Opinion

The World Health Organization (WHO) has been generous with its praise throughout this pandemic. China, Singapore and Ireland have all received plaudits for their handling of the coronavirus crisis. Now that a new turning point is in sight, with the infection’s spread slowing and draconian lockdown measures being gradually lifted, the WHO is promoting the Swedish way of doing things. ...

The public appetite for more information about Covid-19 is understandably insatiable. Social scientists have been quick to respond. They are writing papers at a record pace, and academic journals are expediting the review process so that these new, exciting results can be published in a timely and newsworthy manner. While I understand the impulse, the rush to publish findings quickly ...

Watching General Mark A Milley, the chairman of the Joints Chiefs of Staff, on stage at the White House, he looks uncomfortable. And that’s as it should be. Milley’s job is to provide sound military advice to the president. But at a deeper level, his responsibility is to safeguard the independence and integrity of the armed forces. The last thing ...

The big Covid-19 news was a promising result from a new study of remdesivir, an anti-viral produced by Gilead Sciences. But lost in all the discussion of how well the drug works — an earlier study found it wasn’t helpful — was a tragic failure: Gilead missed its one shot at getting vital information on specifically which patients the drug ...

It’s been a week of milestones for Exxon Mobil Corp, and not in a good way. The oil major froze its dividend for the first time in 13 years and then, on May 1, announced its first quarterly loss in decades. Covid-19 plays a big part, obviously, but Exxon’s strategy is the big problem, particularly on its home turf. As ...

President Donald Trump recently announced an executive order “temporarily suspending immigration to the United States.” It turns out that the new restrictions are narrower than this might suggest — which is a good thing. Immigration policy needs short-term adjustments and cries out for long-term reform, but broad or indefinite clampdowns certainly aren’t the answer. The president was describing the order ...

The timing is certainly awkward. The year 2020 was supposed to be the moment for Germany to show leadership, as it takes over, on July 1, the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union, analogous to an upper house in the EU’s legislature. But now a virus has come along and thrown the world and the EU into ...

Sentient humans like to benchmark their successes and failures. So it’s understandable that in trying to put the coronavirus’s toll in perspective, some Americans have fastened their eyes on one particular grim milestone: The 58,300+ deaths in the US from Covid-19 over the last three months have now surpassed US casualties from the Vietnam War (58,220 deaths recorded from 1956 ...

It’s been three months since the World Health Organization declared the novel coronavirus a public health emergency of international concern on its way to becoming a full-blown pandemic. Yet in spite of much hype around several existing drugs, we still haven’t found a proven, evidence-based treatment for Covid-19. The stakes are clearly high, with a vaccine at least a year ...

In speeches during the 1960 presidential campaign, John Kennedy addressed Americans’ anxiety about national lassitude at the end of eight years under Dwight Eisenhower by mildly saying: “I believe we can do better.” Joe Biden, responding to national embarrassment about the least presidential president, can campaign on a modest theme: “Is this really the best we can do?” This question ...