Two opinion pieces this morning tell you all you need to know about our battle with the coronavirus

There were two opinion pieces in the Washington Post this morning that seem to me to perfectly summarize the position we’re in with respect to the novel coronavirus at this point (spoiler alert: it isn’t good).

·        This piece by Eugene Robinson (who is really good, in case you didn’t know it. And this is saying a lot, since WaPo has the best opinion columnists in the US, period) points out what should be obvious to everyone in the US over the age of say seven: Trump isn’t even trying to slow the virus’ spread. In fact, Robinson doesn’t emphasize what should be emphasized: Trump is now in the thrall of a Rasputin named Dr. Scott Atlas, who believes that we should be actively encouraging lots of people to get infected, in order to reach herd immunity faster. By that standard, Trump is doing a great job!

·        This piece by Max boot (who is also really good) points out how China’s economy grew almost 5% in the last quarter, which isn’t too far below the 6% target they’ve had in recent years. How did they do this? They fixed the virus, then they fixed the economy (or more likely, the economy fixed itself very quickly). The US has in general been trying to fix the economy (although even that effort has been really half-hearted), then fix the virus. Of course, we haven’t in fact fixed either, as our death toll of about 220,000 – compared to China’s under 5,000 – shows.

 

 

I would love to hear any comments or questions you have on this post. Drop me an email at tom@tomalrich.com

 

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