Whether It’s COVID-19 or Police, ‘Either Way We’re Still Being Killed’
One week ago today, George Floyd was killed in south Minneapolis after being held down by four police officers, one of whom kept a knee to Floyd's neck for about nine minutes. After months in coronavirus-related lockdown, thousands of people have come out to protest police brutality nationwide and the law enforcement system that has caused too many unnecessary deaths of black men, women and children.
Community organizers and activists in south Minneapolis tell me the intensity of the protests we’re seeing now was inevitable. One pastor described Minneapolis as a “tinder box,” as people had already suffered through the officer-related deaths of Jamar Clark in 2015 and Philando Castile in 2016. “We’ve known for a long time, that if this happened again the outcome would be what we’re seeing now,” he said. So it was no surprise to him that thousands of people were willing to risk COVID-19 to come out in protest, despite the fact that the illness has disproportionately impacted black Americans. Among the protesters has been 77-year-old August Nimtz Jr., a political science professor at the University of Minnesota and longtime civil rights activist. As an elderly black man, he knows he’s most at risk for COVID-19, he says, “but at the same time there’s the importance of coming out into the streets. We had to do this. If we don’t do it the cops will get away with it again.”
Governors, mayors and public health officials from Minnesota to New York State have urged protesters to wear masks and try to keep six feet of distance between each other, and many are concerned that the U.S. will see an uptick of COVID-19 cases as a result of the protests. But, as 31-year-old Priscilla Borker told TIME’s Charlotte Alter at a Friday protest in Brooklyn, “You think about the cop who had his knee on Floyd, you think about how America has its knee on people of color.... And so whether we stay home or think about the risk of coming out here in regards to the COVID crisis, either way we’re still being killed. So we don’t mind taking this risk.”
More than 6.1 million people around the world had been sickened by COVID-19 as of 11 PM eastern time last night, and more than 372,000 people had died.
Here is every country with over 90,000 confirmed cases:
Today’s the start of a new month, and many countries in Europe and Asia have entered new phases of reopening. Historic sites in Italy, including the Colosseum and the Vatican Museum, began to allow visitors today. Greece gave hotels the go-ahead to take in guests today as the country prepares for the summer tourism season. Also starting today, people in England can now meet in groups of six or less in outdoor areas, and some schools have restarted classes, despite public health officials' warnings that the country isn’t ready to begin reopening, and should develop a vigorous contact tracing program before easing restrictions, the Associated Press reports.
In Asia, Bangladesh restarted public transportation services today. And in India, beginning today, businesses in some cities have started to reopen under the country’s first “unlock” phase. Despite undergoing a strict two-month lockdown, India is now seeing a surge in cases, and in Mumbai, the epicenter of the country’s outbreak, hospitals continue to be overwhelmed. India’s lockdown began on March 25, and some restrictions have started to ease since mid-May.
On Sunday, the White House announced it delivered 2 million doses of hydroxychloroquine to Brazil. The drug, primarily used as an antimalarial, has been touted by President Trump as a possible treatment for COVID-19, despite a lack of evidence, and some studies have suggested the drug can be dangerous to COVID-19 patients. Brazil president Jair Bolsonaro has similarly expressed his interest in hydroxychloroquine. Bolsonaro announced the expanded use of the drug in mid-May. “There is still no scientific evidence, but it is being monitored and used in Brazil and worldwide,” Bolsonaro wrote on Twitter on May 20. “However, we are at war: worse than being defeated is the shame of not having fought.”
“It has no scientific evidence," Gonzalo Vecina Neto, the former head of Brazil's health regulator, Anvisa told Reuters. "(It is) unbelievable that in the 21st century, we are living off magical thinking."
The White House also announced it would be sending Brazil 1,000 ventilators.
In some good news, for the first time since March, Spain has gone 24 hours without new coronavirus deaths.
The Situation in the U.S.
The total number of COVID-19 diagnoses in the U.S. surpassed 1.7 million as of 11 PM eastern time yesterday, and the death toll climbed to more than 104,000.
On May 31, there were 20,007 new cases and 605 new deaths confirmed in the U.S.
A new report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says that there were limited cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. most of January. CDC director Dr. Robert Redfield told reporters that the number of cases in the U.S. was still low enough in January that it would be like “looking for a needle in a haystack.” Nevertheless, the findings suggest that an aggressive testing and detection program might have mitigated some of the spread of the virus and allowed public health officials to contain the infection more reliably, reports TIME senior health writer Alice Park.
Gilead Sciences today announced results from its phase 3 trial of Remdesivir in moderately ill COVID-19 patients. The study found that patients who took the drug over five days were 65% more likely to improve, and also found favorable, though not statistically significant, results in moderately ill patients who took the drug over 10 days. However, on Wall Street, Gilead’s shares decreased 2.8% this morning, Bloomberg News reports, a sign that the results have been met with skepticism by investors.
U.S. renters have overwhelmingly continued to pay their rent on time, despite historic unemployment. A survey by the National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC) shows that by May 27, 93.3% of tenants surveyed paid their rent in full or partially for the month of May. The council surveyed 11.4 million units of professionally managed apartment units across the country. However, the New York Times reports that this trend may not last. The NMHC data skews towards higher-end apartment units, and other surveys, for example one conducted by Apartment List, found that, in April, 31% of Americans made a partial payment or didn’t pay at all. In May, 22% of renters didn’t make a payment, according to their survey. The Times adds that tenants nationwide might not be able to continue making payments without government intervention.
All numbers unless otherwise specified are from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering, and are accurate as of May 31, 11 PM eastern time. To see larger, interactive versions of these maps and charts, click here.
WHAT ELSE YOU SHOULD KNOW
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COVID-19 has taken the lives of several Holocaust survivors, and upended the lives of many others. But virtual gatherings have helped, both for their own mental health, and for a world that needs to hear their perspective. Read more here.
What Will Happen As the Pandemic Epicenter Moves to Latin America
Brazil now has the second-highest coronavirus case count in the world, and Peru has the world’s second-highest per capita rate of new infections per day. The virus’s toll on Latin American countries could severely impact the global economy. Read more here.
Nursing Home Workers Confront Risks in Facilities That Have Been Devastated
Nursing home employees, who face serious occupational hazards even in non-pandemic times, say they’re caught in an impossible situation and being blamed for problems rooted in America’s failed elder-care system. Read more here.
Mothers Who Rely on Federal Food Aid Struggle to Get Groceries Safely
A federal food aid program for low-income women and children, known as WIC, requires that participants do their grocery shopping in person, creating additional burden for mothers who are trying to prevent spreading COVID-19 to their families. Read more here.
How Iceland Beat the Coronavirus
From the New Yorker, a look inside the country’s successful effort to virtually eliminate COVID-19. Read more here.
Correction: The weekend edition of the Coronavirus Brief incorrectly referred to "Ferguson, Miss." when discussing the 2014 killing of Michael Brown and subsequent protests. Those actually occurred in "Ferguson, Mo." We regret the error.
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 Jasmine Aguilera, and edited by Elijah Wolfson.
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