There’s No Masking This

One of the symbolic patients currently on a metaphoric ventilator is America and role its the world. WaPo: The U.S. traditionally leads in times of crisis. Now it’s practicing self-isolation. “As America’s rivals make gestures of support for other nations stricken by the coronavirus, the United States is losing the geopolitical contest prompted by the epidemic … To the extent that the United States has engaged with the rest of the world on the coronavirus issue, it has mostly been to trade barbs with rivals over what name should be used to describe the virus — Trump insists on calling it the ‘Chinese virus’ — and who is to blame for its spread.”

+ “It’s more glaring than Pearl Harbor and 9/11.” FP: The Coronavirus Is the Worst Intelligence Failure in U.S. History. (In this case, both definitions of “intelligence” work equally well.)

+ Tim Cook says Apple has sourced 10 million masks. (What’s sadder, that we need 10 million masks in a super power with the world’s most costly health care system, or that a tech company is kicking the shit out of our federal government?)

Michael Lewis: “The nation that led the data revolution, that invented the job title of “data scientist,” that has held up better data analysis as the key to smartening up everything from political campaigns to baseball teams is now, at its moment of greatest peril, without data.”

+ Protesters in Mexico block lanes at Arizona border crossing to demand stricter coronavirus screenings. (Mexico may pay for a wall after all…)