Last Updated

March 21, 2020, 9:25 a.m. ET

The coronavirus is changing how we live our daily lives. Taking a look at how the global pandemic has affected various aspects of life in the United States reveals the unique nature of this crisis.

March 20, 2020, 9:00 p.m. ET

By Melena Ryzik

Their doctors may be fake, but it turns out hospital procedurals like Chicago Med, The Resident and Greys Anatomy, are awash in authentic medical gear. With production halted, and a critical shortage of supplies in real-life hospitals, the TV industry has stepped in to donate what would otherwise be their props: Surgical masks, gloves and more, originally intended for actors, are now en route to actual health care personnel.

We are doing it big time, Carla Corwin, a producer on the NBC series Chicago Med, wrote in an email this afternoon. Studio approved. We are donating all supplies to the Illinois Department of Public Health and they can distribute to the various hospitals as they see fit. Ms. Corwin added that they are also including gear from their sister shows Chicago P.D. and highly sought-after N95 masks from Chicago Fire.

Chris Shader, the prop master on Chicago Med, and Dr. Andrew Dennis, a Chicago trauma surgeon who serves as a consultant on the show, helped organize the effort. A donation had already been made to an emergency room in Rockland, Ill. that Ms. Corwin described as without supplies.

On Wednesday, The Resident, a Fox drama in its third season, dropped off two trunks full of masks, surgical gloves, booties, lab coats and isolation gowns, among other supplies, to Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, a spokeswoman for the show said. The donation was coordinated by Dr. Roshan Sethi, a Harvard-trained radiation oncologist and co-creator of the series, which is filmed in Atlanta and set at a fictional hospital. Grady is the largest hospital in Georgia.

To the entire team @theresidentonfox, thank you for this incredibly generous donation of #PPE from your set, Dr. Karen Law, a rheumatologist and internist at Grady, posted on Instagram, using the shorthand for personal protective equipment. Yesterday, I had a serious discussion with the residents about how, though supplies are low, a magical shipment of masks is unlikely to arrive. And yet, a magical shipment of masks DID arrive, in the form of this very generous gesture.

Shows like Greys Anatomy had also made donations, or were planning them, production members said.

The entertainment industry, at a near standstill because of the coronavirus pandemic, joins others in the culture world who are using the unexpected tools of their trade to fill gaps in the health care system.

Conservation specialists at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam are donating the gloves and masks they use to protect artworks to health care workers, Artnet News reported, and more museums are expected to participate after one of the museums art historians tweeted about the effort. And in France, libraries, museums and archivists are also giving away their supplies, Le Figaro reported on Thursday, after a library in Strasbourg initiated the movement. And, a hospital in Versailles got some masks from its neighbor, the famous palace.

March 20, 2020, 8:30 p.m. ET

By Siobhan Roberts

A simple tree diagram shows how limiting contacts early might prevent many infections.

If each infected person spreads the coronavirus to two other people, the chain of infections would grow exponentially.

Avoiding even one social transmission early on in the chain could significantly reduce the number of infections.

If each infected person spreads the coronavirus to two other people, the chain of infections would grow exponentially.

Avoiding even one social transmission early on in the chain could significantly reduce the number of infections.

If each infected person spreads the coronavirus to two other people, the chain of infections would grow exponentially.

Avoiding even one social transmission early on in the chain could significantly reduce the number of infections.

If each infected person spreads the coronavirus to two other people, the chain of infections would grow exponentially.

Avoiding even one social transmission early on in the chain could significantly reduce the number of infections.

If each infected person spreads the coronavirus to two other people, the chain of infections would grow exponentially.

Avoiding even a single social connection early on in the chain could significantly reduce the number of infections.

By Jonathan Corum

After studying infectious diseases, epidemiologists like Helen Jenkins, of Boston University, and Bill Hanage, of Harvard, who are married, typically go one of two ways. They either become completely and utterly infection conscious, Dr. Hanage said, or they are the type of person who drops the toast and picks it up and wipes it off and eats it.

We would mostly be in the second category, but this has pushed us into the first category fairly visibly, he continued, adding, when the facts change, I update my priors a statisticians term for what one believes and expects. With the coronavirus pandemic, the facts update daily. To adapt, Dr. Hanage, who studies and teaches the evolution and epidemiology of infectious diseases, broadly embraced the guiding principle that he conveys to his students: Come on, youve got to think like the pathogen! Try to see it from the point of view of the pathogens and their evolution. What is going to be most helpful to them? What is going to enable them to leave the most descendants?

Dr. Jenkins and Dr. Hanage who have two daughters, ages 10 and 7 are spreading a basic message: Very simple interventions, such as working from home and severing even one link, have an exponential effect. Every individual acting preemptively can make a huge difference.

