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      in US Politics

      CDC director takes aim at Trump's Covid adviser: 'Everything he says is false'

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      The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was overheard on a phone conversation aboard a commercial flight saying a lead member of Donald Trump’s coronavirus taskforce has been spreading misinformation about the pandemic.Robert Redfield was overheard by an employee of NBC News on a flight from Atlanta to Washington. According to NBC, Redfield criticized Scott Atlas, a radiologist and Fox News talking head added to the taskforce last month.“Everything he says is false,” Redfield said about Atlas, NBC reported. Redfield later confirmed he had been talking about Atlas.Confirmed deaths from Covid-19 in the United States have passed 200,000 and the number of cases has passed 7m.Atlas, who has no background in infectious diseases but who appears to have the best current access to Trump of any medical adviser, has been frequently criticized by the scientific and medical communities for offering what public health professionals say is bad advice about coronavirus.On Monday afternoon, the top US public health expert and infectious diseases lead on the taskforce, Anthony Fauci, chimed in to tell CNN he was concerned that Atlas was at times providing misleading or incorrect information on the pandemic to Trump.“Well, yeah, I’m concerned that sometimes things are said that are really taken either out of context or are actually incorrect,” Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said when asked in an interview if he was worried Atlas was sharing misleading information.Atlas has misleadingly called into question the efficacy of masks and social distancing, has echoed Trump’s call for reopening schools, and perhaps most controversially has supported the purposeful contraction of the virus by young people to create so-called “herd immunity”.Public health experts warn that the viability of a “herd immunity” against coronavirus without a vaccine is unknown, given uncertainty about levels and duration of immunity in individual cases. They also say that achieving “herd immunity” would involve millions of infections and unknown thousands of cases of serious illness and death.Atlas is a former Stanford medicine professor and a senior fellow at the conservative Hoover Institution at Stanford University.His controversial statements drew an open letter from 78 former colleagues at Stanford medical school, who warned that his advice was dangerous.“Many of his opinions and statements run counter to established science, and, by doing so, undermine public-health authorities and the credible science that guides effective public health policy,” the letter said.Asked to respond to Redfield’s comments, Atlas told NBC News: “Everything I have said is directly from the data and the science.”In the judgment of Redfield and other specialists, that is not true. The CDC said NBC News heard only “one side” of Redfield’s conversation, but did not dispute the report.“NBC News is reporting one side of a private phone conversation … overheard on a plane from Atlanta Hartsfield airport,” the CDC said. “Dr Redfield was having a private discussion regarding a number of points he has made publicly about Covid-19.”On Monday afternoon, Atlas had spoken alongside the president at a coronavirus progress briefing, while his better-known White House taskforce public health expert colleagues, Fauci and Deborah Birx, were nowhere to be seen.Atlas insisted the country has a handle on the virus even though the US death toll surpassed 200,000 last week, and public health experts have admitted the pandemic is still out of control.But Redfield, who was also absent from the Monday White House briefing, had said “we’re nowhere near the end” of the pandemic, NBC reported.Cases are currently rising in 21 states and Vice-President Mike Pence, at the Monday briefing in the Rose Garden, said: “The American people should anticipate that cases will rise in the days ahead.”CNN later tweeted that when asked in an interview on Monday if the taskforce was working together or against each other, in light of the controversy over Atlas, Fauci responded: “Most are working together. I think you know who the outlier is,” in an assumed nod to Atlas.Meanwhile, Trump called the briefing to talk about a rollout of millions of rapid, easily administered Covid-19 tests, which he had already announced in August. More

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      in US Politics

      Trump again claims US 'rounding the corner' on Covid as Pence warns of cases rising – live

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      Vice-president says numbers will climb in coming days
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      Six key findings from the Trump tax bombshell
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      in US Politics

