In other news, the CDC published but then almost immediately removed updated coronavirus guidelines that finally admit it can linger and spread through the air indoors.
Meanwhile, American household wealth has returned to pre-pandemic levels, but mostly because the rich got richer. Again.
The Fed reported that when the second quarter ended in June, household net worth - the value of homes, stock investments and other assets less what is owed on mortgages and other loans - had hit $118.9 trillion, a $7.6 trillion jump from the prior quarter and above the $118.5 trillion from the last quarter of 2019.
That included a $5.7 trillion jump in the value of stocks and mutual funds that had cratered at the start of the pandemic but began to surge higher as the central bank and Congress approved an extensive array of programs to stave off an economic collapse.
Finally, national coronavirus infections are trending higher again.
"We may be in for a very apocalyptic fall, I'm sorry to say," said Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine.
"And it's happening because we're forcing schools to reopen in areas of high transmission. We're forcing colleges to reopen, and we don't have the leadership nationally, telling people to wear masks and to social distance and do all the things we need to do."
Despite slow, steady progress after an abysmal July, daily new cases have once again soared above 40,000, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. The US is on the cusp of 200,000 Covid-19 deaths. [...]
As of Monday morning, 28 states had more new cases this past week compared to the previous week, according to Johns Hopkins data.
This is happening because schools reopened, yes, but it's also happening because Republicans refused to pass meaningful stimulus that would have given people an opportunity to shelter in place for longer.
Some portion of people infected today will die within the next month and at least some of them will have been infected because Republican ideology forced them to risk their lives to keep a roof over their heads or put food on the table.
The U.S. recorded over 47,000 infections on Friday and with a death rate of at least 1 percent that means about 470 people were given a death sentence. At least some of them will die just before or right after the election.
I hope the experts are wrong about a nasty fall.