The News Explained

The News Explained is a brief look back at the most consequential news from last week with a view to putting them in context. Published every Monday, The News Explained retells each of the selected stories, adds a little perspective, and gives directions as to where things may be headed.

For the foreseeable future, the coronavirus pandemic will be a prominent fixture of the news. In the week ending March 29, 2020, the virus infected and killed thousands of people across the world. More than a billion people were also confined to their homes on government orders in an attempt to contain the outbreak. But, in the past seven days, the outbreak expanded most rapidly in America.

United States, now epicenter of coronavirus pandemic, desperate for foreign help

Not long ago, US officials were speaking about Iran’s battle with its coronavirus epidemic as though it was a desperate fight. No cases had been detected in America at the time and US officials sounded blissful. And ignorant. In a matter of weeks, and as US officials enjoyed standing by and hurling ridicule, the virus reached and multiplied across America enough many times to make it the world’s worst-hit country, surpassing former epicenters China and Italy just like that.

Epidemics often spread fast. Still, the pace of the spread in America was extraordinary. Cases jumped tenfold only in one week. The US must have been woefully unprepared and stubbornly slow to respond.

And it was. President Donald Trump had until recently been denying the acute threat from the virus and had been calling estimations of a serious epidemic “a Democratic hoax.”

With 141,000 cases and some 2,400 deaths across America as of Sunday, March 29, 2020, Mr. Trump has been accused of fiddling while Rome burns. He has faced harsh criticism for his persistent refusal to invoke an emergency law to speed up the production of masks and other protective equipment. He has rigidly refused to impose a lockdown on the New York area, where a third of the country’s known infections have been recorded. And his former presidential rival, Hillary Clinton, has taken a bitter jab at him by citing America’s rise to the top of the list of the world’s coronavirus pandemic.

US health workers say grappling with lack of protective equipment amid fight with coronavirus

US healthcare workers say they desperately grappling with shortages of masks, gowns and other equipment they need to protect themselves while working at hospitals to take care of patients suffering from the highly contagious coronavirus infection.

It is a very dire situation.

The World Health Organization (WHO) — which regards the whole of Europe as the coronavirus pandemic’s current epicenter — has warned that the US could gain that status.

Anthony Fauci, who has been the director of the US’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984, said on Sunday that up to 200,000 Americans could die of the disease and millions could get sick.

Mr. Trump’s initial response and public assertions clearly indicated that the gravity of the crisis did not register with him in time. Now, word has come out that his administration is pressuring governments in Europe and Eurasia to ramp up exports of medical equipment to the US to make up for the administrative failure in responding to the pandemic so far.

According to the Foreign Policy magazine, Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs David Hale has asked all officials at embassies across Europe and Eurasia to report on what foreign countries would be able to sell “critical medical supplies and equipment” to the US.

US appeals for foreign aid as coronavirus crisis deepens

The United States launches a desperate diplomatic campaign to fill major shortcomings in the country’s medical system amid a rising death toll from the coronavirus.

And Mr. Trump himself has privately sought to enlist South Korea’s help.

It was unclear how much assistance the US could redirect to itself. Epidemics always cause tragedies. People lose loved ones; parents and children perish; families break up; national images get shattered. And yet, governments can limit the number of lives that perish by moving fast. America, it seems, has lost much precious time.

Have a great week, and help your government by staying home!

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