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Nearly 2.3 million Americans have been infected with the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, and about 120,000 of them have died. With stay-at-home orders beginning to ease, the number of new cases confirmed each day is rising in some of the nations most populous states, including California, Texas and Florida.

Yet the vice president of the United States thinks the country is doing a great job managing the pandemic.

In an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal this month, Mike Pence wrote that America was winning the fight against the virus, thanks to the leadership of President Trump.

Pence, who leads the White House coronavirus task force, made an array of claims to bolster his case: The national public health system is stronger now than when the outbreak began, he said, more tests are being given than ever before, and were on track to have a vaccine this fall.

The L.A. Times asked Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Assn., and Julie Swann, an expert in healthcare systems at North Carolina State University, to assess Pences statements and put them in context. Heres what they said.

There isnt a coronavirus second wave.

Swann agreed with Pences contention that were not facing a second wave of the coronavirus but thats because most states are still in the midst of their first wave of the outbreak, she said.

I expect many more cases and deaths in the weeks and months to come, Swann said.

Places that have have already weathered significant outbreaks are certainly vulnerable to a second wave of infections, just as Beijing is currently experiencing, she added.

Our public health system is far stronger than it was four months ago.

No, its not, Benjamin said.

While were working hard to address COVID-19, we are nowhere near where we need to be in terms of contact tracing and testing capacity, he said. We still have shortages of PPE [personal protective equipment], we still have supply lines that dont work, and when the next disaster hits on top of this one most likely severe storms we are going to be up the creek.

He added that COVID-19 was not the only health crisis the country was facing. Sexually transmitted diseases continue to plague Americans, as do opioids, obesity and gun violence. Maternal mortality is up, as are deaths from cardiovascular disease.

We are winning the fight against the invisible enemy.

The mortality and morbidity numbers show otherwise, Benjamin said.

Swann agreed, saying the nations death toll would likely rise by many thousands more in the coming months. She noted, however, that many governors, universities and companies took swift action that led to greater physical distancing and ultimately slowed the coronavirus spread in the U.S.

We have not conquered SARS-CoV-2, she said, but I hope the distancing measures have given our health systems the time to prepare for the many challenges yet to come.

More than half of states are actually seeing cases decline or remain stable.

This is correct, according to the most recent data. That may change, however, as the country continues to open up, Swann said.

For the most part, states that opened early like Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Texas are already starting to see a rapid increase in cases, she said, which are likely to grow over the coming weeks.

Every state, territory and major metropolitan area, with the exception of three, have positive test rates under 10%.

As of Friday, there were four states Arizona, Alabama, Washington and South Carolina where more than 10% of diagnostic tests came back positive, according to data collected by researchers at Johns Hopkins University.

But the experts agree thats nitpicking. Benjamin says hes more concerned about whether positive test rates will remain that low as businesses continue to open up.

In the six states that have reached more than 1,000 new cases a day, increased testing has allowed public health officials to identify most of the outbreaks in particular settings prisons, nursing homes and meatpacking facilities and contain them.

Testing has helped health officials spot outbreaks like these, Benjamin said, but he is not yet convinced that the U.S. has been able to contain those outbreaks.

And the real problem, he said, was that the outbreaks were not prevented in the first place.

Cases have stabilized over the past two weeks, with the daily average case rate across the U.S. dropping to 20,000 down from 30,000 in April and 25,000 in May.

This may have been true when Pence wrote the piece, Benjamin said, but we are now seeing the number of cases going up.

Besides, he added, the figures Pence cited were averages that because they hide peaks and valleys in regional areas could be deceiving.

We know we are now getting new hotspots around the country, he said, which will impact that number, and some of those hotspots are in places that have pretty dense populations.

In the past five days, deaths are down to fewer than 750 a day, a dramatic decline from 2,500 a day a few weeks ago.

This also could have been true at the time of Pences writing, Benjamin said, but deaths are a lagging indicator of how the virus is spreading in a population.

If you have a dramatic increase of cases like were seeing, he said, we would expect that two weeks later we would start seeing a rise in deaths.

Today less than 6% of Americans tested each week are found to have the virus.

Benjamin and Swann say this is likely true.

Swann noted, however, that although just 6% of the population might be infected at any given moment, over time we can expect 50% to 80% of the population to get sick from the virus unless there is a vaccine.

We are not anywhere close to that now, she said.

We are performing roughly 500,000 tests a day, and more than 23 million tests have been performed in total.

Those figures may be accurate, but theyre not as impressive as they might seem, Benjamin said.

Half a million tests per day is nowhere near the number the Rockefeller Foundation had estimated that we need to manage this virus, he said. We need to be at 1 to 2 million, maybe even 3 million a day.

The Strategic National Stockpile hadnt been refilled since the H1N1 influenza outbreak in 2009.

Pence was correct that the Strategic National Stockpile hadnt been refilled since the H1N1 influenza outbreak, Benjamin said. Still, he said, it was the federal governments responsibility to restock it, and they didnt.

That means that, when the pandemic hit, healthcare providers were getting equipment that was out of date and dysfunctional.

