White House Remains Silent After Coronavirus Cases Spike Across US, Totaling 2M Cases

The White House has remained silent as the U.S. has hit a grim new milestone in the ongoing battle with coronavirus. As of Wednesday, there have been more than two million confirmed cases of COVID-19 across all 50 states, according to Politico.

The outlet also notes that it’s been more than a month since the Trump administration abruptly halted the once-daily coronavirus briefings. Dr. Anthony Fauci, once considered the go-to voice for up-to-date facts about the pandemic, was a staple of talk shows throughout March and April. However, he only had a handful of appearances in May and seems to have backed out of the spotlight altogether. Despite restrictions on closures and social distancing have begun to loosen up, states like Texas, Arizona, Arkansas and California have all seen a rise in cases.

While there hasn’t been any word on the two million deaths, or the 1,000 deaths the U.S. averages per day, President Donald Trump did address is upcoming campaign rallies. Set to resume June 19 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, which is in itself raising concerns, he nonetheless assured reporters that his team had “made every decision correctly,” on Friday. “We may have some embers or some ashes or we may have some flames coming, but we’ll put them out. We’ll stomp them out,” he added.

Columbia University School of Public Health’s Jeffrey Shaman spoke to NPR about his reservations over the rapid reopening, a sentiment that’s shared by many health officials. “It seems that we, the U.S., has given up and accepted this disease as a facet of life.” Shaman said. “It didn’t have to be this way, and it still doesn’t going forward.”

Dr. Bill Miller, senior associate dean for research at Ohio State University’s college of public health, agreed with Shaman’s sentiment, adding that he’s “definitely worried” about what the future could hold. “As places have been opening up, many people are taking it as a message that everything is OK and back to normal,” Miller explained. “I’m definitely worried that we’re going to see some upswings, maybe not everywhere, but in many places across the country.”

As of Thursday, Johns Hopkins University reports that there have been a total of 113,700 confirmed deaths in the U.S. from COVID-19. While there have also been more than 420,000 deaths across the globe, the U.S. has the highest number of confirmed cases within its borders.