Driving the Day:
🚨WSJ: "Miscalculation at Every Level Left U.S. Unequipped to Fight #Coronavirus"🚨https://t.co/Fk3hJqa7FV #COVIDー19
— Coronavirus War Room (@Covid19WarRoom) April 30, 2020
By The Numbers
Thursday, April 30, 2020, 7:30 AM
Number of US cases reported: 1,040,488
Number of US deaths: 60,999
Total Number of People Tested in US: 6,026,170 (may not include all labs)
HuffPost: U.S. Coronavirus Deaths Top 60,000 — Trump’s Predicted Maximum
New York Times: U.S. Coronavirus Death Toll Is Far Higher Than Reported, C.D.C. Data Suggests
What to Watch For Today
President Trump will meet with Gov. Phil Murphy (D-NJ) in the Oval Office at 11:00 AM and will deliver remarks on “protecting America’s seniors” at 4:00 PM. The coronavirus task force does not have a press briefing scheduled today.
Must Read Stories
How We Got Here: “Miscalculation At Every Level” And “Magical Thinking”
- Wall Street Journal: Miscalculation at Every Level Left U.S. Unequipped to Fight Coronavirus: The swine flu, an outbreak of H1N1 flu, turned out to be a dry run for a major pandemic. But neither hospitals nor manufacturers nor the government made sweeping changes to be ready for one. Instead, each part of the medical-industrial equation acted in its own interest, and didn’t set aside resources that might have better prepared America for the coronavirus crisis. Each ignored warnings of shortages of protective equipment in case of a pandemic—shortages that handicapped the struggle against the virus early on and continue today. […] The Trump administration further weakened the safety net as it rejiggered the Health and Human Services Department’s main emergency-preparedness agency, prioritized other threats over pandemics, cut out groups such as one that focused on protective gear and removed a small planned budget to buy respirator masks for the national stockpile, according to former officials.
- Vanity Fair: Inside Donald Trump and Jared Kushner’s Two Months of Magical Thinking: For weeks, [Trump’s] top medical advisers, Dr. Deborah Birx and Dr. Anthony Fauci, had been hectoring him about the seriousness of the crisis and the necessity of swift action, testing, lockdowns. “We knew from the beginning…we were going to get cases in the United States,” Fauci told me. “We knew we were in for a very serious problem.” Sometimes, Trump listened. The disease was coming closer to his own circle—chief of staff Mark Meadows and communications director Stephanie Grisham were self-quarantining—and the number of cases in New York City had reached 4,000. But the substrate of his thinking hadn’t evolved, and it kept reappearing. He worried about the economy, which was crucial to his reelection. He vented to friends that the doctors were alarmist, and that the crisis was something Democrats and the media were doing to him. “Trump was obsessed with Pelosi, Schiff, the media, just obsessed. He would say, ‘They’re using it against me!’ recalled a Republican in frequent contact with the White House. “It was unhinged.
Trump Ends Federal Social Distancing Guidelines As His Cabinet And Allies Gear Up To Fight State Orders
- Politico: End Of Trump’s Social Distancing Policy Spurs Fears Of Virus Rebound: The Trump administration’s “Stay at Home” guidelines will quietly expire Thursday with little fanfare — letting states decide what’s next. But as President Donald Trump repeatedly declares that “we’re opening our country again,” the inconsistent patchwork of state, local and business decision-making is exactly what could drive a second wave of the coronavirus — or potentially prolong the current outbreak.
- New York Times: Trump Administration Signals Support for Allies’ Fight Against Virus Orders: A network of conservative leaders, donors and organizations has launched a legal onslaught against state and local restrictions intended to slow the spread of the coronavirus, pushing to allow churches to hold services, businesses to reopen and people to be able to visit with family and friends. They have been emboldened in recent days by increasing signs of support from a powerful ally: The Justice Department. Justice Department officials have spoken on conference calls with leaders of conservative groups, who have flagged individual cases as worthy of the department’s review. Some cabinet officials have signaled that they back the effort by participating in private calls with conservative allies, according to multiple people involved with the calls.
