Different Takes: New Investments In Health Care Infrastructure Could Make Coronavirus Much Less Scary; A Pandemic Threatens Our New Way Of Living

Stat: The Coronavirus Outbreak Exposes Our Health Care System’s Weaknesses
A coronavirus is so tiny that 1,000 of them could be stacked in the thickness of a sheet of paper. It is an invisible threat, and it is making vivid the shortcomings of our health care systems. The world is a “a playground” for viruses like the novel coronavirus that causes Covid-19, infectious disease experts wrote last week in the New England Journal of Medicine. “We must realize that in our crowded world of 7.8 billion people, a combination of altered human behaviors, environmental changes, and inadequate global public health mechanisms now easily turn obscure animal viruses into existential human threats.” (Matthew Herper, 3/2)

The New York Times: Coronavirus Will Test Our New Way Of Life
Constant connectivity defines 21st-century life, and the infrastructure undergirding it all is both digital (the internet and our social media platforms) and physical (the gig economy, e-commerce, global workplaces). Despite a tumultuous first two decades of the century, much of our connected way of life has evaded the stress of a singular global event. The possibility of a global pandemic currently posed by the new coronavirus threatens to change that altogether. Should the virus reach extreme levels of infection globally, it would very likely be the first true test of the 21st-century way of life, laying bare the hidden fragility of a system that has long felt seamless. (Charlie Warzel, 3/2)

Los Angeles Times: Coronavirus And The Stupidity Of Trump’s Healthcare Approach
Until now, President Trump’s approach to healthcare was alarming chiefly to discrete populations such as low-income families, immigrants, people with preexisting conditions and seniors. They were in the crosshairs of initiatives to hamstring Medicaid, prevent undocumented residents from seeking medical treatment, destroy the Affordable Care Act and raise the cost of Medicare. (Michael Hiltzik, 3/2)

The Baltimore Sun: A Eulogy For Competence Amid Coronavirus Concerns 
Consider this a eulogy for competence. It’s an appreciation long overdue, but then, competence — the quality of being equal to the situation, of knowing what to do — was always easy to overlook. You learned to expect it, to take it for granted. Competence was not sexy. Another reason this eulogy is overdue is that the loss of competence — meaning federal government competence — is not recent. To the contrary, competence has been gone since January of 2017. (Leonard Pitts Jr., 3/2)

The Washington Post: Stockpiling Masks Hurts Nurses Painters And Construction Workers
This is embarrassing, America. Thanks to our collective refusal to listen to facts, paint department managers across the country aren’t talking about eggshell, semigloss, sanding or chemically stripping so much right now. “Masks, masks, that’s all I’ve done the past two days is tell people we’re out of masks,” said Bob Moore, an Air Force veteran who works in the paint department at a Lowe’s in suburban Maryland. (Petula Dvorak, 3/2)

USA Today: Coronavirus, Stock Market Drops Disrupt Trump 2020 Campaign Narrative
He may lie, cheat and steal, but he has shaken up Washington and just look at that stock market. That (along with some help from foreign governments) is the formula President Donald Trump’s team sees as his ticket to reelection. It’s also the logic to appeal to battleground independents who might not much care for Trump. But independents and even Trump loyalists have a breaking point. It’s one thing to purge and silence the Justice Department and the Environmental Protection Agency and career government employees, as Trump has done. These are dangers to our democracy and to our planet, but they seem far off to some. It’s quite another thing, however, for Trump to wipe out the chain of command for a public health emergency, end 80% of our pandemic prevention efforts, repeatedly try to reduce the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention budget, and propose to cut $3 billion in global health funds and 40% of our uniformed public health officials. And then watch the new coronavirus hit. (Andy Slavitt, 3/2)

The Wall Street Journal: Coronavirus And The Tragedy Of Iran 
Nowhere other than in China is the coronavirus epidemic more severe than in Iran, where authorities confirmed Sunday that at least 54 people, including an 81-year-old former ambassador, have died from Covid-19. The real death toll may be considerably higher than that; on Friday, BBC Persian tallied 210 deaths from individual hospitals. Seven prominent officials have contracted the disease, including Vice President Masoumeh Ebtekar, who in her youth served as a spokesman for U.S. Embassy hostage-takers. Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi broke out in a sweat Feb. 24 as he assured the public that the epidemic was under control; the following day he announced he was sick. (Robert D. Kaplan, 3/1)