buzzfeednews--2020-04-08--Will I Get A Check From The US Government, And How? Here’s Everything You Need To Know.

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WASHINGTON — The US government is sending out $ 1,200 stimulus checks to the large majority of adults during the coronavirus outbreak , but many are going to miss out .
Most adults with a US Social Security number will receive a payment , but Congress set restrictions on who qualifies .
People who earn more than $ 99,000 per year will @ @ @ @ @ @ @ many college students or adults who are listed as dependents on someone else ’ s tax return ( this includes some adults with disabilities and some elderly parents ) .
Immigrants who do not have Social Security numbers will not qualify for the payments either .
Additionally , not every person who qualifies will receive $ 1,200 — some will get more , some less .
The payments are based on your income listed on your most recent tax return , as well as the number of child dependents you have .
Still @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tax filers will receive some kind of payment , according to the Tax Foundation .
Here are the answers to many common questions about the payments : How much money will I get ?
United States residents who have Social Security numbers with income of up to $ 75,000 will receive payments of $ 1,200 .
For every $ 100 you earn above that threshold your payment shrinks by $ 5 .
Someone making $ 85,000 , for example , will take home $ 700 .
The payments phase out entirely at an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ use the Washington Post ’ s online calculator to see how large your payment will be .
Your income level is based on the last tax return you filed last year ( for 2018 income ) or this year if you 've filed already ( for 2019 income ) .
If you do not normally file taxes , see below .
Both the payments and the limits are doubled for your home if you file your taxes jointly .
Couples with household income of up to $ 150,000 will receive a $ 2,400 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the payments shrink and stop entirely at $ 198,000 .
You can use the Washington Post ’ s online calculator to see how large your payment will be .
What if I have kids ?
Parents with children ages 16 or younger will get an additional $ 500 per child ( as long as you ’ ve claimed them as a dependent on your tax returns ) .
If you split custody , whichever parent has claimed your child on their tax returns will get the $ 500 benefit .
Single parents @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of household ” have higher limits to qualify for the payments than single people without kids .
Single parents who make up to $ 112,500 will get the full $ 1,200 benefit .
The system then works the same way with payments shrinking by $ 5 for every $ 100 you earn above that threshold up to $ 136,500 .
You will also qualify for $ 500 per dependent child you have who is age 16 or younger .
You can use the Washington Post ’ s online calculator to see how large @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I have no income ?
There is no minimum income threshold .
Even if you make $ 0 you qualify for the $ 1,200 payment .
If you have not filed a recent tax return you can send the IRS your payment information through their web portal here .
Advocacy groups are warning that many people who are unhoused may not receive payments because they do not have a Social Security number , a bank account , or a fixed address to send the payments to .
At least 3.4 million people who @ @ @ @ @ @ @ bill did not receive payment , and that aid had a more strict $ 3,000 minimum income threshold .
What if I haven ’ t filed my taxes in 2018 or 2019 ?
The best thing to do is quickly file your 2019 taxes .
You can do this for free using the IRS free filing program .
How do I get the money ?
If you have received a tax refund through direct deposit in the past , you don ’ t have to do anything , the IRS will just deposit @ @ @ @ @ @ @ goes for people who are on Social Security or disability ( more on that below ) .
Those payments are expected to go out as soon as the end of this week and should be in people ’ s accounts within two weeks , Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has said .
If you don ’ t have direct deposit , the IRS will send you a physical check .
But that could take time — one IRS report estimated that some people might not get payments until September , according to the Washington @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it will happen faster .
Paper checks are expected to start going out on April 24 , starting with the lowest-income people , the Post reported There is another option : The IRS is working on setting up a form on its website for people to fill in their direct deposit information to get that money faster .
The IRS said on Friday that the form , which they 're calling the `` Get My Payment tool '' will be live by April 17 and will allow people to input their banking information @ @ @ @ @ @ @ payment .
If you do not usually file a tax return ( people who make under $ 12,200 do not have to file ) the IRS has created another web portal for you to enter your payment information .
When will I get the money ?
The Treasury Department has said that everyone with direct deposit should get the payments before April 24 .
Then they ’ ll start sending out paper checks , which could take months ( see above ) .
The IRS is launching a `` Get My Payment '' @ @ @ @ @ @ @ track the status of their stimulus payments .
Nope .
You ’ ll get the full amount you qualify for .
What about college students and young adults ?
This is a big loophole in the law : Many college students and young adults will not qualify for these payments .
It depends on whether your parents claimed you as a “ dependent ” on their most recent tax returns ( whether they filed this year for 2019 or last year for 2018 ) .
If so , you will not get any @ @ @ @ @ @ @ or older they won ’ t get $ 500 for you either .
If your parents did not claim you as a dependent , such as young people who entered the workforce after college , you will qualify for the payments .
This is another of the law ’ s major loopholes : Any adult that you claim as a dependent on your tax returns — including adult children with disabilities living at home and elderly parents — will not qualify for the payments , and you will not get any additional money @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and people on DACA status ?
You do not need to be an American citizen to qualify for the payments — but you do need a Social Security number .
So immigrants with green cards or certain work visas , such as the popular H-1B visa , will qualify .
Temporary workers , undocumented workers , and nonresident aliens will not .
The National Immigration Law Center argues that millions of immigrants who pay taxes will be cut out from receiving assistance .
Immigrants who pay taxes , but do not have Social @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Nor will their children , even if they are citizens , if they are claimed as dependents .
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities called this group a “ glaring ” omission and said that the center is pushing Congress to include these immigrants in future legislation to retroactively allow them to get the payments .
DACA recipients are eligible for Social Security numbers , which will allow them to qualify for payments .

WASHINGTON — The US government is sending out $1,200 stimulus checks to the large majority of adults during the coronavirus outbreak, but many are going to miss out.
Most adults with a US Social Security number will receive a payment, but Congress set restrictions on who qualifies. People who earn more than $99,000 per year will not receive any money; neither will many college students or adults who are listed as dependents on someone else’s tax return (this includes some adults with disabilities and some elderly parents). Immigrants who do not have Social Security numbers will not qualify for the payments either.
Additionally, not every person who qualifies will receive $1,200 — some will get more, some less. The payments are based on your income listed on your most recent tax return, as well as the number of child dependents you have. Still, as many as 93.6% of tax filers will receive some kind of payment, according to the Tax Foundation.
Here are the answers to many common questions about the payments:
How much money will I get?
United States residents who have Social Security numbers with income of up to $75,000 will receive payments of $1,200. For every $100 you earn above that threshold your payment shrinks by $5. Someone making $85,000, for example, will take home $700. The payments phase out entirely at an income of $99,000. You can use the Washington Post’s online calculator to see how large your payment will be.
Your income level is based on the last tax return you filed last year (for 2018 income) or this year if you've filed already (for 2019 income). If you do not normally file taxes, see below.
What if I’m married?
Both the payments and the limits are doubled for your home if you file your taxes jointly. Couples with household income of up to $150,000 will receive a $2,400 payment. At higher household income levels, the payments shrink and stop entirely at $198,000. You can use the Washington Post’s online calculator to see how large your payment will be.
What if I have kids?
Parents with children ages 16 or younger will get an additional $500 per child (as long as you’ve claimed them as a dependent on your tax returns). If you split custody, whichever parent has claimed your child on their tax returns will get the $500 benefit.
What if I’m a single parent?
Single parents who file their taxes as “head of household” have higher limits to qualify for the payments than single people without kids. Single parents who make up to $112,500 will get the full $1,200 benefit. The system then works the same way with payments shrinking by $5 for every $100 you earn above that threshold up to $136,500. You will also qualify for $500 per dependent child you have who is age 16 or younger. You can use the Washington Post’s online calculator to see how large your payment will be.
What if I have no income?
There is no minimum income threshold. Even if you make $0 you qualify for the $1,200 payment. If you have not filed a recent tax return you can send the IRS your payment information through their web portal here.
Advocacy groups are warning that many people who are unhoused may not receive payments because they do not have a Social Security number, a bank account, or a fixed address to send the payments to. At least 3.4 million people who qualified for assistance in the 2008 stimulus bill did not receive payment, and that aid had a more strict $3,000 minimum income threshold.
What if I haven’t filed my taxes in 2018 or 2019?
The best thing to do is quickly file your 2019 taxes. You can do this for free using the IRS free filing program.
How do I get the money?
If you have received a tax refund through direct deposit in the past, you don’t have to do anything, the IRS will just deposit the money into your account. Same goes for people who are on Social Security or disability (more on that below). Those payments are expected to go out as soon as the end of this week and should be in people’s accounts within two weeks, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has said.
If you don’t have direct deposit, the IRS will send you a physical check. But that could take time — one IRS report estimated that some people might not get payments until September, according to the Washington Post, though the Treasury Department believes it will happen faster. Paper checks are expected to start going out on April 24, starting with the lowest-income people, the Post reported
There is another option: The IRS is working on setting up a form on its website for people to fill in their direct deposit information to get that money faster. The IRS said on Friday that the form, which they're calling the "Get My Payment tool" will be live by April 17 and will allow people to input their banking information and track the status of their stimulus payment.
If you do not usually file a tax return (people who make under $12,200 do not have to file) the IRS has created another web portal for you to enter your payment information.
When will I get the money?
The Treasury Department has said that everyone with direct deposit should get the payments before April 24. Then they’ll start sending out paper checks, which could take months (see above). The IRS is launching a "Get My Payment" tool by April 17 to let people track the status of their stimulus payments.
Is the money taxable?
Nope. You’ll get the full amount you qualify for.
What about college students and young adults?
This is a big loophole in the law: Many college students and young adults will not qualify for these payments. It depends on whether your parents claimed you as a “dependent” on their most recent tax returns (whether they filed this year for 2019 or last year for 2018). If so, you will not get any money, and if you are 17 or older they won’t get $500 for you either.
If your parents did not claim you as a dependent, such as young people who entered the workforce after college, you will qualify for the payments.
What about adult dependents?
This is another of the law’s major loopholes: Any adult that you claim as a dependent on your tax returns — including adult children with disabilities living at home and elderly parents — will not qualify for the payments, and you will not get any additional money on their behalf.
What about immigrants and people on DACA status?
You do not need to be an American citizen to qualify for the payments — but you do need a Social Security number. So immigrants with green cards or certain work visas, such as the popular H-1B visa, will qualify. Temporary workers, undocumented workers, and nonresident aliens will not. The National Immigration Law Center argues that millions of immigrants who pay taxes will be cut out from receiving assistance.
Immigrants who pay taxes, but do not have Social Security numbers, will not qualify. Nor will their children, even if they are citizens, if they are claimed as dependents. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities called this group a “glaring” omission and said that the center is pushing Congress to include these immigrants in future legislation to retroactively allow them to get the payments.
DACA recipients are eligible for Social Security numbers, which will allow them to qualify for payments.


