Toward Local Response Biden Adjusts Strategy

VOL. CLXX . . . No. 59,049

? 2021 The New York Times Company

NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, MAY 5, 2021

Late Edition

Today, cloudy, showers, thunderstorms, high 67. Tonight, evening thunderstorms, clearing, cool, low 50. Tomorrow, mostly sunny, high 65. Weather map is on Page B12.

$3.00

Pandemic Led

To Faster Drop

In U.S. Births

Long Trend of Delaying

Pregnancy Continues

By SABRINA TAVERNISE

The birthrate declined for the sixth straight year in 2020, the federal government reported on Wednesday, early evidence that the coronavirus pandemic accelerated a trend among American women of delaying pregnancy.

Early in the pandemic, there was speculation that the major changes in the life of American families could lead to a recovery in the birthrate, as couples hunkered down together. In fact, they appeared to have had the opposite effect: Births were down most sharply at the end of the year, when babies conceived at the start of the pandemic would have been born.

Births declined by about 8 percent in December, compared to the same month the year before, a monthly breakdown of government data showed. December had the single largest decline of any month. Over all for the year, births declined by 4 percent, the data showed. There were 3,605,201 births in the United States last year, the lowest number since 1979. The birthrate -- measured as the number of babies per thousand women ages 15 to 44 -- has fallen by about 19 percent since its recent peak in 2007.

The declining birthrate is just one piece of America's shifting demographic picture. Combined with a substantial leveling-off of immigration, and rising deaths, the country's population over the last decade expanded at the second-slowest rate since the government started counting in the 18th century. The pandemic, which pushed the death rate higher and the birthrate even lower, appears to have deepened that trend.

Kenneth Johnson, a demographer at the University of New Hampshire, has calculated that together with the rise in deaths -- up by about 18 percent from 2019 -- the drop in births is contributing to the aging of the American population: A total of 25 states had more deaths than births last year, Dr. Johnson said, up from five at the end of 2019.

"The birthrate is the lowest it's ever been," he said. "At some point the question is going to be: The women who delayed having babies, are they ever going to have them? If they don't, that's a permanent notch in the American

Continued on Page A16

Alarms Ignored

Before Disaster

In Mexico City

This article is by Maria AbiHabib, Oscar Lopez, Natalie Kitroeff and Mike Ives.

MEXICO CITY -- The capital had been bracing for the disaster for years.

Ever since it opened nearly a decade ago, the newest Mexico City subway line -- a heralded expansion of the second largest subway system in the Americas -- had been plagued with structural weaknesses that led engineers to warn of potential accidents. Yet other than a brief, partial shutdown of the line in 2014, the warnings went unheeded by successive governments.

On Monday night, the mounting problems turned fatal: A subway train on the Golden Line plunged about 50 feet after an overpass collapsed underneath it, killing at least 24 people and injuring dozens more.

The accident -- and the government's failure to act sooner to fix known problems with the line --

Continued on Page A12

BRUNA PRADO/ASSOCIATED PRESS

BRAZIL Spraying disinfectant in the Santa Marta neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro last month.

PAUL ELLIS/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE -- GETTY IMAGES

BRITAIN A concert on Sunday in Liverpool, England, where the audience was tested for the virus.

A Tough School Year Risks Becoming a Lost One

By RUKMINI CALLIMACHI

CLARKSDALE, Miss. -- By the time Precious Coleman returned home from her overnight shift at a casino, it was past 9 in the morning. It had been another night of dealing with belligerent patrons who refused to wear their face masks and drunks who needed to be escorted to the curb. Her eyes stung.

More than anything, she wanted to fall into bed. But her 11year-old son, Jordyn, was waiting for her.

Or, more specifically, for her cellphone: Because their Mississippi apartment has no internet, Jordyn uses her phone to log into his virtual classroom two days a week.

