Category: Corona Virus

The news of President Donald Trump's positive coronavirus test, and his subsequent hospitalisation, has reminded the country that no-one is protected from this virus.

So where is the US right now in dealing with the pandemic?

With about 7.5 million coronavirus cases, the US has the highest number of confirmed infections in the world - about one fifth of the global total despite having only 4% of the population.

After the initial spike in late March, social distancing restrictions gradually brought infections to heel. By May, case numbers had stabilised. But as states peeled back lockdown measures, cases began to rise, reaching a countrywide high in July.

But as summer hotspots - like Arizona, Florida and California - brought their outbreaks under control, surges have developed elsewhere, with fast-moving outbreaks in North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin.

In recent weeks, infections have risen steadily, with national cases increasing for three weeks in a row. Though numbers have so far not reached the record-breaking levels of July and August, the country is reporting more than 40,000 new cases each day.

Hospitalisations, too, are on the rise. According to data compiled by the Covid Tracking Project, the average number of people hospitalised for coronavirus in a week rose recently for the first time since July.

It's difficult to explain precisely why.

One contributing factor has been the return to school for US students.

A recent study from the US Centers for Disease Control on the almost 100,000 coronavirus cases reported between 2 August and 5 September - around when college students began their return to school - found that weekly cases among those aged 18-22 increased by 55% nationally.

The greatest increases came from the Northeast (which includes New York, Connecticut and New Jersey) and the Midwest, which is a region located west of the Northeast, including Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Wisconsin.

There have now been more than 130,000 cases identified at more than 1,300 American colleges, according to reporting from the New York Times.

Another compounding factor is the change in seasons. Top US virus expert Dr Anthony Fauci said last month that we should plan to "hunker down" through the autumn and winter. "It's not going to be easy," he said.

Why? A key piece of coronavirus health advice has been to do things outside. This gets more difficult as temperatures slip. Instead, cold weather will drive people indoors to closer quarters with potentially poor ventilation, where the risk of spread is heightened.

What's more, viruses tend to survive more easily in cold conditions.

There are now additional fears that the virus will collide with the US influenza season - which typically begins in October - threatening to overwhelm the health system.

Here's some good news - virus deaths in the US are continuing to fall, albeit gradually.

As of early October, the daily average had reached around 720, a marked drop from the staggering 1,000-plus daily fatalities recorded this summer.

But the bad news? This decline appears to have slowed in recent weeks. And recent daily tallies suggest some ground has been lost since the record lows of early July.

In total, over 210,000 people have died of Covid-19 across the US, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

Case numbers remain high throughout much of the country, with concentrations in the Upper Midwest (that includes Wisconsin and Minnesota) and parts of the West.

Wisconsin is one of the hardest-hit states. Case numbers there have quadrupled in the past month, according to the Covid Tracking Project. Hospitalisations more than doubled throughout the month of September, and the test positivity rate is now at a weekly average of 19.6%,

To put this figure into perspective: the World Health Organization (WHO) in May suggested a positive case rate at or below 5%, for two weeks, before reopening measures were implemented.

North Dakota is also in the throes of a major outbreak. For the fourth week in a row, it led the US in most cases per capita - at 548 cases per one million residents. Neighbouring South Dakota, as well as Montana, Utah and Idaho are also recording severe upticks in new infections.

Sunbelt states Arizona, Florida and California - pummelled by the virus this summer - are now getting some relief, with steep declines.

New York City, once the epicentre of the US outbreak, is once again facing climbing case numbers. In late September, as many public schools began their reopening, Mayor Bill de Blasio reported a daily positive test rate of 3.25% - the highest daily rate since June.

Amid mounting fears of a second wave, Mr de Blasio announced plans to close nonessential businesses in nine hotspots in Brooklyn and Queens - a plan quickly refused by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, a fellow Democrat and political rival.

Mr Cuomo said there "could be" a future rollback of indoor and outdoor dining in hotspot areas, but described the closure of nonessential businesses in certain postal codes as "arbitrary and capricious".

But despite the political tug-of-war, the city will go ahead with plans to shutter public and private school in those nine areas, home to about 500,000 New Yorkers, including large communities of Orthodox Jews, among whom the virus has been spreading rapidly.

"I'm not going to recommend or allow any New York City family to send their child to a school that I wouldn't send my child," Mr Cuomo said of the closures.

It's interesting that these considerations are playing out in New York City even though it still has a lower positivity rate than many other parts of the country.

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Coronavirus: Why are infections rising again in US? - BBC News

Like the Covid-19 virus itself, the idea of herd immunity has surged back into public life having been suppressed for months. It was initially touted as a way to hold back the pandemic by allowing sufficient numbers of infections to occur and so reduce numbers of non-immune potential hosts for the virus. The disease would then stop spreading, it was argued.

The notion quickly fell out of favour when researchers highlighted the high death toll that would have to occur in the UK before herd immunity was achieved. Nevertheless, the idea has now bubbled back and is again making headlines.

According to signatories of the Great Barrington Declaration which was published last week, it is now time to remove lockdown restrictions for most of society and to allow the population to get on with their lives while still protecting the vulnerable and old. Herd immunity would build up and soon the scourge of Covid-19 would disappear.

It is an enticing argument. But is herd immunity really a panacea whose time has come? Can it lift the curse of Covid from the world? Many UK scientists counsel caution.

As they point out, only 8% or so of the British population has been infected with the Covid-19 virus. To get to herd immunity we would need that to reach around 70%, said Sir Robert Lechler, president of the Academy of Medical Sciences. Not only are we a huge way off this but we now know that immunity to Covid-19 decreases over time, and that people can be re-infected with the virus.

For this reason, scientists argue that it is very unlikely that herd immunity could be sustained without a vaccine or regular reinfection. More to the point, if attempts were made to achieve herd immunity by lifting lockdown restrictions, there would be a vast increase in excess deaths, mainly among the old and the vulnerable. NHS services would be overwhelmed while high numbers of long Covid cases would have long-term consequences even for those who suffer only mild initial symptoms.

Scientists also point to the example of Manaus in Brazil. The city suffered a devastating wave of Covid-19 cases that killed more than 3,000 people earlier this year. Then virus levels subsided and claims were made that the city had achieved herd immunity. However, cases have now started to surge again in Manaus, suggesting the city failed to achieve herd immunity despite its high death toll.

In fact, the concept of herd immunity is simply not palatable, added Michael Head, senior research fellow in global health, Southampton University. He describes the Great Barrington Declaration as little more than an online petition and points to groups of experts from Independent Sage to the Academy of Medical Sciences who have spoken out against the idea.

In the UK, there was a complete national lockdown for around three months, he added. During this time, despite very little UK life running as normal, thousands of vulnerable people who overall make up one in four of the population died of the pandemic coronavirus and yet we still only have 8% of the population with some level of immunity.

To raise that level to 60 to 70% in a bid to achieve herd immunity would therefore have devastating consequences, Head concluded.

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Would herd immunity stop the spread of coronavirus? - The Guardian

Gov. Andy Beshear and other members of his family are quarantining after coming in contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19, he announced Sunday afternoon in a video.

No members of the governor's family have tested positive for the coronavirus, he said in a taped statement alongside his son Will, and they feel "great," the governor said.

