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We turn now to the national coronavirus picture.

Today, Texas Governor Greg Abbott shut down bars and scaled back restaurant dining,

a major reversal as the state deals with a surge in coronavirus cases.

Alexis Madrigal of the COVID tracking project at the Atlantic wrote this week in a piece with Robinson Meyer that the American coronavirus pandemic is once again at risk of spinning out of control, with the U.S. seeing more cases in the past week than in any week since the pandemic began.

New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut have now imposed restrictions on travelers from Texas,

Arizona, and other states in the South and West as cases spike. Alexis Madrigal, thanks for joining

us on Forum. Thank you for having me. First, your reaction to the news coming out of Texas. I mean,

what does this tell you about the spike in cases there that Governor Greg Abbott is taking these dramatic steps now?

Well, I guess I would say it's not that dramatic given what we know is happening there.

That they need to do more.

That they need to do more. Yeah.

I see that as more of a bare minimum for what could or should be done there.

You know, it's a really difficult problem to have such a large nation and that has had

the outbreak in just such different places.

In the Northeast, things got really, really, really bad.

...