buzzfeednews--2020-04-08--Coronavirus: Americans Turned Out To Vote In Wisconsin During A Deadly Pandemic

A polling official passes out hand sanitizer to voters at Riverside University High School in Milwaukee , April 7 .
@ @ @ @ @ two hours at the school , one of the few polling places open in the @ @ @ @ @ due to a shortage of poll workers fearful of contracting COVID-19 .

Coronavirus: Americans Turned Out To Vote In Wisconsin During A Deadly Pandemic
On Tuesday, Wisconsin residents turned out en masse to vote in the state's primary election despite the danger of spreading COVID-19.


buzzfeednews--2020-04-08--The First Book About The Coronavirus Is Here, And It's Terrible

The journalists at BuzzFeed News are proud to bring you trustworthy and relevant reporting about the coronavirus .
To help keep this news free , become a member and sign up for our newsletter , Outbreak Today .
In Pandemic !
COVID-19 Shakes the World , a short book to be published in April , Žižek casts his gaze on the coronavirus pandemic .
The book has been produced at a breathless pace for the publishing world , in part because it recapitulates material from his weekly columns in RT , the government-funded publication formerly known as Russia Today .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ this book , donating them instead to Doctors Without Borders . )
The Slovenian Marxist Slavoj Žižek is one of the most prominent ( and prolific ) writers in the world of contemporary philosophy , author of groundbreaking studies like Less Than Nothing and The Sublime Object of Ideology .
He is also , I regret to inform you , at it again .
There are some passages of beauty , as when he remarks that , `` It is only now , when I have to avoid many of those who are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ experience their presence , their importance to me . ''
But those thoughts jostle with undigested chunks of film dialogue , complaints about political correctness , footnotes that mostly point to articles in the Guardian or to Wikipedia , and suggestions that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange , whom Swedish authorities were investigating on the basis of rape and sexual assault allegations until last year , is `` Christ on the cross . ''
In other words , about what you 'd expect if you 've read one of his 47 other single-authored books @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of far-left political theory and pop culture , held together by the force of his rumpled charm .
Although the pieces collected here are scattered , Žižek does have , more or less , a central argument : Because of the coronavirus , the world ’ s capitalist systems will necessarily need to be replaced .
He writes , `` measures that appear to most of us today as ‘ Communist ’ will have to be considered on a global level : coordination of production and distribution will have to take place outside @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Žižek takes pains to make his proposals seem reasonable to a less-than-communist reader , painting his approach as an outgrowth of various responses that have been floated to the pandemic and the economic collapse it has triggered : an expanded role for international groups like the World Health Organization , a universal basic income , and governments organizing health care across national borders — producing and distributing masks , requisitioning hotel rooms for the sick — all outside of the free market .
No more cruise ships , Disneyland , or cars .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ pretty straight-ahead and sound advice , really , even if Žižek ’ s vernacular — laden with slogans from French student protesters and psychoanalysis — doesn ’ t seem to have been updated since the late ’ 60s .
And Žižek is at his best when he reminds us to `` resist the temptation to treat the ongoing epidemic as something that has a deeper meaning . ''
We 're not being punished for our sins or being sent a message from the natural world to respect the limits of the environment .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ knowing us just lucked into a pattern of replication that turns out to be really , really bad for humans .
`` The really difficult thing to accept is the fact that the ongoing epidemic is a result of natural contingency at its purest , that it just happened . ''
Sadly , Žižek fails to follow his own advice .
In many places , Žižek is asking the right questions — Why are so many people OK with exploiting blue-collar workers while the privileged sit at home taking conference calls ?
How @ @ @ @ @ @ @ people make the outbreak worse in China ?
Are governments using the pandemic as an excuse to declare a state of emergency that might never be lifted ?
And Žižek does provide a novel metaphor for the revolution he thinks will bring down capitalism , comparing the pandemic to the finishing move that Uma Thurman 's character uses at the end of Kill Bill : Volume 2 : `` the coronavirus epidemic is a kind of 'Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique ' on the global capitalist system . ''
But then he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ least , his dream version of the Chinese city in which the pandemic originated , where Žižek finds `` an unexpected emancipatory prospect , '' in an exoticized version of the city in China where the virus is thought to have begun .
There , he finds what he thinks is a silver lining in all of the deaths and chaos .
`` The abandoned streets in a megalopolis — the usually bustling urban centers looking like ghost towns , stores with open doors and no customers , just a lone walker or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ provide a glimpse of what a non-consumerist world might look like , '' Žižek writes of the version of Wuhan that he sees in his mind , a city in which he is able to roam without the pressure to constantly work , consume , and engage .
( This passage may have been written before other cities around the world entered lockdown . )
The pandemic has given him a chance to withdraw from the hustle of everyday life , and for that Žižek is ... grateful ?
`` Perhaps , one @ @ @ @ @ @ @ consequences of the coronavirus quarantines in cities around the world will be that some people at least will use their time released from hectic activity and think about the ( non ) sense of their predicament . ''
There seems to be a part of Žižek that recognizes that even if he dresses it up in language borrowed from the philosopher Martin Heidegger , there is something unspeakably crude about taking such a Pollyannaish position .
He quickly backs off , adding , `` When a masked citizen of Wuhan walks around searching @ @ @ @ @ @ @ definitely no anti-consumerist thoughts on his or her mind , just panic , anger and fear . ''
But it 's too late .
Žižek has declared a wildly lopsided ledger to be balanced : On one side , thousands dead in Wuhan ( not counting the rest of the world ) ; on the other , a respite from speaking tours and daily errands for Žižek .
( But not , of course , so much of a break that he ca n't still churn out a book . )
Who 's @ @ @ @ @ @ @ its balance in some mysterious way ?
`` My plea is just that even horrible events can have unpredictable positive consequences . ''
My suggestion : Take a meditation class — there are plenty free online .
Read a book .
Have a cup of coffee .
Take a ( socially distanced ) walk .
What a monstrous suggestion that in Wuhan 's more than 2,500 deaths ( a likely under-counted figure that could be as high as 42,000 deaths , according to an estimate made last month by Radio Free Asia ) @ @ @ @ @ @ @ machinery of everyday banality has temporarily ground to a halt .
Otherwise , Žižek is left with quite a dream .
But as one of Quentin Tarantino 's other characters , Mr. White , says in Reservoir Dogs , `` You shoot me in a dream , you better wake up and apologize . ''

