Peter Nicholas

Peter Nicholas is a staff writer at The Atlantic , where he covers the White House .
• The Tulsa rally will be a safe space for the president—physically , psychologically , and politically .
• Some of the president ’ s opponents fear that he ’ ll refuse to leave the White House if he loses the election .
Here ’ s why .
• This Is How Trump Wants to Be Seen Amid protests around the country , the president deployed the federal government ’ s firepower to try to rehabilitate his image .
• Violent demonstrations across @ @ @ @ @ @ @ weakness in the 45th president .
• He ’ s made the presidency about himself , and now the same is true for down-ballot races .
• The president has faced greater exposure to the coronavirus than he might let on .
• The president wants to weaponize COVID-19 against Biden .
There ’ s a conspicuous irony to his argument .
• The End of the Imperial Presidency By ceding control over the government ’ s pandemic response , Trump is allowing American governors to flex new muscles .
• As he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pandemic , he ’ s leaning into a strategy that worked for him four years ago .
• The nation ’ s top infectious-disease expert is hardly infallible .
But Trump allies may be criticizing him because they can ’ t target the president .
• The president is inescapable right now .
That ’ s by design .
• What Will Happen When Red States Need Help ?
President Trump ’ s targets have been Democratic leaders .
But the outbreak isn ’ t going to stay confined to Democratic states .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ Lindsey Graham is among the president ’ s allies who don ’ t want him to quickly reopen the country .
He says the president should “ err on the side of human life.
” • Steve Mnuchin and Nancy Pelosi are working together to blunt the impact of the coronavirus crisis .
• He ’ s never seen a disease quite like COVID-19 , nor has he ever worked for a president quite like Trump .

Peter Nicholas is a former staff writer at The Atlantic.
He is a past co-winner of the Selden Ring Award for Investigative Reporting. He was previously a national political reporter for The Wall Street Journal, and he has also worked at the Los Angeles Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and the Times-Picayune of New Orleans.
Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times / Getty Fauci on What COVID Could Look Like One Year From Now A conversation with the nation’s top infectious-disease doctor as the U.S. braces for another surge
Spencer Platt / Getty Pence 2024? If Donald Trump officially enters the next presidential race, that doesn’t mean his former vice president will stay out of the contest.
Getty / The Atlantic The Complicated Truth About Trump 2024 The former president may already be running for president again—or it may be a lot of bluster.
Matteo Minnella / A3 / Contrasto / Redux Where Biden Goes From Here The Democratic establishment is feeling the heat more than ever.
Andrew Harnik / AP Biden the Sinner The president’s meeting with Pope Francis will come at a delicate time for both leaders.
Chip Somodevilla / Getty / The Atlantic Is Biden Doing Enough to Protect Democracy? Even the president’s closest allies are alarmed that he’s not making voting rights a front-and-center issue.
Stefani Reynolds / Bloomberg / Getty Why Biden Is Patient as Democrats Panic The president’s legacy—and the outcome of the next two elections—hangs in the balance.
Tayfun Coskun / Anadolu Agency / Getty Why Biden Bet It All on Mandates The president’s decision could cost Democrats in 2022 and 2024. He doesn’t care.
Jonathan Ernst / Reuters Hardly Anyone Showed Up at the ‘Justice for J6’ Rally The right-wing rally at the Capitol turned out to be a forum for random grievances, and an opportunity to dress like Batman.
Drew Angerer / Getty How Delta Beat Biden The new administration promised competency and efficiency, but it has struggled all year with consistent pandemic messaging.
Victor J. Blue / The New York Times … Who Takes the Blame? People are pointing fingers in all directions over President Biden’s unfolding foreign-policy crisis.
Tom Brenner / Bloomberg / Getty Biden Is Betting Americans Will Forget About Afghanistan People in and around the White House are relying on Americans’ notoriously short-term memory.
Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times / Getty; … Kamala Harris Knows She’s Trapped The vice president needs to win over the voters who approve of Biden, but not of her performance.
Chip Somodevilla / Getty; Adam Maida / The … Biden’s Spaghetti-at-the-Wall Vaccine Campaign The play-it-safe approach to inoculating Americans against COVID-19 may cost more lives.
Win McNamee / Getty What Does Mitch McConnell Do Now? At age 79, the longtime Senate Republican leader is contemplating his legacy.
Erin Schaff / The New York Times / … Who Is Trump Reaching? If the former president proves to be a kingmaker in the 2022 midterms, his allies say he may seek reelection in 2024.
The Atlantic / Anna Moneymaker / Jim Watson … The Supreme Court Molded Joe Biden He could now have a chance to shape it.
Samuel Corum / Bloomberg / Getty / The … Biden’s Latest Challenge Could Be Insurmountable The president’s insistence on reaching across the aisle may be his undoing.
Chip Somodevilla / Drew Angerer / Getty / … Mitt Romney’s Family Plan and the Death of D.C. Dealmaking President Joe Biden’s chief of staff called the Republican senator’s plan “encouraging.” So why does it seem to be dead on arrival?


Undark

• There ’ s No Playbook for Treating Gunshot Wounds in Babies Doctors in Afghanistan are scrambling to address the country ’ s wave of infant war injuries .
• Coronavirus Researchers Tried to Warn Us Before the pandemic hit , they struggled to get funding that might have hastened treatments for COVID-19 .
• How Bats Might Have Tamed the Coronavirus The animals have a remarkable resilience to all sorts of diseases that afflict humans .
• The Rwandans Offering Themselves as Mosquito Bait In the fight against malaria , sometimes bed nets and pesticides just aren ’ t @ @ @ @ @ @ @ now sing much more similar songs , as their populations decline .
• Researchers have spent centuries failing to decipher a medieval manuscript ’ s baffling drawings of plants , naked women , and astrological symbols .
Is it worth the effort ?
• What Doctors Can Learn From the Dark Web Opioid addicts are turning to online forums for advice about quitting .
Their conversations have a lot to teach us about drug use and public health .
• Why There ’ s Still No Lyme Vaccine for Humans False starts and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the market for two decades .
• What Self-Defense Can Do for Mental Health Evidence suggests that classes can be like therapy for sexual-assault survivors , but some researchers fear that they could cause new trauma instead .
• A Tiny , 25-Year-Old Study Still Drives Opinion on Pregnancy and Pot The “ Jamaica study ” has garnered more attention online than 99 percent of scientific research .
• A Promising Resource for Cancer Breakthroughs Is Dying Out As humans drive vulnerable mammals closer to extinction , valuable mutations hidden in their DNA @ @ @ @ @ @ @ • Computer Scientists Make the Case Against an Expensive New Voting System Georgia is preparing to spend $ 150 million on election technology .
Experts worry it will be a security nightmare .
• Tiny plastic building blocks are spilled into oceans and waterways before they ’ re even made into plastic goods .
• Teens Are Probably Drinking Too Much Caffeine Products like Red Bull have sent thousands of adolescents to the emergency room .
The people who market them insist they don ’ t need to be regulated .

Undark
Mark and Colleen Hayward / Getty Tongue Posture Is a Big Business With Little Evidence Treatments to address improper tongue position have been hyped as a health remedy, but they may be doing more harm than good.
Manjunath Kiran / AFP / Getty No One Really Knows How Many Indians Die Each Year The country’s unreliable death records are hampering its public-health efforts.
Alexis Gonzalez / Getty ‘Flora and Fauna’ Is So Outdated It’s time to give fungi the respect they’re due.
David L. Ryan / The Boston Globe / … Cape Cod’s Waters Are Getting Very, Very Sharky Researchers are toying with a new option to prevent great-white-shark attacks: predicting when they might strike.
Getty; The Atlantic A Grisly Skin Disease Is Creeping Into the American South Flesh-eating parasites keep popping up in unexpected places.
Rodger Mallison/Fort Worth Star-Telegram/Tribune News Service via Getty How to Poison Feral Hogs (And Only Feral Hogs) The animals are so destructive that they cost the United States billions every year, but actually doing something about it isn’t so simple.
Xinhua / Ou Dongqu via Getty The Future of American Radio Astronomy Now Depends on China After Puerto Rico’s Arecibo telescope collapsed late last year, the researchers who depended on it are in a tough position.
Joe Lamberti / The Daily Times / AP Billions of Day-Old Chicks Are Shredded, Gassed, and Suffocated Everyone wants to end “chick culling.” So what’s the holdup?
Mark Rightmire / Orange County Register / Getty The Corpse Flower Is Not in the Mood Saving the world’s stinkiest plant would be easier if it had any interest in reproducing.
Luis Ortega Operation Chinchilla Is a Go Twenty-five of the endangered rodents are living on top of a multibillion-dollar Chilean gold reserve. Miners are going to great lengths to relocate them.
Clint Turnage / USDA The Clock Is Ticking on America’s ‘Feral Swine Bomb’ Wild pigs are running rampant—and doing billions of dollars of damage each year.
Theo Whitcomb Sixty-Thousand Evictions in the Name of Environmentalism The Indian state of Tamil Nadu is relocating whole slums to help restore polluted rivers. Is it doing more harm than good?
Undark Americans Are Spending Billions on Unnecessary Dental Treatments The evidence that braces make you healthier is shaky at best.
Wir0man / Getty How NASA Launched a Revolution in Biology The space agency was conceived as an answer to Sputnik, but it quickly became much more.
Prakash Singh / AFP / Getty The Ripple Effects of a Space Skirmish If a conflict breaks out between countries with weapons in orbit, it could threaten space access for everyone.
Wakil Kohsar / AFP /Getty There’s No Playbook for Treating Gunshot Wounds in Babies Doctors in Afghanistan are scrambling to address the country’s wave of infant war injuries.
Getty / The Atlantic Coronavirus Researchers Tried to Warn Us Before the pandemic hit, they struggled to get funding that might have hastened treatments for COVID-19.
Frankie Schembri It Was Supposed to Detect Fraud. It Wrongfully Accused Thousands Instead. How Michigan’s attempt to automate its unemployment system went horribly wrong
Ye Aung Thu /AFP / Getty How Bats Might Have Tamed the Coronavirus The animals have a remarkable resilience to all sorts of diseases that afflict humans.


