WASHINGTON – White House senior advisor Jared Kushner made a rare appearance during Thursday’s coronavirus task force briefing, an appearance that drew backlash when he referred to the national stockpile of medical supplies as “our stockpile” and not one belonging to states. 

Kushner, the president’s son-in-law who doesn’t often make public appearances, says he has been serving on the coronavirus task force at the direction of Vice President Mike Pence.

When asked about data showing states’ need for equipment, Kushner said, “The notion of the federal stockpile is that it’s supposed to be our stockpile. It’s not supposed to be states’ stockpiles that they then use.”

He then referred to criticism from governors who say the government has not provided needed medical supplies.

“When you have governors saying that the federal government hasn’t given them what they need, I would encourage you to ask them, have you looked within your state to make sure you haven’t been able to find the resources?” he continued. 

More:Americans support drastic efforts to stop coronavirus, expect crisis to last for months in Public Agenda/USA TODAY/Ipsos poll

More:Trump hasn’t ordered any ventilators from GM, despite saying he was using wartime powers to force production

Source Article from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/04/03/coronavirus-jared-kushner-draws-backlash-our-stockpile-comment/2938648001/

The White House reportedly tried to force 3M to export 10 million N95 masks from its Singapore facilities to the U.S. rather than sending them to its markets in Asia, the Financial Times reported, citing a person familiar with the conversations.

In a tweet Thursday night, Trump claimed that the White House “hit 3M hard today after seeing what they were doing with their Masks.”

“‘P Act’ all the way,” Trump added, referring to the Defense Production Act, a Korean War-era law.

On Friday, 3M CEO Mike Roman responded to Trump’s tweet on CNBC: “The idea that 3M is not doing all it can to fight price gouging and unauthorized reselling is absurd. The idea that we’re not doing everything we can to maximize deliveries of respirators in our home country – nothing is further from the truth.”

Roman and his company noted that 3M was already working with the Trump administration on getting more masks to the U.S. prior to Trump’s invocation of the DPA.

“We have been working closely with the Administration to do exactly that, and we appreciate the authorities in the DPA that provide a framework for us to expand even further the work we are doing in response to the global pandemic crisis,” 3M said. “We look forward to working with FEMA to implement yesterday’s order.”

Over the weekend, the company said, the Trump administration “requested that 3M increase the amount of respirators we currently import from our overseas operations into the U.S. We appreciate the assistance of the Administration to do exactly that.”

The company also said that “earlier this week, we secured approval from China to export to the U.S. 10 million N95 respirators manufactured by 3M in China.”

Source Article from https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/03/coronavirus-3m-tells-trump-halting-exports-would-reduce-number-of-masks.html

“This is about making sure that we’re able to conduct our democracy while we’re dealing with a pandemic. We can do both,” Biden said. “There’s a lot of ways to do it, but we should be talking about it now.”

Trump advisers say they are open to certain changes, such as automatically sending absentee ballot applications to voters over age 65. But they’re opposed to other moves Democrats are pushing, such as sending every voter a ballot regardless of whether they ask for one, which Republicans argue would open the door to fraud.

Trump has long been fixated on voter fraud. He has repeatedly claimed without evidence that he lost New Hampshire in 2016 because out-of-staters cast ballots, and after the election the president set up a since-disbanded voter fraud commission. Following the disastrous 2018 midterms, Trump said that after voting, some people “go to their car, put on a different hat, put on a different shirt, come in and vote again.”

During an appearance on Fox News this week, Trump pushed back against an effort by House Democrats to secure billions of dollars for election assistance in the coronavirus relief package. The bill Trump ultimately signed included $400 million, a fraction of what Democrats had been seeking.

“The things they had in there were crazy. They had things, levels of voting that if you’d ever agreed to it, you’d never have a Republican elected in this country again,” Trump said.

Federal funding to help states ease voting barriers in response to coronavirus is just one front in the battle. Trump’s political apparatus is taking a state-by-state approach.

In Pennsylvania, where Democrats proposed an entirely vote-by-mail system, Trump advisers worked with the Republican-controlled Legislature to push through more circumscribed rules. They include a limited expansion of absentee voting and changes to the handling and counting of those ballots.

In Georgia, some officials are recommending sending everyone a ballot, also a no-go for Trump’s team. The president’s advisers instead advocated mailing people applications they would need to fill out and return in order to receive a ballot. The idea was approved by Georgia’s Democratic Party and Republican secretary of state.

