The week | National review

• Broadway is closed. Social conservatives continue to gain victories in the Trump era.

• Zhao Lijian and Hua Chunying, two representatives of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in this simple questioning familiar to conspiracy theorists, began to promote the baseless claim that this new strain of coronavirus really started in the United States , not in China. In doing so, they seized a statement out of context from a CDC official who in no way proves their claim and contradicts the official conclusions of the World Health Organization. The bravery is even more shocking given that, if there was a conspiracy linked to the spread of the coronavirus, it was carried out by the Chinese government to hide its initial discovery and spread. Government officials actively suppressed the efforts of early whistleblowers, such as doctor Li Wenliang, who ultimately died of the disease. With an emerging knowledge of what was going on, they also destroyed samples, suppressed news, continued to allow large public gatherings, and allowed millions of people to leave Wuhan. President Xi Jinping himself had known about the epidemic for two weeks before speaking about it publicly. As important as hygiene is right now, the Chinese government cannot wash their hands of it.

• This government, through a spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, also condemned the despicable practice of calling COVID-19 the Wuhan virus or the Chinese coronavirus, like some American officials – Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the parliamentary minority leader Kevin McCarthy – and no doubt a lot of ordinary people have done it. There is a long history of attachment of geographical names, not always precise, to diseases (cf. Spanish flu, French pox). The current cases are unfair to the people of Wuhan and China in general, who have suffered massively from the epidemic. A better name would be Xis disease, after President Xi Jinping.

• While China is cracking down on coronavirus coverage, journalists are fighting back. It was a headline in the New york times – whose subtitle was The Communist Party tries to fill the airwaves with positive stories about its battle against the virus. Chinese journalists, supported by widespread calls for freedom of expression, resist. Elsewhere, Freedom House expert Sarah Cook in China made a point. After the Tiananmen Square massacre, the Chinese Communist Party offered a kind of social pact to the people: You have no political rights or civil liberties. We are in charge. In return, however, we offer you prosperity and security. At present, many Chinese people say: If you can’t give us what you promised, at least give us the freedom to speak. The CCP has shown a demoralizing talent for survival and perpetuation, but it can be a perilous moment for the party, which could lead to better days for China.

• Italy has been overwhelmed by the coronavirus. He did not realize how widespread the virus was until it was too late, and the country has continued to catch up since then, resorting to increasingly widespread blockages. Italy has the oldest population in the EU and the disease has been particularly devastating there. At the time of going to press, it only seemed like a matter of time before Italy, a country of 60 million people, surpassed China, a country of 1.3 billion, in total. The medical system is under strain, and doctors are making excruciating decisions about who gets precious ICU beds and who doesn’t. Say a prayer for Italy.

• At a campaign event in Detroit, Joe Biden, the presumed Democratic candidate, argued with Jerry Wayne, an auto worker, who questioned his position on gun rights. Biden, bristling, called Wayne full of sh ** and a horse donkey. Such mood spurts are part of Biden’s character, along with kindness, self-pity, and warm hands, and are unlikely to hurt him in the future. His position on the gun could. While he sees himself as a supporter of the Second Amendment, he recently called on former opponent Beto ORourke to settle the gun problem with me. You will lead this effort. I count on you. The ORourkes program to resolve the gun problem is to confiscate the AR-15s (with compensation). This is what prompted Jerry Waynes to ask questions – and we suspect that other gun owners will ask questions in the months to come.

• Fox Newss Bret Baier asked representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez why the young voters, who thought that many would carry Bernie Sanders to the democratic nomination, did not find themselves en masse for the socialist in the primary of Michigan. Ocasio-Cortez told Baier that the widespread crackdown on voters was partly responsible for Sanders’ disastrous performance, noting that children waited three hours in a row to vote in Michigan. A spokesman for Michigan’s top election official – a Democrat – told reporters that the rhetoric of Ocasio-Cortezs was uninformed and dangerous, noting that the only important lines of the state were at the offices of voter registration, where officials met with a wave of thousands of people. registered day by day. Jacqueline Beaudry, City Clerk for Ann Arbor, said that Ocasio-Cortezs’ remarks were simply not true and said there was practically no waiting time in the city, except at city hall to register to vote. Sanders’ supporters want a revolution, but only if they don’t have to plan ahead.

