The Week USA - 15 05 2020

40 Pages·2020·43.83 MB·English

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mask wars

How coronavirus protection became a cultural flash point

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Contents 3

Editor’s letter

Last month, in The Last Word, we ran an article about the race
to save James Cai, one of the first people in the New York area
known to be infected with the coronavirus. Careful readers of
the magazine may have noticed something unusual about the
story: Nowhere in it did we include Cais photo. Not having a
photo isn’t a deal breaker for a magazine, but generally in a fea-
ture of that kind, readers want to know what the main sub-
ject looks like, The reason we didn’t in this case was a sad one.
After the first articles about his recovery appeared, Cai was hit
with death threats and racists insults, “Chinese-Americans are
targeted,” he texted me. Cai, an immigrant from China, had
promised his family that he would not send any more photos of
himself to the press, or do any more publicity about his illness
and treatment.

‘That text popped back into my head this week as the White
House ramped up its campaign to pin blame for the coronavirus

on China (see The Main Stories...). This is no surprise—“It’s
China’s fault” has been Trump's go-to position for most of his
time in office. Unfortunately, the U.S. has given the world every
reason to tune that out. After sloughing off our long tradition of
global responsibility, while cozying up to dictators and repeat-
edly misrepresenting the state of the current pandemic, the U.S.
is now in the awkward position of saying “Trust us.” That trust
is not forthcoming, because the world sees the campaign against
China as designed largely for domestic political consumption.
In the U.S, it has already stoked the kind of animus that makes
Chinese-Americans wary of going into public or having their im-
ages in magazines. Whether this strategy succeeds at winning
votes at home is something we'll see in November. It’s already
clear, though, that it is an almost certain way to lose the conflict
with China abroad. Mark Gimein
Managing editor

NEWS

4 Main stories
More states reopen even
as Covid-19 cases rises
the Trump administration
ramps up its campaign
against China

6 Controversy of the week
Are Democrats guilty
of hypocrisy in their
response to the Joe Biden
assault allegations?

7 The U.S. at a glance
Children hospitalized in
New York with mystery
illness; anti-lockdown
protests in Michigan

8 The world at a glance
A failed coup attempt in
Venezuela; Kim Jong Un
makes an appearance F

410 Peopl Blake Gopnik hunts for

‘eople . the real Andy Warhol
Princess Anne’s royal

burden; Val Kilmer’s 23 Author of the week
spirit animals Lawrence Wright on
11 Briefing his eerily prophetic new

How European pandemic novel
countries are bailing out 24 Art & Music
furloughed workers Old Masters

12 Best U.S. columns Sos see oa
! social media

Summer won't stop the

vitus; the real secret im &

lurking in Biden’s papers Podcasts
Beanie Feldstein
delights in
coming-of-age
comedy How
to Build a

ARTS
22 Books

15 Best international
columns
Canada’s new ban on
assault-style rifles

A medical worker outside a New York City hospital (p.17)
LEISURE
27 Food & Drink

28 Life at home e

29 Coping

BUSINESS
32 News at a glance

33 Making money

as

Editonin-chief: William Falk

Managing editors: Theunis Bates,
Mark Gimein

Assistant managing editor: Jay Wilkins
Deputy editor/Intemational: Susan Caskie
Deputy editor/Arts: Chris Mitchell

‘Senior editors: Chris Erikson, Danny Funt,
Michael Jaccarino, Dale Obbie,

Zach Schonbrun, Haile Stiler

‘Art director: Dan Josephs

Photo editor: Mark Fykott

Copy editor: Jane A. Halsey

Researchers: Joyce Chu, Alisa Partian
Contributing editors: Ryan Devlin,

Brune Maddox

‘SVP, marketing: Lisa Boyars
Executive account director: Sara Schiano
Midwest sales director: John Goldrick
West Coast executive diretor:Tony Imperato
Director, direct response: Alexandra Riera

Huxley
ctor of digital operations &
advertising: Andy Price

‘Sales & marketing coordinator
Addicks

A tasty use for the dandelion

leaves in your yard ‘chief executive: Kerin O'Connor
it operating & Financial officer:

Kevin E. Morgan

Director of financial reporting:

Arielle Starkman

‘consumer marketing director:

Leslie Guarnieri

HR manager: Joy Hart

‘Operations manager: Cassandra Mondonedo

Toys and treats guaranteed
to entertain your pet

Should you put together a

lockdown “quaranteam”?
Chairman: ack Gin

Dennis Group CEO: James ye

LK founding editor Jolyon Gonnt

Company founder: Felix Dennis,

Warren Buffett bails on the
airline industry; J.Crew
files for bankruptey

Visit us at TheWeekcom,

Why are stocks rising as For customer serves go to werw

ty AP

16 Talking points
Rep. Justin Amash’s
presidential bid; face
masks and the culture
war; the meat emergency

the economy slumps?

Girl
34 Best columns

The fight over pandemic

liability claims; why the free

market is good medicine

Princess Anne
(p.10)

‘TheWeek.com/service or phone us
at 1-877-245-8151.

