Tag: pandemic

Trump goes to Walter Reed hospital for coronavirus treatment

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President Trump was taken to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Friday for a stay that was expected to last several days, a move the White House said was made out of an abundance of caution after he tested positive for the deadly coronavirus and experienced symptoms.

“I want to thank everybody for the tremendous support. I’m going to Walter Reed hospital,” Trump said Friday in a videotaped statement released on Twitter less than 24 hours after he and his wife, Melania, tested positive for the coronavirus. “I think I’m doing very well, but we’re going to make sure that things work out.”

Trump was experiencing fatigue, and the first lady was coughing with a headache on Friday, the White House doctor said, describing the physical impacts of a White House coronavirus outbreak that has upended the nation’s capital and disrupted American politics one month before a presidential election. Continue reading.

DFL Party Slams Congressman Hagedorn, Stauber, and Emmer for Flying Soon After COVID-19 Exposure

SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA – Today, the DFL Party sharply criticized Republican Congressman Jim Hagedorn, Tom Emmer, and Pete Stauber for flying just two days after being exposed to COVID-19. 

“By flying so soon after being exposed to COVID-19, Congressmen Emmer, Hagedorn, and Stauber deliberately put the health and safety of their fellow passengers at serious risk,” said DFL Party Chairman Ken Martin. “As these Congressman know, medical experts have said that a negative test soon after exposure is nearly meaningless.”

“Millions of Americans have sacrificed so much to slow the spread of COVID-19, yet Congressmen Emmer, Stauber, and Hagedorn could not even wait a few days to board an airplane,” added Martin. “These Congressmen’s stupidity and disregard for the well-being of their fellow passengers is staggering.”

Continue reading “DFL Party Slams Congressman Hagedorn, Stauber, and Emmer for Flying Soon After COVID-19 Exposure”

Gov. Walz and Lt. Gov. Flanagan Weekly Briefing: October 2, 2020

Governor Walz and Lieutenant Governor Flanagan Launch a Statewide Small Business Listening Tour

Stillwater Coffee Shop Visit

This week Governor Tim Walz and Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan launched a statewide small business listening tour. Throughout the tour, the Governor and Lieutenant Governor will visit small businesses across the state, hear from business owners and workers how COVID-19 has affected them, and highlight support the state has provided to businesses during the pandemic.

Governor Walz Wishes President Trump and First Lady a Speedy Recovery 

Tim Walz
Continue reading “Gov. Walz and Lt. Gov. Flanagan Weekly Briefing: October 2, 2020”

DFL Party Statement on Donald and Melania Trump Contracting COVID-19

SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA – DFL Party Chairman Ken Martin released the following statement on President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump contracting COVID-19:

“All of us at the Minnesota DFL Party wish the President and First Lady a swift and full recovery from COVID-19. We are praying for their health and the well-being of those they have come into contact with in the past few days.

“This troubling news underscores the ongoing threat posed to us all by the coronavirus pandemic. We must remain vigilant, follow the CDC guidelines, and abide by Minnesota’s mask order to limit the spread of this virus and protect our health and that of our friends, families, and communities.”

Trump says he and first lady have tested positive for the coronavirus

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President Trump and his wife, Melania, have contracted covid-19, which is causing them symptoms and forcing the president to suspend campaign events after months in which he has often played down the global coronavirus pandemic and defied public health safety precautions.

Trump, 74, was diagnosed hours after it became publicly known that Hope Hicks, a top Trump aide who traveled with him on Air Force One and Marine One this week, tested positive for the virus Thursday morning.

“Tonight, @FLOTUS and I tested positive for COVID-19,” the president tweeted just before 1 a.m. on Friday. “We will begin our quarantine and recovery process immediately. We will get through this TOGETHER!”

White House chief of staff Mark Meadows told reporters Friday morning that the president was experiencing “mild symptoms,” but remained in “good spirits and very energetic.” Continue reading.

‘One more serious try’ on COVID-19 relief yields progress but no deal

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The lead negotiators haggling for another round of emergency coronavirus relief met in person Wednesday for the first time in weeks, with both sides citing headway in the search for an elusive compromise — but no deal to report.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchinhuddled for roughly 90 minutes in the Speaker’s office in the Capitol, emerging with hopes that an evasive bipartisan agreement is within their grasp.

“We’re gonna go back and do a little more work again,” Mnuchin said. “I think we’ve made a lot of progress in a lot of areas.” Continue reading.

The covid-19 recession is the most unequal in modern U.S. history

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Job losses from the pandemic overwhelmingly affected low-wage, minority workers most. Seven months into the recovery, Black women, Black men and mothers of school-age children are taking the longest time to regain their employment.

The economic collapse sparked by the pandemic is triggering the most unequal recession in modern U.S. history, delivering a mild setback for those at or near the top and a depression-like blow for those at the bottom, according to a Washington Post analysis of job losses across the income spectrum.

Recessions often hit poorer households harder, but this one is doing so at a scale that is the worst in generations, the analysis shows.

While the nation overall has regained nearly half of the lost jobs, several key demographic groups have recovered more slowly, including mothers of school-age children, Black men, Black women, Hispanic men, Asian Americans, younger Americans (ages 25 to 34) and people without college degrees. Continue reading.

Scoop: CDC director overruled on cruise ship ban

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Robert Redfield, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was overruled when he pushed to extend a “no-sail order” on passenger cruises into next year, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the conversation today in the White House Situation Room.

Why it matters: Cruise ships were the sites of some of the most severe early coronavirus outbreaks, before the industry shut down in March. And their future is just the latest disagreement between Redfield and members of President Trump’s team.

The undermining of Redfield has been the source of much consternation among public health officials inside the administration, who argue that a politically motivated White House is ignoring the science and pushing too aggressively to reopen the economy and encourage large gatherings. Continue reading.

‘It’s Not in My Head’: They Survived the Coronavirus, but They Never Got Well

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With seven million known cases of the coronavirus across the country, more people are suffering from symptoms that go on and on.

They caught the coronavirus months ago and survived it, but they are still stuck at home, gasping for breath. They are no longer contagious, but some feel so ill that they can barely walk around the block, and others grow dizzy trying to cook dinner. Month after month, they rush to the hospital with new symptoms, pleading with doctors for answers.

As the coronavirus has spread through the United States over seven months, infecting at least seven million people, some subset of them are now suffering from serious, debilitating and mysterious effects of Covid-19 that last far longer than a few days or weeks.

The patients wrestling with an array of alarming symptoms many months after first getting ill — they have come to call themselves “long-haulers” — are believed to number in the thousands. Their circumstances, still little understood by the medical community, may play a significant role in shaping the country’s ability to recover from the pandemic. Continue reading.

Slimmer coronavirus aid package introduced in House

New $2.2 trillion proposal aimed at kickstarting bipartisan talks, placating rank-and-file lawmakers

House Democrats unveiled a $2.2 trillion pandemic relief package Monday night as part of a last-ditch attempt to secure new aid before the Nov. 3 elections.

Even as talks resumed between Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on a potential compromise, Democrats sought to increase the public pressure by offering their own revised wish list that Republicans have said is still too costly. The White House has sought to hold the line at $1.5 trillion and some Senate Republicans have pushed to keep the price tag even lower.

The new draft Democratic measure, which could get a floor vote later this week if bipartisan talks founder, amounts to a slimmed-down version of a $3.4 trillion bill the House passed in May. After brief talks over the weekend, Pelosi and Mnuchin spoke by phone again Monday and agreed to resume talks Tuesday morning, Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill tweeted. Continue reading.