The media’s biggest mistake in coronavirus coverage is the extent to which coverage has focused on President Donald J. Trump. “If every major TV network had been running some public service announcements for past two months we would have a well informed & prepared public.” Read more.
On March 26, CNN reported that US agencies now consider the intentional spread of SARS-CoV-2 by extremist groups to be a growing threat in the United States. Richard Pilch, director of the Chemical and Biological Weapons Nonproliferation Program at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, writes about an assessment of the risk and why he thinks the threat can’t be ignored. Read more.
Until recently, the United States was considered the essential linchpin in the world’s efforts to monitor incipient outbreaks and limit their spread. The US failure in dealing with COVID-19 domestically is therefore reflective of a larger problem—the erosion of the international infrastructure for dealing with major global threats in general. Bulletin editor John Mecklin writes about how this is far larger than the current pandemic. Read more.
With the US facing a dangerous shortage of ventilators, President Trump on Friday invoked the Defense Production Act to compel General Motors to manufacture the essential device. But Ivan Oelrich, who once analyzed military manufacturing for the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment, thinks there are problems with sourcing carmakers for what others could do better. Read more.
For millions of families, it may already feel like they’ve been trapped at home for years. The prospect of many more weeks of social distancing to thwart the spread of coronavirus boggles the mind–now try being one of the more than 300 million kids living through this. Read more.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“US citizens also have a role to play…Unity does not require that citizens cheerlead an incompetent governmental response to a lethal disease.”
limitless life 