Still, Beshear said, "we want to make sure we're setting the example and thatwe're also keeping other people around us safe that we're walking the walk, not just talking the talk."

Beshear and his son were in "an empty part of the (governor's) mansion" when the video was filmed, he said. Other members of the family including his wife Britainy, daughter Lila and dog Winnie were not shown.

Andy and Britainy were last tested for the coronavirus on Thursday, according to spokeswoman Crystal Staley. They are quarantining in a part of the governor's mansion that is separate from any staff or staff activity, Staley added.

More: With new coronavirus cases emerging, Kentucky health leaders worry about fall's advance

The Beshears were contacted after a member of the governor's security detail who had driven family members on Saturday subsequently tested positive for the coronavirus, he said. The family did not come into contact with anyone after that interaction, the governor said.

Beshear family members and the trooper who later tested positive were wearing masks Saturday, according to a statement from Beshear's office, but the family was still recommended to quarantine due to the lengthy amount of time the two parties spent together.

"We're doing what those tracers ask us and others to do," Beshear said."We're going to be quarantining until the Department for Public Health says that we've completedwhat we need to."

In-person daily press briefings will not take place this week, he said, but will continue in video form.

Beshear is not the first U.S. governor to enter quarantine during the coronavirus era. Three governors have tested positive (Oklahoma's Kevin Stitt, Missouri's Mike Parson and Virginia's Ralph Northam) and have been required to isolate, while several others have quarantined when exposed to staffers who later tested positive.

Beshear will stay busy in the meantime, Staley added.

"While the quarantine will impact the Governors schedule, the Governor is committed to doing what so many other Kentuckians have had to do during COVID-19 work from home full-time," she said in an email. "The Governor will continue to safely host live press conferences remotely."

Lucas Aulbach can be reached at laulbach@courier-journal.com, 502-582-4649 or on Twitter @LucasAulbach. Support strong local journalism and subscribe:www.courier-journal.com/lucasa.

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Andy Beshear and family enter quarantine after coming in contact with person with COVID-19 - Courier Journal

EXCLUSIVE: As dawn breaks on October 12, TV executives from around the world should be rising to the lapping shore of the French Riviera. Instead, for most, they will be greeted by the four walls of their bedrooms. This is the reality of 2020, a year in which coronavirus has robbed an intensely sociable industry of its ability to come together.

Mipcom is among the grandest of these calendar fixtures. A truly global gathering, Cannes is the setting for a jamboree of TV trading, a place where people converge to inject some heat into the market. But this year, the heat will be the glow of our collective computer screens, as Mipcom goes online for the first time ever.

Deadline has spoken to 10 distribution chiefs in Europe and America for their view on virtual Mipcom, as well as their reflections on how Covid-19 has reshaped television sales. The conclusions are clear: the pandemic has accelerated change on an unprecedented scale.

Related Story'The Pursuit Of Love': Producers Plan Three Seasons Of BBC/Amazon's Sofia Coppola-Inspired Period Romp -- Mipcom

Video call technology has collapsed geographies and granted greater access to buyers. Meetings are being done over weeks, not the four-day Mipcom window. Sales executives are seeing their clients more, not less. Conversations have become more focused but also more personal, as stories are exchanged about the pandemic. Savings are being made on travel and entertaining.

Distributors have invested in technology to spotlight their shows. Sales materials have become increasingly sophisticated in the absence of in-person pitching. Companies like ITV Studios and Sony are going it alone with their own buyer showcases, while wringing value from catalog shows has never been more important as shoots ground to a halt across the world.

The cumulative effect of all this is that the sales chiefs were largely upbeat about their performance in 2020. As Covid-19 has ravaged economies, crippled production, and lit a stick of dynamite under the advertising market, there has still been a huge demand for television. In bald revenue terms, Mipcom is not going to be missed. I think were going to do just fine, is how Jim Packer, Lionsgates president of worldwide TV and digital distribution, breezily puts it.

For many we spoke to, however, its the intangible side of Cannes that will be missed the most. The stuff that greases the wheels of business, but does not immediately translate into revenue. Nearly all mentioned clinking glasses of ros with friends and colleagues. Mipcom is, for many, as much an exercise in team-building and internal strategizing as it is one of hardcore deal-making. Gone too is the serendipity of bumping into clients or old acquaintances and sharing gossip and market intelligence.

All3Media International CEO Louise Pedersen is ruing not being able to create organic buzz around new titles, while Katie Benbow, BBC Studios director of sales planning, virtual Mipcom wont be able to replace the opportunity to peek over each others fences.

All the executives interviewed hope to be able to return to physical markets next year, albeit with the assistance of a vaccine, or at the very least, highly sophisticated testing. As Banijays rest of the world sales chief Matt Creasey points out, Cannes is the ultimate petri dish for coronavirus, with people descending on the city from all corners of the world and socializing in the cramped bars of the Croisette.

People crave to see each other. As soon as its safe to do so, I think we will see movement and big face-to-face reunions, adds Ruth Berry, ITV Studios managing director of global distribution. While this is undoubtedly true, it is also the case that coronavirus has changed the way distributors do business forever. Scroll on to find out how 10 of the biggest studios in the world are coping with the crisis.

Mipcom was set to be the market when Banijay Rights announced itself to the world after inhaling Endemol Shine International. The two distribution companies officially became one on October 1 after some frenzied work behind the scenes merging two teams and two giant catalogs of content. An advertising and events blitz was planned, but coronavirus had other ideas.

The disappointment about Mipcom is we cant unfurl to the outside world as the new, shiny company, says Matt Creasey, EVP of sales, co-productions, and acquisitions, rest of the world. You can relax slightly in thinking its not just us, but its fair to say Mipcom would have been a perfect platform to launch.

And its not just the external play Banijay Rights has lost without a physical market. Mipcom would have been a staging post for Banijays sales and production executives from around the world to come together for the first time. For his part, Creasey has not seen his team in-person for a year, let alone had the chance to meet new colleagues from the Banijay side of the business.

Instead, Banijay has pivoted online by launching a new showroom for buyers, which spotlights 88,000 hours of content and global brands including Big Brother and MasterChef. This would have happened even in a Covid-free world, but Creasey says its taken on increased importance in the absence of industry events. Banijay is also leaning into Mipcom Online+, registering employees for the virtual market and fielding executives for industry panels.

Banijays size and scale meant it was particularly exposed to the pandemic derailing shoots. Big-ticket shows like Peaky Blinders have been delayed and Creasey admits coronavirus has broken the flow of content he can take to market. Having said that, Creasey prefers to cast forward to 2021, which he says will be amazing because a lot of shows are expected to deliver when production gets back on track. Until then, finished product is working hard. With a library like we have, it does sure you up we have weathered it, the sales chief adds.

Hot ones:

The Bridge: The competition series follows strangers as they come together to build a bridge to an island. Channel 4 and HBO Max are co-producing a UK version of the original Banijay Iberia format.

Two Weeks To Live: Game Of Thrones star Maisie Williams headlines this Sky drama, playing a misfit who finds herself on the run from a murderous gangster and the police with a bag of stolen cash.

Sony was one of the first studios out of the blocks with the move online. The company replaced its LA Screenings showcase with a virtual event in March and is doing the same for Mipcom after launching a Virtual October Formats Fest, during which it will present shows including Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?.

