vox--2020-01-26--How Sundance films are probing the mushy nature of truth and fiction in 2020

It ’ s 2020 , and many things that once seemed solid and certain now seem up for grabs .
The line between truth and fiction , reality and hyperreality , what ’ s real and what the powerful want you to believe is real , has never felt more smudged .
And that appears , in a way , to be the unofficial theme of this year ’ s Sundance Film Festival .
Some of the films classified as “ documentaries ” use techniques more commonly associated with fiction ; some of the fiction films have distinctly nonfiction qualities @ @ @ @ @ @ @ technology can create a “ reality ” that obscures what ’ s actually real — or what we lie about to ourselves and to others .
Here are 12 documentaries , fiction films , and documentary series from Sundance that unpack , explore , and sometimes use the blurry nature of truth and reality to their advantage — and ours .
In the extraordinary Bloody Nose , Empty Pockets , documentarians and brothers Bill and Turner Ross chronicle the last night of service for a Las Vegas dive bar called Roaring ’ 20s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fight and kiss , and try to face the fact that the place that felt most like it was theirs will no longer exist .
For them , it ’ s the end of the world .
But there ’ s a catch : The Ross brothers used a bar in New Orleans as a set and asked people to play characters much like themselves .
Is the movie fiction ?
Yes , technically .
Is it nonfiction ?
Not exactly .
Is it “ real ” ?
Absolutely .
Bloody Nose , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ re constantly reinventing and performing ourselves , even in our most comfortable , cherished settings — and cinema does it , too .
In 2015 , a fire in a Bucharest nightclub killed 27 people — and 37 more in the weeks that followed , due to shockingly inadequate hospital conditions that led to infections in the survivors .
Collective — named in part for the nightclub , Colectiv , and in part for the film ’ s theme of systemic failure — is an observational documentary that traces the conditions and exposes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ system as a whole .
Documentarian Alexander Nanau captures the lies told by government officials during the fallout from the fire ; eventually , their actions led to the government ’ s ( short-lived ) downfall .
Collective plays out like a chilling , slow-moving train wreck , a study in how a government gaslights its citizens into accepting conditions that would be avoidable but for greed and corruption .
Collective will be distributed by Magnolia Pictures and Participant Media in May 2020 .
Oscar-winning documentarian Bryan Fogel ( Icarus ) returns with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ filmed deep-dive into the murder of Washington Post writer Jamal Khashoggi , ordered by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman ( a.k.a .
MBS ) in 2018 .
Leaning on extensive interviews as well as news reports and audio of the assassination , which took place inside Saudi Arabia ’ s embassy in Istanbul , The Dissident is a damning journalistic case .
It takes on a regime that presents itself as progressive while actively working to control narratives about itself , sometimes via massive armies of Twitter trolls .
( One expert @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the Saudi Arabian population is on Twitter , compared with 20 percent in the US . )
The Dissident also makes clear the complicity of Donald Trump , who refused to outright condemn Khashoggi ’ s murder , and sounds an alarm bell for what Khashoggi ’ s death means for journalists around the world .
At times the film presents so much information that it can be hard to follow , but its urgency is unmistakable .
In Dick Johnson Is Dead , documentarian Kirsten Johnson ( Cameraperson ) zooms in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with him as they both begin to come to terms with his inevitable eventual passing .
The result is as playful as it is painful ; in some sequences , Johnson stages her father ’ s arrival in heaven .
In others , we ’ re not sure if we ’ re looking at something that really happened or something that ’ s imagined .
Some scenes are shot in cinéma vérité style , as Dick plays with his grandchildren , packs up his office after retiring , and talks about his late @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who had Alzheimer ’ s and died several years ago .
It ’ s an exercise in imagination and an inquiry into whether imagining the death of a loved one and their hopes for the hereafter might magnify or blunt the blow of death when it finally comes .
Dick Johnson Is Dead will premiere on Netflix later this year .
Love Fraud is absolutely unbelievable , except that it ’ s true .
Filmmakers Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady ( Jesus Camp , One of Us ) explore the stories of a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ all aggressively courted — and in many cases , married — by a con man with multiple aliases whom , over the course of the four-part documentary series , they start to track down .
Love Fraud is like The Jinx but better ; it dives deeply into the ways we are blinded to the truth , even about ourselves — and its finale is truly , chillingly unforgettable .
Love Fraud premieres on May 8 on Showtime .
You could call The Mole Agent a spy movie , but it ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , too .
Documentarian Maite Alberdi lets us in on a bit of subterfuge as Sergio , an elderly Chilean man , is “ cast ” as a new nursing home resident by Detective Romulo , who ’ s been hired to investigate the facility .
Sergio ’ s job is to infiltrate the home on behalf of Romulo ’ s client and look into whether the client ’ s mother is being abused ; meanwhile , the documentarians both follow Sergio and observe the home ’ s residents , who don ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Sergio is there .
What Sergio discovers is much bigger than one patient ’ s story and more insightful about love , loneliness , and growing old .
The Mole Agent is currently awaiting distribution .
The Nowhere Inn is a semi-fictionalized story about the hazards and constantly see-sawing power balance inherent in making a documentary .
And it ’ s a ton of mind-bending fun .
Carrie Brownstein ( of Sleater-Kinney and Portlandia ) and Annie Clark ( a.k.a .
St. Vincent ) wrote the screenplay ; each woman plays a version @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s case , several versions .
In the film ( as , presumably , in real life ) , Clark ’ s stage alter ego is a sharp-edged , take-no-prisoners performance artist , while off-stage she ’ s mild-mannered and pretty boring .
She asks Brownstein to make a documentary about her , and for a while , Brownstein coaxes Clark to be “ more ” St. Vincent to make the movie more interesting .
But when St. Vincent finally takes over Clark , things start to go haywire .
In The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to tell where reality ends and performance begins — or if all of life , in the end , really is performance .
The Nowhere Inn is currently awaiting distribution .
On the Record has been through a strange and somewhat baffling last few weeks .
Not long before its Sundance debut , Oprah rescinded her support for the film ( on which she was serving as executive producer ) while reiterating her support for the women who appear in it and allege that “ godfather of hip hop ” and Def Jam @ @ @ @ @ @ @ them .
Many of the allegations previously appeared in a 2017 New York Times article , and the reasons for Oprah ’ s withdrawal are still a little confusing .
But On the Record is absolutely damning nonetheless , and is at its best when exploring the reasons that women , and particularly black women in America , often hesitate to accuse a powerful black man of a crime like sexual assault .
On the Record is currently awaiting distribution .
The Painter and the Thief A stunner of a film , The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ young Czech painter , Barbora Kysilkova , and Karl-Bertil Nordland , the thief who stole two of her paintings from an Oslo gallery .
He was so high that he can ’ t remember why he did it — or what he did with the paintings .
Barbora ’ s less interested in the thief than in where the paintings went , but eventually she meets him and decides to paint his portrait , after which they form a friendship and creative partnership of sorts .
The Painter and the Thief actively challenges @ @ @ @ @ @ @ characters based on their appearance , class markers , or behavior .
It highlights the way artists of all kinds , from painters to filmmakers , turn reality into something that ’ s at least a little fictionalized in order to make their work — and how everyone conceals the truth a little .
The Painter and the Thief is currently awaiting distribution .
Heartbreaking and passionate , Time is the chronicle of a love deferred and the life that hope can provide .
Garrett Bradley ’ s documentary follows Fox Rich , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for the release of her husband Rob , from prison , where he ’ s been sentenced to spend 60 years following a youthful crime in which they were both involved .
Meanwhile , she ’ s been raising their six children and becoming a powerful advocate for change in her community .
And all along , Fox has made videos at home , which feel like a diary of her pain and endurance .
Time details her struggle , demonstrating how mass incarceration persistently separates black families in America , as well @ @ @ @ @ @ @ conceal the truth and pain of those separations .
People who identify as LGBTQ experience opposition and difficulty all over the world .
But in the Russian republic of Chechnya — the Putin-backed regime led by strongman Ramzan Kadyrov — the state is abducting and killing them with impunity .
Welcome to Chechnya carefully follows a number of Chechens fleeing for their lives and others who try to shelter them and provide passage to countries where they might be safe .
Directed by investigative journalist and award-winning documentarian David France , the film @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are on the run for their lives — a technique to obscure the “ truth ” that becomes all the more powerful when it suddenly becomes part of the story .
Welcome to Chechnya will be released by HBO in June .
I am reasonably confident that Zola is the first movie based on a Twitter thread to premiere at Sundance ( or possibly ever ) , and it is a humdinger .
In 2015 , stripper A ’ ziah King — who goes by Zola — told the story , in about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to Florida with a girl named Stefani ; the trip went madly , madly wrong when King discovered Stefani ’ s “ roommate ” was actually her pimp .
King later admitted some parts of her account were exaggerated , but Zola , directed by Janicza Bravo , is less interested in facts and more in storytelling , and how our perceptions of the characters are affected by who ’ s telling the story .
It ’ s wild , raunchy , and very funny , with a cast that includes Riley Keough @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a.k.a .
Succession ’ s Cousin Greg ) , and a marvelous Taylour Paige , plus a screenplay by Bravo and Slave Play writer Jeremy O. Harris .
Zola will be released later this year by A24 .

