Governors should ignore Trump's advice until widespread testing and effective contact tracing are ready

While acknowledging (finally) that re-opening the economy and lifting some of the social distancing restrictions is not really his decision, President Donald Trump gave US governors a clear message on Thursday: time to start getting the country back to normal within the next couple of weeks.

Unfortunately, we are far from being able to do so without risking a major resurgence of Covid-19.

Even if we assume that sometime this summer — maybe June, perhaps as late as August — the first wave of Covid-19 will have tapered down, the world will likely see a second wave of the deadly virus in the fall or winter, perhaps extending into the early months of 2021.

We must find ways to adapt to the changes

My wife Karen and I were at the Children’s Health Fund and National Center for Disaster Preparedness offices earlier last week. The place was surreal in its emptiness, much like the rest of the world and the “new normal.” We are settling into how we organize our lives in a strange, constantly changing environment.

Coronavirus Update: CDC Goes Dark As California Reports First Possible Case Of Community Spread

The White House is clamping down on communication issued from government health officials and scientists about the spread of coronavirus following a decision by President Trump to put Vice President Mike Pence in charge of the U.S. task force addressing the public health threat, according to a report in the New York Times. On Thursday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notably failed to hold a telephone press briefing despite the fact that California has reported a confirmed case where the infected person who did not have any exposure to someone known to have the virus and who did not travel to any of the countries where there has been an outbreak.

How much should we worry about the new coronavirus?

Just in the last few days, as the World Health Organization declared a Global Health Emergency and a similar Public Health Emergency declaration was made in the U.S., there has been growing evidence of possible person to person transmission of the Wuhan coronavirus, and it is increasingly likely that people can be contagious even before the appearance of symptoms. So, it should come as no surprise that public concerns about this new public health threat are also on the rise. Still, many questions remain unanswered and unanswerable at the moment.

In California there's an opportunity to lead the nation in building resilience

The scourge of wildfires yet again in California has the hallmarks of recurrent disaster nightmare for America’s most populous state. Last year’s fire season — in which the Camp Fire took more than 80 lives in the devastated town of Paradise alone — may have been the first glimpse into a future of almost dystopian threats to communities throughout the state, and the nation. However, from understanding the complexity of the causes of these events, there is an opportunity to re-write the way California approaches wildfires. In doing so, they can also provide a much needed roadmap for resilience for the rest of the nation.

California blackouts are a planned disaster

Loss of economic activity because businesses can’t open, schools closed, perishable foods going bad, mobile phones can’t be charged and people with medical dependencies unable to plug in life sustaining equipment. These are all things that are commonly seen in the aftermath of a disaster that can hinder a community’s recovery and even lead to additional injuries and deaths. In the case of California’s blackouts, these effects are occurring in the name of preventing disasters.

The other existential threat candidates must confront

It now seems within the realm of possibility that over the next few years, the most important nuclear arms control treaties -- negotiated among the world's nuclear powers over nearly four decades of painstaking diplomacy -- will have expired or been eliminated. This would open the floodgates to a 21st century arms race that could be far more chaotic and dangerous than what threatened the world following World War II.

Our planet is in crisis. But until we call it a crisis, no one will listen.

When Senator Kamala Harris was asked about climate change during the Democratic debate in June, she did not mince words. “I don’t even call it climate change,” she said. “It’s a climate crisis.”

She’s right – and we, at Columbia University’s National Center for Disaster Preparedness, wish more people would call this crisis what it is.

A 16-year-old boy died in CBP custody. Blame immigration policy.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced Monday the death of a 16-year-old boy from Guatemala who had just days earlier crossed the southern border illegally as a so-designated “unaccompanied minor.” While only minimal details were released, the young man was likely headed to relatives waiting for him somewhere in the United States.

The deadly cost of failing infrastructure in historic Midwest floods

So far, historic floods in America’s Midwest have already claimed three lives with others still missing — although the worst may be yet to come.

In Nebraska alone, over 2,000 homes and 340 businesses have been destroyed, leading to over $1 billion in damages. In Iowa, more than 1,200 homes have been extensively damaged or destroyed, with more than $480 million estimated in damage to homes, $300 million to businesses and $214 million to agriculture.