Style
Handy hacks to stop your glasses steaming up when you wear a face mask

The rules around wearing face coverings in shops in England are about to change, and people in Scotland and other European cities are already being asked to wear them in enclosed public spaces.

While the measures are an important step in helping to prevent the spread of coronavirus, if you happen to be a glasses wearer you’ll realise that the donning of a face mask can cause your breath to steam up your lenses.

And foggy lenses are no good to anyone, just ask Michael Gove.

“Wearing a facemask or face covering is becoming the new normal, but one of the minor problems of the COVID-19 pandemic is fogged-up eyewear,” explains Ceri Smith-Jaynes from the Association of Optometrists.

“This happens when warm breath escapes from the top of the mask and lands on the cooler surface of the lens.”

Read more: Doctor shares video explaining how face masks don’t reduce your oxygen intake

Thankfully, there are some simple hacks you can adopt to help you stop the steam.

Ensure the mask is well-fitted

Smith-Jaynes suggests taking a little time to shape the nose wire on your face mask, so it closely follows the contours of your nose and cheeks and secure the top strap well. “If your mask has no wire, you can insert a twist tie or pipe cleaner into the top edge of the mask,” she adds. “You could secure the top edge with micro-pore tape, if necessary. Alternatively, fold a tissue until it forms a strip and place it along the top edge of the mask before you put it on.”

Adjust the loops

If you have a small head, you may find you need to twist the loops before putting them around your ears to get a snugger fit. “If the mask has tapes to tie it, tie the top one high on the back of your head after putting on your glasses,” Smith-Jaynes explains.

Buy good quality anti-fog sprays

Not all anti-fog sprays are created equal. “Good quality anti-fog sprays can work well and can be purchased from most opticians,” Smith-Jaynes says.

Though it is tempting to swish some washing-up liquid on your lenses, according to optometrists this is a big no, no. “[Using washing up liquid on lenses] can break down the anti-reflection lens coating gradually over the years, resulting in a crazy-paving effect for which there is only one cure – replacement lenses,” Smith-Jaynes warns.

Keep your glasses warm

Your lenses will fog up more if they are cold, so Smith-Jaynes suggests wearing your glasses or putting them in your pocket to warm them a little before you need to put them on with your mask.

Have your glasses professionally fitted

Still steaming up under your mask? Might be worth seeking professional help from your optician. “Remember to take your mask with you (and your face-shield if you need to work in one),” Smith-Jaynes says. “They can adjust the nose-pads or sides to fit properly with your PPE. Varifocals will need to sit exactly right to ensure optimum performance.”

Consider contact lenses

If you’ve never worn them before, now could be a good opportunity to give them a go. “If it’s been years since you wore contact lenses, ask the practice about the new options,” Smith-Jaynes suggests.

“You’ll need a professional fitting by an optometrist or contact lens optician. The range of prescriptions is vast; even if you wear varifocal glasses, there are options for you.”

Lufthansa

Dear Mr. Х,

If you spent the past few months at home with your partner, your family, or even your roommates – why not spend the next few weeks together somewhere new? You could visit Malta, Menorca or Split for some sun and culture.

Malta
Sunbathing at
the Blue Lagoon

With scenic hikes along the cliffs, pristine wilderness and rural villages where you can watch basket weavers, silversmiths and glassblowers at work – there's never a dull moment in Malta. You'll even come across a very special village: the set of the movie "Popeye".

Travelling with children

Flying with children in these times raises questions: at what age do the little ones have to wear masks on board? Can I still have my baby's food warmed up? Are toys still offered? You'll find answers to these questions and many more, by following this link.

Dining under the stars
The golden rays of the evening sun paint the Old Town of Split in the warmest colours. You'll find cozy restaurants in the alleys winding down to the harbour – some of them even have an ocean view.

Jonathan von Gutzeit
Meet the Expert

This week, our customer service expert talks about the Lufthansa Service Centers, which are currently quite busy. If you are affected by any delays on our hotlines, we'd like to offer our apologies. Furthermore, we'll give you some insight into why this situation occurred.

Safe and flexible travel

On the ground and in the air: your health is our top priority when travelling with us.

Plan your new trip and use our flexible rebooking options.

