| A timeline of Trump's missed opportunities on coronavirus Posted: 08 Apr 2020 12:32 PM PDT  As the deadly coronavirus outbreak rapidly spread across America in February and March, President Trump repeatedly asserted that "nobody could have predicted something like this." But a review of government records shows that repeated warnings were issued to the White House and went unheeded.
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| Coronavirus is ushering in a new wave of racially motivated attacks, warns intelligence bulletin Posted: 08 Apr 2020 07:46 AM PDT  Federal agencies are concerned that domestic extremists could use the coronavirus pandemic to attack Asians and Jews, according to a joint intelligence bulletin obtained by Yahoo News. That bulletin mirrors what organizations that monitor online hate content are also finding.
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| Doctors rethinking coronavirus: Are we using ventilators the wrong way? Posted: 08 Apr 2020 05:37 AM PDT  As hospitals and health care workers grapple with a shortage of supplies, some doctors are raising questions about how ventilators are currently being used on coronavirus patients — and whether they may actually be doing more harm than good.
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| Adam Schiff says Intelligence Committee may conduct 'Zoom hearings' during current pandemic Posted: 08 Apr 2020 03:17 PM PDT  House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., says he is considering using the teleconferencing software Zoom to hold hearings into foreign election interference and other key issues, including the firing of intelligence community inspector general Michael Atkinson, while social distancing restrictions remain in place due to the coronavirus pandemic.
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| New York City will bury unclaimed bodies on a remote island after 14 days because coronavirus deaths are overwhelming morgues Posted: 09 Apr 2020 12:19 PM PDT  The city typically waits 30 days before interring bodies in mass graves on Hart Island, but the coronavirus' death toll is overwhelming the system.
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| U.K. truck driver pleads guilty in deaths of Vietnamese migrants found in container Posted: 08 Apr 2020 09:50 AM PDT  Victims died of a combination of a lack of oxygen and overheating in an enclosed space, police said.
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| Cases of novel coronavirus in Russia surge past 10,000 after record daily rise Posted: 09 Apr 2020 12:55 AM PDT  Russia on Thursday reported a record one-day rise in cases of novel coronavirus, pushing the official tally to more than 10,000, a day after President Vladimir Putin said the coming weeks would prove decisive in the fight against the virus. The number of cases jumped by 1,459 and 13 more people died, the national coronavirus crisis response centre said on its website. Moscow, the worst-affected region, and many other regions are in their second week of a partial lockdown.
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| Pakistan shoots down Indian drone as Kashmir tensions rise Posted: 09 Apr 2020 12:19 AM PDT  Pakistan's army said Thursday it had shot down a small Indian surveillance drone in Kashmir, as tensions rose over continued cross-border shelling in the disputed territory. "This blatant act was aggressively responded to by Pakistan Army troops shooting down Indian quadcopter," the statement read. An Indian army spokesman said the drone "is not ours".
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| Bernie Sanders, Sellout Posted: 09 Apr 2020 10:46 AM PDT  Yesterday, Vermont senator Bernie Sanders officially dropped out of the race for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. Despite early successes in Iowa, New Hampshire, and Nevada, Sanders failed to put up much of a fight against Joe Biden after the latter convincingly won South Carolina. And so, for the second campaign in a row, he has come up short against a weak but well-known presumptive front-runner.In the not-too-distant past, this would have depressed me. When Sanders announced his 2016 presidential campaign, I had never heard of him, but he didn't take too long to figure out. On economic questions, he was among the left-most political figures ever to achieve prominence in America, and was clearly proud of it. On other issues, he strayed from left-wing orthodoxy in some interesting ways. He evinced a skepticism of open borders and increased immigration that occasionally made him sound downright Trumpy. He had a surprisingly decent record on gun rights. And above all, he actually seemed to believe what he said, which I found a breath of fresh air when juxtaposed with the obfuscation and opportunism of his opponent, Hillary Clinton.Four years later, my view of the Sanders phenomenon has changed completely. I do not now mourn the end of Sanders's candidacy, because in his second run for the White House he proved himself to be just another politician: He deemphasized or outright jettisoned his politically inconvenient stances in pursuit of power, while remaining true to a core far-left agenda that, in the absence of that aura of integrity, seems far scarier than it did four years ago.It was always one of the more striking aspects of Sanders's rhetoric that he could sound like an immigration hawk. In a 2015 interview with Vox, he famously called open borders a "Koch brothers proposal":> It would make everybody in America poorer — you're doing away with the concept of a nation state, and I don't think there's any country in the world that believes in that. If you believe in a nation-state or in a country called the United States or UK or Denmark or any other country, you have an obligation in my view to do everything we can to help poor people. What right-wing people in this country would love is an open-border policy. Bring in all kinds of people, work for $2 or $3 an hour, that would be great for them. I don't believe in that. I think we have to raise wages in this country, I think we have to do everything we can to create millions of jobs.To be fair, Sanders wasn't necessarily getting immigration-policy advice from Mark Krikorian. He represented an older strain of left-wing thought that argued against immigration from the perspective of labor unions concerned about multinational corporations and undercut wages. But nevertheless, when he spoke of the issue, he could sound surprisingly like Donald Trump, then rampaging his way through the Republican primaries.That Bernie Sanders is gone now. His 