Late to my own news here: I'm re-joining @politico, to launch the company into Australia.
We're heading heading Down Under🇦🇺 first with a Canberra Playbook.
More here
My job is literally to monitor and compare global policy responses to coronavirus, and this is categorically untrue.
Countries that are doing it better include: Sth Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, China (after the first month of lies and obfuscation), Austria and Australia
THREAD: So where's the next big Coronavirus problem going to hit? Look out for:
1. India
2. Russia
3. Homeless and refugee communities
4. Germany
5. Iceland (i know it sound weird - but they have the highest known infection rate now, overtaking Italy). Reasoning follows ...
NEW: Biden admin just announced $670mil in food aid, to deal with terrible effects of Russia invading Ukraine. USAID + U.S. Dept. Agriculture will take $282 million from a humanitarian trust to procure U.S. food commodities for Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan, Sth Sudan, Yemen.
#Brexit#thread
1/ If you don’t follow Brexit every day, here’s some advice. Let go of any illusions that this drama is about trade protocols, residency rights or the status of the Irish border. Brexit is the story of a proud former imperial power undergoing a mid-life crisis
This is false. Testing rates for comparison:
Iceland: one in 33 people covid.is/data
South Korea: about 1 in 170 people (March 23 data)
Australia: about 1 in 200 (March 20 data)
United States: less than 1 in 1,000
#coronavirus#COVID19
Just reported that the United States has done far more “testing” than any other nation, by far! In fact, over an eight day span, the United States now does more testing than what South Korea (which has been a very successful tester) does over an eight week span. Great job!
Why India's a problem: Only 500 people a day were being tested up to now - in a country of 1.3 billion with very uneven health infrastructure. Revised plans would test only 2 million. Social distancing v.v. hard to do in urban slums. icmr.nic.in/sites/default/…
everyone is eligible! just because you aren't first in the line, doesn't mean you're not in the line. the dumbest possible course of action is allowing a vaccine dose to go to waste.
Meanwhile the British ambassador is at Kabul airport doing something useful: stamping visas for Afghans who supported allied nations these last 20 years, per UK diplomat
Why #Russia's a problem: They reported only 147 cases, despite land border and close trading links with China. Throw in Russia’s coronavirus disinformation campaigns, and a claim to have tested 116,000 people for 147 positives is 🧐
THREAD. After tracking coronavirus responses for 7 weeks now, and since you asked for it: here’s my list of ”best in class” responses from around the world to the various facets of the problem. #coronavirusoutbreak#COVID19.
When a minister (Canada's @cafreeland) arrives 45 mins late to a 30min press conference, and then her team announces that only Canadian journalists are allowed to ask her questions 🤯
Maybe stay home in Canada if you only want to talk to Canadians #g20rome