United States

The U.S. Senate on Wednesday unanimously passed a $2-trillion bill aimed at helping unemployed workers and industries hurt by the coronavirus pandemic, as well as providing billions of dollars to buy urgently needed medical equipment.

After bitter negotiations, the deeply divided Senate came together and passed the bill by a unanimous 96-0 vote, which sent the massive stimulus package to the House of Representatives, which could vote sometime this week.

President Donald Trump, whose top aides helped negotiate the bipartisan measure, promised to sign it into law as soon as it reaches his desk. “I will sign it immediately,” Trump told reporters on Wednesday.

The massive bill – which would be the largest economic stimulus measure ever passed by Congress – includes a $500 billion fund to help hard-hit industries and a comparable amount for direct payments of up to $3,000 apiece to millions of U.S. families.

The package is intended to flood the economy with cash in a bid to stem the impact of an intensifying epidemic that has killed more than 900 people in the United States and infected at least 60,000.

Only two other nations, China and Italy, have more coronavirus cases and the World Health Organization has warned the United States looks set to become the epicenter of the global coronavirus pandemic.

Top aides to Trump and senior senators from both parties announced that they had agreed on the unprecedented stimulus bill in the early hours of Wednesday after five days of talks.

But it was delayed by criticism from both the right and left on Wednesday, pushing the final vote on passage almost another full day.

Several Republican senators had insisted the bill needed to be changed to ensure that laid-off workers would not be paid more in unemployment benefits than they earned on the job. However, an amendment that would have changed the unemployment provision failed just before the Senate approved the measure.

Source: Reuters

A conservative lawyer has filed a class-action lawsuit against China for the coronavirus pandemic, pushing an unsubstantiated claim that the Chinese government developed the virus as an illegal biological weapon to unleash on the world.

Mr Larry Klayman and his group Freedom Watch filed the complaint in federal court in Texas seeking at least $20 trillion from the Chinese government because of its “callous and reckless indifference and malicious acts.”

Researchers and public health experts have repeatedly shot down the conspiracy theory that the coronavirus was man-made, with studies showing it originated as an animal virus that eventually jumped to humans. Nonetheless, the claim has gained traction on the right, with conservative media figures seizing upon it to advocate for a more aggressive U.S. posture toward China.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Klayman, Freedom Watch and Buzz Photos, a Texas company that specializes in high school sports photography. Klayman said the school closures and sports cancellations have led Buzz Photos to close and brought it to the brink of bankruptcy. According to the lawsuit, the company lost roughly $50,000 last weekend alone and has been forced to lay off workers.

“There is no reason why the American taxpayer should, contrary to the establishment in Washington, D.C., have to pay for the tremendous harm caused by the Chinese government,” Klayman said in a statement. “The Chinese people are a good people, but their government is not and it must be made to pay dearly.”

The lawsuit claims that this variation of the coronavirus was created by the Chinese government as a biological weapon and released by the Wuhan Institute of Virology, located in Wuhan, China, where the coronavirus outbreak originated.

“Although it appears that the COVID-19 virus was released at an unplanned, unexpected time, it was prepared and stockpiled as a biological weapon to be used against China’s perceived enemies, including but not limited to the people of the United States,” the complaint states.

A former federal prosecutor, Klayman founded conservative legal group Judicial Watch and Freedom Watch. He is representing George Zimmerman in a $100 million lawsuit against Trayvon Martin’s family, prosecutors and others, and conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi in a suit against longtime Trump ally Roger Stone.

While the coronavirus outbreak originated in China, it has since spread to more than 150 countries. In the U.S., the number of reported cases has topped 9,400 and the death toll is 152.

States and the federal government have taken steps designed to limit the number of new cases, including by closing schools, cancelling large gatherings and ordering restaurants, bars and theatres to shutter. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has also recommended gatherings be restricted to no more than 10 people.

To combat the economic effects of the coronavirus, President Trump signed into law earlier this month an $8.3 billion package to assist with the government’s response. On Wednesday, he signed a coronavirus relief measure that provides free testing and paid leave for certain workers.

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are now working on a third package that could provide cash payments to Americans, small business loans and assistance to the airlines and other affected industries.

