possibly can, to know whether or not you're infected. And if you are, obviously, you should isolate yourself. If you get into some difficulty you should notify your physician. But the best thing to do is stay home. So, if someone comes in and says, you know, "I kind of feel bushed today. I'm tired. I've got this little scratchy feeling in my throat. I feel a little achy," that's a telltale sign. MR. COSTA: Here is a question from one of our audience members, Kathleen Fauth of Illinois. She wonders, "Can someone who has tested positive and recovered two months ago spread the virus to others if they are exposed to it again?" DR. FAUCI: So, you know, that's kind of a mixed question. If you were infected once and you've tested positive,


travel before Thanksgiving affect the number of cases and the death toll, moving forward? DR. FAUCI: Well that's a very important question, Bob, and that's one of the things that we're really concerned about. If you look at the curves, we are in a very steep escalation of cases right now, in the mid-fall season. If you look at the slope of the increases in the early spring, that we had the northeastern part of the country dominated by the New York City metropolitan area, then we had the early-summer, mid-summer when we were trying to open up the country and the South dominated it. Now what we're seeing, almost the entire map of the country is lighting up with the dark colors, which indicate increased test positivity, and the slope is like that. Which means that if, in fact, you are in a situation, when you do the things that are increasing the risk -- the travel, the congregate setting, not wearing marks -- the chances are that you will see a surge superimposed upon a surge, and you're not going to see the results of that because things lag by a couple of weeks. So, what we're seeing now is what happened two-plus weeks ago. What we are doing now is going to be reflected two, three weeks from now. So, what we want to make sure we don't do, is as we enter into the more risky part of the year -- weather gets colder, more people stay indoors -- that you don't exacerbate the problem that already exists. And the reason I think it's important, doubly sure of that, is that help is on the way. We have at least two highly efficacious vaccines that would likely start to be given to people at the highest risk and the highest priority towards the middle and end of December. As we get into the subsequent months, more and more people will be able to be vaccinated. So I take this not only as good news in and of itself, because of the benefit of adding the vaccine to your toolkit of prevention, but it should be, in my mind, an incentive for people, despite the fact that we all have COVID fatigue, an incentive to double down and be even more conscientious about the public health measures that I've asked. Because if help is on the way,


"We don't want to think in terms of an EUA way, an emergency use authorization, until we get 60 days beyond when 50 percent of the people in the trial have gotten their last dose." So that may seem a little strange to people, but the fact is that is a very prudent way to rule out any overwhelming majority of any serious effects. They are still going to be looking at year or two later, but the bulk of things that might happen have already been looked at by that 60-day wait before you allow the EUA to actually be issued so that people will get the vaccine. Safety is primary, and the FDA, the career scientists who have been doing this in their entire career, for vaccine after vaccine, know what they are doing. And that's why they made that safety clause in the EUA. MR. COSTA: Dr. Fauci, can you walk through the accuracy of current tests? People are wondering this week what to do, which test to take. DR. FAUCI: Yeah. You know, there are a number of tests, three general types: tests for the actual virus itself, it's a PCR, it's a molecular test; tests for a component of the virus, which is an antigen test; and test for the antibody, to see if you've actually been infected and exposed. If you want to find out if a person absolutely is infected or not, for example, if you're doing identification, isolation, contact tracing -- someone comes in with symptoms and you want to know if they're infected and you know to know if the people that they have come in contact with is infected -- those are highly sensitive and highly specific, and they are more expensive, they take a little bit longer to get the results. You'd like to get it in one to two days. Many people, unfortunately, still have to wait multiple days to get it, even though we're doing much better now than we were doing months and months ago. The other one is one that's an antigen test, that is generally done for screening. So, it isn't as sensitive, but if you repeat it over and over again it makes up for the lack of sensitivity. So, if you want to find out, in general, in a college, what is the level of infection of people, you would test them


all and then you do surveillance testing. You don't want to know whether this person or that person or that person is infected. You just want to find out if there's infection in the group. The group could be a college, a nursing home, a school, a factory, or what have you. Those are mostly surveillance tests. So, if somebody wants to know absolutely if they are infected for a particular time, they should go with the more sensitive PCR tests, that may take a little bit longer. If you want to find out if a group is infected or not and you want to do surveillance, that's when you do something that's less sensitive, but if you do it often enough it makes up for that. MR. COSTA: Dr. Fauci, we only have a minute or so left. You've just mentioned the long-term effects possibly of a vaccine, but what about of contracting the virus itself? Are there brain issues, other health issues that you've picked up? DR. FAUCI: Well, there are two aspects of that, Bob. A great question. For those people who really get seriously ill, namely they are in an ICU, intubated, on ventilation, even if it isn't COVID-19, anyone that goes through that is not going to feel perfectly normal for a considerable period of time. But there's something else that's going on with COVID-19, and those are individuals who don't necessarily have had advanced disease. They could have been in the hospital, they could have been home in bed for a few weeks, but they had symptomatic disease. What we are finding is that a certain percentage of them -- and we don't know what that is yet because we're doing a larger cohort study, so we are going to be studying this -- anywhere from 25, maybe 30 percent, we think, have what's called a post- COVID syndrome, namely they no longer have virus in them, they can't infect anybody, but it takes them anywhere from weeks to months, and maybe even beyond, to feel perfectly normal. And they have a constellation of symptoms and signs that seem to be consistent when you talk to different people. It's extreme fatigue. It's shortness of breath, even among people who were athletes and were really very well-conditioned, have trouble going up a flight of stairs. They have temperature control problems. They feel chilly. They feel


In managing covid-19, colleges must tend to students’ minds as much as their bodies

sense. Covid-19 is more likely to rattle college-age kids’ minds than their bodies. And the distress may be more difficult to detect. There’s no drive-through swab for depression. Instead, struggles may be hidden away in quiet dorm rooms, as suffering students are unwilling or unable to share their pain on campuses that can feel, by necessity, like minimum-security prisons. My daughter’s travails showed just how challenging colleges’ approaches to managing covid-19 can be. Simply getting her to campus — navigating school and local testing and quarantining requirements — was grueling. On move-in day, parents raced to unpack and rush farewells because of university-imposed time limits. The customary welcoming smiles from other students were hidden behind ubiquitous masks. A string of dorm rooms sat eerily empty. Sofia’s first activity on campus was another covid-19 test beneath a white tent. Orientation was a Zoom affair save for three brief, small, socially distanced in-person chats outside with mask-clad students. Just before school started, classes that were supposed to be in-person were switched to online-only. The clubs Sofia was so eager to join to find “her people” were reduced to squares on a laptop. There were no meals in dining halls, no pool games in rec rooms, no impromptu group hangouts in dorms. Though none of this was entirely unexpected, and much of it was necessary, it still proved more difficult than our imagined worst-case scenarios. This week and in the weeks ahead, college students across the country — many sent home until well after the new year — will weigh whether to return to campus next semester. At the same time, university administrators, considering surging coronavirus numbers nationwide and the arrival of indoor-only weather, are deciding whether to bring students back to campus and, if so, under what restrictions. This limbo is only intensifying the uncertainty and anxiety that have built up over the past few months for students such as Sofia. In the meantime, schools should act on the lessons of 2020 to ensure that, however they choose to educate their students in 2021, they’ve put the necessary social supports in place. Colleges should prioritize safely holding classes in person. Counseling should be more widely available and promoted more aggressively; schools can also do more to dismantle the stigma around seeking help. Resident assistants have an especially difficult job this academic year, but they can make all the difference. A visit or


The Daily 202: As Moderna submits vaccine for FDA approval, Fauci says ‘close the bars and keep the schools open’

