Coronavirus live – Trump declares US 'king of ventilators' as governors ask for more help

New York City mayor Bill de Blasio ramped up the rhetroic in his campaign for increased federal funding for US cities during the coronavirus crisis during his press briefing on Sunday, asking Donald Trump whether his administration was “going to save New York City or are you telling New York City to drop dead?”

As the Guardian’s Edward Helmore reports:

De Blasio’s dramatic language came during his press conference on Sunday, after he warned last week that he planned to cut a further $2bn from the city’s municipal services budget due to the economic downturn. He said the city was likely to lose at least $7.4bn in tax revenue over the current and next fiscal year.

De Blasio has criticized the $2tn coronavirus relief package that Trump signed last month, saying New York only received $1.4bn from the stimulus, compared with around $58bn for the airline industry. He has called for the next package, which congressional and administration leaders say they are “close” to reaching a deal on, to include tens of billions for states, cities and municipalities.

The mayor had harsh words for the president, claiming both he and the vice-president, Mike Pence, have ignored his overtures on the stimulus funds.

On Sunday, De Blasio sent a message to the administration that echoed a New York newspaper headline during the city’s bankruptcy crisis of the 1970s.

“There was that famous Daily News cover that said ‘Ford to City: Drop Dead,’” De Blasio said. “So my question is, Mr Trump, Mr President, are you going to save New York City or are you telling New York City to drop dead? Which one is it?”

“President Trump, what’s going on? Cat got your tongue?” De Blasio continued. “You’re usually really talkative. You usually have an opinion on everything. How on earth do you not have an opinion on aid to American cities and states?”

A sensational investigation co-published today by ProPublica and the Seattle Times shows how officials in the first US state to be hit by Covid-19 struggled to send the public a clear, consistent message in the early days of the pandemic, bowing to a professional soccer team’s desire to host a game with 33,000 spectators despite urgent warnings from the health department for a ban on large gatherings.

On March 6, at 2:43 p.m., the health officer for Public Health — Seattle & King County, the hardest-hit region in the first state to be slammed by COVID-19, sent an email to a half-dozen colleagues, saying, “I want to cancel large group gatherings now.”

The county’s numbers — 10 known deaths and nearly 60 confirmed cases as of late morning — were bad and getting worse. Many local events had already been called off for fear of spreading the coronavirus. Oyster Fest. The Puget Sound Puppetry Festival. A Women’s Day speaker series at the Gates Foundation. King County had ordered a stop to in-person government meetings unless they were considered essential.

The health officer, Dr. Jeffrey Duchin, was to the Seattle area what Anthony Fauci would become for the country, the doctor at the microphone, dispensing guidance. Under Washington law, Duchin also had authority to make his wish an order.

Duchin sent his email 28 hours before the Seattle Sounders, defending MLS champions and one of the league’s biggest draws, were to host a match at CenturyLink Field. No event in the coming days would generate a gathering to compare. The game would draw people from across the Puget Sound area, and maybe beyond.

In the end, the match went on. Two days after the public health department wrote on Facebook, “We are making a recommendation to postpone or cancel events greater than 10-50 people,” officials in King County allowed a soccer match to be held with 33,000 fans, squeezed together.

How that happened is captured in hundreds of pages of emails exchanged among federal, state and local officials, as well as executives from the Sounders, Seahawks, Mariners and XFL Dragons. Those records, obtained by ProPublica and The Seattle Times, show how one meeting would beget another, one email would beget a dozen more, all while the virus was taking rapid hold.

The most recent count of Covid-19 cases in Washington totals 11,802 infections and 624 deaths, according to the state’s Department of Health.

In a letter published in the New England Journal of Medicine as part of its ongoing Covid-19 Notes series, the chief executive of a Massachusetts hospital accuses the federal government of running an effective PPE blockade that’s prevented the delivery of critical equipment to states in need. Emphasis ours:

Our supply-chain group has worked around the clock to secure gowns, gloves, face masks, goggles, face shields, and N95 respirators. These employees have adapted to a new normal, exploring every lead, no matter how unusual. Deals, some bizarre and convoluted, and many involving large sums of money, have dissolved at the last minute when we were outbid or outmuscled, sometimes by the federal government. Then we got lucky, but getting the supplies was not easy.

