Tag: Trump botched COVID-19 response

Testing Backlogs May Cloud the True Spread of the Coronavirus

New York Times logoPublic health experts say delays in testing continue to hinder attempts to track and contain the spread of disease.

As demand for coronavirus testing surges around the nation, laboratories that process samples are again experiencing backlogs that have left anxious patients and their doctors waiting days — sometimes a week or more — for results.

At the city and state levels, testing delays could mask persistent rises in case numbers and could cloud ways to combat the coronavirus, as health officials continue to find themselves one step behind the virus’s rapid and often silent spread, experts said.

Dr. Francis Collins, the director of the National Institutes of Health, acknowledged the dangers associated with such delays in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that aired on Sunday. Continue reading.

As Trump Ignores Virus Crisis, Republicans Start to Break Ranks

New York Times logoPresident Trump continues to press for a quick return to life as usual, but Republicans who fear a rampaging disease and angry voters are increasingly going their own way.

President Trump’s failure to contain the coronavirus outbreak and his refusal to promote clear public-health guidelines have left many senior Republicans despairing that he will ever play a constructive role in addressing the crisis, with some concluding they must work around Mr. Trump and ignore or even contradict his pronouncements.

In recent days, some of the most prominent figures in the G.O.P. outside the White House have broken with Mr. Trump over issues like the value of wearing a mask in public and heeding the advice of health experts like Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, whom the president and other hard-right figures within the administration have subjected to caustic personal criticism.

They appear to be spurred by several overlapping forces, including deteriorating conditions in their own states, Mr. Trump’s seeming indifference to the problem and the approach of a presidential election in which Mr. Trump is badly lagging his Democratic challenger, Joseph R. Biden Jr., in the polls. Continue reading.

Jobless claims raise stakes in battle over COVID-19 aid

The Hill logoThe U.S. is facing significant long-term economic damage from the coronavirus as lawmakers spar over boosted unemployment benefits amid stubbornly high weekly jobless claims.

More than 1 million Americans have filed new claims for unemployment benefits each week for the past four months. Those figures provide a grim backdrop to the fight unfolding in Washington over whether to extend enhanced unemployment insurance for millions of job-seekers.

Economists say the persistently high jobless claims coupled with the growing number of permanent job losses are troubling signs for both workers and the economy. Continue reading.

The crisis that shocked the world: America’s response to the coronavirus

Washington Post logoDysfunctional politics, a lack of funding for public health and a rush to reopen the economy ignited the resurgence of the virus

Isabelle Papadimitriou, 64, a respiratory therapist in Dallas, had been treating a surge of patients as the Texas economy reopened. She developed coronavirus symptoms June 27 and tested positive two days later. The disease was swift and brutal. She died the morning of the Fourth of July.

The holiday had always been her daughter’s favorite. Fiana Tulip loved the family cookouts, the fireworks, the feeling of America united. Now, she wonders if she’ll ever be able to celebrate it again. In mourning, she’s furious.

Tulip, 40, had seen her country fail to control the virus. She had seen Texas ease restrictions even as case counts and hospitalizations soared. She had seen fellow citizens refuse to wear a mask or engage in social distancing. Continue reading.

Millionaires say “tax us, tax us, tax us” to pay for coronavirus aid

Walt Disney Co. heiress Abigail Disney and more than 80 other wealthy individuals have signed an open letter asking the U.S. and other countries to raise taxes on the rich “immediately” and “permanently” to pay for aid needed to help poorer citizens get through the coronavirus pandemic.

“The problems caused by, and revealed by, Covid-19 can’t be solved with charity, no matter how generous,” the group, dubbed Millionaires for Humanity, said in a letter. “Government leaders must take the responsibility for raising the funds we need and spending them fairly.”

Their solution: “Tax us. Tax us. Tax us. It is the right choice. It is the only choice.” Continue reading.

Trump’s Bogus Optimism Won’t Stop Pandemic Or Boost Economy

I have some bad news for anyone concerned about the economy. Very bad news. Donald Trump tweeted last Monday, “The Economy is coming back fast!” Tuesday, he proclaimed: “Things are coming back, and they’re coming back very rapidly. A lot sooner than people thought.”

This is an unmistakable signal that the economy is not coming back rapidly and may not be coming back at all. Whenever Trump boasts of something happening soon, it’s time to settle in for a good, long wait, or maybe just give up hope entirely.

