Los Angeles Times
Trump administration ended pandemic early-warning program to detect coronaviruses
Two months before the novel coronavirus probably began spreading in Wuhan, China, the Trump administration ended a $200-million pandemic early-warning program aimed at training scientists in China and other countries to detect and respond to such a threat.
The project, launched by the U.S. Agency for International Development in 2009, identified 1,200 different viruses that had the potential to erupt into pandemics, including more than 160 novel coronaviruses. The initiative, called PREDICT, also trained and supported staff in 60 foreign laboratories — including the Wuhan lab that identified SARS-CoV-2, the new coronavirus that causes COVID-19.
Field work ceased when the funding ran out in September, and organizations that worked on the PREDICT program laid off dozens of scientists and analysts, said Peter Daszak, president of EcoHealth Alliance, a key player in the program.
Bay Area officials urge residents to wear masks or face coverings in fight against coronavirus
Bay Area health officials urged residents to wear face coverings when going outside the home for shopping and other trips in another effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus. The move comes as officials in parts of Southern California have offered the same guidance.
“The face coverings do not have to be hospital grade but need to cover the nose and mouth. For example, bandanas, fabric masks and neck gaiters are acceptable. Fabric covers and bandanas can be washed and used again,” health officials from San Francisco, San Mateo and Alameda counties said in similar statements. “Health officials do not recommend that the public use medical masks (N-95 or surgical masks), which are in limited supply and must be preserved for our health care workers and first responders.”
California officials said face coverings can prevent people from becoming infected with the new coronavirus or spreading it to others, but they stressed it should not be a substitute for physical distancing, hand washing and other measures.
Axios
Biden campaign asks Trump campaign to pull video, testing Twitter
Joe Biden's campaign is calling on … Trump's re-election campaign to pull a "wildly irresponsible" video from Twitter that splices in sound to falsely depict Biden calling the coronavirus a hoax — and they're asking Twitter to remove the ad if the president's campaign won't. […]
Trump campaign officials are using the video posted today to try to force Twitter to act, or to paint the company as biased, after it declined to pull down a different video from a pro-Biden group that the president's team says deliberately used his own words out of context.
The Oregonian
A Hood River area fruit packing plant hires teens as coronavirus fears keep at-risk workers home
The pear season was well underway in the Hood River valley when the coronavirus pandemic hit Oregon and Washington.
“The initial impact was fear and uncertainty,” said Doug Gibson vice president of Mount Adams Fruit, a family-owned packing and shipping operation that began in 1917. […]
To build up its work force, the company applied to Washington state for minor work permits, required by law because the plant is considered a factory. Once approved, the company offered to hire high school kids from families who worked at the plant. They could have hired students as young as 15, but thought it best each student be at least 16.
“Let’s say a grandmother worked as a sorter and was in the risk category and stayed home,” said Gibson. “Her grandson could come in and work for her, getting paid exactly what she earned. The family would not take a financial hit. Parents could also have their children come to work so they weren’t home alone.”
Many Oregon hospitals have less than week’s supply of masks, other protective gear against coronavirus, nurses say
Oregon’s need for N95 masks, gowns, face shields and gloves has become so dire that nurses at many hospitals say they have less than a week left of gear to protect them and other medical staff against the new coronavirus. […]
Oregon has been scrambling on its own to secure protective gear but reports this week from the state’s frontline health care workers help quantify the urgency in the face of a chaotic supply chain.
Representatives for the Oregon Nurses Association -- a union with about 15,000 members statewide – said they’ve heard of no hospital that has more than a seven-day supply of personal protection equipment.
The Seattle Times
Boeing offers buyouts to cut workforce for ‘different-sized’ market after coronavirus pandemic
With the airline business staggered by the coronavirus pandemic, Boeing Commercial Airplanes boss Stan Deal told employees Thursday the company must reduce its workforce “to ensure our business is more closely aligned to the realities of a different-sized commercial market once the recovery starts.”
