A group of nine leading scientists who advised President Barack Obama has warned that the US has just three months to rebuild its stockpile of emergency medical equipment if it wants to be prepared for a second wave of coronavirus in the fall.

In a seven-page report, whose lead author was the White House science adviser for both Obama terms, the experts fault the Trump administration for failing to replenish the Strategic National Stockpile in preparation for a pandemic just like the one we’re living through now.

The EU’s coronavirus chief has also warned Europe to brace for a second wave, while another top US scientist, the groundbreaking cancer and HIV researcher William Haseltine, has said countries must work to contain the disease, not count on the possibility of a vaccine being developed, which is “not a slam-dunk by any means”.

Black Americans are dying from coronavirus at three times the rate of white people, according to figures compiled by the non-partisan APM Research Lab.

As Lois Beckett writes, the government’s pandemic response has been warped by racism, with the health secretary, Alex Azar, apparently blaming the disease’s victims for their ill health:

Nevada and Wisconsin are trying to make it easier for people to vote safely and by mail during the pandemic.

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