Here’s another catch-up recap. This is the week my family ends our Napa vacation early and chases the shutdowns from Northern California down to Los Angeles and Palm Springs and even out to Colorado. It‘s surreal listening to the news while motoring through California’s stunning landscape. It’s also the week Trump said he always viewed this as a pandemic, even long before it was ever called a pandemic. But he also says, “Nobody knew there would be a pandemic or epidemic of this proportion.” In reality, Trump has been playing down the dangers of the virus while also taking some steps to mitigate the spread. So mixed messages.

Here’s what happened in politics for the week ending March 22…

Shootings This Week:

1. There were 5 mass shootings in the U.S. this week (defined as killing and/or injuring 4 or more people). Shooters kill 1 people and injure 23 more.

Russia:

1. In a continuation of reversing or lessening charges brought as a result of Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, the Department of Justice drops its case against Russian companies Concord Management and Consulting and Concord Catering.

• • The companies were charged with conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government by meddling in the 2016 elections.
  • The case was set to go to trial in a few weeks.

Legal Fallout:

1. Former Representative Duncan Hunter (R-CA) receives an 11-month sentence for stealing campaign funds.

• • Fun fact #1: Duncan Hunter was indicted on 60 counts in 2018, yet he was still re-elected to the House.
  • Fun fact #2: When I called into that district during the elections, people told me they’d rather vote for a criminal than a Democrat. Hunter was out of office within a year.

2. After receiving a classified briefing on the coronavirus pandemic, Senator Richard Burr (R-NC) warned some of his private wealthy donors about the dangers of the COVID-19 pandemic but he didn’t publicly contradict Trump when he downplayed the pandemic.

• • And then Burr sold off up to $1.7 million in stocks. In the week after that sale, the market started to slump and has lost close to 30% since.
  • A week prior to the stock trades, Burr co-wrote a reassuring op-ed about the pandemic for Fox News.
  • Burr requests a Senate ethics investigation into his stock trades.

• • Senator Kelly Loeffler (R-GA), who is married to the CEO of the company that owns the New York stock exchange, also traded millions of dollars in stocks, selling shares in retail companies and purchasing stock in a company that makes medical protective gear.
  • Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Jim Inhofe (R-OK) also had stock trades, but they do not seem suspicious at this time. Neither were at the classified briefing.
  • Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) is also accused of selling off stock after the briefings, but his sales seem to be part of a two-year selloff of shares of his family’s company.
  • Caveat: When I say they traded stock, for the most part, somebody else made those trades as is customary for Members of Congress.

Courts/Justice:

1. In light of the coronavirus pandemic, the Justice Department asks Congress to allow judges to detain people indefinitely without trial during emergencies. They also request authority to extend deadlines for prosecutions and the authority to pause at any point in the justice system (from pre-arrest to post-trial proceedings). That means you could be arrested and never see a judge until the emergency is over—and yes, you’d be in jail that whole time. They request a pause on the statute of limitations during an emergency.
2. And while the DOJ is doing all that, law enforcement and attorneys are working on getting detainees released to reduce the chance of spreading the coronavirus in crowded prisons and jails.
3. Mitch McConnell asks veteran federal judges to step down so that Trump can appoint and the Senate can confirm more young right-wing judges to the courts. A balanced court system will never be good enough for Mitch.
4. The Supreme Court suspends arguments indefinitely, including some cases involving Trump.

Healthcare/Coronavirus:

1. There is still no toilet paper or disinfectant to be had.
2. Joe Biden urges Trump to exercise the Defense Production Act to order companies to mass-produce needed medical equipment like ventilators and masks.
3. Mike Pence says the private sector is increasing products for the needed equipment.
4. Trump does invoke the Defense Production Act but says he’ll only use it in a worst-case scenario. Two days later, he says he’s put it into high gear.

• • Some companies are already working to switch over to manufacturing medical equipment and protective gear, but the effort is piecemeal and uncoordinated.

• • The Defense Logistics Agency could coordinate all this by controlling inventory and allocating it based on need countrywide.

