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This Day in COVID: June 26, 2020

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Coronavirus FAQs: Is There A Polite Way To Remind Someone To Follow Pandemic Rules?
Coronavirus FAQs: Is There A P...
Also, if you're headed back to a physical workplace, how do you keep safe? And do you need to have a mask on all the time at work?
NPR
The virus that shut down the world
The virus that shut down the w...
Washington Post
She helped write the White House ‘pandemic playbook.’ Here’s what keeps her up at night and her advice for Trump
She helped write the White Hou...
In interviews with CNBC Make It, Beth Cameron, who ran the White House pandemic readiness office until 2017, talks about the 'pandemic playbook' she helped to create, what the current administration missed and what keep her up at night about future threats.
CNBC
Voter Registrations Are Way, Way Down During The Pandemic
Voter Registrations Are Way, W...
The spring of a presidential election year is often a busy time for adding new voters to the rolls, and a recent report from the Center for Election Innovation and Research shows registration numbers were even stronger in early 2020 than early 2016. But things changed dramatically in March.
FiveThirtyEight
Bill Gates: Some people are ‘ignoring the epidemic’
Bill Gates: Some people are ‘i...
The state of the Covid-19 pandemic on both a global and national scale, is 'more bleak than I would have expected,' Bill Gates said on CNN's 'Coronavirus Town Hall' Thursday.
CNBC
Amid coronavirus surge, Texas has a contact tracing problem: reporting cases by fax
Amid coronavirus surge, Texas ...
'We're asking people not to depend on contact tracing at this stage of the outbreak,' one health official in Texas said as cases spread across many states.
NBC
As virus grows, governors rely on misleading hospital data
As virus grows, governors rely...
Governors in places seeing huge spikes in coronavirus infections often cite statewide data to assure the public they have plenty of hospital capacity to survive the onslaught, even as the states routinely miss the critical benchmarks to guide their pandemic response.
AP
Coronavirus updates: Fauci says contact tracing ‘not going well,’ Texas and Florida roll back reopening plans
Coronavirus updates: Fauci say...
The coronavirus has infected more than 9.64 million people around the world as of Friday, killing at least 490,055 people.
CNBC
coronavirus-responses-highlight-how-humans-have-evolved-to-dismiss-facts-that-dont-fit-their-worldview
coronavirus-responses-highligh...
Scientific American
Coronavirus vaccine will not be a cure-all, virologist warns
Coronavirus vaccine will not b...
Virologist Robert Lambkin-Williams told CNBC there was no clear evidence that antibodies produced to fight off the coronavirus gave people any protection against being reinfected.
CNBC
A coronavirus vaccine is still months away, but an antibody treatment could be closer
A coronavirus vaccine is still...
CNN
Bill Gates says the 'final hurdle' to a COVID-19 vaccine will be ensuring that people actually use it
Bill Gates says the 'final hur...
Gates thinks that 'a lot' of people will take a vaccine when one is made available, and that herd immunity can be reached if 70-80% of people take it.
Business Insider
Biden says he would make wearing face masks mandatory for Americans amid coronavirus pandemic
Biden says he would make weari...
CNN
Dick Cheney poses for photo to encourage mask wearing
Dick Cheney poses for photo to...
Former Vice President Dick Cheney posed for a photo posted Friday by his daughter, Sen. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., to encourage mask wearing, as coronavirus cases surge in some parts of the country.
Fox News
Coronavirus opens door to company surveillance of workers
Coronavirus opens door to comp...
Privacy advocates warn of a slippery slope toward 'normalizing' new levels of employer surveillance.
Politico
Wall Street ends lower as coronavirus surge prompts renewed restrictions
Wall Street ends lower as coro...
Reuters
Coronavirus traces found in March 2019 sewage sample, Spanish study shows
Coronavirus traces found in Ma...
Reuters
Coronavirus task force makes plea to young people: ‘You will infect someone who’s vulnerable’
Coronavirus task force makes p...
'People are infecting other people and ultimately you will infect someone who's vulnerable,' Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said during a press briefing.
CNBC
Country at war with COVID-19 sees rising concerns over virus: POLL
Country at war with COVID-19 s...
Spiking cases of COVID-19 have shifted sentiments around the pandemic in recent weeks, according to a new ABC News/Ipsos poll released Friday.
ABC
Scientists just beginning to understand the many health problems caused by COVID-19
Scientists just beginning to u...
Reuters
COVID-19 complicates an already dire wildfire season
COVID-19 complicates an alread...
'None of us have ever had to do this before”: Firefighting teams innovate to avoid disease as they protect people.
National Geographic
U.S. consumer spending rebounds; falling income, surging COVID-19 cases loom
U.S. consumer spending rebound...
Reuters
Why Were Some Nursing Homes Spared The Devastation of COVID-19? Depends Who You Ask
Why Were Some Nursing Homes Sp...
Researchers want answers to help combat the spread and prevent more infections. But conflicting opinions make that more challenging.
NPR
Texas and Florida close bars after explosion of COVID-19 cases
Texas and Florida close bars a...
Florida reported 8,942 new coronavirus cases Friday, shattering the previous record set days ago.
NBC
Judge Orders ICE To Free Detained Immigrant Children Because Of COVID-19
Judge Orders ICE To Free Detai...
The scathing order issued Friday said the Trump administration had failed to provide even the most basic health protections for children and their families.
NPR
The Coronavirus Was Detected In Sewage In March Of 2019, Far From Wuhan, China
The Coronavirus Was Detected I...
As new cases of Covid-19 reach record levels in the United States, there’s new evidence the novel coronavirus that causes the disease has been with us much longer than previously thought.
Forbes
We No Longer Wish For Much': People Of Wuhan Share Stories Of Loss And Survival
We No Longer Wish For Much': P...
Meet some of the people in China who lived through the start of the coronavirus pandemic. They have not forgotten the weeks of isolation, fear and heartbreak.
NPR

Our Mission

The COVID-19 History Project is a curated archive of the events and policy decisions surrounding the emergence of COVID-19.

The pandemic era of 2020-2022 saw massive increases in restrictions on daily life—enforced by the government and by social stigma—accompanied social protests that roiled cities worldwide

In the United States alone, trillions of dollars were spent by the federal government to offset the forced closure of businesses and the devastation of normal life.

The impacts of these policy decisions are still being felt today.

Some would like us to forget the actions and people that played a significant role during the pandemic.

But we of the COVID-19 History Project don't want to forget. Through our work, we hope there will always be an archive to learn from and interpret this fascinating, disturbing, time in world history.

The Timeline

In order to learn from the mistakes of the past, and give COVID-19 decision makers the credit—both good and bad—they deserve, we have compiled a media timeline from every day of the pandemic.

We have endeavored to make the timeline comprehensive without being duplicative, following the major trends as they unfolded.

We provided analyses for each month highlighting major events, but encourage readers to make their own conclusions about these events as well.

This Day in COVID: June 26, 2021

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