newyorker--2020-10-02--“There Is Zero Reason to Panic”: On Trump’s Coronavirus Case and the Shredded Credibility of His Whi

“There Is Zero Reason to Panic”: On Trump’s Coronavirus Case and the Shredded Credibility of His White House

In the upside-down world of this Presidency , it was not necessarily a terrible few hours on the campaign trail .
At least the headlines were not focussed on the pandemic and concurrent economic crisis , which experts warned were on the precipice of getting much , much worse .
In the seven months since the coronavirus became a national crisis , Trump has done everything he could to deny , deflect , and generally distract from the pandemic and his government ’ s botched handling of it .
If there is one thing he has not wanted the election @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , it is his handling of the disease .
So much for that .
At 12:54 A.M. a Presidential tweet confirmed that Trump and the First Lady both have COVID-19 .
For the rest of the campaign , we will be talking about it , and pretty much nothing else .
The truth is , this is probably the least surprising national shock ever .
For months , Trump has made coronavirus denialism his signature , at great cost to millions of Americans , more than two hundred thousand of whom are now @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as political disaster by refusing to wear a mask publicly and by encouraging others not to do so , either .
His positive coronavirus test always had the feel of an inevitable plot twist .
But the President of the United States getting diagnosed with a potentially lethal illness for which there is no cure a month before a national election is no less monumental for being fully anticipated .
Will Trump recover ?
Will we believe him , or his discredited White House , if he claims that he has ?
By @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Washington was trapped in a new waiting game , wondering about the health of an obese seventy-four-year-old with a penchant for not telling the truth about his health .
Wondering how it would affect the election thirty-two days from now ; wondering how 2020 could once again deal us such a hand .
History is so much less exhausting when it happens to other people .
“ There is zero reason to panic , ” a breathless Fox News morning anchor said on Friday , reading from what she said was an “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ House adviser Dr. Scott Atlas , who has lately gained the President ’ s favor by publicly and privately encouraging Trump ’ s coronavirus-is-disappearing fantasies .
Trump ’ s diagnosis had been revealed less than twelve hours earlier .
What could these White House officials do but try to pretend that everything will be just fine—and hope that they are right ?
“ He ’ s hard at work , ” the White House press secretary , Kayleigh McEnany , told reporters Friday afternoon .
He ’ s in “ good spirits ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ White House chief of staff , Mark Meadows , said , smiling in the early-fall sunlight as he spoke , maskless , to reporters on the White House driveway and acknowledged that , well , yes , actually , Trump was experiencing “ mild symptoms.
” But , he insisted , “ The American people can rest assured that we have a President that is not only on the job , will remain on the job , and I ’ m optimistic that he ’ ll have a very quick and speedy recovery.
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ White House residence , for once silent on Twitter .
He skipped a midday phone call with governors about “ vulnerable seniors ” and COVID-19 , after his aides said that he would participate .
Meanwhile , more cases of the virus among the White House staff and press corps were confirmed , and among attendees at Trump ’ s Saturday announcement of his Supreme Court nominee , Amy Coney Barrett .
The positives included Senator Mike Lee , of Utah , and the president of Notre Dame , both of whom were @ @ @ @ @ @ @ seated close to a crowd of others in violation of all public-health rules and common sense but in keeping with the President ’ s political dictates .
By late afternoon , the “ mild symptoms ” turned out to include a fever , and Trump was being given an experimental antibody treatment , according to a short written statement put out by the White House physician .
Was Trump at least well enough to watch all the breathless cable news coverage and see how this is playing ?
Who knows ?
There was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ House press briefing , and , besides , no credible actors to give it .
This is Day One of the President ’ s illness ; imagine weeks more of this .
Of course , it was a sign of the distrustful times that conspiracy theories of every political belief quickly materialized to fill the void of reliable official information .
Was Trump ’ s COVID-19 case a hoax designed to generate sympathy for a President losing in the polls ?
Or perhaps it would end up helping the President , when he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the coronavirus really is no big deal ?
Americans , it seems quite likely , will choose their own truth , as they have with so many other matters in the Trump era .
True to form , the President ’ s illness seemed a lot more serious by day ’ s end Friday , when the White House announced that , “ out of an abundance of caution , ” he would be flown to Walter Reed military hospital for what was described as a possible stay of several days .
This @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Nor was it particularly reassuring when the President , soon after leaving for Walter Reed , tweeted a video of himself dressed in a suit and looking pale .
“ I think I ’ m doing very well , but we ’ re going to make sure that things work out , ” he said , by way of explaining his decision to go to the hospital .
White Houses have often lied or covered up the truth about Presidential illnesses .
The American people were shocked when Franklin Delano Roosevelt died , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ no idea how seriously ill their wartime leader had been .
John F. Kennedy was heavily medicated for various ailments throughout his short Presidency .
And when Ronald Reagan was shot , in 1981 , the White House went out of its way not to level with the American people about just how dire his condition was , instead portraying the President as still actively managing the country .
As Reagan ’ s chief of staff James Baker says in the new biography of him I published this week , he worried that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Reagan ’ s age and ability to do the job .
On the day of the assassination attempt , Baker ducked into a broom closet at George Washington University Hospital with two other Reagan advisers and decided on the fly not to declare Vice-President George H. W. Bush the acting President—even though Reagan was unconscious and in surgery .
Later , when Reagan was out of immediate danger , Baker even summoned one of his own aides to stand guard at the hospital and not let in any visitors , fearing they would @ @ @ @ @ @ @ capacity .
When my co-author and I asked Baker about the decision to avoid invoking the Twenty-fifth Amendment or taking other steps to make clear to the public what was going on , he acknowledged , “ I got criticized roundly ” for it , “ maybe justifiably.
” In the end , it worked out—for Baker and for his President , who was early in his tenure and soon rebounded to greater popularity than he had enjoyed before the shooting .
In Reagan ’ s case , though , the stakes were @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Trump , who has fallen ill barely a month before a national election , with the pandemic still raging uncontrolled and no vaccine yet .
Reagan was the victim of a tragic crime , Trump of what looks to many like willful and reckless courting of disaster .
He lied about the coronavirus for many months , and he will now be sick with the coronavirus without any of us knowing what to believe .
This is a more volatile moment—and a more volatile President , who has presided over the most mendacious @ @ @ @ @ @ @ no one left to tell us the truth , at just the time when we need it the most .
Read More About the 2020 Election • The fall and rise of Kamala Harris .
• When a sitting President threatens to delay a sacrosanct American ritual like an election , you should listen .
• To understand the path Donald Trump has taken to the 2020 election , look at what he has provided the executive class .
• What happens if Trump fights the election results ?
• The refusal by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ looking riskier than ever .
• Sign up for our election newsletter for insight and analysis from our reporters and columnists .

