"The Midwest is taking off"

Sen. Joni Ernst is "really curious" about a debunked conspiracy theory; the US is sitting out a global vaccine effort.

Tonight's Sentences was written by Cameron Peters.

TOP NEWS

Ernst floats a Covid-19 myth as cases surge in Iowa

Greg Nash-Pool/Getty Images

At a campaign stop this week, Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst seized on a thoroughly discredited conspiracy theory to suggest that the Covid-19 death toll in the US is far lower than it actually is. In reality, more than 184,500 people have died. [Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier / Amie Rivers]
Ernst isn't the only member of her party to trade in that kind of rhetoric: President Donald Trump has amplified QAnon supporters making similar — and equally false — arguments about the US death toll. [Iowa Starting Line / Pat Rynard]
"Death skepticism" has cropped up repeatedly since the pandemic began earlier this year, and there might be a reason for that, according to cognitive scientists Alan Jern. Humans, simply put, aren't quite as good at causal reasoning as we'd like to think. [Vox / Alan Jern]
Nonetheless, it's been well documented that the opposite is true: Using a metric known as "excess deaths," a New York Times analysis last month determined that the US death toll is likely a substantial undercount. [NYT / Denise Lu]
Ernst's comments come as Iowa is grappling with a surge in coronavirus cases; over the past two weeks, the number of new daily cases has increased by about 90 percent, good for the fourth-highest rate of new infections in the US. [Vox / Dylan Scott]
Iowa isn't alone in that: Kansas, Minnesota, and the Dakotas have also seen rising case counts recently as schools and businesses begin to reopen. [TIME / Jamie Ducharme]
In August, Sturgis, South Dakota hosted a motorcycle rally attended by several hundred thousand people. According to a tracking project by the Rapid City Journal, the rally has since seeded Covid-19 cases across at least nine other states. [Rapid City Journal / Morgan Matzen]
On Wednesday, Iowa State University canceled plans for its own large gathering — a potential crowd of 25,000 for its home football opener — after widespread opposition. The university is already reporting a nearly 30 percent test positivity rate on campus. [Washington Post / Matt Bonesteel]
The Midwest's current plight isn't all that surprising, Johns Hopkins health security expert Dr. Amesh Adalja says; instead, it's a consequence of the US's scattered state-by-state pandemic response, which has produced "rolling hotspots" across the country. [CNN / Andrea Kane]

The US turns its back on a global vaccine push

More than 170 countries are in talks to team up for a global coronavirus vaccine push — and the US isn't one of them. After spending months railing against the World Health Organization, the Trump administration plans to sit out the WHO-led vaccine initiative. [NPR / Scott Neuman]
The WHO effort, called Covax — or Covid-19 Vaccines Global Access Facility — is not just intended to help the world achieve a vaccine, but to ensure "equitable access" once it's in production. [The Guardian / Lauren Aratani]
By most accounts, the decision not to join is a "huge gamble," one that could lead to the US missing out on immediate vaccine access if the international effort achieves a viable vaccine candidate before the US does. [Washington Post / Emily Rauhala and Yasmeen Abutaleb]
The US announced in July this year that it had formally begun withdrawing from the WHO after previously freezing funding for the organization. [Al Jazeera]
Currently, the US has two vaccine candidates in Phase 3 trials and several more in earlier stages of production, but there's no guarantee that any of them will work, much less that they'll be ready before global alternatives. [CNN / Paul LeBlanc]
Even if the US finds a vaccine first, though, international efforts like Covax make sense. As Vox's Jen Kirby explained in July, "countries narrowly focused on protecting their own interests" — like the US — "are missing the point — and working counter to those interests." [Vox / Jen Kirby]

MISCELLANEOUS

Fox News anchor Chris Wallace will moderate the first presidential debate on September 29 in Cleveland, Ohio.

[Vox / Cameron Peters]

"He's gone off the rails": A close look at Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro's bizarre contributions to the US coronavirus response. [Washington Post / David J. Lynch, Carol D. Leonnig, Jeff Stein, and Josh Dawsey]
On Wednesday, the US announced sanctions against the International Criminal Court's top prosecutor in response to an investigation into possible US war crimes in Afghanistan. [BBC]
Germany has confirmed that Putin critic Alexei Navalny was poisoned with a nerve agent, Novichok, that has been linked to the Kremlin. [CNN / Stephanie Halasz, Bryony Jones, and Gianluca Mezzofiore]
"These rules are for the good of everyone here": College students are struggling with what to do when their peers throw parties. [NYT / Troy Closson]

VERBATIM

"There will be no peace, no justice, and no prosperity unless we stop the march to climate destruction. This is a matter of life and death. The very future of our civilization depends upon it. … There is no time for compromise on the existential threat on our time. We must pass a Green New Deal."

[Sen. Ed Markey on Tuesday after his primary win against Rep. Joe Kennedy III / Boston.com]

LISTEN TO THIS

Ventilation is key to reopening office buildings safely. But the Atlantic's Derek Thompson says many workers aren't going back, even when it's safer. [Vox / Sean Rameswaram]

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"The Midwest is taking off"

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