Risk of COVID-19 second wave 'very real,' as economy reopens

Photo courtesy of Anna Shvets

Experts at the World Health Organization believe there is a strong chance that there will be a second wave of the COVID019 pandemic. Dr. Soumya Swaminathan told CNBC's "Street Signs Asia," on Tuesday that it's unclear that there will be a second wave, peak, or a continuing first wave since numbers haven't really dropped since countries have begun reopening.

"Now, the moment you start having that mixing again, there's every chance that the transmission could restart," she said, noting that the virus is still in the community. She also noted that extreme social distancing and lockdowns have so far halted the spread.

Which, of course means we're totally going to have a second wave of the pandemic hit the U.S. Think about it, we barely made it two months before white people had to grab their semi-automatic pitchforks and scream safely at police to re-open the country because we needed haircuts.

We are so far behind places like New Zealand who recently announced that they eradicated the virus after strict lockdown and social distancing measures, you have to look at the bright side - at least Becky's roots will be fire this summer.

However, it really depends the future. As a lot of republican leaders have pointed out, data models trying chart the growth of this infection have often been wrong so we really don’t know what’s going to happen.

But what do you think?

-Alex

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Democrats introduce overhaul of police reform

Today house democrats introduced t he Justice in Policing Act, which would hold police departments across the nation more accountable for their actions by stripping away some of their protections. The legislation would also c reate a national database of excessive-force incidents and ban police chokeholds. The legislation would also revise the federal criminal police misconduct statute to make it easier to prosecute officers who are knowingly involved in reckless misconduct and seek to provide greater transparency on police behavior according to the AP News. To put it bluntly, as much as I want this legislation to get make ground, it is a long shot pipe dream to get put into law. This is because the senate is majority Republican and will more than likely shoot it down or have it stripped or include poison pill amendments to it, despite Senator Lindsey Graham and Majority Senate Leader Mitch McConnell vowing to look at the issues. What do you think? -Alex

Statehood, the coronavirus and how the U.S. sets the standard for policing

With everything going on in the world, it's easy to lose track of the important issues going on in the world. For this edition of Articles that Make You Smarter, I wanted to share three articles that would give some perspective on three major issues in America. I hope you read and enjoy: Why statehood matters: The House of Representatives approved a bill that would recognize Washington D.C. as the 51st state of the country. While the Senate will more than likely shoot the bill down, here's an article by The Gaurdian that explains everything surrounding the bid for statehood: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/25/washington-dc-statehood-bid-house The United States and Policing: What's going on in America with policing doesn't just happen in a bubble. Here's a great article by The New Republic about how our country sets the standard for policing across the world: https://newrepublic.com/article/158297/america-exports-police-violence-around-world A new surge

Is the dismantling of our police force a good idea?

It seemed like an impossible task, like carrying water in your bare hands up a mountain and trying not to spill any. Still, protestors marching in Minneapolis have started to make massive waves in how the justice system works in their city. As reported by The New York Times , nine members of the Minneapolis City Council vowed yesterday to dismantle the city's police force in the wake of George Floyd's death at the hands of police officer's two weeks ago. Nine members of the council announced during a gathering that the city's policing system was beyond reform and would instead focus on implementing a community-based system of justice. While massive, it is unclear right now what specifically that will look like. What makes this especially interesting is just before this announcement, the city's Mayor Jacob Frey hesitated and then rejected the idea of abolishing the police department when asked at a rally on Saturday. While the council does control

The Statesmen

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