Get me rewrite! (Oh wait, that's me)

So much has happened in the last 12 hours—even since many of you might have gone to sleep—that I wound up preempting today's newsletter and starting over.

I’m having a hard time keeping up with the coronavirus story over the last day or two, and I suspect you might be too.

But it’s clear this is very serious. I’m not going to criticize anyone who takes an extreme step now to try to stave off an existential threat. I’d rather we all look silly later than not do enough.

A few developments from the last 12 hours or so alone:

• The president addressed the nation from the Oval Office, and announced travel restrictions from Europe (except the UK) and some health insurance agreements, among other things. However, there was some intense confusion about the details afterward.

• Clarifications afterward seemed to suggest that the travel restriction applied only to people, not goods (via the president’s tweet), that the “people” applied mainly to foreign nationals (DHS statement), and that insurance copays would be waived for coronavirus testing (not “for coronavirus treatments,” as the speech read.)