Teresa Hanafin in today's "Fast Forward" from Boston Globe:
[A]s Dr. David Blumenthal, president of The Commonwealth Fund, put it, the coronavirus pandemic in the United States is like watching a "public health train wreck in slow motion." And the Choo-Choo-in-Chief is at the controls, either completely befuddled or completely callous. Take your pick.
Studies show highest infections and mortality in areas where Sean Hannity has his biggest audiences https://t.co/mau6LzmSac— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) June 25, 2020
Charles Ornstein and Ash Ngu, "State Coronavirus Data Doesn't Support Trump's Misleading Testing Claims":
The Trump administration has doubled down on its claims that coronavirus case counts are up because the U.S. has increased testing. However, a closer look at graphs of testing numbers and positive cases shows that this isn't the case for many states.
Josephine Harvey, "Anti-Mask Floridians Hurl Conspiracy Theories At Officials In Wild Public Meeting":
As Palm Beach County, Florida, battles an alarming spike in coronavirus cases, some speakers at a heated public hearing attacked county commissioners as "communist dictators" who follow "the devil's laws" as they prepared to vote on a mandate for wearing face masks in public.
David Leonardt, "The Virus Is Surging":
The U.S. recorded 36,880 coronavirus cases on Wednesday, the highest single-day total so far. While some of that reflects an increase in testing, the virus really is spreading more rapidly than it was several weeks ago. Across much of Europe and Asia, by contrast, the situation is less dire.
The rise of U.S. cases is also leading to more serious illness. In Texas, about 4,000 people with the virus are hospitalized, more than double the number at the beginning of June. Houston’s intensive-care units are now filled to 97 percent of capacity, the mayor said.
Axios, "Our famous map: The surge is real, and it's everywhere":
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.
Amanda Holpuch, "Texas Covid-19 cases hit all-time daily high as Houston hospitals near capacity":
Texas recorded an all-time daily high of 5,489 new Covid-19 cases on Tuesday as hospitals neared capacity in Houston.
Summer Concepcion, "CDC: For Every COVID-19 Case Reported 'There Are Actually 10' More":
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Dr. Robert Redfield on Thursday estimated that the number of COVID-19 cases in the country may be 10 times higher than reported, which means that the actual amount of cases may top 20 million.
As Wendell Griffen states in the video at the head of the posting, in our little state of Arkansas from last Saturday up to Wednesday, more than 2,200 people have been infected with coronavirus. As he goes on to state,
And let's just be clear: they weren't infected because they were tested. Stop listening to people, to include politicians, to include the governor of Arkansas, who say, "We're getting these numbers of people infected because we're doing more testing."
Think about this for a second: nobody would believe you if you said that more people are showing up pregnant because we have more pregnancy tests. Nobody would believe you if you said there are more people pregnant because more people are getting pregnancy tests. If you said that, you'd be called an idiot or a fraud. ...
Tests don't cause infections. Get the facts straight and stop believing the frauds. Let's admit that this is a statement about the leadership and the competence and the credibility of that leadership.
Desmond Nugent, "Arkansas Department of Health shares concerns about 'travel advisory' list":
Governors from New York, Connecticut and New Jersey announced on Wednesday morning that anyone traveling from Arkansas will be required to quarantine for 14 days due to the rising number of COVID-19 cases.
New York Times, "Arkansas Coronavirus Map and Case Count"
Max Brantley, "Coronavirus today: Another big rise in cases and hospitalizations"