Republicans see an advantage in the change in Georgia. They say they will be able to use their financial advantage over Democrats to reach their Georgia supporters to ensure they’re returning ballot request forms.

The Democratic offensive is being led by Marc Elias, a veteran election attorney who is currently involved in litigation in more than a dozen states. He has advocated a handful of changes in the wake of the outbreak, including providing pre-paid postage for mail-in ballots and extending the postmark deadline to Election Day.

“If states are not able or willing to rise to the occasion of the challenges that Covid-19 poses, we’re going to continue looking very seriously to the courts to protect the rights of voters and to ensure that ballots don’t go uncounted that should be counted,” Elias said.

Trump advisers say they are trying to prevent overreach on the part of Democrats, who have long sought to ease voting restrictions.

“It is beyond disgusting that the Democrats are using this crisis to try to dismantle the integrity of our voting system,” said Justin Clark, a senior Trump campaign counsel who is helping to spearhead the legal fight. “The American people won’t stand for this, and the campaign and the party intend to fight with them for a free, fair, and open vote in November.”

Clark pointed to so-called community ballot collection — an idea embraced by some Democrats that would allow local organizations and individuals to collect ballots from voters at their homes — as something the Trump campaign would fight.

The pandemic is expected to increase the amount of funding the Republican Party devotes to lawsuits. The cash-flush Trump machine announced in February it was directing $10 million toward legal battles, but people involved in the effort say that figure is now likely to climb much higher.

In some instances, the RNC is providing financing for state parties to help with lawsuits.

“Democrats know they cannot beat President Trump at the ballot box, so they are trying to use the courts to beat him,” said RNC chief of staff Richard Walters. “We are going to use the full resources of the RNC to stop them.”

A cluster of Democratic organizations — including the national party committees, the prominent Priorities USA super PAC, and the National Democratic Redistricting Committee — have already been pursuing voting-related litigation. FairFight, an organization founded by former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, has also been active.

Biden spokesman Andrew Bates declined to comment on whether the campaign would join in the legal wrangling but said any Trump-led effort “to restrict access to voting would … amount to a craven attempt to steal the sacred right of the American people to vote.”

The battle is likely to further intensify in the days and weeks ahead. Many of the changes Democrats are seeking would likely take substantial time to implement, meaning that any action would need to take place soon.

“You can’t wait to see how this is all turning out,” said Elias, referring to the coronavirus. “You have to start doing it now.”

Source Article from https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/03/trump-2020-election-legal-battle-coronavirus-162152

Updated 8:09 AM ET, Fri April 3, 2020

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(CNN)Kevin and Ryan Sheehan will never know whether their father heard them say goodbye on speaker phone.

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Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/03/us/costa-luminosa-passengers-ordeal/index.html

At a morning briefing on Thursday, officials said three patients had been moved to the Comfort. After The New York Times published an article with that number, Elizabeth Baker, a spokeswoman for the Navy, said the number had increased to 20 by late in the day. “We’re bringing them on as fast as we can bring them on,” she said.

Hospital leaders said they were exasperated by the delays.

Mr. Dowling said he has had to tear his hospitals apart, retrofitting any unused space, including lobbies and conference rooms, into hospital wards. His facilities now house 2,800 so-called Covid patients, up from 100 on March 20, he said. About 25 percent of those are in serious conditions in intensive care units.

Across the city, hospitals are overrun. Patients have died in hallways before they could even be hooked up to one of the few available ventilators in New York. Doctors and nurses, who have had to use the same protective gear again and again, are getting sick. So many people are dying that the city is running low on body bags.

At the same time, there is not a high volume of noncoronavirus patients. Because most New Yorkers have isolated themselves in their homes, there are fewer injuries from car accidents, gun shots and construction accidents that would require an emergency room visit.

Ultimately, Mr. Dowling and others said, if the Comfort refuses to take Covid patients, there are few patients to send. And given the pernicious spread of the disease in New York City, where nearly 50,000 were infected as of Thursday, dividing patients into those who have it and those who do not is pointless, he said.

The solution, he and others said, was to open the Comfort to patients with Covid-19.

“It’s pretty ridiculous,” he said. “If you’re not going to help us with the people we need help with, what’s the purpose?”

