First Edition: April 29, 2020
Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
Kaiser Health News:
COVID Tests Are Free, Except When They’re Not
Even before a novel virus swept around the world, Anna Davis Abel wore a mask to protect herself from getting sick. The 25-year-old writer lives with lupus, a chronic autoimmune disease that makes her more susceptible to catching a virus or an infection. Davis Abel’s doctor cleared her to travel to a literary conference in San Antonio in early March. Then she developed a sore throat and low-grade fever several days after arriving home in Morgantown, West Virginia. (Rodriguez, 4/29)
Kaiser Health News:
Lost On The Frontline: A 9/11 First Responder, He Answered The Call During The Pandemic
America’s health care workers are dying. In some states, medical staff account for as many as 20% of known coronavirus cases. They tend to patients in hospitals, treating them, serving them food and cleaning their rooms. Others at risk work in nursing homes or are employed as home health aides. Some of them do not survive the encounter. Many hospitals are overwhelmed and some workers lack protective equipment or suffer from underlying health conditions that make them vulnerable to the highly infectious virus. (4/29)
Kaiser Health News:
Widely Used Surgical Masks Are Putting Health Care Workers At Serious Risk
With medical supplies in high demand, federal authorities say health workers can wear surgical masks for protection while treating COVID-19 patients — but growing evidence suggests the practice is putting workers in jeopardy. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently said lower-grade surgical masks are “an acceptable alternative” to N95 masks unless workers are performing an intubation or another procedure on a COVID patient that could unleash a high volume of virus particles. (Luthra and Jewett, 4/28)
Kaiser Health News:
The Challenges Of Keeping Young Adults Safe During The Pandemic
Last month, after California Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered most of the state’s residents to stay home, I found myself under virtual house arrest with an uncomfortably large number of Gen Zers. Somehow I had accumulated four of my children’s friends over the preceding months. I suppose some parents more hard-nosed than I would have sent them packing, but I didn’t have the heart — especially in the case of my daughter’s college roommate, who couldn’t get back to her family in Vietnam. (Wolfson, 4/29)
The New York Times:
U.S. Coronavirus Death Toll Is Far Higher Than Reported, C.D.C. Data Suggests
Total deaths in seven states that have been hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic are nearly 50 percent higher than normal for the five weeks from March 8 through April 11, according to new death statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That is 9,000 more deaths than were reported as of April 11 in official counts of deaths from the coronavirus. The new data is partial and most likely undercounts the recent death toll significantly. But it still illustrates how the coronavirus is causing a surge in deaths in the places it has struck, probably killing more people than the reported statistics capture. (Katz, Lu and Sanger-Katz, 4/28)
Reuters:
U.S. Coronavirus Deaths Surpass Vietnam War Toll As Florida Readies Reopening Plan
The U.S. coronavirus death toll climbed above 58,000 on Tuesday, surpassing the loss of American life from the Vietnam War, as Florida’s governor met with President Donald Trump to discuss an easing of economic restraints. (Mason and Caspani, 4/28)
CIDRAP:
US Hits 1 Million COVID-19 Cases As States Take On Testing
In total, a tracker maintained by Johns Hopkins University shows 1,002,498 cases, including 57,533 fatalities. The milestone comes a day after the world surpassed 3 million cases in the 4 months since the virus was first detected in Wuhan, China. Less than 1 month ago—on Apr 2—the global total hit 1 million cases. (Soucheray, 4/28)
The Washington Post:
Coronavirus Victims: Remembering The Americans Who Have Died
No infectious disease in a century has exacted as swift and merciless a toll on the United States as covid-19. With no vaccine and no cure, the pandemic has killed people in every state. The necessary isolation it imposes has robbed the bereaved of proper goodbyes and the comfort of mourning rituals. Those remembered in this continually updating series represent but some of the tens of thousands who have died. Some were well-known, and many were unsung. All added their stories, from all walks of life, to the diversity of the American experience. (4/24)
Stat:
Bipartisan Group Pitches The White House On A $46.5 Billion Covid-19 Plan