theatlantic--2020-04-06--What the Racial Data Show

What the Racial Data Show

The pressure is on .
The pressure will not relent .
Even so , it could be some time before all or even most of the relevant agencies begin releasing racial data .
But public-health officials and medical providers like my wife are fighting COVID-19 now .
People are sick now .
People are on ventilators now .
People are dying now .
We need more racial data now .
We need to assess the data we have right now .
When I examine the trickle of data from states and counties on coronavirus patients , when I scrutinize the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I study the survey data , it sure seems to me as if the viral pandemic is hitting people of color the hardest .
Time and again , a state or county releases racial data .
Time and again , those numbers reveal a sizable racial disparity .
Time and again , black Americans are overrepresented among the infected and dead .
America ’ s newest infection seems to be mating with America ’ s original infection , reproducing not life , but death .
Read : How the pandemic will end In @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the state population , but an ungodly 40 percent of coronavirus deaths .
In Washtenaw County , home to Ann Arbor , 48 percent of residents hospitalized with the coronavirus are black , though black people make up only 11 percent of the county .
In Illinois , the infection rate among black Americans is twice their percentage of the state population .
In North Carolina ’ s Mecklenburg County , which includes Charlotte , black people comprise 32.9 percent of the residents , but 43.9 of the confirmed coronavirus cases , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , black Americans make up 26 percent of the county , but nearly half of the infections and a maddening 81 percent of deaths as of Friday .
This racial pandemic within the viral pandemic is threatening Sadiqa ’ s entire immediate family .
She ’ s more worried about her parents ’ and brother ’ s health than her own .
They seem to be well .
But for how long ?
Just thinking about where her younger brother lives , where her parents live , makes us sick .
They , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the deadly war .
Sadiqa ’ s younger brother lives in New York City , the site of the highest number of cases and deaths in the country .
City officials have yet to supply racial data on testing , cases , hospitalizations , or deaths .
But there are some indications that communities of color may be particularly affected .
On April 1 , The New York Times released data on the number of coronavirus cases per 1,000 people for every zip code in NYC .
Using Census Reporter , I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ codes with the highest and lowest coronavirus rates per 1,000 people in NYC .
Queens zip code 11370 has the city ’ s highest rate of confirmed infections , with 12 cases per 1,000 people ; the neighborhoods it includes are 37 percent Latino , 25 percent white , 22 percent Asian , and 14 percent black .
In the adjacent zip code of 11369 , which has the city ’ s second-highest rate of confirmed infections with 10 cases per 1,000 people , the population is 64 percent Latino , 15 percent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 8 percent white .

I dread every time my partner leaves our home. I dread every time Sadiqa marches to the front lines of the war against COVID-19—the emergency department. I dread every time she comes home and removes her personal protective equipment.
Sadiqa is worried like a soldier in a total war, seeing so many medical providers going down, seeing so many patients going down. I am worried about her health—and my own, as someone surviving metastatic cancer. I am worried about all medical providers, all Americans who have compromised immune systems, all Americans who are infected, all Americans who are healthy and want to remain that way.
As a student of health disparities, I am especially worried about the well-being of people of color. And people of color appear to be especially worried about their own well-being. Black people, at 46 percent, and Latinos, at 39 percent, are about twice as likely as white people, at 21 percent, to view the coronavirus as a major threat to their health.
Ibram X. Kendi: We don’t know who the coronavirus victims are
Last week, I called for states, counties, and private labs to begin reporting the racial demographics of the people who are being tested for, infected with, hospitalized with, or killed by COVID-19. In the absence of that information, I can’t tell for sure whether black and Latino Americans should be more worried than white Americans. Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representative Ayanna Pressley recently urged the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to lead the effort to collect and publish such data. Local leaders and editorial boards are pushing for the same.
The pressure is on. The pressure will not relent.
Even so, it could be some time before all or even most of the relevant agencies begin releasing racial data. But public-health officials and medical providers like my wife are fighting COVID-19 now. People are sick now. People are on ventilators now. People are dying now. We need more racial data now. We need to assess the data we have right now.
When I examine the trickle of data from states and counties on coronavirus patients, when I scrutinize the racial demographics of hot spots, when I study the survey data, it sure seems to me as if the viral pandemic is hitting people of color the hardest.
Time and again, a state or county releases racial data. Time and again, those numbers reveal a sizable racial disparity. Time and again, black Americans are overrepresented among the infected and dead. America’s newest infection seems to be mating with America’s original infection, reproducing not life, but death.
Read: How the pandemic will end
In Michigan, black Americans comprise 14.1 percent of the state population, but an ungodly 40 percent of coronavirus deaths. In Washtenaw County, home to Ann Arbor, 48 percent of residents hospitalized with the coronavirus are black, though black people make up only 11 percent of the county. In Illinois, the infection rate among black Americans is twice their percentage of the state population. In North Carolina’s Mecklenburg County, which includes Charlotte, black people comprise 32.9 percent of the residents, but 43.9 of the confirmed coronavirus cases, as of March 30. In Milwaukee, black Americans make up 26 percent of the county, but nearly half of the infections and a maddening 81 percent of deaths as of Friday.
This racial pandemic within the viral pandemic is threatening Sadiqa’s entire immediate family. She’s more worried about her parents’ and brother’s health than her own. They seem to be well. But for how long? Just thinking about where her younger brother lives, where her parents live, makes us sick. They, too, are on the front lines of the deadly war.
Sadiqa’s younger brother lives in New York City, the site of the highest number of cases and deaths in the country. City officials have yet to supply racial data on testing, cases, hospitalizations, or deaths. But there are some indications that communities of color may be particularly affected.
Fred Milgrim: A New York doctor’s warning
On April 1, The New York Times released data on the number of coronavirus cases per 1,000 people for every zip code in NYC. Using Census Reporter, I studied the racial makeup of the zip codes with the highest and lowest coronavirus rates per 1,000 people in NYC. Queens zip code 11370 has the city’s highest rate of confirmed infections, with 12 cases per 1,000 people; the neighborhoods it includes are 37 percent Latino, 25 percent white, 22 percent Asian, and 14 percent black. In the adjacent zip code of 11369, which has the city’s second-highest rate of confirmed infections with 10 cases per 1,000 people, the population is 64 percent Latino, 15 percent black, 12 percent Asian, and 8 percent white.
New York City is 32.1 percent white, 29.1 percent Latino, 24.3 percent black, and 13.9 percent Asian, according to census data. But averaging out the racial composition of the five New York City zip codes with the highest coronavirus rates shows a significant overrepresentation of Latinos (45.8 percent) and Asians (23.4 percent), and a significant underrepresentation of whites (21.2 percent) and blacks (8 percent) when compared with their citywide populations.
Does this mean Latinos and Asians are being infected with, and dying from, COVID-19 at higher rates than other New Yorkers? We don’t know for certain, but it sure seems that way.
A recent Reuters/Ipsos nationwide poll found that 16 percent of Latino Americans surveyed said they were infected, had been in contact with someone who was infected, or knew someone who was infected, compared with just 9 percent of white Americans. It is not a stretch to suppose that, in our highly separated and segregated society, those results reflect different rates of infection in white and Latino communities.
Some of the infected people whom Latino Americans know may be undocumented immigrants. In the United States, an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants were already social distancing from the old virus of xenophobia that Trumpism has been spreading anew. They live in the shadows, mainly in California, Texas, Florida, New York, New Jersey, and Illinois—the very states, save Texas, that have some of the worst known outbreaks. But tracking and arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers have not let up during the pandemic.
John Sandweg: I used to run ICE. We need to release the nonviolent detainees.
The shadows may protect them from the old virus, but the shadows cannot protect them from the new coronavirus. And the convergence of xenophobia and COVID-19 has led to a horrible choice for undocumented immigrants: Do I or don’t I come out of the shadows? For my good. For my family’s good. For the greater good of the people who forced me into the shadows.
Quitting low-wage jobs could mean getting deported. Getting tested could mean getting deported. Getting treated could mean getting deported. And if they are arrested, they could be thrown into ICE’s network of jails and detention centers, where the coronavirus is already spreading.
Undocumented immigrants suffering from these impossible choices are not just Latinos. They are Middle Eastern. They are white. They are black. They are Asian. In New York City, Asians are the poorest immigrant group. The number of Asian Americans living in poverty grew 44 percent from 2000 to 2016, according to the Asian American Federation. Perhaps their growing poverty helps explain the high infection rates in zip codes with large Asian populations in NYC.
Native Americans are being infected in high numbers in urban areas such as Salt Lake City, Seattle, and San Jose. In many rural Native areas, like rural white areas with no confirmed cases, testing could be scarce—but not the disease. The virus has hit Kayenta, Arizona, a small town in the northwest corner of the Navajo Nation, compelling the nation’s president, Jonathan Nez, to issue a stay-at-home order.
In the end, though, no group of Americans may be more vulnerable to COVID-19 than the incarcerated and the homeless. About 40 percent of people experiencing homelessness are black, triple their share of the U.S population. Brown and black people comprise 56 percent of the prison population, doubling their combined share of the U.S. adult population.
Conor Friedersdorf: Can’t we at least give prisoners soap?
Homeless people may be the most vulnerable in cities like Seattle and Los Angeles. Prisons, jails, and detention centers have already turned into outbreak zones for prisoners, corrections officers, and prison health-care workers. At least 167 inmates and 137 staff members have already tested positive for the coronavirus at New York’s Rikers Island prison complex. And it is getting worse by the day.
While Sadiqa’s brother is facing an outbreak in New York City, her Baby Boomer parents are facing an outbreak in Albany, Georgia. That means her immediate family members live in the areas with the worst and second-worst coronavirus outbreaks in the United States as of March 26.
Albany, nearly 200 miles south of Atlanta, is the big small town in southwest Georgia’s Dougherty County. Nearly three out of four of Albany’s 90,000 residents are black. Among Albany’s first 24 deaths from COVID-19, 90 percent were black. As of Saturday, Dougherty County had reported 30 coronavirus deaths, an unspeakable death rate of 32.9 per 100,000 people.
Read: How the coronavirus became an American catastrophe
To put Dougherty County’s death rate in perspective, it was 67 percent higher than New York City’s, and about 2.5 times higher than Detroit’s, on Saturday, according to New York Times county data. Albany had two more deaths than Milwaukee County, even though Milwaukee County’s population is 10 times greater.
The only two U.S. areas in worse shape than New York City and southwest Georgia are in southeast Louisiana. Orleans Parish, known for the city of New Orleans, is 60.2 percent black. Its staggering infection rate of 892.1 per 100,000 people on Saturday was higher than the infection rates of New York City, Los Angeles, and Miami combined. At 38 deaths per 100,000 people, Orleans Parish’s death rate is higher than Albany’s. Thirty miles west of New Orleans is St. John the Baptist Parish, where the black population is 57.8 percent. If we exclude counties with only a single death, St. John the Baptist Parish has the second-highest COVID-19 death rate in the nation: an unutterable 39.1 deaths per 100,000 people.
The county with the nation’s highest death rate as of Saturday is Montana’s Toole County. The overwhelmingly white county of nearly 5,000 people already had three deaths connected to an assisted-living facility. If black people are likely the most vulnerable to the coronavirus in majority black counties, homeless tent cities, and prisons, then white people are likely the most vulnerable in assisted-living facilities and nursing homes. Nearly four out of five people in nursing homes are white, and older people are more at risk of dying from COVID-19.
Read: America's nursing homes are bracing for an outbreak
It seems as if every day now Sadiqa learns about another high-school friend, another parent or uncle or aunt of a close friend who is infected, who is in the hospital, who has died from COVID-19. As of Saturday, Albany had 560 confirmed infections, including Sadiqa’s best friend.
Albany is what Sadiqa knows and no longer knows. “My whole community is in shambles,” she told me the other day.
Sometimes racial data tell us something we don’t know. Other times we need racial data to confirm something we already seem to know.


