Your Friday Evening Briefing

April 10, 2020

Your Friday Evening Briefing

By Remy Tumin, Carole Landry and Erin Kelly

Good evening. Here’s the latest.

Brittainy Newman/The New York Times

1. New federal projections suggest that lifting shelter-in-place orders after only 30 days would lead to a spike in infections.

The projections, obtained by The Times from the departments of Homeland Security and Health and Human Services, undercut recent statements by President Trump that the U.S. could be ready to reopen “very, very soon.”

If the administration lifts the orders currently in place, the death toll is estimated to reach 200,000 — even if schools remain closed, 25 percent of the country continues to work from home and social distancing continues. Above, basketball hoops were removed from a New York City park.

On Friday, Mr. Trump said the question of when to relax federal social-distancing guidelines was “the biggest decision I’ll ever make,” and said he would defer to health experts before making a call.

The projections come as the known global death toll surpassed 100,000, according to data compiled by The Times. Experts suspect the true total is much higher.

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Tamir Kalifa for The New York Times

2. The coronavirus has upended global supply chains, leading to shortages and price increases that are cascading through factories, ports, retail stores and on to consumers.

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The crisis in global trade is unfurling so quickly that companies are struggling to plan ahead. That means disruptions could grow in the months to come, for products ranging from laptops to toilet paper to medicines. Above, empty shelves in Brenham, Texas, last month.

The market for lifesaving equipment and supplies is under particular stress: Many nationalist world leaders see the coronavirus battle as a zero-sum game, and at least 69 countries have banned or restricted the export of protective equipment, medical devices or medicines, according to a monitoring project in Switzerland.

Demetrius Freeman for The New York Times

3. Apple and Google are working together on tools that would allow people to be notified on their phones if they come in contact with someone who had the coronavirus.

The effort will soon launch as an opt-in app, then be added into the operating systems of billions of iPhones and Android devices within several months. That would enable the smartphones to constantly log other devices they get close to, enabling “contact tracing” of the virus.

Some countries are already using smartphone location data and other personal information to track outbreaks. Shira Ovide, who writes our On Tech newsletter, wonders: Does it work, and is it creepy?

Erin Schaff/The New York Times

4. Will an antibody test allow us to go back to work?

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently announced that it would begin tests to see what proportion of the population has already been infected. That information is especially crucial for health care workers.

But the tests are not perfect. Here’s what we know — and don’t know — about them.

Iceland is taking another approach: It plans to test as many people as possible while leaving schools and businesses open.

Emile Ducke for The New York Times

5. Easter is going virtual this year.

The Vatican will stream an Easter Mass celebrated by Pope Francis at St. Peter’s Basilica, and many other congregations are taking similar streaming precautions. A few holdout churches plan to defy stay-at-home orders and meet for in-person services.

There will still be music: At St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City and other churches with empty pews, organists and others will accompany services.

Such was the case at the charred Cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris, where a handful of Roman Catholic officials celebrated Good Friday with a violinist playing Bach. Here’s a look at how others celebrated Good Friday around the world, like at the Evangelical Berlin Cathedral, above.

Meridith Kohut for The New York Times

6. “Here, a woman is treated like a dog.”

For many expectant mothers in Venezuela, the defining reality of childbirth is what women call roulette: The grueling process of traveling from hospital to hospital, trying to find one that is equipped to help.

To understand what it’s like to give birth in Venezuela’s shattered health care system, we followed pregnant women to six hospitals in the country, and to one across the border in Colombia, as they sought a safe place to deliver their babies.

Elaine Cromie for The New York Times

7. For better or worse, the way we work will change.

Over the past few weeks, the changes have come quickly: More people are encouraged to work from home; workers, like those at Amazon, above, have organized strikes to demand benefits like hazard pay and sick leave; and Congress has passed policies that would have once been politically unthinkable, including direct payments to individuals.

After the pandemic passes, it may be hard for employers and the government to turn back the clock, analysts say.

Separately, many Americans were already struggling before the coronavirus pandemic — and now things are likely to get even worse. These charts from Opinion’s inequality series explain why.

8. Some of the millions of newly unemployed Americans have found a new line of work: sexually explicit online broadcasts.

Webcam sites like CamSoda and ManyVids reported a surge in new model sign-ups in March. Viewership is also up. But despite the boom, some longtime models said earnings are static — probably because economically challenged viewers aren’t tipping as much as they typically would.

On the subject of real-life partners: Many readers under lockdown say they’re learning a lot about their better halves. In some cases, it’s more than they wanted to know.

And some of you had questions about sex in quarantine. Our experts have answers.

Will Heath/NBC, via Associated Press

9. “Saturday Night Live” is back — just not from its home studio in Rockefeller Center.

NBC said that the long-running sketch variety series will return this weekend with new content, “produced remotely as ‘S.N.L.’ practices social distancing.” The network did not mention whether there would be a guest host or musical performer.

A homebound team of Oscar, Tony and Emmy winners are also cooking up something special: “Saturday Night Seder,” a streaming Passover event that is a variety show, fund-raiser and theatrical experience, with the likes of Ben Platt, Billy Porter and Idina Menzel.

Our writers offered some other suggestions for what to watch, read or listen to while we’re stuck at home.

10. And finally, battling isolation, one letter at a time.

From Australia to Europe and across the U.S., pen pal programs have sprouted up to link older adults to children at home. It’s a win-win for both groups: The letters keep older generations connected and children occupied.

“I’ve never had a pen pal before,” Mike Boggs, 63, said in an interview about his exchange with Lincoln Calling, 15. “I think it’s a great idea to keep open communication with the kids while we’re isolated inside — to keep that open line going.”

Have an uplifting weekend.

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