Renew a subscription at www
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THE WEEK May 15, 2020
4 NEWS

The main stories

Coronavirus cases grow as states reopen

What happened

A growing number of states eased

their way out of lockdowns this week,
despite their failure to meet federal
benchmarks, as new infections and
deaths continued to rise throughout the
nation. The partial re-openings were
cheered by President Trump, even as

a draft government report predicted
ending lockdowns would nearly double
current fatality rates, hitting 3,000
deaths per day on June 1. While new
infections, hospitalizations, and deaths
are declining in New York City, the
virus’ spread continued in much of the
country, including many small towns
and rural counties, where Covid-19 has burned through prisons,
meatpacking plants, and nursing homes, and workers took the
virus home. The U.S. hit its highest one-day death tally last Friday,
at 2,909—the same day Texas allowed barbershops and hair, nail,
and tanning salons to open alongside restaurants, malls, and movie
theaters, Twenty-six other states have begun lifting restrictions,
including a number of states where infections are currently rising.
The relaxation of lockdowns led the closely watched University

of Washington forecasting model to more than double its projec-
tion to 134,000 U.S. deaths by August. “It could get a whole lot
worse,” said former CDC director Tom Frieden, “and anyone who
doesn’t recognize that is really fooling themselves.”

As confirmed infections in the U.S. climbed past 1.25 million, and
deaths to 74,000, Vice President Mike Pence cited the nation’s
“tremendous progress.” After initially saying the White House’s
coronavirus task force would soon be disbanded, Trump reversed
himself and said the task force would be refocused on “safety and
opening up our country again.” The president said it was time to
move to “Phase 2” of the pandemic re~
sponse, focused on reviving an economy
that’s shed 30 million jobs. He said he
viewed Americans as “warriors” who'd
return to commercial activities to revive
the economy. “Will some people be af-
fected badly? Yes,” Trump said. “But we
have to get our country open.”

What next?

In states with newly reopened business-
es, there was sparse turnout. At Bar Axe
in Atlanta, “reopening weekend was a
disaster,” with only two customers, said
CEO Mario Zelaya. Malls in Georgia
and Texas were nearly empty. “There’s
absolutely no one coming around here,”
said Taylor Jund, a clothing-store clerk
in Austin.

What the editorials said

The U.S. is barreling ahead “without a
national strategy,” said The Washington
Post. With about 2,000 lives being lost
daily, “it is too soon to return willy-nilly

There’s only one “sustainable way back
to normal”: maintain social distancing

THE WEEK May 15, 2020

A reopened restaurant in Houston: A new era in dining

Don't expect a summer slowdown for the
spread of Covid-19, said David Wallace-Wells in
NYMag.com. As recently as April 20, President
Trump predicted that 50,000 to 60,000 Ameri-
cans ultimately would die from the disease, but
the body count exceeded that last week and
shows no sign of declining. It’s very worrisome
that after six weeks of strict lockdowns in most
states—conditions that in theory “would bring
the caseload close to zero in this amount of
time” —new cases and deaths “have merely
flattened out.” Perhaps 95 percent of Americans
remain unexposed to the highly contagious
virus, and this “virgin” population is vulner-
able to a catastrophic surge in infections if
states continue “reopening.” The CDC backs a
model that projects up to 293,381 deaths, while
another credible projection anticipates up to
890,242. “That's the risk we face here,” said for-
mer FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb. “That the
y mitigation steps weren't quite robust enough, as
to crowded places or to drop vigilance.” _ painful as they were, and we continue to have
spread right into the fall.”

and masking, and launch extensive
testing and tracing efforts. But instead
of guiding a coherent, coordinated na-
tional response, Trump is “abdicating
responsibility” to the states. History
will remember this as “a dark hour of
the presidency.”

More testing won't “banish the
coronavirus,” said The Wall Street
Journal. “Testing problems did ham-
per the initial U.S. response,” but our
capacity has “dramatically ramped
up,” and supply shortages have eased.
High-risk states can now “test 60 per-
cent to 80 percent of their population
each month.” That will allow states to manage “flare-ups” and.
“conduct surveillance testing of vulnerable communities.” As ca-
pacity grows, the “kvetching” by many governors for more testing
“sounds increasingly like an excuse not to take responsibility for a
plan to reopen.”

What the columnists said

‘As thousands of Americans get sick and die, Trump is desperate to
change the subject, said Charlie Sykes in TheBulwark.com. “He's
the executive producer of the Trump Show and he wants a revamp:
shifting the scenes from briefings with worried doctors to upbeat
episodes of economic revival.” He actually thinks he can convince
‘Americans that if tens of thousands of grandmothers, diabetics,
cancer survivors, and other vulnerable people have to die to Make
America Great Again, it’s well worth it. “Trump's decision to pri-
oritize his re-election over human life” is one of “the most sordid
acts in American presidential history.”

The coronavirus is killing Americans, “but so are the lockdowns,”
said Timothy Carney in Washington
Examiner.com. “Isolation kills in many
ways,” increasing suicides, driving
alcoholism and drug relapses, and
keeping people with heart disease,
cancer, and other chronic diseases from
“crucial medical care.” If we don’t
ease restrictions at some point soon,
the number of “lockdown deaths” will
equal those caused by Covid-19.

