This is the week that the president of the United States incited his base to get out and protest his own guidelines for social distancing. Who does that? Someone who says one thing and means another. “Be safe out there [wink, wink] but go gather in groups, get close, and don’t wear masks. And oh, yeah… bring your guns.” We’re more than a month into the shutdown, and the White House still has no clear, coherent strategy to contain the virus and reopen the economy and get us out of this in one piece.

Here’s what happened in politics during the week ending April 19…

Shootings This Week:

1. There were 4 mass shootings in the U.S. this week (defined as killing and/or injuring 4 or more people). Shooters kill 5 people and injure 12 more.
2. A gunman in a small town in Nova Scotia, Canada kills at least 22 people, including a Mountie. He also injures at least 3. The rampage started when the shooter got in a fight with his girlfriend.
3. March was the first March since 2002 without a school shooting in the U.S.

Russia:

1. The World Health Organization calls the massive amount of disinformation being spread about the coronavirus pandemic an “infodemic.” One big player in this, according to analysts, is Putin. For more than a decade, his agents have blamed outbreaks, epidemics, and pandemics on American scientists and have undermined trust in vaccines.

• • The State Department accuses Russia of spreading the infodemic using thousands of social media accounts.
  • Please make sure you’re getting your information from reliable sources. Your life—all our lives—depends on it.

2. A federal judge denies Roger Stone’s request for a new trial.
3. Michael Cohen might be released on house arrest due to the COVID-19 crisis in congregate living spaces like prisons.

Courts/Justice:

1. The Supreme Court will hear all cases in May over teleconference. Finally we’ll have live audio of Supreme Court shenanigans.
2. The Senate will pause confirmation of judicial appointments until the pandemic subsides.

Coronavirus:

1. Trump puts a 90-day hold on U.S. payments to the World Health Organization pending review after he criticizes their response to the pandemic and accuses them of being too favorable to China. He accuses the WHO of pushing disinformation from China.

• • The U.S. is the WHO’s biggest funder.
  • The WHO says China has been transparent and open.
  • Experts warn that this will be devastating for worldwide polio eradication efforts. Even Trump’s own officials warn against cutting funding to the WHO.
  • The CDC’s Robert Redfield says the CDC will continue to work with the WHO.
  • House Democrats say that the pause in funding for the WHO is illegal just like stopping aid approved by Congress to Ukraine was.
  • Remember on February 24^th when Trump said what a great job the WHO was doing? That was before he needed a scapegoat. Here’s a good timeline of events regarding Trump and the WHO.
  • More than a dozen U.S. health experts and researchers working at the WHO kept the Trump administration informed about the discovery and spread of the coronavirus as it was happening in Wuhan, China.
  • Ireland quadruples its contribution to the WHO after Trump’s announcement.

2. The Trump administration shifts priorities from fighting the pandemic to reopening the economy.
3. Trump continues to take advice on this from Fox News anchors, most notably Laura Ingraham. Ingraham also urged Trump to push hydroxychloroquine as a cure, against the advice of medical experts and the FDA.

• • A chloroquine trial in Brazil is halted after heart complications appear in patients.
  • The CIA felt it necessary to warn its employees against taking hydroxychloroquine unless prescribed by a doctor.

4. The federal government pledges up to $483 million to Moderna to speed up the creation of a COVID-19 vaccine.
5. Trump declared a national emergency one month ago and announced several public-private partnerships. Here are the promises fulfilled and unfulfilled:

• • Target didn’t partner with the government to open testing sites; Walmart opened two; Walgreens opened two; and CVS opened one.
  • The Google project to coordinate and direct screening and testing online wasn’t a Google project and only started up in a few California counties. Google’s sister company, Verily, has six testing sites coordinating with California’s state government.
  • Apple did release a screening tool in coordination with the CDC, but it doesn’t do what was promised.
  • The home testing promised through a partnership with LHC Group didn’t happen. The company is focused on obtaining personal protective equipment instead.
  • The government did waive interest on student loans from government agencies.
  • Trump waived health regulations to allow healthcare providers more flexibility to respond to the pandemic.
  • Trump promised to waive state medical licensing to allow medical personnel to work across state lines, but as it turns out he doesn’t have the authority.
  • Trump promised to purchase “at a very good price” large quantities of oil for storage in the strategic reserve. Congress didn’t fund it.
  • He promised an additional 1.4 million tests within a week and 5 million within a month, though he doubted we’d need that many. Roche and Thermo Fisher Scientific were able to distribute millions of tests. But these are the lab tests that analyze samples; the hold up was that we didn’t have enough kits to collect the samples.
  • Leaders of diagnostic testing labs, like Quest and LabCorp, requested three things from the government to get their testing up to speed: funds for facilities, prioritization of who to test, and supply chain support. They still haven’t received those.