In the past month, President Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner has fielded calls from at least three members of a new coalition pitching an aggressive plan to reopen America. The political backgrounds of Kushner’s callers diverged sharply: They ranged from Scott Gottlieb, a Trump appointee who ran the Food and Drug Administration until last year, to a pair of Obama-era health officials whose views diverge from the White House’s at nearly every turn. Their message, however, was largely the same: The White House should back a $46.5 billion effort to hire an army of 180,000 contact-tracers, book blocks of vacant hotel rooms so Americans sick with Covid-19 can self-isolate, and pay sick individuals to stay away from work until they recover. (Facher, 4/29)
The New York Times:
Trump Administration’s Message On Reopening Continues To Be Contradictory
A week ago, President Trump chastised Georgia for starting to reopen. “It’s too soon,” he said. But on Tuesday, he cheered Texas as it began resuming business. “Great job,” he said. And Florida may be next as the president welcomed its governor to the Oval Office. White House guidelines urge states to retain coronavirus restrictions until they meet certain criteria, but Attorney General William P. Barr is now threatening to sue them if he deems those limits too strict. And even as the president talks about opening the country, he has ordered it closed to immigration, even suggesting on Tuesday that flights from Brazil be banned. (Baker, 4/28)
Stat:
How A Los Angeles Doctor Got Swept Up In The White House's Covid-19 Response
He advised Joe Biden’s initiative to transform the fight against cancer. He interviewed Bill Clinton at last fall’s “Time 100” gala. And he’s treated patients with names so famous they don’t need titles: Steve Jobs, Lance Armstrong, Sumner Redstone, and Ted Kennedy. Now, David Agus — an accomplished Los Angeles cancer doctor, researcher, author, and TV pundit — has been swept up in the swirl of the Trump White House as it confronts the Covid-19 pandemic. (Robbins and Florko, 4/29)
The Associated Press:
Trump Says US Closer To Testing International Air Travelers
President Donald Trump said his administration is considering requiring travelers on certain incoming international flights to undergo temperature and virus checks to help stop the spread of the coronavirus. “We’re looking at doing it on the international flights coming out of areas that are heavily infected,” Trump said Tuesday at the White House. “We will be looking into that in the very near future.” (Colvin, Lemire and Freking, 4/29)
The New York Times:
Trump’s Response To Virus Reflects A Long Disregard For Science
At a March visit with doctors and researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the public health agency at the heart of the fight against the coronavirus, President Trump spoke words of praise for the scientific acumen in the building — particularly his own. “Every one of these doctors said, ‘How do you know so much about this?’ Maybe I have a natural ability,” Mr. Trump said. It was a striking boast, even amid a grave health crisis in which Mr. Trump has repeatedly contradicted medical experts in favor of his own judgment. (Friedman and Plumer, 4/28)
The Washington Post:
Recall Of West Point Cadets For Trump Address Creates Logistics Hurdles And Health Concerns
The day before the U.S. Military Academy announced it would proceed with plans for President Trump to deliver the commencement address, cadets joined a video call to learn about their return to the school’s campus outside New York, the American city hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic. The decision to hold an in-person graduation June 13 meant that nearly 1,000 graduating cadets would travel back to West Point from their homes, where they have been distance-learning since spring break, and undergo up to three weeks of quarantine at campus barracks and a nearby training site. (Ryan, Horton and Costa, 4/28)
Reuters:
Americans Losing Faith In What Trump Says About The Coronavirus: Reuters/Ipsos Poll
Americans appear to be losing faith in what President Donald Trump says about the coronavirus pandemic, with almost everyone rejecting Trump’s remark that COVID-19 may be treated by injecting infected people with bleach or other disinfectants, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Tuesday. The April 27-28 public opinion poll found that fewer than half of all adults in the U.S. - 47% - said they were “very” or “somewhat” likely to follow recommendations Trump makes about the virus. (Kahn, 4/28)
ProPublica:
Health Insurers To Investors: We’re Good. Health Insurers To Lawmakers: Please Help.