As Thursday began, it seemed like just another day of Trumpian meltdown in the nation’s capital. The President was still refusing to repudiate white supremacy and his press secretary was still lying about it, part of the continued fallout from Trump’s disastrous debate performance days earlier. Trump’s former national-security adviser was on television charging that the President is “aiding and abetting” Vladimir Putin by attacking the legitimacy of the forthcoming election. On Thursday evening, news broke that Trump’s wife had been secretly taped by her former best friend ranting about her onerous White House Christmas duties and the unfairness of being blamed for her husband locking up migrant children in cages. “Give me a fucking break,” the First Lady said.
In the upside-down world of this Presidency, it was not necessarily a terrible few hours on the campaign trail. At least the headlines were not focussed on the pandemic and concurrent economic crisis, which experts warned were on the precipice of getting much, much worse. In the seven months since the coronavirus became a national crisis, Trump has done everything he could to deny, deflect, and generally distract from the pandemic and his government’s botched handling of it. If there is one thing he has not wanted the election of 2020 to be a referendum on, it is his handling of the disease. So much for that. At 12:54 A.M. a Presidential tweet confirmed that Trump and the First Lady both have COVID-19. For the rest of the campaign, we will be talking about it, and pretty much nothing else.
The truth is, this is probably the least surprising national shock ever. For months, Trump has made coronavirus denialism his signature, at great cost to millions of Americans, more than two hundred thousand of whom are now dead. He courted personal as well as political disaster by refusing to wear a mask publicly and by encouraging others not to do so, either. His positive coronavirus test always had the feel of an inevitable plot twist. But the President of the United States getting diagnosed with a potentially lethal illness for which there is no cure a month before a national election is no less monumental for being fully anticipated. Will Trump recover? Will we believe him, or his discredited White House, if he claims that he has?
By Friday, nothing was clear except that Washington was trapped in a new waiting game, wondering about the health of an obese seventy-four-year-old with a penchant for not telling the truth about his health. Wondering how it would affect the election thirty-two days from now; wondering how 2020 could once again deal us such a hand. History is so much less exhausting when it happens to other people.
“There is zero reason to panic,” a breathless Fox News morning anchor said on Friday, reading from what she said was an “exclusive interview” with the Trump White House adviser Dr. Scott Atlas, who has lately gained the President’s favor by publicly and privately encouraging Trump’s coronavirus-is-disappearing fantasies. Trump’s diagnosis had been revealed less than twelve hours earlier. What could these White House officials do but try to pretend that everything will be just fine—and hope that they are right? “He’s hard at work,” the White House press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, told reporters Friday afternoon. He’s in “good spirits” and “very energetic,” the White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, said, smiling in the early-fall sunlight as he spoke, maskless, to reporters on the White House driveway and acknowledged that, well, yes, actually, Trump was experiencing “mild symptoms.” But, he insisted, “The American people can rest assured that we have a President that is not only on the job, will remain on the job, and I’m optimistic that he’ll have a very quick and speedy recovery.”
Trump was holed up in the White House residence, for once silent on Twitter. He skipped a midday phone call with governors about “vulnerable seniors” and COVID-19, after his aides said that he would participate. Meanwhile, more cases of the virus among the White House staff and press corps were confirmed, and among attendees at Trump’s Saturday announcement of his Supreme Court nominee, Amy Coney Barrett. The positives included Senator Mike Lee, of Utah, and the president of Notre Dame, both of whom were photographed maskless at the Barrett event, seated close to a crowd of others in violation of all public-health rules and common sense but in keeping with the President’s political dictates. By late afternoon, the “mild symptoms” turned out to include a fever, and Trump was being given an experimental antibody treatment, according to a short written statement put out by the White House physician. Was Trump at least well enough to watch all the breathless cable news coverage and see how this is playing? Who knows? There was no effort to give a proper White House press briefing, and, besides, no credible actors to give it. This is Day One of the President’s illness; imagine weeks more of this.
Of course, it was a sign of the distrustful times that conspiracy theories of every political belief quickly materialized to fill the void of reliable official information. Was Trump’s COVID-19 case a hoax designed to generate sympathy for a President losing in the polls? Or perhaps it would end up helping the President, when he reëmerges, by showing the world that the coronavirus really is no big deal? Americans, it seems quite likely, will choose their own truth, as they have with so many other matters in the Trump era. True to form, the President’s illness seemed a lot more serious by day’s end Friday, when the White House announced that, “out of an abundance of caution,” he would be flown to Walter Reed military hospital for what was described as a possible stay of several days. This did not sound so mild anymore. Nor was it particularly reassuring when the President, soon after leaving for Walter Reed, tweeted a video of himself dressed in a suit and looking pale. “I think I’m doing very well, but we’re going to make sure that things work out,” he said, by way of explaining his decision to go to the hospital.
White Houses have often lied or covered up the truth about Presidential illnesses. The American people were shocked when Franklin Delano Roosevelt died, in April of 1945; they had no idea how seriously ill their wartime leader had been. John F. Kennedy was heavily medicated for various ailments throughout his short Presidency. And when Ronald Reagan was shot, in 1981, the White House went out of its way not to level with the American people about just how dire his condition was, instead portraying the President as still actively managing the country. As Reagan’s chief of staff James Baker says in the new biography of him I published this week, he worried that a long recovery would revive questions about Reagan’s age and ability to do the job. On the day of the assassination attempt, Baker ducked into a broom closet at George Washington University Hospital with two other Reagan advisers and decided on the fly not to declare Vice-President George H. W. Bush the acting President—even though Reagan was unconscious and in surgery. Later, when Reagan was out of immediate danger, Baker even summoned one of his own aides to stand guard at the hospital and not let in any visitors, fearing they would surely notice the President’s diminished capacity. When my co-author and I asked Baker about the decision to avoid invoking the Twenty-fifth Amendment or taking other steps to make clear to the public what was going on, he acknowledged, “I got criticized roundly” for it, “maybe justifiably.” In the end, it worked out—for Baker and for his President, who was early in his tenure and soon rebounded to greater popularity than he had enjoyed before the shooting.
In Reagan’s case, though, the stakes were far different than they are today with Trump, who has fallen ill barely a month before a national election, with the pandemic still raging uncontrolled and no vaccine yet. Reagan was the victim of a tragic crime, Trump of what looks to many like willful and reckless courting of disaster. He lied about the coronavirus for many months, and he will now be sick with the coronavirus without any of us knowing what to believe. This is a more volatile moment—and a more volatile President, who has presided over the most mendacious Administration in American history. There is no one left to tell us the truth, at just the time when we need it the most.
Read More About the 2020 Election


newyorker--2020-10-02--After Trump’s Coronavirus Diagnosis, What’s His Medical Outlook?

In a midnight tweet , the President of the United States revealed that he and the First Lady have both tested positive for the coronavirus , raising concerns about his health and upending an already chaotic campaign season just thirty-two days before the election .
The virus—which has transformed American life , killed more than two hundred thousand Americans , and devastated the U.S. economy—now threatens the health of the President and senior government officials .
The White House has said that the President is experiencing mild symptoms .
Melania Trump has tweeted that the First Couple is “ feeling @ @ @ @ @ @ @ White House physician , has released a statement saying that he expects the President “ to continue carrying out his duties without disruption.
” Even so , on Friday it was announced that the President would be taken to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center , where he is expected to stay for several days .
Without further details about the reasons for the move—the White House has attributed it to “ an abundance of caution ” —it ’ s hard to say what the hospitalization portends .
From here , Trump ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ more severe .
Trump—by virtue of his age , gender , and weight—is at relatively high risk for serious complications from the coronavirus infection .
People over the age of sixty-five account for more than eighty per cent of COVID-19 deaths in the United States .
Compared to a twentysomething , a septuagenarian is more than five times as likely to be hospitalized and is ninety times more likely to die of the coronavirus .
For Americans in their seventies , the case fatality rate—a measure of a person ’ s chance of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cent .
The true rate of death in that age group is almost certainly lower , since some people who contract the virus never develop symptoms and are never tested for it .
On the other hand , we know that older men are more likely to die than women , possibly because of gendered differences in the way the immune system responds to the virus .
At six feet three and two hundred and forty-three pounds , the President is also obese , which increases the risk of hospitalization , I.C.U .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ in all likelihood , Trump will get through this .
Most Americans , even older ones with preëxisting conditions , survive coronavirus infection .
Moreover , statistics are , by definition , averages—and the President is not an average American .
He will receive constant , world-class medical care ; he will also benefit from months of scientific advancement in the treatment of COVID-19 .
Since April , when Boris Johnson , the British Prime Minister , was admitted to the I.C.U.
, we ’ ve learned a great deal about how to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ It ’ s possible that the President will receive the antiviral drug remdesivir , perhaps in combination with convalescent plasma , which , in August , the F.D.A .
authorized for emergency use .
He also has access to some of the promising antibody drugs currently in development , which Phase II studies have shown may reduce the risk of being hospitalized .
According to an announcement from Conley , Trump has already received “ a single 8 gram dose of Regeneron ’ s polyclonal antibody cocktail.
” The President ’ s early @ @ @ @ @ @ @ monitoring and a speedy intervention .
All this is good news .
The bad news is that the coronavirus is a capricious killer ; this week , a previously healthy nineteen-year-old college student died of COVID-19 .
The President isn ’ t the only one who could fall ill .
Even in cases when the risk to any particular individual is low , the chance that the virus will spread to someone who goes on to become seriously ill , or die , is considerable .
Trump ’ s schedule of events—and his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ him a potential superspreader .
The President has repeatedly expressed disdain for masks , mocking Joe Biden for wearing them as recently as Tuesday , at the Presidential debate .
( “ I don ’ t wear a mask like him , ” Trump said .
“ Every time you see him , he ’ s got a mask.
” ) It ’ s not clear when Trump was infected or how many people he has since exposed to the virus , but the fallout could be substantial .
On Monday , Trump @ @ @ @ @ @ @ which he said that “ we ’ re rounding the corner ” on the pandemic ; in attendance were Vice-President Mike Pence and Alex Azar and Betsy DeVos , members of the President ’ s Cabinet .
On Tuesday , Chris Christie and several other advisers helped prepare the President for the debate ; no one was wearing masks .
On Wednesday , Trump boarded a flight with senior officials including Hope Hicks—who was later confirmed to have the coronavirus—as well as Stephen Miller , Jared Kushner , and Dan Scavino .
On @ @ @ @ @ @ @ d been exposed to the virus , Trump flew with his team to a fund-raiser in New Jersey , where he did not wear a mask and met with dozens of campaign supporters , displaying a familiar disregard for the health and safety of those around him .
The test results are beginning to trickle in .
John Jenkins , the president of Notre Dame , tested positive after attending a White House ceremony , on September 26th , for Trump ’ s Supreme Court nominee , Amy Coney Barrett ; Senator Mike @ @ @ @ @ @ @ September 29th , without a mask , tested positive two days later .
Ronna McDaniel , the chair of the Republican National Committee , has also tested positive ; she last met with Trump on September 25th .
The President ’ s infection , and the exposure of dozens of other high-ranking government officials , highlight the limitations of the White House ’ s approach to the coronavirus .
It has relied heavily on testing to justify a lack of masks and distance .
The inadequacy of such a strategy became evident long @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s inner circle—including his national-security adviser , his son ’ s girlfriend , and the Vice-President ’ s press secretary—were infected .
Months into the pandemic , the White House ’ s protocols for preventing the spread of the coronavirus within its walls remain insufficient .
Visitors undergo minimal screening upon arrival ; the President delivers addresses with little regard for social distancing ; aides congregate in offices , without masks , breathing shared air .
Coronavirus tests have limitations : the false-negative rate among symptomatic people is higher than twenty per @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who are pre-symptomatic .
For this reason , we should be cautious about assurances that other leaders , such as Mike Pence , have tested negative .
In truth , their negative results do not obviate the need for quarantine ; ideally , everyone who has been exposed would isolate for weeks , regardless of test results .
The epidemiological playbook , then , is fairly clear .
The politics of the President ’ s infection are murkier .
If Trump experiences only mild symptoms , he may feel that he has acquired @ @ @ @ @ @ @ advice of public-health officials .
Alternatively , if his symptoms worsen , it could take him weeks to recover ; if his condition grows serious , that could cast doubt about whether he should remain on the ballot .
Even if he stays well , his campaign strategy has been thrown into disarray .
The President ’ s infection will undoubtedly insure that his bungling of the pandemic—which continues to kill nearly a thousand Americans a day , and to sicken thousands more—remains the overriding story of the campaign .
He ’ ll @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , at which he routinely brings together thousands of unmasked Americans .
His participation in the next Presidential debate , in less than two weeks , is now uncertain .
Trump ’ s infection further highlights what has been obvious from the start of the pandemic : the coronavirus respects no boundaries .
Trump can not wish the virus away ; denial and deflection can ’ t change biology .
It also throws into sharp relief the virus ’ s sheer contagiousness , and the monumental challenges we continue to face in containing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ theory , among the most protected people in America .
Those interacting with him are regularly tested ; so is he .
All the same , the virus broke through .
It ’ s possible that someone in the early days of an infection tested negative in the morning—when the virus ’ s circulation in the body was below a certain threshold—and then infected the President that same evening , after it had used that person ’ s cellular machinery to multiply itself by orders of magnitude .
It ’ s also possible @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as many are .
A truly responsible approach to Trump ’ s infection includes universal masks , social distancing , and , for the many people the President has exposed , isolation .
The response of Trump ’ s circle to this new crisis will reveal whether they are coming to grips with reality , or continuing to flee from it .
This post was updated after the announcement that Trump would be hospitalized .
More on the Coronavirus • To protect American lives and revive the economy , Donald Trump and Jared @ @ @ @ @ @ @ than trash him .
• We should look to students to conceive of appropriate school-reopening plans .
It is not too late to ask what they really want .
• A pregnant pediatrician on what children need during the crisis .
• Trump is helping tycoons who have donated to his reëlection campaign exploit the pandemic to maximize profits .
• Meet the high-finance mogul in charge of our economic recovery .
• The coronavirus is likely to reshape architecture .
What kinds of space are we willing to live and work in @ @

