Instant Opinion: Drop war bluster and ‘learn to live with coronavirus’

The Week’s daily round-up highlights the five best opinion pieces from across the British and international media, with excerpts from each.

1. Sherelle Jacobs in The Daily Telegraph

on political metaphors

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Enough war bluster about beating coronavirus – let's steel ourselves to live with it instead

“Time to ditch the military analogies. Coronavirus may be something we must simply learn to live with. Such a message may be against the better nature of centrist politicians who have spent the last 30 years protecting us from the Other (Saddam Hussein) and ourselves (nativist populism). But they can yet change their attitude, and compellingly sell the truth of the matter to the public.”

2. Jonathan Freedland in The Guardian

on what really matters

Coronavirus crisis has transformed our view of what’s important

“Our public life has also been stripped to its essentials. We’ve come to see what’s indispensable and what is not. It turns out that we can function without celebrities or star athletes, but we really cannot function without nurses, doctors, care workers, delivery drivers, the stackers of supermarket shelves or, perhaps unexpectedly, good neighbours. If you didn’t value those people before – some of those belatedly recognised as key workers are among the lowest paid – you surely value them now.”

3. David Aaronovitch in The Times

on miracle cures

Don’t let fake news infect the war on Covid-19

“Many people for obvious and often noble reasons worry about the effects of a lockdown and argue that the game is not worth the candle. I think they’re wrong though I respect their motives. But for a section of the populist right, including pro-Trump websites, journals and news stations, this has become another part of their battle with the liberal establishment. And the championing of get-out-of-jail cures for the pandemic is the current go-to cause.”

4. Holly Baxter in The Independent

on the US presidential race

Coronavirus killed Bernie Sanders' campaign — but if he made a deal with Biden, we might see him in the White House yet

“Bernie’s soft-socialist, collectivist ideas are well-suited to the recession we will now have to weather. The age of unfettered American capitalism is over. A Republican White House sending out $1,200 checks to every US taxpayer would have been unthinkable just weeks ago; now that White House may be forced to bring in policies that some Democrats would have balked at in normal times.”

5. Financial Times Editorial Board

on an existential moment for the EU

Eurozone ministers must strike coronavirus deal

“For the survival of the eurozone and the entire post-1945 project of European unity, it is of paramount importance that ministers do not waste their second bite at the cherry. The issues at stake are politically divisive, at national and European level, and they raise genuine matters of principle for many governments. However, a second signal of high-level disagreement in less than a week would sow serious doubts in financial markets and around the world about Europe’s ability to get its act together.”

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