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Whats all this talk about a second wave of U.S. coronavirus cases?

In The Wall Street Journal last week, Vice President Mike Pence wrote in a piece headlined There Isnt a Coronavirus Second Wave that the nation is winning the fight against the virus.

Many public health experts, however, suggest its no time to celebrate. About 120,000 Americans have died from the new virus and daily counts of new cases in the U.S. are the highest theyve been in more than a month, driven by alarming recent increases in the South and West.

But there is at least one point of agreement: Second wave is probably the wrong term to describe whats happening.

When you have 20,000-plus infections per day, how can you talk about a second wave? said Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health. Were in the first wave. Lets get out of the first wave before you have a second wave.

Clearly there was an initial infection peak in April as cases exploded in New York City. After schools and businesses were closed across the country, the rate of new cases dropped somewhat.

But its more of a plateau, or a mesa, not the trough after a wave, said Caitlin Rivers, a disease researcher at Johns Hopkins Universitys Center for Health Security.

Scientists generally agree the nation is still in its first wave of coronavirus infections, albeit one thats dipping in some parts of the country while rising in others.

This virus is spreading around the United States and hitting different places with different intensity at different times, said Dr. Richard Besser, chief executive of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation who was acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention when a pandemic flu hit the U.S. in 2009.

Dr. Arnold Monto, a University of Michigan flu expert, echoed that sentiment.

What I would call this is continued transmission with flare-ups, he said.

Flu seasons sometimes feature a second wave of infections. But in those cases, the second wave is a distinct new surge in cases from a strain of flu that is different than the strain that caused earlier illnesses.

Thats not the case in the coronavirus epidemic.

Monto doesnt think second wave really describes whats happening now, calling it totally semantics.

Second waves are basically in the eye of the beholder, he said.

But Besser said semantics matter, because saying a first wave has passed may give people a false sense that the worst is over.

Some worry a large wave of coronavirus might occur this fall or winter after schools reopen, the weather turns colder and less humid, and people huddle inside more. That would follow seasonal patterns seen with flu and other respiratory viruses. And such a fall wave could be very bad, given that theres no vaccine or experts think most Americans havent had the virus.

But the new coronavirus so far has been spreading more episodically and sporadically than flu, and it may not follow the same playbook.

Its very difficult to make a prediction, Rivers said. We dont know the degree to which this virus is seasonal, if at all.

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AP medical writer Lauran Neergaard contributed to this report.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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2nd wave of virus cases? Experts say we're still in the 1st - The Associated Press

In this screengrab, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms speaks during "Saving Our Selves: A BET COVID-19 Effort" airing on April 22, 2020. Saving Our Selves: A BET COVID-19 Relief Effort will provide financial, educational and community support directly to Black communities hit hardest by COVID-19.

BET2020 | Getty Images for BET NETWORKS

As the nation grapples with racial injustice, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is reportedly considering several Black women to be his running mate.

Among the candidates is Keisha Lance Bottoms, the 50-year-old Atlanta mayor who sprung into the national spotlight for her handling of both the coronavirus pandemic and the protests in response to the police killing of George Floyd.

While she doesn't have federal experience like other women said to be under consideration, such as Sen. Kamala Harris or former national security advisor Susan Rice, her executive performance during tumultuous times have put her on the Biden campaign's radar. Harris, Rice and fellow potential nominee Rep. Val Demings are all Black, as well.

"The idea that she's had some experience where she had to manage a bureaucracy and she's had to handle multiple offices would distinguish [Bottoms]," said Andra Gillespie, associate professor of political science at Emory University in Atlanta. Being a federal lawmaker is "very different than actually being in an elected position of power where the buck stops with you."

"It was the same type of argument that Pete Buttigieg was making: that having held executive office would probably make him better qualified than somebody who had been a senator only," Gillespie said. Buttigieg is the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, who ran for president but dropped out just ahead of Super Tuesday.

But Atlanta, far bigger and more complex than South Bend, might demonstrate that Bottoms has even more leadership potential than Buttigieg did, Gillespie said. Atlanta has a population of about 500,000 people, according to U.S. Census records, five times the size of South Bend's population.

Born in Atlanta, Bottoms was elected mayor in 2017, after serving six years as a city councilmember.Her father, Major Lance, was a prominent R&B singer in the 1960s.

As mayor, Bottoms, a mother to four kids, has delivered passionate speeches on Black children experiencing racial profiling.

More recently, Bottoms earned national recognition for her critical response to Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, who she said was rushing the reopening process and endangering the state's population while the coronavirus continued to spread. Kemp announced reopening plans for the state as early as April 24, despite increasing numbers of confirmed cases in Atlanta at the time.

