September 24, 2020

COVID-19 Cases Are Rising, Especially in Trump Country

The Washington Post says that Donald Trump is bullish on our recovery from COVID-19:

The president is betting his political future on convincing voters that a recent dip in coronavirus cases, hospitalizations and deaths signals a coming end to the national nightmare — and is a reason to reassess his handling of the pandemic and vote for him. He is zigzagging the country for a series of packed events, sometimes indoors, always with a packed and mostly unmasked crowd, preaching that the situation is rapidly improving while largely ignoring a death toll that this week surpassed 200,000 Americans amid fears that the country could have a second wave as temperatures drop.

I don’t get it. What dip in cases could he be thinking of?

New cases have been rising for the past two weeks, from 34,000 per day on September 13 to 43,000 today. And guess where things are worst?

The number of new Covid-19 infections in rural America jumped by 30% last week, reversing a short-lived decline in new cases and putting a record number of rural counties on the red-zone list. New deaths from Covid-19 also grew last week, increasing by 20% and bringing the total number of rural Americans who have died as a result of the pandemic to 18,128…The number of rural counties on the red-zone list climbed to 909 last week. The previous record was set the first week of September, when 806 rural counties were on the list.

These are Trump’s people. But who are they going to believe, Trump or their own eyes? Unfortunately, I have a feeling we all know the answer to that.

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We can afford to take that time because we don’t report to an oligarch or corporation with a special agenda. We report to you, and for you. That’s why we unabashedly pursue the truth and relentlessly shine a light into the darkness.

In this month’s Summer Membership Drive, we’ve got to raise $200,000 to support more crucial investigations. This is a pivotal moment in our nation, with democracy on the line, and we can only do this work because readers like you step up. Every donation, of any amount, makes a difference here. We cannot do this work without you.

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