LOGISTICAL WOES AS STATES TACKLE VACCINATIONS LAG · 01/01/2021 · You re killing me! This whole...
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U(D54G1D)y+"!#!\!?!# JIEYUAN VILLAGE, China — When the Chinese government of- fered free cows to farmers in Jieyuan, villagers in the remote mountain community were skep- tical. They worried that officials would ask them to return the cat- tle later, along with any calves they managed to raise. But the farmers kept the cows, and the money they brought. Oth- ers received small flocks of sheep. Government workers also paved a road into the town, built new houses for the village’s poorest residents and repurposed an old school as a community center. Jia Huanwen, a 58-year-old farmer in the village in Gansu Province, was given a large cow three years ago that produced two healthy calves. He sold the cow in April for $2,900, as much as he earns in two years growing pota- toes, wheat and corn on the ter- raced, yellow clay hillsides nearby. Now he buys vegetables regularly for his family’s table and medicine for an arthritic knee. “It was the best cow I’ve ever had,” Mr. Jia said. The village of Jieyuan is one of the many successes of President Xi Jinping’s ambitious pledge to Free Cows? China Wages War on Rural Poverty By KEITH BRADSHER A farmer delivering corn in Gansu Province, the focus of many of China’s antipoverty efforts. THOMAS PETER/REUTERS A Campaign Is Helping Many, but Its Cost Is Hard to Sustain Continued on Page A11 New Yorkers stand this week as the living footnotes of tomorrow’s textbooks. The year 2020 will be studied by historians, scientists and schoolchildren for genera- tions, and yet, it will be known by many of those who lived through it for the singular moments that ar- rived behind a pandemic’s deadly waves. Dimitrios Fragiskatos, forced to shut down his comic-book store in Brooklyn for almost three months, will remember 2020 as the year he started an online shop and regulars from his fantasy game tournaments helped it flour- ish. “It was a kind of restoration of faith in humanity,” Mr. Fragiskatos said. “‘Change or die’ — isn’t that the saying?” Richard Schwartz and Amy Jablin, together nearly 10 years, will define the year by their Octo- ber rooftop wedding, attended by four socially distant witnesses. Sarah Goodis-Orenstein, a schoolteacher from Bedford-Stuy- vesant in Brooklyn, said the pan- demic, by erasing her commute, forced her to slow down and spend more time with her young chil- dren. “There’s some pieces of nor- malcy that I don’t really want back,” she said. “Our normal was- n’t always ideal.” The Year Like None Before, the Year That Lasted Forever, is fi- nally drawing to a close, becoming a thing that happened even as its tolls follow into 2021. More than 25,000 New Yorkers who rang in 2020 died of the coronavirus in the months that followed. For those who bore witness, this has been a time for taking stock and taking a breath amid all that has changed. The city was ending the year hopeful, if unwell, its big annual party blocked off, and its people unsure of exactly how to cele- brate, if at all. It’s a question famil- iar in other tumultuous years. In 1918, as an influenza epi- demic ravaged the city, Times Square was somber, “crowded, but the procession was as quiet as For New York, A Year of Pain And Reflection By MICHAEL WILSON Continued on Page A13 WASHINGTON — It was a warm summer Wednesday, Elec- tion Day was looming and Presi- dent Trump was even angrier than usual at the relentless focus on the coronavirus pandemic. “You’re killing me! This whole thing is! We’ve got all the damn cases,” Mr. Trump yelled at Jared Kushner, his son-in-law and senior adviser, during a gathering of top aides in the Oval Office on Aug. 19. “I want to do what Mexico does. They don’t give you a test till you get to the emergency room and you’re vomiting.” Mexico’s record in fighting the virus was hardly one for the United States to emulate. But the president had long seen testing not as a vital way to track and con- tain the pandemic but as a mecha- nism for making him look bad by driving up the number of known cases. And on that day he was espe- cially furious after being informed by Dr. Francis S. Collins, the head of the National Institutes of Health, that it would be days be- fore the government could give emergency approval to the use of convalescent plasma as a treat- ment, something Mr. Trump was eager to promote as a personal victory going into the Republican National Convention the following week. “They’re Democrats! They’re against me!” he said, convinced that the government’s top doctors and scientists were conspiring to undermine him. “They want to wait!” Throughout late summer and fall, in the heat of a re-election campaign that he would go on