The Wall Street Journal - 07.03.2020 - 08.03.2020

A10| Saturday/Sunday, March 7 - 8, 2020 **** THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

never been seen before for a

presidential primary here.

In the weeks before the

election, the Bloomberg cam-

paign hired seven staffers and

opened a campaign headquar-

ters near the movie theater.

How often has that happened

in the history of American Sa-

moa?

“Never, never ever,” said

T’ia Reid, a local campaign

staffer for the former New

York City mayor. “That’s why

we knew it was a special op-

portunity. We don’t get much

attention.”

They put up Bloomberg bill-

boards and signs, trying to ap-

peal to locals in the Samoan

language: “Mike Bloomberg mo

Amerika Samoa 2020,” mean-

ing “Mike Bloomberg for Amer-

ican Samoa 2020.”

Mr. Bloomberg launched a

digital campaign that was

enormous by the island’s stan-

dards. Between Feb. 4 and

March 4, his campaign spent

$1,651 on Facebook advertising,

compared with $297 for all

other Facebook advertising tar-

geted at American Samoa dur-

ing that time, according to the

social-media company’s ad li-

brary report.

Mr. Reid, a 36-year-old gov-

ernment worker, and his crew,

which included a grandmother,

a 19-year-old college student

and a teacher, organized Stu-

dents for Mike, Teachers for

Mike, and Seniors for Mike.

They secured the endorsement

of a Samoan chief named

Fa’alagiga Nina Tua’au-Glaude.

“We’ve seen a lot of negativ-

ity. There are people saying he

spent $500 million here,” said

Mr. Reid. “I feel it kind of

downplays everything we’ve

done.”

Some Samoans weren’t en-

thralled with the effort. Tisa

Fa’amuli, the 72-year-old

owner of Tisa’s Barefoot Bar,

said she was skeptical of

“Bloomingdale, or whatever his

name is.”

Ms. Fa’amuli said that more

people know Ms. Gabbard, but

there isn’t a lot of interest in

national politics. Residents of

American Samoa are U.S. Na-

tionals, not citizens, and while

they can caucus for the pri-

mary, they cannot vote in pres-

idential elections.

“We’re 5,000 miles away

from Washington,” she said.

“We’re so far away, no one

even knows where we are.”

Ms. Gabbard’s campaign

started just a few days before

Super Tuesday, said Tony

Langkilde, who volunteered to

run her campaign for no pay

because he is a cousin of her

father. “No money at all—it’s

called family love,” he said.

On Super Tuesday, Aliitama

Sotoa, chairman of the Demo-

cratic Party of American Sa-

moa, announced each vote and

sang Samoan songs while they

were inspected by the cam-

paigns and tallied. “Everybody

was having a great time,” said

Mr. Sotoa.

At first, Ms. Gabbard pulled

ahead because the votes on the

top of the pile were from a late

surge of supporters from her

village, Leloaloa. Then, Mr.

Bloomberg zoomed ahead with

the votes from those who had

cast their ballots earlier in the

morning.

In the aftermath of the up-

set, Mr. Bloomberg was

awarded five delegates, and

Ms. Gabbard got one. Then

party officials realized that

voting percentages should be

recalculated once the lesser

candidates were eliminated.

Ms. Gabbard was hovering un-

der 30% in the first count.

On Thursday, Ms. Gabbard

notched a victory when the

Democratic Party of American

Samoa offered a formal apol-

ogy for the miscalculation, say-

ing that “after much consider-

ation and recalculation, the

correct distribution is four del-

egates for Bloomberg and two

delegates for Tulsi.”

Ms. Gabbard’s campaign im-

mediately sent out a press re-

lease requesting that “all me-

dia outlets correct their

delegate counters.”

In the final analysis, every-

one from shuttle drivers to Mr.

Sotoa agreed that Ms. Gabbard

should have started her cam-

paign sooner, and that it

wouldn’t have hurt if she had

hopped on a five-hour flight

from Hawaii to American Sa-

moa to visit in person. Without

it, Mr. Bloomberg’s campaign

operation was too much to

overcome.

“It was a surprise, but it

was not a surprise,” said Mr.

Sotoa.

—Emily Glazer

and Tarini Parti

contributed to this article.

Supporters of Mike Bloomberg gathered in Tafuna village near

Pago Pago, American Samoa.

FILI SAGAPOLUTELE/ASSOCIATED PRESS

WORLD NEWS

With no end to the virus’s

spread in sight, some working

parents are already scrambling

to arrange weeks, if not

months, of child care. They are

also struggling to keep their

children—and themselves—

calm as some schools close

while others stay open.

