On Thursday the 6th of February, Patricia Dowd, a manager at a Silicon Valley chip company, was working from home.

She was recovering from flu symptoms, but at 57 she was otherwise healthy.

Her sudden death that day... But at 57 she was otherwise healthy.

Her sudden death that day, two hours after emailing a colleague,

mystified the medical examiner.

It was five days before the disease that had already killed a thousand people in China, was given a name.

And it was another two months before Santa Clara County health officials could confirm Patricia

Dowd was the first person known to have died from COVID-19 in America.

Now the disease has killed 100,000 Americans.

This is checks and

this is a podcast about the 20 elections.

And this is a podcast about the 2020 elections.

Each week we take one big theme shaping American politics and explore it in depth.

Today, how well has America responded to COVID-19.

As the country passes a grim milestone in the progress of the pandemic, delays and errors in the federal response have pushed the president's critics

into talk of America as a failed state.

In this episode, we'll assess how America has done

in comparison to the rest of the world and dealing with both the public health

emergency and the economic crisis caused by the lockdown.

We'll also ask what it could mean for the 2020 presidential race. As ever, I'm joined by Charlotte Howard, the economist's New York Bureau Chief and by John

Fasman, the Washington correspondent.

How are you both doing?

...