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Coronavirus case counts are going to go up – but that doesn’t mean social distancing is a bust

Coronavirus case counts are going to go up – but that doesn’t mean social distancing is a bust

Empty parking lots show social distancing’s costs. It could take time to see its benefits. Pete Starman/The Image Bank via Getty Images By Abram Wagner, University of Michigan The last few weeks have brought previously unimaginable changes to the lives of people throughout the United States. Americans everywhere are waking up to a new reality in which they can’t go to work or school outside the home and they have to stay six feet away from others. More than 80%…

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Why wear face masks in public? Here’s what the research shows

Why wear face masks in public? Here’s what the research shows

People have resorted to using scarves and bandanas as face masks to protect against spreading coronavirus. While cloth masks aren’t as effective as surgical masks, research suggests they can limit the spread of droplets. Jens Schleuter/Getty Images By Hector Chapa, Texas A&M University With the coronavirus pandemic quickly spreading, U.S. health officials have changed their advice on face masks and now recommend people wear cloth masks in public areas where social distancing can be difficult, such as grocery stores. But…

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Coronavirus threatens survival of rural hospitals across the U.S. on the frontlines of crisis

Coronavirus threatens survival of rural hospitals across the U.S. on the frontlines of crisis

The Guardian reports: On Wednesday, Three Rivers, a small hospital in rural Washington, had exactly nine days left before it would run out of money to pay its staff and be forced to close. That same day, its CEO learned the hospital likely had its first coronavirus patient. The coronavirus pandemic has put a strain even on the wealthier parts of America’s vast, fragmented healthcare system: there are not enough beds, not enough ventilators, not enough protective equipment. But in…

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America’s pandemic war games don’t end well. Is this where we’re heading?

America’s pandemic war games don’t end well. Is this where we’re heading?

Mark Perry writes: On June 22, 2001, a group of well-known U.S. officials and a handful of senior policymakers gathered at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland for a senior-level exercise that simulated a biological weapons attack—an outbreak of deadly smallpox—on the United States. Designed by the Johns Hopkins Center for Civilian Biodefense Strategies (now called the Center for Health Security) and the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), the day-and-a-half-long “Dark Winter” simulation was conducted to gauge…

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Sanders’ ‘narrow path’ to victory gets even narrower

Sanders’ ‘narrow path’ to victory gets even narrower

Politico reports: Bernie Sanders insists he has a “narrow path” to the nomination. But he and his aides refuse to say what it is. A majority of the states and territories yet to vote rejected him in 2016. The national polls don’t offer much hope either — since Joe Biden defeated him in Arizona, Florida and Illinois on March 17, Sanders has trailed him by double-digits in every single national survey. Days before the Wisconsin primary — the last major…

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Why are we losing the wayfinding skills of our ancestors?

Why are we losing the wayfinding skills of our ancestors?

Michael Bond writes: On Dartmoor, in southwest England, search and rescue volunteers are regularly called out to look for people who have lost their way in the boundless wilderness. A significant proportion are Alzheimer’s patients who have wandered away from one of the many care homes on the fringes of the moor. The volunteers have noticed that Alzheimer’s patients move in a particular way across the open spaces: usually in a straight line. So resolutely do they stick to their…

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The U.S. was beset by denial and dysfunction as the coronavirus raged

The U.S. was beset by denial and dysfunction as the coronavirus raged

The Washington Post reports: By the time Donald Trump proclaimed himself a wartime president — and the coronavirus the enemy — the United States was already on course to see more of its people die than in the wars of Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq combined. The country has adopted an array of wartime measures never employed collectively in U.S. history — banning incoming travelers from two continents, bringing commerce to a near-halt, enlisting industry to make emergency medical gear,…

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‘Trump is killing his own supporters’ – even White House insiders know it

‘Trump is killing his own supporters’ – even White House insiders know it

Lloyd Green writes: On Sunday, initially at least, there was no White House briefing on the president’s public schedule. But the bad news kept coming. Coronavirus deaths continued to climb and reports of the heartland being unprepared for what may be on its horizon continued to ricochet around the media. In the words of one administration insider, to the Guardian: “The Trump organism is simply collapsing. He’s killing his own supporters.” Members of the national guard, emergency workers, rank-and-file Americans:…

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Official counts understate the actual coronavirus death toll

Official counts understate the actual coronavirus death toll

The New York Times reports: A coroner in Indiana wanted to know if the coronavirus had killed a man in early March, but said that her health department denied a test. Paramedics in New York City say that many patients who died at home were never tested for the coronavirus, even if they showed telltale signs of infection. In Virginia, a funeral director prepared the remains of three people after health workers cautioned her that they each had tested positive…

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George W. Bush in 2005: ‘If we wait for a pandemic to appear, it will be too late to prepare’

George W. Bush in 2005: ‘If we wait for a pandemic to appear, it will be too late to prepare’

  ABC News reports: In the summer of 2005, President George W. Bush was on vacation at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, when he began flipping through an advance reading copy of a new book about the 1918 flu pandemic. He couldn’t put it down. When he returned to Washington, he called his top homeland security adviser into the Oval Office and gave her the galley of historian John M. Barry’s “The Great Influenza,” which told the chilling tale of…

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Americans hit by economic shocks as confusion, stumbles undermine Trump’s stimulus effort

Americans hit by economic shocks as confusion, stumbles undermine Trump’s stimulus effort

The Washington Post reports: The Trump administration has stumbled in its initial push to implement the $2 trillion coronavirus aid package, with confusion and fear mounting among small businesses, workers and the newly unemployed since the bill was signed into law late last month. Small-business owners have reported delays in getting approved for loans without which they will close their doors, while others say they have been denied altogether by their lenders and do not understand why. The law’s provision…

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U.S. ‘wasted’ months before preparing for virus pandemic

U.S. ‘wasted’ months before preparing for virus pandemic

The Associated Press reports: As the first alarms sounded in early January that an outbreak of a novel coronavirus in China might ignite a global pandemic, the Trump administration squandered nearly two months that could have been used to bolster the federal stockpile of critically needed medical supplies and equipment. A review of federal purchasing contracts by The Associated Press shows federal agencies largely waited until mid-March to begin placing bulk orders of N95 respirator masks, mechanical ventilators and other…

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There is a collective spirit woven through this crisis

There is a collective spirit woven through this crisis

John Harris writes: Last week, Boris Johnson stood on a set of stairs inside 10 Downing Street and spoke into a smartphone camera. Towards the end of a two-and-half minute monologue about Covid-19 and the national response to it, he said something striking: “One thing I think [the] coronavirus crisis has already proved is that there really is such a thing as society.” The words, if anyone missed the reference, were an allusion to an infamous few sentences from Margaret…

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The countries that are succeeding at flattening the curve

The countries that are succeeding at flattening the curve

Foreign Policy reports: The United States is now an epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, with epidemiological models publicized on Tuesday suggesting the disease could infect millions of Americans in the coming months, killing between 100,000 and 240,000. Hospitals in the state of New York, where there are more than 75,000 confirmed cases, are already overwhelmed and experiencing shortages of critical medical equipment such as ventilators and protective gear. The grim projections indicate that the virus has not reached its peak…

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