President Trump attacked Joe Biden over the coronavirus in the swing state of Pennsylvania, going on the counteroffensive after receiving sustained prime-time criticism at the Democratic National Convention of his handling of the pandemic.
“Biden would terminate this unprecedented recovery. He wants to impose a permanent lockdown combined with a socialist takeover of the U.S. economy,” Trump said at a rally Thursday.
The Trump event took place outside Mariotti Building Products in Old Forge, Pennsylvania, not far from Scranton, Biden’s birthplace.
Biden is set to accept the Democratic presidential nomination Thursday night at the convention. Democrats have condemned Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic during each night of the event. Former presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren, for instance, said Trump “failed miserably” to contain the coronavirus.
“Donald Trump hasn’t grown into the job because he can’t,” former President Barack Obama said. “And the consequences of that failure are severe. 170,000 Americans dead. Millions of jobs gone while those at the top take in more than ever.”
Polling from CNN shows that Biden is leading Trump by about a 9-point margin nationally. Biden is currently ahead of Trump in Pennsylvania, the setting for the president’s Thursday rally, by about 4 points, according to FiveThirtyEight.
As of Thursday evening, nearly 5.6 million coronavirus infections have been confirmed in the United States, and more than 174,000 people have died.
Russia will launch a massive human trial of its coronavirus vaccine that debuted earlier this month. U.S. health officials, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top government infectious disease expert, doubted the vaccine’s efficacy and safety, as it had not gone through extensive human trials before President Vladimir Putin touted the achievement. The vaccine will be tested on 40,000 people, a sample size much more in line with the trials taking place in the U.S. for vaccine candidates from Moderna, Pfizer and BioNTech, and AstraZeneca and Oxford.
Fauci, 79, underwent surgery Thursday to have a polyp removed from a vocal chord and is recovering at home. The procedure was relatively simple and took place at an outpatient care center. CNN’s chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta said Fauci had told him he was “doing OK” following the procedure.
Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican, announced Thursday that he had tested positive for the coronavirus. He was alerted before being tested Thursday that he had come into contact with someone infected with the virus the day before.
Cassidy’s office said that he was following Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, which say to inform other people with whom he’s had contact and to quarantine for two weeks.
The Department of Health and Human Services announced it will authorize the widespread use of coronavirus tests developed by commercial labs without requiring approval from the Food and Drug Administration. The rationale behind limiting FDA oversight is that the agency does not already grant approval for labs to market their diagnostic tests in a non-pandemic context because such tests are relatively simple and available to the public on a limited basis. Lab-developed tests are not subject to the same regulations as “diagnostic devices” created by medical device manufacturers, such as the Abbott coronavirus test used in the White House.
The FDA granted emergency use authorization to its third rapid antigen test kit Wednesday. The test developed by London-based LumiraDx uses a nasal swab, a chemical reagent, and a testing strip and delivers results on-site within 12 minutes. HHS said Wednesday that the scalability and low cost of the product “will significantly contribute to our scaling up and expanding testing platforms” for COVID-19.
HHS is handing the responsibility of collecting coronavirus data from hospitals over to the CDC, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday. The policy reversal comes amid complaints that the existing system caused data delays and inconsistencies, which made it harder for local officials to get a handle on how the pandemic is progressing and for agencies tasked with dispersing antiviral therapies and PPE.
“CDC is working with us right now to build a revolutionary new data system so it can be moved back to the CDC, and they can have that regular accountability with hospitals relevant to treatment and PPE,” said Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House’s coronavirus response coordinator.
New applications for unemployment benefits rose above 1 million last week, the Department of Labor reported Thursday, a troubling sign that the labor market recovery has lost momentum. Although millions of workers have been brought back to their old jobs in recent months, the unemployment rate is still above 10%, worse than at any time in the Great Recession.
Georgia State University Panthers quarterback Mikele Colasurdo will not be playing football this season after being diagnosed with a heart condition related to contracting the coronavirus. Colasurdo, a freshman, is a three-star prospect out of South Carolina. He praised the Georgia State medical staff for his care.
