President Xi Jinping of China defended his country’s handling of the outbreak. Today is the deadline for public companies in the U.S. to decide whether to return P.P.P. loans. A vaccine trial shows promising early results.
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Moderna released promising, early results for a coronavirus vaccine given to eight healthy people, as it advances into the next phase of human trials.
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W.H.O. gathers to push for global coordination amid a deepening rift between the U.S. and China.
The World Health Organization is holding its first global assembly since the outbreak of the pandemic on Monday, an extraordinary virtual meeting of heads of state and health experts from around the world to try to coordinate an effective international response to a crisis that is far from over.
Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director general of the W.H.O., said the gathering was perhaps the most important for the world body since it was founded in 1948.
But there is a risk that the gathering serves to underscore division rather than promote unity as the United States and other countries will call for the W.H.O. to investigate China’s response to the coronavirus outbreak, .
President Xi Jinping of China addressed the assembly Monday morning and defended his nation’s handling of the outbreak, saying that officials had acted with transparency.
Mr. Trump has sought to deflect some of the criticism aimed at him by stirring anger at China and the W.H.O. Last month, after repeatedly claiming that the organization had been too quick to believe the information about the virus coming from China, he ordered his administration to halt funding for the organization — a loss of hundreds of millions of dollars, although his administration has raised the possibility of partly restoring it.
The first coronavirus vaccine tested in people appears to be safe and generates an immune response.
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The first coronavirus vaccine to be tested in people appears to be safe and able to stimulate an immune response against the virus, its manufacturer, Moderna, announced on Monday.
The findings are based on results from the first eight people who each received two doses of the vaccine, starting in March.
Those people, healthy volunteers, made antibodies that were then tested in human cells in the lab, and were able to stop the virus from replicating — the key requirement for an effective vaccine. The levels of those so-called neutralizing antibodies matched the levels found in patients who had recovered after contracting the virus in the community.
The company has said that it is proceeding on an accelerated timetable, with the next phase involving 600 people to begin soon. But U.S. government officials have warned that producing a vaccine that would be widely available could take a year to 18 months. There is no proven treatment or vaccine against the coronavirus at this time.
Firms face tough choices: Today is the deadline to decide whether to return government loans.
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When big companies got loans backed by the federal government’s $660 billion Paycheck Protection Program, outrage ensued. Many people expressed anger that the government’s main vehicle for helping mom-and-pop shops struggling during the pandemic was being undermined.
Lawmakers opened congressional inquiries and demanded firms give the money back, while the Trump administration tightened eligibility rules. Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, threatened to hold firms criminally liable if they did not meet the program’s requirements and gave companies until today to decide whether to return their loans without repercussions.
But the majority of money extended to public companies has so far not been returned.
Two of those companies, Escalade, a sporting goods manufacturer in Evansville, Ill., and RealNetworks, a Seattle software developer, both sought and received loans that they had determined they needed to pay employees and keep their operations afloat. Escalade got $5.6 million on April 14; RealNetworks qualified for $2.9 million on April 24. But after the federal government scolded publicly traded companies for taking loans, they took different paths.
Escalade returned the funds, hoping to avoid running afoul of new federal guidelines for the loans and betting states would loosen stay-at-home restrictions enough to restart operations. RealNetworks kept its loan and says it will use it to bring workers back this week.
At least $504 million in small business loans, out of at least $1.49 billion that public companies received, has been returned, according to a New York Times analysis.
10 of the Largest Loans
Returned or Partially Returned
Braemar Hotels and Resorts
Energy Services of America
Note: Data as of May 17. Figures have been rounded. Not all public companies that have received loans may be reflected. Ashford Hospitality and Braemar Hotels and Resorts are controlled by Ashford Inc.·Source: Company reports, securities filings and Sentieo.·By David McCabe and Jeanna Smialek
The Paycheck Protection Program has largely neglected minority-owned businesses, a survey finds.
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Black and Latino business owners are struggling to get government assistance under the Paycheck Protection Program, a new survey has found, and many say they are on the brink of closing permanently.
The survey, conducted by the Global Strategy Group for two equal-rights organizations, Color of Change and UnidosUS, included interviews with 500 business owners and 1,200 workers from April 30 to last Monday. Just 12 percent of the owners who applied for government-backed loans in the $650 billion program reported receiving what they had asked for, and nearly half of all owners said they anticipated having to permanently close in the next six months.
