QUESTION OF THE DECADE:

THIS SEEMS WISE: Australia imposes 14-day self-isolation on all arrivals. As long as there’s Internet and room service. . .

I HOPE IT’S A GOOD ONE: Government official: First dose to be delivered Monday in clinical trial for potential COVID-19 vaccine.

BIDEN GOES EXTREME: Give Oil Industry ‘No Ability’ To ‘Continue To Drill’, Take ‘Millions’ Of Cars Off The Road.

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?

RICHARD FERNANDEZ IS A GLOBAL TREASURE:

Really.

A CAUTIONARY TALE FROM ITALY: DON’T DO WHAT WE DID. Many of us were too selfish to follow suggestions to change our behavior. Now we’re in lockdown and people are needlessly dying.

Before the outbreak hit my country, I thought I was acting rationally because I screened and processed a lot of information about the epidemic. But my being well-informed didn’t make me any more rational. I lacked what you might call “moral knowledge” of the problem. I knew about the virus, but the issue was not affecting me in a significant, personal way. It took the terrible ethical dilemma that doctors face in Lombardy to wake me up.

I put myself in their shoes, and realized that everything should be done in order to avoid those ethically devastating choices: How do we decide who gets an ICU bed and who doesn’t? Age? Life expectancy? How many kids they have? Their special abilities? Is the patient’s profession a relevant factor? Is it right to save a middle-aged doctor who will save more lives if he survives as opposed to a younger person who’s been unemployed for the last 12 months? These are the kind of theoretical questions you are asked to weigh in leadership classes at business school. But this is not a personality test. It’s real lives.

The way to avoid or mitigate all this in the United States and elsewhere is to do something similar to what Italy, Denmark, and Finland are doing now, but without wasting the few, messy weeks in which we thought a few local lockdowns, canceling public gatherings, and warmly encouraging working from home would be enough stop the spread of the virus. We now know that wasn’t nearly enough.

Do tell.

SEEN ON FACEBOOK:

FLASHBACK TO 2009: “Well, shut his mouth: Blabbering Joe Biden was a swine flu dope,” said a New York Daily News editorial from Apr 30, 2009. It makes for fascinating reading nearly 11 years later:

Less than 12 hours after President Obama urged calm — along with hand-washing and covering the mouth when coughing — there was Biden on the “Today” show, pleased as punch to be on national television with Matt Lauer and ready to incite the American public to panic.

We quote: “I would tell members of my family — and I have — I wouldn’t go anywhere in confined places now. It’s not going to Mexico, it’s you’re in a confined aircraft when one person sneezes it goes all the way through the aircraft. That’s me. I would not be, at this point, if they had another way of transportation, suggesting they ride the subway. So from my perspective, what it relates to is mitigation.

“If you’re out in the middle of a field and someone sneezes, that’s one thing. If you’re in a closed aircraft or a closed container, a closed car, a closed classroom, it’s a different thing.”

Let’s keep all the kids home from school, why don’t we?

And destroy the already crippled world economy.

And kiss all we know and love about New York goodbye. Like our jobs.

Later, after someone read him the “Idiot’s Guide to Public Health Procedures for Powerful Politicians,” Biden dispatched aides to say he didn’t mean to say what he said. The aides had to say that because saying what Biden said made him a jerk.

Read the whole thing.

JOE BIDEN COMMITS TO PICKING A WOMAN AS HIS RUNNING MATE.

As PJM’s Paula Bolyard tweets, “Please define ‘woman.’”

OPEN THREAD: What will the week ahead bring?

LAS VEGAS CASINO CLOSURES: MGM, Wynn Resorts temporarily shutting down Las Vegas casinos; Venetian, Palazzo staying open.

AS ALWAYS FOR THE LEFT, BAD NEWS IS GOOD NEWS: CNN/PBS Host Christiane Amanpour Finds Environmental ‘Silver Lining’ in Coronavirus Epidemic. “So if there is a silver lining to this crisis, it’s visible in the skies above China. The dramatic slowdown in manufacturing and driving has caused a reduction in carbon emissions. We’ve all seen these NASA satellite images which show the improvement in China’s air quality.”

Flashback to the early years of the Obama era, when both John Kerry and Claire McCaskill praised the Great Recession for reducing carbon emissions. (Never mind unemployment, which was explained away as “funemployment!”) Or to put it another way: Prominent Environmentalist Finally Discovers His Religion’s Catch-22.

GRUMPY OLD WHITE MEN: Drunkblogging the Democratic Diversity Debate. “With Calderón as one of the moderators, I’m hoping the candidates get a chance to try out their campaign trail Spanish. Or in Biden’s case, his English.”

(Bumped.)

DISPATCHES FROM THE GRUMPY OLD MEN DEBATE: Discussing Coronavirus Response, Sanders Accidentally Calls it Ebola and Biden Accidentally Calls it SARS.

SPACE: NASA Marshall shifts to telework after coronavirus case.

I’LL SOON BE LIVING THIS: Law Teaching In The Age of the Wuhan Coronavirus.

Like most schools we use Zoom for our online classes. Because I’m a video/audio snob, I got a fancy webcam along with a gooseneck stand and a ring light. I tested it last night with the Insta-Daughter, who’s used to using Zoom for her Japanese classes, and everything looked and sounded good. I don’t think I’ll need it, but I also ordered a lapel mic too, because really, sound matters more than video here. I have everything clamped to that little black table I used to use for PJTV, which just leaves enough room for the laptop and the textbook. If I had my druthers, I’d have a separate monitor at eye level, but with only a month left in the semester once we get back, I’ll make do here. Anyhow, no doubt I’ll make adjustments, and I’m going to test at least one more time before classes start, but I think I’m ready to roll.

THE 21ST CENTURY IS NOT TURNING OUT AS I HAD EXPECTED: DraftKings, FanDuel users say nothing left to bet on after coronavirus sidelines sports leagues.

WAIT, I THOUGHT WE WERE ALL DEAD FROM NET NEUTRALITY? U.S. Internet well-equipped to handle work from home surge.