The White House outlined plans Tuesday to disband the coronavirus task force charged with protecting the public from the coronavirus.
The total number of deaths attributed to the coronavirus has risen over 12,000, or 20%, in the past week, now surpassing 70,600.
Vice President Mike Pence said the United States would be in a “very different place” by late May and that the task force is in talks with federal agencies about transferring responsibility for keeping the public informed and protected.
The task force, which comprises public health officials and heads of government agencies, will likely dissolve by Memorial Day. The move is a sign that the White House is ready to focus more on revitalizing the economy, rather than on emergency measures to stem the pandemic that has affected 1.2 million people.
President Trump said Tuesday that he will disband the task force “because we can’t close our country down for the next five years,” adding, “We’ve learned a lot.”
Still, the number of deaths has grown by at least 12,300 each week in April, and recently leaked documents from FEMA and Health and Human Services showed internal forecasts for as many as 3,000 people to die each day starting June 1. The White House has said that the figures are not the projections they are relying on, but outside experts have warned that the country could see a resurgence of the virus.
Fifteen children were hospitalized in New York City after showing symptoms of Kawasaki disease, a rare condition that causes inflammation in the blood vessels, particularly the coronary arteries which supply blood to the heart. Doctors don’t fully understand the disease, but said cases began cropping up in European countries this year and are likely tied to COVID-19. Dr. Howard Zucker, the New York state health commissioner, told the New York Times Monday that state officials were also investigating the unexplained syndrome.
California’s weekly coronavirus death toll fell for the first time last week after the state reported its highest weekly death toll just two weeks ago, the Los Angeles Times reported. The nearly 9% decline is an improvement, but the state has not yet seen the sustained two-week decline in new coronavirus cases that the White House says is necessary before taking steps to reopen. The state’s health officer, Dr. Sonia Angell, said the number of hospitalizations is flat and now showing signs of decreasing.
Prof. Neil Ferguson, an epidemiologist who helped shape the United Kingdom’s coronavirus lockdown strategy, resigned Tuesday after violating social distancing rules by allowing a romantic partner to visit him at home at least twice. Ferguson leads the team of scientists at Imperial College London that helped persuade Prime Minister Boris Johnson and ministers in Parliament that the U.K. needed to enact stringent stay-at-home measures so as to not overrun the healthcare system. Citing an “error of judgment,” he left his post on the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies Tuesday.
“I acted in the belief that I was immune, having tested positive for coronavirus, and completely isolated myself for almost two weeks after developing symptoms,” Ferguson said.
The government’s lockdown measures urge people to stay in their homes with their families and not visit people in other households.
“I deeply regret any undermining of the clear messages around the continued need for social distancing to control this devastating epidemic,” Ferguson said. “The Government guidance is unequivocal, and is there to protect all of us.”
The U.K. overtook Italy Tuesday, with about 29,502 COVID-19 deaths, 187 more than Italy. The U.S. still has the highest number of coronavirus cases globally at nearly 1.2 million and over 70,600 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data.
Dr. Rick Bright, the former head of the Health and Human Services agency tasked with finding a coronavirus vaccine, filed a formal whistleblower complaint Tuesday after claiming he was demoted for urging the Trump administration to stop pushing hydroxychloroquine as a treatment without sufficient evidence.
Bright said he was removed from his post as director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority last month because of his “insistence that the government invest the billions of dollars allocated by Congress to address the COVID-19 pandemic into safe and scientifically vetted solutions, and not in drugs, vaccines, and other technologies that lack scientific merit.”
Trump will allow top government infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci to testify before the GOP-led Senate, but will prevent him from appearing before “Trump haters” in the House, Politico reported.
“They put every Trump hater on the committee. The same old stuff,” Trump told reporters Tuesday, adding that Fauci “looks forward” to testifying before the Senate.
Senate Democrats are demanding that the GOP majority pass a $1 trillion spending package for state and local governments running low on revenue due to the coronavirus pandemic. It would be the fourth economic stimulus package to pass out of Congress since the COVID-19 crisis began.
A previous spending package allocated $150 billion to state and local governments, which Democrats say is much too low. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said states need “huge amounts of money,” but Majority Leader Mitch McConnell wants to postpone consideration of another spending bill until Congress can assess the distribution and effectiveness of the funding already passed.
“If Leader McConnell thinks they can wait, he should talk to some Republican governors, as well as Democratic ones,” Schumer told reporters Tuesday.
McConnell also said that any additional spending package would have to include lawsuit liability reform to protect businesses and healthcare workers, which Schumer said, “is not productive.”
Meanwhile, Trump is pushing for a payroll tax cut to be included in the next package, which is being greeted with opposition from members of his own party, according to Politico.
