At Slurp Slurp Noodles, tourists were not filling the usual tables for lunch, a waitress said. A school crossing guard had stashed a face mask in her pocket, ready to slip it on when her nerves began to fray. Most Americans have gone about their lives, confident that they have little to fear from an epidemic that has mostly been felt abroad. Hundreds of Americans who were in China are now marooned in anxious quarantine on military bases. And many Asian-Americans in the United States have felt an unnerving public scrutiny, noticing that a simple cough or sneeze can send people around them scattering.

Source: International New York Times February 16, 2020 18:00 UTC