The man who founded Trader Joe’s has died, and people are mourning the cultural icon

In the 1960s, Joe Coulombe envisioned a future where people would want trendy foods. Decades before Instagram, avocado toast and bottomless brunch, Coulombe predicted young shoppers would buy healthy, high-quality groceries at prices they could afford. He opened the first Trader Joe’s in Pasadena, Calif., in 1967. Today, there are more than 500 locations nationwide. “I have an ideal audience in mind,” he told the Los Angeles Times in 1981. “This is a person who got a Fulbright scholarship, went to Europe for a couple of years and developed a taste for something other than Velveeta by way of cheese, something more than ordinary beer by way of alcoholic beverages and something other than Folgers by way of coffee.” Coulombe, founder of the Trader Joe’s grocery chain, died of an unspecified illness Friday at age 89 in his Pasadena home, the Associated Press reported. Coulombe is survived by his wife of 67 years, a son, two daughters and six grandchildren. Following his death, there was an outpouring on social media. “RIP Trader Joe,” “RIP Joe” and “Joe Coulombe” were trending on Twitter. Trader Joe’s products have a cult following. When they heard about Coulombe’s death, shoppers posted some of their favorite products: everything but the bagel seasoning, pickled popcorn, chicken gyoza pot stickers and pancake bread. “Raise a Glass of Two-Buck Chuck,” one headline honored, referring to the Charles Shaw wine Trader Joe’s sold for $1.99. Recalling family trips to French vineyards, Coulombe’s son, also named Joe, said his father was always sampling wines to offer, according to the AP. “He wanted to make sure whatever was sold in our store was of good value,” he said. “My sisters and I remember him bringing home all kinds of things for us to try,” Joe Jr. added. “At his offices, he had practically daily tastings of new products. Always the aim was to provide good food and good value to people.” Coulombe sold Trader Joe’s to German grocery retailer Aldi Nord in 1979. He retired from the company nine years later. Part of Coulombe’s strategy was producing a store brand of as many products as he could, cutting the cost of production and delivering those savings to customers. He would also stop selling an item if it wasn’t in season or easily available, meaning the store’s stock was always changing. Coulombe told the Times he learned from the concept of vintage


Dustin Johnson will skip Tokyo Olympics, boosting Tiger Woods’s chances

44, said last fall that “making the Olympic team is a big goal.” “I don’t see myself having too many opportunities other than" in 2020, he said. Playing in the Olympics would require Woods, who has had a number of surgeries and injuries over the years, to manage his schedule even more carefully. “It’s hard to put it together for all four days as you get older,” Woods said in January. “It’s just harder.” Last season, he dealt with the wear and tear by playing in only 12 tournaments, after making 18 appearances in 2018, and he won the Masters for the fifth time. However, after that April win, he played in only six more tournaments the rest of the season and missed the cut at two of them (the PGA Championship and the British Open). He also failed to qualify for the season-ending Tour Championship. Golf returned to the Olympics for the first time in 112 years at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games and was viewed as a success, both in terms of on-course drama and U.S. television ratings. More people watched the final round on NBC than watched the final round of that year’s U.S. Open, British Open or PGA Championship. Great Britain’s Justin Rose edged Sweden’s Henrik Stenson for the men’s gold medal after they were tied entering the final hole of the four-round stroke-play tournament, while American Matt Kuchar shot a final-round 63 to earn bronze. Olympics golf would almost certainly be wildly popular with Woods on Team USA, but he has to improve his international ranking. So far this year, he has played only in the Farmers Insurance Open in January, finishing in a tie for ninth, and last month’s Genesis Open, in which he finished 68th, last among players who made the cut. Next up for Woods is the Players Championship starting March 12. “There’s so much golf to be played, so many big events, major championships, Players, World Golf Championships,” Woods said in January. “There will be some pretty good fluctuating [in the rankings] over the next six months.” What do you want in an Olympics newsletter? Take our 30-second survey. More Pita Taufatofua, the shirtless Tongan flag-bearer, qualifies for third straight Olympics Shaun White will stick to snow, skip snowboarding at the Tokyo Games U.S. women’s cycling team, rocked by a teammate’s suicide, just won a world title in her honor


The coronavirus could hit the U.S. harder than other wealthy countries

of known facts that help reduce rumors and panic, but in a post-truth era, at a time when “alternative facts” are being embraced as equally valuable, promoting public health is particularly challenging. We have already seen the impact in the recent resurgence of measles. The announcement that all messaging by government health officials and scientists on the coronavirus will be coordinated by the office of Vice President Pence may be an effort to reduce panic and confusion. But with a limited number of trusted messengers, Americans may be less informed and less likely to accurately assess the risk. By controlling the message of scientists, the government may discourage an already mistrusting population from heeding public health guidance critical in slowing the spread. And there are troubling reports that some police departments are creating fake warnings about coronavirus-contaminated methamphetamine to trick people into coming forward, enabling arrests. Americans typically frame emergency preparedness as individual preparedness. But in this case, as face masks and hand sanitizers disappear from shelves and online vendors, containment will not be achieved just by individual acquisition of the right commodities or by technical action such as widespread testing for evidence of infection. Containment is not only about science and equipment. It’s about people and collective action. Success is rooted in social solidarity. Some of our best prevention strategies, such as adhering to quarantine or covering one’s cough, are designed to reduce transmission rates, not necessarily to protect an individual but to protect the most vulnerable in the community. Weeks ago, the World Health Organization warned of a global shortage of face masks, which are critical for front-line health workers. The situation is only going to get worse. Hoarding behaviors, which may be rational from an individual perspective, are often counterproductive for community health. Finally, widespread anti-immigrant sentiment, fueled in part by recent policy changes and statements, could be a particular Achilles’ heel here. More than 10 million undocumented immigrants may be too afraid to access medical treatment, and millions of documented immigrants, especially those from Asia, may be reluctant because of the stigma and discrimination they could face. To reduce exposure, people with the virus must come forward. They must also identify their contacts. Fear that this may result in deportation or harm for loved ones may make this essential step impossible for many. As we learned during the Ebola and Zika responses in New York City,


Those masks you’re stockpiling — our nurses and construction workers need them more

them. Now it’s folks who want masks to send back to families in Africa,” Moore said. It’s not just masks that people are stockpiling. Costco was a demolition derby of carts loaded with food, toilet paper, hand sanitizer and bleach. “Gloves. They’re even buying all the rubber gloves,” one clerk at the D.C. Costco told me, her head shaking in disbelief. When my son got his hair cut in a downtown D.C. salon this weekend, the front desk dude with pink hair wore a mask and chic black gloves. “Everyone’s coughing,” he complained. “I can’t be too careful.” There’s already a mask black market. One Craigslist seller was offering the $23 Home Depot 15-pack of N95 masks for $175. On Amazon, the most popular masks are on back order until mid-April. Workers all over are complaining about difficulty getting the protective gear they need, tying T-shirts or bandannas around their faces to make do. All because of panic. Panic buying is nothing new. We’ve seen it when the forecast calls for four inches of snow, and we’ve seen it when tensions have escalated with foreign countries. But even in an era when we have boundless access to information, we have managed to ignore the facts. It was 20 years ago that people stockpiled canned food because the Y2K bug was coming for everyone. That was followed three years later by a run on the duct tape and plastic sheeting that might save us from terrorists and anthrax. Our fears always seem to overtake common sense. Chinese restaurants across the nation have gone quiet. The popular Rockville branch of Peter Chang has seen a 50 percent drop in revenue since news of the coronavirus hit last month, according to Washingtonian magazine. Beer drinkers (maybe about 4 percent of those asked in a recent survey) are avoiding Corona beer because of the virus. It shouldn’t have to be said, but for the record, Corona beer can’t give you the coronavirus. Sure, the unknown is scary. One too many zombie virus thrillers and we want to be prepared for any unseen event. But in this case, overpreparedness can hurt others. The N95 mask will not save you from coronavirus, but it may save the lungs of someone doing dirty, dusty, toxic work. Listen to the information, understand what people like the top doctor in America are saying and let the nation’s paint folks


Fever, fear and a slow recovery: One man’s battle with coronavirus in South Korea

SEOUL — At first, the 47-year-old restaurant owner thought he was just tired from work. Doctors prescribed some cold medicine. But his headache worsened. He started to run a fever. “I still didn’t think I had contracted the coronavirus,” Kim Seung-hwan recalled. “I only saw that on the news about China, and I have not traveled outside South Korea recently.” It was in mid-February, before clusters of coronavirus infection were reported around his hometown, Yeongcheon, about 180 miles southeast of Seoul. But the region would quickly become the center of the country’s outbreak. Kim’s condition did not improve, and he went to a bigger hospital in nearby Daegu city on Feb. 18. At that point, coronavirus cases were starting to appear nearby. Just hours before Kim arrived at the hospital, the first coronavirus case was confirmed in Daegu. Nurses in protective gear whisked Kim away to an isolation ward. Kim’s account — of infection, fear and recovery — is just one story among tens of thousands as the coronavirus spreads around the world. But it offers a window into the arc of the disease for some patients and the toll it exacts on the body and mind. Kim was well aware that the virus had claimed lives, including some like him: the relatively young and healthy. As he grew sicker, the thoughts began to creep in: Would the covid-19 disease take him as well? “Fears grew as I was left in the dark about what the virus could do to my body,” he told The Washington Post in a telephone interview. “I could not but wonder if it could threaten my life.” His first moments in the hospital were a blur of activity. Because he displayed pneumonia-like symptoms, he was quarantined in a negative-pressure room that keeps the air from seeping outside. Doctors took swabs from his nose and mouth to test for covid-19. Kim waited for the results in the isolation ward. “The only thing I could hear was the buzzing noise of the ventilator,” Kim said. He was not sure if his headache was a symptom of the virus or from snowballing concerns about possible infection in his family home and his restaurant. Kim and a dozen other patients in Daegu and the surrounding North Gyeongsang province tested positive, among the first cases confirmed in South Korea. Now, the number of coronavirus cases in South Korea has reached