Republicans in a “frenzy” to reopen
have a problem, said Jennifer Rubin

in WashingtonPost.com: Polls show
that about 4 out of 5 people won't go
to restaurants, gyms, movie theaters,
or other businesses. So lifting restric
tions will have minimal economic
benefit, but the few who do go out
“can reignite a surge of new cases.”
Officials “can issue all the orders they
want,” said Leonard Pitts in the Miami
Herald, but I'm not flying or dining
out until Ican do it safely, and “TV
carnival barkers, political halfwits, and
goobers in MAGA hats” won't change
that. “T will not die of stupid.” 3

Illustration by Howard McWilliam.
Cover photos from AP, Newscom (2)
Ae Goty

...and how they were covered

NEWS 5

Trump’s plan to blame China

What happened

The Trump administration ratcheted

up its efforts to blame China for the
pandemic this week, making unsub-
stantiated claims that the coronavirus
originated in a government laboratory in
Wuhan. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo
said there was “enormous evidence” the
outbreak began at the Wuhan Institute of
Virology—where scientists were studying
bat coronaviruses with the potential for
human transmission—and accused Chi-
nese President Xi Jinping of covering up
the initial cases. He offered no proof to
support the lab claim, which Chinese state TV called “a complete
and utter lie.” In an interview with Fox News, Trump said he had a
high degree of confidence that a lab accident was the source of the
outbreak. “I think [China] made a horrible mistake,” he said, “and
they didn’t want to admit it.” U.S. spy agencies are now being pres-
sured by senior administration officials to find evidence supporting
the lab-leak theory, The New York Times reported. Most virolo-
gists believe it’s unlikely the pandemic is the result of a scientific
accident, and that the virus instead probably made the leap from
animal to human in a non-lab setting.

US. officials are discussing a range of retaliatory measures that
could be used to punish Beijing for the pandemic, They include hit-
ting China with new tariffs, stripping the country of its “sovereign
immunity” against lawsuits, and demanding reparations. A leaked
Chinese intelligence report obtained by Reuters warns leaders in
Beijing that they must prepare for a post-pandemic global back-
lash led by the ULS., which in a worst-case scenario could result in
armed conflict between the two superpowers.

What the editorials said

“China lied, people died,” said the New York Post. The regime
knew as early as December that human-to-human transmission
was occurring in Wuhan and that a pandemic was possible. Yet

it wasn’t until a Covid-19 case was reported outside China—in
Thailand on Jan. 13—that officials got serious about this deadly
threat. Even then, it would be another month before World Health
Organization doctors and epidemiologists were allowed into Wu-
han. “American experts—the best in the world—still can’t visit.”

China ‘made a horrible mistake.’

Trump wants voters in November to
blame China, not him, for the pan-
demic’s devastating toll in the L
New York’s Newsday. That politic
ing obscures the importance of a real
investigation into the coronavirus. If
the virus did escape from the lab, that
has big “implications for other Bio-
safety Level-4 labs around the world,
like the 13 in the U.S. that are operat-
ing or planned.” And if it came from a
live-animal market in Wuhan, as many
scientists suspect, that’s simply more
proof that these markets—also linked to
the SARS pandemic of 2002-03—should be shut down. “What the
world needs now is facts,” not “campaign fodder.”

said

What the columnists said

The “blame China” strategy might be smart politics, said Anita
Kumar in Politico.com, Before the pandemic, Trump’s campaign
message was focused on American prosperity. But “with the
economy in a coronavirus-induced coma,” his team is working to
make the election a referendum on who will be tougher on China:
Trump or Joe Biden. Already, Republicans are buying TV and
Facebook ads bashing “Beijing Biden.” The anti-China approach
could find fertile ground among voters, 66 percent of whom now
have an unfavorable view of China, up 20 points since 2017.

‘The president is rewriting history, said Ely Ratner in the Detroit

Free Press. Dial back a couple of months, and Trump couldn’t speak
highly enough of Xi and his handling of the coronavirus. On Jan. 24,
he praised China’s “transparency” and on Feb. 7 said he'd taiked
with Xi and “it’s going to all work out fine.” Trump failed to stand
up for America when it counted. “Now we're paying a heavy price.”

China’s government is an untrustworthy, brutal dictatorship, said
Paul Waldman in WashingtonPost.com, But it’s not Beijing’s faule
that Trump ignored months of warnings from U.S. intelligence agen-
cies about the very real threat posed by the coronavirus. Of course,
that won't stop Trump telling his supporters to direct their anger
across the Pacific and promising that China will pay for all the suf-
fering they've endured. Just like Mexico paying for the wall, it will
never happen. “Maybe this time, fewer people will be fooled.”

It wasn’t all bad

m Angelina Friedman has survived
a lot during her 101 years, including
cancer, sepsis, and now two pan-
demics. She was born on a ship car-
rying immigrants from Italy to New
York City in 1918, at the height of
the Spanish flu pandemic. Friedman
emerged unscathed from that out-
break, but this March tested positive
for Covid-19 and spent weeks bat-
tling fevers while in isolation at her
NewYork nursing home. By April 20,
she had beaten the disease—and
was eager to resume her knitting.
“She has superhuman DNA” said
daughter Joanne Merola.

Saying ‘I do’ on Walter Street

1 AWashington, D.C., neighborhood threw a wedding to re-
member for two residents amid the lockdown, Amanda Mason
and Aaron Meyers were sure they'd have to cancel their April 25,
ceremony because of the pander
persuaded them to go ahead—and hold it on Walter Street.
Colette Marchesini, the street's unofficial “mayor.” distributed

A Connecticut elementary schoo!
teacher is being hailed as a hero
for taking in a student's newborn
brother after his entire family test-
ed positive for Covid-19. Luciana
Lira was called last month by the
mother, Zully, as she was going
into labor. The family are asylum
seekers and knew no one else in
the U.S. who could help, so Lira
took home baby Neysel after he
was delivered via C-section. Zully
became gravely ill with the virus
and was placed on a ventilator, but
is now recovering and has regular
video chats with Lira and Neysel.
“They love their baby’” said Lira,
“they can’t wait to be reunited”

but their neighbors

poster boards for people to.
make signs, one family hung
papier-maché flowers from
trees, and another brought
houseplants outside to cre-
ate an altar. Meyers’ father
officiated through Zoom, and
neighbors stood outside—
always 6 feet apart—and
cheered as the couple said
their vows. “It was phenom-
enal,” said Mason.