As Families Struggle to

Stay Afloat, Students

Are Falling Behind

By the time Jordyn signed in, he had already missed two periods of class. And he would miss more. By the sixth period, he had fallen asleep, cheek smushed into his palm. His mother, who tries as hard as she can to stay awake so that she can supervise him, was also sound asleep in the next room.

And so neither of them heard Jordyn's math teacher announce an upcoming test, one that was particularly critical for Jordyn,

who was failing the class. "If you don't make at least a C," the teacher said, in a tone both playful and serious, "we're going to fight."

Jordyn is at risk of becoming one of the lost students of the coronavirus pandemic in the most disrupted American school year since World War II. By one estimate, three million students nationwide, roughly the school-age population of Florida, stopped going to classes, virtual or in person, after the pandemic began.

A disproportionate number of those disengaged students are lower-income Black, Latino and Native American children who have struggled to keep up in classrooms that are partly or fully remote, for reasons ranging from poor internet service to needing to

Continued on Page A20

TAMIR KALIFA FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Precious Coleman helping her 11-year-old son, Jordyn, with his schoolwork in Clarksdale, Miss.

As Vaccinations Slow, Biden Adjusts Strategy Toward Local Response

As the West Emerges, Targeting the Young Poor Nations Reel and the Reluctant

By BENJAMIN MUELLER

The contrast could hardly be sharper.

In much of the developed world, vaccine orders are soaring into the billions of doses, Covid-19 cases are easing, economies are poised to roar to life and people are busy lining up summer vacations. In many less developed nations, though, the virus is raging on, sometimes out of control, while vaccinations are happening far too slowly to protect even the most vulnerable.

That split screen -- clubs and restaurants reopening in the United States and Europe while people gasp for oxygen in India -- was never supposed to be so stark. Some 192 countries signed up last year for Covax, a vaccinesharing partnership, and the Gates Foundation poured $300 million into an Indian factory to make doses for the world's poor. The European Union's top executive told a global summit last June: "Vaccination is a universal human right."

But the virus is spreading more rapidly than ever, driven largely by gains in South America and India, and the campaign to vaccinate the world is floundering.

India, an important source of vaccines in normal times, has halted exports as it fights a record surge in the virus and an expanding humanitarian crisis. That has delayed critical shipments, with India making the majority of Covax supplies.

In Brazil, where thousands are dying daily, officials have received only a 10th of the AstraZeneca doses they were promised by midyear.

And in countries as varied as Ghana and Bangladesh, which blew through their initial vaccine supplies, the lucky few who received a first shot have been unsure of when they will receive another.

"It's a moral issue," said Boston Zimba, a doctor and vaccine expert in Malawi, which has vaccinated only 2 percent of its people. "This is something rich countries should be thinking about. It's their conscience. It's how they define themselves."

The problems go well beyond

Continued on Page A6

By SHARON LaFRANIERE

and NOAH WEILAND

WASHINGTON -- President Biden, confronting lagging vaccinations that threaten his promise of near normalcy by July 4, on Tuesday overhauled the strategy to battle the pandemic, shifting from mass vaccination sites to more local settings to target younger Americans and those hesitant to get a shot.

In a speech at the White House, Mr. Biden said he was launching a new phase in the fight against the coronavirus, with a goal of at least partly vaccinating 70 percent of adults by Independence Day and with a personal plea to all of the unvaccinated: "This is your choice. It's life and death."

After three months of battling supply shortages and distribution bottlenecks, the Biden administration is confronting a problem that the president said was inevitable: Many of those who were most eager to get vaccinated have already done so. Vaccination sites at stadiums once filled with carloads of people seeking shots are closing, and states that once clamored for more vaccines are finding that they cannot use all of the doses that the federal government wants to ship to them.

Yet the administration's own health experts say tens of millions more Americans must be vaccinated before the infection rate is low enough to return to what many people consider ordinary life.

