Summary
- The president signed an executive order restricting immigration for 60 days. The policy will stop new green card applicants from obtaining permanent residency but will exempt key medical workers from abroad as well as some family members of American citizens.
- The president said he disagreed with Georgia governor Brian Kemp’s decision to have some businesses start reopening. “I think it’s too soon,” he said during the daily coronavirus briefing.
- The governor of Oklahoma, Kevin Stitt announced that the state’s personal care businesses, including hair salons and barbershops, could start reopening on Friday.
- A top health official in charge of the federal agency overseeing research for a coronavirus vaccine claimed he was fired after resisting the president’s push to hydroxychloroquine as a treatment.
Updated
America’s addiction to mass incarceration could almost double its number of deaths from coronavirus, with jails acting as incubators of the disease and spreading a further 100,000 fatalities across the US.
The startling warning comes from groundbreaking modeling by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and academic researchers, released on Wednesday.
The analysis found that unless instant action is taken to reduce jail populations, a terrible price will be paid. Jails, which house men and women not yet convicted, will act as mass vectors of the contagion.
As many as 99,000 more people could die in the US as a result of the virus being contracted behind jail walls, the study predicts. Of those, 23,000 are projected to succumb behind bars and 76,000 in surrounding communities as a result of inmates spreading the virus upon release.
A federal appeals court has allowed Arkansas to enforce a ban on most surgical abortions, as part of a state directive aimed at postponing medical procedures not deemed urgent during the coronavirus outbreak.
The ruling from the eighth US circuit court of appeals in St Louis, Missouri, lifted a federal judge’s order which had allowed abortions to continue. The new ruling does not affect abortion induced through medication in the early stages of pregnancy, which is still allowed.
The ruling comes two days after another federal appeals court, the fifth circuit, allowed Texas to enforce curbs on abortions via medication, as part of its response to the pandemic.
Republican senator Lindsay Graham said he agrees with Trump that Georgia is reopening businesses too quickly.
In a statement, he said:
I have great respect for Governor Kemp and believe that future re-openings can occur rather quickly but we must get Phase I right. I totally understand Governor Kemp’s desire to allow businesses to reopen as small business owners are under great stress...
We are fifty individual states but when it comes to the virus we are all in this fight together. Because of the sacrifices we have made as a nation there is light at the end of the tunnel. Better days are ahead.”
The briefing has ended. Stay tuned for more news and analysis.
Fact checks: A few quick ones
- “We had the greatest economy in the history world,” Trump said. This is a gross exaggeration. Also, the GDP growth rate during the Trump administration was lower than the peak growth rate during the previous administration.
- Trump referred to the pandemic of 1917. Spanish Influenza spread globally in 1918 and 1919.
- “This wasn’t the flu, you know, they like to say the flu,” Trump said. But he was the “they” who repeatedly compared coronavirus to the flu.
Updated
Good news for pet owners: our favorite fluffy friends are unlikely transmitters of coronavirus, according to Dr Fauci.
Pets and animals can get infected with the virus, but “there’s no evidence that the virus is transmitted from a pet to a human,” Fauci said.
“Anything is possible,” Fauci added, but right now it seems unlikely.
“Testing asymptomatics will be key,” Dr Birx added, in response to a question about whether California is right to expand testing efforts to everyone, not just those who show symptoms of Covid-19.
In California, one small town is trying to test every single resident this week, but for the infection and for antibodies against it. A similar program will soon begin in San Francisco’s Mission district.
States should start by testing vulnerable people in nursing homes, indigenous communities and other underserved communities, Birx noted. Testing is “fundamental”, she said.
Read more:
Updated
“We’re building infrastructure and capacity ... to bring testing to scale,” Dr Birx said.
Trump interjected, “but without anything new, they have tremendous capability” for testing, undercutting the public health official’s point.
Updated
Fact check: Michelle Obama
Trump named Michelle Obama as one of the public figures who campaigned for Stacey Abrams, a Democrat and voting rights advocate, during her gubernatorial run against Georgia’s Brian Kemp. CNN’s Daniel Dale helps us out with this one:
Michelle Obama did not go to Georgia to campaign for Stacey Abrams. Trump has said this repeatedly. He keeps adding her to the list with Oprah and Barack Obama. It just didn't happen.
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) April 22, 2020
Updated
Fact check: Testing
“Not everybody believes as strongly on testing,” the president said.
Maybe so, but most disease experts say that testing is key to learning more about how the disease spreads and safely reopening the country.
“As we look to reopen, we should have in place a system where we can much more easily, quickly test more people,” Art Reingold, who heads the epidemiology and biostatistics division at UC Berkeley’s school of public health, told the Guardian. “Then we can determine who is infected, isolate those individuals, and the people they were in contact with.”
Trump also claimed, once again, that the US is the “best” in the world at testing. That’s not true.
Overall, the US had administered more than 4.5m coronavirus tests, according to the Covid Tracking Project. From a very slow start, the US, with a population of 329m, had ramped up to a testing rate of one in every 80 people – a bit better than to South Korea’s rate of 1 in every 90 people. Germany has done even better, testing every 1 in 63 people.
In America, despite the recent increase in testing, backlogs are reported in labs across the country, and many people with symptoms – including health workers – are still struggling to access tests.
Updated
Asked about Rick Bright, the vaccine expert who said he was ousted for questioning the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine, Trump said he didn’t know Bright.
“Maybe he was, maybe he wasn’t,” Trump said. “I’ve never heard of him.”
Updated
Dr Anthony Fauci: “We will have coronavirus in the fall. I am convinced of that.”
