Wall Street Journal 08_04_2020

***** WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8, 2020 ~ VOL. CCLXXV NO. 82 WSJ.com HHHH$4.

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THE

CORONAVIRUS

PANDEMIC

In Detroit, poverty deepens

pain as cases rise, A

Firms offer FEMA supplies

it can’t buy, A

Refugee camps face

heightened peril, A

India lifts export ban on

drug many seek, A

Pollard asked if they would

leave some at her hospital,

which had more than 400

coronavirus patients, many

of them growing worse and

others still arriving.

She asked for 25 and got

15. “We’ll take anything,” she
    said.
    New York City hospitals
    faced the full force of the
    pandemic in recent days, as
    the coronavirus disease
    surged through the city and
    on Monday claimed 731 lives,
    the highest number of
    deaths in a single day.
    Hospital loudspeakers have
    sounded constant alarms for
    doctors to aid patients in a
    crisis that has stretched the
    capacity of New York’s medi-
    cal community and sparked
    the ingenuity and resource-
    fulness of its members
    Within hours, Ms. Pollard
    had used all of the new ven-
    tilators, leaving eight in re-
    serve. Twenty more arrived
    March 29, and Ms. Pollard
    worked frantically to assem-
    ble the parts, as a biomedi-
    cal engineer tested them.
    Once finished, other workers
    ran them to hospital floors
    where they were needed.
    Please turn to page A

Wisconsin Braves Infection to Vote

The New Cocktail Hour: Your

Governor’s Coronavirus Briefing

iii

Pandemic updates become must-see TV

and make unlikely stars of local officials

Bob Lear noticed his wife

was pouring herself a glass of

wine one recent afternoon, so

he asked her what was up.

“It’s almost 5 o’clock,” she

said. “I’ve got my date with

Andy.”

Andy is Andy Beshear, the

young Democratic governor of

Kentucky, who gives a briefing

on the coronavirus pandemic

every day at that time.

“So yeah quarantine is go-

ing well,” Mr. Lear, a 35-year-

old real-estate agent in Ver-

sailles, Ky., quipped in a tweet.

While New York Gov. An-

drew Cuomo, a Democrat, has

captured a national audience,

the coronavirus crisis is creat-

ing its own brand of must-see

TV in the heartland. It’s a

combination of C-Span, local

access and a much-needed

routine that is bringing com-

fort—and a few chuckles—to

many of the homebound in a

time of national crisis.

Fans of Ohio Gov. Mike De-

Please turn to page A

BYJOEBARRETT

BYGORDONLUBOLD

ANDMICHAELR.GORDON

Sharon Pollard, director

for respiratory care at Long

Island Jewish Medical Center

in New Hyde Park, N.Y., had

eight ventilators left and

needed more. Overnight, at

least 17 new patients re-

quired them.

Teams at the hospital un-

loaded ventilators delivered

by the Federal Emergency

Management Agency. The

machines were bound for a

central depot to distribute to

many other hospitals. Ms.

BYMELANIEEVANS

inbound and outbound travel

for healthy people, after eas-

ing some residential restric-

tions to revive a crippled local

economy.

In the past few days, how-

ever, it has tightened restric-

tions on some housing com-

plexes, and said others will

remain in place, after confirm-

ing dozens of new asymptom-

atic cases. An official newspa-

per said Monday there could

be 10,000 to 20,000 such cases

in Wuhan. The report was

swiftly deleted online.

Epidemiologists, U.S. intelli-

gence sources and Wuhan resi-

dents suspect that Chinese au-

thorities substantially

undercounted infections and

deaths over the past several

months, especially in Wuhan,

in part to boost President Xi

Jinping’s image. Such doubts,

Please turn to page A

Fear Lingers

On Streets

Of Wuhan

Suspicion of uncounted

cases fuels worries of

second wave of virus

as China reopens city

WUHAN—Chinese leaders

and many medical experts

have held up this city as an ex-

ample of what can be achieved

through extreme efforts to

contain the coronavirus.

It’s now becoming clear the

battle in Wuhan is far from

over—and the human cost

much higher than officially ac-

knowledged.