2020 platform called for "breaking up ICE and CBP and redistributing their functions to their proper authorities," unilaterally reinstating President Obama's DACA and DAPA programs, and decriminalizing illegal immigration, among other things. For the most part, he became difficult to distinguish from his Democratic opponents on immigration, except insofar as some of them chased after him as he moved left in the hope of capturing more votes. Thus did this unconventional aspect of his public persona recede.The story on gun rights is much the same. Vermont is caricatured as a semi-socialist state, and maybe the caricature is accurate. But it also has relatively loose gun laws, and a high rate of per capita firearm ownership. As a representative of the state in various capacities, Sanders has compiled a record that reflects this. The National Rifle Association helped him first win election to the House in 1990, where he would vote against the 1993 Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act. As a senator, he has supported bills that would allow firearms in checked bags on Amtrak trains. And after the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre, Sanders said, "If you passed the strongest gun-control legislation tomorrow, I don't think it will have a profound effect on the tragedies we have seen." Though this record was a source of consternation for an otherwise adoring left in 2016, and was fodder for Hillary Clinton's campaign, he didn't run away from it then.Four years later, the story was very different. A watershed moment came during a February Democratic primary debate, when he was asked about his past vote to protect gun manufacturers from lawsuits pertaining to the use of guns in shootings. "I've cast thousands of votes, including bad votes," Sanders said. "That was a bad vote." His 2020 platform proposed a buyback program for guns and a ban on assault weapons. In a fitting bookend to his elective career, it also demanded that Democrats "take on the NRA and its corrupting effect on Washington." Once again, Sanders had tacked left under pressure in search of votes, willingly abandoning a unique part of his persona to the political needs of the moment.Shorn of the ideological heterodoxies that made him appealing, Sanders was reduced to his essence as a crusader for hard-left economics. When, in 2015, he argued that, "You don't necessarily need a choice of 23 underarm-spray deodorants or of 18 different pairs of sneakers when children are hungry in this country," I still regarded his economic platform as a quirk that might inspire him to join with fiscally conservative Republicans to, say, cut corporate welfare. But it wasn't a quirk at all: He recently expressed disgust at the idea that someone might make money developing drugs to fight the novel coronavirus.Meanwhile, in his second campaign certain aspects of Sanders's record that were always there for those who wanted to see them became impossible to ignore. We knew in 2016 that, as mayor of Burlington, the just-married Sanders had visited the Soviet Union on a mission to procure a Soviet sister city that doubled as his honeymoon. Those facts would be more forgivable if he had not offered unqualified praise for Cuban "literacy programs" and the economic progress of Communist China in 2020.In 2016, smitten with the heterodox left-populist gadfly I thought I'd found, I either did not realize the currency that Sanders's economic views had in the Democratic Party or did not anticipate the extent of the foothold they would gain in it. This is due mostly to young voters, who in a 2019 Gallup survey thought almost equally well of capitalism and socialism (51 percent to 49 percent). Sanders consistently garnered more support than Clinton from this group in 2016. In 2020, he maintained that support to a certain extent, though it didn't translate into actual votes as easily as it had before. Both times around, the center of the Democratic Party, such as it is, held. But the young democratic socialists uncovered by his campaigns continue to maintain that they are the future of the party's politics, and of the country's.If they are right, we can be sure that they won't remember the Bernie Sanders whom I, as an outside conservative observer, once found somewhat compelling. For that Sanders held certain views they would abhor, views that he changed or abandoned when it became politically expedient. And that may be the most disappointing thing about Sanders: In the end, he stands revealed as just another guy all too happy to tell people what they wanted to hear.
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| Trump Slammed the WHO Over Coronavirus. He's Not Alone. Posted: 08 Apr 2020 11:46 AM PDT  President Donald Trump unleashed a tirade against the World Health Organization on Tuesday, accusing it of acting too slowly to sound the alarm about the coronavirus. It was not the first time in this pandemic that the global health body has faced such criticism.Government officials, health experts and analysts have in recent weeks raised concerns about how the organization has responded to the outbreak.In Japan, Taro Aso, the deputy prime minister and finance minister, recently noted that some people have started referring to the World Health Organization as the "Chinese Health Organization" because of what he described as its close ties to Beijing. Taiwanese officials say the WHO ignored its early warnings about the virus because China refuses to allow Taiwan, a self-governing island it claims as its territory, to become a member.Critics say the WHO has been too trusting of the Chinese government, which initially tried to conceal the outbreak in Wuhan. Others have faulted the organization and its leader, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, for moving too slowly in declaring a global health emergency.The WHO, a U.N. agency, has defended its response, saying Wednesday that it alerted the world to the threat posed by the virus in a timely manner and that it was "committed to ensuring all member states are able to respond effectively to this pandemic."The agency's defenders say that its powers over any individual government are limited, and that it has done the best it can in dealing with a public health threat with few precedents in history.There will be time later to assess successes and failings, "this virus and its shattering consequences," the United Nations secretary-general, Antonio Guterres, said Wednesday in a statement praising the WHO as "absolutely critical" to vanquishing COVID-19.Here's why the WHO is coming under attack.The WHO has not pushed China