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BERNIE SANDERS HOW A CAMPAIGN CAME APART PAGE 6 | WORLD FREQUENT FLIERS A PUSH AGAINST LOYALTY PLANS BACK PAGE | TRAVEL HOT COMMODITY THE LOWLY BEAN: THE FOOD THAT EVERYBODY WANTS PAGES | BUSINESS Che New York Cimes INTERNATIONAL EDITION | TUESDAY, MARCH 24, 2020 Get America back to work — and fast “J q Thomas L. Friedman OPINION ‘These are days that test every leader local, state and national. They are each being asked to make huge life and death decisions, while driving through a fog, with imperfect information, and everyone in the back seat shouting at them. My heart goes out to themall. know they mean well. Butas somany of our businesses shut down and millions begin to be laid off, some experts are beginning toask: “Waitaminute! What the hell are we doing to ourselves? To our economy? To our next generation? Is thiscure—even for a short while — worse than thedisease?” Ishare these ques- sons, Ourleaders are Some experts ot fying completely say itcan pind: They are nega working off the ad- weeks, not Viceaseriousepide- months — miologists and public and the health experts. Yet economy and —_westillneed tobe public health carefulabout “group cette, Alb ‘danger- respondingtoa national and global crisis, We're making decisions that affect the whole country andour entire economy — therefore, ‘small errors in navigation could have huge consequences. Ofcourse, because this virusis potentially affecting so many Americans at ‘once, we need to provide more hospital beds, treatment equipment for those who will need it and protective gear like N95 masks for the doctors and nurses caring for virus-infected patients. That isurgent! And weneed toimmediately rectify the colossal failure to supply rapid, widespread testing. That is urgent! But we alsoneed to be asking ourselves —justas urgently —can we more surgically minimize the threat of this, virus to those most vulnerable while we maximize the chances for as many Americans as possible to safely go back towork as soon as possible. One expert I talked to believes that could happen in as early asa few weeks —if we pause for ‘moment and think afresh about the coronavirus challenge. Indeed, if my inbox is any indication, abacklash is brewing to the strategy the country has stumbled into. And stumbling is what happens when you havea president who goes from treat- FRIEDMAN, PAGE 1 ‘The New York Times publishes opinion from a wide range of perspectives in hopes of promoting constructive debate about consequential questions. Workers disinfecting a mosque before Friday Prayer in Istanbul. The observance has been canceled across the Middle East, and worshipers are being asked to pray at home. lim shrines to ward off infection. And in Faith brings comfort. And risk. BEIRUT, LEBANON Some believers worldwide are ignoring official advice to pursue religious solace BY VIVIAN YEE Down on earth, the coronavirus outbreak was felling lives, livelihoods and normalcy. A nation-spanning blessing seemed called for. So up went a priest in a small airplane, rumbling overhead at an epidemiologically safe distance from the troubles below, wielding a sacred golden vessel from a cockpit turned pul- pit. Before his flight over Lebanon, a sol- dier at an airport checkpoint asked the Rev. Majdi Allawi if he had a mask and hand sanitizer. “Jesus is my protection,’ said Father Allawi, who belongs to the Maronite Catholic Church, “He is my sanitizer” Religion is the solace of first resort for billions of people grappling with a pandemic for which scientists, presidents and the secular world seem, so far, to have few answers. With both sanitizer and leadership in short supply, dread over the coronavirus has driven the globe's faithful Priests conducting a procession to fight the coronavirus in Moscow. Outbreaks of sick- even closer to religion and ritual ‘But what is good for the soul may not always be good for the body. Believers worldwide are running afoul of public health authorities’ warnings that communal gatherings, the key- stone of so much religious practice, must be limited to combat the virus's spread. In some cases, religious fervor ness have been linked to various religious gatherings around the world. has led people toward cures that have no grounding in science; in others, it has drawn them to sacred places or rites that could increase the risk of infection. In Myanmar, a prominent Buddhist ‘monk announced that a dose of one lime and three palm seeds — no more,noless — would confer immunity. In Iran, a few pilgrims were filmed licking Shiite Mus- ‘Texas, the preacher Kenneth Copeland braided televangelism with telemedicine, broadcasting himself, one trembling hand outstretched, as he claimed he could cure believers through their screens ‘The anchors of religious practice have taken on a greater urgency, just as the religious authorities have moved to re- strict them. ‘An Egyptian pharmacist, Ahmed Sha- ban, 31, traveled to Saudi Arabia this month to make a pilgrimage to the prophet Muhammad's birthplace and tomb. Millions of Muslims throng the sites every year, many of them pausing to kiss the Kaaba, the black-and-gold cube in Mecca that is Islam's most s2- cred shrine. “In times of hardship, fear or panic;” Mr. Saban said, “either you think, ‘How can God do this fo us?" or yourun to him for protection and for guidance, to make itall make sense.” ‘The day Mr. Shaban’s visit was scheduled, the Saudi government suspended allpilgrimages to Mecca and Medina indefinitely. This month, Al Aqsa Mosque RELIGION, PAGE 4 Facing crisis, China and U.S. shun cooperation WASHINGTON Experts worry that friction could impede virus fight and economic rescue effort BY MICHAEL CROWLEY, EDWARD WONG AND LARA JAKES When President Trump took the podium at the White House briefing room one afternoon last week, his prepared re- marks included a reference to the “corona virus.” But a close-up photograph revealed that Mr. Trump had used one of his signature Sharpies to cross out the word “corona.” changing the phrase to “Chinese virus.” Mr. Trump was scathing as he accused Beijing of concealing the outbreak first detected in Wuhan, China, that has become a pandemic now paralyzing the United States. “Certainly, the world is paying a big price for what they did he said, And the next day, he was joined at a White House briefing by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who accused Chi- nas government of distorting vital health data and said its response “cr ates risk to people all around the world ‘The withering criticism is an abrupt change in tone for a president who has long sought to stay on friendly terms with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jin- ping, and who initially praised Mr. X's government for “doing a very professional job” against the epidemic. But as, Mr Trump and top American officials toughen their condemnations of Mr. X's government, national security and pub- lichealth experts fear that the two world powers are heading into a new Cold War that could seriously undermine joint efforts to quash the virus and salvage the global economy. Even some health officials in the ‘Trump administration have warned that, denouncing China's government could make it more resistant to sharing accu- rate data about the virus. China has shared the genome sequence of the virus, and Chinese scientists have written many public papers on the virus, even if officials initially covered it up. China also has the power to interfere with medical supply chains into the United States, and its economic policiesare cru- cial to the wider global economy. Eswar Prasad, a China expert and professor of trade policy at Cornell Uni- versity, called the new hostility “dispirit- rhe US-China relationship has de- teriorated to a new post-Tiananmen low ata particularly unfortunate time, when the two countries ought to be joining FRICTION, PAGE § “IF IGET CORONA, |GET CORONA Across the United States, deniers and disbelievers have ignored calls for social distancing. PAGE s RESTARTING THE U.S. ECONOMY Here's what economists recommend to get the economy moving again, after it has been largely shut down, PAGE7 Shattered lives Many Syrian children have been forced to fe violence in Talib Province several times and can no langer remember a normal life. PAGE 2 A wave of anxiety washes over the web CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK The pandemic has clarified the dark bargain of our internet-connected devices BY AMANDA HESS In mid-March, as the coronavirus radiated across the United States and sent Americans scurrying into their homes, Rosanne Cash tweeted: “Just a reminder that when Shakespeare was, quarantined because of the plague, he wrote King Lear” L wonder what the “King Lear” of Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, will be. ‘Shakespeare's plague streak — he's believed to have written “King Lear,” “Macbeth” and “Antony and Cleopatra” in the space of a couple of years — coincided with London playhouses closing down, acting troupes leaving town to play plague-free villages and the Bard hanging back at home, nothing to do but plot an elaborate series of tragic murders. But Shakespeare was not online. Four hundred years later, isolation doesn't help to dispel creative distraction — it beckons it in, We are sheltering in place with devices designed to amplify diversions and exploit obsessions. As the virus has spread, it has rav- aged our outlets for sustained creative expression, Theaters have been dark- ened, exhibitions closed, wedding dances postponed, Eurovision canceled. People-watching is out. But bingeing and posting and thumbing incessantly through social media are open for business. In fact, a slavish devotion to our devices has come to feel like a practical necessity. Social media platforms have been unexpect- INTERNET, PAGE 2 TheNew ork Gimes || The joys. = The tribulations. alte twists. Modern Love Read, watch and listen to the stories. nytimes.com/modernlove 2 | TUESDAY, MARCH 24, 2020 THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL EDITION PAGE TWO ‘Syrian children at a sports stadium being used as an emergency shelter for displaced families in lib City, Syria. Nearly a million people have fled toward the Turkish border. The schoolhouse is a cold tent BEIRUT, LEBANON Teachers try to provide displaced Syrian children with a hint of normaley BY VIVIAN YEE AND HWAIDA SAAD. ‘The camp school is only a tent — cold and cramped, its floor covered by a rug whose intricate pattern is hard to make out under the crowd of kneeling students. The walls are plastic sheets. ‘There are no desks, no chairs, no toilet, hardly any books. But there is a whiteboard. A teacher has written a series of addition problems: 687 + 536, 450 + 276. 265 + 603. Little girls in pigtails and teenagers in head scarves bend their heads in con- centration, scrawling sums on borrowed notebook paper. The school, in a camp for displaced people in northwestern Syria, serves about 60 students, boys and girls, ages 4 through 14. Most are among the nearly one million people, more than half of them children, who have fled toward the Turkish border over the last three months. ‘They are running for their lives to escape Syrian government forces and their Russian allies, who are storming through Idlib Province, thelastrefuge of antigovernment forces, in acampaign to reclaim it after nine years of civil war. Northwestern Syria has been in a state beyond emergency for solong that most children cannot remember what normal life is supposed to be like. Shel- ter, food, medicine, warmth — there is not nearly enough of any of it in Idlib, where a cease-fire has done little to bring people home. Yet aid workers have kept going, trying to deliver tents, water, food and fuel. Doctors and nurses have continued to provide care. And inside the cold tent in the camp for the displaced outside the small village of Bhora, four teachers offer all they can: a few hours of instruc- tion, a flicker of normalcy. ‘Their school is called Return School. “We're hoping to be back home soon,” said Qassem al-Ahmad, 30, a teacher at the school, explaining’ the name in a phone interview. Hefled his village near Aleppo, Syria, two months ago. Like most of the children huddled on the rug, he now has nowhere to go. Many of the students, whose families have packed up and moved two, three, four or more times to escape successive rounds of fighting, have not regularly attended school in years. Some have not been at all. Mr. Ahmad estimated that about 40 percent are illiterate. ‘Merely attending school can be a hardship. In the camp, many parents need their children to collect wood to burn or to earn extra income by doing odd jobs. Families frequently leave the camp in search of better shelter, perpet- ually rootless in a situation in which nobody can say what places are safe, or how long safety will last. The distractions are many: cold fingers, one-meal-a-day bellies, warplanes that snarl overhead. If the children come to school at all. Despite the cease-fire, the camps offer little security. Winter temperatures have relented slightly, but at least a doz en children have frozen to death in nighttime temperatures that stalled below freezing last month. Aid groups say about a quarter of the displaced are surviving on one meal a day. Doctors Without Borders staff members have reported seeing people in the camps boiling leaves for meals, said Cristian Reynders, the group's northwest Syria operations manager. ‘As bombs have knocked 84 medical centers out of service, those that remain are teetering under the burden of thousands of added patients, supply short- ages and back-to-back trauma surg- ries, Some medical workers have sent their families north ahead of them while they continue reporting for work, not knowing when — or if — they will see them again. “Every day I think it might be the last. goodbye.” said Dr. Zaher Hnak, a urolo- gist-turned-surgeon at Idlib Hospital, ‘who had to abandon his previous hospital after it was hit in an airstrike. All through his daily commute, plod- ding up roads bumper-to-bumper with families fleeing, Dr. Hnak worries that something will happen to his own wife and children before he can return, “When I get to the hospital,” he said, “the first thing I do is call home to check on my family.” Schools have also been targeted by Russian and Syrian forces. More than 180 schools are damaged, destroyed or housing the displaced. Ona single day in February, local aid groups said, airstrikes hit eight schools around Idlib City, killing three teachers andastudent. Atleast six more students ‘were injured as they tried to evacuate. But everywhere there are children in need of schooling, ‘Mr. al-Ahmad, the teacher at the Re- turn School, once planned to teach philosophy to college students. Now it is a ‘g00d day if he can hold his young pupils’ attention. The distractions are many: cold fingers, one-meal-a-day bellies, warplanes that snarl overhead. And that is if the children come to school at all “I put in so much effort, but with al- ‘most no results; he said. “The students? Most of them are just scared every time they hear the sounds of the planes. We don't have anything to dis- tract them with or teach them with. We only have this tent.” For Mr. al-Ahmad, his wife, Malak, 28, and their young son and daughter, home was the village of Allss, outside Aleppo, until they fled two months ago. Ever since, they have lived in a leaky aban- doned building near the camp, sharing ‘one room with 17 other people. ‘Some of the displaced live in tents, but many sleep in half-finished buildings, lunder olive trees or, in some cases, under nothing. Tents’ along the Turkish border, which is sealed shut against ref- ugees, hold an average of nine people each, an International Rescue Commit- tee survey found. ‘The displaced crowd 20 or 30 to a room in distant relatives’ homes, public bathrooms, converted schools and ‘empty office buildings. When the Syrian uprising began in 2011, Mr. al-Ahmad was a fourth-year philosophy major at the local university. As the war came to a boil, forcing him to drop out, he started teaching at a public school, where his wife also worked, ‘Once the al-Ahmads found their own family displaced, they decided the best use of their time was to keep doing what they knew. Working with two teachers from their old village, they comman- deered a narrow tent and spread the word that they were holding classes. Inside, the teachers pair the students who cannot read or write with more ad- vanced ones, hoping some learning will rub off. Age no longer corresponds to level. Some of the fourth-graders are 14 years old. Mrs. al-Ahmad teaches the 6- and 7- year-olds, relying on simple educational apps she downloads on her husband's cellphone. The teachers labor to convey basics like Arabic letters and numerals, asking those with notebooks to tear out a few sheets of paper to share with those who have none. ‘We've got nothing to entertain these students — no stories, no drawing, no painting,” she said. “I give them just the basics.” Class lasts for only a few hours, from 8 ‘a.m.to 10:30 or Ila.m, Homework sometimes consists of copying out a single sentence. At recess, the students play in the muddy space between tents. Mr. al-Ahmad used to reward the strongest students with little gifts — small toys, stationery, pens. Now even that is beyond his means. “I try to promise them some incen- tives, even though I know it's hard to keep promises like that,” he said. “Frankly, sometimes I don't have money for bread.” His wife keeps wishing aloud for a tent — anything to escape their shared room, so crowded that they can barely lie down to sleep — and a mobile phone she could use to keep in touch with her brothers and her sister. keep promising her: One day.” Mr. al-Ahmad said. But he admitted he had no hope of being able to afford either. ‘The next day, the al-Ahmads were there to open school at 8 am. There was, nothing else to do. A wave of anxiety washes over the web INTERNET, FROM PAGE 1 edly reliable in spreading information about the pandemic, and in a time of social isolation, they have delivered on their promise of community connectiv- ity But they have also ensnared our attention with an alarming grip. The virus has clarified the dark bargain of these devices: We look to them to protect our bodies and soothe our nerves, and in return, we hand over our minds. By Day 2of a self-imposed kind-of quarantine, I was pacing my apart- ‘ment, riding the crests of my anxiety, periodically sucking a thermometer and tapping idly through every content-emitting app on my phone. No crevice of the internet remained un- touched by the virus. It has infected the content of beefcake influencers, wellness personalities and cat Twitter. There is surgical glove nail art and a masked makeup tutorial. Everybody is yelling about how to prepare beans and wash your hands, The impulses to signal awareness of the looming public health crisis and to reap the benefits of a coronavirus traffic bump align here. Even puppy rescue Instagrams are starting their captions with phrases like “In this time of uncertainty ..." New coronavirus personalities have been forged in the disease’s wake: a sophisticated Canadian boy forced to cancel a Disneyland vacation; Arnold Schwarzenegger's indoor donkey Lulu; ‘Amold Schwarzenegger's indoor mini- horse Whiskey. Then there is the toilet licker, a TikTok user named Ava Louise who once described herself to the television host Dr. Phil as a “skinny legend” and then released a song capitalizing on the moment titled “Skinny Legend Anthem" Her video represents the apotheosis of coronavirus trolling: a global crisis is fl tered through the influencer machine and emerges as a purely self-serving spectacle. “We love a successful PR stun,” she tweeted recently. ‘The virus's effect on the celebrity reputation is wildly unpredictable. The grown-up charming teen actress ‘Vanessa Hudgens tured instantly nefarious when she tousled her curls, on Instagram, pitched her voice into a disturbingly cutesy register and said, “Yeah, people are gonna die, and that's terrible, but also lke ... inevitable?” (She followed it with what