THE WEEK May 15, 2020
6 NEWS

Controversy of the week

Biden: Are Reade’s allegations credible?

We may never know if Joe Biden sexually assaulted former
staffer Tara Reade in 1993, said Elizabeth Bruenig in The New
York Times, But we can now say, “with firm conviction,” that
Democrats should “consider a Plan B” for their presidential
nominee, Until last week, Biden supporters were dismiss-
ing Reade’s allegation as uncorroborated and coming,
from a Bernie Sanders supporter with a history of
strange behavior, including using several aliases. But a
former neighbor of Reade’s has gone on the record
to say Reade told them of Biden’s assault in the
mid-1990s, and video surfaced of Reade’s late
mother anonymously calling Larry King Live in
1993 for advice on her daughter's “problems”
with a “prominent senator.” In an extensive
interview on MSNBC, Biden said “unequivo-
cally” that the assault “never happened.” But

if Democrats shrug off this allegation the way Republicans did
the allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh,
they will undermine all the gains of the #MeToo movement and
“demoralize” progressives and women voters.

As a former prosecutor who’s handled many sexual assault cases,
I'm “increasingly skeptical” of Reade’s claims, said Michael Stern
in USA Today. A year ago, Reade told a reporter that Biden had
touched her neck and shoulders in a way that made her uncomfort-
able, but she made no reference to his putting his hand up her skirt
and penetrating her. Reade said a year ago she filed a formal com-
plaine against Biden but now says it didn’t mention sexual assault,
and three Biden staffers from that era say there was no such com-
plaint, Reade said in the interview a year ago that she lost her job
with Biden after she refused to serve drinks at a party; she now says
she was fired for filing the missing complaint. Perhaps most curious
of all is that in late 2018 Reade began effusively praising Russian

Biden: An assault ‘never happened.’

President Vladimir Putin, describing him as a “genius”
whose strength and shirtless photos are “intoxicating to

The New York Times. In an early March Twitter dis-
cussion of why Biden would lose to Sanders, Reade
tweeted, “Timing...wait for it..tick tock.” That cer-
tainly suggests a political motive.

When are we going to learn that “there are no

Recovering from sexual assault is a slow and
messy process, with many survivors only able to
“tell the truth in pieces” over many years, saving
the most painful pieces for last. Trauma can
create “inconsistent” accounts of attacks. If
Biden’s presumptive clinching of the nomination spurred Reade to
finally tell the truth, that doesn’t invalidate her story.

The inconsistencies in Reade’s story don't mean she’s lying, said
Jonathan Chait in NYMag.com, but it would be “completely
absurd” for Democrats to ditch their presumptive nominee on the
strength of her allegation. The left-wing pundits calling for Biden
to be replaced—most of them disappointed Sanders and Elizabeth
‘Warren supporters—need to think about the chaos that ditching
Biden now would cause, and how it would anger the majority of
Democrats “who very clearly and deliberately decided to nomi-
nate Joe Biden.” The main beneficiary would be Trump, credibly
accused of assaulting more than 20 women, Dumping Biden this
late in the process would be a disaster for Democrats, said Ruth
Marcus in The Washington Post, But if Reade’s 1993 complaint
is found, or other accusers step forward, Biden and his party will
have “a huge problem, one that cannot be conveniently ignored.”

American women,” She also pooh-poohed Russian election
interference, And then there’s this, said Michelle Goldberg in

perfect victims”? said Sarah Jones in NYMag.com.

Only in America Good week for:

Watchdog who flagged

& With many California busi-
nesses still shuttered by the
pandemic, the city council of
Beverly Hills has voted 4-1 to
let plastic surgery resume.
The lone holdout, Council-
member John Mirisch, says
that while heart and cancer
surgeons should resume their
work, procedures such as
botox, liposuction, and breast
implants aren't essential. “I
don’t think people need face
jobs/’ said Mirisch, “especially
when you're supposed to be
covering your face”

® An Ohio lawmaker is
objecting to the wearing of
face masks on the grounds
that God doesn’t wear one.
Republican state Rep. Nino
Vitale argues that the U.S.
was founded on the principle
that “we are all created in

the image and likeness of
God” God's likeness is most
evident in faces, Vitale contin-
ued, and “I want to see it”

THE WEEK May 15,

Excuses, after a Utah Highway Patrol cop pulled over what he
thought was an impaired motorist and found a 5-year-old boy behind
the wheel. The boy explained that his mother had refused to buy him
a Lamborghini, so he was driving to California to get one himself.
Defying stereotypes, after a cat jumped on a sleeping Canadian
couple and alerted them to smoke pouring from the slow cooker in
the kitchen. Scott White noted that his other pet, a supposed guard
dog, slept soundly as the kitchen fire threatened to go out of control.
“The real hero is the cat,” he said.

Fear, after FBI figures showed 2,911,128 background checks for gun
purchases in April, the most in any April since background checks
were instituted in 1998.

Bad week for:

Meaningful soundtracks, after a maskless President Trump toured
a mask factory in Phoenix while music from his rallies was pumped
through loudspeakers, including the song “Live and Let Die.”