on early missteps.When cases of a mysterious viral pneumonia first appeared in Wuhan in December, Chinese health officials silenced whistleblowers and repeatedly played down the severity of the outbreak.Even as late as mid-January, as the virus spread beyond China's borders, Chinese officials described it as "preventable and controllable" and said there was no evidence it could be transmitted between humans on a broad scale.The WHO endorsed the government's claims, saying in mid-January, for example, that human-to-human transmission had not been proved.Critics say the organization's repeated deference to Beijing exacerbated the spread of the disease. A group of international experts was not allowed to visit Wuhan until mid-February."They could have been more forceful, especially in the initial stages in the crisis when there was a cover-up and there was inaction," said Yanzhong Huang, a global health expert specializing in China at Seton Hall University.Huang noted that during the SARS epidemic in 2002 and 2003, which killed more than 700 people worldwide, the WHO pushed the Chinese government to be more transparent by publicly criticizing it for trying to conceal the outbreak.At one point during the SARS epidemic, officials at hospitals in Beijing forced SARS patients into ambulances and drove them around to avoid their being seen by a visiting delegation of WHO experts, according to reports at the time.WHO officials were slow to declare a public health emergency, critics say.Even as the virus spread to more than half a dozen countries and forced China to place parts of Hubei province under lockdown in late January, the WHO was reluctant to declare it a global health emergency.WHO officials said at the time that a committee that discussed the epidemic was divided on the question of whether to call it an emergency but concluded that it was too early. One official added that they weighed the impact such a declaration might have on the people of China.After the United States announced a ban on most foreign citizens who had recently visited China, the WHO again seemed to show deference to Chinese officials, saying that travel restrictions were unnecessary. The group officially called the spread of the coronavirus a pandemic March 11.Some experts argue that the institution's delay in making such declarations deprived other countries of valuable time to prepare hospitals for an influx of patients."It reinforced the reluctance to take early strong measures before the catastrophe had actually landed on other shores," said François Godement, senior adviser for Asia at Institut Montaigne, a nonprofit group in Paris. "The WHO's tardiness or reluctance to call out the problem in full helped those who wanted to delay difficult decisions."The WHO defended its actions, saying Wednesday that it had "alerted member states to the significant risks and consequences of COVID-19 and provided them with a continuous flow of information" ever since Chinese officials first reported the outbreak Dec. 31.Guterres of the United Nations said, "It is possible that the same facts have had different readings by different entities." He added in his statement: "Once we have finally turned the page on this epidemic, there must be a time to look back fully to understand how such a disease emerged and spread its devastation so quickly across the globe and how all those involved reacted to the crisis."China's influence at the WHO is growing.China's leader, Xi Jinping, has made it a priority to strengthen Beijing's clout at international institutions, including the WHO, seeing the U.S.-dominated global order as an impediment to his country's rise as a superpower.China contributes only a small fraction of the WHO's $6 billion budget, while the United States is one of its main benefactors. But in recent years, Beijing has worked in other ways to expand its influence at the organization.The government has lobbied the WHO to promote traditional Chinese medicine, which Xi has worked to harness as a source of national pride and deployed as a soft-power tool in developing countries, despite skepticism from some scientists about its effectiveness.Last year, the WHO offered an endorsement of traditional Chinese medicine, including it in its influential medical compendium. The move was roundly criticized by animal welfare activists, who argued that it could contribute to a surge in illegal trafficking of wildlife whose parts are used in Chinese remedies.China has sought to promote traditional Chinese medicine in the treatment of symptoms of the coronavirus both at home and abroad. Last month, the WHO was criticized after it removed a warning against taking traditional herbal remedies to treat the coronavirus from its websites in mainland China.China's role at the WHO will probably continue to grow in the coming years, especially if Western governments retreat from the organization, as Trump has threatened."This is part of China's efforts to more actively engage in international institutions," said Huang, the global health expert. "It will not please every country or every actor, but it's going to affect the agenda of the WHO."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| This is what I want my friends to do if they have COVID-19 symptoms and are asked to go to the ER Posted: 08 Apr 2020 06:20 AM PDT  As a frontline infectious diseases doctor, this is what I want my friends and neighbors to do if they have COVID-19 symptoms and are asked to go to the emergency room.
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| Coronavirus: Worst economic crisis since 1930s depression, IMF says Posted: 09 Apr 2020 02:45 PM PDT  Global economic growth will turn "sharply negative" this year due to the pandemic, the IMF warns.
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| Dr. Birx warns of 'very acute second wave' of coronavirus infections if social distancing measures are relaxed Posted: 08 Apr 2020 08:10 AM PDT  The US experienced its deadliest day due to COVID-19 so far on Tuesday, with nearly 2,000 reported deaths in a 24-hour period.
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| Two suspects arrested after Wisconsin doctor and husband were 'targeted' and killed, police say Posted: 08 Apr 2020 07:23 AM PDT  Two suspects were arrested Friday after the double-homicide of Beth Potter, 52, and Robin Carre, 57.
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| Nimitz Becomes 4th Aircraft Carrier with COVID-19 Case: Report Posted: 08 Apr 2020 05:06 PM PDT  Politico reported Tuesday that a sailor on board the carrier Nimitz (CVN 68) has tested positive for COVID-19.