The beauty of having a global organization with a lot of people on the ground is, the timing of how we talk to people, can be driven by a business need rather than some other external calendar event, says Keith Le Goy, Sony Pictures Entertainments president of distribution and networks.

Le Goy says taking ownership of buyer interactions like this is essential as the pandemic evolves from being a short-term event to being something the world lives with for a long time. He sums it like this: People change the approach from, How do I get through this period of time? to, How do I now build a new sustainable way to operate my business.'

Sony has seen demand for iconic content, including c, Dawsons Creek, and Breaking Badduring lockdown. Le Goy adds that its been a time of rediscovery. Theres been an enormous amount of production over the past few years and people didnt necessarily have the time to watch all of it. Well, now people have more time and the opportunity to discover some gems, he explains.

There have been industry murmurs that Sony may pull back from Mip all together, but Le Goy says it is currently impossible to rule anything in or anything out. He adds, however, that there remains value in physical markets. You could look at this [the pandemic] and say weve missed that chance to come together as an industry and really take stock, he says.

Hot ones:

District Z: An ambitious zombie-themed adventure-entertainment gameshow created by Sonys French joint-venture partner Satisfaction Group for TF1.

Time Is Money: Previously produced by TBS in Japan as 26 Hours, the format sees celebrities and contestants performing life-hacks that free up time in their days.

Theres never a good time for a global pandemic, but at All3Media International there was some relief that a major tech upgrade was completed before coronavirus swept the globe.

We started a project called Knox and it was a way to store all our master materials in the cloud and move them around virtually. It sounds like a simple thing, but a lot of distributors are stuck in that, Send the tape here or file there way of doing things, says All3Media International CEO Louise Pedersen. It came to fruition just before Christmas and it was totally serendipitous. Im really proud of it.

The innovation has helped keep All3Medias sales conversations ticking over and Pedersen says the productivity of her team and the time spent with buyers has increased during the lockdown. This has had a direct impact on the sales houses bottom line and Pedersen is not expecting a dip in revenue. Weve had a really good year, she says.

Thats a strong statement, particularly when you consider that All3Media International lost more than 30 hours of high-end scripted content to the production shutdown. In the absence of these hours, shows that wrapped before lockdown have been important, not least ITV serial killer drama Des and Channel 5/PBSs All Creatures Great And Small.

All3Media International is supporting Mipcom Online+, but Pedersen says it is no substitute for the real thing. One of the things she is missing most about physical markets is the opportunity to create a buzz around a title. Sometimes shows can really steamroll at a market, she says.

Hot ones:

All Creatures Great And Small: Playground Entertainments reimagining of James Herriots memoirs of a country vet became ViacomCBS-owned Channel 5s highest-rated show in five years.

Gogglebox: Filming people watching TV never seemed so appealing as during lockdown. Producer Studio Lambert has tweaked the show to make it Covid-safe.

Asked what 2020 will do for eOnes sales, Stuart Baxter, president of international distribution, offers a fairly clear-eyed assessment. On pure income terms, well be much the same. There are some positives on the library and second-cycle sales, but we dont have as much new programming coming through, he explains.

Baxter says the Hasbro-owned company has opened its doors to a lot of new buyers who have been proactive in scouring new sources of programming during the production shutdown. This has led to an increase in demand for uplifting content and some unexpected sales for shows like Upright, Tim Minchins Australian road trip drama, which was originallycommissioned by Foxtel and Sky UK.

On the flip side, eOne does not have a number of shows it would have hoped to have taken to Mipcom in a big way this month. Freeforms Jessica Biel-produced series Cruel Summer has only just gone into production, while the BBC Three/Netflix horror co-production Red Rose has been moved to next year. Covid is moving goalposts for us every day, Baxter says.

eOne looked to capitalize on new and existing relationships through its virtual upfronts, eOne Preview: The Studio Edition, earlier this month. Baxter admits that there are drawbacks to pivoting online, but also some major upsides: The whole idea is to minimize any negative impact of no market In all honesty, there will be benefits if youre in a market, you have very limited branding of your event, its very much a Mipcom event. If were running our own event, theres going to be much more branding opportunities.

Looking ahead to 2020, Baxter is positive the industry will return to Cannes. He is not certain, however, that Mipcom will be as influential as it once was. It still has a role to play. Quite what that role is, we shall see.

Hot ones:

Cruel Summer: The drama takes place over three summers in the 1990s in a small Texas town when a popular teenager, played by Olivia Holt, is abducted.

London Zoo: An Extraordinary Year: Circle Circle Films and October Films offer a behind-the-scenes look at the iconic wildlife park during lockdown.

ITV Studios was one of the first major distributors to announce plans to drop out of Mipcom and go it alone. The company launched a Fall Festival, showcasing its programming lineup to hundreds of buyers over a three-week period from mid-September.

Ruth Berry, managing director of global distribution, says that planning for a physical market became impossible. Once this was acknowledged internally, her team decided fairly swiftly that the only way to deliver the showcase and the content to the market was in a virtual way.

Berry says Mipcom has diminished in its deal-making importance in recent years and is now more of a space for showcasing content, which is exactly what ITV Studios set out to achieve with Fall Festival. It offered buyers a first-look at two dramas that have returned to production in recent weeks: Season 6 of Line Of Duty and another thriller from World Productions, submarine drama Vigil.

ITV Studios was forced to halt 230 shoots at the height of the pandemic but more than 80% are now back on track. This delayed getting sales material to buyers, which could have a knock-on effect on when revenue is booked. But like others, Berry says ITV Studios catalog worked hard during the lockdown.

Its the triage moment [for our clients]. Youre trying to understand which shows are going on hiatus, which ones are going to come good, when might that [show] come back, wheres the hole in my schedule, what do my audience want to watch. Weve been on that journey with our buyers, she says.

Buyers have really leaned into Emmy-blitzing comedy Schitts Creek in recent weeks, while softer garden crime like Agatha Christies Marple have been strong sellers in the pandemic-era. Berry is also proud of selling Hulus Harlots to the BBC (a show that started life on ITV) and highlights 20 secondary window sales for Bodyguard after Netflixs holdback expired in spring.

Hot ones:

Vigil: World Productions BBC One submarine thriller series stars Suranne Jones and Rose Leslie. ITV Studios is hoping it can be the new Bodyguard for international buyers.

Dont Rock The Boat: ITV entertainment format in which two teams of celebrities row the length of Britain. The show is made by South Shore, whose founders created winter sports competition The Jump.

Weve got a really long-standing relationship with [Mipcom organizer] Reed Midem and, even though it didnt feel right to be sending our staff and expecting our customers to meet us physically in Cannes this year, we were really keen to support them, says Katie Benbow, BBC Studios director of sales planning.

The BBCs commercial arm has signed up for Mipcom Online+ and has committed to streaming an exclusive interview with the cast of Lily James series The Pursuit Of Love on the platform. Alongside this, it has launched a new website, BBC Studios Connect, where buyers can access information and interviews on the companys slate. New shows spotlighted include BBC/AMCs Ben Whishaw medical series This Is Going To Hurt, while there are also archive collections targeted at specific audience needs.

BBC Studios Mipcom lineup has been largely unaffected by the production hiatus, Benbow says, though there have been delays in getting some sales materials to buyers. Next year could be more thorny. Its difficult making TV, especially scripted in this environment, she says, adding that there has been a perfect storm of delays and strain on commissioning budgets.