• Elizabeth Warren abandoned the Democratic presidential primary. Senator Warren, who has been, over the years, an economic populist Lou Dobbsstyle, a Cherokee and color teacher, a self-help book author, and many other interesting things, insists that his presidential campaign failed because she is a woman. Of course, there are probably some atavistic specimens in the Democratic Party who refused to vote for her because she is a woman, and others who feared that a woman could not win in November. Yet other Democratic primary voters preferred her precisely because of her gender. Warrens’ problem is not in his chromosomes, nor in his stars, but in itself: she is an ugly activist; she has a plan for that! shtick is so superficial that even a few Democratic primary voters have noticed it; and his attempt to divide the difference between the candidates on the left and on the left (to the right of Sanders, to the left of Biden, essentially) was obvious, clumsy and abject. Her pervasive stance on health care, for example, has led some constituents to wonder what she really believed. We wonder if she even remembers what she really believes. The question from now on is not whether Warren belongs to the White House, but whether it belongs to the Senate. Massachusetts is not a lost cause – ask Charlie Baker.

• One of the worst genres of 21st century journalism is that anonymous Twitter accounts were nasty essays, most recently practiced by Mara Gay in the New york times. Gay, member of Time The editorial board and a talking mouth of MSNBC made a blunder on television, claiming that Michael Bloomberg had spent enough money for his failed presidential bid to give each American a million dollars. The actual figure is $ 1.53. She was, of course, relentlessly ridiculed, often in a cruel, stupid and racist manner; Gay is black. As Charles C. W. Cooke pointed out at National online journal, the mistake was both revealing and funny: gay progressives really argue and behave as if billionaires like Bloomberg were bottomless coffers, and as if we could give life to an American millionaire, if only we were willing to raise the taxes on the tycoons a bit. Gay responded to criticism with a self-pity essay titling: My people lived worse than a crowd on Twitter. Indeed, they did, which perhaps did not need to be said.

• Alabama Republicans regained some of their honor by repelling accused sexual predator Roy Moore in the first round of the Alabamas GOP Senate primary on March 3. President Trump supports Tommy Tuberville, a former Auburn football coach and political recruit. That’s because the other candidate is Jeff Sessions, who sat on the seat for 20 years before becoming Attorney General of Trumps. He was the first senator to support Trump for the president; he supported Trumps’ signature problems – immigration restrictions, trade protection – for years before Trump himself tackled them. He retains a pure, almost virgin, faith in Trumpism. But because he recused himself from the Russian investigation at the start, he deserved the contempt of Trumps and the support of Tuberville Trumps. (Coach Tommy Tuberville, a winner, to my complete and total approval, tweeted Trump.) In the Trumps world, gratitude and ideological affinity count for nothing, only complete personal obedience.

• Since he narrowly lost the Florida governors’ race to Ron DeSantis in 2018, Andrew Gillum, former mayor of Tallahassee in the Sanders wing of the Democratic Party, has been a media commentator and the head of an organization voter registration. In March, he was found by police in a hotel room in Miami Beach, vomiting and too intoxicated to answer questions. Gillums’ partner, a 30-year-old man, suffered from an apparent drug overdose, and a third man called for help. (Some bags of what looked like crystal meth were confiscated from the bedroom by the police.) Gillum said that he did not use drugs himself but had an abuse problem alcohol. He announced that he would seek rehabilitation assistance and that he would step down from the public service for the foreseeable future. A good decision, both for Gillum and for the people of Florida, who must consider themselves lucky for their near-accident.

