The pandemic and wildfires have dis-rupted housing and economic growth.Can the state change course? PAGE B1

What Next for California?Grant Walker, who helped create theshow’s nightmarish Shoggoth crea-tures, had a lot of fun doing it. PAGE C5

Making ‘Lovecraft’ More Lurid

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WASHINGTON — PresidentTrump returned to the WhiteHouse on Monday night, staging adefiant, made-for-television mo-ment in which he ripped off hisface mask and then urged the na-tion to put aside the risks of thedeadly coronavirus that hasswept through his own staff andsent him to the hospital for threedays.

Just hours after his press secre-tary and two more aides testedpositive, making the White Housethe leading coronavirus hot spotin the nation’s capital, Mr. Trumpagain dismissed the pandemicthat has killed 210,000 people inthe United States, telling Ameri-cans “don’t be afraid of it” and say-ing that he felt “better than 20years ago.”

The words and visuals were

only the latest ways Mr. Trumphas undermined public health ex-perts trying to persuade Ameri-cans to take the pandemic seri-ously. Even afflicted by the dis-ease himself, the president whohas wrongly predicted that itwould simply disappear appearedunchastened as he pressed Amer-ica to reopen and made no effort topromote precautions.

“We’re going back to work.We’re going to be out front,” Mr.Trump said in a video shot imme-diately after his return and thenposted online. “As your leader, Ihad to do that. I knew there’s dan-ger to it, but I had to do it. I stoodout front. I led. Nobody that’s aleader would not do what I did.And I know there’s a risk, there’s adanger, but that’s OK. And nowI’m better and maybe I’m im-mune, I don’t know. But don’t let it

LEAVING HOSPITAL, TRUMP MINIMIZES VIRUS RISKMore Aides Get Sick

as He UnderminesExperts’ Message

By PETER BAKERand MAGGIE HABERMAN

Dr. Sean P. Conley said Mr.Trump might not yet be safe.

DOUG MILLS/THE NEW YORK TIMES

President Trump removed his mask at the White House on Monday after departing Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.ANNA MONEYMAKER FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continued on Page A10

Despite almost daily disclo-sures of new coronavirus infec-tions among President Trump’sclose associates, the White Houseis making little effort to investi-gate the scope and source of itsoutbreak.

The White House has decidednot to trace the contacts of guestsand staff members at the Sept. 26Rose Garden celebration forJudge Amy Coney Barrett, whereat least eight people, including thepresident, may have become in-fected, according to a WhiteHouse official familiar with theplans.

Instead, it has limited its effortsto notifying people who came inclose contact with Mr. Trump inthe two days before his Covid di-agnosis on Thursday night, and ithas cut the Centers for DiseaseControl and Prevention, whichhas the government’s most exten-sive knowledge and resources forcontact tracing, out of the process.

Contact tracing is an essentialpiece of any outbreak investiga-tion and is a key to stopping the vi-rus from spreading further, espe-cially after a potential “superspreader” event where many peo-ple may have been infected.

Any of the closely packedguests and staff members at theRose Garden ceremony couldhave gone on to transmit the virusto many others, so the WhiteHouse’s decision not to investi-gate the cluster of infections, andpinpoint the source, has poten-tially devastating consequencesfor hundreds of people, several ex-perts warned.

“This is a total abdication of re-sponsibility by the Trump admin-istration,” said Dr. Joshua Baro-cas, a public health expert at Bos-ton University, who has advisedthe City of Boston on contact trac-ing. “The idea that we’re not in-volving the C.D.C. to do contacttracing at this point seems like amassive public health threat.”

The White House official, whodeclined to be identified becausehe was not authorized to speakabout the matter, said that the ad-ministration was following guide-lines from the C.D.C. that recom-mend focusing on contacts withina two-day window from diagnosis.But public health experts said itwas irresponsible to ignore theearlier gathering at the Rose Gar-den.

Limited Effort Fromthe White House to

Trace Contacts

By APOORVA MANDAVILLIand TRACEY TULLY

Continued on Page A11

play expectations for herself inthe vice-presidential debate, re-flecting concerns quietly raisedby some aides and allies that thestandard for her success onWednesday has grown impossibleto meet.

“I’m so concerned,” she saidwith a laugh at a fund-raiser lastmonth. “I can only disappoint.”

