vox--2020-05-09--Obama calls Trump’s coronavirus response a “chaotic disaster” in private call

Former President Barack Obama leveled stinging criticism against President Donald Trump in a private call to former members of his administration Friday , saying Trump ’ s response to the coronavirus pandemic is “ an absolute chaotic disaster , ” and that the Justice Department ’ s choice to drop charges against former national security adviser Michael Flynn undermines the rule of law .
The remarks , first reported by Yahoo News , are a rarity from Obama , who — in public at least — has been reserved in his assessments of his successor since leaving office .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , was intended to urge former staffers to get involved with former Vice President Joe Biden ’ s presidential campaign .
And it reportedly featured Obama speaking about the importance of electing Biden as political divisions have deepened both nationally and internationally , while making the case for Biden as someone who could bridge those divides .
“ It ’ s part of the reason why the response to this global crisis has been so anemic and spotty , ” Obama reportedly said .
“ It would have been bad even with the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an absolute chaotic disaster when that mindset — of ‘ what ’ s in it for me ’ and ‘ to heck with everybody else ’ — when that mindset is operationalized in our government.
” The former president also expressed concern over the Justice Department ’ s decision to drop charges against former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn , who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI .
“ That ’ s the kind of stuff where you begin to get worried that basic — not just institutional norms — @ @ @ @ @ @ @ law is at risk , ” he said .
“ And when you start moving in those directions , it can accelerate pretty quickly as we ’ ve seen in other places.
” Trump has defended Flynn , as Vox ’ s Jen Kirby has explained , calling him an “ innocent man ” ( despite his guilty plea ) and an “ even greater warrior.
” And prior to the case being dropped , Attorney General Bill Barr got involved in it , assigning an outside prosecutor to review the matter as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that there was a conspiracy against Flynn .
Obama has said previously he planned to take a more public role in the 2020 race once Democrats settled on a nominee .
His comments about Trump were made in private , but do appear to represent him beginning to make good on that promise , by mobilizing talent from his administration .
Obama ’ s own endorsement of Biden came last month , after the final leg of a heated primary contest came to a close .
Thus far , he has not been @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with Biden , as the coronavirus pandemic has kept most of the public indoors .
According to the New York Times , Obama has told friends he ’ s worried Trump will be able to leverage his public platform for campaigning while Biden is taken off the trail due to the virus .
And Trump has , in fact , used press conferences to both attack Biden and blame the Obama administration for current testing failures ( despite the coronavirus not existing during Obama ’ s tenure ) .
In late April , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s response to the swine flu , saying Biden “ didn ’ t even know the name , ” and claiming that due to his predecessor the US had “ broken tests .
We had tests that were obsolete .
We had tests that didn ’ t take care of people.
” As Vox ’ s Aaron Rupar has written , Trump has made this claim “ again and again and again.
” It is not true , but it is a means by which the president can attempt to blame an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ failures .
Obama has not responded publicly to these claims , but his comments Friday suggest that he is willing to highlight the flaws of his successor , particularly in support of his party ’ s presidential nominee .
Every day at Vox , we aim to answer your most important questions and provide you , and our audience around the world , with information that has the power to save lives .
Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment : to empower you through understanding .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ people than ever , but our distinctive brand of explanatory journalism takes resources — particularly during a pandemic and an economic downturn .
Your financial contribution will not constitute a donation , but it will enable our staff to continue to offer free articles , videos , and podcasts at the quality and volume that this moment requires .
Please consider making a contribution to Vox today .

Former President Barack Obama leveled stinging criticism against President Donald Trump in a private call to former members of his administration Friday, saying Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic is “an absolute chaotic disaster,” and that the Justice Department’s choice to drop charges against former national security adviser Michael Flynn undermines the rule of law.
The remarks, first reported by Yahoo News, are a rarity from Obama, who — in public at least — has been reserved in his assessments of his successor since leaving office.
The call, with the Obama Alumni Association, was intended to urge former staffers to get involved with former Vice President Joe Biden’s presidential campaign. And it reportedly featured Obama speaking about the importance of electing Biden as political divisions have deepened both nationally and internationally, while making the case for Biden as someone who could bridge those divides.
“It’s part of the reason why the response to this global crisis has been so anemic and spotty,” Obama reportedly said. “It would have been bad even with the best of governments. It has been an absolute chaotic disaster when that mindset — of ‘what’s in it for me’ and ‘to heck with everybody else’ — when that mindset is operationalized in our government.”
The former president also expressed concern over the Justice Department’s decision to drop charges against former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn, who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.
“That’s the kind of stuff where you begin to get worried that basic — not just institutional norms — but our basic understanding of rule of law is at risk,” he said. “And when you start moving in those directions, it can accelerate pretty quickly as we’ve seen in other places.”
Trump has defended Flynn, as Vox’s Jen Kirby has explained, calling him an “innocent man” (despite his guilty plea) and an “even greater warrior.” And prior to the case being dropped, Attorney General Bill Barr got involved in it, assigning an outside prosecutor to review the matter as Trump and his allies made the argument that there was a conspiracy against Flynn.
Obama has said previously he planned to take a more public role in the 2020 race once Democrats settled on a nominee. His comments about Trump were made in private, but do appear to represent him beginning to make good on that promise, by mobilizing talent from his administration.
Obama’s own endorsement of Biden came last month, after the final leg of a heated primary contest came to a close. Thus far, he has not been able to appear at any in-person events with Biden, as the coronavirus pandemic has kept most of the public indoors. According to the New York Times, Obama has told friends he’s worried Trump will be able to leverage his public platform for campaigning while Biden is taken off the trail due to the virus.
And Trump has, in fact, used press conferences to both attack Biden and blame the Obama administration for current testing failures (despite the coronavirus not existing during Obama’s tenure).
In late April, Trump pilloried Biden over the Obama administration’s response to the swine flu, saying Biden “didn’t even know the name,” and claiming that due to his predecessor the US had “broken tests. We had tests that were obsolete. We had tests that didn’t take care of people.”
.@Acosta: You say you had "broken tests" from Obama -- the coronavirus is a new virus, so how could the tests be broken?
TRUMP: "We have broken tests. We had tests that were obsolete. We had tests that didn't take care of people." (None of this makes sense.) pic.twitter.com/r7oobJNFU2 — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 30, 2020
As Vox’s Aaron Rupar has written, Trump has made this claim “again and again and again.” It is not true, but it is a means by which the president can attempt to blame an old enemy for his administration’s failures.
Obama has not responded publicly to these claims, but his comments Friday suggest that he is willing to highlight the flaws of his successor, particularly in support of his party’s presidential nominee.


vox--2020-05-09--The White House reportedly suppressed CDC guidance for reopening safely

Top White House officials suppressed guidelines from public health experts on reopening the economy for weeks , and only ordered the approval of parts of that guidance after media reports exposed the delay , according to a report from the Associated Press .
Public health experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ( CDC ) spent weeks preparing detailed guidance to help schools , child care centers , religious groups , bars and restaurants , public transit officials , and others plan for a return to normalcy .
The CDC ’ s work featured phased reopening plans , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ successfully , and flow charts to help local officials decide how and when to reopen .
But the Trump administration quashed the guidance on April 30 , saying CDC Director Robert Redfield had not approved it .
Redfield reiterated his reasoning this Saturday , saying in a statement , “ The re-opening guidance shared prematurely was in draft form and had not been vetted through the interagency review process , ” and arguing more work needed to be done on it to ensure “ clear guidance is presented to the American people.
” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ appear to show the director signing off on the plan , however .
The document was meant to help nonessential businesses as states begin to relax coronavirus pandemic-related restrictions .
At the moment , there is no national standard for reopening beyond general suggestions from the White House that recommend taking a phased approach .
This has led to a patchwork of rules .
And apparently , the Trump administration believes this to be the best way to reopen .
The CDC guidance was held back in part because it was deemed “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ official told CNN , arguing “ guidance in rural Tennessee shouldn ’ t be the same guidance for urban New York City.
” This official also said some in the administration took issue with the fact that the CDC recommendations didn ’ t fit into the phase-based framework of the White House ’ s guidelines .
Overall , the report raises further questions about the role of the CDC in the Trump administration ’ s response to the coronavirus pandemic .
The organization typically leads the response to public health crises , but @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the pandemic .
Redfield and other leaders from the CDC have been largely absent from the Trump administration ’ s public-facing coronavirus response , with members of the White House coronavirus task force providing details at press briefings rather than CDC officials .
That ’ s led public health experts to express concern that federal decisions on how to combat the virus are being made with a focus less on public health , and more on the president ’ s interest in reopening the nation ’ s economy .
Indeed , Trump @ @ @ @ @ @ @ speedier reopening as unemployment has skyrocketed to the worst rates since the Great Depression .
Many states are heeding that call and doing so , even as they fail to meet testing and case thresholds health experts say are necessary for public safety — all of which makes guidance like the CDC ’ s sorely needed .
30 states have already reopened their economies , despite many being unprepared The CDC ’ s reopening report still hasn ’ t been officially released by the administration , although some elements of it have reportedly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Regardless of why that is , all signs point to businesses and other groups having urgent need of it , as 30 states have already reopened their economies at least partially — and five more are planning to shortly .
Most of those states haven ’ t met the criteria outlined by the Trump administration to begin the process of reopening .
Though it ’ s ultimately up to state governors to decide when to reengage , the White House task force recommends states only begin relaxing restrictions on industries when there ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cases or positive tests as a percent of total tests for 14 days , there ’ s a robust testing program in place , and hospitals have a demonstrated capacity to treat all patients .
Of the 30 states that are reopening , most actually have more new cases or a higher percentage of positive tests than two weeks ago and have recently seen an increase in daily average cases , the New York Times reported Thursday .
Even states with a downward trajectory haven ’ t necessarily quashed their outbreaks .
Public @ @ @ @ @ @ @ contact tracing are crucial to making sure the country can identify and squash viral spikes once restrictions are loosened .
Even with those protections , reopening the economy before the health care system has had a chance to prepare could be disastrous .
Only around 1 in 10 people have been infected by the coronavirus even in the most hard hit regions of the US , former CDC director Dr. Tom Frieden told TIME , which means many Americans remain vulnerable to the disease .
“ So not only could COVID-19 come roaring @ @ @ @ @ @ @ times or close to 10 times worse than it is now , ” he said .
Eager to get the economy — once one of his biggest campaign advantages — back on track , Trump and his administration are looking to shift focus to businesses .
But the White House has not — yet , at least — said in detail how these businesses might reopen safely .
The CDC guidelines do just this , recommending , for instance , that businesses allow employees to work in shifts in order to limit the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ time .
Without these federal guidelines , states have been left to develop their own best practices , with some having greater success at doing so than others .
Those states that have created poor reopening frameworks are now at danger — and their residents are at greater risk of infection .
Every day at Vox , we aim to answer your most important questions and provide you , and our audience around the world , with information that has the power to save lives .
Our mission has never been more vital @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to empower you through understanding .
Vox ’ s work is reaching more people than ever , but our distinctive brand of explanatory journalism takes resources — particularly during a pandemic and an economic downturn .
Your financial contribution will not constitute a donation , but it will enable our staff to continue to offer free articles , videos , and podcasts at the quality and volume that this moment requires .
Please consider making a contribution to Vox today .