Style
I Clean Out My Closet Twice a Month, But I Never Get Rid of These 8 Things

I’ve always been big on cleaning out my closet and decluttering my space in general, but as we recently discussed, I’ve been on even more of a kick lately due to the extensive amount of time I’ve been spending at home. However, sharing some of the items we have purged from our wardrobes actually got me thinking about those pieces which I rarely, if ever, give the boot—and why.

I didn’t notice it at first, but once I made a list, it became painfully clear that among the eight categories you’re about to read about below, there’s actually one common theme: They always come back (or never go out of style in the first place). That's right. While items such as belts and eveningwear may seem more or less relevant over time, when you do need them, the versions you already own should typically do the trick. In other words, they're less susceptible to the trend cycle and don't need to be replaced as often, so rather than selling them and having to buy them again later, just keep the styles you own. To read about and shop all the categories that made the cut, just keep scrolling.

1. Designer Bags

If the recent returns of Fendi’s baguette, Dior’s saddle, and Prada’s nylon shoulder bags taught us anything it’s that holding on to a designer bag from five, 10, or even 15 years ago will save you a lot of money (and regret) when the brand reissues it, and it’s suddenly cool again.

2. Belts

Belts are pretty much always considered a basic wardrobe necessity, but they have a funny way of becoming more or less relevant with each passing season. When they do come back into the spotlight, however, I’ve found that it’s not the belts themselves that have changed, but rather the way they’re worn or what they’re worn with.

3. Eveningwear

Now, I’m not talking about one-off bridesmaids dresses, but if you’ve ever invested in classic gowns or evening accessories such as heels and clutches, odds are they aren’t going out of style any time soon (and possibly weren’t cheap). Hold on to them instead of scrambling to shop for future events. You’ll be happy you did.

4. Classic Jewelry

Whether it was an investment or affordable find, a classic jewelry piece is simply that—classic. I never get rid of such pieces (which include rings, delicate bracelets, and chain necklaces) because while I might go extended periods without wearing them, they always seem to find a way back into my rotation eventually.

5. Timeless Outerwear

I've definitely bought my fair share of trendy coats and jackets over the years—most of which I've ended up selling or donating—but when I find a good, timeless item such as a blazer, trench, or leather piece, I like to hold on to it. They're often much more expensive to replace than whatever you could sell them for, and a polished coat is always a safe way to save an outfit.

6. Sweaters

High-quality, simple sweaters can be expensive, but if you take care of them, they can also last you years and are likely to still feel forward-looking. For this reason, I have a handful of cashmere and wool styles that I’ve been wearing for five-plus years and don’t plan to get rid of any time soon.

7. Slips and Camis

Whether you wear them on their own or as under-layers, silky slip dresses, skirts, and camis are essential for any wardrobe and have been for decades. Perhaps that’s why a slip dress you could buy today looks a lot like the ones in some of our favorite ’90s fashion snaps, and it’s also the reason you never need to get rid of the ones you already own.

8. Scarves

If someone asked me what a trendy scarf looks like, I don’t think I’d be able to answer them because I don’t think such a thing exists. Whether they’re silky or for cold weather, the world of scarves remains relatively unchanged over the years, so the ones you own should be able to stick with you for the long haul.

John Cleese in conversation with Eric Idle at Live Talks Los Angeles

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Neck gaiters may actually increase COVID-19 transmission, study finds

The U.S. hit another grim milestone on Monday with more than 5 million Americans now infected with the coronavirus. Although there is a push to increase testing and develop a vaccine, experts continue to suggest that if all Americans wore masks, the pandemic could be brought under control “within weeks.” In the spirit of that mission, a new study published in Science Advances is shedding light on which masks are most effective — and which may actually be hurting the effort to curb COVID-19.

The analysis, carried out by researchers at Duke University School of Medicine, relied on an “optimal measurement method” that uses a laser beam and cellphone camera to track the number of droplets that emerged from an individual while he or she wore a mask. Of the 14 masks, the two that proved least effective were a bandanna and what the researchers refer to as a neck fleece, also known as a neck gaiter.

The most secure mask, the N95, led to a droplet transmission of below 0.1 percent. But handmade cotton and polypropylene masks, some of which were made from apron material, proved beneficial, showing a droplet transmission ranging from 10 to 40 percent. One mask, which was knitted, released a higher number of droplets, with up to 60 percent droplet transmission. But none of the masks compared with the neck fleece, which had 110 percent droplet transmission (10 percent higher than not wearing a mask).

