vox--2020-08-08--How an Iowa summer resort region became a Covid-19 hot spot

ARNOLDS PARK , Iowa — Walking down Broadway Street , flanked with nightclubs and restaurants , you would never know that the coronavirus is lurking here .
The sun is shining , maskless people are buzzing about , and ice cream is selling .
This is the 100 days of summer in which the Iowa Great Lakes region makes most of its money .
Everything is open .
But this year , the vacation destination is also a regional coronavirus hot spot .
The local economy shut down in the spring for about a month .
There were six cases @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , when Republican Gov .
Kim Reynolds partially reopened restaurants , retail stores , and many other businesses in rural areas , like Dickinson County , where the lakes are located .
There was also minimal testing .
By Memorial Day , only eight cases had been recorded in the county , which has a population of about 17,000 people year-round and nearly 100,000 in the summer .
Although big events were canceled , the hotels began filling back up and the lakes were scattered with tourists .
As of August 7 , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and at least six county residents have died from the virus .
Many additional cases may have originated here because of the constant flux of tourists , young and old , from places like Sioux Falls , Omaha , and Des Moines .
Why have there been there so many cases here this summer ?
Why is it so unusual to see people wearing masks , despite broad consensus that they are helpful in limiting the spread of Covid-19 ?
As a medical anthropologist who has studied the overlap of diseases and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ out in June to understand what was going on in the Iowa Great Lakes region where I grew up .
I interviewed more than 80 people all over town , reaching out to old friends and classmates , business owners , elected officials , and public health leaders .
Here is what I learned about my hometown region — and how its deep conflicts around the coronavirus reflect broader friction across the country .
Dickinson County is largely white ( 96 percent ) , Republican ( 72 percent of voters returned a straight @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ) , and Christian ( more than two-thirds ) .
There is an overwhelming ethos of American individualism over collectivism , along with the cultural ideal of self-sufficiency and of pulling yourself up by your bootstraps .
I heard many people say , “ I am not scared of coronavirus , ” or , “ I ’ m not scared , I believe in God , ” or “ If it ’ s my time to go , God will take me.
” For instance , if you wear a mask around here @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
When masks became this sort of political statement , most people described feeling deeply hurt — simply due to the divergent views that were ( or weren ’ t ) now spread across their faces .
This division recently came to a head in a heated open school board meeting on August 3 about reopening schools .
Many board members invoked “ freedom ” and “ individual choice ” in their comments on masking at schools .
One school board member said he would not “ dictate ” what the children do @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Another member dissented by arguing that masking should be mandatory for high school students due to overwhelming safety concerns .
Sometimes this conflict was apparent even in individuals .
On her way out the door , one member said she was going to “ pray real hard ” about what to do about masking in schools , moments after asking if the school board could get sued if it didn ’ t implement more stringent measures .
These conflicts are being fostered by a lack of local political support for public health measures @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the American Midwest .
The superintendent of the school district , for example , plans to open schools with few safety measures in place , despite the local public health leaders providing opposing advice .
At the state level , Gov .
Reynolds never instituted a statewide lockdown and recommended closing most businesses for only a little over a month .
This meant some local business owners felt entitled to actively try to impede public health measures , including calling the hospital and demanding them to stop putting educational videos on Facebook @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the governor ’ s approval rating over handling the coronavirus outbreak is markedly low in part because of her lack of leadership on public health measures .
When I asked people what they have taken away from these leaders ’ actions ( and inactions ) , most say that because there was never a state lockdown and the state is open , there is no need to wear masks .
This sentiment is perpetuated from the top and embodied in local behavior : The pandemic is over .
Now you ’ re @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tourist destination , the Iowa Great Lakes region has a strong vacation vibe , even in the pandemic .
Many young people in the area , for example , still exhibit the carefree frivolity of summer — packing bars , boats , and barges with booze .
“ Everyone has Covid !
” is a common excuse I heard to forgo masking and social distancing around town .
Other people worry , “ Nobody will take it seriously until someone prominent in the community dies.
” ( This is despite the fact that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ some who were well known . )
Some ( incorrectly ) believe that because Covid-19 has largely affected the young in the region , there is a weaker strain of the virus circulating , dubbed “ corona light.
” A 21-year-old waiter called mask-wearing a “ theater of masks.
” I see people touching their faces , moving masks up and down to take orders .
Others say masks do more harm because they make you ingest more carbon dioxide ( that ’ s entirely untrue ) .
If you wear a mask @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” or a “ fool.
” Why use them ?
If nobody else wears one , why should I ?
In a Facebook post , Richard Ashby , who was visiting from Texas , described an altercation over masks in the Iowa Great Lakes region over the July Fourth weekend .
When he wore a mask in Casey ’ s convenience store , he was harassed by a group of young men not wearing masks .
He and his partner were the only people masked at the convenience store : Elsewhere in this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as Walmart have worn masks consistently for months .
I spoke to a manager at Menards , a regional home improvement chain , who said they have been required to wear masks since March .
When the staff first was required to wear masks , she made extras for her coworkers who had fewer means .
She said it wasn ’ t a big deal and wants to keep herself , family , and community safe .
Although , she notes , they are occasionally harassed by customers .
In the past month @ @ @ @ @ @ @ mandatory for customers nationwide , regardless of local mask rules .
Because of this , a high-ranking elected official told me , he “ avoids ” Walmart altogether because masking encroaches on his personal choice .
The divisive atmosphere in the Iowa Great Lakes Region around coronavirus isn ’ t that uncommon , especially in other parts of rural America where the response to the virus remains contentious .
Without a unified state or national response , the patchwork we have created will allow coronavirus to spread , loved ones to die , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ remain conflicted about the situation , too , and beliefs around masks and staying home have created animosity among neighbors and friction among friends .
One teacher told me her son ’ s friends changed according to the families who stayed home and those who did not .
These times are radically altering our community dynamics and demonstrate how splintered our society has become .
But only by understanding one another and rebuilding trust in our institutions , science , and each other can we come out of this crisis stronger .
Emily @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Associate Professor in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University .
She is the author of Rethinking Diabetes and more than 70 articles , books , and commentaries at the intersection of anthropology , public health , and medicine .
She graduated from Spirit Lake High School in the Iowa Great Lakes .
She thanks Lori Eich , Dr. Abby Adams , and Dr. Adam Koon for their comments on this article .
David Thoreson is an adventure photographer and author of One Island , One Ocean , about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has an extensive portfolio of photos around the Iowa Great Lakes region , where he spends his summers .
Correction : An earlier version of this story stated that there were no cases in Dickinson County before May 1 .
In fact , there were six cases before May 1 .
It also stated there were only six cases by Memorial Day ; the correct number is eight .
Every day at Vox , we aim to answer your most important questions and provide you , and our audience around the world , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ save lives .
Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment : to empower you through understanding .
Vox ’ s work is reaching more people than ever , but our distinctive brand of explanatory journalism takes resources — particularly during a pandemic and an economic downturn .
Your financial contribution will not constitute a donation , but it will enable our staff to continue to offer free articles , videos , and podcasts at the quality and volume that this moment requires .
Please consider making a @ @ @ @ @

ARNOLDS PARK, Iowa — Walking down Broadway Street, flanked with nightclubs and restaurants, you would never know that the coronavirus is lurking here. The sun is shining, maskless people are buzzing about, and ice cream is selling. This is the 100 days of summer in which the Iowa Great Lakes region makes most of its money. Everything is open.
But this year, the vacation destination is also a regional coronavirus hot spot.
The local economy shut down in the spring for about a month. There were six cases recorded in the area by May 1, when Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds partially reopened restaurants, retail stores, and many other businesses in rural areas, like Dickinson County, where the lakes are located. There was also minimal testing.
By Memorial Day, only eight cases had been recorded in the county, which has a population of about 17,000 people year-round and nearly 100,000 in the summer. Although big events were canceled, the hotels began filling back up and the lakes were scattered with tourists.
Related Just 2 states meet these basic criteria to reopen and stay safe
As of August 7, cases in Dickinson were up to 377, and at least six county residents have died from the virus. Many additional cases may have originated here because of the constant flux of tourists, young and old, from places like Sioux Falls, Omaha, and Des Moines.
Why have there been so many cases here this summer? Why is it so unusual to see people wearing masks, despite broad consensus that they are helpful in limiting the spread of Covid-19?
As a medical anthropologist who has studied the overlap of diseases and society around the world, I set out in June to understand what was going on in the Iowa Great Lakes region where I grew up. I interviewed more than 80 people all over town, reaching out to old friends and classmates, business owners, elected officials, and public health leaders.
Here is what I learned about my hometown region — and how its deep conflicts around the coronavirus reflect broader friction across the country.
