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| What Does Modern Love Mean in a Pandemic? | What Does Modern Love Mean in a Pandemic? |
| (about 2 months later) | |
| Times Insider explains who we are and what we do, and delivers behind-the-scenes insights into how our journalism comes together. | Times Insider explains who we are and what we do, and delivers behind-the-scenes insights into how our journalism comes together. |
| The essays that appear in Modern Love don’t typically reflect the current news cycle. As the journalists who manage the column, we view Modern Love (along with its 100-word version, Tiny Love Stories) as “counterprogramming” — the kind of story readers turn to when they need a break from the news. As the coronavirus bore down on the United States, we didn’t expect that to change much. We even talked about how providing a distraction from the news might be more important than ever. | The essays that appear in Modern Love don’t typically reflect the current news cycle. As the journalists who manage the column, we view Modern Love (along with its 100-word version, Tiny Love Stories) as “counterprogramming” — the kind of story readers turn to when they need a break from the news. As the coronavirus bore down on the United States, we didn’t expect that to change much. We even talked about how providing a distraction from the news might be more important than ever. |
| We were wrong. | We were wrong. |
| Like many, we didn’t grasp how long the coronavirus crisis would last and how dramatically it would demand the world’s attention. (We were more concerned with giving our office plants extra water, not realizing that we would be gone for months, not weeks.) An early clue of the coming coronavirus dominance was how quickly our submissions shifted from a trickle of stories about the virus in early March to a flood by month’s end, with 78 of them even sharing the same title: “Love in the Time of Coronavirus.” | Like many, we didn’t grasp how long the coronavirus crisis would last and how dramatically it would demand the world’s attention. (We were more concerned with giving our office plants extra water, not realizing that we would be gone for months, not weeks.) An early clue of the coming coronavirus dominance was how quickly our submissions shifted from a trickle of stories about the virus in early March to a flood by month’s end, with 78 of them even sharing the same title: “Love in the Time of Coronavirus.” |
| The inbox for Tiny Love Stories changed, too. We experienced a surge in submissions to both features that went way beyond our already strained capacity to read them all. Normally our process is first come first served, which means we’re reading essays that were submitted months earlier. But we began turning first to what had come in recently, because so much of what had come before the pandemic read like tales of yesteryear, a world where dating and romance involved strange behaviors like hugging, kissing and even sex. | The inbox for Tiny Love Stories changed, too. We experienced a surge in submissions to both features that went way beyond our already strained capacity to read them all. Normally our process is first come first served, which means we’re reading essays that were submitted months earlier. But we began turning first to what had come in recently, because so much of what had come before the pandemic read like tales of yesteryear, a world where dating and romance involved strange behaviors like hugging, kissing and even sex. |
| What was love in this new world? Care-taking? Confinement? Nudity on Zoom? We weren’t sure. Mike Baker, a Times reporter who covered the early outbreak in Seattle, sent along an essay from a doctor on the front lines of the pandemic, James Kuo, who had written movingly about being separated from his family as he risked his life to save others. Normally it takes weeks or even months for a submission to be discovered, edited, filed and published. James’s essay was in print five days later. | What was love in this new world? Care-taking? Confinement? Nudity on Zoom? We weren’t sure. Mike Baker, a Times reporter who covered the early outbreak in Seattle, sent along an essay from a doctor on the front lines of the pandemic, James Kuo, who had written movingly about being separated from his family as he risked his life to save others. Normally it takes weeks or even months for a submission to be discovered, edited, filed and published. James’s essay was in print five days later. |
| Our selection process for Tiny Love Stories similarly accelerated. We raced to find and publish submissions as soon as they arrived, including stories about college students’ anxiety about leaving campus and a grandmother whose Covid-19 death could not be memorialized in a funeral. As with Modern Love, these accounts illuminated disparate pieces of a collective, worldwide experience. | Our selection process for Tiny Love Stories similarly accelerated. We raced to find and publish submissions as soon as they arrived, including stories about college students’ anxiety about leaving campus and a grandmother whose Covid-19 death could not be memorialized in a funeral. As with Modern Love, these accounts illuminated disparate pieces of a collective, worldwide experience. |
