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Few Americans trust Trump’s info on Covid-19 pandemic

Few Americans trust Trump’s info on Covid-19 pandemic

The Associated Press reports: President Donald Trump has made himself the daily spokesman for the nation’s coronavirus response. Yet few Americans regularly look to or trust Trump as a source of information on the pandemic, according to a new survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Just 28% of Americans say they’re regularly getting information from Trump about the coronavirus and only 23% say they have high levels of trust in what the president is telling the…

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An Earth Day reminder on how the Republicans have abandoned the environment

An Earth Day reminder on how the Republicans have abandoned the environment

Elizabeth Kolbert writes: The idea for Earth Day came to Gaylord Nelson all of a sudden one day in the middle of 1969. That summer, “teach-ins” about the Vietnam War were all the rage. It occurred to Nelson, then the junior U.S. senator from Wisconsin: How about a “teach-in” about the environment? To attract the widest possible audience, Nelson, a Democrat, invited Representative Pete McCloskey, a Republican from California, to co-chair the event. The response was way more enthusiastic than…

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Vaccine expert ousted because he challenged Trump: ‘science — not politics … has to lead the way’

Vaccine expert ousted because he challenged Trump: ‘science — not politics … has to lead the way’

The New York Times reports: The doctor who led the federal agency involved in developing a coronavirus vaccine said on Wednesday that he was removed from his post after he pressed for a rigorous vetting of a coronavirus treatment embraced by President Trump. The doctor said that science, not “politics and cronyism,” must lead the way. Dr. Rick Bright was abruptly dismissed this week as the director of the Department of Health and Human Services’ Biomedical Advanced Research and Development…

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Former Labradoodle breeder, with little public health experience, was chosen to lead U.S. pandemic task force

Former Labradoodle breeder, with little public health experience, was chosen to lead U.S. pandemic task force

Reuters reports: “We developed a diagnostic test at the CDC, so we can confirm if somebody has this,” Azar said. “We will be spreading that diagnostic around the country so that we are able to do rapid testing on site.” While coronavirus in Wuhan, China, was “potentially serious,” Azar assured viewers in America, it “was one for which we have a playbook.” Azar’s initial comments misfired on two fronts. Like many U.S. officials, from President Donald Trump on down, he…

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Leading economist: U.S. coronavirus response is like ‘third world’ country

Leading economist: U.S. coronavirus response is like ‘third world’ country

The Guardian reports: Donald Trump’s botched handling of the Covid-19 crisis has left the US looking like a “third world” country and on course for a second Great Depression, one of the world’s leading economists has warned. In a withering attack on the president, Joseph Stiglitz said millions of people were turning to food banks, turning up for work due to a lack of sick pay and dying because of health inequalities. The Nobel prize-winning economist said: “The numbers turning…

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CDC director warns second wave of coronavirus this winter will likely be much worse

CDC director warns second wave of coronavirus this winter will likely be much worse

The Washington Post reports: Even as states move ahead with plans to reopen their economies, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned Tuesday that a second wave of the novel coronavirus will be far more dire because it is likely to coincide with the start of flu season. “There’s a possibility that the assault of the virus on our nation next winter will actually be even more difficult than the one we just went through,” CDC…

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Federal health officials estimate more than 300,000 Americans could die if all restrictions are lifted

Federal health officials estimate more than 300,000 Americans could die if all restrictions are lifted

The Center for Public Integrity reports: Federal health officials estimated in early April that more than 300,000 Americans could die from COVID-19 if all social distancing measures are abandoned, and later estimates pushed the possible death toll even higher, according to documents obtained by the Center for Public Integrity. Some outside experts say even that grim outlook may be too optimistic. The documents created by the Department of Health and Human Services spell out the data and analysis the agency…

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Trump’s bumpy rollout of coronavirus testing represents a major vulnerability in an election year

Trump’s bumpy rollout of coronavirus testing represents a major vulnerability in an election year

Politico reports: President Donald Trump’s political fate now hinges on a simple premise: Everybody who needs a coronavirus test must be able to get a test. More than five weeks into a devastating shutdown of the U.S. economy, Trump’s aides and advisers inside and outside his administration now view disapproval of his preparedness for the coronavirus pandemic as his biggest political liability heading into the 2020 election. The president and his team in the White House are rushing to counter…

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More deaths, no benefit from malaria drug promoted by Trump, VA virus study shows