Jacob S. Hacker

Jacob S. Hacker is a political-science professor at Yale University and a co-author of the forthcoming book Let Them Eat @ @ @ @ @ Rules in an Age of Extreme Inequality

Jacob S. Hacker is a political-science professor at Yale University and a co-author of Let Them Eat Tweets: How the Right Rules in an Age of Extreme Inequality
Chip Somodevilla / Getty Why McConnell Gets Away With Filibustering Accountability suffers when a united minority party can kill popular ideas without leaving a mark.
Pat Greenhouse / The Boston Globe via Getty … Average Workers Can’t Bear Any More Risk The GOP push to give businesses immunity from coronavirus liability is part of a long, ugly trend.
Paul Sakuma / AP Why Technological Innovation Relies on Government Support Andy Grove’s life reveals the role of public investment in creating and nurturing Silicon Valley—and the dangers of disinvestment.


theatlantic--2020-06-27--Vann R. Newkirk II

Vann R. Newkirk II

Vann R. Newkirk II is a staff writer at The Atlantic , where he covers politics and policy , and the host of the podcast Floodlines • Covering Katrina weakened my faith in the country ’ s preparedness .
The coronavirus has robbed me of it completely .
• The Coronavirus ’ s Unique Threat to the South More young people in the South seem to be dying from COVID-19 .
Why ?
• With the country ’ s attention turned north , the coronavirus pandemic is exploding in Louisiana .
• The Kids Aren ’ t All Right COVID-19 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ major concern for children ’ s health , but the youngest among us will still bear the larger burdens of trauma and economic fallout .
• A retrospective on the events that led to the disaster , and what came next • A conversation with the man behind the music in the podcast about his inspiration , the betrayal of Hurricane Katrina , and the unique history and future of New Orleans .
• A collection of research and writing that informed and inspired the podcast • The shameful story of how 1 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their farms • The debate over reparations highlights the dual purpose of the holiday : celebrating emancipation but also demanding accountability for historical and present wrongs .
• Us and Jordan Peele ’ s New Horror In his latest film , the comedian turned director continues to reinvent how the genre uses fear to comment on humanity ’ s evil .
• Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is unveiling a proposal to combat disenfranchisement , which he says is one of the “ three biggest issues ” the country faces going into 2020 .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ extend key provisions of the Voting Rights Act .
• Will Cohen ’ s Remarks on Trump ’ s Racism Change Anything ?
The president has somehow proved resilient to accusations that he is a racist .
• In her response to the president ’ s State of the Union address , the former Georgia legislator pushed voting rights to the heart of her party ’ s agenda .
• The Virginia governor ’ s main problem is not the particulars of his dalliances with racism , but the fact that they exist—and @ @ @ @ @ @ @

Vann R. Newkirk II is a senior editor at The Atlantic and the host of the podcasts Floodlines and Holy Week.
Holy Week: Kingdom Part 6: On Palm Sunday, Black D.C. wakes up to a broken dream.
Holy Week: Inferno Part 2: The Black capital of the world catches fire
Holy Week: Rupture Part 1: A day at the crossroads of chance and destiny
Holy Week: Overcome Part 4: In Memphis, the movement faces a reckoning.
Holy Week: Black Messiah Part 3: Who will rise next?
Holy Week: Covenant Part 7: A settlement in ashes
Holy Week: Resurrection Part 8: Whoever believes in him shall not perish
Holy Week: Prophecy Part 5: Leaders hope to stop that which had been foretold
Paul Spella Introducing: Holy Week The story of a revolution undone
Warrick Page / HBO / Charlie Le Maignan … The Frenetic Basketball Nostalgia of Winning Time Three basketball-loving writers discuss the first season of HBO’s controversial series about the 1980s Lakers.
Photograph by Yael Malka for The Atlantic When the Myth of Voter Fraud Comes for You To support the Republican narrative that our elections are rife with misconduct, someone needs to take the fall.
Dan Budnik / Contact Press Images; Flip Schulke … American Democracy Is Only 55 Years Old—And Hanging by a Thread Black civil-rights activists—and especially Black women—delivered on the promise of the Founding. Their victories are in peril.
Earth’s New Gilded Era The world is getting hotter, and the divide between rich and poor is getting bigger.
Vincent Laforet / Reuters How America Handles Catastrophe Covering Katrina weakened my faith in the country’s preparedness. The coronavirus has robbed me of it completely.
The Atlantic The Coronavirus’s Unique Threat to the South More young people in the South seem to be dying from COVID-19. Why?
Yusiki / Shutterstock / The Atlantic Watch New Orleans With the country’s attention turned north, the coronavirus pandemic is exploding in Louisiana.
Ezra Acayan / Stringer / Getty The Kids Aren’t All Right COVID-19 doesn’t appear to be a major concern for children’s health, but the youngest among us will still bear the larger burdens of trauma and economic fallout.
Shutterstock / The Atlantic Floodlines: Timeline of Events A retrospective on the events that led to the disaster, and what came next
Anthony Pidgeon / Redferns / Getty Floodlines: A Q&A With New Orleans Musician Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah A conversation with the man behind the music in the podcast about his inspiration, the betrayal of Hurricane Katrina, and the unique history and future of New Orleans.


Yasmeen Serhan

Yasmeen Serhan is a London-based staff writer at The Atlantic .
• The ‘ Absurd ’ New Reality of Reporting From the U.S .
The role of Washington correspondent has long been one of the most prized postings in international journalism .
• What the World Could Teach America About Policing Examples abound of reforms that are seen as “ radical ” in the United States .
• Restoring tourism isn ’ t just an economic necessity for the continent , but also a cultural one .
• The experience of eating out in Hong Kong illustrates what it ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ now .
• The country ’ s politicians led by example , helping it flatten its curve .
• The country has exempted Ramadan gatherings from its lockdown , illustrating the temptation , and the risks , of coming together .
• Can the West Actually Ditch China ?
How severely can countries really punish China when many of them need Beijing for the most crucial of things—medical supplies ?
• Israel Shows Us the Future of Protest Amid the pandemic , demonstrations and dissent are adapting to an era of social distancing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Beijing isn ’ t part of the solution to the pandemic , but the problem .
• The Pubs Are Closed , but Brits Keep Quizzing In an era of social distancing , one British institution has proven resilient .
• The bloc ’ s failure to curb the country ’ s democratic decline suggests that it may not have much power at all .
• Democracies Must Learn to Work From Home The coronavirus is forcing everyone to adapt .
Governments should be no different .
• By reducing the term @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rendering it worthless .
• As the coronavirus spreads across the globe , so too does racism .

