ON $2,000 CHECKS OBSTRUCTS A VOTE SENATE S LEADERDec 30, 2020  · C M Y K x,2020-12-30,A,001,Bsx Nx...

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Pierre Cardin, the visionary de-signer who clothed the elite butalso transformed the business offashion, reaching the masses byaffixing his name to an outpouringof merchandise ranging from off-the-rack apparel to bath towels,died on Tuesday in Neuilly-sur-Seine, just outside Paris. He was98.

His death, at the American Hos-pital there, was confirmed by theFrench Academy of Fine Arts. Nocause was given.

“Fashion is not enough,” Mr.Cardin once told Eugenia Shep-pard, the American newspapercolumnist and fashion critic. “Idon’t want to be just a designer.”

He was never just that. Hedressed the famous — artists, po-litical luminaries, tastemakersand members of the haute bour-geoisie — but he was also a licens-ing pioneer, a merchant to the gen-eral public with his name on a cor-nucopia of products, none too ex-alted or too humble to escape hisavid eye.

There were bubble dresses andaviator jumpsuits, fragrances andautomobiles, ashtrays and evenpickle jars. Planting his flag on theRue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré inParis, he proceeded to turn thecountry’s fashion establishmenton its head, reproducing fashionsfor mass, ready-to-wear con-sumption and dealing a blow tothe elitism that had governed theParisian couture.

In a career of more than three-quarters of a century, Mr. Cardinremained a futurist. “He had this

Futuristic Designer for the Famous, and a Merchant to the MassesBy RUTH LA FERLA

PIERRE CARDIN, 1922-2020

Pierre Cardin, in 1979, had a global empire. “I was born an artiste, but I am a businessman,” he said.KEYSTONE, VIA GETTY IMAGES

Continued on Page A18

WASHINGTON — President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. on Tues-day criticized the speed of vaccinedistribution under the Trump ad-ministration and promised to stepup the pace when he takes office,while delivering a sober warningabout the toll of the coronaviruspandemic.

Mr. Biden offered a bleak as-sessment of the months ahead,saying they would be “a verytough period for our nation,” andhe exhorted Americans to makethe sacrifices necessary to over-come the devastation of the virus.

“It’s going to take all the gritand determination we have asAmericans to get it done,” he said.

He warned that if the currentpace of administering vaccinesunder President Trump contin-ued, “it’s going to take years, notmonths,” to vaccinate the nation.And he said he had directed histeam to prepare a more ag-gressive effort once he takes officein three weeks, pledging “to moveheaven and earth to get us goingin the right direction.”

“This is going to be the greatestoperational challenge we’ve everfaced as a nation,” Mr. Biden said

Biden RebukesTrump on PaceOf Inoculation

By THOMAS KAPLANand REBECCA ROBBINS

Continued on Page A16

A Black New Jersey man is suing theauthorities after being falsely accusedof crimes and spending 10 days in jailbecause of a flawed match. PAGE B1

BUSINESS B1-6

A Facial Recognition FailureIn the grip of the pandemic, the city hadhuge increases in homicides and shoot-ings while some other types of crimeplummeted. PAGE A13

NATIONAL A12-17

A Violent Year in New York

Our critics look back at 26 restaurantsthat ceased operations during 2020.Above, delicacies at Mission ChineseFood in Manhattan. PAGE D5

FOOD D1-12

The Kitchen Is ClosedBeing Black kept K. C. Jones from beingfully appreciated as an N.B.A. coach,Harvey Araton writes. PAGE B7

SPORTSWEDNESDAY B7-10

Two Titles and Little CreditMexico’s brutal traffickers wereknocked sideways by the pandemic. Butthen they got creative. PAGE A9

INTERNATIONAL A9-11

How Drug Cartels Adapted Online classes can be especially chal-lenging for the 142,000 children in NewYork City who are learning English as anew language. PAGE A12

The Loss of a Language

Deep in the recent relief measure islong-sought national regulation of horseracing, Joe Drape writes. PAGE B8

Heeding Call for Racing Reform

Jeff Koons has entered the classroom at65, signing on as a MasterClass instruc-tor. An art critic tuned in to glean someof the master’s magic. PAGE C1

ARTS C1-6

The Artist as Teacher

WASHINGTON — SenatorMitch McConnell blocked an at-tempt by Democrats on Tuesdayto hold an immediate vote on in-creasing stimulus checks to$2,000 from $600, leaving the fateof the measure unclear as Presi-dent Trump continued to demandthe larger payouts and more Re-publicans publicly endorsed theidea.

Instead, Mr. McConnell, Repub-lican of Kentucky and the majorityleader, provided vague assur-ances that the Senate would “be-gin the process” of discussing$2,000 checks and two other is-sues that Mr. Trump has de-manded lawmakers address:election security and removing le-gal protections for social mediaplatforms.

Mr. McConnell would not saywhether he planned separatevotes on the three issues or if hewould bring them for a vote on theSenate floor at all. But in a sign ofhow he might approach them, themajority leader introduced newlegislation on Tuesday afternooncombining the $2,000 checks,election security and social mediaprovisions into one bill, whichwould most likely doom the effort.

The sudden talk of election se-curity complicates matters, giventhat Mr. Trump continues to claim,without evidence, that voter fraudcost him re-election. Democratswould undoubtedly resist any-thing that could be seen as tryingto undermine the outcome of theelection.

Mr. McConnell, who has pri-vately urged his conference mem-bers not to object to the electionresults when Congress meets onJan. 6 to ratify them, portrayedthe president’s request as “explor-ing further ways to protect thesanctity of American ballots.” Thebill that Mr. McConnell is puttingtogether would create a biparti-san commission to study electionpractices that “strengthened” andthat “undermined the integrity ofthe election,” like the use of mail-in ballots and vote-by-mail pro-cedures, which Mr. Trump hasbaselessly complained encour-aged voter fraud.

