James K. Galbraith, Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, The University of Texas at Austin: This is a useful paper in several respects. It brings together available comparative information in a compact and accessible way, and confirms by statistical summary what epidemiologists and common sense already knew, that the least-cost way to suppress the coronavirus is to break the chain of transmission by effective social distancing, since person-to-person transmission at short range through the air is the major vector of infections. This is the main message of the paper; it is not news but reinforcement, which in a moment of global emergency is what the situation requires.1
A second important contribution is in demonstrating by how much the Asia-Pacific region dominates the North Atlantic region in pandemic control, as measured by transmission rates and death rates. Sachs attributes this mainly to public health measures, especially personal hygiene and...