A Note To Readers
The novel coronavirus now has been declared a world health emergency by the World Health Organization. As of this writing there have been about 7,000 confirmed cases with about 200 deaths. While most may not regard the health of the population and the public health care system as infrastructure, it is. It is called “soft infrastructure” and is, of course, a vital element of a nation’s economy.
The unprecedented response of the Chinese government in putting about 50 million people in effective quarantine and the building of two hospitals from scratch in less than 10 days, is highly praised by the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who was visiting China yesterday.
Xinhua reported that “Tedros said it is admirable that the Chinese government has shown its solid political resolve and taken timely and effective measures in dealing with the epidemic. President Xi’s personal guidance and deployment show his great leadership capability, Tedros said. He said that China has released information in an open and transparent manner, identified the pathogen in a record-short time and shared the genetic sequence of the novel coronavirus in a timely manner with the WHO and other countries.”
Tedros went further, noting that “China’s measures are not only protecting its people, but also protecting the people in the whole world,” according to Xinhua. “The high speed and massive scale of China’s moves are rarely seen in the world, Tedros said, which showed China’s efficiency and the advantages of China’s system. The experience of China is worth learning for other countries.” Tedros concluded, “The WHO firmly supports China’s measures against the epidemic and stands ready to enhance cooperation with China and provide all necessary assistance.”
The next days will be critical for containing this epidemic and if every nation responds as China has, then we hope the spread of the coronaravirus will be slowed and stopped.
In This Week’s Report
We begin with reports on the very dry conditions in California being experienced in January. And the Department of Water Resources, as a response is being very stingy with its announced allocations of water this year to water contractors.
Next is an article on the Delta Tunnels, which was covered here more extensively last week. But this article is a good overview.
While environmentalists are in an uproar about the announcement last week by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that the Obama administration’s 2015 rules and regulations are being amended, others, especially farmers are very happy. We have extensive coverage of this below.
Is it possible that nuclear power will return to California? A proposed bill in the state Assembly would include large hydro, nuclear in California’s renewable portfolio standard.
The final section before the Feature is entitled, “Wildfires, PG&E, Fires in 2020, and Forest Thinning,” which covers a lot of territory.
The Feature this week is, “Rebuilding the U.S. Economy.” I have often presented the policy formulated by Lyndon LaRouche of the “Four Laws to Rebuild the U.S. Economy.” The report today will introduce a more in-depth discussion of those four laws. This will be the Feature for the next few weeks. This week is a short introduction. Then, in following weeks, each law will be discussed in more detail.