X & A-12 Musk, the newborn son of billionaire Tesla and SpaceX
founder Elon Musk and his girlfriend, electronic musician Grimes.
Baby-name expert Laura Wattenberg doubted that California offi-
cials will accept X A A-12 asa legal moniker, calling it “a wildly
impractical name.”

DIY masks, after an unidentified man wore what appeared to be a
Ku Klux Klan hood as a face mask while shopping at a Vons gro-
cery store in Santee, Calif. “This was a disturbing incident for our
associates and customers,” said Vons in a statement.

hospital crisis demoted

PresidentTrump moved last
week to replace Christi Grimm,
the acting inspector general at
the Department of Health and
Human Services. Grimm had
released a report in April flag-
ging the shortage of Covid-19
testing kits and personal
protective gear at hospitals
nationwide. Grimm's office
surveyed 343 hospitals, and
her conclusions highlighted
the department's failures in
providing the health-care
system with urgently needed
equipment. Trump attacked
Grimm for her “wrong” report,
calling it “Another fake dos-
sier!” He suggested she was
biased because she worked
under the Obama administra-
tion. Grimm, who joined the
watchdog office in 1999, also
served under George W. Bush
and is not a political appoin-
tee. Trump nominated Jason
Weida, a Boston assistant U.S.
attorney, to replace her.
Lansing, Mich.
Armed and angry: Hundreds of protesters
gathered inside Michigan’s statehouse last
- week, many
not wearing
protective
face masks
and some
armed with
long rifles,
to oppose
Gov.
Gretchen
Whitmer’s
strict stay-at-home order. The protesters
carried “Don’t tread on me” flags and
shouted at police officers to be let inside
the chambers, where some legislators
wore bulletproof vests, Democratic state
Sen. Dayna Polehanki said. Whitmer, also
a Democrat, said some of the protesters
carried Confederate flags, nooses, and
images of swastikas. President Tramp
called the protesters “very good
people” and urged Whitmer to
“give a little and put out the
fire,” adding, “They want their
lives back.... Make a deal.”
Republican leaders in the state
legislature filed a lawsuit this
week challenging Whitmer’s
authority to extend a state-
wide lockdown, More than
4,000 people in Michigan have
died after contracting Covid-19.

Not keeping their distance

Washington, D.C.

New chance for Flynn? House
Republicans demanded a
meeting with FBI direc-

tor Christopher Wray this
week regarding evidence of
what they called a “perjury
trap” to ensnare former
national security adviser
Michael Flynn. On the day

of a January 2017 meeting
with Flynn, an FBI investi-
gator working on the Russia probe wrote
a note asking whether the interview

was meant “to get him to lie, so we can
prosecute him or get him fired.” Flynn
pleaded guilty to lying about his conver-
sation with Russian ambassador Sergey
Kislyak, and President Trump fired
Flynn for also lying to Vice President
Mike Pence about the talk. Now Trump
says he’s open to pardoning Flynn and
rehiring him, Flynn has also admitted to
failing to register as a foreign agent after
earning $530,000 for Turkish lobbying,
and he and his son were implicated in a
plot to kidnap a Turkish cleric in the U.S.
and bring him to Turkey for prosecution.

Flynn

New York City

New danger for kids: Fifteen children
have been hospitalized recently with a
potentially serious inflammatory condi-
tion that could be linked to Covid-19,
health officials reported in an alert this
week. The kids, ages 2 to 15 and hospital-
ized from April 17 to May 1, experienced
the kind of fevers and inflammation seen
in Kawasaki disease, a syndrome that
involves inflamed blood vessels through-
out the body. Many of the children also
had a rash, abdominal pain, vomiting,
and diarrhea; five required ventilators.
Britain’s national health authority issued a
similar report late last month, and doctors
in Italy and Spain have reported similar
cases. Four of the New York children
tested positive for Covid-19, and six had
antibodies suggesting they'd been infected

earlier, The report comes as schools weigh
the risks of reopening, and some doctors
cautioned that much is still unknown
about how the virus affects children.

tee
af
a
ae

Satilla Shores, Ga.
Still no arrest: A graphic video posted
this week shows a black man jogging on
a sunny day in the suburbs when two
armed white men confront him and kill
him with a shotgun. Ahmaud Arbery, 25,
was killed Feb, 23, but no arrests were
made after Gregory McMichael, 64—a
former police officer and investigator for
the local district attorney's office—and
his son, Travis, 34, claimed they were
attempting a citizen’ arrest. They said
they grabbed guns and followed Arbery,
thinking he resembled a local burglary
suspect, and pulled up beside him to
yell, “Stop, we want to talk.” Arbery,
they told police, attacked Travis. Yet a
bystander’s video shows Arbery jogging
up to their truck before he is almost
immediately shot two or three times.

A Georgia prosecutor now says he will
impanel a grand jury, Wanda Cooper
said the video shows her son “was out
for his daily jog and he was hunted
down like an animal.”

al

a

Holyoke, Mass.
Service unrewarded: A group of U.S.
senators requested a probe this week
into the Department of Veterans Affairs’
handling of
Covid-19
outbreaks
in veterans’
homes. Two.
New York
homes have
reported a
combined.
86 presumed
Covid-19
deaths, but no facility has been dead-
lier than Holyoke Soldiers’ Home
in Massachusetts, where 71 of 230
residents have died after contracting the
virus. At least 80 other veterans and 81
staff members have also contracted the
virus. Staffing problems forced workers
to move about units, likely spreading
infections, and at one point short-

ages reportedly forced the home

to shut a unit and crowd
veterans into fewer floors.