More deaths, no benefit from malaria drug promoted by Trump, VA virus study shows

The Associated Press reports: A malaria drug widely touted by President Donald Trump for treating the new coronavirus showed no benefit in a large analysis of its use in U.S. veterans hospitals. There were more deaths among those given hydroxychloroquine versus standard care, researchers reported. The nationwide study was not a rigorous experiment. But with 368 patients, it’s the largest look so far of hydroxychloroquine with or without the antibiotic azithromycin for COVID-19, which has killed more than 171,000 people…

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Trump’s crisis mismanagement is alienating seniors

Trump’s crisis mismanagement is alienating seniors

Josh Kraushaar writes: A fundamental rule of politics is the party that’s divided is the one that’s losing. A cardinal rule of pandemic politics is that it’s better to err on the side of caution instead of taking risks that would invite a political backlash. There are no libertarians in a crisis, but there will be lots of angry voters if a public official’s ideological commitments lead them to make decisions that endanger public health. President Trump has brazenly broken…

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Unless he wants Americans to starve, Trump’s latest ban will exempt largest source of immigrants

Unless he wants Americans to starve, Trump’s latest ban will exempt largest source of immigrants

Politico reports: President Donald Trump’s announcement that he would soon suspend immigration into the U.S. surprised his own officials and likely overstated the extent of the still-developing executive order. Already, much of the immigration flow into the country has been paused during the coronavirus pandemic, as the government has temporarily stopped processing all nonworker visas. And, according to three industry representatives familiar with the decision, the upcoming ban will exempt seasonal foreign farmworker visas, one of the largest sources of…

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Senate Intel report confirms Russia aimed to help Trump get elected in 2016

Senate Intel report confirms Russia aimed to help Trump get elected in 2016

Politico reports: The Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday reaffirmed its support for the U.S. intelligence community’s conclusion that the Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential election with the goal of putting Donald Trump in the Oval Office. Tuesday’s bipartisan report, from a panel chaired by North Carolina Republican Richard Burr, undercuts Trump’s years of efforts to portray allegations of Kremlin assistance to his campaign as a “hoax,” driven by Democrats and a “deep state” embedded within the government bureaucracy….

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Angela Merkel’s training as a scientist could save Germany

Angela Merkel’s training as a scientist could save Germany

Saskia Miller writes: Today, we face the global outbreak of a disease that has the potential to catalyze what the historian Eva Schlotheuber terms a “pandemic of the mind.” As misinformation proliferates and lines between fact and fiction are routinely and nonchalantly crossed, world leaders must, now more than ever, illuminate a thoughtful path forward, one reliant on science and evidence-based reasoning. Indeed, many have. One leader goes further still. Trusted by her people to navigate this outbreak’s murky waters,…

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Government Accountability Office unleashes wave of audits on Trump’s handling of the coronavirus crisis

Government Accountability Office unleashes wave of audits on Trump’s handling of the coronavirus crisis

Politico reports: Lawmakers handed President Donald Trump $2 trillion in coronavirus relief — and then left town without activating any of the powerful new oversight tools meant to hold his administration accountable. But with little fanfare, Congress’ independent, in-house watchdog is preparing a blizzard of audits that will become the first wide-ranging check on Trump’s handling of the sprawling national rescue effort. And even as Trump has gone to war against internal watchdogs in his administration, the Government Accountability Office…

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Overwhelming majority of Americans oppose the lockdown protests that Trump supports

Overwhelming majority of Americans oppose the lockdown protests that Trump supports

Yahoo News reports: An overwhelming majority of Americans, Republicans included, are rejecting right-wing protests — encouraged by President Trump — to immediately “reopen” the country in the midst of the world’s largest and deadliest coronavirus outbreak, according to a new Yahoo News/YouGov poll. The survey, conducted April 17 to April 19, found that a full 60 percent of the public opposes the largely pro-Trump protesters whose calls for governors to “liberate” their states by lifting lockdown measures have attracted intense…

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Trump wants to starve the states into opening before it’s safe

Trump wants to starve the states into opening before it’s safe

Jonathan Chait writes: President Trump’s current pandemic strategy — emphasize current; like the cliché about the weather, if you don’t like it, wait a few hours — is a baffling knot of contradictions. He is hurling all responsibility to state governments, leaving it to them to devise effective tests and to decide when to relax social distancing. At the same time, he is starving them of the resources to handle the job. And even as Trump hides behind a policy…

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