About a month ago, I prepared for COVID-19, then just known as the coronavirus, by refilling some essential heart medications I was worried might run out if there were serious supply chain disruptions. The pills were for my cat -- I figured it was better to be safe than sorry. And now that coronavirus has spread to well over 50 countries, more and more people are confronting the question of how much preparation is enough, whether for themselves or those people and pets relying on them. Experts

When it comes to infectious disease outbreaks, we just haven’t learned. It’s not as if we weren’t warned. Last year, a report by the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board, a body put together by the World Health Organization and the World Bank Group, said that there was “a very real threat of a rapidly moving, highly lethal pandemic of a respiratory pathogen killing 50 to 80 million people and wiping out nearly 5 percent of the world’s economy.” A pandemic on

The Italian government has announced a stimulus package of 3.6 billion euros ($4 billion) to help the economy cope with the Coronavirus outbreak. The response appears timely and proportionate. Rome can always add to the stimulus later -- provided the financial markets allow it. Roberto Gualtieri, minister of finance, said in an interview Sunday that he was looking at a three-step plan to support companies and workers. Italy is the European country most affected country by the COVID-19 epidemic,

On the eve of the ceremony to sign an agreement with the US to begin peace negotiations, the Taliban declared it had already won. “This is a day of victory,” said Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai, a Taliban negotiator. “Victory has come with the help of God.” In one sense, this crowing seems premature. While it’s true that the US intends to reduce its troop presence from more than 12,000 to 8,600, further withdrawals are conditioned on the Taliban adhering to its co

The economic damage from the coronavirus epidemic has prompted calls for Europe to relax its fiscal rules to allow governments to cut taxes and increase spending. The European Commission seems to agree: Paolo Gentiloni, its economy czar, has hinted that affected governments -- such as Italy -- may enjoy some budget “flexibility” to deal with the emergency.　 Granting more leeway is a welcome step, but it’s only a second-best approach. The virus risks affecting some countries mu

Pandemics come and pandemics go. In the grip of a new infection spreading around a planet with no natural immunity, it can feel like the sky is falling. Over the coming months, it’s likely that a significant share of the world’s population will experience some of the dread of the COVID-19 coronavirus that people in China have suffered over the past few months. Many will die. Still, the likely end-point of this outbreak will see it settle down as an endemic disease -- one of the sui

The coronavirus called COVID-19 has spread beyond its origin in Wuhan, China, and has arrived on U.S. shores. I’m a law professor, not an epidemiologist, so my thoughts immediately turned to how the law would shape America’s collective response to a broader pandemic -- and what the government’s power will mean for individual rights under the Constitution. It’s a question that could soon become an urgent one -- I recently interviewed Marc Lipsitch, the brilliant epidemiol

The US has a global military footprint that is second to none, and one of the most visible aspects of that footprint is a worldwide network of bases. From Japan to the UK, America’s overseas installations allow it to shape events thousands of miles from US shores. Critics have long argued that basing troops abroad also creates anti-American sentiment, making Washington’s worldwide presence toxic and self-defeating. A recent study turns this critique on its head, showing that foreign

Scientific models show a reasonably high probability that the Wuhan coronavirus will accelerate in its spread outside of China. That’s concerning, to say the least. But even as the news gets darker, the tone of news coverage is swinging the wrong way, offering too much false reassurance. It’s extremely unlikely to turn into a nightmare scenario ripped from movies like “Contagion.” It isn’t an immediate threat to most people’s lives. But if it spreads widely a

Beijing is throwing all it’s got at the coronavirus. Less visible than the drama of quarantining communities, however, is the new pressure that the outbreak is bringing on China Inc.’s hard-up borrowers. They face $944 billion of debt maturities onshore and $90 billion offshore this year. Authorities are going back to their old playbook of spewing handouts to get them through. The costs will add billions of dollars of debt and cripple an already weakened financial system. It may be d