Mr. McConnell’s move came ashe faced growing pressure fromRepublicans to increase stimuluspayments to struggling Ameri-cans.

SENATE’S LEADEROBSTRUCTS A VOTEON $2,000 CHECKS

G.O.P. PRESSURE BUILDS

Fate of Proposal RemainsUnclear as McConnell

Offers Own Bill

By CATIE EDMONDSON

Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, on Tuesday. Republicans who oppose $2,000 checks risk President Trump’s fury.AL DRAGO FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continued on Page A7

THE VARIANT Colorado confirmeda case of the virus mutation thathas alarmed Britain. PAGE A7

Hospitals all over China have al-most everything necessary for amass vaccination drive: Millionsof doses. Refrigerators to storethem. Health care workerstrained to administer them.

Everything, that is, exceptproof that any of their vaccineswork.

Unlike their Western competi-tors, the Chinese companies havenot disclosed data from late-stageclinical trials that would showwhether their vaccines are effec-tive, and regulators in China havenot officially approved them.

That has not deterred local gov-ernments across the country,which have begun an ambitiousvaccination campaign. The goal isto inoculate 50 million people —roughly the population of Co-lombia — by the middle of Febru-ary, before the Lunar New Yearholiday, when hundreds of mil-lions are expected to travel.

China, where the virus firstemerged a year ago, is going togreat — and scientifically unor-thodox — lengths to prevent a re-surgence of the outbreak. WhileBeijing has not officially an-nounced the vaccine target, thegovernment has signaled the roll-out will be managed in much thesame way as the outbreak,through a top-down approach thatcan mobilize thousands of work-ers to produce, ship and adminis-ter the shots. Local officials weretold that the drive was a “politicalmission.”

The campaign will focus onwhat China calls “key prioritygroups,” including doctors, hotelemployees, border inspection per-

Chinese Goal:Quick VaccineFor 50 Million

Questions of Safety ina ‘Political Mission’

By SUI-LEE WEE

Continued on Page A8

The routine things in ChrisLong’s life used to include biking30 miles three times a week andtaking courses toward a Ph.D. ineight-week sessions.

But since getting sick with thecoronavirus in March, Mr. Long,54, has fallen into a distressingnew cycle — one that so far haslanded him in the hospital seventimes.

Periodically since his initialfive-day hospitalization, his lungsbegin filling again; he startscoughing uncontrollably and runsa low fever. Roughly 18 days later,he spews up greenish-yellow flu-id, signaling yet another bout of

pneumonia.Soon, his oxygen levels drop

and his heart rate accelerates tocompensate, sending him to a hos-pital near his home in Clarkston,Mich., for several days, some-times in intensive care.

“This will never go away,” hesaid, describing his worst fear.“This will be my going-forward forthe foreseeable future.”

Nearly a year into the pan-

demic, it’s clear that recoveringfrom Covid-19’s initial onslaughtcan be an arduous, uneven jour-ney. Now, studies reveal that a sig-nificant subset of patients are hav-ing to return to hospitals, some-times repeatedly, with complica-tions triggered by the disease orby the body’s efforts to defeat thevirus.

Even as vaccines give hope forstopping the spread of the virus,the surge of new cases portendsrepeated hospitalizations formore patients, taxing medical re-sources and turning some peo-ple’s path to recovery into a Sisy-phean odyssey that upends theirlives.

In the Hospital for Covid, for the Seventh TimeBy PAM BELLUCK Fighting to Recover and

Fearing ‘This WillNever Go Away’

Continued on Page A8

Michelle Cottle PAGE A20EDITORIAL, OP-ED A20-21

The Louisville police officerwho fired the shot that killed Bre-onna Taylor, a Black emergencyroom technician whose death setoff a wave of protests on Americanstreets, was told on Tuesday thatthe department was moving tooust him from the force, as was asecond officer who obtained ajudge’s approval for the poorlyplanned nighttime raid on herhome.

The move is the most signifi-cant acknowledgment by the de-partment that its officers hadcommitted serious violationswhen they burst through Ms. Tay-lor’s door late one night in March,encountered gunfire, and thenfired a volley of shots at her andher boyfriend. The terminationsmark an effort by the city’s inter-im police chief, Yvette Gentry, to

achieve the reckoning she prom-ised when she came out of retire-ment to lead the troubled depart-ment into the beginning of thenew year.

Lawyers for Detective MylesCosgrove, one of the officers whoshot Ms. Taylor, and DetectiveJoshua Jaynes, who prepared thesearch warrant for the raid, saideach had received notices of ter-mination. Both have been on ad-ministrative reassignment as theinvestigations have been under-way.

Until now, the only officer heldaccountable in the case had beenBrett Hankison, a detective, whowas fired in June for violating thedepartment’s deadly force policyby shooting off 10 rounds from out-side the apartment through two of

Louisville to Fire Two DetectivesOver the Raid That Killed Taylor

By NICHOLAS BOGEL-BURROUGHS

Continued on Page A17

The Nashville blast disrupted 911 callcenters, hospital communications andcell service in several states, highlight-ing a structural weakness. PAGE A13

Vulnerable Connections

The prime minister has vowed to re-place the E.U. program, but alumni saythe move is shortsighted. PAGE A11

U.K. Exits Student Exchange

Late Edition

VOL. CLXX . . . No. 58,923 © 2020 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2020

Today, partly sunny, seasonablychilly, high 40. Tonight, increasingclouds, showers late, low 37. Tomor-row, morning rain, cloudy, milder,high 48. Weather map, Page B10.

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