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260,000 words. Analyzing everything President Trump has said from early March through last week in his White House briefings and other remarks on the pandemic, The New York Times finds a striking disparity between his self-congratulations and his attempts to display empathy.
■ A similar Washington Post analysis found that, in about a third of the president’s responses to 346 questions, he attacked someone.
■ Axios: Trump is pushing his top medical advisers, Deborah Birx and Anthony Fauci, to the “back seat” …
■ … as he takes a break from his grueling daily coronavirus briefings …
■ Birx is dismissing Trump’s suggestion to fight the coronavirus by injecting disinfectant into humans as “musings” and, in Gizmodo’s words, would prefer people “just shut up about the whole thing.”
■ The Onion: “Man Just Buying One Of Every Cleaning Product In Case Trump Announces It’s Coronavirus Cure.”
Party off. Gov. Pritzker slams Chicagoans seen in video of a big house party on Chicago’s
■ A West Side Chicago hospital is being pushed to its limit.
■ Chicago domestic violence calls during the lockdown are up 18%.
■ A Financial Times analysis concludes the global death toll from the virus could be 60% higher than the official counts so far.
‘The biggest threat in controlling an outbreak.’ An FBI-connected research group warned last year that the anti-vaxxer movement would threaten national security in a pandemic.
■ An anthropologist explains why ultra-Orthodox communities defy coronavirus restrictions.
■ Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who saw the pandemic coming, is the focus of bogus conspiracy theories.
■ So has been a U.S. Army reservist and mother of two.
The best homemade masks. Chicago researchers are out with recommendations for stuff around your house most appropriate for cobbling together COVID-19 protective face coverings.
■ Here’s their research abstract.
■ In short supply as people roll their own masks: Sewing machines and elastic.
■ Chicago docs offer tips for distinguishing seasonal allergies from COVID-19 symptoms.
‘If we’re serious about all that love for those essential workers …’ A Sun-Times editorial says the way to show it is to vote for the graduated income tax proposal on Illinois’ November ballot.
■ A Tribune editorial opposes Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s position that first responders on an emergency call can legally be notified someone at that address has COVID-19.
Future Chicago. The city’s business and government leaders have begun planning what to do after the pandemic fades.
■ The Sun-Times’ Lynn Sweet runs down what small businesses in Chicago should know about the loan program that reopened this morning.
■ As demand for free diapers rises nationwide, an Illinois “diaper bank” is getting help from Illinois’ COVID-19 Response Fund.
■ New Zealand claims it’s won the battle against the coronavirus.
‘None of their jokes were remotely funny, right?’ But Sun-Times columnist Neil Steinberg says his paper’s roundup of Chicago comics’ takes on the pandemic was a nice try that didn’t work.
■ Gothamist: The full broadcast show—including Brad Pitt as Anthony Fauci—was “regularly hilarious.”
Joe Biden’s Chicago pitch. The likely Democratic presidential nominee plans a virtual campaign fundraiser tonight—with some donors paying $2,800 to watch.
■ Biden has won House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s endorsement.
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Thanks, Mike Braden, for suggestions to make this edition better.