Fwd: 'The key to reopening is going to be testing'
The coronavirus pandemic has not only upended our day-to-day lives but also some of our most cherished spiritual traditions. With religious services and family gatherings moved online, social distancing that requires us to be apart from others has made Passover and Holy Week much different from what we are used to. However, these departures from the norm can also shake us up. They remind us to focus on the deeper meaning behind our traditions, and to appreciate the blessings we normally take for granted. As we look forward with hope to our eventual rebirth after the pandemic, we wish our all of our readers celebrating Easter a joyous holiday.
—Mindy Finn
1. It's the testing, stupid
President Trump announced yesterday at the White House coronavirus press briefing that there have been more than 2 million coronavirus tests completed in the U.S., but then suggested mass testing is unnecessary—even as his administration plans to reopen the country as soon as early May. Frontline healthcare workers, many of the nation's governors, and other lawmakers disagree. How did we get here? A weeks-long testing delay that effectively blinded public health officials to the spread of the coronavirus—a delay that could have been avoided had federal agencies coordinated to enact an existing plan to ramp up testing during a national health crisis. —CNN
— The good news in testing. The Department of Health and Human Services has reversed its plan to end support today for community-based coronavirus testing sites around the country. Instead, the agency says local authorities can choose whether they want to transition to running the programs themselves or continue with federal oversight and help. —NPR
— Dissension among the ranks. Reports have emerged that Trump donors and allies are worried that the president's handling of the pandemic economy and his wild daily press briefings are hurting his chances for re-election. Yesterday, the president hit back, blasting The Wall Street Journal for a critical editorial that he says failed to acknowledge the television ratings the briefings attract. —The Hill
— Pence vs. the press. Trump isn't the only one with a beef against the media. Vice President Mike Pence's office has refused to allow the country's top health officials to appear on CNN to discuss the coronavirus crisis, because the daily coronavirus briefings are no longer aired there in full. While CNN broadcasts Trump's question-and-answer session, it recently dispensed with running the entire briefing, which can often run over two hours. —Vanity Fair
More: Apple and Google team up to track spread of coronavirus using iPhone and Android apps (CNBC)
2. Shafer: What's with the 'invisible enemy' rhetoric?
"Trump's determination to label the virus an invisible enemy bears all the hallmarks of a branding campaign, one fashioned to shape our attitudes toward the microbe to his liking. By calling the virus 'invisible,' Trump implies that he can't be responsible for its wreckage because who can be expected to see an invisible thing coming? And once the unseeable thing has arrived, there are limits to what one can be expected to do about it!" —Politico
3. GOP parts ways with Trump on vote-by-mail
Several Republican state officials are forging ahead with their vote-by-mail plans, in spite of President Trump's argument that expanding mail-in voting will increase voter fraud. Taking health experts' warnings about in-person voting more seriously than Trump's increasingly vocal partisan complaints, Nebraska's Republican governor has urged voters to apply for absentee ballots; Florida's GOP chair says the party will continue to run a robust vote-by-mail program; and officials in Iowa, Ohio, and West Virginia have all taken steps to increase access to mail-in ballots. —Associated Press
— New Hampshire. In a significant departure from his past stance against widespread absentee voting, New Hampshire's Republican Gov. Chris Sununu announced yesterday that the state will allow voters to cast mail-in ballots in the November general election if the coronavirus is still a factor this fall. —The Washington Post
— Georgia. Georgia already pushed back its primary election over coronavirus concerns once, but after public pressure from some of the state's most prominent Republicans, the leading election official said yesterday that it will be postponed again, to June 9. —The Daily Beast
— Utah. Republican State Sen. Wayne Harper is sponsoring an elections bill in Utah that would eliminate—or severely restrict—in-person voting to avoid the spread of COVID-19. Harper says his preference would be to go strictly to vote-by-mail, but it may not be feasible across the state by the June 30 election.—Fox News
More: Trump's wild claims of voter fraud blow back on campaign aide (Politico)
4. Potter & Rosenzweig: Congress must act now
"Our election infrastructure will be tested in November, and policymakers on both the federal and state levels should swiftly implement a series of fixes to assure Americans that voting will be conducted safely and easily. The important thing is for Congress to act now so the people do not have to choose between public health and a healthy democracy this fall. Every single day of preparation for the election this year is precious." —The Hill
Ed. Note: Trevor Potter is president of Campaign Legal Center and former chair of the Federal Election Commission. Paul Rosenzweig is a senior fellow at R Street Institute and former deputy assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security.