Deal’s message makes clear he’s trying to stave off involuntary layoffs and also strongly suggests that cuts in aircraft production rates are likely. […]
A person familiar with the discussions said details of the buyout plan are not yet determined, but at this point it is expected to reduce the workforce by “several thousand.”
Gov. Inslee extends Washington state’s coronavirus stay-home order through May 4
Gov. Jay Inslee Thursday announced an extension of his emergency stay-home order through May 4 to halt the spread of the new coronavirus.
Thursday’s announcement extends by nearly a month Inslee’s order that closed thousands of businesses, public schools and much of society as the state continues to battle cases of COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus.
The extension means the entire stay-home order will remain in effect a full six weeks, through 11:59 p.m. Monday, May 4. That makes Tuesday, May 5, the first day for businesses and other activities to open.
Vice
Leaked Amazon Memo Details Plan to Smear Fired Warehouse Organizer: ‘He’s Not Smart or Articulate’
Leaked notes from an internal meeting of Amazon leadership obtained by VICE News reveal company executives discussed a plan to smear fired warehouse employee Christian Smalls, calling him “not smart or articulate” as part of a PR strategy to make him “the face of the entire union/organizing movement.”
“He’s not smart, or articulate, and to the extent the press wants to focus on us versus him, we will be in a much stronger PR position than simply explaining for the umpteenth time how we’re trying to protect workers,” wrote Amazon General Counsel David Zapolsky in notes from the meeting forwarded widely in the company.
The discussion took place at a daily meeting, which included CEO Jeff Bezos, to update each other on the coronavirus situation. Amazon SVP of Global Corporate Affairs Jay Carney described the purpose to CNN on Sunday: “We go over the update on what's happening around the world with our employees and with our customers and our businesses. We also spend a significant amount of time just brainstorming about what else we can do” about COVID-19.
Why Is Congress on Recess in the Middle of a Pandemic?
As millions of Americans adjust to working from home and brace for more waves of coronavirus, Congress is MIA. They’re on an impromptu recess until at least April 20, with no real way to conduct business, because House and Senate rules demand in-person voting unless each lawmaker agrees to the legislation.
That leaves the White House — which most lawmakers, even Republicans, don’t trust -- in charge, and it’s why critics are decrying congressional leaders for their utter failure of imagination. […]
But there's resistance on both sides. In a rare case of bipartisanship from Capitol Hill, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refuse to even entertain the idea of remote voting.
The Denver Post
Colorado securing medical supplies for coronavirus surge since feds can’t keep up, Gov. Jared Polis says
Faced with a global supply chain crisis, Gov. Jared Polis on Wednesday said Colorado is taking aggressive steps to get critical protective gear on its own to combat the novel coronavirus outbreak, while the head of the state’s COVID-19 response outlined an ambitious undertaking to prepare for a surge in patients that could begin this month.
Colorado has gone straight to China for millions of masks and gloves, hundreds of thousands of gowns, tens of thousands of face shields and hundreds of ventilators as the federal government works to increase domestic production, Polis said during a news conference.
“In a matter of a month or two months, masks will flowing out of our ears,” the governor said. “But that doesn’t help us for what we need next week and the week after. Since the feds won’t come through, we have taken it on ourselves.”
Rapid City Journal
Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe creates checkpoints to protect against COVID-19
The Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe has created checkpoints and other measures to protect reservation residents against the coronavirus.
The tribe will begin with two checkpoints stationed at both ends of U.S. Highway 212, which runs across the reservation, said spokesman Remi Bald Eagle. More checkpoints will be added later.
Every vehicle will be stopped and drivers will be asked where they are coming from and going, Bald Eagle said.
All commercial drivers and South Dakota residents will be allowed through, a news release says. But out-of-state non-commercial visitors will only be allowed to pass if they provide proof that they live on the reservation or are a tribal member.
AP News
Dairy farmers begin to flush away milk due to coronavirus
Many dairy processing plants across Wisconsin have more product than they can handle and that’s forced farmers to begin dumping their milk down the drain.