may be the first Notes app apology of the pandemic.) “Meanwhile, Chet Hanks, the rapper son of Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson who once called himself Chet Haze and ‘most recently came to public attention after speaking in patois on the Golden Globes red carpet, appeared strangely lovable when he appeared shirtless on Instagram to address his parents’ Covid-19 diagnoses. (“What's up everyone, it's true, my parents got coronavirus, erazy.") Virus content finally reached Jared Leto's feed on March 17, when he emerged from a 12-day desert silent ‘meditation retreat and tweeted, “Wow.” ‘These offerings, under normal online conditions, might produce a spike of intellectual or emotional activity. Chet Hanks should prompt a reflection on the wonders of human reproduction; miniature versions of regular-size animals are thrilling. But they are all tied so inextricably to punishingly anxious online behavior that they seem to function purely on the level of stimulation, They evoke nothing but the low buzz of distraction from the invisible threat surrounding us. Even flashes of online inspiration swiflly licker and dim. The voracious- ness of the meme, which instantly seizes fresh content and leaches it of ‘meaning, has taken on an unsettling quality in the time of literal viralty. Soon after quarantined Italians took to their balconies to sing the national anthem in unison, people made memes replacing the anthem with American pop songs. A doctored video of the Italians singing Katy Perry's song. “Roar” prompted Perry to tweet, “You cannot break the human spirit.” When she capped it with an emoji of the Hungarian flag, she just about broke mine. ‘Any Instagram-induced envy we used to feel while lurking on feeds has been seamlessly converted into moral superiority. Though coronavirus content feels inescapable to the masses hhunkering at home, unbothered crowds persist outside the sphere of influence of online scolds, which only drives some to scream louder into the void. ‘rare content oasis can be discov- ered on TikTok, a medium forged through a more quotidian kind of social isolation. The visual grammar of Tik- ‘Tok was developed by teenagers mess- ing around alone in their childhood bedrooms, and so the platform has adapted easily to the quarantine, se ing up videos of dogs running errands and unsettled house cats and “online learning” jokes that are oddly soothing in their effect. Whatever may be happening outside, life on TikTok feels oddly unchanged. But life has changed, in ways we are only beginning to understand, One reason that we are so consumed with representations of coronavirus, dous- ing our brains init lke a kind of mental sanitizer, is that the view from our homes is still so limited. We are men- tally unprepared for the changes to daily life that will unfold over the next several months. ARTs Surgical glove nail art on the internet, ‘where everybody is yelling about how to prepare beans and wash your hands ‘The virus is weeks ahead of our testing capabilities and perhaps years ahead of a vaccine. The virus is invisible tous, but it can track us down seemingly anywhere. Perhaps that's why I keep coming back to a video of a penguin waddling around the halls of an aquarium, pe- rusing its exhibits like a human being. When Chicago's Shedd Aquarium, closed to visitors, it et a penguin named Wellington out of his enclosure and introduced him to the other side. In the video, he looks stutteringly behind him at his handler, flaps his wings and ventures up to the glass, where he examines the fish of the Amazon, He is on dry land but has a full view of the water's depths. I don't know how penguins think, or what Wellington feels, but as a character in a video for human viewing, he imparts the sensation of vicarious enlightenment. He has leveled up toa new plane of aquarium knowledge. Finally, he can see the other animals as he himself was once seen, He can observe their patterns and movements from a vantage point of near omni- science. Watching Wellington gives the feeling of a vast unknown being spon- taneously revealed. Must be nice. French star of movies and music halls ‘SUZY DELAIR 1917-2020 BY ANITA GATES Suzy Delair, a French film actress and music-hall singer best known for her 1940s thrillers directed by Henri- Georges Clouzot, her starring role in Laurel and Hardy's last movie and her cheeky screen persona, died on March 15 at a retirement home in Paris. She was 102. Her death was reported by the French magazine Le Point. ‘To aficionados of French film, Ms. De- lair was most closely identified with “Quai des Orfévres" (1947), Clouzot's ac- claimed police melodrama about an am- bitious and recklessly flirtatious singer, her jealous husband and a murder investigation, ‘When the film opened in New York in January 1948 as “Jenny Lamour” (the stage name of Ms. Delair's character), Bosley Crowther praised it in The New York Times and described Ms. Delair’s character as “both vivid and credible, a creature of normal contradictions, pa- thetic aspirations and deceits.” It was her third film with Clouzot, after “Le Dernier de Six” (“The Last of Six” 1941) and “LAssassin Habite sur21” (*The Murderer Lives at No. 21? 1942), both made in Paris during the German Occupation. Suzette Pierrette Delaire was born on Dee. 31,1917, in Paris. Her father, Clovi Mathieu Delaire, sold equestrian equipment, and her mother, Thérése (Nicola) Delaire, was a seamstress, Suzette’s first job was as an appren- tice in a millinery shop, but she also began singing in cafes at 4 Were it not for her vocal career, she and Clouzot might never have connected. “He met me when I was a little debutante working with Mistinguett," the risqué and wildly popular actress and entertainer, Ms. De- lair told The Times in 2002. Clouzot attended a performance, heard Ms. Delair sing the hit “Valencia,” marked her name on the program and planned his return, “The next time he came to the show," Ms, Delair recalled in the same inter- View, “he waited for me at the exit, we went for a drink, and that lasted 12 years.” Itwas a romantic relationship as well as a professional one. Ms. Delair's movie career, which began in 1931 with “Un Caprice de la Pom- padour” (“A Whim of the Pompadour”) ‘Suzy Delair in one of her best-known films, “Quai des Orfévres” (1947). and ended in 1976 with “Oublie-Moi, Mandoline” (“Forget Me, Mandoline”), ‘was almost exclusively French. She was in “Pattes Blanches” (“White Paws,” 1949), a drama directed by Jean Grémillon; “Gervaise” (1956), René Clé- ‘ment's adaptation of an Emile Zola nov- el; and “Les Aventures de Rabbi Jacob” (“The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob,” 1973), Gérard Oury’s crime comedy, in which she played an excitable, gro- tesquely overdressed dentist chasing down her runaway husband. Her final screen appearances were on French television series in the 1980s. She continued to work in operetta. Of her 35 feature films, one was Ital- ian —Luchino Visconti's 1960 “Rocco e i Suoi Fratelli” (“Rocco and His Broth- ers”) —and one wasaFrench-Italian co- production, certainly one of the most unusual items in her filmography: Laurel and Hardy's last film. Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy had been among the most successful comedy teams of the 1920s and '30s. But their career was on the wane when they starred in “Atoll K” (1950), about a man who inherits a boat and a tropical island and sets off to start a new life with his best pal. Ms. Delair played a Navy officer's runaway fiancée, who joins them. The film, shot partly in Marseilles and on the Cate d'Azur, was plagued by script trouble, cast illness and assorted production nightmares, Finally released in the United States in 1954 as “Utopia.” it was often relegat- ed to double-feature bookings. Ms. De- lair had doubts about the project and ac- cepted the role only with certain conditions, including a personal makeup art- ist,a personal hairdresser and costumes by the star designer Jacques Fath, Other encounters with famous men turned out more favorably. On Feb. 28, 1948, Ms. Delair was singing at the Hotel Negresco in Nice. One man in the audience, Louis Armstrong, particularly loved a new number she did: “C'est Si Bon.” Two years later he recorded an English version, and the song became aninternational classic, recorded by art- ists from Eartha Kitt to Iggy Pop. In France, Ms. Delair was best known for another Song, “Avec Son Tra La La," which she performed in “Quai des Or- fevres.” Several European publications mentioned it in the headline or the first, paragraph of their obituaries. ‘She wasn’t a particular fan of the song, however. As she told The Times in 2002, “I always preferred the other song, in the film — ‘Danse Avec Moi.” ‘Ms. Delair was made an officer of the Legion of Honor in 2007. Information on survivors was not immediately available. Ms. Delair had a reputation as somewhat difficult, but she defended herself in a 2017 article in the celebrity news- magazine France Dimanche. She was not a person of “bad character,” she said. “When Lact, always worry about being. perfect,” she explained, and as a result “people find me irritating.” THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL EDITION TUESDAY, MARCH 24, 2020 | 3 World Canadas ‘astronaut families’ VANCOUVER Transnational migrants from Asia find themselves pulled between continents BY DAN BILEFSKY Bonnie Ye, 42, let China four years ago tomarry aman from Vancouver she met on a Chinese matchmaking website. Soon, her husband was shuttling between China and two homes in Vancou- ver, leaving her alone for long stretches to care for their young daughter. Now, the two are divorced, Valerie Ng, 19, was so distraught as a child when her father left Vancouver to go work in Hong Kong, she bit his ear tntil it bled. But she and her mother came to dread his sporadic visits home He was a “yeller” After Valerie finishes college, her mother hopes to return to Hong Kong while her daughter plans to remain in Canada, These are just two of the “astronaut, families” who have made Vancouver a global hub for tens of thousands of people whose lives straddle Canada and China. They are known as “astronauts” because at least one parent — usually the father — spends so much time in the air, flying to and from mainland China, Hong Kong or Taiwan to financially support the family. Drawn by Canada's education system, passports for their children and a refuge outside authoritarian China for cash and kin, these transnational mi grants are transforming the social fab- ric of Vancouver and pumping billions of dollars into the local economy while creating challenges for families pulled between two continents and two cultures. “The fathers in Asia can become lonely and marriages are imperiled, wives face the stresses of managing a household alone, and the children can become spoiled when money and cars are substituted for the lack of parental presence.” said Prof. David Ley, an emeritus professor of geography at the University of British Columbia and author of a book on the subject, “Million- aire Migrants” Now that the government has told Ca- nadiansnot to traveloutside the country because of the coronavirus epidemic, living between Canada and China has become even more fraught and difficult. Immigrant advocates say the coronavirus's roots in China also threaten to fan discriminatory behavior toward ‘Vancouver's large Chinese population, ‘The astronaut family phenomenon in Vancouver began in the late 1980s and early 1990s when Hong Kong residents flocked there before the territory's handover to China. Successive waves of astronaut families also came from Tai- ‘wan and mainland China, withthe afflu- ence necessary to support their global lifestyle. By 2007,a study by the Chinese Cana- dian Historical Society of British Colum- bia found that two-thirds of male mi grants to Canada from Hong Kong between the ages of 25 and 44 lived and Eson Zeng and his son with a customer at his food stand in Vancouver. He said he felt lonely during the four years he spent apart from his wife and child while he was in China. ‘Valerie Ng, 19. After she finishes college, she plans to remain in Canada, while her ‘mother hopes to return to Hong Kong. worked outside Canada. ‘The influx of these cosmopolitan immigrants, with multiple passports and high incomes, has created a cottage industry to serve the astronaut lifestyle. ‘There are help lines to advise women on how to cope with single parent child- rearing, psychologists to counsel ado- lescents suffering feelings of abandon- ‘ment, and services to monitor vacant homes that will change exterior decora- tions each month, trim hedges or even eave shoes outside a house to make it look like a family is home. ‘Vancouver has also become a North American hub for the ownership of ul- taluxury cars valued at $150,000 or more, with sales driven, in part, by new wealth from China. There are also law- yers on call to defend the “astronaut teenagers” who break the law in their superfast rides ‘Chris Johnson, a lawyer based in Van- couver, recalled advising one young cli- ent, who kept crashing his yellow Lam- borghini, to get rid of his flashy car. In- stead, the 20-something, whose father lived in China, traded it in for a gray Lamborghini. ‘This flaunting of wealth, and the dan- gers posed by speeding young people, has become a point of contention in Van- couver, but gripes over soaring housing costs remain even more intense in this real estate-obsessed city, with foreign homeowners blamed, in part, for bid- ding up prices. Vancouver has become among the ‘most unaffordable cities in North Amer- ica, stoking resentment against astronaut migrants in the city, said Andy Yan, an urban planner at Simon Fraser Uni- versity in Vancouver. “Race and class and income inequal- ity are converging with the proliferation of ultrawealthy astronaut families in Vancouver,” Mr. Yan said. ‘The British Columbia authorities, concerned about the housing cost issue, have introduced a host of measures, cluding taxes on foreign homeowners andon the sprawling, empty houses that dot wealthy neighborhoods. ‘These moves, combined with efforts by Chinato enforce limits on the amount of money leaving the country, have been helping to slow the escalation of Vancou- ver's home prices and temper some of the displeasure among city residents. “The husbands who live overseas. in China are like migrating penguins who go to search for food for their families.” Many astronaut families reside in Richmond, a city near Vancouver's airport with a large Chinese-speaking population, rows of large houses and sprawling shopping malls with signs in Chinese, ‘On a recent afternoon at a food court there, Ms. Ye, the woman who divorced her husband, lamented the sacrifices the astronaut lifestyle had entailed for her andher daughter Lily, 6, who sat qui- etly drawing in a coloring book. After she gave birth to Lily in Chinain 2013, her husband sponsored her and her daughter to emigrate to Canada. But she said things quickly soured, with her husband often away. While in China, he rented out several properties there, becoming prosperous and buying ‘two homes in Vancouver. Despite his wealth, she said when he was in Vancouver he worked in low-end jobs as a waiter or in a supermarket to earn enough money to maintain his per- manent residency status. Taking low- skilled jobs to keep residency status is not uncommon among astronaut families when the breadwinner can’t find more lucrative work. ‘After her husband blamed her for not giving birth to a son, the two divorced. She has no long-term interest in staying in Vancouver. “The only reason I stay in Canada is for my daughter. As soon as she receives her Canadian citizenship, I'l go back to China” she said. Queenie Choo, the chief executive of Success, a Vancouver-based social services organization helping new immigrants, including many from China, said the transnational lifestyle created inse- curities and a loss of intimacy for families divided by an ocean “The husbands who live overseas in China are like migrating penguins who g0 to search for food for their families” Ms. Choo said. In addition to feeling isolated, the wives left behind can also experience culture shock when their Canadian teenagers turn their backs on Chinese culture or defy parental authority, Ms. Choo said, But some of these women also report finding a sense of liberation, in particu- Jar those from more patriarchal families, Professor Ley said “When you asked, ‘What is stressing ‘you?" some replied it was when their husbands returned home from China,” he said. ‘Some families find the separation too much tobear andabandon the astronaut lifestyle. Eson Zeng, 46, said he felt lonely during the four years he spent apart from his wife and child interacting with them only over WeChat, the Chinese social media site, during months of separation. He now works 12 hours a day at a Chi- nese food stand in Vancouver. For the children of astronaut families, the lifestyle has challenges but also many benefits William Hou, a business studentat the University of British Columbia, grew up in Richmond, with his father running an auto parts business in Bejing and spending every other six monthsin Van- couver. When in Vancouver, his father would refuse to answer him if he spoke Eng- lish. His son resented it at the time, “I would say, ‘Iam Canadian. Why do I need to speak Mandarin?"” Mr. Hou recalled, “But my father said, “You must not forget where you came from!" But Mr. Hou, a straight-A student, came to appreciate being multilingual “Ican feel at home in both Canada and China” he said. “It’s an asset” Winston Szeto contributed reporting. Qaeda branch in Somalia is seen as a growing threat BY ERIC SCHMITT AND ABDI LATIF DAHIR AlQaeda's branch in Somalia, the terrorist group's largest and most active global affiliate, has issued specific new threats against Americans in East Afri- caand even the United States, U.S. com- mandos, counterterrorism officials and intelligence analysts say. Several ominous signs indicate that the Qaeda affiliate, the Shabab, is seeking to expand its lethal mayhem well beyond its home base and attack Ameri- cans wherever it can — threats that have prompted a recent flurry of Ameri- can drone strikes in Somalia to snuff out the plotters. In recent months, two Shabab operatives have been arrested while taking flying lessons — one last summer in the Philippines and another more recently in an African country, intelligence offi- ials say. Those arrests carried eerie echoes of the Qaeda plotters of the Sept. U1, 2001, attacks on the United States, who trained to fly jetliners. Shabab fighters are seeking to acquire Chinese- made shoulder-fired antiaircraft. mis- siles, which could pose adeadly new risk to US. helicopters and other aircraft in Somalia. ‘American commanders are harden- ing defenses at bases in the region after a Shabab attack in January at Manda Bay, Kenya, killed three Americans and revealed serious security vulnerabil ties. That attack came about a week after an explosives-laden truck blew up at a busy intersection in Mogadishu, the Somali capital, killing 82 people. The Shabab also claimed responsibility for that attack. ‘The strike in Kenya came two months after the Shabab released a 52-minute video narrated by the group's leader, Abu Ubaidah, in which he called for attacks against Americans wherever they are, saying the American public is a le- gitimate target. The statement mirrored Osama bin Laden's declaration of war against the United States in 1996. ““Shabab is a very real threat to Soma- lia, the region, the international community and even the U.S. homeland.” Gen. Stephen J. Townsend, the head of the nillitary's Africa Command, told a House committee in Washington this month. ‘The Shabab control large parts of So- malia and raise considerable funds through local taxation and extortion. Despite intensified American airstrikes andalong-running offensive againstthe African Union, the group has carried out, deadly attacks not only in Somalia but also in Uganda and neighboring Kenya. ‘American and other Western intell gence analysts and Special Operations officers expressed fears that Shabab millitants