Yasmeen Serhan is a former staff writer at The Atlantic.
She joined the magazine in 2016 as an editorial fellow in Washington, D.C. In 2017, Yasmeen moved to the U.K. to join The Atlantic’s newly established London bureau as a reporter covering British and European politics.
Win McNamee / Getty ‘France Has Delivered Almost Nothing’ Anders Fogh Rasmussen, NATO’s former secretary-general, is not impressed by Emmanuel Macron’s diplomacy with Russia over Ukraine.
Katie Martin / The Atlantic; Getty Uyghur Poems From a Chinese Prison The acclaimed poet Gulnisa Imin is serving a 17-year sentence because her work supposedly promotes “separatism.” She’s still writing.
Dan Kitwood / Getty Britain’s Surprisingly Diverse Tories The contest to choose a leader to succeed Boris Johnson is strikingly multicultural. How did Conservatives get so good at this?
Millennium / Gallery Stock What’s Better in Britain Yes, the roads are confusing, the food portions unambitious, the peanut butter not so good, but for this American, life in the U.K. has its compensations.
Adam Maida / The Atlantic; Getty How the Rest of the World Is Doing RTO Countries differ in their norms, but office workers everywhere want the same thing: flexibility.
Getty; The Atlantic The United States Must Stand Up for One of Its Own If the Biden administration refuses to investigate the killing of Shireen Abu Akleh, those who target American journalists will have impunity.
The Atlantic; Getty What the Veneration of Gandhi’s Killer Says About India Imagine Americans putting up statues of the man who shot Lincoln. The equivalent is happening in India today.
Oliver Munday / The Atlantic The Hinduization of India Is Nearly Complete Narendra Modi’s ethnonationalist rule is unraveling the country’s constitutional commitment to its Muslim and Christian minorities.
CHRISTOPHE ARCHAMBAULT / AFP / Getty Macron Won. And So Did the Far Right. Marine Le Pen had her best performance to date, and has successfully pushed many of her far-right ideas into the mainstream.
Akos Stiller / Bloomberg / Getty The Other Threat to Democracy in Europe As Brussels focuses on aggression by Moscow, a more insidious threat to democracy has strengthened its hand in Budapest.
Antoine Gyori / Corbis / Getty How Ukraine Is Upending European Politics The war is dominating elections in Hungary and France.
Thomas Kronsteiner / Getty; The Atlantic How Western News Is Getting Around Putin’s Digital Iron Curtain As Vladimir Putin asserts control over his country’s media space, many outlets are fighting back.
The Atlantic The War in Ukraine Is Just Beginning Conflicts, though typically started easily, can be brutal, intractable, and difficult to end.
Olivier Matthys / AP Putin’s Strategic Error The Russian leader is creating the very Western alliance he feared.
Alexei Nikolsky / TASS / Getty; Eric Alonso … Why the Cultural Boycott of Russia Matters Excluding Russia from the sports and art worlds over its war against Ukraine threatens Putin’s image in the way economic and political sanctions cannot.
Andrey Rudakov / Bloomberg / Getty Who is Vladimir Putin’s Revisionist History For? Nationalist leaders often weaponize the past to justify their present aims. But the Russian president’s narrative appears to be directed at an audience of one.
Chris McGrath / Getty The Russian Incursion No One Is Talking About While the world watches Ukraine, Moscow is making moves in neighboring Belarus, too.
Getty; The Atlantic COVID-19 Is Over (If You’re Rich) How the wealthy have learned to live with the pandemic
Jean-Marc Caimi and Valentina Piccinni Ukraine’s Civilian Soldiers For many Ukrainians, war with Russia is not a possibility, but an ever-present reality.


Ibram X. Kendi

• To be black and conscious of anti-black racism is to stare into the mirror of your own extinction .
• Who Gets to Be Afraid in America ?
Americans don ’ t see me , or Ahmaud Arbery , running down the road—they see their fear .
• We ’ re Still Living and Dying in the Slaveholders ’ Republic The pandemic has brought the latest battle in the long American war over communal well-being .
• Stop Blaming Black People for Dying of the Coronavirus New data from 29 states confirm the extent of the racial disparities .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ people of color the hardest .
• Why Don ’ t We Know Who the Coronavirus Victims Are ?
The coronavirus is infecting and killing Americans of all races .
But there ’ s little public data on whether the virus is having a disproportionate impact on some communities .
• Stop Blaming Young Voters for Not Turning Out for Sanders Sanders is losing to Biden because America is excluding young voters , persistently and systemically .
• When Will Moderates Learn Their Lesson ?
If centrists can ’ t move past their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ unelectable , then how will Democrats ever beat Trump ?
• Some Democrats are afraid of nominating a progressive , but a moderate may be more likely to ensure Trump ’ s reelection .
• No one ’ s paying much attention to one chunk of the electorate that could prove decisive in 2020 .
• How to Talk About the Truth and Trump at Thanksgiving If we are serious about bringing Americans together , the work has to start with our own families .
• Twenty-One Books to Read After Becoming A @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s acclaimed memoir , a celebration of books by black women • The Greatest White Privilege Is Life Itself Like so many other black men in America , Elijah Cummings died too young .
• The Hopefulness and Hopelessness of 1619 Marking the 400-year African American struggle to survive and to be free of racism • Trump Is in an Abusive Relationship With America The president says he loves America , but he has shattered it in two .
• President Trump ’ s tirade against four minority congresswomen prompts the question @ @ @ @ @ @ @ American ?

Ibram X. Kendi is a contributing writer at The Atlantic. He is the Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities at Boston University and the founding director of the university’s Center for Antiracist Research.
He is the author of several books, including the National Book Award–winning Stamped From the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America , How to Raise an Antiracist , and the international best seller How to Be an Antiracist . In 2020, Time named Kendi one of the 100 most influential people in the world. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Harvard Radcliffe Institute Fellowship, and a MacArthur Fellowship.
Jerry Cooke / Corbis / Getty Working Class Does Not Equal White In her new book, Blair LM Kelley explores an overlooked history: what it means to be a Black worker in the time since slavery.
Paul Spella / The Atlantic; Shutterstock The Crisis of the Intellectuals Traditional notions of the intellectual were never meant to include people who looked like me or who had a background like mine.
Getty; The Atlantic The Book That Exposed Anti-Black Racism in the Classroom As African American studies faces resistance, a conversation about the continued relevance of Carter G. Woodson’s 1933 book, The Mis-education of the Negro
Katie Martin / The Atlantic; Getty Zora Neale Hurston Is for Everyone Her work shows us that our lives are defined not by tragedy but by joy.
Gordon Parks / Courtesy of the Gordon Parks … My Daughter’s White Doll Was I right to worry?
Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times / Getty The Double Terror of Being Black in America Structural racism killed Black people in east Buffalo, and then a gunman killed the survivors.
Adam Maida / The Atlantic The Danger More Republicans Should Be Talking About White-supremacist ideology is harmful to all, especially the naive and defenseless minds of youth.
Fox News / Getty / The Atlantic The Mantra of White Supremacy The idea that anti-racist is a code word for “anti-white” is the claim of avowed extremists.
Photo illustration by Adam Maida / The Atlantic; … The Second Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. King’s nightmare of racism is being presented as his dream.
Paul Spella; Getty; The Atlantic There Is No Debate Over Critical Race Theory Pundits and politicians have created their own definition for the term, and then set about attacking it.
The Atlantic Our New Postracial Myth The postracial idea is the most sophisticated racist idea ever produced.
Ruddy Roye We Still Don’t Know Who the Coronavirus’s Victims Were One year into a racial pandemic within a viral one, the gaps in our collective knowledge are still startling.
Adam Maida / The Atlantic Compliance Will Not Save Me Black and brown people’s defiance is not the problem. Our compliance is not the solution.
Dey Street Books / Viking / Hachette Books … The 10 Best Political Books of 2020 by Black Women Last year, Black women called upon themselves, made themselves heard, and shared their political talents and minds.
Getty / The Atlantic Denial Is the Heartbeat of America When have Americans been willing to admit who we are?
Getty / The Atlantic Stop Scapegoating Progressives Democrats need elected officials to do what Trump never did: Accept responsibility. Absorb criticism. Come back and campaign better.
Andrew Caballero-Reynolds / AFP / Getty; Samuel Corum … A Battle Between the Two Souls of America There is a divide in America between the souls of injustice and justice.
The Atlantic A Campaign of Voter Subtraction Trump’s Republican Party must subtract votes in order to survive.


Charles C. Mann

Charles C. Mann is a contributing writer at The Atlantic .
His books include 1491 , based on his March 2002 cover story , and The Wizard and the Prophet • What history can tell us about the long-term effects of the coronavirus • How to Talk About Climate Change So People Will Listen Environmentalists warn us that apocalypse awaits .
Economists tell us that minimal fixes will get us through .
Here 's how we can move beyond the impasse .
• No , Really : We 're Going to Keep Burning Oil—and Lots of It No matter how @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the economics favor burning fossil fuels .
• Yes , Unconventional Fossil Fuels Are That Big of a Deal And the evidence is solid that they are well on their way to changing the world 's energy choices .
• What If We Never Run Out of Oil ?
New technology and a little-known energy source suggest that fossil fuels may not be finite .
This would be a miracle—and a nightmare .
• How Not to Travel in Japan Our correspondent flouts the Three Laws of Tourism there— and has a spectacular @ @ @ @ @ @ @ make us sorry to be alive • A top expert says America 's approach to protecting itself will only make matters worse .
Forget `` foolproof '' technology—we need systems designed to fail smartly • Before it became the New World , the Western Hemisphere was vastly more populous and sophisticated than has been thought—an altogether more salubrious place to live at the time than , say , Europe .
New evidence of both the extent of the population and its agricultural advancement leads to a remarkable conjecture : the Amazon rain forest @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Rampant music piracy may hurt musicians less than they fear .
The real threat—to listeners and , conceivably , democracy itself—is the music industry 's reaction to it • Who Will Own Your Next Good Idea ?
Some corporations want to lock up copyright even tighter .
Some naive intellectuals want to abandon copyright altogether .
Where is a `` do-nothing '' Congress now that we need one ?
• The country is embarking on a huge screening program for prostate cancer which is likely to cost billions and may lead to many @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
But what may be bad at the national-policy level could be a lifesaver at the individual level for men in their fifties and early sixties .

