Last night's COVID-19 lies, falsehoods and mistruths
A pandemic that has killed more than 205,000 Americans perhaps deserved more airtime than the 15 minutes it got during the first 2020 U.S. presidential debate. But that was plenty of time to confuse or mislead anyone tuning in. The coronavirus segment was “rife with falsehoods about the nature of the disease, the fight against it and what comes next,” TIME's politics team wrote in an analysis of last night’s debate.
One glaring inaccuracy from U.S. President Donald Trump concerned who gets the virus in the first place. “We found that elderly people with heart problems and diabetes and different problems are very, very vulnerable,” Trump said. “We learned a lot. Young children aren’t, even younger people aren’t.” That’s false: While people with underlying conditions like those Trump mentioned are more likely to get seriously ill and die from the disease, it can also be debilitating for young, otherwise healthy people.
Black Americans have clearly suffered the most during this pandemic, with a death rate more than twice as high as that of white Americans, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “One in 1,000 African Americans has been killed because of the coronavirus,” said former Vice President Joe Biden. It’s a horrific but accurate statistic; Black Americans tend to have less access to health care, more job-related exposure to the virus and a higher risk for underlying health conditions—all factors that are caused or worsened by centuries of systemic racism. “If he doesn’t do something quickly by the end of the year, one in 500 will have been killed—one in 500 African Americans,” Biden continued, talking about Trump. But for that calamity to happen, “the death rate would have to spike catastrophically,” TIME’s Abigail Abrams writes.
The facts about COVID-19 are shocking enough on their own. Playing them up may be misleading, but playing them down—as Trump did last night and has done repeatedly in the past—is far more dangerous.
More than 33.5 million people around the world had been sickened by COVID-19 as of 1 a.m. E.T. today, and more than 1 million 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 Sept. 29, there were 207,466 new cases and 4,930 new deaths confirmed globally. Here's how the world as a whole is currently trending:
Here is every country with over 350,000 confirmed cases to date ("per cap" is number per 100,000 people):
A COVID-19 test that generates results after just 15 minutes has been cleared for use in Europe, Bloomberg reports. Becton Dickinson, the company which makes the test, announced today that it will likely hit markets there at the end of October. The rapid test looks for antigens, which are types of proteins on the surface of the virus, and it’s expected to be used by physicians in emergency departments and general practices. The U.S. authorized the test on an emergency basis in July.
With more than 6 million cases, India has the second-highest caseload in the world, behind only the U.S. Now, a new study of almost 85,000 coronavirus patients in two Indian states—and more than half a million of their contacts—shows how the virus spreads there. One compelling finding of the study, published today in the journal Science, shows that children can and do get the virus and infect others with it, adding clarity to one of the central questions of the pandemic.
Israel is battling a surge in cases with a second national lockdown that’s likely to last at least a month, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said yesterday during a Facebook Live broadcast, the New York Timesreports. “In my opinion, it won’t be less than a month, and it could take much more time,” Netanyahu said. Israel, which has reported nearly 237,000 cases, has recently averaged about 8,000 new cases per day—among the highest infection rates globally.
The Situation in the U.S.
The U.S. had recorded nearly 7.2 million coronavirus cases as of 1 a.m. E.T. today. More than 205,900 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 Sept. 29, there were 42,185 new cases and 914 new deaths confirmed in the U.S. Here's how the country as a whole is currently trending:
The virus was the only winner of last night’s U.S. presidential debate, writes my colleague Alice Park. During the back-and-forth, Americans heard few details about the candidates’ plans to tame the coronavirus. While Biden criticized Trump’s handling of the pandemic and how he downplayed it, neither candidate presented a detailed plan about what to do next, Alice writes.
As kids and teens across the U.S. go back to school, more of them are contracting the coronavirus, the Associated Press reports. Children now account for 10% of all cases in the U.S.; in April, they made up just 2%. That doesn’t mean they’re necessarily getting sick in the classroom—playdates, sleepovers, sports and other activities are likely contributing, experts say. Though cases in children tend to be mild, 51 school-age kids (most of them teens) have died between March and September after testing positive for the virus, according to the CDC.
A previously healthy 19-year-old student at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina died this week after testing positive for the coronavirus. After recovering from flu-like symptoms, he developed neurological issues; his legs stopped working when he tried to get out of bed, for instance. “The doctor said it was a one-in-a-million case—that they’d never seen something progress the way it did," the student's uncle told the New York Times. "It was a COVID complication that rather than attacking his respiratory system attacked his brain.” A family friend said doctors suspected that Dorrill had an undetected case of Guillain-Barré syndrome, a rare neurological disorder in which the body attacks its own nervous system. The onset of Guillain-Barré symptoms, which is sometimes triggered by a virus, has been linked to COVID-19.
All numbers unless otherwise specified are from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering, and are accurate as of September 30, 1 a.m. E.T. To see larger, interactive versions of these maps and charts, click here.
WHAT ELSE YOU SHOULD KNOW
You Can’t Virus-Proof Colleges. But You Can Make Them Safer
Opening U.S. colleges and universities has proven "catastrophic," two physicians write for TIME. But there are ways to protect students that most campuses haven’t tried in full combination yet: Heeding local transmission rates, using rapid testing and offering students safer ways to socialize are some of the lessons learned for next semester, they say. Read more here.
How Hockey Became One of the Safest Pandemic Sports
No players or staff in the National Hockey League bubbles tested positive for the virus during its entire postseason. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman credits mask wearing, strict quarantining and other measures recommended by experts. “What we have learned is if you focus on the medical advice, and you follow the data, you can minimize the risk,” he told TIME’s Sean Gregory. Read more here.
Why Group Texts Matter So Much to Women Right Now
At a time when gathering in groups remains forbidden or ill-advised in many places, the group text has become a lifeline for female friendships, writes novelist Lynn Steger Strong for TIME. During the pandemic, group texts are a necessary refuge for commiserating, coping and, crucially, complaining, she says. Read more here.
Kids’ Heart Rates Are Rising During the Pandemic
As the pandemic wears on, one researcher noticed some disturbing new behaviors and fears in his 7-year-old son. New data he’s collected confirm he's not alone: the relentless stress of social isolation is not just affecting kids' minds, but also their bodies, he writes in STAT. 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 Mandy Oaklander and edited by Alex Fitzpatrick.
