Follow section front redirects in Spectrum

Enable NLP source in PCS for load testing

Switch off the News Alerts Survey Widget when we have enough responses

Poll to determine if new LUF updates are available

Allows the winning A/B test variant to be turned on without Spectrum deployment

Show infinite scrolling sections in Assembler MultiView

Show option for NLP article summaries in Action Bar

A general feature flag for Recipe Features that aren't yet released

Feature flag for media team features that aren't yet released

Use new Orca video player for preroll plugin in Spectrum

Show the snow tracker (instead of the heat tracker) on Spectrum

Apple banned this app for years. It’s now America’s No. 1 iPhone app. 

8 major newspapers join legal backlash against OpenAI, Microsoft

Fired Google workers who protested Israel deal file complaint with labor board

A murder plot that cannot be ignored: India must come clean at last

How to confront antisemitism, deal with protests — and respect free speech

Is student loan debt an emergency? Take our quiz.

Nationals sweep away the Marlins to get back to .500

Jayden Daniels is latest in Washington’s checkered history of first-round QBs

The Rangers swept the Capitals, and it’s time for the new core to take charge

Americans are sleeping more than ever. See how you compare.

Parenting in Gaza today is so much more than keeping your children alive

In photos: Flash floods kill over 100 people in Kenya

Attorney general moves to reclassify marijuana as lower-risk drug

Poll shows how RFK Jr.’s appeal to anti-vaccine right could hurt Trump

Views of the campus protests are too broad — and too narrow

Southwest passengers now get a $75 voucher for big flight disruptions

The Rick Steves guide to life

The sad, stale state of in-flight vegetarian meals

Trump and allies say Biden pays rent for ‘illegals’ in Michigan. Not true.

Eighty percent of Ukraine-Israel bill will be spent in U.S. or by U.S. military

Facts in the Trump courtroom v. ‘facts’ in the court of public opinion

I learned to heal my sadness by cradling dying chickens 

Brave Little Hunter is free: Baby orca escapes lagoon for open seas

Soldiers reunite with their pets from overseas: ‘It meant everything to me’

The FBI director’s concerns over terrorism are at ‘a whole other level’ 

U.S. campus protests spread to the Middle East and Europe  

Biden is letting Assad off the hook, with dangerous consequences

Miss Manners: Some audience members ask rambling questions post-lecture

Carolyn Hax: Her family left all the kitchen work to her, so she went on strike

Ask Amy: Why did my friend lie about seeing my ex-girlfriend?

 Donald Trump Speaks During A Campaign Rally In Green Bay Wisconsin

Health

Well+Being

Opinions

Higher Education

Education

https://www.washingtonpost.com/coronavirus/

Coronavirus pandemic

The Washington Post is providing this news free to all readers as a public service. Follow this story and more by <a href='https://www.washingtonpost.com/newsletters/health-science-environment-alerts/?method=SURL&location=ART&initiative=FREE'>signing up for health, science, and environment email alerts</a>.

On Monday morning, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention edited its Web page describing how the novel <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/coronavirus/" target="_blank" class="contextual_link">coronavirus</a> spreads, removing recently added language saying it was “possible” that it spreads via airborne transmission. It was the third major revision to CDC information or guidelines published since May.

The agency had posted information Friday stating the virus can transmit over a distance beyond six feet, suggesting that indoor ventilation is key to protecting against a virus <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/national/coronavirus-us-cases-deaths/?itid=hp_pandemic-guide-box" target=_blank>that has now killed nearly 200,000 Americans</a>.

The CDC shifted its guidelines Friday, but the change was not widely noticed <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/20/health/cdc-coronavirus-airborne-transmission/index.html" target=_blank>until a CNN report Sunday</a>. Where the agency previously warned that the virus mostly spreads through large drops encountered at close range, on Friday, it had said “small particles, such as those in aerosols,” were a common vector.

But Jay Butler, the CDC’s deputy director for infectious disease, said the Friday update was posted in error. “Unfortunately an early draft of a revision went up without any technical review,” he said.

<a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/how-covid-spreads.html">The edited Web page</a> has removed all references to airborne spread, except for a disclaimer that recommendations based on this mode of transmission are under review. “We are returning to the earlier version and revisiting that process,” Butler said. “It was a failure of process at CDC.”

