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]]>The number of daily deaths on Wednesday surpassed 1,100, the first time that mark had been reached since May 29. And total deaths in the United States since the start of the pandemic increased to more than 140,000.
California on Wednesday passed New York in the number of total confirmed coronavirus cases, according to data tracked by The Washington Post, as the pandemic once concentrated in the Northeast continued to boom in the South and the West.
With transmission rapidly spiking in many areas, governors in Indiana, Minnesota and Ohio joined the growing number of states mandating face coverings statewide. More than 30 states require people to wear masks.
Trump’s optimistic outlook Wednesday contrasted with his reluctant acknowledgment on Tuesday that America’s situation “will probably, unfortunately, get worse before it gets better.”
The president — once skeptical of the need for masks — declined to press for a nationwide mandate for masks, despite the near-universal urgings of public health experts. “Some of the governors are strong on masks, others aren’t. I think it’s really going to ultimately be up to them,” Trump said.
He said he was considering a mask requirement for the White House and federal properties in light of a mandate by local officials in D.C.
Similarly, Trump blamed the soaring number of infections on many things except for the rush in several states to reopen — which he championed and experts say is the primary cause for the sudden increased viral transmission in recent months.
“There are likely a number of causes for the spike,” said Trump. He said recent protests against police brutality had led people to relax mitigation efforts. He blamed holidays such as Memorial Day, young people gathering in bars and immigrants from Mexico. He also invoked China as ultimately responsible, calling the pathogen “the China virus.”
Pushing back on criticism that his administration has yet to provide the country with a national coordinated plan to thwart the virus, Trump boasted of a $1.95 billion deal announced Wednesday with pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and German biotechnology firm BioNTech to supply the federal government with 100 million doses of a possible coronavirus vaccine — the administration’s largest investment to date in a vaccine that has not yet been proved effective.
He also said his administration was going to focus more of its efforts on nursing homes — which local officials and health experts have sought for months. Trump said the federal government would distribute 15,000 rapid point-of-care diagnostic devices that can quickly provide test results.
Having such point-of-care testing ability in nursing homes could enable them to better stem outbreaks and alleviate pressure and lag time created by having to send test samples to overwhelmed labs. He also said the Department of Health and Human Services would be distributing an additional $5 billion to nursing homes.
After being hammered by critics for not showing empathy even as hundreds of thousands of Americans have mourned their loved ones, Trump read aloud from prepared remarks: “I want to send a message of support and hope to every senior citizen who has been dealing with the struggle of isolation in what should be the golden years of your life. We will get to the other end of the tunnel very quickly, we hope. The light is starting to shine.”
Trump praised his administration’s progress on developing possible vaccines and therapeutic treatments for the novel coronavirus. “That would be great if we could go into the hospital and cure people, and we’re at a position where we’re actually able to, to a certain extent, with what we have right now,” he said. But the most promising therapeutics currently do not cure patients with covid-19, the disease caused by the virus. One drug has reduced the length of hospitalization in some patients. Another appears to reduce a percentage of deaths among patients who require supplemental oxygen.
In contrast to Trump’s optimism, in recent days, the surging numbers of coronavirus cases have prompted urgent questions among public health officials about just how dire the pandemic could get in the United States and what can be done about it.
On Wednesday, Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told ABC News it was “very hard to predict” how bad the crisis could get, and he emphasized the importance of wearing face masks but would not commit to supporting a national mask mandate.
As transmission spirals out of control in several states, America is reaching a critical point, said Michael T. Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy. Osterholm compared the virus’s spread to a dangerous phenomenon in forest fires. If such fires grow large enough, they can generate winds on their own, which fan the fire, making it hotter and spreading it further — a vicious, devastating cycle.
“The direction of these next few weeks could determine our trajectory for months to come. If we don’t shut down transmission in a meaningful way, we’re just going to burn hotter and hotter,” he said. “The case numbers are going to get to a point where our ability to reduce them is totally compromised. And there will no longer be choice in whether to lock down.”
