August 1, 2021

Florida breaks its own record for new coronavirus cases as the Delta surge tears through the state, and Anthony Fauci opens the month on ABC’s “This Week” and in the Wall Street Journal warning that “things are going to get worse.” Bloomberg reports Fauci insisting the shots still work despite mounting cases among the fully vaccinated, an argument that quietly concedes the vaccines are not stopping infection the way officials once promised.

The messaging apparatus ramps up alongside the numbers. The New York Times reports that authorities are recruiting an “influencer army” to counter vaccine claims online, and The Atlantic runs “The Anti-vaccine Con Job Is Becoming Untenable,” framing holdouts as dupes rather than people weighing their own risk. In Washington, Mayor Muriel Bowser denies breaking the mask mandate she had just reimposed.

The origins question stays alive. A Republican congressional report concludes the virus likely leaked from a lab in Wuhan, while scientists say they are still probing how it emerged, and Arkansas parents gather at the governor’s mansion to ask lawmakers to repeal the state’s ban on mask mandates as the school year approaches.