Two Baltimore correctional officers died of covid-19 just months apart

In June, a group of Baltimore City correctional officers gathered outside the Baltimore Central Booking and Intake Center for a vigil honoring Karen Kennedy. The 60-year-old corrections officer had worked there and contracted the coronavirus in May, eventually succumbing to complications of covid-19. The close-knit group of officers told stories about their colleague, bonded over the difficult job they shared and said they wondered every day whether they could be the next to catch the virus. One of those in attendance was Barthphine Maduh, 68, a veteran officer who had trained and mentored new guards for years. Likable and respected, Maduh worked long hours and spent decades on the job. Last week, the officers gathered again, this time to honor Maduh. He had contracted the virus in July, fought it for months and died in late September, his wife said. Kennedy and Maduh worked at the same facility and are the only two correctional officers in the state to have died of covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. Their deaths underscore the dangers faced by officers and inmates as the state grapples with a virus that has plagued the corrections system for seven months and killed at least 11 inmates. That was on the mind of nearly 100 officers gathered outside the Central Booking and Intake Center for Maduh’s vigil Oct. 8. Balloons were tied together leading up to a podium, where his wife and two of their children sat in black chairs. In their hands they held Maduh’s uniform and images of him. Candles were given out. The two deaths of corrections officers appear to put Maryland on the low side compared with states such as Louisiana, which has recorded six deaths, or Texas, with more than a dozen, according to the website Corrections1, which focuses on labor issues related to prison workers. Most states on the list have more people behind bars than Maryland does, making exact comparisons difficult. “The loss of our two veteran correctional officers is devastating, and we are committed to honoring their memory and never forgetting their courage and dedication to the citizens of Maryland,” said Gary McLhinney, an assistant secretary of the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services. Latia Barney, vice president with AFSCME, the public services employees union, met Maduh when she was new to her job as a correctional officer. He was her trainer, and she recalled how


Why the coronavirus is killing more men than women

Early in the coronavirus outbreak, hospital data from China revealed a startling disparity: Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus, was killing far more men than women. That difference persisted in other Asian countries, such as South Korea, as well as in European countries, such as Italy. Then, it appeared in the United States. By mid-October, the coronavirus had killed almost 17,000 more American men than women, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. For every 10 women claimed by the disease in the United States, 12 men have died, found an analysis by Global Health 50/50, a U.K.-based initiative to advance gender equality in health care. That disparity was one of many alarming aspects of the new virus. It bewildered those unfamiliar with the role of gender in disease. But the specialized group of researchers who study that relationship was not surprised. It prepared an array of hypotheses. One possible culprit was male behavior. Perhaps men were more likely to be exposed to the virus due to social factors; a disproportionately male workforce, for instance, could place more men in contact with infected people. Or men’s lungs might be more vulnerable because they were more likely to smoke in the earliest countries to report the differences. What has become more evident, 10 months into this outbreak, is that men show comparatively weaker immune responses to coronavirus infections, which may account for those added deaths. “If you look at the data across the world, there are as many men as women that are infected. It’s just the severity of disease that is stronger in most populations in men,” Franck Mauvais-Jarvis, a Tulane University physician who studies gender differences in such diseases as diabetes. In such cases, biology can help explain why. Women generally have stronger immune systems, thanks to sex hormones, as well as chromosomes packed with immune-related genes. About 60 genes on the X chromosome are involved in immune function, Johns Hopkins University microbiologist Sabra Klein told The Washington Post in April. People with two X chromosomes can benefit from the double helping of some of those genes. Akiko Iwasaki, who studies immune defenses against viruses at Yale University, wanted to see how sex differences might play out in coronavirus infections. She and her colleagues cast a proverbial net into the immune system to fish out schools of microscopic fighters. “We did a holistic look


1662 that “men, being more intemperate then women, die as much by reason of their Vices” — that is, male behavior was to blame. Hawkes argues that “350 years later,” Graunt’s point still stands. “It is undoubtedly a mixture of both biology and behavior” responsible for the health differences in men and women, she said. The share of coronavirus deaths in women also rises with their share of the full-time workforce, according to a report by University of Oxford economist Renee Adams that used Global Health 50/50 data. “The more you have women participating in the workforce, the smaller your sex difference becomes,” Hawkes said. That lines up with gender inequalities — men are more likely to work in environments where they are exposed to air pollution and other harms, Hawkes said. When women start to enter those traditionally masculine spaces, she said, it “turns out, women can get as sick as men.” The gender disparities discovered in the response to covid-19 have sparked a surge of interest in such differences more broadly. “Almost nobody, apart from the people working in the field, were interested in that difference between men and women in disease until February or March,” when the first results showed that more men were dying, Mauvais-Jarvis said. Even agencies at the forefront of public health, such as the CDC, were initially slow to reveal sex-disaggregated coronavirus data, Hawkes said. The U.K. public health surveillance system was similarly late. Hawkes took those delays as a sign of just how unimportant people considered this data, since it is so readily available: When people die, their death certificates state whether they were male, female or, in some places, nonbinary. The CDC data finally made that information accessible in mid-April. The male-skewed patterns revealed in those deaths conform to what was seen in earlier outbreaks of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), both within the family of coronaviruses. And it is in line with other viral responses. “We know that women develop much better antibody response to flu vaccines,” Iwasaki said. Some of those experts are hoping to capitalize on this moment to shine a spotlight on other gender differences in health. The coronavirus, after all, isn’t the only problem to afflict men and women unequally — so, too, do cancer, asthma, heart disease and other common illnesses, as Mauvais-Jarvis noted in a recent paper in


U.S. prosecutors claim cartels had reach into Mexico’s top security ranks

is no room for lies,” Cienfuegos said. “When there is a lack of honor, loyalty becomes complicity. The next year, he accompanied John F. Kelly, then the secretary of homeland security, on an overflight above poppy fields in the state of Guerrero, along the Pacific coast south of Mexico City. “The purpose of the visit was to discuss matters related to security and the fight against organized crime,” said Mexico’s news release on the visit. In 2018, the William J. Perry Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies bestowed its highest award on Cienfuegos for his “advancement and cooperation of the international security environment, and for promoting sustainable capacity in the Americas.” But, according to court filings released Friday, during those years Cienfuegos “in exchange for bribe payments, assisted the H-2 cartel in numerous ways” — referring to the once powerful cartel with a presence along Mexico’s west coast. “Due in part to the defendant’s corrupt assistance, the H-2 cartel conducted its criminal activity in Mexico without significant interference from the Mexican military and imported thousands of kilograms of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and marijuana into the United States,” the indictment said. Between 2012 to 2018, when Cienfuegos was defense minister, the United States was attempting to improve a once tense relationship with Mexico’s military, which for decades had been more reluctant to work with the United States than other parts of Mexico’s government. Under Cienfuegos, that recalcitrance appeared to fade. In 2016, the head of the United States northern command, Adm. William E. Gortney, spoke glowingly about that progress. “This year, the military-to-military relationship between the United States and Mexico reached unprecedented levels of coordination,” Gortney said. “Today we are strategic partners.” Meanwhile, the indictment against Cienfuegos says, he had been “warning the H-2 cartel about the ongoing U.S. law enforcement investigation into the H-2 cartel.” Mexico’s current president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has described corruption as a problem in previous administrations but not in his own government. Yet Mexican officials say a number of current security officials most likely maintain connections to organized crime. Asked if he expected acting members of the security establishment to be indicted, one senior Mexican official responded: “Without a doubt.” “This just confirms that the criminals can only act and flourish with the complicity of high-level authorities,” said the senior official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of his role in the current government.


For a normal college experience during the pandemic, these students hopped continents

menial job sounded better than online classes. When the Washington campus decided to go all-virtual, the offer to study in Bologna was also extended to those students, most of whom typically spend the first year of the master’s degree program in Italy. Smith was registered to study in Washington with a lease and two jobs when the announcement came out. In less than two weeks, she had her escape plan: She applied to transfer, got an answer on whether her financial aid and scholarships would follow her (they did), found housing in Bologna and booked a flight. The timing was crucial: She needed to land before her Italian residence permit expired in late August, and with enough time to quarantine before classes. The exile plan didn’t just upend students’ plans, but also school operations. They had been thinking about how to forge closer connections between campuses, said Eliot Cohen, dean of SAIS. “Covid has forced us to do that.” The campus in China had always been more of an outpost, said Webb. But this year, with common challenges and better technology for communicating, all three SAIS campuses have been working closely. They are taking advantage of ramped-up virtual courses to allow students to take classes from multiple campuses. They’re also considering a new degree program and talking about having students interested in Sino-European issues travel between the Nanjing and Bologna campuses. “After this plague we’ll be stronger for it,” Plummer said. Meanwhile, in Bologna, things are a little different on campus. Fewer students are at school at any given time, and the bartender in the cafe is not allowed to serve alcohol this fall. Students tend to leave campus after their last class now, said Lorenzo Marchetti, a student from Italy. And there are now Chinese-language and bilingual events for students who had expected to have Chinese roommates and immersion in the language and culture. “It’s surreal,” said Nick Kaufman, a 23-year-old student from Boston whose Fulbright research in rural China was abruptly cut short by the coronavirus. He finished those studies in Massachusetts this spring. He, too, expected to be in Nanjing this fall. “Maybe I’ll be in South America next,” he joked, “to study China.” But he is grateful to be in Bologna and go to events on campus, such as a talk by a former Finnish prime minister about power dynamics between the United States, Europe and


My elderly father spent 36 hours searching for urgent hospital care. It was entirely preventable.

