What is not being said in the media, is that both Italy and Iran have signed on to the Chinese One Belt and One Road initiative. For a long period (years), Italy has had a sizable number of Chinese leather workers in Northern Italy making shoes and handbags. Today that number is around 100,000. So, supposing many went home for Chinese New Year (January 25th) and then came back to Italy to work?  We will let you connect the dots.

"The Italian governor of Lombardy is warning citizens to “stay home” because soon hospitals “will no longer be able to help those who get sick” with the Chinese coronavirus."

"CTH is spending time on this issue because the food distribution sector is the most important sector in all commerce. Having some familiarity with the supply chain might help people to understand the challenges; and possibly help you locate product."

"Less than a year after a US District court judge dealt a blow to the "Russian active measures" talking point when she ruled that Robert Mueller failed to link them to the Kremlin, the Justice Department has moved to drop all charges against the shell companies accused of interfering in the 2016 US election.

To Mueller's surprise, Concord actually showed up to a Washington courtroom to fight the charges - which Mueller's team tried to delay by claiming that Concord never served in the case, as they didn't 'properly' answer the special counsel's summons. When Concord argued that they appeared as provided by the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, US District Court Judge Dabney Friedrich agreed.

"In news that will delight millions of Americans - at least those who end up owing Uncle Sam a tax bill instead of getting a refund - the US government will postpone the April 15 tax-payment deadline for tens of millions of taxpayers by 90 days, giving Americans roughly 3 months pay their 2019 income-tax bills in an unprecedented move.

The IRS, under the authority of President Trump’s national-emergency declaration, will waive interest and penalties as well, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said at the White House Tuesday. The delay will be available to people who owe $1 million or less and corporations that owe $10 million or less."

The new research (pdf), led by epidemiologist Dr. Neil Ferguson and published Monday by the Imperial College of London, shows that merely acting to slow rather than completely stop the spread of COVID-19 would "still likely result in hundreds of thousands of deaths and health systems (most notably intensive care units) being overwhelmed many times over."

Unless you have had Public Health Courses recently, you will learn a lot from this paper.