National Edition
Partly cloudy. Warmer. Highs from
VOL. CLXX . . . . No. 58,919
Poorer Nations
At Back of Line
For the Vaccine
Unequal Distribution Is
Increasing Disparity
By PETER S. GOODMAN
LONDON — The end of the pan-
demic is finally in view. So is res-
cue from the most traumatic
global economic catastrophe
since the Great Depression. As
Covid vaccines enter the blood-
stream, recovery has become re-
ality.
But the benefits will be far from
equally apportioned. Wealthy na-
tions in Europe and North Amer-
ica have secured the bulk of lim-
ited stocks of vaccines, posi-
tioning themselves for starkly im-
proved economic fortunes.
Developing countries — home to
most of humanity — are left to se-
cure their own doses.
The lopsided distribution of
vaccines appears certain to wors-
en a defining economic reality:
The world that emerges from this
terrifying chapter in history will
be more unequal than ever. Poor
countries will continue to be rav-
aged by the pandemic, forcing
them to expend meager resources
that are already stretched by
growing debts to lenders in the
United States, Europe and China.
The global economy has long
been cleaved by profound dispari- Dr. Lokuthula Maphalala is the physician in charge at Dora Nginza, an aging public hospital in South Africa that lacks an I.C.U.
ties in wealth, education and ac-
cess to vital elements like clean
water, electricity and the internet.
The pandemic has trained its
death and destruction of liveli-
hood on ethnic minorities, women
and lower-income households.
The ending is likely to add another
division that could shape eco-
nomic life for years, separating
countries with access to vaccines
from those without.
“It’s clear that developing coun-
tries, and especially poorer devel-
oping countries, are going to be
excluded for some time,” said
Richard Kozul-Wright, director of
the division on globalization and
development strategies at the
United Nations Conference on
Trade and Development in Ge-
neva. “Despite the understanding
that vaccines need to be seen as a
global good, the provision re-
Continued on Page A8
Performers Ask,
Will Pandemic
End My Career?
By PATRICIA COHEN
In the top echelons of classical
music, the violinist Jennifer Koh is
by any measure a star.
With a dazzling technique, she
has ridden a career that any aspi-
ring Juilliard grad would dream
about — appearing with leading
orchestras, recording new works,
and performing on some of the
world’s most prestigious stages.
Now, nine months into a conta-
gion that has halted most public
gatherings and decimated the
performing arts, Ms. Koh, who
watched a year’s worth of book-
ings evaporate, is playing music
from her living room and receiv-
ing food stamps.
Pain can be found in nearly ev-
ery nook of the economy. Millions
of people have lost their jobs and
tens of thousands of businesses
have closed since the coronavirus
pandemic spread across the
United States. But even in these
extraordinary times, the losses in
the performing arts and related
sectors have been staggering.
During the quarter ending in
September, when the overall un-
employment rate averaged 8.5
percent, 52 percent of actors, 55
percent of dancers and 27 percent
of musicians were out of work, ac-
cording to the National Endow-
ment for the Arts. By comparison,
the jobless rate was 27 percent for A Shaken Music City
Continued on Page A19 The police said an explosion in Nashville was deliberate. At least three people were hurt. Page A19.
TRACKING AN OUTBREAK A4-11
Resilience Rises at Christmas
The cheer was muted in New York City,
but many residents still tried to hold to
their holiday traditions. PAGE A7
Overwhelmed in California
The hospitals are under strain, and this
week the state became the first to reach
two million virus cases. PAGE A4
© 2020 The New York Times Company
‘Much Harder Than the First Round’
In Africa, Alarm That Apathy Has Set In as a Deadly Threat Resurges
By SHERI FINK
PORT ELIZABETH, South Africa — At
the center of a terrifying coronavirus surge,
242 patients lay in row after row of beds un-
der the soaring metal beams of a decommis-
sioned Volkswagen factory.
Workers at the vast field hospital could
provide oxygen and medications, but there
were no I.C.U. beds, no ventilators, no work-
ing phones and just one physician on duty
on a recent Sunday — Dr. Jessica Du Preez,
in her second year of independent practice.
In a shed-like refrigerator behind a door
marked “BODY HOLD,” carts contained the
remains of three patients that morning. A
funeral home had already picked up another
body.
On rounds, Dr. Du Preez stopped at the
bed of a 60-year-old patient, a grandmother
and former college counselor. Her oxygen
tube had detached while she was lying
prone, but the nurses had so many patients
they hadn’t noticed. Now, she was gone.
As two porters placed her corpse in a bag,
NATIONAL A15-19
Coping With Loneliness
For many New Yorkers who have been
isolating at home during the pandemic,
the holiday season is presenting a
difficult challenge. PAGE A15
No Rhyme, Some Reason
How to reflect on 2020? We chose five
poems and asked five photographers to
find some meaning in all this. PAGE A16
INTERNATIONAL A12-14
Finding Shelter at the Inns
Many homeless people in Britain will
Social Media Pakistan 0345-6738217
spend the Christmas and New Year
holidays in hotels. PAGE A13
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2020
a worker peeked through the door to tell
them another patient, a 67-year-old diabetic
man, had died.
Meanwhile, the condition of a teacher in
her 50s was deteriorating. Dr. Du Preez
tried to find I.C.U. space for her elsewhere in
the city, to no avail. She called the teacher’s
husband, who asked what he could do. “Not
much,” the young doctor responded.
“Shame,” she said again and again that
day.
For hours, the alarm on the teacher’s bed-
side monitor bleated. Her oxygen level was
dangerously low, her pulse racing and her
blood pressure soaring. Still, she remained
conscious, saying she could not breathe.
That evening, she died alone. A book, “A
Heartbeat of Hope: 366 devotions,” lay on
her bedside stand alongside a pair of read-
ing glasses.
When the pandemic began, global public
health officials raised grave concerns about
the vulnerabilities of Africa. But its coun-
tries overall appeared to fare far better than
MARK HUMPHREY/ASSOCIATED PRESS
BUSINESS B1-5
A Digital Shift for Bollywood
India’s film industry is increasingly
sending its content straight to major
streaming services. PAGE B1
Ski Resorts Expect a Rough Go
The industry, which took a hit in the
spring when the pandemic struck, has
low expectations this season. PAGE B1
SAMANTHA REINDERS FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
those in Europe or the Americas, upending
scientists’ expectations. Now, the coronavi-
rus is on the rise again in swaths of the conti-
nent, posing a new, possibly deadlier threat.
In South Africa, a crush of new cases that
spread from Port Elizabeth is growing expo-
nentially across the nation, with deaths
mounting. Eight countries, including Ni-
geria, Uganda and Mali, recently recorded
their highest daily case counts all year. “The
second wave is here,” John N. Nkengasong,
the head of the Africa Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, has declared.
When the virus was first detected, many
African countries were considered particu-
larly at risk because they had weak medical,
laboratory and disease-surveillance sys-
tems and were already battling other conta-
gions. Some were riven by armed conflict,
limiting health workers’ access. In March,
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the first Af-
rican director-general of the World Health
Organization, cautioned, “We have to pre-
Continued on Page A9
Lifelong Fight for Civil Rights
Returns to Jeff Davis Avenue
By ELAINA PLOTT
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — This
summer, as Mayor Steven L. Reed
of Montgomery mulled over ways
to commemorate the 65th anni-
versary of the city’s bus boycott,
he took a critical look at whose leg-
acies had been honored since that
protest — and whose, it seemed,
had been forgotten.
Mr. Reed, Montgomery’s first
Black mayor, saw tributes across
the city to Rosa Parks, the seam-
stress whose refusal to give up her
bus seat on Dec. 1, 1955 repre-
sented one of the opening salvos
of the civil rights movement.
He saw streets and schools
named for E.D. Nixon, a lead or-
ganizer of the boycott and a
founder of the Montgomery Im-
provement Association.
But there was no street sign, no
edifice heralding Fred D. Gray,
who as a 24-year-old lawyer had
helped defend Ms. Parks — who
had gone on to become, as the Rev.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. deemed
him, “the chief counsel for the pro-
test movement.”
So Mr. Reed asked Mr. Gray
himself how he wished to be hon-
SPORTSSATURDAY B6-11 THIS WEEKEND
Little Progress for Diversity
Despite public pledges by major sports
leagues to combat racial injustices,
most coaching and management roles
have gone to white candidates for the
past 30 years. PAGE B10
Shutting Down Their Season
The Duke women were the first Power
Five conference basketball team to stop
early because of the pandemic. The
men’s team is expected to continue
playing. PAGE B7
EDITORIAL, OP-ED A20-21
U(DF463D)X+,!$!]!$!z
Michelle Goldberg PAGE A21
the upper 20s to the 30s. Partly to
mostly cloudy tonight. Lows from
the teens north to the 20s south.
Weather map appears on Page B9.
Printed in Chicago $3.00
NEW OBSTACLES
AS BRITAIN ENDS
BREXIT STRUGGLE
HUGE CHANGES ON JAN. 1
‘Complex and Expensive’
Adjustments Loom
on Commerce
By BENJAMIN MUELLER
LONDON — For weary Brexit
negotiators on both sides of the
English Channel, a Christmas Eve
trade agreement sealed 11 months
of painstaking deliberations over
Britain’s departure from the Euro-
pean Union, encompassing details
as arcane as what species of fish
could be caught by each side’s
boats in British waters.
But for many others — among
them bankers, traders, truckers,
architects and millions of mi-
grants — Christmas was only the
beginning, Day 1 of a high-stakes
and unpredictable experiment in
how to unstitch a tight web of com-
mercial relations across Europe.
The deal, far from closing the
book on Britain’s tumultuous part-
nership with Europe, has opened
a new one, beginning on its first
pages with what analysts say will
be the biggest overnight change in
modern commercial relations.
In the four years since Britons
voted to cast off a half-century of
ties to Europe, many migrants
have stopped moving to Britain
for work and British firms have
sent employees to Paris and
Frankfurt to set up toeholds on the
continent. But for all those prepa-
rations, six days are now all that
stand between businesses and an
avalanche of new trading obsta-
cles on Jan. 1.
“We are going to have to learn
how to do this as we go,” said
Shane Brennan, chief executive of
the Cold Chain Federation, a
British group representing logis-
tics firms. “Let’s hope it’s for the
better in the end, but it will be
slow, complex and expensive.”
British distributors, spared the
calamity of a no-deal separation,
were nevertheless scrambling to
prepare the first of hundreds of
thousands of new export certifica-
tions to allow their meat, fish and
Continued on Page A14
ALONE A U.S. requirement for
Covid tests for air travel high-
lights Britain’s isolation. PAGE A14
Law Blocks Renaming
Street for Black Hero
ored. Now 90, Mr. Gray proposed
renaming Jeff Davis Avenue, the
place where he had grown up —
the street named for the president
of the Confederacy, the street
where, as a young man, Mr. Gray
had determined his life’s mission
“to destroy everything segre-
gated.” It was, Mr. Reed said, an
easy yes.
There was one problem: The
Alabama Memorial Preservation
Act had recently been passed to
prevent local officials from doing
just what Mr. Reed had in mind.
The law forbids the renaming of
not just monuments, but also
streets 40 years and older that
“have been constructed for, or
named or dedicated in honor of, an
event, a person, a group, a move-
ment, or military service.”
Mr. Reed’s efforts come at a mo-
ment when the United States’ his-
tory surrounding racism is under
Continued on Page A18
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A2 Y THE NEW YORK TIMES, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2020
A. G. SULZBERGER
Publisher
Founded in 1851
ADOLPH S. OCHS
Publisher 1896-1935
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Inside The Times
THE STORY BEHIND THE STORY
Helping you live better.
No matter where you are.
Simon Gronowski has cheered neighbors in Brussels during the pandemic with his piano playing.
A Glimpse Into the Heart of a Place
By JULIA CARMEL
A Holocaust survivor who plays music for
his neighborhood; a farmhouse poet in
China turned international literary celebri-
ty; a guy who’s walking the earth with his
donkey, Judas.
Local figures from around the world fill
the Saturday Profile feature, which weaves
colorful characters into the larger scope of
The New York Times’s international cover-
age. The profiles capture people from all
walks of life in the countries Times journal-
ists report from.
“They don’t have to be famous people,”
said Kyle Crichton, the editor of the col-
umn. “They just have to be interesting.”
Mr. Crichton, a deputy international
editor in The Times’s London office, took
over the column soon after it began in
Give the gift they’ll
2002, and has since shaped it into the
weekly staple that it is today. “The ani-
mating idea of it was to highlight people
open every day. that you might never really see in the big
news cycles,” he said. “It brings you into a
corner of the world that you really didn’t
know existed and it lights it up.”
Gift subscriptions to The Times start at $25.
More than 700 people have been cata-
Visit nytimes.com/gift or call 1-800-NYTIMES.
loged in the Saturday Profile’s lineup, and
writers and editors posted all over the
world have contributed.
The Times’s Brussels correspondent,
Matina Stevis-Gridneff, typically covers
the European Union. But recently she
wrote a Saturday Profile about her neigh-
bor, Simon Gronowski, who survived the
Holocaust by hiding in attics for 17 months.
In April, when Brussels shuttered itself
against the first wave of the coronavirus,
Mr. Gronowski was moved by memories to
play piano out of his window.
“My backyard and his backyard face
each other, so I’d never met him, I’d never
seen him around in the neighborhood,” Ms.
Stevis-Gridneff said. “And then of course
we were locked in so we didn’t really see
anyone around anyway.”
And though profiles aren’t her usual
form, as the pieces fell into place she was
pleasantly surprised.
”I quite like this freedom — this kind of
voice, the humanity,” Ms. Stevis-Gridneff
said. “It also felt really different from the
very grim and incredibly densely reported
work I’d been doing on Covid.”
On This Day in History
A MEMORABLE HEADLINE FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES
CHARLIE CHAPLIN DEAD AT 88
December 26, 1977. The iconic British movie star, described by The Times as “the poign-
ant little tramp with the cane and comic walk who almost single-handedly elevated the
novelty entertainment medium of motion pictures into art,” died on Christmas morning at
his home in Switzerland. Knighted by Queen Elizabeth in 1975, Chaplin is known as one of
the greatest comic actors. He rose to fame in the silent era of filmmaking and made more
than 80 movies from 1914 to 1967. After unfounded accusations that he had Communist
ties, Chaplin was virtually exiled from the United States in 1952.
Subscribers can browse the complete Times archives through 2002 at timesmachine.nytimes.com.
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NEWS EDITORIAL
DEAN BAQUET Executive Editor KATHLEEN KINGSBURY Editorial Page Editor
JOSEPH KAHN Managing Editor
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STEVE DUENES Deputy Managing Editor
MEREDITH KOPIT LEVIEN Chief Executive Officer
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DIANE BRAYTON General Counsel and Secretary;
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TRAVEL
Wherever you are, you can pre-
tend you’re in Quebec City tonight.
To see how to embrace the cozi-
ness of the season like Québécois
do, visit nytimes.com/travel.
KSENIA KULESHOVA FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Once her interview with Mr. Gronowski AUDIO
was translated from French to English, it In the latest “Popcast” podcast,
took only two days to write the draft. The the Times music writers Joe
reception in her multinational neighbor- Coscarelli, Caryn Ganz and Jon
hood, she said, was surprisingly delightful. Caramanica answer questions
“I got emails from neighbors I didn’t from readers about the year’s
know,” Ms. Stevis-Gridneff said. “I heard biggest stars, and also some of its
from a Belgian woman, a Dutch woman curious flops.
and a Danish man who live on my block.” nytimes.com/popcast
These glimpses into distinct communi-
ties around the world are what the column
tries to bring to readers. ”You want a slice
of life,” said Tess Felder, who often edits
the profiles with Mr. Crichton.
“It might tell you something about the
human condition, it might make you laugh,
it might make you cry, it might give you
hope or despair,” she continued with a
chuckle. “Hopefully not too much despair.” NEWSLETTER
Simon Romero, who was The Times’s
Finished all of the shows in your
Andean bureau chief and Brazil bureau
streaming queue? Looking for a
chief before anchoring in New Mexico as a
national correspondent, wrote more than
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new drama to binge? Get tips on
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ies from the Watching newsletter
“It’s a way to write an article about a
by signing up at
place in a different kind of format,”
nytimes.com/newsletters.
Mr. Romero said. “You can tell the story
of a place through one person’s story.”
He wrote about a Marxist guerrilla
turned Venezuelan politician, a Colombian
warlord and Brazil’s eccentric eminence of
pulp fiction, among many others.
“I profiled a journalist once, which isn’t
too traditional,” Mr. Romero said, referring
to his 2012 interview with Cándido
Figueredo. “But this guy was at a place in
Paraguay and his home essentially had CALLOUT
turned into a bunker because he was re- Even in this dark year, there have
ceiving so many death threats from writing been moments of lightness. The
about the drug trade.” Times wants to see the good mo-
The rewards of telling these stories have ments you captured in photos or
been especially gratifying for the writers videos during 2020 and hear what
and editors. “Correspondents, in particular, they mean to you now. Share them
we’re kind of weird animals in the commu- with us at nytimes.com/readers.
nities that host us, because we’re only
there briefly,” Ms. Stevis-Gridneff said.
“Even if it’s three or four years, that’s
still brief in the neighborhood’s life span,” Contact the Newsroom
she said. For her, writing a Saturday nytnews@nytimes.com
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 K THE NEW YORK TIMES, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2020
Of Interest
NOTEWORTHY FACTS FROM TODAY’S PAPER
“The M.T.A. Radio Plays,” a new
series of audio dramas presented in
collaboration with the Rattlestick
Playwrights Theater, consists of
10-to-15-minute episodes, each set at
a stop on the No. 2 line.
Subway Series for the Ears and Heart C2
• •
In a typical year, more than 50 blind
runners complete the California
International Marathon with guides.
His Dream: Running Blind and Running Free B6
• JAMES JARVIS
A 2019 study showed that Black
coaches in the N.F.L. were hired at
older ages, had much more playing
experience and did not get second
chances at the same rate as white
coaches.
Thirty Years of Little Progress in Diversity B10
The Conversation
FOUR OF THE MOST READ,
SHARED AND DISCUSSED POSTS
FROM ACROSS NYTIMES.COM
Nashville Explosion Appears
Intentional, Authorities Say
The news that an explosion in
downtown Nashville on Christ-
mas morning sent smoke rising
high above the city and forced
evacuations was Friday’s most
read article.
Covid-19 Patient
Is Bludgeoned to Death
In California Hospital
On social media, readers shared
this article that an 82-year-old
man, who was being treated for
Covid-19 at a hospital north of
Los Angeles, was beaten with an
oxygen tank last week by his
roommate.
Hospital Workers Start
To ‘Turn Against Each Other’
To Get Vaccine
Joseph Goldstein’s report re-
vealed that hospital workers in
New York were cutting lines and
starting to “turn against each
other” to get the coronavirus
vaccine, inciting a backlash
among staff.
Eight-Armed Underwater
Bullies: Watch Octopuses
Punch Fish
This article on the tactics that
octopuses use to hunt fish was
popular with readers. Video
shows an octopus curling its arm
back and explosively releasing it
onto a fish.
Sketchbook
THAT HOLIDAY FEELING
Americans did everything they could
to make spirits bright, spending
more time and money on outside
decorations than in previous years.
Now, with Christmas over, will they
display their lights and inflatables
longer than ever to draw extra
warmth and comfort during the
pandemic’s darkest days?
Quote of the Day
PERFORMERS ASK, WILL
PANDEMIC END MY CAREER? A1
“My fear is we’re not
just losing jobs, we’re
losing careers.”
ADAM KRAUTHAMER, president of
Local 802 of the American Federation
of Musicians in New York, on arts
venues most likely being among the
last businesses to reopen.
Nearly a quarter of the world’s
population may not have access to a
coronavirus vaccine until at least
2022, according to a recent study in
the British Medical Journal.
Pope Francis Beseeches Nations
To Share Vaccines A12
Spotlight
ADDITIONAL REPORTAGE AND REPARTEE
FROM OUR JOURNALISTS
It was a rough year for Homo sapiens. But what creature from the animal kingdom most
embodies this pandemic year? Journalists from The Times’s science and climate depart-
ments shared their picks in an online interactive article. Read an edited selection below.
Danish “Zombie” Mink They became infected
with coronavirus from another species
(humans). Many got very sick and suffered
and eventually died; others were slaughtered
and buried. Then, typical of 2020, politically
and pandemically, the buried mink failed
to decompose properly and rose from the
ground to the sorrow and horror of us all.
JAMES GORMAN
Platypus The platypus seems like a
ridiculous animal, but it can also poison you
with a venomous spike on the back of its
foot. Researchers recently discovered that
platypuses glow under UV light. They don’t
know why. These duck-billed mammals’
fluorescence is just another thing to be baffled
by, and that’s how I feel about the year as a
whole. CARA GIAIMO
To read more, go to nytimes.com/science.
Here to Help
HOW TO SQUASH KIDS’ FIGHTS IN FOUR STEPS
When siblings fight, you don’t need to
decide who’s right or wrong or how the
conflict should be resolved. Instead, use
these mediation techniques to build empa-
thy and help them settle disputes them-
selves. MELINDA WENNER MOYER
1. Lay down ground rules
You can take steps to prevent further
fighting as the issue is being worked out,
and obtain consent to move forward.
Sample script:
You two sound so upset! We’re going to
take some deep breaths, and I’m going to
take the bear you’re fighting over and put it
up on the cabinet. Then we’ll talk about
this, with no interrupting. OK?
2. Ask each sibling what happened
Identify points of contention and common
ground.
Sample script:
So you both agree that Connor was playing
with the bear. Jayden says he asked for a
turn? But Connor, you said you didn’t hear
him? This made Jayden feel frustrated,
because he thought you were ignoring him
and then he hit you.
3. Foster mutual understanding
Encourage them to discuss their feelings
and ask each child to repeat what the
other said.
Social Media Pakistan 0345-6738217
Y A3
Backcountry ski equipment sales
jumped 76 percent from August
through October compared with the
same time a year ago, according to
the NPD Group.
Ski Resorts’ Only Wish: ‘Stay Alive
And Survive’ B1
Henderson Island, an atoll in the
South Pacific, has the highest
concentration of plastic pollution in
the world.
Punching Above Their Weight on Climate B4
•
According to a database compiled by
the National Congress of American
Indians, 29 schools nationwide have
abandoned Native American
mascots since Aug. 1.
For Foes of Native American Nicknames,
2020 Brought Hope B7
Bear When not hibernating, a bear lumbers
around, mostly doing bear things. But in
today’s world, it stumbles upon people, filling
itself with our garbage. The bear would cause
no problems without us, as 2020 would
just be another year. But here we are, and
in our presence and our stories, a year or a
bear becomes something else, and we don’t
always like it. MICHAEL ROSTON
Tardigrades The unlovely but weirdly adorable
tardigrade is tiny but mighty, and can survive
incredible abuse. Bubbling hot springs? They
live there. Antarctic ice? Oh, hi. Some “water
bears” have even survived the cold vacuum
and radiation of space. The tardigrade: as
tough as we all need to be after a year like
2020. JOHN SCHWARTZ
I LOVE YOU MORE
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A4
Y
With so many employees falling sick or taking leave after months of the pandemic, hospitals such as Providence St. Mary Medical Center in Apple Valley, Calif., are struggling to find enough workers.
THE RESURGENCE
Hospitals in Southern California Are Overwhelmed: ‘Every Day Is Scary’
By TIM ARANGO
LOS ANGELES — If this were any
other year, members of the Los Angeles
Opera would have been singing Christ-
mas carols this week in the wards of Mar-
tin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital,
which serves the largely poor and Latino
communities of South Los Angeles. In-
stead, a street choir from Skid Row
stepped in with a video to bring holiday
cheer to the growing number of dying co-
ronavirus patients and traumatized
staff.
Inside the hospital, so many patients
are streaming in that gurneys have been
placed in the gift shop, and the entire
lobby is now a space to treat patients.
The waiting room is a tent outside.
“Everything is backed up all the way
to the street,” said Dr. Oscar Casillas, the
medical director of the hospital’s emer-
gency department, which is set up to
serve about 30 people at a time but over
the last week has seen more than 100 pa-
tients per day.
In the High Desert region northeast of
Los Angeles, health care workers at one
hospital are getting their first shots of a
coronavirus vaccine in a cheerful confer-
ence room decked out in holiday decora-
tions. There is Christmas music, and
“Home Alone 2” playing on a screen. Yet
as soon as the needle is out of their arms,
there is the next “code blue,” or the next
FaceTime goodbye to arrange between a
dying patient and a grieving family.
“Every day is scary,” said Lisa Thomp-
son, an intensive care nurse at the hospi-
tal, Providence St. Mary Medical Center
in Apple Valley. “We’re all stressed be-
fore we even come to work. Tons and
tons of patients. We can’t even keep up
with the amount of patients coming into
the hospital.”
In increasingly urgent tones this week,
health officials and political leaders in
Southern California have called on peo-
ple to stay home for the holidays, desper-
ately hoping to forestall another surge in
infections, on top of the current crisis
that came after Thanksgiving.
Barbara Ferrer, director of the Los An-
geles County Department of Public
Health, said the only way to “pay tribute
to the fundamental spirit of the holidays”
was to stay home.
But so far very little has slowed the
spread of the virus.
Each day in California, which this
week became the first state to reach two
million recorded virus cases, brings a
mind-numbing new accounting of the
tragedy underway — more cases, more
sickness, more death. Southern Califor-
nia, the most populous area of the most
populous state, is on the edge of catastro-
phe. In Los Angeles County, a vast region
whose population is roughly the size of
Michigan’s, there are roughly 6,500 peo-
ple hospitalized with Covid-19, a fourfold
increase over the last month. The num-
ber of patients in intensive care units is
close to 1,300, double what it was a month
ago.
And the county on Thursday reported
146 new deaths, according to a New York
Tracking an Outbreak
Health care workers at St. Mary’s shared their memories of a coronavirus victim. The doctors and nurses on the front
lines are bracing for the near certainty that things will only get worse after the Christmas and New Year’s holidays.
Times database, the equivalent of about
one every 10 minutes and its highest to-
tal of the pandemic. Nearly every hospi-
tal has surged past its capacity, putting
new beds in any space it can find, and
preparing for the possibility it will have
to ration care — essentially making
wrenchingly difficult decisions about
who dies and who lives.
But the availability of beds is not even
the most urgent concern. With so many
employees falling sick or taking leave af-
ter months of treating coronavirus pa-
tients, hospitals are struggling to find
enough workers.
“In the beginning, especially, you saw
all these pictures and videos from New
York and you think, ‘Oh my God, it can
never get that bad here,’” said Mendy
Hickey, the quality director at St. Mary’s.
“And while we have all the supplies we
need, it is that bad here and we have no
staff to take care of patients.”
Ms. Hickey, a former nurse, has lately
taken on shifts caring for patients in in-
tensive care, on top of her administrative
duties, sometimes working 23 hours in a
day. She was planning to work late
Christmas Eve, and hoped to spend at
least Christmas morning with her three
daughters before returning to the hospi-
tal.
As the holiday season has collided
with the height of the pandemic in South-
ern California, there is little joy for the
health care workers on the front lines,
who are bracing for the near certainty
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A triage tent outside St. Mary’s helps handle the patient overflow. California
became the first state to reach two million recorded virus cases this week.
that things will only get worse. Califor-
nia’s governor, Gavin Newsom, has pro-
jected that hospitalizations would reach
close to 100,000 in January if residents do
not lock down for the holidays. On Thurs-
day, California reported 351 deaths.
“I can only imagine what is going to
happen after Christmas and New Year’s
if we don’t get the community educated
on how to stay home and be safe,” said
PHOTOGRAPHS BY ARIANA DREHSLER FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Ms. Thompson, the nurse at St. Mary’s.
Judging by what she sees in her com-
munity after another traumatizing day in
the intensive care unit, she is not opti-
mistic.
“We’re all talking about the middle of
January for when we’re expecting to see
a major surge from both holidays,” she
said. “It’s kind of scary.”
California was the first state to impose
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2020
a lockdown in the spring, and for a while
seemed to be managing the pandemic
much better then other places. But as it
faces the crisis it has long feared, the
pain is being spread unevenly.
In South Los Angeles, where Martin
Luther King Jr. Community Hospital
serves low-income communities popu-
lated with grocery clerks and bus drivers
who live in crowded households and are
forced to mix with the public every day,
infection rates are far higher. In Los An-
geles County, roughly 15 percent of co-
ronavirus tests in recent days are pos-
itive; at a testing site on the hospital’s
campus, the rate is about 25 percent.
As a result, the burden of the surge is
‘I can only imagine what is
going to happen after
Christmas and New Year’s.’
LISA THOMPSON, an intensive care nurse
at Providence St. Mary Medical Center in
Apple Valley, Calif.
much heavier at that hospital than those
in wealthier areas of Los Angeles. Ac-
cording to recent statistics, 66 percent of
the hospital’s capacity was taken up by
Covid-19 patients — making it, in effect,
the epicenter of the epicenter. Across
town, on the whiter and richer West Side,
11 percent of Ronald Reagan U.C.L.A.
Medical Center’s bed capacity was filled
with coronavirus patients.
Officials at Martin Luther King Jr.
Community Hospital, where most pa-
tients are on Medicaid or uninsured, say
they are struggling to transfer patients
to bigger hospitals when they need a
high level of care, such as neurosurgery
or a cardiac procedure.
“What we see is a significant differ-
ence between patients who have com-
mercial insurance versus Medicaid,”
said Dr. Elaine Batchlor, the hospital’s
chief executive. “Those with commercial
insurance get out faster.”
She added: “We’ve had a lot of talk
about systemic racism and social justice
and everybody says they want to do
something about it, but our health care
system is a huge reflection of separate
and unequal. And the Covid pandemic is
highlighting the same patterns.”
Ms. Thompson, who some days has
been working from 7 a.m. until midnight,
was thankful to have Christmas Day off,
and planned to spend it with her four
children. Her parents, who live nearby
but whom she has not mingled with dur-
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ing the pandemic, were on Zoom.
But the holiday was only a brief
respite, and she is scheduled to work
over New Year’s, handing a surge with
no end in sight.
“Trying to work all this overtime and
then trying to keep up with all the death
and dying and trying to keep a straight
face and keep moving forward, it’s ex-
hausting,” she said.
 THE NEW YORK TIMES, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2020 Y A5

These physicians are among the Top Doctors in the nation as selected by Castle Connolly.
Castle Connolly has been the trusted source for patients seeking Top Doctors for over 25 years.
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Satjit Bhusri, MD, FACC David Rivadeneira, MD, FACS, H. Sasson, MD, FACS B. Aviva Preminger, MD,
FASCRS MPH, FACS
Upper East Side 321 Crossways Park Drive Sasson Plastic Surgery Preminger Plastic Surgery
Cardiology Woodbury, NY 11797 1000 Northern Blvd. 969 Park Avenue #1E
45 East End Avenue Also in Smithtown, Babylon, Suite 370 New York NY 10028
New York, NY 10028 Bayshore & Port Jefferson Great Neck, NY 11021 212.706.1900
646.868.3228 631.470.1450 516.487.5017

SassonPlasticSurgery.com premingermd.com
BhusriHeart.com @BhusriHeart Dr.DavidRivadeneira.com
Board Certified in: Plastic Surgery Board Certified: Plastic Surgery
Board Certified in: Cardiovascular Disease, Board Certified in: Surgery and Colon &
Adult Comprehensive Echocardiography, Rectal Surgery Hospital Affiliation: Chief of Plastic Positions/Appointments: Assistant Clinical
Internal Medicine Surgery at Northwell Plainview and LIJ-VS Professor, Surgery, Columbia P&S
Hospital Affiliation: Huntington, Southside
Hospitals; Mount Sinai West, Mount Sinai St. Hospital Affiliations: Lenox Hill Hospital and
Book Online: www.UESCardio.com and Plainview Hospitals
Luke’s, Lenox Hill & NYU Winthrop Manhattan Eye, Ear & Throat Hospital
Special Expertise: Acute Cardiac Care; Special Expertise: Specializing in Cancer of
Special Expertise: Cosmetic and Special Expertise: Cosmetic & Reconstructive
Clinical Cardiology; Echocardiography; the Colon, Rectum, Anus and Small Intestine;
Reconstructive Surgery for Men, Women & Breast Surgery, Mommy Makeover, Botox,
Nuclear Cardiology; Electrocardiography; Diverticulitis, Polyps, Rectal Prolapse and IBD;
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Artery Disease; Peripheral Vascular Disease; Approaches, Colonoscopy, Hemorrhoids,
Hypertension; Vascular Imaging & Interpretation; Fistulas and Fissures, Telemedicine BodyTite/Liposuction, CoolSculpting
Arrhythmias; Complex Anticoagulation; Heart
Failure; Valvular Disease;Preventative
Cardiology; Internal Medicine

Michael J Bronson, MD Sanjay Ghosh, MD, FAANS Frank X. Pedlow Jr, MD Alan Zalkowitz, MD
Orthopedic Center at Senta Neurosurgery 30 Lancaster Street Kayal Rheumatology
Mount Sinai West 3590 Camino Del Rio North Second floor Center
425 West 59th Street, 5th Fl Suite 200 Boston MA 02114 784 Franklin Ave, Ste 220
New York, NY 10019 San Diego, CA 92108 617.227.9300 Franklin Lakes, NJ 07417
619-810-1010 844.777.0910
212.636.8210

mountsinai.org/profiles/michael-j-bronson SanjayGhoshMD.com bostonspinesurgery.com kayalortho.com/rheumatology

Board Certified: Orthopaedic Surgery Board Certified in: Neurological Surgery Board Certified: Orthopaedic Surgery Board Certified: Rheumatology, Internal
Positions/Appointments: Chair, Orthopedic Hospital Affiliations: Scripps Memorial La Jolla, Positions/Appointments: Spine Surgeon, Medicine
Surgery Mount Sinai West, Mount Sinai Scripps Mercy, Scripps Memorial Encinitas, San Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Professional Memberships: The Medical
Morningside, Associate Professor, Mount Sinai Diego Gamma Knife Center, and UASC Surgery Massachusetts General Hospital, Assistant Society of Bergen County, American College
Medical School - Icahn School of Medicine Center Professor, Orthopaedic Surgery, Harvard of Rheumatology - New Jersey Chapter, Lupus
Hospital Affiliations: Mount Sinai Morningside, Special Expertise: Robotic Radiosurgery, Medical School Foundation of New Jersey – Founder
Mount Sinai West, The Mount Sinai Hospital Minimally Invasive Spinal Surgery and Hospital Affiliations: Massachusetts General Hospital Affiliation: The Valley Hospital
Special Expertise: Hip & Knee Joint Endoscope Assisted Cranial Surgery Hospital Special Expertise: Lupus, Gout,
Replacement (Total/Partial), Degenerative Special Expertise: Degenerative Conditions Rheumatoid Arthritis, Hip/Knee Bursitis,
Arthritic Disease, Arthroscopic Surgery, of the Cervical & Lumbar Spine, Minimally Fibromyalgia, Osteoarthritis, Vasculitis,
Minimally Invasive Surgery, Osteoarthritis Invasive Spine Surgery, Image Guided Spine Osteoporosis & Bone Density, Psoriatic Arthritis
Surgery, Herniated Discs, Spinal Stenosis,
Spondylolisthesis, Spine care for the
Injured Worker

Ronald Gentile, MD Congratulations to the 2020 Castle Connolly Top Doctors award winners of Joshua Rovner, MD
Advanced Dermatology, P.C. and the Center for Laser & Cosmetic Surgery:
Gentile Retina Progressive Spine and
218 2nd Ave, NYC Orthopaedics
200 Old Country Road, 440 Curry Avenue,
Mineola NY Suite A
Englewood, NJ 07631
212.979.4120
201.227.1299
Lance Barazani Whitney Bowe Joshua Fox
MD, FAAD MD, FAAD MD, FAAD progressivespine.com
gentileretina.com Board Certified: Orthopaedic Spine Surgery
Board Certified: Ophthalmology Positions/Appointments: Twin Cities Spine
Appointments: NYU Long Island School of Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine,
Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Suny Downstate Medical School
Sinai Hospital Affiliation: HackensackUMC,
Hospital Affiliation: NYU Winthrop, New York Valerie Goldburt Meryl Joerg Hirshel Kahn Aza Lefkowitz John Troccoli Englewood Hospital, Hudson Regional Hospital
Eye and Ear of Mount Sinai, NYU Langone MD/PhD, FAAD MD, FAAD MD, FAAD MD MD, FAAD Special Expertise: Disorders of the Spine,
Special Expertise: Retina/Vitreous Surgery, Spine Surgery, Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery,
Advanced Dermatology, P.C. provides personalized treatments and aesthetic enhancements for
Diabetic Eye Disease/Retinopathy, Macular Robotic Surgery, Spine Disease Management
a variety of skin conditions for both adults and pediatric patients. Conveniently located in three
Degeneration, Retinal Disorders, Trauma, states and with over 40 locations in New York (Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, Bronx, Staten Island,
Glaucoma, Cornea & External Eye Disease, Westchester, Long Island), New Jersey (Ridgewood, Summit, Edgewater, Caldwell, Passaic,
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Dermatology, Vascular Surgery, Plastic Surgery.

advanceddermatologypc.com | Call for appointment: 888.747.5273

Daniel Nicastri, MD Congratulations to Daniel Nicastri, MD, of Mount Sinai

Nina E. Cerfolio, MD, DFAPA
Thoracic on his 2020 Castle Connolly Top Doctors award. FACLP
2020 Castle Connolly Top Doctors award
Other doctors that work at Mount Sinai Thoracic include 2 Fifth Avenue
Mount Sinai West Kimberly Song, MD and Ardeshir Hakami-Kermani, MD Suite 5
1000 Tenth Avenue New York NY 10011
New York, NY 10019
Kimberly Song, MD Ardeshir Hakami-Kermani, 917.974.1336
212.241.6845
MD
Mount Sinai Hospital Mount Sinai Morningside
1468 Madison Avenue 1111 Amsterdam Ave
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Special Expertise: Achalasia, Barrett’s Esophagus, New York, NY 10029
Mount Sinai Brooklyn Board Certified in: Psychiatry
Benign Neoplasm, Cancer Treatment, 212.241.9466
3201 Kings Highway Hospital Affiliations: Clinical Assistant Professor,
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Positions/Appointments: Assistant Professor, Special Expertise: Emotional Well-being,
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The physicians in this ad have been previously selected as Castle Connolly Top Doctors for past and current publications. While they have paid for their inclusion in today’s advertisement, they do not and cannot pay to be named as a Castle Connolly Top Doctor.For further
information, contact Lin Waterford, Manager of Physician Relations & Program Support, at lwaterford@castleconnolly.com To learn more about the Top Doctors included in this ad and other Top Doctors, visit www.castleconnolly.com
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peers for consideration as a Castle Connolly Top Doctor by visiting www.castleconnolly.com/nominations
A6 Y BW
Tracking an Outbreak U.S. Response
PREPARING FOR THE WORST
In Brooklyn, Giant Freezers for the Dead, With Room for More to Come
By SHARON OTTERMAN
At the marine terminal in South
Brooklyn this month, a sign that
said “funeral director” pointed to
the left of a vast warehouse just
past the guard gate. A row of 53-
foot refrigerated trailers, about 20
in all, sat in the black-tarred park-
ing lot. Tucked past the fashion-
able furniture warehouses of In-
dustry City and next to a crum-
bling pier building, the facility was
quiet.
New York City officials believe
this little-known site will help
them avoid a repeat of one of the
most shocking tragedies of
Covid-19’s first wave: the crush of
bodies that overwhelmed the
city’s capacity for dealing with the
dead.
The warehouses at the pier held
about 570 bodies earlier this
month, most of which have been
there frozen for months, with
room for hundreds more.
As the virus surges across the
country, states and cities have
been ordering or using refrigerat-
ed trailers for excess morgue ca-
pacity after watching New York’s
example in the spring. In Texas, 10
trailers were delivered to El Paso
in early November. In California,
Gov. Gavin Newsom announced
recently that the state had 60 re-
frigerated trailers standing by as
makeshift morgues.
But no other city yet appears to
have had a death surge so severe
that bodies have had to be held for
months on end.
New York City experienced a
harrowing wave of fatalities as it
became the global epicenter of the
virus in the spring, with 17,507
confirmed virus deaths between
March 14 and June 18. At the peak
of the pandemic in early April,
about 800 people died in a single
day.
More than 135 refrigerated
trailers were deployed to the
streets around hospitals, in what
became one of the most enduring
images of the city’s crisis. But that
was not enough. Shelves were
placed in the trailers, doubling
their capacity, as funeral directors
ran out of storage room. Cemeter-
ies and crematories could not han-
dle the load.
One Brooklyn hospital resorted
to using a forklift to lift shrouded
bodies into its morgue trailer, and
a funeral home was caught storing
dozens of decomposing bodies in
two U-Haul trucks and its visita-
tion rooms.
In an effort to ease the backlog,
the medical examiner’s office bur-
ied dozens of unclaimed bodies in
early April at Hart Island, its pot-
ter’s field. But a few weeks later, it
pivoted by transforming the huge
From left: Digging a grave at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn; a burial site for unclaimed bodies on Hart Island in the Bronx; a temporary morgue at Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center in Brooklyn.
IMMUNIZATION
Boston Doctor Reports Serious Allergic Reaction After Getting Moderna’s Shot
By KATHERINE J. WU
A Boston physician said he de-
veloped a severe allergic reaction
minutes after receiving Moder-
na’s coronavirus vaccine on
Thursday, in the first week of the
nationwide rollout for the compa-
ny’s shots.
The case was the first of its kind
reported to be linked to Moderna’s
vaccine. Federal agencies are in-
vestigating at least six cases in-
volving people who suffered ana-
phylaxis after receiving the Pfi-
zer-BioNTech vaccine, which con-
tains similar ingredients, during
the first few weeks of its distribu-
tion in the United States.
Officials with the Food and
Drug Administration and the Cen-
ters for Disease Control and Pre-
vention had discussed the reac-
tions involving some of the Pfizer
cases, but have not determined
whether an ingredient in the vac-
cine caused the allergic respons-
es. A few health care workers in
Britain had also experienced ana-
phylaxis after receiving the Pfizer
vaccine earlier this month.
The incident on Thursday in-
volved Dr. Hossein Sadrzadeh, a
geriatric oncologist at Boston
Medical Center, who has a severe
shellfish allergy and had an ap-
Denise Grady and Noah Weiland
contributed reporting.
Rows of refrigerated trailers that New York City set up at a Brooklyn pier in April to store the bodies of victims of the coronavirus.
waterfront warehouse in South
Brooklyn into a long-term freezer
storage facility for the dead — al-
lowing overwhelmed families to
hold off on retrieving bodies for
months before a Hart Island buri-
al would be considered.
“What they came up with, these
freezer containers for long-term
storage, I think is going to be the
new expectation,” said John Fu-
denberg, the executive director of
the International Association of
Coroners and Medical Examiners
and the former coroner of Las Ve-
gas. “They did it, they proved that
it works, and I think it will be the
wave of the future, because it’s a
lot more socially acceptable and
more sensitive than temporary
burial.”
How to find somewhere safe to
store hundreds of bodies for long
stretches was one of the hardest
lessons in the first wave of the cri-
sis, one that hospitals, funeral di-
rectors and the city medical exam-
iner’s office are reviewing as the
second wave of Covid-19 grows in
New York.
Last week, officials said that
public hospitals in the city had
canceled elective surgeries in or-
der to save space for the growing
SARAH BLESENER FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
pointment to get the Moderna
shot in the afternoon. In an inter-
view, Dr. Sadrzadeh said he expe-
rienced a severe reaction almost
immediately after he was inocu-
lated, feeling dizzy and with his
heart racing.
In a statement, David Kibbe, a
spokesman for Boston Medical
Center, confirmed that Dr.
Sadrzadeh had received Moder-
na’s vaccine on Thursday. The
statement said that Dr. Sadrzadeh
“felt he was developing an allergic
reaction and was allowed to self-
administer his personal EpiPen.
He was taken to the Emergency
Department, evaluated, treated,
observed and discharged. He is
doing well today.”
Ray Jordan, a spokesman for
Moderna, said on Thursday
evening that the company could
not comment publicly on an indi-
vidual case. On Friday, Mr. Jordan
added that the company’s medical
safety team would look into the
matter, and he referred further
questions to officials at Operation
Warp Speed, the federal program
overseeing vaccine distribution.
The F.D.A. would not comment
on the new report on Friday.
Tom Skinner, a spokesman for
the C.D.C., said that information
on reactions to the new vaccines
Social Media Pakistan 0345-6738217
would be posted to the agency’s
website starting next week. Belsie
THE NEW YORK TIMES, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2020
numbers of Covid patients.
Covid-19 deaths in the city are now
averaging about 35 per day, up
from an average of fewer than 10
per day in early November.
For now, a repeat as severe as
the spring appears unlikely, given
improvements in care and the ar-
rival of the vaccine, the medical
examiner and hospital officials
said recently. Hospitals are re-
porting that their internal
morgues, which tend to hold an
average of 15 bodies, were about
25 percent full in mid-December,
according to the Greater New
York Hospital Association, which
tracks that data. Funeral directors
are not yet reporting backlogs.
“In planning, we are always
ready for the worst-case scenario,
and I feel confident that we are
ready for that,” said Dr. Barbara
Sampson, the city’s chief medical
examiner. “But my expectation is
that we will not be in the kind of
place that we were in the spring. I
hope that with all my heart.”
Still, normally about 150 people
a day die per day in the city, so
adding even an extra 100 deaths a
day as a result of Covid-19 is likely
to stress the system, several fu-
neral directors said.
González, a spokeswoman for the
C.D.C., referred further questions
to local public health authorities.
With more than 1.1 million injec-
tions already delivered to arms
across the country, severe allergic
reactions remain a rarity, and
should not prompt concern in
most people, said Dr. Merin Ku-
ruvilla, an allergist and immunol-
ogist at Emory University. “This
The first severe
response linked to the
company’s vaccine.
should not deter people who are
not obviously at increased risk,”
she said.
After the initial cases accompa-
nying the Pfizer shots, the C.D.C.
issued advice that the Pfizer and
Moderna vaccines might not be
appropriate for people with a his-
tory of anaphylaxis to ingredients
in either injection. Anaphylaxis,
which typically happens within
minutes after exposure to a trig-
gering substance, can impair
breathing and cause precipitous
drops in blood pressure, poten-
tially becoming life-threatening.
The agency recommended that
“There’s just a real sense of
dread, this kind of pall hanging
over us,” said Patrick J. Kearns,
who operates three funeral homes
in Queens and one on Long Island,
and who retained his own refriger-
ated trailer after the first wave,
just in case. “We have spent a lot
of time getting supplies and set-
ting up facilities. The position we
are in now is kind of anticipation.”
Over the last few months, the
city has required each hospital to
redraw its fatality management
plans, designating surge staff for
morgues, parking spots for multi-
ple 53-foot trailers and teams to
handle paperwork and counsel
families. Some hospitals have pre-
built ramps to access the trailers,
100 of which now wait in depots.
The medical examiner has distrib-
uted thousands of heavy-duty
body bags.
But the facility that will most
make the difference in the event of
mass casualties, Dr. Sampson and
others said, is the marine termi-
nal, a city-owned concrete ex-
panse at the end of 39th Street in
Sunset Park.
After the Sept. 11 attacks, the
city’s Office of the Chief Medical
Examiner sifted rubble for human
JOHN MINCHILLO/ASSOCIATED PRESS
people with other allergies should
still get their shots and wait the
standard 15 minutes post-injec-
tion before leaving the vaccina-
tion site. Anyone who previously
had an anaphylactic reaction to a
substance, including another vac-
cine or injectable drug, should be
monitored for an extra 15 minutes.
In the case on Thursday, Dr.
Sadrzadeh said he brought his
EpiPen to his vaccine appoint-
ment because of his serious al-
lergies. He said that within min-
utes of the vaccine injection at
3:30 p.m., his heart rate had
spiked to 150 beats per minute,
about twice its normal cadence;
his tongue prickled and went
numb. Before long, he was
drenched in a cold sweat and
found himself feeling dizzy and
faint. His blood pressure also
plummeted, he said.
His immune system, he real-
ized, was in revolt.
“It was the same anaphylactic
reaction that I experience with
shellfish,” Dr. Sadrzadeh said.
Dr. Sadrzadeh used his EpiPen
and was taken on a stretcher to
the emergency room, where he
was given several medications, in-
cluding steroids and Benadryl, to
calm the immune reactions that
had overtaken his body. A record
of his visit stated that he had been
“seen in the ER for shortness of
BRENDAN M cDERMID/REUTERS
remains at the pier’s warehouses.
This time, the medical examiner,
with assistance from the federal
government, reopened the site on
April 14 as a temporary disaster
morgue for hospital deaths, days
after announcing it would stop
temporary burials of unclaimed
bodies on Hart Island.
Film footage captured by
drones of mass graves being dug
on the island in early April had
shocked the city. Families, terri-
fied of that fate, implored hospi-
tals to keep bodies longer, increas-
ing the crush there, hospital offi-
cials said.
On April 28, the city opened the
long-term freezer storage facility
at the Brooklyn pier, which can
hold at least 1,500 bodies. (The
city declined to provide a precise
capacity).
“That was a real game chang-
er,” said Jenna Mandel-Ricci, the
co-author of a Greater New York
Hospital Association report on fa-
tality management that docu-
mented lessons learned in the cri-
sis. “I hope that we don’t need it,
but knowing that it’s there, and
knowing that it’s part of the frame-
work that has been built, is incred-
ibly comforting.”
breath, dizziness, palpitations and
numbness after receiving the
Covid-19 vaccine.”
Four hours later, Dr. Sadrzadeh
was released from care. As of Fri-
day morning, he said he felt fully
recovered. But the previous day’s
events shook him. “I don’t want
anybody to go through that,” he
said.
Dr. Sadrzadeh reported his re-
action to both Moderna and a na-
tional vaccine safety surveillance
system run by the F.D.A. and the
C.D.C.
The vaccines developed by Pfi-
zer-BioNTech and Moderna are
the only ones that have been au-
thorized for emergency use so far
during the coronavirus pandemic,
with mostly health care workers
receiving top priority for immuni-
zation.
Moderna’s vaccine, like Pfi-
zer’s, is designed around a mole-
cule called messenger RNA, or
mRNA, that’s injected into the up-
per arm. Once inside human cells,
the mRNA instructs the manufac-
ture of a protein called spike,
which then teaches the immune
system to recognize and thwart
the coronavirus, should it ever in-
vade the body. Each vaccine con-
tains a handful of other ingredi-
ents that sheath the fragile mRNA
in a protective greasy bubble and
help keep the recipe stable in tran-
At the peak of the crisis, federal
disaster workers and the New
York National Guard helped to
process and store thousands of
bodies at Disaster Morgue 4, as
the marine terminal was named.
By the end of May, the pier held a
total of 2,137 bodies — 1,468 in
long-term storage and 669 in re-
frigerated trailers, the medical ex-
aminer’s office said.
As of Dec. 4, the city’s facility at
the marine terminal still held 529
bodies in long-term storage and
40 in refrigerated trailers. (The
Wall Street Journal first reported
that bodies were still being held at
the facility.)
The city has not set a time limit
on how long a body can remain
there, as long as there are discus-
sions underway with the family
for a final resting place. The serv-
ice is free, Dr. Sampson said.
She said that those held in long-
term storage there in December
were a mixture of Covid-19 and
non-Covid fatalities, which have
continued to arrive at the terminal
since May. The site, she said, is al-
leviating the strain on her office’s
regular morgues, which can hold
900 bodies, and also provides a
central place for funeral directors
to retrieve remains.
Burials at Hart Island have not
stopped, however: This year,
2,225 adults have been buried in
the city cemetery there, the most
in decades, according to the city's
Department of Correction. Now,
burials there take place either at
family request or because the bod-
ies remained unidentified or un-
claimed after an investigation of
roughly two months, the medical
examiner said.
Officials have made adjust-
ments based on what they learned
in the spring. During the first
wave, shelves were placed inside
the trailers at hospitals to double
their storage capacity. But they
were unstable and at risk of col-
lapsing if the trailers were moved.
So the city sent strike teams of Na-
tional Guard and medical examin-
er staff to hospitals to collect more
than 2,000 bodies and bring them
to the pier.
This time, the medical examin-
er has told hospitals not to install
shelves, so trailers can be towed
full to the pier, increasing efficien-
cy and decreasing the possibility
that the city could lose track of a
body.
“After what we have all been
through, with losing jobs and los-
ing loved ones, the only thing that
could make all of this worse is if
the O.C.M.E. or the funeral direc-
tor has the wrong decedent,” Dr.
Sampson said. “I will not allow
that to happen.”
DEMETRIUS FREEMAN FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
sit.
None of the ingredients in ei-
ther vaccine have been identified
as common allergens. But several
experts have cautiously pointed
to polyethylene glycol, or PEG,
which appears in both recipes, al-
beit in slightly different formula-
tions, as a possible culprit. PEG is
found in a bevy of pharmaceutical
products, including ultrasound
gel, laxatives and injectable ster-
oids, and allergies to it are ex-
tremely rare.
Dr. Kuruvilla said it remained
possible that something else was
responsible, and more investiga-
tion was needed to nail down the
cause of this smattering of events.
Dr. Kimberly Blumenthal, an al-
lergist and immunologist at Mass-
achusetts General Hospital, noted
that anaphylaxis can sometimes
be difficult to confirm without
blood work that hunts for an en-
zyme called tryptase, which is re-
leased during allergic reactions.
It’s essential, she added, for there
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to be protocols in place so similar
cases can be investigated further.
According to data filings from
its late-stage clinical trials, Mod-
erna did not report any links be-
tween its vaccine and anaphy-
laxis. But when products emerge
from closely monitored studies
into broad distribution, rare side
effects can occur.

