1. “An Evolving Situation”
There are three moments in the yearlong catastrophe of the
COVID-19 pandemic when events might have turned out differently. The first occurred on January 3, 2020, when Robert Redfield, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, spoke with George Fu Gao, the head of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, which was modelled on the American institution. Redfield had just received a report about an unexplained respiratory virus emerging in the city of Wuhan.
The field of public health had long been haunted by the prospect of a widespread respiratory-illness outbreak like the 1918 influenza pandemic, so Redfield was concerned. Gao, when pressed, assured him that there was no evidence of human-to-human transmission. At the time, the theory was that each case had arisen from animals in a “wet” market where exotic game was sold. When Redfield learned that, among twenty-seven reported cases, there were several famil
Comments Stanley Chera Was a Mogul Who Made Covid-19 Personal for TrumpSkip to Comments
The comments section is closed. To submit a letter to the editor for publication, write to letters@nytimes.com.
The Lives They Lived
By Jamie Lauren Keiles
+
The New York real estate titan was in some ways a foil to the president and was on his mind as he went to Walter Reed.
The Lives They Lived Stanley Chera in 2011. Pako Dominguez/Alamy
The Lives They Lived
b. 1942 The New York real estate mogul was, in some ways, a foil to Trump and was on the president’s mind as he went to Walter Reed.