The Washington Post - 18.03.2020

A14 EZ RE THE WASHINGTON POST.WEDNESDAy, MARCH 18 , 2020

The coronavirus outbreak

trustworthy sources and reliable

guidance when they need it,” said

Ta rik Jasarevic, a spokesman for

the World Health Organization.

There was trouble from the

beginning. “The lack of good

information in the first weeks

gives oxygen to misinformation,”

said Cristina Ta rdáguila, associ-

ate director for the International

Fact-Checking Network. She has

been debunking coronavirus

claims since they first appeared

around Jan. 24, when hoaxes

flooded social networks in Asia.

Ta rdáguila said the coronavi-

rus outbreak has provoked the

strongest action from fact-check-

ers she’s ever seen. More than 90

fact-checking organizations

banded together in response,

Ta rdáguila said, representing

nearly 40 countries, 15 languages

and every time zone. (The net-

work maintains a running Twit-

ter list of its latest fact-checks.)

The WHO is working with

Twitter, Facebook and other plat-

forms to restrict coronavirus

misinformation. The organiza-

tion also enlisted Instagram and

YouTube influencers to spread

accurate news.

De Domenico answered The

Washington Post’s questions

about social media messages

while the scientist was self-quar-

antined at his home in Italy. The

following Q&A has been con-

densed and edited for clarity.

Q: In the United States, are

there any unusual emerging

trends?

A: After Feb. 15 to 20, we

observed an unusual rise in the

infodemic risk [caused by sus-

pected bot activity and unveri-

fied-by-Twitter humans]. Info-

demic risk is our indicator to

quantify the rate at which a user

in the online social system is

exposed to unreliable informa-

tion.

Overall, for the [United States]

this risk is high when compared

to other countries such as Singa-

pore, [but recently] the infodem-

ic risk is slightly decreasing.

Q: Does the artificial activity

from bots seem to have a particu-

lar goal?

A : From the analysis of previ-

ous events, like the Catalan Ref-

erendum of Oct. 1, 2017, we have

discovered that they tend to sus-

tain online conflicts. (De Domen-

ico observed a bot-driven spike in

inflammatory messages in the

weeks surrounding the vote for

Catalonian independence .)

In p ractice, their only goal is to

generate more chaos and confu-

sion in the online social system.

However, it is well known that

this might have harmful conse-

quences in the physical world:

from political elections to fi-

nance, and now to public health.

Q: You’ve found that much of

the sentiment is negative, partic-

ularly in certain countries. Do

you see any trends?

A : I would rather say that the

whole world is sad.

There are relationships be-

tween online sentiment, stock

market changes and rise of con-

firmed cases. Of course, those

relationships are only a proxy for

very complex interdependencies

between the social and the finan-

cial systems.

Q: You’re based in Italy. How

has the coronavirus affected you?

A: In the last three weeks, I’ve

had only a three-day break from

voluntary isolation. (Italy recent-

ly moved from voluntary isola-

tion to stricter lockdown rules,

barring out-of-home activity

with few exceptions.)

I feel lucky, because as a re-

searcher I can work from home.

With many difficulties — but I

still can. But business is highly

compromised from the local to

national level. Stores and com-

mercial activities are closed, with

a huge impact on our economy.

And I have to mention our

health system, with thousands of

women and men working 24

hours a day in our hospitals close

to saturation. They are exhaust-

ed. It is hard.

[email protected]

BY BEN GUARINO

In the outpouring of social
media messages about the coro-
navirus pandemic, the collective
mood is grim, experts found.
Manlio De Domenico, a scien-
tist at the Bruno Kessler Founda-
tion’s Center for Information and
Communication Te chnology in
Italy, has tracked online rumors
and bots that spread false news.
He and his colleagues recently
analyzed more than 121,407,
tweets, half of which were tagged
to a location, and more than 22
million Web pages to describe the
messages people — and robots —
have been sending during the
outbreak.
De Domenico filtered messag-
es for emotional content, exam-

ining tweets for neuroticism and

other psychological characteris-

tics. He also scanned them for

misinformation. What’s hap-

pened during the worldwide out-

break of the disease covid-19 is

different from the “standard cir-

culation of fake news,” he said.

“The amount of unreliable news

is a huge potential threat to

public health.”