That’s the case at Golden E Dairy near West Bend. Farmer Ryan Elbe told WISN-TV they are dumping about about 30,000 gallons (113,562 litres) a day.
The coronavirus has dried up the marketplace for dairy products as restaurants, schools and business in food service have been closed. About one-third of the state’s dairy products, mostly cheese, are sold in the food-service trade.
“We thought this would never happen,” Elbe said. “Everybody’s rushing to the grocery store to get food, and we have food that’s literally being dumped down the drain.”
Navy fires captain who sought help for virus-stricken ship
The captain of a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier facing a growing outbreak of the coronavirus on his ship was fired Thursday by Navy leaders who said he created a panic by sending his memo pleading for help to too many people.
Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly said the ship’s commander, Capt. Brett Crozier “demonstrated extremely poor judgment” in the middle of a crisis. He said the captain copied too many people on the memo, which was leaked to a California newspaper and quickly spread to many news outlets.
Modly’s decision to remove Crozier as ship commander was immediately condemned by members of the House Armed Services Committee, who called it a “destabilizing move” that will “likely put our service members at greater risk and jeopardize our fleet’s readiness.”
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
2020 DNC in Milwaukee pushed back to week of August 17 in response to coronavirus pandemic
They have a new start date. But everything else remains in flux with the 2020 Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee.
Thursday's announcement that the convention was pushed back from mid-July to the week of August 17 provided convention organizers time to cope with the coronavirus pandemic.
But much remained unknown, including the convention's format, crowd size and schedule. Even the August date came with no guarantees that the virus will have subsided enough so that a large crowd can gather in one space.
Federal judge blisters Gov. Tony Evers and Republican lawmakers for not delaying Wisconsin's election
A federal judge slammed Gov. Tony Evers and lawmakers Wednesday for ignoring their responsibilities by not postponing next week's election because of the coronavirus pandemic as the Democratic governor prepared to deploy the National Guard to help at the polls.
"The State of Wisconsin’s Legislature and governor are not willing to step up and say there’s a public health crisis and make it absolutely clear that we should not be allowing poll workers and voters to congregate on April 7," U.S. District Judge William Conley said near the end of a four-hour hearing. […]
Conley was unsparing in his criticism of Evers and Republicans who control the Legislature, saying they should be protecting the public during a worldwide pandemic that has killed nearly 47,000 people and shut down large parts of the economy.
Atlanta Journal Constitution
Georgia governor to order shelter in place to curb coronavirus
Gov. Brian Kemp … had balked at more stringent restrictions to combat COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, in part because he was worried more severe bans would cripple the economy in parts of the state where there are few known cases of the illness. […]
He said his decision was triggered by "game-changing” new projections on the disease’s spread in Georgia. He also said he was informed of new data that this virus “is now transmitting before people see signs.”
“Those individuals could have been infecting people before they ever felt” symptoms, he said. “We didn’t know that until the last 24 hours.”
The Houston Chronicle
High school seniors try to stay positive after COVID-19 robs them of end-of-year traditions
This time of year signals when Houston-area high school seniors would start counting down the days until they get to cross the stage, dress up for prom and celebrate one of the biggest milestones of their lives.
But for students across the region, the novel coronavirus pandemic has robbed them of these end-of-year traditions. Some schools have canceled classes indefinitely and others are still unsure if graduation ceremonies will even be possible.
‘China poisoned our people,’ says campaign ad from Houston candidate for Congress Kathaleen Wall
Republican congressional candidate Kathaleen Wall is using the coronavirus outbreak as the centerpiece for a new campaign ad airing in the Houston media market.
“China poisoned our people,” a narrator says in the ad, which then lauds … Donald Trump for calling COVID-19 the “Chinese virus.”
“Wall will cut off trade, aid, and support to China,” the narrator says. “China is a criminal enterprise masquerading as a sovereign nation.”
Wall is hardly alone in trying to place blame for the coronavirus outbreak on China. Other Texas Republicans including U.S. Sens John Cornyn and Ted Cruz have pinned blame on China for their mishandling of the virus at the start of the outbreak.
