August 12, 2020

President Trump adds Dr. Scott Atlas to his coronavirus advisory team, a neuroradiologist and Hoover Institution fellow who has downplayed the risk of the virus in younger people and pushed for college football to return. The media immediately frames Atlas as a counterweight to Fauci and Birx, and his addition deepens the rift between the White House and the public-health establishment. Meanwhile, a Florida sheriff bans his deputies and office visitors from wearing masks on a day his county sets a record for COVID-19 deaths, embodying the increasingly tribal nature of mask policy.

A BBC report claims that at least 800 people may have died globally because of coronavirus-related misinformation, a figure that is difficult to verify and rests on assumptions about what counts as misinformation. ABC reports that COVID-19 vaccines may be less effective in obese people, citing a history of poor vaccine performance in the overweight—an early signal that vaccine efficacy may vary significantly across populations, complicating the narrative of a one-shot solution. Argentina and Mexico announce plans to produce the AstraZeneca vaccine candidate for Latin America.