100 Words: Who’s to Blame for Our Failure?

There’s been enough international success dealing with the plague to leave a clear sense of how to beat it: impose strict social distancing long enough to reduce those infected to small fraction of population. Then test, trace, and isolate--quickly identifying outbreaks, finding and quarantining everyone exposed until danger passes. It worked in South Korea and New Zealand, but  must be strict and patient, staying the course, not giving in to temptation to return to normal life with virus still widespread. Alas, America’s impatience and unwillingness to do so runs much deeper than any one man.—Paul Krugman, NY Times