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The Washington Post
Coronavirus Updates
Important developments in the pandemic.


Angela Fritz By Angela Fritz
with Avi Selk

The Post's coronavirus coverage linked in this newsletter is free to access from this email.


The latest

The most obvious lesson from Thanksgiving? Public health messaging from officials and experts is not working. They told us to stay home and stay distanced, but we gathered. They told us not to travel, but we flew.

Now they are terrified of a pandemic Christmas: If Americans repeat their Thanksgiving actions, the country's already catastrophic situation could reach levels where hospitals are forced to choose which patients to save and which to let die, and where lockdowns become unavoidable.

A Nebraska man who was in otherwise good health didn't take covid-19 seriously, but being hospitalized "made a believer" out of him, he said. As the number of people who are heeding guidelines trends downward, experts are debating what it will take to get Americans to shift their behavior.

Being told to stay away from family and friends at the holidays is difficult, especially during an extended public health crisis, and there is plenty of evidence that the pandemic is exacting a severe psychological toll. Depression and anxiety are up, alongside drug use and alcohol consumption. Suicidal thoughts are increasing, particularly in young adults. Here are some ways experts say we can be there for loved ones, even if we can't be there. And a psychologist's advice about how we can keep our own sadness from evolving into depression.

A bipartisan group of senators unveiled an approximately $908 billion stimulus proposal Tuesday, aiming to break a months-long partisan impasse. President-elect Biden's economic team is also planning an ambitious recovery plan.

Scott Atlas, President Trump's pandemic adviser, resigned Monday after becoming widely disliked in the White House. Atlas embraced a controversial strategy of urging Americans to return to work and school with little restriction, and spent months feuding with the coronavirus task force's other doctors. He was the only medical adviser the president met with regularly for several months. (Analysis: Atlas will forever be the face of surrender to the coronavirus.)

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Edited: 12/01/2020 at 04:04 PM by dingpatch