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Good Morning. The US and Europe are responding differently to the latest waves of viruses, and one approach works better than the other.
Since the coronavirus has risen sharply again in recent weeks, many US has decided to keep restaurants open and schools closed. Much of Europe has done the opposite.
The European approach seems to be working better.
Check out this table, which shows the number of new daily virus cases in five countries, adjusted for population size:
As you can see, both the US and Europe are grappling with severe outbreaks, with the number of cases growing even faster in much of Europe than the US during much of this fall. In the past two weeks, France, Germany, Spain and the UK have all managed to lower their growth rates.
What is Europe doing differently? It cracks down on the type of indoor gatherings that are most likely to spread the virus. England closed pubs, restaurants, gyms and more on November 5th and announced that they would remain closed until at least December 2nd. France, the German regional governments and the Spanish region of Catalonia have also closed restaurants, among other things.
“I’m sure the Europeans didn’t want to limit their activities any more than we do,” said Janet Baseman, an epidemiologist at the University of Washington, over the weekend. “Everyone is tired and ready for it, but we have to accept the reality of the data before us.”
Many Americans have refused to accept this reality. In much of the country, restaurants remain open for indoor dining. Last week, New York State announced a new policy that public health experts see as a bizarre middle ground: companies licensed for liquor can stay open until 10 p.m.
The only indoor activity that presents a lower risk is school, especially elementary school. Why? Young children seem to be less likely to spread the virus than adults. “Research has shown that when you put in place social distancing protocols, school is a fairly safe environment,” Andreas Schleicher, who studies Schools for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris, told NPR.
Closing schools and switching completely to distance learning, on the other hand, have high social costs. Children learn less and many parents, mainly mothers, have left working life. The US is suffering from these two problems and a raging pandemic.
There aren’t any easy answers to be sure. The closure of restaurants and other businesses creates economic difficulties (which some European countries are trying to alleviate through government aid).
And the virus is now spreading so rapidly in the US that keeping schools open carries risks, including the possibility of teachers, janitors and other workers infecting one another. To keep schools open safely, the US would likely have to close other public places first. Few states – including Michigan, Oregon, New Mexico, and Washington – recently closed indoor dining.
“The US case and hospital admissions numbers we are seeing right now are appalling,” Baseman said.
But if there aren’t perfect solutions to the pandemic, there are better and worse. At the moment, the US seems to be lagging far behind what is possible.
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Princess Diana finally comes in
Since Netflix’s “The Crown” aired in 2016, fans have been eagerly awaiting Princess Diana’s character. This weekend she arrived on the first episode of the series’ fourth season.
It includes Diana between the ages of 16 and 28, beginning in the late 1970s. Emma Corrin plays the role in her first prominent role. Sarah Lyall, a former London correspondent for the Times, writes that Corrin “nails the princess’s seductive gesture – head tilted to one side, eyes flirtatiously looking up through her bangs”.
The presentation is based on interviews, media reports and a comprehensive biography of Andrew Morton from 1992. Diana revised the manuscript in her own handwriting and personally approved each page, Morton said.
A new challenge for this show: Much of the audience will have seen the events it portrays, such as Diana’s wedding to Prince Charles and Margaret Thatcher’s tenure as Prime Minister. Can the show still feel like the escape that the first three seasons were? “As always, they took a lot of cinematic freedom,” writes Sarah. “Crown observers in the UK are already debating what exactly is and what has been changed for dramatic purposes.”
PLAY, WATCH, EAT
What to cook
Make fried gyoza – Japanese dumplings filled with ground pork, cabbage, chives, ginger, and garlic.
What to hear
15 new tracks from Foo Fighters, Shania Twain, Billie Eilish and more.
art
A new building at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston displays works by Latin American and Latin American artists that are rarely shown in the U.S. (In Opinion), Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a former Republican Congressman, and Ken Salazar, Barack Obama’s former Secretary of the Interior, argue that the land should build a museum on the National Mall in Washington, DC, honoring the history and culture of Latino Americans.
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