Good morning, Quartz readers!
How much progress has been made by nationalist movements around the world to stem the tide of globalization? Judging by the coronavirus pandemic, not much. Without any travel documents or trade agreements governing its path, Covid-19 has spread far and fast, an unfortunate consequence of our immutable interconnectedness.
Taming it won’t be the achievement of any one government, and assigning blame for it to any one country or continent won’t be a productive mitigation strategy. It is far too late for that. US president Donald Trump’s 30-day travel ban on foreign visitors from most of Europe—the centerpiece of his March 11 address from the Oval Office, and the only concrete measure he announced that night—was, as one public health official told NPR, “remarkably pointless.” It also was out of sync with the markets. Stocks worldwide plunged in reaction, because Trump’s strategy was a mismatch for the problem at hand, and because the reverberations in Europe would be felt everywhere else, another sign of our global interdependence.
What’s telling now is the conviction, at least in some corners, that the response must be as borderless as the virus itself. Foundations run by Jack Ma and Alibaba, the Chinese tech giant he founded, this week pledged to ship half a million testing kits and 1 million masks to the US, following similar donations to Japan, Korea, Italy, Iran, and Spain. “Drawing from my own country’s experience, speedy and accurate testing and adequate personal protective equipment for medical professionals are most effective in preventing the spread of the virus,” Ma said. While many of us in coronavirus hot spots wonder whether it’s time to isolate ourselves, we would be wise to heed Ma’s advice: “At this moment,” he said, “we can’t beat this virus unless we eliminate boundaries to resources, and share our know-how and hard-earned lessons.” —Heather Landy
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FIVE THINGS ON QUARTZ WE ESPECIALLY LIKED
Should humans engineer trees to generate electricity? Imagine powering your house on the energy created by genetically engineered foliage waving in the wind. Scientists are already working on it and the technical reality is theoretically not that far away. Anne Quito explores the poetic and environmental possibilities, as well as the ethical questions raised when humans appropriate nature to make products. —Ephrat Livni, senior reporter, law & politics
History is the best teacher. The 1918 Spanish flu was one of the worst pandemics in history, infecting more than one third of the global population. In Philadelphia, the virus spread rapidly at a massive war rally that brought 200,000 people to the streets. But it didn’t have to be that way: In a single chart, Michael Coren shows how swiftly enacted social-distancing measures dramatically reduced deaths in St. Louis. The same approach will slow the Covid-19 pandemic. —Katie Palmer, science and health editor
Even the US Supreme Court has a price. As the ultimate arbiter in the most powerful country on Earth, battles over who gets to sit on America’s high court—for a life term—are unsurprisingly fraught with political debate. And as Ephrat Livni reports, like everything in politics these days, there seems to be a lot of dark money fueling those debates. —Pete Gelling, geopolitics editor
Is a house a better investment than college? As college tuition—and student debt—continue to skyrocket in the US, it may seem that those dollars are better spent on a more tangible asset, such as a home. But as Allison Schrager explains, the lifetime returns on a college education continue to make it the best bet. —Oliver Staley, culture & lifestyle editor
Chinese dating apps are exploiting the loneliness of India’s men. The country’s most downloaded dating app in 2019, L’amour, makes men pay at every step, but they hardly ever wind up with a date. Such predatory apps have captured the market between matrimony and porn in India. Delhi-based journalists Snigdha Poonam and Samarth Bansal investigate the dirty underbelly of the nation’s growing online dating market. —Diksha Madhok, director and editor of Quartz Platform India
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Everyone is a little anxious right now. Before reaching for some CBD to help you relax, read our field guide on the cannabis-derived compound and learn about how it became a popular “full-body massage at the molecular level.”
FIVE THINGS ELSEWHERE THAT MADE US SMARTER
The Warby Parker of failure. Direct-to-consumer startups selling everything from houseplants to dental floss have been one of the biggest retail trends of the past decade. With the recent implosion of the DTC athleisure company Outdoor Voices, though, it’s become clear that the business model isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Medium’s Marker dives into why sleek logos and online-only exclusivity haven’t translated into success for DTCs, and why their often young founders have flamed out. —Annaliese Griffin, editor of the Quartz Daily Obsession
Sanders at the crossroads. Bernie Sanders’ campaign to become the first democratic socialist in the White House arises from the conviction that his vision could inspire a “political revolution,” drawing in young people and apathetic non-voters while uniting Democrats. But what if that’s not true? As Buzzfeed shows in an elegiac examination, a string of losses to Joe Biden has the progressive movement wondering whether Sanders can build a majority coalition behind their ideas. —Tim Fernholz, senior reporter
Coronavirus and our attitudes toward the elderly. The Covid-19 pandemic is causing panic and breeding fear of others. As rabbi Shai Held writes in The Atlantic, it has led to callous attitudes from some quarters toward the elderly, who are most at risk of dying from the coronavirus. This piece opened my eyes to how dehumanizing this crisis has been for the most vulnerable among us. —Annabelle Timsit, geopolitics reporter
The Peace Corps breaks ties with China. The US government-run program announced in January that it will soon withdraw its volunteers from China. For the New Yorker, Peter Hessler, who in the mid-90s was part of the Peace Corps, recounts the evolution of an initiative that was once considered a major diplomatic achievement. More recently, its worthiness has been questioned by US officials who increasingly view China as an adversary. —Youyou Zhou, reporter on the Quartz Things team
The drugs of horse racing. Earlier this week, 27 trainers, vets, and drug suppliers—including one known as “the Juice Man”—were indicted on US federal charges for allegedly doping racehorses with banned substances they called “red acid” and “devil’s breath.” As the New York Times reports, the case reveals “just how deeply a drug culture had taken hold in a sport whose participants claim to love their horses” while exposing a total lack of accountability in the quest for ever-richer purses. —Justin Rohrlich, geopolitics reporter
Our best wishes for a relaxing but thought-filled weekend. Please send any news, comments, scam-free dating apps, and coronavirus history lessons to hi@qz.com. Get the most out of Quartz by downloading our app and becoming a member. Today’s Weekend Brief was brought to you by Steve Mollman, Heather Landy, and Kira Bindrim.