It’s 2020, and many things that once seemed solid and certain now seem up for grabs. The line between truth and fiction, reality and hyperreality, what’s real and what the powerful want you to believe is real, has never felt more smudged.
And that appears, in a way, to be the unofficial theme of this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Some of the films classified as “documentaries” use techniques more commonly associated with fiction; some of the fiction films have distinctly nonfiction qualities. Many explore the ways in which technology can create a “reality” that obscures what’s actually real — or what we lie about to ourselves and to others.
Here are 12 documentaries, fiction films, and documentary series from Sundance that unpack, explore, and sometimes use the blurry nature of truth and reality to their advantage — and ours.
In the extraordinary Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets, documentarians and brothers Bill and Turner Ross chronicle the last night of service for a Las Vegas dive bar called Roaring ’20s, as regulars come and go, fight and kiss, and try to face the fact that the place that felt most like it was theirs will no longer exist. For them, it’s the end of the world.
But there’s a catch: The Ross brothers used a bar in New Orleans as a set and asked people to play characters much like themselves. Is the movie fiction? Yes, technically. Is it nonfiction? Not exactly. Is it “real”? Absolutely.
Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets reminds us that we’re constantly reinventing and performing ourselves, even in our most comfortable, cherished settings — and cinema does it, too.
Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets is currently awaiting distribution.
Collective
In 2015, a fire in a Bucharest nightclub killed 27 people — and 37 more in the weeks that followed, due to shockingly inadequate hospital conditions that led to infections in the survivors. Collective — named in part for the nightclub, Colectiv, and in part for the film’s theme of systemic failure — is an observational documentary that traces the conditions and exposes huge deficiencies in the Romanian health care system as a whole.
Documentarian Alexander Nanau captures the lies told by government officials during the fallout from the fire; eventually, their actions led to the government’s (short-lived) downfall. Collective plays out like a chilling, slow-moving train wreck, a study in how a government gaslights its citizens into accepting conditions that would be avoidable but for greed and corruption.
Collective will be distributed by Magnolia Pictures and Participant Media in May 2020.
The Dissident
Oscar-winning documentarian Bryan Fogel (Icarus) returns with The Dissident, a searing, slickly filmed deep-dive into the murder of Washington Post writer Jamal Khashoggi, ordered by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman (a.k.a. MBS) in 2018.
Leaning on extensive interviews as well as news reports and audio of the assassination, which took place inside Saudi Arabia’s embassy in Istanbul, The Dissident is a damning journalistic case. It takes on a regime that presents itself as progressive while actively working to control narratives about itself, sometimes via massive armies of Twitter trolls. (One expert in the documentary estimates that 80 percent of the Saudi Arabian population is on Twitter, compared with 20 percent in the US.)
The Dissident also makes clear the complicity of Donald Trump, who refused to outright condemn Khashoggi’s murder, and sounds an alarm bell for what Khashoggi’s death means for journalists around the world. At times the film presents so much information that it can be hard to follow, but its urgency is unmistakable.
The Dissident is awaiting distribution.
In Dick Johnson Is Dead, documentarian Kirsten Johnson (Cameraperson) zooms in on her aging father and her relationship with him as they both begin to come to terms with his inevitable eventual passing. The result is as playful as it is painful; in some sequences, Johnson stages her father’s arrival in heaven. In others, we’re not sure if we’re looking at something that really happened or something that’s imagined. Some scenes are shot in cinéma vérité style, as Dick plays with his grandchildren, packs up his office after retiring, and talks about his late wife, Kirsten’s mother, who had Alzheimer’s and died several years ago. It’s an exercise in imagination and an inquiry into whether imagining the death of a loved one and their hopes for the hereafter might magnify or blunt the blow of death when it finally comes.
Dick Johnson Is Dead will premiere on Netflix later this year.
Love Fraud
Love Fraud is absolutely unbelievable, except that it’s true. Filmmakers Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady (Jesus Camp, One of Us) explore the stories of a shockingly high number of women who were all aggressively courted — and in many cases, married — by a con man with multiple aliases whom, over the course of the four-part documentary series, they start to track down. Love Fraud is like The Jinx but better; it dives deeply into the ways we are blinded to the truth, even about ourselves — and its finale is truly, chillingly unforgettable.
Love Fraud premieres on May 8 on Showtime.
The Mole Agent
You could call The Mole Agent a spy movie, but it’s an unusual one — and unusually poignant, too. Documentarian Maite Alberdi lets us in on a bit of subterfuge as Sergio, an elderly Chilean man, is “cast” as a new nursing home resident by Detective Romulo, who’s been hired to investigate the facility. Sergio’s job is to infiltrate the home on behalf of Romulo’s client and look into whether the client’s mother is being abused; meanwhile, the documentarians both follow Sergio and observe the home’s residents, who don’t know the whole truth about why Sergio is there. What Sergio discovers is much bigger than one patient’s story and more insightful about love, loneliness, and growing old.
The Mole Agent is currently awaiting distribution.
The Nowhere Inn
The Nowhere Inn is a semi-fictionalized story about the hazards and constantly see-sawing power balance inherent in making a documentary. And it’s a ton of mind-bending fun. Carrie Brownstein (of Sleater-Kinney and Portlandia) and Annie Clark (a.k.a. St. Vincent) wrote the screenplay; each woman plays a version of herself — and, in Clark’s case, several versions.
In the film (as, presumably, in real life), Clark’s stage alter ego is a sharp-edged, take-no-prisoners performance artist, while off-stage she’s mild-mannered and pretty boring. She asks Brownstein to make a documentary about her, and for a while, Brownstein coaxes Clark to be “more” St. Vincent to make the movie more interesting. But when St. Vincent finally takes over Clark, things start to go haywire. In The Nowhere Inn, it’s impossible to tell where reality ends and performance begins — or if all of life, in the end, really is performance.
The Nowhere Inn is currently awaiting distribution.
On the Record
On the Record has been through a strange and somewhat baffling last few weeks. Not long before its Sundance debut, Oprah rescinded her support for the film (on which she was serving as executive producer) while reiterating her support for the women who appear in it and allege that “godfather of hip hop” and Def Jam founder Russell Simmons sexually assaulted or raped them.
Many of the allegations previously appeared in a 2017 New York Times article, and the reasons for Oprah’s withdrawal are still a little confusing. But On the Record is absolutely damning nonetheless, and is at its best when exploring the reasons that women, and particularly black women in America, often hesitate to accuse a powerful black man of a crime like sexual assault.
On the Record is currently awaiting distribution.
The Painter and the Thief
A stunner of a film, The Painter and the Thief is about a young Czech painter, Barbora Kysilkova, and Karl-Bertil Nordland, the thief who stole two of her paintings from an Oslo gallery. He was so high that he can’t remember why he did it — or what he did with the paintings. Barbora’s less interested in the thief than in where the paintings went, but eventually she meets him and decides to paint his portrait, after which they form a friendship and creative partnership of sorts.
The Painter and the Thief actively challenges what we think we understand about its characters based on their appearance, class markers, or behavior. It highlights the way artists of all kinds, from painters to filmmakers, turn reality into something that’s at least a little fictionalized in order to make their work — and how everyone conceals the truth a little.
The Painter and the Thief is currently awaiting distribution.
Time
Heartbreaking and passionate, Time is the chronicle of a love deferred and the life that hope can provide. Garrett Bradley’s documentary follows Fox Rich, who has spent 21 years doggedly petitioning for the release of her husband Rob, from prison, where he’s been sentenced to spend 60 years following a youthful crime in which they were both involved.
Meanwhile, she’s been raising their six children and becoming a powerful advocate for change in her community. And all along, Fox has made videos at home, which feel like a diary of her pain and endurance. Time details her struggle, demonstrating how mass incarceration persistently separates black families in America, as well as how bureaucracy and centuries of narratives conceal the truth and pain of those separations.
Time is currently awaiting distribution.
Welcome to Chechnya
People who identify as LGBTQ experience opposition and difficulty all over the world. But in the Russian republic of Chechnya — the Putin-backed regime led by strongman Ramzan Kadyrov — the state is abducting and killing them with impunity. Welcome to Chechnya carefully follows a number of Chechens fleeing for their lives and others who try to shelter them and provide passage to countries where they might be safe.
Directed by investigative journalist and award-winning documentarian David France, the film digitally obscures the faces of people who are on the run for their lives — a technique to obscure the “truth” that becomes all the more powerful when it suddenly becomes part of the story.
Welcome to Chechnya will be released by HBO in June.
Zola
I am reasonably confident that Zola is the first movie based on a Twitter thread to premiere at Sundance (or possibly ever), and it is a humdinger. In 2015, stripper A’ziah King — who goes by Zola — told the story, in about 144 tweets, of a strange-but-true trip to Florida with a girl named Stefani; the trip went madly, madly wrong when King discovered Stefani’s “roommate” was actually her pimp.
King later admitted some parts of her account were exaggerated, but Zola, directed by Janicza Bravo, is less interested in facts and more in storytelling, and how our perceptions of the characters are affected by who’s telling the story. It’s wild, raunchy, and very funny, with a cast that includes Riley Keough, Colman Domingo, Nicholas Braun (a.k.a. Succession’s Cousin Greg), and a marvelous Taylour Paige, plus a screenplay by Bravo and Slave Play writer Jeremy O. Harris.
Zola will be released later this year by A24.


vox--2020-01-26--NBA star Kobe Bryant has died in a helicopter crash

Former Los Angeles Lakers player Kobe Bryant , 41 , and his daughter Gianna , 13 , died in a helicopter crash Sunday morning , according to TMZ Sports and ESPN .
The helicopter , which crashed in Calabasas , California , around 10 am PT , had at least nine people on board .
The LA County Sheriff ’ s Department confirmed that there were no survivors .
The Los Angeles Times reports the crash caused a bush fire that made it difficult for firefighters to reach the vehicle .
The cause of the crash is still under investigation @ @ @ @ @ @ @ may have made navigation difficult for the helicopter ’ s pilot .
Bryant was a five-time NBA champion with the LA Lakers , a team with which he spent his entire 20-year basketball career , until his retirement in 2016 .
He became the youngest player to score 30,000 points at the age of 34 .
And he is expected to be inducted in the Hall of Fame in the near future ; a player generally must be retired for at least four full seasons to qualify .
His death led to an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , including from NBA commissioner Adam Silver , who said Bryant “ will be remembered most for inspiring people around the world to pick up a basketball and compete to the very best of their ability.
” Gianna was an aspiring basketball star herself ; Bryant told ABC ’ s Jimmy Kimmel in 2018 that she hoped to play in the WNBA when she was older , and that he believed she would do so .
Bryant proudly told Kimmel about Gianna ’ s reaction whenever fans approached his family and told him @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his on-court legacy : “ She ’ s like , ‘ Oh wait , I got this !
’ ” Following his retirement , Bryant spent time as a youth basketball coach — including as a coach to Gianna and her team — and won an Oscar for his animated short film , Dear Basketball .
Bryant was accused of sexual assault in 2003 by a 19-year-old woman in Colorado .
He denied the allegation , claiming the encounter had been consensual .
His accuser did not want to testify , and the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The allegation resurfaced during Bryant ’ s Oscar campaign in 2018 , and he was removed as a film festival juror at the request of activists over the issue .
Correction : An earlier version of this article misstated the number of passengers initially reported to have been killed in the crash .
We regret the error .