aware that the virus had claimed lives, including some like him: the relatively young and healthy. As he grew sicker, the thoughts began to creep in: Would the covid-19 disease take him as well? “Fears grew as I was left in the dark about what the virus could do to my body,” he told The Washington Post in a telephone interview. “I could not but wonder if it could threaten my life.” His first moments in the hospital were a blur of activity. Because he displayed pneumonia-like symptoms, he was quarantined in a negative-pressure room that keeps the air from seeping outside. Doctors took swabs from his nose and mouth to test for covid-19. Kim waited for the results in the isolation ward. “The only thing I could hear was the buzzing noise of the ventilator,” Kim said. He was not sure if his headache was a symptom of the virus or from snowballing concerns about possible infection in his family home and his restaurant. Kim and a dozen other patients in Daegu and the surrounding North Gyeongsang province tested positive, among the first cases confirmed in South Korea. Now, the number of coronavirus cases in South Korea has reached more than 4,200. Nearly 90 percent are in Daegu and North Gyeongsang. Kim watched cable news in the hospital ward as reports of coronavirus grew in South Korea and beyond. The TV and his phone were his links to the outside world. All visitors were banned. As he saw the news of the virus spreading in his town, Kim’s thoughts were with his wife and daughter, who had taken care of him at home. He remembered their worried eyes on him tossing and turning in his bed from severe pain. He couldn’t sleep for several nights in a row. “I was so tired, but could not fall asleep because of the aches and pain felt all over my body,” he said. He felt too hot in his bed. It was an unpleasant kind of heat — different from the feeling after a sweaty game of badminton. The fever induced by the coronavirus felt “achingly hot,” Kim said. His body temperature spiked above 100 degrees. Doctors at the hospital prescribed him antibiotics, other medicine and intravenous fluids. He was sent spare underwear and towels from home, which he lacked because he was hospitalized so abruptly. His family also sent him fried


How to think about travel as the coronavirus threat evolves

— though coverage is limited. She said last week that about a third of providers on the site are offering coverage that would include the virus. For some travelers, no spreading virus will be enough to stifle wanderlust, especially with spring break and summer vacation season approaching. So how to proceed? There are official travel advisories and warnings on where not to go. And there are maps showing where the virus has spread. But experts caution against merely picking a spot that has not yet seen a confirmed case. “Every day we see more and more countries reporting their first case of this virus, and in addition to that, we see countries known to have this virus reporting an increase,” said Bogoch, the infectious diseases specialist, who has co-written research on the spread of the virus. “If we’re not calling this a pandemic, we’re at least sitting at the precipice of a pandemic.” Quigley said it’s important for travelers to look constantly at the regulations and rules being enforced wherever they’re going — and to realize everything could change if and when the World Health Organization declares a pandemic. “The responses will all be different, but clearly there will be a significant impact on travel both domestic and across borders,” he said. Travelers considering where to go need to factor potential consequences of the virus’ spread into their decision-making, said Roccaforte, of WorldAware. He said that includes the possibility of quarantines, travel restrictions, public transportation bans, food and water rationing, civil unrest and strained health-care systems. Anyone traveling should think about how they would find medical care if they got sick or hurt. “This is more important for people who have underlying health conditions, and it becomes even more important if there is an infectious disease outbreak,” said Watson, of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. Those making plans now still can buy insurance if they decide later to cancel because of coronavirus fears — though the policy won’t be cheap. “Right now, the only and best option we are recommending for people is a ‘cancel for any reason’ policy,” Barto said. That’s only available within the first 10 to 21 days of booking a trip, she said, and it costs about 40 percent more than a standard cancellation policy. It reimburses 75 percent of the cost of the trip. Richter, the spokeswoman for the American Society of Travel


The Technology 202: Americans oppose political campaigns using their personal data for targeted ads, new poll shows

and other false posts represented 7 percent of the total tweets the government studied and were “potentially impactful on the broader social media conversation,” according to the report. The Global Engagement Center, the propaganda-fighting program at the State Department whose name appears on the document, focused its analysis on countries outside the United States from Jan. 20 to Feb. 10. The Global Engagement Center studied 29 million foreign posts, the report said. Some of the false posts displayed “evidence of inauthentic and coordinated activity,” according to the report, raising the possibility that foreign governments or other bad actors could have intentionally attempted to spread fear and division about the health emergency — much like Russian agents did during the 2016 U.S. presidential election. But the report didn’t detail what led to that conclusion or attribute it to a specific government source. NIBBLES: Ride-hailing service and delivery drivers are bracing for the coronavirus outbreak, “No support, no advice, no guidance regarding what we do if we suspect any indicators of the problem,” Edan Alva, who drives full-time for Lyft in the Bay Area, told my colleague. He added that he has been spraying his car with Lysol twice a day. Drivers have been scrubbing down their cars “inch by inch” between rides at Bay Area airport parking lots, Alva said. As coronavirus spreads globally, some companies are instructing employees to stop traveling or to work remotely. But the tens of thousands of gig workers are likely to be particularly vulnerable. “With the gig economy specifically, it’s full of low-income, independent contractors who don’t have very good health insurance,” said Alex Rosenblat, the author of “Uberland: How Algorithms Are Rewriting the Rules of Work” and research lead for the nonprofit organization Data & Society. “They’re not going to have better protections than anyone else, but they may have higher risk.” Lyft spokeswoman Alexandra LaManna told Nitasha there is no sign of a unique risk to Lyft drivers and that the company is monitoring the situation. However, Uber and Instacart have sent alerts to their contractors. Uber sent drivers an in-app alert that included standard advice from health officials, such as to wash their hands or stay home if they feel sick. The company also encouraged drivers to disinfect frequently touched surfaces in their cars. Instacart’s advisory included similar recommendations. BYTES: A prominent Wall Street Journal hedge fund with a stake in Twitter


A long-awaited trip to China. A disease strikes. A family’s escape from coronavirus.

On Dec. 30, William Lowe, his wife, Xiaoli, and their 5-year-old daughter, Weiya, boarded a plane at Baltimore-Washington International Marshall Airport. The flight was the first leg in a much-anticipated trip to China for the Maryland family. Xiaoli is a graduate student who hadn’t spent the Lunar New Year in her home country since 2011. Lowe, a professor at Howard Community College, was on a semester-long sabbatical. They looked forward to a month of visiting friends and family, traveling throughout the country and allowing Weiya to spend time with cousins she video-chats with several times a week. That was the plan anyway. In just a few weeks, it would be upended to an almost unimaginable degree. The family found itself stuck 275 miles from Wuhan, the city of 11 million that is the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak. Travel restrictions forbid them from moving freely. Their planned return home Jan. 29 came and went. At one point, they wondered whether it would be months before they could leave. Lowe, 51, wrote about the family’s experience in a first-person account published on MarylandReporter.com. In an interview with The Washington Post, he shared additional details of the harrowing journey that included being cooped up in a small apartment with little access to reliable information, walking the ghostly streets of a typically frenetic city, being flown out of Wuhan on a cargo plane staffed by personnel in full hazmat gear, spending two weeks quarantined at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas and, finally, returning to their Baltimore County home Feb. 20. As the coronavirus threat continues to spread around the world, claiming new victims and upending financial markets, the family’s escape from a region wracked by the virus offers a glimpse into the personal experience and worries of those who have faced the threat close up. And it is a window into the steps taken to ensure the family’s health and that of the community to which they have returned. “The operative word of the entire experience was anxiety,” Lowe said last week in a phone interview. The first hint of trouble arrived a few days after the family landed in Shanghai. They took a train to see Xiaoli’s family in Shiyan, stopping for a night in Wuhan to visit friends. Xiaoli asked that her last name not be used because of privacy concerns. “We made our trip to Wuhan at precisely the


residents of Wuhan had left in the preceding days to travel for Lunar New Year celebrations. “The mayor of Wuhan estimated that 5 million people left the city before the quarantine went into effect on Jan. 23,” Lowe wrote in his journal entry. “Now all of China and the rest of the world trembles, waiting to see just how far and wide those departed seeds will carry the virus as they scatter in the wind.” The family had planned to return to Baltimore from Shanghai on Jan. 29, but the new travel restrictions quashed that hope. Life in Shiyan had changed noticeably. Now, everyone was wearing masks. Buses and trains stopped running. Lowe’s father-in-law had his temperature checked whenever he went out to get food for the family. The swimming pool at the gym shut down. For exercise, Lowe would take long walks through the city’s empty streets. The only vehicles moving about were an occasional ambulance. “Being in Hubei on those days felt post-apocalyptic, like being among the last humans on earth,” he wrote in his journal. On Jan. 31, the U.S. Embassy posted information about an evacuation flight for U.S. citizens from Wuhan. With travel restrictions in place, the family wondered how they would make the trip to Wuhan. They were also unsure whether Xiaoli, a green-card holder, would be eligible for the flight or if it was for U.S. citizens only. After working with local officials to get clearance to travel, the family left Feb. 4 to begin their journey home. But after just a short time on the road, they learned a mistake had been made and that Xiaoli didn’t have a seat on the plane. They would have to wait two more days. Those last two days, Lowe wrote, “we waited and hoped and fretted about all the things that might yet go wrong.” On Feb. 6, the family again traveled to the Wuhan airport, arriving at 7:30 p.m. for the flight home. It would be 10 more hours before they boarded and 2½ hours more before the hulking cargo plane with about 250 onboard took off for their return to the United States. U.S. personnel on the plane wore biohazard suits and spoke through megaphones. Port-a-potties served as restrooms. Boxed lunches containing ham and coleslaw sandwiches were on each seat. On the long flight to California, Lowe and his daughter gorged on candy bars,


