WTF Just Happened Today

Wednesday, August 12, 2020

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

• Global: Total confirmed cases: ~20,453,000; deaths: ~746,000

• U.S.: Total confirmed cases: ~5,188,000; deaths: ~166,000

• Source: Johns Hopkins University

• Live blogs: New York Times / Washington Post / The Guardian / CNN / ABC News

1/ For the 16th consecutive day the U.S. has averaged over 1,000 coronavirus deaths. The U.S. is averaging just under 53,000 new cases of COVID-19 per day – down 11% from the week prior. (CNN)

• A Florida sheriff banned his deputies from wearing masks at work. Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods disputed the idea that masks are a consensus approach to battling the pandemic despite a majority of epidemiologists and other health experts saying face masks and social distancing are key to slowing the spread of the coronavirus. Florida set a daily record for COVID-19 deaths on Tuesday. (Washington Post)

• Trump added a frequent Fox News guest, who echoes his views on reopening schools, lockdowns, and college football, as a coronavirus adviser. Dr. Scott Atlas has reportedly been informally advising Trump for weeks after Trump first saw Atlas on Fox News, asserting that it doesn’t matter “how many cases” there are in the U.S., wrongly claiming those under 18 years old have “essentially no risk of dying,” implying that high risk teachers should “know how to protect themselves” from COVID-19 and baselessly claiming that “children almost never transmit the disease.” Atlas has also called the idea that schools cannot reopen this fall “hysteria.” (CNN)

• A team of virologists and aerosol scientists were able to isolate live coronavirus in the air up to 16 feet from patients hospitalized with COVID-19. The team collected air samples from a ward dedicated to COVID-19 patients from seven and 16 feet away. The samples collected could then infect cells in a lab dish. (New York Times)

2/ The White House clarified that it will provide less financial assistance for the unemployed than Trump initially promised. Unemployment benefit will be $300 per week, not the $400 Trump announced on Saturday when he approved an executive action to expand unemployment benefits. Further, the extra $300 a week in federal unemployment benefits will likely to take a few weeks to reach people, but the funding could be exhausted in five or six weeks. More than 30 million people are receiving some form of unemployment benefits. (Washington Post / Wall Street Journal /