Tracking an Outbreak The New Reality
Shao Neis was among the few people at Grand Central Terminal
on Friday. Some New Yorkers tried to keep to family traditions.
NEW YORK CITY
Resilience Permeates
On Pandemic Holiday
By MICHAEL GOLD
and TÉA KVETENADZE
There was no Santa Claus at the
flagship Macy’s store, no Rock-
ettes dazzling audiences with sky-
high kicks at Radio City Music
Hall. Broadway stayed dark
through what is usually its busiest
season, and with tourism severely
diminished, there was so much
room at New York’s inns that
many hotels had to close.
Amid a pandemic that has killed
thousands of New Yorkers while
upending the rhythms of daily life
indefinitely, the holiday cheer that
typically buoys city residents
through dark winters and fills the
streets with tourists has been
muted this year.
Still, New Yorkers’ resilience
was evident on Christmas Day,
with some people determined to
observe the holiday largely as
they always have, though with al-
terations to accommodate current
circumstances.
Despite gray skies and a steady
drizzle, people in masks strolled in
Central Park and ambled along
Fifth Avenue to gawk at holiday
window displays. Christmas Mass
was still celebrated at St. Patrick’s
Cathedral, with attendance lim-
ited.
Although the area’s bus and
train stations were remarkably
quiet — a sign that people were
heeding the repeated urgings of
federal and local officials not to
travel — a small number of resi-
dents were leaving the city to be
with loved ones.
“I feel like it’s important to visit
family in times like this,” said
Christian Deleon, one of the few
people on the platforms at the
Metro-North Railroad’s 125th
Street Station. He was toting bags
of gifts that he was taking to his
brother and sister-in-law in Con-
necticut.
Robert Lima, 35, and Curtis
Engelhart, 33, were on their way
from Astoria to visit relatives in
Danbury, Conn. Standing at the
station in colorful Christmas-
themed sweaters, a Corgi
strapped to Mr. Engelhart’s back,
they said they were determined to
keep the holiday bright.
“We’re just trying to make the
most of it in small ways,” Mr. Lima
said. “Trying to keep the spirit
alive as much as possible. Each
day feels the same. Anything to
make the day feel a little bit spe-
cial.”
The weather added its own
wrinkle to some holiday celebra-
tions. Overnight, driving rain and
fierce wind gusts knocked out
power in much of the region. Con
Edison said that more than 22,000
customers in New York City and
the Westchester County suburbs
had lost electricity. By 5 p.m.,
more than 5,000 customers, most
of them in Westchester, were still
without service.
In New Jersey, more than
75,000 households woke up
Christmas morning without
power, officials there said, as did
30,000 in Connecticut. It was un-
clear whether all those who had
lost power would get it back by
day’s end.
The outages threatened to cast
even more of a pall on Christmas
plans that had already been dark-
Sarah Maslin Nir and Brian M. Ro-
senthal contributed reporting.
Santa Claus may not have been visiting children at Macy’s in
Herald Square, but the store’s windows still attracted admirers.
THE NEW YORK TIMES, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2020 Y A7
ened by the pandemic’s shadow.
Coronavirus cases have been ris-
ing in the region for weeks, as
have hospitalizations and deaths
linked to the virus.
On Friday, Gov. Andrew M.
Cuomo said there had been 122 vi-
rus-related deaths in the day pri-
or. Mayor Bill de Blasio reported
the city’s seven-day average pos-
itive test rate was 6.69 percent, PHOTOGRAPHS BY BRITTAINY NEWMAN FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
the highest since late May, when Yude Guingnard near the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree on Friday. People strolled through the city on a gray and drizzly holiday.
testing was far less widespread
and New York was emerging from
a monthslong lockdown. If the
seven-day positive rate hits 9 per-
cent, the city’s schools must close
under state guidelines.
Mr. Cuomo and Mr. de Blasio
have urged residents to avoid holi-
day gatherings outside their own
homes and have pleaded with
Prices go up Monday, December 28
them to avoid traveling. Both ac-
tions, the governor and the mayor
warn, could cause another dan-
gerous spike in virus cases that
would force nonessential busi-
nesses to shut down again.
Shakira Lewis, 24, said her fam-
ily had heeded the warnings.
There are usually at least 20 peo-
ple at their annual Christmas cele-
bration in New Jersey; this year,
the limit was 10.
“It wasn’t exactly the same, but
it was still fun,” she said on Friday
afternoon as she stood in the Port
Authority Bus Terminal, which
was mostly empty. “It’s important
to celebrate.”
Even those who were observing
more secular traditions tried to
hold to them in some way. Nick
Resnick, 27, and two childhood
friends from Birmingham, Mich.,
met in Manhattan’s Chinatown to
DESIGNER
partake in a longstanding tradi-
tion among Jewish people: eating
Chinese food on Christmas.
“I’m excited we even get to do
this,“ Mr. Resnick said through his
mask, gesturing to the damp
streets. “This is beautiful.”
In addition to hurting business
SALE
owners, the economic damage
created by the pandemic has also
exacerbated the harsh conditions
experienced by the city’s neediest
residents.
Volunteers and workers at the
Harlem headquarters of the Rev.
Al Sharpton’s National Action
Network, which has fed hungry
New Yorkers on Christmas for
%
75
decades, said the number of peo-
ple seeking meals this year was
practically unprecedented.
Katrina Jefferson, who has or-
ganized the Christmas event for
six years, said that when she first
started, the group would serve
about 600 people. By the end of
Friday, she said she expected that
nearly 3,000 people would be fed
at this year’s event.
Up to
“The need this year is astro-
nomically higher,” Ms. Jefferson,
41, said.
New Yorkers lined up down the
block to wait for meals or toys,
some of which Mr. de Blasio
*
OFF
handed out. Among those who
were waiting was Sidney Jones, a
food service worker who cur-
rently lives in a homeless shelter.
Mr. Jones said the pandemic had
kept him from traveling to see
family members outside the city.
Still, despite a hard year, he said
he was determined to keep a
shred of hope.
“2021’s got to be better,” Mr.
Jones, 49, said. He added: “Every-
body’s holding on by a thread.”
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unless merchandise is marked down within 7 days of being purchased at original price. Excludes Saks OFF 5TH
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stores and saksoff5th.com. Prices at saks.com already reflect reduction.
A8 Y +
Tracking an Outbreak The Mutation and the Recession
IMPOSING RESTRICTIONS
U.S. Will Require Negative Coronavirus Test for All Travelers From the U.K.
By RUSSELL GOLDMAN
and ISABELLA KWAI
The United States will require
all airline passengers arriving
from Britain to test negative for
the coronavirus within 72 hours of
their departure, the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention
said on Thursday.
The move comes as a new
highly transmissible variant of
the virus, which first appeared in
Britain, has led more than 50
countries to seal their borders to
travelers from there or to impose
restrictions on their arrival.
The new rule, which takes effect
on Monday, will apply to Ameri-
cans as well as foreign citizens,
and will require passengers to
show proof of a negative result on
a genetic test, known as a P.C.R.,
or an antigen test.
“This additional testing re-
quirement will fortify our protec-
tion of the American public to im-
prove their health and safety and
ensure responsible international
travel,” the C.D.C. said in a state-
ment.
Passengers will be required to
“provide written documentation
of their laboratory test result (in
hard copy or electronic) to the air-
line,” the C.D.C. said, adding that
“if a passenger chooses not to take
a test, the airline must deny
boarding to the passenger.”
The new rules were a reversal
for the Trump administration,
which initially told American air-
liners that the government would
not require testing for travelers
from Britain.
United Airlines, Virgin Atlantic
and Delta Air Lines had already
announced similar policies, re-
quiring all passengers on their
flights between Britain and the
United States to submit proof of a
negative test result within 72
hours of departure. British Air-
ways had also been requiring neg-
ative test results for passengers
arriving in New York.
The announcement from the
United States adds another layer
of difficulty for Britons hoping to
travel. Nonessential travel will
also be banned within much of
Britain starting on Saturday, new
restrictions further limit socializ-
ing, and schools and universities
might soon have to close.
The British Foreign Office up-
dated its travel advice online on
Friday to warn travelers of the
Vivian Wang contributed report-
ing.
GLOBAL ECONOMY
Poorer Nations, Left at Back of Line to Get the Vaccine, Risk Falling Further Behind
From Page A1
mains largely under control of
large pharmaceutical companies
in the advanced economies.”
International aid organizations,
philanthropists and wealthy na-
tions have coalesced around a
promise to ensure that all coun-
tries gain the tools needed to fight
the pandemic, like protective gear
for medical teams as well as tests,
therapeutics and vaccines. But
they have failed to back their as-
surances with enough money.
The leading initiative, the Act-
Accelerator Partnership — an un-
dertaking of the World Health Or-
ganization and the Bill and Melin-
da Gates Foundation, among oth-
ers — has secured less than $5 bil-
lion of a targeted $38 billion.
A group of developing countries
led by India and South Africa
sought to increase the supply of
vaccines by manufacturing their
own, ideally in partnership with
the pharmaceutical companies
that have produced the leading
versions. In a bid to secure lever-
age, the group has proposed that
the World Trade Organization
waive traditional protections on
intellectual property, allowing
poor countries to make affordable
versions of the vaccines.
The W.TO. operates on consen-
sus. The proposal has been
blocked by the United States, Brit-
ain and the European Union,
where pharmaceutical companies
wield political influence. The in-
dustry argues that patent protec-
tions and the profits they derive
are a requirement for the innova-
tion that yields lifesaving medi-
cines.
Proponents of suspending pat-
ents note that many blockbuster
drugs are brought to market via
government-financed research,
arguing that this creates an im-
perative to place social good at the
heart of policy.
“The question is really, ‘Is this a
time to profit?’ ” said Mustaqeem
De Gama, councilor at the South
African mission to the W.T.O. in
Geneva. “We have seen govern-
ments closing down economies,
limiting freedoms, yet intellectual
property is seen to be so sacro-
sanct that this cannot be touched.”
In the wealthy nations that have
secured access to vaccines, relief
new testing requirement. “We are
in close contact with U.S. authori-
ties and working urgently to min-
imize disruption as far as possi-
ble,” the office said in a statement.
“British travelers should follow
the U.S. authorities’ guidance, and
speak to their airlines for the lat-
est travel options in the first in-
stance.”
People traveling immediately
after the holiday may face uncer-
tainty: Many private testing clin-
ics and labs are closed on Christ-
mas Day, so testing within the 72-
hour window may prove difficult,
especially for the P.C.R. screen-
ing, which must be sent to a lab
and can take several days to
process.
The rapid antigen test, a rela-
tively new tool to detect the virus,
Vials of vaccine at Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia. Wealthy nations have vowed to
help all countries battle the pandemic but have failed to back their assurances with enough money.
from the economic disaster
brought on by the public health
emergency is underway. The re-
strictions that have shut down
businesses could be lifted, bring-
ing meaningful economic benefits
as soon as March or April.
For the moment, the picture is
bleak. The United States, the
world’s largest economy, has suf-
fered death tolls equivalent to a 9/
11 every day, making a return to
normalcy appear distant. Major
economies like Britain, France
and Germany are under fresh
lockdowns as the virus maintains
momentum.
But after contracting 4.2 per-
cent this year, the global economy
appears set to expand by 5.2 per-
cent next year, according to Ox-
ford Economics. That forecast as-
sumes annual growth of 4.2 per-
cent in the United States and a 7.8
percent expansion in China, the
world’s second-largest economy,
where government action has
controlled the virus.
Europe will remain a laggard,
given the prevalence of the virus,
according to IHS Markit, with the
Social Media Pakistan 0345-6738217
continent’s economy not return-
THE NEW YORK TIMES, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2020
ing to its precrisis size for two
years. But a deal struck between
Britain and the European Union
on Thursday, preserving much of
their trading relationship after
Brexit, has eased the worst fears
about a slowdown in regional
commerce.
But by 2025, the long-term eco-
nomic damage from the pandemic
will be twice as severe in so-called
emerging markets compared with
wealthy countries, according to
Oxford Economics.
Such forecasts are notoriously
inexact. A year ago, no one was
predicting a calamitous pan-
demic. The variables now con-
fronting the global economy are
especially enormous.
The production of vaccines is
fraught with challenges that could
limit supply, while their endur-
ance and effectiveness are not
fully understood. The economic
recovery will be shaped by ques-
tions of psychology. After the most
profound shock in memory, how
will societies exercise their free-
dom to move about once the virus
is tamed? Will people liberated
from lockdowns pack together in
HANNAH YOON FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
One proponent of
suspending drug
patents asks, ‘Is this
a time to profit?’
movie theaters and on airplanes?
Any lingering disinclination to-
ward human congregation is
likely to limit growth in the leisure
and hospitality industries, which
are major employers.
The pandemic has accelerated
the advance of e-commerce, leav-
ing traditional brick-and-mortar
retailers in an especially weak-
ened state. If an enduring sense of
anxiety prompts shoppers to
avoid malls, that could limit job
growth. Online retailers like Ama-
zon have aggressively embraced
automation, meaning that an in-
crease in business does not neces-
sarily translate into quality jobs.
Many economists assume that
as the vaccines ease fear, people
will surge toward experiences
that have been off limits, throng-
gives a result in around 30 min-
utes, but it is not as widely avail-
able, although it is cheaper.
Heathrow Airport, for example,
charges passengers about $130
for P.C.R. results with 48 hours
and about $60 for antigen tests
with results within 45 minutes.
Both tests are offered at major
British airports — including
Heathrow and Gatwick, London’s
two major hubs, and Manchester
Airport — but passengers must
register in advance. It was un-
clear how many would be able to
procure a test and get a result in
time for travel.
The introduction of new travel
restrictions led to concerns that
travelers to the United States
would flock to the airport, as Lon-
doners did at train stations last
ing restaurants, sporting events
and holiday destinations. House-
holds have saved up as they have
canceled vacations and enter-
tained themselves at home.
“If people’s spirits are eased,
and some of the restrictions are
lifted, you could see a spending
splurge,” said Ben May, a global
economist at Oxford Economics in
London. “A lot of this will be about
the speed and degree to which
people go back to more normal be-
haviors. That’s very hard to
know.”
But many developing countries
will find themselves effectively in-
habiting a different planet.
The United States has secured
claims on as many as 1.5 billion
doses of vaccine, while the Euro-
pean Union has locked up nearly
two billion doses — enough to vac-
cinate all of their citizens and then
some. Many poor countries could
be left waiting until 2024 to fully
vaccinate their populations.
High debt burdens limit the
ability of many poor countries to
pay for vaccines. Private creditors
have declined to take part in a
debt suspension initiative cham-
pioned by the Group of 20.
Promised aid from the World
Bank and the International Mone-
tary Fund has proved disappoint-
ing. At the I.M.F., the Trump ad-
ministration has opposed an ex-
pansion of so-called special draw-
ing rights — the basic currency of
the institution — depriving poor
countries of additional resources.
“The international response to
the pandemic has essentially been
pitiful,” said Mr. Kozul-Wright at
the U.N. trade body. “We are wor-
ried that as we move into the dis-
tribution of the vaccines, we are
going to see the same again.”
One element of the Act-Acceler-
ator partnership, known as Co-
vax, is meant to allow poor coun-
tries to buy vaccines at affordable
prices, but it collides with the re-
ality that production is both lim-
ited and controlled by profit-
minded companies that are an-
swerable to shareholders.
“Most people in the world live in
countries where they rely on Co-
vax for access to vaccines,” said
Mark Eccleston-Turner, an expert
on international law and infec-
tious diseases at Keele University
in England. “That is an extraordi-
Saturday when tighter domestic
rules were announced. But em-
ployees at Heathrow on Friday de-
scribed a normal, if quieter,
stream of passengers typical of
Christmas Day, with most appear-
ing to travel on long-haul flights.
Several airlines had already an-
nounced policies requiring proof
of a negative test after a demand
from Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of
New York that passengers arriv-
ing from London to John F. Ken-
nedy International Airport would
need to provide documentation of
a negative test result.
“We can’t let history repeat it-
self with this new variant,” Mr.
Cuomo had written on Twitter.
Also on Thursday, Gov. Phil
Murphy of New Jersey said that
passengers arriving at Newark
Airport would need negative tests
within 72 hours of departure to en-
ter.
The American travel require-
ments are less draconian than
those of other countries in Europe
and Asia, which barred all trav-
elers from Britain after the new
coronavirus variant emerged. Ex-
perts are skeptical that travel
bans can stop the spread of the
variant. In fact, Dr. Anthony S.
Fauci, the top U.S. infectious dis-
ease expert, said there was a good
chance that the variant was al-
ready in the country.
“I don’t think that that kind of a
draconian approach is necessary,”
he said of a travel ban on “PBS
NewsHour.” “I think we should se-
riously consider the possibility of
requiring testing of people before
they come from the U.K. here.”
Over 4.8 million British resi-
dents visited the United States in
2019, according to Britain’s Office
of National Statistics.
A recent study by British scien-
tists found no evidence that the
variant was more deadly than oth-
ers. But the researchers estimat-
ed that it was 56 percent more
contagious. The country also an-
nounced a ban on travel from
South Africa after the health sec-
retary, Matt Hancock, said two
people had been discovered with
another variant that emerged in
the African country. Another vari-
ant has also emerged in Nigeria.
But concerns over the variant
still led governments to impose
restrictions on travel from Britain.
A French ban on both travelers
and freight led to blockages at the
port of Dover for 48 hours, leaving
thousands of truck drivers
stranded even as the ban was
lifted on Wednesday.
nary market failure. Access to
vaccines is not based on need. It’s
based on the ability to pay, and Co-
vax doesn’t fix that problem.”
On Dec. 18, Covax leaders an-
nounced a deal with pharmaceuti-
cal companies aimed at providing
low- and middle-income countries
with nearly two billion doses of
vaccines. The arrangement,
which centers on vaccine candi-
dates that have not yet gained ap-
proval, would provide enough
doses to vaccinate one-fifth of the
populations in 190 participating
countries by the end of next year.
India is home to pharmaceuti-
cal manufacturers that are pro-
ducing vaccines for multinational
companies including As-
traZeneca, but its population is
unlikely to be fully vaccinated be-
fore 2024, according to TS Lom-
bard, an investment research firm
in London. Its economy is likely to
remain vulnerable.
Even if masses of people in poor
countries do not gain access to
vaccines, their economies are
likely to receive some spillover
benefits from wealthier nations’
return to normal. In a world
shaped by inequality, growth can
coincide with inequity.
As consumer power resumes in
North America, Europe and East
Asia, that will drive demand for
commodities, rejuvenating cop-
per mines in Chile and Zambia,
and lifting exports of soybeans
harvested in Brazil and Ar-
gentina. Tourists will eventually
return to Thailand, Indonesia and
Turkey.
But some argue that the rav-
ages of the pandemic in poor
countries, largely unchecked by
vaccines, could limit economic
fortunes globally. If the poorest
countries do not gain vaccines, the
global economy will surrender
$153 billion a year in output, ac-
cording to a recent study from the
RAND Corporation.
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“You need to vaccinate health
care workers globally so you can
reopen global markets,” said Clare
Wenham, a health policy expert at
the London School of Economics.
“If every country in the world can
say, ‘We know all our vulnerable
people are vaccinated,’ then we
can return to the global capitalist
trading system much quicker.”

Tracking an Outbreak Global Response
Dr. Jessica Du Preez and Lulama Ndzuzo, a nurse, checking on a patient at a field hospital in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, that was constructed within an old Volkswagen plant.
AFRICA
Fears of Apathy as Deadly Threat Resurges
From Page A1
pare for the worst.”
But many African governments pur-
sued swift, severe lockdowns that — while
financially ruinous, especially for their
poorest citizens — slowed the rate of infec-
tion. Some deployed networks of commu-
nity health workers. The Africa C.D.C., the
W.H.O. and other agencies helped expand
Photos by
testing and moved in protective gear, med-
SAMANTHA
ical equipment and pharmaceuticals.
REINDERS
The reported toll of the pandemic on the
for The New
continent — 2.6 million cases and 61,000
York Times
deaths, according to the Africa C.D.C. — is
lower than what the United States alone
currently experiences in three weeks.
But that accounting is almost certainly
incomplete. Evidence is growing that
many cases were missed, according to an
analysis of new studies, visits to nearly a
dozen medical institutions and interviews
with more than 100 public health officials,
scientists, government leaders and medi-
cal providers on the continent.
“It is possible and very likely that the
rate of exposure is much more than what
has been reported,” Dr. Nkengasong said
in an interview.
Now, as they battle new outbreaks, doc-
tors are convinced that deaths have also
gone uncounted. Dr. John Black, the only
infectious-disease specialist for adults in
Port Elizabeth, said he and other physi-
cians feared that many people were dying
at home. Indeed, a government analysis
showed that there had been more than
twice as many excess deaths as could be
explained by confirmed cases in South Af-
rica. “We don’t know what the real number
is,” he said.
Scientists are also considering other ex-
planations for the continent’s outcome.
These range from the asymptomatic or
mild infections more common in youth —
the median age in Africa is just 19.7, about
half that of the United States — to unprov-
en factors including pre-existing immuni-
ty, patterns of mobility and climate. If
those conditions helped protect against
the virus earlier, officials ask, will they do
so now?
In South Africa, the continent’s leader
Social Media Pakistan 0345-6738217
THE NEW YORK TIMES, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2020 Y A9
ty displaced by drought and war, a fourth
SPAIN TURKEY grader readily identified the United States
as having the most cases. “Donald Trump
was Covid-19-positive,” he said.
TU
UNISIA
U IRAN
MORO
O CCO Sarah Oyangi, 35, an apartment com-
plex manager who lives in what she refers
to as a slum in Nairobi, said friends told her
they weren’t worried because the virus “is
EGYPT SAUDI for wazungu and the rich,” using a Swahili
ARABIA
word meaning European or white people.
“It’s not our disease.”
SUDAN
Dr. Nkengasong said he was very wor-
ried about how long it would take to vacci-
SENE
EGA
AL Khartoum
SOMA
SOMALILAND
S D nate enough people on the continent to
protect the most vulnerable from unwit-
NIGERIA Hargeis
g sa ting spreaders.
A global effort to help low- and middle-
AFRICA Mog
ogadishu income countries aims for 20 percent cov-
UGAND
DA erage at most by the end of 2021, a third of
K E N YA SOM
OMALIA
what African leaders say is needed. “The
Nairoob
obi
o U.S. is not going to target 20 percent of its
population. Europe is not going to target
20 percent of its population,” he said. “Why
do you think in Africa we should?”
South Atlantic
Ocean
The First Wave
The first case on the continent was de-
tected on Feb. 14 in a foreign traveler from
NAMIBIA China to Egypt. Two weeks later, Nigeria
discovered that a contractor who had
COUNTRIES AMONG
THE TOP 50 IN COVID DEATHS Johan
nnes
n nesburg flown in from Milan was ill. In South Afri-
ca, the earliest cases involved a half-dozen
SOUTH Durban or so people who had gone skiing in Italy.
AFRICA The W.H.O.’s regional director for Africa
Cape Town Port Elizabeth reported on March 19 that infected trav-
200 MILES elers from Europe had come into 27 or 28
countries.
THE NEW YORK TIMES
Early on in sub-Saharan Africa, only
Many African nations responded to the pandemic with stringent South Africa and Senegal had supplies to
lockdowns and a testing push. But a second wave is hitting hard. perform diagnostic tests, but with aid, ev-
ery country on the continent was later able
to do some testing.
As the virus overwhelmed the West’s
by far in coronavirus cases and deaths, the wave could be far worse than its first.
growing devastation in its medical system “The risk perception has gone from advanced health systems, governments
across Africa, with some notable excep-
has led to the rationing of care for older something very scary at the beginning to
tions, imposed stringent curfews and lock-
adults. Last week, officials announced that now something people are not worried
downs. Some countries had only a few
a new variant of the virus that may be as- about anymore,” said Dr. Chikwe Ihek-
cases at the time; Zimbabwe declared a
sociated with faster transmission has be- weazu, director-general of the Nigeria national disaster without having an-
come dominant. With stricter control Center for Disease Control. nounced one.
measures lifted and many people no long- Some Africans view Covid-19 as an af- “They went into shutdown because we
er seeing the virus as a threat, public fliction of Westerners and wealthy trav-
health officials fear that Africa’s second elers. In a classroom in a Somali communi- Continued on Following Page
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Above, a rapid test being administered outside Port Elizabeth,
from where a crush of new cases is spreading across South Af-
rica. At left, Netcare Greenacres Hospital’s 16-bed intensive
care unit was at capacity, and its only pulmonologist was at-
tending to nearly 40 coronavirus patients a day.
A10 Y THE NEW YORK TIMES, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2020

Tracking an Outbreak Global Response

A Continental Shutdown Strategy Collides With an Economic Reality

problem throughout Africa — the hospital documented. of Somalia, from which Somaliland declared its
From Preceding Page bought tanks from an industrial supplier, built a With widely varying rates of testing and data independence in 1991 after a civil war.
were terribly ill prepared,” Dr. Nkengasong Rube Goldberg-like network of pipes to the iso- collection across the continent, public health of- Determining the death toll is especially chal-
said. But that desperate action may have put lation wards, and assigned technicians to ficials are struggling to assess the pandemic’s lenging. Only a third of the nations on the conti-
Africa ahead of the curve in fighting the virus, switch out empties around the clock. reach. In more than a half-dozen countries, nent record and report annual deaths, accord-
instead of behind it, as the United States and Somalia exploited one advantage: a system antibody tests suggest that the virus has ing to the U.N. Economic Commission for Afri-
Europe found themselves. of hundreds of polio workers that extended spread far more widely than reported, accord- ca, many not meeting international standards.
Dozens of African health ministers agreed on from the capital to remote rural areas. Em- ing to research involving blood donors, preg- But South Africa offers clues. An estimated
a continental strategy in February, coordinat- ployed by the W.H.O., they were redirected to nant women, H.I.V.-positive people and hospi- 60,000 more people have died there than would
ing closely through the Africa C.D.C. West Afri- inform people about the pandemic and help tal staff. normally be expected; fewer than half have
can nations also built on lessons from the Ebola identify cases. Community workers have de- Many African countries are planning much been attributed to Covid-19. Disrupted health
response in 2014 and 2015. tected about 40 percent its 4,690 known infec- broader sampling. But financial and political services may account for some of them, but re-
South Africa shut schools, curbed travel from tions, according to Dr. Malik, the W.H.O. repre- realities often cause delays. That happened in searchers believe that many fatal Covid cases
high-risk countries and restricted mass gather- sentative. Hargeisa, Somaliland, when health officials one have gone undetected.
ings. “For the first three weeks, our epidemic But about half the country was not reporting recent morning debated which districts should Older adults, people with chronic health con-
was growing on track, almost case for case, any cases at all. Laboratory workers fanned bear the cost of notepads, pens, pencils and ditions and those admitted to public, rather
with the British epidemic,” said Dr. Salim S. Ab- out; in terrain controlled by the Shabab terror- cellphone airtime. than private, institutions are more likely to die,
dool Karim, a top infectious-disease expert. ist group, some were driven away. Elsewhere, Participants also objected that some areas according to the country’s National Institute
Then “the pandemic just turned,” he added. “It they found a high number of cases in several were excluded from the survey, which they at- for Communicable Diseases. White South Afri-
slowed.” districts where the virus had never before been tributed to planners in Mogadishu, the capital cans have been hospitalized for the coronavirus
Later, the country prohibited alcohol sales,
which led to a drop in car accidents, assaults
and shootings, freeing up hospital capacity to
treat Covid patients. The police and military en-
forced the measures, arresting thousands and
killing several. In one case, soldiers found a
man drinking in a yard with a friend and alleg-
edly beat him so severely he later died.
Eventually, the government eased the re-
strictions, finding the economic cost too steep.
Cases soared and hospitals were pummeled.
South Africa brought in outside help: 200 phy-
sicians from Cuba, medical staff from Doctors
Without Borders and scientists from the W.H.O.
By late August, the numbers dropped.
Roughly 3,000 miles away, and at the other
end of the economic spectrum, Somalia had
also imposed a lockdown. The country had a 70
percent poverty rate; the restrictions hit sub-
sistence workers hard and also delayed child-
hood vaccinations. “African countries have fol-
lowed the footsteps of all the other countries
without understanding if it’s the best thing to
do,” said Dr. Mamunur Rahman Malik, the
W.H.O. representative in Somalia.
Closed borders and canceled domestic flights
impeded the flow of lifesaving equipment and
outside experts. Soon, about 150 health facili-
ties in far-flung rural areas ran out of medical
supplies, and international agencies had to
charter flights to keep them stocked.
The agencies also felt obliged to send ventila-
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tors, costing up to $25,000 each, to poorly

equipped countries. But Somalia, which has
one of the lowest ratios of doctors and nurses to
population in the world, did not have enough
personnel trained to operate them.
That was the case with De Martino, a Covid
hospital in Mogadishu, which had no I.C.U. or
even basic fever medicine, according to its di-

SocialAbdiraxan
rector, Dr. Abdirizak Yusuf Ahmed. Unable to
secure medical oxygen for its patients — a Media Pakistan
Ali Warsame, 0345-6738217
a public health officer, visited a primary school in Hargeisa, where children are given masks on a daily basis.

at higher rates than their share of the popula-
tion, probably because of their higher average
age. But the institute found that when control-
ling for age, Black, Indian and mixed-race
South Africans were more likely than white
South Africans to die of the disease in hospitals.
Still, experts generally believe that fatalities
on the continent are far lower than in the West,
potentially for reasons beyond demographics.
For instance, countries that regularly immu-
nize babies with a tuberculosis vaccine also
tend to have lower coronavirus mortality,
though a causative link has yet to be proved.
To achieve widespread immunity, more tar-
geted vaccines are needed, like those now
rolling out in the United States and Europe.
Most African countries have not struck direct
deals with Western vaccine makers, though
some are importing Chinese-made vaccines
not yet vetted by stringent regulators. The con-
tinent itself has little vaccine-manufacturing
capacity. Biovac, a company in Cape Town, was
trying to find a partner and would need up to a
year to begin filling vials.
But Africans have played an important role
in developing coronavirus vaccines. In Durban,
Senzo Maloyi, 30, volunteered for a clinical trial
of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, as part of the
United States’ Operation Warp Speed. “By us
participating, if it does go well, we’ll be helping
a lot of people,” he said. There was no guaran-
tee, though, that those who’d be helped would
be in South Africa.
A Rattled Health System
Last month, South African officials thought
they had a brief opportunity to douse hot spots
of infection in the Eastern Cape before they
spread across the country.
Crowded post offices, college dormitory par-
ties and migrant farmer encampments were
potential sources of outbreaks. So were the tra-
ditional three-week initiation retreats where an
expected 50,000 18-year-old boys would un-
dergo circumcision in December and January.
The government imposed a nighttime curfew
in Port Elizabeth and limited alcohol sales and
the size of gatherings. A proposal to screen
nearly all adults in the most affected areas,
though, was dropped after a pilot project
strained labs.
Meanwhile, cases mounted, highlighting the
health system’s inequalities. Most South Afri-
cans rely on public health services; only 14 per-
cent get medical care from better-endowed pri-
vate providers. In Port Elizabeth one recent
day, 57 of the 59 patients on ventilators were in
private hospitals.
Even the private sector was hard-pressed in
the outbreak. Dr. Hlanjwa Maepa, the sole pul-
monologist at Netcare Greenacres Hospital,
THE NEW YORK TIMES, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2020
The nurse Randa Hasan Mohamed, left, taking a patient out for some fresh air at the Atu Daryeel Hospital in Hargeisa,
Somaliland. Above middle, a community health care worker near Hargeisa. Mahad Yusuf Kahiye, below, works 12-hour
shifts keeping oxygen bottles filled at the De Martino hospital in Mogadishu, Somalia. In many parts of Africa, medical
equipment and those with the knowledge to use it are scarce, and the job of disseminating information can be daunting.
spent her day attending to nearly 40 coronavi-
rus patients, inserting breathing tubes and
catheters.
The hospital was not proning Covid pneumo-
nia patients — turning them on their bellies —
even though evidence shows that it improves
oxygen levels and reduces the need for ventila-
tors. “We don’t have enough manpower to do
it,” Dr. Maepa said.
The 16-bed I.C.U. was full, and she shifted pa-
tients like puzzle pieces to make space for the
sickest. A wealthy executive begged her to save
him because his affairs were not in order, ask-
ing to buy his own ventilator and be treated at
home. A middle-aged man sobbed as he visited
his dying wife. “There’s a mountain coming,
and I may not be able to get over it with her,” Dr.
Maepa told him. “But we’re trying either way.”
The scene inside two of the city’s public hos-
pitals was more dire. Dozens of medical work-
ers were out sick, and patients stayed hours,
sometimes days, in crowded observation
rooms awaiting ward admission. One aging
hospital, Dora Nginza, lacked an I.C.U. and was
rushing to finish a renovation because it could
not properly isolate patients. The physician in
charge, Dr. Lokuthula Maphalala, spent her
shift pushing stretchers and lifting patients.
The other public hospital, Livingstone, had to
refuse most patients who needed transfer to
the I.C.U. “These cases and faces come back to
you,” said its director, Dr. Lizette van der
Merwe.
Social Media Pakistan 0345-6738217
The caretaker of the Baqiic cemetery in Hargeisa says there has been a rise in bodies be-
ing brought for burial. Doctors believe many coronavirus deaths have gone unreported.
At the nearby field hospital in Port Elizabeth,
doctors were forced to ration. Dr. Black, the in-
fectious-disease specialist, saw that a 84-year-
old man had been placed on a high-flow oxygen
device, a decision he said was “completely
against” the protocol tacked to a wall, labeled
“Allocation of Scarce Critical Care Resources
During the COVID-19 Public Health Emer-
gency.”
“If I need it, I’m going to take it away from
him, because he’s not a great candidate,” Dr.
Black said.
According to the guidelines, patients more
than “mildly frail” at baseline, including those
who “often have problems with stairs” and
need minimal help with dressing, were to be de-
nied critical care. Other patients were to be di-
vided into low-, medium- and high-priority
groups based on pre-existing conditions and
degree of illness, with age groups as a
tiebreaker.
In practice the procedure was cruder. If
you’re 60 with another health condition, “the
chance of you getting into an I.C.U. is close to
zero,” Dr. Black said. “I have patients dying
here in their 30s who couldn’t get into a hospi-
tal, and now I.C.U.s are full.”
That night, the nursing staff wound through
the wards singing hymns and the Lord’s Pray-
er. A nurse who sang in her church choir beat an
empty water bottle against a cardboard box la-
beled for compliments and complaints.
Y A11
‘Killing People Silently’
In Howlwadaag, a rubble-filled settlement in
Hargeisa for Somali and Ethiopian refugees
displaced by conflict and drought, the risks of
transmission were evident. Residents live
among prickly cacti, sleeping in crowded corru-
gated sheet metal shacks and rounded cloth-
covered dwellings. Polio outreach workers ad-
vised residents to sleep separately if sick and
wash their hands often. But community mem-
bers said they could not afford soap.
A woman complaining of a cough and diffi-
culty breathing rejected the advice of health
workers to go to the hospital one day this
month. “I’m afraid of people not being able to
come see me,” said Khadra Mahdi Abdi, adding
that the price of transport was too steep.
In the region, the pandemic often inspires de-
nial. Restaurants are busy, social distancing
rare, large family gatherings common. Mask
wearing carries a stigma.
“People are watching you and point their fin-
gers at you and say, ‘This is corona man,’ ” said
Hassan Warsame Nor, a senior lecturer at Be-
nadir University, in Mogadishu, who led a
Unicef study of attitudes in Somalia’s capital.
And resisting medical treatment is routine.
At Hargeisa’s designated Covid hospital,
Daryeel, five patients separated by empty met-
al frame beds lay beside hissing oxygen tanks,
with handwritten medication orders taped to
the walls. Nurses swatted away flies that flew
in through windows facing a courtyard, where
patients were sometimes rolled for a dose of
sunshine and bird song. Most had a family
member attending them, which the hospital di-
rector, Dr. Yusuf M. Ahmed, felt compelled to
allow.
He said that about 80 percent of patients
scheduled for transfer to Daryeel after testing
positive at the main public hospital never
showed up. People were dying at home. “The
virus is now killing people silently,” said Dr.
Hussein Abdillahi Ali, a junior physician there.
Judging by the condolence pages on Face-
book, the director said, Covid-19 has come back
“with a vengeance.”
At least two of those hospitalized that day lat-
er died. “Patients are coming at a late stage,” he
said. “It’s much harder than the first round.”
At the Baqiic cemetery on the outskirts of
Hargeisa, about 50 men and boys gathered at a
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grave site this month to bury a family matri-
arch who had died of unknown causes. Their
shovels hit the ground in a frenzy, causing a
plume of earth to rise in the air like smoke.
A caretaker at the cemetery’s entrance
produced a notebook with handwritten entries
for the deceased. Because families often dug
graves for their loved ones, he said, he logged
only some of the burials and did not share his
list with the government.
A12
For a Woman Without a Country, a Long Quest Ends in Brazil, and in Victory
By ERNESTO LONDOÑO
RIO DE JANEIRO
T
HE subject was taboo
during her childhood in
Lebanon, whispered
about but never discussed
openly.
It came to a head when Maha
Mamo was 15 and, furious to
miss out on a Girl Scouts trip
abroad, she confronted her
parents. It was then that she
learned that she and her two
siblings had been born state-
less, ineligible for citizenship in
any country, and deprived of
the basic rights that come with
it — including the passport
needed for her scouts trip.
Lebanon does not automati-
cally grant citizenship to the
children of immigrants who are
born there, as she and her
siblings were, her parents ex-
plained. And documents from
their own home country, Syria,
were out of the question, her
mother and father said, because
their interfaith marriage was
illegal there.
Ms. Mamo’s search for a
homeland led her to Brazil,
where in 2018 she and her
sister, Souad, became the first
stateless people to become
citizens under a new immigra-
tion law in the country. Over
her yearslong quest, Ms.
Mamo, who recently published
a memoir about her ordeal, has
become the most visible for-
merly stateless person and a
singularly effective advocate
for the plight of millions who
remain in limbo.
Years before she got a pass-
port, Ms. Mamo, now 32, trav-
eled the world using a special
travel document issued to some
stateless people, delivering
impassioned speeches at
United Nations conferences and
other events.
“Thanks to her public ap-
pearances and social media
presence across different conti-
nents,” said Melanie Khanna,
the head of the statelessness
section at the United Nations
refugee agency, “thousands of
people have understood how ‘Whenever they hear my story, no one is going to ask me: Are you Muslim,
someone can wind up stateless
through no fault of their own, are you Christian? They value you simply for being a human being.’
and how devastating the conse-
quences of that are.”
The number of people around
the world who lack a nationality
is difficult to assess. There are at
least 4.2 million stateless people
in the 79 countries that report
them, but the U.N. agency be-
lieves that the problem actually
affects many millions more.
Statelessness arises from a
variety of situations, including
redrawn borders, discriminatory
laws that prevent women from
passing on their nationality to a
child, births that go unregis-
tered, and the mass expulsion of
an ethnic group.
Ms. Mamo’s journey to becom-
ing a passport-bearing, globe-
trotting activist and author who
delivers pitch-perfect speeches,
including a TED Talk in Geneva,
began with years of despond-
ence.
Life in Lebanon felt stifling for
Ms. Mamo and her two siblings.
Her parents worried whenever
the children crossed checkpoints
in war-ravaged Beirut, where
Syrians were often treated with
hostility. Money was tight, she
said. Her mother, who had been
a nurse in Syria, didn’t work in Maha Mamo, in Troy, Mich., this week and at a news conference in Geneva last year in connection
Lebanon. Her father used his with a United Nations gathering there. Ms. Mamo was born in Lebanon to Syrian immigrants.
Pope Francis Beseeches Nations to Share Vaccines
By ELISABETTA POVOLEDO
and MARC SANTORA
ROME — Pope Francis on Friday
called on world leaders, businesses and
international organizations to help en-
sure that the most vulnerable and needy
have access to newly developed corona-
virus vaccines.
Instead of speaking to the tens of thou-
sands usually gathered on St. Peter’s
Square, Francis made his annual Christ-
mas address from a grandiose hall inside
the Apostolic Palace of the Vatican.
In a year in which the pandemic
plunged the world into economic and so-
cial uncertainty, the pope was only one of
many Christian leaders and pastors
around the globe who issued big,
weighty messages to small, in-person
audiences.
Francis used his traditional Christmas
address to argue that widespread suffer-
ing should compel people to reflect on
their common humanity, and apply those
principles to how vaccine rollouts are
handled.
“We cannot allow the various forms of
nationalism closed in on themselves to
prevent us from living as the truly hu-
man family that we are,” the pope said.
“Nor can we allow the virus of radical
individualism to get the better of us and
make us indifferent to the suffering of
other brothers and sisters,” he said. “I
MAHA MANO
At Christmas, appealing
to people to reflect on their
common humanity.
cannot place myself ahead of others, let-
ting the law of the marketplace and pat-
ents take precedence over the law of love
and the health of humanity.”
Nearly a quarter of the world’s popula-
tion may not have access to a coronavi-
rus vaccine until at least 2022, according
a recent study published in the British
Medical Journal. The leaders of many
poorer countries in Africa, Asia and Lat-
in America have said they are concerned
that they will be unable to provide the
vaccine for much, if any, of their popula-
tions.
Around the world this year, Christians
scaled back or reimagined Christmas
traditions.
A choral concert was held at Notre-
Dame in Paris, where a fire nearly de-
stroyed the cathedral in 2019, but this
season the annual French tradition took
place without the usual audience.
Midnight Mass at Westminster Cathe-
Social Media Pakistan 0345-6738217
dral in London is normally a festive affair
with pomp and pageantry, but this year’s
THE SATURDAY PROFILE
ERIN KIRKLAND FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
FABRICE COFFRINI/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES
was scaled back, with the service
streamed online instead of attended in
person.
“In the darkness of this pandemic, so
many of our comfortable assumptions
are being shaken,” said Cardinal Nichols,
the Archbishop of Westminster. “Here
we are, celebrating Christmas, yet de-
prived of the greetings, hugs, kisses and
handshakes that normally fill this day.”
He said that the pandemic had tested
family bonds, and lamented that some
people in care homes and hospitals who
longed to see loved ones would “fade
away from sheer loneliness.”
In the Holy Land, the thousands of pil-
grims usually flocking to Bethlehem to
celebrate were absent. A suspension on
international flights and other restric-
tions meant that few could make it to the
Church of the Nativity, which was built
on the spot where Christians believe Je-
sus was born.
Christmas Eve Mass at St. Patrick’s
Cathedral in New York City was sub-
dued, with attendance limited to 25 per-
cent of capacity, or 500 people.
At the Vatican, Christmas Eve Mass in
St. Peter’s Basilica was moved ahead two
hours to comply with the Italian govern-
ment’s 10 p.m. curfew.
The pope traditionally uses his Christ-
mas Day address to focus attention on
the conflicts or natural disasters that
truck to earn money as a
mover. The children got new
clothes twice a year — around
Christmas and Easter.
Since the children had no
documents, their parents had to
work miracles to get them
enrolled in school, pleading
with officials for waivers and
favors. When she was old
enough to consider college, Ms.
Mamo found only one univer-
sity willing to take her, which
meant giving up her dream to
study medicine.
She pursued the longest of
long shots, including adoption
by a friend’s parents. The
Mamo family paid a small for-
tune to people who said they
knew someone who knew
someone who could make them
Lebanese. “We lost a lot of
money paying people who said
they had connections,” she said.
Her siblings seemed resigned
to their fates. But Ms. Mamo
decided she would not rest until
she found a way out. She made
a list of all the embassies in
Lebanon and sent each one an
email describing the missed
opportunities and the dreams
she harbored.
F
OR years, most embassies
ignored her and some
sent curt replies. In 2013,
Mexico’s ambassador wrote
back, offering to help find a way
to get her there. That possibility
prompted Ms. Mamo’s sister,
Souad, to try her luck as well.
She sent her own barrage of
emails to diplomatic missions.
In 2014, Brazil’s embassy invit-
ed Souad, and subsequently
Ms. Mamo and her brother,
Eddy, an invitation to travel to
Brazil under a special visa for
Syrian refugees.
With the audacity that had
gotten her that far, Ms. Mamo
scrolled through Facebook to
see if she could find friends who
had been to Brazil and found
that a scout from her former
troop had once stayed briefly
with a Brazilian family.
She sent a message to the
family introducing herself. To
her surprise, the family invited
her and her siblings to stay at
their home in the southeastern
city of Belo Horizonte.
In September 2014, when she
was 26, Ms. Mamo boarded a
flight out of Lebanon — after
paying the government thou-
sands of dollars in fines for
overstaying her visa.
Once in Brazil, she was ini-
tially dazzled by the size of the
country and the hospitality she
encountered. But soon, it
dawned on her there was no
clear pathway to legalize her
immigration status — a fact no
one at the Brazilian Embassy in
Beirut had made clear.
“You start feeling confusion,
like, what am I doing here,” Ms
Mamo said. “I don’t understand
the language, I don’t understand
the culture.”
Ms. Mamo worked odd jobs in
Belo Horizonte, like distributing
pamphlets in the street.
In March 2015, an interview
she gave for a Brazilian televi-
sion program about stateless-
ness sparked her career as an
activist. Officials at the United
Nations, which the previous
year had begun a campaign
urging countries to enact poli-
cies to eliminate statelessness,
took note.
DIVISIONE PRODUZIONE FOTOGRAFICA/VATICAN MEDIA, VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS
Pope Francis delivered his Christmas address from a hall inside the Apostolic
Palace of the Vatican, rather than before thousands in St. Peter’s Square.
have plagued the planet in the past year.
And he did so again on Friday, asking
the world to recall the suffering of so
many in 2020 — from the Yazidis in Iraq
to the Rohingya in Myanmar. He said it
was the duty of every citizen of the world
to help end violence and ease suffering.
Francis said the world faced a “mo-
ment in history, marked by the ecological
crisis and grave economic and social im-
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2020
They helped Ms. Mamo obtain
a travel document, and soon she
was flying across the world,
telling her story and urging
lawmakers to create legal ave-
nues to citizenship for the untold
millions without a nationality.
T
HE United Nations created
two conventions regarding
the rights of stateless
persons after World War II, but
they got relatively few signato-
ries.
That meant even countries
with a history of welcoming
immigrants, including Brazil and
the United States, lacked a path-
way for stateless people who
aspired to become citizens.
Ms. Mamo was getting weary
of putting so much work and
time into the activism that was
not bringing her and her siblings
closer to a resolution of their
statelessness. Then Eddy, her
brother, was killed during a
robbery attempt near their home
in June 2016.
The death generated wide-
spread news coverage in Brazil
and gave Ms. Mamo’s activism
urgency. Officials in the capital,
Brasília, took note. In 2017, when
lawmakers updated the coun-
try’s immigration code, they
included a new provision to
provide stateless people a
streamlined path to citizenship.
In June 2018, Torquato Jardim,
who was then the minister of
justice, invited Ms. Mamo and
her sister to the capital for a
ceremony in which they became
the first stateless people desig-
nated as eligible for citizenship
in Brazil.
A few months later, Brazilian
officials in Geneva surprised Ms.
Mamo with her citizenship pa-
pers when she finished one of
her trademark statelessness
speeches, which she often deliv-
ers with a Brazilian flag draped
over her shoulders.
United Nations officials credit
Ms. Mamo’s persistence with
putting the issue on the political
agenda in Brazil, which is
among only 23 countries that
currently have legal pathways to
absorb stateless people.
Ms. Mamo said she had grown
to feel viscerally Brazilian, feel-
ing at home in a nation with
such a broad amalgam of races,
creeds and countries of ancestry.
“Whenever they hear my story,
no one is going to ask me: Are
you Muslim, are you Christian?”
she said. “They value you sim-
ply for being a human being.”
In December 2018, during one
of the first trips she took using
her Brazilian passport, Ms.
Mamo found herself clearing
customs in Paris just as a flight
from Beirut landed.
She couldn’t help noticing that
immigration control officers
closely inspected the passports
and visas of the Lebanese pas-
sengers, and asked lots of ques-
tions.
Unlike the Lebanese, Brazil-
ians don’t need a visa for
France. When she presented her
passport, she was welcomed
with a warm smile — no ques-
tions asked.
“I was like, oh my God, I love
my Brazilian passport.” she said.
Watching the Lebanese getting
more scrutiny, she couldn’t
shake a bit of schadenfreude.
“What comes around goes
around,” she said.
balances only worsened by the coronavi-
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rus pandemic.”
But it was the pandemic that largely
shaped the world this year and the pan-
demic, he said, that would allow human-
ity to really consider what global cooper-
ation can achieve.
At the end of his address, bells pealed
and echoed in an empty St. Peter’s
Square.