Executives at Cigna, the health insurance giant, have signaled to investors that the coronavirus pandemic isn’t hurting the company’s business and might actually be a boon. But that hasn’t stopped the trade group that represents Cigna and other health insurers in Washington from asking lawmakers for aid. Last month, as the coronavirus outbreak sent the stock market into freefall, executives conferred with equity analysts at major investment banks — a key way for companies to communicate with investors. (Arnsdorf, 4/28)
Reuters:
U.S. Health Insurers Benefit As Elective Care Cuts Offset Coronavirus Costs
UnitedHealth Group Inc, the largest U.S. health insurer, last week posted first-quarter earnings above Wall Street expectations and kept its profit forecast in place for 2020, despite an economy battered by massive layoffs and business shutdowns to slow the spread of the virus. When Anthem Inc, Humana Inc and Cigna Corp report their first-quarter results this week, Wall Street analysts expect a similar trend. CVS Health, a pharmacy company that owns health insurer Aetna, reports in May. (Maddipatla and Humer, 4/28)
Politico:
The Unlikely Alliance Trying To Rescue Workplace Health Insurance
Big businesses and powerful Democrats are aligning around a proposal to bail out employer health plans in the wake of staggering losses to the insurance industry, as some worry that a surge in uninsured Americans could give new life to a stalled push for “Medicare for All.” The business and labor interests, who have strong economic motives to keep the current system of employer-based care, are rallying behind a Democratic effort to subsidize temporary extensions of newly unemployed Americans’ workplace health plans in Congress’ next coronavirus rescue package. (Luthi, 4/28)
ProPublica:
One Thing The Pandemic Hasn’t Stopped: Aggressive Medical-Debt Collection
Darcel Richardson knows she’s fortunate in one sense: She still has her job as a vocational counselor in Baltimore. But despite that, she won’t be able to make her rent payment this month because she’s not getting her full salary for a while. More than $400 per biweekly paycheck — about a quarter of her after-tax income — has been siphoned off by Johns Hopkins University for unpaid medical bills at one of its hospitals. Richardson, 60, got word of the garnishment from her employer just as the coronavirus pandemic was arriving in full force last month. (MacGillis, 4/28)
The Associated Press:
Medicare Applications Raise Anxiety For Seniors In Pandemic
At greater risk from COVID-19, some seniors now face added anxiety due to delays obtaining Medicare coverage. Advocates for older people say the main problem involves certain applications for Medicare’s “Part B” coverage for outpatient care. It stems from the closure of local Social Security offices in the coronavirus pandemic. Part B is particularly important these days because it covers lab tests, like ones for the coronavirus. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 4/29)
The New York Times:
Pence Tours Mayo Clinic And Flouts Its Rule That All Visitors Wear A Mask
The Mayo Clinic, the renowned medical center in Minnesota, has a clear policy in place during the coronavirus outbreak that any visitor should wear a protective face mask. But when a delegation of Trump administration officials arrived at the clinic on Tuesday to thank the doctors there for their work on the virus, one person decided to flout the rule: Vice President Mike Pence, the chairman of the White House coronavirus task force. (Karni, 4/28)
The Washington Post:
Pence Meets With Mayo Clinic Patients, Staff While Not Wearing Face Mask Despite Coronavirus Outbreak
Asked by reporters later about his decision not to wear a mask, Pence noted that he is frequently tested for coronavirus and so didn’t need to wear one. “As vice president of the United States, I’m tested for the coronavirus on a regular basis, and everyone who is around me is tested for the coronavirus,” Pence said. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance states that masks are helpful for preventing the transmission of the coronavirus because even people who do not show symptoms can still spread the virus, particularly in “public settings where other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain. (Sonmez, 4/28)
Politico:
‘HHS Has Been Kicked In The Teeth’
The coronavirus outbreak burning its way through the United States has taken a different kind of toll on staff at the center of the nation’s response. Officials here, at the Health and Human Services department headquarters, have worked around the clock since mid-January to first prepare for the possible Covid-19 outbreak and then manage the pandemic it became. But the Trump administration’s repeated stumbles have provoked a daily deluge of attacks, watchdog probes and open speculation about the future of the department’s leader, Secretary Alex Azar, culminating in a spate of reports about how White House officials were discussing Azar’s potential replacements this past weekend. (Diamond, 4/28)