could threaten the 3,500 per- ‘Two Shabab operatives have been arrested while taking flying lessons, an eerie echo of the Sept. 11, 2001, attack plotters. sonnel at the Pentagon's largest perma- nent base on the continent, in Djibouti, as well as international shipping in the critical Bab al Mandab waterway off the southern Yemeni coast. And last month, the United States Embassy in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, warned of a possible terrorist attack against a major hotel in that city that is, popular with tourists and business trav- elers. The warning did not specifically mention the Shabab, but intelligence officials said the threat bore the hallmarks of such an operation. ‘The Defense Intelligence Agency told the Pentagon's inspector general in are- cent report that the chances of the Shabab attacking the United States remained relatively low, but the analysts noted that the group had made clear its intentions to kill Americans at any loca- tion. One threat could be home grown, from radicalized Somali-Americans living in cities like Minneapolis or Colum- bus, Ohio, which have large Somali- ‘American ‘communities, analysts said ‘Another could be from Shabab militants in East Africa, who have pilot training and might be able to slip into the United States — a much more dificult feat now than when the original Sept. 11 plotters centered the country in 2001. For now, Shabab threats against ‘Americans remain highest in East Afri- ca. In September, a suicide bomber deto- nated a car packed with explosives at the gate of a military airfield in Bale Dogle, Somalia, injuring one American service member. Afterward, according to the Pentagon's inspector general report, the Shabab and other Qaeda-related groups released near-simultaneous ‘messages on social media, suggesting a coordinated media strategy among the ‘Qaeda branches. “Thisis what we struggle with? Brig. Gen. Dagvin RM. Anderson, the com- ‘mander of American Special Operations forces in Africa, saidin an interview last ‘month on the sidelines of a counterterrorism exercise in Mauritania. “Their intent is clearly stated. The question is, are they able to develop a safe haven to plan, fund and plot these attacks against. the U.S.2 What's their timeline? How do ‘we and our partners keep them off balance?” Itisunclear how the Shabab might try to exploit the spread of the coronavirus pandemic on the continent, where many countries face huge challenges responding to the crisis, General Anderson said on Friday in a separate telephone interview fromhis headquarters in Germany. ‘There are also about 500 American troops in Somalia. Most are Special Op- erations forces stationed ata small number of bases across the country. Their missions include training and advising, Somali Army and counterterrorism troops and conducting kill-or-capture raids of their own. ‘The Shabab have threatened to attack Americans wherever they can, including in the United States. The group, an affiliate of Al Qaeda, controls large parts of Somalia. ‘The threat from the Shabab has increased so sharply that last November, General Townsend created a Special Op- erations task force with about 100 troops and analysts to focus on shoring up security in Somalia and countering the Shabab. But the weapon of choice against the Shabab is drone strikes. The United States has carried out 31 strikes against ‘Shabab militants already this year, and ison pace to nearly double the previous high of 63 last year — almost all against Shabab militants, with a few against a branch of the Islamic State. That com- pares with 47 strikes against the Shabab in 2018. Several recent strikes have focused on targets near Jilib, about 220 miles south of Mogadishu, which American and Somali officials say is a major hub for the Shabab’s operations cell that plots attacks outside Somalia. The Africa Command, also called Africom, said that a strike on Feb. 22 in the vicinity of Sakow killed Bashir Mo- hamed Mahamoud, who the military says was a senior Shabab commander responsible for planning and directing the deadly Manda Bay attack. “L would say that the threat is higher, has been higher in the last few months than it was eight months ago when I first got to Africom,” General Townsend told reporters after the House hearing last week. “That's exactly why you've seen this increase in strike activity” ‘The air campaign, however, has been shrouded in secrecy, and an investigation by Amnesty International last year reported on evidence that these airstrikes had killed or wounded more than two dozen civilians since 2017, Are- cent report by Airwars, a conflict-monitoring group, also challenged the military's findings that its strikes had re- sulted in very few civilian casualties. ‘The Shabab formally pledged alle- giance to Al Qaeda in 2012. But long before that, its members fought Western- backed governments in Mogadishu as the group sought to impose its extremist interpretation of Islam across Somalia In defending the fragile government, the United States has largely relied on proxy forces, including about 20,000 Af- rican Union peacekeepers from Uganda, Kenya and other East African nations. The United States estimates that the Shabab have about 5,000 to 7,000 fighters in Somalia, but the group's ranks are fluid In recent years, the Shabab have proved adeptat transforming into anag- ile and adaptive guerrilla force that has developed fiendishly _ sophisticated homemade bombs, including impro- vised explosive devices, or LE... “Now more than ever, Al Shabab effectively deploys LE.D.s, complex attacks on both civiian and military targets, blockades to disrupt access, de- viseS sophisticated extortion generat- ing schemes, and utilizes intimidation tactics to afford itself invincibility status aimed at destabilizing Somalia and threatening neighboring countries,” said Abdisaid Muse Ali, Somalia's national security adviser. ‘The authorities inthe Philippines last July arrested a person accused of being a Shabab operative from Kenya who was studying to be a pilot at a local aviation academy. In announcing the arrest of the suspect, Cholo Abdi Abdullah, reports in the news media said that he had been accused of conducting research on “aviation threats, aircraft hijacking and falsifying travel documents.” “Al Shabab is a prime lesson in the Al Qaeda movement's stubborn resilien- cy" said Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism scholar at the Council on Foreign Rela- tions, “The group has suffered leadership losses, loss of territory and reve- nue, and the attrition of its fighters, but keeps on fighting — and escalating and expanding its operations elsewhere.” 4 | TUESDAY, MARCH 24, 2020 THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL EDITION WORLD Faith brings comfort. And risk. RELIGION, FROM PAGE 1 in Jerusalem closed for prayer, making it a clean sweep: Islam's three holiest sites were now off-limits. ‘With good reason, at least from amed- ical standpoint: Coronavirus outbreaks have been linked to a South Korean church, a gathering of 16,000 faithful at a mosque in Malaysia and an Orthodox Jewish congregation in New Rochelle, NY. But social distancing can leave the faithful feeling distant from God. How do you receive the body and blood of Christ when the communion cup might bea vector? How do you feel the warmth of communal prayer, the experience that draws the faithful to houses of worship around the world, in thecold blue light of allive-streamed service? Spiritual advisories from religious authorities sought to redirect believers’ energies inward, Rabbi David Lau, the Ashkenazi chief rabbi in Israel, called upon Jews to say 100 blessings daily, as King David did when confronted with a plague. The Se- phardic chief rabbi, Yitzhak Yosef, urged Jews to “petition the Almighty to stop the epidemic and to leave his throne of judgment and sit instead on the throne of mercy” The Coptic patriarch of Egypt, Pope ‘Tawadros Il, said the pandemic was a wake-up call to repent. “If there are differences between people,” he said in a sermon, “this is the time for reconcilia- tion” In a world where so many routines have been obliterated, it is the rites themselves that many cherish. “I'm taking precautions in my life generally against the virus, but communion is the body and blood of God; said Monica Medhat, 26, an executive at an Egyptian brewery who is a Coptic Christian. “It can’t get infected with anything.” People may have already unknow- ingly spread the virus in the name of pi ety. Despite New York's recent bans on large gatherings, several large weddings went ahead in Brooklyn's Hasidic Jewish communities, which have reported a spike in confirmed cases in recent days. Iran is home both to one of the world's worst outbreaks and to dozens of major Shiite Muslim shrines, which have remained open to crowds for weeks, even as the coronavirus has left the country shellshocked. ‘When the government finally heeded health officials’ pleas and closed two i \" Clockwise from above, the Church of Santa Maria in Chiesa Rossa, Milan, Which canceled Mass in early March; Orthodox Jews in New York, who have been hit hard by the coronavirus; volun- ‘teers disinfecting the Wat Traimit temple in Bangkok. popular shrinesin the cities of Mashhad and Qum on Monday, crowds of the faithful pushed in, Iranian state media reported, shouting, “The president is damn wrong to do that!" India has so far refused to call off an annual festival that starts Wednesday in honor of the god Ram, also known as Rama, In normal times, it draws as many as a million people to Ayodhya, which some believe to be the birthplace of Ram, in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. ‘The state has asked devotees to cele- brate at home this year. Organizers, however, are carrying on. “People are getting the opportunity to have glimpses of Lord Rama," said ‘Vinod Bansal, a national spokesman for the group, Vishva Hindu Parishad. “It's not appropriate to deprive them of this opportunity.” Many faiths are adapting to the new reality. Houses of worship are closed or empty. Holy water is splashed from individual bottles instead of a font. Friday Prayer has been canceled across the ‘Middle East. Muezzins in the West Bank cm ae om al and Kuwait entreat the faithful to avoid the mosque and instead pray at home. This will be the fourth week without ‘Mass across Italy. Butin the Sicilian city of Palermo, the mountain sanctuary of Saint Rosalia, who is believed to have ‘saved Palermo from a plague in 1625,re- mains open. Under current government restrictions, Italians are not supposed to leave home except for emergencies. But the Rev. Gaetano Ceravolo, the sanctuary’s, chief caretaker, said around 40 pilgrims had nevertheless trekked up to the shrine last Sunday, praying briefly and far apart from one another. “For us, she's a friend, a point of reference?’ said Francesco Tramuto, a member of the group that has carried the saint's reliquary through Palermo ‘yearly for three centuries. In Israel, all three main Abrahamic faiths have sought to accommodate the faithful without endangering them, ‘The Western Wall’s plaza has been subdivided into smaller prayer areas to discourage large groups, and syna- gogues held services with smaller quo- rums and told the high-risk to stay home. West Bank churches were closed. On the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctu- ary, Muslims were allowed to pray only outside. The internet offered a sterile way to worship from home. The Pope's Mass was live-streamed. Sowasaburningrite to dissipate the virus at the Kinpusen-ji Buddhist temple in Japan. South Korean churches offered YouTube-only services for the first time anyone could remember. To the dismay of religious leaders in South Korea, whose congregations gathered through Japanese occupation and war, worship services have at- tracted unusual scrutiny there. Amajor- ity of South Korea’s 8,800 cases have been traced to a large, unconventional church in the southeastern city of Daegu. ‘Amid the coronavirus anxiety, it was perhaps inevitable that some would in- terpret the pandemic as a divine mis- sive. What it said was less clear. ‘Some Egyptian Muslims expressed certainty on social media that God was smiting non-Muslim countries by giving them the virus, apparently unaware that Egypt has registered nearly 200 cases and may have many more un- counted. Some Islamists, especially supporters of the banned Muslim Broth- erhood, cast the outbreak as punishment for the Egyptian public's support of the military takeover that brought the country's authoritarian leader, Presi- dent Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, to power in 2013. ‘Some sought earthly remedies in- spired by higher powers. Atthe Lebanese government hospital where infected patients are being treated, a woman recently arrived carrying a mixture of holy water and dirt dug from the mausoleum of Saint Char- bel, who is revered among Lebanese Christians. Some Christians were said tobe drinking similar solutions as a pre- caution, Hospital administrators tested the soil and, finding it unlikely to cause harm, consented to keep it for any patients who might findit comforting. Who were they to judge? a hospital official said. Itwashigh time, in any case, for amir- acle. Reporting was contributed by Hwaida ‘Saad from Beirut, Declan Walsh and Nada’Rashwan from Cairo, David M. Halbfinger from Jerusalem, Mohammed Najib from Ramallah, West Bank, Elisa- betta Povoledo from Rome, Choe Sang- Hun from Seoul, Hannah Beech from Sin- ‘gapore and Motoko Rich from Tokyo. Outbreak is Moscow Russian leader can show how much he’s needed before a vote on his rule BY ANTON TROIANOVSKI For Vladimir V. Putin's budding police state, the coronavirus is an unexpected dress rehearsal As the Russian president has consoli- dated power, the police and security services have spent years upgrading their capabilities, ike facial-recognition tools and crowd-control methods. Now, the spread of the virus provides a sudden test for those capabilities — and a high-stakes opportunity for Mr. Putin to win support for his hard-line measures. Russia reported its biggest one-day jump in coronavirus cases last Thurs- day, with 52 new patients identified across 23 regions. As of Sunday evening, the country had a reported 367 cases, and in Moscow, the first death of a coronavirus patient. To fight the virus, Russia is taking steps to limit personal freedoms that in many ways mirror those taken recently by Western democracies. Schools, mu- seums and theaters were closed nationwide, and gatherings of more than 50 people have been banned in Moscow and other cities. Anyone arriving from abroad is required to enter quarantine. But for Russia, those steps carry an additional significance: They are an opportunity for Mr. Putin to show an un- easy public the effectiveness of rigid top-down governance and a strong, cen- tralized state. “A state of emergency is a happy time for any law enforcement authorities” said Ekaterina Schulman, a political atest for Putin’s surveillance state scientist and former member of Mr. Putin's human rights council. Referring to the stakes for the Kremlin as it navi gates the crisis, she added: “On the one hand, you are viewed as a protector and a savior On the other, you can become the focus of discontent.” Mr. Putin’s grand bargain with Ri sians has been to provide stability, com- petent governance and greater respect, on the world stage, at the cost of fewer democratic rights. The public’s support of the bargain has slipped in recent years, amid declining incomes and anger over official corruption. ‘The coming weeks are shaping up to be critical for Mr. Putin as he tries to ce- ment his power. ‘A national vote to approve constitu- tional amendments that would allow him to serve as president until 2036 is, scheduled for late April. For now, he has avoided much public blowback against, the move to hold on to power, but the government's ability to control the coronavirus outbreak will test his argument that Russia needs his steady leadership in a time of crisis. Officials ascribe Russia's relatively low total case count — with more than 133,000 tests performed, according toof- ficial figures — to aggressive quarantine efforts and the government's move in late January to close the border with China, But many Russians believe the total is far higher, and some are drawing comparisons with the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster, when the Soviet government was slow to admit the scale of the problem. “Everybody's talking about, ‘Oh, it’s Chernobyl again,” Anna Filippova, a 26-year-old freelance journalist, said in an interview at a Moscow bookstore. ‘“We know the government's going tolie again, and we're not going to get any of the truth to come out, so we feel very lost, because maybe they're underesti- A supermarket in Moscow last week. To fight the virus, Russia is taking steps to limit personal freedoms that in many ways mirror those taken in the West. ‘matingit, maybe they're overestimating — nobody knows.” Mr. Putin mentioned the coronavirus last week in his surprise appearance at the lower house of Parliament to en- dorse a proposal to give him the ability to run for two additional six-year terms after his current tenure expires in 2024. The disease, he said, was one of the ‘many current uncertainties that showed Russia needs the stability hisleadership represents. ‘To fight the outbreak, the Russian authorities have been implementing their expanding surveillance tool kit and showing it offto the public. On March 17, Mr. Putin toured Moscow's coronavirus ‘monitoring center, with Russian jour- nalists in tow. The city's mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, showed Mr. Putin how Moscow's fast-expanding facial-recognition network allowed the authorities to catch people ignoring home-quarantine orders. The center also monitored social media for false information about the virus. Earlier this month, Moscow's top police official said that facial recognition cameras had identified more than 200 people breaking quarantine orders, according to the Tass state news agency. He said an additional 9,000 cameras are to be set up this year in addition to the 178,000 already operating. Russian civil rights activists have criticized the technology as a tool of the Kremlin's expanding apparatus of re- pression, since it allows the police to identify and locate people participating in street protests, What that means i practice has scared some Muscovites but comforted others. Artyom, 30, who works in the media industry and requested his last name ‘not be published, was of both minds He left his apartment building to take out the trash two days after receiving a quarantine order following a flight from Milan, he said in an interview. Two days later, police officers came to his house with an official police report and a print- cout showing his passport photo alongside his image taken by a surveillance camera. “On the one hand, it's concerning, be- causein the future, who knows how they could use it said Artyom, who now faces a court hearing and a fine, of “Moscow's facial-recognition technology. “On the other hang, if it can help them find real criminals, I think its a good thing.” ‘The Russian authorities, meanwhile, have signaled that the government's rus-related crackdown could also affect freedom of expression. The Russian me- ia regulator, Roskomnadzor, warned Wednesday that news outlets and web- sites that spread false information about the virus “will be subject to the harshest measures,” including having their censes revoked. Russian news outlets reported on March 17 that even tougher measures may be coming, including a lockdown and quarantine of Moscow. The city denied the reports. Russia largely closed its border to foreigners the next day, its toughest travel restrictions since the fall of the Iron Curtain “For an authoritarian state, this coronavirus is paradise," a Western diplo- ‘mat in Moscow said, because the situation allows for the testing of tools of surveillance and control that can be used in the future to counter public unrest. “Next time you need it, just pull it out of the hat