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| Brazil lockdowns, attacked by Bolsonaro, begin to slip Posted: 09 Apr 2020 10:38 AM PDT  Lockdowns in Brazil's largest cities to slow the coronavirus outbreak are beginning to slip, according to new data this week seen and analyzed by Reuters, with more people leaving their homes as President Jair Bolsonaro continues to criticize the measures. State governments in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo have expressed growing concern as their social isolation orders lose effectiveness, even as the outbreak spreads to nearly 16,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and 800 deaths. Mayors and governors trying to keep Brazilians indoors have struggled against Bolsonaro's repeated attacks on the social distancing measures, which he described as "poison" that could kill more through economic hardship than the virus itself.
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| New single-day record for NY virus deaths but hospitalizations fall Posted: 09 Apr 2020 01:16 PM PDT  America's coronavirus epicenter of New York recorded a new single-day high of 799 COVID-19 deaths Thursday but Governor Andrew Cuomo said the rate of hospitalizations continued to fall. Cuomo said 799 people died in the last 24 hours, outdoing the previous high of 779 announced on Wednesday, but added that the curve was flattening because of social confinement measures. "We had a 200-net increase in hospitalizations, which you can see is the lowest number we've had since this nightmare started," Cuomo told reporters, adding that intensive care admissions were also at the lowest yet.
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| Top House Republican says it's 'disgusting' Democrats want mail-in voting funding in the next coronavirus bill Posted: 09 Apr 2020 12:49 PM PDT  House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) isn't too worried about democracy right now.As Congress discusses further relief bills amid the COVID-19 pandemic, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has insisted they include funding for mail-in ballots through the primaries and November election. But McCarthy slammed that demand as "disgusting" on Thursday, even after Wisconsin's pandemic primary proved problematic just days earlier."You want to hold up the bill because you want to change election law for November, because you think that gives you some political benefit?" McCarthy told Politico and other reporters during a press call. "That's disgusting to me," he continued, saying Democrats should worry about "the health of the nation" and "our economy" instead."The health of the nation" is exactly what Democrats say they are trying to address in funding mail-in voting. The current system relies on in-person voting — something that isn't safe amid the COVID-19 pandemic's stay-at-home orders and social distancing guidelines. Wisconsin displayed how untenable the in-person voting system is on Tuesday when hundreds of polling sites had to close, in-person turnout plunged, and voters were forced to wait for hours in socially distanced lines. Absentee ballot returns skyrocketed, but many people in Wisconsin reported they didn't receive them in time to cast their votes.Without a provision for remote voting in Congress, every coronavirus relief package can be held up with a single sign of opposition. That's what happened Thursday to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's (R-Ky.) $250 billion small business loan package as Democrats demanded more accountability and an additional $250 billion in funding for health care facilities and local and state governments.More stories from theweek.com Biden is the weakest major party nominee in recent history — but that might be the point Biden pledges to lower Medicare age and reduce some student debt in olive branch to Sanders supporters 4 important parenting lessons from life in lockdown
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| Trump’s Fox News Cabinet Tells Him the Coronavirus Crisis Is Over Posted: 08 Apr 2020 11:31 AM PDT  Throughout the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, President Donald Trump's decisions and stances have seemingly been influenced by the unofficial advisers he treasures most: Fox News primetime hosts.After downplaying for weeks the threat of the virus, just as many on Fox News did the same, the president began taking it seriously last month after Tucker Carlson personally confronted him before delivering an on-air monologue calling for action. Elsewhere, Fox stars have been the primary driving force behind Trump's incessant promotion of an unproven anti-malarial drug as the miracle COVID-19 cure.And in recent days, it seems, the president has been receiving his newest coronavirus intel briefing from Fox News. This time, they say, the pandemic is over and it's time to move on.Throughout Tuesday night's primetime stretch, Carlson, Sean Hannity, and Laura Ingraham were in lockstep in telegraphing to Trump a message that the pandemic's threat has been overstated, death counts have been inflated, and the U.S. is already on the downside of the curve.Carlson, who received mainstream plaudits for his "admirable" early coronavirus coverage, kicked off his show by declaring that the crisis "may have passed," noting that health-care systems across the country haven't come close to collapsing—"except in a handful of places.""Patients are not dying alone in the hallways of emergency rooms with physicians too overwhelmed to treat them," he asserted. "That was the concern. It happens in other countries, it's not happening here. Thank God for that."There have been numerous reports and testimonials from health-care workers expressing horror over the conditions of overcrowded hospitals and the stress it has placed on both medical staffers and patients. Much reporting has also been done on how many patients are dying alone and away from family members and friends from the disease.But despite nearly 13,000 U.S. deaths and at least 400,000 confirmed cases, with portions of the country having yet to suffer the worst effects of the outbreak, Carlson called for a quick reversal of social-distancing restrictions in order to jumpstart the economy, citing downward revisions of coronavirus models as the key reason."Before we go ahead and alter our lives and our country forever, it is fair to ask about the numbers, their numbers, the ones we acted on the first time, that turned out to be completely wrong," the Fox star fumed. "How did they screw that up so thoroughly? That is a fair question."Adjustments of expected death tolls in some models—which, weeks ago, showed as many as 240,000 American deaths—have largely occurred due to the widespread adoption of social-distancing guidelines and the assumption that school and business closures will stay in place through the summer. Even factoring all that in, the models still project roughly 80,000 deaths.Nevertheless, over the past few days, Carlson has been pushing the president to ignore medical expertise and quickly move forward with economic activity. "Is there a single person who sincerely expects the coronavirus itself will hurt more people in the end than the damage we're causing in our response to it? Probably not," he said on Monday night. "Mass unemployment is almost certain to cause far more harm, including