to lose, and in the face of mounting evidence of a surge in infections and deaths far worse than in the spring, Mr. Trump’s management of the crisis — unsteady, unscien- President’s Focus in the Management of the Pandemic: Himself This article is by Michael D. Shear, Maggie Haberman, Noah Weiland, Sharon LaFraniere and Mark Mazzetti. How Trump Allowed a Defining Moment to Slip Out of Control Continued on Page A6 PARIS — It is done at last. On Jan. 1, with the Brexit transition period over, Britain is no longer part of the European Union’s single market and customs un- ion. The departure is ordered, thanks to a last-minute deal running to more than 1,200 pages, but still painful to both sides. A great loss has been consum- mated. Loss for the European Union of one of its biggest member states, a major economy, a robust military and the tradition, albeit faltering, of British liberalism at a time when Hungary and Po- land have veered toward nation- alism. Loss for Britain of diplomatic heft in a world of renewed great power rivalry; of some future economic growth; of clarity over European access for its big finan- cial services industry; and of countless opportunities to study, live, work and dream across the continent. The national cry of “take back control” that fired the Brexit vote in an outburst of anti-immigrant fervor and random grievances withered into four and a half years of painful negotiation Brexit’s Storm Offers Europe Silver Lining By ROGER COHEN NEWS ANALYSIS Continued on Page A10 WASHINGTON — Senator Ben Sasse on Thursday condemned a drive by his Republican col- leagues in Congress to challenge the results of the 2020 election, re- buking the effort as a “dangerous ploy” led by lawmakers who are “playing with fire.” In a blistering open letter to his constituents, Mr. Sasse of Nebras- ka became the first Republican senator to publicly condemn a de- cision by Senator Josh Hawley to challenge President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory, saying it was intended to “disenfranchise mil- lions of Americans.” “Let’s be clear what is happen- ing here: We have a bunch of am- bitious politicians who think there’s a quick way to tap into the president’s populist base without doing any real, long-term dam- age,” Mr. Sasse wrote. “But they’re wrong — and this issue is bigger than anyone’s personal ambitions. Adults don’t point a loaded gun at the heart of legiti- mate self-government.” Mr. Sasse’s scathing remarks came a day after Mr. Hawley, Re- publican of Missouri, announced that he would object to Congress’s certification of the Electoral Col- lege results on Jan. 6, the final pro- cedural step in affirming Mr. Bi- G.O.P. Splinters Over Challenge To Biden’s Win By CATIE EDMONDSON Continued on Page A14 In Florida, less than one-quar- ter of delivered coronavirus vac- cines have been used, even as old- er people sat in lawn chairs all night waiting for their shots. In Puerto Rico, last week’s vaccine shipments did not arrive until the workers who would have adminis- tered them had left for the Christ- mas holiday. In California, doctors are worried about whether there will be enough hospital staff mem- bers to both administer vaccines and tend to the swelling number of Covid-19 patients. These sorts of logistical prob- lems in clinics across the country have put the campaign to vacci- nate the United States against Covid-19 far behind schedule in its third week, raising fears about how quickly the country will be able to tame the epidemic. Federal officials said as re- cently as December that their goal was to have 20 million people get their first shot by the end of this year. More than 14 million doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines had been sent out across the United States, federal officials said on Wednesday. But, accord- ing to the Centers for Disease Con- trol and Prevention, just 2.8 mil- lion people have received their first dose, though that number may be somewhat low because of lags in reporting. States vary widely in how many of the doses they’ve received have been given out. South Dakota leads the country with more than 48 percent of its doses given, fol- lowed by West Virginia, at 38 per- cent. By contrast, Kansas has giv- en out less than 11 percent, and Georgia less than 14 percent. VACCINATIONS LAG AS STATES TACKLE LOGISTICAL WOES DOSES WAIT ON SHELVES With Resources Stressed, Hospitals Get Little Federal Help This article is by Rebecca Rob- bins, Frances Robles and Tim Arango. Continued on Page A7 A troop drawdown in Germany worries people in a town where American cul- ture and jobs are valued. PAGE A9 INTERNATIONAL A9-11 U.S. Presence in Peril The movement to increase the federal minimum wage from $7.25 per hour has been growing in strength. PAGE B1 BUSINESS