Tag: COVID-19

Google completely undercuts Trump’s announcement of a new coronavirus testing website

AlterNet logoAfter President Donald Trump unleashed chaos with his Oval Office address about the coronavirus on Wednesday night, it seems he and his team decided they better give it a second shot. So on Friday, Trump appeared in the Rose Garden for a press conference along with business executives and leading members of the coronavirus task force to speak to the country.

And while it wasn’t quite as disastrous as Trump’s rollout of a new ban on travel to the U.S. from most European countries, the president completely misrepresented the central announcement of the event.

Trump claimed that there will be a new website designed by Google to facilitate the administration of coronavirus tests to the American people. Continue reading.

On a Saturday Night in Florida, a Presidential Party Became a Coronavirus Hot Zone

New York Times logoA weekend getaway at Mar-a-Lago put the president in contact with several people who later tested positive for the virus. The White House physician said the president had tested negative for the virus.

WASHINGTON — The lights were low and the disco balls spinning as a cake with a fiery sparkler shooting flames into the air was brought out to a robust rendition of “Happy Birthday,” joined by President Trump. The birthday girl, Kimberly Guilfoyle, the girlfriend of Donald Trump Jr., then pumped her fist in the air and called out, “Four more years!”

It was a lavish, festive, carefree Saturday evening at Mar-a-Lago a week ago in what in hindsight now seems like a last hurrah for the end of one era and the beginning of another. In the days since then, the presidential estate in Florida has become something of a coronavirus hot zone. A growing number of Mar-a-Lago guests from last weekend have said they are infected or put themselves into quarantine.

A week later, the White House physician announced on Saturday night that the president had tested negative for the virus, ending a drama that played out for days as Mr. Trump refused repeatedly even to find out whether he had contracted it after exposure to multiple infected people. The result came less than 24 hours after the White House put out a misleading midnight statement saying there was no need for such a test at roughly the same time the president by his own account was actually undergoing one in deference to public pressure. Continue reading.

Pence tells White House staff to avoid physical contact

Axios logoVice President Mike Pence sent White House staff an email Saturday afternoon recommending “social distancing” and to “avoid physical contact” to keep themselves and their colleagues safe from the novel coronavirus.

Why it matters: This is the first staff-wide email Pence has sent across the complex during his time as vice president — and is the latest sign the White House is shifting its posture against the pandemic.

  • As recently as Thursday, Pence, who is leading the President Trump’s task force to combat COVID-19, told CNN he was still shaking hands with people at the White House.
  • On Friday before the nation’s TV cameras, Trump repeatedly shook hands with industry CEOs during a live press conference in the Rose Garden.
  • But on Saturday the president and his team began modeling different behavior — in line with public health official recommendations. Trump tweeted “SOCIAL DISTANCING!“, said he’d finally been tested for the coronavirus, suggesting that people should be cautious about shaking hands.
  • Also on Saturday, for the first time a White House physician scanned journalists’ foreheads with a thermometer before they could join the White House press briefing. Continue reading.

How the coronavirus has exposed the religious right’s racism

AlterNet logoOn March 10, President Trump retweeted a post from conservative political activist Charlie Kirk, who referred to the coronavirus (COVID-19) as the “China Virus.“ Kirk also exclaimed in his tweet, “Now, more than ever, we need the wall…the US stands a chance if we can get control of our borders.” Trump retweeted this and added the comment, “Going up fast. We need the wall more than ever!”

At first blush, this exchange might seem like the garden-variety white nationalist xenophobia characteristic of Trump or many of his influential supporters. Fox News’ Tucker Carlson and GOP House Representative Kevin McCarthy, in fact, have both insisted on continuing to call the disease the “Chinese Coronavirus.” But Trump’s retweet, and where it originates, helps shed light not only on the Right’s brazen xenophobia, but on the link between America’s supposed religious heritage and fears of ethnic pollution.

Charlie Kirk is co-founder of Liberty University’s Falkirk Center for Faith and Liberty. The Falkirk Center is described by Liberty’s newspaper as a “modern think tank set to renew and defend God-given freedoms and Christian principles throughout American politics and culture.” Continue reading.