In an open letter sent Wednesday to the Trump administration, Congress and governors, more than 150 public health experts asked U.S. leaders to reboot America’s pandemic response, saying, “Shut it down, start over, do it right.”
The letter, organized by the consumer advocacy organization U.S. Public Interest Research Group, was signed by epidemiologists, physicians and health experts from institutions including Brown, Columbia, Harvard and Northwestern.
They argued for shutting down all but essential businesses to buy time. But unlike earlier in the pandemic, they called for using that time to reinforce the infrastructure needed for testing, contact tracing and manufacturing personal protective equipment.
“Reopening before suppressing the virus isn’t going to help the economy,” they wrote in the letter. ‘Economists have gone on record saying that the only way to ‘restore the economy is to address the pandemic itself.’ ”
In recent days, other epidemiologists have also begun pushing for some states to return to shutdowns. That’s because as outbreaks begin to spiral out of control in multiple states — such as Arizona, Florida and Texas — the strategies other countries have used to contain the virus, including testing, contact tracing and isolating infected people, no longer work.
Most areas of the United States still lack capacity to carry out all three missions, but that capacity has become even more strained as cases have risen. Labs say they are being overwhelmed, and it’s taking up to 10 days in some states to get test results, rendering them useless for combating the virus. With those delays, contact tracing has become impossible. And persuading people to self-isolate also becomes difficult.
“I’m not sure if the answer will be to do a full lockdown or a smarter lockdown,” Harvard epidemiologist Marc Lipsitch said. “But if we do nothing, it’s clear the virus will simply spread faster than we can catch up to it.”
On Wednesday, an influential model created by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation — widely known as IHME — at the University of Washington said wider mask-wearing by Americans had caused the institute to revise projections on how many people will die of covid-19 by Nov. 1. Earlier, it had forecast 224,500 deaths by that date. Now, it estimates 219,900 deaths by Nov. 1 — a decrease of about 5,000 deaths.
If 95 percent of Americans wore masks when leaving their homes, that number would drop further to 185,900, IHME researchers said.
It’s imperative that the nation gains control of the pandemic soon because the fall could be even worse, disease trackers said.
“Once you get to the fall, you’ll have people spending even more time indoors. You may see some schools reopen, businesses starting up. You have the election, Thanksgiving, Christmas — all things that involve travel or crowds, or both,” said Eleanor Murray, an assistant professor of epidemiology at Boston University.
The arrival of flu season will further complicate matters, as patients inundate physician offices with coronavirus-like symptoms. And the only way to tell if they have the flu or the coronavirus is to test them through labs already stretched to capacity.
“However deep we dig ourselves in the hole right now, that’s our starting point in the fall for how much worse we will get,” Murray said. “That’s what really worries me when I look around our country right now.”
Hannah Denham, Derek Hawkins and Carolyn Y. Johnson contributed to this report.
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]]>The post The Memo: Democrats feel rising tide in Florida | TheHill appeared first on Virus Reports.
]]>Democratic hopes are rising for a victory in Florida in November’s presidential election — an outcome that would make President Trump
Donald John TrumpDemocrats blast Trump for commuting Roger Stone: ‘The most corrupt president in history’ Trump confirms 2018 US cyberattack on Russian troll farm Trump tweets his support for Goya Foods amid boycott MORE’s path to reelection vanishingly narrow.
Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden
Joe BidenTrump commutes Roger Stone’s sentence Hillicon Valley: Facebook considers political ad ban | Senators raise concerns over civil rights audit | Amazon reverses on telling workers to delete TikTok House Democrat warns about ‘inaccurate’ polls: Trump voters ‘fundamentally undercounted’ MORE is leading Trump in polls of the nation’s largest swing state. Biden leads by 5 points in the RealClearPolitics polling average in the Sunshine State, and a late June poll from Fox News put him ahead by 9 points.
The state’s struggles with the coronavirus are another hurdle that Trump will have to clear if he is to win its crucial 29 electoral votes.