By comparison, in a survey of small businesses by the Census Bureau from April 26 to May 2, three-quarters said they had asked for a loan and 38 percent of them said they had received one.
The program was the first time some black and Latino business owners had ever sought a bank loan. Two-thirds of the respondents sought loans of under $50,000 through the government’s aid program. Nearly half said they had to lay off at least some employees.
Rashad Robinson, the president of Color of Change, said the survey showed that “if we don’t get policies to protect these communities, we will lose a generation of black and brown businesses, which will have deep impacts on our entire country’s economy.”
The virus could take a toll in areas where chronic health conditions are common.
As the new coronavirus continues to spread over the next months, and maybe even years, it could exact a heavy new toll in areas of the United States that have not yet seen major outbreaks but have high rates of diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure and other chronic health conditions.
Large parts of the South and Appalachia are especially vulnerable, according to a health-risk index created for The New York Times by PolicyMap, a company that analyzes local health data. The index for the first time identifies counties with high rates of the underlying conditions that increase residents’ risk of becoming severely ill if they are infected with the coronavirus.
Even in lower-risk counties, a significant proportion of the population is living with these conditions.
Public health experts warn that these areas may not be adequately prepared for new waves of infection, even as some have lifted restrictions meant to curb the spread of the virus.
“Places that have not seen a lot of infection yet should be thinking about what infection is going to mean once they have an outbreak there,” said Micaela E. Martinez, a professor at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health.
“This infection is highly contagious and we have no vaccine, so it will inevitably sweep through our populations unless we have very tight measures in place to prevent that from happening,” Dr. Martinez said. Once it does, the overall health of a community will matter, she added.
The economic slump may last until the ‘end of next year,’ the Fed chief warns.
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Jerome H. Powell, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, said that while he expected the U.S. economy to recover from the sharp and painful downturn brought about by the coronavirus, that process would take time — potentially until the end of 2021.
“This economy will recover; it may take a while,” Mr. Powell said in an interview on the CBS program “60 Minutes.” “It may take a period of time, it could stretch through the end of next year, we don’t really know.”
Asked whether the economy could recover without an effective vaccine, Mr. Powell suggested that it could make a start, but not get all the way there.
“Assuming that there’s not a second wave of the coronavirus, I think you’ll see the economy recover steadily through the second half of this year,” he said. “For the economy to fully recover, people will have to be fully confident, and that may have to await the arrival of a vaccine.”
The interview with Mr. Powell, which CBS said was recorded on May 13, follows a blunt speech he gave the same day, warning that the economy may need more financial support to prevent permanent job losses and waves of bankruptcies.
Asian markets rose broadly, if moderately, on Monday on continuing hopes that the global economy would gradually emerge from the coronavirus outbreak.
Major markets were up less than 1 percent. Oil prices also rose on futures markets, while prices of the longer-term U.S. Treasury bonds fell, both signs of investor optimism. Futures markets were predicting that Wall Street would open about 1 percent higher.
Investors were looking for silver linings as the world grapples with lockdowns and other restrictions.
Listen to ‘The Daily’: Government Spending? In This Economy?
Congress is debating how much to spend on economic relief. Every plan will require borrowing money the U.S. doesn’t have.
Governors balance the risks as states try to chart a course to recovery.
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“This is really the most crucial time,” Gov. Mike DeWine of Ohio, a Republican, said Sunday on CNN. “And the most dangerous time.”
Mr. DeWine’s assessment was echoed by other state leaders as pressure built to revive commerce and chart a path for states to stagger back toward a semblance of normalcy.
The virus response has been defined by a balance between curbing the spread and minimizing economic harm. In much of the country, the pendulum has now swung toward the economy.
The shift has come as the national figures for reported new cases of the virus have declined in recent weeks, and as more states have allowed a wider array of businesses to resume. More than two-thirds of states have relaxed restrictions significantly. California, New York and Washington are among those partially reopening on a regional basis. Illinois, Michigan and New Jersey remain fully shut down.
But governors in states where some rules have been eased are still concerned about a resurgence of the virus.
Gov. Gavin Newsom of California, a Democrat, said on CNN that he understood “the stress and anxiety that people have,” citing upended dreams and depleted savings.
“The question is,” he added, “how do you toggle back and make meaningful modifications to the stay-at-home order?”
