So far, the crisis has lacked a defining image.

No villainous despot or smoldering ruins to inspire a national mobilisation.

Step forward Mike Lucovic, a Pulitzer-winning cartoonist for the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

His latest drawing shows a huddle of medics in white coats and scrubs, their bent backs

form a triangle as they hoist the star-spangled banner.

It's a tribute to the famous photo taken on Iwo Jima in 1945, and a recognition that

the trenches in this battle are the labs and hospitals.

With 227 days to go, this is Chex and Balance.

I'm John Prado, the economist's US editor, and this is a podcast about the 2020 elections.

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

This week, can the US health care system cope with COVID-19?

Donald Trump says he now considers himself a wartime president, but for now, the enemy

remains invisible, only 4% of Americans know someone who's tested positive for COVID-19.

The toll of this war is hidden away in emergency rooms and ICU's.

In this episode, we'll figure out how well prepared the frontline health system is.

We'll talk about testing, here from a former head of the CDC, and check in with New

Rochelle, New York, where one of the first outbreaks of the coronavirus started two weeks

ago.

With me, as ever, to discuss all of this, I'll show how the economist's New York bureau

chief, and John Fasman, the Washington correspondent, show that, let's start with you.

Last week, he very kindly hosted the podcast, because I was sick.

You were cooped up in your apartment in New York, entertaining two children while taking

...