Year: 2020

Testing is down 40% in two of the hardest-hit states — Texas and Florida. Ashish Jha of Harvard’s Global Health Institute explains what might be going on.

NPR’s Alison Aubrey describes a new COVID-19 test developed by Yale University that works with saliva.

And NPR’s Kirk Sielger reports on a school district in Idaho that’s preparing to reopen — and possibly close right back down again.

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The Census Bureau has said it needs more time to complete their count of every person living in the country. But the Trump administration is ending the effort a month earlier than planned. Census experts worry it could lead to an undercount of historically under-represented groups.

Find more coverage of the census from NPR’s Hansi Lo Wang, or follow him on Twitter.

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Democrats and Republicans have been unable to agree on a new coronavirus aid package. The President has his own plan — a handful of executive orders that would delay the federal payroll tax and provide a smaller amount of federal unemployment benefits than existed before. But those efforts would not help millions of Americans who’ve been out of work for months.

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No major political party has ever put a woman of color on a presidential ticket. Until now, when Senator Kamala Harris — a former district attorney and state attorney general — is meeting a moment of national reckoning with the role of law enforcement in American life.

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More Americans are expected to vote by mail this year than ever before. But President Trump has called the U.S. Postal Service “a joke,” and now a major GOP donor runs the organization.

A USPS employee tells NPR’s Noel King that changes from the new Postmaster General are making her job harder.

And NPR’s Pam Fessler reports that secure drop boxes for ballots could help some states rely less on the mail.

If you want to hear NPR’s latest coverage on Joe Biden’s pick for Vice President, Senator Kamala Harris, the NPR Politics Podcast will have a new episode on Tuesday evening — listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

NPR’s Up First will have more Wednesday morning — also on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

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A school district in Georgia learned firsthand last week that the virus is almost impossible to contain — especially without masks and social distancing.

A new effort in New York City encourages travelers to self-isolate when they get into town.

And public health workers in Texas and California explain that the size of the outbreak makes contact tracing a huge challenge.

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The app doesn’t seem to collect any more data than other social media platforms. But the Trump administration argues that data could fall into the hands of the Chinese government.

NPR’s Bobby Allyn reported on TikTok’s role in the racial justice movement.

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States are scrambling to replace older poll workers with younger ones. The two major political parties will hold their conventions mostly online. And in one big battleground state, the pandemic is shifting the political geography.

NPR’s latest battleground state map is here.

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First New York, then the Sun Belt. Now, new states like Illinois and Mississippi are urging residents to wear masks and take the virus more seriously.

Bars remain one of the most dangerous places to be during the pandemic. Reporter Will Stone explains why, from Seattle.

While Michigan and New York saw similar spikes in cases near the beginning of the pandemic, New York has flattened the curve. Michigan hasn’t. Reporters Kate Wells and Fred Mogul discuss what lessons can be learned from the disparity.

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After rising for weeks, the rate of daily COVID-19 cases in the U.S. has started to level off. But now, just as we saw in the spring, the country is facing a spike in deaths.

In the new issue of The Atlantic, two stories share the cover. One, by Ed Yong, is about the pandemic. The other, by Ibram Kendi, is about racism in America. Both ask the same question: how did it come to this?

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