      The Guardian view on Trump’s tax take: only for the little people | Editorial

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      The emperor’s new clothes is a cautionary tale that politicians know well. A vain ruler who cannot resist buying new garments is sold an imaginary new suit. Out on a stroll in this “magical” attire, he is revealed to be naked by a little boy. Hans Christian Andersen’s exercise in groupthink has the emperor, despite the obvious, continuing to claim that he is garbed in finery. It is a subversive message; that power can bend the truth. Donald Trump thinks himself such a ruler.According to the New York Times, President Trump paid minuscule amounts of federal income tax – $750 in 2016 and 2017, and nothing in 10 of the previous 15 years. That’s because he had a reverse Midas touch with business. Rather than the self-made-billionaire image honed by The Apprentice, Mr Trump excelled at losing, not making, money. Mr Trump’s golf courses have lost $315m since 2000. This time it was the Old Grey Lady, not a child, who showed how Mr Trump was, figuratively, naked.The president’s reaction was to call the story “totally fake news”. He hopes this language resonates with his base and causes them to identify with him rather than listen to the facts. Mr Trump built a coalition by appealing more to conspiracy theory than to partisanship; and his strategy has been to supply his supporters with conspiracy theories to fight what they see as a conspiracy against them. He lies outrageously and often. His supporters may even appreciate his deceits. Many think all politicians are liars and consider those outraged by Mr Trump’s falsehoods to be hypocrites.But the New York Times story carries a sting in its long tail. Should Mr Trump win, he is liable for $300m in loans that will come due within four years. “His lenders could be placed,” the paper notes dryly, “in the unprecedented position of weighing whether to foreclose on a sitting president.” Being in hock to foreign entities would surely pose a major security risk. As the story is unfolding, its impact on the most important election in modern US history cannot be easily judged. The news arrived on the eve of the first presidential debate between the Democrats’ Joe Biden and Mr Trump. Mr Biden’s campaign was quick to cast the president as a leader who thought taxes were just for the little people, pointing out that teachers, nurses and firefighters all paid a lot more to the government than Mr Trump does.America seems broken by Covid-19 after four years of Mr Trump. Almost 30 million are claiming unemployment insurance. Hunger is growing. Two-thirds of households hit by coronavirus face financial hardship. Decades of worshipping greed has destabilised society. The lack of political pressure to compel Congress to extend the $600 per week additional jobless benefit when it expired in July was shocking – especially considering the Republican rush to push through Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s supreme court confirmation hearings. Inequality is a US national emergency. It ought to be addressed by increased taxes on the wealthy. Mr Trump won in 2016 by making promises to voters he was not going to keep. He cheated his working-class supporters, suggesting that many of their fears cannot be of concern. Mr Trump probably believed his own story. One hopes for the US’s sake that come November fewer people will trust him again. More

