The US Turn for the Worst

According to the data compiled by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, COVID-19 case numbers are rising in more than half of the states in the US, experts are now predicting 180,000 deaths by October 1, USA Today reports.

A universal mask-wearing order in the US, however, could save as many as 33,000 lives, according to the University of Washington Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.

And yet, wearing a mask has become an increasingly politicized choice in the US, as anti-mask rallies in Arizona demonstrate.

“It should not be a political issue,” infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci said in a Facebook live with the Sacramento Press Club yesterday. “It is purely a public health issue. Forget the politics, look at the data.”

Though deaths are not rising at the same pace as infections, they could still catch up in states that reopened early and now are seeing high case counts, The Washington Post cautions.

Meanwhile, all 50 states are reopening to some degree—but just 7, Vox reports, meet the basic criteria to ensure the virus’s spread is in check, to test, track and isolate the sick and their contacts, and demonstrate the hospital capacity to handle a surge in cases.