Tulsa Health Dept. Says Trump Rally ‘Likely Contributed’ To COVID-19 Spike

American Academy of Pediatrics says schools shouldn’t be forced to open with cases surging

(From NewsHero issue 135 available here)

The World Health Organization (WHO) logo is pictured at the entrance of its headquarters in Geneva, January 25, 2015. (Reuters/Pierre Albouy)

🦸‍♀️🦸‍♀️🦸‍♀️ — Dr. Sally Goza, officials approaching the school year with caution and reason
🦸‍♀️🦸‍♀️🦸‍♀️ — Dr. Anthony Fauci
🦸‍♀️🦸‍♀️🦸‍♀️ — Health + gov. officials who think large gatherings aren’t the best idea right now
🦸‍♀️🦸‍♀️🦸‍♀️ — WHO

• There’s a great op-ed from The Washington Post about the importance of in-school learning, though juxtaposed with A) the ongoing pandemic and B) Donald Trump and co.’s insistence that we get schools re-opened universally ASAP — not to mention the threat of cutting off school funding, which he apparently can’t do anyway. Check out: “If Trump wants to reopen schools, here’s what his administration needs to do”
  As for the funding threat, CNN fact-checked Trump’s comments and came up with: Trump can’t unilaterally cut current federal funding for schools. However, he could restrict pandemic relief funding and refuse to sign legislation for federal grants and bailouts for schools.
• Dr. Sally Goza, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), spoke with NPR Tuesday saying that schools should not be forced to open if virus cases are on a sharp rise.
• Axios lays out how Trump’s push to get school’s reopen could backfire altogether.
  “They’re sort of asking schools to do the undoable — ‘just make it work, get all the kids back, and get them in five days a week, and keep their distance and do all the hygiene…but if you can’t do it, that’s not our fault, that’s up to the locals,’” said Anita Cicero, deputy director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.
• As coronavirus cases in the U.S. hit 3 million, and with top infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci saying the country is still “knee-deep in the first wave” of the pandemic, Donald Trump admitted he hasn’t fully listened to his experts and even criticized Fauci, saying “I disagree with him,” The Guardian reports.
  CNN reports that Trump has repeatedly complained to his aides about Fauci’s many TV appearances that often contradict Trump’s everything-is-tremendous-and-we’re-doing-better-than-anyone-in-the-history-of-the-world-handling-a-crisis message.
• Tulsa City-County Health Department Director Dr. Bruce Dart said Wednesday that Donald Trump’s rally last month that drew thousands of participants and large protests “likely contributed” to a dramatic surge in new coronavirus cases, reports Politico.
  Tulsa County reported 261 confirmed new cases on Monday, a one-day record high, and another 206 cases on Tuesday. By comparison, during the week before the June 20 Trump rally, there were 76 cases on Monday and 96 on Tuesday, Politico said.
• The Brazilian Press Association (or ABI), a group representing Brazilian journalists, says it will file suit against the President Jair Bolsonaro, after he took off a mask as he spoke with reporters about his coronavirus diagnosis, NPR reports.
  “Despite knowing he was infected with COVID-19, President Jair Bolsonaro continues to act in a criminal manner and endanger the lives of others,” ABI President Paulo Jeronimo de Sousa said in a statement. “The country cannot watch continued behavior that is beyond irresponsible and constitutes clear crimes against public health, without reacting.”
• Cases in Brazil are surging by the tens of thousands daily, while the country also deals with a series of corruption investigations into the alleged misuse of public funds quickly doled out for COVID-19 emergency use, says CNN.
• According to Brazil’s Special Indigenous Health Service (SESAI), more than 8,000 Brazilian indigenous people have contracted the coronavirus since the beginning of the pandemic, while the government’s official journal said Wednesday that President Jair Bolsonaro has vetoed COVID-19 protections for indigenous people, CNN reports.
• Scientists in the U.K. are warning that doctors may be overlooking signs of severe brain disorders brought on by the coronavirus, The Guardian reports. Neurologists have published details of more than forty U.K. COVID-19 patients whose complications ranged from brain inflammation and delirium to nerve damage and stroke.
• The World Health Organization (WHO) said today it was setting up an independent panel to review its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and the response by governments, Reuters reports. Former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark and former Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf have agreed to head the panel, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. Despite Trump’s rampant criticism of the WHO, the group says the review is not linked to the U.S.
• In yet another move to narrow the scope of who qualifies for humanitarian protections, the Trump administration on Wednesday proposed empowering border authorities to deny asylum to people from countries with widespread communicable disease, reports The Associated Press. According to a joint proposal from Homeland Security and the Department of Justice, denying asylum to people from high-risk countries would combat disease in the U.S.
  Oddly enough, the U.S. is currently a country filled with diseased people, barred from traveling to Europe.
• U.K. finance minister Rishi Sunak has unveiled another $37.6 billion coronavirus stimulus package aimed at helping Britain’s growing jobs crisis and lifting the economy out of its worst slump in centuries, says CNN.
• Several attorneys in Jacksonville, Florida, filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the city with hopes of keeping the Republican National Convention from being held there amid the pandemic, CNN reports.
  Yeah, that’s probably a good idea.

(From NewsHero issue 135 available here)

Sources:

• If Trump wants to reopen schools, here’s what his administration needs to do — The Washington Post
• Fact-checking Trump’s threat to cut off education funding if schools don’t reopen — CNNPolitics
• Doctor Pushes Back On Trump’s Coronavirus School Reopening Efforts — NPR
• How Trump’s push to reopen schools amid the coronavirus could backfire — Axios
• Trump criticizes Fauci and says US in a ‘good place’ as Covid-19 cases top 3m — The Guardian
• Trump now in open dispute with health officials as virus rages — CNNPolitics
• Coronavirus Surge in Tulsa ‘More Than Likely’ Linked to Trump Rally — The New York Times
• Tulsa health official: Trump rally ‘likely’ source of virus surge — Politico
• Tulsa sees Covid-19 surge in the wake of Trump’s June rally — CNN
• Brazil coronavirus: Cases explode while country investigates corruption — CNN
• Brazil Press Association to sue Bolsonaro over Covid-19 exposure — CNN
• Brazil’s Bolsonaro Sued For Unmasking As He Announced Positive Test For COVID-19 — NPR
• Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro vetoes Covid-19 protections for indigenous people — CNN
• Warning of serious brain disorders in people with mild coronavirus symptoms — The Guardian
• WHO sets up panel to review handling of pandemic — Reuters
• US rule targets disease-stricken countries to deny asylum — AP News
• Rishi Sunak unveils $38 billion coronavirus package to revive UK economy — CNN
• Jacksonville attorneys file lawsuit to block city from hosting Republican National Convention amid pandemic — CNNPolitics
• Proposed rule would allow officers to deny asylum, humanitarian refuge on public health grounds — CBS News