The World Health Organiza-

tion, even before it declared the

coronavirus outbreak to be a

pandemic, labeled the onslaught

of messages as an infodemic.

“The covid-19 outbreak and re-

sponse has been accompanied by

a massive ‘infodemic’ — an over-

abundance of information, some

accurate and some not — that

makes it hard for people to find

Analysis: Tweets show

‘the whole world is sad’

BY JULIE ZAUZMER

AND SARAH PULLIAM BAILEY

Chuck Pierce’s son was con-
cerned, like a lot of other people
looking out on a world of ran-
sacked grocery stores and can-
celed sports seasons and eerie
lines of people standing six feet
apart from one another. So he
asked his dad: “Is this the end of
the w orld?”
That’s a question you can ask
when you have a dad who calls
himself an apostolic prophet and
leads a prophetic ministry. “No,”
said Pierce, who is based in
Corinth, Tex. “The Lord’s shown
me through 2026, so I know this
isn’t t he end of time.”
The worldwide upheaval
caused b y the fast-spreading novel
coronavirus pandemic has many
people reaching for their Bibles,
and some starting to wonder:
Could this be a sign of the apoca-
lypse?
It sure might feel apocalyptic.
But n ot if y ou ask Christian writers
and pastors who have spent years
focusing their message on the
Book of Revelation — the New
Te stament’s final book. It l ays out a
lurid, poetic vision of the End
Times, in which Christian teach-
ing says that Jesus will return to
Earth, believers will be raptured to
heaven, and those left behind will
suffer seven dreadful years of ca-
lamities. M ost of t hese Revelation-
focused prophesiers don’t see cor-
onavirus as heralding the Second
Coming and the end of life on
Earth a s we know it.
“If a person w ere just complete-
ly ignorant about what the Bible
says about the End Times, they
may think this right now: This is
it,” said Jeff Kinley, a writer of
books on biblical prophecy who
lives i n Harrison, A rk.
Kinley said h e understands why
Americans might see this time of
fast-encroaching disease, isola-
tion from loved ones and crashing
stock markets as apocalyptic.

Americans are primed to believe

the end of the world might arrive

any day now. In 2010, 41 percent

told Pew Research Center that

they expected Jesus to return by

2050.

Kinley pointed to Revelation

6:8, which forecasts deaths all

over the globe “by sword, famine

and plague,” and Jesus’ words

about the events before the end

times in Luke 21:11: “ There will be

great earthquakes, famines and

pestilences in various places, and

fearful events a nd great s igns from

heaven.”

“I think he’s r eferring to a f uture

time,” Kinley said. “I don’t think

this is an actual fulfillment of

that.”

The Bible is very specific about

what will happen before the End

Times, Kinley says, and those

events haven’t all unfolded yet. For

one major thing, the ancient tem-

ple in Jerusalem is supposed to be

rebuilt first.

Gary Ray, a writer f or the p roph-

ecy website Unsealed, agreed: He

and his fellow evangelical End

Times writers are focused on what

is happening with holy sites in

Israel, not disease. “The key focus

that we h ave in o ur m inds is I srael.

That’s God’s prophetic clock. As

things progress in that c ountry, w e

get closer to when the rapture of

the c hurch will occur, a nd then the

tribulation,” h e said.

Ray, who lives near Dallas,

pointed out that there have been

many pandemics in world history,

and none of them have been a

token of an approaching apoca-

lypse. B ut t his one might be d iffer-

ent, he acknowledged — because

of an astrological event in 20 17

that Ray read a s fulfilling a proph-

ecy in R evelation. “Jesus s aid t here

would be pestilences and great

signs in the heavens. And sure

enough, both of those things are

happening together.”

In R ay’s o pinion, these portents

should send non-Christians rush-

ing toward the Bible, so they can

convert while there is still time

before t he C hristians are raptured

and everyone else has to endure

the w retched s even y ears. “ God is a

very gracious god,” he said. “He

wants the most possible people to

be saved. He’s giving s ign after sign

after sign, and t hey’re very c lear.”

Michael Brown, host of the

Christian radio show “The Line of

Fire,” based in Charlotte, also said

coronavirus is n ot a sign of t he E nd

Times, but a good opportunity for

reflection on what he believes will

come. “ I see this as a trial r un to see

how we respond to calamity and

hardship,” h e said. “If we’re shaken

now, how are we going to react

when it really g ets wild?”