Whether or not the outbreak in the fall will be “big or small is going to depend on our response ... Nobody can predict what’s going to happen with an outbreak.”
Fauci’s statement seems to contradict what Donald Trump said earlier when the president tried to downplay the threat in the fall and winter and said that a second wave of illness “might not happen”.
Updated
More on the immigration executive order:
- Medical and other essential workers from abroad will be exempt, as will the spouses and minor children of American children, and “certain other aliens”.
- The administration will review guest worker programs.
- “The administration will continue to monitor the labor market to amend or extend the proclamation if needed,” per the White House.
Updated
The president said that he is establishing a new council to help black and Latino communities and other underserved communities access testing and care. The council will be headed by housing secretary Ben Carson.
Updated
Fact check: Employment
Before the crisis hit, Trump boasted that the US had the “best employment numbers ever, including for African Americans.”
That is not true. Before the pandemic, the unemployment rate was increasing for African Americans, even though it was decreasing overall. For example, in December 2019, the unemployment rate had fallen to 3.5% for all Americans and increased to 5.9% for black Americans. So far, the mass layoffs seem to have been proportionally higher for Asians and Hispanics. Recent figures showed that while whites and blacks saw job losses rise at the same pace, the unemployment rate for black people stood at 6.7% – 65% higher than for white people.
The Guardian’s Dominic Rushe has also pointed out that there were big problems with the US economy before Covid-19 hit. Stock market gains benefit mainly the wealthy. The richest 1% of Americans own more than half the value of equities owned by US households, according to Goldman Sachs.
And too many of the new jobs created under Trump were low wage. Even billionaires were worrying about growing income inequality. Minorities, who earn less on average, failed to make much ground in the boom years and are now the first, and the hardest hit, in the downturn.
Updated
Trump said he's signed an executive order to restrict immigration
“I just signed it before walking into the room,” Trump said.
The move has been expected. The president said yesterday that he would sign an order temporarily blocking green card applicants.
Trump said he will be holding a July 4 celebration in Washington, DC’s national mall, like last year.
“On July 4, we will be doing what we had at the Mall. As you know, we’re gonna be doing it. Last year was a tremendous success and I would imagine we’ll do it, hopefully, I can use the term ‘forever.’ That was a great success, as you remember,” he said.
Later, he circled back and said that the crowds will be smaller, and people may have to stand six feet apart.
Updated
Reopening “spas, beauty salons, barbershops, and tattoo parlors” is ill-advised., Trump said.
“I love ‘those people who use all of those things,” he added. “I love ‘em, but they can wait just a little bit longer. Because safety has to predominate.”
Trump says he discouraged Georgia's governor from reopening
The president says he told Georgia governor Brian Kemp that he disagreed “very strongly” with the decision to reopen businesses in the state. “I think it’s too soon,” he said. Georgia has not yet met the requirements to enter “Phase 1” of the White House plan to reopen the country, Trump noted.
Updated
Trump and his public health officials seem to be saying two different things. Despite disagreement over the semantics of “difficult” versus “devastating”, Redfield and Dr Deborah Birx both noted that there is a potential for a second wave of coronavirus in the fall.
“We are assured that the CDC is putting in place today what we are going to need in the fall ... if the virus comes back,” Birx said. Redfield noted that it’s important to prepare for two viruses circulating in the fall.
But Trump predicted: “And if it comes back, though, it won’t be coming back in the form that it was. It will be coming back in smaller doses that we can contain.”
“You could have some embers of corona,” he added. But, “we will not go through what we went through for the last two months”.
Updated
The Washington Post’s headline, “CDC director warns second wave of coronavirus is likely to be even more devastating” was misleading because it should have said “difficult” rather than “devastating”, Redfield noted.
But “I’m accurately quoted in the Washington Post,” the director said.
“There’s a possibility that the assault of the virus on our nation next winter will actually be even more difficult than the one we just went through ... And when I’ve said this to others, they kind of put their head back, they don’t understand what I mean,” Redfield told the Post.
Updated
The fall and winter could be “more difficult, more complicated”, with two respiratory illnesses – Covid-19 and the seasonal flu – circulating at the same time.
“I didn’t say that this was going to be worse,” Redfield said. “I said it was going to be more difficult and potentially complicated.” Distancing measures and other hygiene guides will keep the coronavirus at bay, he noted.
He encouraged Americans to get the flu vaccine so that the country can focus on the coronavirus threat.
Updated
The president said that Robert Redfield, the CDC director, was “totally misquoted” saying that there would be a second wave of coronavirus in the autumn. The Post’s headline was “totally inaccurate”, Trump said. “As I say, it’s fake news.”
Trump has invited Redfield to explain.
Updated
The White House coronavirus briefing has begun
Stay tuned for live coverage and fact-checking.
Trump has indeed been touting hydroxychloroquine quite a lot – to the point where a company that makes tonic water had wrote up an FAQ after “receiving increasing numbers of questions from consumers asking whether there is a similarity to the quinine we use in our tonic waters and hydroxychloroquine”.
Fever Tree has clarified:
Whilst hydroxychloroquine and quinine are both used in anti-malarial drugs, the quinine we use is naturally derived from the bark of the Cinchona tree. Hydroxychloroquine is a synthetically manufactured drug, used to treat malaria and developed based on the chemical structure of quinine.
Tonic water was initially developed as a means to provide British troops in India a daily dose of quinine to protect them from malaria.
It will not protect you from Covid-19, but it will pair nicely with gin and a lime wedge.
