March 20, 2020, 8:30 p.m. ET March 20, 2020, 8:30 p.m. ET By The ‘small victory’ is crucial, two married epidemiologists say. Cutting a Link in the Chain of Transmission 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. Infection avoided 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. Infection avoided 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. Infection avoided 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. Infection avoided 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. Infection avoided 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 statistician’s 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, you’ve 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 couple’s 7-year-old daughter passed Dr. Hanage a note that read: “I’m 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 don’t 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. Read more

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March 20, 2020, 8:00 p.m. ET March 20, 2020, 8:00 p.m. ET By As moms navigate the pandemic, it can feel as if ‘I have five jobs.’ Johanna Moran with her 3-, 5- and 7-year-olds at home in Washington. A China analyst for a defense contractor, she worries she may have to cut back her work hours when her husband goes back to work this week. Credit... via Johanna Moran 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 can’t tell his bosses, ‘That schedule doesn’t work for me.’ But it’s clear that if something needs to go, it’s 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 résumés. “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.’ It’s exhausting.” Which isn’t 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 don’t 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 women’s 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.” Read more

March 20, 2020, 7:30 p.m. ET March 20, 2020, 7:30 p.m. ET By Kim Severson and Neighborhood restaurants in cities large and small are facing tough odds. JoAnn Clevenger, shown here in 2015 at Upperline, wrote out her last paychecks to her 24 employees on Thursday. Credit... Melina Mara/The Washington Post via Getty Images 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 didn’t take long for her to realize that a takeout operation wouldn’t 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. “You’re 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.



March 20, 2020, 7:00 p.m. ET March 20, 2020, 7:00 p.m. ET By Authors reach out with entertainment ideas like ‘let’s doodle together.’ The author and illustrator Mo Willems began hosting sessions on YouTube on Monday. “There’s nothing more fun than doodling with a friend,” he said. Credit... via Mo Willems School closings are a drastic change for kids at this challenging time, and children’s 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. Here’s what Mo Willems, Gene Luen Yang, Amie Kaufman and other authors are doing. Mo Willems 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. “I’m really looking forward to it,” he said in one video, “because there’s nothing more fun than doodling with a friend.”

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March 20, 2020, 6:45 p.m. ET March 20, 2020, 6:45 p.m. ET By U.S.A. Swimming calls for the postponement of the Tokyo Olympics. Yoshiro Mori, center, the President of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, receives the Olympic Flame arriving from Greece to Higashi-Matsuhsima, Japan, on Friday. Credit... Issei Kato/Reuters 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. USA Swimming respectfully requests that the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee advocate for the postponement of the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. pic.twitter.com/q5bhUwi05q — USA Swimming (@USASwimming) March 20, 2020 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 Nation’s 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 teammate’s 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, it’s almost like you have to find some way to stay wet for fear of losing that feel for water,” Kelly said. “We’re looking for all the creative ways to stay fit and healthy.” Read more

March 20, 2020, 6:30 p.m. ET March 20, 2020, 6:30 p.m. ET By Like everything else, sports is heading online. The sports department is compiling a daily list of ways the sporting world is working its way through the coronavirus pandemic. In today’s 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 aren’t 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 game’s 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. We’ll take a shot and pick A.S. Roma to win the title. Can we bet on this somewhere? (Please?) Read more

March 20, 2020, 6:00 p.m. ET March 20, 2020, 6:00 p.m. ET By Calm your nerves with 10 binge-worthy art podcasts. Lee Krasner in the classroom of Hans Hofmann, around 1938, photographer unknown. Credit... Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution 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 painter’s frankness. Besides, she adds, “I think that I, or any artist I know, could have easily talked her out of this position.”



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March 20, 2020, 5:30 p.m. ET March 20, 2020, 5:30 p.m. ET By The XFL pulls the plug on its comeback season. The New York Guardians, the Dallas Renegades and the rest of the XFL will have to try to get their league restarted next season after Friday’s announcement that the 2020 season will not resume. Credit... Richard Rodriguez/Getty Images 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 league’s 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” isn’t 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 didn’t 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. Read more

March 20, 2020, 5:00 p.m. ET March 20, 2020, 5:00 p.m. ET By My ex and I fought about everything. Then came the coronavirus. As news of the coronavirus got more and more dire, I worried: How do single parents take care of themselves and their children? Credit... 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 family’s 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 shouldn’t 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 he’s putting sunscreen on the kids, and I’m sure he hopes I’m making them eat all their veggies. But frankly, there isn’t 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 couldn’t 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 didn’t have a partner who could stay home with the healthy kid? I recalled scenes of Wuhan’s overrun hospitals. Would I have to bring both of my boys into a doctor’s 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 children’s 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, we’d 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. Read more

March 20, 2020, 4:30 p.m. ET March 20, 2020, 4:30 p.m. ET By Ready for happy hour? Time to log on to Zoom. It’s 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 you’re 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: Keep it small: “Too many people in a Google Hangout and it just becomes chaos.”

