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solarbirdSame as every other edition lately, really. The attacks on health workers are starting to pick up a bit as the conspiracy loons merge with the neo-fascist consensus on calling for just massive exposure to coronavirus and death.
On the plus side, Walla Walla County has retracted their statement from yesterday about Coronavirus parties. So that's something, at least. Here, anyway.
----- 1 -----
She Said Anthony Fauci Sexually Assaulted Her. Now She Says Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman Paid Her to Lie.
After failing to frame Robert Mueller, Elizabeth Warren, and others for sexual misconduct, the infamous Trumpster hoaxers tried to go after Fauci. But the woman they hired to play the victim had second thoughts.
Nancy Rommelmann | 5.7.2020
https://reason.com/2020/05/07/she-said-anthony-fauci-sexually-assaulted-her-now-she-says-jacob-wohl-and-jack-burkman-paid-her-to-lie/
I'd just finished Saturday morning's second cup of coffee when an email popped through, subject line: "Exposing Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman."
"Hi Nancy, I hope you are having a nice weekend. I feel very bad about lying to you and others about Dr. Fauci. I took it upon myself to call Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman and record them (see attached)… Many thanks and again, I feel very bad about all this. I apologize to you, the other reporters and Dr. Fauci."
The writer of the email identified herself as Diana Andrade. I had never before emailed with Andrade, but had spoken with her 10 days earlier, when I knew her as "Diana Rodriguez." At that time, Rodriguez alleged that when she was 20 years old, in 2014, she'd been sexually assaulted by Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and one of the most visible faces in the government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
For those lucky enough to be unfamiliar with the exploits of Wohl and Burkman, they are pro-Trump provocateurs who've found a niche drumming up fake sexual harassment allegations that end comically badly, including against former FBI Director Robert Mueller (who turned out to have been serving jury duty the day he was supposed to have committed the assault) and Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren (the press conference for which took place on Burkman's stoop, and whose supposed victim was a 24-year-old Marine).*
----- 2 -----
The world came together for a virtual vaccine summit. The U.S. was conspicuously absent.
By William Booth, Carolyn Y. Johnson and Carol Morello
May 4, 2020
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/the-world-comes-together-for-a-virtual-vaccine-summit-the-us-is-conspicuously-absent/2020/05/04/ac5b6754-8a5c-11ea-80df-d24b35a568ae_story.html
LONDON — World leaders came together in a virtual summit Monday to pledge billions of dollars to quickly develop vaccines and drugs to fight the coronavirus.
Missing from the roster was the Trump administration, which declined to participate but highlighted from Washington what one official called its “whole-of-America” efforts in the United States and its generosity to global health efforts.
The online conference, led by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and a half-dozen countries, was set to raise $8.2 billion from governments, philanthropies and the private sector to fund research and mass-produce drugs, vaccines and testing kits to combat the virus, which has killed more than 250,000 people worldwide.
----- 3 -----
AP Exclusive: US shelves detailed guide to reopening country
By JASON DEAREN and MIKE STOBBE
https://apnews.com/7a00d5fba3249e573d2ead4bd323a4d4
GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) — The Trump administration has shelved a document created by the nation’s top disease investigators with step-by-step advice to local authorities on how and when to reopen restaurants and other public places during the still-raging coronavirus outbreak.
The 17-page report by a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention team, titled “Guidance for Implementing the Opening Up America Again Framework,” was researched and written to help faith leaders, business owners, educators and state and local officials as they begin to reopen.
It was supposed to be published last Friday, but agency scientists were told the guidance “would never see the light of day,” according to a CDC official. The official was not authorized to talk to reporters and spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity.
The AP obtained a copy from a second federal official who was not authorized to release it. The guidance was described in AP stories last week, prior to the White House decision to shelve it.
The Trump administration has been closely controlling the release of guidance and information during the pandemic spurred by a new coronavirus that scientists are still trying to understand, with the president himself leading freewheeling daily briefings until last week.
Traditionally, it’s been the CDC’s role to give the public and local officials guidance and science-based information during public health crises. During this one, however, the CDC has not had a regular, pandemic-related news briefing in nearly two months. CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield has been a member of the White House coronavirus task force, but largely absent from public appearances.
The dearth of real-time, public information from the nation’s experts has struck many current and former government health officials as dangerous.
----- 4 -----
Trump says doing too much coronavirus testing makes the US 'look bad' as he pushes for the country to reopen
John Haltiwanger
7 May 2020
https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-says-too-much-coronavirus-testing-makes-us-look-bad-2020-5
Though public-health experts have consistently said the US needs to ramp up testing for the coronavirus to contain and defeat it, President Donald Trump does not see it that way.
On Wednesday, Trump said that too much testing makes the US "look bad."
"So the media likes to say we have the most cases, but we do, by far, the most testing. If we did very little testing, we wouldn't have the most cases. So, in a way, by doing all of this testing, we make ourselves look bad," Trump said during a meeting with Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds.
----- 5 -----
Republicans praise Trump's pandemic response with Senate majority at risk
Breaking with the president may be more dangerous than sticking by him.