Julien Aufort, an electrician

in the French Alpine village of

Saint-Gervais-les-Bains, said

his 6-year-old son’s school

closed for 14 days after a stu-

dent there tested positive for

the virus. Mr. Aufort’s older

children continued going about

their daily routines—attending

school in a neighboring village

and playing sports—while au-

thorities instructed his 6-year-

old to wear a surgical mask at

home and undergo a test for

the virus, which was negative.

“It’s very scary for a boy

his age,” Mr. Aufort said. “He

went into a room where all the

doctors were decked out in

protective clothing, masks. He

didn’t understand what was

happening.”

Some 400 miles away, at

the center of a cluster of at

least 105 infections in France’s

l’Oise department, Christophe

Patora, 45, a contractor, said

he was puzzled by the decision

to close his 5-year-old’s school

when others in neighboring

villages remain open—leaving

the area open to contagion.

“I find these measures ei-

ther disproportionate, or deri-

sory,” said Mr. Patora, who has

to rely on his father to watch

his son.

So far, 13 countries have im-

plemented nationwide school

closures, affecting nearly 291

million children up through

12th grade, according to

Unesco. An additional nine

countries—which comprise 180

million more children in pri-

mary and secondary school—

have closed some schools to

contain the virus, Unesco said.

A major reason for the

patchy implementation of

school closures is that health

officials don’t yet have a clear

understanding whether chil-

dren—and their schools—are a

significant vector for spreading

the virus. For reasons research-

ers don’t yet understand, early

evidence suggests children are

less likely to be infected and

even when they are their symp-

toms have been less severe.

With flulike viruses, schools

can accelerate the spread of

infections among children and

back to their families, health

officials say. For that reason,

closing schools has the poten-

tial to reduce transmission,

particularly among school-

aged children, according to a

2013 review published in the

medical journal BMJ Open.

However, the new coronavi-

rus is behaving differently than

the flu, health officials say. For

instance, people who are in-

fected but not yet sick seem to

play less of a role in spreading

the new coronavirus than they

do the flu, according to the

World Health Organization.

What age groups they infect

is different, too. Clusters of in-

fections have turned up around

large gatherings of adults—at

churches, old-age homes, con-

ventions—but there have been

no reported school-based out-

breaks among children.

In Singapore, which re-

ported 117 confirmed corona-

virus infections as of Thurs-

day, officials have left the

schools open and no clusters

or outbreaks have emerged

from them, according to Dale

Fisher, a professor of infec-

tious disease at the National

University of Singapore.

“There are outbreaks in an

old-age home, in a prison. But

you’re not seeing reports of

ones in schools,” said Bruce

Aylward, senior adviser to the

WHO’s director general, who

led an international team that

studied China’s efforts to con-

tain the virus.

That doesn’t mean there is

no cause to close schools.

While there are few established

cases of children passing the

disease to adults, that remains

unclear. “Even if the kids them-

selves aren’t getting sick, are

they going to bring the virus

back home and infect the

grandparents and the parents?”

Mr. Aylward said. “That’s a

question we can’t answer yet.”

“Where you have uncertain-

ties you err on the side of cau-

tion,” he added.

On the ground, parents and

local officials have been whip-

sawed between competing pri-

orities. Officials are trying to

effectively contain the disease

and save lives, but without

spreading panic that is leading

to shortages of medical sup-

plies in some areas—or caus-

ing disruption that could

spark a backlash against con-

tainment steps.

In Germany, more than a

dozen schools closed this

week, mostly in the state of

North Rhine Westphalia, but

also in Berlin, in some cases

after teachers or students

traveled to areas with wide-

spread coronavirus infections.

But on Wednesday, German

health officials said that such

measures weren’t currently

needed.

In the U.K., where the virus

is currently less widespread,

the government is also advising

schools against closing unless

instructed—but said it would

consider such measures in the

event of a faster outbreak.

—Sara Germano, Jason

Douglas and Marcus Walker

contributed to this article.

The spread of a novel coro-
navirus has triggered a wave
of school closures around the
world. But a public-health
mystery over what role chil-
dren might play in spreading
the disease has led officials to
apply the strategy unevenly—
catching parents and teachers
by surprise and sowing confu-
sion about whether class-
rooms are safe.
The school-closure strategy,
part of the established arsenal
for slowing epidemics, was
quickly adopted in countries
with major coronavirus out-
breaks like China and South
Korea. Other countries, includ-
ing Iran, Japan and the United
Arab Emirates, since followed
suit. This week, Italy imposed
a nationwide shutdown that
affects some 8.4 million stu-
dents and Washington state
closed some schools, too.
Other countries, however,
are weighing the unknown ben-
efits of school closures against
considerable social costs. The
U.K. and Germany have closed
only a handful of schools, and
officials cautioned against clos-
ing more. France has shut
about 150 schools in areas hit
by outbreaks, but Education
Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer
said Thursday the government
wasn’t planning blanket clo-
sures even in the event of a
full-blown epidemic like Italy’s.
“We don’t think it’s the ap-
propriate strategy in France’s
case,” Mr. Blanquer said. “If
you’re a nurse with children
and you have to stay at home
to watch your children who
aren’t in school, well then
you’re not at the hospital
helping those who need it.”
Those social costs are al-
ready being felt in some areas.

