Two COVID-19 Whistleblowers in Washington, Airbnb Will Lay Off 25 Percent of Its Employees, Virus Hits Biggest City in the Amazon
ALSO: United Kingdom Death Toll Passes Italy's
The Butcher’s Bill
3,663,911 confirmed cases worldwide
1,199,314 recovered worldwide
257,288 deaths worldwide
Data is current as of 10:00 p.m. Pacific time on Tuesday May 5, 2020.
Sources: Johns Hopkins, U.S. data is from the New York Times, Italian data is from the Dipartimento della Protezione Civile, Spanish data is from the Ministerio de Sanidad.
NOTE: Some of the Johns Hopkins data is broken down to the state or provincial level, rather than a figure for the entire country. In these cases, the data is marked in the column as N/A.
To see the full list of data, go to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Research Center. I also recommend checking out the World Health Organization’s COVID-19 Situation Dashboard. Italy’s Department of Civil Protection has its own Italian-centric version of the Johns Hopkins website which you can view here.
Some observations about the numbers from the past 24 hours:
§ There are more than 3.5 million confirmed cases worldwide.
§ There are more than 250,000 deaths worldwide.
§ The United Kingdom’s death toll passed Italy’s, putting further political pressure on Boris Johnson’s government. Its death toll now ranks second worldwide.
§ The United States passed the 70,000 deaths mark on Tuesday (March 5).
§ For additional context, see the latest numbers on how the coronavirus pandemic compares to other events in American history.
White House Will Shut Down Coronavirus Task Force
President Trump and other administration officials are preparing to declare victory in the war on COVID-19, saying they had made so much progress to bring it under control that they will “wind down” the White House coronavirus task force in the weeks ahead, according to the New York Times. For all the happy talk though, the virus always gets the last word, and the numbers don’t lie:
The news of the winding down of the task force came as the rate of new infections and deaths was falling in New York but was continuing to rise in much of the rest of the country. A number of projections suggest that deaths will remain at elevated levels for months and are likely to increase as states ease their stay-at-home orders.
Still, Mr. Trump seemed eager to move past the pandemic on Tuesday. Venturing beyond the Mid-Atlantic for the first time in more than two months, he used an official appearance at the Arizona factory as his latest show of support for returning to normal life.
Several observers and Trump critics were quick to point out the parallel’s to George W. Bush’s infamous “Mission Accomplished” speech declaring an end to major combat operations in Iraq seventeen years ago. Numbers might be falling in places like New York, amid positive signs like the closing of temporary field hospitals at the Javits Center and Central Park, but the virus continues to spread elsewhere in the country. The coronavirus curve has become a plateau.
Trump Administration Has Two New Whistleblower Headaches to Deal With
Three months after Donald Trump was acquitted in his Senate impeachment trial – a process which began with an anonymous whistleblower complaint in the intelligence community – his administration has been hit with two more whistleblower complaints, both directly tied to its handling of the COVID-19 crisis.
The first, and potentially most damning whistleblower, is Dr. Rick Bright, the former director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (colloquially known as BARDA), who was removed from his post on April 20 and reassigned to another position at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as part of an unspecified “bold new plan” to defeat the COVID-19 virus.
Dr. Bright has lawyered up and filed a whistleblower complaint today with the Office of Special Counsel, pointing the finger directly at his boss, Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response Dr. Robert Kadlec. The two central allegations from the complaint:
§ “Once the COVID-19 pandemic hit, however, Dr. Bright became even more alarmed about the pressure that Dr. Kadlec and other government officials were exerting on BARDA to invest in drugs, vaccines, and other technologies without proper scientific vetting or that lacked scientific merit. Dr. Bright objected to these efforts and made clear that BARDA would only invest the billions of dollars allocated by Congress to address the COVID-19 pandemic in safe and scientifically vetted solutions and it would not succumb to the pressure of politics or cronyism.”
§ “HHS political leadership retaliated against Dr. Bright for his objections and resistance to funding potentially dangerous drugs promoted by those with political connections and by the Administration itself. Specifically, as detailed in the attached emails and other documentary evidence, Dr. Bright opposed the broad use of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine as lacking scientific merit, even though the Administration promoted it as a panacea and demanded that New York and New Jersey be “flooded” with these drugs, which were imported from factories in Pakistan and India that had not been inspected by the FDA.”
Dr. Bright’s lawyers are requesting that he be reinstated as BARDA director pending the investigation of his complaint. He is also scheduled to testify next week before the House Health Subcommittee, chaired by Rep. Anna Eshoo.
The second whistleblower is an anonymous member of the White House coronavirus response group helmed by presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner. According to a complaint filed last month with the House Oversight Committee first obtained by the Washington Post, this whistleblower alleged that many of the volunteers in this group – who came from consulting and private equity companies – were not matched well with their assigned jobs, including the crucial task of obtaining personal protective equipment for hospitals. More details from the Washington Post story:
The document alleges that the team responsible for PPE had little success in helping the government secure such equipment, in part because none of the team members had significant experience in health care, procurement or supply-chain operations. In addition, none of the volunteers had relationships with manufacturers or a clear understanding of customs requirements or Food and Drug Administration rules, according to the complaint and two senior administration officials.
“Americans are facing a crisis of tragic proportions and there is an urgent need for an effective, efficient and bold response,” reads the complaint, which was sent to the committee on April 8. “From my few weeks as a volunteer, I believe we are falling short. I am writing to alert my representatives of these challenges and to ask that they do everything possible to help front-line health-care workers and other Americans in need.”