By BURGESS EVERETT and JOHN BRESNAHAN
05/06/2020
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/05/06/senate-republicans-trump-coronavirus-response-240454
Senate Republicans are settling on their pandemic message as they fight to save their majority: President Donald Trump did a tremendous job.
The coronavirus has killed more than 70,000 Americans, tanked the once-soaring U.S. economy and shows no signs of abating. And Trump’s ineffective leadership is largely to blame, say Democrats who are growing optimistic they can seize the Senate after being relegated to the minority for six years.
But nearly all GOP senators running for reelection have decided there’s little utility in breaking with the president, particularly after seeing some fellow Republicans collapse at the ballot box with such a strategy. And if the economy recovers and the virus dissipates by the fall, Republicans could benefit by sticking with Trump.
It’s the latest sign that Trump has nearly total control over his party. And that Republicans see their own political fortunes tied to the president’s, amid a global pandemic that will dominate both the presidential race and the battle for the Senate over the next six months.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), whose race could easily decide the Senate, said Americans won’t necessarily be voting with today’s drumbeat of 2,000 deaths a day and endless quarantines in mind. He predicted by August everything will look different.
“We’ll be doing million and millions of tests, we’ll do the antibody tests, we’ll have good reports, I think, on the beginnings of economic progress,” Tillis said. “And I think all those things will benefit the president and they’ll benefit me.”
Ask a Republican about Trump’s response to the outbreak, instead of edging away from the president, you’ll likely hear cheers that he shut down travel to China early and praise for his focus on the disease.
----- 6 -----
As Trump presides over an epic disaster, Senate Republicans see little to criticize
By Greg Sargent, Opinion writer
May 7, 2020
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/05/07/trump-presides-over-an-epic-disaster-senate-republicans-see-little-criticize/ Deaths linked to coronavirus in the United States have soared past 70,000, and there are over 1.2 million confirmed cases. In more than half of states that are lifting restrictions, “case counts are trending upward, positive test results are rising, or both.” More than 33 million people have filed jobless claims.
Meanwhile, President Trump is now preposterously insisting that “we have to open up” and that “testing is “overrated,” even though experts say we desperately need far more testing to “open up” safely. Trump has no intention of mounting a serious federal effort to make that happen, though this could put untold lives at risk.
But for Senate Republicans, Trump is doing a terrific job.
...
The back story here is that an internal GOP memo advising GOP candidates to avoid defending Trump’s handling of the pandemic — and pivot to blaming China instead — recently leaked, causing an intraparty explosion.
The Mad King cannot tolerate such criticism. So a top Trump aide informed a senior adviser with the National Republican Senatorial Committee that any GOP Senate candidate who follows such heretical advice — and declines to defend Trump’s handling of the pandemic — cannot count on the Trump campaign’s backing, and risks losing GOP voter support.
Indeed, the Senate GOP campaign arm frantically rushed out a clarification: “There is no daylight between the NRSC and President Trump.”
----- 7 -----
GOP Gov. Brian Kemp warns of new outbreak in heavily Latino area after he reopens Georgia businesses
An outbreak surrounding a Tyson food plant where 400 workers are infected is growing, the Republican leader says
Igor Derysh
May 6, 2020 9:19PM (UTC)
https://www.salon.com/2020/05/06/gop-gov-brian-kemp-warns-of-new-outbreak-in-heavily-latino-area-after-he-reopens-georgia-businesses/
Gov. Brian Kemp warned of a growing outbreak in the northeastern region of Georgia days after the Republican began taking steps to reopen businesses in the southern state.
Hall County has seen cases explode in recent days. The county has reported 1,882 confirmed cases of the COVID-19 and 27 deaths, according to the Georgia Department of Public Health.
The Latino community in the area has been the hardest hit, WGCL-TV reported.
"We've done a lot of testing in the community particularly in the Latino community," Caroll Burrell, the head of the Northeast Georgia Health System, told the outlet.
The state is sending a mobile medical unit to Gainesville, the biggest city in the county, and 100 doctors and health workers.
"They're being stressed pretty hard up there at the moment," Kemp said on Tuesday, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Dave Palmer, a spokesman for the health district, said that officials have been sending out messages in Spanish as well as English in an attempt to reach Spanish speakers in the area.
Kemp said the state would set up a mobile hospital site and deploy contract medical staff to the region.
"It's an investment for sure," he said. "We know that this isn't going away anytime soon, so we'll keep this facility stood up even if it's not being used for the foreseeable future. So whatever happens in the fall — or until we get a vaccine — it will help us continue to be ready."
Many of the infections came from a Tyson poultry plant, where more than 400 workers have tested positive, according to the Journal-Constitution.
----- 8 -----
Azar faulted workers' 'home and social' conditions for meatpacking outbreaks
On a call with members of Congress, health secretary defended conditions inside the meat plants, three participants say.
By ADAM CANCRYN and LAURA BARRÓN-LÓPEZ
05/07/2020
[EDITOR: This is so racist and vile I kinda want to CW it here.]
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/05/07/azar-coronavirus-meatpacking-workers-241915
The country’s top health official downplayed concerns over the public health conditions inside meatpacking plants, suggesting on a call with lawmakers that workers were more likely to catch coronavirus based on their social interactions and group living situations, three participants said.