"I think that there was perhaps a way for us to be very thoughtful about a phased reopening," Bottoms said in an interview with NPR. "I don't think that that should have begun with hair salons and barbershops and places that people cannot appropriately socially distance or even have readily available access to the appropriate PPE. So I do think that there could have been a more thoughtful approach."

It was around this time that Rep. Jim Clyburn, the most powerful Black man in Congress, floated the idea that Bottoms could be seen as a compelling VP pick.

"There is a young lady right there in Georgia who I think would make a tremendous VP candidate, and that's the mayor of Atlanta, Keisha Lance Bottoms," said Clyburn, the House majority whip who endorsed Biden ahead of the crucial primary in Clyburn's home state of South Carolina.

Bottoms' leadership was also tested during the protests against Floyd's death, where Bottoms made an impassioned speech calling for the end of destructive behavior that sprung out of the demonstrations.

"What I see happening on the streets of Atlanta is not Atlanta. This is not a protest. This is not in the spirit of Martin Luther King, Jr.," Bottoms said at a news briefing. "This is chaos."

Protests erupted nationwide after video emerged showing a former Minneapolis police officer kneeling on Floyd's neck on Memorial Day for nearly eight minutes. Floyd, a Black man who was handcuffed and face down on the ground, told officers he couldn't breathe. His death was ruled a homicide, and the officer who knelt on Floyd's neck, Derek Chauvin, was charged with murder.

Demonstrators march during a protest against racial inequality and the death of Rayshard Brooks in Atlanta, Georgia, June 15, 2020.

Alex Hicks Jr. | USA TODAY NETWORK | Reuters

In an attempt to model peaceful demonstration, Bottoms herself participated in some of the protests calling for justice for Floyd.

"In some ways she is trying to be responsive to the cries that might be coming from the progressive wing of the party for policing reform," Gillespie said, adding that Bottoms might also be trying to show conservative voters that police reform isn't necessarily something that "looks disruptive and disorderly."

Neither the Biden campaign nor Bottoms' office immediately responded to a request for comment from CNBC.

Bottoms could also help Biden further lock up the black vote for the Democratic ticket, although her lack of name recognition at the national level might be a drawback, experts say.

"I'm certain that the Biden folk understand that at this point African American women are pretty much one of the more significant constituents of the Democratic Party," said William Boone, political science professor at Clark Atlanta University. "But on the other hand, does she have that kind of national appeal? Do other African American women, groups and organizations know her well enough to say, 'Yeah, we pledge to support her.'"

More than 90% of Black women voted for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election.

Given such strong support for the Democratic nominee and given also the nationwide response to Floyd's death, it makes sense for Biden to seriously consider a Black woman as his running mate, Boone and Gillespie said.

Harris and Demings, meanwhile, come with a reputation defined in part by their experience in law enforcement.

"Right now, having had prosecutorial or police experience is not viewed as a plus," Gillespie said. Women like Demings and Harris have a challenge to show Biden why they would complement him best. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who served as a prosecutor in Minnesota, said on Thursday that she was withdrawing from consideration for VP because "this is a moment to put a woman of color on that ticket."

"Klobuchar is accused, often by law enforcement, of letting the murderers go, and Harris is accused of [putting] so many Blacks in prison," said Marilyn Davis, associate professor of political science at Spelman College in Atlanta.

And while Bottoms isn't as well-known as Harris, that could work in her favor, Gillespie said. Bottoms has the opportunity to "define" herself.

"If you have someone who is much more of a known quantity, it's much harder to drive up the favorable and drive down the negative when people's opinions of them have already been formulated," Gillespie said.

But on the other hand, Bottoms' inexperience at the federal level might inhibit her on the debate stage against Vice President Mike Pence.

Biden's running mate will face Pence on Oct. 7 during the vice presidential debate at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.

Pence, serving alongside President Donald Trump, has become a seasoned public speaker in national affairs after delivering numerous addresses on the coronavirus and other issues.

Bottoms' performances in the debate for mayor's office fluctuated in terms of quality, Boone said. "Some were fairly good, and others were not so good."

"Pence has far more experience at the national level than Mayor Bottoms. So it becomes about how much prepping you have to do to get her up to speed, in terms of answering some of these questions," Boone added.

But Bottoms, a longtime Biden endorser, has stumped for the presumptive Democratic nominee in Iowa. She pledged support for Biden as early as Junelast year, when there were about two dozen candidates for the nomination.

And in the last few months, her efforts to control the protests and respond strategically to the pandemic showed her speaking power could galvanize the people of Atlanta and makes waves nationally.

