Prognosis: Misconception

New Zealand is one of the countries that has been most successful in crushing the spread of the coronavirus. Now, the World Health Organization has asked former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark to co-chair an independent panel evaluating the critical steps taken early in the pandemic. She spoke to senior editor Jason Gale about how different countries approached the virus spread, and which approaches worked.

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Eight months into the pandemic, the coronavirus is on a rampage around the world. In Europe, a surge in cases has led to a new wave of lockdowns. The U.S. is entering its most dangerous period for the virus yet, and more than 10 million people have been infected. With Michelle Fay Cortez and Robert Langreth, we look back at how we got here, and ahead to what’s next for the outbreak.

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Countries like the United Kingdom and France are locking down amid a spike in cases. They’re concerned that winter will only make things worse. But if Europe and America want to see an example of how well lockdowns work during colder months, they need only look at Melbourne, Australia. The country’s second-largest city went through two lockdowns – one of which happened during its winter. Remarkably, the city has reported no new cases since late October. But, Jason Gale reports, it has come at a cost.

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Cornell University, in upstate New York, welcomed around 24,000 people back to campus this fall. The idea of students packed into dorms and mingling in classrooms made many people nervous. But while outbreaks have plagued colleges across the country, Cornell has managed to keep a lid on its Covid cases. In fact, the college’s test-positivity rate has been among the lowest of any college or university in the country doing large-scale testing. Reporter Emma Court looked into how the school has done it.

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The holidays will not be business as usual this year. Instead of just figuring out what to cook for Thanksgiving dinner, we have to consider things like who we can invite to dinner safely, or whether we should even be hosting a meal at all. Reporter Kristen V. Brown finds expert answers to your questions around social distancing etiquette and the Holiday season.

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Operation Warp Speed, The White House’s effort to fast-track a vaccine for covid-19, appears to be a conspicuous exception to the government’s otherwise disastrous management of the pandemic. The project has cleared bureaucratic hurdles and awarded more than $12 billion in vaccine-related contracts and has an overall budget of as much as $18 billion. Cynthia Koons reports on what Operation Warp Speed is doing behind the scenes.

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The coronavirus is both a medical problem and a public-health problem – that’s baked into its biology. But the pandemic in the U.S. has been exacerbated by another challenge of our own making: a pervasive atmosphere of distrust. That atmosphere has let misinformation about the virus flourish. That misinformation is often amplified by the man with the country’s loudest megaphone, President Donald Trump. John Tozzi reports that the information crisis has made practicing medicine in a pandemic even more difficult.

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The U.S. government’s Covid-19 strategy has been to rely on developing vaccines and treatments, rather than emphase measures to limit the spread of the disease. That could delay the return to normal life for Americans. One report suggests that if the vaccine program has any hiccups, we could be living with the virus well into 2023. Health reporter Naomi Kresge reports on the cost of the government’s focus on developing drugs rather than changing behavior.

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Robinhood has become one of the Covid economy’s breakout successes. Americans marooned at home binge-watched Netflix shows, went shopping on Amazon Prime, and discovered day trading on their mobile phones. “Robinhood traders” became the shorthand explanation for the frenzy of often speculative retail investing in the pandemic lockdowns. But Annie Massa reports that Robinhood is now racing to prove it can manage a simple online trading platform and overcome a reputation for poor customer service.

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Black Americans have an increased vulnerability to Covid. Many explanations have been floated for that: Black people are more likely to have chronic illnesses such as diabetes and high blood pressure; many work in frontline jobs. But Cynthia Koons reports that scientists are increasingly certain that bad air plays a role in the coronavirus’s course. One ZIP code in Detroit illustrates the relationship between severe Covid cases and disproportionate pollution.

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