“thank” Republican Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler for “fighting” to deliver pandemic relief to help small businesses. Both face Democratic challengers in Jan. 5 runoffs that will determine which party controls the Senate. The ad will air on broadcast in the Atlanta, Macon and Savannah media markets for nine days, as well as statewide cable for 14 days. “National coronavirus test shortages have emphasized testing’s critical role in containing and mitigating the pandemic, but these inconvenient truths remain: A test result is rarely a definitive answer, but instead a single clue at one point in time, to be appraised alongside other clues like symptoms and exposure to those with confirmed cases. The result itself may be falsely positive or negative, or may show an abnormality that doesn’t matter. And even an accurate, meaningful test result is useless (or worse) unless it’s acted on appropriately. These lessons are not unique to covid-19,” Ishani Ganguli reports. “False positives are especially common for screening tests like hepatitis C antibody tests and mammograms that look for medical problems in healthy people without symptoms." “Some patients have waited months for their olfactory senses and taste buds to return. I had no idea how I’d do my job if I suffered a similar fate. Fortunately, I never had to worry about it. I lost my appetite for a couple of weeks and I lost weight, but I never lost my ability to taste or smell,” Tim Carman writes.”Covid had other surprises waiting for me instead. On Wednesday night, just 24 hours into this nightmare, I woke up around 4 a.m., feeling generally uncomfortable. I sat up in bed, and within a matter of minutes, I could feel my body start to turn against me. I felt warm, so I slid to the floor to let the hardwoods cool my skin. That’s when I experienced a pain so profound and all-encompassing I couldn’t put it into words … Then the nausea hit me. … And then, just like that, as if by divine intervention, the pain and nausea disappeared. It was replaced, almost instantaneously, by an overwhelming anger at the current administration, which would prefer that we all experience our own private covid hell.” “The Greek roots of this word tell a clear story: pan means ‘all’ or ‘every,’ and dēmos means ‘people’; its literal meaning is ‘of all the people.’ The related word epidemic comes


‘I’ve got you, babe’: How Cher helped save the world’s loneliest elephant

zoo’s conditions “amount to subjecting (animals) to unnecessary pain and suffering,” and called for all animals held at the zoo to be relocated to sanctuaries. The abysmal conditions at the zoo have faced intense scrutiny for years. Officials at the facility have blamed insufficient funding and poor training, but Pakistani authorities have also failed to enforce animal-care regulations. Many of the animals left in the capital city’s zoo are living in cramped conditions that rights groups have described as “abhorrent and unacceptable.” One attempted transfer ended tragically after animal handlers lit a fire in a big-cat enclosure to force two lions into transportation crates. Both died of smoke inhalation. Some of the last animals waiting to be moved include two retired dancing bears, who are suffering from behavioral disorders because of illness and lack of space. The bears are set to be transferred to Jordan in the coming months, according to Four Paws. Kaavan was gifted to Pakistan by Sri Lanka in 1985, when the elephant was just a baby. Elephants are social animals and a solitary lifestyle can lead to boredom and behavioral problems; following the death of Kaavan’s zoo partner, who lived with him, Saheli, his mental and physical health deteriorated, according to experts, who note that along with being malnourished, he has displayed a range of physical and psychological issues. Last week Cher met with Prime Minister Imran Khan, who she later thanked for his help in “making it possible” for her to take the Asian elephant to Cambodia on a flight that left Pakistan on Sunday. Khan thanked Cher for her efforts and invited her to participate further in environmental initiatives in Pakistan, according to a statement from the prime minister’s office. Ahead of his long-awaited departure, supporters at the zoo threw a goodbye party for Kaavan, with balloons, colorful bunting and live music. Then, on Sunday, Four Paws tweeted a photograph of Kaavan’s enclosure, which now lies empty for the first time in 35 years. “Dreams do come true!” the organization wrote as activists celebrated the success of the rescue mission — one that animal lovers, along with Kaavan, the now-not-so-lonely-elephant, will surely never forget. Read more: The coronavirus pandemic has halted tourism, and animals are benefiting from it These haunting animal photos aim to make you reconsider a visit to the zoo What happens when an old elephant dies? Zoo officials have a plan.


Climate news quiz: Space cooling and green giving

All right: Time to see if you’ve been paying attention to Washington Post coverage of the people, organizations and governments trying to mitigate climate change, found on our Climate Solutions page. If you have, this quiz should be an easy A. Answer: B. Answer: C Answer: D. Answer B. Answer: C. Answer: D. Answer: B Answer: A. Answer: D. Answer: D. 0 to 3 questions correct Climate novice: You still have a lot to learn about climate change. But that’s okay: We’ve got you covered. Have a question? Ask us here. 4 to 7 questions correct Climate curious: Hey, not bad! You know a thing or two about climate change. But there’s still more to learn, and we’ve got you covered. Have a question? Ask us here. 8 to 10 questions correct Climate expert: Well done! You’re super climate-literate. You probably already know that one of the most important things you can do as an individual to combat climate change is to spread the word. Go ahead: Brag a little, share this quiz with your friends, and find out who knows the most about climate change.


Lawmakers request new GAO studies on pandemic’s effect on the aviation industry

aviation industry has been among those hit hardest by the pandemic, which has grounded tens of thousands of flights and reduced passenger traffic to a trickle. The International Air Transport Association recently estimated that airlines will suffer a net loss of $118.5 billion in 2020, up from a previous estimate of $84.2 billion. DeFazio and Larsen said that they are aware of the pandemic’s effect on the industry but that the risks of air travel at such a time cannot be ignored. “Unfortunately, these losses do not negate the fact that air travel, more than any other mode of transportation, has the greatest potential to carry this disease from one part of the world to another,” they wrote in a letter this month to Gene Dodaro, comptroller general of the United States. The pair said that until a vaccine is widely available, “reducing the spread of COVID-19 through air travel and revitalizing the U.S. airline industry will depend in large part on a better understanding of how diseases, particularly those that are airborne, spread through air travel and identifying technologies and practices that can help mitigate disease transmission.” The lawmakers requested that the GAO conduct three studies: one that examines research by government, academics and the airline industry on disease transmission via air travel; another that looks at the roles and responsibilities of local, state and federal authorities as well as those of airports, airlines and their contractors; and a third that assesses the measures the industry has put in place in response to the coronavirus. “This report should provide lessons learned by aviation regulators and stakeholders that could assist with preparedness planning; identify successful disease mitigation strategies, including operational practices and technologies; and recommend any changes to current laws, regulation, and industry practices,” the lawmakers said. DeFazio and Larsen have asked that the first study be completed within nine months. The three reports will expand on previous GAO work assessing whether the aviation industry is prepared to deal with a global disease outbreak. In 2015, the GAO issued a report calling on the Transportation Department to take the lead in developing a national plan for dealing with an outbreak, but such a plan was never developed, in part because agencies could not agree on which one should take the lead. An earlier version of this story misstated the name and title of Gene Dodaro. This version has been corrected.


The 2020 Census has faced unprecedented challenges. The deadline must be moved.

