NEWS YOU CAN USE: Why 70 Percent Alcohol Disinfects Better Than 91 Percent, According to a Microbiologist.

CORONAVIRUS UPDATE: Pence says thousands more U.S. coronavirus cases expected.

Czech Republic introduces drastic measures to deter spread of COVID-19.

China Coronavirus Adviser Expects Global Pandemic to Be Over by June.

Germany reports more than 2,000 coronavirus cases: Johns Hopkins University.

Scandinavia in Lockdown as Coronavirus Cases Hit 1,700.

Coronavirus: Schools and colleges to close in Republic of Ireland.

Washington state bans large gatherings and Seattle closes schools amid coronavirus pandemic.

Mayor De Blasio: 62 Confirmed Coronavirus Cases In NYC.

Nearly 200 Italians died of coronavirus in 24 hours.

Spain’s PM to hold meetings via video conference after minister diagnosed with coronavirus.

BBC ‘intent’ on keeping news on air during coronavirus outbreak.

NYSE Braces for Coronavirus With Potential Trading Floor Closing.

Why the coronavirus is different from flu and warrants major action.

President Trump is once again ‘putting Americans first’ with coronavirus ban.

Things may get worse with coronavirus before they get better, physician says.

WHY DO DEMOCRATS WANT INSECURE BALLOTS? GOP expands battle to stop Democrat attacks on ballot security laws.

THEY’RE NOT AS SMART AS THEY ARE RICH:

Maybe if you explain to them that the disease has “gone viral” . . .

I LOVE ALL THE DEMOCRATS AND NEVERTRUMPERS TRYING TO PRETEND THAT THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION — WHICH COULDN’T EVEN LAUNCH A HEALTH CARE WEBSITE — WOULD BE DOING BETTER IN A PANDEMIC. Well, it would be getting better press coverage, but that’s because reporters, and their editors, are tools.

THE DOJ AS GANG OF CROOKS: FBI’s Russia collusion case fell apart in first month of Trump presidency, memos show.

Less than two weeks into Trump’s presidency the FBI had concluded his national security adviser had not been working as an agent of Russia. While that was the view of federal law enforcement, the false storyline of Flynn as a Russian stooge was broadcasted across the nation, with leaks of his conversations with a Russian ambassador and other tales, for many more months.

For two more years, and he’s still facing sentencing on a BS “process crime” prosecution.

RAMESH PONNURU: The Left’s Fantasy World Just Exploded.

The idea that Sanders could win was far from crazy, given his dedicated fan base. But the larger story line of socialism’s coming triumph was based on one misreading of political events after another.

In the first place, socialism hadn’t spiked in popularity. In 2010, Gallup found that 36 percent of the public embraced the label. Eight years later — following Sanders’s first run for the presidency, and in the same year Ocasio-Cortez got elected — that number had climbed up all the way to 37 percent.

Left-wing Democrats misunderstood the reason Sanders did so well in 2016. It was because Hillary Clinton was the front-runner. Few Democratic heavyweights were willing to take her on, and he was an idealistic alternative. He did more for socialism than socialism did for him. A poll taken that January found that Sanders’s supporters were less likely than Clinton’s to want a higher minimum wage or bigger government.

Clinton’s defeat that November further fed the myth. Sanders’s supporters instantly concluded that “Bernie would have won.” Many Democrats wondered whether Clinton had erred by not taking a tougher line on Wall Street or offering populist ideas on trade.

Read the whole thing.

TRUMP’S SPEECH: Reader Eric Cowperthwaite has a different take than I had: “What folks are calling subdued … in my opinion, I was shocked at his suppressed emotions. I thought, at one point, that he might break down emotionally … I was impressed. One of the few speeches Trump has made that I was impressed by … his emotion and the impact of this thing was obvious to me. None of the typical bombastic Trump. Just a man trying to cope with the devestating impact of this thing.”

OPPORTUNITY: FEMA Seeking Contractors to Deliver Portable Toilets, Showers Within 24 Hours Notice as Coronavirus Spreads.

