Tag: pandemic

Amy Klobuchar says her husband has coronavirus

He is in a hospital in Virginia.

Minnesota Senator and former Democratic presidential candidate Amy Klobuchar says her husband has been diagnosed with COVID-19.

Klobuchar confirmed her husband, Professor John Bessler, has contracted the virus in a statement Monday, saying they got the test results at 7 a.m.

He started feeling sick when he was in Washington D.C. and Klobuchar was in Minnesota, and initially thought it was a cold but “immediately quarantined himself just in case and stopped going to his job teaching in Baltimore.” Continue reading.

Yale psychiatrist explains why the coronavirus pandemic and Donald Trump’s irrational cult is a deadly combination

AlterNet logoSynergy is when two or more agents come together to create a reaction greater than any one of them could have achieved on their own. It can be good or bad, depending on the desired outcome.

The synergy between Donald Trump and the coronavirus pandemic is a disaster.

Writing at the Advocate, John Casey summarizes this deadly synergy: “As this crisis deteriorates, becomes unmanageable and inexplicably horrible, so will Trump’s behavior. A perfect storm that will unravel an unprepared, unrelatable, and unsympathetic president. A fairy tale turned into the horror of all horror stories.” Continue reading.

Coronavirus sets off industry scramble for aid from Washington

The Hill logoThe coronavirus outbreak is prompting a wide range of industries and companies to press Washington for financial relief from the economic fallout.

The calls for aid started with airlines, quickly followed by the tourism and entertainment industry and others who are being hit hard as officials close public events and spaces and urge Americans to stay home. The long list of industries seeking help has exploded to include associations representing restaurants, retailers, manufacturers, alcohol distributors and casinos.

CEOs from major trade groups and representatives for companies like Boeing are now aggressively lobbying Congress for relief checks for often staggering amounts. Continue reading.

Fed announces unlimited bond purchases in unprecedented move aimed at preventing an economic depression

Washington Post logo“It has become clear that our economy will face severe disruption,” the Fed said

In an effort to prevent the U.S. economy from spiraling into a depression, the Federal Reserve launched an unprecedented effort Monday to keep money flowing to companies, small businesses, households and even cities, who are facing an economic crisis that threatens to surpass the Great Recession.

With restaurants, airlines, hotels, auto manufacturers, and so many other parts of the economy in a standstill at once, there’s a massive need for short-term loans to help businesses survive until people can go out again. But just as this demand for loans is growing, investors are showing little appetite to buy up all this debt, preferring instead to hold on to cash.

The Fed is attempting to resolve this by buying unlimited amounts of U.S. Treasurys and mortgage-backed securities, an extraordinary backstop for lending markets that goes much further than what the central bank did in the 2008-09 crisis. Back then, the Fed injected nearly $4 trillion into the financial system over several years. Analysts say the Fed’s effort now could dwarf that in a matter of weeks, a testament to how much pain the coronavirus is causing the economy. Continue reading.

White House grapples with the coronavirus outbreak: A timeline

The Hill logoThe coronavirus has become an all-consuming crisis for the White House, the United States and the rest of the world.

Thousands of Americans have been infected with COVID-19, and hundreds have died from the disease, numbers that are certain to grow in the weeks and months ahead even with much of the country effectively on lockdown.

The pandemic is also crushing the U.S. economy, shuttering thousands of businesses and leading to massive layoffs. Continue reading.

‘Gee, that’s too bad’ is an encapsulation of Trump’s approach to the pandemic — and politics

Washington Post logoWe see again where Trump’s empathy comes up short

For a second, a brief second, it seemed as if maybe President Trump thought better of the line.

He was asked Sunday about the ability of Senate Republicans to win votes with so many members now in isolation to prevent spreading the novel coronavirus. After inquiring about the senators who were included in that group, Trump was told that one was Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), the sole Republican to vote to convict Trump on impeachment charges last month.