A lead came from an acquaintance of a friend of a team member. After several hours of vetting, we grew confident of the broker’s professional pedigree and the potential to secure a large shipment of three-ply face masks and N95 respirators. The latter were KN95 respirators, N95s that were made in China. We received samples to confirm that they could be successfully fit-tested. Despite having cleared this hurdle, we remained concerned that the samples might not be representative of the bulk of the products that we would be buying. Having acquired the requisite funds – more than five times the amount we would normally pay for a similar shipment, but still less than what was being requested by other brokers – we set the plan in motion. Three members of the supply-chain team and a fit tester were flown to a small airport near an industrial warehouse in the mid-Atlantic region. I arrived by car to make the final call on whether to execute the deal. Two semi-trailer trucks, cleverly marked as food-service vehicles, met us at the warehouse. When fully loaded, the trucks would take two distinct routes back to Massachusetts to minimize the chances that their contents would be detained or redirected.

Hours before our planned departure, we were told to expect only a quarter of our original order. We went anyway, since we desperately needed any supplies we could get. Upon arrival, we were jubilant to see pallets of KN95 respirators and face masks being unloaded. We opened several boxes, examined their contents, and hoped that this random sample would be representative of the entire shipment. Before we could send the funds by wire transfer, two Federal Bureau of Investigation agents arrived, showed their badges, and started questioning me. No, this shipment was not headed for resale or the black market. The agents checked my credentials, and I tried to convince them that the shipment of PPE was bound for hospitals. After receiving my assurances and hearing about our health system’s urgent needs, the agents let the boxes of equipment be released and loaded into the trucks. But I was soon shocked to learn that the Department of Homeland Security was still considering redirecting our PPE. Only some quick calls leading to intervention by our congressional representative prevented its seizure. I remained nervous and worried on the long drive back, feelings that did not abate until midnight, when I received the call that the PPE shipment was secured at our warehouse.

A number of US governors from both sides of the aisle, including Virginia Democrat Ralph Northam and Maryland Republican Larry Hogan, have accused Donald Trump of making “delusional” and “dangerous” statements amid mounting pressure to roll back stay-at-home measures.

As the Guardian’s Richard Luscombe and Edward Helmore report:

Many state leaders have said they cannot embark on Trump’s recommended three-phrase programme to ease stay-at-home restrictions without a robust and widespread system of testing in place.

Researchers at Harvard University have suggested the US should conduct more than three times the number of coronavirus tests it is currently administering over the course of the next month, the New York Times reported.

Democratic Governor Ralph Northam of Virginia told CNN on Sunday that claims by Trump and Vice-President Mike Pence that states have plenty of tests were “just delusional”.

“We have been fighting for testing,” he said on CNN’s State of the Union. “We don’t even have enough swabs, believe it or not. For the national level to say that we have what we need, and really to have no guidance to the state levels, is just irresponsible, because we’re not there yet.”

Maryland, Virginia and Washington DC are still seeing increasing cases even as the epicenter of the US outbreak, New York, has started to see some declines. Boston and Chicago are also emerging hot spots with recent surges in cases and deaths.

“The administration I think is trying to ramp up testing, they are doing some things with respect to private labs,” said Republican governor Larry Hogan of Maryland during a CNN interview. “But to try to push this off, to say the governors have plenty of testing and they should just get to work on testing, somehow we aren’t doing our jobs, is just absolutely false.”

Tyson Foods, one of the world’s largest meat processors, has faced criticism after cases were linked to one of its plants in Waterloo, Iowa.

“My personal opinion is that it should be closed,” the Black Hawk county sheriff, Tony Thompson, told the Des Moines Register on Friday. “I think we need a hard boot, reset on that plant. I think we need to be able to sort out and cull the herd between the haves and the have-nots there. I think we need to deep-clean that facility and I think we need to restart that plant on a clean slate.”