Top White House officials suppressed guidelines from public health experts on reopening the economy for weeks, and only ordered the approval of parts of that guidance after media reports exposed the delay, according to a report from the Associated Press.
Public health experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) spent weeks preparing detailed guidance to help schools, child care centers, religious groups, bars and restaurants, public transit officials, and others plan for a return to normalcy. The CDC’s work featured phased reopening plans, steps for ensuring each phase was completed successfully, and flow charts to help local officials decide how and when to reopen.
But the Trump administration quashed the guidance on April 30, saying CDC Director Robert Redfield had not approved it. Redfield reiterated his reasoning this Saturday, saying in a statement, “The re-opening guidance shared prematurely was in draft form and had not been vetted through the interagency review process,” and arguing more work needed to be done on it to ensure “clear guidance is presented to the American people.” Internal emails reviewed by the AP reportedly appear to show the director signing off on the plan, however.
The document was meant to help nonessential businesses as states begin to relax coronavirus pandemic-related restrictions. At the moment, there is no national standard for reopening beyond general suggestions from the White House that recommend taking a phased approach. This has led to a patchwork of rules. And apparently, the Trump administration believes this to be the best way to reopen.
The CDC guidance was held back in part because it was deemed “overly prescriptive,” one White House official told CNN, arguing “guidance in rural Tennessee shouldn’t be the same guidance for urban New York City.” This official also said some in the administration took issue with the fact that the CDC recommendations didn’t fit into the phase-based framework of the White House’s guidelines.
Overall, the report raises further questions about the role of the CDC in the Trump administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. The organization typically leads the response to public health crises, but appears to have been sidelined for much of the pandemic.
Redfield and other leaders from the CDC have been largely absent from the Trump administration’s public-facing coronavirus response, with members of the White House coronavirus task force providing details at press briefings rather than CDC officials. That’s led public health experts to express concern that federal decisions on how to combat the virus are being made with a focus less on public health, and more on the president’s interest in reopening the nation’s economy.
Indeed, Trump and many Republicans are pushing for a speedier reopening as unemployment has skyrocketed to the worst rates since the Great Depression. Many states are heeding that call and doing so, even as they fail to meet testing and case thresholds health experts say are necessary for public safety — all of which makes guidance like the CDC’s sorely needed.
30 states have already reopened their economies, despite many being unprepared
The CDC’s reopening report still hasn’t been officially released by the administration, although some elements of it have reportedly been “fast-tracked” for release. Regardless of why that is, all signs point to businesses and other groups having urgent need of it, as 30 states have already reopened their economies at least partially — and five more are planning to shortly.
Most of those states haven’t met the criteria outlined by the Trump administration to begin the process of reopening. Though it’s ultimately up to state governors to decide when to reengage, the White House task force recommends states only begin relaxing restrictions on industries when there’s been a downward trajectory of coronavirus cases or positive tests as a percent of total tests for 14 days, there’s a robust testing program in place, and hospitals have a demonstrated capacity to treat all patients.
Of the 30 states that are reopening, most actually have more new cases or a higher percentage of positive tests than two weeks ago and have recently seen an increase in daily average cases, the New York Times reported Thursday. Even states with a downward trajectory haven’t necessarily quashed their outbreaks.
Public health experts say widespread testing and robust contact tracing are crucial to making sure the country can identify and squash viral spikes once restrictions are loosened. Even with those protections, reopening the economy before the health care system has had a chance to prepare could be disastrous.
Only around 1 in 10 people have been infected by the coronavirus even in the most hard hit regions of the US, former CDC director Dr. Tom Frieden told TIME, which means many Americans remain vulnerable to the disease. “So not only could COVID-19 come roaring back, but it could get five times or close to 10 times worse than it is now,” he said.
Eager to get the economy — once one of his biggest campaign advantages — back on track, Trump and his administration are looking to shift focus to businesses. But the White House has not — yet, at least — said in detail how these businesses might reopen safely. The CDC guidelines do just this, recommending, for instance, that businesses allow employees to work in shifts in order to limit the people gathered in workspaces at any given time.
Without these federal guidelines, states have been left to develop their own best practices, with some having greater success at doing so than others. Those states that have created poor reopening frameworks are now at danger — and their residents are at greater risk of infection.


vox--2020-05-09--Government loans meant to bail out small businesses could become a financial burden themselves

A new report from the inspector general for the Small Business Administration finds that forgivable loans from the government — intended to help small businesses weather the current economic fallout — could ultimately leave many weighed down by debt .
The report , released Friday , concluded that rules created by SBA , which dictate how forgivable loans offered by the Paycheck Protection Program ( PPP ) can be spent , run counter to how Congress intended the program to be administered — and could be limiting the loans ’ utility .
The PPP , a new effort established in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of up to $ 10 million to small businesses and nonprofits trying to navigate the economic uncertainty that ’ s emerged during the coronavirus pandemic .
Congress allocated $ 349 billion to the program in the original stimulus package , and lawmakers then added another $ 310 billion in late April .
Thus far , over 4.1 million PPP loans have been approved .
The act put the SBA in charge of implementing the program , and the agency created some pretty strict rules governing how PPP loans can be spent : A @ @ @ @ @ @ @ — must be used to cover payroll costs , not other expenses like rent , in order for the loan to be fully forgiven .
But the new inspector general report finds those rules are not in line with the way the program was laid out in the law , and that they could be harming businesses desperately in need of the money for operational expenses in addition to payroll .
The inspector general determined that “ tens of thousands of borrowers ” who participated in the first round of funding have used @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they were allocated to cover costs such as rent and utilities , meaning they are likely to be stuck with new debt .
And that debt — “ the amount of nonpayroll costs in excess of 25 percent , ” according to the IG — would need to be repaid within two years .
If businesses failed to repay in that timeframe , they would likely need to work out additional terms with their lender .
Essentially , a program aimed at helping alleviate the financial burden small businesses are facing right now @ @ @ @ @ @ @ concern might be reducing demand for the latest round of PPP funding , according to the New York Times , which cites new data from the Small Business Administration that shows roughly 40 percent of the additional funding Congress approved has yet to be distributed .
This IG report also documents other areas where the PPP has fallen short — including in its ability to make sure those underrepresented in business ownership , including people of color and women , get access to the loans .
Access to PPP loans has been uneven @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Since its April launch , PPP has been plagued with issues including technological snafus , access problems , and loopholes for chain restaurants and hotels , which have led to some of the smallest businesses getting shut out of receiving support .
Many of the larger banks issuing the loans , like Bank of America , for example , would only accept applications from existing customers .
Underrepresented business owners have been more likely to miss out .
As many as 90 percent of women and minority business owners were not able to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , according to CBS News , in part because they were less likely to have existing relationships with these banks .
The IG report finds that the Small Business Administration ’ s lack of guidance on prioritizing underserved communities may have contributed to these businesses getting excluded from the first round of funding .
“ Because SBA did not provide guidance to lenders about prioritizing borrowers in underserved and rural markets , these borrowers , including rural , minority and women-owned businesses may not have received the loans as intended , ” the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ SBA has not included standard demographic questions in the application for PPP , making it tougher for the agency to have a clear picture of what types of business owners have been able to receive loans .
This recent report is the latest of several that have pointed to major gaps in the PPP — but unlike some other critiques of the program , the IG report offers recommendations for how the SBA can improve its implementation moving forward .
Among the suggestions : collecting demographic data when businesses complete the paperwork for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ requirements for the proportion of the loan that needs to be used on payroll .
Every day at Vox , we aim to answer your most important questions and provide you , and our audience around the world , with information that has the power to save lives .
Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment : to empower you through understanding .
Vox ’ s work is reaching more people than ever , but our distinctive brand of explanatory journalism takes resources — particularly during a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ financial contribution will not constitute a donation , but it will enable our staff to continue to offer free articles , videos , and podcasts at the quality and volume that this moment requires .
Please consider making a contribution to Vox today .

