Only investment in public health and prevention-based care, access to medical services for the most vulnerable, and the architecture to prevent, detect, and respond to outbreaks can prepare the world for future threats like COVID-19, writes @TomBollyky .

How does China's response to the new coronavirus compare to past epidemics? @RSPeckham  discusses how, throughout history, Beijing’s actions during health crises have shaped both domestic and international perceptions of its governance style.

What should an international effort to confront the COVID-19 contagion look like?

Matthew J. Slaughter and Matt Rees present a three-part plan for preventing an economic contraction of historic proportions:

“Experts can only propose; elected leaders dispose. And politicians are very rarely experts on any of the innumerable subjects that come before them for a decision.”

“The strongmen may be getting stronger, but the ideology used to prop up their rule is not.”

Economically, Northern Ireland is in a position similar to Scotland’s—it is a heavily subsidized region with a service-oriented economy. @JyShapiro  discusses how Brexit may push one region toward leaving the United Kingdom and the other toward remaining:

The U.S. administration is contemplating reopening the economy well before the arc of the epidemic has been bent—with potentially disastrous human consequences. Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas explains why this is the wrong approach:

Throughout history, plagues have put a mirror to the societies they afflict, and the novel coronavirus pandemic is no different, writes @TomBollyky .

“For encouraging the nation to sleepwalk into a crisis, Trump does indeed deserve blame. But even more blameworthy has been the president’s assault on U.S. institutions.”