Former Los Angeles Lakers player Kobe Bryant, 41, and his daughter Gianna, 13, died in a helicopter crash Sunday morning, according to TMZ Sports and ESPN.
The helicopter, which crashed in Calabasas, California, around 10 am PT, had at least nine people on board. The LA County Sheriff’s Department confirmed that there were no survivors.
The Los Angeles Times reports the crash caused a bush fire that made it difficult for firefighters to reach the vehicle. The cause of the crash is still under investigation, though the Times reports foggy conditions may have made navigation difficult for the helicopter’s pilot.
Bryant was a five-time NBA champion with the LA Lakers, a team with which he spent his entire 20-year basketball career, until his retirement in 2016. He became the youngest player to score 30,000 points at the age of 34. And he is expected to be inducted in the Hall of Fame in the near future; a player generally must be retired for at least four full seasons to qualify.
His death led to an outpouring of condolences and statements of support, including from NBA commissioner Adam Silver, who said Bryant “will be remembered most for inspiring people around the world to pick up a basketball and compete to the very best of their ability.”
Gianna was an aspiring basketball star herself; Bryant told ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel in 2018 that she hoped to play in the WNBA when she was older, and that he believed she would do so.
Bryant proudly told Kimmel about Gianna’s reaction whenever fans approached his family and told him to have a boy to carry on his on-court legacy: “She’s like, ‘Oh wait, I got this!’”
Greatness ran in his family’s blood.
Watch this video of Kobe talking about his daughter Gianna: pic.twitter.com/Ei676vZ3Mv — CJ Pearson (@thecjpearson) January 26, 2020
Following his retirement, Bryant spent time as a youth basketball coach — including as a coach to Gianna and her team — and won an Oscar for his animated short film, Dear Basketball.
Bryant was accused of sexual assault in 2003 by a 19-year-old woman in Colorado. He denied the allegation, claiming the encounter had been consensual. His accuser did not want to testify, and the matter was settled out of court. The allegation resurfaced during Bryant’s Oscar campaign in 2018, and he was removed as a film festival juror at the request of activists over the issue.
Correction: An earlier version of this article misstated the number of passengers initially reported to have been killed in the crash. We regret the error.


vox--2020-01-26--Hundreds of Amazon employees plan to risk their jobs this week by violating company policy

Hundreds of Amazon employees are going to risk losing their jobs in an unprecedented , coordinated effort this week : They plan to openly criticize the e-commerce giant ’ s business practices , Recode has learned .
The move is a direct challenge to Amazon ’ s recent reported threat to fire climate change activists within the company who allegedly violated a corporate rule that prohibits employees from speaking publicly about the company without prior approval .
“ Is it fair to silence Amazon employees who speak up ?
” says the subject line of an email employee organizers sent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ company listservs and messaging platforms last week .
The note , obtained by Recode , asks employees to either write their own comments or to sign prewritten statements about the company that either condemn or approve of Amazon ’ s practices , including those related to sustainability , immigration , and warehouse working conditions .
Once organizers gather at least 100 such comments , they plan to post them publicly on Medium , according to the email .
Under Amazon ’ s external communications policy , employees could be punished for publicly speaking @ @ @ @ @ @ @ And that ’ s part of the plan : The organizers believe that if hundreds of employees band together , there will be “ strength in numbers , ” and the company won ’ t punish dissenters as easily .
According to reporting by the Washington Post , over 330 employees plan to participate .
Organizers did not respond to a request for comment from Recode .
“ Let ’ s all speak up publicly and violate this policy together , making it unenforceable .
Quotes about Amazon ’ s business can be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ violates the policy , ” the email says .
“ Of course , do NOT share confidential information.
” The employees plan to brazenly disobey what they view as a muzzling corporate rule that forces employees to give up “ their basic humanity and integrity in order to be employees , ” according to the email .
It ’ s the latest sign of rank-and-file employees at tech companies , including Google and Microsoft , organizing collectively for greater influence on major company decisions .
And it demonstrates how even Amazon — historically @ @ @ @ @ @ @ politicized over the increasingly high-stakes social impact of global tech companies ’ day-to-day business affairs .
An Amazon spokesperson sent the following comment in response to Recode ’ s question about if it ’ s aware of employees ’ organizing and how the company plans to respond if employees speak out : “ While all employees are welcome to engage constructively with any of the many teams inside Amazon that work on sustainability and other topics , we do enforce our external communications policy , and will not allow employees to publicly disparage @ @ @ @ @ @ @ work of their colleagues who are developing solutions to these hard problems.
” In the past few years , some Amazon employees have grown increasingly critical of the company ’ s expansion of its business with major oil and gas companies , its marketing of controversial facial recognition software to police departments , and its bidding on a major US defense contract that would use Amazon ’ s technology for warfare .
For certain employees , business practices like these aren ’ t what they signed up for when they came to work @ @ @ @ @ @ @ concerns have prompted debates — at first internal but increasingly external — about the projects .
So far , the company hasn ’ t said much publicly about the growing rank-and-file worker dissent on these issues , which have become an increasing concern for some of Amazon 's employees and those at other major tech companies , such as Google and Microsoft .
Back in 2018 , Bezos defended tech companies ’ work with the Pentagon , despite waves of backlash from employees .
On the topic of sustainability , he ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reduce its carbon footprint , and said the company would take a “ hard look ” at whether its political donations would go to “ active climate deniers.
” But he said Amazon will continue to work with oil and gas companies — something that many employees take issue with .
A spokesperson for Amazon sent the following statement , in part , in response to a question about workers ’ organizing : “ We know our employees are passionate about climate change , we are too – we founded the Climate Pledge @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 2040 , which is ten years ahead of the Paris Agreement , and we plan to be using 100 % renewable energy by 2030.
” Last month , the Washington Post reported that Amazon management privately threatened to fire at least two employees for criticizing the company ’ s environmental policies in the press .
The workers are members of an internal group of Amazon employees , Amazon Employees for Climate Justice , which helped organize participation in a historic global climate strike in September .
Amazon said the employees were violating its @ @ @ @ @ @ @ which requires employees to get company approval before they can speak to the media about the company .
In September , soon after Amazon employees announced their participation in a climate protest , the company told employees that it had updated its company policy on external communications .
Previously , employees had to receive approval through email from a company senior vice president if they wanted to speak to the press .
Since the change , employees now have to receive approval by making a request through a form on a company intranet @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a “ business justification ” for their request .
While Amazon says the policy makes it easier for employees to talk to the press , some say the company is using the policy as a way to silence internal debates — and that in the past , Amazon only selectively enforced this policy .
The company has denied these claims ; in a statement to Recode last month , Amazon said its warnings to the employees in question were “ part of the normal business practice of alerting employees when they may have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ policy.
” Employees ’ new organizing effort this week takes direct aim this policy : “ Don ’ t get us wrong : some comms policies make a ton of sense ( i.e .
: for confidential projects ) , ” organizers said in an email to employees encouraging them to speak out .
“ But allowing a corporation to silence us on its contribution to the climate crisis is a clear overreach of comms policy , and effectively demands we give up our basic humanity and integrity in order to be employees.
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ form that asks employees to sign their name to prefilled quotes such as : “ Amazon should end contracts with oil and gas companies .
Our AI and machine learning are being used for ‘ finding oil ’ , ‘ producing oil ’ , and ‘ optimizing production ’ ” ( source : AWS Oil & Gas public website ) .
” Another says : “ Amazon ’ s supply chain should not be built at the expense of warehouse workers who work at a pace that causes higher-than-industry-average injury rates .
It @ @ @ @ @ @ @ scared to go to the bathroom.
” Not all the statements employees are signing are negative — one lauds Amazon ’ s decision to order 100,000 electric vans to reduce fossil fuel emissions , as part of its bigger plans to drastically improve its carbon footprint .
The announcement , in September , was conspicuously timed a day before hundreds of employees participated in a walkout against climate change , during which they urged the company to be more sustainable .
While Amazon said its efforts weren ’ t connected to the protest @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
It ’ s unclear if Amazon will choose to punish workers for engaging in this collective action .
In November , Google fired four employees who were involved in workplace organizing around some of the same issues being debated at Amazon , saying that they breached the company ’ s data privacy policies .
( The terminated employees say the company retaliated against them for their activism , and their case is being investigated by the US National Labor Relations Board . )
In Amazon ’ s case , though , it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hundred — or more — employees than a handful .

