News Information and Media Site: Why not focus on what works? ... and Karen Bass talks the VP vet

From NBC's Ben Kamisar

If it's Sunday, can we just put the hydroxychloroquine talk to bed?

That's what Admiral Brett Giroir asked for on "Meet the Press" after a week that saw President Trump once again boosting discredited claims about the drug, this time by promoting claims made by a doctor who also believes demons cause a variety of maladies.

While there was a point where the FDA briefly granted the drug emergency authorization to treat COVID-19, that time is long past explicitly because of scientific studies showing both a lack of efficacy and the potential for serious heart issues.

"At this point in time, there has been five randomized controlled, placebo controlled trials that do not show any benefit to hydroxychloroquine. So, at this point in time, we don't recommend that as a treatment."

—Admiral Brett Giroir

Yet, we spent the last week re-re-litigating the hydroxychloroquine debate after President Trump's tweet.

It all distracts from the conversation about what does work, Giroir said: mask-wearing and handwashing, as well as treatments like steroids and others that doctors have developed as they gain more experience treating the disease.

Click on the video below to watch the full interview with Giroir.

2020 VISION: Bass learns lesson on Cuba

What did California Democratic Rep. Karen Bass say in response to criticism of past comments in the wake of the death of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro?

"Lesson learned."

Bass, who is being considered by former Vice President Joe Biden as a potential running mate, told "Meet the Press" that when she described Castro as "Comandante en Jefe" (Spanish for commander-in-chief) during her 2016 statement on Castro's death, she erred.

"I was expressing condolences to the Cuban people, to the people in Cuba, not Cubans around the world. ... Lesson learned. Wouldn't do that again."

—California Democratic Rep. Karen Bass.

Bass went on to describe her work in Cuba as humanitarian, as a young adult trying to build houses and a politician trying to bring promising Cuban treatments for diabetes and lung cancer to America for testing.

Click on the photo of Bass to watch her full interview, where she discusses her view on the vice presidential vetting process and what she brings to the table.

TWEET OF THE DAY: 'Ice' in the veins

DATA DOWNLOAD: Not quite rockin' the suburbs

Through recent comments and policy moves, it's clear that President Trump is paying a lot of attention to the suburbs.

But the tone of that appeal to the suburbs looks more like an appeal to the suburbs of decades' past, not the more diversifying areas we see today.

Click on the graphic below to read more from today's Data Download.

ICYMI: Coronavirus deaths continue to mount

As the pandemic drags on and many experience a serious case of quarantine fatigue, it's important not to forget the abject scale of the death we are seeing in America and around the world.

There are already more than 155,500 American COVID-19 deaths, and projections say the country could reach 180,000 deaths as soon as Aug. 22.

And as of Sunday, Johns Hopkins reports there have been more than 685,000 global deaths attributable to the virus.

It's a death toll that is unfathomable if you stop and think about it, or at least would have been just months ago.

While it's easy to get lost in the numbers, or feel disconnected from loss of life at this scope, these aren't numbers, they're lives — lives cut short by the virus we are all fighting together.