1. Crucial to understanding Trump's bungling of coronavirus is that he's been treating it as a border control problem rather than a public health problem. Wednesday's speech, with it's talk of a "foreign virus" was part of that.
2. Trump's America First views (with its hostility towards immigration, trade, and international institutions) has been the prism through which the administration has regarded the pandemic. It's why border control (first China, now Europe) took precedence to testing.
3. This goes beyond Trump. Even if Trump's bungling hurts him politically, the larger right is absolutely prepared to use the crisis to push ethno-nationalism even harder. Hence the talk, from Tom Cotton & others, of coronavirus as a Chinese bioweapon. 
4. The moral objections to a xenophobic response to coronavirus are obvious. But beyond that, there's also a practical objection: a global pandemic requires international co-operation. A Fortress America will make things much much worse.
5. To work through the global pandemic there has to be a massive sharing of medical information. Trump's European ban (done without any prior warning to the European governments) and anti-Chinese rhetoric undercuts that.
6. The simple fact is the only country in the world that has the productive capacity to make the medical equipment and medicine needed to deal with the pandemic is China. This fact might be regrettable & we might want to change in future. But it's our reality.
7. The bungling of the Chinese government, of course, is itself a major problem. But it's notable that they realize their productive capacity is an asset and are leveraging it for soft power, as in their recent foreign aid sent to Italy.
8. Mike Davis, a towering figure, has been warning for decades about the need to shore up international environmental infrastructure to ward against global pandemics. He writes: "Walls not vaccines: could there be a more evil template for the future?" links.org.au/mike-davis-cov…
9. A Chinese foundation is offering to send half a million test kits to USA. As with all philanthropy one might question the motives (likely damage control). Still: China is using crisis to expand its profile while USA becomes more isolationist
10. Some more thoughts on why the America First response to Coronavirus is dangerous: thenation.com/article/politi…
