New York and the surrounding states are starting to loosen their coronavirus restrictions, a step that some people are misinterpreting as permission to party. Take, for example, the scene in Manhattan’s East Village this weekend, where revelers took advantage of new alcohol take-out rules to hold an impromptu block party that turned St. Mark’s Place into Bourbon Street. The attitude of some attendees was downright fatalist: “For three months I followed every rule, did everything they said, but now I'm just like, I'm done,” one told local news site Gothamist.
After months of lockdown, it’s natural that people want to get outside and have some fun—especially as summertime arrives and the temperature heats up. But just because we’re bored of the pandemic doesn’t make it go away, as my colleagues Jeffrey Kluger and Chris Wilson demonstrate in their widely-shared analysis of the virus’ continued march across the U.S. Nothing is truly “safe” in a pandemic, or even in normal times—but there are certainly safer ways to have fun right now besides crowding together without masks on.
Acting as if everything’s normal right now is at least a little understandable if the virus hasn’t started killing people in your neck of the woods just yet (though it’s probably coming soon). But here in the New York tri-state, nearly 40,000 people have died of COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While the virus is on the downswing locally, it’s far from being entirely eliminated, as it has been in places like New Zealand. The Kiwis have earned their party—New Yorkers, and Americans more broadly, have not.
But let’s put our judgement aside for a moment. If people are ready to party, virus be damned, that’s a sign that we’re in for real trouble if COVID-19 bounces back and things need to be tightened up again. It was one thing to get people to abide by unpleasant rules when the virus was new and scary, it will be quite another to do so after they have already had a taste of the pleasures they have so missed over the past few months. (That the coronavirus will re-emerge in places like New York seems downright inevitable—that’s exactly what happened in Beijing, where lockdown measures are back in place following a fresh outbreak.)
Mayors and other officials across the country are already threatening to reinstate lockdowns if people continue flouting eased restrictions. “I understand it’s not popular” to enforce the rules, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said at a press conference Sunday, putting the pressure on New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio to step up. “You know what’s more unpopular? If that region closes because that local government did not do their job.” Leaders in Houston are also publicly suggesting the once-relaxed rules may need to be tightened up again. (Many officials, however, are pushing back on the idea despite a rise in cases.)
If officials decide they need to re-tighten the rules, it will likely be a nightmare from a compliance point of view. Some people may just give up entirely out of frustration, or excuse risky behavior by brushing aside mayors and governors with a simple “they don’t know what they’re doing.” Others will have the best of intentions, but may be confused about what is allowed and what’s not, especially given the utter lack of federal guidance of almost any kind. (The complex patchwork of rules across different states and cities further fuels that confusion.) And underlying all this is the simple but under-discussed truth that what is legally permissible and what is medically sound are two often different things, as governors and other officials need to weigh economic concerns alongside public health questions.
All of this is to say: People flouting the relaxed rules in places like New York are putting the rest of us at risk of losing the freedoms we worked so hard to be able to safely enjoy again. The time to throw a big party will come soon, hopefully. And it will mean so much more when it’s actually been earned—just look at how great it seems in New Zealand right now for evidence of that. But we haven’t earned it yet.
TODAY'S CORONAVIRUS OUTLOOK
The Global Situation
More than 7.9 million people around the world had been sickened by COVID-19 as of 11 PM eastern time last night, and more than 433,000 people had died.
Here is every country with over 100,000 confirmed cases:
Beijing is rolling out “wartime measures” to fight a new outbreak of the virus linked to a market in the city’s southwest, CNN reports. Nearly 80 new cases have been reported in the city after the first locally transmitted infection in months, highlighting the threat of “aftershocks” even in cities thought to have contained the virus. “It is a worry, everyone is worried,” a local shop owner told the New York Times. “This is no ordinary disease. We’re waiting at home and can’t go out.”