Updated
My colleague David Smith in DC has more on Rick Bright, the vaccine expert who said he was ousted for his skepticism of hydroxychloroquine:
In a stunningly candid statement, Bright highlighted his refusal to embrace hydroxychloroquine, a malaria drug relentlessly promoted by the president and Fox News despite a lack of scientific studies.
“Specifically, and contrary to misguided directives, I limited the broad use of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, promoted by the administration as a panacea, but which clearly lack scientific merit,” Bright said.
“While I am prepared to look at all options and to think ‘outside the box’ for effective treatments, I rightly resisted efforts to provide an unproven drug on demand to the American public.”
Trump repeatedly touted hydroxychloroquine as therapy for coronavirus, pointing to a Democratic state representative in Michigan who claimed it benefited her and frequently asking: “What do you have to lose?”
But on Tuesday a major analysis of the drug’s use in US veterans hospitals found no benefit.
Bright added: “I insisted that these drugs be provided only to hospitalised patients with confirmed Covid-19 while under the supervision of a physician. These drugs have potentially serious risks associated with them, including increased mortality observed in some recent studies in patients with Covid-19.
Bright has reportedly hired lawyers Debra Katz and Lisa Banks, whose clients have included government whistleblowers and Christine Blasey Ford, who went public with allegations of sexual misconduct against Brett Kavanaugh during his supreme court nomination in 2018.
Donald Trump and conservative supporters have backed away from hyping the hydroxychloroquine as a potential cure for the coronavirus, The Guardian’s Kenya Evelyn reports:
Fox News staffers have also pivoted from promoting the anti-malarial drug.
The dial-back came as a new report showed that a recent US trial of hydroxychloroquine had not gone well – and before a senior government doctor who led efforts to produce a Covid-19 vaccine told the New York Times he believed he was sacked because he pressed for rigorous testing of the supposed treatment.
“Obviously there have been some very good reports,” Trump said in response to questions about hydroxychloroquine at a Tuesday press briefing. “Perhaps this one’s not a good report, but we’ll be looking at it.”
Read more:
Hi here, it’s Maanvi Singh blogging from the West Coast.
The doctor who was of the federal agency overseeing research into a coronavirus vaccine said he was ousted from his post after he questioned the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine, the anti-malarial drug that the president has often touted.
Rick Bright, tho was the director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), was reassigned to a role with fewer responsibilities, according to a statement from his lawyer. The New York Times first reported the news.
“While I am prepared to look at all options and to think ‘outside the box’ for effective treatments, I rightly resisted efforts to provide an unproven drug on demand to the American public,” Bright said in the statement to the Times.
“I am speaking out because to combat this deadly virus, science — not politics or cronyism — has to lead the way,” said the career official who had led BARDA since 2016.
Updated
Mail-in ballots can still be delivered without a stamp, the Guardian’s Sam Levine reports:
Ballots without postage will still be delivered to local boards of elections, the United States Postal Service said in a statement Wednesday. “As required by federal law, appropriate postage must be affixed to all mailpieces entering into the US postal service mail stream. It is the postal service’s policy not to delay the delivery of completed absentee or vote-by-mail ballots even if no postage has been affixed or if the postage is insufficient,” Martha Johnson, a USPS spokeswoman said in a statement.
“In cases where a ballot enters the mailstream without the proper amount of postage, the postal service will collect postage from the appropriate Board of Elections.” The postal service did not immediately respond to an inquiry on whether its policy applied to other election materials, such as a request for an absentee ballot. The postal service’s policy is not new (it gave a nearly identical statement in 2018), but many voters may not know they can put a ballot in the mail if they can’t get a stamp.
The policy could have increased significance this year as it comes amid a national push to get states to pay for mail-in votes in November. Congressional Democrats are trying to secure funding to assist states in doing this in November and there are lawsuits in Georgia and Pennsylvania to force the state to pay for postage. Congressional Democrats are also trying to secure federal funding for states to pay for postage.
Updated
In a first step toward easing lockdown restrictions and reopening the economy, California hospitals will begin to schedule essential surgeries effective immediately, governor Gavin Newsom announced today.
California is not yet prepared to open wide swaths of society, he said, but the details on six key indicators for when and how communities will reopen – which include testing capacity and hospitalization data – are beginning to come into focus.
As restrictions are lifted, public health experts will continue to monitor data and the state is looking to train and employ a force of 10,000 tracers who can help map the spread of the virus, the governor said.
“We’re not opening up plastic, cosmetic surgeries” Newsom said. “These are important medical procedures that if not attended to will become a crisis. That’s the first modification of stay at home order, and others are predicated on a more robust and inclusive testing regime (as well as) building an army of tracers.”
Meantime, officials say two people died from the virus in California in early February – before the first reported death from the virus in the US – indicating the virus was circulating on the west coast before previously suspected. Further details are expected to emerge from the story.
Asked about the early cases by a reporter on Wednesday, Newsom said he’s asked coroners to re-examine deaths from as far back as December to look for signs of Covid-19 and help guide a greater understanding of the trajectory of the virus.
Two pet cats in New York state have tested positive for the coronavirus, marking the first cases in companion animals in the United States, the Department of Agriculture and the Centers for Disease Control announced Wednesday.
The cats, which had mild respiratory illnesses and are expected to fully recover, are believed to have contracted the virus from people in their households or neighborhoods, officials said. The tests on the felines did not come at the expense of humans as they are conducted veterinary labs using different chemicals.
Federal authorities stressed “there is no evidence that pets play a role in spreading the virus”, but are recommending that any pet owners who have tested positive for Covid-19 avoid contact with their animals as much as possible.
A small number of confirmed cases of the virus have been found in animals worldwide, including seven lions and tigers at the Bronx Zoo earlier this month.