The Trump administration has sought to link the coronavirus to China, arguing the Chinese government covered up the outbreak and silenced doctors who tried to sound the alarm. Mr. Trump has called it the “Chinese virus” and Republican lawmakers have referred to it as the “Wuhan virus.”

“China tried to say at one point — maybe they stopped now — that it was caused by American soldiers,” Mr. Trump told reporters yesterday when asked why he calls the coronavirus the “Chinese virus.” “That can’t happen. It’s not going to happen, not as long as I’m president. It comes from China.”

Source: cbsnews

The Trump administration pressed on Tuesday for the enactment of a $1 trillion stimulus package, possibly to include $1,000 direct payments to individual Americans, to blunt the economic pain from a coronavirus outbreak that has killed over 100 people in the country.

With cases of the respiratory illness reported in all 50 states and the total number of known U.S. infections surging past 6,400, millions of Americans hunkered down at home instead of commuting to work or going to school.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said he was weighing whether to order the city’s 8.5 million residents to “shelter in place” at home, as state and local officials escalated “social distancing” policies by closing schools, restaurants and theaters to curb the spread of the virus.

“It’s a very, very difficult decision,” de Blasio said. “We’ve never been here before.” The state’s governor, Andrew Cuomo, told CNN he did not think it would work.

About 6.7 million people in the San Francisco Bay area have already been ordered to stay home for all but the most crucial outings until April 7. Eateries, bars, gyms and other “non-essential” businesses were shut down, but marijuana dispensaries were allowed to stay open as cannabis was deemed an “essential medicine” by health authorities.

“It’s like living in a ‘Twilight Zone,’” said Rowan Oake, 36, during a jog through San Francisco’s Presidio Park. “You can feel the anxiety in the air.”

Kentucky and Illinois recorded their first coronavirus deaths, driving the nationwide toll to at least 108.

Authorities said 22 people had been infected at a nursing home in suburban Chicago.

In Washington state, where 52 people have died, many at a suburban Seattle long-term care facility, Governor Jay Inslee signed legislation approving $200 million for homeless aid and other measures to fight the virus. California’s governor signed off on $1 billion, and Georgia’s governor approved $100 million.

In New Jersey, Governor Phil Murphy closed indoor shopping malls while a record number of unemployment applications crashed state computer systems. The nation’s largest indoor shopping center, Minnesota’s Mall of America, said it would close.

Kansas shuttered schools through the end of the academic year. In California, where nearly all public schools have closed in recent days, Governor Gavin Newsom said he expected few if any of the state’s 6.1 million students would return to their classrooms before summer.

Source: Reuters

The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) says that the use of malaria drug chloroquine, as an experimental drug against coronavirus, would be in a clinical trial to find out whether or not it works, and if so, what dose would be safe and effective.

This follows U.S President Donald Trump’s claim that chloroquine had been approved for use as a coronavirus treatment, but FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn later indicated it had not.

Speaking at a press conference at the White House on Thursday, Trump and the head of the FDA were seen to have given very conflicting comments about the availability of the drug.

Trump noted that chloroquine had been approved and could be given to patients who have contracted the coronavirus by doctors with a prescription.

“It’s been around for a long time, so we know that if things don’t go as planned it’s not going to kill anybody,” Trump said.

Few minutes later, FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn, said: “Again, we want to do that in a setting of a clinical trial,”

Following that, an FDA spokesperson said the drug had not been approved for use in Covid-19 patients.

The FDA has increasingly stepped back from its regulatory role in the middle of the crisis, announcing that it would let its states regulate tests to diagnose the virus in order to speed their rollout.

The FDA also said it is temporarily halting inspections of drug plants in the U.S. and abroad.

The agency’s standard for drugs is to look at the risk posed by side effects compared with how effective treatments are.

But with the growing number of coronavirus cases globally and the lack of any proven therapy or vaccine has appeared to have tilted that balance.

Source: ghanaweb

Under pressure from the White House and business groups, House Democrats agreed to further water down paid sick and family leaves provisions in the coronavirus emergency bill currently awaiting a Senate vote.

Democrats had already vastly scaled back their proposals for paid sick leave and paid family leave. Instead of covering all workers, millions were left out of the version of the bill passed over the weekend. Still, the original compromise bill included 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave for workers with COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, symptoms of COVID-19 or those caring for others who are sick.