throw them into panic mode and bring the health-care system to its knees. As a result, medical professionals are struggling to respond not only to covid-19 but also to car accidents, pneumonia, gunshot wounds, broken bones. Everyone suffers. This is happening right now in Wisconsin and elsewhere across the nation. This is happening to our parents, our spouses, our children, our friends. And it is all preventable. My dad lost 36 hours being shuffled between facilities that couldn’t admit him. If not for covid-19, however, he probably would have had a bed at the local hospital right away. He would have received the proper care immediately. His family would have been there to reassure him. And I would not have wondered when I would next see my father to say, “I love you.” It would be so easy for each of us to do our part and change the course of this pandemic. Things would be different if we wore our masks and stayed home as much as possible. If we assumed we were asymptomatic and potentially spreading the virus. If we took advice from medical professionals instead of politicians. If we acted with compassion instead of playing roulette with a contagious virus. Even if you don’t contract covid-19, you might need medical attention. Hospitals are full in much of Wisconsin and elsewhere. This unpleasant fact means people can’t get the care they need, regardless of whether they have covid-19. We all have covid-19 fatigue. I know. I have it, too. We’re tired of changing routines, canceling vacations, missing family events, attending school and meetings via Zoom. But, as much as we hate it, sacrifice is the only way to return to normalcy. If we keep on like we have been, your loved one could be the next person taking five ambulance rides before receiving proper medical treatment. Consider yourself warned. Read more: Fareed Zakaria: A pandemic should be the great equalizer. This one had the opposite effect. Fareed Zakaria: The pandemic upended the present. But it’s given us a chance to remake the future. Leana S. Wen: We should be just as careful about covid-19 in relatives’ homes as we are in grocery stores Helaine Olen: It’s clearer than ever that covid-19 will increase, not decrease, inequality Jessica Cohen, Sara Bleich, Joseph Allen and Benjamin Sommers: U.S. schooling during covid-19 doesn’t deserve a passing grade. Here’s the way forward.


A zoo worker was mauled to death by bears as tourists watched in horror

A group of bears at an animal park in Shanghai mauled an employee to death as visitors watched in horror from a tour bus. The incident at Shanghai Wild Animal Park was recorded Saturday by panicked onlookers, some of whom posted footage on China’s popular Weibo platform. Witnesses inside the bus could be heard shrieking, “There seems to be a man” and “What’s going on?” the BBC reported Monday. The park activated emergency protocols and temporarily closed the area as officials attempted to find out what happened to the worker inside the zoo’s beast-of-prey zone, which is accessible to tourists who remain inside designated vehicles. Although details of the attack were scarce, park officials said they are working with investigators. Officials said in a statement that they were “extremely heartbroken” and offered their sympathy to the family of the victim, who was not publicly identified. Officials also apologized to the guests who saw the attack. Black and brown bears of all sizes roam freely in the drive-through area, which was designed to mimic their original habitat, according to the park’s website. Video footage posted to Instagram days before the attack shows one bear climbing up the side of a tourist bus as those inside stuff carrots into its mouth. “Dangerous! Keep away!” a sign inside the vehicle reads. The park spans almost 400 acres and is home to an estimated 10,000 exotic animals, including zebras, flamingos, giant pandas and tigers. Park officials said they vowed to learn lessons from the attack. Animal rights activists have long called for animals kept in wildlife parks, sea-life centers and zoos to be released. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) Asia said the incident in Shanghai was unsurprising. “How many more people have to be hurt or killed by wild animals kept in confinement before we accept that these animals do not belong in captivity?” the group said in a statement to The Washington Post. The statement added that “no amount of time” spent in a zoo, cage or marine park would erase the predatory instincts of animals taken from the wild. “This incident illustrates the profound level of stress, anxiety, and agitation that these animals experience every day of their lives,” the organization said as it called for tourists and families to stop visiting establishments that detain animals for profit and entertainment. Despite its promise to visitors of a “magical experience”


bus as those inside stuff carrots into its mouth. “Dangerous! Keep away!” a sign inside the vehicle reads. The park spans almost 400 acres and is home to an estimated 10,000 exotic animals, including zebras, flamingos, giant pandas and tigers. Park officials said they vowed to learn lessons from the attack. Animal rights activists have long called for animals kept in wildlife parks, sea-life centers and zoos to be released. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) Asia said the incident in Shanghai was unsurprising. “How many more people have to be hurt or killed by wild animals kept in confinement before we accept that these animals do not belong in captivity?” the group said in a statement to The Washington Post. The statement added that “no amount of time” spent in a zoo, cage or marine park would erase the predatory instincts of animals taken from the wild. “This incident illustrates the profound level of stress, anxiety, and agitation that these animals experience every day of their lives,” the organization said as it called for tourists and families to stop visiting establishments that detain animals for profit and entertainment. Despite its promise to visitors of a “magical experience” and “amazing performances,” the park has frequently made headlines for the way it treats its animals. In 2013 a video went viral after a bear pounced and attempted to mutilate a monkey during a bicycle race at the park’s “Animal Olympics” event. Both animals had fallen off their bicycles, and crowds could be heard gasping as staff members brandished sticks to try to free the monkey from the bear’s clutches. The incident was called “cruel” and sparked calls for such events to be banned. The zoo responded to the criticism by saying that the bear was wearing a muzzle and that the monkey survived the attack. Three years later, a video emerged appearing to show a worker at the park slapping the face of a tiger cub in a bid to get it to pose for photographs with visitors; that footage also triggered widespread condemnation and led to calls for the venue to be closed. In 2017, the park was included on the South China Morning Post’s list of “terrible zoos,” which highlighted concerns about poor conditions for animals in captivity. The report claimed that staff members at the park in Shanghai had been photographed riding ostriches and forcing elephants


Key Palestinian official in critical condition with covid-19

JERUSALEM — Saeb Erekat, a top Palestinian leader who tested positive for the novel coronavirus this month, was placed on a ventilator Monday and is in critical condition at an Israeli hospital, the facility said in a statement. Erekat, well known to diplomats as the Palestinians’ chief negotiator and the leader most frequently quoted by Western media, was rushed from his West Bank home to a hospital in Tel Aviv on Sunday, then transferred to Jerusalem’s Hadassah Ein Kerem Medical Center. The 65-year-old has a history of respiratory illness and underwent a lung transplant in 2017. Erekat is also fighting a bacterial infection, the hospital said. His daughter tweeted late Sunday that her father was stable in a coronary care unit, where he was receiving high flows of oxygen. But his condition worsened overnight, the hospital said. “His situation is not good,” his brother told Agence France-Presse. Erekat was not the only high-profile Palestinian leader to contract the virus in recent weeks. Longtime activist and official Hanan Ashrawi tested positive for the coronavirus Oct. 11. Erekat has played a central role in Palestinian politics and diplomacy for decades. Since the early 1990s, he has been a high-ranking member of or led negotiating teams in Madrid, Oslo and Washington and at Camp David in Maryland. Since 2015, Erekat has been the secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organization Executive Committee. A member of the ruling Fatah party and a committed proponent of an independent Palestinian state, he is considered one of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s closest allies. “Saeb Erekat has been the central figure in Palestinian negotiations with Israel, or in decisions to stay out of such negotiations, for over two decades,” said Dan Shapiro, former U.S. ambassador to Israel. “Outside of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas himself, there is no one who has had such influence on these decisions.” Erekat was diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis and traveled to the United States for a lung transplant three years ago. He made a nearly complete recovery and maintained a full professional schedule afterward. “I feel as good as I’ve ever felt,” he told a Washington Post reporter during a 2019 interview in Jericho, his hometown. Erekat spent the first weeks of his illness at his family home there. The West Bank has seen more than 4,200 positive cases of the coronavirus, with an estimated death toll of more than 350. Unlike


The pandemic is rewriting the rules of science. But at what cost?

question, Schafer said, is how to move science forward — and change clinicians’ behavior — in the most expeditious way. Under the traditional norms of research, “it can tend to get a little inbred,” said Irene Eckstrand, a retired evolutionary biologist who was scientific director of the federally funded Models of Infectious Disease Agent Study (MIDAS). Modelers who predict the course of an outbreak play a particularly important role during a pandemic by increasing understanding of infectious-disease dynamics through computational, statistical and mathematical models. The MIDAS scientists Eckstrand oversaw had a forward-looking mission — to drop everything and unite against the common threat in the event of an outbreak like today’s. “The idea was to have standing groups of modelers available . . . like a center available to the U.S. government if there is an emergency,” said Natalie Dean, a biostatistics expert at the University of Florida. In recent years, funding for that visionary mission was cut. “We’ve lost that flexibility and a bridge between research and front-line public health,” said Lauren Ancel Meyers, a specialist in network epidemiology at the University of Texas at Austin. As a result, modelers, like other scientists, have been scrambling to fund and ramp up their operations. The upshot, said Donald S. Burke, a professor of health science and policy at the University of Pittsburgh, is a lack of agility that has always haunted public health. “Things that aren’t yet a problem don’t get attention,” he said. “Yesterday’s problem is funded for a few years.” In response to what he calls “ossified and bureaucratic” traditional funding mechanisms, Tyler Cowen, an economist at George Mason University, created Fast Grants through the school’s Mercatus Center, a free market-oriented nonprofit organization. He identified philanthropic funding and put together a panel of 20 anonymous reviewers, half women, half people of color, who promise decisions within two weeks. Out of about 5,000 applications, Fast Grants has been able to underwrite almost 200 projects, Cowen said, typically with $10,000 to $500,000. Katherine Seley-Radtke, a medicinal chemist at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, was one of the recipients. Seley-Radtke, who said she discovered several years ago compounds that acted on coronaviruses, received six months of funding that helped her start new research. The grant was a boon for Seley-Radtke, who said she was stymied a few years ago when she applied for a grant from the National Institutes of