Florida reported more than 11,000 new coronavirus cases in daily figures released Friday. The total for the state is nearing a quarter-million. Friday’s numbers also saw the biggest one-day rise in new hospitalizations, with 435 patients admitted.
Trump’s handling of the pandemic is coming under increasing scrutiny nationwide. In addition, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis
Ronald Dion DeSantisDeSantis breaks with Fauci, says Florida didn’t rush reopening Overnight Health Care: Coronavirus deaths rise again amid mounting outbreaks | The Trump-Fauci divide is getting more apparent | New York to deliver remdesivir to Florida after DeSantis dismisses offer for help New York to deliver remdesivir to Florida after DeSantis dismisses offer for help MORE (R) is a close Trump ally whose push to reopen the state from lockdown early is also being questioned as cases spike.
Trump journeyed to the state Friday but — tellingly — made only a brief reference to the pandemic. He instead focused on efforts to counter illegal narcotics, and his opposition to Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro. Trump also held a fundraiser that reportedly raised about $10 million.
The president is staking a great deal on his ability to draw members of Florida’s Venezuelan American and Cuban American communities to his side. During his event focused on Venezuela, Trump accused Biden of being a “puppet of … the radical left,” noted that his administration had imposed sanctions on Maduro’s government and accused Biden and former President Obama of being part of a “sellout” to Cuba and the late Fidel Castro.
But Biden is pressing his advantage.
In a statement hours before the president arrived in the state, Biden accused Trump of mangling the response to the pandemic, and of being weaker on Venezuela than he wishes to suggest.
On the pandemic, Biden said, “Trump’s response — ignore, blame others, and distract — has come at the expense of Florida families.”
He also noted Trump’s past hints that he would be willing to sit down with Maduro.
Biden characterized Trump’s approach both to the pandemic and to Venezuela as “unreliable and self-centered.”
Even Democrats do not expect Biden to win by anything like the 9-point margin projected in last month’s Fox News poll.
In the past six presidential elections, Florida has gone for the Democratic nominee three times and the Republican three times. The winner in the last three of those elections has had a margin of victory under 3 percentage points. Trump defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonTrump confirms 2018 US cyberattack on Russian troll farm Hillicon Valley: Facebook considers political ad ban | Senators raise concerns over civil rights audit | Amazon reverses on telling workers to delete TikTok Biden campaign hires top cybersecurity officials to defend against threats MORE in the state by 1.2 points in 2016.
“Things are looking good in Florida, but I know Florida too well,” said Democratic state Sen. Annette Taddeo. “It will come down to 1 percent, one way or another.”
Taddeo did say, however, that Biden is “in really good shape,” even as she expects there to be a narrowing in the polls toward the race’s end.
Among the anecdotal evidence she cited was the mood of the callers to Spanish-language radio stations on which she appears.
“You learn so much from all these people calling in, really angry. They know I’m a Democrat and they say, ‘I’m a Republican but I’m done.’” she said.
Like others who spoke to The Hill, Taddeo cited not just the rising number of coronavirus cases but long-standing problems with the state’s unemployment benefit system, which has stymied many laid-off workers from getting the assistance to which they are entitled.
Susan MacManus, a professor emerita at the University of South Florida, agreed that the unemployment problems were a political liability to DeSantis, and there was a chance of that frustration percolating through to Trump.
But she also cautioned pundits and Democrats against overconfidence.
“I think it is still very fluid. So many people are saying it is set in cement but I still see it as fluid,” she said.
MacManus argued that some of the disorder that has occurred around street protests in recent weeks could yet redound to Trump’s benefit, especially among older socially conservative voters. And she expressed some skepticism with polling.
“A lot of people are leaning toward Biden, but I am always leery of a poll where the lead is just 4 or 5 percent. I suspect there are a lot of people who are going to vote for Trump who are not saying so,” she added.
Republicans believe they still have leverage in the state, and not just because a general economic comeback is possible.
