It may have been hard for many Americans to pay attention to Friday’s dueling press conferences held by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, and U.S. White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, a Republican—what with the $600 that was disappearing from millions of out-of-work Americans’ unemployment checks at more or less the same time. Washington was doing what Washington does: fighting up to and past a deadline on a critical bill. But rarely have the stakes been so high or the D.C. dysfunction so evident.
The $600 in question, which supplemented already-existing unemployment benefits, was part of Congress' first major COVID-19 relief package, enacted back in March. With nearly 18 million Americans out of work as of last count, the funds have become critical both for families and, many experts say, the economy more broadly. But the extra cash came to a halt Friday as Democrats and Republicans jousted over the details of the next round of aid. While neither party wanted to drive the country over the expiration-of-benefits cliff, neither party either seemed able to rouse itself to do better—even while blasting the other side for the impasse.
“Clearly they did not understand the gravity of the situation,” Pelosi said of her across-the-aisle colleagues and U.S. President Donald Trump. “Why don’t we just get the job done?”
“Very disappointed in @SenSchumer for blocking the temporary extension of the $600 unemployment benefits,” tweeted Trump, in reference to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.
For those desperate for immediate financial help, short-term relief may sound appealing. But Democrats are opposed to the idea, instead preferring a larger package (they also criticize Senate Republicans for failing to take up the relief bill House Democrats passed two months ago). Better, to the Democratic thinking, to keep the pressure on Republicans and let them take the heat for any lapse in benefits.
There are considerable differences between what a Democratic or Republican bill would contain. In addition to an extension of the $600 unemployment benefit, Democrats want another direct payment of $1,200 to most Americans, $1 trillion in aid to struggling state and local governments, an expansion of the food stamps program, $100 billion in aid to schools and assistance to renters. Pelosi rejected an Administration offer that included a four-month extension of benefits at $400, aid to businesses, a liability shield protecting businesses and schools against potential lawsuits from workers or students who contract COVID-19, and more.
Meantime, as the bickering goes on and the $600 has disappeared, the novel coronavirus is doing what viruses do: continuing to spread. Pandemics don’t give a fig for partisanship. At this point, it would be refreshing if politicians didn’t either.
TODAY'S CORONAVIRUS OUTLOOK
The Global Situation
More than 18 million people around the world had been sickened by COVID-19 as of 1 AM eastern time today, and more than 689,000 people have died.
Here is every country with over 250,000 confirmed cases:
Five passengers and 36 crewmembers aboard the Norwegian cruise ship MS Roald Amundsen tested positive and were transferred to a hospital in the Norwegian city of Tromso. Passengers on two other July cruises have been contacted, but since the ship often does double-duty as a regional ferry, there is concern the virus could have spread into the surrounding community.
In India, Home Minister Amit Shah, a longtime aide to Prime Minister Narenda Modi, has tested positive for the virus. Shah, who was at a cabinet meeting with the Prime Minister last Wednesday, tweeted that he has been hospitalized but is feeling fine. India’s case count has now climbed to more than 1.8 million, trailing only the U.S. and Brazil.
Where testing is failing to uncover all cases, sewer diving may help. In Singapore and elsewhere, epidemiologists are increasingly testing the human waste stream for signs of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Similar to the way polio is detected in the world’s few remaining hotspots for that disease, sewer-sampling can help determine the community presence of the coronavirus, leading to narrower sampling of populations in those areas.
India’s most-beloved Bollywood star, 77-year-old Amitabh Bachchan, was released from the hospital three weeks after testing positive. His son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter have all tested positive as well; his son remains hospitalized. Bachchan tweeted his thanks to “the excellent care and nursing at Nanavati [hospital, which] made it possible for me to see this day."
The Situation in the U.S.