More: Top House Republican says it's 'disgusting' Democrats want mail-in voting funding in the next coronavirus bill (Yahoo News)
5. Fighting conspiracies and rumors along with virus
A new conspiracy theory that official U.S. coronavirus death toll numbers are "padded" with people who would've died anyway from preexisting conditions has prompted a response from White House coronavirus task force members Dr. Deborah Birx and Dr. Anthony Fauci. Birx said that even though the virus is "particularly damaging" for people with preexisting conditions, their "underlying condition did not cause [their death]"—COVID-19 did. Fauci was more critical of conspiracy theories in general: "You will always have conspiracy theories when you have a very challenging public health crisis. They are nothing but distractions." —Forbes
— 5G theory leads to vandalism. The theory that 5G technology is somehow related to COVID-19 has led to multiple acts of vandalism. In recent weeks, 5G cell towers in the UK have been set ablaze, videos of which were posted online, claiming a link between the tech rollout and the pandemic. —Fox News
— Under threat of "retaliation" from President Trump, India earlier this week reversed its export restrictions and ramped upproduction of the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, which Trump has promoted to fight COVID-19. Though there are anecdotal reports of its efficacy, Fauci has warned that there is no clinical evidence, as trials of the drug as a treatment for the coronavirus have just begun. —NPR
— Pay attention...to the right voices. Pandemic expert Carl Bergstrom of the University of Washington says, "Interestingly, we saw some loud voices early on coming from organized campaigns from political opponents of the Chinese government. There was both a lot of hyperbole [about COVID-19] but also some truth to what they were sharing. It was feeling like misinformation at the time, but turned out to be partially right." —CNBC
More: Gerson: The dangerous conservative campaign against expertise (The Washington Post)
6. Bump: Trump's 2020 challenge
"President Trump is in office because of 78,000 voters in three states. His narrow margins in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin were enough to flip those states from blue to red in 2016, and those flips were enough to give him the electoral votes he needed to win the presidency. ... Trump wasn't expected to win those three states in 2016, but: Things changed. These [current] polls will shift in one way or another. If you are Trump's campaign, though, the numbers are exactly why you didn't want to see [former Vice President Joe] Biden on the other side of the November ballot." —The Washington Post
More: New Trump attack ad falsely suggests former governor is Chinese (The New York Times)
7. Will there be an oil deal?
The world isn't only facing a pandemic and a global economic collapse. There's also the issue of the brutal oil price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia. The two countries agreed in principle yesterday to lead a 23-nation coalition in massive oil-production cuts following a drop in demand due to the coronavirus crisis. But after hours of negotiations, Mexico abruptly exited the talks, and a finalized pact still hangs in the balance. —The Wall Street Journal
— President Trump spoke with King Salman of Saudi Arabia and Russian President Vladimir Putin by phone after yesterday's OPEC meeting. The leaders reportedly agreed on the importance of cooperation among oil-producing nations to maintain stability of energy markets and support global economic growth. —Reuters
— Elsewhere, a two-week ceasefire in Yemen has been announced by the Saudis after five years of war there. The Saudis say they're laying down arms to prevent COVID-19 from spreading into Yemen, the region's poorest country, which does not have the capacity to deal with a big outbreak. Gee, how thoughtful. —The Economist
— Up to 150 members of Saudi Arabia's royal family have contracted the coronavirus, while King Salman, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and many of their ministers remain in isolation on the coast of the Red Sea near the city of Jeddah. —The Hill
8. Coronavirus turns South Korean election around
— "It looked like Moon's party was headed for a complete defeat in the election amid a fragile economic recovery. Then came the coronavirus outbreak, which swallowed up all other controversies like a black hole, leaving only the government's out-performance in the worldwide COVID-19 war visible," said Kim Man-heum, head of the Korea Academy of Politics and Leadership.
