Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Big Trump Rallies Go On Despite Dangers Of Virus Surge, Heat
AP: As Virus Surges, Trump Rallies Keep Packing In Thousands
There are no crowds at Disneyland, still shut down by the coronavirus. Fewer fans attended the World Series this year than at any time in the past century. Big concerts are canceled. But it’s a different story in Trumpland. Thousands of President Donald Trump’s supporters regularly cram together at campaign rallies around the country — masks optional and social distancing frowned upon. (Riechmann, 10/30)
The Hill: Two People Who Attended Trump's North Carolina Rally Test Positive For COVID-19
Two people who attended President Trump's rally at an airport in Gaston County in North Carolina last week have tested positive for COVID-19, the county health department said Thursday. The Gaston County Department of Health and Human Services said the cases are not thought to be an indication of spread from the rally, but rather two independent cases among individuals who were in attendance. (Weixel, 10/29)
The Hill: Florida Heat Sends A Dozen Trump Rally Attendees To Hospital
Nearly a dozen attendees at President Trump’s rally in Tampa, Fla., on Thursday were sent to the hospital after waiting for hours in the steamy heat. Both the president and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden held rallies in Tampa on Thursday, a rare crossover of their activities in the final sprint before election day. (Williams, 10/29)
USA Today: Poll: Most Americans Disapprove Of Trump's Decision To Hold Massive Campaign Rallies During COVID-19 Pandemic
It's the most stark stylistic difference between President Donald Trump and Joe Biden: The incumbent has surrounded himself with thousands of supporters at dozens of rallies while the Democratic challenger is literally keeping his distance. But as Trump and Biden embrace strikingly different approaches to campaigning during the coronavirus pandemic, a new USA TODAY/Suffolk University poll finds that nearly two-thirds of likely voters prefer Biden’s low-key strategy to Trump's raucous fanfare. (Fritze, Jansen and Bowling, 10/30)
In other developments —
The Washington Post: Donald Trump Jr. Says Covid-19 Deaths Are At ‘Almost Nothing’ On A Day When More Than 1,000 Americans Died
Donald Trump Jr. declared on Thursday night that coronavirus deaths had dropped to “almost nothing,” questioning the seriousness of the pandemic on a record-breaking day for new cases in which more than 1,000 Americans died of the virus. “I went through the CDC data, because I kept hearing about new infections, but I was like, ‘Why aren’t they talking about this?’” Trump Jr. said. “Oh, because the number is almost nothing. Because we’ve gotten control of this thing, we understand how it works. They have the therapeutics to be able to deal with this.“ (Bella, 10/30)
Politico: ‘I View It As Propaganda’: Trump’s Food Box Letters Create Problems In Run-Up To Election
Food banks, schools and other nonprofits serving needy families during the pandemic are expending considerable resources in the final days of the election to remove or explain letters from President Donald Trump that are now required in millions of government food aid boxes. The USDA’s $4 billion Farmers to Families Food Box Program began requiring that all boxes include a self-praising letter from the president, in both English and Spanish, a month ago — setting off a rash of criticism that Trump is leveraging taxpayer resources to bolster his reelection campaign. (Bottemiller Evich, 10/30)
The Atlantic: Why Many White Men Love Trump’s Coronavirus Response
Kurtis, a young accountant in McKinney, Texas, likes the thing that many people hate about Donald Trump: that the president has left the pandemic response almost entirely up to local officials. “He left it up to each state to make their own decision on how they wanted to proceed,” Kurtis told me recently. Most experts think the absence of a national strategy for tackling the coronavirus has been a disaster. But Kurtis argues that North Dakota, for example, shouldn’t have to follow the same rules as New York City. Kurtis voted for Trump in 2016, and he plans to do so again this year. (Khazan, 10/29)
KHN: KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: As Cases Spike, White House Declares Pandemic Over
White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said this week that “we’re not going to control the pandemic,” effectively conceding that the administration has pivoted from prevention to treatment. But COVID-19 cases are rising rapidly in most of the nation, and the issue is playing large in the presidential campaign. President Donald Trump is complaining about the constant news reports about the virus, prompting former President Barack Obama to say Trump is “jealous of COVID’s media coverage.” (10/29)
