US Covid response in chaos as controversial Trump pandemic adviser Atlas resigns – live updates ed.4
Country sees 28th consecutive day with over 100,000 new coronavirus cases recordedScott Atlas resigns as pandemic adviser after controversial tenureCongress races to avoid government shutdown amid pandemicWisconsin and Arizona certify Joe Biden election victoriesSign up to receive First Thing – our daily briefing by email 1.42pm GMT The decentralised federal structure of the US is often cited as a strength in holding a country together over such a large geographical area and with a diverse population. However, it brings with it some disadvantages. ProPublica this morning have a report on how the lack of a central approach to tackling coronavirus is allowing the virus an opportunity to spread as states take very different – and contradictory – approaches to dealing with it. Nowhere are these regulatory disparities more counterproductive and jarring than in the border areas between restrictive and permissive states; for example, between Washington and Idaho, Minnesota and South Dakota, and Illinois and Iowa. In each pairing, one state has imposed tough and sometimes unpopular restrictions on behavior, only to be confounded by a neighbor's leniency. Like factories whose emissions boost asthma rates for miles around, a state's lax public health policies can wreak damage beyond its borders.“In some ways, the whole country is essentially living with the strategy of the least effective states because states interconnect and one state not doing a good job will continue to