She went viral "because she commanded the stage and had presence," Gillespie said.

"Because of the challenges we've faced in the last few months, she's had some opportunity to build a national reputation and has had opportunities to practice that could translate well into her being able to give speeches at conventions, at rallies and to go up against Mike Pence on the debate stage."

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How Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms became part of the Biden VP conversation - CNBC

Over the last few years, Charlotte Pence-Bond has made it a habit not to mention what her dad does for a living unless she's asked.

That's because her father is Vice President Mike Pence. "If they know who my dad is, [they] have a perception of me," Pence-Bond, 26, tells CNBC Make It.

But says Pence-Bond, "I can either be discouraged by [perceptions] or I can use it to start a conversation, which is what I've tried to do."

While navigating her father's fame hasn't always been easy "It has definitely taught me to just allow people to have their opinions and to be okay with that," she says her father, and his rise from congressman to governor of Indiana to vice president of the United States, has taught her a lot about success and following her dreams.

Ever since Pence-Bond and her siblings, Audrey, now 24, and Michael, 28, were kids, their dad would always tell them the "first step to following your dreams is to talk about them."

He said by speaking your dreams, you gain confidence in pursuing them.

"When things are unspoken, we tend to fear them a lot more," Pence-Bond says.

Pence-Bond first spoke her own dream of becoming a writer at the age of 7.

Though she was so young she could barely write complete sentences, she wrote out father's biography, including how grew up one of six kids in Columbus, Indiana during the '60s, andabouthis career as conservative radio host (before he successfully got into politics).Then she gave it to her dad as a gift.

From that day on, her dad encouraged her to keep pursuing her dream, she says.

Seventeen years later, she wrote about it in her first published book, "Where You Go: Life Lessons from My Father": "Often, during special times with family, Dad would wink at me and say, 'You'll put this in a book one day, Booh (his nickname for me since I was little)," she wrote.

The book came to fruition after Glamour magazine asked Pence-Bond to write a story about her experience on the campaign trail with her family in 2016. The article published that October, called "Mike Pence's Daughter Reveals the Lessons Her Father Taught Her," inspired her to write a book about her father, which came out in 2018.

Though Pence-Bond is inspired by her father, that doesn't mean she always agrees with him.

For instance, Pence-Bond says she will often call her dad after seeing a news report on something she didn't like. Though she did not name specific issues on which they disagree, she says, "usually it'll be more that I'll have questions about something."

"I'll read something in the news and I will be upset about it, and I'll call him and usually there's another side to the story," she says.

For what it's worth, Trump doesn't seem to be one of the things the Pences disagree on. Pence-Bond says her opinion of the president hasn't changed since she first met him during a breakfast meeting at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey when he was searching for a vice president.

"Once I met their family, I really didn't have any hesitation about [my dad becoming his running mate,]" she says. "I've just always had a great experience with [the Trumps]."

Pence-Bond says she thinks her dad and Trump "complement each other."

"My dad has been in politics a lot longer and so he has that experience," Pence Bond says (though many have criticized his record).

"And I think President Trump is very appealing to people because he had not been in politics for that long," she says. (Of course, that's also a criticism of Trump.)

"I think that both of their styles are unique."

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Mike Pence's daughter Charlotte: Dad taught me the 'first step to following your dreams is to talk about them' - CNBC

To the editor: Almost anyone would be better as president than Donald Trump, whose inept management has led to our current public health crisis and economic recession. But as a nurse practitioner, I question columnist Jonah Goldbergs belief that Vice President Mike Pence would have handled the pandemic better if Trump had been removed from office.

As governor of Indiana, Pences handling of an HIV outbreak in 2015 caused the small city of Austin to have a higher incidence of infection than any country in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Pence has falsely said that coronavirus spikes are due solely to a rise in testing. He has also denied there will be a second wave of COVID-19 infections. We are not even out of the first wave, and in August the number of cases will likely increase.

Who should be handling the pandemic? Public health officials in the federal government. Neither Trump nor Pence have shown any ability to handle this pandemic since they were warned about it urgently and repeatedly in January.

Jacqueline Ficht, South Pasadena

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To the editor: During all this turmoil it would seem like anyone would be a better president than Trump. While this pandemic rages on, it is clear that the citizens of the country desire and require a calm, compassionate leader.

What Goldberg seems to forget while considering Pence for his quiet, assured and reassuring, professionalism is his horrendous handling of the HIV outbreak in Indiana during his time as governor. He compounded the problem with his denial and disregard, something Pence seems to be good at.

While Trump is a walking disaster, it says a lot about where we currently stand that a reasonable person would consider such an awful and ineffective elected official like Pence to be better. Death by fire and death by drowning are both still death.