There are some passages of beauty, as when he remarks that, "It is only now, when I have to avoid many of those who are close to me, that I fully experience their presence, their importance to me." But those thoughts jostle with undigested chunks of film dialogue, complaints about political correctness, footnotes that mostly point to articles in the Guardian or to Wikipedia, and suggestions that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, whom Swedish authorities were investigating on the basis of rape and sexual assault allegations until last year, is "Christ on the cross." In other words, about what you'd expect if you've read one of his 47 other single-authored books written in English: a hire-wire juxtaposition of far-left political theory and pop culture, held together by the force of his rumpled charm.
Although the pieces collected here are scattered, Žižek does have, more or less, a central argument: Because of the coronavirus, the world’s capitalist systems will necessarily need to be replaced. He writes, "measures that appear to most of us today as ‘Communist’ will have to be considered on a global level: coordination of production and distribution will have to take place outside the coordinates of the market."
Žižek takes pains to make his proposals seem reasonable to a less-than-communist reader, painting his approach as an outgrowth of various responses that have been floated to the pandemic and the economic collapse it has triggered: an expanded role for international groups like the World Health Organization, a universal basic income, and governments organizing health care across national borders — producing and distributing masks, requisitioning hotel rooms for the sick — all outside of the free market. No more cruise ships, Disneyland, or cars. Sounds great.
That all seems like pretty straight-ahead and sound advice, really, even if Žižek’s vernacular — laden with slogans from French student protesters and psychoanalysis — doesn’t seem to have been updated since the late ’60s. And Žižek is at his best when he reminds us to "resist the temptation to treat the ongoing epidemic as something that has a deeper meaning." We're not being punished for our sins or being sent a message from the natural world to respect the limits of the environment. The virus that has no way of knowing us just lucked into a pattern of replication that turns out to be really, really bad for humans. "The really difficult thing to accept is the fact that the ongoing epidemic is a result of natural contingency at its purest, that it just happened."
Sadly, Žižek fails to follow his own advice.
In many places, Žižek is asking the right questions — Why are so many people OK with exploiting blue-collar workers while the privileged sit at home taking conference calls? How did the distrust between the state and people make the outbreak worse in China? Are governments using the pandemic as an excuse to declare a state of emergency that might never be lifted? And Žižek does provide a novel metaphor for the revolution he thinks will bring down capitalism, comparing the pandemic to the finishing move that Uma Thurman's character uses at the end of Kill Bill: Volume 2: "the coronavirus epidemic is a kind of 'Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique' on the global capitalist system."
But then he arrives at Wuhan. Or, at least, his dream version of the Chinese city in which the pandemic originated, where Žižek finds "an unexpected emancipatory prospect," in an exoticized version of the city in China where the virus is thought to have begun. There, he finds what he thinks is a silver lining in all of the deaths and chaos.
"The abandoned streets in a megalopolis — the usually bustling urban centers looking like ghost towns, stores with open doors and no customers, just a lone walker or a single car here and there, provide a glimpse of what a non-consumerist world might look like," Žižek writes of the version of Wuhan that he sees in his mind, a city in which he is able to roam without the pressure to constantly work, consume, and engage. (This passage may have been written before other cities around the world entered lockdown.)
The pandemic has given him a chance to withdraw from the hustle of everyday life, and for that Žižek is...grateful?
"Perhaps, one can hope that one of the unintended consequences of the coronavirus quarantines in cities around the world will be that some people at least will use their time released from hectic activity and think about the (non)sense of their predicament."
There seems to be a part of Žižek that recognizes that even if he dresses it up in language borrowed from the philosopher Martin Heidegger, there is something unspeakably crude about taking such a Pollyannaish position. He quickly backs off, adding, "When a masked citizen of Wuhan walks around searching for medicine or food, there are definitely no anti-consumerist thoughts on his or her mind, just panic, anger and fear."
But it's too late. Žižek has declared a wildly lopsided ledger to be balanced: On one side, thousands dead in Wuhan (not counting the rest of the world); on the other, a respite from speaking tours and daily errands for Žižek. (But not, of course, so much of a break that he can't still churn out a book.) Who's to say the universe has not maintained its balance in some mysterious way? "My plea is just that even horrible events can have unpredictable positive consequences."
My suggestion: Take a meditation class — there are plenty free online. Read a book. Have a cup of coffee. Take a (socially distanced) walk. What a monstrous suggestion that in Wuhan's more than 2,500 deaths (a likely under-counted figure that could be as high as 42,000 deaths, according to an estimate made last month by Radio Free Asia) he can find solace, because the machinery of everyday banality has temporarily ground to a halt.
Otherwise, Žižek is left with quite a dream. But as one of Quentin Tarantino's other characters, Mr. White, says in Reservoir Dogs, "You shoot me in a dream, you better wake up and apologize."


buzzfeednews--2020-03-28--An NYPD Detective And Administrative Assistant Have Died Of The Coronavirus

Detective Cedric Dixon is the first NYPD officer to die of the virus .
Administrative assistant Giacomina Barr-Brown died Thursday .
The journalists at BuzzFeed News are proud to bring you trustworthy and relevant reporting about the coronavirus .
To help keep this news free , become a member and sign up for our newsletter , Outbreak Today .
Two more members of the New York City Police Department have died of COVID-19 , the disease caused by the coronavirus , NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said in a press briefing Saturday .
Detective Cedric Dixon , 48 , died Saturday @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the New York Post reported .
He was a 23-year veteran of the NYPD and assigned to the detective squad at the 32nd Precinct in Harlem , Shea said .
`` He was known as the person that would do anything to help you , '' Shea said of Dixon .
`` He is going to be so sorely missed . ''
FDNY Uniformed Firefighters Association released a statement following the news of Dixon 's death , extending its `` deepest sympathies to the entire police community . ''
`` New York City @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and medical personnel , are the front lines in the battle against this virus , '' the statement said .
`` We will continue to stand side-by-side with New York City Police Officers in unity . ''
Dixon 's was the third coronavirus-related death in the past 48 hours for the NYPD .
Giacomina Barr-Brown , an administrative assistant in the Bronx 49th Precinct Roll Call Office , had worked for the NYPD for seven years .
She died at her home Thursday night , the NYPD said in a statement to BuzzFeed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to the New York Daily News .
`` Her infectious smile and dedication will truly be missed , '' the 49th Precinct tweeted Friday , adding that she died from complications due to COVID-19 .
NYPD custodian Dennis Dickson became the department 's first employee to die of COVID-19 on Thursday .
He was 62 .
`` We have lost three members of our family in a little over 48 hours , '' Shea said Saturday .
`` As I stand here , I can not begin to describe what we are feeling @ @ @ @ @ @ @ any prior health conditions .
`` This disease is particularly aggressive against people with vulnerabilities , '' he said .
`` I 'll leave it at that . ''
An NYPD spokesperson declined to answer further questions when contacted by BuzzFeed News on Saturday .
As of Friday , 512 NYPD members had tested positive for COVID-19 , the department said in a statement to BuzzFeed News , and 4,111 uniformed employees , more than 11 % of the NYPD 's uniformed workforce , have called out sick .
`` We try to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to eliminate risks , '' Shea said at the press briefing .
`` For first responders , you just do n't often have the opportunity to isolate . ''
There were more than 112,468 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 1,841 related deaths in the United States as of Saturday .
New York has been particularly hard hit by the pandemic , with the state recording 52,318 cases and 728 deaths so far .
The police commissioner pleaded with New Yorkers to do their part to help by following the city 's order for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ stay at home as much as possible .
`` Please , help us help you , and stay inside , '' Shea said .
`` Stay inside unless absolutely necessary .
We will get through this . ''

Two more members of the New York City Police Department have died of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said in a press briefing Saturday.
Detective Cedric Dixon, 48, died Saturday at the North Central Bronx Hospital, the New York Post reported. He was a 23-year veteran of the NYPD and assigned to the detective squad at the 32nd Precinct in Harlem, Shea said.
"He was known as the person that would do anything to help you," Shea said of Dixon. "He is going to be so sorely missed."