| Our Modern Love podcast, which features actors reading essays from our archive, would have to be different. Actors were nervous about going to studios to record, and then studios began to close. Our partner, WBUR in Boston, also sent its staff home, meaning our producer and sound technician were suddenly without offices and equipment. | Our Modern Love podcast, which features actors reading essays from our archive, would have to be different. Actors were nervous about going to studios to record, and then studios began to close. Our partner, WBUR in Boston, also sent its staff home, meaning our producer and sound technician were suddenly without offices and equipment. |
| Updated June 22, 2020 | |
| A commentary published this month on the website of the British Journal of Sports Medicine points out that covering your face during exercise “comes with issues of potential breathing restriction and discomfort” and requires “balancing benefits versus possible adverse events.” Masks do alter exercise, says Cedric X. Bryant, the president and chief science officer of the American Council on Exercise, a nonprofit organization that funds exercise research and certifies fitness professionals. “In my personal experience,” he says, “heart rates are higher at the same relative intensity when you wear a mask.” Some people also could experience lightheadedness during familiar workouts while masked, says Len Kravitz, a professor of exercise science at the University of New Mexico. | |
| The steroid, dexamethasone, is the first treatment shown to reduce mortality in severely ill patients, according to scientists in Britain. The drug appears to reduce inflammation caused by the immune system, protecting the tissues. In the study, dexamethasone reduced deaths of patients on ventilators by one-third, and deaths of patients on oxygen by one-fifth. | |
| The coronavirus emergency relief package gives many American workers paid leave if they need to take time off because of the virus. It gives qualified workers two weeks of paid sick leave if they are ill, quarantined or seeking diagnosis or preventive care for coronavirus, or if they are caring for sick family members. It gives 12 weeks of paid leave to people caring for children whose schools are closed or whose child care provider is unavailable because of the coronavirus. It is the first time the United States has had widespread federally mandated paid leave, and includes people who don’t typically get such benefits, like part-time and gig economy workers. But the measure excludes at least half of private-sector workers, including those at the country’s largest employers, and gives small employers significant leeway to deny leave. | |
| So far, the evidence seems to show it does. A widely cited paper published in April suggests that people are most infectious about two days before the onset of coronavirus symptoms and estimated that 44 percent of new infections were a result of transmission from people who were not yet showing symptoms. Recently, a top expert at the World Health Organization stated that transmission of the coronavirus by people who did not have symptoms was “very rare,” but she later walked back that statement. | |
| Touching contaminated objects and then infecting ourselves with the germs is not typically how the virus spreads. But it can happen. A number of studies of flu, rhinovirus, coronavirus and other microbes have shown that respiratory illnesses, including the new coronavirus, can spread by touching contaminated surfaces, particularly in places like day care centers, offices and hospitals. But a long chain of events has to happen for the disease to spread that way. The best way to protect yourself from coronavirus — whether it’s surface transmission or close human contact — is still social distancing, washing your hands, not touching your face and wearing masks. | |
| A study by European scientists is the first to document a strong statistical link between genetic variations and Covid-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus. Having Type A blood was linked to a 50 percent increase in the likelihood that a patient would need to get oxygen or to go on a ventilator, according to the new study. | |
| The unemployment rate fell to 13.3 percent in May, the Labor Department said on June 5, an unexpected improvement in the nation’s job market as hiring rebounded faster than economists expected. Economists had forecast the unemployment rate to increase to as much as 20 percent, after it hit 14.7 percent in April, which was the highest since the government began keeping official statistics after World War II. But the unemployment rate dipped instead, with employers adding 2.5 million jobs, after more than 20 million jobs were lost in April. | |
| States are reopening bit by bit. This means that more public spaces are available for use and more and more businesses are being allowed to open again. The federal government is largely leaving the decision up to states, and some state leaders are leaving the decision up to local authorities. Even if you aren’t being told to stay at home, it’s still a good idea to limit trips outside and your interaction with other people. | |