B1-7 A $15 Base Wage Makes Gains As a chaotic season nears its end, Ala- bama is set to face Notre Dame as Clem- son prepares for Ohio State on Friday in the College Football Playoff. PAGE B8 SPORTSFRIDAY B8-10 A Preview of the Semifinals Readers share their resolutions to live sustainably in 2021, including cutting down on meat, composting waste and minimizing air travel. PAGE A12 NATIONAL A12-15 Pop the Cork. Save the Planet. As Covid-19 swept the world, the killing of George Floyd galvanized a racial justice movement, and the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg shifted the bal- ance of the Supreme Court. PAGE A16 OBITUARIES A16-17, B11 Life Lessons in a Deadly Year David Brooks PAGE A19 EDITORIAL, OP-ED A18-19 Richard Thornburgh steered Pennsyl- vania through the Three Mile Island nuclear plant meltdown as governor of Pennsylvania and later led the Justice Department. He was 88. PAGE B11 Former Attorney General Up to 700 people were forced to sleep outside after a camp was dismantled and locals turned them away. PAGE A11 Migrants in Frigid Bosnia In his year-end report, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. commended federal courts for a nimble response. PAGE A15 Praise for Judges in Pandemic As cases surge again, Mayor Bill de Blasio set a goal of vaccinating one million residents by Jan. 31. PAGE A5 TRACKING AN OUTBREAK A5-8 Slow Start in New York City This year, technology did more for us than ever, and technologists stepped up to help solve critical problems. PAGE B1 The 2020 Good Tech Awards Late Edition VOL. CLXX .... No. 58,925 © 2021 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, FRIDAY, JANUARY 1, 2021 TINGSHU WANG/REUTERS Clockwise from top left: A vendor in Dakar, Senegal; a Covid-19 hospital ward in Rome; a scaled-down celebration in Times Square; and a gathering in Wuhan, China. Leaving a Troubled Year Behind RICCI SHRYOCK FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES ANTONIO MASIELLO/GETTY IMAGES JOHNNY MILANO FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES Today, some sunshine, then turning cloudy, colder, rain late, high 41. To- night, rain, low 39. Tomorrow, mostly cloudy, rain ending, milder, high 56. Weather map, Page B12. $3.00
Transcript of LOGISTICAL WOES AS STATES TACKLE VACCINATIONS LAG · 01/01/2021 · You re killing me! This whole...
C M Y K Nxxx,2021-01-01,A,001,Bs-4C,E1
U(D54G1D)y+"!#!\!?!#
JIEYUAN VILLAGE, China —When the Chinese government of-fered free cows to farmers inJieyuan, villagers in the remotemountain community were skep-tical. They worried that officialswould ask them to return the cat-tle later, along with any calvesthey managed to raise.
But the farmers kept the cows,and the money they brought. Oth-ers received small flocks of sheep.Government workers also paved
a road into the town, built newhouses for the village’s poorestresidents and repurposed an oldschool as a community center.
Jia Huanwen, a 58-year-oldfarmer in the village in GansuProvince, was given a large cow
three years ago that produced twohealthy calves. He sold the cow inApril for $2,900, as much as heearns in two years growing pota-toes, wheat and corn on the ter-raced, yellow clay hillsidesnearby. Now he buys vegetablesregularly for his family’s table andmedicine for an arthritic knee.
“It was the best cow I’ve everhad,” Mr. Jia said.
The village of Jieyuan is one ofthe many successes of PresidentXi Jinping’s ambitious pledge to
Free Cows? China Wages War on Rural PovertyBy KEITH BRADSHER
A farmer delivering corn in Gansu Province, the focus of many of China’s antipoverty efforts.THOMAS PETER/REUTERS
A Campaign Is HelpingMany, but Its Cost Is
Hard to Sustain
Continued on Page A11
New Yorkers stand this week asthe living footnotes of tomorrow’stextbooks. The year 2020 will bestudied by historians, scientistsand schoolchildren for genera-tions, and yet, it will be known bymany of those who lived through itfor the singular moments that ar-rived behind a pandemic’s deadlywaves.
Dimitrios Fragiskatos, forced toshut down his comic-book store inBrooklyn for almost threemonths, will remember 2020 asthe year he started an online shopand regulars from his fantasygame tournaments helped it flour-ish.
“It was a kind of restoration offaith in humanity,” Mr.Fragiskatos said. “ ‘Change or die’— isn’t that the saying?”
Richard Schwartz and AmyJablin, together nearly 10 years,will define the year by their Octo-ber rooftop wedding, attended byfour socially distant witnesses.
Sarah Goodis-Orenstein, aschoolteacher from Bedford-Stuy-vesant in Brooklyn, said the pan-demic, by erasing her commute,forced her to slow down and spendmore time with her young chil-dren.
“There’s some pieces of nor-malcy that I don’t really wantback,” she said. “Our normal was-n’t always ideal.”
