Wall Street Journal 
Wall Street Journal Wednesday May 6, 2020 [CCLXXV, US ed.]
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WEDNESDAY, MAY 6, 2020 ~ VOL. CCLXXV NO. 106

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Real Games, Fake Fans Mark South Korea’s Opening Day

What’s News Business & Finance isney said the pandemic took a $1.4 billion bite out of its earnings and detailed how the global economic fallout would affect every part of its business for the foreseeable future. A1

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 California sued Uber and Lyft for allegedly misclassifying their drivers as independent contractors instead of employees. A3

 AbbVie agreed to divest several assets to settle the FTC’s objections to its proposed Allergan acquisition. B5

World-Wide  The Trump administration is considering disbanding the White House’s coronavirus task force, as the pathogen continues to spread around the country and a key model projected that the current number of U.S. deaths could nearly double this summer. A1, A4

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BY ERICH SCHWARTZEL

The empire Robert Iger built at Walt Disney Co. ruled Hollywood last year, with box-office blockbusters, capacity crowds at theme parks and new streaming service with subscribers in the millions. This year brings an unwelcome twist. The world’s largest entertainment company said Tuesday the coronavirus pandemic took a $1.4 billion bite out of its earnings, with more to come as executives detailed

Justice Ginsburg Is Hospitalized

 Researchers have begun giving healthy U.S. volunteers an experimental coronavirus vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech. A6  Justice Ginsburg was admitted to the hospital for nonsurgical treatment of a gallbladder condition, the Supreme Court said. A3  Trump chose the politically contested state of Arizona for his first trip away from the East Coast since the coronavirus outbreak. A4  Venezuela said it was holding two Americans among those captured in what was called an incursion aimed at toppling the government. A16 Opinion.............. A13-15 Property Report... B6 Sports........................ A12 Technology............... B4 U.S. News............. A2-3 Weather................... A12 World News.......... A16

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THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC

Trade deficit widens as exports, imports are hit, A2 Digital grandparenting becomes essential, A9

With fewer flights, air cargo costs soar, B1

Offices Prepare to Reopen With New Surveillance Tools

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PATRICK SEMANSKY/ASSOCIATED PRESS

BY KONRAD PUTZIER AND CHIP CUTTER

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 French doctors have discovered a case of the coronavirus dating from late December in a man who was hospitalized near Paris. A7

more widespread globally only in the final few weeks of Disney’s fiscal second quarter. Disney’s net income for the quarter fell 91% to $475 million, due to both the impact of the virus and accounting for the consolidation of assets acquired in its 2019 deal with 21st Century Fox. Analysts have downgraded Disney stock, envisioning a future defined by the highly contagious virus, even as stay-athome orders are lifted and Please turn to page A6

Technology will measure staff proximity and track workers’ health

 A government vaccine specialist who was moved out of his job alleges that HHS resisted his warnings about the dangers of the virus. A4  ICE is working with 3M, Amazon, Pfizer and other companies to curtail a flood of counterfeit medical gear entering the U.S. A6

how the global economic fallout would affect every part of its business for the foreseeable future. Total operating income for the three months ended March 28 fell 37% from a year earlier to $2.4 billion, the world’s largest entertainment company said Tuesday, while revenue rose 21% to $18 billion. The business impact of the pandemic will likely be even more pronounced in the current quarter. Shutdowns that first began in Asia became

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had nonsurgical treatment for a gallbladder condition. She plans to take part in hearings by phone Wednesday from the hospital. A3

Can You Mute That Tuba? Musicians Try to Practice, Quietly i

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Performers stuck at home find ways to play on without annoying neighbors BY ANGUS LOTEN

classical opera. She says the makeshift Angela Scorese is preparing closet studio is a workaround her voice for a breakout role aimed at keeping the peace as Queen of the Night in a with other residents in her coming performance of the building. The performance is set for July. Magic Flute, Mozart’s Across the counsignature opera. The try, lockdown orders 26-year-old soprano, to stem the spread of an understudy for the the coronavirus have part, runs through a performers from opdaily warm-up rouera singers to heavytine in her Jersey metal drummers City, N.J., apartment. stuck indoors—pracWhen she’s ready to ticing within earshot sing, she steps into a of their workingbedroom closet and from-home neighshuts the door. “I have a lot of Soothing sounds bors. Many singers and instrumentalists clothes in there that help muffle the sound,” says who no longer have access to Ms. Scorese, whose part in- outside studio space are findcludes singing a piercing High ing creative ways to make do. Please turn to page A2 F, one of the highest notes in

Many Americans heading back to the factory and the office as the coronavirus pandemic eases will soon notice that their every move is being watched or recorded. In Midtown Manhattan, thermal cameras will measure body temperatures as employees file into a 32-story office tower at Rockefeller Center. The building’s owner, RXR Realty, said it is also developing a mobile app for tenants to monitor—and score— how closely their workers are complying with social distancing. PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP said it is preparing to launch this month a phone app for employers that traces contacts by analyzing workers’ interactions in the office. More than 50 clients have expressed interest, in-

cluding some of the nation’s biggest banks, manufacturers and energy companies. Advertising giant Interpublic Group of Cos. is exploring dividing its 22,000 U.S. employees into three separate groups, according to perceived health risks, which could include age. Workers could be asked to disclose medical and other personal information about themselves and, in some cases, family members. Interpublic hasn’t signed off on the system yet, but it’s definitely “on the front burner,” said Eric Ossmann, chief medical officer at the medical-advisory firm Vigilint Protective Health Services, which is advising Interpublic. Interpublic said it has only begun preliminary discussions about the system. “It is a reasonable approach, if you can Please turn to page A8

Imprecise Data Muddy Virus Death Forecasts BY BRIANNA ABBOTT AND PAUL OVERBERG The near doubling of coronavirus death predictions in a closely followed model this week underscores a frustrating reality for officials weighing how and when to reopen society: Many basic facts about the pandemic remain unknown. Epidemiologists have created many computer models to predict surge capacity in the health-care system and guide policy-making. These seek to predict how many people might be infected, how many will die, and when and how transmission might slow or speed up. But the models are only as good as the underlying data and knowledge about Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus. Models are based on assumptions and estimates and shift with new information, often because of changing be-

havior but also because the scientific understanding of the virus is still evolving. Researchers have strained to pin down basic bits of information about the disease, such as its infectiousness. Undercounted infections and deaths have blinded public-health authorities and modelers alike to the full scope of the pandemic. That uncertainty plays out in the range of predictions from different modeling groups. As of the end of April, academic models projected anywhere from about 70,000 to nearly 170,000 Covid-19 deaths in the U.S. by mid-May, according to data compiled by the Reich Lab at UMass-Amherst. On Monday, closely followed and scrutinized projections by University of Washington researchers nearly doubled the expected number of Covid-19 deaths to about 135,000 by Please turn to page A6

INSIDE

ISTOCK

 Fiat Chrysler posted a net loss of $1.86 billion for the first quarter, as lockdowns took a toll on car sales. B3

s 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved

WASHINGTON—The Trump administration is considering disbanding the White House’s coronavirus task force, administration officials said, as the virus continues to spread around the country and a key model projected that the current number of U.S. deaths could nearly double this summer. President Trump confirmed the discussions during a trip to Arizona on Tuesday, saying the government was considering setting up a new group focused on “safety and opening.” The administration’s move comes amid concerns by some health experts about a second outbreak of the virus as states increasingly relax economic restrictions. “We’re going to put the flame out,” Mr. Trump said about the outbreak, adding that “we can’t keep our country closed.” Mr. Trump, a Republican, said he would continue to consult with doctors and publichealth officials in the administration. Vice President Mike Pence said earlier Tuesday that senior aides are discussing shifting the task force’s responsibilities to individual departments and agencies. He said officials have begun talking with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which has been leading Please turn to page A4

LIFE & ARTS Graduating high schoolers consider a gap year with college plans up in the air. A9 CARLOS BARRIA/REUTERS

 Occidental Petroleum is examining ways to lessen its debt load following a historic plunge in oil prices and an ill-timed acquisition. B2

Health Crisis Slams Disney, But More Bloodletting Ahead

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 U.S. stocks rose, with the S&P 500, Dow and Nasdaq gaining 0.9%, 0.6% and 1.1%, respectively. B11

CONTENTS Business News...... B5 Capital Account.... A2 Crossword.............. A12 Heard on Street. B12 Life & Arts......... A9-11 Markets..................... B11

Trump Explores Ending Pandemic Panel

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STANDING ROOM: Images of team supporters were printed on banners displayed in the otherwise empty stadium in Incheon, South Korea, as the country’s baseball season officially opened Tuesday after a delay because of coronavirus.

 The U.S. trade deficit widened in March as the economic shock related to the pandemic held down both imports and exports. A2

 The Trump administration is pressing the EU to support an international inquiry into China’s handling of the coronavirus. A7

YEN 106.54

BY ANDREW RESTUCCIA JEON HEON-KYUN/EPA/SHUTTERSTOCK

 AIG, Prudential and Allstate posted first-quarter earnings revealing the pandemic’s wide-ranging effects on the insurers. B1

EURO $1.0838

Talk of disbanding task force comes as new projection sees deaths doubling across U.S.

 Airbnb’s CEO told employees the firm is slashing 1,900 jobs, a quarter of its workforce, and cutting investments in noncore operations. B1  Wendy’s is limiting menu items, including hamburgers, at some locations as closures of meat plants start to affect restaurant supplies. B1

HHHH $4.00

WSJ.com

BUSINESS & FINANCE Wendy’s is forced to cut back on beef because of meat plant closures. B1

For personal, non-commercial use only. Do not edit, alter or reproduce. For commercial reproduction or distribution, contact Dow Jones Reprints & Licensing at (800) 843-0008 or www.djreprints.com.

A2 | Wednesday, May 6, 2020

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

U.S. NEWS

CAPITAL ACCOUNT | By Greg Ip

Risk-Based Distancing Is Key to a Reopen When French Prime Minister Édouard Philippe announced plans last week to reopen the French economy, he warned: “It is a fine line that must be followed. A little too much carelessness, and the epidemic restarts. A little too much caution, and the entire country sinks.” The balancing act facing leaders like Mr. Philippe is difficult enough, but it’s aggravated by a dearth of essential information: Which social-distancing measures offer acceptable trade-offs in terms of lives saved and economic costs incurred? Thus far, the estimated value of lives saved by social distancing exceeds the likely economic cost. But that may not always be true. For one thing, those estimates might change. More important, that doesn’t reveal which mea-

co-writers. An official at IHME said the models now incorporate mobility data to project the impacts of different measures. Even detailed models don’t have strong empirical foundations for projected impacts. Henri Leleu, scientific director at Public Health Expertise, a French disease-modeling company, said it is easy to project the impact of a total lockdown. But with individual measures such as wearing masks, it’s “nobody has real good data on this, [although] we know it’s effective because it’s scientifically sound.” Finally, epidemiological models don’t incorporate the costs of their measures, because that isn’t their job. Some mitigation measures may have incurred steep costs for questionable benefit. For example, many governments closed schools because that is part of the tool kit for pandemic flu. But whereas children are much more vulnera-

sures are delivering benefits in terms of deaths avoided, or their costs. This highlights the need for risk-based social distancing that could potentially save lives at less cost to the economy.

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pidemiological models assume that social distancing saves lives by reducing contacts between infected and susceptible people. But the frequency and risk of contact varies considerably depending on the age, gender and health of the population, household structure, and work patterns. Not all models capture those distinctions. Early projections by the University of Washington’s influential Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation assumed a common behavioral response to a single set of social-distancing measures, according to a study of pandemic models by economist Christopher Avery at the Harvard Kennedy School and four

ble to flu than adults, the reverse is true with Covid-19. And while there’s no consensus on how contagious children are, studies from Australia and France suggest schools may not be a significant source of transmission. While the benefits of closing schools aren’t clear, the costs are: educators and support staff have been furloughed, many parents can’t work because they are looking after children, and many students’ mental health and education have suffered. A 2008 study co-written by Beate Sander, a health economist at the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto, estimated a 26-week school closure would cost $2,700 per resident due to lost work by parents, teachers and other professionals. For the U.S., that would translate into roughly $1 trillion in today’s dollars. Ms. Sander said health ex-

U.S. WATCH

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isease modelers are striving to craft nuanced solutions using more granular data. Using a model of New York City with 148 inputs, from hypertension to public-transit contacts, Mr. Leleu and six co-authors concluded releasing people under 60 from quarantine eight weeks before older people would save far more lives than keeping everyone under quarantine for even longer. A definitive cost-benefit accounting of every such measure is probably impossible. But as evidence grows, qualitative rankings should be

possible. For example, there’s a stronger case for keeping churches closed than schools because attendees are older and churches’ economic contribution is smaller (their spiritual contribution, of course, is another matter). Masks, which cost almost nothing yet significantly reduce the transmission of respiratory viruses, easily pass the test. Canceling elective surgery may not (so long as intensive care beds aren’t in short supply), since it puts severe financial stress on health-care providers and may discourage seriously ill people from seeking care. Given uncertainty surrounding Covid-19, no restrictions should be lifted lightly. Ms. Sander said schools should only be reopened carefully, starting with the youngest pupils, rotating classes by day of the week. “Watch and see, if infection rates don’t go up, expand.” And of course, test as much as possible.

March Trade Deficit Expanded as Global Crisis Deepened

TRADE

officials who offered similar views in separate appearances. “This is not a typical recession. It’s going to be a very, very sharp contraction” in the second quarter, “but recovery could begin in the second half of the year, and that today is my forecast,” Mr. Clarida said in an interview on CNBC. Chicago Fed leader Charles Evans said Tuesday in a conference call that he was optimistic the economy would pick up in the second half. He said that is slightly more likely than a scenario in which the economy suffers an extended downturn. St. Louis Fed leader James

Bullard also weighed in. He repeated his expectation that the economy will get back into action during the second half as well as his view that the shutdown of much of the economy has a limited window before even deeper damage starts to happen. —Michael S. Derby WASHINGTON, D.C.

Mfume Takes House Seat Cummings Held

Continued from Page One Though Ms. Scorese hasn’t heard any complaints, she says a singer friend in a nearby West New York, N.J., apartment found a note slipped under her door. Rebecca Benitez, a 31-year-old soprano practicing for the role of the Queen’s lady in the same production, says the unsigned letter told her to pipe down “in passive aggressive terms.” “I’m sure like us you’ve had to adjust to staying at home and working,” the letter writer said, according to a copy provided by Ms. Benitez. “Indeed while we’re uncertain what it is you do, we imagine it has something to do with singing which we know because, unfortunately, the walls in this building are not quite as thick as we would like.” Ms. Benitez says she has tried wearing a customized mask to damp the sound of her voice, “but it’s just not the same.” Samuel Green, a singer and trombone player in St. Paul, Minn., says he put a sign on the door of his downtown apartment, promising not to tread on the building’s quiet policy, which allows him to play between 10 a.m. and 9 p.m., after Minnesota went into lockdown. That didn’t stop one resident from yelling through a wall last month, as Mr. Green was warm-

ANN O’SHEA

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Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Richard Clarida said Tuesday that he is looking for the economy to begin a recovery from the coronavirus crisis in the second half of this year, joining with two other central-bank

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Officials Hopeful for Second-Half Pickup

COVERED: Anderson High School senior Teyaja Jones was dressed for the times Tuesday in Austin, Texas.

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FEDERAL RESERVE

BY DAVID HARRISON

ERIC GAY/ASSOCIATED PRESS

The U.S. and the United Kingdom formally launched negotiations toward a trade agreement Tuesday, an effort to draw the two economies together as the U.K. exits the European Union and the coronavirus threatens the world economy. President Trump and Prime Minister Boris Johnson have made the negotiations a priority as Mr. Johnson seeks close trading relationships outside Europe and Mr. Trump looks to build a network of two-way deals that he feels can offer better advantages to the U.S. than multinational or global tie-ups. Tariffs between the two economies are already relatively low due to existing agreements at the World Trade Organization, so talks are expected to focus on eliminating most remaining tariffs and setting rules of the road for everything from labor and the environment to agriculture and food sanitation. —William Mauldin

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U.S., U.K. Formally Begin Negotiations

Musicians Play On At Home

perts usually looked only at health in evaluating the costs of pandemics, not consumption or productivity. “We…never thought about physical distancing at the level we’ve done now. The situation we’re in now is unprecedented in a lot of ways. We need to think about what all the different impacts are.”

