COVID-19 Timeline Project

The United States is one of the three worst countries in the entire developed world for Covid-19 deaths in August. More than seventy countries worldwide now have the Covid-19 pandemic well-controlled, with many recording no deaths at all for the month of August, just ended.
More than 170 countries are in talks to participate in the Covid-19 Vaccines Global Access (Covax) Facility, which aims to speed vaccine development and secure doses for all countries and distribute them to the most high-risk segment of each population. The plan, which is co-led by the WHOAcronymThe World Health Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution, which establishes the agency's governing structure and principles, states its main objective as 'the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of health., the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations and GAVIAcronym GAVI (formerly Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization) is a public–private global health partnership with the goal of increasing access to immunisation in poor countries., the vaccine alliance, was of interest to some members of the Trump administration and is backed by traditional U.S. allies. But the United States will not participate, in part because the White House does not want to work with the WHOAcronymThe World Health Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution, which establishes the agency's governing structure and principles, states its main objective as 'the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of health., which President Trump has criticized over what he characterized as its “China-centric” response to the pandemic.
The Trump administration Tuesday announced a four-month halt on eviction proceedings against cash-strapped renters, invoking federal public health laws out of concern that a national homelessness crisis could worsen the country’s coronavirus outbreak. The policy comes roughly a month after President Trump signed an executive order tasking the U.S. government, including the CDCAcronymCDC - Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the leading national public health institute of the United States. A federal agency under the Department of Health and Human Services, with exploring ways to protect renters as talks broke down on Capitol Hill over a new round of coronavirus relief. Brian Morgenstern, a spokesman for the White House, said the goal has been to ensure that families “struggling to pay rent due to the coronavirus will not have to worry about being evicted and risk the further spreading of, or exposure to, the disease.”
During an interview on “Good Morning America,” Dr. Anthony FauciDr. Anthony FauciAnthony Stephen Fauci is an American physician and immunologist who has served as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984 clarifies the CDCAcronymCDC - Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the leading national public health institute of the United States. A federal agency under the Department of Health and Human Services’s recent report that states 6 percent (approximately 9,000) of the 183,500 Covid-19 deaths were attributed to the coronavirus alone. The infectious disease expert pointed out that the figure simply means Covid-19 caused those 9,000 deaths without causing the pneumonia, cardiac arrest, or other complications that killed the other 94 percent of people who contracted the virus. That data “does not mean that someone who has hypertension or diabetes who dies of COVID didn’t die of Covid-19. They did,” Fauci said.
The United States faces a wave of small-business failures this fall if the federal government does not provide a new round of financial assistance. The Paycheck Protection Program provided hundreds of billions in loans and grants to help businesses retain employees and meet other obligations. Billions more went to the unemployed, in a $600 weekly supplement to state jobless benefits, and to many households, through a $1,200 tax rebate — money available to spend at local stores and restaurants. Now that aid is largely gone. many businesses face a stark choice: Do they try to hold on through a winter that could bring new shutdowns and restrictions, with no guarantee that sales will bounce back in the spring? Or do they cut their losses while they have something to salvage?
The CDCAcronymCDC - Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the leading national public health institute of the United States. A federal agency under the Department of Health and Human Services is moving to temporarily halt evictions for some Americans struggling to pay their rent due to the pandemic by broadening protections already in place, an extraordinary move intended to stave off an impending eviction crisis nationwide. Under the CARES ActCARES ActThe Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (H.R. 748), also known as the CARES Act, is a law intended to address the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. As a result of bipartisan negotiations, the bill grew to $2 trillion in the version unanimously passed and signed into law by President Donald Trump on March 27. Unprecedented in size and scope, this legislation is the largest-ever economic stimulus package in U.S. history, amounting to 10% of total U.S. gross domestic product., only renters in federally backed units were protected from eviction, and there’s also a moratorium on evictions and foreclosures for federally backed, single-family home mortgages. Today’s move covers any rental unit in the United States so long as the requirements are met, an official said.
FEMAAcronymFEMA - The Federal Emergency Management Agency is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security. The agency's primary purpose is to coordinate the response to a disaster that has occurred in the United States and that overwhelms the resources of local and state authorities. officials said Tuesday the agency will end federal funding for cloth face masks in schools around the country. “Supporting schools and other functions — courthouses and other related functions – are not a direct emergency protective measures and therefore they’re not eligible for [federal funding],” said Keith Turi. The policy goes into effect on Sept. 15. FEMAAcronymFEMA - The Federal Emergency Management Agency is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security. The agency's primary purpose is to coordinate the response to a disaster that has occurred in the United States and that overwhelms the resources of local and state authorities. said it will still provide personal protective equipment, including cloth face masks, for medical care, some medical sheltering, mass casualty management and other settings.
Americans and American biomedical researchers have often prided themselves on conducting the best clinical research in the world. Yet with over six million coronavirus cases and 183,000 deaths, the United States has produced little path-breaking clinical research on treatments to reduce cases, hospitalizations and deaths.