Robert L. Santos is vice president and chief methodologist at the Urban Institute and president-elect of the American Statistical Association. The Supreme Court heard oral arguments Monday on the Trump administration’s bid to exclude undocumented immigrants from population totals when calculating how House seats are apportioned among the states. This is the latest threat to the quality of the 2020 Census that should worry both the public and the Census Bureau. The 2020 Census has faced unprecedented challenges, including funding shortfalls, natural disasters, high employee attrition and litigation. Census field operations were compressed first by pandemic lockdowns and shortened further by court order. Millions of Americans relocated because of covid-19, intensifying challenges to an accurate count. Typically, processing census data takes about five months. In this chaotic year, data is supposed to be reconciled — with duplicate responses and other errors identified and corrected — over just 10 weeks. Shortcuts are unavoidable if counts are to be submitted as currently required by Dec. 31, elevating the risk of errors. No one should want that. Census inaccuracies risk constitutional conflict, with decade-long ramifications for political representation and federal funding. Given the stakes, the Census Bureau should be relieved of the pernicious burden of submitting counts by year’s end. So far, indicators of 2020 Census performance provide a mixed picture. The Census Bureau has touted a 99.98 percent “resolution” rate of all U.S. housing units and addresses as evidence that the forthcoming count is complete. But this figure relies on data of varying quality. It draws on federal and commercial administrative records, such as tax documents, that could be obsolete; it includes data from proxies such as neighbors or landlords to fill in gaps where census enumerators couldn’t reach households. The self-response rate for the 2020 Census — households that completed their own responses, whether online, by postal mail or telephone — is 67 percent. That exceeds the 60.5 percent rate the bureau had hoped for, a notable achievement during a pandemic. Self-responses provide the most accurate information. Lower self-response rates are associated with lower-quality reporting and net undercounts. But the self-responses, as illustrated in the “hard to count” map, also reveal a complex story. Across metro areas, suburbs exhibit self-response rates of 70 to 80 percent, with some ranging even higher. Meanwhile, core urban neighborhoods — mostly in communities of color — often have self-response rates below 50 percent. These disparities


Dance hall outbreak takes Hong Kong’s coronavirus fight two steps back

HONG KONG — It takes two to tango. But in Hong Kong, it took dozens of middle-aged women and their young, male dance instructors to spark a coronavirus cluster responsible for the city's worst outbreak, erasing impressive gains in suppressing the pandemic. Described by Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’s chief executive, as an “ultra-large cluster,” more than 500 cases — about 10 percent of the city’s total — have been linked to the dancers, prompting officials to reinstate some of the tightest restrictions since the virus was detected here in January. On Monday, Lam announced new measures that will effectively push Hong Kong back into a semi-lockdown, with yoga and other gym classes canceled, diners limited to two per table, entertainment venues shuttered and the suspension of schools until 2021. Civil servants will work from home, a step that private businesses have often followed. The sudden resurgence of the virus has undercut what had been one of the world’s more effective pandemic containment efforts. Hong Kong had been on track to reopen quarantine-free travel with Singapore in November, in what would have been a step toward normalized travel in Asia, but the emergence of the latest wave blew the experiment off course. Those who have contracted the virus from the dance cluster “are all over the place,” spread across every area in the city, Lam said. “Many of the cases have been to many different places, involved in all sorts of activities,” she added. The dance clubs, not to be confused with night clubs, are social venues catering largely to elite, wealthy women. They learn salsa, ballroom and other forms of dance from younger male instructors, involving close contact. Many of those who contracted the virus from these venues later went on to visit bars and restaurants, spreading it further. The Hong Kong government has expanded mandatory testing to include some of those restaurants, as well as the dance halls. A new cluster is emerging, linked to three restaurants, including 8½ Otto e Mezzo-Bombana, the only Italian restaurant outside Italy to be awarded three Michelin stars. Lam admitted in a news conference Monday that these dance clubs were not regulated. Last week, the Hong Kong government shuttered bars, bathhouses and night clubs, but the cha-cha and tango could go on at the dancing venues, a loophole that remains. “Anyone could rent a space” and open a dance studio, Lam said. “We


course. Those who have contracted the virus from the dance cluster “are all over the place,” spread across every area in the city, Lam said. “Many of the cases have been to many different places, involved in all sorts of activities,” she added. The dance clubs, not to be confused with night clubs, are social venues catering largely to elite, wealthy women. They learn salsa, ballroom and other forms of dance from younger male instructors, involving close contact. Many of those who contracted the virus from these venues later went on to visit bars and restaurants, spreading it further. The Hong Kong government has expanded mandatory testing to include some of those restaurants, as well as the dance halls. A new cluster is emerging, linked to three restaurants, including 8½ Otto e Mezzo-Bombana, the only Italian restaurant outside Italy to be awarded three Michelin stars. Lam admitted in a news conference Monday that these dance clubs were not regulated. Last week, the Hong Kong government shuttered bars, bathhouses and night clubs, but the cha-cha and tango could go on at the dancing venues, a loophole that remains. “Anyone could rent a space” and open a dance studio, Lam said. “We do not have a regulatory regime [controlling them], but now I will ask for further regulation of such activities on the premises.” Experts who study the novel coronavirus say Hong Kong’s success rested on its ability to perform contact tracing and get close contacts of confirmed cases into quarantine centers right away, cutting down on the need for social distancing. But moving into quarantine facilities, which range in quality and comfort, is something the wealthy socialites involved in this cluster might have been unwilling to do. “There’s been some gradual slippage in compliance with public health measures in Hong Kong and compliance with the guidelines,” said Ben Cowling, professor of infectious-disease epidemiology at the University of Hong Kong. In the dance cluster, he added, “the types of people who were involved and their lifestyles” made contact tracing harder. Across the city, parents, owners of restaurants and gyms, and others affected by the new restrictions were bracing for the impact. Businesses have been hit hard by the pandemic, and parents have struggled with the inconvenience of school closures. Hong Kong had largely returned to normal before this latest wave, but students will now revert to online classes until after the Christmas


DoorDash aims to raise up to $2.8 billion in initial public offering

FINANCE DoorDash said Monday it is aiming to raise up to $2.8 billion in an initial public offering (IPO), which could double the value of the U.S. food delivery start-up and be one of 2020’s largest public market debuts. DoorDash, the biggest U.S. third-party delivery company for restaurants, plans to sell 33 million shares priced between $75 and $85 apiece, it said in a regulatory filing. At the top of its target range, the IPO would give DoorDash a fully diluted valuation — which includes securities such as options and restricted stock units — of $31.96 billion, nearly double the $16 billion DoorDash was worth in a June private fundraising round. DoorDash’s market capitalization at $85 per share would total $27 billion. The hefty jump in DoorDash’s valuation in a matter of months underscores the increased demand for meal delivery services during the covid-19 pandemic, as well as anticipation of continued investor demand for new stocks that promise growth. Companies have raised over $140 billion in the United States so far in 2020, making it the biggest year ever for IPOs, according to data from Dealogic. Founded in 2013, DoorDash is backed by the Vision Fund managed by Japan tech giant SoftBank Group, venture capital firm Sequoia Capital, and Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund. DoorDash and rivals Uber Eats, Grubhub and Postmates have benefited from a surge in demand for food delivery services because of widespread covid-19 restrictions. — Reuters RETAIL Online shoppers in the United States were expected to drop a record-busting $12.7 billion on Cyber Monday — the busiest e-commerce day of the year — presenting a valuable opportunity for retailers whose websites, customer service departments and delivery operations can withstand the period of crushing traffic. Amazon, Walmart, Target, Best Buy and others have been preparing for the 2020 holiday deluge for months. This week will be the ultimate test for their new investments in ramping up delivery capacity and adding features such as parking lot pickup for digital orders. (Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.) The covid-19 surge kept crowd-averse shoppers away from physical malls on Black Friday, reinforcing predictions that online shopping will soar this year. Adobe Analytics predicted that Cyber Monday spending for 2020 would climb by 35 percent — more than double the growth rate in the years before the pandemic. Nearly 30 percent of Cyber Monday spending was set to happen


