Feb 19: Trump assures the public against worrying about the coronavirus. Trump states, “I think it’s going to work out fine. I think when we get into April, in the warmer weather, that has a very negative effect on that and that type of a virus.” WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s lawyers told a London court on Wednesday that President Trump offered to pardon Assange if he said Russia had nothing to do with hacking Democrats’ emails during the 2016 presidential campaign. Iran reports two coronavirus cases. Hours later, officials confirmed that both patients died.

Feb 20: South Korea reports its first coronavirus death. This is the ninth confirmed death from the virus outside mainland China. A federal judge sentences President Trump’s longtime adviser Roger Stone to 40 months in prison for lying to Congress and witness tampering in an effort to help Trump by obstructing an investigation into Russian election meddling. Fourteen Americans who contracted coronavirus on a cruise ship in Japan were transported back to the U.S. against the wishes of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, The Washington Post reports.

Feb 21: Dr. Kadlec (HHS) reportedly convenes an urgent meeting of the White House coronavirus task force in an effort to determine not if but when the country would need to be in lock down to prevent the spread of the virus. Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, tells reporters that U.S. health officials are preparing for the coronavirus to become a pandemic. “We’re not seeing community spread here in the United States, yet, but it’s very possible, even likely, that it may eventually happen,” she says. First COVID-19 death in Italy is reported.

Feb 22: Bernie Sanders cruises to victory in the Nevada caucus. South Korea goes into highest alert after infections grow to 602 and a fifth person dies.*