This archive report was first published on 15 July 2020.
Coronavirus Resurgence Threatens US Economy ¶
Published on July 15, 2020, the US economy is headed for a tumultuous autumn, with the threat of closed schools, renewed government lockdowns, and an uncertain amount of federal support for businesses and unemployed workers clouding hopes for a rapid rebound from recession.
According to a New York Times analysis, only New York City and Chicago have achieved a public health goal of keeping the average daily infection rate among those who are tested below 5 percent. This standard is generally agreed upon among epidemiologists as a way to control community spread of the coronavirus.
Some of the biggest school districts in the US, such as Miami-Dade County in Florida and Clark County in Nevada, which includes Las Vegas, are in counties that have recently reported positive test rates more than four times greater than the 5 percent threshold.
As a result, a growing number of districts are announcing online instruction in the fall. The superintendent of the nation's sixth-largest district, in Broward County, Florida, has recommended full-time remote learning, despite pressure from the state's governor and President Trump.
"I'm just super frustrated and really disappointed that our nation, our states, and our communities have not exercised the discipline that they need in order to get the coronavirus under control," said Robert W. Runcie, the Broward superintendent. "Now the futures of our young people are collateral damage from our inability to take this thing seriously."
Many large districts are falling into three categories: those that plan to teach online only, those that will allow families to choose between in-person or at-home instruction, and those offering a hybrid approach, with students spending some days in classrooms and some learning remotely.
The Trump administration has ordered hospitals to bypass the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and send all coronavirus patient information to a central database in Washington. This move has alarmed public health experts who fear the data will be distorted for political gain.
Public health experts have long expressed concern that the administration is politicizing science and undermining the C.D.C. Four of the agency's former directors, spanning both Republican and Democratic administrations, said as much in an opinion piece published in The Washington Post.