Benbow says BBC Studios sales teams have worked harder to stay connected with clients, and its a trend that will continue into next year after the company moved its annual Liverpool Showcase online. She adds, however, that BBC Studios is very committed to meeting buyers face-to-face and is hopeful of returning to Mipcom next year. The studios China team is back in the office, while there have also been physical meetings in Paris and Cologne.

Hot ones:

Small Axe: Steve McQueens much-anticipated anthology drama tells five stories about Londons West Indian community, whose lives have been shaped by their own force of will despite racism and discrimination.

A Perfect Planet: Sir David Attenborough will fuse science and nature in a new landmark series for the BBC and Discovery exploring the unique systems that allow planet Earth to thrive.

Jim Packer, Lionsgates president of worldwide TV and digital distribution, lists a bunch of reasons why hes going to miss Mipcom. They range from efficient meetings to team-building exercises, but his list does not include lost revenue. Weve done more business in the last 12 months than weve done in the previous year or two as far as our catalog and new first-run licensing with movies and TV globally, he adds.

Packer stressed the need to be opportunistic alongside clients. He points to a deal he did for true-crime anthology series Manhunt: Deadly Games. The Spectrum Originals window expired and Lionsgate initially sold it to ViacomCBSs cable network Pop. But Packers team knew that CBS had holes in its fall schedule and pitched them quickly and carefully to get the show on CBS. Sure enough over the summer, they agreed to put us on Monday nights at 10PM. All of a sudden, I have a CBS network TV show I can sell internationally.

Lionsgates complex licensing deal with Amazon for Mad Men also came to fruition during the pandemic. Packer classes this as thick IP, which has he says has years of fandom and cultural resonance. He continues: That thick IP resonates even more right now. One of the best films we have in our library is Dirty Dancing. Its selling better than its ever sold because people want to have a little escapism.

Hot ones:

Love Life: Anna Kendricks HBO Max romantic comedy has sold to 20 territories internationally, including the BBC in the UK. The series has been one of HBO Maxs top performers.

Zoeys Extraordinary Playlist: The NBC musical comedy features Jane Levy as Zoe, who can hear the innermost wants, thoughts, and desires of the people around her through music. NBC renewed in June.

Fremantles international CEO Jens Richter says 2020 has been the craziest of years, but he thinks it will ultimately be remembered as a paradoxical time when people traveled less, but saw each other more. Its probably the year where you had the constant necessity of speaking with your clients to understand where they stand. While we werent able to be in touch physically, weve probably spoken more than any other year, he adds.

Richter points out that phone calls have plummetted in their importance for his sales team as video calls have taken over. Fremantle has also flexed its international muscle to maintain physical contact with buyers where possible. The company has sales executives in 10 countries and staff in Germany, Spain and Australia are currently sitting down with clients in-person. But online remains the key communication tool.

Fremantle has launched a virtual screening room for buyers which was built before the pandemic. Its cool, its slick, its efficient, says Richter, who adds that materials around new shows have to be more sophisticated. You have to do it in a more bespoke way. You create a bigger deck explaining more. You put more of your sales arguments in your assets, reels, and brochure because you have less opportunity to explain it in person. Your material has to be absolutely top quality, he explains.

Another interesting observation Richter makes is that executives are turning up to virtual meetings better prepared than they would in person. He continues: Its really interesting what the screen does to you. Sometimes in an on-the-stand conversation at Mip, theres a lot of meet and greet and casual talk. In this environment, youre pretty structured, everyones very prepared and you go straight to the shows, or you talk about the market impact.

Despite his pragmatism, Richter says hes still missing business as usual. He hopes the UK Screenings next February can be a time when distributors stage some physical screenings. Mipcom next year will be the one big one that everyone is looking forward to, he adds.

Hot ones:

Enslaved: The Lost History Of The Transatlantic Slave Trade:Samuel L. Jackson sheds new light on 400 years of human trafficking. Epix has already premiered the show in the U.S.

We Are Who We Are: Luca Guadagninos coming of age story about two American teenagers who, along with their military and civilian parents, are living on amilitary base in Italy.

Its been an unsettled year in more ways than one for Red Arrow Studios, the production arm of German broadcasting giant ProSiebenSat.1. All the way back in March, the pandemic was the official reason ProSieben gave for pulling the plug on the sale of the Love Is Blind production group. Since then a number of executives have walked away, not least CEO James Baker and sales president Bo Stehmeier.

Joel Denton, acting president of Red Arrow Studios International, is a steadying hand at the wheel having co-founded Red Arrow in 2011. He is enjoying being back on the bridge even in the treacherous waters of coronavirus. Asked if intends to stick around for a while, he says: Hopefully. Im loving it I cant quite say its business as usual because its not a usual time Its business as unusual.

RASI launched a formats festival from the end of last month, showcasing the likes of physical game show Block Out and Married At First Sight. The latter has been a big seller during lockdown, with different versions of the show cross-pollinating in different territories, such as Channel 4 picking up the Australian edition for UK audiences.

Over in scripted, Denton says RASI has done pretty well despite the production hiatus. Season 7 of Amazons Bosch is in production, as is the second series of Vienna Blood. Theres quite a variety of shows shooting everywhere from Austria to Canada, and theyre returning seasons, which is great for us because it de-risks it for us sales-wise, he adds.

Denton sums up the Covid challenge as tactical hand-to-hand combat, and says broadcasters are looking for bankable buys rather than placing big strategic bets. The sort of shows that help them through this time are big brands, he adds. Theres been a ton of business in that supersizing of brands, formats space.

Hot ones:

Block Out: A game show in which teams try clinging to a wall of moving blocks. Devised by Thailands Nippon TV, local versions have been made in Spain (RTVE) and the Netherlands (AVROTROS).

Beat The Channel: Two popular TV presenters are given the chance to win a 15-minute live broadcast slot. The show has been a hit for Germanys ProSieben.

Valerie Cabrera, AMC Studios SVP of worldwide content distribution, says attending Mipcom didnt even enter our spectrum of thinking amid the pandemic. Instead, her market started virtually in August with focused meetings around finished tape. All of our personal and business calendars have been structured around our industry. Now it has become blurred, she says of a year without major festivals like the twice-annual gatherings in Cannes and the American Film Market.

AMC Studios has seen an uptick in demand for uplifting programming. Brockmire, Shermans Showcase and Ride With Norman Reedus have been among the companys hot tickets. Though more frustratingly, Cabrera says her team has had to pull back from pitching some shows that wont be ready until 2022 as a result of coronavirus production delays.

Like other distributors, AMC Studios has spent time brushing up its screenings portal and doubling down on existing relationships with buyers. For Cabrera, a personal touch has been key and she says that virtual interactions have actually improved the quality of her conversations. One of the first markets I did was Mip Asia and it takes away from that speed dating mentality. Nobody was late, it was very direct contact and everyone is concerned about each others health, even though we dont know each other. It has really humanized our industry, she explains.

Hot ones:

Shermans Showcase: IFC/AMC variety show featuring sketches, cultural nostalgia, A-list guest stars and songs. The show was renewed for a second season in June.

