The US coronavirus response is a national disgrace

David Plotz,Henry Blodget

Jun 17, 2020, 00:26 IST

The US coronavirus response is a national disgrace

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QUOTE OF THE DAY

"If we stop testing right now, we'd have very few cases, if any." — President Trump on the number of coronavirus cases in the United States, which is once again growing.

WHAT'S HAPPENING

Trump is releasing his police-reform proposals. They're much weaker than anything proposed by Democrats or BLM protesters, and focus on police training and a database of misconduct.

A cheap steroid dramatically reduced COVID-19 deaths. British study finds that dexamethasone cut death by a third for patients on ventilators.

Retail sales jumped 17.7% in May. That's more than double what economists expected and is a sign of a more V-shaped recovery.

BLODGET & PLOTZ

We're trying something a bit different today. Below is a brief rundown of our thoughts on some of the biggest news and most interesting trends of the day. If you want the full experience, check out our column here.

The US coronavirus response is a disgrace: We're by far the worst in the G7, and our cases are growing while cases in comparable countries are shrinking. The US will be paying our incompetence for years to come.
At least there's finally a drug that seems to help.
The George Floyd protests aren't one movement. They are five movements, each with a somewhat different goal: one to reform the policy locally; one to do it nationally; one to bring justice to individual victims of police violence; one to topple statues and change names; one to root out systemic racism in workplaces.
Fine, dump the SAT. But replace it with a much, much harder test. Harvard and the rest of the Ivy League have abandoned the SAT and ACT for next year. That's a good start, because the tests are pretty useless. But we need a different reform. The best school systems in the world build to a difficult final exam at the end of high school. The US should too.
Please don't ruin the Voice of America. Its objective reporting has won it (and the US) a huge amount of hard-earned credibility. The great journalist running it has just resigned, and the Trump administration seems determined to warp it into a Trump propaganda machine.
Has Liberty become the most important university in America? Jerry Falwell Jr. has captured Trump's attention and made Liberty the home for Trump-leaning evangelicals. Now a Liberty staffer has won a congressional primary.

For more on all these topics, click here.

CHART OF THE DAY

Only 45% of Americans are "extremely proud" to be American.

That's the lowest level ever measured in a Gallup poll. Only 22% of Democrats are extremely proud, also the lowest level ever measured.

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OTHER NEWS

Trump reportedly mocked his father as he started to suffer from Alzheimer's. That's another revelation from his niece Mary Trump's upcoming book.

A man was shot at a New Mexico rally to remove the statue of a conquistador: A melee broke out between those seeking the statue's removal and a heavily armed "militia" that was counter-protesting.

BUSINESS & ECONOMY

Eight YouTube creators tell how much money they make from the platform. It ranges from $554 per month to more than $140,000, and it's not directly related to the number of subscribers they have.