12 NEWS Best columns: The U.S.
GettyQA New Mexico woman’s
feud with her neighbor esca-
lated into the alleged theft of
her antagonist’s laboratory
skeleton. Police say Dina
Hogrebe readily confessed
to swiping the replica bones
from her neighbor’s home,
saying she could not abide
how neighbor Joseph Downs
had posed the skeleton’s
hand to look as if it were
flipping her the bird. She
charges that Downs drove
her mad with a campaign
of harassment that included
shooting off a propane can-
non and playing music loudly
at all hours. “I just, you know,
had it,” said Hogrebe. “It was
like the last straw that broke
the camel’s back.”
QA French
chocolatier
has created
a confection-
ery replica
of the new
corona-
virus using
a milk chocolate sphere
and red-colored almonds.
Jean-François Pré said he
designed the tongue-in-
cheek Easter egg after seeing
a 3D representation of the
virus. He works out of a pas-
try shop in western France
located on a street that is
ironically named after Louis
Pasteur, whose work proved
that germs cause disease. “In
these times of worry,” Pré
said, “a smile is often a way
to overcome our fears.”
QA British motorist named
Astin Martin has been
banned from driving after
being caught doing 93 mph
in a 30 mph zone while
leading police on a dramatic
chase. Mar tin, 30, whose full
name is Astin Mar tin O’Brien,
pleaded guilty to dangerous
driving for his escapade,
which ended when he
crashed his Ford Fiesta into a
wall. “He might be called As-
tin Mar tin, but he’s no James
Bond,” said North um bria Po-
lice Super in ten dent Helena
Barron, “and he’ll need to get
used to public transport for
the time being.”It must be true...
I read it in the tabloidsThe coronavirus pandemic will “crush” the restaurant industry, said
Derek Thompson, and the impact on the entire economy will be dev-
astating. “Americans now spend more at restaurants than at grocery
stores,” and today as many people are employed in food service as in
manufacturing. Restaurants have become the lifeblood of many commu-
nities, including big cities. Now social distancing rules are shutting res-
taurants of all kinds, and limiting others to takeout service. More than
3 million waiters and waitresses may lose their jobs virtually overnight.
“Already operating at paper-thin margins,” restaurants suffering partial
or total loss of revenues still have to make their rent and loan payments.
Soon, “the entire global leisure and retail economy” will face “mass
layoffs, mass bankruptcy, or both.” Only massive federal intervention
in the form of grants and cheap loans can keep restaurants from going
broke; we also need a direct infusion of $1 trillion in cash to American
consumers, so they can continue to keep ordering takeout until the crisis
ends. If we don’t act now, most restaurants will be out of business on
that happy day when we can safely return to sharing meals in public.As the coronavirus spreads, we can’t overlook one of our most vulner-
able populations, said Amanda Klonsky: the 2.3 million Americans
under incarceration. Life under lockup is no quarantine: Jails get a
daily influx of staffers, vendors, and visitors who “carry viral condi-
tions at the prison back to their homes and communities and return
the next day packing the germs from back home.” They bring them to
overcrowded inmates who often have chronic health problems, share
bathrooms and eating areas, and may lack hand sanitizer and soap.
Breakouts of coronavirus are certain, and given the constant turnover
of prisoners, that puts at risk “anyone with a jail in their community.”
Visitors to federal lockups have been barred, but much broader mea-
sures are needed. Prison populations should be reduced by using cita-
tions instead of arrests for low-level crimes, and by releasing as many
pretrial detainees and at-risk individuals as possible. Aging inmates,
who are especially vulnerable and have low recidivism rates, should
be considered for “medical furloughs or compassionate release.” Any
prisoner who contracts the virus “should be offered immediate ac-
cess to free, high-quality health care.” To do anything less would be
inhumane—and “will endanger us all.”China’s dominance of the pharmaceutical supply chain “is highly dan-
gerous to the U.S.,” said Rik Mehta. Most of our medicine used to be
manufactured in the U.S., at plants in New Jersey, but drug making
was among the many industries that moved offshore, with 80 percent
of pharmaceutical ingredients now manufactured in China. This was
“a national security concern” all along, but the coronavirus pandemic
has made it emphatically clear why it’s so foolish to depend on another
country— particularly one with which we have serious trade and politi-
cal tensions—for lifesaving medications. Federal officials have warned of
possible shortages of some drugs due to supply-chain problems caused
by factory shutdowns in China. Generic antibiotics, for example, are
now entirely made in China. In the event of a trade-war escalation or
a diplomatic rupture in our relationship with Beijing, imagine the dam-
age China’s autocrats could do by cutting off all antibiotics. “The more
fraught U.S.-China tensions become,” the more vulnerable Americans
are. President Trump has called on U.S. companies to move manufactur-
ing back home, and drug companies should heed that call as soon as
possible. “Now is the time to preempt the next public health emergency.”Restaurants
will be
first casualties
Derek Thompson
TheAtlantic.com
Depending on
China’s
medications
Rik Mehta
WashingtonExaminer.com
Prisons could
see a viral
nightmare
Amanda Klonsky
The New York Times
“Many of us are getting a hard lesson in our ability to assess threats. Utah
Jazz star Rudy Gobert mocked the advice to keep a safe distance from peo-
ple, joking around by touching every microphone and recording device before him during a press
conference last week. Gobert tested positive for the virus two days later, which forced the cancella-
tion of that night’s game. Later that night, the NBA suspended the season. We want to laugh in the
face of danger and demonstrate our fearlessness. Sometimes fate punishes us for taking comfort
in denial.” Jim Geraghty in NationalReview.comViewpoint