npr--2020-03-30--The U.S. Was Already Deep In Debt. This Year's Deficit Will Be 'Mind-Boggling'

The U.S. Was Already Deep In Debt .
This Year 's Deficit Will Be 'Mind-Boggling' Over the years , the federal government has spent trillions of dollars more than it brings in , wracking up big deficits even in good times , when it ought to be paring debt down .
Now , as it struggles to repair the damage from the coronavirus epidemic , it 's getting ready to spend trillions more , pushing up this year 's deficit above $ 3 trillion .
`` It 's mind-boggling .
I never contemplated this , '' says Douglas Holtz-Eakin , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who headed the Congressional Budget Office under President George W. Bush .
`` I can remember the quaint days when I was being yelled at because we had a $ 400 billion deficit and I was the CBO director .
It does n't look so bad right now , '' he says .
The economic rescue package approved by Congress and signed into law by President Trump contains $ 2 trillion in tax breaks and loan guarantees , throwing much-needed lifelines to troubled airlines , small businesses , hospitals , medical supply companies @ @ @ @ @ @ @ will almost certainly be needed in the weeks to come , as the pandemic progresses .
`` We are talking about massive amounts of money compared to anything we 've ever done in this amount of time before , '' says Maya MacGuineas , president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget .
At one time , such huge levels of deficit spending set off alarm bells in Washington , where politicians such as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell routinely bemoaned the lack of fiscal discipline in government .
In 2013 , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Great Recession , McConnell told CBS News : `` We now have a debt of $ 16.4 trillion .
That 's as big as our economy .
That alone makes us look a lot like Greece .
We have an incredible spending addiction . ''
Today , the total amount owed by the federal government is about to top $ 25 trillion , and McConnell barely talks about it .
Neither does President Trump , who has presided over a rapid increase in debt , thanks to the massive 2017 tax cuts @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Part of this is just raw politics , says Dean Baker , co-founder of the Center for Economic and Policy Research .
Politicians tend to focus more on deficits when the other party controls the White House .
But Baker says the past few years have also brought a transformation in the way economists think about deficits .
Once , conventional wisdom said that too much federal borrowing would drive up interest rates , leading to higher inflation and reduced productivity , Baker says .
But debt has soared in recent years @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ever , he notes .
`` The classic story of why deficits are bad just has n't panned out , '' Baker says .
He is among many economists now arguing that the quick collapse of the economy and the surge in layoffs is so serious that deficit concerns should be set aside .
`` The amount of employment in the economy is going through the floor .
And the deficit in that context ... it 's almost a non sequitur .
That 's not the sort of thing you should worry about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , who 's something of a deficit hawk , agrees , saying times like these are precisely when the government needs to run deficits .
But she says the government is that much less prepared to deal with the crisis because of deficits run up in good times , when it should have been paying off what it owed .
`` It makes sense to borrow from the future today .
We have a real emergency .
But it also makes it harder for us to get our economy back on track once @ @ @ @ @ @ @ MacGuineas says .

The U.S. Was Already Deep In Debt. This Year's Deficit Will Be 'Mind-Boggling'
Enlarge this image toggle caption Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images
Over the years, the federal government has spent trillions of dollars more than it brings in, racking up big deficits even in good times, when it ought to be paring debt down.
Now, as it struggles to repair the damage from the coronavirus epidemic, it's getting ready to spend trillions more, pushing up this year's deficit above $3 trillion.
"It's mind-boggling. I never contemplated this," says Douglas Holtz-Eakin, president of the American Action Forum, who headed the Congressional Budget Office under President George W. Bush.
"I can remember the quaint days when I was being yelled at because we had a $400 billion deficit and I was the CBO director. It doesn't look so bad right now," he says.
The economic rescue package approved by Congress and signed into law by President Trump contains $2 trillion in tax breaks and loan guarantees, throwing much-needed lifelines to troubled airlines, small businesses, hospitals, medical supply companies and municipal governments.
And more money will almost certainly be needed in the weeks to come, as the pandemic progresses.
"We are talking about massive amounts of money compared to anything we've ever done in this amount of time before," says Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
At one time, such huge levels of deficit spending set off alarm bells in Washington, where politicians such as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell routinely bemoaned the lack of fiscal discipline in government.
In 2013, when the country was still recovering from the Great Recession, McConnell told CBS News: "We now have a debt of $16.4 trillion. That's as big as our economy. That alone makes us look a lot like Greece. We have an incredible spending addiction."
Today, the total amount owed by the federal government is about to top $25 trillion, and McConnell barely talks about it. Neither does Trump, who has presided over a rapid increase in debt, thanks to the massive 2017 tax cuts and a big increase in defense spending.
Part of this is just raw politics, says Dean Baker, co-founder of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. Politicians tend to focus more on deficits when the other party controls the White House.
But Baker says the past few years have also brought a transformation in the way economists think about deficits.
Once, conventional wisdom said that too much federal borrowing would drive up interest rates, leading to higher inflation and reduced productivity, Baker says. But debt has soared in recent years, and interest rates are lower than ever, he notes.
"The classic story of why deficits are bad just hasn't panned out," Baker says.
He is among many economists now arguing that the quick collapse of the economy and the surge in layoffs are so serious that deficit concerns should be set aside.
"The amount of employment in the economy is going through the floor. And the deficit in that context ... it's almost a non sequitur. That's not the sort of thing you should worry about," Baker says.
Even MacGuineas, who's something of a deficit hawk, agrees, saying times like these are precisely when the government needs to run deficits. But she says the government is that much less prepared to deal with the crisis because of deficits run up in good times, when it should have been paying off what it owed.
"It makes sense to borrow from the future today. We have a real emergency. But it also makes it harder for us to get our economy back on track once we get through this emergency," MacGuineas says.


npr--2020-03-30--Cuomo Makes Plea To Medical Workers Nationwide: 'Please Come Help Us In New York'

Cuomo Makes Plea To Medical Workers Nationwide : 'Please Come Help Us In New York' More than 1,200 people have now died of the coronavirus in New York , but the worst of the outbreak has yet to arrive , Gov .
Andrew Cuomo said on Monday .
Cuomo said the coronavirus is overtaxing the state 's health care workers .
He asked for the assistance of medical volunteers from other parts of the country as the pandemic continues to devastate New York , the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in the United States .
`` I am asking health @ @ @ @ @ @ @ you do n't have a health care crisis in your community , please come help us in New York right now , '' Cuomo said from a makeshift hospital at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in Manhattan .
`` We need relief . ''
Cuomo said more than 66,000 people have tested positive in the state for the coronavirus , accounting for nearly half of all cases in the U.S. About 36,000 of those cases are in New York City .
`` That 's a lot of loss .
That 's a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lot of tears , '' Cuomo said .
`` That 's a lot of grief that people all across this state are feeling . ''
A U.S. Navy hospital ship arrived in the city on Monday to help free up room in the city 's hospitals to handle those who have become sick from COVID-19 , the disease caused by the novel coronavirus .
Both the 1,000 hospital beds on the Navy ship and the 2,500 beds at the Javits center have a similar aim , Cuomo said .
`` Their function will @ @ @ @ @ @ @ existing hospitals .
They ca n't take COVID patients , but they can take non-COVID patients , '' he said .
Cuomo agreed with President Trump that the fight against the coronavirus is comparable to war .
`` Then let 's act that way , and let 's act that way now , '' Cuomo said .
`` Let 's show a commonality and a mutuality and a unity that the country has n't seen in decades . ''

Cuomo Makes Plea To Medical Workers Nationwide: 'Please Come Help Us In New York'
Enlarge this image toggle caption Kathy Willens/AP Kathy Willens/AP
More than 1,200 people have now died of the coronavirus in New York, but the worst of the outbreak has yet to arrive, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said on Monday.
Cuomo said the coronavirus is overtaxing the state's health care workers. He asked for the assistance of medical volunteers from other parts of the country as the pandemic continues to devastate New York, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in the United States.
"I am asking health care professionals across the country, if you don't have a health care crisis in your community, please come help us in New York right now," Cuomo said from a makeshift hospital at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in Manhattan set to receive its first patients on Monday. "We need relief."
Cuomo said more than 66,000 people have tested positive in the state for the coronavirus, accounting for nearly half of all cases in the U.S. About 36,000 of those cases are in New York City.
"That's a lot of loss. That's a lot of pain. That's a lot of tears," Cuomo said. "That's a lot of grief that people all across this state are feeling."
A U.S. Navy hospital ship arrived in the city on Monday to help free up room in the city's hospitals to handle those who have become sick from COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
Both the 1,000 hospital beds on the Navy ship and the 2,500 beds at the Javits center have a similar aim, Cuomo said.
"Their function will be basically be an overflow valve for existing hospitals. They can't take COVID patients, but they can take non-COVID patients," he said.
Cuomo agreed with President Trump that the fight against the coronavirus is comparable to war.
"Then let's act that way, and let's act that way now," Cuomo said. "Let's show a commonality and a mutuality and a unity that the country hasn't seen in decades."