The president has a history of continuing to bash those who take key votes against him — like former Arizona senator John McCain — but one would be forgiven for assuming that Romney’s decision to follow government recommendations to isolate to avoid spreading the dangerous virus would not be a jumping-off point for a presidential attack.Continue reading.

Demands for workers-first stimulus grow as senate GOP fails to ram through $500 billion corporate ‘slush fund’

AlterNet logoSenate Republicans late Sunday failed to force through a $1.8 trillion coronavirus stimulus package that Democratic lawmakers, union leaders, and progressive advocacy groups condemned as a massive bailout for corporate America that would have done little to address the urgent economic and medical needs of ordinary people.

A procedural motion to advance the Republican bill, formally known as the CARES Act, received just 47 votes Sunday, well short of the 60 needed for passage. Every Senate Democrat present voted no.

“Republicans can’t seriously expect us to tell people in our communities who are suffering that we shortchanged hospitals, students, workers, and small businesses but gave big corporations hundreds of billions of dollars in a secretive slush fund.”
—Sen. Patty Murray

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) scheduled another procedural vote on the legislation for Monday morning at 9:45 am ET as talks over the bill continued through the evening Sunday. Continue reading.

Senate falls far short of votes needed to advance coronavirus bill, as clash between Republicans and Democrats intensifies

Washington Post logoWith Democrats opposed, procedural vote fails on $1.8 trillion package in Senate; talks continue, but Pelosi indicates she will move forward on her own

Senate Democrats blocked a massive coronavirus stimulus bill from moving forward Sunday as partisan disputes raged over the legislation aimed at arresting the economy’s precipitous decline.

Lawmakers had hoped to pass the enormous $1.8 trillion bill by Monday, but Sunday night they were scrambling to revive talks, with the stock market poised for another sharp drop and households and businesses fretting about an uncertain future.

Negotiations continued even as the initial procedural vote fell short; 47 senators voted in favor and 47 were opposed. The tally was well short of the 60 votes needed to move forward. The number of “aye” votes was especially low because five Republicans are quarantined over coronavirus fears.

As coronavirus spreads, so do doubts about America’s ability to meet the moment

Washington Post logoAs the novel coronavirus spreads through communities across the country, it poses a critical question: Can America’s people, institutions and government collectively rise to the occasion to defeat a once-in-a-generation crisis?

With a global pandemic testing the country’s political, financial, social and moral fabric, there are growing signs that answering in the affirmative has become increasingly difficult.

Bureaucratic missteps have led to a shortfall in tests needed to determine the true scope of the virus. Hospitals are pleading for more medical equipment as doctors resort to using homemade masks. Financial markets have lost a third of their value in less than a month. Reveling spring breakers have hit the beaches in defiance of a nationwide social distancing campaign. Continue reading.

Trump Bets Business Will Answer Call to Fight Virus, but Strategy Bewilders Firms

New York Times logoIt remains unclear if the effort to enlist companies like General Motors, Apple and Hanes constitutes an effective strategy.

WASHINGTON — President Trump’s refusal to invoke the Defense Production Act to commandeer resources for the federal government is based on a bet that he can cajole the nation’s biggest manufacturers and tech firms to come together in a market-driven, if chaotic, consortium that will deliver critical equipment — from masks to ventilators — in time to abate a national crisis.

Over the past five days, after weeks of minimizing the virus and dismissing calls to organize a national response, administration officials have been pulling executives into the White House Situation Room, and connecting them by phone, in a desperate effort to unlock existing supplies and ramp up new production.

Rear Adm. John Polowczyk has been plucked from the staff of the Joint Chiefs, where he is a senior officer for military logistics, to run the effort to build a supply chain. And Peter Navarro, the White House trade adviser, is also playing a leading role. The government has essentially thrown out its existing playbook for dealing with pandemics, seizing the issue from the Department of Health and Human Services and moving it to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Continue reading.