Republican state’s death rate more than double Democratic states. Comparative analysis of the current twenty-two states hit the worse by deaths per million shows states with Democratic leadership tend to be faring better than states with Republican leadership. The states that were hit the worse early in the Pandemic – including New York and New Jersey – are now faring the best.
Signs have mounted all summer that the meteoric rise in the stock market was unsustainable. The runaway train on Wall Street was finally derailed today, when the Dow plummeted as much as 1,026 points, or 3.5%. It closed down 808 points, or 2.8%. The Nasdaq tumbled as much as 5.8% as pandemic winners like Apple, Zoom and Peloton tanked. Even mighty Amazon dropped 5%, though it remains up an incredible 82% on the year.
Tweet: ARE U BETTER OFF? Depends on who you ask…Stock mkt has returned to record levels. Sellers of boats, pools & other high-end goods are reporting blockbuster demand. Meanwhile, almost 11% of U.S. households didn’t have enough to eat in the previous 7 days.
U.S. employers announced another 115,762 job cuts in August, led by struggling airlines as the COVID-19 pandemic weighs on travel and financial assistance from the government lapses. Though the layoffs were 56% down from July, they lifted total job cuts so far this year to a record 1.963 million. The previous all-time annual high was 1.957 million in 2001. Companies announced 160,411 hiring intentions in August.
Officials from at least three states – California , New York, and Washington – have suggested that they would refuse to distribute a COVID-19 vaccine if they believe it has not received adequate vetting by the federal government, or that it had been approved for political reasons.
Education Secretary Betsy DeVosBetsy DeVosElisabeth Dee DeVos is the 11th and current United States Secretary of Education since 2017. DeVos is known for her support for school choice, school voucher programs, and charter schools. She is a member of the Michigan Republican Party, and supports home schooling and private religious-based schooling. announces the Trump administration plans to enforce federal standardized testing requirements for K-12 schools despite the pandemic. DeVos told state school chiefs in a letter that they should not expect the Education Department to again waive federal testing requirements as it did this spring (announced March 20) amid sudden school closures.

US Dept of Labor Report: The total number of people claiming initial jobless benefits for the week ending September 5 was 884 thousand, an equal number compared to the previous week.
Infectious-disease experts are warning of a potential cold-weather surge of coronavirus cases — a long-feared “second wave” of infections and deaths, possibly at a catastrophic scale. It could begin well before Election Day, Nov. 3, although researchers assume the crest would come weeks later, closer to when fall gives way to winter. “My feeling is that there is a wave coming, and it’s not so much whether it’s coming but how big is it going to be,” says Eili Klein, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
Nine drug companies pledge that they will not submit vaccine candidates for FDA review until their safety and efficacy is shown in large clinical trials. The move is intended to bolster public confidence amid the rush to make a COVID-19 vaccine widely available, and counter fears of political pressure to have a vaccine before the November presidential election.
States, cities, and pharmaceutical companies are contradicting or ignoring the Trump administration in responding to COVID-19 as the White House continues to push for responses that could help the President politically while undermining the country’s ability to fight the pandemic.
A large, Phase 3 study testing a Covid-19 vaccine being developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford, currently the leading contenter, at dozens of sites across the U.S. has been put on hold due to a suspected serious adverse reaction in a participant in the United Kingdom. The pause is described as “a routine action which has to happen whenever there is a potentially unexplained illness in one of the trials, while it is investigated, ensuring we maintain the integrity of the trials.