Tampa Bay Times
Ron DeSantis quietly signed second executive order targeting local coronavirus restrictions
Hours after Gov. Ron DeSantis issued a statewide stay-at-home order Wednesday, he quietly signed another one that appeared to override restrictions put in place by local governments to halt the spread of coronavirus.
However, DeSantis on Thursday said the amendment he signed does the reverse, instigating another round of confusion over the intent of his directives.
The second order, first reported by the Tampa Bay Times, said that new state guidelines taking effect Friday morning "supersede any conflicting official action or order issued by local officials in response to COVID-19.” It seemed to suggest that counties and cities could not place limitations that would be more strict than the statewide guidelines.
Why panic buying toilet paper is even worse than you think
America should have plenty of toilet paper, pandemic or no. But the coronavirus came and we panicked. […]
The good news: Our nightmare will end. Once people stop panicking so much, and the national tissue ecosystem adjusts to our strange new normal, stores will be once again flush with sanitary wipes.
That’s the opinion of Susan Cholette, a professor of decision sciences at San Francisco State University’s Lam Family College of Business. She’s just not sure exactly when that will be. […]
Still, our current toilet paper situation offers a biting lesson about the long-term consequences of panic buying. […]
When demand for a product like toilet paper goes haywire, it screws up the entire supply chain. This happens because of a phenomenon economists call the “bullwhip effect.”
Bloomberg
Mortgage Defaults Could Pile Up at Pace That Dwarfs 2008
Mortgage lenders are preparing for the biggest wave of delinquencies in history. If the plan to buy time works, they may avert an even worse crisis: Mass foreclosures and mortgage market mayhem.
Borrowers who lost income from the coronavirus -- already a skyrocketing number, with a record 10 million new jobless claims -- can ask to skip payments for as many as 180 days at a time on federally backed mortgages, and avoid penalties and a hit to their credit scores. But it’s not a payment holiday. Eventually, they’ll have to make it all up.
As many as 30% of Americans with home loans – about 15 million households –- could stop paying if the U.S. economy remains closed through the summer or beyond, according to an estimate by Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody’s Analytics.
Trump’s Push for Huge Deal to Cut Oil Supply Draws Disbelief
With just one tweet, … Donald Trump conjured up the prospect of a global oil alliance to rescue the industry from the worst shock in history. The question is whether it evaporates just as quickly.
After the president’s social-media intervention on Thursday, oil traders are frantically assessing whether Saudi Arabia, Russia and possibly even the U.S. -- the world’s three biggest producers -- are poised to strike a once-unthinkable grand bargain to cut daily supplies in unison by 10 million to 15 million barrels.
The Guardian
‘Zoom is malware’: why experts worry about the video conferencing platform
As coronavirus lockdowns have moved many in-person activities online, the use of the video-conferencing platform Zoom has quickly escalated. So, too, have concerns about its security. […]
Security researchers have called Zoom “a privacy disaster” and “fundamentally corrupt” as allegations of the company mishandling user data snowball.
On Monday, New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, sent a letter to the company asking it to outline the measures it had taken to address security concerns and accommodate the rise in users. In the letter, James said Zoom had been slow to address security vulnerabilities “that could enable malicious third parties to, among other things, gain surreptitious access to consumer webcams”.
Oceans can be restored to former glory within 30 years, say scientists
The glory of the world’s oceans could be restored within a generation, according to a major new scientific review. It reports rebounding sea life, from humpback whales off Australia to elephant seals in the US and green turtles in Japan.
Through rampant overfishing, pollution and coastal destruction, humanity has inflicted severe damage on the oceans and its inhabitants for centuries. But conservation successes, while still isolated, demonstrate the remarkable resilience of the seas.
The scientists say there is now the knowledge to create an ocean renaissance for wildlife by 2050 and with it bolster the services that the world’s people rely on, from food to coastal protection to climate stability. The measures needed, including protecting large swathes of ocean, sustainable fishing and pollution controls, would cost billions of dollars a year, the scientists say, but would bring benefits 10 times as high.