• The Democratic Party has for decades viewed the judiciary as little more than a better-educated alternative legislature, but generally takes care not to say it. The mask slipped ugly in early March when the minority leader of the Senate, Chuck Schumer, appeared before the Supreme Court and personally threatened two of his judges. I want to say to you, Justice Kavanaugh and Justice Gorsuch, Schumer said: You started a whirlwind, and you will pay the price. You will not know what strikes you if you go ahead with these horrible decisions. By these horrible decisions, Schumer was referring to an ongoing abortion case – which means that his position, in fact, was to continue to pretend that the Constitution says what it doesn’t say, or there will be consequences . It remains to be seen what these consequences will be. In recent months we have heard of the impeachment of the courts, the dismissal of judges and even the complete abolition of the judiciary. Whatever Schumer has in mind, he keeps it to himself. My point, he said afterwards, was that there would be political consequences for President Trump and the Senate Republicans. Of course, that is why he appointed the two judges who worried him and designated the Supreme Court building as he did.

• The Senate approved a 77-day extension of the Foreign Intelligence Oversight Act of 1978, but the fight against FISA is not yet over. While Congress is working on a permanent agreement, Republican senators Mike Lee (Utah) and Rand Paul (Ky.) Fought and got a debate over the reauthorization of three FISA provisions that they say do violence to American civil liberties. On these questions, they are wrong. A lone wolf terrorism provision does not apply to Americans; another concerning itinerant wiretapping is a common sense tool which allows effective surveillance of the communication devices of foreign agents; and a third concerning commercial files has already been used too widely but has since been reduced. Senators are concerned that the federal government is too dominated, but should be reoriented.

• Democrats have spent most of the past decade raising the alarm about the increase in wealth inequality in the United States. This obsession tipped the party to the left, propelling fantastic proposals such as Medicare for All and wealth taxes into the mainstream. But it can be the result of an accounting error. Economist Thomas Piketty and his acolytes define wealth as the value of all assets held by households minus their debt. They leave aside future social security payments, which represent 58% of wealth for the poorest 90% of the distribution of wealth. A new document from the University of Pennsylvania finds that when the wealth of social security is taken into account, inequality has remained constant over the past three decades. It is telling that those most concerned about economic inequality will not accept the good news.

• The Center for Aviation, a reputable Sydney-based airline consultancy, warns that a majority of the world’s airlines could go bankrupt by May. The loss of income is expected to reach well over $ 100 billion: a figure that increases every day as the crisis deepens. Coordinated government and industry action is needed – now – to avoid a disaster, the report warns. The word rescue is already on everyone’s lips. It is likely that coordinated action by government and industry is required, but we must proceed with caution. Write in the New york times, Tim Wu offers the conservative case of American Airlines, which made a profit of $ 7.6 billion in 2015 and continued with good performance thereafter, but ended up having debt equivalent to about five times the market value of the company, after borrowing money to finance share buybacks. Long before the coronavirus epidemic, analysts feared that American was headed for insolvency despite the grand speech by CEO Doug Parkers that the company would never lose money again. We want the airlines to continue to operate; in fact, we would prefer there to be more and more competition rather than the three big alliances that dominate the market. What we don’t want is for the epidemic to be used to cover the well-being of old-fashioned businesses and crony capitalism. If airlines go to government, shareholders must pay first and at most.

• The New york times published a test correction from Nikole Hannah-Joness in her project 1619. She argued that one of the main reasons the settlers decided to declare their independence from Britain was because they wanted to protect the institution of slavery. This claim sparked the ire of several professional historians at the time of its publication, but Time changed it only after Leslie M. Harris, a historian consulted by his fact-checkers, wrote an article in Politico alleging that she had vigorously contested the Hannah-Joness argument but that she had been ignored. This is not the only assertion of the project that several professional historians have questioned. One wonders how many factual errors school systems across the country will be willing to tolerate as they continue to implement the ideological project in their curricula.

• A New York state judge sentenced disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein to 23 years in prison. Weinstein was convicted in February of first degree sex crime (sexual violence against a woman) and third degree rape (coercive but not forced). The former crime is dealt with an extreme gravity appropriate by the penal code of Empire States. As a result, even though Weinstein was acquitted of two counts of life imprisonment, he was sentenced to a minimum of five years and a maximum of 29 years in prison. The only real question was how much the judge criticized him. For a 68-year-old man in poor health, a 23-year sentence is indeed a life sentence. Weinstein is still facing at least one other California sexual assault lawsuit. At this point, it’s just a matter of totaling the score; the fate of the monsters is sealed.