The city has announced

only three new confirmed

cases with symptoms since

March 18. Authorities have

just formally ended the 77-day

lockdown on the city, allowing

ByJeremy Page,

Natasha Khan

andWarren P. Strobel

No Clear Path Seen

To Restart Economy

 Chinese mogul who criticized

Xi now faces probe.............. A

WASHINGTON—Acting

Navy Secretary Thomas Modly

resigned after an uproar over

his verbal attack on the for-

mer captain of the coronavi-

rus-stricken aircraft carrier

Theodore Roosevelt, in a saga

that has dealt a new blow to a

U.S. Navy beset by missteps

and clashes with the White

House in recent years.

Mr. Modly was under pres-

suretostepdownafteranex-

traordinary chain of events

over the past two weeks as the

Navy and the U.S. military

scramble to respond to the

Covid-19 crisis, with more

than 230 cases of the respira-

tory illness caused by the cor-

onavirus on the aircraft car-

rier among more than 1,

across the armed services.

Defense Secretary Mark Es-

per accepted Mr. Modly’s resig-

nation on Tuesday after top of-

ficials held a series of meetings

at the Pentagon in the morning.

With President Trump’s

blessing, Mr. Esper said, he

tapped Undersecretary of the

Army James McPherson, a re-

tired Navy rear admiral who

once served on the USS Theo-

dore Roosevelt, to succeed Mr.

