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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Maanvi Singh, Joan E Greve and Joanna Walters

More than 100,000 Americans have now died from coronavirus – as it happened

Omar Rodriguez, funeral director at the Gerard J Neufeld funeral home, looks over caskets of bodies during the coronavirus outbreak.
Omar Rodriguez, funeral director at the Gerard J Neufeld funeral home, looks over caskets of bodies during the coronavirus outbreak. Photograph: Bryan R Smith/Reuters

Live political reporting on the coronavirus in the US continues in Thursday’s blog:

  • The US coronavirus death toll surpassed 100,000. The country now has more than 1.6m reported cases and has recorded more deaths from the disease than any other nation.
  • The planned SpaceX launch was scrapped due to bad weather. The president and the vice-president were on hand to witness the launch, but it has been rescheduled for Saturday afternoon. Trump indicated he intends travel back to Florida this weekend.
  • The first-ever House proxy vote was cast. Weeks after the House passed a resolution allowing voting by proxy, congressman Brendan Boyle cast a vote on behalf of fellow Democrat Zoe Lofgren. House Republicans have filed a lawsuit to block the resolution, claiming proxy voting is unconstitutional.
  • The secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, told Congress that Hong Kong is no longer autonomous from China. Pompeo’s pronouncement, which came after China issued a law aimed at bringing Hong Kong more under Beijing’s control, could trigger sanctions or other punitive measures against China.

Updated

Sam Johnson, a retired Republican congressman from Texas has died. He was 89.

Johnson, a Vietnam war veteran who was jailed with John McCain at the POW prison that US troops referred to as the “Hanoi Hilton”, was a conservative stalwart during his long stint in Congress.

He was a founding member of the Conservative Action Team, a conservative voting bloc in Congress that pushed to defund the National Endowment for the Arts and strengthen the Second Amendment.

Greg Abbott, the Texas governor, called Johnson a “great Texan”. “Sam Johnson was a fearless patriot and an American hero, and we are incredibly proud and fortunate to have called him a fellow Texan,” Abbott said in a statement today.

Updated

A million respirator masks sold by a former Trump administration official to the Indian Health Services do not meet federal standards for “use in healthcare settings by health care providers,” according to a report from ProPublica.

The masks, which the Indian Health Service purchased to meet a desperate need at Navajo hospitals, are KN95 masks, a Chinese version for N95 masks that do not meet the FDA guidelines, even after the agency relaxed standards during the pandemic.

More from ProPublica:

ProPublica revealed last week that Zach Fuentes, President Donald Trump’s former deputy chief of staff, formed a company in early April and 11 days later won a $3 million contract with IHS to provide specialized respirator masks to the agency for use in Navajo hospitals. The contract was granted with limited competitive bidding.

IHS said its Navajo office “has used every available avenue to purchase more supplies and keep up with the demand.”

The masks provided by Fuentes “are not approved by the FDA or covered by an Emergency Use Authorization for use in healthcare settings by health care providers,” the agency said...

On Wednesday, IHS told ProPublica the masks sold by Fuentes were made by four Chinese manufacturers and are registered in an FDA database, but have not met the regulator’s relaxed pandemic-era standards for Chinese-made masks.

Fuentes charged the government $3.24 per mask, which is higher than the pre-pandemic rates for respirator masks and far higher than prices charged for masks that can’t be used in hospital settings.

Updated

At a virtual fundraiser, Joe Biden said he’d hope to name a running mate at the beginning of August, according to the press pool report.

That could mean two more months of speculation if he sticks to that timeline. That said, here is some very well-infomed (and informative) speculation, from The Guardian’s politics team:

Joe Biden has addressed the US coronavirus death toll surpassing 100,000.

Donald Trump has so far not addressed the US reaching the grim milestone of 100,000 coronavirus deaths.