David Ostwald plays his tuba out his window in New York. ing up. “Right when I reached the top of my vocal range I heard ‘stop singing!’ and just froze in place,” he says. Brian Perry, a 40-year-old bass player in the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, says he and his family perform 20-minute concerts in front of their Fort Worth, Texas, single-family home. His wife plays violin and his daughters, 11 and 7, play violin and cello. They recently performed a rendition of “Yellow Rose of Texas.” “People keep their distance, but they can hear us,” Mr. Perry said. So far no one has complained. John Bianchi, a vice president at a New York communications firm, who is taking clarinet lessons online during the lockdown, says he has been on edge since a neighbor complained about a piano player in their 13-story Manhattan apartment building.

Democrat Kweisi Mfume rejoined the House on Tuesday after being elected to finish the

Mr. Bianchi now spends up to two hours a day playing clarinet in his 1998 Saturn station wagon, parked on Fifth Avenue near Washington Square Park. New York state imposed a stayat-home order on March 20. Mr. Bianchi says he sits behind the steering wheel, because “sitting alone on the passenger side is just too weird.” Masked pedestrians who stop beside the car snapping their fingers or singing along to scales are “more than a little distracting,” he says. In Brooklyn, jazz trumpeter Jason Prover says he has dialed back practicing in his apartment to roughly two hours a day, from five or six hours. He also uses a mute, a cone-shaped device that fits into the bell of brass instruments to muffle the sound, and plays into a pillow. But the accommodation isn’t ideal, he says. “I can’t warm up with a mute and you can’t really practice,” he says, adding that the mute changes the airflow through his trumpet. “My first gig back is going to be rough,” Mr. Prover says. New York City has become a hotbed of noise complaints. Over the first week of the lockdown alone, New Yorkers made more than 11,000 complaints to the city about noisy neighbors, up 23% from the same period last year, according to a study of 311 calls by apartment-rental site Renthop.com. The complaints included musical instruments and loud music, as well as home repairs and unidentified banging noises. David Ostwald, a 64-year-old tuba player, has started playing “America the Beautiful” out of

term of the late Rep. Elijah Cummings. He took the oath of office with a protective mask in his left hand. Mr. Mfume, 71 years old, will represent a Baltimore-area district that has been hit hard by the virus and its near shutdown of the economy. Mr. Cummings, who served in the House for more than two decades, died in October at age 68. Mr. Mfume served in the House from 1987 until 1996, when he left to become chairman of the NAACP. He led the civil-rights organization until 2004. —Associated Press

the fifth-floor window of his uptown Manhattan apartment. He performs every night at 7 p.m., timed to coincide with the city’s nightly salute to medical workers, he says. Mr. Ostwald, who led a weekly Louis Armstrong tribute band at Birdland, the city’s legendary jazz club, before the lockdown, says he started doing the impromptu shows about a week after he recovered from coronavirus. He says neighbors gather in front of the building to hear him play, and he’s added “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” “Amazing Grace” and other inspirational songs. “I’ve received a lot of positive feedback,” Mr. Ostwald says. As far as he knows, there have been no complaints.

CORRECTIONS  AMPLIFICATIONS Enterprise Holdings Inc. has reduced hours for parttime staff during the coronavirus pandemic. A Business & Finance article Tuesday about the car-rental industry incorrectly said Enterprise reduced hours for full-time staff.

Notice to readers Wall Street Journal staff members are working remotely during the pandemic. For the foreseeable future, please send reader comments only by email or phone, using the contacts below, not via U.S. Mail. Readers can alert The Wall Street Journal to any errors in news articles by emailing [email protected] or by calling 888-410-2667.

The U.S. trade deficit widened in March as the economic shock related to the global coronavirus pandemic held down both imports and exports. The deficit rose 11.6% to a seasonally adjusted $44.4 billion in March from $39.8 billion in February, snapping two months of declines, the Commerce Department said Tuesday. Imports dropped 6.2% to $232.2 billion in March, the lowest figure since October 2016. Exports were down 9.6% to $187.7 billion, the lowest since November 2016. The March trade numbers are likely to be the beginning of a sustained fall in global trade, said Brad Setser, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. The coming months probably will show a continuing decline in U.S. imports and exports, he said. “It’s safe to project that April will see a much bigger fall and there’s not likely to be a significant recovery in May,” Mr. Setser said. Separate surveys of purchasing managers found that U.S. services businesses saw their steepest drop in activity in April since the last recession. The Institute for Supply Management’s nonmanufacturing index fell to 41.8 in April, down from 52.5 in March and the lowest reading since March 2009. And the private data firm IHS Markit said its U.S. services index—a surveybased measure of activity in industries such as finance, hotels and transportation—saw its sharpest one-month decline since the survey began in October 2009, falling to a seasonally adjusted 26.7 in April from 39.8 the prior month. Several factors have depressed global trade in recent months. First, the emergence of the new coronavirus in China caused factories there to shut down, disrupting supply chains world-wide. Then

the virus spread around the world, prompting many businesses to close operations, which caused job losses, and many governments to issue stay-at-home orders, which held down consumer spending. The lockdowns likely have produced a global recession, further reducing demand. The Tuesday report offered an early glimpse at the effect of those lockdowns on travel and trade. Travel into the U.S.—counted as an export in trade statistics—was down 45.3% in March from the previous month. Overall services

U.S. imports and exports probably will decline in the coming months. exports fell 15.3% on the month to $59.6 billion, the lowest since December 2013. The collapse in oil prices also contributed to slowing trade volumes in March. Imports of petroleum products were down 21.9%, while exports fell 13.2%. Exports of cars and car parts were down 17.9%, reflecting both closed factories in the U.S. and a drop in global demand. Imports were down 8.9% from the previous month. The International Monetary Fund predicted last month that global trade would fall 11% this year. The World Trade Organization projects an even steeper decline of between 13% and 32%, affecting all global regions but particularly Asia and North America. A decline of such magnitude would be steeper than during the global financial crisis of 2008-09, the WTO said. After that crisis, trade never returned to its previous level, the WTO said. The same could happen now if the coronavirus shock ends up being prolonged.

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THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

Wednesday, May 6, 2020 | A3

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U.S. NEWS

Jyri Engestrom stood beside four white tents recently in the small seaside California town of Bolinas as it tried to pull off a feat few communities in America have accomplished: to test every single person for the coronavirus, whether they are symptomatic or not. A handful of local homeowners and volunteers had secured supplies and teamed with researchers from the University of California, San Francisco to test everyone they could in four days in late April. More than 1,800 people have been tested, including nearly all the town’s 1,600 residents plus hundreds of first responders. “There’s no reason why we couldn’t test everyone in the

In the seaside community of Bolinas, Calif., nearly all 1,600 residents have been tested for the coronavirus. known as a PCR test, and an antibody test. The former, done with a swab, identifies who has an active infection in less than 72 hours. The second is a blood test done by finger prick that tests for antibodies to show who had the infection in the past. Results of both are shared with individual participants and used for research. The antibody tests are controversial and vary widely in quality and accuracy. Experts disagree about whether testing entire commu-

nities, including many healthy people, is a wise use of America’s limited testing resources. Some say it’s important to begin such efforts now. Mr. Engestrom and biotech entrepreneur Cyrus Harmon began calling local labs and learned that several had unused capacity and could run thousands of tests per day. “It didn’t make any sense. The story was that no one could get tested,” said Mr. Engestrom. The organizers collected protective suits from local

California Sues Ride-Hailing Services California sued Uber Technologies Inc. and Lyft Inc. for allegedly misclassifying their drivers as independent contractors instead of employees, a move that intensifies a battle between the ride-hailing giants and their home state. California, which is suing the companies under authority granted by a new state law, said the decision to classify drivers as contractors has deprived them of rights such as paid sick leave and unemployment insurance. “We believe it’s time for all workers to be treated fairly,” California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said Tuesday. “Innovation, regardless of what Uber and Lyft tell you, doesn’t require these companies to mistreat their workers.” The state, which seeks up to millions of dollars in civil penalties and to force the companies by a court order to reclassify their drivers and restore unpaid wages, also said Uber and Lyft haven’t contributed state payroll taxes used to fund general health welfare programs. The lawsuit was filed with the city attorneys of

San Francisco, where Uber and Lyft are based, and Los Angeles and San Diego. Uber and Lyft have maintained that their drivers are properly classified after the state passed the so-called gig economy law last year and Gov. Gavin Newsom signed it. The law codified a test companies must pass to classify their workers as independent con-

good jobs with access to affordable health care and other benefits is more important than ever,” a spokeswoman for Lyft said. An Uber spokesman said the company would contest the action in court. “At a time when California’s economy is in crisis with four million people out of work, we need to make it easier, not harder, for people to quickly start earning,” the spokesman said. Lyft has said it has 325,000 drivers in California. Uber has said it has more than 200,000. The legal battle comes as the coronavirus pandemic has raised an unprecedented crisis for the ride-hailing companies. Ridership has plummeted as governments have encouraged or ordered people to shelter in homes and closed nonessential businesses in a bid to stop the spread of Covid-19. Spending on Uber and Lyft rides plunged 83% during the week of April 20 in the U.S. compared with a year ago, according to data from researcher Edison Trends. Uber drivers have turned to the food-delivery business while ride-hailing has languished. The company has pulled its guidance ahead of

reporting first-quarter financial results on Thursday. Lyft last week announced it was cutting 17% of its workforce and instituting unpaid furloughs and salary cuts for those who remain. The company reports first-quarter results on Wednesday. The confrontation highlights the difficulties in the pandemic for some workers on the front lines, including those making deliveries, who may not have benefits such as sick pay. Many drivers have talked about the conundrum they face: Drive and risk getting sick, or stay home and don’t get paid. “The pandemic highlights the danger of the work these essential workers are doing,” San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera said. Gov. Newsom said Tuesday the issue predates the coronavirus. “The letter of the law has to be applied,” he said at a daily news conference. “We want to be cooperative and collaborative, but we as a state have to do what we’re going to do.” Uber, Lyft and several other companies have amassed more than $110 million to pass a November ballot initiative to exempt themselves from the law.

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BY SEBASTIAN HERRERA AND TIM HIGGINS

The state claims Uber and Lyft misclassified drivers as contractors.

tractors, which enables companies to avoid costly benefits such as health care. Uber and Lyft have said the law could take away flexibility for drivers and force them to work pre-scheduled shifts. “We are looking forward to working with the Attorney General and mayors across the state to bring all the benefits of California’s innovation economy to as many workers as possible, especially during this time when the creation of

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Home Prices Show Resilience Ginsburg In Hospital But Will Hear Cases

The economy is shrinking, businesses are closing and jobs are disappearing due to the coronavirus pandemic. But in the housing market, prices keep chugging higher. Home prices plunged during the last recession after a housing crash caused millions of families to lose their homes. Home values could start to erode again, especially when mortgage forbearances end, some economists warn. But that hasn’t been the case so far. The median home price rose 8% year-over-year to $280,600 in March, according to the National Association of Realtors. While buyer demand has softened and sales fell 8.5% that month from the prior month, the supply of homes on the market is contracting even faster, recent preliminary data shows. “Demand absolutely just got a kick in the gut, but at the same exact time, so did supply,” said Skylar Olsen, senior principal economist at Zillow Group Inc. Homes typically go under contract a month or two before the contract closes, so the March NAR data largely reflects purchase decisions made in February or January. Even by the end of last month, many sellers were reluctant to cut prices. Only about 4% of sellers cut their prices in the week ended April 25, down from 5.7% during the same week last year, according to Realtor.com. (News Corp, parent of The Wall Street Journal, operates Realtor.com.)

and took blood samples from more than 4,000 locals and tested 57% of the neighborhood’s households. All of the 1,845 PCR tests taken in Bolinas were negative for Covid-19, according to UCSF. But in the Mission District, more than 2% of participants who lived or worked in the neighborhood were actively infected with Covid-19. Of those, more than half reported no symptoms. —Jim Carlton contributed to this article.

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Home prices have continued to rise, despite the start of the pandemic and a decline in sales.

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BY NICOLE FRIEDMAN

hardware stores, gloves from restaurant suppliers and masks from China. The first $100,000 of a $350,000 budget came from Bolinas homeowner Mark Pincus, the founder of mobile gaming company Zynga. UCSF researchers who were contemplating a similar project in nearby San Francisco’s Mission District agreed to collaborate. Testing began in the Mission District soon after it wrapped in Bolinas on April 25. In four days, medical workers swabbed

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BY DEANNA PAUL

United States the same way,” said Mr. Engestrom, a Bolinas resident who led the initiative. Due to supply shortages, early testing efforts in the U.S. were largely restricted to essential workers, the gravely ill, and those who traveled to an international hotspot or had direct contact with a known case of the virus. But now, as supplies increase and some states start to reopen their economies, experts say broader testing is vital. Learning how many people in an entire community contracted the coronavirus will help researchers understand who needs to be quarantined, how the virus spreads and where to focus resources. “The wildfire is clearly out. Now, we’re looking for embers,” said Robert Wachter, chairman of the Department of Medicine at UCSF. “If we find them, we can prevent them from becoming raging wildfires.” The UCSF researchers are running two Covid-19 tests on participants—a viral diagnostic,

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In Northern California, pilot programs seek to track Covid-19 even in the asymptomatic

KATE MUNSCH/REUTERS

Communities Try New Tack: Test Everyone

Median sales price of existing homes, change from a year earlier

U.S. existing-home sales, change from a year earlier

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BY BRENT KENDALL

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’19

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Note: Existing home sales seasonally adjusted Source: National Association of Realtors

Some sellers say they are hanging tough because buyers haven’t viewed their homes in person or are reluctant to make offers right now, not because the asking price is too high. They are waiting for stay-athome orders to ease before deciding whether to lower the price. “People really aren’t leaving their homes” to go househunting, said Sarah McMurdy, who listed her Bethesda, Md., house in late March and then opted to temporarily take it off the market in April due to the pandemic. “We’re not looking to fire-sale the house.” Real-estate brokerage Redfin Corp. said its measure of homebuying demand, which tracks buyer inquiries, was down 15% in the week ended April 26 compared with before the pandemic struck. Mortgage applications for home purchases around the same time were down 20% from a year earlier,

You’re two feet away from the perfect fit.

according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Total listings of homes for sale, meanwhile, have hit a fiveyear low, while the median listing price was up 1% from last year at $308,000, Redfin said. The housing market has been undersupplied for years. During the pandemic it may get worse. There were 1.5 million units for sale at the end of March, NAR said, down 10.2% from a year earlier. Homeowners are waiting to list their houses, real-estate agents say, because they have decided not to move or they are worried about letting buyers into their homes during a pandemic. While many economists expect home sales to tumble this year, many forecasts call for prices to climb slightly or hold flat. Fannie Mae said in April it expects the median existinghome price to rise to $275,000 from $272,000 last year.

WASHINGTON—Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was admitted to the hospital Tuesday for nonsurgical treatment of a gallbladder condition after a gallstone caused an infection but plans to participate in court proceedings from there, the Supreme Court said. The court said Justice Ginsburg, 87 years old, was resting comfortably at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, and that the gallbladder condition was benign. She is expected to be in the hospital for one to two days, the court said. The justices are scheduled to hear arguments in two cases Wednesday morning, including one examining a Trump administration policy allowing employers to eliminate contraceptive coverage from their health plans by claiming religious or moral objections. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, the court for the first time is hearing oral arguments by teleconference—and letting the public listen in live. Those proceedings began Monday, and after that session, Justice Ginsburg underwent outpatient tests, the court said. Justice Ginsburg, who has served on the court since 1993, is a four-time cancer survivor, most recently being treated for a tumor on her pancreas last year.

