The Economist A special edition on the coronavirus pandemic

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From: The Economist this week - Saturday Apr 25, 2020 11:11 am
As global attention remains focused on the pandemic, autocrats see opportunity in the devastation of covid-19. Many are grabbing more power for themselves. Meanwhile, the disease looks set to have an expensive legacy in rich countries as governments ramp up borrowing to tackle the scourge.
   
April 25th 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 pandemic coverage. We have two covers this week. In our Asian and European editions, we look at how no fewer than 84 governments have taken extra powers since covid-19 began to spread. In some cases these are necessary and will be relinquished when the crisis is over. But in others they are not, and won’t be.

 In our American and British editions we analyse the looming problem of government debt. As the economy falls into ruins, governments are writing millions of cheques to households and firms and tax revenues are collapsing. Long after the covid-19 wards have emptied, countries will be living with the consequences. What should they do?

Our coverage of the disease this week is led by Bill Gates, the co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, who has written for us on how to get out of the pandemic. We also look at how to do mass-testing and the worrying vulnerability to covid-19 of the southern United States. We report on an enigma surrounding the Spanish flu, how New Zealand has avoided the worst of the disease and why Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, which claim to be covid-free, are probably living in denial.

You can also see our mortality tracker, which estimates how many deaths from covid-19 the official statistics are failing to detect. It goes about this using the gap between the total number of people who died from any cause and the historical average for the time of year. The results, broken down by country and region, show that the virus is more lethal than many had feared.

And we have also been focusing on the pandemic in Economist Radio and Economist Films. This week we produced a film analysing what lies behind the death toll in America, which has suffered more fatalities than any other country.

As the epidemiological curves flatten and the easing of lockdowns beckons, I hope that you enjoy our coverage. 		 
 
  Zanny Minton Beddoes, Editor-in-Chief  
     
Must-reads from our recent coverage
 
  Editor’s picks  
 
   
 
 
 
The world after covid-19
Bill Gates on how to fight future pandemics

The coronavirus will hasten three big medical breakthroughs. That is just a start
By invitation
 
 
 
Covid-19
How to build and deploy testing systems at unprecedented scale

Countries will have to do it to end their lockdowns safely
Science and technology
 
 
 
Dixie in the crosshairs
The South is likely to have America’s highest death rate from covid-19

It has unusually unhealthy residents and few ICU beds
Graphic detail
 
 
 
A process of elimination
What next for countries that are nearly covid-free?

Australia, New Zealand, South Korea and Taiwan contemplate life beyond the virus
Asia
 
 
 
Pandemics past and present
A peculiarity of Spanish flu may shed light on covid-19

Age-related mortality is not always what might be expected
Science and technology
 
 
 
Covid-19 data
Tracking covid-19 excess deaths across countries

Official covid-19 death tolls still under-count the true number of fatalities
Graphic detail
 
 
 
The hotbed
Why is America’s covid-19 death toll so high?

The country is now the epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic
Economist films
 
 
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