market debuts. DoorDash, the biggest U.S. third-party delivery company for restaurants, plans to sell 33 million shares priced between $75 and $85 apiece, it said in a regulatory filing. At the top of its target range, the IPO would give DoorDash a fully diluted valuation — which includes securities such as options and restricted stock units — of $31.96 billion, nearly double the $16 billion DoorDash was worth in a June private fundraising round. DoorDash’s market capitalization at $85 per share would total $27 billion. The hefty jump in DoorDash’s valuation in a matter of months underscores the increased demand for meal delivery services during the covid-19 pandemic, as well as anticipation of continued investor demand for new stocks that promise growth. Companies have raised over $140 billion in the United States so far in 2020, making it the biggest year ever for IPOs, according to data from Dealogic. Founded in 2013, DoorDash is backed by the Vision Fund managed by Japan tech giant SoftBank Group, venture capital firm Sequoia Capital, and Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund. DoorDash and rivals Uber Eats, Grubhub and Postmates have benefited from a surge in demand for food delivery services because of widespread covid-19 restrictions. — Reuters RETAIL Online shoppers in the United States were expected to drop a record-busting $12.7 billion on Cyber Monday — the busiest e-commerce day of the year — presenting a valuable opportunity for retailers whose websites, customer service departments and delivery operations can withstand the period of crushing traffic. Amazon, Walmart, Target, Best Buy and others have been preparing for the 2020 holiday deluge for months. This week will be the ultimate test for their new investments in ramping up delivery capacity and adding features such as parking lot pickup for digital orders. (Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.) The covid-19 surge kept crowd-averse shoppers away from physical malls on Black Friday, reinforcing predictions that online shopping will soar this year. Adobe Analytics predicted that Cyber Monday spending for 2020 would climb by 35 percent — more than double the growth rate in the years before the pandemic. Nearly 30 percent of Cyber Monday spending was set to happen between 7 p.m. and 11 p.m. Pacific time, when bargain-hunting shoppers finally pull the trigger, the firm said. — Bloomberg News Also in Business Contracts General Motors Coming today 10 a.m.: 10 a.m.: — From news services


Canada’s covid-19 second wave is a humbling moment after a summer of bragging

be in the midst of a covid-19 spike that flattering stereotypes cannot explain, and might even exacerbate. Toronto, for instance, has now “officially moved into ‘lockdown,’” a minimum 28-day period that will see a shutdown of colleges and universities, in-person dining at restaurants, most in-store shopping and social gatherings involving people outside one’s household. The move, which was imposed by Ontario Premier Doug Ford last Monday, comes in response to consistently record-shattering rates of covid-19 deaths and infections since October. Ontario has more than 116,000 confirmed covid-19 cases and more than 3,600 deaths, a dramatic increase since August, when the death toll was around 2,800 and cases closer to 40,000. It’s a story replicated across Canada. In all of the country’s largest provinces, cases and deaths have steadily climbed since the summer, with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau formally identifying a “second wave” in September. In November, Canada’s number of active covid-19 cases more than doubled in a single month. Strict pandemic regulations similar to Ontario’s have been imposed in Alberta, British Columbia and Quebec, limiting social gatherings, shopping and even inter-provincial travel. The ensuing costs to liberties, livelihoods and mental health will be significant. Anti-American nationalists can take comfort that Canada’s numbers are still lower than the United States’ — though comparing states with provinces can yield more ambiguity — but the experience must be humbling nonetheless. Canada’s public health agency recently warned that the country’s case rates could soon reach 60,000 a day unless public behavior improves — which would be about double what Brazil is experiencing right now. Is this what being the world’s good example looks like? We should remain deeply skeptical of any flavor of commentary that uses armchair sociology or partisanship as a substitute for the intimidating epidemiology that’s required to understand a viral pandemic. That said, the Canadian second wave does possibly reveal something important about the usefulness, or lack thereof, of patriotic mythologies as a tool of pandemic-fighting. To grow up in Canada is to be endlessly bombarded with folk tales of Canadians’ legendary politeness, kindness and obedience. I can’t count how many times I’ve heard some version of the same stupid joke — “How do you get 100 Canadians out of the pool? Tell them to!” — cited as a deep profundity about this country. Yet living day-to-day life in Canada also means experiencing a place dramatically at odds with such sentimentalism,


Chinese official fuels outrage with doctored image depicting Australian soldier cutting Afghan child’s throat

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Australia summoned the Chinese ambassador on Monday and demanded an apology after a Chinese Foreign Ministry official tweeted a graphic, computer-generated illustration of a grinning Australian soldier holding a knife to the throat of an Afghan child, an image designed to criticize Australia's involvement in the war-torn country. Zhao Lijian, the most prominent of Beijing’s outspoken “wolf warrior” diplomats, was referring in the tweet to an Australian inquiry into alleged war crimes by its soldiers in Afghanistan. As Chinese-Australian relations have plummeted this year, Zhao has sharply criticized Australia regarding both its economic dealings and its conduct in Afghanistan. Russia, too, has cited Afghanistan as an example of what it calls the West’s failings and hypocrisy on the global stage. An Australian government report, published Nov. 19 after a four-year probe, found “credible information” that 25 special forces soldiers unlawfully killed 39 prisoners, farmers and civilians over several years. More than a dozen soldiers have been dismissed, and the preliminary findings will now be followed up by a special investigator and could result in criminal charges. Zhao told a daily news briefing on Friday that the Australian report “fully exposed the hypocrisy of the ‘human rights’ and ‘freedom’ these Western countries are always chanting.” His counterpart in Moscow, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, echoed the sentiment in a jab at the West, saying that the report called into question the “true meaning” of the Australian government’s calls to “protect the rules-based world order.” Zhao went further on Monday by tweeting an illustration by the nationalist Chinese artist known as Wuheqilin that showed an Australian soldier holding a knife to the throat of a child, who is clutching a lamb, while standing over the Australian and Afghan flags. “Don’t worry, we are coming to bring you peace,” the artwork’s caption says. “Shocked by murder of Afghan civilians & prisoners by Australian soldiers. We strongly condemn such acts, & call for holding them accountable,” Zhao said in his tweet, which he pinned to the top of his account. The artwork appeared to be a heavily manipulated composite of a photograph and stylized digital illustration. After Zhao posted it, it immediately sparked an uproar, not only because of its grisly nature but also because it was not immediately clear whether it was based on a real photo of a killing. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison called the tweet a “falsified


The Health 202: Obese Americans could be prioritized for coronavirus vaccine

with Alexandra Ellerbeck Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisers will meet tomorrow to discuss who should get coronavirus vaccines first. One population they may consider prioritizing: Americans who are obese — a major risk factor for severe covid-19 that some experts say has gone under-recognized. “Obesity was ignored for the longest time and overweight was completely ignored,” said Barry Popkin, an obesity researcher at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Now the CDC is talking about both, he said. The agency has already laid out four groups that should be considered for priority: health-care personnel, workers in essential and critical industries, older adults, and people with certain underlying medical conditions — including “severe obesity.” But it’s unclear to what extent the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices will prioritize this group. There’s been much discussion about how underlying medical conditions such as hypertension and Type 2 diabetes are associated with higher risk of dying from the coronavirus. But these conditions are most frequently found in people who are obese — making it difficult to discern whether the medical conditions or the obesity were the biggest factors at play. The evidence, Popkin argues, points to extra weight as a bigger risk factor than any individual comorbidity. That’s because people who are overweight or obese have more body fat — which is more hospitable than other tissue to the coronavirus — and they suffer from reduced lung capacity. “Being an individual with obesity independently increases the risk of influenza morbidity and mortality, most likely through impairments in innate and adaptive immune responses,” according to a paper Popkin wrote over the summer, which analyzed 75 studies on the connection between covid-19 and body mass index. Popkin and colleagues found that people with obesity were 113 percent more likely to be hospitalized, 74 percent more likely to be admitted to intensive care units and 48 percent more likely to die of covid-19. The connection helps explain some of covid-19’s impact on Black and Hispanic Americans, who have died at disproportionate rates from the disease and are also more likely than White Americans to be obese. Its public health agency posted guidance last week saying that morbidly obese people — defined as those with a body mass index over 40 — should be prioritized for vaccines ahead of those younger than 65. This “at-risk” group also includes people with asthma, kidney disease


