Covid-19 hasn't gone away

In the Washington Post: Many Americans are moving on, but the coronavirus isn't.

...Hospitalizations for coronavirus cases have been on the rise in at least nine states since Memorial Day: Texas, North and South Carolina, California, Oregon, Arkansas, Mississippi, Utah and Arizona. 

More than a dozen states, plus Puerto Rico, are recording their highest averages of new cases since the pandemic began. And the total number of new cases also continues to increase worldwide. Experts say this is not just because testing has become more widespread...

Tony Fauci, who has been the federal government’s top infectious-disease expert since 1984, told biotech executives on Tuesday that the coronavirus is “my worst nightmare” because it’s brand new, highly transmissible, attacks the respiratory system and kills. “We’ve had outbreaks that have had one or two or three of those … but never all four,” he said during a live stream. “Ebola was scary, but Ebola would never be easily transmitted. … HIV, as important as it is, was drawn out and over an extended period of time.”

...Meanwhile, top officials from the White House’s own coronavirus task force told governors during a conference call that they’re worried about a spike in infections because of the protests. 

Someone leaked a recording of the Monday call to the Daily Beast: “Dr. Deborah Birx, Trump’s Coronavirus Response Coordinator, relayed fears that the yelling by protesters could potentially negate the health benefits of wearing a mask, and that the destruction of testing sites at those protests would set back efforts to contain the virus’s spread. 

Birx said that 70 such sites had been destroyed, which had already resulted in an appreciable dip in testing rates there. She advised governors to "scramble now to make sure there is testing available in urban areas."

Battling the contagion has become a lower priority across the Trump administration. “It’s been more than a month since the White House halted its daily coronavirus task force briefings,” Politico reports. “Inside the White House, top advisers like Jared Kushner privately assured colleagues last month that the outbreak was well in hand — citing data on declines in community spread — and that the long-feared ‘second wave’ may have even been averted … 

The Covid-19 task force has scaled back its once-daily internal meetings — the task force now meets twice per week … The coronavirus task force, which used to send daily updates to state officials, has done so with less regularity over the last several weeks 

… At the Food and Drug Administration, officials are returning to hot-button issues like tobacco and CBD regulations. Some staff in the health department’s emergency response arm are pivoting away from Covid-19 and back toward natural disasters as hurricane season begins...

See also California counties seeing increase in infections, Bay Area coronavirus cases surge, and US cities opening too soon?