The case for a free or inexpensive coronavirus vaccine

system undermines the health and safety of all. It wasn’t always this way. Take the example of the famously innovative physician and researcher Jonas Salk more than 65 years ago. When Salk’s team developed an effective polio vaccine that was approved for public use, he refused to patent it. Who owns the patent? “Well, the people, I would say,” he told journalist Edward R. Murrow in 1955. “There is no patent. Could you patent the sun?” The interview, which aired on the same day the successful vaccine was announced, quickly became the stuff of legend, and Salk continues to be celebrated for his scientific achievements as well as his lack of concern with what undoubtedly could have been tremendous profits. Why would Salk and his team have worked so diligently, surmounting so many barriers to develop a vaccine if not for profit? Why innovate when profit is completely off the table? The story of how Salk developed the polio vaccine points to some answers. Polio was a stunningly horrific ailment that at mid-century was a scourge of children despite the sanitation developments that had resulted in decreased childhood mortality overall. A tenacious virus, polio continued to strike American communities all across the country: rich and poor; urban, suburban and rural. In the 1940s and 1950s between 13,000 and 20,000 paralytic cases were reported annually. Ordinary people could see with their own eyes the impact of the disease, and they were probably particularly motivated to participate, even in a small way, in what they saw as combating the number one menace to the public health. Salk and his team worked with both public and private funders to research and develop the vaccine, and they used publicity and public engagement in the process. The nonprofit National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis (now March of Dimes), founded by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1938 and supported by his famous annual Birthday Balls until his death in 1945, was instrumental in raising the funds, awareness and public trust to run the trials needed to develop the vaccine, and millions of Americans participated in those fundraising efforts. Salk and his team understood they needed to marshal enormous public trust to pull off a large-scale clinical trial that used 1.4 million American schoolchildren, called the “polio pioneers,” as test subjects in their historic double-blind clinical trial. The team had been working with public as well as nonprofit


Local Digest: Arlington County Board member hospitalized for brain tumor

Facebook. “Erik, my sweet and wonderful husband, is hospitalized and being treated for a brain tumor. We hope that you will keep him in your thoughts and prayers as he goes through treatment over the coming weeks. Words cannot express how much your friendship, support and love mean to me, our children and Erik right now.” Within an hour, more than 100 people had commented on the post. — Patricia Sullivan MARYLAND A 74-year-old pedestrian was killed in Prince George’s County on Sunday in what state police said was the second fatal hit-and-run in the county over the weekend. Witnesses told police that a man was struck shortly after 8:30 p.m. by at least one vehicle, possibly two, on southbound Route 4 at Old Marlboro Pike in the Forestville area, according to Maryland State Police. The man was found in the grass off the right shoulder of the road, police said, and died at the scene. The victim was identified as Earl L. Rogers Sr., 74, of Largo. Police said they had no description of either of the vehicles that may have been involved. In an incident earlier in the weekend, a man was killed Saturday morning along Interstate 495 at the Interstate 95 interchange in Adelphi, state police said. That victim has not been identified. — Martin Weil and Justin Wm. Moyer A teenager was fatally shot Friday in Prince George’s County, authorities said. About 2:05 p.m., officers responded to the 6600 block of Chillum Manor Road in Chillum for a welfare check, Prince George’s County police said Monday in a statement. They found 19-year-old Nelson Leon-Umana of Adelphi in a wooded area suffering from a gunshot wound, and he was pronounced dead at the scene, the statement said. — Justin Wm. Moyer A University of Maryland student received anti-Semitic messages on her cellphone late last year, and an arrest has been made in the incident, the campus police said Saturday. The student said she was in the McKeldin Library on campus on Dec. 12 about 8:20 p.m. when she received the messages from an unknown person. Police said the messages were sent to the student “because of her religious beliefs.” In a statement, U-Md. police said Muqarrab Ahmed Abdullah, 24, of La Plata, a student at the university, was arrested Thursday and charged with electronic communication harassment, telephone misuse and a race and/or religion crime. — Martin Weil


Hormone therapy, long shunned for a possible breast cancer link, is now seen as a short-term treatment for menopause symptoms

Look at the Internet ads and news headlines about menopausal hormone therapy and you’ll find two competing story lines: Taking hormones is either going to keep a woman young and solve all her menopause-related woes, or it’s going to give her breast cancer and other scary diseases. The truth is that neither narrative is universally correct. Although consensus now exists that women shouldn’t take hormone therapy long term, hormones can still safely help many women in the throes of menopause Fifty years ago, hormones were advertised as a cure-all. In his 1966 bestseller, “Feminine Forever,” physician Robert Wilson declared that menopause was a disease, and he had the cure: hormones, without which women would be “condemned to witness the death of their own womanhood.” The magic of hormone therapy wasn’t just that it could make a menopausal woman whole again in the eyes of men like Wilson, who apparently received funding from Wyeth (the pharmaceutical maker of the hormones he was promoting). For a while, it seemed that hormones such as estrogen might also protect against heart disease and keep women’s minds healthy, too. What was then called “hormone replacement therapy” seemed so powerful that in 1993 researchers initiated the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI), a randomized clinical trial of more than 10,000 women ages 50 to 79 to test whether taking estrogen, either alone or with progesterone, continuously after menopause could help women prevent heart disease, stroke and cognitive decline. In 2002, the WHI study released startling news — women assigned to take the hormones had a higher risk of cardiovascular disease and breast cancer than women who received placebos. It took a randomized, controlled trial — the gold standard in medicine — to show that hormones weren’t making women healthier in old age. Instead, hormone-takers were healthier to begin with. After those findings were released, the use of hormone therapy plummeted by as much as 80 percent. Those 2002 findings weren’t wrong, but they were reported in a “very alarmist way,” says Stephanie Faubion, medical director of the North American Menopause Society (NAMS) and author of “Mayo Clinic: The Menopause Solution.” News headlines implied that hormone therapy would give women cancer or heart attacks, but that was an oversimplification, she says. The study convincingly showed that hormones shouldn’t be taken long term for disease prevention, but it did not directly address their short-term use to manage hot flashes and


Millions of tweets peddled conspiracy theories about coronavirus in other countries, an unpublished U.S. report says

Roughly 2 million tweets peddled conspiracy theories about the coronavirus over the three-week period when the outbreak began to spread outside China, according to an unreleased report from an arm of the State Department, raising fresh fears about Silicon Valley’s preparedness to combat a surge of dangerous disinformation online. The wrongful, harmful posts floated a number of hoaxes — suggesting, for example, that the coronavirus had been created by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation or was the result of a bioweapon. These and other identified falsehoods represented 7 percent of the total tweets the government studied and were “potentially impactful on the broader social media conversation,” according to the report, which was obtained Saturday by The Washington Post. The Global Engagement Center, the propaganda-fighting program at the State Department whose name appears on the document, said it focused its analysis on countries excluding the United States between Jan. 20 and Feb. 10, a period during which the World Health Organization declared the novel coronavirus an international health emergency. In total, the Global Engagement Center explored 29 million foreign posts, the report said. Some of the misinformation exhibited “evidence of inauthentic and coordinated activity,” according to the report, raising the specter that foreign governments or other malicious actors may have deliberately tried to sow fear and discord about the international health emergency — much as Russian agents had done during the 2016 presidential election in the United States. But the report did not detail fully what led to that conclusion, nor did it attribute the information to a specific government source. Previously, agency officials signaled in public news reports that some of the coronavirus-related content on social media may be tied to agents of the Kremlin. But the State Department has provided no evidence of that to tech giants or the public, and it does not mention Russia once in the document obtained by The Post. Nor does the State Department report include a list of suspicious accounts or much other description as to why it thought certain tweets were part of an inauthentic campaign in the first place. The State Department did not respond to a request for comment. Representatives at Twitter declined to comment on the report, but said the company was working with federal officials on coronavirus. The data still lay bare the broad challenges facing Twitter and its tech peers as the novel coronavirus spreads globally.