Volunteers for Crisis at Christmas package three meals a day to
be delivered to homeless people staying in a London hotel.
Homeless Are Offered
Shelter in British Hotels
By ISABELLA KWAI
LONDON — There were a few
places Roland Le felt comfortable
sleeping in London: the doorway
of shops he knew were closed and
a wooded area near the city’s ca-
nal. Still, Mr. Le, who became
homeless after he lost his job as a
cleaner during the pandemic,
never quite relaxed.
On Wednesday, Mr. Le found
himself at ease and in a hotel room
of his own, with a bathroom and
three meals delivered a day, all
courtesy of Crisis U.K., a charity
funding the stay.
“I don’t need to watch over my
shoulder all the time,” he said on a
call from his room. Interacting
with volunteers reminded him of
his humanity, he said. “It warms
your heart up. They treat us as if
we were like any other person.”
Thousands of people sleeping in
Britain’s streets have found
homes during the coronavirus
pandemic, with the government
offering 90 percent of them a place
to stay, fulfilling a long-held goal of
charities to reduce rising levels of
street homelessness. But whether
that reprieve will last, charities
say, will depend on how much
more money the government will
give and if it is spent to target bar-
riers to ending homelessness.
On Monday the government
pledged another 310 million
pounds, about $420 million, to lo-
cal councils to help support those
without homes.
‘White Box’ or Architectural Gem? A Scramble to Save Asia’s Modernist Buildings
By MIKE IVES
HONG KONG — When the Gen-
eral Post Office opened on Hong
Kong’s waterfront in 1976, a local
newspaper predicted that the
Modernist-style building would
“certainly become as much of a
landmark” as its Victorian-era
predecessor.
Not quite.
The building — with its white
concrete facade, harsh angles and
tinted glass — became a fixture of
Hong Kong’s downtown. But it
was never added to the city’s reg-
ister of protected landmarks.
Now, with Hong Kong officials un-
der pressure to generate revenue,
the nearly 12-acre site, which has
been valued at over $5 billion, was
put up for sale this month.
Supporters of the building are
scrambling to save it because
whoever buys the land under-
neath would have every right to
tear down the post office.
“Some people in Hong Kong
might think it’s just a white box,”
Charles Lai, an architect in Hong
Kong, a Chinese territory, said on
a fall afternoon outside the post of-
fice, where people were lined up
inside to mail packages.
“But, as a matter of fact, this
simplistic aesthetic is exactly
where the value is,” he added.
In cities across Asia, residents
and design buffs are rallying to
save or document postwar build-
ings that officials consider too
new, too ugly or too unimportant
to protect from demolition. Many
of the structures were municipal
buildings that served as down-
town hubs of civic life. The cam-
paigns, in a sense, are an attempt
to preserve the collective memo-
ries stored inside.
The efforts also reflect an aver-
sion to the generic-looking shop-
ping malls and condominiums
that have been replacing Modern-
ist-style buildings across urban
Asia, as well as the nostalgia of
city dwellers who watch their sky-
lines constantly change.
Mr. Lai said the five-story Hong
Kong post office building, de-
signed by a government architect,
is interesting because its form de-
fines the functions performed
within — a principle of the Mod-
ernist movement that was popu-
lar from the 1920s to the 1970s.
The floors for customers have loft-
ier ceilings and larger windows,
for example, than the ones for
mail-sorting machines.
“These are places that are part
of people’s day-to-day life; they do
not necessarily have to be very
pretty to be significant,” Haider
Kikabhoy, who leads heritage
walking tours in Hong Kong, said
of the city’s postwar landmarks.
With older buildings, the au-
thorities “tend to focus on the rar-
ity of the architecture or how well
designed the building is, or the
In Newham, which has one of
the worst rates of homelessness in
the country, money is still avail-
able to house those offered tempo-
rary accommodations in the first
wave of the virus, said Anneke
Ziemen, lead outreach manager
for the Thames Outreach home-
less charity.
But now, the local government
was offering less housing, she
said, and it did not address barri-
ers to accessing welfare benefits
and mental health services.
“It’s a Band-Aid,” she said. “We
still have some people on the
streets in the moment. We’re just
hoping we can take that momen-
tum forward and make some long-
term changes.”
This month, with a fast-spread-
ing variant of the coronavirus
sweeping the nation, charities
who usually offer communal tem-
porary homes at churches and
schools have stepped up their ef-
forts, paying for accommodations
like hotel rooms to help people
avoid the virus.
Crisis U.K. has independently
paid for about 500 rooms in four
London hotels, and the City Hall of
London said it had provided an-
other 500. Combined with the ef-
forts of other groups, it means
many of the thousands of so-called
rough sleepers in Greater London
— about 3,400 according to a sum-
mer census — will spend the
Christmas and New Year holi-
days, if not longer, under cover.
Hong Kong’s General Post Office, built in 1976, was designed by K.M. Tseng, a government architect in the then-British colony.
historical significance,” Mr. Kik-
abhoy said. “But there are many
ways to understand history, and
social history is just as important.”
In architecture, modernism
was expressed through “Brutal-
ism” and other styles that sought
to evoke the conditions of the ma-
chine age and relied heavily on
concrete as a material. The Barbi-
can Center in London, which
opened in 1982, is a classic exam-
ple of the Brutalist aesthetic —
and was once voted the city’s ug-
liest building.
In Asia, modernism influenced
the design of landmarks such as
Tokyo’s Hotel Okura, which
opened before the city hosted the
1964 Olympics, and the curved
concrete buildings that the archi-
tect Leandro V. Locsin designed
across the Philippines.
Some of the region’s Modernist
structures became instantly fa-
mous, but others did not have a
following until recently. The inter-
est appears to have stemmed in
part from a reappraisal of Brutal-
ism in Europe and beyond, and so-
cial media buzz as people redis-
cover their unusual features.
In some cases, buildings from
the mid- to late-20th century gen-
erate public interest precisely be-
Social Media Pakistan 0345-6738217
cause they are on the cusp of be-
ing demolished.
THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL SATURDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2020
Tighter restrictions spurred by
the new variant of the coronavirus
have made it even more urgent to
get people inside, said Steve
Douglas, chief executive of St.
Mungo’s, another charity that has
supported over 3,000 people
sleeping on the streets since the
pandemic began. “If you are
rough sleeping on the streets and
looking at 0 degree temperatures
and the threat of Covid — it is diffi-
The interior of La Scala in Bangkok, the last stand-alone movie
theater in Thailand. The cinema held its final screening in July.
Since last year, two in Hong
Kong — a 1967 office tower and a
1973 hotel — were torn down, a
process that prompted reapprais-
als of their architectural legacy.
In Thailand, symbols of quirky
Modernist design — stand-alone
movie theaters — have been
nearly erased. Several hundred
had dotted the landscape in the
1980s, said Philip Jablon, a re-
searcher who wrote a book about
them. The last one, La Scala, held
cult to see hope,” he said.
Aid workers and advocates said
that even though there remained
concerns about keeping people
housed long-term, they see reason
for some optimism.
“Clearly we’ve seen the govern-
ment take action and the number
of people experiencing homeless-
ness has reduced because of that,”
said Jon Sparkes, chief executive
of Crisis U.K. “It certainly shows
CHALINEE THIRASUPA/REUTERS
its final screening in Bangkok in
July, prompting cinema buffs to la-
ment the end of an era.
In Cambodia’s capital, Phnom
Penh, a decade-long project to
document dozens of Modernist
buildings found that the majority
had been destroyed or modified
amid a wave of construction
funded by overseas developers,
said Pen Sereypagna, a Phnom
Penh architect involved in the re-
search effort.
PHOTOGRAPHS BY ANDREW TESTA FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Delivering breakfast to guests. Left, Roland Le said interacting
with volunteers reminded him of his humanity. “It warms your
heart up. They treat us as if we were like any other person.”
what can be achieved if there’s po-
litical will.”
At the hotels booked by Crisis
U.K., guests can stay for two
weeks and choose to self-isolate in
their rooms if they wish and meals
are delivered three times a day.
They also have access to technol-
ogy and virtual activities from
yoga and fitness classes to ses-
sions on living with drug and alco-
hol addiction and résumé writing.
Mr. Sparkes said that during
their stay, volunteers would work
to help secure guests more per-
manent housing. “Some people
will end up still rough-sleeping af-
ter Christmas but we will do abso-
lutely everything we can to help
avoid that,” he said.
For Paul Redford, 52, who was
offered housing by Crisis U.K. dur-
ing the first wave of the pandemic
and has since moved to a studio
funded by the government, tem-
porary accommodation helped
him get his bearings. He is work-
ing as a volunteer in the Crisis
LAM YIK FEI FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
About 30 of the buildings were
designed by Cambodia’s best-
known architect, Vann Molyvann,
who studied modernism in Paris
with disciples of Le Corbusier.
In a few cases, interest in Mod-
ernist buildings has translated
into conservation victories.
This summer, a conglomerate
agreed to preserve Hong Kong’s
State Theater, a 1952 movie house,
as part of a redevelopment
project. (Mr. Kikabhoy, who lob-
bied for the building to be saved, is
now a consultant for the conglom-
erate, New World Development.)
In Singapore, the Urban Re-
development Authority said in Oc-
tober that it would propose a plan
to conserve Golden Mile Complex
— a hulking, mixed-use building
completed in 1973 that the Dutch
architect Rem Koolhaas once
praised as a “unique work” — as
part of a redevelopment of the site
on which it sits.
Even though not every Modern-
ist building in Singapore deserves
to be saved, said Karen Tan, the
founder of the local design consul-
tancy, Pocket Projects, the plan
for Golden Mile Complex is an “ac-
tual endorsement of the impor-
tance of such buildings to the na-
tion’s social and cultural identity.”
Historically, she added, the city
state’s model of urban develop-
Y A13
warehouse and applying for jobs.
“It’s the happiest I’ve ever been
in my life,” he said. “It’s a step in
the ladder.”
Mr. Le said a nervous break-
down four years ago led him to
move out of a shared apartment.
He had been living in communal
housing, working as a cleaner in
Cardiff, Wales, when the coronavi-
rus hit. “I just couldn’t keep it to-
gether mentally,” he said.
Since arriving at the hotel this
week, Mr. Le said he has spent his
time watching anime and science-
fiction films on Netflix. He wants
to write poetry and has asked for
pencils to draw with. He has un-
packed his clothes and other
memorabilia, usually stuffed in
one rucksack.
Mr. Le said previous organiza-
tions had tried to get him housed
when he lived on the street, but he
had refused out of pride. Age,
however, had humbled him.
“I’m trying my best to be a bet-
ter person each day,” he said.
ment has been “biased toward a
very tabula rasa, tear-down-and-
rebuild sort of approach.”
Hong Kong has occasionally
agreed to preserve Modernist
buildings scattered across its
downtown. Among them are the
Police Married Quarters, a 1951
building that once housed police
staff members and their families,
and The Murray, a 1969 govern-
ment building whose tiled grid
rests on giant white arches.
But saving the General Post Of-
fice site presents new challenges.
Hong Kong’s secretary for de-
velopment, Michael Wong, has
called the site “very valuable and
very strategic.”
The site is politically delicate
because it lies at the heart of Hong
Kong’s waterfront, near property
owned by the People’s Liberation
Army, at a moment when the Chi-
nese government is cracking
down on the territory’s pro-de-
mocracy movement and enforc-
ing a national security law that
took effect over the summer.
Supporters of the building ex-
pect the buyer to be a mainland
Chinese developer who may not
be inclined to preserve a relic of
the territory’s British colonial pe-
riod, which ended in 1997.
Katty Law, an advocate for
Modernist architecture, said of
the post office: “They’re looking
at the money side, the floor area
they can generate and how much
the developer can build. They’re
not looking at the building.”
A planning brief calls for some
postal facilities to be included in
any new construction on the site,
but advocates say the existing
post office itself has worth.
They are appealing to the city’s
Antiques Advisory Board to re-
verse its 2013 decision to exclude
buildings built in 1970 or later
from being considered for conser-
vation. Buildings like the General
Post Office, they say, could be ear-
marked for “adaptive reuse” in a
way that generates new income —
just as The Murray became a lux-
ury hotel and the Police Married
Quarters were transformed into a
warren of upscale boutiques.
Hong Kong’s Development Bu-
reau said in a brief statement that
the advisory board’s policy had
not changed. So the post office
building may be in its twilight.
Mr. Lai, the Hong Kong archi-
tect, said he was not sure what to
think of the government’s stance
on the building.
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“The government kind of treats
this, either intentionally or unin-
tentionally, as something that’s re-
placeable,” he said. “They don’t
really see it as a symbol or a land-
mark, which makes people think:
‘Are you doing that intentionally,
to erase colonial history, or are
you simply not able to see the val-
ue?’ ”
A14 Y THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL SATURDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2020
OLI SCARFF/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES
From left: Migrants face an uncertain future in Britain; Prime Minister Boris Johnson promised there would be “no non-tariff barriers” to selling goods in Europe; London’s financial district may suffer.
New Obstacles as Britain Ends Brexit Struggle; Huge Changes on Jan. 1
From Page A1
dairy to be sold to the bloc. British
food, once exempt from such bur-
densome checks, now faces the
same inspections as European im-
ports from countries like Chile or
Australia.
Britain’s services sector — com-
prising not only London’s power-
ful financial industry, but also law-
yers, architects, consultants and
others — was largely left out of the
1,246-page deal, despite the sec-
tor’s accounting for 80 percent of
British economic activity.
The deal also did little to as-
suage European migrants, some
of whom left Britain during the
pandemic and are now struggling
to determine whether they need
to rush back to establish a right to
settle in Britain before the split is
finalized on Dec. 31.
“As of the first of January, the
landscape changes, and the safety
blanket of the transition period is
gone,” said Maike Bohn, a co-
founder of the3million, which sup-
ports European citizens in Brit-
ain, laying out her fears that Euro-
peans will be unfairly refused jobs
and rental apartments amid con-
fusion over the rules. “There’s ap-
prehension, and also numbness.”
Negotiators have not formally
published the voluminous trade
deal, though both sides have of-
fered summaries, leaving ana-
lysts and ordinary citizens uncer-
tain about some details even as
lawmakers in Britain and Europe
prepare to vote on it in a matter of
days.
But it had long been clear that
the agreement would offer the
City of London, a hub for interna-
tional banks, asset managers, in-
surance firms and hedge funds,
few assurances about future trade
across the English Channel. Brit-
ain sells roughly 30 billion pounds,
or $40 billion, of financial services
to the European Union each year,
profiting from an integrated mar-
ket that makes it easier in some
cases to sell services from one
member country to another than
it is to sell services from one
American state to another.
The new trade deal does
smooth the flow of goods across
British borders. But it leaves fi-
nancial firms without the biggest
benefit of European Union mem-
Even More an Island Now:
The U.K.’s Isolation Grows
As the U.S. Restricts Travel
By MARC SANTORA
and ISABELLA KWAI
LONDON — It was one more re-
minder, delivered before dawn on
Christmas morning, that Britain
is not only an island nation, but
one that finds itself increasingly
alone.
A decision by the United States
to require all airline passengers
arriving from Britain to test nega-
tive for the coronavirus within 72
hours of their departure, starting
on Monday, was not so much a
shock as it was another bitter pill
in a somber holiday season.
There is the fast spread of a co-
ronavirus variant feared to be
more contagious. Dozens of na-
tions have barred travelers from
Britain from entering. Expanded
lockdowns in the country will in-
clude 48 million people by Satur-
day. And thousands of trucks re-
main stranded along England’s
coast even after France lifted a
brief border blockade imposed
over virus concerns.
Adding to the volatility was a
last-minute Brexit deal with the
European Union, which kept Brit-
ain from crashing out of the bloc
without an agreement in place but
was all the same a painful remind-
er of a decision that has divided
the country.
Then there was Prime Minister
Boris Johnson’s holiday message,
which warned against “snogging
under the mistletoe.”
Although a refrain of Brexit
supporters was that they were
driven by a desire for Britain to
“take back control,” the nation’s
immediate destiny is being
shaped by forces beyond any indi-
vidual’s control — and perhaps
none more so than the coronavi-
rus.
The rapid spread of the virus
variant — which government sta-
Trucks stranded at the port at Dover on Friday because of restrictions tied to the coronavirus variant. Brexit may cause long delays.
bership: the ability to easily offer
services to clients across the re-
gion from a single base. This has
long allowed a bank in London to
provide loans to a business in
Venice, or trade bonds for a com-
pany in Madrid.
That loss is especially painful
for Britain, which ran a surplus of
£18 billion, or $24 billion, on trade
in financial and other services
with the European Union in 2019,
but a deficit of £97 billion, or $129
billion, on trade in goods.
“The result of the deal is that
the European Union retains all of
its current advantages in trading,
particularly with goods, and the
U.K. loses all of its current advan-
tages in the trade for services,”
said Tom Kibasi, the former direc-
tor of the Institute for Public Pol-
icy Research, a research institute.
tistics indicate accounts for half of
all cases currently in England —
led to the lockdown of London and
southern England this week.
Starting on Saturday, it will in-
clude an even wider swath of the
country, and a national lockdown
has not been ruled out.
“I know that it’s been very, very
tough over the last few weeks,
and, I must tell people, it will con-
tinue to be difficult,” Mr. Johnson
said on Thursday.
Many countries already require
a negative coronavirus test for en-
try, and the new U.S. restrictions
are less severe than the near total
bans that about 50 nations have
placed on travelers from Britain.
But with the country typically
serving as a connection hub for
passengers traveling between Eu-
rope and the United States, it was
another blow to its battered air-
lines, which have slashed flight af-
ter flight as governments sus-
pended travel.
The usual flood of traffic be-
tween the United States and Brit-
ain had already suffered a precipi-
tous decline. More than 4.8 million
British residents visited the
United States in 2019, according to
the Office of National Statistics.
And whereas in February
Heathrow Airport attributed over
one million passengers to the
North American market, since
then the figure has plummeted,
falling to 81,713 last month, ac-
cording to data compiled by the
airport.
Britain’s foreign and common-
wealth offices updated their travel
advice on Friday to include the
new testing requirement. Those
looking to travel will have to pro-
vide the result of either a PCR test
— which must be sent to a lab and
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can take several days to process
— or the rapid antigen test, a rela-
“The outcome of this trade negoti-
ation is precisely what happens
with most trade deals: The larger
party gets what it wants and the
smaller party rolls over.”
Agreeing to let goods cross the
border without onerous tariffs en-
sured that the most vital supplies
— namely, food and medicine —
were accessible across Europe. A
deal on goods was also easier to
strike; given intricate country-by-
country financial regulations, like
how much money banks must
hold, most trade agreements skirt
the service industries.
But Brexit was not most trade
agreements: It was erecting bar-
riers, not taking them down,
within a European market that is
unusually well connected.
After Jan. 1, the sale of services,
once assured, will hang on patch-
tively new tool that gives a result
in about 30 minutes.
With many private clinics and
labs closed for Christmas on Fri-
day, testing within the 72-hour
window may prove difficult for
those looking to travel immedi-
ately after the holiday. Price may
also be a factor. Heathrow Airport
charges about $130 for PCR re-
sults with 48 hours and about $60
for antigen tests with results
within 45 minutes. Private clinics
charge even more for both tests.
Both tests are offered at many
major British airports, including
Gatwick, Manchester and London
Luton as well as Heathrow. But
because passengers need to regis-
ter in advance for tests, it was un-
clear how many would be able to
get one — and then get a result —
in time.
Nonessential travel will also be
banned within much of Britain
starting on Saturday.
Despite the restrictions, there is
concern that the variant, which
mounting scientific evidence indi-
cates is more contagious, is proba-
POOL PHOTO BY PAUL GROVER
work decisions by European regu-
lators about whether Britain’s
new financial regulations are
close enough to their own to be
trusted. While London’s expertise
is difficult to match, putting its fi-
nancial and service firms in a
strong position to weather the
storm, some obstacles are inevita-
ble. Already, Britons living in Eu-
rope who have bank accounts in
Britain have been told their ac-
counts will be closed.
“Imagine if you took the U.K.
and you moved it into Canada, or
Australia,” said Davide Serra, the
chief executive of Algebris Invest-
ments, an asset management firm
with offices across Europe.
“That’s what this does for serv-
ices. The U.K. has become a third
country.”
In announcing the trade deal
bly spreading far more widely
than previously known. And be-
cause few countries use the level
of genomic surveillance that Brit-
ain does, it could have already
been spreading undetected for
‘It will continue to be
difficult,’ a prime
minister warns as a
lockdown expands.
weeks.
A woman who flew into Ger-
many on Sunday — hours before
the country put in place its travel
ban — tested positive for the vari-
ant, German health officials said
on Thursday. It was the first case
identified in the country, but be-
cause the variant has been
spreading since at least Septem-
ber, experts said it was probably
not the first case there.
Singapore also announced that
KIRSTY WIGGLESWORTH/ASSOCIATED PRESS
this week, Prime Minister Boris
Johnson of Britain acknowledged
it offered “not as much” access for
financial firms “as we would have
liked.” But he was not as straight-
forward about the difficulties fac-
ing even British retailers under
the deal, analysts said.
In promising that there were
“no non-tariff barriers” to selling
goods after Brexit, he ignored the
tens of millions of customs decla-
rations, health assessments and
other checks that businesses will
now be responsible for.
Britain is short of the customs
agents needed to deal with those
documents, and even the veteri-
narians who carry out health
checks, industry experts said.
And in recent days, European
truckers have received an alarm-
ing preview of the havoc wrought
ANDREW TESTA FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
it had detected a case on Thurs-
day.
And Denmark, which has wider
genomic surveillance than many
other countries, detected 33 cases
of the variant between Nov. 14 and
Dec. 14, according to the Danish
health authorities.
The concern about the variant
that led to bans on travel also
prompted France to blockade the
English Channel for 48 hours. Al-
though that order was lifted on
Wednesday, a subsequent push to
testing thousands of drivers for
the virus as a condition to enter
France has proved a logistical
nightmare.
By Thursday, the transporta-
tion secretary, Grant Shapps, said
that of the 2,367 drivers tested,
three were positive. Thousands
more remain to be tested. Britain’s
military has sent an additional 800
soldiers to assist the 300 already
there to aid health workers con-
ducting the screenings.
As concern deepened in the
drivers’ home nations, including
Poland, that country’s defense
ANDREW TESTA FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
by shipping delays of even a few
days when they were stranded at
British ports because of travel
bans connected to the new co-
ronavirus variant.
“It’s a massive problem that is
going to cost industry millions of
pounds and euros,” said Alex Alt-
mann, a partner in charge of
Brexit-related issues at Blick
Rothenberg, an accounting and
tax practice. “At the end of the day,
that’s going to be passed on to con-
sumers.”
For European citizens living in
Britain, too, the completion of a
Brexit deal did little to ease fears
about how the country’s new im-
migration rules could complicate
their lives. Migrants have been al-
lowed to apply for so-called “set-
tled status” in Britain. But few
provisions have been made for
people who cannot complete the
process online, much less for peo-
ple who do not realize they need
permission to stay in a country
where they have lived for dec-
ades.
“There’s the potential for a cri-
sis in the next year or two con-
cerning E.U. migrants who were
already here, and had been here
for a long time, but have fallen
through the cracks of the registra-
tion scheme,” said Robert Ford, a
professor of politics at the Univer-
sity of Manchester.
The limitations of the Brexit
deal reflect the fact that even as fi-
nancial and other regulations
have grown more complex in re-
cent years, trade deals have strug-
gled to keep pace, said David
Henig, an analyst at the European
Center for International Political
Economy.
But Britain also limited what it
sought in the deal to a few key ar-
eas, making the emergence of a
bare-bones agreement almost in-
evitable, analysts said.
Next to a no-deal split, involv-
ing enormous logjams at the bor-
ders and deep uncertainty for
businesses, the agreement was a
salve. But even with such a deal,
the path forward is uncertain.
“Brexit was always going to be
a long-running hit to the U.K.’s
competitiveness,” said Mr. Kibasi,
the analyst. “But the way it’ll play
out is by damaging investment in
the U.K., so it’s a slow puncture,
not a quick crash.”
A London shopping district.
The rapid spread of a corona-
virus variant prompted a
widening lockdown.
minister said in a tweet that a
team of soldiers would be sent to
England to help get citizens home.
For an exhausted and exasper-
ated British public, the usual
amusements of the holiday sea-
son were hard to come by.
Even the queen’s annual Christ-
mas speech became the subject of
controversy when one national
broadcaster, Channel 4, used the
holiday to offer a “warning” about
the dangers of “deep fake” videos
by presenting a five-minute fake
version of the address.
In it, the fake queen bemoans
the departure of Prince Harry and
his wife, Meghan, for the United
States and alludes to the Duke of
York’s decision to step down from
royal duties this year after giving
an interview to the BBC about his
connection to the sex offender
Jeffrey Epstein.
The BBC’s royal correspondent,
Nicholas Witchell, was not im-
pressed.
“There have been countless im-
itations of the queen,” he said.
“This isn’t a particularly good
one.”
The real Queen Elizabeth II was
separated from most of her family
on Friday, spending Christmas at
Windsor Castle with her husband,
Prince Philip, rather than at San-
dringham, as is their tradition.
When she did address the na-
tion, she offered some historical
perspective, citing the example of
Florence Nightingale, born two
centuries ago this year.
“Florence Nightingale shone a
lamp of hope across the world,”
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the queen said. “Today, our front-
line services still shine that lamp
for us — supported by the amaz-
ing achievements of modern sci-
ence — and we owe them a debt of
gratitude. We continue to be in-
spired by the kindness of strang-
ers and draw comfort that even on
the darkest nights, there is hope in
the new dawn.”
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2020
New Yorkers Cope With a Lonely Holiday Season
On March 12, I took my last subway ride home from work.
I was listening to John Cale’s “Dying on the Vine” while
standing in the middle of a cramped car. I could feel ten-
sion in the air — a mix of fear and uncertainty. As New
Yorkers retreated indoors, many struggled with a new
kind of loneliness.
Loneliness was not new to me. It’s been part of my life
‘We’ve had a period of
suffering and darkness,
but there has to be some
sort of hope.’
VICTORIA REMER
In an empty sanctuary on a recent Fri-
day, Victoria Remer’s footsteps echoed
as she prepared to record another virtual
service.
Ms. Remer, 25, a Master of Divinity
candidate at Luther Seminary in St. Paul,
Minn., moved to New York in August to
intern at the Lutheran Church of Our
Savior in Jamaica, Queens. But what was
supposed to be a community-based job
turned out to be a solitary one.
“I feel like I’m missing out on a huge
part of what I’m supposed to be doing
here,” she said.
Dec. 24 is Ms. Remer’s birthday. She
said her family would usually spend the
day celebrating and then spend the night
as ushers or worship assistants at
Christmas Eve service.
This year she said she would be alone
with her dog, Roan, in her apartment.
Like the rest of the city, the young pas-
tor’s social life has become nearly non-
existent. She looks forward to passing by
the crossing guards on her way to the
church every day.
“It’s like the little hope in each day,”
she said. “A reminder that we all need
these little interactions.”
‘These aren’t things
you should tough out
on your own.’
GRACE DE OLIVEIRA
In November, Grace de Oliveira, 66, had
gender reassignment surgery. She took
an Uber ride to the hospital where she
stayed after surgery for four days —
alone.
“I wanted this to mean something,”
she said. “I wanted my family to look at
me and see me. I’m not being seen and
that’s what’s making me crazy.”
She said her family — including her
five children — has been supportive of
her since she came out to them in 2016.
But because of the pandemic, they could-
n’t be at the hospital with her.
“I imagined that there would be this
embrace of my family,” she said. “I feel
like all of that was taken from me.”
In the Throgs Neck area of the Bronx,
where she lives alone, Ms. de Oliveira
takes her daily routine seriously: She
writes in her journal, meditates, reads
and plays the piano.
She said the routine keeps her
grounded: “You’re not just a victim of
your stresses and anxieties.”
One day in early December, Ms. de
Oliveira sat at her piano, playing one of
Beethoven’s sonatas. What remained of
the daylight faintly lit her red dress.
“It will be a lonely holiday,” she said.
“It will be me and some movie, and Bach
or Beethoven.”
A15
Y
Photographs and Text by AMR ALFIKY
since 2014, when I left my friends and family behind in nearly empty Prospect Park. The leaves rustled loudly as
Egypt, and moved to the United States. I walked near the lake where I saw a lone man sitting on a
But when the pandemic hit, that loneliness was am- bench in silence. The scene made me reflect on the expe-
plified by fear: Fear that I would lose a loved one back rience of feeling lonely in such a densely populated city.
home and wouldn’t be there for them. Fear that I would As the holidays approached, I wanted to find others
die here all alone. who shared my experience, to see how New Yorkers were
One windy afternoon in April, I took a walk through a handling their own loneliness.
‘I look at myself getting skinny and it annoys me.’ MARION JOHNSON
Marion Johnson, 86, sat alone on her her own. Her solitude is only broken one of her grandsons on Thanksgiving shows a younger Ms. Johnson stand-
couch in her apartment in Coney Is- by occasional visits from neighbors or last year: It’s been “at least 20 years,” ing on her head while playing with her
land, soaking up the last bit of sunlight. friends, who sometimes walk with her she said. neighbor’s children.
Being alone is not new to Ms. John- when she needs to go outside. Ms. Johnson tries to maintain her But she can’t deny the toll loneliness
son, who said her life has not been af- She is not in close contact with her spirits. She decorates her home with has taken on her over the years: “I lost
fected much by the pandemic: “I’m in immediate family, and she doesn’t re- Christmas lights. She enjoys visits my appetite,” she said.
the house all the time,” she said. She member the last time she spent the from her neighbors, who offer hot
has vertigo, and cannot leave home on holidays with them, besides hosting meals. A photograph on her fridge
‘Without structure there is no motivation to study.’
AHNAF ISLAM
The muffled sound of Ahnaf Islam play- came augmented with physical isola-
ing the Velvet Underground’s “Sunday tion,” he said.
Morning” on his guitar could be heard Alone in his bedroom, Mr. Islam had a
throughout his apartment in the Mid- hard time focusing on his schoolwork,
wood neighborhood of Brooklyn. preferring to read and play guitar.
“It describes how I feel,” he said. It was like this for months, until Owise
Mr. Islam, 24, lives with three other Abuzaid moved into the apartment in Oc-
people, immigrants like him, but keeps to tober.
himself. Since moving to New York from “I have been feeling better since Owise
Chittagong, Bangladesh, in 2015, he has moved in,” he said. The two have devel-
found it difficult to connect with his oped a friendship, occasionally playing
roommates and classmates at New York music together and chatting on their
University, where he studies physics. roof.
Even though he felt socially isolated, Mr. Islam is planning to spend the rest
he said being physically in class motivat-
ed him. But when the pandemic hit, his
of the holiday season catching up on his
schoolwork: “This is the only thing I care
‘I bought 46 plants.’
struggles with depression intensified. about right now.” JENNIFER GAGLIARDI
“The mental isolation I felt before be-
“Being a spreader is my worst fear,” said
Jennifer Gagliardi, 27, who lives in a one-
bedroom apartment near Prospect Park
with Helen, her blind and deaf cat.
Ms. Gagliardi tried to cope with the
loneliness the pandemic imposed on her
life by finding new hobbies: She learned
embroidery and adopted 46 plants.
Ms. Gagliardi moved to Brooklyn from
Long Island in January last year for a
teaching job at St. Joseph’s College. In
her pre-pandemic life, she would drive to
Long Island to spend Thanksgiving with
her family.
“We decided against it this year,” she
said. “We don’t want to kill each other.”
Instead, Ms. Gagliardi ordered Indian
food for two and dined while standing in
her kitchen with her best friend, Danny
Pinghero.
“I usually love the holidays,” she said.
“This is the first year I’m very much
dreading them.”
Ms. Gagliardi said on Christmas Eve
her family would usually all gather at a
Mexican restaurant and then go to Mass.
This year, she said she would likely be
sitting alone with Helen, watching “The
Muppet Christmas Carol.”
“I’m worried about the winter,” she
said.
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A16 Y THE NEW YORK TIMES NATIONAL SATURDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2020

America 2020, in Vision and Verse

It has been a year that inspired dread, but also reflection. We selected five poems by
contemporary American poets and asked five photographers to let the poems inspire them.

Ode to the Head Nod

E L I Z A B E T H AC E V E D O

the slight angling up of the forehead

neck extension quick jut of chin

meeting the strangers’ eyes

a gilded curtsy to the sunfill in another

in yourself tithe of respect

in an early version the copy editor deleted

the word “head” from the title

the copy editor says it’s implied

the copy editor means well

the copy editor means

she is only fluent in one language of gestures

i do not explain i feel sad for her

limited understanding of greetings & maybe

this is why my acknowledgements are so long;

didn’t we learn this early?

to look at white spaces

& find the color

thank god o thank god for
you

are

here.
MIRANDA BARNES took pictures in New York and Texas. She said she was inspired by the poem to “photograph quiet moments of both spaces.”

TOWARDS
S A R A LU P I TA O L I VA R E S

obligatory orchids
wave

I crawl under
the leaves

to understand
the garbage

what is anyone’s
karma

besides a
misunderstanding

ELLIOT ROSS photographed in the San Luis Valley, which has “a long and complicated story of the conquered and the conquerors, of riches stolen and gained, of an empire built off the backs of the
humble.” There, he says, he “hoped to find a world parallel to Sara’s. A world where we, as a society, reckon with our flaws and redirect our collective inertia down a different road.”

Figs
JIM WHITESIDE

I held the fruit the way I might have held

a feather, turning it to view each side.
I loved the story of the fig wasp,

Agaonidae, how in each fig’s center

was a wingless and silent creature, disintegrated,
eaten. Led by food to become food. This was

when I still felt whole ownership

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of myself, before any part of me was undone.

Before I sat in rooms I could only define

by those who’d left them—flightless and rended.

When I eat a fig, it leaves my throat scratchy
and swollen. The body, whether suddenly

or over time, can develop such an aversion,

held in the place where old and new pain meet.

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 THE NEW YORK TIMES NATIONAL SATURDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2020 Y A17

CRISTINA BAUSSAN grew up listening to her mother’s memories of the civil war in El Salvador. “The blackouts, the
curfew, the sound of bullets stroking the sky above my grandparents’ home,” she said. “Making these photographs
became a way of gently honoring the courage and pain of those who fled and those who stayed.”

STORM
KAMILAH AISHA MOON

Night squall raging,

black branches
batter every window
as the sky lashes
the city. Without devices,
all I can do is shelter in place Diaspora Writes To Her New Home
& wait the latest nightmare Y E S I K A S A LG A D O
out, find other sources
of power as I sit in the dark I am what comes after the civil war
save for a candle burning after the dismembered corpses
for my mother writhing the burnt sugar cane fields
in an ICU & for the world the mango tree strung with a single hanging body
to make it against all odds. the man with his tongue in his pocket
In every sense, I burn the soldiers and the guerilla
in the unseen places, head the exodus of my grandmother’s children
filling with smoke, each hour
lived in a dense haze.
I arrived after the fleeing. after the bruise was named a desert.
after the new country extended its concrete arms with re-
Millions weather this proach. after living in garages. huddling in small apartments.
21st century unholy after raising blonde children who do not know our language.
Passover, homes after washing cars we do not drive. after keeping home for
bereft & singed forever. women with alabaster skin. after falling in love in the time of
The unruly rich in charge asylum. after the alcohol took to my father’s veins. after the
elect themselves family murmured his sins. after my mother cut the long coil of
gods, maniacal & her curls.
merciless. Every warning
unheeded, no bona fide mark
of protection I found my way here and stayed. a fist of a girl with eyes big as a
this time, no choice wailing mouth. I was born with a pen under my tongue. I know
in the losses raining and own all words ever spoken. I am the dream and the night-
almost everywhere. mare. the burning bush. Moses. David. Goliath. Mary Magdalene.
The Holy Virgin.
God himself,
Candlelight for two dead and resurrected.
is a date; I faintly
remember those.
Candlelight I am not the survival
alone I came after.
is a séance—
forgive me, I am the victory
my dearly departed a boastful flag.
for crying out
so often, for still needing you I am not a promise. I am a threat.
so damn much. I am what takes and does not give back.

a new history
a forked tongue
a priestess
church and communion
a woman with her own legacy

take this, my story.

eat it and remember me.

