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from The Atlantic Magazine
Denmark’s Idea Could Help the World Avoid a Great Depression
While the White House and lawmakers haggle over the terms of an emergency economic-stabilization package, Denmark has gone big—very, very big—to defeat the unprecedented challenge of the coronavirus. This week, the Danish government told private companies hit by the effects of the pandemic that it would pay 75 percent of their employees’ salaries to avoid mass layoffs. The plan could require the government to spend as much as 13 percent of the national economy in three months. That is roughly the equivalent of a $2.5 trillion stimulus in the United States spread out over just 13 weeks. ... This response might strike some as a catastrophically ruinous overreaction. Perhaps for Denmark, it will be. But we are at a fragile moment in American history. The U.S. faces the sharpest economic downturn in a century, and statistics that seem impossibly pessimistic one moment look positively optimistic hours later. In weeks—even days—Denmark’s aggressive response could be a blueprint for how the world can avoid another Great Depression.
from Haaretz.com
'Trump Is Right About the Coronavirus. The WHO Is Wrong,' Says Israeli Expert
Dr. Dan Yamin has developed models for predicting the spread of infectious diseases, and helped curb the Ebola epidemic. He says the coronavirus could take some 13,000 lives in Israel – but there's cause for optimism
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from The Heritage Foundation
RIGHT BIAS, MIXED American conservative think tank based in Washington, D.C.
RIGHT BIAS, MIXED American conservative think tank based in Washington, D.C.
A Constitutional Guide to Emergency Powers
Depending on the epidemic’s progress, even more-draconian measures may be needed, such as restrictions on interstate and intrastate travel. The government has ample constitutional and legal authority to impose such emergency steps. Containing the COVID-19 epidemic will require citizens, states, private companies and the federal government to work together. One may hope the steps that have been taken so far will suffice. But emphasizing the sound constitutional and legal basis of these measures is important in reassuring the public that government can do what is necessary to secure the general welfare.
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from ProPublica
LEFT-CENTER BIAS, HIGH, Non-profit newsroom in New York
A Medical Worker Describes Terrifying Lung Failure From COVID-19 — Even in His Young Patients
“It first struck me how different it was when I saw my first coronavirus patient go bad. I was like, Holy shit, this is not the flu. Watching this relatively young guy, gasping for air, pink frothy secretions coming out of his tube.”
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LEFT-CENTER BIAS, HIGH, Non-profit newsroom in New York
A Medical Worker Describes Terrifying Lung Failure From COVID-19 — Even in His Young Patients
“It first struck me how different it was when I saw my first coronavirus patient go bad. I was like, Holy shit, this is not the flu. Watching this relatively young guy, gasping for air, pink frothy secretions coming out of his tube.”
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from The Province (British Columbia)
In a dire warning, physicians across the Lower Mainland are calling on the B.C. government to take more drastic measures, such as a lockdown, to stop the spread of the coronavirus and avoid a crisis like Italy. In a letter Saturday to provincial health officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry, Gerald Da Roza, head of medicine at Royal Columbian Hospital in New Westminster, says B.C. is on the same trajectory as Italy.
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from Psephizo (blog)
Ministry in this strange new land
We are living in disorienting days. As churches we have always worked hard to overcome social isolation, to overcome loneliness, to bring communities together. Now we must encourage people to keep apart, and not to come to worship except in the smallest of groups. There is a profound sense of exile in all this, and so it is that we can turn to the Scriptures for strength, as the Israelites, with their profound sense of place and of the centrality of the Temple, had to work out how to worship when the temple had been destroyed and they were distanced and isolated from all that was familiar. ‘How could we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?’ asks the Psalmist (137.4).
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from The Spokesman-Review
Newspaper in Spokane, Washington
Sue Lani Madsen: Travel in the age of coronavirus
This week's column, inspired by our surreal Vacation in the Time of Coronavirus. Interesting to see what sold out first (besides TP) as we traveled home from North Dakota through Montana. Friday morning we left for home and a different kind of unfamiliar territory. There will be a new normal. Universities, teachers and parents will discover new possibilities in distance learning. Knowledge-based businesses will discover ways to cut commuting and travel. Service and retail businesses will discover new services to offer. The possibilities are endless.
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Lessons from avian flu
Marvin Olasky: My book The Politics of Disaster came out in 2006 on the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. I had sections on what went wrong in New Orleans, what went right, how national disaster policy needed reform, how religious organizations could help, and how the United States could help with disaster abroad. The last section, titled “Disasters to come,” included chapters on earthquakes, nuclear terrorism, and pandemics. In the pandemics chapter, I noted good news—improved communications since 1918—and bad news: “worldwide air travel would quickly spread the disease.” I took the experience of avian flu and wrote, “The two-day typical influenza incubation period—the time from infection to visible illness—would allow those infected to transmit the virus during the day before they become ill.” I showed my lack of prophetic ability by not expecting that people who appear or are healthy would be able to transmit a new virus—not an avian one—for a long time. But read on, please.
Sue Lani Madsen: Travel in the age of coronavirus
This week's column, inspired by our surreal Vacation in the Time of Coronavirus. Interesting to see what sold out first (besides TP) as we traveled home from North Dakota through Montana. Friday morning we left for home and a different kind of unfamiliar territory. There will be a new normal. Universities, teachers and parents will discover new possibilities in distance learning. Knowledge-based businesses will discover ways to cut commuting and travel. Service and retail businesses will discover new services to offer. The possibilities are endless.
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from WORLD
Nonprofit Religious Organization based in Asheville, North CarolinaLessons from avian flu
Marvin Olasky: My book The Politics of Disaster came out in 2006 on the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. I had sections on what went wrong in New Orleans, what went right, how national disaster policy needed reform, how religious organizations could help, and how the United States could help with disaster abroad. The last section, titled “Disasters to come,” included chapters on earthquakes, nuclear terrorism, and pandemics. In the pandemics chapter, I noted good news—improved communications since 1918—and bad news: “worldwide air travel would quickly spread the disease.” I took the experience of avian flu and wrote, “The two-day typical influenza incubation period—the time from infection to visible illness—would allow those infected to transmit the virus during the day before they become ill.” I showed my lack of prophetic ability by not expecting that people who appear or are healthy would be able to transmit a new virus—not an avian one—for a long time. But read on, please.
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