HHS Secretary Alex Azar told a bipartisan group that he believed infected employees were bringing the virus into processing plants where a rash of cases have killed at least 20 workers and forced nearly two-dozen plants to close, according to three people on the April 28 call.
Those infections, he said, were linked more to the "home and social" aspects of workers' lives rather than the conditions inside the facilities, alarming some on the call who interpreted his remarks as faulting workers for the outbreaks, the people said.
"He was essentially turning it around, blaming the victim and implying that their lifestyle was the problem," said Rep. Ann Kuster (D-N.H.), who told POLITICO that Azar’s comments left her deeply concerned about the administration’s priorities in fighting the pandemic. "Their theory of the case is that they are not becoming infected in the meat processing plant, they're becoming infected because of the way they live in their home."
...
Azar noted in particular that many meatpacking workers live in congregate housing, allowing that more testing at facilities would help but that the bigger issue was employees' home environments. One possible solution was to send more law enforcement to those communities to better enforce social distancing rules, he added, according to two of the lawmakers on the call.
"Law enforcement is not going to solve the problem," Kuster said. "It was so far off base."
----- 9 -----
Washington [State] seems to be avoiding the dramatic nationwide spike in deaths during coronavirus pandemic
By Manuel Villa, Mary Hudetz and Asia Fields
Seattle Times staff reporters
May 7, 2020
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/times-watchdog/washington-seems-to-be-avoiding-the-dramatic-nationwide-spike-in-deaths-during-coronavirus-pandemic/
The first months of the novel coronavirus outbreak likely led to only a small rise in deaths beyond normal levels in Washington this spring, even as the fatalities in other states soared, according to an analysis of preliminary government data.
An analysis from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates there were about 156 more deaths, or 4% more than what would have been expected in Washington across a three-week period that ended April 11. The figure was dramatically lower than in other hard-hit states during the pandemic, including New York and New Jersey, where the number of estimated deaths combined was twice as much as expected.
While the figures are likely to change as states continue to submit data, the CDC analysis offers an early look at the pandemic’s full toll by examining all deaths, not just those already determined to be from COVID-19. A Seattle Times analysis of more detailed but also preliminary data from the Washington State Department of Health (DOH) also indicates there was not a statewide jump in the first quarter of 2020 compared to previous years.
“It’s hard to say for sure why, but it seems that even with the pandemic hitting Washington early, it didn’t seem to hit it as hard as places like New York or New Jersey or Massachusetts,” said Robert Anderson, chief of the mortality statistics branch at the CDC.
----- 10 -----
Walla Walla County retracts claim about ‘coronavirus parties,’ says they never occurred
May 7, 2020 at 9:30 am Updated May 7, 2020 at 10:18 am
By The Associated Press
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/health/walla-walla-county-retracts-claim-about-coronavirus-parties-says-they-never-occurred/
WALLA WALLA — Officials in Walla Walla County are retracting their claim that some people held parties in which they intentionally exposed themselves to the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.
Meghan DeBolt, the director of the southeast Washington county’s Department of Community Health, issued a statement late Wednesday saying her earlier remarks were incorrect.
“I formally call back my interview today,”’ DeBolt said in the new statement. “After receiving further information, we have discovered that there were not intentional COVID parties. Just innocent endeavors.”
DeBolt had told the Union-Bulletin newspaper this week that contact tracing had revealed some people were attending parties with the idea that it is better to get sick with COVID-19 and recover. She called such parties irresponsible.
----- 11 -----
Mask or no mask? New social tension splits Seattle-area residents in coronavirus era
By Ryan Blethen, Elise Takahama and Christine Clarridge
Seattle Times staff reporters
May 7, 2020
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/health/a-new-social-tension-in-the-coronavirus-era-those-who-wear-masks-vs-those-who-dont/
You know the scene. You and a fellow shopper spot each other across the grocery store parking lot as you both head toward the building. One of you is wearing a mask. There’s an exchange of side-eye, judgmental glances between a person deemed too paranoid and a person deemed too cavalier.
Since health officials began recommending everyone wear face coverings in public to reduce the spread of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, a new social phenomenon has emerged. Whatever strangeness people felt upon donning masks has been replaced by a wariness of anyone who doesn’t. Someone infected with the virus can spread it even without showing symptoms, so in the pandemic era, everyone is suspect.
The tension seems to build with each new diagnosis. As of 11:59 p.m. Tuesday, Washington state had 15,905 cases of COVID-19, including 870 deaths, according to the state Department of Health.
Grocery store chains say they strongly encourage shoppers to cover their faces to keep one another safe. On Monday, Costco started requiring it. And Whole Foods this week began providing free, single-use masks at all its stores, though it stopped short of requiring customers to wear them.
----- 12 -----
The Public Is Astonishingly United
Pollsters have finally found an issue that transcends partisan divides, with the overwhelming majority of Americans siding against President Trump.
David A. Graham
May 6, 2020
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/05/what-if-they-reopened-country-and-no-one-came/611182/
The complaint that Washington is out of step with Main Street has been circulating for roughly as long as each metonym has been in use. But it’s seldom, if ever, been more true than at this moment in the coronavirus pandemic.
