Corona Update: USA (4) – aktuelle Studien, Analysen und Kommentare

“The Pandemic and the Toll of Transatlantic Discord.”

Quelle: Foreign Affairs (Issue May/June 2020, published April 18, 2020)

Karen Donfried, President, GMF; Wolfgang

Ischinger, Chair, Munich Security Conference

The authors ask of their leaders to move beyond the “years of mutual grievances” and focus instead on the pressing challenges of the coronavirus pandemic. They appeal in this article to “the United States, together with its closest allies in Europe, [to] … form the core of a worldwide response to the pandemic and push others to work together, as well.”  Proposed are three core areas where transatlantic cooperation can address the pandemic: (1) lift all export bans and tariffs on medical equipment; (2) expand NATO’s capacity to include public health; and (3) create a shared system of global medical surveillance for future pandemics.

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„Geopolitical Risk in 2020”

Quelle: The Chicago Council on Global Affairs (April 17, 2020)

Ivo Daalder, President of the Chicago Council;
Ian Bremmer, President of Eurasia Group

Ian Bremmer, a political risk consultant, was interviewed by Ivo Daalder on the political and economic implications of COVID-19.  According to Bremmer, the biggest change will be a move towards more fracturing of the global economy and the geopolitical environment. Through digitization of the economy, he forecasts a significant decline in need for labor.  His concern is that the lack of global leadership by the US, lack of global coordination, and the US coming out of the crisis behind China, some countries will find the Chinese statist economic model more attractive. Also, he predicts a financial crisis in the developing countries will be worse than what we have seen in Argentina and they will not be getting the capital they need.

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„Free Trade or Medical Supplies: Do Countries have to choose?”

Quelle: The Center for Strategic and International Studies (April 20, 2020)

William Alan Reinsch, Senior Adviser in International Business; Jack Caporal, Associate Fellow

In the article the authors from CSIS pose critical questions with detailed answers on the recently imposed US export restriction rules on certain personal protective equipment (PPE). They recall that the US, prior to COVID-19, was the biggest importer of medical goods in the world, with China having been its biggest supplier of PPE. They then address the circumstances that prompted the US government to impose these rules, the impact the restrictions might have globally, and how US restrictions compare to other countries’ actions. Finally, the authors present alternatives to export restrictions by referring to the OECD proposals to accelerate trade at borders. Additionally, they propose liberalizing medical supplies through the pharmaceutical zero-for-zero initiative and developing a committee on crisis response at the WTO.

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“National Coronavirus Recovery Commission: First Set of Recommendations to Reopen America!”

Quelle: The Heritage Foundation (April 20, 2020)

Kay C. James, President, The Heritage Foundation; et al.

The National Coronavirus Recovery Commission, a project of The Heritage Foundation, is bringing together experts and thinkers to offer their experiences and expertise to chart the path ahead. The recommendations cover the first two phases of the commission’s five-phase approach to recovery. Phase 1 is a plan to “return to a more normal level of business activity at the regional level based on scientific data.” Phase 2 lays out the steps to “slow the spread of the coronavirus while expanding testing, reporting, and contact tracing.” The full list of recommendations can be found on the commission’s website.

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"Promoting National Resilience"

Quelle: Cyberspace Solarium Commission (CSC) (April 22, 2020)

Mark Montgomery, Executive Director; John Costello, Senior Director and Team Lead, Task Force Two; Robert Morgus, Director of Research and Analysis, Task Force Two

The Cyberspace Solarium Commission, co-chaired by two Members of Congress, was established in the National Defense Authorization Act 2019 to "develop a consensus on a strategic approach to defending the United States in cyberspace against cyber-attacks of significant consequences." The recommendations were published last month. According to the CSC, "the COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the importance of national resilience to potential shocks. In the context of cybersecurity, resilience, the capacity to withstand and quickly recover from attacks, is key to denying adversaries the benefits of their operations." This webinar is part of a series of online events where senior CSC staff discuss each "pillar" of the Commissions' recommendations, especially under the lens of the current corona-crisis. 

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"Technology Can Help Solve the Coronavirus Crisis If Government Steps Up"

Quelle: Foreign Affairs (April 17, 2020)

Mira Rapp-Hopper, Senior Fellow for Asia Studies, Council on Foreign Relations; Samm Sacks, Cybersecurity Policy Fellow, New America

The authors argue that the use of digital instruments in the realm of public health poses difficult questions which U.S. lawmakers are not yet prepared to address. But, as the article suggests, the United States would not be able to make such digital tools available, "unless it can also adopt careful and well-coordinated policies to deploy them effectively and to regulate them.”

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“How States Can Make Voting by Mail Easier and Avoid Election Chaos”

Quelle: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (April 17, 2020)

Rachel Kleinfeld, Senior Fellow, Democracy, Conflict, and Governance Program

Kleinfeld discusses the upcoming 2020 elections through the lens of the developing corona-crisis. As social distancing rules might still play a role in the fall election, the article evaluates the U.S.’ readiness for absentee ballots and voting by mail.

