Health News at Your Fingertips

Circling back to testing …

Trump, who has been boasting about the country’s coronavirus testing for months, was right in saying that the US has dramatically ramped up testing and is now testing a higher proportion of citizens than many other countries.

But that’s in part because there are so many cases in the US – the bigger the outbreak, the more testing is needed to contain and suppress the virus. The US is now administering more tests per 100,000 people than South Korea and Germany. But a smaller proportion of those tests are coming back positive in the latter two countries.

One non-coronavirus line from that presser that stood out: Trump on Ghislaine Maxwell, the Jeffrey Epstein associate charged with sex trafficking of minors.

Trump’s response when asked about her: “I wish her well.”

Trump has wrapped up his very brief briefing, after taking a few questions from reporters. Unlike his previous coronavirus briefings, which would sometimes ramble on for hours, the president kept this one tight and mostly stuck to talking points.

Though, as Eli Stokols at the LA Times pointed out, there was some waffling away from the scripted message …

Asked where his top public health officials in charge of the coronavirus response are, Trump said Dr Deborah Birx was “right outside”. He did not explain why she and Dr Anthony Fauci were absent from the briefing.

More context on testing…

Trump said that he supports more testing if that’s what medical experts recommend (it is). And he said he gets “on average, a test every one, two days”.

He also bragged about how much the US is testing. There are many ways to measure whether a country is conducting enough coronavirus testing. One important metric is the positive test rate. In the US that’s 6.48%, according to the Johns Hopkins tracker.

The WHO recommends that the rate should be lower than 5% before countries even consider reopening and the Harvard Global Health Institute recommends 3% as a maximum.

By contrast, countries that have a handle on the pandemic have much lower positivity rates – in South Korea, that’s just over 1%, and in New Zealand, it’s .5%.

Trump has noted a “concerning rise” in cases in parts of the south, in a complete shift from his previous strategy – refusing to acknowledge that there is a problem.

He’s staying uncharacteristically on-message. He said the government is “asking Americans to use masks, socially distance and employ vigorous hygiene – wash your hands every chance you get”. He also asked younger people to “avoid packed bars and other crowded indoor gatherings”.

Trump asked Americans to wear masks “whether you like the mask or not”, despite repeatedly downplaying the importance of wearing masks and refusing to wear one on many occasions.

The president was first seen wearing a mask publicly earlier this month.

Fact check: Supplies

Trump talked about how supplies are up after “inheriting very empty cupboards” from the previous administration.

In fact, the Trump administration inherited a stockpile of 19,000 ventilators. His administration has not deployed all of them despite severe shortages when the pandemic first hit.

Donald Trump’s briefing has begun, and he’s started off using a racist term to describe the coronavirus.

We’ll be following along and fact-checking.

That’s it from me today. My west coast colleague, Maanvi Singh, will take over the blog for the next few hours.

Here’s where the day stands so far:

• Dr Anthony Fauci said he was not invited to Trump’s coronavirus briefing today. Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert, told CNN moments ago, “I was not invited up to this point. I’m assuming I’m not going to be there.” The president’s coronavirus briefing, his first since April, is scheduled to begin in a few minutes.
• Trump signed an executive order aimed at excluding undocumented persons from being counted in the 2020 census. The ACLU immediately said it would file a lawsuit against the administration over the order, which comes a year after the supreme court blocked Trump’s effort to add a citizenship question to the census.
• Joe Biden accused Trump of having “quit on this country” amid the coronavirus pandemic. Delivering a speech on his plan to expand access to early childcare, Biden said of Trump, “For all his bluster about his expertise on the economy, he’s unable to explain how he’ll actually help working families hit the hardest. … He’s quit on you. He’s quit on this country.”
• Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell outlined the broad strokes of the Republican coronavirus relief bill. McConnell said the legislation would include $105 billion for schools, which is well short of the $430 billion that Democrats have been pushing for. The bill will also allocate more money in small business loans and direct payments to American families, McConnell said.
• John Bolton said there is no justification for the deployment of DHS forces on the streets of Portland. Bolton told the Guardian in an interview, “The protection of federal courthouses now is the responsibility of the US Marshals Service. … I’m not saying everything’s hunky dory in Portland, Oregon, because it clearly is not. But I don’t see any justification for the deployment of the Department of Homeland Security personnel.”

Maanvi will have more coming up, so stay tuned.

In his CNN interview, Dr Anthony Fauci acknowledged the country needed to “do better” on ensuring access to coronavirus testing.

On the issue of reopening schools, the infectious disease expert said he understoof the importance of getting students back to the classroom, but he emphasized the safety of children and teachers needed to guide the policy on school reopenings.

CNN anchor Jake Tapper closed the interview by asking Fauci about his plans to throw out the first pitch at the Nationals game on Thursday, which will be played without any fans in attendance.

Fauci said the lack of fans will underscore the “stark difference” when sports in the middle of a pandemic. Fauci jokingly added of the ceremonial pitch, “I hope I don’t bounce it too much.”

Dr Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert, said he had not been invited to Trump’s coronavirus briefing this afternoon.

“I was not invited up to this point. I’m assuming I’m not going to be there,” Fauci told CNN, noting the briefing will begin soon and he is still at the National Institutes of Health headquarters.

Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said he had “a good long conversation” with Trump last week, but he has not spoken to the president today.

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany was asked earlier today whether members of the coronavirus task force would join Trump at his briefing. “You’ll have to tune in to see,” McEnany replied.

The absence of Fauci increases the likelihood that the briefing will center on Trump trying to downplay the country’s recent surge in coronavirus cases for his own benefit.

Fauci was also asked about Trump’s recent claim that he is an “alarmist” when it comes to the pandemic. “I consider myself more a realist than an alarmist,” Fauci said.