Now, after the legislative text was updated, those family leave provisions in the bill are much weaker. Paid family leave would only be available to parents who are home with kids due to school closure. The extended leave wouldn’t be available for people who are sick with COVID-19. Those workers would only be able to take 10 days of paid sick leave ? and only if they work at a company with less than 500 employees. What’s more: Companies with fewer than 50 workers can apply for hardship relief and get out of providing both sick and family leave.

“The carve-outs that came in last night through pressure from Republicans and the White House have dramatically weakened what started out as a strong paid leave proposal that would’ve made a difference to tens of millions of families during this crisis,” said Jessica Mason, senior policy analyst at the National Partnership for Women and Families. “The so-called corrections actually gut those policies and weaken our nation’s response to this pandemic.”

Employers are also allowed to secure exemptions for individual employees who are first responders and health care professionals who may have to deal with emergency issues.

“Politicians like to talk a good game about providing paid sick days to everyone, including Trump,” said Vicki Shabo, a senior fellow and paid leave expert at New America.

Trump touted the bill’s paid sick leave provisions on Tuesday in an update about the pandemic.

The bill is a disappointment to advocates who’d hoped the pandemic would finally push lawmakers to enact universal paid sick leave in the U.S. However, it still does contain provisions for COVID-19 testing and Medicaid expansion that will be helpful.

“There are other parts of the bill, provisions related to Medicaid, that are incredibly important and that is why we continue to support passage of the bill,” Mason said. “but Congress needs to understand that the paid sick days and paid leave provisions do not begin to address the needs of families right now.”

It could’ve been worse, said a senior Democratic aide familiar with the negotiations. The White House actually wanted to weaken a longstanding law that provides Americans with unpaid time off during a medical emergency. The administration sought to get rid of part of the 30-year-old Family and Medical Leave Act, which ensures workers can get health insurance while they’re on long-term leave.

“This was a nonstarter for the speaker,” the aide said, referring to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who was also able to get a tax credit for small businesses to make it easier for them to offer the paid time off.

House Democrats said the changes were necessary in order to secure a bipartisan bill that would stand a greater chance of passage in the Republican-controlled Senate. Many GOP lawmakers voiced concern that the paid leave provisions would place further stress on small businesses that are slashing jobs due to anemic demand amid the crisis.

Congress is scrambling to do something bigger to deal with the coronavirus epidemic. They’ve already passed, and the president signed, an $8.5 billion package dealing with medical issues. The Senate this week is discussing a much larger stimulus package, up to at least $850 billion, to fight the spread of the disease and prop up the economy.

Congressional Republicans also seem to be getting behind the idea of simply sending Americans cash to deal with the economic downturn sparked by the epidemic.

“It is my intention that the Senate will not adjourn until we have passed significant and bold new steps, above and beyond what the House passed, to help our strong nation and our strong underlying economy weather this storm,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said in a floor speech on Tuesday.

Source: huffpost.com

Ohio’s governor has ordered polling stations in the state to close as the Covid-19 pandemic disrupts vast swathes of American life.

The state was one of four due to hold Democratic primary votes on Tuesday.

However, Governor Mike DeWine has closed polls following a state supreme court decision allowing the vote to be postponed.

Other Democratic contests to choose a nominee to take on President Donald Trump have also been disrupted.

Mr DeWine made the decision to close in-person voting sites soon after Americans were warned by the White House to avoid groups of 10 or more.

On Tuesday, another Republican governor, Larry Hogan of Maryland, said his state’s primary contest would be postponed from 28 April to 2 June.

Millions of people are sheltering in their homes as the Covid-19 transmission rate grows.

The outbreak has interrupted the primary contest season in the US as Democrats hold state-by-state votes to pick a candidate who will challenge Mr Trump in November.

It is now a two-man race between Vice-President Joe Biden and Senator Bernie Sanders.

Four states had been scheduled to vote on Tuesday – Arizona, Illinois, Florida and Ohio – but now only the first three will go forward as planned.

Georgia, Louisiana and Kentucky have already postponed their contests due to the outbreak. Wyoming has suspended in-person voting.

The Democratic primary season has crashed headlong into the growing coronavirus pandemic.

