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Hispanics are almost twice as likely as whites to have lost their jobs amid pandemic, poll finds

Hispanics are almost twice as likely as whites to have lost their jobs amid pandemic, poll finds

The Washington Post reports: Hispanics are nearly twice as likely as whites to have lost their jobs amid the coronavirus shutdowns, according to a Washington Post-Ipsos poll, underlining that the pandemic is wreaking a disproportionate toll on some racial and ethnic groups. The poll finds that 20 percent of Hispanic adults and 16 percent of blacks report being laid off or furloughed since the outbreak began in the United States, compared with 11 percent of whites and 12 percent of…

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When Covid-19 arrived in rural America

When Covid-19 arrived in rural America

The Associated Press reports: Black people have been dying at alarming rates across the country: the latest Associated Press analysis of available data shows that African Americans represent about 14% of the population in the areas covered but nearly one-third of those who have died. By nearly every measure, coronavirus patients are faring worse in rural Georgia than almost anywhere else in America, according to researchers at Emory University in Atlanta. Although New York City had thousands more deaths, the…

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Trump vows to terminate health insurance for millions of Americans during pandemic

Trump vows to terminate health insurance for millions of Americans during pandemic

The Washington Post reports: President Trump said Wednesday he will continue trying to toss out all of the Affordable Care Act, even as some in his administration, including Attorney General William P. Barr, have privately argued parts of the law should be preserved amid a pandemic. “We want to terminate health care under Obamacare,” Trump told reporters Wednesday, the last day for his administration to change its position in a Supreme Court case challenging the law. “Obamacare, we run it…

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Lincoln Project has its biggest day of fundraising after president attacks ‘Never Trump’ group

Lincoln Project has its biggest day of fundraising after president attacks ‘Never Trump’ group

CNBC reports: The Lincoln Project, which is run by Republican operatives who oppose President Donald Trump, raised $1 million after the president ripped the group on Twitter this week – marking it the super PAC’s biggest day of fundraising yet. Reed Galen, a member of the Lincoln Project’s advisory committee, told CNBC that the total came after the president’s Tuesday morning Twitter tirade in reaction to an ad titled “Mourning in America,” which unloads on Trump’s response to the coronavirus…

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General population probably won’t have vaccine until the second half of 2021 — ‘and that’s if everything works OK’

General population probably won’t have vaccine until the second half of 2021 — ‘and that’s if everything works OK’

STAT reports: The WHO has called for equitable sharing of Covid-19 vaccines, insisting they should be seen as a global resource. But there have been concerns from the earliest days of this pandemic that countries that are home to vaccine production facilities will nationalize any output to ensure domestic needs are met before vaccine can be exported for use elsewhere. Robin Robinson, who led the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority from 2008 to 2016, said the agency has spent…

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Trump wants a coronavirus vaccine already and imagines Jared Kushner can deliver it at ‘warp speed’

Trump wants a coronavirus vaccine already and imagines Jared Kushner can deliver it at ‘warp speed’

The Daily Beast reports: Already under fire for his role atop a shadow task force aiding the administration’s response to the coronavirus, senior White House aide Jared Kushner is now being handed another critical job: helping get a vaccine for the disease developed in record time. President Donald Trump, who has said he believes a COVID-19 vaccine will be available by the end of the year, is turning to his son-in-law to help streamline the effort, branded, “Operation Warp Speed.”…

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Rising fears that Trump will incite a global vaccine brawl

Rising fears that Trump will incite a global vaccine brawl

Politico reports: When global leaders gathered virtually last month at the behest of the World Health Organization to commit to distributing a future coronavirus vaccine in an internationally equitable way, the United States didn’t join in. On Monday, the European Union is hosting a gathering for countries to pledge funding for research into vaccines and treatments for Covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. But once again the U.S. government isn’t expected to participate. The Trump administration’s apparent lack…

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As Trump touted reopening, his team privately sounded alarms

As Trump touted reopening, his team privately sounded alarms

Politico reports: President Donald Trump boasted on May 1 that his success in responding to the coronavirus pandemic has made ventilator, test kit and mask shortages a thing of the past, and that much of the country is ready to quickly send people back to work. “We’ve ensured a ventilator for every patient who needs one,” he said. “The testing and the masks and all of the things, we’ve solved every problem. We solved it quickly.” But that same day,…

