C M Y K Nxxx,2020-05-03,A,001,Bs-4C,E2

The Asian giant hornet tears the headsoff bees and stings through protectivesuits, and it’s now in the U.S. PAGE 22

NATIONAL 22-26

Hunting the ‘Murder Hornet’Parking lots, driveways, dog walking:Photographers look at where and howwe come together, in a time when wecan’t get too close or go very far. PAGE 1

SUNDAY STYLES

Human Contact, Carefully

A Saudi TV series has fueled a fiercedebate, with many Arabs saying itbetrays the Palestinian cause. PAGE 20

INTERNATIONAL 20-21

An Arab Hit Starring IsraelCattle produce huge amounts of meth-ane. A Swiss biotech company may beon the cusp of cleaning it up. PAGE 1

SUNDAY BUSINESS

There’s Big Money in BurpsNow is the perfect time to peruse thisEmergency Edition of Puzzle Mania,which is packed with 48 puzzles andbrainteasers for everyone at home.

SPECIAL SECTION

Explore Puzzles Galore

U(D547FD)v+#!{!_!$!"

With the world in lockdown, billions ofpeople are improvising new rituals forthe most mythic of nights. PAGE 8

ARTS & LEISURE

Saturday Night, Still Special

How Covid-19 has revealed the deadlyrealities of a racially polarized America.

THE MAGAZINE

Who Lives? Who Dies?

Dalia Sofer’s “Man of My Time” traces apath from “baffled revolutionary to agingcaptive of a life gone wrong.” PAGE 1

BOOK REVIEW

If You Can’t Beat the System . . .

Stuart A. Thompson PAGE 4

SUNDAY REVIEW

When a $192,000 loan from thefederal government’s small-busi-ness aid program arrived in hisbank account last month, GeorgeEvageliou, the founder of acustom woodworking company,felt like one of the lucky ones.

Under the program’s rules, Mr.Evageliou has eight weeks fromthe day he received the cash tospend it. But nearly three weeksafter the clock started on April 14,he hasn’t used a penny.

His quandary? If Mr. Evageliouwants his loan to be forgiven, hemust spend three-quarters of itpaying the 16 workers he laid offfrom Urban Homecraft, his Brook-lyn business, in late March. Butbringing his workers back now,when they can’t work in their fab-rication shop or install woodworkin clients’ homes, won’t help hisbusiness. And if New York City re-mains shut when his eight weeksare up in mid-June, Mr. Evageliouwould have to lay off his employ-ees again — something he wantsto spare them.

The government has “made thisso hard to use,” he said. “It startsto feel like a lose-lose situation.”

The $660 billion Paycheck Pro-tection Program was meant to ex-tend a lifeline to small businessesbattered by the pandemic, allow-ing them to keep employees on thepayroll. But it has been dogged byproblems. Countless small busi-

They Got Aid.They’re AfraidOf Spending It.

This article is by Stacy Cowley,Emily Flitter and David Enrich.

Worshipers at one of Seoul’slargest Catholic churches must re-frain from singing hymns or say-ing “amen” for fear of spreadingsaliva. Priests sanitize theirhands during communion. Holywater has been removed from thechapel.

“This should become the newnormal from now on,” said GongMi-young, 53, who owns a tutoringschool and attended Mass onenight this week at MyeongdongChurch in the South Korean capi-tal. “We have to be ready for war.”

South Korea even has a namefor the new practices: “everydaylife quarantine.” The authoritiesrecently released a 68-page guide,offering advice on situations likegoing to the movies (“refrain fromshouting”) and attending funerals(“bow your head instead of hug-ging”).

As cities in Asia, Australia andelsewhere get their coronavirusoutbreaks under control,churches, schools, restaurants,movie theaters and even sportingvenues are starting to open, creat-ing a sense of normalcy for peoplewho have spent weeks and evenmonths in isolation.

But they are returning to aworld reimagined for the age ofcoronavirus, where social distanc-ing, hygiene standards and gov-ernment-imposed restrictions areinfused into nearly every activity

No More JengaAnd No ‘Amen’As Asia Adapts

By JAVIER C. HERNÁNDEZand SU-HYUN LEE

Continued on Page 8

DOUBLE THE PAIN Across the country, long-term couples are dying ofCovid-19 in quick succession, leaving families devastated. PAGE 4

TRACKING AN OUTBREAK

He may not have been theirfirst choice.