physical harm, to the average family than this disease."Carlson has also railed against top infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci, who has urged Americans to embrace social distancing in order to flatten the curve. Calling it "bewildering" that the U.S. is allowing medical "experts" to make policy decisions, Carlson claimed last week that Fauci is proposing "national suicide" by pushing aggressive social distancing. "We should never let someone like that run this country," he said.Fox News senior analyst Brit Hume, who has recently been at the forefront of right-wing media's questioning of coronavirus deaths, has also joined the chorus of Fox stars agitating against medical expertise. The official COVID-19 death count has been inflated, he declared Carlson on Tuesday evening."Dr. Birx said tonight during the briefing at the White House that all deaths from anyone who died with coronavirus is counted as if the person died from coronavirus," Hume said. "Now, we all know that isn't true.""And if everybody is being automatically classified, if they're found to have COVID-19, as a COVID-19 death, we're going to get a very large number of deaths that way and we're probably not going to have an accurate count of what the real death total is," he added.Besides the fact that flu deaths—which Trump and Fox figures have constantly used as a comparison point to downplay the pandemic—are tracked the exact same way, and coronavirus disproportionately impacts people with pre-conditions, it is actually far more likely that the COVID-19 death count has been understated so far.Hannity, meanwhile, kicked off his Tuesday evening broadcast by claiming there is a "ton of good news" surrounding the pandemic, touting revised downward estimates of the death count to suggest that regular economic activity should restart very soon.In a phone interview with the president, Hannity—who has served as an unofficial Trump adviser and confidant—noted that the "cure can't be worse than the problem" and nudged the president to reveal when he'd roll back social-distancing policies."I'd love to open with a big bang, one beautiful country and just open," Trump declared, adding, "We're looking at two concepts. We're looking at the concept where you open up sections and we're also looking at the concept where you open up everything."In a Wednesday morning tweet, Trump further hinted that he is looking to end restrictions "sooner rather than later," adding that the "horror" of coronavirus "must be quickly forgotten" and predicting that the economy "will BOOM" going forward.Laura Ingraham, however, may have been the most aggressive among her primetime colleagues in openly pushing Trump to view the pandemic threat as completely neutralized.Claiming the experts were "wrong" with their modeling and that it caused undue panic for Americans, Ingraham echoed Carlson by railing against medical officials, claiming this pandemic should "make us less willing to rely on the same experts to help determine when and how we should reopen our economy.""We didn't vote for doctors," exclaimed Ingraham, who recently sat with the president to tout the unproven coronavirus cure hydroxychloroquine. "We voted for political leadership that sees the big picture. That means the whole picture of America."She continued to hammer away at that message Wednesday on her Twitter account.Tucker Carlson Wants to Have It Both Ways on Coronavirus"At some point, the president is going to have to look at Drs. Fauci and Birx and say, we're opening on May 1," she wrote on Wednesday morning. "Give me your best guidance on protocols, but we cannot deny our people their basic freedoms any longer.""America must get back to work," Ingraham blared in another tweet. "'Experts' were wrong on fatalities by a factor of 30 now want to dictate when we reopen."While Trump's Fox News cabinet is declaring the crisis over, the network's brass is still taking the pandemic seriously, implementing strict social-distancing policies for its employees. In a memo sent last week, Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott announced the company would distribute thermometers to all essential workers and suggested the use of face masks for anyone who had to come into one of Fox's offices. Additionally, Scott said that Fox was targeting May 4 as a possible return date for employees currently telecommuting.And as Fox News' biggest stars tried to convince the president to ditch social distancing altogether, one of Trump's own health officials rebuked the network's faux-populist manipulation of the expert data and projections."Physical distancing is incredibly important—remember the projections," Assistant Secretary for Health Brett Giroir said Wednesday on Fox & Friends. "I have seen people twist that like this was not going to be that bad after all and we didn't need to do it. That's a complete misinterpretation. The estimate of deaths going down is the result of the fact that we have listened to the president and vice president and task force.""I do want to emphasize the point, there is a light at the end of the tunnel, but don't keep your foot—don't take your foot off the gas," Giroir continued. "Because we really need to continue these efforts because we could see another peak, a second peak, a third peak if people don't do the physical distancing or they think it's all over."It's not over yet."Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Japan to Pay Companies to Move Production Out of China Posted: 09 Apr 2020 01:06 PM PDT  Japan will devote more than $2.2 billion of its coronavirus economic stimulus package to incentivize its manufacturers to move their production out of China as relations fray between the neighboring countries in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.The record stimulus plan provides $2 billion for manufacturers to transfer production to Japan and over $216 million to help companies move production to other countries. Imports from China, Japan's biggest trading partner, were down by nearly 50 percent in February as facilities in China closed while the coronavirus ripped through the country.A state visit to Japan by Chinese President Xi Jinping earlier this month — the first such visit in about a decade — was postponed indefinitely last month amid the coronavirus pandemic."We are doing our best to resume economic development," Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said Wednesday of Japan's decision during a press conference in Beijing."In this process, we hope other countries will act like China and take proper measures to ensure the world economy will be impacted as little as possible and to ensure that supply chains are impacted as little as possible."Politicians in Japan and the U.S., among other countries, have placed blame on China for failing to respond strongly during the early days of the coronavirus outbreak and concealing the scale of the threat from other nations. Despite recent developments, Japan has donated masks and personal protective equipment to China."Since the outbreak of the epidemic, the Japanese government and people have expressed sympathy, understanding and support to us," Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying said in early February.As of Thursday, Japan had more than 4,700 confirmed cases of coronavirus and at least 85 deaths from the respiratory illness.