again.” ‘An uncontrolled outbreak of the epidemic, however, would undermine not only the public's trust in Mr. Putin but also two key events on the Kremlin's cal- endar: the April 22 plebiscite affirming Mr. Putin’s continued rule and the festiv- ities planned for May 9 marking the 75th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany. ‘And the sharp decline in oil prices amid plummeting global demand has highlighted Russia's economic vulnera- bility. Its currency, the ruble, has fallen more than 20 percent against the dollar in the past three weeks, toits lowest lev- elin four years. ‘Mr. Putin personally warned Rus- sians on Wednesday that greater obedi- ence was now becoming necessary. “This famous Russian devil-may-care attitude is in this case absolutely in- appropriate,” Mr. Putin said while vis iting Crimea. “The utmost responsibility and discipline must be demonstrat- ae Elsewhere in the former Soviet Un- ion, leaders have also implemented increasingly harsh methods to control the population. Kazakhstan — where the authorities put down protests against the authoritarian government last month — is deploying the police and the military toset up checkpoints andimpose a quarantine on its two largest cities. A total of 60 cases have been reported in the country, most of them in the two cities. In Ukraine, the government shut down subways and intercity rail, air and bus transport in addition to ordering restaurants and other establishments to close. ‘A member of Parliament was among the country's 73 confirmed coronavirus cases, Sophia Kishkovsky, Ivan Nechepurenko and Oleg Matsnev contributed reporting from Moscow and Maria Varenikova contributed reporting from Kyiv, Ukraine, THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL EDITION TUESDAY, MARCH 24, 2020 | 5 WORLD Revelers making their way down Bourbon Street in New Orleans on March 14. Under pressure, both social and governmental, the number of virus deniers is shrinking by the day. ‘If I get corona, I get corona’ NOVATO, CALIF. Deniers and disbelievers are still ignoring the urgent calls for social distancing BY JOHN BRANCH ‘A climbing destination on the remote eastern side of the snow-capped Sierra Nevada, Bishop, Calif, was packed last ‘weekend, as crowded as any holiday, despite growing calls for isolation in ad- vance of a predicted wave of coronavirus cases. “People were like, ‘Social distancing? I'm going to Bishop. Can't get any more distant than that,” said Jeff Deikis, a resident and climber. ‘Although the risks of climbing are pri- marily associated with the heights and terrain, adventurers jammed the coffee shops and the brewery in Bishop. Driv- ing four hours from Los Angeles and six hours from San Francisco, packs of climbers scaled the nearby boulders and canyons, sharing fresh air and, perhaps, infectious disease. “Climbers from around the country have descended upon Bishop as though global pandemic were some sort of hall pass from responsibility and magna- nimity? a climbing blog reported. ‘Across the United States, from Flor- ida beaches to California mountains, casinos to national parks, legions dismissed the growing demands in the past week to isolate themselves and stop congregating as the coronavirus spread through the country and shut down nearly all facets of American life. ‘They were the defiers and the disbelievers. They were those eager to flout authority or those afflicted with cabin fever, ifnot Covid-19. They were the off ials crowded on the podium of the White House briefing room, doing not as they say. ‘They were all people who dismissed the calls for isolation, seeing more reward than risk in gathering. They con- flated confidence with immunity. As in other times of national crisis, they exposed the relationship between individuals and society and our responsibility toothers. “IF get corona, I get corona,” a rev- eler in Florida said in a widely shared television interview. “At the end of the day, I'm not going to let it stop me from partying” Under pressure, both social and governmental, their numbers shrink by the day. Their impact on spreading the virus may never be known, The most dismissive were mostly young, freed from the structures of School and work, perhaps new to the concept of social responsibility. But plenty were older, trusting that the dwindling number of places still open to the public could be sanitized enough to keep sickness away. Some did not want to cancel long-set plans for things like weddings. Others just wanted to get to the outdoors, only to find they were far from alone. For others, gathering wasn't a choice. It was a requirement from an employer more afraid of missed revenues than of spreading viruses. ‘While many grocery stores, gas sta- tions and takeout restaurants have re- ‘mained open, the definition of “essential business” was open to interpretation. In Rhode Island, among businesses cited for ignoring social-distance warnings was Wonderland, a strip club, where customers were still receiving lap dances last weekend. (Its website says it has since closed temporarily.) GameStop, the video game chain, drew an outery from its employees as it instructed its thousands of stores to re- ‘Top, men playing football at a park in Houston last week. Above, tourists and local main open and to counter closure re- quests by local authorities, because, according to a staff memo, it believed it was “classified as essential retail” In California, Tesla, the luxury elec- tric carmaker, temporarily defied government orders to shut down all non- essential business, keeping its 10,000 factory workers on the job. On Thurs- day, Tesla said it would suspend operations, beginning Monday. ‘And in the Midwest, Uline, a major distributor of packaging materials and industrial supplies, Kept its work force going through the week, despite com- plaints from employees, including those crowded into its call centers, working side-by-side in cubicles. “Nothing's really changed,’ one em- ployee said, “It's just nerve-racking.” Employees received an email on ‘Thursday from the Uihlein family, owners of the $5.8 billion company and big donors to Republican causes, thanking them for their efforts and saying that the “White House called upon us twice with huge orders” that week. The same day, a manager at one Uline call center sent a note to employees. “Ifyou, or family members, are under the weather with cold/allergies — or anything aside from Covid-19," it read, “please do NOT tell your peers about the symptoms & your assumptions. By doing so, you are causing unnecessary panic in the office.” But plenty of Americans voluntarily ventured into the germ-stained world to pass time. While the major casinos in Las Vegas and Atlantic City shuttered early last week, those like Chukchansi Gold in central California promised increased cleanliness, a tricky sell in a world of playing cards and slot ma- chines. They folded, one by one. Chukchansi announced suddenly on Fri- day that it would close that night. Valley View Casino, near San Diego, planned to make it until Sunday night, but closed on Friday, too, along with several casinos in Florida. residents on Clearwater Beach, on Florida's west coast. The beach was closed Friday. With so many indoor places closed — ‘no malls, no movies — millions tried to escape outdoors, sometimes creating their own crowds. Sidewalks were jammed around the Tidal Basin in ‘Washington, D.C. as people came to see the cherry blossoms. No place highlighted the country’s conflicting moods more than Florida, Footage of crowded beaches spread. Shutting down spring break proved difficult. ‘Some students, high on sunshine and beers and obliviousness, relied on their youth as a shield and ignored warnings they could carry the virus back to their parents and grandparents. “It's like this thing blew up in my face? said Parker Simms, a student from the University of Kentucky who came to Fort Lauderdale with 50 friends and big plans. “It blew up during my spring break week.” Inthe debate between economics and epidemiology, local officials generally took the side of money and revelry. Late in the week, though, many joined the shutdown trend. By Thursday, the beach in Fort Lau- derdale was eerily empty, save for stacked chairs and lifeguard towers. A cluster of college students with roller bags and floppy straw hats walked toward a waiting SUV headed to the airport. Not all beachgoers were young people. A retired doctor and self-described “metal detectorist” named Larry Leguire, 68, from Columbus, Ohio, had been in Florida since December. (On Thursday on Clearwater Beach, near Tampa on Florida's west coast, he found four rings, two of which he believed were gold, plus a handful of coins, aluminum cans, pull tabs and bottle caps. “Itwas crazy out here yesterday.” Mr. Leguire said. “You saw it, right? Today is alot less. I think it's the coronavirus and the news about all the kids congregating” Mr. Leguire said he and his wife keep distance from others and wear gloves and masks in grocery stores. He was not happy to learn that the beach was closing Friday night. “The beach is my life, and without the beach, it’s like, why be in Florida?” he said. “I might as well go back home and sequester myself in my house in Colum- us, Ohio.” Formal gatherings like funerals and weddings were canceled or reconsid- ered. ‘At a backyard wedding near Ana- heim, Calif, on Saturday night, a DJ named Amanda B, was so nervous about performing that she did not shake the groom's hand or let anyone touch her microphone. “At that point, the advice was that gatherings of 50 or less were OK.” she Said a few days later. “But I wouldn't do itnow” In Brooklyn, Hasidic Jews defied isolation orders and held weddings; others continued gathering for prayer. In Fort Lauderdale, a wedding planned for late March was expedited and shrunk. Char- lotte Jay and Blake Parker, both 29, called their rabbi, invited a dozen close relatives to Mr. Parker's parents’ condo, and rushed to get ready. Clorox wipes and hand sanitizer greeted guests on an outdoor terrace. r. Parker's mother played the Beatles’ “All You Need Is Love” on her cellphone. ‘The wedding planner live-streamed the ceremony for the original 225 guests. ‘My dad and I sanitized our hands, linked arms and walked down the aisle” Ms. Jay said. “We didn't even hug or kiss. My dad elbow bumps Blake. Then he elbow bumps me” ‘Among the unexpected places to see a virus-induced surge in visitors were some national parks. Big Bend National Park, in Texas, was packed last week, even as isolation orders rolled across the country. Most national parks waived entrance fees but closed visitor centers. Yosemite National Park was among those to shut down lodging, and on Friday afternoon, it closed entirely. ‘On Saturday, people in the San Fran- cisco Bay Area ignored stay-in-place orders and crowded outdoor places like the Marin Headlands and Point Reyes National Seashore, which reported “unprecedented visitation.” ‘Any type of middle-of-nowhere congregation created anew kind of worry — rural areas with limited medical facilities being overrun with tourists just as the pandemic strikes in full. That concern shut down Colorado ski resorts. Is- lands in Maine and North Carolina barred visitors. In Moab, Utah, an area known for rock climbing and mountain biking near Arches National Park, health officials shut down hotels to everyone but local residents or those traveling for work after executives from the I7-bed Moab Re- gional Hospital implored the state to help. ‘That was the concern in Bishop. The Bishop Area Climbers Coalition ultimately asked “climbing friends” to “not travel to Bishop at this time.” “We're worried about what will happen if and when Bishop turns into its own little cluster” of the coronavirus, ‘Mr. Deikis, the coalition’s vice president, said last Wednesday. By Friday, after shops had closed and Gov. Gavin Newsom of California gave a shelter-in-place order, the town was relatively quiet again. ‘Additional reporting was contributed by ‘Audra Burch and Joseph B. Treaster from Miami; Frances Robles from Key West, Fla.; Amaris Castillo from Tampa, Fla,; Adam Popescu from Los Angeles; and Sapna Maheshwari and Niraj Chok- shi from New York Virus may limit efforts to fight U.S. wildfires Method of operations could also contribute to the outbreak’s spread BY KENDRA PIERRE-LOUIS In San Jose, Calif, just under 10 percent of the city’s firefighters, some of whom also help battle the state's wildfires, found themselves either infected with the coronavirus or in quarantine in the past week. ‘And firefighters across the United States, in states including Georgia, Indi- ana and Washington, are under quarantine amid the coronavirus crisis. Much of the western United States re- ‘mains under drought conditions as fire season, which typically ramps up in mid-May and lasts through November, approaches. Arizona and New Mexico have had rain, but parts of California have already Seen an increase in reported fires, according to the California Department of Fire. The state has received roughly half the amount of snow and rainfall that is normal for this time of year. ‘The coronavirus pandemic is already straining resources around the country, and the federal government has limited gatherings to fewer than 10 people to slow the spread of the virus. Firefight- ers are finding themselves squeezed from both sides: Their close living and working conditions often allow for viruses to spread, but ifthey are subject to ‘a quarantine, they are not available for emergency calls. “There's a risk of a reduction in force even as we go into fire seasonin the west right now” said George Geissler, the state forester at the Washington State Department of Natural Resources. Despite hopes that Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus, might peter out by summer, “I think it's reasonable to expect that you have to factor Covid into emergency response preparation for this summer” said Dr. David Lee ‘Thomas, a professor of medicine in the division of infectious diseases at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland, This new reality raises questions about how existing processes and structures that have been developed over a century will affect staffing needs, the health and safety of firefighters, and the health and safety of the communities they serve, Fighting wildfires relies on many agencies working together, Mr. Geissler said. The United States Forest Service and the Department of the Interior, as well as state agencies and local respond- ers, are all involved in some part of wildland fire response. Many of these same groupsarebeing asked to respond to the coronavirus emergency In Los Angeles, teams typically head out at this time of year to inspect and reduce brush that can fuel fires come sum- ‘mer. But according to Erik Scott, the public information officer for the Los ‘Angeles City Fire Department, they have been delayed. The inspection timeline will depend on when the depart- ‘ment can next hold training sessions. ‘On Thursday, Washington State's De- partment of National Resources announced it was canceling the first of three fire academies that the agency holds to train some 1,500 firefighters a year. Instead, firefighters will train in ‘smaller groups at local units. “That has a dramatic impact)” Mr. Geissler said. Many local fire services are “not going to get some of the training that they would have typically had available to them” On the federal level, some preparation has already been delayed or disrupted. Several preseason meetings, where fire teams get together to share information and prepare for the upcoming fire sea- sson, have been canceled. Dan O’Brien, the Center Coordinator for the Northwest Interagency Coordi- nating Center, said its meeting, at which more than 360 people were expected, was called off, “We're leaving the option open for individual teams to meet virtu- ally or otherwise with their command and general staff” he said The center coordinates wildfire response in Oregon and Washington. It is one of seven such centers out west, and 10 nationwide. Three centers confirmed that they had canceled coordination meetings as of Thursday. The phone ‘number for the office of the Southwest Coordination Center played a recorded message stating that it was closed. Daniel Hottle, a press officer for the United States Forest Service out of the Northern Rockies Coordination Center, said in a statement that the northern region has seen a handful of meetings postponed or rescheduled because of coronavirus concerns, Incident management teams range in size from 30 to 60 members and provide logistical support for managing big fires, said Bobbie Scopa, who for dec- ades served as a wildland firefighter with the US. Forest Service before retir- ing. “That annual training is really important because those folks maybe haven't been out for six months on a fire,” she said, “so they need to kind of get re- freshed and see what's the latest news, exercise their organization a little bit” Hotshot crews, the teams that fight wildfires by digging breaks that can stop fires from spreading, are 20-member crews, said Ms. Scopa. Help for big fires can come not just from other states but from other countries, In past years, Australia and New Zealand sent assistance for battling wildfires in the United States, But this ‘year, they're also dealing with their own coronavirus outbreaks, ‘Mr. Geissler said that in Washington State they're looking at alternatives that include reducing the number of people in each vehicle, or alternative methods of getting them to a fire, At the same time, incident commanders — the most experienced fire managers, who help ‘guide logistics — tend to be older and in riskier age groups for serious complica tions from coronavirus. There is a great reliance on retirees with experience in the forest service, the Bureau of Land Management or the park service but they come back and jt fires in the summer, said Jim Whit- tington, who worked as a public affairs officer for a number of federal agencies on wildfire related issues before retir- “So there's a big question in my mind asto whether those folks are going to show up” In past years, other nations sent help for battling wildfires. But this year, they're dealing with their own outbreaks. To fight large fires, a “fire camp” is usually set up, which is essentially a large campground for everyone working on the fire. And in such a setting, there is risk of contagion. “One of the things we often talk about in the fire service is camp crud,” Ms. Scopa said, referring to the infections that frequently race through fire camps, which feature people working long hours and living in close quarters with less than ideal hygiene. It's these sorts of conditions that lead to regular outbreaks of colds and other infections, as, well as more serious ones such as the norovirus outbreak at Nevada's Red Rock Fire, in 2009. ‘The risks aren’t limited to firefighters. After 2018's Camp Fire, people who evacuated to shelters also had to deal with a norovirus outbreak. ‘Two guiding documents for firefighters to plan for the coronavirus outbreak are based on the avian flu outbreak in 2008 and the norovirus outbreak in 2009. And the 2020 National Interagen- cy Mobilization Guide, released March 1 by the National Interagency Fire Cen- ter, doesn’t mention coronavirus or infectious diseases. On Thursday, the Inte- rior Department said they had mobi- lized three Area Command Teams to develop wildland fire response plans for coronavirus planning. All the experts interviewed said that they would still be able to respond to fires. But most agreed that their resources would be strained. “There's going to be allot of folks with expectations that are based in a world that no longer exists,” Mr. Whittington said. “And we're going to have to really work to communicate to change the expectations.” ‘Samantha Montano, an assistant professor in the department of disaster pre- paredness, response and recovery at the University of Nebraska, Omaha, empha- sized the need for training ahead of a disaster. “If you are standing in the middle of a pandemic asking what the plan is? she said, “it's too late” ‘A2019 fire in California, which has received less rainfall than usual this year, suggesting a fieree fire season to come. A lot of fire training has been canceled or delayed. 