10 things you need to know today: October 6, 2020

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1. Trump downplays coronavirus threat on return from hospital
2. Biden calls wearing a mask a 'patriotic' duty
3. McEnany becomes latest White House insider to test positive
4. 2 conservative justices take aim at gay marriage as Supreme Court starts term
5. California's August Complex Fire reaches 'gigafire' status
6. Cuomo approves shutting schools but not businesses in NYC hot spots
7. Eric Trump deposed in fraud investigation
8. Pence, Harris to be separated by plexiglass at debate
9. Three scientists share Nobel medicine prize for Hepatitis C discovery
10. White House blocking coronavirus vaccine guidelines

published 6 October 2020

1. Trump downplays coronavirus threat on return from hospital

President Trump was discharged from Walter Reed Medical Center late Monday to continue his treatment for COVID-19 at the White House. Despite grave concerns over his health, Trump doubled down on previous attempts to downplay the dangers posed by the pandemic, re-entering the White House without wearing a mask. "Feeling really good!" Trump tweeted. "Don't be afraid of Covid. Don't let it dominate your life." Trump was hospitalized through the weekend after announcing Friday that he had tested positive. He underwent three strong treatments, including an experimental antibody cocktail, and his doctor said the president would not be "out of the woods" for a week. Infectious disease experts expressed alarm that Trump's illness had not caused him to be more "realistic" about the threat of the pandemic, which has killed more than 210,000 people in the U.S.

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden on Monday said it was a "patriotic" duty to wear a mask to help fight the coronavirus pandemic. "What is this macho thing, 'I'm not going to wear a mask?'" Biden said in an NBC News town hall in Miami. "Be patriotic for god's sake! Take care of yourself, but take care of your neighbors." The comments came as Biden stepped up his criticism of President Trump's handling of the coronavirus crisis. Trump, still contagious after three days of coronavirus treatment in a hospital, removed his mask before re-entering the White House on Monday. Biden, in a rebuke to Trump, said: "Anybody who contracts the virus by essentially saying masks don't matter ... is responsible for what happens to them."

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White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Monday became the latest close associate of President Trump to test positive for the coronavirus since Trump's infection last week. McEnany announced that she had tested positive Monday after consistently testing negative, "including every day since Thursday," when President Trump first tested positive. She said she would "begin the quarantine process." McEnany briefed White House reporters outside on Friday and Sunday without wearing a mask. She was not aware during the conversations with reporters that White House counselor Hope Hicks had tested positive. Hicks, first lady Melania Trump, former counselor Kellyanne Conway, Trump assistant Nicholas Luna, and several other Republicans in Trump's inner circle also have been infected. Two members of the White House housekeeping staff also have tested positive.

The Supreme Court kicked off its 2020 term on Monday with a brief pause to remember the late liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the second woman to sit on the high court. Then two of the court's conservatives, Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, attacked the Obergefell v. Hodges ruling that made same-sex marriage legal nationwide. Thomas argued that the Obergefell decision "read a right to same-sex marriage into the 14th amendment, even though that right is found nowhere in the text." He said the decision lets courts and governments "brand religious adherents who believe that marriage is between one man and one woman as bigots." The statement underscored the rightward shift the court could make if President Trump's nominee to replace Ginsburg, Amy Coney Barrett, is confirmed.

California's August Complex Fire, the largest in the state's history, became a rare "gigafire" on Monday, growing to cover more than 1 million acres. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) said the August Complex Fire has now burned more land than all recorded fires in California between 1932 and 1999. "If that's not proof point, testament, to climate change, then I don't know what is," Newsom said. As of Monday the blaze remained about 54 percent contained. The fire, which started Aug. 16, now has burned an area larger than Rhode Island. Across the state, wildfires have scorched a record 4 million acres so far this year, and killed at least 31 people. "The 4 million mark is unfathomable," Scott McLean, a spokesperson for Cal Fire, told The Associated Press on Oct. 4. "And that number will grow."

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) on Monday agreed to New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio's request to close schools in nine Brooklyn and Queens neighborhoods that have become coronavirus hot spots. Cuomo rejected de Blasio's plan to close non-essential businesses in the neighborhoods, too. Public and private schools will close starting Tuesday. "I am not going to recommend or allow any New York City family to send their child to a school that I wouldn't send my child," Cuomo said. The governor and mayor have clashed over how to fight the spread of the coronavirus. Cuomo said they spoke by phone on Monday and discussed ways to define the hot spots that would work better than using zip codes, which the city government has used to determine which businesses it wants to shut down.

Eric Trump, one of President Trump's sons, was questioned Monday about the family's businesses as part of an investigation into whether the Trump Organization inflated the value of some assets to qualify for tax benefits. Eric Trump serves as a top executive of the business. His lawyers had tried to get his deposition postponed until after the November election, but a Manhattan judge rejected their request for a delay and ordered Eric Trump to testify by Oct. 7. Eric Trump tweeted on Sept. 23 that the investigation's "sole focus is an anti-Trump fishing expedition that she promised during her campaign," referring to New York Attorney General Letitia James.

The Commission on Presidential Debates approved the use of a plexiglass partition between Vice President Mike Pence and Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) to reduce the risk of coronavirus infections when they face off in Wednesday's vice-presidential debate, Politico reported Monday, citing two people familiar with the discussions. Plexiglass also will separate the two candidates from moderator Susan Page. Harris' camp supported using the barrier as a precaution following President Trump's infection last week. Pence's campaign opposed it. "If Sen. Harris wants to use a fortress around herself, have at it," said Katie Miller, a Pence spokeswoman. Some Democrats have expressed concern that Trump was contagious last week during his debate with Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.

The Nobel Committee announced Monday that three scientists — Americans Harvey J. Alter and Charles M. Rice, plus Michael Houghton of Britain — had won the 2020 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for their joint discovery of the virus that causes Hepatitis C, a blood-borne illness that damages the liver. The trio built on the discovery of the Hepatitis A and B viruses, the Nobel Committee said, and their "discovery of Hepatitis C virus revealed the cause of the remaining cases of chronic hepatitis and made possible blood tests and new medicines that have saved millions of lives." Alter, Rice, and Houghton will split the $1.1 million award and be invited to the 2021 Nobel laureate banquet in Stockholm, COVID-19 permitting. The winners of the physics prize will be announced on Tuesday.

The White House is blocking proposed Food and Drug Administration guidelines for the emergency release of a coronavirus vaccine because of a provision highly likely to prevent the authorization of a vaccine before the Nov. 3 election, The New York Times and Politico reported Monday, citing people familiar with the matter. White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows' office has held up approval of the guidelines. One reason, the Times reported, is a recommendation to follow vaccine trial volunteers for two months after their final dose before approving a vaccine, which would make it impossible to authorize a drug before Election Day. Health experts fear that sidestepping safety recommendations will undermine efforts to reassure the public that a vaccine will be safe and effective.

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Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.