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The official U.S. coronavirus death toll surpassed 50,000, as some states began relaxing social-distancing restrictions, and President Trump denied suggesting that we inject sick people with bleach. A flawless day, start to finish. No notes!
- Doctors, lawmakers, and disinfectant manufacturers were extremely freaked out today, simply because the president of the United States said on television that scientists should look into injecting disinfectants into the human body as a possible coronavirus cure. (Name one president who hasn’t said this.) Trump also suggested that “light and heat” could do the trick. Dr. Deborah Birx quietly willed herself into a fugue state, the manufacturer of Lysol issued a press release urging consumers not to drink or inject disinfectant products, and a chorus of doctors stepped forward to beg Americans not to chug poison, please, they are very busy.
- In response to the outcry, Trump claimed today that it was all a big goof: “I was asking a question sarcastically to reporters like you just to see what would happen.” Nothing like an outrageous lie that undermines a different outrageous lie from your own press secretary. A snake oil salesman to the last, Trump also promoted hydroxychloroquine again, for old time’s sake, on the same day that the FDA issued a warning against using it as a coronavirus treatment outside of clinical trials, or without close monitoring at a hospital.
- While signing the interim stimulus package into law, Trump told reporters that he will not approve a loan for the U.S. Postal Service unless it hikes its package-delivery prices. Under the $2 trillion stimulus package Congress passed last month, the Treasury was authorized to loan the USPS $10 billion in emergency relief. It won’t do so unless the Postal Service starts charging more, which would allow its commercial competitors to raise their prices: FedEx and UPS would profit, USPS would lose Amazon’s business, and consumers and small businesses would be forced to pay more. It would hurt Jeff Bezos though, whom Trump hates, and isn’t that what enormous policy decisions are all about?
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Meanwhile, Democrats in Congress have a CVS-receipt-length list of questions about what’s happening behind the scenes.
- Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ), the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, wrote to the Health and Human Services Inspector General to request an investigation into Dr. Rick Bright’s removal from his job as the head of BARDA. Bright has already announced he plans to file a whistleblower complaint with the inspector general’s office. Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA), the chairwoman of the Energy and Commerce health subcommittee, plans to call Bright to testify before her panel, along with HHS chief Alex Azar, and Bob Kadlec, HHS’s Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response.
- Democrats are also keen to learn more about Jared Kushner’s “Project Airbridge” program, which flies in critical supplies from overseas, and then, instead of putting them into the national stockpile or distributing them directly to hard-hit areas, sends them to large private companies to sell to whomever they want, at whatever prices they choose. Taxpayers are picking up the tab for the charter flights, which average $750,000 to $800,000, and we don’t know whether the administration is favoring certain companies, or where the supplies are ultimately going.
It’s dangerous and sickening that the president is using his daily propaganda hour to give Americans deranged medical advice, and indefensible that networks are broadcasting it live. It’s also profoundly sad: Tens of thousands of Americans have lost their lives, and we have a president who lacks the basic human empathy to lead the country in mourning. We’ve lost 50,000 people. Take some time to read about a few of them.
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We cover the coronavirus every day here, but if you want to go more in depth into the latest news with an expert, check out America Dissected: Coronavirus with Dr. Abdul El-Sayed. He covers everything from the basics of the virus, to what the economy will look like afterwards, to big pharma’s role in our recovery, to the unequal burden of the pandemic by race. New episodes come out every Tuesday and Friday →
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President Trump owes tens of millions of dollars to China, which, in addition to raising questions about his coronavirus response, complicates his latest re-election campaign strategy. Trump’s campaign has begun ramping up its attacks on Joe Biden, trying to portray him as weak on China, and calling attention to the state-owned Bank of China’s role in a deal announced by Hunter Biden’s business partners in 2013. But that line of attack gets messy when you learn that a 2012 refinancing of one of Trump’s favorite New York buildings included a $211 million loan from, whoops, the Bank of China. That loan is due in 2022, which, if he’s re-elected, would put Trump in the position of paying millions of dollars back to a foreign government in the middle of his second term.
Trump campaign officials and Republican leaders have been in disagreement about the best way to boost Trump’s falling poll numbers. The RNC (and Kellyanne Conway) want to put out positive messaging about Trump’s performance, while the Trump team wants to kneecap Biden. The campaign sees linking Biden to China as the best way to do that, and it seems increasingly likely to blow up in Trump’s face.
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- Workers at Smithfield Foods pork plant in Missouri have filed a lawsuit alleging that the plant created a public nuisance by failing to take steps to prevent a coronavirus outbreak. Workers say the processing line forces them to stand shoulder to shoulder, and doesn’t even allow them time to cover their mouths when they cough, lest a piece of meat pass by them on the conveyance.
- Another Navy ship is dealing with a coronavirus outbreak at sea. At least 18 sailors aboard the destroyer USS Kidd have tested positive so far.
- Back at that first COVID-stricken Navy ship, the Navy’s highest-ranking officer has recommended that Capt. Brett Crozier resume his command of the USS Theodore Roosevelt, after he was fired for pleading for faster action to protect his crew from the coronavirus. Defense Secretary Mark Esper will decide whether to heed that recommendation. As of today, 856 sailors from the ship have tested positive, four are hospitalized, and one sailor has died.
- Stacey Abrams is making a direct case for being Joe Biden’s veep pick.
- Canada’s deadliest mass shooting began with the gunman assaulting his girlfriend, according to police. The woman managed to escape, and hid overnight in the woods.
- An Ohio federal court has once again ruled against the state’s attempt to restrict abortion access during the pandemic. The judge issued a preliminary injunction that would allow surgical abortions to go forward on a case-by-case basis, writing that the “procedure is deemed legally essential to preserve a woman’s right to constitutionally protected access to abortions.”
- A man was arrested for pulling a knife on a television news team covering last week’s anti-quarantine protest in Huntington Beach, CA. Christien Francis Petersen didn’t want to be identified as a rally attendee, and thus, naturally, forced a news team into their van at knifepoint to delete any footage in which he might have appeared.
- An asteroid over a mile wide will fly past Earth on April 29, but, alas, NASA doesn’t think it will hit us.
- Tom Brady accidentally wandered into a stranger’s house in Tampa, FL. You can’t go to sports, but if you live in Tampa and don’t lock your doors, just maybe, the sports will come to you.
- Take a peek behind the shallot pasta curtain (gross) with this delightful Alison Roman interview.
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Roughly half of the daycare centers in the U.S. are at risk of closing permanently, according to a new analysis by the National Association for the Education of Young Children and the Center for American Progress. More than 37 percent of child care centers have already laid off or furloughed staff, and 41 percent expect to do so in the coming weeks. That primarily hurts women, most of whom are minimum-wage earners. Many centers are unlikely to survive the temporary shutdown, which would have long-term economic ripple effects: Without safe daycare options, many parents (again, particularly women) won’t be able to go back to work. So far, daycare has been pretty much an afterthought in relief legislation. Early childhood education has received about $4 billion in block grants—child-care centers will need an estimated $9.6 billion per month to survive the pandemic.
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The University of Oxford has begun human trials of a potential coronavirus vaccine.
NASA scientists developed a ventilator designed for rapid production in just 37 days.
The Rockefeller Foundation announced a plan to eventually expand coronavirus testing by 30 million people per week.
The Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation has launched a $1 million fund to help freelance jazz musicians in New York City.
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