— Moon's initial response to the coronavirus received criticism for being too lax. He once predicted that the virus would be terminated "before long," only to have cases spike days later. South Korea was once the country with the second highest number of cases, but the country's efforts significantly slowed the spread, and now South Korea ranks 17th among all countries for the highest number of cases.
— South Korea is not only one of the countries most effectively fighting the spread of the coronavirus, but also the first major country to proceed with holding a general election during the outbreak. The execution of South Korea's election could provide a framework for this year's U.S. presidential election. —Bloomberg
More: Democracy around the world is down but not out (The Christian Science Monitor)
9. Whelan: Pandemic reveals democracy's strengths
"Despite adversity, the focus on What Really Matters has become very real for almost every person on earth. The thing we miss most is freedom. The value we appreciate most is the equality of our humanity. The only choice we have is to move forward. COVID-19 may cause us to reboot our realities, but the fact remains that the only operating system that works for everyone—and not just the few—remains democracy." —Medium
Ed. Note: Moira Whelan is the founding partner of BlueDot Strategies and a Non-Resident Senior Fellow with the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensics Research Lab. She formerly served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Digital Strategy at the U.S. State Dept.
10. An American Story: Social media to the rescue
— What began as simply trying to help her dad and his partner return home from Peru, turned into a colossal effort for Ainsley Katz to help repatriate 5,000 Americans stranded there. When her father said that the military shut down the airport, Katz got to work online connecting her father with the State Dept. and other stranded Americans.
— "Before I knew it, a group of seven strangers coalesced into admins. Together, we coordinated Twitter outreach (including formulating our signature #stuckinperu hashtag), moderated WhatsApp and Telegram chat rooms, created a Reddit page, managed a Facebook group of 5,000+ members, and translated the Peruvian president's daily lockdown speeches," said Katz. "Later, us admins even began helping to coordinate local travel logistics to make sure no one was left behind when the embassy sent buses to smaller regional cities."
— Eventually, the Americans stuck in Peru were all able to return home safely, thanks in large part to the efforts of ordinary Americans on social media. Katz hopes that the thousands of Americans still stranded abroad learn from the #stuckinperu initiative and work together to return home. Great job, Ainsley! —TIME
Ed. Note: We are spotlighting ways that Americans are helping each other through the coronavirus crisis. Would you like to suggest an "American Story" from your local news? If so, please forward a link to the story to editor@topline.com. Thank you!
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President Trump now wants to cut funding to the World Health Organization. I am increasingly concerned about the lack of maturity and leadership exhibited by the president. His behavior is closer to that of a seven-year-old. If he doesn't get what he wants, he throws a tantrum. He places blame on everyone without even being willing to accept any responsibility. He has driven me completely away from the Republican Party.
The greatest concern I have is that so many other people do not seem to see the problem. Why do we allow him to continue to govern from the White House? How is it that other elected leaders were intimidated by him and thus did not follow through with his impeachment? Why is it that he continues to get away with such poor behavior and leadership? The frustration is increasing for me! We need this president out of the White House!
Keep up the excellent work that you do to continue to educate your readers! —Neil A., Hawaii
Will some elderly, compromised Wisconsin voter—the equivalent of my 72-year-old wife, who has type 2 diabetes—DIE as a result of voting on Tuesday?
We live in New York, but my wife said she would have gone out to vote if we had our primary Tuesday. There will be infection data coming out of Wisconsin over the next week. Some people will surely get sick. Some will require heroic, expensive action. And some will probably, surely, die. All because they wanted to vote. Surely there may be a case for manslaughter here. —Jim V., New York
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