The researchers explain how these masks may actually spread more of the virus than not wearing one at all. “We noticed that speaking through some masks (particularly the neck fleece) seemed to disperse the largest droplets into a multitude of smaller droplets ... which explains the apparent increase in droplet count relative to no mask in that case,” they write. These small droplets could prove extremely dangerous in terms of transmission. “Considering that smaller particles are airborne longer than large droplets (larger droplets sink faster), the use of such a mask might be counterproductive,” they add.

Dr. Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, says the study is an important one for Americans to consider. “People really don’t understand that not all face coverings are equal, and that there are some that are going to be more or less effective,” says Adalja. “And I think that when you’re making these decisions, it’s important to have data behind them.”

Given the rate of droplet transmission from neck fleeces and bandannas, he suggests that Americans move away from both coverings immediately. “I do think they should be abandoned, especially given that gaiters were shown to increase transmission,” says Adalja. “Not every mask is going to be equivalent. ... I think that many people are just wearing these face coverings to check a box and not realizing that in order to serve a purpose they need to be effective.”

For those who are still confused about why masks are necessary, he notes that asymptomatic spread is one of the most important factors to keep in mind. “There are many people out there that don’t know that they’re infected, and the face coverings are one way to give people the assurance that there is some source control going on,” says Adalja. “If everybody knew their status, that would be a different story, but the fact of the matter is most people don’t know whether they’re infected or not.”

Better testing, Adalja adds, would potentially lessen the need for masks. But until then, they’re vitally important to stopping the pandemic. “If we have rapid tests that we can know the minute we step outside whether we’re infected or not, that's one thing, but we’re not anywhere near that,” says Adalja. “So for now, this is the measure we’re left with.”

Should you send your child back to school? Here's how to weigh the coronavirus risks

Like so many things in the “new normal” of the coronavirus era, the usual late-summer rush for back-to-school supplies is being replaced with weightier considerations: Should I even send my child back to school at all?   

Many schools in the U.S. are offering parents and guardians a choice between in-person learning, remote learning and a hybrid of the two. And though parents struggled in the spring with the responsibilities of overseeing remote learning from home, the prospect of sending their child back to school in the middle of a pandemic can also be daunting — especially as schools that have reopened are already seeing students and staff members test positive for the virus.   

“It is important to consider the full spectrum of risks involved in both in-person and virtual learning options,” the CDC says. “Parents, guardians, and caregivers should weigh the relative health risks of COVID-19 transmission from in-personal instruction against the educational, social-behavioral, and emotional risks of providing no in-person instruction when deciding between these two options.”

But although the CDC has published a “decision-making tool” to help caregivers weigh whether to send children to school for in-person learning, in practice many parents as well as local leaders are still grappling with the question.   

“It’s a tough thing to balance, because it becomes a judgment call,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, at a coronavirus briefing on Monday. “The default position should always be to try and get the kids in school … but their safety, their health, their welfare trumps everything.

“And it’s an individual, state-by-state, location-by-location determination,” Fauci added.

“In reality, nobody’s going to be able to tell you what to do with your family,” says Yahoo News medical contributor Dr. Dara Kass. “You need to make the decision based on who lives in your house, what the risk factors to your children are, how the virus is spread in your community and what access you have to testing.”

One of the metrics the CDC advises parents to take into consideration is the infection rate in their community. Though data about the virus in children is limited, the CDC says children are believed to be less likely to get COVID-19 than adults, and when they do get it they generally have less serious illness. But children are not immune. According to the CDC, as of July 21, 6.6 percent of reported COVID-19 cases — but less than 0.1 percent of COVID-19-related deaths — in the U.S. were among children and adolescents younger than 18. In Florida, where the virus is still ravaging communities, hospitals have seen a 23 percent increase in child COVID-19 hospitalizations in just eight days, according to CNN.

“If the positive test rate in your community is higher than 5 percent, that means that more than five out of every 100 tests that are being done are positive. That is a higher test than most educators, administrators and public health officials believe is safe for children to go to school,” Kass says. 