A new report from the inspector general for the Small Business Administration finds that forgivable loans from the government — intended to help small businesses weather the current economic fallout — could ultimately leave many weighed down by debt.
The report, released Friday, concluded that rules created by SBA, which dictate how forgivable loans offered by the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) can be spent, run counter to how Congress intended the program to be administered — and could be limiting the loans’ utility.
The PPP, a new effort established in the CARES Act, provides forgivable loans of up to $10 million to small businesses and nonprofits trying to navigate the economic uncertainty that’s emerged during the coronavirus pandemic. Congress allocated $349 billion to the program in the original stimulus package, and lawmakers then added another $310 billion in late April. Thus far, over 4.1 million PPP loans have been approved.
The act put the SBA in charge of implementing the program, and the agency created some pretty strict rules governing how PPP loans can be spent: A hefty proportion of them — 75 percent — must be used to cover payroll costs, not other expenses like rent, in order for the loan to be fully forgiven.
But the new inspector general report finds those rules are not in line with the way the program was laid out in the law, and that they could be harming businesses desperately in need of the money for operational expenses in addition to payroll.
The inspector general determined that “tens of thousands of borrowers” who participated in the first round of funding have used more than 25 percent of the money they were allocated to cover costs such as rent and utilities, meaning they are likely to be stuck with new debt. And that debt — “the amount of nonpayroll costs in excess of 25 percent,” according to the IG — would need to be repaid within two years. If businesses failed to repay in that timeframe, they would likely need to work out additional terms with their lender.
Essentially, a program aimed at helping alleviate the financial burden small businesses are facing right now could ultimately add to it.
This concern might be reducing demand for the latest round of PPP funding, according to the New York Times, which cites new data from the Small Business Administration that shows roughly 40 percent of the additional funding Congress approved has yet to be distributed.
This IG report also documents other areas where the PPP has fallen short — including in its ability to make sure those underrepresented in business ownership, including people of color and women, get access to the loans.
Access to PPP loans has been uneven, particularly for women- and minority-owned businesses
Since its April launch, PPP has been plagued with issues including technological snafus, access problems, and loopholes for chain restaurants and hotels, which have led to some of the smallest businesses getting shut out of receiving support. Many of the larger banks issuing the loans, like Bank of America, for example, would only accept applications from existing customers.
Underrepresented business owners have been more likely to miss out. As many as 90 percent of women and minority business owners were not able to participate in the first round of loans, according to CBS News, in part because they were less likely to have existing relationships with these banks.
The IG report finds that the Small Business Administration’s lack of guidance on prioritizing underserved communities may have contributed to these businesses getting excluded from the first round of funding. “Because SBA did not provide guidance to lenders about prioritizing borrowers in underserved and rural markets, these borrowers, including rural, minority and women-owned businesses may not have received the loans as intended,” the report reads.
It also notes the SBA has not included standard demographic questions in the application for PPP, making it tougher for the agency to have a clear picture of what types of business owners have been able to receive loans.
This recent report is the latest of several that have pointed to major gaps in the PPP — but unlike some other critiques of the program, the IG report offers recommendations for how the SBA can improve its implementation moving forward. Among the suggestions: collecting demographic data when businesses complete the paperwork for loan forgiveness, and considering updating the requirements for the proportion of the loan that needs to be used on payroll.


vox--2020-05-09--Rock and roll icon Little Richard has died at 87

Richard Wayne “ Little Richard ” Penniman has died .
The musician , known for his wild vocals , original persona , and unbridled enthusiasm onstage , was 87 .
Rolling Stone reported Little Richard ’ s passing the morning of May 9 , citing confirmation by his son Danny Jones Penniman .
No cause of death has been given .
Little Richard ’ s music career spanned more than 60 years .
Born December 5 , 1932 , he found his passion for music in his hometown of Macon , Georgia , singing gospel and playing piano .
As @ @ @ @ @ @ @ artist shifted away from being a talented choir boy , and toward becoming the more eccentric , vaudeville-inspired performer who gained worldwide renown .
By age 22 , Little Richard broke out onto the music scene with a trio of hits that would canonize him as one of the greats in rock and roll .
“ Tutti Frutti ” from November 1955 , followed by “ Long Tall Sally ” and “ Good Golly , Miss Molly ” in 1956 , remain among the earliest and most exemplary modern standards in the rock @ @ @ @ @ @ @ others in his catalogue — are inextricable from Little Richard ’ s performance of them , from his electrified singing ( punctuated by yelps and wails , impossible to match ) to his personal style .
Both aspects of Little Richard ’ s persona had wide-ranging influences on rock and roll , as artists borrowed his vocal trills and daring fashion to cultivate rock ’ s image as flashier than pop , more unpredictable than soul .
“ When it comes to flaming androgyny , outrageous costume and unhinged libido , a contemporary @ @ @ @ @ @ @ compared with Little Richard , the original wild man of rock ‘ n ’ roll , ” wrote music critic Stephen Holden in the New York Times in 1984 .
“ And in his mirrored suits , towering pompadour and heavy makeup , the singer did as much as anyone to establish the tradition of the rock star as sanctified freak.
” Little Richard , at times , drew back from his rock image , however , as he retreated toward gospel as a means to reclaim his Christian roots .
His complicated @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ( he went from declaring homosexuality a sin , to calling himself openly gay , to identifying as “ omnisexual , ” and back again throughout his life ) persisted through the latter half of his career .
He also suffered from serious health issues in his advanced age .
But what never changed was his affection for putting on a dazzling , energetic show — and his place in rock and roll ’ s history .
At the first Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony in 1986 , the all-time great @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” Richard Penniman : “ Little Richard ’ s music has made such a strong impression on all of us .
We dance to it , we hum along with it , and we have all been affected by it .
Some of us have even been bodacious enough to try to sing his songs .
...
He is very special to me .
He is very special to all of us.
” Meanwhile , fellow artists and fans have turned to Twitter to offer their kind words and memories of one of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , we aim to answer your most important questions and provide you , and our audience around the world , with information that has the power to save lives .
Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment : to empower you through understanding .
Vox ’ s work is reaching more people than ever , but our distinctive brand of explanatory journalism takes resources — particularly during a pandemic and an economic downturn .
Your financial contribution will not constitute a donation , but it will enable @ @ @ @ @ @ @ articles , videos , and podcasts at the quality and volume that this moment requires .
Please consider making a contribution to Vox today .

Richard Wayne “Little Richard” Penniman has died. The musician, known for his wild vocals, original persona, and unbridled enthusiasm onstage, was 87.
Rolling Stone reported Little Richard’s passing the morning of May 9, citing confirmation by his son Danny Jones Penniman. No cause of death has been given.
Little Richard’s music career spanned more than 60 years. Born December 5, 1932, he found his passion for music in his hometown of Macon, Georgia, singing gospel and playing piano. As he discovered R&B, the artist shifted away from being a talented choir boy, and toward becoming the more eccentric, vaudeville-inspired performer who gained worldwide renown.
By age 22, Little Richard broke out onto the music scene with a trio of hits that would canonize him as one of the greats in rock and roll. “Tutti Frutti” from November 1955, followed by “Long Tall Sally” and “Good Golly, Miss Molly” in 1956, remain among the earliest and most exemplary modern standards in the rock genre. These songs — and many others in his catalogue — are inextricable from Little Richard’s performance of them, from his electrified singing (punctuated by yelps and wails, impossible to match) to his personal style.
Both aspects of Little Richard’s persona had wide-ranging influences on rock and roll, as artists borrowed his vocal trills and daring fashion to cultivate rock’s image as flashier than pop, more unpredictable than soul.
“When it comes to flaming androgyny, outrageous costume and unhinged libido, a contemporary pop rebel like Prince seems small potatoes compared with Little Richard, the original wild man of rock ‘n’ roll,” wrote music critic Stephen Holden in the New York Times in 1984. “And in his mirrored suits, towering pompadour and heavy makeup, the singer did as much as anyone to establish the tradition of the rock star as sanctified freak.”
Little Richard, at times, drew back from his rock image, however, as he retreated toward gospel as a means to reclaim his Christian roots. His complicated relationship with both his religion and sexuality (he went from declaring homosexuality a sin, to calling himself openly gay, to identifying as “omnisexual,” and back again throughout his life) persisted through the latter half of his career. He also suffered from serious health issues in his advanced age.
But what never changed was his affection for putting on a dazzling, energetic show — and his place in rock and roll’s history. At the first Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony in 1986, the all-time great Roberta Flack said this of “Little” Richard Penniman:
“Little Richard’s music has made such a strong impression on all of us. We dance to it, we hum along with it, and we have all been affected by it. Some of us have even been bodacious enough to try to sing his songs. ... He is very special to me. He is very special to all of us.”
Meanwhile, fellow artists and fans have turned to Twitter to offer their kind words and memories of one of the greats.
.@RollingStone is reporting that Little Richard has died at age 87. Such a huge loss. Resharing the best thing I ever read about the man, from @oxfordamerican.
"He sounds like the last man on earth singing the first song ever written." https://t.co/zT46Zk1j8D — Sam Sanders (@samsanders) May 9, 2020
Rest In Peace To One Of The True Creators Of Rock And Roll. This Is The Commercial I Directed With Little Richard And Michael Jordan, 1991. pic.twitter.com/51bEV1eYKB — Spike Lee (@SpikeLeeJoint) May 9, 2020
#LittleRichard was a genius, pure and simple. He paved the way for (code for he was ripped off by)so many artists. Watch his YouTube performances to see what I mean. I met him on "Down and Out in Beverly Hills", in which he was hilarious. What a legacy. God bless you, Richard. https://t.co/Mz9UPzwYth — bettemidler (@BetteMidler) May 9, 2020
James Brown got his big break as a Little Richard impersonator. Hendrix got his start playing guitar in Little Richard’s band. The Beatles formed around his work. Bob Dylan and Freddie Mercury began with his music. It’s impossible to overstate Little Richard’s influence. — Anil Dash (@anildash) May 9, 2020


vox--2020-05-09--California becomes the first state to send all voters mail-in ballots for November election