Track major developments in the pandemic with our Coronavirus Updates newsletter. All stories linked in it are free to access.

For months, scientists <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/coronavirus-airborne-spread-world-health-organization/2020/07/05/9de19c38-bed8-11ea-b4f6-cb39cd8940fb_story.html" target=_blank>and public health experts</a> have warned of <a href="https://time.com/5883081/covid-19-transmitted-aerosols/" target=_blank>mounting evidence</a> that the coronavirus is airborne, transmitted through tiny droplets called aerosols that linger in the air much longer than the larger globs that come from coughing or sneezing.

Experts who reviewed the CDC’s Friday post had said the language change had the power to shift policy and public behavior. Some suggested it should drive a major rethinking of public policy — particularly at a time when students in many areas are returning to indoor classrooms.

It was a “major change,” Jose-Luis Jimenez, a chemistry professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder who studies how aerosols spread the virus, told The Washington Post before the CDC reversed itself. “This is a good thing, if we can reduce transmission because more people understand how it is spreading and know what to do to stop it.”

Since the pandemic began, experts have debated the ways the virus travels — and the methods to best halt it. At first, widespread fear of contaminated surfaces led some to bleach their groceries and mail. But the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/05/21/virus-does-not-spread-easily-contaminated-surfaces-or-animals-revised-cdc-website-states/" target=_blank>CDC</a> soon concluded that person-to-person transmission was a much more pressing threat. Instead, the agency focused its guidance on avoiding the larger droplets hacked up by sneezes and coughs, which are thought to be mostly limited to a six-foot radius.

“We have been saying ‘wear a mask’ and ‘6 feet apart’ for months,” <a href="https://twitter.com/AbraarKaran/status/1307861761345777664" target=_blank>tweeted Abraar Karan</a>, a physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and Harvard Medical School. Karan said six feet of separation may be insufficient, particularly in poorly ventilated indoor areas.

Some researchers suspected that the virus could travel much farther, especially indoors and in places where people talk loudly or sing. Infamously, one infected person in March unknowingly passed the coronavirus to 52 others at <a href="https://www.livescience.com/covid-19-superspreader-singing.html" target=_blank>a choir practice in Washington state</a>. Similar indoor “superspreader” events added weight to the idea of an airborne threat.

The World Health Organization recognized the threat of aerosols in July, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/coronavirus-airborne-spread-world-health-organization/2020/07/05/9de19c38-bed8-11ea-b4f6-cb39cd8940fb_story.html" target=_blank>after hundreds of scientists</a> urged the international body to address airborne spread. It is not clear why the CDC finally followed; Jimenez said high-ranking CDC officials were still arguing publicly against airborne transmission as a major vector as recently as late August.

“Evidence has been accumulating for some time,” Jimenez said. “Those of us who have been studying this were frustrated that the change was slow, but it finally came.”

When asked who wrote the draft that was posted in error, Butler said: “I don’t have all of that information. Obviously I’m asking some of the same questions.”

The CDC is “very intensively” discussing guardrails in the publication process to prevent a repeat error. “This cannot happen again,” Butler said. In May, the CDC updated an information page that suggested the coronavirus did not spread easily from contaminated surfaces. It also<a href="https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2020/s0522-cdc-updates-covid-transmission.html"> edited that revision</a> after the update received widespread media attention to clarify that the tweak was “not a result of any new science.”

And last week, the CDC <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/09/18/cdc-reverses-controversial-coronavirus-guidelines-testing-people-without-symptoms/">reversed testing guidelines</a> to again recommend that anyone, regardless of symptoms, who has been in close contact with an infected person be tested. The White House coronavirus task force had directed the agency to change those guidelines in August, allowing that asymptomatic people did not need to be tested.

<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/wellness/study-gym-safety-covid/2020/09/19/72191b08-f858-11ea-89e3-4b9efa36dc64_story.html" target=_blank>The fitness industry is trying to lure gym members back — but experts say it’s using flawed data</a>

<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/national/coronavirus-us-cases-deaths/?itid=hp_pandemic-guide-box" target=_blank>At least 199,000 people have died from coronavirus in the U.S.</a>

Sigma Delta Chi Award for excellence, Society of Professional Journalists, 2018

Best American Sports Writing, 2017

George Polk Award, 2013

Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting, Finalist, 2013

Blood Sport: A-Rod and the Quest to End Baseball's Steroid Era

University of Missouri, BA in Journalism

Tim Elfrink joined The Washington Post in 2018. He's deputy editor for political investigations, after previously working as editor of the Morning Mix.