Like many of you, I’m sure, I read Ross Douthat’s essay on “The Age of Decadence” in Sunday’s New York Times while sprawled on a chaise, picking at my smashed avo and laudanum. Stirring from the languor, I wondered: How does energy fit with this thesis? Our energy system is decadent at a fundamental level. Roughly four-fifths of what is called primary energy consumption comes from burning fossil fuels, and thermodynamics ensure the majority of that kind of “c

On Sunday night, there was widespread rejoicing when the South Korean film “Parasite” received the Academy Award for best picture along with several other awards. Not only was this the first such win for a movie in a language other than English, but to many it represented a long-sought victory for Korean popular culture. It’s not the first such victory. In the past decade, Korean music and TV shows have exploded in global popularity. The Korean band BTS is the first since the

Sinn Fein’s electoral smash in Ireland is a historic moment for a party that has long had difficulty shaking off its past ties to the sectarian violence of the “troubles.” It’s clear that the party’s new leader and a policy platform based around fixing the country’s housing crisis and improving public services have struck a chord with the public. That was especially true with the under-35s, for whom peace in Ireland has been the norm rather than the exception.

Fears that the coronavirus will ravage global supply chains rooted in China are spreading fast. For automakers, a hiatus from production in the world’s largest car market may force them to take some needed rebalancing. Provinces that extended the Lunar New Year holiday period include Guangdong, which accounts for 12.8 percent of light vehicle production, and Hubei, where the outbreak’s epicenter Wuhan is located. Hubei, in central China, chalks up 9 percent of Chinese auto producti

“Remember when we all believed in Emmanuel Macron?” The question comes not from an angry trade unionist but a stand-up comedian in central Paris, facing a crowd of 30-something urbanites cut from the same cloth as France’s 42-year-old president. A collective groan of “yes” rises from the audience, many of whom spent the winter struggling through transport strikes triggered by a flagship pension reform that crippled the city. Only one dismissive “no!” rin

Every society in the world is going to pay a price for global warming. But it’s the poorest countries and communities who will suffer the most from rising seas and burning lands -- and likely also from any drastic measures taken to prevent climate change. The environmental crisis is closely linked to the humanitarian one, and requires the joint action of climate and human rights activists. They’d seem to be natural allies. They both regard (with good reason) today’s situation

Outside China, Thailand has the largest number of patients infected by the novel coronavirus. Unfortunately, the export-reliant $500 billion economy, Southeast Asia’s second-largest, was sickly even before the outbreak of the pneumonia-like illness. That reflects simultaneous blows from the Sino-US trade war, the worst drought in decades and a stubbornly strong currency. Add in Beijing’s newly imposed restrictions on Chinese travelers, who account for the lion’s share of arriva

Airlines are perpetually on the alert against crashes. That doesn’t mean the coronavirus epidemic will lead to any corporate disasters. The outbreak that originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan could push some airlines in Asia to the wall, according to Alan Joyce, chief executive officer of Australia’s biggest carrier Qantas Airways. “A lot of airlines may not be able to keep some of these operations going,” he told Bloomberg News. “It’s survival of the fitte

How do you turn a disease outbreak into an epidemic? The best way might be to mix infected people with the healthy for long periods in crowded conditions, and then move them around to new locations. That’s worrying, because that more or less describes the situation of many people at the center of China’s coronavirus outbreak. Yang Zhongyi, a 53-year-old woman in Wuhan with feverish symptoms, has been unable to get full-time admission to hospitals or testing in the city for two week

A cap on Samsung Electronics’s weight in a Korean equity index could kick in earlier than planned, triggering fears that billions of dollars will exit the stock.Instead of the bi-annual adjustment, the Korea Exchange is considering putting a 30 percent limit on Samsung’s weighting on the Kospi 200 Index earlier due to the stock’s recent rally, said Ahn Kil-Hyun, the manager of the team that oversees the index. Given the gauge’s popularity among passive funds, research pro