buzzfeednews--2020-03-27--Dennis Dickson Worked To Clean NYPD Headquarters Of The Coronavirus — Then He Died From It

Dickson worked 17 days straight during Hurricane Sandy to keep police headquarters clean .
He was working again during the coronavirus pandemic before he himself fell ill .
The journalists at BuzzFeed News are proud to bring you trustworthy and relevant reporting about the coronavirus .
To help keep this news free , become a member and sign up for our newsletter , Outbreak Today .
Dennis Dickson , who worked for 14 years as a janitor with the New York City Police Department , died Thursday from COVID-19 , the disease caused by the novel coronavirus .
He was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Brooklyn ’ s Kings County Hospital , was the first NYPD casualty of the coronavirus pandemic .
In a video message posted to Twitter on Thursday night , NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said , “ Today , we lost one of our own.
” “ We have lost a member of the NYPD family , ” said Shea , “ and our thoughts and prayers go out to his family.
” On Facebook , Dickson ’ s widow , Debbie , posted a photo of the pair smiling and embracing .
“ This @ @ @ @ @ @ @ husband , ” she wrote .
“ Never expect u would leave me this soon.
” “ U r and will always be my true love , ” she said .
“ Until we meet again , my baby.
” Police described Dickson — a native of Guyana , according to his Facebook page — as a “ revered ” member of the department who had first joined the NYPD in 2006 .
In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy in 2012 , Dickson worked for 17 days straight , keeping 1 Police Plaza @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Manhattan headquarters , safe and clean for his colleagues , even as the neighborhood around the building was plunged into darkness for days after the storm struck .
In a photo from the time provided by the department , Dickson still had a smile on his face during those trying days .
As COVID-19 presented another crisis for the city , Dickson again stepped up , working to disinfect 1 Police Plaza before he himself fell ill. “ Mr .
Dickson was again on the front line cleaning and disinfecting 1 Police Plaza @ @ @ @ @ @ @ safely , allowing them to continue to serve the people of the City Of New York , ” police officials said in a statement .
According to the NYPD facilities team , custodians have been busy disinfecting hard surfaces that officers and staffers might touch throughout their day in police buildings , including doorknobs , elevator buttons , and staircase railings .

Dennis Dickson, who worked for 14 years as a janitor with the New York City Police Department, died Thursday from COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. He was 62.
Dickson, who died at Brooklyn’s Kings County Hospital, was the first NYPD casualty of the coronavirus pandemic.
In a video message posted to Twitter on Thursday night, NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said, “Today, we lost one of our own.”
“We have lost a member of the NYPD family,” said Shea, “and our thoughts and prayers go out to his family.”


buzzfeednews--2020-03-26--Trump Wants To Get The US Back To Work By Easter. Here’s Why That Would Be A Medical Disaster.

Even drastic interventions to limit the spread of the coronavirus take around 10 days to start to show an effect .
The US still hasn ’ t put those measures into place .
Note : The data in the charts for Italy and the US was updated through April 12 .
For the past few days , President Donald Trump has railed against medical advisers who maintain that the nation needs to persist with social distancing — or face a catastrophic death toll from COVID-19 , the disease caused by the novel coronavirus .
“ WE CAN NOT LET THE @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ” he tweeted on March 22 , referring to the unprecedented economic downturn triggered by the response to the outbreak .
Two days later , Trump said he wanted to put the nation back to work by Easter , which falls on April 12 .
“ I would love to have the country opened up and just raring to go by Easter , ” he told a Fox News town hall .
“ You 'll have packed churches all over our country .
I think it would be a beautiful time .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ in US cases and deaths , it ’ s easy to conclude that interventions to limit the spread of the virus aren ’ t working .
But the dynamics of viral outbreaks mean that the economic pain of these measures will be felt before their intended benefits start to visibly kick in .
“ Any interventions we make today will not show up in our data for 1-2 weeks , ” Caitlin Rivers , an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security in Baltimore , warned on Twitter on March 18 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ show symptoms after being infected is about 5 days , and then it takes a few more days to get diagnosed and counted .
For a while it will feel like nothing is working but it takes time.
” “ Most infectious disease experts are concerned about right now being too soon — far too soon — to end social distancing measures here in the US , ” computational epidemiologist Maia Majumder told BuzzFeed News .
“ The thing about public health interventions is that it usually takes some time before we actually @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” What ’ s more , epidemiologists say that drastic measures — including social distancing , business closures , widespread testing , and strict isolation orders for positive cases — will need to be kept in place for weeks to months to prevent the virus from surging back .
The experience of two countries that managed to turn back the tide of COVID-19 — China and South Korea — bears this out .
This chart of new cases diagnosed per day is known as an “ epidemic curve.
” As a disease outbreak @ @ @ @ @ @ @ new cases should peak and then gradually decline .
COVID-19 first emerged late last year in the Chinese city of Wuhan .
On Jan. 23 , China placed Wuhan and neighboring cities , upwards of 50 million people , under a strict quarantine — including suspension of all public transportation and widespread road closures .
As the chart shows , the peak in daily new cases came 10 days later , after which the curve turned downward .
( There was also a big spike on Feb. 13 , not shown here , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the way cases were diagnosed rather than a real surge in new cases . )
South Korea is the standout example of a country that controlled its COVID-19 outbreak before things got out of hand .
It did that by quickly ramping up widespread diagnostic testing , and then tracking and isolating people who had been in contact with known cases .
As a result , it didn ’ t have to resort to a drastic lockdown of its economy .
As the chart shows , the peak of South Korea ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ days after the number of tests performed passed 10,000 .
By the time the epidemic was at its peak , almost 100,000 diagnostic tests had been run , and the figure has since passed 350,000 .
Italy has been hit especially hard by the coronavirus .
By the time the nation realized the mess it was in , it was too late to copy South Korea ’ s approach .
After starting with a piecemeal approach of isolating individual cities and regions , on March 9 the entire nation was placed on lockdown @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Since then , the measures have been tightened further and enforced by the military , with parks and all but essential manufacturing shut down by March 21 .
It ’ s too early to be sure that these policies are having their desired effect , but the chart suggests that new cases may have peaked on March 21 , 12 days after the initial national lockdown .
Each of these countries have persisted with the policies that seemed to halt the march of COVID-19 , and epidemiologists warn that the virus is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ down their guard too early .
“ [ W ] e predict that transmission will quickly rebound if interventions are relaxed , ” wrote a team at Imperial College London in an epidemiological modeling study released March 16 that shocked the British government into its own lockdown measures .
This chart shows the current situation in the US .
The White House issued social distancing guidance on March 16 , telling sick and old people to stay at home , and urging everyone to avoid gatherings of more than 10 people .
But @ @ @ @ @ @ @ against imposing the more strict lockdown measures seen in other countries .
Instead , states have moved forward with their own plans , with California leading the way on March 19 , telling its citizens to stay at home “ except for essential needs.
” But the measures taken vary widely , with Mississippi and Oklahoma doing little other than closing schools .
With nothing like Italy ’ s lockdown , China ’ s quarantines , or South Korea ’ s rigorous case contact tracking and isolation in place across the country , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ show a sustained decline .
Stepping up social distancing and keeping it in place for an extended period can make a big difference .
The exact numbers will depend on the particular policies put in place .
But according to an epidemiological model developed for the New York Times by researchers at the University of Toronto , 14 days of “ aggressive ” social distancing — including drive-through testing , closing businesses , and shutting down transportation — could still lead to more than 1.1 million people dying .
Extend that to 28 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be delayed by a month , with a probable death toll of less than 400,000 .
The US has so far not taken these aggressive measures .