Kass says the other number you’ll need to keep in mind is how long it takes to get test results in your area. If your child is sent home from school with coronavirus-like symptoms — such as a cough, fever or shortness of breath — you may be expected to keep your child at home for the 14 days recommended for anyone exposed to the coronavirus, unless you can present a negative test result. Other children and school staff who may have been exposed to your child may also need to be tested. And months into the pandemic, many communities in the U.S. are still experiencing long delays in getting their test results.     

“You need to know quickly so they don’t stay home for a week or 10 days just waiting for a negative test,” Kass says. “If testing in your community takes greater than 10 days, it is probably not a good idea to send your children to school.”

You’ll also need to consider whether your child or someone in your family has a condition that puts them at high risk of complications from the coronavirus. Former FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb told CNBC that children in the U.S. are more likely than children in other countries to have underlying conditions that place them at increased risk of severe illness. And despite President Trump’s recent claim that children “don’t catch it easily, they don’t bring it home easily,” a new study from South Korea found that children between the ages of 10 and 19 can spread the virus at least as well as adults do.     

“If your child had a genetic disease, a heart disease, a lung disease, maybe had a transplant, you would probably consider doing virtual schooling until we have this virus more under control,” Kass says. “We also know that children don’t live by themselves. A lot of times they live with parents or even grandparents who may be at risk for complications from the coronavirus. And even if those children don’t get sick themselves, if they can get the virus and bring it home, sometimes it ends up sending Grandma to the hospital.”

And though many have rallied around wearing or rejecting masks as some kind of political statement, Kass says your child’s ability to attend school in person may hinge on whether they can handle wearing one all day; health experts say the evidence is clear that masks can help stem the spread of COVID-19.   

“It doesn’t mean that every school is going to require masking for the entire day, but it does mean that parents need to start getting their kids comfortable with wearing a mask and sitting in a mask while learning,” Kass says. “If your child is not comfortable wearing a mask, or if they take it off randomly … remember that they could put themselves and other children at risk.”

The CDC has also published a list of guidelines for schools to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus, including adequate ventilation and the installation of physical barriers like sneeze guards in areas where social distancing isn’t possible. But implementation is optional and will likely vary by state and district. Kass recommends that parents and caregivers familiarize themselves with their school’s reopening plan and make sure they’re comfortable with it.   

“We’re not going to be able to tell you everything to look out for,” Kass says. “What we need to know is, are you comfortable with your school’s plan? Do you know who to ask if you have a question? Is there a way to get your child tested if they’re sent home, and where do those results go? These are all questions you’re going to have to ask of your principal, your PTA president or somebody who’s representing your school or the district before you decide whether or not to send your child to in-person school this fall.”

The CDC has stressed the importance of “reopening America’s schools this fall,” citing the benefits of in-person learning, such as social and emotional skill development and school nutrition programs, noting that low-income and minority children are disproportionately harmed by school closures. But while in-person learning is undoubtedly essential under normal circumstances, given the current situation, many parents aren’t so sure. According to a recent poll from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs, only about 1 in 10 Americans think daycare centers, preschools or K-12 schools should open without restrictions, and 31 percent of Americans think there should be no in-person instruction at all this fall. 

“We all know that school is more than just a place you get educated,” Kass says. “It’s a place where children are supported; it’s a place where they meet their peers. There’s a lot of mental, psychological, social support that happens at schools.” But she also emphasizes the need for patience and flexibility this school year — from parents and educators as well as employers. 

“We might send our kids to in-person school and find out that the virus is out of control or it’s just not safe and be homeschooling again. We might start out homeschooling and then find out that we can send our kids back to school. Childcare from school is not going to be reliable. And it’s important that our employers recognize that as well. We have to be considerate of each other. We have to lead with humanity.”

We Finally Know Who Was Really Running Meghan Markle & Prince Harry’s Royal Instagram Account

Looks like Meghan Markle didn’t stop using her writing skills when she said goodbye to her lifestyle blog, The Tig. In fact, the Duchess of Sussex apparently drafted many of the Instagram posts for her and Prince Harry’s combined account, SussexRoyal, according to a new biography.

Called Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of a Modern Royal Family, the book features never-before-heard stories about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, including the inner workings of the couple’s social media accounts. (Of course, it’s important to note that neither the duke nor the duchess weighed in on the tell-all book.)

Per the biography, when the Sussexes separated their household from that of Prince William and Kate Middleton, the Suits alum took it upon herself to remain personally active on all the SussexRoyal platforms as a way to have herself heard.