Montana governor Steve Bullock announced the first phase of a staggered reopening for the state on Wednesday, lifting some of the restrictions that went into effect nearly a month ago.
Bullock said churches will be permitted to hold services on Sunday and restaurants, breweries, distilleries and bars can reopen beginning Monday as long as they practice social distancing. Local school districts will have the option to return to in-classroom teaching starting on 7 May, the governor added.
Starting this Sunday, the stay at home order will be lifted and we will begin PHASE ONE of our plan to reopen the Big Sky. pic.twitter.com/pJ0QqmFjhD
— Steve Bullock (@GovernorBullock) April 22, 2020
“There are very few states in the country that can say they have seen the number of positive cases decline over these past weeks. Montana can say that because, together, we have made that decline in cases possible,” Bullock said in a release. “While there is reason for optimism this is not a time for celebration. I am going to ask Montanans to continue to go to great lengths to protect one another, to continue looking out for our neighbors who need it the most, and to continue being vigilant in every step we take.”
Montana reached 439 total cases on Wednesday, after two weeks of flattening the curve. A total of 14 people have died statewide.
Today so far
That’s it from me today. My colleagues, Bryan Graham and Maanvi Singh, will take over the blog for the next few hours.
Here’s where the day stands so far:
- A new poll showed the majority of Americans still support stay-at-home orders, despite recent protests against the orders. The AP/NORC poll found that 61% of Americans believe the steps taken by government officials to limit the spread of the virus in their area are about right, and another 26% said the measures adopted do not go far enough. Only 12% said the restrictions go too far.
- Oklahoma’s governor announced personal-care businesses could start reopening Friday. Republican governor Kevin Stitt said businesses like hair salons and barbershops could start reopening later this week if they observed proper restrictions. A similar announcement from Georgia governor Brian Kemp earlier this week has raised concerns about a potential surge in coronavirus cases.
- New York governor Andrew Cuomo said he would not allow political pressure to dictate when the state reopens. The Democratic governor acknowledged some local officials are anxious to ease social distancing restrictions, but he said he would not jeopardize New Yorkers’ lives by reopening too quickly.
- Trump is expected to soon sign his executive order barring immigrants from seeking permanent residency for 60 days. The president said yesterday that he would sign an order temporarily blocking green card applicants from being granted permanent status, an announcement that came one day after Trump reportedly surprised even his own advisers by tweeting about the issue.
- Trump said US national parks would begin to reopen. But the president provided no details on the plan, and he has previously set lofty goals for reopening the country that have not come to fruition, so it’s unclear how or when the parks would reopen.
Bryan and Maanvi will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
Updated
Oklahoma governor says hair salons and barbershops can reopen Friday
The Republican governor of Oklahoma, Kevin Stitt, has just announced that the state’s personal care businesses, including hair salons and barbershops, may start reopening on Friday.
Stitt said restaurants, churches and gyms could start reopening on May 1 as long as the establishments took proper precautions to limit the spread of coronavirus. Bars will not yet be allowed to reopen.
The governor said the state would follow the White House’s guidelines on reopening and would reevaluate after 14 days whether they can continue the reopening by allowing non-essential travel and gatherings of more than 10 people.
Georgia governor Brian Kemp announced plans to reopen his state on Monday, sparking backlash from some of the state’s mayors, who have warned the reopening could cause a surge in coronavirus cases.
The Republican mayor of Oklahoma City, David Holt, quickly said that the city’s shelter-in-place order would remain in effect until April 30, at which point local officials may consider “entering a new phase” of restrictions.
On the advice of our local public health experts, it is our intent to follow the spirit of the White House criteria for potentially entering a new phase after April 30th.
— Mayor David Holt (@davidfholt) April 22, 2020
Las Vegas mayor says she wants city to reopen in controversial interview
Carolyn Goodman, the independent mayor of Las Vegas, said she believed the city’s casinos, hotels and stadiums should quickly reopen in an interview that is already attracting widespread criticism.
“I want our restaurants open. I want our small businesses open. I want people back in employment,” Goodman told a clearly flabbergasted Anderson Cooper.
“I’d love everything open because I think we’ve had viruses for years that have been here,” the mayor added. “I want us open in the city of Las Vegas so our people can go back to work.”
Las Vegas Mayor: " I'd love everything open because I think we've had viruses for years that have been here." (The financial duress is profound. It's so real. And yet this interview is totally insane.) pic.twitter.com/qSN6atlFiL
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) April 22, 2020
Cooper pressed Goodman on how she would ensure coronavirus was not spread at the city’s hotels and casinos, describing the tourist attractions as a “Petri dish” for possible infection.
“You’re being an alarmist,” Goodman told Cooper. As to how to protect the staff and visitors at casinos and hotels, she said, “That’s up to them to figure out.”
Goodman quickly attracted criticism for the interview, with one veteran Nevada journalist calling it “the single most embarrassing thing” he has seen from a state politician in 35 years.
I have seen many Nevada officials stumble on national TV. But that was the single most embarrassing thing i have seen by a NV pol in 35 years here. The mayor just showed the country she is unfit for office, and the commentary and shock and disgust here bears that out. My God.
— Jon Ralston (@RalstonReports) April 22, 2020
Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell said he would support letting states declare bankruptcy over the costs of the coronavirus response, as the Kentucky Republican expresses opposition to Congress allocating more funding to the states.
“I would certainly be in favor of allowing states to use the bankruptcy route. It saves some cities. And there’s no good reason for it not to be available,” McConnell told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt.
