Every week, The Pacer’s Viewpoints section gives you an overview of the very best in opinion journalism from the major US and world publications.
This week, Feb. 24 – Feb. 28, the world has been embroiled in tension as fears of the quickly-spreading COVID-19, originating a month ago in China’s Hubei Province, caused stock prices to tumble and spread fear of an impending recession.
Coronavirus has spread to several more countries over the past week, prompting many columnists to think of the implications of a worldwide pandemic. James Hamblin at The Atlantic is taking the…interesting tact of dispelling reader worries by telling them that they will more than likely get the life-threatening disease. You can read Hamblin’s article here.
Hamblin argues that the response leaders need to take is not to quarantine areas and close down borders, but to become more transparent and cooperate more closely on medical research. While this is an appealing argument, given that almost all US drug manufacturing is done in China, the acute fear that the public has of an infectious disease is waved away by the “it’s not as bad as the flu, bro” smugness that has come to be the go-to line for Left-of-center media running interference for liberal commitments to economic and cultural globalism.
In related news, stocks have plunged as the disease looks to strain or even eliminate overseas supply lines. On the New York Stock Exchange, the Dow tumbled over 2,000 points between the open of trade on Monday and the close of the day on Thursday, leading some to speculate about a recession.
Michael Walden writing for TheConversation.com gives a helpful and brief overview of the effects that the virus might have on the US and world economy, and is light on speculation. You can read that article here.
Finally, on the election circuit, a piece from The New Republic by Alex Shepard details how the Sanders campaign is taking wrecking ball to the liberal establishment in media, particularly cable news.
The antipathy which many in the left-wing punditry have for the Sanders campaign has prompted it to morph, as Shepard tells it, into a quasi-media outlet of its own. Sanders, the ascendant Democratic candidate, shares many qualities with Donald Trump, who used an unorthodox, combative approach to traditional media to win the 2016 election. Perhaps this establishes a pattern for future presidential candidates from both parties as outsiders with popular support seek to outflank traditional establishment candidates.