On Twitter, he has vowed to veto the Fisa bill that the House is considering. He has also said that he has personally asked the FBI to expedite an investigation into George Floyd’s killing. After a Minneapolis police officer used his knee to pin down Floyd’s neck, the incident is being investigated for possible civil rights violations.

It is unclear what Trump means when he said he “asked for this investigation to be expedited”.

Updated

France is banning the use of hydroxychloroquine to cure Covid-19, according to a decree from the country’s health ministry. The health ministry initially advised against using the drug outside of clinical trials. Shortly afterward, the country also suspended the use of hydroxychloroquine treatment for coronavirus patients in clinical trials as well.

The news comes after Donald Trump, who has frequently touted the unproven drug as a cure, said he finished taking a course of the medication as a prophylactic measure.

Research so far has found that the antimalarial drug has not been particularly effective in treating coronavirus, though clinical trials are still ongoing.

The number of recorded coronavirus deaths has just surpassed 100,000. But the actual death toll probably hit that figure days before. And despite scientists’ best efforts, that date may forever go unmarked.

Coronavirus was probably spreading through the US before the Trump administration restricted travel from China, before the US had a reliable supply of diagnostic tests, and before the disease caused by the virus was even named. Models of the Covid-19 outbreak estimate that the virus was making its way through America’s major cities, undetected, weeks before a California woman in early February became the first American known to have died of related causes.

Researchers are now doing detective work, revisiting autopsies from early this year and studying how the virus has subtly evolved to try to trace when Covid-19 may have first sickened and killed people in the US. Infectious disease experts caution, however, that finding a “patient zero”, or even figuring out exactly how many Americans were infected and died before testing was available, will be nearly impossible.

Updated

The worst pandemic in a century has claimed victims across the US, from a grandmother of seven to a 16-year-old.

Here, relatives and friends pay tribute to some of those they have lost:

As the nation marked a grim milestone, DNC Chair Tom Perez said today “is a dark day in America”.

He continued:

100,000 Americans have lost their lives. 100,000. It didn’t have to be this way. Instead of addressing this crisis, Trump spent his weekend golfing. And just last week, he said the fact that the U.S. has the highest number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the world is a ‘badge of honor.’ But there is no honor in today’s numbers. They are a badge of shame that Trump will wear for the rest of his dwindling days in the Oval Office.

Earlier this month, Donald Trump said 100,000 deaths would be “horrible”, but he claimed that actions by his administration had prevented a much higher toll.

The death toll in the United States is still climbing, however, and federal officials warn that the likely actual toll from the coronavirus is higher than the official figure.

A tracking project by the Centers of Disease Control (CDC) of “excess deaths” in each state beyond seasonal averages suggests the official count of Covid-19 deaths could leave out thousands of cases.

“These deaths could represent misclassified Covid-19 deaths, or potentially could be indirectly related to Covid-19 (eg, deaths from other causes occurring in the context of healthcare shortages or overburdened healthcare systems),” the CDC said.

Updated

The coronavirus death toll has surpassed 100,000 in the US

More than 100,000 Americans with coronavirus have died, four months after the US reported its first confirmed case. The country now has more than 1.6m reported cases and has recorded more deaths from the disease than any other nation.

According to Johns Hopkins University data, 100,047 fatalities recorded. The actual death toll is likely higher the official count, experts say.

Up to half the deaths in some states have occured among nursing home residents and workers, studies suggest. Almost three times as many black Americans are dying of the virus as white people.

Although the number of cases and deaths appears to be trending down in many states, experts are bracing for a possible uptick as states begin reopening businesses.

Updated

Donald Trump has indicated he’ll return to Florida on Saturday to watch the SpaceX launch. The mission was postponed just 17 minutes before launch time due to the weather.

The California health officer credited with leading the nation’s first regional shelter-in-place order expressed concerns that governor Gavin Newsom may be reopening the state too quickly.

