Chris Hedges's Blog, page 5

The FDA Is Forcing the CDC to Waste Time Double Testing Some Coronavirus Cases

A federal directive that’s supposed to speed up the response to a pandemic is actually slowing down the government’s rollout of coronavirus tests.

The directive, issued by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, requires that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a sister agency, retest every positive coronavirus test run by a public health lab to confirm its accuracy. The result, experts say, is wasting limited resources at a time when thousands of Americans are waiting in line to get tested for COVID-19.

The duplicative effort is the latest obstacle that is slowing the federal response to COVID-19, which has infected more than 1,300 people and resulted in 38 deaths in the United States. Progress was already delayed because the CDC decided to make its own test rather than adopting the design endorsed by the World Health Organization. The test then didn’t work properly and had to be fixed. The problems were further compounded by delays in certifying tests by private laboratories as well as a shortage of supplies and raw materials used for testing.

On Feb. 4, the FDA, which regulates devices as well as drugs, released a document called an Emergency Use Authorization to govern the use of the test. The goal of the emergency authorization is to short-circuit the typically onerous regulatory review that the agency imposes on new diagnostic devices — a process that can take months to years.

In the face of an imminent outbreak, however, the stringently written EUA appears to have become more of a hindrance than a help. Because of the requirement that the CDC rerun tests conducted by public health labs, as of two weeks ago the CDC’s website was lagging in its tally because it was only reporting confirmed cases. The CDC is now reporting both presumptive positives, which have been tested only by local labs, as well as cases it has confirmed.

“This is the time when we need as many tests as we can very quickly, because we need to know what is happening in this country,” said Dr. Leana Wen, an emergency physician and former health commissioner for the city of Baltimore. “Right now we are in the dark about the degree of COVID-19 spread. It’s hard for us to proceed to do our work in public health without concrete information.”

The CDC says it is simply following the process set out by federal regulations, though it couldn’t say how many false positives, if any, have shown up in the verification process.

“The regulatory language of the EUA dictated that,” CDC spokesman Richard Quartarone said. “We have to follow the rules. If we don’t follow the rules, FDA could shut us down. That is a real thing.”

The CDC is designed to serve as a short-term bridge to widespread testing while it analyzes a new disease and makes sure diagnostic tests are working correctly before handing the role off to the private sector, Quartarone said. If duplication hadn’t been required, the CDC may have been able to help with more front-line testing before private-sector labs took over, he said.

The emergency authorization also slowed the process of tests offered by private labs, which became available last week. The FDA initially required private labs to copy the CDC’s test design and have the agency review their tests before allowing them to begin testing. It took more than three weeks and growing criticism for the FDA to update its guidelines to allow certain academic labs to start testing once they had validated their tests internally.

In response to questions, FDA spokeswoman Stephanie Caccomo referred a reporter to a speech by FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn on March 7, in which he defended the agency’s process.

“In the U.S., we have policies in place that strike the right balance during public health emergencies of ensuring critical independent review by the scientific and public health experts and timely test availability,” Hahn said. “The CDC test is a high-quality test, and it’s important to remember that false negatives or positives can be detrimental to making sure we are treating patients early, without delay, and also not quarantining healthy individuals.”

Joshua Sharfstein, vice dean for public health practice and community engagement at Johns Hopkins’ School of Public Health, said the FDA’s high standards might have been appropriate for smaller outbreaks. The FDA issued EUAs for diagnostics during the 2014 Ebola crisis and in 2016 for the mosquito-borne Zika virus. The coronavirus, however, is moving too fast to maintain absolute control — and the FDA could have ordered up a more flexible process, Scharfstein said.

“If you were to go back in time and tell the FDA ‘you’ve got a month to get a million tests ready,’ I imagine they wouldn’t have chosen this strategy,” said Sharfstein, who oversaw EUAs while he served as deputy commissioner of the FDA during the Obama administration.

Requiring confirmatory tests not only adds time to the process but also uses crucial chemicals needed to set up the tests. “You need some of the reagents that now are in short supply to prepare the tests,” said CDC Director Robert Redfield in a hearing before the House Oversight Committee on Thursday, explaining the difficulty in expanding capacity even as private labs received green lights to start testing.

Private labs need only get confirmation for their first five positive and first five negative clinical specimens, according to the FDA’s Feb. 29 guidance. Commercial giants like LabCorp and Quest Diagnostics say they are now able to run thousands of tests a day.

“We want them to come online, because we don’t have the manufacturing capacity; our system in place is not designed for that massive amount,” Quartarone said of the private labs. “In general, CDC testing is a drop in the bucket for the overall testing that happens.”

According to the American Enterprise Institute, as of Thursday afternoon, nationwide testing capacity was at about 20,695 people a day. California public and private labs accounted for 39% of capacity, and the CDC and public health labs together accounted for about 17% of available tests.

That’s only testing capacity, however. According to Redfield, actual testing is still hampered by shortages of essential equipment and manpower.

Will the Afghanistan Peace Deal Work?

There are two likely outcomes of the recently signed U.S. peace deal with Afghanistan’s Taliban. One is that a withdrawal of U.S. forces will bring a short-term reduction in violence. The second is that the U.S. will leave behind a political mess so severe that violence prevails for the foreseeable future.

Although several details of the peace deal signed on February 28 by U.S. and Taliban representatives in Doha, Qatar, remain secret, a time table was released for U.S. troops to begin withdrawing ten days after the signing of the agreement. The U.S. has already announced the beginning of the troop withdrawal and its plan to reduce of troops — even as it conducted an air strike on Taliban forces just a few days ago.

Even under the current chaotic circumstances on the ground in Afghanistan, a draw down of U.S. troops is a good thing. In 2019, the United Nations documented more civilian deaths at the hands of U.S. forces and their Afghan government allies than the Taliban. Afghans, weary of the broken promises of successive U.S. presidents, are justifiably angry about the loss of lives from air strikes, which have been devastating families and communities for nearly two decades.

Meanwhile, the Afghan government, which the U.S. helped set up in the aftermath of the 2002 Taliban defeat, was entirely left out of the negotiations. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani threw a wrench into the works hours after the agreement was signed by saying that he did not commit to releasing 5,000 Taliban prisoners as required by the U.S.-Taliban agreement. Eventually, he capitulated and agreed to release 1,500 prisoners in the first stage of a two-part process. But now Taliban representatives have rejected that approach, saying all 5,000 should be released at once. Added to this is the political complication of Mr. Ghani’s rival Abdullah Abdullah also declaring that he is the winner of recent elections and swearing himself in as President of Afghanistan at the same time as the incumbent.

Still, there may be cause for hope: The United Nations Security Council unanimously supports the U.S.-Taliban deal. Although Donald Trump is now being commended for signing a deal that may end the war — including by some on the left — he first made things far worse. When he took office, Trump gave a green light to the U.S. military in Afghanistan, allowing it broad powers to unleash violence in a contrast to the approach of Barack Obama’s administration during its final year, when it tried to reduce civilian casualties. The Associated Press reported in 2019, “the U.S. conducted more bombings and drone strikes in Afghanistan in August than in any previous month this year — 783, compared to 613 in July and 441 in June.”

Why did Trump do it? As recently as last November, Trump’s cruel escalation of the war was seen a calculated method of leverage against his opponents with one defense expert explaining, “The logic is that the Taliban may be more likely to agree to a peace deal acceptable to the United States and the Afghan government if the Taliban believe they can’t win the war in Afghanistan.”