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      in US Politics

      UK to become WHO's largest state donor with 30% funding increase

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      Boris Johnson will announce a 30% increase in the UK’s funding of the World Health Organization, making the UK the single largest national donor after the US leaves.In an announcement at the UN General Assembly, he will urge it to heal “the ugly rifts” that are damaging the international fight against coronavirus.While Trump has denounced the WHO as corrupt and under China’s influence, Johnson will announce £340m in UK funding over the next four years, a 30% increase. He will also suggest the body be given greater powers to demand reports on how countries are handling a pandemic.The proposals will form part of a British vision, drawn up in conjunction with the Gates Foundation, of how future health pandemics could be better controlled, including “zoonotic labs” capable of identifying potentially dangerous pathogens in animals before they transmit to humans.Johnson’s pre-recorded video, on the final main day of the UN General Assembly and four days after most world leaders have spoken, comes at the end of a week in which China and the US have argued over responsibility for the virus. Both have refused to join the WHO effort to find a global coronavirus vaccine, preferring a national approach.Johnson will say: “After nine months of fighting Covid, the very notion of the international community looks tattered. We know that we cannot continue in this way. Unless we unite and turn our fire against our common foe, we know that everyone will lose.“Now is the time therefore – here at what I devoutly hope will be the first and last ever Zoom UNGA – for humanity to reach across borders and repair these ugly rifts. Here in the UK, the birthplace of Edward Jenner who pioneered the world’s first vaccine, we are determined to do everything in our power to work with our friends across the UN to heal those divisions and to heal the world.”Earlier at the UN this week, he said that the coronavirus “came out of left field, humanity was caught napping, let’s face it, we were woefully underprepared”.The extra UK cash comes ahead of WHO board meeting next week at which a joint Franco-German paper is to be discussed calling for more reliable, larger and less conditional funding of the WHO.The UK contribution will be set at £340m over the next four years, making it the most generous nation state contributor, Downing Street said. While the US is currently the largest funder, if Trump is re-elected president, it will pull out by next summer, taking with it as much as $900m in voluntary and compulsory contributions over two years.Apart from funding increases designed to help multilateral bodies and ensure equitable distribution of a coronavirus vaccine, once it is discovered, Johnson will also call for new pandemic early-warning systems, new global protocols for health crises and the removal of trade barriers.The WHO has set up an internal inquiry into its handling of the pandemic, including China’s role in informing the WHO that the virus was on the loose in the country.Johnson will also use his address to announce significant new investment in Covax, the international coronavirus vaccines procurement pool announced in April. The UK will contribute an initial £71m to secure purchase rights for up to 27m vaccine doses for the UK. He will also announce £500m in aid funding for the Covax advance market commitment, a facility to help 92 of the world’s poorest countries access any coronavirus vaccine at the earliest opportunity. The commitment is also designed to guarantee to private manufacturers that they will have a market for their vaccines, ensuring the necessary research and development takes place. Neither China nor the US have agreed to join Covax, preferring to keep their vaccine research under their own control.Johnson will use his UN speech to call for “a vast expansion of our ability to collect and analyse samples and distribute the findings, using health data-sharing agreements covering every country”.His speech contains no direct criticism of China’s sharing of data at the beginning of the crisis, Downing Street said. More

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      in Elections

      Trump expected to join thousands of mourners visiting Ruth Bader Ginsburg's casket – live

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      Ginsburg will lie in repose for two days at the court
      Cindy McCain endorsing Biden because ‘he’s the better man’
      Biden team prepared for all possibilities
      US essential workers burned out amid pandemic
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      Ruth Bader Ginsburg lies in repose at US Supreme Court – watch live

      Key events

      Show

      10.35am EDT10:35
      Fauci and Redfield testify before Senate committee

      9.57am EDT09:57
      John Roberts speaks about Ginsburg’s legacy

      9.45am EDT09:45
      Ginsburg’s casket arrives at supreme court

      9.27am EDT09:27
      Trump to visit Ginsburg’s casket at supreme court tomorrow

      8.44am EDT08:44
      Police in Iowa charge four people over death of man whose body was found burning in ditch – conclude it was not racially motivated

      8.20am EDT08:20
      Trump urges FDA to move quickly on Covid vaccines while praising new Johnson & Johnson clinical trials

      7.20am EDT07:20
      Statistical model at the Economist gives Democrats a 67% chance of flipping the Senate in November

      Live feed

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      11.14am EDT11:14

      In case you missed it: Trump will hold a press conference at 6 pm ET today, on the “economy, job gains and vaccine development,” the president announced in a tweet this morning.

      Donald J. Trump
      (@realDonaldTrump)
      White House News Conference today at 6:00 P.M. Economy, Job gains and Vaccine development are all doing GREAT!

      September 23, 2020

      The presser comes one day after reports emerged that the Food and Drug Administration is planning to release strict guidelines on an emergency use authorization of a coronavirus vaccine, which would make it very unlikely a vaccine would be approved before election day.
      Trump has previously said a vaccine will be available in “weeks,” but the CDC director, Robert Redfield, told the Senate last week that a vaccine would not be widely available to the American public until mid to late 2021.