“My guess is their first choice would be for the federal government to borrow money from future generations to send it down to them now so they don’t have to do that. That’s not something I’m going to be in favor of.”
Democrats lobbied to include more funding for states in the latest coronavirus relief bill, but Republicans pushed back against that proposal, and the final $484 billion bill includes no money for local or state governments.
The National Governors Association has said states need an additional $500 billion to cover the costs associated with responding to the crisis, and Trump has indicated he would support including state funding in the next relief bill.
Poll: majority of Americans support stay-at-home orders
A new poll shows Americans still overwhelmingly support stay-at-home orders to limit the spread of coronavirus, despite recent protests against the orders.
A new AP/NORC poll found that the majority of Americans (61%) said the steps taken by government officials to limit the spread of the virus in their area are about right, and another 26% said the measures adopted do not go far enough. Only 12% said the restrictions go too far.
However, Republicans are more likely than Democrats to say the restrictions go too far. While 22% of Republicans say the measures go too far, only 5% of Democrats say the same.
The poll comes as protests against stay-at-home orders have broken out in multiple states, and Trump said last week that states needed to be liberated from the orders.
But public health experts have warned states could risk a surge in coronavirus cases if they reopen their economies too quickly.
Updated
Change of plans: the House will not vote tomorrow on a measure that would temporarily allow members to vote by proxy.
House speaker Nancy Pelosi reportedly told her leadership team in a phone call this morning that the chamber would not vote on the measure tomorrow, and she would instead form a bipartisan task force to further examine remote voting.
House Republicans have voiced ardent opposition to the measure, but Democrats, who control the chamber, would likely have the votes to get the proposal approved regardless.
However, Pelosi reportedly decided not to force the measure through after a long conversation today with House minority leader Kevin McCarthy.
Former vice president Al Gore has endorsed Joe Biden’s presidential campaign and will appear alongside the presumptive Democratic nominee for a virtual Earth Day event in about 30 minutes.
I am proud to endorse my friend Joe Biden for President, and I'm looking forward to our virtual #EarthDay50 event at 2:30pm ET today. WATCH HERE: https://t.co/dzFziVVgWc
— Al Gore (@algore) April 22, 2020
“This is the clearest most definitive choice in a national election that the United States of American has ever faced, especially for people who care about the climate,” Gore told the AP.
The climate activist argued that Biden was the obvious general election choice for anyone who wanted the US to take concrete steps to address climate change.
“If there is any person in America who cares about the climate crisis and has any doubt whatsoever about the importance of voting for Joe Biden this November, I want to emphasize to that person in as strong a way as I possibly can: This is not complicated,” Gore said. “This is not rocket science. This is not a close call.”
Trump floats reopening of US National Parks
Someone should warn the animals. Donald Trump and Melania Trump were planting a tree outside the Oval Office and the president happened to drop in the remark that national parks will reopen soon.
He gave no details. Most parks and park facilities are closed, including all the big names such as Grand Canyon, Acadia, Yellowstone, Yosemite, Great Smoky Mountains, Rocky Mountain, Arches, etc.
“Thanks to our significant progress against the invisible enemy [coronavirus], I am pleased to announce that in line with my administration’s guidelines for opening up America again we will begin to reopen our national parks and public lands for the American people to enjoy,” Trump said.
He gave no details and it should be noted that he has a tendency to throw out remarks that are more aspirational than realistic (or safe), such as the time he forecast that the US economy could open back up by Easter (April 12).
As the coronavirus outbreak gathered its deadly pace and geographical spread across the US, people were not observing social distancing and parks had to close.
Now the bears, bison, moose and birds need to know: the wretched humans with our selfie sticks and trash might be back sooner than they think, loving the parks just a bit too much.
Ocean views.
The Trump administration has also been rather keen on shrinking national monuments and opening up public lands for mineral exploration and exploitation.
The White House is dubiously claiming the CDC director was misquoted when he warned that the second wave of coronavirus could be worse than the first.
The newly installed White House press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, claimed CDC director Robert Redfield was referring to the seasonal flu when he warned about the danger of a second wave this winter.
But Redfield’s quote to the Washington Post clearly shows otherwise. “There’s a possibility that the assault of the virus on our nation next winter will actually be even more difficult than the one we just went through,” Redfield told the Post yesterday.
“And when I’ve said this to others, they kind of put their head back, they don’t understand what I mean.” He added, “We’re going to have the flu epidemic and the coronavirus epidemic at the same time.”
Trump similarly claimed earlier today that Redfield had been “totally misquoted” and said the CDC director would put out a statement clarifying his claim, but Redfield does not appear to have done so.
WHO reiterates "no secrets" kept from US or world, dozens of Americans on its team
One of the main themes at today’s World Health Organisation press conference is the major role that US experts and officials play inside the WHO.
This follows multiple accusations from Donald Trump and his officials that the WHO was privy to information about Covid-19 which it hid from the US.
The Guardian reported on Saturday that there were more than a dozen officials from the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) embedded in WHO in January and February.
Today, the head of the WHO health emergencies programme, Michael Ryan, said there were 31 US nationals on his team and pointed to Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO technical lead on Covid-19 also sitting on the podium, who is an American epidemiologist.
The WHO director, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the close association with CDC and having CDC staff at WHO headquarters in Geneva “means there is nothing hidden from the US, from day one, because these are Americans who are working with us, and it just comes naturally.
“Since our CDC colleagues also know that we give information immediately to anyone, they also can pass information to their institution. No problem. There is no secret in the WHO, because keeping things confidential or secret is dangerous.”
Trump announced earlier this month that the US would suspend payments to the WHO.
