Myrtle Beach braces for tourists despite COVID-19 outbreaks

JOE MURPHY AND CORKY SIEMASZKO

Jul 1st 2020 12:37PM

Myrtle Beach was bracing Wednesday for an invasion of Fourth of July weekend revelers undeterred by reports that the South Carolina tourist mecca has been identified as a coronavirus hot spot.

The Grand Strand, as it’s called, has been linked to outbreaks that have sickened some 200 people, mostly teens, in Virginia. And the governors of nearby West Virginia and Kentucky have warned their constituents to stay away.

“Myrtle Beach is an absolute hot spot and, if I were you, I would consider going somewhere else,” West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice said earlier this week.

Like Florida, Arizona and Texas, South Carolina is one of the states that was quick to reopen its economy and has now seen a rapid rise in new COVID-19 cases even as the pandemic has slowed elsewhere in the country.

The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control announced 1,755 new confirmed cases of coronavirus and 19 more deaths on Tuesday. That brings the total number of confirmed cases since the outbreak began to 36,399 and confirmed deaths to 739, according to the latest NBC News tally.

Expecting an avalanche of visitors, Myrtle Beach’s city leaders were expected Thursday to follow the lead of nearby North Myrtle Beach and pass a vote requiring visitors to wear face masks in all retail, service and food establishments.

The drive to get people to wear masks has, of late, been driven by Republicans who had previously been reluctant to weigh in on that contentious issue. And it has taken on a new urgency as the nationwide death toll from COVID-19 rose overnight to 128,363 and the total number of confirmed cases climbed to 2,653,591, new NBC News figures show.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican and ally of President Donald Trump, is embarking on a statewide “flyaround” to encourage residents to start wearing masks.

“Wear a mask, practice social distancing, wash your hands, and continue to follow the guidance provided by public health officials,” Kemp said earlier this week.

Kemp stopped short of mandating masks, but he’s been practicing what he’s been preaching and wearing one at public events –- unlike Trump and many of his supporters.

Other top Republicans, from Senate Majority Mitch McConnell to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, have also been urging their constituents to wear masks.

"It wouldn't hurt him politically and it certainly wouldn’t hurt us economically and would probably help," former Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney said Wednesday on CNBC.

Vice President Mike Pence, who was harshly criticized for not wearing a mask during meetings and photo opportunities, has also started wearing one while out in public.

Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., has gone as far as recommending that Trump set an example for the nation by wearing a mask.

"The president has plenty of admirers," Alexander said. "They would follow his lead."

But it remains to be seen whether Trump will don one Friday when he travels to South Dakota for an Independence Day celebration at Mount Rushmore. The state's Republican governor, Kristi Noem, said authorities will be handing out masks but not requiring people to socially distance.

The grim new coronavirus numbers and renewed drive to get Americans to wear masks comes after Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, delivered a stark warning to Congress about the dangerous trajectory of this disease.

“We’re now having 40-plus thousand new cases a day,” Fauci said Tuesday. “I would not be surprised if we go up to 100,000 a day if this does not turn around, and so I’m very concerned.”

In Florida, Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis said they're closing the beaches but keeping businesses open and strictly enforcing safety protocols to combat the coronavirus cases that continue to surge despite the hot and humid weather that many experts said would slow or kill the virus.

Of the new cases in Broward County, 30 percent "happened in the last two weeks," Trantalis told MSBNC. "You know, you’ve been talking about the surge in all these new states, where are they? They’re all in hot, humid environments. So, what happens to that theory?"

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Federal authorities reviewing use of chokehold, death of Elijah McClain

TIM STELLOH

Jul 1st 2020 8:29AM

Federal authorities are reviewing whether a civil rights investigation is warranted in the 2019 death of Elijah McClain, a 23-year-old Black man who died after Colorado police put him in a chokehold, officials said Tuesday.

Authorities are also examining reports that “multiple” police officers in the city of Aurora were placed on administrative leave amid allegations that photos showed them near the site where McClain died.

In a joint statement, the Colorado U.S. Attorney’s Office, the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and the Denver FBI office said they made the unusual disclosures about the investigations because of “recent attention” to McClain’s Aug. 24 death.

Three officers involved in the case have been moved to "non-enforcement" duties.

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis appointed a special prosecutor last week to investigate after the local district declined to file charges against the officers involved in McClain's arrest. On Saturday, thousands of protesters gathered outside Aurora’s municipal building to demand justice, and on Monday, interim Aurora police chief Vanessa Wilson said that internal affairs officers were investigating the photos.

 

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Wilson did not say what the photos showed or how many offers were placed on leave, and the department did not respond to a request for additional information.

McClain, a massage therapist and violinist, was stopped by police after walking to a Shell gas station to buy a drink. He was wearing a ski mask at the time — something he often did when he was cold, his family has said.

A 911 caller reported a suspicious person wearing a mask who looked “sketchy” while walking on a street north of central Aurora, a city of roughly 380,000 east of Denver. The caller told police that he hadn’t seen a weapon but the person might be a “bad man.”

Video of an encounter with three responding police officers shows McClain telling them that he’s an introvert on his way home.

“Leave me alone,” he says.

