Tackling Coronavirus Anxiety With Dating Apps, Recipes and Old Sports Videos (Published 2020) (2024)

Don’t trust memes that promise coronavirus cures.

“This is, of course, not true,” said Christopher Tidey, a spokesman for UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund.

“Misinformation during times of a health crisis can result in people being left unprotected or more vulnerable to the virus,” he added. “It can also spread paranoia, fear and stigmatization, and have other consequences, like offering a false sense of protection.”

Here are some of the false claims that are spreading via Twitter, Facebook and WhatsApp.

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Facing a combination of challenges, Colorado ski resorts shut down.

By last weekend, Eagle County, home to Vail and Beaver Creek resorts, had as many coronavirus infections — 24 — as Denver County, despite having one-tenth of the population. Ski resorts, with their seasonal spikes in global visitors, and their nearby communities, which have limited medical services, create a unique combination of concerns.

Last week, there was growing worry that, as mountain medical centers filled with tourists increasingly sickened by the coronavirus as well as other ski-related injuries and illnesses, there would be little room for the expected onslaught of coronavirus cases among residents.

The hope of keeping the slopes open came to a screeching halt when Vail Resorts announced it would temporarily shut its resorts in North America, including Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge and Keystone in Colorado.

Among the disappointed was Jeff Kottkamp, a former lieutenant governor of Florida, who was in Colorado on vacation. “Thank you for making this announcement as we are driving in to Vail,” he wrote on Twitter in a post he later deleted.

Gov. Jared Polis of Colorado replied: “Thank you for your deep concerns regarding the health of our residents in the face of a global pandemic.”

Doctors are turning to social media for coronavirus advice, too.

As an emergency room doctor at the front lines of the pandemic, however, I wasn’t surprised. I’ve been working back-to-back shifts at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, where the state’s first patient hospitalized with Covid-19 is being treated, and have had several patients test positive for the novel coronavirus. And like many of my colleagues, I have been gathering information from Facebook, Twitter and other social media outlets.

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Frieze cancels its New York art fair.

Frieze said it was also developing a virtual viewing room, and that its first phase would be tied to Frieze New York. Frieze Sculpture, which was to open at Rockefeller Center on April 22, will be postponed until the summer. The decision to cancel Frieze New York follows the cancellations and postponements of various international art fairs amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Major automakers close their plants in North America.

Honda and Toyota also said they would idle their North American factories. The shutdown of car plants will force hundreds of companies that produce parts and components to follow suit over the coming days.

Although some autoworkers will be eligible for sick pay, many will get only a portion of their income and others will have to rely on unemployment insurance.

More than one million people are employed in automobile and auto parts manufacturing in the United States, and 1.3 million work for auto dealerships, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Automakers went into the week hoping to keep their plants running and employees safe by altering shift schedules to leave more time for sanitizing plants and reducing contact between workers. On Monday, G.M.’s Chevrolet division began offering zero-percent loans to lure consumers into dealerships. Hyundai offered to let customers return recently purchased cars if had they lost their jobs.

At the same time the U.A.W. was pressing the three companies based in and around Detroit to halt production for two weeks. On Tuesday G.M., Ford and Fiat Chrysler agreed to take steps short of shutting down production.

Then on Wednesday morning Honda announced its plans to stop production, and the news about the Ford worker in Dearborn, Mich., was made public. In response, Ford halted work at the final assembly section of the plant while continuing production in the stamping and body shop areas.

Just hours later, all three of the large U.S. automakers reversed course and said they would idle their factories.

Niraj Chokshi contributed reporting.

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Preparing and serving a meal, even a simple one, can bring great comfort.

There’s no doubt about it: It’s an uncertain and scary time, but you and your loved ones still need to eat, and the act of preparing and serving a meal — even a simple one — can bring great comfort to the cook as well as to the diner. If you have a decently stocked pantry, you can make a wonderful meal out of a few staples. And if you are able to safely get to the store or have groceries delivered to you, your choices are even greater.

