But elsewhere there are greater signs of encouragement. Apart from China, South Korea was one of the worst-hit countries in the early stages of the coronavirus outbreak. But an aggressive response has made it one of the exemplars in the midst of the pandemic — thanks to its swift implementation of a mass-scale testing regime as well as its consistent, transparent messaging to the public throughout the arc of the crisis. On both counts in the initial months of the outbreak, the Trump administration fared poorly.

In South Korea, infections surged over a 10-day span in late February when a cluster of a few dozen cases mushroomed into more than 5,000. But rates of infection have slowed since the country snapped into action. Out of more than 8,000 confirmed cases of the virus, only 75 people have died so far — a fatality rate lower than the 3 percent average seen worldwide.