Asked about Mr. Dowling’s criticisms, the Defense Department referred to Mr. Trump’s statements about the Comfort at his daily briefing. The president said only that the ship was not accepting patients with the coronavirus.

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/02/nyregion/ny-coronavirus-usns-comfort.html

Some Americans may not receive their stimulus check until August.

Here’s what you need to know – and what to do about it.

Stimulus Check

A new memo obtained by the Associated Press claims that although 60 million stimulus checks will be distributed in mid-April, other Americans who did not provide direct deposit on their tax return potentially may need to wait months before they receive their stimulus check. The House Ways and Means Committee memo says that check distribution could work like this:

  • Week of April 13, 2020: 60 million checks distributed through direct deposit
  • Week of May 4, 2020: The IRS will start sending paper stimulus checks.
  • Each week thereafter: Approximately 5 million paper checks will be issued each week.

Based on this tentative schedule, the memo says that some Americans may not receive their check until the week of August 17. The House Ways and Means Committee notes that this schedule is subject to change, particularly as Congress and the Trump administration collaborate to get stimulus checks distributed as quickly as possible. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin disputes that timeline and says checks will be distributed within “a matter of weeks, and not months.” The Treasury Department told USA TODAY that 50 million to 70 million Americans would receive their stimulus checks via direct deposit by April 15. Within three weeks, the Treasury Department said the “overwhelming majority of eligible Americans” will receive their stimulus check. 

How To Get Your Stimulus Check Sooner

  • Check if you qualify to receive a stimulus check.
  • If you provided direct deposit information on your 2018 or 2019 income tax return, then the IRS already has your direct deposit information.
  • If you haven’t filed 2018 or 2019 income taxes, you can still file them. If you do, you can provide your direct deposit deposit information to get your stimulus check faster.
  • Checks will be distributed in reverse order based on adjusted gross income. This means that those with lower adjusted gross income will be issued a check first.

If you filed already, but didn’t provide direct deposit information, the good news is you still can. In late April or early May, according to the memo, the IRS expects to create an online portal that will enable taxpayers to update their direct deposit information and check the status of their stimulus check. Stay tuned.


Stimulus Checks: Q&A

How much money can I get?

Individuals: $1,200

Married Couples: $2,400

Dependent Children: $500 (must be less than 17-years-old)


Does it matter how much income you make?

Yes.


What are the income thresholds?

There is no minimum adjusted gross income threshold. However, the stimulus check amount phases out by $5 for every $100 above certain income levels based on your tax filing status:

  • Single Filer: $75,000
  • Head of Household: $112,500
  • Married/Joint Filer: $150,000


At what income level will I not qualify for a stimulus check?

  • Single Filer: > $99,000
  • Joint Filer (no children): > $198,000


Helpful Resources: What To Do With Your Student Loans

Source Article from https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackfriedman/2020/04/03/your-stimulus-check-may-not-arrive-until-august/

During a CNN interview Thursday evening, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and a prominent member of President Donald Trump’s coronavirus task force, said he believes that all states should have stay at home orders in place to help stop the spread of coronavirus.

During the CNN segment, network anchorperson Anderson Cooper asked Dr. Fauci, “Knowing the science, does it make sense to you that some states are still not issuing stay at home orders?”

While asking the question, the screen showed a map of which U.S. states have yet to issue such orders. The states include Alabama, Arkansas, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming.

Cooper continued, “Whether there should be a federally mandated directive for that or not, I guess that’s more of a political question, but just scientifically, doesn’t everybody have to be on the same page with this stuff?”

“Yeah,” Fauci responded, “I think so, Anderson. I don’t understand why that’s not happening.”

Fauci said, “The tension between federally mandated versus states rights to do what they want is something I don’t want to get into. But if you look at what’s going on in this country, I just don’t understand why we’re not doing that. We really should be.”

Newsweek has reached out to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) for additional information about the director’s thoughts on the necessity of a federally mandated national stay at home order. NIAID didn’t respond by the time of publication.

Fauci’s view contrasts with Trump’s statement at Wednesday’s coronavirus briefing that he has no plans to issue a national stay at home order. Trump said he believed the decision should be left up to governors since the virus affects each state differently.

The 10 states without stay at home orders are all overseen by Republican governors. Despite that, some mayors of large cities within those states have issued stay at home orders for locals.

