The Week USA 03.20.2020

ARTS

22 Books

Thomas Piketty’s plan to

reform capitalism

23 Author of the week

Louise Erdrich tells a

forgotten family story

24 Art & Music

How Mexican

muralists

fueled an

artistic

revolution in

the U.S.

25 Film

Ben Affl eck

chases

redemption

in The Way

Back

NEWS

4 Main stories

Doubts over President

Trump’s coronavirus

response; Joe Biden’s big

win in Michigan

6 Controversy of the week

Is sexism to blame for

Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s

poor showing in the

Democratic race?

7 The U.S. at a glance

A shake-up at the White

House; Harvey Weinstein

sentenced to 23 years

8 The world at a glance

Coronavirus shuts Italy;

Vladimir Putin aims to be

Russian president for life

10 People

Halsey’s unstoppable

honesty; Brooks Koepka’s

problem with golf

11 Briefi ng

Assisted suicide is on the

rise. When are doctors

justifi ed in helping a

suffering patient die?

12 Best U.S. columns

Attorney General

William Barr rebuked;

Woody Allen canceled

14 Best European

columns

Why Turkey is pushing

migrants westward

16 Talking points

The coming Covid-

lockdown; what Michael

Bloomberg got for his

$500 million; our elderly

presidential candidates

LEISURE

27 Food & Drink

Three fresh takes on the

American diner

28 Travel

Surfi ng and skiing on

Vancouver Island

29 Consumer

What to stock up on ahead

of a coronavirus quarantine

BUSINESS

32 News at a glance

Payroll cut proposed to

treat Covid-19; airlines

under pressure

33 Making money

The world’s biggest work-

from-home experiment

34 Best columns

An oil-price war wreaks

havoc; are the markets

signaling a recession?

A locked school inside the ‘containment zone’ in New Rochelle, N.Y. (p.4)

Halsey
(p.10)
Jam

es^

Es
trin

/Th

e^ N

ew

Yo

rk^ T

im
es
/Re

du
x,^ A

P

As this magazine goes to press, the U.S. has passed its 1,000th

officially tallied case of coronavirus infection. “Officially tallied”

because it is very likely that there are far more cases that have

not been counted. The total number of Americans tested by the

beginning of this week stood at about 4,300. Are we even sure

of that number? We are not, though it’s the best estimate that an

excellent investigation in The Atlantic could get to. The reality is

that we just don’t know. Some states have not released the num-

ber of tests they’ve done. The federal government has “walked

back” (that’s the polite term) the claim that anybody who wants

a test can get one. In about 1,000 cases, the U.S. has registered

30 deaths. Germany, meanwhile, has 1,575 cases and just two

deaths. Does that mean it has a less virulent strain? Better treat-

ment? Or—most likely—has it just done a better job of testing?

Again, we don’t know. And without knowing how far the virus

has spread, we are merely guessing at how to slow it.

When Covid-19 was first detected in Wuhan, the world got to

sit back and criticize the Chinese regime’s obfuscation and de-

nial. Now other countries are not doing any better. Iran has

seen 23 members of its parliament infected, and two dead, even

as it claims that the virus has hit only one Iranian in 9,000 or

so. Maybe we should expect nothing better of Iran. But Euro-

pean democracies, too, are finding it impossible to tell how many

cases they have. In Italy—which has now put in place a nation-

wide lockdown—the death toll of 631 points to many more in-

fections than the country’s recorded 10,149. Right now, the U.S.

count of cases and deaths stands roughly where Italy’s stood

11 days ago. There is no reason to be optimistic that the U.S.

can do any better than Italy at stemming the spread of the virus.

However little we know about the virus, we have a frighten-

ingly good idea of where we are likely to be in

11 days.

Editor’s letter

Contents 3

Mark Gimein

Managing editor

Visit us at TheWeek.com.

For customer service go to www

.TheWeek.com/service or phone us

at 1-877-245-8151.

Renew a subscription at www

.RenewTheWeek.com or give a gift

at http://www.GiveTheWeek.com.

Editor-in-chief: William Falk

Managing editors: Theunis Bates,

Mark Gimein

Deputy editor/International: Susan Caskie

Deputy editor/Arts: Chris Mitchell

Senior editors: Chris Erikson, Danny Funt,

Michael Jaccarino, Dale Obbie,

Zach Schonbrun, Hallie Stiller

Art director: Dan Josephs

Photo editor: Mark Rykoff

Copy editors: Jane A. Halsey, Jay Wilkins

Researchers: Joyce Chu, Alisa Partlan

Contributing editors: Ryan Devlin,

Bruno Maddox

Chief sales and marketing officer:

Adam Dub

SVP, marketing: Lisa Boyars

Executive account director: Sara Schiano

Midwest sales director: John Goldrick

West Coast executive director: Tony Imperato

Director, direct response: Alexandra Riera

Head of brand marketing: Ian Huxley

Director of digital operations &

advertising: Andy Price

Sales & marketing coordinator: Lauren

Addicks

Chief executive: Kerin O’Connor

Chief operating & financial officer:

Kevin E. Morgan

Director of financial reporting:

Arielle Starkman

Consumer marketing director:

Leslie Guarnieri

HR manager: Joy Hart

Operations manager: Cassandra Mondonedo

Chairman: Jack Griffin

Dennis Group CEO: James Tye

U.K. founding editor: Jolyon Connell

Company founder: Felix Dennis