The spread of a new coronavirus has sparked fears of a global pandemic, as stock markets suffer and new cases of the disease emerge both in the United States and abroad.

The Center for Disease Control confirmed the first U.S. case of "unknown origin" Wednesday following days of substantial financial losses on Wall Street. President Donald Trump pegged Vice President Mike Pence to lead the domestic response to the virus Wednesday afternoon.

Media coverage in the U.S. focused largely on the Trump administration's handling of the disease and preparation for potential outbreak. Outlets on both sides focused on global economic consequences of the virus, as well as how other governments overseas are managing contagion and treatment.

Check out some other big stories this week: Moderate Democrats Voice Concerns Over Sanders Surge; President Trump, CNN's Acosta Publicly Spar Over Truth-Telling; and South Carolina Democratic Debate Recap.

Study on media bias fans the partisan flames: Managing editor Henry A. Brechter took a look at an upcoming study on media bias, which added fuel to the often misinformed debate over how ideological biases influence news publishing.

Looking for balanced news on each and every issue?: Your search stops here — AllSides has unique Topics pages for all of the day's most pressing stories, from immigration to the environment and everything in between.

Snippets from the Right

Coronavirus spread fuels anti-immigration opposition, challenges global leaders

Washington Times

"Pressure is mounting for world leaders to contain the spread of the virus, even as outbreaks threaten the economy as well. Opposition parties and ordinary citizens are beginning to question whether their governments can properly handle the growing crisis."

"Conservative populists in Europe such as Italy’s Matteo Salvini and France’s Marine Le Pen have tied their critiques to their signature issue of immigration and are slamming government officials for what they say is a failure to recognize the real threat ... Officials from the World Health Organization insisted during a press briefing Tuesday that countries must be prepared to wage a “full-on assault” to curb the spread of the coronavirus. WHO officials declared this week that the spread of COVID-19 is on the cusp of a global pandemic."

Sen. Josh Hawley Introduces Bill That Would Help Americans Protect Themselves From Coronavirus

Daily Caller

"Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley will introduce a bill Thursday that will help Americans protect themselves from the Coronavirus, the Daily Caller has learned ... “The coronavirus outbreak in China has highlighted severe and longstanding weaknesses in our medical supply chain. This is more than unfortunate; it’s a danger to public health. Our health officials need to know the extent of our reliance on Chinese production so they can take all necessary action to protect Americans,” Hawley told the Daily Caller."

"The legislation would help secure the U.S. medical product supply chain by requiring that manufacturers report imminent or forecasted shortages of life-saving or life-sustaining medical devices to the FDA, just as they currently do for pharmaceutical drugs."

If the coronavirus isn’t contained, a severe global recession is almost certain

Rex Nutting for MarketWatch

"Last week, it seemed as if financial markets believed that COVID-19 would be contained. But new cases in Italy, South Korea and Iran over the weekend undermined that belief. The World Health Organization tried to reassure the public on Monday, saying the disease was not yet a pandemic because it was not spreading in an uncontained way."

"CBO did a study in 2005 and 2006, modeling the impact of a 1918-sized flu pandemic on the economy. They found that a pandemic “could produce a short-run impact on the worldwide economy similar in depth and duration to that of an average postwar recession in the United States.” Specifically, a severe pandemic could reduce U.S. gross domestic product by about 4.5%, followed by a sharp rebound."

Snippets from the Center

U.S. Identifies First Coronavirus Case Without Outbreak Ties

Bloomberg

"The hospital where the patient is being treated in California described one of the more serious cases of infection seen so far in the U.S., according a report in a local newspaper, with the patient arriving after being intubated and put on a ventilator."

"Health experts inside the government and out have called a global pandemic likely, pointing to the virus’s flu-like ability to spread, its long period of incubation, and the fact that most people have mild symptoms. While it has a relatively low mortality rate -- some estimates put it around 2% -- infections in large numbers of people could create a significant number of severe cases or deaths."

Trump addressed the nation on coronavirus. We checked the facts.

USA TODAY

"With more than 81,300 cases worldwide and spreading rapidly beyond China to South Korea, Italy and Iran, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned Tuesday the virus would spread in the United States and cause "severe" disruptions across the country .. At a news conference the same day in India, President Donald Trump tried to tamp down concerns, saying the virus was "very well under control in our country." The White House requested $2.5 billion in emergency funding this week to combat the outbreak, but congressional Democrats slammed the request as "woefully insufficient.""

"Minutes after Trump downplayed the risk of coronavirus spreading in the United States, California confirmed a new case that might be the nation’s first example of a non travel-related case of coronavirus."

Goldman sees zero earnings growth for US companies this year because of coronavirus

CNBC

"“US companies will generate no earnings growth in 2020,” Goldman Sachs chief U.S. equity strategist David Kostin said in a note to clients on Thursday. “We have updated our earnings model to incorporate the likelihood that the virus becomes widespread ... U.S. equities have been in a tailspin this week on fears that the deadly virus will dent global economic growth. The rapid spreading of the virus across multiple continents forced the Dow Jones Industrial Average to drop more than 7% since Monday. The S&P 500 lost about 6.6% and the Nasdaq fell nearly 2% in the same period."

"Companies like Apple, Nike and United Airlines have warned they will not meet their earnings and revenue guidance due to the virus’s impact on supply chains. Chip stocks have been especially hit hard as they have large portions of their revenues coming from China."

Snippets from the Left

Stocks Fall Again as Coronavirus Spreads

The New York Times

"Investors have been contending with the potential for the coronavirus outbreak to disrupt global trade and slow growth, and stock prices around the world have reflected concerns about the virus’s spread outside China. More than 80,000 people have been infected by the virus, which has killed more than 2,700."

"As the virus spreads, economists warn the crisis could roil global supply chains and hamper economic growth. Concerned investors are dumping stocks, seeking safer investments like government bonds, pushing prices up and yields down ... The focus of this selling has increasingly been stocks in the United States and Europe, where investors had — for weeks — shrugged off the outbreak while it was mostly contained to China. But as the number of cases in China appears to have peaked, outbreaks outside the country are on the rise."

Coronavirus lays bare all the pathologies of the Trump administration

Max Boot for Washington Post

"Covid-19 has already infected more than 80,000 people in 37 countries, causing more than 2,600 deaths, and experts doubt it will slow in the spring. Yet Trump tweeted on Monday that “the Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA” and “Stock Market starting to look very good to me!” By Tuesday, the stock market had experienced two days of sharp drops, and the director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, Nancy Messonnier, was urging “the American public to work with us to prepare, in the expectation that this could be bad.”"

"At a time like this, it would be a lot more reassuring to think that there were actual, you know, experts in charge of the government rather than ignorant ideologues chosen for their dedication to a supreme leader unconstrained by fact, logic or morality. Where’s the “deep state” when you need it most?"

Here’s why Mike Pence is the worst person to put in charge of the coronavirus task force

Raw Story

"On Wednesday, President Donald Trump announced that he was putting Vice President Mike Pence in charge of the task force to combat the coronavirus pandemic, touting him as a former governor experienced with health care ... In reality, though, Pence’s record on health care policy is extremely checkered — and his fitness to lead up such a task force is questionable."

"Just about the only health care policy Pence enacted that had any positive effect was expanding Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act in his state as governor — and even then, he has since endorsed Republican bills that would have savagely cut that same coverage ... Trump has, in short, put a man who has made a career of denying health care to the poor and sick in charge of preventing the spread of a catastrophic infectious disease."

Story Of The Week, Coronavirus, Healthcare, Public Health, Disease