Lawrence Gostin, director of the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University, told The Hill that southern and midwest states haven’t issued the same social distancing measures as others, leaving non-essential businesses and public spaces open to general use.

“It’s in those states that [Trump] has the most influence to encourage particular red-state governors to do a lockdown,” Gostin said. “He could give them political cover to do it. He doesn’t have legal power, but he has enormous influence, particularly in the South and the Midwest, to try to have a much more nationally uniform strategy rather than an utterly inconsistent patchwork across the country.”

Dr. Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx, another physician on Trump’s coronavirus task force, predicted that between 100,000 and 240,000 Americans could die from the coronavirus, even if citizens observe the federal government’s current suggested social distancing guidelines. The federal guidelines issued so far include avoiding restaurants and bars, canceling unnecessary travel, working from home, avoiding gatherings of 10 or more people and staying six feet apart from others.

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Source Article from https://www.newsweek.com/fauci-says-all-states-should-enforce-coronavirus-stay-home-orders-trump-resists-issuing-1495906

“This is that moment when the American people need their government, but if you don’t embrace and appreciate the nobility, the responsibility, the heavy, heavy responsibility and weight, then you see what happens,” Harris added. “You have a president, frankly, who has been a bit frivolous in the way he has approached this job, as it relates to this pandemic.”

Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/commander-of-confusion-trump-sows-uncertainty-and-seeks-to-cast-blame-in-coronavirus-crisis/2020/04/02/fc2db084-7431-11ea-85cb-8670579b863d_story.html

Early voters cast their ballots at last month in Milwaukee.

Morry Gash/AP


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Morry Gash/AP

Early voters cast their ballots at last month in Milwaukee.

Morry Gash/AP

Wisconsin’s April 7 primary will proceed amid the coronavirus pandemic, but with significant changes, a federal judge ruled Thursday.

U.S. District Judge William Conley said he could not change the date of the election but chastised Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, and the Republican-controlled legislature for not rescheduling the election.

“As much as the court would prefer that the Wisconsin Legislature and Governor consider the public health ahead of any political considerations, that does not appear in the cards,” Conley wrote. “Nor is it appropriate for a federal district court to act as the state’s chief health official by taking that step for them.”

Instead, Conley extended the deadline for voters to submit absentee ballots from April 7 to April 13 and ordered the state to waive requirements that absentee voters have a witness sign their ballot. Voters have requested a record 1.1 million absentee ballots ahead of the election, which includes the presidential primary as well as numerous state and local offices.

The state told Conley earlier this week it was planning to call in National Guard troops to staff polling sites because as many as 7,000 volunteers were not expected to show up.

Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez applauded Conley’s decision, saying in a statement,”Expanding access to absentee voting is critical in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and we continue to encourage all states to pursue vote-by-mail and no-excuse absentee voting to ensure that all eligible voters who want to cast a ballot have the means and ability to do so.”

Source Article from https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/04/02/826261180/wisconsin-primary-to-go-on-but-absentee-voting-extended-federal-judge-rules


A ventilator | Mark Lennihan/AP Photo

NEW YORK — Hospitals and physicians are making difficult choices to contend with an almost certain shortage of ventilators in the coming days, as the coronavirus rapidly spreads throughout the state.

Emergency physicians are already being told to use their judgment in deciding who should be hooked up to a ventilator as stockpiles of the essential equipment dwindle. And hospitals are converting machines typically used to treat sleep apnea as bidding wars and supply constraints make it nearly impossible to acquire enough ventilators and protective equipment ahead of the projected apex of cases in New York.

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Medical experts have warned there will be long-term ramifications both for the physical health of patients and the mental health of the doctors faced with life and death decisions — but the worsening pandemic has increasingly made such choices a necessity.

“Already, some emergency physicians are reporting being told the equivalent of ‘Use your best judgement. You’re on your own,’” said Art Fougner, a medical doctor and president of the Medical Society of the State of New York, in a statement on the ventilator shortage. “For sure, we will be seeing increasing depression and PTSD that will eclipse today’s physician burnout.”

Fougner advised medical centers to refer to the state Department of Health’s 2015 guidelines on ventilator allocation as a “framework to inform policy decisions.” The guidelines were written to help hospitals decide who should get ventilators in the event of an influenza pandemic.

“To accomplish this goal, patients for whom ventilator therapy would most likely be lifesaving are prioritized,” the guidelines read.