Tim Elfrink

University of Pennsylvania, BSE in bioengineering

New York University, MA in journalism

Ben Guarino is a reporter for The Washington Post’s Science section. He joined The Post in 2016. 

Ben Guarino

2020 Pulitzer Prize, explanatory reporting.

Yale University, BA in English

Chris Mooney is a Pulitzer Prize winning reporter covering climate change, energy, and the environment. He has reported from the 2015 Paris climate negotiations, the Northwest Passage, and the Greenland ice sheet, among other locations, and has written four books about science, politics and climate change.

Chris Mooney

washpost

CDC reverses itself and says guidelines it posted on coronavirus airborne transmission were wrong

the-washington-post

U.S. cases and deaths by state

World map

New CDC guidance

When am I still contagious?

The people who never get covid

Coronavirus

iptc-media/health/health_treatment/preventative_medicine

iptc-media/health/diseases_and_conditions/communicable_disease

iptc-media/health/health_treatment/preventative_medicine/vaccines

iptc-media/health

iptc-media/health/diseases_and_conditions/illness

iptc-media/health/health_treatment

iptc-media/health/non-human_diseases

iptc-media/science_and_technology/research/medical_research

iptc-media/health/non-human_diseases/animal_disease

iptc-media/science_and_technology/research

iptc-media/science_and_technology

iptc-media/science_and_technology/natural_science

iptc-media/health/diseases_and_conditions/communicable_disease/virus_disease/retrovirus

iptc-media/health/health_treatment/medicine

iptc-media/health/diseases_and_conditions/communicable_disease/epidemic

iptc-media/health/diseases_and_conditions/communicable_disease/virus_disease

iptc-media/health/diseases_and_conditions

client-blocklists/Client List: Morgan Stanley KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Amazon KWs - EXCLUDE ALL 

client-blocklists/Client List: Becton Dickinson KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/CLIENT LIST: Nomura KWs 2021 - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Boeing KWs 2021- INCLUDE ANY

client-blocklists/Client List: Exxon Mobil  - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/GEICO KWs - INCLUDES ANY_4.26.21

client-blocklists/Client List: T. Rowe Price KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: Microsoft KWs 2 - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/T. Rowe Price KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/HBO KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Ford/Lincoln KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/ExxonMobil 03312021 KWs - INCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Bank of America KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

advertising/Flu, Sickness & Virus Content

client-blocklists/WaPo: Combined Disaster Keyword List - INCLUDES ANY

advertising/Coronavirus Content

client-blocklists/Client List: Optum KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: Inpixon KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: Navy Federal Credit Union NFCU KWs 2 - EXCLUDES ALL - 12.23.20

advertising/B2_Data Center Buyer_legacyaux_80A

client-blocklists/Client List: Purina KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

advertising/Citrix Mindfulness

advertising/Client Keywords: On Running

client-blocklists/BP KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/ CLIENT LIST: AT&T KWs 2021 - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: Google KWs

client-blocklists/Client List: GEICO KWs

client-blocklists/Client List: KPMG KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: Navy Federal Credit Union NFCU KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: Verizon KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: Novo Nordisk KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: Siemens KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: Facebook KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: Cisco KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Client List: AT&T ALT KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Mercedes KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/FX Excludes All Disney

client-blocklists/Client List: Boeing KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: Aetna KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: Google KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Philip Morris KWs - INCLUDES ANY 

client-blocklists/Dupixent neg kws - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Capital One KWs 2 - INCLUDES ANY - 1.4.21

client-blocklists/Bank of America Merrill Lynch KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/CME KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: Eli Lily KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Google PG KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Chase KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: Office Depot KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Client List: ETrade KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

prism://prism.query/site,/national/morning-mix?limit=20

Morning Mix

The Washington Post's Morning Mix blog covers stories from all over the nation and world.

prism://prism.query/site-articles-only,/national&limit=20

National

The Washington Post's national news coverage. Get the latest national news, featuring national security, science and the courts. Read breaking national news headlines from across the U.S.