6 | TUESDAY, MARCH 24, 2020 THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL EDITION WORLD How a political campaign came apart = o-* A series of miscalculations and internal strife left Sanders all but vanquished BY ALEXANDER BURNS, AND JONATHAN MARTIN In mid-January, a few weeks before the Towa caucuses, Senator Bernie Sand- ers's pollster offered a stark prognosis for the campaign: Mr. Sanders was on track to finish strong in the first three nominating states, but Joseph R. Biden Jr's powerful support from older Afri- can-Americans could make him a resil- ient foe in South Carolina and beyond. The pollster, Ben Tulchin, ina meeting with campaign aides, recommended a new offensive to influence older black voters, according to three people briefed on his presentation. ‘The data showed two clear vulnerabil- ities for Mr. Biden: his past support for overhauling Social Security, and his au- thorship of a punitive criminal justice law in the 1990s. But the suggestion met with resist- ance. Some senior advisers argued that itwasn't worth diverting resources from Towa and New Hampshire, people familiar with the campaign's deliberations said. Others pressed Mr. Tulchin on what kind of message, exactly, would make voters rethink their support for the most loyal ally of the first black president. Crucially, both Mr. Sanders and his wife, Jane, consistently expressed res- ervations about going negative on Mr. Biden, preferring to stick with the left- wing policy message they had been pressing for 40 years. ‘The warnings about Mr. Biden proved prescient: Two months later, Mr. Sand- ers is now all but vanquished in the Democratic presidential race, after Mr. Biden resurrected his campaign in South Carolina and built an overwhelm- ing coalition of black voters and white moderates on Super Tuesday — March 3, when Id states held their votes. While Mr. Sanders has not ended his bid, he has fallen far behind Mr. Biden in the delegate count and has taken to trumpeting his success in the battle of ideas rather than arguing that he still has a path to the nomination. His efforts toregain traction have faltered in recent weeks as the coronavirus pandemic has frozen the campaign, and perhaps heightened the appeal of Mr. Biden's safe-and-steady image. In the view of some Sanders advisers, the candidate's abrupt decline was are- sult of unforeseeable and highly unlikely events — most of all, the sudden withdrawal of two major candidates, Senator Amy Klobuchar and former Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who instantly threw their support to Mr. Biden and helped spur arapid coalescing of moderate support behind his campaign. Mr. Sanders had been “on the brink of winning.” Mr. Tulchin argued, “until the most unprecedented event in the history of presidential primaries occurred.” But interviews with more than three dozen Sanders aides, elected officials, activists and other people who worked with his campaign revealed a more extensive picture of his reversal of political fortune. Though Mr. Sanders climbed to a position of seeming dominance by mid-February, he and his inner circle also made a series of fateful decisions that left him ill positioned to win over ‘Senator Bernie Sanders failed to heed warnings from traditional party leaders, and even from within his campaign, about the need to modulate his message and unify Democrats. Faiz Shakir, Mr. Sanders's campaign manager, regarded pleas to go on the attack against Joseph R. Biden Jr. as both futile and annoyingly predictable. skeptical Democrats — and sorely vulnerable to an opponent with Mr. Biden's strengths. ‘Mr. Sanders proved unable to expand his base well beyond the left or to win over African-Americans in meaningful numbers. He failed to heed warnings from traditional party leaders, and even from within his campaign, about the need to modulate his message and unify Democrats. He allowed internal argu- ments to fester within his campaign, an ungainly operation that fragmented into factions beneath the only two real deci- ‘sion makers — Mr. Sanders and his wife. ‘Though outwardly amiable, Mr. Sand- ers's inner circle fractured between ‘some long-serving counselors and rela- tive newcomers, like Faiz Shakir, his ‘campaign manager. Mr. Shakir and others regarded pleas from Mr. Tulchin and another pugilistic aide, David Sirota, to go on the attack against Mr. Biden as both futile and annoyingly predictable, while Mr, Shakir's internal critics saw him as exceedingly territorial. ‘There were also serious operational mistakes: In South Carolina, the campaign effectively deputized a former Ohio state senator and loyal surrogate, Nina Turner, to direct strategy, rather than empowering a political strategist to run the pivotal early state. In private conversations, Mr. Sanders often touted his support from some younger African- Americans, seemingly missing the big- ger picture, ‘And for all of Mr. Tulchin’s alarm in January about South Carolina, on the eve of the primary he was reassuring Mr. Sanders that a public poll showing him down over 20 percentage points in the state was “an outlier for good reason” Perhaps the most significant factor, as with every presidential campaign, was the candidate himself, and the stubborn ideological and stylistic consistency that both endeared Mr. Sanders to his supporters and limited his ability to build a majority coalition larger than his, own progressive movement. Mr. Sanders's campaign declined to comment for this article, AN INNER CIRCLE DIVIDED Itwaslate January when Zephyr Teach- ut, a liberal law professor allied with Mr. Sanders, wrote a column in The Guardian alleging that Mr. Biden had “a big corruption problem.” Mr. Sirota, the Sanders aide, who is known for his volu- ble and combative online persona, quickly blasted out her column to his large email list. A new phase of conflict, between Mr. Sanders and Mr. Biden seemed to be underway. But Mr. Sanders put a stop tot. “Itis absolutely not my view that Joe is cor- rupt in any way,” Mr. Sanders told CBS News. In January, efforts by Ms. Turner and others to direct some campaign resources into Super Tuesday states fiz- zled against opposition from Mr. Shakir and others. Mr. Shakir was adamant that Mr. Sanders's path to the nomination ran principally through Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada, and the Califor- nia primary on Super Tuesday. ‘There was also a running argument within the campaign about how to handle Senator Elizabeth Warren, with some advisers viewing her as a serious threat that needed to be quashed and others urging the campaign to seek con- ciliation. ‘The dispute erupted publicly in Janu- ary, when CNN reported that Mr. Sand- ers had told Ms. Warren in 2018 that he did not believe a woman could defeat President Trump, an assertion Mr. ‘Sanders denied. Mr. Shakir escalated the conflict, dar- ing Ms. Warren on TV to call the report a “ie” Jeff Weaver, a top Sanders adviser, took a different approach in his own TV appearance, suggesting there had been a misunderstanding —a step he told as- sociates was aimed at calming things down, But Ms, Warren stood by the account, and a clash between her and Mr. Sand- ers consumed the Democratic debate in Iowa. It would linger over both of them for the remainder of the race. REVOLUTIONARY TO A FAULT Despite the divisions within his campaign, Mr. Sanders cut a winning path through the first few states to vote, cul- minating with a landslide victory in Ne- vada on Feb. 22. Inhis speech that night, Mr. Sanders sounded a unifying note, fo- cusing on his “multigenerational, multi- racial coalition.” ‘The speech turned out to be a blip between Mr. Sanders's anti-establishment diatribes. And there was little aides could do to steer him in adifferent direc tion: The chief speechwriter on the Sanders campaign was Mr. Sanders. ‘RoseAnn DeMoro, the former leader of the nurses union who was one of Mr. Sanders's most ferocious surrogates in 2016, and the actor John Cusack, another ally, both pressed the campaign to refocus Mr. Sanders's pitch ona general- election audience, people familiar with their entreaties said. ‘Mr. Cusack urged the Sanders eam- paign to address voters beyond its pro- ‘gressive base, proposing that the senator give a speech at St. Francis College in New York and citing its eponym’s con- nection to environmentalism and fighting poverty. “His campaign needs to create a unit that is charged with outreach to groups who do NOT identify as progressive, but have strong views that are aligned with his. EXPAND EXPAND EXPAND,” Mr. Cusack wrote to top Sanders allies and advisers, in an email obtained by The New York Times. Mr. Sanders was not interested in moving in that direction. Some advisers, who endured the divisive 2016 campaign, believed that it was only after seizing a dominant advantage that Mr. Sanders could attempt to make peace with a Democratic establishment that remained intensely wary of him, Arriving in Charleston, S.C., ahead of the Feb. 29 state primary, Mr. Weaver said the campaign had not yet sought a working relationship with figures like the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi because they wanted first to demonstrate the full sweep of their coalition on Super ‘Tuesday three days later. ‘Mr. Sanders's campaign, like much of the political world, had not anticipated Mr. Biden's roaring comeback after South Carolina's primary. Indeed, until then, Mr. Sanders's campaign was expecting to win seven or eight of the 14 states voting on Super Tuesday and seize a solid delegate lead over the rest, of the Democratic field. So confident was Mr. Sanders that he would vanquish Mr. Biden that he spent valuable days trying to force two other candidates out of the race by campaign- ing in Minnesota and Massachusetts, the home states of Ms. Klobuchar and Ms. Warren. He won neither. ‘Mr. Sanders had suddenly become a spectator in the campaign, powerless to stop a tectonic shift against him by the party's moderate wing. Ms. Klobuchar called Mr. Sanders before announcing her endorsement of Mr Biden, while Mr. Sanders and Mr. Buttigieg did not speak. After being routed across the country, Mr. Sanders knew who to blame in an appearance on ABC's “This Week.” “What the establishment wanted was to make sure that people coalesced around Biden and try to defeat me,” Mr. Sanders said. “So that's not surprising.” Trump’s emails to fans avoid talk of the outbreak BY SHANE GOLDMACHER (On March 15, hours before the US. Cen- ters for Disease Control and Prevention warned against any gatherings of 50 people or more, a measure designed to Slow the spread of the coronavirus, President Trump signed an email to his nillions of supporters “Tonight is going to be a bad night” Mr. Trump began. The email was not referring to the pandemic. It was about the Democratic presidential debate that Sunday. “A bad night for Crazy Bernie and Sleepy Joe Biden? Mr. Trump wrote “For the first time, the American people will get to watch these two losers battle ‘tout on national television” IfMr. Trump has used appearances in the White House briefing room last ‘week to warn about the seriousness of the spreading coronavirus, the Trump campaign's wide-reaching digital arm has mostly charged forward in email communications with supporters as ifit Were still operating ina virus-free world “There has been the usual mix of dinner promotions with the president Gust donate ‘ANY AMOUNT in the NEXT HOUR"), fund-raising gimmicks (‘a shortterm DOUBLE-MATCH") and slashing attacks on Democrats — messages that could have been crafted for any other news cycle in any other campaign year. But the normal elements of the eam- paign have been frozen indefinitely Rallies have been canceled, primaries postponed, fund-raisers shelved, door- knocking deferred. ‘The president and his advisers are reckoning with the new reality of how to execute a digital-dominated campaign inthe age ofa pandemic, as are the two Democratic candidates, former Vice resident Joseph R. Biden Jt. and Sena- tor Bernie Sanders of Vermont. ‘Among the thorny questions facing strategists as the 2020 campaign mi- grates increasingly online: How does one ask supporters confined to their homes, and potentially unable to work, to dig into their wallets for donations? What crosses the line between motiva- tional and tone-deaf? And just how ‘much of business as usual should be upended as the offline country grinds to a halt? “This is a weird time for campaigns? Rob Flaherty, Mr. Biden's digital director, wrote in an email to supporters last Wednesday, asking them to help “think through what this brave new world looks like” in a survey. The Biden and Sanders campaigns have addressed the coronavirus more often and directly than Mr. Trump in their emails to supporters, andboth continued to solicit contributions as the er sis has deepened, though Mr. Sanders stopped on Wednesday as he reassessed his candidacy. So far Mr. Trump's campaign stands alone in trying to create his own virtual reality, mostly ignoring the virus (with the exception of one email and text message a week ago linking to C.D.C. guidance), blitling Democrats and bashing the news media even as the outbreak has upended almost every facet of ‘American life. ‘Some public health officials said that given the partisan divide on how ser ously Americans are taking the virus threat, Mr Trump could have made an impact with more and earlier messages, including some to his extensive email list, encouraging people to stay home and practice social distancing, In an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll in mid-March, more than two-thirds of Democrats worried an immediate family member would catch the coronavirus, compared with only 40 percent of Republicans. “Ihe — in his political vehicle — if ie ‘The Trump campaign's wide-reaching digital arm has mostly charged forward in email was telling them this was really serious, you need to take this seriously, you need to understand what social distancing is, youneed tostay home, youneed to wash Your hands, it would be a real benefit,” ‘said Diana Dooley, a former secretary of the California health and human services agency. “He had this opportunity to do that through his political machinery” ‘The frequency of Trump campaign emails has slowed in recent days. But the tenor has remained the same: The campaign has hawked a signed “Keep America Great” hat, sold “Trump Luck ofthe Irish Whiskey Glasses” for St. Pat- rick’s Day and offered an exclusive “gold card” membership for donors of '$35 and up. One email on Wednesday bragged about “record-low” unemploy- ‘ment figures, as administration officials raced to stave off a massive increase in joblessness. On Thursday, Mr. Trump's, ‘communications with supporters as if it were still operating in a virus-free world. campaign asked the “patriots” on hislist tohita “MASSIVE” $2 million fund-raising goal. ‘The gap between the Trump campaign’s boosterism and the unsettling reality of a nation under siege from a deadly contagion can be jarring, even if itgoes unseen by most Americans — un- less they are among the millions who have chosen to receive Mr. Trump's online campaign missives. “You'll never hear it from the Lamestream media and their Demo- cratic Partners, but America is WIN- NING like never before” read a campaign email March 13, the same day that schools were closed, sporting events postponed and Mr. Trump himself de- clared a national emergency. ‘Josh Holmes, a top Republican strategist and former chief of staff to Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, noted that Mr. Trump's digital apparatus had raised “astronomical” sums for Re- publicans and said the campaign should be wary of adjustments, “Ifit's not broken, don’t fixitif t's still performing,” he said. “The digital component to these cam- paignsis more essential now than ever” headded, “because you have all of these high-dollar gatherings that have come off the books and there is no real way to replace those revenues.” Up and down the ballot, candidates and political party committees are seeking to find the right balance, as email fund-raising has evolved into an essential source of campaign cash. “One of the first things you learn in digital comms is you really have to read the room,” said Emmy Bengtson, a Democratic digital strategist, adding that campaigns are constantly adjusting pre-written emails, tweets and mes- Sages to account for world events. “No ‘one wants to be tonally off.” ‘The Democratic Senatorial Campaign ‘Committee has told small donors that its decision to call off traditional fund-raisers during the crisis “will cost us money" and urged them “tocompensate for this shortfall” Meanwhile, a Democratic group called Pacronym planned to spend $2.5, nilllion attacking Mr. Trump for his “in- competence” in responding to the virus. Mr. Biden, who announced during the March 15 debate that he had raised $33, nilllion in the first half of March, by far his best stretch of the campaign, has continued to ask gingerly for money as the health and financial crises have gotten worse. In an email on March 17, Mr. Biden wrote that “in keeping with the latest guidance from the C.D.C., lam emailing you from home in Wilmington.” He both asked for money and thanked poll workers in Florida, Illinois and Arizona who had spent the day trying “to clean and disinfect voting booths.” “Even during crises, democracy presses on,” read an earlier Biden campaign message. Kate Bedingfield, a deputy campaign manager for Mr. Biden, said the campaign was “balancing twin imperatives” of directing people to proper public health guidance and highlighting the need for the democratic process to continue. “The work of the campaign does- n't completely shut down, because participating in elections is a core part of our democracy.” she said. The Trump campaign declined to comment on its online messaging. But Republicans who work with the campaign said that those behind the messages generally refuse to let political custom or niceties dictate their behavior, regardless of blowback. Asthe severity of the outbreak has become more apparent, the Trump campaign and its surrogates have used Twit- ter totry to cast the president as leading with “decisive action” throughout 2020, even as virus updates have been almost absent from email communications. ‘The Biden campaign last week incor- porated public health concerns about the coronavirus into its call scripts — the recommended text for volunteers to read to potential voters. “During this pandemic, we are calling on all voters to follow social distancing guidelines to slow the spread of COVID-19," read one script used in Ili- nois. “Hand wash before and after voting, don’t touch your face, ensure your machine is being cleaned, stand 6 feet away from others on line.” ‘Mr. Biden has used the crisis to lash out at Mr. Trump's leadership, though his emails have struck a decidedly more reluctant tone in requesting financial support than the president's. “Even me sending you these emails asking for money feels different, and difficult” wrote Mr. Biden's online fund- raising director last week. THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL EDITION TUESDAY, MARCH 24, 2020 | 7 Business As the United States races to contain a pandemic, package delivery employees are worried that their warehouses and trucks have become breeding grounds for the coronavirus. “Terrified, but still at work Package delivery workers fear job loss or reprisal if they stay home sick BY RACHEL ABRAMS, AND JESSICA SILVER-GREENBERG Hour after hour, day after day, the packages keep arriving: food, medicine, clothes, toys and a million other items brought to the doorsteps and building lobbies of people hunkering down as the coronavirus sweeps the land. ‘An increasing number of the workers sorting those boxes, loading them into trucks and then transporting and deliv- ering them have fallen sick. ‘They have coughs, sore throats, aches and fevers — symptoms consistent with the coronavirus. Yet they are still reporting for their shifts in crowded shipping facilities and warehouses and truck depots, fearful of what will happen if they dont. “I have been coming in sick because 1'm worried that I'l lose my job or just be punished if I call out,” said Angel Duarte, a package handler at a UPS hub in Tucson, Ariz. “I am 23, and I have no savings, and I have a 4-month-old son” UPS, FedEx and XPO Logistics are three of the largest shipping and logistics companies in an industry that col- lectively delivers about $i8_ trillion worth of goods every year. With millions of Americans on lockdown, home-delivery orders have soared, and the companies have become among the few power sources keeping the lights on in the darkening United States economy. UPS, for example, is one of the main companies that deliver packages for Amazon. ‘American public health experts said the odds were relatively low that ill warehouse workers or truck drivers would infect the recipients of packages, in part because the virus does not survive on cardboard surfaces for very ong. But as state governments race to contain the fast-spreading pandemic by shutting down businesses and banning gatherings of more than a handful of people, more than 30 employees of UPS, FedEx and XPO said in interviews and emails that they were worried that their warehouses and trucks had become breeding grounds for the virus. Some warehouse workers said supervisors had rebuffed them when they pleaded for bleach, masks, gloves and a ready supply of hand sanitizer. In some facilities, even hand soap and paper towels are scarce, employees said. Em- ployees continue to be jammed shoulder to shoulder along conveyor belts and required to maintain rituals such as security pat-downs. ‘Many workers in the logistics and delivery industry get at most a handful of paid sick days a year. That can push them to work through coughs and fevers. Now, with so many people and businesses relying on a functioning delivery system, the pressure to go in has, only intensified, workers said. ‘A package sorter in a UPS facility near San Francisco said she had been going into work every day, even though her “throat feels like broken glass.” The worker, who requested anonymity, said she was petrified that she wouldlose her jobif she called in sick. “I can’t afford to be homeless,” she said. ‘Another UPS package handler, Jeff Donigian, who works in Manchester, NH, said he had been showing up to work feeling ill and coughing. He told a supervisor; he was told to go in anyway. ‘AUPS driver with a compromised im- mune system said she had been hauling packages around Northern California despite feeling sick for a week. With an avalanche of orders, her supervisor told her that UPS could not afford to lose her, even for a couple of days. “While it is possible to find an exception, our work force has been provided information and supplies to manage health risks,” said Steve Gaut, a UPS spokesman, He said that the company had “sub- stantially increased cleaning and disinfecting surfaces throughout our facil ties" and that the vehicles and equipment were disinfected every day. Masks are being made available to drivers who made deliveries to health care and as- sisted living facilities, and the company is “distributing an additional 250,000 bottles of hand sanitizer” Mr. Gaut declined to comment on the experiences of the drivers or workers handling packages, butemphasized that ‘Workers with FedEx, top, and, UPS, left. “I didn’t think T'd be on the front line of, ‘the pandemic, but here I am,” said Nick Perry, above, a UPS driver. Employees petitioned UPS to give workers paid time off if they had been exposed to the virus. UPS did not want sick employees to go to work, adding that the company provides paid time off for those who are infected. ‘At XPO, which handles shipping for companies like Disney, Nike and Veri- zon and has a large fleet of trucks that haul goods nationwide, warehouse workers and truck drivers do not get any paid sick days. The company, which. hhas faced intense criticism from employees about dangerous work conditions in its warehouses, offers to “lend” ‘workers up to 100 hours of time off, but, employees have to repay that time. ‘An XPO warehouse worker and a river said in interviews that as a result of the company’s policy on sick leave, they had been going into work with coughs and worse. “The company is shifting the financial burden on the people who can least afford it” said Mike Zangrillo, a 67-year- old driver for XPO in Miami. If he gets the coronavirus, he said, he plans to keep driving his eighteen-wheeler. ‘Bob Josephson, an XPO spokesman, said the company had started offering paid time off for workers tobe tested for the coronavirus and, if necessary, quarantined. “As the situation evolves, we're listening to our employees’ concerns and adjusting our policies in real time,” he said. Dan Baker, a part-time package handler for FedEx in Nashville, worked through sore throat and stomach prob- Jems this month. When he developed a fever, he told his supervisor he needed a day off “I really need you here today” Mr. Baker’s supervisor told him in a text message reviewed by The New York Times. He took the day off anyway. The company marked his absence as unex- cused, meaning he got a demerit. Too many demerits can get a worker fired. “L went to human resources to ask about it, like, ‘Why was I given an unex- cused absence, why'd I get in trouble for this, when there's a pandemic going on?"" Mr. Baker said. “And they were like, ‘I don't know what to tell you” Mr. Baker described a macho culture athis warehouse, where people have not been taking the virus seriously. One colleague who wore a mask was teased so relentlessly that he took it off. Mr. Baker overheard another colleague telling a security guard that his mother had tested positive but that he had to goneto work anyway. “It's not going to do these people who are ordering and hoarding this stuff any good if everyone handling the packages are sick,” he said. Jenny Robertson, a FedEx spokes- ‘woman, said the company had been urging employees “to take any signs of illness seriously and seek medical attention as needed.” She said that the company had been frequently disinfecting facilities and vehicles and that it had recently increased paid sick leave available to some employees. ‘Truck drivers for UPS, FedEx and XPO said they were grateful for a recent change: Customers no longer need to sign for deliveries. That means no shared pens and no need to get within six feet of customers, ‘The drivers described operating in what felt like a world hollowed out by sickness. On Facebook, they swap photos wearing gas masks. Regular customers will not let the drivers use bathrooms. It can be hard for them to find places to wash their hands along the routes, especially as more and more businesses close. Nick Perry, a 32-year-old UPS driver in Columbus, Ohio, said his supervisors had told him that he could not have Lysol wipes or hand sanitizer in his truck without paperwork listing the in- gredients, as required by the Occupa- tional Safety and Health Administra- tion. Mr. Perry said he feared for his twin boys, who have a history of serious res- piratory problems. “Ldidn’t think I'd be on the front line of the pandemic;” he said. “But here I am, and I am terrified for the public's health, and for my parents and for my family” Some UPS workers created a petition to push the company to better sanitize common areas and give employees 14 days of paid time off if they needed tobe in quarantine after exposure to the coronavirus. In about 24 hours, more than 10,000 workers signed the petition, according to David Levin, an organizer with Teamsters for a Democratic Union, which helped coordinate the petition. ‘On Wednesday, UPS agreed to give people 10 paid days to stay home if they or members of their immediate family received a coronavirus diagnosis or if they needed to quarantine themselves. But Fen Davidson, who works at the same UPS hub in Tucson as Mr. Duarte, said there was still pressure to come in. Last week, Mr. Davidson said, a supervisor told them that taking too many sick days could cost them their job. “They don't want people faking sick, I guess, but what they are doing is creating a climate of fear” Mr. Davidson said. Ways to heat up an economy on ice WASHINGTON Here's what some experts say needs to happen to get the US. running again BY JIM TANKERSLEY ‘The American economy has stopped working. ‘The country is going to try turning it off and back on again. With cases of the coronavirus increasing rapidly, government officials have almost overnight switched off activity in large sectors. They want as few people as possible in close contact with one another to slow the pandemic, which may be even more widespread than official statistics suggest. ‘The federal government has discour- aged gatherings of 10 or more people. California told 40 million residents to leave the house only for absolute necessities. Bars, shopping malls, dine-in restaurants and a host of other businesses are closing across the country. Millions of people have been laid off, or are about to be. Just as there is a public health strategy driving the goverament orders closing businesses and limiting daily activity outside the home, there is also an economic strategy for putting large parts of the economy on ice. It requires aggressive action by the federal govern- ‘ment, funded by what would be the most expansive borrowing the country has seen since World War IL ‘Whether the United States looks back at those job cuts as a quick blip of prevention or a devastating spiral into an economic depression depends a lot on what Congress and President Trump do in the next few days. Here's what economists say needs to happen. PUT THE ‘VIN ‘RECOVERY’ ‘The United States is already falling into asharp economic contraction: It is producing far fewer goods and services now than it dida month or aquarter ago. That contraction will persist as long as businesses are unable to open and people are not able to work. This is not happening because of any choices those workers or businessesmade: It'saman- date from the government that has frozen a lot of economic activity. ‘At some point — possibly when a vaccine for the virus reaches the market, or possibly as soon as the rate of infection Starts declining and testing allows for confidence that another surge is not im- minent — governments will lift their restrictions and activity will start to thaw. Ideally, it would thaw quickly, with shops and restaurants reopening, workers rehired, factory production lines re- started and people spending money on things they didn’t need or couldn't buy during the freeze. In that situation, the economy would grow much faster for a while than it normally does, as consumers unleash their pent-up demand. Economists call that a “V-shaped” recovery, because growth plunges and then shoots up. It's what they're aiming for now, but it could be hard to pull off. “What a recession from something like this should look like is a sudden stop and recovery," said R. Glenn Hubbard, a Columbia University economist who was a top White House economist for President George W. Bush. “What could happen, though, is a doom loop” EXTEND COMPANIES A LIFELINE, ‘The “doom loop” that Mr. Hubbard and many other economists fear describes a situation in which an even moderately protracted shutdown of economic activity permanently kills waves of small businesses — and possibly entire indus- tries, like airlines — that cannot survive very long without customers. Atypical small business in the United States does not have enough cash on hand to cover even a month of expenses ifits revenues are completely disrupted, according to research by the JPMorgan Chase Institute. In minority communities, where prof- it margins are often narrower, the typi- cal cash reserve is even smaller. Economists say that means Congress needs to act boldly, and fast, to keep money flowing to business owners toen- sure they can reopen when the crisis abates. There are several possible ways to try to do that. ‘Steven Hamilton, an economist at George Washington University who has, been one of the loudest public voices calling for aggressive assistance to small businesses, and Stan Veuger of the American Enterprise Institute, want banks to offer loans to cover lost reve- rnues for small businesses — and for the federal government to forgive the loans if the companies don’t lay off workers. Mr. Hubbard and Michael R. Strain of the American Enterprise Institute have a similar proposal. ‘Adam Ozimek, the chief economist at Upwork, and John Lettieri, the president of the Economie Innovation Group, in Washington, want the government to ‘guarantee loans with little or no interest that small businesses would pay back over a long period, regardless of whether they lay off workers. Mr. Oz- imek said it would be wrong not to help companies that have already been forced into layoffs by government decisions and delays in a federal response. “When the government is this late to the party” he said, “they shouldn't punish small businesses who acted fast.” Economists stress that a successful program would be expensive: $1 trillion or more. Mr. Hubbard said a $300 billion loan program, as Senate Republicans proposed on Thursday, would be “woe- fully inadequate” ‘Mr. Hamilton said this week that he worried members of Congress had “not come to terms with the scale” of what was needed. “Any fiscal package less than $1.5 trillion will be inadequate,” he said, “and frankly lead to a Great De- pression-level economic collapse.” PROVIDE RELIEF FOR WORKERS Companies are only half the equation. For the shutdown/restart strategy to work, economists say, lawmakers must also keep money flowing to workers af- fected by the economic chill so they can continue to buy groceries, pay mort- gages or rents and seek medical care if they are injured or sick. ‘One way to do that is by helping businesses — and hopefully keeping as many people as possible on payrolls, even if they are not working. But workers who lose jobs or hours will need more direct help. ‘Many economists, including Claudia Sahm of the Washington Center for Eq- Litable Growth and N, Gregory Mankiw and Jason Furman of Harvard Univer- sity, have called on lawmakers to send checks of $1,000 or more to all Ameri- cans as quickly as possible. Both Mr. ‘Trump and Steven Mnuchin, the Treas- ury secretary, have voiced support for such payments. At least a scaled-back version of that planislikely to be included in the stimulus bill being negotiated in Congress, with payments headed to low- and middle-income familie. But those payments will not be suffi cient to cover the costs of necessities for people who have suddenly seen their incomes shrink or vanish. For that, economists say, Congress needs an emergency safety net that would sustain income for all workers who are laid off or otherwise hurt by the effects of the virus. Ideally, the economists say, that safety net would aid the public health strategy embedded in the economic shutdowns by paying as many people as possible to stay home from work and practice social distancing. That could mean increased unemployment benefits and more generous paid sick leave fully funded by the government. It could also mean something like what the British government announced Friday: a plan to encourage businesses to keep paying workers by assuming up to 80 percent of their wage costs. “You need an unemployment system that inthis moment can pivot to 100 percent reimbursement to 100 percent of people who are not at work” said Heather Boushey, the president of the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, athink tank focused on inequal- ity and growth. Ben Casselman and Neil Irwin contributed reporting. Atrader at the New York Stock Exchange. The ability to restart economic activity will, depend on the size and scope of the government's relief plan. 8 | TUESDAY, MARCH 24, 2020 THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL EDITION BUSINESS From lft: Labeling packages before shipping at Rancho Gordo in California's Napa Valley, and packaging from a hopper. Typically, Rancho Gordo receives 150 to 200 orders a day for its specialty beans. On March I, the company received 1,669 orders. Boom time for the lowly bean ‘Tused to be the loneliest man at the farmer's market; one longtime supplier said BY DAVID YAFFE-BELLANY ‘Tim McGreevy has worked in the bean business for more than 30 years. But when he scanned the bean shelves at a grocery store in Pullman, Wash, last weekend, he saw something he had never seen before: They were empty. “In one sense, this is like my best dream,” said Mr. McGreevy, who runs a trade group for producers and packagers of pulses, a category of legumes that includes beans. “In another sense, you go, ‘Wow, this is pretty serious?” As the coronavirus pandemic upends daily life across the United States, Americans are filling their pantries with long-lasting essentials — pasta, rice, canned meat, even oat milk. But amid all the panic shopping, the growing demand for beans has stood out as an especially potent symbol of the worrisome and uncertain times. At su- permarkets, shoppers are stocking up on canned beans from familiar brands like Goya Foods, as well as thick bags of dry beans that usually lie largely un- touched on store shelves. ‘To some suppliers, the sudden popu- larity of their once-unfashionable beans feels surreal. “Nooneever cares about beans at all” said Steve Sando, who runs the heir- loom bean supplier Rancho Gordo in California's Napa Valley “It's just shock- ing. [used to be the loneliest man at the farmer's market.” In recent weeks, the buying frenzy has extended to theentire pulses family, including lentils, dry peas and chick- peas as well as beans. Across the industry, canners and packagers have seen a 40 percent increase in sales, Mr. Mc- Greevy said. ‘At Goya, the increase has been even more dramatic. Sales of black beans, pinto beans and other canned products have spiked as much as 400 percent. In the past week, Goya has delivered 24 million cans to retailers. “I've seen earthquakes and hurri- canes. This is the first time I've seen this,” said Bob Unanue, the company’s president. “This is a tsunami, This is a hurricane that's not hitting one market. It's hitting all markets” ‘Many canners and packagers are hiring workers or adding shifts to meet the surge in demand. ‘Typically, Rancho Gordo receives 150 to 200 orders a day for its specialty beans. On March 14, the company received 1,669 orders. The next day, it recorded an additional 1450. “We're not set up for this at all,” Mr. Sando said. Athis warehouse, Mr. Sando has insti- tuted a night shift, hiring a handful of workers from a temporary agency to help out. He has told customers to expect delays as long as three or four weeks in fulfilling orders. Some morn- ings, he said, he wakes up tofind that the company has already sold as many beans as it would normally sell in an entire day. “I'm taking no joy in this, to be honest,” Mr. Sando said. “It's born out of fear. 1 mean, I love the sales. But food should be something you feel good about.” In many ways, pulses are the perfect food for a time of mass anxiety. They are cheap and nutritious. And some products can sit in a pantry for as long as two years. “They have found lentils in Egyptian tombs — and they've still sprouted” Mr. McGreevy said. “Now, I'm not recommending you consume lentils from Egyptian times But these are really shelf-stable foods.” For years, however, beans of all varie- ties have gotten a bad rap. Some people still associate them with the Great De- pression, ‘Amid all the panic shopping, the demand for beans has stood out as a potent symbol of the worrisome and uncertain times. ‘The food and agriculture branch of the United Nations warns that “many kids hate the ‘mushy’ texture” And an entire children’s book has been devoted to the scourge of lima beans. But beans were beginning to grow more popular, even before the coronavirus. Some environmentally con- scious consumers have been turning to beans as an alterative to meat, and home cooks have increasingly em- braced them. After dipping in the early 