The debate over face masks during the pandemic sounds a lot like the arguments over seatbelts in the 1980s. We look back at the fight over the balance between individual and public interests. nyti.ms/37dFUMX
Many of the arguments in the debates over seatbelts and masks — they’re uncomfortable or an imposition on personal liberty — reflect similar matters of health and safety, including vaccinations and helmet laws. nyti.ms/37dFUMX
Seatbelts and helmets are mostly meant to protect an individual, while vaccinations and face masks are also intended to prevent harm from spreading to others. nyti.ms/37dFUMX
Seatbelts saved nearly 15,000 lives of people ages 5 and older in 2018, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. But just as wearing a mask cannot guarantee protection from infection, seatbelts are not foolproof. nyti.ms/37dFUMX
Legislative records, government reports and interviews show how the efforts to draft seatbelt laws have pitted grim fatality statistics against personal complaints about comfort, freedom and efficiency — much like the debate over masks. nyti.ms/37dFUMX
Read more about the decades-long debate over seatbelts by @christineNYT, and how the fight resembles the current discussion about masks during the pandemic. nyti.ms/37dFUMX

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More from @nytimes

16 Oct
Roughly a quarter of the Pantanal wetland in Brazil, which regulates the water cycle upon which life depends in the region, has burned in wildfires worsened by climate change this year. nyti.ms/2IAbp9O
The wetland, which is larger than Greece, is one of the most biodiverse places on Earth.

Its swamps, lagoons and tributaries purify water, help prevent floods and droughts, and also store untold amounts of carbon, helping to stabilize the climate. Image
Ranchers have used fire to clear fields and new land for centuries. But this year, drought worsened by climate change turned the wetlands into a tinderbox and the fires raged out of control. Image
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16 Oct
The coronavirus has caught up with the premier conference in college football, the SEC: Alabama Coach Nick Saban tested positive for the virus days before his No. 2 Crimson Tide team was scheduled to play No. 3 Georgia on Saturday. nyti.ms/3lTaMXf
“Even with infection hitting its most famous coach, the mind-set of the college game’s most vigorous enablers has not altered,” our columnist @kurtstreeter writes after Alabama’s Coach Nick Saban tested positive. The response has been, “Let’s keep going.” nyti.ms/3lS4yH1
More than 30 college games involving Football Bowl Subdivision teams have been postponed or canceled for virus-related reasons, and hundreds of players, coaches and staff members nationwide have tested positive for the coronavirus in recent months. nyti.ms/3nWg1qX Image
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16 Oct
A team of New York Times journalists is fact-checking President Trump and Joe Biden’s dueling town halls tonight.

Follow along live, and find more context and analysis here. nyti.ms/3j2h1WV
While it is true that people are leaving New York City amid the pandemic, President Trump's assertion that it can't be built up again lacks evidence.

We're following both town halls tonight. See all of our fact checks here. nyti.ms/3j2h1WV Image
President Trump said he denounced white supremacy in the first debate, but this is misleading. He said he was willing to, but did not say it.

We're following both town halls tonight. See all of our fact checks here. nyti.ms/3j2h1WV Image
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15 Oct
Is the U.S. heading for its third coronavirus peak?

After growth of the pandemic slowed in late summer, the daily count of new cases has been rising steadily since mid-September. nyti.ms/350PoZ9
Hospitals have been filling up again and rural areas are seeing staggering outbreaks.

Epidemiologists worry that the new peak could be the highest yet as colder temperatures will force people indoors where the virus thrives. nyti.ms/350PoZ9
The rise in cases has been especially profound in the Midwest and Mountain West.

Those regions are home to almost all of the metro areas with the country’s worst outbreaks right now. nyti.ms/350PoZ9
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14 Oct
Joe Biden’s online fund-raising had slowed in early September 2019 to such a trickle that he raised just $24,124.17 online in a day.

About a year later, he was raising more than that every two minutes.

Here’s our analysis of that transformation. nyti.ms/2InnsqK
We found four crucial inflection points in Biden’s fund-raising:
— President Trump’s call for Ukraine to investigate Biden’s son
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A deputy campaign manager for Biden said that Trump’s seeking help from Ukraine “made it clear to the whole world which candidate he feared facing most.”

In the 40 days that followed the Ukraine news, online contributions to Biden’s campaign more than doubled. Image
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14 Oct
When 18 year-old Kamala Harris arrived at Howard University in 1982, she was taken in by the historically Black campus’s vibrant social activism. By the time she graduated, Harris had embraced the value of shaping political decisions from the inside. nyti.ms/3drbAzp
As a campus leader and member of the Howard debate team, Kamala Harris had a reputation for academic intensity and a sense of style to match — neatly pressed slacks, dress shoes and a “Snatch Back” haircut that was the rage in the early 1980s. nyti.ms/3drbAzp
Friends say Kamala Harris was popular and comfortable in her own skin at Howard, which was the hub of Washington, DC’s Black political elite in the 1980s. “We were cute and free and independent in the big city,” one of Harris’s classmates said. nyti.ms/3drbAzp
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