6. Dr. Birx says that several of our testing labs are still only operating at 10% of their capacity and that the government doesn’t know where all the labs and testing machines are located.
7. Tump holds his longest coronavirus press briefing so far, at nearly two and a half hours. In the middle of it, he runs a campaign ad about his handling of the pandemic (which violates election rules).
8. Taking a page from previous presidents facing a crisis, California Governor Gavin Newsom calls on the experience of the four living former CA governors: Pete Wilson, Gray Davis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Jerry Brown. They’re part of an 80-member task force to help bring the state back toward economic growth and recovery. The group brings a very mixed bag of backgrounds and political ideologies.
9. The WHO warns that they haven’t seen any evidence yet that having antibodies to the coronavirus makes you immune to it. Antibody tests are still not that reliable.
10. Here are a few predictions for how the pandemic will look over the next year:

• • States will end the lockdowns, but not at the same time and in a halting manner as we adjust for more or fewer cases.
  • We still don’t now how immunity will work or when there will be a vaccine.
  • We’re likely to have treatment before a vaccine, and keeping the virus in check will rely on testing and contact tracing. We need to triple our testing.

11. An average of 146,000 people in the U.S. has been tested per day so far this month.
12. Germany announces a goal of testing every resident for antibodies.
13. Jobs traditionally held by women have been deemed the most essential during the pandemic.
14. Coronavirus cases are starting to plateau in some big cities, but they’re just starting to pick up in more rural areas. Some are seeing increases of 53% (Oklahoma) to 205% (South Dakota).
15. Clinical trials in Chicago for the anti-viral drug Remdesivir are showing promise, but nothing concrete yet.
16. The FDA authorizes a saliva test out of Rutgers University to check for the coronavirus.

Shortages:


1. Trump offers to donate ventilators to Russia, which they say they’ll accept if they need them. Russia previously loaned us equipment. The administration also offers help to Italy, Spain, and France.
2. By waiting so long to stock up on protective and medical equipment, the Trump administration is paying a higher price for each item. N95 masks are now eight times more expensive than they were in January and February. They’ve also entered agreements with questionable companies, like Panthera Worldwide LLC, which hasn’t had an employee since May 2018 and has no history of procuring medical equipment.
3. Hospitals begin to experience ventilator shortages. 70% of healthcare facilities report a shortage of drugs for treating coronavirus symptoms.
4. Senior government officials say that when Jared Kushner was given the responsibility of acquiring medical equipment, he overlooked smaller companies that have a track record of meeting emergency needs. Instead, he tapped his friends to help out, favoring larger corporations and costing weeks in response time.
5. Trump moves to assert more control over HHS Secretary Alex Azar by installing former Trump campaign aide Michael Caputo in a communication role in the department. Trump and Azar have clashed from the beginning over the pandemic.
6. Trump might be discouraging mask use by the general public, but the NSC secures a personal stash of 3,600 masks for the White House staff to use.

Exposures:

1. 

African Americans and Latinos are dying from COVID-19 at much higher rates than their white counterparts, and African Americans are coming down with the disease at roughly twice the rate of white Americans. There are many contributing factors, including lack of access to healthcare, working in essential jobs, living with multiple generations in one house, lack of paid sick leave, and lack of trust in the medical profession.
2. One of the biggest outbreaks now in the U.S is in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where workers at a Smithfield meat processing plant are testing positive. Many of the workers are immigrants or refugees and don’t advocate for themselves, and the story is only coming out now because of a grad student who is the child of a couple who works there.

• • Union representatives say that Smithfield ignored their requests for PPE and they encouraged sick workers to continue coming in. They implemented temperature testing for workers coming on to their shifts but allowed workers with a fever to work.
  • Workers are forced to make a choice between putting their health at risk by coming into work or not being able to pay their bills. They begin quarantining themselves from family to keep them safe and bringing in their own masks.
  • People who are here on visas can’t quit because they’re afraid to apply for unemployment under Trump’s new immigration rules about public assistance. And people who live with a non-citizen aren’t eligible for CARES Act relief.
  • Workers found out about the high number of cases from news reports, not from company management.
  • Smithfield finally closes the plant this week, with 644 confirmed cases related to the plant. At least one has died. They closed for three days last week.