In early April, Susan Kenney
drove up to the home with a sign
in her car window reading “Is
my dad alive?” Her father, Charles
Lowell, 78, died two weeks later.

Soldiers’ Home tributes

Washington, D.C.
Virus whistleblower: A former top vac-
cine official filed a whistleblower report
this week, claiming he was demoted for
raising early warnings about Covid-19
and questioning an unproven treatment
touted by President Trump. Rick Bright
says he was removed on April 22 from
directorship of the federal office oversee-
ing Covid-19 vaccine development after
he resisted pressure to make chloroquine
and hydroxychloroquine “widely avail-
able” as virus treatments, just as clinical
trials began casting doubt on the drugs”
safety. On Jan. 18, Bright says, he urged a
supervisor to hold disaster-planning meet-
ings and was told it was not “time sensi-
tive.” He then raised alarms in February
about a massive shortage of masks
and other safety equipment
but was again rebuffed.
Bright, set to testify in
Congress next week, also
claims drugmakers with
ties to the administra-
tion got special treat-
ment. “I was pres-
sured to let polities
and cronyism
drive decisions,”
he says.

Bright: Warnings ignored

THE WEEK May

020
8 NEWS

County Cork, Ireland

Debt repaid: The Irish are repaying
Native American generosity 173 years
ago by donating money to Hopi and
Navajo communities hit hard by Covid-
19. In 1847, the Choctaw Nation raised
$170 to send to Irish peasants starving
in the potato famine. It was a huge sum
for the impoverished Choctaw, who had
been forcibly relocated from the Deep South to Oklahoma on the
Trail of Tears. Ireland never forgot that selfless act—a monument
in County Cork commemorates the tribe's generosity—and now
Trish families are pouring money into a charity drive for the Navajo
Nation and the Hopi Reservation. The fund has so far raised
$2.7 million. The Choctaw showed “such decency and humanity,
said Michael Corkery, who gave $200. “We are still grateful.”

Paris

Disease arrived in December: The time line of Europe’s coro-
navirus outbreak was thrown into question this week after a

study by French scientists revealed that a patient treated at a hos-
pital near Paris on Dec. 27 for pneumonia actually had Covid-19.
‘That means the virus was in France at least a month before the
French government confirmed its first cases. Amirouche Hammar,
42, was admitted with a dry cough, a fever, and trouble breathing
four days before China informed the World Health Organization
about a new kind of pneumonia in Wuhan, A genetic sample taken
at the time was recently tested and found to be positive for Covid-
19, Hammar, who has recovered, hadn’t traveled abroad recently,
but his wife works at a supermarket near Charles de Gaulle airport
and could have come into contact with people arriving from China.

The Choctaw monument

Caracas

Failed coup: A Florida-based former Green Beret this week
took responsibility for a bungled attempt to overthrow
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in which eight mer-
cenaries were killed and another eight captured, including
two Americans. Jordan Goudreau said he planned the
operation on behalf of opposition leader Juan Guaid6,
but Guaids said he had nothing to do with the raid.
Goudreau said the captured Americans, Airan Berry
and Luke Denman, were former U.S. special opera
tions soldiers acting as supervisors to a guerrilla
force of about 60 men, mostly former Venezuelan
security officials. The fighters attempted to land on the coast near
Caracas but were quickly overpowered by Venezuelan troops.
Maduro said the attack was organized by the U.S.

in a televised speech about how his intelligence services had infil-
trated the group: “We knew everything—what they ate, what they
didn’t eat.” President Trump said the U.S. was not involved.

Bogota, Colom
Army spied on opposition: The head of Colombia's armed forces
said this week that “rogue elements” in the country’s military

were behind a spying-and-hacking operation that targeted at least
130 opposition figures, including current and former politicians,
retired generals, union leaders, and journalists. Dozens of docu-
ments leaked to Semana magazine show the scale of the information
harvested by the operation, including targets’ phone numbers and
emails; details about their friends, family, and colleagues; and even
polling places where they cast votes. Much of the intelligence was
collected using surveillance equipment provided by the U.S. to com-
bat insurgents and drug traffickers. In response to the report, the
Defense Ministry fired a general and 11 other officials. Gen. Luis
Fernando Navarro, head of the armed forces, promised that “any
person who has gone outside the law will have to answer for it.”

‘THE WEEK May 1

120

. The world ata glance...

Via

Goudreau: Plotter

Palermo, Italy

Mafia aid: The pandemic is proving to be a
growth opportunity for the Mafia. Southern
Italy’s economy has taken a beating during
the lockdown, and many people who get
paid under the table—and so don’t qualify
for unemployment benefits—have seen their
incomes evaporate. As Italian cities wait for federal funding to be
disbursed, mob bosses in Naples and Palermo have stepped in to
lend money and feed the needy, handing out food parcels in poor
neighborhoods. Mobsters are ready to exploit “those newly poor
from the coronavirus,” said Palermo Mayor Leoluca Orlando.
Those who accept Mafia assistance will be expected to pay it back
later in other ways, making them accomplices in organized crime.

