Tag: COVID-19

Trump’s former Homeland Security adviser crushes president’s coronavirus response

AlterNet logoTom Bossert, who served as a homeland security adviser to President Donald Trump during the first two years of his administration, slammed his former boss for banning travel to Europe at a time when coronavirus is already spreading like wildfire across the United States.

Bossert, who days earlier wrote an op-ed for the Washington Post warning Trump that he had very limited time to stop the virus from running out of control, wrote on Twitter Thursday morning that the president’s latest travel ban is all but useless with the number of coronavirus infections in the country increasing daily.

“There’s little value to European travel restrictions,” he wrote. “Poor use of time and energy. Earlier, yes. Now, travel restrictions/screening are less useful. We have nearly as much disease here in the US as the countries in Europe.” Continue reading.

Lack of Paid Leave Risks Public Health During the Coronavirus Outbreak

Center for American Progress logoA national paid leave policy is urgently needed to address the new coronavirus outbreak and to help protect the health and safety of the population in the future. The increasing spread of the coronavirus, which causes the disease COVID-19, is an urgent issue for the health and economic well-being of workers, families, and communities—with more infections and deaths reported in the United States every day.

The coronavirus’ high transmission rate and incubation period of up to 14 days may necessitate people self-quarantining at home for extended periods of time if they are sick with or exposed to the coronavirus in order to curb the spread of the infection; they may also be forced to stay home if their workplace or child’s school or child care provider closes because the outbreak worsens. This places workers in an impossible bind if they do not have access to paid leave. An estimated 32.5 million individuals—or 27 percent of private sector workers—in the United States lack access to a single paid sick day to recover from an illness such as COVID-19 or to care for a sick family member without losing their job or their paycheck. Low-income and service-sector workers—who are disproportionately women—and Latinx workers are the least likely to have access to paid sick leave. Continue reading “Lack of Paid Leave Risks Public Health During the Coronavirus Outbreak”

U.S. stock market suffers worst crash since 1987, as Americans wake up to a new normal of life

Washington Post logoThursday’s market plunge marked the second time in one week that a temporary, 15-minute halt to trading was triggered to stop a panic

The stock market crashed to its worst day since 1987, shrugging off dramatic intervention by two central banks and a prime-time address by President Trump as Americans realized the coronavirus will impose new limits on their daily lives.

The Dow Jones industrial average posted its largest one-day point loss in history, dropping almost 2,353 points to close at 21,200.62. In percentage terms, the 10 percent loss marked the Dow’s worst day since the infamous October day known as “Black Monday.”

The broader Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index fell into a bear market, defined as falling 20 percent from a prior high. In an epic day-long rout, European markets suffered similar declines, with exchanges in Paris and Frankfurt shedding more than 12 percent and London’s FTSE index losing nearly 11 percent. Continue reading.

The Trump Administration’s Inaction on Coronavirus Is Hurting U.S. Courts

Center for American Progress logoOver the last several weeks, as the threat posed by the coronavirus to families across the United States has become clear, the response from court systems across the country has varied significantly from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. And while the situation continues to evolve rapidly, this early lack of a coordinated approach or release of nationally recognized best practices for courts is understandable given the absence of leadership from President Donald Trump and his administration in the face of the outbreak. But this type of mismanagement from the White House has the potential to significantly contribute to mass confusion and delays in civil and criminal matters across the country and must be addressed.

Why the administration must prioritize courts in its COVID-19 response

A 2007 report co-authored by the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Bureau of Justice Assistance recognized the threat that a pandemic such as the coronavirus poses to the legal system. Discussing workforce reductions resulting from widespread illness, the DOJ bluntly explains: “Such a reduction of available human resources could be catastrophic to the continuation of court services.”

The problem is heightened with a disease such as COVID-19 in particular: It poses an increased threat to older adults, and judges, on average, are substantially older than the general populace—meaning they are at even greater risk if exposed to the virus. But in addition to judges themselves—as well as older jurors or parties to cases—courthouses are often busy, full buildings where hundreds of people may come and go throughout the day. This raises the chance for those with serious chronic medical conditions who are also at heightened risk to be exposed to the virus as well. Continue reading.

Trump Appears More Concerned With Closing Borders Than Testing For Coronavirus

The president has characterized the pandemic as a “foreign virus” and suggested that banning people from other countries is key to fixing the outbreak at home.