The Year Like None Before, theYear That Lasted Forever, is fi-nally drawing to a close, becominga thing that happened even as itstolls follow into 2021. More than25,000 New Yorkers who rang in2020 died of the coronavirus in themonths that followed. For thosewho bore witness, this has been atime for taking stock and taking abreath amid all that has changed.
The city was ending the yearhopeful, if unwell, its big annualparty blocked off, and its peopleunsure of exactly how to cele-brate, if at all. It’s a question famil-iar in other tumultuous years.
In 1918, as an influenza epi-demic ravaged the city, TimesSquare was somber, “crowded,but the procession was as quiet as
For New York,A Year of PainAnd Reflection
By MICHAEL WILSON
Continued on Page A13
WASHINGTON — It was awarm summer Wednesday, Elec-tion Day was looming and Presi-dent Trump was even angrierthan usual at the relentless focuson the coronavirus pandemic.
“You’re killing me! This wholething is! We’ve got all the damncases,” Mr. Trump yelled at JaredKushner, his son-in-law and senioradviser, during a gathering of top
aides in the Oval Office on Aug. 19.“I want to do what Mexico does.They don’t give you a test till youget to the emergency room andyou’re vomiting.”
Mexico’s record in fighting thevirus was hardly one for theUnited States to emulate. But the
president had long seen testingnot as a vital way to track and con-tain the pandemic but as a mecha-nism for making him look bad bydriving up the number of knowncases.
And on that day he was espe-cially furious after being informedby Dr. Francis S. Collins, the headof the National Institutes ofHealth, that it would be days be-fore the government could giveemergency approval to the use ofconvalescent plasma as a treat-ment, something Mr. Trump waseager to promote as a personalvictory going into the Republican
National Convention the followingweek.
“They’re Democrats! They’reagainst me!” he said, convincedthat the government’s top doctorsand scientists were conspiring toundermine him. “They want towait!”
Throughout late summer andfall, in the heat of a re-electioncampaign that he would go on tolose, and in the face of mountingevidence of a surge in infectionsand deaths far worse than in thespring, Mr. Trump’s managementof the crisis — unsteady, unscien-
President’s Focus in the Management of the Pandemic: HimselfThis article is by Michael D.
Shear, Maggie Haberman, NoahWeiland, Sharon LaFraniere andMark Mazzetti.
How Trump Allowed aDefining Moment toSlip Out of Control
Continued on Page A6
PARIS — It is done at last. OnJan. 1, with the Brexit transitionperiod over, Britain is no longerpart of the European Union’ssingle market and customs un-
ion. The departure isordered, thanks to alast-minute dealrunning to morethan 1,200 pages,
but still painful to both sides. Agreat loss has been consum-mated.
Loss for the European Unionof one of its biggest memberstates, a major economy, a robustmilitary and the tradition, albeitfaltering, of British liberalism ata time when Hungary and Po-land have veered toward nation-alism.
Loss for Britain of diplomaticheft in a world of renewed greatpower rivalry; of some futureeconomic growth; of clarity overEuropean access for its big finan-cial services industry; and ofcountless opportunities to study,live, work and dream across thecontinent.
The national cry of “take backcontrol” that fired the Brexit votein an outburst of anti-immigrantfervor and random grievanceswithered into four and a halfyears of painful negotiation
Brexit’s StormOffers Europe
Silver LiningBy ROGER COHEN
NEWSANALYSIS
Continued on Page A10
WASHINGTON — Senator BenSasse on Thursday condemned adrive by his Republican col-leagues in Congress to challengethe results of the 2020 election, re-buking the effort as a “dangerousploy” led by lawmakers who are“playing with fire.”
In a blistering open letter to hisconstituents, Mr. Sasse of Nebras-ka became the first Republicansenator to publicly condemn a de-cision by Senator Josh Hawley tochallenge President-elect JosephR. Biden Jr.’s victory, saying it wasintended to “disenfranchise mil-lions of Americans.”
“Let’s be clear what is happen-ing here: We have a bunch of am-bitious politicians who thinkthere’s a quick way to tap into thepresident’s populist base withoutdoing any real, long-term dam-age,” Mr. Sasse wrote. “Butthey’re wrong — and this issue isbigger than anyone’s personalambitions. Adults don’t point aloaded gun at the heart of legiti-mate self-government.”