coronavirus was being recognized as an international threat. The nonprofit website uses algorithms to identify relevant studies and feed them to Twitter. “It came out of the recognition that science was too slow to be helpful during outbreaks,” Johansson said. The widespread availability of preprints has allowed some bad science to win undue attention, as evidenced by a spate of prominent retractions. Outbreak Science tackles that problem by providing a structured format for peer review, based on a dozen yes and no questions, so that experts can chime in quickly, providing assessments that allow influential papers to surface. Even traditional outlets have shown that their peer-review process is not foolproof, particularly amid the pressure of a pandemic. In June, the Lancet and the New England Journal of Medicine retracted papers — the Lancet’s on the much-touted drug hydroxychloroquine — after a U.S. company, Surgisphere, declined to share the raw data the studies were based on for an independent audit. Those papers struck some researchers as resulting from haste. “In true peer review, we’d scrub the data,” said Davey Smith, a virologist at the University of California at San Diego. The outcry not only increased distrust in the scientific process but sparked delays in other hydroxychloroquine research, including work Smith was conducting. “It was impossible to sign people up for trials,” he said. “We still don’t know about the effects of hydroxy on early covid,” he added, emphasizing the importance of rigor even as he appreciated the need for speed. Rubin said that large databases are often proprietary, making them inaccessible for review, and that the journal is making greater efforts to find trustworthy sources to vouch for them. “Since that time, we have rejected papers based on not being confident about underlying data,” he said. Such highly visible errors may have multiplied, but they are not new — and their costs can last for years. It took 12 years for the Lancet to retract a now-notorious 1998 paper that implied a link between autism and the vaccine against measles, mumps and rubella. But the damage lingered, creating widespread distrust of vaccinations that continues — and may feed worries about the coronavirus vaccines when they become available. In today’s turmoil, some scientists send their preprints directly to reporters who in turn ask experts to evaluate the research. “I get so many peer-review requests,” said Dean, the biostatistics expert. “I hate to


Coronavirus surge tests U.S. and European resolve

You’re reading an excerpt from the Today’s WorldView newsletter. On both sides of the Atlantic, the pandemic is surging In Europe, new restrictions and shutdowns are coming into place. Last week, the continent overtook the United States in cases per capita. Public health officials warned of an accelerating and possibly “exponential” rise in infections, with confirmed cases in the 53 European nations, as categorized by the World Health Organization, climbing from 6 million to 7 million in just ten days. Without effective countermeasures, the WHO warned, daily coronavirus-related deaths in Europe could rise to five times their April peak. The dramatic resurgence of the virus across the continent punctured whatever illusions Europeans had that they had weathered the worst of the pandemic. Countries like Spain and Italy, which welcomed back holiday goers over the summer, are again among the front-runners in overall cases. “Europe clamped down hard on the pandemic this spring, and the payoff was a summer that was more normal than many people had expected,” wrote my colleague Michael Birnbaum. “But by the end of August, infections were again on the rise, with more cases concentrated among younger people — who perhaps considered the virus a more remote threat. Now it is spreading to their parents and grandparents, and medical systems are beginning to feel the strain.” Increased overall testing partially explains the spike, but experts also fear a steady uptick in deaths and hospitalizations. “We are really very close to a tsunami,” Belgian health minister Frank Vandenbroucke told reporters on Sunday as his country — which has one of the world’s highest per capita infection rates — readied to impose new restrictions. “We no longer control what is happening.” East Asia is not experiencing a similarly brutal wave of infections, a sign that the efficiency and enduring vigilance of the response in countries like Vietnam, South Korea and Taiwan continue to set the standard for how to control the virus. The situation in Europe, though, further complicates the picture: Mask-wearing is perhaps more widespread in Spain than any other European country, but it still suffers one of the worst outbreaks on the continent. Nor does it seem that any society has achieved anything close to herd immunity. “One of the hopes in some quarters had been that herd immunity could provide some protection, with places hard-hit in the spring sheltered from the worst of any resurgence in


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D.C. adds eight ‘high-risk’ states to list requiring arrivals to self-quarantine

Daily caseloads rose during much of October but have plateaued at an elevated rate for about a week. Health experts have warned for months that colder weather could prompt people to spend more time indoors — increasing the potential for the virus’s spread — as outdoor social activities become less appealing. The regional rise has coincided with an outbreak in coronavirus cases at the White House, although local health officials said there is no clear connection. As the holiday season approaches, health experts are warning that small gatherings are the source for much of the virus’s recent spread. Neil J. Sehgal, an assistant professor of health policy and management at the University of Maryland School of Public Health, said caseload trends show that it is “less safe to travel now than it was a month ago” and that “it will be less safe in a month than it is today.” On Maryland’s Eastern Shore, Gov. Larry Hogan (R) announced Monday the creation of a $10 million relief fund to provide support to poultry growers and farmers affected by the pandemic. Hogan made the announcement with Delaware Gov. John Carney (D), who announced the creation of a twin program in his state. Poultry workers in both states have experienced coronavirus outbreaks, which had the ripple effect of hurting the industry. “Far too often our farmers don’t get the respect or the appreciation they deserve, but I want our entire agriculture community to know that your commitment to our state and to our agriculture industry does not go unnoticed,” Hogan said at a news conference in Hurlock after a roundtable discussion with farmers. Under the program announced Monday, the Maryland Department of Agriculture will issue direct payments of $1,000 per poultry house, up to five houses per farm. Growers who lost chickens will be eligible for an extra $1,500 per house. The program will also provide a 15 percent bonus to Maryland farmers who received federal funding in the first round of payments. Federal funding is not available to contract poultry workers. The greater Washington region recorded 1,212 additional coronavirus cases and 28 new deaths Monday. Virginia on Monday added 690 new coronavirus cases and 24 deaths, Maryland added 497 cases and four deaths, and D.C. added 25 cases and no deaths. The region’s number of new cases Monday was the lowest in a single day across the region since Oct. 7.


CDC to passengers and workers: Wear a mask when you are on a plane, train, bus or other public transit

gives the airline industry more cover to press for mask-wearing, one CDC official said. In a statement Monday, the agency said “transmission of the virus through travel has led to — and continues to lead to — interstate and international spread of the virus.” It added: “Local transmission can grow quickly into interstate and international transmission when infected persons travel on public conveyances without wearing a mask and with others who are not wearing masks.” Traveling on airplanes, ships, ferries, trains, subways, buses, taxis, ride-shares and in locations such as airports, train stations and bus or ferry terminals increases the risk of getting and spreading covid-19, the disease caused by the virus. That can happen because people are brought into close contact with others, often for prolonged periods, and because they can be exposed to frequently touched surfaces, the CDC guidance says. “Face masks help prevent people who have COVID-19, including those who are pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic, from spreading the virus to others,” the CDC guidelines say. “Masks are most likely to reduce the spread of COVID-19 when they are widely used by people in public settings.” The recommendations from the CDC come at a time when infection rates are rising in the United States and President Trump’s favored pandemic adviser, Scott Atlas, has railed against masks, falsely claiming they are ineffective. On Saturday, Atlas wrote on Twitter that masks do not work, prompting the social media site to remove the tweet for violating its safety rules for spreading misinformation. Several medical and public-health experts flagged the tweet as dangerous misinformation. Numerous studies have shown the effectiveness of masks in preventing transmission. Before a mandatory mask regimen was put in place this spring at Mass General Brigham, the largest health-care system in Massachusetts, covid-19 cases were increasing exponentially among medical workers, according to a research letter published in JAMA. After the mask rule was imposed, cases steadily declined. Trump has cast doubt on the efficacy of masks for months. Infectious-disease experts have criticized what they have described as flagrant flouting of basic public-health guidance at the White House, such as the failure to wear masks and socially distance. Trump and at least 34 White House aides and other contacts tested positive for the virus, according to an Oct. 7 internal administration document. Some of them are suspected of having become infected at the White House Rose Garden event celebrating the


Shuttered hotel gives way to luxury homes in Alexandria, Va.

