Trump: Virus will get worse
In briefing, he talks up mask use, raps young
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump warned Tuesday that the “nasty horrible’” coronavirus will worsen in the U.S.
“It will probably unfortunately get worse before it gets better,” Trump said from the White House. But he also touted a reduction in deaths, and progress on vaccines and treatments for covid-19, which he referred to as the “China virus.”
After a three-month hiatus from his daily virus briefings, Trump returned
to the podium, keeping the stage to himself without the public health experts who were staples of his previous events but keeping close to scripted remarks prepared by aides.
The president expressed support for masks as a way to fight the pandemic, and he admonished young people against crowding bars and spreading the disease.
He continued his recent encouragement of Americans to wear masks when social distancing is not possible.
“Whether you like the mask or not, they have an impact,” he said. “I’m getting used to the mask.”
The president, who for months resisted covering his face in public, tweeted Monday that “it is Patriotic to wear a face mask when you can’t socially distance.”
And Vice President Mike Pence told governors in a teleconference that he supported their mask mandates, with the administration even sending a memorandum to New Jersey recommending that it continue its order.
Swaths of the country are now battling rising infections and growing deaths, and some states are once again having to close businesses and rethink school in the fall. Many retailers are insisting that their customers wear masks.
“With every new public-health intervention, there’s always some resistance,” said Julia Marcus, an epidemiologist and assistant professor at Harvard Medical School.
During the AIDS crisis, efforts to shame people into wearing condoms or abstaining from sex didn’t work. Messages that offered condoms as a way to keep having sex without hurting yourself or others did.
“If we just yell at people about not wearing masks, we’re not going to get anywhere,” Marcus said.
For months, the nation’s top health experts have pleaded with Americans to wear masks in public and steer clear of crowds — calling those simple steps life-saving — even as the president’s stance fueled a partisan social divide.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, told NPR on Tuesday that he was glad Trump has begun to promote mask-wearing.
“If we, during those conferences, come out and have consistent, clear, non-contradictory messages, I believe it will be very helpful in getting people on the track of knowing the direction that we need to go to get this pandemic under control,” he said.
TRUMP PROMISE
Trump also promised anew Tuesday that “the vaccines are coming, and they’re coming a lot sooner than anybody thought possible.”
As early as next week, the first possible U.S. vaccine is set to begin final-stage testing in a study of 30,000 people to see if it really is safe and effective. A few other vaccines have begun smaller late-stage studies in other countries.
In the U.S. a series of large studies is planned to start each month through fall in hopes of eventually having several vaccines to use. Already, people can start signing up to volunteer for the different studies.
Health authorities warn there’s no guarantee — it’s not unusual for vaccines to fail during that critical testing step. But vaccine makers and health officials are hopeful that at least one vaccine could prove effective by year’s end.
Companies already are taking the unusual step of brewing hundreds of millions of doses so that mass vaccinations could begin if the Food and Drug Administration signs off on them.
Trump also acknowledged bipartisan criticism of delays processing testing results.
“We’ll be able to get those numbers down,” Trump said, saying his administration was working to improve the availability of rapid, point-of-care tests like those used to protect him at the White House.
Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, for his part Tuesday, launched into criticism of Trump as he outlined the latest plank of his economic recovery plan, charging that Trump “failed his most important test as an American President: the duty to care for you, for all of us.”
“He’s quit on you, he’s quit on this country,” Biden said.
Earlier Tuesday, Trump took to Twitter to claim that “by comparison to most other countries, who are suffering greatly, we are doing very well — and we have done things that few other countries could have done!”
In fact, the U.S. leads the world in confirmed cases and deaths from the virus — and ranks near the top on a per capita basis.
31 STATES ON LIST
Meanwhile, residents from 31 states must now quarantine for 14 days when arriving in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, as dozens of states experience rising positive covid-19 rates.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo acknowledged Tuesday that the quarantine is “imperfect” but said the quarantine could help protect the states against the risk of increased spread. Minnesota was taken off the list, while Alaska, Delaware, Indiana, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Nebraska, Virginia and Washington were added to it.
“The infection rate across the country is getting worse, not better,” Cuomo said in a conference call with reporters.
New York, New Jersey and Connecticut last month issued their joint travel advisory for the 31 states, including Texas and Florida. The advisory includes states if their seven-day rolling average of positive tests exceeds 10%, or if the number of positive cases exceeds 10 per 100,000 residents.
Cuomo has tried to get more travelers to comply with the order by instituting a $2,000 fine for people who leave the airport without filling out forms that state officials plan to use to randomly track travelers and ensure they’re following quarantine restrictions. Airport travelers who fail to fill out the forms face hearings and orders requiring mandatory quarantines.
