| Welcome to The Daily 202! Tell your friends to sign up here. On this day in 1941, the Associated Press tells me, General Mills first shipped "Cheerioats," to six test markets. (The name did not last, but "Cheerios" sure did.) | | |  | The big idea | | The pandemic made the loneliness crisis worse |  Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy is worried about loneliness as a public health issue. (Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post) | | - "[H]alf of U.S. adults experience loneliness, which has consequences for mental and physical health, including a greater risk of depression, anxiety — and, perhaps more surprisingly, heart disease, stroke and dementia," per Fenit.
- In 2022, Murthy gave a talk at Yale in which he cited a survey from 2018-2020 that found loneliness afflicted 75% of younger folks.
- "Time spent with friends declined 20 hours a month between 2003 and 2020, according to research cited in the advisory, while time spent alone increased by 24 hours a month in that period. These trends probably intensified during the coronavirus pandemic as Americans were sequestered at home, experts say," according to Fenit.
- Loneliness "is associated with a greater risk of cardiovascular disease, dementia, stroke, depression, anxiety, and premature death. The mortality impact of being socially disconnected is similar to that caused by smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day, and even greater than that associated with obesity and physical inactivity," the advisory says.
| The pandemic made things worse because of course | | In the advisory, Murthy says he got interested in loneliness as a public health issue after first taking office in 2014. In Spring 2020, he published a book about it, drawing on established research and conversations with Americans. | | "And that was before the COVID-19 pandemic cut off so many of us from friends, loved ones, and support systems, exacerbating loneliness and isolation," the advisory noted. "What covid did is really pour fuel on a fire that was already burning," Murthy told Fenit in an interview. "I want the entire country to understand how profound a public health threat loneliness and isolation pose." "His advisory calls for a collective effort to 'mend the social fabric of our nation,' from teaching children about building healthy relationships; talking more to relatives, friends and co-workers; and spending less time online and on social media if it comes at the expense of in-person interactions," Fenit reported. | Is this really a 'post-pandemic' era? | | Americans, at least the ones The Daily 202 sees every day, are mostly not wearing masks anymore. There haven't been a lot of news stories about hospitals full-to-bursting with covid patients. My colleague Dan Diamond reported Monday vaccine mandates are going away. Mass inoculations — and large-scale coronavirus infections, conferring immunity — have seen the pandemic recede. Immunocompromised Americans and those suffering with "long Covid" are obviously living through this era differently, still vulnerable or coping with stubborn symptoms. And there's the matter of the roughly 1,300 lives covid claims every week in America, more than 1.1 million in all. | But everyone is seeing some other large-scale pandemic effects. | - Downtowns in large cities are struggling with the effects of unusually high office vacancies. That refers to unleased offices, not leased offices left unused — but those are a big problem too, with so many businesses (and therefore jobs) dependent on workers coming in.
| | The nation's capital "is a wounded rendition of its once robust self," my colleague Paul Schwartzman reported back in January. "Even as more of the workforce shows up daily, many streets at the city's core are pocked by vacant storefronts, moribund sidewalks and offices that, even on the busiest days, are just over half occupied." | - Schoolkids have mostly come back. But it'll take a lot of work to make up for the damage done by school closures.
| | "National test results released on Thursday showed in stark terms the pandemic's devastating effects on American schoolchildren, with the performance of 9-year-olds in math and reading dropping to the levels from two decades ago," the New York Times' Sarah Mervosh reported late last year. | - And, like the exacerbated loneliness crisis, the pandemic made an already horrible youth mental health crisis worse, as The Daily 202 chronicled when Murthy warned about it in late 2021.
| | Americans today are less likely to get sick and die from covid. But the country may need more time to recover. | | |  | Politics-but-not | | | Click through to submit ideas for potential inclusion in our weekly roundup of stories you might not find in other political newsletters. Read more » | | | | | |  | What's happening now | | Bill would require disclosure of AI-generated content in political ads |  Screens display the logos of Stable Diffusions, Midjourney and Dalle-2, articial intelligence applications in Toulouse, southwestern France. (Lionel Bonaventure/AFP/Getty Images) | | | "On Tuesday, Rep. Yvette D. Clarke (D-N.Y.) introduced legislation that would require disclosure of AI-generated content in political ads — part of an effort, she said, to 'get the Congress going on addressing many of the challenges that we're facing with AI,'" Isaac Stanley-Becker reports. | Hearing on Supreme Court ethics begins with partisan disagreement | | "A Senate hearing on Supreme Court ethics began on a partisan note Tuesday, with Democrats saying they must impose a specific code of conduct for the justices because the court will not do so, and Republicans accusing them of an 'unseemly' effort to tar a conservative court," Ann E. Marimow and Robert Barnes report. | - "Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) said a cascade of recent revelations about unreported lavish travel and real estate deals would be unacceptable for an alderman, much less those members of the federal judiciary. But the court 'won't even acknowledge it's a problem,' Durbin said. 'Because the court will not act, Congress must.'"
