September 26, 2020

A light news day as the world absorbs the gravity of the approaching one-millionth global COVID death. Business Insider catalogs international reactions to America’s pandemic failure, quoting a Myanmar analyst who says “the USA is a first-world country but it is acting like a third-world country.” The observation captures a widespread bewilderment at the gap between American resources and American outcomes—a gap the political discourse fills with partisan blame rather than structural analysis. Pregnant women in Wales are opting for C-sections to ensure partners can attend births, a small but telling example of how hospital visitor policies designed to limit transmission reshape medical decisions in ways that have nothing to do with the virus.