The most active debate in politics at the moment—in the White House, in state capitols, and in the press—is about whether and how much to reopen the economy. President Trump has been fitfully pushing for the country to get back to work, has boosted fringe state-level protests demanding that restrictions end, and yesterday took his first trip in weeks, visiting a mask-manufacturing plant in Arizona.
But even as the national political discourse has adopted reopening as the central debate, polls repeatedly show that Americans overwhelmingly back restrictions and do not support reopening most businesses. The consensus is especially notable in an era when nearly every poll question seems to serve as a referendum on Donald Trump, with his supporters lining up against his opponents. Here, despite Trump’s pleas for reopening, Americans are remaining united—and not heeding him. What if government reopened the country, and no one came?
“I’m viewing our great citizens of this country to a certain extent and to a large extent as warriors,” Trump said yesterday. “They’re warriors. We can’t keep our country closed. We have to open our country.”
Apparently most Americans are not eager to think of themselves as warriors—or are simply wise soldiers, with strategy as their strength. A poll from The Washington Post and the University of Maryland released yesterday finds that eight in 10 Americans oppose reopening movie theaters and gyms; three-quarters don’t support letting sit-down restaurants and nail salons reopen; and a third or less would allow barber shops, gun stores, and retail stores to operate. An NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll last week found similar numbers: Nine in 10 Americans don’t think sporting events should have crowds without more testing; 85 percent would keep schools closed, and 80 percent would keep dine-in restaurants shut. There is no significant difference in views between residents of states that have begun loosening restrictions and those that have not.
----- 13 -----
‘Salute to Nurses’ parade crashed by gun-waving SUV driver who leads Pa. cops on chase
Updated May 6, 2020
By John Luciew
https://www.pennlive.com/coronavirus/2020/05/salute-to-nurses-parade-crashed-by-gun-waving-suv-driver-who-leads-pa-cops-on-chase.html
Salutes to nurses and other health care workers are being held across the country, as America pays tribute during the coronavirus pandemic.
But such a ceremony being held in Delaware County, Pa., was marred when a gun-waving SUV driver crashed a parade of first responders honoring the staff at Mercy Fitzgerald Medical Center Tuesday night, according to 6ABC in Philadelphia.
Police in Darby, Pa., said the male suspect threatened to hurt people while waving the gun.
The resulting police chase of the suspect in the SUV came crashing to an end when the male driver lost control of the vehicle and rolled it over at Main Street and MacDade Boulevard in Darby.
----- 14 -----
'What are we doing this for?': Doctors are fed up with conspiracies ravaging ERs
"I left work and I felt so deflated," one doctor said about an effort to counter misinformation he saw on Facebook. "I let it get to me."
By Ben Collins
May 6, 2020
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna1201446
At the end of another long shift treating coronavirus patients, Dr. Hadi Halazun opened his Facebook page to find a man insisting to him that "no one's dying" and that the coronavirus is "fake news" drummed up by the news media.
Hadi tried to engage and explain his firsthand experience with the virus. In reply, another user insinuated that he wasn't a real doctor, saying pictures from his profile showing him at concerts and music festivals proved it.
"I told them: 'I am a real doctor. There are 200 people in my hospital's ICU,'" said Halazun, a cardiologist in New York. "And they said, 'Give me your credentials.' I engaged with them, and they kicked me off their wall."
"I left work and I felt so deflated. I let it get to me."
Halazun, like many other health care professionals, is dealing with a bombardment of misinformation and harassment from conspiracy theorists, some of whom have moved beyond posting online to pressing doctors for proof of the severity of the pandemic.
And it's taking a toll. Halazun said dealing with conspiracy theorists is the "second most painful thing I've had to deal with, other than separation of families from their loved one."
----- 15 -----
One of Trump's personal valets has tested positive for coronavirus
By Kaitlan Collins and Peter Morris, CNN
Updated 12:37 PM ET, Thu May 7, 2020
https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/07/politics/trump-valet-tests-positive-covid-19/index.html
(CNN)A member of the US Navy who serves as one of President Donald Trump's personal valets has tested positive for coronavirus, CNN learned Thursday, raising concerns about the President's possible exposure to the virus.
The valets are members of an elite military unit dedicated to the White House and often work very close to the President and first family. Trump was upset when he was informed Wednesday that the valet had tested positive, a source told CNN, and the President was subsequently tested again by the White House physician.
In a statement, the White House confirmed CNN's reporting that one of the President's staffers had tested positive.
"We were recently notified by the White House Medical Unit that a member of the United States Military, who works on the White House campus, has tested positive for Coronavirus," deputy White House press secretary Hogan Gidley said in a statement. "The President and the Vice President have since tested negative for the virus and they remain in great health."
On the plus side, Walla Walla County has retracted their statement from yesterday about Coronavirus parties. So that's something, at least. Here, anyway.
- She Said Anthony Fauci Sexually Assaulted Her. Now She Says Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman Paid Her to Lie.
- The world came together for a virtual vaccine summit. The U.S. was conspicuously absent.