Hundreds of Amazon employees are going to risk losing their jobs in an unprecedented, coordinated effort this week: They plan to openly criticize the e-commerce giant’s business practices, Recode has learned. The move is a direct challenge to Amazon’s recent reported threat to fire climate change activists within the company who allegedly violated a corporate rule that prohibits employees from speaking publicly about the company without prior approval.
“Is it fair to silence Amazon employees who speak up?” says the subject line of an email employee organizers sent to thousands of colleagues on several major company listservs and messaging platforms last week. The note, obtained by Recode, asks employees to either write their own comments or to sign prewritten statements about the company that either condemn or approve of Amazon’s practices, including those related to sustainability, immigration, and warehouse working conditions. Once organizers gather at least 100 such comments, they plan to post them publicly on Medium, according to the email.
Under Amazon’s external communications policy, employees could be punished for publicly speaking about the company without prior authorization. And that’s part of the plan: The organizers believe that if hundreds of employees band together, there will be “strength in numbers,” and the company won’t punish dissenters as easily.
According to reporting by the Washington Post, over 330 employees plan to participate. Organizers did not respond to a request for comment from Recode.
“Let’s all speak up publicly and violate this policy together, making it unenforceable. Quotes about Amazon’s business can be critical or complimentary, because either way violates the policy,” the email says. “Of course, do NOT share confidential information.”
The employees plan to brazenly disobey what they view as a muzzling corporate rule that forces employees to give up “their basic humanity and integrity in order to be employees,” according to the email. It’s the latest sign of rank-and-file employees at tech companies, including Google and Microsoft, organizing collectively for greater influence on major company decisions. And it demonstrates how even Amazon — historically considered hierarchical and heads-down — has become politicized over the increasingly high-stakes social impact of global tech companies’ day-to-day business affairs.
An Amazon spokesperson sent the following comment in response to Recode’s question about if it’s aware of employees’ organizing and how the company plans to respond if employees speak out: “While all employees are welcome to engage constructively with any of the many teams inside Amazon that work on sustainability and other topics, we do enforce our external communications policy, and will not allow employees to publicly disparage or misrepresent the company or the hard work of their colleagues who are developing solutions to these hard problems.”
In the past few years, some Amazon employees have grown increasingly critical of the company’s expansion of its business with major oil and gas companies, its marketing of controversial facial recognition software to police departments, and its bidding on a major US defense contract that would use Amazon’s technology for warfare. For certain employees, business practices like these aren’t what they signed up for when they came to work at the tech company. Their ethical concerns have prompted debates — at first internal but increasingly external — about the projects.
So far, the company hasn’t said much publicly about the growing rank-and-file worker dissent on these issues, which have become an increasing concern for some of Amazon's employees and those at other major tech companies, such as Google and Microsoft.
Back in 2018, Bezos defended tech companies’ work with the Pentagon, despite waves of backlash from employees. On the topic of sustainability, he’s announced that the company plans to drastically reduce its carbon footprint, and said the company would take a “hard look” at whether its political donations would go to “active climate deniers.” But he said Amazon will continue to work with oil and gas companies — something that many employees take issue with.
A spokesperson for Amazon sent the following statement, in part, in response to a question about workers’ organizing: “We know our employees are passionate about climate change, we are too – we founded the Climate Pledge, committing to net zero carbon by 2040, which is ten years ahead of the Paris Agreement, and we plan to be using 100% renewable energy by 2030.”
Last month, the Washington Post reported that Amazon management privately threatened to fire at least two employees for criticizing the company’s environmental policies in the press. The workers are members of an internal group of Amazon employees, Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, which helped organize participation in a historic global climate strike in September.
Amazon said the employees were violating its recently updated company external communications policy, which requires employees to get company approval before they can speak to the media about the company.
In September, soon after Amazon employees announced their participation in a climate protest, the company told employees that it had updated its company policy on external communications. Previously, employees had to receive approval through email from a company senior vice president if they wanted to speak to the press. Since the change, employees now have to receive approval by making a request through a form on a company intranet page, which requires employees to give a “business justification” for their request.
While Amazon says the policy makes it easier for employees to talk to the press, some say the company is using the policy as a way to silence internal debates — and that in the past, Amazon only selectively enforced this policy. The company has denied these claims; in a statement to Recode last month, Amazon said its warnings to the employees in question were “part of the normal business practice of alerting employees when they may have (knowingly or unknowingly) violated a policy.”
Employees’ new organizing effort this week takes direct aim this policy: “Don’t get us wrong: some comms policies make a ton of sense (i.e.: for confidential projects),” organizers said in an email to employees encouraging them to speak out. “But allowing a corporation to silence us on its contribution to the climate crisis is a clear overreach of comms policy, and effectively demands we give up our basic humanity and integrity in order to be employees.”
The email links to an online form that asks employees to sign their name to prefilled quotes such as: “Amazon should end contracts with oil and gas companies. Our AI and machine learning are being used for ‘finding oil’, ‘producing oil’, and ‘optimizing production’” (source: AWS Oil & Gas public website).”
Another says: “Amazon’s supply chain should not be built at the expense of warehouse workers who work at a pace that causes higher-than-industry-average injury rates. It’s not humane to have people scared to go to the bathroom.”
Not all the statements employees are signing are negative — one lauds Amazon’s decision to order 100,000 electric vans to reduce fossil fuel emissions, as part of its bigger plans to drastically improve its carbon footprint. The announcement, in September, was conspicuously timed a day before hundreds of employees participated in a walkout against climate change, during which they urged the company to be more sustainable. While Amazon said its efforts weren’t connected to the protest, organizers saw it as a win.
It’s unclear if Amazon will choose to punish workers for engaging in this collective action.
In November, Google fired four employees who were involved in workplace organizing around some of the same issues being debated at Amazon, saying that they breached the company’s data privacy policies. (The terminated employees say the company retaliated against them for their activism, and their case is being investigated by the US National Labor Relations Board.) In Amazon’s case, though, it’s much harder to fire a hundred — or more — employees than a handful.
Jason Del Rey contributed reporting to this article.


vox--2020-01-26--Trump says Schiff has “not yet paid the price” for his impeachment role

In a Sunday morning tweet , President Donald Trump said House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Schiff would have to pay a “ price ” for his leading role in the impeachment trial .
“ Shifty Adam Schiff is a CORRUPT POLITICIAN , and probably a very sick man , ” the president wrote .
“ He has not paid the price , yet , for what he has done to our Country !
” The president did not immediately clarify whether he meant the tweet to be a threat , as it appears to be , but Schiff certainly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was quick to respond — through his own Twitter account , and on NBC ’ s Meet the Press , where he called Trump a “ wrathful and vindictive ” president .
Schiff also told NBC ’ s Chuck Todd he thought the tweet was “ intended to be ” a threat against him .
The president appeared to be aware of what Schiff said on the program , attacking its host and Schiff shortly after the segment aired , calling Todd “ a fraud and corrupt ” and Schiff a “ conman.
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ on Twitter Sunday ’ s tweets are merely the latest in a long line of Twitter attacks the president has launched against Schiff and Todd .
The president often uses the press as a foil , having branded it the “ enemy of the people , ” and seems to have particular disdain for Todd , who he has accused of trying “ to make me look as bad as possible.
” This has led to tweets like Sunday ’ s , as well as naked antagonism , like a 2015 tweet in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ eyes [ Chuck Todd ] is killing Meet The Press .
Isn ’ t he pathetic ?
Love watching him fail !
” Trump ’ s anger toward Schiff stems from the congressman ’ s crucial involvement in the impeachment trial ; Schiff helped oversee the impeachment inquiry , and has led the arguments for the president ’ s removal in the Senate trial .
The president often attacks the lawmaker , as he did in his Sunday tweet , over Schiff ’ s decision to paraphrase a memo of Trump ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , in which the president asked for an investigation into the Biden family .
Although Schiff clearly noted that he was simply stating “ the essence of what the president communicates , ” Trump claimed Schiff incorrectly represented the call — and has used the incident to insult Schiff ever since .
Schiff ’ s fellow impeachment manager , Rep. Zoe Lofgren ( D-CA ) , appeared on CNN ’ s State of the Union to criticize Trump ’ s Sunday tweet as “ unfortunate , ” and also said that he had @ @ @ @ @ @ @ seem threatening to people.
” And Trump has sent a number of threatening tweets before , accusing Schiff of treason , attacking the whistleblower as a “ disgrace to our country , ” and calling for that person ’ s identity to be revealed ( anonymity is granted by law to government whistleblowers ) .
He has also attacked those who gave information to the whistleblower , referring to them as “ spies , ” and seemed to suggest the US should once again begin to execute spies , or those branded as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ get a grip and be a little more presidential , ” Lofgren said Sunday .
Republican Sen. James Lankford said in an interview with State of the Union that he wasn ’ t bothered by the tweets , saying , “ I don ’ t think it ’ s a death threat .
I don ’ t think he ’ s encouraging a death threat.
” But as State of the Union host Jake Tapper noted in response , “ People who are supporters of the president have heard his rhetoric and then @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and the media.
” And this is true , as Vox ’ s Sean Collins noted after Trump began to threaten the whistleblower with investigations : All this means that for a president who has a platform of 71.6 million followers , a tweet is never just a tweet — each message is an official statement from the president of the United States , and is treated as such by the press , lawmakers , and Trump ’ s passionate base .
Trump ’ s Twitter activity has increased since the impeachment trial @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have long been inseparable , his social media activity has recently increased in volume and aggressiveness — all to set a counter-narrative to the Senate impeachment trial .
As Vox ’ s Aaron Rupar has documented , Trump made a single-day posting record with more than 140 tweets and retweets on Thursday , many which were inaccurate and arguably tasteless .
And while many have grown numb to Trump ’ s social media presence , Rupar noted how Trump ’ s recent tweets point to a “ broader toxicity ” within the presidency @ @ @ @ @ @ @ So it ’ s not just Trump ’ s tweets that have become increasingly normalized as we get further and further away from having a president who is held to any sort of standards .
It ’ s Trump ’ s behavior in general .
And one wonders how bad things will get in the likely event that Trump is acquitted by the Senate and heads into his reelection campaign feeling even less constrained by any sort of oversight .
These latest tweets are of a kind with those the president sent last @ @ @ @ @ @ @ And they would seem to only bolster concerns about Trump ’ s behavior Schiff and his fellow impeachment mangers expressed in their arguments before the Senate last week .