The Walking Dead: World Beyond: The second stand-alone series in AMCs The Walking Dead franchise premiered this month. It follows the first generation raised in a post-apocalyptic world.

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As Mipcom Pivots Online, 10 Sales Chiefs Tell Us How Coronavirus Has Changed TV Distribution Forever - Deadline

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WASHINGTON President Trumps announcement on Friday that he had contracted the coronavirus upended the presidential race in an instant, leaving both sides to confront a wrenching set of strategic choices and unexpected questions that will help shape the final month before Election Day.

As the president boarded Marine One to fly to the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for treatment, his aides announced that they were suspending his campaign events and those of his family members, who are his most ubiquitous surrogates. Privately, his top advisers expressed shock at the turn of events and hope that Mr. Trumps symptoms would remain mild and he could at least begin appearing on television next week.

At the same time, Joseph R. Biden Jr., Mr. Trumps Democratic rival, disclosed that he had tested negative for the virus and continued to campaign, beginning with a campaign trip on Friday to Michigan.

With Mr. Biden already leading in the polls, and Mr. Trumps electoral prospects dependent on his ability to campaign, the president has little time to change the trajectory of the race. The fate of his re-election bid increasingly seemed to hinge on his own health and whether he will able to overcome the disease and persuade voters to give him another four years.

The split-screen between the candidates on Friday represented a striking reversal from the last few months, during which Mr. Trump pushed on with his rallies and belittled Mr. Biden for adhering to health protocols and running a basement campaign.

The former vice president was careful to avoid anything that could be perceived as exploiting the situation Friday; at an appearance in Grand Rapids, Mich., he did not criticize Mr. Trump for his handling of the virus, and closed his remarks by calling on God to protect the first family, and every family that is dealing with this virus.

Mr. Bidens campaign also moved to take down negative television commercials Friday that lashed Mr. Trump for his handling of the virus, according to a Democratic official familiar with the ad traffic. And Mr. Bidens campaign manager, Jennifer OMalley Dillon, emailed the entire campaign urging its members to refrain from posting about the situation on social media.

Mr. Bidens aides said he had no plans to step away from his travels at least for now.

The presidents illness is certain to keep the coronavirus pandemic front and center in the remaining weeks before the election, a development that would appear to favor Mr. Biden, whose campaign message is focused on criticism of Mr. Trumps stewardship of the deadly disease.

In the White House, advisers to the president acknowledged that the positive test would remind voters of how dismissive Mr. Trump had been about the virus, not only with the neglect of his own safety but also in his overly rosy assessments about a pandemic that has killed more than 208,000 Americans. Mr. Trumps recklessness, one adviser acknowledged, amounted to a political disaster.

As it became clear late Friday that a number of attendees at last weeks Rose Garden announcement of Judge Amy Coney Barretts Supreme Court nomination had also tested positive, the White House was also confronting accusations they had hosted a so-called super spreader event.

For all the drama 2020 has delivered, the presidential race has been largely impervious to even momentous events, whether it was impeachment, the virus, unrest over racism and severe economic distress. Mr. Biden has enjoyed a steady lead in the polls since effectively claiming the nomination in April.

But an incumbent president testing positive for a potentially deadly disease is of a greater order of magnitude.

Republicans worried on Friday that Mr. Trump would have to remain in the hospital for a significant period of time, imagery they fear would be damaging at a moment when millions of Americans are already voting.

G.O.P. officials were also concerned that a race with very few undecided voters would freeze in place. Multiple party strategists said their polling in the two nights after the presidential debate had revealed substantial slippage, and not just at the top of the ticket.

This limits Trumps opportunity to turn this thing around and drive a winning message, said Terry Sullivan, a Republican consultant. Hes lost any ability to control the narrative.

Should the final weeks of the campaign be dominated by the coronavirus, Mr. Trumps challenge will be intensified by his casual approach to the disease and its deadliness.

The president spent months disregarding and mocking the basic precautions, such as wearing a mask, that his health advisers were urging Americans to take to protect themselves.

Still, few Democrats had any degree of confidence on how the final weeks of the race would play out.

Representative Dina Titus of Nevada said Mr. Biden should proceed. I dont see why he should quit campaigning unless something really bad happens, Ms. Titus said. And then all bets are off.

What some Democrats feared, and Republicans hoped, is that there would be a rallying around Mr. Trump and he would garner sympathy from voters. Yet even the most optimistic Republican allowed that those sentiments wouldnt automatically translate into votes.

At the very least, Republicans said they hoped Mr. Trumps illness would prompt him to refrain from the inflammatory rhetoric that has alienated many voters and make the election less of a referendum on his behavior.

Oct. 11, 2020, 7:50 p.m. ET

Peace and calm helps him, said Alex Castellanos, a longtime Republican strategist. He is the polarizing element, not the direction he would like to take the country.

Mr. Trumps political fortunes will depend in large part on the severity of his illness. Other world leaders, including Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain, have been sickened by the virus and returned to lead their countries.

The 74-year-old president is older than his counterparts who have contracted Covid-19, however, and they were not on the ballot when they tested positive.

In any event, the effect of even seemingly cataclysmic events on the race are hard to predict. After all, when the Access Hollywood video emerged just weeks before the election in 2016, it was widely thought that Mr. Trumps boast of grabbing womens genitals would effectively end his chances of winning.

Democratic lawmakers on Friday urged Mr. Biden to remain on the campaign trail and tailor his remarks to reflect the seriousness of the moment.

Its proof that we need to be vigilant and we need mature leadership, said Representative Tim Ryan of Ohio. He doesnt even need to bring up Trump by name, just say its very serious, even the president can get it.

While Biden aides are being careful not to appear publicly insensitive, they suspect that Mr. Trump had already contracted the virus by the time of his caustic performance in Tuesdays debate, a campaign official said Friday. And they are angry that members of Mr. Trumps family refused to wear masks in the debate hall, and appeared to rebuff the efforts of an employee of the Cleveland Clinic to get them to wear one, the official said.

It is almost certain that the remaining two debates between Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden will be affected. The next one is scheduled for less than two weeks from now, on Oct. 15, and the president may be isolated until then.

The nature of the campaign will be disrupted as well. And after having gone forward with the large rallies he craves, despite rules against large gatherings in many states, Mr. Trump will not be able to leave Washington during a final, crucial stretch of the campaign.

Moreover, one of his central arguments against Mr. Biden, that the 77-year-old former vice president is enfeebled and unfit to lead the country, has now been undermined by questions about the presidents own health.

Trump is now in the position of becoming exhibit No. 1 for the failure of his leadership on coronavirus, and he runs the risk that his supporters will feel misled by his dismissiveness of the virus and the need for precautions, said Geoff Garin, a Democratic pollster.

The president was already lagging in the polls in part because of his difficulties with older voters, a constituency that leans Republican but is also at the highest risk from the virus.

Some of Mr. Trumps aides began the day Friday discussing ways for him to be seen by the public. But it became clear by the afternoon that was not possible, and they released a statement from his doctor acknowledging he was fatigued and was taking an experimental antibody cocktail.

In private conversations, members of his staff were also candid that the president had some underlying conditions that could make him more susceptible to a severe bout of the virus.

No modern president has publicly endured a health crisis this close to a re-election attempt. Ronald Reagan was shot and convalesced in 1981, just over two months after he was first sworn in. And Dwight D. Eisenhower suffered a heart attack while in office, but it was more than a year before he faced the voters for a second time.