The New York Times:
‘Governors Don’t Do Global Pandemics’: Cuomo Faults Others Over Virus
A day after seemingly expressing regret for not sounding the alarm on the coronavirus crisis sooner, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York apparently decided on Tuesday that there was enough blame to spread far and wide. At his daily briefing, Mr. Cuomo faulted a raft of other forces, including the World Health Organization, various federal agencies and the news media, for not doing their part to caution the world of the pandemic threat. Specifically, Mr. Cuomo targeted the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control — “the N.I.H, the C.D.C., that whole alphabet soup of agencies,” he called them — and the nation’s intelligence community for not issuing more urgent advisories late last year, before health officials in China had even publicly identified the virus. (McKinley, 4/28)
The New York Times:
Trump Signs Executive Order To Prevent Meat Shortage
President Trump on Tuesday declared meat processing plants “critical infrastructure,” in an effort to ensure that facilities around the country remained open as the government tried to prevent looming shortages of pork, chicken and other products as a result of the coronavirus. The action comes as meat plants around the country have turned into coronavirus hot spots, sickening thousands of workers, and after the head of Tyson Foods, one of the country’s largest processors, warned that millions of pounds of meat would simply disappear from the supply chain. (Swanson and Yaffe-Bellany, 4/28)
The Associated Press:
Trump Order Keeping Meat Packing Plants Open Worries Unions
The order signed Tuesday uses the Defense Production Act to classify meat processing as critical infrastructure to try to prevent a shortage of chicken, pork and other meat on supermarket shelves. Unions fired back, saying the White House was jeopardizing lives and prioritizing cold cuts over workers’ health. More than 20 meatpacking plants have closed temporarily under pressure from local authorities and their own workers because of the virus, including two of the nation’s largest, one in Iowa and one in South Dakota. Others have slowed production as workers have fallen ill or stayed home to avoid getting sick. (Colvin, 4/29)
Reuters:
Trump Orders U.S. Meat-Processing Plants To Stay Open Despite Coronavirus Fears
The order is designed in part to give companies legal cover with more liability protection in case employees catch the virus as a result of having to go to work. John H. Tyson, chairman of Tyson Foods, said on Sunday that the food supply chain was “breaking” and warned of the potential for meat shortages. Before issuing the executive order, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that signing the order, “... will solve any liability problems,” adding, “And we always work with the farmers. There’s plenty of supply.” (Mason and Polansek, 4/28)
Reuters:
Toilet Paper Trophy Hunters On A Roll As U.S. Shortages Start Easing
U.S. consumers have begun spotting rare Quilted Northern and Charmin toilet paper rolls on store shelves across the United States, as stocks start building after weeks of severe shortages. (Geller and Baertlein, 4/28)
The Associated Press:
Easing Lockdowns Makes Day-To-Day Choices More Complicated
Things were so much clearer when just about everything was locked down. Now, with states lifting coronavirus restrictions piecemeal and by often arbitrary timetables, Americans are facing bewildering decisions about what they should and should not do to protect their health, their livelihoods and their neighbors. (Johnson, Geller and Olson, 4/29)
The Washington Post:
Push To Reopen Economy Runs Up Against Workers And Consumers Worried About Risk
In the absence of a federal mandate, states are adopting varying approaches to the speed and pace of their commercial revivals. During a White House meeting with Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said he would make an announcement Wednesday on his state’s reopening plans. ... Plans for a swift reopening of malls, factories and other businesses accelerated Tuesday, but they quickly collided with the reality that persuading workers and consumers to overlook their coronavirus fears and resume their roles in powering the U.S. economy may prove difficult. (Lynch and Bhattarai, 4/28)
The 19th:
