This is the Coronavirus Briefing, an informed guide to the pandemic. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox.
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France raised its Covid-19 alert level in areas across the country and authorities ramped up restrictions to prevent the health care system from buckling under an influx of patients.
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Gov. Mike Parson of Missouri has tested positive for coronavirus.
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The Metropolitan Opera, the nation’s largest performing arts organization, canceled its entire 2020-21 season.
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Get the latest updates here, as well as maps and trackers for U.S. metro areas and vaccines in development.
Latin America’s relentless outbreak
No part of the world has been as devastated by the coronavirus as Latin America. Of the 15 countries with the highest deaths per capita in the world, 11 are in Latin America or the Caribbean.
Unlike in Europe or the United States, the outbreak in Latin America has not come in waves. It slammed into the region in the spring and plateaued at an extraordinarily high level, exacerbated by anemic health care systems, inequality and government ineptitude and indifference.
In Mexico, the epicenter of the outbreak is Iztapalapa, a poor neighborhood in the capital, Mexico City, that’s home to the Central de Abasto, the largest produce market in the Western Hemisphere. The virus quickly tore through the market, which has some 100,000 workers, and radiated out into the surrounding community and beyond. At one point, officials estimated that one of every 10 people put on a ventilator in Mexico City had been in the market.
Our colleague Azam Ahmed, who covers Latin America, chronicled the savage outbreak there over the course of months.
“It became an almost frightening spectacle,” Azam told us. “We had seen it bustling with so much life and energy, but then the virus hit and it was like falling off the edge of a cliff. Every day there were fewer and fewer people, people began to be fearful, and a lot of people began to die.”
But no matter how bad the outbreak got, the market never shut down. It supplies fruits and vegetables for 30 percent of the nation, and it was too important to close. For many of the workers, who faced work or starvation, there also wasn’t much of a choice.
Christopher Arriaga, who works in the market, saw the virus kill the man in the vegetable stall next to him. Then he began losing customers, and his father fell ill, too.
“There is this moment when you start to see people dying, and the stress begins to destroy you,” Mr. Arriaga said. “It made me realize what a trapped animal feels like.”
A promising vaccine enters the homestretch
Johnson & Johnson has begun late-stage clinical trials for its coronavirus vaccine — injecting a boost of optimism into the race to rein in Covid-19.
While Johnson & Johnson is the fourth company to enter a Phase 3 trial, which compares the effects of a vaccine with a placebo for a large population, its vaccine has a number of potentially consequential advantages. It will be tested in more people, it could require just one shot instead of two, and it does not need to be kept frozen as it is delivered, simplifying the logistics of hundreds of millions of doses.
The underlying technology behind Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine also has a long safety record and has been used to make vaccines for Ebola, H.I.V. and Zika. The vaccine uses a neutered virus to carry a gene from the coronavirus into human cells. The cells then produce coronavirus proteins, but not the virus itself, and those proteins can potentially prime the immune system to fight off a later infection.
Johnson & Johnson said it might be able to determine if the vaccine is safe and effective by the end of the year. Right behind Johnson & Johnson are Sanofi and Novavax, companies with vaccine candidates that may prove just as good or better than the leading contenders.
Sniffing out the virus
Finland has trained some very good dogs.
The country today began offering coronavirus tests for passengers at Helsinki’s airport, conducted by canine specialists that have been trained to sniff out SARS-CoV-2.
Travelers who take the voluntary test are asked to rub their necks with a wipe to collect sweat samples, and then leave the wipe in a box. A dog trainer puts the box behind a wall, along with cans that contain different scents. Researchers say the dogs can detect a coronavirus-infected person in 10 seconds, with a 94 percent success rate.
Dogs have long been known to detect other illnesses, like cancer and malaria, and researchers say they are easily able to sniff out the coronavirus, even in a person who is asymptomatic. The exact mechanics are not yet known, but experts say the dogs are most likely identifying the presence of excreted virus in human sweat.
Resurgences
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The regional government of Madrid said it would request “urgent military and logistics” support from the central government to carry out tasks like setting up emergency tents for the homeless and disinfecting public areas as it battles a fresh wave of the virus.
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Ministers in Israel have decided on a full lockdown to begin this Friday that is much stricter than the country’s first one in March. The new regulations include closing synagogues and limiting protests.
Here’s a roundup of restrictions in all 50 states.
What else we’re following
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More than 100 teachers in Kenosha, Wis., have called in sick this week to protest their district’s decision to hold in-person classes, forcing some schools to switch to virtual learning.
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New research found that young Americans age 18 to 25 are more likely to believe misinformation about the virus than those over 65.
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Belgium eased some coronavirus restrictions — including making mask-wearing less strict outdoors and allowing more people to socialize together — with the hope that the looser rules will increase compliance.
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A survey conducted by an industry group found that nine out of 10 restaurants and bars in New York City can’t pay full rent.
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The death of a college football player from Covid-19 is raising questions for his university, and is prompting more athletes to think about their risks.
What you’re doing
I collected reptiles as a kid and our yard has several blue bellied lizards hanging around. So I started buying mealworms and feeding them by hand. They were fearful at first, but now when they see me come out and run to my feet and take the worms from my fingers. I cannot get them to wear masks (so far)!
— Bob Petersen, Sparks, Nev.
Let us know how you’re dealing with the pandemic. Send us a response here, and we may feature it in an upcoming newsletter.
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