During one interview this week, the couples 7-year-old daughter passed Dr. Hanage a note that read: Im lonely. I just just just hope it will be family day. So far, family time focuses around Jenga play sessions, and dinner, followed by a nightly viewing of the 90s sitcom Frasier.

It makes us laugh, which is much needed, Dr. Jenkins said although she added that at the sight of anyone onscreen shaking hands, I do find myself wincing.

The two epidemiologists, who were at their home in Cambridge, Mass., explained the science behind their message:

Tell us about the tree diagram.

HJ: It simply shows what happens if you cut even one contact that would have resulted in transmission.

A tree diagram is not the type of thing epidemiologists would usually draw, because it seems obvious. But clearly we still need to do better at getting these concepts across to people.

BH: I build a lot of trees, but they are phylogenetic trees. My lab is very interested in figuring out ways of using genetics to detect transmission. The thing on our whiteboard is just a transmission tree. Every time you cut a link, you dont just take out that link, you also take out all the potential cases and links descending from it. Those people could be infected by other means, later on, but every time each of us stops or even just delays an infection is a small victory.

March 20, 2020, 8:00 p.m. ET

By Jessica Bennett

Johanna Moran and her husband, Terry, have created a schedule with three shifts: A is the morning shift, when Terry does child care and school for their 3-, 5- and 7-year-olds while Johanna works; B is for the afternoon, when Mom takes over. The evening shift, C, is split between Mom and Dad for now. But her husband, a journalist, will return to work on Monday, and Moran worries she might need to be the one to scale back her hours to keep up. My husband is by far the breadwinner, said Moran, 40, who is a China analyst for a defense contractor in Washington. So I do understand, he cant tell his bosses, That schedule doesnt work for me. But its clear that if something needs to go, its going to be my job.

This is the new reality for many parents who have the luxury of working from home. Amid coronavirus fears, school closures and shelter-in-place mandates including a new one in Los Angeles on Thursday and in New York on Friday many have added teacher, coach, germ police and round-the-clock caregiver to their rsums.

I feel like I have five jobs: mom, teacher, C.C.O., house cleaner, chef, said Sarah Joyce Willey, a chief client officer for a health services company in Sharon, Mass., who has been working from home while teaching her 7- and 9-year-olds all week, while her husband, who works for the state of Rhode Island, is at work. My kids also call me Principal mommy and the lunch lady. Its exhausting.

Which isnt to say that dads are not feeling squeezed. Indeed, there are dads staying home full time while their wives work on the front lines of the epidemic.

These added duties are challenging for any parent and the struggles for families who dont have the option to stay home are of course even harder. But many moms who work outside the home face an added stressor: They remain the chief operating officers of their households.

Researchers call this the second shift: the idea that when a woman gets home at the end of the day, she must clock into her second, unpaid job buying groceries, cooking, cleaning and doing dishes, plus the invisible work like planning, coordinating and anticipating needs, said Darby Saxbe, Ph.D., the director of the Center for the Changing Family at the University of Southern California.

Saxbe said that she hopes the mere fact of being confined to the home while challenging will make womens disproportionate domestic work more visible to their partners. In one sense, that might open up some more discussion and recognition for couples. On the other hand, that might exacerbate disparities.

It took two months for JoAnn Clevenger to reopen Upperline, a traditional Creole restaurant in New Orleans, after Hurricane Katrina devastated that city in 2005.

This time, a virus has closed the place, probably for a lot longer. It didnt take long for her to realize that a takeout operation wouldnt keep the business alive, and the odds that she will reopen anytime soon are against her. On Thursday, Ms. Clevenger wrote out the last paychecks to her 24 employees, some of whom had been with her for more than 25 years. Stay safe, stay in touch, she wrote on each one. Youre what makes the Upperline great.

The prognosis for independent operations like hers seem dire. From big cities like New York to smaller ones like Birmingham, Ala., restaurants have been forced to close their dining rooms; many have simply shuttered, while others are relying on takeout and delivery. Cities like Omaha and Tempe, Ariz., have limited the number of guests, but closings are on the horizon. Large chains and well-funded restaurant groups have the resources to ride out a protracted shutdown, but the independent restaurants that make up about two-thirds of the American dining landscape noodle shops, diners and that charming urban restaurant that always had a line out the door may not survive.

School closings are a drastic change for kids at this challenging time, and childrens authors whose normal routines are also disrupted are finding ways to reach their readers in different ways. Dozens of book festivals, tours and events have been canceled as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, and some writers are turning to social media to engage with their fans, offering readings of their books, art classes and other activities to keep them entertained. Heres what Mo Willems, Gene Luen Yang, Amie Kaufman and other authors are doing.