• • Smithfield accounts for half the cases in South Dakota.
  • Instead of issuing a stay at home order, as requested by the Sioux Falls Mayor, Governor Kristi Noem approves tests for hydroxychloroquine in the state.

3. A JBS meat processing plant in Minnesota just across the border from South Dakota has 19 confirmed cases so far.
4. On top of meatpacking plants, workers in food warehouses and grocery stores are also getting sick. More than 40 grocery workers have died from COVID-19 so far.
5. Nearly 7,000 COVID-19 deaths are traceable to nursing homes, either through people who live there or people who work there. Even with facilities locked down and visitors banned, it’s not controlled.

Closures:

1. Last week, the CDC and FEMA issued recommendations for a phased reopening of the economy, with instructions for schools, child-care, camps, parks, religious organizations, and restaurants. This week, Trump and Dr. Deborah Birx release the official guidelines, with much of the CDC’s recommendations ignored. Their recommendations are more vague than the CDC’s and include no testing strategy or requirements.

• • So far, the U.S. has tested about 3.3 million people or around 1% of our population.
  • Experts say we need to incorporate contact tracing with testing. South Korea and Singapore have been successful in mitigating the pandemic by finding and isolating infected people and who they’ve been in contact with. It requires a huge number of health workers to do contact tracing.
  • Trump isn’t enthusiastic about testing, calling it “interesting.” He also told governors to develop their own state contact tracing programs.

2. The Trump administration guidelines to a phased approach to opening require a state to have a 14-day decrease in new cases and robust testing for healthcare workers and hospitals to have enough supplies to handle a crisis before moving to the first phase.

• • In phase one, states can open larger venues like theaters, churches, ballparks, and arenas, but smaller venues like schools and bars stay closed. Social distancing is still in place, and workers should come back to work in waves. People should continue to maintain physical distance and not gather in groups of more than 10 when they can’t be distant. People with compromised health should remain at home.
  • In phase two, nonessential travel resumes, but vulnerable individuals still stay home. Telework should continue where possible, and common areas in workplaces should stay closed. Schools and bars can open carefully.
  • In phase three, visits to nursing homes and hospitals can resume, vulnerable individuals can go out with precautions, and keep washing your hands! People should still minimize time spent in crowds.

3. Trump says it’s the president’s decision whether or not to open the states back up, not the governors’. He says he has “total authority.” But the governors were the ones who instituted the stay at home orders, and Trump has also said he’s only playing backup to the governors.

• • The next day he reverses course and says he’s fine with them making their own decisions.

4. Governors create regional coalitions to determine how best to re-open in each area. So far the Northeastern states have banded together, the Pacific states have a coalition, and seven Midwestern states are coordinating on reopening.
5. Governors say they can’t start re-opening until they get more test swabs (health experts say we need to triple our testing before we can re-open). Trump defends our testing capacity but also promises to increase production by over 20 million per month (for context, if we produce 20 million swabs a month, we wouldn’t be able to test everyone in the U.S. until the end of summer 2021.
6. These states still don’t have statewide stay at home orders: Arkansas, Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming. But to be clear, most do have some restrictions in place and schools are closed.
7. Local officials in South Dakota urge Governor Kristi Noem to declare a public health emergency. The declaration would bring in federal funding set aside for coronavirus aid. Noem has left decisions completely up to cities and counties in the state, though she still won’t let Sioux Fall’s mayor implement a stay at home order.
8. Florida opens its beaches, and within minutes of opening, they are crowded with beachgoers. Governor DeSantis urges people to stay six feet away from each other and to avoid gathering.
9. A federal judge rules that Kansas can’t limit religious gatherings. I could understand this if the governor was ONLY limiting religious gatherings, but she’s limiting ALL gatherings. 80 cases and six deaths in Kansas trace back to religious gatherings.
10. Dr. Fauci says that May 1 is overly optimistic for reopening, and that it will result in an increase in cases especially since we don’t have adequate testing and tracing in place. Several states have pushed their reopening date back to the middle of May.

Protests:

1. Anti-lockdown protests erupt across the county. Protestors largely ignore social distancing guidelines and many don’t wear masks. In an apparent misunderstanding of how infectious disease spreads, they argue that you should quarantine sick people and let healthy people roam free.
2. Trump goads the protestors on by tweeting and retweeting calls to “LIBERATE” certain states, openly encouraging the protests while at the same time issuing guidance that wouldn’t allow states to open up and calling for social distancing rules. He not only encourages protestors to liberate Virginia but to protect their Second Amendment rights.