• A male student at Williams College says he was suspended for having sex with a student without asking her for a date. The two kissed and huddled a bit one evening, but when she called him a week later, he was lukewarm, which she considered a cultural insensitivity (the two students are foreigners). Soon, the shy lover was facing disciplinary proceedings, which ended with his semester suspension. Her conduct may have been a little casual and it is possible that the version of the plaintiffs’ events, in which she was slower to consent, is correct; but as often happens in such cases, the accused was not informed in advance of the charges or allowed to question or disprove witnesses, and much exonerating evidence was overlooked. Now he has filed a lawsuit against the college. Sexual assault is a serious matter, and it must be dealt with seriously, not by procedures before kangaroo courts.

• OPEC has enjoyed its unofficial title of the world’s most successful cartel for years. (The people of De Beers have done well, but let’s not overlook NEA-AFT.) The oil price war in Saudi Arabia is likely to end it – it can even end it. OPEC. As global demand for oil collapsed with the coronavirus epidemic, dominant OPEC member Saudi Arabia attempted to negotiate prolonged production cuts in the OPEC + ad hoc group, which includes Russia. Riyadh called the air, but Moscow refused to dance. The Saudis responded with the nuclear option, not only by maximizing production from the national oil company, Saudi Aramco, but by promising to flood the market with more oil than the Saudis actually have the capacity to drill. which reduced the reserves. The idea, according to some analysts, was to force Moscow to resume negotiations. If so, the tactic has failed. Much of this cheap Saudi oil goes to the US coast of the Gulf of Mexico, which can drive gas prices down. The pilots will party. The pain will mostly be felt in places like Venezuela, where the oil industry is virtually the only functional part of the economy, but the North American energy industry, from Texas to Alberta, will also suffer. And that during an epidemic – just what the doctor didn’t order.

• Pro-competition regulator Frances has imposed the largest fine in its history, $ 1.24 billion, on Apple. The American technology company is accused of exploiting its market position to impose on Apple resellers less favorable commercial conditions than those of Apple’s wholesale network. Apple will appeal the decision. Two Apple wholesalers were also fined a total of $ 154 million for colluding to fix prices. Apple says the action concerns business practices that were abandoned more than a decade ago and disregards precedents. US tech leaders often complain in private that European regulators are engaged in a form of protectionism, trying to use measures against anti-competitive practices to dictate more generous terms for local businesses at the expense of multinational corporations based in the United States. United States. These are precisely the kinds of things that can and should be addressed through agreements such as the proposed transatlantic trade and investment partnership that the Trump administration has put on the ice and that leftist economic populists and right are happy to see them stay there. . Without going into the specific merits of this action against Apple, we can see good reason to believe that American companies are often treated unfairly in the European Union. Is it a globalist or nationalist concern? Anyway, Washington should go.

• Regarding Afghanistan, the news is worse than usual. Two potential presidents held concurrent inaugurations in Kabul: one block at the same time. For the first time, an American president had a direct conversation with a Taliban leader – and the Taliban type was just a private member. The Taliban intensified attacks against Afghan soldiers, killing 15 of them in one fell swoop. Our agreement with the Taliban has secret appendices, concerning how we have to determine whether the Taliban is respecting the end of the agreement. the New york times reported that these appendices seem to give Mr. Trump, or his successor, enormous leeway to simply declare the war over and leave. Republican MP Liz Cheney said any deal with the Taliban should be made public in its entirety. Democrat Tom Malinowski tweeted, Conclusion: The administration is informing a terrorist group of the conditions (as they stand) for our withdrawal from Afghanistan, but not the American people. In Kabul, a former Afghan national security adviser told the Washington PostAll the cards are in the hands of the Taliban now – a bitter and alarming pass.