5. The Department of Veterans Affairs changes its mission statement by removing its fourth mission — to back up our public health systems in times of crisis.
6. New Rochelle, NY, develops as a hot spot for coronavirus infections. Governor Cuomo requests military assistance.
7. The Norwegian University of Science and Technology urges its students studying abroad to return home, especially if they’re currently in a country with “poorly developed health services and infrastructure” like the U.S.
8. Dr. Fauci says that we should plan to hunker down for a while to slow down the spread of the coronavirus. This is as much for us as it is to give our medical professionals time to ramp up and prepare.

• • Fauci has become the presence most Americans trust during the White House coronavirus briefings. He walks a very fine line, trying to contradict the president diplomatically during press briefings so as not to anger Trump while making sure Americans have the facts.
  • Fauci has been at the forefront of several epidemics, including HIV, West Nile Virus, H1N1, and Ebola.
  • A rift starts to develop between Dr. Fauci and Trump and between Dr. Fauci and some White House Advisors. They think Fauci corrects Trump too much. You’d think it’d be more important to keep us all informed of the facts.

9. As with all previous travel bans, the ban on European travel causes chaos, confusion, and long waits at airports.
10. Another cruise ship is sailing around in limbo, this one from Fort Lauderdale, FL, to the Mediterranean. One passenger has died from COVID-19 and five others, who have been removed from the ship, are infected or suspected to be. Antigua and Spain both turned the ship away, and it will dock in France and then in Italy.
11. Hawaii turns away two cruise ships requesting to dock there but does allow them to refuel and stock up supplies.
12. Trump now says the outbreak could last until July or August.
13. The head of WHO says we need to be testing every suspected case. We aren’t doing that right now.
14. U.S. officials say that U.S. intelligence agencies issued classified warnings in January and February about the pandemic and related dangers. At the same time, Trump and others were still downplaying the seriousness of the situation.
15. Trump touts an untested drug, hydroxychloroquine, to treat COVID-10, calling it a game-changer. He says this just a few minutes after Dr. Fauci says we should be careful about even calling the drug fairly effective because we just don’t know.

• • This drug is an anti-malaria drug and has other currently approved uses as well, like treating lupus and arthritis.
  • There was already a shortage of hydroxychloroquine, and this just makes it worse.
  • Later in the week at a coronavirus press briefing, Trump says the FDA approved treating COVID-19 with hydroxychloroquine. The FDA Commissioner contradicts him at the briefing, saying we’d want to test that in a clinical trial setting first.

16. Ohio’s attorney general orders a halt to any non-essential abortions during the coronavirus pandemic. This will hurt victims of domestic abuse the most, as well as people who are already financially strapped and are being hurt even worse by business closures. Other states clarify that their bans on non-essential procedures do not apply to abortions.
17. Last year, Trump banned research on fetal tissue. This year, that’s blocking progress in coronavirus treatment and vaccine research.
18. Trump activates the National Guard in California, New York, and Washington.
19. The last remaining emergency hospital built to handle the coronavirus crisis in China’s Wuhan province closes down.
20. The U.K. appeals to automobile manufacturers to switch to making ventilators.
21. The CDC has not been present for the past week’s worth of coronavirus press briefings.
22. Trump waives fees at U.S. national parks as a way to encourage people to get out into the fresh air during the stay at home orders (the orders allow people to be outside, just at a distance and not in large groups). But this backfires as parks become overcrowded over the weekend, as do U.S. beaches.
23. The majority of people being killed by the coronavirus so far are men.
24. Russia announces its first coronavirus death and then reverses it.
25. Trump has tried to make China the enemy in this pandemic and accuses U.S. media of siding with state propaganda from China in their coverage. Whatever that means.
26. People start tuning in to Governor Cuomo’s press briefings over the White House press briefings because Cuomo presents his information in a factual, no-nonsense manner that still comes across as empathetic.
27. The former head of the White House’s National Security Council Directorate for Global Health Security and Biodefense, which Trump dismantled in 2018, says our response to the pandemic would’ve been more thorough and speedy if we still had this agency today. At the same time, he says we have capable and committed health organizations handling the situation.
28. Several states that run their own ACA marketplaces reopen enrollment so people can get healthcare coverage during this crisis. The Trump administration has so far refused to open the federal marketplace for states that rely on it.
29. California’s governor enlists tech companies to help develop more targeted testing.
30. Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick says grandparents would be willing to die in order to keep the economy humming. So they’d be willing to die to save the planet for their grandchildren but not willing to switch over from fossil fuels to renewables. Weird.
31. Coronavirus testing is more available to the wealthy, celebrities, and people who just happen to have the right doctor.
32. Trump offers to help North Korea fight the coronavirus, even though they haven’t reported any cases yet.
33. Jared Kushner is running his own team of government officials and representatives from private industry to combat the coronavirus. As of this week, he hasn’t attended any of the pandemic meetings. His focus is on drive-through testing sites, but he also says the virus isn’t a “health reality.”