What schools and teachers should be doing now about coronavirus, according to the experts

What should schools, teachers and everyone else on a campus be doing as the new coronavirus continues spreading around the globe, including in the United States? Most patients confirmed to have covid-19, the disease caused by the virus, have had mild to severe respiratory illness with symptoms including fever, cough and shortness of breath. Some patients have experienced pneumonia in both lungs, and the global death count as of Monday was more than 3,000, with six deaths in Washington state. A few schools there closed as a precaution, and experts say more school closings are possible if the disease continues to spread throughout the United States. There is no antiviral treatment specifically for the disease, but experts say there are precautionary steps everyone can and should be taking to avoid coming down with covid-19. Here’s what experts say schools and teachers should be doing to prepare for the spread of the coronavirus. The following advice comes directly from leading health and education agencies: Guidance for schools that do not have covid-19 identified in their community To prepare for possible community transmission of covid-19, the most important thing for schools to do now is plan and prepare. As the global outbreak evolves, schools should prepare for the possibility of community-level outbreaks. Schools want to be ready if covid-19 does appear in their communities. Child-care and K-12 school administrators nationwide can take steps to help stop or slow the spread of respiratory infectious diseases, including covid-19: The CDC has workplace resources such as posters with messages for staff about staying home when sick and how to avoid spreading germs at work. Other health and education professional organizations may also have helpful resources your school can use or share. For example, the American Academy of Pediatrics provides information on germ prevention strategies and reducing the spread of illness in child-care settings. The CDC offers several free handwashing resources that include health promotion materials, information on proper handwashing technique and tips for families to help children develop good handwashing habits. Reference key resources while reviewing, updating and implementing the EOP: Monitor and plan for absenteeism. Establish procedures for students and staff who are sick at school. Perform routine environmental cleaning. Create communications plans for use with the school community. Review the CDC’s guidance Child-care and K-12 administrators can also support their school community by sharing resources with students (if resources are age-appropriate), their families


evolves, schools should prepare for the possibility of community-level outbreaks. Schools want to be ready if covid-19 does appear in their communities. Child-care and K-12 school administrators nationwide can take steps to help stop or slow the spread of respiratory infectious diseases, including covid-19: The CDC has workplace resources such as posters with messages for staff about staying home when sick and how to avoid spreading germs at work. Other health and education professional organizations may also have helpful resources your school can use or share. For example, the American Academy of Pediatrics provides information on germ prevention strategies and reducing the spread of illness in child-care settings. The CDC offers several free handwashing resources that include health promotion materials, information on proper handwashing technique and tips for families to help children develop good handwashing habits. Reference key resources while reviewing, updating and implementing the EOP: Monitor and plan for absenteeism. Establish procedures for students and staff who are sick at school. Perform routine environmental cleaning. Create communications plans for use with the school community. Review the CDC’s guidance Child-care and K-12 administrators can also support their school community by sharing resources with students (if resources are age-appropriate), their families and staff. Coordinate with local health officials to determine what type of information might be best to share with the school community. Consider sharing the following fact sheets and information sources: What you need to know about coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) What to do if you are sick with coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) Stop the spread of germs — help prevent the spread of respiratory viruses like covid-19 For questions about students who plan to travel, or have recently traveled, to areas with community spread of covid-19, refer to the CDC’s FAQ for travelers. Schools can also consult with state and local health officials. Schools may need to postpone or cancel trips that could expose students and staff to potential community spread of covid-19. Students returning from travel to areas with community spread of covid-19 must follow guidance they have received from health officials. Covid-19 information for travel is updated regularly on the CDC website. Guidance for schools with identified cases of covid-19 in their community If local health officials report there are cases of covid-19 in the community, schools may need to take additional steps in response to prevent spread in the school. The first step for schools in


Coronavirus in Italy fills hospital beds and turns doctors into patients

LODI, Italy — One infectious-disease doctor said coronavirus had hit "like a tsunami" at his hospital, where more than 100 out of 120 people admitted with the virus have also developed pneumonia. Another hospital nearby is facing staff shortages as doctors have become patients. Doctors, virologists and health-care officials on the front line of Italy’s battle against coronavirus, in more than a dozen interviews, described a health-care system stretched to its limits — a situation other countries may face as the virus spreads. In an effort to cope, Italy is graduating nurses early and calling medical workers out of retirement. Hospitals in the hardest-hit regions are delaying nonessential surgeries and scrambling to add 50 percent more intensive-care beds. “This is the worst scenario I’ve seen,” said Angelo Pan, the head of the infectious-disease unit at the hospital in Cremona, noting the prevalence of pneumonia complications. He said 35 patients in his hospital required intubation or mechanical ventilation to breathe. Italy has been conducting extensive testing for coronavirus, including testing people who do not exhibit any symptoms of covid-19, the disease it causes. As of Tuesday evening, 2,263 people had tested positive. Of those, 1,263 were hospitalized, including 229 cases in intensive care. Seventy-nine people had died. Experts say that although most covid-19 cases tend to be mild, the clusters in northern Italy are resulting in more severe cases because they are hitting an aging population with a high incidence of cancer and other underlying health issues — the demographic most vulnerable to the disease. “The situation is quite bad in the epicenter of the outbreak,” said Giovanni Rezza, director of the infectious-disease department at the Italian National Institute of Health. “We have a very old population, they need hospital support and assistance, and it’s a very high burden for the hospitals in that area.” As with the cluster in Washington state, virologists believe the virus had been spreading in northern Italy for weeks before anyone realized. The 38-year-old Italian who was the first to test positive in the Lombardy region, and who remains in intensive care, had not traveled abroad, and doctors initially sent him home from the hospital. Once covid-19 took hold, hospitals in the region were quickly overwhelmed with cases. And, by that time, dozens of doctors and other health-care workers had become infected. “The lesson is that you have to intervene very, very fast and in a


‘We’re beyond desperate’: Officials fear the spread of coronavirus to Americans and Europeans held in Iran’s cramped prisons

New accounts of coronavirus infections in Iran’s prisons have alarmed Western hostage negotiators seeking to ensure the safety of American and European detainees in the country’s notoriously cramped and unsanitary facilities, according to diplomats. The spread of the virus in Iran, the epicenter of the outbreak in the Middle East, poses a daunting challenge for Western negotiators, given the array of medical challenges the detainees already face and strained diplomatic relationships with the Iranian regime. Iran has struggled to manage the outbreak, even among its most senior government officials, arousing concern about the welfare of the Western detainees it has branded as spies, traitors and counter-revolutionaries. On Tuesday, Iran’s health ministry reported at least 2,336 confirmed infections nationwide and 77 deaths. Experts believe the actual number of infections in Iran is much higher. Several prominent Iranian officials have died of the virus, including an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader and a recently elected lawmaker. Families of Westerners detained at Tehran’s Evin prison, where some of the detainees are locked in cells with 10 to 20 other prisoners, are pleading with the Iranian government to grant their relatives medical furloughs or allow house arrest. Siamak Namazi “I urge Iranian authorities to facilitate Siamak’s release on a furlough as rapidly as possible so that he can self-quarantine without risk to any further exposure,” Genser said. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British Iranian who is also being held at Evin, said she believes she contracted coronavirus, though she has not been tested. “I am not good. I feel very bad in fact. . . . At the beginning I had a runny nose and a cough. Now I have this continual cold sweat. I have a temperature, though not all the time. The past couple of days I have been shivering every night,” she said in a statement released by the family. Family members say conditions in Evin will probably accelerate the spread of the disease. “We’re beyond desperate. There’s absolutely no way of dealing with what is unraveling in Evin prison,” Babak Namazi, brother of Siamak, told The Washington Post. “There’s a lack of testing kits available in the prison, a lack of disinfectants, and everyone is packed in together.” Siamak Namazi, the longest-held dual national in Iran, is accused of “collaborating with enemy states,” and Zaghari-Ratcliffe is accused of espionage. Both deny the charges. Nearly a dozen dual national and foreign detainees are


Lawmakers want the DNI to make public the intelligence community’s assessment of who’s responsible for killing Jamal Khashoggi

Senior lawmakers want the intelligence community to make public what its officials have been willing to say only in classified settings: that Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was responsible for the death of Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post contributing columnist and regime critic. The Republican chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and the Democratic vice chairman sent a letter Monday to Richard Grenell, the acting director of national intelligence, urging him to reconsider his agency’s decision not to declassify information related to the brutal killing in October 2018 of Khashoggi, a U.S. resident at the time of his death in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. The previously undisclosed letter was sent by Sens. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and Mark R. Warner (D-Va.). At the same time, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) is moving to invoke a rarely used legislative procedure that would enable the Senate to release the requested material if it is deemed in the public interest. “It has been more than a year since agents of the Saudi government murdered Jamal Khashoggi . . . in Turkey,” Wyden said in a statement to The Post. “And yet the Trump administration refuses to publicly acknowledge who ordered that assassination. It is choosing to protect an authoritarian government.” The three are among a number of lawmakers calling on the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) to make public its private assessment of responsibility for Khashoggi’s death. President Trump, who has established a close working relationship with the leadership of Saudi Arabia, has been reluctant to publicly blame the crown prince — the country’s de facto leader — for the killing, which sparked global outrage. In December, Congress passed a law requiring the director of national intelligence within 30 days to provide an unclassified report identifying those who carried out, participated in or were otherwise responsible for the death of Khashoggi, who was probably suffocated and then dismembered, according to intelligence assessments of a recording of the incident. A separate provision allowed for a classified annex. Last month, shortly after Trump replaced acting DNI Joseph Maguire with Grenell, the ODNI sent its report to Congress, according to U.S. officials. “The response said simply that ODNI would not provide any unclassified information,” Wyden said. “A total and complete coverup.” The classified annex, however, made clear what CIA Director Gina Haspel and other officials have briefed to lawmakers in classified sessions


Americans are already in a savings crisis. The coronavirus could make it even worse.

are too sick to work and run out of sick leave, or their income is reduced because people aren’t eating out or shopping. The CFA set out to determine whether the banks provide affordable access to lower-income savers, including the long-term poor and many college students and other young adults. The organization looked at the accounts for small savers and measured accessibility (could savings deposits and withdrawals be made through tellers without a fee?), affordability (do savers have to pay a monthly fee, and, if not, how do they avoid it?), and the promotion of automated savings (are the banks doing a good enough job encouraging checking-account holders to save through automated deposits?). Overall, savings accounts at the banks they surveyed aren’t as accessible or reasonably priced as they need to be for lower-income families, said Stephen Brobeck, a senior fellow at the CFA and author of the report. Only one-quarter of the 101 largest banks offer consumer-friendly accounts for small savers, the CFA report argues. Even if financial institutions have affordable and accessible savings accounts, many of them fail to aggressively promote automated savings, Brobeck said in an interview. “Potential pandemics and increasing natural disasters make it even more important for Americans to build an emergency fund that can cushion income loss and unexpected expenses,” Brobeck said. The key is to remove barriers to low- and moderate-income savers. A lower-cost savings account is often tied to having a checking account. As the CFA points out, the typical monthly checking fee at large banks is $10 to $12. This monthly fee is generally waived if a customer maintains a certain balance and has a regular direct deposit, such as a payroll check. In the survey, most of the largest 30 banks set the minimum at either $300 or $500. Smaller banks and credit unions usually set these minimums at $250 or less, according to the report. Just 10 of the banks in the study offer savings accounts with no monthly fees that can be opened and maintained at their branches. Six of those 10 don’t require a minimum amount savers have to deposit to open an account. For example, Capital One’s “360 Performance Savings” account has no minimum deposit requirement. To keep costs down for savers, several banks offer free online accounts that can only be opened online. Twenty-four banks offer low-cost savings accounts at branches to customers who agree