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A4 | Wednesday, May 6, 2020

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THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC

New York Adult-Care Deaths Top 4,800 By Katie Honan, Leslie Brody and Jennifer Calfas New York state has recorded at least 4,813 confirmed and presumed deaths related to the coronavirus at nursing homes and adult-care facilities, including 71 confirmed fatalities at one facility, according to state data released Monday night. The number has grown quickly. An April 22 tally showed 3,505 deaths in the facilities statewide. The figures included confirmed cases and probable cases from some nursing homes. Globally, the number of deaths rose past 257,000, with

3.66 million confirmed coronavirus cases, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Experts caution that reported infection and death tolls worldwide underestimate the extent of the pandemic. In the U.S., 2,100 people were reported dead between 8 p.m. Monday and the same time Tuesday, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of Johns Hopkins data. The nation’s death toll rose to 71,043. It was the largest number of daily deaths reported in nearly a week. In New York, the state had previously given data on nursing-home deaths it acknowledged were inconsistent. Some nursing homes reported deaths of people presumed to have the virus as well as confirmed cases; others didn’t. The new numbers reflect the state’s effort to have more comprehensive re-

Coronavirus Daily Update As of 9:32 p.m. EDT May 5

1,203,892 71,043 U.S. cases

U.S. deaths

189,791

3,662,101

257,207

1,198,832

World-wide cases

World-wide deaths

U.S. recoveries

World-wide recoveries

Source: Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering

porting that includes both confirmed and presumed cases. Advocates for nursing-home residents have said many facilities were ill-prepared for the pandemic, and many are chronically understaffed. Experts say elderly residents of facilities are particularly vulnerable due to their age and the congregate nature of the

living arrangements. In New Jersey, there have been 4,151 fatalities at longterm care facilities. Health officials are ramping up testing inside nursing homes to help curb the spread of the Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. While the situation in the nation’s nursing homes remains fraught, there were

signs of hope emerging from New York. Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the daily number of deaths and new hospitalizations from the infectious disease continued to decline early this week, signaling progress for the hard-hit state where 19,645 people have died. But the Democratic governor cautioned that reopening too quickly could infect and

Disbanding Task Force Is Weighed

tute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, an administration official said. Dr. Birx said the administration would continue to use data to track the virus, even if the task force is disbanded. Mr. Trump established the coronavirus task force in late January. It initially was run by Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar. The president later appointed Mr. Pence to oversee the group. Members of the task force, including Dr. Birx and Dr. Fauci, became household names when they appeared alongside Mr. Trump at daily coronavirus briefings that often were televised. The regular briefings were largely phased out after Mr. Trump’s allies warned that they were hurting the president politically. Mr. Pence’s Tuesday briefing with reporters was off-camera. The administration has turned more of its attention to state efforts to reopen, based on guidelines such as a downward trajectory in number of illnesses and a falling rate of positive coronavirus tests. A new forecast by University of Washington researchers warned that deaths in the U.S. could approach 135,000, nearly twice the current confirmed toll, by early August. Dr. Birx took issue with the projections, saying she doesn’t think the group fully took into account mitigation measures states are adopting. So far, 41 states have outlined plans to reopen partially, Mr. Pence said, with the other nine planning to release plans soon. He said the administration’s evolving response to the pandemic had been effective, despite criticism that the president didn’t act soon enough. The administration is closely watching increases in cases of Covid-19 in Chicago and Des Moines, Iowa, Dr. Birx said. The federal government is working with state and local officials to conduct testing on nearly 100% of the population in emerging hot spots around the country, such as meat-processing plants. Dr. Birx said the administration had observed high levels of asymptomatic cases in those areas, indicating that the number of cases around the U.S. could be much higher than what is being detected. Mr. Pence said that the administration would send supplies, including gowns, masks and gloves, for workers in all of the roughly 15,400 U.S. nursing homes, which have been hardhit by the virus. The administration is also stepping up efforts to help companies quickly develop a vaccine for the virus. Mr. Azar said the president has set a goal of manufacturing 100 million doses of coronavirus vaccine by the fall and 300 million by January.

President Trump didn’t wear a mask at the Honeywell plant. A White House official said the facility told officials that masks weren’t required.

Trump Visits Arizona in First Foray From East Coast Since Lockdown

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WASHINGTON—President Trump, largely confined to the White House during the past two months, on Tuesday chose the politically contested state of Arizona for his first trip away from the East Coast since the coronavirus outbreak. Like most Americans, Mr. Trump has been mostly stuck at home as the contagion has swept the country. During that time, opinion polls have shown him falling so far behind likely Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden that Republican allies complained he was jeopardizing the party’s chances to win key Senate races, including in Arizona, people familiar with the matter said. The president’s political advisers at the campaign and in-

side the White House told him nearly two weeks ago that data showed the damage was a result of his combative performance at nightly coronavirustask-force news conferences, according to people familiar with the discussion. Those news conferences have since been curtailed, and the White House is considering disbanding the task force. Recently, the president has taken a different approach, inviting reporters and cameras into meetings in the Oval Office and holding events in the East Room of the White House. He left Washington Friday to spend the weekend at the Camp David presidential retreat. His trip to Arizona to visit a manufacturing plant was the first time he has left the mid-Atlantic region in more than two months.

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BY MICHAEL C. BENDER

In Phoenix, Mr. Trump visited a Honeywell International factory where the Charlotte, N.C.-based industrial conglomerate has increased its production of masks and other protective gear needed to confront the virus. “I’m going to pay my respects to a great company and a great state,” Mr. Trump told reporters before leaving the White House. The president won Arizona by 3.6 percentage points in 2016, and both parties view the state as competitive again this year. Mr. Trump was trailing Mr. Biden in Arizona by 9 percentage points, according to an April 7-8 poll from OH Predictive Insights, a Phoenix-based market-research firm. The same poll in December showed Mr. Trump ahead of Mr. Biden by 2 percentage points.

Arizona Sen. Martha McSally is also considered among the most vulnerable incumbents this year for Republicans, who are defending a slim majority in the chamber. Multiple polls during the past month have shown Ms. McSally trailing her Democratic challenger, former astronaut Mark Kelly. Ms. McSally traveled with the president from Washington to Arizona on Air Force One. Mr. Trump didn’t wear a mask at the factory despite saying earlier in the day that he would do so if required. Signs at the factory indicated that masks were required in some areas the president visited. A White House official said the facility told officials they didn’t have to wear masks.

Ousted Expert Says HHS Resisted Warning A government vaccine specialist who was moved out of his job last month alleges that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services resisted his warnings about the dangers of the coronavirus and removed By Stephanie Armour, Alexandra Berzon and James V. Grimaldi him from his position for raising alarms about an antimalarial drug President Trump had touted as a potential treatment. Rick Bright, who had led an HHS division on biomedical research, portrayed agency leadership as dismissing his concerns about the novel coronavirus in a complaint filed Tuesday with the Office of Special Counsel, an independent federal investigative agency. The complaint alleges that career scientists were concerned the U.S. wasn’t properly preparing for a potential pandemic. He also alleged that a consultant representing drugmakers had unusual sway inside HHS, and that those drugmak-

ers were awarded contracts for the U.S. national stockpile over the objections of internal advisory groups. Dr. Bright said he was removed in April from his job heading HHS’s Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, or Barda, and transferred to the National Institutes of Health in retaliation for voicing concerns about the safety of hydroxychloroquine. Mr. Trump and other government officials have promoted the antimalarial drug as a possibly effective treatment for Covid-19. The Food and Drug Administration has warned that hydroxychloroquine and another malaria treatment have been linked to serious heart problems and should be used only on hospitalized patients or as part of clinical trials. HHS disputes Dr. Bright’s characterization of the reasons for his removal as head of Barda, and officials said there already had been plans to remove him following an outside consultant’s reports in 2018 and 2019

on problems with the agency. “Dr. Bright was transferred to NIH to work on diagnostics testing—critical to combatting Covid-19—where he has been entrusted to spend upwards of $1 billion to advance that effort,” Caitlin Oakley, an HHS spokeswoman, said in a statement. “We are deeply disappointed that he has not shown up to work on behalf of the American people and lead on this critical endeavor.” A spokeswoman for Dr. Bright said he has not been given details on his new assignment and has been out on sick leave. The complaint includes emails among HHS and other agency staff that provide an inside look at the scramble within the department as it confronted the growing threat of Covid-19, which first surfaced in China late last year. Dr. Bright alleges in his complaint that when he pushed on Jan. 18 for disaster-leadership group meetings to coordinate planning for an outbreak, Robert Kadlec, HHS’s assistant secretary for preparedness and re-

sponse, replied by email saying he wasn’t “sure if that is a time sensitive urgency.” Dr. Kadlec and HHS didn’t respond to requests for comment. The complaint includes a number of email exchanges in which Dr. Bright cited an emergency shortage of respiratory masks. In January, Chinese mask makers stopped exporting them to the U.S. to deal with the Covid-19 crisis there. He said he alerted Dr. Kadlec about the potential problem with the protective gear. Dr. Kadlec on Jan. 23 “plowed through the abbreviated meeting, addressing topics in a perfunctory manner and paying short shrift to the concerns that Dr. Bright raised,” the complaint says. Dr. Bright alleged that HHS supply-chain officials “pushed back” on continuing warnings about mask shortages, according to the complaint, “insisting that there was no indication of a supply chain shortage or of issues with masks, and therefore there was no need to take immediate action.”

MANDEL NGAN/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES

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Continued from Page One coordination of the federal government’s Covid-19 response since mid-March, about a transition plan. FEMA referred questions to the White House. The vice president said the timeline for disbanding the task force is still being finalized but the administration is looking at late May or early June. Democrats argued on Tuesday that the task force is an essential part of the administration’s coronavirus response. “It is unthinkable that President Trump would shut down the main task force established to coordinate our nation’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic while we are still in the midst of figuring out the health and economic implications of this pandemic,” said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D., Md.), referring to the respiratory illness caused by the new coronavirus. “It is a shameful abdication of responsibility.” Mr. Pence didn’t explain what had prompted the discussions to phase out the task force, though he pointed to what he characterized as the administration’s progress in mitigating the virus. Senior administration officials said the shift is meant to signal a new phase of the response focused on states’ efforts to scale back their lockdown rules. Mr. Trump has urged more states to open up. A senior White House official said the task force will meet less regularly—likely twice a week—as the administration shifts its focus to reopening the economy and developing the vaccines, therapeutics and testing system needed to do so. The shift, the official said, is also intended to signal that the country is away from the early crisis stages. The official added that the change isn’t intended as a declaration of victory. The task force’s physicians would continue to advise Mr. Trump, administration officials said. The task force had begun meeting less often and in smaller groups in recent weeks, the officials said. Asked whether Deborah Birx, the White House’s coronavirus-response coordinator, would continue in her role, the vice president said he planned to “keep her close every bit as long as we need to.” Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious-disease expert, would also remain the director of the National Insti-

kill more residents. With statewide stay-at-home rules set to expire in mid-May, the governor has outlined a phases approach that starts with construction and manufacturing, and progresses to the opening of schools and movie theaters. “There’s a cost of staying closed,” Mr. Cuomo said. “There’s also a cost of reopening quickly. “A human life is priceless. Period,” he said. “Our reopening plan doesn’t have a tradeoff.” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, accelerated his state’s opening Tuesday, saying salons and gyms would be able to resume operations within the next two weeks. Hair, nail and tanning salons will be allowed to open Friday, with a limit of one customer per stylist. Gyms will be allowed to open May 18, at 25% capacity.

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As the confirmed U.S. death toll from the new coronavirus grew to more than 70,000, new data showed the pandemic’s devastating impact on nursing homes.

Drs. Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx have played prominent public roles in explaining the administration’s coronavirus response.

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A6 | Wednesday, May 6, 2020

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

* ***

THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC

Vaccine Human Trials Begin in the U.S.

Disney Slammed By Virus

Pandemic Outlook

Continued from Page One businesses reopen. Mr. Iger, Disney’s executive chairman, sounded an upbeat note for investors, saying the company’s movies and parks will be sought out once again when lockdowns end. “People find comfort in our messages of hope and optimism,” he said. But the coronavirus pandemic and the economic shutdown it triggered have exposed a vulnerability to Disney’s oncebulletproof business plan. Unlike conglomerates that encompass various holdings without much functional interconnection, Disney is a finely tuned franchise machine, capable of absorbing a set of characters like the Marvel Studios superheroes or the Star Wars universe and using them to sell movie tickets, action figures, streaming-service subscriptions and theme-park tickets. The pandemic has caused practically every part of that machine to grind to a halt. The close coordination that made for lucrative use of characters and story lines across different parts of the company has now led to a domino-like cascade of problems throughout

Epidemiologists track the average number of people infected by each person in an epidemic, a statistic they call R0. Any value over 1 means an epidemic is spreading. In 20 studies reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, estimates made before social distancing began ranged from 2 to 6.5.

These forecasts show cumulative reported Covid-19 deaths since February and forecasted deaths for the next four weeks in the U.S.

Each study has an R0 estimate ( ) and 95% credible interval ( 0

Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation

300,000

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2 MEDIAN

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Wuhan, China Hubei Province

Youyang Gu Model Columbia University*

China 200,000

Others

Diamond Princess cruise Europe†

The 2009 influenza pandemic began in Mexico in the late winter or early spring. Researchers estimated its R0 variedMEDIAN widely by region.

100,000

Mexico

Australia

OBSERVED

Canada China

0

March April

May

June

Italy U.S.

*Among three Columbia models, this one assumed a 30% contact reduction. †Includes: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Sweden and United Kingdom Sources: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (forecast); Medrxiv, The Lancet, Oxford Academic Journals, Imperial College, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Biotechnology Information, Eurosurveillance, Science, The New England Journal of Medicine Yan Wu /THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

change, the model adapts. However, other infectiousdisease experts and epidemiologists said the IHME model doesn’t take into account the dynamics of the disease and that it is likely too optimistic. Modelers at the University of Washington picked the curve-fitting model based on deaths, partially because there was so little information on other variables, such as infections and transmissibility, said Ali Mokdad, a professor of health metric sciences at IHME. But on Monday, the group updated its method and created a hybrid model, a combination of curve-fitting and SEIR, as the focus of policy makers has shifted from wanting to understand surge capacity and the timing of the peak to questions about loosening lockdown restrictions. The SEIR method—short for “Susceptible,” “Exposed,” “Infected,” “Recovered”—places people into those categories

and then simulates transmission based on the biology of the virus, along with many different variables, such as personal-interaction rates or potential seasonality. “People in these different buckets are interacting with one another, and every time a susceptible person bumps into an infected person, there’s a probability of transmission,” said Ron Brookmeyer, a biostatistician and dean of the University California, Los Angeles Fielding School of Public Health. “This plays out in this simulation over time, day by day, and you can see the infection spreading.” But public-health authorities still don’t know how many people have been infected, a key number in figuring out fatality and hospitalization rates, as well as how many people are still susceptible. Death and case counts have often been underreported or lag behind other data, and

they aren’t measured consistently. Mathematically representing and predicting human behavior, such as how well people adhere to social distancing, is another challenge. The modelers at Columbia University make their projections with three different social-distancing scenarios: 20%, 30% or 40% reduction of person-to-person contact in U.S. counties with at least 10 cases, and assume that social distancing increases with more new cases and remains in place indefinitely. Some modeling groups use mobility data from Google and Facebook and cellphone providers. And because there are still so many unknowns, even some of the most basic inputs can vary, including the estimate of the virus’s infectiousness. This number, called “R0” (pronounced “ARE-naught”) by epidemiologists, represents a simple idea: the average num-

ber of people that each infected person infects if everyone in a population is susceptible, as is believed to be the case with Covid-19. A value less than 1 means that an outbreak is headed for control. Values that are just slightly higher can indicate significant spread. Studies suggest that the 1918-19 influenza pandemic carried a value of about 1.8, the 1957-1958 influenza pandemic, about 1.65, and the 2009 influenza pandemic, about 1.46. For Covid-19, estimates of this key value before social distancing ranged from 2 to 6.5 in 20 studies reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. Estimates of infectiousness also vary because the rate itself varies by place. Early data came from Wuhan, China, a city of 11 million residents that is in the center of an urban region of 19 million. By comparison, most Americans live in the suburbs of midsize cities.

