Coronavirus cases climb in Midwest states as Trump says U.S. is doing better than most other countries

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Mon, 2020-08-03 20:46 — mike kraft

Coronavirus cases are climbing in Midwest states with previously low infections President Trump continues a push to reopen schools and predicts a vaccine this year, while the World Health Organization says there may never be a “silver bullet.” Anne Gearan, John Wagner, Jacqueline Dupree Washington Post

The novel coronavirus is surging in several Midwestern states that had not previously seen high infection rates while average daily deaths remained elevated Monday in Southern and Western states hit with a resurgence of the disease after lifting some restrictions earlier this summer.

Missouri, Montana and Oklahoma are among those witnessing the largest percentage surge of infections over the past week, while, adjusted for population, the number of new cases in Florida, Mississippi and Alabama still outpaced all other states, according to a Washington Post analysis of health data.

Experts also see worrying trends emerging in major East Coast and Midwest cities, and they anticipate major outbreaks in college towns as classes resume in August....

President Trump continued his push to fully reopen schools, even as some of the nation’s largest districts are delaying in-person instruction amid continuing spread of the virus.

“Ideally, we want to open those schools. We want to open them,” Trump said during a White House news conference

Trump also said the United States is doing much better dealing with the virus than most other countries — a claim inconsistent with the facts — and accused the news media of trying to make himoing better than most other countries. and the country look “as bad as possible.”

At least 4.6 million coronavirus cases and 151,000 fatalities have been reported in the United States since February....

Trump continued to insist that hydroxychloroquine is an effective treatment for the coronavirus even as leading health officials in his administration have concluded otherwise. The president suggested that opposition to its effectiveness is because he supports it, as opposed to based on science....

Trump on Monday tweeted criticism of Deborah Birx, the physician overseeing the White House’s coronavirus efforts, a day after she warned that the United States is entering a “new phase” of the pandemic.

Trump tweeted that after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) criticized Birx for being “too positive” about his handling of the pandemic, the doctor “took the bait & hit us.” He appeared to be referring to Birx on Sunday telling CNN that increasing outbreaks in both rural and urban areas are “different from March and April” and “extraordinarily widespread.”

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