ANNIE LING, a photographer and graduate student in New Haven,

Conn., said “the intense resonance of ‘Storm,’ fueled by the terrible
consequences that have marked this year, speaks to a restlessness
that conjures in me a sleepwalker in search of relief from a confusing
reality resembling a fever dream.”
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WULF BRADLY said the poem had inspired him to, as he often does, use his backyard in Villa Rica, Ga., for “self portraiture that explores self awareness and reflection.”
A18 Y THE NEW YORK TIMES NATIONAL SATURDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2020
On Jeff Davis Avenue,
Push to Rename Street
For a Local Black Hero
From Page A1
intense reconsideration, espe-
cially in the naming of monu-
ments, roads and schools for fig-
ures of the Confederacy.
In the aftermath of this sum-
mer’s protests, those debates
have churned in earnest in Mont-
gomery, the first capital of the
Confederacy. Just one week be-
fore Mr. Reed formally announced
his plan to rename the street Fred
D. Gray Avenue, Alabama’s Re-
publican attorney general, Steve
Marshall, took aim in a video at
the growing number of officials
who have tried to pull down or re-
cast Confederate memorials, ar-
guing that they had done so “not
NICOLE CRAINE FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Mayor Steven L. Reed of
Montgomery, Ala., is leading
an effort to recognize an over-
looked civil rights figure.
out of courage” but out of “fear.”
“This should not be celebrated,”
Mr. Marshall said. “It is now a
question of when, not if, these
same leaders will cast aside yet
another law, being guided only by
the political whims of the mo-
ment.”
Mr. Reed maintains he wasn’t
aware that street names fell under
the purview of the law. But the
stage is now set for a likely clash
between Mr. Reed and the attor-
ney general. A spokesman for Mr.
Marshall declined to comment on
Mr. Reed’s efforts, saying his of-
fice “generally refrains from com-
ment about possible violations of
the Alabama Memorial Preserva-
tion Act before they occur.”
Mr. Reed is intent on moving
forward and, if need be, paying the
price — a $25,000 fine. “This is
about honoring those people who
deserve to be honored,” he said in
a recent interview in his office.
“And maybe confronting some of
those who were honored at a pre-
vious time who never should have
been.”
‘All we knew was: This was home.’
Fred Gray, who was born on Dec.
14, 1930, recalled vividly the first
time he saw the white frame
house on West Jeff Davis Avenue,
the way it flickered into view
when he was 6 or 7 years old.
Speaking recently at his office in
Tuskegee, he described sitting
nose-to-knees in a horse-drawn
wagon, his mother and their be-
longings beside him, as his grand-
father steered them across the un-
paved road and up to the front
porch.
There was no running water —
cold, tin-tub baths filled from the
faucet a block away loomed. He
spied an outhouse in the back. The
family of five children and a re-
cently widowed mother in Jim
Crow Alabama, Mr. Gray recalled,
was “just thankful to have a place
to live.”
From then on, Jeff Davis was
his world. For years he walked to
the Loveless School, crossing the
part of the street where the red
dirt turned to pavement. Karen
Georgia Democrats Rake In Record Fund-Raising, Much of It in Smaller Donations
By RICK ROJAS
ATLANTA — The Rev. Raphael
G. Warnock and Jon Ossoff, the
Democratic challengers in the
Senate runoffs in Georgia, have
each raised more than $100 mil-
lion since October — enormous
sums that surpassed their Repub-
lican opponents by a significant
margin and underscored Demo-
crats’ confidence after recent
gains the party has made in the
state and their hopes that they
might capture the Senate.
The contests have drawn a
surge of attention and investment
from outside of Georgia, given the
stakes, and the campaigning has
only intensified in the final weeks
before the runoff, which is sched-
uled for Jan. 5.
Senator David Perdue, one of
the Republican incumbents,
raised $68 million in the period be-
tween Oct. 15 and Dec. 16, accord-
ing to reports to the Federal Elec-
tion Commission made public on
Thursday. Senator Kelly Loeffler,
Gray Houston, Mr. Gray’s niece
and the author of the memoir
“Daughter of the Boycott,” re-
membered congregating at the
frame house on Sundays after
church. The children would sit on
the front-porch rockers, helping
their grandmother snap beans.
It was a world familiar to many
Black families in Montgomery.
Few of the city’s white residents
lived on West Jeff Davis; for many
of them, knowledge of the neigh-
borhood came by way of the wom-
en who took care of their kitchens
and yards and children, located on
the other side of town.
It would be several years, Mr.
Gray said, before he considered
what it all meant, sleeping and do-
ing homework within the nominal
bounds of Jefferson Davis and the
system that honored his legacy. “I
never thought about who Jeff Da-
vis was, probably didn’t know
anything about him until I got in
high school,” he said. He is sure he
was taught about Davis, but does-
n’t remember giving much
thought to living on a street
named for the president of the
Confederacy.
Routine, he explained, has a
way of softening the edges of op-
pression. “The matter of segrega-
tion — it was a matter of law and it
was what we all lived by,” he said.
“All we knew was: This was
home.”
His perspective changed when
walks to Loveless became bus
rides to Alabama State College for
Negroes — now Alabama State
University — on the east side of
town. He watched the scenes of
West Jeff Davis blur into the tap-
estry of upscale white neighbor-
hoods like Cloverdale. He also
watched, and was one of, the
Black men and women forced to
pay their fare at the front of the
bus and enter in the back, part of a
string of daily indignities that
would form the underpinning of
his life’s work.
Beyond his successful chal-
lenge to the Montgomery bus sys-
tem, that work has included law-
suits that prompted Alabama’s
most meaningful attempts at
school desegregation in the dec-
ade after the 1954 decision Brown
v. Board of Education. In 1960, ar-
guing before the Supreme Court
as a 29-year-old, Mr. Gray won the
landmark ruling in Gomillion v.
Lightfoot that declared gerry-
mandering as a means of disen-
franchising African-Americans
unconstitutional.
The push for broader recognition
meets opposition.
Still, for Mr. Gray and many oth-
ers in Montgomery, the continued
presence of Jeff Davis Avenue can
A symbolic and literal crossroads in Montgomery is down the street from the site of the childhood home of Mr. Gray, far right, with Rosa Parks and E.D. Nixon in 1955.
the other Republican, raised close
to $64 million during that period.
Mr. Ossoff, who is running
against Mr. Perdue, became the
best-funded Senate candidate in
history after pulling in $106.7 mil-
lion, according to the filings, and
Mr. Warnock, who is challenging
Ms. Loeffler, has raised $103.3 mil-
lion.
The Democrats’ haul was pow-
ered in large part by a flurry of
smaller donations collected from
across the country, filings show,
with nearly half of the funds com-
ing from people who donated less
than $200.
For Mr. Perdue and Ms. Loeff-
ler, the smaller donations ac-
counted for less than 30 percent of
what they raised.
Mr. Ossoff, who runs a media
production company, spent $93.5
million during that period and had
$17.4 million in cash on hand, and
Mr. Warnock, the pastor of Ebene-
zer Baptist Church in Atlanta,
spent $86.1 million and had $22.7
Social Media Pakistan 0345-6738217
Fred D. Gray, 90, who helped defend Rosa Parks, at his office in Tuskegee, Ala., this month.
serve as a reminder that the quest
for racial equality is far from over.
“It matters,” said Michelle
Browder, who once owned a fish
and barbecue restaurant on West
Jeff Davis. “When you live there,
when you work there — it matters
to have to refer to these names ev-
ery day. It’s almost like keeping
that spirit alive.”
As the niece of Aurelia Browder,
the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit
that led to the desegregation of
Montgomery’s buses, Ms. Brow-
der has long felt the narrowness of
collective memory regarding this
chapter of the civil rights move-
ment.
“We tend to stop at Rosa Parks,”
million in cash on hand. Mr. Per-
due spent $57.8 million and had
$16 million in cash, and Ms. Loeff-
ler spent $48.6 million and had
$21.2 million in cash on hand.
Ms. Loeffler, one of the wealthi-
est members of the Senate, was
An optimistic sign but
not a guarantee of
victory in runoffs.
the only candidate to give to his or
her own campaign, donating
$333,200 — far less than the $23
million of her own money she
spent on the general election run.
The numbers in the filings only
affirm a level of investment that
has been plainly visible to Georgia
voters for months. Campaign ads
fill virtually every commercial
break on television and radio. The
she said. “But when you amplify
voices of others who were there, it
just broadens the conversation.
This is overdue for Fred Gray.”
Mr. Reed is now preparing for
the next steps in the renaming
process, which include feedback
from property owners and a for-
mal presentation before the city’s
planning commission.
If successful, Mr. Reed’s efforts
would almost certainly run afoul
of Alabama’s Memorial Preserva-
tion Act, which Gov. Kay Ivey, a
Republican, signed into law in the
spring of 2017 — in part as a result
of Birmingham’s attempt two
years earlier, in the aftermath of
the shooting at Emanuel A.M.E.
NICOLE CRAINE FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
spending has even spilled over
state lines, as the candidates and
outside groups have bought time
in markets like Jacksonville, Fla.,
and Chattanooga, Tenn., to reach
Georgia voters living nearby.
The amounts brought in by both
Democrats exceeded the $57 mil-
lion raised by Jaime Harrison in
his campaign in South Carolina
against the Republican senator
Lindsey Graham, which had been
the highest quarterly fund-raising
total for any Senate candidate in
U.S. history. Yet the race ended up
as a disappointment for Demo-
crats, demonstrating that record-
breaking hauls do not necessarily
translate to electoral success.
But in Georgia, Democrats have
been buoyed by a string of recent
success in a state that had until re-
cently been reliably Republican.
President-elect Joseph R. Biden
Jr. was the first Democratic presi-
dential candidate to win in Geor-
gia since 1992.
Mr. Biden and President Trump
have traveled to campaign for
NICOLE CRAINE FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Church in Charleston, S.C., to re-
move its Confederate Soldiers and
Sailors Monument.
That memorial, erected in 1905,
was once more in the spotlight in
August 2017, after the deadly
white supremacist rally in Char-
lottesville, Va. Mayor William Bell
of Birmingham, a Democrat, cov-
ered the 52-foot-high obelisk with
plastic and plywood, prompting
an immediate lawsuit from the
state that said he had violated the
new monuments law.
In January 2019, the Jefferson
Circuit Court ruled in favor of the
city, arguing that the state law vio-
lated a municipality’s right to free
speech. That fall, however, the
their party’s candidates. Vice
President-elect Kamala Harris
and Ivanka Trump, the president’s
eldest daughter, both made cam-
paign stops in Georgia last week.
The Democrats have focused on
stock trades their opponents
made while serving in the Senate
and their support of Mr. Trump in
his efforts to overturn his loss in
Georgia.
The Republicans have largely
homed in on Mr. Warnock, with
Ms. Loeffler calling him a “radical
liberal” more than a dozen times
in a recent televised debate. Her
campaign has also circulated se-
lect quotations from his more than
two decades of sermons, including
an instance where he said “no-
body can serve God and the mili-
tary,” a theme that has roots in bib-
lical passages.
A coalition of African-American
pastors issued an open letter to
Ms. Loeffler last week condemn-
ing her campaign for what they
saw as an attack on the Black
Alabama Supreme Court unani-
mously reversed that ruling, ef-
fectively ending legal challenges
to the act at the state level.
‘I knew we were breaking the law.’
Nevertheless, a growing number
of local officials has proved willing
to break the law and pay the
$25,000 penalty. In Birmingham,
the Democratic mayor, Randall
Woodfin, ordered the removal of
the Soldiers and Sailors monu-
ment one week after the killing of
George Floyd in May. He argued
that the fine was less costly than
continued civil unrest.
In Lowndes County, whose pop-
ulation is almost 75 percent Afri-
can-American, county commis-
sioners voted unanimously this
year to remove a Confederate me-
morial that for decades stood in
front of the courthouse in
Hayneville. “I knew we were
breaking the law, but I just
thought it was something we had
to do,” said Dickson Farrior, 72,
the commissioner who first
pushed to remove the monument.
“It represented white supremacy,
and we don’t need that.”
Mr. Farrior, who is one of two
white men on the commission and
has represented his district since
1985, said the county set up a Go-
FundMe page to help pay the fine,
but was pleasantly surprised
when a local couple volunteered to
cover the $25,000 themselves.
“I don’t know whether the Leg-
islature had in mind that, in effect,
you can pay to change your monu-
ments,” said Paul Horwitz, a pro-
fessor at the University of Ala-
bama School of Law.
Still, Mr. Horwitz said, a drum-
beat of actions like Mr. Reed’s and
Mr. Farrior’s could add a layer of
pressure for legislators to recon-
sider the act — or at least “amend
it in a way that allows for more
public discussion.”
At a minimum, the state can
most likely expect more chal-
lenges from Mr. Reed, who re-
cently formed a committee of his-
torians and community leaders to
review the names of other public
spaces across Montgomery.
Mr. Gray recently turned 90. At
times he strains to hear. His
cheeks, once so prominent in the
old newspaper photographs
framed throughout his office, have
thinned. West Jeff Davis is differ-
ent, too: Most of the homes of Mr.
Gray’s childhood, including his
own, are gone. Today, the foot of
the neighborhood intersects with
Rosa L. Parks Avenue.
For Mr. Gray, the name change
would in some ways represent the
culmination of a career dedicated
to fighting injustice.
For Mr. Reed, the urgency of
that change stems not just from
the context of the current mo-
ment, but also from a desire for
Mr. Gray to witness it.
“I don’t believe you should wait
for people to die before you give
them their flowers,” he said.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
church. Political observers in
Georgia have also argued that she
has damaged the relationship Re-
publicans had fostered with Ebe-
nezer, the congregation that was
once led by the Rev. Dr. Martin Lu-
ther King Jr.
Yet in messages on Christmas, a
day mostly free of campaigning,
Ms. Loeffler and Mr. Warnock
sounded a similar note, describing
the turbulence of the past year
and envisioning a turn for the bet-
ter.
“With Christmas comes new
light and new hope,” Ms. Loeffler
said in a video she posted on social
media.
“I know too many are broken-
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hearted tonight,” Mr. Warnock
said in his own post on Twitter,
“and the holidays don’t seem to
make it any better. It’s been night
time for a long time, and it may
feel like Christmas may never
come. But fear not. Dawn is com-
ing. Good news and hope are on
the horizon.”

A year’s worth of bookings vanished for Jennifer Koh, an acclaimed violinist who found herself streaming concerts from her home.
Performers Wonder if Careers Can Survive Pandemic
From Page A1
waiters; 19 percent for cooks; and
about 13 percent for retail sales-
people over the same period.
In many areas, arts venues —
theaters, clubs, performance
spaces, concert halls, festivals —
were the first businesses to close,
and they are likely to be among
the last to reopen.
“My fear is we’re not just losing
jobs, we’re losing careers,” said
Adam Krauthamer, president of
Local 802 of the American Federa-
tion of Musicians in New York. He
said 95 percent of the local’s 7,000
members are not working on a
regular basis because of the man-
dated shutdown. “It will create a
great cultural depression,” he
said.
The new $15 billion worth of
stimulus aid for performance ven-
ues and cultural institutions that
Congress approved this week —
which was thrown into limbo after
President Trump criticized the bill
— will not end the mass unem-
ployment for performers anytime
soon. And it only extends federal
unemployment aid through mid-
March.
The public may think of per-
formers as A-list celebrities, but
most never get near a red carpet
or an awards show. The over-
whelming majority, even in the
best times, don’t benefit from Hol-
lywood-size paychecks or institu-
tional backing. They work season
to season, weekend to weekend or
day to day, moving from one gig to
the next.
The median annual salary for
full-time musicians and singers
was $42,800; it was $40,500 for ac-
tors; and $36,500 for dancers and
choreographers, according to a
National Endowment for the Arts
analysis. Many artists work other
jobs to cobble together a living, of-
ten in the restaurant, retail and
hospitality industries — where
work has also dried up.
They are an integral part of lo-
cal economies and communities in
every corner of rural, suburban
and urban America, and they are
seeing their life’s work and liveli-
hoods suddenly vanish.
“We’re talking about a year’s
worth of work that just went
away,” said Terry Burrell, whose
touring show, “Angry, Raucous
and Gorgeously Shameless,” was
canceled. Now she is home with
her husband in Atlanta, collecting
unemployment insurance, and
hoping she won’t have to dip into
her 401(k) retirement account.
Linda Jean Stokley, a fiddler
and part of the Kentucky duo the
Local Honeys with Monica Hobbs,
said, “We’re resilient and are used
to not having regular paychecks.”
But since March hardly anyone
has paid even the minor fees re-
quired by their contracts, she
Corrections
ARTS & LEISURE
An article on Page 4 about the
online variety show “Stars in the
House” misstates the date of its
first livestream. It was March 16,
not March 17. The article also
misstates when the number of
shows per week was reduced. It
was in June, not May.
Errors are corrected during the press
run whenever possible, so some errors
noted here may not have appeared in
all editions.
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LYNSEY WEATHERSPOON FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Terry Burrell is unemployed in Atlanta after her touring show,
“Angry, Raucous and Gorgeously Shameless,” was canceled.
SEPTEMBER DAWN BOTTOMS/THE NEW YORK TIMES
“This was projected to be my biggest year financially,” said Steph
Simon, a musician in Tulsa, Okla. “Then the world shut down.”
said: “Someone owed us $75 and
wouldn’t even pay.”
Then there’s Tim Wu, 31, a D.J.,
singer and producer, who nor-
mally puts on around 100 shows a
year as Elephante at colleges, fes-
tivals and nightclubs.
He was in Ann Arbor, Mich., do-
ing a sound check for a new show
called “Diplomacy” in mid-March
when New York shut down. Mr.
Wu returned to Los Angeles the
next day. All his other bookings
were canceled — and most of his
income.
Mr. Wu, and hundreds of thou-
sands of freelancers like him, are
not the only ones taking a hit. The
broader arts and culture sector
that includes Hollywood and pub-
lishing constitutes an $878 billion
industry that is a bigger part of
the American economy than
sports, transportation, construc-
tion or agriculture. The sector
supports 5.1 million wage and sal-
ary jobs, according to the U.S. Bu-
reau of Economic Analysis. They
include agents, makeup artists,
hair stylists, tailors, janitors,
stage hands, ushers, electricians,
sound engineers, concession sell-
ers, camera operators, adminis-
trators, construction crews, de-
signers, writers, directors and
more.
“If cities are going to rebound,
Social Media Pakistan 0345-6738217
they’re not going to do it without
arts and cultural creatives,” said
THE NEW YORK TIMES NATIONAL SATURDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2020
Richard Florida, a professor at the
University of Toronto’s Rotman
School of Management and School
of Cities.
This year, Steph Simon, 33, of
Tulsa, Okla., finally started work-
ing full time as a hip-hop musician
after a decade of minimum-wage
jobs cleaning carpets or answer-
ing phones to pay the bills.
He was selected to perform at
the South by Southwest festival in
Austin, Texas, played regular gigs
at home and on tour, and produced
“Fire in Little Africa,” an album
commemorating the 1921 massa-
cre of Black residents of Tulsa by
white rioters.
“This was projected to be my
biggest year financially,” said Mr.
Simon, who lives with his girl-
friend and his two daughters, and
was earning about $2,500 a month
as a musician. “Then the world
shut down,” he said.
A week after the festival was
canceled, he was back working as
a call center operator, this time at
home, for about 40 hours a week,
with a part-time job at a fast-food
restaurant on the weekends.
In November, on his birthday,
he caught Covid-19, but has since
recovered.
Performers on payrolls have
suffered, too. With years of catch-
as-catch-can acting gigs and com-
mercials behind her, Robyn Clark
started working as a performer at
ELIAS WILLIAMS FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Disneyland after the last reces-
sion. She has been playing a series
of characters in the park’s Califor-
nia Adventure — Phiphi the pho-
tographer, Molly the messenger
and Donna the Dog Lady — sev-
eral times a week, doing six shows
a day.
“It was the first time in my life I
had security,” Ms. Clark said. It
was also the first time she had
health insurance, paid sick leave
and vacation.
In March, she was furloughed,
though Disney is continuing to
cover her health insurance.
“I have unemployment and a
generous family,” said Ms. Clark,
explaining how she has managed
to continue paying for rent and
food.
Many performers are relying
on charity. The Actors Fund, a
service organization for the arts,
has raised and distributed $18 mil-
lion since the pandemic started
for basic living expenses to 14,500
people.
“I’ve been at the Actors Fund
for 36 years,” said Barbara S. Da-
vis, the chief operating officer.
“Through September 11th, Hurri-
cane Katrina, the 2008 recession,
industry shutdowns. There’s
clearly nothing that compares to
this.”
Higher-paid television and film
actors have more of a cushion, but
they, too, have endured disap-
pointments and lost opportuni-
ties. Jack Cutmore-Scott and
Meaghan Rath, now his wife, had
just been cast in a new CBS pilot,
“Jury Duty,” when the pandemic
shut down filming.
“I’d had my costume fitting and
we were about to go and do the ta-
ble read the following week, but
we never made it,” Mr. Cutmore-
Scott said. After several postpone-
ments, they heard in September
that CBS was bailing out altogeth-
er.
Many live performers have
looked for new ways to pursue
their art, turning to video, stream-
ing and other platforms. Carla
Gover’s tour of dancing to and
playing traditional Appalachian
music as well as a folk opera she
composed, “Cornbread and Torti-
llas,” were all canceled. “I had
some long dark nights of the soul
trying to envision what I could
do,” said Ms. Gover, who lives in
Lexington, Ky., and has three chil-
dren.
She started writing weekly
emails to all her contacts, sharing
videos and offering online classes
in flatfoot dancing and clogging.
The response was enthusiastic. “I
figured out how to use hashtags
and now I have a new kind of busi-
ness,” Ms. Gover said.
But if technology enables some
artists to share their work, it does-
n’t necessarily help them earn
much or even any money.
The violinist Ms. Koh, known
for her devotion to promoting new
artists and music, donated her
time to create the “Alone Togeth-
er” project, raising donations to
commission compositions and
then performing them over Insta-
gram from her apartment.
The project was widely praised,
but as Ms. Koh said, it doesn’t
produce income.
“I am lucky,” Ms. Koh insisted.
Unlike many of her friends and
colleagues, she managed to hang
onto her health insurance thanks
to a teaching gig at the New
School, and she got a forbearance
on her mortgage payments
through March. Many engage-
ments have also been rescheduled
— if not until 2022.
She ticks off the list of friends
and colleagues who have had to
move out of their homes or have
lost their health insurance, their
income and nearly every bit of
their work.
“It’s just decimating the field,”
she said. “It concerns me when I
look at the future.”
Nashville Is Left Shaken
By Explosion of Vehicle
This article is by Jamie McGee,
Rick Rojas, Lucy Tompkins and
Derrick Bryson Taylor.
NASHVILLE — First came the
warning, then came the blast,
shattering the Christmas morning
silence in the heart of the city’s
tourist district.
Before dawn on Friday, Nash-
ville police officers rushed to calls
of gunfire on Second Avenue, a
strip of honky tonks, restaurants
and boot shops. Instead of gunfire,
they found an R.V., blaring a
strange and unsettling message:
There was a bomb. It would deto-
nate in 15 minutes.
When the R.V. did explode, it
sent plumes of smoke billowing
above the city, blew out windows
in shops and offices for several
blocks, left three people hospital-
ized — and Nashville shaken.
Police said the explosion was
deliberate. It was also deeply un-
settling, coming in an area that
draws thousands of people
nightly. But who set it off and why
remained unknown as officials be-
gan to make sense of the blast.
“The whole neighborhood
shook,” said Lily Hansen, who was
sitting on her couch in her second-
floor apartment in a loft building a
few blocks away. She looked out-
side. “I just can’t get the image out
of my head.”
The police released a photo of
the R.V. on Friday afternoon and
said the vehicle had arrived on
Second Avenue North at 1:22 a.m.
The R.V. was parked outside an
AT&T transmission building, a
separate building from the land-
mark 33 story AT&T office tower
less than half a mile away.
It is still unclear if a person was
inside the R.V. when it exploded,
officials said. In a news confer-
ence on Friday evening, police of-
ficials said there were no indica-
tions of fatalities, but possible hu-
man tissue had been found amid
the debris.
Gas lines were shut off in the
area, and AT&T experienced out-
ages, which forced the Federal
Aviation Administration to tem-
porarily halt flights out of the
Nashville International Airport.
Mayor John Cooper said he saw
extensive damage when he sur-
veyed the area, including shat-
tered windows and glass that had
showered onto sidewalks, charred
trees and water main breaks. At
least 41 businesses have been ma-
terially damaged by the explo-
sion, he said. Fire officials added
that one building across from the
explosion collapsed.
Still, he acknowledged a meas-
ure of relief: Had the explosion
taken place on a workday, he said,
the outcome could have been far
more perilous. But, he added later
in the day, that solace had shifted
to resolve to find the perpetrators
and rebuild.
“This morning’s attack on our
community was intended to cre-
ate chaos and fear in this season of
peace and hope,” Mr. Cooper said.
The F.B.I. field office in Mem-
phis was taking the lead in the in-
vestigation, working with state
and local law enforcement agen-
cies, as well as the federal Bureau
of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and
Explosives.
“Acting Attorney General Jeff
Rosen was briefed on the incident
early this morning and directed
that all DOJ resources be made
available to assist in the investiga-
tion,” a Justice Department
spokesman said in a statement.
Mr. Rosen became the acting at-
torney general on Wednesday af-
ter William P. Barr stepped down.
Gov. Bill Lee of Tennessee said
in a statement on Twitter that the
state would supply any needed re-
sources to determine what had
happened and who was responsi-
ble.
He said he was “praying for
those who were injured” and was
thankful to the emergency work-
ers.
A spokesman for President
Trump said the president had
been briefed on the explosion and
was “grateful for the incredible
first responders and praying for
those who were injured.”
The authorities said the explo-
sion happened around 6:30 a.m.
outside 166 Second Avenue North,
in a stretch of downtown with a
Hard Rock Cafe, Hooters, Red-
neck Riviera Barbecue and
Honky Tonk Bus Tours. It is an
area where the tourists who come
to Nashville often flock.
But on Christmas morning, it
was quiet. “It’s not a very popu-
lated area,” Mr. Cooper said.
After police officers arrived,
they hurried to roust anyone they
could find: The guests staying in
nearby hotels. Residents just wak-
ing up in apartment buildings.
People who had curled into the
warmest crevices they could find
as they slept on the street.
A voice announced through a
speaker on the R.V. that a bomb
Jamie McGee reported from Nash-
ville, Rick Rojas from Atlanta,
Lucy Tompkins from Bozeman,
Mont., and Derrick Bryson Taylor
from London. Reporting was con-
tributed by J.R. Lind and Hamilton
Matthew Masters from Nashville,
Michael S. Schmidt from Washing-
ton, and Giulia McDonnell Nieto
del Rio from New York.
Y A19
would detonate, and then began a
countdown interspersed with mu-
sic, the police said.
A bomb squad was on its way.
But it was too late. The R.V. ex-
ploded, exactly as the recording
had warned.
Don Aaron, a spokesman for the
Metropolitan Nashville Police De-
partment, said the officers’ quick
work in evacuating the area
helped prevent the explosion from
causing more harm. “We think
lives were saved by those officers
doing just that,” he said.
On Second Avenue, just a block
away from the Cumberland River,
the blast left the roadway black-
ened with debris, including
scorched trees and the hulls of ve-
hicles destroyed by the explosion.
Fire trucks and emergency ve-
hicles were gathered at the edge
of downtown and blue lights
flashed under the Hard Rock Ca-
fe’s large spinning guitar on
Broadway. Except for a distant
fire alarm and the sounds of a heli-
copter, downtown was quiet Fri-
day afternoon.
The R.V. exploded just outside
the Melting Pot, a fondue restau-
rant in a downtown building, like
many others in the area, that was
erected in the late 19th century.
Windows on either end of the
building were blown out, as were
the large, heavy doors at the build-
ing’s entrance. The explosion also
triggered the sprinkler system,
which flooded the restaurant for
about eight hours.
“It’s a mess,” said Mark Rosen-
thal, one of the restaurant’s own-
ers. “We have about 115 people
working there, but that’s 115 peo-
ple that now don’t have jobs. So
that’s rough to think about.”
Freddie O’Connell, a city coun-
cilman who represents the af-
fected area, said that dozens of
people had been displaced and
were brought to a triage area
where they could be checked for
injuries and stay warm on a bit-
terly cold morning. “It’s going to
be a little bit of time,” he said, be-
fore they can return to their resi-
dences.
“2020 already had plenty of dev-
astation,” Mr. O’Connell said. “It’s
hard to wake up on Christmas
morning and see more of it in my
hometown.”
The explosion punctuates an
agonizing year for Nashville: In
March, a deadly tornado swept
through some of the city’s most
bustling neighborhoods, which
still have streets lined with man-
gled debris. And the coronavirus
pandemic hit Tennessee hard —
through the spread of the virus
and then as it devastated a tour-
ism industry that has thrived in
recent years.
And now, Nashville has been
rattled, left to confront a bizarre
and terrifying mystery.
“One more event in Nashville’s
2020,” Mr. Cooper said in a news
conference on Friday.
Tom Cirillo, who lives down-
town, said the blast on Friday re-
minded him of the tornado, a har-
rowing experience for Nashville
as it raked through homes and
businesses, leveling or partly col-
lapsing 48 structures. In addition
to the damage, signs declaring
“Nashville Strong” still dot the
city.
“It’s just sort of a terrible thing
that it happened on a Christmas
morning,” Mr. Cirillo said. “You’re
lucky that it happened at the time
that it did. I’m just wondering
what exactly happened.”
Lawrence Cosson was sleeping
on the street outside one of the
downtown bars when he felt the
explosion. He said the ground
shook and he could hear alarms
sounding in nearby buildings.
When a police officer guided him
away from the area, he said, “I
saw there was so much debris
coming from the other side of the
building.”
The explosion interrupted the
Rev. Jayd Neely, the pastor at St.
Mary of the Seven Sorrows, as he
finished his morning prayers. He
thought it could be construction, a
common occurrence, near his Ro-
man Catholic parish, which is a
few blocks from the explosion and
across the street from the Tennes-
see State Capitol. But then he real-
ized that was unlikely on a holiday.
That it could be an intentional
act is troubling, he said. “It’s re-
ally evil,” Father Neely said, “es-
pecially on Christmas Day.”
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A20 SATURDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2020

LETTERS

Generosity to Colleges in Need

TO THE EDITOR:
Re “‘I Was Stunned’: Small Col-
leges Receive Big Donations”
(news article, Dec. 17):
I sit on the board of the Cam-
paign Legal Center, a (relatively)
small nonpartisan organization
that works hard to “advance de-
mocracy through law.” Last sum-
mer we received an unsolicited
and unexpected large gift from
MacKenzie Scott, the former wife
of Jeff Bezos, the founder of Ama-
zon, accompanied by a request that
we not return to her for more in
the future.
Your account about her surprise
generosity to a great and obviously
thoughtfully researched variety of
relatively obscure historically
minority colleges and universities
that struggle to serve richly de-
serving segments of the population
is an inspiring account of the union
of heart and brain. We are all bet-
ter for learning of it.
CHARLES FRIED, CAMBRIDGE, MASS.
JOSHUA BRIGHT FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES The writer is a law professor at Har-
vard.
EDITORIAL
TO THE EDITOR:
the hope and validation these gifts
communicated across our cam-
puses.
Ms. Scott has indeed “turned
traditional philanthropy on its
head,” through her gifts’ magni-
tude, and her terms and selection
of recipients.
When it comes to major gifts,
tremendous amounts of wealth
have been transferred to higher
education over the past 50 years,
but wealth has mostly gone to
wealth. However, it appears that
few of Ms. Scott’s higher education
recipients have ever received a gift
of this size before.
To be true to its highest ideals,
our society must reduce the vast
inequities that have been amplified
and made painfully visible during
the Covid-19 pandemic. Affordable
and accessible quality education is
one of the best ways to reverse
these impacts.
MacKenzie Scott has done some-
thing radical this year. We hope
others will follow suit and support
colleges that serve students like
ours. The result will be a more just
and equitable society that will
benefit everyone.

Elite Schools Don’t Need to Be Exclusive Re “No Warning, No Strings, No

Fanfare: A Billionaire Bestows
Gifts” (Business, Dec. 21):
DANIEL LEMONS
ANTHONY MUNROE
Mr. Lemons is president of Lehman
The achievement gap in New York’s segregated and un- Eliminating Hunter’s test could add needed momentum As the presidents of two City College. Mr. Munroe is president of
equal schools is poised to become a chasm in the wake of the to efforts to overturn the state law that has been interpreted University of New York colleges, Borough of Manhattan Community
coronavirus pandemic. to require New York’s eight specialized high schools to use we were thrilled to learn that our College.
Hispanic- and minority-serving
Some 700,000 of the city’s one million public school stu- an exam as the sole criterion for admission. That elite group
institutions in the Bronx and Man- TO THE EDITOR:
dents are learning from home. The city is still working to of public schools, which includes Stuyvesant High School, is hattan would each receive a gift of
convince teachers and parents that the schools are safe, a 11 percent Black and Latino while the city’s schools are 70 $30 million from the author and MacKenzie Scott’s donations to
percent Black and Latino over all. philanthropist MacKenzie Scott. It colleges and universities that are
process that will continue well into next year — until vacci-
is difficult to adequately convey serving predominantly lower-
nation is widespread. Many students, including homeless New York is the only large district in the country to use income students and students of
children, are still fighting just to gain reliable access to a single exam for admissions to its top public high schools. color will have a significantly
broadband internet service. But efforts to eliminate the specialized high school exam, larger impact on educational at-
Against the backdrop of such inequality, it was welcome known as the S.H.S.A.T., have been met with fierce resist- tainment and equity than if those
Naming Ambassadors dollars had gone to the usual brand
news last week when Mayor Bill de Blasio said the city ance from many white and Asian parents, whose children
TO THE EDITOR: names. But our country should not
would make long overdue changes to middle and high make up a majority of students at the schools. have to count on individual philan-
Other powerful opposition has come from high-profile Re “Ambassadorships for Sale,” by
school admissions processes. For at least one year, the city thropy to improve the higher edu-
Mattathias Schwartz (Op-Ed, Dec.
will eliminate the use of grades and other screens in the alumni of the specialized schools, like the cosmetics heir 19), which calls for reforms to the cation opportunities available to all
middle school admissions process, and will instead use a lot- Ron Lauder and the city’s public advocate, Jumaane students in America.
“system” of appointments for
Williams. big-dollar donors to presidential Higher education attainment is
tery system. The city will also end a practice that allowed
critical to individual well-being,
some high schools to give preference in admissions to stu- Mr. Lauder has supported tutoring efforts aimed at campaigns:
equal opportunity and social mobil-
dents who live near a school. helping Black and Hispanic students succeed on the test, Last month, the nonpartisan
ity — key principles of our society,
while also funding a lobbying campaign to preserve the report of the American Diplomacy
Both measures could racially integrate some of the as well as our country’s economic
Project by three retired U.S. am-
city’s most selective schools, which are largely white and exam. growth. It is a responsibility of the
bassadors urgently appealed for a
Mr. Williams, who attended Brooklyn Technical High government, which must step up
Asian, and are an important step toward a fairer city. major bipartisan initiative to “re-
and invest in improving educa-
Unfortunately, the measures won’t change the high- School, one of the specialized schools, has called for the ex- vive, reform and reimagine the tional attainment for all.
stakes admissions exams used by its most sought-after pub- pansion of gifted and talented programs in lower grades to Foreign Service,” including a major The lifetime opportunities af-
better prepare Black and Hispanic students for the test. “I increase in career professionals forded by a college degree cannot
lic high schools. In the coming months, it looks likely that serving in senior diplomatic posts.
New York will plow ahead with those tests, which have left got that acceptance because of the S.H.S.A.T. If left to continue to depend so heavily on
Currently, as the report notes, family income.
all but a handful of Black and Latino students shut out of the grades alone, it is unlikely I would’ve been admitted, or that the State Department is the
city’s most competitive schools. I would have been able to accomplish all that I have,” he told agency with by far the most Sen- CATHARINE B. HILL, NEW YORK

This year, the exams will work like accelerant in a giant
conflagration of inequality.
Few voices have articulated the unfairness and absurd-
ity of continuing this tradition more clearly than the public
high school students across New York City who have pro-
tested and organized in recent years to demand an end to
the admissions tests and screening policies.
Some of the high schools in question, known as special-
ized high schools, are required by state law to use a common
exam as the single point of entry. Another exam, for Hunter
College High School in Manhattan, a public school overseen
by the City University of New York, is administered sepa-
rately.
The specialized high school exam is scheduled to be
held next month. Hunter’s exam, which is usually given in
January, has been postponed indefinitely. In a statement, of-
ficials at Hunter said they were still weighing how to ap-
proach admissions for September and were “looking at ho-
listic ways to remedy the diversity concerns.”
With the exam for Hunter delayed, students there see
an opportunity to abolish it entirely. In a letter to the school
administration, students questioned why the school had not
done so already, even as Boston and other cities suspended
similar admissions tests over concerns they would worsen
inequality in the midst of the pandemic.
“Their leaders are recognizing that the dual public
health and equity emergencies they are facing necessitate
suspending their tests and taking action to ensure fair ac-
cess for highly qualified Black and Latinx students,” the
Hunter students wrote. “Why isn’t Hunter doing the same?”
Hunter’s three-hour exam is for most students the sole
point of entry into the school, which is just 2.4 percent Black
and 6.2 percent Latino, in a district that is 25 percent Black
and 41 percent Hispanic over all.
The student activists at Hunter have a list of complaints
and demands. They argue that the exam unfairly disadvan-
tages Black and Hispanic students, who are less likely to
have access to extensive test preparation. They say they
have been denied the opportunity to attend school with New
Yorkers of other races and socioeconomic backgrounds.
They also describe a difficult environment for the Black and
Latino students and students from lower-income house-
holds who do attend Hunter.
Chloë Rollock, a senior at Hunter who said she is one of
just a handful of Black students in her grade, said being the
only Black student in class “when we’re talking about slav-
ery, or things that are going on in New York City right now
that have to do with Black people,” had often been a painful
experience.
“Everyone is always looking at me, and I always know
it,” said Ms. Rollock, 17. “It really reminds me, I’m this outli-
er. I questioned my worthiness being at Hunter. It made me
question my own self-worth.”
a New York State Assembly committee last year. ate-confirmed political appointees, The writer, a former president of
Clementine Roach, a senior at Hunter College High and “there is not a single serving Vassar College, is managing director of
School, said the attachment of some alumni to the exams career official in the 23 Senate- Ithaka S + R, which offers strategic
confirmed assistant secretary
was mystifying. “We don’t think that’s what makes us spe- advice for academic and cultural
positions.” Among the report’s 10
cial,” said Ms. Roach, 17. institutions.
major recommendations is legisla-
Instead of allowing the pandemic to worsen longstand- tion mandating that career profes-
ing inequities, New York could seize on the disruption to fix sionals occupy 90 percent of all
ambassadorial positions and 75
its broken high school admissions practices at all its schools.
percent of all assistant secretary of Don’t Defer Medical Care
Several promising proposals have emerged in recent years.
state positions by 2025. TO THE EDITOR:
Instead of a single exam, Albany could allow the city to Given the increasingly serious The prolonged Covid-19 pandemic
use state test scores, class rank and other measures. These nature of threats to our country, has led to an increase in the num-
important reforms would require the State Legislature to America needs an expanded and ber of patients who present with
overturn Hecht-Calandra, the 1971 law that explicitly re- revitalized corps of career profes- late-stage, previously undiagnosed
sionals in the most senior positions
quires three of the specialized high cancers, and recurrence of a previ-
ready and able to carry out our ously diagnosed malignancy.
Scrapping the schools — Stuyvesant, Bronx High most pressing diplomatic missions This is probably due to the reluc-
high-stakes School of Science and Brooklyn Techni- at home and around the world. tance to seek medical care because
admission tests cal High School — to use an exam as the
PAUL DENIG, WASHINGTON of fear of contracting Covid-19 at
for New York’s only point of entry. medical facilities; the closing or
specialized The writer, a retired Foreign Service reduction in clinical services; the
Changing admissions policies to al-
officer, is president of DACOR, an requirement to obtain Covid-19
public high low talented Black and Latino students
organization of foreign affairs profes- testing before some medical pro-
schools is long — indeed, all students — a fair shot at
sionals. cedures; and the use of
overdue. attending the city’s top high schools telemedicine without physical
should be the easy part. The far harder examination instead of an actual
challenge facing the city in the coming years is how to pre- office visit.
vent millions of children who were already vulnerable be- Military Spending It is important that people not
defer their medical care during the
fore the pandemic from falling far further behind. TO THE EDITOR: pandemic. It is especially important
One in every 10 public school students in New York is Re “How to Meet Our Global Chal- that those who previously received
homeless. Many live in communities that have been hit hard lenges,” by Robert M. Gates (Op- a cancer diagnosis continue their
by the coronavirus, while others have disabilities that have Ed, Dec. 21): treatment and follow-up. Those who
When someone of the stature of experience new or unusual signs
made remote learning especially difficult.
Mr. Gates, a former defense secre- and symptoms that may indicate
In the coming year, New York must do everything pos- tary, speaks about foreign policy aggravation of their condition or a
sible to identify these students, and make sure they don’t issues, it is prudent for all to take new ailment should seek medical
get left behind. notice. However, when he says that care without delay.
The first task is to assess where each student is aca- “unparalleled military power must Postponing care or ignoring
symptoms may lead to complica-
demically, according to education experts like Tim Daly, the remain the backdrop for America’s
relations with the world,” he does- tions and deterioration, making
chief executive of EdNavigator, an education nonprofit. Mr. n’t answer a fundamental question. future care more difficult and lead-
Daly said the most straightforward way is to use next year’s Why? ing to increased morbidity and
state exams, though it needn’t be the only measure. Chil- Does the exorbitant price we are mortality.
dren who are behind will need an action plan, one with seri- paying for our military make us ITZHAK BROOK, WASHINGTON
ous buy-in from parents. feel more secure? Military expen-
The writer is a professor of pediatrics
ditures are taken as a given. Per-
Halley Potter, a senior fellow at the Century Founda- haps our real security is tied to a
at Georgetown University.
tion, a public policy research group, suggested using sur- greater investment in health care,
veys to determine what kind of life changes students have education, infrastructure and
faced since the pandemic started. She said New York would research. It seems as if anyone
almost certainly need more social workers and counselors who questions the amount we West Point’s Scandal
spend on the military is viewed as TO THE EDITOR:
to help students process trauma — a task that may be diffi- putting our national security at
cult given the city’s bleak fiscal circumstances. risk. Re “More Than 70 West Point
Once virtual learning is behind us, getting students up This issue needs to be looked at Cadets Are Accused in Exam
to speed academically may require a dedicated, citywide anew. A case in point would be the Cheating Scandal” (news article,
war in Iraq, which cost us lives and Dec. 22):
campaign. That could mean a greater focus on parent- So West Point is giving most of
treasure. American security was
teacher conferences, an intensive tutoring program and ex- these cadets a “second chance,”
not enhanced. Perhaps if resources
tra learning time in summer or after school. These are just were not automatically poured into through a relatively new “rehabili-
the kind of programs that can be expanded in the coming the military industrial complex, tation program”? How must the
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High school students across the city have raised many years to address longstanding achievement gaps. our leaders would be more reluc- cadets who took the exam without
tant (or at least more prudent) cheating feel?
of the same issues in recent years, demanding changes to In the 19th century, Horace Mann, the education re-
before making militaristic deci- Values of character have given
admissions policies by staging walkouts, marches, a sit-in at former, described public education as “the great equalizer” way to cheating and lying. The rot
sions. Adding dollars to our mili-
City Hall and other protests. of the conditions of men. How sad, then, that New York’s tary budget should no longer be has started below and runs right
Because of the coronavirus, city officials said the spe- public schools have for years now been a mirror of the city’s automatic without some question- up to the presidency. Turpitude is
cialized high school exam will be administered in each test- enormous inequities. As the city emerges from the pan- ing of the need for such expendi- rampant at all levels it seems.
Welcome to America!

Social Media Pakistan 0345-6738217

taker’s middle school to reduce travel and to allow more dis- demic, it has a chance to right that grievous wrong, and a re- tures.
tance between applicants during the test. sponsibility to build something far better. LARRY HOFFNER, NEW YORK CAROL SHURMAN, NEW YORK

MICHELLE GOLDBERG
Trump’s Most
Disgusting
Pardons
THE YOUNGEST VICTIM of the 2007 massa-
cre in Baghdad’s Nisour Square, commit-
ted by Blackwater mercenaries whom
Donald Trump pardoned on Tuesday,
was a 9-year-old boy named Ali Kinani.
In a 2010 documentary, the journalist
Jeremy Scahill interviewed Ali’s father,
Mohammed Hafedh Abdulrazzaq Ki-
nani, who spoke of how he’d welcomed
the American invasion of his country and
brought along his son to greet U.S. sol-
diers.
“The first day the American Army en-
tered Baghdad, I handed out juice and
candy in the street to celebrate our liber-
ation from Saddam,” said Kinani. Scahill
called him “that rare personification of
the neoconservative narrative about the
U.S. invasion.”
On Sept. 16, 2007, Kinani was driving
toward the traffic circle at Nisour Square
with his sister, her children and Ali when
guards from Blackwater opened fire
with machine guns and grenade launch-
ers. (Blackwater, a private security com-
pany, has since changed its name to
Academi.) Ali was one of 17 people killed.
According to The Washington Post, a
U.S. military report found that there had
been no provocation. “It was obviously
excessive, it was obviously wrong,” a
military official told the paper. An F.B.I.
investigator reportedly described it as
the “My Lai massacre of Iraq.”
The U.S. Embassy offered Ali’s family
a $10,000 condolence payment. After ini-
tially refusing the money, they donated
half of it to the family of a U.S. soldier
killed in Iraq. “They wanted to do that to
honor and acknowledge the sacrifice of
those men and women that had come
over to Iraq to fight for them and free
them from Saddam Hussein,” Paul Dick-
inson, a lawyer who represented Kinani
and others in a civil suit against Black-
water, told me.
Until Tuesday, the American system
worked to give Ali’s family a modicum of
justice. Blackwater settled with the fam-
ily. The guards were prosecuted crimi-
nally. The process was torturous, with
several roadblocks, but powerful figures
in the United States were determined to
see it through.
Eventually three of the Blackwater
guards, Paul Slough, Evan Liberty and
Blackwater mercenaries
committed a massacre.
Now they’ll go free.
Dustin Heard, were convicted of volun-
tary manslaughter and other charges. A
fourth, Nicholas Slatten, was convicted
of murder and last year sentenced to life
in prison. Kinani moved to America and
became a citizen, though he was back in
Iraq when the BBC reached him on
Wednesday. Until just days ago, he’d felt
that the legal system in the United States
had been “very fair with me,” he said.
Then came Tuesday’s pardon spree,
which included the Blackwater killers
along with some Russiagate felons, cor-
rupt ex-congressmen and others. It was
perhaps not surprising that the presi-
dent acted to free the mercenaries;
Trump’s enthusiasm for war crimes is
well known, and last year he pardoned
three men accused or convicted of them.
Erik Prince, who founded Blackwater, is
a close Trump ally and the brother of his
education secretary, Betsy DeVos.
Neither the predictability of these par-
dons, however, nor our dulled capacity
for shock, lessens their grotesqueness.
The last days of Trump’s reign have been
an orgy of impunity, as he hands out in-
dulgences like party favors and rubs
America’s face in his power to put his
supporters beyond ordinary law. On
Wednesday, Trump pardoned even more
cronies, including, most egregiously, his
former campaign chairman Paul Man-
afort, a likely reward for Manafort’s help
undermining Robert Mueller’s investi-
gation. But even in this low moment, the
pardons of the Blackwater killers stand
out for their depravity.
They also exemplify a core tenet of
Trumpism: absolute license for some
and absolute submission for others. No-
where is that truer than in Trump’s con-
ception of the relationship between
American soldiers and paramilitaries
and foreigners.
Last year, Trump intervened to re-
verse a demotion of Eddie Gallagher, a
Navy Seal special operations chief who
took a celebratory photo with a corpse
and was described by men under his
command as “freaking evil” and “toxic.”
But the president didn’t just spare Galla-
gher. He lionized him, and his movement
made him an icon. The Times described
Gallagher “making appearances at influ-
ential conservative gatherings and rub-
bing elbows with Mr. Trump’s inner cir-
cle at Mar-a-Lago.”
You could argue that Trump has sim-
ply stripped pretense from the dynamics
that always drove the “war on terror.”
But if the approach to Iraq that preceded
Trump was infested with hypocrisy, that
hypocrisy at least revealed an aspiration
to a humane foreign policy. That aspira-
tion did more than flatter the sensibilities
of liberals and neoconservatives. It could
be leveraged to allow a man like Kinani
to make demands of the country that oc-
cupied his.
Trump’s pardon, Kinani told the BBC,
made him feel as if Ali, who should now
be 22, had been killed again. Before, he
said, he felt that no one was “above the
law.” No more.
“I feel I’m nothing today. I feel I’m
nothing. I lost my son and I feel I’m noth-
ing,” Kinani said. By all indications, the
president of the United States agrees. 0
THE NEW YORK TIMES OP-ED SATURDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2020
You Can’t Meet God Over Zoom
Esau McCaulley
W
HEN our congregation,
Church of the Savior, moved
to online services some nine
months ago, our family tried
to keep things normal. We had the chil-
dren dress in nice Sunday clothes, though
we would be watching via screen instead
of entering a sanctuary. We arranged the
chairs in the living room to look like pews.
We tried to follow along, bowing at the
right times and crossing ourselves at the
right moment.
Anyone who has ever attended a reli-
gious service (or any event) with children
knows it is a constant struggle to get them
to sit still, pay attention and not distract
those around them. Every Sunday in the
pew is a battle of wills. But if in-person
services were a skirmish, online church is
war.
My family is a group of outliers. Just 33
percent of Americans attend religious
services weekly. As for the rest of the
country, about one-third make their way
to a place of worship somewhere between
a couple of times a month and a few times
a year. The final third attend rarely, if at all.
But no matter where one falls on that
DNA Rewrites the Telling of the Caribbean’s Past
David Reich
and Orlando Patterson
I
N 1492, Christopher Columbus
touched land for the first time in the
Americas, reaching the Bahamas,
Hispaniola (present-day Dominican
Republic and Haiti) and eastern Cuba.
After he returned to Spain he reported
that he had encountered islands rich in
gold. A few years later his brother Bar-
tholomew, who also traveled to the
Americas, reported that Hispaniola had
a large population whose labor and land
could be put to the advantage of the
Spanish crown. He estimated the popula-
tion at 1.1 million people.
Was this figure accurate? It soon was a
matter of dispute. Bartolomé de las Ca-
sas, a Spanish monk and colonist who be-
came the first chronicler of the human
disaster that unfolded in the Americas
after the arrival of Europeans, estimated
a far larger number: three million to four
million.
The population size of “pre-contact”
Hispaniola would continue to be a con-
tested issue until the present day, not
least because of its profound emotional
and moral resonance in light of the de-
struction of that world. Modern scholars
have generally estimated the population
at 250,000 to a million people.
Some of the arguments for large popu-
lation numbers in the pre-contact Ameri-
cas have been motivated by an attempt
to counter a myth, perpetuated by apolo-
gists for colonialism like the philosopher
John Locke, that the Americas were a
vast “vacuum domicilium,” or empty
dwelling, populated by a handful of In-
digenous groups whose displacement
could be readily justified. In a similar
vein, some of the arguments for large
population sizes have been motivated by
a desire to underscore how disastrous
the arrival of Europeans was for Indige-
nous people.
By any measure, the arrival of Euro-
peans was catastrophic for Indigenous
Americans. This is true whether the
numbers of people were in the hundreds
of thousands or millions — or for that
matter, the tens of thousands. It is ques-
tionable to pin our judgments of human
atrocities to a specific number. To learn
from the past, it is crucial to be willing to
accept new and compelling data when
they become available.
In the case of the pre-contact popula-
tion of Hispaniola, such data have ar-
rived. By analyzing the DNA of ancient
Indigenous Caribbean people, a study
published in Nature on Wednesday by
Social Media Pakistan 0345-6738217
one of us (Professor Reich) makes clear
that the population of Hispaniola was no
spectrum, the pandemic has changed the
way we experience religion.
After that first Zoom church week, our
family abandoned the church clothes and
makeshift pews. Everyone’s attention
lagged.
Maybe it was screen fatigue. My chil-
dren have Zoom school. As a professor, I
have Zoom teaching. With my wife de-
ployed in the Navy, we have a Zoom mar-
riage and, now, Zoom church. Something
had to give.
In July, researchers at Barna, a group
dedicated to studying faith and culture,
found church attendance in America had
dropped significantly during the pan-
demic. I’m not surprised. I, too, have gone
through periods where I couldn’t stomach
a Zoom service. Instead, we open our
Book of Common Prayer and worship as a
family.
And yet this is what we’ve got — lest we
simply shut down these services until the
church can gather without restriction.
It is true that Zoom religious services
are fundamentally inadequate. This is not
a criticism of the clergy and lay leaders
who have put in tremendous creative ef-
fort. In a sense it is an indictment of the
very idea of what we look for in church,
and a chance to realign our perspective.
more than a few tens of thousands of peo-
ple. Almost all prior estimates have been
at least tenfold too large.
This research involved sequencing ge-
netic material taken from skeletal re-
mains. Together with another study of
ancient Caribbean DNA published re-
cently by a different lab, scientists now
have data concerning the entire ge-
nomes of more than 260 people of the an-
cient Caribbean. (This work was done in
collaboration with Caribbean scholars,
with permission from Caribbean govern-
ments and institutions and in consulta-
tion with Caribbean people of Indigenous
descent.)
In recent years, researchers studying
ancient DNA have accumulated more
than 5,000 ancient human genomes (up
A technician in Boston works with the DNA of ancient Carribean people.
from none a decade ago), making it pos-
sible to use this methodology to ask and
answer questions about how past people
related to one another and to people liv-
ing today. The Caribbean is now the first
place in the Americas where we have this
kind of high-resolution data set for un-
derstanding the past, previously avail-
able only in Western Eurasia.
The finding about the pre-contact pop-
ulation size in Hispaniola was made pos-
sible by a new scientific advance: We are
now able to detect “DNA cousins” in an-
cient genomes — taking two people and
determining whether they share large
segments of DNA inherited from a recent
ancestor. This is similar to what personal
ancestry companies like 23andMe and
Ancestry do with living people.
JAMIEL LAW
That is because even in-person services
are, in a sense, inadequate. Everyone who
has come to follow a religion knows of that
initial season of zeal. People are excited
and energetic about their newfound faith;
the services seem transcendent. But that
feeling often fades and becomes some-
thing else.
If bodies and physical spaces are really
means by which we attempt to encounter
Virtual church services
are inadequate —
but I keep going.
God on earth, something immeasurable is
lost when worship goes virtual. This loss
becomes all the more acute during the hol-
iday season, a time when churches are
usually filled with candles, flowers and
flowing vestments. Instead, the choir
stalls and pews will be largely empty.
W.E.B. Dubois is famous for describing
the Black church as “the preacher, the mu-
sic and the frenzy.” That is true enough as
a sociological analysis, but to members of
the congregation there is a fourth element
to that mix: finding God’s own presence
When the Reich team applied this
method to 91 ancient individuals for
whom it had sequenced enough of the ge-
nome to carry out this analysis, it found
19 pairs of DNA cousins living on differ-
ent large islands or island groups in the
Caribbean: for example, an individual in
Hispaniola with a cousin in the Bahamas,
and another individual in Hispaniola
with a cousin in Puerto Rico. This meant
that the entire population had to be very
small; you wouldn’t find that random
pairs of people had such a high probabil-
ity of being closely related if the entire
population was large. (To put this in per-
spective, if you did the same analysis on
random pairs of people across China to-
day, DNA cousins would be detected
many thousands of times less often.)
KAYANA SZYMCZAK FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
The rate of close relationships that the
Reich team found is what would be ex-
pected for about 3,000 people — at most
8,000 people — in their childbearing
years in Hispaniola. The true numbers of
people could have been threefold to ten-
fold larger because at any given time
only a fraction of a population is in its
childbearing years. Still, we can confi-
dently conclude that the pre-contact pop-
ulation size of Hispaniola was no more
than a few tens of thousands of people.
This is a classic ancient DNA surprise
— the kind of unexpected finding this
new technology has shown repeatedly
that it can deliver. For example, the se-
quencing of a finger bone from Siberia
thought to be from a modern human
turned out to be from an archaic popula-
Y A21
among them.
There are few things more powerful
than being in the presence of a Black
gospel choir, its lead singer clapping and
moving in rhythm testifying to the power
of God. There are moments when the
choirs and the preachers who follow can
lift an entire congregation and transport
it. They can fill the despairing with hope
and the fearful with the courage to de-
mand justice.
These days, instead of choirs, we mum-
ble along trying to harmonize with a virtu-
al worship leader.
In the months of pandemic worship, I
have come to recognize that religious
services, by their very nature, cannot ful-
fill what they promise. Services attempt to
usher finite people into the presence of
someone we believe is infinite. What
hymn or sermon can capture that? We are
chasing the wind. There are fits and starts,
hints of something at the edge of our per-
ception, but not the thing itself.
Humans disappoint, especially those
we expect to share our beliefs and values.
We see other believers fail to display the
deep love for one another and the stranger
that is commended in our sacred texts. We
witness others compromise our deepest
values, sacrificed for access to power. In-
tegrity seems in short supply. We attend
services where the people are unfriendly,
the sermons aren’t great and the music is
a struggle. Instead of encountering the
transcendent, we bump against the limits
of human talent.
These frustrations, large and small,
cause some to check out on religion in
much the same way that people have
checked out on Zoom services. And yet,
why did roughly a third of Americans
trudge off to services week in and week
out before the pandemic? Why do some of
us continue to log on during it?
We stay because attendance is not
about what the church gives us; it is our
way of offering something to God. It is a
small rebellion, a way of saying that there
is more to life than simply the acquisition
of more. It is an attempt to become the
kind of people who live lives of charity and
service.
The very inadequacy of church serv-
ices, Zoom and otherwise, is a reminder
we do not come into churches to encoun-
ter a life lesson on how to raise our chil-
dren or to learn to be good Americans,
whatever that means. Our aim is much
more audacious. We are attempting to en-
counter God and, in so doing, find our-
selves, possibly for the first time.
One recent weekend we gathered once
more for Zoom church. My wife logged on
from her military outpost and I logged on
with the kids. I settled into my role at tech
support. Two of the younger kids lingered
on the couch happily coloring.
As I followed along in the service, some-
thing surprised me. I looked up from the
computer and saw my daughter standing
in the middle of the living room. Her
tender, beautiful voice resounding
throughout the space. She was singing. I
found myself ushered into the presence of
something that defies description. 0
ESAU McCAULLEY is a contributing opinion
writer, and an assistant professor of New
Testament at Wheaton College.
tion not previously known to archaeolo-
gists, or even hypothesized by them.
Such results emphasize how much we
still have to learn about the past.
How should the new findings change
the way we think about the fate of Indige-
nous people in the pre-contact Caribbe-
an? In some ways, not at all. Whatever
the starting population, what happened
to Indigenous Americans after Euro-
peans arrived amounted to genocide:
the systematic obliteration not just of in-
dividuals but also of their culture and
community — what the philosopher
Claudia Card called the “social death” at
“the center of genocide.”
Even if you focus more narrowly on
statistics, the numbers of deaths in both
absolute and relative terms are horrific.
According to a 1540 census, the number
of Indigenous people in Hispaniola had
dropped to 250 people. It dropped to zero
in later counts.
In other ways, however, ancient DNA
research significantly changes how we
think about Indigenous people in the pre-
contact Caribbean. Another surprising
finding, for instance, is that the genetic
New research reveals
surprising findings
about the region.
legacy of pre-contact Caribbean people
did not disappear: They contributed an
estimated 14 percent of the DNA of living
people from Puerto Rico, 6 percent of
that in the Dominican Republic and 4
percent of that in Cuba. In addition, by
illuminating the highly mobile lifestyle of
pre-contact Caribbean people with many
DNA cousins across different islands,
the research underscores the degree to
which they were connected — a relative
unity later fractured by centuries of divi-
sion into colonial spheres by European
powers.
Colonization resulted in such immense
destruction that the rich cultures of the
pre-contact Caribbean can be recon-
structed only through a blend of oral tra-
ditions and scientific study, including the
new insights provided by ancient DNA
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analysis. It is a blessing to be able to get
closer to this heritage. And it is the loss of
the people and cultures that produced
this heritage that most provokes our out-
rage. 0
DAVID REICH is a professor of genetics and
human evolutionary biology at Harvard.
ORLANDO PATTERSON is a professor of
sociology at Harvard.
A22 Y THE NEW YORK TIMES OBITUARIES SATURDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2020