npr--2020-03-30--Authors, Publishers Condemn The 'National Emergency Library' As 'Piracy'

Last week , when the Internet Archive announced its `` National Emergency Library , '' expanding access to more than a million digitized works , the group explained the move as a goodwill gesture in the time of coronavirus .
With so many brick-and-mortar libraries forced to close their doors , in other words , the group was opening up its lending program : Now , instead of its usual policy of just one digital copy per reader for a 14-day period , many frustrated readers could borrow copies of the same book during the same time — and could @ @ @ @ @ @ @ or the end of the global pandemic , whichever came sooner .
But there 's one major issue that several media outlets , including NPR , failed to mention in covering the decision : Many writers and publishers say the website , even before the creation of this National Emergency Library , has been sharing full digital copies of their books without their permission .
And over the weekend , dozens of prominent authors , from Colson Whitehead and Neil Gaiman to Alexander Chee , made clear that they were upset with the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ so now , with the expansion of lending services and its timing .
`` With mean writing incomes of only $ 20,300 a year prior to the crisis , authors , like others , are now struggling all the more — from cancelled book tours and loss of freelance work , income supplementing jobs , and speaking engagements , '' the Authors Guild , a professional group that provides legal assistance to writers , said in a statement released Friday .
`` And now they are supposed to swallow this new pill , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ introduce their books to digital formats as many hundreds of midlist authors do when their books go out of print , and which all but guarantees that author incomes and publisher revenues will decline even further . ''
The guild said that last year alone it sent the organization hundreds of takedown notices on behalf of the writers it represents , citing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act .
The 1998 law lays a framework for preventing users from creating digital copies of copyrighted material and circulating it without the copyright holder 's permission @ @ @ @ @ @ @ — of which there already are too many — the Internet Archive tramples on authors ' rights by giving away their books to the world , '' the guild added .
The Science Fiction Writers of America has previously objected to the Internet Archive 's `` infringement . ''
And the Association of American Publishers , in a statement of its own Friday , condemned the move as `` a cynical play to undermine copyright , and all the scientific , creative , and economic opportunity that it supports . ''
The Internet @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a lengthy rebuttal published online Monday .
`` We 're librarians .
We 're not social media gladiators , '' Brewster Kahle of the Internet Archive told NPR over the phone Monday .
`` The best I can tell , [ the critics of the system ] just think what they see on social media , and they retweet it . ''
Kahle said the group uses the same controls limiting access to these works as the publishers themselves , with encrypted files that are meant to disappear from the user 's computer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the group lends , Kahle said , are owned by the Internet Archive — either through donations , straight-up purchases or collaborations with brick-and-mortar libraries .
Typically , Kahle said readers can obtain just one copy of a book at a time through the Internet Archive .
He said the difference with the `` National Emergency Library , '' with waitlists now suspended through the end of June , is that those limits have been removed and multiple copies of the same book are now available .
`` We 're trying to weave @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said of the Internet Archive 's mission .
Chuck Wendig , a prolific novelist who joined the chorus of authors criticizing the move on Twitter , took issue with the notion of calling the Internet Archive 's catalog a `` library . ''
`` It 's worth noting , '' he said in an email to NPR on Monday , that while the site appears to cooperate with DMCA takedown notices , `` authors and publishers do not generally have to submit those types of requests to libraries , which again suggests that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ' nor is it a library in the expected sense of the word . ''
In the email , he explained that on a recent visit to the website , he was able to find and obtain a full digital copy of one of his books — which he says the group did not have the right to distribute .
`` The problem with bypassing copyright and disrupting the chain of royalties that lead from books to authors is that it endangers our ability to continue to produce art — and though we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ crisis , most artists are on the razor 's edge in terms of being able to support themselves , '' he added .
`` Artists get no safety net . ''
Instead , he suggested that readers simply check out e-books from their local library , whether or not its brick-and-mortar location is closed due to the coronavirus .
The New York Public Library , for one , says it has seen a surge in e-book lending and is continuing many of its public services online .
`` Libraries all around the country @ @ @ @ @ @ @ crisis , as we realize what vital institutions they are , '' Wendig said , `` both intellectually and as a service to the community . ''

Authors, Publishers Condemn The 'National Emergency Library' As 'Piracy'
Enlarge this image Ariel Skelley/Getty Images Ariel Skelley/Getty Images
Last week, when the Internet Archive announced its "National Emergency Library," expanding access to more than a million digitized works, the group explained the move as a goodwill gesture in the time of coronavirus.
With so many brick-and-mortar libraries forced to close their doors, in other words, the group was opening up its lending program: Now, instead of its usual policy of just one digital copy per reader for a 14-day period, many frustrated readers could borrow copies of the same book during the same time — and could do so through the end of June or the end of the global pandemic, whichever came sooner.
But there's one major issue that several media outlets, including NPR, failed to mention in covering the decision: Many writers and publishers say the website, even before the creation of this National Emergency Library, has been sharing full digital copies of their books without their permission.
And over the weekend, dozens of prominent authors, from Colson Whitehead and Neil Gaiman to Alexander Chee, made clear that they were upset with the Internet Archive's model — and doubly so now, with the expansion of lending services and its timing.
"With mean writing incomes of only $20,300 a year prior to the crisis, authors, like others, are now struggling all the more — from cancelled book tours and loss of freelance work, income supplementing jobs, and speaking engagements," the Authors Guild, a professional group that provides legal assistance to writers, said in a statement released Friday.
"And now they are supposed to swallow this new pill, which robs them of their rights to introduce their books to digital formats as many hundreds of midlist authors do when their books go out of print, and which all but guarantees that author incomes and publisher revenues will decline even further."
The guild said that last year alone it sent the organization hundreds of takedown notices on behalf of the writers it represents, citing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The 1998 law lays a framework for preventing users from creating digital copies of copyrighted material and circulating it without the copyright holder's permission.
"Acting as a piracy site — of which there already are too many — the Internet Archive tramples on authors' rights by giving away their books to the world," the guild added.
The Science Fiction Writers of America has previously objected to the Internet Archive's "infringement." And the Association of American Publishers, in a statement of its own Friday, condemned the move as "a cynical play to undermine copyright, and all the scientific, creative, and economic opportunity that it supports."
The Internet Archive pushed back against this characterization with a lengthy rebuttal published online Monday.
"We're librarians. We're not social media gladiators," Brewster Kahle of the Internet Archive told NPR over the phone Monday. "The best I can tell, [the critics of the system] just think what they see on social media, and they retweet it."
Kahle said the group uses the same controls limiting access to these works as the publishers themselves, with encrypted files that are meant to disappear from the user's computer after a brief period. The copies the group lends, Kahle said, are owned by the Internet Archive — either through donations, straight-up purchases or collaborations with brick-and-mortar libraries.
Typically, Kahle said readers can obtain just one copy of a book at a time through the Internet Archive. He said the difference with the "National Emergency Library," with waitlists now suspended through the end of June, is that those limits have been removed and multiple copies of the same book are now available.
"We're trying to weave books into the Web," Kahle said of the Internet Archive's mission.
Chuck Wendig, a prolific novelist who joined the chorus of authors criticizing the move on Twitter, took issue with the notion of calling the Internet Archive's catalog a "library."
"It's worth noting," he said in an email to NPR on Monday, that while the site appears to cooperate with DMCA takedown notices, "authors and publishers do not generally have to submit those types of requests to libraries, which again suggests that this is not 'business as usual,' nor is it a library in the expected sense of the word."
In the email, he explained that on a recent visit to the website, he was able to find and obtain a full digital copy of one of his books — which he says the group did not have the right to distribute.
"The problem with bypassing copyright and disrupting the chain of royalties that lead from books to authors is that it endangers our ability to continue to produce art — and though we are all in the midst of a crisis, most artists are on the razor's edge in terms of being able to support themselves," he added. "Artists get no safety net."
Instead, he suggested that readers simply check out e-books from their local library, whether or not its brick-and-mortar location is closed due to the coronavirus. The New York Public Library, for one, says it has seen a surge in e-book lending and is continuing many of its public services online.
"Libraries all around the country deserve their time to shine in this crisis, as we realize what vital institutions they are," Wendig said, "both intellectually and as a service to the community."


npr--2020-03-30--How Winston Churchill Pulled Britain Through The Early Years Of WWII

How Winston Churchill Pulled Britain Through The Early Years Of WWII In The Splendid And The Vile , author Erik @ @ @ @ @ minister 's first year in office , during which England endured a Nazi bombing campaign @ @ @ @ @ civilians .

