And it begins
By 
The first American fatality from COVID-19 happens to be in the county in which I currently reside:
One person in King County has died due to a novel coronavirus infection, Public Health – Seattle & King County officials announced Saturday morning. It is the first death attributed to the virus in the United States.
“It is a sad day in our state as we learn that a Washingtonian has died from COVID-19,” Gov. Jay Inslee said in a statement, referring to the illness caused by the virus. “Our hearts go out to their family and friends. We will continue to work toward a day where no one dies from this virus.”
The patient arrived at EvergreenHealth Medical Center in Kirkland with “serious respiratory issues” and tested positive for COVID-19, the hospital said in a statement. A second patient also tested positive and is currently in isolation and receiving treatment.
From the day Donald Trump was elected, some of us worried how his administration would deal with a crisis not of its own making. Remarkably, we’ve gone three years without finding out: Until now, every serious problem facing the Trump administration, from trade wars to confrontation with Iran, has been self-created. But the coronavirus is looking as if it might be the test we’ve been fearing.
And the results aren’t looking good.
The story of the Trump pandemic response actually began several years ago. Almost as soon as he took office, Trump began cutting funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, leading in turn to an 80 percent cut in the resources the agency devotes to global disease outbreaks. Trump also shut down the entire global-health-security unit of the National Security Council.
Experts warned that these moves were exposing America to severe risks. “We’ll leave the field open to microbes,” declared Tom Frieden, a much-admired former head of the C.D.C., more than two years ago. But the Trump administration has a preconceived notion about where national security threats come from — basically, scary brown people — and is hostile to science in general. So we entered the current crisis in an already weakened condition.
Your reminder that the electoral campaign that culminated in the election this comprehensively unfit racist buffoon to the world’s most powerful electoral office was dominated by coverage of his opponent’s compliance with email server management best practices.