Virus Words vs. Actions

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Good morning. We know the right way to scale back the virus’s unfold — despite the fact that we’re not doing it.

The ebb and move of coronavirus instances during the last 12 months has obscured a fundamental reality: We know a lot about the right way to management the virus’s unfold.

Mask-wearing makes an enormous distinction. So does limiting indoor gatherings. In explicit, closing indoor eating places, bars and gymnasiums has lowered the virus’s unfold in lots of locations.

Arizona is a wonderful instance. Its governor, Doug Ducey, a Republican, resisted taking aggressive motion for weeks. But in late June, he closed bars, film theaters and gymnasiums and banned gatherings of fifty folks or extra. The guidelines started to elevate in August.

Look at what occurred to the virus in Arizona whereas the restrictions have been in place — and what occurred afterward:

Other states had related success over the summer time, and it’s price emphasizing that their actions usually fell effectively wanting a full lockdown. “Unfortunately, the debate has sometimes devolved into these two camps — you’re either pro-lockdown or ‘let ’er rip,’” Jennifer Nuzzo, a Johns Hopkins University epidemiologist, informed me. “There is a lot of real estate between those two positions.”

Over the previous week, with the variety of U.S. infections setting records every day, many states have begun announcing new restrictions. But they usually fall wanting what consultants say is required. Two examples are Ohio and New Jersey, that are permitting bars to serve indoors till 10 p.m. Another instance is Arizona, the place eating places and lots of bars stay open at the same time as instances have surged once more.

(A new Times analysis finds that the surge is worst in states the place leaders failed to keep up sturdy containment efforts.)

The commonest suggestions I’ve heard from epidemiologists are: Political leaders ought to ship clear, repeated messages about the effectiveness of masks. Some indoor actions can proceed as long as persons are masked. But the unfold is now speedy sufficient in lots of states that bars, eating places and different cramped indoor areas ought to shut briefly.

Experts additionally say that political leaders ought to discourage folks from taking part in huge Thanksgiving gatherings. Otherwise, says Donald G. McNeil Jr., a Times science reporter, “we will be doing as a nation what the South did on Memorial Day weekend: opening ourselves up to holiday travel at a time when cases are rising.”

My colleague Jonathan Wolfe interviewed Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s prime infectious illness specialist, yesterday, and he predicted that the approaching months can be brutal. “December, January and early February are going to be terribly painful months,” Fauci mentioned.

Jonathan replied that Fauci appeared to not have a lot religion that Americans have been going to alter their conduct within the subsequent few months. “I don’t think they are,” Fauci mentioned. “I don’t think they are.”

For extra from their dialog, search for the following version of the Coronavirus Briefing. You can subscribe here.

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‘Villains or happy snowflake angel babies’

Hollywood has an extended historical past of utilizing incapacity or disfigurement as a shortcut to painting evil. Think of Darth Vader, Freddy Krueger, Lord Voldemort or Bond villains. The newest instance — and one inflicting criticism — is the Grand High Witch character, performed by Anne Hathaway, within the film “The Witches,” an adaptation of a 1983 youngsters’s e book by Roald Dahl.

In the e book, Dahl describes the witches’ fingers as having animal traits, with “thin curvy claws, like a cat.” Cover illustrations through the years have proven the claws with 5 fingers. In the film, Hathaway’s character has three-fingered fingers that resemble the fingers of individuals with the congenital dysfunction ectrodactyly, also referred to as cut up fingers.

In response to the movie, folks with ectrodactyly and different situations have posted images of their fingers and arms on social media with the hashtag #NotAWitch. “This isn’t about being overly sensitive, a ‘snowflake’ or being too politically correct,” Briony May Williams, a “Great British Baking Show” semifinalist, wrote on Instagram. “This is about showcasing limb difference as ugly, scary, gross and evil.”

“Disabled people either play villains or happy snowflake angel babies,” Maysoon Zayid, a comic and author who has cerebral palsy, told Cara Buckley of The Times.

Both Warner Bros., the film’s studio, and Hathaway apologized for the portrayal, saying they’d not made the connection between the character’s fingers and limb variations. That clarification highlights one other challenge: the dearth of disabled individuals who work in Hollywood, each on display screen and off.

PLAY, WATCH, EAT

What to Cook

Make a kale and brussels sprouts salad, sprinkled with pear and fried halloumi cubes.

Develop a Green Thumb

Try growing microgreens in your kitchen counter for some extremely nutritious and superfast salad fixings.

Smell-O-Vision

Scents and reminiscence are inextricably tied collectively — the odor of a grandmother’s home, a childhood pet, or a selected brew of morning tea. The Times requested readers to ship us their scent reminiscences. Read via them in a “museum of smells.”

And to Watch

Here are some soothing recommendations of under-a-minute TikToks.

Late Night

The late-night hosts joked about Trump’s Thanksgiving plans.

Now Time to Play

The pangram from yesterday’s Spelling Bee was noblewomen. Today’s puzzle is above — or you possibly can play online when you have a Games subscription.