The Guardian’s Vivian Ho reports:

Earlier this month, Newsom modified the statewide stay-at-home order to allow retailers to offer curbside pickup. In the weeks that followed, Newsom expanded the modifications to allow counties that had not been as affected by the virus as others to apply for looser restrictions. As of Tuesday, 47 out of the state’s 58 counties have self-attested, and will be allowed to reopen hair salons, offices, some schools, all with modifications.

“The pace at which the state has made these modifications is concerning to me,” said Dr Sara Cody, health director in Santa Clara county, location of what is believed to be the first Covid-related death in the country.

Cody voiced these concerns at a local board of supervisors meeting on Tuesday, where she called for the county to take a more cautious approach. Since the start of the stay-at-home order, local variance has taken precedence, meaning if a county health officer called for stricter measures than the state order, then the county would comply with the county order.

Cody continued: “We can’t see the effect of any of these changes, the effect on Covid, for at least 14 days, an incubation period, and 21 days is even better,” she said. “So the state modifications are being made without a real understanding of the consequences of what the last move has been and with the possibly serious effects for health and possibly serious risks of an exponential growth in cases and therefore a risk to social and economic well-being.”

In particular, Cody had reservations about Newsom’s decision to authorize county health officers to allow religious, cultural and political gatherings of 100 people, a move she said “poses a very serious risk of the spread of Covid-19, based on probability alone”.

Cody’s concerns come as California crossed the threshold on Wednesday of more than 100,000 positive cases – 101,229 to be exact. The state is reporting 3,894 deaths. Santa Clara has had 2,675 cases and 24 deaths.

Updated

Today so far

That’s it from me today. My west coast colleague, Maanvi Singh, will take over for the next few hours.

Here’s where the day stands so far:

  • The planned SpaceX launch was scrapped due to bad weather. The president and the vice president were on hand to witness the launch, but it has been rescheduled for Saturday afternoon. It’s unclear whether Trump will travel back to Florida this weekend.
  • The US coronavirus death toll is inching toward 100,000. According to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, 99,983 Americans have already died from coronavirus.
  • The first ever House proxy vote was cast. Weeks after the House passed a resolution allowing voting by proxy, congressman Brendan Boyle cast a vote on behalf of fellow Democrat Zoe Lofgren. House Republicans have filed a lawsuit to block the resolution, claiming proxy voting is unconstitutional.
  • Secretary of state Mike Pompeo told Congress that Hong Kong is no longer autonomous from China. Pompeo’s pronouncement, which came after China issued a law aimed at bringing Hong Kong more under Beijing’s control, could trigger sanctions or other punitive measures against China.
  • Washington will lift its stay-at-home order Friday. DC mayor Muriel Bowser said the city would also start relaxing some social distancing restrictions this week, even as White House officials voice concern about the rate of positive test results in the Washington metropolitan region.

Maanvi will have more coming up, so stay tuned.

First ever House proxy vote cast

A moment of House history has just come to pass, as congressman Brendan Boyle became the first member to vote on behalf of a colleague.

Boyle electronically cast his own vote a procedural motion before stepping to the podium to vote on behalf of fellow Democrat Zoe Lofgren. Boyle said she would vote aye.

The House passed a measure earlier this month to temporarily allow proxy voting during the coronavirus pandemic, but House Republicans have filed a lawsuit to block the resolution, claiming proxy voting is unconstitutional.

That lawsuit is considered unlikely to be successful, and 75 House members have already designated proxies for this week’s votes.

Updated

America’s largest professional association of obstetricians and gynecologists has filed a lawsuit against the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to end a ban on prescribing medication abortions via telemedicine.

Mifepristone is a medication used to treat women who miscarry early or to induce an abortion. It is the only medication, of the more than 20,000 the FDA regulates, which patients self administer at home but must see a doctor in-person to obtain, the lawsuit said.

The American College of Obstetrician and Gynecologists said the ban was “medically unnecessary” and, during the Covid-19 pandemic, would expose women to unnecessary risk of coronavirus infection by forcing them to seek face-to-face treatment.

