WASHINGTON, July 17 (NNN-Xinhua) — The United States reported a record high of more than 77,000 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of infections to 3,560,364, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.
Meanwhile, the death toll rose by 974, taking the country’s total to 138,201.
The state of Florida, which has emerged as the epicenter of the outbreak, reported a record 156 COVID-19 deaths on Thursday with close to 14,000 new cases.
The United States remains the worst-hit nation in the world in absolute terms. Experts have warned that cases could soon top 100,000 a day if the country fails to take steps necessary to stem the spread of the virus.
Over 60 percent of U.S. voters said they trust top U.S. infectious diseases expert Anthony Fauci but not U.S. President Donald Trump when it comes to information on COVID-19, a new poll has found.
According to the Quinnipiac University poll, 67 percent of voters do not trust information by Trump on COVID-19 while 30 percent do. On the contrary, 65 percent say they trust Fauci while 26 percent distrust the information he offers.
The poll came as the White House reportedly stepped up efforts to discredit Fauci. Among the attacks against him, presidential adviser Peter Navarro wrote in an op-ed published in USA Today on Tuesday that Fauci “has been wrong about everything I have interacted with him on.”
“The attempt to discredit Fauci’s public-health expertise is a political move, and one with disastrous implications,” The Atlantic recently commented. “The Americans who believe the White House’s anti-science campaign risk cutting themselves off from potentially life-saving information.” — NNN-XINHUA
