September 10, 2020

The fallout from the Woodward tapes continues. Forbes catalogs all the times Trump compared COVID-19 to the flu even after he knew it was far deadlier, and a historian calls the revelations the “greatest dereliction of duty” of any American president. The Atlantic says Trump is “living in denial,” while The Nation runs a piece titled “Trump Lied, Americans Died.” Trump counters on CNBC that everyone knew the virus was airborne in February and that his downplaying was meant to prevent panic—a defense that rests on the same rationale (public calm as a leadership duty) that many public health officials used when they initially advised against masks.

The Senate defeats a “skinny” coronavirus aid bill, leaving Congress at an impasse as the economic damage from lockdowns deepens. A CDC study suggests adults with COVID-19 are “about twice as likely” to have dined at a restaurant, a finding used to justify indoor dining restrictions despite the inherent limits of survey-based case-control studies. New York City announces $50 fines for transit riders who do not wear masks, and a church led by John MacArthur in California is hit with a COVID restraining order after defying closure orders—one front in a legal battle between religious liberty and public health powers that will persist for years.