This was supposed to be a day of reckoning for Bernie Sanders, when Joe Biden posted dominating wins in a handful of major states – Florida, Ohio, Illinois and Arizona – and effectively secured the Democratic presidential nomination.

It may still end up that way, but Ohio governor Mike DeWine’s decision to postpone his state’s primary has changed the equation. The biggest story out of the day may be how the routines of American democracy – in-person ballot-casting, elderly polling-place volunteers and the occasional crowded rooms and long queues – can exist in a time of contagion.

The other states – including those, like Florida, with older populations – have decided to go ahead with their balloting as best they can. It remains to be seen what turnout will look like and if that shapes the results.

With a presidential election looming, however, the challenges and issues being raised now – for example, when and whether a political leader can order voting postponed for public health reasons – could be just a taste of things to come. The stakes will be even higher in November.

Mr Trump has said the nationwide coronavirus emergency could last until the end of the summer or even longer.

The White House on Monday advised Americans not gather in groups of more than 10 for the next 15 days, and to avoid bars, restaurants, food courts, gyms and crowds.

The country is facing “an invisible enemy” that is “so contagious,” Mr Trump said.

The US has so far had more than 4,600 cases of the virus and 85 deaths.

There have been more than 180,000 confirmed cases of Covid-19 globally and over 7,100 deaths, according to a tally from Johns Hopkins University.

How are US states responding?

At least 40 US states have declared an emergency over the virus, and 29 states are shutting schools.

Millions of Americans are already working from home and city centers around the country – including Times Square in New York – are drastically less crowded.

On Monday, officials in the San Francisco Bay area issued a sweeping shelter-in-place order affecting nearly seven million people.

San Francisco is placing itself on lockdown for three weeks from midnight on Tuesday. The California city will legally ban residents from venturing out of their homes except to meet basic needs including buying groceries or medicine.

New York, New Jersey and Connecticut announced a tri-state approach to closures, with a shutdown of bars, restaurants, cinemas, casinos and gyms from Monday night for “as long as necessary”.

Pennsylvania, the District of Columbia, Ohio, California, Illinois, Michigan, Massachusetts and Washington state have also advised residents to avoid bars and restaurants.

For the first time in over a century, the US Supreme Court postponed oral arguments.

A Kentucky coronavirus patient has meanwhile been placed under police guard after refusing to quarantine himself.

A local judge declared a state of emergency in order to force a “self-isolation” on the unnamed 53-year-old man.

A Texas person was charged with making a “false report” after posting on social media over the weekend that they had tested positive for the virus.

CNN reports that Mr Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida is closed for deep cleaning after several individuals who visited the golf club tested positive for coronavirus.

Source: BBC

The first trial in people of a vaccine to protect against pandemic coronavirus is starting in the US later on Monday, according to reports.

A group of 45 healthy volunteers will have the jab, at the Kaiser Permanente research facility, in Seattle.

The vaccine cannot cause Covid-19 but contains a harmless genetic code copied from the virus that causes the disease.

Experts say it will still take many months to know if this vaccine, or others also in research, will work.

Scientists around the world are fast-tracking research.

And this first human trial, funded by the National Institutes of Health, sidesteps a check that would normally be conducted – making sure the vaccine can trigger an immune response in animals.

But the biotechnology company behind the work, Moderna Therapeutics, says the vaccine has been made using a tried and tested process.

Dr John Tregoning, an expert in infectious diseases at Imperial College London, UK, said: “This vaccine uses pre-existing technology.

“It’s been made to a very high standard, using things that we know are safe to use in people and those taking part in the trial will be very closely monitored.

“Yes, this is very fast – but it is a race against the virus, not against each other as scientists, and it’s being done for the benefit of humanity.”

Typical vaccines for viruses, such as measles, are made from a weakened or killed virus.

But the mRNA-1273 vaccine is not made from the virus that causes Covid-19.

Instead, it includes a short segment of genetic code copied from the virus that scientists have been able to make in a laboratory.

This will hopefully prime the body’s own immune system to fight off the real infection.

The volunteers will be given different doses of the experimental vaccine.

They will each be given two jabs in total, 28 days apart, into the upper arm muscle.

But even if these initial safety tests go well, it could still take up to 18 months for any potential vaccine to become available for the public.

Source: BBC