But in a sign of the delicate balance between saving lives and calming a nervous public, the state health department is saying its own guidance is not official policy.

“The 2015 task force for life and law report is not a binding policy document and is not guiding the state’s response,” said state health department spokesperson Jill Montag. “The Governor has been clear from the start that his focus is procuring all the appropriate medical equipment to manage this public health response.”

Physicians are already expressing worries they will soon have to make tough ethical decisions to provide care without extra ventilators, with the New York chapter of the American College of Physicians calling on Gov. Andrew Cuomo to grant doctors immunity from liability for the decisions they make, according to a report in The New York Times.

Mayor Bill de Blasio recently refused to discuss plans for how to ration care if there are not enough ventilators to go around.

“The goal is to fight every minute to avoid ever having to get to that point,” he said at a Wednesday press conference.

Cuomo, asked a similar question, had virtually the same message.

“I don’t even want to think about that consequence,” he said Tuesday. “I want to do everything I can to have as many ventilators as we’ll need.”

Ventilators are in such short supply that even Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk couldn’t get his hands on them after promising to donate hundreds to the state. He shipped CPAP and BiPAP machines that are intended to help people with sleep apnea breathe through the night, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

“Not what we needed, nor what he’s been claiming to have and send,” said one hospital worker who requested anonymity.

Hospitals have scrambled to repurpose the machines to beneficial use. They will have to add extra HEPA filters and use them for patients with less severe symptoms, one official said.

The state health department approved Northwell’s protocol allowing BiPAP machines to be converted into ventilators, Cuomo announced on Thursday. He said the state has acquired 3,000 of the machines to be deployed to hospitals with the greatest need.

Musk has promised to eventually convert his factories in Fremont, Calif., and Buffalo, N.Y., to produce ventilators, and said last week he was “making good progress” on the effort. A Tesla spokesperson didn’t return a request for comment and more information.

Cuomo warned Thursday that the state could run out of ventilators in just six days. There are now more than 92,000 confirmed Covid-19 cases in the state and more than 2,300 deaths.

“There is no state and no country that has done anything to provide ventilators that we are not doing,” Cuomo said.

Sally Goldenberg contributed to this report.

Source Article from https://www.politico.com/states/new-york/albany/story/2020/04/02/new-york-hospitals-rationing-ventilators-retrofitting-equipment-amid-crush-of-coronavirus-1270790

During a CNN interview Thursday evening, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and a prominent member of President Donald Trump’s coronavirus task force, said he believes that all states should have stay at home orders in place to help stop the spread of coronavirus.

During the CNN segment, network anchorperson Anderson Cooper asked Dr. Fauci, “Knowing the science, does it make sense to you that some states are still not issuing stay at home orders?”

While asking the question, the screen showed a map of which U.S. states have yet to issue such orders. The states include Alabama, Arkansas, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming.

Cooper continued, “Whether there should be a federally mandated directive for that or not, I guess that’s more of a political question, but just scientifically, doesn’t everybody have to be on the same page with this stuff?”

“Yeah,” Fauci responded, “I think so, Anderson. I don’t understand why that’s not happening.”

Fauci said, “The tension between federally mandated versus states rights to do what they want is something I don’t want to get into. But if you look at what’s going on in this country, I just don’t understand why we’re not doing that. We really should be.”

Newsweek has reached out to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) for additional information about the director’s thoughts on the necessity of a federally mandated national stay at home order. NIAID didn’t respond by the time of publication.

Fauci’s view contrasts with Trump’s statement at Wednesday’s coronavirus briefing that he has no plans to issue a national stay at home order. Trump said he believed the decision should be left up to governors since the virus affects each state differently.

The 10 states without stay at home orders are all overseen by Republican governors. Despite that, some mayors of large cities within those states have issued stay at home orders for locals.

Lawrence Gostin, director of the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University, told The Hill that southern and midwest states haven’t issued the same social distancing measures as others, leaving non-essential businesses and public spaces open to general use.

“It’s in those states that [Trump] has the most influence to encourage particular red-state governors to do a lockdown,” Gostin said. “He could give them political cover to do it. He doesn’t have legal power, but he has enormous influence, particularly in the South and the Midwest, to try to have a much more nationally uniform strategy rather than an utterly inconsistent patchwork across the country.”