The administration now wants tens of thousands of pharmacies to allow people to walk in for shots. It has also ordered up popup and mobile clinics, especially in rural areas, and it plans to devote tens of millions of dollars for community outreach workers to provide transport and help arrange child care for those in high-risk neighborhoods who want to be vaccinated.

To build up confidence in vaccines, federal officials plan to enlist the help of family doctors and other emissaries who are trusted voices in their communities.

In a new effort to match supply with demand, federal officials informed states on Tuesday that if they did not order their full alloca-

Continued on Page A6

New Yorkers on the Reopening: `It's About Time' or `It's Too Fast'

By MICHAEL WILSON

The news longed for by so many for so long landed like a jolting boom: New York City is reopening -- not someday, not hopefully soon, but in two weeks. Last year's erasure of the city's nightlife, culture, dining and shopping -- the things that make New York New York -- would be suddenly undone.

By Tuesday, a day after Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's announcement, New Yorkers were responding with a mix of joy, did-I-hear-thatright double-takes and doubt. The idea of having so much come back so soon -- on May 19, a seemingly random Wednesday around the corner -- was, for many, dizzying.

"It doesn't quite feel real," said Charlie Cloud, 16, a high school sophomore from Manhattan. "We've lived like this for quite a long time, this happened all a little fast." But that's not stopping him from making plans to get back to his hangouts: "My favorite place is Bowlmor," he said.

The reopening coincides with similar measures in Connecticut

KIRSTEN LUCE FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

The Charging Bull statue, a popular draw near Wall Street.

and New Jersey. From the Kabab King in Queens to Our Hero's Sandwich Shop in Jersey City to the Atticus Bookstore Cafe in New Haven, people reacted happily or warily to the news, a moment to be remembered by a generation, as clearly as the one when everything suddenly shut down.

Some doubted the safety and logic of the timing. Too soon, too

Continued on Page A7

INTERNATIONAL A8-13

No Consensus in Israel

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has failed to form a government, so his rivals may now get a chance. PAGE A9

Pulled Apart at the Border

Some parents are opting to retake the dangerous trek north to join the children who were kept in the U.S. PAGE A10

NATIONAL A14-17, 20

Barr's Justice Dept. Is Rebuked

A federal judge said the former attorney general's team misled her about its deliberations on whether to prosecute President Donald J. Trump. PAGE A15

G.O.P. Spurns a Truth-Teller

Conservatives are plotting to dethrone Representative Liz Cheney. Her offense: continued repudiation of Donald J. Trump and his election lies. PAGE A15

Chauvin Seeks New Trial

Legal experts said it was unlikely that Derek Chauvin, convicted of murdering George Floyd, would win an appeal because of a juror's actions. PAGE A16

BUSINESS B1-6

Yellen Says Rates May Rise

Janet Yellen, the Treasury secretary,

clarified that she was not providing

advice to the Federal Reserve, which

sets monetary policy.

PAGE B3

Huge Profits for Pfizer

The company said its Covid vaccine generated $3.5 billion in revenue in the first three months of this year. PAGE B1

SPORTSWEDNESDAY B7-9

Manchester City's Yin and Yang

The soccer club, which reached the Champions League final, is also waging a secret legal battle in England. PAGE B7

FOOD D1-8

A Lawmaker With a Cause

State Senator Jessica Ramos speaks up for street vendors, farmworkers and the many restaurants in Queens. PAGE D1

On a No-to-Knead Basis

J. Kenji L?pez-Alt revisits a 2006 recipe by Jim Lahey and Mark Bittman that changed the face of baking. PAGE D1

ARTS C1-6

Recalling a Ballet Legend

Jacques d'Amboise, who died Sunday, lived to the fullest -- and danced with that same spirit. An appraisal. PAGE C1

Fitting-Room Confessions

A performer seeks reassurance, and sleeves, to face a crowd again. PAGE C1

OPINION A18-19

Michael McCaul and Ryan C. Crocker

PAGE A19

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