D.C.-area forecast: Showery and warm with sun returning tomorrow

A somewhat subjective rating of the day’s weather, on a scale of 0 to 10. 5/10: Spring showers and potentially a few thunderstorms dot our landscape at times today, but temperatures stay warmer than average and are followed by another mild day tomorrow. Relatively mild and sunny weather continues into Thursday, too, before some clouds, showers and colder weather return Friday into Saturday. Get our daily forecasts Today (Tuesday): Tonight: Follow us on Tomorrow (Wednesday): Tomorrow night: Thursday Friday The weekend starts on a colder note, with mostly sunny skies on Saturday and highs only in the upper 40s. Saturday night brings mostly clear skies with lows in the 20s in the suburbs to 30s in the city. Sunday brings more sunshine as temperatures surge back into the mid-50s to around 60. Confidence: Medium Read more about Capital Weather Gang’s confidence rating


As Olympics concerns mount amid spreading coronavirus, IOC says ‘the Games will go ahead’

What do you want in an Olympics newsletter? Take our 30-second survey. The International Olympic Committee stridently doubled down on its stance that the coronavirus will not affect the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, even after a Japanese official raised the possibility of a postponement during a government hearing. The IOC Executive Board, holding a scheduled meeting at its headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland, released a statement Tuesday expressing “full commitment to the success” of the Tokyo Olympics taking place from July 24 to Aug. 9 as originally planned. An IOC spokesman later said the organization has not even discussed contingency plans and vowed the Games would begin July 24 despite the global spread of, and unease regarding, the coronavirus. “The IOC remains fully committed to the success of the Olympic Games #Tokyo2020,” IOC President Thomas Bach said, through the IOC’s Twitter feed. “I encourage all athletes to prepare for the Games with 'full steam.’ ” The IOC said it intends to follow advice from the World Health Organization and encouraged athletes to continue training for the Olympics as planned. A suspension or cancellation would be massively disruptive for athletes, many of whom design training schedules years in advance to peak for the Olympics. On Tuesday in Japan, the country’s Olympics minister said its contract with the IOC would allow it to suspend the Games. “The contract calls for the Games to be held within 2020. That could be interpreted as allowing a postponement,” Seiko Hashimoto said in response to a lawmaker’s question in parliament, Reuters reported. Still, at a news conference Tuesday evening in Lausanne, IOC spokesman Mark Adams dismissed the possibility of the coronavirus affecting the scheduled start of the Olympics, a remarkable show of confidence given the uncertainty surrounding the disease, for which there currently is no vaccine. “For us, the Games are going ahead on the 24th of July, and we confidently expect to deliver them on that date,” Adams said. “All the advice we’ve been given is that that can go ahead, from the WHO and other organizations that are competent.” “You can ask your question many, many ways,” Adams added later. “But the conclusion from us is the Games are going ahead. The Games will go ahead. We’re confident they will go ahead and we’re confident they will start on the 24th of July. All the rest is speculation.” Adams cited the lack of an international travel


Four disastrous mistakes that leaders make during epidemics

asked about the disease devastating the gay community, he giggled at the reporter. “I don’t have it! Do you? … There’s been no personal experience here.” The implication that AIDS was for other, mockable people carried through into much of Reagan’s presidency. He didn’t publicly address the crisis himself until 1985 and hesitated to share the information with those in school, claiming: “AIDS information cannot be what some call ‘value neutral.’ After all, when it comes to preventing AIDS, don’t medicine and morality teach the same lessons?” Ordinary citizens appear to have gleaned unkind lessons from such remarks, as in 1988 when the magazine Christianity Today reported that 37 percent of readers felt that “AIDS is a judgment from God on homosexuals and drug users.” One result of such discourse is that people who have the disease are more likely to keep quiet for fear of shame, and those who might advocate for better treatments can be embarrassed out of doing so. With six deaths from coronavirus in the United States as of Monday afternoon, we haven’t reached this point yet, but it seems possible that we will. Where President Dwight D. Eisenhower facilitated a free vaccination program for children with the release of Jonas Salk’s polio vaccine — and declared the unpatented vaccine would be available to “every country that welcomed the knowledge, including the Soviet Union” — Trump has notoriously made unsubstantiated declarations, such as his claim that “tremendous infectious disease is pouring across the border,” even when we’re not in the middle of public health crises. With Pence leading the government’s coronavirus response — the same Pence who is a conservative Christian opposed to Planned Parenthood and who bungled an HIV outbreak as governor of Indiana — it doesn’t bode well for the kindness with which inevitable victims of the disease will be treated. All of this might seem cause for some despair. But there are also so many moments of hope when it comes to combating diseases. Those moments occur when people come together, and work from a place of calm compassion and unity rather than fear or scorn. It’s often easier to blame people who get sick than to deal with the fact that any one of us might get sick. When diseases are killing people, it’s human nature to want to show you are different from the people who get those diseases, and perhaps


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PLNT Burger serves tasty vegan sandwiches with a SoCal vibe

If you catch it in the right light, perhaps at a window seat at the Whole Foods Market in Silver Spring, with its fabulous views of the CVS, you can see the resemblance: The double PLNT burger with cheese looks remarkably like the Double-Double from In-N-Out Burger, the SoCal chain with the cultlike following. The American cheese clings to each patty like hot caramel on a Granny Smith apple. The lettuce and tomato, their colors surprisingly vibrant for this time of year, peek out of the toasted bun, looking as if they were picked from some hothouse hidden inside the supermarket. You almost expect a passerby to stop breathlessly at your table and wonder whether there were a secret In-N-Out location here on the East Coast. The resemblance between burgers is not completely coincidental. PLNT Burger co-founder Spike Mendelsohn — culinary school grad, “Top Chef” survivor, restaurateur, burger man, D.C. Food Policy Council chairman — has an affection for In-N-Out’s business model. Its limited offerings, its focus on fresh ingredients, its not-so-secret menu (more on the latter in a second). You can feel the SoCal influence at PLNT, conscious or not. The comparisons between the two burgers, however, end with the first bite. I don’t mean to imply one is vastly superior to the other, though some (many?) might be tempted to make such an argument. What I do mean is that one, the Double-Double from In-N-Out, requires beef from an industry that increasingly finds itself in a defensive crouch, accused of abusing both animals and Mother Earth. The other burger is, as its vowel-less name suggests, a plant-based sandwich. The double cheeseburger from PLNT relies on a pair of mock-beef patties from Beyond Meat, the Southern California company whose board chairman, Seth Goldman, is also a co-founder of PLNT. The cheese slices come from Follow Your Heart, the same business that introduced Vegenaise, the vegan mayo that serves as the base for PLNT’s signature sauce, a creamy spread that also folds in ketchup, relish and molasses. The PLNT burger is, then, not just meatless, but vegan. It’s as if the all-American hamburger grew a conscience, enrolled at the University of California at Berkeley, sported a jazz dot and won’t vote for anyone but Bernie. The problem, if that’s the right word, with plant-based burgers like PLNT’s is that they have to compete against the memory of meat-based ones. It’s


Women environmental activists are nothing new

Say the phrase “female environmental pioneers,” and among the names you will hear are Rachel Carson, who wrote about pesticides; chimpanzee expert Jane Goodall; and 17-year-old climate-change activist Greta Thunberg. To mark Women’s History Month, KidsPost is sharing the stories of three lesser-known but equally remarkable environmental trailblazers. Anna Botsford Comstock loved bugs, kids and the great outdoors. If you have enjoyed a nature field trip or been on a Scout campout, tip your cap to Comstock. Her 1911 “Handbook of Nature Study” became the go-to source for teachers and others wanting to interest children in the beauty of the natural world. The book, updated several times, remains the backbone of many lesson plans about plants and animals, rocks and minerals, and Earth, the moon and the stars. Comstock’s seven science books include “How to Keep Bees” and “Ways of the Six-Footed” (insects). In “The Pet Book,” a 300-page catalogue of creatures ranging from alligators to toads, she wrote that having a pet teaches children to be responsible. That’s an argument pet-wanting kids still make with their parents. Comstock didn’t just write books. Her detailed drawings and wood engravings of hundreds of insects filled her books and those of her husband. The couple taught at Cornell University. In 1923, the League of Women Voters named Comstock one of the 12 greatest women in America whose work made the world a better place. She didn’t know it then, but Sylvia Earle found her lifelong passion at age 3. She was playing at a beach when a wave snuck up and knocked her over. “My mother . . . saw the big smile on my face and let me run back in,” Earle told a TV interviewer years later. “And I’ve been running back in ever since.” Now 84, Earle has spent thousands of hours exploring the world’s oceans and working to protect them from pollution, overfishing and other threats. A pioneer in using scuba gear, which lets divers breath underwater, she holds the world record for deepest untethered walk on the ocean floor — 1,250 feet — during which she planted a U.S. flag. In 1998, Time magazine gave her its first Heroes for the Planet award. She was the first female chief scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. And she may be the only member of the National Women’s Hall of Fame to have appeared in the comic