As The US Death Toll Passes 60,000 Trump Takes A Victory Lap — And Searches For An Exit Strategy
- Politico: As Death Toll Passes 60,000, Trump’s Team Searches For An Exit Strategy: For much of the nation’s 100 days at war with the coronavirus, Donald Trump has been a commander in chief in search of an exit strategy. The president has suggested the virus will simply disappear, touted unproven treatments as miracle cures and fantasized about a future of economic resurgence and rapid return to normalcy. For much of the nation’s 100 days at war with the coronavirus, Donald Trump has been a commander in chief in search of an exit strategy. The president has suggested the virus will simply disappear, touted unproven treatments as miracle cures and fantasized about a future of economic resurgence and rapid return to normalcy. Yet as the White House shifts its focus away from the public health response and toward rebuilding an economy ravaged by the pandemic, there remains little clear sense — even within his own administration — of how close the U.S. is to victory, and what “winning” the war even looks like.
- New York Times: Trump and Kushner Engage in Revisionist History in Boasting of Success Over Virus: The total number of coronavirus cases in the United States exceeded one million. The American death toll surpassed that of the Vietnam War. And the economy was reported to have shrunk by nearly 5 percent. But the White House on Wednesday declared its response to the crisis “a great success story.” As states begin to lift quarantines, President Trump is trying to recast the story of the pandemic from that of an administration slow to see and address the threat to one that responded with decisive action that saved lives. Recognizing that the crisis jeopardizes his chances of re-election, he and his allies want to convince his supporters that the cascade of criticism is unwarranted. “We think we really have crossed a big boundary and much better days are ahead,” Mr. Trump said on Wednesday at a televised meeting at the White House with business leaders. The session was intended to highlight what the president hopes will be the resumption of a healthier economy only hours after the release of the most cataclysmic economic numbers of the past decade.
- Politico: Trump To Launch First Major Ad Campaign As Reelection Worries Mount: Donald Trump’s reelection campaign is about to launch its first major TV ad offensive of the general election — a move that comes as the president attempts to reverse a dangerous slide six months out from the election. The campaign is expected to spend seven figures on a nationwide advertising blitz touting Trump’s performance managing the coronavirus crisis, according to two people familiar with the plans. The spots will begin Sunday and air for a week.
Trump’s Ego And Failed Response Is Putting Our Active Duty Military At Risk
- Washington Post: Recall Of West Point Cadets For Trump Address Creates Logistics Hurdles And Health Concerns: The day before the U.S. Military Academy announced it would proceed with plans for President Trump to deliver the commencement address, cadets joined a video call to learn about their return to the school’s campus outside New York, the American city hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic. The decision to hold an in-person graduation June 13 meant that nearly 1,000 graduating cadets would travel back to West Point from their homes, where they have been distance-learning since spring break, and undergo up to three weeks of quarantine at campus barracks and a nearby training site. But uncertainties remained, including how to ensure that the cadets wouldn’t sicken one another and how to account for sometimes unreliable test results. “Because all 1,000 of you are going to be coming back, you’re probably going to be about 60 percent who have coronavirus, so we’re going to likely test all of you,” a West Point instructor told one group of about 25 cadets during the April 21 video call, a partial audio recording of which was obtained by The Washington Post. He compared the West Point plans with coronavirus testing of the crew of the USS Theodore Roosevelt, an aircraft carrier sidelined by a major outbreak.
- New York Times: Navy Secretary Orders Deeper Inquiry Into Virus-Stricken Ship: The acting secretary of the Navy on Wednesday ordered a wider investigation into events aboard the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt, shelving for now a recommendation by the Navy’s top admiral to restore Capt. Brett E. Crozier to command the virus-stricken warship. […] His announcement came just days after Admiral Gilday recommended giving Captain Crozier his job back. But Mr. Esper, who initially said he would leave the process largely with the military chain of command, declined to endorse the findings last week, saying that he wanted to review the Navy’s investigation into the matter first. Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had also told associates that he favored a wider inquiry into the Roosevelt matter. The decision essentially kicks down the road any action on Admiral Gilday’s recommendation that Captain Crozier be reinstated, and was seen by some people within the Defense Department as reflecting concern among both civilian and military officials at the Pentagon over getting on the wrong side of President Trump.