Some Republicans hoped his ill-fated June rally in Tulsa, Okla., when he couldnt come close to filling the arena and some of his own staff members got the virus, would serve as a wake-up call.

But while the event put an end to his rallies for a period, it did not make Mr. Trump more sober about the threat of the virus.

The president restarted the rallies during the Democratic convention in August. The events have been mostly, but not always, outdoors, often in hangars at smaller airfields. Yet his supporters, journalists, White House staff members, security workers and others are around one another for hours at the rallies. And many of those who attend, including Mr. Trump and members of his staff, have not worn masks.

Katie Glueck and Matt Stevens contributed reporting.

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Trump's Election Campaign Upended by Positive Coronavirus Test - The New York Times

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Anchorage health officials said Friday that they are investigating a cluster of coronavirus infections linked to a youth hockey tournament this month that drew teams from around Alaska and several hundred people.

More than 300 players, coaches and fans attended the Termination Dust Invitational hosted by the Anchorage Hockey Association at the Ben Boeke and Dempsey Anderson arenas over a three-day period last weekend, officials said. Teams came from Anchorage, Eagle River, Chugiak, Wasilla, Palmer, Kenai, Soldotna, Fairbanks and Juneau.

It wasnt immediately clear how many people have tested positive for COVID-19 in conjunction with the tournament. Municipal health officials did not provide any specifics at a briefing Friday.

Tournament organizers said they first learned of a positive case on one of the teams on Monday and said they knew of two teams with a positive case each.

Alaskas COVID-19 daily case counts are rising steeply, especially in Anchorage. Health officials blame community spread, especially in gatherings outside households, as the principal driver. Sports events are starting to show the disruptive reach of the virus in quarantines and cancellations.

The Alaska State Hockey Association said Friday there have been multiple positive cases among players, parents and coaches involved with teams in multiple parts of the state.

We are barely several weeks into the fall season and there have been multiple positive cases, in several areas of the State, with players, parents and coaches, Anna Culley, the associations COVID-19 chairman, said in a Facebook post.

Ben Boeke Ice Arena. (ADN archive, 2020)

The Termination Dust participants who tested positive Monday must have had the virus before the tournament started, said Theresa Austin, president of the Anchorage Hockey Association.

If the incubation period for the virus is five to seven days, that means there were infected people in attendance at the tournament that had no idea they were infected, Austin said Friday.

Health officials are urging any participants experiencing COVID-19 symptoms to isolate from others at home for 10 days and get tested. People not experiencing symptoms should quarantine at home for two weeks except to get tested.

Contact investigations indicate significant close contact in indoor spaces, including locker rooms, with inconsistent use of face coverings, officials said in a statement.

Austin said the Anchorage Hockey Association worked with the municipality before the season started to develop a COVID-19 mitigation plan that included limiting spectators to parents only and holding attendance at rinks to 25% of capacity or less.

We have done everything we possibly could do, including our sanitizing and cleaning of all surfaces, she said. But also I believe we were probably leading the way as far as hockey was concerned.

Asked at a briefing Friday if the city planned to close rinks, Anchorage Mayor Ethan Berkowitz said its possible the city could decide some activities are too risky to support, but people also need physical activity.

Its just a continual reminder of how pervasive COVID is and how it can strike at any time, Berkowitz said, after saying he was encouraged by the steps the hockey association took to reduce the spread of the virus.

Last week, a few days before the tournament began, the association sent hockey families an email explaining procedures to minimize exposure to the virus. Participants were asked to send a list of people attending to help with contact tracing in case of an outbreak.

They were also asked to avoid walking between the rinks, stay at least 6 feet from non-household members, and follow social-distancing stickers if next to the glass surrounding the rink.

All children will be required to be with their family, the email said. They should not be running around the rink or left at the rink without a guardian.

At least one participant at the tournament said they saw many people wearing masks, especially early in the tournament, but many families ignored social-distancing stickers at Dempsey, where the only way to see the action on the ice was to crowd against the glass. Children ran around unsupervised. Sundays championship looked like a normal hockey game. There was no one visibly enforcing any rules.

Asked if the association tried to enforce the rules, Austin likened the situation to being at Fred Meyer or Walmart, where people ignoring mask requirements arent generally confronted. Its not like event organizers were going to physically remove people from the rink, she said. What, ask them all if theyre all in the same household or please give yourselves enough space?

The cluster was reported Wednesday, according to Janet Johnson, Anchorage Health Department epidemiologist. Late Tuesday, an Anchorage pediatrician shared testing and quarantine recommendations with parents on social media as COVID is starting to hit the hockey community.

The municipality decided to announce the cluster Friday due to the sheer number of people involved and the pressure that the ongoing case surge is already putting on contact tracing. The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services is helping with contact tracing, which helps control the spread of the virus by finding people who need to quarantine or get tested.

The city reported 725 new cases in the last 10 days, people still within the infectious period, Johnston said. There are 95 people on a list of contacts within the past week who still havent been called by busy public-health workers. After a week in the community, state health officials say, its practically useless to try to limit a potentially infected persons movements.

The citys health department director, Heather Harris, recommended hockey teams and programs follow best practices for COVID-19 protocols.

The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services on Friday announced that doctors from the state and Anchorage health departments this week strengthened their guidance, and now recommend all youth athletes wear masks when theyre playing or competing even during vigorous activity.

The Anchorage School District this week reported that 14 teams were undergoing 14-day quarantine periods due to potential virus exposure from a teammate or coach. The district also issued a two-week stop to high school volleyball after multiple teams at a handful of schools reported COVID-19 illness, related symptoms or exposure.

At least two youth hockey associations the South Anchorage Hockey Association and the Alaska Oilers Hockey Association decided to shut down operations in Anchorage for the weekend. They could be back on the ice as early as Monday, according to Facebook posts by each group.

The Anchorage Hockey Association has shut down for two weeks, Austin said.

Most children who contract COVID-19 have mild, moderate or no symptoms and recover within one or two weeks, officials say. But those with medical conditions are at higher risk for severe illness.

Symptoms can include: fever (higher than 100.4); dry cough; shortness of breath; chills; decreased appetite; diminished sense of taste or smell; diarrhea; fatigue; headache; muscle/joint aches; nausea, rash; runny nose; or sore throat. Symptoms may appear two to 14 days after exposure.

The previous most recent exposure location was the Brother Francis Shelter, associated with a large outbreak in the citys homeless population.

Daily News reporter Beth Bragg contributed to this story.

See original here:

Coronavirus infection cluster linked to Anchorage youth hockey tournament that drew hundreds - Anchorage Daily News

The Jets announced on Friday morning that one of their players had tested positive for the coronavirus, sending a new shudder through the N.F.L., which is facing an outbreak that has affected at least three teams in recent weeks. But in the evening, the team said that the result was a false positive and that everyone on the team had tested negative, clearing the way for the Jets to play the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday, as planned.

The conflicting results were a reminder of how tricky it has been for the league to navigate its season during a pandemic. As if playing the game Whack-a-Mole, the league has had to address issues popping up on and off the field across the country, including players and coaches ignoring safety protocols.