“At every other turn during this pandemic, the federal government is trying to make it easier for patients to get the medical care they need without unnecessary health care visits that jeopardize their safety,” said Julia Kaye, staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union’s Reproductive Freedom Project, which is representing ACOG among other plaintiffs.

“But when it comes to patients who need to end an early pregnancy or treat a miscarriage, the administration is forcing them to travel to a hospital, clinic, or medical office just to pick up a pill they are already permitted to swallow later at home. This administration apparently would rather subject patients and clinicians to life-threatening medical risks than lift an unnecessary barrier to abortion care.”

The planned SpaceX mission was scrapped due to bad weather with just 16 minutes to go until its scheduled launch.

Officials said they would plan for another launch attempt on Saturday afternoon. The mission will be the first manned space launch from American soil since 2011.

Follow the Guardian’s live coverage for more updates:

SpaceX launch scrapped

The launch of a SpaceX mission, which the president and vice president traveled to Florida to witness, has been scrapped.

Officials cited concerns about the weather, specifically nearby lightning strikes, as they said it was not safe enough to launch.

Trump tours Kennedy Space Center ahead of landmark SpaceX-Nasa launch

The president and vice president are touring the Kennedy Space Center in Florida ahead of Nasa’s first crewed flight in almost a decade, in partnership with Space X.

Accompanied by the first and second ladies, Donald Trump and Mike Pence toured the Orion workshop this afternoon ahead of the expected launch at 4.33pm ET today. None of the four wore protective masks, according to the pool report and photographs.

Wednesday’s scheduled flight is the first with astronauts from US soil under Nasa’s commercial crew program, an initiative to hand over lower earth orbit spaceflight to private contractors while it concentrates on deeper-space ambitions such as a return to the moon.

The weather has threatened to derail the flight, but preparations for launch continue, as Richard Luscombe reports:

Trump is taking a tour of the Kennedy Space Center, in advance of today’s scheduled SpaceX launch, which is less than an hour away.

The president wished the astronauts on board good luck, saying the mission was a “dangerous business, but they’re the best there is.”

House speaker Nancy Pelosi criticized the idea of holding an in-person presidential convention amid the coronavirus pandemic.

“I don’t think there’s anyone who would say at this point that tens of thousands of people should come together for a political event -- no matter how great an ego trip it is for somebody,” Pelosi told reporters on Capitol Hill.

The biting comment comes as Trump has demanded a “guarantee” from North Carolina’s Democratic governor that the Republican convention can take place in an arena at full capacity.

Realistically, no governor can offer that guarantee right now because it’s still unclear what health precautions will be necessary this summer to limit the spread of coronavirus.

Joe Biden has openly acknowledged that the Democratic convention may need to be held virtually due to the pandemic.

The House will vote on a bill to reauthorize three expired surveillance programs this afternoon, despite uncertainty about whether Democrats have the votes to pass the bill.

Trump tweeted last night that Republicans should vote against the FISA bill, linking it to the surveillance conducted by the Obama administration that led to the resignation of former national security adviser Michael Flynn. The president repeated that sentiment in a tweet this afternoon.

House Republican leadership is now whipping members to vote against the bill, and attorney general William Barr has urged Trump to veto the bill if it passes. On top of that, some lawmakers on the right and the left have voiced concerns about legal protections for those targeted by surveillance.

So even if House speaker Nancy Pelosi can secure enough support for the bill to get it passed, she likely will not have enough votes to override the president’s likely veto, which would send lawmakers back to the drawing board on getting the programs reauthorized.

Some Republicans are expressing openness to providing more election assistance in the next coronavirus relief bill, even as Trump continues to criticize states’ efforts to expand vote by mail.

“I think it’s likely and it’s likely necessary,” Republican senator Roy Blunt, chairman of the Senate rules committee, told the Wall Street Journal.

The stimulus package approved in late March included $400 million in election assistance, although that was well below what Democrats had been requesting.