• • Members of the real pandemic team are now unsure of the chain of command and of how to respond to emails from Kushner’s team.

34. Not long after tweeting a picture of himself in a packed restaurant with his family, Oklahoma’s Republican governor is briefed on the tripling of cases in his state and does an abrupt about-face: “We need all Oklahomans to take this really, really seriously. If we take no actions at all, the cases will outstrip our capacity and our health-care system.”
35. New York City asks the state to let them use the Javits Convention Center as a medical facility in case their hospitals get overrun. States begin setting up other public spaces as field hospitals, and Navy hospital ships are on the way to New York and Los Angeles.
36. The U.S. military also plans to provide 2 million respiratory masks and 2,000 ventilators.
37. The U.K. has had a very relaxed response to the pandemic and has not implemented any social distancing measures to slow the spread. Despite requests from hundreds of scientists to implement stricter measures, all they do is ask people over 70 to self-isolate. Their rate of infection is about the same as other European countries that have already implemented social distancing measures.
38. The White House suspends all testimony before Congress from officials working on the pandemic response.
39. Clinical trials for coronavirus vaccines start this week.

Shortages:

1. The Strategic National Stockpile is already running out of the needed medical equipment, but it’s not being doled out by need. Florida received everything they asked for and New Jersey got less than 6% of what they asked for despite the greater number of cases in New Jersey.
2. Testing has been slowed down by shortages of the following: masks to protect people who administer the tests, swabs to collect samples (Italy has the largest manufacturer), kits to pull the virus’s genetic material out of the samples, chemical reagents (we have three manufactures, all of whom failed to provide enough), and trained people.
3. The U.S. military flies 500,000 test swabs from Italy to Tennessee.
4. Memorial Sloan Kettering, one of the top U.S. cancer hospitals has a week’s supply of protective gear and already has staff and patients testing positive for the coronavirus.
5. California Governor Gavin Newsom issues an order allowing the state to take over hotels and medical facilities to treat coronavirus patients.
6. Hospital workers start re-using PPE, including masks, gloves, and protective gowns. Most healthcare facilities report shortages.
7. Hospitals in Italy and Spain are out of rooms and don’t have enough supplies. Doctors are forced to ration care to patients who have the greatest chance of survival. (The U.S. has fewer hospital beds than Italy, per capita).
8. Without a single point of leadership from the federal government directing our overall response, states start competing with each other for resources and equipment. Hospitals still don’t have the protective equipment and ventilators they need, and states are getting mired in bidding wars trying to supply them.

• • Trump says governors shouldn’t blame the federal government for their own shortcomings.
  • And then the federal government outbids the states on supplies so states can’t get them. So instead of centralizing the acquisition process and making sure there’s no price gouging, the federal government helps to drive up the cost of supplies through bidding wars.

