4 Coronavirus Crisis

The Coronavirus Crisis: Additional Reading and Resources

State & Local

Abbott put politics before science, and Texas is paying the price, San Antonio Express-News, June 26, 2020

The Coronavirus Surge That Texas Could Have Seen Coming, the New Yorker, June 26, 2020. In the weeks leading up to the state’s reopening, there were plenty of signs, but not the will to read them.

Gov. Abbott calls coronavirus surge ’unacceptable,’ urges Texans to wear masks in public, San Antonio Express-News, June 22, 2020. “As other states continue to see their cases dwindle, Texas is skyrocketing because of Gov. Abbott’s weak leadership and botched reopening of the state.”

As Problems Grow With Abbott’s Fast COVID Test, FDA Standards Are Under Fire, Kaiser Health News, June 22, 2020

Request for an opinion regarding facial covering mandates in courtrooms, courthouses and other county buildings during the COVID-19 disaster, County Attorney, Harris County, Texas, to the Attorney General of Texas, June 12, 2020. This is a request from Harris County to the Texas Attorney General for an opinion regarding facial covering mandates in courtrooms, courthouses and other county buildings during the COVID-19 disaster. It is a useful summary of the confusion created by the weak guidance issued by the governor for general management of the virus in public.

National

UNSANITIZED: THE COVID-19 DAILY REPORT, The American Prospect. Daily articles with in-depth analyses of the science, culture, economics and politics of COVID-19. A good source for current legislative action/non-action by Congress.

How McKinsey Is Making $100 Million (and Counting) Advising on the Government’s Bumbling Coronavirus Response, ProPublica, July 15, 2020. For the world’s best-known corporate-management consultants, helping tackle the pandemic has been a bonanza. It’s not clear what the government has gotten in return.

Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Defense (JPEO-CBRND) is the military logistics organizations that President Trump chose to manage the development and delivery of a coronavirus vaccine. JPEO-CBRND describes its core focus areas, which "contribute to building a more lethal force, a priority in the National Defense Strategy, and streamline JPEO-CBRND efforts to meet the Joint Service’s needs in combating chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) threats."

International

The Pandemic’s Toll on Women: COVID-19 Is Gender-Blind, But Not Gender-Neutral, by Melinda Gates, Foreign Affairs, July 15, 2020

fa_the_world_after_coronavirus.pdfThe World After the Pandemic, Foreign Affairs, July/August 2020. A series of essays about the unnecessary crisis of the pandemic and what it says about global cooperation and our ability to address future problems. "....the United States’ early response was hampered not just by poor leadership and federalism but also by a lack of common social purpose....(the authors note) a similar trend at the international level—a global rush to closure, self-help, and scapegoating rather than multilateralism. In country after country, politicians unable to defend their own records have tried to deflect attention onto scary, evil foreigners, helping drive an emerging conviction that the real culprit in the crisis is globalization. The only way to reduce vulnerability, they say, is to cut ties to the rest of the world....In truth, what is killing us is not connection; it is connection without cooperation. And the cure is not isolation but deeper connection, the kind that can support collective action. The doctors and scientists around the world have acted differently: reaching out to one another, pooling their talents and resources, and showing what a true global community could look like. Perhaps that’s why so many politicians have tried to muzzle them."

NIH’s axing of bat coronavirus grant a ‘horrible precedent’ and might break rules, critics say, Science Magazine, April 30, 2020. "The agency axed the grant last week, after conservative U.S. politicians and media repeatedly suggested—without evidence—that the pandemic severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) escaped from a laboratory in Wuhan, China, that employs a Chinese virologist who had been receiving funding from the grant. The (American and Chinese research) alliance’s grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, titled “Understanding the risk of bat coronavirus emergence,” was launched in 2014 and renewed for 5 years in 2019 after receiving an outstanding peer-review score

"....the United States’ early response was hampered not just by poor leadership and federalism but also by a lack of common social purpose....(the authors note) a similar trend at the international level—a global rush to closure, self-help, and scapegoating rather than multilateralism. In country after country, politicians unable to defend their own records have tried to deflect attention onto scary, evil foreigners, helping drive an emerging conviction that the real culprit in the crisis is globalization. The only way to reduce vulnerability, they say, is to cut ties to the rest of the world....In truth, what is killing us is not connection; it is connection without cooperation. And the cure is not isolation but deeper connection, the kind that can support collective action. The doctors and scientists around the world have acted differently: reaching out to one another, pooling their talents and resources, and showing what a true global community could look like. Perhaps that’s why so many politicians have tried to muzzle them."
~Gideon Rose, Editor, Foreign Affairs, July/August 2020