| This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a world health organization of Bloomberg Opinion's opinions. Sign up here. Today's Agenda  We have lots of questions. Photographer: Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images North America Coronavirus Mismanagement One nasty coronavirus side effect seems to be that it makes government officials forget how to act. Like the bug itself, this epidemic of shaky leadership is spreading quickly around the world. As with Covid-19, the clumsiness began in China, where authorities spent the contagion's early days denying anything was wrong. They got their act together soon enough, enacting drastic quarantine measures, but too late to stop the disease. By then, the World Health Organization had caught China's overly optimistic attitude. It still won't call the virus a pandemic, though it increasingly walks and quacks like one. The WHO's desire to mollify China, a major donor, and avoid a panic have outweighed its need to protect public health, writes Therese Raphael. It's got to get its priorities straight. President Donald Trump too has overindulged in coronavirus denialism, with optimistic promises his health agencies, and events, almost immediately contradict. He had a chance to get everybody singing from the same hymnal last night in a news conference, in which he could have reiterated that the disease isn't the end of the world, while also urging Americans to prepare. Instead, he rambled and ranted at his enemies and gave Vice President Mike Pence the keys to Virus Busters HQ while immediately undercutting his authority, writes Jonathan Bernstein. It was not reassuring. The administration does seem closer to embracing reality, at least, Max Nisen writes. But its messages remain too mixed, and there's still not enough action being taken. The disease will quickly test Trump's claims it's all under control. The real poster child for irresponsible coronavirus leadership must be Iran, though, writes Bobby Ghosh. Its deputy health minister, who was caught feverishly sweating on camera even as he tried to downplay the disease, infected who knows how many people all by himself. The regime has been too blithe about the illness; and given how widely Iranians travel throughout the region and the world, this carelessness is a global health problem. It probably won't be the last. Further Dubious Virus Response Reading: Hong Kong's stimulus seems designed more to boost already overinflated property values than to fight virus effects. — Andy Mukherjee Markets in Coronavirus Stocks spent another day being slapped around by coronavirus headlines. All told in this sell-off, the major indexes have lost more than 10%, the technical definition of a "correction," with the pain intensifying after news California is monitoring 8,400 people for the disease. This volatility is just going to be the norm for a while, writes John Authers. John says these market declines are still orderly, but you can bet a certain president of the United States doesn't feel that way. He probably agrees with Narayana Kocherlakota's call for the Federal Reserve to cut rates immediately to fight the virus's effects on sentiment and economic activity. It risks losing credibility otherwise, Narayana writes. Ordinarily a rate cut, or simply the promise of one, would be enough to turn markets around. But in this case it would provide only temporary support, warns Jim Bianco. The market won't truly bottom until it finally stops responding to negative news quite so negatively. And it won't do that until we have a better handle on the scope of the crisis. And that could take a while. Further Virus-Market Nexus Reading: Critiquing the Populist Critiques We may be well on the way to a presidential election pitting a right-wing populist, Trump, against a left-wing populist, Bernie Sanders. Both roughly argue things were better at some distant time and/or place in the past. Both traffic in the idea that it's harder for working people (specifically men, for conservatives) to earn a decent living these days, because of either the foreigners (the conservative argument) or the billionaires (the leftist argument). A recent conservative paper making the rounds gives them both ammo, saying a middle-class wage doesn't cover nearly as much as it once did. Michael R. Strain takes issue with the analysis, suggesting it's still possible for one wage-earner to bankroll a middle-class family. Sanders, meanwhile, has caught some heat for old comments praising communist Cuba for its education and health-care systems, while also criticizing its authoritarianism. Noah Smith writes it's legitimate to recognize what Cuba and other outré countries get right, as long as we also recognize how much they get wrong economically. Telltale Charts Retail investors should be allowed to invest in private equity, as a matter of principle, writes Nir Kaissar. Just be warned, all the good returns are long gone.  Trucker deaths are on the rise, and the problem is more the fault of bad car drivers than reckless truckers, writes Justin Fox, after hearing from a bunch of the latter.  Further Reading Muddy Waters struck a blow for short-sellers everywhere by exposing problems at NMC Health Plc. — Chris Bryant We can't let a Chinese candidate take over the United Nations patent office. — James Pooley Benny Gantz may have to form a governing coalition with Benjamin Netanyahu. — Zev Chafets Trump has slashed regulatory costs, but he has also slashed regulatory benefits. — Cass Sunstein Was anybody really fooled into thinking Steven Seagal was not paid to tout a cryptocurrency? — Matt Levine ICYMI Japan is closing its schools to fight coronavirus. This isn't a great time to be Corona beer. Bizarre wellness secrets of the rich and famous. Kickers China could deploy 100,000 ducks to Pakistan to fight locust swarms. (h/t Alistair Lowe) Scientists find an animal that lacks mitochondria. (h/t Scott Kominers) Car thief steals hearse with a body in the back. (h/t Ellen Kominers) The food-waste fight is a waste of time. Note: Please send ducks and complaints to Mark Gongloff at mgongloff1@bloomberg.net. Sign up here and follow us on Twitter and Facebook. | 
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