Tag: pandemic

On The Trail: A third coronavirus wave builds just before Election Day

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A new wave of viral infections is washing over the nation just weeks before Election Day, putting a new spotlight on a crisis that has come to define President Trump’s struggle for reelection.

For months, public health experts have warned of an increase in the number of cases that would accompany lower temperatures in the fall and winter. As people move inside more, they said, the coronavirus was likely to spread.

Those predictions have come true — earlier and more significantly than expected. Continue reading.

Trump aims for adulation. Biden goes virtual. The two presidential candidates are running vastly different campaigns as Election Day nears

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With two weeks left before the close of voting, President Trump flew to the far northwest corner of Pennsylvania for a large rally where he aired grievances against the news media, complained that the pandemic had damaged his campaign and portrayed Democrats as purveyors of drugs and crime — all as a sea of loyal supporters in red MAGA hats cheered him on.

While Trump on Tuesday appealed in person to his most ardent fans with divisive themes, Joe Biden’s campaign beamed in to the nation’s living rooms during the World Series with a much broader audience in mind. “There is only one America. No Democratic rivers, no Republican mountains,” the actor Sam Elliott intoned as he narrated a commercial for Biden in his signature gravelly voice. Biden, meanwhile, was at home as the ad aired, eschewing public events to prepare for Thursday’s debate.

The split screen underlined the starkly different strategies Trump and Biden have deployed in the final stage of the presidential race. Trump has been spending heaps of cash staging crowded rallies designed to motivate his most fervent fans, despite the advice of public health officials to avoid large gatherings. Biden, who is leading in the polls, has been holding smaller, less expensive events and investing aggressively in television ads and virtual gatherings designed to persuade a wide audience that he can unify a divided country. Continue reading.

McConnell Moves to Head Off Stimulus Deal as Pelosi Reports Progress

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The top Senate Republican told colleagues that he had advised the White House against striking a pre-election deal with Democrats to deliver pandemic aid, fearing political repercussions.

WASHINGTON — Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, privately told Republican senators on Tuesday that he had warned the White House not to strike a pre-election deal with Speaker Nancy Pelosi on a new round of stimulus, moving to head off an agreement that President Trump has demanded but most in his party oppose.

Mr. McConnell’s remarks, confirmed by four Republicans familiar with them, threw cold water on Mr. Trump’s increasingly urgent push to enact a new round of pandemic aid before Election Day. They came just as Ms. Pelosi offered an upbeat assessment of her negotiations with Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, telling Democrats that their latest conversation had yielded “common ground as we move closer to an agreement.”

The cost of their emerging compromise on a new round of aid to hard-pressed Americans and businesses has steadily climbed toward $2 trillion, inching closer to Ms. Pelosi’s demands even as it far exceeds what most Senate Republicans have said they can accept. Continue reading.

PPP plan falls short in Senate as hope for COVID-19 aid wanes

Standalone measure to reauthorize another round of forgivable business loans was rejected by Democrats as ‘political stunt’

Amid ongoing COVID-19 economic aid negotiations and the approaching election, the Senate effectively shot down on Tuesday a standalone proposal to authorize a second round of forgivable loans to small businesses.

Republicans were unified in their effort to push forward the measure in a test vote. While Democrats support the Paycheck Protection Program, they voted to “table” the measure Tuesday, because it wasn’t included as part of a larger economic proposal. The vote didn’t directly kill the measure, but it displayed the proposal didn’t have the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster.

The proposal would have given the Small Business Administration $258 billion for a second round of forgivable loans to coronavirus-affilicted small businesses through the PPP. Continue reading.

The Chaos of Repealing the Affordable Care Act During the Coronavirus Pandemic

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With the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg just weeks before the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the latest health care repeal lawsuit, the fate of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is completely uncertain. Repealing the ACA at any point since its passage would have been disastrous to the health and economic security of millions of Americans. But repealing the ACA in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic that has infected more than 7 million Americans and killed more than 200,000 Americans is morally reprehensible.

