The Local Sweden (May 20)
“It might be appealing to make the conclusion that Sweden has managed to keep the epidemic under control, without having to restrict individuals and businesses or pressing pause on the country’s whole economy to the same extent as elsewhere in Europe. But that would be a dangerous conclusion to draw…. What Sweden cannot teach others is how to stem the pandemic without a high human cost.”
Tags: Conclusion, Dangerous, Economy, Epidemic, Europe, Human cost, Pandemic, Restrict, Sweden
Bloomberg (March 25)
“It’s the worst epidemic of our times, a health emergency that has now left more than 420,000 infected, 18,800 dead and paralyzed the global economy. The scale has been clear for weeks.”Yet the same “baffling” decisions are “being repeated, over and over again. From Italy to the U.S. and Britain, each government first believes its country to be less exposed than it is, overestimates its ability to control the situation, ignores the real-time experience of others and ultimately scrambles to take measures.”
Tags: Baffling, Dead, Decisions, Emergency, Epidemic, Global economy, Health, Infected, Italy, Paralyzed, Repeated, U.S.
New York Times (March 13)
“China bought the West time. The West squandered it.” In the U.S. and Europe, the attitude has largely “been bizarrely reactive, if not outright passive… governments in those regions have let pass their best chance to contain the virus’s spread.” Why did “so many countries watch the epidemic unfold for weeks as though it was none of their concern?”
Tags: Bizarre Reactive, China, Epidemic, Europe, Governments, Passive, Spread, Squandered, Time, U.S., Virus
Washington Post (February 20)
“China has an immense challenge coping with the outbreak. Its success or failure will affect the whole world. It has now mounted an enormous containment effort. But these early weeks of the epidemic reveal the hazards of an authoritarian system that hides the truth from its own people” as President Xi Jinping knew about the threat on January 7, if not earlier.
Tags: Authoritarian, Challenge, China, Containment, Epidemic, Failure, Hazards, Outbreak, Success, Truth
Bloomberg (February 7)
“The coronavirus outbreak hasn’t sapped China’s animal spirits. The private sector-heavy ChiNext Index soared to 3-year high this week.” Seems absurd, but the “epidemic is giving policymakers the opportunity to correct past mistakes without looking silly…. At long last, Beijing can toss away its misguided war on shadow banking and design a smarter one that gives the private sector some room to breathe.”
Tags: Animal spirits, China, ChiNext, Coronavirus, Correct, Epidemic, Outbreak, Policymakers, Private-sector, Shadow banking
Washington Post (January 8)
“Money for war, but not for the poor.” Arguments over Mideast intervention overshadow “our failure to invest in or prioritize the safety and health of 327 million people living in the United States.” This “is also a threat to our safety and well-being.” In the U.S., 15% of children live in poverty, an opioid epidemic rages, suicide presents a massive threat, and life spans are actually declining.
Tags: Arguments, Children, Epidemic, Failure, Health, Intervention, Invest, Life spans, Mideast, Money, Opioid, Poor, Poverty, Safety, Suicide, Threat, U.S., War
Bloomberg (April 24)
“China has mismanaged an epidemic of African swine fever that’s on course to kill 130 million pigs—or roughly one-third of China’s herd, the biggest in the world.” The response has taken the pattern of past mismanaged crisis and shows that China remains “systemically unprepared…to report and manage the inevitable next epidemic that kills people.”
Tags: African swine fever, China, Crisis, Epidemic, Inevitable, People, Pigs, Unprepared
LA Times (February 15)
Less than two decades after the deadly shootings at Columbine, America’s shooting epidemic has simply become “a basic part of regular life.” Today America is inured to the blood. “The Florida shooting too shall pass, as did Columbine, Sandy Hook, Santa Monica College and so on — all allowed to fade into the backdrop of American memory without a thing being done. This is us. Until we decide finally, forcefully, effectively, that it is not.”
Tags: Blood, Columbine, Deadly, Epidemic, Florida, Sandy Hook, Santa Monica College, Shootings, U.S.
New York Times (July 31)
“Coming on top of the Zika epidemic, reports of terrible conditions in the Olympic Village, low ticket sales, police violence, a suspended president facing impeachment and a Russian team depleted by the doping scandal, the news of the contaminated waters certify that the Rio Olympics will be one of the most disorderly and woebegone in the 120 years since the modern Games began in Athens.”
Tags: Athens, Contaminated waters, Disorderly, Doping scandal, Epidemic, Impeachment, Olympic Village, Police violence, Rio Olympics, Russia, Ticket sales, Zika
Los Angeles Times (January 6)
“With gun epidemic raging, Obama finally bypasses Congress.” The president detailed his “modest steps” in a sometimes tearful speech. Ultimately, further Congressional measures will be necessary to solve what has become “one of the most vexing political issues of our time.” The over 30,000 gun related deaths each year show the “grotesque human cost…. At some point, the American people need to inform their leaders that this price is just too high to pay.”