“Launching the account was a somewhat liberating experience for Meghan,” an aide told the book’s authors, according to Town & Country. “Not having a platform of her own to talk directly to the public was one of the toughest changes for her, especially after building so much of her own brand on Instagram and her blog. @SussexRoyal meant that she finally had a place to curate.”

“Meghan drafted a lot of the posts herself in the early days," the book continues. “It was one of the things that kept her occupied during her final days of pregnancy.” We totally called it.

This kind of social media involvement is rare for senior members of the royal family and only happens on major occasions—something the Duke of Cambridge revealed when trying to gain access to the Kensington Royal Twitter account.

Unfortunately, SussexRoyal had to be shut down after the couple chose to lead a life outside of the royal spotlight. Back in March, they wrote a sweet farewell message to their fans and followers.

“While you may not see us here, the work continues. Thank you to this community—for the support, the inspiration and the shared commitment to the good in the world,” their final caption read. “We look forward to reconnecting with you soon. You’ve been great!”

We bet Meghan wrote that one, too.

The Queen is moving out of Buckingham Palace

Big changes are happening in the royal world, as it's been revealed that Queen Elizabeth won't return to Buckingham Palace as her royal residence "for the foreseeable future". BP has always been the Queen's primary residence, being a working palace where the monarch spends most of her time, but the decision has been made to make Windsor Castle her base until the coronavirus threat has passed.

As reported in The Times over the weekend, the Queen would usually return to Buckingham Palace in October following her summer holiday in Balmoral, Scotland. But this year, she'll be heading straight back to Windsor, where she and Prince Philip have been isolating along with a small bubble of staff since the pandemic unfolded back in March.

Queen Elizabeth will "continue working from Windsor and is understood to be keen on commuting into London for engagements and events at Buckingham Palace, if it is considered safe for her to do so," reads the report by royal correspondent Roya Nikkhah. As Her Majesty left Buckingham Palace in March this year, and likely won't return until next year at the earliest, it's believed to be the longest period in her 68-year reign that she's spent away from her primary residence.

The Queen isn't the only royal to have departed London following the grip of the pandemic; Prince Charles and Camilla have been residing up in Scotland, where the heir to the throne remained while he was ill with the virus himself. Prince William and Kate Middleton, meanwhile, retreated to their Norfolk home Anmer Hall, where they have been home-schooling Prince George and Princess Charlotte. Both couples are expected to return to their London residences in the not-too-distant future, however.

But for the time being, it looks like Queen Elizabeth will be staying put in Windsor Castle, where she's been riding horses and dialling into video calls at her leisure. Dream set-up.

Ron DeSantis sidelined his health department. Florida paid the price.

Alexander Nazaryan·National Correspondent
August 29, 2020

Things were looking pretty good in Florida on April 13, when Gov. Ron DeSantis and state officials held a press briefing in Tallahassee. A reluctant DeSantis had issued a lockdown two weeks before, but coronavirus infections were low, and he was eager to open the state back up again. In his presentation, the governor went through a number of slides, making over and over again the argument that Florida was doing well.

As he usually did, DeSantis made sure to point out that his state was definitely doing better than New York, which had been dealt a crushing blow by the pandemic. Thousands had died there. Only hundreds had died in Florida.

Sitting at the podium several feet from DeSantis was Scott Rivkees, who is both the state’s surgeon general and its health commissioner. Near the end of the meeting, Rivkees spoke up to offer a note of caution, telling Floridians that until a vaccine can be made available, they would have to continue adhering to social distancing guidelines, which both President Trump and DeSantis had consistently downplayed.

“As long as we are going to have COVID in the environment — and it is a tough virus — we are going to have to practice these measures so that we are all protected,” Rivkees said. There was nothing remotely controversial in this assertion. Yet it would prove the surgeon general’s undoing.

The governor’s communications director, Helen Aguirre Ferré, approached Rivkees at the podium and whispered into his ear. After she left, he remained seated but seemed confused. Ferré came up to him again, and this time the confusion was dispelled. Rivkees rose and left the briefing room.

About five minutes later, the briefing ended.