California has become the first state to commit to automatically mailing all registered voters a ballot for the November election , a significant move as states consider how to protect both voting rights and public health during the coronavirus pandemic .
California Gov .
Gavin Newsom signed an executive order on Friday requiring election officials to send mail-in ballots to every registered voter ahead of the general election , acknowledging that attempting traditional voting on a mass scale will likely still be too dangerous come November .
“ Elections and the right to vote are foundational to our democracy , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ No Californian should be forced to risk their health in order to exercise their right to vote.
” Most Californians already live in counties that have opted-in to send all voters a ballot under a 2016 law , but the edict temporarily expands the practice statewide .
In-person voting will still be available at consolidated voting centers , which voting rights advocates say are crucial to serve people with disabilities , people experiencing homelessness , and people with limited English proficiency .
Newsom ’ s order comes amid rising concern from experts @ @ @ @ @ @ @ safely conduct the November presidential election — a need made even more urgent after disastrous primary elections in Wisconsin in April , during which social distancing was difficult and thousands of voters had to interact with high-touch surfaces .
State officials believe up to 52 people may have become infected with the coronavirus at polling sites .
Fear that Covid-19 might spread during elections — and that concerns over the virus might depress voter turnout — have led to a national push to make voting more accessible , with some Democratic lawmakers offering @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Other national leaders have called on states to institute expanded vote-by-mail policies ; former Secretary of State and past presidential candidate Hillary Clinton tweeted on Friday that other states should follow California ’ s lead .
But Republicans and the Trump administration have pushed back on expanding mail-in voting , arguing it poses a risk for voter fraud .
Trump spokesperson Tim Murtaugh wrote on Twitter Friday that California ’ s order is a “ thinly-veiled political tactic ” put in place to “ undermine election security.
” Researchers , however , have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rare .
And polls have found that despite negative messaging about voting by mail from the president and his allies , mail-in ballots are overwhelmingly popular : For instance , an April Reuters/Ipsos poll found that three-quarters of the American public , including most Republicans , support automatic mail-in ballots for the presidential election as the pandemic continues .
States are making it easier to vote by mail , as others call for a federal vote-by-mail system Five states — Colorado , Hawaii , Oregon , Washington , and Utah — already mail @ @ @ @ @ @ @ every election , and 34 other states provide access to mail-in ballots for anyone who wants one .
As the coronavirus continues to pose a public health risk , other states are looking to follow their lead .
In addition to California , New York and Kentucky recently launched programs intended to improve access to mail-in ballots by sending absentee ballot applications to all voters .
New York ’ s ballots include prepaid postage so voters can return their ballot for free , and Kentucky allows absentee ballot requests to be made online @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cancel in-person voting , switching to a mail-in election for the 2020 primary , and counties in other states have made plans to send absentee ballot applications to all registered voters — including Palm Beach County in Florida , where Trump is registered to vote .
But as local election officials have sounded the alarm that there may not be enough time for every state to fully transition to mail-in voting — particularly given that some states do not have the funds to pay for such an endeavor — other voting rights advocates @ @ @ @ @ @ @ make national changes .
For instance , Sens .
Ron Wyden ( D-OR ) and Amy Klobuchar ( D-MN ) introduced a bill that would expand early and mail-in voting , as well as require states to have contingency voting plans for emergencies .
Wyden also introduced a bill early last year that would allow all eligible voters to vote by mail , though it has not moved through Congress .
The CARES Act , passed in late March , included $ 400 million to help states run elections during the pandemic , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they may not be able to access the money because of restrictions , such as a requirement that states match 20 percent of any elections-related funding they receive .
And the Brennan Center for Justice , a nonpartisan public policy institute at New York University Law School , estimated the funding would cover just a fraction of what ’ s needed to safely conduct elections this year .
To address these concerns , Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has called for up to $ 4 billion to be set aside for voting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fourth coronavirus-related stimulus package .
But as Trump and other leading Republicans decry efforts to expand voting access — citing voter fraud and , in one instance , baldly noting it would hurt Republicans ’ electoral chances — that proposal may fail to become a reality .
Every day at Vox , we aim to answer your most important questions and provide you , and our audience around the world , with information that has the power to save lives .
Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Vox ’ s work is reaching more people than ever , but our distinctive brand of explanatory journalism takes resources — particularly during a pandemic and an economic downturn .
Your financial contribution will not constitute a donation , but it will enable our staff to continue to offer free articles , videos , and podcasts at the quality and volume that this moment requires .
Please consider making a contribution to Vox today .

California has become the first state to commit to automatically mailing all registered voters a ballot for the November election, a significant move as states consider how to protect both voting rights and public health during the coronavirus pandemic.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order on Friday requiring election officials to send mail-in ballots to every registered voter ahead of the general election, acknowledging that attempting traditional voting on a mass scale will likely still be too dangerous come November.
“Elections and the right to vote are foundational to our democracy,” Newsom said in a statement. “No Californian should be forced to risk their health in order to exercise their right to vote.”
Most Californians already live in counties that have opted-in to send all voters a ballot under a 2016 law, but the edict temporarily expands the practice statewide. In-person voting will still be available at consolidated voting centers, which voting rights advocates say are crucial to serve people with disabilities, people experiencing homelessness, and people with limited English proficiency.
Newsom’s order comes amid rising concern from experts and election officials over the need to safely conduct the November presidential election — a need made even more urgent after disastrous primary elections in Wisconsin in April, during which social distancing was difficult and thousands of voters had to interact with high-touch surfaces. State officials believe up to 52 people may have become infected with the coronavirus at polling sites.
Fear that Covid-19 might spread during elections — and that concerns over the virus might depress voter turnout — have led to a national push to make voting more accessible, with some Democratic lawmakers offering proposals for nationwide voting by mail. Other national leaders have called on states to institute expanded vote-by-mail policies; former Secretary of State and past presidential candidate Hillary Clinton tweeted on Friday that other states should follow California’s lead.
But Republicans and the Trump administration have pushed back on expanding mail-in voting, arguing it poses a risk for voter fraud. Trump spokesperson Tim Murtaugh wrote on Twitter Friday that California’s order is a “thinly-veiled political tactic” put in place to “undermine election security.”
Researchers, however, have found that voter fraud is actually incredibly rare. And polls have found that despite negative messaging about voting by mail from the president and his allies, mail-in ballots are overwhelmingly popular: For instance, an April Reuters/Ipsos poll found that three-quarters of the American public, including most Republicans, support automatic mail-in ballots for the presidential election as the pandemic continues.
States are making it easier to vote by mail, as others call for a federal vote-by-mail system
Five states — Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, and Utah — already mail out ballots to all registered voters for every election, and 34 other states provide access to mail-in ballots for anyone who wants one. As the coronavirus continues to pose a public health risk, other states are looking to follow their lead.
In addition to California, New York and Kentucky recently launched programs intended to improve access to mail-in ballots by sending absentee ballot applications to all voters. New York’s ballots include prepaid postage so voters can return their ballot for free, and Kentucky allows absentee ballot requests to be made online.
Ohio was the first state to cancel in-person voting, switching to a mail-in election for the 2020 primary, and counties in other states have made plans to send absentee ballot applications to all registered voters — including Palm Beach County in Florida, where Trump is registered to vote.
But as local election officials have sounded the alarm that there may not be enough time for every state to fully transition to mail-in voting — particularly given that some states do not have the funds to pay for such an endeavor — other voting rights advocates have pushed for the federal government to make national changes.
For instance, Sens. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) introduced a bill that would expand early and mail-in voting, as well as require states to have contingency voting plans for emergencies. Wyden also introduced a bill early last year that would allow all eligible voters to vote by mail, though it has not moved through Congress.
The CARES Act, passed in late March, included $400 million to help states run elections during the pandemic, but some states have raised concerns that they may not be able to access the money because of restrictions, such as a requirement that states match 20 percent of any elections-related funding they receive. And the Brennan Center for Justice, a nonpartisan public policy institute at New York University Law School, estimated the funding would cover just a fraction of what’s needed to safely conduct elections this year.
To address these concerns, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has called for up to $4 billion to be set aside for voting by mail as lawmakers put together a fourth coronavirus-related stimulus package. But as Trump and other leading Republicans decry efforts to expand voting access — citing voter fraud and, in one instance, baldly noting it would hurt Republicans’ electoral chances — that proposal may fail to become a reality.


vox--2020-05-09--ESPN’s The Last Dance, anime about bread baking, and 3 more TV shows we’ve been loving lately