| Trial set for drugmaker accused of profiting from government patents | | "The United States' brawl with Gilead Sciences over ownership of an anti-HIV regimen will go to trial Tuesday, marking one of the government's most muscular efforts to enforce its patents against a major drugmaker in recent years," Daniel Gilbert reports. | Writers vote to strike in move that could bring Hollywood to a halt | | |  | Lunchtime reads from The Post | | China's use of exit bans on the rise, worrying international businesses |  The Chinese government has significantly increased the use of exit bans to stop people — Chinese and foreign nationals alike — from leaving the country since top leader Xi Jinping took power in 2012, a new report has found. (Aly Song/Reuters) | | | "The Chinese government has significantly increased the use of exit bans to stop people — Chinese and foreign nationals alike — from leaving the country since top leader Xi Jinping took power in 2012, according to a new report describing how a web of vague laws are being expanded for political reasons," Meaghan Tobin reports. | As Fed examines banking woes, small businesses already feel the crunch | | "A Fed survey released April 19 said more businesses were contending with tighter lending standards and growing uncertainty about liquidity. Those fears weren't overwhelming, and loan demand also fell for all kinds of consumer and business lending. But the report known as the 'beige book,' which collects anecdotes from the Federal Reserve system's 12 districts, showed fears bubbling up," Rachel Siegel reports. | Family says they repeatedly called 911 during Texas shooter's rampage | - "Authorities said the suspect, identified as Francisco Oropesa, fled after allegedly killing his neighbors on Friday in response to their request that he stop shooting near their yard. More than 250 officers from local, state and federal agencies searched for Oropesa over the weekend, with officials believing they had him cornered in a wooded area. They found only his cellphone."
| 93 days: The summer America lost Roe v. Wade |  A sign proclaims, "We are the Post-Roe Generation" in front of the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 20. (Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post) | | | "For nearly 50 years, Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that protected the right to an abortion, seemed inviolable. The landmark decision faced challenge after challenge — in 1992, 2000, 2007, 2016 and 2020 — and stopped some of the harshest abortion restrictions from taking effect. Though Roe's power weakened dramatically over the years, it survived unceasing legal attacks from anti-abortion advocates," the 19th's Shefali Luthra reports. | - "Never had the nation guaranteed its people a right and then taken it away. Until June 24, 2022."
| Leonard Leo used Federalist Society contact to obtain $1.6 billion donation | | "Leonard Leo, who helped to choose judicial nominees for former President Donald Trump, obtained a historic $1.6 billion gift for his conservative legal network via an introduction through the Federalist Society, whose tax status forbids political activism," Politico's Heidi Przybyla reports. | U.S. weighs more business deposit insurance after banks fail | | "A top US regulator wants a sweeping overhaul of deposit insurance after recent bank failures partly drained a pool of money the government uses to protect lenders' clients. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. on Monday laid out three options for the bedrock fund, which currently covers up to $250,000 on most accounts," Bloomberg News's Katanga Johnson reports. | | |  | The latest on covid | | Most federal coronavirus vaccine mandates to end May 11 | | "The Biden administration will end its requirements that most international travelers, federal workers and contractors, health-care workers and Head Start educators be vaccinated against the coronavirus effective on May 11 — the same day it terminates the pandemic-related public health emergency," Dan Diamond reports. | | |  | The Biden agenda | | Biden seeks debt ceiling talks, as U.S. faces possible June 1 default |  President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy stand outside the U.S. Capitol in March. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images) | | | "President Biden invited House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and other congressional leaders to the White House next week to discuss the debt ceiling, as Washington scrambled Monday to respond to news that the government could default on its obligations as soon as June 1," Tony Romm, Tyler Pager and Liz Goodwin report. | - "Biden's request for talks followed a jarring new projection from the Treasury Department that the government could run out of cash to pay its bills in as few as four weeks without additional borrowing authority — an unprecedented event that could rattle world financial markets and tip the fragile U.S. economy into another recession."
| Biden's push to disclose climate risks hits wall of industry resistance | | "The Biden administration is struggling over rules that would force U.S. corporations to disclose more information about their climate risks and greenhouse gas emissions, from pizza deliveries and steel manufacturing to financial services and making cement," Steven Mufson reports. | Biden administration tests vaccines to fight avian flu | | "Agriculture officials in the Biden administration are testing four vaccines in hopes of stanching the latest outbreak of a highly pathogenic avian influenza that has devastated U.S. poultry farms and driven up egg prices, with plans to launch a national vaccination campaign that would be the first-ever effort of its kind," Laura Reiley reports. | | |  | Bank failures since 2001, visualized | | | "First Republic Bank was seized by federal regulators early Monday and sold to JPMorgan Chase Bank. The San Francisco-based bank became the third to fail this year, joining Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, that collapsed in March. The three ranked among the top 30 U.S. banks by assets last year, but are far smaller than the country's biggest financial institutions, which measure their assets in the trillions," Luis Melgar and Hamza Shaban report. | | |  | Hot on the left | | The Katie Porter pitch: We can fix our own dysfunction |  Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.) speaks to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) in the House Committee on Oversight and Reform during a hearing on Feb. 1. (Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post) | | | "Earlier this month, Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA), who is running for U.S. Senate in California, took the stage at a USC assembly room at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, to wild applause. The crowd consisted of what could be called 'Katie Porter superfans': mostly middle-aged women who have thrilled to her tough questioning of corporate executives and public officials, punctuated by the use of a whiteboard to illustrate her contentions," David Dayen writes for the American Prospect. | - "'The American people, for viable reasons, don't believe that we understand the challenges they face,' Porter told the Times' Melanie Mason, and the well-dressed crowd, many carrying their latest book purchases in the C-SPAN tote bags handed out for free at the festival, nodded in agreement."
| | |  | Hot on the right | | DeSantis expands Florida death penalty law, defying U.S. Supreme Court |  Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) in National Harbor, Md., on April 21. (Al Drago/Bloomberg News) | | | "Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) expanded Florida's death penalty law on Monday, signing a measure making it a capital crime to rape a child under the age of 12, a law that could set up a future U.S. Supreme Court case," Tim Craig reports. | - "The measure, which overwhelmingly passed the Florida legislature last month with bipartisan support, gives state prosecutors the option of seeking the death penalty if an adult is found guilty of the sexual battery of a child."
| | |  | Today in Washington | | | There is nothing on Biden's public schedule this afternoon. | | |  | In closing | | How Roy Wood Jr. crushed the toughest room in comedy | | Thanks for reading. See you tomorrow. | | |
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