House Democrats included $3.6 billion for election assistance in their most recent relief bill, but Trump has declared that bill to be “dead on arrival.”

Trump has threatened to “strongly regulate” or close down social media platforms that do not meet his standards for ideological balance, a day after Twitter, for the first time, slapped a warning label on a pair of Trump tweets spreading lies about mail-in voting.

“Republicans feel that Social Media Platforms totally silence conservatives voices,” Trump tweeted on Wednesday morning. “We will strongly regulate, or close them down, before we can ever allow this to happen.”

Trump in the past has made threats about media censorship that he did not then act on, and any attempt by the White House to shutter a media organization would encounter robust first amendment challenges in the courts.

In 2018 a federal judge ruled the president could not block people on Twitter, because it violates their first amendment rights to participate in a “public forum”.

Trump has previously praised Twitter for allowing him to take his message directly to followers, and despite his claims of being “silenced”, social media platforms have been a boon for Trump.

His current campaign has rebuilt a targeted advertising operation on Facebook that was widely credited with helping Trump win in 2016.

The US coronavirus death toll is inching toward 100,000, and at least one database shows the country has already hit that grim milestone.

According to NBC News’ numbers, more than 100,000 Americans have already died from coronavirus.

However, other databases show slightly different totals because they rely on slightly different sources to calculate the country’s death toll.

According to widely used data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, which the Guardian has been citing, the US death toll stands at 99,674.

Here’s a more thorough breakdown of that figure:

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany defended her use of vote by mail, even though she has criticized states’ efforts to expand vote by mail in light of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Tampa Bay Times reported earlier today that McEnany has mailed in her ballot for the past decade, even though she has repeated Trump’s baseless claims that vote by mail is more susceptible to voter fraud, which is actually very rare.

McEnany said she opposed Democrats’ efforts to “expand mass mail-in voting without a reason,” although many public health experts would likely say fear of contracting coronavirus, which has already killed nearly 100,000 Americans, is a valid reason.

Seventy-three House members have now designated proxies to vote for them this week, even as Republicans move forward with a lawsuit against the resolution allowing proxy voting.

House minority leader Kevin McCarthy has argued that the resolution flies in the face of the Constitution’s idea of congressional proceedings and has asked a federal judge to block the measure.

However, the lawsuit seems unlikely to succeed, considering judges have historically been hesitant to interfere with how Congress conducts itself and the measure already passed the House, despite Republican opposition.

Today so far

Here’s where the day stands so far:

  • The US coronavirus death toll is inching toward 100,000. According to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, 99,264 Americans have already died of coronavirus.
  • Secretary of state Mike Pompeo has told Congress Hong Kong is no longer autonomous from China, after Beijing unveiled a law meant to bring Hong Kong more under its control. Pompeo’s pronouncement could trigger sanctions or other punitive measures against Beijing.
  • Two Republican lawmakers criticized Trump for tweeting about a debunked conspiracy theory involving Joe Scarborough. Senator Mitt Romney and congresswoman Liz Cheney said the president’s tweets were causing additional pain for the family of Lori Klausutis, who died in 2001 while working for Scarborough. Trump has pushed the baseless theory that Scarborough was involved in her death.

The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.

Hypocrisy alert: White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, who has criticized efforts to expand vote by mail, has mailed in her ballot for the past decade, according to a new report.

The Tampa Bay Times reports:

In fact, the Tampa native has voted by mail in every Florida election she has participated in since 2010, according to a Tampa Bay Times review of her voting history. Most recently, she voted by mail in the state’s March 2020 presidential primary, just as Trump did after he made Florida his new permanent home.

Last week, McEnany, 32, said vote-by-mail was OK for Trump because ‘the president is, after all, the president, which means he’s here in Washington. He’s unable to cast his vote down in Florida, his state of residence.’

Meanwhile, McEnany, a graduate of South Tampa’s Academy of the Holy Names and a Davis Islands homeowner, has voted by mail 11 times over the last 10 years.