Along with everything else , the coronavirus has upended pop culture : Movie theaters are closed ; concerts and other live events are canceled or postponed ; TV production is all but shut down .
But the powers of the internet and digital media prevail !
Whether old or new , there are still plenty of movies and TV shows and TikToks to watch , games to play , songs to listen to , and books to read .
Here at Vox Culture , we ’ ve been working hard to recommend all kinds of entertainment that might help you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the process , we ’ ve been consuming oodles of it ourselves .
So every weekend for the month of May , we ’ ll be sharing the pop culture we ’ ve been loving in our own lives ; we think you might love some of it too .
This week , TV was king .
Here ’ s what we ’ ve been watching .
I missed Party Down when it aired on Starz in 2009 and 2010 — which is great because it means I get to watch the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : two seasons , comprising 20 half-hour episodes in all .
And it boasts a genius concept : A group of caterers has a whole bunch of weird experiences at the kinds of lavish and occasionally disturbing events that caterers are frequently hired to work at , from Sweet 16 parties for moguls ’ kids to gatherings of precocious college Republicans to mixers for elderly singles to porn industry awards .
The show is set in Los Angeles , so most of the characters are failed actors of one kind or another , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at times , the drama ) .
With a killer core cast ( including Adam Scott , Lizzy Caplan , Jane Lynch , Martin Starr , Ryan Hansen , and Ken Marino ) and a startling array of guests from the world of comedy , it ’ s the perfect thing to pop on at the end of the night , when I ’ m too tired to think but want something smart and wry that will make me laugh .
Party Down is streaming on Hulu .
It ’ s also available @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Google Play , and Vudu .
—Alissa Wilkinson When you grow up a tall kid , everyone tries to make you play basketball .
Sadly , I wasn ’ t really built to shoot baskets , so I was never any good .
That goes for watching it , too ; TV is made for cartoons and video games , not sports , DAD .
But when I was really little , before my height mattered so much , I was fascinated by one team : the Chicago Bulls .
This was in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ members of the Bulls-filled Olympic Dream Team were American heroes , Space Jam was the kids ’ favorite movie , and Air Jordans were the most coveted sneakers .
Michael Jordan transfixed me as the embodiment of the Bulls ’ wild success .
Michael Jordan was perfect .
Michael Jordan could fly .
ESPN ’ s 10-episode docuseries The Last Dance is ostensibly about the Bulls during the 1997-98 season , Jordan ’ s last before he retired .
As such , it ’ s meant to be a comprehensive look at many @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , how they all contributed to its excellence .
But the world of the Bulls — and basketball at large — revolved around Jordan both on- and off-court , and The Last Dance is fully aware of that .
It ’ s both an illuminating and nostalgic watch , recounting one of the most interesting times in American sports culture in easy hour-long chunks .
The Last Dance isn ’ t turning me into a basketball fan , but for those 60 minutes each week , I ’ m 4 years old again @ @ @ @ @ @ @ could fly .
The Last Dance airs Sundays on ESPN at 9 pm ET , with two hour-long episodes debuting each week .
Each episode is available to stream for free on ESPN.com , or in the ESPN app with a subscription or cable login .
—Allegra Frank The delicious return of Top Chef with Top Chef : All-Stars L.A .
The joy of watching reality competition series ’ all-star seasons is that they allow us to remember the contestants we once rooted for , to hope they get whatever redemption they might @ @ @ @ @ @ @ any villains who come back .
Top Chef : All Stars L.A. is Bravo ’ s second all-star installment of its sleek , long-running cooking competition , and it handily checks the boxes of any good all-star setup .
Top Chef wrangled favorites like Lee Anne Wong ( season one ) , Melissa King and Gregory Gourdet ( both finalists in season 12 ) , Nini Nguyen ( season 16 ) , and the somber Voltaggio brother , Brian ( season six ) .
There ’ s also an emerging villain in season @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who is flashing more subterfuge and a more cutthroat persona than when we last saw him .
Drama , possible sabotage , exquisite pork crumbles and artistic corn soup , special guest judge Kelly Clarkson — the season , which debuted on March 19 , has had everything , while also spotlighting Los Angeles landmarks like the Santa Monica Farmers Market and the Walt Disney Concert Hall .
But by far the best episode so far was episode two , a special installment dedicated to the late , award-winning food writer Jonathan Gold @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , his adventurous spirit , and his ability to help people understand the personal stories , predominantly stories of immigrants , behind the food that makes Los Angeles so great .
New episodes of Top Chef : All Stars L.A. air Thursdays on Bravo at 10 pm ET .
The season is available to stream on the Bravo TV app ( with a cable login ) , or you can buy episodes on Amazon , iTunes , Google Play , and Vudu .
—Alex Abad-Santos The magical bread-baking anime of our quarantine dreams @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ t been baking any bread during the pandemic .
But I have been thinking a lot about bread-baking , and bread eating , and , just , yummy yummy bread .
So I ’ ve been returning to an old fave and rewatching episodes of silly , sunny Yakitate !
!
Japan , the popular 2004 anime series about , uh , bread baking .
Yakitate !
!
is a highly tongue-in-cheek parody of shounen sports manga/anime tropes , which means it ’ s a coming-of-age story about a plucky kid on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this greatness through lots of action-packed competition ... over bread .
Our plucky kid is Azuma Kazuma , a boy whose unconventionally warm hands give him the ability to speed up the process of rising dough — thus allowing him to create inhumanly delicious bread , which he calls , wait for it , Ja-Pan .
He ’ s such a prodigy that he gets a job straight out of junior high school at a bakery called , wait for it , Pantasia , where he ’ s thrust into an endless series @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of his quest to bring a uniquely Japanese style of bread to the world .
If that sounds appealingly ridiculous and delicious , this is the show for you .
Yakitate !
!
is a hilarious meta-parody , absolutely stuffed with puns and wordplay and knowingly over-the-top riffing on straightforward conceits of shounen anime .
And although this anime existed years before The Great British Baking Show made competitive baking a familiar sight on TV , it frequently feels like a parody of older food competition shows like Iron Chef .
Even better @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the fundamentals of baking and cooking throughout the series — and the whole time , you ’ re treated to mouth-watering images of food .
It ’ s as tasty as TV gets .
The whole 69-episode series is streaming on Crunchyroll and Funimation , and many eps are also available on YouTube , as well .
—Aja Romano I ’ m halfway through the 10-episode first season of the new FXX comedy Dave , about a white , uppity , exasperating Jewish rapper named Dave — stage name Lil Dicky — who @ @ @ @ @ @ @ off the ground .
I didn ’ t connect the dots before I started watching that Dave is a semi-autobiographical story about its star , David Burd , a.k.a .
the real-life comedian and rapper Lil Dicky .
Nor did I expect much more than a funny-enough comedy with a lot of raunch and dick jokes .
But Dave has a surprisingly sweet and sensitive side , and I ’ ve found myself more and more impressed and drawn in as it ’ s built out its characters and their relationships .
It @ @ @ @ @ @ @ but it seems to have some interesting ideas about hip-hop and masculinity .
And having just watched the standout fifth episode , “ Hype Man , ” about one character ’ s struggles with mental illness , I ’ m excited to see where it goes next .
Dave is streaming on Hulu .
Episodes are also available to buy on Amazon , iTunes , Google Play , and Vudu .
—Jen Trolio Every day at Vox , we aim to answer your most important questions and provide you , and our audience @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has the power to save lives .
Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment : to empower you through understanding .
Vox ’ s work is reaching more people than ever , but our distinctive brand of explanatory journalism takes resources — particularly during a pandemic and an economic downturn .
Your financial contribution will not constitute a donation , but it will enable our staff to continue to offer free articles , videos , and podcasts at the quality and volume that this moment requires .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ today .