The governor initially said hotel clerks or business partners could alert officials about violations, and that police officers who pull over out-of-state drivers for traffic infractions could enforce quarantine rules.
The Cuomo administration didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday about how it’s enforcing the quarantine, including how many travelers have faced fines.
NEW YORKERS PRAISED
Cuomo’s administration reports that 25,058 patients who tested positive for covid-19 have died in hospitals and nursing homes, a figure that doesn’t include 4,624 presumed deaths in New York City and an unknown number statewide. New York has reported an average of 10 people with covid-19 dying each day over the past week.
Cuomo has praised New Yorkers for flattening the state’s curve but said his administration is watching potential spikes in Bronx, Long Island and parts of upstate.
Cuomo, who has voiced concern about young people congregating in bars, said New York’s liquor authority has suspended the licenses of four bars and restaurants in Queens and Suffolk County.
And since March, the state suspended 27 licenses and filed 410 charges against establishments, that must follow social distancing and face-covering rules on top of Cuomo’s requirement — announced Thursday — to serve alcohol only to people who order and eat food.
Cuomo said his administration will close restaurants and bars that have three violations, while “egregious” violations can result in the immediate loss of a liquor license or closure.
“That is a very serious situation, that means they can’t operate,” Cuomo said. “I’m sorry it’s come to this. But it’s a dangerous situation.”
Cuomo said Tuesday that New York never “opened outside drinking.”
Still, the state’s previous guidance allowed consumption of “food and/or beverage” on a licensee’s premises in outdoors, open-air areas while seated at tables 6 feet apart.
FLORIDA CONFIDENCE
In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis expressed confidence Tuesday that the state will soon contain its coronavirus outbreak and that hospitals can handle the current influx of patients, putting forward a positive case even as the state’s average daily death toll is now the nation’s worst.
DeSantis told reporters at a state Capitol news conference that hospital admissions and the percentage of tests coming back positive seem to be plateauing or declining in much of the state, and that hospitals have sufficient capacity in their intensive care units and overall.
“The trend is much better today than it was two weeks ago,” DeSantis said. “I am confident that we will get through this. I am confident that the folks … in our hospital systems will continue to do a great job and meet the demand. There is a lot of anxiety and fear out there, and I think we are going to be able to get through it. We are not there yet.”
The news conference came shortly after the state health department recorded another 136 deaths, bringing Florida’s daily average for the past week to 115, reflecting the increasing infection rate the state began seeing last month.
That figure tops the 112 deaths a day Texas has reported during that period, Associated Press statistics show. California, with nearly double the population of Florida, is at 93 deaths a day over the past week.
A month ago, Florida was averaging 33 coronavirus deaths a day. Still, Florida is seeing one-sixth of the 700 deaths a day New York experienced in April, when the crisis was at its peak. New York is now down to 10 deaths a day.
Dr. Stanley Marks, chief medical officer for Memorial Healthcare System in Broward County, said Florida’s rising daily death rate shows “we’re not beating this disease yet.” He said Floridians need to do a better job of isolating themselves when they can, wearing masks when they can’t and washing their hands frequently.
DeSantis said he fears some patients suffering possible heart attacks, strokes and other medical emergencies are not going to the hospital because they are afraid of contracting the virus.
“Covid is very important, but covid is just one aspect of the overall health care system and the health needs of Floridians,” he said.
HIGHER NUMBERS
The number of people infected with the coronavirus in different parts of the United States was anywhere from two to 13 times higher than the reported rates for those regions, according to data released Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The findings suggest that large numbers of people who did not have symptoms or did not seek medical care may have kept the virus circulating in their communities.
The study indicates that even the hardest-hit area in the study — New York City, where nearly 1 in 4 people has been exposed to the virus — is nowhere near achieving herd immunity, the level of exposure at which the virus would stop spreading in a particular city or region. Experts believe 60% of people in an area would need to have been exposed to the coronavirus to reach herd immunity.
The analysis, based on antibody tests, is the largest of its kind to date. A study of a subset of cities and states was released last month.
“These data continue to show that the number of people who have been infected with the virus that causes covid-19 far exceeds the number of reported cases,” said Dr. Fiona Havers, the CDC researcher who led the study. “Many of these people likely had no symptoms or mild illness and may have had no idea that they were infected.”
Separately, an analysis released Tuesday by a former top Obama administration health official, found that six months after the first coronavirus case appeared in the United States, most states are failing to report critical information needed to track and control the resurgence of covid-19, the disease caused by the virus.
The analysis is the first comprehensive review of covid-19 data that all 50 states and Washington, D.C., are using to make decisions about policies on mask-wearing and opening schools and businesses.