Whether or not that calculation has worked is yet to be seen. Already the US military is reporting that the Taliban are not keeping, “their part of the bargain.” Marine General Frank McKenzie, the US commander for the Middle East and Afghanistan told Congress this week that Taliban forces, “need to keep their part of the bargain, and they are continuing attacks.”

Trump is not being entirely honest about his dealings with the Taliban. He had an historic phone call with a Taliban representative named Abdul Ghani Baradar – the first time a US president had ever spoken directly with a member of the group. Trump later explained to reporters that the 35-minute call consisted of a, “good, long conversation,” during which Baradar apparently assured him that, “they want to cease the violence.” Hours later, Taliban forces hit Afghan government targets and were then met with U.S. air strikes. It turns out the Taliban had agreed not to target U.S. forces, but made no such agreement about striking the Afghan government.

Trump is also keeping certain “secret annexes” of the peace deal from the public. The New York Times explained that, “Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper, in congressional testimony, appeared unaware of — or seemed unwilling to discuss — the secret annexes just days before the agreement was signed.” But the Taliban has read those annexes that apparently cover, “a timeline for what should happen over the next 18 months, what kinds of attacks are prohibited by both sides and, most important, how the United States will share information about its troop locations with the Taliban.” In response to a request for information from the Times, the U.S. State Department issued a statement saying the annexes had to be kept secret because, “the movement of troops and operations against terrorists are sensitive matters.” By “terrorists” the State Department now means the Islamic State or ISIS – not the militant group that the U.S. has spent 18 years directly fighting under the auspices of the “War on Terror.”

Still, if the deal actually results in the U.S. completely withdrawing from Afghanistan, perhaps Trump’s calculations will turn out to be right. That is a big “if,” however. According to Gen. McKenzie, although the U.S. forces are expected to be reduced to 8,600 by this summer, “Conditions on the ground will dictate if we go below that. If conditions on the ground are not permissive, my advice would not be to continue that reduction.”

The U.S. troop withdrawal would mean one less armed force putting Afghan civilians in the crossfire of war. But peace between the Afghan government and the Taliban is hardly assured. The recent election results show that even within the Afghan government, there is no assurance of unity or harmony. Nearly 20 years of a U.S.-led war have left Afghanistan – already a war-torn nation in 2001 – devastated beyond imagination. The predictable jockeying for power as the U.S. withdraws, and a potential resurgence of ISIS, could easily plunge Afghanistan into a new wave of violence that American politicians will simply ignore.

Nothing was won in Afghanistan and everything that was lost was wasted: lives, money and humanity. If any lesson emerges from the wasteland of the longest official war the U.S. has ever waged, it ought to be a reflection and accounting of the deep costs of the conflict, and an assurance that such a war will never again be embarked upon.

Inflammatory ‘The Hunt’ Delivers Mere Sparks

Horror movie specialist Blumhouse Productions has carved its niche weaving cogent themes of socio-political insight through popcorn movies. It has enjoyed a number of blockbuster successes including Jordan Peele’s Oscar-winning “Get Out,” which explores racial tensions and traumas; and more recently Leigh Whannell’s “The Invisible Man,” in which a woman grapples with gaslighting and domestic abuse by an invisible ex, highlighting MeToo-era realities.

But did company head go too far when he greenlit the company’s latest release, “The Hunt”? Formerly titled “Red State vs. Blue State,” the film follows a number of blue-collar conservatives who awaken in an empty field to findthey’ve been captured and delivered as live game for a cadre of liberal elites to hunt and kill. The concept is not a new one to fans of the 1965 thriller “The Naked Prey,” or the 1932 action feature “The Most Dangerous Game,” before it (based on the classic 1924 short story of the same name). It’s a bit hoary as plots go, but the difference is in the telling.

Writer-producers and , both veterans of the apocalyptic TV Series “The Leftovers,” reportedly came to “The Hunt” after they challenged themselves to come up with the craziest idea conservatives might believe about liberals. Inspired by the debunked far-right conspiracy theory Pizzagate, they arrived at the invention of“Manorgate,” a conspiracy theory about hunting humans that runs through the plot of “The Hunt.”

“The Hunt” was initially set for release on Sept. 27, 2019. While there were mixed audience reviews following several initial test screenings around the Los Angeles area, Universal claimed the film had enjoyed some of the highest test scores ever for an original Blumhouse film. But trailers for the film triggered a right-wing backlash from people who had not yet seen the movie, complete with death threats.

The release date held until the mass shooting on August 3, 2019, when a gunman killed 22 and injured 24 people in El Paso, Texas. Then, less than 24 hours later, another shooter in Dayton, Ohio killed nine people and injured 27. A week later, Trump attempted to connect “The Hunt” to the shootings when he tweeted on August 9:

“Liberal Hollywood is Racist at the highest level, and with great Anger and Hate! … The movie coming out is made in order….to inflame and cause chaos.”

The next day, Universal removed the film from its release calendar.

And now the film has reemerged, released this Friday, March 13 at a time when vitriol between political parties is as rancorous as ever.

In the film, a young woman () wakes up in the wilderness and joins with several others, all emerging from the brush somewhere remote. Soon, they are on the run through a forest, with bullets and arrows whizzing past them. Protagonists come and go for the first 30 minutes as each is dispatched in some grizzly manner, leaving the audience disoriented until it lands with the decidedly non-dispatchable Crystal, played with stoic righteousness by (“Nurse Jackie,” “GLOW”).

She partners with conspiracy theorist, Gary (), affording him the benefit of her survival tactics and combat expertise, honed while serving in Afghanistan. They meet at what appears to be a roadside convenience store run by Ma and Pop, ( and ), who turn out to be in on the game.

“He’s a monster!” Pop says of one of their victims. “He probably uses the N-word!” Ma bristles when Pop says “black” instead of “African-American.” But he assures her it’s okay. “According to who?” she asks. “NPR,” he answers, which she points out is staffed by mostly white people. This is about the most clever stab at liberals the movie takes.

The satirical dialogue throughout the movie is tonally-off and clashes with, rather than relieves, the film’s tensions. And while “The Hunt” is occasionally smart, it’s not smart enough. It employs lazy cliché in lieu of savvy observation, which only reinforces what each side of the political divide already thinks of the other.

The idea that progressives (some of whom could not be there for the hunt because they are battling AIDS in Haiti, as the plot goes), would be interested in shooting people, or even firing guns, is fairly tone deaf given that they are the ones who tend to call for stricter gun control laws. But then again, absurdity was the point when Lindelhof and Cuse dreamed Manorgate up.

Almost anyone can die in this screwball, blood-soaked thriller (which they do in a variety of over-the-top ways) with the exception of Gilpin. She moves through her scenes the way Eastwood’s Man With No Name stalks Sergio Leone’s outlaws in “A Fistful of Dollars.” She’s smart, capable, a woman of few words, fast to action when needed and the sanest character in the cast.

In the last act, Gilpin meets her match in Athena (), the liberal mastermind behind Manorgate, who draws Crystal into her country kitchen for a fatal duel involving a Cuisinart blade. The scene is long and drawn out, and Tarantino did it better in “Kill Bill, Vol. 1,” but it resolves the movie in a satisfactory, if unoriginal, way. The ending only underscores the film’s overall deficiency: a lack of imagination.

Even so, bravo to the new movie for treading a territory average thriller flicks dare not. While brushing up against an issue is not the same as exploring it, “The Hunt” may be as close as Hollywood comes to saying something about the nation’s tense and divisive political atmosphere.

Donald Trump Is Using the Coronavirus Crisis to Attack Social Security

Donald Trump’s proposal to cut the payroll contribution rate is a stealth attack on Social Security. Even if the proposal were to replace Social Security’s dedicated revenue with deficit-funded general revenue, the proposal would undermine this vital program.

