It's Monday, the 16th of March 2020. I'm Philip Coggan, Bartleby Columnist at the

Economist. Welcome to Editors' Picks, where you can hear three highlights from the paper

this week. They're read aloud so you can listen on the go. This week's issue is dominated

by COVID-19. The pandemic is spreading fast, with countries closing their borders to foreign

visitors. Our cover leader looks at how politicians are belatedly realizing that, as health systems

buckle and deaths mount, they will have to weather the storm. All governments will struggle,

some will struggle more than others. In Britain, the National Health Service is well suited to

dealing with crises, but it is overstretched and faces an enormous challenge. And finally,

an oil price war has broken out between Saudi Arabia and Russia. No one is likely to win.

The stories you're about to hear are just a sample of what's on offer in the paper,

with a subscription you can read or listen to all of what we do. So please subscribe.

Go to economist.com slash radio offer to get your first 12 issues for $12 or 12 pounds.

First up, the politics of pandemics. To see what is to come, look to Lombardy,

the affluent Italian region at the heart of the COVID-19 outbreak in Europe. Its hospitals provide

world-class healthcare. Until last week, they thought they would cope with the disease,

then waves of people began turning up with pneumonia. Having run out of ventilators and oxygen,

exhausted staff at some hospitals are being forced to leave untreated patients to die.

The pandemic as the World Health Organization or WHO officially declared it this week

is spreading fast, with almost 45,000 cases and nearly 1,500 deaths, in 112 countries outside China.

Epidemiologists reckon Italy is one or two weeks ahead of places like Spain, France,

America and Britain. Less connected countries, such as Egypt and India, are further behind,

but not much. Few of today's political leaders have ever faced anything like a pandemic,

...