COVID-19 news: Alleged number-faking in Florida; Trump makes new threats

Today in pandemic news:

• Dr. Rebekah Jones, the creator of Florida's online COVID-19 dashboard tracking state infections and deaths, is publicly charging that she was fired from the role because she refused to manually change the state's reported numbers, an effort by Gov. Ron DeSantis to hide the true extent of the state's pandemic. DeSantis responded to those allegations today by brazenly lying about Dr. Jones' role.

• Donald Trump spent the day blowing multiple gaskets over state plans to allow voters expanded vote-by-mail access due to expected pandemic dangers in November. He lied about Michigan's absentee ballot plans while threatening to withhold funds from Nevada if it followed through on its own. It is quite clear at this point that the man would rather see Americans die in large numbers than willingly allow them to vote him out of office.

• The Trump campaign's newest reelection slogan, "Truth over Facts," will be getting a workout: The campaign is pushing pro-Trump doctors to go on television to claim that it is now safe for Americans to return to work despite the pandemic, a view very much not shared by actual pandemic experts. "Our job at the campaign is to reflect [*] Trump's point of view," said the campaign toady participating in the effort. And if it kills a few people, them's the breaks.

• The White House and Republican lawmakers continue to dismiss the need for further pandemic relief, for expanded testing, or for stabilization of state budgets during the crisis. A Republican Senate buffet with Trump to discuss next steps resulted in no "central message," Sen. Bill Cassidy told reporters. "The president's conversations are wide-ranging."

• Despite the United States rapidly closing in on 100,000 known pandemic deaths, most of Trump's meeting with Republicans appear instead to be an extended effort to insult, brag, and bully lawmakers into supporting his reelection priorities, such as investigations into opponent Joe Biden. (A Republican strategy memo recommended lawmakers avoid defending Trump's incompetent pandemic responses to voters, which was said to enrage Trump at the time. Then again, the list of things that enrage Trump would appear to consist of Everything.)

• What will be preoccupying Trump's time after we hit the 100,000 deaths mark? Relaunching campaign rallies. Shunning the pandemic briefings as "too morbid" and lacking "showmanship," Trump's White House team is looking to restart Trump's high-profile, large-audience, fact-averse shoutfests as soon as possible. What could go wrong?

• "We've been muzzled." Trump's war with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is hurting the agency's efforts to mount a coordinated pandemic response, say CDC officials. "If we would have acted earlier on what we knew and recommended, we would have saved lives and money."

• A Senate hearing grilling Trump Treasury’s Steven Mnuchin over the administration's pandemic plans and "reopening" was predictably combative, with Mnuchin largely blustering through pointed questions like the one from Sen. Sherrod Brown, who asked how many workers "should give their lives to increase the GDP or the Dow Jones by a thousand points?"

• In California, phone lines for nonprofit organizations tasked with handling applications for emergency pandemic relief for undocumented families were overwhelmed, with some crashing due to the demand. Just one of the groups received 630,000 calls "in the span of just a few hours." The overwhelming response underlines just how irresponsible federal efforts to deny relief to undocumented families have been.

• The Department of Homeland Security's inspector general will launch a probe of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency's response to the pandemic after numerous reports of inadequate safety and hygiene measures for both detainees and employees. Whether or not this will result in the immediate Trump firing of inspector general Joseph Cuffari is so far unknown.

• A 74-year-old medically vulnerable immigrant being held in an ICE detention facility died by suicide after repeated pleas for his release were rejected by ICE officials.

• In Ohio, 3 of every 5 COVID-19 deaths have occurred in nursing homes and other long-term care centers.

• We don't know precisely what behaviors and businesses are most susceptible to spreading COVID-19, but South Korean research suggests that gyms in particular shouldn't be opened anytime soon. "Vigorous exercise in closely confined spaces should be avoided," conclude the study's authors.

• In polling, Americans have lower marks for Donald Trump's handling of the pandemic than they have of 49 of 50 state governors. The outlier: Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, tied with Trump at a basement of 43% approval. Kemp led Georgia into an early "reopening" despite the state's status as one of the hardest-hit of the pandemic.

• A $600 million Trump administration plan to purchase 60 mask-cleaning machines to allow reuse of medical-grade N95 masks is running into a problem: They don't work as promised.

• The pandemic may dramatically hasten corporate moves toward permanent teleworking—at least, for workers who are privileged enough.

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