WTF Just Happened Today

Thursday, June 18, 2020

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• ???? Dept. of “We Have It Totally Under Control.”

• Global: Total confirmed cases: ~8,422,000; deaths: ~452,000; recoveries: ~4,118,000. (Johns Hopkins University)

• U.S.: Total confirmed cases: ~2,183,000; deaths: ~119,000; recoveries: ~593,000.

• Seventy-seven nations have seen a growth in new coronavirus cases over the past two weeks, while 43 have seen declines.(New York Times)

• Florida, Texas and Arizona set records for new COVID-19 cases. The governors, however, are not considering another shutdown. (NBC News)

• Some parts of the U.S. are “on the cusp of losing control” of the coronavirus, according to Dr. Scott Gottlieb. (CNBC)

• Trump: “I personally think [coronavirus] testing is overrated.” Trump added that “even though I created the greatest testing machine in history,” testing “makes us look bad” because more tests lead to a higher number of confirmed cases. Trump also questioned the use of masks as a means of slowing the spread. (Axios / Wall Street Journal)

• The federal government has stockpiled 63 million doses of hydroxychloroquine that it can no longer distribute because the FDA revoked authorization for its use to treat coronavirus. The U.S. started stockpiling the anti-malarial drug in late March after Trump began touting it as a “game-changer” that was a “very powerful” treatment for COVID-19. Now, the FDA says there is “no reason to believe” the drug is effective in treating or protecting against the virus. The national stockpile also includes 2 million doses of chloroquine, a related drug manufactured by Bayer. The stockpile had already distributed 31 million doses of hydroxychloroquine by the time the FDA revoked its authorization. (CNN)

• The Trump administration paid $7.3 million for more than 3 million test tubes, but received plastic tubes made for bottling soda. Health officials say the tubes don’t fit the racks used in laboratory analysis of test samples and the company’s process likely contaminated the tubes. The FEMA signed the deal with Fillakit on May 7 – six days after the company was formed by a former telemarketer repeatedly accused of fraudulent practices over the past two decades. If Fillakit fulfills its contractual obligation to provide 4 million tubes, it will receive a total of $10.16 million. (ProPublica)

1/ The Supreme Court ruled that Trump violated federal law when he ended the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program in 2017, which has allowed nearly 800,000 young people, known as Dreamers, to avoid deportation and remain in the U.S. The court ruled that while Trump did have the legal authority to end the program, the government failed to provide an adequate justification for ending the federal program. (New York Times /