The path toward economic recovery in the U.S. has become sharply divided, with wealthier Americans earning and saving at record levels while the poorest struggle to pay their bills and put food on the table. The result is a splintered economic picture characterized by high highs — the stock market has hit record levels — and incongruous low lows: Nearly 30 million Americans are receiving unemployment benefits, and the jobless rate stands at 8.4 percent.
Tweet: Donald Trump didn’t create jobs, people just went back to work — but not nearly enough. We’re still at a deficit from 2016.

Emails obtained by investigative reporters show Paul Alexander — a senior adviser to Michael CaputoMichael CaputoA Republican political strategist, and media consultant. He worked for the Reagan Administration with Oliver North, and later as director of media services on the campaign for President George H.W. Bush in the 1992 United States presidential election. Caputo moved to Russia in 1994, after the fall of the Soviet Union, and was an adviser to Boris Yeltsin. He worked for Gazprom Media in 2000 where he focused on improving the image of Vladimir Putin in the U.S. He moved back to the U.S. and founded a public relations company, and then moved to Ukraine to work on a candidate's campaign for parliament. Caputo worked for the Donald Trump campaign from November 2015 to June 2016, and was in charge of communications for New York. He was investigated by the United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence as part of its investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election. In April 2020, Caputo was appointed as assistant secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services for public affairs. — instructing press officers and others at the National Institutes of Health about what Dr. Anthony FauciDr. Anthony FauciAnthony Stephen Fauci is an American physician and immunologist who has served as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984 should say during media interviews. Alexander’s lengthy messages, some sent as recently as this week, are couched as scientific arguments. But they often contradict mainstream science while promoting political positions taken by the Trump administration on hot-button issues ranging from the use of convalescent plasma to school reopening. The emails add to evidence that the White House, and Trump appointees within HHSAcronymHHS - U.S. Department of Health and Human Services., are pushing health agencies to promote a political message instead of a scientific one.
Effective 12:01 a.m Monday September 14, the US will no longer screen for Covid-19 at international airports. The screening operations have been held at select airports since January, when the first cases of the disease began to emerge from Wuhan, China. Since March, incoming international flights from select high-risk countries, including much of Europe, China and Iran, among other regions, have been funneled through 15 designated airports in the United States. The orders to cease pre-screening operations came from the White House, with strict orders to keep the information secret until a public announcement is made.
On April 11, the Trump administration announced it would require private health insurers to provide free antibody tests for coronavirus. However, about 2.4 percent of coronavirus tests billed to insurers leave the patient responsible for some portion of payment. Providers estimate that there have been 77 million tests done in the U.S. so far, which means hundreds of thousands of people are not getting the free testing promised by the administration.
A group of 78 researchers and doctors from Stanford Medical School issue a letter that rebuke Scott W. AtlasScott W. AtlasScott W. Atlas, M.D. is the Robert Wesson Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University and a Member of Hoover Institution’s Working Group on Health Care Policy. He investigates the impact of government and the private sector on access, quality, and pricing in health care, global trends in health care innovation, and key economic issues related to the future of technology-based medical advances. He was a professor and Chief of Neuroradiology at Stanford University Medical Center from 1998 until 2012. He is presently advising the Trump administration on the Covid-19 pandemic., who President Trump appointed to the White House coronavirus task force last month, for peddling “falsehoods and misrepresentations of science.” The Stanford experts wrote that they have a “moral and ethical responsibility” to dispute Atlas’ unfounded claims on COVID-19, which they described as “opinions and statements (that) run counter to established science” and “undermine public health authorities and the credible science that guides effective public health policy.”