Along with everything else, the coronavirus has upended pop culture: Movie theaters are closed; concerts and other live events are canceled or postponed; TV production is all but shut down. But the powers of the internet and digital media prevail! Whether old or new, there are still plenty of movies and TV shows and TikToks to watch, games to play, songs to listen to, and books to read.
Here at Vox Culture, we’ve been working hard to recommend all kinds of entertainment that might help you during your time at home. And in the process, we’ve been consuming oodles of it ourselves. So every weekend for the month of May, we’ll be sharing the pop culture we’ve been loving in our own lives; we think you might love some of it too.
This week, TV was king. Here’s what we’ve been watching.
The wacky catering comedy Party Down
I missed Party Down when it aired on Starz in 2009 and 2010 — which is great because it means I get to watch the show now. It’s short: two seasons, comprising 20 half-hour episodes in all. And it boasts a genius concept: A group of caterers has a whole bunch of weird experiences at the kinds of lavish and occasionally disturbing events that caterers are frequently hired to work at, from Sweet 16 parties for moguls’ kids to gatherings of precocious college Republicans to mixers for elderly singles to porn industry awards. The show is set in Los Angeles, so most of the characters are failed actors of one kind or another, adding to the comedy (and, at times, the drama). With a killer core cast (including Adam Scott, Lizzy Caplan, Jane Lynch, Martin Starr, Ryan Hansen, and Ken Marino) and a startling array of guests from the world of comedy, it’s the perfect thing to pop on at the end of the night, when I’m too tired to think but want something smart and wry that will make me laugh.
Party Down is streaming on Hulu. It’s also available to buy on Amazon, iTunes, Google Play, and Vudu. —Alissa Wilkinson
ESPN’s Chicago Bulls docuseries The Last Dance
When you grow up a tall kid, everyone tries to make you play basketball. Sadly, I wasn’t really built to shoot baskets, so I was never any good. That goes for watching it, too; TV is made for cartoons and video games, not sports, DAD.
But when I was really little, before my height mattered so much, I was fascinated by one team: the Chicago Bulls. This was in the late ’90s, when the members of the Bulls-filled Olympic Dream Team were American heroes, Space Jam was the kids’ favorite movie, and Air Jordans were the most coveted sneakers. Michael Jordan transfixed me as the embodiment of the Bulls’ wild success. Michael Jordan was perfect. Michael Jordan could fly.
ESPN’s 10-episode docuseries The Last Dance is ostensibly about the Bulls during the 1997-98 season, Jordan’s last before he retired. As such, it’s meant to be a comprehensive look at many of the team’s fantastic players, how they all contributed to its excellence. But the world of the Bulls — and basketball at large — revolved around Jordan both on- and off-court, and The Last Dance is fully aware of that. It’s both an illuminating and nostalgic watch, recounting one of the most interesting times in American sports culture in easy hour-long chunks. The Last Dance isn’t turning me into a basketball fan, but for those 60 minutes each episode, I’m 4 years old again, idolizing Michael Jordan and how he could fly.
The Last Dance airs Sundays on ESPN at 9 pm ET, with two hour-long episodes debuting each week. Each episode is available to stream for free on ESPN.com, on Hulu Live, or in the ESPN app with a subscription or cable login. —Allegra Frank
The delicious return of Top Chef with Top Chef: All-Stars L.A.
The joy of watching reality competition series’ all-star seasons is that they allow us to remember the contestants we once rooted for, to hope they get whatever redemption they might be seeking, and to vociferously boo any villains who come back.
Top Chef: All Stars L.A. is Bravo’s second all-star installment of its sleek, long-running cooking competition, and it handily checks the boxes of any good all-star setup. Top Chef wrangled favorites like Lee Anne Wong (season one), Melissa King and Gregory Gourdet (both finalists in season 12), Nini Nguyen (season 16), and the somber Voltaggio brother, Brian (season six). There’s also an emerging villain in season 3’s frenetic Brian Malarkey, who is flashing more subterfuge and a more cutthroat persona than when we last saw him.
Drama, possible sabotage, exquisite pork crumbles and artistic corn soup, special guest judge Kelly Clarkson — the season, which debuted on March 19, has had everything, while also spotlighting Los Angeles landmarks like the Santa Monica Farmers Market and the Walt Disney Concert Hall. But by far the best episode so far was episode two, a special installment dedicated to the late, award-winning food writer Jonathan Gold. It honored Gold’s life, his adventurous spirit, and his ability to help people understand the personal stories, predominantly stories of immigrants, behind the food that makes Los Angeles so great.
New episodes of Top Chef: All Stars L.A. air Thursdays on Bravo at 10 pm ET. The season is available to stream on the Bravo TV app (with a cable login), or you can buy episodes on Amazon, iTunes, Google Play, and Vudu. —Alex Abad-Santos
The magical bread-baking anime of our quarantine dreams
Unlike so many others, I haven’t been baking any bread during the pandemic. But I have been thinking a lot about bread-baking, and bread eating, and, just, yummy yummy bread. So I’ve been returning to an old fave and rewatching episodes of silly, sunny Yakitate!! Japan, the popular 2004 anime series about, uh, bread baking.
Yakitate!! is a highly tongue-in-cheek parody of shounen sports manga/anime tropes, which means it’s a coming-of-age story about a plucky kid on a path to greatness. He achieves this greatness through lots of action-packed competition ... over bread. Our plucky kid is Azuma Kazuma, a boy whose unconventionally warm hands give him the ability to speed up the process of rising dough — thus allowing him to create inhumanly delicious bread, which he calls, wait for it, Ja-Pan. He’s such a prodigy that he gets a job straight out of junior high school at a bakery called, wait for it, Pantasia, where he’s thrust into an endless series of challenges and thrilling competitions as part of his quest to bring a uniquely Japanese style of bread to the world.
If that sounds appealingly ridiculous and delicious, this is the show for you. Yakitate!! is a hilarious meta-parody, absolutely stuffed with puns and wordplay and knowingly over-the-top riffing on straightforward conceits of shounen anime. And although this anime existed years before The Great British Baking Show made competitive baking a familiar sight on TV, it frequently feels like a parody of older food competition shows like Iron Chef. Even better, you learn things about bread and the fundamentals of baking and cooking throughout the series — and the whole time, you’re treated to mouth-watering images of food. It’s as tasty as TV gets.
The whole 69-episode series is streaming on Crunchyroll and Funimation, and many eps are also available on YouTube, as well. —Aja Romano
The surprisingly sensitive rapper comedy Dave
I’m halfway through the 10-episode first season of the new FXX comedy Dave, about a white, uppity, exasperating Jewish rapper named Dave — stage name Lil Dicky — who’s trying to get his career off the ground. I didn’t connect the dots before I started watching that Dave is a semi-autobiographical story about its star, David Burd, a.k.a. the real-life comedian and rapper Lil Dicky. Nor did I expect much more than a funny-enough comedy with a lot of raunch and dick jokes. But Dave has a surprisingly sweet and sensitive side, and I’ve found myself more and more impressed and drawn in as it’s built out its characters and their relationships. It isn’t a perfect show, but it seems to have some interesting ideas about hip-hop and masculinity. And having just watched the standout fifth episode, “Hype Man,” about one character’s struggles with mental illness, I’m excited to see where it goes next.
Dave is streaming on Hulu. Episodes are also available to buy on Amazon, iTunes, Google Play, and Vudu. —Jen Trolio


