Happy Wednesday! We always write this little intro last, and sometimes we finish TMD too late at night for our brains to come up with something witty.

Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories

• As of Tuesday night, 1,527,895 cases of COVID-19 have been reported in the United States (an increase of 19,297 from yesterday) and 91,878 deaths have been attributed to the virus (an increase of 1,525 from yesterday), according to the Johns Hopkins University COVID-19 Dashboard, leading to a mortality rate among confirmed cases of 6 percent (the true mortality rate is likely lower, but it’s impossible to determine precisely due to incomplete testing regimens). Of 12,233,987 coronavirus tests conducted in the United States (399,479 conducted since yesterday), 12.5 percent have come back positive.

• Many recovered COVID-19 patients continue to test positive for the disease long after their symptoms cease, which has caused many experts to worry about the possibility of reinfection. But a new survey out of South Korea finds that such patients aren’t infectious, and are only continuing to shed “dead” virus particles. 

• Another new study performed on hamsters in Hong Kong suggests that masking might reduce coronavirus transmission by as much as 75 percent.