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2022. Harvard researchers say Americans may have to keep their distance for another couple of years …
■ … because that’s how long they expect it’ll take to develop adequate “critical care capacity … or a treatment or vaccine.”
■ How Chicago reopened after the 1918 flu epidemic.
■ The Centers for Disease Control warns COVID-19 can travel 13 feet through the air and be conveyed via people’s shoes.
■ The Los Angeles Times: “So much is unknown about the pandemic because the government keeps a lid on it.”
‘Sacrificial lambs.’ A grocery store manager tells CBS 2 Chicago her workers are putting their lives on the line every day of the pandemic.
■ The Arm and a Leg podcast tackles the question, “If I get COVID-19, what good will my insurance do?”
Trump’s ‘crime against humanity.’ The editor-in-chief of the respected Lancet medical journal says “every scientist, every health worker, every citizen must resist and rebel” against President Trump’s decision to halt U.S. funding for the World Health Organization.
■ CNN, fact-checking Tuesday’s presidential coronavirus briefing: “Trump denies saying another thing he said.”
Unfortunately, the reporter gave up. Trump threatened to walk out of his briefing if a reporter didn’t stop trying to ask a question Trump wouldn’t let him finish asking.
■ The Intercept: Trump’s self-inflating video—the one that prompted TV networks to cut away from Monday’s briefing—in fact highlighted his failure to prepare for the pandemic.
Because of course it will. In an unprecedented move that could delay delivery of those coronavirus relief checks, Trump’s name will be on them.
■ ProPublica: “Millions of Americans might not get stimulus checks. Some might be tricked into paying TurboTax to get theirs.”
■ To bolster calls for more streamlined relief to homeowners, Consumer Reports wants to hear from you if you’re worried about paying your mortgage.
■ A Tribune editorial: “Government bailouts for United and Boeing are a bad idea.”
Curve bent. Gov. Pritzker says Illinois’ lockdown seems to be slowing the spread of the virus, but he says “it may go up again if we don’t adhere to the stay-at-home order.”
■ The governor says he’s not counting on help from the Trump administration: “I’ve given up on any promises that have been made.”
■ Pritzker’s been cutting deals for (until now) secret flights from China to bring the state more masks and gloves.
■ Pritzker and other governors are talking about forming a kind of, you know, um, union of states.
■ An Indiana Republican congressman says, “In the choice between the loss of our way of life as Americans and the loss … of American lives,” the government shouldn’t always automatically “choose the latter.”
■ Democrats’ turnout in last week’s Wisconsin primary has Republicans worried.
Obama’s pivot left. The New York Times’ David Leonhardt says the surprising thing about Barack Obama’s endorsement of Joe Biden for president was Obama’s decision to go out of his rhetorical way “to signal that he agrees with the party’s shift toward a more progressive agenda.”
■ Here’s Obama’s video message: “To meet the moment, the Democratic Party will have to be bold.”
■ Elizabeth Warren is now formally backing Biden.
■ New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is calling on the party not to ignore a sexual assault charge against Biden.
■ The Washington Post says Biden’s staff confirms he’s wearing suitpants during his stay-at-home TV appearances.
Sorry about ‘the anxiety and fear.’ The CEO of the Hilco redevelopment company is apologizing to Chicago’s Little Village residents after the implosion of a 95-year-old smokestack covered the neighborhood in health-threatening dust.
■ The Beachwood Reporter’s Steve Rhodes: “You suck, Hilco.”
Lawyers’ deaths ‘suspicious.’ Police remained tight-lipped about the investigation of the deaths of two married lawyers whose bodies were found in their Oak Park home Monday night—advising they see “no information to suggest that there’s any risk to the neighborhood or community” but also revealing “none of the injuries appear to be self-inflicted.”
■ Video shows a Cook County Jail detainee attacking a guard, stealing keys and releasing others in a maximum-security block.
■ The union representing county jail workers says at least 181 have COVID-19.
Wild weather. Snow and ice contributed to a pile-up of at least 60 vehicles on the Kennedy Expressway early this morning, hurting dozens of people and adding to local hospitals’ burden.
■ From last year: Chicago has a history of big April snowstorms.
■ How to store a car so it’s ready when you finally leave home after the lockdown.
Reasons to be cheerful.
■ Zoom is getting more secure.
■ The pandemic has prompted the Supreme Court to livestream arguments for the first time—audio, not video—next month.
■ The Atlantic’s Olga Khazan suggests the pandemic could bring new awareness to “how important the humble checker or delivery driver really is.”
■ The Tribune’s Heidi Stevens: “Even though the moment is awful … we can do a lot of good in the middle of awful.”
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