Can you believe it? Some good news in the face of the pandemic.

Starbucks is giving free coffee to first responders all over the country until early May. That’s good—it’s a PR thing, we understand that.

But here’s the story: 95% of the Starbucks in China are being reopened, because cases of the virus in the country in which it originated are declining rapidly.

That is excellent news.

Now, a few caveats: the Chinese army enforced a quarantine there. People couldn’t move around or they wound up in jail and believe me in China, they’re not letting any prisoners out.

But an American chain is not a propaganda outfit.

We can’t believe what the Chinese government tells us about their stats – but we can believe Starbucks opening up 95% of their stores.

So, that was a three month arc in China. That epidemic raged for three months, and looks to be on the wane - and the proof is Starbucks.

Good news on this Friday.