• • Governors criticize Trump for encouraging illegal and dangerous acts that would worsen the spread of the coronavirus and reverse the results of the shutdowns.
  • Fox News not only urges the protestors on but highlights individual organizers on their shows. Looking at the timing of Trump’s tweets, they appear to align with Fox News segments.
  • It’s notable that more people died of COVID-19 on the day of the protests than actually showed up to protest. The vast majority of the American public thinks we should maintain social distancing practices.

3. The protests turn out to be staged by far-right groups. They primarily protest Democratic governors, even though Republican governors have instituted the same kind of closures.

• • Three far-right, pro-gun activists from the Midwest are behind several of these protests. The purpose of the groups these guys run is to discredit groups like the NRA for being too compromising on gun safety. And they run groups based all across the country.
  • The protests draw militia groups, like the Three Percenters, and hate groups, like the Proud Boys. It’s a wild mix of hate groups, militia groups, anti-vaxxers, and religious fundamentalists, along with a few citizens who are just tired of the shutdown and were spurred on by these groups to join in.
  • Even some Republican state lawmakers participate in the protests.

Numbers:

1. The Navajo Nation now has over 1,000 cases and 41 deaths. They make up a disproportionate number of deaths in their states.
2. New York’s death toll passes 10,000 people. They adjust their numbers to start including presumed cases, which causes a spike in U.S. death numbers.
3. Here are the numbers by the end of the week:

• • 735,086 people in the U.S. are infected so far (that we know of), with 32,922 deaths, up from 529,951 infections and 20,608 deaths last week.
  • 2,278,484 people worldwide have been infected, with 162,447 deaths, up from 1,734,868 infections and 109,916 deaths last week.

Healthcare:

1. A federal appeals court allows medical abortions (those performed by ingesting pills) in Texas. State officials have been trying to ban the procedure during the pandemic by calling it non-essential.
2. The same court rules that pregnant women who are near the cutoff for being able to have an abortion can get one.
3. A federal judge blocks an Arkansas order to suspend surgical abortions during the pandemic. Same for Alabama’s attempt to halt abortions. In Alabama’s case, the judge says that choice is between a provider and a patient.

International:

1. More than 2,000 protestors in Israel keep their social distance (6 feet apart) while protesting Benjamin Netanyahu and what they consider his eroding of democracy. Police and organizers mark off 6-feet distances so protestors know where to stand.
2. Mark Green, the administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) resigns, and on his way out, he says that foreign assistance is important, especially in times of challenge, and we need those tools and that leadership. He adds that he’s aiming his message at all of us, but especially at the Republican Party, of which he is a member.

• • USAID strengthens health systems, farming systems, and democracy abroad.

Legislation/Congress:

1. Trump threatens to adjourn the House and Senate if the Senate doesn’t confirm his nominees for various openings in his administration. No president has ever done this.

Border Wall/Shutdown/National Emergency:

1. Last year, smugglers sawed through new sections of Trump’s border wall 18 times in one month.

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

1. Franklin Graham says he’s being harassed because he’s forcing workers at his New York field hospital to sign a pledge saying they’re Christian and they oppose same-sex marriage.
2. Mt. Sinai Health Systems, which is teaming up with Graham, says they’ll then force the same workers to sign a pledge that they won’t discriminate against patients.

Climate:

1. Fires have been burning inside the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, raising radiation levels to 16 times normal. Russian authorities arrest a 27-year-old man for arson. The fires destroyed several tourist sites and abandoned villages.
2. The South gets hit with violent storms, with tornadoes, flash floods, and hail. At least 34 people die and 16 states report power outages.
3. A judge cancels a permit required for the Keystone XL oil pipeline, putting another wrench in its completion. The permit was halted for environmental review of the effects on endangered species.
4. Virginia becomes the first southern state to enact a 100% clean energy law. The two utility companies must be 100% carbon-free by 2050, and nearly all coal-powered plants are to close by 2025.
5. The EPA moves to weaken regulations on mercury and other pollutants put out by oil and coal plants.