Hope and darkness during a pandemic

fellow man. We always knew that the pandemic would worsen in the Northern Hemisphere as the weather got colder and more people had to do more activities indoors. Nonetheless, the figures are frightening. The numbers of infected have skyrocketed in my state, in the United States, and in Europe as well. Hospitals are filled to capacity. More disturbing are reports from hospitals about the degree of denial among patients with covid-19. One South Dakota nurse told CNN that "I think the hardest thing to watch is that people are still looking for something else and a magic answer and they do not want to believe covid is real. … Their last dying words are, ‘This can’t be happening. It’s not real,’ ” One Appalachian hospital nurse told NBC News’s Dasha Burns that some patients come in already in severely distress but “when they test positive, they blame the hospital for giving it to them.” All of this was clear before the Thanksgiving holiday and the related travel, which will guarantee further community spread. Two weeks from now, the numbers will be worse. And by the end of the year, they will be worse still. The current moment is akin to the still space of time between knowing a car accident is about to happen, and then the actual collision. For the first time since March, I dread the risks of even routine tasks such as shopping for groceries, I have contemplated stocking our cellar sufficiently to ride out the winter until the vaccines become more widely available. The most frustrating period of this pandemic is yet to come. We are close enough to the end to see it, but after nine months of altered daily life, the fatigue and frustration are just as dangerous as the virus itself. Those feelings are real, but so is the daylight at the end of this tunnel. The problem is that Trump administration officials have been engaged in so much happy talk over the past few months about “rounding the turn” that any messaging about buckling down for a few more months will not have the needed impact. Unfortunately, the failure of public leadership affects coronavirus deniers and everyone else the same way. Individual acts of weariness and stubbornness guarantee that all Americans will have to endure more months of hardship. I hope that my fellow Americans can marshal their fortitude for one last


Hope and darkness during a pandemic

infected have skyrocketed in my state, in the United States, and in Europe as well. Hospitals are filled to capacity. More disturbing are reports from hospitals about the degree of denial among patients with covid-19. One South Dakota nurse told CNN that "I think the hardest thing to watch is that people are still looking for something else and a magic answer and they do not want to believe covid is real. … Their last dying words are, ‘This can’t be happening. It’s not real,’ ” One Appalachian hospital nurse told NBC News’s Dasha Burns that some patients come in already in severely distress but “when they test positive, they blame the hospital for giving it to them.” All of this was clear before the Thanksgiving holiday and the related travel, which will guarantee further community spread. Two weeks from now, the numbers will be worse. And by the end of the year, they will be worse still. The current moment is akin to the still space of time between knowing a car accident is about to happen, and then the actual collision. For the first time since March, I dread the risks of even routine tasks such as shopping for groceries, I have contemplated stocking our cellar sufficiently to ride out the winter until the vaccines become more widely available. The most frustrating period of this pandemic is yet to come. We are close enough to the end to see it, but after nine months of altered daily life, the fatigue and frustration are just as dangerous as the virus itself. Those feelings are real, but so is the daylight at the end of this tunnel. The problem is that Trump administration officials have been engaged in so much happy talk over the past few months about “rounding the turn” that any messaging about buckling down for a few more months will not have the needed impact. Unfortunately, the failure of public leadership affects coronavirus deniers and everyone else the same way. Individual acts of weariness and stubbornness guarantee that all Americans will have to endure more months of hardship. I hope that my fellow Americans can marshal their fortitude for one last act of restraint before the spring thaw and a return to normalcy. The fog of depression surrounding me last month has dissipated. I have seen too much in 2020, however, not to fear the worst-case scenario.


The Technology 202: Biden could face a deadlocked Federal Communications Commission

overdue and critical to broadly shared economic success,” Biden wrote on his website. The Biden transition team has not yet said who it intends to tap to lead the agency. Some Democrats in Congress have expressed support for Rosenworcel to take the chair. She's been a prominent advocate for initiatives to close the digital divide, especially during the pandemic. “Jessica Rosenworcel would make an excellent FCC Chair,” Blumenthal said in a statement. “She is a devoted public servant with a proven track record as a progressive voice on net neutrality, competition, and consumer protections against robocalls.” Biden may face an uphill battle in pushing through Democrats' tech priorities. The battle over the FCC's future is indicative of the kind of gridlock Biden can expect on many fronts if Republicans are successful in maintaining control of Congress. It's unlikely Biden would be able to push through some of the Democrats' proposals to overhaul antitrust laws, for instance. Tech issues, such as comprehensive national privacy legislation, could fall victim to the same partisan fault lines that have prevented legislative action for years. The Alphabet-owned company developed a computer system that can help identify the precise shape of a protein in potentially just hours compared to traditional scientific methods, which take years or decades, Cade Metz at the New York Times reports. Computer scientists have been trying to build a system like this for more than 50 years. The technology could help drugmakers and researchers more quickly identify vaccines for new pandemics such as the novel coronavirus. It could also help predict some problems that might arise from clinical trials. “We could start screening every compound that is licensed for use in humans,” said Andrei Lupas, director of the department of protein evolution at the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology in Germany, who worked with the technology. “We could face the next pandemic with the drugs we already have.” The breakthrough could also give the medical community a better understanding of genetic diseases such as Alzheimer's. DeepMind's chief executive Demis Hassabis said the company probably would publish its findings next year and is exploring ways to share the technology with other researchers. Facebook confirmed its purchase of the start-up Kustomer on Monday but did not disclose the terms of the deal, Cara Lombardo and Dana Cimilluca at the Wall Street Journal report. The company has been valued between $710 million and $1


The Daily 202: Ousted U.S. attorney, removed by Barr as he investigated Trump associates, lands new job

at 4:23 p.m., from complications caused by covid-19,” Meryl Kornfield reports."After months of feeling trapped amid coronavirus restrictions in Michigan, the two had let their guard down: Shortly before they fell ill in November, they visited a restaurant where people weren’t wearing masks and were walking around among tables. The McWaters, like many others, had developed an attitude of ‘I want to get out and live my life, and if I get covid, so be it,’ [one of their daughters, Joanna] Sisk, said. ‘But I can tell you after they got covid, they were both extremely regretful because they didn’t really take their own words to heart that it would actually take their lives,’ she said.” “For more than a decade, psychologists have written about the ‘friendship crisis’ facing many men,” Samantha Schmidt reports. “Male friendships are often rooted in ‘shoulder-to-shoulder’ interactions, such as watching a football game or playing video games, while women’s interactions are more face-to-face, such as grabbing a coffee or getting together for a glass of wine, said Geoffrey Greif, a professor at the University of Maryland School of Social Work … Because of this, many men have probably had a harder time than women figuring out how to adapt their friendships in a pandemic that is keeping them apart. … ‘Guys don’t want to seem too needy,’ [Greif said.] … “Dozens of men shared stories about Zoom poker games, backyard cigar nights, neighborhood-dad WhatsApp chains, Dungeons & Dragons groups and Fantasy Football leagues where casual chats about sports and politics have suddenly led to deep conversations — about the struggles of virtual schooling, family illness, breakups, births, wedding postponements and job losses. The moment feels heavier and so do the conversations. Some men said their friendships have begun to look more like those of their wives and girlfriends. For the first time in their lives, they’re going on walks with male friends just to catch up. They’re FaceTiming old college friends and checking in on neighbors — not only to talk about the NBA draft picks or their children’s soccer schedule — but to ask how they’re doing.” Scientists found evidence of infection in 106 of 7,389 blood donations collected by the American Red Cross from residents in nine states between Dec. 13 and Jan. 17, according to new research published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases. “The findings significantly strengthen evidence suggesting the virus


