AP PA Headlines 4/20/20
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — State health officials in Pennsylvania say their statewide total of coronavirus-associated deaths now stands at 1,112 with the addition of 276 new deaths because electronic and probable-cause deaths are now being reported. Dr. Rachel Levine, the commonwealth’s health secretary, said Sunday there have been at least 1,200 new positive cases of COVID-19, bringing the statewide total above 32,200.
Levine said the majority of the deaths “did not occur overnight.” Levine emphasized that the department was basing decisions on trends in the data indicating the effectiveness of mitigation efforts. The department says more than 460 of the total deaths have happened in residents of nursing homes or personal care facilities. Levine said seniors at those facilities are most at risk.
CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — The coal industry was already hurting before the coronavirus, and the pandemic has made things much worse. Lockdowns have shut off lights in offices and schools, sapping demand for electricity provided by coal-fired power plants. Coal production in the U.S. is now expected to drop 25% in 2020.
The federal government hasn’t acted on the industry’s request for $822 million in relief or a union’s concerns about the safety of miners at risk of catching the virus. The worldwide decline in electricity consumption has resulted in at least one benefit — clearer skies and lower pollution.
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — It’s been a month since Pennsylvania’s state liquor agency took the unparalleled step of closing the state-run stores that sell most of the retail liquor in the state. Some of its neighboring states are cracking down on sales to Pennsylvanians during the COVID-19 pandemic, and some state-based distilleries are running out of their products.
The state liquor stores have been trying to ramp up online sales, but that system has been largely an exercise in frustration for the state of nearly 13 million people. The board announced over the weekend that it will start curbside pickup on Monday. The month of relative sobriety is reinvigorating Pennsylvania’s perpetual debate over its Depression-era liquor store system.
JACKSONVILLE BEACH, Fla. (AP) — A Pennsylvania homicide suspect is being held in a Florida jail after police found him taking advantage of a newly reopened Florida beach. Jacksonville Beach police said they saw Mario Matthew Gatti loitering near the dunes on Sunday. After questioning him, they realized he was wanted for an Arnold, Pennsylvania, fatal shooting. The beach was reopened Saturday and officers were patrolling to make sure people were following social distancing guidelines and other restrictions.
PITTSBURGH (AP) — On Saturday afternoons, the Strip District neighborhood of Pittsburgh becomes a jam-packed hub of old-fashioned shopping. People stride along Penn Avenue, hopping from greengrocer to butcher to fishmonger to Italian market, smiling and gesturing and jabbering as they go. Not this weekend. As strange, spaced-out lines formed outside favorite establishments, the chatting was muted, the sidewalk sidesteps were awkward and tentative, and the facial expressions were, well, not really facial expressions at all. Just like much of the planet during these jumbled coronavirus days.
Smile, they say, and the world smiles with you. Unless you’re wearing a mask. Then the world can’t see your smile, much less smile back. The rise of the protective face mask — first in China (where smog and SARS gave rise to its use years ago), then elsewhere in Asia, into Europe and now marching across North America — has abruptly excised half of the face from our moment-to-moment human interactions.
With it has come a removal of crucial visual cues that people have used for millennia to communicate, understand each other and negotiate space in the public arena — to find common ground. “Our minds light on the face like butterflies on a flower, for it gives us a priceless flow of information,” Daniel McNeill wrote in ” The Face,” his 1998 book on its significance throughout human history.
A partial inventory of the information that’s lost when the mask goes up: Smiles. Frowns. Lip movements. Crinkle lines at the mouth’s edge. Cheek twitches that indicate approval or disapproval. Reflexive gestures that collaborate with the eyes to say: Hey, I mean no harm. Or: Hey — back off.
“It’s not just covering us up. It’s blocking something. It’s a barrier to communication. Is she smiling? Sarcastic? Is she happy to see me? I can’t figure it out,” says Christie Cawley, a Pittsburgh business adviser whose consultancy, tHRive, helps nonprofits with business skills. “With the masks, when people are making eye contact, you don’t know if they’re friendly or not,” Cawley says. “It’s a whole communications channel that we naturally have as humans, and it’s kind of dulled — turned off a little bit.”
On Sunday night, new regulations from Pennsylvania’s governor took effect saying that most businesses still open in the state must bar anyone without a mask from entering. Other governments — states and nations — have imposed similar restrictions, which sit atop people’s already palpable desire to shield their mouths and noses from taking in the insidious virus that causes COVID-19.
However legitimate, that still creates a potentially disorienting situation: Instead of a fellow human coming openly toward you, we’re encountering each other with visual cues removed, like astronauts or deep-sea divers or hazmat-removal teams. “Different levels of smiles lead to perceptions of warmth, competence, trustworthiness, attractiveness, etc.,” says Fan Liu, an assistant professor of decision sciences and marketing at Adelphi University whose research focuses on nonverbal communication. “These perceptions and characteristics significantly influence our daily social lives.”
Nonverbal cues, she says, play a central role in communication that we don’t always realize. “When these cues are cut off, people are more likely to focus on outcome rather than process,” Liu says, and some nuances of human interaction may be lost.
No wonder. There’s a reason why history’s greatest artists didn’t make their names painting shins or elbows or thumbs.The face is the gateway to who we are, the front door to our humanity and individuality. We mouth off. We have face time (and FaceTime). We pay lip service and give each other lip. We grin and bear it. Are all these going by the wayside … at least for now?
