March 18, 2020, 9:00 p.m. ET March 18, 2020, 9:00 p.m. ET By Don’t trust memes that promise coronavirus cures. There is little evidence that vitamins and other dietary supplements can protect you from the coronavirus in any consistent or significant way. Credit... Tony Cenicola/The New York Times On social media, memes — often featuring urgent instructions or dystopian graphics — have become efficient vectors of bad advice about how to fight the coronavirus, and health care professionals are working to stop the spread of misinformation. One meme, misstating the benefits of gargling salty water, shows the virus as a cluster of green burrs infecting the throat of a glowing blue man. One series of posts with bad advice — including claims that sunshine could kill the virus and that ice cream should be avoided — tacked on the name UNICEF. “This is, of course, not true,” said Christopher Tidey, a spokesman for UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund. “Misinformation during times of a health crisis can result in people being left unprotected or more vulnerable to the virus,” he added. “It can also spread paranoia, fear and stigmatization, and have other consequences, like offering a false sense of protection.” Here are some of the false claims that are spreading via Twitter, Facebook and WhatsApp. Read more

March 18, 2020, 8:30 p.m. ET March 18, 2020, 8:30 p.m. ET By Facing a combination of challenges, Colorado ski resorts shut down. Skiers at the Breckenridge Ski Resort in Breckenridge, Colo., on Saturday. Credit... Liz Copan/Summit Daily News, via Associated Press Ten days after Colorado’s first coronavirus case was discovered in the Rocky Mountains, the state’s multibillion-dollar ski industry has shut itself down. “It’s unlike anything we’ve seen before in our industry’s history,” said Melanie Mills, president of Colorado Ski Country USA, a trade association representing 23 of the state’s ski areas. By last weekend, Eagle County, home to Vail and Beaver Creek resorts, had as many coronavirus infections — 24 — as Denver County, despite having one-tenth of the population. Ski resorts, with their seasonal spikes in global visitors, and their nearby communities, which have limited medical services, create a unique combination of concerns. Last week, there was growing worry that, as mountain medical centers filled with tourists increasingly sickened by the coronavirus as well as other ski-related injuries and illnesses, there would be little room for the expected onslaught of coronavirus cases among residents. The hope of keeping the slopes open came to a screeching halt when Vail Resorts announced it would temporarily shut its resorts in North America, including Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge and Keystone in Colorado. Among the disappointed was Jeff Kottkamp, a former lieutenant governor of Florida, who was in Colorado on vacation. “Thank you for making this announcement as we are driving in to Vail,” he wrote on Twitter in a post he later deleted. Gov. Jared Polis of Colorado replied: “Thank you for your deep concerns regarding the health of our residents in the face of a global pandemic.” Read more

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March 18, 2020, 8:00 p.m. ET March 18, 2020, 8:00 p.m. ET By Doctors are turning to social media for coronavirus advice, too. New York Presbyterian Lawrence Hospital in Bronxville, where the second person in New York to have a confirmed case was initially treated. Credit... Gregg Vigliotti for The New York Times Last week, many people were astonished to hear that Dr. Kurt Kloss, an emergency room physician in New York, reached out to a Facebook group for some 20,000 of his colleagues seeking advice about how to handle the coronavirus outbreak. “If you were in charge of Federal response to the Pandemic,” his post began, “what would your recommendation be?” The question wasn’t just hypothetical. Dr. Kloss’s daughter is married to the brother of Jared Kushner, who had been put in charge of the White House response to the pandemic. But many people commented in alarm: Crowdsourcing medical advice on social media, is that a reliable way to get life-or-death health information? As an emergency room doctor at the front lines of the pandemic, however, I wasn’t surprised. I’ve been working back-to-back shifts at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, where the state’s first patient hospitalized with Covid-19 is being treated, and have had several patients test positive for the novel coronavirus. And like many of my colleagues, I have been gathering information from Facebook, Twitter and other social media outlets.

March 18, 2020, 7:30 p.m. ET March 18, 2020, 7:30 p.m. ET By Frieze cancels its New York art fair. Last year’s Frieze New York, on Randalls Island Park. The fair has been canceled and a Rockefeller Center installation is being postponed to the summer. Credit... Rebecca Smeyne for The New York Times Frieze New York has been canceled “in light of global health concerns regarding COVID-19,” Frieze said on Wednesday. The art fair was to take place May 7 to 10 at Randalls Island Park, with 200 participating galleries and a special focus on artists of Latin descent and the Chicago artist community. Frieze said it was also developing a virtual viewing room, and that its first phase would be tied to Frieze New York. Frieze Sculpture, which was to open at Rockefeller Center on April 22, will be postponed until the summer. The decision to cancel Frieze New York follows the cancellations and postponements of various international art fairs amid the coronavirus pandemic.