Black Activists And Officials See A Major Threat In South’s Plans To Reopen
As Southern governors are reopening the region this week, black activists are joining with local and federal lawmakers to sound the alarm about what they see as a looming threat to the Black Belt. They say the mostly white, male Republicans — who were reluctant to close their states but are now eager to reopen — are effectively issuing a “death sentence” for millions of black Americans who have been disproportionately impacted both economically and medically by coronavirus. (Haines, 4/28)
Reuters:
California Plans To Reopen Some Retail, Manufacturing Within Weeks
California curbside retail, manufacturing and other “lower-risk workplaces” should reopen within weeks as coronavirus testing and tracing improves, Governor Gavin Newsom said on Tuesday. Non-essential businesses like offices where remote work is not possible and childcare facilities would be in the first phase of reopening, along with some parks, state health officer Sonia Angell told a news briefing. California schools could start their 2020 year as early as July to make up for a “learning loss” from closures and to allow the broader workforce to return to work, Newsom said. (Hay, 4/28)
The New York Times:
Coronavirus Likely To Keep Schools Shut, Despite Trump's Wishes
With students languishing, the economy stagnating and working parents straining to turn their kitchen tables into classrooms, the nation’s public schools have been working to bring children back to their desks, lockers and study halls. But despite President Trump’s prediction that “I think you’ll see a lot of schools open up,” all but a few states have suspended in-person classes for the rest of the academic year, and some are preparing for the possibility of shutdowns or part-time schedules in the fall. (Hubler, Green and Goldstein, 4/28)
The Washington Post:
‘Quarantine Fatigue’ Continues For Second Week, Showing A Worrisome Trend, Researchers Say
The number of U.S. residents showing “quarantine fatigue” by venturing out increased last week, when more governors reopened businesses closed for the coronavirus pandemic or announced plans to do so, according to researchers tracking smartphone data. Researchers say the cellphone location data for April 24 is significant because it marked the second Friday in a row when people stayed home less, illustrating the start of a trend rather than a one-week blip. (Shaver, 4/28)
Reuters:
Hello, Social Distancing. Goodbye, Handshakes?
It started centuries ago as a symbol of peace, a gesture to prove you weren’t holding a weapon, and over time it became part of almost every social, religious, professional, business and sporting exchange. But the new coronavirus has forced a rethink of the handshake. No matter how friendly, it is an exchange of potentially infectious microorganisms. “Hands are like a busy intersection, constantly connecting our microbiome to the microbiomes of other people, places, and things,” a group of scientists wrote in the Journal of Dermatological Science. Hands, they said, are the “critical vector” for transmitting microorganisms including viruses. (Younis and Baldwin, 4/28)
The New York Times:
Some Sports May Have To Skip This Year, Fauci Says
Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the leading public health expert on President Trump’s coronavirus task force, said this week that it might be very difficult for major sports in the United States to return to action this year. Various leagues have considered a number of options for restarting play that came to a halt in mid-March, as the extent of the coronavirus outbreak became increasingly apparent. (Wagner and Belson, 4/28)
The Wall Street Journal:
Coronavirus Testing Capacity Is Going Unused
Many commercial and academic laboratories in the U.S. are processing coronavirus diagnostic tests far below their daily capacity, leaving tools crucial to slowing the virus’s spread unused. Some labs across the country say they are processing less than a quarter of the diagnostic tests for Covid-19, the illness caused by the new coronavirus, they are equipped to manage. Lab executives and public-health officials blame barriers including fragmented supply chains, relatively strict test guidelines, incompatible electronic systems and a lack of centralized data on where capacity exists. (Abbott and Krouse, 4/29)
The Hill:
Five Things To Know About Where The US Stands On COVID-19 Tests
The White House is under enormous pressure to dramatically increase the nation’s capability to produce tests to control the coronavirus outbreak and safely reopen an economy shuttered by the pandemic. President Trump told reporters on March 6 during a visit to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta that “anybody that wants a test can get a test,” but that has been far from the reality. (Weixel, 4/28)