Modly, officials said. Mr. Modly

Please turn to page A

 Trump removes stimulus-

spending monitor.................... A

CONTENTS

Banking & Finance B

Business News.. B3,

Crossword.............. A

Heard on Street. B

Life & Arts...... A13-

Markets..................... B

Opinion.............. A17-

Property Report... B

Sports........................ A

Technology............... B

U.S. News............. A2-

Weather................... A

World News.......... A

s2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

All Rights Reserved

>

What’s

News

Suspicions thatChinese

authorities substantially

undercounted coronavirus

infections and deaths, espe-

cially in Wuhan, combined

with reports of new asymp-

tomatic cases in that city, are

sparking fears of a potential

second wave of infections.A

The U.S. death tollfrom

the coronavirus rose sharply,

with nearly 50% more peo-

ple killed Tuesday than

any previous day in the ep-

idemic, according to a Wall

Street Journal analysis of

data from Johns Hopkins.A

The acting Navy secretary

resigned after an uproar

over his verbal attack on the

ex-captain of a coronavirus-

stricken aircraft carrier.A

Trump replacedthe Pen-

tagon’s acting inspector

general, who had been

charged with monitoring the

pandemic stimulus law.A

The Trumpadministra-

tion and top lawmakers said

they hope to move within

days to approve new funding

for small-business loans.A

The U.K. government

sought to maintain a united

front in the face of the pan-

demic while Johnson re-

mained in intensive care.A

The U.S. plansto block

Iran’s requested $5 billion

emergency loan from the IMF

that Tehran says it needs to

fight its coronavirus crisis.A

The Taliban broke off

talks with Afghanistan’s

government, creating a

fresh stumbling block for

the peace process.A

Died: John Prine,73,

country-folk music icon.A

U

.S. government officials

and business leaders are

turning their attention to a

coming challenge in the

fight against the coronavi-

rus pandemic: Reopening an

economy that has been shut

down like never before.A

A number of companies

are citing beefed-up unem-

ployment benefits under

the stimulus package as

they furlough or lay off

staff amid the pandemic.A

Nissan and Hondaare

furloughing U.S. factory

workers without pay, add-

ing to joblessness in the

hard-hit auto industry.B

Exxon Mobil saidit

would cut its 2020 capital

spending by 30% as the

coronavirus pandemic saps

demand for oil.B1, B

Amazon.com will halta

delivery service for non-

Amazon packages as it re-

evaluates the nascent offer-

ing that competes directly

with FedEx and UPS.B

ISS has urgedshare-

holders to withhold votes

for the chairman of Williams

after the pipeline operator

adopted a poison pill.B

The Dow and S&P 500

ended Tuesday’s session

down 0.1% and 0.2%, respec-

tively, after relinquishing

substantial early gains.B

Airbnb agreedto pay its

new investors interest at a

rate of over 10% in their fund-

ing deal, according to people

familiar with the matter.B

Two WeWork directors

sued SoftBank on behalf of

the co-working firm after

SoftBank dropped an offer

to buy WeWork shares.B

Business&Finance

World-Wide

FROM TOP: JOHN HART/WISCONSIN STATE JOURNAL/ASSOCIATED PRESS; TANNEN MAURY/EPA/SHUTTERSTOCK

DEMOCRACY: Robert Williams, top, votes in Dunn, and a line forms outside a Milwaukee polling place

Tuesday after a court blocked the governor from delaying the contest over public-health concerns. A

New York City

Feels Full Force

Of Hospital Crisis

The pandemic has sparked the ingenuity

and grit of the medical community

Companies Cutting Jobs

Cite New Aid for Workers

ment’s beefed-up unemploy-

ment benefits as they furlough

or lay off staff amid the coro-

navirus pandemic. The stimu-

lus package is changing the

calculus for some employers,

which can now cut payroll

costs without feeling they are

abandoning their employees.

“I’m getting a lot of calls

from clients wondering why

wouldn’t I do this if my em-

ployee can make as much or

sometimes more not working,

and I don’t need them and can

cut that cost,” said Christine

Lamb, a Denver-based employ-

ment attorney from Fortis Law

Partners. “I’ve received a ton

of calls of clients wondering if

it’s a win-win.”

The new stimulus package

will give employees who have

been laid off or had their hours

cut an extra $600 each week

for up to four months on top of

their state’s regular unemploy-

ment payments. By itself, the

$600 is the equivalent of work-

ing 40 hours a week at $15 an

hour. For people working full

time and normally earning

$7.25 an hour, that comes to

more than double their income

Please turn to page A

When Equinox had to start

furloughing some employees at

its chain of upscale fitness

clubs, Executive Chairman Har-

vey Spevak had a surprising

message to stakeholders.

“We believe most will be

better off receiving government

assistance during our closure,”

he wrote in an email. The com-

pany said the majority of em-

ployees remain on its payroll.

Equinox joins a number of

companies, including Macy’s

Inc. and Steelcase Inc., that

are citing the federal govern-

BYPATRICKTHOMAS

ANDCHIPCUTTER

A sharp reduction in new

infections is a critical first

step, but health experts said

other actions will be needed to

prevent another outbreak that

freezes activity all over again.

That includes building testing

and surveillance systems, and

a readiness to reintroduce

some social distancing and

other mitigations to give peo-

ple confidence that they can

return to work without risking

infection.

The Trump administration’s

current social-distancing

guidelines run through April.

“It isn’t like a light switch

on and off,” Anthony Fauci, a

member of President Trump’s

task force on the pan-

demic, told “The Journal,” a

Wall Street Journal podcast.

“It’s a gradual pulling back on

certain of the restrictions to

try and get society a bit back

Please turn to page A

Government officials and

business leaders are turning

their attention to a coming

challenge in the fight against

the coronavirus pandemic: Re-

opening a $22 trillion econ-

omy that has been shut down

like never before.

With some preliminary

signs that infections from the

virus are slowing, the whole

nation is hopeful to get back

to business as soon as possi-

ble. But there are a host of

questions. Under what condi-

tions should people be allowed

back to work and stay-at-home

orders be lifted? How will peo-

ple at work be monitored for

reinfection or antibodies to

prevent a resurgence of the

deadly virus? Does it all hap-

pen at once or is it staggered?

Who is in charge of the effort?

BYSTEPHANIEARMOUR

ANDJONHILSENRATH

Acting Navy

Leader Quits

Amid Uproar

Over Captain

 More small-business loans

promised....................................... A

Folk Music’s John Prine Dies

MASTER STORYTELLER: The singer-songwriter, who was 73,

helped shape a generation of performers with his songs of love

and social commentary. He died from the coronavirus. A

JASON GROW FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL