The battle against COVID-19 isn't just being waged in emergency rooms and ICUs. It's also being fought in courtrooms, with public health hanging in the balance of judges' decisions.
The latest major pandemic-related ruling came yesterday, when the Texas Supreme Court stayed governor Greg Abbott's ban against mask mandates—meaning Abbott's rules, which prohibit school districts and other government bodies from requiring people to mask up, remain valid pending further proceedings. Similar legal fights are underway in Florida, where governor Ron DeSantis has also sought to block compulsory masking in schools and other public institutions.
Both governors have framed their orders around personal freedom—whether to mask up should be up to students and parents, they say. Of course, that ignores the main point of facial coverings, which are mostly intended to prevent the wearer from spreading (rather than catching) the coronavirus. So what about a student's right to safely attend classes without fear of infection? And let's not forget the context of these decisions: with COVID-19 numbers rising exponentially in Texas and Florida and in-person classes about to resume, preventing schools from taking a simple, effective step to ensure kids' safety runs counter to all reason and logic.
Thankfully, at least some school districts in both states are defying their governors' mask bans, leading to the aforementioned legal battles. Local school officials often have a great deal of power to set their own rules, which should prove a formidable bit of firepower as these fights make their way through the courts. Moreover, the White House is throwing its full legal might behind districts seeking to fight masking bans.
However, these cases may not be settled before school begins. For now, the best that concerned parents in states like Texas and Florida can do is vaccinate themselves and their children (if eligible and able), have them mask up in class whenever possible and let school administrators know that they want their kids to be kept as safe as can be this fall.
TODAY'S CORONAVIRUS OUTLOOK
About 415.9 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been shipped to various U.S. states as of yesterday evening, of which nearly 356.4 million doses have been administered thus far, according to TIME's vaccine tracker. About 50.7% of Americans have been completely vaccinated.
More than 207.1 million people around the world had been diagnosed with COVID-19 as of 3 a.m. E.T. today, and more than 4.3 million people have died. On August 15, there were 355,077 new cases and 6,842 new deaths confirmed globally.
Here's how the world as a whole is currently trending:
Here's where daily cases have risen or fallen over the last 14 days, shown in confirmed cases per 100,000 residents:
And here's every country that has reported over 4 million cases:
The U.S. had recorded more than 36.6 million coronavirus cases as of 3 a.m. E.T. today. More than 621,600 people have died. On August 15, there were 38,482 new cases and 382 new deaths confirmed in the U.S.
Here's how the country as a whole is currently trending:
Here's where daily cases have risen or fallen over the last 14 days, shown in confirmed cases per 100,000 residents:
All numbers unless otherwise specified are from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering, and are accurate as of Aug. 16, 1 a.m. E.T. To see larger, interactive versions of these maps and charts, click here.
WHAT ELSE YOU SHOULD KNOW
The U.S. coronavirus situation continues to worsen, with growing spikes now apparent in nearly every state. Deaths are also beginning to climb in several states where fresh outbreaks started a few weeks ago, including Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida. Whether states with relatively higher vaccination rates suffer comparatively fewer deaths in this new wave should become apparent over the next week or two.
The ongoing turmoil in Afghanistan, which was dealing with exponential viral spread even before the Taliban's breakneck takeover, is almost certainly likely to result in more infections. However, the country's limited testing capability and uncertain political future will make it difficult to get an accurate picture of the country's outbreak in the coming weeks and months.
New York City will require people to be vaccinated to visit its museums, zoos and similar cultural draws, the New York Timesreported this morning, citing a city official. The move comes after the Big Apple announced earlier this month that those seeking to eat or work out indoors would also have to be vaccinated. Such mandates are seen both as a way to curb immediate viral spread and to encourage vaccination more broadly.
Iran is being hit with yet another devastating wave of the virus, which has left millions infected and hospitals overwhelmed, Tara Kangarlou reports for TIME. The country of nearly 83 million people has so far been able to import only about 21 million vaccine doses; less than 4% of the population is fully vaccinated. As the situation worsens, wealthy Iranians have been turning to an emerging black market for vaccine doses. "The drugs can cost 10 to 30 million Toman ($400 to $1,200) per dose for Pfizer and three to seven million Toman ($150 to $250) for AstraZeneca—a significant amount in a country where the average salary is around three to five million Toman per month ($150 to $200)," Tara reports.
Given the pandemic's current trajectory, it's likely that the recent Olympic games won't be the last carried out in the time of COVID-19, my colleague Amy Gunia reports —the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, after all, are only six months away. Luckily for Olympic and Chinese officials, however, they have the chance to apply lessons learned during the Tokyo games to keep athletes and others protected next year. "I expect Tokyo's experience will certainly color how the Chinese prepare for Beijing 2022, the French for Paris in 2024, the Americans for Los Angeles in 2028," one expert told Amy. "It requires an entire change in mindset to guarantee disease surveillance and control as a costly, complex, exhausting lead priority for organizers."
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. If you have specific questions you'd like us to answer, please send them to covidquestions@time.com.
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Today's newsletter was written by Alex Fitzpatrick and edited by Angela Haupt.
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