THE BIG STORY
There’s only one story right now.
First off, something you could almost describe as good news: Across the US, and especially in the hardest hit states of Washington, New York and California, state and local governments have sprung into action, canceling big events and directing people to avoid large gatherings. Experts say these moves can have a real impact on slowing the spread of the virus.
Colleges all over the country are closing their campuses and emptying out their dorms. That’s causing real problems for many college students, who have suddenly had to find places to stay, often with only a few days notice. At the University of Dayton in Ohio, most of its 6,382 students living in residences were given just 24 hours, Brianna Sacks reports.
Virtually every major sporting league in the country has announced it is suspending games for the foreseeable future. Disneyland in California will close, so will the all the Broadway shows in New York City, which is also restricting any gathering of more than 500 people. All the concerts around the US being put on by Live Nation, the country’s biggest concert promoter, are being put on hold. St. Patrick’s day parades in New York, Chicago and Boston, which typically attract millions of spectators along crowded parade routes, have all been canceled.
STAYING ON TOP OF THIS
But on the other hand...
There is also some bad news, lots of it.
This is pretty much the exact nightmare scenario many people worried about when Donald Trump was elected president. “To live amid a crisis without the basic assumption that your government is competent enough to handle it is a recipe for total anxiety,” writes Miriam Elder. “Millions of people around the world live this way, and have for decades, and it is unsettling to see this blanket of horror descend upon the United States.”
We got a grim preview of this on Tuesday night, when President Trump announced a new travel ban in a televised address. “We will be suspending all travel from Europe,” Trump said in a televised address, but he messed up many of the crucial details, including failing to mention that the ban doesn’t apply to US citizens or permanent residents. The botched announcement — made at the highest-stakes moment possible — caused a panic among Americans traveling in Europe, who raced to get home before it came into effect.
The Trump administration is also moving ahead with a plan it has projected will cause 700,000 people to lose their access to SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program formerly known as food stamps, beginning on April 1, Paul McLeod reports. The real number could end up being much higher, because the plan punishes people who are not working at least 80 hours per month, and many casual and part time workers are having their hours cut due to the outbreak.
The capacity of the US healthcare system to handle the outbreak is also being questioned, Dan Vergano reports. The number of hospital beds — particularly in intensive care units where people with severe cases would be treated — could quickly be overwhelmed by the number of sick people, based on modeling of the outbreak’s trajectory.
