Tag: Trump mishandling pandemic crisis

‘Not an acceptable answer’: Trump rebukes Fauci’s concern over reopening schools

Washington Post logoJust one day after Anthony S. Fauci sparked frustration among prominent conservatives for urging a cautious approach to lifting restrictions and reopening schools amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, his critics found support from President Trump.

In a public rebuke of his top coronavirus task force adviser, Trump criticized Fauci’s stance and wholeheartedly championed bringing students back to school on at least two separate occasions Wednesday — during an afternoon White House meeting and in an interview with Fox Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo.

“I was surprised by his answer, actually,” Trump told reportersat the White House. “To me, it’s not an acceptable answer, especially when it comes to schools.” Continue reading.

GOP senators release list of Obama officials who asked to ‘unmask’ Flynn. It ‘backfired,’ Biden campaign says.

Two Republicans senators released a list Wednesday of three dozen former Obama administration officials who had asked the National Security Agency in late 2016 for the name of an American — Michael Flynn, President Trump’s national security adviser, it turned out — whose conversations with foreign agents had been intercepted. The list was requested by acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell, a Trump loyalist, and sent to Sens. Chuck Grassley (Iowa) and Ron Johnson (Wis.). After they released it, Trump immediately touted Flynn’s “unmasking” as “a massive thing.” It doesn’t appear to be.

“Unmasking” is routine, and has actually increased under Trump. Grenell’s list includes former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, but “Biden and the other officials had full authority to seek the name of the unidentified American in the reports — it turned out to be Flynn — and did so through proper channels,” The Associated Pressreports, citing Trump administration documents. “Rather than reveal any actual wrongdoing, the release of the information by the president’s allies seems designed to create suspicion around Biden and other senior Democrats as the November election approaches.”

The NSA said in a note appended to the documents that there’s no indication the people named actually read the unmasked intelligence. Continue reading.

Bright testimony leaked ahead of big Thursday hearing: What happened today in the COVID-19 fight

The Hill logoWelcome to The Hill’s daily roundup of coronavirus news.

There are 1.4 million confirmed COVID-19 cases in the U.S., including 84,000 deaths.

Former top vaccine official Rick Bright’s written congressional testimony was leaked, and then publicly posted online ahead of his hearing tomorrow.

He will echo much of what he said in his whistleblower complaint, and also recommend how he thinks the country should move forward to be more prepared to combat the virus.   Continue reading.

National body bag shortage exacerbates funeral homes’ problems

Unclear when monthslong backlog will ease, suppliers and funeral directors say

A national shortage of body bags is disrupting the work of funeral directors across the country, raising difficult questions about how to maintain the dignity of the deceased and reduce workers’ concerns about potential exposure to the coronavirus.

The shortage of body bags is a grim reminder of the pandemic’s mounting death toll. More than 81,000 Americans have died of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.

Because of the short supply, body bags are sometimes reused two or three times. Sometimes when a body bag is unavailable, the deceased person is wrapped in sheets and a mask is placed on the face.  Continue reading.

The Trump Depression could be worse than the Great Depression

AlterNet logoFriday May 8 unemployment statistics were as dire as many had expected. The US Department of Labor released an unemployment rate for April of 14.7%, the worst since the Great Depression and far surpassing the worst days of the Great Recession. In light of these numbers it is not surprising that cries for “opening up” the economy would gain traction among many working class citizens. Nonetheless the push for resuming normal economic activity, present from the earliest days of many state lockdowns, raises an important question. The CARES act, despite its many flaws, did include substantial relief for unemployed workers. Often more than their initial incomes, as Lindsey Graham complained. Yet even from the earliest spike up of the unemployment rate not only did many object, large numbers flocked to food banks, often for the first time in their lives. Many food banks were soon overrun. Shocking as this was, few in the corporate media pursued in any depth the question of why the US had become as economically fragile as it was ecologically. Continue reading “The Trump Depression could be worse than the Great Depression”

Trump Promoted Faulty Abbott Virus Test At Least Six Times

A report released Wednesday revealed that a COVID-19 test from Abbott Laboratories that Donald Trump has frequently touted has a high failure rate.

The Bloomberg report, which cites a new study out of New York University, states that the research, “which has yet to be confirmed, found that Abbott’s ID NOW missed at least one-third of positive cases detected with a rival test and much as 48% when using the currently recommended dry nasal swabs.”

The Abbott test received emergency use authorization from the FDA on March 27, and in a March 30 press conference at the White House, Trump took the machine out of its box and displayed it for reporters while discussing its availability and the role it would play in advancing America’s testing capability. Continue reading.

Abbott coronavirus test missed a large number of positive results caught by a rival firm, preliminary study says

Washington Post logoTest hailed by President Trump has been dogged by accuracy questions

The Abbott coronavirus test hailed by President Trump and used by the White House failed to detect infected samples in a large number of cases that were caught by a rival firm, a preliminary study says.

The speedy Abbott test, which is supposed to determine in five to 13 minutes whether a person has the virus, missed a third of the positive samples found by the diagnostic company Cepheid when both tests used nasopharyngeal swabs, said the study done by a group from New York University. It missed more than 48 percent when both firms’ tests used dry nasal swabs. The former penetrates deeply into the nasal passages, while the latter is less invasive.

The study, while preliminary and not yet peer-reviewed, raised questions about a test that has been praised by Trump, who displayed it at a Rose Garden news conference on April 2 and said it created “a whole new ballgame.” As the pandemic was creating a sense of urgency about testing, the Abbott test triggered a scramble among governors and other state officials because bottlenecks were causing waits of as long as a week or more for test results. Continue reading.

Governors warn COVID-19 relief is becoming a ‘political football’

The Hill logoThe bipartisan chairs of the National Governors Association on Wednesday urged Congress to pass more economic relief efforts to help assuage the damage caused by the coronavirus pandemic, warning against allowing debate over the vital aid to become yet another partisan flashpoint.

In a joint statement, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) said states need at least $500 billion in aid to make up for revenues lost during the crisis.

“Each day that Congress fails to act, states are being forced to make cuts that will devastate the essential services the American people rely on and destroy the economic recovery before it even gets off the ground,” Hogan and Cuomo wrote. Continue reading.

Trump ‘usually doesn’t attend’ coronavirus task force meetings: AP White House reporter

AlterNet logoPresident Donald Trump doesn’t usually attend his coronavirus task force meetings, according to a White House correspondent.

Associated Press reporter Jonathan Lemire told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” the president doesn’t seem to understand that reopening businesses too soon will lead to another surge of infections and set the economy back even further, because he doesn’t interact much with his public health experts.

“You are having some of the public health officials like Dr. [Anthony] Fauci and Dr. [Deborah] Birx are saying that publicly but also privately in the Situation Room in the task force meetings chaired by the vice president,” Lemire said. “Meetings, mind you, the president himself usually doesn’t attend. But those are happening less frequently, even within the building there’s the focus towards the economy now, less of the public health.” Continue reading.

Leaked White House Memo Shows Trump Lied About Virus Ebbing

Leaked White House documents show a dramatic increase in coronavirus cases in several cities in middle America, directly contradicting Donald Trump’s comments Monday that the virus is under control.

According to a May 7 coronavirus task force memo obtained by NBC News, cities in Tennessee, Iowa, Texas, and Kentucky saw a spike in coronavirus cases in the seven-day period leading up to that date, with Central City, Kentucky, experiencing a 650 percent increase in that same time frame.

Charlotte, North Carolina, and Kansas City, Missouri, both had increases of 200 percent over the same seven-day period. Continue reading.