While President Trump spentmonths waging relentless attackson former Vice President JosephR. Biden Jr.’s mental acuity, lower-ing the bar for his opponent, Dem-ocrats have, by contrast, heraldedMs. Harris as a star prosecutorand talented debater, which car-ries its own set of risks.

Mr. Trump’s coronavirus diag-nosis has injected another ele-ment of unpredictability andamped up the pressure on Ms.Harris and Mr. Pence to reassurea jittery public that they can stepin as president.

Before Mr. Trump was hospital-ized last week, Ms. Harris’s aides

The last time Kamala Harrisstepped onto a debate stage, herDemocratic primary campaignwas sputtering to a close — run-ning out of money, trailing badly inthe polls and fading as a force onpolicy issues. She ranked sixth inspeaking time at that November2019 debate; she dropped out ofthe race two weeks later.

Now, as she prepares to face offagainst Vice President MikePence on Wednesday and to play astarring role in the upcoming Su-preme Court confirmation hear-ings, Ms. Harris will be tested as anational leader and a voice of theparty unlike ever before. It is asingular challenge for Ms. Harris,who arrived in Washington as asenator in 2017: Can she best heropponents and make the case forDemocrats while walking thetightrope of unique expectationsthat American voters still have forwomen in power?

Ms. Harris, who is the firstwoman of color on a major party’snational ticket, has tried to down- Continued on Page A17

Harris Prepares for Debate NightAs Stakes and Expectations Rise

By SYDNEY EMBER and LISA LERERPAGE, Ariz. — For decades,

waves of electricity poured fromthis behemoth of a power plant onthe high desert plateau of the Nav-ajo reservation in northern Ari-zona, lighting up hundreds ofthousands of homes from Phoenixto Las Vegas as it burned 240 railcars’ worth of coal a day.

But as the day shift ended hereat the Navajo Generating Stationone evening early this year, all buta half-dozen spaces in the employ-ee parking lot — a stretch of as-phalt larger than a football field —were empty.

It was a similar scene at thenearby Kayenta coal mine, whichfueled the plant. Dozens of the gi-ant earth-moving machines thatfor decades ripped apart the hill-side sat parked in long rows, mo-tionless. Not a single coal minerwas in sight, just a big, black Chi-huahuan raven sitting atop a lightpost.

Saving these two complexeswas at the heart of an intensethree-year effort by the Trump ad-ministration to stabilize the coalindustry and make good on Presi-

dent Trump’s 2016 campaignpromise to end “the war on coal.”

“We’re going to put our minersback to work,” Mr. Trump prom-ised soon after taking office.

He didn’t.

Despite Mr. Trump’s stockinghis administration with coal-in-dustry executives and lobbyists,taking big donations from the in-dustry, rolling back environmen-tal regulations and intervening di-

rectly in cases like the Arizonapower plant and mine, coal’s de-cline has only accelerated in re-cent years.

And with the president now in

Despite Vow to Put ‘Miners Back to Work,’ Coal Keeps CollapsingBy ERIC LIPTON

The smokestacks of the Navajo Generating Station, a coal-fired plant, which shut down last year.CHRISTIE HEMM KLOK FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continued on Page A22

BOONE, N.C. — Since early lastweek, when a sophomore at hisschool died from suspectedCovid-19 complications, ChaseSturgis says he has been thinkingabout his own bout with the co-ronavirus — and his own mortal-ity.

Mr. Sturgis, 21, had been avoid-ing socializing over the summer,but as students at his school, Ap-palachian State University, beganreturning to campus in August, heyielded to temptation. “We wentout to a bar,” he said. Within dayshe felt ill, and then tested positivefor the coronavirus: “To this day Ihave no sense of taste or smell.”

But even more unnerving is the“really, honestly scary” realiza-tion that he and the student whodied, 19-year-old Chad Dorrill,were sick around the same time,with similar symptoms and noknown pre-existing conditions.

“He died a week or two after hegot the virus,” Mr. Sturgis said. “Ithas been about two weeks for me.”

Young people have generallybeen at lower risk of developingsevere cases of Covid-19, andthere have been only a few stu-dent deaths linked to the virus.But while that statistical advan-tage may have led to apathy aboutthe pandemic at some institutions,Mr. Dorrill’s death has shaken therural Appalachian State campusin the Blue Ridge Mountains,prompting questions aboutwhether the college is doingenough to keep its students andfaculty members safe.