The Trump era could have been even worse

Someday, a book will be written titled “It Could Have Been Worse” that will record all the instances of people in government ignoring or defying absurd and abusive proposals from President Trump. It would need to cover former White House counsel Donald McGahn, who resisted the effort to fire special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, and former defense secretary Mark T. Esper, who opposed the deployment of active-duty troops to “dominate the streets” during political protests. There should also be a chapter on how members of Congress — including Republicans — avoided doing the insanely stupid and destructive things in Trump budget proposals, particularly when it comes to public health. The president’s 2018 budget plan (titled “A New Foundation for American Greatness”) would have cut funding for the National Institutes of Health by 18 percent and reduced funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to its lowest level in 20 years. This would have decimated medical and scientific research and public health programs on the eve of the covid-19 pandemic. Congress wisely ignored this invitation to “greatness.” And a similar story can be told on a global scale. Year after year, Trump has recommended dramatic reductions, including a proposed 21 percent cut to foreign assistance in the 2021 budget. Year after year, Congress has ignored this cruel and short-sighted assault on the United States’ global role, generally holding budgets roughly flat. Here, as elsewhere, things could have been worse. Global health programs such as the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) — created during the George W. Bush administration, and augmented in the Barack Obama era — have survived the Trump era. As World AIDS Day 2020 comes around, that is worth celebrating. But now all this difficult work — all this brilliantly improvised effort — is threatened by the covid-19 pandemic that is swamping fragile, developing-world health systems. Nearly 20 percent of countries are experiencing covid-related disruptions in AIDS testing and treatment. The economic consequences of the pandemic could push an additional 40 million Africans into extreme poverty, making them harder for health efforts to reach. And the eventual provision of vaccines in the developing world is going to be a complex and ambitious effort in itself. But we have a few things going for us. The global AIDS response has provided the example of a complex and ambitious health program in the developing world succeeding


Sephora is opening mini shops in Kohl’s stores

Sephora is ending its longtime partnership with J.C. Penney and heading to Kohl’s. The beauty giant said Tuesday it will open makeup stands inside 850 Kohl’s department stores starting next year to reach new shoppers in middle America. Executives said there is very little overlap between their stores. Sephora’s 500 U.S. locations tend to be in busy downtown areas and urban shopping malls. Most of Kohl’s 1,150 locations, meanwhile, are situated in stand-alone suburban shopping centers. “For us, it’s all about reach,” Jean-André Rougeot, chief executive of Sephora Americas, said in an interview. “We’ve been limited by the size and locations of our store network. The partnership with Kohl’s will allow us to leapfrog many years. We can now deliver the Sephora experience right where consumers live.” Each Sephora mini shop will be about 2,500 square feet — roughly the size of a small 7-Eleven — and staffed by Kohl’s employees who are trained by Sephora. The first 200 locations will open in fall 2021, with the rest coming on board by 2023. Kohl’s also will sell Sephora cosmetics on its website beginning next year. Sephora is owned by the luxury conglomerate LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton. Sales of high-end beauty products have slowed during the pandemic, forcing retailers to rethink where and how they sell items such as makeup and fragrances. With many consumers avoiding shopping malls, big-box stores have increasingly become destinations where shoppers can buy essentials, as well as clothing and cosmetics. Target last month announced that it is partnering with Ulta Beauty to open mini shops inside more than 100 of its stores next year. For Kohl’s, the 10-year deal with Sephora represents a way to attract younger customers to its stores, according to chief executive Michelle Gass. In recent years, the Menomonee Falls, Wis.-based retailer has built partnerships with big brands such as Nike, Under Armour and Levi Strauss, which have helped draw shoppers to its department stores. Last year, it began accepting online returns for Amazon at its stores, which executives say has also helped increase foot traffic. Cosmetics sales are a small but fast-growing part of the company’s business, Gass said: “That’s a signal that our customers — who are 70 percent female — are saying they want beauty at Kohl’s.” The partnership replaces an earlier tie-up between Sephora and J.C. Penney, which announced it would close nearly 300 of its 850 stores


China lands a spacecraft on moon for third time, continuing ambitious exploration push

China landed a spacecraft on the moon Tuesday on a mission to mine rocks and soil and return them to Earth, the latest in a series of lunar missions demonstrating the country’s emergence as a force in space exploration. The landing, without a crew aboard, was China’s third on the lunar surface since 2013 and came almost two years after China pulled off a historic first — landing a spacecraft on the far side of the moon. And it comes as NASA is gearing up to send a series of scientific missions, and astronauts, to the lunar surface. If China’s Chang’e-5 mission succeeds, it would mark the first time a nation has retrieved samples from the moon since the United States and Soviet Union did it several decades ago. The mission, which includes a lander, an ascent vehicle, a service capsule and a return capsule, was launched Nov. 23 on China’s powerful Long March-5 rocket. Chinese state media reported Tuesday that the probe “successfully landed” at its targeted site, an area called Oceanus Procellarum. China did not immediately announce any other details about the landing. On the lunar surface, the probe is expected to dig about seven feet deep, collecting as much as 4.5 pounds of rocks and lunar soil into the ascent vehicle, which would then meet up with the service capsule in lunar orbit and return to Earth. Once the material is back on Earth, scientists would be able to calculate its age and examine it to determine its composition. On Twitter, Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA’s associate administrator for the science mission directorate, congratulated China. “This is no easy task,” he wrote. “When the samples collected on the Moon are returned to Earth, we hope everyone will benefit from being able to study this precious cargo that could advance the international science community.” As part of its lunar exploration mission, NASA has been working to get countries around the world to adopt what it calls the Artemis Accords, a legal framework that would govern behavior in space and on celestial bodies such as the moon. The accords are named for NASA’s current lunar program, Artemis. The rules would allow private companies to extract lunar resources and create safety zones to prevent conflict and ensure that countries act transparently about their plans in space, while sharing their scientific discoveries. Several countries have signed on to the bilateral agreements, which NASA


Government should take bigger role in promoting U.S. technology or risk losing ground to China, commission says

a proposal from Chinese telecom giant Huawei after an initial vote showed that many favored a compromise combining Huawei’s plan with one from Qualcomm, a U.S. semiconductor maker, the report said. The founder of Chinese computer company Lenovo "faced tremendous public scorn in China for initially voting in favor of Qualcomm’s proposal, even after changing his vote to favor Huawei in the final round,” the commission said. China also offers individuals and companies money and other perks for successfully adopted technical standards, the report said. China has gone from having almost no leadership positions within the International Standards Organization in 2006 to leading 64 of roughly 740 technical committees and subcommittees, compared to 104 for the United States. Melanie Hart, a tech-industry veteran with extensive experience working in China, says the government could boost U.S. success at standards bodies by subsidizing smaller companies’ participation. It costs about $300,000 a year for one engineer to work on standards proposals and attend meetings all over the world, a price many small companies can’t afford, Hart said in an interview. “Chinese companies have support to do this and American ones don’t. You could have grants to cover travel and membership fees so it’s not just the Intels and the Qualcomms showing up” from the United States, said Hart, who is director of China policy at the Center for American Progress think tank, where she detailed her standards recommendations in a recent report. The commission’s report says a new government committee would include representatives from the White House and departments of State, Commerce and Defense. It would “identify the technical standards with the greatest potential impact on American national security and economic competitiveness,” and would work with industry, academia and allies to promote those standards. Congress created the 12-person U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission in 2000 to advise it on the national security implications of trade and economic relations with China. Made up of appointees named by the Democratic and Republican leaders of Congress, the commission has helped spark legislative action through its past recommendations, including bipartisan bills aimed at revising trade, finance, and tax provisions relating to China. The commission also helped prompt Congress to expand the powers of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, which vets Chinese and other foreign investors. And it worked closely with Congress to implement bans on Huawei telecom equipment in the United States.