Deutsche Welle
EU must do everything to avoid an outbreak in refugee camps, warns Commissioner Ylva Johansson
Ylva Johansson EU's commissioner for home affairs has rung the alarm bell over a possible coronavirus outbreak in one of the overcrowded Greek migrant camps…
Greece has quarantined a migrant camp on Thursday after 20 asylum-seekers tested positive for coronavirus.
All the camps are overcrowded, so DW asked Ylva Johansson the European Union commissioner for home affairs, whose portfolio includes migration, what the EU would do if COVID-19 were to spread in the overcrowded camps.
Underpaid, overstretched nursing staff demand more than applause
German nurses have been calling for better pay for years. During the coronavirus pandemic, suddenly they're getting recognition — even applause from people's balconies. But will the public remember when it's all over? […]
Officially, the country was short 40,000 nurses according to the most recent numbers from the Labor Ministry for 2018, but the real tally is believed to be far higher. Many employers aren't even posting vacancies at job centers because they tend to receive so few applications. […]
Germans have become accustomed to nursing shortages. But the coronavirus pandemic has thrown the spotlight back on the issue. It is of course one of the jobs deemed "systemically relevant" by the government, meaning their work should continue amid the public coronavirus restrictions.
The Sydney Morning Herald
Global cases pass one million as pandemic explodes in US, Italy and Spain
Global coronavirus cases topped 1 million on Thursday as the pandemic explodes in the United States and the death toll continues to climb in Italy and Spain, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.
The virus has killed More than 51,000 globally with the largest number of deaths in Italy, followed by Spain and the United States.
The first 100,000 cases were reported in around 55 days and the first 500,000 in 76 days. Cases doubled to 1 million within the past eight days.
Total cases reported by Thursday grew 10 per cent from a day earlier, the first time the rate has hit double digits since the virus took hold outside China.
'Very un-Antarctic': When the icy continent was not very cold at all
Temperatures soared over much of Antarctica this past summer, prompting researchers to declare the first heatwave ever recorded at Australia's Casey station.
While the Antarctic Peninsula is well known to be among the fastest warming regions of the planet because of climate change, the continent's east had been relatively sheltered from the global heating.
In a paper published on Tuesday in Global Change Biology, scientists from the University of Wollongong (UOW), Australian Antarctic Division, University of Tasmania and University of Santiago, Chile, identified periods of very unusual warmth that affected Antarctica’s ecosystems.
The Daily Beast
Kushner: NYC Hospitals Only Received N95 Masks After ‘Friends’ Spoke to Trump
New York’s public hospital system only received a month’s worth of desperately needed N95 masks on Thursday after … Trump heard from “friends” that they were critically low on supplies, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner said. Hospital workers in the New York, the U.S. coronavirus epicenter, have been begging for weeks for more personal protective gear (PPE), telling harrowing stories of reusing masks for days, wearing trash bags as gowns, and asking for local donations of gloves. The national stockpile of equipment is running low and states have been bidding against each other for what’s left on the global market.
Trump Blames New York Coronavirus Crisis on Impeachment ‘Hoax’
Trump sent a letter to Democratic leader Sen. Chuck Schumer on Thursday accusing him of leaving New York “unprepared” for the coronavirus pandemic now crippling the state because of the “impeachment hoax.”
In a blistering personal attack on Schumer (“I never knew how bad a Senator you are for the state of New York”), the president lashed out over criticism of what many see as a delayed federal response to the coronavirus pandemic sweeping the country. […]
Schumer also noted on Twitter that he’d “called for action” as early as Jan. 26 and dismissed as “ridiculous” an argument made by some of Trump’s allies that impeachment proceedings left the country vulnerable to the coronavirus.
The Atlantic
Big Cities Won’t Snap Back to Normal
[…] “The U.S. recovery is dependent on the recovery of these places,” Mark Muro, the MPP’s research director, told me flatly. “If we want to have a discussion about when to restart the nation’s economy, we better check in with the nation’s major economic hubs … because they are literally, at this point, the most paralyzed, contending with the greatest number of life-and-death cases and the greatest stress on their core systems, starting with public health.”