• In Russia, as before in the Soviet Union, the only important question is who controls the Kremlin. In absolute and uncontested power for the past 20 years, Vladimir Putin has given a masterful demonstration of all the black arts. As president or prime minister, he has transformed every aspect of governance into an instrument of his will. Sixty-seven now, he is expected to retire in 2024 but on the contrary has offered to reset, to put it mildly, to change the constitution in such a way that he would remain in power until 2036 (he would have 83 by then). The reset got immediate approval from the Duma, a crowded parliament, as well as from the Constitutional Court. According to Alexei Navalny, a lonely opponent, only idiots or crooks never thought that Putin would leave the Kremlin in 2024. A referendum will be held soon, and the result is unquestionably clear.

• In the past twelve months, Israel has held three general elections, illustrating the famous joke that repeating an act in the hope of achieving a different result is folly. Despite all their angry slogans, ruling Bibi Netanyahus, the Likud Party and Benny Gantzs, the opposition Blue and White Party, are quite similar. Winning almost the same number of seats, neither party had enough for a majority capable of stable government. Several small parties have found irreconcilable reasons for refusing to participate in a coalition. The so-called common Arab list has enough members to play the role of kingmaker, but the two main parties have promised to have nothing to do with Arab politicians who are openly anti-Israeli. It was controversial on Gantz’s part to break that promise and put himself on the common Arab list when Israeli President Reuven Rivlin invited him to form a government. A fourth election, Rivlin said, is impossible. Some Israelis talk about the end of the Netanyahu era, and some believe that Gantz stole the elections. As things stand, either the two candidates form a united government or the fourth general election is not all that impossible after all.

• Juan Carlos, the former King of Spain, is one of the key figures of the second half of the 20th century. After Franco’s death, he guided Spain to democracy and, in 1981, he rejected an attempted coup, intended to restore the fascist regime. Eventually, scandals rose, and he abdicated in 2014, in favor of his son, Felipe. Now there is even more scandal, leading King Felipe to give up his financial inheritance and deprive his father of his allowance. It was discovered that Juan Carlos had stolen a lot of money, especially in Switzerland. The Saudis there donated $ 100 million to his account, reports said. The former king did a lot of good in his career, but is now dishonored. It must have hurt his son so that he separated as he did. Only Verdi, composer of Don carlos, could do justice to this story.

• Like everyone, we praised Jean Vanier at his death last May. Jean Vanier was a great man, we started. It has improved the lives of thousands of people. Yes, he was the founder of LArche, which means Ark, a global organization that enables people with intellectual disabilities to live together with dignity. Vanier was a candidate for holiness, a virtual shoo-in. In his obit, the New york times conferred on him the designation of Savior of the people on the fringes. Now LArche – his own organization – has released a report whose findings have been summarized by the Washington Post as follows: Vanier has had coercive sex with six women during her lifetime, which has hurt them and needs psychological therapy for years. Does this cancel the good he did? No, but it’s still a terrible blow. And LArche is to be praised for his honesty and his Christian concern for the victims.

• We have all seen recently what happens when unprepared hospitals do not have the appropriate tools to treat patients at risk. Ireland experienced the same thing, but on a much smaller scale, when a patient was admitted to a Dublin hospital with a poisonous snake bite – the first such case in Irish history, at least since Saint Patrick banished the creeping creatures of the Emerald Isle a millennium a year and a half ago. The snake in question was a puff adder that had been kept as a pet (hey, at least you don’t have to walk it) until it bit its owner, who was taken to hospital, who must have stolen the antidote from England. We wish snake-snake animal lovers a speedy recovery; and can we take the liberty of suggesting that he seeks to keep a pretty Irish setter instead?

• As the dark cloud of the pandemic gathered over Italy in early March, unsuspecting citizens of Castelvetro, a city outside of Bologna, opened their showers and taps. kitchen sink and were treated with streams of red wine. A thousand liters from a local cellar have seeped into water pipes. The wine had mixed with water and looked more pink than red, and only about twenty houses were affected, for a few hours, but what killjoy would correct the townspeople for having magnified the event in the story ? They found a little joy when they needed it, and they took advantage of it.