How Winston Churchill Pulled Britain Through The Early Years Of WWII
In The Splendid And The Vile, author Erik Larson details the British prime minister's first year in office, during which England endured a Nazi bombing campaign that killed more than 44,000 civilians.
DAVE DAVIES, HOST:
This is FRESH AIR. I'm Dave Davies filling in today for Terry Gross. As the coronavirus pandemic spreads, Americans and citizens of many countries are getting a new look at their national leaders, evaluating their performance in a moment of crisis. Our guest today, author Erik Larson, has a new book about one of the most renowned leaders of the 20th century, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and his leadership during some of the darkest hours of World War II.
Larson's book focuses on Churchill's first year in office from May of 1940 to May of 1941, a time when France had fallen to the Nazis, the United States had not yet entered the war and Hitler was determined to break the will of the British people with a ferocious bombing campaign that killed more than 44,000 civilians. Erik Larson has written seven previous books. His new book is "The Splendid And The Vile: A Saga Of Churchill, Family, And Defiance During The Blitz." Like Terry, I'm working from home these days. I spoke to Larson via Skype.
Well, Erik Larson, welcome back to FRESH AIR.
ERIK LARSON: Thank you very much.
DAVIES: This is a story about a leader at a time of national crisis. And I just wonder if, as you've seen the coronavirus pandemic unfold and we've all watched our leaders try to handle it, you thought about Churchill and insights you might have gleaned into. What makes an effective leader in a time of crisis?
LARSON: Yes, absolutely. I don't want to emphasize the parallels too much between what Churchill confronted at the time and what we're confronting now. I think a lot, actually, about how Churchill might have confronted this situation that we're in now - very differently than what we've seen thus far, honestly. And I'm really startled, actually, at the lack of competent, wise national leadership, but maybe it'll come. I certainly hope so.
But when I think about Churchill and I think about how he would've negotiated the situation - he understood the power, first of all, of symbolic acts. He understood the importance of being and seeming brave and wise and so forth. But above all, he was particularly good at - obviously, at delivering speeches. And I'm not just saying in terms of being able to craft a terrific line. Of course, we all know that. But when you look at his speeches, there is a structure that really works very well, I think, in a time of crisis like ours.
What Churchill would do is he would - first of all, he would begin with an assessment, a sober assessment, of what the - of the reality of the threat. And he would not sugarcoat. He would state as frankly as he could what was actually happening. But then he would come back. He would follow with cause for optimism - rational, realistic cause for optimism - not happy talk, but a real, rational appraisal. And then he would end his speeches invariably with a rhetorical flourish that would metaphorically - or, perhaps, even literally - metaphorically, though, bring listeners out of their seats just feeling like they, too, were emboldened and they were ready to do whatever was next. That's leadership.
DAVIES: We'll talk more about that as we go through this. Let's talk about Churchill's experience. He became prime minister in May of 1940. What circumstances led to him being named prime minister then?
LARSON: Yeah. He became prime minister on May 10, 1940. He was, at the time, actually, perceived to be by many to be an unwelcome candidate for the job. He was deemed to be somewhat erratic and full of energy directed in all directions, as one of his ministers said. But there had been a revolt, a parliamentary revolt, in which Chamberlain was essentially thrown out of office. It was made clear that he was not the man for the coming conflicts.
DAVIES: That's Neville Chamberlain, who had led the country during...
LARSON: That was Neville Chamberlain, yes. Yeah. He was...
DAVIES: Known for having appeased some of Hitler's moves in Europe. Yeah.
LARSON: Yeah. He was confronted during - well, he was ardently opposed in several days preceding the - preceding Churchill's appointment as prime minister. And, in fact, in one speech, one of his antagonists, if you will, quoted Cromwell and said, for God's sakes, go (laughter). That was as clear a signal as any, I suppose. But Churchill becomes, then, prime minister on May 10, 1940.
For Churchill, it's important to note, this was the thing that he had lived for his life. I mean, this was what he sought throughout his career. And honestly, the fact that it happened on May 10, 1940, a day when Hitler invaded the Low Countries and the real intense war that we know as World War II began, he didn't mind that at all. He loved the fact that now he had the reins. He was in control.
DAVIES: Right. The country had been at war since the previous September, when Germany invaded Poland. And the Nazi army had swept through much of France and then attacked the Netherlands. What was the state of the British armed forces at the time and its position on the battlefield?
LARSON: After the invasion of the Low Countries, Germany turned its attention to France and, through a series of surprise maneuvers, basically caught the allies off guard. The British were under severe attack by the Germans, by the Nazi forces, especially by their armored elements and were being forced to - actually, to retreat and to, ultimately, of course - the famous Dunkirk evacuation - to flee France.
DAVIES: You know, I've covered politics and government for most of my career as a reporter and covered a lot of governors and mayors. And it's made me think a lot about the characteristics of leadership, and there are a lot of them. You know, one thing that makes a good leader is to be an effective speaker. Charisma really matters in inspiring your citizens to higher goals. But you also have to effectively run a government. And one thing a leader needs - and this is easy to overlook - is a really serious work ethic and stamina. You have to immerse yourself in a lot of important detail. What did you learn about the pace of Churchill's activity, say, as compared to his predecessor, Neville Chamberlain?
LARSON: Well, Chamberlain was a very staid, kind of a very grey leader, if you will. In fact, his nicknames were The Coroner and The Old Umbrella. Churchill was a very different kind of character. He was described by one minister as the - with some misgiving, as the rogue elephant.
But one thing that did split - that very, very much marked Churchill's administration as prime minister was precisely his work ethic. The man loved to work. He would get up not super early, but around 8 or 8:30. He'd work from bed, smoking a cigar or whatever, and then, you know, proceed to the Cabinet meetings and so forth, then lunch. You know, lunch, you know, typically involved a fair amount of alcohol and excellent conversation. He would have a couple of naps during the day, but then he would work well into the night until, like, as late as 2, 3 o'clock in the morning, much to the chagrin of his private secretaries and his staff, who were just dying to have an early night with this man. But, yes, he just loved work. He worked all the time.
And Churchill had this real willingness to dive into the weeds and to explore even the most detailed elements of government or what was going on at the time. And so he would send off these memoranda or minutes, as they were called, to his ministers directly - not with any intermediary, not via some secretary. He would send them directly and would explore these minute points. And this had the very interesting effect of putting these ministers on guard because suddenly, the bureaucratic piece of their ministries was being completely upended by this man who clearly had an interest in everything they were doing down to the basic nuts and bolts of their operation. And this really made people stand up and pay attention to what they were doing themselves and really put them on the mark.
DAVIES: So things were going badly in France. English troops would soon be evacuated from the town of Dunkirk. It was a dark time for the British forces. The United States was not in the war. They were prepared to take on Germany alone at this point. Churchill knew that he would have to defend against a German attack either from the air or possibly from the sea, an invasion. What role did he see for the Royal Air Force in the defense of the country, and what was the state of the air force?
LARSON: Well, what's very important to recognize, to understand, is that the fall of France was a huge thing in terms of British strategy. The idea that France would fall had never been conceived, had never been thought of as a possibility by British strategists. Now, suddenly, France had fallen, and the Luftwaffe was able to set up bases on the French coast minutes from Britain. Previous strategy held that this was going to be impossible because the Germans would have to fly all the way from Germany, would not have the fuel capacity for their fighters. If they didn't have the fuel capacity for their fighters, they couldn't send their bombers because they would be sitting ducks in the air.
But Churchill recognized very early on that the fighters were going to be all important because the only way Hitler could launch an invasion across the channel, which is the only way it could be done, was if the Luftwaffe first achieved air superiority. So the top goal of Churchill was to deny air superiority to the Luftwaffe. The only way to do that was through the production and through the effective coordination of fighter aircraft.
DAVIES: Erik Larson's book is "The Splendid And The Vile." We'll talk more after a short break. This is FRESH AIR.
(SOUNDBITE OF THE NEW ENGLAND CONSERVATORY JAZZ REPERTORY ORCHESTRA'S "MY BLUE HEAVEN")
DAVIES: This is FRESH AIR, and we're speaking with author Erik Larson. He has a new book about the leadership and the family life of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill during his first year in office, when Nazi Germany waged a bombing campaign that killed more than 44,000 civilians. Larson's book is "The Splendid And The Vile."
So the German air war begins with a lot of attacks during the daytime, in which the Royal Air Force, the British air force, fighters were pretty effective in knocking down a lot of the aircraft of the German air force, the Luftwaffe. This also presented...
LARSON: Yes.
DAVIES: ...Kind of a show for British citizens. They actually watched a lot of this happen - right? - in the sky.
LARSON: Oh, this is one of the fascinating things to me. I mean, there are accounts of people who - I mean, try to picture this. You know, in one case, there was a - I believe this was Virginia Cowles, who is a writer who was lying in the grass on a cliff at Dover on a beautiful, sunny day. The channel was sparkling below. I mean, it just could be any lovely summer day. And high up above, there is this pitch life-or-death battle between Germans fighters and British fighters. And the novelty of the - seeing these - seeing the spiraling contrails high up in the sky, watching occasionally as one of these things would just, you know, disappear in a blur of smoke and the plane would, you know, crash into the sea was just such an anomalous thing. There you are, you know, essentially picnicking on a clifftop, as she says, you know, watching this battle that could determine the fate of civilizations.
DAVIES: When the Germans went to night bombing, how did that change the equation? How did it affect the approaches of the German bombers, the German fighters and the British air defenses?
LARSON: First of all, the Germans switched to night bombing because when they attacked by day with their bombers, the RAF Spitfires and Hurricanes were very effective at knocking them down. Bombers were quite slow relative to the speed of the fighters. In particular, the Germans were startled to find that one of their aircraft - the so-called Stuka dive bomber, which had been this fearsome weapon in land campaigns - had proven to be uniquely vulnerable to attack by these young and very well-trained and dynamic British pilots.
So they had to give up daytime bombing and went to nighttime bombing. The effect of this was to - first of all, at night, they no longer needed fighter protection because the RAF was essentially, effectively night blind. The Spitfires and Hurricanes - the pilots had no way of effectively locating these bombers in darkness. They had a rough idea because Britain, of course, had established this wonderful, prescient radar system. But this was only effective to a point because by the time the messages got to the control centers about where these planes were, the planes obviously had moved on to different locations.
So the visual sighting of aircraft was a very important part of how the RAF dealt with bombers and also with fighters. At night, this visual aspect was removed. So the bombers were now essentially free to fly over the British Isles at will, and this was very important. Another aspect was that, because now they were free to fly over the British Isles, because they no longer needed fighter escorts - the fighters had very, very short operational stamina, essentially 90 minutes. Now the bombers could stay up for far, far longer. So this very much changed the dynamic.
DAVIES: Right - and made the British industries and public more vulnerable. You note that Hitler, for several months, declined to bomb London because he was still hoping to convince Churchill to see reason and negotiate a peace treaty. Churchill was insisting he would take the fight to Germany. He had his bombers bomb Berlin.
LARSON: Yes.
DAVIES: And that kind of changed things, didn't it?
LARSON: One key element before this, before it became the - before Germany began its first deliberate bombing attacks on London was it was a mistake that the Luftwaffe made on August 24, 1940, when a group of German bombers thought they were over their target. They were not. They were over central London. They dropped their bombs. And this was the first attack on central London. And it was terrifying to the citizens of London who had felt that, for whatever reason, they were not - this was not going - they were not going to be the subject of attack, you know, by Hitler.
This gave Churchill what he would describe as the moral right, then, to turn around and bomb Germany. The RAF was in - bomb Berlin, rather. The RAF was a little bit reluctant to do that as well because of the moral consequences, so they'd have to weigh it, like, and so forth. So now suddenly, you have this rapid escalation that leads to, on September 7, 1940, the first deliberate mass intense bombing of the city of London.
DAVIES: So let's talk about these raids on London in some detail. How big were they? How many planes would be involved? What kind of bombs were dropped?
LARSON: Hundreds of planes were involved. You know, when I was (laughter)...
DAVIES: In a single raid, you mean. Yeah.
LARSON: Yeah, absolutely, in a single said. I mean, up to a thousand planes with bombers would be dispatched from bases along the French coast, not all necessarily arriving at the same time, but these were tremendous, tremendous raids. And when I was doing the research for this book, I would stay for part of the time in London. And I remember standing before my hotel window just looking out at dusk one night and trying to imagine what this would have been like. So on a beautiful blue night, you know, at dusk, you suddenly see these hundreds of bombers coming over the horizon, how terrifying that must have been.
So the first raid that begins on September 7, 1940, the bombers arrive at - as I point out, at teatime. This was a day when, otherwise, Londoners went about their business in a very normal way. It was a hot day for London, which is rare, hot and sunny - temperatures up about 90 degrees. The stores in Piccadilly were packed. People were just living their lives. And suddenly, the air raid sirens sound. Now, this by itself, believe it or not, was not a particularly terrifying thing because air raid sirens were sounding all the time - not all the time, but on sort of a regular basis. But now the alarms began to sound. This is in the afternoon of September 7, 1940. And, you know, the first inclination was to say, OK, these must be just another false alarm.
This time, however, incendiary bombs began to fall. These were typically the first things that the Luftwaffe would drop. These were meant to set fire to structures so that once the structures began to burn and as night fell, these structures would serve as beacons for bombers to follow because, you know, navigation at night was still a problem for the German bombers. They could fly at night readily, but getting to a target, at least in the initial phase of the Blitz, required either moonlight - which was a very important thing; the moon was referred to as the bombers' moon - or what also help us to have these, you know, structures on fire because they guided the bombers to the target.
So suddenly, these incendiaries are falling. Next come the high explosive bombs. And the Germans deployed a variety of weapons from smallish high explosive bombs to giant 4,000-pound bombs that the Germans nicknamed Satan. These bombs began to fall on the city of London in September 7, 1940. And, you know, for Londoners, life as they knew it changed utterly.
DAVIES: Right. One of the little details is that, you know, we hear the whistling sound that bombs would make as they fall. That's not a normal thing for the bombs. That was added to make them more terrifying, right?
LARSON: Yeah, the Germans - and then, eventually, also the British - added what's referred to as the sort of the Jericho trumpet, a device attached to bombs to make them howl as they fell, which was believed to amplify the terror effect. Similar thing was done, by the way, to the Stuka bombers to make them scream as they entered their dives, which was to - believed to enhance the terror of those on the ground.