Breakfast: There’s something about starting the day with a full belly that makes everything seem like it’s going to be OK. Pancakes, waffles, a Dutch baby, biscuits and muffins are cozy options, and leftovers can be frozen for later. Granola, too. (Top your evening ice cream sundae with it later.) And if you really have some time on your hands, make breakfast an event and whip up a dish typically meant for a weekend, like eggs Benedict, English muffin casserole or biscuits with sausage gravy.

Lunch: If you’re working from home, take this opportunity to make something delicious. (And maybe don’t eat it stooped over your laptop or scrolling through Twitter?) Melissa Clark’s sardine toasts with tomato and sweet onion or grilled cheese with apples and apple butter come together in a flash. If soup is what you’re craving, Alexa Weibel’s easiest chicken noodle soup or Colu Henry’s pasta e ceci will soothe your soul. Or transform that pasta in your pantry into spaghetti with fried eggs or midnight pasta, a bright and briny dish made with capers, anchovies and garlic. …

Answers to some common questions about the outbreak.

For a full list of questions, click here.

Health

• What if somebody in my family gets sick?

If the family member doesn’t need hospitalization and can be cared for at home, you should help him or her with basic needs and monitor their symptoms, while also keeping as much distance as possible, according to guidelines issued by the C.D.C. in February. If there’s space, the sick family member should stay in a separate room and use a separate bathroom to minimize contact with healthy family members. Any shared spaces should have good airflow, like an open window or an air conditioner, and you shouldn’t allow any visitors except for those who need to be in the house. Your family member should wear a face mask when he or she is around others, and if he or she can’t because of difficulty breathing, you should wear a mask.

Make sure not to share any dishes or other household items with your sick family member and to regularly clean surfaces like counters, doorknobs, toilets and tables. Don’t forget to wash your hands frequently.

Money

• Help me understand the economic fallout.

It’s felt a lot like 2008, hasn’t it? Peter S. Goodman, an economics correspondent for The Times, says there’s a key difference between that economic turmoil and today’s: the utter unpredictability of the outbreak’s spread. “The disaster feels eerily familiar, with trillions of dollars in wealth annihilated near-daily and deepening fears that businesses will fail,” he writes. “Yet the traditional policy prescriptions seem no match for the affliction at hand.”

The very means of controlling the health crisis — keeping workers home, limiting travel and disrupting commerce — risk making the economic crisis worse.

“A sense of powerlessness is feeding the fear that is prompting investors to dump anything risky, which is in turn damaging economic prospects and reinforcing fear — a feedback loop,” he writes.

Read Peter S. Goodman’s full story here.

Politics and Government

• How is this going to affect the 2020 election?

Several states have already postponed their primaries. Officials in states that are going ahead with primaries have been trying to emphasize the new basics of voting hygiene, like using hand sanitizer at polling stations.

And though the general election has yet to begin, it is already being profoundly shaped by the coronavirus, which has become the central issue between President Trump and the two major Democratic candidates, former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. The pandemic’s effects on the economy have challenged Mr. Trump’s core message, that Americans are better off than before he took office. Mr. Biden has proposed a detailed plan for hospitals and research, echoing the language of presidents in past crises. He and Mr. Sanders curtailed their travel and canceled large gatherings like rallies.

It would be enormously difficult to cancel or postpone the November general election, though.

Here’s more about holding an election in a crisis.

Reporting was contributed by: Jenny Gross, Laura M. Holson, Julia Jacobs, Ron Lieber, Neil MacFarquhar, Erin McCann, Aimee Ortiz, Gretchen Reynolds, Andrea Salcedo and Alan Yuhas.

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Top coaches and other celebrities are helping spread the word about the coronavirus.

In the spot, Orgeron, whose distinctive voice became a sensation during the Tigers’ national championship season, runs through the list of guidance that doctors and politicians have been making for weeks: Cover your cough with your elbow, wash your hands for 20 seconds, stay home if you’re feeling sick. And so on.

Orgeron is part of a growing number of public figures who have used their status as influencers to raise public awareness about social distancing and best hygiene practices during the coronavirus pandemic.

“I just wanted to do anything I could do to help the state of Louisiana,” Orgeron said in an interview on Wednesday. “After winning the national championship, having the Heisman Trophy winner, people are going to listen, and it carries a lot of weight.”

