Good morning. I'm James Holman from the Washington Post and this is the Daily

202 for Wednesday April 22nd. In today's news, the first coronavirus deaths in America occurred weeks earlier than previously thought.

The CDC director warns that the second wave of this contagion will be even more devastating.

And a new VA study shows that unproven drug President Trump keeps hyping

is linked to higher death rates. But first, the big idea.

Skyler Herbert loved dressing up and performing. She adored going to kindergarten. She

started reading at the age of four. Her grandma Leona says she could take over a

room. About a month ago, Skyler started to complain of headaches.

Within days she was hospitalized in the Detroit suburbs where she was diagnosed with COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, and then

with a rare form of meningitis caused by COVID-19. Her brain started swelling. She was placed on a

ventilator and on Sunday, despite the best efforts of doctors, as her family watched, the five-year-old became

the first child in Michigan to die of the coronavirus, and one of a handful of pediatric deaths in America.

Skyler's death stands as a heartbreaking exception in a pandemic that is largely spared kids even as it ravages older populations and people

with underlying medical conditions.

Skyler was both young and had no pre-existing conditions.

Her death serves as a reminder that this virus can present peril to people at any age.

As of this morning, about 45,000 of our fellow Americans

have been killed by this invisible enemy. We have 813,000 confirmed cases nationwide. In Michigan, about 1% of their

33,000 cases have been in patients younger than 20. The average age of coronavirus patients

who die in that state is 74. But losing little ones is obviously especially tragic.

I wish you could see Skyler's picture right now.

I've had it open on my computer monitor all morning.

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