7-20: Trumpian folly; Supervisors at odds

✅Judge Orders Full Restoration of DACA

Inside Higher Ed

     A federal judge ordered the government to restore the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program “to its pre-September 5, 2017 status” in light of the Supreme Court’s recent 5-to-4 opinion finding that the Trump administration's attempt to rescind the program that day was unlawful. The decision means that the administration must begin accepting new applications for the program, which provides work authorization and shields certain young undocumented immigrants from deportation, for the first time since September 2017.
     Media outlets have reported that the government has been rejecting new DACA applications or otherwise failing to act on them. CNN reported that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is reviewing the ruling…..

✅Trump defends bungled handling of coronavirus with falsehoods and dubious claims -- President Trump said in an interview aired Sunday that the rising number of U.S. deaths from the coronavirus “is what it is,” defended his fumbled management of the pandemic with a barrage of dubious and false claims, and revealed his lack of understanding about the fundamental science of how the virus spreads and infects people. Philip Rucker and Felicia Sonmez in the Washington Post$ -- 7/20/20

✅OC Supervisors Split Over Coronavirus Numbers & Trends

Voice of OC

     As Orange County continues to see a spike in coronavirus cases and hospitalizations, county Supervisors seem often at odds with each other over what the numbers actually mean.
. . .
     Since the pandemic began, there seems to have been a consistent questioning from County Supervisors Michelle Steel and Don Wagner – amidst largely silence from their colleagues – about closures and the mandatory use of masks as well as official estimates about the Coronavirus.
     At last Tuesday’s meeting, Wagner questioned whether the county’s positivity rate may be skewed.
     “The positivity rate, that is a metric the state looks at, right? And we heard from Supervisor [Doug] Chaffe with respect to testing, there is some frustration out there in the community, that now test centers are looking for symptomatic people at this time,” Wagner asked interim health officer Dr. Clayton Chau.
     “The effort is to encourage people to get tested, whether or not they are symptomatic or asymptomatic. Especially essential workers and health care workers,” Chau replied.
     Wagner then questioned whether the testing regimen might be skewing the numbers the way it’s designed.
     “That has a dramatic effect, does it not, on the positivity rate — if you test more symptomatic people, you’re going to find the disease more often, than if you did a random test of the populace,” Wagner said.
     Chau responded, “That’s a difficult question to answer.”
     He said the rate could go up if only symptomatic people are tested, along with frontline workers, then testing positivity rates will go up.
     Wagner’s line of questioning and statements – similar to past questioning of mandatory mask order – this week drew the ire of Supervisor Andrew Do.
     “There will be a sound bite that the [testing committee] was wrong, that we went looking for symptomatic people, I kind of heard that statement earlier,” Do said. “And that statement was made up here, at least that’s what it sounded like to me.”
     “I want to just emphasize the point, the testing program that we announced today at the Anaheim Convention Center tests both symptomatic and asymptomatic people. Within the asymptomatic people we will prioritize who we test first,” Do said.
     Asymptomatic people will be prioritized based on what type of work they do, their age, health conditions and other factors at the convention center test site, he said.
     Do also indirectly seemed to criticize Wagner for asking Chau what the psychological effects on kids are from school shutdowns and if the state’s school guidelines “strike a reasonable balance with the kids.”
     “So please, this dance that we do over and over. At very minimum, to me, it’s very confusing to the public and if anything, it leads to the wrong kind of dialogue. And it somehow implies that you have control over this process,” Do said. “At some point concede something, because it makes sense from a logic perspective.”….

TODAY'S FACTS: cases per day has been declining for a week (see above).
The 7-day average has been about 670 two days in a row. My guess is that this will
shoot up soon. Hopefully not.