In the coronavirus pandemic, hospital bioethics committees — and doctors and nurses — find themselves in confusion over rationing necessary supplies. And the principles of bioethics — doing good, doing no harm, doing justice and allowing patients to make their own health care decisions — offer little clear guidance.

The United States is facing a double-barreled health and economic crisis unlike anything it has seen since a brutal flu pandemic a century ago when the world was a different, less connected place. Mass quarantines have led to mass layoffs. Numerous businesses and entire industries are flailing. Hard-hit states are desperately working with the federal government to build new hospitals as more and more of the 100,000-plus Americans known to have coronavirus go on to develop the disease it causes — COVID-19, a life-threatening respiratory condition.

As Congress provides economic support amid the coronavirus pandemic, it should also fully fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund and a backlog of National Parks maintenance work.

How bad does a national emergency have to get for President Donald Trump to use the extraordinary power he already possesses to increase production of protective equipment and ventilators in dangerously short supply, and prioritize their distribution to areas most in need?

“What happened to the soap?” That’s what many Americans may be thinking as they wander forlornly through the aisles of local grocery stores (always careful, of course, to maintain a 6-foot distance from other customers). Fresh food may be abundant, but the necessities of a disease quarantine — hand soap, sanitizer, toilet paper and so on — are increasingly hard to find. For some items, such as peanut butter, this isn’t much of a problem. But for soap, hoarding could set back the country’s ability to suppress the coronavirus by making it harder for people to clean their hands — which medical professionals say is important to prevent the disease from spreading.

The COVID-19 coronavirus crisis has brought out the compassion and good-heartedness of many Americans. Unfortunately, there is no crisis that scammers will not seek to exploit.

As much as the nation’s elected leaders from the White House to statehouses have found themselves at the vanguard of health care policy in recent days, taking dramatic actions to close schools, churches and businesses to lessen the severity of the coronavirus outbreak, the day is swiftly coming for equally decisive action to protect the nation’s economy from the worst of a looming recession.

The intensifying drumbeat of coronavirus-related restrictions and shutdowns has drawn outrage from some conservatives, who argue that the government is driving the U.S. economy into a ditch and, by overreacting, pushing us unnecessarily into recession. Some even contend that this whole virus thing is a plot by liberals to prevent President Trump from being reelected in November.

The Trump administration’s outreach to insulin manufacturers and health insurers to reduce the price of insulin for more than 3.3 million Medicare recipients is a terrific first step in addressing the rising cost of prescription drugs.

If it’s on Facebook, it must be true. Right? Wrong. Even though the social media giant has said it’s taking steps to monitor fake news stories, the proliferation of such stories makes it unlikely they’ll be squelched.

On Feb. 29, U.S. and Taliban envoys signed an agreement.

Now that former Vice President Joe Biden is the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, is anyone surprised to learn that Senate Republicans are ramping up an official investigation into Biden and his son Hunter?

Opponents of a woman’s right to an abortion are so relentless that nothing seems to stop them. Even a clear Supreme Court precedent doesn’t serve as a deterrent.