Stephen Oparka, an avid cyclist, owns five bikes and often takes long rides on the 18-mile Mount Vernon Trail in Northern Virginia. One such outing took him past the shuttered Crowne Plaza Hotel in Alexandria. A fence had gone up, and a sign announced the coming of Venue, a luxury high-rise condominium overlooking the Potomac River. A couple gazed at the old hotel and buzzed with excitement about the development plans. “They told me: ‘We just got out of the sales center. You should get in there,’ ” Oparka said. As a renter in Crystal City, Oparka had been worrying about the effect of Seattle-based Amazon’s opening a second headquarters in that Arlington, Va., neighborhood. (Jeff Bezos, founder and chief executive of Amazon, owns The Washington Post). He later recalled thinking, “Those changes will be exciting, but in 10 years’ time, what will it be like to live here?” He had already started looking around at new residential construction. So he followed the couple’s advice, and then he purchased a one-bedroom corner unit on the ninth floor of the 13-story building. [Going from townhouse to a real dream home in Jack’s Run] Carr Cos. bought the property and has been redeveloping it, replacing the hotel with 119 condominium units, flanked on two sides by a total of 41 townhouses. The 13-story condominium project is exempted from a height limit for new construction because it is replacing the hotel. Nearly half of the condo units and townhouses have been sold. Base prices for the remaining condos range from $500,000 to $3 million; for the remaining townhouses, from $1.5 million to $2.6 million. Buyers are expected to begin moving in next fall. Floor-to-ceiling windows The entry door opens into the kitchen, which adjoins a living and dining space with a balcony outside. Flanking the open-plan living area are two bedrooms, one on each side. One bedroom has an en suite bathroom; the other has a bathroom steps away. A washer and dryer are in a closet between the bathroom and the second bedroom. The unit has floor-to-ceiling windows. Oparka described some of the choices involved in buying his one-bedroom unit. “I traded a water view for space and price,” he said. “If I want to look at the river I can go to the rooftop.” The rooftop is where there’ll be grill stations, fire pits, outdoor TVs and a lounge that residents


Some countries that avoided initial coronavirus surge see first spike in cases

Republic had 492 new cases per 100,000 people in the past seven days, according to a Washington Post analysis, suggesting one of the fastest-escalating outbreaks in the world. Poland had 140 new cases per 100,000, more than other global hot spots such as the United States and Spain. Other nearby countries in Central and Eastern Europe were also seeing a wave of new cases for the first time, including Slovenia, one of the first countries to declare itself virus-free in May. And there are nations that appeared to have smaller or slower new waves, despite earlier periods of relative respite. In Latin America this summer, Argentina and Paraguay had been islands of stability as the virus raged in neighboring countries. But both have had a steady, recent rise in cases since late summer, prompting new worries and restrictions. This week, the South American Sports Organization confirmed that it would delay the 2022 South American Games in Asunción, Paraguay’s capital, by several months, as the “evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic has become unpredictable.” Sri Lanka, a success story for South Asia earlier in the pandemic, had a spike in new cases earlier this month that led to a stricter curfew and bans on large gatherings. The virus has also spread widely for the first time over recent weeks in some countries in the Middle East. Jordan, in response to rising cases, imposed weekend curfews this month, and Lebanon shut bars and nightclubs. In Tunisia, which some experts suggested had “beaten” the coronavirus, daily case numbers have reached record highs. The country, which had ordered a countrywide lockdown earlier in the pandemic, is now using curfews to fight the virus. In some cases, the resurgence of the virus appeared to come down to political factors. Judyth Twigg, a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University who specializes in global health, pointed to public fatigue in the face of government restrictions in the Czech Republic and other parts of Europe. “These countries put strict lockdowns in place back in the spring precisely because they knew their health-care systems couldn’t handle a surge of moderate or severe cases,” Twigg said. “But as the months dragged on, populist leaders responded to public pressure to reopen economies and societies, and sure enough, the virus found its way in.” Similar surges have not been recorded in some countries that undertook proactive measures, such as Taiwan and Vietnam, while numerous


Investigators find no definitive cause of California dive boat fire that killed 34 people last year

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — A 13-month investigation into a recreational dive boat that burned and sank over Labor Day weekend last year has failed to find a definitive cause of the deadly fire, which killed 34 people aboard. During a virtual hearing Tuesday in Washington, investigators told the National Transportation Safety Board that the Conception, the 75-foot dive boat, was too damaged when recovered from the sea bed to pinpoint the source of the fire. But interviews with survivors and previous passengers on the boat, along with comparisons to its sister dive boat, suggested that the fire began where people charged their cellphones — in the common salon area of the boat, a deck above where 33 passengers and one crew member slept and perished. Those chargers had caused a fire on the Vision, the Conception’s sister vessel, on a previous trip. But that fire was quickly extinguished because it was detected early. Investigators also found there were no smoke detectors in the salon; they were not required by federal regulations governing the operation of small commercial passenger vessels. One staff recommendation is to require smoke detectors in common areas in the future; had such devices been present, they probably would have prompted an earlier evacuation of Conception passengers and saved lives. Investigators also found that the Conception’s crew did not follow requirements for having someone work as an overnight roving patrol, another measure that could have led to a more rapid firefighting effort and evacuation. One investigator told the board this failure “directly led to the high number of casualties.” A relatively novice crew — one member had been with the boat for just two months — was also poorly trained in fire safety, investigators found. The dive boat passengers were not given a required briefing on arrival and were left for hours to navigate the safety procedures through a “welcome aboard” card. “I would say that complacency but also a lack of imagination by the crew and the Coast Guard played a part,” said Bruce Landsberg, the NTSB’s vice chairman. “No one could imagine this happening.” The fire aboard the Conception, an institution here among recreational divers, was among the nation’s worst sea disasters in recent history. It also was the second mass-casualty event in as many years in this city stretching between steep mountains and the sea, where nearly two dozen people died in devastating post-wildfire mudslides


Joe Biden’s love of Amtrak tells us how he would govern

those trains in their stead. Part joint-stock company, part socialized utility, Amtrak would be responsible for patching together a new nationwide passenger network and running it at a profit — something no railroad had achieved in decades. Congress would cover operating losses temporarily until Amtrak could put trains back in the black. Amtrak was the culmination of a long debate over how to fix the passenger rail system. The hybrid solution of a government corporation that would “not be an agency or establishment of the United States government” assuaged Congressional Republicans wary of nationalizing trains and Democrats opposed to rescuing share-held enterprise. Amtrak, according to New York Times reporter Joseph Albright, was part of a “gigantic experiment in special interest socialism” that allowed the government to intervene in the rail industry to save it, then pull out whenever it chose. With its futile profit mandate, tenuous subsidy and ragtag roster of hand-me-down trains, Amtrak struck many as a joke: a bleak parody of hapless bureaucracy and sad remnant of America’s storied railroad past. Even an Amtrak customer brochure implored riders to “please be patient. It’s going to take time.” Against daunting odds (and Nixon’s own cynical belief that the railroad would collapse after he left office and was no longer on the hook), Amtrak survived. By slashing 50 percent of its inherited routes, Amtrak doubled down on a bare-bones system until passengers began returning. Amtrak purchased new locomotives, refurbished coach interiors and began slapping its jaunty American flag paint scheme on all trains. Between 1973 and 1976, Amtrak acquired most of the Northeast Corridor between Boston and Washington from the bankrupt Penn Central, which could no longer maintain the high-speed line’s tracks, bridges and catenary. “There has been a tremendous improvement in the service … as compared with the time railroad passenger trains were being operated by private rail companies,” Biden reflected on the Senate floor in 1985. “Morale among workers has improved, track and equipment have undergone a multibillion dollar modernization, and trains are better than ever.” For Biden, Amtrak represented the flawed but fixable handiwork of a federal government willing to rescue free enterprise when it flopped: a corporate bailout — but one designed to further the common good by sustaining an industry that deserved public investment. In keeping with the civic corporatism that characterized the Delaware Way, Amtrak would atone for capitalistic neglect to make free enterprise


Transcript: Coronavirus: Tracking COVID-19

sequence all of those viruses pretty quickly, get a result, you know, in 48 to 72 hours, you would know if they are the same virus, the same letters are identical across, then that's likely a spreading event, and that might be support for a closure. Whereas if they're all different, that's more consistent with just three random inoculations acquisitions from the community. You would just isolate those cases and their families, and you could probably keep the facility open. MR. COSTA: What have you discovered about the virus in the United States. How many versions of COVID-19 are in this country? MR. COOPER: That's an important question. So, this gets tricky. In the end--right?--there's actually still only one virus. There's really only one SARS-CoV-2 virus, and they're basically all functionally the same, still the same bad actor that we first discovered back in January. But over time, that population of viruses affecting humans around the planet has started to accumulate subtle changes at about two changes per month. So, now that we're in month 10 of this pandemic, if you compare any two viruses at random from around the globe, they'll differ by about 20 letters. And as far as we know, none of those 20 differences are likely to affect how severe the virus is; it's still the same virus. But we can use those little fingerprints, those 20 differences on average, to determine where they came from and whether it's part of a local cluster or maybe it had been introduced from travel. MR. COSTA: Have we seen genomic sequencing help doctors in previous outbreaks with different viruses? MR. COOPER: Yeah, we certainly have, Bob. So, it's been used to great success in the fairly famous recent Ebola outbreak. And really full credit to a large international team to implement that technology and deploy it on the ground to trace the spread of epidemics clustering in the Ebola outbreak. And that was ultimately successful. It's also being used sort of episodically, maybe periodically, in hospitals around the country, including ours, for a variety of pathogens to determine whether a cluster of cases in a hospital might be due to spread within that hospital. And that's one of the major applications that we had been doing already here at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center with bacterial pathogens. So, in some sense, we were kind of primed to


do this when COVID hit. MR. COSTA: At Pitt's Medical Center, Dr. Cooper, how does that work? If someone comes in, they get tested for the virus, and then do you ask them about if they will participate in genomic sequencing? Are there any privacy issues involved? MR. COOPER: Yeah, so that's a tricky question. In general, the work that my lab does is completely de-identified. But I work with a close clinical--work closely with a clinical team who has access to patient records. We do require a need to ask for, or consent, for sampling. Because my lab, which is an academic lab, can--is only working with de-identified samples, what we can do is provide kind of a neutral and unambiguous evaluation of whether the viruses are the same or are they different. To ultimately get that data back to the patients requires coordination both with their treating physician but also with the county public health. And you probably know that in managing this pandemic, that data, that handoff with the public health office, is important for managing public considerations. And so, that usually--that permission usually is granted quite quickly. MR. COSTA: Everybody wants to see this virus eradicated. But I'm a political reporter and I cover how Washington is funding things at the CDC. And I've studied a little bit about the funding of genetic sequencing, and you see the United Kingdom is putting a lot of money into this. Have you seen, in your view, enough support for your project and others like it from the federal government? And if not, what needs to be done, in your view? MR. COOPER: So, regrettably, the funding has been--really been lacking in its coordination, right? So, there's no question that the United States has allocated many dollars for research to fight COVID, particularly in some heroic efforts to support vaccine development. But this kind of epidemiolocal backbone and network was underfunded coming into this epidemic and remains underfunded as it proceeds. And this tool that we have that, you know, frankly, the United States was at the lead of developing, has been implemented incredibly well by a number of countries. So, you mentioned the United Kingdom. Actually, Australia is in the lead globally in terms of the number of virus sequences per cases. They've actually sequenced about 45 percent--they virus-sequenced from 45 percent of all cases in the country