- AP Exclusive: US shelves detailed guide to reopening country
- Trump says doing too much coronavirus testing makes the US 'look bad' as he pushes for the country to reopen
- Republicans praise Trump's pandemic response with Senate majority at risk
- As Trump presides over an epic disaster, Senate Republicans see little to criticize
- GOP Gov. Brian Kemp warns of new outbreak in heavily Latino area after he reopens Georgia businesses
- Azar faulted workers' 'home and social' conditions for meatpacking outbreaks
- Washington [State] seems to be avoiding the dramatic nationwide spike in deaths during coronavirus pandemic
- [THIS IS A RETRACTION] Walla Walla County retracts claim about ‘coronavirus parties,’ says they never occurred
- Mask or no mask? New social tension splits Seattle-area residents in coronavirus era
- The Public Is Astonishingly United
- ‘Salute to Nurses’ parade crashed by gun-waving SUV driver who leads Pa. cops on chase
- 'What are we doing this for?': Doctors are fed up with conspiracies ravaging ERs
- One of Trump's personal valets has tested positive for coronavirus
----- 1 -----
She Said Anthony Fauci Sexually Assaulted Her. Now She Says Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman Paid Her to Lie.
After failing to frame Robert Mueller, Elizabeth Warren, and others for sexual misconduct, the infamous Trumpster hoaxers tried to go after Fauci. But the woman they hired to play the victim had second thoughts.
Nancy Rommelmann | 5.7.2020
https://reason.com/2020/05/07/she-said-anthony-fauci-sexually-assaulted-her-now-she-says-jacob-wohl-and-jack-burkman-paid-her-to-lie/
I'd just finished Saturday morning's second cup of coffee when an email popped through, subject line: "Exposing Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman."
"Hi Nancy, I hope you are having a nice weekend. I feel very bad about lying to you and others about Dr. Fauci. I took it upon myself to call Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman and record them (see attached)… Many thanks and again, I feel very bad about all this. I apologize to you, the other reporters and Dr. Fauci."
The writer of the email identified herself as Diana Andrade. I had never before emailed with Andrade, but had spoken with her 10 days earlier, when I knew her as "Diana Rodriguez." At that time, Rodriguez alleged that when she was 20 years old, in 2014, she'd been sexually assaulted by Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and one of the most visible faces in the government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
For those lucky enough to be unfamiliar with the exploits of Wohl and Burkman, they are pro-Trump provocateurs who've found a niche drumming up fake sexual harassment allegations that end comically badly, including against former FBI Director Robert Mueller (who turned out to have been serving jury duty the day he was supposed to have committed the assault) and Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren (the press conference for which took place on Burkman's stoop, and whose supposed victim was a 24-year-old Marine).*
----- 2 -----
The world came together for a virtual vaccine summit. The U.S. was conspicuously absent.
By William Booth, Carolyn Y. Johnson and Carol Morello
May 4, 2020
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/the-world-comes-together-for-a-virtual-vaccine-summit-the-us-is-conspicuously-absent/2020/05/04/ac5b6754-8a5c-11ea-80df-d24b35a568ae_story.html
LONDON — World leaders came together in a virtual summit Monday to pledge billions of dollars to quickly develop vaccines and drugs to fight the coronavirus.
Missing from the roster was the Trump administration, which declined to participate but highlighted from Washington what one official called its “whole-of-America” efforts in the United States and its generosity to global health efforts.
The online conference, led by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and a half-dozen countries, was set to raise $8.2 billion from governments, philanthropies and the private sector to fund research and mass-produce drugs, vaccines and testing kits to combat the virus, which has killed more than 250,000 people worldwide.
----- 3 -----
AP Exclusive: US shelves detailed guide to reopening country
By JASON DEAREN and MIKE STOBBE
https://apnews.com/7a00d5fba3249e573d2ead4bd323a4d4
GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) — The Trump administration has shelved a document created by the nation’s top disease investigators with step-by-step advice to local authorities on how and when to reopen restaurants and other public places during the still-raging coronavirus outbreak.
The 17-page report by a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention team, titled “Guidance for Implementing the Opening Up America Again Framework,” was researched and written to help faith leaders, business owners, educators and state and local officials as they begin to reopen.
It was supposed to be published last Friday, but agency scientists were told the guidance “would never see the light of day,” according to a CDC official. The official was not authorized to talk to reporters and spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity.
The AP obtained a copy from a second federal official who was not authorized to release it. The guidance was described in AP stories last week, prior to the White House decision to shelve it.
The Trump administration has been closely controlling the release of guidance and information during the pandemic spurred by a new coronavirus that scientists are still trying to understand, with the president himself leading freewheeling daily briefings until last week.
Traditionally, it’s been the CDC’s role to give the public and local officials guidance and science-based information during public health crises. During this one, however, the CDC has not had a regular, pandemic-related news briefing in nearly two months. CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield has been a member of the White House coronavirus task force, but largely absent from public appearances.
The dearth of real-time, public information from the nation’s experts has struck many current and former government health officials as dangerous.
----- 4 -----
Trump says doing too much coronavirus testing makes the US 'look bad' as he pushes for the country to reopen
John Haltiwanger
7 May 2020
https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-says-too-much-coronavirus-testing-makes-us-look-bad-2020-5
Though public-health experts have consistently said the US needs to ramp up testing for the coronavirus to contain and defeat it, President Donald Trump does not see it that way.
