The Hill’s Coronavirus Report: Rep. Khanna says President Trump threatening violence against US citizens; Trump terminating relationship with WHO
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY
> Trump terminating relationship with WHO
> US savings rate his record high as pandemic causes Americans to stockpile cash
> New York City mayor announced possible phased reopening of city, likely to begin next month
> Senate Democrats pump brakes on new round of stimulus checks
> How poop – yes poop – could help warn of the next coronavirus outbreak
> VA says it has ‘ratcheted down’ use of hydroxychloroquine to treat veterans
> No-lockdown Sweden reports economic growth in first three months of the year
> The mystery of the virus: Researchers puzzled why coronavirus has been more deadly in US and Europe than Asia
> Rep. Ro Khanna says President Trump threatening violence against US citizens, says we need a ‘21st Century Social Media Fairness Doctrine’; claims that early Santa Clara shelter-at-home order saved many lives
THE INTERVIEW
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.)
Rep. Ro Khanna says President Trump threatening violence against US citizens, says we need a ‘21st Century Social Media Fairness Doctrine’; claims that early Santa Clara shelter-at-home order saved many lives
Watch the full interview here.
THE HILL’S CORONAVIRUS REPORT
Editors’ Note.
There is a long-documented tension between America’s global do-gooders, usually called liberal internationalists, and realists, those who believe that the world is a nasty, anarchic and lawless place where self-interest rules. Realists often say that their mantra is “seeing the world as it really is, not as one would hope it to be.” This tension is a polite one in my view, usually anyway. But the need to see the world as it really is seems to me to be fundamental even if working on important projects that help others and make the world a better place. Helping lesser-developed nations and their citizens can be an effort embraced by both liberal internationalists and also realists. The liberal internationalists are deploying American soft power and reaping good will and trust in return. But the realists are also calculating, appropriately, that COVID-19 infections that break out anywhere in the world — particularly lesser-developed nations where there is less than adequate health infrastructure — will come back into the U.S. and spread elsewhere in the world. In other words, even idealism depends on an empirical understanding of the world and an understanding of returns built on investment and effort, which are grounded in elements of realism.
What worries me at the moment is the attack on realism — as defined by data, empiricism, science, by rationality. Michael Lewis in his book “The Fifth Risk” saw the attack on data coming. If there are no counters of things, no data to measure performance, then it’s harder to hold government officials, or a presidential administration, accountable. Certainly, the nation’s health will erode, planes may crash, crops falter and investments in science collapse — all of which will have a massive impact on national welfare, in the wrong direction. But Lewis profiled people in his book worried about a new political culture that wanted to wipe out our pursuit and management of “data.”
But it’s happening. The White House has just announced that it will forgo a summer economic forecast of predicted economic performance, given the pandemic. This is simply staggering. This is trying to jimmy the deck, to escape the gravity of realistic, empirical economic data and just skip beyond it.
On top of that, some U.S. cities and states as well as other nations may be purposely undercounting and underreporting COVID-19 deaths. Whether intentional or simply because the health system was overwhelmed, the undercounting may be very large. My colleague Reid Wilson wrote a fascinating piece Thursday on how sewage testing for the novel coronavirus may provide a far more accurate picture of virus incidence in a community. In one case, when there were 446 reported cases in Boston, a sewage-based survey indicated that the number of infected was approximately 115,000.
Without a commitment to data collection and management, there is no way for us to see the world — our world here in America as it really is — and no way to improve things and empower the kinds of innovations and approaches that will rid our society of this disease.
– Steve Clemons
Your Coronavirus Report team includes Steve Clemons, editor-at-large of The Hill, and researcher Andrew Wargofchik. Follow us on Twitter at @SCClemons and @a_wargofchik.
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THE HILL ‘VIRTUALLY’ LIVE
ICYMI: Catch up on last week’s programs
On Thursday, The Hill hosted “A National Virtual Summit on Advancing America’s Economy,” a forum to discuss a responsible reopening of the U.S. economy anchored by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. Watch the full program video here.
On Wednesday, The Hill hosted “The Vir[Tech]tual World of Tomorrow.” Watch the full program video here.
We want to hear from you! Follow us @TheHillEvents and keep the conversation going using #TheHillVirtuallyLive
CORONAVIRUS NUMBERS AT A GLANCE
There are 5,867,727 reported cases of COVID-19 throughout the world and a reported death toll of 362,238.
