Our picksCoronavirus Called America’s Bluff | U.S.-Germany COVID-19 Skirmish | Russia’s U.K Interference, and more

The Coronavirus Called America’s Bluff (Anne Applebaum, The Atlantic)
Like Japan in the mid-1800s, the United States now faces a crisis that disproves everything the country believes about itself.

Covid-19 Is Spreading Rapidly in America. The Country Does Not Look Ready (Economist)
There are structural reasons why America finds a response to the pandemic hard

Highlights of Expert Panel on COVID-19 from Harvard, MIT, Mass General Hospital (Dr. Melissa Bender, Just Security)
Experts from one of the country’s premier medical research centers, Massachusetts General Hospital, took to their computer screens on Thursday for the first-ever “virtual Grand Rounds.” Their goal: to take stock of what’s currently known about the COVID-19 global pandemic and share information with the medical community. But the key insights are also important for policymakers, reporters, and the general public to know.

Germany and U.S. in Tug of War as Donald Trump Tries to Buy Rights to Coronavirus Vaccine (Andreas Gebert, Reuters/The Times)
President Trump has prompted outrage by attempting to buy a German company working on a low-cost coronavirus vaccine in the apparent hope of securing exclusive control of its supply.
Germany and the US are locked in a financial tug-of-war over the fate of CureVac, which believes it could manufacture millions of doses a month and aims to start clinical trials in the summer.
While more than two dozen pharmaceutical firms are in a race to develop the first effective vaccine against the coronavirus, CureVac may have an edge thanks to an experimental technology that allows it to deliver the prophylactic in extremely small doses.

Trump Is Failing to Prepare Americans for a Disturbing New Reality (Juliette Kayyem The Atlantic)
As news about the coronavirus worsens, Americans need good information and a realistic basis for hope. The president is providing the public with neither.

U.S. Fears Iran Facilitating Spread of Coronavirus (Jeff Seldin, VOA)
Iran’s struggle to contain its coronavirus pandemic could have a ripple effect across the Middle East, with some U.S. officials suggesting it could further destabilize an already volatile region.
In particular, military officials worry that the regime’s slow response has quietly turned Iran into a launching pad for the virus, helping it to spread far beyond what officials in Tehran have been willing to acknowledge.

Designing a Coronavirus Vaccine for Next Year – and the Years Beyond (Alice McCarthy, Discoveries)
As the number of coronavirus infections swell daily across the globe, strategies for developing a safe and effective vaccine are rapidly moving forward. In response to this public health crisis, the Precision Vaccines Program (PVP) at Boston Children’s Hospital is on the front lines of developing a coronavirus vaccine targeted especially toward older populations, those who are at greatest risk of developing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome-2 coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2).

Russia Is Ready for a Nuclear, Chemical or Biological Weapons-Based War (Charlie Gao, National Interest)
They have the training and the equipment—just incase.

Greenland and Antarctica are Losing Their Ice 6 Times Faster than in the 1990s (Evan Gough, Universe Today)
Smart people tell us that when it comes to conveying the reality of climate change, and the threat it poses, people don’t respond to facts. We respond to stories and narratives. We’re a narrative-driven species.
But at Universe Today we know that facts underlie every good story. And the facts regarding ice loss in Greenland and Antarctica are not good.

U.K. Ministers Will No Longer Claim “No Successful Examples” of Russian Interference(Dan Sabbagh, Guardian)
Change of official line is first admission that Kremlin may have distorted UK elections