its divisions. Disney said the $1.4 billion pandemic-related impact in the latest quarter reflected not only movie-release delays and theme-park closures, but also lower ad revenue at its TV networks and closed productions on Broadway. The company has raced to cut costs, shaving executive salaries and furloughing more than 100,000 workers. On Tuesday, Disney finance chief Christine McCarthy said the company board had decided not to pay a semiannual dividend scheduled for July, a move expected to preserve about $1.6 billion in cash. In the quarter reported Tuesday, the pandemic’s primary impact was on the themeparks division, with international operations like Shanghai Disney Resort closing well before the mid-March closures of Disneyland and Walt Disney World in the U.S. The division that includes Disney parks saw its operating income fall 58% to $639 million and revenue drop 10% to $5.5 billion. Disney estimates the pandemic eliminated about $1 billion in operating income for the division in the fiscal second quarter. Disney Chief Executive Bob Chapek said Shanghai Disneyland would reopen on May 11, but in a phased manner that includes limits on capacity, mandatory masks for guests and temperature screenings before entry. Performers who portray

Disney posted a rise in revenue but a significant drop in operating income, as theme parks and theaters closed.

company’s finances. Other divisions posting yearover-year declines in operating income included studio entertainment. The unit released movies such as Pixar Animation’s “Onward” that were forced out of theaters as exhibitors closed. Studio-entertainment revenue rose 18% to $2.5 billion, but operating income fell 8% to $466 million. The division that includes the Disney+ streaming service posted revenue of $4.1 billion in a quarter that registered a significant boost in subscribers. But Disney is still spending heavily on production and marketing the service, and consolidation of its Hulu holding led to an operating loss at the division of $812 million. Disney controls Hulu following its $71.3 billion acquisition of the entertainment assets of 21st Century Fox. Disney+ has been a rare bright spot for the company since the pandemic led to stay-at-home orders around the world. The streaming service had 54.5 million subscribers as of Monday, Ms. McCarthy said, up from 33.5 million on March 28. Like its parks division, Disney’s media networks segment, which includes ESPN, will likely take a big hit in the fiscal third quarter as major sports leagues stay on the sidelines. Some ESPN efforts to engage sports fans in alternative ways appear to be paying off. A popular Michael Jordan documen-

tary has set viewership records, executives said, and a remotely hosted National Football League draft was watched by more than 55 million viewers over three days. For Mr. Chapek, the pandemic’s impact has been a baptism by fire. He was named CEO in late February, after running the company’s parks-andresorts division for about five years, generating routinely strong earnings via a combination of cost-cutting and recordsetting attendance at the parks. Mr. Iger had been CEO for more than 14 years and delayed his retirement several times before finally taking the post of executive chairman. Disney shares have fallen more than 20% from six months ago, erasing months of steady gains buoyed by Mr. Iger’s bold bet to operate three separate streaming services: Disney+, ESPN+ and Hulu. Movie theaters have opened in a handful of communities, and no major Disney title is scheduled for release until a live-action update of “Mulan” hits theaters in late July, after being postponed from March. Disneyland and Walt Disney World remain closed, and workers said they expect the company will limit capacity upon reopening. Disney risks opening “Mulan” at a time when theaters are operating at limited capacity. “At that point, we’re hoping that there’s some return of semblance to normal,” Mr. Chapek said.

Revenue by segment and change from previous year 2Q 2020

2Q 2019

Direct-toconsumer & international* $4.1B s260% Studio entertainment $2.5 s18% Parks, experiences and products $5.5 t10% Media networks $7.3 s28%

*Includes new Disney+ streaming platform Note: Excludes intercompany eliminations Source: the company

characters like Snow White won’t wear masks but will keep a distance from guests, Mr. Chapek said. The Chinese government is limiting capacity at the park to 30%, or about 24,000 guests, Mr. Chapek said. The park will operate at capacities far below that in its first days of reopening, he said. Disney’s parks division had been among its fastest-growing, and the company said guest spending at its domestic parks was up in the quarter before the closures. They are now shut down for the foreseeable future, presenting a huge economic drain on the

will take a placebo. The vaccine uses a genebased technology known as messenger RNA. Messenger RNA, or mRNA, carries instructions from DNA to the body’s cells to make certain proteins. An mRNA vaccine has never been approved to prevent any infectious disease. Mark Mulligan, director of the Vaccine Center at NYU Langone Health, said he doesn’t expect challenges enrolling patients. “People, frankly, are sick of this virus and they want to do whatever they can to fight back,” he said. “The public recognizes that in order to start returning to normalcy, we’ve got to get people protected, and vaccines hold the greatest hope for that.”

Agency, Firms Aim To Halt Fake Gear BY AUSTEN HUFFORD

China and other countries

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Continued from Page One August, based on the early easing of social-distancing measures and mathematical changes to the model from the university’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. That model has faced increasing criticism from epidemiologists; modelers said that some of the critics haven’t been following all of the updates. But the many projection models are valuable to publichealth officials and policy makers, health experts said, especially when they are looking at the different projections collectively. The overall message, said epidemiologists: Social distancing has been working, but the virus likely isn’t going away soon. “They are only as good as the underlying data. And the underlying data is flawed in a number of ways,” Jennifer Nuzzo, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, said last month. “That said, we can’t throw out the models. We still need to make decisions, and having tools to guide the decision-making is helpful.” Models come in a variety of flavors, but two of the major methods at the forefront of mapping Covid-19 involve techniques called curve-fitting and SEIR modeling. Curve-fitting, previously the method of the frequently cited IHME model from the University of Washington, looks at world-wide data on Covid-19 deaths and interventions available—whether it is from Wuhan, China, Italy’s Lombardy region or New York—and attempts to match up the U.S. predictions with the patterns it sees elsewhere. When new data come in, or social-distancing measures

against the virus. Without that knowledge, researchers are relying on their understanding of previous coronaviruses and antibodies that neutralize viruses, said Kirsten Lyke, a professor of medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, who is helping lead the Pfizer trial. The Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine will initially be studied in adults 18 to 55 years old, and eventually will enroll older volunteers, Pfizer said. After receiving the first dose, patients will receive a second dose three weeks later. Pfizer will test other doses later on, including a single shot, Dr. Jansen said. Four out of every five study subjects will get the vaccine, while the remaining subjects

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and companies including 3M Co., Amazon.com Inc. and Pfizer Inc. said they are working to curtail the flood of counterfeit masks, coronavirus tests and other equipment entering the country. The agency’s center for intellectual-property protection said Tuesday that it was working with companies to identify suspicious shipments and take down suspect online listings for masks and other gear. The intellectual-property unit said the companies have agreed to share information and best practices with it to combat such trade. “This information-sharing effort allows the government to then make more informed decisions about targeting suspicious international shipments,” said Lev Kubiak, chief security officer for Pfizer, which is working on an experimental coronavirus vaccine. As the new coronavirus has spread across the U.S., government officials, health-care executives and private citizens have increased purchases of masks and other medical gear. The demand far outstrips domestic capacity to make many of those goods, even as 3M and other companies have ramped up production. That has led to a surge in imports of goods including masks and protective gear— some counterfeit or subpar— from unproven vendors. U.S. regulators and state officials have found a significant number of imported masks are falling short of certification standards. “It poses a serious health concern to the American public when they are wearing face masks that they think have the protection of N95 masks but are really substandard,” Steve Francis, director of ICE’s National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center, said in an interview. ICE is a division of the Department of Homeland Security. N95 masks are named for the 95% of very small particles they are certified to block, including droplets containing the virus. The agency said it had identified more than 19,000 suspect Covid-19-related domain names with the help of the companies in the partnership and is working to take many of them down. U.S. Customs and Border Protection has seized nearly 500 shipments of unauthorized products, including protective equipment and products that purport to test for or treat the disease, ICE said. And agents from Homeland Security Investigations, an arm of ICE, have opened 315 investigations and made 11 arrests of people allegedly selling or shipping improper goods. Some companies also are taking separate action against counterfeit protective gear. 3M, a major supplier of N95 masks, has filed roughly 10 federal lawsuits in recent weeks against entities the company says are price gouging or selling fake products. “We are going to see a flood of counterfeits hitting the U.S. marketplace,” Mr. Francis said.

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Predictions Hinge on Uncertainty

the University of Oxford. The vaccine efforts have advanced quickly compared with typical vaccine R&D timelines, though some experts have expressed concern over whether testing will be rigorous enough to adequately assess if the shots can safely protect people from contracting the coronavirus. “The question is, what steps are you skipping?” said Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, who developed a vaccine for a common disease in young children called rotavirus that causes diarrhea and vomiting. Adding to the challenges of deciphering whether a coronavirus vaccine works, researchers say, is uncertainty about how immunity develops

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Researchers have begun giving healthy volunteers in the U.S. an experimental coronavirus vaccine developed by Pfizer Inc. and partner BioNTech SE, the latest study exploring a potential defense against the respiratory disease. Researchers at the New York University Grossman School of Medicine in Manhattan and the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore said Tuesday they began injecting people with

ress of the study to pick the most promising vaccine candidate, Dr. Jansen said. The plan is to “weed out, weed out, weed out, focus on what’s good and move on,” she said. “It’s a quick elimination.” A vaccine could be ready for emergency use as early as the fall if testing indicates it works safely, Pfizer Chief Executive Albert Bourla told The Wall Street Journal last week, though the company would keep studying it in clinical trials. The U.S. government has the authority to grant limited use of a vaccine or drug during a health emergency, before testing is complete. Several potential coronavirus vaccines have entered human testing, including candidates from Moderna Inc. and

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BY JARED S. HOPKINS

the first of four vaccine candidates from Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech. The clinical trial will help the researchers evaluate whether the candidates are safe, which produces the strongest immune response that could fend off the coronavirus and what the dose should be. Pfizer plans to advance the candidate that proves most promising. Testing of the vaccine candidates in Germany began last month. Results from the 360-person study in the U.S. could come as early as next month, but the vaccine will still need to undergo additional testing in more patients, said Kathrin Jansen, Pfizer’s head of vaccine research and development. Pfizer will track the prog-

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Healthy volunteers receive first of four candidates from Pfizer and German company

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THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

Wednesday, May 6, 2020 | A7

THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC

authorities understand whether the virus spreads quickly after an initial infection, or takes time to reach a magnitude that would result in significant numbers of deaths. The French case indicates that the virus could have been circulating months before it infected enough people to start flooding French emergency rooms with patients, said Yves Cohen, a French doctor who helped lead the study. “The important thing for us is to understand how the virus lives, how it propagates, to fight it better,” Dr. Cohen said. “The virus took more time to generate the epidemic than we thought previously.” In the U.S., doctors are ex-

U.S. Urges EU to Back China Probe The Trump administration is pressing the European Union to support an international inquiry into China’s handling of the new coronavirus, including the origins of the pandemic, as Brussels seeks to avoid taking sides in an increasingly bitter battle between Beijing and Washington over responsibility for the crisis. By Laurence Norman in Brussels and Sha Hua in Hong Kong

the U.S., the EU initially proposed an international inquiry to look into “lessons learnt from the international health response to Covid-19” to help improve future pandemic responses. The EU proposal was an early draft of a resolution it wants adopted at the World Health Organization’s decision-making body this month. That proposal, however, fell short of demands by the U.S. to examine the origins of the contagion—a focus Beijing has denounced as Washington’s bid to deflect responsibility for its own handling of the outbreak. The EU proposal seeks to avoid pinning blame for the pandemic on any single country and would come only when the immediate crisis has passed. The pressure from Washington for a robust international inquiry into China’s management of the pandemic leaves the EU in what has become a familiar bind, seeking a middle way between two global powers. “In my opinion, we need to look independently at what happened, standing aside from

the battlefield between China and the United States, who blame each other for the events in a bid that has only exacerbated their rivalry,” EU foreign-policy chief Josep Borrell said in a French newspaper interview last weekend. The World Health Assembly, the WHO’s general assembly, determines its policies and is the forum for members to call for it to take action in a specific area. In recent days, with the assembly convening soon, intensive negotiations have emerged over the text of the EU proposal. On Tuesday, an EU spokeswoman said “a thorough understanding of the epidemiology of the coronavirus pandemic is essential” for authorities to make “informed decisions.” People familiar with the negotiations say some of these concerns are reflected in the current text. China hasn’t yet responded to the new language. A spokesman for China’s mission to the EU said Beijing was aware of the European initiative but had no further comment.

The U.S. is seeking an international probe into whether Beijing mishandled the contagion in its early stages, resulting in a global pandemic that has killed 250,000 and crippled the global economy. Calls by Australian government officials starting in midApril for an independent inquiry quickly devolved into a testy back-and-forth. Chinese ambassador to Australia Cheng Jingye in a local interview accused Canberra of teaming up with Washington to attack China. Wary of alienating China or

“We count on our allies and partners joining the United States to ask the hard questions that are needed of China, as well as the WHO, in order to prevent such an unchecked outbreak in the future,” a State Department spokesperson said on Tuesday. The European resolution follows rising criticism by the U.S. and other governments of the slow reaction of China’s ruling Communist Party in the early days of the outbreak. Senior White House officials have suggested, without providing evidence, that the virus may have originated in a Chinese lab. Beijing has responded by rejecting calls for an investigation and casting its own doubts on the virus’s origin, suggesting without evidence that the U.S. military introduced it to China. The WHO’s representative in China, Gauden Galea, told Sky News that China was conducting its own investigations into the origin of the outbreak but hadn’t yet invited the WHO to participate.

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The case, in a man with no history of travel to China, shifts the timeline.

Police officers file past Wuhan Central Hospital, where a doctor was threatened with punishment for publicizing the virus, then died of it.

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PARIS—French doctors have discovered a case of the new coronavirus dating from late December in a man who was hospitalized near Paris, the earliest publicly identified Covid-19 infection outside China. The case, in a man with no history of travel to China, changes the timeline of the pandemic, suggesting that the virus was spreading in Europe at least weeks earlier than previously believed and more than a month before Italy’s outbreak. The finding is a crucial step in a global medical investigation that is scrutinizing how the virus originated in China and then spread to the West, infecting more than 3.6 million people and killing at least 252,000. Doctors in Europe and the U.S. are beginning to comb through medical records looking for previously undetected coronavirus cases. Those efforts could help public-health

amining deaths in the months leading up to the epidemic to see whether people were dying of undetected coronavirus cases. One such effort found the first known coronavirus death on Feb. 6 of a 57-year-old California woman. That death came nearly three weeks before one that authorities previously considered the first in the U.S. caused by the coronavirus. Dr. Cohen and other doctors at two hospitals northeast of Paris examined samples of patients who had been hospitalized with flulike symptoms in December and January. After setting aside samples of patients who tested positive for other pathogens or who had symptoms inconsistent with Covid-19, the doctors were left with 14 samples to be tested for the new coronavirus. One patient at Jean-Verdier Hospital, in the working-class Paris suburb of Bondy, tested positive. The man, Amirouche Hammar, went to the emergency room on Dec. 27, after suffering from cough, fever and headache over the previous four days. Mr. Hammar, 43, was coughing up blood the night before. “I had more and more trouble breathing,” Mr. Hammar said. “It was very painful.” He was admitted to the hospital’s intensive-care unit and then released after three days when his condition improved. Two of the man’s children, aged 10 and 4, fell ill days after Mr. Hammar. They too were taken to the emergency room and then recovered. Mr. Hammar and Dr. Cohen said he likely contracted the virus from his wife, who fell mildly ill around Dec. 20. She works at a fish stand at a large Carrefour supermarket northeast of Paris. The World Health Organization said Mr. Hammar’s case is the first publicly reported infection outside China before January of which the agency is aware. “It is possible that some infected people traveled from Wuhan to other countries at that time.”