March 18, 2020, 7:15 p.m. ET March 18, 2020, 7:15 p.m. ET By Major automakers close their plants in North America. General Motors and other U.S. automakers said they would shut down production in North America until at least March 30 to protect workers and clean factories. Credit... Bill Pugliano/Getty Images With fear of infection rising among factory workers, and few customers shopping for cars, several automakers on Wednesday decided to idle their plants in the United States, Canada and Mexico for at least a week. Their decisions will put tens of thousands of people out of work and add to the coronavirus outbreak’s growing economic toll. The country’s largest automakers — General Motors, Ford Motor and Fiat Chrysler — decided to close plants after the United Auto Workers union pressured them to do so to protect workers. That pressure intensified after it was revealed on Wednesday that a worker at a Ford truck plant in Dearborn, Mich., had tested positive for the virus. Honda and Toyota also said they would idle their North American factories. The shutdown of car plants will force hundreds of companies that produce parts and components to follow suit over the coming days. Although some autoworkers will be eligible for sick pay, many will get only a portion of their income and others will have to rely on unemployment insurance. More than one million people are employed in automobile and auto parts manufacturing in the United States, and 1.3 million work for auto dealerships, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Automakers went into the week hoping to keep their plants running and employees safe by altering shift schedules to leave more time for sanitizing plants and reducing contact between workers. On Monday, G.M.’s Chevrolet division began offering zero-percent loans to lure consumers into dealerships. Hyundai offered to let customers return recently purchased cars if had they lost their jobs. At the same time the U.A.W. was pressing the three companies based in and around Detroit to halt production for two weeks. On Tuesday G.M., Ford and Fiat Chrysler agreed to take steps short of shutting down production. Then on Wednesday morning Honda announced its plans to stop production, and the news about the Ford worker in Dearborn, Mich., was made public. In response, Ford halted work at the final assembly section of the plant while continuing production in the stamping and body shop areas. Just hours later, all three of the large U.S. automakers reversed course and said they would idle their factories. Niraj Chokshi contributed reporting. Read more

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March 18, 2020, 6:00 p.m. ET March 18, 2020, 6:00 p.m. ET By A critic considers the unending anxiety of coronavirus content. Credit... Cari Vander Yacht This past weekend, as coronavirus radiated across the country and sent Americans scurrying into their homes, Rosanne Cash tweeted: “Just a reminder that when Shakespeare was quarantined because of the plague, he wrote King Lear.” I wonder what the “King Lear” of Covid-19 will be. Maybe this woman licking an airplane toilet seat on TikTok?



Shakespeare’s plague streak — he’s believed to have written “King Lear,” “Macbeth” and “Antony and Cleopatra” in the space of a couple of years — coincided with London playhouses shuttering, acting troupes leaving town to play plague-free villages and the Bard hanging back at home, nothing to do but plot an elaborate series of tragic murders. But Shakespeare was not online. Four hundred years later, isolation doesn’t help to dispel creative distraction — it beckons it in. We are sheltering in place with devices designed to amplify diversions and exploit obsessions.

