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United States President Donald Trump’s move to declare a national emergency over the coronavirus outbreak and seek common ground with his Democratic opponents to work out an economic stimulus package has not come a day too soon. Comfortingly for the President, who has based much of his legitimacy on a buoyant stock and labour market, US shares bounced up for a day after suffering their worst rout in 23 years the previous day, when he announced broad restrictions on travellers from much of Europe, adding to those already placed on China. It has since fallen sharply again. With alarming clusters in places as far apart as New Rochelle in New York and Seattle on the Pacific coast, Mr Trump appears to have had little choice but to act.

Better late than never. Mr Trump, not unlike some of his European peers, has mostly been in denial for most of the 10 weeks since it became clear the world is facing a major outbreak. It took the domestic morbidity tally to cross 1,650 and deaths to pass 40 for him to act. Thousands more, denied testing after the health authorities produced flawed kits after declining World Health Organisation-approved ones, remain to be identified. Through it all, Mr Trump has dismissed the virus threat as a hoax talked up by Democrats and even claimed it would disappear. The director of Harvard Global Health Institute has called the official response an unmitigated disaster that the administration has brought upon the population.