The U.S. recorded more than 4.6 million coronavirus cases as of 1 AM eastern time today. More than 154,000 people have died. Here's where daily cases have risen or fallen over the last 14 days, shown in confirmed cases per 100,000 residents:
On August 2, there were 47,511 new cases and 413 new deaths confirmed in the U.S. Here's how the country as a whole is currently trending:
Rather than flattening the curve, the U.S. has entered a “new phase” of the pandemic, White House coronavirus response coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx conceded to CNN yesterday. Birx called for an end to “super-spreader” events and universal adoption of face mask policies, and stressed that people who live in less densely populated areas should by no means think of themselves as less susceptible. None of this might be epidemiological news, but all of it carries additional weight coming from a prominent member of an Administration that has routinely dismissed the need for facial coverings and been lax about big gatherings—like presidential rallies.
Illinois is becoming an ever-hotter hot spot among U.S. states. It now ranks fifth in the U.S. in coronavirus deaths, and with 1,467 cases reported yesterday, marked its 12th straight day of thousand-plus new infections. As in other states, the spike is being attributed to poor enforcement of social distancing at bars, restaurants and churches, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. One comparative bright spot: coronavirus deaths in the state have remained flat or even fallen slightly, with 14 fatalities announced yesterday, below the weekly average of 17. Deaths, however, remain a lagging indicator following infections, so those numbers could still rise.
The sprawling college and university sports community is confronting a major challenge as autumn approaches with no clear sign of whether collegiate sports will be played at all. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is feeling the heat as the Ivy League and other, smaller conferences have canceled their fall seasons, putting pressure on what are known as the Power Five conferences: the SEC, Big Ten, Pac-12, Big 12 and ACC. For football alone, the cancellation of those five conferences’ seasons would mean a collective $4 billion revenue hit.
All numbers unless otherwise specified are from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering, and are accurate as of August 3, 1 AM eastern time. To see larger, interactive versions of these maps and charts, click here.
WHAT ELSE YOU SHOULD KNOW
Scientists Worry About Political Influence Over Vaccine
President Trump’s Operation Warp Speed, announced back in April to hasten development of a coronavirus vaccine, had a nice ring to it. But it also coincided well with the election cycle—if a vaccine is released by the fall, it could boost Trump’s reelection odds. The New York Times reports that scientists are now worried safety is being sacrificed to political expediency. Read more here.
Can Paid Sick Leave Keep Us All Healthier?
The debate over paid sick leave is heating up as Congress and the states grapple with virus relief measures. We've been here before: during the 2009 H1N1 outbreak, states that offered paid sick leave showed lower rates of disease spread, because sick workers were able to stay home. There's an equality element, too: "it’s overwhelmingly low income workers, workers of color, people who work in small businesses, that just tend not to have access to these types of benefits," Keshia Pollack Porter, director of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Institute for Health and Social Policy, told TIME and Retro Report. Read more here.
The Distribution Dilemma
Even if a vaccine is developed before the end of the year, there is no guarantee that the hundreds of millions of doses needed to inoculate the entire U.S. population could be produced and distributed fast enough or widely enough to provide the rapid relief from quarantine the nation craves, The Washington Post reports. Complicating matters: multiple vaccines might be made available, each with different storage, transport and dosing requirements. Read more here.
Younger Spaniards Are Testing Positive
Spain leads Western Europe’s outbreak, with 60 coronavirus cases per 100,000 people. Epidemiologists now know one of the reasons: the disease has been making increasingly successful inroads down the age spectrum, with middle-aged and young people driving the rising infection rates, the Associated Press reports. Read more here.
Milking the Benefits
One beneficiary of the pandemic: the dairy industry, specifically the milk division. Milk sales have soared as parents stock up to feed kids no longer having school lunches, while parents working remotely are increasingly having breakfast at home rather than dash to the office, per the AP. Milk sales were up 8.3% from January through July—a marked improvement over the 2.3% dip in sales over the same period in 2019. Hoping to lock in the gains, the industry is reviving its famous “Got Milk?” campaign. 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 Jeffrey Kluger and edited by Alex Fitzpatrick.
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