The U.S. is reporting 1,729,185 cases and 101,963 deaths as of the time of this newsletter.
Brazil’s cases continue to rise dramatically and the country is reporting 438,238 cases of coronavirus. Russia, with its 387,623 reported cases, saw a record daily rise in COVID-19 deaths today. The United Kingdom is reporting 272,604 cases. Spain, 238,564. Italy, 232,248. France, 186,364. Germany, 182,559. India, 172,569. Canada, 90,027. China, 84,119. Mexico, 81,400. Qatar, 52,907. Ecuador, 38,471. Singapore, 33,860. Columbia, 25,406. Japan, 16,673. South Korea, 11,402. Ghana, 7,616. Greece, 2,906. Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2,485.
New York is reporting 366,733 cases. 157,815 in New Jersey. 115,833 in Illinois. 103,936 in California. 94,895 in Massachusetts. 74,729 in Pennsylvania. 60,416 in Texas. 42,533 in Virginia. 33,915 in Ohio. 25,107 in Colorado. 23,531 in Minnesota. 18,791 in Iowa. 16,974 in Wisconsin. 12,989 in Missouri. 10,788 in South Carolina. 8,538 in the District of Columbia.
15,646,041 COVID-19 test results have been recorded in the U.S. and 399,991 have reported full recoveries from the virus.
WASHINGTON WATCH
Senate Democrats pump brakes on new stimulus checks. House Democrats looking to deliver another round of $1,200 relief checks to Americans are encountering skepticism from an unexpected source: fellow Democrats in the Senate. The $3 trillion House-passed measure is not only facing opposition from GOP senators, it’s also prompting Senate Democrats to raise concerns about what they see as a huge untargeted expenditure. (The Hill)
VA says it has “ratcheted down” use of hydroxychloroquine to treat veterans. The Department of Veterans Affairs has drastically scaled back the use of hydroxychloroquine to treat veterans with coronavirus infections after a major study raised questions about its efficacy and linked it to serious side effects, including higher risks of death. (Washington Post)
COVID-19 workplace complaints surge; unions rip administration. A surge in coronavirus-related workplace complaints is fueling criticism from unions and Democratic lawmakers that the Labor Department is ill-equipped to ensure workers are safe as more businesses reopen. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, a division of the Labor Department, has received more than 5,000 complaints pertaining to COVID-19, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Loren Sweatt told a House panel Thursday. (The Hill)
LAWMAKERS TWEETS
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)
@TeamPelosi As we are grieving the loss of 100,000 souls in America to the #coronavirus that has disproportionately impacted communities of color, bearing witness to the murder of George Floyd is especially painful. Mr. Floyd, his family and our country deserve for justice to be done.
Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.)
@RepNewhouse There is no reason we should be reliant on a communist country like China to maintain our status as defenders of liberty. By bolstering US mining & manufacturing, we can create jobs, strengthen our economy, and enhance our national supply chain into the future.
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.)
@ChrisMurphyCT FYI everything is not terrible. You helped me raise tens of thousands of dollars to get free books to low income kids in New Haven, Bridgeport, and Norwalk – key bc school and public libraries are closed. It’s been a huge success. Here are some pics from last Friday in Norwalk.