In a midnight tweet, the President of the United States revealed that he and the First Lady have both tested positive for the coronavirus, raising concerns about his health and upending an already chaotic campaign season just thirty-two days before the election. The virus—which has transformed American life, killed more than two hundred thousand Americans, and devastated the U.S. economy—now threatens the health of the President and senior government officials. The White House has said that the President is experiencing mild symptoms. Melania Trump has tweeted that the First Couple is “feeling good”; Sean Conley, the White House physician, has released a statement saying that he expects the President “to continue carrying out his duties without disruption.” Even so, on Friday it was announced that the President would be taken to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, where he is expected to stay for several days. Without further details about the reasons for the move—the White House has attributed it to “an abundance of caution”—it’s hard to say what the hospitalization portends. From here, Trump’s illness might dissipate or grow much more severe.
Trump—by virtue of his age, gender, and weight—is at relatively high risk for serious complications from the coronavirus infection. People over the age of sixty-five account for more than eighty per cent of COVID-19 deaths in the United States. Compared to a twentysomething, a septuagenarian is more than five times as likely to be hospitalized and is ninety times more likely to die of the coronavirus. For Americans in their seventies, the case fatality rate—a measure of a person’s chance of dying after being diagnosed—is around ten per cent. The true rate of death in that age group is almost certainly lower, since some people who contract the virus never develop symptoms and are never tested for it. On the other hand, we know that older men are more likely to die than women, possibly because of gendered differences in the way the immune system responds to the virus. At six feet three and two hundred and forty-three pounds, the President is also obese, which increases the risk of hospitalization, I.C.U. admission, and death.
Still, in all likelihood, Trump will get through this. Most Americans, even older ones with preëxisting conditions, survive coronavirus infection. Moreover, statistics are, by definition, averages—and the President is not an average American. He will receive constant, world-class medical care; he will also benefit from months of scientific advancement in the treatment of COVID-19. Since April, when Boris Johnson, the British Prime Minister, was admitted to the I.C.U., we’ve learned a great deal about how to attack the disease and its complications. It’s possible that the President will receive the antiviral drug remdesivir, perhaps in combination with convalescent plasma, which, in August, the F.D.A. authorized for emergency use. He also has access to some of the promising antibody drugs currently in development, which Phase II studies have shown may reduce the risk of being hospitalized. According to an announcement from Conley, Trump has already received “a single 8 gram dose of Regeneron’s polyclonal antibody cocktail.” The President’s early diagnosis could matter; so could close monitoring and a speedy intervention. All this is good news. The bad news is that the coronavirus is a capricious killer; this week, a previously healthy nineteen-year-old college student died of COVID-19.
The President isn’t the only one who could fall ill. Even in cases when the risk to any particular individual is low, the chance that the virus will spread to someone who goes on to become seriously ill, or die, is considerable. Trump’s schedule of events—and his refusal to adhere to basic public-health guidance—makes him a potential superspreader. The President has repeatedly expressed disdain for masks, mocking Joe Biden for wearing them as recently as Tuesday, at the Presidential debate. (“I don’t wear a mask like him,” Trump said. “Every time you see him, he’s got a mask.”)
It’s not clear when Trump was infected or how many people he has since exposed to the virus, but the fallout could be substantial. On Monday, Trump held a Rose Garden press conference at which he said that “we’re rounding the corner” on the pandemic; in attendance were Vice-President Mike Pence and Alex Azar and Betsy DeVos, members of the President’s Cabinet. On Tuesday, Chris Christie and several other advisers helped prepare the President for the debate; no one was wearing masks. On Wednesday, Trump boarded a flight with senior officials including Hope Hicks—who was later confirmed to have the coronavirus—as well as Stephen Miller, Jared Kushner, and Dan Scavino. On Thursday, even after knowing he’d been exposed to the virus, Trump flew with his team to a fund-raiser in New Jersey, where he did not wear a mask and met with dozens of campaign supporters, displaying a familiar disregard for the health and safety of those around him. The test results are beginning to trickle in. John Jenkins, the president of Notre Dame, tested positive after attending a White House ceremony, on September 26th, for Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Amy Coney Barrett; Senator Mike Lee, who met with Barrett on September 29th, without a mask, tested positive two days later. Ronna McDaniel, the chair of the Republican National Committee, has also tested positive; she last met with Trump on September 25th.
The President’s infection, and the exposure of dozens of other high-ranking government officials, highlight the limitations of the White House’s approach to the coronavirus. It has relied heavily on testing to justify a lack of masks and distance. The inadequacy of such a strategy became evident long ago, as many members of Trump’s inner circle—including his national-security adviser, his son’s girlfriend, and the Vice-President’s press secretary—were infected. Months into the pandemic, the White House’s protocols for preventing the spread of the coronavirus within its walls remain insufficient. Visitors undergo minimal screening upon arrival; the President delivers addresses with little regard for social distancing; aides congregate in offices, without masks, breathing shared air. Coronavirus tests have limitations: the false-negative rate among symptomatic people is higher than twenty per cent, and rises further among those who are pre-symptomatic. For this reason, we should be cautious about assurances that other leaders, such as Mike Pence, have tested negative. In truth, their negative results do not obviate the need for quarantine; ideally, everyone who has been exposed would isolate for weeks, regardless of test results.
The epidemiological playbook, then, is fairly clear. The politics of the President’s infection are murkier. If Trump experiences only mild symptoms, he may feel that he has acquired new ammunition with which to attack the advice of public-health officials. Alternatively, if his symptoms worsen, it could take him weeks to recover; if his condition grows serious, that could cast doubt about whether he should remain on the ballot. Even if he stays well, his campaign strategy has been thrown into disarray. The President’s infection will undoubtedly insure that his bungling of the pandemic—which continues to kill nearly a thousand Americans a day, and to sicken thousands more—remains the overriding story of the campaign. He’ll be forced to cancel scheduled campaign rallies, at which he routinely brings together thousands of unmasked Americans. His participation in the next Presidential debate, in less than two weeks, is now uncertain.
Trump’s infection further highlights what has been obvious from the start of the pandemic: the coronavirus respects no boundaries. Trump cannot wish the virus away; denial and deflection can’t change biology. It also throws into sharp relief the virus’s sheer contagiousness, and the monumental challenges we continue to face in containing it. The President is, in theory, among the most protected people in America. Those interacting with him are regularly tested; so is he. All the same, the virus broke through. It’s possible that someone in the early days of an infection tested negative in the morning—when the virus’s circulation in the body was below a certain threshold—and then infected the President that same evening, after it had used that person’s cellular machinery to multiply itself by orders of magnitude. It’s also possible that a test was simply incorrect, as many are. A truly responsible approach to Trump’s infection includes universal masks, social distancing, and, for the many people the President has exposed, isolation. The response of Trump’s circle to this new crisis will reveal whether they are coming to grips with reality, or continuing to flee from it.
This post was updated after the announcement that Trump would be hospitalized.
More on the Coronavirus


newyorker--2020-10-02--The Election, as Seen from Swing States

The Election, as Seen from Swing States

Joe Biden may hold a commanding lead in national polls , but the contest—as is often the case—will be decided in a handful of swing states .
David Remnick checks in with Eliza Griswold , who ’ s been reporting from the battleground state of Pennsylvania , and Peter Slevin , who has been in Wisconsin .
Plus , a Tennessee pastor talks about the conflict between faith and politics in his evangelical church , and Marilynne Robinson explains how she ’ s brought faith to fiction in her series of novels based on a fictional town called Gilead .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ States Our reporters talk about the mood of voters in Pennsylvania , where Republicans have organized a huge registration drive , and Wisconsin , where Democrats are determined not to repeat past mistakes .
Many members of Phil Nordstrom ’ s evangelical church in Knoxville support the President , but he doesn ’ t .
The pastor struggles over the extent to which he should express his views .
The novelist ’ s fourth book in her series about the town of Gilead , Iowa , concerns a disgraced ne ’ er-do-well facing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ love .
The Novelist Douglas Stuart Returns to the Garment District After two decades of working in the fashion industry , an aspiring writer achieves his dream with an acclaimed first novel , “ Shuggie Bain .
”