An official in Pakistan, the world’s fifth-most populous country, warned that cases there could exceed 1 million by mid-summer, the AFP reports. Government leaders there are struggling to get citizens to wear masks and practice social distancing, but the outbreak also underscores the difficulty that low-income nations face in shutting down their economies to prevent viral spread.
Norway is cancelling use of a COVID-19 contact tracing smartphone app over concerns about data collection and individual privacy, the Associated Press reports. Norway’s app was seen as particularly intrusive, as it tapped users’ GPS location data. Other similar services, including those powered by Apple and Google, are less invasive but still controversial.
Global markets fell Monday as investors reacted to the news of fresh coronavirus cases in China, the U.S. and elsewhere. The drops appear to be a recognition that the virus may stunt global economic growth for some time.
The Situation in the U.S.
Nearly 2.1 million people in the U.S. had been infected with COVID-19 as of 11 PM eastern time yesterday, and more than 115,000 had died.
On June 14, there were 19,532 new cases and 296 new deaths confirmed in the U.S.
The Food and Drug Administration is withdrawing its emergency authorization of anti-malaria drugs hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine to fight COVID-19, saying in a letter that they are “unlikely to produce an antiviral effect.” U.S. President Donald Trump and others promoted the drugs as potential virus treatments without evidence; Trump even claimed he was taking hydroxychloroquine as a prophylactic.
Arizona, where stay-at-home orders were lifted nearly a month ago, is turning into the next major coronavirus hotspot in the U.S. Both cases and hospitalizations are climbing rapidly, an alarming trend given the inherent 10-14-day delay in most forms of virus data. So far, Governor Doug Ducey has shown no intent on reinstating a stay-at-home order or otherwise tightening up. “Perhaps Arizona will be a warning sign to other areas,” a University of Arizona epidemiologist told NPR.
As cities reopen, many could be in for a traffic nightmare as commuters seek to avoid public transit, experts warn. "It could be 10, 20, 30% higher than what we've seen,” Sam Schwartz—a former New York City traffic official who coined the term “gridlock”—told ABC News. “Traffic could come to a standstill."
All numbers unless otherwise specified are from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering, and are accurate as of June 14, 11 PM eastern time. To see larger, interactive versions of these maps and charts, click here.
WHAT ELSE YOU SHOULD KNOW
How America’s Hospitals Survived the First Wave
While some individual hospitals in hotspots like New York City were overwhelmed, COVID-19 has not yet caused the kind of nationwide system-buckling stress that some predicted. ProPublica explored why experts’ worst fears weren’t realized—and came away with advice for hospitals on what they can do before the next wave. Read more here.
Florida Fired This Scientist—Now She’s Making Her Own COVID-19 Count
Dr. Rebekah Jones claims she was fired by Florida’s Department of Health after refusing to manipulate COVID-19 data. Now she’s working on her own dashboard, The Guardian reports, which shows a higher number of cases than the official count as the state begins to reopen. (A spokesperson for the Florida governor’s office refutes Jones’ accusations.) Read more here.
In Texas, the Coronavirus Is ‘Your Responsibility’
Texas officials are backing away from sweeping restrictions and instead encouraging people to make responsible individual decisions, Texas Monthly reports—a strategy that may backfire, given that one person’s risky behavior can put others in harm’s way. As the story puts it: “A healthy young person whose sense of personal responsibility leaves him comfortable spending a leisurely evening in a bustling restaurant can infect a roommate who works in a nursing home.” Read more here.
Some Patients Are Staying Sick for Weeks
While the virus typically runs its course in 1-2 weeks, a small number of coronavirus patients are staying sick far longer than that, mystifying doctors and other experts, the Washington Post reports. What’s causing the extended illnesses? “The bottom line is we just don’t know,” an infectious disease physician told the newspaper. Read more here.
Thanks for reading. We hope you find the Coronavirus Brief newsletter to be a helpful tool to navigate this very complex situation, and welcome feedback at coronavirus.brief@time.com.
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Today's newsletter was written by Alex Fitzpatrick and edited by Elijah Wolfson.
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