September 1, 2020

The U.S. refuses to join Covax, the international effort to develop and distribute a COVID-19 vaccine, with the White House blaming the WHO and China for its stance. The decision, called a “real blow” by experts, underscores the fragmentation of the global response even as the National Academies release a four-phase draft proposal for domestic vaccine distribution. Fauci pushes back against theories that the CDC death toll is inflated, insisting that the 180,000-plus recorded deaths are real COVID-19 deaths, while the Trump administration considers spending $250 million on a celebrity-driven public health ad campaign.

Uber will require some riders to take mask selfies as a condition of service, an escalation of private-sector enforcement that bypasses the legislative process. The New York Post reports U.S. divorce rates have spiked 34% since March, and Zuckerberg and Chan donate $300 million to help election officials deal with the pandemic’s impact on voting. A man who lost seven relatives to COVID becomes the first American to try an experimental vaccine, a human-interest framing that personalizes the trial process as the political pressure around vaccine timelines intensifies.