Read Time: 4 Minutes
- The U.S. reported 40,021 new cases and 1,202 additional deaths.
- Of all the viral diseases and emerging infections that he’s encountered throughout his career, Dr. Anthony Fauci said he has “never seen anything with a range” like the novel coronavirus, which he said suggests factors other than underlying medical conditions affect disease severity.
At least 40% of patients have no symptoms, while some stay ill for months on end,” Fauci said.
“It’s just completely unique to see that degree of variability of a single microbe, which means there are things that are determining that, that we still at this point don’t understand.”
- The White House press pool was informed that multiple White House staff have tested positive for COVID-19
- Dr. Robert Redfield, the director of the CDC, predicted that most of the American public will not have access to a vaccine against the novel coronavirus until late spring or summer of next year.
Redfield also said, “I might even go so far as to say that this face mask is more guaranteed to protect me against Covid than when I take a Covid vaccine, because the immunogenicity may be 70% and if I don’t get an immune response, the vaccine is not going to protect me. This face mask will,”
- White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said the vaccine could be ready “potentially by the end of September”: “We have a real hope of getting something that actually works.”
- President Trump contracted his Redfield, at his press briefing. Trump said Redfield was ‘mistaken’ and ‘confused’ when he told lawmakers that a coronavirus vaccine wouldn’t be widely available until mid-way through 2021.
- Trump attempted to paint a rosy picture of COVID-19 cases in the country by suggesting that if “you take the blue states out” of the equation, the U.S. wouldn’t be experiencing an alarming death toll rate from the novel coronavirus compared to other countries.
“If you take the blue states out, we’re at a level that I don’t think anybody in the world would be at,” Trump said. “We’re really at a very low level, but some of the states —they were blue states, and blue-state management.”
- As mask wearing continues to be a sore subject for many Americans, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell says it could save the economy.
“All of us have a role to play in our nation’s response to the pandemic. Following the advice of the public health professionals, to keep appropriate social distances and to wear masks in public will help get the economy back to full strength.”
- Eli Lilly and Co. says early data from its mid-stage trial of an antibody therapy shows it is safe and may reduce some symptoms of coronavirus disease.
- President Trump called on congressional Republicans to support a massive economic relief bill with “much higher numbers” and stimulus payments for Americans, abruptly proposing an entirely different plan than what the Senate GOP sought.
“We are encouraged that after months of the Senate Republicans insisting on shortchanging the massive needs of the American people, President Trump is now calling on Republicans to ‘go for the much higher numbers’ in the next coronavirus relief package,” Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-NY) said in a statement.
- The United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 7in Colorado protested against the Trump administration for the “ineffectual” fine levied against meatpacking company JBS for failing to protect workers during the coronavirus pandemic.
Six workers died and more than 300 tested positive for COVID-19 at JBS Greeley facility. OSHA fined JBS $15,615.
- Oklahoma health officials raised red flags before President Trump’s indoor rally in June, warning there could be significant spikes of coronavirus cases and deaths from the event, according to internal state documents.
Dozens of emails obtained by The Hill through a state freedom of information request reveal growing angst within the Oklahoma public health department in the days leading up to the June 20 rally.
- Twitter suspended the account of a Chinese scientist who suggested that the novel coronavirus was created in a lab and intentionally released, despite no evidence to support the claim.
- An American military employee is potentially facing jail in Germany after she allegedly went on a bar crawl while showing symptoms of COVID-19, infecting at least 23 others and exposing more than 710 people to the virus. Despite awaiting test results after returning from Greece with COVID symptoms, the 26-year-old went partying while waiting for test results. Bavaria’s governor called it a “model case of stupidity.”
- Just over a month after the Big Ten decided to postpone its 2020 football season, the league reversed its decision and announced plans to begin playing.
- Florida reported 195 new pediatric cases. To date there have been 54,849 cases of coronavirus among children with 688 requiring hospitalization.
- Los Angeles has the lowest number of patients hospitalized from coronavirus since the outbreak started. There are currently 804 patients hospitalized with coronavirus in the county – the first time the seven day average has been under 1.000 since May.
Sources: ABC News, Associated Press, The Atlantic, Axios, Bloomberg, CBS News, CNN, Chicago Tribune, Financial Times, Forbes, Fox News,The Hill, Independent, MSNBC, NBC News, NJ.com, NPR, NY Times, Politico, Reuters, Salon, Slate, Vanity Fair, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post
The Past 24 Hours Or So 