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Jackie Mason kept the borscht belt styleof comedy alive long after the Catskillsresorts had closed and took it, trium-phantly, to Broadway. PAGE 28

OBITUARIES 27-29

Kvetching for Comedy GoldEven as 609,000 Americans have died,the Delta variant surges and millions ofworkers are jobless, the tech industryhas managed to flourish. PAGE 1

SUNDAY BUSINESS

The Triumph of Big TechCharleston, S.C., is coming to terms withintensifying storms, a rising sea andstreets that flood with distressing regu-larity, often by lifting houses. PAGE 14

NATIONAL 14-22, 25

Saving Historic HomesIn 2015, the country pledged to grantcitizenship to people of Sephardic Jew-ish descent. Rejected applications be-gan pouring in this summer. PAGE 4

INTERNATIONAL 4-12

Feeling Betrayed by Spain Tom Zeller Jr. PAGE 4

SUNDAY REVIEW

CHICAGO — They acknowl-edged that they could haveshowed up months ago. Manywere satisfied that they were fi-nally doing the right thing. A fewgrumbled that they had littlechoice.

On a single day this past week,more than half a million peopleacross the United States trickledinto high school gymnasiums,pharmacies and buses convertedinto mobile clinics. Then theypushed up their sleeves and gottheir coronavirus vaccines.

These are the Americans whoare being vaccinated at this mo-ment in the pandemic: the reluc-tant, the anxious, the procrasti-nating.

In dozens of interviews onThursday in eight states, at vacci-nation clinics, drugstores andpop-up mobile sites, Americanswho had finally arrived for theirshots offered a snapshot of a na-tion at a crossroads — confrontinga new surge of the virus but onlyslowly embracing the vaccinesthat could stop it.

The people being vaccinatednow are not members of the eagercrowds who rushed to early ap-pointments. But they are not inthe group firmly opposed to vacci-nations, either.

Instead, they occupy a middleground: For months, they havebeen unwilling to receive a co-ronavirus vaccine, until some-

NOW VACCINATING:THOSE NOT EAGERBUT NOT OPPOSED

WAITING FOR RIGHT PUSH

Perks, Pressure and Fear of Variants Changing

Minds on the Shot

By JULIE BOSMAN

Duncan Beauchamp, 17, gothis Covid shot on Thursday.

CHRISTOPHER CAPOZZIELLO FOR THE N.Y.T.

Continued on Page 25

SAN FRANCISCO — The arti-cle that appeared online on Feb. 9began with a seemingly innocu-ous question about the legal defi-nition of vaccines. Then over itsnext 3,400 words, it declared co-ronavirus vaccines were “a medi-cal fraud” and said the injectionsdid not prevent infections, provideimmunity or stop transmission ofthe disease.

Instead, the article claimed, theshots “alter your genetic coding,turning you into a viral proteinfactory that has no off-switch.”

Its assertions were easily dis-provable. No matter. Over thenext few hours, the article wastranslated from English intoSpanish and Polish. It appearedon dozens of blogs and was pickedup by anti-vaccination activists,who repeated the false claims on-line. The article also made its wayto Facebook, where it reached400,000 people, according to datafrom CrowdTangle, a Facebook-owned tool.

The entire effort traced back toone person: Joseph Mercola.

Dr. Mercola, 67, an osteopathicphysician in Cape Coral, Fla., haslong been a subject of criticismand government regulatory ac-tions for his promotion of unprov-en or unapproved treatments. Butmost recently, he has become thechief spreader of coronavirus mis-information online, according toresearchers.

An internet-savvy entrepre-neur who employs dozens, Dr.Mercola has published over 600articles on Facebook that castdoubt on Covid-19 vaccines sincethe pandemic began, reaching afar larger audience than othervaccine skeptics, an analysis byThe New York Times found. Hisclaims have been widely echoedon Twitter, Instagram andYouTube.

The activity has earned Dr.Mercola, a natural health propo-nent with an Everyman demean-or, the dubious distinction of thetop spot in the “DisinformationDozen,” a list of 12 people respon-sible for sharing 65 percent of allanti-vaccine messaging on socialmedia, said the nonprofit Centerfor Countering Digital Hate. Oth-ers on the list include Robert F.Kennedy Jr., a longtime anti-vac-cine activist, and Erin Elizabeth,the founder of the website HealthNut News, who is also Dr. Merco-la’s girlfriend.

DisinformationIs Big BusinessFor One Doctor

Chief Online Spreader of Vaccine Doubts

By SHEERA FRENKEL

Continued on Page 16

BOSTON — Joseph Charnock,like many parents, drew a sigh ofrelief when he dropped his 12-year-old daughter off for an eight-week session at CampQuinebarge, on the shores of LakeWinnipesaukee in New Hamp-shire.

It worried him a little, in thedays that followed, when no sunlitpictures appeared on the camp’sFacebook page. Or when thecamp’s director, in a note to par-ents, confessed that “the last cou-ple of days have been a bit rough.”

But nothing prepared him forthe message he got five days later,announcing that staffing short-ages and delays in food deliveryhad made further operation im-possible.

“We are asking parents to pickup their campers tomorrow,” saida note signed by the camp’s direc-tor, Eric Carlson, and other admin-istrators.

When Mr. Charnock arrived atthe camp the next morning, hesaid he found the campers’ pos-sessions in a field, in a drenchingrain, and his daughter waiting in-side, crestfallen. He said Mr. Carl-son circulated among the parents,describing with frustration thenumber of counselors who hadwalked off the job.