BYSAMSCHECHNER
ANDNICKKOSTOV

Wave of School Closures Sows Confusion

Millions of children

have been sent home

as their role in infecting

others is studied

Italy imposed a nationwide school shutdown, while the U.K. and Germany have closed only a handful. Above, a closed school in Genoa.

LUCA ZENNARO/EPA/SHUTTERSTOCK

He even bested the islands’ fa-
vorite daughter, Tulsi Gabbard,
by a margin of 72 votes.
Ms. Gabbard, a congress-
woman from Hawaii, was born
in American Samoa and still
has relatives in this tightknit
community where family rules
every facet of life, including
politics.
“It was a surprise,” said Karl
Prendergast, who cast his vote
for Ms. Gabbard. “I gave her
the support of a Samoan sis-
ter.”
The results raised eyebrows
on both sides of the political
aisle in the territory of 55,
people.
“Tulsi is a home girl from
here,” said High Chief Taula-
papa William Sword, chairman
of the local Republican Party.
The reason for the upset
was a campaign operation the
size and scope of which had

ContinuedfromPageOne

Bloomberg

Won Big,

Far Away

FROM PAGE ONE

ROME—Italy, home of the

biggest coronavirus outbreak

outside Asia, is approaching a

moment of truth: Can an easy-

going Western society, where

government has limited pow-

ers and people cherish their

right to do as they want, con-

tain the epidemic once it’s rag-

ing?

In two weeks, total infec-

tions have gone from three to

3,858, behind only China and

South Korea. Daily life here is

under restrictions that go fur-

ther than those of any other

Western nation, albeit short of

China’s drastic lockdowns.

All schools and universities

across the country are sus-

pended, public gatherings are

tightly restricted, soccer stadi-

ums and many churches are

closed. The government is urg-

ing the elderly to stay home

and everyone else to keep their

distance. Two clusters of small

towns are under quarantine.

Flights to and from China are

banned. Movement and travel

remain otherwise free—but

many stores and cafes are

empty.

China put over 500 million

people under full or partial

lockdown. Italy has quaran-

tined just over 50,000 people

in two northern provinces, and

some of them are sayingbasta.

Dalila Dossena is frustrated

that her small town of Casal-

pusterlengo, southeast of Mi-

lan, ended up under quaran-

tine. “They were maybe too

heavy-handed in this area,

while they turned a blind eye

elsewhere,” said the 29-year-

old, who runs a local construc-

tion company with her father.

The town’s mayor and resi-

dents are lobbying the govern-

ment to relax the two-week-old

quarantine. “It’s not that I

want to go out for a pizza,”

Ms. Dossena said. “I need to go

back to work.”

Italy’s virus outbreak con-

tinues to spread fast, with con-

firmed cases mounting by

around 25% a day. That should

start to slow down in the com-

ing days if the measures im-

posed two weeks ago are

working, Italian officials say.

Italy is a test case for other

Western countries that are

bracing themselves for an es-

calating epidemic. Public-

health experts are widely pes-

simistic about containing the

virus in Italy or other Euro-

pean countries, short of draco-

nian restrictions on the popu-

lation.

But the measures taken are

already meeting with some

pushback. Public pressure led

Milan to relax a curfew on

nightlife after only a few days

last week.

The government’s hope is to

at least slow down the epi-

demic, so as not to overwhelm

the health system. In Lom-

bardy, the affluent region

around Milan and the biggest

locus of infections, hospitals

are running out of intensive-

care beds.

Patience is running thin in

the quarantined town of Casal-

pusterlengo, where all busi-

nesses except for supermar-

kets and pharmacies are

forcibly closed.

“We can put up with this

situation for maybe another

week,” Ms. Dossena said, hop-

ing normal business will re-

sume soon.

“That’s all we’re really ask-

ing for: normality.”

BYMARGHERITASTANCATI

ANDMARCUSWALKER

In Italy, a Way of Life Feels at Risk

LOMBARDY

Rome

Naples

VENETO

EMILIA-ROMAGNA

As of March 5 A week ago

Cases

100

500

2,

Milan

Source: Italian government

Spreading Infections

Coronavirus cases by Italian region

Over 50,000 people

are quarantined,

and some of them

are saying ‘basta.’