No American who required a ventilator was ever denied one.

Swann and Benjamin say that, as far as they know, this statement is correct.

Benjamin said, however, the reason no American was denied a ventilator was that healthcare workers jury-rigged DIY ventilators when they needed them.

Swann added that the decision of some governors to issue shelter-in-place directives helped limit the need for ventilators in the first place.

We are well on our way to having a viable vaccine by the fall.

This statement is off by about four or five months, Benjamin said.

We are more on our way to having viable vaccine by early winter, maybe late winter, he said. But we are well on our way to having a vaccine. He is correct about that.

Weve slowed the spread, weve cared for the most vulnerable, weve saved lives, and weve created a solid foundation for whatever challenges we may face in the future.

Pence attributed these successes to the Trump administrations whole-of-America approach to getting the outbreak under control. Benjamin challenged the notion that Washington, D.C., deserved the credit.

Theyve had the most dysfunctional inter-government process Ive ever seen in my life, he said.

The federal government, he said, has not slowed the spread of the disease the governors have slowed the spread of the disease.

He added that the federal government certainly saved lives, but they could have saved more.

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Fact-check: Pence says U.S. is winning the COVID-19 fight - Los Angeles Times

Vice President Mike Pence and his wife, Karen Pence, reportedly voted by mail in Indianas June primary election using an address they have not lived at since 2016. Their April 13 ballots recorded the Indiana governors mansion as their residence for voting purposes, despite their having moved out of the house after Pence became the vice president elect. Though it is legal for the two to vote from a previous address so long as they do not register to vote in Washington, D.C., the move subverts President Donald Trumps attacks on the vote-by-mail system.

The president has repeatedly claimed that voting by mail is susceptible to fraud, despite a dearth of evidence supporting his statements. Trump himself voted in the Florida GOP primary this spring using a mail-in ballot, after changing his address from New York to Florida.

Continued here:
Vice President Mike Pence and Wife Voted by Mail in April Using Old Indiana Address - The Daily Beast

WASHINGTON Vice President Mike Pence twice refused to say that black lives matter during an interview on a Philadelphia television station on Friday, insisting instead that all lives matter in a very real sense.

Mr. Pence also claimed during the interview with 6ABC Action News that Americans had cherished the idea that everyone is created equal from the founding of this nation, an assertion that ignores the institution of slavery during the first 100 years of the countrys history.

The vice presidents comments came on Juneteenth, a holiday that commemorates the end of slavery in America. And he refused to specifically say that black lives matter at a time when the country is convulsing in outrage about racial injustice at the hands of the police following George Floyds death in Minneapolis last month.

President Trump has been under fire for weeks for his response to protests in cities across the nation in the wake of Mr. Floyds death. His tweets calling for aggressive action by the police to quell violence have angered activists. And earlier this month, his administration ordered the police to clear protesters from streets near the White House before Mr. Trump held a photo op at a church.

In the interview, Mr. Pence called Mr. Floyds death a tragedy, but his insistence that all lives matter is likely to be seen as a provocation by activists and others who say that phrase dilutes the issue and fails to acknowledge the specific threats that African-Americans still face at the hands of police officers in the United States.

Brian Taff, the news anchor, pressed Mr. Pence on that point: People are saying, of course all lives matter, but to say the words is an acknowledgment that black lives also matter at a time in this country when it appears that theres a segment of our society that doesnt agree. So why will you not say those words?

The vice president said he did not accept that theres a segment of American society that disagrees, in the preciousness and importance of every human life. He again refused to say that black lives matter.

And yet, one final time, you wont say the words and we understand your explanation, Mr. Taff said.

Mr. Pence is due to arrive on Saturday in Tulsa, Okla., to join Mr. Trump for a Make America Great Again! rally that evening. Tulsa was the site of one of the nations worst examples of racial violence when a white mob laid siege to a prosperous black neighborhood, killing hundreds of people in 1921.

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Pence Wont Say the Words Black Lives Matter in an Interview - The New York Times

President Trump's comments at a weekend campaign rally in Oklahoma aboutslowing down testingfor coronavirus were just "a passing observation," Vice President Mike Pence told the nation's governors on Monday.

The president has been widely criticized for seeming to dismiss the importance of testing for COVID-19, especially at rates of infections continue to climb nationwide. Late Saturday after the president's rally, a White House official told CBS News that the president's comments were "in jest."

On Monday, Pence clarified the president's comments about testing under questioning by Nevada Democratic Governor Steve Sisolak, who sought assurance that state and federal leaders would stay on the same page about the importance of testing for COVID-19. Sisolak called the president's comments "not helpful" but neither he nor Pence referred to them as a joke, according to audio of the call obtained by CBS News.

"The president's comments on Saturday night as it related to his order to slow down the testing were certainly not helpful," Sisolak told Pence. "We're doing everything we can in Nevada to increase our testing, to increase the availability of the testing and our cases have gone up. It's not solely a result of more testing, it's also a result of people not wearing masks and not following the social protocols. So, if we could all get on the same page and get a commitment that there's not a federal mandate to slow down testing I think it would be extremely helpful."

Pence told Sisolak the administration is "going to continue to partner with you on testing I think the president's observation was a passing observation in his remarks. But we are seeing that now that we're doing more than 500,000 tests a day, we are finding more people. That has contributed to some of our numbers. So, I'd just say to you and all the governors on the call, as the media has focused on the new cases number, that we all would explain the percentage of that is reflective of an extraordinary national success in testing and that we are identifying people. And that that is a reflection of a great, great collaboration at the federal, state level, as well as with our private sector."

Multiple people listening to Monday's regularly scheduled conference call with governors shared highlights and audio of the meeting with CBS News.

On Saturday night in Tulsa, Mr. Trump called increased testing for coronavirus "a double-edged sword."

"Here's the bad part when you do testing to that extent, you're going to find more people; you're going to find more cases," Trump told the roughly 6,200 people in attendance. "So I said to my people, slow the testing down please."

In a statement after the call on Monday, Sisolak said testing "is a critical component to Nevada's Roadmap to Recovery reopening plan, and the state has made great strides to make testing available to everyone, regardless of whether they are exhibiting symptoms or not. Increased testing helps determine the spread of the virus in the community and gives state and local public health operations critical information to pursue aggressive measures to help monitor and respond to outbreaks."

Pence also told the governors that the Trump administration remains focused on rising cases in nine states, with the situation stable in the other 41, and he told the governors that medical officials are seeing a growing trend of more people under age 45 testing positive for coronavirus.

"We are seeing steady progress in the vast majority of states," Pence told the governors, according to one person listening in on the call.

During the call, Pence also called on Republican governors from Florida, Texas and Arizona to explain how they're handling a sharp rise in infection in their states. Pence and other officials on the call especially praised Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis for his management of a record number of infections in the Sunshine State. DeSantis reiterated what he has said publicly that increased testing among younger, asymptomatic people is driving the rate of infection.

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Pence tells governors Trump comment on slowing testing was "a passing observation" - CBS News

President Donald Trump is receiving criticism for his decision to restart in-person, indoor rallies with an event in Tulsa on June 20. During a White House roundtable on June 15, Vice President Mike Pence defended Trumps decision by praising Oklahomas response to the coronavirus pandemic.

At a discussion of issues affecting older Americans, Pence said, "The president and I have both spoken to (Oklahoma) Gov. Kevin Stitt in the last several days and even earlier today. And Oklahoma has really been in the forefront of our efforts to slow the spread. And in a very real sense, they've flattened the curve. And today, their hospital capacity is abundant. The number of cases in Oklahoma it's declined precipitously, and we feel very confident going forward with the rally this coming weekend."

However, Pences remarks represent an unduly optimistic reading of Oklahomas actual coronavirus data. (The Trump campaign and the White House did not respond to inquiries.)

The state opened some businesses on April 24 and others on May 1.

We looked at the raw data for Oklahoma from the Covid Tracking Project. The following chart shows both the daily number of new, confirmed cases in Oklahoma and the seven-day rolling average, which smooths out day-to-day variations in the data. (For instance, weekends often show artificially low totals because offices are closed.)

The strongest evidence for Pences characterization comes in the early part of the period. From early March to early April, the daily case count skyrocketed, but then it eased and remained more or less in check through the end of May.

This fits the pattern of "flattening the curve," a term that gained currency early in the pandemic to describe a hoped-for phenomenon by which Americans would stay at home to stop the virus spread, thus keeping new infections from overwhelming the hospital system.

However, Pence overstated the case.

First, its incorrect to say that infections in Oklahoma "declined precipitously." As the chart shows, it was, at best, a modest decline between early April and the end of May. It could be more accurately described as a plateau.

Second, any "flattening the curve" period is old news. Over the most recent week, the number of new cases has increased every day and produced a spike beyond anything previously seen in Oklahoma. The seven-day rolling average for new infections is now more than double where it stood at the end of May, just before the spike began.

"It looks from the data that the number of cases is on the rise, and rising quite steeply," said Nicole Gatto, associate professor in the School of Community and Global Health at Claremont Graduate University.

Tara C. Smith, a professor of epidemiology at Kent State University, agreed.

"The seven-day average doesn't look great for the most recent part of June," Smith said. "They had slowed new cases for a while, but the trend now seems to be reversing."

Equally important, the recent spike does not appear to be traceable to a big surge in testing. Heres a chart of the seven-day rolling average of daily tests in Oklahoma:

The number of tests conducted has generally risen over time. But the number of tests actually fell during the period when the number of new infections was spiking.

Our ruling

Pence said, "In a very real sense, (Oklahoma has) flattened the curve. ... The number of cases in Oklahoma it's declined precipitously."

This observation is outdated and inaccurate. In June, Oklahomas daily caseload has risen consistently, and to levels higher than at any point in the pandemic.

We rate the statement False.

The rest is here:
VP Mike Pence says Oklahoma flattened the COVID-19 curve. That's False - PolitiFact