“Last week, Vice President Mike Pence bragged that the country had made ‘great progress’ against the disease, highlighting that the average number of new cases each day had dropped to 25,000 in May, and 20,000 so far in June. That holiday has now ended.” The Atlantic: A Devastating New Stage of the Pandemic.

+ “Since Memorial Day, Texas Medical Center hospitals have seen a thirty-six-per-cent increase in admitted COVID-19 patients; the number of infections citywide has grown by a hundred and fifty per cent. Texas Medical Center’s I.C.U.s were at ninety-eight-per-cent capacity this week. Three weeks from now, if these trends continue, the city’s I.C.U.s will be overwhelmed.” The New Yorker: The Coronavirus Surge That Texas Could Have Seen Coming.

+ Texas Is Closing Down Bars Again and Limiting Indoor Dining as COVID-19 Cases Surge to Alarming Heights.

+ North Texas family shaken after 18 relatives test positive for COVID-19 following family gathering.

+ WaPo: “Americans are living through a split-screen pandemic: Their leaders are relaxing restrictions while their states set records for new coronavirus infections. Churches, beaches and bars are filling up, and so are hospital beds.” Reopenings, record cases and full hospitals: America’s dissonant response to the pandemic. (Dissonant is a pretty nice way to put it…)

+ Florida reports massive single-day increase of 9,000 coronavirus cases.

+ LA Times: Rising infections in younger people fuel California’s new coronavirus spike. “As of Wednesday, 56% of people diagnosed with COVID-19 were 18 to 49 years old.”

+ Taken altogether, this suggests it’s a really good time to start listening to the scientists (actually, a better time would have been months ago). DJ Patil, former US Chief Data Scientist (and current excellent guy), with a very informative look at 6 lessons learned to get ready for the next wave of COVID. (Like so many others, DJ put his career on hold and has been working on Covid fulltime, often away from his family, for many months.)