Conflicting Midwestern values
Dickinson County is largely white (96 percent), Republican (72 percent of voters returned a straight Republican ballot in the November 2016 election), and Christian (more than two-thirds). There is an overwhelming ethos of American individualism over collectivism, along with the cultural ideal of self-sufficiency and of pulling yourself up by your bootstraps. I heard many people say, “I am not scared of coronavirus,” or, “I’m not scared, I believe in God,” or, “If it’s my time to go, God will take me.”
For instance, if you wear a mask around here, it reflects defiance against President Trump. When masks became this sort of political statement, most people described feeling deeply hurt — simply due to the divergent views that were (or weren’t) now spread across their faces.
This division recently came to a head in a heated open school board meeting on August 3 about reopening schools. Many board members invoked “freedom” and “individual choice” in their comments on masking at schools.
One school board member said he would not “dictate” what the children do because personal liberties were more important. Another member dissented by arguing that masking should be mandatory for high school students due to overwhelming safety concerns.
Sometimes this conflict was apparent even in individuals. On her way out the door, one member said she was going to “pray real hard” about what to do about masking in schools, moments after asking if the school board could get sued if it didn’t implement more stringent measures.
These conflicts are being fostered by a lack of local political support for public health measures, which reflects the greater coronavirus tragedy in the American Midwest. The superintendent of the school district, for example, plans to open schools with few safety measures in place, despite the local public health leaders providing opposing advice.
At the state level, Gov. Reynolds never instituted a statewide lockdown and recommended closing most businesses for only a little over a month. This meant some local business owners felt entitled to actively try to impede public health measures, including calling the hospital and demanding them to stop putting educational videos on Facebook because it was hurting business.
Statewide, the governor’s approval rating over handling the coronavirus outbreak is markedly low in part because of her lack of leadership on public health measures.
When I asked people what they have taken away from these leaders’ actions (and inactions), most say that because there was never a state lockdown and the state is open, there is no need to wear masks. This sentiment is perpetuated from the top and embodied in local behavior: The pandemic is over. Now you’re on your own.
“A theater of masks”
As a regional tourist destination, the Iowa Great Lakes region has a strong vacation vibe, even in the pandemic. Many young people in the area, for example, still exhibit the carefree frivolity of summer — packing bars, boats, and barges with booze.
“Everyone has Covid!” is a common excuse I heard to forgo masking and social distancing around town. Other people worry, “Nobody will take it seriously until someone prominent in the community dies.” (This is despite the fact that six people now have died, including some who were well known.)
Some (incorrectly) believe that because Covid-19 has largely affected the young in the region, there is a weaker strain of the virus circulating, dubbed “corona light.”
A 21-year-old waiter called mask-wearing a “theater of masks.” I see people touching their faces, moving masks up and down to take orders. Others say masks do more harm because they make you ingest more carbon dioxide (that’s entirely untrue). If you wear a mask, you’re a “maskhole” or a “fool.” Why use them? If nobody else wears one, why should I?
In a Facebook post, Richard Ashby, who was visiting from Texas, described an altercation over masks in the Iowa Great Lakes region over the July Fourth weekend. When he wore a mask in a Casey’s convenience store, he was harassed by a group of young men not wearing masks. He and his partner were the only people masked at the convenience store:
Elsewhere in this region, workers at national stores such as Walmart have worn masks consistently for months. I spoke to a manager at Menards, a regional home improvement chain, who said they have been required to wear masks since March.
When the staff first was required to wear masks, she made extras for her coworkers who had fewer means. She said it wasn’t a big deal and wants to keep herself, family, and community safe. Although, she notes, they are occasionally harassed by customers.
In the past month, both Walmart and Menards made mask-wearing mandatory for customers nationwide, regardless of local mask rules. Because of this, a high-ranking elected official told me, he “avoids” Walmart altogether because masking encroaches on his personal choice.
Corona contested
The divisive atmosphere in the Iowa Great Lakes Region around the coronavirus isn’t that uncommon, especially in other parts of rural America where the response to the virus remains contentious. Without a unified state or national response, the patchwork we have created will allow coronavirus to spread, loved ones to die, and communities to fracture.
Many individuals remain conflicted about the situation, too, and beliefs around masks and staying home have created animosity among neighbors and friction among friends. One teacher told me her son’s friends changed according to the families who stayed home and those who did not.
These times are radically altering our community dynamics and demonstrate how splintered our society has become. But only by understanding one another and rebuilding trust in our institutions, science, and each other can we come out of this crisis stronger.
Emily Mendenhall is a Provost’s Distinguished Associate Professor in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. She is the author of Rethinking Diabetes and more than 70 articles, books, and commentaries at the intersection of anthropology, public health, and medicine. She graduated from Spirit Lake High School in the Iowa Great Lakes. She thanks Lori Eich, Dr. Abby Adams, and Dr. Adam Koon for their comments on this article.
David Thoreson is an adventure photographer and author of One Island, One Ocean, about his expedition around the Americas. He has an extensive portfolio of photos around the Iowa Great Lakes region, where he spends his summers.
Correction: An earlier version of this story stated that there were no cases in Dickinson County before May 1. In fact, there were six cases before May 1. It also stated there were only six cases by Memorial Day; the correct number is eight.
Will you become our 20,000th supporter? When the economy took a downturn in the spring and we started asking readers for financial contributions, we weren’t sure how it would go. Today, we’re humbled to say that nearly 20,000 people have chipped in. The reason is both lovely and surprising: Readers told us that they contribute both because they value explanation and because they value that other people can access it, too. We have always believed that explanatory journalism is vital for a functioning democracy. That’s never been more important than today, during a public health crisis, racial justice protests, a recession, and a presidential election. But our distinctive explanatory journalism is expensive, and advertising alone won’t let us keep creating it at the quality and volume this moment requires. Your financial contribution will not constitute a donation, but it will help keep Vox free for all. Contribute today from as little as $3.


vox--2020-08-08--Trump just signed 4 executive orders providing coronavirus relief. It’s not clear if they’re all leg

Trump just signed 4 executive orders providing coronavirus relief. It’s not clear if they’re all legal.

President Donald Trump signed four executive orders meant to provide coronavirus relief on Saturday , including a measure to extend federal enhanced unemployment benefits and a moratorium on housing evictions .
Trump ’ s use of executive authority comes after Senate Republicans and House Democrats failed to settle on the contents of the US ’ s next coronavirus relief package in more than two weeks of contentious negotiations .
In those negotiations , Democrats hoped to extend the $ 600 federal unemployment insurance benefit created by the CARES Act , to broaden the scope of eligibility for stimulus checks , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and cities .
Republicans were divided in their goals , with Trump pushing for a payroll tax cut many in his party weren ’ t in favor of ; some Senate Republicans advocating for a reduced employment benefit and limited aid to cities and states ; and other Republicans demanding that the federal government not go into further debt with relief packages .
Saturday , Trump cast lawmakers ’ inability to reach a deal as Democrats ’ fault , and in a press conference at his private golf club in Bedminster , New @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his political rivals and the press , announced the four executive orders .
It remains unclear whether Trump has the legal authority to unilaterally fulfill all of the specific pledges he made during his announcement , however .
The first order addresses the unemployment insurance issue .
As Vox ’ s Li Zhou and Ella Nilsen have reported , about 32 million Americans depended on the federal program to boost state unemployment payments to levels that made paying their bills possible .
That program expired on July 31 , leaving August ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s order would give unemployed people an expanded benefit of $ 400 per week , but exactly when they can expect to receive these benefits is unclear — as are the overall specifics .
Trump said that $ 300 of the expanded benefit will be paid by the federal government , and $ 100 of it would be provided by states .
But due to the pandemic-induced recession and inadequate federal aid , many states are bleeding money and being forced to cut back on vital social services ; some political observers say @ @ @ @ @ @ @ some states would be able to foot the bill for their quarter of the extra unemployment insurance .
It ’ s also unclear where exactly the federal funds would come from .
Another issue with the order is its questionable legality , some experts note .
“ I seriously have been running through all I know about [ unemployment insurance ] and can not figure out a single legal way to increase it through [ executive order ] , ” tweeted Michele Evermore , a senior policy analyst at the National Employment Law @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a key White House priority in the bipartisan stimulus negotiations ; Democrats and some Republicans were against it .
But Trump announced he would institute a tax holiday for Americans earning less than $ 100,000 per year .
The holiday would retroactively be in force starting August 1 , and last through December .
Trump added he would seek to make that payroll tax cut permanent if reelected president .
The third action is a reinstatement of a federal moratorium on housing evictions , which expired in July , leaving an estimated 12 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ homes .
The protection will last through the end of the year , as does the benefit extended by the fourth order : keeping student loan interest at 0 percent , and freezing loan payments .
Trump framed his signing of the executive actions as an attempt to break gridlock , and a necessary maneuver for ending Democratic stonewalling in negotiations .