March 18, 2020, 5:30 p.m. ET March 18, 2020, 5:30 p.m. ET By Some immigrants worry seeking medical care could be risky. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office in Tukwila, Wash. The agency said on its website that seeking treatment or preventive services for the virus would not adversely affect green card applicants. Credit... Jason Redmond/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images LOS ANGELES — As the coronavirus sweeps across the United States, immigrants may be among the least able to self-isolate and seek the medical care that is essential to protecting their health and slowing the spread of the disease. Some of those without health insurance fear that going to a public hospital or clinic will ruin their chances of getting a green card under the Trump administration’s tough new public assistance regulations for immigrants. Other immigrants fear putting themselves in the cross-hairs of Immigration and Customs Enforcement if they step forward for help. ICE agents over the past week have continued to make arrests in some of the regions hardest hit by the virus, including California and New York. The coronavirus was not on the agenda when a legal-aid group two months ago invited farmworkers who toil in the date groves, lemon orchards and vineyards of California’s Coachella Valley to an information session about immigration issues. But when Luz Gallegos and her team showed up over the weekend, they were cornered by people who peppered them with questions about the virus. On Monday, public health authorities announced the first two deaths from the virus in this part of Southern California, both in the Coachella Valley. Among the questions the farmworkers had: If I go to the hospital, is it going to hurt my chances of becoming a legal permanent resident? If I’m undocumented, could seeking treatment make me vulnerable to deportation? If I miss work as more people are forced to stay home, how will I feed my family and make the rent? “There’s a new layer of fear in the immigrant community right now created by Covid-19,” said Ms. Gallegos, a director of TODEC Legal Center, who stood with immigrants in the parking lot of the Hemet town library, which had abruptly closed as a result of the pandemic. “We believe that some members will be afraid to seek the care they need,” she said. The Trump administration on Wednesday closed the border with Canada to all but essential traffic and was also considering shutting the southern border to those without legal authorization, hoping to check the spread of the virus. But many of the unauthorized immigrants already in the United States face the same threat from the virus as everyone else — and are less equipped to protect themselves. Among all immigrants, 23 percent of those who are lawfully in the country and 45 percent of those who are undocumented lack health insurance, according to a report by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Caitlin Dickerson and Annie Correal contributed reporting from New York. Read more

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March 18, 2020, 5:15 p.m. ET March 18, 2020, 5:15 p.m. ET By ‘Join us in queerantine’: a dating app builds a community. “WHAT WILL WE DO ALL DAY?! Have you put together activity lists yet? How do you force yourself to put on real pants? And why should we? Inside exercise? Virtual happy hours? LOTS to discuss. Femmes to the front.” Such is the conversation this week on Lex, the old-fashioned-style dating app for lesbian, bisexual, asexual and queer people. Like the personal ads of yore, Lex is text-only, which means that since its beginnings as an Instagram account called Personals, it has bubbled with epistolary wit — “Anyone want to add falling in love via the written word to your growing list of new quarantine hobbies?” — and also community spirit. Both were on vibrant display in the last few days, as many users reached out for conversation and fellowship while practicing social distancing. One in Detroit offered free tarot readings to gig workers who had lost their jobs. Another was making art prompts and offered to share them. A public-school teacher offered money for anyone short of funds who needed food or medicine, and a car to deliver. When Wren Harrington, a 21-year-old student in Connecticut, posted optimistically about how social isolation need not “consume us,” she got a handful of replies, including one from a young woman with whom she shared a sun and rising sign. “We had a lovely conversation about that,” Ms. Harrington said. “I came back to Lex to see what was happening in the wake of the chaos. I was really surprised to see how people are using it for things other than its intended purpose, and in a really wonderful way.” In Massachusetts, Lex Blair, a 27-year-old Starbucks barista and actor who uses the pronoun “they,” posted that their show had been canceled — they are in two theater companies — and wondered what other performers were experiencing. Mx. Blair and their girlfriend, Kaiti Maddox, 22, are in a nonmonogamous relationship, they said, hence the Lex app, but this week were looking for a different sort of connection. Ms. Maddox has a connective tissue disorder, and therefore a compromised immune system. It is imperative that she stay isolated. She has been using Lex as a chat room, and the community there has sprung into action, checking on her daily, sending her lists of favorite movies and television shows and offering to bring food or other necessities. “It’s a rough time right now for all of us,” said Mx. Blair. Or, as another user put it in a post that invited members to a WhatsApp chat: “JOIN US IN QUEERANTINE. Self isolation need not be so lonely.” Read more

March 18, 2020, 5:00 p.m. ET March 18, 2020, 5:00 p.m. ET By Americans stranded abroad feel ‘completely abandoned.’ Screenshots from testimonial videos sent to The Times by (clockwise from top left): Cristina Pratt, Lauren Davenport, Moussa Diene, Daniel Fernandez, Una Harris and Stephen Ford, who were stranded in Morocco after the kingdom halted international travel. Credit... The New York Times Lauren Davenport and Daniel Fernandez of St. Petersburg, Fla., were on a camping trip in the Sahara when Morocco announced that it was suspending all flights in and out of the country “until further notice.” They were stunned to return to Marrakesh on Tuesday and realize they couldn’t get home. Among the stranded in Morocco are American citizens, residents and other visa holders who say the United States government has been unresponsive to their pleas for help, even as British and French authorities have been aiding their citizens.



“France is being very open with the citizens and is moving mountains to get them home; meanwhile the U.S. embassy says ‘call the airlines’ and ‘prepare to be here for a while, but not indefinitely,’” said Cristina Pratt, who was visiting Morocco from the East Bay in California with a friend and the friend’s parents when the ban went into place.