In a Sunday morning tweet, President Trump said House Intelligence Committee Chair Rep. Adam Schiff would have to pay a “price” for his leading role in the impeachment trial.
“Shifty Adam Schiff is a CORRUPT POLITICIAN, and probably a very sick man,” the president wrote. “He has not paid the price, yet, for what he has done to our Country!”
Shifty Adam Schiff is a CORRUPT POLITICIAN, and probably a very sick man. He has not paid the price, yet, for what he has done to our Country! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 26, 2020
The president did not immediately clarify whether he meant the tweet to be a threat, as it appears to be, but Schiff certainly took it as one.
The lawmaker was quick to respond — through his own Twitter account, and on NBC’s Meet the Press, where he called Trump a “wrathful and vindictive” president. Schiff also told NBC’s Chuck Todd he thought the tweet was “intended to be” a threat against him.
WATCH: @RepAdamSchiff: "Look at the president's tweets about me today saying I should pay a price.."@chucktodd: "Do you take that as a threat?"@RepAdamSchiff: "I think it is intended to be." pic.twitter.com/8uWXRSJKj0 — Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) January 26, 2020
The president appeared to be aware of what Schiff said on the program, attacking its host and Schiff shortly after the segment aired, calling Todd “a fraud and corrupt” and Schiff a “conman.”
After having been exposed as a fraud and corrupt, can anyone, including Sleepyeyes Chuck Todd of Fake @NBCNews, continue to listen to his con? — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 26, 2020
Sleepyeyes Chuck Todd of Meet the Corrupt Press, just had a “totally” softball interview with conman Adam Schiff, never even calling Shifty out on his fraudulent statement to Congress, where he made up ALL of the words of my conversation with the Ukrainian President! FAKE NEWS — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 26, 2020
Trump often targets Todd and Schiff on Twitter
Sunday’s tweets are merely the latest in a long line of Twitter attacks the president has launched against Schiff and Todd.
The president often uses the press as a foil, having branded it the “enemy of the people,” and seems to have particular disdain for Todd, who he has accused of trying “to make me look as bad as possible.” This has led to tweets like Sunday’s, as well as naked antagonism, like a 2015 tweet in which the president wrote, “Sleep eyes [Chuck Todd] is killing Meet The Press. Isn’t he pathetic? Love watching him fail!”
Trump’s anger toward Schiff stems from the Congress member’s crucial involvement in the impeachment trial; Schiff helped oversee the impeachment inquiry and has led the arguments for the president’s removal in the Senate trial.
The president often attacks the lawmaker, as he did in his Sunday tweet, over Schiff’s decision to paraphrase a memo of Trump’s call transcript with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in which the president asked for an investigation into the Biden family. Although Schiff clearly noted that he was simply stating “the essence of what the president communicates,” Trump claimed Schiff incorrectly represented the call — and has used the incident to insult Schiff ever since.
Schiff’s fellow impeachment manager, Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), appeared on CNN’s State of the Union to criticize Trump’s Sunday tweet as “unfortunate,” and also said that he had a “tendency to say things that seem threatening to people.”
Trump has sent a number of threatening tweets before, accusing Schiff of treason, attacking the whistleblower as a “disgrace to our country,” and calling for that person’s identity to be revealed (anonymity is granted by law to government whistleblowers). He has also attacked those who gave information to the whistleblower, referring to them as “spies,” and seemed to suggest the US should once again begin to execute spies, or those branded as such.
“He really ought to get a grip and be a little more presidential,” Lofgren said Sunday.
Republican Sen. James Lankford said in an interview with State of the Union that he wasn’t bothered by the tweets, saying, “I don’t think it’s a death threat. I don’t think he’s encouraging a death threat.”
But as State of the Union host Jake Tapper noted in response, “People who are supporters of the president have heard his rhetoric and then actually tried to bomb and kill politicians and the media.”
And this is true, as Vox’s Sean Collins noted after Trump began to threaten the whistleblower with investigations:
Democrat and frequent Trump foil Rep. Ilhan Omar has spoken of a number of deaths threats she has received, for instance, and Cesar Sayoc was sentenced to 20 years in prison for mailing pipe bombs to some of Trump’s critics.
All this means for a president who has a platform of 71.6 million followers is that a tweet is never just a tweet — each message is an official statement from the president of the United States, and is treated as such by the press, lawmakers, and Trump’s passionate base.
Trump’s Twitter activity has increased since the impeachment trial began
While the Trump presidency and Twitter have long been inseparable, his social media activity has recently increased in volume and aggressiveness — all to set a counter-narrative to the Senate impeachment trial.
As Vox’s Aaron Rupar has documented, Trump made a single-day posting record with more than 140 tweets and retweets on Thursday, many which were inaccurate and arguably tasteless. And while many have grown numb to Trump’s social media presence, Rupar noted how Trump’s recent tweets point to a “broader toxicity” within the presidency — and why we should care:
So it’s not just Trump’s tweets that have become increasingly normalized as we get further and further away from having a president who is held to any sort of standards. It’s Trump’s behavior in general. And one wonders how bad things will get in the likely event that Trump is acquitted by the Senate and heads into his reelection campaign feeling even less constrained by any sort of oversight.
These latest tweets are of a kind with those the president sent last week. And they would seem to only bolster concerns about Trump’s behavior that Schiff and his fellow impeachment managers expressed in their arguments before the Senate last week.


vox--2020-01-26--There are now five confirmed US coronavirus cases. Experts say it’s no cause for alarm.

A fifth US coronavirus case has been confirmed in Maricopa County , Arizona , according to the Arizona Department of Public Health .
The patient , an Arizona State University student who doesn ’ t live on campus , recently traveled from Wuhan , China — the center of the outbreak , health officials said Sunday .
Two other cases of coronavirus were confirmed Sunday in California : One person in Orange County and another in Los Angeles County .
Both patients also recently returned from Wuhan .
Although Chinese authorities have said they have observed evidence of person-to-person transmission @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and LA Counties said there ’ s little risk of the virus spreading throughout the state , or the US , given the precautions being taken by health officials .
These latest patients join two others previously diagnosed in the US : A man in his 30s in Everett , Washington and a woman in her 60s in Chicago , Illinois .
All four US patients traveled from Wuhan prior to being diagnosed , and are being treated in isolation .
State officials in Washington , Illinois , California , and Arizona are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ contact with the patients for any signs of symptoms .
Globally , there are more than 2,100 confirmed coronavirus cases , according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University researchers .
Although the vast majority of those are in mainland China , a handful of cases have also been confirmed in 12 other countries as well , including : South Korea , Thailand , France , Australia , and Japan .
As of Sunday afternoon , the death toll had risen to 56 , with all of those deaths occurring in mainland China @ @ @ @ @ @ @ preemptive measures to prevent a major outbreak .
China has imposed a major — and possibly ineffective — travel ban .
Hong Kong is closing schools for the next three weeks .
And in the US , the CDC said it will take “ aggressive public health measures ” to stop the disease from spreading , such as conducting entry screenings at major airports .
Despite stating the importance of such precautions , the CDC has also been clear Americans need not worry about falling victim to the virus : Though the agency @ @ @ @ @ @ @ health threat , the immediate health risk is considered low as of now .
Experts say cases outside of China are a cause for caution — not for alarm The discovery of more coronavirus cases in the US — and the other cases outside of mainland China — are cause for concern , but are not cause for alarm , according to public health officials .
At the moment , more than 97 percent of confirmed cases are in mainland China .
And that has caused the World Health Organization ( WHO ) @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a global health emergency , as Vox ’ s Julia Belluz has reported .
“ Make no mistake , this is an emergency in China .
But it has not yet become a global health emergency , ” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus , the director general of the WHO , has said .
Similarly , officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ( CDC ) have said those outside of China have little to worry about at the moment , but have also stressed that governments are correct in erring on the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ learning about the virus and its transmission rate , as Vox ’ s Julia Belluz has reported : Nancy Messonnier , director of the CDC ’ s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases , said Friday that although the outbreak is a “ very serious public health threat , the immediate risk to the US public is low at this time.
” Yet Tom Frieden , the former director of the CDC , told Vox he ’ s concerned by how infectious the virus is .
“ If the sustained human transmission @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are confirmed , then it clearly is an event of international concern.
” As scientists further investigate the virus , experts say the best the thing to do is to keep the things in perspective , as Belluz has explained : Of course , that does not mean the virus ought to be dismissed — thousands are affected , and more than 50 people have lost their lives .
And governments are taking action to stem it , from China ’ s travel ban , to Hong Kong declaring a state of emergency @ @ @ @ @ @ @ its citizens currently in China home .
But for those outside of China , WHO has said the most effective and helpful things to be done are the sorts of measures we should all take anyway : Ensure we washing our hands and that we cover our mouths and noses when coughing and sneezing .

