Pandemic Odds: Probably only about one in 10 US coronavirus cases have been diagnosed, according to the director of the Centers for Disease Control. That would mean more than 24 million Americans have been infected. 

  Dr. Robert Redfield said on a call with reporters that the estimate is extrapolated from antibody tests on people who appear to have had the disease.

This morning, the US has reported 2,422,312 cases and 124,415 deaths. The two week rate of increase has reached 54 percent. Two days ago it was 40 percent.

  As infections surge, Texas has paused its economic re-opening and is clearing hospital space for Covid-19 patients. The state has 130,000 cases, nearly 3,000 deaths, and 4,300 people in the hospital fighting the virus.

  Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said he is pausing before going to the next phase of re-opening.

  Even while the virus is having a resurgence, some Americans are protesting public health orders to wear masks, claiming it’s an infringement on their personal freedom.

  President Trump, who has said the crisis has already passed, tweeted yesterday that, “The number of ChinaVirus cases goes up, because of GREAT TESTING, while the number of deaths (mortality rate), goes way down. The Fake News doesn’t like telling you that!”

Retail Pandemic: The Macy’s department store chain announced yesterday that it is laying off nearly 4,000 corporate and management employees to balance the nose dive in retail sales. Macy’s was already in trouble before the Coronavirus crisis.  

  The Labor Department reported that another 1.5 million people filed for unemployment last week, bringing the pandemic total to 47 million lost jobs. 

Pandemic of Ignorance: A recent study has found that coronavirus  infection and death rates are higher in places where Fox News host Sean Hannity reaches his largest audiences. Hannity initially ignored and has played down the severity of the pandemic. 

  That’s one of several studies that say right wing media have contributed to the severity of the pandemic by spreading false information and conspiracy theories.

  “We are receiving an incredible number of studies and solid data showing that consuming far-right media and social media content was strongly associated with low concern about the virus at the onset of the pandemic,” said Irene Pasquetto, chief editor of the Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review, which published one of the studies.

  People relied sources such as Fox News and Rush Limbaugh, were more likely to believe bogus theories, for instance  that taking vitamin C could prevent infection, that the Chinese government created the virus, and that the US Centers for Disease Control has  exaggerated the pandemic’s threat “to damage the Trump presidency.”

Police Blotter: Three cops in Wilmington, North Carolina were fired after the discovery of recorded conversations that included racist remarks, slurs, and one of them saying he “can’t wait” to start “slaughtering” black people.

  Colorado is investigating the death of Elijah McClain, a young black man who died in police custody in Denver last year after being put in a chokehold and injected with ketamine to knock him out.

  Tucson is re-examining the death of a Latino man who died pleading for water and air as he lay shackled on the floor.

 With all these investigations breaking, the House yesterday passed a police reform bill named after George Floyd, the man whose death in Minneapolis has set off a month of demonstrations and national soul-searching. It’s considered to be dead on arrival in the Republican Senate. 

The Bulletin Board: The Government Accountability Office reports that $1.4 of the $270 billion pandemic stimulus money went to dead people. — For the first time, nonwhites and Hispanics were a majority of people under age 16 in 2019, according to figures released by the US Census Bureau. — The Dixie Chicks trio is dropping “Dixie” from its name and will be simply the “Chicks,” thereby choosing to insult only women.

The Obit Page: Writer Charles Webb, whose first book “The Graduate” published when he was only 24 and converted to the classic movie of the same name starring Dustin Hoffman, has died at age 81. Webb sold the rights to the novel for $20,000 without any share in the movie’s profits. He once told The Washington Post about his book, “It’s something that I cannot shake. It has defined my whole life. I just want to run away.” 

Big Plans: Asked last night by the adoring Fox News host Sean Hannity what are his plans for a second term, President Trump said;

 “Well, one of the things that will be really great, you know, the word ‘experience’ is still good. I have always said talent is more important than experience. I’ve always said that. But the word experience is a very important word. It’s a very important meaning. I never did this before. I never slept over in Washington. I was in Washington I think 17 times, all of a sudden I’m President of the United States. You know the story, I’m riding down Pennsylvania Avenue with our First Lady and I say, ‘This is great.’ But I didn’t know very many people in Washington, it wasn’t my thing. I was from Manhattan, New York. Now I know everybody. And I have great people in the administration. You make some mistakes, like you know an idiot like John Bolton, all he wanted to do is drop bombs on everybody. You don’t have to drop bombs on everybody. You don’t have to kill people.”

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