It's an irony that a conference meant to moot steps to save ourselves during the Coronavirus threat has been called off because of the disease. As reported by Bloomberg, "the Council on Foreign Relations has shelved a roundtable named 'Doing Business Under Coronavirus' scheduled for March 13 in New York due to the spread of the infection itself."

As per an exclusive report published by the New York Times, the US agencies might have exacerbated the situation by neglecting warning signs. "For weeks, thousands of flu samples sat in Seattle as researchers sought to test and flag them for coronavirus. The C.D.C. wouldn’t allow it. When testing did happen, it was too late. The virus was upon us," writes Mike Baker in an investigative report.

Meanwhile, the Coronavirus threat is at one of its worst manifestations in Italy. "Three weeks ago, Italy barely had a coronavirus problem. Today, it’s home to 2nd largest #covid19 outbreak outside of China and a mass quarantine experiment. The outbreak spiraled so fast, in part, because the country wasn’t prepared for a surge," reports Julia Belluz for vox.com.