DAVIES: Right. And you mentioned this, but when people saw a full moon coming, that was even more terrifying, right?
LARSON: Yes. I mean, the full moon was - the nights when there was a full moon, these were deemed to be the nights when air raids were most likely to occur because moonlight was very effective in lighting targets below. On nights when there was a full moon, you know, the so-called bombers' moon, that's when people most feared what would happen and were pretty much assured that there would be a raid.
DAVIES: Erik Larson's new book is "The Splendid And The Vile." After a break, we'll talk more about Winston Churchill's leadership during the German bombing campaign and some of the ways he inspired citizens and sustained their morale. Also, Maureen Corrigan reviews a new book from Emily St. John Mandel, which she says is disturbing but ultimately affirming. I'm Dave Davies, and this is FRESH AIR.
(SOUNDBITE OF GEORGE SHEARING'S "LONDONDARRY AIR")
DAVIES: I'm Dave Davies filling in today for Terry Gross. We're speaking with author Erik Larson. He has a new book about a national leader in a time of crisis. It focuses on British Prime Minister Winston Churchill's first year in office, when his country was fighting virtually alone against Nazi Germany and the German Air Force waged a deadly bombing campaign against British cities. Larson's book is "The Splendid And The Vile."
So these bombings inflicted enormous damage to buildings and people, killed thousands. How did the citizens prepare? How did they respond?
LARSON: At first, there was obviously a good deal of terror. People flocked to shelters. A lot of people had actually built already shelters in their backyards that were referred to as Anderson shelters. These were essentially enclosures that would be buried and that were deemed to be pretty effective against all but a direct hit. But over time, as the raids became - you know, I mean, we're talking here the first phase of blitzes, 57 consecutive nights of bombing, if you can believe it. Over time, a kind of - I won't say a weariness, but sort of a resilience seemed to come into the population.
Now, many Londoners left, but many more stayed. And at first, you know, they would flock to the (inaudible) and so forth. But over time, remarkably, many decided, you know, it's up to fate to determine what's going to happen to me tonight; so I'm just sleeping in my bed, or I'm going down to my basement, or I'm going to be in my living room. It is a myth that most Londoners flocked to the tube stops. They did not. A relatively small percentage of Londoners did so. The rest stayed - typically, stayed home.
And you know, there was a fundamental fatal calculus at work here, and that was that on any given night during a raid, you could not point to a particular individual and say that person is going to die tonight, but what you could say, with 100% accuracy, is that someone would die that night, that dozens would die that night. And this was a very sort of strange kind of thing to think about because what it meant is that you were just as likely as the next guy to be killed that night. There was nothing you could do about it.
DAVIES: What did Churchill do during the raids?
LARSON: Well, Churchill (laughter) - this was one of the things that I also found just so endearing. Churchill loved war. He'd rather be at the center of it than not. When air raids occurred, he was often to be seen on the nearest rooftop watching the raid unfold, when prudence might have suggested that he be elsewhere. There's one raid that I found particularly striking in this respect - and again, this is part, by the way, of what made him such a tremendous leader, is that he understood the power of symbolic acts. He understood the power of seeming to be courageous, that courage is infectious; it really is.
And so Churchill would be very likely to go up to the nearest rooftop to watch the raid unfold. And for one of these raids - you know, he also brought guests, and he brought staff. I mean, this is the kind of guy he was. So on one of these raids, during one particularly intense raid, he brings some guests up to the rooftop, and they're watching this raid unfold. And this is the kind of guy Churchill was. In the midst of this raid, he quotes Tennyson. He quotes Tennyson, a poem "Locksley Hall," which is considered by many to be sort of - to have foretold of the eventual - of the advent of air warfare. So he's quoting Tennyson on this rooftop during this raid, when other people would ordinarily be, you know, cowering in their shelters. That's a rare individual.
DAVIES: You note that the British Royal Air Force was actually pretty ineffective in doing anything about these night German bombing raids. I mean, they really couldn't see them to attack the invading aircraft. I mean, there were anti-aircraft batteries on the ground, but they really couldn't see much to hit anyway. But there's an important decision that Churchill made about how often they would fire, and this is - again, goes to, I think, the value of symbolic actions. Do you want to explain this?
LARSON: Oh, very much so. So the Blitz begins on September 7, 1940. And there are several nights of raids, where one thing that is really striking to the populace of London is that there doesn't seem to be any response by the city's anti-aircraft guns, and this is infuriating. It's like, why are we letting the Nazis, you know, have full access to the skies over London? Why aren't we doing something about it? And the reason was that the - in order to conserve ammunition, these anti-aircraft batteries were under instructions to, really, you know, essentially, not fire till you see the whites of their eyes. You know, don't fire until there is a clear target overhead to fire at. So a lot of these guns remained quiescent during these raids.
But Churchill recognized that this was a problem. So he issues the order that says that henceforth - I think it was September 11 when this began, ironically - he said, henceforth, the guns could fire - were to fire at will, just fire. And sure enough, they did, and this had an amazingly heartening effect on the populace of London. It just thrilled them and cheered them.
DAVIES: In 1940, the idea of a bombing campaign to terrorize and demoralize citizens was a relatively new thing. I mean, there'd been one case of it during the Spanish Civil War. But this was something kind of new. And Hitler and Hermann Goring, the head of the German air force, the Luftwaffe, continued to be astounded that the British public was taking this and Churchill wasn't giving in. And then they expanded the attacks beyond London to some other industrial cities, like Coventry and Bristol. Tell us about what that was like for those towns.
LARSON: Yeah. You know, the raid against Coventry in November of 1940 was a particularly significant raid because the Luftwaffe massed an immense force of aircraft with the idea of obliterating the city of Coventry and, actually, very much succeeded in that act, so much so that afterwards, both on the German side and the British side, Coventry was kind of the gold standard, if you will. The British referred to coventrification. A measure of the effectiveness of a raid was, was it one Coventry, two Coventrys, three Coventrys? So that was a real jarring and amazingly effective - from the German point of view - German raid.
One of the most interesting was what happened in Bristol, England. This is in 1941. Churchill was on his way to Bristol to award honorary degrees as nominal chancellor of Bristol University. And he had his whole entourage with him, various officials in his special train, and they were on their way to Bristol. They paused on a sighting outside the city, happily, because that night a tremendous raid struck the city of Bristol. And as they arrived in town the next morning, you know, the city was aflame at that point. But Churchill goes on and goes ahead with his plans to, you know, award these degrees - arrives at Bristol University. Buildings literally next door to the space in which they're holding the degree ceremony - building next door are on fire. People who - people arrive in the audience who have clearly been up all night fighting fires, digging bodies out of destroyed buildings and so forth.
There in the audience, up on the dais with him are men who have - their clothing is wet and sooty and so forth. But they're still wearing their robes. And this degree ceremony, it still goes on. Afterwards, Churchill gives this wonderful, extemporaneous speech just about the courage of Bristol residents. And it was really, I think, a very amazing and very moving moment, especially for Mary, who just...
DAVIES: His daughter, yeah.
LARSON: Mary, his daughter, yeah - Mary, who just felt her love for her father just become so much more amplified even in that moment.
DAVIES: It is interesting because, you know, Churchill was an inspirational speaker before Parliament and on the radio. But you also say that these visits to bombed-out neighbourhoods in London and the cities throughout the British Islands were also - had an inspirational effect, which is, you know - it can be tricky for an elected leader to go to an area where people have lost their livelihoods and their loved ones and are utterly shattered and shell-shocked. And they see this politician coming in with a nice car and an entourage. It can rub people the wrong way. How did he manage to make it inspirational?
LARSON: Well, you know, this is something that - after that first raid on September 7, 1940, the next day, Churchill went to the very heavily bombed dock district at the East End with an entourage. And one member, Gen. Hastings Ismay - nicknamed Pug because he looked like a pug - Ismay recounts how when they arrived in the East End, he, Ismay, was very concerned that there would be a negative reaction to Churchill arriving after this horrible event, that there might be a lot of recrimination. Like, why were you not able to save us from this thing?
For one reason or another, that was not the case. As they quickly found, the public was - the people there who had been bombed out of their homes and so forth loved it that Churchill had arrived, loved it that he was there. Now, whether that had a lot to do with Churchill himself, you know, it's hard to say. It was a moment when maybe it could have gone either way. But the fact is they embraced Churchill, and Churchill embraced them.
And one thing that endeared him to the public was the fact that he was not afraid to cry. He was deeply moved by this event. So - and that, again, cuts to this idea of the power of recognizing, the power of symbolic acts.
DAVIES: Yeah. There's one moment you describe where - it might have been touring Bristol where such a large crowd gathered that not everyone could see him. He hoists his bowler hat on his cane and lifts it high so that people can see that he's there.
LARSON: Yeah, lifts it high and swirls it around in the air so that people can see that the leader is there. I should say also by the way, that, you know, this is - you know, he was not - this wasn't sort of a desire just to, you know, revel in the adulation of his audiences. That was not it at all. He was deeply, deeply moved by everything that he saw. And it was the case that at Bristol, as he was - after he had delivered this speech and after he had made his way back to the train with this huge crowd of people from the city who had clustered around him and were following his car back to the train, where it could have been, as Mary points out - Mary Churchill, his daughter, in her diary - as she points out, it could have been a festival day in Bristol.
So they arrive at the train. Churchill boards, and he's waving to the crowd, waves to the crowd, waves. He's waving until the train is out of sight of - obviously out of sight of anybody back in Bristol. And then he picks up a newspaper, holds it in front of his head and, behind the newspaper, begins to cry. He's that moved by the situation. I believe it's at that point that he says something to the effect that it is a grave responsibility.
DAVIES: Erik Larson's book is "The Splendid And The Vile." We'll talk more after a short break. This is FRESH AIR.
(SOUNDBITE OF TED NASH'S "WATER IN CUPPED HANDS (AUNG SAN SUU KYI)")
DAVIES: This is FRESH AIR, and we're speaking with author Erik Larson. He has a new book about the leadership and family life of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill during his first year in office, when Nazi Germany waged a bombing campaign that killed more than 44,000 British civilians. The book is "The Splendid And The Vile."
I want to just turn to the subject of crisis leadership here, I mean, since, you know, we're in a crisis right now. And, of course, every national crisis is different, and a viral pandemic is different from 20th century warfare, which is what you write about. But as you reflect on the insights that this research may have given you, I'm wondering what has occurred to you observing President Trump's conduct in handling the challenges of the coronavirus.
LARSON: Oh, my. Well, you know, I come back to the idea of how to approach a situation like this or at least how Churchill would have approached it. You know, the key thing is to embolden, reassure and encourage, I feel. Trump, obviously, has done none of this. No particular moment of actual heroic leadership have I seen. But Churchill, again, would have - he would have been, first of all, very frank about what we're confronting. He would have been very frank about what this pandemic really means and about the importance, yes, of staying home. He would not be talking about the - you know, the potential of chloroquine being a miracle drug or - and he would not have been talking about, you know, we're going to open this country up by Easter because there's a reality that's not going - is not susceptible to this kind of false rhetoric. Churchill would have been very, very sober in his appraisal of what was happening. And again, then he would have come around with reasons for optimism, things that were actually happening that could maybe improve the situation.
He undoubtedly would have talked about how the vast medical research infrastructure of this country was bending itself to solving this problem. And then he would ended with some resounding, heroic thing that, again, would have launched people from their chairs, hopefully only into their kitchens and not outside in the streets; we don't want that today. But he would have done something to really encourage the populace and make them feel like he was in control and things were eventually going to get better.
DAVIES: You know, I'm also struck by how much time and effort Churchill spent studying policy, really getting into the details of every aspect of not just the war but other national policy issues and how important it is for a leader to be empirically grounded, consulting the experts that he knows. And then, obviously, he has to make his own calls, but being immersed in the actual issues.
LARSON: Well, you know, I think that Churchill would absolutely have a deep, fine-grain, down-to-the-nuts-and-bolts understanding of what was happening in part because, honestly, he chose excellent advisers who were not afraid to tell him what the reality was, which is a very important element of Churchill's sense of leadership. Churchill would have absolutely understood the finest points of what was happening in this pandemic.
I think one particular moment is emblematic of his approach. And oddly enough, it was on September 11, 1940, when he gave a speech to the public from a BBC hookup in what we know today as the Churchill War Rooms. And this is the fourth night of absolutely intense bombing, the fourth of what will prove to be 57 consecutive nights of bombing. So he gives this speech to the public from the war rooms. He did not sugarcoat anything. He warned of the clear danger of invasion. He says, you know, we cannot tell when they will come; we cannot be sure that, in fact, they will try it all, but no one should blind themselves to the fact that a heavy, full-scale invasion of this island is being prepared.
Now, imagine hearing that. Imagine the terror of his audience. But then, also, he comes back and he says, you know, this threat - he says, we must regard the next week or so as a very important period in our history. He says the threat ranks with the days of the Spanish Armada, when the Spanish Armada was approaching in the channel and Nelson stood between the Napoleon's Grand Army of Boulogne, and he warns of an outcome of far more consequence to life and future of the world and its civilization than the - than these brave days of the past.
But, you know, in doing so, he made people realize that there was so much more to this story than just a one-night trauma. He ends by saying that Hitler's attacks on London had backfired because they've caused sort of a counterreaction from the public. They've inflamed this heroism among the British because, you know, what he has done is to kindle a fire in British hearts, here and all over the world, which will glow long after all traces of the conflagration he has caused in London have been removed. And he left people really feeling emboldened, even in the midst of this unfathomable tragedy.
DAVIES: Erik Larson, thanks so much for speaking with us.
LARSON: Thank you.
DAVIES: Erik Larson's new book is "The Splendid And The Vile: A Saga Of Churchill, Family, And Defiance During The Blitz." Coming up, Maureen Corrigan reviews a new book from Emily St. John Mandel, which she says is disturbing but ultimately affirming. This is FRESH AIR.
(SOUNDBITE OF KEN PEPLOWSKI QUINTET'S "WHEN I TAKE MY SUGAR TO TEA")
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npr--2020-03-30--How Do You Wash Your Hands To Fend Off Coronavirus If Water Is Scarce?

