COVID19 Update - Day 65

US Tests: 10,341,775
US Cases: 1,407,507
US Deaths: 80,084
Worldwide Cases: 4,426,937
Worldwide Deaths: 301,370

Any discussion of Republican policy inevitably leads to a discussion of whether the Republican party is stupid or evil (the answer, of course, is both).  Today, we saw succinct illustrations of this in the case of Trump's head in the sand response to the coronavirus.

Here's stupid:

TRUMP: "When you test, you have a case. When you test, you find something is wrong with people. If we didn't do any testing we would have very few cases." pic.twitter.com/tEX1uXQbmp

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 14, 2020

And here's evil:

President Donald Trump's public attitude towards the coronavirus has swung between downplaying its severity, patting himself on the back for a job well done, and pushing for the economy to reopen.

Sometimes, he has admitted that the pandemic could result in 100,000 American lives lost. 

More recently, Trump has been accused of pressurizing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to change how it counts COVID-19 fatalities so it generates a lower death toll.  

The president's recalcitrant attitude toward a strong nationwide response was caused by a fear that such moves would have a ripple effect that could send the stock market into a tizzy, the Financial Times reported.

Closer to home, Minnesota is gradually starting the process of re-opening its economy.

• Gov. Tim Walz announced this evening that Minnesota’s Stay at Home order will expire at 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, as scheduled.
• It will be replaced by a Stay Safe MN order encouraging people to stay home when possible but allowing small gatherings of 10 or fewer people. Retail businesses will also be able to open at 50 percent capacity if they have a plan to allow social distancing.
• Businesses where there is typically closer contact, such as bars, restaurants, salons and gyms, could reopen as early as June 1. The state will release additional guidance for those industries soon.

But --- um --- something doesn't seem quite right here ---

• Earlier today, the Minnesota Department of Health released updated COVID-19 modeling which indicated a higher statewide mortality rate than originally projected. It also showed social distancing has reduced face-to-face contact and disease transmission by only 59.5 percent, less than the initial 80 percent estimate.

I may need to re-think my smugness about the fact that I don't live in a state with a GOP governor hellbent on reopening the economy too soon.