Note: The data in the charts for Italy and the US was updated through April 12.
For the past few days, President Donald Trump has railed against medical advisers who maintain that the nation needs to persist with social distancing — or face a catastrophic death toll from COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
“WE CANNOT LET THE CURE BE WORSE THAN THE PROBLEM ITSELF,” he tweeted on March 22, referring to the unprecedented economic downturn triggered by the response to the outbreak. Two days later, Trump said he wanted to put the nation back to work by Easter, which falls on April 12.
“I would love to have the country opened up and just raring to go by Easter,” he told a Fox News town hall. “You'll have packed churches all over our country. I think it would be a beautiful time."
Looking at the seemingly inexorable rise in US cases and deaths, it’s easy to conclude that interventions to limit the spread of the virus aren’t working. But the dynamics of viral outbreaks mean that the economic pain of these measures will be felt before their intended benefits start to visibly kick in.
“Any interventions we make today will not show up in our data for 1-2 weeks,” Caitlin Rivers, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security in Baltimore, warned on Twitter on March 18. “The time it takes to show symptoms after being infected is about 5 days, and then it takes a few more days to get diagnosed and counted. For a while it will feel like nothing is working but it takes time.”
“Most infectious disease experts are concerned about right now being too soon — far too soon — to end social distancing measures here in the US,” computational epidemiologist Maia Majumder told BuzzFeed News. “The thing about public health interventions is that it usually takes some time before we actually see their effects at the population level.”
What’s more, epidemiologists say that drastic measures — including social distancing, business closures, widespread testing, and strict isolation orders for positive cases — will need to be kept in place for weeks to months to prevent the virus from surging back.
The experience of two countries that managed to turn back the tide of COVID-19 — China and South Korea — bears this out.


buzzfeednews--2020-05-13--The Details We Learn In Coronavirus Obituaries

BuzzFeed News has reporters across five continents bringing you trustworthy stories about the impact of the coronavirus .
To help keep this news free , become a member and sign up for our newsletter , Outbreak Today .
When you read about the coronavirus pandemic , there are the large questions about science , health , inequality , the dark statistics , and the way regular life abruptly ended .
When you read the stories about those who have died during the pandemic , the stories become — at the same time — more individualized and expansively larger .
You @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” ; the church elder with such good taste that ministers in Flint consulted him on their clothes ; the 28-year-old who loved to sing , who was always “ trying to over-sing the choir ” in New Orleans ; the Disney animator who was never on time in her life , who “ loved to have a good time ” ; the woman “ everyone knows ” on her block in Bed-Stuy ; the young therapist who brought a “ real vivaciousness ” to how she approached life and her many friends @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his wife had given him ; the father who did one movie night with all the kids , then a second one with each individual child ; the father legendary for “ having the nicest cameras but taking the worst pictures ” ; the retired firefighter who walked Staten Island with his rosary beads , offering prayers to those who might need them ; the retired cop who was one of the NYPD ’ s first black women detectives , who offered on the subject , “ it was just a job ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the collector of thousands of dictionaries who once , when she only had enough money for her next trip , bought the 17th-century book anyway and hitchhiked ; the cab driver who would pick up discarded books , read them , and give them to nursing homes and libraries ; the father “ who , in the positive sense of the word , was a hustler ” ; the stepfather whose ordered , attentive care wasn ’ t just for his family but for friends who started calling when he wasn ’ t @ @ @ @ @ @ @ employee who texted his wife before his death , “ I can ’ t explain how much I truly love you.
” Almost always , singular details or lines like this stand out , eternally : “ She was exceptional and I am very proud , ” one mother said of her 17-year-old daughter , an elegant description in a horrible tragedy .
Listing details like these is , of course , limiting to each of these people .
Your own life could n't be reduced down to one detail ; if you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in a eulogy or a Legacy.com post before , you definitely know the challenge of even trying to do it in a few hundred words .
Reading a bunch of those kinds of details , though , in one story about one person feels like looking at a great candid photo from 20 years ago : that feeling of seeing people as they really are — more handsome , more alive , brighter — than perhaps you ( wrongly ) knew at the time , and understanding the way even a gesture frozen @ @ @ @ @ @ @ dynamic relationships .
The combined effect is to want to meet and know these people , even if you know they are pure strangers and it is now too late .
I ’ ve read , perhaps , 150 obituaries in the last two months — and in each , those who have died from COVID-19 are revealed to be totally distinct , the unique combination of a thousand different vectors and hues into one irreplaceable person who 's different from the next .
And in these stories and threads , you can @ @ @ @ @ @ @ irreplaceable person through the people who knew them and who are quoted , and the people those people have been hearing from about whoever it is that 's died .
One death is felt by many , in ways that might even be unexpected to them .
In the United States alone , at least 82,000 people have died .
Even if you wanted to , there 'd never be enough time to find everyone and read about them — a hopeless scale thrown into relief by how big people ’ s lives @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are just so many ways that people can be and wo n't be again .
●

When you read about the coronavirus pandemic, there are the large questions about science, health, inequality, the dark statistics, and the way regular life abruptly ended.
When you read the stories about those who have died during the pandemic, the stories become — at the same time — more individualized and expansively larger.
You read about the most “peaceful person”; the church elder with such good taste that ministers in Flint consulted him on their clothes; the 28-year-old who loved to sing, who was always “trying to over-sing the choir” in New Orleans; the Disney animator who was never on time in her life, who “loved to have a good time”; the woman “everyone knows” on her block in Bed-Stuy; the young therapist who brought a “real vivaciousness” to how she approached life and her many friends; the man who kept every card his wife had given him; the father who did one movie night with all the kids, then a second one with each individual child; the father legendary for “having the nicest cameras but taking the worst pictures”; the retired firefighter who walked Staten Island with his rosary beads, offering prayers to those who might need them; the retired cop who was one of the NYPD’s first black women detectives, who offered on the subject, “it was just a job”; the teacher who loved owls; the collector of thousands of dictionaries who once, when she only had enough money for her next trip, bought the 17th-century book anyway and hitchhiked; the cab driver who would pick up discarded books, read them, and give them to nursing homes and libraries; the father “who, in the positive sense of the word, was a hustler”; the stepfather whose ordered, attentive care wasn’t just for his family but for friends who started calling when he wasn’t checking in anymore; the hospital housekeeping employee who texted his wife before his death, “I can’t explain how much I truly love you.”
Almost always, singular details or lines like this stand out, eternally: “She was exceptional and I am very proud,” one mother said of her 17-year-old daughter, an elegant description in a horrible tragedy.
Listing details like these is, of course, limiting to each of these people. Your own life couldn't be reduced down to one detail; if you've ever tried to capture it all in a eulogy or a Legacy.com post before, you definitely know the challenge of even trying to do it in a few hundred words.
Reading a bunch of those kinds of details, though, in one story about one person feels like looking at a great candid photo from 20 years ago: that feeling of seeing people as they really are — more handsome, more alive, brighter — than perhaps you (wrongly) knew at the time, and understanding the way even a gesture frozen in the frame can explain complex, dynamic relationships. The combined effect is to want to meet and know these people, even if you know they are pure strangers and it is now too late.
I’ve read, perhaps, 150 obituaries in the last two months — and in each, those who have died from COVID-19 are revealed to be totally distinct, the unique combination of a thousand different vectors and hues into one irreplaceable person who's different from the next.
And in these stories and threads, you can always feel the reverberation of that one irreplaceable person through the people who knew them and who are quoted, and the people those people have been hearing from about whoever it is that's died. One death is felt by many, in ways that might even be unexpected to them.
In the United States alone, at least 82,000 people have died. Even if you wanted to, there'd never be enough time to find everyone and read about them — a hopeless scale thrown into relief by how big people’s lives are in each individual story. There are just so many ways that people can be and won't be again. ●


buzzfeednews--2020-04-29--They Placed A Laptop On A Stack Of Books, Then Got Married On Zoom