The Wall Street Journal:
Race For Coronavirus Vaccine Accelerates As Pfizer Says U.S. Testing To Begin Next Week
The race for a vaccine to combat the new coronavirus is moving faster than researchers and drugmakers expected, with Pfizer Inc. joining several other groups saying that they had accelerated the timetable for testing and that a vaccine could be ready for emergency use in the fall. Pfizer said Tuesday it will begin testing of its experimental vaccine in the U.S. as early as next week. On Monday, Oxford University researchers said their vaccine candidate could be available for emergency use as early as September if it passes muster in studies, while biotech Moderna Inc. said it was preparing to enter its vaccine into the second phase of human testing. (Hopkins and Rockoff, 4/28)
The Associated Press:
Groups Sow Doubt About COVID Vaccine Before One Even Exists
A coronavirus vaccine is still months or years away, but groups that peddle misinformation about immunizations are already taking aim, potentially eroding confidence in what could be humanity’s best chance to defeat the virus. In recent weeks, vaccine opponents have made several unsubstantiated claims, including allegations that vaccine trials will be dangerously rushed or that Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious diseases expert, is blocking cures to enrich vaccine makers. (Klepper and Dupuy, 4/29)
The New York Times:
Airborne Coronavirus Detected In Wuhan Hospitals
Adding to growing evidence that the novel coronavirus can spread through air, scientists have identified genetic markers of the virus in airborne droplets, many with diameters smaller than one-ten-thousandth of an inch. That had been previously demonstrated in laboratory experiments, but now Chinese scientists studying real-world conditions report that they captured tiny droplets containing the genetic markers of the virus from the air in two hospitals in Wuhan, China, where the outbreak started. Their findings were published Monday in the journal Nature. (Chang, 4/28)
The Washington Post:
Covid-19 Appears Far More Lethal Than Flu Based On Antibody Test Results
Results from coronavirus antibody tests have started to trickle in, and they bolster the consensus among disease experts that the virus is significantly more lethal than seasonal flu and has seeded the most disruptive pandemic in the past century. “I think it is the worst pandemic since 1918,” said Cecile Viboud, an epidemiologist at the National Institutes of Health’s Fogarty International Center, alluding to the “Great Influenza” pandemic that claimed an estimated 675,000 lives in the United States. (Achenbach, 4/28)
The Washington Post:
Pandemic Triage: 29 Plans, 29 Different Approaches For Allocating Ventilators In The Event Of A Shortage
Who is given preference if there’s a shortage of ventilators? Who is not? Since the early days of the novel coronavirus pandemic, hospitals have been scrambling to update documents that describe how they would allocate scarce resources. Citing the sensitive nature of their life-or-death deliberations, many hospitals have declined to talk on the record about their plans. Now, a paper published in the Annals of Internal Medicine gives the first broad look at some of those rationing documents. (Cha, 4/28)
ProPublica:
What Antibody Studies Can Tell You — And More Importantly, What They Can’t
In the past two weeks, researchers across America have begun announcing results from studies showing that there have been many more coronavirus infections in their communities than were previously recorded. Findings have come in from Santa Clara County, California, as well as Los Angeles, New York, Chelsea, Massachusetts, and Miami-Dade County, Florida. The debates began immediately. What did the study results actually mean? If more people were infected than previously known, did that mean the death rate is actually lower than previously thought? Is the coronavirus actually more like the flu, after all? (Chen, 4/28)
The New York Times:
Coronavirus Antibody Test: What You Need To Know
As states across the country weigh options for reopening after weeks of stay-at-home orders, antibody tests have emerged as a potential pathway on how — and when — to do it. But there are many caveats, as a recent study found that many of the antibody tests available currently provided inaccurate results. Antibody tests look for signs in the blood that a person has been exposed to the novel coronavirus. (Herrera, 4/29)
Politico:
House Investigators Grill Companies Marketing Questionable Coronavirus Antibody Tests