Worth Watching
Prisons, jails, and detention facilities are dangerous hotbeds for the coronavirus putting inmates, staff and communities in danger:
- Associated Press: Over 70% of tested inmates in federal prisons have COVID-19
- HuffPost: Positive Test Rates For COVID-19 Are As High As 87% At Some Michigan Prisons
- NBC: Inmates fear death as Ohio prison is overwhelmed by coronavirus
- Wall Street Journal: ACLU Presses Prisons for Coronavirus Infection Data
Headlines
Trump’s Failures
Associated Press: Many field hospitals went largely unused, will be shut down
Axios: Watchdog turns to states for documents on Trump’s coronavirus response
Bloomberg: Trump’s ‘Operation Warp Speed’ Aims to Rush Coronavirus Vaccine
Bloomberg: Trump Says He’s Expecting Trip to Arizona Amid Push to Reopen
Business Insider: Jared Kushner mocks the ‘eternal lockdown crowd,’ says he hopes the US will be ‘really rocking again’ by July
CNN: US could be in for ‘a bad fall and a bad winter’ if it’s unprepared for a second wave of coronavirus, Fauci warns
Daily Beast: Jared Kushner Calls Coronavirus Response ‘a Great Success Story’ as Death Toll Nears 60,000
Minneapolis Star Tribune: Federal lab won’t publish COVID-19 antibody test accuracy results
New York Times: Navy Secretary Orders Deeper Inquiry Into Virus-Stricken Ship
New York Times: Coronavirus Draws an Unwelcome Spotlight Onto Trump’s Health Secretary
New York Times: Trump and Kushner Engage in Revisionist History in Boasting of Success Over Virus
Politico: FDA official steps into vaccine vacuum after shakeup
Politico: As Death Toll Passes 60,000, Trump’s Team Searches For An Exit Strategy:
Stat: A bipartisan group of former health officials seeks to sell a $46.5 billion coronavirus plan to the White House
Talking Points Memo: Trump Walks Back Huge Goal For Tests After His Own Testing Chief Said It Was Impossible
Talking Points Memo: The Trump Administration Has Put Federal Workers at Coronavirus Risk, Senators Say
Vanity Fair: Inside Donald Trump and Jared Kushner’s Two Months of Magical Thinking
Vox: “It’s going to go away”: Trump’s blind faith won’t solve America’s coronavirus testing problem
Wall Street Journal: Miscalculation at Every Level Left U.S. Unequipped to Fight Coronavirus
Wall Street Journal: Coronavirus Testing Capacity Is Going Unused
Washington Post: Recall of West Point cadets for Trump address creates logistics hurdles and health concerns
Trump’s Lies and Misinformation
ABC: Trump rejects a new normal: ‘This is going away’
New York Times: Trump Officials Are Said to Press Spies to Link Virus and Wuhan Labs
Washington Post (Analysis): Dissecting Laura Ingraham’s attempt to gin up a mystery around coronavirus in New York
Trump and the GOP Not Looking Out For You
Associated Press: Texas AG Helped Donor Fight Virus Lockout
The Atlantic: Georgia’s Experiment in Human Sacrifice
Bloomberg: USDA OKs Record Number of Poultry Line-Speed Waivers in April
Buzzfeed: After One Tweet To President Trump, This Man Got $69 Million From New York For Ventilators
New York Times: Trump Administration Signals Support for Allies’ Fight Against Virus Orders
Politico: Unemployed workers face choice between safety and money as states reopen
Politico: Mitch McConnell’s public health gamble
Tampa Bay Times: Florida medical examiners were releasing coronavirus death data. The state made them stop.
Washington Post: Mass layoffs begin in cities and states amid coronavirus fallout, threatening education, sanitation, health and safety
Washington Post: White House, Congress have not given any hazard pay to the medical workers they call heroes
Business
CNN: Costco will start requiring customers to wear masks Monday
Campaigns and Elections
Wall Street Journal: Partisan Fight Looms Over Voting by Mail
Wall Street Journal (Opinion): Trump Can’t Postpone the Election
Congress
Politico: Lawmakers made hundreds of stock transactions during pandemic, watchdog finds
Politico: Pelosi, Schumer demand small business carve-out as SBA restrains loans
Democratic Response
HuffPost: Senate Democrats Press For $50 Billion Child Care Bailout In Next Stimulus
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: ‘He just really took the time to hear us’: Milwaukee ICU nurse talks about Zoom video chat with Joe Biden
Education
New York Times: Elite Prep Schools, Set Back by Virus, Face a Quandary on Federal Aid
Food
Atlanta Journal Constitution: Hundreds of Georgia’s poultry workers have tested positive for COVID-19
New York Times (Opinion): Two of My Colleagues Died of Covid-19
Politico: Hispanic Caucus calls on Trump admin to investigate working conditions for meatpackers
Popular Information: Meatheads
Health Impact
Buzzfeed: Politico: Trump To Launch First Major Ad Campaign As Reelection Worries Mount
Inequality
NPR: New Coronavirus Safety Measures Pose Challenges For The Deaf And Hard-Of-Hearing
Washington Post: More than 80 percent of hospitalized covid patients in Georgia were African American, study finds
International
New York Times: Greece Has ‘Defied the Odds’ in the Pandemic
Reuters: Bosnia reports sharp rise in coronavirus cases after relaxing lockdown
In the States
ABC: Governors were warned of a pandemic years ago, told to stockpile. Why didn’t they do more?