Illustration by Golden Cosmos
Joe Biden may hold a commanding lead in national polls, but the contest—as is often the case—will be decided in a handful of swing states. David Remnick checks in with Eliza Griswold, who’s been reporting from the battleground state of Pennsylvania, and Peter Slevin, who has been in Wisconsin. Plus, a Tennessee pastor talks about the conflict between faith and politics in his evangelical church, and Marilynne Robinson explains how she’s brought faith to fiction in her series of novels based on a fictional town called Gilead.
The Election, as Seen from Swing States
Our reporters talk about the mood of voters in Pennsylvania, where Republicans have organized a huge registration drive, and Wisconsin, where Democrats are determined not to repeat past mistakes.
A Tennessee Pastor on Faith and Politics
Many members of Phil Nordstrom’s evangelical church in Knoxville support the President, but he doesn’t. The pastor struggles over the extent to which he should express his views.
Marilynne Robinson on Faith, Love, and Politics
The novelist’s fourth book in her series about the town of Gilead, Iowa, concerns a disgraced ne’er-do-well facing a new predicament: he is in love.
The Novelist Douglas Stuart Returns to the Garment District
After two decades of working in the fashion industry, an aspiring writer achieves his dream with an acclaimed first novel, “Shuggie Bain.”


newyorker--2020-10-02--What a Positive Test Won’t Change About Trump and the Pandemic

“ Are you not worried about the disease issues , sir ?
” Wallace asked .
“ So far , we have had no problem whatsoever , ” Trump said .
“ We ’ ve had no negative , no negative effect.
” Hope Hicks , one of his senior campaign advisers and a former aide , whose symptoms and positive test triggered the President ’ s test , had travelled with him to a number of rallies .
Perhaps if Trump had known about her diagnosis , and his own exposure , when Wallace asked the question his answer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ does it say about the sense that only his own health , and not that of the people in the crowds , would register with him as a “ negative ” ?
That people travelling with him as he hopped , in the past week , from Florida to Minnesota—who would have followed him to a planned rally this weekend in Wisconsin , where cases are rising at alarming rates—might test positive is not an unexpected fluke .
( Indeed , a number of Secret Service agents already have ; Ronna McDaniel , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , who often attends such events , announced on Friday that she had tested positive two days earlier . )
There is a pandemic in this country , one that the President has failed to control .
There are more than forty thousand new cases of COVID-19 each day , and the average number of deaths per day is still above seven hundred .
Trump ’ s negligence about the coronavirus is of a piece with who he is .
By the end of Tuesday night ’ s debate , it was easy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ violence Trump might be willing to inflict on the country , from heedlessly telling quasi-militarized white supremacists to “ stand back and stand by ” to urging supporters to “ go into the polls and watch very carefully.
” When Wallace asked if he was telling people to take to the streets , he didn ’ t deny it .
He was ready to expose Americans to another source of physical harm : the unmanaged pandemic .
“ You got to open these states up .
It ’ s not fair !
” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ doing so was inconsiderate of his electoral prospects and his vanity .
The reality that , with children returning to school and cold weather on its way , the next weeks will require vigilance and delicate coördination to head off a truly devastating winter , seems lost on him .
Instead , he complained that Democratic governors were deliberately waiting until the week after the election to reopen , for no reason other than that “ they think they ’ re hurting us.
” On Friday morning , Biden tweeted , “ Jill @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Trump and First Lady Melania Trump for a swift recovery .
We will continue to pray for the health and safety of the president and his family.
” That message , with its kindness , is a reminder of how the pandemic has made the contrast between Trump and Biden particularly clear .
It has thrown into relief some of the most basic things about each of them as people and as politicians—how much each of them cares , their honesty , and their willingness to work , among other things .
Both @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Trump , in explaining during the debate why he had backed shutdowns earlier in the year but would not do so again , said , “ We ’ ve found that elderly people with heart problems and diabetes and different problems are very , very vulnerable ” and that “ younger people aren ’ t , ” he made it sound not as if the vulnerable and elderly had to be protected but as if they could be written off .
Remarkably , he did not seem to place himself in either category @ @ @ @ @ @ @ overweight .
That might serve as a broader reminder to Americans about our curious national narcissism , which can dull not only empathy but self-preservation .
Of course , Trump ’ s statement about the basic medical facts was wrong , too ; younger people can die or experience debilitating cases of COVID-19 .
( And , as a groundbreaking , large-scale study from India confirmed this week , even young children can play a significant role in spreading the virus ; earlier studies had reached similar conclusions . )
Biden , during @ @ @ @ @ @ @ camera and asked people watching , “ How many of you got up this morning and had an empty chair at the kitchen table because someone died of COVID ?
How many of you are in a situation where you lost your mom or dad , and you couldn ’ t even speak to them , you had a nurse holding the phone up so you could , in fact , say goodbye ?
” Early on , in the opening exchange about the Supreme Court , he connected the pandemic to the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ case , soon to be heard by a Court that will probably include Amy Coney Barrett , that was brought to invalidate the Affordable Care Act .
“ The deal is that this is going to wipe out preëxisting conditions , ” Biden said .
And that matters to a new cohort of Americans .
“ Over seven million people have contracted COVID , ” he said , and added , “ What does it mean for them going forward , if you strike down the Affordable Care Act ?
” It ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ both red and blue states—and even among some staffers in the White House .
When Wallace asked each man to speak for two minutes about why he would do a better job than his opponent in managing the pandemic , Biden said something that even many of the President ’ s supporters must suspect is the case : “ The President has no plan.
” Indeed , until now , Trump ’ s only pandemic plan , such as it is , has been to talk his way around the crisis long enough @ @ @ @ @ @ @ up numbers , pushing conspiracy theories involving China or Democratic governors , overpromising on a vaccine , disparaging anyone who disagrees , and , when all else fails , boasting that two hundred thousand dead is still less than the two million dead that some models had suggested could be the death toll in the United States , if no measures at all had been taken .
He also mocked masks .
It ’ s not news that Trump has told corrosive lies about COVID-19 ; according to a new Cornell study , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ false information about the pandemic .
The tally includes both conspiracy theories and quackery , such as Trump ’ s suggestion that the White House coronavirus task force explore the internal consumption by people of household cleaners , such as bleach .
( “ That was said sarcastically , ” Trump claimed in the debate ; a review of the video indicates otherwise . )
Clearly , this is not what White House doctors will recommend : Trump will no doubt have the best care in the world .
The best scenario for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Trump is voted out of office by an equally healthy margin—to have the Trump era end because Americans reject Trumpism , and not because the virus gets more of a say than they do .
It may be too optimistic to suppose that , meanwhile , his coronavirus experience could make Trump an even marginally more prudent President .
But it could prove to be an education , if not a revelation , both for him and for his supporters .
More on the Coronavirus • To protect American lives and revive the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ should listen to Anthony Fauci rather than trash him .
• We should look to students to conceive of appropriate school-reopening plans .
It is not too late to ask what they really want .
• A pregnant pediatrician on what children need during the crisis .
• Trump is helping tycoons who have donated to his reëlection campaign exploit the pandemic to maximize profits .
• Meet the high-finance mogul in charge of our economic recovery .
• The coronavirus is likely to reshape architecture .
What kinds of space are we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ?