On Wednesday, Trump said that too much testing makes the US "look bad."
"So the media likes to say we have the most cases, but we do, by far, the most testing. If we did very little testing, we wouldn't have the most cases. So, in a way, by doing all of this testing, we make ourselves look bad," Trump said during a meeting with Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds.
----- 5 -----
Republicans praise Trump's pandemic response with Senate majority at risk
Breaking with the president may be more dangerous than sticking by him.
By BURGESS EVERETT and JOHN BRESNAHAN
05/06/2020
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/05/06/senate-republicans-trump-coronavirus-response-240454
Senate Republicans are settling on their pandemic message as they fight to save their majority: President Donald Trump did a tremendous job.
The coronavirus has killed more than 70,000 Americans, tanked the once-soaring U.S. economy and shows no signs of abating. And Trump’s ineffective leadership is largely to blame, say Democrats who are growing optimistic they can seize the Senate after being relegated to the minority for six years.
But nearly all GOP senators running for reelection have decided there’s little utility in breaking with the president, particularly after seeing some fellow Republicans collapse at the ballot box with such a strategy. And if the economy recovers and the virus dissipates by the fall, Republicans could benefit by sticking with Trump.
It’s the latest sign that Trump has nearly total control over his party. And that Republicans see their own political fortunes tied to the president’s, amid a global pandemic that will dominate both the presidential race and the battle for the Senate over the next six months.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), whose race could easily decide the Senate, said Americans won’t necessarily be voting with today’s drumbeat of 2,000 deaths a day and endless quarantines in mind. He predicted by August everything will look different.
“We’ll be doing million and millions of tests, we’ll do the antibody tests, we’ll have good reports, I think, on the beginnings of economic progress,” Tillis said. “And I think all those things will benefit the president and they’ll benefit me.”
Ask a Republican about Trump’s response to the outbreak, instead of edging away from the president, you’ll likely hear cheers that he shut down travel to China early and praise for his focus on the disease.
----- 6 -----
As Trump presides over an epic disaster, Senate Republicans see little to criticize
By Greg Sargent, Opinion writer
May 7, 2020
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/05/07/trump-presides-over-an-epic-disaster-senate-republicans-see-little-criticize/ Deaths linked to coronavirus in the United States have soared past 70,000, and there are over 1.2 million confirmed cases. In more than half of states that are lifting restrictions, “case counts are trending upward, positive test results are rising, or both.” More than 33 million people have filed jobless claims.
Meanwhile, President Trump is now preposterously insisting that “we have to open up” and that “testing is “overrated,” even though experts say we desperately need far more testing to “open up” safely. Trump has no intention of mounting a serious federal effort to make that happen, though this could put untold lives at risk.
But for Senate Republicans, Trump is doing a terrific job.
...
The back story here is that an internal GOP memo advising GOP candidates to avoid defending Trump’s handling of the pandemic — and pivot to blaming China instead — recently leaked, causing an intraparty explosion.
The Mad King cannot tolerate such criticism. So a top Trump aide informed a senior adviser with the National Republican Senatorial Committee that any GOP Senate candidate who follows such heretical advice — and declines to defend Trump’s handling of the pandemic — cannot count on the Trump campaign’s backing, and risks losing GOP voter support.
Indeed, the Senate GOP campaign arm frantically rushed out a clarification: “There is no daylight between the NRSC and President Trump.”
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GOP Gov. Brian Kemp warns of new outbreak in heavily Latino area after he reopens Georgia businesses
An outbreak surrounding a Tyson food plant where 400 workers are infected is growing, the Republican leader says
Igor Derysh
May 6, 2020 9:19PM (UTC)
https://www.salon.com/2020/05/06/gop-gov-brian-kemp-warns-of-new-outbreak-in-heavily-latino-area-after-he-reopens-georgia-businesses/
Gov. Brian Kemp warned of a growing outbreak in the northeastern region of Georgia days after the Republican began taking steps to reopen businesses in the southern state.
Hall County has seen cases explode in recent days. The county has reported 1,882 confirmed cases of the COVID-19 and 27 deaths, according to the Georgia Department of Public Health.
The Latino community in the area has been the hardest hit, WGCL-TV reported.
"We've done a lot of testing in the community particularly in the Latino community," Caroll Burrell, the head of the Northeast Georgia Health System, told the outlet.
The state is sending a mobile medical unit to Gainesville, the biggest city in the county, and 100 doctors and health workers.
"They're being stressed pretty hard up there at the moment," Kemp said on Tuesday, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Dave Palmer, a spokesman for the health district, said that officials have been sending out messages in Spanish as well as English in an attempt to reach Spanish speakers in the area.
Kemp said the state would set up a mobile hospital site and deploy contract medical staff to the region.
"It's an investment for sure," he said. "We know that this isn't going away anytime soon, so we'll keep this facility stood up even if it's not being used for the foreseeable future. So whatever happens in the fall — or until we get a vaccine — it will help us continue to be ready."
Many of the infections came from a Tyson poultry plant, where more than 400 workers have tested positive, according to the Journal-Constitution.
