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Sohn: We can’t beat COVID-19 without ‘good’ government, but we sure can’t beat it with ‘bad’ government

This undated electron microscope image made available by the U.S. National Institutes of Health in February 2020 shows the Novel Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. Also known as 2019-nCoV, the virus causes COVID-19. The sample was isolated from a patient in the U.S. (NIAID-RML via AP)
This undated electron microscope image made available by the U.S. National Institutes of Health in February 2020 shows the Novel Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. Also known as 2019-nCoV, the virus causes COVID-19. The sample was isolated from a patient in the U.S. (NIAID-RML via AP)

By Pam Sohn 5 min read

For answers to frequently asked questions about coronavirus, click here.

Nothing has made the case for why we need good government more than the new and novel coronavirus known as COVID-19.

In late January, when China had nearly 10,000 confirmed cases and the World Health Organization had just declared the outbreak there a “global health emergency,” a journalist with Vox asked a simple question: How does the coronavirus outbreak end?

Then, the answer was hopeful. By identifying and isolating the sick, the virus could be kept from spreading in communities around the globe. After all, that’s what happened with the 2003 SARS outbreak.

But now – with 118,252 confirmed cases and 4,262 deaths worldwide – experts say that outlook seems impossible. Currently there are more than 959 confirmed cases in the United States, with at least seven in Tennessee and 17 in Georgia.