us in the community the most is how many of us were ready to go out of the gate to develop and employ technologies that we basically already had to help, and how ineffective we've been able to apply them at a nationwide scale. I would say that's been the biggest surprise. Beyond that, the virus has behaved about like what we thought and based on what we knew about other coronaviruses. It evolves slowly. It basically looks the same, with the exception of these minor changes. It's super transmissible. And I guess probably the biggest surprise, I guess, from the virus perspective, is just how transmissible it is and how much variation there is among patients in how many new cases they generate, right? So how many--it seems that, you know, 80 percent of new cases come from 20 percent of infections. And that amount of variation is a bit surprising and certainly makes it harder for all of us to understand, because no two infections are going to be the same in terms of their rate of transmission. MR. COSTA: But, Dr. Cooper, just a quick follow-up. When you talked about the failures in terms of the response to the virus, what do you mean? What were you referring to? MR. COOPER: Well, what I mean is, in terms of my area, we really had hoped we could use this sequencing technology at a broader scale like other countries had. And we were aware--you know, we're a global scientific community. We saw what UK was doing. We saw what Australia was doing. We think that we in the United States can certainly do the same thing, and we'd like to do that. That's what I mean. It's sort of a lack of communication at the--at the state and federal level to employ these technologies at broad scale. It is great that we are employing it locally to take care of our local medical communities, and I think we're doing a very good job of it in places where you have a strong academic medical center like UPMC. But there's an opportunity to share this broadly. MR. COSTA: Dr. Cooper, really appreciate your time this morning. Best of luck with all of your endeavors as you fight this virus. MR. COOPER: Thank you very much, Bob. It's been a pleasure. MR. COSTA: And please stay with us, everyone watching.


Jamal Khashoggi’s fiancee and pro-democracy group he founded sue Saudi crown prince in his slaying

His supporters recently remobilized DAWN, a project they said was dear to him, to expose abuses by governments in the Middle East, and in particular U.S.-allied nations such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt — three of the Trump administration’s closest Arab partners. Khashoggi was killed Oct. 2, 2018, after visiting Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Istanbul to obtain documents that would allow him to marry. He walked into the mission despite the risk. In the months that preceded that visit, he had been writing columns for The Washington Post that were sharply critical of the crown prince, who effectively rules Saudi Arabia and has carried out a harsh crackdown on rivals and dissidents. The journalist’s death and dismemberment was first revealed by Turkey’s government. The killing set off a wave of international revulsion and calls to ostracize Saudi leadership. The kingdom prosecuted people it said were Khashoggi’s killers in a trial broadly criticized by human rights groups, which noted that court sessions were closed to the public and that no senior officials were held to account. President Trump has remained one of Mohammed’s most steadfast defenders. “I was able to get Congress to leave him alone,” Trump said of Mohammed, according to a new book by journalist Bob Woodward. In the lawsuit, DAWN and Cengiz’s attorneys with the Jenner & Block and Gill law firms allege that Saudi officials banned Khashoggi from speaking and writing publicly after he criticized then president-elect Trump at a Washington think tank on Nov. 10, 2016. “Furthermore, after Mr. Khashoggi warned on Twitter that Saudis should be wary of Trump, Defendant al-Qahtani informed him that he was ‘not allowed to tweet, not allowed to write, not allowed to talk’ and added ‘You can’t do anything anymore — you’re done,’ ” the suit alleged, referring to Saud al-Qahtani, an influential media adviser to the crown prince. Khashoggi’s work in the United States is critical to the success or failure of the lawsuit, which must establish that events in any conspiracy leading to his death occurred in this country and that a U.S. judge has jurisdiction. Foreign leaders are typically immune from civil suits in U.S. courts while in office. However, the plaintiffs sued under the Alien Tort Statute and a 1991 law called the Torture Victim Protection Act, which provides recourse in U.S. courts for violations of international law and for victims of


Diner-in-chief: How the Bidens might eat and entertain in and out of the White House

“a man of the people, and his taste in food reflects that proletarian approach,” he says. The proof could be found in the couple’s pantry and refrigerator, stocked with staples familiar to shoppers of suburban grocery stores, Freeman says, including peanut butter and grape jelly, sliced deli cheese, eggs and Haagen-Dazs ice cream. The list of foods the Bidens asked to keep on hand also indicated more health-conscious eating, including apples, red grapes, both Diet Coke and Coke Zero (the former vice president’s pick), Special K cereal and low-fat yogurt. The couple’s kitchen dynamic is traditional, too: Jill is the cook in the family, she has said. Joe’s only cooking feat is pasta with a jarred sauce, she said during an appearance on the “Rachael Ray Show.” By her account, she enjoys it, especially with her family around, music on and a glass of wine by the stove. Food has long been a powerful tool for politicians to shape their public personas. For Joe Biden, an ice cream obsession is a relatable one — and it offers chances for the candidate to connect with voters, with a side of humor. Last week, Biden’s Twitter account featured a short video of the candidate double-fisting a Dairy Queen order. In it, he playfully flips over an open-top Blizzard shake, as if to demonstrate its thickness. And ahead of the presidential debate, he took a jibe at President Trump’s baseless accusation that he was taking performance-enhancing drugs by tweeting a picture of his booster of choice: a pint of peanut butter and chocolate from Ohio-based Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream. This love for a frozen treat is genuine, says Scott Mulhauser, a Democratic consultant who was Biden’s deputy chief of staff during his 2012 vice-presidential campaign. And indulging it is an opportunity, too. “From Dairy Queens to local ice cream parlors, stopping for a scoop is not only a terrific way to cap off long days of campaigning, it’s also a great way for him to embrace iconic brands and beloved small businesses across the country,” Mulhauser says. For Washington restaurateurs, interest in the dining habits of the inhabitants of the White House isn’t abstract. The Obamas were known for visiting the city’s hottest eateries as a couple, and the former first lady frequently dined out with friends. By contrast, the Trumps’ only known foray outside the confines of the White House has been


National Zoo’s baby panda is growing, crawling and ‘packing on the pounds’

Keepers at the National Zoo in Washington said the cutest black and white furball — their new giant panda cub — is gaining weight, crawling and, well, being playful like a baby. Michael Brown-Palsgrove, the zoo’s Asia Trail curator, said the baby cub at first was mostly tucked under his mother Mei Xiang’s armpit or between her forepaws “to help keep him warm,” but the 8-week-old cub is growing and changing. Brown-Palsgrove said the cub doesn’t nurse as much, and he’s “packing on the pounds.” With more pounds and his thick, woolly fur, the cub is able to better regulate his own body temperature. Keepers said his favorite spot for sleeping is on the floor of the den next to his mama. The two will “playfully nibble at one another.” The panda cub is reaching his milestones — crawling to exercise his muscles and improve his coordination, officials said. And when he’s about three months old, keepers expect he will take his first steps. Zoo officials said caretakers of the pandas have also noticed that Mei Xiang will go for her own snack and leave her cub in the den alone while she’s out in the large enclosure area where she eats bamboo. Last week, zookeepers said she got one of her favorite foods — leaf eater biscuits (yum!) — from a rubber tub and took it back into the den for what keepers said was a “midnight snack.” At times, mama panda takes her young cub out of the den and into the yard, which keepers call brief “field trips.” Zookeepers said that in the coming weeks they expect the field trips to explore the yard to become longer and more frequent. The cub has been called a “miracle” because his mom at 22 was the oldest giant panda to give birth in the United States. Her baby was Washington’s first giant panda cub in five years. The Asia Trail and the giant panda exhibit are temporarily closed to visitors because of scheduled repaving of walkways, officials said. The best way to see the panda is on the PandaCam.


