Vaccine, Hydroxychloroquine, W.H.O.: Your Monday Evening Briefing

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Good evening. Here’s the latest.

The findings are encouraging but do not prove that the vaccine works. Only larger, longer studies can determine whether it can prevent people in the real world from getting sick. But the drugmaker Moderna will begin testing 600 people soon, and thousands more starting in July.

The development — along with the signals from the Federal Reserve chair that the central bank has more firepower to lend to recovery efforts — pushed Wall Street to its best day in about six weeks.

Vaccines are seen as the best and perhaps only hope of stopping or even slowing a pandemic that has sickened nearly five million people worldwide, killed 315,000 and locked down entire countries.

2. President Trump is taking hydroxychloroquine.

Mr. Trump said he has been on the antimalarial drug, whose effectiveness against the coronavirus is unproven, for about a week and a half as a preventive measure, adding that he has no symptoms of Covid-19.

The outbreak spread to the White House this month, where two members of the staff — one of the president’s personal valets and the spokeswoman for Vice President Mike Pence — tested positive.

At the same meeting, the U.S. secretary of Health and Human Services sharply criticized the W.H.O. “There was a failure by this organization to obtain the information that the world needed, and that failure cost many lives,” Alex Azar said in a prepared video.

Mr. Trump has cut U.S. funding to the global health agency, accusing it of promoting disinformation from China about the outbreak. The W.H.O. director general said the agency would review “lessons learned” about its global response.

4. More than two-thirds of states have relaxed restrictions in a significant way.

Office workers in Texas can now return to work in limited capacities, despite the state’s reporting its deadliest day yet last week — 58 deaths from Wednesday to Thursday — and 1,801 new infections on Saturday.

And in Michigan, thousands of autoworkers began going back to work, and retail businesses, bars and restaurants with limited seating could reopen in certain regions.

Our interactive graphic (above) is keeping track of reopenings. And a new index created for The Times shows which U.S. counties have high rates of the underlying conditions that increase residents’ risk of becoming severely ill if they are infected with the coronavirus.

5. Investigating the State Department watchdog’s dismissal.

The inspector general dismissed by President Trump was examining more than just the potential misuse by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo of a political appointee to do personal errands for him and his wife.

“Another reason” for the firing of Steve Linick, according to the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, may be his investigation of U.S. weapons sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates for their war in Yemen. Above, a building destroyed in March by a Saudi airstrike in Sanaa.

“They’re not used to seeing a lot of black faces around here,” one black resident of Satilla Shores, Ga., said about his neighbors.

We asked readers about their experiences “running while black.” Some of their comments: “I was verbally assaulted by a white man while on a morning run.” “Every single time I step out my door to run alone, I create a what-if checklist.” “Even in my own neighborhood, I fear.”

7. Is Ronan Farrow too good to be true?

The New Yorker’s marquee reporter has delivered stunning stories of lasting impact, especially his revelations about powerful men who preyed on young women in Hollywood, television and politics, which won him a Pulitzer Prize.

Mr. Farrow’s work, he concludes, reveals that in the journalism that has thrived in the age of Donald Trump, the old rules of fairness and open-mindedness don’t always apply.

8. Why did the frog cross the road?

On warm, wet spring nights, frogs and salamanders emerge from hibernation and head for vernal pools to mate, but they often end up run over by a car along the way. Scientists say that even moderate traffic at the wrong time can wipe out entire populations in a few years.

This year, the migrations in the northeastern U.S. coincide with a drop in vehicular traffic during the pandemic, and scientists are eager to measure the impact of human activity on the amphibians. Above, a spotted salamander.

Less welcome is the Argentine black and white tegu, an invasive lizard species from South America that can grow up to four feet long. Wildlife officials say tegus have now migrated from Florida to Georgia, where they are a threat to native creatures.

9. The joy of [blank].

These are not, on the surface, joyful times. Which is why you deserve some relief.

Here are 14 writers on ways they are getting through the pandemic, and even finding joy. including “The Joy of Consuming an Obscene Number of Calories Before Noon,” “The Joy of Deleting My Many Mediocre Photos” and “The Joy of Circling the Block.”

10. And finally, rooms by the hour. It’s not what you think.

A daytime, by-the-hour version of Airbnb is offering a reprieve to all of us who are really annoyed with the people we are stuck with at home during the pandemic.

The company behind the app Globe says it has more than 100,000 people on a wait list for a very-short-term stay at empty apartments (disinfected) in the cities it serves. Some want a quiet place for a video meeting or work phone call.

Others just need a chill space. An entrepreneur in Miami Beach spent $75 for an hour and a half to get a break from his roommate/cousin.

Have an unfettered evening.