During the Presidential debate on Tuesday night, two days before Donald Trump and the First Lady, Melania Trump, tested positive for the coronavirus, Chris Wallace, the beleaguered moderator, asked the candidates how the pandemic had changed the way that each campaigned. He noted that Trump, unlike Joe Biden, his opponent, was holding big outdoor rallies—why? “Because people want to hear what I have to say,” Trump said, as if there were no other consideration. He claimed that as many as forty thousand people were waiting for him at airports—a wild exaggeration, though several thousand have regularly gathered for the mostly maskless hangar rallies—and that the only reason that Biden wasn’t holding rallies, too, was that “nobody will show up.”
“Are you not worried about the disease issues, sir?” Wallace asked.
“So far, we have had no problem whatsoever,” Trump said. “We’ve had no negative, no negative effect.” Hope Hicks, one of his senior campaign advisers and a former aide, whose symptoms and positive test triggered the President’s test, had travelled with him to a number of rallies. Perhaps if Trump had known about her diagnosis, and his own exposure, when Wallace asked the question his answer would have been different. But what does it say about the sense that only his own health, and not that of the people in the crowds, would register with him as a “negative”? That people travelling with him as he hopped, in the past week, from Florida to Minnesota—who would have followed him to a planned rally this weekend in Wisconsin, where cases are rising at alarming rates—might test positive is not an unexpected fluke. (Indeed, a number of Secret Service agents already have; Ronna McDaniel, the chair of the Republican National Committee, who often attends such events, announced on Friday that she had tested positive two days earlier.) There is a pandemic in this country, one that the President has failed to control. There are more than forty thousand new cases of COVID-19 each day, and the average number of deaths per day is still above seven hundred.
Trump’s negligence about the coronavirus is of a piece with who he is. By the end of Tuesday night’s debate, it was easy to wonder just how many forms of violence Trump might be willing to inflict on the country, from heedlessly telling quasi-militarized white supremacists to “stand back and stand by” to urging supporters to “go into the polls and watch very carefully.” When Wallace asked if he was telling people to take to the streets, he didn’t deny it. He was ready to expose Americans to another source of physical harm: the unmanaged pandemic. “You got to open these states up. It’s not fair!” Trump said—meaning, presumably, that not doing so was inconsiderate of his electoral prospects and his vanity. The reality that, with children returning to school and cold weather on its way, the next weeks will require vigilance and delicate coördination to head off a truly devastating winter, seems lost on him. Instead, he complained that Democratic governors were deliberately waiting until the week after the election to reopen, for no reason other than that “they think they’re hurting us.”
On Friday morning, Biden tweeted, “Jill and I send our thoughts to President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump for a swift recovery. We will continue to pray for the health and safety of the president and his family.” That message, with its kindness, is a reminder of how the pandemic has made the contrast between Trump and Biden particularly clear. It has thrown into relief some of the most basic things about each of them as people and as politicians—how much each of them cares, their honesty, and their willingness to work, among other things. Both decency and competency are required. When Trump, in explaining during the debate why he had backed shutdowns earlier in the year but would not do so again, said, “We’ve found that elderly people with heart problems and diabetes and different problems are very, very vulnerable” and that “younger people aren’t,” he made it sound not as if the vulnerable and elderly had to be protected but as if they could be written off. Remarkably, he did not seem to place himself in either category, even though he is seventy-four and overweight. That might serve as a broader reminder to Americans about our curious national narcissism, which can dull not only empathy but self-preservation. Of course, Trump’s statement about the basic medical facts was wrong, too; younger people can die or experience debilitating cases of COVID-19. (And, as a groundbreaking, large-scale study from India confirmed this week, even young children can play a significant role in spreading the virus; earlier studies had reached similar conclusions.)
Biden, during the debate, looked directly at the camera and asked people watching, “How many of you got up this morning and had an empty chair at the kitchen table because someone died of COVID? How many of you are in a situation where you lost your mom or dad, and you couldn’t even speak to them, you had a nurse holding the phone up so you could, in fact, say goodbye?” Early on, in the opening exchange about the Supreme Court, he connected the pandemic to the Trump Administration’s backing of a case, soon to be heard by a Court that will probably include Amy Coney Barrett, that was brought to invalidate the Affordable Care Act. “The deal is that this is going to wipe out preëxisting conditions,” Biden said. And that matters to a new cohort of Americans. “Over seven million people have contracted COVID,” he said, and added, “What does it mean for them going forward, if you strike down the Affordable Care Act?” It’s a question that should resonate in both red and blue states—and even among some staffers in the White House.
When Wallace asked each man to speak for two minutes about why he would do a better job than his opponent in managing the pandemic, Biden said something that even many of the President’s supporters must suspect is the case: “The President has no plan.” Indeed, until now, Trump’s only pandemic plan, such as it is, has been to talk his way around the crisis long enough to get reëlected—furiously concocting excuses, making up numbers, pushing conspiracy theories involving China or Democratic governors, overpromising on a vaccine, disparaging anyone who disagrees, and, when all else fails, boasting that two hundred thousand dead is still less than the two million dead that some models had suggested could be the death toll in the United States, if no measures at all had been taken. He also mocked masks.
It’s not news that Trump has told corrosive lies about COVID-19; according to a new Cornell study, Trump is the single greatest source of false information about the pandemic. The tally includes both conspiracy theories and quackery, such as Trump’s suggestion that the White House coronavirus task force explore the internal consumption by people of household cleaners, such as bleach. (“That was said sarcastically,” Trump claimed in the debate; a review of the video indicates otherwise.) Clearly, this is not what White House doctors will recommend: Trump will no doubt have the best care in the world. The best scenario for the country would be that a healthy Trump is voted out of office by an equally healthy margin—to have the Trump era end because Americans reject Trumpism, and not because the virus gets more of a say than they do. It may be too optimistic to suppose that, meanwhile, his coronavirus experience could make Trump an even marginally more prudent President. But it could prove to be an education, if not a revelation, both for him and for his supporters.
More on the Coronavirus


newyorker--2020-10-02--What Trump’s Positive Coronavirus Test Means for the Presidential Campaign

In 1981 , after Ronald Reagan was shot by John Hinckley , Jr. , the Secretary of State , Alexander Haig , gave an infamous press conference at the White House in which , to a roomful of clamoring reporters and a television audience of millions , he shakily , and erroneously , declared himself the acting President .
“ I am in control here , ” Haig said .
In the early hours of Friday morning , after Donald Trump tweeted out that he and his wife had tested positive for the coronavirus , there was no singular Haig-like @ @ @ @ @ @ @ our atomized age , Twitter exploded , people suddenly channelling their own inner Haig , trying to meet a dangerous , destabilizing national situation with whatever personal reaction they believed the moment demanded .
“ Holy shit ” was a popular choice .
The reality is that for as much as the country ’ s circumstances before Thursday night were unprecedented—a pandemic raging , hundreds of thousands dead , tens of millions out of work , family and friends isolated from one another , protests and political violence in the streets , businesses @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and hurricanes battering towns and cities , and the integrity of the upcoming election under attack by the President—there is even less precedent for them now .
On Friday morning , reporters were beginning to fill in some details .
According to the Times , Hope Hicks , one of Trump ’ s closest advisers , began experiencing symptoms of COVID-19 while at a Trump campaign rally in Minnesota , on Wednesday .
( A day earlier , Hicks had accompanied Trump to his debate with Joe Biden , in Ohio . )
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ Hicks quarantined in a cabin separate from the rest of the passengers on the flight home on Air Force One .
“ She exited from the back of the plane , ” the Times noted , “ as opposed to the front.
” On Thursday , she tested positive , but the White House made no public announcement about Hicks ’ s situation .
Instead , Trump flew to New Jersey to attend a fund-raiser and give a speech , in which he said , “ The end of the pandemic is in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of public events scheduled for Friday , too , including a rally in Florida .
But , on Thursday evening , Bloomberg News reported on Hicks ’ s diagnosis ; by the end of the night , Trump was acknowledging , in an interview with Fox News ’ s Sean Hannity , that he was waiting on test results .
Shortly after 1 A.M. , Trump tweeted that both he and the First Lady , Melania Trump , had tested positive .
It ’ s not clear how or where or when the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the virus may be in the White House .
“ He ’ ll be O.K.
, the doctor ’ s optimistic , ” a White House official told NPR .
“ He ’ ll get treatment .
We ’ re in a pretty good place to treat this.
” The official added , perhaps remembering Haig , “ From a continuity standpoint—listen , we ’ ll be fine , we ’ ll figure out a way to do it.
” According to NPR , the White House is planning for Trump to be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ days .
For now , the President ’ s in-person Friday events have been cancelled , although he is still scheduled to host a phone call on “ COVID-19 support to vulnerable seniors.
” If the White House sticks to that timeline , it means that , at least for half the time remaining before Election Day , Trump will have to suspend the campaign rallies that he had been holding regularly .
For the past five years , these rallies have been where Trump demonstrates his mythic connection with his base .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ over the protests of local officials in various states , who viewed them as potential public-health risks .
Have we seen the last of them ?
Trump ’ s quarantine may also mean the cancellation or postponement of the second debate between Trump and Biden , which is scheduled for October 15th .
The larger question is what this development means for Trump ’ s hopes for reëlection , or at least his ability to control and influence what chances he has left , as he is trailing Biden in both the polls @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , as the election models all started to suggest the overwhelming probability of a Biden victory , one common caution has been that unforeseen events are just that , unforeseen , and that elections tend to turn near their end .
Just this week , we ’ ve had what feels like a decade ’ s worth of “ October surprises ” : the Times ’ bombshell exposé on Trump ’ s taxes ; Trump ’ s belligerent debate performance , in which he declined to denounce white supremacy ; audio tapes of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ facts of separated migrant families and White House Christmas decorations ; the former Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale ’ s detention by law enforcement after an altercation with his wife ; and revelations about the Trump campaign aide Kimberly Guilfoyle ’ s alleged harassment of an assistant during her time at Fox News .
Trump ’ s positive test is an enormous unforeseen event , but to the extent that his reëlection campaign has had a strategy these past few months , it has been to insist that the coronavirus crisis was ending @ @ @ @ @ @ @ job in combating it ; and that , in any case , it was not ( or had not been ) a big deal .
His refusal to acknowledge the scale of the pain and suffering in the country had left him unable to muster patriotic praise for the victims , or for the doctors , nurses , and other essential workers who have risked their lives since March to help others .
It was a campaign of negation—and now he ’ s tested positive .
Much could change in the next few @ @ @ @ @ @ @ mild course of infection—easily carrying out his duties in quarantine—or his case may quickly take a turn for the worse .
“ We will get through this TOGETHER !
” Trump tweeted on Friday morning .
This is the kind of perfunctory sentiment you might have expected from a President in March .
Trump could only think to deploy it now , when he himself was a victim .
Which “ this ” was he referring to ?
There are questions for Biden , too .
The former Vice-President spent ninety minutes on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Trump as he ranted and raved during the debate .
Was Trump contagious then ?
Biden ’ s team has already asked a reporter who travelled on Air Force One on Wednesday not to travel with the Democratic campaign on a planned swing through Michigan on Friday , and reports indicate that Biden plans to take a coronavirus test .
Meanwhile , election-law professors—the kinds of people who have lately been discussing the possibilities of a drawn-out or contested election next month—are bringing up the murky rules that would govern a scenario in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ forced to replace a Presidential candidate at the last minute .
Voting has already begun in a number of states , and millions of Americans have already cast their ballots .
The election is already here .
The President has contracted the life-threatening virus he has spent the better part of a year downplaying , lying about , and stoking division over .
The questions will likely outnumber the answers for some time to come .
More on the Coronavirus • To protect American lives and revive the economy , Donald Trump and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rather than trash him .
• We should look to students to conceive of appropriate school-reopening plans .
It is not too late to ask what they really want .
• A pregnant pediatrician on what children need during the crisis .
• Trump is helping tycoons who have donated to his reëlection campaign exploit the pandemic to maximize profits .
• Meet the high-finance mogul in charge of our economic recovery .
• The coronavirus is likely to reshape architecture .
What kinds of space are we willing to live and work @ @ @