Exposures:

1. Two Representatives announce that they tested positive for coronavirus, causing several of their colleagues to self-quarantine as a precaution. Congressional staffers are also testing positive.
2. A sailor aboard the USS Boxer tests presumptively positive.
3. Two emergency room doctors are now in critical condition with the disease.
4. Italy is the hardest-hit country outside of China, with nearly 25,000 cases and 1,809 deaths. By the end of the week, the number of deaths in Italy passes the number reported in China. Spain and France are the hardest-hit countries after Italy.
5. House Intelligence Committee investigator Daniel Goldman tests positive (and looks like shit, I might add).
6. The White House gets its first confirmed case of COVID-19 when a member of Mike Pence’s staff tests positive. Pence says he has not been tested.
7. Representatives Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL) and Ben McAdams (D-UT) test positive, increasing concerns among Members of Congress that they should not be holding in-person sessions.
8. Senator Rand Paul (R-TN) tests positive for the coronavirus. During the five days he was waiting for his results, he worked as usual and went to the Senate gym. This causes his colleagues Mitt Romney and Mike Lee to self-quarantine as they had spent time with Paul during those days.
9. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is under quarantine after a doctor who gave her a vaccine tested positive (not a coronavirus vaccine, in case you were wondering).
10. More NBA players test positive this week. The total for the league is now at 14.
11. Prince Albert II tests positive for the virus, as does the EU’s Brexit negotiator.
12. Prisoners start to test positive or show symptoms, including at Rikers Island in New York.
13. People generally think that people under 55 aren’t at as much risk for the virus, but they make up nearly 40% of hospitalizations for COVID-19.
14. New York City reports positive coronavirus tests among its homeless population.
15. Dozens of healthcare workers are sick with COVID-19, and several are hospitalized.

Closures:

1. The Peace Corps suspends all operations and brings all volunteers home.
2. The International Olympic Committee pushes this year’s summer Olympics back to 2021.
3. San Francisco issues a stay at home order for three weeks, which extends to all six Bay area counties. Other cities and counties follow suit. Some states merely issue curfews.
4. San Francisco allows people to shop for necessities, but being out for any other reason is a misdemeanor.
5. By the end of the week, all of California is under a stay at home order. Governor Newsom warns that 56% of Californians could be infected if we don’t stay at home with the exception of essential trips for things like food and medicine.
6. The CDC recommends that no gatherings of 50 people or more be held anywhere in the U.S. for the next eight weeks. Researchers say we need three months of social distancing.
7. New York City closes all public schools, libraries, restaurants, and bars. Restaurants can stay open for take-out only.
8. By the end of the week, public and private schools are closed for more than half of U.S. children.
9. Massachusetts, Washington, Louisiana, and Ohio close bars and restaurants, allowing take-out only.
10. Meanwhile, Representative Devin Nunes (R-CA) urges people to go out and eat in a restaurant, and the governor of Oklahoma takes a selfie of him and his family enjoying a meal at a packed restaurant.
11. California asks all people 65 and older to stay at home for now. This also includes people with compromised immunity.
12. Germany and Argentina close their borders. France closes all non-essential businesses and orders people not to leave their homes. The EU restricts all non-essential travel. Dozens of other countries implement partial or full lockdowns on their people or borders.
13. India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi issues a total lockdown of 1.3 billion people for three weeks.
14. The Vatican closes its traditional Easter celebrations to the public.
15. Trump cancels the G-7 Summit scheduled for June.
16. With all that, NATO is still holding in-person meetings.
17. The Trump administration advises against all non-essential travel and to avoid gatherings of more than 10 people. The State Department issues a travel warning against traveling abroad.
18. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau closes the border between U.S. and Canada, setting off a flurry of travel between the countries as snowbirds head home to Canada and students head home to the states. The U.S. and Mexico agree to stop non-essential travel between the two countries.