They might have endorsedElizabeth Warren or Bernie

Sanders. They re-membered, all toowell, how he treatedAnita Hill. Theydidn’t love what he

called his “tactile” political style— the hugging, the touching —or that he seemed to laugh it offwhen confronted about it.

But he had championed theViolence Against Women Act. Hehad made progress on fightingcampus sexual assault.

And — most importantly — heseemed to be the best bet to beatDonald Trump in November.

So, one by one, Democraticand progressive women dili-gently threw their weight behindJoseph R. Biden Jr. for president.

Then, with Mr. Biden the all-but-certain Democratic nominee,came Tara Reade. A formeremployee who had worked in Mr.Biden’s Senate office, Ms. Readegave a podcast interview in late

March, accusing him of sexuallyassaulting her in a Senate hall-way in 1993.

On Friday, Mr. Biden, the for-mer vice president, directlyaddressed the matter for the firsttime, forcefully denying that theincident took place. He did so ina conversation with MikaBrzezinski on the MSNBC show“Morning Joe,” though Ms.Brzezinski’s husband and co-host, Joe Scarborough, would sitthis one out until the discussionmoved on from Ms. Reade to theother news of the day. “It’s justgoing to be you and me,” Ms.

Brzezinski told Mr. Biden.It was 17 minutes of a cable

television interview, and it wasalso a microcosm for the way thissaga has played out: Womenhave been expected to discussthe allegation against Mr. Biden.Their male colleagues have not.

The particulars of Ms. Reade’saccount, and Mr. Biden’s denial,have pushed the #MeToo move-ment — and the politicians whosupported it, like Mr. Biden him-self — into uncomfortable terri-tory.

After three years of calling on

The Allegation Is Against Biden, but the Burden Falls on WomenBy JESSICA BENNETT

and LISA LERER

Continued on Page 23

NEWSANALYSIS

WASHINGTON — Fourmonths after a mysterious new vi-rus began its deadly marcharound the globe, the search for avaccine has taken on an intensitynever before seen in medical re-search, with huge implications forpublic health, the world economyand politics.

Seven of the roughly 90 projectsbeing pursued by governments,pharmaceutical makers, biotechinnovators and academic labora-tories have reached the stage ofclinical trials. With political lead-ers — not least President Trump— increasingly pressing forprogress, and with big potentialprofits at stake for the industry,drug makers and researchershave signaled that they are mov-ing ahead at unheard-of speeds.

But the whole enterprise re-mains dogged by uncertaintyabout whether any coronavirusvaccine will prove effective, howfast it could be made available tomillions or billions of people andwhether the rush — compressinga process that can take 10 yearsinto 10 months — will sacrificesafety.

Some experts say the more im-mediately promising field mightbe the development of treatmentsto speed recovery from Covid-19,an approach that has generatedsome optimism in the last weekthrough early encouraging re-search results on remdesivir, anantiviral drug previously tried infighting Ebola.

In an era of intense nationalism,the geopolitics of the vaccine raceare growing as complex as the

medicine. The months of mutualvilification between the UnitedStates and China over the originsof the virus have poisoned mostefforts at cooperation betweenthem. The U.S. government is al-ready warning that American in-novations must be protected fromtheft — chiefly from Beijing.

“Biomedical research has longbeen a focus of theft, especially bythe Chinese government, and vac-cines and treatments for the coro-navirus are today’s holy grail,”John C. Demers, the assistant at-torney general for national securi-ty, said on Friday. “Putting asidethe commercial value, therewould be great geopolitical signifi-cance to being the first to developa treatment or vaccine. We will

use all the tools we have to safe-guard American research.”

The intensity of the global re-search effort is such that govern-ments and companies are build-ing production lines before theyhave anything to produce.

“We are going to start rampingup production with the companiesinvolved,” Dr. Anthony S. Fauci,

Profits and Pride at Stake,Race to Vaccine Intensifies

Government, Academic and Business LabsVie in Rush That May Imperil Safety

This article is by David E. Sanger,David D. Kirkpatrick, Carl Zimmer,Katie Thomas and Sui-Lee Wee.

Continued on Page 12

Working on a possible vaccinein Belo Horizonte, Brazil.

DOUGLAS MAGNO/AFP — GETTY IMAGES

Every No. 2 train that lumberedinto the last stop in the Bronx lateWednesday night had, at most, acouple of dozen passengers. Andwhen the doors swooshed open,half of them had no intention ofgetting off.