Get comfy: “You should participate in the place in your home where you are most comfortable. Not everyone has a home bar, but everyone should feel at home.”

Settle on food and drinks: There are plenty of options, but many groups improvise with a “Quarantini,” which is basically a mixed drink containing whatever liquor you have on hand.

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March 20, 2020, 4:00 p.m. ET March 20, 2020, 4:00 p.m. ET By At NASA, the coronavirus delays work for a mission to the moon in 2024. A component of NASA’s Space Launch System in January as it was being prepared for a move from the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans to the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. Credit... Gerald Herbert/Associated Press The coronavirus pandemic on Earth is knocking NASA’s moon plans off course. On Thursday evening, Jim Bridenstine, the space agency’s administrator, announced the suspension of the manufacture and testing of the Space Launch System and Orion, the giant rocket and crew capsule that would be used to take astronauts back to the moon. The Trump administration had set a goal of the next moon landing occurring by the end of 2024. With the spread of the coronavirus, however, NASA is now shutting down work at the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, where the rocket is being built, and the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, about 45 miles to the northeast of Michoud. The first Space Launch System booster is being tested at Stennis. There has been one confirmed case of the coronavirus among Stennis employees. There are no confirmed cases at Michoud, but the number of infected people in the New Orleans area has risen quickly in the past few days. The directive from Mr. Bridenstine is for workers at the two NASA sites to work remotely, but there is no way to build or test a rocket without people at the sites. The change takes effect today. During a virtual town hall today that was broadcast over the internet, NASA officials told planetary scientists that the pandemic has slowed some work. “Many people have asked us about James Webb,” said Thomas H. Zurbuchen, the associate administrator for NASA’s science mission directorate. “And of course, it will be impacted, even though it is one of our top priorities.” Because of restrictions for travel of people needed to complete testing and preparation of the spacecraft, “It is anticipated by early April, the Webb project could be experiencing a day-for-day schedule impact to its critical path as an increased number of activities come to a halt,” Dr. Zurbuchen said. The Perseverance rover, which is to head to Mars this summer, could also be affected. That spacecraft is at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, which has not yet been shut down. Because of the orbital paths of Mars and Earth, the launch must occur in a window in July or August, or it would have to be delayed until 2022 when the two planets again line up. “Teams are doing, frankly, heroes’ work to keep us on track for a July launch,” Dr. Zurbuchen said. Read more

March 20, 2020, 3:30 p.m. ET March 20, 2020, 3:30 p.m. ET By Don’t lose it. Try ‘spousal distancing’ when you’re stuck at home 24/7. Credit... Antonio Giovanni Pinna Remember how, mere days ago, the most annoying person in your office was Steve from accounting? It seems almost quaint now. Meet your new co-worker in this surreal new world: your spouse. With many companies having their employees work from home (#WFH) to help slow the spread of the new coronavirus, scores of people are trying to navigate being stuck working at home alongside a loved one. “Normally my husband works in an office downtown, and leaves in the morning at 7:30 and comes home 12 hours later, so I have the entire tiny apartment to myself,” said Julie Klam, 53, an author based in New York City. “Now he and my kid and our dog and I are all jammed together in the one room that has air and light, and I’m listening to him on conference calls.” Adjusting quickly to these new circumstances is crucial to setting your family up for success, said Guy Winch, a psychologist and author. “Abnormal life has begun, so we must maintain as much normalcy as possible during these challenging times,” he said. “And it’s super-important to realize that this is a marathon and not a sprint, so we have to set up conditions and habits and rituals that will get us through that.” Dr. Winch advises that we establish office rules and get granular. What are our work hours? Where do we go in the house when one of us needs to take a call? Where will our individual workstations be? Who keeps an eye on the kids and when?