More than 20 million people would lose their health coverage, and more than 135 million people would lose protections for their preexisting conditions, including millions of COVID-19 survivors. Repealing the ACA in the middle of an unprecedented pandemic would create chaos across the entire health care system; weaken the country’s public health and economy recovery; and rip affordable health care coverage from millions of people at a time when access to health care services is absolutely essential.

People with preexisting conditions and disabilities, including COVID-19 survivors, would be vulnerable to discrimination by insurers

Before the ACA, insurers could discriminate against people with preexisting conditions by charging people with certain health conditions higher premiums; excluding coverage for services related to those conditions; or denying coverage outright. The ACA protects people with preexisting conditions, including people with disabilities and chronic health conditions, by prohibiting these practices. In addition, it also requires coverage of essential health benefits (EHBs) so that insurers cannot limit benefits to lower costs or discourage people who need care from enrolling in their plans. The ACA also bans lifetime and annual limits so that insurers cannot cap how much they pay for medical care each year or over a person’s lifetime. Continue reading.

The coronavirus pandemic has caused nearly 300,000 more deaths than expected in a typical year

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NOTE: This article is being provided free to read by The Washington Post.

The coronavirus pandemic has left about 299,000 more people dead in the United States than would be expected in a typical year, two-thirds of them from covid-19 and the rest from other causes, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Tuesday.

The CDC said the novel coronavirus, which causes covid-19, has taken a disproportionate toll on Latinos and Blacks, as previous analyses have noted. But the CDC also found, surprisingly, that it has struck 25- to 44-year-olds very hard: Their “excess death” rate is up 26.5 percent over previous years, the largest change for any age group.

It is not clear whether that spike is caused by the shift in covid-19 deaths toward younger people between May and August or deaths from other causes, the CDC said.

With 219,000 Dead, Trump Says Media Are ‘Dumb Bastards’ For Reporting On Covid-19

Donald Trump referred to journalists reporting on the impact of the coronavirus pandemic as “dumb bastards” during a campaign rally in Arizona on Monday.

“They’re getting tired of the pandemic, aren’t they? Getting tired of the pandemic. You turn on CNN, that’s all they cover,” said Trump, pointing to the press at the back of the crowd. “You know why? They’re trying to talk everybody out of voting. People aren’t buying it, CNN, you dumb bastards. They’re not buying it.”

More than 219,770 Americans have died from the virus so far, and the death toll continues to rise by the hundreds every day. Continue reading.

1,632 new Minnesota COVID-19 infections as case growth outpaces testing

Experts urge vigilance against COVID infection as holidays approach. 

For 12 consecutive days, Minnesota has seen more than 1,000 new COVID-19 cases, with 1,632 new cases announced Monday.

With the pool of infections getting bigger every week, health experts are concerned that colder weather, as well as the holiday season, could further accelerate case growth.

“We are now at a crossroads of pandemic fatigue and pandemic anger,” said Michael Osterholm, an epidemiologist and director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. “Basically the public has said they are done with the virus. Unfortunately, this virus isn’t done with us.” Continue reading.

Live updates: Nearly 300,000 more people have died in U.S. than in a typical year because of coronavirus

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NOTE: This article is being provided free of charge by The Washington Post.

The novel coronavirus has caused about 285,000 more deaths in the United Statesbetween Feb. 1 and Sept. 16 than in an average year, according to a Tuesday report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The health agency said that people ages 25 to 44 were particularly hit hard, with an “excess death” rate shooting up 26.5 percent over that in past years. Racial and ethnic minority groups, including Black Americans and Latinos, were found to be among the hardest hit. View the post and feed here.

What Fans of ‘Herd Immunity’ Don’t Tell You

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A proposal to let people with low risk of infection live without constraint could lead to a million or more preventable deaths.

No matter their politics, people nearly always listen to those who say what they want to hear.

Hence, it is no surprise that the White House and several governors are now paying close attention to the “Great Barrington Declaration,” a proposal written by a group of well-credentialed scientists who want to shift Covid-19 policy toward achieving herd immunity — the point at which enough people have become immune to the virus that its spread becomes unlikely.

They would do this by allowing “those who are at minimal risk of death to live their lives normally.” This, they say, will allow people “to build up immunity to the virus through natural infection, while better protecting those who are at highest risk. We call this Focused Protection.” Continue reading.