The Superspreader Event That Led to a Quarter-Million COVID-19 Cases

Plus: William Barr’s Trumpian legacy; the best fiction of 2020; and Bill Buford’s recipe for steak tartare. View in browser | Update your preferences Our Columnists Reconstructing a Pandemic Researchers estimate that a biotech conference in February led to hundreds of thousands of infections. What can that teach us about the spread of COVID-19? By Benjamin Wallace-Wells Medical Dispatch How Getting Vaccinated Will (and Won’t) Change My Behavior The shot will make me less worried about getting the virus—but I’ll still fear passing it on to others. By Dhruv Khullar Daily Comment William Barr Is Going, But His Trumpian Legacy Remains The Attorney General showed a dangerous willingness to act in a nakedly partisan manner. By David Rohde Photo Booth The Photographer Who Set Out to Watch Herself Age Nancy Floyd began taking a self-portrait each morning in 1982 and sustained the practice on and off for nearly four decades. By Johanna Fateman Culture and More 2020 in Review My Favorite Fiction of 2020 Our book critic takes in the year. By Katy Waldman Kitchen Notes How to Make a Classic Bistro-Style Steak Tartare at Home Most of us know it as a restaurant meal. But making it yourself involves zero cooking. By Bill Buford Postscript The Electrifying Moves of Ann Reinking She was the kind of sexy you read about in the Bible. By Julie Klausner Humor from The New Yorker 2020 in Review A Sampling of the Best Shouts of 2020 There’s been a lot of laugh-crying ’round these parts. Thanks to the ever-adaptive minds of the super-funny, it was not just permanent cry-crying. By Emma Allen Daily Shouts 2020 Gift Guide: Something for Everyone on Your List! You know that thing from “Men in Black” that you wave in front of people’s faces, and it makes them forget what happened? By Claire Friedman Daily Cartoon Thursday, December 17th By Liza Donnelly and Carl Kissin This e-mail was sent to you by The New Yorker. To insure delivery, we recommend adding newyorker@newsletters.newyorker.com, to your contacts, while noting that it is a no-reply address. Please send all newsletter feedback to tnyinbox@newyorker.com. For more from The New Yorker, sign up for our newsletters, shop the store, and sign in to newyorker.com, where subscribers always have unlimited access. Contact us with questions. View our Privacy Policy Unsubscribe Copyright © Condé Nast 2020. One World Trade Center, New York, NY 10007. All rights reserved.