Viewpoints: Pros, Cons Of Governors’ Responses To COVID-19 In Absence Of National Plan; Pointing The Finger At China Is A Waste Of Time

The Wall Street Journal: Grading The State Virus Response 
The government response to the coronavirus has been a tale of 50 states as much as Washington, but most media attention focuses on the White House. Readers therefore might appreciate a comparative look at how state governors have handled the pandemic and especially as they reopen their economies at different times and ways. The ratings come from the Committee to Unleash Prosperity and were put together by economist Art Laffer, Steve Moore of the Heritage Foundation, market analyst Phil Kerpen and journalist John Fund. The results will be released Monday but we got an early look. (5/3)

The Washington Post: The Path To Reopening Is Clear. Our National Strategy Is Not. 
May Day brought expiration of the federal social distancing guidance, and as more than half the states began to lift their restrictions, the United States plunged forward in the pandemic without a national strategy. Instead, we have an uneven patchwork of local decisions and a population divided, fatigued, wary and still highly susceptible to the novel coronavirus while suffering massive economic losses. This is a moment to remember what we know, what works and the right way forward. What works is social distancing to break the chains of transmission of a virus that leaps from person to person. We know it works because the early, explosive growth of new infections has slowed. But new infections and deaths are not yet on a downward slope. Every day, 2,000 lives are being lost. It is too soon to return willy-nilly to crowded places or to drop vigilance about masks, hand-washing and discretionary travel. (5/2)

The Washington Post: Trump Can’t Blame China For His Own Coronavirus Failures
The 1918 influenza epidemic, which killed 50 million to 100 million people around the world, is now known as the “Spanish flu.” But it most likely started in Haskell County, Kan., and it was spread around the world by U.S. soldiers initially infected at Camp Funston in Kansas. It should be known as the “American flu” or “Kansas flu.” The influenza became a global pandemic in no small part because U.S. officials failed to warn their own citizens — or the world. (Max Boot, 5/3)

CNN: While George W. Bush Pleads For Unity, Donald Trump Plays Coronavirus Victim
On Saturday, former President George W. Bush released a short, heartfelt video offering words of support for a nation rocked by a staggering loss of lives and livelihoods during the coronavirus pandemic... Come Sunday morning, President Donald Trump shared his view on the video in which he, true to form, made it all about himself and his grievances. (Deal Obeidallah, 5/3)

The Wall Street Journal: The Cruel Covid ‘New Normal’
The Covid-19 epidemic continues to expand in some 20 states. The number of new cases in New York City is slowing, but the picture is different elsewhere in the nation. America has hovered around 30,000 new daily infections and 2,000 deaths for almost a month. Yet the number of days it takes for infections to double has improved, from less than a week in hot spots to almost a month nationally. This represents progress. But everyone thought we’d be in a better place after weeks of sheltering in place and bringing the economy to a near standstill. Mitigation hasn’t failed; social distancing and other measures have slowed the spread. But the halt hasn’t brought the number of new cases and deaths down as much as expected or stopped the epidemic from expanding. (Scott Gottlieb, 5/3)

NBC News: Trump's Coronavirus Testing Blueprint Isn't Enough. Let's Fix This Before We Open America.
On April 26, the White House presented a "testing blueprint," an addendum to the Guidelines for Opening Up America Again announced two weeks ago. It came after weeks of pressure from public health experts and state leaders asking for a national testing strategy. The plan is an important step — in fact, it's the first comprehensive acknowledgment by President Donald Trump and his coronavirus task force that we need to do better on testing. But just like the earlier guidelines, it falls short on the details. (Dr. Ashish Jha, 5/4)

Stat: Ventilators Will Sit Unused Without A National Data-Sharing Plan 
In Nobel laureate Amartya Sen’s book “Poverty and Famines,” he argues that famines arise not from a lack of food, but from a system that promotes unequal distribution of existing food. That logic easily applies to shortages of ventilators and other medical supplies for fighting Covid-19. (Jayson Marwaha, John D. Halamka and Gabriel Brat, 5/4)

Boston Globe: Federal Government Needs To Change How It Releases Unemployment Data 
In the sweeping economic crisis fueled by the coronavirus pandemic, women and people of color are being hit particularly hard. Industries that disproportionately employ them — restaurant, hospitality, and services — were among the first to face large-scale layoffs. Statistics from 17 states show that during the first weeks of the coronavirus crisis, in all 17 states women became the majority of employment seekers. (Susan Smith Richardson and Xanthe Scharff, 4/30)

The New York Times: Covid-19’s Race And Class Warfare
People — mostly white, sometimes armed, occasionally carrying Confederate flags or hoisting placards emblazoned with a Nazi slogan from the Holocaust — have been loudly protesting to push their state governments to reopen business and spaces before enough progress has been made to contain the coronavirus. This is yet another illustration of the race and class divide this pandemic has illuminated in this country.For some, a reopened economy and recreational landscape will mean the option to run a business, return to work, go to the park or beach, or have a night on the town at a nice restaurant or swanky bar. But for many on the lower rungs of the economic ladder, it will only force them back into compulsory exposure to more people, often in occupations that make it hard to protect oneself and that pay little for the risk. (Charles M. Blow, 5/3)

CNN: The Pandemic Offers Chance To Transform The US' Cruel Policies Toward Poor People
Out of the wreckage of World War II, the United States worked with other countries to proclaim, in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, that "freedom from fear and want" are people's highest aspirations. Seventy-two years later, with a pandemic laying waste to lives and livelihoods, the world is again gripped by fear and want. In the United States, the world's wealthiest nation, the coronavirus is laying bare the dire consequences of policies that have led to widespread poverty and inequality. (Alston, Rev. William Barber and Rev. Liz Theoharis, 4/30)

The Hill: COVID-19 Has Exposed The Interlocking Risks Of Mass Incarceration
The rapid spread of COVID-19 among the nation’s prison populations presents us with three interlocking, and to some degree, conflicting risks: Prison health, public health and public safety. Reducing prison population density is urgently needed to address the first two challenges while the third might be aggravated by prematurely releasing individuals who pose a risk to the community. Fortunately, we have assessment tools that, if properly used, could substantially mitigate safety concerns while protecting the lives of inmates and correctional staff and limiting the impact on already strained health systems. (Brent Orrell and Grant Duwe, 4/30)