The proposal is a Trojan horse. It appears to be a gift, in the form of middle-class tax relief, but would, in the long run, lead to the destruction of working Americans’ fundamental economic security. While the goal of the proposal is stated in terms of fiscal stimulus, its most important impact, if not its intent, is to do what opponents of Social Security have been unable to do—end Social Security as we know it.

The supposed purpose of a reduction in payroll contributions is to address the coronavirus crisis. Tax cuts do not meaningfully address the coronavirus, or even the resulting market panic. We do want to ensure that people have the cash they need while they face massive uncertainties around employment and other costs. We want people to stay home as much as needed without having to worry about paying their rent or other costs. What we need most is a robust public health response, which the Trump administration is utterly failing to provide.

Alongside that vital public health response, there are better options for economic stimulus. These include a one-time progressively structured direct payment, restoring and expanding the Making Work Pay Tax Credit, or expanding the existing Earned Income Tax Credit and provide greater economic stimulus, are more targeted and equitable, and place no administrative burdens on employers. The only reason to support Trump’s proposal above those others is to undermine Social Security.

Cutting the payroll contribution rate is a deficient stimulus. Most of the benefit would go to the wealthiest Americans—including CEOs, senators, congresspeople, and members of the Trump administration—who are the least likely to spend the extra money. The other big winners are the nation’s largest corporations and other employers. The lower workers’ wages are, the lower their benefit. Moreover, those state and local employees who do not participate in Social Security would get nothing.

What Trump is proposing to cut, to be clear, are Federal Insurance Contributions Act payments. As the name indicates, these payments are not general taxes, but insurance contributions, or, in today’s parlance, insurance premiums. By law, they can only be used to pay Social Security insurance benefits and their associated administrative costs. Social Security has no borrowing authority. Consequently, Social Security does not and, by law, cannot, add even a penny to the deficit. If Social Security were ever to have insufficient revenue to cover every penny of these costs, those benefits would not be paid.

The late President Ronald Reagan eloquently explained, in his words, “Social Security has nothing to do with the deficit.” This proposal would change that, at least temporarily, if Social Security’s dedicated revenue were replaced with general revenue. (Of course, more accurately, the dedicated revenue would be replaced with borrowed money since the general fund is running unprecedently large deficits.)

The proposal would either undermine Social Security’s financing or employ general revenue, both of which would set the stage for future demands to cut Social Security. And it likely would not be temporary. When the cut would be set to expire, opponents of Social Security would undoubtedly characterize its expiration as a middle-class tax increase.

Too many Americans believe, understandably, that their Social Security contributions have been stolen. Using their contributions for economic stimulus would reveal that their elected officials indeed do not respect the fire wall between their contributions that are held in trust and can be used only for their dedicated purpose and the taxes they pay to the federal government that are held in the general fund and can be used for any constitutional purpose that Congress chooses.

On March 8, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer released an excellent list of steps we should take to combat the coronavirus. Their plan includes paid sick leave, free coronavirus testing, and treatment for all. Our government should enact these measures, not undermine Social Security by slashing its dedicated revenue.

Nancy J. Altman is a writing fellow for Economy for All, a project of the Independent Media Institute. She has a 40-year background in the areas of Social Security and private pensions. She is president of Social Security Works and chair of the Strengthen Social Security coalition. Her latest book is The Truth About Social Security. She is also the author of The Battle for Social Security and co-author of Social Security Works!

This article was produced by  Economy for All , a project of the Independent Media Institute.

Should I Quarantine Because of Coronavirus? It Depends on Who You Ask.

By Maya Miller, Caroline Chen and Joshua Kaplan / ProPublica

Travelers disembarking a plane from Rome to John F. Kennedy Airport in New York City on Tuesday said they were not told that they needed to stay home for two weeks, despite a clear policy by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention saying they should. A woman exposed to the coronavirus at a New York wedding was told by state officials she didn’t need to go into quarantine, even though county officials said she did. In fact, they thought the venue had already called and told her.

Even the journalists covering the virus are not immune from confusion. As three ProPublica reporters were working on this story Tuesday night, word came that an attendee at NICAR, a data-reporting conference in New Orleans they all attended, had tested positive. We were told by newsroom management to work from home, but one of our editors, who had direct contact with the person who was infected, was told by a state health agency he could still go out, as long as he kept a 6-foot distance from others. A different state agency said he needed to isolate himself in a room at home, having no contact even with his family.

While health officials offer near uniformity on how to conduct self-isolation, which is what you do when you are sick, it’s hard to get a straight answer on what to do when you’ve been in contact with someone who tested positive.

Interviews with people across six states who have been exposed to the coronavirus show that even when agencies like the CDC or local health departments have a clear standard on paper, they often fail to carry out their own policies. People say agencies are giving wildly different advice to those in similar circumstances. This may be appropriate, considering the varying situations in different geographic areas; some have given up on tracking down people for quarantine and begun canceling public events. But the failure to clearly explain what to do and why has led to confusion and mistrust.

Many proactive, civic-minded citizens appear to be taking matters into their own hands, deciding on their own to stay at home, frustrated, scared and anxious, while they wait on health officials to return their calls.

The lack of clear instruction, exacerbated by a paucity of tests, comes at a critical juncture, as the number of reported cases in the United States has risen above 1,000 — a considerable increase over a week ago, yet still not so many that it’s too late for the country to curb the spread of the disease, according to public health experts.

“We need to be putting out clear and consistent messages to have a huge public health impact now,” said Dr. Megan Murray, professor of epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. “The data from China and from previous epidemics is absolutely clear that in cities that put clear social distancing and quarantine measures early, the epidemics have been small.”

Not everyone agrees on whether imposing quarantines on individual people is the best way to approach the virus right now. Quarantines can drain a health department’s resources because they require teams of “disease detectives” to retrace a sick patient’s steps and ask all the people who came into contact with them to self-quarantine. At a certain point, local authorities might decide that this form of containment eats up too many resources, given the number of cases, and move on to what’s known as mitigation — canceling large events and asking people to work from home and avoid public transit.

On Monday, Sacramento County, California, called off all 14-day quarantines for anyone not exhibiting symptoms. As part of the new measures, the county advised people who are elderly as well as people with underlying conditions, like heart disease or immunodeficiency disorders, to stay home and away from social gatherings where people are at arm’s-length distance. Dr. Peter Beilenson, the head of the county’s Department of Health Services, told The Sacramento Bee that the decision was designed to conserve resources and focus on reducing risks for the most vulnerable people. Two neighboring California counties announced similar efforts Tuesday.

Dr. Thomas Farley, head of the Philadelphia Department of Public Health, who previously worked in the CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service, said he thinks it’s too early to abandon containment efforts like quarantine — especially since there’s evidence that it worked well in China and helped to reduce cases.

“If we abandon containment,” he said, “we will just allow the virus to spread.”

When state and local officials don’t seem to agree — or communicate

Five days after Elisheva Avital attended a wedding in Rockland County, New York, her heart sank when she saw a tweet that a waiter at the banquet hall had tested positive for COVID-19. It was March 6, a Friday night, about 20 minutes before sundown. As a strict Jewish observer of the Sabbath, she couldn’t use the phone after dark. She called the hotline for her state, New Jersey, desperate for information. She waited on hold and then the line disconnected. She called again and waited a few minutes, but time ran out.