“ [ House Speaker ] Nancy Pelosi and [ Senate Minority Leader ] Chuck Schumer have chosen to hold this vital assistance hostage , ” Trump said during his announcement on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ immediately backed Trump ’ s move , and took a swipe at Democrats .
“ I am glad that President Trump is proving that while Democrats use laid-off workers as political pawns , Republicans will actually look out for them , ” he said in a statement on Saturday .
When first floating the idea of the executive orders , Trump dismissed concerns about lawsuits over the legality of the move , and did so again Saturday , predicting that any legal challenge “ will go very rapidly through the courts.
” An @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in advance of Trump ’ s executive actions took a different view , noting , “ The Constitution puts control of federal spending in the hands of Congress , not the president , so Trump does not have the legal authority to issue executive orders determining how money should be spent on coronavirus .
Democrats said executive orders would prompt a court fight , but legal action could take months.
” Trump suggested Saturday that lawsuits will not materialize , saying , “ If we get sued , it ’ s somebody that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ money , okay , and that ’ s not going to be a very popular thing ” — seeming to suggest that if Democrats issue legal challenges to the executive orders , Republicans will argue Democrats are depriving the public of something badly needed .
But there may be an advantage to interrogating the legality of the orders .
Democrats have a political interest in maintaining leverage through the legislative process : If a court rules relief has to come through Congress , then Democrats can get more of what they actually want @ @ @ @ @ @ @ things like robust aid to states and cities , funding for the November election , and potentially more money for enhanced unemployment insurance .
Every day at Vox , we aim to answer your most important questions and provide you , and our audience around the world , with information that has the power to save lives .
Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment : to empower you through understanding .
Vox ’ s work is reaching more people than ever , but our distinctive brand @ @ @ @ @ @ @ during a pandemic and an economic downturn .
Your financial contribution will not constitute a donation , but it will enable our staff to continue to offer free articles , videos , and podcasts at the quality and volume that this moment requires .
Please consider making a contribution to Vox today .

President Donald Trump signed four executive orders meant to provide coronavirus relief on Saturday, including a measure to extend federal enhanced unemployment benefits and potential limitations on housing evictions.
Trump’s use of executive authority comes after Senate Republicans and House Democrats failed to settle on the contents of the US’s next coronavirus relief package in more than two weeks of contentious negotiations. In those negotiations, Democrats hoped to extend the $600 federal unemployment insurance benefit created by the CARES Act, to broaden the scope of eligibility for stimulus checks, and to expand federal aid to states and cities.
Republicans were divided in their goals, with Trump pushing for a payroll tax cut many in his party weren’t in favor of; some Senate Republicans advocating for a reduced employment benefit and limited aid to cities and states; and other Republicans demanding that the federal government not go into further debt with relief packages.
Saturday, Trump cast lawmakers’ inability to reach a deal as Democrats’ fault, and in a press conference at his private golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, that featured wide-ranging attacks on his political rivals and the press, announced the four executive orders. It remains unclear whether Trump has the legal authority to unilaterally fulfill all of the specific pledges he made during his announcement, however.
The first order addresses the unemployment insurance issue. As Vox’s Li Zhou and Ella Nilsen have reported, about 32 million Americans depended on the federal program to boost state unemployment payments to levels that made paying their bills possible. That program expired on July 31, leaving August’s bill payments in doubt.
Trump’s order would give unemployed people an expanded benefit of $400 per week, but exactly when they can expect to receive these benefits is unclear — as are the overall specifics. Trump said that $300 of the expanded benefit will be paid by the federal government, and $100 of it would be provided by states. But due to the pandemic-induced recession and inadequate federal aid, many states are bleeding money and being forced to cut back on vital social services; some political observers say it’s hard to envision how some states would be able to foot the bill for their quarter of the extra unemployment insurance. It’s also unclear where exactly the federal funds would come from.
Another issue with the order is its questionable legality, some experts note. “I seriously have been running through all I know about [unemployment insurance] and cannot figure out a single legal way to increase it through [executive order],” tweeted Michele Evermore, a senior policy analyst at the National Employment Law Project.
A payroll tax cut, the second executive order, was a key White House priority in the bipartisan stimulus negotiations; Democrats and some Republicans were against it. But Trump announced he would institute a tax holiday for Americans earning less than $100,000 per year. The holiday would retroactively be in force starting August 1, and last through December. Trump added he would seek to make the payroll tax holiday a permanent cut if reelected president, meaning those who benefited from it would then not have to pay back taxes.
The third action addresses the federal moratorium on housing evictions that expired in July, leaving an estimated 12 million renters in danger of losing their homes. The housing order instructs the secretaries of Housing and Urban Development, Health and Human Services, and the Treasury to consider limiting both evictions and foreclosures. Any protections would last through the end of the year, as would the benefit extended by the fourth order: keeping student loan interest at zero percent, and freezing loan payments.
Trump framed his signing of the executive actions as an attempt to break gridlock, and a necessary maneuver for ending Democratic stonewalling in negotiations.
“[House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi and [Senate Minority Leader] Chuck Schumer have chosen to hold this vital assistance hostage,” Trump said during his announcement on Saturday.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell immediately backed Trump’s move, and took a swipe at Democrats. “I am glad that President Trump is proving that while Democrats use laid-off workers as political pawns, Republicans will actually look out for them,” he said in a statement on Saturday.
When first floating the idea of the executive orders, Trump dismissed concerns about lawsuits over the legality of the move, and did so again Saturday, predicting that any legal challenge “will go very rapidly through the courts.”
An analysis by Reuters’ Patricia Zengerle written in advance of Trump’s executive actions took a different view, noting, “The Constitution puts control of federal spending in the hands of Congress, not the president, so Trump does not have the legal authority to issue executive orders determining how money should be spent on coronavirus. Democrats said executive orders would prompt a court fight, but legal action could take months.”
Trump suggested Saturday that lawsuits will not materialize, saying, “If we get sued, it’s somebody that doesn’t want people to get money, okay, and that’s not going to be a very popular thing” — seeming to suggest that if Democrats issue legal challenges to the executive orders, Republicans will argue Democrats are depriving the public of something badly needed.
But there may be an advantage to interrogating the legality of the orders. Democrats have a political interest in maintaining leverage through the legislative process: If a court rules relief has to come through Congress, then Democrats can get more of what they actually want into the final relief law, including things like robust aid to states and cities, funding for the November election, and potentially more money for enhanced unemployment insurance.
Will you become our 20,000th supporter? When the economy took a downturn in the spring and we started asking readers for financial contributions, we weren’t sure how it would go. Today, we’re humbled to say that nearly 20,000 people have chipped in. The reason is both lovely and surprising: Readers told us that they contribute both because they value explanation and because they value that other people can access it, too. We have always believed that explanatory journalism is vital for a functioning democracy. That’s never been more important than today, during a public health crisis, racial justice protests, a recession, and a presidential election. But our distinctive explanatory journalism is expensive, and advertising alone won’t let us keep creating it at the quality and volume this moment requires. Your financial contribution will not constitute a donation, but it will help keep Vox free for all. Contribute today from as little as $3.


vox--2020-08-08--Thousands of protesters in Beirut call for “the fall of the regime” in the wake of the blast

Thousands of demonstrators faced tear gas and rubber bullets in clashes with police in Beirut , Lebanon , on Saturday in protests sparked by a massive explosion in the Lebanese capital last week .
The blast killed more than 150 , injured around 6,000 , and left about 300,000 people without homes .
Experts say the blast , one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in recent history , its causes still unclear , has dramatically intensified political and economic crises that preceded the explosion , while further corroding public trust in Lebanon ’ s government .
Thousands of protesters took @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , some gathering peacefully , and some throwing stones .
Demonstrators chanted slogans including , “ The people want the fall of the regime ” — a popular chant during the Arab Spring in 2011 — and “ Revolution , Revolution.
” Protesters also held posters addressed to the country ’ s leaders that bore messages like , “ Leave , you are all killers , ” and signs commemorating the lives of people killed by the explosion .
A group of protesters broke into the foreign ministry and burned a portrait of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their way into the Association of Lebanese Banks .
When demonstrators tried to remove a barrier to enter the parliament building , police fired tear gas at them .
Police also fired live ammunition into the air in an attempt to get crowds to disperse .
The origins of the explosion that spurred the protests are not yet known .
On Tuesday , two explosions in Beirut ’ s port area sent a red mushroom cloud thousands of feet into the air above the city .
Lebanese officials say over 2,700 tons of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ make both bombs and fertilizer , had been stored there for six years without safety measures .
Aoun said on Friday the government was investigating whether the explosion was triggered by a bomb , negligence , an accident or something else .
But protesters and much of the Lebanese public are skeptical of the government ’ s commitment to a serious investigation , and see the event as yet another sign of deep-rooted corruption and incompetence in Lebanon ’ s political class .