Trump administration and Russia near deal to freeze nuclear warheads, extend New START pact

would avoid the total collapse of the U.S.-Russian arms control system and would give Washington and Moscow time to continue to engage in further complex and lengthy talks.” A warhead freeze was a condition demanded by the Trump administration, which on Friday rejected Russian President Vladimir Putin’s offer of a one-year extension of New START, a 10-year accord that places limits on the two countries’ nuclear warheads. Putin’s proposal Friday made no mention of a mutual freeze on nuclear stockpiles, suggesting instead a simple one-year extension of the treaty with no conditions while Moscow and Washington negotiate what comes next. U.S. national security adviser Robert C. O’Brien responded in a statement that the offer was a “non-starter,” adding, “We hope that Russia will reevaluate its position before a costly arms race ensues.” Moscow seemingly acquiesced Tuesday. The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the country “proposes extending New START for one year, and at the same time, it stands ready, together with the U.S., to assume a political obligation on freezing a number of the nuclear warheads possessed by the parties for this period.” “This item can be put into effect strictly and exclusively with the understanding that the freezing of warheads would not involve any extra requirements on the part of the U.S.,” the statement continued. It added that if Washington agrees, then “the time bought by extending New START can be used for conducting comprehensive bilateral negotiations on future control over nuclear missile weapons.” The 2010 treaty, which expires in February, restricts the number of deployed strategic nuclear warheads and certain launch platforms. If the treaty is not extended or replaced, the world’s two biggest nuclear powers will return to an era without substantive restraints on their arsenals for the first time in decades. (START is an acronym for Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.) The treaty includes a clause that allows the leaders of both nations to extend the agreement by five years without requiring ratification. Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has said he would agree to the five-year extension if elected. Putin has also said he would agree to the extension, and in an interview with state television this month he said Biden’s willingness to prolong New START “is a serious signal for our possible future interaction.” The Trump administration’s envoy for arms control, Marshall Billingslea, initially insisted that China participate in talks. He wanted any


E.U. considering ban on veggie ‘burger’ and other meaty terms for plant-based food

Veggie burgers and vegetarian sausages could face an unappetizing rebranding in the European Union as discs and fingers, with the European Parliament set to vote Wednesday on a proposal that would keep meat labels off non-meat alternatives. The potential ban on terms that suggest vegetarian alternatives to meat products has been pushed by Europe’s meat industry. Proponents have already won battles to curtail some vegetarian labels in the vast European market: Soy “milk” is illegal across the 27-nation bloc. Veggie “burgers” have been outlawed in France. The measure has drawn an outcry from European environmentalists, who say that the rebranding could dissuade veggie-curious meat eaters from substituting a plant-based patty between their hamburger buns next time they fire up the grill. Proponents of the ban say that labels’ meanings should be clear and that consumers should not be lulled into thinking that processed veggie sausages are any more healthful than the porky originals. Some of them also say that people can accidentally buy vegetarian products while meaning to buy the meat-based ones when the packaging is unclear. Similar bans have been enacted in several U.S. states “Replacing meat with a cocktail of chemicals, an ultra-processed product, this is unacceptable,” said Pekka Pesonen, secretary general of COPA-COGECA, an industry group representing European farmers. Opponents say that such a ban would actually cause more consumer confusion because the term “veggie burger” has been established for decades, and those who buy them actively seek them out. They fear that if meat alternatives are stripped of their cutlet-y labels, they could be exiled to the specialty diet sections of grocery stores, farther from the meat they aim to supplant. Further vegetarian innovation might be stifled, some say. Veggie burger labels are “for consumers who like meat, who want to eat products that they can eat on a bun, that they can put on a barbecue,” said Alex Holst, policy manager at the Good Food Institute Europe, which has been fighting the ban. “For them, it’s important to have a name that indicates how they can use the product.” The measure being considered by the European Parliament would ban terms such as “steak,” “escalope” and “hamburger” for products that aren’t made of meat. A separate measure would extend the ban to any term that likens vegetarian products such as plant-based milks, creams and cheeses to dairy ones, like “butter substitute” or “cream-style.” “I think a


The Daily 202: Trump is ‘tired’ of talking about covid-19. But he cannot avoid the virus. And he cannot help himself.

with Mariana Alfaro President Trump’s campaign manager demanded Monday afternoon that the Commission on Presidential Debates change the topics that will be covered during the final showdown between the candidates. NBC News’s Kristen Welker announced last week that she plans to devote 15 minutes apiece to these six areas on Thursday night in Nashville: fighting the coronavirus, American families, race in America, climate change, national security and leadership. In an open letter, Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien argued that this will mean there is insufficient discussion about foreign policy, which in normal times has been a focus of one of the three presidential debates. Stepien wrote, without evidence, that Joe Biden, who served eight years as vice president and chaired the Foreign Relations Committee during his 36 years in the Senate, is “desperate to avoid conversations about his own foreign policy record.” As the United States recorded more than 58,000 new coronavirus infections on Monday, and the death toll passed 220,000, S “They’re getting tired of the pandemic — aren’t they? You turn on CNN. That’s all they cover: ‘Covid, covid, pandemic. Covid, covid, covid,’” the president said. “They’re trying to talk people out of voting. People aren’t buying it, CNN, you dumb bastards.” Trump spent the weekend attacking Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) over her coronavirus lockdowns in a battleground state where she is more popular than him. The president spent Monday going after Anthony Fauci after the government’s top infectious-disease expert said during an interview that aired Sunday on CBS’s “60 Minutes” that he was “absolutely not” surprised that the president contracted covid-19 based on the way he was behaving. During a conference call for campaign staffers that was intended to be a pep talk, which he dialed into from his hotel room in Nevada and which reporters were invited to join, Trump called Fauci a “disaster.” “People are tired of covid,” Trump said. “People are saying, ‘Whatever, just leave us alone.’ People are tired of hearing Fauci and all these idiots. … He’s been here for, like, 500 years. … Every time he goes on television, there’s always a bomb, but there’s a bigger bomb if you fire him.” Polls show that Fauci is far more trusted than Trump as a source of information about the coronavirus, and most Americans remain quite worried about getting it and disapprove of the president’s handling of the crisis. It seemed


be about the economy and what they say would be the negative effects of a Biden victory, with a campaign focus on Pennsylvania, Michigan, North Carolina and Florida. They see the coronavirus — and the president’s handling of the pandemic — as their biggest political weakness, and Biden’s top advisers agree. But Trump continues to call attention to the outbreak.” Even if Trump could maintain message discipline, four polls illuminate why he cannot change the subject: A Washington Post-ABC News poll of North Carolina, released this morning, shows Biden at 49 percent and Trump at 48 percent. The head-to-head numbers are closely linked to perceptions of the president’s job performance and handling of the pandemic. Trump’s approval rating is 47 percent. “Registered voters in North Carolina disapprove of the way the president has dealt with the crisis, by 53 percent to 45 percent, with 47 percent saying they strongly disapprove. But overall, they are notably less critical of the president on this issue than the country as a whole. Among likely voters in North Carolina who approve of how Trump is handling the coronavirus outbreak, 95 percent support Trump; among those who disapprove, the same percentage support Biden,” per Dan Balz, Scott Clement and Emily Guskin. A large national poll released Monday by the Public Religion Research Institute asked Americans how much they trust eight potential sources of information about the pandemic. Reflecting the country’s polarization, only one is trusted “a lot” by a majority of Americans. Fauci is second on the list, trusted a lot by 49 percent of the country. Trump was last: Only 14 percent said they trust Trump a lot to provide accurate information and advice regarding the pandemic. Also reflecting polarization, only 39 percent of Republicans said they consider the coronavirus a “critical issue,” compared with 85 percent of Democrats. “Republicans and Democrats seem to be living in different countries,” said PRRI chief executive Robert Jones. A New York Times-Siena College poll out this morning shows Biden leading Trump by nine points among likely voters. Biden is favored to lead on combatting the coronavirus by 12 points. A 51 percent majority of voters said they believe that the worst of the pandemic is yet to come, compared with 37 percent who say they think the worst is over. “Among voters over 65, a bloc that has drifted away from Mr. Trump, the difference was even


A NASA spacecraft touches an asteroid 200 million miles from Earth in agency’s first sample return attempt

solar system, which scientists believe could shed light on how the universe was formed and how water ended up on Earth. As big as the Empire State Building, Bennu looks like a giant, spinning walnut that’s more than 4.5 billion years old and believed to be laden with a trove of scientific riches, including carbon and water locked inside clay materials. “These asteroids are really relics of the earliest material that formed the planets in the solar system,” Lori Glaze, NASA’s planetary science division director, told reporters Monday. “They hold the key information to unlocking our understanding of how the solar system formed, and how it evolved over time.” The mission began in 2016, when an Atlas V rocket launched the OSIRIS-REx (which stands for Origins-Spectral Interpretation-Resource Identification-Security-Regolith Explorer) spacecraft from Cape Canaveral. It arrived at Bennu two years later, and soon scientists realized the asteroid was different in one key respect than they had anticipated: It was far rockier, making landing and sample extraction far more difficult. “It’s not the sandy beach we all hoped we would see initially,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA’s associate administrator for the science mission directorate. Instead: “Rocks on rocks on rocks.” NASA and Lockheed Martin spent two years studying the surface, hunting for the best place to touch down as well as studying the asteroid. “Exploration and surprise have a lot in common,” Zurbuchen said. “And this was no exception.” Ultimately, the team settled on a crater called Nightingale about the size of a tennis court where there is material that could be extracted by the spacecraft’s arm. While it would be a first for NASA, two Japanese spacecraft, Hayabusa and Hayabusa2, have collected asteroid samples, with the second mission to return to Earth later this year. Those were relatively small samples, compared with what NASA hopes to collect. But Glaze said the countries are working together, “exchanging portions of each other’s samples so that we can maximize the science.” Scientists are also interested in Bennu because it is one of a family of asteroids that “present a hazard to the Earth,” as Ellen Stofan, director of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, put it in a NASA broadcast. Scientists estimate there is a 1 in 2,700 chance it could hit Earth sometime between the years 2175 and 2199. That could change, but NASA said it is keeping a close eye on it.