Avital waited anxiously through the Sabbath and then started calling again Saturday night. Once someone finally answered, she peppered him with her concerns. What if the caterer had served her food or touched someone? “The person was clearly, evidently annoyed with me for asking questions and kept saying, ‘If you think you had contact with the person, you can self-quarantine,’” she told ProPublica. “He didn’t tell me how to interact with my children.”

Unable to get answers, Avital asked a friend, who is a pulmonologist, for help. The pulmonologist called the local health department, where an official confirmed to him that someone at the event had, indeed, tested positive for the coronavirus.

That Sunday, six days after the wedding, the Rockland County Health Department put up a press release saying those who attended the event could have been exposed. The delay came because the worker had not been forthcoming, according to county spokesperson John Lyon. The release did not specify whether wedding attendees should quarantine themselves.

Avital decided to stay at home while continuing her efforts to get clarity from state and local health departments. On Tuesday, after repeated attempts to get in touch, she heard back from someone at the New York State Department of Health. “They told me that given the length of time that has passed without Rockland notifying me of an official quarantine, I don’t have to be quarantined,” she said

Lyon, however, told ProPublica that the county agency had reached out to the wedding venue and asked it to alert attendees that they should be in a precautionary quarantine for two weeks. When ProPublica told him that Avital hadn’t heard from the county Health Department or anyone at the venue, he paused. “That is concerning. I’ll relay that to the Department of Health.”

His office put out a press release Tuesday announcing six confirmed cases countywide and recommending three school closures. But Avital and other wedding guests still had not heard updates from the county Health Department as of Wednesday morning. “I’m incredibly frustrated,” Avital said. “People are still living under the assumption that we’re in a functioning society and we can trust our public systems to keep us safe — this has shown me we can’t.”

When two countries don’t agree

On the same day Avital went to the wedding, her two sisters attended the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in Washington, D.C.

Dina Rabhan left the conference for Israel, where she lives, and already knew what she had to do. The Israeli Ministry of Health had made it clear that any resident returning from an international conference had to self-quarantine for two weeks, under threat of fines or criminal charges.

Three days later, she found out that at least two people at the conference had tested positive for COVID-19. Rabhan thinks her chances of having contracted the coronavirus are low, but she’s content to stay home. She sees it as her civic duty. “We all have a shared sense of not wanting what happened in Italy and other countries to happen in our little country here,” she said. She checks the Health Ministry’s website daily for updates.

Israel began imposing restrictions early. By Feb. 4, it required everyone who’d recently been to mainland China to self-quarantine. By Feb. 23, officials expanded the quarantine list to include four other countries, Hong Kong, and Macau. Then this Monday, they made quarantine mandatory for all travelers returning from abroad. As of March 11, the country had 75 confirmed cases and no deaths, according to the World Health Organization.

“I’m definitely grateful there is a place I can look and find answers on what I can do,” Rabhan added. “We’re getting very clear messages.”

Her sister, who also attended the conference, returned to Long Island and called the New York City Department of Health. In a text message shared with ProPublica, her sister wrote, “NYC dept of health said no quarantine necessary since they” — the attendees who came down COVID19 — “were asymptomatic at AIPAC and therefore not contagious. That’s their guidelines.” The New York City Health Department didn’t respond to a request for comment.

A group of George Washington University students who also attended the conference initially self-quarantined for a night, but the university later discontinued the measures after consulting academic experts and the D.C. Department of Health.

When no one can agree on when to test or how long to quarantine

Christine Norrie’s teenage daughter, Jo, got back from Italy after a school trip on Feb. 23. She had visited Rome, Florence and Assisi — cities currently under lockdown in an attempt to slow the spread of the virus, which has infected more than 12,000 across the country. About five days after her return, she started feeling sick and was diagnosed with an upper respiratory infection. Her doctor said she didn’t need COVID-19 testing because she was otherwise healthy but recommended she stay home for two weeks as a conservative measure.

Jo’s symptoms persisted. So Christine called New York’s general information hotline and was routed to an official with the Department of Health, who advised her to seek testing. She booked an online visit with an ER doctor. “Basically, it seemed that if we want to test we would have to seriously lobby for it due her symptoms being mild,” Norrie said.

The ER physician recommended they continue self-isolating. But the timelines she was given by the various medical personnel were scattershot: Jo’s pediatrician had directed her to self-isolate for two weeks from the day she visited the office. The ER doctor said isolation meant two weeks from the onset of symptoms. And when Norrie consulted the CDC’s website, the agency said that meant two weeks from the day she left Italy.

Confused, Norrie decided to keep Jo home for the longest period of time suggested. “I’m grateful she’s an excellent student and she can manage taking the time off from school,” she said. “No matter how hard it is to stay at home, we’ll take the more liberal amount.”

When federal officials have clear guidelines but fail to fill you in

The guidance from the CDC was clear: Anyone flying into the United States from Italy should go home and stay there for two weeks. But on Tuesday afternoon, one critical group hadn’t gotten the memo: passengers. ProPublica went to John F. Kennedy Airport to meet passengers coming off a flight from Rome. Eight spoke to a reporter, and all of them expressed surprise that over the course of the journey, no one had instructed them to self-quarantine.

“Nothing in Rome. Nothing from the airlines. … No one told me to quarantine,” said Yan Meshoyrer, on his way home to New Jersey. “If I didn’t watch CNN, I’d have no idea this was happening.” Jessica Andir, a Milan native living in Rome, said that before the trip, she was worried that agents with Customs and Border Protection would grill her about the outbreak in her hometown. Instead, she ended up worrying about how little she was told: “Absolutely nothing.”

A CDC spokesperson told ProPublica that the entity responsible for telling travelers about the recommended quarantine depends on how people fly in. Customs is supposed to direct travelers from China and Iran to CDC officials stationed at the airport. Those coming from China are supposed to receive detailed booklets, which contain instructions to call their local health department and stay home for two weeks and include a journal to write down their temperature twice a day. Those coming from Iran should get shorter self-quarantine guidance. For those coming directly from Italy and South Korea, airlines are supposed to give passengers instructions on their flights; for those not flying direct, they’re supposed to get the instructions from CBP.

The passengers on the plane said they heard nothing from Alitalia Airlines before they landed. Alitalia did not respond to ProPublica’s questions.

A CBP spokesperson did not answer repeated questions about whether its agents are telling people who arrive from Italy to self-quarantine.

Dr. Cyrus Shahpar, former team lead of CDC’s Global Rapid Response Team, said that at a time when resources are limited, the government’s scattershot approach to self-quarantining all but defeats the purpose: “If you’re doing something with limited effectiveness and you’re only doing it halfway, it’s going to be extremely ineffective.”

When even investigative journalists are having trouble getting answers

As we were calling people around the country to learn how hard it was to get answers from public officials, we received news that brought our reporting (quite literally) closer to home. The three of us had just returned from an 1,100-person conference in New Orleans, and Tuesday night, we learned one of the attendees was later diagnosed with COVID-19. ProPublica’s president, Richard Tofel, told all of us not to return to the office for two weeks.

Suddenly, we were fielding questions from worried colleagues. Conference attendees started a spreadsheet with the conflicting information they’d received from their local health departments. Some couldn’t get through to anyone at all.

Andrea Suozzo, a newspaper editor in Winooski, Vermont, came back from the conference Sunday and woke up the next morning feeling under the weather with a sore throat. When she learned about the attendee who tested presumptively positive Tuesday evening, she started to panic.

“I called the Vermont Health Department,” she told ProPublica, “and they said to call my doctor or 211. I called my doctor and they said, don’t come in, and call the urgent care. I called the urgent care center, and their voicemail said, ‘If you think you might have COVID-19, don’t come in — stay home.’ I called 211, and they said nothing in the system can happen without going through your primary care provider.”