Stella Tennant, 50, Aristocratic British Model Who Inspired Designers, Dies
By GUY TREBAY
Stella Tennant, the unimpeach-
ably aristocratic model and inspi-
ration to designers like Karl La-
gerfeld and Gianni Versace, died
on Tuesday in Duns, Scotland. She
was 50.
Her death was announced by
her family, which did not provide a
cause. Police reports noted no sus-
picious circumstances surround-
ing her death, according to the
BBC.
The granddaughter of Andrew
Cavendish, the 11th Duke of Dev-
onshire, and Deborah Cavendish,
Duchess of Devonshire, the
youngest of the Mitford sisters,
Ms. Tennant was directly de-
scended from Bess of Hardwick,
builder of the opulent Elizabethan
manor Hardwick Hall, who was
once reputed to be the richest
woman in England.
Ms. Tennant wore her rarefied
heritage lightly throughout her
three-decade run in fashion, dur-
ing which she walked the runways
for most major fashion designers;
was featured in advertising cam-
paigns for nearly every important
label; appeared on scores of mag-
azine covers; and worked with a
full roster of the world’s elite pho-
tographers, editors, makeup art-
ists and stylists.
Along with Naomi Campbell
and Kate Moss, Ms. Tennant was
chosen to represent English fash-
ion at the closing ceremony of the
2012 Olympics. In the late 1990s,
Karl Lagerfeld signed her to an
exclusive contract as the face of
Chanel. In doing so, Mr. Lagerfeld
noted the very English Ms. Ten-
nant’s likeness to the incompara-
bly Gallic founder of that fabled
house.
It was a fanciful assertion by
any standard, given that Coco
Chanel was short and better
known for her style than her looks,
while Ms. Tennant stood nearly
six feet, had crisply regular fea-
tures and retained into adulthood
the “limpid blue eyes” her grand-
mother Deborah Devonshire first
noted in a letter to the Anglo-Irish
writer Patrick Leigh Fermor
when Ms. Tennant was in diapers.
Vanessa Friedman contributed re-
porting.
Stella Tennant with Karl Lagerfeld in 2011 during the Metiers D’Art Show for Chanel in Paris.
What the two women did have
in common, though, was an ele-
ment of androgyny. Ms. Tennant’s
brushy haircut, along with her
boyish cool (and a punk septum
piercing), caught the attention of
the photographer Steven Meisel
in the early 1990s. After turning
up at a casting call Mr. Meisel sent
out for unknowns, Ms. Tennant
found her face featured on the
cover of Italian Vogue.
She soon found favor with de-
signers across the spectrum, from
New York indies to the renowned
couturiers of Europe.
“Steven Meisel sent Stella for a
go-see to my design studio, and I
immediately cast her in my spring
’94 show as an aristocratic punk
princess,” the designer Anna Sui
said. “She was so elegant and had
the prettiness and androgyny of
an Elizabeth Peyton drawing.
Plus, there was that posh accent
and the defiance of the nose ring.”
Ms. Tennant’s offhand ease
with duality — particularly of
class and gender — kept her in de-
mand throughout the decades
with designers including
Valentino Garavani, Alber Elbaz,
Giorgio Armani, Marc Jacobs and
Gianni Versace (whose family, in a
statement on Tuesday, called her
the designer’s “muse”). If they ad-
mired her beauty, designers also
banked on her ability to embody
multiple fashion archetypes.
“She was equally beautiful in a
A classic beauty with
a punk attitude who
stood at fashion’s apex
for three decades.
tuxedo or a chiffon dress,” said Mr.
Elbaz, who cast Ms. Tennant to
star in his first advertising cam-
paign for Yves Saint Laurent
when he assumed design respon-
sibilities there in 1998 (and soon
after Ms. Tennant gave birth to
her first child).
“She was not really a model,” he
added. “She was a woman, a
BENOIT TESSIER/REUTERS
mother, English, aristocratic but
with a golden heart.”
Stella Tennant was born in Lon-
don on Dec. 17, 1970, the youngest
of three children of Lady Emma
Cavendish and the Honorable To-
bias William Tennant, son of the
second Baron Glenconner, himself
the younger half brother of Colin
Tennant, the rakehell favorite of
Princess Margaret and the force
behind the development of the Ca-
ribbean island of Mustique.
Raised on her family’s 1,500-
acre sheep farm in the Scottish
Borders, she attended St. Leon-
ards School in St. Andrews and
later Marlborough College in the
English countryside. She was still
a student at Winchester School of
Art when she caught the eye of the
fashion writer Plum Sykes at
British Vogue. When cast for “An-
glo-Saxon Attitude,” a Steven
Meisel shoot featured in the De-
cember 1993 issue of British
Vogue, she was already 23. Calcu-
lated in modeling-business dog
years, that is almost retirement
age.
Yet her detachment and rela-
GUY MARINEAU/CONDÉ NAST, VIA GETTY IMAGES
Ms. Tennant, a runway staple
for three decades, at the spring
1994 Chanel show in Paris.
At her last show, the Valentino spring 2020 event in Paris.
tive maturity served her well in a
business notorious for flightiness
and helium-hit extravagances of
temperament.
“As soon as anyone mentioned
her name, the reaction was al-
ways ‘I want her to be in my
show,’” Mr. Elbaz said. Asked why,
he replied, “At the moment when
you are at your most crazed and
panicked, she was the one calming
you down.”
And, while she was no stranger
to grandeur in attire (not every
child, after all, is set free to play
dress-up in the wardrobes of
Chatsworth, the Derbyshire seat
of the dukes of Devonshire), she
had an elegance of spirit and atti-
tude that was innate, according to
the Valentino designer Pierpaolo
Piccioli.
BASSIGNAC BENAINOUS/GAMMA-RAPHO, VIA
GETTY IMAGES
Decked out during the Chris-
tian Dior haute couture fall
2006 show in Paris.
VALERIO MEZZANOTTI FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Ms. Tennant is survived by her
husband, David Lasnet, a photog-
rapher and osteopath from whom
she had separated in August after
21 years of marriage, and four chil-
dren, Iris, Jasmine, Cecily and
Marcel.
Just before the world went into
lockdown last winter, Mr. Piccioli
cast Ms. Tennant for the coveted
opening spot in his couture show.
It would prove to be her last.
“When she came for her fit-
tings, she was so nice to everyone
— not just me, but all the seam-
stresses, everyone,” Mr. Piccioli
said in a phone call from Italy.
“What she showed was that ele-
gance is not just about physical at-
tributes or a walk, but something
inside. She had a grace that was
impossible to copy or explain.”

‘Blue’ Gene Tyranny, 75, Whose Music Melded Genres

By STEVE SMITH
Robert Sheff, a composer and
pianist who worked under the
name “Blue” Gene Tyranny as a
solo performer and a collaborator
with artists including Iggy Pop,
the composer Robert Ashley and
the jazz composer and arranger
Carla Bley, died on Dec. 12 in hos-
pice care in Long Island City,
Queens. He was 75.
The cause was complications of
diabetes, Tommy McCutchon, the
founder of the record label Unseen
Worlds, which released several al-
bums by Mr. Tyranny, said in an
groundbreaking and influential
Once Festival of New Music in
Ann Arbor, Mich., during the
1960s. He taught classes and
worked as a recording-studio
technician at Mills College, an ex-
perimental-music hotbed in Oak-
land, Calif., from 1971 to 1982. Ar-
riving in New York City in 1983,
Mr. Tyranny worked with Mr. Ash-
ley, Laurie Anderson and Peter
Gordon’s Love of Life Orchestra,
while also composing his own
works.
Mr. Tyranny, who had been liv-
ing in Long Island City since 2002,
ano studies early in his childhood
and took his first composition
lessons at 11. By high school, he
was performing avant-garde
works by composers like Charles
Ives and John Cage in an experi-
mental-music series he jointly cu-
rated with the composer Philip
Krumm at the McNay Art Insti-
tute in San Antonio.
Invited by the Juilliard School
to audition as a performance ma-
jor, he demurred, insisting even
then on being viewed as a com-
poser. Instead he went to Ann Ar-
bor, where he lived and worked
Ms. Bley, and in 1976 explored the
intersections of contemporary
classical music and rock with Mr.
Gordon in a groundbreaking con-
cert series in Berkeley, Calif., doc-
umented on a 2019 Unseen Worlds
release, “Trust in Rock.”
An association with Mr. Ashley,
whom Mr. Tyranny had met in
Ann Arbor and then followed to
Mills College, flourished into a
close, enduring collaboration. Mr.
Tyranny’s best-known work likely
was the role he created in “Perfect
Lives (Private Parts)” (1976-83),
Mr. Ashley’s landmark opera, con- HIROYUKI ITO FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

email.
His memorable pseudonym,
coined during his brief stint with
Iggy and the Stooges, was derived
partly from Jean, his adoptive
mother’s middle name. It also re-
ferred to what he called “the tyr-
anny of the genes” — a predisposi-
tion to being “strongly overcome
by emotion,” he said in “Just for
the Record: Conversations With
and About ‘Blue’ Gene Tyranny,” a
documentary film directed by Da-
vid Bernabo released in Septem-
ber.
Music, Mr. Tyranny explained
in the film, was a source of solace,
but also a means “of deeply in-
forming myself that there’s an-
other world. Music is my way of
being in the world.”
A master at the keyboard and
an eclectic composer who deftly
balanced conceptual rigor with
breezy pop sounds, Mr. Tyranny
was active in modern music as
early as his teenage years.
From curating contemporary-
music concerts in high school, he
went on to participate in the
An eclectic composer
who deftly balanced
conceptual rigor with
breezy pop sounds.
is survived by a brother, Richard
Sheff, and three half siblings,
William Gantic Jr., Vickie Murray
and Justa Calvin.
He was born Joseph Gantic to
William and Eleanor Gantic on
Jan. 1, 1945, in San Antonio. When
Mr. Gantic, an Army paratrooper,
was reported missing in action in
Southeast Asia during World War
II, Mr. Tyranny related in “Just for
the Record,” his wife gave up their
infant child for adoption.
He was adopted 11 months later
by Meyer and Dorothy Jean Sheff,
who ran a clothing shop in down-
town San Antonio, and renamed
Robert Nathan Sheff. He began pi-
from 1962 to 1971 and participated
in the Once Festival. Mr. Tyr-
anny’s works from this period, like
“Ballad” (1960) and “Diotima”
(1963), were abstract and fidgety,
chiefly concerned with timbral
contrast.
In 1965, Mr. Tyranny helped
found the Prime Movers Blues
Band, whose drummer, James Os-
terberg Jr., would achieve fame as
the proto-punk singer-songwriter
Iggy Pop. Another founder, Mi-
chael Erlewine, later created All-
Music, which became a popular
reference website to which Mr.
Tyranny contributed, occasion-
ally writing about his own work.
In the late 1960s, Mr. Osterberg
transformed himself into Iggy
Pop and formed the Stooges. After
releasing the album “Raw Power”
in 1973, he invited his former
bandmate to join him on tour. Mr.
Tyranny accepted, performing
with red LED lights woven into his
hair.
He also played in the bands of
jazz composers like Bill Dixon and
ceived and eventually presented
as a television series: Buddy, the
World’s Greatest Piano Player.
Their relationship was deeply col-
laborative. Presented by Mr. Ash-
ley with a blueprint indicating
keys and metric structures, Mr.
Tyranny filled in harmonies and
supplied playfully ornate piano
writing.
“Blue and Bob had this symbiot-
ic relationship from back in Ann
Arbor,” Mr. Gordon, who also par-
ticipated in the creation of “Per-
fect Lives,” said in a phone inter-
view. “The character Buddy is like
the avatar for the music of ‘Blue’
Gene.”
“What we commonly recognize
as music in ‘Perfect Lives’ was
‘Blue’ Gene’s,” Mr. Gordon ex-
plained, “but the overall composi-
tion was Bob’s.” Mr. Tyranny
would contribute in different ways
to later Ashley operas, including
“Dust” (1998) and “Celestial Ex-
cursions” (2003).
In his own music, much of
which he recorded for the Lovely
“Blue” Gene Tyranny at La MaMa in Manhattan in 2004.
Music label, Mr. Tyranny moved
from early efforts with graphic no-
tation and magnetic tape to com-
positions that drew from popular
styles. Some selections on his de-
but solo album, “Out of the Blue”
(1978), like “Leading a Double
Life,” were essentially pop songs.
“A Letter From Home,” which
closed that album, mixed found
sounds and dreamy keyboards
with an epistolary text, spoken
and sung, ranging from the mun-
dane to the philosophical.
He worked extensively with
electronics and labored through-
out the 1990s on “The Driver’s
Son,” which he termed an “audio
storyboard.” A realization of that
piece, a questing monodrama set
to lush timbres and bubbly
rhythms, will be included in “De-
grees of Freedom Found,” a six-
CD boxed set of unreleased Tyr-
anny recordings due on Unseen
Worlds in the spring. Mr. Tyranny,
who lost his eyesight in 2009 and
gave up performing after 2016,
helped to compile the set, hoping
to give his disparate canon a co-
herent shape.
Mr. Tyranny’s compositions di-
vided critical response. “To this
taste, Mr. Tyranny’s work too of-
ten skirts the trivial,” John Rock-
well wrote in a 1987 New York
Times review. But Ben Ratliff, in a
2012 Times review of the last new
recording issued during Mr. Tyr-
anny’s life, “Detours,” offered a
different view: “Mr. Sheff repre-
sents a lot of different American
energies.”
He added, “He does not stint on
beautiful things — major arpeg-
gios, soul-chord progressions,
lines that flow and breathe — and
his keyboard touch is rounded and
gorgeous, a feeling you remem-
ber.”
More obituaries appear on
Page B12.

Deaths Deaths Deaths Deaths Deaths Deaths Deaths

DeBlasio, Peter Murphy, Joann
Hutton, Carl Vinogradov, Serge
Lukachko, Margo Waldorf, Gordon
Wallace, Lee
DeBLASIO—Peter.
Beloved father of Alessandra
and Caralee DeBlasio, step-
father of Lisa and Steven
Marruso, step-grandfather of
Danny Bowman, Christopher
and Brianna Fuggetta, and
grandfather of Allan Haynes,
Jr. 100A for a life lived long
and well. Resterai per
sempre nei nostri cuori. Ripo-
si in pace.
HUTTON—Carl (C.A.).
Attending a Broadway show
in heaven. We all miss you
poolside, darling. It will never
be the same without you.
Love from IM
MURPHY—JoAnn.
The Murphy and Mazzella fa-
milies are saddened to an-
nounce the heartfelt passing
of their beloved JoAnn Maz-
lopment & Mission Commit-
tee of the Board. In 1998, she
received an Honorary Doc-
torate of Humane Letters,
honoris causa, for her dedica-
tion and support of the arts
and cultural events at Iona.
JoAnn chaired the Iona Col-
lege Council on the Arts
(which in 1987 received an en-
dowment from the Baron
Lambert Fund for the Arts,
established by the Murphys).
She is a 2006 recipient of the
Brother Driscoll Award for
Heroic Humanitarian Ser-
vice. JoAnn was inducted into
the Goal Club Hall of Fame in
2012, and Iona College's Maz-
zella Field was named for her
parents. JoAnn is married to
Iona trustee emeritus Joseph
M. Murphy '59, '83H, the co-
founder and chairman of
Country Bank and chairman
of Value Investors. The Mur-
phy Science & Technology
Center (now the Murphy Cen-
ter) is named for his parents.
This building houses the
Christopher J. Murphy Audi-
torium, named in memory of
Rochelle, where she was ho-
norary co-chair of the Inno-
vation Campaign for the
“Building on the Tradition of
Innovation,” a campaign
which will be transformation-
al in bringing the Catholic, all-
girl school into the 21st centu-
ry with expanded space and
an exciting new curriculum.
As President of the Edmund
Rice Christian Brothers Art
Foundation Ltd., JoAnn was
also an honorary Christian
Brother. She and husband
Joe co-founded the West-
chester Chapter of the Juve-
nile Diabetes Research Foun-
dation, and served as co-
chair of Columbia Universi-
ty's Diabetes Advisory Com-
mittee, now the Naomi Berrie
Diabetes Center. She is sur-
vived by her husband Joe,
four children, Joseph Mur-
phy, Jr and wife Michele, Pa-
tricia Murphy MacGillivray,
Carolyn Murphy, and Mary
Murphy, eight grandchildren,
Kelly MacGillivray Annunzia-
ta, Ryan MacGillivray, Sean
MacGillivray, Cailin Murphy,
by her parents John and Con-
cetta Mazzella, sisters Louise
Capponi and Antionette Polci-
ni, nephew Steven Mazzella
and son Christopher Murphy.
JoAnn will be forever alive in
the hearts of all those who
loved her. Calling hours for
family and friends are De-
cember 28 and 29, 3-7pm at
Edwin L. Bennett Funeral
Home, 824 Scarsdale Avenue,
Scarsdale, NY 10583. Due to
COVID-19 issues attendance
is limited to 40 people at a
time. Mass of Christian Burial
Wednesday, December 30, at
11am at Immaculate Heart of
Mary Church in Scarsdale,
NY. Burial to follow at the
Rosewood Mausoleum at
Ferncliff Cemetery. In lieu of
flowers, donations by check
can be made in JoAnn's me-
mory to Edmund Rice Chris-
tian Brothers Saint Joseph's
Residence, 260 Wilmont Rd.,
New Rochelle, NY 10804.
combining his love of science
with generosity and kindness
to those around him and fre-
quent gastronomic trips to
Europe. Beloved father of
Sophia Vinogradov of St.
Paul, MN and Nina Dobbs of
Westport, CT; loving grand-
father of Camille, Nicholas,
and Nathan.
WALDORF—Gordon.
Passed away peacefully in
his home in Boca Raton, Flor-
ida (formerly of Manhasset,
New York) on December 24,
2020 at the age of 87. Gordon
was a devoted and beloved
husband, father and grand-
father. Gordon is survived by
his wife, Rita (nee Becher),
children: Jill Naviasky (for-
mer son-in-law Louis Navias-
ky) and Debra and Howard
Pastolove and grandchildren
Perry Naviasky, Ilyssa and
Haley Pastolove and Tracy
Naviasky (deceased). Born in
WALLACE—Lee,
(Born Leo Melis, July 15,
1930) died peacefully on De-
cember 20, 2020 after a very
long illness. He Died in his
“new” New York home. Lee
was born in Brooklyn to Ed-
die Melis and Celia Gross. His
Family moved to the Lower
East Side early on and Lee
graduated from Seward Park
High School. He then attend-
ed NYU for a whole. He stu-
died acting with Lee Stras-
found his mentor, Michael
Howard, studied with him for
seven years, and became a
“working actor”. Lee did
many years in the regional
theatre and at his first love,
Broadway. He appeared in
“Zalman or the Madness of
God”, “Grind”, “Some of My
Best Friends” and others. Off
Broadway he was in many
commercials and films (”Bat-
man”, “Taking of Pelham
1-2-3”, “Private Benjamin”.)
He was married to actress
Marilyn Chris for 45 years. He
leaves her behind, along with
his cherished son Paul and his
family in Northern California.
Burial will be at Sharon Gar-
dens Cemetery in Valhalla,
New York and is for imme-
diate family only.
In Memoriam
PILIERO—Daniel J., II.
“Daniel, my brother, you're a
star in the face of the sky.”
Danny, it's been 30 years
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LUKACHKO—Margo
Ann (Jackson) and
William Bela,
Verona, NJ due to Covid-19.
Bill, born Izmir, Turkey 1929.
Dedicated psychiatrist, avid
puzzler, table tennis champ.
Margo, born Pleasantville, NJ
1938. Psychiatric social work-
zella Murphy on December
21, 2020. JoAnn, known as
TeeMa to her grandkids, was
a very kind, generous, loving
and intelligent woman who
was cherished by her family
and inspired everyone
around her. She was a devout
member of Immaculate
Heart of Mary Church in
Scarsdale. A dedicated mem-
ber of the Iona family for
over 20 years, JoAnn Mazzel-
the Murphys' son, Christop-
her. JoAnn attended St. Pius
V High School in the Bronx,
where she later served as
trustee, and is a graduate
Cum Laude of Marymount
Manhattan College, where
she majored in art history.
She was Vice Chair of Coun-
try Bank, President and
broker-owner of Ellinghouse
& Stacy, and owned an an-
tiques gallery in Scarsdale,
Brent Murphy, Joseph Mi-
chael Murphy III, Brian Mur-
phy and Christina Murphy,
and two great-grandchildren,
Avery Annunziata and Carter
MacGillivray. She also is sur-
vived by her brother Frank
Mazzella and wife Mary,
nieces Antonia Polcini, Cara
Gadero, Janice Mazzella Sta-
race and husband Gary, nep-
hews Dennis Capponi and
wife Laura, John Mazzella
VINOGRADOV—Serge N.
Passed on November 24, 2020
from COVID-19 in St. Paul,
MN. Lifelong reader of The
New York Times; son of Rus-
sian refugees from 1917 Re-
volution; emigre to the U.S.
from Beirut. Tenured profes-
sor of Biochemistry
Wayne State University for
over 50 years; a consistent
supporter of women
academics. Co-author on his
Brooklyn, New York, Gordon
was a graduate of New York berg, and Canada Lee and since you left us, too young
and too suddenly. We still
University, School of Com- then went into the U.S. Army.
merce. Gordon was the Pres- When he was discharged he miss you.
ident and owner of Bayard
Advertising Agency, Inc.,
headquartered in New York
City, established in 1923 by
at Murray Waldorf. Gordon was
loved by many and will be
sorely missed. Funeral servi-
in ces: Sunday, December 27th
at 12 Noon at Sinai Chapels,

Social Media Pakistan 0345-6738217

er, tennis enthusiast, ardent la Murphy '98H was a trustee Gallery of Art & Antiques. and wife Lori, and several final scientific paper just four Fresh Meadows, New York.
reader. Much loved and of Iona College since 1998 and JoAnn was also a trustee of grandnieces and grandnep- months before his death. Ex- Interment following services
missed. co-chaired the Student Deve- the Ursuline School in New hews. She was predeceased emplified a “life well-lived,” at Mt. Hebron Cemetery.
4 WEALTH MATTERS 5 VIRUS FALLOUT
Smaller foundations are The life coach Tony Robbins
leveraging their energy and was accused in a lawsuit of
resources to make an outsize discriminating against an
impact on climate issues. employee who had Covid-19.
TECH ECONOMY MEDIA FINANCE
Squaw Valley Ski Resort near Lake Tahoe has limited ticket sales to 50 percent of the norm and is “operating at lower profit margins,” its president said.
Ski Resorts’ Only Wish:
‘Stay Alive and Survive’
Hard-core enthusiasts are expected By KELLEN BROWNING
OLYMPIC VALLEY, CALIF. — A trickle of skiers
to turn up, but capacity restrictions recently zigzagged down the slopes at the
Squaw Valley Ski Resort. Couples and fam-
and coronavirus fears will probably ilies wandered through the resort’s village,
which was decorated with golden Christ-
dampen sales this season. mas lights and frosted with snow.
It looked like the beginning of a merry
season. But a closer inspection revealed it
was anything but.
Restaurant patios were nearly empty as
masked workers swept through with lime
green disinfectant sprayers strapped to
their backs, part of the $1 million that
Squaw Valley has spent on sanitizing
equipment and other safety measures. At
ski lifts, sparse groups waited in socially
distant lines. The resort felt “so dead,” said
a skier, Sabrina Nottingham, partly be-
cause it was limiting ticket sales to fewer
Social Media Pakistan 0345-6738217
8 SPORTS
Petr Cech retired as a
goalkeeper, but he’s still
saving Chelsea — in a new,
front-office role.
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2020
CAYCE CLIFFORD FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
than 50 percent of the norm.
Squaw Valley, a marquee destination for
winter sports enthusiasts, is one of many
ski resorts across the country bracing for a
highly unpredictable season. Forced to re-
think how to operate in the coronavirus
pandemic and with vaccines still rolling
out, resorts have made a plethora of
changes in places such as Aspen, Colo.;
Park City, Utah; Taos Ski Valley, N.M.; and
Killington, Vt. Many are setting visitor re-
strictions and requiring ticket reserva-
tions; New Mexico has limited resorts to 25
percent of capacity.
Resorts are also minimizing in-person in-
teractions by installing kiosks for ticket
pickups, adding space between people in
line for ski lifts and gondolas, requiring
CONTINUED ON PAGE B2
B1
Y
Quack Ads
Circulating
Like the Flu
By TIFFANY HSU
With a pandemic raging, a spate of
ads promised dubious remedies in
the form of lozenges, tonics, un-
guents, blood-builders and an
antiseptic shield to be used while
kissing.
That was in 1918, during the in-
fluenza outbreak that eventually
claimed an estimated 50 million
lives, including 675,000 in the
United States.
More than a century later, not
much has changed. Ads promot-
ing unproven miracle cures — in-
cluding intravenous drips, ozone
therapy and immunity-boosting
music — have targeted people try-
ing to avoid the coronavirus pan-
demic.
“History is repeating itself,”
said Roi Mandel, the head of re-
search at the ancestry website
MyHeritage, which recently un-
earthed and compared pandemic
ads published generations apart.
“So many things are exactly the
same, even 102 years later, even
after science has made such huge
progress.”
This year, a company with a Cal-
ifornia address peddled products
containing kratom, an herbal ex-
tract that has drawn concern from
regulators and health experts,
with the promise that it might
“keep the coronavirus at bay.” The
Food and Drug Administration
sent the company a warning in
May.
The claims are an echo from
CONTINUED ON PAGE B5
Bollywood
Starts Shift
To Streaming
By PRIYA ARORA
and KARAN DEEP SINGH
“Coolie No. 1” has all the hall-
marks of a big Bollywood film:
colorful costumes, larger-than-life
sets, foot-tapping music and a
melodramatic story about a man
who pretends he has a twin to woo
the woman of his dreams.
After shooting wrapped in Feb-
ruary, the film was set for a May
theatrical release. But when
“Coolie No. 1” finally reached
screens on Christmas Day, it did
not show up in one of India’s 3,000
theaters. Instead, debuted on Am-
azon’s streaming service.
“I make films for the theater,
but this time there was no way we
could do that,” said David
Dhawan, the director. After the co-
ronavirus pandemic barreled in
and shut down movie theaters, the
wait for a theatrical debut became
excruciating, he said.
So a deal to send the film to Am-
azon after its release shifted to a
CONTINUED ON PAGE B5
Khashoggi
As Subject
Is Hard Sell
By NICOLE SPERLING
Bryan Fogel’s first documentary,
“Icarus,” helped uncover the Rus-
sian doping scandal that led to the
country’s expulsion from the 2018
Olympics. It also won an Oscar for
him and for Netflix, which re-
leased the film.
For his second project, he chose
another subject with global inter-
est: the killing of Jamal
Khashoggi, the Saudi Arabian dis-
sident and Washington Post col-
umnist, and the role that the Saudi
crown prince, Mohammed bin
Salman, played in it.
A film by an Oscar-winning
filmmaker would usually garner
plenty of attention from stream-
ing services, which have used doc-
umentaries and niche movies to
attract subscribers and earn
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awards. Instead, when Mr. Fogel’s
film, “The Dissident,” was finally
able to find a distributor after
eight months, it was with an inde-
pendent company that had no
CONTINUED ON PAGE B4
B2 Y THE NEW YORK TIMES BUSINESS SATURDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2020
Ski Resorts’ Only Wish:
‘Stay Alive and Survive’
Squaw Valley, clockwise from
above: The Red Dog Lift; going
down a slope; an unusually
empty outdoor dining area;
and sanitizing the “funitel” after
riders exited at the top of the
mountain. The ski resort has
spent $1 million on sanitizing
equipment and safety measures.
Weak sales will
have an effect on
tax revenues for
state economies.
$2B
Losses for the ski industry this
spring when the pandemic
started and led to shutdowns.
Photographs by Cayce Clifford
for The New York Times
FROM FIRST BUSINESS PAGE
masks, limiting the number of people on a
lift at once and, in some places, shutting
down indoor dining.
While the pandemic has dealt a heavy
blow to the entire travel industry, ski resorts
may feel a disproportionate impact this
winter because of their short window of
business. The ski industry already took a hit
in the spring when the pandemic struck and
many resorts had to close early, leading to
$2 billion in losses and causing layoffs or
furloughs of thousands of employees, ac-
cording to the National Ski Areas Associa-
tion, a trade group. The industry saw its
lowest number of visits, 51 million, since the
2011-12 season, the association said.
Now resorts such as Squaw Valley are
setting their expectations low for the new
ski season.
“I don’t think that anybody in the busi-
ness is looking to have this be their best
year ever,” said Ron Cohen, the president of
Squaw Valley and neighboring Alpine
Meadows, which laid off 2,000 seasonal
workers in the spring. “We want to preserve
our businesses so that when Covid’s over,
we have the opportunity to not have suf-
fered so much damage that maybe we can’t
stand back up.”
Mike Pierce, a spokesman for Mount
Rose Ski Tahoe, a resort in western Nevada,
said the mind-set was “to just maintain sta-
tus quo and survive.” He declined to provide
any financials, but said, “if we break even,
that’s almost considered a success.”
Even before the pandemic, the ski indus-
try was laboring to build interest in the
sport. The number of skiers has stagnated
in the past decade, according to the Na-
tional Ski Areas Association. Adrienne
Isaac, a spokeswoman for the trade group,
said resorts have tried to make skiing and
snowboarding more accessible for newcom-
ers, but have grappled with perceptions
that they primarily cater to the rich and
white. Climate change also continues to af-
fect snowfall, she said, which can lead to
shorter seasons.
How the ski resorts do this winter will
have a domino effect on tax revenues for
state economies. In New Mexico, the trun-
cated ski season last winter and this spring
generated $41 million in taxes, but George
Brooks, the executive director of the state’s
ski association, said he expected no more
than 40 percent of that number in the com-
ing months.
Vail Resorts, the world’s largest ski com-
pany with 37 resorts around the globe, in-
cluding 34 in the United States, reported in
an earnings call on Dec. 10 that it lost $153
million from August through October, wider
than the loss of $106.5 million in the same
period a year ago. Rob Katz, chief executive
of Vail Resorts, said that season pass sales
were up about 20 percent, but he expected
fewer visitors and less revenue this winter
than in previous seasons.
For smaller resorts, the pain may not be
as severe. The Diamond Peak Ski Resort in
Incline Village, Nev., said it came out about
$1 million ahead of projections after the
spring shutdown. Mike Bandelin, the re-
sort’s general manager, said smaller resorts
often operate at a loss in the final weeks of
the season, so closing early actually saved
money.
Many resorts said they still expected
some die-hard skiers and powderhounds to
show up this winter, along with locals and
those who have relocated to second homes
nearby. At the Winter Park Resort west of
Denver, a crush of eager skiers on opening
weekend this month caused crowding at lift
lines. The resort quickly enacted measures
to allow more spacing, said Jen Miller, a
Social Media Pakistan 0345-6738217
spokeswoman.
But the visitors who will not come, the re-
VIRUS FALLOUT
sorts and other ski experts said, are most
likely casual skiers and those traveling
from long distances.
“We’re going to lose the mom and pop
that want to bring their kids up,” Mr. Brooks
said.
In Colorado, the Aspen Skiing Company,
which operates four ski areas, has had
steady business since reopening on Nov. 25,
but will miss out on the 20 percent of its
yearly visitors who come from other coun-
tries, a spokesman, Jeff Hanle, said. He said
Aspen might also see fewer out-of-state
travelers, especially if they live in places
where they have to isolate upon their re-
turn.
“You’ve got to be a pretty dedicated skier
to say, ‘I’m going to go ski, and I know when
I go home, I’ve got to quarantine,’” he said.
Even if resorts make it through the win-
ter, smaller businesses that rely on skiers
coming to town — like restaurants, hotels
and retail stores — might not be so lucky.
At the Stratton Mountain Resort in Strat-
ton, Vt., an Irish pub called Mulligan’s has
laid off half of its staff. Since visitors to Ver-
mont, which gets 80 percent of its ski traffic
from other states, have to quarantine for ei-
ther one or two weeks before they can go
anywhere, the owner of Mulligan’s, Tom
Rose, said he expected to lose up to 60 per-
cent of his normal winter sales.
“We survived Hurricane Irene. Our sales
took a real dive after 9/11. We’ve made it
through the Great Recession,” Mr. Rose
said. But “this pandemic is by far the worst.”
There are some bright spots. Backcoun-
try skiing, or ski touring — which often in-
volves climbing secluded, snowy mountain
ranges — is booming. Backcountry equip-
ment sales jumped 76 percent from August
through October compared with the same
time a year ago, according to the NPD
Group.
“The Covid environment that favors out-
door, socially distant recreation activities,
coupled with the restrictions in place at ski
resorts, has accelerated the interest in
backcountry skiing this season,” said Eric
Henderson, a spokesman for Snowsports
Industries America, a trade group.
Those who have made the trips to the re-
sorts said they were glad they made the ef-
fort. At Squaw Valley recently, Ms. Notting-
ham, 21, who was visiting with other stu-
dents from California State University, San
Luis Obispo, said that even though the re-
sort was quiet, the experience “felt more
safe than going into a grocery store because
everyone’s all covered up anyway.”
Squaw Valley, which opened in 1949 and
hosted the 1960 Winter Olympics, has un-
dergone significant changes in recent
years. In 2010, it was bought by a private eq-
uity group called KSL Capital Partners, and
merged with neighboring Alpine Meadows
the following year. Combined, the two re-
sorts stretch for 6,000 acres, the most of any
in the Lake Tahoe area, and have 42 lifts and
more than 270 trails.
In August, Squaw Valley said it would
change its name by 2021, because “squaw”
is considered a racist and sexist term for
Native American women.
But nothing the resort has been through
has rivaled the chaos of the pandemic, Mr.
Cohen said. While he declined to disclose
the financials for Squaw and Alpine, he de-
scribed the losses in the spring as “devas-
tating” and said the resorts were “operating
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at lower profit margins” this winter, with
weaker sales.
The disruption became doubly evident
this month when a new stay-at-home order
took effect in the area, forcing resorts to
cancel hotel stays and adding another wrin-
kle for potential visitors.
For ski resorts, the mantra right now is
“stay alive and survive,” Mr. Cohen said.
 THE NEW YORK TIMES BUSINESS SATURDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2020 BW Y B3