Dr. Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx, another physician on Trump’s coronavirus task force, predicted that between 100,000 and 240,000 Americans could die from the coronavirus, even if citizens observe the federal government’s current suggested social distancing guidelines. The federal guidelines issued so far include avoiding restaurants and bars, canceling unnecessary travel, working from home, avoiding gatherings of 10 or more people and staying six feet apart from others.

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Source Article from https://www.newsweek.com/fauci-says-all-states-should-enforce-coronavirus-stay-home-orders-trump-resists-issuing-1495906

Nearly 10 million Americans were put out of work in the past two weeks as the coronavirus pandemic slammed the US economy.

In just the last week, more than 6.6 million people filed for unemployment benefits — almost doubling the prior week’s record, the US Labor Department said Thursday.

Some 236,339 Americans have been infected by the virus, part of more than 1 million people worldwide, according to the latest data from Johns Hopkins University.

Daily updates straight to your inbox:

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Here’s what else we learned today:

New York crisis:

Nurses at Mount Sinai West wearing garbage bagsCriselle Cruz Bermas

COVIDIOTS:

Some good news:

Meanwhile…

Source Article from https://nypost.com/2020/04/02/coronavirus-update-today-10m-more-out-of-work-nurses-finally-get-help/

Donald Trump sparked fresh criticism on Thursday by deploying his son-in-law at a White House coronavirus taskforce briefing and accusing Democrats of launching a fresh “witch-hunt”.

Jared Kushner, a senior adviser to the US president who is married to his daughter, Ivanka, made a surprise appearance on the podium and said Trump had instructed him to “break down every barrier needed to make sure the teams can succeed”.

He added: “The president also wanted us to make sure that we think outside the box, make sure we’re finding all the best thinkers in the country, making sure we’re getting all the best ideas.”

But by way of example, Kushner said Trump became concerned about supply shortages after hearing about them “just this morning” from “friends of his in New York” – implying the president responds to anecdotes rather than the state governor or public health officials.

“We went to the president today,” Kushner continued. “And earlier today, the president called Mayor [Bill] de Blasio to inform him that we are going to send a month of supply to New York public hospital system.” The vice-president, Mike Pence, later said there would 200,000 masks sent to New York.

Kushner said: “We’ll be doing similar things with all the different public hospitals that are in the hotspot zones and making sure that we’re constantly in communications with the local communities.”

Media reports have suggested that Kushner, a property developer with no medical expertise, is running a “shadow taskforce” – a rival power base that conflicts with the official task force led by Pence.

He said: “I’ve been serving really at the direction of the vice-president. He’s asked me to get involved in different projects. The vice-president and I speak, probably, sometimes five, 10 times a day, but everything that I’m doing is at the direction of the vice-president.”

He glanced over at Pence, who smiled benignly.

Earlier on Thursday, Nancy Pelosi, the House speaker, announced a new House committee would oversee “all aspects” of the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic and did not rule out an investigation in the style of the commission on the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks.

Such a prospect clearly stung Trump, who compared it to the special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation and the congressional hearings into his dealings with Ukraine that led to his impeachment.

“This is not the time for politics,” he told reporters. “Endless partisan investigations – here we go again – have already done extraordinary damage to our country in recent years. You see what happens. It’s witch-hunt after witch-hunt after witch-hunt and, in the end, the people doing the witch-hunt have been losing, and they’ve been losing by a lot. It’s not any time for witch-hunts.”

Yet even as the president spoke, the White House was releasing a letter in which he assailed Senator Chuck Schumer, the Democratic minority leader from New York. “Thank you for your Democrat public relations letter and incorrect sound bites, which are wrong in every way,” Trump wrote.



Shortages of equipment have roiled healthcare facilities in New York and across the US. Photograph: Vanessa Carvalho/REX/Shutterstock

“If you spent less time on your ridiculous impeachment hoax, which went haplessly on forever and ended up going nowhere (except increasing my poll numbers) and instead focused on helping the people of New York, then New York would not have been so completely unprepared for the ‘invisible enemy’.”

Along with Kushner, Trump introduced Peter Navarro, the national Defense Production Act (DPA) policy coordinator. Navarro claimed there was a “black market springing up” to drive up prices of protective gear, involving brokers and middle men. “We are going to crack down on the hoarders,” he said.

