The Results of the Mass Forgetting of COVID-19 Are In

BY JACK CROWE

June 15, 2020

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11 WAS THE DAY that America woke up to threat posed by COVID-19. For most Americans who don't inhabit Silicon Valley Twitter and don't obsessively follow news out of China, there was not a gradual acceptance or a slow reckoning with our new shared reality; there was one day, when Tom Hanks announced he had been infected and the NBA cancelled its season, that turned the disease from a media novelty into a visceral reality.

Just as it took one day and two relatively trivial developments to awaken Americans to the scale of the threat, it took the events of one day for them to forget.

Memorial Day, the day George Floyd was killed by a white Minneapolis Police officer, changed everything. Suddenly, mentions of social distancing and masks, which had dominated news coverage for weeks, disappeared from the big cable shows and the front pages, replaced by coverage of the civil unrest sweeping the country. Gone, too, was the opprobrium meted out to recalcitrant "lockdown protesters," who selfishly refused to stay home as an act of shared sacrifice. Politicians at the federal and state level, who had been appearing daily to remind their constituents about the importance of social distancing, were suddenly celebrating the open flouting of the rules they had imposed.

The results of this mass forgetting are in. Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Utah, and South Carolina all saw record high coronavirus cases last week, and there were 25,000 new cases reported nationally on Saturday. Some of the increase is undoubtedly due to an increase in testing capacity, but that doesn't explain the record high daily hospitalizations experienced in Arkansas, North Carolina, Texas, and Utah, and positivity rates have been creeping up in states such as Florida.

These case spikes may not be directly attributable to the recent protests. But as the NBA cancellation and Tom Hanks's announcement demonstrates, the public is fickle, responding to high-profile cues rather than CDC announcements about which phase of reopening their state is in.

If Americans across the country turned on their televisions in recent weeks, they saw virtually every major city awash in protesters, many of whom didn't bother to wear masks or had them pulled down. Those protesters were allowed to move about freely, and in many cases encouraged to do so by "public health experts." All of a sudden, the neighborhood barbecue or pool party didn't seem so dangerous.

It remains to be seen whether these spikes will register with the public after 115,000 people have already died. If they don't, we could be in for a long, hot summer—even without further rioting.

Coronavirus Cases, Hospitalizations Spike in States across U.S.

Several states across the country saw record spikes in coronavirus cases and hospitalizations as many continue to reopen their economies.

Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Utah, and South Carolina all saw record highs of coronavirus cases last week, while Alabama saw its fourth straight day of record cases on Sunday. Cases have also been on the rise in Texas and Louisiana.

More than 25,000 new cases were reported across the country on Saturday. State health officials have partly attributed the spikes to the Memorial Day gatherings that took place at the end of last month. The rising number of positive cases of the virus is affected by the increased availability of testing, but many states have also seen increased hospitalizations, a measure not influenced by increased testing.

Arkansas, North Carolina, Texas, and Utah all had record hospitalizations due to the coronavirus as of Saturday. (Reuters)

Rioters Burn Atlanta Wendy's to the Ground following Death of Rayshard Brooks

An Atlanta Wendy's, the site where Rayshard Brooks was shot and killed by Atlanta police on Friday, was burned to the ground Saturday by an angry mob during protests over Brook's death.

On Sunday, Atlanta police offered a $10,000 reward for the arrest and indictment those responsible for starting the fire that destroyed the building. Local Atlanta reporter Alex Whittler captured footage of rioters entering Wendy's to light a firework inside the building. (Twitter)

Ilhan Omar: Minneapolis Police Department 'Rotten to the Root,' Can't Be Reformed

Democratic Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar said Sunday that the Minneapolis Police Department is "rotten to the root," making any attempt to reform it futile, and called for the city's police force to be dismantled.

"You can't really reform a department that is rotten to the root," Omar said during an interview on CNN. "What you can do is rebuild. And so this is our opportunity, you know, as a city to come together, have the conversation of what public safety looks like, who enforces the most dangerous crimes that take place in our community."

Russia Sentences U.S. Citizen to 16 Years of Hard Labor for Espionage

Paul Whelan, a former Marine and U.S. citizen, was found guilty of espionage and sentenced to 16 years of hard labor by a Russian court on Monday.

Whelan, speaking from behind a glass screen as the verdict was read, held up a sign that said the whole case was a "sham trial." "This is slimy, greasy, rubbish Russian politics — nothing more, nothing less," Whelan yelled to reporters in the courtroom.

Russia's Federal Security Service in Moscow detained Whelan in late December 2018 while he was visiting for a friend's wedding. While Whelan's lawyer Vladimir Zherebenkov has argued Whelan was unknowingly given a flash drive containing "state secrets," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said Whelan was caught "red-handed." (WaPo)