Mayor Orlando

Covid-19 rips across nation:
Brazil is rapidly becoming a global
coronavirus hot spot, with infections
rising by more than 5,000 a day and
deaths by more than 500. President Jair
Bolsonaro has refused to take the pan-
demic seriously: He has rejected a general
lockdown and has fired or driven out cabinet officials who have
argued for stronger measures. Asked by a reporter about Brazil’s
Covid-19 death toll being higher than China’s—Brazil has regis-
tered more than 7,500 fatalities; China claims fewer than 5,000—
Bolsonaro shrugged and said, “So what? I’m sorry. What do you
expect me to do?” Activists fear that Brazil’s indigenous peoples,
many of whom live in remote villages in the Amazon with few
medical facilities, could be virtually wiped out by the disease.

Burying disease victims

‘Amy. P Siverco USA, AP
The world at a glance...

Voronezh, Rus:

Doctors fall out of windows: Two Russian doctors have died and
another is in critical condition after plummeting from hospital win-
dows. All three had complained that staff lacked sufficient protec-
tive equipment to treat Covid-19 patients. Medical workers across
Russia have voiced similar complaints as hospitals have turned into
coronavirus incubators, sickening hundreds of doctors and nurses.
The fall victim who is still alive, Dr, Alexander Shulepoy, was hospi-
talized for Covid-19 on April 22—the same day he and a colleague
posted a video complaining that
Shulepov had been forced to keep
working after testing positive. Three
days later, hospital officials released
another video in which Shulepov
retracted the claim, On May 2, the
doctor plunged from a second-floor

Vi
/

Accra, Ghana
Dancing pallbearers: A troupe of Ghanaian pallbearers who
dance while carrying coffins at funerals are cashing in after
becoming an online Covid-19 meme. An old video clip of one
group—nattily clad in tuxedos and sunglasses and joyously hefting
a coffin to a pulsing techno beat—was repurposed earlier this year
by social media users, who edited it into footage of people engag-
ing in potentially perilous behavior. Now it’s being juxtaposed with
footage of crowded anti-lockdown
protests or mall re-openings, to
signify that ignoring coronavirus
restrictions could get you killed.
Benjamin Aidoo, who leads the
group featured in the clip, has
capitalized on his fame with a
‘Twitter bio reading “Creator of
the Coffin Dance!” and offering
his troupe for advertising.

window, suffering a fractured skull. /

Masks reduced infections.

Pyongyang

There he is! North Korean dictator Kim Jong
Un quashed rumors of his death by appearing
in public last week to open a fertilizer factory.
Speculation over Kim’s health began in mid-
April when he failed to show at celebrations
for the country’s biggest holiday. NKNews
.org—a defector-run site—claimed the 36-year-
old had undergone heart surgery and was ailing or dead. The
report was repeated in international media, but South Korean intel-
ligence maintained there was no evidence to support the rumor,
South Korean intelligence chief Suh Hoon said this week that Kim
has appeared in public only 17 times so far this year, far less than
in recent years. That could mean North Korea has a Covid-19 out-
break, something it denies, and Kim is trying to avoid the disease.

Kim reappears.

/Hong Kong

Success story: Hong Kong has passed two weeks—one full quar-

antine period—with no new locally transmitted cases of Covid-19,

despite having never implemented a full lockdown. Schools, gyms,
and some government offices did close, but restaurants, shops,
and public transportation remained open. Health experts attribute

' the city’s success in stamping out the disease to

residents’ willingness to be vigilant about wear-
ing masks, comply with contact tracing, and self-
quarantine after testing positive. Hong Kong has
registered 1,040 cases and four deaths since the first
patient, a visitor from Wuhan, was diagnosed on
Jan. 22. The city is now beginning to allow visitors
from mainland China, starting with children cros
ing to attend school and people making essential
business trips.

Wellington, New Zealand
How to welcome tourists? New Zealand has halted the spread of
Covid-19 on its territory, thanks to swift containment measures
by the government of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. Authorities
closed the borders, ordered a nationwide lockdown, and deployed
an army of contact tracers to find and test anyone who'd had
contact with an infected person. The island nation (population
4.8 million) has seen fewer than 1,500 infections and 20 deaths.
The issue now is how to keep cases low while restart-
ing an economy that is heavily dependent on tour-
ism. Australia, where the disease peaked
in late March, has floated a proposal for
a “travel bubble” that would see the two
countries open only to each other. But

Ardern doesn’t want to jeopar-
7 dize Kiwis’ health “by moving

\ Dhaka, Bangladesh
Missing Rohingya: At least three boats, each carrying hundreds of
Rohingya Muslims who had fled persecution in Myanmar, have
gone missing and may have sunk. The roughly 800 refugees left
Bangladesh 11 weeks ago in hopes of gaining asylum in Malaysia,
but Malaysian authorities refused to let them dock because of
coronavirus fears. When the ships returned to Bangladesh, they
were again barred from docking and have since disappeared.

One smaller vessel, believed to have been dispatched from a large
trawler, did land on the coast of Bangladesh last week with 43
Rohingya aboard. Authorities took those refugees to Bhasan Char,
an uninhabited, flood-prone island accessible only by a three-hour
boat ride, where Bangladesh has been building dorms to warehouse
the hundreds of thousands of Rohingya currently in refugee camps.

too soon to open our borders,”
she says, “even to Australia.”