In interviews with me this week, the mayors of several of those big cities told me that it will take much longer than a few weeks to restart their economy—and that even when economic activity resumes, the process will be gradual and halting.
In other words, they counsel, Americans shouldn’t expect the equivalent of a V-E or V-J Day when the virus is vanquished and life goes back to normal, as if turning on a light switch. Instead, the mayors envision something more like a dimmer switch that gradually grows brighter.
The Economy Is Ruined. It Didn’t Have to Be This Way.
For the second straight week, the U.S. workforce set a dismal unemployment record. On Thursday morning, the Labor Department reported that 6.6 million people filed new claims for unemployment benefits last week. That figure is twice as high as the previous record of 3.3 million, set just seven days ago.
This brings the two-week total of initial claims to nearly 10 million. That’s 10 million Americans who have lost their jobs—and, in many cases, their health insurance—in the spiraling chaos of a public-health crisis. Ten million Americans who have been thrust into unemployment-insurance programs, with their company on pause, their start-up ruined, or their business closed, and no clear timeline for reopening. Ten million Americans, many effectively quarantined by local law, simultaneously dealing with sudden confinement and sudden joblessness, separated from their daily habits and prohibited from leaving their apartment to commiserate with colleagues, or seek comfort in the arms of family.
In short, the U.S. is accelerating toward an economic and human disaster unlike anything recorded in American history.
Vox
Another way coronavirus will make Americans’ lives worse in the long term: More guns
The coronavirus pandemic is leading people to buy way, way more guns — and that will likely translate into more gun violence in the long term.
Based on newly released FBI data, March was a record month for background checks in the US. The National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) carried out roughly 3.7 million background checks in March — 12 percent higher than the previous record of 3.3 million in December 2015, Daniel Nass reported for the Trace.
This doesn’t tell us the exact number of gun sales, since background checks can be done for things that aren’t gun purchases (like permit applications), the checks can cover multiple gun purchases at once, and some gun purchases don’t involve a background check at all.
You’re single. You live alone. Are you allowed to have a coronavirus buddy?
The coronavirus pandemic has made one thing painfully clear for many single people and people who live alone: The most precious commodity these days is human contact. […]
Even before the coronavirus came along, loneliness was a silent epidemic, afflicting millions around the world. A meta-review of 70 studies found that loneliness increases your risk of premature mortality by 26 percent. Some experts say it’s as bad for your longevity as smoking. We know that it actually hurts our white blood cells.
Isolation can also be very harmful to people’s mental health, triggering or exacerbating conditions like anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation. So while we absolutely need to follow social distancing rules as laid out by public health authorities and local governments, we should also ask what we can do to mitigate the “social recession” they’re causing.
The Washington Post
Experts and Trump’s advisers doubt White House’s 240,000 coronavirus deaths estimate
Leading disease forecasters, whose research the White House used to conclude 100,000 to 240,000 people will die nationwide from the coronavirus, were mystified when they saw the administration’s projection this week.
The experts said they don’t challenge the numbers’ validity but that they don’t know how the White House arrived at them.
White House officials have refused to explain how they generated the figure — a death toll bigger than the United States suffered in the Vietnam War or the 9/11 terrorist attacks. They have not provided the underlying data so others can assess its reliability or provided long-term strategies to lower that death count.
As virus takes hold, resistance to stay-at-home orders remains widespread — exposing political and social rifts
Kay Ivey, the Republican governor of Alabama, put down a marker last week in affirming that it was “not the time to order people to shelter in place.”
“Y’all, we are not Louisiana, we are not New York state, we are not California,” she said, suggesting that the fate of hard-hit parts of the country would not be shared by Alabama.
In Missouri, Republican Gov. Mike Parson said he was not inclined to “make a blanket policy,” adding, “It’s going to come down to individual responsibilities.”