Major airlines, U.S. officials clash over passenger tracking related to coronavirus cases

tracking system amid fears of the coronavirus’s spread. “When the goal is containment, timing is of the essence,” said Josh Michaud, associate director for global health policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation. “The earlier you are able to find these people, get them into testing and, if needed, quarantine, the more likely you are to prevent future spreading.” In the three weeks since HHS’s rule was put into effect, airlines have turned over some information, but it has been “incomplete,” according to the HHS official. U.S. officials want to know who was traveling on planes that were later determined to be transporting passengers who had the coronavirus. For example, if a passenger on a flight from Italy two weeks ago tested positive for the virus last week, CDC officials want to track down fellow passengers on that flight to monitor their health and determine who else might have been exposed. Right now, when a plane from China lands in the United States, U.S. citizens who are not sick and not showing symptoms are given instructions at the airport to monitor themselves for symptoms, such as fever, cough or difficulty breathing. After they reach their final destination, they are supposed to stay home and monitor their health for 14 days from the time they left China. If they develop symptoms, they are supposed to contact their health-care providers and their local public health authorities. The CDC wants passenger data from the airlines so the agency can pass it on to states and counties, allowing those front-line authorities to “call in and check in on” those individuals to make sure they are not sick, the official said. CDC officials regard this basic information as critical to efforts to control the spread of the virus. The airlines have been warning the government at least since the beginning of February that they lack the capacity to quickly set up a tracking system, said Nicholas E. Calio, CEO of Airlines for America. Creating the system could take a year or longer, Calio said, and airlines often do not have the necessary passenger information available to them if flights were booked with a third party. Most of the airlines’ current systems would have to be reprogrammed to collect additional data, and the airlines contend that they have no way of verifying that the information they receive is accurate. “We have some of the information, but we


Trump appoints Pence to lead virus response as U.S. confirms its first case of unknown origin

Moments after President Trump announced that Vice President Pence will take over the White House’s coronavirus task force, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed that a northern California person has contracted the coronavirus without traveling outside the United States or coming in contact with another patient known to have the infection — the first sign that the disease may be spreading within a local community. The president said the risk to Americans is “very low” and that people are being screened coming into the country from infected areas. Meanwhile, the Dow Jones industrial average endured its worst two-day slump in four years Tuesday. On Wednesday, it was up 300 points shortly after open, but closed down about 124 points. On European and Asian financial markets, economic alarms continued to flash, however, with cases spreading and little sign that the epidemic was relenting after the CDC warned of the “inevitable” spread in the United States of covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. France reported the first death of a French citizen from the epidemic as cases grew rapidly across Europe, with Spain confirming eight new cases in the past 24 hours and new infections reported in Germany, Greece, France, Croatia, Austria and Switzerland. A new case in Brazil marks the first known case in Latin America. Although China announced a decline in new confirmed cases on Wednesday, the number of infected people soared in South Korea to more than 1,200, with more expected in the coming days as the country attempts to test 200,000 people. Here are the latest developments: ● A new case of coronavirus was confirmed in the United States on Wednesday, bringing the total number of cases in the country to 60. The CDC later said the northern California person had contracted the virus without traveling outside the United States or coming in contact with another patient known to have the infection. ● France reported the first coronavirus death of a French citizen amid a dramatic uptick in cases within Europe. Most new cases are connected to an outbreak in northern Italy, still the largest on the continent. ● Brazil confirmed its first case, which also marks the first known case in Latin America. ● Statistics released by the Chinese government showed a decline in the number of new cases in mainland China; an additional 406 cases were reported Wednesday morning, along with 52 deaths.


France, Croatia, Austria and Switzerland. A new case in Brazil marks the first known case in Latin America. Although China announced a decline in new confirmed cases on Wednesday, the number of infected people soared in South Korea to more than 1,200, with more expected in the coming days as the country attempts to test 200,000 people. Here are the latest developments: ● A new case of coronavirus was confirmed in the United States on Wednesday, bringing the total number of cases in the country to 60. The CDC later said the northern California person had contracted the virus without traveling outside the United States or coming in contact with another patient known to have the infection. ● France reported the first coronavirus death of a French citizen amid a dramatic uptick in cases within Europe. Most new cases are connected to an outbreak in northern Italy, still the largest on the continent. ● Brazil confirmed its first case, which also marks the first known case in Latin America. ● Statistics released by the Chinese government showed a decline in the number of new cases in mainland China; an additional 406 cases were reported Wednesday morning, along with 52 deaths. All but five of the new cases and all of the new deaths were in Hubei province. ● South Korea reported 284 additional cases of the coronavirus Wednesday, raising the national tally to 1,261. That number is expected to rise in coming days as the country begins the mass testing of more than 200,000 members of a messianic religious movement at the center of an outbreak in the city of Daegu. Mapping the spread of the coronavirus 11:11 PM: Asian stocks continue to fall Thursday Asian stock markets extended losses Thursday as the spread of the coronavirus outbreak kept investors on edge. The growing fears of a pandemic had already wiped more than $3.6 trillion from global stock markets by Wednesday’s close, Reuters reported. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.5 percent and is down more than 4 percent for the week. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 dropped 1 percent and has lost 7 percent this week. Japan’s Nikkei fell 1.7 percent to its lowest since October. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 1 percent. U.S. oil futures were down nearing $48 a barrel in Asia. 10:00 PM: Pelosi, AOC slam Trump’s coronavirus news conference House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)


may need to restrict travel to virus-hit countries outside China. At a news conference on Wednesday, Trump responded to a question about travel restrictions on Italy and South Korea, saying, “At the right time we may do that. Right now it’s not the right time.” He said the two countries have been “hit pretty hard” by the coronavirus. By: Min Joo Kim 8:18PM: A person in N. California has tested positive for coronavirus, the first U.S. case with no known link to foreign travel A northern California person has contracted the coronavirus without traveling outside the United States or coming in contact with another patient known to have the infection, the first sign that the disease may be spreading within a local community, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Wednesday night. How the person acquired the respiratory disease is unknown. “It’s possible this could be an instance of community spread of covid-19, which would be the first time this has happened in the United States,” the CDC said in a statement. The health agency left open the possibility, however “that the patient may have been exposed to a returned traveler who was infected.” The state of California, however, called the case its first instance of community transmission. The case was first reported by The Washington Post. Community spread would represent a significant turn for the worse in the battle against the virus. To date, the United States has 60 known cases of the infection, with 59 among people who traveled to Asia or were spouses of people who went there. The vast majority, 42, picked up the virus while quarantined on the Diamond Princess cruise ship off Japan. The CDC said the case “was detected through the U.S. public health system — picked up by astute clinicians.” The agency said only that the person lived in California. If the infection is confirmed to be a case of “community spread,” said Jennifer Nuzzo, epidemiologist and senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, “it would confirm what we have long suspected — that there is a good chance there already are people infected in this country and that the virus is circulating undetected. It points to the need for expanded surveillance so we know how many more are out there and how to respond.” The individual is a resident of Solano County, according to the California Department


after four new cases were reported in Iraq. The four patients were the first citizens to contract the virus, bringing the total of infected to five in the country. Iraq has closed crossings along its borders with Iran, which has emerged as an epicenter for the spread of the virus in the Middle East. Cases linked to Iranian tourists or visits to Iran have emerged in Lebanon, Bahrain, Oman and Kuwait. By: Sarah Dadouch 3:10 PM: Pentagon says too early to know if military will need more money to deal with coronavirus Senior Defense Department officials told lawmakers Wednesday that they had no initial answer to whether they anticipated asking for more money to deal with the virus threat within the military. “We have not had that discussion yet,” Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper said at a budget hearing before the House Armed Services Committee. “This is moving very quickly,” he acknowledged, but “I want to discuss it with the Chairman, the combatant commanders,” including the commander of the U.S. Northern Command. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that, in the absence of those discussions, “we can’t give you a definitive answer right now” about funding. Esper said he has been in direct contact with Gen. Robert Abrams, commander of U.S. forces in South Korea, which has the second largest number of confirmed cases outside China. One U.S. soldier, diagnosed with the virus this week was transferred by ambulance to an isolation unit at Camp Humphreys, the main U.S. base on the divided Korean Peninsula, the independent military newspaper Stars and Stripes reported from Seoul. The paper said that “several service members and others” had also been quarantined on the base “as a protective measure.” Abrams has taken some actions, including restricting access to U.S. bases, Esper said. At Camp Humphreys Wednesday, lines as long as five hours formed at entry gates, where soldiers wearing gloves and face masks took temperatures and questioned morning commuters, Stars and Stripes said. By: Karen DeYoung 2:50 PM: Israel updates travel warnings and quarantine restrictions JERUSALEM — Israel’s Ministry of Health updated its travel warning Wednesday, cautioning the Israeli public against traveling abroad, and in particular against participating in large gatherings such as conferences or religious events as the coronavirus outbreak continues to spread. The new advisory also added new restrictions for visitors from Italy, where an outbreak is