Supply-chain volunteers were instructed to fast-track protective equipment leads from “VIPs,” including conservative journalists friendly to the White House, according to the complaint and one senior administration official.
It is a safe bet to assume there will be hearings, subpoenas, and full-blown investigations into this matter, now, and by any potential Coronavirus Commission in the future.
Bookmark This
Check out this interactive coronavirus tracking chart created by the Financial Times.
Wall Street Update
“The U.S. Is About to Get Punched in the Face”
From Ben White’s “Morning Money” column:
The week its gets really, really real — We’ve had one bad GDP number and lots of really bad unemployment claims numbers (and will get another on Thursday). But the true ugly toll of the Covid-19 impact on the American economy will punch us all in the face on Friday morning at 8:30 a.m. when the government reports the April jobs numbers.
Estimates vary but most put the number of jobs lost somewhere around 22 million, an unprecedented figure representing around 14 percent of the entire American labor force. The jobless rate is expected to rise from 4.4 percent to somewhere between 16 and 22 percent, a staggering jump close the Great Depression high of 24.9 percent. Remember to look at the size of the labor force if the unemployment number seems lower than expected.
Airbnb to Lay Off 25 Percent of Workforce
Yikes. From the Wall Street Journal:
Airbnb Inc. said it is slashing 1,900 jobs, or a quarter of its workforce, and cutting investments in noncore operations, as the home-sharing giant predicted the coronavirus pandemic would change its business even after more people start traveling again.
Co-founder and Chief Executive Brian Chesky told employees about the cuts in a memo Tuesday, adding that the company’s revenue forecast for this year is “less than half” of last year’s level.
“We are collectively living through the most harrowing crisis of our lifetime, and as it began to unfold, global travel came to a standstill,” Mr. Chesky told employees in a memo Tuesday. “Airbnb’s business has been hit hard.”
The pandemic also blew up the company’s plans to go public later this year.
As Lebanon Eases Its Lockdown, Concerns Shift to Poverty and Inflation
Lebanon has not been in the news much recently, but while it eases lockdown restrictions like so many other countries, its pre-existing economic and political problems have been exacerbated by the pandemic. According to Foreign Policy, Lebanese protesters have been taking to the streets since October calling for a new political system and an end to the country’s corruption.
Now, the country has to deal with the intertwined problems of inflation and poverty as its currency declines, defaulting on its national debt in March which is at 170 percent of GDP, and prices of consumer goods have risen by 50 percent. As much as 40 percent of the population could be in poverty, according to one government estimate. While the country’s lockdown was seen as largely successful at curbing the spread of the virus, it also made the economic problems worse.
Study: COVID-19 Virus Hit France One Month Earlier Than Previously Thought
The first coronavirus patient in France was a 42-year-old fishmonger from Algeria who had lived in France for many years who was hospitalized last December, according to a new study published by the International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents. Why is this significant? Several reasons:
§ Prior to this study, the first known reported COVID-19 cases in France were two individuals with a history of travel to Wuhan, China, dated January 24, 2020.
§ This Algerian man – who had not been to his native country since the previous August – went to an emergency ward on December 27, 2019, was admitted to the ICU with antibiotic therapy, and discharged two days later.
§ The Algerian – whose tissue samples were tested for this study and came back positive – was sick with the virus almost one month before the patients thought to be the first cases in the country.
§ The Algerian had no connection to China, and had not traveled recently.
§ The study concludes: “the absence of a link with China and the lack of recent travel suggest that the disease was already spreading among the French population at the end of December, 2019.”
Study: Senior Citizens in Retirement Homes Account for 42-57 Percent of COVID-19 Deaths
One of the sectors hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic around the world has been retirement homes. A recent study published in April by the International Long-Term Care Policy Network was able to quantify to a limited extent, what percentage of deaths were senior citizens in retirement homes, based on data for five countries:
§ Belgium: 1,405 out of 3,346 deaths (42 percent) were seniors in retirement homes. Ninety percent of facilities in the country had at least one case of COVID-19.
§ France: 6,177 out of 13,832 deaths (44.6 percent) were seniors in retirement homes. Of the 93,790 confirmed infections in the country, 35,864 were seniors in retirement homes.
§ Ireland: 156 out of 288 deaths (54 percent) were seniors in retirement homes. Of the 317 COVID-19 clusters identified in Ireland in early April, 109 (54 percent) were in retirement homes.
§ Italy: 3,859 deaths in ten percent of all retirement homes in the country over a six-week period, with varying mortality rates by region. An estimated 37.3 percent of deaths, accounting for roughly 3.2 percent the total number of residents, were associated with COVID-19.
§ Spain: 8,345 out of 14,555 deaths (57 percent) were seniors in nursing homes.
Coronavirus Hits Largest City in the Amazon
While Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro continues to downplay the risks and impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Manaus – the largest city in the Amazon – has been hit hard by the virus. From a BBC report:
In the middle of the rainforest, the virus has taken hold. Manaus, the Amazon's biggest city, is at breaking point. They are digging mass graves, or trenches. It is the only way overwhelmed authorities can cope with the deaths from Covid-19.
…
Amazonas has one of Brazil's highest infection rates and also one of the most underfunded health systems, a combination that has brought chaos to the heart of the jungle.
In April, Manaus saw a rise of 578% in the number of people who died from respiratory problems. They are not officially noted as victims of Covid-19 but experts believe there can only be one explanation. With testing still low, there is a massive underreporting of the real numbers.
As if the pandemic weren’t enough, there is a brewing political and constitutional crisis in the country as well.
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“What’s true of all the evils in the world is true of plague as well.
It helps men to rise above themselves.”
Albert Camus, The Plague