2000s, the consumption of dry beans in the United States has risen in recent years, to 9.6 pounds in 2018 from 72 pounds per capita in 2015, according to government estimates. ‘A few years ago, Mr. Sando started a “pean club” in which members could receive special bean shipments every three months for a subscription fee. it ‘was meant to be a joke. “We're in Napa, and I thought, ‘Oh, wine club — let's doa bean club, "he said. Now ithas awaiting list of more than 8,000 names. ‘On Twitter, bean aficionados have of- {ered tohelp novice cooks figure out how to prepare the legumes, sharing recipes and tips. “There are a lot of new people who are kind of freaked out," Mr. Sando said. “It's pretty easy. You cook them till they're done.” At the beginning of March, Luke Winkie, a freelance journalist in New York, bought a few bags of dry beans. It seemed like a sensible purchase. Only he had no idea what to do with them. So he did little online research. “It's like a two-day process” he said. “Its so far from the easy utilitarian thing I was expecting” One evening last week, Mr. Winkie, 28, cooked some dry white beans that he had salvaged from a failed bean and chicken dish he had attempted the previous night. “The beans were not good,” said Rebecca Jennings, a27-year- old journalist and Mr. Winkie’s.girl- friend. “No one just eats a bow! of beam Professional chefs have long appreciated beans for their versatility. They can go in soups and salads. They pair well with chicken, lamb and other meats. And they can be cooked intact or mashed together. “Drain them, mash them up, put olive oil in or butter, heat it up — it’s deli- cious,’ said Georgeanne Brennan, the author of the cookbook “French Beans.” “It's kind of a learning opportunity now with these people who are hoarding the beans to have some pretty great new discoveries” Still, some people whose “pandemic pantries” are overflowing with beans are not looking forward to actually eat- ing them, Lupita Medina, an 18-year-old from Utah, was surprised to see her mother buy canned beans to prepare for the outbreak. “I don’t think I have ever had them,” Ms. Medina said. “Hard pass.” Crisis drives U.S. and China deeper into power struggle FRICTION, FROM PAGE 1 forces to limit the ravages wrought by the pandemic on public health, economic activity and financial markets?” he said. Kelly Magsamen, a former diplomat and deputy assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific affairs during the Obama administration, added that “a posture of competition” under- cuts efforts to contain the virus. “Rather than China bashing just for the sake of China bashing, we need to be working together to get this under control,” she said, But China hawks see the pandemic as a chance to spotlight what they call the sinister nature of China's Communist Party, turn international opinion against itand combat its anti-American conspiracy theories. “{tis obvious from the facts that there is an information hot war and an economic hot war that we're currently in,” said Stephen K. Bannon, a former ‘Trump White House strategist and leading conservative critic of the Chinese Communist Party. ‘China's government, Mr. Bannon added, “has proven to the world they're an existential threat to the Chinese people and to the world, not just the United States.” Mr. Bannon in effect speaks for the many senior Trump administration off cials who have long pressed for a more confrontational posture toward Beijing. ‘These officials warn that a fast-growing China, under Mr. Xi's increasingly authoritarian rule, seeks military, economic and technological domination over the United States and its allies. ‘They include Mr. Pompeo, a hard- liner who employs the term “Wuhan virus” despite widespread criticism of that phrase, which incenses Chinese leaders. Mr. Pompeo has condemned Beijing for suppressing initial reports about the illness, including those by lo- caldoctors whom the government repri- manded for posting about it on social media. ‘Another influential hawk is Matthew Pottinger, Mr. Trump's deputy national security adviser and the main architect of strategic policy on China in the White House. Mr. Pottinger is a former Wall Street Journal reporter who covered China, including its 2003 SARS crisis, and chronicled government efforts to suppress information about that epidemic. He has publicly recounted being “punched in the face” by “a government goon” while reporting on corruption in Beijing ‘And in an appearance at the Heritage Foundation this month, Mr. Trump's national security adviser, Robert C. 0°B: en, focused his commentary about the virus on what he called China's culpabil- ity for its ferocious spread, saying “this outbreak in Wuhan was covered up.” But some of Mr. Trump's economicad- visers, including the Treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, and the director of his National Economic Couneil, Larry Kud- low, believe that antagonizing China over strategic issues threatens economic cooperation that is required in an interconnected global economy in which China holds many of the cards. The hardened messaging from Wash- ington has infuriated China's government, whose officials and news outlets have fired back, accusing the United States of an attempt to deflect blame off- shore — and even of producing the vi rus: Thismonth,a Chinese Foreign Min- istry spokesman pushed a conspiracy theory online that the US. Army might have taken the virus to Wuhan. China also has significant leverage over global health supplies. American officialshave criticized China for buying up a vast portion of the global supply of medical masks, and called for bringing the supply chains that produce pharmaceuticals, medical devices and protective gear back to the United States. “President Trump isin avery difficult situation, because he still needs the cooperation ofthe C.C.P.on many things — not just on the economy but on this vi rus." Mr. Bannon said, referring to the Chinese Communist Party. “We are still coupled.” ‘Mr. Trump seemed to acknowledge as ‘much on Friday, when he couched some ofhis earlier criticism of China's government, “I respect China and I respect President Xi,” Mr. Trump said, calling the Chinese leader — with whom he has spent months trying to negotiate a com- prehensive trade agreement —“a friend of mine” Such comments were more common from Mr. Trump a few weeks ago, when few known coronavirus cases existed in President Trump has increasingly blamed China for the coronavirus's spread, but he initially praised Xi Jinping, below, for “doing a very professional job” to contain it. the United States and large parts of China were under lockdown. But the language shifted as the United States proved incapable of halting the virus’s spread and China appeared tobe getting its outbreak under control, emboldening officials to chastise Washington, Some Trump officials and Republi- cans in Congress say the crisis has un- derscored an urgent need to reduce America’s economic dependence on Bei- jing. The White House trade adviser Pe- ter Navarro has helped draft an executive order that would require the federal government to buy more American- made pharmaceuticals. ‘Some Republicans say an article published this month by China’s state-run Xinhua news service amounted to a threat that America could lose access to vital drugs made in China. “They can threaten to cut off our pharmaceutical supplies” Senator Marco Rubio, Republican of Florida, told Fox News on March 13. “That's a tremendous amount of leverage.” Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Representative Mike Gallagher of Wis- consin, both Republicans, have introduced legislation that would “end U.S. dependence on China for pharmaceutical manufacturing,” as a statement from ‘Mr. Cotton's office put it. ‘Trump officials are also gauging the effect of the coronavirus and a related spike in tensions on their trade talks. Chinese and American officials have not publicly said whether China will be able to meet a commitment it made under an interim trade pact in January to purchase $200 billion worth of American goods over the next two years, but widespread economic disruptions make that appear unlikely. ‘The current friction is as much about political rhetoric and national pride as it is about economics, however. Senior administration officials are outraged over China's propaganda campaign playing up its efforts at sending medical supplies around the world—aclear attempt to whitewash the party's reputation, both at home and abroad, after a bun- gled response to the outbreak, Ameri- can officials say. The officials also say the United States might have been able to help contain the virus, had China not initially refused to admit international experts, cluding ones from the Centers for Dis- ease Control and Prevention, into Wu- han. Chinese interference “probably cost the world community two months torespond,” Mr. O'Brien said last month, ‘Geng Shuang, a Chinese Foreign Mi istry spokesman, rejected such talk on Friday. “Their claims of China lacking openness and transparency are simply fact-distorting,” he said. ‘American officials are also angry that Chinese leaders are doing little to acknowledge that the United States sent 18 tons of medical supplies to China on charter airplanes used to evacuate American citizens from Wuhan. In early February, the United States also pledged $100 million worth of aid to China and other nations to fight the vi- ‘A new strain on relations came last week when China expelled almost all American citizens reporting for The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal. ‘Some conservatives, as well as Trump administration officials, are unhappy with the White House's talk of a “Chi- nese” or “Wuhan” virus, saying that such language should target China's rulers more specifically. “I honestly believe we're getting the nomenclature wrong,” Mr. Bannon said. “This is not a Chinese virus. This is a ‘CCP. virus! The Chinese people are the victim of this." Asian-Americans also say the “Chi- nese virus” label has led to incidents of racial slurs and physical attacks. “Rather than China bashing just for the sake of China bashing, we need to be working together to get this under control.” ‘Many China hawks say broader fears of antagonizing China for concern of los- ing its cooperation are overstated. “China really does not want to help us," said Daniel Blumenthal, the director of Asian Studies at the American Enter- prise Institute. “They have every interest in covering up and distracting and blaming the U.S" But Ryan Hass, a senior Asia director in the Obama administration's National Security Council who is now at the Brookings Institution, noted that during. previous global crises, the United States and China found ways to look past their differences and come together. “In a normal functioning administration, my advice would be to identify practical ways where the U.S. and China can pool resources and expertise to help get the global spread of coronavirus under control,” he said. “Such an approach is abridge too far for the current administration, sadly” “Tobe clear, there is much criticism to be levied against China, and there will be plenty of time for score-keeping,” he added. “But now is not that time.” ‘Ana Swanson contributed reporting. THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL EDITION TUESDAY, MARCH 24, 2020 | 9 Opini Won Fight coronavirus like we fought Al Qaeda Sept. 11 changed how US. Special Forces operated — and offers lessons for today’s leaders. Stanley McChrystal Chris Fussell (On Sept. 11, 2001, the job of every leader in the US. Special Operations community changed. In the ensuing ‘years of fighting a highly complex, networked enemy, we redesigned how our organization communicated, shared information, made decisions and, most critically, maintained a cohesive culture while operating in almost every corner of the globe. ‘We're seeing a similar challenge today — except this time, it's facing the leadership of practically every organization in the world, from governments to Fortune 500 companies to the smallest nonprofit. They are now managing their teams through a crisis with no clear end in sight. Today's leaders didn't ask for this new role, But if history shows us one thing, itis that our greatest leaders emerge from the darkest moments. Leaders must be visible with their plans, honest with their words and adaptable with their actions — all while maintaining compassion for the situation and the impact it is having on their team. As part of our work at the McChrystal Group, we are in constant contact with scores of leaders around the country. For the past week, they have been fielding a constant stream of queries from customers and employees, and going through a series of increasingly dras- tic changes to how they will run their business, Understandably, these leaders are already weary from a succession of crisis response meetings and market assessments designed to get their team through this change. While tiring, these are all necessary efforts But the leaders we've spoken with also recognize that these are simply the very first steps of a marathon, ‘They know that the real challenge lies ahead. In any crisis, there is a natural temptation to simply wait it out. To- day's leaders cannot give in to this instinet. We're facing a perfect storm of economic downturn, social isolation and a fast-spreading pandemic. The answer to this problem will not suddenly reveal itself; leaders must create solutions, Any leaders that are not already on a war footing and preparing to fundamentally change their organizations for the foreseeable future must start moving today. Here's what that means, First, don't hunker down. At the height of the Royal Navy's dominance, British naval officers, impressive in ornate uniforms, were expected to stand erect on the ship's decks during battles, clearly exposed to enemy fire. It was not that little value was placed on their lives. Rather, ever greater value was placed on their leadership. ‘Their job was to be visible to their sailors, and show calm amid the cha- 0s. Today's leaders must also stand and be visible to their organizations, their communities, and their families. ‘Second, demonstrate candor — and demand it from the leaders below you. In combat, when things look bad, the front line troops always know it before the leadership. Denying reality makes your people assume you're either lying or out of touch. Organizations can handle bad news and tough times if they feel their leaders are focused ‘on solving the issues at hand. Today's leaders must be honest with their people to a level that will and should feel uncomfortable. Third, give up more authority than feels natural. Fighting through com- plexity requires quick and informed action at the edge. This is dependent upon fast, transparent and inclusive communication. Organizations will need teammates making independent decisions close to the point of action, not waiting for direction. It's tempting in times of crisis to grab the reins and yank back, but this will be more dis- ruptive than itis helpful. Be connected, listen and adapt based on what your front line is telling you. Finally, be more compassionate than you think you need to be. As your organization disperses to remote-work status, the loss of personal interactions will quickly sink in. It will be easy for leaders to overlook or undervalue the fear and stress their people are feeling because of this isolation. All of us learn by watching our teammates, and gain confidence through informal feedback from our colleagues or bosses. Your organization has lost that person-to- person contact. You must immediately take your culture online, and learn to reinforce camaraderie, esteem and compassion, via digital platforms. ‘We know how hard this is: We've been there. Fifteen years ago, in the throes of our fight against Al Qaeda, the Joint Special Operations Com- mand, where both of us served, needed todo this exact thing. We pivoted from being a centrally located, thousands- strong enterprise to a network of small, teams spread around the world. “Digital leadership" was not in the job description for our generation, but it became a critical skill for all of us to learn in the fast-moving and constantly changing fight. At the height of the Iraq war, though units and leaders moved constantly across the battle- field, the vast majority of our interactions were by video conference. We became the military’s ultimate remote- work force. ‘The most important of those digital forums among our 25,000-person enterprise was a daily, 90-minute video call where more than 7,000 members of ‘our command across all the time zones “met” to discuss our efforts. The effectiveness of our leaders depended not upon wisdom or charisma, but on a willingness to leverage somewhat awkward video and other digital media to connect, listen, learn and inspire a team, most of whom would never be in the same room with one another. We lived on that cadence for many years straight, staring into cameras the majority of the day. Now leaders everywhere need to follow suit. In the near term, it will make everything ‘more cumbersome — it’s harder to express sympathy through a computer screen, harder to deliver nuanced criticism when not in person, harder to read tone and body language. You can and must learn these skills, but it will take focus and effort. If you embrace it, you can form a new and stronger culture, After a year into what we'd been calling “temporary” adjustments, we stopped talking about getting back to the old way of business. That Special (Operations Task Force, the world’s best counterterrorism organization, is now on ts fifth generation of digital leadership, and it is more capable and cohesive than we would have ever imagined possible. Accept that some of these changes are more than a temporary inconvenience, believe in yourself and your people, show confidence in ‘your organization's ability to adapt, ‘and you will come through this crisis ‘stronger than might seem possible today. We are now weathering a once-in-a- hundred-year event, and Americans are hurt — physically, emotionally, financially and spiritually. Leaders at all levels in society need to embrace the changes this crisis brings rather than struggle against it. Your people need you. This is your moment, and ‘you can rise to it. ‘STANLEY MCCHRYSTAL is a former Army ‘general and the founder of the Me- Chrystal Group. CHRIS FUSSELL is a former Navy SEAL and the president of the McChrystal Group. The beautiful world beside the broken one Nature is wide open for business. Here is the alternate world we need right now. Margaret Renkl Contributing Writer NASHVILLE A two-week bout with flu turned me into a person I didn't recognize —a hopeless, coughing, exhausted person. [lay in bed, phone in hand, skipping from news outlet to news outlet: refreshing, clicking, scrolling, scrolling, scrolling. The news was always bad, every update worse than the one before. By the time my fever broke for good, Covid-19 was an official pandemic, and the news was all about social distane- ing: no meetings, no coffee dates, no dinner parties, no book clubs. I work from home, and the loss of such communal activities would have been disheartening if it weren't for the fact that the world had changed during the two weeks I spent in bed. I don’t mean our cities and towns, our trailer parks and hamlets. True, this pandemic has altered our lives so fundamentally and so suddenly that no amount of scrolling can explain it in a way that sinks in. For the worried well, our whole world is now unrecogniz~ able, and it's too soon to tell what it will look like when the virus finally burns out. But there's another world that has always existed both apart from and Scenes from the author's yard, from left: a bluebird; butterweed growing along the edge of the yard; a buttercup bloom. alongside civilization. While I was sick it changed, too, in the age-old turning of the earth itself. By the time I could walk outside again, springtime had come to Tennessee. In our yard there are violets and spring beauties and stickywillys and buttercups. The invasive but lovely deadnettle has turned