A fifth US coronavirus case has been confirmed in Maricopa County, Arizona, according to the Arizona Department of Public Health.
The patient, an Arizona State University student who doesn’t live on campus, recently traveled from Wuhan, China — the center of the outbreak, health officials said Sunday. Two other cases of coronavirus were confirmed Sunday in California: one person in Orange County and another in Los Angeles County. Both patients also recently returned from Wuhan.
Although Chinese authorities have said they have observed evidence of person-to-person transmission of the virus, officials in Orange and LA counties said there’s little risk of the virus spreading throughout the state, or the US, given the precautions being taken by health officials.
These latest patients join two others previously diagnosed in the US: a man in his 30s in Everett, Washington, and a woman in her 60s in Chicago, Illinois. All four US patients traveled from Wuhan prior to being diagnosed and are being treated in isolation. State officials in Washington, Illinois, California, and Arizona are monitoring people who have been in close contact with the patients for any signs of symptoms.
Globally, there are more than 2,100 confirmed coronavirus cases, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University researchers. Although the vast majority of those are in mainland China, a handful of cases have also been confirmed in 12 other countries including: South Korea, Thailand, France, Australia, and Japan. As of Sunday afternoon, the death toll had risen to 56, with all of those deaths occurring in mainland China.
In response, countries are taking preemptive measures to prevent a major outbreak. China has imposed a major — and possibly ineffective — travel ban. Hong Kong is closing schools for the next three weeks. In the US, the CDC said it will take “aggressive public health measures” to stop the disease from spreading, such as conducting entry screenings at major airports.
Despite stating the importance of such precautions, the CDC has also been clear Americans need not worry about falling victim to the virus: Though the agency sees the coronavirus as a major public health threat, the immediate health risk is considered low as of now.
Experts say cases outside of China are a cause for caution — not for alarm
The discovery of more coronavirus cases in the US — and the other cases outside of mainland China — are cause for concern, but not cause for alarm, according to public health officials.
At the moment, more than 97 percent of confirmed cases are in mainland China. That has caused the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare the mysterious virus is not a global health emergency, as Vox’s Julia Belluz has reported.
“Make no mistake, this is an emergency in China. But it has not yet become a global health emergency,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director general of the WHO, has said.
Similarly, officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have said those outside of China have little to worry about at the moment, but have also stressed that governments are correct in erring on the side of caution given scientists are still learning about the virus and its transmission rate, as Vox’s Julia Belluz has reported:
Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said Friday that although the outbreak is a “very serious public health threat, the immediate risk to the US public is low at this time.” Yet Tom Frieden, the former director of the CDC, told Vox he’s concerned by how infectious the virus is. “If the sustained human transmission and a high rate of severe illness are confirmed, then it clearly is an event of international concern.”
As scientists further investigate the virus, experts say the best thing to do is keep things in perspective, as Belluz has explained:
To put the cases and deaths so far into perspective, remember that seasonal flu kills between 250,000 and 650,000 people each year. “Right now, you’re probably more likely to be catching flu than you are to be getting coronavirus,” said Devi Sridhar, chair in global public health at the University of Edinburgh.
That does not mean the virus ought to be dismissed — thousands are affected, and more than 50 people have lost their lives. And governments are taking action to stem it, from China’s travel ban, to Hong Kong declaring a state of emergency, to the US working to bring its citizens currently in China home.
But for those outside of China, WHO said the most effective and helpful things to be done are the sorts of measures we should all take anyway: ensure we wash our hands and cover our mouths and noses when coughing and sneezing.


vox--2020-01-26--A SARS-like virus is spreading quickly. Here’s what you need to know.