      10.59am EDT10:59

      Lauren Aratani

      Four top health officials are testifying in front of a Senate committee on the federal government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.
      Dr Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, are among the experts that are testifying today.
      Perhaps alluding to comments Redfield made last week where he said a mask may be more effective than a vaccine, Fauci said: “We feel strongly that if we have a combination of adherence to public health measures, together with the vaccine that will be distributed, we may be able to turn the pandemic around.” He said that a prediction of a vaccine is “of course no guarantee”.
      In his opening statement, Redfield highlighted the shifting nature of infection in the country, saying that 26% of infections are in young adults ages 18 to 25. “It’s important that these young adults understand they are major contributors to the spread of covid-19 in our country at this time,” he said, emphasizing the importance of following public health guidelines.
      Director of the Food and Drug Administration Stephen Hahn and assistant health secretary Brett Giroir are also testifying today.

      10.48am EDT10:48

      Dr Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert, reiterated that he is “cautiously optimistic” that the country will be able to get a safe and effective coronavirus vaccine.

      ABC News
      (@ABC)
      Dr. Anthony Fauci “cautiously optimistic” about vaccine progress.”As these trials go on, we predict that sometime by the end of this year—let’s say November or December—we will know whether or not these are safe and effective.” https://t.co/CgurRa0bnn pic.twitter.com/0SlaaJfZsn

      September 23, 2020

      “As these trials go on, we predict that sometime by the end of this year—let’s say November or December—we will know whether or not these are safe and effective,” Fauci said of the current vaccine candidates.
      The Food and Drug Administration is expected to soon release strict guidelines on the emergency authorization of a coronavirus vaccine that would make it very unlikely for a vaccine to be approved before election day, on November 3.

      10.35am EDT10:35

      Fauci and Redfield testify before Senate committee

      Members of the White House coronavirus task force are now testifying before the Senate health, education, labor and pensions committee.
      Among those testifying are Dr Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and Dr Robert Redfield, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

      Play Video

      Anthony Fauci and Robert Redfield testify to Senate on coronavirus response – watch live
      Fauci opened his remarks by noting his concerns about so-called “long haulers,” those who have experienced long-term effects after contracting coronavirus, such as fatigue and muscle aches.

      Updated
      at 10.39am EDT

      10.28am EDT10:28

      Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s casket is now in place at the top of the supreme court steps, where it will be on public viewing for the next two days.

      Mitchell Miller
      (@mmillerwtop)
      Justice Ginsburg’s flag-draped casket is now in place under the Supreme Court portico. pic.twitter.com/JoO70ScOwA

      September 23, 2020

      Hundreds of people came out to greet Ginsburg’s casket as it arrived at the supreme court this morning, and thousands will likely visit today and tomorrow to pay their respects to the late justice.
      Trump will be among the mourners. According to a White House statement released this morning, the president plans to pay his respects tomorrow.

      10.09am EDT10:09

      One longtime supreme court reporter, Pete Williams of NBC News, became choked up on air as he watched Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s coffin arrive at the supreme court this morning.

      TODAY
      (@TODAYshow)
      Longtime Supreme Court correspondent @PeteWilliamsNBC gets choked up as the casket of Ruth Bader Ginsburg arrives. pic.twitter.com/zodG6znHjX

      September 23, 2020

      Williams noted Ginsburg sat on the bench for 27 years, but her career with the supreme court truly started 49 years ago, when she argued her first case before the court. In the case, Ginsburg argued gender discrimination was unconstitutional.

      9.57am EDT09:57

      John Roberts speaks about Ginsburg’s legacy

      Supreme court Chief Justice John Roberts is now speaking at the memorial service for his late colleague, Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
      Roberts expressed his condolences to Ginsburg’s family and said the late justice’s life represented “one of the many versions of the American dream.”

      ABC News
      (@ABC)
      Chief Justice John Roberts: “I offer our heartfelt condolences on the loss of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. That loss is widely shared but we know that it falls most heavily on the family. Justice Ginsburg’s life was one of the many versions of the American dream.” https://t.co/NnighCEWGt pic.twitter.com/icSF2zJ7wh

      September 23, 2020

      Roberts noted that Ginsburg grew up in Brooklyn with her mother, who was a bookkeeper. Roberts said Ginsburg often told this joke: “What’s the difference between a bookkeeper in Brooklyn and a supreme court justice? One generation.”
      Roberts added, “It has been said that Ruth wanted to be an opera virtuoso, but became a rock star instead.”
      Roberts said Ginsburg brought the country “closer to equal justice under law” and became “a star on the bench.”

