COVID-19 news: One-half of U.S. deaths could have been avoided; still no mask for Donald

Today in pandemic news:

• A new study estimates that 50,000 of the nearly 100,000 American deaths from COVID-19 could have been avoided had the United States begun widespread social distancing measures just one week earlier.

• 2.4 million Americans filed new unemployment claims last week, bringing the total number of those filing for benefits during the pandemic to 38.3 million.

• Democrats are requesting Trump honor Americans who have died during the pandemic upon reaching the 100,000 deaths mark.

• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released reopening guidelines for states and communities weighing when to relax their pandemic measures, after the document was stripped of some detail the White House found objectionable. Advice for churches and other religious groups was removed entirely.

• Don't expect many briefings from the federal government's pandemic experts in the near future: The White House appears to be limiting public access to those experts for fear they will continue to contradict Trump's insistence that the nation can "reopen."

• Republican senators are again expressing unrest over the party's official stance that no new urgent pandemic relief is needed. Especially antsy: the Republican senators up for reelection in November.

• A New York Times report examines the unsuccessful attempts by the intelligence community to get Trump to take the pandemic seriously. Spoiler alert: they couldn't.

• Trump instead continues to pin reelection hopes on convincing supporters that it is China's fault, not his own, that his administration was caught flat-footed not only early in the pandemic but in every month afterward. It's resulted in a bump in the number of Americans willing to label China an "enemy," as well as escalating racism against Asian Americans.

• One in four Latinos now know someone who has contracted COVID-19, and one-third report knowing someone who died from the disease.

• Trump traveled to a Michigan factory today for another half-rally, half-grievance session. Despite a new state order making it illegal to not wear a mask in such a situation, Trump once again did not. Trump and Pence have been conspicuously focusing on battleground states in their pandemic-themed "official" appearances.

• Trump allies were apparently alarmed by Trump's falsehood-riddled attacks on state expansions of pandemic vote-by-mail efforts. Not sure why we're supposed to care, but there it is.

• Despite insisting that the pandemic is largely over and that the country can return to work, the Trump administration is indefinitely extending a dubiously-legal "emergency" order summarily deporting asylum-seeking children without processing their asylum claims, citing pandemic risks posed by those claims.

• Texas Rep. Joaquin Castro is among lawmakers calling on Trump not to be a psychopathic garbage monster about that, which is likely to fall on deaf, garbage-filled ears.

• Poll numbers measuring public satisfaction with the Trump administration's response to the pandemic continue to be dismal for Trump. The number of Americans who say Trump is himself responsible for the high U.S. death toll has now risen to 61%.

• A paraplegic Miami jail inmate who has now tested positive for the virus had been deemed eligible for release four years ago, but remains jailed for inability to pay a $650,000 bond. Another Miami-Dade inmate died of COVID-19 earlier this month after he was refused release until he could pay $20,000 in bonds.

• There have been at least nine people shot in America in attacks by business customers incensed over requests to follow pandemic hygiene rules.

• A 70-year-old reputed Michigan Militia member attempted to steal a Coast Guard helicopter, which he intended to use to shoot at a local hospital and "free" its COVID-19 patients.

from Daily Kos https://ift.tt/3cUMtnN