In 13 days, a total solar eclipse will plunge a sliver of South America into darkness

45,000. The popular lakeside resort town lies directly on the centerline of totality, and should have about 2 minutes, 9 seconds of peak eclipse viewing. Modest Airbnbs are running at between $200 and $500 a night now as astrotourists prepare to congregate there and in neighboring Pucón. Chile has instituted a “Paso a Paso,” or “step-by-step” program, which categorizes coronavirus travel and commerce restrictions in varying municipalities on a 1-to-5 scale. Level 3 demarcates “preparation,” which entails nightly quarantines from midnight to 5 a.m., inter-communal travel, and the allowing of social gatherings of up to 25 indoors or 50 outside. The eclipse will bring about a sudden nightfall atop three volcanoes along the Chilean-Argentine border, including the Villarrica volcano, where the Villarrica National Park is selling tickets to campers on a first-come, first-served basis. Thereafter, the shadow slides into Argentina, where weather prospects are better but international admission largely impossible. Only small communities dot the path of totality before the shadow exits offshore into the Gulf of Saint Matias and eventually the open Atlantic. Those within the path of totality can expect a deep twilight to set in within a matter of just 30 seconds or a minute, transforming the early afternoon into a dusky scene with pastel hues of orange about the horizon and azure overhead. More spectacular than the abrupt darkening will be the emergence of the corona — the sun’s vaporous atmosphere that traces the sun’s magnetic field with visible light. Tendrils of milky-white luminosity highlight the corona, protruding millions of miles into space. Over the years, scientists have used eclipses as one of the best possible opportunities to study the sun’s corona. Even the best instruments and technology aboard satellites can’t replicate or resolve the corona with the exquisite level of fine detail visible from the ground during a total solar eclipse. Some scientists work to predict what the corona will look like during totality, producing striking three-dimensional models. Predictive Science, a San Diego-based company specializing in visualizations of the solar atmosphere, recently released its simulation of what the upcoming eclipse may look like. They did the same for the August 2017 and July 2019 total solar eclipses with relatively accurate results. By using a detailed digital map of the sun’s estimated magnetic field and time on NASA supercomputers, the team was able to model how the field might evolve into mid-December — and what form


Villarrica volcano, where the Villarrica National Park is selling tickets to campers on a first-come, first-served basis. Thereafter, the shadow slides into Argentina, where weather prospects are better but international admission largely impossible. Only small communities dot the path of totality before the shadow exits offshore into the Gulf of Saint Matias and eventually the open Atlantic. Those within the path of totality can expect a deep twilight to set in within a matter of just 30 seconds or a minute, transforming the early afternoon into a dusky scene with pastel hues of orange about the horizon and azure overhead. More spectacular than the abrupt darkening will be the emergence of the corona — the sun’s vaporous atmosphere that traces the sun’s magnetic field with visible light. Tendrils of milky-white luminosity highlight the corona, protruding millions of miles into space. Over the years, scientists have used eclipses as one of the best possible opportunities to study the sun’s corona. Even the best instruments and technology aboard satellites can’t replicate or resolve the corona with the exquisite level of fine detail visible from the ground during a total solar eclipse. Some scientists work to predict what the corona will look like during totality, producing striking three-dimensional models. Predictive Science, a San Diego-based company specializing in visualizations of the solar atmosphere, recently released its simulation of what the upcoming eclipse may look like. They did the same for the August 2017 and July 2019 total solar eclipses with relatively accurate results. By using a detailed digital map of the sun’s estimated magnetic field and time on NASA supercomputers, the team was able to model how the field might evolve into mid-December — and what form the visible light of the corona might take. This year, increased activity and storminess on the surface of the sun could make for a more dynamic, roiling corona, with loops and prominences. Predictive Science is calling for three or four such excursions of the solar corona, radiating off the sun into the darkness of the shadow-induced somber. Last year’s eclipse featured a less-exciting corona since solar activity was minimal, making this year’s likely to be even more spectacular. And the best part for those who venture into the path of totality? The date of the eclipse coincides with the peak of the Geminid meteor shower, meaning totality could be punctuated by green meteors streaking across the sky.


Why health officials are terrified of a pandemic Christmas

figures from the Transportation Security Administration. The agency screened nearly 4.6 million passengers between Nov. 25 and Nov. 29 this year. That’s down almost 61 percent compared with the same time frame last year, when the number was 11.7 million. Still, the days around Thanksgiving made for some of the busiest travel times since mid-March, and many airports saw large crowds. At Chicago O’Hare and Phoenix Sky Harbor International airports, people crammed into security lines and around check-in kiosks, with little space separating them, local TV outlets reported. Experts say airports should be prepared for holiday surges and more stringently enforce mask-wearing, speed up check points and space out boarding gates so travelers can stay several feet apart. Meanwhile, top officials are trying to mitigate the damage already done for this holiday. Those who traveled during the holiday should get tested and avoid crowds, said Assistant Secretary for Health Adm. Brett Giroir. “Make really sure you adhere 100 percent to mask-wearing, to avoid crowds because you could inadvertently have gotten covid and spread it,” Giroir said on CNN. During this small window between Thanksgiving and Christmas, the thing most in need of course correction is the country’s messaging, many experts say. “If we see a post-Thanksgiving surge of cases and deaths, is that going to change people’s minds for Christmas?” Rasmussen, the Georgetown virologist, asked. “I kind of doubt it, because cases and deaths were going up already before Thanksgiving.” Many people seem to be continuing to indulge in a kind of magical thinking and denialism, as they have all year long. “It’s like ‘I know this is a bad idea, but I want to do it, so I’ll find a reason and way,’ ” Rasmussen said. To counter that, some health departments put out messages ahead of Thanksgiving designed to shock and scare residents into paying attention. Among the bluntest messages were images posted by the Salt Lake County Health Department on Twitter. One showed a family smiling for a photo around a Thanksgiving table. “Everybody say, ‘I was just exposed to COVID!’ ” a text bubble says. The caption offers a stark warning: “Thanksgiving leftovers won’t taste as good if you’re on a ventilator.” The campaign was intended to shock people out of pandemic fatigue, said health department spokesman Nicholas Rupp. “It’s kind of time for gloves off, to be really direct and to say, ‘You need to