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Azar faulted workers' 'home and social' conditions for meatpacking outbreaks
On a call with members of Congress, health secretary defended conditions inside the meat plants, three participants say.
By ADAM CANCRYN and LAURA BARRÓN-LÓPEZ
05/07/2020
[EDITOR: This is so racist and vile I kinda want to CW it here.]
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/05/07/azar-coronavirus-meatpacking-workers-241915
The country’s top health official downplayed concerns over the public health conditions inside meatpacking plants, suggesting on a call with lawmakers that workers were more likely to catch coronavirus based on their social interactions and group living situations, three participants said.
HHS Secretary Alex Azar told a bipartisan group that he believed infected employees were bringing the virus into processing plants where a rash of cases have killed at least 20 workers and forced nearly two-dozen plants to close, according to three people on the April 28 call.
Those infections, he said, were linked more to the "home and social" aspects of workers' lives rather than the conditions inside the facilities, alarming some on the call who interpreted his remarks as faulting workers for the outbreaks, the people said.
"He was essentially turning it around, blaming the victim and implying that their lifestyle was the problem," said Rep. Ann Kuster (D-N.H.), who told POLITICO that Azar’s comments left her deeply concerned about the administration’s priorities in fighting the pandemic. "Their theory of the case is that they are not becoming infected in the meat processing plant, they're becoming infected because of the way they live in their home."
...
Azar noted in particular that many meatpacking workers live in congregate housing, allowing that more testing at facilities would help but that the bigger issue was employees' home environments. One possible solution was to send more law enforcement to those communities to better enforce social distancing rules, he added, according to two of the lawmakers on the call.
"Law enforcement is not going to solve the problem," Kuster said. "It was so far off base."
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Washington [State] seems to be avoiding the dramatic nationwide spike in deaths during coronavirus pandemic
By Manuel Villa, Mary Hudetz and Asia Fields
Seattle Times staff reporters
May 7, 2020
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/times-watchdog/washington-seems-to-be-avoiding-the-dramatic-nationwide-spike-in-deaths-during-coronavirus-pandemic/
The first months of the novel coronavirus outbreak likely led to only a small rise in deaths beyond normal levels in Washington this spring, even as the fatalities in other states soared, according to an analysis of preliminary government data.
An analysis from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates there were about 156 more deaths, or 4% more than what would have been expected in Washington across a three-week period that ended April 11. The figure was dramatically lower than in other hard-hit states during the pandemic, including New York and New Jersey, where the number of estimated deaths combined was twice as much as expected.
While the figures are likely to change as states continue to submit data, the CDC analysis offers an early look at the pandemic’s full toll by examining all deaths, not just those already determined to be from COVID-19. A Seattle Times analysis of more detailed but also preliminary data from the Washington State Department of Health (DOH) also indicates there was not a statewide jump in the first quarter of 2020 compared to previous years.
“It’s hard to say for sure why, but it seems that even with the pandemic hitting Washington early, it didn’t seem to hit it as hard as places like New York or New Jersey or Massachusetts,” said Robert Anderson, chief of the mortality statistics branch at the CDC.
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Walla Walla County retracts claim about ‘coronavirus parties,’ says they never occurred
May 7, 2020 at 9:30 am Updated May 7, 2020 at 10:18 am
By The Associated Press
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/health/walla-walla-county-retracts-claim-about-coronavirus-parties-says-they-never-occurred/
WALLA WALLA — Officials in Walla Walla County are retracting their claim that some people held parties in which they intentionally exposed themselves to the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.
Meghan DeBolt, the director of the southeast Washington county’s Department of Community Health, issued a statement late Wednesday saying her earlier remarks were incorrect.
“I formally call back my interview today,”’ DeBolt said in the new statement. “After receiving further information, we have discovered that there were not intentional COVID parties. Just innocent endeavors.”
DeBolt had told the Union-Bulletin newspaper this week that contact tracing had revealed some people were attending parties with the idea that it is better to get sick with COVID-19 and recover. She called such parties irresponsible.
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Mask or no mask? New social tension splits Seattle-area residents in coronavirus era
By Ryan Blethen, Elise Takahama and Christine Clarridge
Seattle Times staff reporters
May 7, 2020
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/health/a-new-social-tension-in-the-coronavirus-era-those-who-wear-masks-vs-those-who-dont/
You know the scene. You and a fellow shopper spot each other across the grocery store parking lot as you both head toward the building. One of you is wearing a mask. There’s an exchange of side-eye, judgmental glances between a person deemed too paranoid and a person deemed too cavalier.
Since health officials began recommending everyone wear face coverings in public to reduce the spread of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, a new social phenomenon has emerged. Whatever strangeness people felt upon donning masks has been replaced by a wariness of anyone who doesn’t. Someone infected with the virus can spread it even without showing symptoms, so in the pandemic era, everyone is suspect.
The tension seems to build with each new diagnosis. As of 11:59 p.m. Tuesday, Washington state had 15,905 cases of COVID-19, including 870 deaths, according to the state Department of Health.
Grocery store chains say they strongly encourage shoppers to cover their faces to keep one another safe. On Monday, Costco started requiring it. And Whole Foods this week began providing free, single-use masks at all its stores, though it stopped short of requiring customers to wear them.