Trump made his claims as the COVID-19 pandemic was saying the opposite. Florida set a record for the most new cases in a single day for any state and broke its own record for most deaths from the virus. California Gov. Gavin Newsom banned indoor operations in bars, restaurants and movie theaters, while closing hair salons, workout facilities and malls. Continue reading.

Trump steps up attacks on Biden over economy

The Hill logoPresident Trump is stepping up his economic attacks on Joe Biden, seeking to regain strength on an issue once seen as his golden ticket to reelection.

A number of polls still show that voters on net approve of Trump’s performance on the economy, but some surveys now show his presumptive Democratic opponent with an edge on the issue over him as the coronavirus pandemic wreaks havoc on the economy.

Biden also has sought to press an advantage and in recent days has rolled out his own economic proposals on how to bring about a recovery. Continue reading.

Trump administration pushing to block new money for testing, tracing and CDC in upcoming coronavirus relief bill

Washington Post logoWhite House posture angers some GOP senators who are trying to include billions of dollars in the bill

The Trump administration is trying to block billions of dollars for states to conduct testing and contact tracing in the upcoming coronavirus relief bill, people involved in the talks said Saturday.

The administration is also trying to block billions of dollars that GOP senators want to allocate for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and billions more for the Pentagon and State Department to address the pandemic at home and abroad, the people said.

The administration’s posture has angered some GOP senators, the officials said, and some lawmakers are trying to push back and ensure that the money stays in the bill. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to reveal confidential deliberations, cautioned that the talks were fluid and the numbers were in flux. Continue reading.

Inside Trump’s Failure: The Rush to Abandon Leadership Role on the Virus

New York Times logoThe roots of the nation’s current inability to control the pandemic can be traced to mid-April, when the White House embraced overly rosy projections to proclaim victory and move on.

WASHINGTON — Each morning at 8 as the coronavirus crisis was raging in April, Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, convened a small group of aides to steer the administration through what had become a public health, economic and political disaster.

Seated around Mr. Meadows’s conference table and on a couch in his office down the hall from the Oval Office, they saw their immediate role as practical problem solvers. Produce more ventilators. Find more personal protective equipment. Provide more testing.

But their ultimate goal was to shift responsibility for leading the fight against the pandemic from the White House to the states. They referred to this as “state authority handoff,” and it was at the heart of what would become at once a catastrophic policy blunder and an attempt to escape blame for a crisis that had engulfed the country — perhaps one of the greatest failures of presidential leadership in generations. Continue reading.

Ben Bernanke and Janet Yellen Give Republicans in Congress a Lesson on Coronavirus Economics

It was no real surprise to see Ben Bernanke and Janet Yellen, the past two chairs of the Federal Reserve, testifying to Congress on Friday about the economic-policy response to the coronavirus pandemic. Although neither of them has appeared before a congressional committee since leaving the Fed, they have both emerged in recent months as vocal supporters of using monetary and fiscal policy aggressively to support the stricken economy. Last month, they signed a public letter from more than a hundred and fifty economists that called on Congress to pass another big spending bill to extend and broaden the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (cares) Act, which was enacted in March.

There is no time to lose. About this time next week, the supplementary unemployment benefits of six hundred dollars a week that were introduced as part of the cares Act will start to expire. If Congress doesn’t extend the benefits, this will have a hugely negative impact on the roughly thirty-three million Americans who are out of work and claiming benefits from local or federal programs. Many of these people, who lost their jobs through no fault of their own, will be plunged into poverty, and the damage won’t end there. As they cut back on spending because their income has been slashed, the effects will ripple through the rest of the economy, causing further job losses. Exactly how many more jobs will go is difficult to say in advance, but Harvard’s Jason Furman, who headed the White House Council of Economic Advisers during the second term of the Obama Administration, recently estimated that over the course of the next year it could be around two million.

Appearing at the hearing of a coronavirus subcommittee that was set up by the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, Bernanke and Yellen didn’t get into that level of detail. Drawing on some basic economics and their experiences dealing with a previous crisis—the Great Recession and its aftermath—they did persuasively explain why Congress should act urgently on three fronts: extending the supplementary unemployment payments; providing additional financial support to state and local governments; and developing a comprehensive plan to make available adequate testing, medical equipment, and contact tracing. The two former policymakers, who are both highly regarded academic economists, also pushed back against recent suggestions from the White House that the new spending should be limited to a trillion dollars. Yellen said it was hard to tell precisely how much financial support might be needed, so it would be unwise to impose a spending cap. Bernanke said, “Whatever it takes is probably what we need to be thinking now.”