The Most Important Coronavirus News This Week

Credit: Yulia Shaihudinova

There’s really never a dull moment in a pandemic, and this week was filled with Covid-19 news — both good and bad. Here are three stories from Medium’s Coronavirus Blog to get you caught up as you head into the weekend.

Trump knew. The president’s downplaying of Covid-19 throughout the pandemic has been perplexing, but new tapes of conversations between the president and journalist Bob Woodward revealed this week Trump knew and said Covid-19 was more dangerous than the flu, even though he publicly said different. “He knew an invisible fire was coming here and he let the fire rage. And the people around him knew he knew. And they too did nothing,” writes health care expert Andy Slavitt on the blog.

What Else Does He Know?

A history of redlining makes Covid-19 worse for Black Americans. A new report from the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) shows that people in neighborhoods that were redlined over 80 years ago are at a higher risk of severe illness or death from Covid-19. Redlined neighborhoods continue to face increased pollution, decreased access to healthy food, and widespread poverty, and the new report shows that people in redlined neighborhoods have a higher incidence of conditions like asthma, diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, kidney disease, obesity, and stroke. As a result, they are more vulnerable to the severe effects of Covid-19. “Health inequities will persist until we address the legacy of racism in the housing market,” one of the co-authors says. Read more about the findings here.

The Long History of Redlining Makes Covid-19 Worse for Black Americans

Don’t give yourself a DIY vaccine. A group of scientists in the Boston area have been developing and taking a DIY coronavirus vaccine. The problem is that the experiment bypasses many important aspects of vaccine clinical trials — like clinical trials for safety and effectiveness…