Had he simply been allowed to sit through the rest of the briefing, what Rivkees said would have attracted little notice, since his words of caution were anodyne in the extreme. Instead, Ferré made him an unlikely martyr for science by confirming what many suspected: The governor in Tallahassee was as reluctant to confront the pandemic’s messy reality as his counterpart and ally in the White House.

Yahoo News
Ron DeSantis sidelined his health department. Florida paid the price.
Alexander Nazaryan
Alexander Nazaryan·National Correspondent
August 29, 2020, 12:00 PM GMT+3

Things were looking pretty good in Florida on April 13, when Gov. Ron DeSantis and state officials held a press briefing in Tallahassee. A reluctant DeSantis had issued a lockdown two weeks before, but coronavirus infections were low, and he was eager to open the state back up again. In his presentation, the governor went through a number of slides, making over and over again the argument that Florida was doing well.

As he usually did, DeSantis made sure to point out that his state was definitely doing better than New York, which had been dealt a crushing blow by the pandemic. Thousands had died there. Only hundreds had died in Florida.

Sitting at the podium several feet from DeSantis was Scott Rivkees, who is both the state’s surgeon general and its health commissioner. Near the end of the meeting, Rivkees spoke up to offer a note of caution, telling Floridians that until a vaccine can be made available, they would have to continue adhering to social distancing guidelines, which both President Trump and DeSantis had consistently downplayed.

“As long as we are going to have COVID in the environment — and it is a tough virus — we are going to have to practice these measures so that we are all protected,” Rivkees said. There was nothing remotely controversial in this assertion. Yet it would prove the surgeon general’s undoing.

The governor’s communications director, Helen Aguirre Ferré, approached Rivkees at the podium and whispered into his ear. After she left, he remained seated but seemed confused. Ferré came up to him again, and this time the confusion was dispelled. Rivkees rose and left the briefing room.

About five minutes later, the briefing ended.
Dr. Scott Rivkees is pulled out of a coronavirus briefing on April 13. (Fox10 News)
Dr. Scott Rivkees is pulled out of a coronavirus briefing on April 13. (Fox10 News)

Had he simply been allowed to sit through the rest of the briefing, what Rivkees said would have attracted little notice, since his words of caution were anodyne in the extreme. Instead, Ferré made him an unlikely martyr for science by confirming what many suspected: The governor in Tallahassee was as reluctant to confront the pandemic’s messy reality as his counterpart and ally in the White House.

In response to subsequent questioning from Politico, Ferré said Rivkees had a meeting with deputy chief of staff Adrian Lukis. The two men did, in fact, meet that day, several hours before the coronavirus briefing. They had not been scheduled to meet again.

Rivkees’s removal from the briefing was symbolic of DeSantis’s approach to the pandemic: Downers are not allowed. Skeptics have no say. On the federal level, Trump has largely sidelined the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which would customarily guide the nation’s pandemic response. Following the president’s lead, DeSantis has done exactly the same with the Florida Department of Health, largely dismissing the agency as a potential ally, deciding instead to go it alone.

The department “has been MIA for months,” says state Rep. Anna Eskamani, an Orlando-area Democrat who has emerged as a leading progressive voice and a potential gubernatorial challenger to DeSantis in 2022. “Not only are they non-present or in touch with lawmakers,” Eskamani says, “they seem to be doing more harm than good.” She cites recent reports that the department refused to allow school districts across the state to receive exemptions from holding in-person classes.

DeSantis, who has closely echoed Trump’s own calls for schools to return to normal, defended the withholding of such exemptions, even for districts that were continuing to see high infection rates. “It’s not up to the health department to say a ‘yes’ or a ‘no,’” he said.

Rivkees, who did not respond to multiple requests for comment, appears to have ceded control to political appointees. The state’s top health official lost all influence after the April 13 briefing, says Rebekah Jones, a geographer who managed Florida’s coronavirus dashboard and whose firing in early May represented a scandal of its own. “It wasn’t a slow disappearance,” she told Yahoo News. “Right after that press conference,” she said, “he wasn’t in the picture.”

Others say he has been exasperated by political battles with the governor’s office. "We don't do anything unless the governor's office is involved," one current employee at the health department told Yahoo News. Rivkees, that employee said, has grown to dislike DeSantis. “He's got handcuffs.”

The result has been an unmitigated disaster, with Florida now home to more than half a million coronavirus cases and 10,000 COVID-19 deaths. And yet DeSantis continues to chart his own mystifying course, musing about how reopening schools is tantamount to killing Osama bin Laden.

