September 3, 2020

The CDC tells states to prepare for COVID-19 vaccinations by November 1, accelerating a timeline that the media frames as Trump pressuring the FDA ahead of the election. Pfizer’s CEO confirms its late-stage trial may have results in October, while Foreign Policy runs a piece flatly titled “Trump’s Vaccine Can’t Be Trusted,” an extraordinary public erosion of confidence before a product even exists. Canada’s top health official recommends wearing a mask during sex and avoiding kissing partners outside one’s household, guidance that generates widespread mockery and further strains the credibility of expert advice.

Trump mocks Biden for wearing a mask—“Did you ever see a man that likes a mask as much as him?”—at a rally, sharpening the partisan divide over face coverings. On the ground, a Tennessee family says their autistic daughter’s inability to wear a mask is keeping her from attending school, one of countless stories in which rigid mandates exclude people whose circumstances do not fit the template. The Electronic Frontier Foundation warns that COVID-19 tracking technology “will not save us,” calling exposure notification apps experimental and unproven.