Today so far
Here’s where the day stands so far:
- Andrew Cuomo said he would not let political pressure dictate when New York reopens. At his daily briefing, Cuomo said local officials who are anxious to relax social distancing guidelines should blame him for the stay-at-home order, but he emphasized he would not jeopardize New Yorkers’ lives by reopening too quickly.
- The House is expected to vote tomorrow on the next coronavirus relief package. The Senate passed the nearly $500 billion bill by voice vote yesterday, and Trump has already signaled he will sign the legislation.
- The first coronavirus deaths in the US appear to have occurred weeks earlier than previously thought. Health officials now say two people in California died of the virus in the three weeks before the first official death was announced in Washington state.
The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
Cuomo briefing summary
New York governor Andrew Cuomo has just wrapped up his daily briefing on the state’s response to coronavirus.
Here’s some of what he covered:
- Cuomo said he would not let political pressure dictate the timetable for reopening the state. The governor acknowledged some local officials are anxious to start relaxing social distancing guidelines, but he said a hasty reopening could jeopardize New Yorkers’ lives. “I have no problem with them blaming me,” Cuomo said of local New York officials. “Blame the governor. It’s the truth.”
- Cuomo described his meeting with Trump at the White House yesterday as “very productive.” Cuomo said the pair were able to put their political differences aside to focus on issues like expanding testing and securing more state funding. “We both have a job to do,” Cuomo said. “Let’s do the job. And that was the spirit of the meeting yesterday.”
- Another 474 New Yorkers died of coroanvirus yesterday, bringing the state’s total death toll to 15,302. The daily death toll has dropped somewhat from last week, but it remains alarmingly high.
- Cuomo will issue an announcement on nursing homes tomorrow. The governor did not hint at what the announcement would be, but he has received some criticism for allowing people who have tested positive for Covid-19 to be readmitted to nursing homes. More than 3,000 New Yorkers in nursing homes and adult care facilities have died of the virus.
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Billionaire Mike Bloomberg is helping the state develop a testing and tracing program. New York officials said Bloomberg would donate about $10 million to the effort, which would be focused on identifying and isolating new coronavirus cases to mitigate the spread of the virus.
New York governor Andrew Cuomo said he thought it was “madness” that the US is “wholly dependent on China” for the production of medical equipment.
Cuomo said he hoped one of the lessons learned from this crisis is that the US needs to develop their own supply chains for that equipment.
“That all has to change,” Cuomo said. “We have to be able to make this equipment right here and be able to turn up the volume when something like this happens.”
Cuomo criticizes arguments from protesters
New York governor Andrew Cuomo criticized the arguments from demonstrators who are protesting his stay-at-home order outside the state capitol.
A reporter who spoke to some of the protesters said they have complained of economic harship due to the crisis, and they argued “the cure cannot be worse than the illness.”
Cuomo replied, “How can the cure be worse than the illness if the illness is potential death?”
The governor asked the protesters to understand that they had to consider the health of others, not just themselves. “It’s not just about you,” Cuomo said. “You have a responsibility to me.”
The governor also suggested (jokingly?) that if the protesters cannot afford their bills, they can apply for a job as an essential worker to get a paycheck.
New York officials said billionaire Mike Bloomberg would offer a financial investment of “upwards of $10 million” to develop a testing and tracing program.
New York governor Andrew Cuomo predicted that testing would show the infection rate is “about 10 percent in high infection areas,” such as New York City, and lower upstate.
The testing and tracing program appears to be aimed at limiting the further spread of coronavirus as health experts warn of a possible second wave of infections.
New York governor Andrew Cuomo said he would not allow political pressure to determine the timetable on when to reopen the economy.
“This is not going to be over anytime soon,” Cuomo said of social-distancing restrictions, warning the state risked a surge in coronavirus cases if they became complacent.
Cuomo acknowledged the current situation is “unsustainable,” but he added, “I also know more people will die if we are not smart.”
Cuomo told his fellow New York elected officials, “We can’t make a bad decision. Frankly, this is no time to act stupidly. Period. I don’t know how else to say it.”
The governor said that local officials should not shy away from blaming him for the stay-at-home order. “I have no problem with them blaming me,” Cuomo said. “Blame the governor. It’s the truth.”
The governor stressed that New Yorkers cannot get “cocky” now that they are in a better place than they were a few weeks ago. “If you’re not ready for that second wave, that’s the one that’s going to knock you down,” Cuomo said.
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Bloomberg helping to develop testing program, Cuomo says
New York governor Andrew Cuomo said billionaire Mike Bloomberg has volunteered to help develop the first-ever testing/tracing/isolation program.
Bloomberg, who previously served as mayor of New York, will help build a tracing army to identify new cases of coronavirus and quickly isolate those people to avoid further spread.
Cuomo has previously said reopening New York will depend on expanding testing and tracing capacity to avoid a surge in cases, echoing public health experts.
New York governor Andrew Cuomo referred to the state’s coronavirus crisis as “a profound moment in history,” once again emphasizing that New Yorkers’ actions will “shape our future.”
This is a profound moment in history.
— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) April 22, 2020
Our actions shape our future.
If we get reckless today, we’ll suffer the consequences tomorrow.
“If we get reckless today, we’ll suffer the consequences tomorrow,” said Cuomo, who has warned that relaxing social distancing restrictions could cause a surge in coronavirus cases.
Cuomo says meeting with Trump was 'very productive'
New York governor Andrew Cuomo said he had a “very productive” meeting with Trump at the White House yesterday, despite the pair’s recent disagreements.
Cuomo acknowledged the president and his team “don’t like me” politically, noting that Trump has said “very unkind things about me and my brother,” referring to CNN anchor Chris Cuomo.