“It’s not a hoax, that this virusreally does exist,” said Emma Cri-der, a classmate of Mr. Sturgis’s.“Before this, the overall mentalitywas ‘out of sight, out of mind.’”

As if to underscore that point,

After an Infected Student Dies,A Campus Wonders if It’s Safe

By CRISTINA BOLLING and SHAWN HUBLER

Continued on Page A7

ALBANY, N.Y. — On Sunday af-ternoon, faced with a new wave ofinfections in his virus-batteredcity, Mayor Bill de Blasio made asobering decision to ask the stateto roll back openings of busi-nesses in virus hot spots in Brook-lyn and Queens, pending approvalfrom Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo.

But on Monday, Mr. Cuomo, Mr.de Blasio’s longtime foil, refusedto give it.

Mr. Cuomo said he would notyet allow the city to close the non-essential businesses, suggestingthat the ZIP codes that were beingused to identify hot spots were tooimprecise to guide shutdowns,and that he was considering othergeographic boundaries. The morepressing problem, he said, lay inschools and houses of worship, in-cluding many that cater to Ortho-dox Jews, rather than businessesthat “are not large spreaders.”

The conflicting messages fromthe state’s two most prominent po-liticians created confusion for res-idents, business owners and par-ents in the affected areas anddrew scrutiny to the conflict be-tween the city and state over howto tackle early signs of a secondwave of the virus in its one-timeepicenter.

The governor’s announcementalso seemed to be yet anothermanifestation of the tense and of-ten dissonant relationship be-tween City Hall and Albany, whichhas an outsize role in many citydecisions.

Mr. Cuomo, a third-term Demo-crat, has frequently second-guessed or overruled the mayor,who is also a Democrat, duringtheir overlapping tenures. Thoseclashes were cast in sharp reliefduring the early days of the pan-

Cuomo Rejects Mayor’s ProposalBut Closes City Schools Anyway

By JESSE McKINLEY and LUIS FERRÉ-SADURNÍ

Continued on Page A8

The parent company of Regal Cinemas,facing delays in major releases, is clos-ing its U.S. theaters. PAGE B1

BUSINESS B1-5

Shutting Off Projectors AgainThe New Museum has achieved suc-cess, but some employees say it pro-vides poor working conditions. PAGE C1

ARTS C1-6

An Art ‘Sweatshop’?The pandemic has been a new setbackfor many women in academia, whoalready faced major obstacles. PAGE D1

SCIENCE TIMES D1-8

Covid Adds to an ImbalanceSenator Kelly Loeffler, one of the rich-est people in Congress, has transformedherself from moderate into “more con-servative than Attila the Hun.” PAGE A14

NATIONAL A14-25

Atlanta Elite to Trump LoyalistAfter removing guidance on its websiteacknowledging “airborne” transmis-sion, the agency cited evidence that thevirus can linger in indoor air. PAGE A4

TRACKING AN OUTBREAK A4-11

C.D.C. Admits Indoor Risks

China adopts an increasingly belliger-ent posture as the U.S. and Taiwandraw closer together. PAGE A13

INTERNATIONAL A12-13

War of Words by China

A succession of deaths has shown theburdens of a society where many feelthe pressure to be perfect. PAGE A12

Celebrity Suicides in Japan

Data shows worse test scores, but onlyfor Black and Latino students. The likelyculprit: no air-conditioning. PAGE A21

Hotter Days Widen Racial Gap

Cameron Burrell’s career shows thathaving Olympic champions as parentscan be a blessing and a curse. PAGE B6

SPORTSTUESDAY B6-8

Speed Runs in His Family

The N.I.H. refused to move 39 primatesto a sanctuary. Activists are demandingthat the agency reconsider. PAGE D3

Fight Over Aging Lab Chimps

Michelle Goldberg PAGE A26

EDITORIAL, OP-ED A26-27

Late Edition

VOL. CLXX . . . . No. 58,838 © 2020 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2020

Today, mostly sunny after morningclouds, high 70. Tonight, partlycloudy, low 59. Tomorrow, cloudy,windy, evening showers, high 74.Weather map appears on Page A16.

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