Aviation has died, for example. Tourism is dead. And all the travel industry which is associated with the hotels, considerable difficulties. So that's an impact which is not going to go away in a hurry. Secondly, supply chains are getting disrupted because other countries are not operating at full steam. Their economies are locked down. And so supplies are not coming in.

And our production is also affected and our exports are also affected. And that's a broad-based impact on the rest of the economy. Then you've got the self-employed, the gig economy, the people who depend on entertainment, who depend on normal socializing, who get jobs day by day. And those jobs have all evaporated. And I don't see that coming back until such time as people gain confidence that they have a hold on the virus, that we can resume normal socializing, normal traveling, normal human intercourse. And I think that's quite some time down the road.

...


Well, if you're going for herd immunity, you have to have a big proportion of the population infected. Angela Merkel, who speaks very carefully, talked about 70 percent of the German population possibly. And well, if you go -- if we have to go that route all the way, I think it's either going to be very, very painful because of the huge spike and you have an uncontrolled outbreak as happened in some cities, in northern Italy or in China, or you have to flatten the curve and it takes a very, very long time.

So you've got to hope for an off-ramp to get off that path. And the only visible way to get an off-ramp is to have either a treatment or an effective vaccine. And that's some distance down the road but many very smart people are working very hard at it. I can only hope and pray that they make some progress soon.

...

I don't think overall that one can say this would not have happened if only the Chinese had done the right thing because you look at the way the outbreak has continued, grown and spread in many countries. And they don't have the Chinese government and yet they have not found it easy to keep the outbreak under control in their country.

So, I think that we are in a very difficult situation, and it's most constructive for us now to look ahead and make up, find the best way to move forward and deal with the problem which we now have.

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It's a most unfortunate situation to be in. I mean, U.S.-China relations have been complicated even before this, but if we are going to deal with this virus, you've got to get all the countries to be working together, in particular U.S. and China. And under the best of circumstances there's going to be a very difficult challenge for mankind. But if the U.S. and the Chinese are swapping insults and blaming one another for inventing the virus, and letting it loose on the world, I don't think that that is going to help us solve the problem sooner.

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LEE: The world has greatly benefited from American leadership in situations like this for decades. If America is in a different mode, well, we'll get by. And I think other configurations will eventually work out. But it would be a loss.

ZAKARIA: You'd prefer to see American leadership on this issue?

LEE: Yes, of course. You have the resources, you have the science, you have the influence, you have the soft power and you have the track record of dealing with these problems convincingly and successfully, and in the greater good of many countries, not just the U.S. And it's a pity not to put those resources to work now, to deal with this very grave challenge to mankind.