This piece was originally published in the October 29, 2020 edition of CAP Action’s daily newsletter, the Progress Report. Subscribe to the Progress Report here.
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The number of people in the U.S. who have tested positive for COVID-19.
228,000 Americans are dead. Our health care is under attack. Millions are out of work.
Americans have spent four years at the mercy of Trump’s chaos.
You don’t want to miss our latest video. Watch and share on Twitter and Facebook to get the facts out:
- The coronavirus is spreading at concerning levels across the U.S., with more than 500,000 new cases reported in just the last week. And with cases on the rise, some state and local governments are revisiting the stricter restrictions they had in place earlier this year. Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker announced that Chicago’s bars and restaurants will be barred from offering indoor service starting at midnight tonight.
- Hurricane Zeta made landfall last night as a Category 2 storm. At least three people are confirmed dead, and millions of people across Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, and North Carolina are still without power.
- Trump promised to “drain the swamp” in 2016. Instead, he’s done the opposite, becoming the epitome of the corrupt Washington politician. He’s appointed at least 10 ex-lobbyists to his Cabinet. And his administration has hired more than 280 ex-lobbyists to fill one out of every 14 political appointments in just its first three years. Read more about Trump’s corruption in this new op-ed from CAP Action’s Will Ragland and Jesse Lee.
In this week’s edition of What’s Trending?, we discuss Trump’s lies about the pandemic and how Facebook isn’t doing nearly enough to stop them from spreading. Subscribe here to get it in your inbox next week.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
- In a new report, The Daily Beast outlines how the Trump administration is shifting its focus to a deeply misguided theory: Herd immunity as a way to end the pandemic. The report follows recent comments from administration officials that indicated Trump might be taking this approach. On Sunday, Trump’s chief of staff told Jake Tapper that “we’re not going to control the pandemic,” explaining that they were mainly interested in ways to treat people who have already contracted the virus. Herd immunity is a dangerous concept — scientists are still not certain whether or for how long COVID survivors are even immune to the virus, and multiple cases of re-infection have been reported.
- According to the Daily Beast report, Trump adviser Scott Atlas was responsible for sparking the president’s interest in herd immunity. Atlas has reportedly faced “significant pushback” from scientists and health experts within the White House. Unfortunately, we’ve seen time and time again that this administration is not one to listen to the experts.
- Leaning in on a misguided herd immunity strategy is the latest of Trump’s many horrific betrayals of America’s seniors. A new report from our friends over at CAP details all the ways in which Trump and his administration have treated seniors as expendable, from pushing to end ACA protections to failing to bring down prescription drug costs.
- Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh made a number of factual errors in his opinion on Wisconsin’s ballot return deadline this Monday. Among them was whether or not Vermont had made any changes to election procedures to accommodate for the pandemic, which they had. He said they hadn’t — and he used it to justify his argument that there’s no need for modifications to voting procedures. Vermont officials released a statement contesting the incorrect invocation of their state’s policies in the ruling, and Kavanaugh ultimately corrected the opinion.
WHAT WE’RE READING
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