That news was followed on Sunday by a CNN report that another plant in Tennessee had recorded 90 positive tests for Covid-19. The company says workers are required to wear face coverings during shifts and have their temperatures taken at the start of each shift.

A spokesperson for Tyson also said cleaning is a priority. “We have team members dedicated to constantly wiping down and sanitizing common areas. In some cases, this additional cleaning involves suspending a day of production,” the spokesperson said on Sunday.

The Miami Herald has reported on a problem facing one public hospital: agencies trying to headhunt staff during the Covid-19 pandemic. From the Herald’s report:

Staffing agencies have mounted attempts to poach the public hospital’s most crucial workers, even as the novel coronavirus upends operations and mashes its bottom line, with estimated losses of $25 million per month going forward under the status quo.

Plantada, who helps manage ventilators for critically ill COVID-19 patients, said the offers — as high as $7,000 per week plus room and board — are both aggressive and enticing. But she has no plans for leaving.

“We want to support our community,” Plantada said. “Most of the therapists down here, that is our priority: sticking by and being here for everybody else.”

You can read the full report here.

The Boston Celtics’ Jaylen Brown, who one NBA executive once described as “too smart” for the league or “his own good” is one of the most interesting athletes in the US (and not too bad a player either). He’s never been shy of criticizing the current administration either and has written an op-ed for the Guardian on the Covid-19 outbreak. He’ll also be on CNN tonight at 7.45pm ET to discuss the topic with Wolf Blitzer. Here’s an extract from his column today:

America’s lack of medical resources is barefaced, and the number of unemployment claims is at an all-time high. I understand the urge to protect your closest loved ones. However, if you have the means, I urge you to extend a hand to a neighbor or friend who may be less fortunate. As I write this more than 30,000 people have lost their lives in the US alone. Of those heart-wrenching numbers, the percentage of African Americans and people of color is both alarming and disproportionate.

You can read the full article below:

With Joe Biden effectively confirmed as the Democrats’ candidate for this year’s presidential election, the results of Wyoming’s Democratic presidential caucus don’t matter too much. Especially when Wyoming has the smallest population of any US state and only 21.6% of the state voted for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election. But, nevertheless Biden won the state’s Democratic presidential caucus on Sunday. Here’s more from the Associated Press:

Joe Biden has won Wyoming’s Democratic presidential caucus, which had been postponed for two weeks and scaled back to just mail-in ballots because of the coronavirus pandemic, state party officials said on Sunday.

The results come less than two weeks after Sanders dropped out and endorsed Biden, who is the only candidate still actively seeking the Democratic nomination. Voting began when it was still a two-candidate race. Biden beat Sanders 72% to 28%. A total of 15,428 votes were cast.

The Wyoming Democratic Party announced the results after tabulating votes Saturday and auditing the results overnight.

What was originally to be a combination of in-person caucusing, drop-off and mail-in vote tabulation on April 4 was scaled back to just drop-off and mail-in and finally just mail-in voting.

Thousands of protesters gathered at the Michigan state capitol last week in response to what they viewed as an overly strict stay at home order by Governor Gretchen Whitmer. Some protesters chanted “Lock her up” and demonstrations also took place in Ohio, Maryland and Texas.

Whitmer, a Democrat, has extended the stay at home order until 30 April and defended her policy on Sunday, saying it was helping save lives. As of Sunday morning, more than 2,000 people have died from Covid-19 in Michigan, the third highest number of deaths for any state in the US. Michigan ranks 10th among US state’s by population.

“You know my stay-home order is one of the nation’s more conservative, but the fact of the matter is, it’s working. We are seeing the curve start to flatten. And that means we’re saving lives,” Whitmer told CNN on Sunday. “Who among us wouldn’t rather forgo jet skiing or boating right now if it’s going to save your grandparent or your neighbor’s life and that’s precisely what the tradeoff is at the moment.”

Louisiana’s governor, John Bel Edwards, sounded a note of cautious optimism during a press briefing on Sunday. His state has been one of the worst affected by Covid-19 with only four other states recording more deaths from the virus.