How Do You Wash Your Hands To Fend Off Coronavirus If Water Is Scarce ?
It 's something we 've heard again and again from health authorities in the coronavirus pandemic .
Wash your hands .
Frequently .
With soap and water .
For at least 20 seconds .
That 's an effective way to eliminate viral particles on your hands .
But for the 2.2 billion people in the world who lack safe drinking water — mostly in low- and middle-income countries — that advice will be difficult to heed .
In these places , water is scarce for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be due to drought or climate change .
Or local water supplies could be contaminated .
Or the nearest source of water may be far away from home .
Aid groups and public health officials are doing all they can to help people in these communities overcome the obstacles and wash up .
Washing your hands , they say , is a small action that can make a huge difference in the coronavirus pandemic .
`` Hand-washing is one important tool to check and control spread , '' says Amanda Glassman , executive @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for Global Development — along with other known interventions such as testing , isolating the sick and social distancing .
Water that is safe enough to drink is the best option for hand-washing .
The ideal is to use clean , running water to wash away germs because it is less likely to contain harmful pathogens like e-coli , which can make you sick .
So how do you get water to those in need ?
Aid groups can truck in vast amounts of water , for example , but many say that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ than ideal circumstances , other types of water can be used to wash hands .
Non-potable water ( for example , water that 's been used to clean dishes or do laundry ) — along with soap — can be effective , according to a 2019 study published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology .
Small-scale solutions work , too – like setting up a network of public hand-washing stations – something done in West Africa during the Ebola outbreak of 2014 .
`` When Ebola hit , one of the big @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and sanitation for hand-washing and proper waste disposal , '' says Joia Mukherjee , chief medical officer of Partners In Health and associate professor of global health at Harvard Medical School .
`` It almost seemed like an unsolvable problem .
And yet relatively rapidly , solutions were put together . ''
The simplest kind of hand-washing station needs just two buckets .
One bucket contained a mix of chlorine and water for the washing , with a spigot so people could tap into the supply , she explains .
A second bucket @ @ @ @ @ @ @ wastewater .
These hand-washing stations were put in public buildings , schools and markets in Ebola-affected areas — and public health officials stressed why it was important to wash hands .
Soon `` people adopted this hand-washing technique everywhere , '' says Mukherjee .
Mukherjee was heartened to see these stations again in February on trips to Liberia and Sierra Leone — set up by the countries ' health authorities to combat the spread of coronavirus .
`` I was very pleasantly surprised that they had already re-initiated this type of hand-washing at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Ministry of Health .
The lessons learned from Ebola were immediately being used . ''
This kind of innovation is exactly what the developing world needs right now to ward off coronavirus , says Glassman , who is the author of Millions Saved : New Cases of Proven Success in Global Health .
`` We should deploy and test everything we 've got , '' she says , citing the hand-washing stations .
`` Affordability and fast availability is what matters now . ''
The lower the technology , the better , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ objects and materials available in their own communities , like buckets , it makes the solution more likely to work .
One such device — which has been praised by global water researchers — is the SE200 Community Chlorine Maker .
Developed by the global organization PATH , it can make chlorine from just water , salt and a car battery .
Chlorine is commonly used to disinfect water because it kills many bacteria and viruses but is n't always easy to obtain .
The clean water can then be used to safely @ @ @ @ @ @ @ surge in coronavirus cases , 13 countries from sub-Saharan Africa as well as from Myanmar and Vietnam have put in requests to PATH for the devices .
The group is finalizing logistics to get them up and running .
Then there 's the question of how to keep hand-washing stations safe from being a hot spot for disease transmission .
Myriam Sidibe , a senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School , is working with the aid group WaterAid in Kenya to figure that out .
They are trying to find ways to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ safe for people to congregate around .
The plan is introduce `` social distancing nudges on the ground , similar to what we are seeing in supermarkets in some countries , '' says Sidibe , who is based in Nairobi .
`` These can be red dots painted on concrete or if the surface is more uneven you can get stones or pieces of wood and sort of partially bury it in the dirt and then paint the visible bit red . ''
As for soap , it 's not as much of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ available to purchase almost everywhere in the world , says Sidibe .
Most people , including those living in poverty in rural and urban areas , have some kind of basic soap , even if just for laundry , she says .
But in this time of crisis , soap supplies may run short — or people who lose their income because of the pandemic may find soap is not affordable .
In New Delhi , Sudhanshu S. Singh , CEO of the nonprofit Humanitarian Aid International , has been collecting donations of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ short supply as the city is in lockdown — for the 1,000 refugee families he serves in Delhi .
The families fled Pakistan from persecution and are living in camp settlements in a slum .
Because they are stateless , they do n't have the same rights to water as Indians living in the slum , says Singh , and have even less access to water .
`` They 're living in absolute abysmal conditions .
They 're vulnerable to different kinds of diseases and health issues .
Eventually the virus is going @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , he 's distributed a 15-day ration of hygiene materials and taught them proper hand-washing .
To ensure the families have enough water to wash their hands , he and other groups petitioned the government to bring more water to the part of the slum where the refugees live .
Last week , the authorities brought in a tanker of water to provide additional supply for drinking and hand-washing and will do so regularly .
But offering soap and water is no guarantee that people are going to wash their hands .
In @ @ @ @ @ @ @ low income , there are a lot of folks for whom a thorough scrub is not a regular habit .
`` Just instructing people to wash their hands is not going to get them to do it , '' says Sidibe , who previously worked at a project at Unilever focused on changing hand-washing behaviors in 55 countries .
`` People do n't practice hand-washing .
It 's inconvenient and they have other priorities .
To change behavior , you need to create an enabling environment .
You need to establish a positive @ @ @ @ @ @ @ make it a desirable thing to do . ''
In Nigeria , where there are only 111 reported coronavirus cases so far , aid groups like UNICEF have been emphasizing the importance of hand-washing in the low-income areas they serve .
`` We are trying to spread the message through celebrities , community and religious leaders , and reaching out to media and radio stations , '' says Zaid Jurji , head of UNICEF 's water , sanitation and hygiene program , based in Abuja .
They 're collaborating with artists to sing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , UNICEF posted `` We go win ( Corona ) '' to their YouTube channel .
It 's an original song from the popular Nigerian musician Cobhams Asuquo .
The lyrics go , `` Corona no big pass us ... as long as we remember to always do the right thing : wash your hands , love each other , we go win . ''
The idea that a song could change behavior may seem naive , but it did work during the Ebola outbreak .