A House subcommittee is driving up pressure Wednesday on companies marketing coronavirus antibody tests that may fail to meet "a reasonable standard of accuracy." Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), chairman of the House Oversight subcommittee on economic and consumer policy, wrote to four companies — including one that's issuing tests in partnership with a major American medical tech company — requesting details of the firms' contact with the FDA, data supporting the accuracy of their tests and a list of medical facilities who have purchased test kits from the companies. (Cheney, 4/29)
The New York Times:
Businesses Seek Sweeping Shield From Coronavirus Liability Before They Reopen
Business lobbyists and executives are pushing the Trump administration and Congress to shield American companies from a wide range of potential lawsuits related to reopening the economy amid the coronavirus pandemic, opening a new legal and political fight over how the nation deals with the fallout from Covid-19. Government officials are beginning the slow process of lifting restrictions on economic activity in states and local areas across the country. (Tankersley and Savage, 4/28)
Reuters:
U.S. House Not Returning Next Week, Trump Says Democrats On 'Vacation'
Lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives will not return to Washington next week as planned, due to the continuing risk of coronavirus infection, Democratic leaders said on Tuesday, a reversal of plans outlined only a day earlier. (Cornwell and Morgan, 4/28)
The Washington Post:
House Drops Plans To Return To D.C., Citing Virus Risk; McConnell Vows Senate Will Vote Monday
With proposed changes allowing for more significant remote work on hold amid a partisan uproar, the House will remain largely sidelined while Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) brings his chamber into session next week to process President Trump’s judicial nominees and start work on a new coronavirus relief bill. The House decision, announced by Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) on a Tuesday morning call with reporters, came less than a day after he told lawmakers to prepare to return to Washington on May 4. (DeBonis and Kim, 4/28)
Reuters:
Much Of U.S. Economy Still Plugging Along Despite Coronavirus Pain
The coronavirus crisis would appear to have put the entire U.S. economy on ice. Twenty-six million people have filed for unemployment in just a month, with millions more likely waiting in electronic queues at overtaxed state unemployment systems. Still the U.S. job count stood at more than 152 million as of February. Paychecks are arriving for tens of millions of government workers, hospital, sanitation, utility and other employees deemed to be doing essential jobs; an army of employees working from home; and even chefs cooking for carry-out. (Schneider, 4/29)
The Associated Press:
GDP Report To Show A Damaged Economy Sliding Into Recession
The U.S. economy began 2020 riding the crest of a record-long expansion with every expectation that its 11th year of growth would not be its last. Then the economy screeched to a sudden halt. And now it’s in free-fall. On Wednesday, the government will offer a glimpse of how dark the picture has grown and how much worse it could get as the coronavirus pandemic inflicts ruinous damage. (Crutsinger, 4/29)
The Wall Street Journal:
Coronavirus Likely Led To Biggest Quarterly GDP Decline In Decade
Economists expect first-quarter U.S. gross domestic product, the broadest measure of goods and services produced across the economy, contracted at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.5% in the first three months of the year. The Commerce Department is due to release its initial estimate of first-quarter GDP on Wednesday. The report is likely to show the early impact of widespread disruptions in the U.S. economy caused by business and school shutdowns, social distancing and other initiatives aimed at containing the virus. These responses to the pandemic started in the final three weeks of the first quarter and were an abrupt shift from steady economic activity before the virus arrived. (Torry, 4/29)
NPR:
GDP Forecast: Economy Shrank In 1st Quarter. But Worst Is Still To Come
Forecasters say even though that shock affected only the last few weeks of the quarter, it was more than enough to erase the gains of the previous 2 1/2 months. Daco estimates the nation's gross domestic product — the broadest measure of economic activity — shrank an an annual rate of more than 5% during the quarter. That would be the first quarterly contraction since 2014. Unfortunately, he said, that's "only the tip of the iceberg." (Horsley, 4/29)
