Such targeting would have spared areas of the nation that were not yet at significant risk, where containment, by testing and tracing sick people and then isolating infected patients, was still possible. That would have reduced the national burden we incurred. It also would have preserved more credibility for public health officials to adopt these measures in places where stronger action was needed later, when the virus finally became epidemic in the South and Midwest. In July and August, when a heat wave struck the Sunbelt and people were driven inside for air-conditioning, the crowding
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