How Do You Wash Your Hands To Fend Off Coronavirus If Water Is Scarce?
Enlarge this image toggle caption Patrick Meinhardt/Bloomberg via Getty Images Patrick Meinhardt/Bloomberg via Getty Images
It's something we've heard again and again from health authorities in the coronavirus pandemic. Wash your hands. Frequently. With soap and water. For at least 20 seconds. That's an effective way to eliminate viral particles on your hands.
But for the 2.2 billion people in the world who lack safe drinking water — mostly in low- and middle-income countries — that advice will be difficult to heed. In these places, water is scarce for a number of reasons. It could be due to drought or climate change. Or local water supplies could be contaminated. Or the nearest source of water may be far away from home.
Aid groups and public health officials are doing all they can to help people in these communities overcome the obstacles and wash up. Washing your hands, they say, is a small action that can make a huge difference in the coronavirus pandemic.
"Hand-washing is one important tool to check and control spread," says Amanda Glassman, executive vice president at the think tank Center for Global Development — along with other known interventions such as testing, isolating the sick and social distancing.
Water that is safe enough to drink is the best option for hand-washing. The ideal is to use clean, running water to wash away germs because it is less likely to contain harmful pathogens like e-coli, which can make you sick.
So how do you get water to those in need? Aid groups can truck in vast amounts of water, for example, but many say that's expensive and unsustainable.
In less than ideal circumstances, other types of water can be used to wash hands. Non-potable water (for example, water that's been used to clean dishes or do laundry) — along with soap — can be effective, according to a 2019 study published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.
Small-scale solutions work, too – like setting up a network of public hand-washing stations – something done in West Africa during the Ebola outbreak of 2014. "When Ebola hit, one of the big concerns was the lack of running water and sanitation for hand-washing and proper waste disposal," says Joia Mukherjee, chief medical officer of Partners In Health and associate professor of global health at Harvard Medical School. "It almost seemed like an unsolvable problem. And yet relatively rapidly, solutions were put together."
The simplest kind of hand-washing station needs just two buckets. One bucket contained a mix of chlorine and water for the washing, with a spigot so people could tap into the supply, she explains. A second bucket, underneath the spigot, caught the wastewater.
These hand-washing stations were put in public buildings, schools and markets in Ebola-affected areas — and public health officials stressed why it was important to wash hands. Soon "people adopted this hand-washing technique everywhere," says Mukherjee.
Mukherjee was heartened to see these stations again in February on trips to Liberia and Sierra Leone — set up by the countries' health authorities to combat the spread of coronavirus. "I was very pleasantly surprised that they had already re-initiated this type of hand-washing at airports and outside of public buildings like the Ministry of Health. The lessons learned from Ebola were immediately being used."
This kind of innovation is exactly what the developing world needs right now to ward off coronavirus, says Glassman, who is the author of Millions Saved: New Cases of Proven Success in Global Health. "We should deploy and test everything we've got," she says, citing the hand-washing stations. "Affordability and fast availability is what matters now."
The lower the technology, the better, says Glassman. If people can use objects and materials available in their own communities, like buckets, it makes the solution more likely to work.
One such device — which has been praised by global water researchers — is the SE200 Community Chlorine Maker. Developed by the global organization PATH, it can make chlorine from just water, salt and a car battery. Chlorine is commonly used to disinfect water because it kills many bacteria and viruses but isn't always easy to obtain. The clean water can then be used to safely wash hands.
In preparation for the surge in coronavirus cases, 13 countries from sub-Saharan Africa as well as from Myanmar and Vietnam have put in requests to PATH for the devices. The group is finalizing logistics to get them up and running.
Then there's the question of how to keep hand-washing stations safe from being a hot spot for disease transmission. Myriam Sidibe, a senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School, is working with the aid group WaterAid in Kenya to figure that out. They are trying to find ways to make 10,000 water stations across the country safe for people to congregate around.
The plan is introduce "social distancing nudges on the ground, similar to what we are seeing in supermarkets in some countries," says Sidibe, who is based in Nairobi. "These can be red dots painted on concrete or if the surface is more uneven you can get stones or pieces of wood and sort of partially bury it in the dirt and then paint the visible bit red."
As for soap, it's not as much of a problem as water.
Soap is available to purchase almost everywhere in the world, says Sidibe. Most people, including those living in poverty in rural and urban areas, have some kind of basic soap, even if just for laundry, she says.
But in this time of crisis, soap supplies may run short — or people who lose their income because of the pandemic may find soap is not affordable.
In New Delhi, Sudhanshu S. Singh, CEO of the nonprofit Humanitarian Aid International, has been collecting donations of soap and hand sanitizer — increasingly in short supply as the city is in lockdown — for the 1,000 refugee families he serves in Delhi.
The families fled Pakistan from persecution and are living in camp settlements in a slum. Because they are stateless, they don't have the same rights to water as Indians living in the slum, says Singh, and have even less access to water. "They're living in absolute abysmal conditions. They're vulnerable to different kinds of diseases and health issues. Eventually the virus is going to affect them."
So far, he's distributed a 15-day ration of hygiene materials and taught them proper hand-washing. To ensure the families have enough water to wash their hands, he and other groups petitioned the government to bring more water to the part of the slum where the refugees live. Last week, the authorities brought in a tanker of water to provide additional supply for drinking and hand-washing and will do so regularly.
But offering soap and water is no guarantee that people are going to wash their hands. In every country, from high income to low income, there are a lot of folks for whom a thorough scrub is not a regular habit.
"Just instructing people to wash their hands is not going to get them to do it," says Sidibe, who previously worked at a project at Unilever focused on changing hand-washing behaviors in 55 countries. "People don't practice hand-washing. It's inconvenient and they have other priorities. To change behavior, you need to create an enabling environment. You need to establish a positive social norm. And you need to make it a desirable thing to do."
In Nigeria, where there are only 111 reported coronavirus cases so far, aid groups like UNICEF have been emphasizing the importance of hand-washing in the low-income areas they serve. "We are trying to spread the message through celebrities, community and religious leaders, and reaching out to media and radio stations," says Zaid Jurji, head of UNICEF's water, sanitation and hygiene program, based in Abuja.
They're collaborating with artists to sing about hand-washing, too.
On Sunday, UNICEF posted "We go win (Corona)" to their YouTube channel. It's an original song from the popular Nigerian musician Cobhams Asuquo.
The lyrics go, "Corona no big pass us ... as long as we remember to always do the right thing: wash your hands, love each other, we go win."
The idea that a song could change behavior may seem naive, but it did work during the Ebola outbreak.


