“The virus is here to stay. At best, it would fade away gradually, but that would happen after, not before, the winter. The sooner we can accept this, the more we can focus on minimizing the losses of the bleak and grisly coming months. Some of our fate is now inevitable, but much is not. There are still basic things we can do to survive.” As America crosses the 200,000 death threshold, The Atlantic’s James Hamblin explains, How We Survive the Winter: The coming months of the pandemic could be catastrophic. The U.S. still has ways to prepare. (Before you get excited about this to-do list, you should know that Hamblin’s first item is: Accept Reality.)

+ “The CDC has reversed its stance on whether the coronavirus is airborne, days after it warned that the virus spreads most commonly through the air and is more contagious than the agency had previously suggested. That advice, published Friday, was a ‘draft version’ posted to the agency’s website in error, according to a note published on Monday morning. ‘CDC is currently updating its recommendations regarding airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2,’ the note says. ‘Once this process has been completed, the update language will be posted.'” In February, Trump told Bob Woodward that the virus was spread through the air. Seven months and 200,000 deaths later, the administration can’t properly update its site to say that. It’s criminal.