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BY MATTHEW DALTON

NG HAN GUAN/ASSOCIATED PRESS

France Identifies Case From Late December

Fighting Bugs Comes In Handy For U.K.’s Cybersecurity Chief

BY JENNY STRASBURG

MICHAEL BUCHER/THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

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LONDON—A week into Britain’s coronavirus lockdown, Ciaran Martin pored over data about the rising tide of cyber scams targeting pandemic fears and adjusted logistics affecting almost 1,000 government staffers now largely working from home. He braced for a period of rapid change. The pandemic “isn’t a traditional national security crisis,” the U.K.’s cybersecurity boss said in an interview. “Obviously it affects every-

one’s security, but it’s not the sort of external physical or digital threat that we’re used to, like terrorism or a hostile foreign state.” The 45-year-old chief of the U.K. National Cyber Security Centre is working from home. He had planned to leave the agency in late June, but because of the crisis he is staying through the end of August. He then plans to start teaching technology and public policy at a university. For now, entities central to the virus response, like the U.K.’s state-funded National Health Service, are high on his radar because of the new vulnerabilities they face; protecting hospitals and other critical infrastructure is a priority. Experts also are mapping out the post-pandemic cybersecurity landscape. In the near term, the potential for cyberattacks has risen, with governments and companies stretched and em-

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As the new coronavirus forces big changes in how we work, The Wall Street Journal is looking at how different people are coping with the stresses and risks. For earlier articles in the series, visit wsj.com/makingitwork.

The pandemic ‘isn’t a traditional national security crisis,’ said Ciaran Martin, who is staying in his post for an extra two months.

ployees separated from safeguarded office networks, Mr. Martin said. More U.K. resources have been redirected to supplying hospitals and developing vaccines, raising the stakes posed by hackers seeking to disrupt companies and medical researchers. Mr. Martin runs the branch of the country’s GCHQ electronic-intelligence agency responsible for coordinating cybersecurity as part of broad counterterrorism and national security efforts. Much of his work involves working with the public; a smaller proportion is secret. In week two of the lockdown, Mr. Martin’s wife developed telltale coronavirus symptoms. Her condition was never critical. As she recovered at home, he juggled meals and schoolwork for two elementary-school-aged children, and exercise for an Irish water spaniel named Belle with a penchant for interrupting video calls. The overall pace of pandemic cyberattacks has remained mostly steady, Mr. Martin said. But societal fear and economic uncertainty have altered the targets. Scammers are capitalizing on people’s need to obtain face masks or tap financial aid. To help tackle the onslaught of scams and malware, Mr. Martin’s agency in April rolled out a central email address, where anyone can send suspicious emails for analysis. During the first week of the program, around 25,000 referrals from the public helped the agency identify almost 400 “dodgy websites,” on top of the 400 it already flags in a typical week, Mr. Martin said. State-level espionage has shifted as well. “The more elite hackers from hostile states are more interested in health-care-related targets than they were three months ago. It’s where sensitive state information is, in terms of vaccines; it’s where sensitive [intellectual property] is, in terms of pharmaceuticals.”

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A8 | Wednesday, May 6, 2020

DANIEL NOVAK

THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC

A Young ER Doctor Captures Hospital’s Battle to Save Lives

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ABOVE: Dr. Duncan Grossman, an emergency-medicine resident in Brooklyn, has a stage-one pressure ulcer on his nose from long hours wearing an N95 mask. He sports a Harry Potter surgical cap made by his mother-in-law. He was training in another service at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn when Covid-19 hit the hospital. Dr. Grossman was soon reassigned to ICU-X, a cardiothoracic surgical intensive care unit converted to handle Covid patients. He brought his camera to work to ‘document the progression of a novel disease in a hospital that couldn’t know what to expect,’ Dr. Grossman says. ‘I was inspired by these people who came to work every day to battle a new disease that no one knows how to treat and could kill any of them.’

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ABOVE RIGHT: Doctors intubate a patient. Efforts are made to minimize staff exposure to the coronavirus. Intubations are usually performed by a team of four or more at Maimonides, which is a teaching hospital, but now they are often done by teams of two.

FAR RIGHT: A doctor takes a break from his N95 mask. ‘Wearing a mask all shift is uncomfortable,’ Dr. Grossman says. ‘We ran out of the more comfortable N95s (if you can use that word) and switched to one even less comfortable.’ At no time were front-line workers without the recommended level of PPE, said a Maimonides Medical Center spokeswoman. BOTTOM RIGHT: As the virus spread, protocols changed. Triage later moved to a tent outside the hospital.

Tracking employees Building owners said the systems—similar to measures used in China that helped slow the spread of the virus—promote health and safety, so that employers can better monitor and enforce separation between workers, and quickly determine which employees could have come in contact with an infected colleague. The pandemic’s “consequences are far-reaching, and it is going to change the way all these places work,” said Amol Sarva, chief executive of flexible-office company Knotel, which is adding features to its app that would allow customers to track the movements of employees. “When you design a workplace, it’s no longer going to be like ‘Hey, is it cool and fun for my people?’ A major criterion is going to be: ‘Is

about how to safely bring back staffers in early April. After consultation with Dr. Ossmann, the company is exploring options including a system of classifying its U.S. employees in one of three levels. A worker that tested positive for coronavirus antibodies, indicating they had the infection in the past, would be considered a “Level 1” employee—the lowest risk—and could return to work when states and cities lift workfrom-home orders. Those without antibodies but who are considered a low to moderate risk would count as “Level 2.” This group would include employees who are under 65 years old, don’t live

Covid-19 antibody testing, including that some tests falsely show people have antibodies to the virus.

Measuring proximity

Other companies have expressed interest in contacttracing tools so they can pinpoint which employees may have been exposed to the virus, without needing to shut down entire floors of an office or individual manufacturing plants, said Tom Puthiyamadam, digital products leader at PwC. He said he and his colleagues host about 15 meetings a day with current and potential clients to explain the company’s new tracing app.

LEWIS SURVEILLANCE/REUTERS

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Continued from Page One get through the operational and some of the privacy and regulatory issues,” Dr. Ossmann said. Many office workers have become used to widespread security cameras and keycards that register entries and exits. After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, buildings installed enhanced security measures, including logging in visitors and X-raying briefcases. The arrival of Covid-19 is taking surveillance to a higher level, with some employers planning to track movements and gather personal information like never before in Western democracies. It marks a new chapter in the debate over privacy, and the tradeoffs people are willing to make for safety. Some companies now see the measures as perhaps the only way to reopen offices without risking a spike in infections, at least until a vaccine becomes available.

this place safe and resilient?’ ” Massachusetts-based health-care software company Athenahealth Inc. is considering checking the temperatures of employees but doesn’t want to track their movements. “We trust our employees,” said Fran Lawler, Athenahealth’s chief human resources officer. “I think our employees would feel like that is a bit invasive.” Jason M. Schultz, professor of clinical law at New York University, who studies workplace monitoring, predicted the tools might remain after the pandemic. “Employers don’t really have any incentives to remove surveillance once they install it,” he said. When companies began sending their employees home in March, they focused on keeping productivity high despite the remote setups. In anticipation of workers returning to offices, some added basic precautions, such as extra cleaning, markers on the ground to direct foot traffic and more space between desks. Some plan to reduce overall numbers present by keeping some staff working at home or staggering shifts, and others plan to set up their own testing. Other companies said these moves don’t go far enough. RXR, the real-estate company, is testing new systems on its own employees. “We are using ourselves as the guinea pigs,” RXR’s Chief Executive Scott Rechler said. The company aims to have its social-distancing app ready at the end of May. Workers’ movements are tracked through their smartphones— you get a higher score the more time in the office you are farther than 6 feet from another person. An individual would see his or her own score, and the employer would see aggregate data on how employees are complying with social distancing as a whole. After the pandemic, RXR said the technology could be used to ensure the most efficient use of space and “the overall wellness of our customers.” Interpublic, whose ad agencies employ 9,700 people in New York City, began to think

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New Tools Monitor Workplaces

Some offices will use thermal cameras, demonstrated above, to check temperatures. Others will track proximity through apps. with high-risk people and don’t have chronic diseases including diabetes or hypertension. This group could potentially return to work in a second wave. Employees over 65, or those who are pregnant, smoke, have chronic diseases or health issues would be considered “Level 3.” These at-risk employees would have to wait the longest to return, Dr. Ossmann said. A potential sticking point, said Casey Tinnesz, Interpublic’s senior director of crisis management and business continuity, is that personal medical information about employees is private. Dr. Ossmann has also advised Interpublic that there are shortcomings with

The product, installed on an employee’s phone, uses Bluetooth and Wi-Fi data, along with other signals, to determine employees’ proximity to each other within a company building. It doesn’t track someone’s location or analyze data outside of work, Mr. Puthiyamadam said. If an employee tests positive for the coronavirus, HR administrators can log in to a web portal to determine which other employees may be at risk based on their proximity to that worker in a given time period. Companies are also doing more to screen arrivals and prevent sick people from entering buildings in the first place. Some employers are now evaluating whether to

send a daily questionnaire to workers early every morning, asking staffers how they feel, said Larry Gadea, chief executive of workplace software platform Envoy Inc. He said at least one large technology client has asked the company to build such a tool. Envoy’s software, used to check-in visitors, track packages and book meeting rooms, is used in 14,000 offices. Answers to the questionnaire could determine who gains access to the office. Those feeling ill would be reminded to stay home, while employees who respond in a satisfactory way could be given a code to scan in an office lobby to gain entry. Access management company Okta Inc. might require employees who want to work in one of their 12 global offices to register a day in advance and go through a health and safety check that includes questions about their temperature and other potential symptoms, according to the company’s senior vice president of global workplace services Armen Vartanian. Feevr, a thermal imaging device developed by X.Labs, said it is launching a precheck option loosely modeled on the Transportation Security Administration’s precheck system at airports. The goal is to reduce lines at buildings of people waiting to have their temperatures checked. Employees can log into Feevr’s app at home every morning through a facial scan and take their temperature with a digital thermometer. The app sends the temperature to the employer with a timestamp. If it is below the fever threshold, the employee gets a pass for the day. Envoy’s Mr. Gadea said many employers plan to ask guests if they are experiencing symptoms of Covid-19, and how they got to the office. Public transit is viewed as riskier than private cars. There are still few agreed upon standards on what tools are effective, and how they should be used while respecting individual privacy, said Steven Feldstein, an associate professor at Boise State Uni-

DUNCAN GROSSMAN (4)

RIGHT: Dr. Josh Beckhusen, an ER pharmacy resident. ‘Our pharmacists in the ER are unsung heroes. In addition to checking and correcting countless medication orders, they treat critically ill patients at the bedside, are actively involved in cardiac arrests, and are a wealth of resources and knowledge,’ Dr. Grossman says. ‘I promised I would cook him dinner when this is all over.’

versity, who studies digital surveillance. “We’re in a bit of a Wild West,” he said. “In the absence of federal guidelines in the U.S. or other even kind of less explicit formal regulations, but just norms, it’s a little bit of a free for all right now in terms of who’s doing what.” Some employees might push back on contact-tracing efforts, perhaps by turning off phones when meeting with people, NYU’s Mr. Schultz said. Existing employment laws that protect against discrimination by age or disability still apply in a pandemic, and asking all employees to disclose health information could open a company to legal liability, said Jennifer Merrigan Fay, an employment-law partner at Goodwin Procter LLP. Companies have some additional leeway in a pandemic, she said. The White House’s return-to-work guidelines call for employers to make accommodations for vulnerable workers, including those who are elderly or with serious underlying health conditions. That could include allowing people to continue doing their jobs from home. “If employers are telling people that they cannot come back to work, or that they have to disclose information if they are asymptomatic about their health, I think that you’ll absolutely see challenges to that,” Ms. Merrigan Fay said. At his building in Rockefeller Center, RXR’s Mr. Rechler predicts office workers will get used to the new procedures, just as they did with security check-ins for visitors following 9/11. Many workers then were nervous about returning to their high-rise offices, he recalled. Turnstiles in office lobbies became common, front desks started asking for ID cards and garages screened cars for bombs. These measures, once deemed extreme, helped people feel safe, and many are still in use today. “Over time some of that anxiety went away, and I think the same thing will happen here,” he said. —Suzanne Vranica contributed to this article.

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NY

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GREATER NEW YORK

Wednesday, May 6, 2020 | A8A

N.Y. Nursing Homes Will Get More Help Cuomo vows aid as confirmed, presumed deaths related to the virus hit at least 4,968

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo says officials are working to get more supplies and staff to nursing homes and adult-care facilities as the state has recorded at least 4,968 confirmed and presumed deaths related to the novel coronavirus, according to data released Monday night. “The nursing homes, we said from day one, are the most vulnerable place,” Mr. Cuomo said at his Tuesday news conference. The state took measures early to curb the spread of the virus, including banning outside visitors at nursing homes, he said. New York previously had given data on deaths that it acknowledged were inconsis-

MIKE SEGAR/REUTERS

BY KATIE HONAN AND LESLIE BRODY

A temporary morgue has been set up with refrigerated trucks next to Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan. tent, with only some nursing homes reporting deaths of people who were presumed to have the virus as well as confirmed cases. The new numbers reflect the state’s effort

to have more comprehensive reporting. It lists data on people who were confirmed by testing to have the virus and separate data on those presumed by facilities to have it.

The number has grown quickly. For example, a tally April 22 showed 3,505 deaths in nursing homes and adultcare facilities across New York, with some nursing

homes including probable virus cases in their reporting. As of Tuesday, New York had recorded a total of 19,645 confirmed coronavirus-related deaths and 321,192 positive cases, state officials said. The number of hospitalizations and the daily death toll have been trending downward during the past two weeks. The daily death count was 230 on Monday, down from 306 on April 29. Nursing homes leaders say health authorities have put a far higher priority on supplying hospitals with personal protective equipment and staff. Nursing-home operators also say a state mandate to admit patients known to have the virus has hobbled efforts to contain it. State officials contend they have sent hundreds of thousands of pieces of protective equipment to nursing homes. Advocates for nursing-home residents have said many facilities were ill-prepared for the pandemic, and many are chronically understaffed. The Parker Jewish Institute

Factories That Stayed Open Share Advice

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HEATHER AINSWORTH FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL (2)

An Indium manager screens employees at the Utica, N.Y., firm. Below, Arnela Huskic works in a sterile room hand packing solder at Indium.

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which represents employers. Matthew Gorton, a spokesman for Empire State Development, a state authority, estimated that a majority of upstate firms fall into one of the exempt categories. One is Indium Corp., which operates three plants in the Utica area making solder, connectors and other components used in microprocessors. Indium President Ross Berntson said in an interview that his company, which has operations in China, began talking with other manufacturers about what it was doing and learning on March 2—the day after the first person in New York state tested positive for the novel coronavirus. Indium has shifted employee schedules so more people are working on a second and third shift. Anyone who can work remotely is doing so, and access to buildings is tightly controlled. Employees’ temperatures are checked upon entry, and they are required to sign a personal pledge committing to safe practices both inside the workplace and at home. Many of these steps will be required by the state before a broader reopening.