McEnany has defended Trump’s attacks on vote by mail, repeating his baseless claims that mailed-in ballots are particularly susceptible to voter fraud, which is very rare.

Last week, McEnany repeatedly dodged questions about Trump’s accusation that Michigan officials had broken the law by sending absentee ballot applications to all registered voters. “Illegality and legality of it, that’s a question for the campaign,” McEnany said.

Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney called on Trump to stop tweeting about a debunked conspiracy theory involving MSNBC host Joe Scarborough.

“I do think the president should stop tweeting about Joe Scarborough,” Cheney told reporters on the Capitol Hill. “We’re in the middle of a pandemic, he’s the commander in chief of this nation, and it’s causing great pain to the family of the young woman who died, so I would urge him to stop it.”

Cheney’s comment came hours after Republican senator Mitt Romney said the president’s tweets were causing harm to the widower of Lori Klausutis, who died in 2001 when she was a staffer for Scarborough. Trump has pushed baseless claims that Scarborough was involved in her death.

“His heart is breaking,” Romney wrote. “Enough already.”

House minority leader Kevin McCarthy repeatedly dodged questions about the controversy, and Trump has shown no sign of abandoning the debunked theory.

Pompeo says Hong Kong is no longer autonomous from China

Secretary of state Mike Pompeo said he has reported to Congress that Hong Kong is no longer autonomous from China, which could trigger sanctions or other punitive measures against Beijing.

The Trump administration has reportedly been considering a range of options to push back against China’s new law meant to bring Hong Kong more fully under its control.

Bloomberg News reports:

The Treasury Department could impose controls on transactions and freeze assets of Chinese officials and businesses for implementing a new national security law that would curtail the rights and freedoms of Hong Kong citizens. Other measures under consideration include visa restrictions for Chinese Communist Party officials, according to two of the people.

Inter-agency discussions are ongoing and no decision has been made on whether or how to employ the sanctions, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the moves are still under consideration.

The new law has sparked protests in Hong Kong, where more than 300 people have been arrested as police fire pepper-spray bullets into the crowds.

Asked yesterday about potential sanctions against China, Trump said, “Your question is early -- we’re doing it now. We’re doing something now. I think you’ll find it very interesting, but I won’t be talking about it today. I’ll be talking about it over the next couple of days.”

Updated

DC to lift stay-at-home order Friday

DC mayor Muriel Bowser announced her city’s stay-at-home order will expire Friday, and some shutdown restrictions will start to be lifted.

The mayor said today that the District had seen 14 days of decreased community spread of coronavirus, the last metric officials said the city needed to reach before starting the reopening process.

Restaurants will be allowed to serve customers at outdoor seating, with tables spread six feet apart, and barbershops and salons will open by appointment only. Non-essential retail stores will also be allowed to do curbside pick-up, but customers cannot come inside.

There are still many restrictions in place. Nail salons will remain closed, as will playgrounds and recreational centers.

Bowser said face masks are still required in grocery stores and on public transit, and she encouraged residents to cover their faces whenever possible.

New York governor Andrew Cuomo has arrived at the White House for his meeting with Trump.

Cuomo said yesterday that he and Trump would discuss his proposal to ramp up infrastructure projects in order to get more New Yorkers back to work amid the coronavirus crisis.

The president has voiced support for a large investment in infrastructure, but Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell has been much more hesitant to embrace the idea.

Joe Biden opened his livestream today by discussing George Floyd’s death, saying the tragedy was the latest sign of the “engrained, systematic cycle of injustice that still exists in this country”.

The death of Floyd, a black man, after a white police officer was filmed kneeled on his neck sparked protests in Minneapolis last night.

Appearing alongside Pennsylvania governor Tom Wolf, who endorsed him this morning, Biden said the officers involved in Floyd’s death must be “held more fully accountable.”

“We have to get to the root of all of this,” Biden said.