“ The most important part of a wedding day is marrying your person , ” said bride Jen O ’ Leary .
“ We were still able to do that.
” The dress code was “ Zoom formal , pants optional.
” And when Mark Van Name and Jen O ’ Leary got married in their New York City apartment Saturday afternoon , their virtual guests dressed for the occasion .
They wore tuxedos on top with shorts on the bottom .
They donned pearls , T-shirts , cocktail dresses , swim trunks , and festive hats .
One friend @ @ @ @ @ @ @ called in wearing scrubs and a face mask .
“ The one thing Mark wanted to make sure was on the invite was that pants were optional , ” O ’ Leary , a 27-year-old who works in technology management , told BuzzFeed News of Van Name , 28 , who works in customer experience strategy for Con Edison .
Since they got engaged a little over a year ago , the couple from Queens ’ Long Island City neighborhood had been planning a fairy-tale wedding that involved getting married in a picturesque @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Brooklyn , and over 200 of their family members and friends by their side .
But when the coronavirus pandemic began shutting down New York in March , it became clear that their wedding wasn ’ t going to happen as they ’ d hoped .
They postponed the big celebration till September , but as the original date loomed , they felt disappointed that they wouldn ’ t be able to call each other husband and wife as soon as they ’ d expected to .
Then , on April 18 , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ would sign an executive order allowing New York couples to obtain marriage licenses remotely and authorizing clerks to perform virtual weddings .
The entire process can now be done online , New York City officials announced Wednesday , as part of a secure , virtual process dubbed Project Cupid .
With New York officials encouraging online weddings , Van Name and O ’ Leary found the inspiration they needed .
“ We were like , Well , maybe we should just do it !
” O ’ Leary said .
“ It was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the original day still a happy day.
” In less than a week , O ’ Leary and Van Name planned a whole new virtual wedding that allowed their loved ones and themselves to celebrate , even during social distancing .
“ Everyone was just really excited that we still did it , that we got everyone together and didn ’ t let the pandemic stop us , ” Van Name told BuzzFeed News .
The couple already had their marriage license , having rushed to obtain it in a panic in March @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
They reached out to their local council member , Jimmy Van Bramer , to make sure they were going about the process correctly .
But rather than simply advise them or join the pair via Zoom , he offered to marry them in person .
So that morning , before the big Zoom ceremony , they put on their wedding attire — accessorized with sneakers , masks , and gloves — and walked a mile and a half to Van Bramer ’ s house in Sunnyside .
They stood about 10 feet @ @ @ @ @ @ @ shared with his neighbors for the short legal ceremony .
There , amid brilliant New York sunshine and surrounded by their council member ’ s lush greenery and flowers , they were legally married .
“ We put the marriage license on a table in the middle of the yard and approached it one by one to sign it , ” said O ’ Leary .
“ Everyone brought their own pen.
” When they were pronounced husband and wife , they pulled down their masks and kissed .
Onlooking neighbors cheered .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ back home and got ready to say their “ I do ’ s ” in front of loved ones watching on their screens .
O ’ Leary wore an outfit she ’ d been planning to wear for her rehearsal dinner : an ankle-length cap-sleeve cream dress from the Los Angeles–based fashion brand Frame , paired with blue heeled sandals .
Van Name wore a tux from Suitsupply he had in his closet .
They had ordered a tripod to stream the ceremony from , but it didn ’ t come in time @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ We stacked like 14 books to make sure the computer was at the right height , ” Van Name said .
Half an hour before the ceremony began , the couple ’ s friends and family started logging into the Zoom call in droves , which O ’ Leary said was “ the most entertaining part.
” “ Our parents were trying to introduce aunts and uncles to each other , but it was all on Zoom , ” she said .
By the time the ceremony kicked off , more than @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ We had been debating keeping it to a smaller group , but luckily we were able to use Mark ’ s sister ’ s work Zoom account , ” O ’ Leary explained .
( With paid versions of Zoom , calls can include a greater number of participants and can go on for much longer . )
With a little planning , and a lot of love from guests and vendors , the couple turned what might ’ ve been a quick legal proceeding into a genuine celebration .
Their florist @ @ @ @ @ @ @ more bottles of champagne than they could drink .
Their photographer offered to edit iPhone photos of their big day , which the couple shot using the self-timer feature in their apartment — coincidentally the same place they had taken their engagement pictures .
Their remote officiant , Mirelle Eid with Honeybreak Officiants , delivered a heartfelt speech via Zoom about how the couple met and fell in love , recounting how they both attended Lehigh University in Pennsylvania but never crossed paths , met as coworkers in 2014 , and finally started @ @ @ @ @ @ @ asked O ’ Leary out — to enjoy some homemade chicken parmigiana .
“ My mom ’ s side of the family , we make our own tomato sauce and we jar it every year , ” Van Name said .
“ I had some leftover sauce , so I invited her over.
” “ We always try to eat chicken parm on the anniversary of our first date since then , ” O ’ Leary added .
Throughout Saturday ’ s ceremony , guests sipped Bee ’ s Knees cocktails that they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The couple had planned to serve the drink as their signature cocktail at their wedding , so instead they emailed out the recipe — gin , honey syrup , and lemon juice — ahead of the Zoom festivities so people could really get in the , well , spirit .
They also requested guests send them photos of themselves in their “ Zoom formal ” looks , which they ’ re planning on compiling in a guestbook .
Of course , so many things can go technologically wrong with a Zoom wedding @ @ @ @ @ @ @ make sure it all went smoothly .
“ We broke out the plan minute by minute , like when we ’ d mute everyone , and when we ’ d hand off the host privileges , ” Van Name said .
“ My maid of honor was the designated muter of everyone , ” said O ’ Leary .
But the ceremony went off without a hitch .
When their officiant said , “ You may now kiss the bride , ” O ’ Leary ’ s maid of honor unmuted the guests @ @ @ @ @ @ @ couple kissed in their living room .
From there , it was time for the party .
The couple bounced between six different Zoom meeting rooms , chatting with smaller groups of family and friends for about half an hour each .
“ We were joking that it felt just like a standard wedding reception feels , because every group that we visited we had some conversation , talked about how nice the ceremony was , and it all went by way too fast before we had to move on to the next @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
“ After a couple , we were joking , ‘ Time for the next table.
’ ” On one of the calls , they sliced a brown butter cake , which Jen had baked the day before and frosted with coral-colored flowers .
Another smart technological move the couple made was setting up different links for each of the smaller Zooms , so their loved ones were able to stay online even after the couple left and keep chatting and celebrating with one another .
“ I know [ that in ] @ @ @ @ @ @ @ stayed on and talked for two more hours , ” said Van Name .
Once it ’ s safe to do so , they still intend to get married in their church and have an in-person party with guests like they ’ d planned .
But they ’ ll always look back on their Zoom wedding as the joyous , unique occasion that it was .
“ It wasn ’ t about the party , or the band , or the food , ” said Van Name .
“ The most important part @ @ @ @ @ @ @ person , ” she said .
“ We were still able to do that .
”

The dress code was “Zoom formal, pants optional.” And when Mark Van Name and Jen O’Leary got married in their New York City apartment Saturday afternoon, their virtual guests dressed for the occasion.
They wore tuxedos on top with shorts on the bottom. They donned pearls, T-shirts, cocktail dresses, swim trunks, and festive hats. One friend, a doctor at a hospital, called in wearing scrubs and a face mask.
“The one thing Mark wanted to make sure was on the invite was that pants were optional,” O’Leary, a 27-year-old who works in technology management, told BuzzFeed News of Van Name, 28, who works in customer experience strategy for Con Edison.
Since they got engaged a little over a year ago, the couple from Queens’ Long Island City neighborhood had been planning a fairy-tale wedding that involved getting married in a picturesque Manhattan church, a big reception in Brooklyn, and over 200 of their family members and friends by their side.
But when the coronavirus pandemic began shutting down New York in March, it became clear that their wedding wasn’t going to happen as they’d hoped. They postponed the big celebration till September, but as the original date loomed, they felt disappointed that they wouldn’t be able to call each other husband and wife as soon as they’d expected to.
Then, on April 18, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that he would sign an executive order allowing New York couples to obtain marriage licenses remotely and authorizing clerks to perform virtual weddings. The entire process can now be done online, New York City officials announced Wednesday, as part of a secure, virtual process dubbed Project Cupid.
With New York officials encouraging online weddings, Van Name and O’Leary found the inspiration they needed. “We were like, Well, maybe we should just do it!” O’Leary said. “It was just kind of a way to make the original day still a happy day.”
In less than a week, O’Leary and Van Name planned a whole new virtual wedding that allowed their loved ones and themselves to celebrate, even during social distancing.
“Everyone was just really excited that we still did it, that we got everyone together and didn’t let the pandemic stop us,” Van Name told BuzzFeed News.
The couple already had their marriage license, having rushed to obtain it in a panic in March when they heard the courts might close. They reached out to their local council member, Jimmy Van Bramer, to make sure they were going about the process correctly. But rather than simply advise them or join the pair via Zoom, he offered to marry them in person.


buzzfeednews--2020-04-29--To Survive The Coronavirus' Second Wave, We Will Have To Agree On What Happened During The First