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As New York prepares to reopen its economy, some upstate factories that have been operating during the pandemic have lessons to share on how to keep workers safe. Although the state ordered nonessential businesses to close in late March, a majority of the upstate factories were classified as essential and stayed open. They include stalwart employers in many communities, including General Electric Co.’s factories in Schenectady. All have taken steps to provide protective equipment and to socially distance their employees. “There is a significant amount of manufacturing open, and it’s open safely,” said Randy Wolken, president and chief executive of the Syracuse-based Manufacturers Association of Central New York. Under an order signed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, unnecessary gatherings are banned and nonessential businesses must remain closed through May 15. The Democratic governor on Monday said the economy would restart by region, in phases. Construction and manufacturing could reopen in upstate areas after that date. The three-day average in the number of people hospitalized for Covid-19 or who died as a result of the disease would have to decline for 14 consecutive days before restrictions could be relaxed in each region, Mr. Cuomo said. Additionally, at least 30% of hospital and intensive-care beds in a region must be kept unoccupied. Regions also must increase their capacity for testing and tracing. Five upstate regions already have met all the criteria except for testing and tracing. One is Central New York, where Mr. Wolken said 80% of his group’s members said in a survey that they were open at an average of three-fourths their normal capacity. The state’s closure order classified broad swaths of manufacturing as essential, including food production, facilities that support military and transportation infrastructure and semiconductor development. More than 440,000 people worked at New York factories in 2018, according to a report by an affiliate of the Business Council of New York State,

“We restructured the whole factory, basically,” Mr. Berntson said. “If we couldn’t separate people because the layout wouldn’t allow it, we either gave them personal protective gear or put up barrier walls. So, there’s plastic hanging at different places.” Two employees tested positive for the virus several weeks ago, Mr. Berntson said, and immediately quarantined at home. There was no secondary transmission on site, which he took as validation of Indium’s procedures. Several employees also

tested positive at GE’s plants in Schenectady County, said Chris DePoalo, business manager for IUE-CWA Local 301, which represents more than 800 workers at the facilities. Mr. DePoalo said he heard some concerns about the coronavirus in March, but they had mostly subsided. Workers avoid being in confined spaces together, and more emphasis has been placed on cleaning and hand sanitizer. A GE spokesman declined to comment on the number of infections, and said the company implemented “comprehensive safety mea-

sures” and that a majority of its employees in the Capital Region have been working remotely. Globalfoundries Inc. CEO Thomas Caulfield said engineers at his company’s microchip fabrication plants in Saratoga and Dutchess counties have been spending only half their time on site, and that actual manufacturing hasn’t seen much change because workers already were operating in a sterile environment. Both fabrication plants are meeting or exceeding production targets, Mr. Caulfield said. “We’ve broken a lot of myths about what can be done and what can’t be done,” he said. Other factories have voluntarily closed. General Motors Co. operates plants near Rochester and Buffalo that have been idled as part of a nationwide shutdown. U.S. auto companies are looking to restart operations on May 18. Some firms say they don’t know when they will return to full operations after they reopen. Business Council of New York State Vice President Ken Pokalsky said falling consumer demand was contributing as much to the slowdown as government restrictions.

Rare Illness, Possibly Tied to Virus, Strikes Children BY MELANIE GRAYCE WEST New York City health officials on Tuesday warned parents of a serious multisystem inflammatory condition potentially associated with Covid-19 that has been observed in 15 hospitalized children. Children with the syndrome, characterized by a high fever and symptoms including rash, abdominal pain, vomiting or diarrhea, have required intensive care that includes cardiac and respiratory support, according to a health alert to physicians issued Monday night by the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Ten of the 15 patients ultimately tested positive for Covid-19 or had antibodies to

Judge Puts Primary Back on Calendar

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BY JIMMY VIELKIND

for Health Care and Rehabilitation, a 527-bed facility in New Hyde Park, had more confirmed deaths than any other facility with 71, the data showed. The facility received an overall score of “much above average,” getting five out of five stars from Medicare’s quality-rating system. A representative didn’t provide comment. Mr. Cuomo announced a push last month to inspect nursing homes to verify compliance with standards for staffing and infection control. He said if the state Department of Health finds a violation, a facility must immediately submit a plan to correct it and could be fined $10,000 per violation or possibly lose its license. Stephen Hanse, president of the New York State Health Facilities Association, an Albanybased group that represents nursing homes, said the fatalities echo the high percentages of virus-related deaths in Europe that took place in longterm-care centers, and its grip on the elderly overall.

the coronavirus, the health department said. The illness mirrors symptoms common to Kawasaki disease or toxic-shock syndrome. There have been no deaths among the group, city officials said. The city’s findings echo similar ones reported in late April by England’s national healthcare system, and cases observed in Philadelphia and Boston. Speaking Tuesday during a news conference with Mayor Bill de Blasio, the city’s health commissioner, Oxiris Barbot, said the strain of the coronavirus in New York “is behaving slightly different than the strain that was observed in China” and so physicians are seeing children with Kawasaki or Kawasaki-like syndromes.

“When you have a syndrome that’s not very common in the context of a world-wide pandemic, there are situations

If not identified early, the condition could cause longterm heart problems. where pediatricians may not be thinking, ‘Oh, this could be an atypical manifestation of what’s going on,’ ” Dr. Barbot said. If not identified early, the condition could cause longterm heart problems, she said. “We have to be really hum-

ble in the face of this infection. There’s a lot that we’re still learning,” said Jay Varma, a physician and senior adviser to Mr. de Blasio. Physicians for NYU Langone Health and Northwell Health, two health-care systems with facilities outside New York City, said they are seeing cases of children exhibiting the unusual symptoms. Leonard Krilov, chairman of the department of pediatrics at NYU Winthrop Hospital in Long Island, said he treated a boy who presented with the symptoms, and who had parents that tested positive for Covid-19. Dr. Krilov, who is an expert on Kawasaki, said the virus could be triggering an aberrant and aggressive im-

mune response in children. “Maybe the reason we’re not seeing it earlier is it’s a delayed response after the peak of acute infections,” he said. At Northwell’s Cohen Children’s Medical Center in New Hyde Park, N.Y., there are 11 pediatric patients exhibiting symptoms of Kawasaki syndrome in the intensive-care unit, said James Schneider, chief of pediatric critical care. All of them have had Covid-19 or evidence of having had the virus, he said. “It’s an emerging illness right in front of our eyes,” he said. The presence of the unusual illness among children may influence the way schools reopen in the fall, and decisions around that will evolve in the coming months, Mr. de Blasio said.

BY JIMMY VIELKIND New York’s presidential primary will proceed as planned on June 23, a federal judge ordered Tuesday. U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres said in a 30-page ruling that officials at the state Board of Elections violated the constitutional rights of former presidential candidate Andrew Yang as well as delegates for him and Sen. Bernie Sanders when they canceled the state’s Democratic presidential primary last week. Democratic commissioners on the Board of Elections took the unprecedented step of scrapping the primary out of concern of spreading the new coronavirus. Commissioner Douglas Kellner said at the time that the question of the presidential nomination was settled when the other major candidates suspended their campaigns and endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee. Supporters of Messrs. Sanders and Yang said they wished to remain on the ballot to influence the Democratic Party’s platform and rules at its coming August convention. Judge Torres ruled that they would be irreparably harmed by scrapping the primary and issued an injunction preventing the cancellation. Judge Torres wrote: “Protecting the public from the spread of COVID-19 is an important state interest. But the Court is not convinced that canceling the presidential primary would meaningfully advance that interest—at least not to the degree as would justify the burdensome impingement.” Mr. Yang said on Twitter that he was happy with Judge Torres’s decision and hoped “that the New York Board of Elections takes from this ruling a newfound appreciation of their role in safeguarding our democracy.” Mr. Sanders’s campaign manager, Faiz Shakir, said he was “glad Judge Torres has restored basic democracy in New York.” George Albro, a delegate for Mr. Sanders who joined the suit as a plaintiff, said it was time for Democrats in New York to unify. Mr. Kellner said the Board of Elections would appeal. “Obviously I’m disappointed that the decision put so many lives at risk for the pointless purpose of holding a primary where all of the candidates have endorsed Joe Biden,” he said. Election officials told the judge during a Monday hearing that canceling the primary would mean nearly 1.5 million fewer Democrats would need to vote and that more than a dozen upstate counties wouldn’t need to conduct elections at all. New York had originally scheduled its presidential primary for April 28 and other primaries for June 23. Gov. Andrew Cuomo moved the presidential primary to the June date in response to the pandemic.

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A8B | Wednesday, May 6, 2020

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THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

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AMAZING HEROES WORK HERE.

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What does amazing look like? Our nurses. You make us #NYPSTRONG. Thank you for your passion, commitment and sacrifice. We appreciate you, and the dedication of nurses everywhere.

Thank you #HealthcareHeroes Photography by Adelene Egan, NewYork-Presbyterian Emergency Room Nurse

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Wednesday, May 6, 2020 | A9

LIFE&ARTS

Hitting Pause On College Graduating high schoolers consider a gap year while questions remain about fall on campus BY NANCY KEATES

ILLUSTRATION BY JON KRAUSE; PHOTO: ERNEST MACVICAR

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Gap-year programs are adjusting itineraries for this coming academic year because of the coronavirus pandemic.

traditional international immersion experiences with service-based learning programs involving volunteer organizations in different regions of the U.S. If students can’t even travel domestically this fall, Year On is working on a completely online program combining virtual volunteer projects, externships, skill-building and intensive coaching. Cost: $24,000 for the year, $19,000 for one semester

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THERE’S NEVER BEEN A GAP YEAR LIKE THIS

volvement. The organization offers financial aid and scholarships. Cost: $29,400 for the year, $15,450 for one semester

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SARAH CROTHERS has been working nonstop to help her five children with their online schoolwork while managing the house during the coronavirus pandemic. But when it became too overwhelming to provide extra attention to her 10-year-old son, Brady, who was struggling in math, she enlisted her dad to be a virtual tutor. Dale Rimkus, a retail manager who lives nearby in the Chicago suburbs, was happy to oblige. Before the shutdown, the 67-year-old got together with Brady twice a week to work on math. Now they conduct daily sessions over FaceTime. When they first started, Mr. Rimkus noticed that his grandson seemed tense. “He didn’t feel confident in his abilities, so a week into it I decided to start off each call with something unrelated to the lesson,” Mr. Rimkus said. One morning he asked Brady if he noticed anything different. Mr. Rimkus was wearing another pair of glasses. The next day he was wearing a new pin on his shirt. “Every day Brady looks forward to this one-minute game at the start of the call,” Mr. Rimkus said. “It relaxes him and puts him in a more fun mood.” Mr. Rimkus downloaded math Battleship grids online. Players have to solve math problems to determine the coordinates. He and Brady each print out the grids and play over FaceTime. Brady’s siblings, who range in age from 8 to 18, now play against their grandpa, too. “We do a lot with our grandchildren and having that taken away from us during this time has been tough,” Mr. Rimkus said, choking back tears. “It’s been a great gift

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since they likely involve fewer interactions with other people. He is few months ago, also helping students look at volLisa Jackman unteer opportunities in health care was thrilled when and online internships. her son Sam was For now, colleges report no sigaccepted to nificant uptick in requests for dethe University of ferrals. That could change this Pennsylvania. summer, since most require stuNow, they’re starting to think dents to put down a deposit before about Plan B for next fall. they ask for a deferral and many As a Penn alumna with a daughhave extended the deadline to ter who is a junior there, Ms. JackJune this year. Still, they know man has no doubts about the unithose requests are coming, says versity. Instead, she’s concerned Todd Rinehart, vice chancellor for about what any college might be enrollment at the University of like if students can’t return to Denver and president-elect of the campus because of the coronavirus National Association for College pandemic. Admission Counseling. “We are just looking at options “I’m crossing my fingers,” says at this point,” says Ms. Jackman, George Ma, a senior at Princeton of Westfield, N.J. Day School in Princeton, N.J., who Never have the words gap year requested a gap year from UCLA. seemed more appropriate. Typically He had long wanted to take a gap taken by a handful of students who year before the coronavirus crisis, want time to grow and explore bebut didn’t think it would be possifore they start college—and who ble because his parents were can afford to do so—it usually inagainst it. They told him he should cludes an international travel expego right to college and then immerience, an internship or participadiately get a job. tion in a wilderness program. Now that classes might be onThis year, interest in the option line, his parents view it as a viable is exploding. There’s been a 60% option instead of as a disappointincrease in searches for the term ment. “It sounds more logical to “gap year” on Google since the them now—not so emotion-based,” first week of March in the U.S., he says. If accepted, he wants to and the question “What is a gap work in a restaurant, hike sections year?” shot up 180% in of the Appalachian the last week of April, Trail, apply for a according to Google. Wilderness First ReCollege counselors sponders certificaand gap-year consultion, find an interntants are being flooded ship, and, if with calls—mostly from international travel parents anxious about permits, climb peaks courses going online in Mexico, Australia and worried the quality and Russia. of the education might When George’s not be worth the price. counselor, Thomas Most are still only exJaworski of Quest Audrey MacVicar and her College Consulting, ploring the possibility, twin brother, Eddie. since colleges haven’t called UCLA to ask yet announced about the university’s whether campuses will open in the deferral policy, he was told the fall, or if they will reduce tuition if school is more open to granting classes remain online. gap years due to the virus. But it Jason Sarouhan, a gap-year conwants to see how many students sultant at Northampton, Mass.accept offers of admissions, inbased J2 Guides, says the overridcluding those now on the wait list, ing question is what a year off how many request a gap year, and might look like, given current whether the campus will open in travel restrictions and the impact the fall. How Covid-19 has affected of the pandemic on the economy. families medically and economiIt could just mean taking computer cally could also affect how it ancoding classes online. While some swers individual deferral requests, international programs have cana UCLA spokesman says. celed, many are only revising their Expect a range of approaches on itineraries. He is suggesting U.S.gap-year requests. The University based programs that involve farmof California, Santa Barbara, which ing or wilderness adventures, has seen a small jump in deferral

n Year On This San Franciscobased organization is replacing its

n Dynamy A domestic gap-year organization that helps students arrange internships in fields like health care, design and environmental services throughout Worcester, Mass. It also includes outdoor challenges, one-onone mentoring and community in-

n Rustic Pathways This may be one of the few organizations still planning on running three international gapyear programs this fall. They include a trip throughout Southeast Asia, a Spanish immersion and community service program in Costa Rica, Peru and the Dominican Republic, and an ocean skills and community service expedition in Fiji, New Zealand and Australia. Financial assistance is determined by need and merit. Cost: $15,000 to $19,000 for the semester

requests this year, will still require every student to reapply for admission, according to a spokeswoman. Newly admitted students at Columbia University have until May 15 to request deferments, though others will be handled on a case-by-case basis after that. Washington University in St. Louis vice provost of admissions and financial aid Ronné Turner says the college is still trying to understand what enrollment will look like this year. She thinks the uncertainty will last through the summer. “I don’t see how you can’t be flexible given the situation we are facing,” she says. At the same time, she acknowledges the fear many current high school juniors

have that too many gap-year requests for this fall could limit space the following year. In an unusual step, Wesleyan University, in Middletown, Conn., emailed accepted students in April guaranteeing it would grant deferrals for the fall if the campus doesn’t open, or if students are unable to travel there due to Covid-related issues. Those deferring would be automatically enrolled in the spring semester, unless they request entry in Fall 2021. Students who take a gap year often must resubmit financial-aid applications to colleges the following academic year. Colleges generally don’t give credit for courses taken at other schools—students would have to reapply as transfers.