George Floyd's sister says cops should be charged

The sister of George Floyd, the black man killed by police in Minneapolis after an incident captured on video in which an officer knelt on his neck as he lay on the ground, has called for those involved in his death to be charged with murder.

Bridget Floyd said on Wednesday morning that the officers, who were fired on Tuesday, “should be in jail for murder”.

George Floyd, 46, died on Monday. The FBI and authorities in Minnesota have launched investigations into his death. The officer who knelt on Floyd’s neck is white.

Bridget Floyd struggled to hold back tears as she spoke to NBC Today about the family’s shock and grief.

She said: “Me and my family are taking this very, very hard. It’s very heartbreaking, it’s very disturbing.”

Huge protests took place in Minneapolis on Tuesday night. Police in riot gear fired teargas and rubber bullets into the crowd.

Updated

Dr Anthony Fauci said he thought it was too soon to say whether the presidential nominating conventions will be able to safely take place in person this summer.

“I think we need to reserve judgment right now because we’re still a few months from there,” Fauci told CNN.

The infectious disease expert said the country would have to see a signficant decline in cases in order to safely move forward with the conventions.

“Hopefully we will see that diminution [of coronavirus cases],” Fauci said. “If we don’t, then as I’ve said before, I would have significant reservations about that.”

In contrast, Trump said Monday he wanted a “guarantee” from North Carolina’s Democratic governor that Republicans could hold their convention at full capacity in August.

Realistically, as Fauci’s comments indicate, no governor can actually make that guarantee right now, but that didn’t stop the Republican governors of Georgia and Florida from offering up their states to replace North Carolina as the convention site.

Dr Anthony Fauci said he thought there was a “good chance” that a coronavirus vaccine could be developed by the end of the year.

The infectious disease expert underscored that the process to develop a vaccine is arduous, saying, “There are a lot of landmines and hiccups that occur.” Fauci also emphasized that the rapid development of a vacinne could not come “at the expense of safety nor scientific integrity.”

Fauci concluded, “I still think that we have a good chance, if all the things fall in the right place, that we might have a vaccine that would be deployable by the end of the year.”

However, even if a vaccine is developed in the coming months, there is the question of how quickly and effectively it can be distributed.

A newly released AP/NORC poll showed only half of Americans say they would get a coronavirus vaccine if one is developed, while 31% say they are not sure and another 20% say they would refuse to get vaccinated.

Returning to Dr Anthony Fauci’s CNN interview, he said scientific data has clearly shown hydroxychloroquine is not an effective coronavirus treatment.

“I’m not so sure that it should be banned, but clearly the scientific data is really quite evident now about the lack of efficacy for it,” Fauci told CNN host Jim Sciutto.

Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said recent studies had shown that dangerous side effects from hydroxychloroquine “might be rare, but you’d see it, adverse events, particularly with regard to cardiovascular.”

The Food and Drug Administration similarly warned last month that hydroxychloroquine should only be used in a hospital setting due to “reports of serious heart rhythm problems” in coronavirus patients who were treated with the anti-malaria drug.

But Trump has said he used hydroxychloroquine to prevent coronavirus, sparking serious concerns about the president taking an experimental drug.

Republican senator Mitt Romney criticized Trump for attacking Joe Scarborough over a debunked conspiracy theory.

In a new tweet, the former presidential candidate said Scarborough was a friend and described the president’s attacks on the MSNBC host as “vile, baseless accusations.”

Romney specifically mentioned Timothy Klausutis, who wrote a letter to Twitter’s CEO asking him to take down Trump’s tweets about his late wife’s 2001 death.

“His heart is breaking,” Romney wrote. “Enough already.”

Romney has previously criticized Trump for some of his controversial attacks on his enemies, and the Utah senator was the only Republican member of the Senate to vote to convict the president in his impeachment trial.

Trump has consistently mocked Romney over Twitter since the trial, and the senator’s latest tweet will likely inspire another such attack.