In 1981, after Ronald Reagan was shot by John Hinckley, Jr., the Secretary of State, Alexander Haig, gave an infamous press conference at the White House in which, to a roomful of clamoring reporters and a television audience of millions, he shakily, and erroneously, declared himself the acting President. “I am in control here,” Haig said. In the early hours of Friday morning, after Donald Trump tweeted out that he and his wife had tested positive for the coronavirus, there was no singular Haig-like figure, but, in keeping with our atomized age, Twitter exploded, people suddenly channelling their own inner Haig, trying to meet a dangerous, destabilizing national situation with whatever personal reaction they believed the moment demanded. “Holy shit” was a popular choice. The reality is that for as much as the country’s circumstances before Thursday night were unprecedented—a pandemic raging, hundreds of thousands dead, tens of millions out of work, family and friends isolated from one another, protests and political violence in the streets, businesses big and small bleeding cash, wildfires and hurricanes battering towns and cities, and the integrity of the upcoming election under attack by the President—there is even less precedent for them now.
On Friday morning, reporters were beginning to fill in some details. According to the Times, Hope Hicks, one of Trump’s closest advisers, began experiencing symptoms of COVID-19 while at a Trump campaign rally in Minnesota, on Wednesday. (A day earlier, Hicks had accompanied Trump to his debate with Joe Biden, in Ohio.) After Trump gave a shorter-than-usual speech, Hicks quarantined in a cabin separate from the rest of the passengers on the flight home on Air Force One. “She exited from the back of the plane,” the Times noted, “as opposed to the front.”
On Thursday, she tested positive, but the White House made no public announcement about Hicks’s situation. Instead, Trump flew to New Jersey to attend a fund-raiser and give a speech, in which he said, “The end of the pandemic is in sight.” He had a full day of public events scheduled for Friday, too, including a rally in Florida. But, on Thursday evening, Bloomberg News reported on Hicks’s diagnosis; by the end of the night, Trump was acknowledging, in an interview with Fox News’s Sean Hannity, that he was waiting on test results. Shortly after 1 A.M., Trump tweeted that both he and the First Lady, Melania Trump, had tested positive. It’s not clear how or where or when the Trumps were infected, or how widespread the virus may be in the White House. “He’ll be O.K., the doctor’s optimistic,” a White House official told NPR. “He’ll get treatment. We’re in a pretty good place to treat this.” The official added, perhaps remembering Haig, “From a continuity standpoint—listen, we’ll be fine, we’ll figure out a way to do it.” According to NPR, the White House is planning for Trump to be under quarantine for as long as fourteen days. For now, the President’s in-person Friday events have been cancelled, although he is still scheduled to host a phone call on “COVID-19 support to vulnerable seniors.”
If the White House sticks to that timeline, it means that, at least for half the time remaining before Election Day, Trump will have to suspend the campaign rallies that he had been holding regularly. For the past five years, these rallies have been where Trump demonstrates his mythic connection with his base. Lately, they were also often held over the protests of local officials in various states, who viewed them as potential public-health risks. Have we seen the last of them? Trump’s quarantine may also mean the cancellation or postponement of the second debate between Trump and Biden, which is scheduled for October 15th.
The larger question is what this development means for Trump’s hopes for reëlection, or at least his ability to control and influence what chances he has left, as he is trailing Biden in both the polls and in fund-raising. In recent weeks, as the election models all started to suggest the overwhelming probability of a Biden victory, one common caution has been that unforeseen events are just that, unforeseen, and that elections tend to turn near their end. Just this week, we’ve had what feels like a decade’s worth of “October surprises”: the Times’ bombshell exposé on Trump’s taxes; Trump’s belligerent debate performance, in which he declined to denounce white supremacy; audio tapes of Melania Trump bemoaning as personal headaches the facts of separated migrant families and White House Christmas decorations; the former Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale’s detention by law enforcement after an altercation with his wife; and revelations about the Trump campaign aide Kimberly Guilfoyle’s alleged harassment of an assistant during her time at Fox News. Trump’s positive test is an enormous unforeseen event, but to the extent that his reëlection campaign has had a strategy these past few months, it has been to insist that the coronavirus crisis was ending; that he had done a great job in combating it; and that, in any case, it was not (or had not been) a big deal. His refusal to acknowledge the scale of the pain and suffering in the country had left him unable to muster patriotic praise for the victims, or for the doctors, nurses, and other essential workers who have risked their lives since March to help others. It was a campaign of negation—and now he’s tested positive.
Much could change in the next few days. Trump could experience a relatively mild course of infection—easily carrying out his duties in quarantine—or his case may quickly take a turn for the worse. “We will get through this TOGETHER!” Trump tweeted on Friday morning. This is the kind of perfunctory sentiment you might have expected from a President in March. Trump could only think to deploy it now, when he himself was a victim. Which “this” was he referring to?
There are questions for Biden, too. The former Vice-President spent ninety minutes on Tuesday night standing a few feet from Trump as he ranted and raved during the debate. Was Trump contagious then? Biden’s team has already asked a reporter who travelled on Air Force One on Wednesday not to travel with the Democratic campaign on a planned swing through Michigan on Friday, and reports indicate that Biden plans to take a coronavirus test. Meanwhile, election-law professors—the kinds of people who have lately been discussing the possibilities of a drawn-out or contested election next month—are bringing up the murky rules that would govern a scenario in which either of the major parties was forced to replace a Presidential candidate at the last minute. Voting has already begun in a number of states, and millions of Americans have already cast their ballots. The election is already here. The President has contracted the life-threatening virus he has spent the better part of a year downplaying, lying about, and stoking division over. The questions will likely outnumber the answers for some time to come.
More on the Coronavirus


