Connecting the Dots

George Washington’s Continental Army spent the winter of 1777–78 at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, in painfully harsh conditions.

Every cloud has a silver lining, goes the saying. Can we say the same for pandemics?

Even in normal times, the news describes murders, accidents, wars, natural disasters, and the passing of once-famous celebrities.

COVID-19 cases are growing fast in large parts of the US. The same folks who said the virus would just go away now say not to worry because fewer people are dying.

We’ve escaped the frying pan and found the fire. COVID-19 cases are now growing faster than they were when the first US lockdowns occurred last March.

The US economy entered recession at the end of February, according to the economists who officially define such things. But will it get even worse?

Pop math quiz: What is 1918 + 1932 + 1968? Your calculator may say 5,818, but the real answer is 2020. This year has turned into a combination of those three historic years. In the US, we have

“You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink,” says an old saying.

In theory, outside threats should make people set aside differences. The novel coronavirus seems to be doing the opposite.

We knew the April US jobs data would be ugly. Speaking on ABC’s “This Week” program last Sunday, Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank President Neel Kashkari predicted “the worst is yet to come.”

Newly “liberated” Americans are flocking to beaches, parks, and restaurants, eager to prove the novel coronavirus doesn’t scare them.

“America will be open for business very soon,” said President Trump on March 23, just a week after local authorities began issuing stay-at-home orders.