Despite those past issues, the governor said he and the president were able to have a fruitful conversation about “contentious, unclear issues,” such as expanding testing capacity and securing more funding for states.
“We both have a job to do,” Cuomo said. “Let’s do the job. And that was the spirit of the meeting yesterday.”
Cuomo reiterated that Congress must approve more money for states, even though that additional funding was not included in the latest coronavirus relief bill.
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Another 474 New Yorkers died of coronavirus yesterday
New York governor Andrew Cuomo said the state is in a “relatively good place” as coronavirus hospitalizations and intubations continue to decline.
But the governor noted the number of new coronavirus hospitalizations remains “troublingly high,” even as many coronavirus patients are released from the hospital. Cuomo said the rate of new hospitalizations is “better than it was but still problematic.”
The governor announced another 474 New Yorkers died of the coronavirus yesterday, which is nearly identical to Monday’s death toll.
New York governor Andrew Cuomo opened his daily briefing by noting it has been 53 days since the state confirmed its first case of coronavirus.
Cuomo described the 53 days since the first case as a “disorienting period,” but he said it was “nothing” compared to other times of harship for the world, such as the six years of World War II.
“But it feels very long, and it’s very stressful,” the governor said.
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New York governor Andrew Cuomo is scheduled to deliver his daily briefing in about 15 minutes after meeting with Trump at the White House yesterday.
Cuomo said the president recognized in the meeting that the federal government had to be involved in procuring vital medical supplies to help states expand coronavirus testing.
The President and I also discussed much-needed funding for the states.
— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) April 21, 2020
We immediately need federal funding to fill the hole COVID has put NYS in.
The White House team understood our need.
Trump has previously shrugged off that responsibility, insisting it was up to the states to expand testing capacity. Cuomo agreed the states should take the lead on the issue, but the governor has said at his recent briefings that the federal government must still play a role.
“The national manufacturers say they have supply-chain issues,” Cuomo said Monday. “I’d like the federal government to help on those supply-chain issues.”
Cuomo said Trump also agreed states needed more funding to address the crisis, and the president indicated yesterday that state funding would be included in the next coronavirus relief bill.
The House rules committee will meet at 5 pm ET today to discuss the measure that would temporarily allow members to vote by proxy.
The panel will gather in Room 1100 of the Longworth House office building to mark up the proposal, which has been endorsed by Democratic leadership.
House Republicans have signaled they will oppose the measure, which is expected to come up for a full House vote tomorrow, but Democrats will almost certainly have enough support on their side of the aisle to get the proposal approved.
If the measure is approved, members will be allowed to designate a proxy (another member) who can cast votes on their behalf as long as the current crisis lasts.
Joe Biden said he would name his advisory panel to help him select a running mate, which will consist of three or four people, by May 1.
Biden told last night James Corden on “The Late Late Show” that the panel would interview the final contenders for the VP slot after the list has been narrowed down to “somewhere between two and five people.”
Biden jokingly suggested he would choose Julia Louis Dreyfus as his running mate, referencing the actor’s starring role in the television show “Veep,” which focuses on a vice president and her staff.
The former vice president said he did not yet know who he would choose but reiterated that the person would have to be able to fill the role of president if he had to step aside for any reason.
“The first, the most important quality is someone who — if I walked away immediately from the office for whatever reason — that they can be president,” Biden said.
Biden has already said the running mate will definitely be a woman, and senators Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris and Amy Klobuchar, among others, have been listed as possibilities.
Inslee endorses Biden
Jay Inslee, the governor of Washington state and a former Democratic presidential candidate, has endorsed Joe Biden.
Inslee told Biden in an interview for the presumptive nominee’s podcast, “I’m proud to endorse you for being the next president of the United States for many reasons. I know that you have a willingness to follow science and really help us get us out of the COVID-19 crisis. ... You’re going to be honest with us, which we don’t have right now in the White House.”
Folks, we just launched a special #EarthDay episode of Here's the Deal! Governor @JayInslee joins me for a discussion on COVID-19, climate change, and why he's supporting our campaign.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) April 22, 2020
Listen to the full episode now: https://t.co/gfVHzRcDXo pic.twitter.com/DRJyrZ5njV
Inslee specifically said he thought Biden would effectively address climate change, even though the two Democrats sparred during the primary over whether Biden’s proposals went far enough to lower carbon emissions.
“You’re going to have a concrete plan for action within the next 10 years to develop a clean energy plan, so we just don’t plan to 2050,” Inslee said in the interview, which was released today for a special Earth Day episode of the podcast. “I know that you have efforts to really do things in the next 10 years and I’m very excited about this.”
Inslee told the New York Times that his endorsement for Biden comes after the two had private conversations about the presumptive nominee’s climate proposals. The Washington governor said he was confident Biden was “willing to aim faster and higher” on climate policy.
Trump is expected to sign an executive order today to impose a 60-day ban on immigrants seeking to live and work in the US permanently.
The president announced the planned executive order yesterday after hinting at the proposal in an unexpected tweet on Monday night. Speaking at his press conference yesterday, Trump noted he may extend the order past 60 days “based on economic conditions at the time”.
Trump said the order would only apply to green card applicants and not temporary workers, leaving many questions about green card applications that are currently being processed.
“By pausing immigration, we will help put unemployed Americans first in line for jobs as America reopens – so important,” Trump told reporters yesterday. “We want to protect our US workers and I think, as we move forward, we will become more and more protective of them.”
Mnuchin: 'Most if not all' of the economy to reopen later in the summer
Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin predicted that “most if not all” of the US economy would reopen later in the summer.