On Friday, the league felt compelled to remind teams that players and coaches would now face a 15-yard penalty if they approached a game official without wearing a mask.

After the false positive test, the Jets called off the teams workout, and said that all players had been sent home from the teams New Jersey training facility as a precaution. For most of Friday, the positive result threw into question whether the Jets would be able to play the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday and created a new headache for the N.F.L., which is already scrambling to adjust for outbreaks on two other teams.

Positive tests on the Patriots, Titans and other teams have deepened the challenge the league faces as it tries to complete a full schedule of games. On Thursday, the league postponed two more games, the latest in a series of cascading readjustments to its complicated matrix of a schedule in the wake of virus outbreaks involving the Tennessee Titans and the New England Patriots.

At the same time, the league is moving to tighten its oversight of teams, and threatening to punish organizations that do not abide by evolving virus protocols. The reminder to teams warning of penalties if their players and coaches approach referees came after the N.F.L. said it would use video surveillance to ensure that team employees were wearing proper protective equipment at team facilities.

The league also is investigating whether the Titans violated league rules by working out after the clubs facility was closed because of the outbreak in the locker room. If the team is found to be in violation, it could face penalties, including fines and the loss of draft picks. Tennessee could even be forced to forfeit a game.

On Thursday, the league announced that the Titans who have had the leagues worst outbreak, with nearly two dozen players, coaches and staff members testing positive would play the Buffalo Bills on Tuesday at 7 p.m. Eastern, instead of on Sunday. But even that plan was contingent on the teams not reporting any new positives. The Titans reported two additional positive tests in their organization on Thursday.

If Tennessee and Buffalo play on Tuesday, the Bills next game, against the Kansas City Chiefs, would be moved back three days from Thursday, Oct. 15.

The league had already postponed the Titans game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, scheduled for this past Sunday, by three weeks because of the Titans outbreak.

The league also on Thursday moved the Patriots-Denver Broncos game, scheduled for Sunday, to 5 p.m. Eastern on Monday, after Stephon Gilmore, New Englands star cornerback, was reported to have tested positive.

Last week, the Patriots Sunday game was moved to Monday because the teams quarterback, Cam Newton, had tested positive.

Unlike the N.B.A., the W.N.B.A. and several other leagues, the N.F.L. which had much bigger rosters and coaching staffs than most leagues chose not to resume its season in a restricted environment like the so-called bubbles used in basketball.

Instead, protocols were put in place to enforce physical distancing and other safety measures while the players and the teams staff members were together. But at the end of each day, all team personnel are allowed to return home, increasing their chances of being exposed to the virus.

Read more here:

Jets' Positive Coronavirus Test Turns Out to Be False Result - The New York Times

The days are getting shorter, the leaves are changing color, and the average number of new Covid-19 cases being reported across the United States is now double what it was in June, the latest figures showed Friday.

The U.S. is logging an average of more than 45,000 new infections per day and its trending upward, according to statistics compiled by NBC News.

The worrisome development comes a month after Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nations leading expert on infectious diseases, urged the nation to hunker down because the number of new coronavirus cases was likely to rise as summer gave way to fall and the flu season started.

And this week, Fauci said he will be celebrating Thanksgiving via Zoom with his three daughters to avoid infection.

We would love for them to come home for Thanksgiving, Fauci, who lives in Washington, D.C., said during a webinar. They have said themselves, Dad, you know youre a young, vigorous guy, but youre 79 years old.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump declared himself "healed" during a radio interview with Rush Limbaugh, and later the White House announced he would be doing an in-person event Saturdayfrom the Truman balcony, even though it's been just a week since the president was diagnosed with Covid-19.

Earlier, a White House spokesman hedged on whether Trump would attend a Saturday campaign rally in Florida.

Trump won't go unless hes medically cleared that he will not be able to transmit the virus, deputy press secretary Brian Morgenstern said Friday on MSNBC.

But later Friday, the Trump campaign announced the president would be heading to Sanford, Florida, on Monday for a campaign rally.

Sanford is where 17-year-old Black teenager Trayvon Martin was killed in 2012 by a neighborhood watchman named George Zimmerman, whose acquittal on murder charges sparked nationwide protests.

More than a dozen other Trump aides and allies have also come down with infections, along with four White House residence staffers. And many of these infections have been tied to a Sept. 26 event Trump held in the Rose Garden to introduce Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett.

"We had a super spreader event in the White House and it was in a situation where people were crowded together and were not wearing masks," Fauci said Friday in a CBS Radio interview.

Dr. David Shulkin, Trumps former secretary of Veterans Affairs, said nobody really knows how infectious Trump is because there hasnt been enough information out there.

The recommendations are that it should be 10 days from the onset of the infection, but you have to know whether someones on symptom-relieving medication and whether they have symptoms when theyre off those medications, Shulkin told MSNBCs Stephanie Ruhle on Friday. But Stephanie, Im more worried, not about the president, but more worried about him putting people at risk at these rallies. We know that these rallies consist of people who dont social distance, who dont wear masks.

Since being sprung from the hospital, Trump has resumed downplaying the dangers of the virus that has killed 213,830 people and infected more than 7.6 million just in the U.S., and sowing doubt on the effectiveness of wearing masks and social distancing to slow the spread of the disease.

Trump also offended the loved ones of many Covid-19 victims by cavalierly declaring upon his release from Walter Read Medical Center "Don't be afraid of Covid" and quickly removing his mask when he returned to the White House.

Wary of antagonizing the president, Fauci has been pushing back carefully.

The examples of people not wanting to wear masks, or not believing that if you just go in a crowd you're not going to get infected or if you do get infected it's going to be meaningless because it's a trivial outbreak, Fauci said Thursday at a virtual University of California, Berkeley, forum. Well, how could it be a trivial outbreak if it's already killed 210,000 people in the United States and a million people worldwide?

This was two days after Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, contradicted Trumps resurrected false claim that the coronavirus was as deadly as the flu.

"You don't get a pandemic that kills a million people and it isn't even over yet with influenza," Fauci told NBC News Kate Snow.

Fauci over the summer survived a White House attempt to discredit him after he publicly countered Trumps false claims about the progress of the pandemic.

Corky Siemaszko is a senior writer for NBC News Digital.

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Coronavirus cases on the rise again in the U.S. now that summer has given way to fall - NBC News

American society has long portrayed strength as the opposite of disability and feminization, Wool says. Those go together, and are seen to be incapacitating. This is relevant in the case of Donald Trump.

As a patient, Trump has physical traits that place him among the riskiest categories for dying from COVID-19. He is also emotionally brittle, requiring constant validation and reassurance. But as his niece Mary Trump recently wrote, among Trumps family, weakness was the greatest sin of all. So, in lieu of actual strength, Trump excels at performing a specific masculinized version of it, in which aggression, volume, stubbornness, overconfidence, and mockery are stand-ins for might. This is a man who sees wounded veterans and casualties of war as suckers and losers. Hes a caricature of masculinity, says Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, an emerita disability scholar at Emory University.

Read: Trump: Americans who died in war are losers and suckers

But the leaky nature of metaphor allows displays of strength to be mistaken for its presence. Strongman characterizations seem to revolve around the dispositional, temperamental features of a leader, says Martha Lincoln, a medical anthropologist at San Francisco State University, but I think theres some magical thinking about the physical resilience of such a person too. Even when Trump himself fell sick, he and his supporters couched his experience in the language of strength, victory, and courage. Dont let it dominate you, he said in a video.