Fauci says he wears a mask to set an example

Dr Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert who has become one of the most recognizable faces in the US response to coronavirus, said he wears a mask in public partly to set an example for other Americans.

In an interview with CNN, Fauci talked about wearing a mask as a matter of respect for those around you. “You wear a mask; they wear a mask; you protect each other,” Fauci said.

When explaining why he specifically wore a mask in public, Fauci said, “I want to protect myself and protect others, and also I want to make it be a symbol for people to see that that’s the kind of thing you should be doing.”

Fauci’s comments come as Trump and Joe Biden have sparred over face masks, with the president questioning his Democratic rival for wearing a mask during a Memorial Day ceremony. Biden replied by saying Trump was an “absolute fool” for turning masks into a political issue.

This is Joan Greve, taking over for Joanna Walters.

Donald Trump is once again tweeting about a baseless conspiracy theory involving MSNBC host Joe Scarborough, who has become a frequent critic of the president.

“Psycho Joe Scarborough is rattled, not only by his bad ratings but all of the things and facts that are coming out on the internet about opening a Cold Case. He knows what is happening!” Trump wrote in a tweet this morning.

The “Cold Case” refers to the 2001 death of Lori Klausutis, who was a staffer for then-congressman Scarborough when she died of a fall as the result of a previously unknown heart condition.

Despite the complete lack of evidence of foul play, Trump continues to suggest Scarborough may be involved in Klausutis’ death.

Klausutis’ widower wrote to Twitter’s CEO asking him to take down Trump’s tweets about his late wife, but the company refused, and the president has kept up the baseless attacks.

When asked yesterday about the Klausutis family’s stated wishes for him to stop talking about the debunked theory, Trump said, “I’m sure that, ultimately, they want to get to the bottom of it, and it’s a very serious situation.”

Updated

New cases still rising in many states

Good morning, US live blog readers, there’s a very busy day ahead in coronavirus and politics news here so please stay tuned for all the latest updates.

Here’s is what’s in store so far today.

  • As the nation continues with reopening the data continues to come in showing that two dozen US states are seeing increases in new coronavirus cases, while the US death toll this morning stands at 98,929 according to Johns Hopkins University, and the inevitable 100,000 grim milestone beckons.
  • A new poll shows that only around half of Americans are certain they will line up for a Covid-19 vaccine if, hopefully when, such an inoculation is discovered and made available.
  • New York governor Andrew Cuomo is back at the White House today, meeting Donald Trump at 11am ET for the latest talks on the coronavirus crisis.
  • The president and first lady Melania Trump will travel later in the afternoon to Cape Canaveral on Florida’s Space Coast, where Nasa, in conjunction with Elon Musk’s SpaceX, is scheduled to launch American astronauts into outer space from US soil for the first time since the Space Shuttle program was retired in 2011. They are headed for the international space station and hope to blast off at 4.23pmET.

Updated

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North Carolina’s Michael Phillips revealed that he had a 0.38in member in bid to reduce stigma of the condition
The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
Movies and series leaving Netflix in March 2026, including hugely re-watched sitcom
A deal is yet to be struck to keep the show on the service
The Independent UK
The Independent UK
No, autistic people are not ‘mind blind’ – here’s why
For four decades, a controversial idea has shaped how autism is understood by researchers, healthcare professionals and the public: the claim that autistic people are “mind blind”. The phrase suggests an inability to grasp what others think or feel. It is simple, memorable – and wrong.
The Conversation
The Conversation
Demna brings sexy back in effort to reinvigorate Gucci
Designer’s first catwalk for the brand in Milan flirts with bad taste with short, tight dresses and a diamante G-string
The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Neil Sedaka death: Legendary singer-songwriter behind ‘(Is This the Way to) Amarillo’ was 86
Sedaka was the songwriter behind a string of popular hits including ‘Breaking Up Is Hard to Do’ and ‘Love Will Keep Us Together’
The Independent UK
The Independent UK
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