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The growing and increasingly dangerous antagonism between the U.S. and China

The growing and increasingly dangerous antagonism between the U.S. and China

Cary Huang writes: The harshness of the language used and antagonism shown in the war of words between China and the US over the coronavirus outbreak is reminiscent of the Cold War confrontation in the 1950s and 1960s, when Pacific powers were engaged in war in the Korean peninsula and Vietnam. Indeed, the finger-pointing and name-calling has escalated steadily as the pandemic continues to ravage the world. US President Donald Trump and his top lieutenant, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo,…

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‘A large criminal enterprise’: Win or lose, Trump’s top campaign aides rake in the cash

‘A large criminal enterprise’: Win or lose, Trump’s top campaign aides rake in the cash

HuffPost reports: The bad news for President Donald Trump: He may well lose reelection later this year. The good news for his top campaign staff: They will wind up really rich either way. Brad Parscale, whom Trump named to run his 2020 effort in early 2018, has already collected $38.9 million through his companies from Trump’s various reelection committees between January 2017 and the end of March, according to a HuffPost analysis of Federal Election Commission filings. Gerrit Lansing’s payment…

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No scientific evidence the coronavirus was made in or escaped from a Chinese lab, says Fauci

No scientific evidence the coronavirus was made in or escaped from a Chinese lab, says Fauci

National Geographic reports: Anthony “Tony” Fauci has become the scientific face of America’s COVID-19 response, and he says the best evidence shows the virus behind the pandemic was not made in a lab in China. Fauci, the director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, shot down the discussion that has been raging among politicians and pundits, calling it “a circular argument” in a conversation Monday with National Geographic. “If you look at the evolution of the…

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New study shows just how badly black people have been hit by Covid-19

New study shows just how badly black people have been hit by Covid-19

Politico reports: Counties across the country with a disproportionate number of African-American residents accounted for 52 percent of diagnoses and 58 percent of coronavirus deaths nationally, according to a new study released Tuesday. The study, conducted by epidemiologists and clinician-researchers at four universities in conjunction with the nonprofit AIDS research organization amFar and PATH’s Center for Vaccine Innovation and Access, attempts to fill in the blanks as states report piecemeal data on race and ethnicity. The Centers for Disease Control…

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Whistleblower alleges Trump administration ignored dire Covid-19 warnings

Whistleblower alleges Trump administration ignored dire Covid-19 warnings

The Daily Beast reports: The Trump administration was warned in late January that it had a critical shortage of surgical masks needed to combat coronavirus and that it needed to prioritize the development of a vaccine. But it failed to take action, a top administration health official alleges in a whistleblower complaint formally filed on Tuesday. The complaint from Dr. Rick Bright, who led the government’s efforts to find a vaccine for the coronavirus before being reassigned to a position…

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Trump lashes out at conservative critics over ‘Mourning in America’ ad

Trump lashes out at conservative critics over ‘Mourning in America’ ad

Politico reports: President Donald Trump late Monday lashed out online against a cadre of conservative critics seeking to thwart his reelection bid — a group that includes attorney George Conway, the husband of White House counselor Kellyanne Conway. The president’s multitweet screed came in response to the latest anti-Trump advertisement released earlier Monday by The Lincoln Project, the super PAC launched last December by a handful of prominent disaffected Republicans and former party members. The ominous, minute-long spot — titled…

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Trump’s war on accountability

Trump’s war on accountability

In an editorial, the New York Times says: President Trump can’t handle the truth — at least, not when it makes his administration look bad. With his move Friday night to replace the top watchdog for the Department of Health and Human Services, the latest in a series of direct attacks on statutory oversight of his administration, it’s clear that the president remains committed to withholding the truth from the American people as well. Mr. Trump’s latest target, Christi Grimm,…

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Draft report projects possibly 200,000 new Covid-19 cases a day and 3,000 deaths a day by June 1

Draft report projects possibly 200,000 new Covid-19 cases a day and 3,000 deaths a day by June 1

The Washington Post reports: A draft government report projects covid-19 cases will surge to about 200,000 per day by June 1, a staggering jump that would be accompanied by more than 3,000 deaths each day. The document predicts a sharp increase in both cases and deaths beginning about May 14, according to a copy shared with The Washington Post. The forecast stops at June 1, but shows both daily cases and deaths on an upward trajectory at that point. The…

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