Here are some significant developments:
- The White House is blocking Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious-disease expert, from testifying before a House subcommittee investigating the coronavirus outbreak and response, arguing that it would be “counterproductive” for him to appear.
- Shopping malls are reopening in states that have relaxed restrictions, with masks, social distancing and hand sanitizer-spritzing doormen. More than half of America’s governors have relaxed restrictions, but the reopenings are largely piecemeal and vary in scope.
- A group of Senate Democrats unveiled a proposal Friday to pay businesses up to $90,000 for at least six months, allowing furloughed or laid-off workers to continue to receive the paychecks in their usual amounts. Nearly 1 in 5 Americans have sought unemployment benefits since the pandemic began.
- A Democratic group will use artificial intelligence to map discussion of President Trump’s claims on social media. It will seek to intervene misinformation by identifying the most popular counter-narratives and boosting them through a network of more than 3.4 million influencers across the country.
- The White House has created a picture of security that is propped up by special access to the kind of wide-scale testing for covid-19 that most of the nation remains without.
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To counter Trump’s virus messaging, Democrat groups turn to tech once used against ISIS propaganda
A new Democratic-aligned political action committee advised by retired Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the former head of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, is planning to deploy technology originally developed to counter Islamic State propaganda in service of a domestic political goal — to combat online efforts to promote President Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
The group, Defeat Disinfo, will use artificial intelligence and network analysis to map discussion of the president’s claims on social media. It will seek to intervene by identifying the most popular counter-narratives and boosting them through a network of more than 3.4 million influencers across the country — in some cases paying users with large followings to take sides against the president.
The initiative reflects fears within the Democratic Party that Trump’s unwavering digital army may help sustain him through the pandemic, as it has through past controversies, even as the economy craters, tens of thousands have died, and Trump suffers in the polls.
Smallest caseload to biggest death toll: Coronavirus decimates D.C.’s poorest ward
D.C. Council member Trayon White is accustomed to the gun violence that has long defined the neighborhoods he represents. But now his constituents are facing a new crisis — a “monster,” as he describes the novel coronavirus, which is battering his council district more than any other in the city.
As of Friday, White’s ward, which is 92 percent black, had the District’s highest per capita rate of covid-related deaths — six for every 10,000 residents — more evidence that the virus is disproportionately harming African Americans.
“We’ve been suffering from people dying in Ward 8 for the last 30, 40 years,” White fumed, listing the reasons: diabetes, high blood pressure, asthma, suicide, homicide. “It’s always people of color dying in the city. It’s not nothing new.”
The coronavirus has brought back border barriers in Europe, dividing couples, families and communities
BERLIN — When Thomas Schütz, of Saarbrücken, Germany, wanted to visit France, all he had to do was step outside his house.
In March, that changed as the coronavirus pandemic swept across Europe.
More than 30 years after the Berlin Wall came down and 25 years after internal border controls began to be abolished across what is now known as the Schengen area, a generation has grown up moving between nations with the ease of crossing a street. But barriers have begun to creep back. Some European countries reinstated border measures in 2015 to keep migrants out.
Now, with little warning, the coronavirus crisis has prompted governments across the continent to close borders that hardly still existed in the minds of those living near them.
Washington county commissioner, former NFL player Clint Didier among group suing Gov. Jay Inslee over stay-at-home order
Former Washington Redskins tight end Clint Didier is among a group of Washington state politicians and small-business owners who sued Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) on Friday and stated that the governor’s stay-at-home order to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus is “unacceptable tyranny.”
The order was set to expire Monday but Inslee extended the restrictions through May 31.
Didier, the Franklin County Commissioner, partnered with Washington Republican gubernatorial candidate Tim Eyman in an effort to reopen schools and businesses, which have been shut down amid the global pandemic.
Didier said Friday that reopening the state will allow Washingtonians to build immunity to covid-19.
“We can take care of this virus by letting the people catch it,” he said.
Didier played with the Redskins from 1982 through 1987 and caught a touchdown pass in Super Bowl XXII.
In a phone interview with The Washington Post on Friday, Didier said his quote about letting people catch the virus was specifically about children and his desire to open schools again.
“Children are the least likely to even get that sick from this and they will build up the antibodies because of the herd immunity that they talk about,” Didier told The Post. “We shouldn’t have canceled schools. There’s no threat to them — little threat. And this is how the antibodies are developed. You isolate and you prolong the problem. You let it go through the healthy, let them build up their antibodies and you protect the elderly and the most vulnerable — with preexisting conditions.”
Didier, now a farmer, ran for Senate in 2010, Washington state land commissioner in 2012, a seat in Congress in 2014 and was elected Franklin County Commissioner in 2018.
“I didn’t wear a mask or anything over there,” Didier said regarding today’s court filing in Tacoma. “I shook hands because President Trump lifted his guidelines and he’s my leader. I take my direction from him so when he says that we’re good to shake hands, I was shaking hands today. I even gave a couple people hugs. I’m not afraid of it. I’m not afraid of dying. I want to live life large. I want to live without fear and I don’t fear this. I really don’t.”