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The Public Is Astonishingly United
Pollsters have finally found an issue that transcends partisan divides, with the overwhelming majority of Americans siding against President Trump.
David A. Graham
May 6, 2020
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/05/what-if-they-reopened-country-and-no-one-came/611182/
The complaint that Washington is out of step with Main Street has been circulating for roughly as long as each metonym has been in use. But it’s seldom, if ever, been more true than at this moment in the coronavirus pandemic.
The most active debate in politics at the moment—in the White House, in state capitols, and in the press—is about whether and how much to reopen the economy. President Trump has been fitfully pushing for the country to get back to work, has boosted fringe state-level protests demanding that restrictions end, and yesterday took his first trip in weeks, visiting a mask-manufacturing plant in Arizona.
But even as the national political discourse has adopted reopening as the central debate, polls repeatedly show that Americans overwhelmingly back restrictions and do not support reopening most businesses. The consensus is especially notable in an era when nearly every poll question seems to serve as a referendum on Donald Trump, with his supporters lining up against his opponents. Here, despite Trump’s pleas for reopening, Americans are remaining united—and not heeding him. What if government reopened the country, and no one came?
“I’m viewing our great citizens of this country to a certain extent and to a large extent as warriors,” Trump said yesterday. “They’re warriors. We can’t keep our country closed. We have to open our country.”
Apparently most Americans are not eager to think of themselves as warriors—or are simply wise soldiers, with strategy as their strength. A poll from The Washington Post and the University of Maryland released yesterday finds that eight in 10 Americans oppose reopening movie theaters and gyms; three-quarters don’t support letting sit-down restaurants and nail salons reopen; and a third or less would allow barber shops, gun stores, and retail stores to operate. An NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll last week found similar numbers: Nine in 10 Americans don’t think sporting events should have crowds without more testing; 85 percent would keep schools closed, and 80 percent would keep dine-in restaurants shut. There is no significant difference in views between residents of states that have begun loosening restrictions and those that have not.
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‘Salute to Nurses’ parade crashed by gun-waving SUV driver who leads Pa. cops on chase
Updated May 6, 2020
By John Luciew
https://www.pennlive.com/coronavirus/2020/05/salute-to-nurses-parade-crashed-by-gun-waving-suv-driver-who-leads-pa-cops-on-chase.html
Salutes to nurses and other health care workers are being held across the country, as America pays tribute during the coronavirus pandemic.
But such a ceremony being held in Delaware County, Pa., was marred when a gun-waving SUV driver crashed a parade of first responders honoring the staff at Mercy Fitzgerald Medical Center Tuesday night, according to 6ABC in Philadelphia.
Police in Darby, Pa., said the male suspect threatened to hurt people while waving the gun.
The resulting police chase of the suspect in the SUV came crashing to an end when the male driver lost control of the vehicle and rolled it over at Main Street and MacDade Boulevard in Darby.
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'What are we doing this for?': Doctors are fed up with conspiracies ravaging ERs
"I left work and I felt so deflated," one doctor said about an effort to counter misinformation he saw on Facebook. "I let it get to me."
By Ben Collins
May 6, 2020
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna1201446
At the end of another long shift treating coronavirus patients, Dr. Hadi Halazun opened his Facebook page to find a man insisting to him that "no one's dying" and that the coronavirus is "fake news" drummed up by the news media.
Hadi tried to engage and explain his firsthand experience with the virus. In reply, another user insinuated that he wasn't a real doctor, saying pictures from his profile showing him at concerts and music festivals proved it.
"I told them: 'I am a real doctor. There are 200 people in my hospital's ICU,'" said Halazun, a cardiologist in New York. "And they said, 'Give me your credentials.' I engaged with them, and they kicked me off their wall."
"I left work and I felt so deflated. I let it get to me."
Halazun, like many other health care professionals, is dealing with a bombardment of misinformation and harassment from conspiracy theorists, some of whom have moved beyond posting online to pressing doctors for proof of the severity of the pandemic.
And it's taking a toll. Halazun said dealing with conspiracy theorists is the "second most painful thing I've had to deal with, other than separation of families from their loved one."
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One of Trump's personal valets has tested positive for coronavirus
By Kaitlan Collins and Peter Morris, CNN
Updated 12:37 PM ET, Thu May 7, 2020
https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/07/politics/trump-valet-tests-positive-covid-19/index.html
(CNN)A member of the US Navy who serves as one of President Donald Trump's personal valets has tested positive for coronavirus, CNN learned Thursday, raising concerns about the President's possible exposure to the virus.
The valets are members of an elite military unit dedicated to the White House and often work very close to the President and first family. Trump was upset when he was informed Wednesday that the valet had tested positive, a source told CNN, and the President was subsequently tested again by the White House physician.
In a statement, the White House confirmed CNN's reporting that one of the President's staffers had tested positive.
"We were recently notified by the White House Medical Unit that a member of the United States Military, who works on the White House campus, has tested positive for Coronavirus," deputy White House press secretary Hogan Gidley said in a statement. "The President and the Vice President have since tested negative for the virus and they remain in great health."