However, there are scholarships for funding a gap year, and working part of the time is an option, says Ethan Knight, executive director of the Gap Year Association. “She has been wanting to do this for years,” says Janice MacVicar about her daughter Audrey’s plans to take a gap year. She has been encouraging the idea for years. Audrey, a senior at New Trier High School in Winnetka, Ill., is looking at about 10 possibilities, including a Spanish-immersion program in Peru, an environmental program in Bhutan and sustainability projects in several African countries. If those programs are canceled, she will look into volunteering at a local hospital.

n Omprakash Based in Seattle, this organization coordinates internships with vetted grass roots social impact organizations. Due to the Covid crisis, it is encouraging remote and online internships this year. Offers a Gap Year Grant, which includes free tuition and up to $2,500 to cover international travel and living expenses when mobility resumes. Cost: $750 plus travel expenses

FAMILY & TECH | JULIE JARGON

FROM LEFT: MARLA RIMKUS; SARAH CROTHERS

Digital Grandparenting Is Now Essential

Dale Rimkus meets daily with grandson Brady over FaceTime. At right, two grandkids and their math Battleship grids. for me to do this with them.” “I would not survive without their virtual help right now,” said Ms. Crothers, whose husband works from home during the day. For all the generational snickering about older adults’ lack of technical savvy and tendency to indulge grandchildren, parents now are finding that a virtual connection to grandma and grandpa is key to their sanity. They also are realizing how creative their own parents can be and marveling at how well their kids respond. Ariel Goltzman, a hospital social worker in Minneapolis who works from home part-time, has had difficulty focusing on work while car-

ing for her 7-year-old son, Cobi, and 4-year-old daughter, Noa. “It’s a lot of multitasking and stopping in the middle of what I’m doing and trying to engage Noa in an activity she’ll do for five minutes,” she said. “I feel like I work for five minutes at a time.” She tried to have her parents and in-laws do FaceTime calls with the kids, but it didn’t sustain their attention. “They were running around the room,” she said. Ms. Goltzman looked into apps that provide more interaction and came across Together, a subscription-based video-calling app that contains children’s books and such games as chess, Connect 4 and

Chutes and Ladders, so callers can play against each other. “My 4year-old will play on it for an hour with my parents, which is really nice when I’m trying to get some work done,” she said. Cheryl Goltzman, Ariel’s 70year-old mother-in-law, in Naples, Fla., looks forward to daily chess matches with Cobi, and likes knowing she is helping out. “I’m a filler-inner in their time,” she said. I tried this app with my 5-yearold. My parents had tried reading to him over FaceTime, but it didn’t engage him much. When they played games on Together, though, it kept him busy for 45 minutes, which felt like a blissful eternity. I

was able to unpack groceries, load laundry and get some work done. The catch? The Together app, which works only on Apple devices, gives you three free one-hour calls; after that it’s $6.99 a month. The Goltzman family and others I spoke to have used Caribu, a videocalling app with books and coloring activities. Caribu is offering free access because of the pandemic but normally charges $6.99 a month. Alexis Friedman, a learning and development contractor in Northbrook, Ill., came to rely on her mother when she became ill and her husband had to care for their 5-year-old and 16-month-old on his own. Ms. Friedman’s mother, Rae Luskin, 69, held virtual art classes and dance parties with the 5-yearold over their Echo Show 5 devices. “One thing that’s been cool for me, as a parent, to see is that my mom and daughter have a special connection; she opens up more to her grandmother than she does to me,” Ms. Friedman said. Mara Markzon, a hospital social worker in Chicago, was struggling to keep her 2½-year-old daughter, Shay, occupied when she works from home. Zoom play dates were a disaster. “It was like herding cats,” she said. So she turned to the grandparents, who read to Shay over Google Hangouts. She still sometimes runs away. Eileen Markzon, 71, of suburban Buffalo, N.Y., had better luck when she and her granddaughter played hide-the-matzo, a Passover game. Shay received a prize for finding the matzo. They played and read books online for nearly an hour. Eileen Markzon said the virtual time with her granddaughter is no replacement for seeing her in person, but for now it’s the best she has. “It’s my fix,” she said.

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A10 | Wednesday, May 6, 2020

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: JOHN WITTNEBEL; IAN WITTNEBEL; TIMOTHY EULL; JOHN WITTNEBEL; TIMOTHY EULL

LIFE & ARTS

MY RIDE | A.J. BAIME

The Mazda RX-7 That’s a Blast From the Past

I was in college at the University of Minnesota when I saw this new Mazda in Road & Track magazine, in the May 1978 issue. I went to a Mazda dealership and asked the sales manager if I could buy one. He said, “We have 13 coming in and 11 are spoken for.” I think I wrote a bad check for a down payment. To my knowledge, my RX-7 was among the first to reach the Twin Cities. When I first started driving it, people had no idea what it was. They would

most popular sports cars of the 1980s. The RX-7’s main competition was the Nissan Z car, another semi-affordable Japanese sports car. It was sort of the Hatfields against the McCoys. A couple weeks after I bought my car, I started seeing a woman named

John and Jody Wittnebel at their home in Beloit, Wis., with their 1979 Mazda RX-7, the same model he had when they were dating years ago. The popular sports car featured a rotary engine. didn’t have to. I bid $17,000 and won. The car arrived last fall just before winter arrived, so I put it in storage and just took it out two weeks ago. The only difference I can find between this one and the one I had years ago is the switch for the airconditioning fan. I imagine both cars came off the assembly line the same week. The Wisconsin roads are finally clear and the sun is out. It’s time to start driving again.

AIR MAIL | SCOTT McCARTNEY

The Rules on Masks in Flight

To advertise: 800-366-3975 or WSJ.com/classifieds

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Scott McCartney answers reader questions about travel.

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I’ve been working as a volunteer with a group of medical and scientific experts promoting face masks as a way to stop the spread of Covid-19. Why aren’t the FAA and airlines mandating that passengers wear cloth face masks? —David Keating, Chevy Chase, Md.

A: They are finally starting to. Sort of. The FAA tells me it has limited authority as a health agency. To airlines, it has “stressed the importance of complying” with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance, but not required it. In many state and local jurisdictions, face masks are required in public places. But requiring that on commercial airplanes takes a federal order. And there has been none from the Trump administration. But airlines are starting to act. Most are requiring masks for flight attendants and are phasing in requirements for passengers. Jet-

Blue was the first to require masks on passengers for the entire flight. Passengers on United and Delta are now required to wear face masks. American says it will hand out masks and sanitizing wipes and gels, and will require masks be worn starting Monday. Southwest, Alaska and Spirit also start requiring masks that day. Masks on airplanes seem like a prudent step, but it may be a difficult one. Take a six-hour flight—people will want to eat and drink. Are masks the end of airline beverage service? JetBlue

said a face mask must be worn in-flight “throughout the journey.” And we all know some passengers won’t comply— probably the same ones who won’t put their phones in airplane mode. Will other passengers react when seated near someone not wearing a mask? Will crews be authorized to make unscheduled landings to remove noncompliant passengers and bill them for the expensive diversion? Like many issues, it’s just more complicated on an airplane.

KATHY WILLENS/ASSOCIATED PRESS

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The Wittnebels back in the day. At left is the first Mazda RX-7 Mr. Wittnebel bought, when the model first appeared in the late ’70s.

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Jody, and the day I picked her up for our first date, she said, “Wow! You have an RX-7.” That impressed me because so few people knew what the car was. She did. Turns out, her father had a Z, so he owned the car that was my car’s nemesis. Jody and I practically lived in the RX-7. Road trips, camping. The thing that made it so fun to drive was the motor. It had a rotary engine, which made it an entirely different animal. There were no pistons going up and down in cylinders, like in a normal engine. It had twin rotors and was powered by a spinning motion. You could rev it to high RPMs. I drove that car seven or eight years, year-round, because I couldn’t afford to park it in the winter. After all those Minnesota winters, the car rusted out from under me. I think I gave it away sometime in the late ’80s. Jody and I will celebrate our 35th anniversary this year. Last fall, I was looking at the car auction site Bringatrailer.com when I saw a 1979 RX-7 that looked identical to the one I had decades ago. Jody and I set a top price of $15,000, and we both started bidding. There was a person bidding against us and we hit our limit. I said, “I got to have that car.” She said, “Bid 17, and be ready to walk away!” I

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say, “Is that a Ferrari?” But soon the demand was so crazy, Mazda was building these cars as fast as possible. It became one of the

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John Wittnebel, 59, an American Airlines pilot living in Beloit, Wis., on his 1979 Mazda RX-7, as told to A.J. Baime.

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After driving the sports car on dates when the model appeared in 1979, this couple bought an identical one decades later

A passenger checks in at New York’s JFK Airport on March 14.

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Wednesday, May 6, 2020 | A11

LIFE & ARTS THE STAYING INSIDE GUIDE—ARCHITECTURE

British Culture, Available Everywhere Just because museums and architectural sites are closed doesn’t mean you can’t continue your love affair with Britannia

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plan was orchestrated by the gallery’s director, Kenneth Clark. In a 2019 gallery talk available on YouTube, delivered in front of one of those pictures, Titian’s “Noli me Tangere” (c. 1514), National Gallery researcher Alan Crookham details the complicated logistics of packing and removing an entire collection, and the later decision to exhibit a single painting each month despite the threat of bombing. As Mr. Crookham tells us, Clark understood that in a time of crisis, people were “anxious to contemplate a nobler order of humanity.” The caustic architectural critic Ian Nairn believed even more harm had been done to the urban fabric by postwar town planners and modern architects than the Luftwaffe. He denounced the new buildings as a “soggy, shoddy mass of half-digested clichés, half-peeling façades, half-comfortable rooms, [and] untested preconceptions about what people want.” In a 1972 episode of the travelogue series “Nairn Across Britain” (YouTube), we follow him on the road from London to Manchester, a route chosen to demonstrate “the astonishing variety of landscape, townscape there is in Britain.” Along the way we see country lanes with lonely churches and bustling town centers like Northampton, with Nairn, on the road out of London, treating us to a wonderful summation of what architecture should strive for: “You can feel a sense of identity…that’s what the business is basically all about.”

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Chatsworth House, above; Christopher Wren’s baroque-influenced St. Paul’s Cathedral, left; rendering of London Bridge during the Great Fire of London, below

forts, while imprisoned on the Isle of Wight, to build a new palace at Whitehall designed by the pioneering classical architect Inigo Jones. That he was focused on architecture even then proves how important palaces were for British monarchs’ projection of power. Chatsworth House, seat of the Dukes of Devonshire, is one of the pre-eminent examples of another type of palace, the so-called stately home, that was built for the aristocracy. With its three stories of columned sandstone over a rusticated base, the house has an imperious presence. As a 13-part video series produced by Sotheby’s last year shows, the Devonshires have always been collectors of singular taste. The lavish interior houses the expected, a hall full of Antonio Canova’s statuary, and the unexpected in the form of Lucian Freud’s 1956-57 portrait of Deborah “Debo” Devonshire, wife

of the 11th duke. We hear sound bites from the Devonshires (“If you like something enough, you should buy it, acquire it, collect it, whatever, and disregard other peoples’ opinions,” says the current duke) and others. And we learn what is involved in running a stately home as a public charitable enterprise that takes in some £15 million in income a year. In Mike Leigh’s 2014 biopic “Mr. Turner” (Amazon Prime), Timothy Spall grunts his way through the life of the 19th-century artist who rejected the stilted academicism of his colleagues to forge a naturalistic, even abstract style all his own, one centered on land- and seascapes. The film provides a vivid view of Turner’s idiosyncratic

working methods, including the time he famously tied himself to a ship’s mast to better experience a storm. Viewers also get a sense of the artistic rivalries of the day. In one memorable scene, Turner gleefully disfigures one of his seascapes with a red dot as a taunt to his rival John Constable, whose own work—precious and exact in comparison to Turner’s—hangs nearby, before fashioning it into a buoy that ties the whole composition together. At the outbreak of World War II, the National Gallery’s collection (including its Turners) was evacuated to Welsh caves, archival footage about which is available as part of a 1939 newsreel film on the British Pathé website. The

Mr. Riley is the managing editor of the New Criterion.

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AFTER BEING CLOSED for over three years, the British galleries at the Metropolitan Museum of Art reopened in grand style on March 2, only to close again on March 13 along with the rest of the museum. But there is a consolation prize. The web has no shortage of material on British art and culture, much of it free. Architecturally speaking, you could date the birth of modern Britain to the Great Fire of London in September 1666, which destroyed seven-eighths of the City’s residents’ houses along with St. Paul’s Cathedral and 87 parish churches. So a good place to start is with “The Fire of London” episode of the BBC Radio 4 show “In Our Time,” in which host Melvyn Bragg and three scholars tell the story of the blaze and its aftermath, offering piquant details such as Samuel Pepys’s hiding of his prized Parmesan cheese wheel in his yard. The panelists lucidly re-create London in our minds, contrasting the “fine houses, wonderfully decorated” with an “increasing number of spreading slums.” When Mr. Bragg, curious about what made the fire so destructive, asks, “There’s a lot of wood in those houses, isn’t there?” one of his guests replies: “They’re all timberframed.…Everything is tinderdry by the end of August.” Architects saw the fire as a chance to remake London in the image of a classical city like Rome. Christopher Wren’s new, baroque-influenced St. Paul’s Cathedral is the most famous result. But we learn that Wren had grander, albeit unrealized ambitions, for example rearranging the City streets to radiate from the Royal Exchange, like what Baron Haussmann would later do in Paris. Wren pops up again as the renovating architect of Hampton Court Palace in the three-part television series “The Genius of Palaces” (Knowledge Network). Written, and presented with infectious enthusiasm, by the celebrated architectural historian Dan Cruickshank, it demonstrates the variety of that quintessentially British architectural form. We range from the cells of the Tower of London to the sumptuous private apartments and gardens at Hampton Court. Episode 2 is particularly illuminating, detailing Charles I’s ef-

FROM LEFT: AARON CHOWN/PA WIRE/ZUMA PRESS (2); HULTON ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES

BY BENJAMIN RILEY

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TELEVISION REVIEW | JOHN ANDERSON

IF THE LOCKDOWN has given you a hankering for imported cheese, take a dip into “Bad Mothers.” This soapy Australian suspense series is being compared with “Desperate Housewives,” but it’s also a lot like “Big Little Lies,” without the superstar cast or the pearlclutching sociology. Which makes it more fun, of course, especially when the hungover moms are dropping their kids off at school, or forgetting where they left them. Set in a town called Bedford and peopled by the kind of deliciously self-absorbed upper-class wastrels who have always populated primetime soaps, “Bad Mothers” isn’t really about parenting—who would want to watch that right now? No, it’s about dubious humans who happen to have children. One of the worst of the bunch is found, right away, in a pool of her own blood—a crime scene that, like everything else in “Bad Mothers” (save for the introductory stripper music), is very tastefully arranged. For anyone into real-estate porn, “Bad Mothers” will be a hotbed of architectural longing. The dead mother is/was Charlotte (Melissa George), recently discovered to have been sleeping with the husband of her best friend, Dr. Sarah (Tess Haubrich), who immediately becomes a suspect along with said husband, restaurateur Anton (Daniel MacPherson); Charlotte’s husband, Kyle

(Don Hany); and just about everyone who was irritated by Charlotte, which means everyone. Even the viewer feels complicit after a few minutes of Charlotte, not that you want her to be dead (though you kind of do, and she already is). But the whodunit aspect of “Bad Mothers” is, par for the manicured course, only a vehicle for dysfunction and misbehavior. “Why do we have to put the kids first our whole lives?” someone asks. This articulates a pattern, not necessarily a philosophy: Neglect is never intentional, it just happens, between the flirtations, the affairs, the drinking, the all-night partying, the leaving the preschooler home alone and the warring over custody. No one seems to work very much, but, again, they do have spectacular homes. (The kitchens are incredible, but maybe they all are in Australia.) If there’s a hero of this eightepisode series, it’s Sarah, the very part-time physician whose life is turned upside down thanks to the betrayal by her soon-to-be-late friend and her husband, who, as she discovers when she tries to bail him out of jail, hasn’t told her that they have no money and his restaurant is on the ropes. Aiding and abetting her efforts to solve her problems is a posse of friends who spend much of their time saying “Excuse me?” to each other following various insults and out-

SUNDANCE NOW

Questionable Parenting, Killer Kitchens

A scene from ‘Bad Mothers,’ an Australian series about misbehaving moms in which soap meets suspense rages and pursuing vendettas against ex-spouses, sleeping with the police to get information on the Charlotte investigation and kidnapping dogs. Ms. Haubrich is highly engaging, but so is the rest of the principal cast, including Mandy McElhinney

as Maddie, a lesbian mom at odds with her ex; Jessica Tovey as the bubbly Danielle, who’s married to an older guy and feeling restless; and the wonderful Shalom BruneFranklin as Bindy, the slinky personal trainer, very young single mom and shameless exploiter of

anyone and everyone. “It’s not all about you,” she’s told at one point, to which she responds—summing up the entire show’s sensibility—“I think you’ll find out that it is.” Bad Mothers Thursday, Sundance Now

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A12 | Wednesday, May 6, 2020

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

SPORTS

The Race for a Vaccine Is Key for Tokyo Infectious disease experts were asked what it would take to guarantee a normal Games. One word dominated the answers.

