By Jebediah Reed
New York Intelligencer
Even before he became the point person in a global effort to find a coronavirus vaccine, Dr. Francis Collins occupied an interesting perch in government. One of the few Obama appointees still serving in a major role in the Trump administration, Collins, who rose to prominence in 1990s as leader of the Human Genome Project, is the head of the National Institutes of Health, the federal government’s gargantuan hub for medical research.
(CNN) The United States has long prided itself as the world’s shining beacon. But its current status is a much darker one: the globe’s leader in coronavirus cases. More than 125,000 people have died from Covid-19 in the US, and more than 2.5 million Americans have been infected.
From May 2014. I’ve been thinking this thing was probably going to drag on for years to come. That’s how it was with the Spanish Flu, which lasted for two years, and COVID-19 may last longer because there are more people now and the population is more mobile.
By Sam Meredith
CNBC
By TR
By Tamara Thiessen
Forbes
After four months of travel bans, Europe will soon officially be open to visitors from at least 14 countries. Not the U.S. Nor Brazil and Russia. But Australia, Canada, Japan and South Korea yes.
After much debate, particularly over criteria for inclusion, the final list of approved countries should be revealed early this week. EU officials wrangled again on Friday over which countries will make it on to the list, and those who will not.
By German Lopez
Vox
The past week gave America an ugly reminder that the threat of the coronavirus pandemic is far from over. Cases are rapidly rising again. The nation on Wednesday hit a new record for daily new infections, and then hit another record the next day.
There’s some debate about whether this is the “second wave” of infections, or whether it’s a continuation of the first wave that began in early 2020 and never really ended. But what’s clear is the US is now suffering from a rapid rise in coronavirus cases. So far, that’s yet to translate to a rising death toll, likely because rises and falls in deaths tend to lag behind rises and falls in overall cases.
But between Monday and Thursday, the US went from nearly 31,000 reported cases in one day to more than 41,000. Arizona, Florida, Texas, and several other states in the South and West are among the hardest hit.
Axios
The coronavirus pandemic is getting dramatically worse in almost every corner of the U.S.
The big picture: The U.S. today is getting closer to the worst-case scenario envisioned in the spring — a nationwide crisis, made worse by a vacuum of political leadership, threatening to overwhelm hospitals and spread out of control.
By the numbers: Over half the country — 26 states — have seen their coronavirus caseloads increase over the past week.
Increased testing does not explain away these numbers. Other data points make clear that we’re seeing a worsening outbreak, not simply getting better data.
Between the lines: Axios uses a rolling seven-day average to minimize the effects of any abnormalities in how and when new cases are reported.
What’s next: Younger people are making up a greater share of all cases, and tend to be less susceptible to serious injury or death, so hopefully this spike in new cases won’t be followed by an equivalent spike in deaths.
By Nick Statt
The Verge
The European Union plans to ban travel from the US when it reopens its borders on July 1st because of the Trump administration’s poor handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a report from The New York Times. Under current plans, the US would join Brazil and Russia on the list of forbidden countries, as all three countries have had comparably poor responses to the virus since the worldwide outbreak at the beginning of the year. Travel from China, as well as some developing countries, will be allowed, the report states.
By Cheri Mossburg, Theresa Waldrop and Naomi Thomas
CNN
During a live public briefing on Facebook last month, “someone very casually suggested” the Los Angeles County’s public health director should be shot, the director said.
“I didn’t immediately see the message, but my husband did, my children did, and so did my colleagues,” Dr. Barbara Ferrer said Monday in a statement.
It’s just one of the many threats of violence public health workers are facing across the nation “on a regular basis” as the Covid-19 pandemic rages on, Ferrer said.
By Brittany Shammas, Chelsea Janes, Lateshia Beachum, Lenny Bernstein
Washington Post
South Carolina racial justice activists said they would postpone future demonstrations or move them online after at least 13 people who took part in previous protests tested positive for the coronavirus.
As the number of cases across the country continued to climb ominously Monday, organizers of “I Can’t Breathe” protests in South Carolina urged participants to get tested for the virus.
By Sarah Mervosh, Mitch Smith and Lucy Tompkins
New York
PITTSBURGH — After months of lockdown in which outbreaks of the coronavirus often centered in nursing homes, prisons and meatpacking plants, the nation is entering a new and uncertain phase of the pandemic. New Covid-19 clusters have been found in a Pentecostal church in Oregon, a strip club in Wisconsin and in every imaginable place in between.
Saagar Enjeti blasts the media for their coronavirus coverage on Covid-19 spikes related to George Floyd protests and Trump rallies.
By Madeline Holcombe
CNN
The United States could see more than 200,000 deaths from Covid-19 by October 1, a closely watched model predicted Monday as states continue to reopen.
More than 2 million have been infected by the virus and 116,125 have died, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Though many states are seeing improved conditions, the pandemic has not yet reached its conclusion. The projection comes as 18 states are still seeing an upward trend in new cases.
BBC
When Valentina Blackhorse tested positive for coronavirus, she texted her sister and told her not to worry.
A former pageant queen, Valentina was known for her love of her Native American Navajo heritage, her passion for helping others and her playful sense of humour. She doted on her one-year-old daughter, Poet, and worked as a government administrator, with dreams of leading her people some day as Navajo president.
When coronavirus reached the reservation on which she lived, Valentina warned her family to stay indoors and take precautions. Weeks later her boyfriend Bobby fell ill and she tended to him at their home in Kayenta, a small town near the sandstone buttes of Arizona’s Monument Valley.
Duh?
Wait until another month has passed since the protests/uprising and check the COVID-19 statistics. We might not have to wait until the October flu season for the second wave of the epidemic.
Krystal and Saagar give an update on coronavirus case numbers and discuss a spike in cases after Memorial Day celebrations.
WHO announces asymptomatic people who have COVID-19 are at very low risk of spreading the disease.
By Michael Safi
The Guardian
Restaurants are opening, parks are full and people are getting back to work: parts of Europe, Asia and much of the Middle East are enjoying the benefits of flattened coronavirus curves. Meanwhile, parts of the US, India and Latin America are still recording thousands of new cases every day.
It’s rather ironic that the supposed social democratic utopia of Sweden has adopted the anti-lockdowners’ preferred laissez-faire approach to COVID-19.