The meltdown at CampQuinebarge is an extreme exam-ple of an industrywide problem, assummer camps reopen after co-

For Camps, Staffing ProblemsCan Mean Summer Ends Now

By ELLEN BARRY

Continued on Page 21

In the many months leading tothis summer, Simone Biles could-n’t wait for the Tokyo Olympics.

Not for them to start. For themto end.

The weight she carried as theface of the sport had become aburden. And the wear and tear onher body had become what shecalled “unreal,” with the pain inher ankles making every excruci-ating step a reminder of how un-forgiving gymnastics can be.

In a telephone interview abouta week before leaving for the To-kyo Games, she was asked toname the happiest moment of hercareer.

“Honestly, probably my timeoff,” she said.

Coming from the most deco-rated gymnast in history, a wom-an who revolutionized the sport, itwas a striking comment.

Five years ago, Biles did every-thing her sport and her countryasked her to. Sporting a red, whiteand blue bow in her hair, she

Unbowed, BilesKeeps on RisingFive Years Later

By JULIET MACUR

Simone Biles’s clout now reaches far beyond the balance beam.CHANG W. LEE/THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continued in Sports, Page 4

WASHINGTON — PresidentBiden has assembled the most ag-gressive antitrust team in dec-ades, stacking his administrationwith three legal crusaders as itprepares to take on corporate con-solidation and market power withefforts that could include blockingmergers and breaking up big com-panies.

Mr. Biden’s decision this pastweek to name Jonathan Kanter tolead the Justice Department’s an-titrust division is the latest sign ofhis willingness to clash with cor-porate America to promote morecompetition in the tech industryand across the economy. Mr. Kan-ter has spent years as a lawyerfighting behemoths like Facebookand Google on behalf of rival com-panies.

If confirmed by the Senate, hewill join Lina Khan, who helped re-frame the academic debate overantitrust and now leads the Fed-eral Trade Commission, and TimWu, a longtime proponent ofbreaking up Facebook and otherlarge companies who is now thespecial assistant to the presidentfor technology and competitionpolicy.

The appointments show boththe Democratic Party’s renewedantitrust activism and the Bidenadministration’s growing concernthat the concentration of power intechnology, as well as other indus-tries like pharmaceuticals, agri-culture, health care and finance,has hurt consumers and workersand stunted economic growth.

They also underscore that Mr.Biden is willing to use the power ofhis office and not wait for thetougher grind of congressional ac-tion, an approach that is both fast-er and potentially riskier. Thismonth, he issued an executive or-der stuffed with 72 initiativesmeant to stoke competition in avariety of industries, increasescrutiny of mergers and restrictthe widespread practice of forcingworkers to sign noncompeteagreements.

Outside groups and ideologicalallies of the administration warnthat if Mr. Biden hopes to truly fol-

Biden Brings InAntitrust Team

To Test Titans

By JIM TANKERSLEYand CECILIA KANG

Continued on Page 22

GBARAMATU, Nigeria —When the tide rose under the rick-ety wooden house-on-stilts ofOnitsha Joseph, a fisherwomanwho lives above the twistingrivers of the Niger Delta in south-ern Nigeria, it brought a slick ofcrude oil.

Before long, she saw dead fishfloating on oil inches thick, andfishing — her livelihood — be-came impossible. The fumes wereso strong at one point that Ms. Jo-seph fainted. She was rushed tothe hospital on a speedboat.

At first, she had no idea where itwas coming from. Then, out withsome other fisherwomen one dayin February, she said they spottedsomething bubbling up to theriver’s surface. Ms. Josephsteered her oil-blackened canoecloser.

Far below her snaked a pipe.

The American oil giant Chevronlaid that pipe 46 years before, ac-cording to many neighbors of Ms.Joseph who were there at thetime, and now, they said, it wasleaking.

So began a battle betweenChevron and hundreds of fisher-women in the Niger Delta.Chevron denies that oil wasspilling from its pipes. But thewomen insisted that this was justanother instance of oil companiesrefusing to take responsibility,and decided to take the fight to theoil company’s doors.

“You want to kill us with youroil,” Ms. Joseph said, growing

emotional. “We’ll come to you soyou can kill us yourselves. In per-son.”

Oil companies like Chevron,Shell and Eni have made billionsin profits in the vast Niger Deltaregion in the last decades. Butnow some are pulling out — andthey are leaving utter ruin in theirwake, according to governmentmonitors and environmental andhuman rights organizations. Thedelicate ecosystem of the NigerDelta, once teeming with plantand animal life, is today one of themost polluted places on the plan-et.

It is the women, who do most ofthe fishing in the creeks andmarshes in this part of the NigerDelta, who are trying to call the oilcompanies to account.

When they found the ominousbubbling, the fisherwomenalerted local leaders, who in-

Taking On Big Oil, and a Dirty Legacy, in NigeriaBy RUTH MACLEAN

Deborah Emiko, right, and her 18-year-old daughter, Mala Elizabeth, checking their fishing nets in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria.YAGAZIE EMEZI FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Livelihoods Imperiled,Fisherwomen Direct

Anger at Chevron

Continued on Page 10

Late Edition

VOL. CLXX . . . No. 59,130 © 2021 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, SUNDAY, JULY 25, 2021

Cézanne Drawing “the one to see this summer” —The Washington Post

“staggeringly beautiful” —The Wall Street Journal

Open 7 days a week1

Today, clouds and sunshine, humid,spotty thunderstorms late, high 85.Tonight, thunderstorms, low 72. To-morrow, warm, clearing, high 88.Weather map appears on Page 24.

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