Charles C. Mann is a contributing writer at The Atlantic. His books include 1491, based on his March 2002 cover story , and The Wizard and the Prophet
MPI / Getty Pandemics Leave Us Forever Altered What history can tell us about the long-term effects of the coronavirus
Sergiy Barchuk Is There Still a Good Case for Water Fluoridation? It’s a 75-year-old technology. Maybe we should rethink it.
Ulises Fariñas Can Planet Earth Feed 10 Billion People? Humanity has 30 years to find out.
Josh Cochran How to Talk About Climate Change So People Will Listen Environmentalists warn us that apocalypse awaits. Economists tell us that minimal fixes will get us through. Here's how we can move beyond the impasse.
No, Really: We're Going to Keep Burning Oil—and Lots of It No matter how much we wish it were otherwise, the economics favor burning fossil fuels.
Yes, Unconventional Fossil Fuels Are That Big of a Deal And the evidence is solid that they are well on their way to changing the world's energy choices.
Ralph Wilson/AP What If We Never Run Out of Oil? New technology and a little-known energy source suggest that fossil fuels may not be finite. This would be a miracle—and a nightmare.
The Gangster In My Tub The author finds himself in hot water at a Japanese onsen.
How Not to Travel in Japan Our correspondent flouts the Three Laws of Tourism there— and has a spectacular trip
The Coming Death Shortage Why the longevity boom will make us sorry to be alive
Homeland Insecurity A top expert says America's approach to protecting itself will only make matters worse. Forget "foolproof" technology—we need systems designed to fail smartly
C. F. Payne 1491 Before it became the New World, the Western Hemisphere was vastly more populous and sophisticated than has been thought.
The Heavenly Jukebox Rampant music piracy may hurt musicians less than they fear. The real threat—to listeners and, conceivably, democracy itself—is the music industry's reaction to it
Living With Linux A new cost-free and crash-free alternative to Windows and Macintosh operating systems provides freedom at a price
Who Will Own Your Next Good Idea? Some corporations want to lock up copyright even tighter. Some naive intellectuals want to abandon copyright altogether. Where is a "do-nothing" Congress now that we need one?
The Prostate Cancer Dilemma The country is embarking on a huge screening program for prostate cancer which is likely to cost billions and may lead to many unnecessary operations, especially for elderly patients. But what may be bad at the national-policy level could be a lifesaver at the individual level for men in their fifties and early sixties.


theatlantic--2020-06-24--What Happens When Kids Don’t See Their Peers for Months

Read : Tell your kids the truth about this moment The consequences of being cooped up with parents and siblings depend on age , home environment , and personality .
But the principles of child development do suggest what sorts of responses are natural and which are more worrisome .
They also predict which children might be having the hardest time and why .
When schools first closed because of COVID-19 , Sarah LeClair did not think that some time away from his second-grade classroom would be so bad for her son , Jeremy .
“ At first we had @ @ @ @ @ @ @ We could do assignments slowly , at his pace , and not trap him at the kitchen table all day , ” LeClair told me .
But after a few weeks , Jeremy , who is an only child , was clearly lonely .
Both LeClair and her husband are teachers in Bucks County , Pennsylvania , and spent much of their days this spring teaching online .
“ We don ’ t have any neighbors even that he could talk to over the fence , ” LeClair said .
“ He was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s solution was to sit in his mother ’ s office while she taught Dickens and Shakespeare to high-school juniors .
“ He had no idea what we were talking about , ” LeClair said .
“ But he was [ missing ] that let ’ s-sit-on-the-rug-and-talk-about-our-goals-for-the-day kind of feeling .
He hangs out and sits on the floor in my office just to hear kids talking.
” Being isolated at home for months is a very different prospect for an 8-year-old than it is for an 18-year-old .
Even kids of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and personalities , and their responses to quarantine will be different too .
Some children who dealt with bullying or social anxiety prior to the pandemic might have found social distancing to be a relief .
Not everyone actually wanted to go to prom .
But others with mental-health issues or a less-than-happy home environment are more likely to suffer from being out of school or camp .
“ It ’ s age-dependent , but more so it depends on what actually happens to kids when they are at home , ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Harvard , told me .
“ Little kids , in particular , are barometers of family stress.
” Read : The kids aren ’ t all right The good news is that children—especially young children—are surprisingly resilient as long as they have at least one supportive adult in their life .
Preschoolers and kids in the early elementary years need their parents more than they need their friends .
That ’ s encouraging , since virtual interactions with peers don ’ t work for many of the youngest kids .
Ryan McGillen , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Michigan , learned that lesson when he tried to set up Zoom sessions for his 4-year-old son , Max , and his preschool classmates .
They devolved into “ 13 kids all screaming at once , ” McGillen told me .
“ The most important thing that all children need is a sense of safety , ” Jack Shonkoff , a pediatrician who directs Harvard ’ s Center on the Developing Child , told me .
“ The younger you are , the more that sense of safety comes from adults who @ @ @ @ @ @ @ security comes from routine .
Children “ are very reliant upon consistent , predictable experiences , ” Jones said .
Even small changes in routine can show up in children ’ s behavior .
For example , when McGillen and his ex-wife arranged for Max to spend the day at one home and the night at the other , to better balance working remotely and parenting , Max started to throw more tantrums .
Now Max spends his days and nights in the same home and has a visual schedule as well .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ to his usual routine will help Max regain his equilibrium .

Had the spring of 2020 gone as planned, a day in the life of an average child would have meant actual classrooms, baseball games, middle-school plays, and birthday parties where kids ate too much cake instead of waving from the back seat as a parent drove them past their friend’s house, honking the horn. There would have been jokes and whispers in hallways, cafeterias, gyms, and school buses. As he finished his junior year of high school, my 17-year-old son, Alex, didn’t just miss engineering projects; he missed walking to school with Charlie, grabbing lunch with Johnny or Callan, perfecting his jump shot with Evan and Elliott. He should have been going to movies on Friday nights and flirting at parties on Saturday nights.
Time with other children is a crucial piece of growing up. Relationships with peers are how kids learn about cooperation, trust, and loyalty, as well as how to not just receive support from their parents, but also give it to others. Thanks to the coronavirus pandemic and the measures that parents, schools, and governments have put in place to limit its spread, millions of children across the United States are missing out on friendship. Summer doesn’t necessarily promise much relief, as plans for camp and other activities, such as Alex’s travel basketball tournaments, are also disrupted.
Read: Tell your kids the truth about this moment
The consequences of being cooped up with parents and siblings depend on age, home environment, and personality. But the principles of child development do suggest what sorts of responses are natural and which are more worrisome. They also predict which children might be having the hardest time and why.
When schools first closed because of COVID-19, Sarah LeClair did not think that some time away from his second-grade classroom would be so bad for her son, Jeremy. “At first we had the idea he could play outside. We could do assignments slowly, at his pace, and not trap him at the kitchen table all day,” LeClair told me. But after a few weeks, Jeremy, who is an only child, was clearly lonely. Both LeClair and her husband are teachers in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and spent much of their days this spring teaching online. “We don’t have any neighbors even that he could talk to over the fence,” LeClair said. “He was desperate for human contact.”
Jeremy’s solution was to sit in his mother’s office while she taught Dickens and Shakespeare to high-school juniors. “He had no idea what we were talking about,” LeClair said. “But he was [missing] that let’s-sit-on-the-rug-and-talk-about-our-goals-for-the-day kind of feeling. He hangs out and sits on the floor in my office just to hear kids talking.”
Being isolated at home for months is a very different prospect for an 8-year-old than it is for an 18-year-old. Even kids of the same age have different interests, needs, and personalities, and their responses to quarantine will be different too. Some children who dealt with bullying or social anxiety prior to the pandemic might have found social distancing to be a relief. Not everyone actually wanted to go to prom. But others with mental-health issues or a less-than-happy home environment are more likely to suffer from being out of school or camp. “It’s age-dependent, but more so it depends on what actually happens to kids when they are at home,” Stephanie Jones, a developmental psychologist at Harvard, told me. “Little kids, in particular, are barometers of family stress.”
Read: The kids aren’t all right
The good news is that children—especially young children—are surprisingly resilient as long as they have at least one supportive adult in their life. Preschoolers and kids in the early elementary years need their parents more than they need their friends. That’s encouraging, since virtual interactions with peers don’t work for many of the youngest kids. Ryan McGillen, a 37-year-old divorced father in Clinton Township, Michigan, learned that lesson when he tried to set up Zoom sessions for his 4-year-old son, Max, and his preschool classmates. They devolved into “13 kids all screaming at once,” McGillen told me.
“The most important thing that all children need is a sense of safety,” Jack Shonkoff, a pediatrician who directs Harvard’s Center on the Developing Child, told me. “The younger you are, the more that sense of safety comes from adults who care for you.” Some of that security comes from routine. Children “are very reliant upon consistent, predictable experiences,” Jones said. Even small changes in routine can show up in children’s behavior. For example, when McGillen and his ex-wife arranged for Max to spend the day at one home and the night at the other, to better balance working remotely and parenting, Max started to throw more tantrums. Now Max spends his days and nights in the same home and has a visual schedule as well. His parents are hoping that the return to his usual routine will help Max regain his equilibrium.
Early adolescents are less likely to benefit from the security that comes from being with their parents, because around the age of 10 or 11, children’s social lives take on increasing developmental significance. The social skills crucial to this life stage can’t be taught by reading or Zoom lessons. “It’s like a sport. You need to practice,” Ronald Dahl, a pediatrician who founded the Center for the Developing Adolescent at UC Berkeley, told me. Under normal circumstances, children come by that practice by interacting with one another. “They have a natural affinity for learning about not just their peers and those strong friendships, but it’s about ‘me’ in relationship to others,” Dahl said. Kids want to figure out who they trust, who likes them, and how to find a niche where they can shine. That aspect of growing up kicks into high gear in the middle-school years. It is also something that many kids have had to put on hold during the pandemic.
Eleven-year-old Ella Muse, a passionate dancer who lives in Marietta, Georgia, is an apt example. Ella was devastated when her dance classes were canceled. It did not help that before COVID-19, Ella’s fourth-grade year had been rocky socially. She is deaf and uses cochlear implants, something she is just beginning to accept. “Nuance and social cues are challenging [for her] sometimes,” her mother, Carianne Tucker, told me, but Ella still cares immensely about what others think of her. Ella went into the shutdown without her favorite activity or a tight group of friends she could easily keep in touch with outside of remote classroom time. The social isolation has been much more difficult for her than it has been for her 7-year-old brother and 13-year-old sister, who has some social anxiety and experienced the shutdown as a bit of a relief.
The significance of children like Ella hitting pause on the social and emotional practice they were getting in school and in their extracurricular activities is unclear. Scientists have yet to quantify the sensitive periods of learning for this particular set of skills. And the consequences depend on how long the disruptions last. If, by the fall, school is relatively back to normal, this time away may turn out to be just a small speed bump. “Even if some of the learning happens three or six months later than it would have, that’s not likely to have a big effect,” Dahl said. Even if more waves of infection occur and the separation from peers drags on, he said, children won’t be permanently set back. But some might be slightly delayed in forming their identities, finding their passions, and forging the friendships that often go with them.
In some ways, the hardest-hit groups are older adolescents and young adults, who are meant to be actively separating from their parents. Instead, they are moving back home. During quarantine, Lisa Acker’s three college-age sons all headed back to their parents’ New Jersey home. Acker has noticed that their social lives have suffered. “If I say, ‘What would you be doing?,’ they say, ‘I’d be going to house parties, dorm parties, concerts. I’d be with my girlfriend,’” she told me. “When they do reach out to people, they have nothing to talk about.”
Read: How the coronavirus is influencing children’s play
Children of all ages, of course, can have bigger problems than being at loose ends and missing their friends. That all-important sense of security might be harder to achieve for families who were thrown into severe economic straits by the shutdown and have had to worry about basic needs such as food, shelter, and medical care. For such families, Jones said, the best way to support the kids is to make sure that support is available for the parents in the form of food banks, unemployment benefits, public clinics, and the like.
In some kids, the loneliness brought on by social isolation might turn into depression or other mental-health issues. The time to worry, says Elizabeth Schwarz, a child psychiatrist in New York City, is when kids display extremes in behavior, such as sleeping all the time or not at all, increased irritability, and changes in weight. One mother in Walnut Creek, California, who asked that I not use her name to protect her family’s privacy, was shocked when, the week after shelter-in-place orders went into effect in California, her 15-year-old daughter handed her a letter revealing that she was bulimic. For the teenager, the pandemic brought with it a confluence of stressful events—a disappointment in a school election, fear of losing her 104-year-old great-grandmother, a breakup with her boyfriend. Normally, her mother told me, she’d be able to channel the stress through activities and socializing. But because of the pandemic, “she had things right and left [fall] off of her calendar.” Fortunately, the family has been able to get good medical and counseling support for their daughter. And in a strange twist, the pandemic has enforced space and time for recovery.
Even for parents whose kids seem to be handling things well, the transition to summer brings more uncertainty. Different families, counties, and states are living with very different rules, as well as different levels of willingness to abide by those rules. “Can we just be honest? I’m freaking out about what everyone will do,” Jones said of her own two children. The best that adults can do for children is provide some certainty within the uncertainty. Kids’ need for routine and a sense that the adults in their life can keep them safe applies to summer fun too. “Parents can say, ‘If things open up in two weeks, you’ll go to camp,’” Schwarz said. “‘If they don’t, we will get a slip-and-slide.’” Some public-health experts have also begun to suggest that two isolating families can come together, allowing children and adults to socialize with a slightly increased but still limited risk.
And everyone stuck at home—who is old enough—should continue to acknowledge that this enforced togetherness is unusual. The Acker boys, for example, have brought their college habits back to New Jersey, making mac and cheese and eggs for dinner at 1 a.m., which led their mother to set some new ground rules in the kitchen. During a tense family moment recently, the oldest son, Ian, 22, who had planned to stay in San Francisco after his college graduation in May, looked at his mother and said, “I’m not even supposed to be here.” She realized he was right. “I thought, That’s so true,” she told me. “Let’s just start with that.”