Budget/Economy:

1. Economists predict the U.S. debt will exceed the GDP this fiscal year for the first time since WWII.
2. China’s economy shrank by 6.8% for the first quarter this year compared to the first quarter last year. This was their first decline since they started keeping records. They’ve reopened factories and people are getting back to work, but with closures continuing around the world, they should still see limited improvements this quarter.
3. Employment dropped by over 700,000 jobs in March, and the unemployment rate rose to 4.4%. Retail sales dropped 8.7%, the biggest drop on record.
4. Oil prices crash to below $0.00 a barrel. Even though Russia and OPEC agreed to a deal to temporarily halt their oil wars, the glut is too much to be quickly reabsorbed by demand.
5. We’ve already gone through most of the stimulus package funds for small businesses.
6. People start receiving their stimulus money. Most are spending it on food and gas.
7. The lines for food banks in the U.S. continue to grow as people needing food assistance has more than doubled in places.
8. The Trump administration is working on ways to cut wages for migrant workers who are here on guest-worker visas. At the same time, the administration is giving coronavirus relief aid to the farmers who employ them.
9. Trump threatens to veto the $2 trillion relief package if it includes any funding for the United States Postal Service. Like Congress isn’t having enough trouble reconciling their differences in this bill. The USPS warns it’ll run out of cash in September.
10. Republicans added a provision to the coronavirus relief package passed last month that removes the limit on how much a pass-through business owner can deduct against non-business income. This will cost taxpayers about $90 billion, but it’ll save millionaires billions, thank God.
11. Trump announces the formation of the Great American Economic Revival Recovery Groups, coalitions of industry leaders to help plan a great economic recovery. Some members say they’ve been on one phone call so far, and otherwise it’s mostly been dormant and there’s no mechanism to send in ideas. Several of the people he listed haven’t confirmed they’ll participate and some are nervous about tying their names and companies to Trump.

• • After granting the WWE “essential business” status, Trump names the chair, Vince McMahon, to one of these advisory groups.

12. The trade war with China hits home as new export restrictions hold up U.S. orders for PPE and other equipment.

Elections:

1. Elizabeth Warren endorses Joe Biden for president, saying that empathy matters and that he can help restore Americans’ faith in good government.
2. Bernie Sanders also endorses Biden and tells his supporters that refusing to back Biden is irresponsible.
3. Biden announces a series of task forces on healthcare, education, the economy, climate change, criminal justice reform, and immigration to develop a party platform that can unify the left.
4. After the GOP forced Wisconsin’s primaries to go ahead in the age of COVID-19, Jill Karofsky, a liberal challenger to a sitting conservative judge, wins a seat on the state’s Supreme Court.
5. Top Republicans report that Trump’s campaign secretly pays his son’s significant others (Lara Trump and Kimberly Guilfoyle) $15,000 per month each through the campaign manager’s private company.
6. Biden releases a healthcare policy that indicates he’s willing to move closer to Sanders on Medicare for All.
7. The Treasury orders that Trump’s name be printed on all the stimulus checks going out to American citizens, marking the first time a president’s name appears on an IRS payment.

• • Why is this under Elections? Because it’s a blatant move to put Trump’s name on something good and improve his chances of re-election.
  • Trump originally wanted to sign each check. As it is, IRS officials say adding his name could delay the checks, but others dispute that.
  • The IRS refused to comply with a similar request giving George W. Bush credit for the economic rebates in 2001. They refused because they’re supposed to be non-partisan.

8. Republicans think that blaming China for the pandemic is a winning strategy going into the elections, but they can’t keep Trump on message. It’s a double-edged sword since we’re also reliant on China for medical devices.
9. A Texas judge rules that the state must allow any registered voter who’s worried about the coronavirus register to vote by mail.
10. Maryland will send all voters ballots to vote by mail, complete with postage paid, for the June primary.

Miscellaneous:

1. SNL Comedian Michael Che’s grandmother dies from COVID-19, and to honor her, he pays the rent for all 160 units in the housing authority apartment building where she once lived.
2. Sean “Diddy” Combs holds a dance-a-thon fundraiser that brings in over $4 million for healthcare workers.
3. Trump says he didn’t pick Mitt Romney to be part of a bipartisan task force to reopen the country because he still holds a grudge against him and he doesn’t really want his advice. All Senate Republicans except Romney are on the task force.
4. Car crashes are down by 60% since the coronavirus lockdowns were implemented, and we’ve saved over $1 trillion in taxpayer dollars because of it.

Polls:

1. 65% of Americans say Trump was too slow to take action to fight the coronavirus pandemic.
2. 66% are worried that restrictions will be lifted too quickly.
3. 73% think the worst is yet to come with the pandemic.
4. 52% of Republicans think it’s not OK for elected officials to criticize Trump’s response.