During his first address to the nation on the global coronavirus pandemic, President Donald Trump characterized COVID-19 as a “foreign virus” while touting his decision to institute travel restrictions with China and announcing plans to close the U.S. to visitors from most of Europe.

Meanwhile, he has been raked by critics — and the markets — for failing to thoroughly explain how the government plans to address the lack of tests and spiking number of cases across the U.S. His administration has for weeks downplayed the threat of the virus, even as experts warned it is on track to spread exponentially.

Trump clearly sees the novel coronavirus as just another foreign invader to keep out — a viewpoint reflected both in his policy proposals and the way he and his administration talk about the virus. This approach is in line with his overarching political strategy of exploiting Americans’ fears to justify racist, nativist policies.

Trump officials did sound the coronavirus alarm. They just don’t work there anymore.

The dire message coming from former administration officials often stood in contrast to the upbeat narrative emanating from the White House.

On the January day a new coronavirus was identified in Wuhan, China, Tom Bossert, President Donald Trump’s former homeland security adviser, tweeted a stark warning: “we face a global health threat.”

“Coordinate!” he implored.

At the time, the coronavirus outbreak was isolated to China — a distant threat to America that did not seem to overly concern President Donald Trump. But Bossert was just one of several former Trump administration officials waving their arms. Other people like Scott Gottlieb, head of the Food and Drug Administration until 2019, and Gary Cohn, who once helmed the National Economic Council, were also on TV and Twitter, arguing the administration must prepare for the situation to get worse. The people who had once been seen as Trump’s guardrails inside the administration were now trying to educate from the outside. Continue reading.

Second guest who was with Trump at Mar-a-Lago last weekend has tested positive

Washington Post logoA second person who visited President Trump’s private Mar-a-Lago estate last weekend has tested positive for the coronavirus, according to emails from Republican Party officials to other guests who were present.

The case means the president has been near two people who have since been diagnosed as infected. On Saturday, Trump dined and was photographed with a senior Brazilian official who later tested positive.

The latest diagnosis involves an individual who attended a Sunday luncheon hosted by Trump Victory, a committee that raises money for the Trump campaign and the Republican Party, according to an email from party officials. Trump delivered remarks at the event, which was attended by about 1,000 people. Continue reading.

Trump’s Unraveling Series Of Blunders Is Costing American Lives

This time, Donald Trump’s decisions are costing American lives. Congressional Republicans are complicit because they didn’t reign him in, and haven’t called him out.

He ignored two years of warnings that America was not equipped to handle a pandemic, that his approach would lead to the loss of lives, and that his ongoing cuts to our defenses would make America vulnerable to the “significant probability of a large and lethal modern-day pandemic.”  Now the pandemic has hit, and we’ve never been less prepared, thanks to Trump’s actions and inactions.

In 2018, he fired Homeland Security Adviser Tom Bossert, who had called for a comprehensive biodefense strategy against pandemics. A month later, Trump’s National Security Council advisor John Bolton disbanded the entire team of Timothy Ziemer, Trump’s senior director for global health, and never replaced it. Dr. Luciana Borio, the NSC’s director for medical and biodefense preparedness, left in May 2018 and was also not replaced. Continue reading.

Trump says he will partner with private sector to expand coronavirus testing but details are sketchy

Washington Post logoPresident Trump announced Friday that the government is partnering with private companies to set up drive-through coronavirus testing sites after a week of unrelenting criticism from lawmakers and frustrated Americans unable to find out if they are infected.

At a Rose Garden news conference, the president said the push to let people get tested from their own cars would involve a new Google website to advise consumers about whether they should get tested and where, and big-box companies and drugstores that would host drive-through testing sites in their store parking lots. State and federal health workers would staff the sites and perform the testing, officials said.

But several key participants said the administration was overstating the plans, including its scope, timetable and other aspects. Continue reading.

This is the coronavirus math that has experts so worried: Running out of ventilators, hospital beds

Washington Post logoFor weeks now, America’s leaders and its public have been obsessed with one set of numbers: How many people have died? How many confirmed cases? And in what states?

But to understand why experts are so alarmed and what may be coming next, the public needs to start paying attention to a whole other set of numbers: How many ventilators do we have in this country? How many hospital beds? How many doctors and nurses? And most importantly, how many sick people can they all treat at the same time?

Consider the ventilators

For those severely ill with a respiratory disease such as covid-19, ventilators are a matter of life or death because they allow patients to breathe when they cannot on their own