INSTEAD, THE WORLD SHOULD ISOLATE CHINA: China Wants to Use the Coronavirus to Take Over the World. “The cases have been multiplying where the medical equipment provided by Chinese companies and even the Chinese state turned out to be faulty, provoking justified ire in, for example, Spain, the Netherlands, and Turkey.”

HARSH, BUT KINDA FAIR:

He’s done his job for decades, but he’s never faced a crisis like this, and at 79 he’s not super mentally flexible. Double-blind experiments are the norm, but this isn’t a normal time. Happily, he’s not managing to roadblock this, thanks largely I believe to Peter Navarro’s task force.

GET WELL SOON, BORIS: U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson Admitted to Hospital with ‘Persistent’ Coronavirus Symptoms.

HARSH, BUT FAIR: Nope: Oliver Darcy Tells Trump CNN Has ‘Accurately Reported’ on the Wuhan Virus, but Receipts Tell Different Story.

Like the Chinese government, CNN is trying to rewrite history to obscure its own culpability.

Just for fun:

OPEN THREAD: How was your weekend?

IN SOCIALIST VENEZUELA, BISMARCK SINKS YOU! Video has emerged of the Venezuelan patrol ship that sunk itself after ramming a German cruise ship (not a typo). Plus do not miss what former Navy man Jon Gabriel dubs “Thread of the year,” also at the same link.

Exit quote: “At this point it’s worth reviewing both ships’ armaments. Seen here posing moodily in the manner of a teenager that has just discovered My Chemical Romance, Naiguatá had a 76mm main gun, a air/missile defence gun, two smaller machine guns and presumably also some small arms. Resolute, on the other hand, is armed with nothing more deadly than a well-stocked library, Finnish sauna, and ‘a superb international wine list’. Some of its passengers are believed to have had binoculars.”

ZIPPING HARMLESSLY BY IS HOW WE LIKE IT: Huge asteroid 1998 OR2 will zip harmlessly by Earth April 29. See the latest telescope photos.

COBOL NEVER DIES: COVID-19 Response: New Jersey Urgently Needs COBOL Programmers (Yes, You Read That Correctly).

DISPATCHES FROM THE HOUSE OF STEPHANOPOULOS: ABC Asks Biden to Blame Virus Deaths on Trump, Ignores Sexual Assault Claim.

SURGEON GENERAL WARNS THAT THIS WEEK WILL BE ‘OUR PEARL HARBOR’ MOMENT AS VIRUS DEATHS WILL SPIKE.

WASH YOUR HANDS … AND DON’T GIVE DR. LISTER ANY LIP ABOUT IT: On this day in 1827, Joseph Lister, the father of modern antiseptic surgery, was born. Lister had the idea that surgeons could prevent infecting their patients by washing and disinfecting their hands with carbolic acid before surgery. This idea earned him ridicule—until people started noticing that it did indeed help.

IN A WORD, D.C. A super-popular weekend spot in the nation’s capital was super dangerous Saturday, when crowds of people swarmed into a relatively tight space, squarely violating social distancing rules. “Notice the sign, warning people to stay 6 feet apart. Some are wearing masks … but most aren’t. It’s actually pretty incredible because at this point you have to be living under a rock not to understand the need to keep your distance.”

Hardest hit: Michael Barbaro.

ACTUALLY, EVERY TIME IS, BUT YES: Now’s a Good Time to Teach Your Kids to Play on Their Own.

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FOR ALL YOU SECOND-GUESSERS AND BLAME-SEEKERS:

“This is not a major threat to the people of the United States.”

— Dr. Anthony Fauci, Jan. 21, 2020

RAND SIMBERG: Are we using ventilators wrong?

BRYAN PRESTON: Communist China Was Always One Lab Accident Away From Becoming a Supervillain.

HOW LONG BEFORE TWITTER BANS JAMES WOODS AGAIN?

