At this point, the coronavirus has spread far beyond health

[View this email in your browser]( [Open Ars Technica in your browser]( [Image] [Catalina, an island off the coast of California and the new MacOS release name.]( The coronavirus is [barely a month-and-a-half old](, but its impact is undeniable at this point. Ars' first story on the situation came on January 5 when only ~50 cases had been documented in China. By January 21 (barely two weeks later), the coronavirus finally hit the US. Three days later, China instituted its [lockdown]( of entire cities. And on January 30, the World Health Organization finally [declared a global emergency](. At the time, there were 7,834 confirmed cases globally and 170 deaths. Each figure has almost increased 10x by now. Somehow, things have only gotten crazier from there. People flocked to a little known PC game, [Plague Inc.](, for impromptu coronavirus modeling to such a degree the developer issued a statement condemning the practice. Multiple "pranksters" (aka idiots) have of course gone into public spaces like airports or [Walmarts]( to falsely declare an infection for the lulz (and eventually the charges). And, phew, sorry to everyone who had airtravel with any portion of the journey involving areas around China. So for this week's Orbital Transmission, we're catching up on the scale and scope of the coronavirus and its impact as we slowly approach the two-month mark. From ships to supply lines to seasonal conferences, the disease has continued to spread far and wide. (And with a handful of cases now isolated in the US, certainly stay tuned for more.) —[@NathanMattise]( Orbital Transmission 02.19.2020 [(image) ]( [Wait, how do you test for a virus you haven't seen before?]( Given how fast the coronavirus has been spreading in China and now across the world, health officials have had to quickly develop testing capabilities. Luckily, that situation isn't new (see things like the SARS or MERS outbreaks in recent decades). The process starts by characterizing the genome of the new virus (in this case, 2019-nCoV). And to simplify, once you have that genome authorities next need to rapidly develop a diagnostic test for the virus (which they can do by looking for areas of the genome that don't change rapidly over the coronavirus evolution but have changed enough in this branch of the family that they can be viewed as its distinctive signature). [(image) ]( [The coronavirus cruise ship nightmare has ended for 300+ Americans]( As of Monday, there were over 71,000 laboratory-confirmed and clinically diagnosed cases worldwide, with 1,775 deaths. Of the cases, 794 are outside of China, scattered in 25 countries. But the most publicized Americans involved were likely the 14 infected individuals aboard a cruise ship called The Diamond Princess. Due to breakout on ship (454 cases overall), the ship had been quarantined near Japan since February 3. The passengers included roughly 400 Americans, which prompted the US government to plot an evacuation for that contingent. But as the US State Dept. was prepping people for the plane ride home, 14 would-be evacuees were shown to have the coronavirus. Eventually, the govt. plotted a separate return for these individuals, and they arrived at a military base in San Antonio on Monday after flying back from Japan in a specialized containment area within an evacuation aircraft. [(image) ]( [Now would be a bad time to cut the CDC budget, so of course...]( Yes, despite the thousands of people worldwide infected (and at worst killed) by the coronavirus, US President Donald Trump proposed a nearly 19 percent budget cut to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention—the US agency primarily tasked with preparing for and responding to such outbreaks and other serious health threats. But in the president’s proposed 2021 federal budget released last week, the administration says that the changes to the CDC’s funding are intended to “re-focus CDC’s core mission on preventing and controlling infectious diseases and other emerging public health issues, such as opioids.” At least on this one thing, perhaps Senate Budget Committee Ranking Member Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) speaks for us all: “The Trump Budget does not see a problem in this country it cannot somehow make worse.” [(image) ]( [The coronavirus has become much more than a medical story]( We live in an interconnected world, and so many parts of said world now connect through China. So with the country on (pretty literal) lockdown in light of the disease, the non-medical impact has been increasing more and more. First, the biggest European tech conference—[Mobile World Congress](—announced it would skip a 2020 edition given the travel complications and all the exhibitors and attendees from China that would be impacted. Then in the auto world, both the Beijing Auto Show (previously scheduled for April) and the Chinese Grand Prix (an F1 race for the same month) [would be postponed](. And in the tech world, the tendency for production to be based in China has finally been impacted, too, as even global behemoth Apple recently told investors "worldwide iPhone supply will be temporarily constrained." Reports soon surfaced that potential upcoming releases like a new iPad Pro will be delayed, too. [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [YouTube]( [Instagram]( Copyright © 2020 Condé Nast, All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: Condé Nast One World Trade Center New York, NY 10007 Want to change how you receive these emails? 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