      Updated
      at 10.02am EDT

      9.45am EDT09:45

      Ginsburg’s casket arrives at supreme court

      The casket of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has arrived at the supreme court, where she will lie in repose today and tomorrow. More

    • 175 Shares179 Views

      in US Politics

      Mitt Romney says he supports moving forward with Trump's supreme court pick – live

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      Senator says he intends to vote if nominee reaches floor
      Mitch McConnell non-committal on timeline of nomination vote
      Former Pence adviser calls Trump’s virus remarks ‘frightening’
      Why Trump’s courts power grab is more than just a political win
      AOC on supreme court battle: ‘This is not the time to give up’
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    • 163 Shares169 Views

      in US Politics

      Trump attacks China over Covid 'plague' as Xi urges collaboration in virus fight

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      United Nations

      US president uses speech to denounce China, UN and WHO
      Beijing has ‘no intention to fight a cold war’ – Chinese leader

      Play Video

      1:12

      China rejects Donald Trump’s ‘baseless’ coronavirus accusations – video

      Donald Trump and Xi Jinping offered starkly contrasting responses to the coronavirus pandemic on Tuesday, with the US president blaming Beijing for unleashing a “plague” on the world – and his Chinese counterpart casting the fight against the virus as an opportunity for international cooperation.
      In his recorded video address to the annual UN general assembly, Trump unleashed a rhetorical assault on China which seemed pitched at a domestic audience.
      Speaking as the US death toll from Covid-19 passed 200,000, Trump promised a “bright future” but said the world “must hold accountable the nation which unleashed this plague on to the world: China.”
      Trump also took the opportunity to attack the World Health Organization – falsely describing it as “virtually controlled by China” – and again incorrectly claiming that the international body had said there was no evidence of human-to-human transmission.
      The UN general assembly has itself been remade by the pandemic, reduced to a virtual event for the first time in its 75-year history, but sharp differences over the international response to coronavirus – and the contrasting world orders being offered by China and the US – were on clear display.
      Trump promised to distribute a vaccine and said, “We will defeat the virus, and we will end the pandemic” and enter a new era of prosperity, cooperation and peace.
      The US president also reprised his criticism of the UN, arguing that it should focus on what he described as “the real problems of the world” such as “terrorism, the oppression of women, forced labor, drug trafficking, human and sex trafficking, religious persecution, and the ethnic cleansing of religious minorities”.
      China’s UN ambassador Zhang Jun immediately hit back, saying: “The world is at a crossroads. At this moment, the world needs more solidarity and cooperation, but not confrontation.”
      That message of co-operation was repeated throughout tXi’s speech, in which the Chinese leader posed as the UN’s friend and offered extra cash to find a Covid vaccine, vowing Beijing has “no intention to fight either a cold war or a hot one with any country”.
      Xi said: “We will continue to narrow differences and resolve disputes with others through dialogue and negotiation. We will not seek to develop only ourselves or engage in zero sum game. Unilateralism is dead.”
      Echoing the sentiments of the UN secretary general António Guterres, Xi called for a global response to the epidemic, co-ordinated by the WHO – from which Trump has withdrawn and his presidential rival Joe Biden has promised to rejoin.
      In another implicit rebuke to the US, Xi sought to portray China as the country embracing modernity.
      He said: “Burying one’s head in the sand like an ostrich in the face of economic globalization, or trying to fight it with Don Quixote’s lance, goes against the trend of history. Let this be clear: the world will never return to isolation.”
      Trump tried to broaden his attack on China’s handling beyond Covid by condemning China’s carbon emissions record as well as its dumping of plastic. More