“We’re looking forward to by the time we hit later in the summer having most of the economy if not all of the economy open,” Mnuchin told Fox Business Network this morning.
However, the Trump administration has previously been guilty of setting lofty goals for reopening the economy that have not come to fruition.
The president previously said he hoped the economy would be “opened up and just raring to go by Easter” before shifting the reopening target date to May 1, even as a number of states extended their stay-at-home orders well into May.
Public health experts have said some level of social distancing will likely be necessary until a coronavirus vaccine is developed, which could take a year or more.
House speaker Nancy Pelosi said the chamber would approve the nearly $500 billion coronavirus relief bill tomorrow.
“We’ll pass it tomorrow in the House,” Pelosi told MSNBC this morning, adding that it was “absolutely urgent” for Trump to sign the legislation.
Pelosi and Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer released a statement yesterday saying they were “proud” of the work they had done to get $100 billion for hospitals and testing included in the bill.
The original proposal from Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell was focused solely on allocating more money to the Paycheck Protection Program for small businesses, which ran out of funding last week.
Pelosi and Schumer said in their statement, “Democrats flipped this emergency package from an insufficient Republican plan that left behind hospitals and health and frontline workers and did nothing to aid the survival of the most vulnerable small businesses on Main Street.”
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The House is also expected to vote tomorrow on a proposal that would allow members to vote by proxy, even as the Senate remains steadfastly opposed to the idea of remote voting.
The House measure will allow members who cannot travel to Washington amid the pandemic to designate a proxy (another member) to cast their vote on proposed legislation.
House Democratic leaders have emphasized that this will be a temporary measure meant to address concerns about lawmakers, particularly those who are at high-risk of developing serious illness from the virus, risking their health to travel to Washington for votes.
“We want to be able to do the people’s work, notwithstanding the directions to remain at distance,” House majority leader Steny Hoyer told reporters yesterday.
House Republicans are opposed to the idea and may vote against the measure en masse, but Democrats will almost certainly have enough support on their side to get the measure approved.
If it is approved, it will mark an historic moment for the tradition-bound Congress that has been generally resistant to change -- another unprecedented shift for an unprecedented era.
This is Joan Greve in Washington, taking over for Jo Walters.
The House is expected to take up the next coronavirus relief bill tomorrow, after the nearly $500 billion legislation passed the Senate yesterday by voice vote. Trump has already indicated he would sign the bill.
Now that the Senate has passed the interim coronavirus relief bill, the House will take it up on Thursday. Thanks to Democrats’ insistence, it includes $120B billion more for small business relief as well as funding for hospitals and expanded testing. https://t.co/jMtBSlFc8n
— Steny Hoyer (@LeaderHoyer) April 22, 2020
House majority leader Steny Hoyer has advised members to return to Washington tomorrow morning to vote on the legislation, and Democratic leadership has expressed approval of the bill now that it includes $100 billion for hospitals and testing, as well as more funding for small business loans.
The rapid turnaround means that the Paycheck Protection Program, which was created by the stimulus package and ran out of money last week, could receive $320 billion in additional funding by Friday.
Donald Trump has hopped onto Twitter. As the debate rages over where, when and how to reopen the US economy amid the coronavirus pandemic, the president once again appears to be jumping the gun.
His tweet moments ago speaks for itself.
States are safely coming back. Our Country is starting to OPEN FOR BUSINESS again. Special care is, and always will be, given to our beloved seniors (except me!). Their lives will be better than ever...WE LOVE YOU ALL!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 22, 2020
At the White House last night, coronavirus task force resource coordinator Deborah Birx said that Americans should prepare to see more deaths from the coronavirus pandemic, particularly in cities, as the outbreak in the United States moves past its peak and infection rates decline.
Deaths generally lag behind other aspects of the outbreak, CNBC reported.
“We really need to continue to unite and really, really support our health-care providers who are still on the frontline,” she said.
Birx declined to comment on Georgia planning to reopen many businesses by the end of this week, only saying that federal health officials were “very clear” with states on guidelines to protect Americans from the virus.
On a different tweet tack, the president has made a military announcement, as tension builds in the Middle East over renewed harassment of shipping by the Iranian military.
I have instructed the United States Navy to shoot down and destroy any and all Iranian gunboats if they harass our ships at sea.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 22, 2020
As my Guardian colleague Julian Borger reported just a few days ago: Iranian navy vessels have been coming within 10 yards of American warships in the Persian Gulf in what the US navy described as a series of “dangerous and harassing approaches”.
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First US coronavirus deaths weeks earlier than originally thought
Good day to our US live blog readers, another lively day in store for politics and coronavirus news.
Health officials now say that two people died with the coronavirus in California weeks before the first official reported death from the disease in the US.
Santa Clara County officials, near San Francisco, said late last night that the people died at home on 6 February and 17 February.
Before this, the first US death from the virus had been reported on 29 February in Kirkland, Washington.
The medical examiner-coroner received confirmation that tissue samples sent to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tested positive for the virus, officials said.
The latest coronavirus statistics for the US are 825,306 confirmed cases and 45,075 deaths.
Today Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order further limiting immigration to the United States, declaring a 60-day ban on immigrants seeking to live and work here permanently – ie green card applicants.
Much of the immigration system is already shut down. We await further details.
The House of Representatives will be preparing today so they can vote early tomorrow on the latest $500m financial rescue package passed by the Senate yesterday.
It includes more money to prop up small businesses clobbered by the quarantine orders and funding for hospitals and greater testing for the virus and those developing anti-bodies.
Stay tuned.
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