The Daily 202: It is probably too late for Senate Republicans to distance themselves from Trump

downplayed or dismissed conservative opposition to spending trillions more on a stimulus, saying he wants to spend even more money than Pelosi’s latest $2.2 trillion proposal. Many Republicans had already balked at spending more than $1 trillion on this round of relief.” But Trump was dismissive when he was asked Tuesday about McConnell’s resistance to calling a vote on a package so big. “He’ll be onboard if something comes,” the president said on Fox News. “Not every Republican agrees with me, but they will.” “In a matter of weeks, one of the most closely watched human experiments in history will start to report early results, with data on prospective coronavirus vaccines possibly coming this month or in November from the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and the biotechnology company Moderna,” Carolyn Johnson reports. “Amid the turmoil, chaos and misinformation that have defined the U.S. response to the pandemic, progress toward a vaccine, or vaccines, has been steady, reassuring and scientific. Political meddling has so far been largely deflected. Drug companies, working closely with the U.S. government and fueled by an infusion of more than $10 billion of taxpayer money, have developed, tested and scaled up a half-dozen potential vaccines at unprecedented speed. And on Thursday, independent advisers to the Food and Drug Administration will convene their first full-day meeting to lay the groundwork for their coming consequential deliberations on whether to recommend specific vaccines for public use. Those votes are not binding, but the FDA typically follows the recommendations of its advisory committees.” The CDC says two-thirds of them are from covid-19 and the rest are from other causes. New federal data show the virus has taken a disproportionate toll on Latinos and Blacks, as we've written about extensively, but researchers also found, more surprisingly, that the contagion has struck 25- to 44-year-olds very hard. "Their ‘excess death’ rate is up 26.5 percent over previous years, the largest change for any age group. It is not clear whether that spike is caused by the shift in covid-19 deaths toward younger people between May and August or deaths from other causes,” Lenny Bernstein reports.“The United States is in the midst of another sharp increase in coronavirus infections, this one centered in the upper Midwest and Plains states. The seven-day rolling average of cases, considered the most accurate barometer, is near 60,000 per day. At least 220,000 people have died of covid-19 so far


USA Wrestling will skip world championships because of coronavirus concerns

1 concern for USA Wrestling,” Bruce Baumgartner, president of USA Wrestling and a four-time Olympian, announced Tuesday night. “After reviewing updated medical, scientific and government data, and providing an opportunity for athlete and stakeholder input, the Executive Committee concluded that it would not be in the best interest of all involved to organize a delegation to travel to and participate in the senior world championships in Serbia.” The unanimous decision by the federation’s executive committee came after the committee surveyed 117 athletes. USA Wrestling last skipped the competition in 2002, when it was held in Iran. Wrestlers cannot compete outside a national federation at world championships. USA Wrestling’s national championships were held in Iowa this month, and past world champions Kyle Snyder and Adeline Gray were among the competitors. Snyder was forced out of the event with an injury; Gray won and had planned to compete in Belgrade. If Snyder recovered in time, the world championships would have given him a chance to avenge a rare finish somewhere other than the very top of the podium. Snyder, who at age 20 in 2016 became the youngest American wrestler to win an Olympic gold medal, won gold at the world championships in 2015 and 2017 but took silver in 2018 and bronze in 2019. The U.S. Olympic trials will be held in April at Penn State University, with the rescheduled Tokyo Olympics set to begin in July. No full wrestling world championships had originally been scheduled for 2020, but the pandemic ended the practice of holding worlds in the fall of an Olympic year only for non-Olympic weight classes. After the Tokyo Games were postponed this past spring, United World Wrestling announced in July that there would be a full December competition in Belgrade if the pandemic allowed. It required eight of the world’s top-10 ranked teams to agree to participate along with a minimum of 70 percent of the participating countries from 2019. Junior worlds recently were canceled, but Nedad Lalovic, UWW’s president, said the group was “cautiously optimistic about wrestling’s return in December.” Adam Kilgore contributed to this report. More sports coverage from The Post: A Japanese Olympic swimmer was caught having an affair. He’s now suspended for the rest of 2020. Negotiations with Nassar victims held up by insurers, USOPC claims in lawsuit Nike was born on the track. Scandal and the pandemic may change its running business.


Suicide rates during the pandemic remained unchanged. Here’s what we can learn from that.

have been an uptick in patients with suicidal thoughts or attempts. Along with a team of researchers, I set out to try to find out what was happening. But we would have to wait. Death by suicide takes longer to be reported and finalized than most other causes of death. Every suicide death is investigated and its final cause directly adjudicated by a medical examiner, making the process slower but ultimately more reliable. It turns out that both I and my crosstown colleague were mistaken. Suicide rates in Massachusetts neither rose nor fell last spring. Suicide rates did not change from expected rates at all. Just to be sure, we performed what researchers call a sensitivity analysis — a fancy way of saying we asked the same question in a number of ways to make sure we were not deluding ourselves. We compared this year’s rates in March, April and May with those from last year and other years. Whether we considered the months individually or combined, year by year, there was just no change. We ran the numbers again, this time assuming that each of the few dozen deaths in 2020 that occurred during March through May in which the cause of death was yet to be determined were in fact suicides. The scenario was unlikely, but one we had to consider. No matter how we looked, we kept finding the same thing. Suicide rates did not budge during the stay-at-home advisory period (March 23 until a phased reopening began in late May) in Massachusetts, which had one of the longest such periods of any state in the nation. Studying the effects of stay-at-home advisories is still in its infancy, and what is learned will help inform the decisions of public health officials as they consider measures to address future infectious-disease outbreaks or another covid-19 spike. Some worries about stay-at-home periods will turn out to be overblown, others not. Concerns about the limitations of remote learning for children increasingly appear to be justified, for instance, and concerted efforts to address the problem are urgently needed. But government officials, the media and others need to remember that anecdotes and assumptions are not the same as robust public health data. Early in the pandemic, media reports — rumors, really — suggested that few covid-19 patients taking the drug remdesivir were dying. Earlier this month, data from actual studies showed that the


the cause of death was yet to be determined were in fact suicides. The scenario was unlikely, but one we had to consider. No matter how we looked, we kept finding the same thing. Suicide rates did not budge during the stay-at-home advisory period (March 23 until a phased reopening began in late May) in Massachusetts, which had one of the longest such periods of any state in the nation. Studying the effects of stay-at-home advisories is still in its infancy, and what is learned will help inform the decisions of public health officials as they consider measures to address future infectious-disease outbreaks or another covid-19 spike. Some worries about stay-at-home periods will turn out to be overblown, others not. Concerns about the limitations of remote learning for children increasingly appear to be justified, for instance, and concerted efforts to address the problem are urgently needed. But government officials, the media and others need to remember that anecdotes and assumptions are not the same as robust public health data. Early in the pandemic, media reports — rumors, really — suggested that few covid-19 patients taking the drug remdesivir were dying. Earlier this month, data from actual studies showed that the drug has no effect on mortality. And then there were the president’s musings on the “miracle” drug hydroxychloroquine and other supposed solutions so deranged that they don’t warrant repeating. Many well-informed and well-meaning people fell for the cognitive trap that if something rings true, it must be true — and thus assumed that suicide deaths were destined to rise during shutdowns. Certainly, more study on this subject is needed. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently reported, “During late June, 40% of U.S. adults reported struggling with mental health or drug use,” with 1 in 4 people between the ages of 18 and 24 saying they had “seriously considered suicide” in the previous 30 days. There are legitimate questions to be raised about the pandemic’s toll on mental health. Some of the impact may have more to do with the continuing inability to control the virus, and with the ensuing economic fallout, than with Americans’ staying home for weeks and even months in the spring. That said, a rise in suicides or other suffering resulting from temporary stay-home advisories is neither guaranteed nor inevitable. To get this right, both now and in the future, we have to keep asking


DHS led the way on past health crises, but it has been less visible during the coronavirus outbreak

After the U.S. coronavirus death toll surpassed 200,000 people, acting homeland security secretary Chad Wolf called a news conference to announce the arrests of 128 immigrants in California. Then he traveled to Philadelphia to promote billboards plastered with the mug shots of fugitive immigrants. And he repeatedly criticized social justice protesters in Portland, Ore., on Twitter as they surrounded a federal building there. He did not tweet: Wear a mask. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has a history of helping to lead the U.S. response to public-health threats such as swine flu and Ebola, standing with the nation’s top medical experts to emphasize that the threat to the nation is severe. But during the months-long coronavirus pandemic that has affected much of American society, one of the country’s largest federal agencies has instead publicly promoted immigrants, anarchists and smugglers as more dangerous to the United States than a virus with a death toll that experts say could double to 410,000 by the end of the year. “I don’t know what role, if any, DHS is playing” in the coronavirus response, said Janet Napolitano, President Barack Obama’s first DHS secretary and a former governor of Arizona. “They’re kind of MIA.” Wolf, who led a news conference Tuesday to talk about human trafficking, did not take questions afterward. “We’re going to keep it focused on human trafficking today. Thank you,” he said as he left a U.S. Coast Guard building on the DHS campus in Southeast D.C. As the national agency in charge of domestic security, DHS typically plays a major role coordinating emergency supplies and amplifying urgent health messages such as the need for wearing masks and social distancing, former senior officials said. DHS can use its gravitas as an anti-terrorism agency to make clear to the public — and even to the president — that the threat is real, especially at a time when President Trump and others have played down the threat. After contracting the virus in recent weeks and recovering from a brief illness, Trump tweeted: “Don’t be afraid of covid.” DHS spokesman Chase Jennings said in a statement Tuesday that the agency “has taken unprecedented measures to combat COVID-19, including limiting foreign travel, distributing PPE, securing the supply chain for PPE, and dispersing billions of dollars in COVID-19 relief.” He said criticism of the DHS response is “shameful” and ignores “the robust number of DHS public