The author and illustrator Mo Willems is inviting kids to draw with him every day for Lunch Doodles. In the first couple of sessions, which are hosted on YouTube and started on Monday, he walked viewers through his process, gave them a tour of his studio, answered questions and drew whimsical creatures or created simple animations for them to try at home. Im really looking forward to it, he said in one video, because theres nothing more fun than doodling with a friend.

U.S.A. Swimming on Friday called for the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee to push for a one-year postponement of the Tokyo Summer Olympics in response to the coronavirus pandemic. The Games are scheduled to begin in late July.

Our athletes are under tremendous pressure, stress and anxiety, and their mental health and wellness should be among the highest priorities, Tim Hinchey, the chief executive officer of U.S.A. Swimming, said in a letter to Sarah Hirshland, the chief executive officer of the U.S.O.P.C., that was posted on Twitter.

Thomas Bach, the president of the International Olympic Committee, told The New York Times on Thursday that the committee was considering different scenarios but remained determined to stick to the schedule.

U.S.A. Swimming had already canceled all sanctioned events through April 30, including the TYR Pro Swim Series scheduled for April 16-19, a tuneup meet for elite athletes ahead of the Olympic trials, which are scheduled for June 21 to 28.

The push to postpone the Games comes as many elite swimmers have scrambled to find alternative places to train after their pools closed.

Tim Kelly, of Nations Capital Swim Club in the Washington, D.C., area, coaches Phoebe Bacon, who is ranked fourth in the world in the 100-meter backstroke. Kelly said he had been on the phone nonstop for the last week trying to find a stable place for Bacon to swim after American University, her usual training location, closed on Sunday.

Bacon, he said, is now working out in a teammates backyard pool that is only 15 meters long, which is 35 meters shorter than an Olympic pool. The typical training pool for a competitive swimmer in the United States is 25 yards long.

Until we know that there is a postponement, its almost like you have to find some way to stay wet for fear of losing that feel for water, Kelly said. Were looking for all the creative ways to stay fit and healthy.

March 20, 2020, 6:30 p.m. ET

By Victor Mather

The sports department is compiling a daily list of ways the sporting world is working its way through the coronavirus pandemic. In todays edition, they took a look at virtual games.

There may be no Bahrain Grand Prix this weekend, but Formula One plans to simulate the race. The result will be a Virtual Grand Prix with some of the actual drivers and celebrities behind the wheel using the video game F1 2019.

Unlike the ruthlessly capitalist Formula One series, in which the wealthiest teams tend to dominate, the virtual series will include a little socialism of sorts. Due to the wide variety of gaming skill levels amongst the drivers, game settings will be configured in such a way to encourage competitive and entertaining racing, Formula One said. That means some drivers, who arent regular gamers, will get advantages like reduced vehicle damage, anti-lock brakes and traction control.

Strat-O-Matic, the venerable board game, says it plans to simulate the baseball season with each games results and statistics announced on the day games were scheduled to be played.

Want to simulate some games on your own? The addictive soccer game Football Manager is free this week, and is setting records for number of players.

Leyton Orient, a fourth-tier soccer team in England, got the idea to run a simulated tournament on FIFA 20 and put out a call on Twitter to see what other teams might be interested in (virtually) entering. More than 100 answered, including teams from Italy, Sweden and Australia. The tournament gets underway this weekend.

Well take a shot and pick A.S. Roma to win the title. Can we bet on this somewhere? (Please?)

March 20, 2020, 6:00 p.m. ET

By Jori Finkel

A critic looks at how we can plug into the art-world conversation from the comfort of our (self-quarantined) homes.

Many museums and galleries have closed in attempts to slow the spread of the coronavirus, but the conversation about art keeps going and you can get your fix of the art talk (and also the gossip) through a growing number of art podcasts. Hosts include curators, art writers and artists. Here are my picks for 10 art podcasts worth subscribing to, from one in Los Angeles showcasing the music that moves local artists to another, out of Sydney, focusing on Aboriginal culture.

Recording Artists Helen Molesworth gives some of the most incisive and insightful exhibition tours of any contemporary art curator of her generation, and her new podcast Recording Artists, produced by the Getty, puts this intellectual-storytelling skill set to good use. Here her subject is not one of her own exhibitions (she recently organized the Noah Davis show for the David Zwirner gallery), but six renowned artists Alice Neel, Lee Krasner, Betye Saar, Helen Frankenthaler, Yoko Ono and Eva Hesse whose audio interviews with the historians Barbara Rose and Cindy Nemser are now in the archives of the Getty Research Institute. Smart move: After introducing the artist and issues at hand, Ms. Molesworth brings in smart guests to weigh in, like Lari Pittman and Amy Sillman speaking on Krasner. Memorable moment: in one recording, Alice Neel, who lived a famously bohemian life and painted portraits of a wide cross-section of society, makes the surprising admission that she left Greenwich Village because there were too many very butch lesbians on the streets. Ms. Molesworth, who identifies as queer, says she respects the painters frankness. Besides, she adds, I think that I, or any artist I know, could have easily talked her out of this position.