“ The chickens are coming home to roost , ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ research at the think tank Triangle Policy Research Center , told Vox .
He pointed to a three-pronged economic disaster , made up of a banking crisis , a currency crisis , and a sovereign debt crisis , that helped inspire a protest movement in Lebanon last October as having stoked widespread distrust of the government — and as intensifying the anger fueling today ’ s protests .
Rachel Raedi , a 20-year-old in Beirut , told the Guardian , “ We were here in October , and so was our friend , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Lebanon a better place .
And now she is dead.
” Lebanon was in trouble before the explosion hit As Vox ’ s Alex Ward has explained , Lebanon ’ s economy has been in abysmal shape for a long time , and the country ’ s faith in its government to operate in the public interest has been waning for many years : The nation ’ s leaders mismanaged the economy for decades , namely with a Ponzi-like scheme whisking away the hard-earned money of Lebanese people from banks to keep the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and line the pockets of those in charge .
The troubled policy screeched to a halt after the country ’ s banks simply ran out of money last year — meaning Lebanese workers lost savings they ’ d stored in accounts and expected to be available when needed .
That worsened an already bad situation : the unemployment rate hovers around 25 percent and about a third of the country lives below the poverty line .
The lack of funds has pushed millions into poverty , forcing some to eat at best @ @ @ @ @ @ @ made worse as the lira , Lebanon ’ s currency , has collapsed , driving the prices of necessary items like food upward .
It ’ s why many experts fear Lebanon may soon see refugees flock out of the country , though they have few places to go in the war-torn region .
The explosion in Beirut has galvanized activists and disenchanted citizens while generating a new set of pressures on the government to meet the country ’ s many pressing needs .
“ We are staying here , ” a protester @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Reuters .
“ We call on the Lebanese people to occupy all the ministries.
” The most urgent needs are humanitarian ones .
The blast took out Lebanon ’ s only large grain silo , for example , and United Nations agencies are helping provide medical aid and food to the country .
An unknown number of people remain missing , and 300,000 people are living without basic accommodation and are in desperate need of shelter .
And as Bujar Hoxha , the director of the aid group CARE ’ s Lebanon operation @ @ @ @ @ @ @ help address the effects the explosion has had on people ’ s mental health .
“ These people were already facing immense trauma , but this adds more fuel to what they were feeling , ” Hoxha said .
“ I don ’ t know how much more they can take.
” But protesters do not just want their immediate needs fulfilled .
Ultimately , their demands go far deeper — they are calling for structural changes and massive resignations across the political class .
Tens of thousands of people have indicated through @ @ @ @ @ @ @ trust the government to handle the influx of international aid to help with the aftermath of the explosion , with some signing a petition for France to retake control of the country .
Prime Minister Hassan Diab , who was appointed in December 2019 , said he understood demonstrators ’ frustrations on Saturday , but stressed the economic situation was not his fault , according to Reuters .
And despite the mistrust the public has for politicians , he proposed elections as the solution to the crises Lebanon has faced : “ We @ @ @ @ @ @ @ without early parliamentary elections , ” he said .
Every day at Vox , we aim to answer your most important questions and provide you , and our audience around the world , with information that has the power to save lives .
Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment : to empower you through understanding .
Vox ’ s work is reaching more people than ever , but our distinctive brand of explanatory journalism takes resources — particularly during a pandemic and an economic downturn .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ donation , but it will enable our staff to continue to offer free articles , videos , and podcasts at the quality and volume that this moment requires .
Please consider making a contribution to Vox today .

Thousands of demonstrators faced tear gas and rubber bullets in clashes with police in Beirut, Lebanon, on Saturday in protests sparked by a massive explosion in the Lebanese capital last week. The blast killed more than 150, injured around 6,000, and left about 300,000 people without homes.
Experts say the blast, one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in recent history, its causes still unclear, has dramatically intensified political and economic crises that preceded the explosion, while further corroding public trust in Lebanon’s government.
Thousands of protesters took to the streets in the city center, some gathering peacefully, and some throwing stones. Demonstrators chanted slogans including, “The people want the fall of the regime” — a popular chant during the Arab Spring in 2011 — and “Revolution, Revolution.” Protesters also held posters addressed to the country’s leaders that bore messages like, “Leave, you are all killers,” and signs commemorating the lives of people killed by the explosion.
A group of protesters broke into the foreign ministry and burned a portrait of Lebanese President Michel Aoun. Others forced their way into the Association of Lebanese Banks. When demonstrators tried to remove a barrier to enter the parliament building, police fired tear gas at them. Police also fired live ammunition into the air in an attempt to get crowds to disperse.
The origins of the explosion that spurred the protests are not yet known. On Tuesday, two explosions in Beirut’s port area sent a red mushroom cloud thousands of feet into the air above the city. Lebanese officials say over 2,700 tons of ammonium nitrate, which is used to make both bombs and fertilizer, had been stored there for six years without safety measures.
Aoun said on Friday the government was investigating whether the explosion was triggered by a bomb, negligence, an accident or something else.
But protesters and much of the Lebanese public are skeptical of the government’s commitment to a serious investigation, and see the event as yet another sign of deep-rooted corruption and incompetence in Lebanon’s political class.
“The chickens are coming home to roost,” Nizar Ghanem, the Beirut-based director of research at the think tank Triangle Policy Research Center, told Vox. He pointed to a three-pronged economic disaster, made up of a banking crisis, a currency crisis, and a sovereign debt crisis, that helped inspire a protest movement in Lebanon last October as having stoked widespread distrust of the government — and as intensifying the anger fueling today’s protests.
Rachel Raedi, a 20-year-old in Beirut, told the Guardian, “We were here in October, and so was our friend, she was campaigning for change to make Lebanon a better place. And now she is dead.”
Lebanon was in trouble before the explosion hit
As Vox’s Alex Ward has explained, Lebanon’s economy has been in abysmal shape for a long time, and the country’s faith in its government to operate in the public interest has been waning for many years:
The nation’s leaders mismanaged the economy for decades, namely with a Ponzi-like scheme whisking away the hard-earned money of Lebanese people from banks to keep the government afloat, pay off public debts, and line the pockets of those in charge. The troubled policy screeched to a halt after the country’s banks simply ran out of money last year — meaning Lebanese workers lost savings they’d stored in accounts and expected to be available when needed. That worsened an already bad situation: the unemployment rate hovers around 25 percent and about a third of the country lives below the poverty line. The lack of funds has pushed millions into poverty, forcing some to eat at best every other day. That’s made worse as the lira, Lebanon’s currency, has collapsed, driving the prices of necessary items like food upward. It’s why many experts fear Lebanon may soon see refugees flock out of the country, though they have few places to go in the war-torn region.
The explosion in Beirut has galvanized activists and disenchanted citizens while generating a new set of pressures on the government to meet the country’s many pressing needs.
“We are staying here,” a protester with a megaphone said, according to Reuters. “We call on the Lebanese people to occupy all the ministries.”
The most urgent needs are humanitarian ones. The blast took out Lebanon’s only large grain silo, for example, and United Nations agencies are helping provide medical aid and food to the country. An unknown number of people remain missing, and 300,000 people are living without basic accommodation and are in desperate need of shelter. And as Bujar Hoxha, the director of the aid group CARE’s Lebanon operation told Ward, resources are needed to help address the effects the explosion has had on people’s mental health.
“These people were already facing immense trauma, but this adds more fuel to what they were feeling,” Hoxha said. “I don’t know how much more they can take.”
But protesters do not just want their immediate needs fulfilled. Ultimately, their demands go far deeper — they are calling for structural changes and massive resignations across the political class. Tens of thousands of people have indicated through petitions that they don’t even trust the government to handle the influx of international aid to help with the aftermath of the explosion, with some signing a petition for France to retake control of the country.
Prime Minister Hassan Diab, who was appointed in December 2019, said he understood demonstrators’ frustrations on Saturday, but stressed the economic situation was not his fault, according to Reuters. And despite the mistrust the public has for politicians, he proposed elections as the solution to the crises Lebanon has faced: “We cannot get out of this crisis without early parliamentary elections,” he said.


vox--2020-08-08--Trump falsely claims coronavirus is “disappearing” and Russia isn’t meddling in the 2020 election

President Donald Trump called a surprise news conference on Friday night at his private golf club in Bedminster , New Jersey , speaking to reporters before a crowd of cheering club members who infused the event with the tone of a miniature campaign rally .
Trump used the occasion to again push false claims that Covid-19 is “ disappearing , ” contradicted his intelligence agencies ’ findings on foreign interference in the election , and made misleading and questionable claims about using executive orders to break Washington gridlock — while also announcing plans to implement a policy that already exists @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was caught talking to his members about the press using language meant to delegitimize anticipated criticism .
” You ’ ll get to meet the fake news tonight .