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„Immigration and the US-Mexico Border during the Pandemic: A Conversation with Members of Congress“

Quelle: Wilson Center and Migration Policy Institute

In a bipartisan discussion organized by the Wilson Center’s Mexico Institute and the Migration Policy Institute, two border-state members of Congress – Rep. Veronica Escobar of El Paso and Rep. Dan Crenshaw of suburban Houston – discuss the response efforts to the coronavirus outbreak and how it is affecting the border region, especially in regards to new security and public health concerns to the Migration Protection Protocols the COVID-19 pandemic presents and cross-border cooperation.

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„COVID-19: Investing in black lives and livelihoods“

Quelle: McKinsey & Company (April 2020)

Aria Florant and Nick Noel, Consultants, McKinsey, Washington, DC; et al.

The key findings of a recent McKinsey report conclude that, as an unfolding public-health and economic disaster, the COVID-19 pandemic is already a generation-defining crisis. It will disproportionately impact black Americans — unless stakeholders respond immediately because it affects all social systems and heightens preexisting structural challenges that black Americans face. The study argues that stakeholders should respond immediately by utilizing the urgency of the pandemic to build more equitable systems that increase the long-term resilience of black Americans, communities, and institutions. The full report can be accessed on the website.

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„A new approach is needed to defeat COVID-19 and fix fragile states“

Quelle: The Brookings Institution (April 21, 2020)

Landry Signé, Sr. fellow, Global Economy and Development

According to the author, a complex set of causes — political inefficiency, social issues, economic disparity, internal and external conflicts, and natural disasters — have contributed to the persistence of fragility in general, and in Africa in particular. Fragile countries could be particularly vulnerable to COVID-19, given weak state capacity and the inability to ensure the most fundamental functions of territorial integrity, security, and basic public services — constituting a breach of the social contract. In this article, which also refers to a book chapter in his study "African Development, African Transition" (2018), the author argues that "(...) the private sector has a large potential to address state fragility and facilitate overall social welfare."

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“When Confronting a Pandemic, We Must Save Nature to Save Ourselves”

Quelle: The Center for American Progress (April 20, 2020)

Sahir Doshi, Research Assistant for Public Lands;

Nicole Gentile, Deputy Director for Public Lands

In this brief for the Center for American Progress, the authors analyze the connection of human health and nature. They argue that climate change and human takeover of vast landmasses contribute to the rise of “zoonoses”, infectious diseases that spread from animals to humans, like HIV-AIDS, Ebola and now COVID-19. Doshi and Gentile show humankind’s dependency on natural ecosystems and biodiversity and the simple need for outdoor activity. The authors state a case for the integration of conservation policy into the approach for disease prevention. 

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Weitere Kurzbeiträge:

“Older Americans continue to follow COVID-19 news more closely than younger adults”

Quelle: Pew Research Center (April 22, 2020)

Mark Jurkowitz, Election News Pathway writer

A new survey by the Pew Research Center’s Election News Pathway Project finds that an overwhelming majority of adult Americans are following coronavirus crisis news “fairly or very closely”. But they also found a difference by age: older Americans follow the pandemic much more closely than those under the age of 29. Even as the coronavirus outbreak intensified over the last weeks, younger Americans’ attention remained largely unchanged.

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“Coronavirus continues to take its toll on the media industry”

Quelle: Columbia Journalism Review (April 20, 2020)

Mathew Ingram, Chief Digital Writer

Since the start of the pandemic, millions are closely following news about the coronavirus. During a time when accurate news is more important than ever, many media outlets are under increasing financial strain and local newspapers are running out of money and have to seize operations. Even before the virus, local news was under intense pressure and the COVID-19 crisis may become an “extinction event” according to the author in this article for the Columbia Journalism Review.

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“Three Lessons For Earth Day From The Coronavirus Pandemic”

Quelle: Forbes (April 21, 2020)

Marshall Shepherd, Director of the University of Georgia’s (UGA) Atmospheric Sciences Program

As the world is celebrating the 50th anniversary of earth day, the author cites three important lessons that are playing out during the coronavirus pandemic. Shepherd notes in his article that carbon emissions decreased due to reduced industrial activity worldwide and travel restrictions. According to him, the pandemic proves that human activity “impacts natural processes”. He makes the case that science “deserves respect”. Shepherd believes that science has come under attack in recent years and the pandemic shows the critical importance of the work of scientists. Thirdly, he argues that everyone has a role to play in the fight against the impact of coronavirus and climate change. 

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Für die aktuellen Zahlen zur Corona-Krise in den USA:

The Centers for Disease Control:

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html

The Johns Hopkins University:

https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6

The New York Times:

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-us-cases.html