Monica Maggioni writes: Before the virus came, I was living in my usual, hectic way, going back and forth from Milan to Rome for work. As such, I turned a blind eye to the worrying news coming from China. Even the onset of contagion in the Codogno area near Milan was, to me, just another news story. So when the virus came close, I was surprised to discover that hard choices had to be made — and fast. The first:…
Larry Elliott writes: The Italian government’s decision to suspend mortgage payments for its quarantined citizens is a drastic step in the battle to mitigate the impact of the coronavirus, but commensurate with the predicament the country finds itself in. Italy is the eurozone’s weak link. Even before the current lockdown it was facing a fourth recession in little more than a decade and there has been only minimal growth in living standards in two decades. Its manufacturing sector is dominated…
By Jeremy Rossman, University of Kent The UK government recently enacted its second phase of response to the COVID-19 pandemic: “delay”. According to ITV journalist Robert Peston, the government’s strategy to minimise the impact of COVID-19 “is to allow the virus to pass through the entire population so that we acquire herd immunity, but at a much delayed speed so that those who suffer the most acute symptoms are able to receive the medical support they need, and such that…
Politico reports: Financial markets are careening. Public tours of the very symbols of American political power — the White House, Capitol Hill and Supreme Court — are being put on hold while some congressional offices are shuttering altogether. Campaign rallies are being canceled. Professional sports leagues have suspended play. And Broadway is shutting down. Each day, more and more employees are working remotely at companies large and small. Even the White House is considering mass teleworking. Schools are being closed…
The Daily Beast reports: President Donald Trump’s Oval Office address Wednesday evening was supposed to calm concerns about the spread of the coronavirus. Instead, it sparked panic and confusion. Not just among the markets, U.S. travelers, and international leaders but within his own administration, as well. Two officials in the U.S. State Department told The Daily Beast that foreign service officers and diplomats were unprepared for the president’s announcement and spent the early hours of Thursday scrambling to figure out…
David Frum writes: At every turn, President Trump’s policy regarding coronavirus has unfolded as if guided by one rule: How can I make this crisis worse? Presidents are not all-powerful, especially not in the case of pandemic disease. There are limits to what they can do, for good or ill. But within those limits, at every juncture, Trump’s actions have ensured the worst possible outcomes. The worst outcome for public health. The worst outcome for the American economy. The worst…
The Guardian reports: Many coronavirus infections may be spread by people who have recently caught the virus and have not yet begun to show symptoms, scientists have found. An analysis of infections in Singapore and Tianjin in China revealed that two-thirds and three-quarters of people respectively appear to have caught it from others who were incubating the virus but still symptom-free. The finding has dismayed infectious disease researchers as it means that isolating people once they start to feel ill…
Politico reports: President Donald Trump’s new European travel restrictions have a convenient side effect: They exempt nations where three Trump-owned golf resorts are located. Trump is already under fire for visiting his properties in both countries as president, leading to U.S. taxpayer money being spent at his own firms. The president has been saddled with lawsuits and investigations throughout his term alleging that he’s violating the Constitution’s emoluments clause by accepting taxpayer money other than his salary. The U.S. government…
The Guardian reports: Up to 10,000 people may already have coronavirus in Britain and many families should expect to lose loved ones before their time, Boris Johnson warned on Thursday as he set out measures less stringent than those taken by other countries. Medical, scientific and public health experts criticised the steps outlined to tackle what the prime minister described as the “worst public health crisis for a generation”, including ending school trips abroad, stopping older and vulnerable people taking…
The Guardian reports: The EU has condemned Donald Trump’s unilateral ban on travel from 26 European countries as urgent efforts to contain the rapid spread of the coronavirus pandemic continued to upend daily life for millions of people around the world. Ireland, Austria, Turkey and Norway on Thursday joined the growing list of countries to close all schools, universities and kindergartens, while Italy – by far the hardest-hit European nation – said its death tally rose to 1,016 from 827,…
Who knows what this means, but it sounds good to me! https://t.co/rQVA4ER0PV — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 8, 2020 Politico reports: President Donald Trump is reluctant to declare an expansive emergency to combat the escalating coronavirus outbreak, fearful of stoking panic with such a dramatic step, according to three people familiar with the situation. Instead, the president is expected to sign within days a more limited designation to allow the federal government to cover small business loans, paychecks for…
Reuters reports: The White House has ordered federal health officials to treat top-level coronavirus meetings as classified, an unusual step that has restricted information and hampered the U.S. government’s response to the contagion, according to four Trump administration officials. The officials said that dozens of classified discussions about such topics as the scope of infections, quarantines and travel restrictions have been held since mid-January in a high-security meeting room at the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), a key…
Dali L. Yang writes: Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province, was getting ready in early January for the Jan. 6-17 “two sessions,” where local and provincial leaders would gather to discuss the state of affairs at the local/provincial levels. These sessions take place annually throughout China, and authorities mobilize stability maintenance systems to get rid of troublemakers and forestall protests. Local authorities are also motivated by the desire to hide undesirable developments from Beijing. When experts from Beijing arrived to…
The New York Times reports: Dr. Helen Y. Chu, an infectious disease expert in Seattle, knew that the United States did not have much time. In late January, the first confirmed American case of the coronavirus had landed in her area. Critical questions needed answers: Had the man infected anyone else? Was the deadly virus already lurking in other communities and spreading? As luck would have it, Dr. Chu had a way to monitor the region. For months, as part…
Liz Specht writes: Much of the current discourse on — and dismissal of — the Covid-19 outbreak focuses on comparisons of the total case load and total deaths with those caused by seasonal influenza. But these comparisons can be deceiving, especially in the early stages of an exponential curve as a novel virus tears through an immunologically naïve population. Perhaps more important is the disproportionate number of severe Covid-19 cases, many requiring hospitalization or weekslong ICU stays. What does an…
Tom Bossert, Donald Trump’s former homeland security adviser, writes: School closures, isolation of the sick, home quarantines of those who have come into contact with the sick, social distancing, telework and large-gathering cancellations must be implemented before the spread of the disease in any community reaches 1 percent. After that, science tells us, these interventions become far less effective. Simply put, as evidence of human-to-human transmission becomes clear in a community, officials must pull the trigger on aggressive interventions. Time…