You ’ ll get to see what I have to go through , ” Trump said , according to CNN ’ s Jim Acosta .
“ Who ’ s there ?
Oh all my killers are there , wow .
So you ’ ll get to see some of the people that we deal with every day.
” Throughout the conference , Trump appeared @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
For instance , when a reporter questioned that some club members decided not to wear masks during the event , Trump deflected by claiming his supporters were under no obligation to do so because they were engaged in “ peaceful protest , ” prompting laughter and cheers from the crowd .
In his remarks directly addressing the coronavirus pandemic , Trump echoed an incorrect claim he made Wednesday , saying , “ It ’ s disappearing , it ’ s going to disappear.
” Dr. Anthony Fauci , the Trump administration ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rebutted this claim in an interview with Reuters , calling it “ unlikely ” — and saying while he believes public health measures and a successful vaccine will help the world get Covid-19 under control , “ I don ’ t think we ’ re going to eradicate this from the planet.
” The number of Americans dying from the coronavirus shows just how far the country is from reaching that point — and how false Trump ’ s continued promise the virus will vanish is .
Deaths from Covid-19 in the US @ @ @ @ @ @ @ week , according to the Covid Tracking Project .
And many public health experts don ’ t expect a vaccine that could curtail the threat posed by the coronavirus to become widely available until mid-2021 .
In his remarks Friday , Trump also revived a debunked talking point that cases of the virus were only going up “ because we are doing a lot of testing.
” A STAT analysis in July showed that in the overwhelming majority of states , the case count rose in recent months “ because there was actually @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pointed to increasing hospitalizations and deaths as a sign Covid-19 ’ s spread has accelerated .
Most Americans do not accept Trump ’ s logic on testing , according to a Pew study conducted from July 27 to August 2 .
The researchers found 60 percent of Americans do not agree that there are only more Covid-19 cases because testing has increased .
However , the researchers found a marked partisan split on the issue , with 62 percent of Republicans feeling more testing is leading to more cases , a position 19 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ also made false and misleading claims about elections and coronavirus relief Beyond spreading incorrect information about the coronavirus , the president also addressed the 2020 presidential election , downplaying the threat of foreign interference on his behalf in the upcoming election by blatantly dismissing the findings of his own intelligence agencies while casting mail-in voting as dangerous .
When a reporter cited a new assessment by the US intelligence community — which found Russia is using a “ range of measures ” to undermine presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and that China @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s chances of reelection — Trump dismissed it .
While the president initially said the intelligence in the report “ could be ” correct , he immediately pivoted , saying , “ The last person Russia wants to see in office is Donald Trump , because nobody ’ s been tougher on Russia than I have , ever.
” When reminded , “ That ’ s not what the intelligence says , ” Trump retorted , “ I don ’ t care what anybody says , ” and proceeded to argue that policies @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to increase their contributions to the Western military alliance prove he ’ s tough on Russia and that Moscow would not want him in office .
Trump also cast mail-in voting as “ the biggest risk we have , ” and said he was concerned that foreign meddling could take place through mail-in ballots .
But experts on voting say there ’ s a consensus that mail-in ballots are historically a reliable and safe way of voting , and that there ’ s no evidence they can be used to commit mass fraud @ @ @ @ @ @ @ While the election is still months away , millions of Americans have immediate concerns about where they will live and how they will pay bills now that the federal unemployment insurance and the eviction protections instituted by the CARES Act have expired .
Democrats and Republicans failed to come to an agreement on extending those protections after weeks of negotiations , stymied in part by the president making demands that were not supported by his party , such as a payroll tax cut .
To fill the gap left by these programs , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to use executive orders to put into place a host of sweeping measures , including extended moratoriums on evictions and unemployment benefits .
But he avoided questions on how he could legally circumvent Congress to do so .
Notably , the president went on to promise the release of an executive order ensuring insurance companies “ cover all preexisting conditions for all customers , ” adding that “ this has never been done before.
” This was misleading on at least two fronts .
First , protections against being denied coverage on the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ into law under the Affordable Care Act during the Obama administration , and remain law .
Second , Trump and the GOP have sought for years — unsuccessfully — to repeal the Affordable Care Act without offering a realistic alternative plan , which effectively means the president has been seeking to strip people of protections for preexisting conditions .
The conference concluded with a reporter questioning Trump ’ s claims that the pandemic is disappearing , and asking about the wisdom of allowing attending club members to not wear masks in light of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that the pandemic is disappearing , but we lost 6,000 Americans this week and just in this room you have dozens of people who are not following the guidelines in New Jersey , ” a reporter said , which prompted boos from the crowd .
“ You ’ re wrong about that because it ’ s a political activity , ” Trump said .
“ And it ’ s also a peaceful protest.
” In ending the conference , Trump placed the blame the country ’ s crises on a habitual foe : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ press in this country were honest , it wasn ’ t corrupt , if it wasn ’ t fake , our country would be so much further ahead , but we ’ re doing really great.
” Every day at Vox , we aim to answer your most important questions and provide you , and our audience around the world , with information that has the power to save lives .
Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment : to empower you through understanding .
Vox ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ever , but our distinctive brand of explanatory journalism takes resources — particularly during a pandemic and an economic downturn .
Your financial contribution will not constitute a donation , but it will enable our staff to continue to offer free articles , videos , and podcasts at the quality and volume that this moment requires .
Please consider making a contribution to Vox today .

President Donald Trump called a surprise news conference on Friday night at his private golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, speaking to reporters before a crowd of cheering club members who infused the event with the tone of a miniature campaign rally.
Trump used the occasion to again push false claims that Covid-19 is “disappearing,” contradicted his intelligence agencies’ findings on foreign interference in the election, and made misleading and questionable claims about using executive orders to break Washington gridlock — while also announcing plans to implement a policy that already exists.
Before the event started, Trump was caught talking to his members about the press using language meant to delegitimize anticipated criticism.
”You’ll get to meet the fake news tonight. You’ll get to see what I have to go through,” Trump said, according to CNN’s Jim Acosta. “Who’s there? Oh all my killers are there, wow. So you’ll get to see some of the people that we deal with every day.”
Throughout the conference, Trump appeared to play to the crowd before him. For instance, when a reporter questioned that some club members decided not to wear masks during the event, Trump deflected by claiming his supporters were under no obligation to do so because they were engaged in “peaceful protest,” prompting laughter and cheers from the crowd.
In his remarks directly addressing the coronavirus pandemic, Trump echoed an incorrect claim he made Wednesday, saying, “It’s disappearing, it’s going to disappear.”
"It's going to disappear" -- Trump is still out here falsely claiming the coronavirus will one day just vanish, and is trying to turn reality on its head by suggesting over 10 percent unemployment is good pic.twitter.com/R3XS7w1mBI — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 7, 2020
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the Trump administration’s top infectious disease official, recently rebutted this claim in an interview with Reuters, calling it “unlikely” — and saying while he believes public health measures and a successful vaccine will help the world get Covid-19 under control, “I don’t think we’re going to eradicate this from the planet.”
The number of Americans dying from the coronavirus shows just how far the country is from reaching that point — and how false Trump’s continued promise the virus will vanish is. Deaths from Covid-19 in the US increased for the fifth straight week this week, according to the Covid Tracking Project. And many public health experts don’t expect a vaccine that could curtail the threat posed by the coronavirus to become widely available until mid-2021.
In his remarks Friday, Trump also revived a debunked talking point that cases of the virus were only going up “because we are doing a lot of testing.” A STAT analysis in July showed that in the overwhelming majority of states, the case count rose in recent months “because there was actually more disease.” Moreover, epidemiologists have pointed to increasing hospitalizations and deaths as a sign Covid-19’s spread has accelerated.
Most Americans do not accept Trump’s logic on testing, according to a Pew study conducted from July 27 to August 2. The researchers found 60 percent of Americans do not agree that there are only more Covid-19 cases because testing has increased. However, the researchers found a marked partisan split on the issue, with 62 percent of Republicans feeling more testing is leading to more cases, a position 19 percent of Democrats agreed with.
Trump also made false and misleading claims about elections and coronavirus relief
Beyond spreading incorrect information about the coronavirus, the president also addressed the 2020 presidential election, downplaying the threat of foreign interference on his behalf in the upcoming election by blatantly dismissing the findings of his own intelligence agencies while casting mail-in voting as dangerous.
When a reporter cited a new assessment by the US intelligence community — which found Russia is using a “range of measures” to undermine presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and that China is considering working to limit Trump’s chances of reelection — Trump dismissed it.
While the president initially said the intelligence in the report “could be” correct, he immediately pivoted, saying, “The last person Russia wants to see in office is Donald Trump, because nobody’s been tougher on Russia than I have, ever.”