GOP strategist Ford O’Connell, a native of Naples, Fla., acknowledged that Biden was not as “toxic” as Clinton had been for some Florida voters in 2016. But, he argued, Trump still had time to “draw a contrast with Biden and really define him” — especially on the issue of immigration.
The idea that a hard line on immigration would doom Trump in Florida is not necessarily true, as the 2016 result showed. A new poll from Latino Decisions on Friday found the president’s job approval with Florida Latinos at 45 percent and his approval at 55 percent — not spectacular but not disastrous either.
Much can change in the next four months. But the stakes are in no doubt. When it comes to the election, Florida could be the whole ballgame.
“If Trump loses Florida, he’s done,” said O’Connell. “If he wins, he keeps on fighting.”
The Memo is a reported column by Niall Stanage, primarily focused on Donald Trump’s presidency.
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President Donald Trump, had little to say about the coronavirus, during remarks Friday at Mount Rushmore National Memorial, near Keystone, S.D.
Alex Brandon/AP
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Alex Brandon/AP
President Donald Trump, had little to say about the coronavirus, during remarks Friday at Mount Rushmore National Memorial, near Keystone, S.D.
Alex Brandon/AP
President Trump, in a speech Friday at Mount Rushmore that lasted more than 40 minutes, focused on statues and cancel culture, and accused his political opponents of fascism. But he spared just a few words for the pandemic that has killed 130,000 Americans, thanking “the doctors, nurses and scientists working tirelessly to kill the virus.” And that was it.
He gave it a little more attention Saturday night at the White House before a crowd of first responders and their families, touting the number of tests conducted in the U.S. “We show cases 99% of which are harmless,” Trump said, adding the country will have a therapeutic or vaccine solution long before the end of the year. It is unclear what he based that claim on.
Even with coronavirus cases spiking from California to Florida, Trump has largely kept his public focus elsewhere: “law and order,” “our heritage” represented by statues that are a target of anti-racism protests, and job gains — even as governors find themselves forced to bring back shutdowns of bars, movie theaters and popular beaches.
Earlier this year, when coronavirus cases peaked the first time, the White House task force tackling the pandemic met every day and Trump held near-daily televised briefings. Now the task force meets only sporadically, decisions are made locally and Trump is nearly invisible when it comes to talking to the public about the pandemic.
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Last Thursday, for the first time since late April, Trump returned to the White House press briefing room. He wasn’t there to talk about surging coronavirus cases, but about the latest jobs report showing millions of people back at work.
“You are going to have a fantastic third quarter. It’ll be a third quarter the likes of which nobody has ever seen before, in my opinion,” Trump said, bringing his re-election message into the briefing room. “And the good thing is the numbers will be coming out just prior to the election. So the people will be able to see those numbers.”
Trump makes no secret of the fact that for him, in this moment, re-election is at center stage. Acknowledging the difficult reality of the pandemic is hard to sell, so even as recently as a few days ago, Trump said the virus was “going to sort of just disappear” — a message that he has repeated since the early days of the pandemic.
On the rare occasion he does talk about the coronavirus, Trump downplays the negatives. The case spikes, he insists are just embers. “We have some areas where we’re putting out the flames or the fires and it’s working out well,” Trump said Thursday.
Four months from the election, Trump is trailing in every major national poll and numerous swing state polls. He is counting on a strong economic rebound and a pitch that the best is yet to come to propel him to victory in November.
“Trump wants to focus on jobs and the economy,” said Stephen Moore, who advises the president on economic issues. “I think most people in the president’s campaign and the president himself believe that the economy is what he needs to focus on if he’s going to beat [presumptive Democratic nominee] Joe Biden.”
But public health experts are sounding the alarm and governors who had previously resisted mask mandates are now imploring everyone to mask up.
“We are heading in the wrong direction and we are heading there quickly,” said Tom Frienden, a former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who now heads Resolve to Save Lives, and initiative of Vital Strategies, a global health non-profit. “What we are seeing in the U.S. today is that the virus has the upper hand and what we’re not seeing is systematic regular information given to Americans about what is happening with the virus and where, what is happening with the response and how can we all make it better.”
