Five months since the economy went off a cliff, and signs of a light at the end of a tunnel are few and far between. In America, we supposedly added 1.8 million jobs in July with a good chunk of them in leisure and hospitality. Color me skeptical.

Various factions in our dysfunctional government can’t negotiate their way out of a paper bag so our deeply corrupt Treasury Secretary is reduced to urging executive orders as a stopgap measure, something all but guaranteed to please a grand total of zero people.

Overseas, the Bank of England put out a rosy forecast that seems detached from reality.

I really wonder if we’re collectively whistling past the graveyard, all too comfortable with normalcy bias.

Coronavirus News and Analysis:

The story of a scientist’s mea culpa on Covid-19 vaccines

For the unemployed, rising grocery prices strain budgets even more

…the grocery system was strapped by a common theme: Supply chains are hard-wired and can’t quickly bend around a global pandemic. Plus, the labor, transportation and warehousing networks that keep restaurant or school kitchens stocked aren’t the same networks that prop up supermarkets.

COVID-19 Hospital Data System That Bypasses CDC Plagued By Delays, Inaccuracies

CDC study finds kids of all ages may play key role in virus transmission amid push to reopen schools

Facebook, Twitter penalize Trump for posts containing coronavirus misinformation

Facebook removed from Trump’s official account the post of a video clip from a Fox News interview in which he said children are “almost immune” from covid-19. Twitter required his Team Trump campaign account to delete a tweet with the same video, blocking it from tweeting in the interim.

How to Evaluate COVID-19 News without Freaking Out

China Wants Trump to Lose, Russia Wants Trump to Win (Gosh, ya think?)

Why the United States Failed to Contain the Virus

First, the United States faced longstanding challenges in confronting a major pandemic. It is a large country at the nexus of the global economy, with a tradition of prioritizing individualism over government restrictions. That tradition is one reason the United States suffers from an unequal health care system that has long produced worse medical outcomes — including higher infant mortality and diabetes rates and lower life expectancy — than in most other rich countries.
The second major theme is one that public health experts often find uncomfortable to discuss because many try to steer clear of partisan politics. But many agree that the poor results in the United States stem in substantial measure from the performance of the Trump administration.

Model projects nearly 300,000 Americans could die from Covid-19 by December

The Nightmare Scenario for the World