March 18, 2020, 4:15 p.m. ET March 18, 2020, 4:15 p.m. ET By In a happier postponement, Google presses pause on employee reviews. When performance reviews resume in November, all employees promoted at that point would receive post-promotion salaries back-dated to August. Credit... Jason Henry for The New York Times The global coronavirus pandemic has caused one unpleasant work-related process to be delayed at Google: performance reviews. On Wednesday, a Google spokeswoman said the company was deferring performance reviews for the current period. The reason, according to a copy of the email announcement sent by Eileen Naughton, Google’s vice president of people operations, and which was seen by The New York Times, was to help the internet company’s more than 100,000 workers focus on their “most important, mission-critical activities” during the coronavirus pandemic. Google will defer its performance reviews covering the period from mid-October to the end of this month, the spokeswoman said. In November, employees are expected to receive their regular annual rating covering the last 12 months of work. And all employees promoted at that point would receive post-promotion salaries back-dated to August, the spokeswoman said. Business Insider earlier reported the change.

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March 18, 2020, 3:30 p.m. ET March 18, 2020, 3:30 p.m. ET By John Eligon and Janitors are in higher demand, and at higher risk. “I felt as if I didn’t matter,” said Deborah Santamaria, who wasn’t alerted that a person in the San Francisco building she was cleaning had tested positive for the coronavirus. Credit... Jim Wilson/The New York Times SAN FRANCISCO — The rumor unsettled Deborah Santamaria. A fellow janitor at 555 California Street, a 52-story office tower in San Francisco’s financial district, told her he heard that a floor of the building was being closed because a worker had contracted the novel coronavirus. Her supervisor at Able Services, the contractor that employs her, reassured her that nothing was wrong, she said. It was not until five days later that a news article appeared saying that Wells Fargo had temporarily evacuated its offices in the building after an employee had tested positive for the coronavirus. The bank had notified building management, which alerted the cleaning contractor. But according to the employees and their union representatives, no one had told the janitors. “I felt as if I didn’t matter,” said Ms. Santamaria, who at age 63 counts herself among those most vulnerable to the virus. While many Americans are fleeing their offices to avoid any contact with the coronavirus, low-wage janitors are sometimes being asked to do the opposite. Although millions of Californians have been ordered to shelter in place, janitors are still being asked to go into offices to battle the invisible germs that threaten public health, even as those germs, and the new, powerful cleaning solutions they are being asked to use, may endanger their own health. They often operate without specialized protective gear. And the increasing demand for their services is adding new stress and risks. Janitors cleaning the Amazon headquarters in Seattle complained that a new disinfectant they were asked to use made their eyes and skin burn. In San Francisco, janitors said they have been asked to clean offices without having been told that people who had or were exposed to the virus had worked there. Janitors wonder why they are left in the dark when companies go to great lengths to ensure that the tech, finance and other workers occupying the buildings they clean are aware of the most remote possibility of coming into contact with the virus. It shows, they say, how disparities play out in a public health crisis — how their lives sometimes seem to be valued less than those of people with resources and power. Read more

March 18, 2020, 3:00 p.m. ET March 18, 2020, 3:00 p.m. ET By A music critic reflects on empty nights with no live shows. The Apollo Theater in Harlem. Credit... George Etheredge for The New York Times Empty rooms. Empty stages. Empty seats. Empty dance floors. And not far away, empty lobbies, empty dressing rooms, empty back rooms, empty bar areas, empty kitchens, empty lounges, empty sound booths, empty loading zones. These were places animated by live music, with entire backstage workdays dedicated to presenting just a few hours of intangible sound — gigs, shows, concerts — for the audiences that gathered there, often with great anticipation and at significant cost. I already miss them dearly. The shutdown of live music by the Covid-19 pandemic has redoubled my appreciation for the mysterious alchemy that happens at so many concerts. It’s really, when you step back, a very peculiar human activity. Strangers — with perhaps a few familiar faces dotted among them — gather at an appointed time to watch and hear musicians doing their job. But it’s more than a job; it’s a ritual, a confluence of visible and invisible forces, acoustic and social and psychological. Heads may bob, toes may tap, singalongs may be joined, dancing may break out. A roomful of individual reactions somehow adds up to a collective one, which might crest into a spontaneous ovation or a mesmerized gasp. Even with a seated, decorous audience, music can summon a certain quality of heightened collective awareness that I’ve only experienced at a live performance. Making and hearing music in public is inherently social. Each concert is the intersection of a career arc with a single night out for the audience members, and the immediate pleasure (or impatience) of each night’s crowd adds up to lasting lessons for musicians.

