What you need to know about the Moderna and Pfizer coronavirus vaccines

Both appear to be more than 90 percent effective in clinical trials and could begin to be available before the end of the year.

Click here to see the details of what you need to know in The Washington Post

 

The crisis that shocked the world: America’s response to the coronavirus

Dysfunctional politics, a lack of funding for public health and a rush to reopen the economy ignited the resurgence of the virus

The coronavirus outbreak in the U.S., E.U., Japan and Canada

Seven-day rolling average of new reported cases and deaths per 100,000 people,

March 1 to July 16

Cases

Deaths

20

1

19.6

U.S.

10

.5

.22

U.S.

.03

1.0

E.U.

Canada

.02

1.0

Canada

E.U.

0.3

.00

Japan

Japan

0

0

March 1

July 16

Note: U.S. deaths appear to spike on June 25 because New Jersey began to report probable coronavirus deaths.

Source: Johns Hopkins University, Post research

HARRY STEVENS/THE WASHINGTON POST

The United States may be heading toward a new spasm of wrenching economic shutdowns or to another massive spike in preventable deaths from covid-19 — or both.

Click here to the entire article in The Washington Post

The Demise of the American Empire By Emma Walsh, Managing Editor, Bill Bonner’s Diary Empires are like dazzling 4th of July fireworks. They shoot high… explode in a grand display of shock and awe… and then fall to the ground as burned out cinders. This week, our editor takes a look at where the American Empire is in the cycle… and what the future holds… Regards, Emma Walsh Managing Editor, Bill Bonner’s Diary Mobs and Big-Mouth Messiahs In America, things have gotten a little crazy. The statues continue to fall… and heavily armed militia roam the streets. But, says our editor, the U.S. won’t be the first country to go nuts… or the last.

I’ve Seen a Future Without Cars, and It’s Amazing

Why do American cities waste so much space on cars?

As coronavirus lockdowns crept across the globe this winter and spring, an unusual sound fell over the world’s metropolises: the hush of streets that were suddenly, blessedly free of cars. City dwellers reported hearing bird song, wind and the rustling of leaves. (Along with, in New York City, the intermittent screams of sirens.)

You could smell the absence of cars, too. From New York to Los Angeles to New Delhi, air pollution plummeted, and the soupy, exhaust-choked haze over the world’s dirtiest cities lifted to reveal brilliant blue skies.

Cars took a break from killing people, too. About 10 pedestrians die on New York City’s streets in an ordinary month. Under lockdown, the city went a record two months without a single pedestrian fatality. In California, vehicle collisions plummeted 50 percent, reducing accidents resulting in injuries or death by about 6,000 per month.

Click here to see the entire article by Farhad Manjoo in The New York Times

The Deadly Delusions of Mad King Donald

He won’t give up on a failing pandemic strategy.

I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling more and more as if we’re all trapped on the Titanic — except that this time around the captain is a madman who insists on steering straight for the iceberg. And his crew is too cowardly to contradict him, let alone mutiny to save the passengers.

A month ago it was still possible to hope that the push by Donald Trump and the Trumpist governors of Sunbelt states to relax social distancing and reopen businesses like restaurants and bars — even though we met none of the criteria for doing so safely — wouldn’t have completely catastrophic results.

Click here to see the entire article by Paul Krugman in The New York Times

2020 July 4th Independence Day Firecrackers

Email from Anne Kim

A North Korean Defector’s Tale Shows Rotting Military

By 

 and 

July 4, 2020, The Wall Street Journal

Roh Chol Min, who slipped across the fortified border, describes an army life of corruption, hunger—and dedication to ‘Supreme Leader’ Kim Jong Un

 

SEOUL—They were supposed to represent North Korea’s fighting elite. Dispatched to Korea’s demilitarized zone roughly three years ago, Roh Chol Min was a new recruit on the front lines. He sized up his fellow 46 soldiers in the unit and saw men like himself: tall, young and connected.

Mr. Roh had won the coveted position, in the late summer of 2017, owing to his sharpshooting skills and height; at 5-feet-8-inches he is unusually tall for North Korea. But when he attended his first target practice, he was stunned. Nobody else had bothered to show up. His compatriots had bribed senior officers to avoid the drill.

What Mr. Roh came to learn—and what ultimately drove him to defect to South Korea—was a distinction that separated him from his elite comrades. Unlike them, he lacked the money to buy better treatment, faster promotions, reprieve from training and even enough food to keep from going hungry. “I saw no future for myself,” he says.

Click here to see the entire story in The Wall Street Journal

The Mystery of High Stock Prices

Why is the market doing so well when the economy is doing so poorly?

By Steven Rattner

Mr. Rattner served as counselor to the Treasury secretary in the Obama administration.

• July 3, 2020, The New York Times

Brendan Mcdermid/Reuters

From the Department of Curiosities: On Tuesday, as the number of new coronavirus cases continued to spike to record levels, the stock market closed out its strongest quarter in more than two decades.

That was just one stop for the equity markets on a spring roller coaster ride, three months that saw the fastest 30 percent decline in stock prices in history, followed by the fastest 50-day increase on record.

Click here to see the entire article in The New York Times

A Cheap, Simple Way to Control the Coronavirus

With easy-to-use tests, everyone can check themselves every day.

By Laurence J. Kotlikoff and Michael Mina

Mr. Kotlikoff is a professor of economics at Boston University and Dr. Mina is an assistant professor of epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

• July 3, 2020, The New York Times

One of the new at-home paper-strip tests for the coronavirus, licensed from the Wyss Institute at Harvard, that is being developed by Sherlock Biosciences.Credit...Wyss Institute at Harvard University

Simple at-home tests for the coronavirus, some that involve spitting into a small tube of solution, could be the key to expanding testing and impeding the spread of the pandemic. The Food and Drug Administration should encourage their development and then fast track approval.

One variety, paper-strip tests, are inexpensive and easy enough to make that Americans could test themselves every day. You would simply spit into a tube of saline solution and insert a small piece of paper embedded with a strip of protein. If you are infected with enough of the virus, the strip will change color within 15 minutes.

Click here to see the entire article in The New York Times