The Economist A special edition on the coronavirus pandemic

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From: The Economist this week - Saturday Apr 18, 2020 11:10 am
While Europe and the USA struggle to contain covid-19, newly reported cases in China have fallen sharply. Has the Chinese government succeeded in turning a disastrous situation into a geopolitical win?
   
April 18th 2020 Read in browser
   
  The Economist this week  
 
  Our coverage of the new coronavirus  
   
 
 
   
  cover-image   
     
  Welcome to the newsletter highlighting The Economist’s best coverage of covid-19. Our cover leader this week asks whether China will be the pandemic’s big geopolitical winner. After a disastrous cover-up, China has brought the number of newly reported cases to a virtual halt. Factories there are reopening and researchers testing potential vaccines. By comparison Britain, France, Spain, Italy and America look as if they are struggling. Some warn that the disease will be remembered not only as a human catastrophe, but also as a geopolitical turning-point away from the West. Are they right?

Our covid-19 coverage in this week’s issue reports on the race for a vaccine—and the challenge of making it in sufficient quantities. We examine plans to relax lockdowns and look at how apps might make the job easier. We describe how South Africa is drawing on its bitter experience with HIV/AIDS. Our science team asks you not to blame the bats and our Middle East specialists report on the anti-covid-19 quack remedies doing the rounds in Iran: please don’t try them at home.

We have also been focusing on the disease in Economist Radio and in Economist Films. In our science podcast, Babbage, this week we delve further into the global search for a vaccine. We speak to Dr Seth Berkley, the chief executive of GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance. And Dr Trevor Drew of the Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness tells about two trials that have reached the animal-testing stage.

I hope you enjoy this taste of our coverage of the new coronavirus. For more reporting of how it is touching almost every part of our lives--from Brazilian soap operas to corporate fraudsters--please visit our website. 		 
 
  Zanny Minton Beddoes, Editor-in-Chief  
     
Must-reads from our recent coverage
 
  Editor’s picks  
 
   
 
 
 
So many candidates, so little time
Can the world find a good covid-19 vaccine quickly enough?

And can it mass-produce it fairly if it does?
Briefing
 
 
 
Emergency exit
Governments are starting to ease restrictions

Gradually, cautiously and with only a hazy idea of what works
International
 
 
 
Tracking the virus
App-based contact tracing may help countries get out of lockdown

But only as part of a bigger system
Science and technology
 
 
 
Don’t trust the internet
What South Africa learned from AIDS

Experience of a previous pandemic informs the fight against covid-19
Middle East and Africa
 
 
 
Disease transmission
Bats spread viruses

But they are no worse in this respect than other species
Science and Technology
 
 
 
Quackery in Iran
Desperate Iranians are getting bad medical advice

Perfumes and fruit juice are not a cure for covid-19
Middle East and Africa
 
 
 
Babbage
Worth a shot—the global hunt for a vaccine

Our weekly podcast on the science and technology making the news
Economist Radio
 
 
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