When reminded, “That’s not what the intelligence says,” Trump retorted, “I don’t care what anybody says,” and proceeded to argue that policies like his focus on getting NATO countries to increase their contributions to the Western military alliance prove he’s tough on Russia and that Moscow would not want him in office.
"I don't care what anybody says" -- Trump dismisses the intelligence community's announcement today that Russia is once again helping him pic.twitter.com/dCHTbJctN6 — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 8, 2020
Trump also cast mail-in voting as “the biggest risk we have,” and said he was concerned that foreign meddling could take place through mail-in ballots. But experts on voting say there’s a consensus that mail-in ballots are historically a reliable and safe way of voting, and that there’s no evidence they can be used to commit mass fraud when they’re resourced properly.
While the election is still months away, millions of Americans have immediate concerns about where they will live and how they will pay bills now that the federal unemployment insurance and the eviction protections instituted by the CARES Act have expired.
Democrats and Republicans failed to come to an agreement on extending those protections after weeks of negotiations, stymied in part by the president making demands that were not supported by his party, such as a payroll tax cut.
To fill the gap left by these programs, Trump promised — in vague terms — to use executive orders to put into place a host of sweeping measures, including extended moratoriums on evictions and unemployment benefits. But he avoided questions on how he could legally circumvent Congress to do so.
Notably, the president went on to promise the release of an executive order ensuring insurance companies “cover all preexisting conditions for all customers,” adding that “this has never been done before.”
This was misleading on at least two fronts. First, protections against being denied coverage on the basis of preexisting conditions were already signed into law under the Affordable Care Act during the Obama administration, and remain law. Second, Trump and the GOP have sought for years — unsuccessfully — to repeal the Affordable Care Act without offering a realistic alternative plan, which effectively means the president has been seeking to strip people of protections for preexisting conditions.
The conference concluded with a reporter questioning Trump’s claims that the pandemic is disappearing, and asking about the wisdom of allowing attending club members to not wear masks in light of the ongoing pandemic.
“You said that the pandemic is disappearing, but we lost 6,000 Americans this week and just in this room you have dozens of people who are not following the guidelines in New Jersey,” a reporter said, which prompted boos from the crowd.
“You’re wrong about that because it’s a political activity,” Trump said. “And it’s also a peaceful protest.”
In ending the conference, Trump placed the blame for the country’s crises on a habitual foe: The press itself. “If the press in this country were honest, if it wasn’t corrupt, if it wasn’t fake, our country would be so much further ahead, but we’re doing really great.”


vox--2020-08-08--How coronavirus devastated Texas’s vulnerable borderlands

It was a Friday night , and Ivan Melendez , the public health authority for Hidalgo County , Texas , had been on the job since 7 am .
He was preparing to put in another 10 hours of work as he parked outside Edinburg Regional Medical Center , about a half-hour drive from the Mexican border .
He knew what to expect inside the hospital , where an office space had been converted into a temporary Covid-19 floor with about 50 beds separated by curtains .
For months , he had witnessed scenes that had once been unimaginable : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ patients ; people forced to catch last glimpses of their loved ones by phone because they couldn ’ t be bedside ; doctors and nurses collapsing into tears amid all the suffering .
“ The other patients are looking at them not wanting to be intubated because they know what that means : They ’ re slowly dying , ” Melendez said .
For Melendez , who has been in the thick of the pandemic since March , it ’ s a crisis that ’ s been both professional and personal in nature @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sixth-grade teacher , and a nurse he ’ s known for 30 years is dying .
He contracted Covid-19 himself and technically recovered weeks ago , but he ’ s still feeling sluggish .
He nevertheless continues to visit five Covid-19 units at hospitals across the county every single day .
“ It ’ s just a nightmare , ” he said .
“ It ’ s a completely surreal world .
When you ’ re driving down the expressway , you see these very well-appointed hospital buildings with beautiful landscaping and nice @ @ @ @ @ @ @ inside those walls , it would change their attitude .
It would change their behavior.
” Hidalgo is one of four counties in Texas ’ s hard-hit Rio Grande Valley , where there have been more than 37,000 confirmed Covid-19 cases and hospitals have been operating at full capacity .
The area , which is overwhelmingly Hispanic , has some of the highest coronavirus death rates outside of the Northeast — in Hidalgo County , there are roughly 90 deaths per 100,000 people , surpassing other hot spots , including Miami-Dade County in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ wake of Texas ’ s move to reopen on May 1 , earlier than most states , a decision that has come to haunt Gov .
Greg Abbott , a Republican , as the state has become another cautionary tale of the pandemic .
But it ’ s also emblematic of a national trend : Hispanics are dying at a disproportionate rate .
The crisis in the valley is one that government officials in the region had sought to avoid at the outset of the pandemic , knowing that health inequities — almost @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and a high prevalence of underlying health conditions would leave their residents particularly vulnerable to the virus .
At first , the region seemed to be winning the war against the virus .
A stay-at-home order that went into effect in March appeared to stave off a spike in cases .
But cases started rising in the valley after Abbott began Texas ’ s phased reopening on May 1 .
At that point , there were about 800 cases across the region .
But a month later , cases had almost doubled and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ multiplied almost tenfold .
Rural hospitals have been overwhelmed , as have neighboring hospital systems where they have typically diverted patients .
A second disaster , Hurricane Hanna , which struck in late July , has further stretched emergency resources .
While the number of new cases reported across Texas appears to be in decline , the valley still has over 15,000 active cases , showing no sign of significantly slowing transmission .
The state government has since stepped in to offer the region critical assistance in the form of medical personnel , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
But the virus has already wreaked devastation in these borderlands , where more than 1,000 have died as of August 6 .
And the end is nowhere in sight .
“ If people in other parts of the country do not heed the warnings and learn from our circumstances , they will be afflicted , too , ” Joel Villarreal , the mayor of Rio Grande City in the heart of Starr County , said .
“ Today , it ’ s in the Rio Grande Valley .
Tomorrow , it might @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the outbreak in the Rio Grande Valley got so dire The Rio Grande Valley runs through Texas ’ s southernmost tip , encompassing Hidalgo , Cameron , Starr , and Willacy counties and a population of almost 1.4 million people .
It ’ s dotted with small cities , like Rio Grande City and McAllen , that thrived on cross-border trade until the pandemic hit and Trump shut down the US-Mexico border .
Outside the cities , thousands of the valley ’ s poorest residents , mostly recent Mexican immigrants , live in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ such as clean water and solid waste disposal , is lacking .
Villarreal said he first conferred with medical experts , city officials , and first responders in February to determine how they would prepare for the arrival of the virus .
At the time , they knew how devastating it could be for their community given just how medically vulnerable their residents are .
Residents of the Rio Grande Valley have a higher-than-average incidence of underlying conditions , including diabetes , obesity , and heart disease , that put them at greater @ @ @ @ @ @ @ More than a third of families live in poverty and many are uninsured , meaning they rely on community clinics or emergency rooms for medical care .
And they tend to live in multigenerational housing , where younger family members who are more socially active could easily infect their parents and grandparents .
“ Medical experts agreed it wasn ’ t a matter of if but when it was going to come to us , ” Villarreal said .
Before the state government acted , Rio Grande City instituted a number of preventive @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and travel restrictions .
All the mayors of Starr County , as well as the county judge ( the county ’ s chief executive ) , agreed that these kinds of extraordinary measures were necessary to contain the virus , he said .
But when Abbott decided to reopen Texas ’ s economy without input from Starr County , local officials ’ authority to continue to enforce these emergency protocols dissolved .
They could no longer tailor their response to the situation they were observing on the ground : As in other @ @ @ @ @ @ @ advantage of opportunities to socialize , including on Memorial Day and the Fourth of July , leading to a rise in cases .
And there was a high level of transmission occurring at the family level , Melendez said .
As an already medically underserved area pre-pandemic , the Rio Grande Valley faced a crisis of hospital capacity when the virus tore through the region .
Starr County ’ s only hospital had 48 beds for a population of almost 65,000 ; by the Fourth of July , it was at capacity .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ to neighboring hospitals in Cameron County , but they , too , were operating at full capacity at that point , issuing emergency alerts to residents ’ mobile devices ahead of the holiday weekend .
Some patients had to be flown to Dallas and San Antonio because of the lack of beds , but others were simply turned away .
“ Unfortunately , Starr County Memorial Hospital has limited resources and our doctors are going to have to decide who receives treatment , and who is sent home to die by their loved @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Vera wrote on the county ’ s Facebook page on July 23 .
“ This is what we did not want our community to experience .
... We must be responsible for ourselves and our loved ones.
” Across the valley , patients were waiting in ambulances parked outside the hospitals for beds in temporary Covid-19 wards to open up , and crematoriums had weeks-long waiting lists .
