'Most Americans now know someone who has been infected with COVID-19'

The U.S. has reached a landmark of sorts in its so far not very successful battle with the virus that causes Covid-19 - most Americans now know someone who has been infected," writes Justin Fox at Bloomberg, about coronavirus social data from Navigator Research, shown above.

From Navigator Research:

Key takeaways:

Trump's approval ratings on handling the pandemic remain deeply underwater.

For the first time since the pandemic began, a majority of Americans know someone who has been infected with coronavirus.

More than three in four Americans support states requiring people to wear masks.

We've now reached a point where most Americans have a personal link to the disease, which makes such denial a lot harder," writes Justin Fox at Bloomberg:

Given what we know about the spread of the disease from other sources, it sounds about right. Although it is sad news, it may also mark something of a positive turning point. More than anything else, the key to keeping Covid-19 under control seems to be taking it seriously, and knowing someone with the disease can do a lot to focus a person on the risks it poses.

That it had to come to this is of course tragic. A key enabler of the spread of the coronavirus, especially in affluent countries with the resources to stop it, has been an inability to imagine that what happened somewhere else might happen closer to home. Italians saw what transpired in China, and failed to act on the early signs that they might be next. New Yorkers saw what was going on Italy and the mayor and governor concluded that, well, this isn't Italy. Political leaders in the U.K. saw what was going on in Continental Europe and New York and seemed to think their compatriots could just tough it out, before belatedly changing course.

Read the rest at Bloomberg News.