Your Friday Evening Briefing

April 17, 2020

Your Friday Evening Briefing

By Remy Tumin and Marcus Payadue

Good evening. Here’s the latest.

Jeffrey Sauger/EPA, via Shutterstock

1. “We are going to do this safely so we don’t have a second wave.”

That was Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan after President Trump encouraged right-wing protests against her and two other Democratic governors over their lockdowns — though many other states are also closed down. Above, protesters joined in “Operation Gridlock” near the State Capitol in Lansing this week.

“There is no one more eager to start re-engaging sectors of our economy than I am,” Ms. Whitmer said, adding that she hoped to loosen stay-at-home regulations on May 1. Her state trails only New York and New Jersey in the number of virus-related deaths.

Wisconsin, Idaho, Vermont, Texas and other states are also looking to ease restrictions, even as cases continue to surge in some parts of the country — and health experts say they need much more testing capacity to identify and contain future outbreaks.

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Roman Pilipey/EPA, via Shutterstock

2. China raised its coronavirus death toll by 50 percent in Wuhan, the original epicenter of the outbreak, after questions about the accuracy of its initial numbers.

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Officials placed the new tally at 3,869 deaths, an increase of 1,290 from the previous figure. The total number of confirmed infections was also revised upward to 50,333, an increase of 325.

Determining what percentage of those infected by coronavirus will die is a key question for epidemiologists, but an elusive one during the pandemic while figures are necessarily fluid.

That number currently stands about 6.4 percent worldwide; in Italy, the death rate stands at about 13 percent, and Germany’s appears to be roughly one-tenth of that. In the U.S., the death rate among known cases is around 4.3 percent.

Chris Carlson/Associated Press

3. Yesterday we told you about the grim state of the New York region’s nursing homes. The national picture is no better.

A tally by The Times found that virus fatalities of people living in or connected to nursing homes has reached at least 6,900. That’s about a fifth of U.S. virus deaths. More than 36,000 residents and employees across the nation have contracted it.

In Riverside, Calf., more than 80 patients with the virus were evacuated from a nursing center, above.

“They’re death pits,” one expert said. “These nursing homes are already overwhelmed. They’re crowded and they’re understaffed. One Covid-positive patient in a nursing home produces carnage.”

Tony Cenicola/The New York Times

4. Figuring out which mask to wear isn’t easy.

N95 and medical masks, which offer the most protection and are heavily in demand, should be reserved for health care workers. So what are your options? Here’s a guide to what’s out there, how they work and what level of protection you need.

We also spoke to physicians around the country about the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, which has become a political litmus test for support of President Trump. Doctors on the front lines of coronavirus say it’s just another tool in desperate times and no slam dunk.

Desperate times also mean a surge in innovation. Hair dryer hoods, sleep apnea machines and simply flipping patients on their stomach have reduced the need for ventilators.

Philip Cheung for The New York Times

5. A surge in orders has created chaos at Amazon — and confusion for customers.

Sometimes products are in stock. Sometimes they aren’t. And delivery times vary widely: By showing long delivery estimates, Amazon would have more flexibility to fulfill orders and would decrease demand.

“They are trying to reduce demand, which is borderline insane, but I guess that is where we are,” an e-commerce analyst said. “This event has broken everything.”

The New York Times

6. The coronavirus pandemic has had an incalculable death toll. The Times is trying to put names, faces and stories to the numbers.

Writers from across the newsroom including the Styles, Culture and Climate desks have contributed; correspondents in London, Tokyo, Rome and Nairobi are also joining in. The result is a new series, “Those We’ve Lost.”

The last time The Times embarked on a project like this was after the Sept. 11 attacks, when we created a series of 2,400 vignettes of victims. Now, we are writing more rounded obituaries, much as we do for heads of state, Hall of Famers and trailblazers. An editor on our Obituaries desk explained how it all came together.

Mason Trinca for The New York Times

7. Oregon’s Sabrina Ionescu is expected to be drafted No. 1 over all by the New York Liberty tonight. It could be just what the team needs to right itself.

After a tumultuous decade put the W.N.B.A. franchise’s future in doubt, the team has a new owner, a new home, and probably a new franchise star.

There’s only one problem: Nobody knows when, or if, this season will begin. Sports leagues face large, but not insurmountable, obstacles to even getting games back on television. Here’s what has to happen first.

Matt Slocum/Associated Press

8. Stevie Wonder, Billie Eilish, Elton John, Taylor Swift and dozens more performers — live from their homes.

Lady Gaga leads a star-studded special, “One World: Together At Home,” a Global Citizen and World Health Organization special event in support of the fight against the coronavirus pandemic on Saturday. It’s just one of many live-streaming events to check out this weekend.

Our critics also suggest “Mrs. America,” a limited series that tells a sweeping story of women’s rights revolutionaries, and the TV adaptation of Sally Rooney’s best-selling novel, “Normal People,” a thoughtful and moving depiction of young people’s emotional lives.

Erin Jeanne McDowell

9. We are here for all of your carb-loading needs.

All-purpose, whole wheat, pastry, cake — chances are you don’t have every type of flour in your pantry. And though baking is a science, our Food desk has come up with a guide to substituting flour.

Varying combinations of flour, fat and sugar can also yield three easy cookie recipes: slice-and-bake butter cookies, tender chocolate-hazelnut cookies and classic peanut butter cookies.

Perhaps you just need an easy slice of cake. The secret ingredient in this one-bowl, Depression-era recipe makes it sound a lot stranger than it tastes (spoiler: it’s mayonnaise).

Calla Kessler/The New York Times

10. And finally, all dressed up with no prom to go.

Many high school seniors were looking forward to their last high school dance. Then their proms started getting canceled. We photographed 10 students from Omaha in the outfits they had planned to wear to the dance.

“Hopefully we can do something, as the class of 2020, to make up for the prom, and teach the lesson of, don’t just give up because something’s been taken, but take it back,” said Livia McFadden, 17, bottom right.

Hope you get to wear a jazzy number this weekend, just because.

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