Bloomberg: Florida to Start Reopening on Monday With Restaurants, Retail
New York Times: Bridge Was Their Passion. Then People Started to Die.
New York Times: Dozens of Decomposing Bodies Found in Trucks at Brooklyn Funeral Home
New York Times: 2,500 Mourners Jam a Hasidic Funeral, Creating a Flash Point for de Blasio
Washington Post: Will summer kill coronavirus? Cities fear heat waves will quickly become deadly.
Nursing Homes
The Atlantic: ‘We’re Literally Killing Elders Now’
Personal Narratives
Reuters: Parallel lives: Twin-brother ER doctors fight COVID-19 in New York, Miami
Polling
Washington Post: Most Americans are not willing or able to use an app tracking coronavirus infections. That’s a problem for Big Tech’s plan to slow the pandemic.
Protests
New Republic: The Morbid Ideology Behind the Drive to Reopen America
Public Safety
Associated Press: Over 70% of tested inmates in federal prisons have COVID-19
HuffPost: Positive Test Rates For COVID-19 Are As High As 87% At Some Michigan Prisons
NBC: Inmates fear death as Ohio prison is overwhelmed by coronavirus
Wall Street Journal: ACLU Presses Prisons for Coronavirus Infection Data
Washington Post: Coronavirus kills its first female federal inmate weeks after she had an emergency C-section
Republican Campaigns
Axios: Trump’s coronavirus slump
CNN: Trump campaign launches digital ad featuring Democratic governors praising the President’s coronavirus response
New York Times: Polls Had Trump Stewing, and Lashing Out at His Own Campaign
Politico: Trump To Launch First Major Ad Campaign As Reelection Worries Mount
Reuters: Trump says he does not believe polls that show Biden ahead in presidential race
Washington Post: Trump presented with grim internal polling showing him losing to Biden
Science and Technology
The Atlantic: Why the Coronavirus Is So Confusing
Bloomberg: Gilead Virus-Drug Trial Signals Hope, and Fauci Sees ‘Good News’
Buzzfeed: We Need An “Army” Of Contact Tracers To Safely Reopen The Country. We Might Get Apps Instead.
Kaiser Health News: As Coronavirus Strikes, Crucial Data In Electronic Health Records Hard To Harvest
New York Times: A Scramble for Virus Apps That Do No Harm
New York Times: Just Spit and Wait: New Coronavirus Test Offers Advantages
New York Times: ‘Will You Help Save My Brother?’: The Scramble to Find Covid-19 Plasma Donors
Vox: Why summer likely won’t save us from the coronavirus
Washington Post: ‘Frostbite’ toes and other peculiar rashes may be signs of hidden coronavirus infection, especially in the young
Washington Post: ‘Second-week crash’ is time of peril for some covid-19 patients
Social Impact
New York Times (Analysis): Why Zoom Is Terrible
Wall Street Journal: The Roads Are Quieter Due to Coronavirus, but There Are More Fatal Car Crashes
Supply Chains
CNN: Don’t expect to see disinfectant wipes or sprays in stores anytime soon, experts say
Workers
Buzzfeed: Workers Have Made More Than 7,300 Health Complaints About The Coronavirus
Roll Call: Amazon workers tally virus cases, voice alarms about risks
Vice: Amazon, Whole Foods, Instacart Workers Organize a Historic Mass Strike
Vox: Amazon is cracking down on internal communication after a surge in worker activism
Trump Tweets
FAKE POLLING, just like 2016 (but worse)! [@realDonaldTrump, 4/30/20]
Despite reports to the contrary, Sweden is paying heavily for its decision not to lockdown. As of today, 2462 people have died there, a much higher number than the neighboring countries of Norway (207), Finland (206) or Denmark (443). The United States made the correct decision! [@realDonaldTrump, 4/30/20]
Just told that Fake News @CNN is falsely reporting that I was recently shouting at my campaign manager over made up nonsense. Actually, he is doing a great job, I never shouted at him (been with me for years, including the 2016 win), & have no intention to do so. Just FAKE NEWS! [@realDonaldTrump, 4/29/20]