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| Coronavirus: WHO chief and Taiwan in row over 'racist' comments Posted: 09 Apr 2020 07:39 AM PDT  Taiwan rejects accusations by the UN health body's head that racist slurs against him originated there.
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| 'Alexa, help me': A nursing home patient begged her Amazon Echo for help dozens of times before dying of COVID-19 Posted: 09 Apr 2020 07:42 AM PDT  The woman's sister found more than 40 recordings on her Echo made in her final days, and decided to publicize them to show the brutality of the virus.
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| Pope hails priests, health workers as 'the saints next door' Posted: 09 Apr 2020 11:23 AM PDT  Pope Francis on Holy Thursday hailed priests and medical staff who tend to the needs of COVID-19 patients as "the saints next door." Francis celebrated the Holy Week evening Mass in St. Peter's Basilica, which was kept off-limits to the public because of restrictions aimed at containing the spread of the new coronavirus. The pope began his off-the-cuff homily by honoring the memory of priests who gave their lives in service to others, singling out those who died after tending to sick people in Italy's hospitals.
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| Fauci lowers U.S. coronavirus death forecast to 60,000, says social distancing is working Posted: 09 Apr 2020 05:43 PM PDT  Anthony Fauci said Thursday the death toll from the coronavirus could be closer to 60,000 Americans, smaller than previous projections.
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| Ecuadorean prisoners to manufacture coffins as coronavirus creates shortage Posted: 09 Apr 2020 05:44 PM PDT  Hundreds of prisoners in Ecuador will begin making coffins to help cover a shortage emerging in Guayaquil, the country's largest city and the epicenter of one of the worst outbreaks of the new coronavirus in Latin America. Prisoners in Ambato, a city just south of the capital Quito, will use wood seized by environmental authorities as part of anti-deforestation efforts to make the coffins, which they plan to start delivering next week to southern Guayas province, home to 68% of total cases of the virus and home to Guayaquil. "The Environment Ministry is donating seized wood, which would have gone toward other purposes for a noble cause: Give a wooden coffin to families who have lost a loved one," Environment Minister Juan DeHowitt said in a statement.
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| 'A silent explosion': Coronavirus deaths in U.S. climb past 16,000 Posted: 09 Apr 2020 11:13 AM PDT  COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. surpass 16,000. In New York, new hospitalizations slow, affirming signs that stay-at-home orders are slowing coronavirus spread.
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| Chad army says 52 troops, 1,000 jihadists killed in offensive Posted: 09 Apr 2020 10:32 AM PDT  N'Djamena (AFP) - The Chadian army said Thursday it had wound up an offensive against Boko Haram jihadists in the Lake Chad border region in which 52 troops and 1,000 jihadists were killed. Army spokesman Colonel Azem Bermendoa Agouna told AFP that the operation, launched after nearly 100 soldiers were killed last month, ended Wednesday after the Nigerian jihadists were forced out of the country. It is the first official snapshot of the outcome of Operation Bohoma Anger, launched after Chad's armed forces suffered their biggest one-day loss in their history.
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| Exclusive: Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer, in solitary confinement Posted: 09 Apr 2020 12:23 PM PDT  Cohen, 53, was transferred on Wednesday to a Special Housing Unit at Otisville Federal Correctional Institution, a disciplinary section of the prison, the sources said. Until now, Cohen had been housed in a minimum-security camp at Otisville, which is about 70 miles (110 km) northwest of New York City.