“We’re in much, much better place today than we thought we were going to be,” Edwards said. He added that Louisiana has recorded a drop in the number of Covid-19 patients in hospital and fewer people are using ventilators.

There were 29 deaths in the state from Coronavirus announced on Sunday. “Now the number of cases and the number of deaths are lower than they have been for the last number of days, that’s a good thing, but I would caution everybody that typically on Sunday the numbers go down,” Edwards said. “It’s just a function of when the labs report and so forth, so what we would like to see is a continued downward trajectory tomorrow and Tuesday and on through the week.”

He also warned that life will not return to normal until a vaccine is released for Covid-19. Most experts believe a vaccine is at least a year away. “As always, I want to remind everyone that it’s going to take all of us working together and for some period of time to defeat this virus, get back to life as normal,” Edwards said. “We’re not going to see that for a while and I suspect we won’t fully see it until after there’s a vaccine that’s administered to the entire population.”

Australia’s former prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, has released a memoir and the Guardian has published extracts detailing his relationship with Donald Trump, who he describes as a “bully”. Turnbull was in power from 2015 to 2018 and is perhaps most famous in the US for a clash he had with Trump over an agreement, signed off by Barack Obama, for the States to take in refugees originally heading for Australia. He then details what happened when Trump pushed back:

Trump is a natural isolationist. Whether it was east Asia or the Middle East, Trump’s perspective was thoroughly dystopian. Everyone hated each other, had done for centuries and wasn’t going to change. So the less the US had to do with them the better.

After we’d had our one-on-one discussion and the media had left us, Donald suggested we ask [Turnbull’s wife] Lucy and Melania to join us. Melania was found first and Donald described the refugee deal. By now he knew, just as I had told him, there were no security risks among the refugees.

“Melania, do you know, Malcolm has 2,000 of the worst terrorists in the world locked up on a desert island and that fool Obama agreed to take them. Can you believe that? And now Malcolm has talked me into taking them too! He got me to do something I promised never to do! He is a tough negotiator!”

Melania smiled, faintly and mischievously. “Just like you, Donald,” she said.

The subject of an incandescent row a few months before was now something to make light of. It was just another deal.

You can read a more detailed extract here:

“The president is right when he gets up there and says the models had many more people dying,” Cuomo says of the statewide efforts that kept infections and deaths far below the CDC’s mid-March estimates of twice the nation’s hospital capacity. “This is a great success story … [but] don’t go backwards.”

Cuomo is then asked about President Trump’s tweet from moments ago:

“Great,” Cuomo says, taking a slightly more diplomatic tack than on Friday when he responded to a different Trump tweet with a scathing 16-minute rebuke. “States must do their part and the federal government must do its part. Perfect. That’s what’s called partnership.”

Cuomo announces a plan for an “aggressive” statewide antibody testing program, saying they will be able to sample thousands of people in the coming weeks and promising the data will provide “the first true snapshot of what we’re truly dealing with”.

“That will tell us for the first time, what percent of the population has actually had the coronavirus,” he says. “Any plan that is going to start to reopen the economy has to be based on data, which means it has to be based on testing.”

The state’s Department of Health will run the testing, but Cuomo stressed that cooperation with the federal government will be essential to helping with the supply chain and coordinating with private labs.

On ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos, the White House coronavirus task force coordinator Dr Deborah Birx gently endorsed President Trump’s decision to suspend funding to the World Health Organization by saying the first country struck by a pandemic has a “higher moral obligation” for communication and transparency.

“It’s always the first country that get exposed to the pandemic that has a – really a higher moral obligation on communicating, on transparency, because all the other countries around the world are making decisions on that,” Birx said, when asked if it was “fair to blame the WHO for covering up the spread of this virus”.

She added: “And when we get through this as a global community, we can figure out really what has to happen for first alerts and transparency and understanding very early on about … how incredibly contagious this virus is.”

Trump announced the decision to halt funding to WHO on Tuesday pending an investigation into its response to the coronavirus pandemic, accusing the group of “severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of the virus”.

Birx appeared to corroborate Trump’s timeline on Sunday, saying: “It wasn’t until the beginning of March that we could all fully see how contagious.”