Writer: Jessica McKenzie

Supporters of President Trump have a new rallying cry: “Fire Fauci! Fire Fauci!” Greeted by this chant at a campaign rally in Florida, the president responded by suggesting he would consider it: “Don’t tell anybody, but let me wait until a little bit after the election,” Trump said. “I appreciate the advice.”

The White House declared that ''ending the Covid-19 pandemic'' was President Trump’s top accomplishment in his first term of office. Yesterday, the U.S. recorded at least 89,000 new infections, the largest single-day total since the pandemic began.

The U.S. has averaged at least 71,000 new coronavirus cases a day over the past week, more than at any other point during the pandemic. More than 8.7 million people have contracted the virus, and about 226,000 have died.

Some 75,000 new Covid-19 cases were logged in the U.S. yesterday, the second highest single-day total since the pandemic began. The fall surge has gripped the country and, with more time being spent indoors, experts expect the next few months to be the worst yet. They are imploring people to wear masks and social distance.

With new coronavirus cases rising again around the country, the next few months may be the "darkest of the pandemic," Michael Osterholm, the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, warned this week.

Coronavirus infections are surging in Europe and the U.S., which has reached these grim numbers: 8 million cases and 218,000 deaths. With Covid relief benefits largely exhausted, studies show millions of Americans have fallen back into poverty.

At the Senate confirmation hearing for Amy Coney Barrett, one senator spoke without a mask despite a recent Covid diagnosis, saying his doctor had cleared him, and others attended remotely.

Yesterday, the U.S. reported more than 56,000 new coronavirus infections, the largest single-day total in nearly two months.  New case numbers are rising in 28 states, staying steady in 20 others and decreasing in only two. Meanwhile, at least 22 people in President Trump's circle have tested positive for Covid-19.

President Trump returned to the White House last night after being hospitalized for Covid-19 on Friday. According to his medical team, Trump’s oxygen levels dropped twice on Friday and Saturday, and he suffered from symptoms including a cough, a fever and fatigue.

President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump have tested positive for the coronavirus, and the president is described as having ''mild symptoms.'' Hours before tweeting word of his positive test, Trump had declared that “the end of the pandemic is in sight.”

An unusual late-summer snowstorm that hit the Rocky Mountains this month exacerbated the deadly flames by acting as a bellows all along the West Coast. One Oregon fire grew from just 500 acres to more than 131,000 acres overnight, killing four, including a 13-year-old boy and his grandmother.

In recorded interviews for a new book in February, President Trump described the coronavirus as “deadly stuff.” Then he told the public the country was in “good shape” and the virus was ''under control.'' In a follow-up taped interview with journalist Bob Woodward, Trump admitted he had deliberately played down the Covid-19 threat.

More than 200 campers in California’s Sierra National Forest had to be rescued by helicopter when a wildfire cut off the only road out of the popular recreation area.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has asked states to prepare to distribute coronavirus vaccines by November 1, prompting hopes of an effective defense against Covid-19, but also suspicion that the process is being rushed to influence the November elections.

Stephen Hahn, the head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, said he would authorize a coronavirus vaccine before Phase Three clinical trials were complete if the benefits outweigh the risks, but denied that he would rush the process to benefit Donald Trump’s re-election campaign.