Your Thursday Evening Briefing

March 19, 2020

Your Wednesday Evening Briefing

By Remy Tumin, Jonathan Wolfe and Marcus Payadue

Good evening. Here’s the latest.

Kyle Grillot for The New York Times

1. Come home. Now.

That was the message from the State Department, which announced that U.S. citizens abroad should either return home or stay where they are as the coronavirus pandemic grows. Above, Los Angeles International Airport on Wednesday.

The department raised its global travel advisory to Level 4, the top warning level, which is usually reserved for nations with war zones or beset by serious disruptions. The announcement is a recommendation, not a requirement, and many of the millions of Americans overseas may opt to stay put.

Across the U.S., doctors, nurses and other front-line medical workers are confronting a dire shortage of masks, surgical gowns and eye gear to protect them from the virus.

As one surgeon put it: “We are at war with no ammo.”

Meanwhile, two hard-hit countries have reached starkly different milestones.

China reported zero local infections for the first time since the crisis began three months ago, while Italy announced that its deaths from the virus had soared to 3,405, outstripping China’s total.

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Jason Andrew for The New York Times

2. A national debate is raging over access to coronavirus tests.

Every day the list of rich, famous and powerful people who have been tested grows, even as some Americans can’t get a test. Above, a drive-through testing center in Arlington, Va.

At the same time, it’s becoming clearer that Americans of all ages are falling ill.

Older people have a significantly higher risk of dying with the coronavirus, but new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data shows that nearly 40 percent of patients sick enough to be hospitalized were age 20 to 54. Another study, looking at 2,000 ill children across China, found that a small percentage of babies were especially vulnerable.

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The New York Times;Source: Department of Labor, state level reporting.

3. Unemployment surged as some 281,000 Americans filed first-time claims for unemployment insurance, up by 33 percent from the week before. On a percentage basis, the increase was among the largest one-week surges on record.

Still, the recent data was for claims filed from March 8 to 14, before the outbreak began to shut down restaurants, bars and retail stores in much of the country. So the next report, which will reflect the closings, will almost certainly be much worse.

On a more positive note, the stock market had a better day, ending up 1 percent after vacillating between gains and losses.

Al Drago for The New York Times

4. A government simulation last year, code-named Crimson Contagion, made it clear the U.S. wasn’t ready for a pandemic.

The scenario — an outbreak of a respiratory virus that began in China and quickly spread around the world — was played out by the Department of Health and Human Services in a series of exercises from January to August 2019. Above, a coronavirus briefing in February.

A sobering draft report last October drove home just how underfunded, underprepared and uncoordinated the federal government would be facing a virus that had no treatment. But little was done in response, and now the projected consequences are playing out in real time.

The fear and suspicion directed at China in the early days of the outbreak have made a 180-degree turn: It is now the West that frightens Asia and the rest of the world. In fact, Beijing is now stepping into a humanitarian role the West once dominated

Photo Illustration by The New York Times

5. Digital dance raves with 5,000 people. Streaming sound baths. Book readings by phone. In the age of social distancing, people are getting creative.

There are happy hours being held on Google Hangout, and poker games taking place over FaceTime. Twelve-step meetings have also moved online. We rounded up some of our favorite stories of quarantined socializing.

And to help you stay safe:

The concepts of self-quarantine are being interpreted in a variety of ways, not always correctly. Here’s a guide to what they mean and whom they apply to.
Fitness and food: Our science reporter spoke with virologists, physiologists and other scientists about what we do and do not know about exercising during the crisis. And restaurants around the country are embracing “contactless” delivery.
If you have a nanny: Here’s some guidance on how you and your babysitter can protect your household.

Jason Redmond/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

6. Should we just vote by mail?

States are grasping for ways to protect voting during the pandemic — both for the remaining Democratic primaries and the general election in November.

While 33 states and the District of Columbia currently have some form of mail-in voting or absentee ballots, shifting to a completely vote-by-mail system for the general election could be impossible both logistically and legislatively.

Representative Tulsi Gabbard said she was dropping out of the 2020 presidential race and planned to endorse Joe Biden.

Adam Glanzman/Getty Images

7. “It was a total downer.”

That was a Boston radio host, expressing anguish over the star quarterback Tom Brady’s departure from the New England Patriots.

But he added, “In a strange way, it took people’s minds off of everything else that is going on.”

If Brady moves to the quirky Tampa Bay Buccaneers as expected, our football columnist Ben Shpigel writes, it might actually give him an even better shot at success this year.

The New York Times

8. Oprah Winfrey on Toni Morrison. Issa Rae on “Scandal.” Misty Copeland on Drake’s First Mixtape. John Legend on Ta-Nehisi Coates.

We asked 35 major African-American creators who have come to define the 21st century to talk about the work that has inspired them the most.

“It literally was like I was seeing a new color that I had never seen before,” wrote Jaboukie Young-White on the film “Moonlight.”

Armando Diaz Experience

9. Open your laptops, the comedy show is about to begin.

Comics and clubs in New York, like the Magnet Theater, above, and across the country are trying to figure out alternate ways to reach audiences in a pandemic. Many are live streaming improv shows and short standup sets for a small fee. There’s only one thing missing: feedback (i.e., laughter) from a live audience.

We also asked two improv comedians, Louis Kornfeld and Rick Andrews, to walk us through how they ad-libbed this scene: a double date that starts in a bowling alley.

Need more laughs? Check out these 15 binge-worthy sitcoms.

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10. And finally, an ode to snowmen.

As we officially say goodbye to winter today, our Surfacing team spoke with an artist obsessed with photographs of that season’s most ephemeral friend. Eric Oglander’s collection contains hundreds of antique photographs of snowmen and their creators.

“Seeing one of these photographs is neat. Seeing 300 creates a thread through human history that ties us together,” he said. “That might sound sappy, but that’s OK.”

Happy spring!

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