On Wednesday, Suozzo was waiting for a call from her doctor with instructions. “I just want to make sure I’m on somebody’s radar,” she said. “I just have no idea what to do or who to talk to.”

Scott Klein, a deputy managing editor at ProPublica, was also trying to navigate the disparate information he was receiving. Klein had spoken to the person who tested positive. He was sure they’d stood within 6 feet of each other at the conference. “Ironically, we talked about doing a coronavirus project together,” Klein said.

Klein first called the state Department of Health where the person who tested positive lives. He was initially told that for him to have been at-risk, he needed to be within 6 feet of someone showing symptoms — and the attendee hadn’t had symptoms until leaving the conference. But then the official changed course, saying the person who tested positive didn’t need to be showing symptoms for Klein to be at-risk. The department official told Klein he would get a call back to clarify and said Klein could go get groceries and gas for his car so long as he stayed more than 6 feet away from people. The official also advised Klein to call his local department of health for further guidelines.

When he got through to the New York State Department of Health, an official instructed him to remain in a room isolated from his wife and kids and to use a mask. “They seemed to be giving me information as though I already had symptoms,” Klein said. He tried calling the New York City Department of Health afterward, but he was put on hold and didn’t wait for the call to go through.

Given the diverging information from health departments, Klein decided to move forward in what he felt was the most responsible way. “I’m going to stay home and not leave my apartment, but I don’t have the ability to be in an isolated room. I live in a small New York apartment,” Klein said. “I’ll do the best with the circumstances I have.”

American Families Deserve a Coronavirus Bailout, Not Industries

This week, the global coronavirus crisis officially became a U.S. economic crisis. Monday saw the Dow’s worst single-day drop in history — 2,013 points — and markets continued to convulse at the opening Thursday to the point trading was temporarily halted following a steep drop. It is evident a broad economic contraction, affecting everything from hospitality to shipping, is compounding rising anxiety over the COVID-19 pandemic.

The obvious touchstone for many financial experts was the 2008 crisis, when a finance sector run amok rocked the global economy and destroyed the U.S. housing market, wiping out the generational wealth of millions of Americans. Because the coronavirus looks set to have an even more enduring impact on the economy, it is important to remember how the government failed the American people in its response in 2008.

Twelve years ago, culpable banking and finance institutions that should have been reduced in size, power and wealth were given billions in taxpayer-funded black checks, while millions of innocent people lost their retirement savings and homes. Famously, only one top banker responsible for the crisis went to prison.

There are no clear villains in the current crisis, and we can’t imprison a virus to make an example of it. But we can make sure that ordinary people are the beneficiaries of government resources — which may be strained in ways not seen in recent memory — instead of privately held industries and their investors who have spent the last decade hiding profits to avoid taxes and inflating their share prices with stock buybacks.

The first conversations about who the U.S. government will help, and how much, have already begun. The most important so far is taking place in Congress, where on Wednesday night, House Democrats introduced an emergency package that establishes the right to paid sick leave (which would be a first in this country), expands unemployment benefits and establishes an emergency food stamp program with no work or work training requirements attached. The bill reflects a basic understanding of what will be required to keep people afloat when they can’t work because they are sick, unemployed or both. (In Italy, the worst-hit country in Europe, the government has gone further, suspending monthly bills on utilities and all mortgage payments.)

As in 2008, there will competitors for these funds from the federal government, as well as those seeking to exploit the crisis for financial or political gain. President Donald Trump’s proposed payroll tax break, that has been met with resistance in Congress and elsewhere, is being packaged as a coronavirus-related economic relief and stimulus tool. Then there are the industries we can expect will demand bailouts on dubious claims of being socially and economically indispensable. There are already reports the administration is discussing a bailout of the shale oil industry in response to the collapse in oil prices (caused, in part, by the steep, virus-related drop in demand for air travel.)

With the possibility that tens of millions of Americans will be unable to work in the coming months, the shale oil industry should not be in line for a single penny. Unlike 2008, this bailout must be focused on keeping Americans and their families fed, housed and — eventually, at no cost to them — vaccinated against COVID-19.

China Shuts Down Mount Everest Climbing Routes

The Latest on the world’s coronavirus pandemic:

Mountain climbing expedition operators on Mount Everest says Chinese mountaineering officials will not allow spring climbs from their side of the world’s highest mountain due to fears of coronavirus.

On the other side of the mountain in Nepal, operators say cancellations for the popular spring climbing season have been pouring in, despite the mountain being open for business.

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As the virus is coming under control in China, officials there are taking steps to prevent new infections coming from abroad, including by putting overseas travelers arriving in Beijing into 14-day quarantines.

China has seen nearly 81,000 infections but some 61,000 of them have already recovered. Over 3,000 virus victims have died in China, the world’s hardest-hit nation.

___

President Donald Trump sought to assure the markets mid-day Thursday as he took questions from reporters while meeting with Ireland’s prime minister. The president often takes credit for market gains in the last three years, though the bull market that ended this week began in early 2009.

“You have to remember the stock market, as an example, is still much higher than when I got here,” Trump said. “It’s taken a big hit, but it’s going to all bounce back and it’s going to bounce back very big at the right time.”

Trump decision to ban travel from most European countries for 30 days has rattled markets around the world and sent stocks plummeting.

Trumps says “I don’t want people dying and that’s why I made these decisions. Whether it affects the stock market or not, very important, but it’s not important compared to life and death.”

___

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is self-isolating at home after wife has exhibited flu-like symptoms.

Trudeau’s office said Sophie Grégoire Trudeau returned from a speaking engagement in the United Kingdom and began began exhibiting mild flu-like symptoms including a low fever late Wednesday night. She is being tested for COVID-19 and is awaiting results.

The statement said “Out of an abundance of caution, the prime minister is opting to self-isolate and work from home until receiving Sophie’s results.”

___

The Southeastern Conference has cancelled the remainder of its 2020 men’s college basketball tournament in Nashville after holding two games the first day. It marks the first time since 1978 that it hasn’t held a tournament.

The SEC tweeted its cancellation a little more than an hour before Alabama was to face Tennessee in the first of four second-round games at Bridgestone Arena. It comes less than a day after the conference announced that spectators would be banned.

___

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said religious leaders have agreed to cancel weddings, baptisms, funeral services and other ceremonies in the coming weeks to help prevent spread of the new coronavirus.

Kurz said Thursday the measures were part of efforts to enforcing “social distancing” that also includes closing middle schools and high schools beginning Monday and postpone local elections March 22 in the state of Styria. Burials are still allowed.

He added that further measures would be announced Friday. Austria has 302 confirmed cases.

___

Oregon has banned all gatherings of more than 250 people statewide for four weeks to try to stop the spread of the new coronavirus.

The order was issued by Gov. Kate Brown, who said “it’s time for us all to do what we can to slow its spread.”

Officials assume that thousands of Oregonians will get the new coronavirus. Brown, who was to speak at a news conference Thursday in Portland, said all non-essential school gatherings and activities should be canceled — such as parent meetings, field trips and competitions.

She also recommended businesses increase the physical distances between employees, limit travel and stagger work schedules.

___

The Philippine president has suspended domestic travel to and from the Manila area for a month and authorized sweeping quarantines in the region to fight the new coronavirus.

President Rodrigo Duterte also banned large gatherings in the capital, suspended most government work and extended the suspension of classes by a month in new restrictions announced Thursday in a nationwide TV address.

He warned that violators and officials who refuse to enforce the restrictions would face possible imprisonment. But he insisted “this is not martial law.”