Numbers:

1. Coronavirus deaths in Italy outnumber those reported inside China for the first time. New infections in China and South Korea, two of the first epicenters, start to decline. Morgues in Italy are at capacity, and the government sends military trucks to offload the coffins.
2. Iran, another epicenter for the coronavirus, now has nearly 1,300 dead.
3. New York’s death toll passes Washington’s and is the highest in the U.S.
4. The number of confirmed cases in the U.S. doubles within two days.
5. Here are the numbers by the end of the week:

• • 26,747 people in the U.S. are infected so far (that we know of), with 340 deaths.
  • 307,280 people worldwide have been infected, with 13,049 deaths.
  • There are cases of coronavirus infection in every state.

International:

1. The new acting director of national intelligence, Richard Grenell, fires the acting director of the National Counterterrorism Center, which was put in place after 9/11 to protect from further attacks against the U.S.

Ban:

1. We catch a glimpse of Trump’s briefing notes, where it’s clearly visible that he crossed out the “Corona” in Coronavirus and replaced it with “China.” He’s been catching flack recently for insisting on calling it the China or Chinese virus despite the fact that hate crimes against Asians are on the rise right now. And it’s all Asians, not just Chinese, because haters don’t bother to try to tell different ethnic groups apart. Trump and other Republicans push and defend calling it the “China virus.”

• • Global health organizations warn against using a regional name to refer to a disease for this very reason.
  • Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) also defends the term, saying that the virus is China’s fault because they “eat bats and snakes and dogs and things like that.” It’s super convenient to forget that the Swine Flu started in the U.S.

2. Representative Andy Biggs (R-AZ) votes against the coronavirus relief package because it provides aid to people in domestic partnerships, including gay people.
3. Advocacy groups sue the Department of Health and Human Services over their proposal to stop enforcing nondiscrimination protections for a variety of services, including foster care, adoptions, homeless shelters, and elder care, among other services.
4. Racist groups and neo-Nazis urge their members who test positive for the coronavirus to spread contagion to the police and Jews.
5. Citizenship and Immigration Services temporarily suspends all in-person services, including asylum offices and support centers. They’re providing what services they can without being face-to-face.

Budget/Economy:

1. The Dow Jones drops 3,000 points in one day despite the Feds’ attempts to calm the market. The Dow dips below 20,000 for the first time in three years, wiping out all the gains under this administration.
2. Lenders start to offer deferred payments on mortgages. Now isn’t the time to be proud. If you think you might have trouble with your payments, call your lender NOW.
3. Senate Republicans introduce a $1 trillion relief package that would send direct cash payments to many Americans and would provide tax relief to businesses, loans to small businesses, and financial bailouts to hard-hit industries.

• • Remember when they thought bail-outs were a bad thing? Different president, different rules, I guess.
  • Steve Mnuchin predicts that without this package, unemployment will reach 20%.

4. Senate Democrats want some student loan forgiveness built into the relief package. House Democrats want provisions that protect workers, like expanding sick leave and banning companies that receive aide from using it to buy back stock or reward executives instead of taking care of workers.
5. The Trump administration asks state officials to hold off on releasing unemployment numbers for fear they will spook the stock market.
6. By the end of the week, 80 million Americans are under stay at home orders and the economy is slowing down much faster than expected.
7. Millions of Americans apply for unemployment benefits this week, with nearly 3 million expected first-time claims.
8. Amazon suspends non-essential shipments to warehouses, restricting the types of things we can order and increasing shipping times for non-essential items. Of course, they are also out of toilet paper, disinfectant, and protective gloves.
9. The Trump administration delays tax day until July.

Elections:

1. And then there were two… with only Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders left in the Democratic presidential primary, this week’s debate is more focused. And more white. And more masculine.
2. Connecticut, Ohio, and Georgia push back their presidential primary elections.

Miscellaneous:

1. Sean Hannity denies he ever called the coronavirus a hoax. He called it hoax just last week. Several Fox News personalities are pivoting from downplaying the pandemic to warning about the dangers of the virus.
2. A reporter shoots Trump a softball, asking what he’d say to people who are frightened by the pandemic. Trump responds by calling him a terrible reporter and saying that was a nasty question.

Polls:

1. Trump’s aggregate approval rises to 43.7%. That’s pretty high for him, and pretty surprising given the nature of his press briefings.