Video of double-wide line of cars 1/2 mile long, waiting for the Chesterfield food bank in Chesterfield, Virginia.
Despite unparalleled aid from the Federal Reserve and Congress, large company bankruptcies spiked 244% in July and August from the same period of 2019. Some companies, like 118-year-old JCPenney, have found buyers to save the business and emerge from bankruptcy. Others, like department stores Lord & Taylor and Century 21, are shutting down completely. Unfortunately, bankruptcy watchers believe this may just be the tip of the iceberg.
Investigative reporting reveals there have been at least 39,000 reported positive Covid-19 cases tied to meatpacking facilities in at least 417 plants in 40 states, and at least 184 reported worker deaths in at least 50 plants in 27 states.

Video: In a wild televised interview, Peter NavarroPeter NavarroPeter Kent Navarro is an American economist and author. He serves in the Trump administration as the Assistant to the President, Director of Trade and Manufacturing Policy, and the national Defense Production Act policy coordinator. responds to President Trump’s purposeful downplaying of the COVID-19 pandemic in its early stages.
In response to reports his team was rewriting or blocking CDCAcronymCDC - Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the leading national public health institute of the United States. A federal agency under the Department of Health and Human Services‘s MMWRAcronym The Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR ) series is prepared by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Often called “the voice of CDC,” the MMWR series is the agency’s primary vehicle for scientific publication of timely, reliable, authoritative, accurate, objective, and useful public health information and recommendations. MMWR readership predominantly consists of physicians, nurses, public health practitioners, epidemiologists and other scientists, researchers, educators, and laboratorians. reports, during a wild FaceBook Live interview hosted for supporters Michael Caputo said the CDCAcronymCDC - Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the leading national public health institute of the United States. A federal agency under the Department of Health and Human Services was harboring a “resistance unit” to Trump. The career scientists “haven’t gotten out of their sweatpants except for meetings at coffee shops” to plot “how they’re going to attack Donald Trump,” Caputo said. “There are scientists who work for this government who do not want America to get well, not until after Joe Biden is president.”
In open defiance of Nevada state regulations and his own administration’s pandemic health guidelines, President Donald Trump on Sunday hosted his first indoor rally since June 20, telling a packed, nearly mask-less crowd in Henderson that the nation was “making the last turn” in defeating the virus. Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak, a Democrat, has limited in-person gatherings indoors and outdoors to 50 people since May, a recommendation based on White House reopening guidelines. In a statement released just before the rally began, Sisolak said Trump was “taking reckless and selfish actions that are putting countless lives in danger here in Nevada.”
More than 200 meat plant workers in the U.S. have died of covid-19. Federal regulators just issued two modest fines. Federal regulators knew about serious safety problems in dozens of the nation’s meat plants that became deadly coronavirus hot spots this spring but took six months to take action, recently citing two plants and finally requiring changes to protect workers. The financial penalties for a Smithfield Foods plant in South Dakota and a JBS plant in Colorado issued last week total about $29,000 — an amount critics said was so small that it would fail to serve as an incentive for the nation’s meatpackers to take social distancing and other measures to protect their employees.

President Trumps faces a live Town Hall meeting in Pennsylvania. During this Town Hall many of the questions asked related to the pandemic and health care.

A heavily criticized recommendation from the CDCAcronymCDC - Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the leading national public health institute of the United States. A federal agency under the Department of Health and Human Services issued August 24 about who should be tested for the coronavirus was not written by CDCAcronymCDC - Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the leading national public health institute of the United States. A federal agency under the Department of Health and Human Services scientists and was posted to the agency’s website despite their serious objections. The guidance said it was not necessary to test people without symptoms of Covid-19 even if they had been exposed to the virus. the Department of Health and Human Services did the rewriting and then “dropped” it into the CDCAcronymCDC - Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the leading national public health institute of the United States. A federal agency under the Department of Health and Human Services’s public website, flouting the agency’s strict scientific review process.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio delays in-person public school openings for most students for over a week amid ongoing concerns over safety and staffing related to the Covid-19 pandemic. Rather than begin in-person classes for all students on Monday September 21, as planned, de Blasio said in-person learning at K-5 and K-8 schools is delayed until September 29, and in-person learning at middle and high schools is delayed until October 1.
Data from ICEAcronymICE - U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, principally responsible for immigration and customs enforcement, with additional responsibilities in countering transnational crime. shows that over 6,000 people in ICEAcronymICE - U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, principally responsible for immigration and customs enforcement, with additional responsibilities in countering transnational crime. detention centers across the country have contracted COVID-19 and there are presently more than 600 active cases.
Two of the leading vaccine manufacturers—Moderna and Pfizer—release detailed plans for their Phase 3 testing. This is an attempt to practice radical transparency by allowing the public to view plans for testing, as means of restoring public faith in the vaccine process after President Trump has openly pushed for distributing a vaccine before the November 3 election. Both companies expect to be able to distribute a vaccine by early 2021.