One reason for all these rela-

tively rosy assessments from peo-

ple who might otherwise be

doomsday prophesiers? It might

be President Trump’s attitude to-

ward the virus; t he president, who

is very popular a mong evangelical

Christians, for w eeks played down

the seriousness of the disease

threat. His tone, however, grew

markedly more concerned this

week.

James Beverley, a professor at

Ty ndale Seminary in Toronto, s aid

he found in researching his forth-

coming book on Trump a nd C hris-

tian prophecy that charismatic

and Pentecostal prophets, who

normally think the End Times are

near, have been less likely to fore-

cast doom during the Trump ad-

ministration.

“Some are saying that Satan is

the source of evils like the virus,

but the doom and gloom message

is missing. There is such a positive

view on Trump and such strong

wishes f or his r eelection t hat there

is deep hope that the virus will die

out, a strong economy will return

and Trump will defeat the Demo-

cratic nominee,” B everley w rote i n

an email. “It is stunning how opti-

mistic charismatic prophets are

since Trump won in 2 016.”

jul [email protected]

[email protected]

It is not the end of the world, say Christians who study the end of the world

JONATHAN NEWTON/THE WASHINGTON POST

A pedestrian crosses 13th Street NW in the District during what would be rush hour early Tuesday during the coronavirus shutdown.

BY LISA REIN

AND KIMBERLY KINDY

The Internal Revenue Service
on Tuesday began closing field
offices in Northern California, Se-
attle, Puerto Rico and the New
York City area to contain the
spread of the novel coronavirus —
and all of its tax counseling sites
for the elderly. The Social Security
Administration closed 1,400 field
and h earing offices M onday night.
F ederal courts are rescheduling
trials. The Food and Drug Admin-
istration has suspended inspec-
tions of imported food and medi-
cal devices, and the Washington
Monument has closed.
These public services are the
first signs that the public health
crisis is forcing the f ederal govern-
ment to slow down, even as the
Trump administration urges
agencies to send their staffs home
to work remotely and keep the
government running.
The federal government, the
nation’s largest employer, was un-
til this week a holdout in confront-
ing the shifts in daily life that
health authorities have been urg-
ing Americans to make for weeks.
But s everal agencies now are start-
ing to limit their employees’ con-
tact with the public where they
can.

Ta xpayers and the elderly now

have to speak with IRS or Social

Security agents by phone to en-

sure that they do not come into

physical contact with one another

or with the employees serving

them. Families hoping to enter-

tain their out-of-school children

in national parks will find about a

dozen sites closed from California

to Washington, D.C.

The White H ouse Office o f Man-

agement and Budget, which is

holding daily conference calls

with federal agency leaders, i s urg-

ing telework for employees across

the country and paid leave for

those whose jobs do not allow

them to work remotely.

As o f Tuesday, though, e fforts to

clear federal buildings were un-

even, underscoring the challenge

of such a dramatic, sustained

shifting of work patterns in a bu-

reaucracy of 2.1 million employ-

ees.

Senior agency leaders w ere t old

by top budget office officials this

week to prepare to put emergency

plans in place that designate

which p art of their mission i s criti-

cal t o continue during a pandemic

and which operations they can

drop to keep their employees and

the p ublic safe.

So far, there has been no direc-

tive to invoke these “continuity of

operations” plans. But scattered

agencies are taking action.

Social Security closed its 1,

field offices and 165 sites where

administrative law judges hear

appeals of rulings on disability

applications, after weeks of pres-

sure from employees and the

unions that represent them. In

theory, business will carry on by

phone, o fficials said.

In reality, the sudden transfor-

mation d id n ot unfold s eamlessly.

S ome employees arrived at

work first thing Tuesday morning

because they w ere n ot yet set up to

telework. They watched as cus-

tomers pulled into parking lots,

looking for help with disability

claims or with replacing lost So-

cial Security cards. Then they

watched them peer into the dark-

ened offices and walk away in

frustration.

“We’ve been asking for t his f or a

while. They d id it overnight — a nd

failed to get the word out,” said

Ralph Dejuliis, a field worker in

Oklahoma and national president

for the union that represents the

federal employees.

Dejuliis said Social Security em-

ployees don’t know how they are

going to handle a variety of tasks.

What if they are not sure people on

the phone are who they claim to

be? In the past, they made them

come to the office t o be s ure.