Just after 10:30 p.m., a femaletransit worker leaned in close to aman who was slumped in a seatagainst a railing. He was wearinga large hooded jacket and had adark scarf wrapped around hismouth.

“Wake up!” the womanshouted.

The man didn’t flinch. It tookanother worker rapping the rail-ing with a metal tool to get him tostand up.

The man, who gave his nameonly as Victor C., said in an inter-view on the platform that stayingon the train was a point of pride:“People not wanting to burdentheir family, not wanting to counton the government.”

“What works for you may notwork for me,” he added.

Generations of homeless peoplehave used New York City’s sub-way as protection against the ele-ments and a place to unsoundlysleep.

But with little access to showersor medical care, they have be-come a health hazard during thecoronavirus pandemic. And withridership down 92 percent, im-ages of them splayed across oth-erwise empty cars have becomesearing symbols of the city’s pre-carious condition.

So on Thursday, Gov. AndrewM. Cuomo, Mayor Bill de Blasioand transit officials reached a con-

As Last RefugeFor Homeless,Subway Is Risk

By NIKITA STEWARTand NATE SCHWEBER

A No. 2 train in the Bronx on Wednesday. Subway ridership is down 92 percent, putting the homelessness problem in starker relief.VICTOR J. BLUE FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continued on Page 18

When Eliana Marcela Rendónwas finally able to visit her grand-mother, who had spent four weeksat a Long Island hospital, a staffmember met her in the lobby toask if the 74-year-old patient had afavorite song.

Ms. Rendón, after calling familymembers, requested several reli-gious selections in Spanish:“Sumérgeme,” or “Immerse Me”;“Cristo, Yo Te Amo,” “Christ, ILove You”; and “Cuando LevantoMis Manos,” “When I Raise MyHands.”

Then she and her husband,Edilson Valencia, were guided to acoronavirus intensive care unit atNorth Shore University Hospitalthat morning, April 19. “Give us amiracle, Lord,” Ms. Rendónprayed as the couple waited for an

elevator. “Don’t take my grandma,please.”

Her grandmother, CarmenEvelia Toro, who lived with thecouple in Queens, had fallen ill inmid-March after returning from afamily reunion in Colombia. Sincethen, her relatives there and in theUnited States had joined onlinenightly prayer sessions, each witha different theme: faith, gratitude,patience, mercy, obedience, love,fidelity. The night before Ms.Rendón visited the hospital, thetopic was miracles.

In recent weeks, many familieslike Ms. Rendón’s have faced ex-cruciating decisions about loved

ones whose lives the virus has putin peril. With rare exceptions,those choices have been all themore wrenching because theyhave had to be made from afar:New York hospitals have bannedmost visitors for fear of contagion.

Two weeks into her hospitalstay, in early April, doctors putMs. Toro on a ventilator after heroxygen levels plummeted. Bythen, Northwell Health, a NewYork hospital system that in-cludes North Shore, had treatednearly 5,700 patients withCovid-19, the disease caused bythe virus, according to a recentstudy. Over 3,000 were still hospi-talized; 553 had died.

More than 800, like Ms. Toro, re-mained on ventilators. Many phy-sicians in hard-hit hospitals havegrown concerned that a substan-

With Matriarch Ill, a Family Prepares for the EndBy SHERI FINK

Family members gathered on conference calls to send Carmen Evelia Toro, on a ventilator in theI.C.U. at North Shore University Hospital, messages of courage, and prayed together for a miracle.

VICTOR J. BLUE FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Love and Care StretchAcross 2,500 Miles

Continued on Page 16

Continued on Page 6

Hosting a socially distant party is easywith a little magical thinking. PAGE 7

AT HOME

Happy Birthday to Me

A federal judge rejected the women’steam’s equal pay claims, but it is in thefederation’s interests to find a settle-ment both sides can embrace. PAGE 31

SPORTS 31-32

Path to Peace for U.S. Soccer?

VICE PRESIDENT Mike Pence balances states, doctors and his boss,without showing a hint of reaction to the latter’s whims. PAGE 11

Warren Buffett’s conglomerate said itsquarterly decline tracked the overallslide in the stock market. PAGE 26

$49.7 Billion Loss for Berkshire

Late Edition

VOL. CLXIX . . . No. 58,682 © 2020 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, SUNDAY, MAY 3, 2020

Today, mostly cloudy, warmer, high76. Tonight, mostly cloudy, low 55.Tomorrow, partly sunny, afternoonshowers in areas, not as warm, high64. Weather map is on Page 24.

$6.00