Health officials in the Asian nation have confirmed 52 infections and two deaths.

___

Singapore’s Islamic Religious Council says all mosques in the city state will close beginning Friday for at least five days for disinfection.

It says all activities, religious classes and lectures will also be halted for two weeks. The council says the move is intended to minimize the spread of the virus after two men, out of 90 Singaporeans who attended a recent mass religious gathering in Kuala Lumpur, were diagnosed with the virus.

With the suspension of obligatory Friday prayers for Muslim males at mosques, it said sermons will be carried online. Malaysian authorities say 10,000 people, half of them foreigners, participated in the four-day religious event in late February at a mosque in a Kuala Lumpur suburb.

Malaysia has reported 149 infections.

___

The Dutch government has banned gatherings of more than 100 people until the end of the month in an effort to control the spread of the new coronavirus.

Health and Sports Minister Bruno Bruins said the far-reaching measure would cover events and venues such as sports clubs, museums and theaters. He also urged people to stay home if they have symptoms and to work from home if possible.

The Netherlands has 614 confirmed cases of the virus and five deaths.

Prime Minister Mark Rutte said the government had decided not to close schools yet.

__

Azerbaijan is reporting its first death of a patient infected with coronavirus, a woman who had recently returned from Iran who had underlying health issues.

___

Hospitals in Italy’s hard-hit Lombardy region, already overwhelmed trying to care for the increasing number of sick people in limited intensive care units, are overflowing with the dead.

Lombardy’s top health care official, Giulio Gallera, said at the request of the hospitals, the region had simplified the bureaucracy needed to process death certificates and bury the dead, which in Lombardy alone had reached 617 by late Wednesday.

Italian officials have halted both weddings and funerals for a month in their efforts to control Europe’s worst coronavirus outbreak. The country has nearly 12,500 infections and has seen 827 deaths overall.

Worldwide, 126,000 people have been infected with the new coronavirus, 68,000 have recovered and 4,600 have died.

___

Borders are re-emerging in Europe due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Czech government declared a state of emergency Thursday due to coronavirus and was renewing border checks at its borders with Austria and Germany.

People will be banned from crossing in at any other place. The measure, effective Friday at midnight, was approved Thursday.

Prime Minister Andrej Babis said people from 13 risk countries that include not only China, South Korea and Iran but also EU nations such as Italy, Spain, France, Austria and Germany as well Britain will not be allowed to enter the Czech Republic.

In addition, Czech citizens are not allowed to travel to those countries. Exceptions include truck drivers, train workers and pilots.

Also, starting Friday, all public gatherings of more than 30 people will be banned.

___

Congress is shutting the Capitol and all House and Senate office buildings to the public until April in reaction to the spread of the new coronavirus.

The House and Senate sergeants at arms said that the closure will begin at 5 p.m. EDT Thursday. Only lawmakers, aides, journalists and official visitors will be allowed into the buildings. The statement says officials are acting “out of concern for the health and safety of congressional employees as well as the public.”

Politicians in Europe, Iran and China have contracted the virus and several U.S. lawmakers have already self-quarantined due to exposure. The virus has infected over 126,000 people worldwide and killed over 4.600 but over 68,000 victims have already recovered.

___

World markets are enduring violent swings amid uncertainty about how badly the outbreak will hit the economy.

An early plunge of 7% on Wall Street triggered a trading halt as a sell-off slamming global markets continued.

The Dow Jones industrials dropped more than 1,600 points, or 7%, the S&P 500 fell a similar amount. Trading resumes after 15 minutes.

The rout came after President Donald Trump imposed a travel ban on most of Europe and offered few new measures to contain the economic impact of the coronavirus outbreak.

Benchmarks in Europe fell more than 7% even after the European Central Bank announced more stimulus measures.

___

Norway and Lithuania are shutting down kindergartens, schools and universities for at least two weeks and the Norwegian government says employees at work must be at least one meter apart.

In Oslo, the Norwegian capital, gatherings of more than 50 people were banned. Norway’s royal palace said all official arrangements till early April will either be cancelled or postponed. King Harald V said it’s “crucial” that everyone “avoid exposing ourselves or others to infection.”

Lithuania suspended gatherings of more than 100 people and closed museums, cinemas and sports clubs. In the capital of Vilnius, the lockdown was for five weeks.

In Finland, the government recommended banning all events with more than 500 people until end of May.

Denmark’s royal palace said Crown Prince Frederik and his wife will return from Switzerland “to be with the Danes” at this time.

___

Princess Cruises has announced, due to the new coronavirus, it will voluntarily pause global operations of its 18 cruise ships for 60 days, affecting trips departing March 12 to May 10.

Cruise ships have been particularly hard hit amid the new pandemic and have been turned away by dozens of ports and countries. The Diamond Princess cruise ship, which Japanese officials held in a flawed quarantine operation, infected hundreds of passengers and crew.

Jan Swartz, president of Princess Cruises, says “by taking this bold action of voluntarily pausing the operations of our ships, it is our intention to reassure our loyal guests, team members and global stakeholders of our commitment to the health, safety and well-being of all who sail with us.”

Passengers now on a Princess cruise that will end in the next five days will continue to sail as expected through the end of the itinerary. Current voyages that extend beyond March 17 will be ended at the most convenient location for guests.

Under normal operations, it serves more than 50,000 passengers a day.

___

Britain, which is exempt from the U.S. travel ban on most European nations, has not taken the stringent measures seen in other European countries, such as closing schools or banning large events.

The U.K. has 456 confirmed cases of the new coronavirus and eight deaths. But the centerpiece of official British advice so far is that people should wash their hands often in warm, soapy water.

On Thursday, Britain’s Conservative government is expected to announce that it is moving from attempting to contain the virus to delaying its spread. That is likely to bring wider measures, including a recommendation that people with flu-like symptoms stay home for a week. But there are so far no plans for travel bans or large-scale closures of schools or other institutions.

In Ireland — which is also excluded from the U.S. travel ban — 43 cases have been confirmed and one person has died.

U.S. President Donald Trump has golf courses in Scotland and Ireland.

___

Iran has asked for an emergency $5 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund to combat the outbreak of the novel coronavirus there, which has killed more than 360 people and infected some 9,000 nationwide.

Iran’s Central Bank chief Abdolnasser Hemmati said Thursday he made the request last week in a letter to IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva.

Iran’s economy has been battered by U.S. sanctions, which have choked Tehran’s ability to export oil widely. The virus outbreak prompted all of Iran’s neighbors to shutter their borders and nations have cut travel links with Iran, including shipping in some cases, affecting imports, as well.

___

Greek authorities say a ferry with 341 passengers and 77 crew on board is being held in port on the Greek island of Lemnos after a crew member presented symptoms similar to those of the new coronavirus.

The Merchant Marine Ministry said the ship had set sail in late Wednesday from the northern Greek port town of Kavala, where the crew member was removed from the ship and taken to a local hospital. He is being tested. The 127 people who had disembarked in Lemnos have been contacted by authorities and told to self-isolate at home until the results of the crew member’s test are in.

Lemnos was the first of the ferry’s 10 scheduled stops between Kavala and Greece’s main port of Piraeus, near Athens.

Greece has 98 confirmed virus cases and one death, a 66-year-old man who died Thursday.

___

Ireland is closing all schools and cultural institutions until March 29, in a major escalation of its response to the new coronavirus.

Prime Minister Leo Varadkar announced the measures would take effect at 6 p.m. Thursday. He said the closure applies to schools, colleges, childcare facilities and cultural institutions. All indoor gatherings of more than 100 people and outdoor events with more than 500 are also canceled.

