Coronavirus cases explode across the U.S.
What happened
The U.S. this week recorded its highest one-day spike in new Covid-19 cases since the pandemic began, an explosive surge that is causing coronavirus deaths to rise after months of decline. California, Texas, and Florida together accounted for nearly half of the 67,417 new cases reported on Tuesday—more than triple the daily average a month ago. But new hot spots are emerging across the nation, with at least 37 states reporting growing caseloads. With 3.5 million infections reported in the U.S. to date and at least 137,000 deaths, the latest spike has led at least 27 states to alter plans for reopening their economies, including California, where Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered most indoor restaurants, outdoor bars, gyms, salons, and malls to close. In Florida, Disney World reopened even as the state registered 15,300 new cases in a single day—a new high for any state.
The U.S. is now averaging some 800 Covid-19 fatalities a day, and record one-day death counts were reported in Florida, Alabama, Nevada, North Carolina, and Utah. The CDC said the coronavirus could be brought “under control” within two months if everyone wore masks, and President Trump wore one himself and urged Americans to do the same. But Trump also retweeted a conservative former game show host’s statement that the CDC, the media, and most doctors are “lying” about the pandemic to keep “the economy from coming back, which is about the election.” After
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious-disease expert, said the U.S. is not “doing great” at containing the virus, the White House canceled his TV interviews and Trump adviser Peter Navarro wrote an op-ed calling Fauci “wrong about everything.”
What the editorials said
Fauci has made mistakes, said USA Today. He initially downplayed the importance of masks, for example. But like any good scientist, he updated his views “as more evidence came in about this brandnew virus.” The same can’t be said for Trump, whose “delusions of infallibility” cause him to endlessly repeat the same disproven nonsense. Fauci’s fact-based statements remind Americans “how wrong Trump has been about the pandemic.” That’s why the president wants to discredit and silence the good doctor.
Newsom shouldn’t have “pressed the panic button” and shuttered California again, said The Wall Street Journal. The Democratic governor acknowledges that large private gatherings are more to blame for the flare-up than businesses are. Containing Covid-19 isn’t “an allor-nothing choice”: close everything to “crush” the virus or “let it rip.” The reality is that we may live with Covid-19 for a long time, and we’ll need to contain outbreaks “while letting the economy function to avoid mass poverty.”
What the columnists said
When the coronavirus first emerged, Americans were right to wonder whether lockdowns would do “more damage than the disease itself,” said Daryl Austin in NationalReview.com. Shutting down economies leaves millions in poverty, disrupts supply chains, and takes a profound toll on mental health. But those adverse consequences also occur when the disease is allowed to run rampant—the economy won’t thrive if people fear they’ll catch a deadly disease when they step into a store or office—without any of the benefits of slowing the rate of transmission. As one infectious-disease expert told me, “the cure will never be worse than the disease.”
To understand what an “unmitigated disaster” the U.S. response has been, said Brian Klaas in The Washington Post, look at Europe. The entire European Union, plus Britain, recorded 2,500 new cases on a single day this week, about one-sixth the daily number reported in Florida. Trump and his allies blame the infection surge on increased testing, but the U.K. tests a greater percentage of its people than the U.S. does. There’s only one takeaway: “The pandemic was unavoidable, but America’s dire circumstances were a policy choice.”
“This is our second chance” to contain the virus, said John Barry in The New York Times. “We won’t get a third.” Some states should implement comprehensive shutdowns, and all should begin building test-and-trace programs while hammering home the importance of masks, handwashing, and self-quarantine. Summer is our best chance to get the spread under control. “In a few months, when the weather turns cold” and forces people indoors, “we could face a disaster that dwarfs the situation today.”