Governors DeSantis (R-FL), Ducey (R-AZ), Abbott (R-TX) and Newsom (D-CA) Are Going To Be As Responsible For Extending The U.S. Pandemic As Trump Is

COVID-Ron and COVID-Don

Now that Florida's Trumpist governor has been forced to allow at least some real statistics about the state's coronavirus pandemic to be released, we see that Florida has moved into second place in the number of daily cases-- replacing Texas in the slot behind California. All three states opened too quickly and without serious enforceable guidelines. Here's a list of the states with the most new cases reported Saturday-- notice that Louisiana is spiking again, although no longer just in New Orleans:

• California +3,135
• Florida +2,625
• Texas +2,262
• Arizona +1,540
• North Carolina +1,428
• Louisiana +1,288
• Georgia +1,018
• New York +895
• Alabama +891
• South Carolina +785

Relative to population, we also see big new outbreaks in Oklahoma, Utah (which has wisely shut down its reopening process) and Arkansas.

Anthony Fauci was interviewed by England's Telegraph over the weekend. Keep in mind that tiny U.K. has the 5th most confirmed cases, after population giants USA, Brazil, Russia and India. All 5 are badly-led countries that mishandled the response to the pandemic.

English readers might be most interested in knowing that "British holidaymakers can expect to be banned from travelling to the United States for months under coronavirus restrictions." Fauci told the paper that "the ban could last until a vaccine is developed, although it may be before that. He said lifting it would be 'more likely months than weeks. It's going to be really wait and see. I don't think there's going to be an immediate pull back for those kinds of restrictions. My feeling, looking at what's going on with the infection rate, I think it's more likely measured in months rather than weeks.' U.S. waves of infection will come 'back and forth' amid fears of second peak."

Fauci told them that the U.S. has been "successful in suppressing the virus in cities where there were major outbreaks-- New York, Chicago, Detroit, New Orleans-- but we're seeing several states, as they try to reopen and get back to normal, starting to see early indications [that] infections are higher than previously... The question is will they have the capability to do the appropriate and effective isolation, and contact tracing, to prevent this increase from becoming a full blown outbreak? I'm concerned it's happening. I hope the individual states can blunt that. It [the virus] could go on for a couple of cycles, coming back and forth. I would hope to get to some degree of real normality within a year or so. But I don't think it's this winter or fall, we'll be seeing it for a bit more... It is not inevitable that you will have a so-called 'second wave' in the fall, or even a massive increase, if you approach it in the proper way."

The U.S. has just passed two million cases, and 113,000 deaths. Nearly 1,000 people are still dying every day.

As all 50 states now move toward reopening weekly infection totals are rising in 21 of them. More than a dozen, including Texas and Florida, have just reporting record daily totals. Oregon announced a one-week pause in reopening. Arizona's intensive care beds are 78 per cent occupied. Wall Street has plummeted amid the virus spikes.

In many states protesters have taken to the streets calling for racial justice in the wake of the death of George Floyd, and that is fueling Dr Fauci's concerns, although he empathised with the need to protest.

"The bottom line is there is a risk [in protesting], and of course it's concerning. We know from the experience of all of us, in the UK and here, that it [wearing masks] works," he said. "We also know that when you congregate in crowds that's a set up for the spread of infection.

“I would say in a perfect world people shouldn't congregate in a crowd and demonstrate. But I know, even though you say that, they are going to go do it. So, if you’re going to do it, don’t take the mask off when you're chanting, and screaming, and yelling, and doing whatever at a demonstration."

As in the U.K. there has been much debate in the U.S. about whether reopening schools could contribute to a second wave. In the U.S. schools will not be returning until September.

Dr Fauci said decisions relating to schools should not be "uni-dimensional," but instead based on local conditions.

He said: "In the U.S. we're a very big country geographically-- multiple, multiple times bigger than the U.K.-- and we have a great deal of heterogeneity. The New York City metropolitan area is strikingly different from Casper, Wyoming. What we say is to look at the dynamics of the outbreak, what is the level of infection? What direction is it going in any given state, town or county?

"There are some places in the U.S. where there is very little infection activity. Under those circumstances you can be much more liberal in deciding to go back to school. It isn't one size fits all, it depends on where you are. Now, I don't know if there's that much heterogeneity in the U.K. If there is, then I think that would be applicable also to the U.K."

For Dr Fauci the Holy Grail is a vaccine, and he said there was "good news". Moderna's vaccine will start a phase 3 trial in the first two weeks of July, he said. That is the final stage before potentially being approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

"We have potential vaccines making significant progress. We have maybe four or five," he said. "You can never guarantee success with a vaccine, that's foolish to do so, there's so many possibilities of things going wrong. [But] everything we have seen from early results, it's conceivable we get two or three vaccines that are successful."

At the same time, the Washington Post noted that "With coronavirus cases rising in states across the country," Fauci "warned it could be about a year before things return to normal. New infections are trending upward in at least 21 states across the South and West, prompting some governors to rethink reopening plans and renewing concerns that the country could be a long way from containing the pandemic. Alabama, Oregon and South Carolina are among the states with the biggest increases. Alabama saw a 92 percent change in its seven-day average, while Oregon’s seven-day average was up 83.8 percent and South Carolina’s was up 60.3 percent... As states relax restrictions, public health experts believe wide-scale contact tracing is the price that must be paid to reopen safely. And time is of the essence."

The How We Open Safely website, shows most states getting it all wrong, some making a bit of progress and just 6 making real progress.

The states with the highest trends in infections-- which should under no circumstances be reopening anything at this point-- in the last two weeks:

• Alaska +354%
• Vermont +216%
• South Carolina +155%
• Arizona (gung-ho reopening) +150%
• Oklahoma (gung-ho reopening) +128%
• Oregon +126% (halted reopening)
• Florida (gung-ho reopening) +104%
• Arkansas +84%
• Nevada (gung-ho reopening) +81%
• Washington +56%
• Utah +55% (halted reopening)
• North Dakota +52%
• North Carolina +50% (may halt reopening)
• Texas +39% (gung-ho reopening)
• Louisiana +38%