Statement from House & Senate leaders regarding legislative operations

House DFL logoSAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA — House Speaker Melissa Hortman, House Minority Leader Kurt Daudt, Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka, and Senate Minority Leader Susan Kent released the following statement regarding legislative operations in the wake of COVID-19:

“Over the next few weeks, the Minnesota Legislature will continue to work, but by alternative means. We expect to operate efficiently and safely to aid Minnesotans with COVID-19 preparedness and response, and to continue our work to address other pressing needs of the state. While it’s important that we remain in session to swiftly respond to the needs of Minnesotans at this time, we will fully comply with Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) guidelines including social distancing, limiting large gatherings, telework, and increased cleaning measures. 

“The Legislative bodies and committees will meet in floor and committee session on an on-call basis from March 16 through April 14. This means there will not be standing floor and committee meetings, but we will meet on the House and Senate floors and in committees with advance notice to members and to the public. All meetings will be held in spaces that allow six feet of distance between individuals. We will implement telework arrangements for legislative employees where it is possible to do so. We encourage Minnesotans to continue to reach out to their legislators by email, telephone and mail during this period while we are operating via alternate means. We intend to take up legislation on the House and Senate floors during this time period only by agreement of the House DFL, House GOP, Senate DFL and Senate GOP caucus leaders.

“We are working together to ensure the safety of our members, our staff, and the public at this time.”

Legislative leaders will hold a media availability on Monday, March 16 at 10:30 AM in Room 1300 of the Senate Office Building to discuss these changes and what to expect in the week ahead.

 

‘Disaster socialism’: Will coronavirus crisis finally change how Americans see the safety net?

Diana Hernandez has one foot in the Ivy League, where she’s an assistant professor of sociomedical sciences at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, and another in the grittier streets of the South Bronx, the mostly working-class area where she lives. Walking down a Bronx boulevard the other day, she witnessed scenes much different from the TV news version of the coronavirus crisis, where suburbanites stuff payloads of squeezably soft toilet paper and price-gouged Purell in the back of luxury SUVs.

Instead, Hernandez wrote that she witnessed Bronx shoppers at her local Dollar Tree stocking up on bleach, a tiny four-pack of toilet paper or a three-pack of Cup Noodles — stockpiles for families that lack cash for day-to-day emergencies, let alone the uncertainties of a global pandemic. She called it emblematic of how hard the coronavirus crisis is for people living on the margins — who can’t simply work from home when their job is cleaning hospital floors or frying fast-food burgers, who can only get around on crowded buses or subways, who can’t take paid sick days or don’t have child care when their kids’ schools shut down.

“The black and brown folks who work for these corporations have to show up on their line or at their cleaning facility, because they’re taking care of the things that can’t be taken care of remotely,” Hernandez told me by phone. I’d called her after reading her op-ed on how a public health crisis has laid bare what so many have tried to ignore for so long — the many ways that the cruel inequalities of modern U.S. capitalism weigh on working people. Continue reading.

10 things to know today about coronavirus

The Hill logoWelcome to The Hill’s daily roundup of coronavirus news.

President Trump and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) struck a deal for a coronavirus response package. Trump also declared a national emergency in the face of mass cancelations of events and restrictions on public gatherings. And in the latest count, at least 1,872 people in 47 states have now tested positive for the virus, with large outbreaks of community spread in Washington state, California and New York. 

Here are the latest developments from Friday, starting at the Capitol. Continue reading.

Pelosi, Trump strike deal on coronavirus response package

The Hill logoSpeaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and President Trump have struck a deal on a multibillion-dollar stimulus package aimed at assisting millions of Americans directly hurt by the coronavirus outbreak.

Pelosi announced the deal on Friday evening after days of roller-coaster negotiations that put the outcome in doubt, as the nation’s leaders raced to ease public anxiety and stabilize volatile markets. Trump said on Twitter that he looked forward to signing the legislation.

“I have directed the Secretary of the Treasury and the Secretary of Labor to issue regulations that will provide flexibility so that in no way will Small Businesses be hurt. I encourage all Republicans and Democrats to come together and VOTE YES!” Trump wrote in a series of tweets. Continue reading.

Why Trump’s Top Three Coronavirus Strategies Will Fail

Even as President Donald Trump continues to insist that he’s done a superb job handling the coronavirus crisis, the evidence of his extreme failures abound. In a hearing before Congress on Thursday, a top official in the administration’s response contradicted Trump about the government’s testing capabilities and acknowledged the shortfall as an important “failing.”

And the same official, Dr. Anthony Fauci, warned the previous day about the outbreak: “It’s going to get worse.”

While Fauci was speaking as an expert in infectious disease, economists — and anyone glancing at the stock market — fear that the risk of financial fallout from the pandemic is equally dim. Continue reading.