ACROSS THE NATION
As some hard-hit regions move to reopen, pandemic’s hotbeds shift. Slowing rates of infection in some of the hardest-hit parts of the United States have offered a glimmer of hope, as New York City, once the country’s main coronavirus hot spot, announced plans Thursday to ease restrictions after 10 weeks under lockdown. Yet as officials say a possible phased reopening there is likely to start next month, other parts of the nation and the world are bracing for the worst. Globally, the pandemic has shifted to Latin America and the Middle East, as the death toll — now at least 362,000 around the world — continues to rise. (Washington Post)
Millions of New Yorkers had been infected with COVID-19 by the end of March. More than 2 million New Yorkers had been infected with COVID-19 by the end of March — about 10 times the official count, according to a new study. State data, however, shows only about 189,000 cases by the end of March. That means about 1.8 million cases potentially went undetected. (CNN)
And this comes as NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) has announced a possible phased reopening of the city, likely to start next month:
Half of new COVID-19 cases in Washington state occurring in people under 40. Half of new confirmed coronavirus cases in Washington state are being recorded in people under the age of 40, according to a new analysis. (The Hill)
WORLD VIEW
No-lockdown Sweden reports economic growth in the first three months of the year. Sweden’s economy expanded at an annual rate of 0.4 percent during the first three months of the year, official data published Friday showed, following the government’s contrarian decision not to impose a full coronavirus lockdown. The Nordic country reported stronger-than-anticipated gross domestic product data for the first quarter, even as many other European countries recorded a severe economic contraction over the same period. (CNBC)
Researches ponder why COVID-19 appears deadlier in the U.S. and Europe than in Asia. It is one of the many mysteries of the coronavirus pandemic: Why has the death toll from COVID-19 apparently been lower in Asia than in Western Europe and North America? Even allowing for different testing policies and counting methods, and questions over full disclosure of cases, stark differences in mortality across the world have caught the attention of researchers trying to crack the coronavirus code. (Washington Post)
Monkeys steal coronavirus blood samples in India. A troop of monkeys in India attacked a medical official and snatched away blood samples of patients who had tested positive for the novel coronavirus, authorities said on Friday. (Reuters)
SCIENCE
How poop – yes poop – could help warn of the next coronavirus outbreak. Scientists looking for new ways to identify potential coronavirus outbreaks are turning their attention to what could be an early warning sign: the stuff you flush down the toilet. New studies increasingly show that the coronavirus’s genetic code can be detected in the remnants of fecal matter that flows through sewers and into sewage facilities, either in raw wastewater or in what is euphemistically known as sludge. (The Hill)
BUSINESS
Lockdown shopping: Chocolate chips, frozen pizza up; energy bars nosedive. Americans bored at home during the coronavirus lockdown are rediscovering their love of baking and cooking, reversing a decades-long trend that has reshaped the grocery store experience. Consumer data shows sales rising in what the grocery industry calls its center store, the aisles where cereals, baking products and cooking staples are found. On the other hand, deli sales are down, and sales of products like store-prepared meals have dropped sharply. (The Hill)
U.S. savings rate hits record as coronavirus causes Americans to stockpile cash. The personal savings rate hit a historic 33 percent in April, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis said. This rate — how much people save as a percentage of their disposable income — is by far the highest since the department started tracking in the 1960s. (CNBC)
GM increasing U.S. production of pickup trucks following coronavirus shutdowns. General Motors will return American plants that produce pickup trucks such as the Chevrolet Silverado to pre-coronavirus levels of three shifts. GM is expected to have the vast majority of its roughly 48,000 hourly workers back to work in U.S. plants by Monday. (CNBC)
ISSUES, CAUSES, PASSIONS
Many patients, little drugs: Who should get scarce COVID-19 treatment. How should we decide who gets promising drugs in short supply? In April, the National Institutes of Health announced that an experimental drug, remdesivir, accelerated recovery from COVID-19. Its manufacturer offered to donate 940,000 vials of the antiviral to the U.S. With no end to the epidemic in sight, this donation will likely be insufficient to treat all patients. But who should get the drug, if it cannot be made available to all patients? (Alison Bateman-House for The Hill)
Journalists and politicians love science, but traffic in fear. COVID-19 news coverage has put science in the middle of the news agenda. That makes sense on one level, given the nature of the biological threat and the expectation that science is called on to eliminate the crisis. The obsession with and worship of science, however, has its limitations. Science alone can’t address the broader sociopolitical, economic and ethical aspects of the COVID-19 emergency. The news industry hasn’t figured that out. (Jeffrey M. McCall for The Hill)
GENEROUS SPIRITS
Ford Motor Co. donates thousands of COVID-19 face shields to US military. Ford Motor Co. has finalized an agreement with the U.S. Department of Defense to donate 200,000 face shields to military bases across the U.S. and abroad to protect against the coronavirus. The face shields are constructed from car parts and made in Michigan as part of Ford’s response to the pandemic crisis. (Fox News)
ICYMI: STEVE’S INTERVIEWS, 15 MINUTES EACH
> Steve interviews Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security Director TOM INGLESBY
> Steve interviews CDC Director ROBERT REDFIELD
> Steve interviews Mastercard CEO AJAY BANGA
> Steve interviews Teva USA President and CEO BRENDAN O’GRADY
> Steve interviews US Surgeon General JEROME ADAMS
> Steve interviews former NIC Director GREG TREVERTON
> Steve interviews Topeka, Kansas Mayor MICHELLE DE LA ISLA
Watch all Coronavirus Report interviews here.
YOUR WORLD, YOUR STORIES
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