July 24, 2020

Fauci says he and his family have been receiving serious threats, a grim turn as he becomes the pandemic’s most visible official. He also defends himself against charges of hypocrisy after being photographed without a mask and not distancing while watching a Nationals game, the sort of gap between the guidance and the people issuing it that critics seize on. In a friendlier register, he praises Trump for keeping the renewed briefings “short and crisp” and repeats that he does not think the country is near the end of the outbreak.

The FDA authorizes the first diagnostic test cleared to screen people with no known or suspected infection and to run pooled samples, an expansion of testing toward the asymptomatic. The Federal Reserve, having hoped to skirt a second wave, warns that small businesses may not survive the one now under way.