March 20, 2020, 5:30 p.m. ET

By Kevin Draper

The XFL, an upstart professional football league that hoped to attract football-starved fans during the winter months, announced Friday that it was canceling the rest of its season. The leagues eight teams were halfway through the 10-game season when the league initially suspended play last week.

The COVID-19 pandemic, and the most recent local and state regulations, have left the XFL no choice but to officially cancel the remainder of the 2020 season, the league said in a statement.

The original XFL the X isnt short for anything, though many people believe it stands for eXtreme debuted in 2001 with a purposefully brash and violent image. It drew an astounding 14 million viewers for its first game, but fans quickly learned the quality of football was subpar, and the league didnt make it to a second season.

Vince McMahon, the majority owner of World Wrestling Entertainment who was a partner in the original XFL, announced two years ago he was reviving the league. XFL executives adopted a humble attitude this time around, downplaying gimmicks and attendance expectations, and insisting they were in it for the long haul.

Next year XFL fans will find out if that is indeed the case.

March 20, 2020, 5:00 p.m. ET

By Hanna Ingber

For parents who are separated or divorced, social distancing is especially tricky. In an essay for NYT Parenting, Hanna Ingber shared what her familys experience has been like, learning to co-parent in the age of coronavirus.

Nearly two months ago, when the new coronavirus was upending life in China, I felt for those living through this nightmare. As the news became more and more dire, I began worrying about the virus making its way to the United States. I cycled through anxieties about illness and quarantine, but my biggest fear was how my soon-to-be-ex-husband and I would handle this.

We share custody of our two boys, ages 6 and almost 4, and at that time, we argued about almost everything. We both wanted our kids to be healthy, but we rarely agreed on what that looked like. To him, the boys needed to eat all their vegetables. To me, meals shouldnt be a battle. On sunny days, I slathered the boys in sunscreen. My ex wanted them to soak in the rays and get enough vitamin D. Our constant fighting about way more than just parenting led us to file for divorce 18 months ago. Now, living apart, I hope hes putting sunscreen on the kids, and Im sure he hopes Im making them eat all their veggies. But frankly, there isnt much either of us can do about it. Then came the coronavirus.

Throw a pandemic into the mix of a fraught divorce, and who knows what might happen.

I had feared that when the virus came here my ex and I would be on different pages about how to handle it. What happens if I followed the rules, but he kept up his normal routine? I imagined having no option but to send my children to his house, where they could get infected.

I couldnt discuss any of this with him. So I did the only thing possible: I ordered more ramen.

As I read about families under lockdown, I imagined myself home alone with my boys. What would happen if one of them got a fever, and I needed to take him to the pediatrician, but I didnt have a partner who could stay home with the healthy kid? I recalled scenes of Wuhans overrun hospitals. Would I have to bring both of my boys into a doctors office filled with ill patients?

I shopped more, ordering disinfectant wipes and laundry detergent.

What if I got sick? I wondered: How do single parents take care of themselves and their children?

I bought cough syrup and childrens Tylenol.

In late February I told my therapist I was displacing my anxiety about being a single parent and our looming divorce trial onto the virus. She nodded along, agreeing that my stress was connected to my situation. But somewhere during the session, I accidentally convinced her that my anxiety was warranted. As she left, she said she needed to go shopping.

I drove my family nuts with all of my worries, but I decided not to talk to my ex about it. I feared that if I tried giving him rules or even made suggestions, it could backfire.

I waited. And waited. Finally, once it was clear the virus was in the New York area, and we started discussing the situation, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that we had come to the same conclusions independently. We both stopped traveling, and we agreed that if one of us started developing symptoms, wed tell the other.

One morning I found a WhatsApp message from him asking if he should send the boys to school that day. He wanted to make such a difficult decision together. I almost burst into tears from relief.

March 20, 2020, 4:30 p.m. ET

By Anna Goldfarb

Its understandable that people are looking to the internet to lessen feelings of social isolation. Not only does an evening event help give the day structure, but seeing friendly faces can be a lifeline for people who miss their friends and loved ones.

Whether youre having a cozy chat with your far-flung besties, or plan on dropping in to a video chat room filled with dozens of strangers, there are some things you need to know about having a successful virtual happy hour. They include:

Originally posted here:
Coronavirus Impact: A Spelling Bee on Hold, a Wedding Finding a Way, and a Pantry Recipe - The New York Times