At a recent visit to a Jacksonville nursing home, DeSantis told visitors to quite literally embrace their loved ones. “Hell, hug ’em,” he urged. “I think that you could do that,” he said, as long as people wore face masks — and didn’t sneeze. As he spoke, a poster urging social distancing loomed over his left shoulder. Not a single health department official contradicted him, because not a single health department official was there.

On Saturday, Feb. 29, a patient at a Sarasota hospital became Florida’s first confirmed coronavirus cases. Only nobody knew, because neither DeSantis nor Rivkees said a word. The following morning, a reporter for the Tampa Bay ABC affiliate called Sarasota County health officials, asking about the case. The reporter was told it was a hoax. State health department officials waited another 12 hours to confirm to that reporter that the news was, in fact, true.

The next morning, Rivkees spoke at a press conference with DeSantis, acknowledging that he and others had known for some 36 hours about the Sarasota case without telling anyone (there was another case in Hillsborough County, that of a woman who had travelled to Italy; it was also kept secret). Well-coiffed and in his 60s, Rivkees spoke calmly, even as reporters shouted questions about why the public had not been informed earlier. He is much taller than DeSantis, and much more at ease before cameras. Standing behind him, DeSantis looked like the lesser official.

Public health experts have never been under more public scrutiny than during the coronavirus pandemic. On the national level, Dr. Anthony Fauci has been widely celebrated for standing up to purveyors of misinformation, including President Trump. Others, like Dr. Mitchell Katz of New York City’s public hospital agency (a much closer adviser to the city’s mayor than his counterpart in the health department), have received harsh and justified criticism. In one of the pandemic’s more notorious misjudgments, Katz told the mayor that there was “no proof” that closures were effective and that broad immunity to the new virus would soon develop.

The mere fact that Rivkees was leading Florida’s coronavirus response was surprising and, in itself, a testament to DeSantis’s inattentive administration of the state bureaucracy. Just finding a state commissioner and health secretary proved a challenge for the 41-year-old governor, who had not been involved in state government before running for Florida’s highest office. After several months, DeSantis finally settled on Rivkees, a prominent physician at the University of Florida.

DeSantis claimed that the selection took so long because he had been performing “due diligence.” What that due diligence involved was unclear, but his appointment quickly led to details of Rivkees’s sometimes disconcerting professional history to resurface.

There were, for one, concerns about his temperament, with former colleagues describing him to the Tampa Bay Times as “hot-headed” and vindictive, more concerned with the business of medicine than medicine itself and unpleasant to work with.
Florida Surgeon General Scott Rivkees on May 6. (David Santiago/Miami Herald/TNS via Getty Images)

More troubling were allegations of sexually inappropriate behavior. Rivkees had been investigated by the University of Florida, where he arrived from Yale in 2012, for making sexually inappropriate comments. “If we can’t agree on this we’ll have to get naked in a hot tub and work it out,” he was reportedly fond of telling students. At a social gathering, he approached veterinary students and told them he and they “had something in common,” namely that “neither one of us can have sex with our patients.” (Rivkees is a pediatrician.)

The University of Florida also investigated Rivkees for potential conflicts of interest having to do with his consulting work in the private sector. In addition, he falsely claimed to have addressed the Nobel Committee for Physiology or Medicine.

Then there was his memoir of working as a resident at Massachusetts General Hospital. Published in 2014 and generally well reviewed, “Resident on Call” is rife with stories of doctors behaving badly, stealing drugs and having sex in the hospital. Rivkees’s own participation in the hospital’s fraternity-house-basement atmosphere appears to have been confined, in his telling, to a few romantic encounters, such as sneaking away to an older wing of the hospital for trysts with “a girl from New Jersey who flew in to help make my nights pass more quickly.”

DeSantis defended his choice of Rivkees, downplaying the University of Florida allegations by claiming that the nominee had been “dinged for making a comment or two.” He was so eager to have Rivkees join his administration that he allowed him to keep devoting 20 percent of his time to his work at the university.

A spokesperson for the University of Florida told Yahoo News that that arrangement remains in effect to this day.

On 9 September
Queen Elizabeth II will surpass her great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria's reign of 63 years and 216 days.