THIS IS CNN:

AND JUST LIKE THAT, THE MEDIA HATES BOLTON AGAIN: John Bolton declares China ‘responsible’ for coronavirus outbreak, says world must hold them ‘accountable.’

OCEANIA HAS NEVER BEEN AT WAR WITH THE WUHAN PROVINCE: Wikipedia Debates Changing ‘Spanish Flu’ Name with PC Naming Fight.

WELL, THAT’S NOT GOOD: Coronavirus cases doubling faster in the U.S. than any other country, report says. “The report was written by the infectious disease analytics team from MITRE, a Bedford-based nonprofit. Cases have been rising sharply across the country and the report shows they double every 1.75 days — very quickly in comparison to South Korea’s 23 days, which has been widely hailed for its competent coronavirus response.”

UPDATE: On the other hand, this is right, I think:

WORLD ENDS; WOMEN AND TRANSGENDERED HARDEST HIT:

● The Coronavirus Is a Disaster for Feminism.

—The Atlantic, Thursday.

● As Hospitals Prepare for COVID-19, Life-Saving Trans Surgeries Are Delayed.

—Vice.com, Thursday.

AMERICANS NEED A DATE CERTAIN: “The federal government needs to make a decision about when we are going to free up the economy, and it needs to have done it yesterday.”

HOW THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA SWEEP THEIR MISTAKES UNDER THE RUG:

The online news outlet Axios on Wednesday published a bombshell news story: Bernie Sanders, reporter Alexi McCammond wrote, was suspending his presidential campaign.

“It’s an end to the campaign of the leading progressive in the race—and the candidate who seemed to be the clear front-runner for the Democratic nomination less than a month ago,” the report stated.

The only problem: It wasn’t true. And this wasn’t a run-of-the mill error, but a miscue on arguably the most anticipated (and inevitable) political story in the country.

* * * * * * * *

One imagines that an error of the same magnitude from a conservative reportorial outlet would not be treated with the same level of understanding with which it was received by Axios’s mainstream media counterparts. Media reporters at the country’s top newspapers didn’t muster a tweet about the incident. Mediaite, an online publication devoted to covering print, digital, and television media, covered the story this way: “Bernie Sanders Swats Down ‘Absolutely False’ Report Claiming End of Campaign After Twitter Frenzy.”

The incident reveals the insidious way in which the mainstream media, which have spent the past three years obsessing about the spread of fake news, operate like a cartel, ruthlessly enforcing standards on outsiders but refusing to police themselves.

Flashback: Peter Jennings and Tom Brokaw Defend Dan Rather Who Sees Effort to “Smear” Him.

Related: HBO’s After Truth Perfectly Captures Why Journalism is Dying.

WELL SAID, AS USUAL:

A SITE THAT ALLOWS YOU TO DEEP DIVE INTO THE JOHNS HOPKINS STATISTICS: Covid19Stats.Global.

UPDATE (Charlie): COVID Tracking is a good site for US data. And don’t forget the Johns Hopkins dashboard that the Covid19Stats data comes from.

AT AMAZON, Carlyle Melatonin 12 mg Fast Dissolve 180 Tablets.

HEH: Bernie Trying To Decide Which House To Quarantine Himself In.

IT’S SATIRE, BUT IS IT REALLY? Trump Hits Back At China By Announcing U.S. Will Also Expel American Journalists.

FINALLY, SOME GOOD SENSE: PA Turnpike to reopen all 17 closed service plazas to support truckers amid COVID-19 crisis.

OPEN THREAD: Well, that was a week.

HOW’S THAT SPACE PROGRAM COMING ALONG? Giant ‘potentially hazardous’ asteroid will fly safely by Earth in April.

HE’S NOT WRONG: Trump Explodes, ‘You’re a Terrible Reporter’ as Media Makes Presser All About Themselves Again.

Related:

THIS IS COOL: Open-Source Project Spins Up 3D Printed Ventilator Validation Prototype In Just One Week.

AT AMAZON, stock up on Pet Food and Supplies.

Plus, spring savings in Car Care. As long as you’re stuck at home, why not detail your car?

I’M SURE DEBLASIO WILL TELL US THAT IT’S ALL TRUMP’S FAULT: City Hall didn’t order emergency COVID-19 supplies for NYC until March 6. Somewhat to my surprise — who am I kidding, greatly to my surprise — Andrew Cuomo seems to have been on the ball here. DeBlasio, on the other hand, hasn’t surprised me at all.

21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: How to a find a quarantine cutie online during coronavirus.

MAKE AMERICA THE MEDICINE CHEST OF THE WORLD.

America’s “arsenal of democracy” saved Europe and the world from fascism during World War II. Today the U.S. can win a similar victory over the novel coronavirus by sticking to the same principles that made the war effort so successful. President Trump took a vital step in that direction Wednesday by invoking the Defense Production Act, which gives him the authority to expedite and expand industrial production of key medical resources necessary to fight the pandemic.

America’s productivity in World War II wasn’t the result of bureaucrats in Washington exercising command and control over the U.S. economy, as some seem to think the Covid-19 pandemic requires. On the contrary, the federal government harnessed the energy and innovation of America’s finest companies to produce what government could not: materials and supplies in sufficient quantities to prevail in two theaters of war on opposite sides of the globe. . . .

By invoking the Defense Production Act, the administration can clear away bureaucratic impediments to an effective pandemic response. Just as FDR’s administration temporarily set aside antitrust standards so companies could band together to produce everything from aircraft parts to tanks and synthetic fuels, the Trump administration can encourage companies to pool their patents and intellectual property to increase production of key drugs and technologies.

Bringing together companies like Walgreens, Walmart and Google to streamline the Covid-19 testing process was a good first step toward making America safer and more secure against the growing pandemic. But there is much more the U.S. can do to mobilize its health-industrial and manufacturing base. It’s absurd that Italy must rely on China for emergency supplies of ventilators when America is home to major ventilator manufacturers like Vyaire, ResMed and Allied Healthcare Products. The Trump administration should work out a timeline with these medical-device makers to produce all the ventilators the world needs right here in the U.S. The same is true for respirators, swabs and other types of protective gear crucial to preventing a global health-care catastrophe.

Washington should also clear the way for the American pharmaceutical industry to develop and deploy therapies for Covid-19 until antiviral drugs, and ultimately a vaccine, are in place. Regeneron Pharmaceuticals of Tarrytown, N.Y., which developed a drug last year to combat Ebola, announced Tuesday it has made progress in the hunt for a Covid-19 treatment. Swift action by the Food and Drug Administration has already streamlined the approval process so that what might normally take two to three years will now happen in a matter of weeks.

Bureaucracy kills.

WELL, TO BE FAIR, HE’S A TERRIBLE HUMAN BEING AND A WORSE MANAGER: De Blasio’s senior staff in near revolt over his coronavirus response.

MATT RIDLEY: We are about to find out how robust civilization is.