The steep decline in tourism and business travel has devastated the hotel industry.. Industry experts point to an unusually high loan delinquency rate among hotel borrowers as a sign that more closures are likely to follow. “We know there is a tsunami outside. We know it’s going to hit the beach. We just don’t know when,” said Donald Wise, a commercial real estate expert and co-founder and senior managing director at Turnbull Capital Group. Hotels that primarily cater to conventions and business travelers are more at risk of closing because such travel has all but disappeared, according to industry experts.

Tweet of President Trump at a Campaign rally: “”It affects virtually nobody,” Trump says of the coronavirus, which has now killed 200,000 Americans and counting”
Clara Jeffery Tweet: “COVID now 4th largest mass casualty event in US history. Topped only by the Civil War, WWII, 1918 flu pandemic.”
After briefly acknowledging that the virus which causes COVID-19 spreads via the air on September 18, the CDCAcronymCDC - Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the leading national public health institute of the United States. A federal agency under the Department of Health and Human Services abruptly took down the post. The CDCAcronymCDC - Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the leading national public health institute of the United States. A federal agency under the Department of Health and Human Services removed the guidance, saying that it had been “posted in error.” Notice posted “A draft version of proposed changes to these recommendations was posted in error to the agency’s official website. CDCAcronymCDC - Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the leading national public health institute of the United States. A federal agency under the Department of Health and Human Services is currently updating its recommendations regarding airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19). Once this process has been completed, the update language will be posted.”
The NIHAcronymThe National Institutes of Health, a part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, one of the world's foremost medical research centers. announces that one of its public affairs officers would retire after he was revealed to be surreptitiously attacking his employer and one of its directors, Dr. Anthony FauciDr. Anthony FauciAnthony Stephen Fauci is an American physician and immunologist who has served as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984, in pseudonymous posts on Twitter and the right-wing website RedState. The official, William B. Crews, worked for and promoted the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases while simultaneously denouncing the agency’s work and its director, Dr. Fauci, dismissing their research and public health advice in wild and conspiratorial terms under the pen name Streiff.
Among the misinformation included assertions that wearing masks has “little to no medical value” and could do more “harm” than wearing no mask at all.
More than half of states are reporting a rise in cases. Among the states reporting more new cases in the last seven days are Wisconsin, Idaho, South Dakota, Iowa and Kansas, all of which are also reporting test positivity rates above 15%.The WHOAcronymThe World Health Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution, which establishes the agency's governing structure and principles, states its main objective as 'the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of health. advised governments in May that positivity rates should hold steady at 5% or lower for at least two weeks before businesses reopen. A total of 27 states and Puerto Rico have rates above that level, according to John Hopkins University. Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts and New York all have positivity rates below 1%, and Delaware, Hawaii, Louisiana, Michigan, South Carolina and Vermont are all reporting fewer cases than last week.
A top fitness industry trade association and some of its member gyms are promoting the message that health clubs nationwide are “safe and are not contributing to the spread of covid-19” based on the conclusions of a study that experts in public health and research methods say was methodologically flawed and open to conflicts of interest.