This strength-centered rhetoric is damaging for three reasons. First, its a terrible public-health message. It dissuades people from distancing themselves from others and wearing a mask, and equates those measures with weakness and cowardice. The more you personify the virus, the more one version of heroism is to ignore it, says Semino. When people take that idea to extremes, they say, Im strong. Im not going to be cowed by this.

Second, it ignores the more than 210,000 Americans who have died from COVID-19, and the uncounted thousands who have been disabled. Such dismissals are already common. In recent years, the ideologies of eugenics, where if youre sick, its your own fault and you dont deserve support, [have] become more and more blatant, says Pamela Block, an anthropologist at Western University. As the pandemic progressed, many saw the deaths of elderly people, or those with preexisting conditions, as acceptable and dismissible. And as COVID-19 disproportionately hit Black, Latino, Indigenous, and Pacific Islander communities, people who believed in the idea of white supremacy felt like the virus was doing their work for them, and could promote the idea that theyre genetically stronger, Block adds. One of Trumps supporters recently predicted that the president would beat COVID-19 because of his god-tier genetics; Trump himself recently told a largely white audience that they have good genes before warning about incoming Somalian refugees.

Originally posted here:

What Strength Really Means When Youre Sick - The Atlantic

Trump and Biden debate in Cleveland on Sept. 29. (Morry Gash-Pool/Getty Images)

Pew Research Center conducted this study to understand how Americans view the upcoming 2020 presidential election and the presidential candidates. For this analysis, we surveyed 11,929 U.S. adults, including 10,543 registered voters, during the last week of September and the first week of October 2020. The survey was in the field when Trump announced, early on the morning of Oct. 2, that he and first lady Melania Trump had contracted COVID-19.

Everyone who took part in this survey is a member of Pew Research Centers American Trends Panel (ATP), an online survey panel that is recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses. This way nearly all U.S. adults have a chance of selection. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other categories. Read more about the ATPs methodology.

Here are the questions used for the report, along with responses, and its methodology.

The 2020 presidential campaign has been repeatedly rocked by seismic events from the outbreak of a devastating pandemic to President Donald Trump contracting COVID-19. Yet in at least two important respects, not much has changed: Joe Biden continues to hold sizable advantages over Trump on most major issues and key personal traits, as well as in overall voter preferences. And voters continue to be highly focused on the election and attach great importance to its outcome.

With less than a month to go before the election, a majority of registered voters (57%) say they are very or somewhat confident in Biden to handle the public health impact of the coronavirus, while 40% express a similar level of confidence in Trump. In June, Biden held a narrower, 11 percentage point lead on handling the coronavirus outbreak (52% Biden, 41% Trump).

At a time of deep political divisions and partisan antipathy, voters are far more likely to express confidence in Biden than Trump to unify the country. Half of voters (50%) say they are confident in Biden to bring the country closer together, compared with just 30% who express confidence in Trump.

The new survey by Pew Research Center, conducted Sept. 30-Oct. 5 among 11,929 U.S. adults, including 10,543 registered voters, finds that Biden maintains an overall lead in voter preferences: 52% of registered voters say if the election were held today, they would vote for Biden or lean toward voting for him, while 42% support or lean toward voting for Trump. Another 4% of voters back Libertarian Jo Jorgensen, while 1% support Green Party candidate Howie Hawkins in the 2020 election. (See detailed tables for full demographic breaks on voter preferences.)

The survey was in the field when Trump announced on Twitter, early on the morning of Oct. 2, that he and first lady Melania Trump had contracted COVID-19. There are no significant differences in voter preferences, or in confidence in the two candidates to handle the impact of the coronavirus, before and after his announcement.

Trumps handling of the nations economy remains a relative strong point. About half of voters (52%) express confidence in Trump to make good decisions about economic policy, one the highest shares expressing confidence in the president on any of the six issues on the survey. However, about as many voters (51%) have confidence in Biden on the economy.

Since summer, there has been some improvement in views of the nations economy. Among all voters, 35% say economic conditions are excellent or good, up from 28% in June. However, this change has come almost entirely among Trump supporters. And the gap in economic perceptions, already wide, has grown much wider. Two-thirds (67%) of Trump supporters now say that economic conditions are excellent or good, compared with 51% who said this in June. Just 11% of Biden supporters view economic conditions positively, which is little changed from four months ago (9%).

The survey finds that voters view Biden much more positively than Trump for compassion, honesty and being a good role model. Nearly twice as many voters say compassionate describes Biden very or fairly well than say it applies to Trump (67% vs. 34%). More than half of voters (53%) say Biden is honest, compared with 35% who describe Trump as honest. And far more voters say Biden is a good role model (54% vs. 28%).

The gap is narrower on other personal attributes. Biden holds a narrow 6-point edge in courageous (54% Biden, 48% Trump); slightly more say Trump than Biden is mentally sharp (50% Trump, 46% Biden). Among six personal traits included, Trump holds his widest edge in standing up for his beliefs: 69% say this describes Trump very or fairly well, compared with 61% who say it describes Biden well.

The share of Biden supporters who back him strongly has increased since August, though he still trails Trump in strong support. A 57% majority of voters who favor Biden say they support him strongly. Biden drew strong backing from fewer than half of his supporters (46%) two months ago. About two-thirds of those who back Trump (68%) say they support him strongly.

As was the case in the summer, voters preferences regardless of whom they favor remain very much centered on Trump. Just 36% of Biden voters view their vote more as an expression of support for the former vice president; 63% view it as vote against Trump. By contrast, 71% of Trump supporters say their vote is a vote for Trump. These views have changed only modestly since June.

The supporters of both candidates remain highly engaged in the election. Identical shares of registered voters who favor Trump and Biden (71% each) say they have given a lot of thought to the candidates running for president. And nearly eight-in-ten voters (78%) again, comparable majorities of both candidates supporters say it really matters who wins.

While voters on both sides share a sense of the importance of the election, they also share concern about the countrys future if the opposing candidate wins. Fully 89% of Trump supporters say that if Biden wins, they not only would be very concerned over the countrys direction, they believe it would lead to lasting harm for the country. A nearly identical majority of Biden supporters (90%) say Trumps election would result in lasting harm to the United States.

And voters who support both Trump and Biden say their differences extend beyond policies to disagreements over core values. Overwhelming shares of voters who support each candidate say that, when asked to think about those who favor their opposing candidate, they not only have different views on politics and policies, they also have fundamental disagreements on core American values and goals.

Roughly eight-in-ten of those who support Biden (80%) and Trump (77%) say they fundamentally disagree about core values; only about one-in-five say their differences are limited to politics and policies.

However, there is a widespread sense among voters that if their candidate wins the election, the next president should primarily focus on the concerns of all Americans, not just those who voted for him. This view like the belief that the country may face lasting harm if the opposing candidate wins is shared widely among the supporters of both candidates. Fully 89% of Biden supporters and 86% of Trump supporters say that if their candidate is victorious, he should focus primarily on the concerns of all Americans, even if it means disappointing some of his supporters.

See the article here:

Biden Holds Wide Leads Over Trump on Coronavirus, Unifying the Country - Pew Research Center