Navarro, a hardliner on trade, also used the opportunity claim the pandemic showed “we’re over-dependent on a global supply chain” and was a “vindication” of Trump’s stance on buying American goods and strengthening borders. More than once he praised “Trump time” – shorthand for getting things done fast.

The president said he was again invoking the DPA to ensure parts were available for the mass production of ventilators. Adm John Polowczyk, in charge of the supply chain, said the federal government had now produced 22.4m pairs of protective gloves, 5.2m face shields and 7,600 ventilators.

But distributing the supplies to the places most in need has been a problem. Trump became defensive under questioning, seeking to shift blame to individual states.

Some were well prepared, he said, but “in some cases their shelves were bare”. He went on: “By the way, the states should have been building their stockpiles. We’re a backup, we’re not an ordering clerk. Whoever heard of a governor calling up the federal government and saying, ‘Sir, we need a hospital?’”

Trump also faced queries about the economy on a day that saw the number of people filing claims for unemployment benefits surge to a record of more than 6.6 million. He made the astonishing claim: “I will always protect your Social Security, your Medicare and your Medicaid” – despite having supported cuts in the past.

The president announced that he had taken a second test for coronavirus and, like the first, it came back negative. The second test was much simpler and took about 15 minutes. “I’ve done them both and the second one is much more pleasant,” he said.

America now has more than 236,000 confirmed cases of the virus, according to Johns Hopkins, the highest in the world, and more than 5,600 fatalities. Deborah Birx, the taskforce response coordinator, warned that Americans are not yet taking the risks seriously enough.

“I know you’ve seen the slope in the United States vs the slope in Italy,” she said. “We have to change that slope … we see country after country having done that. I can tell by the curve as it is today that not everyone is following the social distancing guidance. We can bend our curve, but everyone has to take responsibility as Americans.”

Earlier, the treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, rejected reports that some Americans might have to wait months for direct payments in the $2.2tn emergency rescue package stimulus package.

“I don’t know where you’re hearing these things,” Mnuchin said. “I told you this would be three weeks; I’m now committing to two weeks. We’re delivering on our commitments to the IRS, which I oversee, within two weeks.”

Source Article from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/02/trump-coronavirus-briefing-jared-kushner-witch-hunt

Image copyright
Getty Images

Image caption

Healthcare services around the world have been overwhelmed by the pandemic

More than a million cases of coronavirus have been registered globally, according to the latest figures from Johns Hopkins University – another grim milestone as the world grapples with the spreading pandemic.

Nearly 53,000 people have died and more than 210,000 have recovered, according to the US university’s figures.

The US has the most cases, and about 1,000 died there in the past day.

The disease, Covid-19, first emerged in central China three months ago.

Though the tally kept by Johns Hopkins records one million confirmed cases, the actual number is thought to be much higher.

It took a month and a half for the first 100,000 cases to be registered. A million was reached after a doubling in cases over the past week.

Nearly a quarter of cases have been registered in the United States, while Europe accounts for around half.

Whats the latest?

On Thursday, Spain said 950 people had died in the previous 24 hours – thought to be the highest number of deaths of any country in one day.

The number of confirmed Spanish cases rose from 102,136 on Wednesday to 110,238 – an 8% rise that is similar to the rate recorded in previous days. Authorities believe the virus is now peaking and say they expect to see a drop in figures in the days ahead.

“We continue with an increase of around 8%. This points, as we have already seen, to a stabilisation in the data that we’re registering,” María José Sierra, from the Spanish health ministry’s emergency co-ordination unit, said at a news conference.

Spain, the second-worst hit nation in terms of deaths, has also lost nearly 900,000 jobs.

The US on Thursday said it saw a record 6.6 million new unemployment benefit claims.

How did we get here?

In China at the end of December, a 34-year-old ophthalmologist named Dr Li Wenliang tried to send a message to other medics warning them about a new virus in the city of Wuhan in Hubei Province.

He was later visited by the police and accused of scaremongering. Dr Li died on 6 February after contracting the virus while treating patients in Wuhan.

Image copyright
Reuters

Image caption

Grief and anger after the death of Dr Li Wenliang

China first informed the World Health Organization (WHO) about cases of pneumonia with unknown causes on 31 December.

On 3 January, the BBC wrote its first news report about a “mystery virus” in Wuhan. At the time, 44 cases had been confirmed, 11 of which were considered severe.