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| Walmart Says It Will Invest $425 Million to Expand Presence in Wuhan over the Next Five Years Posted: 09 Apr 2020 08:53 AM PDT  Walmart's China branch announced at an investment conference hosted by the Wuhan city government on Wednesday that it was committing 3 billion yuan ($425 million) to expand its presence in the origin point of the coronavirus pandemic over the next five years.According to Walmart China, the company will be putting up at least four new Sam's Club stores, 15 additional shopping malls, and more community stores in the capital of China's Hubei province. The U.S.-based retailer already has 34 stores and two distribution centers in the city, where the global coronavirus pandemic first emerged in December.Wern-Yuen Tan, President and CEO of Walmart China, announced the decision in collaboration with Wuhan's municipal government, saying "the framework marks a new milestone between the two parties and a new beginning for a win-win situation."Wuhan ended its city-wide lockdown on Wednesday, after 76 days of mandatory shutdown, despite fears that the city was still hosting many asymptomatic cases. City residents have dismissed the official death toll of approximately 2,500, while U.S. intelligence concluded last week that the city has been lying about its number of cases.The corporate response to China's handling of the coronavirus has been mixed. The American Chamber of Commerce polled 119 companies last month on their China outlook, with 40 percent saying they would maintain their planned levels of investment in China this year, while 24 percent said they plan to cut investment. A third said it was too early to determine coronavirus's impact.U.S. lawmakers have grown increasingly critical of the U.S.'s over reliance on China in recent months, especially relating to medical supplies — with experts suggesting that "thousands" of basic pharmaceuticals are sourced in China.Last month, Representative Jim Banks (R., Ind.) warned that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's proposed stimulus package did not address U.S. dependence on Chinese supply chains, despite bipartisan concerns about the issue.Senator Josh Hawley (R., Mo.) also proposed a phase-four relief package last week that promoted bringing "critical supply chains back to this country from China and elsewhere and to encourage domestic production."
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| CDC releases data of worst U.S. coronavirus cases Posted: 09 Apr 2020 04:34 PM PDT  The CDC gathered data on those who were hospitalized from COVID-19 in 14 states from March 1-30, in efforts to get a clearer picture of those infected who needed the most serious medical care.
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| Nearly 60% of the passengers on an Antarctic cruise ship have tested positive for the coronavirus Posted: 08 Apr 2020 05:16 PM PDT  Six people who tested positive needed additional medical attention and were transported to a facility in Montevideo, Uruguay, according to CNN.
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| Philippines backs Vietnam after China sinks fishing boat Posted: 08 Apr 2020 03:51 AM PDT  The Philippines on Wednesday expressed solidarity with Vietnam after Hanoi protested what it said was the ramming and sinking of a Vietnamese fishing boat by a Chinese coast guard ship in the disputed South China Sea. The Department of Foreign Affairs in Manila expressed deep concern over the reported April 3 sinking of the boat carrying eight fishermen off the Paracel Islands. China claims virtually the entire South China Sea and has built several islands equipped with military installations in the area, one of world's busiest shipping lanes.
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| Italian cemeteries can't keep up with deaths from pandemic Posted: 09 Apr 2020 11:52 AM PDT  In Bergamo, a city in Northern Italy, bodies are being kept in a makeshift morgue, unrefrigerated.
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| Wuhan ends its coronavirus lockdown, but another Chinese city shutdown emerges Posted: 08 Apr 2020 08:22 AM PDT  The Chinese city where the new coronavirus emerged ended its more-than two-month lockdown on Wednesday, even as a small northern city ordered restrictions on residents amid concern about a second wave of infections.
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| Taiwan demands apology from WHO chief over virus 'slander' Posted: 09 Apr 2020 06:26 AM PDT  Taiwan demanded an apology Thursday from the World Health Organization chief after he accused the island's government of leading personal attacks against him and his agency's response to the coronavirus pandemic. WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called Wednesday for unity to fight the disease after US President Donald Trump criticised the global health body and threatened to cut its funding. "Three months ago, this attack came from Taiwan," he told reporters in Geneva, referring to online criticism and insults.
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| What you need to know about the coronavirus right now Posted: 09 Apr 2020 12:20 AM PDT  Beyond the daily casualty statistics, the big, sobering economic number of the week lands on Thursday at 08.30 ET (1230 GMT): New U.S. jobless claims will likely reveal that the number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits in the last three weeks has now hit a staggering 15 million. The speed with which patients are declining and dying from the new coronavirus is shocking even veteran doctors and nurses as they scramble to try to stop such sudden deterioration. The quick turns for the worse are likely products of an "overly exuberant" reaction by the immune system as it fights the virus, said Dr Otto Yang, an infectious disease specialist at the UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles.
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| Head of Global Strike Command Wants to Make Air Force Bombers Even More Lethal Posted: 09 Apr 2020 01:07 PM PDT  The Air Force plans to have 165 to 175 bombers in its inventory once the B-21 Long Range Strike Bomber comes online.
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| Woman gives birth standing with trousers on while detained at US-Mexico border Posted: 09 Apr 2020 02:20 PM PDT  A woman suffering flu-like symptoms gave birth standing and fully clothed while detained near the Mexican-US border, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.The Guatemalan woman, 27, was being processed at the Chula Vista Border Patrol Station near San Diego when her complaints of pain and pleas for help were allegedly ignored by agents, according to a complaint filed on Wednesday by the ACLU and Jewish Family Service of San Diego with the US Department of Homeland Security's Office of the Inspector General.
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| Anthony Fauci says people who recover from the coronavirus should be immune through at least September. But some scientists worry that not all patients develop antibodies. Posted: 08 Apr 2020 07:00 PM PDT  Fauci said the 315,000-plus people who have recovered from the virus are likely protected from re-infection — at least for a time.
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| Linda Tripp: Woman who revealed Clinton-Lewinsky scandal dies Posted: 09 Apr 2020 02:44 AM PDT  Linda Tripp, who disclosed Bill Clinton's White House affair with Monica Lewinsky dies, aged 70.
