All 50 states are starting to reopen their economies

An open sign
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All 50 states have started reopening their economies and easing coronavirus lockdowns as of Wednesday. Governors and public health officials caution that areas where restrictions are being lifted are at risk of a new wave of infections, however, because the numbers of cases and deaths in the U.S. continue to rise. As of late Tuesday, there were more than 1.5 million confirmed coronavirus cases in the U.S., and more than 91,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Public health officials in some states have faced allegations of bungling or even fudging coronavirus statistics to make the situation look better than it is, The Associated Press reports. The data scientist who developed Florida's coronavirus dashboard, for example, said this week that she was fired for refusing to tweak data to "drum up support for the plan to open."

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Harold Maass, The Week US

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.