Many feared there would be a repeat of the 2003 Sars outbreak that killed 774 people. By 18 January the confirmed number of cases had risen to around 60 – but experts estimated the real figure was closer to 1,700.

Just two days later, as millions of people prepared to travel for the lunar new year, the number of cases more than tripled to more than 200 and the virus was detected in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen.

On 23 January, Wuhan went into lockdown. At that point, 18 people had died and 570 others had been infected, including in Taiwan, Japan, Thailand, South Korea and the United States.

Ten days later, a 44-year-old man in the Philippines died of the virus – the first death reported outside of China.

A week later, an 80-year-old tourist died in France – Europe’s first coronavirus death. The virus appeared in Iran five days later – two people died within hours of their diagnosis being announced. Iran would later become a hotspot for the virus.

Italy saw a major surge in cases on 23 February, and 10 towns in Lombardy went into lockdown, later extended to the whole of Italy.

On 23 March, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a three-week lockdown in the UK.

Three days later, on 26 March, the US officially overtook China as the country hardest-hit by the coronavirus outbreak, with more than 86,000 confirmed cases. By 2 April, this had risen to more than 217,000 – almost double the number of cases in Italy.

On the same day the US hit another grim milestone. Media reports put the death toll between Wednesday and Thursday at about 1,000, the highest yet of any country in a single 24-hour period.

Thursday’s other coronavirus developments:

  • The commander of the USS Theodore Roosevelt has been removed after saying the US Navy was not doing enough to halt a coronavirus outbreak on board the aircraft carrier
  • The Zaandam cruise ship, with dozens of ill passengers on board, docked in Florida after several South American countries refused to accept it
  • Russia’s President Putin has extended the period for Russians to stay away from work to the end of April
  • Belgium’s death toll has passed 1,000
  • In Iran more than 3,100 deaths have been officially confirmed
  • UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the aim was 100,000 tests a day in England by the end of April
  • Philippines’ President Rodrigo Duterte warned people they could be shot dead if they caused trouble over restrictions, saying the police and the military had the authority to shoot if their lives were in danger
  • Dharavi, a huge slum in India’s financial capital, Mumbai, has reported its first death linked to the coronavirus. More than a million people live in extremely overcrowded conditions in Dharavi, believed to be the biggest slum in Asia

Source Article from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-52144390

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump warned against “witch hunts” during the coronavirus pandemic after Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said she will create a bipartisan House Select Committee to track the federal response to the outbreak.  

The committee, which will be chaired by Democratic Whip Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., will have the power to issue subpoenas. The panel will focus on accountability, transparency, and oversight of the federal coronavirus response, hoping to also include supervision to the $2 trillion stimulus package.

More:Trump hasn’t ordered any ventilators from GM, despite saying he was using wartime powers to force production

Trump did not name Pelosi or the new committee specifically during a White House press briefing on Thursday, but the rhetoric echoed past complaints about other accountability measures, including former special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation and the House impeachment proceedings, which he demeaned as “scams,” “witch hunts” and “hoaxes.”

Source Article from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/04/02/trump-slams-partisan-investigations-after-pelosi-announces-committee/5118766002/

By now Zaandam has left Valparaiso, bound for Panama. That weekend, March 21 and 22, people begin to get sick and, by the following Tuesday, 30 passengers and 47 crew members have reported to Zaandam’s medical center with flu-like symptoms. Another Holland America cruise ship, Rotterdam, meets Zaandam off the coast of Panama, carrying supplies, an additional 611 crew members and a batch of covid-19 test kits. Two passengers test positive, 20 more report flu-like symptoms, and now 14 percent of the original crew is feeling ill.

Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/the-holiday-of-a-lifetime-an-oral-history-of-the-infected-rejected-zaandam-cruise-ship/2020/04/02/958c2288-7491-11ea-87da-77a8136c1a6d_story.html

The dismissal of Captain Brett Crozier from command of a 5,000-person U.S. aircraft carrier comes two days after the commander’s letter leaked to the press. It is a dramatic example of how the coronavirus is challenging U.S. institutions, even those accustomed to dangerous and complex missions like the U.S. military.

The removal was announced by acting U.S. Navy Secretary Thomas Modly, who said the commander exercised poor judgment by not safeguarding the letter from being released outside the chain of command.

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Source Article from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVN0bQGEYoc