As bodies are thrown into mass graves in Iran, as Italian doctors practice triage in overcrowded wards, as borders close across Europe and American cities shut down, it is hard to look past the tumult and distress of each passing day.
The full political impact of the new coronavirus, a Jet Age pandemic that is spreading through a highly integrated global economy with shattering speed, isn鈥檛 yet known, and much depends on how successful efforts to mitigate its damage and find treatments and ultimately a vaccine for it will be. But on its present trajectory, the pandemic seems likely to test the international political system to an extent that few living people remember. In an ironic twist, an epidemic that started in China may end by increasing Beijing鈥檚 international reach.
Read the full article in the "Wall Street Journal":.