Kyle Thomas, Hollywood

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Why a President Mike Pence would have mishandled COVID too - Los Angeles Times

President Trumps campaign event in Tulsa, Oklahoma on Saturday evening, his first rally since the pandemic gripped the nation, incorporates all of the hallmarks of the typical Trump campaign event red hats, boisterous crowds, and a candidate who revels in the adoration ofhis fans. But in a development from his past rallies, the President was joined by one of his most ardent supporters, Representative Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), the third-term congresswoman who represents much of New Yorks upstate and Adirondack region.

The question is why?

During Presidents Trumps election in 2016, Stefanik, who represents New Yorks 21st Congressional District, offered only tepid support for candidate Trump, and she made critical comments about his past actions and policies. Since the 2016 election, she has had a mixed record of supporting and critiquing the Presidents policies, but that all changed in November of 2019. Yet following Stefaniks full-throated defense of Trump during House Intelligence Committee impeachment hearings and her often combative exchanges with Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) who chaired the committe, the President tweeted a new Republican Star is born. Shortly after the Presidents Tweet, the New York congresswoman appeared on Sean Hannitys show on Fox News, an appearance that reportedly helped raise her profile and quickly raise $500,000 for her reelection campaign. Her star appearance on Fox also prompted the President to once again sing her praises a few days later on the networks show, Fox & Friends and appointing her to his impeachment defense team.

WASHINGTON, DC - FEBRUARY 06: Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) (C) stands as she's acknowledged by U.S. ... [+] President Donald Trump as he speaks one day after the U.S. Senate acquitted on two articles of impeachment, in the East Room of the White House February 6, 2020 in Washington, DC. After five months of congressional hearings and investigations about President Trumps dealings with Ukraine, the U.S. Senate formally acquitted the president of charges that he abused his power and obstructed Congress. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

Since that #MAGA-defining moment, Stefanik has been a key defender of the President, and reveled in the media attention that comes along with it. For his part, the President has retweeted Stefanik multiple times, acknowledged her during his State of the Union address following his impeachment acquittal, and invited her to travel with him on Air Force One to theKennedy Space Center for the launch of the SpaceX rocket last month.But by bringing Stefanik to Tulsa this weekend to open up for him in his first rally in months, its clear that the President is ready to elevate her profile even higher.

But what exactly does the New York Congresswoman bring to the Presidents reelection campaign this weekend and beyond?

For a president who is laser focused on media appeal, Stefanik is a sure winner. Her frequent presence on television during Trumps impeachment hearings shows she is not afraid to step out and be a surrogate for the President, even when others wont. Second, the President is in dire need of a boost to his appeal with women voters. Recent polling shows the president trailing the Democratic candidate, former Vice President Joe Biden, by a significant margin, particularly among women. Stefaniks appeal then is not only her politics, but the fact that she is an up-and-coming female leader in the Republican party that desperately needs more female faces in its leadership ranks. For example, at the rally in Tulsa this weekend, in addition to Stefanik, Trump will be joined by Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton and Ohio Representative Jim Jordan.Neither will likely help broaden Trumps appeal to women, particularly independents and moderates.

But Stefanik might.

With Biden having already announced that his running mate will be a woman, it wouldnt be surprising if Trump who is the epitome of politically unconventional decides he would benefit from a female running mate as well. And while Mike Pence has been a dutiful Vice President for Trump over the last three and half years, it wouldnt be surprising to see Trump, who is notorious for his catch-phrase Youre Fired, to blame his administrations woeful pandemic response on Pence, who lead the White Houses Coronavirus Task Force. Pence has also been noticeably quiet of late as the President comes under immense criticism for not only the pandemic response, but also for his response to the protests that have swept the nation in the wake of George Floyds death. Stefanik, for her part has been outspoken about the need to root out racism in America, but has notably avoided attending Black Lives Matters protests in her home district.

So, is Tulsa a test run of Stefanik on the presidential campaign trail? Possibly. Even if Trump doesnt take the extraordinary step of swapping out Pence for Stefanik, it is likely that the Republican Congresswoman will be a frequent surrogate for a presidential campaign in need of a boost. For Stefaniks part, if she is, in fact, the rising star Trump claims her to be, then her newfound national statusjust might take her to new political peaks higher the Adirondack mountains of her home district of in upstate New York.

Either way, it appears Elise Stefanik is having her next moment on the national stage just exactly how big a role she plays, however, remains to be seen.

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Will Trump Dump Pence? After Her Tulsa Tryout, Elise Stefanik Could Be The Presidents Next VP - Forbes