{"id":3602,"date":"2020-05-20T18:11:05","date_gmt":"2020-05-20T18:11:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adhc.lib.ua.edu\/pandemicbook\/?page_id=3602"},"modified":"2022-03-18T13:33:15","modified_gmt":"2022-03-18T13:33:15","slug":"05-20","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/adhc.lib.ua.edu\/pandemicbook\/05-20\/","title":{"rendered":"05-20"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Wednesday, May 20<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tUS Cases 1.56 million
US Deaths 97,174<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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-May 18: Massachusetts biotechnology company Moderna announces<\/a> <\/span>that its potential COVID-19 vaccine showed promising early clinical trial results. President Trump has warned World Health Organization Director General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus that the U.S. might\u00a0permanently cut off funding<\/a> <\/span>to the organization due to its “repeated missteps” in the response to the coronavirus pandemic. A WHO independent oversight committee releases an interim\u00a0report<\/a><\/span>\u00a0on the WHO response to COVID-19, noting \u201csignificant\u201d progress in WHO\u2019s health emergency management response since reforms implemented in 2016 but also recommending further reforms in some areas. President Trump announced Monday that he has been taking the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>for about a week and a half as a preventative treatment against COVID-19.\u00a0 The Navajo Nation overtakes<\/a> <\/span>New York and New Jersey as the part of the U.S. with the highest per capita coronavirus infection rate.<\/p>

-May 19: All 50 states now starting<\/a> <\/span>to reopen economies. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer declares<\/a> <\/span>a state of emergency in Midland County after two dams breached following heavy rains.<\/p>

-May 20: Thirty-six thousand fewer people would have died of COVID-19 in the United States by early May if the country had\u00a0started social distancing one week earlier<\/a><\/span> in March than it did, according to Columbia University disease modelers. Ford closes<\/a> <\/span>two plants over COVID concerns.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tFrom the cutting room floor...\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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\u201cYou know, there are estimates that 50% of museums could fold right now,\u201d says Zachary Levine, the Director of Archival and Curatorial Affairs at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Not all museums are equipped for this digital transition crash course.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Among the problems is just the mentality of museum directors and donors. \u201cI think a lot of them are grappling with and will continue to grapple with the idea that they are operating on a\u00a0\u2018if you build\u00a0it, they will come\u2019\u00a0model.\u201d\u00a0Perhaps they believe\u00a0that there\u2019s enough of a\u00a0felt\u00a0need\u00a0for what a cultural institution provides\u00a0that a website with their exhibits on it will bring visitors.\u00a0Levine\u00a0cautions that it rarely works that way.\u00a0\u201cThe successful programmings are really a lot of smaller scale meetings often where people can come and participate. It\u2019s where they can\u00a0be\u00a0present and feel a part of it. In other words, the museums that are really going to be successful here are operating more and more as\u00a0conveners<\/i>\u00a0around specific subject matter, but not as\u00a0authorities<\/i>.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>[read_more id=”1″ more=”Read more” less=”Read less”]<\/p>

This feels discouraging to me\u2014that Americans\u00a0thirst for\u00a0entertainment so much more than information that even a great museum website won\u2019t draw many visitors\u00a0and even fewer\u00a0patrons. But\u00a0Levine\u00a0doesn\u2019t see it that way.\u00a0\u201cThat feels like a big loss, and it is a big loss. But I think that it also\u00a0[identifies]\u00a0which institutions are important, resilient, and which institutions will leave a space for something new to come about. I don\u2019t want to say that I\u2019m hopeful but I think that there is the opportunity there for cultural organizations, museums,\u00a0and art galleries that are able to work very differently from what we\u2019ve seen in the past.\u201d\u00a0Even in the upcoming months,\u00a0Levine\u00a0thinks,\u00a0museums will bounce back, and the smaller ones\u2014provided they can come up with capital to make it through this period of lockdown\u2014might fare even better, \u201cbecause they have fewer people. So, that\u2019s gonna mean prescribed routes in museums where you have to follow a certain path. It\u2019s gonna mean much more ticketed times. It\u2019s gonna probably mean very clear divisions of how the space is organized and how people can move around them. That’s going to happen at least moving forward in the next couple of years. I don\u2019t think it is going to be permanent. I don\u2019t think museums are going to stop.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

If we expect just a kind of \u2018show-and-tell,\u2019 aren\u2019t online collections enough?\u00a0\u201cMuseums are the preservers of our history and our material culture and those collections have to go somewhere\u2026\u201d he shrugs.\u00a0\u201cEconomically museums are actually relatively inexpensive compared to the economic benefits that they bring. Study after study shows the economic benefits of cultural institutions to cities and neighborhoods,\u00a0and that they bring many many more dollars than they cost.\u201d Besides,\u00a0Levine\u00a0says,\u00a0in the wake of all this death and loss\u00a0caused by coronavirus and the lockdowns,\u00a0the role of museum\u00a0will continue as always,\u00a0\u201cto help people cope with the world around them and to make sense of it.\u00a0How I can make the world a better place?\u201d\u00a0It\u2019s a question we all are going to want to\u00a0have help answering\u00a0after the year we\u2019ve had so far.\u00a0<\/span>[\/read_more]<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tContributors' Voices\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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