VIRUS FALLOUT

Skiers and snowboarders waiting

to board the Squaw One Express lift,
near left. Squaw Valley has enacted
social distancing measures, and
skiers are reminded to remain six
feet apart and ride the lift only
with members of their household.
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B4 Y THE NEW YORK TIMES BUSINESS SATURDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2020
Punching Above Their Weight on Climate
Small foundations are leveraging their energy and resources to take on specific environmental issues.
Wealth Matters
By PAUL SULLIVAN
Brett Howell, a program manager at
Coca-Cola in Atlanta, has found a way
to use his small family foundation to
take on environmental issues that have
a big impact.
He was one of the leaders of a 2019
project to clean up Henderson Island,
an atoll in the South Pacific that has the
highest concentration of plastic pollu-
tion in the world. The island, a United
Nations world historical site, is unin-
habited but sits in the middle of a cur-
rent that carries ocean debris.
Mr. Howell also started a process of
working with other organizations to
figure out how to keep the plastic from
filling up the beach again.
“I came at this from the approach of I
know a ton about this, and I’ve seen
what works and what doesn’t work,” he
said. “Plastic pollution in the ocean is a
visual image of climate change.”
The issue of climate change may
seem too overwhelming for individuals
to have much influence. Sure, people
can recycle, maybe dial back the ther-
mostat to save heat. But even govern-
ments with unlimited resources strug-
gle to take meaningful steps.
Yet some smaller foundations, like
the Howell Conservation Fund, are
trying to challenge this narrative and
focus their energy and resources on one
small area of the environment in the
hope that it will have a major impact.
“Philanthropy is so much more than
money,” said Henry Berman, the chief
executive of Exponent Philanthropy,
which works with small foundations.
“Relationships, expertise, pulling peo-
ple together — these are all parts of the
puzzle to make things work. You don’t
have to be Bill Gates or Mike Bloom-
berg to make it work.”
Mr. Howell contributed just 10 per-
cent of the 2019 operation’s $300,000
cost — the return trip this year was
canceled. But he brought people togeth-
er with more money and different ex-
pertise.
“If you’re hyperfocused, you can
punch above your weight,” he said.
Several principles unite these small
foundations in their efforts to slow
climate change or make a difference in
a local ecosystem.
Believing in and talking about the
science behind climate change is, not
surprising, the starting point. But these
smaller foundations have often found
that they have to take a role in bringing
together other interested groups of all
sizes.
The Campbell Foundation, which is
based in Baltimore, has focused on the
poor health of the Chesapeake Bay for
more than 20 years. Last year, it made
$18 million in grants to some 200 orga-
nizations, but it also regularly brings
together the various interests around
Major Streaming Services
Reject Work on Khashoggi
FROM FIRST BUSINESS PAGE
streaming platform and a much
narrower reach.
“These global media companies
are no longer just thinking, ‘How
is this going to play for U.S. audi-
ences?’ ” Mr. Fogel said. “They
are asking: ‘What if I put this film
out in Egypt? What happens if I
release it in China, Russia, Paki-
stan, India?’ All these factors are
coming into play, and it’s getting in
the way of stories like this.”
Instead, “The Dissident” was to
open in 150 to 200 theaters across
the country on Christmas Day and
then become available for pur-
chase on premium video-on-de-
mand channels on Jan. 8. (Origi-
nal plans called for an 800-theater
release in October, but those were
scaled back because of the pan-
demic.) Internationally, the film
will be released in Britain, Aus-
tralia, Italy, Turkey and other Eu-
ropean nations through a network
of distributors.
It is a far cry from the potential
audience it would have been able
to reach through a service like
Netflix or Amazon Prime Video,
and Mr. Fogel said he believed it
was also a sign of how these plat-
forms — increasingly powerful in
the world of documentary film —
were in the business of expanding
their subscriber bases, not neces-
sarily turning a spotlight on the
excesses of the powerful.
For his film, Mr. Fogel inter-
viewed Mr. Khashoggi’s fiancée,
Hatice Cengiz, who waited outside
the Saudi Arabian Consulate in Is-
tanbul in 2018 while the murder
took place; The Washington
Post’s publisher, Fred Ryan; and
multiple members of the Turkish
police force. He secured a 37-page
transcript made from a recording
of what happened in the room
where Mr. Khashoggi was suffo-
cated and dismembered. He also
spent a significant amount of time
with Omar Abdulaziz, a young dis-
sident in exile in Montreal who
had worked with Mr. Khashoggi to
combat the way the Saudi Arabian
government used Twitter to try to
discredit opposing voices and crit-
PERSONAL FINANCE | INTERNATIONAL
Brett Howell, right, helped lead a project to clean up plastic that ended up on Henderson Island, an atoll in the South Pacific.
the waterway, including farmers, fisher-
men and conservationists. One big
issue has been the runoff into the water
from chicken waste.
“It’s me going around and meeting
people,” said Sarah Campbell, the presi-
dent of the foundation, which her father
started. “That kind of effort to hear all
sides really counts.
Bringing together
other interested
groups to get results.
“I say it’s not just conservation for
conservation’s sake,” she added. “It’s
about the benefits to people of a healthy
environment.”
As the only American on the expedi-
tion to Henderson Island, Mr. Howell
had to do something similar. “You have
to bring together very disparate
groups,” he said.
Other members of the expedition
team focused on research to under-
stand where the plastic was coming
icism of the kingdom.
“The Dissident” landed a cov-
eted spot at the Sundance Film
Festival in January. The Holly-
wood Reporter called it “vigorous,
deep and comprehensive,” and
Variety said it was “a documenta-
ry thriller of staggering rele-
vance.” Hillary Clinton, who was
at Sundance for a documentary
about her, urged people to see the
film, saying in an onstage inter-
view that it does “a chillingly ef-
fective job of demonstrating the
swarm that social media can be.”
The only thing left was for Mr.
Fogel to secure a sale to a promi-
nent streaming platform, one that
could amplify the film’s findings,
as Netflix did with “Icarus.” When
“Dissident” finally found a distrib-
utor in September, it was the inde-
pendent company Briarcliff En-
tertainment.
Mr. Fogel said he had made Net-
flix aware of his film while it was in
production and again months lat-
er when it was accepted into Sun-
dance. “I expressed to them how
excited I was for them to see it,” he
said. “I heard nothing back.”
Reed Hastings, the chief execu-
tive of Netflix, was at the film’s
Sundance premiere, but the com-
pany did not bid on the film.
“While disappointed, I wasn’t
shocked,” Mr. Fogel said.
Netflix declined to comment,
though a spokeswoman, Emily
Feingold, pointed to a handful of
political documentaries the serv-
ice recently produced, including
2019’s “Edge of Democracy,”
about the rise of the authoritarian
leader Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil.
“What I observed was that the
Amazon Studios also declined
desire for corporate profits have
to bid. Footage of Jeff Bezos, Ama-
left the integrity of America’s film
zon’s chief executive, who pri-
culture weakened,” said Thor
vately owns The Washington
Halvorssen, the founder and chief
Post, is shown in the film. Amazon
executive of the nonprofit Human
did not respond to a request for
Rights Foundation, who financed
comment.
the film and was a producer.
Fox Searchlight, now owned by
Documentaries are not usually
Disney, did not bid. Neither did the
independent distributor Neon, big box-office draws, so they have
which was behind last year’s Os- traditionally found their audi-
car-winning best picture, “Para- ences in other places. PBS has
Social Media Pakistan 0345-6738217
site,” and often acquires challeng- long been a platform for promi-
ing content. nent documentaries, but the rise
from and how to recycle some of it. And
some focused on getting out the word
on how a pristine island was over-
whelmed by plastic.
Some smaller environmental organi-
zations also try to educate people out-
side environmental circles. Ms. Camp-
bell acknowledges that her group’s
efforts have not necessarily improved
areas of the Chesapeake Bay, but she
shows that without education efforts, it
could have been much worse.
“There are a lot of stressors on the
bay,” she said. “But it would be worse if
we hadn’t been there. It’s not an empty
Chesapeake Bay area. It’s a vibrant
region with lots of people.”
And foundations that are deeply
knowledgeable, and care, about a spe-
cific issue can raise it to local and state
government officials. The Virginia
Environmental Endowment was creat-
ed out of a legal settlement over a pol-
lutant that was illegally discharged into
the James River in the 1970s. That
pollutant shut down fishing on the river
for more than a decade.
Joseph H. Maroon, the endowment’s
executive director, said it used its
grants to highlight what other nonprofit
BRIARCLIFF ENTERTAINMENT
of streaming has made companies
like Netflix, Amazon and Hulu
very important to the genre. As
those companies have grown,
their business needs have
changed.
“This is unquestionably politi-
cal,” said Stephen Galloway, dean
of Chapman University’s film
school. “It’s disappointing, but
these are gigantic companies in a
death race for survival.”
He added: “You think Disney
would do anything different with
LUKE HOSTY
groups were doing. It also uses its
resources to lobby on environmental
issues in the state, particularly involv-
ing its waterways.
“We haven’t been afraid to be en-
gaged in public policy issues,” Mr. Ma-
roon said.
Foundations can also push for
change at large, publicly traded compa-
nies by investing assets and then filing
motions as a shareholder in a company.
“Small foundations are often the
named shareholders in shareholder
advocacy proposals,” said Sada Geuss,
an investment manager at Trillium
Asset Management, which has a share-
holder advocacy division that works
with clients to create these motions.
Ms. Geuss said typical areas included
filings to reduce greenhouse gas emis-
sions and to update the type of chemi-
cals a company uses. Trillium’s founda-
tion clients were named on motions a
few years ago to push Home Depot to
sell more sustainable lumber and to
stop using on plants it sold a chemical
that has been linked to the decline of
bee colonies, she said.
“For some of these smaller organiza-
tions, they can talk to their donors
COLEY BROWN FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Bryan Fogel, above, made an
Oscar-winning documentary,
“Icarus,” that Netflix
released. But the streaming
service didn’t pick up his
next project, “The
Dissident,” on the killing of
Jamal Khashoggi, center left.
Disney+? Would Apple or any of
the megacorporations? They
have economic imperatives that
are hard to ignore, and they have
to balance them with issues of free
speech.”
“The Dissident” is not the only
political documentary that has
failed to secure a home on a
streaming service. This year,
Magnolia Pictures, which has a
streaming deal with Disney-
owned Hulu, backed out of a deal
with the makers of the documen-
tary “The Assassins,” which tells
the story of the poisoning of Kim
Jong-nam, half brother of the
North Korean leader Kim Jong-
un.
The film’s director, Ryan White,
referred to the 2014 hack of Sony
Pictures in an interview with Vari-
ety, and chalked up the “bumpy
road” of U.S. distribution to corpo-
rations feeling they “could be
about this engagement,” Ms. Geuss
said. “It’s something they can hang
their hat on. We’ve seen them talk
about how they’re amplifying their
impact in fund-raising pitches.”
The shareholder actions, when suc-
cessful, can have a significant effect:
Consider how much lumber and how
many plants Home Depot sells. The
money used in such campaigns might
otherwise have sat in an endowment.
Even foundations that don’t want to
become part of a shareholder motion
can take steps to ensure that their
investments align with their values.
Those steps can be as direct as invest-
ing in clean-energy companies or more
indirect, like investing in companies
that make products that will help other
companies become more efficient.
Foundations can become selective in
the type of fixed-income investments
they buy, paying particular attention to
what the proceeds from the sale of
these bonds are used for.
“Our analyst who covers fossil fuels
always reminds us that the transition is
going to be financed through debt,” Ms.
Geuss said. “More and more, we can
focus in on green bonds and sustainable
bonds to amplify impact.”
Beth Renner, head of philanthropic
services for Wells Fargo Private Bank,
said her group was reaching out to
clients to discuss these options before
the clients asked about them. One thing
a foundation of any size can do is make
the most of “5 and 95,” Ms. Renner said.
Foundations are required to make
grants of at least 5 percent of their
assets each year, but they can think just
as strategically about the 95 percent of
their assets that are invested.
“How do the assets that sit in invest-
ments help further the mission and the
area of focus?” she said. “It’s a higher
level of awareness in philanthropy right
now.”
The Edwards Mother Earth Founda-
tion in Seattle has been using that
strategy for years. With $35 million in
assets, it makes grants of about $2
million a year. But the foundation,
which focuses on slowing climate
change, has its portfolio of public and
private investments in areas like clean
tech and sustainable agriculture.
“There are 150 family members, and
they made a commitment to doing
impact investing,” said Bruce Reed, the
foundation’s operations director. “We’ve
made bets on some early-stage clean
tech companies that we won’t know for
another decade or 15 years if they’re
going to work.”
Mr. Howell said he was able to work
within Coca-Cola to push for the use of
a trash trap that collects plastic waste
before it ends up in the ocean. Last fall,
one was installed in a river in Atlanta.
“I went to my boss at Coca-Cola, and
they let me run with it,” he said. The
lesson, he said, from that was, “Don’t be
afraid to start something new.”
Documentaries are
having a tougher
time finding a home.
hacked in a way that could be dev-
astating to them or their bottom
line.”
Netflix was eager to have “Ica-
rus” several years ago, buying the
film for $5 million after it debuted
at Sundance in 2017.
“Fogel’s incredible risk-taking
has delivered an absorbing real-
life thriller that continues to have
global reverberations,” Lisa
Nishimura, who was Netflix’s vice
president for original documenta-
ries, said in a statement at the
time.
Mr. Fogel wonders if the com-
pany would be as excited about
that film now.
“When ‘Icarus’ came out, they
had 100 million subscribers,” he
said. (Netflix currently has 195
million subscribers worldwide.)
“And they were in the hunt to get
David Fincher to do movies with
them, to get Martin Scorsese to do
movies with them, to get Alfonso
Cuarón to do movies with them.
That’s why it was so important
that they had a film they could win
an award with.”
In January 2019, Netflix pulled
an episode of the comedian Hasan
Minhaj’s series, “Patriot Act,”
when he criticized Prince Moham-
med after Mr. Khashoggi’s death.
Mr. Hastings later defended the
move, saying: “We’re not trying to
do ‘truth to power.’ We’re trying to
entertain.”
In November, Netflix signed an
eight-picture film deal with the
Saudi Arabian studio Telfaz11 to
produce movies that it said “will
aim for broad appeal across both
Arab and global audiences.”
The outcome for “The Dissi-
dent” has not been ideal, but Mr.
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Fogel is still hoping that people
will see the film.
“I love Netflix and considered
myself part of the Netflix family
after our wonderful experience
with ‘Icarus,’” he said. “Sadly,
they are not the same company as
a few years ago when they pas-
sionately stood up to Russia and
Putin.”

Fake Virus Cures Echo Quack Flu Ads From Century Ago
FROM FIRST BUSINESS PAGE
1918, when an ad for Dr. Pierce’s
Pleasant Pellets promised that
the pills — made from “May-ap-
ple, leaves of aloe, jalap” — offered
protection “against the deadly at-
tack of the Spanish Influenza.”
Other flu-fighting products
from back then included Cin-u-
form lozenges, Calotab laxatives,
Hudson’s Iron and Nux Tonic,
Anti-kamnia tablets, Pepto-Man-
gan blood builders and treatments
made with “syrup of hypophos-
phites, cod liver oil extractives,
malt, iron, wine and wild cherry
bark.”
An ad for another remedy, Neuf-
fer’s Lung Tonic, amplified the
fear of the flu by noting that the
pandemic’s death toll was “more
than double our total war casu-
alties.” Peruna, a widely popular
medicine that later became syn-
onymous with quackery, pro-
moted itself by claiming that
“nothing is any better” to help
“ward off Spanish influenza.”
“Human beings haven’t
changed all that much,” said Jason
P. Chambers, an associate profes-
sor of advertising at the Univer-
sity of Illinois. “We’d like to be-
lieve we’re smarter, that we’d be
able to spot the lies, but the ability
of advertising to maintain its ve-
neer of believability has only be-
come more sophisticated over
time.”
Everyday items were billed as
health aids. Horlick’s promoted its
malted milk product as “the diet
during and after influenza” that
was “endorsed by physicians ev-
erywhere.” N.B. Long & Son urged
customers to “fight the flu with
good eats,” such as seeded raisins.
Mottman Mercantile Company
said that “one of the best prevent-
atives to keep away the ‘Flu’ is to
provide yourself with good warm
underwear.”
There were contraptions as
well, including a screen fastened
to a sterling silver handle like a
miniature tennis racket, which
served as a shield between lovers’
lips. An ad for the product told po-
tential customers that they could
“kiss your lady friend and you
needn’t worry about germs.”
There was also the Branston Vio-
let Ray Ozone Generator, which
was sold on the promise that it
“keep your nasal passages, throat
and lungs in a perfectly antiseptic
condition.”
Bollywood Starts to Debut Movies on Streaming Services
FROM FIRST BUSINESS PAGE
direct streaming plan.
“It’s a compromise, definitely,”
said Mr. Dhawan, whose movie is
a remake of a 1995 blockbuster of
the same name that he also di-
rected. “But at least my film is re-
leasing.”
“Coolie No. 1” is just one of the
movies from Bollywood — the
shorthand for India’s nearly $2.5
billion Hindi-language film indus-
try — that has shifted toward
streaming in a year upended by
the pandemic. In all, 28 big-star-
led Bollywood features that were
headed to theaters went straight
to streaming instead, compared
with none last year, according to
the research firm Forrester.
Among them were “Gulabo
Sitabo,” a dark comedy starring
Amitabh Bachchan, and “Shakun-
tala Devi,” a biopic of the Indian
mathematician, both of which be-
gan streaming on Amazon in July.
Another, “Laxmmi,” a comedy-
drama featuring Akshay Kumar,
was released in November on the
Disney-owned streaming service
Hotstar.
The shift echoes that of Holly-
wood, where the pandemic has
caused studios to push back the-
atrical releases for many movies
and, in some cases, toward
streaming as part of a first run. In
September, Disney debuted “Mu-
lan” on Disney+. Last month,
Warner Bros. said it would release
“Wonder Woman 1984” on HBO
Max and in theaters simulta-
neously on Christmas Day. The
studio later announced that it
would send all 17 of its 2021 movies
to streaming and theaters at the
same time.
The number of Bollywood mov-
ies headed to streaming is just a
small fraction of what the industry
makes. Last year, Bollywood
produced more than 1,800 films, or
an average of 35 a week, and do-
mestic theatrical releases gener-
ated more than $1.5 billion in reve-
nue, according to a report by
Ernst & Young.
But the pandemic-spurred shift
toward streaming is unmistak-
able, Bollywood producers, film-
makers and experts said.
Netflix, Amazon and Hotstar
have all been investing in India,
one of the fastest-growing inter-
net markets in the world. The
companies, which combined have
tens of millions of paying Indian
subscribers, have poured billions
of rupees into producing edgy, In-
dia-specific original content in a
variety of regional languages. In
2020, they spent nearly $520 mil-
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
Ads touting unproven miracle cures have targeted people trying to avoid the coronavirus. “Human beings haven’t
changed all that much,” a marketing professor says of the similarities between ads from 1918, above, and today.
Advertising regulations were in
their infancy in 1918. The Federal
Trade Commission, which polices
unfair or deceptive marketing,
had been open for less than three
years. Companies could still
claim, with minimal evidence,
that they were backed by science,
more than a decade after the jour-
nalist Samuel Hopkins Adams
showed that popular medicines
were often made primarily with
alcohol and sometimes with
deadly toxins.
At the same time, advertising
was gaining traction, making up
“Coolie No. 1,” with Varun Dhawan and Sara Ali Khan, is one of 28 major Bollywood films to go straight to streaming this year, up from zero last year.
lion to create content for Indian
audiences, nearly $100 million
more than in 2019, according to
Forrester.
Netflix said it had invested
about $400 million to license and
create more than 50 films and
shows in India over the past two
years. Of those, 34 were original
Hindi-language films.
“The current environment gave
us some opportunities to add to
our film slate, including some
films which our members would
have otherwise enjoyed on the
service after a theatrical release,”
Netflix said in a statement. It add-
ed that it “was already a big be-
liever in original films for the
service, and we’re investing in it.”
Disney+ also started in India
during the lockdown in April,
merging with Hotstar, one of In-
dia’s largest platforms. (Disney
bought Hotstar in March 2019 as
part of its $71 billion deal to ac-
quire 21st Century Fox, which
owned Star India, then Hotstar’s
parent company.) The combina-
Social Media Pakistan 0345-6738217
tion gives paid subscribers in In-
dia access to Disney’s library of
THE NEW YORK TIMES BUSINESS SATURDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2020
VIRUS FALLOUT | ENTERTAINMENT
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
VIA MYHERITAGE
more than 66 percent of newspa-
per revenue in 1920, up from 44
percent in 1880. Over roughly the
same period, advertising revenue
surged to $850 million from $30
million, according to data cited in
the Journal of Historical Research
in Marketing.
Since then, advertising has be-
come a global business worth hun-
dreds of billions of dollars. But
regulators have struggled to keep
up with deceptive advertisers,
which are often smaller compa-
nies that make quick sales before
suddenly disappearing, said
global content.
Bypassing theaters is a huge
departure for Bollywood. India’s
film industry has long relied al-
most exclusively on theatrical re-
leases for revenue. But when the
pandemic sent movie theaters
into lockdown, revenues fell as
much as 75 percent, according to
estimates by analysts at KPMG.
Even as the government re-
Investment in content
has resulted in more
varied subject matter.
opened theaters in October, PVR
Cinemas, the country’s largest
multiplex chain, reported a net
loss of 184 crore rupees, or about
$25 million, for the quarter that
ended in September, because of
the lack of new movies.
“Our revenues are abysmal be-
cause we’re still an incomplete of-
fering,” said Ajay Bijli, the chair-
man and managing director of
PVR Ltd., which has laid off
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
VIA MYHERITAGE
Manoj Hastak, a marketing pro-
fessor at American University
and a longtime adviser to the
F.T.C.
“I’m not sure there’s a clear
sense that this will get any better
when the next pandemic comes
along,” he said. “Companies are
just selling the same old false-
hoods in new packaging, and the
incidents are only increasing. The
regulations are getting better, but
the process is still quite slow and
budgets are quite thin. It’s a bit of
a Whac-a-Mole problem.”
In recent years, a surge of dig-
nearly 30 percent of its employ-
ees. “It’s like having a restaurant
with no food.”
The shutdowns have also forced
some single-screen theaters to
close permanently, which may
mean less access to cinema expe-
riences for much of India’s work-
ing class and rural populations.
All of this is making it easier for
streaming services to land new
movies, even with some theaters
reopened. There is “an opportuni-
ty to get recent theatrical releases
within four to eight weeks of their
release, depending on language,
to a large set of customers,” said
Vijay Subramaniam, the director
and head of content for Amazon
Prime Video India.
The investments by streaming
services in Bollywood content
have also led to a surge of creativ-
ity. Instead of the usual romantic
or action-hero films with all-star
casts, more shows and movies are
now centered on women, war and
other topics, analysts said. More
than half of the Netflix films re-
leased in India this year were
from a female producer or direc-
tor, the company said, and more
The F.T.C. has sent
warnings to peddlers
of dubious products.
ital advertising has led to more
space for ads on more platforms,
and the ability to switch them out
within seconds. But as print publi-
cations, broadcast television and
other traditional media outlets
tightened their advertising proto-
cols, online advertisers began re-
lying on automated auctions
rather than human gatekeepers
for placement.
Readers who find the examples
of quack ads from 1918 laughably
quaint should know that many ex-
amples from 2020 are no less ab-
surd. They include marketing for
Musical Medicine, a compact disc
that plays “specifically formu-
lated frequencies to assist in
boosting your immune system
and weakening the virus,” and the
Eco Air Doctor, a clip-on device
that emits chlorine dioxide gas.
The makers of both products were
among the dozens of companies
that received warnings from the
F.T.C. telling them to stop making
unsubstantiated claims that they
can help treat or cure the corona-
virus.
As Americans begin receiving
coronavirus vaccines from Pfizer
and Moderna, authorities are wor-
ried that misleading ads might
complicate the rollout or fuel
skepticism about the treatments.
Facebook said it would block ads
that promoted the sale of Covid-19
vaccines or expedited access.
Twitter and YouTube have banned
content featuring unproven
claims about the vaccines.
But algorithms meant to serve
ads based on existing interests
will continue to deliver problem-
atic content to people who are in-
clined to believe it, said Michael
Stich, the chief executive of Cour-
tAvenue, a digital growth agency.
“There’s a lack of a public
broadcast system within the inter-
net,” he said. “My fear is that, be-
cause of how we take in informa-
tion now, the circles where we
choose to spend our time don’t
have a common baseline of what is
‘true.’”
AMAZON PRIME VIDEO
than half of its Indian films and se-
ries have women as central char-
acters.
“That sort of lowest common
denominator or one-size-fits-all
content strategy is now slowly
fading out,” said Vikram Malho-
tra, the producer of “Shakuntala
Devi.” “People are demanding
more nuanced, more intellectu-
ally relevant content. These
stories need to mean something
now.”
Mr. Dhawan, the director of
“Coolie No. 1,” said there was still
appetite for big, colorful, melodra-
matic love stories on streaming.
“Every time, I think I’ll make a
different kind of film,” he said.
“But the people don’t let me
change. They come back to this
great atmosphere, they laugh,
they enjoy the sounds, they
dance.”
And Sara Ali Khan, who plays
the romantic interest, said she
was just as exhilarated for “Coolie
No. 1” to debut on streaming as in
theaters.
“The excitement and nervous-
ness before the release of the film
is still there,” she said.
Y B5
Robbins Sued
By Employee
Who Had Covid
By AZI PAYBARAH
and MICHAEL LEVENSON
Tony Robbins, the life coach and
motivational speaker, discrimi-
nated against one of his employ-
ees by refusing to grant her the ac-
commodations she needed to
work from home after she con-
tracted a debilitating case of
Covid-19 in the spring, according
to a lawsuit filed on Wednesday.
The lawsuit also charges that
Mr. Robbins falsely claimed to
have helped the employee recover
by asking a doctor friend of his to
intervene in her care after she was
placed on a ventilator in a medi-
cally induced coma.
The suit, filed in federal court in
Manhattan, accuses Mr. Robbins;
his company, Robbins Research
International; and his wife, Bon-
nie P. Robbins, who is known as
Sage, of violating several disabili-
ty laws, including the Americans
With Disabilities Act, which re-
quires reasonable accommoda-
tions for people with disabilities.
The employee, Despina Kosta,
worked for Mr. Robbins for 18
years — the first nine in Europe
and the last nine in the U.S., where
she had a job in New York as a
sales executive, or “personal re-
sults specialist.” She was one of
the highest-rated sales employees
in the company, the lawsuit said.
At the start of the pandemic, the
lawsuit says, Mr. Robbins down-
played the severity of the corona-
virus and pushed his team to con-
tinue selling in-person events.
In April, Ms. Kosta, 52, devel-
oped a high fever and was found to
have Covid-19. She was placed in a
medically induced coma from
April 12 through May 1, according
to the suit and Ms. Kosta. After-
ward, Ms. Kosta struggled to re-
cover, finding it difficult to walk or
even to hold a cellphone, she said.
Ms. Kosta tried to return to
work on July 1 and asked her su-
pervisor and a human resources
official if she could work “just a
few hours” a day as she built back
her strength, she said in an inter-
view on Wednesday night. “They
said no to that,” she said.
Since July, Ms. Kosta said, she
has been unable to get access to
her work email or the company’s
database, where information
about the clients she served is
stored. Without that access, she
has been unable to work, she said.
Ms. Kosta said she had been earn-
ing about $250,000 annually.
J. Christopher Albanese, a law-
yer representing Ms. Kosta, said
that the company had not termi-
nated her but that the lockout had
left her unable to perform her job.
Jennifer Connelly, a spokes-
woman for Mr. Robbins, said the
claims in the lawsuit were “ridicu-
lous and baseless.”
She said that Ms. Kosta “re-
mains a current employee” and
that the company had “provided
all needed accommodations” and
“continues to pay the complete
cost of her medical insurance,
even though its legal obligation to
do so ended in June.”
Ms. Kosta also said that re-
marks made by Mr. Robbins on a
podcast had caused her distress.
In the podcast, recorded in May,
Mr. Robbins described a female
employee who had a cough and a
102-degree fever and “got very
scared.”
“And so she went to the hospital,
and then out of fear, she felt short
of breath, kind of hyperventilating
a little bit, so they immediately put
her on a ventilator,” he said.
Mr. Robbins said that after he
had found out that the employee
had been placed in a coma, he
called a doctor friend who knew
people at the hospital. He said that
he had asked his friend to call the
hospital and that the friend had
eventually gotten through to the
night physician, who reduced the
pressure on the ventilator.
“As a result, four or five days
later, she opened her eyes,” Mr.
Robbins said, asserting that the
episode showed that ventilators,
at least with too much pressure,
seemed to be “doing damage.”
In July, Ms. Kosta said she had
been contacted directly by a client
in Poland who said he had listened
to Mr. Robbins’s podcast and un-
derstood that Mr. Robbins had
been describing Ms. Kosta.
Ms. Kosta listened to the pod-
cast and said on Wednesday night
that Mr. Robbins’s claims of hav-
ing intervened in her treatment
were entirely false.
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B6 SATURDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2020
Y
Thomas Panek, who is legally blind, last month tested technology that allowed him to run a 5K in Central Park without a dog or another person to guide him. The line was painted for the experiment.
His Dream: Running Blind and Running Free
Technologists answered a man’s
challenge to find a way for him
to race safely without a guide.
By MATTHEW FUTTERMAN
Thomas Panek dreamed for years of run-
ning the way he did before he lost his sight,
without fear and without a human or a dog
tethered to his wrist as a guide.
That dream took Panek, 50, to the north
end of Central Park one frigid morning last
month, to test drive something that might
one day liberate thousands of other people
with severely impaired vision. As a camera
crew and a team of technologists made
some final adjustments, he stood on the
downslope of West Drive. He straddled a
painted yellow line and waited for the signal
to go.
A little more than a year had passed since
Panek delivered a challenge to a group of
engineers at Google’s Manhattan offices
during a company hackathon. Could they
develop a way for him to run by himself,
with a clear sense of where he was going
and without having to worry about hazards
along the way? There had been other at-
tempts to find technological solutions to this
problem, but none of them completely un-
tethered runners from their guides.
Panek has retinitis pigmentosa, a genetic
condition that causes the loss of photore-
ceptor cells. As a child, he lost the ability to
see stars in the night sky. He was legally
blind by young adulthood.
To run blind, Panek said, is to always fear
that you are about to slam your face into a
tree.
Panek, who lives in Westchester County,
just north of New York City, loves to run
with his guide dog, Blaze. But Blaze can’t
run faster than about a nine-minute mile.
“I’m a little faster than that,” said Panek,
who completed the 2015 Boston Marathon
in 3 hours 42 minutes, with Scott Jurek, an
ultramarathoner, guiding him. That trans-
lates to about an eight-and-half-minute mile
for the marathon, though Panek can go fast-
er at shorter distances.
By the end of that one-day hackathon last
year, the engineers had sketched a basic
idea of a solution. They placed a line of
masking tape on the floor and had Panek
and his dog follow the line. Then the mission
became devising an app that worked the
same way as the dog, and, in the process,
perhaps solving a problem for Panek and a
lot of other people.
“If you start with one person and their
challenges, you can bring a great benefit for
him and also people like him,” said Ryan
Burke, a leader at the Google Creative Lab.
It’s hard to say how many blind runners
there are, or, more important, how many
there could be if running became something
that blind people could do on their own.
The National Federation of the Blind esti-
mates that 7.6 million people in the United
States have a visual impairment that re-
quires them to use alternate means to en-
gage in an activity that people with vision
can do without assistance. The United
States Association of Blind Athletes, which
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holds camps and regional competitions for
people who are blind or visually impaired,
has more than 700 members who could ben-
efit from the technology Panek requested.
Panek is chief executive of Guiding Eyes
for the Blind, which provides guide dogs to
people with severe vision loss. Three years
ago, the organization began a program to
train dogs as running guides, and since then
has provided dogs to 75 runners.
In a typical year, more than 50 blind run-
ners complete the California International
Marathon with guides; 53 runners who
identified themselves as having a vision im-
pairment finished the New York City Mara-
thon in 2019. Many others ran shorter races.
Dror Ayalon, a creative technologist on
the project inspired by Panek’s challenge,
said a plan became clear fairly quickly.
A crew would paint a yellow line for
Panek to follow throughout a race. He would
strap a phone with a camera and the newly
Top, Panek with the camera phone that tracks a yellow line on the ground with
the Google app that conveys signals through a headset that tell Panek to adjust
his steps. Panek’s guide dog, Blaze, can’t run faster than a nine-minute mile.
devised app to his midsection, and the cam-
era would track the yellow line on the
ground. The app would take information
from the camera and convey vibrating sig-
nals through a headset. As Panek ran, the
signals would tell him how to adjust his
steps to stay on the line. Signals in the right
ear meant he was wandering too far to his
right, and vice versa. Another signal would
help him navigate a turn when the camera
spotted the line curving.
Software programs used for video game
design helped the app learn to interpret the
images from the camera. The work became
more complicated when engineers began to
consider all the things that might interfere
with tracking a line on pavement that a run-
ner would be trying to follow while carrying
a phone.
The camera was going to shake con-
stantly. The sunlight would change, making
a yellow line look different at noon from the
SCORES ANALYSIS COMMENTARY
PHOTOGRAPHS BY BRITTAINY NEWMAN FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
way it did at dawn.
And what would happen when leaves
blew onto the line, covering a part of it?
Would the app interpret that break in the
line as a parked car, and signal the runner to
stop?
“We take examples and feed them into
the model, classifying the pixels as one
class and everything else as not in the
class,” Ayalon said, referring to obstacles
that might block the view of the line. “The
model learns over time.”
So does the runner. Panek tested the tech-
nology for months over short distances,
slowly gaining confidence, learning to trust
the directional messages in his ears. In No-
vember, it was time for a 5-kilometer run.
“Liberation is a huge motivation,” he said,
“the idea of being self-reliant.”
Working with New York Road Runners,
the organizer of the New York City Mara-
thon, technologists received permission to
paint their yellow line around the north loop
of Central Park, a 1.42-mile circle that in-
cludes the climb known as Harlem Hill.
Despite the cold, Panek wore short
sleeves. He has the wiry build of a veteran
runner. The only hint of his sight loss is that
his eyes sometimes appear to focus in dif-
ferent directions. But he adeptly compen-
sates, following a voice and picking up on
people’s unique sounds, looking toward
them as he talks.
As noon approached, he was ready to run.
“Let’s go,” he said when it was time.
A starter told him to go, and he was off. He
sprinted downhill toward his first turn as
though he knew where he was headed. And
then, about a minute in, the voice in Panek’s
headset — as well as everyone around him
— told him to stop. A car from the Parks and
Recreation Department was parked on the
line.
As a park ranger helped track down the
driver to move the car, Panek headed back
to the start line. Time to try this again.
And off he went. Except for a few stutter
steps as he rounded the first corners, he
pounded the line with confidence, rarely
drifting more than a few inches from it on
either side. For the first time in decades,
Panek was running the way he did as a
child.
He crossed the finish line. An official from
the running organization draped a medal
around his neck.
“Perfect,” Panek said of the run. “It was
just perfect.”
It’s unclear where the technology goes
from here. Engineers still have some kinks
to work out. It would help if the app could
navigate around a parked car. But once it
can, park officials anywhere might be per-
suaded to paint yellow lines marking loops
for blind runners on routes that are free of
cars, allowing them to run freely and safely.
Perhaps one day, after the app can learn
how to follow a yellow line that is partly cov-
ered by discarded paper cups, blind run-
ners may be able to run an official 5K, or
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even a marathon.
“There’s that blue line on the New York
City Marathon route,” Panek said, referring
to the race’s signature marking of the 26.2-
mile route. “Maybe one day we’ll be able to
get our own yellow line, too.”

For Foes of Native American Nicknames, 2020 Brought Hope
By DAVID WALDSTEIN
About 1,900 public schools in
the United States still use Native
American nicknames or mascots
for their sports teams, but the
number has been dwindling, espe-
cially in the months since the
N.F.L. team in Washington heeded
pressure from sponsors and
shelved a logo and nickname that
had long been derided as offen-
sive to Indigenous people.
Over all, 29 schools from New
Mexico to New York have aban-
doned Native mascots since Aug.
1, according to a database com-
piled by the National Congress of
American Indians.
In the second week of Decem-
ber alone, schools in Farmington,
Conn., Caledonia, N.Y., and
Fresno, Calif., all dropped Native
American nicknames or mascots.
Then on Dec. 14, the Major
League Baseball team in Cleve-
land announced plans to stop call-
ing itself the Indians, raising
hopes that the sports landscape
can be rid of imagery and lan-
guage that many Native Ameri-
cans consider demeaning.
“Each time one of the dominoes
falls, and it’s a big team, it has a
reverberating, ripple effect for the
public schools and other teams,”
said Aaron Payment, the vice
president of the National Con-
gress of American Indians, which
consulted with the baseball team
on its move to abandon its name.
“The Cleveland decision was mo-
mentous. It creates a level of
awareness that suggests this is
not an aberration.”
Native American groups have
protested the use of Indigenous
nicknames and mascots for dec-
ades, but the movement gained
new allies — and earned victories
that were long thought impossible
— amid nationwide protests
against racial injustice that began
in late May after the death of
George Floyd in police custody in
Minneapolis.
As many athletes became in-
volved in the Black Lives Matter
movement, joining protests in cit-
ies across the country and calling
attention to injustices by staging
walkouts that briefly shut down
their sports, the conversation ex-
panded to include concerns about
the ways some of their teams of-
fended Native Americans through
the use of team names, mascots
and rituals.
“You can’t support these ath-
letes protesting racism without
looking at this racial slur on one of
their teams,” said Maulian Dana,
an ambassador at large for the Pe-
nobscot nation in Maine, who has
been active in efforts to eliminate
Native team names and mascots.
The Dolphins’ Xavien Howard, right, leads the N.F.L. with nine
picks. The Raiders would be well advised to avoid him entirely.
Our Picks Against the Spread for the N.F.L.’s Holiday Saturday Schedule
By BENJAMIN HOFFMAN
MIAMI DOLPHINS AT LAS VEGAS
RAIDERS, 8:15 p.m. Eastern, NFL
Network
Line: Dolphins -3 | Total: 47.5
At this point it is ridiculous that
opposing quarterbacks are chal-
lenging Xavien Howard of the
Dolphins (9-5). He is the top-rated
coverage cornerback, according to
Pro Football Focus, but teams have
thrown in his direction often
enough that he is leading the N.F.L.
with nine interceptions and has
Duke Women’s Team Cuts Its Season Short Over Safety Concerns in the Pandemic
By GILLIAN R. BRASSIL
The women’s basketball pro-
gram at Duke University will end
its season early, the team an-
nounced Friday, because of
mounting coronavirus concerns.
It’s the first Power Five basketball
team to start and stop its season
because of the pandemic.
“The student-athletes on the
Duke women’s basketball team
have made the difficult decision to
conclude their current season due
to safety concerns,” Michael
Schoenfeld, the chief communica-
tions officer for the school in
Washington’s N.F.L. franchise dropped its nickname and logo, below right, in July and chose a temporary replacement name, above.
James Watson, far left, protesting before a 2019 game in Cleveland between the Indians and the
White Sox. The Cleveland franchise announced this month that it was looking for a new nickname.
Of the 29 schools that aban-
doned Native names since the be-
ginning of August, 11 were known
as “Indians,” according to the
N.C.A.I.’s database, and three
were called “Redskins,” which is
widely considered the most offen-
sive nickname associated with In-
digenous people. The database
shows just under 800 schools that
use the nickname “Indians” and
95 known as the “Redskins.”
BILL KOSTROUN/ASSOCIATED PRESS
produced a takeaway in 10 of Mi-
ami’s 14 games.
If the Raiders (7-7) want to win this
game, they should give Howard the
old Darrelle Revis “island” treat-
ment. But it shouldn’t matter much
if Derek Carr (injured groin) or
Marcus Mariota starts at quarter-
back for Las Vegas, as the Dol-
phins are a better team and have
more motivation to win thanks to
their dogfight with Baltimore for
the A.F.C.’s last wild-card spot.
PICK: Dolphins -3
Durham, N.C., said in the an-
nouncement.
All other Duke sports were ex-
pected to continue as usual, fol-
lowing recommend safety proto-
cols, he added.
The women’s team, which had a
3-1 record, had initially suspended
operations on Dec. 16 after two
members of its traveling party
tested positive for the virus, re-
quiring contact tracing. The Blue
Devils consequently postponed
games against North Carolina
State and the University of North
Social Media Pakistan 0345-6738217
Carolina Wilmington; the pro-
gram had already postponed a
THE NEW YORK TIMES SPORTS SATURDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2020
R AC I A L J U S T I C E
TONY DEJAK/ASSOCIATED PRESS
When the Washington N.F.L.
franchise, the most prominent
team with that nickname, finally
gave it up on July 13, the decision
exposed school districts that still
employed it to further scrutiny.
One of those was the Union Pub-
lic School district in Tulsa, Okla.
Last month, the district’s school
board voted unanimously get rid
of the Redskins name after 70
years. Kirt Hartzler, the superin-
PRO FOOTBALL
Matthew Stafford will probably throw for 250 to 300 yards
against the Buccaneers. And the Lions will probably lose.
TAMPA BAY BUCCANEERS AT DETROIT
LIONS, 1 p.m. Eastern, NFL Network
Line: Buccaneers -9.5 | Total: 54
When Matthew Stafford inevitably
makes a run at Drew Brees’s
record for career passing yards,
stretches like the final three weeks
of this season will be a big reason.
Stafford sustained a rib injury in
Week 14; it was serious enough
that he struggled to walk. He
surprised everyone by starting in
Week 15, and threw for 252 yards
in a loss to Tennessee. Detroit is
eliminated from playoff contention,
COLLEGE BASKETBALL
game against the University of
Miami because of contact tracing
concerns. It was scheduled to play
Louisville next week.
Kara Lawson, Duke’s first-year
head coach, had said after a game
against Louisville this month that
she did not think the team should
be playing during the pandemic.
“That’s my opinion on it,” she said.
Other conferences and sports
have postponed games or sus-
pended seasons during the pan-
demic. College football completed
the regular season despite several
postponements, cancellations and
personnel switches. The Ivy
GETTY IMAGES
tendent of the district, and a for-
mer football coach at the high
school, said that a similar motion
had been unanimously voted
down in 2003. But this time, he
sensed a new climate of diplo-
macy on both sides of the issue.
“There is a season for every-
thing, and this was the right sea-
son for this change to occur,” Hart-
zler said in a recent telephone in-
terview. “Not only because of the
WESLEY HITT/GETTY IMAGES
and Stafford’s ribs are still ex-
tremely sore, but the team’s inter-
im coach, Darrell Bevell, said there
were no plans to shut him down:
“To be honest with you, I don’t
think he’ll let that happen.”
So what should people expect from
this game? Between hard hits from
the fierce pass rush of the Bucca-
neers (9-5), Stafford will probably
throw for 250 to 300 yards and the
Lions (5-9) will lose anyway. Be-
cause a win or a tie will put Tampa
Bay in the playoffs for the first
time since 2007, that series of
League canceled its winter sports
and delayed its spring seasons in
November. And a New York Times
analysis published in early De-
cember showed that at least 6,600
college athletes, coaches and
other personnel had tested pos-
itive for the coronavirus.
Duke’s announcement comes
as coronavirus cases climb
throughout the United States; in
North Carolina, there has been a
steady daily average of over 5,500
new cases per day for the past few
weeks, according to a New York
Times database.
The 2021 Division I women’s
SUSAN WALSH/ASSOCIATED PRESS
internal forces at play, but also the
external forces, what had oc-
curred nationally. We needed to
come out on the right side of this
issue, and I believe we did.”
The roughly 1,900 schools (in
1,025 districts) holding out, ac-
cording to the N.C.A.I’s database,
include Neshaminy High School
in Bucks County, Pa., which has
continued to use the nickname
Redskins, despite protests. The
suburban Philadelphia district
says it spent an estimated
$435,000 on litigation to retain the
name ahead of a 2019 ruling by the
Pennsylvania Human Relations
Commission that allowed schools
to continue using Native names
and imagery if they met certain
requirements.
“The Neshaminy School Dis-
trict and the Community are ex-
tremely proud and supportive in
displaying our heritage; some 85
years of respectful pride, continu-
ing a connection to those that es-
tablished the Neshaminy area and
surrounding lands before us,”
Stephen Pirritano, the president
of the Neshaminy district school
board, said in an email, “We be-
C.J. Beathard, who is 1-9 as a starting quarterback, gets the nod
for the 49ers, which could bolster the Cardinals’ playoff hopes.
events will be acceptable to the
Buccaneers. Covering the spread
will be harder, though, with run-
ning back Ronald Jones out after a
positive test for the coronavirus.
PICK: Lions +9.5
SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS AT ARIZONA
CARDINALS, 4:30 p.m. Eastern, Prime
Video
Line: Cardinals -5 | Total: 49
Both teams should feel at home
since the 49ers (5-9) have relo-
cated to Arizona as a result of
coronavirus regulations in Califor-
basketball tournament is ex-
pected to tip off in March in one re-
gion to limit travel and hopefully
mitigate the virus’ spread, with
the N.C.A.A. eyeing San Antonio
and the surrounding area. The
men’s Division I tournament is
also expected to be held in one re-
gion this spring, with the N.C.A.A.
announcing in November that it
was talking with officials in Indi-
anapolis.
The 2020 men’s and women’s
tournaments were among the first
major sporting events in the
United States to be canceled as the
pandemic worsened last March.
Y B7
Looking Back
The New York Times Sports
department is revisiting the sub-
jects of some compelling articles
from the last year or so. This
report follows up our July article
on schools’ considering dropping
Native American nicknames and
mascots.
lieve in ‘education not eradication’
especially in areas of culture.”
There are at least 10 states con-
sidering legislation to prevent or
limit public schools’ use of Native-
themed or race-based mascots,
following a precedent set in 2019
by Maine, which prohibits “a pub-
lic school from having or adopting
a name, symbol or image that de-
picts or refers to a Native Ameri-
can tribe, individual, custom or
tradition and that is used as a mas-
cot, nickname, logo, letterhead or
team name of the school.”
The day the Cleveland baseball
team made its announcement, a
legislative body in Nebraska met
to discuss a ban in its state, and a
similar bill is working its way
through committee in the Massa-
chusetts State Senate. Joanne
Comerford, the Senate sponsor of
the Massachusetts bill, said the
summer’s unrest had provided
momentum, not only to change
school mascots, but to change the
state seal, which depicts a Native
American standing beneath an
arm and sword, and to address
other items on the so-called Indig-
enous agenda.
Massachusetts still has about
two dozen schools with Native
nicknames, but two have changed
since October. Athol High School
abandoned the name “Red
Raider,” and Pentucket Regional
High School near the New Hamp-
shire border gave up the name
“Sachem,” a title for Native lead-
ers.
Comerford, who is not of Native
descent, said the use of such mas-
cots was damaging to all citizens,
and she expressed confidence
that Massachusetts would follow
Maine’s example.
Dana, the Penobscot ambassa-
dor, said the remaining major pro-
fessional teams that use Native
mascots or names — the Atlanta
Braves, the Kansas City Chiefs
and the Chicago Blackhawks, all
of whom have said they have no
plans to change their identities —
must follow Cleveland’s example.
“We are entering a time where
all of these will be seen like min-
strel shows,” she said, “like horri-
ble, outdated racist things, and
people will be very confused as to
why they lasted so long.”
EZRA SHAW/GETTY IMAGES
nia. That’s the most interesting
subplot of a game between San
Francisco’s injury-riddled team
and the Cardinals (8-6), an up-and-
coming squad that can clinch its
first playoff berth since 2015 by
winning Saturday and having
Chicago lose to or tie Jacksonville.
With Nick Mullens requiring elbow
surgery, San Francisco will start
C.J. Beathard at quarterback.
Quarterback record is an overrated
statistic, but Beathard has lived up
to his last name with a career mark
of 1-9. PICK: Cardinals -5
Maine−Sales 2361
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dio, Post & Beam barn, distant harbor
views, 3-acres, walk to village. $225,000.
Downeast Properties, Inc. 207-374-2321.
www.downeastproperties.com
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B8 Y THE NEW YORK TIMES SPORTS SATURDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2020

S C O R E B OA R D SOCCER

FOOTBALL

N.F.L. STANDINGS
Cech Is in His Comfort Zone: In the Middle of Everything
AMERICAN CONFERENCE
East W L T Pct PF PA
LONDON — Petr Cech does
yx-Buffalo . . . . 11 3 0 .786 407 340 not watch a lot of television.
Miami . . . . . . . . 9 5 0 .643 352 257 Switching his brain off, by his
N. England . . . . 6 8 0 .429 289 301
Jets . . . . . . . . . 1 13 0 .071 206 413 own admission, does not come
South W L T Pct PF PA easily to him. He has always
Indianapolis . . . 10 4 0 .714 399 320
Tennessee . . . 10 4 0 .714 436 361 preferred, he said,
Houston . . . . . . 4 10
Jacksonville . . . . 1 13
0
0
.286
.071
315
275
386
423
RORY to fill every minute
of his day, not just
North W L
x-Pittsburgh . . . 11 3
T
0
Pct
.786
PF
366
PA
264 SMITH with work and
Cleveland . . . . 10 4 0 .714 368 374
Baltimore . . . . . 9 5 0 .643 403 287 family but with a
ON
Cincinnati . . . . . 3 10 1 .250 271 355
SOCCER moderately intimi-
West W L T Pct PF PA dating litany of
yx-Kansas City . 13 1 0 .929 435 310
Las Vegas. . . . . 7 7 0 .500 377 421 pastimes and projects. Settling
Denver . . . . . . . 5 9
L.A. Chargers. . . 5 9
0
0
.357
.357
276
327
395
389
down on the sofa counts, to his
mind, as time wasted.
NATIONAL CONFERENCE
This year, though, Cech and
East W L T Pct PF PA
Washington . ...6 8 0 .429 302 295 his wife, Martina, have started
Dallas. . . . . ...5 9 0 .357 339 433 getting into “The Crown.” Even
Giants . . . . ...5 9 0 .357 244 311
Phila. . . . . ....4 9 1 .321 303 361 then, though, he is not the sort to
South W L T Pct PF PA allow himself to be washed away
x-New Orleans . 10 4 0 .714 397 297 by the lavish Netflix melodrama.
Tampa Bay . . . . 9 5 0 .643 401 321
Atlanta . . . . . . . 4 10 0 .286 355 353 Each episode — he is some-
Carolina . . . . . . 4 10 0 .286 323 356
where in the middle of the sec-
North W L T Pct PF PA
yx-Green Bay. . 11 3 0 .786 434 339 ond season — prompts him to go
Chicago . . . . . . 7 7
Minnesota . . . . . 6 8
0 .500 315 318
0 .429 360 388
away and fill in the gaps in both
Detroit . . . . . . . 5 9 0 .357 335 435 his knowledge and the series’
West W L T Pct PF PA contested historical authenticity.
x-Seattle . . . . . 10 4 0 .714 413 339
L.A. Rams . . . . . 9 5 0 .643 345 269 “Obviously it’s not completely
Arizona . . . . . . . 8 6 0 .571 391 329 accurate,” he said. “But there are
San Fran. . . . . . 5 9 0 .357 333 352
x-clinched playoff spot y-clinched division lots of interesting things. You
Friday, Dec. 25 start Googling those parts of
Minnesota at New Orleans
Saturday, Dec. 26 British history, and you realize
Tampa Bay at Detroit, 1 there are lots of things you didn’t
San Francisco at Arizona, 4:30
Miami at Las Vegas, 8:15 know.” That, just about, encapsu-
Sunday, Dec. 27
Atlanta at Kansas City, 1 lates Cech: He is inclined to see
Chicago at Jacksonville, 1 an hour or two of fairly mindless
Cincinnati at Houston, 1
Cleveland at Jets, 1 television in his rare downtime
Indianapolis at Pittsburgh, 1
Giants at Baltimore, 1
not as a chance to relax, but as a
Carolina at Washington, 4:05 learning opportunity.
Denver at L.A. Chargers, 4:05 That Cech has time to disap-
L.A. Rams at Seattle, 4:25
Philadelphia at Dallas, 4:25 pear down a rabbit hole about JOHN SIBLEY/ACTION IMAGES, VIA REUTERS
Tennessee at Green Bay, 8:20
Monday, Dec. 28 the Suez crisis — or anything Petr Cech spent the bulk of his career as a goalkeeper at
Buffalo at New England, 8:15 else — is faintly remarkable.
Spooling through all of the
Chelsea, right, but finished in 2019 at its London rival Arsenal.
BASKETBALL things he does, it is hard not to He said his new role as technical director at Chelsea calls on
assume he is handcuffed by every bit of what he learned in the game.
N.B.A. STANDINGS having a mere 24 hours in his
EASTERN CONFERENCE day. He is studying for an M.B.A.
Atlantic W L Pct GB He plays the drums well enough
Philadelphia ... . 1 0 1.000 —
Boston. . . . .... 1 0 1.000 — that last year he released a gets injured, you would take Cech, at Chelsea — both ap-
Nets . . . . . .... 1 0 1.000 — charity single with Roger Taylor someone from the academy, but pointed last year, both with vast
Knicks . . . . .... 0 1 .000 1
Toronto . . . .... 0 1 .000 1 of Queen. because we had to be in bubbles, experience as top players — are
Southeast W L Pct GB He is fluent in five languages that was not possible. exceptions.
Orlando . . . . . . . 1 0 1.000 —
Atlanta. . . . . . . . 1 0 1.000 — — his native Czech, English, “At one point, we were short a For Cech, the appeal of the job
Miami . . . . . . . . 1 1 .500 { German, Spanish and French — goalkeeper, so the solution was lies in how different it is from
Washington. . . . . 0 1 .000 1
Charlotte . . . . . . 0 1 .000 1 but speaks seven. He admits, as either I stepped in, or a goal- playing. He had thought in great
Central W L Pct GB if confessing to some great flaw, keeping coach did. I was fit, so I depth about what he would do
Indiana . . . . . . . 1
Cleveland . . . . . . 1
0 1.000 —
0 1.000 —
that he cannot write quite as said OK.” It was intended as a after he retired. He had, he said,
Milwaukee . . . . . 1 1 .500 { well as he might like in Italian precaution, a form of emergency realized after fracturing his skull
Detroit . . . . . . . . 0 1 .000 1 in 2006 that “it took only a split
Chicago . . . . . . . 0 1 .000 1 and Portuguese. He has started cover, but Cech was still more
WESTERN CONFERENCE running, too; every so often he than good enough to be a viable second for everything to be KERIM OKTEN/EUROPEAN PRESSPHOTO AGENCY