In recent weeks, Trump has left the delivery of public health messages about the virus to others, including Vice President Mike Pence, who brought back coronavirus task force briefings after more than two months without them.
A task force official told NPR it isn’t necessary for the group to meet as frequently as it did in the early days of the pandemic because there are fewer urgent and immediate decisions to be made than when it all began.
On Thursday, Pence met with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in Tampa, a hotspot within a hotspot state. The vice president wore a mask as he stepped off Air Force Two, greeted by a masked DeSantis. Pence’s message: “Just know that if all of us do our part we’ll get through this.”
Judd Deere, a White House spokesman, took umbrage at the idea that Trump isn’t doing enough on the coronavirus, saying in a statement, “Any suggestion that the President is not working around the clock to protect the health and safety of all Americans, lead the whole-of-government response to this pandemic, including expediting vaccine development, and rebuild our economy is utterly false.”
During remarks Thursday about the jobs numbers, Trump did briefly come about as close as he ever has to encouraging people to wear masks. He made news, simply by mentioning masks in a list of best practices.
“That includes face covering, social distance, testing and personal hygiene,” Trump said, reading from remarks. “Wash your hands.”
And, just to make sure everyone noticed, after Trump left without taking questions, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin pointed to the president’s remarks, noting: “The president specifically put in his speech encouraging Americans to wear a mask.”
The question is, if Trump’s supporters don’t see him wearing a mask, will they believe others who say it’s important to slow the spread of the virus?
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]]>New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo
Andrew CuomoDemocratic officials, governors push for nationwide mask mandate as administration defends state-by-state approach Sunday shows – Coronavirus resurgence dominates Cuomo: Trump administration ‘in denial’ about coronavirus ‘problem’ MORE (D) suggested Monday he may put the third phase of reopening from coronavirus restrictions on hold for the New York City area amid what he said were warning signs that residents are not abiding by social distancing guidelines.
Both Cuomo and New York Mayor Bill de Blasio
Bill de BlasioOver 15 NYC corrections officers to be disciplined after death of trans inmate on Riker’s Island Hundreds attend ‘Occupy City Hall’ protest in NYC to advocate for police department budget cuts Sometimes common sense beats a lawsuit over liberties MORE (D) expressed concerns specifically about the planned reopening of dine-in restaurant service at reduced capacity, with Cuomo telling NY1 this aspect was of particular concern.
“We have a week before New York City enters the next phase and we have numbers every day … but malls and indoor dining are things that I’m concerned about and we may consider slowing them down for next week,” Cuomo told NY1. “I would not want to roll back anything we’ve done. I want to continue to move forward but we may move forward with caution.”
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The governor specifically cited images of Manhattan businesses failing to enforce bans on mass gatherings and limited capacity. Cuomo had previously threatened to pull the liquor licenses of bars and restaurants that fail to properly enforce social distancing measures.”
Cuomo’s concerns contradict his earlier remarks indicating that the city will be subject to the same reopening guidelines as the state’s other regions. On Monday, however, he told NY1 the city is “different” and reopening presents challenges not present in other parts of the Empire State.
De Blasio in his remarks said adjustments would continually be made.
“We’re at a watershed moment for the city of New York. We have to get it right. We’re going to make adjustments all the time and we’ll be open to you about when we need to make adjustments,” de Blasio said Monday at his daily briefing. “But we’re also going to be very open about the progress and what we need to do. When we see a problem, like concerns about indoor dining, we have to address it.”
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]]>More than 75 percent of Americans are afraid of contracting the coronavirus, a new ABC News/Ipsos poll finds, as the number of new COVID-19 cases surges nationwide.
In the poll, 76 percent of respondents said that they are concerned about contracting the virus, up from 69 percent in the same survey on June 12.
Places that were once considered hot spots for the disease, such as New York and New Jersey, have seen their numbers decrease steadily without much of a rebound, but spikes have occurred in a number of states that pressed to reopen their economies earlier.