vox--2020-05-09--4 reasons state plans to open up may backfire — and soon

On Monday , Missouri will allow concerts to resume for the first time since the state ’ s stay-at-home order started at the beginning of April .
Yes , concerts , where people usually pack together , breathing the same air .
Apparently , the Missouri government believes it will be safe if people attending stand 6 feet apart .
It ’ s not just concerts : Under Gov .
Mike Parson ’ s direction , all businesses in the state can resume operations , provided that employees and customers keep some distance between themselves .
( The exception : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ) Meanwhile , the number of daily new positive cases is still trending upward in Missouri .
What ’ s happening in Missouri is beginning to happen in many parts of the country even though most states still fail , as this New York Times interactive shows , to meet the White House ’ s criteria for doing so : having a downward trajectory of cases over a two-week span , along with increased testing capacity .
It ’ s understandable that states want to open up .
The pandemic has resulted in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ unemployment has spiked to 14.7 percent .
There ’ s an emotional toll to social distancing , too : How many people haven ’ t seen their families in months , are severely lonely , or are desperate for physical contact ?
But is the public health situation really all that different than when lockdowns began in March ?
According to epidemiologists , no .
Although the situation varies from place to place , now , in general , doesn ’ t appear to be the best time for Americans to return to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are four main reasons : • Nationally , the outbreak has either peaked or plateaued .
But there is a lot of infection still out there .
• While the toll of the pandemic has been immense — there have been more than 76,000 recorded deaths in the United States as of May 8 — the vast majority of the population still has not been infected , has no immunity , and is fully susceptible .
• This virus is fundamentally very contagious , sneaky , and deadly .
That ’ s as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has wasted lockdown time : It needs more testing , more contact tracing , targeted isolation of infected people , and the quarantining of their contacts .
It also needs more research into social distancing to know what relaxed measures are safe .
Epidemiologists ’ predictions for what will happen next are grim .
“ If we open up , and do exactly what we were doing in March , we ’ re going to see a huge increase in cases , ” Eleanor Murray , an assistant professor of epidemiology at the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ says .
“ We ’ ll go back to that same exponential trajectory.
” That , in turn , will further strain and potentially overwhelm the capacity of a health care system that ’ s already been dealt brutal financial and psychological blows from the first wave .
It ’ s possible , based on new projections from Columbia University , that states opening up will lead to an increase of 10,000 new cases or more each day by June .
It might not come to pass .
But the risk is there @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to see is an unfortunate natural experiment going on , ” Jeffrey Shaman , a Columbia University infectious disease modeler , says .
“ For the states that are loosening the restrictions and reopening , we ’ re going to see if they ’ re able to do it without having the virus blow up in their face .
... basically , they ’ re playing Russian roulette.
” 1 ) America is still at the peak of the epidemic .
Cases have , at best , plateaued .
It ’ s true @ @ @ @ @ @ @ — most notably in New York , the hardest-hit state in the country ; New Jersey ; and Connecticut .
But overall , “ cases have increased and reached a plateau , ” says Stephen Kissler , who designs mathematical models of disease outbreaks at Harvard .
“ That ’ s hiding a lot of changes .
... And so really , we ’ re in this phase of sort of trying to play whack-a-mole with the pandemic , and that ’ s going to continue for some time.
” Easing restrictions during @ @ @ @ @ @ @ environment where “ there are more people around with infection now than ever before , ” Murray says .
“ Instead of starting from one or two cases in each city [ as might have been the case in March ] , we ’ re going to be starting from hundreds of cases or thousands of active cases in each city.
” On March 20 , there were around 5,000 confirmed daily new cases of Covid-19 in the US ( though , the real number was likely much higher ) .
Since early @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 20,000 to 30,000 new cases in the US reported every day as the virus replicates in more and more humans .
“ People keep talking about the second wave and we ’ re not through the first wave , ” Tara Smith , a Kent State epidemiologist , says .
Cases “ haven ’ t gone down significantly anywhere except , maybe , New York City.
” Yet the White House ’ s plan for opening things back up requires a “ downward trajectory of documented cases within a 14-day period.
” The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that nationally , or locally in most places .
It is possible the rate of new cases is slowly starting to subside .
But even so , case counts are still very high .
Infectious disease modelers Teresa Yamana , Sen Pei , and Jeffrey Shaman at Columbia University recently ran three projections that are helpful in thinking through what could happen in the coming weeks .
In one scenario , there ’ s no change : States don ’ t open up , and lockdowns are kept in place .
Nationally , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ plateau .
In a second scenario , there ’ s a 10 percent increase in the contact rate in all the counties and cities in states that are opening up .
That means , on average , Americans see 10 percent more people than they have been during lockdown .
Cases would then jump to 43,353 cases per day at the end of June , up from about 28,000 cases per day in early May , Yamana , Pei , and Shaman find .
The third scenario is similar to the second , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ percent increase in the contact rate each week after opening , “ meaning that people start to say , okay , things are all right , [ and ] they get more and more complacent , ” Shaman says .
And then , according to the model , new cases jump to 63,330 cases per day .
In the second and third scenarios , death counts might actually decrease across the country in May .
But a new wave of death would be brewing , and the toll would rebound by June , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are merely best guesses as to what could happen .
It ’ s hard to know what people will actually do — will they increase their contacts by 10 percent or more ?
They might not .
But who wants to be in a position to find out ?
2 ) Many , many people are still vulnerable Another important reason this isn ’ t going away : Even though there have been more than a million confirmed cases in the US , overall , few people in the country have been infected @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we ’ re well on our way to accruing some sort of population-level immunity , ” says Natalie Dean , a biostatistician at the University of Florida .
There have been some serological studies trying to assess how many people in a given area have antibodies ( molecules the body creates in response to an infection ) for SARS-CoV-2 , the virus that causes Covid-19 .
These studies “ haven ’ t been always of the best quality , ” Dean says ( more on that here ) , “ but in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ telling us we ’ re still in the single digits.
” That is , still under 10 percent of the US has been infected .
This picture looks different in harder-hit areas .
In New York City , it ’ s possible as much as 21.1 percent of the population has gotten the infection , according to a serological survey conducted by the state .
That sounds like a large percentage , and it is , but it ’ s not close to the level needed for herd immunity — when there are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ starts to naturally die out .
“ Around 60 percent [ immune ] roughly is when you might start to see changes , ” says Caitlin Rivers , an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security .
“ And we do not want to get there , just to be clear.
” It would take a long time to get there , too : One recent study in Science found it would take until 2022 if the US wanted to achieve herd immunity in a manner that would also prevent hospitals @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to herd immunity would involve many , many people dying .
Even if one city , or one community within one city , achieves herd immunity , it ’ s still not enough .
The US is a huge , sprawling nation .
A pocket of herd immunity in Queens , New York , doesn ’ t help end an outbreak in Nebraska .
“ My own estimate would be in the US that we probably have 10 to 20 million people who have been infected thus far , ” Shaman says .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ amount.
” There are 328 million people in the country , most of whom are still vulnerable .
3 ) The biology of this virus makes it formidable A quick review of the basic reproduction number , or R0 , for this coronavirus : Without interventions in place , each infected person can infect , on average , two or three others .
That ’ s a recipe for exponential growth .
“ If it were left to its own devices , given its nature , and given how efficiently it transmits person @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to 70 percent of the world ’ s population to be infected within the span of one to two years , ” Shaman says .
It has not been left to its own devices .
Countries all over the world have been trying to contain it with good hygiene , quarantine , and social distancing .
Still , this virus is a sneaky little bastard — it spreads silently and survives on some surfaces .
It takes an average of five days for a person to show symptoms after being infected , but @ @ @ @ @ @ @ most flu symptoms show themselves after one to four days ) .
During that time , some people can spread the virus to others before they know they are sick .
This incubation period is enough to lure some communities into a false sense of security .
Cases could go down , and any change in policy will not show up in infection rates ( provided people are being tested ) for a few weeks .
“ It could be really terrible if we try to pretend that everything ’ s back to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ gets cases down and people start to feel complacent , Sarah Cobey , a scientist who studies epidemics and immunity at the University of Chicago , says .
The virus can kill between 0.5 and 1 percent of the people it infects .
That figure , too , is both big and small .
It ’ s big enough to cause a million deaths or more in the US if precautions aren ’ t taken .
4 ) There aren ’ t enough plans in place to stop the spread — and to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ go that route because we didn ’ t have other tools in place , ” Murray says .
The outbreak was too widespread , and America ’ s capacities were too low , to aggressively test for the virus and trace the contacts of those it touched .
“ What we should have been doing while we were in lockdown was building up that capacity .
...
I think what we ’ re seeing right now is that people are getting sick of lockdown , but [ do we ] have those other @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The US does not .
As of May 1 , a Harvard analysis found more than half of states are not doing enough Covid-19 testing to safely reopen .
Without testing , no one can know where the virus is and whom it may spread to .
Testing is crucial to shift lockdowns into a smarter , more focused strategy : identifying all new cases , putting them in isolation , and then figuring out who may have been in contact with those people and putting them in quarantine .
“ Experts say @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , on the low end , to tens of millions , on the high end , to fully control the coronavirus outbreak , ” Vox ’ s German Lopez reports .
“ Based on the COVID Tracking Project , the US has averaged about 260,000 tests a day — a little more than half the minimum — over the first week of May.
” Also lagging : programs to train and deploy contact tracers , to make sure one case of Covid-19 doesn ’ t turn into thousands .
Testing isn ’ t @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it ’ s needed for surveillance , and to answer important scientific questions .
It seems clear that in confined indoor spaces with lots of people — like in meatpacking plants , dormitories , nursing homes , office buildings , or homeless shelters — the virus thrives .
But what about in a small barbershop , where both the customers and the barber are wearing masks ?
It ’ s not without risk , but the risk is hard to quantify .
So is the risk of transmission among children , and from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ up , they ’ re essentially creating experiments to see which policies lead to new cases and which don ’ t .
Hopefully , scientists and local health departments will have the right studies in place to track the outcomes .
“ But what I ’ m really afraid of is that a lot of areas aren ’ t set up even to learn from their own mistakes and successes , ” Cobey says .
This work takes not just Covid-19 diagnostic tests but also after-infection tests to see if a person has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I am really fearful that by June 1 or June 15 , after we ’ ve seen a couple weeks to a month of this [ state openings ] , that our cases are going to be climbing — and even worse , that we might not see them because ... we are maxed out with our testing capacity , ” Smith says .
The first sign the openings have backfired might come when hospitals start seeing many severely ill people again — which would mean a significant new wave is already underway @ @ @ @ @ @ @ area can ease restrictions and , due to sheer luck ( or seasonal factors mixed with luck ) , might not see an increase in cases .
It could brag about its success .
Then another area could adopt the same policies and be doomed .
The future is uncertain .
But the choice to reopen , and when , could be controlled .
There ’ s a lot of uncertainty in the future .
But some approaches offer more control than others .
Lifting social distancing restrictions now invites a new wave @ @ @ @ @ @ @ choose when the second wave happens , ” Cobey says .
Why choose now ?
This is just the health case for not rushing to reopen .
There ’ s also an economic one .
If the US creates a situation where more people get sick in the next few weeks , leading to case spikes , is that really going to save restaurants and small businesses — or just set them up for an even longer period of decline ?
On the other hand : Will people go out and patronize businesses @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Yes , the country can pursue a dual goal of protecting lives and protecting the economy .
But opening too quickly may tip the balance too far in the direction of death and health system strain , without really helping the economy .
“ We need to very clearly state our goals , and we need to be serious about the fact that opening up our economy does come at the cost of a certain number of Covid illnesses , which come with Covid deaths , ” Kissler says .
“ There ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Every day at Vox , we aim to answer your most important questions and provide you , and our audience around the world , with information that has the power to save lives .
Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment : to empower you through understanding .
Vox ’ s work is reaching more people than ever , but our distinctive brand of explanatory journalism takes resources — particularly during a pandemic and an economic downturn .
Your financial contribution will not constitute a donation , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ continue to offer free articles , videos , and podcasts at the quality and volume that this moment requires .
Please consider making a contribution to Vox today .