March 20, 2020, 3:00 p.m. ET March 20, 2020, 3:00 p.m. ET By Caitie Kelly and Social distancing doesn’t mean abandoning self-care. Image Clockwise from top left: The florist Christina Stembel’s cinnamon rolls, which she lets rise twice in the oven; the personal trainer Anthony Nehra demonstrates a bed push-up; the scene at the East Wind intentional community in the Ozarks; the designer Anya Hindmarch’s cheerful and uplifting color-coded pencil case. Credit... Clockwise from top left: Aya Brackett; Scott J. Ross; George Etheredge; Yuki Sugiura Hunkering down in isolation? Keep the stress at bay with a delicious meal, some self-care and a riveting read.

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March 20, 2020, 2:30 p.m. ET March 20, 2020, 2:30 p.m. ET By Our critic says the celebrity singalong to John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’ is no heaven. You might say that every crisis gets the multi-celebrity car-crash pop anthem it deserves, but truly no crisis — certainly not one as vast and unsettling as the current one — deserves this. The actress Gal Gadot, on her sixth day of precautionary coronavirus self-isolation, orchestrated a line-for-line baton pass of John Lennon’s “Imagine,” a song that, over five decades, has been sturdy enough to hold up to Pentatonix, Corey Feldman, the cast of “Glee” and Blake Lewis on “American Idol.” (He didn’t beatbox, thankfully.) In this clusterclump of hyperfamous people with five seconds’ too much time on their hands, however, “Imagine” may have met its match. By the end, it has been pummeled and stabbed, disaggregated, stripped for parts and left for trash collection by the side of the highway. It is difficult to measure which section is the most unsettling — Will Ferrell’s arch sincerity (although not his Lynchian electroshock hair)? Sarah Silverman’s whoopsy-daisy tartness? Mark Ruffalo’s bohemian-of-the-mind riffage? James Marsden’s this’ll-fix-it earnestness? Each is so destabilizing it necessitates a quick hit of the pause button, and maybe a walk around the block. On social media, Gadot and her crew were lambasted for bumblingly contributing, well, whatever this is as opposed to money or resources. Their genial naïveté is blinding them to the grossest sin here: the smug self-satisfaction, the hubris of the alleged good deed. In times of crisis, some think it’s enough to throw something slapdash together, serve it to the world and hope it heals some people. But that’s just not how things work. Read more

March 20, 2020, 2:00 p.m. ET March 20, 2020, 2:00 p.m. ET By The Scripps National Spelling Bee has been suspended i-n-d-e-f-i-n-i-t-e-l-y. Contestants at the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Maryland last year. Credit... Patrick Semansky/Associated Press Adding one more to the long list of events that have been canceled because of the coronavirus, the national finals of the Scripps National Spelling Bee in National Harbor, Md. have been suspended. The finals were to be a weeklong event, winnowing hundreds of contestants down to around 15 for the big championship bee on May 28. The annual contest is like a Super Bowl for spellers, and a prime-time television event for the rest of us. Contestants typically spend years preparing. Then they age out. Now, it is unclear is whether the 2020 bee will take place at all. In a statement announcing the suspension on Friday, no new date was set. “Our hope is that the crisis lifts at some point this year and that we are able to simply reschedule our bee week,” said Paige Kimble, the executive director of the Scripps National Spelling Bee. “But only if it is safe to do so.” She said that the organization has been focusing on how to keep people safe and whether to postpone the May event. Now, it will start considering other options in case the bee can’t be held in person. “All ideas are on the table,” Ms. Kimble said. The adolescents who participate in the national finals have to prove their mettle in local or state contests first. Those are also in some disarray; most regional contests have already taken place, but dozens have not. In Maine, bee organizers were keeping a close eye on the spread of the virus and were planning to close the Maine State Spelling Bee — scheduled for March 21 — to the general public. This week, they suspended it altogether. “Overwhelmingly they understood our decision and agreed that it was the right decision to make at the time,” Chris Sobiech, the coordinator of Maine State Spelling Bee, said of the participants and their parents. “But the kids were disappointed.” Rebecca Aponte, 13, a home-schooled seventh grader in Maine, has been to the national bee twice as a spectator in support of her two brothers, who qualified in 2013 and 2018. As the youngest of three, she is her family’s last shot at the national championship trophy. In February, she won the championship for Hancock County — her winning word was “iridescent” — and she has been studying hard to compete in the state bee and follow in her brothers’ footsteps to the national finals. This week, she learned that both her state competition and the national contest would be postponed indefinitely. “I was definitely disappointed, but I understand why they chose to cancel the bee,” she said, adding that she would be excited to participate at the national level this year or next, even if the format has to be reimagined. Contestants who have qualified to compete this year will not have to worry about their age eligibility if the bee is rescheduled. The rules say that a contestant for the 2020 bee cannot have passed beyond the eighth grade by Aug. 31, 2019, and that remains unchanged. Read more

