Every advanced democracy in the world has its coronavirus epidemic largely under control except the United States. And we're on the verge of melting down again because a substantial minority of Americans simply don't know the basic science of how an epidemic works and why wearing masks is part of breaking the epidemic chain.

Donald Trump wants to go after social media because Twitter pointed out one of his lies. And, in fact, social media has done a lot of damage to America and the American body politic, with the most visible example being it's help in putting Donald Trump in the White House in 2016.

Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro, presidents of the United States and Brazil, are essentially refusing to do anything consequential about an epidemic that is killing massive numbers of their own countries' citizens.

Several new studies and models suggest that if Donald Trump had simply declared a state of national emergency, largely shutting down the country, a few weeks earlier than he did, tens of thousands of people who are dead right now would still be alive.