.CDC Director Robert Redfield dropped a bombshell in an interview last week with the Washington Post : The second wave of COVID-19 , the disease caused by the novel coronavirus , could be worse than the current one ravaging the country .
“ There ’ s a possibility that the assault of the virus on our nation next winter will actually be even more difficult than the one we just went through , ” he said , because it would coincide with the annual flu epidemic , which killed 24,000 to 62,000 people last year and caused 18–26 million hospital @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Donald Trump tweeted an attack on a CNN report about the Redfield interview .
“ CDC Director was totally misquoted by Fake News CNN on Covid 19 .
He will be putting out a statement , ” the president wrote .
Several hours later , during Trump 's daily coronavirus press briefing , Redfield was forced to walk back his statement .
“ I didn ’ t say that this was going to be worse .
I said it was going to be more difficult and potentially more complicated because we would have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ time , ” Redfield said .
“ It does n't mean it 's impossible , it does n't mean it 's going to be worse.
” But , as Axios pointed out , if Redfield had any objections to how the Post portrayed him , he didn ’ t mention them when he shared the story on Twitter before the briefing .
As the back-and-forth showed , there are at least two coronavirus narratives , and to be clear , they are not equal : One is backed by science , data , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ workers and the scientists , and another is distrustful of institutions , reliant on pseudoscience , and the product of the paranoid and the president .
As of Monday , 54,877 Americans had died from the coronavirus — more than the 47,434 Americans killed in combat during the Vietnam War .
This week , the number of cases in the United States exceeded 1 million .
The first four months of this crisis will assuredly mean that when we emerge , we ’ ll be different people in a very different world .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
We will never agree , in part because the science is genuinely unsettled , and in part because it 's to Republicans ' advantage to make it seem like those zones of uncertainty are much larger than they actually are .
One of the best examples of our already warped understanding is the persistent theory among the American right that COVID-19 escaped the Wuhan Institute of Virology .
The narrative is difficult to shake , especially since it marries legitimate scientific caution and doubt with the president 's need to find a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the virus 's origin are harming our ability to work together as a global community , ” Columbia University virologist Angela Rasmussen told BuzzFeed News .
“ It 's a pandemic , it 's not China 's virus .
It 's definitely [ the world ’ s ] virus at this point.
” In contrast to the corona bros — often men in tech and finance who push uninformed information via sprawling Twitter threads and Medium pieces — Rasmussen has become one of the leading sources on Twitter of reliable information about COVID-19 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it out , Rasmussen said there ’ s also no evidence she ’ s seen that points to the lab in Wuhan .
She also dismissed a related theory that the coronavirus had been created for warfare .
“ It would be a terrible biological weapon , ” she said .
The lab origin theory , though , is part of a widening informational divide between Republicans and the scientists .
According to Rasmussen , people who only listen to Trump ’ s nightly press briefings would be unprepared for another lockdown , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ I think that there is certainly the possibility that we could be back to square one , ” she said .
“ We 're going to be stuck with this for a long time , ” she said .
“ There could be over a million deaths [ worldwide ] by this fall , but it 's really , really hard to say right now.
” Rasmussen said that there ’ s a disconnect between how the scientific community conducts itself and how laypeople consume information .
She ’ s found Twitter @ @ @ @ @ @ @ followers , but for every person reading her tweets who wants to actually learn , there are swarms of harassers , angry because scientific research doesn ’ t line up with their conspiracy theories .
Recently , one Twitter user showed up in her mentions , demanding she prove that demonic possession wasn ’ t what was causing rabies , HIV , and COVID-19 .
“ It 's important for people to have a basic good understanding of what we do and what we do n't know , ” she said .
“ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to waste my time with people who wo n't be convinced that this is n't a dastardly plot to vaccinate everyone.
” We will never agree , because trolls and kooks are pushing nonsense faster than anyone can clean it up .
If it feels like there ’ s a new conspiracy theory on the internet every day , that ’ s because there is .
Before the coronavirus , an online fringe narrative would take 6 to 8 months to bubble into the mainstream , according to data from AI software company @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has taken 3 to 14 days .
The QAnon movement and the anti-vax community have moved , if not quite into the center of the national conversation , next door .
Take the toilet paper shortage , for example .
In late February , toilet paper started flying off the shelves at supermarkets around the country as panicked shoppers stocked up , bracing for then-imminent statewide lockdowns .
“ The way we track a narrative as it moves from one group online to another is using linguistic idiosyncrasies : Small snippets of text @ @ @ @ @ @ @ idiosyncratic way , ” Yonder CEO Jonathon Morgan told BuzzFeed News .
“ The one that caught our attention is the early signals from 4chan that there was panic buying at grocery stores at a time when panic buying was n't happening.
” According to Morgan , those panic buying posts predated mainstream media coverage by almost two weeks .
By the end of February , influencers with larger followings picked up the 4chan posts and spread the toilet paper panic onto larger mainstream social networks like Twitter , which in part caused @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on the story .
Not only did trolls spread a narrative about panic buying from the fever swamps to the pages of the mainstream press , but even now , 10 weeks after the first posts , it ’ s not clear what the intention was .
The early signals on 4chan may have come because people noticed real panic buying quickly , but it could also have been an intentional effort to cause the headlines to spread .
Here , there are at least two layers of confusion .
Morgan is watching @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , including that vitamin C could cure the coronavirus or foreign-born delivery drivers had spread the disease .
He sees this problem worsening as anger and despair escalate — and trust in institutions declines .
“ Instead of taking information from [ institutions ] , ” Morgan said , “ we 're taking advice from our peers who are getting informed by the least-informed , but most passionate , fringe groups.
” The institutions of the 21st century , the major social media platforms , have been waging well-publicized battles against COVID-19 misinformation @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , react to , or comment on debunked content with a message directing them to the World Health Organization 's Myth busters page .
Under its coronavirus policy , Twitter has deleted posts and suspended accounts .
YouTube has outfitted search results and videos with coronavirus-related information featuring WHO data and links to official pages from agencies like the CDC around the world .
Aviv Ovadya , founder of the Thoughtful Technology Project , told BuzzFeed News that anti-institutionalism is one of the main drivers of the narrative breakdown .
“ [ People @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and the authorities [ and ] the ways that experts are communicating with them , the media is communicating with them , are not helpful , ” he said .
Ovadya said he thinks trolls spreading explicitly harmful disinformation are only a small part of the problem .
Most of the rumors and hoaxes are shared by people who are genuinely trying to do what ’ s best for themselves or their families .
“ There really is this sort of sense that the government is randomly doing things all over the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at all , ” he said .
“ I still do n't feel like I have any sense of here 's a set of milestones we need to hit , very concrete , here 's a date where we intend to hit those.
” But if the problem is anti-institutionalism , then having the institution of Facebook — the closest thing we have to a functioning national government — tell you you 're wrong is no better than having a scientist do it .
American chiropractors have used Facebook to promote fake cures @ @ @ @ @ @ @ one video viewed over 20 million times .
The celebrities John Cusack and Woody Harrelson have spread the hoax that 5G cellular technology caused the pandemic .
A QAnon YouTuber told his followers to drink chlorine dioxide — the oxidizing agent used in bleach .
A YouTube video accusing Dr. Anthony Fauci , the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and top-ranking member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force , of being part of the “ deep state ” has been viewed over 7 million times .
In @ @ @ @ @ @ @ some of us simply do n't want to .
The internet is awash in hoaxes , misinformation , conspiracy theories about deep state plots and bioweapons , and state propaganda — and it ’ s getting worse .
Of all of the internet groups that have thrived during the pandemic , the QAnon movement may be the most virulent .
Adherents believe that President Trump is waging a secret war against the deep state and a global cabal of pedophiles .
In the last four months , pieces of that narrative have popped @ @ @ @ @ @ @ month , Instagram influencers shared a hoax that the pandemic lockdown was a government cover-up distracting the world from a covert operation to break up a global child trafficking operation .
“ It 's a mess , ” network analysis company Graphika ’ s cyber intelligence analyst , Melanie Smith , told BuzzFeed News .
“ We have seen a huge uptake in volume in certain issues that were pretty fringe.
” Smith said Q followers are responsible for conspiracy theories like the hoax that Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates created the coronavirus as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ could be a cure , and have promoted the unfounded claim that 5G caused COVID-19 .
According to Smith , these groups are filling a vacuum left by health professionals unused to combating misinformation in public .
Graphika published a report titled “ The COVID-19 ‘ Infodemic ’ ” last week , analyzing social media data back to December 2019 .
In many countries , these internet-fueled fringe narratives are receding and better information taking their place — except for the US .
