Tag: pandemic

Pelosi, Trump strike deal on coronavirus response package

The Hill logoSpeaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and President Trump have struck a deal on a multibillion-dollar stimulus package aimed at assisting millions of Americans directly hurt by the coronavirus outbreak.

Pelosi announced the deal on Friday evening after days of roller-coaster negotiations that put the outcome in doubt, as the nation’s leaders raced to ease public anxiety and stabilize volatile markets. Trump said on Twitter that he looked forward to signing the legislation.

“I have directed the Secretary of the Treasury and the Secretary of Labor to issue regulations that will provide flexibility so that in no way will Small Businesses be hurt. I encourage all Republicans and Democrats to come together and VOTE YES!” Trump wrote in a series of tweets. Continue reading.

Why Trump’s Top Three Coronavirus Strategies Will Fail

Even as President Donald Trump continues to insist that he’s done a superb job handling the coronavirus crisis, the evidence of his extreme failures abound. In a hearing before Congress on Thursday, a top official in the administration’s response contradicted Trump about the government’s testing capabilities and acknowledged the shortfall as an important “failing.”

And the same official, Dr. Anthony Fauci, warned the previous day about the outbreak: “It’s going to get worse.”

While Fauci was speaking as an expert in infectious disease, economists — and anyone glancing at the stock market — fear that the risk of financial fallout from the pandemic is equally dim. Continue reading.

Hand-Washing Is Now a Partisan Issue

Yep—new data shows how divided Democrats and Republicans have become over coronavirus.

To use the argot of public health experts, the COVID-19 virus has a new transmission vector in America: partisanship.

Polls have unsurprisingly showed a yawning gap between Democrats and Republicans over their political interpretations of the coronavirus, such as how they rate President Trump’s handling of the outbreak so far.

But new data suggests that these beliefs are also playing a role in Americans’ personal decisions about their own health—and that steps recommended by experts to prevent the spread of the virus are increasingly superseded by partisan identity. The findings come from a Reuters/Ipsos poll released Friday. The survey asked Americans how they were responding to the outbreak, posing questions about personal hygiene and other preventive measures. Continue reading.

Spain Becomes Latest Epicenter of Coronavirus After a Faltering Response

New York Times logoThe government declared a state of emergency Friday, days after it allowed mass gatherings in the capital and cases jumped to 4,200.

MADRID — Just last weekend, about 120,000 people marched through downtown Madrid to celebrate International Women’s Day. Some 60,000 soccer fans filled one of the city’s largest stadiums. And 9,000 supporters of Vox, Spain’s third-largest party, gathered inside a former bullring.

Now Spain has the second-highest number of coronavirus infections of any European country, after Italy — overtaking the larger nations of France and Germany — and faces the fastest spreading contagion on the Continent.

Between last weekend and Friday, the number of cases in the country shot from several hundred to 4,200, with 120 deaths, and the prime minister warned that the number of cases could reach 10,000 by next week. That would give Spain one of the fastest rates of coronavirus contagion in the world. Continue reading.

Trump’s former Homeland Security adviser crushes president’s coronavirus response

AlterNet logoTom Bossert, who served as a homeland security adviser to President Donald Trump during the first two years of his administration, slammed his former boss for banning travel to Europe at a time when coronavirus is already spreading like wildfire across the United States.

Bossert, who days earlier wrote an op-ed for the Washington Post warning Trump that he had very limited time to stop the virus from running out of control, wrote on Twitter Thursday morning that the president’s latest travel ban is all but useless with the number of coronavirus infections in the country increasing daily.

“There’s little value to European travel restrictions,” he wrote. “Poor use of time and energy. Earlier, yes. Now, travel restrictions/screening are less useful. We have nearly as much disease here in the US as the countries in Europe.” Continue reading.

U.S. stock market suffers worst crash since 1987, as Americans wake up to a new normal of life

Washington Post logoThursday’s market plunge marked the second time in one week that a temporary, 15-minute halt to trading was triggered to stop a panic

The stock market crashed to its worst day since 1987, shrugging off dramatic intervention by two central banks and a prime-time address by President Trump as Americans realized the coronavirus will impose new limits on their daily lives.

The Dow Jones industrial average posted its largest one-day point loss in history, dropping almost 2,353 points to close at 21,200.62. In percentage terms, the 10 percent loss marked the Dow’s worst day since the infamous October day known as “Black Monday.”

The broader Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index fell into a bear market, defined as falling 20 percent from a prior high. In an epic day-long rout, European markets suffered similar declines, with exchanges in Paris and Frankfurt shedding more than 12 percent and London’s FTSE index losing nearly 11 percent. Continue reading.

Trump Appears More Concerned With Closing Borders Than Testing For Coronavirus

The president has characterized the pandemic as a “foreign virus” and suggested that banning people from other countries is key to fixing the outbreak at home.

During his first address to the nation on the global coronavirus pandemic, President Donald Trump characterized COVID-19 as a “foreign virus” while touting his decision to institute travel restrictions with China and announcing plans to close the U.S. to visitors from most of Europe.

Meanwhile, he has been raked by critics — and the markets — for failing to thoroughly explain how the government plans to address the lack of tests and spiking number of cases across the U.S. His administration has for weeks downplayed the threat of the virus, even as experts warned it is on track to spread exponentially.

Trump clearly sees the novel coronavirus as just another foreign invader to keep out — a viewpoint reflected both in his policy proposals and the way he and his administration talk about the virus. This approach is in line with his overarching political strategy of exploiting Americans’ fears to justify racist, nativist policies.

Why canceling events makes sense in the age of COVID-19

The Hill logoGovernments, businesses and sports leagues are taking drastic steps to combat the spread of the novel coronavirus that has infected more than 1,300 people across the United States.

The measures, virtually unprecedented in the century since the Spanish flu that killed more than 50 million people around the globe, are aimed at reducing the transmission of the potentially life-threatening virus between those already infected and those who are at risk.

Public health experts say the steps are necessary, even critical, to stop the spread of the virus. The difference between fast action now and further delays, they said, will determine whether the outbreak in the United States looks more like the one in South Korea, where COVID-19 case counts are coming under control, or more like the one in Italy, where the outbreak is already swamping the health care system. Continue reading.

Brazil confirms first coronavirus case in Latin America

Axios logoBrazil’s health ministry confirmed the first novel coronavirus case in Latin America Wednesday — a 61-year-old that tested positive after returning from a visit to northern Italy, the epicenter of Europe’s outbreak.

Why it matters: The case comes in the midst of Carnival, a peak time for domestic travel that draws millions of revelers in major cities. Brazil is tracking 20 suspected cases of the virus in the country, according to health officials. View the post here.