USA Today:
Coronavirus: COVID-19 Provides 'Opportunity' For US To Fight Poverty
Jeremiah Newson, 25, moved here from Chicago last year to be closer to his girlfriend and baby. He found a homeless shelter that helped him get three meals, transportation and medical care. When COVID-19 hit and he wasn't allowed to leave the shelter, Newson started sleeping on the streets where he thinks he's less likely to catch the coronavirus that causes the disease. But the poverty and homelessness he's faced since high school puts him and his immune system at high risk of other chronic health conditions that make him more vulnerable wherever he goes. (O'Donnell, 4/28)
The New York Times:
Federal Reserve Discusses Crisis, And Powell Will Meet Press
Federal Reserve officials are wrapping up meetings on Wednesday after two months of nonstop action to avert financial calamity as the coronavirus roiled markets and upended the world economy. The gathering is a chance to consider how to position monetary policy for the trials ahead. The Fed is now back on its regular schedule after two emergency meetings in March. (Smialek, 4/29)
The Associated Press:
Airway Experts' Work Puts Them Inches From Where Virus Lives
It starts with pulling on head-to-toe protective gear. Then comes a brisk walk down a hospital corridor, triple-gloved hands pushing a rattling anesthesia cart toward a door that leads to a frightened patient, gasping for air. Hundreds of times every week during this pandemic, doctors and nurses treating critically ill COVID-19 patients steel themselves for a procedure that remains anything but routine. (Tanner, 4/29)
The New York Times:
‘A Terrible Price’: The Deadly Racial Disparities Of Covid-19 In America
When the Krewe of Zulu parade rolled out onto Jackson Avenue to kick off Mardi Gras festivities on Feb. 25, the party started for black New Orleans. Tens of thousands of people lined the four-and-a-half-mile route, reveling in the animated succession of jazz musicians, high-stepping marching bands from historically black colleges and universities and loose-limbed dancers dressed in Zulu costumes, complete with grass skirts and blackface makeup, an homage to the Zulu people of South Africa and, for some, a satirical spit in the eye to the past, when Mardi Gras was put on by clubs of white men who barred black people from taking part. (Villarosa, 4/29)
The New York Times:
‘Will You Help Save My Brother?’: The Scramble To Find Covid-19 Plasma Donors
The doctor was dying. Without a way to improve his breathing, Dr. Vladimir Laroche was not likely to survive Covid-19. An internist who spent almost four decades caring for the sick, Dr. Laroche contracted the disease last month while treating patients at a health center and drive-up testing site for the novel coronavirus. In a week’s time, he quickly spiraled. He went from noticing a stubborn sore throat to experiencing flulike symptoms that forced him to leave work early to fighting the virus in the intensive care unit of a Florida hospital. (Burch and Harmon, 4/29)
The New York Times:
A Scramble For Virus Apps That Do No Harm
Faced with a growing coronavirus threat, the governor of North Dakota last month posed a question to a friend from his private-sector days. The friend, a software engineer, had once created a location-tracking app for football fans at North Dakota State University who liked to meet up when traveling to big games. “Can you track people for Covid?” asked the governor, Douglas Burgum. Within days, the engineer, Tim Brookins, had reworked the football app to do just that, he recalled in an interview. The app is now being used in North and South Dakota as part of statewide efforts to ramp up contact tracing for people infected with the coronavirus. (Valentino-DeVries, Singer and Krolik, 4/29)
The New York Times:
Why Zoom Is Terrible
There are reasons to be wary of the technology, beyond the widely reported security and privacy concerns. Psychologists, computer scientists and neuroscientists say the distortions and delays inherent in video communication can end up making you feel isolated, anxious and disconnected (or more than you were already). You might be better off just talking on the phone. The problem is that the way the video images are digitally encoded and decoded, altered and adjusted, patched and synthesized introduces all kinds of artifacts: blocking, freezing, blurring, jerkiness and out-of-sync audio. These disruptions, some below our conscious awareness, confound perception and scramble subtle social cues. Our brains strain to fill in the gaps and make sense of the disorder, which makes us feel vaguely disturbed, uneasy and tired without quite knowing why. (Murphy, 4/29)