Malls are reopening, with masks, social distancing and hand sanitizer-spritzing doormen
Americans began trickling back into shopping malls Friday, wearing masks and facing new rules.
Only two customers at a time at a Vitamin World in San Antonio. No shoe-sizing services at a Skechers in Gulfport, Miss. Mandatory hand sanitizer, spritzed on by a mask-wearing doorman at a Louis Vuitton in Houston.
“It wasn’t that different from a typical shopping experience,” said Peyton Burrows, 24, who went to the upscale Galleria in Houston in search of a designer handbag and, like countless others, some measure of normalcy.
Some Kroger stores limiting ground beef and pork purchases, report says
Kroger, the country’s largest supermarket chain, will set purchase limits on ground beef and pork in some stores as supplies run short amid plant shutdowns and high demand during the coronavirus pandemic, CNN reported.
With 22 processing plants having closed at some point in the past two months, production has fallen 25 percent for pork and 10 percent for ground beef, the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union said.
On Tuesday, President Trump invoked the Defense Production Act to force meat processors to remain open, despite union estimates that 20 workers have died from covid-19. About 6,500, the union said, have been directly affected by the virus through a positive test, missed work, hospitalization or illness.
A Kroger spokeswoman did not reply to a Friday message from The Washington Post seeking comment.
“We feel good about our ability to maintain a broad assortment of meat and seafood for our customers because we purchase protein from a diverse network of suppliers,” a Kroger representative told CNN. “There is plenty of protein in the supply chain. However, some processors are experiencing challenges.”
Trump expresses support for angry anti-shutdown protesters as more states lift coronavirus restrictions
President Trump expressed support Friday for armed protesters who had stormed the Michigan State Capitol, demanding the state lift coronavirus restrictions, as researchers estimated that the pandemic could stretch on for two more years.
Trump tweeted Friday that “these are very good people, but they are angry. They want their lives back again, safely!” He said Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) “should give a little, and put out the fire.”
Hundreds of people, including a militia group armed with military-style rifles, rushed the State Capitol in Lansing on Thursday, with some forcing their way into the building and facing off with law enforcement. An angry crowd screamed, “Lock her up!” and insults about Whitmer.
Trump’s “very good people” language recalled his wording nearly three years ago, when he said there were “very fine people on both sides” at a deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville.
We aren’t piling on pounds in lockdown, digital scale maker finds
Good news from the Internet of flab: Data from connected scales suggests Americans aren’t piling on lots of pounds while in coronavirus isolation.
Withings, the maker of popular Internet-connected scales and other body-measurement devices, studied what happened to the weight of some 450,000 of its American users between March 22 — when New York ordered people home — and April 18. Despite concerns about gaining a “quarantine 15,” the average user gained 0.21 pounds during that month. Some 37 percent of people gained more than a pound.
How you view those numbers, however, is a matter of perspective. In a typical year, Americans gain one to two pounds.
Read more here.
Trump uses White House events to project return to normalcy while relying on testing that public lacks
At the White House this week, President Trump sat less than six feet from New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) in the Oval Office. He invited small-business owners to crowd behind the Resolute Desk for a photo shoot. His vice president toured a medical research center without a face mask in defiance of the company’s policy.
The daily images projected a sense of confidence that life, at least for the nation’s most prominent resident, is returning to a semblance of normalcy amid the coronavirus pandemic — a visual cue to the public that conditions are improving as Trump pushes to restart sectors of the economy.
Yet even as Trump aides have signaled that he could soon begin regular travel, the reality is that the White House has created a picture of security that is propped up by special access to the kind of wide-scale coronavirus testing that most of the nation remains without.
Trump, Vice President Pence and their aides are tested regularly, and all who enter the White House campus to meet with them are required to undergo on-site rapid tests developed by Abbott Laboratories, which provide results within 15 minutes.
Costa Rica is a coronavirus success story — so far
Costa Rica has long stood out in Latin America for its low levels of violence (it abolished the army in 1948) and relatively generous social spending. Now it has earned another distinction: success in containing the coronavirus outbreak.
On Friday, the government started to lift some of the lockdown measures it imposed in mid-March. Gyms, cinemas and theaters can reopen with strict social-distancing requirements. Gyms, for example, are limited to operating at 25 percent capacity, according to the Tico Times.
The number of known, active coronavirus cases has declined for two weeks. As of Friday, there were 725 confirmed cases of the virus, but roughly half of those infected had recovered, officials said. Sixteen people remained hospitalized with covid-19.
Only six deaths linked to the virus have been confirmed in the Central American nation of 5 million people. In contrast, Panama has reported 178 deaths from covid-19; Honduras 71; and Guatemala 16.