in Japan since the epidemic began. Shortly afterward, the prefectural government announced the first death from covid-19 on the island, saying that an elderly person who died on Tuesday was subsequently confirmed as having the virus. Three more people on the island were also found to have the virus, bringing the total to 39 people in Hokkaido, including students, a teacher, a school bus driver and a child day care worker, Kyodo News reported. The prefecture’s education board urged all 1,600 public elementary and junior high schools to close until March 4, but it exempted high schools since students are deemed old enough to decide for themselves if precautions are needed. By: Simon Denyer 6:00 AM: Japan dismisses IOC member’s talk of canceling Olympics as unofficial, personal view TOKYO — Japan dismissed comments from a senior member of the International Olympic Committee suggesting that the Tokyo Olympics might have to be canceled if the coronavirus epidemic still poses a threat in late May. Dick Pound told the Associated Press that a decision would have to be made by late May and that a cancellation was more likely than a postponement or a decision to move the Games if the virus is not under “sufficient control.” But Pound also stressed that athletes should continue to prepare for the Games, explaining that “all indications” were that they would still go ahead. Japan’s Olympics minister, Seiko Hashimoto, told parliament that organizers of Tokyo’s 2020 Summer Games had sought an explanation from the IOC about the comments and were told that Pound’s remarks did not represent an official view. “All we’ll be doing is to prepare to host the Games with ease of mind and to satisfy the IOC,” said Hashimoto, a former Olympic speed skating medalist, according to Kyodo News. Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike called Pound’s comments “personal views.” “I have emails from IOC members in charge of the Tokyo Games telling me to work hard in preparing for the event,” she told reporters, according to Kyodo. “The metropolitan government will pursue measures against the virus.” By: Simon Denyer 5:18 AM: Iran confirms 19th death, official tells state television Nineteen people have died in Iran from the novel coronavirus outbreak, Iranian Health Ministry spokesman Kianush Jahanpur told state television on Wednesday. Iran has the highest number of deaths from the coronavirus outbreak outside China. Jahanpur said the number of confirmed cases in the


that officials expect tourism to take a hit due to the ban, but “the safety and security of Filipinos here and outside the Philippines remain our primary concern.” South Korea is one of the Philippines’ top sources of tourists, with more than 1.6 million visitors from the country in 2018. The move comes as other countries impose restrictions on visitors from South Korea, which has the second-highest national tally of coronavirus cases after China. Japan announced Wednesday that it would bar visitors who had traveled to the Daegu or Cheongdo, another afflicted city, in the past two weeks. Vietnam and Singapore have also imposed similar restrictions. In addition, Mongolia said it was suspending flights from Japan. By: Regine Cabato 2:49 AM: Beijing asks banks to disinfect cash, keep notes stored for at least a week BEIJING — Beijing is asking all banks in the region to disinfect paper cash and keep the notes in a dry place for at least seven days before putting them in circulation. The request was made by Beijing’s Banking and Insurance Regulatory Bureau on Wednesday as it issued guidelines for controlling the novel coronavirus outbreak. The bureau also asked financial institutions to intensify disinfection at counters and public facilities in all customer-facing banking and insurance establishments. After cash is withdrawn from circulation, financial institutions are required to disinfect the bills using ultraviolet light and keep them in a dry environment for at least a week. Money returned from hospitals will be stored separately after disinfection, the bureau said. Banks in other regions of China have installed similar measures in a bid to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus. On Monday, China Construction Bank in the southeastern province of Fujian announced it had disinfected bank notes worth 6.9 billion yuan — roughly $980 million — between Jan. 28 and Feb. 23. By: Wang Yuan 2:20 AM: Japan’s Abe wants to cancel major sporting, cultural events over crucial two-week period TOKYO — Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe recommended on Wednesday that major sporting and cultural events in the country taking place over the next two weeks should be postponed or canceled to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus. Abe’s government believes the next two weeks is a critical time for Japan as it seeks to limit the spread of the virus, reduce mortality rates and save the Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Already Japan’s J-League soccer


Airlines are taking away amenities like hot meals and blankets amid growing coronavirus concerns

China. The carrier is no longer providing blankets, magazines and hot towels on flights traveling between mainland China, or offering in-flight duty-free sales. It is also altering its meal service for first- and business-class cabins, and ending trolley services. In economy cabins, passengers on medium- to long-duration mainland China flights will be served a disposable snack bag. “This modified service offering is strictly a temporary measure designed to further strengthen our health and safety protocols in light of the evolving situation regarding coronavirus cases in mainland China,” Cathay Pacific Group said in a statement. “We are monitoring the situation closely and will continue to coordinate with the health authorities in Hong Kong and in all the ports to which we operate flights.” On Thursday, the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus outbreak a global public health emergency. The virus has now infected nearly 10,000 people and killed more than 200. In response, the United States has issued its highest level of travel advisory for China. Twenty ports of entry airports across the country are expanding screening for the new strain of coronavirus, and dozens of carriers including Delta Air Lines and American Airlines are halting all flights to mainland China. For those traveling by plane, it’s not clear whether measures like avoiding hot meals or blankets are useful for avoiding infection, because information about the new coronavirus strain is evolving. “There are many, things about this virus that we don’t know for sure yet, so does it make sense for them to restrict serving these things?” says Lin Chen, a medical doctor and director of the Travel Medical Center at Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, Mass. “Some of it might make sense, [but] some of it, who knows. We don’t have great data, which is the difficult part.” As health officials work to understand the virus, Chen recommends proper hand-washing, especially after touching common surfaces, as the best prevention technique, and avoiding touching your face. Read more: Before the new coronavirus, travel aided the spread of other diseases. Here’s a look back at 5 notable cases. Cruise ship passengers quarantined in Italy over coronavirus fears do not have the illness, tests show In the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, here’s what you need to know about travel to China Sign up for our Coronavirus Updates newsletter to track the outbreak. All stories linked within the newsletter are free to access.


Transcript: Working Families

cost a quarter-million dollars more, but where most entrepreneurs find the assets to be able to start a business is from home ownership, or from wealth, or from stock ownership, which most black women don’t have access to because they haven’t had the income that generated the wealth that’s provided the economic security. It's an important-- MR. SCOTT: So, a lot of attention being paid to how well the stock market is doing or not doing. MS. BRADLEY: When only 10 percent of most folks--you know, the wealthy people own stocks. The middle-class own homes. Black people own nothing. We don’t even own our own narrative most of the time. And I think that it’s important, though, because when you have large companies taking their tax cuts and paying back their shareholders, and only 25 percent of new jobs being created in the bottom 60 percent of ZIP Codes, it speaks to just a lack of employment opportunity. The bias isn’t even allowed to happen because there are no jobs. And then you add on low education, poor education in our communities, STEM coming in as supported or subsidized, but not a real commitment. But I think this question about entrepreneurship is extremely important, because 40 percent of white men--there’s a decline in entrepreneurship, 40 percent amongst white men. So, the savior who was going to create all these new jobs is not there. The majority of new jobs are being created by black women. African-American women are creating jobs six times their white male peers. That’s significant because they are now the job creators. Entrepreneurship amongst black Americans is 20 percent. It is 12 percent among white Americans. The problem is, we don’t have the same amount of zeros at the end because of lack of access to capital, affordable capital. We are charged an average of one-and-a-half times more on a loan than a white person starting a business. And that’s actually allowed, which is problematic. But what is most significant as we think about the demographic shifts and the fact that people who look like me are about to be the new majority--and I realize that scares people--if black businesses had been invested on par or in parity with white businesses, we would 570,000 new businesses by black folks, $150 billion in economic uplift. And that’s about a million new jobs. And that’s significant because black businesses


Larry Nassar victims want accountability. Olympic officials offered cash and veiled threats.

her to sign: “Courts are unlikely to hold the Debtor legally responsible for the unforeseeable criminal misconduct that gave rise to the Abuse Claims.” Unforeseeable? Unforeseeable? USA officials knew Nassar improperly “treated” young girls on their beds. They never even bothered to check on the health and safety procedures at camps where Biles was isolated for days. How would you like to be Raisman, leafing through your copy, when you come upon this sentence, insisting it’s in your best interest to sign for a pittance because, “Most fundamentally, all of the abuse claims are subject to dismissal on the basis that the Debtor did not have a legal duty to the Claimant.” No legal duty? No legal duty? The settlement offer will go nowhere but in the trash. The rightly enraged gymnasts will reject it. The presiding judge has said the USOPC needs to get out its wallet. But in the meantime, USOPC chief executive Sarah Hirshland needs to be marched back to Capitol Hill, so she can explain to Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) and others on the Judiciary Committee why our Olympic officials have “no legal duty” to keep the United States’ athletes from being molested, abused and digitally raped by a team doctor — and why any settlement requires so many gags. The USOPC has spouted lots of platitudes about systemic failures. But we still don’t have a full picture of who concealed what and when. The problem appears to go back decades. These “releases” would prevent the gymnasts from ever finding out and from holding anyone accountable beyond the narrow slice of officialdom that has been forced to resign. This should be the last straw for Congress. When are legislators going to clean out this mess? When will they give our most inspired young athletes the organization they deserve? And when will they force answers from law enforcement? The gymnasts aren’t just out for compensatory sums and punitive damages. They want “transparency, culture change and replacement of those who subscribe to the money- and medals-first model,” according to attorney John Manly. What they’ve gotten is the same old bureaucracy, still more invested in sheltering cronies, stifling fact-finding and fighting liability than in fixing a horrendous problem and making real amends. The USOPC has protected itself from congressional action by suggesting that knocking down the organization and starting over would somehow harm preparations for the 2020 Tokyo


