The Economist A special edition on the coronavirus pandemic

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From: The Economist this week - Saturday Mar 14, 2020 12:09 pm
The World Health Organisation has now declared covid-19 a pandemic. In the past two weeks, the focus of the disease has shifted from China to the rest of the world. Our coverage tells you what to expect.
   
March 14th 2020 Read in browser
   
  The Economist this week  
 
  Our coverage of the new coronavirus  
   
 
 
   
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  Welcome to a special edition of our weekly newsletter dedicated to covid-19, which the World Health Organisation has now declared a pandemic. In the past two weeks, the focus of the disease has shifted from China to the rest of the world—and increasingly Europe and the United States. Over 135,000 cases have been registered, more than a third of them outside China. There have been over 5,000 deaths in 116 countries, up from 3,200 deaths and 85 countries and territories just a week earlier.

In our cover leader this week we looked at what this means for politicians. They have struggled to come to terms with the pandemic and how to talk about it. As they belatedly realise that health systems will buckle and deaths mount, leaders are beginning to grapple with how they should weather the storm. Three factors will determine how they cope: their attitude to uncertainty; the structure and competence of their health systems; and, above all, whether they are trusted.

Here we present seven articles that tell the story of the disease and its astonishing march around the world. We start with a portrait of an individual virus particle, how it hijacks the body’s cells and how it might be vulnerable to therapeutic drugs. We sketch how different countries have tried to use lockdowns to fight the spread of the disease and we look into the slow response in America. We take the measure of the markets, and analyse the threat to the world economy. We examine how China has begun to exploit its progress against the disease for propaganda. And we present our own back-of-the-envelope calculation of countries’ unreported cases.

The pandemic is about to take the world by storm. We hope that this selection of our coverage helps to prepare you for what is to come. 		 
 
  Zanny Minton Beddoes, Editor-In-Chief  
     
Must-reads from our recent coverage
 
  Editor’s picks  
 
   
 
 
 
Anatomy of a killer
How SARS-CoV-2 causes covid-19, and how it might be stopped

Modest improvements in treatment could make a big difference
Briefing
 
 
 
Uncle Sam v the coronavirus
Covid-19 is spreading rapidly in America. The country does not look ready

There are structural reasons why America finds a response to the pandemic hard
United States
 
 
 
All’italiana
Italy has imposed a nationwide lockdown. Should other countries copy it?

The government’s response to covid-19 is unprecedented in modern-day Europe
International
 
 
 
V is for vicious
How to make sense of the mayhem in markets

The subprime crisis is not a good guide to a new sort of financial shock
Leaders
 
 
 
Chaguan
China’s propagandists are trapped by their own rhetoric

The total victory they have promised over the new coronavirus is impossible
China
 
 
 
Sneezy money
How to revive the world economy

A recession is unlikely but not impossible
Finance and economics
 
 
 
Tracking the stealthy killer
Tourism flows and death rates suggest under-reporting of covid-19 cases

Our model finds that some countries appear to be big outliers
Graphic detail
 
 
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