CNN
Fauci: 'I don't understand why' every state hasn't issued stay-at-home orders
The nation's top infectious disease expert said Thursday he doesn't understand why every state hasn't issued stay-at-home orders as novel coronavirus cases continue to surge across the US.
"I don't understand why that's not happening," Dr. Anthony Fauci told CNN's Anderson Cooper during CNN's coronavirus town hall. […]
Fauci's message appears to be at odds with … Donald Trump, who has repeatedly said that he doesn't think a nationwide stay-at-home order is necessary, stressing the need for flexibility between different states.
"You have to look -- you have to give a little flexibility," Trump said at Wednesday's White House press briefing. "If you have a state in the Midwest, or if Alaska, for example, doesn't have a problem, it's awfully tough to say, 'close it down.' We have to have a little bit of flexibility."
Russian coronavirus aid delivery to US prompts confusion and criticism
Former State Department officials were "mystified" and "bemused" by the United States' purchase of medical supplies from Russia amid the coronavirus pandemic -- a move that experts say is a propaganda win for the Kremlin.
A Russian plane with the equipment touched down in New York City on Wednesday, with an air traffic controller thanking the pilot "for all the assistance you are bringing in." The delivery came days after … Donald Trump spoke by phone with his Russian [boss], Vladimir Putin.
NPR News
Trump Claims U.S. Testing For Coronavirus Most Per Capita — It's Not
During his Thursday night briefing with the coronavirus task force, … Trump repeated a claim that the United States has done more testing for the contagion on a per-capita basis than any other country.
"We're now conducting well over 100,000 coronavirus tests per day," Trump said. "It's over 100,000 tests a day. And these are accurate tests, and they're moving rapidly, which is more than any other country in the world, both in terms of the raw number and also on a per-capita basis, the most."
While the United States has improved its testing numbers significantly, it still lags behind Germany and South Korea, for example, in terms of per-capita testing.
Staggering: Record 10 Million File For Unemployment In 2 Weeks
The number of new people claiming unemployment benefits totaled a staggering 6.648 million last week — doubling the record set a week earlier, the Labor Department said Thursday.
In the prior week, ending March 21, a revised 3.307 million initial claims were filed. In just two weeks, nearly all of the jobs gained in the last five years have been lost. […]
The unemployment rate — which has been at a nearly 50-year low of 3.5% — is expected to shoot up, with some estimates putting it at 15%. Friday's employment report for March is not expected to reflect the full impact because it's based on surveys conducted before massive layoffs began.
Politico
The corporate bailout doesn't include the limits Democrats promised
Most big companies that take advantage of the $500 billion corporate bailout in last week’s coronavirus relief bill are unlikely to face restrictions against firing workers or giving bonuses to executives, according to officials familiar with the program.
Congressional Democrats have boasted about the strict conditions they negotiated to make sure the CARES Act’s massive corporate-aid package benefits employees rather than their bosses. And the bipartisan legislation that … Trump signed Friday did attach tight strings to the $46 billion the Treasury Department will dispense to airlines and firms it deems vital to national security.
But the other $454 billion in the law for larger firms will flow through Federal Reserve lending programs, and people close to the Fed say its top officials don’t think they’re required to force companies that get the money to keep workers on their payrolls, limit executive compensation or forgo stock buybacks or dividends.
“Congress left a lot of discretion, a lot more than people realize,” one former Fed official said.
Ars Technica
Forecasters predict a busy Atlantic hurricane season
Everything else has been canceled this year, so doesn't it seem fair that we should cancel the Atlantic hurricane season as well? Alas, life is rarely fair, and that seems especially so in the midst of a pandemic.
The most prominent seasonal hurricane forecaster said Thursday there are several signals in the oceans and atmosphere that point toward a busy summer and fall for the Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea, and Gulf of Mexico.
According to the outlook from Phil Klotzbach, at Colorado State University, the best estimate for Atlantic hurricanes this year is eight (the average is 6.4), with a total of 16 named storms (12.1). "The probability of US major hurricane landfall is estimated to be about 130 percent of the long-period average," Klotzbach's report states.