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March 18, 2020, 2:30 p.m. ET March 18, 2020, 2:30 p.m. ET By On your next grocery run, don’t forget to sanitize your reusable bags. Costco customers rolled groceries to their cars as others waited to enter the store in San Leandro on Saturday. Credit... Ben Margot/Associated Press I talked with Dr. John Swartzberg, a professor of infectious diseases at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Public Health, and Jeff Nelken, a food safety expert based in Woodland Hills, Calif., about what to know to make your trip to the supermarket as safe as possible: If you have to go to the store, touch as little as possible and sanitize all the stuff you buy when you get home. Mr. Nelken noted that most produce is placed on displays by hand — sometimes they’re gloved. But it’s safe to assume that if a piece of produce has been out, it’s been handled by at least 10 people. He recommended misting produce with a very diluted bleach solution (a teaspoon of bleach per gallon of water) and letting it air dry. Or, if you’re nervous about using bleach on something you’ll eat, he said, you could use a disinfecting wipe. Soap and water is another alternative, Dr. Swartzberg said, adding that all these approaches are based only on what’s known about Covid-19 and other viruses. Other goods are less risky, but it’s still worth wiping down cardboard boxes of crackers or other packaged items. Mr. Nelken said one thing to watch out for is your reusable grocery bags: “When was the last time you sanitized your favorite bag?” Also, wash your hands and maybe wash your hair. Dr. Swartzberg underlined the advice you’ve been hearing from health officials: Hand soap really will protect you. “One thing about this coronavirus,” he said, is that “it’s very susceptible to disinfectants and soap and water.” That said, if you go to a store, touch a contaminated surface, then touch your hair and then your face, even once between hand-washing, you could become infected. So, he said, if you’re really concerned, it might be worth throwing your clothes in the wash and showering after you get back from the store. (Your shoes, he said, are probably fine to bring into the house.) Ultimately, though, the best thing to do is stay away from other people, particularly if you’re part of a vulnerable population. Although state health officials released guidelines for grocery stores saying they should limit how many customers are in a given store and should keep people at least six feet apart even when they’re in line, this is proving to be easier said than done. The Los Angeles Times reported that seniors hoping to get into a Monrovia, Calif., Trader Joe’s during a special early-shopping period were greeted with confusion. Both Dr. Swartzberg and Mr. Nelken said grocers would need to come up with more sustainable ways to update customers in real time. “I think the first thing we need to avoid is just showing up,” Mr. Nelken told me. For now, he suggested calling the store you’d like to visit before you leave, both to inquire about the wait and what’s in stock. Many grocery-store chains have said that they’re hiring up and cleaning more frequently, and that they still have curbside pickup and delivery available, even if their systems are moving more slowly. Read more

March 18, 2020, 2:00 p.m. ET March 18, 2020, 2:00 p.m. ET By Jessica Testa, Sapna Maheshwari and Clothing and beauty retailers are closing up shop. A Patagonia store in Ventura, Calif. Credit... Laure Joliet for The New York Times When President Trump declared a state of emergency over the novel coronavirus on Friday, many clothing and beauty retailers began announcing temporary closures. The questions came just as fast: How long would this last? Would brick-and-mortar workers still get paid? Would they be able to keep their jobs? As panic over the pandemic spreads globally, more businesses are facing difficult choices: Close up shop entirely, adhering strictly to social-distancing recommendations; stay open; or something in between. For the most part, the industry’s strongest retailers — the companies most able to withstand the costs of a temporary shutdown — announced their plans quickly. (Leading the charge outside the fashion industry was Apple, which was one of the first and most influential companies to announce closures; most of its stores outside mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan are closed until March 27.) Patagonia was viewed by many as one of the first retailers to act decisively when, on Friday, it said that it would close its 39 stores in North America and give employees their regular pay. Sephora said on Tuesday that it would close its retail stores in the United States and Canada from March 17 through April 3 and pay employees for their scheduled shifts. The company said it is waiving standard shipping fees until its stores reopen. Many retailers followed suit. As of Wednesday morning, only a few national apparel retailers remained open: Kohl’s and JCPenney, for example. In New York, closures include Bergdorf Goodman, Dover Street Market and Totokaelo. We will be updating our list of closures as we learn more. Read more