There’s a reason, too, why masks suggest something surreptitious and nefarious. Covering pieces of the face is often presented as shorthand for mistrust or menace across modern culture, from historical literature (” The Man in the Iron Mask “) to comic books (” Batman “), from TV (” The Lone Ranger “) to movies (” The Mask “) to music (” The Stranger “). Such potent cultural cues can be activated, however subconsciously, when we cover our faces — even for the most legitimate (and protective) of reasons. A mask, in short, can be alienating no matter who is behind it — and particularly when there’s a power imbalance in the conversation.
Leah Lizarondo, co-founder and CEO of Pittsburgh’s 412 Food Rescue, says her team’s ability to show empathy has been impeded by its new contactless, mask-forward methods of dropping off food. She recalls meal distributions at Pittsburgh school-bus stops over the past month — done with masks and, she laments, less humanity because of it. “There’s something extremely surreal about dealing with someone when you can’t really smile. It’s exactly the opposite of what you want this exchange to be. You don’t want it to be a transactional exchange. You want it to be a relationship,” Lizarondo says. “We’re trying so much to create analogues to that empathy. I’m not sure we’re there yet.”
Which raises the question: If this endures for weeks and months, what would those analogues be? If half of the facial radio signal is obscured by face-mask static, how do the messages punch through? Will new methods of socially distanced nonverbal communication emerge?
“The important point is not to rely on any one visual cue. Furrowed eyebrows could mean that a person’s angry, someone’s confused, someone doesn’t have glasses on and they’re squinting,” says Mary Inman, a psychology professor at Hope College in Michigan. “So we need to take time and ask people for clarification,” says Inman, who studies people’s perceptions of discrimination. “It’ll slow down communications a little bit, which could be a good thing. … If we go to (wearing) full masks continually, then we will be needing to slow down and clarify.”
You can bet on one thing: Until that happens, things may be awkward. For now, though, we still have the eyes. Have you heard? They’re windows to the soul. But, alas, only to a point. “The face is the focal point. Now we’ve lost the focal point of that kind of communication. It is going to add a layer of distance between us,” says Dan Everett, a linguist and sociology professor at Bentley College in Massachusetts. “It’s sort of like we’re dogs without tails now.”
Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved
Features
NEW YORK (AP) — Their fame and familiarity to TV viewers usually leave Dr. Oz and Dr. Phil with legions of followers who take what they say as the gospel truth. But these days, the two TV docs are finding their air of infallibility questioned over comments made on Fox News about coronavirus restrictions. Mehmet Oz recently said reopening schools is a “very appetizing opportunity,” even if it means more die from the spread of COVID-19. And Phil McGraw drew heat on social media for comparing coronavirus deaths to those caused by auto accidents and swimming pool accidents. Both have tried to walk back their comments. Fox News hosts have joined President Donald Trump in a chorus of voices saying it’s important to reopen the economy after a nearly month-long pause because of the pandemic.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The coronavirus is touching all levels of society and increasing tensions as governments ease restrictions that health experts warn should be done gradually to avoid a resurgence of the illness that has killed more than 165,000 people. The mounting pressure was evident in the United States. The Trump administration says parts of the nation are ready to begin a gradual return to normalcy. Yet some state leaders say woefully inadequate federal action, like a lack of testing supplies, is hindering their response to the illness.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says his administration and Congress are getting close to a deal on an aid package of up to $450 billion. The money would boost a small-business loan program that has run out of money and add funds for hospitals and COVID-19 testing. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has said he is hopeful of a deal that could pass Congress quickly and get the program back up by midweek. The proposed deal would add roughly $300 billion for the government’s Paycheck Protection Program. An additional $50 billion would be appropriated for small-business disaster loans.
NEW YORK (AP) — After CNN’s John King said that a video aired at one of President Donald Trump’s coronavirus briefings was propaganda, critics came back at him: so why are you showing it? As the president’s daily briefings have evolved well beyond dispensing information on a health emergency, the questions about whether he should get unfiltered airtime have increased. They’re particularly acute at CNN and MSNBC, which lately have been dipping in and out of the sessions and trying real-time fact-checking. Some of the networks’ own prominent personalities have questioned the decisions to put them on the air. As Trump has boasted, they’re ratings winners, however.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — The coronavirus pandemic turned out to be a stroke of good fortune for a New York man who lost his wedding ring three years ago. The man and his wife were dining at Coconuts restaurant in Fort Lauderdale when the ring slipped off his finger and through the restaurant’s wooden floorboards, seemingly lost forever to the tide. The restaurant manager decided to replace the patio deck recently since the eatery is only doing take-out during the pandemic.
As the work was being done, Ryan Krivoy found a gold coin, $100 bills — and a silver wedding ring with the inscription, “Mike & Lisa 08-21-15.” The restaurant posted the image of the ring online — and after being shared about 5,000 times, the man’s wife called to reclaim the ring. The Sun Sentinel newspaper reports she texted photos of the couple at the eatery and the ring was returned. Meanwhile the money, including the value of the gold coin, was split among restaurant workers.
BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — For many people, the idea of being stuck on a cruise ship during the coronavirus pandemic would be a nightmare. But for Spanish traveler Carlos Payá, it was a dream come true. In his case, timing made the difference. The Costa Deliziosa left in January — and made its last port-of-call before today’s return to Barcelona 35 days ago in Australia. That was just as widespread self-quarantines were setting in. No passengers aboard had COVID-19, so the ship sailed on as travelers enjoyed all the ship’s amenities. Payá says it was troublesome to hear about the virus while away, especially since he and his wife had two grown children back home in Spain. But in the end, he describes the adventure as “incredible.”
Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved