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| Liz Cheney Calls WHO’s Tedros ‘A Puppet of the Chinese Communist Party’ Posted: 09 Apr 2020 07:21 AM PDT  Representative Liz Cheney (R., Wyo.) slammed the World Health Organization's director general Tedros Adhanom for being "a puppet of the Chinese Communist Party" over the organization's response to the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic.Cheney, speaking to radio host Hugh Hewitt, cited Tedros's kowtowing to Chinese authority in the wake of the outbreak, despite multiple reports detailing how Chinese government officials failed in their response."The fact that the head of the WHO was unwilling to say, for example, yes, it's right to cut off travel from China, was unwilling to acknowledge that there was, you know, community transmission, has been touting the Chinese Communist Party line from the beginning of this, tells you that he absolutely should go," Cheney stated. "And again, you know, we're in a situation where having somebody who is a puppet of the Chinese Communist Party running the WHO is costing lives around the world. And in order for that organization to play anywhere near the role we need it to play, it needs a new director, certainly."Beijing silenced Wuhan laboratories which had realized in December that the coronavirus was related to the deadly SARS virus from 2002-2003, and continued to claim that coronavirus could not be transmitted from human-to-human for weeks after evidence of that fact emerged.The WHO parroted Beijing's line on January 14, tweeting that there was "no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the novel coronavirus." The WHO also defended China's multiple drastic alterations to its coronavirus case count, and has not criticized Beijing for refusing to count asymptomatic cases until April 1. Multiple reports have detailed how China backed Tedros's bid for WHO director general in 2017, after he had worked closely with Beijing as Ethiopia's health minister.On Wednesday, Tedros defended his leadership and the response to the virus, warning that U.S. lawmakers were "politicizing" the pandemic."Please, unity at national level. No using COVID for political points," he said. "And then second, honest solidarity at global level and honest leadership from the U.S. and China . . . We shouldn't waste time pointing fingers. We need time to unite."Tedros also added that he was being personally attacked with "racist comments.""I can tell you personal attacks that have been going on for more than two, three months. Abuses, or racist comments, giving me names, black or Negro. I'm proud of being black, proud of being Negro," he stated. "I don't care, to be honest . . . even death threats. I don't give a damn."President Trump hammered the WHO on Tuesday, tweeting that the organization "really blew it."> The W.H.O. really blew it. For some reason, funded largely by the United States, yet very China centric. We will be giving that a good look. Fortunately I rejected their advice on keeping our borders open to China early on. Why did they give us such a faulty recommendation?> > -- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 7, 2020Cheney is not the only lawmaker to single out Tedros for criticism. Last week, Senator Martha McSally (R., Ariz.) called him "a communist" and said Tedros "needs to step down."
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| Singapore Reports Record Increase in New Coronavirus Cases Posted: 08 Apr 2020 07:18 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Singapore reported its largest daily increase in coronavirus cases on Wednesday, just as the city-state started a partial lockdown set to last several weeks to contain the spread of the infection.Authorities said there were 142 new cases, bringing the country's total to 1,623. An Indian national who died while awaiting his test result was subsequently confirmed to have the infection, according to the Ministry of Health. Investigations are going on to establish the cause of death, it said. If confirmed, that would be the seventh fatality linked to the disease.Of the new cases, 40 are linked to clusters at foreign worker dormitories, and 28 are linked to non-dormitory clusters or other cases. Only two of the infections were imported. Contact tracing is pending on the remaining 72.City ClampdownSingapore this week banned public and private gatherings of any size and will fine or jail those involved in meetings among friends or family members who are not living together. The country has closed workplaces, except for essential services and key economic sectors, and schools have moved to full home-based learning as part of "circuit-breaker" measures, which last to May 4.Concern has grown over the conditions of some 20,000 foreign workers housed in dormitories that have been gazetted as "isolation areas." The government has been increasing efforts to ensure the workers receive regular meals and the dormitories are properly cleaned, according to the Ministry of Manpower.The ministry said on Wednesday that conditions at the dormitories continue to improve, with meal portions increasing and waste management and sanitation regimes being stepped up.(Updates to add comment from ministry in last paragraph.)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| AG Barr calls coronavirus restrictions 'draconian,' says they should be reevaluated next month Posted: 09 Apr 2020 06:00 AM PDT  Attorney General William Barr said the federal government would be "keeping a careful eye on" states' use of broad powers to regulate citizens' lives.
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| India struggles to contain coronavirus, enforce lockdown in sprawling city slums Posted: 09 Apr 2020 08:09 AM PDT  India faces an uphill battle to contain coronavirus outbreaks in the slums of the vast financial capital Mumbai amid fears the virus is gathering pace in the dense, unsanitary alleyways where it is next to impossible to enforce a full lockdown. India, the world's second most populous country after China with 1.3 billion people, has reported more than 5,800 cases of the virus, including 169 deaths, a far cry from the high tolls in several European countries and the United States. Mumbai's seaside Worli Koliwada slum is in an area that had 184 reported cases on Wednesday, as per the latest data, up from 133 the previous day.
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| White Supremacist Groups Are Recruiting With Help From Coronavirus – and a Popular Messaging App Posted: 08 Apr 2020 01:42 PM PDT  As COVID-19 spreads around the world, white supremacist groups are seizing onto it to recruit and spread misinformation
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