Remdesivir, Coronavirus, Met Gala
Your Wednesday Evening Briefing |
Good evening. Here’s the latest. |
 | | Doug Mills/The New York Times |
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1. The Food and Drug Administration is likely to approve the emergency use of a coronavirus treatment. |
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the federal government’s leading infectious diseases scientist, above today, expressed cautious optimism about early trial results of the drug remdesivir. He cautioned that the results of the study still need to be properly peer reviewed but said it could shorten the recovery time for some patients by about a third. |
Remdesivir is not yet licensed or approved in the U.S. or anywhere in the world “and has not yet been demonstrated to be safe or effective for the treatment of Covid-19,” according to its manufacturer, Gilead Sciences. |
In a separate development, President Trump has ordered a crash program called “Warp Speed” to develop a coronavirus vaccine, despite warnings from medical professionals that plenty can go wrong. |
2. The U.S. economy shrank at a 4.8 percent annual rate in the first quarter, its biggest contraction since the recession a decade ago. |
And worse is still to come. Economists expect figures from the current quarter, which will capture the shutdown’s impact more fully, to show a contraction of 30 percent or more, a scale not seen since the Great Depression. |
The Federal Reserve pledged to do what it could to insulate the economy, saying that the “crisis will weigh heavily on economic activity.” It left interest rates unchanged at its April meeting and suggested it would not be raising them anytime soon. |
 | | Paul Sancya/Associated Press |
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3. President Trump has declared meatpacking plants “critical infrastructure” but how that might keep them running remains unclear. Above, a Detroit butcher. |
The emergency declaration, signed by the president late Tuesday, could allow the Department of Agriculture to potentially force meat companies to fulfill orders from retailers. The order fails to address whether the plants, where outbreaks of the virus have sickened thousands of workers, would be required to test all of their workers for the virus before reopening. |
Separately, conservative groups planning lawsuits against state and local lockdown orders have seen signs of support from a powerful ally: the Justice Department. |
 | | Todd Maisel |
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A spokesman for the synagogue of Rabbi Chaim Mertz, who died after contracting the coronavirus, said that they tried to plan the funeral to correspond with social distancing guidelines. The Police Department was notified and dispatched extra officers, streets were closed and loudspeakers put in place to help mourners hear the service. |
But the gathering on Tuesday night quickly spun out of control. When word reached Mayor Bill de Blasio, he went to the South Williamsburg neighborhood to oversee the dispersal himself. He later lashed out on Twitter at Brooklyn’s Hasidic community, prompting outrage from Jewish groups and leaders. |
 | | Max Whittaker for The New York Times |
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5. Progressive activists and women’s rights advocates are in a tense standoff with Joe Biden over his silence on a sexual assault allegation by Tara Reade, a former aide in his Senate office in the 1990s. |
The group went so far as to prepare a public letter praising Mr. Biden but also saying: “Vice President Biden has the opportunity, right now, to model how to take serious allegations seriously. The weight of our expectations matches the magnitude of the office he seeks.” |
The Biden team got wind of the effort and, according to some of those involved, the group decided to put the letter on hold and instead pressured the campaign to make a new statement. |
The campaign has yet to respond. |
 | | Caitlin Ochs/Reuters |
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6. Electric meters have revealed a new pattern for those stuck indoors. |
In New York City, and most likely in many other places under lockdown across the U.S., people are burning the midnight oil on weekdays and sleeping later, new data suggests. They are using up to 25 percent more energy during the daytime, and that’s only expected to increase in warmer months as stuck-at-home apartment dwellers run air-conditioners for longer. |
Utilities across the country have also noted a general increase in residential consumption, but the drop in commercial and industrial demand more than offsets the increase. |
 | | John Minchillo/Associated Press |
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The changes would go into effect at the start of the 2021-22 academic year, after consideration and adoption by the three divisions of college sports. The league has faced mounting pressure to allow athletes to capitalize on their abilities, and seems to have found a way to do so without making them “employees,” which would upend the structure of college sports. |
 | | Aya Brackett for The New York Times |
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8. We’re throwing a lasagna party and you’re all invited. |
If like Samin Nosrat, the author of “Salt Fat Acid Heat,” you are craving a shared meal, a shared project, and a shared sense of purpose, spend your day cooking her Big Lasagna recipe and then enter a digital dining room. |
If you’re looking for a simpler idea for dinner, Melissa Clark says this is the easiest roast chicken (and even easier stock). |
In a universe known as High Fashion Twitter, or “hft,” guests will “arrive” by posting their looks — collages or photographs or other visual creations — on Twitter with the hashtag #HFMetGala2020. |
Nearly a dozen young people like Senam Attipoe, above left, and Aria Olson, above right, from seven different countries will oversee the open-access celebration of dress. |
Proceeds from requested $5 donations go to the International Medical Corps, a humanitarian organization focused on health care, supplies and training. |
 | | Angie Wang |
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10. And finally, turn your audio on for this one. |
For Ms. Fleming, the final scene of Tchaikovsky’s “The Queen of Spades” is “absolutely riveting.” It was the heartbreaking aria in “Tosca” by Puccini for Ms. Smith. And Zachary Woolfe, the Times’s classical music editor, recommends the final duet in Monteverdi’s witty, wicked “L’Incoronazione di Poppea,” the tale of the crowning of Nero’s mistress as empress. |
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