Republicans on Monday will begin making the case that President Donald Trump will spend another four years in the White House, while in the midst of a pandemic that has more than 5.7 million people in the United States exposed to COVID-19, took more than 178,000 lives. and devastated the economy in less than seven months.
The Republican National Convention begins Monday as states in the South and the Sun belt, mostly led by Republican officials loyal to Trump who reopened their states just as the pandemic steamed up, continue to gather the most new cases and deaths of coronavirus, according to the latest figures from NBC News.
But there is also a sliver of good news for Trump in the latest COVID-19 calculations made by NBC News: For the first time since July 5, the number of new cases nationwide has dropped below 40,000.
And Team Trump is likely to be buoyed by a new CBS interview showing that many Republicans remain convinced that America is better off since Trump took over despite the administration’s chaotic response to the COVID 19 crisis, the staggering recovery from the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, and the current 10.2 percent unemployment rate.
Still, about a thousand people a day have died in the U.S. since the end of July, NBC News figures show. Currently, the U.S. accounts for just over a fifth of the world more than 800,000 deaths and about a quarter of the 23 million plus confirmed cases worldwide.
Also, Trump took bipartisan calls for a wait of almost two months before declaring a national emergency on March 13, to reduce the danger and pressure of false or misleading information about the progress of the pandemic, and to suspend experts such as Drs. . Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
“The mixed messages of the president through the whole pandemic have complicated opportunities for a uniform national response,” Drs. Howard Koh, a Harvard University professor who was assistant secretary of health and human services during the administration of President Barack Obama, in an email to NBC News. “Ideally, the White House could make the most of its office by hosting public briefings with the most qualified and trusted healthcare professionals – such as Dr Fauci – who can talk about data and trends, update scientific developments and provide current health guidelines for a relevant public. “
Asked to point to a specific moment where Trump could have prevented the pandemic from getting worse, but did not, Koh noted the president’s presidential reluctance to wear masks in public.
“There is still time for the president to consistently wear a mask in public and thus send the message that all Americans should do this,” he said.
“Mr. Trump and his team have us digging into a crater with their slow-footed response to the pandemic,” said Alvin Tillery Jr., a professor of political science at Northwestern University. “The complete lack of discipline on the part of the president with his communication about the pandemic and his tendency to make too many sensible judgments rooted in nothing more than his own magical thinking has led to a situation where many Americans now believe they are.” “should be free to mock the regulations that are most likely to protect themselves and others until we get our case counts under control.”
So why is the Trump base sticking with him?
“We live in hyper-artistic times, and Mr. Trump’s base tends to consume news sources that were willing to help in his efforts to curb the meaning of the virus in the early days of the pandemic,” he said Tillery.
While the Trump administration has urged local school districts to reopen, there has been an explosion of new coronavirus cases on university campuses, forcing some like the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill to take students home send for the rest of the semester and others like the University of Notre Dame two weeks virtual goes until, hopefully, the current crisis passes.
Down in Alabama, more than 200 students at Auburn University tested positive for COVID-19 in the first week of classes, according to local reports. And the University of Alabama is so concerned about recent outbreaks of COVID-19, it has barred students from parties both on and off campus for the next two weeks.
Ohio State University, where lessons need to be restored Tuesday, also removed students who have large off-campus bases, and 228 of them were demolished with interim suspensions, school spokesman Ben Johnson said.
In other news about coronavirus:
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The hope that individuals recovering from COVID-19 could develop an immunity to the virus was undermined by a new report that a 33-year-old man in Hong Kong was infected for the second time. He was first admitted to hospital on March 29 and discharged on April 14, according to researchers from the University of Hong Kong. Four months later, after returning to Hong Kong from Spain via the United Kingdom, the man tested positive again on August 14 and was admitted to a second hospital. Why is this alarming? Because scientists in search of a cure have been working on treatments with antibodies from recovering patients of coronavirus. Trump on Sunday announced an emergency permit to begin using plasma from recovered COVID-19 patients on those still battling the virus. Scientists are still unsure if the treatment is safe and effective.
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A Georgia Institute of Technology fraternity was quarantined over the weekend after at least 25 members tested positive for COVID-19. “All occupants of the house have been ransacked and Georgia Tech is turning the house into an isolation location,” the school said in a statement. Several fraternities and at least one sorority at universities across the country have been shut down after reports of mass coronavirus infections after members attended parties where there was no mask wear or social distance.
- Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican who was praised early on for taking aggressive measures to combat the pandemic, opposes an uprising of arch-conservatives in his own party. Rep. John Becker, whose district includes Cincinnati, wrote 10 articles of imposition accusing DeWine of, among other things, improperly closing the presidential primary and several companies in March, while mandating an unpopular statewide mask mandate. “With the deaths and hospitalizations of COVID-19 flattened, the governor continues to push his boat on the throat of the Ohio economy,” Becker said. But Ohio is not out of the woods. It has recorded 13,954 new cases in just the last two weeks, slightly less than the two weeks before, figures from NBC News show. And the broadside against DeWine comes just weeks after Ohio’s powerful House Speaker Larry Householder and other top Republicans in the state were arrested as part of an FBI investigation into a $ 60 million bribe scheme.
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With the nation’s largest public school system reopened three weeks away from opening, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has unveiled a new ‘open learning’ plan that allows principals to hold classes in school grounds and even in closed streets and parks. “It’s great to be outdoors in general, but we also know that the disease is not spreading the same outside,” the mayor said, adding that the approach “will open up many wonderful opportunities for our children and for our educators. ” De Blasio said he would hand over the details to individual principals, prompting some pushback from frustrated teachers in New York. The mayor also said indoor dining and Broadway shows will return, but not until next year. ‘If people miss the theater, if they miss indoor dining, those things will be back,’ said the Blasio. ‘They will be back at some point next year. I think that is overwhelmingly the case. ”
Joe Murphy contributed.