npr--2020-03-30--Coronavirus World Map: Tracking The Spread Of The Outbreak

Coronavirus World Map : Tracking The Spread Of The Outbreak Since the coronavirus was first reported in Wuhan , China @ @ @ @ @ infectious respiratory disease has spread rapidly within the country and to neighboring countries and beyond @ @ @ @ @ to see the country 's case count and number of deaths .
Click here to @ @ @ @ @ cases in the United States .

Coronavirus world map: We've now passed the 600 million mark for infections
Editor's note: This page is no longer being updated. The last update was Sept. 5, 2022. For current data about COVID-19 cases and deaths around the world, Johns Hopkins University and Our World in Data are useful resources.
In late January 2020 only a few dozen COVID-19 infections had been identified outside of China. A year later, the world tallied its first 100 million cases. It took the globe just 7 more months to pass the 200 million mark— then another 5 months to hit 300 million, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins University. Now the virus has spread to every corner of the globe and has been blamed for more than 6 million deaths.
The United States, India and Brazil in that order have had the most COVID cases and the three nations collectively account for almost half of all recorded infections so far in the pandemic.
Explore the chart below to find a country-by-country breakdown of new and total cases since January 2020.
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Explore how the number of coronavirus cases have shifted in different parts of the world over time. The first chart compares each continent to each other, while the next charts highlight the number of cases in select countries by region.
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This story was originally published on March 30, 2020.


npr--2020-03-30--Japan 'On The Brink' But Government Resists Declaring Coronavirus State Of Emergency

Japan 'On The Brink ' But Government Resists Declaring Coronavirus State Of Emergency Japan 's government on Monday resisted calls to declare a national state of emergency , despite a recent spike in confirmed cases of the coronavirus in Tokyo and warnings of further exponential growth .
`` It 's not true that the government is planning on declaring a state of emergency from April 1 , '' Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters , refuting rumors .
With fewer than 2,000 confirmed cases and 54 deaths , Japan has so far managed to avoid the explosion of numbers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Some medical experts argue that Japan 's strategy of limiting testing to the most urgent cases and focusing on isolating clusters has been effective .
Others argue that the country 's conservative use of testing has concealed the scale of the problem .
At a Monday evening news briefing , Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike reissued a plea to the capital 's residents to avoid outdoor activities and refrain from visiting bars , nightclubs and karaoke parlors , where experts say the virus is being spread .
Her earlier entreaty for a sort @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the weekend seemed to have some effect .
Tokyo metro usage was down by 70 % -80 % compared to the same weekend last year , according to the East Japan Railway Co. '' At this point , we do n't need to declare a state of emergency , '' Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Saturday .
But , referring to the spike in cases , he also acknowledged that the country is at a critical moment , saying , `` We are on the brink . ''
Some experts want Abe to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of emergency .
`` I personally feel it 's time [ Japan ] makes the declaration , '' Satoshi Kamayachi , an executive board member of the Japan Medical Association , said at a news conference on Monday .
He said fellow members of a panel of experts advising the government on the outbreak agreed .
A national emergency would likely trigger a three-week lockdown , during which governors of hard-hit prefectures could instruct residents to stay at home , except for essential purposes .
There were fewer than 20 new cases a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ when they more than doubled .
That was one day after Abe agreed to the postponement of the Summer Olympics .
Japan announced Monday that the games would take place next July .
Health Minister Katsunobu Kato dismissed the notion that Japan had concealed cases in order to avoid affecting the games , saying there was `` absolutely no relationship . ''
The pandemic 's immediacy was brought home for many Japanese when Ken Shimura , a household name , died on Sunday from COVID-19 .
Shimura 's comedy and rockabilly group , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in Japan in 1966 .