newyorker--2020-10-02--The Elusive Mariah Carey

The Elusive Mariah Carey

Early on in Mariah Carey ’ s affecting new memoir , “ The Meaning of Mariah Carey , ” she tells a story about being three years old , shaking in terror after twelve police officers stormed into her cramped home in Long Island to “ manage ” an altercation between her father and her brother .
“ I didn ’ t know if they had come to save us or kill us , ” Carey writes .
“ It was Long Island in the 1970s , and two Black males were being violent—the appearance of the police almost never @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the aftermath , young Mariah ’ s great aunt , Nana Reese , a “ prophetess ” who serves as a pastor at an African Methodist Pentecostal church in Harlem , comforts Carey with a vague yet potent prediction .
“ Don ’ t be scared of all the trouble you see , ” she says .
“ All your dreams and visions are going to happen for you.
” Carey ’ s survival depends on such cues , what some religious people might call “ signs and wonders , ” which can @ @ @ @ @ @ @ worry stones .
She has little else but her faith .
Carey ’ s memoir , which was co-written with the the writer and activist Michaela Angela Davis , is an incisive , entertaining , and impressively well-written account of her road from poverty and obscurity to superstardom .
But its first half is a nearly unrelenting catalogue of cruelty , betrayal , and deprivation .
In the opening sections , Carey , whose parents divorced before she turned four , lives in fear of her volatile older brother and sister and pretty @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with “ blondish ” curly hair , she does not resemble her Black father , her darker siblings , or her straight-haired Irish mother : “ I felt like a stranger among them all , an intruder in my own family , ” she writes .
Her childhood is marked by constant moves , mainly between various parts of Long Island , where she lives with her mother ; she stays with her father in Brooklyn Heights on Sundays , and she occasionally visits her paternal relatives , who live in Harlem .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ so we could live in neighborhoods where we could glimpse that elusive ‘ better life ’ and feel ‘ safe , ’ ” she writes , although this aspiration generally lands her in white areas where she is ostracized and traumatized .
When she is in eighth grade , a group of her wealthy white “ friends ” invite her to a sleepover in Southampton only to trap her in a room and scream the N-word at her .
Another time , Carey is talking on the phone with her father and tries @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , who doesn ’ t want him to know where she is ; her sister lashes out by throwing a cup of hot tea on Carey , producing third-degree burns on her back .
One day , some aunts on her father ’ s side attempt to stage an “ intervention ” regarding her often neglected hair .
By now , the reader knows better than to expect a happy outcome , but Carey is thrilled at the prospect of her transformation .
The hot comb turns out to be too strong for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and the women call off their mission .
There are some bright spots in these early years , most of which involve music .
Jam sessions at her mother ’ s home ( which Carey calls a “ shack ” ) are rare sources of joy and connection—both with her mother , a Juilliard-trained opera singer , and with other musicians , with whom Carey experiences a familial bond .
“ Live music was the best thing about living with my mother , ” she states .
“ I was surrounded by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ more importantly , by the love of musicianship—the love of the craft , the love of the process.
” Visits with her father ’ s relatives in Harlem produce a similarly rare belonging : even when the neighborhood kids insist she must be white , her cousins claim her as kin .
The only thing stronger than Carey ’ s desire to be claimed is her drive to succeed in music .
As a teen-ager , she travels from Long Island into Manhattan for weeknight recording sessions only to collapse in her bed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ another day of high school .
She has no backup plan , no safety net : “ Music was the only plan , ever.
” In 1988 , at the age of eighteen , she attended an industry party where she met Tommy Mottola , who was then the president of Sony Music .
He listened to one of her demos and immediately signed her to the label .
The two married in 1993 .
It is well known that Mottola , who is twenty years Carey ’ s senior , was possessive @ @ @ @ @ @ @ which he monitored his young wife ’ s movements is chilling .
Carey tells of trying to slip out of bed at night after he falls asleep , to get a snack downstairs or to write some lyrics or enjoy a moment to herself in the Westchester mansion she calls “ Sing Sing , ” only to be shocked by the invisible fence of his voice through the intercom : “ Watcha doin ’ ?
” Carey ’ s tale of escaping her marriage via couple ’ s therapy and an affair with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ her account of her descent into and emergence from a later emotional and spiritual breakdown : “ There is nothing more powerful than surviving a trip to hell and coming home covered in the light of restoration , ” she writes .
But the book ’ s greatest revelations are her descriptions of her own and others ’ artistry .
She is a dedicated student of performance , composition , and that more elusive thing , “ trends.
” Of her early years , Carey writes , “ I spent hours writing , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ music trends on the radio.
” She is an unapologetic devotee of hip-hop ( a genre considered too “ urban ” —the nineties code word for “ Black ” —for an artist whose first hits were shoehorned into the “ adult contemporary ” format ) .
She is most at home in the studio , where she sees the act of making records as a “ kind of a spiritual science.
” She adores great singers , from little known backup vocalists to American pop royalty .
“ Aretha Franklin is my high @ @ @ @ @ @ @ writes , “ a masterful musician and mind-bogglingly gifted singer who wouldn ’ t let one genre confine or define her .
I listened to and learned from all of her .
.
.
.
I still believe most people don ’ t understand how amazing she was as a pianist and arranger , ” she continues .
“ I think if you are a woman , with an incredible voice , your musicianship always gets underplayed.
” The observation clearly applies to Carey herself : her artistry was often undermined by the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ made her a star.
” Even as she counters that myth by describing her own hard work , her translation of that work into song and songwriting—and into a career yielding more No .
1 singles than any other solo artist—remains elusive .
So , too , does the strain that must have attended some aspects of her work .
There is no discord to be found in her accounts of working with other musicians—no fight over royalties or control or credit , no hint of competition .
Instead , Carey keeps @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as Jermaine Dupri , Da Brat , Ol ’ Dirty Bastard , Whitney Houston , Stevie Wonder , Prince , and many others ) in a sacred space apart from the drama that defines her familial and social life .
She makes a similar effort to preserve her relationship with her fans .
She does not lament the need to perform for them constantly at the peak of her career , or recount any scary brushes with obsessed followers .
Rather , Carey ’ s professional and personal resentments are reserved for the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and mishaps ; her labels , such as Virgin Records , which push her beyond exhaustion ; and her family ( particularly , her mother and “ ex-brother ” ) , who try to drain her of money and check her into strange institutions instead of helping her rest .
Her highest praise is lavished on her twin children , on her fellow-musicians , and on her “ family of fans , ” who are known as the “ lambs.
” It makes sense that a woman whose childhood was scarred by the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ revere her wholly accepting fellow-musicians and her fans .
What is harder to parse is how precisely the pain and abjection that Carey describes in such detail yielded her confidence , determination , and skill .
How , aside from her mother ’ s assistance with vocal technique and jam sessions , did Carey become such an extraordinary artist ?
How did a child with such a vexed relationship to her own appearance come to believe she was meant for the spotlight ?
These questions go largely unanswered .
This is not a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it atypical : musicians ’ memoirs commonly register a disconnect between the story of the artist ’ s life and the creation of the music that makes such a life a point of interest in the first place .
But Carey ’ s memoir reflects this disjuncture on the level of its form .
The text is punctuated by blocks of italicized lyrics from songs Carey wrote and recorded .
Sometimes the lyrics serve as epigraphs to chapters ( perhaps in a pop-culture nod to W. E. B .
Du Bois ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Folk ” ) .
Sometimes they are juxtaposed with a relevant story from Carey ’ s life—after describing her experience as a starving artist in New York , she presents relevant lines from “ Make It Happen ” : “ Without a penny to my name / So very young and so afraid / No proper shoes upon my feet / Sometimes I couldn ’ t even eat .
.
.
” Then , too , she occasionally integrates the lyrics into her story in a way that one might , thinking in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ writes a song , or someone records a verse , and she gives us the words to it .
In staging such varied relationships between her narrative and her songs , the text implies there is no strict or consistent correlation between them .
The way life begets song—and vice versa—is less calculus than alchemy .
Or , to use Carey ’ s own phrase , it is a “ spiritual science.
” Her book is called “ The Meaning of Mariah Carey ” —a close cousin to , but different from another @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Mariah Carey.
” This isn ’ t a story of self-making so much as it is an account of the suffering of “ Little Mariah ” and a demonstration of the nebulous relationship between past and present , life and song .
In the last section , titled “ Emancipation , ” Carey narrates a night of revelry , after which she and the rapper Cam ’ ron drive a purple Lamborghini from downtown Manhattan up to a “ dignified and decaying ” brownstone on 131st Street in Harlem .
The building once @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ; it was also the place where Carey ’ s mother and father were married .
Nana Reese had come to New York with her children from Wilmington , North Carolina , not long after an encounter ( about which Carey divulges nothing ) with a white policeman and a fire chief .
Reese was accompanied by her sister , Addie , who would later give birth to Carey ’ s father , Roy .
Carey poses for a picture in front of the brownstone , in an homage to a photo of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ before climbing back into the passenger seat of a car that cost more money than [ Reese and Addie ] ever made in their entire lifetimes.
” “ My women elders , ” she continues , “ who made something from nothing .
They had a vision beyond Jim Crow .
.
.
.
beyond fear .
I wonder if they ever had a vision of what was in store for their little Roy ’ s baby girl ?
”

The superstar hides and reveals in “The Meaning of Mariah Carey.” Photograph from The LIFE Picture Collection / Getty
Early on in Mariah Carey’s affecting new memoir, “The Meaning of Mariah Carey,” she tells a story about being three years old, shaking in terror after twelve police officers stormed into her cramped home in Long Island to “manage” an altercation between her father and her brother. “I didn’t know if they had come to save us or kill us,” Carey writes. “It was Long Island in the 1970s, and two Black males were being violent—the appearance of the police almost never meant that help had arrived.” In the aftermath, young Mariah’s great aunt, Nana Reese, a “prophetess” who serves as a pastor at an African Methodist Pentecostal church in Harlem, comforts Carey with a vague yet potent prediction. “Don’t be scared of all the trouble you see,” she says. “All your dreams and visions are going to happen for you.” Carey’s survival depends on such cues, what some religious people might call “signs and wonders,” which can be tucked away and worked over like worry stones. She has little else but her faith.
Carey’s memoir, which was co-written with the the writer and activist Michaela Angela Davis, is an incisive, entertaining, and impressively well-written account of her road from poverty and obscurity to superstardom. But its first half is a nearly unrelenting catalogue of cruelty, betrayal, and deprivation. In the opening sections, Carey, whose parents divorced before she turned four, lives in fear of her volatile older brother and sister and pretty much everyone else. A fair child with “blondish” curly hair, she does not resemble her Black father, her darker siblings, or her straight-haired Irish mother: “I felt like a stranger among them all, an intruder in my own family,” she writes. Her childhood is marked by constant moves, mainly between various parts of Long Island, where she lives with her mother; she stays with her father in Brooklyn Heights on Sundays, and she occasionally visits her paternal relatives, who live in Harlem. “Both my parents worked very hard so we could live in neighborhoods where we could glimpse that elusive ‘better life’ and feel ‘safe,’ ” she writes, although this aspiration generally lands her in white areas where she is ostracized and traumatized. When she is in eighth grade, a group of her wealthy white “friends” invite her to a sleepover in Southampton only to trap her in a room and scream the N-word at her. Another time, Carey is talking on the phone with her father and tries to pass the call to her sister, who doesn’t want him to know where she is; her sister lashes out by throwing a cup of hot tea on Carey, producing third-degree burns on her back. One day, some aunts on her father’s side attempt to stage an “intervention” regarding her often neglected hair. By now, the reader knows better than to expect a happy outcome, but Carey is thrilled at the prospect of her transformation. The hot comb turns out to be too strong for Carey’s hair and scorches it, and the women call off their mission.
There are some bright spots in these early years, most of which involve music. Jam sessions at her mother’s home (which Carey calls a “shack”) are rare sources of joy and connection—both with her mother, a Juilliard-trained opera singer, and with other musicians, with whom Carey experiences a familial bond. “Live music was the best thing about living with my mother,” she states. “I was surrounded by the love of music, but even more importantly, by the love of musicianship—the love of the craft, the love of the process.” Visits with her father’s relatives in Harlem produce a similarly rare belonging: even when the neighborhood kids insist she must be white, her cousins claim her as kin. The only thing stronger than Carey’s desire to be claimed is her drive to succeed in music. As a teen-ager, she travels from Long Island into Manhattan for weeknight recording sessions only to collapse in her bed at home for a few hours before another day of high school. She has no backup plan, no safety net: “Music was the only plan, ever.”
In 1988, at the age of eighteen, she attended an industry party where she met Tommy Mottola, who was then the president of Sony Music. He listened to one of her demos and immediately signed her to the label. The two married in 1993. It is well known that Mottola, who is twenty years Carey’s senior, was possessive and controlling. But the extent to which he monitored his young wife’s movements is chilling. Carey tells of trying to slip out of bed at night after he falls asleep, to get a snack downstairs or to write some lyrics or enjoy a moment to herself in the Westchester mansion she calls “Sing Sing,” only to be shocked by the invisible fence of his voice through the intercom: “Watcha doin’?” Carey’s tale of escaping her marriage via couple’s therapy and an affair with Derek Jeter is riveting, as is her account of her descent into and emergence from a later emotional and spiritual breakdown: “There is nothing more powerful than surviving a trip to hell and coming home covered in the light of restoration,” she writes.
But the book’s greatest revelations are her descriptions of her own and others’ artistry. She is a dedicated student of performance, composition, and that more elusive thing, “trends.” Of her early years, Carey writes, “I spent hours writing, enriching my ear, and studying popular music trends on the radio.” She is an unapologetic devotee of hip-hop (a genre considered too “urban”—the nineties code word for “Black”—for an artist whose first hits were shoehorned into the “adult contemporary” format). She is most at home in the studio, where she sees the act of making records as a “kind of a spiritual science.” She adores great singers, from little known backup vocalists to American pop royalty. “Aretha Franklin is my high bar and North Star,” she writes, “a masterful musician and mind-bogglingly gifted singer who wouldn’t let one genre confine or define her. I listened to and learned from all of her.”
“I still believe most people don’t understand how amazing she was as a pianist and arranger,” she continues. “I think if you are a woman, with an incredible voice, your musicianship always gets underplayed.” The observation clearly applies to Carey herself: her artistry was often undermined by the assumption that it was Mottola who had “made her a star.” Even as she counters that myth by describing her own hard work, her translation of that work into song and songwriting—and into a career yielding more No. 1 singles than any other solo artist—remains elusive.
So, too, does the strain that must have attended some aspects of her work. There is no discord to be found in her accounts of working with other musicians—no fight over royalties or control or credit, no hint of competition. Instead, Carey keeps her musical relationships (with artists such as Jermaine Dupri, Da Brat, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, Whitney Houston, Stevie Wonder, Prince, and many others) in a sacred space apart from the drama that defines her familial and social life. She makes a similar effort to preserve her relationship with her fans. She does not lament the need to perform for them constantly at the peak of her career, or recount any scary brushes with obsessed followers. Rather, Carey’s professional and personal resentments are reserved for the media, which feeds on her vulnerability and mishaps; her labels, such as Virgin Records, which push her beyond exhaustion; and her family (particularly, her mother and “ex-brother”), who try to drain her of money and check her into strange institutions instead of helping her rest. Her highest praise is lavished on her twin children, on her fellow-musicians, and on her “family of fans,” who are known as the “lambs.”
It makes sense that a woman whose childhood was scarred by the pain of not belonging would come to revere her wholly accepting fellow-musicians and her fans. What is harder to parse is how precisely the pain and abjection that Carey describes in such detail yielded her confidence, determination, and skill. How, aside from her mother’s assistance with vocal technique and jam sessions, did Carey become such an extraordinary artist? How did a child with such a vexed relationship to her own appearance come to believe she was meant for the spotlight? These questions go largely unanswered.
This is not a flaw of the text, nor is it atypical: musicians’ memoirs commonly register a disconnect between the story of the artist’s life and the creation of the music that makes such a life a point of interest in the first place. But Carey’s memoir reflects this disjuncture on the level of its form. The text is punctuated by blocks of italicized lyrics from songs Carey wrote and recorded. Sometimes the lyrics serve as epigraphs to chapters (perhaps in a pop-culture nod to W. E. B. Du Bois’s 1903 classic, “The Souls of Black Folk”). Sometimes they are juxtaposed with a relevant story from Carey’s life—after describing her experience as a starving artist in New York, she presents relevant lines from “Make It Happen”: “Without a penny to my name / So very young and so afraid / No proper shoes upon my feet / Sometimes I couldn’t even eat . . . ” Then, too, she occasionally integrates the lyrics into her story in a way that one might, thinking in cinematic terms, call diegetic: Carey writes a song, or someone records a verse, and she gives us the words to it. In staging such varied relationships between her narrative and her songs, the text implies there is no strict or consistent correlation between them. The way life begets song—and vice versa—is less calculus than alchemy. Or, to use Carey’s own phrase, it is a “spiritual science.”