This month, Missouri allowed concerts to resume for the first time since the state’s stay-at-home order started at the beginning of April. Yes, concerts, where people usually pack together, breathing the same air. Apparently, the Missouri government believes it will be safe if people attending stand 6 feet apart.
It’s not just concerts: Under Gov. Mike Parson’s direction, all businesses in the state can resume operations, provided that employees and customers keep some distance between themselves. (The exception: St. Louis will remain in lockdown.) Meanwhile, the number of daily new positive cases is still trending upward in Missouri.
What’s happening in Missouri is beginning to happen in many parts of the country even though most states still fail, as this New York Times interactive shows, to meet the White House’s criteria for doing so: having a downward trajectory of cases over a two-week span, along with increased testing capacity.
It’s understandable that states want to open up. The pandemic has resulted in a painful and scary economic downturn; unemployment has spiked to 14.7 percent. There’s an emotional toll to social distancing, too: How many people haven’t seen their families in months, are severely lonely, or are desperate for physical contact?
But is the public health situation really all that different than when lockdowns began in March? According to epidemiologists, no. Although the situation varies from place to place, now, in general, doesn’t appear to be the best time for Americans to return to close proximity to one another. There are four main reasons:
Nationally, the outbreak has either peaked or plateaued. But there is a lot of infection still out there. While the toll of the pandemic has been immense — there have been more than 80,000 recorded deaths in the United States as of May 12 — the vast majority of the population still has not been infected, has no immunity, and is fully susceptible. This virus is fundamentally very contagious, sneaky, and deadly. That’s as true as ever. The US has wasted lockdown time: It needs more testing, more contact tracing, targeted isolation of infected people, and the quarantining of their contacts. It also needs more research into social distancing to know what relaxed measures are safe. Lockdown wasn’t meant to be permanent, but more work needs to be done.
Epidemiologists’ predictions for what will happen next are grim. “If we open up, and do exactly what we were doing in March, we’re going to see a huge increase in cases,” Eleanor Murray, an assistant professor of epidemiology at the Boston University School of Public Health, says. “We’ll go back to that same exponential trajectory.”
If states “prematurely open up, my concern is that we start to see little spikes that turn into outbreaks,” said Dr. Tony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, at a Tuesday hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee.
That, in turn, will further strain and potentially overwhelm the capacity of a health care system that’s already been dealt brutal financial and psychological blows from the first wave.
It’s possible, based on new projections from Columbia University, that states opening up will lead to an increase of 10,000 new cases or more each day by June.
It might not come to pass. But the risk is there. “What we’re going to see is an unfortunate natural experiment going on,” Jeffrey Shaman, a Columbia University infectious disease modeler, says. “For the states that are loosening the restrictions and reopening, we’re going to see if they’re able to do it without having the virus blow up in their face. ... basically, they’re playing Russian roulette.”
1) America is still at the peak of the epidemic. Cases have, at best, plateaued.
It’s true case counts are decreasing in some places — most notably in New York, the hardest-hit state in the country; New Jersey; and Connecticut.
But overall, “cases have increased and reached a plateau,” says Stephen Kissler, who designs mathematical models of disease outbreaks at Harvard. “That’s hiding a lot of changes. ... And so really, we’re in this phase of sort of trying to play whack-a-mole with the pandemic, and that’s going to continue for some time.”
Easing restrictions during a plateau means releasing people into an environment where “there are more people around with infection now than ever before,” Murray says. “Instead of starting from one or two cases in each city [as might have been the case in March], we’re going to be starting from hundreds of cases or thousands of active cases in each city.”
On March 20, there were around 5,000 confirmed daily new cases of Covid-19 in the US (though, the real number was likely much higher). Since early April, there have been at least 20,000 to 30,000 new cases in the US reported every day as the virus replicates in more and more humans.
Cases continued their slight drift downward, but it's important to remember that outside NY-NJ-CT, cases are *not* falling. pic.twitter.com/LB17L585rx — The COVID Tracking Project (@COVID19Tracking) May 8, 2020
“People keep talking about the second wave and we’re not through the first wave,” Tara Smith, a Kent State epidemiologist, says. Cases “haven’t gone down significantly anywhere except, maybe, New York City.”
Yet the White House’s plan for opening things back up requires a “downward trajectory of documented cases within a 14-day period.” The country’s not anywhere close to that nationally, or locally in most places.
It is possible the rate of new cases is slowly starting to subside. But even so, case counts are still very high.
Another way of looking at falling covid19 positivity rate across the country. Daily tests are rising, positive cases remaining largely flat, and the positivity rate declining. We're testing more to find same number of cases, suggesting that density of epidemic may be declining. pic.twitter.com/maMYuiG2n8 — Scott Gottlieb, MD (@ScottGottliebMD) May 7, 2020
Infectious disease modelers Teresa Yamana, Sen Pei, and Jeffrey Shaman at Columbia University recently ran three projections that are helpful in thinking through what could happen in the coming weeks.
In one scenario, there’s no change: States don’t open up, and lockdowns are kept in place. Nationally, cases and deaths decrease from the current plateau.
In a second scenario, there’s a 10 percent increase in the contact rate in all the counties and cities in states that are opening up. That means, on average, Americans see 10 percent more people than they have been during lockdown. Cases would then jump to 43,353 cases per day at the end of June, up from about 28,000 cases per day in early May, Yamana, Pei, and Shaman find.
The third scenario is similar to the second, but there’s an additional 10 percent increase in the contact rate each week after opening, “meaning that people start to say, okay, things are all right, [and] they get more and more complacent,” Shaman says. And then, according to the model, new cases jump to 63,330 cases per day.
In the second and third scenarios, death counts might actually decrease across the country in May. But a new wave of death would be brewing, and the toll would rebound by June, increasing throughout that month.
These projections are merely best guesses as to what could happen. It’s hard to know what people will actually do — will they increase their contacts by 10 percent or more? They might not. But who wants to be in a position to find out?
2) Many, many people are still vulnerable
Another important reason this isn’t going away: Even though there have been more than a million confirmed cases in the US, overall, few people in the country have been infected. “It’s not like we’re well on our way to accruing some sort of population-level immunity,” says Natalie Dean, a biostatistician at the University of Florida.
There have been some serological studies trying to assess how many people in a given area have antibodies (molecules the body creates in response to an infection) for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19.
These studies “haven’t been always of the best quality,” Dean says (more on that here), “but in the end, pretty consistently they’re telling us we’re still in the single digits.” That is, still under 10 percent of the US has been infected. This picture looks different in harder-hit areas. In New York City, it’s possible as much as 21.1 percent of the population has gotten the infection, according to a serological survey conducted by the state.
That sounds like a large percentage, and it is, but it’s not close to the level needed for herd immunity — when there are enough people with immunity that the contagion starts to naturally die out. “Around 60 percent [immune] roughly is when you might start to see changes,” says Caitlin Rivers, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. “And we do not want to get there, just to be clear.”
It would take a long time to get there, too: One recent study in Science found it would take until 2022 if the US wanted to achieve herd immunity in a manner that would also prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed. And any path to herd immunity would involve many, many people dying.
Even if one city, or one community within one city, achieves herd immunity, it’s still not enough. The US is a huge, sprawling nation. A pocket of herd immunity in Queens, New York, doesn’t help end an outbreak in Nebraska.
“My own estimate would be in the US that we probably have 10 to 20 million people who have been infected thus far,” Shaman says. “That’s not a huge amount.” There are 328 million people in the country, most of whom are still vulnerable.
3) The biology of this virus makes it formidable
A quick review of the basic reproduction number, or R0, for this coronavirus: Without interventions in place, each infected person can infect, on average, two or three others. That’s a recipe for exponential growth. “If it were left to its own devices, given its nature, and given how efficiently it transmits person to person, we would expect 50 to 70 percent of the world’s population to be infected within the span of one to two years,” Shaman says.
It has not been left to its own devices. Countries all over the world have been trying to contain it with good hygiene, quarantine, and social distancing. Still, this virus is a sneaky little bastard — it spreads silently and survives on some surfaces. It takes an average of five days for a person to show symptoms after being infected, but it can take up to 14 (most flu symptoms show themselves after one to four days). During that time, some people can spread the virus to others before they know they are sick.
This incubation period is enough to lure some communities into a false sense of security. Cases could go down, and any change in policy will not show up in infection rates (provided people are being tested) for a few weeks.
“It could be really terrible if we try to pretend that everything’s back to normal,” if initial social distancing gets cases down and people start to feel complacent, Sarah Cobey, a scientist who studies epidemics and immunity at the University of Chicago, says. The virus can kill between 0.5 and 1 percent of the people it infects. That figure, too, is both big and small. It’s big enough to cause a million deaths or more in the US if precautions aren’t taken.
4) There aren’t enough plans in place to stop the spread — and to learn from reopenings
Lockdowns were always a blunt measure.
“We had to go that route because we didn’t have other tools in place,” Murray says. The outbreak was too widespread, and America’s capacities were too low, to aggressively test for the virus and trace the contacts of those it touched. “What we should have been doing while we were in lockdown was building up that capacity. ... I think what we’re seeing right now is that people are getting sick of lockdown, but [do we] have those other tools really ready to go?”
The US does not. As of May 1, a Harvard analysis found more than half of states are not doing enough Covid-19 testing to safely reopen. Without testing, no one can know where the virus is and whom it may spread to. Testing is crucial to shift lockdowns into a smarter, more focused strategy: identifying all new cases, putting them in isolation, and then figuring out who may have been in contact with those people and putting them in quarantine.
“Experts say the US needs 500,000 tests a day, on the low end, to tens of millions, on the high end, to fully control the coronavirus outbreak,” Vox’s German Lopez reports. “Based on the COVID Tracking Project, the US has averaged about 260,000 tests a day — a little more than half the minimum — over the first week of May.” Also lagging: programs to train and deploy contact tracers, to make sure one case of Covid-19 doesn’t turn into thousands.
Testing isn’t only needed to diagnose the sick; it’s needed for surveillance, and to answer important scientific questions.
It seems clear that in confined indoor spaces with lots of people — like in meatpacking plants, dormitories, nursing homes, office buildings, or homeless shelters — the virus thrives. But what about in a small barbershop, where both the customers and the barber are wearing masks? It’s not without risk, but the risk is hard to quantify. So is the risk of transmission among children, and from children to adults.
As states open up, they’re essentially creating experiments to see which policies lead to new cases and which don’t.
Hopefully, scientists and local health departments will have the right studies in place to track the outcomes. “But what I’m really afraid of is that a lot of areas aren’t set up even to learn from their own mistakes and successes,” Cobey says. This work takes not just Covid-19 diagnostic tests but also after-infection tests to see if a person has developed antibodies to the coronavirus.
“I am really fearful that by June 1 or June 15, after we’ve seen a couple weeks to a month of this [state openings], that our cases are going to be climbing — and even worse, that we might not see them because ... we are maxed out with our testing capacity,” Smith says. The first sign the openings have backfired might come when hospitals start seeing many severely ill people again — which would mean a significant new wave is already underway.
Potential for chaos abounds: An area can ease restrictions and, due to sheer luck (or seasonal factors mixed with luck), might not see an increase in cases. It could brag about its success. Then another area could adopt the same policies and be doomed.
The future is uncertain. But the choice to reopen, and when, could be controlled.
There’s a lot of uncertainty in the future. But some approaches offer more control than others. Lifting social distancing restrictions now invites a new wave of infections. “We get to choose when the second wave happens,” Cobey says. Why choose now?
This is just the health case for not rushing to reopen. There’s also an economic one. If the US creates a situation where more people get sick in the next few weeks, leading to case spikes, is that really going to save restaurants and small businesses — or just set them up for an even longer period of decline? On the other hand: Will people go out and patronize businesses again even if they are allowed?
Yes, the country can pursue a dual goal of protecting lives and protecting the economy. But opening too quickly may tip the balance too far in the direction of death and health system strain, without really helping the economy.
“We need to very clearly state our goals, and we need to be serious about the fact that opening up our economy does come at the cost of a certain number of Covid illnesses, which come with Covid deaths,” Kissler says. “There’s no good way about it.”