CORN, POPPED: CNN’s Van Jones says Democrats have reached a ‘very dangerous moment.’ “You have now an insurgency that’s about to be defeated. What do you do with the people that you defeat?”

THE IMPORTANCE OF SOUND SCIENCE: How did Milwaukee fight off Spanish flu? It closed churches and schools. But not saloons.

Milwaukee was among the most successful cities in minimizing the impact of the 1918-19 Spanish flu, though not all of the restrictions it imposed were popular.

Clergy weren’t pleased that in October 1918 the churches were closed, while saloons were not.

A study in The Journal of the American Medical Association compared cities using a measure called “excess death rate” for pneumonia and influenza. These numbers compared the number of deaths during the Spanish flu epidemic to the number that would have been expected in an ordinary year.

Milwaukee recorded just over 291 excess deaths per 100,000 people. Although Minneapolis did even better — 267 excess deaths per 100,000 people — many cities including Denver, Pittsburgh, San Francisco and Boston had excess death rates double that of Milwaukee.

One factor may have been that Milwaukee moved quickly in response to the pandemic.

In the third week of September, city Health Commissioner George C. Ruhland contacted city doctors asking them to report the number of influenza cases they had treated. He learned the number was about 100, according to J. Alexander Navarro, a co-author of the study and assistant director of the Center for the History of Medicine at the University of Michigan.

Ruhland worked with other doctors to launch a public education campaign. Using printed literature and lantern slides, the campaign gave advice on avoiding influenza in English, Russian, Lithuanian, Yiddish and Italian.

On Oct. 7, Ruhland established and secured funding for a number of isolation hospitals. Some of the money was specifically put toward isolation and care involving the city’s poor.

Following state recommendations, Ruhland on Oct. 10 agreed to close churches and other public gatherings. Public funerals were banned. On Oct. 12, Ruhland closed all schools.

Although saloons were allowed to remain open as usual for dining, “patrons stopping by for a drink had to consume it quickly and then leave,” Navarro said.

In mid-October, the health commissioner asked factories to stagger work hours to avoid overcrowding the streetcars.

Current-era public health officials take note.

WATCH: U Dayton Students Riot Over COVID-19 Campus Closure.

CORONAVIRUS: ‘Not a single EU country’ responded to Italian plea for help with coronavirus.

STACY MCCAIN ON LIZ WARREN’S PROBLEM: “If you’re going to play identity politics, you need to have a real identity.”

UGH: You’ll Be Shocked at How Hard It Is to Get Checked for Coronavirus.

TO BE HONEST, THAT SOUNDS KIND OF COOL: Op-Ed: What If Trump Refuses To Leave Office And Also What If He Grows Fifty Feet Tall And Shoots Lasers Out Of His Eyes?

ANALYSIS: TRUE. Environmentalists Don’t Want a Clean Economy – They Want a Communist Economy.

FROM SAM SCHALL:  Risen from Ashes.

As a Marine, Ashlyn Shaw knows the day might come when she would not return from a mission. As an officer in the Fuerconese Marine Corps, she’s faced the difficult duty of sending the men and women under her command to their deaths. Both are nightmares she, and so many like her, live with. War is a cruel and costly endeavor, but one well worth the cost if it means keeping their homeworld free.

What Ash wasn’t prepared for was betrayal. Betrayal by members of her own government. Betrayal by certain members of the military. Betrayal by supposed allies. Betrayals that cost the lives of too many she cared for.

Unluckily for her enemies, that betrayal has cut too deeply to be allowed to go unpunished. Her enemies will soon learn how foolish they were to push her too far.

WELL, IT ALLOWS MEDICINE TO LIE LIKE THE GOVERNMENT AND FAKE GOOD OUTCOMES. SINCE THE DEMOCRATS HAVE LONG SINCE PARTED COMPANY WITH REALITY THIS SOUNDS GREAT TO THEM:  If only America had this one thing, say Democrats, we’d be safe from coronavirus.

MORE POLITICS OF MOB INTIMIDATION:  Ask Not …

THE MASKS ARE COMING OFF:  Introducing: The Irish Antifa Project.

POLITICS OF HARASSMENT AND INTIMIDATION:  Schumer’s Threats, in Context.