Another reason we will never agree : Social media platforms @ @ @ @ @ @ @ us with the least amount of real information can marinate in falsehoods .
The anti-lockdown protests across the country were the culmination of months of paranoid rhetoric spreading across Facebook Groups .
As thousands of demonstrators swarmed state capitols to protest stay-at-home orders , dozens of Facebook Groups appeared with names like `` Indiana Citizens Against Excessive Quarantine '' and `` Operation Gridlock Tennessee '' to organize them .
After one of those protests , Audrey Whitlock , a leader of the ReOpen NC Facebook Group , announced in a Facebook post that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ But contracting the disease hasn ’ t deterred her from demanding an end to social distancing .
“ A typical public health quarantine would occur in a medical facility .
I have been told not to participate in public or private accommodations as requested by the government , and therefore denied my First Amendment right of freedom of religion , ” Whitlock wrote .
If you disagree with what the mainstream is thinking , saying , and doing about the pandemic , there ’ s safe harbor for you on Facebook Groups .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ of conservative activists .
A network of pro-gun groups run by four brothers — Chris , Ben , Aaron , and Matthew Dorr — were behind five of the largest Facebook groups dedicated to to the protests , according to NBC News .
Another one of the protests in Michigan was organized by a group linked to Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos .
But the Tech Transparency Project , a research initiative of Campaign for Accountability , a nonpartisan , nonprofit watchdog organization , published a report outlining how extremists were using private @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a violent anti-government uprising .
The Tech Transparency Project ’ s executive director , Daniel Stevens , told BuzzFeed News that the report looked at 125 private groups — some of which were created in the last couple of months .
“ A lot of this stuff is really violent and really extreme , ” he said .
“ Our impression is that they 've been trying to use the outbreak to recruit people to their cause.
” The Tech Transparency Report found protest announcements promoted in private Facebook groups associated with the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Boogaloo '' comes from the 1984 movie Breakin ’ 2 : Electric Boogaloo , and is short for “ Civil War 2 : Electric Boogaloo.
” One Facebook event spotted by the Tech Transparency Report encouraged people to attend a Wisconsin protest slated for April 24 , even though the state is under a stay-at-home order until May 26 .
The event page listed more than 3,200 people as attending and another 12,000 as interested .
These Groups share information psychological warfare and celebrate when President Trump tweets about “ liberating '' states @ @ @ @ @ @ @ circulating specific information about how to carry out a violent uprising .
“ In these boogaloo groups , they upload all these files , ” Stevens said .
“ Here 's how to wage the war , here 's how to attack supply lines.
” “ A perfect driver for them to recruit people , ” he said .
“ It shows the civil unrest is starting.
” But it ’ s not just far-right extremists that have their own warped view of the crisis .
The fracture is global .
Another reason @ @ @ @ @ @ @ leaders are making it harder for us to do it .
“ This is the first time we 've seen really aggressive disinformation attempts by China that look a lot like Russia 's , ” said Matthew Schrader , China analyst for the Alliance for Securing Democracy , a bipartisan national security advocacy group formed in 2017 to combat Russian efforts to undermine democracy in the United States and Europe .
He told BuzzFeed News that for years China ’ s international propaganda efforts had been focused on influencing from the top down @ @ @ @ @ @ @ largest donors to both of the country 's political parties were proxies of the CCP .
Now , China is using information warfare similar to the Kremlin ’ s Internet Research Agency — engaging with users on platforms like Facebook and Twitter to shape public opinion through trolling and astroturfing .
Schrader released a report last week that analyzed China ’ s political interference during the pandemic .
Up until 2020 , there was a shared conversation between the US and China that was mutually beneficial .
“ China 's leaders thought cooperation @ @ @ @ @ @ @ end of shared party power , ” he said .
“ The breakdown we 've seen is that shared narrative does n't work anymore.
” Schrader said it ’ s incredibly hard for Americans to identify whether they ’ re looking at Chinese propaganda online .
There is also an increasingly vocal contingent of Chinese nationalists using VPNs to push CCP talking points in English on Twitter , whether to troll or from sincere belief .
Rui Zhong , program associate for the Kissinger Institute on China and the United States at the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ English-language Chinese propaganda spreading on American social media platforms is deliberate .
“ Within China , we 're seeing more and more rewards and incentives given to people who are more overtly hawkish towards America , ” Zhong said .
According to Zhong , China has the first mover advantage when it comes to international messaging about the coronavirus — because they were hit first , they had more time to develop a propaganda strategy .
The country ’ s government has also co-opted hate crimes against the Chinese diaspora in countries like @ @ @ @ @ @ @ definitely trying to paint China as a responsible actor given the circumstances of the virus and using opportunities where other states might not look as responsible like the UK and US , ” she said .
Both Schrader and Zhong agreed that the overall impact of Chinese information warfare is probably small , even though the American right is becoming suspicious about it .
But some of these efforts have caught on , like a story about a US Army reservist from Virginia falsely accused of being patient zero for COVID-19 .
Chinese @ @ @ @ @ @ @ WeChat shared that hoax widely .
But for rival governments , acknowledging that China has stepped up its information offensive carries political risks , and so many have shied away from direct criticism .
The New York Times obtained a revised European Union report last week that revealed officials had softened their criticism of China following pressure from Beijing .
But maybe the chief reason we will never agree is n't the commander in chief , the social media platforms , the infowarriors , or the Chinese propagandists .
It 's us .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ predictions of an impending deadly second wave , President Trump took the podium during his daily COVID-19 briefing and suggested that injecting light or disinfectants into human bodies might kill the virus .
`` I see the disinfectant where it knocks it out in a minute , one minute , '' he said .
`` Is there a way we can do something like that , by injection inside or almost a cleaning ?
Because you see it gets in the lungs , and it does a tremendous number on the lungs , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ check that . ''
On Facebook , conspiracy theory and pseudoscientific Groups promoted his remarks , according to NBC News .
The president ’ s remarks about the power of light to kill the virus also fell in line with a popular pseudoscientific article on Medium , “ Coronavirus and the Sun : A Lesson From the 1918 Influenza Pandemic.
” Written by British author Richard Hobday , whose books claim , according to publisher Simon & Schuster , `` sunlight can help prevent and heal many common and often fatal diseases like @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sclerosis , and osteoporosis , '' it claims `` sunlight is germicidal and there is now evidence it can kill the flu virus . ''
Ravina Kullar , an infectious diseases researcher , told BuzzFeed News that you would literally need to fry yourself with UV light to rid your body of COVID-19 .
In discussing “ a lesson from the 1918 influencer pandemic , ” Hobday ’ s piece actually regurgitated a popular hoax from that era : sunshine therapy , or the idea that sunlight could cure the flu .
“ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ peddled by large firms as well as those who could best be understood as charlatans , ” Christopher McKnight Nichols , history professor and director of the Center for the Humanities at Oregon State University , told BuzzFeed News .
Nichols said that in 1918 , hospital wards often believed patients were responding well to sunshine therapy when , in actuality , they were probably already feeling better and thus able to go outside .
“ There were and are a lot of conflated factors there about this actual treatment as opposed to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of a patient on the mend or with a more mild case of influenza , ” he said .
In other words , more than 100 years after the influenza pandemic , we still ca n't agree on what happened .
Little wonder , then , that we 're so far away from understanding each other about the coronavirus .
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.CDC Director Robert Redfield dropped a bombshell in an interview last week with the Washington Post: The second wave of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, could be worse than the current one ravaging the country.
“There’s a possibility that the assault of the virus on our nation next winter will actually be even more difficult than the one we just went through,” he said, because it would coincide with the annual flu epidemic, which killed 24,000 to 62,000 people last year and caused 18–26 million hospital visits.
A day later, President Donald Trump tweeted an attack on a CNN report about the Redfield interview. “CDC Director was totally misquoted by Fake News CNN on Covid 19. He will be putting out a statement,” the president wrote.
Several hours later, during Trump's daily coronavirus press briefing, Redfield was forced to walk back his statement.
“I didn’t say that this was going to be worse. I said it was going to be more difficult and potentially more complicated because we would have flu and coronavirus circulating at the same time,” Redfield said. “It doesn't mean it's impossible, it doesn't mean it's going to be worse.”
But, as Axios pointed out, if Redfield had any objections to how the Post portrayed him, he didn’t mention them when he shared the story on Twitter before the briefing.
As the back-and-forth showed, there are at least two coronavirus narratives, and to be clear, they are not equal: One is backed by science, data, and objective reality, created by medical workers and the scientists, and another is distrustful of institutions, reliant on pseudoscience, and the product of the paranoid and the president.
As of Monday, 54,877 Americans had died from the coronavirus — more than the 47,434 Americans killed in combat during the Vietnam War. This week, the number of cases in the United States exceeded 1 million. The first four months of this crisis will assuredly mean that when we emerge, we’ll be different people in a very different world. But we aren’t even halfway.