Hurricane Hanna — which made landfall on July 25 , causing flash flooding and downed power lines across the Rio Grande Valley — only complicated @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Cities stocked up on extra personal protective equipment on account of the storm , with some dipping into their cash reserves to do so .
For people forced to evacuate their homes , the state set up emergency shelters with reduced capacity in order to comply with social distancing guidelines , handed out face masks and sanitizers , and administered mobile Covid-19 testing and temperature checks .
“ During a time of having a hurricane while also in the midst of an infectious disease pandemic , people gathering in shelters is a particularly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a press conference .
The situation has since stabilized somewhat , in part because the state government has enlisted additional doctors and set up temporary Covid-19 care facilities to relieve the pressure on hospitals .
But Melendez is still working 20 hours a day .
“ All I ’ ve been living is Covid , ” he said .
“ I get calls all night long , all day long.
” The Rio Grande Valley is a microcosm of the coronavirus crisis facing Hispanics nationwide The Rio Grande Valley is overwhelmingly Hispanic , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the border from Mexico and Central America and some without legal status .
It ’ s no surprise that the valley has been particularly hard hit — state and national data shows that Hispanics have been dying at a disproportionately high rate from Covid-19 .
Hispanics account for about 40 percent of Texas ’ s population , but preliminary state data shows Hispanics have accounted for about 51 percent of the state ’ s more than 7,800 fatalities that have been investigated by public health authorities as of August 6 .
And on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ages of 45 and 54 are at least six times more likely to die from the coronavirus than white Americans .
They are more at risk because of where they work and where they live , and because of limited access to health care , Carlos Rodríguez-Díaz , a professor at George Washington University ’ s Milken Institute School of Public Health , said .
In other parts of the country , meatpacking plants — where almost half of workers are Hispanic — became the epicenter of coronavirus outbreaks .
In Texas , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in customer-facing roles where they are more likely to contract the virus , Rodríguez-Díaz said .
When the state began to reopen and business activity resumed , that risk only increased .
It ’ s also more difficult for some Hispanics , particularly recent immigrants , to abide by social distancing recommendations because they live in multigenerational or shared housing .
Among the members of these households , it ’ s common that more than one adult will have to go to work and could potentially carry the virus back home .
“ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at home and quarantine if they might have been exposed , ” Rodríguez-Díaz said .
“ Unfortunately , the housing conditions of many Latino families are not conducive to practice any of those measures.
” Public health resources for Hispanics are also lacking , resulting in confusion about how they should protect themselves from the virus and drawing criticism from Hispanic leaders in the state .
Some Hispanics are less likely to seek medical attention because they find the health care system difficult to navigate .
Many face language barriers , making them @ @ @ @ @ @ @ than fluent English speakers .
For those living in the US without authorization , the fear that seeking medical care could lead to their deportation also serves as a deterrent , Rodríguez-Díaz said .
That fear has only ramped up under President Trump , who has publicly derided Mexicans and sought to clamp down on unauthorized immigration from Mexico .
Local officials wish help had come sooner Abbott visited the Rio Grande Valley on July 28 to evaluate the damage from Hurricane Hanna and determine what more needed to be done to relieve @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the case count in the valley had climbed to over 26,000 .
“ We were in a dire situation , ” Villarreal said .
“ If we would have continued in the same direction , we would have had many more lives lost.
” Abbott has since taken a number of measures to aid the coronavirus response in the valley .
He has provided more than 1,600 medical staff to hospitals facing personnel shortages across the valley and an additional 200 or so in the city of Laredo along the Mexican border , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Texas Department of State Health Services , said .
Abbott also opened a temporary Covid-19 ward at a convention center in the city of McAllen earlier this week with the capacity to treat up to 50 patients under intensive care and 200 patients who are in recovery but not quite ready to be discharged from the hospital yet .
These kinds of alternate care facilities have already been set up in Laredo and Pharr as well , and another one is slated to open in Harlingen , in Cameron County .
“ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the strain on the region ’ s hospitals until we can contain the virus and bring hospitalizations back down , ” Abbott said in a press conference during his visit .
The state has also expanded free testing capacity in cooperation with the federal government , commissioning a “ testing surge ” in Hidalgo County and another high-volume testing effort in McAllen .
And the federal government has sent two 85-person US Army Reserve medical forces to the Rio Grande Valley to support hospitals in the cities of Harlingen and Edinburg .
But @ @ @ @ @ @ @ giving local officials in the valley their “ wish list , ” Melendez says they have needed this kind of help for weeks .
“ It would have been nice if we had it four weeks ago , ” he said .
“ In hindsight , we could have responded sooner with more resources , especially doctors and nurses.
” Melendez said there are also still some areas where they could use more support : Skilled nursing facilities , for example , remain hot spots of infection among people who are highly vulnerable @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they had more manpower , they could be conducting more frequent inspections to ensure compliance with Covid-19 preventive measures .
Hospitals in the valley could also use more medical personnel and bed space , as well as more education campaigns , billboards , and public service announcements to help impress upon residents that transmission starts with them .
And going forward , there has to be some effort to address the underlying health inequities that led the valley to be so vulnerable to the coronavirus in the first place , Melendez said .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ improving access to primary care and health infrastructure in the region , residents might have been healthier and more successful in fighting off the virus .
How officials respond now to these ongoing challenges will dictate whether schools have any chance of opening in the Rio Grande Valley later this year .
With case counts and deaths still mounting — more than 37,000 cases and 1,038 deaths as of August 6 — Melendez says he can ’ t in good conscience recommend that they open , and the 22 school superintendents in Hidalgo @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the calculations and it would mean overwhelming hospital capacity again .
“ How in the world can I put another 5,000 or 6,000 people in the hospital ?
” he said .
“ I can ’ t do that.
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It was a Friday night, and Ivan Melendez, the public health authority for Hidalgo County, Texas, had been on the job since 7 am. He was preparing to put in another 10 hours of work as he parked outside Edinburg Regional Medical Center, about a half-hour drive from the Mexican border.
He knew what to expect inside the hospital, where an office space had been converted into a temporary Covid-19 floor with about 50 beds separated by curtains. For months, he had witnessed scenes that had once been unimaginable: bed after bed of intubated and dying patients; people forced to catch last glimpses of their loved ones by phone because they couldn’t be bedside; doctors and nurses collapsing into tears amid all the suffering.
“The other patients are looking at them not wanting to be intubated because they know what that means: They’re slowly dying,” Melendez said.
For Melendez, who has been in the thick of the pandemic since March, it’s a crisis that’s been both professional and personal in nature: He had to intubate his former sixth-grade teacher, and a nurse he’s known for 30 years is dying. He contracted Covid-19 himself and technically recovered weeks ago, but he’s still feeling sluggish. He nevertheless continues to visit five Covid-19 units at hospitals across the county every single day.
“It’s just a nightmare,” he said. “It’s a completely surreal world. When you’re driving down the expressway, you see these very well-appointed hospital buildings with beautiful landscaping and nice windows. But if people could see inside those walls, it would change their attitude. It would change their behavior.”
Hidalgo is one of four counties in Texas’s hard-hit Rio Grande Valley, where there have been more than 37,000 confirmed Covid-19 cases and hospitals have been operating at full capacity. The area, which is overwhelmingly Hispanic, has some of the highest coronavirus death rates outside of the Northeast — in Hidalgo County, there are roughly 90 deaths per 100,000 people, surpassing other hot spots, including Miami-Dade County in Florida.
The surge came in the wake of Texas’s move to reopen on May 1, earlier than most states, a decision that has come to haunt Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, as the state has become another cautionary tale of the pandemic. But it’s also emblematic of a national trend: Hispanics are dying at a disproportionate rate.
The crisis in the valley is one that government officials in the region had sought to avoid at the outset of the pandemic, knowing that health inequities — almost a third of residents are uninsured — and a high prevalence of underlying health conditions would leave their residents particularly vulnerable to the virus.
At first, the region seemed to be winning the war against the virus. A stay-at-home order that went into effect in March appeared to stave off a spike in cases. But cases started rising in the valley after Abbott began Texas’s phased reopening on May 1. At that point, there were about 800 cases across the region. But a month later, cases had almost doubled and, by July 1, they had multiplied almost tenfold.
Rural hospitals have been overwhelmed, as have neighboring hospital systems where they have typically diverted patients. A second disaster, Hurricane Hanna, which struck in late July, has further stretched emergency resources. While the number of new cases reported across Texas appears to be in decline, the valley still has over 15,000 active cases, showing no sign of significantly slowing transmission.
The state government has since stepped in to offer the region critical assistance in the form of medical personnel, emergency facilities, and extra testing capacity. But the virus has already wreaked devastation in these borderlands, where more than 1,000 have died as of August 6. And the end is nowhere in sight.
“If people in other parts of the country do not heed the warnings and learn from our circumstances, they will be afflicted, too,” Joel Villarreal, the mayor of Rio Grande City in the heart of Starr County, said. “Today, it’s in the Rio Grande Valley. Tomorrow, it might be somewhere in Middle America.”
