Viewpoints: Shut Down All States For Starters In Order To Protect Everyone; Spread Honest, Responsible Public Health Information

The Washington Post: Here’s How To Make Up For Lost Time On Covid-19
There’s no question the United States missed the opportunity to get ahead of the novel coronavirus. But the window for making important decisions hasn’t closed. The choices we and our leaders make now will have an enormous impact on how soon case numbers start to go down, how long the economy remains shut down and how many Americans will have to bury a loved one because of covid-19. Through my work with the Gates Foundation, I’ve spoken with experts and leaders in Washington and across the country. It’s become clear to me that we must take three steps. First, we need a consistent nationwide approach to shutting down. (Bill Gates, 3/31)

Sun-Sentinel: What Gov. Ron DeSantis Doesn’t Get About The Coronavirus Pandemic
Like President Trump, Florida’s governor worried too much about the economy and not enough about public health. Gov. DeSantis rode into Palm Beach County on Monday, boasting, “We’re going guns blazing, doing all that we can to slow the spread of COVID-19.” In fact, DeSantis has brought only a knife to this gunfight. He’s listening to the wrong people and doesn’t understand the problem. (Randy Schultz, 3/31)

The Washington Post: Maybe Republicans Will At Least Listen To Their Governors
Let’s face it, there are voters who will believe whatever President Trump says, no matter how illogical, patently false or self-contradictory his pronouncements may be. Creating a parallel reality, of course, is how he got elected. Many elected Republicans will pretend to believe Trump for fear of incurring his wrath. And politically disengaged voters may be happy to get unemployment checks and other benefits without holding the president responsible for making the virus deadlier with his ignorance and sloth in January and February. That does not mean Trump will escape blame for the pandemic unfolding before our eyes, a pandemic that has now killed more Americans than terrorists did on 9/11 and is projected to kill more Americans than have died in multiple U.S. wars. There are powerful forces diminishing Trump’s spin: Republican governors who are doing valiant work. (Jennifer Rubin, 3/31)

The New York Times: I’m A Red-State Mayor And I Ordered My City To Stay Home
On Saturday, Tulsa, Okla., and Oklahoma City joined 43 of the nation’s 50 largest cities in America that had ordered residents to “shelter in place.” The public response was swift and intense. Many people thanked me for taking action to save lives in our community. Others compared me to Hitler. That is what it is like to be a mayor in red-state America during this crisis. (G.T. Bynum, 4/1)

Los Angeles Times: Coronavirus: Trump Isn't First President To Face Pandemic. He Is The Worst
Donald Trump isn’t the first U.S. president to face a deadly new pathogen that wreaks havoc on American life and the wider world. But he may be the least suited for the challenge, a judgment based on how a handful of his predecessors confronted these invisible and terrifying foes. (J.M. Opal and Steven M. Opal, 4/1)

The Hill: Good Communication Will Help Beat COVID-19
Weeks into the COVID-19 crisis, the U.S. population needs accurate information on the virus, but we are still struggling to get it right. The way that officials, leaders, and experts talk with the public during this crisis matters because it could mean the difference between life and death. (Dr. Jonathan Fielding, 3/31)

CNN: Donald Trump Can't Face The Stubborn Reality: He Was Wrong About Coronavirus 
At the daily coronavirus press conference on Monday night, CNN's Jim Acosta asked President Donald Trump about his past comments that downplayed the threat posed by the coronavirus. "If you look at those individual statements, they're all true," Trump responded. "Stay calm, it will go away. You know it -- you know it is going away, and it will go away, and we're going to have a great victory." (Chris Cillizza, 3/31)

Stat: Lessons From A Different War For Preventing Moral Injury In Clinicians
One week after President George W. Bush declared war in Iraq in 2003, I was deployed there as an Army nurse. During my year in the war, I kept a daily journal of the fear I experienced and the injuries and deaths I witnessed. But on the last day of my deployment, I ripped it up and threw it away. Now that I’m in the fight against a different and invisible enemy, the SARS-CoV-2 virus, in a major medical center in the Northeast, I wish I still had that journal. (Rachel E. Smith, 4/1)

Stat: A Radical Approach To Preventing Covid-19 Infection In The Homeless
There is only a small window of time in which we can prevent widespread transmission of Covid-19 among people who are living on the streets or in shelters. Once the disease begins to spread in these groups, it will likely accelerate rapidly and be uncontainable, creating a crisis for the homeless and the entire community. This will undermine all efforts to slow the pace of the epidemic and will increase the disastrous consequences of Covid-19.We offer a radical solution: Use suddenly empty and available living spaces — empty dorm and hotel rooms, abandoned offices — to provide safe, private housing for individuals and families who are living on the street or in shelters. (Miriam Komaromy and Michael Botticelli, 3/31)

Bloomberg: Coronavirus: Italy Shows We May Be Underestimating Death Toll
The Covid-19 epidemic is a fight with an invisible enemy. What’s also worrying is that we just don’t know how bad the disease really is. Many people wonder whether we’re overestimating its deadliness, since countries find it impossible to test those with few or no symptoms. The case fatality rate is the ratio of coronavirus deaths to the number of infected patients. If we underestimate the latter, the detected fatality rate will look much higher than the real one. That’s why there’s such huge interest in scientific models that suggest the overall infection rate is far in excess of the official numbers. If that were true, the mortality rate across the population would fall to less worrying levels. (Ferdinando Giugliano, 4/1)

The New York Times: When Will Social Distancing Let Up?
On Sunday, President Trump heeded the warnings of public-health officials and walked back his plan to lift social distancing guidelines by Easter. Instead, all Americans have been instructed to continue to avoid nonessential travel, going to work, drinking and eating at bars and restaurants, or gathering in groups of more than 10 for another month, and perhaps even longer.But how much longer? Here are a few timelines that public-health experts and journalists have proposed for when and how life might start to regain at least a semblance of normalcy. (Spencer Bokat-Lindell, 3/31)