July 28, 2020

A video of a group calling itself America’s Frontline Doctors, filmed on the steps of the Supreme Court and shared by the Trumps, is flagged and pulled from Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. In it the doctors say masks and shutdowns are unnecessary and endorse hydroxychloroquine, and one of them, Dr. Stella Immanuel, is singled out in the press for unrelated fringe beliefs. Tucker Carlson devotes his opening segment to the removal, arguing that criticizing Fauci now makes people disappear from the internet. The New York Times covers the episode chiefly as misinformation to be suppressed rather than as a dispute over a drug that regulators were still studying.

Fauci, whose retweeted criticism from Trump has since been deleted, says he has not misled the public under any circumstances and warns that outbreaks are brewing in Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee. Speaking about reopening classrooms, he tells teachers they will be “part of the experiment,” a candid admission that officials do not know how the virus moves through children even as they weigh sending them back.

The fight over schools sharpens as Texas moves to withhold funding from districts that stay closed on the orders of local health authorities alone, setting state policy against county officials on whether buildings must open.