To underscore this point, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo on Sunday was tested during his live news briefing. While New York is now doing an average of 40,000 tests per day, Mr. Cuomo said, it has the capacity to perform thousands more. The governor also announced a new website that would help New Yorkers identify a testing site near where they live.
Separately, President Trump continued to express his eagerness to see a resumption of some activities. In telephone comments during a golf broadcast on Sunday, he said he missed sports and wanted “big, big stadiums loaded with people.”
‘Post-apocalyptic’: What it’s like to drive in New York City.
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A late morning drive down Fifth Avenue, starting at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where the lanes are normally choked with inching traffic, now passes by almost impossibly quickly.
The notorious F.D.R. Drive along the East River, prone to random standstills throughout its long stretch, now feels more like a Grand Theft Auto game.
In Brooklyn, turn a corner and see a line of people standing six feet apart and still as stone, masked, awaiting permission to enter Whole Foods.
The virus has transformed the experience of operating a motor vehicle in New York City.
With no office to go to or friends to visit, and facing stern orders to stay home, a vast majority of drivers have left their vehicles idle, creating something altogether new: open road, miles and miles of it.
It cannot last, of course; drivers are already seeing an increase in traffic from a month ago, with much more to follow as people venture out of quarantine, wary of public transportation.
But for now, an emptiness remains. No gridlock, no rush hour. Just numbers rolling over on the odometer, the spring afternoon flitting past the window, the smartphone map showing very little yellow or red.
It’s a very pleasant surprise, until you remember what brought it about, at what cost.
“Post-apocalyptic,” one van driver said of the experience. “You’re flying down 278 and there’s no one there and it’s four o’clock in the afternoon.”
Auto production, on hold for nearly two months, is returning.
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“The auto industry is America’s economic engine,” Jim Farley, Ford Motor’s chief operating officer, said in a recent conference call on the company’s reopening plans. “Restarting the entire auto ecosystem is how we restart the economy.”
Ford, General Motors, and Fiat Chrysler plan to restart production on Monday, after Toyota, Honda and Tesla began reopening plants last week. Hyundai restarted a plant in Alabama on May 4.
Production will not bounce back quickly. The revival will unfold as dozens of auto plants and hundreds of factories owned by parts suppliers gear up and start making and shipping products.
It will also depend on how quickly stay-at-home orders are loosened in the United States, Canada and Mexico, because the industry’s supply chains are closely intertwined across North America.
How to stay motivated when the days start to blur together.
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Jane E. Brody, who writes the Time’s Personal Health column, takes a look at something many of us might be lacking during the pandemic — motivation.
She consulted Daniel Goleman, a psychologist and author of the highly influential book “Emotional Intelligence.”
Dr. Goleman explained that there are two kinds of motivation, extrinsic and intrinsic. Extrinsic motivation refers to acts done to receive an external reward or outcome like wealth, power or fame, or in some cases to avoid punishment.
Intrinsic motivation involves behaviors done for their own sake that are personally rewarding, like helping other people, participating in an enjoyable sport or studying a fascinating subject. With intrinsic motivation, inspiration comes from within a person. It tends to be more forceful and the results more fulfilling.
“The stay-at-home edict has pushed so many of us into an external motivation mode that is making us face something that feels like lethargy and meaninglessness,” Dr. Goleman said.
“At the same time,” he added, “it’s a ripe opportunity to think about what really matters to us.”
“Doing what’s meaningful — acting on what really matters to a person — is the antidote to burnout,” said Dr. Goleman. He suggests to those who are feeling bereft of motivation: “Face what’s happening. What does it mean to me? What really matters to me now? Is there a way I can act upon what’s meaningful to me?”
Using the crisis to help your children grow.
Parents can help children use the stress of coronavirus shutdowns as an opportunity for growth, experts say.
Updates from Times correspondents around the globe.
Japan’s economy becomes the largest to officially enter a recession. A Canadian military jet crashes during a flyover for coronavirus workers.
Reporting was contributed by Nadja Popovich, Anjali Singhvi, Matthew Conlen, Jeanna Smialek, Neal E. Boudette, Denise Grady, Emily Flitter, Kaly Soto, Marc Santora, Melina Delkic, Jane E. Brody, Abby Goodnough, Adam Liptak, David McCabe, Sharon Otterman, Rick Rojas, Neil Vigdor and Michael Wilson.