Costa Rica suspended mass gatherings on March 9 and urged employees to work from home. The popular tourist destination has barred foreigners, except for residents, and closed parks and beaches. Most residents have observed the orders to stay home, officials say.
The country has also benefited from a strong universal health-care system. Authorities have done extensive contact tracing to identify those infected.
But the country is taking no chances. The ban on foreign tourists will probably be extended past the initial date of May 15, officials said.
“We’ve done things well and we have to double our efforts,” Health Minister Daniel Salas told reporters on Thursday.
New York state suspends Brooklyn funeral home’s license after police say it filled U-Haul trucks with dozens of bodies
The New York State Department of Health has suspended the license of a Brooklyn funeral home after police say they discovered dozens of bodies inside two U-Haul trucks parked near the building Wednesday. Officials say they uncovered the bodies after residents noticed a smell coming from the trucks.
The bodies, which police told The Washington Post were also recovered from two refrigerated trucks near Andrew T. Cleckley Funeral Services, were discovered as New York morgues struggle to find room for all the state’s covid-19 victims.
Health Commissioner Howard Zucker called the funeral home’s actions “appalling, disrespectful to the families of the deceased and completely unacceptable.”
“We understand the burden funeral homes are facing during this unprecedented time,” Zucker wrote in the statement. “That’s why the state previously issued an order allowing out of state funeral home directors to assist during this crisis and took steps to ease administrative hurdles. But a crisis is no excuse for the kind of behavior we witnessed at Andrew T. Cleckley Funeral Home, and we are holding them accountable for their actions.”
“This is exactly what I spoke about over the weekend regarding the urgent need for reform in the handling of bodies and burial processes,” Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams said in a tweet Wednesday. “We demand decent treatment of our deceased.”
The funeral home did not return messages left by The Post on Wednesday night.
771 lawsuits — and counting: Wave of virus litigation hits businesses across the U.S.
NEW YORK — Hundreds of lawsuits stemming from the coronavirus pandemic are rapidly amassing in state and federal courts, the first wave of litigation challenging decisions made early during the crisis by corporations, insurance companies and governments.
Claims have been filed against hospitals and senior-living facilities, airlines and cruise lines, fitness chains and the entertainment industry — 771 as of Friday, according to a database compiled by Hunton Andrews Kurth, an international law firm tracking cases that emerge from the pandemic. The volume and variety make it painfully clear that the virus has caused widespread devastation and hardship throughout the United States and that the full scope of its economic toll remains to be seen.
Complaints reach across industries and state lines. Some seek significant monetary damages. Others ask for a judge to correct actions alleged to be harmful or in violation of contractual agreements. Leaders in Washington are contemplating action.
Calif. governor optimistic about loosening restrictions in ‘many days, not weeks’
Amid crackdowns on beach crowds and protests at the state Capitol, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) sounded an optimistic tone Friday by hinting that he is inching closer to loosening stay-at-home restrictions.
“We said ‘weeks, not months,’ about four or five days ago,” Newsom said during his daily briefing in Sacramento. “I want to say ‘many days, not weeks.’ As long as we continue to be prudent and thoughtful in certain modifications, I think we’ll be making some announcements."
Newsom said he is getting “very, very close” to making announcements concerning health and safety guidelines tied to the novel coronavirus pandemic. He cited possible changes in the retail, hospitality and restaurant sectors, though with “serious modifications” to prevent further outbreaks.
“I’m looking forward to next week, to making some very constructive announcements,” he said. “I don’t want to over-promise. I just want to assure you that if we can continue to hold the line and continue do good work and avoid the temptation to congregate … we can get there much sooner than maybe people perhaps think.”
California passed 50,000 confirmed cases and 2,000 deaths related to the coronavirus Friday.
A day earlier, Newsom announced the closure of beaches in Orange County after thousands flocked to the coast last weekend, raising concerns about proper social distancing. Subsequent legal action against that decision “doesn’t surprise me, and we’ll see what happens,” Newsom said.
Later Friday, a judge sided with the state, declining to issue a temporary restraining order that would have reopened the beaches this weekend.
Washington state extends stay-at-home orders through end of May
While many states are letting stay-at-home orders expire, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee on Friday announced he would extend his state’s order through May 31. The current restrictions were to expire Monday.
Earlier in the week, Inslee said he would not lift the order but did not say at the time how long he would keep it in place.
“We have not won this fight against this virus,” Inslee said Friday at his daily briefing in Olympia, adding: “I would like to tell you that you can make reservations for June 1, but I can’t. We will have to monitor, assess and adapt.”
The first state to announce a fatality from the novel coronavirus, Washington has reported more than 14,000 cases and 800 deaths.
Inslee did, however, announce a four-phase plan to further loosen restrictions and said rural counties that have not been hit hard by the pandemic would be able to apply to the state’s health department to progress more quickly through the process.
Inslee has relented on a few restrictions in the past week. Some construction projects and medical procedures, as well as hunting and fishing on state lands, have been allowed to resume.