• Skeletal remains of two white giraffes were discovered by residents approximately 35 miles outside of a reserve in northeastern Kenya in March. The Kenya Wildlife Service is investigating. Based on the condition of the carcasses, environmentalists estimate that the animals, an adult female and her calf, had been killed four months earlier. They fell victim to poachers, according to a press release published by the conservancy. Le troisième membre de leur famille, un homme adulte, peut être la dernière girafe blanche survivante et la fin de la lignée pour la variété rare. Une organisation régionale de conservation promet de travailler avec les autorités locales pour mettre fin au braconnage, une menace constante pour les populations d’éléphants et de rhinocéros également. Hélas, l’interdiction du braconnage est plus facile à soutenir qu’à faire respecter.

• Les 16 fragments supposés des manuscrits de la mer Morte au Musée de la Bible à Washington, D.C., ont été encrés à l’époque moderne, ont conclu les chercheurs. Leur travail médico-légal a été présenté par les responsables du musée lors d’une conférence universitaire qu’ils ont organisée en mars. Le musée avait envoyé cinq des fragments pour des tests en 2018 et a annoncé plus tard qu’ils étaient tous considérés comme des contrefaçons probables. L’année dernière, il a engagé une entreprise spécialisée dans les enquêtes sur les fraudes artistiques pour examiner les onze autres spécimens. La propriétaire de la compagnie, Colette Loll, a stipulé que le musée serait en mains libres et que son rapport serait définitif et rendu public. Les responsables du musée ont accepté. Ils ont déjà été brûlés trop souvent; l’automne dernier, un professeur d’Oxford qui leur avait vendu des fragments de manuscrits bibliques a été accusé de les avoir volés dans des archives qu’il supervisait. Le Musée de la Bible s’efforce d’être aussi transparent que possible, souligne son directeur général. Donnez-lui le mérite d’avoir géré l’embarras avec honnêteté et honneur.

• C’est une insulte banale de comparer une publication imprimée que l’on n’aime pas avec du papier toilette. Pourtant, si vous deviez vous passer de papier hygiénique, vous le manqueriez beaucoup plus rapidement que votre source d’informations préférée. À Darwin, en Australie, après que la panique inspirée par le coronavirus ait dénudé les étagères NT News a réussi à l’avoir dans les deux sens en insérant une section spéciale avec rien imprimé dessus, mais des lignes en pointillés et des cartes de l’Australie, ce qui le rend facile à réutiliser pour une utilisation hygiénique. Bien sûr, le journalisme écrit est peut-être en voie de disparition, mais laisse voir quelqu’un essayer this avec un Kindle. . .

• Dans les jours inquiétants de 1942, les esprits américains ont été remontés par une chanson rebondissante appelée Rosie the Riveter, à propos d’un travailleur de la production aéronautique qui a pris le travail pour aider à protéger son petit ami de la Marine tout en gardant un œil attentif sur le sabotage / assis là-haut sur le fuselage. La chanson a été inspirée par une chronique de journal sur Rosalind Palmer, 19 ans, soudeuse dans une usine Sikorsky à Bridgeport, Connecticut, qui avait grandi dans une famille riche mais était désireuse de faire tout ce qu’elle pouvait, même le travail manuel, pour aider la nation dans son heure de besoin. Après la guerre, elle a repris sa vie mondaine, épousant Harry Glendon Walter, un dirigeant d’entreprise prospère, et devenant un philanthrope de premier plan. Au fil des ans, d’autres femmes ont été appelées la Rosie the Riveter originale, car le titre de la chanson a été réutilisé pour un film de 1943 promouvant les liens de guerre et un long métrage de 1944, et plus tard, longtemps après la guerre, le nom de Rosie the Riveter est devenu associé à deux images familières de l’autonomisation des femmes: le We Can Do It! affiche en milieu de travail et Norman Rockwell Post du samedi soir couverture. Chacun d’eux avait une femme réelle derrière elle, et tous ont fait leur part pour remonter le moral; mais Rosalind P. Walter était le original Rosie d’origine. Elle est maintenant décédée à 95 ans. R.I.P.