March 20, 2020, 1:30 p.m. ET March 20, 2020, 1:30 p.m. ET By Seeking stability, friends of minor league baseball have formed a nonprofit. Long before the coronavirus outbreak threw their livelihoods into deep uncertainty this month, baseball’s minor league players were enduring wages ranging from roughly $1,000 to $15,000 per season; poor nutrition and facilities; sharing one small apartment with several teammates; and often working side jobs to pay bills. Unlike major leaguers, they have no union and fear speaking up against the M.L.B. teams that employ them, because that could jeopardize the chance of reaching the majors and a big payday. Spending one day in the major leagues, on a prorated portion of a minimum annual salary that was $555,000 last season, would be worth more than a month in the minors. In an effort to improve the situation during a time of uncertainty created by the coronavirus, Garrett Broshuis, 38, a former minor league pitcher in the San Francisco Giants organization — along with several other former minor league players, an active major leaguer, a labor activist and a marketing adviser — has formed a nonprofit called Advocates for Minor Leaguers, which was unveiled on Friday.

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March 20, 2020, 1:00 p.m. ET March 20, 2020, 1:00 p.m. ET By Cancellations are impacting children in unexpected ways. Credit... Lilli Carré With the new coronavirus leading to school closures and event cancellations across the country, parents are getting mixed reactions from their kids that range from joy over extra time off to confusion and sadness over missing a highly anticipated event — and even fear of the unknown. Whether they’re forced to skip a musical performance, a tryout for a spring sport, a visit to their grandparents or a family vacation, simply telling children that disappointment is a part of life doesn’t cut it. So how can parents help kids process their disappointment? I asked a few experts for their advice. Check your own emotions. “Fear can be contagious, so above all, parents need to monitor and manage their own worry, especially in front of their children,” said Robin F. Goodman, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist and art therapist in New York City. “The good news is this also means that calm is contagious.” Focus on validating children’s emotions. “Kids often gain comfort in knowing that they are not alone,” said Dr. Neha Chaudhary, M.D., child and adolescent psychiatrist at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. “It may help for parents to say that a lot of kids are feeling the same way and even admit that they are a little worried, too. At the end of the day, the most important thing that parents can do is to send their kid the message that it’s OK for them to feel what they are feeling. These are the interactions that help a child feel seen.” Treat these discussions as learning opportunities. “When you have to talk about canceled events that kids were looking forward to, think about it as a learning opportunity to manage disappointment,” said Roseann Capanna-Hodge, Ed.D., a psychologist and pediatric mental health specialist psychologist in Connecticut. “We often are so worried that our kids will get upset when we should be thinking: ‘What can my child learn here? Can they learn about managing stress and feeling upset?’” In a pinch, try distraction. A fun technique to distract younger kids, said Alexandra Friedmann Finkel, L.C.S.W., a licensed clinical social worker and therapist in New York, is a color game. Have your child choose a color and look around the room to point out everything he can see in that color. “This can help a child break the worry spiral and calm the body and mind,” Finkel said. Read more

March 20, 2020, 12:30 p.m. ET March 20, 2020, 12:30 p.m. ET By What’s happening to gig workers? A jazz singer tells her story. “I think we take for granted that there’s always going to be something to do,” said Jenna Camille Henderson, a singer-songwriter in Washington, D.C., who lost all of her jobs in a matter of days. Credit... Gabriella Demczuk for The New York Times Jenna Camille Henderson, a singer-songwriter in Washington, D.C., didn’t have just one job. Instead, like many other musicians and creative workers in the United States, she pieced together a living from multiple sources. At the beginning of March, she was making steady money thanks to three jobs: working security at the 9:30 Club, one of the city’s most beloved music venues; providing support at a charter school; and playing a weekly gig at a local club. In less than a week, each one of those had been canceled or put on hold because of measures to try to halt the spread of the new coronavirus. Ms. Henderson, 29, who does not have health insurance, has no source of income for the foreseeable future. As freelancers, she said, “I think we take for granted that there’s always going to be something to do.” This is the story of how the financial situation she’d cobbled together fell apart, as recounted by Ms. Henderson and in screenshots of texts and emails from her phone. Read more