Joe Pinsker

Joe Pinsker is a staff writer at The Atlantic , where he covers families and relationships .
• What America Asks of Working Parents Is Impossible More and more , the goals of being a dedicated employee and being a dedicated parent seem to be in conflict .
• America Is Already Different Than It Was Two Weeks Ago The flurry of recent changes demonstrates how quickly they can be made when those in power have the will to make them .
• I Didn ’ t Have Any Graduation Wisdom .
So I Asked 19 Smart People Instead .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ a Buddhist teacher , and others have to say to the class of 2020 • The Misfortune of Graduating in 2020 The current economic conditions could take this year ’ s grads 10 years or more to recover from .
• If Someone Shares the ‘ Plandemic ’ Video , How Should You Respond ?
Experts provide scripts to help you push back as effectively as possible .
• Can I eat at a restaurant ?
Can I go shopping ?
Can I hug my friends again ?
Experts weigh in .
• @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Now Six experts explain how to recognize the many new faces of grief during a pandemic .
• The New White Lies of Lockdown Spotty Wi-Fi , an upcoming meal , another Zoom happy hour—people are coming up with new excuses for ending social interactions .
• The Pandemic Will Cleave America in Two Some will emerge from this crisis disrupted and shaken , but ultimately stable .
Others will come out of it with much more lasting scars .
• The Four Possible Timelines for Life Returning to Normal The coronavirus outbreak @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , but some elements of pre-pandemic life will likely be won back in the meantime .
• What Do You Tell Someone Who Still Won ’ t Stay Home ?
A guide to convincing your loved ones to take the coronavirus pandemic seriously • Last weekend , hordes of Americans still turned out to dine and drink , the coronavirus be damned .
• The Art of Socializing During a Quarantine Being cooped up at home will likely prompt feelings of loneliness no matter what , but these strategies might help make the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s Nursing Homes Are Bracing for an Outbreak As the disease caused by the coronavirus has spread in a nursing home near Seattle , other facilities around the country are implementing plans to mitigate risk .
• How to Think About the Plummeting Stock Market No one knows exactly how much damage the coronavirus will do to the global economy , but investors have to guess .

Joe Pinsker is a former staff writer at The Atlantic.
Joe joined The Atlantic in 2013, and covered business and economics before helping launch The Atlantic’s Family section. He often wrote about work, leisure, and human behavior.
Katie Martin / The Atlantic; Getty Reporting on Parenthood Has Made Me Nervous About Having Kids I’m excited to be a dad someday. But after seeing how stressed and under-supported American parents are, I’m also apprehensive.
Brian Finke / Gallery Stock The Economic Principle That Helps Me Order at Restaurants If you’re just eating one dish, you’re missing out.
Brian Finke / Gallery Stock Why Must We Work So Hard Before Vacation? The period before time off can be so intense that people need, well, a vacation to recover from it.
Julian Baumann / Connected Archives The Case for Dating a Friend The warmth and care of an existing friendship is a great foundation for a romantic relationship—even if it feels scary to take the leap.
Roy Hsu / Getty A Simple Fix for a Better Marriage Proposal One partner—any partner—proposes. Later, the other one does too.
Katie Martin / The Atlantic; Getty Lessons From 40 Men in Egalitarian Relationships In many households, men think like helpers and women think like managers. A gender expert’s new book suggests ways for couples to escape that dynamic.
Paul Spella / The Atlantic; Getty ‘This Is the Price We Pay to Live in This Kind of Society’ Seeing news of mass shooting after mass shooting can produce both a stress response and a cynical sense that nothing will change.
Gabriela Pesqueira / The Atlantic What Is Life Like When We Subtract Work From It? Sabbaticals can give people an invaluable opportunity to rest and reflect on their identity beyond their job.
Tom Bingham A Mathematical Formula for the Right Time to Show Up at a Party We made an interactive calculator—with help from a mathematician—that bypasses the confusion about what “fashionably late” means and tells you definitively when to arrive.
Katie Martin / The Atlantic A Smarter Way to Divide Chores? Couples who share every task, rather than having their own separate to-do lists, tend to be more satisfied with their relationship.
Getty; The Atlantic Should Couples Merge Their Finances? Couples’ choices about how to share money require trade-offs between togetherness and autonomy.
Getty; Paul Spella / The Atlantic How Homeownership Changes You It’s not just a financial commitment. It can alter people’s relationships to a community, a place, and even time.
Getty; Paul Spella / The Atlantic How Can Individual People Most Help Ukraine? Anything helps—we shouldn’t overthink it. But we should still, well, think it.
Getty; The Atlantic Changing Clocks Is Annoying. The Alternatives Are Too. The Senate is proposing to make daylight saving time permanent. Is that the best option?
The Atlantic Our Brains Want the Story of the Pandemic to Be Something It Isn’t After two years of living with the coronavirus, we’re suffering from “narrative fatigue.”
Maggie Shannon / The New York Times / … Now Is as Good a Time as There’ll Ever Be to Leave Your Pandemic Bubble As Omicron recedes, the COVID-cautious can reassess what’s possible. It’s time to figure out a way to live that feels sustainable in the long term.
H. Armstrong Roberts / ClassicStock / Getty The Dark Side of Saying Work Is ‘Like a Family’ The analogy is accurate—in many unhealthy, manipulative, and toxic ways.
Constance Bannister Corp / Getty The Age of the Unique Baby Name Parents used to want kids to fit in. Now they want them to stand out.
Getty; The Atlantic When Will Be a Good Time to Buy a House? There won’t be a perfect moment anytime soon—but that shouldn’t stop you if you’re ready.


theatlantic--2020-03-10--Give People Money Immediately

Give People Money Immediately

Financial markets are in meltdown mode as the coronavirus courses rapidly and all too undetectably throughout the world .
But there is a simple thing the U.S. government can do right now , which would both slow the viral spread and limit the economic harm .
Perhaps that intervention strikes you as a non sequitur .
Dollar bills aren ’ t medicine , COVID-19 doesn ’ t discriminate by income , and—to be emphatically clear—the most important interventions to contain the virus itself are in the realm of public health , including expanding the availability of free and accurate testing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the ill , and isolating infected individuals .
Annie Lowrey : The stock market is tanking .
Do nothing .
But the U.S. also needs financial help , immediately .
Perhaps that is why President Donald Trump is reportedly considering measures to bolster the economy , even as he claims that the disease is no more threatening than the seasonal flu .
To see why the U.S. needs a stimulus package , look at Austin .
The city ’ s wise decision to cancel the SXSW festival is devastating , wiping out nearly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The city ’ s “ conference economy ” is large and diverse , including security staff , tech crews , caterers , ride-hailing drivers , and hotel and restaurant staff .
Thousands of people will lose an economic windfall they plan for all year .
If they fall behind on rent or can ’ t pay utility bills next month , they ’ ll pull back spending on grocery stores and clothing outlets .
The SXSW cancellation will reverberate throughout the region .