CORONAVIRUS

La crise à laquelle nous sommes confrontés

Much de la vie américaine a cessé.

Le coronavirus a créé une atmosphère de crise sans précédent depuis le 11 septembre ou la crise financière de 2008. Les gens ne vont pas travailler, les écoles ont fermé, les bars et les restaurants ont fermé leurs portes, les ligues sportives ont fermé leurs portes et le gouvernement fédéral a émis des directives contre les rassemblements de plus de dix personnes. Il s’agit d’une réponse médiévale – la distanciation sociale n’est qu’un argument contemporain pour l’expédient séculaire des quarantaines – imposée à une société moderne, et elle aura des conséquences économiques et sociales indicibles.

Il s’agit d’un médicament difficile, administré dans l’espoir d’étouffer le coronavirus. Il se propage toujours à des taux exponentiels aux États-Unis. Les taux de mortalité sont beaucoup plus élevés que pour la grippe et d’autres bogues familiers, en particulier pour les personnes âgées. Il n’y a pas de vaccin pour le moment. Le caractère de sa propagation et de ses symptômes menace de submerger progressivement la capacité des systèmes de santé dans les zones touchées, les laissant à court de lits d’hôpital et de respirateurs pour traiter les patients les plus gravement atteints et augmentant ainsi considérablement les risques pour eux.

Ce que nous espérons éviter, c’est le spectre de l’Italie, où le virus a presque submergé un pays occidental avancé, bien que mal administré. Le contre-modèle est la Corée du Sud, qui a adopté la distanciation sociale mais s’est principalement appuyée sur un régime de tests massifs pour maîtriser une flambée initiale de cas.

Nous sommes derrière la courbe des tests ici en raison de faux pas désastreux impliqués dans l’effort de rendre les kits de test disponibles dans tout le pays. Ils sont la faute des Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – couplés à des obstacles bureaucratiques insensés pour que d’autres joueurs utilisent leurs propres tests – et ils représentent un grave échec scientifique, technique et bureaucratique dont les responsables appropriés devraient être tenus responsables. We are now, thankfully, on a path to making testing kits available to all who need them.

The CDC debacle is not President Trumps fault, but his response to the crisis has often been woeful. In a serious public-health crisis, the public has the right to expect the governments chief executive to lead in a number of crucial ways: by prioritizing the problem properly, by deferring to subject-matter experts when appropriate while making key decisions in informed and sensible ways, by providing honest and careful information to the country, by calming fears and setting expectations, and by addressing mistakes and setbacks.

Trump hasnt passed muster on any of these metrics. Besides quickly restricting travel from China, he resisted making the response to the epidemic a priority for as long as he could — shunning briefings, downplaying the problem, and wasting precious time. He failed to properly empower his subordinates and refused to trust the information they provided him — often offering up unsubstantiated claims and figures from cable television instead. He spoke about the crisis in crude political and personal terms. He stood in the way of public understanding of the plausible course of the epidemic, trafficking instead in dismissive clichs. And he denied his administrations missteps, making it more difficult to address them.

This presidential behavior is all too familiar. It is how he has gotten through scandals and fiascos for more than three years in office. But those were all essentially political in nature, and most were self-created. This is different, and demands a new level of seriousness from the president and those around him.

Beginning with his Oval Office address in early March, Trump has adopted a more appropriate tone, in at least most of his public statements. His designated point man for the response, Mike Pence, has performed admirably, while Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health has been an important voice of sobriety and reason.

As Yuval Levin writes elsewhere in this issue, the characteristic American response to any crisis is to fumble at the beginning. Then we tend to wrestle it to the ground with massive resources and technological innovations. We have every confidence that this will be the outcome once again. But getting there will be painful, in lost lives and unimaginable economic disruption. May this chapter in our national life close as quickly as possible.

