Music: Dinosaur — ‘Quiet Thunder’
To understand who’s dying of Covid-19, look to social factors like race more than preexisting diseases
STAT reports: While early studies of who was dying of Covid-19 identified risks such as obesity and having diabetes, there is a growing realization that those initial conclusions might have been misleading, obscuring a more significant explanation. As researchers pull back their lens from individuals to population-level risk factors, they’re finding that, in the U.S., race may be as important as age in gauging a person’s likelihood of dying from the disease. The higher the percentage of Black residents in…
Trump’s Covid data crunchers see coronavirus racing down America’s major highways
The Daily Beast reports: Doctors behind a COVID-modeling study used by the president’s coronavirus task force are now warning that virus hot spots are beginning to converge and jump from county to county as people increase their travel for work and summer vacation. According to doctors working on a study put together by PolicyLab at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, the virus is moving along major highways and interstates—such I-10 in California, I-85 in the south and I-95 on the East…
What makes Monday’s gay rights ruling so historic
Charles Kaiser writes: More quickly and more permanently than any other American institution, the United States Supreme Court has the capacity to set the tone for the treatment of any minority group, often for decades to come. It was a string of Supreme Court cases that transformed the status of black Americans, for example, most famously in Brown v. Board of Education in 1954. The L.G.B.T.Q. legal establishment has spent the last generation following the model set by the black…
Conservative Christians see ‘seismic implications’ in Supreme Court ruling
The New York Times reports: For conservative Christian groups, Monday’s Supreme Court ruling protecting the rights of gay and transgender workers was not only the latest sign that they are losing the American culture wars over sexuality. It also caused widespread concern that it could affect how they operate their own institutions. Many faith-based organizations, like schools or nonprofits, do not allow L.G.B.T. people to work there, citing religious beliefs that sex should only be between a man and a…
Brutality and dehumanization are deeply embedded in many police departments
David Brooks writes: It’s one of the most remarkable poll results of the current moment. From May 29 to June 2, a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll asked voters whether they were more troubled by the actions of the police and the death of George Floyd, or by protests that had turned violent. By a more than two-to-one margin, they said they were more troubled by the actions of the police. This is not how Americans reacted to the riots…
Trump uses police reform event to lavish praise on police
Yahoo News reports: In remarks delivered Tuesday before he signed an executive order promoting modest police reforms, President Trump lavished praise on the nation’s law enforcement officers, claiming that cops like the ones charged in the killing of George Floyd represent “a small percentage” of the force. “They have to get our gratitude,” Trump said of the nation’s police officers, “and we have to give them great respect for what they do.” The event in the White House Rose Garden,…
Liberal groups slam Biden’s response to police protest movement, warning he risks losing support from black voters
The Washington Post reports: More than 50 liberal groups signed a letter Monday to presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden criticizing his response to the emerging protest movement against police brutality, warning that failing to embrace a more aggressive agenda risks alienating the African American voters he needs to win the election. The letter pointed to Biden’s recent promise to add $300 million for community policing programs, a plan that activists say would undermine their efforts to push for systemic…
Music: John McLaughlin and The 4th Dimension — ‘Lockdown Blues’
Uncertain recovery: The emerging long-term complications of Covid-19
Vox reports: At first, Lauren Nichols tried to explain away her symptoms. In early March, the healthy 32-year-old felt an intense burning sensation, like acid reflux, when she breathed. Embarrassed, she didn’t initially seek medical care. When her shortness of breath kept getting worse, her doctor tested her for Covid-19. Her results came back positive. But for Nichols, that was just the beginning. Over the next eight weeks, she developed wide and varied symptoms, including extreme and chronic fatigue, diarrhea,…
A few superspreaders transmit the majority of coronavirus cases
A few people in the crowd will be responsible for the bulk of a disease’s spread. Pacific Press /LightRocket via Getty Images Elizabeth McGraw, Pennsylvania State University The coronavirus has traveled the globe, infecting one person at a time. Some sick people might not spread the virus much further, but some people infected with the SARS-CoV-2 are what epidemiologists call “superspreaders.” Elizabeth McGraw, the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics at Pennsylvania State University, explains the evidence and…
Trump rally attendees will have fewer safety measures than high-dollar donors
NBC News reports: Top Republicans donors at President Donald Trump’s two recent fundraisers had to have tested negative for the coronavirus, fill out a wellness questionnaire and pass a temperature check to be near him, but thousands of supporters who attend his upcoming rally will not be screened as thoroughly. After declining to explain for days which safety measures, if any, will be enforced by the Trump campaign at the Tulsa, Oklahoma, event this weekend, senior officials Monday said hand…
Trump’s niece’s new book contains explosive revelations
The Daily Beast reports: Donald Trump’s niece, his deceased brother’s daughter, is set to publish a tell-all book this summer that will detail “harrowing and salacious” stories about the president, according to people with knowledge of the project. Mary Trump, 55, the daughter of Fred Trump Jr. and eldest grandchild of Fred Trump Sr., is scheduled to release Too Much And Never Enough on July 28, Simon & Schuster confirmed Monday, just weeks before the Republican National Convention. One of…
Trump supporters already know he will definitely win by a landslide
Paul Waldman writes: President Trump and his allies are putting nearly as much effort into convincing people that they’re going to win in November as they are into actually trying to win. Or at least it might seem that way if you watch what they say in public. Lately, it seems to have gone beyond just projecting confidence into a realm where collective delusions are crafted. Take, for example, the question of money. Here’s an announcement Trump’s campaign manager made…
GOP officials drunk on kool aid: ‘The more bad things happen in the country’ the more this helps Trump
Politico reports: By most conventional indicators, Donald Trump is in danger of becoming a one-term president. The economy is a wreck, the coronavirus persists, and his poll numbers have deteriorated. But throughout the Republican Party’s vast organization in the states, the operational approach to Trump’s re-election campaign is hardening around a fundamentally different view. Interviews with more than 50 state, district and county Republican Party chairs depict a version of the electoral landscape that is no worse for Trump than…
‘Black Lives Matter Foundation’ has raised millions, but it’s not affiliated with the Black Lives Matter movement
BuzzFeed reports: When Elena Iliadis searched for “Black Lives Matter” on GoFundMe, the popular online fundraising platform, she didn’t do much research on the first verified foundation that popped up. Inspired to help the cause, the 19-year-old Georgetown University sophomore and her a capella group, the Phantoms, raised nearly $1,100 for what they thought was the global movement to bring racial justice and defund the police. It wasn’t until she was contacted by BuzzFeed News that the student learned her…