On December 31 last year , China announced the outbreak of a mysterious new coronavirus in the city of Wuhan involving a group of people , many of whom had been exposed to animals at a local food market .
Flash-forward to Sunday : The number of cases of 2019-nCoV , as the virus is known , has leaped past 2,000 , and there are sick people in at least 12 other countries .
That includes five confirmed cases in the United States .
Nancy Messonnier , director of the CDC ’ s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is a “ very serious public health threat , the immediate risk to the US public is low at this time.
” Yet Tom Frieden , the former director of the CDC , told Vox he ’ s concerned by how infectious the virus is .
“ If the sustained human transmission and a high rate of severe illness are confirmed , then it clearly is an event of international concern.
” With information about 2019-nCoV — and its risk of spreading — evolving by the hour , we ’ ve answered basic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ ll be updating this story as more information becomes available .
1 ) Where did this coronavirus outbreak come from ?
The outbreak was first reported to the World Health Organization by Chinese officials on December 31 in Wuhan , a city of 11 million in Hubei province .
At that time , cases centered around Wuhan ’ s Huanan South China Seafood Market .
Local health officials reported then that patients with the virus were “ mainly business staff and purchasers ” at the market , where vendors peddle seafood as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rabbits .
Scientists in China quickly ruled out known pathogens as the likely cause .
The leading hypothesis then was that a yet-to-be-identified novel virus had spread to humans from one of the animals in the market .
By January 9 , the state broadcaster , China Central Television , reported a major discovery : a new virus , known as 2019-nCoV .
Many of the people who had become ill tested positive for 2019-nCoV .
Two days later , Chinese scientists shared the genetic sequence of the new virus , and the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sharing information readily .
( This transparency was a contrast to the SARS outbreak of 2003 , when China was heavily criticized for withholding information about the outbreak for too long .
The virus eventually killed 774 people and infected more than 8,000 . )
While Chinese authorities still believe the 2019-nCoV outbreak may have started at the market — with animals spreading the virus directly to humans — on January 20 , they confirmed that human-to-human transmission is also occurring .
By January 23 , the WHO confirmed that there is “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Wuhan , meaning there are cases where an individual has spread it to a second person , that second person to a third , and the third to a fourth .
( Outside of Wuhan , there ’ s also evidence of second-generation cases . )
Knowing that , “ the scope of this outbreak expands massively , ” Peter Daszak , the president of EcoHealth Alliance , a US global health research organization working in China , told Vox .
2 ) How many people are sick ?
How many have died @ @ @ @ @ @ @ least 2,019 people have fallen ill .
The vast majority of these patients ( 1,979 ) are in mainland China , where most ( 1,052 ) are concentrated in Hubei province , home to Wuhan .
The remaining cases are spread across more than 30 Chinese provinces and cities — including Shanghai , Guangdong , Hong Kong , and Beijing .
To get the latest numbers , check out this website from researchers at Johns Hopkins ; it collects data from various sources : the WHO , the CDC , the National Health @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of China ( NHC ) , and two other sites .
( The map is embedded below . )
Additional cases have turned up in travelers in 12 other countries , including the US , Canada , Thailand , Japan , Taiwan , Malaysia , Singapore , France , Australia , Nepal , Vietnam , and South Korea .
A total of 56 people have died ( all in mainland China ) .
But the real toll may be much higher .
UK-based researchers who have modeled the outbreak ’ s potential suggest @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as many as 9,700 , according to the upper end of their estimate .
And the risk of rapid spread is heightened , as hundreds of millions start to travel this week for China ’ s Lunar New Year .
3 ) How is the world responding ?
Chinese authorities first warned people to stop traveling in and out of Wuhan , and then said they would put the city under quarantine beginning January 23 , suspending public transport within Wuhan , and canceling flights and trains leaving the city .
It was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a population of 11 million , more people than New York City .
By the evening of January 24 , quarantine measures had expanded to 12 cities near Wuhan , effectively stifling the movement of 35 million people .
By January 25 , President Xi Jinping said the new virus posed a “ grave ” threat , and his government ordered travel agencies to suspend tours for Chinese citizens inside China and overseas .
The same day , Hong Kong authorities declared a state of emergency over the virus , and decided to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Beijing suspended all inter-province buses .
According to the New York Times , the government said the quarantine was needed to “ effectively cut off the transmission of the virus , resolutely curb the spread of the epidemic , and ensure the safety and health of the people.
” But the evidence for travel restrictions during outbreaks shows , counterintuitively , that they don ’ t actually do much to stop the spread of disease .
Health officials in China and the region are now scrambling to find cases through screening at transportation @ @ @ @ @ @ @ those infected with the virus — an effort that ’ s supported by the WHO .
Other countries at risk of imported cases have also implemented screening measures .
In the US , the CDC — along with the Homeland Security Department ’ s Customs and Border Protection — began screening travelers from Wuhan for the virus at US airports on January 17 , and all travelers from the city will be funneled through airports that are looking out for cases .
On January 25 , the US government announced it would be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from Wuhan .
4 ) What do we know about the cases in the US ?
Right now there are five confirmed cases in the US , according to the CDC .
All involved travelers from Wuhan : • The first patient ’ s name hasn ’ t been released , but we know he ’ s a resident of Snohomish County in Washington state .
We also know he ’ s in his 30s and he recently traveled to Wuhan , returning to Seattle on January 15 , two days before airport @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ t have symptoms yet ) .
By January 19 , he reached out to health care providers to report his symptoms and travel history .
They suspected 2019-nCoV .
The man is being treated for mild pneumonia at Providence Regional Medical Center in Everett , Washington .
• The second case , reported on January 24 , involves a woman in her 60s who lives in Chicago .
She returned from Wuhan on January 13 , and didn ’ t have any symptoms while traveling .
A few days after returning , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ she called healthcare providers to report her symptoms and was admitted to hospital and placed in isolation .
Right now , she ’ s in stable condition .
• The third , fourth , and fifth cases were reported on January 25 and 26 , and concerned individuals in Orange County and LA County , California , and Maricopa County , Arizona .
Right now , details on these cases are sparse but we know they had all recently traveled to Wuhan , and that they ’ re getting care in a local @ @ @ @ @ @ @ CDC officials said they ’ ve screened over 2,000 people coming into the US for the disease on 200 flights , and found zero cases .
The agency also said it ’ s investigating 100 possible cases of coronavirus in 26 states .
5 ) How does the new coronavirus spread ?
We don ’ t yet know the exact way the virus is spreading , but we do know it ’ s part of a large family of viruses called coronaviruses , which mostly infect mammals , including bats .
Coronaviruses attack @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cells deep within the lungs .
Only seven , including 2019-nCoV , SARS , and MERS , have evolved to infect humans .
According to the CDC , human coronaviruses are most commonly passed via : • Touching an object or surface with the virus on it , then touching your mouth , nose , or eyes before washing your hands As for how easily the new coronavirus spreads , that ’ s also unclear .
According to a preliminary estimate from WHO , at the moment , each individual has transmitted the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 2.5 others .
That makes 2019-nCoV , based on what we know now , less contagious than SARS .
But there are many different estimates floating around as the situation evolves — and some suggest 2019-nCoV is even more contagious .
We also know at least 15 health care workers have been infected .
“ It ’ s unusual to get health care worker infections in outbreaks , ” explained Tom Inglesby , director of the Center for Health Security of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health .
“ It ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that happens , ” he added , because it means the virus may be easily transmitted , even in settings where people are taking precautions .
6 ) What are the symptoms of the new coronavirus ?
Two of the seven coronaviruses that infect humans , SARS and MERS , can cause severe pneumonia and even death .
The rest lead to milder symptoms , like a common cold .
Right now , it ’ s not clear where 2019-nCoV falls on that spectrum .
An early report , published in the Lancet @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s known about symptoms so far — albeit , in a subset of the first 41 patients with confirmed 2019-nCoV in Wuhan .
The most common symptoms in this group were fever , cough , muscle pain , and fatigue ; less common were headache , diarrhea , and coughing up mucus or blood .
A little more than half of the 41 patients had difficulty breathing , and 63 percent had low levels of white blood cells .
As for the disease severity : 13 patients were admitted to an ICU @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , 68 percent of the patients had been discharged from hospital .
All patients had pneumonia and lung abnormalities on CT scans .
( A quick refresher : Pneumonia is an infection in the lungs that can be caused by a variety of organisms — bacteria , fungi , viruses , even parasites .
In this case , 2019-nCoV is causing the infection and leading the lungs ’ air sacs to become inflamed and fill up with fluid or pus instead of air . )
In the Lancet group , most patients were @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have underlying diseases .
The median age was 49 .
So far , Chinese health officials have said the deaths are occurring in mostly older people with pre-existing health conditions .
It ’ s possible there are many more people with the virus who have very mild symptoms or who are asymptomatic , said Dr. Jeremy Farrar , director of the Wellcome Trust , a research charity focused on global health .
If that ’ s the case , and there are thousands carrying 2019-nCoV while only a few people have died , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s also possible this virus winds up behaving like SARS , said Inglesby , which kills about one in 10 patients infected .
With SARS , “ We saw substantial spread in health care settings where health care workers became ill during care for patients , ” for example .
“ This is a very serious outbreak with the potential for widespread transmission.
” 7 ) What ’ s the likelihood this becomes a global public health emergency ?
The potential for this virus to spread further is so great that the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and Thursday to decide whether the emergence of 2019-nCoV constitutes a global public health emergency , a rare designation the agency gives outbreaks that pose an international threat .
By the end of Thursday , WHO ’ s Director-General , Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus , announced the committee ’ s decision that the outbreak doesn ’ t yet constitute one , mainly because of the limited number of cases outside of China , and China ’ s efforts to control the spread of the disease .
“ Make no mistake , this is an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not yet become a global health emergency , ” Tedros explained .
He also vowed to reconvene the emergency committee in the coming days to review new data .
“ At this time , there is no evidence of human-to-human transmission outside China , but that doesn ’ t mean it won ’ t happen , ” Tedros added .
Formally , a public health emergency of international concern , or PHEIC — pronounced “ fake ” — is defined as “ an extraordinary event which is determined to constitute a public health @ @ @ @ @ @ @ spread of disease and to potentially require a coordinated international response.
” In reality , it ’ s a political tool the WHO uses to sound the alarm about a serious disease that has caught the world off guard and put people ’ s health in danger .
It ’ s meant to draw countries ’ immediate attention , to galvanize resources , and stop the disease from spreading further across borders .
A key consideration in declaring a PHEIC is whether the disease threat is dire enough to risk countries enacting travel @ @ @ @ @ @ @ devastating to local economies and are often associated with economic losses .
So they ’ re not taken lightly .
In fact , the WHO has only declared a public health emergency five times since the International Health Regulations , which govern global health emergency responses , were enacted in 2007 .
The first time was in 2009 , with the outbreak of the H1N1 swine flu pandemic .
The second time was in May 2014 , when polio seemed to surge again , threatening the eradication effort .
The third time , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Ebola outbreak in West Africa was growing out of control .
The fourth was related to Zika in 2016 .
And the fifth , in 2019 , was another outbreak of Ebola that ’ s ongoing in the Democratic Republic of the Congo .
8 ) How worried should I be about a pandemic ?
There are too many unknowns to say .
We don ’ t know which animal carries this virus .
We don ’ t know how exactly it spreads .
We don ’ t know how easily it spreads @ @ @ @ @ @ @ severe the virus is .
To put the cases and deaths so far into perspective , remember that seasonal flu kills between 250,000 and 650,000 people each year .
“ Right now , you ’ re probably more likely to be catching flu than you are to be getting coronavirus , ” said Devi Sridhar , chair in global public health at the University of Edinburgh .
Even so , the fact that cases are already turning up in so many countries — mere weeks after this outbreak was first declared — suggests @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The WHO stopped short of recommending any travel or trade restrictions at this time , instead suggesting people take precautions — like making sure their hands are clean and that they don ’ t cough on others if they ’ re sick .
Messonnier of CDC said there are likely to be more cases in the coming days — in the US and beyond .
Her agency is advising Americans to avoid non-essential travel to Wuhan .
As for those traveling to other parts of China , officials suggest avoiding contact with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hygiene .
“ This is a rapidly changing situation — abroad and domestically — and we ’ re still learning , ” Messonnier said .
That doesn ’ t , however , mean American officials expect the US to be inundated with dozens of patients or that the virus will spread broadly within the country .
It ’ s the major cities in and around China that are most at risk , according to a paper posted on January 14 in the Journal of Travel Medicine .
The top travel destinations out of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ spread of the infection — include Bangkok , Hong Kong , Tokyo , and Taipei .
A SARS-like virus has sickened thousands in China , and made its way to the United States .
Vox ’ s Julia Belluz explains what ’ s known and what ’ s next .
Subscribe to Today , Explained wherever you get your podcasts , including : Apple Podcasts , Google Podcasts , Spotify , Stitcher , and ART19 .

