COVID-19 & World Commerce | Tracking NYC COVID-19 Cases | Eradicate COVID-19 by Decree?, and more

How China Deceived the WHO (Kathy Gilisman, The Atlantic)
U.S. senators are calling for investigations and the president is threatening to cut off funding. What happened?

How the World Health Organization’s Failure to Challenge China over Coronavirus Cost Us Dearly (Lawrence Freedman, New Statesman)
The international body blithely accepted Beijing’s assurances that there was little to worry about

How the Hunt for a Coronavirus Vaccine Could Go Horribly Wrong (Rachel M. Cohen, Daily Beast)
Scientists are racing to develop a vaccine for the novel coronavirus, and anti-vaxxers are waiting in the wings, ready to pounce if the furious push for a COVID-19 fix runs into trouble.
The global movement of vaccine opponents and skeptics—who organize under banners of “choice” and “informed consent”—view attempts to expedite COVID-19 research and trials with suspicion, and in recent weeks, they’ve been raising the alarm over expedited development.
The anti-vaxxers have amassed considerable political power over the last several decades, and scientists say their propaganda is a major reason the U.S. has seen a recent resurgence of measles. In 2019, the World Health Organization ranked “vaccine hesitancy” as one of the top 10 global health threats.
The conspiracy-fueled anti-vaccine movement may well cause delays in developing a vaccine for COVID-19. Urgent as the need is, public health leaders warn, moving too quickly could have disastrous consequences not only for reining in COVID-19, but for vaccines more broadly. If a vaccine is released that doesn’t work well or yields dangerous side effects—especially in the face of an historic pandemic—it could empower anti-vaccine activists and reduce support for other longstanding vaccines that have gone through rigorous and exhaustive testing.

China’s Initial Coronavirus Outbreak in Wuhan Spread Twice as Fast as We Thought, New Study Suggests (Matt Ho, South China Morning Post)
Each carrier was infecting 5.7 people on average, according to US researchers, who say previous estimate had used incomplete data. Latest data based on cases whose origin could be traced more clearly, in provinces that had test kits and ample health care capacity.

Why We Can’t Trust Positive COVID Test Counts to Track the Pandemic in NYC (Ben Wellington, IQuantNY)
After much delay, the New York City Department of Health recently released data on the number of tests given and the number of positive COVID-tests in each ZIP Code.  And what followed was a flurry of maps and analysis by news organizations hoping to pinpoint which neighborhoods were hardest hit.
Given that there are many caveats and qualifications in unpack all this information, it would be great to see the city release data on the number of patients who have been hospitalized in each ZIP Code - not just ER visits.  That number would be the cleanest to understand the  potential inequities associated with this outbreak. I applaud the Department of Health in releasing this data, but would love to see more.  In the end, it’s necessary that we understand how New Yorkers across income demographics may be subject to different levels of risk.  And to do that better, we need more refined data.