Also, only a fraction of the staff

have work computers equipped

with Softphone, a software pro-

gram that allows employees to

make and receive calls using the

Internet.

So they are being asked to use

their personal cellphones to talk

to dozens of strangers each day.

Managers are advising them to

block their personal number by

using *67 before d ialing.

Workers said they are receiving

confusing d irections from manag-

ers about t elework.

Milana Bubrinkova, who pro-

cesses claims in a Chicago district

office, said she learned Friday af-

ternoon that her children’s

schools were closing.

She asked her manager for per-

mission to telework and didn’t

receive a clear decision, she said.

She grabbed her work laptop be-

fore she left t hat night. The agency

policy allowed for telework under

such circumstances, and she

wanted to be ready for work Mon-

day morning.

That morning, she said her

manager approved her to tele-

work but reprimanded h er for tak-

ing her computer home without

his permission. “I’m trying to find

a way to get my w ork done, and I ’m

getting reprimanded for it? You

cannot make t his stuff up.”

Social Security officials did not

respond to questions about the

incident.

The IRS, weeks from the

April 15 tax filing deadline, fol-

lowed guidance from local public

health authorities in some of the

country’s hardest-hit communi-

ties when it decided to close tax-

payer assistance offices on both

coasts, officials said. Managers e x-

pect that additional taxpayer ser-

vice offices will close i n the coming

days a nd w eeks.

The filing d eadline h as not been

changed, but taxpayers who owe

the government money will have

an additional 90 days to pay.

Also Tuesday, the agency re-

stricted which face-to-face servic-

es the rest of the roughly 325 still-

open taxpayer assistance offices

will provide.

F or example, the staff will pro-

cess only c ash t ax payments, a ppli-

cations by noncitizens for taxpay-

er identification numbers and re-

funds pending confirmation of a

taxpayer’s i dentity.

Chad Hooper, the n ational pres-

ident o f an association o f IRS man-

agers, the Professional Managers

Association, said the agency must

ensure the safety of thousands of

employees who remain at work

serving taxpayers, since their jobs

cannot be done remotely.

“We should be pulling out all

the s tops for them,” H ooper said. A

particular challenge is making

sure employees’ desks and cubi-

cles are cleaned regularly, he said,

since many federal agencies are

confronting shortages of cleaning

supplies and employees are dis-

couraged from bringing their own

supplies t o work.

The IRS closings follow Mon-

day’s decision by the National

Park Service to close the Statue of

Liberty National Monument and

Ellis Island, both in N ew York, a nd

the Washington Monument, in the

nation’s capital, to the public, fol-

lowing closures of almost a dozen

sites last weekend. They include

Alcatraz Island, Muir Woods Na-

tional Monument and the Golden

Gate Recreation Area, all in Cali-

fornia, and the Mall and Ford’s

Theatre National Historic Site in

Washington, D.C.

The pandemic also has upend-

ed criminal proceedings in federal

courts as officials try to balance

the delivery of justice and the

preservation of public health. The

coronavirus threat has prompted

strict protocols all over the coun-

try, from the top court in the land

to remote municipal courts.

The U.S. Supreme Court has

postponed oral arguments for the

remainder of March and left un-

clear when the cases that had been

scheduled would be heard. The

high court was set to hear argu-

ments March 3 1 on whether Presi-

dent Trump’s financial records

and tax returns should be turned

over to Congress and the Manhat-

tan district attorney.

At state and federal courts in

New York, what began as recom-

mendations to the public and em-

ployees in the justice system have

hardened into orders. A statewide

memo released Sunday instructed

that all “nonessential” matters

were to be adjourned at the close

of business o n Monday.

The virus also prompted the

Food and Drug Administration

last week to suspend through

April most inspections of foreign

makers of pharmaceutical prod-

ucts, m edical devices and f ood im-

ported into the United States.

The postponements involve

routine surveillance inspections

of facilities that make FDA-regu-

lated products. The agency al-

ready had suspended most i nspec-

tions in China.

The FDA has said it will rely

more heavily on other tools, such

as denying entry of unsafe prod-

ucts into the United States, using

information supplied by foreign

governments a nd requesting com-

pany records.

[email protected]

[email protected]

IRS, Social Security c lose field o∞ces, expand t elework

Leaders ‘failed to get

t he word out’ as switch

i s made abruptly