IF THE CHINESE WANT TO SPY ON MY CON-LAW OR DISTILLED-SPIRITS LAW CLASSES THEY’RE WELCOME TO, BUT THIS “MISTAKE” IS TROUBLING: Zoom Admits Some Calls Were ‘Mistakenly’ Routed Through China. I wouldn’t use Zoom for anything even vaguely sensitive, at this point. And at this point, if I’d been smart enough to buy Zoom stock two or three months ago, I’d be thinking about selling it as more and more bad news keeps coming out.

AUSSIE BEATDOWN: Tim Blair Delivers An Old-Fashioned Fisking to the Chinese Propaganda Apparat, And It’s Brutal.

Excerpt:

The Daily Telegraph this week received a letter from the Australian Consulate General of the People’s Republic of China, who took gentle issue with our excellent coverage of the coronavirus crisis.

Following is a point-by-point response to the Consulate General and China’s communist dictatorship:

Recently the Daily Telegraph has published a number of reports and opinions about China’s response to COVID-19 that are full of ignorance, prejudice and arrogance.

If a state-owned newspaper in China received this kind of complaint, subsequent days would involve journalists waking up in prison with their organs harvested.

Tracing the origin of the virus is a scientific issue that requires professional, science-based assessment.

Sure it does. How professional and science-based was the claim published on March 12 by China’s foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian that “it might be US Army who brought the epidemic to Wuhan”?

The origin of the virus is still undetermined, and the World Health Organization has named the novel coronavirus “COVID-19”.

The World Health Organisation also appointed Zimbabwean murderer Robert Mugabe as its Goodwill Ambassador and declared on March 2 that the “stigma” of the coronavirus “is more dangerous than the virus itself”.

The World Health Organisation does a lot of stupid stuff.

So what is the real motive behind your attempt to repeatedly link the virus to China and even stating that the novel coronavirus was “made in China”?

Our motive is accuracy. That’s why we don’t link the virus to Bognor Regis or state that it was “made in Panama”.

The people of Wuhan made a huge effort and personal sacrifice to stop the spread of the epidemic.

Wuhan’s Dr Li Wenliang indeed made a huge effort to warn people about the coronavirus outbreak. Then, as the New York Times reported: “In early January, he was called in by both medical officials and the police, and forced to sign a statement denouncing his warning as an unfounded and illegal rumor.”

And now he’s dead, so that’s “personal sacrifice” covered as well.

Nevertheless, in order to capture attention and gain more internet hits, you called Wuhan the “Zombieland” and Wuhan seafood market the “bat market”. How low can you go?

In the civilised world, “Bradman bats and bats and bats” is a famous newspaper banner:

In Wuhan, it’s the name of a restaurant.

The effectiveness of China’s epidemic prevention and control has fully underlined the people-centred philosophy of the Communist Party of China and the strong advantages of the Chinese system.

In 2018, Amnesty International reported that China executed more citizens than the rest of the world combined.

Please tell us more about your “people-centred philosophy” and how many bullets it requires.

More at the link. Plus: “It was published on a double-page 6-7 spread in Saturday’s Daily Telegraph.”

The Chinese lied about the disease to keep from losing face. They’re about to find out that they chose poorly.

TOYOTA SUPRA: Starting a 40,000 mile test drive.

WELL, THINGS USUALLY DON’T. THAT’S WHY IT’S CALLED A “WORST CASE.” Bill Gates Says Virus Death Toll May Not Reach Experts’ Worst Case.

HMMMM: Wuhan Flu: “This is a completely new disease.”

HOT TAKE ALERT: Americans are driving less because of the coronavirus. That’s hurting red-light camera revenue.

Which dovetails well with the media meme on the wonderful benefits of the Wuhan pandemic: Coronavirus pandemic could lead to biggest carbon emissions drop since World War II.

John Kerry and Claire McCaskill, call your office!

FALSE MEDIA NARRATIVE OF RED STATE NEGLIGENCE IN WUHAN VIRUS RESPONSE: The hardest hit states so far are blue states. So why is the media spending disproportionate amounts of time attacking red states?

Just think of the media as Democratic Party operatives with bylines, and it all makes sense.

Earlier: Experts Give Wyoming an ‘F’ for Social Distancing, Which Is All You Need to Know About Experts.