Orgeron, who is close to Gov. John Bel Edwards, said that the governor’s office had requested his help. The coach, a Louisiana native, said he hoped that the state’s residents would see the video and think, “If Coach O is taking it seriously, hey, let’s take it seriously.”

Although public officials have long turned to college sports figures to help them reach audiences on an array of topics — in 2015, for instance, Gus Malzahn of Auburn and Nick Saban of Alabama recorded spots about voter registration — the pandemic has prompted a new wave of announcements.

Three of North Carolina’s most prominent college basketball coaches — Kevin Keatts of North Carolina State, Mike Krzyzewski of Duke and Roy Williams of North Carolina — appeared this week in a video similar to the one that starred Orgeron.

“Avoid touching your face,” Krzyzewski said. “I know that can be difficult, but if you practice hard, you can do it.”

“We can beat this,” Williams added later in the recording, “but we all need to play together on the same team right now.”

Kevin Bacon, the “Footloose” actor who is synonymous with the game Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, joined the celebrities urging people to stay home during the outbreak. On Wednesday, Bacon posted a photograph of himself holding up a chalkboard with the words “I Stay Home for Kyra Sedgwick” — a reference to his wife, who is also an actor — and the hashtag 6Degrees.

Public health officials have urged people to keep at least six feet away from one another to prevent the spread of the virus. In the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, players say the name of an actor. Most have appeared with Bacon in a movie or with one of his co-stars — a vast majority can be connected to Bacon by less than six degrees.

The comedic director Mel Brooks teamed up with his son, Max Brooks, in a public service announcement that they shared Monday on Twitter. The elder Brooks watched his son, 47, through a window.

“He’s 93,” Max Brooks said. “If I get the coronavirus, I’ll probably be OK. But if I give it to him, he could give it to Carl Reiner, who could give it to Dick Van Dyke, and before I know it, I’ve wiped out a whole generation of comedic legends.”

A critic considers the unending anxiety of coronavirus content.

I wonder what the “King Lear” of Covid-19 will be. Maybe this woman licking an airplane toilet seat on TikTok?

Shakespeare’s plague streak — he’s believed to have written “King Lear,” “Macbeth” and “Antony and Cleopatra” in the space of a couple of years — coincided with London playhouses shuttering, acting troupes leaving town to play plague-free villages and the Bard hanging back at home, nothing to do but plot an elaborate series of tragic murders. But Shakespeare was not online. Four hundred years later, isolation doesn’t help to dispel creative distraction — it beckons it in. We are sheltering in place with devices designed to amplify diversions and exploit obsessions.

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Sports fans can rewatch N.B.A. and N.F.L. games for free (for a limited time).

The N.F.L.’s Game Pass, which offers full replays of every N.F.L. game going back to the 2009 season, will be free through May 31 for those living in the United States and Canada, and through July 31 for those living in other countries.

The N.B.A.’s League Pass, which has full replays of every N.B.A. game going back to the 2018-19 season, will be free through April 22.

Some immigrants worry seeking medical care could be risky.

ICE agents over the past week have continued to make arrests in some of the regions hardest hit by the virus, including California and New York.

The coronavirus was not on the agenda when a legal-aid group two months ago invited farmworkers who toil in the date groves, lemon orchards and vineyards of California’s Coachella Valley to an information session about immigration issues.

But when Luz Gallegos and her team showed up over the weekend, they were cornered by people who peppered them with questions about the virus. On Monday, public health authorities announced the first two deaths from the virus in this part of Southern California, both in the Coachella Valley.

Among the questions the farmworkers had: If I go to the hospital, is it going to hurt my chances of becoming a legal permanent resident? If I’m undocumented, could seeking treatment make me vulnerable to deportation? If I miss work as more people are forced to stay home, how will I feed my family and make the rent?

“There’s a new layer of fear in the immigrant community right now created by Covid-19,” said Ms. Gallegos, a director of TODEC Legal Center, who stood with immigrants in the parking lot of the Hemet town library, which had abruptly closed as a result of the pandemic. “We believe that some members will be afraid to seek the care they need,” she said.