What World AIDS Day reminds us during the covid-19 pandemic

Dec. 1, 2020 is the first World AIDS Day commemorated since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. As the country focuses on the rollout of covid-19 vaccines to address the devastating public health crisis of 2020, Tuesday offers an opportunity to reflect on the very real persistence of HIV/AIDS. In fact, 40 years after its first appearance, AIDS is still firmly implanted in our present moment; and medicine, alone, will never be the silver bullet to end disease and ill health. What’s more, the history of AIDS reminds us that blaming individuals for their actions distracts from the real issue: how the deep structures of economic and racial inequality actually spread disease. History can provide us with guideposts to better health, but only if we look beyond superficial explanations. In the case of AIDS — and likely ultimately for covid-19 as well — survival can depend on political mobilization and demands by patients to receive more than biomedical solutions to disease. This was particularly the case for women living with HIV/AIDS, and a new archive provides a set of reflections on how women, the majority of whom are Black and brown, have survived with HIV for decades. Among the 39 women featured in “I’m Still Surviving,” is Marta Santiago, a straight Latina who grew up on Chicago’s west side in the 1960s and 1970s. Santiago remembers saying to herself in the early 1980s that she and her newborn son had nothing to worry about when it came to gay-related immunodeficiency (GRID, the initial name given to AIDS). What she didn’t know, as she reassured herself, was that both she and her not yet born son were already infected with HIV in 1980. Santiago’s neighborhood in the 1970s held few options for her. Facing a combination of mounting racial segregation and systemic racism in Richard J. Daley’s Chicago, and intensifying economic inequality fueled by national stagflation, Santiago found herself without a high school degree and needing to flee an abusive marriage. She sought employment where she could: garment factories where women received low wages and faced consistent sexual harassment. In an attempt to find respite from these circumstances, Santiago found people and places that made her feel free but also introduced her to new harm, specifically sex work and heroin. By 1979, Santiago married her second husband. They had a son together in 1981 and divorced by 1984. Five years later,


Why Ethiopia’s conflict could spill beyond its borders

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed ordered troops into the northern region of Tigray on Nov. 4, accusing a powerful faction of traitorous behavior. On Saturday, the government claimed its military took control of the region’s capital city, Mekele. On Monday, the Tigray leadership accused Ethiopian troops of launching a “genocidal campaign” in the region. Tensions have been brewing with the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), once a dominant force in Ethiopia’s regime, since Abiy gained power. The conflict erupted soon after Abiy claimed that the TPLF crossed a “red line” when Tigrayans attacked a federal military base in early November. Fears of mass atrocities grew after Abiy’s 72-hour ultimatum for the TPLF’s surrender expired last week. Could Abiy’s offensive turn into a broader civil war, and draw in neighboring countries? Tens of thousands of civilians have fled into Sudan, threatening its stability. And earlier this month, Tigray forces reportedly fired multiple rockets into Eritrea, a long-standing rival of the TPLF. If Sudan or Eritrea decides to intervene, other outsiders may follow. My research explains why foreign interference in Ethiopia’s conflict is predictable — and why interventions by external militaries tend to make bad situations worse. Civil wars are rarely purely domestic affairs Foreigners often meddle During the Cold War, most interventions were shaped by the U.S.-Soviet rivalry. After the fall of the Soviet Union, countries focused on finding negotiated settlements and deploying peacekeeping forces to keep the peace. But the United States, regional powers and neighboring countries became less hesitant to intervene after Sept. 11, 2001, and as the U.S.-led liberal order began showing signs of decay. Most full-fledged civil wars today include foreign militaries, groups and fighters. Why do foreign militaries intervene? Foreign militaries are not innocent bystanders to civil wars. In fact, internal conflicts attracted external militaries last year more often than at any time since World War II. We may have been underestimating the extent of external involvement in African conflicts in particular. One reason for these interventions is because the ill effects of a localized conflict are never neatly contained within the confines of a war-torn country. Refugees, rebels and weapons — along with drugs and other illicit materials — can spread easily beyond national borders, threatening the stability of nearby countries. A record number of refugees are living abroad — the highest totals in the post-World War II period — as recent civil wars displace


Australia discovered that its special forces committed war crimes in Afghanistan

oversight, may have made compliance with official military rules and norms less likely. Here’s the research on reducing violence against noncombatants A key finding from recent research is that compliance with international humanitarian law requires not just simple instruction but also socialization — changing combatants’ internal beliefs on appropriate conduct in war. This involves a combination of intensive training, exercises, enforcement, military doctrine and other mechanisms to align combatants’ attitudes with official norms, override toxic unit subcultures and reduce out-group biases. However, new research by one of us suggests that intensive socialization focused specifically on the noncommissioned officers (NCOs) who directly supervise junior soldiers could be particularly effective. Here’s why: Socialization within the military involves a “paradox of rank”— the junior NCOs who hold the greatest influence in shaping the attitudes of the lowest-ranking front-line enlisted soldiers are themselves more resistant to adopting norms of restraint. Of course, leadership is vital to such socialization. Study after study suggest that the promotion of norms of restraint by the military's top commanders is essential in shaping how soldiers conduct themselves. It’s important to underscore that the ADF, as an institution, already makes extensive efforts to emphasize ethics and the law of war. Indeed, the overwhelming majority of Australian service members have served with honor in Afghanistan, and ADF regular forces appear to have adhered to international law throughout deployments to Iraq, East Timor and the Solomon Islands. Despite this, commanders can take steps to rectify deficiencies in socialization processes, improve accountability and reinforce efforts to uphold core rules across units. Australian commanders, for example, authorized an International Committee of the Red Cross study of law and ethics training in the army (which one of us helped lead), revealing a rare degree of openness that has significantly enhanced scholars’ understanding of combatant socialization and restraint. The ADF investigation, along with the publication of the report’s findings, signal a commitment to transparency over defensiveness. Such transparency is a step — but only the first step — for the ADF, the U.S. military and other armed forces seeking to achieve restraint toward civilians on the battlefield. Professors: Don’t miss TMC’s expanding list of classroom topic guides. Andrew M. Bell Thomas Gift (@TGiftiv) is an associate professor of political science and director of the Centre on US Politics (@CUSP_ucl) at University College London. Charles Miller is a lecturer in strategic studies at the Australian National University.


Yes, coronavirus testing works. But not in the way you might expect.

to hold covid-19 at bay: testing and masks and hand-washing and distancing and good ventilation (or best of all, staying outdoors). Because if you instead try to use testing as a substitute for other safety measures, then eventually the virus is likely to slip through your lone line of defense and wreak mayhem within. But even better than group testing would be mass testing. Because somewhat paradoxically, even this slipshod strategy might work if we could just test enough people. And with the advent of inexpensive — though somewhat less accurate — home tests, we’re now at a point where we might be able to put a serious dent in transmission just by using tests. To understand how that might work, imagine that we start with 100,000 infected people, and on average, they’ll each infect three more people if nothing is done. But we don’t do nothing; instead, we start testing that misses 10,000 infections and catches 90,000 of them. If those people who test positive do the patriotic thing and immediately quarantine themselves, then in the second round of transmission, we would end up with 30,000 infections, instead of 300,000. In the third round, having caught 27,000 of the second round of infections, we end up with 9,000 new infections, instead of 900,000. Repeat that a few more times, and we’ve basically wiped out the novel coronavirus without doing much else. Of course, it’s not practical to test the whole country at once, and even if it were, many people would refuse. But it’s still true that the more tests we do, the safer we will all be, so long as we all understand what we’re doing. Unfortunately, the White House, which ought to have been leading the way, instead chose the road to disaster — and even now, too many Americans appear to be following in its path. Read more: Megan McArdle: What changes after covid-19? I’m betting on everything. Emily Oster: Schools are not spreading covid-19. This new data makes the case. Lizette Alvarez: In managing covid-19, colleges must tend to students’ minds as much as their bodies Dana Milbank: At the White House, Capitol and Supreme Court, Trump goes on a spree of sabotage The Post’s View: Trump’s latest Fox News rant was one of his most dangerous. Republicans can’t ignore it. Greg Sargent: Georgia Republicans beg Trump to release them from his prison of lies