August 2, 2020

White House coronavirus task force coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx warns that the U.S. has entered “a new phase” of the pandemic, with the virus “extraordinarily widespread” in rural as well as urban areas. The warning lands awkwardly in Washington: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says she has “no confidence” in Birx and accuses her of spreading misinformation, while President Trump bristles at the assessment. U.S. cases approach 4.6 million with more than 154,000 deaths, and California surpasses New York as the state with the most confirmed infections.

A dissenting voice gets a platform as Stanford’s Nobel laureate Michael Levitt tells the Stanford Daily there should not be a lockdown and explains his tracking data, which he argues shows the virus is less deadly than portrayed. The Toronto Star reports that lockdowns “worked for the rich but not for the poor” in that city, while UK researchers find a sharp increase in insomnia during the lockdown — particularly among mothers. Countervailing data arrives from Calgary, where doctors report a “dramatic” 40% drop in preterm births during the lockdown period, a trend also observed in Denmark, Ireland, Australia and the U.S.

Victoria, Australia declares a state of disaster as cases surge, and South Africa passes 500,000 confirmed cases. German leaders warn of a resurgence linked to returning travelers and condemn the previous day’s Berlin protest against coronavirus measures as “irresponsible.” In the UK, Boris Johnson orders a new shielding plan designed to avoid a second national lockdown in the winter.