How the outbreak in the Rio Grande Valley got so dire
The Rio Grande Valley runs through Texas’s southernmost tip, encompassing Hidalgo, Cameron, Starr, and Willacy counties and a population of almost 1.4 million people. It’s dotted with small cities, like Rio Grande City and McAllen, that thrived on cross-border trade until the pandemic hit and Trump shut down the US-Mexico border. Outside the cities, thousands of the valley’s poorest residents, mostly recent Mexican immigrants, live in “colonias” where basic infrastructure, such as clean water and solid waste disposal, is lacking.
Villarreal said he first conferred with medical experts, city officials, and first responders in February to determine how they would prepare for the arrival of the virus. At the time, they knew how devastating it could be for their community given just how medically vulnerable their residents are.
Residents of the Rio Grande Valley have a higher-than-average incidence of underlying conditions, including diabetes, obesity, and heart disease, that put them at greater risk of complications from the virus. More than a third of families live in poverty and many are uninsured, meaning they rely on community clinics or emergency rooms for medical care. And they tend to live in multigenerational housing, where younger family members who are more socially active could easily infect their parents and grandparents.
“Medical experts agreed it wasn’t a matter of if but when it was going to come to us,” Villarreal said.
Before the state government acted, Rio Grande City instituted a number of preventive measures, including a lockdown, curfews, and travel restrictions. All the mayors of Starr County, as well as the county judge (the county’s chief executive), agreed that these kinds of extraordinary measures were necessary to contain the virus, he said.
But when Abbott decided to reopen Texas’s economy without input from Starr County, local officials’ authority to continue to enforce these emergency protocols dissolved. They could no longer tailor their response to the situation they were observing on the ground: As in other parts of Texas, people were taking advantage of opportunities to socialize, including on Memorial Day and the Fourth of July, leading to a rise in cases. And there was a high level of transmission occurring at the family level, Melendez said.
As an already medically underserved area pre-pandemic, the Rio Grande Valley faced a crisis of hospital capacity when the virus tore through the region.
Starr County’s only hospital had 48 beds for a population of almost 65,000; by the Fourth of July, it was at capacity. Previously, the hospital had sent patients to neighboring hospitals in Cameron County, but they, too, were operating at full capacity at that point, issuing emergency alerts to residents’ mobile devices ahead of the holiday weekend. Some patients had to be flown to Dallas and San Antonio because of the lack of beds, but others were simply turned away.
“Unfortunately, Starr County Memorial Hospital has limited resources and our doctors are going to have to decide who receives treatment, and who is sent home to die by their loved ones,” Starr County Judge Eloy Vera wrote on the county’s Facebook page on July 23. “This is what we did not want our community to experience. ... We must be responsible for ourselves and our loved ones.”
Across the valley, patients were waiting in ambulances parked outside the hospitals for beds in temporary Covid-19 wards to open up, and crematoriums had weeks-long waiting lists.
Hurricane Hanna — which made landfall on July 25, causing flash flooding and downed power lines across the Rio Grande Valley — only complicated officials’ response to the pandemic. Cities stocked up on extra personal protective equipment on account of the storm, with some dipping into their cash reserves to do so. For people forced to evacuate their homes, the state set up emergency shelters with reduced capacity in order to comply with social distancing guidelines, handed out face masks and sanitizers, and administered mobile Covid-19 testing and temperature checks.
“During a time of having a hurricane while also in the midst of an infectious disease pandemic, people gathering in shelters is a particularly compromised situation,” Abbott said during a press conference.
The situation has since stabilized somewhat, in part because the state government has enlisted additional doctors and set up temporary Covid-19 care facilities to relieve the pressure on hospitals.
But Melendez is still working 20 hours a day.
“All I’ve been living is Covid,” he said. “I get calls all night long, all day long.”
The Rio Grande Valley is a microcosm of the coronavirus crisis facing Hispanics nationwide
The Rio Grande Valley is overwhelmingly Hispanic, including many recent immigrants who came across the border from Mexico and Central America and some without legal status. It’s no surprise that the valley has been particularly hard hit — state and national data shows that Hispanics have been dying at a disproportionately high rate from Covid-19.
Hispanics account for about 40 percent of Texas’s population, but preliminary state data shows Hispanics have accounted for about 51 percent of the state’s more than 7,800 fatalities that have been investigated by public health authorities as of August 6. And on a national level, Hispanics between the ages of 45 and 54 are at least six times more likely to die from the coronavirus than white Americans.
They are more at risk because of where they work and where they live, and because of limited access to health care, Carlos Rodríguez-Díaz, a professor at George Washington University’s Milken Institute School of Public Health, said.
In other parts of the country, meatpacking plants — where almost half of workers are Hispanic — became the epicenter of coronavirus outbreaks. In Texas, many Hispanics work in the service industry in customer-facing roles where they are more likely to contract the virus, Rodríguez-Díaz said. When the state began to reopen and business activity resumed, that risk only increased.
It’s also more difficult for some Hispanics, particularly recent immigrants, to abide by social distancing recommendations because they live in multigenerational or shared housing. Among the members of these households, it’s common that more than one adult will have to go to work and could potentially carry the virus back home.
“We’re asking people to stay at home and quarantine if they might have been exposed,” Rodríguez-Díaz said. “Unfortunately, the housing conditions of many Latino families are not conducive to practice any of those measures.”
Public health resources for Hispanics are also lacking, resulting in confusion about how they should protect themselves from the virus and drawing criticism from Hispanic leaders in the state.
Some Hispanics are less likely to seek medical attention because they find the health care system difficult to navigate. Many face language barriers, making them more likely to experience adverse health outcomes than fluent English speakers. For those living in the US without authorization, the fear that seeking medical care could lead to their deportation also serves as a deterrent, Rodríguez-Díaz said. That fear has only ramped up under President Trump, who has publicly derided Mexicans and sought to clamp down on unauthorized immigration from Mexico.
Local officials wish help had come sooner
Abbott visited the Rio Grande Valley on July 28 to evaluate the damage from Hurricane Hanna and determine what more needed to be done to relieve pressure on hospitals. By then, the case count in the valley had climbed to over 26,000.
“We were in a dire situation,” Villarreal said. “If we would have continued in the same direction, we would have had many more lives lost.”
Abbott has since taken a number of measures to aid the coronavirus response in the valley. He has provided more than 1,600 medical staff to hospitals facing personnel shortages across the valley and an additional 200 or so in the city of Laredo along the Mexican border, Chris Van Deusen, a spokesperson for the Texas Department of State Health Services, said.
Abbott also opened a temporary Covid-19 ward at a convention center in the city of McAllen earlier this week with the capacity to treat up to 50 patients under intensive care and 200 patients who are in recovery but not quite ready to be discharged from the hospital. These kinds of alternate care facilities have already been set up in Laredo and Pharr as well, and another one is slated to open in Harlingen, in Cameron County.
“This temporary facility in McAllen will lessen the strain on the region’s hospitals until we can contain the virus and bring hospitalizations back down,” Abbott said in a press conference during his visit.
The state has also expanded free testing capacity in cooperation with the federal government, commissioning a “testing surge” in Hidalgo County and another high-volume testing effort in McAllen. And the federal government has sent two 85-person US Army Reserve medical forces to the Rio Grande Valley to support hospitals in the cities of Harlingen and Edinburg.
But while the governor has followed through on giving local officials in the valley their “wish list,” Melendez says they have needed this kind of help for weeks.
“It would have been nice if we had it four weeks ago,” he said. “In hindsight, we could have responded sooner with more resources, especially doctors and nurses.”
Melendez said there are also still some areas where they could use more support: Skilled nursing facilities, for example, remain hot spots of infection among people who are highly vulnerable to complications from Covid-19, and if they had more trained people, they could be conducting more frequent inspections to ensure compliance with Covid-19 preventive measures. Hospitals in the valley could also use more medical personnel and bed space, as well as more education campaigns, billboards, and public service announcements to help impress upon residents that transmission starts with them.
And going forward, there has to be some effort to address the underlying health inequities that led the valley to be so vulnerable to the coronavirus in the first place, Melendez said. If there had been more investment in improving access to primary care and health infrastructure in the region, residents might have been healthier and more successful in fighting off the virus.
How officials respond now to these ongoing challenges will dictate whether schools have any chance of opening in the Rio Grande Valley later this year. With case counts and deaths still mounting — more than 37,000 cases and 1,038 deaths as of August 6 — Melendez says he can’t in good conscience recommend that they open, and the 22 school superintendents in Hidalgo County agree. He’s done the calculations and it would mean overwhelming hospital capacity again.
“How in the world can I put another 5,000 or 6,000 people in the hospital?” he said. “I can’t do that.”