Mr. Sasse’s scathing remarkscame a day after Mr. Hawley, Re-publican of Missouri, announcedthat he would object to Congress’scertification of the Electoral Col-lege results on Jan. 6, the final pro-cedural step in affirming Mr. Bi-
G.O.P. SplintersOver ChallengeTo Biden’s Win
By CATIE EDMONDSON
Continued on Page A14
In Florida, less than one-quar-ter of delivered coronavirus vac-cines have been used, even as old-er people sat in lawn chairs allnight waiting for their shots. InPuerto Rico, last week’s vaccineshipments did not arrive until theworkers who would have adminis-tered them had left for the Christ-mas holiday. In California, doctorsare worried about whether therewill be enough hospital staff mem-bers to both administer vaccinesand tend to the swelling number ofCovid-19 patients.
These sorts of logistical prob-lems in clinics across the countryhave put the campaign to vacci-nate the United States againstCovid-19 far behind schedule in itsthird week, raising fears abouthow quickly the country will beable to tame the epidemic.
Federal officials said as re-cently as December that theirgoal was to have 20 million peopleget their first shot by the end ofthis year. More than 14 milliondoses of the Pfizer and Modernavaccines had been sent out acrossthe United States, federal officialssaid on Wednesday. But, accord-ing to the Centers for Disease Con-trol and Prevention, just 2.8 mil-lion people have received theirfirst dose, though that numbermay be somewhat low because oflags in reporting.
States vary widely in how manyof the doses they’ve received havebeen given out. South Dakotaleads the country with more than48 percent of its doses given, fol-lowed by West Virginia, at 38 per-cent. By contrast, Kansas has giv-en out less than 11 percent, andGeorgia less than 14 percent.
VACCINATIONS LAGAS STATES TACKLE
LOGISTICAL WOES
DOSES WAIT ON SHELVES
With Resources Stressed,Hospitals Get Little
Federal Help
This article is by Rebecca Rob-bins, Frances Robles and TimArango.
Continued on Page A7
A troop drawdown in Germany worriespeople in a town where American cul-ture and jobs are valued. PAGE A9
INTERNATIONAL A9-11
U.S. Presence in PerilThe movement to increase the federalminimum wage from $7.25 per hour hasbeen growing in strength. PAGE B1
BUSINESS B1-7
A $15 Base Wage Makes GainsAs a chaotic season nears its end, Ala-bama is set to face Notre Dame as Clem-son prepares for Ohio State on Friday inthe College Football Playoff. PAGE B8
SPORTSFRIDAY B8-10
A Preview of the Semifinals
Readers share their resolutions to livesustainably in 2021, including cuttingdown on meat, composting waste andminimizing air travel. PAGE A12
NATIONAL A12-15
Pop the Cork. Save the Planet.As Covid-19 swept the world, the killingof George Floyd galvanized a racialjustice movement, and the death ofRuth Bader Ginsburg shifted the bal-ance of the Supreme Court. PAGE A16
OBITUARIES A16-17, B11
Life Lessons in a Deadly Year
David Brooks PAGE A19
EDITORIAL, OP-ED A18-19
Richard Thornburgh steered Pennsyl-vania through the Three Mile Islandnuclear plant meltdown as governor ofPennsylvania and later led the JusticeDepartment. He was 88. PAGE B11
Former Attorney General
Up to 700 people were forced to sleepoutside after a camp was dismantledand locals turned them away. PAGE A11
Migrants in Frigid Bosnia
In his year-end report, Chief JusticeJohn G. Roberts Jr. commended federalcourts for a nimble response. PAGE A15
Praise for Judges in Pandemic
As cases surge again, Mayor Bill deBlasio set a goal of vaccinating onemillion residents by Jan. 31. PAGE A5
TRACKING AN OUTBREAK A5-8
Slow Start in New York CityThis year, technology did more for usthan ever, and technologists stepped upto help solve critical problems. PAGE B1
The 2020 Good Tech Awards
Late Edition
VOL. CLXX . . . . No. 58,925 © 2021 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, FRIDAY, JANUARY 1, 2021
TINGSHU WANG/REUTERS
Clockwise from top left: A vendor in Dakar, Senegal; a Covid-19 hospital ward in Rome; a scaled-down celebration in Times Square; and a gathering in Wuhan, China.Leaving a Troubled Year Behind
RICCI SHRYOCK FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES ANTONIO MASIELLO/GETTY IMAGES
JOHNNY MILANO FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Today, some sunshine, then turningcloudy, colder, rain late, high 41. To-night, rain, low 39. Tomorrow,mostly cloudy, rain ending, milder,high 56. Weather map, Page B12.
$3.00