California, Texas and Florida have all experienced record highs in daily coronavirus cases the past week. Specifically, Texas broke its record for daily cases on Wednesday and then again on Thursday with nearly 6,000 new cases.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) on Wednesday announced that his state would pause some of its reopening measures as it grapples with a fast-rising number of hospitalizations, particularly in its numerous metropolitan areas.
Abbott, however, said that businesses that have already been allowed to reopen can remain open.
Despite the stated fear of getting COVID-19, over 90 percent of respondents said that they were comfortable with going grocery shopping while wearing a mask and nearly 80 percent said that they were OK with going into work.
However, people are still weary about doing leisure activities such as eating at a restaurant or staying at a hotel, with just over half of the respondents saying that they would do either.
The poll was conducted June 24-25 and surveyed 579 adults across the country with a margin of error of 4.7 percentage points.
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The number of coronavirus cases is once again on the rise in Germany just days after the country began easing additional lockdown measures, according to Saturday’s report from the country’s public health agency.
German police, meanwhile, said more than 130 people were detained when protests turned violent in Berlin and other cities on Saturday. Thousands took to the streets across the country to demand the lockdown, which has been in place since mid-March, be lifted even quicker.
The Robert Koch Institute (RKI), Germany’s federal disease control and prevention agency, said in its daily bulletin Saturday that the country’s reproduction (R) rate, which measures the number of people each confirmed COVID-19 patient now infects, has risen to 1.1, Reuters reported. Once the figure exceeds 1, that means the number of cases nationwide is on the rise.
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FILE PHOTO: People enjoy sun on boats, on the Landwehrkanal, amid the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Berlin, Germany, May 9, 2020. REUTERS / Christian Mang/File Photo – RC2KLG9G2UGA
In its report on Sunday, RKI recorded 667 new coronavirus cases, which brought the nationwide tally of confirmed infections to 169,218. At least 26 new deaths were recorded, making a total of 7,395 coronavirus fatalities nationwide.
Despite its large caseload, Germany has kept the death toll far lower than in other European nations stricken with the virus in part due to widespread, early testing, lockdown measures and its well-funded and operated health care system, according to Reuters.
After meetings with leaders from Germany’s 16 states, Chancellor Angela Merkel announced Wednesday the country would begin easing its lockdown restrictions, allowing shops to reopen and school children to gradually return to classrooms. Germany’s football league system, Bundesliga, was cleared to restart as early as May 16.
Merkel added she would launch an “emergency brake” to require local officials to reinstate lockdown measures should infections rise above a threshold of 50 per 100,000 people, the BBC reported.
Karl Lauterbach, a Social Democrat lawmaker and professor of epidemiology in Germany, took to Twitter on Saturday to lament that large crowds observed in his home city of Cologne could contribute to infections picking up again in the country, Reuters reported.
“It has to be expected that the R rate will go over 1 and we will return to exponential growth,” Lauterbach tweeted. “The loosening measures were far too poorly prepared.”
More than 3,000 protesters – flouting social distancing measures – gathered peacefully in Munich on Saturday accusing the government and medical professional of inciting panic and prolonging the lockdown to infringe on their rights, German broadcaster Deutsche Welle reported.
At least 131 people were arrested after two separate protests in Berlin were broken up by police after some demonstrators began throwing bottles at officers, Euro News reported.
Police said another 23-year-old man was arrested in the western city of Dortmund after allegedly attacking a TV crew. Protesters in Cologne allegedly were encouraging those entering newly reopened shops to remove their face mask, according to authorities.
Meanwhile, Germany’s interior minister is making an exception for cross-border entry to allow children who live outside Germany to enter the country for a Mother’s Day visit.
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The country’s pandemic restrictions currently forbid entry into the country except for “compelling reasons” such as work. This would have prevented families that live across the border from visiting Sunday on Mother’s Day.
But Interior Minister Horst Seehofer approved a decision by border police to include filial visits on Mother’s Day to the list. Like cross-border commuters, they will also be exempt from the rule that requires people entering Germany to quarantine for two weeks.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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