Police have said that McClain refused to stop walking and resisted contact. During a struggle that followed, police administered a chokehold. In the video, McClain can be heard saying that he “can’t breathe correctly.”

McClain suffered cardiac arrest on the way to the hospital after paramedics administered a sedative to calm him. He was later declared brain dead and taken off life support Aug. 30.

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Republicans, with exception of Trump, now push mask-wearing

AAMER MADHANI AND LAURIE KELLMAN

Jul 1st 2020 9:52AM

WASHINGTON (AP) — In Republican circles — with the notable exception of the man who leads the party — the debate about masks is over: It’s time to put one on.

As a surge of infections hammers the South and West, GOP officials are pushing back against the notion that masks are about politics, as President Donald Trump suggests, and telling Americans they can help save lives.

Sen. Lamar Alexander, a Tennessee Republican, on Tuesday bluntly called on Trump to start wearing a mask, at least some of the time, to set a good example.

"Unfortunately, this simple, lifesaving practice has become part of a political debate that says: If you’re for Trump, you don’t wear a mask. If you’re against Trump, you do,” Alexander said.

It’s a rare break for Republicans from Trump, who earlier this month told the Wall Street Journal that some people wear masks simply to show that they disapprove of him. And the Republican nudges for the public — and the president — to embrace mask-wearing are coming from all corners of Trump’s party and even from friendly conservative media.

Both Vice President Mike Pence and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in recent days have urged Americans to wear one when they are unable to maintain social distance. Sen. Mitt Romney, a Utah Republican, told reporters it would be “very helpful” for Trump to encourage mask usage.

“Put on a mask — it’s not complicated," McConnell, R-Ky., urged Americans during his weekly news conference Tuesday.

Last week, Republican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming tweeted a photo of her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, wearing a disposable mask and a cowboy hat. She included the message: “Dick Cheney says WEAR A MASK #realmenwearmasks,” a hashtag that echoed words spoken earlier by the Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Steve Doocy, co-host of a Trump-friendly morning show, “Fox & Friends,” said during an interview with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy that he doesn’t “see any downside in the president being seen more often wearing it.”

McCarthy, R-Calif., responded that, for the upcoming holiday, “we could all show our patriotism with a red, white and blue mask.”

Jacksonville, the Florida city where Trump is scheduled to accept his renomination as Republicans' presidential candidate in August, announced a mask requirement for indoor public spaces this week. The president’s eldest son said the new requirements were no big deal.

“You know, I don’t think that it’s too complicated to wear a mask or wash your hands and follow basic hygiene protocols,” Donald Trump Jr. told Fox Business on Tuesday.

Trump aides have defended the president’s refusal to wear a mask by noting that he is regularly tested for the coronavirus, as are his aides. Those outside the administration — including White House visitors and members of the media who are in close proximity to him and Pence — are also tested.

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany didn’t directly address Republican calls for Trump to wear a mask in public more often, but noted that the president has said in the past he has no problem wearing one when necessary.

But even with safeguards, the virus has found its way into the White House. A top aide to Pence, as well as a military valet to Trump, in May tested positive for the virus.

Still, mask usage remains rare in the West Wing, said Rep. Brad Sherman, a California Democrat who attended an intelligence briefing at the White House on Tuesday with senior members of the president’s staff.

At the briefing, which he said included about eight White House staffers, only national security adviser Robert O’Brien wore a mask, Sherman said. He added that no one in the secure briefing room was able to maintain 6 feet (1.8 meters) of social distancing, as recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“I learned something major, and that is the White House is a mask-free zone,” Sherman told The Associated Press. “The president is consistent. He’s fine with people not wearing masks.”

Polls show how the partisan divide on masks has seeped into public opinion.

The vast majority of Democrats think people in their community should wear a mask when they are near other people in public places at least most of the time, including 63% who say they should always, according to a Pew Research Center poll published in early June. Among Republicans, 29% say masks should be worn always, and 23% say they should be worn most of the time. Another 23% say masks should rarely or never be worn.

Trump has been caught on camera once wearing a mask. But Pence and members of the White House coronavirus task force frequently appear in public wearing masks.

“If you want the return of college football this year, wear a face covering. If you want a chance at prom next spring, wear a face covering,” Surgeon General Jerome Adams urged Americans.

Over the course of the crisis, the government has sent mixed messages on masks. As the first COVID-19 cases were identified on U.S. soil, top public health officials insisted masks should be reserved for front-line workers.

In early April, the CDC issued a recommendation that people wear cloth face coverings in public settings where other social distancing measures were difficult to maintain.

But Trump immediately undercut the CDC guidance by flatly stating that he wouldn’t be following it, suggesting it would be unseemly for the commander in chief to wear one as he meets with heads of states.

Other world leaders, including Canada’s Justin Trudeau and France’s Emmanuel Macron, have worn masks in public and urged their citizens to do the same when they can’t maintain social distance

Lawrence Gostin, a public health expert at Georgetown University, says he worries Republican calls for wearing masks “might be too late.”

“The public has received such mixed messages from the administration,” Gostin said. “I fear we may be stuck with coronavirus until it burns through the American population and leaves hundreds of thousands dead.”

___

Associated Press writers Jill Colvin, Darlene Superville and Hannah Fingerhut contributed to this report.

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