The Trump administration on Wednesday closed the border with Canada to all but essential traffic and was also considering shutting the southern border to those without legal authorization, hoping to check the spread of the virus. But many of the unauthorized immigrants already in the United States face the same threat from the virus as everyone else — and are less equipped to protect themselves.

Among all immigrants, 23 percent of those who are lawfully in the country and 45 percent of those who are undocumented lack health insurance, according to a report by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Caitlin Dickerson and Annie Correal contributed reporting from New York.

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‘Join us in queerantine’: a dating app builds a community.

Both were on vibrant display in the last few days, as many users reached out for conversation and fellowship while practicing social distancing. One in Detroit offered free tarot readings to gig workers who had lost their jobs. Another was making art prompts and offered to share them. A public-school teacher offered money for anyone short of funds who needed food or medicine, and a car to deliver.

When Wren Harrington, a 21-year-old student in Connecticut, posted optimistically about how social isolation need not “consume us,” she got a handful of replies, including one from a young woman with whom she shared a sun and rising sign.

“We had a lovely conversation about that,” Ms. Harrington said. “I came back to Lex to see what was happening in the wake of the chaos. I was really surprised to see how people are using it for things other than its intended purpose, and in a really wonderful way.”

In Massachusetts, Lex Blair, a 27-year-old Starbucks barista and actor who uses the pronoun “they,” posted that their show had been canceled — they are in two theater companies — and wondered what other performers were experiencing. Mx. Blair and their girlfriend, Kaiti Maddox, 22, are in a nonmonogamous relationship, they said, hence the Lex app, but this week were looking for a different sort of connection.

Ms. Maddox has a connective tissue disorder, and therefore a compromised immune system. It is imperative that she stay isolated. She has been using Lex as a chat room, and the community there has sprung into action, checking on her daily, sending her lists of favorite movies and television shows and offering to bring food or other necessities.

“It’s a rough time right now for all of us,” said Mx. Blair.

Or, as another user put it in a post that invited members to a WhatsApp chat: “JOIN US IN QUEERANTINE. Self isolation need not be so lonely.”

Americans stranded abroad feel ‘completely abandoned.’

Among the stranded in Morocco are American citizens, residents and other visa holders who say the United States government has been unresponsive to their pleas for help, even as British and French authorities have been aiding their citizens.

“France is being very open with the citizens and is moving mountains to get them home; meanwhile the U.S. embassy says ‘call the airlines’ and ‘prepare to be here for a while, but not indefinitely,’” said Cristina Pratt, who was visiting Morocco from the East Bay in California with a friend and the friend’s parents when the ban went into place.

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City Hall weddings are still taking place in New York.

“We thought, ‘Let’s do it as fast as possible, before City Hall gets shut down or we leave town,’” said Ms. Simeone, 38, who was standing with Mr. Morales, also 38, inside the Manhattan Marriage Bureau in Lower Manhattan earlier this week.

Ms. Simeone, who works as a production designer, and Mr. Morales, a carpenter, pedaled from their home in the Ridgewood section of Queens, because the subway seemed too high risk. “We didn’t anticipate riding bikes,” Ms. Simeone said, “but it was romantic.”

The atmosphere they found at the Marriage Bureau was at once business as usual and strangely altered in the wake of the outbreak.

Outside, George Taxi, a flower vendor who has set up near the entrance for the last six years, was in his usual spot. He had woken that morning unsure if the bureau would be open, after reading that New York State courts were closing for all nonessential functions.

He said he wondered if getting married was an essential function.

It was. For the time being. And couples were still making the necessary trip there to be legally joined. And still buying bouquets. Mr. Taxi, though, had noticed bridal parties wearing face masks, and was himself squirting sanitizer on his hands after each cash transaction.

“It’s for my protection and theirs,” he said. “Got to be extra careful.”

In a happier postponement, Google presses pause on employee reviews.

Google will defer its performance reviews covering the period from mid-October to the end of this month, the spokeswoman said. In November, employees are expected to receive their regular annual rating covering the last 12 months of work. And all employees promoted at that point would receive post-promotion salaries back-dated to August, the spokeswoman said.

Business Insider earlier reported the change.