On December 31 last year, China announced a small outbreak of a new coronavirus in the city of Wuhan involving 27 cases.
Flash-forward to Wednesday: The number of cases of 2019-nCoV, as the virus is known, has leaped past 6,000, and there are sick people in more than a dozen other countries.
That includes five confirmed cases in the United States.
Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said Friday that although the outbreak is a “very serious public health threat, the immediate risk to the US public is low at this time.”
Yet Tom Frieden, the former director of the CDC, told Vox he’s concerned by how infectious the virus is. “If the sustained human transmission and a high rate of severe illness are confirmed, then it clearly is an event of international concern.”
With information about 2019-nCoV — and its risk of spreading — evolving by the hour, we’ve answered basic questions about the outbreak here. We’ll be updating this story as more information becomes available.
1) Where did this coronavirus outbreak come from?
The outbreak was first reported to the World Health Organization by Chinese officials on December 31 in Wuhan, a city of 11 million in Hubei province. At that time, cases centered around Wuhan’s Huanan South China Seafood Market. Local health officials reported then that patients with the virus were “mainly business staff and purchasers” at the market, where vendors peddle seafood as well as animals such as birds and rabbits.
Scientists in China quickly ruled out known pathogens as the likely cause. The leading hypothesis then was that a yet-to-be-identified novel virus had spread to humans from one of the animals in the market.
By January 9, the state broadcaster, China Central Television, reported a major discovery: a new virus, known as 2019-nCoV. Many of the people who had become ill tested positive for 2019-nCoV. Two days later, Chinese scientists shared the genetic sequence of the new virus, and the WHO applauded China’s efforts for sharing information readily. (This transparency was a contrast to the SARS outbreak of 2003, when China was heavily criticized for withholding information about the outbreak for too long. The virus eventually killed 774 people and infected more than 8,000.)
By January 20, Chinese authorities confirmed that human-to-human transmission is also occurring. By January 23, the WHO confirmed that there is “fourth-generation” spread of the virus in Wuhan, meaning there are cases where an individual has spread it to a second person, that second person to a third, and the third to a fourth. (Outside of Wuhan, there’s also evidence of second-generation cases.) Knowing that, “the scope of this outbreak expands massively,” Peter Daszak, the president of EcoHealth Alliance, a US global health research organization working in China, told Vox.
But the picture of the beginnings of this outbreak is changing. A recent study, published on January 24 in The Lancet, suggests the outbreak may not have actually started at the market. The first known patient had no market exposure. And that person became ill on December 1, nearly two weeks earlier than Wuhan health authorities had suggested about the first case.
2) How many people are sick? How many have died?
As of January 29, at least 6,057 people have fallen ill. The vast majority of these patients (5,970) are in mainland China, and most (3,554) are concentrated in Hubei province, home to Wuhan. The remaining cases are spread across more than 30 Chinese provinces and cities — including Shanghai, Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Beijing. To get the latest numbers, check out this website from researchers at Johns Hopkins; it collects data from various sources: the WHO, the CDC, the National Health Commission of the People’s Republic of China (NHC), and two other sites. (The map is embedded below.)
Source: Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering
Additional cases have turned up in travelers in more than a dozen other countries, including the US, Canada, Thailand, Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, France, Australia, Nepal, Vietnam, Germany, and South Korea. A total of 132 people have died.
But the real toll may be much higher.
Hong Kong University infectious disease researchers have estimated that the virus may be spreading person-to-person in all of China’s major mainland cities, and that there are already 44,000 cases in Wuhan alone. UK-based researchers who have modeled the outbreak’s potential suggest there are likely many more cases — as many as 9,700, according to the upper end of their estimate. And the risk of rapid spread is heightened, as hundreds of millions have been traveling for China’s Lunar New Year.
3) How is the world responding?
Chinese authorities first warned people to stop traveling in and out of Wuhan, and then said they would put the city under quarantine beginning January 23, suspending public transport within Wuhan, and canceling flights and trains leaving the city. It was an extraordinary move given that Wuhan has a population of 11 million, more people than New York City. By the evening of January 24, quarantine measures had expanded to 12 cities near Wuhan, effectively stifling the movement of 35 million people. By January 25, President Xi Jinping said the new virus posed a “grave” threat, and his government ordered travel agencies to suspend tours for Chinese citizens inside China and overseas. The same day, Hong Kong authorities declared a state of emergency over the virus and closed schools for three weeks, while Beijing suspended all inter-province buses.
According to the New York Times, the government said the quarantine was needed to “effectively cut off the transmission of the virus, resolutely curb the spread of the epidemic, and ensure the safety and health of the people.” But the evidence for travel restrictions during outbreaks shows, counterintuitively, that they don’t actually do much to stop the spread of disease.
Health officials in China and the region are now scrambling to find cases through screening at transportation hubs and follow-up with the contacts of those infected with the virus — an effort that’s supported by the WHO.
Other countries at risk of imported cases have also implemented extraordinary measures. In the US, the CDC — along with the Homeland Security Department’s Customs and Border Protection — began screening travelers from Wuhan for the virus at US airports on January 17, and all travelers from the city will be funneled through airports that are looking out for cases. The US government evacuated American diplomats and citizens from Wuhan. Its also advising Americans to avoid non-essential travel to China. Hong Kong has suspended ferry and train links with mainland China, and cancelled flights. Meanwhile, several airlines have begun cancelling flights to China — including Air Canada, British Airways, and United.
4) What do we know about the cases in the US?
Right now there are five confirmed cases in the US, according to the CDC. All involved travelers from Wuhan:
The first patient’s name hasn’t been released, but we know he’s a resident of Snohomish County in Washington state. We also know he’s in his 30s and he recently traveled to Wuhan, returning to Seattle on January 15, two days before airport screening started (though the man didn’t have symptoms yet). By January 19, he reached out to health care providers to report his symptoms and travel history. They suspected 2019-nCoV. The man is being treated for mild pneumonia at Providence Regional Medical Center in Everett, Washington.
The second case, reported on January 24, involves a woman in her 60s who lives in Chicago. She returned from Wuhan on January 13 and didn’t have any symptoms while traveling. A few days after returning, when she started to feel ill, she called health care providers to report her symptoms and was admitted to a hospital and placed in isolation. She’s currently in stable condition.
The third, fourth, and fifth cases, reported over the weekend, concerned individuals in Orange County and LA County, California, and Maricopa County, Arizona, respectively. They had all recently traveled to Wuhan, and they’re receiving care in local hospitals.
As of January 25, CDC officials said they’ve screened over 2,000 people coming into the US for the disease on 200 flights, and found zero cases. The agency also said it’s investigating 100 possible cases of coronavirus in 26 states.
5) How does the new coronavirus spread?
We don’t yet know the exact way the virus is spreading, but we do know it’s part of a large family of viruses called coronaviruses, which mostly infect mammals, including bats. Coronaviruses attack the respiratory system, sometimes targeting the cells deep within the lungs. Only seven, including 2019-nCoV, SARS, and MERS, have evolved to infect humans.
According to the CDC, human coronaviruses are most commonly passed via:
Through coughing and sneezing
Close personal contact, including touching and shaking hands
Touching an object or surface with the virus on it, then touching your mouth, nose, or eyes before washing your hands
And rarely, through fecal contamination
As for how easily the new coronavirus spreads, that’s also unclear. According to a preliminary estimate from the WHO, at the moment, each individual has transmitted the virus to an average of 1.4 to 2.5 others. That makes 2019-nCoV, based on what we know now, less contagious than SARS. But there are many different estimates floating around as the situation evolves — and some suggest 2019-nCoV is even more contagious.
For the moment, the WHO estimates the virus’s incubation period — before symptoms start to show — is between two and 10 days, but it’s not yet known whether the virus can spread during that time.
We also know at least 15 health care workers have been infected. “It’s unusual to get health care worker infections in outbreaks,” explained Tom Inglesby, director of the Center for Health Security of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “It’s always a sign of alarm when that happens,” he added, because it means the virus may be easily transmitted, even in settings where people are taking precautions.
6) What are the symptoms of the new coronavirus?
Two of the seven coronaviruses that infect humans, SARS and MERS, can cause severe pneumonia and even death. The rest lead to milder symptoms, like a common cold. At the moment, it’s not clear where 2019-nCoV falls on that spectrum.
An early report, published in the Lancet, provided a good overview of what’s known about symptoms so far — in a subset of the first 41 patients with confirmed 2019-nCoV in Wuhan. The most common symptoms in this group were fever, cough, muscle pain, and fatigue; less common were headache, diarrhea, and coughing up mucus or blood. A little more than half of the 41 patients had difficulty breathing, and 63 percent had low levels of white blood cells. As for the disease severity: 13 patients were admitted to an ICU and six died. By January 22, 68 percent of the patients had been discharged from the hospital.
All patients had pneumonia and lung abnormalities on CT scans. (A quick refresher: Pneumonia is an infection in the lungs that can be caused by a variety of organisms — bacteria, fungi, viruses, even parasites. In this case, 2019-nCoV is causing the infection and leading the lungs’ air sacs to become inflamed and fill up with fluid or pus instead of air.)
In the Lancet group, most patients were men and over half didn’t have underlying diseases. The median age was 49.
It’s possible there are many more people with the virus who have very mild symptoms or who are asymptomatic, said Dr. Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust, a research charity focused on global health. If that’s the case, and there are thousands carrying 2019-nCoV while only a few people have died, this outbreak will look milder.
It’s also possible this virus winds up behaving like SARS, said Inglesby, which kills about one in 10 patients infected. With SARS, “We saw substantial spread in health care settings where health care workers became ill during care for patients,” for example. “This is a very serious outbreak with the potential for widespread transmission.”
7) What’s the likelihood this becomes a global public health emergency?
The potential for this virus to spread further is so great that the WHO gathered an expert committee on Wednesday and Thursday last week to decide whether the emergence of 2019-nCoV constitutes a global public health emergency, a rare designation the agency gives outbreaks that pose an international threat.
By the end of Thursday, the WHO’s Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, announced the committee’s decision that the outbreak doesn’t yet constitute one, mainly because of the limited number of cases outside of China, and China’s efforts to control the spread of the disease.
“Make no mistake, this is an emergency in China. But it has not yet become a global health emergency,” Tedros explained. He also vowed to reconvene the emergency committee in the coming days to review new data. “At this time, there is no evidence of human-to-human transmission outside China, but that doesn’t mean it won’t happen,” Tedros added.
Formally, a public health emergency of international concern, or PHEIC — pronounced “fake” — is defined as “an extraordinary event which is determined to constitute a public health risk to other States through the international spread of disease and to potentially require a coordinated international response.” In reality, it’s a political tool the WHO uses to sound the alarm about a serious disease that has caught the world off guard and put people’s health in danger. It’s meant to draw countries’ immediate attention, to galvanize resources, and stop the disease from spreading further across borders.
A key consideration in declaring a PHEIC is whether the disease threat is dire enough to risk countries enacting travel and trade restrictions. Declarations can be devastating to local economies and are often associated with economic losses. So they’re not taken lightly. In fact, the WHO has only declared a public health emergency five times since the International Health Regulations, which govern global health emergency responses, were enacted in 2007.
The first time was in 2009, with the outbreak of the H1N1 swine flu pandemic. The second time was in May 2014, when polio seemed to surge again, threatening the eradication effort. The third time, in August 2014, came as the Ebola outbreak in West Africa was growing out of control. The fourth was related to Zika in 2016. And the fifth, in 2019, was another outbreak of Ebola that’s ongoing in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
8) How worried should I be about a pandemic?
There are too many unknowns to say. We don’t know which animal carries this virus. We don’t know how exactly it spreads. We don’t know how easily it spreads among people, or how deadly and severe the virus is.
To put the cases and deaths so far into perspective, remember that seasonal flu kills between 250,000 and 650,000 people each year. “Right now, you’re probably more likely to be catching flu than you are to be getting coronavirus,” said Devi Sridhar, chair in global public health at the University of Edinburgh.
Even so, the fact that cases are already turning up in so many countries — mere weeks after this outbreak was first declared — suggests we should brace ourselves for an escalation.
Messonnier of the CDC said there are likely to be more cases in the coming days — in the US and beyond. “This is a rapidly changing situation — abroad and domestically — and we’re still learning,” Messonnier added.
That doesn’t, however, mean American officials expect the US to be inundated with dozens of patients or that the virus will spread broadly within the country. It’s the major cities in and around China that are most at risk, according to a paper posted on January 14 in the Journal of Travel Medicine. The top travel destinations out of Wuhan — and most at risk of spread of the infection — include Bangkok, Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Taipei.
Listen to Today, Explained
A SARS-like virus has sickened thousands in China, and made its way to the United States. Vox’s Julia Belluz explains what’s known and what’s next.
Subscribe to Today, Explained wherever you get your podcasts, including: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and ART19.