President Trump says a plan by the FDAAcronymFDA - The Food and Drug Administration is a federal agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, one of the United States federal executive departments. to issue tough new standards for emergency approval of a coronavirus vaccine “sounds like a political move” and warned that the White House might reject it. Trump said he had “tremendous trust in these massive companies” developing prospective vaccines and suggested that they, not federal regulators, could best determine when a vaccine should be made available to the American people. “When you have great companies coming up with these vaccines, why would they (the FDAAcronymFDA - The Food and Drug Administration is a federal agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, one of the United States federal executive departments.) have to be, you know, adding great length to the process? We want to have people not get sick. I don’t see why it should be delayed further,” he said. “That is a lot of lives you’re talking about.”
Dr. Deborah BirxDr. Deborah BirxDeborah Leah Birx is an American physician and diplomat serving as the United States Global AIDS Coordinator for Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump since 2014; she has served as the Coronavirus Response Coordinator for the White House Coronavirus Task Force since 2020. has confided to aides and friends that she has become so unhappy with what she sees as her diminished role as coordinator of the White House coronavirus task force that she is not certain how much longer she can serve in her position. Birx has told people around her that she is “distressed” with the direction of the task force, describing the situation inside the nation’s response to the coronavirus as nightmarish. According to people familiar with her thinking, Birx views Scott W. AtlasScott W. AtlasScott W. Atlas, M.D. is the Robert Wesson Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University and a Member of Hoover Institution’s Working Group on Health Care Policy. He investigates the impact of government and the private sector on access, quality, and pricing in health care, global trends in health care innovation, and key economic issues related to the future of technology-based medical advances. He was a professor and Chief of Neuroradiology at Stanford University Medical Center from 1998 until 2012. He is presently advising the Trump administration on the Covid-19 pandemic., a recent addition to the task force, as an unhealthy influence on President Trump’s thinking when it comes to the virus.
An analysis by the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis —titled “Prioritizing Wall Street” (pdf)— reveals that the CARES Act Federal Reserve bond purchasing program meant to prevent workers from losing their jobs amid the Covid-19 pandemic, instead bolstered companies who laid off more than one million workers while paying massive dividends to shareholders. This finding escalating concerns that the central bank’s behavior is “contributing to an economic recovery that benefits wealthy executives and investors but leaves behind American workers.”
Select Subcommittee Hearing with Federal Reserve Chair Powell testifying before the Select Subcommittee on the Fed’s response to Covid-19.

HHSAcronymHHS - U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. is moving quickly on a highly unusual public awareness campaign to “defeat despair” about the coronavirus, a $300 million-plus effort that was shaped by Michael Caputo, and executed in part by close allies of the official, using taxpayer funds. The ad blitz, described in some budget documents as the “Covid-19 immediate surge public advertising and awareness campaign,” is expected to lean heavily on video interviews between administration officials and celebrities, who will discuss aspects of the coronavirus outbreak and address the Trump administration’s response to the crisis. Democrats charge that the massive ad blitz is an attempt to boost Trump’s standing on Covid-19 before the election.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed an executive order Friday allowing restaurants and bars to immediately begin operating at 100% capacity as the state is transitioning into Phase 3 of reopening. The order prohibits local governments from limiting restaurants to less than 50% capacity. DeSantis’ order also says no Covid-19 emergency ordinance can prevent a person from working or from operating a business.

The number of new coronavirus cases has increased by at least 10% or more compared to the week before in 21 states, most of them in the West. Cases are rising in Alabama, Alaska, Colorado, Idaho, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington state, Wisconsin and Wyoming. Eighteen states were holding steady. Only 11 — Arizona, Louisiana, Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, Virginia, Maryland, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Vermont and New Hampshire — saw decreases of new cases of more than 10% compared to the week prior.
The executive board of the union representing more than 6,400 of New York City’s school leaders passed a unanimous vote of no confidence against Mayor Bill de Blasio and Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza on Sunday for what it called officials’ “failure to lead New York City through the safe and successful reopening of schools.”

Americans over 30 have been drinking more during the coronavirus pandemic compared to this time last year. Overall frequency of alcohol consumption increased by about 14% from 2019, the researchers reported in the journal JAMA Network Open. That increase averages out to about one additional drinking day per month by 75% of adults.
Prolonged closures at Disney’s California-based theme parks and limited attendance at its open parks has forced the company to lay off 28,000 employees across its parks, experiences and consumer products division. While Disney’s theme parks in Florida, Paris, Shanghai, Japan and Hong Kong have been able to reopen with limited capacity, both California Adventure and Disneyland have remained shuttered in Anaheim, California.