Insight: “I have a special reason for wanting to solve this [economic] problem in a lasting way. I was 21 and looking for work in 1932, one of the worst years of the Great Depression. And I can remember one bleak night in the thirties when my father learned on Christmas Eve that he’d lost his job. To be young in my generation was to feel that your future had been mortgaged out from under you, and that’s a tragic mistake we must never allow our leaders to make again.” —Ronald Reagan

Friendly fire I: “It seems statistics from China [were] a bitter joke, because many in the world thought this is just like influenza, with fewer deaths. This [impression] were based on reports from China and now it seems China made a bitter joke with the rest of the world. If in China they say an epidemic was controlled in two months, one should really think about it.” —Iran Health Ministry spokesman Kianush Jahanpur 

Friendly fire II: “Our experience about [China’s] scientific research has taught us not to rely on their statistics. They provide the numbers and no one can go to China and report what they see [on the ground] directly.” —Head of the Iranian Center for HIV/AIDS Minoo Mohraz

Friendly fire III: “The evidence shows us that what happened is worse than what the Chinese reported.” —Iran Coronavirus Combat Taskforce member Hamid Souri

Non compos mentis: “We should have universal systems where every person can see the doctor free of charge when they need to see it so that they can get the care that they need. That is what it means to live in an advanced and modern and humane society, and so long as we don’t do that, we have not earned the right to call ourselves one.” —Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Missing the forest for the trees: “Pollution is clearing up. Skies are clear. Animals are coming out. I mean, you know, the Earth was angry at us. People may think I’m crazy that I believe it in my heart and soul that we had gone too far and Earth said, ‘Hold up. We gotta change this.’ We were killing this planet. And this time … the Earth has come alive.” —Spike Lee

Village idiots: “Americans bought over 2 million firearms in March of 2020, over a million more than this time last year. We have to keep each other safe by social distancing and washing our hands and not bringing dangerous firearms into our homes.” —Alyssa Milano (“Thank you for the reminder. When the looting starts, always be prepared. Buy more ammo!” —James Woods)

And last… “My favorite part of this pandemic is people who live in a population density of 25,000 per square mile scolding people who live in a population density of 25 per square mile.” —David Burge