New-Parent Riddles

A mom has a three-gallon jug of sensitive formula , a two-gallon jug of lactose-free formula , and a one-gallon jug of gentle-tummy formula .
Why is the baby still as gassy as a long-haul trucker ?
If a baby soils her diaper and both parents pretend not to notice , is the diaper really soiled ?
A baby who ’ s sitting in front of his mom manages to projectile-vomit all over the mom ’ s back .
Explain .
A baby is so exhausted that she can ’ t stop crying .
Yet , when the mom places @ @ @ @ @ @ @ baby lies creepily awake in the dark , her eyes wide open , unblinking .
Is the baby doing this to troll the mom ?
A baby has as many brothers as sisters and as many parents as siblings .
How many people won ’ t sleep tonight ?
( Hint : include neighbors . )
If it ’ s 4 P.M. on Sunday and the baby hasn ’ t napped since 8 A.M. on Saturday—is the baby secretly doing cocaine ?
A non-napping baby sits in her dad ’ s lap .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ leg , but when he lifts the baby up , her rear end appears to be clean .
How is this happening ?
A mom picks up a crying baby and burps him .
After the baby burps , the mom changes the baby ’ s diaper .
The mom gives the baby a pacifier .
They do tummy time .
The mom gives the baby a fist bump .
Another burp .
The mom tells the baby an age-appropriate joke .
She bounces the baby in a way that does not constitute @ @ @ @ @ @ @ bottle with two ounces of milk in it .
She gives the baby an additional half-ounce of milk .
She reads the baby an old Us Weekly , editing stories on couples that have subsequently broken up .
She makes the nursery a degree colder .
She puts the baby down for a nap .
She rubs some oil on the baby ’ s legs and gives him a calming massage .
She makes the nursery two degrees warmer .
She changes the baby ’ s diaper .
Why is the baby still @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their crying baby haven ’ t left the apartment since they returned from the hospital , three months ago .
They don ’ t even go grocery shopping .
Is it still possible that they all somehow have COVID-19 and that ’ s why the baby doesn ’ t nap ?
A mom hasn ’ t slept more than two consecutive hours since her baby was born and maybe is starting to get a little paranoid .
As the baby nurses , the mom feels a slight tickle in the back of her @ @ @ @ @ @ @ COVID-19 from a gust of wind that came in under the front door ?
It ’ s 3 A.M. and a mom is still awake researching a variety of unlikely , yet still possible , ways one could theoretically contract COVID-19 without ever leaving one ’ s home and texting a dad links that he can read when he wakes up from his nap so they can take appropriate precautions .
Their baby is somehow still wide awake , despite never having taken a nap in her entire life .
Did the hospital @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and dad take the baby home from the hospital ?
A pediatrician has an “ all hours ” hotline , and yet the same doctor has requested that the mom stop calling the “ all hours ” hotline every night at 2 A.M. to ask about the likelihood that the family has contracted COVID-19 from air under the door .
How is 2 A.M. both an hour and also not included in the definition of “ all hours ” ?
If a baby does something cute in the background of a Zoom call @ @ @ @ @ @ @ verified on Twitter by Tuesday ?

A dad hugs a smiling baby. Two seconds later, the baby is crying so hard that her father is afraid her lungs will explode. What will the mom say the dad did wrong?
A mom has a three-gallon jug of sensitive formula, a two-gallon jug of lactose-free formula, and a one-gallon jug of gentle-tummy formula. Why is the baby still as gassy as a long-haul trucker?
If a baby soils her diaper and both parents pretend not to notice, is the diaper really soiled?
A baby who’s sitting in front of his mom manages to projectile-vomit all over the mom’s back. Explain.
A baby is so exhausted that she can’t stop crying. Yet, when the mom places her baby in a bassinet, the baby lies creepily awake in the dark, her eyes wide open, unblinking. Is the baby doing this to troll the mom?
A baby has as many brothers as sisters and as many parents as siblings. How many people won’t sleep tonight? (Hint: include neighbors.)
If it’s 4 P.M. on Sunday and the baby hasn’t napped since 8 A.M. on Saturday—is the baby secretly doing cocaine?
A non-napping baby sits in her dad’s lap. The dad notices poop streaming down his leg, but when he lifts the baby up, her rear end appears to be clean. How is this happening?
A mom picks up a crying baby and burps him. After the baby burps, the mom changes the baby’s diaper. The mom gives the baby a pacifier. They do tummy time. The mom gives the baby a fist bump. Another burp. The mom tells the baby an age-appropriate joke. She bounces the baby in a way that does not constitute shaking. She gives the baby a bottle with two ounces of milk in it. She gives the baby an additional half-ounce of milk. She reads the baby an old Us Weekly, editing stories on couples that have subsequently broken up. She makes the nursery a degree colder. She puts the baby down for a nap. She rubs some oil on the baby’s legs and gives him a calming massage. She makes the nursery two degrees warmer. She changes the baby’s diaper. Why is the baby still crying?
A mom and dad and their crying baby haven’t left the apartment since they returned from the hospital, three months ago. They don’t even go grocery shopping. Is it still possible that they all somehow have COVID-19 and that’s why the baby doesn’t nap?
A mom hasn’t slept more than two consecutive hours since her baby was born and maybe is starting to get a little paranoid. As the baby nurses, the mom feels a slight tickle in the back of her throat. Is it possible she caught COVID-19 from a gust of wind that came in under the front door?
It’s 3 A.M. and a mom is still awake researching a variety of unlikely, yet still possible, ways one could theoretically contract COVID-19 without ever leaving one’s home and texting a dad links that he can read when he wakes up from his nap so they can take appropriate precautions. Their baby is somehow still wide awake, despite never having taken a nap in her entire life. Did the hospital make a mistake in letting the mom and dad take the baby home from the hospital?
A pediatrician has an “all hours” hotline, and yet the same doctor has requested that the mom stop calling the “all hours” hotline every night at 2 A.M. to ask about the likelihood that the family has contracted COVID-19 from air under the door. How is 2 A.M. both an hour and also not included in the definition of “all hours”?
If a baby does something cute in the background of a Zoom call on Monday, will the baby be verified on Twitter by Tuesday?