The mayhem wrought by the coronavirus is unique and complex. But there is at least one simple and necessary economic response: stimulus.
Financial markets are in meltdown mode as the coronavirus courses rapidly and all too undetectably throughout the world. But there is a simple thing the U.S. government can do right now, which would both slow the viral spread and limit the economic harm.
Give people and companies money.
Perhaps that intervention strikes you as a non sequitur. Dollar bills aren’t medicine, COVID-19 doesn’t discriminate by income, and—to be emphatically clear—the most important interventions to contain the virus itself are in the realm of public health, including expanding the availability of free and accurate testing kits, increasing our capacity to treat the ill, and isolating infected individuals.
Annie Lowrey: The stock market is tanking. Do nothing.
But the U.S. also needs financial help, immediately. Perhaps that is why President Donald Trump is reportedly considering measures to bolster the economy, even as he claims that the disease is no more threatening than the seasonal flu.
To see why the U.S. needs a stimulus package, look at Austin. The city’s wise decision to cancel the SXSW festival is devastating, wiping out nearly $1 billion in economic activity. The city’s “conference economy” is large and diverse, including security staff, tech crews, caterers, ride-hailing drivers, and hotel and restaurant staff. Thousands of people will lose an economic windfall they plan for all year. If they fall behind on rent or can’t pay utility bills next month, they’ll pull back spending on grocery stores and clothing outlets. The SXSW cancellation will reverberate throughout the region.
Austin’s SXSW experience does not augur well for the U.S. economy. If the virus continues to spread, it will act as a sort of tax on group formation and physical-space community. Every component of the tourism economy will falter, including airlines, hotels, restaurants, museums, and amusement parks. As more Americans self-quarantine, ride-share and taxi drivers will lose income and gas stations will struggle. With their income pinched, workers in each of those fields will spend less in the economy.
Read: The problem with telling sick workers to stay home
Basic macroeconomic theory says there are two ways to address a crisis like this.
The first is monetary policy, which would typically mean central banks cutting short-term interest rates to stimulate economic activity. But interest rates are already at historic lows, which reflects a need for other forms of stimulus.
The second is fiscal policy. That means the U.S. government giving people and firms money—either without strings attached or for earmarked purposes, such as building infrastructure. With long-term interest rates under 1 percent, borrowers are essentially paying the U.S. to hold on to their money. The federal government could use this opportunity to do a number of things, such as finance green infrastructure. But first, it should pass a massive fiscal stimulus to confront the economic effects of the viral outbreak.
Read: What you can do right now about the coronavirus
What might an Antiviral Stimulus look like? Here are four ideas:
Cold, hard cash. Giving Americans money should make them more willing to withdraw from work, more comfortable about an extended break from public life, and more stable if their line of work is threatened by the epidemic. In 2008, George W. Bush signed an economic stimulus that mailed checks to families within six weeks of the bill’s passage. The White House could do a beefed-up version of that stimulus by writing every adult a check for $1,500 with an extra $1,000 per child.
Instead, the Trump administration has proposed a payroll-tax cut. Although that’s a fast way to get workers money, the largest benefits of such a plan would flow to upper-middle-class workers, who can often do their jobs remotely. The front line of the epidemic is the leisure and hospitality sector, where low-wage workers constantly interact with people face-to-face. What these workers really need is universal paid sick leave. Paid sick leave. Before the coronavirus outbreak, the lack of paid sick leave in this country was merely morally indefensible. During a viral outbreak, it’s also just plain dumb. As Amanda Mull has written for The Atlantic, millions of American workers cannot take time off in the event of an illness, which means they are encouraged to remain at work, where they become unwitting vectors of mass contamination. Fortunately, a solution may be imminent. White House advisers have reportedly briefed the president on such a policy, and House Democrats plan to introduce guaranteed sick leave for certain workers in a forthcoming bill. Even if this bill passes, however, Washington will still have to deal with likely increases in unemployment. Expanded unemployment insurance. Unless we get very lucky, the epidemic will cost many thousands of people their jobs at the same time that their families are either going through a medical emergency or feeling terrified that illness is imminent. The federal government jointly funds jobless benefits with the states, but in this crisis, Washington should fully fund a large increase in the dollar amounts of unemployment insurance. This would help stabilize the finances of individuals and families who lose their jobs on account of a viral recession. Emergency funds for state and local governments. A large part of the 2009 stimulus was earmarked for states and cities to make up for the tax revenue they would lose after employees lost their jobs. A sharp recession in 2020 will require the same intervention. In this crisis, emergency funds could also help states pay for expanded health-care treatment, because 10 percent of state spending goes to hospitals.
In an outbreak, public-health interventions are the most effective stimulus. In many ways, though, giving people money is a public-health intervention. More than 10 percent of Americans skip doctor appointments even when they feel sick, because they don’t think they can afford it. In the next few weeks, the Trump administration may have to request that Americans withdraw from public life—to “cancel everything.” This request to engage in economically damaging activity may be more palatable for many families if it comes with a financial package that compensates them for the damage.
In a precarious economy where millions of people feel like they have to work to survive, more Americans will insist on going to work even as they show signs of illness, which means more Americans will be infected, and sick patients will overwhelm America’s hospitals. Until the disease is in national remission, the country’s workers, parents, and, children will require a variety of interventions, but there is only one thing that will help every single one of them. It’s money.


Ben Rhodes

Ben Rhodes is a former deputy national security adviser to Barack Obama .
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• The 9/11 Era Is Over The coronavirus pandemic and a chapter of history that should have expired long ago • How Trump Designed His White House to Fail Every president chooses how to manage the flow of information .
The consequences of Trump ’ s decisions are now becoming apparent .
• To keep his promise to kill an achievement of Obama ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ break his promise to get us out of wars in the Middle East .
• The disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi drives home the consequences of the Trump administration ’ s refusal to champion democratic values around the globe .
• Inside the White House During the Syrian 'Red Line ' Crisis We in the Obama administration stepped up to the brink of military action against Assad .
And then , suddenly , we stepped back .
• The architect of Obama 's Cuba opening argues that the president ’ s rollback is a @ @ @

Ben Rhodes is the author of After the Fall: Being American in the World We Made. He is a former speechwriter and deputy national security adviser to Barack Obama.
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Ray Stubblebine / Reuters The 9/11 Era Is Over The coronavirus pandemic and a chapter of history that should have expired long ago
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White House / Reuters Inside the White House During the Syrian 'Red Line' Crisis We in the Obama administration stepped up to the brink of military action against Assad. And then, suddenly, we stepped back.


Rachel Monroe

Rachel Monroe is a contributing writer at The Atlantic and the author of Savage Appetites : Four True Stories of Women , Crime , and Obsession • Who Has the Right to Shelter in a Small Town ?
People are fleeing big cities for rural areas in an attempt to outrun COVID-19 .
In Marfa , Texas , that has divided the community .
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But his friends knew him better than that , and they refused to let him simply disappear .
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Try not to look away .
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Now he ’ s trying to make it by selling tales that are true .
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Then his victims banded together to take him down .
• A Map @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Brain Technology that compares your brain ’ s electrical activity to everyone else ’ s could revolutionize mental-health treatments—or worsen people ’ s obsessions with perfection .

Rachel Monroe is a contributing writer at The Atlantic and the author of Savage Appetites: Four True Stories of Women, Crime, and Obsession
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Courtesy of Matthew Cox / The Atlantic The Con Man Who Became a True-Crime Writer In his old life, Matthew Cox told stories to scam his way into millions of dollars. Now he’s trying to make it by selling tales that are true.
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theatlantic--2020-04-30--The Coronavirus Conspiracy Boom

The Coronavirus Conspiracy Boom

Read : What you need to know about the coronavirus Mainstream coronavirus conspiracy theories come in two varieties : those that doubt the virus ’ s severity and those that suggest it might be a bioweapon .
The former was endorsed by President Trump , who , early in the pandemic , referred to the virus as the Democrats ’ “ new hoax.
” Even though he has taken the virus more seriously since mid-March , he has yet to explicitly condemn the idea that the threat of the virus has been exaggerated , or to encourage like-minded partisans in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Indeed , conservative-media personalities continue to cast doubt on the reality of the pandemic , even as the death toll rises .
Rush Limbaugh , for instance , suggested that our public-health officials are deep-state operatives and might not even be health experts .
Some conservative commentators have pushed the theory that our hospitals aren ’ t actually treating any COVID-19 patients , going so far as to encourage people to stake out local hospitals and film the number of patients going in and out .
The second type of coronavirus conspiracy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ disseminated by foreign powers , such as China or Russia , or by billionaire philanthropists such as George Soros and Bill Gates : Maybe China created or was working with this strain of coronavirus in a laboratory , and that the virus escaped by accident , or maybe Gates and the World Health Organization are at work on some nefarious plot to “ control , and rule the world ” with vaccines .
A particularly disruptive version of this conspiracy theory connects the virus to 5G technology ; it has driven believers to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ weeks .
To see how much traction these two central variants of coronavirus conspiracy theories were receiving in the earlier stages of the pandemic , we polled a representative sample of 2,023 Americans from March 17 to 19 about their beliefs in these and many other conspiracy theories .
We also asked survey respondents about their party affiliation and ideological leanings , as well as questions designed to capture relevant worldviews .
Read : An unprecedented divide between red and blue America Because the pandemic , and reactions from federal and state governments @ @ @ @ @ @ @ note that our results are but a single snapshot of what we expect to be a lengthy timeline .
That said , conspiracy beliefs about COVID-19 were likely more influential at the outset of the pandemic , when our survey was conducted , and when social distancing , hand-washing , and other preventive measures—the types of behaviors discouraged by conspiracy beliefs—had the greatest potential to mitigate the spread of the virus .
For that reason , our results are instructive for understanding the maximum impact of coronavirus conspiracy beliefs .