Southwest W L Pct GB
San Antonio . . . . 1 0 1.000 —
New Orleans . . . . 1 1 .500 {
Houston . . . . . . . 0 0 .000 {
Dallas . . . . . . . . 0 1 .000
Memphis . . . . . . 0 1 .000
W L Pct GB
Northwest
Utah . . . . . . . . . 1 0 1.000 —
Minnesota. . . . . . 1 0 1.000 —
Oklahoma City. . . 0 0 .000 {
Denver. . . . . . . . 0 1 .000
Portland . . . . . . . 0 1 .000
Pacific W L Pct GB
L.A. Clippers . . . . 1 0 1.000 —
Phoenix . . . . . . . 1
Sacramento . . . . 1
0 1.000 —
0 1.000 —
L.A. Lakers . . . . . 0 1 .000
Golden State . . . 0
Thursday, Dec. 24
2 .000 1{
No games scheduled.
Friday, Dec. 25
Miami 111, New Orleans 98
Milwaukee 138, Golden State 99
Nets at Boston
Dallas at L.A. Lakers
L.A. Clippers at Denver
Saturday, Dec. 26
Atlanta at Memphis, 5
Cleveland at Detroit, 7
Oklahoma City at Charlotte, 7
Orlando at Washington, 7
Philadelphia at Knicks, 7:30
Indiana at Chicago, 8
Toronto at San Antonio, 8:30
Minnesota at Utah, 9
Houston at Portland, 10
Phoenix at Sacramento, 10
Sunday, Dec. 27
Dallas at L.A. Clippers, 3:30
Nets at Charlotte, 7
Orlando at Washington, 7
San Antonio at New Orleans, 7
Milwaukee at Knicks, 7:30
Philadelphia at Cleveland, 7:30
Boston at Indiana, 8
Golden State at Chicago, 8
Phoenix at Sacramento, 9
Minnesota at L.A. Lakers, 10
Monday, Dec. 28
Detroit at Atlanta, 7:30
Memphis at Nets, 7:30
Utah at Oklahoma City, 8
Houston at Denver, 9
Portland at L.A. Lakers, 10
SOCCER
ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE
Team GP W D L GF
Liverpool . . . . . 14 9 4 1 36
Leicester. . . . . 14 9 0 5 26
Man United . . . 13 8 2 3 28
Everton. . . . . . 14 8 2 4 25
Chelsea . . . . . 14 7 4 3 29
Tottenham. . . . 14 7 4 3 25
Southampton . . 14 7 3 4 25
Man City . . . . . 13 6 5 2 19
Aston Villa. . . . 12 7 1 4 24
West Ham . . . . 14 6 3 5 21
Wolverhampton 14 6 2 6 14
Newcastle . . . . 13 5 3 5 17
Crystal Palace . 14 5 3 6 19
Leeds. . . . . . . 14 5 2 7 24
Arsenal . . . . . . 14 4 2 8 12
Burnley . . . . . . 13 3 4 6 8
Brighton . . . . . 14 2 6 6 16
Fulham . . . . . . 14 2 4 8 13
West Brom . . . 14 1 4 9 10
Sheffield United 14 0 2 12 8
Saturday, Dec. 26
Leicester vs. Man United
Aston Villa vs. Crystal Palace
Fulham vs. Southampton
Arsenal vs. Chelsea
Man City vs. Newcastle
Sheffield United vs. Everton
Sunday, Dec. 27
Leeds vs. Burnley
West Ham vs. Brighton
Liverpool vs. West Brom
Wolverhampton vs. Tottenham
Monday, Dec. 28
Crystal Palace vs. Leicester
Chelsea vs. Aston Villa
Everton vs. Man City
Tuesday, Dec. 29
Brighton vs. Arsenal
Burnley vs. Sheffield United
Southampton vs. West Ham
West Brom vs. Leeds
Man United vs. Wolverhampton
Wednesday, Dec. 30
Tottenham vs. Fulham
Newcastle vs. Liverpool
will knock out a quick 10K on a option. He was briefly registered finished.” He knew he had to be
weekend morning. prepared. suited to his new role. His play- circling, and Frank Lampard, the
on Chelsea’s squad list for the
All of this, he said, means that He studied for his coaching ing career, as it turned out, was Chelsea manager, and the club’s
Champions League this season. not entirely irrelevant. As a
1 his “time management has to be licenses while still playing — on recruitment department, led by
1 His primary focus, though, player, he was always involved Scott McLachlan, were eager to
right.” These are extracurricular international duty with the Czech
what all of his other interests Republic, he said, “there was with the various liaison commit-
activities, after all. He also has a find an edge in the chase.
job to think about. Strictly must swirl around, is his new always time” — but it occurred to tees that express the squad’s
Over lunch at the club’s train-
1 speaking, in fact, he has two. role. Cech is — by English soc- him that coaches, essentially, live feelings to the club’s representa- ing facility one day, Cech pointed
1
Cech retired as a player in cer’s standards — something of a the same life as a player: “You tives. He feels, still, that he
out that he spoke German. What
2019 — after a decorated career spend time training, traveling, at knows instinctively how players if he called Werner directly?
spent at Rennes, Chelsea and, in games, in hotels. The routine is would react to certain sugges- Those involved with the deal
1 his twilight, Arsenal. He made the same.” tions. point to it as the decisive mo-
the decision before it was made During the pandemic, A front office role, by contrast, The luster his playing career ment.
for him; within a few months, he “allows me to be close to the carries can be an advantage, too.
prepared to return to
But there is something
found that his “mind started to game, but to organize things in a At one point this summer, he flew broader, too, that has smoothed
clear, that I had a new motiva-
tion, a new happiness.”
goal for Chelsea. different way.” The challenge
was that soccer the game and
to Germany to meet with Kai
Havertz, the playmaker Chelsea
Cech’s transition. The position of
technical director varies from
He went back to the gym, soccer the industry are distinct would eventually sign for $81
club to club and country to coun-
reveling in the fact that his body entities; a life in one does not million.
try. In Chelsea’s case, Cech is
— without “a big ball being fired rarity. In certain parts of conti- wholly prepare you for a life in Cech impressed Havertz’s
there to tie together the various
at me at 60 miles an hour” hun- nental Europe, and especially the other. Cech was, effectively, family not only with the depth of
his analysis but his human strands of the club’s sporting
dreds of times every day — was Germany, it is not unusual for “starting from zero.”
touch: He spent as much time vision, the linchpin between the
recovering from the wear and high-profile players to eschew To some extent, what he has
tear it had endured. As far as he seen since has been eye-opening. discussing raising children in first team, the academy and the
coaching and move into front- recruitment department. The
was concerned, his life as a Cech chose his agents at the age London and his own memories of
office roles immediately after business side is handled by Ma-
player was over. He had plenty of 17; they still represent him moving to England as a young
retirement: Marc Overmars and rina Granovskaia, Chelsea’s
of job offers. The one that ap- now. He always made a point of player as he did the 21-year-old
Edwin van der Sar at Ajax; director and its de facto chief
pealed the most was a post as knowing not only exactly what Havertz’s role on the team. His
Leonardo at Paris St.-Germain; mere presence, though, helped executive.
technical director at Chelsea. they were doing, but how they
He had been doing that for almost the entire off-field hierar- were doing it. He can see now, of persuade Havertz: He was im- It is, in other words, the sort of
chy at Bayern Munich.
almost a year when the pan- course, that not every player is pressed that the player he had job that requires someone used
demic struck. Suddenly, he found England is only now catching quite so thorough, and not every seen winning the Champions to balancing a whole host of
himself dragged back to a life he up. For the most part, where agent quite so transparent. “Lots League in 2012 would come to different demands and needs and
Premier League clubs employ a
thought he had left behind. “We of players leave things with the see him in person. priorities. Someone given to
were lucky to be able to finish technical director, it is seen as a agent and carry on,” he said. His other skills have proved thinking in four dimensions to
the season,” he said. “But no- position for a recruitment spe- “There are parts of football on useful, too. Earlier this year, make sure their many and varied
body knew how many players cialist, someone who can navi- this side that are very surprising, Chelsea was trying to figure out commitments can all be met.
would get the virus, and we had gate the choppy, unpredictable in a negative way.” how to make headway with the Someone, like Cech, who does
really strict numbers and re- waters of soccer’s transfer mar- For all that surprise, the early signing of the German forward not, as he put it, “like to waste
strictions. Normally, if a player ket. Edu Gaspar, at Arsenal, and results suggest Cech is well Timo Werner. Liverpool was time.”
GA Pts
19 31
17 27
21 26
19 26
14 25
14
19
12
25
24
23
Christmas in the N.B.A.
13 22
19 21
19 20
22 18
25 18
30 17
18 14
19 13
22 12
23 10
29 7
25 2

COLLEGE FOOTBALL

BOWL SCHEDULE
All Times EST
THURSDAY, DEC. 24
New Mexico Bowl
Frisco, Texas
Hawaii 28, Houston 14
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FRIDAY, DEC. 25
Camellia Bowl
Montgomery, Ala.
Buffalo 17, Marshall 10

TRANSACTIONS MICHAEL DWYER/ASSOCIATED PRESS MICHAEL REAVES/GETTY IMAGES

N.F.L. The Nets’ DeAndre Jordan, left, dunking on Friday in the Nets’ 123-95 victory over the Boston Celtics. Duncan Robinson of the Miami Heat, right,

Social Media Pakistan 0345-6738217

NEW YORK GIANTS — Signed DB Logan
Ryan to a three-year extension through
attempted a layup against the New Orleans Pelicans’ Josh Hart. Robinson helped the Heat to a 111-98 win by making seven 3-pointers. The Milwaukee
2023. Bucks also earned their first Christmas Day home win in over 50 years by defeating the Golden State Warriors, 138-99.
 THE NEW YORK TIMES, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2020 Y B9

Weather Report Meteorology by AccuWeather

Sioux Falls 30/ 11 0 31/ 19 PC 28/ 7 C

Van
Vancouver Cities South Bend 21/ 16 0.43 32/ 20 PC 42/ 27 C
R
Regina 0s High/low temperatures for the 16 hours ended at 4 Spokane 33/ 31 0 35/ 28 Sn 36/ 21 C
50s St. Louis 27/ 21 0 48/ 36 PC 56/ 27 C
Winni
nnipeg
nni eg Quebe
ec
ec
p.m. yesterday, Eastern time, and precipitation (in inches)
Seattle
ttle
tle
for the 16 hours ended at 4 p.m. yesterday. St. Thomas 84/ 75 0.06 83/ 74 S 83/ 75 Sh
Spokane 40s
40
0s H
Halifax Expected conditions for today and tomorrow. Syracuse 37/ 25 0.46 30/ 25 SS 37/ 31 C
10s Tampa 56/ 36 0.05 54/ 37 S 66/ 50 S
Portlan
and Montreal 30s
Helena C ........................ Clouds S .............................Sun Toledo 24/ 19 0.07 32/ 20 PC 42/ 30 C
Bismarccck Por
Portland Tucson 68/ 40 Tr 72/ 43 S 75/ 48 PC
Eugen
ne Fargo Ottawa F............................. Fog Sn ....................... Snow
30s 20s Burlin
ngton
n Tulsa 48/ 34 0 64/ 45 S 61/ 30 PC
Billings H .......................... Haze SS .......... Snow showers
B
Boise 20s
20s L 30s
M
Ma
Manchester
I............................... Ice T............ Thunderstorms Virginia Beach
Waco
46/
63/
22 0.34
34 0
43/
70/
27
51
S
S
51/
74/
39
41
S
S
Minneapolis
n St. Paul
S Toronto
To Al
Albany Bos
Boston PC ............. Partly cloudy Tr ......................... Trace
Washington 36/ 24 0.19 36/ 26 S 45/ 36 S
Pie
Pi
ierre
R ........................... Rain W ........................ Windy West Palm Beach 57/ 41 0.02 63/ 51 PC 73/ 61 PC
Milwauke
ke
ee Buffalo Har
Hartford
a
30ss Detroit 20s
20 Sh ................... Showers –............... Not available Wichita 51/ 27 0 59/ 28 PC 54/ 25 S
Salt Lake
e Sioux
ou Falls
lls
Casper
Ca er New York
N Wilkes-Barre 42/ 20 0.59 28/ 19 PC 38/ 31 PC
City
Ci N.Y.C. region Yesterday Today Tomorrow
Reno 30s Cle
eveland
e Pittsburgh Wilmington, Del. 54/ 23 0.52 33/ 22 S 41/ 31 S
Cheye
enn
n
ne Chicago Phi
Philadelphia New York City 56/ 44 0.21 34/ 27 PC 40/ 35 S
Oma
maha
ma Des Moines
es Africa Yesterday Today Tomorrow
San Franc
Franccisco
isc
scc Bridgeport 55/ 49 0.45 35/ 26 PC 39/ 33 S
Kansas Indianapolis
a Washi
Washington
ashi Caldwell 59/ 43 0.32 34/ 23 PC 41/ 28 S Abidjan 88/ 79 0.08 87/ 79 PC 88/ 78 PC
30ss
30s 20s Denver Danbury 57/ 46 0.56 32/ 19 PC 38/ 24 S Algiers 61/ 45 0.22 55/ 40 PC 59/ 41 S
50s Topeka City Springfield
e Richm
chmond
Fressno
Fre Colorado
olorad
lora o Charleston
arle
e Islip 55/ 47 0.35 33/ 23 PC 38/ 30 S Cairo 68/ 52 0 73/ 51 S 73/ 52 PC
Las 40s Springs
rings St. Louis
uis N
Norfolk Newark 56/ 41 0.16 34/ 24 PC 41/ 32 S Cape Town 77/ 59 0 79/ 64 S 73/ 58 PC
Vegas Louisvi
sville
svil
60s 40s
40 Trenton 55/ 34 0.10 31/ 21 S 40/ 28 S Casablanca 63/ 47 0 67/ 40 S 66/ 40 S
Wichita
chita Raleigh
gh White Plains 57/ 45 0.25 32/ 22 PC 37/ 28 S Dakar 79/ 68 0 78/ 71 PC 78/ 71 S
Los Angeles Santa
t Fe Na
ashville
a Charlotte Johannesburg 79/ 60 0.07 80/ 59 PC 82/ 60 T
United States Yesterday Today Tomorrow
Nairobi 83/ 63 0 80/ 57 PC 80/ 56 PC
0sOklahoma City
60s Memphis Albany 59/ 23 0.78 30/ 23 C 34/ 28 PC Tunis 68/ 47 0 54/ 47 R 55/ 42 PC
Phoenix
nix
ix Albuquerque
buqu e Little
e Rock
San Diego Columb
bia Albuquerque 44/ 22 0 50/ 27 PC 50/ 32 PC
Birming
m ggham Anchorage 24/ 18 0 25/ 19 Sn 28/ 25 C Asia/Pacific Yesterday Today Tomorrow
70s Lubbock Atlanta
Tucs
Tuc
Tucson Atlanta 35/ 21 0 46/ 27 S 57/ 33 S Almaty 25/ 7 0 27/ 14 C 22/ 4 PC
D
Dallas Atlantic City 51/ 26 0.90 37/ 25 S 45/ 35 S Auckland 67/ 59 0.02 69/ 58 W 65/ 53 PC
El Paso Ft. Worth
Ft W Austin 70/ 39 0 70/ 50 PC 75/ 49 S Baghdad 57/ 36 0 59/ 37 S 58/ 40 PC
Jackson
70s Mobile Baltimore 35/ 22 0.43 35/ 21 S 45/ 32 S Bali 87/ 76 0 85/ 78 PC 86/ 78 PC
J
Jacksonville
Baton Rouge 51/ 29 0 58/ 35 S 68/ 49 PC Bangkok 88/ 77 0 89/ 76 PC 93/ 77 PC
Baton
o Roug
ge
g
H Billings 50/ 35 0 47/ 31 C 37/ 20 Sn Beijing 46/ 18 0 43/ 22 PC 45/ 25 S
Honolulu San Anto
onio Birmingham 37/ 19 0 49/ 28 S 59/ 40 S Damascus 55/ 34 0 57/ 34 PC 56/ 35 PC
New Or
Orlando
80s
0s Hou
ouston Orleans Boise 40/ 35 0 43/ 26 C 40/ 24 PC Dhaka 80/ 59 0 79/ 52 PC 77/ 54 S
70s
70ssHilo
0 Tampa
a
Boston 60/ 32 1.72 36/ 27 PC 39/ 31 S Hanoi 72/ 58 0 72/ 65 C 75/ 67 C
80
0s 80s Buffalo 30/ 24 0.37 28/ 24 Sn 36/ 33 C
70s Hong Kong 70/ 64 0 69/ 64 S 72/ 64 PC
Corpus Christi
C Burlington 65/ 30 0.39 32/ 23 PC 33/ 29 C Islamabad 64/ 40 0 66/ 43 PC 54/ 41 Sh
Miami
70s
70 Casper 39/ 30 Tr 40/ 23 PC 31/ 9 C Jakarta 91/ 77 0.02 89/ 76 Sh 89/ 76 T
<0
0 60s
0s Nassau Cedar Rapids 24/ 15 0 31/ 22 PC 33/ 15 I Jerusalem 59/ 39 0 60/ 43 S 58/ 43 PC
0
0s Monterrey
0s Champaign 20/ 15 Tr 38/ 24 PC 47/ 22 W Karachi 79/ 55 0 81/ 53 S 75/ 45 S
Charleston, W.Va. 20/ 14 0.11 35/ 21 S 52/ 41 PC Kolkata 75/ 55 0 75/ 49 PC 74/ 49 S
Charlotte 34/ 19 Tr 44/ 24 S 53/ 33 S Kuala Lumpur 91/ 77 0.02 88/ 75 Sh 89/ 75 T
Fairb
Fa rbanks
rba Alternating light and dark bands show today’s expected highs. Weather patterns shown as expected at noon today, Eastern time. Chattanooga 30/ 18 0 47/ 25 S 56/ 37 S Lahore 64/ 43 0 67/ 43 PC 62/ 39 Sh
10s
0ss Chicago 21/ 18 0 34/ 22 PC 43/ 23 C Manila 90/ 75 0 85/ 76 C 85/ 76 Sh
20s Cincinnati 18/ 15 Tr 39/ 26 PC 50/ 31 C Melbourne 70/ 50 0 80/ 67 S 90/ 50 Sh
An
Anchor
Anchorage
nchor
H L Cleveland 21/ 17 0.20 28/ 21 PC 42/ 33 C Mumbai 93/ 71 0 90/ 73 PC 88/ 71 S
Juneau
au Colorado Springs 55/ 31 0 59/ 31 S 47/ 23 PC New Delhi 72/ 45 0 74/ 47 PC 73/ 45 PC
COLD WARM STATIONARY COMPLEX HIGH LOW MOSTLY SHOWERS T-STORMS RAIN FLURRIES SNOW ICE Columbia, Mo. 30/ 24 0 51/ 38 PC 54/ 25 C Riyadh 70/ 50 0 62/ 43 PC 63/ 45 PC
30s FRONTS COLD PRESSURE CLOUDY PRECIPITATION Columbia, S.C. 38/ 20 0 45/ 23 S 55/ 30 S Seoul 39/ 18 0 47/ 31 PC 51/ 38 R
Columbus 18/ 15 0.02 31/ 19 S 44/ 33 PC Shanghai 53/ 34 0 58/ 49 PC 59/ 43 C
Concord, N.H. 59/ 31 1.89 31/ 21 PC 36/ 23 S Singapore 88/ 77 0.16 86/ 77 T 86/ 78 C
Dallas-Ft. Worth 59/ 38 0 69/ 50 S 69/ 42 S Sydney 69/ 63 0.08 74/ 67 R 85/ 76 S
National Forecast Dayton
Denver
18/ 15 0.02
60/ 32 0
35/ 24 S
58/ 30 PC
48/ 29 C
44/ 22 S
Taipei City
Tehran
68/ 60 0.10
43/ 30 0
75/ 65 PC
43/ 31 S
73/ 63 S
49/ 34 PC
Des Moines 29/ 18 0 34/ 23 PC 35/ 16 C Tel Aviv 70/ 47 0 73/ 49 S 72/ 49 PC
As a large winter storm moves off the snow falls. Travel in any of these areas will cold start to the day in the Southeast, Detroit 24/ 19 0.13 31/ 21 C 38/ 31 C Tokyo 54/ 43 0 53/ 41 S 54/ 43 PC
East Coast today, Arctic air will shift east be very difficult. temperatures will rebound closer to nor- El Paso 53/ 27 0 60/ 35 S 64/ 38 S Vladivostok 19/ 8 0 19/ 5 S 26/ 7 C
Eugene 46/ 43 0.23 50/ 32 R 45/ 29 PC
and settle in across the region. Areas The Northwest will be another active mal in the afternoon. The Southwest and Fairbanks 8/ -3 0 1/ -7 PC 7/ 3 PC Europe Yesterday Today Tomorrow
across the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic region of the country as a storm system Plains will also be dry and mild. Fargo 32/ 9 0 22/ 14 PC 17/ 0 Sn Amsterdam 43/ 32 0.60 46/ 42 Sh 45/ 37 R
Fort Myers 60/ 42 0.11 60/ 41 S 70/ 53 PC Athens 68/ 48 0 66/ 58 PC 62/ 54 Sh
regions will record high temperatures that arrived Friday night continues to bring Fresno 62/ 47 0 61/ 43 PC 57/ 44 C Barcelona 54/ 43 0 52/ 34 S 52/ 47 C
FOCUS: STORMY NORTHWEST SATURDAY Gainesville, Fla. 49/ 24 0 49/ 25 S 62/ 39 S Belgrade 52/ 43 0.68 40/ 32 Sn 40/ 38 C
around five to 10 degrees below normal rain and mountain snow from Northern
Rain and mountain snow will continue in Grand Rapids 24/ 22 0.02 30/ 23 C 38/ 29 C Berlin 39/ 32 0.22 35/ 31 C 37/ 33 C
for late December. California through the Cascades and Greensboro 30/ 18 Tr 40/ 24 S 50/ 33 S Brussels 43/ 31 0.10 42/ 40 C 43/ 37 R
the Northwest for the first half of the Greenville, S.C. 33/ 18 0 44/ 24 S 51/ 32 S Budapest 43/ 38 0.06 38/ 23 S 35/ 34 S
Lake-effect snow will continue to stream northern Rockies. Snowfall totals around a
weekend before drying out for the second Harrisburg 36/ 23 0.37 32/ 21 S 42/ 31 S Copenhagen 37/ 30 0 41/ 39 Sh 41/ 37 R
off parts of the Great Lakes. Areas down- foot will be common in the Cascades, Hartford 61/ 28 2.14 34/ 21 PC 38/ 26 S Dublin 43/ 30 0.05 47/ 36 Sh 40/ 33 C
half. Outside of some snow showers in the Honolulu 83/ 72 0.02 81/ 72 Sh 83/ 69 PC Edinburgh 45/ 28 0 45/ 35 R 40/ 29 C
wind of Lakes Huron, Erie and Ontario in including at pass level, leading to difficult Frankfurt 43/ 30 0.04 38/ 32 C 40/ 38 C
Great Lakes, most of the rest of the nation Houston 63/ 40 0 69/ 53 S 73/ 57 PC
southern Ontario and New York will bear travel through the passes in the area. Indianapolis 16/ 15 Tr 37/ 26 PC 47/ 24 C Geneva 41/ 28 0.10 38/ 24 S 40/ 37 C
will be dry on Saturday, with cold air in the Jackson 44/ 25 0 57/ 34 S 65/ 49 S Helsinki 34/ 28 0.31 27/ 24 C 35/ 28 C
the brunt of snowfall, with snowfall totals Elsewhere, it will be dry and relatively Jacksonville 48/ 23 0 50/ 26 S 60/ 38 S Istanbul 59/ 52 0 62/ 54 C 60/ 50 PC
East and warmer air in the West.
challenging two feet where the heaviest tranquil across the nation. After a very Johnstown, Pa. 18/ 10 0.02 20/ 18 PC 38/ 33 PC Kiev 41/ 34 0.12 35/ 27 C 33/ 26 PC
Kansas City 39/ 23 0 52/ 34 PC 45/ 20 PC Lisbon 57/ 43 0 51/ 36 PC 55/ 51 PC
Key West 66/ 56 0.32 64/ 57 S 69/ 65 PC London 39/ 32 0 51/ 45 W 47/ 34 R
Knoxville 23/ 13 0.03 40/ 23 S 51/ 36 S Madrid 48/ 33 0 46/ 24 S 44/ 37 PC
Atlanta Boston Chicago Cleveland
10-Day Temperature Trends M T W T F S S M T W M T W T F S S M T W M T W T F S S M T W M T W T F S S M T W Lansing 24/ 21 0.05 30/ 22 C 38/ 29 C Moscow 28/ 23 0.52 32/ 20 SS 23/ 13 C
Las Vegas 56/ 36 0 58/ 42 S 57/ 39 C Nice 54/ 41 0.06 54/ 38 S 50/ 43 PC
High and low Record Lexington 18/ 12 0.02 40/ 28 S 53/ 37 PC Oslo 32/ 21 0 34/ 33 Sn 35/ 32 Sn
High Little Rock 43/ 28 0 59/ 41 S 62/ 38 PC Paris 43/ 36 0.03 41/ 39 C 46/ 38 R
temperatures Forecast Los Angeles 74/ 52 0 66/ 53 PC 62/ 51 C Prague 37/ 32 0.18 32/ 24 C 32/ 28 PC
for the past range 70° Louisville 19/ 17 Tr 44/ 31 S 55/ 34 C Rome 59/ 54 0.06 51/ 36 S 51/ 36 S
Normal St. Petersburg 34/ 24 0.30 22/ 12 C 22/ 20 Sn
Lubbock 63/ 22 0 67/ 40 S 63/ 34 S
five days and High Actual High 60° 60° 60° 60° Madison 19/ 13 0 28/ 16 PC 32/ 16 SS Stockholm 31/ 28 0.29 31/ 28 SS 40/ 35 C
forecasts for High 50° 50° 50° 50° Memphis 33/ 26 0 54/ 40 S 61/ 41 PC Vienna 46/ 30 0.13 35/ 23 PC 33/ 30 W
Miami 60/ 46 Tr 64/ 52 PC 73/ 61 PC Warsaw 39/ 35 0.13 35/ 27 C 34/ 30 S
the next five. Low
40° 40° 40° 40° Milwaukee 22/ 19 Tr 31/ 22 PC 39/ 22 C
North America Yesterday Today Tomorrow
Low Mpls.-St. Paul 17/ 12 0 25/ 16 PC 24/ 9 C
Yesterday’s highs 30° 30° 30° 30° Mobile 48/ 24 0 52/ 30 S 62/ 44 S Acapulco 85/ 72 0 87/ 71 S 88/ 71 S
and lows are based Low Bermuda 73/ 66 0.06 69/ 61 R 67/ 64 C
20° 20° 20° 20° Monterey, Calif. 62/ 50 Tr 59/ 42 PC 56/ 45 R
on preliminary data. Calgary 34/ 23 0 24/ 14 Sn 24/ 12 PC
Nashville 26/ 18 Tr 49/ 31 S 58/ 42 PC
Low New Orleans 53/ 34 0 57/ 39 S 68/ 52 PC Edmonton 28/ 18 0 20/ 8 Sn 19/ 8 C
10° 10°
Norfolk 54/ 24 0.20 41/ 26 S 50/ 38 S Guadalajara 76/ 41 0 80/ 37 S 81/ 37 S
Oklahoma City 58/ 33 0 63/ 38 S 59/ 32 S Havana 72/ 68 0.06 69/ 54 C 73/ 57 PC
Omaha 32/ 16 0 38/ 23 PC 37/ 14 PC Kingston 88/ 75 0 86/ 75 T 85/ 74 T
Dallas Denver Detroit Ft. Myers Houston Los Angeles Orlando 52/ 34 0.09 54/ 36 S 67/ 50 PC Martinique 84/ 77 0 85/ 72 S 85/ 73 Sh
M T W T F S S M T W M T W T F S S M T W M T W T F S S M T W M T W T F S S M T W M T W T F S S M T W M T W T F S S M T W Philadelphia 56/ 25 0.44 33/ 24 S 41/ 32 S Mexico City 69/ 45 0 75/ 47 S 74/ 45 S
90° Phoenix 68/ 43 0 69/ 45 S 71/ 50 PC Monterrey 67/ 28 0 69/ 39 S 81/ 45 S
Pittsburgh 20/ 13 1.75 25/ 17 S 42/ 38 PC Montreal 55/ 39 0.51 29/ 17 Sn 29/ 25 S
80° 80° 80° 80° Portland, Me. 55/ 32 0.93 35/ 24 PC 36/ 27 S Nassau 75/ 64 0.12 69/ 63 C 75/ 68 PC
Portland, Ore. 41/ 40 0.13 49/ 39 R 48/ 33 PC Panama City 82/ 75 0.44 88/ 71 T 85/ 71 T
70° 70° 70° 70° 70° Quebec City 48/ 37 0.55 30/ 14 Sn 22/ 17 S
Providence 60/ 29 2.92 35/ 22 PC 39/ 28 S
60° 60° 60° 60° 60° Raleigh 36/ 21 0.06 42/ 24 S 52/ 33 S Santo Domingo 86/ 72 0.01 84/ 69 S 85/ 70 Sh
Reno 45/ 38 0.01 47/ 25 PC 42/ 29 C Toronto 30/ 27 0.08 28/ 22 PC 34/ 32 C
50° 50° 50° 50° 50° 50° Richmond 40/ 21 Tr 39/ 23 S 48/ 32 S Vancouver 46/ 32 0.09 47/ 40 R 46/ 34 C
Rochester 32/ 24 0.28 29/ 24 SS 37/ 32 C Winnipeg 25/ 1 0 15/ 5 C 14/ -12 C
40° 40° 40° 40° 40° 40°
Sacramento 57/ 47 0.05 60/ 38 Sh 55/ 43 C South America Yesterday Today Tomorrow
30° 30° 30° 30° Salt Lake City 37/ 25 0 38/ 28 C 38/ 24 PC
San Antonio 70/ 39 0 68/ 48 PC 74/ 53 S Bogota 66/ 50 0.21 64/ 48 R 64/ 46 C
20° 20° 20° 20° San Diego 69/ 49 0 66/ 51 PC 63/ 53 C Buenos Aires 81/ 73 0 82/ 71 S 82/ 72 S
San Francisco 63/ 52 0.05 59/ 45 PC 56/ 46 R Caracas 88/ 74 0.04 88/ 73 PC 88/ 73 C
10°
San Jose 63/ 49 0.01 59/ 42 PC 58/ 43 C Lima 75/ 66 0 76/ 68 PC 76/ 69 C
San Juan 82/ 72 0.08 83/ 73 PC 84/ 73 PC Quito 64/ 52 0.56 60/ 51 Sh 63/ 52 R
Savannah 43/ 24 0 48/ 26 S 59/ 36 S Recife 82/ 77 0 83/ 77 PC 84/ 77 Sh
Seattle 49/ 41 0.05 49/ 41 R 49/ 34 PC Rio de Janeiro 79/ 71 0.85 79/ 72 Sh 80/ 73 R
Miami Minneapolis New York Orlando Philadelphia Phoenix Santiago 91/ 57 0 86/ 57 S 84/ 56 S
M T W T F S S M T W M T W T F S S M T W M T W T F S S M T W M T W T F S S M T W M T W T F S S M T W M T W T F S S M T W
Shreveport 53/ 34 0 67/ 47 S 70/ 49 PC
Sao Paulo 72/ 61 Tr 75/ 65 C 77/ 65 Sh

80° 80° 80°

Highlight: Lake-Effect Snow, Cold for Northeast
70° 70° 70°

60° 60° 60° 60° 60°

Lake-Effect snow will
persist today, gradually RAIN
50° 50° 50° 50° 50° 50° AND
tapering off through the SNOW
40° 40° 40° 40° 40° 40° SNOW
afternoon downwind of the SHOWERS
30° 30° 30° 30° 30°
eastern Great Lakes. Some Montreal
20° 20° spots in the typically
10° favored lake-effect snow SNOW
belts off Lakes Erie and SQUALLS Toronto Boston
Ontario may get up to two Syracuse
Portland, Ore. San Diego San Francisco Seattle Tampa Washington
M T W T F S S M T W M T W T F S S M T W M T W T F S S M T W M T W T F S S M T W M T W T F S S M T W M T W T F S S M T W feet of snow before it's all
done. A blast of Arctic cold Detroit New York
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B10 Y BW THE NEW YORK TIMES SPORTS SATURDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2020

HARRY HOW/GETTY IMAGES OCTAVIO JONES FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES ADAM HUNGER/ASSOCIATED PRESS KEVIN C. COX/GETTY IMAGES

From left, Dodgers Manager Dave Roberts, Chicago Sky Coach James Wade, Steelers Coach Mike Tomlin and Heat Coach Erik Spoelstra are among the few coaches of color in professional sports.

Thirty Years of Little Progress in Diversity

By GILLIAN R. BRASSIL and ELEANOR LUTZ

Picture the North American major sports leagues in the 1990s: The splashy declarations co-opting the causes of their athletes, namely Players of color Head coaches of color

players were mostly people of color, but the coaches, managers and pledging to combat systemic racial injustices in the United States. N.F.L. W.N.B.A. N.B.A.
team owners were almost all white. A snapshot today looks mostly the The data used in this analysis, which comes from five leagues, is self- 2020 2019 2020

same. reported by teams and league offices. The information is voluntary, 74% 83% 83%

Despite a handful of initiatives meant to increase diversity in the
leadership of sports organizations, coaching and management roles
have mostly gone to white candidates in the past 30 years, according to
a New York Times analysis of data from The Institute for Diversity and
Ethics in Sports.
The data calls into question whether the policies work effectively. It
also shows a gap between what sports organizations say publicly about
race and how they operate internally. Even as organizations have
shown little progress in diversifying their leaders, many have made
based on how individuals identify themselves, and in some instances 13% 25% 30%
does not account for people who may identify with two or more races. As
M.L.B. M.L.S.
a result, some of the data is incomplete and may be imprecise. The per- 2020 2020
centages used in this analysis have been adjusted to account for a small
40% 60%
number of people who did not respond to the surveys in each league.
20% 41%
The analysis includes data from the N.F.L., the W.N.B.A., Major
League Soccer, the N.B.A. and Major League Baseball. The N.H.L. is not Note: Managers are shown instead of head coaches for M.L.B.
The most recent available data is used for each league. The data
included because it only recently started working with the institute, is self-reported and may not include all league members.
based at the University of Central Florida. Source: Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport THE NEW YORK TIMES

NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE

ANDY LYONS/GETTY IMAGES
Tony Dungy in 2002, when he
was head coach of the Indian-
apolis Colts.
IN 1921, the year after the Na-
tional Football League was
formed under a different name,
Jim Thorpe and Frederick Doug-
lass “Fritz” Pollard became its
first coaches of color, said Joe Hor-
rigan, former executive director
of professional football’s hall of
fame. Pollard was the only Black
head coach in the N.F.L. until 1989,
when Art Shell took over the Los
Angeles Raiders.
Tony Dungy and Herm Ed-
wards were the only Black head
coaches in the 32-team league in
2002, when a study found that
Black coaches were less likely to
be hired and more likely to be fired
than their white counterparts,
even when they won a higher per-
centage of games (Dungy himself
was fired by the Tampa Bay Buc-
caneers after a playoff appear-
ance in the 2001 season and was
hired by the Indianapolis Colts
eight days later).
Under pressure from players
and advocates, the N.F.L. adopted
the Rooney Rule in 2003. The rule,
named for the late Pittsburgh
Steelers owner Dan Rooney and
which has since been expanded,
required teams to interview at
least one nonwhite candidate for
head coaching positions. Busi-
nesses within sports and beyond
have looked to the rule as an ex-
ample as they developed their
own hiring practices.
Percentage of each employee group by race
100% 1995
Players
Assistant
Coaches
Head
Coaches
General
Managers
C.E.O.s
But the rule does not require
teams to hire nonwhite candi-
dates once they conduct those in-
terviews, and their coaches, man-
agers and top executives have re-
mained mostly white. At any giv-
en time, the league has had as
many as eight nonwhite head
coaches (a number it first reached
in 2011) but that has since dipped,
according to the data.
In 2020, the N.F.L. started the
season with four coaches who
identified as nonwhite (three as
Black, one as Latino), meaning
that 13 percent of head coaches
were people of color. Almost 74
percent of the players who dis-
White Black Latino Asian
2000 Rooney Rule 2010
Gap in reporting
closed their race in the survey
were people of color.
Among the five leagues that
submit data to The Institute for
Diversity and Ethics in Sport, the
N.F.L. had the biggest discrepan-
cy between the percentage of
head coaches and the percentage
of players who were nonwhite: a
difference of 61 percentage points.
A 2019 study by the Arizona
State University Global Sport Ed-
ucation and Research Lab showed
that Black coaches were hired at
older ages, had much more play-
ing experience and did not get sec-
ond chances at the same rate as
white coaches. “When African
Other
2015 2020
Jason
Wright
First Black
team
president,
2020
THE NEW YORK TIMES
American head coaches have
been fired in the N.F.L., it has been
more difficult for them, as com-
pared to white and Latino Ameri-
can head coaches, to obtain an-
other head coaching position at
the same level,” the study said.
When that study was published,
12 of the N.F.L.’s franchises had
only hired white head coaches
since the N.F.L. merged with the
American Football League in
1970. Ron Rivera was hired by the
Washington Football Team on
Dec. 31, 2019, dropping that total
to 11. If the Atlanta Falcons hire in-
terim head coach Raheem Morris
and the Houston Texans — a much
newer franchise than Washington
or Atlanta — do the same with Ro-
meo Crennel, that total will be
nine.
The N.F.L. updated its rules this
year to apply its interview stand-
ards to more front-office positions
and to require teams to interview
at least two nonwhite external
candidates, up from one, for head
coaching vacancies. It also re-
quired at least one nonwhite can-
didate to be interviewed for co-
ordinator positions and senior
football operations roles, to boost
diversity beyond the playing field.
“We’re focusing on getting
more Black candidates in coach-
ing — especially for quarterbacks
and coaches on the offensive side
of the ball, since those positions
tend to have a higher chance of as-
cending to the head coach level,”
said Samantha Rapoport, the
N.F.L.’s senior director of diversi-
ty and inclusion.
This August, 100 years after the
N.F.L.’s inception, Jason Wright
became the first Black team presi-
dent when he was hired by the
Washington Football Team amid a
broader overhaul within the orga-
nization. Two N.F.L. team presi-
dents are Asian, according to the
data: Paraag Marathe of the San
Francisco 49ers and Kim Pegula
of the Buffalo Bills. The Jets’
Hymie Elhai identified as His-
panic. The rest are white.

WOMEN’S NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION

OCTAVIO JONES FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Wade is a head coach in a
league that is often cited for its
coaching diversity.
THE W.N.B.A. HAD almost as large a
disparity between the percentage
of players and head coaches who
were nonwhite as the N.F.L in
2019, the most recent year for
which data was available. Three
out of 12 head coaches were peo-
ple of color compared with 119 out
of 144 players, a difference of 58
percentage points. All three
coaches of color were Black.
Compared with the racial make-
up of the U.S. population, however,
the W.N.B.A. has the best marks
among the North American pro-
fessional leagues in the analysis
for Black coaches. Twenty-five
percent of the league’s head
coaches were Black and 13.4 per-
cent of the U.S. population was
Black, according to the United
States Census Bureau. The only
other league with representation
that exceeded 13.4 percent was
the N.B.A., for which 23 percent of
head coaches identified as Black.
The N.F.L. trails at just above 9
Percentage of each employee group by race White Black Latino Asian Other or general manager since 1998,
the league’s second season.
100% 2000 2005 2010 2015 2019
An assistant coach hired in 1998
Players identified as Asian; another as-
sistant coach in 2019 identified as
“other.” (“Other” includes individ-
Assistant
Coaches Swoopes
uals who identified as Native
American, Pacific Islander, Native
First signed
Head player, 1996 Hawaiian or Alaskan and, in later
Coaches years, biracial, depending on the
league.)
General The Dallas Wings hired Vickie
Managers
Johnson in early December, mak-
Cheryl Miller ing her the league’s only female
Majority First Black head coach of color. Neither the
Owners coach to lead
team to finals,
W.N.B.A. nor the N.B.A. has a
1998 guideline like the N.F.L.’s Rooney
Rule.
THE NEW YORK TIMES “We need to work with the
teams more when there are open-
ings, like a general manager or a
Richard Lapchick, the director nual Racial and Gender Report at any category,” Lapchick said. head coach, that they’re looking at
of The Institute for Diversity and Cards based on how closely the ra- But the W.N.B.A. lacks repre- all candidates, including diverse
Ethics in Sports, praised the cial makeup of each league com- sentation across all races. Only candidates, in a very constructive
W.N.B.A. for its diversity com- pares with society at large. two individuals who did not iden- way,” W.N.B.A. Commissioner
pared with the U.S. population. He “The W.N.B.A. is the best, peri- tify as white or Black have held a Cathy Engelbert said before the
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percent. determines the grades for his an- od — consistently when you look role of assistant coach, head coach 2020 finals.

Note: The data shown in each graphic is self-reported and may not include all league members or all years. The category for N.F.L. general managers includes personnel in similar management positions for time periods
before the term “general manager” was widely used. Source: Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport. Photo illustration credits: Matthew Stockman / Getty Images (James Borrego); Chris Young / The Canadian
Press, via Associated Press (Ali Curtis); Otto Greule Jr / Getty Images (Robin Fraser); Scott Troyanos / Associated Press (Cheryl Miller); Lucy Nicholson / Reuters (Arte Moreno); Darryl Webb / Associated Press

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(Erik Spoelstra); Elaine Thompson / Associated Press (Sheryl Swoopes); N.F.L. via Getty Images (Jason Wright); Nintendo, via European Pressphoto Agency (Hiroshi Yamauchi)
 THE NEW YORK TIMES SPORTS SATURDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2020 Y B11

MAJOR LEAGUE SOCCER

DESPITE LAPCHICK’S PRAISE for Percentage of each employee group by race White Black Latino Asian Other tem to increase Black representa-
the W.N.B.A., Major League Soc- tion in executive and sporting po-
100% 2000 2005 Coaching Diversity Initiative 2015 2020
cer actually had a higher percent- sitions at the league office, the
age of head coaches who are peo- Players member clubs and other North
ple of color than any of the five American soccer organizations,”
leagues we assessed: 41 percent the announcement said.
in 2020. It also had the smallest Assistant Robin Fraser
Coaches One leader pushing for more ex-
disparity between head coaches First Black
ecutives of color is Ali Curtis, To-
and players of color. And M.L.S. coach hired in
Head six years, ronto F.C.’s general manager, who
players make up one of the most Coaches 2019 became the league’s first Black
racially diverse sets of athletes. sporting director at the end of 2014
M.L.S. matches census data for General for the New York Red Bulls.
the number of white coaches. Just Managers (Sporting directors are equivalent
over 59 percent of coaches identi-
to general managers in this data.)
fied as white while 60 percent of Majority Ali Curtis
the U.S. identified as white. Other Owners Curtis acknowledged that inclu-
First Black
leagues had a much higher com- sporting sion in M.L.S. has improved since
plement of white coaches. director, 2015 he played in the early 2000s, but
This is largely because a high said there is more to be done.
percentage of M.L.S. head THE NEW YORK TIMES “I’m incredibly fortunate that I CHRIS YOUNG/CANADIAN PRESS, VIA AP

coaches identified as Hispanic or
Latino in 2020 — 29.6 percent,
compared with 18.5 percent of the
U.S. population who identified as
Hispanic or Latino.
Few players are Black, and
even fewer managers identify as
Black. Data shows that no Black
coaches were hired between 2013
and 2018; Robin Fraser changed
that in 2019 when the Colorado
Rapids hired him.
M.L.S. has had a Coaching Di-
versity Initiative since 2007,
which is similar to the Rooney
Rule. This October, the league an-
nounced a commitment to in-
crease Black representation in
management. In consultation
with its new diversity committee,
the league intends to create “poli-
cies and an educational ecosys-
am where I am,” he said in a phone Ali Curtis, the general man-
interview. “I know that I have to ager of Toronto F.C., has
open that door for other people. pushed for executives of color.
And I have to work as hard as pos-
sible and be as successful as possi-
ble so that there’s more than just
me out there.”

NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION

POOL PHOTO BY ASHLEY LANDIS

The Milwaukee Bucks and the Orlando Magic boycotted a playoff game in the wake of the Jacob Blake shooting in August. N.B.A. players have championed a number of social justice initiatives.

JUST AS ATHLETES in the W.N.B.A. Percentage of each employee group by race White Black Latino Asian Other structure for interviewing non-
and other sports leagues have for white candidates, a standard
years, N.B.A. players have cham- 100% 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 practice in several other leagues.
pioned social justice initiatives in Players A lot of league reshuffling of head
several highly visible forms re- coaches has occurred since then:
cently. This summer, the Milwau- Now there are nine head coaches
kee Bucks sparked a walkout Assistant Erik Spoelstra of color.
Coaches
across American pro sports by re- First Asian The N.B.A. has seven Black
fusing to play after the police head coach,
Head 2008 head coaches, one Latino head
shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black Coaches coach (James Borrego of the
man in Kenosha, Wis. Charlotte Hornets) and one Asian
While the N.B.A. has co-opted General head coach (Erik Spoelstra of the
its players’ protests, it has not Managers Miami Heat).
adopted a hiring rule like the James Five general managers were
N.F.L. or M.L.S. As of July, about Majority Borrego
Black and two identified as
30 percent of N.B.A. head coaches Owners First Latino
“other” through July 2020.
from the 2020 season identified as full-time
head coach, Spoelstra, who is of Filipino de-
people of color, while 83 percent of
2018 scent, became the first Asian-
players identified as nonwhite.
American coach in one of the “Big MARK J. TERRILL/ASSOCIATED PRESS
The N.B.A. has a training pro- THE NEW YORK TIMES

gram called the Coaches Equality
Initiative, but it does not specify
guidelines for racial inclusion. It
also has a Global Inclusion Coun-
cil, which recommends inclusion
strategies for the N.B.A. and
W.N.B.A., offering guidance on
policies, benchmarks and “serves
as a catalyst for diversity and in-
clusion efforts worldwide.”
The league updated the role of
its diversity and inclusion officer,
Oris Stuart, to cover “people and
inclusion” in August, putting him
in charge of both human re-
sources and diversity and inclu-
sion.
“We’ve looked at what might be
an equivalent to a Rooney-type
rule in the N.B.A. and I’m not sure
it makes sense,” Commissioner
Adam Silver said in a media ad-
dress before the 2020 N.B.A. Fi-
nals.
Conversation about the N.B.A.’s
hiring policies reignited when
Steve Nash, in his own words, did
“skip the line” when he became
head coach of the Nets without
any coaching experience. Nash,
who is white, is a Hall of Famer
recognized as one of the greatest
point guards in professional bas-
ketball history. Sean Marks, the
team’s general manager, said he
hired Nash for his name, record
and ties to players.
Choosing him over the team’s
interim coach, Jacque Vaughn,
who is Black and had experience
as a head coach, renewed ques-
tions about the league’s lack of
Four” North American leagues in Spoelstra, an Asian-American,
2008. In fact, a lack of Asian play- has been the head coach of the
ers in most major pro sports led to Miami Heat since 2008.
a disproportionate number of
leaders who identify as Asian
compared with athletes, espe-
cially in the N.F.L, M.L.S. and
N.B.A. Still, Asian-Americans
were underrepresented in all five
leagues compared with the popu-
lation of the United States, accord-
ing to census data.

MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL

MUCH LIKE OTHER LEAGUES, Percentage of each employee group by race White Black Latino Asian Other team this year: Arte Moreno, who
M.L.B. has had players who iden- acquired the Los Angeles Angels
100% 1995 Selig Rule 2005 2010 2015 2020
tified as African-American, Latino in 2003. Moreno is the first Latino
and Native American since its Players to own a majority stake of a fran-
founding years, according to the chise in any major league sport in
league’s historian, John Thorn. the United States. Hiroshi Ya-
Hiroshi
Despite some early firsts, similar Coaches mauchi became the first Asian
Yamauchi
opportunities were not afforded to person to own a major U.S. team
First Asian
upper level staff until much later: majority when he bought the Seattle Mari-
Frank Robinson became base- Managers ners in 1992.
owner, 1992
ball’s first Black manager in 1975, M.L.B. had another “first” this
nearly 30 years after Jackie Rob- General fall when Kim Ng became the first
inson broke the color line after Managers female general manager in any of
playing in the Negro leagues. (In the North American major men’s
baseball, head coaches are called Majority Arte Moreno
sports leagues. She was hired by
“managers” and assistant Owners First Latino
majority the Miami Marlins in November.
coaches are called “coaches.”)
owner, 2003 Ng, who is Asian-American,
“I don’t think I was hired be-
joins Kenny Williams (White
cause I was Black,” Frank Rob-
THE NEW YORK TIMES Sox), who is Black, Farhan Zaidi JOSEPH GUZY/USA TODAY SPORTS, VIA REUTERS
inson, who died in 2019, told The
New York Times when he was (Giants), who is of Pakistani de- Kim Ng, who was recently
hired. “I hope not. I think I’ve been scent, and Al Avila (Tigers), who named general manager of the
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coaches of color hasn’t changed is Cuban, in the ranks of baseball

hired because of my ability.”
Baseball has the Selig Rule,
which requires teams to consider
nonwhite candidates when hiring
for several specific management
roles. The guidance proposed in
1999 by Bud Selig, a former league
commissioner, hasn’t changed
since its inception. The number of
general managers, managers and
much either.
It has by far the smallest per-
centage of players (40 percent)
and the second smallest percent-
age of managers (20 percent) who
identified as people of color as of
January 2020, making baseball
the whitest of the sports surveyed.
Since the data was compiled, the
White Sox’s Rick Renteria, who is
Latino, was replaced by Tony La
Russa and the Red Sox’s Ron
Roenicke was replaced by Alex
Cora, who is Puerto Rican.
M.L.B. was the only league that
had a higher percentage of
coaches of color (44 percent) than
players of color in 2020.
A growing number of Latino
coaches in assistant roles bolster
that difference: Thirty-four per-
cent of coaches identified as His-
panic or Latino in 2020. All other
races remained underrepresent-
ed.
And baseball has the least ra-
cially diverse set of majority own-
ers. Only one person of color was
the majority owner of an M.L.B.
Miami Marlins.
executives of color overseeing
similar operations, according to
the data.
“When I got into this business,
it seemed unlikely a woman would
lead a major league team, but I am
dogged in the pursuit of my goals,”
Ng said in the Marlins’ announce-
ment.

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B12 Y THE NEW YORK TIMES OBITUARIES SATURDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2020
K.C. Jones, 88, Celtics Standout as a Defensive Player and a Coach, Is Dead
By RICHARD GOLDSTEIN
K.C. Jones, the quietly tena-
cious Hall of Fame guard who
played on eight consecutive
N.B.A. championship teams with
the Boston Celtics and later
coached the team to two league ti-
tles, died on Friday. He was 88.
His death was announced by
the Celtics. According to The As-
sociated Press, the team said
Jones’s family confirmed that he
died at an assisted living facility in
Connecticut, where he had been
receiving care for Alzheimer’s dis-
ease for the past several years.
Jones wasn’t much of a scorer,
and he was often overshadowed
by flashier teammates. But he
A Hall of Fame guard
who frustrated many
backcourt stars.
was renowned for his defensive
play — the work that doesn’t nec-
essarily show up in box scores —
in frustrating many an opposing
backcourt star.
He was an All-American at the
University of San Francisco,
teaming up with Bill Russell on
teams that won 55 consecutive
games and captured two N.C.A.A.
championships. He joined with
Russell on the United States
Olympic basketball squad that
won the gold medal at Melbourne,
Australia, in 1956 and then played
alongside him as the Celtics
forged a dynasty in the late 1950s
and ’60s.
Jones, Russell (at center) and
Tom Sanders (at forward) played
Minoru Makihara, 90, Who Led Robert Thacker, 102, Test Pilot Who Survived Pearl Harbor
Mitsubishi Through Downturn
By BEN DOOLEY
TOKYO — Minoru Makihara,
who led Mitsubishi — then the
world’s largest company —
through the doldrums of Japan’s
post-bubble era in the 1990s and
helped it meet the demands of a
globalizing economy, died on Dec.
13 in Tokyo. He was 90.
The cause was heart failure, his
family said.
Educated in England and the
United States, Mr. Makihara intro-
duced a new international spirit to
what was once Japan’s most pow-
erful company and helped move it
away from its staid, traditional
business practices. And despite
his father’s death at the hands of
the United States Navy, he be-
came a lifelong champion of U.S.-
Japan relations, leading organiza-
tions dedicated to building ties be-
YOSHIKAZU TSUNO/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Minoru Makihara in 2000.
tween the former enemies.
Mr. Makihara was born on Jan.
12, 1930, in London, where his fa-
ther, Satoru Makihara, worked as
a branch manager for Mitsubishi,
which was already a substantial
company. His mother, Haruko,
was a writer, librarian and kinder-
garten teacher. He was raised bi-
lingual, developing an ability to
shift between cultures that he
would tap throughout his life.
Rising tensions between Japan
and the West drove his family
back to their native country ahead
of the war. In 1942, Mr. Makihara’s
father, who was a member of a
business delegation to the Japa-
nese-occupied Philippines, was
killed when the ship he was on
was sunk by an American subma-
rine, Mr. Makihara’s son, Jun,
said.
In 1949, Mr. Makihara went to
the United States to study at St.
Paul’s, a private boarding school
in New Hampshire. The scars of
the war were fresh. Some stu-
dents’ parents had been killed by
Japanese soldiers. But they still
welcomed him with a warmth that
“left a deep impression” and in-
spired a lifelong fondness for the
country, his son said. In 1950, he
began his undergraduate studies
at Harvard University; he gradu-
ated in 1954 with a bachelor’s de-
gree in government.
Two years later he followed in
his father’s footsteps, returning to
Japan and joining Mitsubishi,
where he would work for the rest
of his life. He affirmed his ties to
the company the next year, when
he married his childhood friend
Kikuko Iwasaki, the great-grand-
daughter of the Mitsubishi
Group’s founder, Yataro Iwasaki.
In 1971, Mr. Makihara opened a
key roles in a ferocious Celtic de-
fense on teams coached by Red
Auerbach.
“K.C. stuck to you like glue,”
Lenny Wilkens, the Hall of Fame
guard and coach, told Terry Pluto
for his N.B.A. oral history, “Tall
Tales” (1993). “He was with you,
right on you, every step. He’d
bump you, hold you, get in your
way.”
Speaking to Sports Illustrated
in 1965, when the Celtics were em-
barking on what would be their
eighth straight championship sea-
son, Russell said: “K.C. Jones
Mitsubishi office in Washington,
where his social circle grew to in-
clude elite figures like Katharine
Graham, then the owner of the
Washington Post.
By the end of the decade, he had
returned to Japan to head the ma-
rine products department that
had once been led by his father.
The company took notice of his
work. He was promoted to head of
Mitsubishi’s international opera-
tions in 1987, and in 1992 he was
named the company’s president
and chief executive.
With his foreign education and
his decades abroad, Mr. Makihara
did not fit the profile of a Mitsubi-
shi president. His selection was
widely viewed as a message to the
world that the company was trad-
ing its stubborn traditionalism for
a more international mind-set.
When Mr. Makihara took over
Mitsubishi, it was at the top of the
Fortune 500, the largest company
among the sprawling Japanese
conglomerates known as keiretsu,
which dealt in everything from
fine art to jet engines. But the
company’s size hid major weak-
nesses. Its culture was sclerotic
and its profits meager.
It was a fraught time for the ti-
tans of Japanese industry. The
country’s frothy stock market had
collapsed in 1990, ushering in
what would become known as the
“lost decade,” a period of eco-
nomic torpor.
Mr. Makihara quickly under-
took a program to reorient the
company’s businesses along more
Western lines, placing an in-
creased emphasis on returning
value to shareholders. “One of our
main tasks is to transform our-
selves from a Japanese trading
company into a global trading
company,” he said in a 1996 inter-
view.
But changing a behemoth was
not easy. Unnerved by his efforts
to shake up business, his son said,
his colleagues referred to him as
“the alien.” An effort to encourage
the company’s employees to
speak English at work never took
off.
Nonetheless, Mr. Makihara was
able to introduce major reforms at
the company, pushing to update
its corporate governance and tak-
ing the step, then unusual, of writ-
ing down portfolio losses from in-
vestments that had soured with
Japan’s reversal of economic for-
tune. In 1998 he was appointed Mi-
tsubishi’s chairman, a position he
held until 2004.
In addition to his work at Mitsu-
bishi, he dedicated considerable
time to nurturing ties between Ja-
pan and the United States at a
time when many Americans
viewed Japanese economic might
as a threat to their own dominance
of global trade.
From 1997 to 2002, he was chair-
man of the U.S.-Japan Business
Council. In 2008 he became a
chairman of the U.S.-Japan Con-
ference on Cultural and Educa-
tional Interchange, where he dem-
onstrated a passion for expanding
international educational oppor-
tunities formed during his own
time studying abroad. He held
that position until 2014.
Besides his son, Mr. Makihara is
survived by his wife, Kikuko Mak-
Social Media Pakistan 0345-6738217
ihara; his daughter, Kumiko; and
three grandchildren.
BETTMANN/GETTY IMAGES
does not have a bagful of defen-
sive moves. He has a whole truck-
load of defensive moves. He will
pester a guy so much that the guy
will start to look for K.C. even
when he’s not there.”
K.C. Jones — who according the
N.B.A.’s website was named for
his father, K.C., an oil field worker,
who in turn was named for Casey
Jones, the legendary railroad en-
gineer — was born on May 25,
1932, in Taylor, Texas. When he
was 9, his parents separated and
his mother moved the family to
San Francisco.
By RICHARD GOLDSTEIN
Robert Thacker, who found him-
self caught in the middle of Ja-
pan’s surprise attack on Pearl
Harbor when he was piloting an
unarmed B-17 bomber to Hawaii
for refueling, but managed to
make a hair-raising landing and
went on to a distinguished flying
career in war and peace, died on
Nov. 25 at his home in San Clem-
ente, Calif. He was 102.
Mr. Thacker’s daughter, Bar-
bara Thacker, confirmed his death
to The New York Times on Friday.
She said she had not provided con-
firmation until last week to The
San Clemente Times, which pub-
lished an obituary on Thursday.
Lieutenant Thacker, who ar-
rived on the island of Oahu as Jap-
anese warplanes devastated the
American naval base there, would
soon be dropping bombs of his
own. He flew some 80 missions
during World War II, seeing ac-
tion in both the Pacific and Euro-
pean theaters. He later became a
record-setting test pilot and flew
in the Korean and Vietnam wars.
But it was on the morning of
Dec. 7, 1941, that he faced his first
test in battle.
His plane was among a flight of
newly built B-17s arriving from
California en route to the Phil-
ippines. As he began his descent
to the Army Air Corps’ Hickam
Field, at first unaware of anything
amiss, he was astonished to see
bombers and fighters roaming the
skies and black smoke rising from
the American base and adjoining
military installations.
One of the fighters shot out the
front landing gear of his Flying
Fortress as he approached the
runway. But he careened to a land-
A record-setting
aviator flew some 80
World War II missions.
ing and led his crew to a swamp
alongside the runway to escape
the inferno.
In February 1947, about 18
months after Japan surrendered,
he was back at Hickam Field, this
time to make aviation history.
Now a lieutenant colonel, he pi-
loted a North American Aviation
P-82 fighter plane on the first non-
stop flight from Hawaii to New
York City in what remains the
longest nonstop flight, 5,051 miles,
ever made by a propeller-driven
fighter, according to the National
Museum of the United States Air
Force, near Dayton, Ohio.
Developed at the end of World
War II, the twin-fuselage, twin-
propeller P-82 had been envi-
sioned as a long-range escort for
the giant B-29 Superfortresses on
missions to Japan. The fighter had
two cockpits, one for the pilot and
the other for the co-pilot/naviga-
tor, so they could take turns flying.
But the war was over before the
P-82 was combat ready.
Early in the Cold War, the P-82
was viewed by the Pentagon as a
potential escort in the event
bombers like the B-29 were called
upon to attack the Soviet Union.
The pioneering test flight by Colo-
nel Thacker and his co-pilot, Lt.
John Ard, provided evidence that
the fighter could carry out such a
RICK STEWART/GETTY IMAGES
After starring in basketball and
football in high school, Jones was
recruited by the University of San
Francisco. A 6-foot-1-inch guard,
he played with the 6-foot-10 Rus-
sell on teams that won the
N.C.A.A. championship in 1955
and 1956.
Auerbach’s Celtics obtained
Russell in the first round of the
1956 N.B.A. draft in a trade with
the St. Louis Hawks and selected
Jones in the second round. Jones
joined the Celtics in 1958 after
Army service and a preseason
football tryout with the Los Ange-
mission.
During the 14½-hour flight from
Hickam, a mechanical glitch pre-
vented the plane from jettisoning
three empty fuel tanks, and the
P-82 fought drag from the unwant-
ed weight and strong headwinds.
By the time it touched down, it had
only enough fuel left for another
30 minutes of flight.
But Colonel Thacker handled
his plane with aplomb. The P-82,
named Betty Jo after his wife,
landed at La Guardia Field in
Queens shortly after 11 a.m. on
Feb. 28, 1947, greeted by a host of
reporters and news photogra-
phers and hundreds of onlookers.
Since “nothing else happened in
the world that day,” he told the Ar-
rowhead Club, a California mili-
tary research organization, in a
2014 interview, “I was front-page
news.” The New York Times ran
its own Page 1 article on the flight
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Clockwise from left: K.C.
Jones, right, and Oscar Rob-
ertson in a 1964 playoff; kneel-
ing, with teammates and Red
Auerbach in 1964; and, coach-
ing the Celtics in the 1980s.
les Rams at defensive back.
After playing as a reserve on
five Celtic championship teams,
Jones became a regular in 1963
when Bob Cousy retired. That sea-
son, he was part of the first all-
Black starting lineup in N.B.A.
history: K.C. and Sam Jones (no
relation) at guard, Russell at cen-
ter and Sanders and Willie Naulls
at forward.
Jones ran the offense while con-
tinuing to play dogged defense for
the last three championship
teams in the Celtics’ title run. He
retired after the 1966-67 season,
when the Celtics were eliminated
from the playoffs by the Philadel-
phia 76ers.
The Celtics retired Jones’s No.
25 during his final season. He was
elected to the Basketball Hall of
Fame in Springfield, Mass., in
THE NEW YORK TIMES
U.S. AIR FORCE
and an editorial hailing the Army
Air Forces’ growing readiness for
postwar combat. It viewed the
flight as providing “further proof
of how rapidly the globe is shrink-
ing.”
Robert Eli Thacker was born on
Feb. 21, 1918, in El Centro, Calif.,
one of three children of Percie and
Margaret (Eadie) Thacker.
When he was 8, his father, who
owned a moving company, bought
him a kit to build a twin-pusher
model plane, a craft with two pro-
pellers that rides air currents with
the aim of achieving maximum
distance in competitions.
“I was hooked on aviation from
that age on,” he recalled in the
2014 interview.
He attended a two-year commu-
nity college in El Centro, hoping to
become an aeronautical engineer.
But his family did not have the
money for him to complete a four-
1989. He averaged 7.4 points a
game for nine pro seasons and
ranked No. 3 in the league in as-
sists per game for three consecu-
tive seasons.
After retiring as a player, Jones
coached basketball at Brandeis
University for three seasons and
then became an assistant coach
under Cousy’s former backcourt
partner, Bill Sharman, on the Los
Angeles Lakers’ 1972 N.B.A.
championship team. He was later
head coach of the Washington
Bullets team that reached the 1975
N.B.A. finals.
Jones was named the Celtics’
head coach in 1983 and took the
team to championships in 1984
and 1986. He left the bench after
the 1987-88 season, having
brought the Celtics to the N.B.A.
finals in four of his five seasons
with lineups featuring Larry Bird,
Kevin McHale, Robert Parish and
Dennis Johnson. He was the Celt-
ics’ vice president for basketball
operations for one season after his
coaching stint and coached the Se-
attle SuperSonics in the early
1990s.
Information on survivors was
not immediately available.
Whether playing for the Celtics
or coaching them, Jones was de-
cidedly low-key.
“People want to see a coach who
has a whip in one hand and a chair
in the other,” he told Knight-Rid-
der Newspapers in May 1986,
while en route to his second Celt-
ics championship as a coach. “I
don’t fit that mold. I prefer not to
embarrass my players in front of
15,000 people just to impress the
world.”
He certainly impressed Auer-
bach, who once remarked, “The
biggest thing you can say about
K.C. is that he’s a winner.”
THE NEW YORK TIMES
Lt. Col. Robert Thacker on the
wing of his P-82 fighter with
his co-pilot, Lt. John Ard, at La
Guardia Field in 1947 after
they completed the first non-
stop flight from Hawaii to New
York City. Colonel Thacker,
left, and Lieutenant Ard with
their wives after the flight. Mr.
Thacker with his plane, named
after his wife, at the National
Museum of the United States
Air Force in Ohio.
year college education, so in 1939
he joined what was then known as
the Army Air Corps. He received
his wings as a lieutenant in June
1940.
He flew World War II bombing
missions out of New Guinea, Italy
and England. He later joined the
nation’s leading test pilots in ex-
perimental flights over Califor-
nia’s high desert at Muroc Army
Air Field in California, later re-
named Edwards Air Force Base.
In addition to flying B-17 Flying
Fortresses in World War II, Colo-
nel Thacker piloted Super-
fortresses in the Korean War and
high-altitude missions in the Viet-
nam War.
The P-82 (renamed the F-82)
flew combat missions in the Kore-
an War, when it was given radar
capability, but jet fighters soon
rendered it obsolete.
Mr. Thacker retired from the
Air Force as a full colonel in 1970.
His awards included two Silver
Stars and three Distinguished
Flying Crosses.
He was later an adviser to the
aviation industry and pursued his
hobby of flying radio-controlled
model planes.
Mr. Thacker’s daughter is his
only survivor. His wife, Betty Jo
(Smoot) Thacker, died in 2011.
Although the record-setting
propeller fighter that Colonel
Thacker flew has faded into ob-
scurity, it has not been entirely
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forgotten.
That silver plane is on display at
the National Museum of the
United States Air Force, inscribed
“Betty Jo” in red script.
More obituaries appear on
Page A22.
3 COMEDY 6 THEATER

Highlights from a Men in drag and

low year of adjusting bawdy humor
to the new abnormal. enliven pantomimes
BY JASON ZINOMAN for the kiddies.

NEWS CRITICISM SATURDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2020 C1

Y

ERIK CARTER FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Erik Carter took this picture for a project that showcased self-portraits from Black photographers reflecting on America: “As an artist who is Black and queer, photography grants me the power to
confront villains and explore the depths of my mental health. When that examination is focused on the world around me, and on those I love and want to celebrate, that’s when I’m able to find a way out.”

FAVORITE ARTS PHOTOS OF 2020

Though their pictures are worth more than a thousand words, photographers for
The Times give just a few thoughts about working during a pandemic. Pages 4-5.
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ELLIOT ROSS FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES DANA SCRUGGS FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Genevieve Allison, fiancée of the photographer Elliot Ross, makes a toss on a “Chris wasn’t the only person in the pool fully clothed,” Dana Scruggs said of photographing
Saturday-evening game of bocce ball along a deserted county road in Colorado in May. Chris Rock. “To get the shot, I got in there with him and happily rode back to the city sopping wet.”

Social Media Pakistan 0345-6738217

C2 Y THE NEW YORK TIMES, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2020
From left: Alexander Lambie, Ren Dara Santiago and Julissa Contreras, contributors to an audioplay series with episodes set inside the No. 2 train, at the Wakefield-241st Street station in the Bronx.
A Subway Series for the Ears and Heart
‘The M.T.A. Radio By CHRISTINA GOLDBAUM
Plays,’ presented Jasmine, a student at Brooklyn College,
sprints across the platform to catch an
online by Rattlestick idling train. She had lingered on the No. 2 a
Playwrights Theater, second too long, distracted by a performer-
cum-mystic doling out free advice that felt
imagines the bustle eerily relevant. Now she was moments
of pre-pandemic life away from missing her transfer.
“Don’t close the door, don’t close the door,
and connections don’t close the ——” she prays under her
between strangers. breath, just as the subway car’s metal doors
snap shut in front of her.
So ends the first episode of “The M.T.A.
Radio Plays,” a new series of audio dramas
created by the playwright Ren Dara Santia-
go and directed by Natyna Bean, among
others. The series, presented in collabora-
tion with the Rattlestick Playwrights The-
ater, brings listeners inside a No. 2 train as
it snakes from the Bronx to Brooklyn.
Conceived as a love letter to city life in
pre-pandemic times, each 10-to-15-minute
episode is set at a stop on the No. 2 and tells
the story of various New Yorkers as they
navigate chance encounters with strang-
ers, arguments with lovers or conversa-
tions with friends aboard the train.
There are the subway buskers who storm
train cars like tornadoes. There are eaves-
dropping riders who offer unsolicited ad-
‘A lot of the inspiration vice and, often, welcomed camaraderie.
are the unspoken love There are the strangers who will not stand
stories that we pass by as clear of the closing doors, the spirited child
staring through a train window with glitter-
commuters each day.’
ing eyes and the omniscient voice of a con-
JULISSA CONTRERAS
PLAYWRIGHT
ductor who keeps the train, and the city,
moving through it all.
Taken together, the plays elevate those
once ubiquitous moments from the mun-
dane trials of a daily commute that bind the
city’s collective DNA.
“When you claim New York, then natu-
rally everyone who exists here is communi-
ty,” Santiago said in a phone interview one
recent morning. “You can exist in a neigh-
borhood that is very specific, ethnically or
otherwise, and feel like that is all of New
York. But it’s on the subway where we get to
encounter all these other identities.”
For New Yorkers, the series may feel like
a nostalgic embrace. In the scrum of a rush-
hour train, everyone from executives to of-
fice cleaners was pushed and shoved in a
daily reminder that the New York hustle
leaves few unscathed. Here too were the
round-the-clock performances of Manhat-
tan’s least expensive show, in which New
Yorkers were at once audience members
and leading actors performing scenes from
their private lives on a public stage.
That choreography is one Santiago
knows well. A 28-year-old Harlem native,
she spent her middle school days squeezing
into packed No. 1 trains each morning and
her early 20s slipping into No. 2 cars for her
‘Cheer’ Actor Jerry Harris Pleads Not Guilty in Child-Pornography Case
By SARAH BAHR
Jerry Harris, the 21-year-old breakout star
of the Netflix series “Cheer,” has pleaded
not guilty to federal child pornography
charges and accusations that he solicited
sex from minors.
The F.B.I. arrested Mr. Harris at his home
in Naperville, Ill., on Sept. 17 on a child
pornography charge and he has remained
in custody without bond at the Metropolitan
Correctional Center in Chicago since.
He faces seven charges regarding five
minor boys, including four counts of sexual
exploitation of children, one count of receiv-
ing and attempting to receive child pornog-
raphy, one count of traveling with the at-
Social Media Pakistan 0345-6738217
tempt to engage in sexual conduct with a
JIM SPELLMAN/GETTY IMAGES
Contreras wrote about a woman mulling a
breakup who receives advice from a stranger.
daily three-hour round-trip commute to
work. (Like many of the playwrights in-
volved in the series, she still relies on the
No. 2 today).
The first three episodes, which are avail-
able online at the Rattlestick website, begin
at the northern tip of the line at the Wake-
field-241st Street station in the Bronx.
There, in a play by Julissa Contreras, 29, lis-
teners meet the character named Jasmine
as she is consumed by thoughts of a recent
breakup and a subway performer offers her
seemingly prophetic advice.
The next episode, written by Alexander
Lambie, 29, picks up 15 stops later at the In-
tervale Avenue station, where a single
mother bumps into a friend and abandons a
plan to visit a questionably committed lover.
And at the Prospect Avenue station, the
writer Dominic Colón, 44, introduces a
young man whose angry call with his boy-
friend prompts another rider to offer some
sage advice.
In a nod to the New Yorkers who make up
the bulk of subway ridership today, every
play features at least one essential worker.
Implicit in each vignette are the lofty life
questions the playwrights wrestled with as
the shrinking of urban life turned their gaze
inward: What does a healthy relationship
look like? How can you tell when to let go of
love? How do we survive a love lost?
“A lot of the inspiration are the unspoken
love stories that we pass by as commuters
each day,” Contreras said. “We wanted to fo-
cus on millennial lovers who are in this com-
Jerry Harris is being held in
Chicago and his trial date has
not been set yet.
“You can walk around, close your eyes and feel
like you’re inside the story,” Santiago said.
plicated space of finding themselves.”
This spring, those connections felt even
more distant. With a suddenness as stun-
ning as its deadly wake, the pandemic
brought the city to a standstill.
As theaters went dark in March, Santia-
go’s own Rattlestick debut production, “The
Siblings Play,” was shut down days before
its world premiere. By April, the subway
had emptied of riders. Lives that were lived
in multiple boroughs were suddenly con-
fined to single neighborhoods.
“We’ve lost perspective,” said Bean, 28,
one of the series’ directors. “Being in our
homes every day, we are left to our own as-
sumptions and prejudices. We aren’t forced
to engage with people we might not have
otherwise if we hadn’t gotten on the train.”
That is exactly the void that she and San-
tiago, approached by Rattlestick, set out to
fill. In May they enlisted 17 playwrights to
create stories that reflected the people liv-
ing in the communities served by the sta-
tions.
By then, many theaters had moved on-
line, with prerecorded performances and
virtual play readings, many of which trans-
lated awkwardly onscreen.
“There was no creation of community,”
Santiago said. “It felt like we were pretend-
ing it wasn’t through a screen, instead of
embracing that the person watching online
also exists and we can write new plays for a
new medium.”
But if intimacy is where those onscreen
productions fall short, it is where radio
minor and one count of enticement. The
acts took place in Florida, Illinois and
Texas, according to the indictment.
Mr. Harris entered his plea in an arraign-
ment hearing held by telephone to a federal
court in Chicago on Dec. 17, according to
court records.
If he is convicted, the four sexual ex-
ploitation counts and the child pornography
charge each carry a sentence of at least 15
years in prison, and the enticement charge
carries a minimum sentence of 10 years.
In a voluntary interview with F.B.I. offi-
cials in September, Mr. Harris acknowl-
edged that he had exchanged sexually ex-
plicit photos on Snapchat with at least 10 to
15 people he knew were minors, had sex
with a 15-year-old at a cheerleading compe-
PHOTOGRAPHS BY SIMBARASHE CHA FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Lambie’s episode follows a single mother
diverted from visiting a romantic partner.
thrives.
The ambient sounds alone can transport
a New Yorker into the sprawling under-
ground: The familiar clink-clink-clink of a
turnstile grinding forward. The earsplitting
screech of a train as it winds across metal
tracks. The crackle of a conductor’s voice
broadcast inside a subway car.
“The voices are in your ears, you can
walk around, close your eyes and feel like
you’re inside the story,” Santiago said. “You
can see these characters or you put their
voice on people walking by you. That feels
more like true theater to me because it al-
lows the person to be immersed.”
The next set of episodes in the series will
be available online in February, with the re-
maining plays released every few weeks
through May.
As this season nears its end, listeners ar-
rive at the Church Avenue station in Brook-
lyn, where two friends debate whether or
not to help a sick fellow passenger. And just
before the train ends its run, Jasmine’s ex-
boyfriend enters the car and encounters the
same mystical performer whose spiritual
counsel opened the series.
Santiago plans to continue the series in
subsequent seasons devoted to every train
line that winds across the city.
“I hope the stories will resonate with peo-
ple,” she said. “They’ll think, ‘Oh, I had a
moment like that on the train!’ Those small
interactions make people feel recognized
and now, listening to them, maybe less
alone.”
tition in 2019 and paid a 17-year-old to send
him naked photos.
Mr. Harris’s lawyers had filed a motion
for pretrial release in October, arguing that
his previously clean record did not merit
continued detention and that he would not
be a danger to the community. But a judge
denied it on Oct. 16.
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No trial date has been set.
Todd Pugh, Mr. Harris’s lawyer, did not
immediately respond to a request for com-
ment.
“Cheer,” which won an Emmy for out-
standing unstructured reality series in Sep-
tember, follows a national champion cheer-
leading team from Navarro College, a junior
college in a small Texas town.
 THE NEW YORK TIMES, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2020 Y C3

JASON ZINOMAN CRITIC’S NOTEBOOK

In a Low Year,
Some High Points
The comedy boom finally busted. Not only did the pandemic shut down
comedy institutions, but New York clubs like Dangerfield’s, which was half
a century old, and the stalwart the Creek & the Cave closed for good, as did
the city’s branches of the improv powerhouse, the Upright Citizens
Brigade. At the same time, comedians adjusted to the new abnormal, tran-
sitioning to Zoom and Instagram Live, and to shows in parks and on
rooftops. It was a period of experimentation and stagnancy, contraction
and accessibility, despair and occasional joy. In a low year, here were the
highlights.

Funniest Special
Do you find an angry blue-collar guy yelling
about being high on molly funny? Does the
phrase “Stalin on Spotify” amuse you? Do
pivots from ragingly unhinged roars to an
The people who kept us
NPR voice make you lose your breath in
laughing in 2020, clockwise
laughter? No? Not to worry: Eddie Pepi-
from top left: Leslie Jones,
tone will still delight. An overlooked master
John Wilson, Hannibal
of the form, he’s perfected a persona of the
Buress, Beth Stelling, Cole
silly grump that makes anything funny.
Escola, Eddie Pepitone and
Smart comedy that aims for the gut, his new
Ziwe Fumudoh.
special (available on Amazon Prime) is ti- CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: RAHIM FORTUNE FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES; HBO; AARON RICHTER FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES; HBO MAX; COLE ESCOLA; TROY CONRAD; CHASE HALL FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

tled “For the Masses,” but he jokes that is by

necessity, in one of several insults of his au-
dience: “I would be doing jokes about Dos-
toyevsky if it wasn’t for you.”
Best Complaint About 20-Somethings
Leslie Jones made the most of her first year
after “Saturday Night Live.” Not only did
she go viral roasting the clothes, furniture
and décor of cable news talking heads in so-
cial media videos, but she made a dynamite
Netflix special, “Time Machine,” where she
castigated today’s young people for failing
to have fun. “Every 20-year-old’s night,” she
preached, “should end with glitter and co-
caine.”
Best 20-Something Counter
About six weeks after the release of Jones’s
special, the breakout young comic Taylor
Tomlinson made an impressive Netflix de-
but with “Quarter-Life Crisis”; in it, she
says she’s sick of people telling her to enjoy
her 20s. “They’re not fun,” she said exasper-
ated, in one of many cleverly crafted bits.
“They’re 10 years of asking myself: Will I
outgrow this or is this a problem?”
Best Opening Gambit
By describing her special in detail, beat by
beat, at the start of Netflix’s “Douglas” —
Hannah Gadsby’s follow-up to “Nanette” —
she seemed to be eliminating the most im-
portant element of comedy: surprise. But
like Penn & Teller deconstructing the se-
crets of magic while hiding some new ones,
she just found a new way to fool you.
Best Closing Story
In his funniest and most stylish special,
“Miami Nights,” on YouTube, Hannibal Bu-
ress ended on a 20-minute story about an
unsettling encounter with a police officer in
Miami that led to his arrest. It’s a master
class in comic storytelling that sent himself
up, skewered the police, hit bracingly topi-
cal notes with throwaway charm while add-
ing on a coda that provided the visceral
pleasures of payback. It’s stand-up with the
spirit of a Tarantino movie.
Best Silver Lining
One nice side effect of the shutdown for live
comedy is that in transitioning to digital, lo-
cal shows became accessible to everyone
with an internet connection. So it was a nos-
talgic treat that the weekly Los Angeles
showcase Hot Tub, which pioneered weird
comedy in New York before moving to the
West Coast, once again became part of my
comedy diet, via Twitch. While there were
many new faces, much hadn’t changed, like
the eclectic and adventurous booking and
the dynamite chemistry of its hosts Kristen
Schaal and Kurt Braunohler.
Best Alfresco Special
Street comedy, a subgenre of some legend,
was all but dead when the pandemic pushed
stand-up outdoors. By the fall, several
comics, like Chelsea Handler and Colin
Quinn, even made specials there, working
crowds whose laughter did not echo against
walls. The sharpest was “Up on the Roof”
by the workhorse comic Sam Morril (it’s his
second punchline-dense special of the
year), the rare person to translate New
York club comedy to rooftops (with the help
of cameras on drones).
Best Sketch Comic
When the comedic dynamo Cole Escola
produced his own special featuring deliri-
ously bizarre characters wrapped in pitch-
perfect genre spoofs, and released it on
YouTube under the title “Help! I’m Stuck!
With Cole Escola,” he was surely not trying
to embarrass networks and streaming serv-
ices for never placing him at the center of
his own show. But that’s what he did.
Best New Talk Show
The charismatic Ziwe Fumudoh has long
been comfortable creating and sitting in the
tension between the comedian and the audi-
ence in small alt rooms, but in her interview
show on Instagram, she repurposed this gift
for cringe and applied it to probing conver-
sations on racism with guests like Caroline
Calloway and Alison Roman. It made for es-
sential viewing during a protest-filled sum-
mer.
Best Siblings
“I Hate Suzie” provided serious competi-
tion, but the best British comic import this
year was “Stath Lets Flats,” which found a
home on HBO Max. This brilliantly ob-
served office comedy focuses on the mun-
dane travails of an awful real estate agent
and his sister. Jamie Demetriou (who creat-
ed the show) starred, along with his real-life
sister Natasia, better known in the United
States because of her dynamite deadpan in
the FX vampire comedy “What We Do in the
Shadows.” The show is cringe comedy
whose beating heart comes from their rela-
tionship. Look out, Sedaris siblings, a new
talent family has arrived.
Best Debut Special
The stand-up comic Beth Stelling’s pinned
tweet is from 2015: “I’ve been called a ‘fe-
male comic’ so many times, I’ll probably
only be able to answer to ‘girl daddy’ when I
have children.” This year, she released a
knockout special on HBO Max titled “Girl
Daddy.” It’s a virtuosic performance, con-
versational while dense with jokes — with a
portrait of her father, an actor who works as
a pirate at an Orlando mini-golf course, that
manages to be scathing, loving and sort of
over it, all at the same time.
Best Experimental Comedy
It’s a good sign for adventurous work that
last year’s winner (Natalie Palamides’s solo
shocker “Nate”) is now a Netflix special.
But the revelation this year was HBO’s
“How To With John Wilson,” a kind of reality
show about New York City that pushed for-
mal boundaries while unearthing the hid-
den and the overlooked in poignant, funny
new ways.
Best Direction
In one of her final projects, Lynn Shelton
masterfully shot the latest Marc Maron spe-
cial “End Times Fun,” on Netflix, demon-
strating that great direction doesn’t need to
be about showy camera movements. Her
shot sequences emphasized and played
against Maron’s jokes, working together ef-
fortlessly, like dancing partners that inti-
mately know each other’s moves. Two
months later, in May, she died of a blood dis-
order. Memorializing her movingly on his
podcast, Maron, her boyfriend, said: “I was
better in Lynn Shelton’s gaze.”

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C4 Y THE NEW YORK TIMES, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2020

DANIEL ARNOLD FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Daniel Arnold photographed Jerry Seinfeld via FaceTime in May, in advance of the comedian’s Netflix special: “I had an idea to shoot Jerry pressed up against glass,
that goofy old trick that makes a portrait look trapped in a frame, only it would be Seinfeld trapped in the TV. So I said, ‘Jerry, do you have any indoor windows?,’
imagining a French door or something along those lines. He looked at me like I was out of my mind for a long second and said, in the world’s Seinfeldy-est voice:
‘What?! All windows are indoors!’ Click. After that he muted me. Perfection.”

STORIES
BEHIND
SCENES
The magenta glow of an exhibition outside
the Guggenheim Museum, whose white
Erykah Badu at her
spiral was off-limits to art lovers. The de-
Dallas home in July. At serted grand staircase of a Metropolitan
the time, she said, she
didn’t mind canceling her
Opera silenced by the pandemic, its Sput-
travels. “A little piece of nik chandeliers with no crowds to illumi-
me dies every time I have
to leave my home.”
nate. Movie buffs, barred from cinemas, en-
RAHIM FORTUNE FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
joying films at least semi-communally at a
drive-in.
Yes, there was absence and apartness
and pain as this most socially distant of
years upended art and culture. But with
hindsight, 2020 had many other things to
say, too, as this selection of some of our fa-
vorite arts photography published this year
by The New York Times makes clear.
Maggie Shannon on Photographers for The Times captured
photographing Susan it all, relying on their P.P.E. as well as their
Boyajian, who was
featured in an article on light meters and lenses to bring us not just
screaming: “I went door the year’s pain but also its pleasures, with
to door on our block to
warn folks that they glimpses of much-needed triumphs and
might hear some life-affirming beauty. Have a look.
screaming coming from
MICHAEL COOPER
our yard that afternoon,
and not to worry since it’s
a portrait photo shoot, no
one is getting murdered.
The reactions were
hilarious; one neighbor
actually bent over he was
laughing so hard.”
MAGGIE SHANNON FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
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CAMILA FALQUEZ FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES DANIEL DORSA FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Camila Falquez on photographing Manuel Liñán and his dance company: “It was a trip to a parallel reality — one Daniel Dorsa photographed the Warwick Drive-In in Warwick, N.Y., in May. “Five minutes after I shot this photo,

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I long for — where the boundaries of gender disappear and freedom finally arises.” a roaring thunderstorm rolled in with winds so strong it knocked out the power.”
 THE NEW YORK TIMES, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2020
SASHA ARUTYUNOVA FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
“It was the first time I cried through a shoot,” said Sasha Arutyunova on photographing
Nayaa Opong of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company, in the dance “Afterwardsness.”
The piece speaks to the trauma of the pandemic and to the calling out of racism.
MOLLY MATALON FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
“A beautiful, charming subject, a farm filled with animals and great light,” Molly Matalon said on photographing “When I arrived, the makeshift stage in their parking lot exuded this sense of joy that I hadn’t experienced in a
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Amanda Seyfried at the actress’s home in Stone Ridge, N.Y., in November. couple of months,” said Jared Soares on his shot of a recital at the N’Ferno Performing Arts Center in Maryland.
Y C5
VICTOR LLORENTE FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
“Usually, photo shoots at the Met Opera are pretty hectic but on this occasion I
had no one rushing me. I had access to most of the building and went into rooms
I would have never thought of,” said Victor Llorente on photographing the
Metropolitan Opera during the pandemic.
YAEL MALKA AND CAIT OPPERMANN FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Cait Oppermann and Yael Malka on photographing horror masks: “We fell into a
collaborative rhythm and appreciated the opportunity to work on something that felt
a bit more abstract and playful during a time of so much uncertainty.”
JEENAH MOON FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
“I waited until the sun went down and the color came. The light let me think of an
oasis that brings life into the city,” said Jeenah Moon on photographing the
“Countryside” exhibition outside the Guggenheim Museum in Manhattan.
PHILIP MONTGOMERY FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick were scheduled to begin performances of
“Plaza Suite” the day after Broadway shut down. “I wanted to make an image that spoke
to the quiet tension of being confined to a small space with your loved one. Little did I
know, many of us would soon be experiencing this intensity of closeness during the
pandemic,” said Philip Montgomery on photographing them in February.
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JARED SOARES FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
C6 Y BW
Pantomime Is a Treat, Even Without Candy
Though a little gets lost in translation, these online British productions are fine ways to celebrate the season.
By ALEXIS SOLOSKI
and ELISABETH VINCENTELLI
In a year of theatrical catastrophes, Eng-
lish pantomime looked to be one more.
Big-heart, big-joke, big-budget extrava-
ganzas, these shows depend on live audi-
ences like few others. Staged at Christ-
mastime and performed throughout
much of the Anglophone world, pantos
take classic fairy tales and zhuzh them
up with famous guest stars, topical hu-
mor and song parodies.
A man usually plays a bawdy female,
known as the dame. A young woman
plays the “principal boy.” Audiences
know to boo, cheer or shout “It’s behind
you!” Actors throw boiled sweets and
Wagon Wheel biscuits to the crowd. Can
you do all that over Zoom?
But a form popular for at least a couple
of centuries knows a thing or two about
changing with the times. Even as parts of
England and Scotland returned to lock-
down, many companies still found ways
to make pantomimes available interna-
tionally — via Zoom, livestream or re-
corded video. Panto has never made sig-
nificant inroads into the United States,
despite a 19-year-old Ariana Grande
once starring as Snow White. So if you’re
looking for some Covid silver lining, take
this bit of tinsel.
Last week, the theater critics Elisa-
beth Vincentelli and Alexis Soloski saw
eight pantomimes, which is arguably too
many, and then met remotely to discuss
toilet humor, pop-song rewrites and
whether there is in fact nothing like a
dame. These are edited excerpts from
their conversation.
ALEXIS SOLOSKI I had wanted to see pan-
tomime for so long, probably because ac-
tors throw candy at the audience. I used
to wonder why panto had never caught
on here. After this week, I have ideas! Or
maybe we just overdosed?
ELISABETH VINCENTELLI I loved it all, from
the really budget shows to the fancy
ones. I’ll take panto over saccharine
American-style Christmas anytime, and
certainly over “A Christmas Carol.”
SOLOSKI Fighting words! Me, I felt like
an ethnographer studying a foreign cul-
ture’s strange ceremonies. Panto has its
origins in commedia dell’arte, royal
masque and the peculiarities of Victorian
theater licensing. Somehow this has
gifted us men in fright drag who pretend
to fart while a chorus sings Rihanna.
VINCENTELLI You say that like it’s a bad
thing. I relish juxtapositions of high- and
lowbrow sensibilities, though admittedly
in this case it’s low and low. I can’t recall
ever hearing as many fart jokes, and I
laughed at all of them.
SOLOSKI And so many sex jokes. These
are family shows! Are English children
big into bawdry?
VINCENTELLI It’s the “Simpsons”
method: Some jokes fly over the chil-
dren’s heads to reach the parents’. I was
stunned when Dame Sigrid Smorgas-
bord (Steve Simmonds) in the New
Wolsey Theater’s “The Snow Queen”
said, “My first husband was hung like a
horse — a sea horse.”
SOLOSKI That was extremely funny. I
don’t think we can repeat her Roger
Moore joke.
VINCENTELLI We’ll save that for the R-
rated version of this article, behind a
double pay wall. I’m now a huge fan of
Simmonds, whose performance was half
Taylor Mac and half Nathan Lane. I find
panto ingredients theatrically effective:
THE NEW YORK TIMES, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2020
Above, Peter Duncan’s “Jack and the Beanstalk,” which was
staged outdoors because of Covid restrictions. Below, Anna
Spearpoint, left, as Tink and Louise Beresford as Captain Hook
in “The Fairytale Revolution,” an all-female take on “Peter Pan.”
Dick Whittington
Through Sunday;
nationaltheatre.org.uk.
Jack and the Beanstalk
Through Jan. 10; from the Belgrade
Theater, belgrade.co.uk.
Jack and the Beanstalk
Through Jan. 10; from Peter
Duncan, pantoonline.co.uk.
Rapunzel
Through Jan. 4;
nationaltheatrescotland.com.
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EMILY ABOUD
MIKE KWASNIAK
drag, disrupted pop songs, cheeky puns,
topical references. The Perth Theater’s
“Oh Yes We Are!” included a riff on “The
12 Days of Christmas” with lines like “fiii-
iiive toilet rolls.”
SOLOSKI I tried to do the call-and-re-
sponse with that one. They kept me
muted. We both adored “The Snow
Queen.” Aside from some old-fashioned
stage magic (trap door entrances!), why
did that one work so well?
VINCENTELLI It was filmed in front of a
live (distanced) audience. Panto relies
heavily on audience participation and
the actors clearly feed on it. Mugging
and chewing the scenery is a lost art, ex-
cept in pantomime. Another favorite was
the National Theater’s “Dick Whitting-
ton,” where Dickie Beau’s dame followed
a Sondheim reference with a rewrite of
Dua Lipa’s “Don’t Start Now.”
SOLOSKI That bit from “Losing My Mind”
— my personal 2020 theme song — was
genius. And when the couple hugged
through a plastic sheet and everyone
sang “We Found Love,” I got a little
misty. It’s been such a catastrophe of a
year — theatrically, otherwise — and this
company managed to create this big,
silly, lovely show, only to see it close as
London went back into lockdown.
VINCENTELLI I actually teared up several
times watching all those shows.
KIRSTY ANDERSON
SOLOSKI All of them? Even “Cinderella
Live”?
VINCENTELLI Because they really are
about the communing. There was always
a moment when they made me miss
multigenerational togetherness so
much. And the imperfections of live per-
formance: I really felt for the actors who
sounded distinctly winded during a big
number.
SOLOSKI My throat went lumpy during
the opening of Belgrade Theater’s “Jack
and the Beanstalk,” when two actors
stare out at an empty house and wonder
how to go on. Still, some shows handled
Covid-era limitations superbly. Like the
“Jack and the Beanstalk” staged in Peter
Duncan’s colossal backyard. Other
shows, like the National Theater of Scot-
land’s “Rapunzel,” felt as flat as a sat-on
mince pie.
VINCENTELLI I loved the costumes —
Rosey Posey looked out of a psychedelic
“Ascot Gavotte” — but being a succes-
sion of monologues didn’t help. If the ac-
tors don’t get that lifeline from the audi-
ence or each other, there’s little for them
to hang on to in this specific format.
They’re not doing Beckett monologues.
SOLOSKI What did you make of the cross-
casting? Like you, I loved Simmonds and
Beau, who delivered rich, ripe, generous
performances. And Beau ran around in a
GORDON RENDER
THE OTHER RICHARD
Above, Dickie Beau in “Dick Whittington” at
the National Theater. Far left, the cast of
“The Snow Queen” by the New Wolsey
Theater. Near left, Johnny McKnight in a
National Theater of Scotland production of
“Rapunzel.”
dress covered in baked beans and black
pudding. Legendary. But other dames
felt tired to me, empty accumulations of
stereotype.
VINCENTELLI Panto has been said to per-
petuate stereotypes, but I didn’t feel any
of the shows we watched reflected that.
It’s an ancient, some may say rickety, art
form and it can bend to be extremely in-
clusive. “The Fairytale Revolution,” an
all-female take on “Peter Pan,” had a
feminist slant while keeping the genre’s
building blocks. I enjoyed its shambolic,
riot grrrl attitude — very Mickey and
Judy, or rather Judy and Judy.
SOLOSKI Their metatextual stuff proba-
bly made more sense if you are a panto
aficionado. Which I clearly am not. But I
admired their spunk. Surprise! Even
feminist panto includes fart jokes.
VINCENTELLI And an anti-vaxxer one.
SOLOSKI And one about a character be-
ing so evil that she still follows J. K. Row-
ling on Twitter. Mostly I saw companies
making the best of a really calamitous
situation, lighting up the dark. I loved
this line from “Rapunzel”: “This festive
season might not be how we imagined it,
but if the story of Rapunzel has taught us
anything, it’s this: You could have been
trapped in a tower for 15 years.”
VINCENTELLI Watching those shows I was
either laughing uproariously at terrible
puns or misting up watching the Zoom
audiences. At times I felt as if I was wit-
nessing the kind of attitude that carried
the Brits through the Blitz.
SOLOSKI “Keep Calm and Panto On”? I
like it. When things get back to what I
will laughably call “normal” and in-per-
son theater returns, would you keep
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watching livestream panto?
VINCENTELLI If it’s like “The Snow
Queen” or “Dick Whittington,” abso-
lutely. But the truth is, if I ever find my-
self in Britain over the holidays, I’d go
see just about any of them and yell and
clap and boo and have a grand time.
SOLOSKI Me too. As long as they throw
me some candy.
 THE NEW YORK TIMES, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2020 Y C7

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