Speaking during a trip to Washington, Varadkar said people should work from home as much as possible.

He said the measures would mean major disruptions but “acting together as one nation we can save many lies.”

So far 43 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in Ireland and one person has died. Ireland, along with Britain, is excluded from a 30-day U.S. ban on travellers form continental Europe

___

Real Madrid says its soccer and basketball teams have been put into quarantine after a basketball player for the club tested positive for the coronavirus.

The Spanish club says the soccer team was also affected because it shares training facilities with the basketball team.

The decision by the club came moments before the Spanish league said the next two rounds of Spain’s first- and second-division matches are being suspended due to fears of the coronavirus outbreak.

___

The European Union has slammed the new anti-virus travel ban announced by U.S. President Donald Trump, lashing out at the “unilateral” decision.

In a joint statement, EU Council President Charles Michel and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen insisted that the coronavirus pandemic is a “global crisis, not limited to any continent and it requires cooperation rather than unilateral action.”

Trump’s new restrictions apply only to most foreign citizens who have been in Europe’s passport-free travel zone at any point within 14 days prior to their arrival to the United States.

The so-called “Schengen” area comprises 26 countries including EU members France, Italy, German, Greece, Austria and Belgium, where the EU has its headquarters, but also others like Switzerland, Norway and Iceland.

Trump said the monthlong restriction on travel would begin late Friday. He accused Europe of not acting quickly enough to address the “foreign virus” and claimed that U.S. clusters were “seeded” by European travelers.

Von der Leyen and Michel dismissed Trump’s suggestion that the EU has not done enough.

___

Japan’s lower house of parliament has endorsed a legislation that will allow Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to declare state of emergency due to the coronavirus outbreak.

The legislation, a revision to add the coronavirus to an existing law enacted for earlier influenza outbreaks, is a controversial one that opponents say could severely limit civil rights, including the right to gather.

The bill, passed Thursday by the lower house, is expected to be enacted as early as Saturday. Under it, Abe can issue compulsory nationwide school closures and confiscate private property to build new hospitals.

Japan has 645 cases of the virus, not counting cruise ship passengers and crew.

___

The U.S. Army has decided to reduce the number of troops taking part in massive war games that have been planned across Europe over the next six months due to the new coronavirus.

The Defender-Europe 2020 exercises were set to involve some 20,000 American personnel, the biggest deployment of U.S. troops to Europe in the last 25 years.

But U.S. Army Europe said in a statement that “in light of the current coronavirus outbreak, we will modify the exercise by reducing the number of U.S. participants.” No details on numbers were provided.

In all, around 37,000 soldiers from 18 countries, not all of whom are members of the NATO military alliance, had been expected to take part. Some troops and equipment have already deployed.

___

Denmark, which has 514 confirmed cases of the virus, on Thursday entered a virtual lockdown.

All schools — public and private — and daycare facilities will be closed from Monday, but many students are staying home already. Schools offered to take care of children but said there would be little teaching.

All public servants who do not perform critical functions have been ordered to stay home for the next two weeks. Hospitals and nursing homes have been urged to impose tighter restrictions on visits. All indoor cultural institutions, libraries and leisure facilities are closed.

The restrictions are to continue for two weeks.

___

Two more passengers on board a river cruise boat in eastern Cambodia have tested positive for the new virus.

The Cambodian Health Ministry said a 73-year-old man and his 69-year-old wife who are both from the United Kingdom have been infected. They were on the same boat where another passenger from the United Kingdom tested positive two days ago

The remaining passengers who are awaiting their test results are being transferred from the cruise boat to a hotel in Kampong Cham for continued quarantine.

The luxury cruise with 64 passengers and crew originated in Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City.

Rudy Gobert’s Health Scare Shuts Down NBA, for Now

It started as a joke: Before leaving a post-practice interview session Rudy Gobert touched all the tape recorders that were placed before him on a table, devices that reporters who cover the Utah Jazz were using during an availability with him on Monday before a game with the Detroit Pistons.

It isn’t so funny now.

Gobert is now the NBA’s Patient Zero for coronavirus after becoming the first player in the league to test positive, a person with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press.

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The 7-foot-1 Frenchman is at the center of why the league has been shut down for the foreseeable future:

— Utah’s game against Oklahoma City Wednesday night was canceled and the Pistons are among five teams that have played the Jazz — and Gobert — since the start of March, the others being Boston, Toronto, New York and Cleveland. And Washington, which played Utah in late February, said Thursday that it was having its players, coaches and basketball operations personnel self-quarantine for the next three to four days.

The Wizards played at Utah on Feb. 29. Washington also played Tuesday against the New York Knicks, another recent opponent of the Jazz. The Wizards said players, coaches and basketball operations staff who have flu-like symptoms will be tested for coronavirus.

— The Raptors also said Thursday they are self-quarantining. “Our players, coaches and traveling staff have all been advised to into self-isolation for 14 days,” the team said, also confirming that Toronto players had been tested.

— Gobert shared the court with 50 opposing players in those games, plus 15 referees.

— One of the refs was Courtney Kirkland, who was to work the New Orleans-Sacramento game on Wednesday that got canceled because he had been on the court with Gobert two nights earlier, and who knows how many ballboys, stat-crew employees, security guards, attendants and others did as well.

— Then there’s Gobert’s own teammates and the Jazz coaches and staff. And everyone he’s been on a plane with in recent days. Or shared a hotel elevator with. Or dined with. Or shook hands with. And so on, and so on.

“I’m sure I probably had contact with him,” Detroit’s Langston Galloway said.

He added, “Staying focused on that moment of interaction with a lot of different people and knowing that at the end of the day you might have touched the ball, you might have interacted with a fan and just being (cautious) with that going forward.”

The NBA shutdown could cost teams well into the hundreds of millions of dollars depending on how long the shutdown lasts. Those teams that have faced Gobert in recent days will likely face some testing. And some of those Jazz reporters said they were getting tested for COVID-19, just in case.

“It’s unprecedented,” Detroit Pistons coach Dwane Casey said. “I think it’s the prudent thing to do. And what went on in Utah, I don’t know all the information but that just shows you how fragile everything is right now.”

This is the reality of the coronavirus, which was labeled a pandemic by the World Health Organization on Wednesday weeks after beginning its havoc-wreaking global run that has sickened well over 100,000 and killed more than 4,000.

For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia.

The vast majority of people recover from the new virus. According to the WHO, people with mild illness recover in about two weeks, while those with more severe illness may take three to six weeks to recover.

Charlotte coach James Borrego said these are scary times in the NBA, and no one argued.

“They’re all concerned and rightfully so,” Casey said. “Everybody in our league should be concerned. I think everybody in our country right now, more than just basketball, is concerned. We all have to take care of ourselves and look out for our fellow man.”

That’s what Orlando’s Evan Fournier did Wednesday night.

Fournier, a French national teammate of Gobert’s, reached out to him after news of the diagnosis and leaguewide shutdown broke.

“Was just on the phone with Rudy,” Fournier wrote. “He is doing good man. Lets not (panic) everyone. Love you all.”

___

AP Sports Writer Howard Fendrich in Washington contributed.

Dow Sinks 8% as Sell-Off Slamming Global Markets Deepens

NEW YORK — The sell-off bludgeoning financial markets around the world got even worse Thursday as the economic pain caused by the coronavirus became more painfully clear. Worries are rising that the White House and other authorities around the world can’t or won’t help the weakening economy soon.

