Stranger Than Fiction

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TOP NEWS

• Public health officials and White House spar over when to reopen the country. On CNBC, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he thought the U.S. economy could be ready to reopen by the end of May, “as soon as the president feels comfortable with the medical issues.”

• Nearly nearly 17 million Americans have filed new claims for benefits since mid-March. Another 6.6 million filed for unemployment in the week ended April 4. A revised 6.9 million filed in the prior week, a record, and 3.3 million the week before.

• Global COVID-19 cases have exceeded 1.5 million. 454,304 of those cases are in the U.S. Deaths attributed to the COVID-19 have surpassed 94,000, with 16,267 of the deaths in the U.S.

• New hospitalization rate in New York is slowing. The drop in new hospitalizations is a sign that social distancing measures are having an impact. The hospitalization rate in NYC has dropped from over 20% a day to single-digit percent increases this week. Intensive care admissions have been dropping significantly since Friday.

• 200 New York City residents are now dying at home each day, compared to 20 to 25 such deaths before the pandemic. Those deaths at home as a result of COVID-19 were not being reported towards the overall COVID-19 deaths, but as a result of WNYC/Gothamist's reporting, the city has reversed its position and will count probable COVID-19 deaths that occur at home.

WHAT I’M READING + WATCHING + LISTENING TO

• Celebrities and politicians with large social media followings are proving to be key distributors of disinformation relating to coronavirus.

• After the financial crisis, Wall Street turned to charity and avoided justice.

• Governments are using coronavirus to hide information from reporters.

• A Brooklyn judge packed his courthouse on March 12, despite social distancing guidelines. 2 weeks later he was dead of coronavirus.

• Westworld S3 is a bad Rick and Morty knock-off

THE COMMENT

“If Mr. Trump thinks these daily sessions will help him defeat Joe Biden, he’s wrong. This election is now about one issue: how well the public thinks the President has done in defeating the virus and restarting the economy. If Americans conclude he succeeded in a crisis, they will forgive him for reacting more slowly than he and many others might have in January. But on that score, voters will be persuaded by what they see in their lives and communities come the autumn. They will judge Mr. Trump by the results, not by how well he says he did.” - WSJ Editorial Board

THE STRANGEST

• People are luring Instacart shoppers with big tips -- and then changing them to zero.

THE AV ROOM