Ardern: Cautious

THE W

K May 15, 2020
10 NEWS

Why Kilmer doesn’t fear death
. Val Kilmer says he’s not afraid to die, said Alex
Pappademas in Men's Health. The actor famous
for playing the fighter pilot Iceman in Top Gun,
Jim Morrison in The Doors, and the titular hero
in Batman Forever lost a cherished possession—
his voice—after being diagnosed with throat can-
cer in 2015. He describes his new throaty growl
as sounding “like Marlon Brando after a couple
of bottles of tequila.” Kilmer was raised a Christian Scientist and
still believes that he survived cancer through the power of his belief
in God and positive mental attitude. “I don’t believe in death,”
he says. Kilmer, 60, says he’s had communications from “a lot of
people that have departed,” including a younger brother and his
mother. After his mom died, “I was aware of her—you could call
it her spirit. And she wanted me to be happy, because she was
having a reunion with her son Wesley and the love of her life, Bill,
her second husband.” He’s also had visions and visits from spirit
animals: “I think it has to do with paying attention,” he says. “I've
always had a very strong relationship with wild animals, especially
the badger, or the black leopard, or the black panther.” All this has
shaped his approach to living with cancer. “It’s half of the healing,”
he says, “making sure the mind is free of limitations.”

Gould's ‘bath of lava’

Elliott Gould is bursting with stories, said Elle Hunt in The
Guardian (U.K.). The actor has plenty to tell from six decades in
film and TV, including encounters with Elvis Presley, Muhammad
Ali, and Groucho Marx, who once asked him to change a light
bulb and then remarked, “That was the best acting I’ve ever seen
you do.” Gould had a reputation for being combative and having a
drug problem. “I had a reality problem,” he responds. “Of course I
smoked marijuana.” He also experimented with “mind-expanding
drugs” like LSD. “I saw too much,” Gould, 81, says of his trips.
He’s also been reminiscing with Barbra Streisand, who's writing a
memoir and sought his thoughts about their eight-year marriage. In
1961, Gould was cast in the leading role of the Broadway musical
I Can Get It for You Wholesale, and sat in on Streisand’s audi-
tion to play his secretary. He was smitten by her beauty and aura,
but sensed great insecurity despite her awe-inspiring voice. “She
presents herself the way I feel about myself,” he recalls thinking.
After a 300-show run, they wed. Gould has likened the marriage
to a “bath of lava,” accusing Streisand of prioritizing her blossom-
ing stardom over their relationship. “We didn’t grow together,” he
says. “I couldn’t play the part. I had to find myself.”

beyond happy’

™ Anderson Cooper announced the
birth of his baby son via surrogate
last week. “On Monday, | became
a father,” the CNN anchor, 52,
said at the end of his show. “I've
never actually said that before
out loud, and it still kind of as-
tonishes me. | am a dad. As a gay
I never thought it would be
possible to have a child” Currently
single, the TV newsman named
his son after his father, Wyatt, who
died when Cooper was 10. The
boy's middle name is Morgan, for
a relative on the side of his mother,
the heiress and fashion designer
Gloria Vanderbilt. The baby, born

THE WEEK May 15, 2020

7 pounds, 2 ounces, “is sweet and soft and
healthy,” a grinning Cooper said, “and | am

Katie Couric is still miffed about a 2004
interview with Denzel Washington that

left her “shaken.” Asked on a podcast last
week about awkward moments from her
broadcast journalism career, Couric cited a
Dateline interview with Washington while he
was promoting The Manchurian Candidate.
“Some people say Hollywood folks should
stick to acting” Couric said. Washington

cut her off, saying, “I don’t know what
Hollywood folks are. Hollywood is a town
that has some stars on the sidewalk. | don’t
know anybody from there.” She clarified,
“Are you one of those people that...” but he
cut her off again, saying, “There you go. Am
Jone of those people? Hmm, isn’t that inter-

Anne's royal burden

Princess Anne fully understands the downsides of being a royal,
said Katie Nicholl in Vanity Fair. Queen Elizabeth II's only daughter
has been hardened by the invasions of privacy that come with

the job, such as when tabloids obtained her personal letters to

the man who would become her second husband, Commander
Timothy Laurence. In 1974, when she was returning to Buckingham
Palace, a kidnapper shot at her entourage and demanded that
Anne get out of her Rolls-Royce. “Not bloody likely,” she famously
replied—cementing her reputation for being steely and unflappa-
ble. After her son and daughter were born, she decided they would
not have His/Her Royal Highness titles. “I think it was probably
easier for them,” Anne says. Now 69, she continues to do her duty,
last year carrying out more than 500 royal engagements for chari-
ties and military organizations, and has no plans to retire. "Most
people would say we're very lucky not to be in that situation” she
says. Perhaps in a comment on Prince Harry and Meghan Markle,
Anne says the younger generation of royals is too eager to change
centuries-old traditions. “Please do not reinvent that particular
wheel,” she says. “We've been there, done that”

esting?” Couric insists Washington “totally
misconstrued” her question, calling his of-
fended response “weirdly uncalled for” But
she says Washington later wrote a gener-
ous check to a colon cancer foundation she
started, as if to apologize for a bad day.

™ Michael Jordan feels no shame about
his infamous quip that “Republicans buy
sneakers, too” On this week's episode of the
ESPN docuseries The Last Dance, Jordan
defended his refusal in 1990 to speak out
against race-baiting Republican Senate
candidate Jesse Helms in his home state of
North Carolina. “I never thought of myself
as an activist” he said. “I thought of myself
as a basketball player” Jordan, 57, is a bil-
lionaire thanks largely to his shoe deals with
Nike. “I was focused on my craft” he said.
“Was that selfish? Probably.”