| Common symptoms include fever, a dry cough, fatigue and difficulty breathing or shortness of breath. Some of these symptoms overlap with those of the flu, making detection difficult, but runny noses and stuffy sinuses are less common. The C.D.C. has also added chills, muscle pain, sore throat, headache and a new loss of the sense of taste or smell as symptoms to look out for. Most people fall ill five to seven days after exposure, but symptoms may appear in as few as two days or as many as 14 days. | |
| If air travel is unavoidable, there are some steps you can take to protect yourself. Most important: Wash your hands often, and stop touching your face. If possible, choose a window seat. A study from Emory University found that during flu season, the safest place to sit on a plane is by a window, as people sitting in window seats had less contact with potentially sick people. Disinfect hard surfaces. When you get to your seat and your hands are clean, use disinfecting wipes to clean the hard surfaces at your seat like the head and arm rest, the seatbelt buckle, the remote, screen, seat back pocket and the tray table. If the seat is hard and nonporous or leather or pleather, you can wipe that down, too. (Using wipes on upholstered seats could lead to a wet seat and spreading of germs rather than killing them.) | |
| If you’ve been exposed to the coronavirus or think you have, and have a fever or symptoms like a cough or difficulty breathing, call a doctor. They should give you advice on whether you should be tested, how to get tested, and how to seek medical treatment without potentially infecting or exposing others. | |
| If you’re sick and you think you’ve been exposed to the new coronavirus, the C.D.C. recommends that you call your healthcare provider and explain your symptoms and fears. They will decide if you need to be tested. Keep in mind that there’s a chance — because of a lack of testing kits or because you’re asymptomatic, for instance — you won’t be able to get tested. | |
| Like so many, they learned to improvise, sending a mic to Daniel Radcliffe, who used it to tape a gorgeous reading in his closet. Laura Prepon did the same. Soon, our postscript commentary was also being recorded in closets, which make great sound studios. You probably have no idea how many top-tier podcasts are now being produced amid hanging shirts and dirty laundry. | Like so many, they learned to improvise, sending a mic to Daniel Radcliffe, who used it to tape a gorgeous reading in his closet. Laura Prepon did the same. Soon, our postscript commentary was also being recorded in closets, which make great sound studios. You probably have no idea how many top-tier podcasts are now being produced amid hanging shirts and dirty laundry. |
| These days we ask, as nearly everyone does: How long will this last? What’s next? Seven weeks since this pandemic overtook our work and lives, changing so much so rapidly, we are beginning to sense a shift in mood in the submissions, both a settling in for the long haul and an impatience about getting on with life. Those may seem to be opposite impulses, and they are, but they lead to a similar place: a slight weakening of the virus’s stranglehold on the kinds of stories we receive and publish. | These days we ask, as nearly everyone does: How long will this last? What’s next? Seven weeks since this pandemic overtook our work and lives, changing so much so rapidly, we are beginning to sense a shift in mood in the submissions, both a settling in for the long haul and an impatience about getting on with life. Those may seem to be opposite impulses, and they are, but they lead to a similar place: a slight weakening of the virus’s stranglehold on the kinds of stories we receive and publish. |
| Maybe we’re all going to remain six feet apart for months to come, but that doesn’t mean our love stories have to involve screens and face masks. Because love never really changes much; that’s the great thing about it. It will remain as glorious and confounding as always. We may be frozen in place for the time being, but soon enough we’ll again be breaking up face-to-face and ravishing each other in the flesh. And some of you — fewer than now, we hope — will still be writing about it. | Maybe we’re all going to remain six feet apart for months to come, but that doesn’t mean our love stories have to involve screens and face masks. Because love never really changes much; that’s the great thing about it. It will remain as glorious and confounding as always. We may be frozen in place for the time being, but soon enough we’ll again be breaking up face-to-face and ravishing each other in the flesh. And some of you — fewer than now, we hope — will still be writing about it. |
| Daniel Jones is the editor of Modern Love. Miya Lee is the Modern Love projects assistant. | Daniel Jones is the editor of Modern Love. Miya Lee is the Modern Love projects assistant. |
| Follow the @ReaderCenter on Twitter for more coverage highlighting your perspectives and experiences and for insight into how we work. | Follow the @ReaderCenter on Twitter for more coverage highlighting your perspectives and experiences and for insight into how we work. |