Japan 'On The Brink' But Government Resists Declaring Coronavirus State Of Emergency
Enlarge this image toggle caption Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP via Getty Images Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP via Getty Images
Japan's government on Monday resisted calls to declare a national state of emergency, despite a recent spike in confirmed cases of the coronavirus in Tokyo and warnings of further exponential growth.
"It's not true that the government is planning on declaring a state of emergency from April 1," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters, refuting rumors.
With fewer than 2,000 confirmed cases and 54 deaths, Japan has so far managed to avoid the explosion of numbers that China and South Korea have seen. Some medical experts argue that Japan's strategy of limiting testing to the most urgent cases and focusing on isolating clusters has been effective. Others argue that the country's conservative use of testing has concealed the scale of the problem.
At a Monday evening news briefing, Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike reissued a plea to the capital's residents to avoid outdoor activities and refrain from visiting bars, nightclubs and karaoke parlors, where experts say the virus is being spread.
Her earlier entreaty for a sort of "soft lockdown" ahead of the weekend seemed to have some effect. Tokyo metro usage was down by 70%-80% compared to the same weekend last year, according to the East Japan Railway Co.
"At this point, we don't need to declare a state of emergency," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Saturday. But, referring to the spike in cases, he also acknowledged that the country is at a critical moment, saying, "We are on the brink."
Some experts want Abe to change his mind about declaring a state of emergency. "I personally feel it's time [Japan] makes the declaration," Satoshi Kamayachi, an executive board member of the Japan Medical Association, said at a news conference on Monday. He said fellow members of a panel of experts advising the government on the outbreak agreed.
A national emergency would likely trigger a three-week lockdown, during which governors of hard-hit prefectures could instruct residents to stay at home, except for essential purposes.
There were fewer than 20 new cases a day in Tokyo until March 25, when they more than doubled. That was one day after Abe agreed to the postponement of the Summer Olympics. Japan announced Monday that the games would take place next July.
Health Minister Katsunobu Kato dismissed the notion that Japan had concealed cases in order to avoid affecting the games, saying there was "absolutely no relationship."
The pandemic's immediacy was brought home for many Japanese when Ken Shimura, a household name, died on Sunday from COVID-19. Shimura's comedy and rockabilly group, the Drifters, opened for the Beatles in Japan in 1966.


npr--2020-03-30--Famed Opera Singer Plácido Domingo Hospitalized Due To COVID-19 Complications

Plácido Domingo has been hospitalized because of COVID-19-related complications , according to multiple reports .
He is in stable condition in an Acapulco , Mexico , hospital and will receive medical attention for `` as long as the doctors find it necessary until a hoped-for full recovery , '' a spokesperson for Domingo told Opera News over the weekend .
Domingo 's reported hospitalization comes just days after he posted a March 22 message on Facebook revealing that he had tested positive for the disease caused by the coronavirus .
`` I feel it is my moral duty to announce @ @ @ @ @ @ @ also known as the Corona Virus .
My family and I are and will remain individually isolated for as long as it is medically necessary .
Today we all enjoyed good health , but I presented symptoms of coughing and fever , so I decided to take the test and the result was positive , '' Domingo said .
Domingo has been one of opera 's most reliable and bankable stars and is known for his ability to sing tenor and baritone and in multiple languages , including Italian , English , Russian @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has been embroiled in controversy as several women accused the Spanish-born singer of sexual misconduct .
On March 10 , NPR reported that LA Opera , which Domingo helped establish , announced that its investigation substantiated 10 `` inappropriate conduct '' claims levied against him dating back to as early as 1986 .
Domingo resigned as the LA Opera 's general director in October .
Prior to that , he withdrew from a production of the Metropolitan Opera 's performance of `` Macbeth '' amid allegations of sexual misconduct .
He has denied @ @ @ @ @ @ @ growing list of celebrities who have announced they have tested positive for the coronavirus , including actor Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson , actor Idris Elba , NBA star Kevin Durant , talk show host Andy Cohen and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson .

Famed Opera Singer Plácido Domingo Hospitalized Due To COVID-19 Complications
Enlarge this image toggle caption Ricardo Rubio/Europa Press via Getty Images Ricardo Rubio/Europa Press via Getty Images
Plácido Domingo has been hospitalized because of COVID-19-related complications, according to multiple reports.
He is in stable condition in an Acapulco, Mexico, hospital and will receive medical attention for "as long as the doctors find it necessary until a hoped-for full recovery," a spokesperson for Domingo told Opera News over the weekend.
Domingo's reported hospitalization comes just days after he posted a March 22 message on Facebook revealing that he had tested positive for the disease caused by the coronavirus.
"I feel it is my moral duty to announce that I tested positive for COVID19, also known as the Corona Virus. My family and I are and will remain individually isolated for as long as it is medically necessary. Today we all enjoyed good health, but I presented symptoms of coughing and fever, so I decided to take the test and the result was positive," Domingo said.
Domingo has been one of opera's most reliable and bankable stars and is known for his ability to sing tenor and baritone and in multiple languages, including Italian, English, Russian and Spanish.
Recently, the 79-year-old has been embroiled in controversy as several women accused the Spanish-born singer of sexual misconduct.
On March 10, NPR reported that LA Opera, which Domingo helped establish, announced that its investigation substantiated 10 "inappropriate conduct" claims levied against him dating back to as early as 1986. Domingo resigned as the LA Opera's general director in October.
Prior to that, he withdrew from a production of the Metropolitan Opera's performance of "Macbeth" amid allegations of sexual misconduct.
He has denied the allegations.
Domingo is among a growing list of celebrities who have announced they have tested positive for the coronavirus, including actor Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson, actor Idris Elba, NBA star Kevin Durant, talk show host Andy Cohen and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.


npr--2020-03-30--Map: Tracking The Spread Of The Coronavirus In The U.S.

Map : Tracking The Spread Of The Coronavirus In The U.S .
Updated on March 30 at 12:30 p.m .
ET Since the first U.S. case of the coronavirus was identified in Washington state on Jan. 21 , health officials have identified more than 140,000 cases across the United States and more than 2,500 deaths .
By March 17 , the virus had expanded its presence from several isolated clusters in Washington , New York and California to all 50 states and the District of Columbia .
Click here to see a global map of confirmed cases and deaths .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ best available means to `` flatten the curve of the pandemic , '' a phrase that epidemiologists use to describe slowing down the spread of infection .
This approach can save lives by keeping local health care systems from being overwhelmed .
In response to mounting cases , states are closing schools , banning large gatherings and urging people to stay home when possible .
On March 16 , President Trump announced new guidelines urging Americans to avoid discretionary travel , going out to eat and gathering in groups of more than 10 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also recommends basic precautions such as hand-washing and cleaning frequently touched surfaces every day .
Globally , the respiratory disease has spread to dozens of countries and has killed several thousand people since it was first reported in Wuhan , China , in December .
Warnings issued by the CDC recommend avoiding nonessential travel to dozens of countries with outbreaks of COVID-19 , including China , Iran , South Korea and many European nations .
The U.S. government has banned travel from Europe , although @ @ @ @ @ @ @ U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents .
This story was originally published on March 16 , 2020 .

Tracking the coronavirus around the U.S.: See how your state is doing
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Note: This page was last updated on Feb. 1, 2023. It will no longer be updated. For current data on COVID cases and deaths, demographics, and hospitalizations, consult the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
As of Feb. 1, there have been more than 101 million confirmed coronavirus infections in the U.S. and more than 1 million people have died of COVID-19. In the graphics below, explore the trends in your state.
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The above charts show average new cases per 100,000 people for each state over the last 12 months.
Note: Actual cases may be substantially higher, since many who test positive with at-home tests don't report their cases.
For additional data about COVID-19 in the U.S, including cases and deaths, demographics, and hospitalizations, consult the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website.
To show trends, the table below shows the change in average new cases per day in each state, week over week for the last 28 days. States marked in shades of red have growing outbreaks; those in shades of green, are declining.
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Methodology
The graphics on this page pull from data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University from several sources, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; the World Health Organization; national, state and local government health departments; 1point3acres; and local media reports.
The JHU team automates its data uploads and regularly checks them for anomalies. This may result in occasional data discrepancies on this page as the JHU team resolves anomalies and updates its feeds. There may be discrepancies between what you see here and what you see on your local health department's website. Figures shown do not include cases on cruise ships.
Fluctuations in the numbers may happen as health authorities review old cases, process testing backlogs or update their methodologies. The JHU team maintains a list of such changes.
This story was originally published on March 16, 2020. Elena Renken was a co-author on that version. Sean McMinn and Audrey Carlsen contributed to this story. Carmel Wroth edited this story.