After the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed in a bear market for the first time in more than a decade, President Donald Trump said late Wednesday he would restrict travel to Europe in hopes of containing the virus. It’s the latest hit for an airline industry already battered by frightened travelers cancelling plans, and market losses accelerated around the world as Trump spoke while giving few details about a big stimulus program that could help.

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The S&P 500 was down 7%, as of 10:15 a.m. Eastern time, after trading was temporarily halted following a steep drop in the first few minutes of trading. The index is set to join the Dow in entering a bear market after losing more than 20% from its record set last month, and one of the greatest eras in Wall Street’s history is crumbling. The Dow was off about 1,800 points, or close to 8%.

The damage was worldwide and eye-popping. Among the big moves:

— European stocks tumbled 10%, even after the European Central Bank pledged to buy more bonds and offer more help for the economy.

— In Asia, stocks in Thailand and the Philippines fell so fast that trading was temporarily halted. Japan’s Nikkei 225 sank 4.4% to its lowest close in four years, and South Korea’s market lost 3.9%.

— Treasury yields, which were one of the first markets to sound the alarm on the economic risks of the virus, fell further in an indication of more fear in the market. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 0.65% from 0.82% late Wednesday as investors are willing to own bonds that pay close to nothing in exchange for safety.

Not only has the degree of the market’s drop in recent weeks been breathtaking, so has its speed. If the S&P 500 remains under 2,708.92, which looks very likely, it would be the fastest that the index has fallen from a record to a bear market since World War II, according to CFRA.

It was just two days ago that the S&P 500 soared nearly 5% amid hopes that big stimulus from the U.S. government could arrive soon to help cushion the economic blow from the virus. Trump’s pitch for a cut in payroll taxes has hit resistance on Capitol Hill, though, and hopes dissipated after Trump’s Wednesday remarks from the Oval Office, where he blamed the “foreign virus.”

“The market judgement on that announcement is that it’s too little too late,” said Michael McCarthy of CMC Markets.

Investors know that stimulus from governments and central banks around the world won’t solve the COVID-19 crisis, which global health authorities declared a pandemic Wednesday. Only the containment of the virus can do that. But those measures could help support to the economy in the meantime, and investors fear things would be much worse without them.

For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia.

The vast majority of people recover from the new virus, but the fear is that COVID-19 could drag the global economy into a recession as quarantines and other measures force companies to close shop and worries about the virus scare customers away.

Many analysts say markets will continue to swing sharply until the number of new infections stops accelerating. More than 126,000 people in more than 110 countries have been infected.

Travel stocks again were among the market’s hardest hit. Norwegian Cruise Line lost more than a quarter of its value, and Royal Caribbean Cruises fell 23.6%.

Crude continued its brutal week of trading as producers continue to pull oil from the ground even as demand sags from a virus-weakened economy. Brent crude, the international standard, fell $2.90, or 8.1%, to $32.89. Benchmark U.S. crude lost $2.36 to $30.62 per barrel.

The S&P 500 was down 7%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1,842, or 7.8%, to 21,706, and the Nasdaq was down 6.5%.

March Madness Will Go On Without the Crowds

The buzzer-beaters, upsets and all the other shining moments of this year’s NCAA basketball tournaments will be played in mostly empty arenas.

Trying to avoid spreading the deadly coronavirus that has become a global pandemic, the NCAA has decided that the men’s and women’s tournament games will be off-limits to the general public.

NCAA President Mark Emmert said Wednesday that he made the decision to conduct both tournaments, which begin next week, with only essential staff and limited family in attendance. The decision comes after the NCAA’s COVID-19 advisory panel of medical experts recommended against playing sporting events open to the general public.

Emmert told The Associated Press that canceling the tournament was considered.

“The decision was based on a combination of the information provided by national and state officials, by the advisory team that we put together of medical experts from across the country, and looking at what was going to be in the best interest of our student-athletes, of course,” Emmert told the AP in a phone interview. “But also the public health implications of all of this. We recognize our tournaments bring people from all around the country together. They’re not just regional events. They’re big national events. It’s a very, very hard decision for all the obvious reasons.”

Emmert said the NCAA wants to move the men’s Final Four from Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium to a smaller arena in the area. The NCAA also will consider using smaller venues for regional sites currently set to be played at the Toyota Center in Houston, Madison Square Garden in New York, Staples Center in Los Angeles and Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.

“We have to determine the availability of the sites, obviously, but it doesn’t make good sense to have a football stadium be empty,” Emmert said.

All sites for next week’s men’s games will remain the same unless conditions in those areas force relocation, Emmert said.

First- and second-round sites for the women’s tournament will become official next week. Those games are usually played at or near the campuses of the highly seeded teams.

“It’s really sad. Obviously it’s disappointing for all our fans,” said Louisville women’s coach Jeff Walz, whose team is ranked No. 6 in the latest AP poll. “At the same time I completely understand for the health and safety of the fans and student-athletes and everyone involved.”

Walz said the university already had sold more than 4,000 tickets for the first- and second-round sessions.

The decision applies to more than just men’s and women’s basketball. All NCAA-sponsored championships including hockey’s Frozen Four will be affected.

But the men’s basketball tournament is the crown jewel, one of the most popular events on the American sports calendar. March Madness draws hundreds of thousands of fans to arenas from coast to coast. The men’s tournament generated more than $900 million in revenue last year for the NCAA and its members, though the majority of that was from a media rights deal with CBS and Turner that pays about $800 billion per year.

Emmert said CBS and Turner plan to broadcast the games us usual. Other media members will be allowed into the arenas to cover the games, but how many is still being determined, he said.

Emmert said a protocol for the medical screening of people entering the arenas is still being worked out, along with what constitutes essential staff and how to define family members.

For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia. The vast majority of people recover from the virus.

The 68-team field for the men’s basketball tournament is scheduled to be announced Sunday and the 64-team women’s tournament field is to be unveiled Monday. Games begin Tuesday and Wednesday on the men’s side in Dayton, Ohio, where earlier in the day the governor said he would issue an order to restrict spectator access to indoor sporting events.

The Mid-American Conference on Tuesday announced it was closing its men’s and women’s basketball tournament games at Cleveland’s Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, home of the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers and scheduled site of the men’s NCAA games, to the general public. The women’s tournament started Wednesday.

The Big West Conference announced a similar move, not allowing the general public into its basketball tournament games to be played this week at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California.

Conference basketball tournaments are in full swing across the country this week.

Emmert said it will still be up to conference officials and their members to decide how they will proceed with their tournaments for the rest of the week.

The Atlantic Coast Conference is in Day 2 of its five-day men’s tournament in Greensboro, North Carolina, and the Pac-12 played the first game of its tournament in Las Vegas on Wednesday.

Later Wednesday, the Southeastern Conference was to begin its men’s tournament in Nashville, Tennessee; the Big East was set to start at Madison Square Garden in New York; and the Big Ten was scheduled to tip off in Indianapolis. There were no plans to restrict fan access to those events.

March Madness hits another level next week with the start of the NCAA Tournament to crown a national champion.

There are eight first- and second-round sites for the men’s tournament, scheduled to be played March 19-22. Locations include Cleveland; Spokane, Washington; Albany, New York; Sacramento, California; and Omaha, Nebraska. The four regional sites for the second weekend of the tournament are Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Houston and New York. The Final Four is in Atlanta, with the semifinals on April 4 and the championship game April 6.

The women’s tournament first- and second-round games begin March 21 and will be played at 16 sites. The regionals will be played in Dallas, Greenville, South Carolina; Portland, Oregon; and Fort Wayne, Indiana. The Final Four will be held in New Orleans on April 3 and 5.

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AP Sports Writer Tom Withers in Cleveland contributed to this report.