Summer Olympics, simultaneously massive and international, can’t safely occur without a vaccine. And yet it is far from certain that such a vaccine will be identified, proven effective and widely distributed before summer 2021. On the other side sits a Japanese organizing committee facing unexpected costs potentially in the billions of dollars, and a national economy confronting stiff headwinds. More than half of the Games’ pre-virus $12.6 billion budget was made up of taxpayer funds. Japan is counting on a big tourism boost to justify all the spending and doesn’t want to stage an Olympics without fans to minimize the risk of the virus spreading. In the middle is the very real risk that Japan could spend additional billions to prepare for Olympic Games that never take place. Japan is already spending $240 billion on social welfare and economic support to counter the impact of the coronavirus. “We know we have to keep Olympic costs minimized as much as possible in order to get buy-in from the people,” said

Japanese organizers have said any delay of the Olympic Games beyond summer 2021 is out of the question. one member of the Japanese Olympic organizing committee. Japanese organizers have said any delay of the Games beyond summer 2021 is out of the question. Organizers also have said they’re unwilling to carry out a drastically reduced Games, meaning they’re counting on a resolution, not a mitigation, of the virus. Last week, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe responded to a question in parliament by saying the Tokyo Olympics should be held only in their complete form, which he said would be impossible if the pandemic has not come to a conclusion. The Games should serve as a symbol of humankind’s triumph over the disease, Abe told lawmakers, “and if we are not in that situa-

surround them with still more tens of thousands of people, all without restrictions on who can come—and then, after two weeks of prolonged exposure in tight quarters, send them back home. One word dominated the answers: vaccine. “We are likely to have waves of Covid-19 well into 2021 and the only way to safely travel and accommodate a huge population of athletes and spectators, we would need to have an effective, widely distributed vaccine that created a form of herd immunity,” said Lawrence Gostin, the director of the World Health Organization’s center on global health law. “It really is going to be dependent on what happens with the vaccine, because that’s really going to

co Fo m rp m er er s ci on al a l us , e on

tion, the Games would be quite difficult. In that sense, drugs and vaccines are very important.” A spokesman for the Japanese Olympic organizing committee declined to say whether a vaccine was a necessary condition for the Games to go ahead, but said the organizers were in close contact with the World Health Organization and other medical authorities. The Journal asked 10 infectious disease experts what it would take to guarantee a normal Games. The Olympics represent perhaps the most challenging proposition on the planet during a pandemic. They draw tens of thousands of athletes and officials from more than 200 countries together, pack them into an arena for an opening ceremony,

.

By Rachel Bachman, Louise Radnofsky and Alastair Gale

be what takes the threat off the table entirely,” said Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. “Without a vaccine? I just don’t know,” said Scott Gottlieb, the former Food and Drug Administration commissioner who has been advising the U.S. coronavirus response. A timeline of 12 to 18 months to develop and distribute a coronavirus vaccine is on the extreme end of optimistic, most scientists have said. Research on the new coronavirus is moving rapidly, to be sure, but the current record time for developing a vaccine is four years, for the mumps vaccine. Olympic officials are taking a different stance. Last week, John Coates, head of the International Olympic Committee’s coordination commission for the Tokyo Games, told the Australian Associated Press that finding a vaccine “would be nice” but that planning for the Games wasn’t contingent on it. In the interview, Coates offered no details about how the Olympics could be held without a vaccine. The IOC said Coates was unavailable for an interview. Several medical experts raised the possibility of banning all fans— perhaps the greatest blow to the Japanese in terms of a return on their investment. The organizing committee has projected $800 million in ticket sales, which doesn’t include concessions and souvenirs, hotel stays and other potential benefits to the wider Japanese economy. Having no fans in attendance also could affect the $3.3 billion in local sponsorships sold. —Peter Landers contributed to this article.

ly

A

s the clock ticks on planning for the postponed Tokyo 2020 Olympics, two vicelike forces are converging. On one side, scientists are racing to find a vaccine for the novel coronavirus, which caused the pandemic that pushed back the Games one year to July 2021. A growing list of medical experts says the typical

BY ANDREW BEATON AND BEN COHEN

industry. New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick is 68, which makes him even older than Brady, and San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich is the oldest in the four major leagues at 71. The age gap between college athletes and their coaches is even wider. These coaches have more in common with the grandparents of their players. They’re some of the only people on Earth who are older than 60 and required to be fluent in TikTok. The best coach in college football is Nick Saban. He’s 68. That also makes him one of the oldest coaches in college football. His experience has always been a virtue. Now it’s a potential vulnerability. Meanwhile the mighty Atlantic Coast Conference is basically a retirement community for basketball legends. In the ACC alone are five coaches above the age of 65: Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim (75), Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski (73), Florida

coaches in the four major American sports leagues is remarkably consistent: NFL (50 years old), NBA (52), MLB (52) and NHL (52). There are 24 coaches who are older than 60, which amounts to nearly 20% of them, and nine who have already celebrated their 65th birthdays. That’s the age linked with the highest risk of severe illness from Covid-19, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Executives from multiple leagues say the health and safety of coaches is a legitimate concern they will have to consider as they strategize how to return to action. And it isn’t just big-name coaches. There are other staffers, from assistants to executives to referees, who are part of that older demographic and putting themselves at risk by returning to work. What makes this situation even trickier to navigate is that older head coaches happen to be among the most successful people in their

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THE EMPLOYEES ARE YOUNG, healthy and in extraordinarily good shape. There are huge swaths of the country that consider their jobs essential to restoring national spirit. And there are so many rewards for American sports coming back to life that every league is trying desperately to end this shutdown. But the risk is not simply limited to professional athletes—and that’s one of the many problems that sports officials are trying to solve in the greatest crisis of their lives. They also have to worry about the health and safety of coaches. In perhaps no industry is the age gap between star employees and their bosses wider than it is in sports. Almost every professional athlete not named Tom Brady is in his or her 20s or 30s. The same can’t be said for their office colleagues. The average age of the head

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60s

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20s

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THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

Wednesday, May 6, 2020 | B3

* *

BUSINESS & FINANCE

Company withdraws guidance as pandemic blurs outlook but says PSA merger proceeds BY NORA NAUGHTON

An assembly-line worker back on the job April 27 at a Fiat joint venture plant in Atessa, Italy. nalize a $50 billion merger with France’s PSA Group. It said Tuesday the deal is still moving forward and should be completed by the end of this year or early 2021. The two car companies have said the combination will help to build scale and improve profitability as the global auto industry confronts rising costs related to new technologies, such as electric

hard by the pandemic, Fiat Chrysler was among the first auto makers to close plants or reduce production outside of China. Stopping production has an immediate impact on the bottom line because revenue is booked when a vehicle leaves the assembly plant. The first-quarter losses mark a setback for a company that heading into the health crisis was posting strong prof-

Hyundai

New car registrations in Europe, by manufacturer

BMW

1Q 2020

Toyota

1Q 2019

Daimler FCA Group Ford 250,000

500,000

750,000

Note: New registrations in EU, U.K., European Free Trade Association Source: European Automobile Manufacturers' Association

1,000,000

Germany Opens Talks On Car-Maker Bailout

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BERLIN—Talks between Germany’s flagship car companies and the country’s government kicked off on Tuesday to discuss potential state aid for an industry that was already struggling when the coronavirus pandemic hit and is now facing an existential threat. Hardly any new cars were sold in Europe last month as government-ordered lockdowns shut dealerships around the region. In the U.K., sales fell 97% to 4,321 vehicles, the lowest level since 1946, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, an industry lobby group, said Tuesday. France and Spain, two of the top five European car markets, reported drops of 90% and 97%, respectively. The auto industry is a huge part of the European economy. It employs some 14 million people in the European Union, accounting for 6% of jobs, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association. In the past, European car makers have produced about 19 million vehicles a year, around a fifth of all cars made in the world, contributing heavily to the region’s trade balance. The talks, launched on Tuesday via videoconference, bring together German Chancellor Angela Merkel and top executives from Volkswagen AG, Daimler AG, BMW AG, the German auto lobby, and the IG Metall trade union. The discussions are expected to last several weeks, Ms. Merkel’s spokesman said. They are focusing on aid for auto makers, including a possible cash-forclunkers program modeled on the measure that helped the industry overcome the 2007-09 recession by providing taxpayer-financed discounts to consumers who traded in old vehicles for new ones. The industry, which was struggling with weakening global demand and rocketing costs associated with its transition to electric vehicles long before the pandemic, has raised pressure on the government to help in recent weeks. While generous wage subsidies for furloughed workers mean the sector has seen few

job cuts so far, this could change if demand doesn’t pick up in coming weeks as the companies run through their cash piles. “April is going to be a month with the lowest ever number of new cars sold in Europe, even worse than after the Lehman Brothers crisis in 2008,” Emilio Herrera, the chief of Kia Motors Europe, said. Paralyzed by lockdowns, Europe’s biggest auto makers have bled billions of euros in liquidity each week as factories sat idle, and their profits have plummeted. The weakest companies, some of which may be just weeks from running out of cash, have seen their corporate bonds downgraded to junk status. And while many auto makers began switching their factories back on last month, only a fraction of their workers are returning. It could take months or years before production in one of Europe’s most important industries returns to prepandemic levels. The health crisis has caught the industry at a sensitive time. After nearly a decade of growth and robust profits, global car sales peaked in 2017, and car makers have been fighting falling demand since. Meanwhile, global efforts to curb greenhouse-gas emissions have forced car makers to invest billions of dollars to build a new generation of electric cars that car executives doubt many consumers will be interested in buying. In this context, companies are hoping new incentives for consumers to buy cars could act as a bridge over the historic trough in demand. In Germany, as in many other European countries, the government already subsidizes purchases of electric vehicles as part of its efforts to create a green economy. Now, industry leaders are calling for pandemic-related incentives that would also apply to purchases of conventional diesel and gasoline vehicles as well as used cars. But the discussion has turned controversial, especially in Germany, where Ms. Merkel is fighting for her legacy as the world’s leading political advocate for renewable energy.

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BY WILLIAM BOSTON

Hertz Global Holdings Inc. signed an agreement with lenders to provide a 2 ½-week extension for debt restructuring negotiations after the car rental company missed a recent lease payment. The Estero, Fla.-based carrental company got lenders to waive the potential debt default until May 22 to provide additional time for discussions “with the goal to develop a financing strategy and structure that better reflects the economic impact of the Covid-19 global pandemic and Hertz’ ongoing operating and financing requirements,” according to a Tuesday securities filing. The extension buys the company time to negotiate with lenders and bondholders regarding a planned chapter 11 filing. The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that the company has hired FTI Consulting Inc. as a restructuring adviser for the planned bankruptcy, in addition to other legal and financial help. Hertz’s financial restructuring is expected to be unusually complex, given the company’s immense balance sheet with more than $17 billion in debt, as well as a complicated capital structure. Hertz, as well as rival Avis Budget Group Inc., have come under intensifying financial pressure as ridership has plunged with curtailed travel. Hertz has $3.7 billion of corporate debt backed by the company’s brand name, intellectual property and earnings generated by the business itself. The more than 770,000 vehicles that Hertz operates globally are held at special subsidiaries, from which Hertz leases the vehicles before renting them out

The company has come under financial pressure as ridership has plunged with curtailed travel. A rental lot in San Francisco last week.

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to customers. The cars themselves are financed with $13.4 billion of vehicle-backed debt, collateralized by claims to ownership of the cars, trucks and vans themselves. Certain creditors own various pieces of the company’s debt simultaneously, making negotiations more difficult, people familiar with the matter said. Hertz didn’t respond to requests for comment. In addition to monthly lease payments, Hertz faces additional financing costs following a decline in the value of the used cars that serve as collateral.

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Volkswagen

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Hertz’s Lenders Postpone Reckoning

Downhill Drive European car sales fall In pandemic.

0

cars, and tougher auto-emissions restrictions. The Italian-American auto maker was able to restart some production in Italy last month, but it has had to revise plans multiple times to reopen North American factories since it idled work in March in response to the widening outbreak. With large factory operations in Italy, a country hit

its in North America and making progress toward paying down debt. Looking to bolster its cash reserves, Fiat Chrysler tapped nearly €6.5 billion from its existing credit lines in April, while adding another, separate €3.5 billion credit line, which it can draw down if needed. Mr. Manley in March said he would take a 50% reduction in pay through July. Salaried workers were asked to defer portions of their pay in a costcutting move designed to avoid layoffs. North America—long one of the company’s most profitable markets—continued to carry results, with Ram-brand truck sales up 7% in the first quarter and 90% of its dealerships still open. Operating margins for the region were 3.8% for the quarter over the same yearearlier period. In China, where Fiat Chrysler began closing factories in January, operating profit swung to a loss of €59 million in the first quarter. In February, it began resuming production in the country. In Europe, Chrysler’s net revenue fell 26% to drive a €270 million operating loss in the region. —Eric Sylvers contributed to this article.

.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV on Tuesday reported a net loss of €1.7 billion ($1.86 billion) for the first quarter, as lockdowns related to the coronavirus pandemic took a toll on car sales and factory output globally. Revenue fell nearly 16% to €20.5 billion compared with the first quarter of 2019. The auto maker lost money in nearly every business unit with the exception of North America, where continued strength in pickup-truck sales led to an adjusted operating profit of €548 million for the January-March period. Like other car companies, Fiat Chrysler has withdrawn its full-year guidance, saying it is unable to provide more direction given the uncertainties surrounding the coronavirus pandemic. “We recognize the pandemic and its impacts are here for the foreseeable future,” said Chief Executive Mike Manley on a conference call Tuesday.

“It will continue to impact our future results particularly in the second quarter of this year, for which we expect to report a net loss and significant negative cash flows.” The company plans to reopen most of its U.S. factories the week of May 18, Mr. Manley said, noting that discussions are still continuing with the United Auto Workers union about various workplace-safety protocols. General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Co. have also been targeting May 18 to resume some U.S. production, a timeline that all three Detroit auto makers tentatively settled upon after talks with UAW leaders and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s office, The Wall Street Journal reported last week. Fiat Chrysler reported an adjusted loss of 30 European cents a share for the quarter, worse than analysts’ estimates of a profit of 5 European cents a share. Fiat Chrysler has taken steps in recent months to build up its cash reserves in an effort to ride out the health crisis, ending the first quarter with about €18.6 billion in cash and available liquidity. Fiat Chrysler continues to press forward with plans to fi-

FIAT CHRYSLER AUTOMOBILES/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES

Fiat Posts Loss, Sets U.S. Reopen Date

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B4 | Wednesday, May 6, 2020

NY

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THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

TECHNOLOGY & BUSINESS

WSJ.com/Tech

Juul Moves Base to Washington in Signal To Health Regulators

NBCUniversal to Slash Pay 20% For Executives and Undo Raises NBCUniversal is cutting the pay of its senior management by 20% and rolling back pay by 3% for employees making more than $100,000 in response to the financial fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, Chief Executive Jeff Shell said in a memo to staff Tuesday. “In order to deal with the depth of this crisis and its effect on our company we need to address our cost base,” Mr. Shell wrote. Besides pay cuts and raise retractions, Mr. Shell said, travel, entertainment budgets and the use of outside consultants will also be reduced. A unit of Comcast Corp., NBCUniversal owns the NBC broadcast network, the Universal Pictures movie studio and cable channels MSNBC, CNBC and USA network. It also owns theme parks, which have had to shut

down during the pandemic. “There is no question that the current environment is having a significant impact on our company’s performance,” Mr. Shell said. Besides the closing of the theme parks, he cited the shutdown of television and movie production, the postponement of the summer Olympics—which NBCUniversal was slated to broadcast—and skittish advertisers backing away from television. “Advertising revenue is starting to fall,” he said. The 20% cut applies to the executive leadership committee composed of Mr. Shell’s direct reports, while the 3% rollback is for the rest of the company. On-air talent at NBC News also have been asked to take a 3% pay cut, a person familiar with the matter said. Mr. Shell along with others in Comcast’s top brass, includ-

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