reports outlining DHS actions to combat COVID-19.” Napolitano said DHS led the way in 2009, mere months after Obama took office, when swine flu began to infect millions of Americans, hospitalizing more than 270,000, according to estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The swine flu killed nearly 12,500 before a vaccine brought it under control the next year. Training and pandemic guides from the administration of President George W. Bush had helped the Obama administration prepare for the outbreak, she said. But one of the most important things she did, in conjunction with the Department of Health and Human Services, Napolitano said, was to appear at media briefings and on the national news to emphasize that people should stay home if they were ill, and should wash their hands and cover their sneezes to prevent spread. She said she has seen little of that from DHS this year. “It’s the third-largest department of the federal government, it’s got massive responsibilities and capabilities, and they should all have been marshaled on this pandemic,” she said. DHS took a similar role when Ebola surfaced in 2014; officials scrambled to keep the deadly pathogen out of the United States and to inform the public about the virus’s spread. Wolf did appear at White House task force briefings, when they were being held. DHS has promoted mask-wearing and other precautions on its website and has disseminated information, including through the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which responds to disasters such as hurricanes. DHS also produces a weekly report outlining its efforts to combat the virus. Last week’s mentioned an updated question-and-answer list and seizures of counterfeit masks. But these have not been the attention-grabbing messages on the Twitter feeds of Wolf and his deputy Ken Cuccinelli, or on the DHS’s main Twitter account, which has 2.1 million followers. Wolf rarely mentions coronavirus on Twitter, though he sent well-wishes to Trump and first lady Melania Trump when they recently contracted the virus. Cuccinelli has pointed out the threats of the spread of the novel coronavirus at the border, which has been effectively shut down under the Trump administration’s emergency measures. He also mentioned a crowded water park in Wuhan, the Chinese city where the virus was first detected, saying in August: “What could go wrong?” But DHS officials have not trained that critical lens inward, such as toward Trump’s rallies or elsewhere in


Is the government doing enough to protect air travelers?

Has the government done enough to protect air travelers during the pandemic? It depends on which numbers you look at. Here’s one the Department of Transportation (DOT) wants you to see: 62,780. That’s how many complaints from air travelers it handled from March through June of this year, a 1,103 percent increase from the same period in 2019. If you were one of the passengers who contacted the DOT after an airline canceled your flight and then balked at making a refund, thank the government if you got your money back. But other numbers also have something to tell us about how well the government has protected air travelers. Or not. This year, the DOT has fined just five airlines a total of $1.3 million. If the number holds up — and it probably will — then the DOT will have taken even fewer enforcement actions against airlines this year than last year’s record low (seven). It will also have collected the smallest amount in airline fines since 2008. The DOT’s consumer protection efforts have never been more important. From refunds to pandemic-related mask rules, the government is solely responsible for enforcing air travel consumer protections. Federal preemption protects airlines from enforcement actions by the states. The DOT’s Aviation Consumer Protection division is often passengers’ first, last and only hope for resolving a problem. But that could be changing soon. The government’s duty to protect air travelers came into sharp focus this spring when flights were canceled en masse as the covid-19 pandemic spread. The DOT deserves credit for how it responded, consumer advocates say. Many U.S. airlines didn’t want to offer refunds, as they must do under federal rules. The DOT issued a statement that airlines were obligated to provide prompt refunds and stepped up to enforce the rules in thousands of cases. “When it comes to protecting consumers who were owed refunds, the DOT has been highly effective,” says Charles Leocha, the president of Travelers United, a consumer advocacy group. But has the government done enough to protect air travelers? This month, the National Association of Attorneys General suggested that the answer is no. In a letter to Congress signed by 40 state and territory attorneys general, the association urged lawmakers to enact new consumer protections for airline passengers. Among them: authorizing state attorneys general to enforce federal airline consumer protection laws. If Congress acts, the federal government


Torn between safety and environmental concerns, restaurants stick with disposable serveware

In pre-pandemic restaurant dining rooms, you probably sat at a table replete with ceramic plates, stainless steel cutlery, glassware and cloth napkins. What a difference a global health crisis makes. As restaurants across the United States desperately pivoted to takeout service as a means to stay afloat, disposable packaging became the only option. But even now, as some of those restaurants begin to serve customers indoors, plastic-sealed paper napkins and plastic utensils, takeout boxes and compostable cups continue to anchor the table. Why use disposable products instead of traditional reusable plates and cups when restaurant kitchens are created with hygiene in mind? Recommendations handed down by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are the first clue. “Because CDC is still learning about this virus,” says press officer Jason McDonald, “we recommend the use of disposable food service items, because it minimizes the risk of transmission through food-service items. It may be possible that a person can get covid-19 by touching a surface or object — such as a food service item — that has the virus on it and then touching their own mouth, nose, or possibly their eyes. This is not thought to be the main way the virus spreads, but we are still learning more about how this virus spreads.” While CDC recommendations do advise that reusable items are okay as long as they are properly handled and sanitized, restaurateurs lean toward disposable options when faced with a wary clientele, even when they already have excellent sanitization procedures in place. It can be a tough decision on many levels, from the environmental impact of disposables to the increased cost. “Part of our restaurant’s ethos and identity is that we focus on sustainability,” says Evan Chismark, general manager of Ranch Camp in Stowe, Vt., a restaurant and bicycle shop combo that caters to mountain bikers frequenting the area. “Now we’ve pivoted to items that are prepackaged and plastic, because it’s what the customer demands. But putting all that stuff into the waste stream is super painful.” Ranch Camp is serving customers at 50 percent capacity on its outdoor patio and in its dining room — and using the same single-use disposable plates, cups and cutlery in both settings. “It hurts in terms of the presentation of the food,” says Chismark, “but it’s what the health inspector and customer wants to see.” Because some of those disposable items are


The Technology 202: The Google lawsuit launches a new phase of tech regulation in Washington

companies that promote extremist content cited in civil actions lose their immunity. It's just the latest in a long list of proposals by Congress to overhaul the law, which protects tech companies from liability for user content. The bill, introduced by Reps. Anna G. Eshoo (D-Calif.) and Tom Malinowski (D-N.J.), responds to growing concerns about how tech companies Facebook and other tech companies have cracked down on violent content including the QAnon conspiracy theory in the weeks leading up the election. But the pair of representatives say that this bill would put legal pressure on the companies to act more swiftly. “Social media companies have been playing whack-a-mole trying to take down QAnon conspiracies and other extremist content, but they aren't changing the design of a social network that is built to amplify extremism, Correction: This item has been updated to accurately reflect Malinowski's party He's one of the Silicon Valley donors backing a little-known super PAC, Future Forward, Theordore Schleifer at Recode reports. Other donors include Twilio founder Jeff Lawson, former Google CEO Eric Schmid and cryptocurrency trader Sam Bankman Fried. The group has spent the most money on television ads of any organization outside the Biden campaign itself. It's also helping push a $28 million ad campaign in Texas to back Democratic Senate candidate MJ Hegar. They worry a no-bid contract is being fast-tracked to benefit Rivada Networks, a company that counts prominent Republicans as investors, Jake Tapper at CNN reports. Pentagon leaders and members of Congress have also pushed back on the plan because of concerns that sharing the spectrum could harm military operations. The potential auction of the spectrum comes as telecommunications companies are vying for new spectrum to launch 5G networks. The Pentagon's spectrum is potentially worth tens of billions of dollars. The company added fewer than 2,2 million global subscribers in its third quarter, a dip from 10 million in its second, Steven Zeitchik reports. The numbers also fail to meet subscriber levels from last summer, a typical period of growth for the company. Netflix's stock price dipped 6 percent after the company released the new numbers. Snap stock rockets up after surprise earnings beat (CNBC) Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez played ‘Among Us’ in a bid to get out the vote (Noah Smith) Pope memes are taking over Twitter, showing Pope Francis holding Baby Yoda and Glossier makeup (Business Insider) The power of the mute button.


How much does a hotel’s ventilation system matter right now? We asked the experts.

As the world continues to adapt to the coronavirus pandemic, “ventilation” has become a buzzword in the travel industry. Early in the year, on coronavirus-plagued cruise ships, ventilation systems became a point of fear for passengers and crew alike. The effectiveness of air filtration and ventilation on airplanes is still not totally clear: While some studies suggest the chances of contracting coronavirus on a flight are low, some risk remains. For hotels, however, good ventilation has become a feature to promote to bring customers back. Major chains, including MGM Resorts International and the Four Seasons, have advertised that they are enhancing ventilation systems, and smaller companies have gotten in on the movement, too: A-Lodge Adventure Hotel in Boulder, Colo., says one of its selling points, besides perks like access to hiking trails, is that its rooms and suites have no shared ventilation between them. But health experts’ opinions vary as to whether — and how much — travelers should be concerned about ventilation in their hotel rooms. Here’s what four of them told The Washington Post. Adalja, who has been contacted by hotel chains to help them come up with coronavirus safety protocols, says most transmission is occurring as a result of close interpersonal contact. “The key question when going to hotels is not so much the ventilation, but who you’re interacting with there and where you’re interacting with people,” he said. While a lot has been written about ventilation systems, Adalja does not think there is strong evidence that ventilation systems are driving coronavirus cases. “There are many people who are advocating rehauling HVAC systems, but there’s not strong data that that actually is going to have any kind of major impact,” he said, “although you might see some hotels advertising they did that in order to attract customers.” Even so, Adalja believes being in an area that is well ventilated is better than being in one that isn’t. “I think that the risk is more from other individuals rather than it is from the environment itself,” he said. “Your room is probably not that big of an issue, but it’s when you’re in the common areas — so if you’re in the lobby or if you’re in the restaurant — those types of areas where you want to be much more mindful.” Adalja said his best advice for travelers is to use common-sense precautions: Wear face coverings, wash