the ditch next to our house into a cascading drift of purple. Every year it reminds me of Alice Walker's words: “I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple ina field somewhere and don’t notice it? Out in the woods, the trout lilies are opening near toadshade and bloodroot and mayapple, all of them reaching up from the cold soil to bloom in the brief sunlight of early spring, before the trees leaf out and the forest overstory draws in all the available light. For now, the limbs are stil bare, but the songbirds have registered the mild light, as well, and their courtship season has begun. The television may be full of terror, and the terror may be ‘growing with every passing hour, but the trees are full of music. The normally cacophonous blue jays are singing their tender whisper song, and the ‘quarrelsome beeping of the Carolina chickadee has been transformed into a glorious four-note song of love. Birdy- birdy-birdy, the cardinal sings. Birdy- birdy-birdy-birdy. He is serenading a female, and if you follow the song to its source you might be lucky enough to ‘see him bringing his mate a seed or a ‘grub, demonstrating his fitness as her partner. In the avian world, a grub is ‘an engagement ring. ‘Alas for the poor grubs, and also for the earthworms struggling to the surface as they escape their tunnels inundated by spring rains. But pull up ‘weed from the wet soil of the water- drenched garden and smell the rich life RENKL, PAGE It 10 | TUESDAY, MARCH 24, 2020 THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL EDITION OPINION The New York Times INTERNATIONAL EDITION [AG SULZBERGER, Publisher DEAN BAQUET, cate Er {AMES DAO, Duty Edt Page tr HELEN KONSTANTOPOULOS, VP arti Cai, HELENA PUA, Ect WP, Ao Pc ATILEEN KINGSBURY, Dp Edt ae oe PROFITING FROM CORONAVIRUS? Americans need leaders who rise to the occasion, not Crisis often brings out the bestina people. As the coronavirus spreadsits devastation, countless Americans are stepping up to perform acts of heroism and compassion, both great and small, toaid their neighbors and their nation. God's place in a pandemic James Martin Last summer I underwent radiation treatment. And every time I passed through the doorway marked “Radia- tion Oncology,” my heart seemed to skip ‘beat. While I was in litle danger (my tumor was benign, and, yes, onesome- timesneeds radiation for that), daily ‘met people who were close to death. Every weekday for six weeks I would haila cab and say, “68th and York, please” Oncethere, I would stopintoa nearby church to pray. Afterward, walking tomy appointment in aneigh- borhood jammed with hospitals, 1 passed cancer patients who had lost their hair, exhausted elderly men and ‘women in wheelchairs pushed by home health care aids, and those who had just worry about Then there are certain not-so-inspiring members of __| emerged from surgery: Buton the same their own the United States Senate. Siterals were busy doctors, lng pocketbooks. Richard Burr, Republican of North Carolina, and Kelly_| My'ses and eager interns, y Loeffler, Republican of Georgia, were in the hot seat last week, facing questions about whether they misused their positions to shield their personal finances from the economic fallout of the pandemic, evenas they misled the public about the severity of the crisis. According to analyses of their disclosure reports filed with the Sen- ate, the lawmakers each unloaded major stock holdings during the same period they were receiving closed-door briefings about the looming pandemic. ‘These briefings were occurring when much ofthe public still hada poor grasp of the virus, in part because President Trump and many Republican officials were still publicly playing down the threat. Instead of raising their voices to prepare Americans for what was to come, ‘Mr. Burrand Ms. Loeffler prioritized their stock port- folios, in arank betrayal of the public trust — and possibly in violation of the law. Itisunclear precisely what information about the pandemic either Mr. Burr or Ms. Loeffler received in the others in apparently perfect health. One day it dawned on me: We'reall going to ‘68th and York, though weall have different times for our appointments. Injust the past few weeks, millions have started to fear that they are moving to their appointment with terrifying ‘speed, thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic. ‘The sheer horror of this fast-moving infection is coupled with thealmost physical shock fromits sudden onset. AS. apriest, I've heard an avalanche of feelings n the last month: panic, fear, anger, sadness, confusion and despair. More and more I feellike I'mlivingina horror movie, but the kind that Iinstine- tively turn off because it’s too disturb- ing. And even the most religious people ask me: Why is this happening? And: Where is Godin all of this? ‘The question is essentially the same that people ask when a hurricane wipes ‘out hundreds of ives or when a single child dies from cancer. Itis called the “problem of suffering,” “the mystery of evil” or the “theodicy,” andit'saques- Services have been canceled at a church in New York, but sanitizing wipes are available for those who come to pray. tested by an annoying person) it fils in the most painful human experiences. Does God send cancer to“test” a young child? Yes, the child's parents may Iearn something about perseverance or faith, butthat approach can make God out to be a monster. ‘Sodoes theargument that suffering isa punishment for sins, still common approach among some believers (who usually say that God punishes people or groups that they themselves disap- _—_______ proveof). But suffering. Therefore, Godis either not all powerful or not all loving. Intheend, the most honest answer to the question of why the Covid-I9 virusis, killing thousands of people, why infectious diseases ravage humanity and why thereis suffering at allis: We don’t know. For me, thisis the most honest andaccurate answer. One could also suggest how viruses are part of the natural world and in some way contribute to life, but this approach fails ab- jectly when speaking to someone who healings from illnesses and disabilities: debilitating skin conditions (under the rubric of leprosy”), epilepsy, a woman's “flow of blood,” a withered hand, “dropsy” blindness, deafness, paralysis. Inthese frightening times, Christians may find comfort in knowing that when they pray to Jesus, they are praying to someone who understands them not only because he is divine and knows all things, but because he is human and experienced all things. ‘But those who are not Christiancan briefings before their stock sales. But any use of non- tion that saints and theologianshave Duringthis __Jesushimseif haslostafriendorlovedone. Animpor- _alsoseehimas amodelfor care ofthe ingui ‘grappled with for millenniums. The pte rejectsthatap- tant question for thebelieverintimesof sick. Needless to say, when caring for Publicinformationin guiding suchdealings wonllhave | POPE TT emmarsuteiagtron, eyinetime, oe vteche: gulferinglathiscCayoubelevelne,” somemne wah cormavices qnestould been not only unethical but almost certainly illegal. illnesses or natural disasters) differs even non- meetsamanwho Godthat youdon'tunderstand? Butif _take the necessary precautionsin order Lawmakers and their aides are explicitly barred from | fromthatof “moral evil” (in which Christians isblind,inastory _themystery fsufferingisunanswer- _not topassontheinfection. But for usingnonpublic information for trades by theSTOCK _| silleringflowsfrom the actions of may find recountedinthe able, wherecanthebeliever gointimes Jesus, the sick or dying person was not “Acred on? (ia aster Sing tkadl individuals—think Hitler andStalin). understanding Gospelof John: like this? Forthe Christian and perhaps the “other.” not one tobe blamed, but our ee (the acronym stands foe Stop Trading an Butleaving aside theological distine- in the life “Rabbi, who even for others the answer is Jesus. brother and sister. When Jesus saw a Congressional Knowledge). Mr. Burr of all people tions,thequestionnowconsumesthe of Jesus. sinned, thisman Christians believe that Jesusisfully _personinneed, the Gospels tell us that should know this, since he was one of only three sena- torsto vote against the bill. Aschairman of the Intelligence Committee, Mr. Burr is privy toclassified information about threats to Ameri- ca's security. In February, his committee was receiving regular briefings about the coronavirus. Heisalsoa member of the Health Committee, which, on Jan. 24, co-sponsored a private coronavirus briefing by top administration officials for all senators. On Feb. 13, Mr. Burr begana series of stock sales, according to an investigation by ProPublica, which found that, in 33 separate transactions, he unloaded “between $628,000 and $1.72 million of his holdings,” including significant investmentsin three hotel chains. Unlike his previous disclosure reports, which showeda mix of selling and buying, these transactions were all sales. ‘Mr. Burr's public comments during this period were more bullish. Ina Feb. 7 opinion piece for Fox News, he and his co-author, Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennes- see, a Republican, boasted of how well Congress and the ‘Trump administration had prepared Americato deal with whatever public health threats came its way. Yes. Thatis the point. Ms. Loeffler, who also sits on the Health Committee, is inasimilarly sticky situation. On the very day ofthe committee's coronavirus briefing, she began her own stock sell-off, as originally reported by The Daily Beast. Over thenext three weeks, she shed between $1,275,000 and $3.1 million worth of stock, much of it jointly owned with her husband, whois the chairman of the New York ‘Stock Exchange. Of Ms. Loeffler’s 29 transactions, 27 were sales. One of her two purchases was ofa technology company that provides teleworking software. That stock has appreciated in recent weeks, as so many com- minds of millions of believers, who quail at steadily rising death tolls, struggle With stories of physicians forced to triage patients and recoil at photos of rows of coffins: Why? Over the centuries, many answers have been offered about natural suffering, all of them wanting in some way. ‘The most commons that sufferingisa test. Suffering tests our faith and strengthens it: “My brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, be- ‘cause you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance.” says the Letter of Jamesin the New Testament. But while explaining suffering asatest ‘may help in minor trials (patience being or his parents, that hewasborn blind?" “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” says Jesus. This is Jesus's definitive rejec- tion of the image of the monstrous Father. In Luke's Gospel, Jesus re- sponds to the story ofastonetower that fell and crushed a crowd of people: “Doyou think that they were worse offenders than all the others livingin Jerusalem? No, Itell you.” ‘The overall confusion for believersis, encapsulated in what is called the “inconsistent triad,’ which can be summarizedas follows: God is all powerful, therefore God can prevent suffering. But God does not prevent divine and fully human. Yet we sometimes overlook the second part. Jesus of Nazareth was born into a world fill- ness, Inher book “Stone and Dung, Oil and Spit about daily fein first-century Galilee, Jodi Magness, a scholar of early Judaism, calls the milieu in which Jesus lived “filthy, malodorous and unhealthy” John Dominic Crossan and. Jonathan L. Reed, scholars of the historical background of Jesus, sum up these conditionsina sobering sentence in“Excavating Jesus”: “Acaseofthe flu, abadcold, or an abscessed tooth could kill” This was Jesus's world. Moreover, in his public ministry, Jesus continually sought out those who ‘were sick. Most of his miracles were hisheart was “moved with pity.” Heisa model for how we are to care during this crisis: with hearts moved by pity. Whenever I prayedin that church near 68th and York, 1 would pause before a statue of Jesus, his arms outstretched, hisheart exposed, Justa plaster statue, it wasn't great art, butit, ‘was meaningful tome. I don’t understand why people are dying, but Ican follow the person who gives me apat- tern{or life. JAMES MARTIN is a Jesuit priest, editor at large of America magazine, consultor to the Vatican's Dicastery for Communica- tion and the author of “Jesus: A Pil- grimage.” The inspiring nuns of 1918 Kiley Bense ‘Afew years ago, I set out to research my grandmother's early childhood in Philadelphia, looking for clues about ‘what the world was like in the first precarious years of her life. [knew that she was born in October 1917, that she had lived through the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918 as a baby, but I was unprepared for the harrowing details I uncovered in my search. Reading about the fall of 1918 left me grappling with a series of images of the ‘outbreak as it was experienced locally: hushed streets, shut doors, bodies piled enough nurses to treat and minister to the sick, whose numbers were growing rapidly. “The nursing forces of the city have been depleted by the war. There ‘was a serious shortage in many of the hospitals before the epidemic broke upon us,” an official cautioned. “Now it is a matter of life and death.” It was in this tense atmosphere that the archbishop of Philadelphia called on nuns in his diocese to leave their convents and take up posts caring for the sick and dying across the city. Although most of the nuns had little experience of the outside world and no medical training, 2,000 sisters an- ‘swered the archbishop's call. They signed on for 12-hour shifts, navigating the unfamiliar streetcar system sacrificed? he wrote, noting his “sin- cere appreciation.” In December, the mayor of Philadelphia thanked the sisters for their help during the flu’s worst season. “Ihave never seen a greater demonstration of real charity or self-sacrifice than has been given by the sisters in their nursing of the sick.” he said, “irrespective of the creed or color of the victims, wherever the nuns were sent.” Plagues of every kind make people mistrustful of one another; we turn inward, suspicious of strangers. Along with illness, pandemics spread self- preservation, panic and xenophobia. 1 think this is why this collective act of service in the face of such risk has stayed with me, and why I'm reminded up in basements and on porches be- through a city made ofit now, as I read stories about heroic panies have ordered employees to work from home. cause the morgues had run out of The sisters still with fear, i health care workers battling the coro- Early Friday, Ms. Loeffler issued a statement as- coffins. Businesses and public spaces. Geppijage|. _Dressed in white manny vacermaues navirys in Italy, China and the United é i ' citywide were shuttered, including : gowns and gauze A Red Cross nurse in 1918. States. serting thatneither shenorherhusbandisinvolvedin | churches, schools and theaters. Ina Phiawere = macks, the sisters While most people have no reason to managing her portfolio. single day, on Oct. 16, more than 700 lifesavers treated patients who fear the coronavirus, we have a re- Evenasshewasshedding shares,Ms. oefflerwas | people in Philadelphia died from infu» during the represented across water,ice, blankets and comfort. “The _ sponsibility as a society to protect and tse edo die oe a Des (PEE Spanish flu section of Philadel-_call ‘Sister’ could be heard every care for those who do have reason to g 3 But as [read the firs alarming head- epidemic. phia: immigrants minute during the night” one remem- fear. The sisters’ quiet, determined havedangerously andintentionally misled the Ameri- | ines about the coronavirus in January, ['et’s from Italy, Ukraine, ered of her heetic shifts. Another selflessness is what is needed now, and can people on Coronavirus readiness” shetweetedon _| what came to mind from my family jernember Poland and China; _ spoke about her initial trepidation on __ what we will need more of in the weeks Feb. 28, assuringthe public thatthe president andhis _| "eseafCh was one particular document, them today. lack families, ew- her first day: “I was stuck, at first, | and months to come, not only from team “are doing a great job working tokeep Americans healthy & safe” ‘There may, of course, be perfectly reasonable expla- nations for what, initially, appears to be illegal —and morally reprehensible — behavior. Mr. Burr and Ms. Loeffler deserve the opportunity to provide those expla- nations. The Senate should initiate an ethics investiga tion of all accusations, and, if warranted, refer relevant findings for criminal prosecution. ‘That said, explicit criminality aside, the real scandal hereis the way in which these public servants misled an already anxious and confused public. In times of crisis, the American people need leaders whowill rise to the occasion, not sink to their own mercenary interests. an oral history published in 1919 by the ‘American Catholic Historical Society of Philadelphia to preserve living memo- ries of the Spanish flu. “Facts unrecord- ed are quickly lost in the new interests of changing time,’ its author began; here, he meant to “gather information for the future.” Within these unassum- ing pages, I found the story of an ex- traordinary act of generosity and compassion, carried out at the height of a pandemic. Titled “Work of the Sisters During the Epidemic of Influenza, October 1918," within this document was evidence of the enormous human capacity for personal sacrifice in the name of public good. In early October, the Red Cross warned that Philadelphia did not have ish families, and the city’s poorest, its orphans, its homeless and destitute, all in need of care. They tended to stricken men, crammed 30 to a ward, with the dirt from their factory jobs still smeared on their faces and hands. Hallucinating patients tried to climb out of windows, tore at the bedsheets, threw glass tumblers at their nurses and begged God for mercy. In private homes, the sisters found parents dead in their beds while their hungry children cried in the next room. “The windows were closed tightly, and we felt we could taste the fever,” one nun recalled later. ‘They washed linens, served hot soup and mixed medicine. They brought with a fearful dread, for I never came in close contact with death but once in my life, But realizing what must be done, I quickly put on my gown and ‘mask, and being assigned to the women's ward, I began my duties.” My grandmother and her family survived, huddled inside, as the flu roared through the city. They were lucky: By the epidemic’s end, 23 of the sisters had died from the flu, joining the more than 12,000 Philadelphians who were killed in the six short weeks of the outbreak’s peak. In November 1918, the commissioner of health in Pennsylvania recognized the sisters’ work. “Without the services rendered by these good women many additional lives would have been doctors and nurses but also from ordi- nary people, who will be asked to alter their daily lives in ways both large and small, giving up comfortable routine for the sake of the vulnerable, and helping to patch over the constellation of individual holes in our ragged social safety net. ‘One hundred years on, the work of the sisters provides us a model to follow and aspire to in this uncommon time: one that presses us to look for ‘ways to support our neighbors rather than shrinking from them, to acknow!- edge our fears but to find courage in the strength of our communities, and ultimately to put others before self. KILEY BENSE iS a writer and journalist. Printed in Athens, Denpasar, Baul, rsnagar, Dona, Dubs, Fant ‘The New York Times Company 520 Fgh Avr subtler tothe eator ems: yteters BRGY Meseer Sect. London WEA UNC LK Teo ned se days per week. AG, SULZBEF Mania, Man, Nagoya, Nepal), Naw Yor, Osaka, Paris Rome, Seoul, Singapore, IGER,Pubiener 2020 The New York Ties Company Al rights rezerved To suomi an Tel A, Toyo. ‘ice, emai: [email protected]. To 20 7061 2500, Hong Kong 12 inte in France by Pais Oat int 30 Rue Respad 99120 La Coumewve

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