COVID-19 has created a perfect storm for conspiracy theorists. Here we have a global pandemic, a crashing economy, social isolation, and restrictive government policies: All of these can cause feelings of extreme anxiety, powerlessness, and stress, which in turn encourage conspiracy beliefs. For more than a month, an urban legend that the pandemic was predicted in an early-’80s Dean Koontz thriller has been circulating on social media. Meanwhile, QAnon believers are circulating the “mole children” theory, which holds that the virus is a ploy to arrest members of the satanic “deep state” (Tom Hanks, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton) and to release their hostages (sex-slave children) from underneath Central Park. (Tom Hanks’s appearance on Saturday Night Live should have quelled speculation that he had been arrested for child molestation, but—in typical conspiratorial fashion—believers simply explained the irregularity away, claiming that Hanks’s monologue was a deepfake.)
But if the coronavirus pandemic is fertile ground for conspiracism, it’s also an opportunity—a rare chance for social scientists to examine just how many Americans will adopt conspiracy theories given the right set of circumstances. While laboratory experiments and public-opinion surveys are useful for understanding the basic structure of conspiracy beliefs, they can’t simulate real-world catastrophes of the kind that make conspiracy theories appealing to some people. It’s wise to step back and use these unique circumstances to consider what conspiracy theories can tell us about the media, the government, and ourselves. It turns out they can tell us a lot.
Read: What you need to know about the coronavirus
Mainstream coronavirus conspiracy theories come in two varieties: those that doubt the virus’s severity and those that suggest it might be a bioweapon. The former was endorsed by President Trump, who, early in the pandemic, referred to the virus as the Democrats’ “new hoax.” Even though he has taken the virus more seriously since mid-March, he has yet to explicitly condemn the idea that the threat of the virus has been exaggerated, or to encourage like-minded partisans in government and media to take it seriously. Indeed, conservative-media personalities continue to cast doubt on the reality of the pandemic, even as the death toll rises. Rush Limbaugh, for instance, suggested that our public-health officials are deep-state operatives and might not even be health experts. Some conservative commentators have pushed the theory that our hospitals aren’t actually treating any COVID-19 patients, going so far as to encourage people to stake out local hospitals and film the number of patients going in and out.
The second type of coronavirus conspiracy theory claims that the virus was intentionally disseminated by foreign powers, such as China or Russia, or by billionaire philanthropists such as George Soros and Bill Gates: Maybe China created or was working with this strain of coronavirus in a laboratory, and that the virus escaped by accident, or maybe Gates and the World Health Organization are at work on some nefarious plot to “control, and rule the world” with vaccines. A particularly disruptive version of this conspiracy theory connects the virus to 5G technology; it has driven believers to damage cell towers across Europe in recent weeks.
To see how much traction these two central variants of coronavirus conspiracy theories were receiving in the earlier stages of the pandemic, we polled a representative sample of 2,023 Americans from March 17 to 19 about their beliefs in these and many other conspiracy theories. We also asked survey respondents about their party affiliation and ideological leanings, as well as questions designed to capture relevant worldviews.
Read: An unprecedented divide between red and blue America
Because the pandemic, and reactions from federal and state governments, continues to evolve, we must note that our results are but a single snapshot of what we expect to be a lengthy timeline. That said, conspiracy beliefs about COVID-19 were likely more influential at the outset of the pandemic, when our survey was conducted, and when social distancing, hand-washing, and other preventive measures—the types of behaviors discouraged by conspiracy beliefs—had the greatest potential to mitigate the spread of the virus. For that reason, our results are instructive for understanding the maximum impact of coronavirus conspiracy beliefs.
Almost everyone told us that they believe in one of the 22 conspiracy theories we asked about. In fact, only 9 percent of respondents didn’t express some level of agreement with any of the 22. Fifty-four percent believe that the “1 percent” of the wealthiest Americans secretly control the government; 50 percent believe that billionaire Jeffrey Epstein was murdered to conceal his activities; 45 percent believe that the dangers of genetically modified foods are being hidden from the public; and 43 percent believe that an extrajudicial deep state is secretly embedded in our government. Partisan conspiracy theories—those that explicitly accuse members of one party of conspiring—also have strong support. Thirty-seven percent of Americans believe that Trump colluded with Russia to steal the 2016 election and that Trump is a Russian asset. Twenty-eight percent believe that Hillary Clinton provided Russia with nuclear materials, and 20 percent still believe that Barack Obama faked his citizenship to illegally usurp the presidency.
Meanwhile, 29 percent believe that the threat of the virus was being exaggerated to hurt President Trump’s chances at reelection, and 31 percent believe that the virus was created and spread on purpose. In other words, belief in coronavirus conspiracy theories is about in the middle: about 20 percentage points lower than beliefs in the Epstein and the “1 percent” theories, but about twice as high as beliefs in theories that school shootings are “false flag” events, and that the number of Jews killed in the Holocaust has been exaggerated. Other health conspiracy theories exhibit similar levels of support among the mass public: 30 percent believe that the dangers of vaccines have been concealed, and 26 percent believe as much about 5G technology.
Read: What the ‘liberate’ protests really mean for Republicans
These are troublesome numbers, but our optimistic view—given what we know about other conspiracy beliefs—is that the numbers could be much higher. Of course, more polling is needed to track the life cycle of these theories as the pandemic unfolds. But, given the unprecedented levels of stress, uncertainty, and feelings of powerlessness Americans are coping with, the numbers are likely indicative of a natural ceiling in conspiracy beliefs that will be hard to break without greater numbers of influential figures peddling them.
Where do these beliefs come from?
A common misconception is that the internet, and social media in particular, is responsible for the seeming proliferation of conspiracy theories in American political culture. But while these platforms make spreading any idea easier and more efficient, the internet is but a tool for disseminating a human concoction. For the most part, social scientists have yet to find evidence that conspiracy beliefs have increased in the internet age. Indeed, some conspiracy theories, such as those surrounding the Kennedy assassination, lost support as internet access and use spread. Instead, conspiracy beliefs have roots in fundamental elements of human psychology and interaction.
The first of those elements is group attachments. Simply put, people are prone to believing that their group is good and right, and that other, competing groups are dangerous, malicious, or otherwise wrong. For example, people tend to view politics through their own partisan or ideological lens: Their party, its members, and its priorities are correct, and the other party is incompetent or corrupt. This dynamic explains why some Republicans believe that Obama “faked” his birth certificate or that Clinton secretly dealt uranium to the Russians, just as it accounts for some Democrats’ beliefs that Trump is a Russian asset.
Read: No, the internet is not good again
These group attachments don’t operate solely from the bottom up. They can be activated by “cues”—speeches, advertisements, tweets—from their group’s leaders. If public officials or media personalities associated with a political party spread conspiracy theories, their followers are more likely to take that information to heart and adopt those beliefs. Take the theory that the effects of the coronavirus have been exaggerated to hurt Trump. This theory finds considerably more support among Republicans than Democrats, for two reasons: Republicans have much to lose in a presidential election year, and Trump and other right-wing elites have explicitly peddled the idea that COVID-19 has been exaggerated to hurt him.
The second major causal factor behind conspiracy theories is “conspiracy thinking”—a worldview that predisposes people to interpret events and information as the product of shadowy conspiracies. When activated—by information suggesting a conspiracy, or by the rhetoric of political elites, or by the anxiety brought on by an uncontrollable disaster—this latent predisposition makes conspiracies an attractive explanation for undesirable circumstances. In our poll, we measured conspiracy thinking by asking respondents to react to statements such as “The people who really ‘run’ the country, are not known to the voters.” We find that respondents who agree with sentiments such as this tend to believe more conspiracy theories, more deeply. In fact, our measure of conspiracy thinking strongly predicts beliefs in every one of the 22 specific conspiracy theories we asked respondents about. On the one hand, it’s troubling that some people so easily adopt conspiracy beliefs. On the other, many people don’t—and these people act as a firewall to the spread of conspiracy theories, giving most a natural ceiling.
Read: A new statistic reveals why America’s COVID-19 numbers are flat
Conspiracy thinking is most predictive of beliefs in specific conspiracy theories when partisan leaders don’t stake out positions, and least predictive when they do. Republican leaders have, for example, long questioned the reality of climate change, going so far as to call it a hoax. In this case, Republicanism is almost as predictive as conspiracy thinking in explaining climate-change denial. But this is not the case for conspiracy theories that have not been pulled into the political fray, such as those about AIDS, vaccines, and genetically modified foods. Should theories such as these become fodder for popular political and ideological leaders, the beliefs in them could increase rather quickly.
Under this framework, the structure of COVID-19 conspiracy theories—how widespread they are, where they come from, and what they might mean—is completely predictable. The key difference in the case of the coronavirus is the stakes. We have little reason to be concerned, for example, about the one in three Americans who thinks aliens have secretly made contact with humans. And at no point was our society in danger because nearly 80 percent of Americans once thought the Warren Commission got the details of John F. Kennedy’s assassination wrong. But the consequences of blaming the coronavirus’s emergence on the wrong source, or of doubting its seriousness, could be life-threatening on a massive scale. People who believe that the virus is a bioweapon may be more likely to engage in hoarding and other self-centered behaviors. And if the one in three Americans who believes that the effects of COVID-19 have been exaggerated choose to forgo crucial health practices, such as social distancing, frequent hand-washing, and wearing a mask, then the disease could spread faster and farther than otherwise, and could cost many thousands of lives.