PUBLICPOLICY

Viral Economics

The Federal Reserve has brought its target interest rate to zero and initiated quantitative easing, while Congress decides how it too should respond to the coronavirus crisis. While the situation remains fluid — as we write this editorial, the Trump administration has just tacitly dropped its request for a payroll-tax holiday and acceded to a bipartisan congressional request for checks to be sent directly to most Americans — its worth thinking through the considerations that should govern our economic policy in the months to come. Its especially important since this legislation is unlikely to be the last time Congress has to act to mitigate the effects of the coronavirus.

Typically when the economy falls into a recession we debate stimulus legislation, but most of the old arguments ought to be shelved in this case. Policymakers should have four goals in mind: slowing the spread of the virus, aiding the treatment of those infected, providing relief for those adversely affected by both the virus and the efforts to fight it, and supporting the overall economy. These tasks sometimes overlap and sometimes conflict. In a normal recession, we would want to make sure that legislation did not discourage people from working. Some of our supply-sider friends are making that point now — mistakenly. At least for the short term and in many instances, we actively desire people not to go to work. Biology has to take precedence over economics.

And speed has to take priority over precision. It was right to abandon the idea of suspending payroll taxes, which wouldnt directly help the afflicted elderly or those who are being laid off, and would offer benefits in two-week increments for months rather than right away. Funding sick leave, as both parties seem eager to do, may also need to be rethought. The theory behind it is reasonable: People who have the infection should not feel economic pressure to keep working and thus spread the illness. But quick cash payments to a broader population may be more effective — since we want a lot of people who do not have symptoms or know they are sick to stay home as well — and easier to administer (as well as easier to end when the crisis is past). This policy would also do more to relieve the hardships the coronavirus is causing. For similar reasons, unemployment-insurance payments should also be increased.

Increased payments to state health systems have bipartisan support. The details matter: We ought not heighten the post-Obamacare Medicaid programs incentives for states to concentrate on able-bodied people above the poverty line. But in this area too, the basic imperative is clear.

Halting the spread of the virus and providing for treatment are ways to support the economy, albeit indirect ones. The Federal Reserve has more-direct responsibilities. Its steps so far have been welcome, particularly in light of the rapid decline in inflation expectations — which are a sign that economic weakness has gone well beyond supply disruptions. The economy is likely to contract sharply in the near term. The Fed should make it clear that its goal is for spending and prices to resume their pre-crisis trend as soon as businesses reopen, and that it will engage in as much quantitative easing as needed to assure it. An economic slump is now a public-health necessity, but it should not last a week longer than it must.

POLITICS

The Biden Victory

The primaries from South Carolina on have effectively ended the presidential hopes of Bernie Sanders. Enough Democrats were alarmed by the possibility that a self-declared socialist would win the nomination to consolidate with stunning rapidity behind the candidacy of former vice president Joe Biden. They have compelling, albeit mostly negative, reasons for doing so: Biden hasnt praised Castros Cuba, he isnt calling for outlawing most Americans health insurance, he doesnt want to let prisoners vote. Democratic voters forced Amy Klobuchar, Pete Buttigieg, and Michael Bloomberg out of the race. All have now endorsed Biden.

Yet Biden, notwithstanding his impressive turnaround, is not obviously a stronger general-election candidate than Bernie Sanders. He is old, and he wears his age poorly. No sober observer will ever call either Biden or President Trump a great orator, but the latter is much better at getting his point across. Then there are Bidens decades as a Washington insider.

And while Biden counts as a moderate within the Democratic Party, that party has itself been moving left and Biden has been pulled along. Biden wants a $3 trillion tax increase, an expensive expansion of Obamacare, a reduction in enforcement of the immigration laws, a ban on new fracking, a carbon tax, and taxpayer-funded abortion. And thats before he has finished mollifying Sanders and his supporters, who are not suddenly going to turn reasonable.

Biden is not a true believer, as Sanders is. But dont be fooled. He is running on a much more left-wing platform than Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, or John Kerry did.