Walter Duranty, the New York Times's Moscow correspondent from 1922 to 1936, was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for his Russian reporting in the early 1930s. Stalin showered him with amenities — cars, luxury apartments, and mistresses — as well as access. In return, Duranty treated Stalin’s Russia with velvet gloves.

For some colleges and universities, the decision to bring back in-person research and instruction this fall is a matter of basic economic survival. But even where it is not, the pandemic crisis threatens the essence of college life. No distance-learning program, regardless of how well thought-out or planned it is, can replace the interactions among students, faculty and others that normally take place on college campuses.

Hoover Institution fellow Richard Epstein discusses his Defining Ideasarticle "Let’s Go Local With Coronavirus Control."

Hoover Institution fellow Scott Atlas weighs in on using contact tracing as cities reopen, and notes contact tracing is an improper tool at this point in this infection.