"Thousands more Americans than usual have died of dementia since the outbreak began." People need to exercise their brain. I suggest play chess on the internet.

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Important developments in the pandemic.       By Avi Selk with Angela Fritz  Email The Post's coronavirus coverage linked in this newsletter is free to access from this email.   The latest Thousands more Americans than usual have died of dementia since the outbreak began, suggesting that “the very strategy of isolation that’s supposed to protect” such people is killing them, our health desk reported. “Doctors have reported increased falls, pulmonary infections, depression and sudden frailty in patients who had been stable for years,” The Post wrote. “Social and mental stimulation are among the few tools that can slow the march of dementia. Yet even as U.S. leaders have rushed to reopen universities, bowling alleys and malls, nursing homes say they continue begging in vain for sufficient testing, protective equipment and help.” You can read the full story here. The Trump administration released its “playbook” for distributing a vaccine across the country Wednesday — a document that aspires to have the first shots ready within 24 hours of a vaccine's approval by the Food and Drug Administration. But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention chief doused expectations the same day. Director Robert Redfield told a Senate subcommittee he didn't expect a vaccine to be “fully available to the American public” until the middle of 2021 at the earliest. The federal official tasked with building public trust in a vaccine abruptly took a leave of absence Wednesday, after he posted a Facebook Live video that accused government scientists of “sedition.” Michael Caputo, the assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Health and Human Services, will be gone for two months to “focus on his health and the well-being of his family," the department announced this afternoon. A top aide of Caputo's who had repeatedly badgered the CDC to make its reports more flattering to President Trump will also be leaving the government, but permanently. Ordinary voters challenged Trump about his efforts to contain the pandemic at an ABC News town hall Tuesday night. The president defended himself at least two dozen times. The Post's Fact Checker documented his egregiously inaccurate statements. Among them was Trump's reply to a voter who asked why the president didn't often wear a mask or support a national mask mandate, despite evidence that facial coverings slow the virus's spread. Without answering the question, Trump asked why Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden hadn't imposed such a mandate. In an analysis, The Post noted that Biden hasn't held power since the Obama administration. Other important news President Trump essentially rejected Senate Republicans' plan for a second economic stimulus Wednesday, calling for a massive bill with “much higher numbers” than his party has offered. Barely four weeks after the Big Ten became the first major conference to postpone the 2020 football season, the league reversed its decision Wednesday and announced plans to begin playing in October. An August wedding ceremony in Maine has been linked to 175 coronavirus infections and seven deaths. None of the seven attended the event.   Live updates and more Track deaths and confirmed cases in the U.S. and across the world.  Vaccine tracker: We're monitoring more than 200, and these are the top ones to watch. Post reporters are publishing live dispatches nearly 24 hours a day. Read the latest about what's happening in the D.C. area.  Submit a question and we may answer it in a future story or newsletter.   Your questions, answered “I'm wondering how many people have been hospitalized in America with covid-19. Do you think that might be a realistic way to understand how serious this disease really is?” — Vee in Pennsylvania We do think that tracking hospitalizations is the best way to understand how coronavirus is spreading and how significant it is. Monitoring total cases is useful, but that data is only as good as the testing rate itself; if fewer people are getting tested, we'll find fewer positive cases. Hospitalizations, on the other hand, are mostly independent of the testing blind spot. People who have severe covid-19 will mostly wind up in hospitals, and that information can paint a picture of how the pandemic is really affecting the public. Hospitalization numbers are tricky to get on a day-to-day basis because it's up to the hospitals to report their cases, but health-care workers are understandably focused on helping people recover rather than reporting statistics. Some states began providing hospitalization data early in the pandemic, but the metric didn't catch on everywhere. For the states that do share hospitalizations, we've included that data in our U.S. coronavirus tracker. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates the rate from certain hospitals and acute-care facilities around the country and publishes an analysis each Friday. In the past week's report, which included data through Sept. 5, the overall hospitalization rate was about 167 per 100,000 people. Not surprisingly, the majority of hospitalizations have been in the 65+ age bracket. At least in terms of hospitalizations, the coronavirus is now worse than recent flu seasons (even the particularly bad one in 2017-2018) for people older than 65, the CDC says. Among young people, the covid-19 hospitalization rate since early in the pandemic has outpaced recent flu seasons. The CDC also pointed out that, although the hospitalization rate for children ages 5 to 17 remained fairly constant during the first three weeks of August, it increased during the last week of the month. That data follows a report from the CDC that the infection rate in children increased “steadily” from March to July.  Hispanic, Black, and Native American people are also being hospitalized at rates 4.7 times higher than that of their White peers, the CDC reports. The Post's William Wan reported yesterday that it's not just hospitalizations — the coronavirus is also killing minority children at a higher rate.   Today’s top reads Find more stories, analysis and op-eds about the outbreak on our coronavirus page, including: Marylanders are still calling about stalled unemployment benefits. And no one is answering the phone. Carnival is selling 18 cruise ships amid financial struggles and CDC’s no-sail order Which NFL stadiums will allow fans in Week 2?   In Denmark, the forest is the new classroom By Rick Noack ●  Read more »   Those scaled-back pandemic beauty habits are better for your skin, hair and nails, experts say By Allyson Chiu ●  Read more »   The key difference between the covid-19 risks at protests and Trump rallies Opinion ●  By Leana Wen ●  Read more »   The racist history that explains why some communities don’t have enough ICU beds Perspective ●  By George Aumoithe ●  Read more »   Couples are still planning destination weddings — as long as they can get there By Shannon McMahon ●  Read more »       We think you’ll like this newsletter Check out Book Club for our weekly selection of book reviews and recommendations from Book World editor Ron Charles. Sign up »