Perspectives: Certain Governors’ Inactions Threaten Entire Country’s Health; Why Are Unqualified People In Charge Of U.S. Response?

The Washington Post: Foot-Dragging GOP Governors Are Imperiling The Whole Country
President Trump likens the struggle against the pandemic to a war that will yield a colossal toll in human lives, but refuses to urge states uniformly to issue stay-at-home orders. The president’s equivocations have produced an uncoordinated jumble of policy subverted by foot-dragging governors who treat the coronavirus less as a national emergency and more as a political annoyance. They are guilty of an abdication of leadership whose consequences will be measured in body bags. (4/4)

Bloomberg: To Beat The Global Pandemic, Empower Local Leaders
While many Americans are watching the daily news conferences by President Donald Trump and some governors, the action behind the scenes is being led by the elected officials who are closest to the public, and who are directly managing the crisis in their communities: mayors.As we listen to public health experts, including doctors Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx, we should also be listening to America’s mayors, who are best positioned to identify problems as they arise and act swiftly to address them — if they have the resources and authority to do so. (Michael R. Bloomberg, 4/5)

NBC News: Trump Enables Jared Kushner’s Coronavirus Task Force, Revealing The Dangers Of Nepotism
According to President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence is in charge of America’s response to the coronavirus crisis. This choice was, in itself, controversial since Pence has no real experience in this area and his one attempt at dealing with a public health problem as governor of Indiana turned out very poorly. But what many Americans don’t know is that an equally unqualified if apparently even more loyal Trump adherent is secretly running his own coronavirus task force, leaving a series of ethics issues in wake. (Jordan Libowitz, 4/6)

The New York Times: The Real Tragedy Of Not Having Enough Covid-19 Tests 
President Trump said last week that he hadn’t “heard about testing in weeks.” But right now — let’s face it — tests are being rationed in many parts of the country. Of course, the seriously ill and essential front-line personnel like doctors, nurses and policemen require and deserve to go to the front of the line for testing.But there are hundreds of thousands more people who should have been tested at this point, if more tests were available. Testing them would have vastly changed their behavior, their self-care at home, and (perhaps most importantly) our understanding of Covid-19, so that when it flares locally we would know how to respond in a more nuanced way, rather than shutting society down. As of this writing I know nearly a dozen people who are “presumed Covid.” None of them were tested, because they were not sick enough to be admitted to a hospital — though all were quite symptomatic. (Elisabeth Rosenthal, 4/6)

Los Angeles Times: Queen Elizabeth Nails Her Coronavirus Speech
Britain’s Queen Elizabeth on Sunday joined the chorus of world figures weighing in on the COVID-19 pandemic. In a rare televised speech, she offered no bluster, no drama, no scolding reminder that only six feet of distance stand between you and possible death. Nor were there any of the claims of accomplishment and ascriptions of blame that have become a staple on these shores. Instead, she offered comfort, gratitude to her nation’s health workers, a belief that life will go back to normal, and this simple poetic coda:“We will meet again.” (Carla Hall, 4/5)

The New York Times: Has Anyone Found Trump’s Soul? Anyone?
Do you remember President George W. Bush’s remarks at Ground Zero in Manhattan after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks? I can still hear him speaking of national grief and national pride. This was before all the awful judgment calls and fatal mistakes, and it doesn’t excuse them. But it mattered, because it reassured us that our country’s leader was navigating some of the same emotional currents that we were. Do you remember President Barack Obama’s news conference after the school shooting in Newtown, Conn., that left 28 people, including 20 children, dead? I do. (Frank Bruni, 4/6)

CNN: Stelter: Federal Response To Pandemic Is A 9/11-Level Failure 
There’s a lot of revisionist history being written right now. Lots of digging of the so-called memory hole. Pro-Trump media outlets are trying to bury the Trump White House’s failures to fully protect the country from this pandemic. They’re trying with all their might to shift the blame to mayors and governors. (Brian Stelter, 4/6)

The Washington Post: In Singapore, A Quarantine Offers Surprising Lessons
The rest of the time, I will be alone, confined to the 230-square-foot hotel room the Singapore government has ordered me not to leave for two weeks. I do not have the coronavirus — not as far as I can tell. But I am part of the government’s new initiative to combat a recent uptick in coronavirus cases, which was announced the day before I boarded the last Singapore Airlines flight from New York to Singapore for some time on March 25. (Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan, 4/3)

St. Louis Post Dispatch: Health And Financial Catastrophe Looms, But Trump Won’t Ease Obamacare Access 
For 10 years now, Republicans have been trying to kill the Affordable Care Act, former President Barack Obama’s program extending health care coverage to millions of uninsured Americans. … It was difficult to imagine this obsessive GOP campaign to deny health coverage to vulnerable Americans sinking any lower, but now it has: The White House is refusing calls to reopen the Obamacare exchanges outside their normal operating dates, which could ease the health and financial woes of millions of people whose lives have been upended by the coronavirus pandemic without having to set up a new government program. (4/4)

St. Louis Post Dispatch: Lowered Auto Emissions Standards Threaten Americans’ Health — And The Planet’s
Even as America battles a virus that attacks the lungs, the Trump administration is pressing ahead with an environmental sabotage campaign that would ultimately make it harder for all Americans to breathe. The administration on Tuesday finalized its plan to weaken Obama-era automobile emissions standards — rolling them back to a point that even some automobile makers say is too far — in a move that promises to worsen air pollution and global warming in years to come.The administration says the move will save money for consumers, and has even suggested it could save lives. The first claim is highly debatable, the second, ridiculous. This unnecessary and irresponsible step backward will cost lives. (4/5)