The Daily 202: Joe Biden forged a Super Tuesday coalition that could win the Democratic nomination – and presidency

own plans. Some schools are considering closures, some companies have implemented restrictions on travel for employees, and religious organizations are altering how they conduct services.” “Timothy Stenzel, who is the director of the Food and Drug Administration’s Office of In Vitro Diagnostics and Radiological Health, was made to wait overnight on the weekend of Feb. 22 — as senior health department officials negotiated his access in a series of calls — before Centers for Disease Control granted him permission to be on campus. Stenzel’s visit had been expected … The FDA had dispatched Stenzel to the CDC in an effort to expedite the development of lab tests for the novel coronavirus outbreak,” Politico reported. Iran has confirmed 92 deaths and 2,992 cases, while South Korea has 5,238 cases and Italy 2,263. China, which remains the worst-hit nation, announced 38 new deaths. Chile and Argentina reported their first cases yesterday, widening the numbers across Latin America. (Adam Taylor, Teo Armus and Rick Noack) The U.S. Travel Association anticipates international inbound travel to the country will drop 6 percent between now and May, the largest dip in global visitation since the financial crisis in 2007 and 2008. “The forecast takes into account factors including hotel bookings, airline data and consumer sentiment data,” Hannah Sampsonreports. “Kim Jong Un’s insular world also could face a major crisis if the virus that causes covid-19 finds its way in. An outbreak could overwhelm the feeble health system — ranked 193 out of 195 on the Global Health Security Index — in a country already stalked by malnutrition and diseases such as tuberculosis,” Simon Denyer reports. “In an effort to cope, Italy is graduating nurses early and calling medical workers out of retirement. Hospitals in the hardest-hit regions are delaying nonessential surgeries and scrambling to add 50 percent more intensive-care beds,” Loveday Morris reports. This was apparently the first direct verbal communication between a U.S. president and the Afghan insurgent force since the Afghanistan war began. Anne Gearan reports: “Trump confirmed the Taliban’s announcement Tuesday that he had spoken by phone with Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban’s top political leader. ‘I spoke to the leader of the Taliban today. We had a good conversation. We’ve agreed there’s no violence, we don’t want violence; we’ll see what happens,’ Trump told reporters at the White House. ‘They’re dealing with Afghanistan, but we’ll see what happens. We had actually


Does the World Health Organization have the freedom to do what it needs to do about covid-19?

other governments will impose trade and travel restrictions. This is not merely a theoretical matter — it’s a real concern, and any country can suddenly find itself a target. In December 2003, officials in Washington state reported a case of “mad cow disease.” Japan and South Korea responded by blocking the importation of beef from the United States, costing U.S. beef producers nearly $11 billion in lost revenue between 2004 and 2007. Policymakers inevitably take the potential political and economic effects into consideration when making decisions about global public health responses. In 2014, WHO delayed declaring the Ebola outbreak in West Africa a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) precisely because it feared that the designation would devastate the economies of the affected countries and make it harder to mobilize an effective response. The current global health governance system is set up to give credence to these political and economic effects. The International Health Regulations, a global treaty focused on reducing the effects of international disease epidemics, explicitly states that its mission is to implement strategies to stop the spread of disease outbreaks while also “[avoiding] unnecessary interference with international traffic and trade.” The World Health Organization finds itself caught between many competing interests — making it harder for the organization to implement necessary and effective disease control protocols in a timely and consistent manner. But the 194 WHO members also have the power to change how they engage with the organization and the rules by which WHO operates. This could include using the tools it has to exert more legal authority, adding more stakeholders in its decision-making processes, creating a freedom of information policy and giving WHO more control over its budget. These steps could boost WHO’s capacity and efficiency to address future disease outbreaks. Don’t miss anything! Sign up to get TMC’s smart analysis in your inbox, three days a week. Jeremy Youde is a global health politics researcher and dean of the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Minnesota Duluth. Follow him on Twitter at Read more: China’s early warning system didn’t work on covid-19. Here’s the story. The coronavirus is about to hit Africa. Here are the big challenges. Why China’s politics makes it easier — and harder — to control disease outbreaks Is China ready for this major global health challenge? China’s coronavirus outbreak has prompted some travel restrictions. That could backfire.


NOAA to triple supercomputing capacity in bid to dramatically improve forecast accuracy

performing 12 quadrillion floating-point operations per second. These computers will replace the existing systems known as Luna and Mars, located in Reston, Va., as well as Surge and Venus in Orlando. The new machines will be located in Manassas, Va., and Phoenix. When combined with NOAA’s research and development supercomputers located in West Virginia, Tennessee, Mississippi and Colorado, which have a combined capacity of 16 petaflops, the total NOAA supercomputing supporting operational weather prediction and research will reach 40 petaflops by 2022. According to NOAA, this not only triples the agency’s performance capacity, it also doubles the “storage and interconnect speed.” This will allow NOAA to develop models with a higher resolution, more advanced physics, and improved ways of incorporating observational data from satellites, aircraft, surface stations and more and feeding them into the models in a way that improves accuracy (a process known as data assimilation). Acting NOAA administrator Neil Jacobs is looking to the upgrade to help advance the agency’s modeling just as it engages with the research community to form a new organization, known as the Earth Prediction Innovation Center (EPIC), that will address long-standing bottlenecks in translating research gains into operational forecasting tools. According to Peter Bauer, deputy director of research department at the ECMWF, the new computing contract will bring the United States roughly to parity with the European Center when it comes to raw computing power. Bauer said its latest contract would advance the ECMWF to 37 petaflops for operations, research and other applications. Britain’s Met Office is on a similar trajectory. Bauer cautions that processing speed is not the best metric to use for comparing performance, since there are more potential gains to be made with new coding and software that are becoming available. Gains from simply installing faster processors are diminishing over time, Bauer said in an interview. European scientists as well as others around the world are focusing on pursuing a “radical” change to the computer code used for weather and climate models to improve efficiency. “This software development task is also called a ‘software gap’ because there is new hardware out there, but we are not ready to use it,” Bauer said via email. “It’s not easy because you have very large codes … and to fundamentally revamp them takes some time and also acceptance by scientists,” he said. One of the big differences between the European Center and NOAA


Community deaths

past year, he had worked for Applied Information Sciences. Earlier he had worked 10 years for Digital Infuzion. Samuel Watson III, 80, a retired Army colonel who commanded an infantry company during the Vietnam War and was an executive-branch adviser on arms control and national security, died Dec. 23 at a health center in Arlington, Va. The cause was an illness of the pancreas, said his wife, Wendy Fibison. Col. Watson, a resident of Alexandria, Va., was born in Sistersville, W.Va. He retired from the Army in 1992 after 30 years of service. From 2009 to 2011, he was a health, diplomacy and governance adviser in Iraq. He also commuted to the University of Pittsburgh, where he taught in the graduate school of public health, from 1999 to 2005. Mary Hanrahan, 70, a professor of early-childhood education at Northern Virginia Community College from 1987 to 2014, died Jan. 2 at her home in Springfield, Va. The cause was pancreatic cancer, said a son, James Sneeringer. Ms. Hanrahan was born in Cleveland and had lived in the Washington since 1972. She was a preschool director before joining the NVCC faculty. James O’Meara, 76, who retired in 1999 as director of the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service’s emerging markets office and then was an international development consultant, died Dec. 18 at a hospice center in Rockville, Md. The cause was pneumonia, said a daughter, Molly Sheehan. Mr. O’Meara, a resident of Bethesda, Md., was born in Chicago. He served with the Peace Corps in the Philippines and with the Agency for International Development in Vietnam, Indonesia and Washington before transferring to the Foreign Agricultural Service in 199 Clare Lebling, 87, a social worker who specialized in military and family-life counseling, died Jan. 22 at a hospice center in Edgewater, Md. The cause was a stroke, said a daughter, Madonna Lebling. Mrs. Lebling, an Annapolis resident, was born Clare McManus in Washington. She was a social worker for the University of Maryland and then for the Defense Department as a civilian until 2003, when she retired from government service. She was a social worker in private practice until 2013. Stephen Hopkins, 84, a lawyer who retired as a vice president and chief of government relations for Citibank in 1998, died Feb. 16 at his home in Washington. The cause was complications from cancer, said a daughter, Kiki Davis. Mr. Hopkins was born in New


Katie Ledecky hits pool this week for progress report, with eyes on Tokyo Olympics

won her fourth world title in the 800. But her struggles cast the first bit of uncertainty on 2020 — or at least showed for the first time that Ledecky isn’t invincible, particularly at shorter distances. She returned to the United States and saw specialists on both coasts to make sure the stomach bug that wrecked her meet wasn’t more serious. When she returned to the pool, she was eager to look ahead. “It really didn’t take me a long time to get past 2019 worlds. I kind of thought it would take a little longer just because it kind of stung that I got sick and that they didn’t go the way I wanted it to,” Ledecky said. “But by the time I got back into training a couple weeks later … I was able to focus in on this year and what I want to accomplish and kind of put that experience behind me really quickly.” She said she quickly noticed that her strong training entering worlds was not for naught and actually gave her a head start when she hit the pool last fall. “By the time she got to really the early part of October, she was rocking and rolling pretty good,” Meehan said. Ledecky decided against taking classes this year, giving her more time to focus on swimming. Bouncing back from worlds, she competed in two long-course meets late last year — a TYR series event in Greensboro, N.C., in November and the U.S. Open four weeks later — but she had to skip the January TYR event in Knoxville, Tenn., because of illness. This week in Des Moines will be her first meet in three months, and she is expected to race much of her Olympic program, including the 1,500 but not the 800. Ledecky will use the competition to measure her progress, and the swimming world will be looking for hints on what she’ll have in store for Tokyo this summer. More Olympic sports news: At U.S. marathon trials, Galen Rupp wins to qualify for fourth Olympics; Aliphine Tuliamuk takes women’s race The Olympics are the perfect way to spread a virus, but a decision on the Tokyo Games can wait U.S. women’s cycling team, rocked by a teammate’s suicide, just won a world title in her honor Chinese swimmer Sun Yang banned for eight years after court finds he violated doping protocols