wrote, "People should ask themselves
whether this coronavirus 'pandemic' could
be a big hoax, with the actual danger
of the disease massively exaggerated by
those who seek to profit-financially
or politically--from the ensuing panic."
During this danpus period, a range
of polls revealed that Republicans, in pu-
ticuW; trust Trump's infurmation on the
virus more than that of the "lame-stream
media." AMaristCallrge-NPR-PBS poll
found that more than half of this group
thought the risk was being "blown out
of proportion. "The Trumpian efforts to
downplay the thn:at to public health held
fast among "the base."
What finally shattered Trump's serene
confidence and the consensus of his fol-
lowers? Fauci and other oflicials on the
White House task force certainly began
to cut through his dismissals in their
briefing sessions. An analysis from epi-
dcmiologim at Imperial College Lon-
don, forecasting as many as :2..2 million
American fat2lities and a health-care
system under siege, reportedly hdped
LOCAL HEROES
HUNGR.YTOWNT
he new coronavirus has made all
the easy stuff hard. The rules are
shifting. Subways? Bad. Cabs? Murky.
Mayor de Blasio says use them if you
must and if you're alone, but he banned
shared rides for everyone but families
and what he, strangely; called "real cou-
ples. "Takeout? The RD.A. thinks the
virus doesn't spread through food. Other
experts say maybe make some ramen.
"'New Yorkers are hungry," Lenin
Ceron said last week. Someone has to
get them their food. Cer6n is one of
those people. He is a courier for Relay,
a delivery company that has instituted
a "contactlcss delivery" system, a vital
real-time experiment in safely .fi:eding
the shut-in city. "I take this very seri-
ously;" Ceron said. "When I get home,
I have a buclcet with soap and water, so
I can step right into the bucket, and
throw everything in. I wash my hands,
take off my clothes. I clean all the knobs.
IO THE NEY ~ MAl\CH 30, 2020
advance the argument for strict social-
distancing measures. And, because this is
Trump World, the President listened at-
tentivelywhen he received a visit at Mar-
a-Lago from Tucker Carlson, who broke
ranks with his Fox News colleagues and
urged serious action.
Trump cannot be forgiven for bis
preening and his belatedness. And yet
this least trustworthy of Commandeis-
in-Chief is entrusted bythe authority of
his office to make a series of critical de-
cisions. In order to "flatten the curve, "we
have rightly set in motion a set of edicts
that, while necessary to control the pan-
demic, will continue to batter the econ-
omy, create deep atomiution, and cause
all manner of suffering. The human need
for solidarity is frustrated by the need for
social distancing.An economythat sci7.es
up entirely could, in thco()S produce nearly
as much suffering as the virus itself; par-
ticularly fur the most vulnerable among
us.A host of well-judged policy decisions
must be made and cxeruted effectively if
the country is to be spared the worst. ABThen I take a shower at night and in
the morning. I disinfect the bathroom.
I try to be as clean as possible." In his
delivery bag, he<l stashed plastic gloves.
Hand-saniti7.er bottles were ready in a
pouch on his vest. "You can never use
enough," he said. Earlier in the morn-
ing, he'd bought a box of masks from a
purported ninety-nine-cents store in
Chinatown. "Fifty dollars!" he said.
It was the :first night of the ban on
eating in restaurants. Ceron, who is titlr-
ty-four and originally from Guerrero,
Mcx:ico,hadcommuted from the Bronx
to Union Square with his electric bike.
He is a recent vegetarian, and a frequent
smiler, under the mask. He uses the
word "O.K. "to describe the many things
he feels fondly toward: people, the city,
the pride he takes after a day's work.
"I'm very lucky," he said. "I still have
one job. I have two beautiful daughters.
And rm healthy. I have to be extra care-
ful. for them. But I adt be stuck.at hoIIlf:.
I have too many responsibilities."
The night's fuwt pickup was at Sticky's
Finger Joint, nearby. Two paper bags
were waiting on the counter. "I try not
to take the bags by the handle, "he said.
That's where customers a.re most likely
to touch. Instead, he grabbed them byrecently as Friday, however, the President
spent much of his briefing berating a re-
porter and further alarming the public. It
is better to be lucky than good, the old
saw has it. Trump is not good; we must
hope that he will be lucky.
Right now, as we sit in our homes,
washing our hands yet again, as we try
to read the qucru1ous expressions of our
children, scientists and pharmaceutical
companies are racing to develop anti-
viral treatments and--what will be our
most valuable weapon-a vaccine. But no
such deliverance is 1ikc1y to arrive in this
calendar year. In the meantime, another
form of protection has become more ur-
g-ent than ever. Misinformation and cant,
along with a kindred scorn for science
and professional expertise: these things
arc pathogens, too. Counterfeit facts can
polarize, alienate, disaffect, rouse misdi-
rected rage, and fument social division.
They have long oome at a cost to our ci-
vility; at a time of pandemic, cspccially,
they also come at a cost in human lives.
-Dtwid &mnickthe collar, like a nightclub bouncer. Then
he hopped on his bike and zipped to
the first drop-off. After an elevator tap
with a gloved :finger, he used the side of
his cell phone to knock.on the custom-
er's door. He set down the bag and
stepped back a safe distance. The door
opened: Brandon,human-ICSOurces pro-
fessional; spicy chicken, Cajun fries.
Brandon was "a little weirded out," he
said, when Ceron offered him a spritz
of sanitizer. "But it showed he cared."
Next: c.hida:n fuigen; downtown, Per-Lenin Cer6n