Category: Breaking News

The coronavirus pandemic killed 749 people in the United States in the past 24 hours, according to figures released Saturday by Johns Hopkins University. The latest deaths bring the total in the United States to 109,791, and there have been more than 1.9 million cases, according to a real-time tally maintained by the Baltimore-based university at 8:30 pm (0030 GMT Sunday). Some 500,000 people have recovered from the disease. The United States has suffered by far the largest number of both COVID-19 deaths and infections. On a per capita basis, however, several European countries — including France, Italy and Spain — have a higher death toll. President Donald Trump said Friday that the United States was “largely through” the pandemic and renewed his call on governors to ease lockdown measures in their states. While the United States was suffering around 3,000 deaths a day in mid-April, that number has declined to around 1,000 deaths and 20,000 new cases a day at present. But health care professionals worry mass demonstrations against police brutality and racism taking place in cities across the US may lead to a new surge in infections in the coming weeks.

LOS ANGELES-“This note is legal tender for all debts, public and private.” That’s what it says right under “Federal Reserve Note” and “The United States of America.” But legal tender won’t be accepted to play at one of the city of Los Angeles’ dozen public golf courses. Or for the $15 charge to enter the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Gardens in Arcadia. More than 30 Armstrong Garden Centers around California also ask for “touchless” payment options, as does the Beehive clothing boutique in Manhattan Beach and the Munch Company sandwich shop in South Pasadena. Bussinesses reject cash, fearing that it could be a transmission vehicle for the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Some experts predict that the pandemic will accelerate a steady flight by American consumers away from dollars and cents.

“This crisis is clearly pushing us even farther away from using cash in our everyday legal transactions,” said Kenneth Rogoff, a Harvard University economics professor and author of “The Curse of Cash.” “And it’s for obvious reasons. No one wants to touch something you or someone else just touched. That’s not going to change any time soon.”

Dollars remain in record circulation around the world, in part as a perceived safe haven for investors and, not infrequently according to Rogoff, as the preferred vehicle for money launderers and tax evaders. But on Main Street, the use of greenbacks makes some retailers and customers flinch, and contrary to popular belief, there is no federal law that requires businesses to accept cash and coins, according to the Federal Reserve’s website. A National Institutes of Health study found that SARS-CoV-2 remained infectious on cardboard for up to 24 hours. But germs picked up from surfaces can be eliminated by thorough hand washing. The primary means of transmission remains through respiratory droplets produced when an infected person coughs or sneezes. A shift to other forms of payment has been encouraged by government agencies, such as the California Department of Public Health, which suggests the use of debit and credit cards. Reopening plans for multiple counties also recommend “contactless” payment systems. “I think what’s happened with the pandemic is it’s taken a three- to five-year time frame that it would have taken for digital payments to hit a tipping point and fast-forwarded it to reach that tipping point, literally within months,” PayPal CEO Daniel Schulman said in an interview.

While some older consumers had clung to cash, the digital pay platform now sees the 50-plus age group as its fastest-growing demographic. “Before it used to be cash or checks. Now they are going to a payment platform to send money to the grandkids,” Schulman said.

While many hail the shift to a cashless economy, others say that it raises equity concerns, because the poorest Americans have no access to digital alternatives. Much of the world, led by Scandinavia and Japan, has moved to assure virtually their entire populations have access to online payments. China introduced a digital currency this spring in four cities, paving the way to its becoming perhaps the world’s first cashless society.

The global case tally from the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 climbed above 5.5 million on Tuesday, as the World Health Organization warned of the possibility of an immediate “second peak” in infections during the current wave, if countries and local governments ease measures to contain the spread too soon. Dr. Mike Ryan, WHO emergencies chief, offered the warning in an online briefing, as the Associated Press reported. “We cannot make assumptions that just because the disease is on the way down now it is going to keep going down and we are get a number of months to get ready for a second wave,” said Ryan. “We may get a second peak in this wave.” His warning comes after the U.S. Memorial Day holiday celebrations saw crowds gathering on beaches and in parks in many states (with notable images emerging from the Lake of the Ozarks resort area in Missouri), failing to observe social-distancing measures and other guidelines that public-health experts say are still essential to control the spread of the virus. Media reported widely on the culture wars brewing across the U.S. between those who refuse to comply with safety measures, such as wearing face masks, and even claim the pandemic is not real, and those who are respecting guidelines. Social media reflected the divide in videos of individuals in some states brawling with store workers when asked to wear a mask, while in other states store associates were refusing to allow entrance to people wearing masks. The 1918 Spanish flu’s second wave was even more devastating’: WHO advises caution to avoid ‘immediate second peak’ President Donald Trump visited Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia and Fort McHenry in Baltimore to commemorate the sacrifice of soldiers but did not wear a mask to either event. Former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, did wear a mask on a visit to a veterans memorial in Delaware and was careful to socially distance from a group of attending veterans. Biden has pledged to observe all measures recommended by health experts, who have repeatedly cautioned Americans that reopening too soon would cause unnecessary suffering and death. Dr. Deborah Birx, coordinator of the White House coronavirus task force, said she was “very concerned” about scenes of people crowding together over the weekend. “We really want to be clear all the time that social distancing is absolutely critical,” she told ABC’s “This Week.” “And if you can’t social distance and you’re outside, you must wear a mask.”

The World Health Organization is warning of a second peak – not necessarily a second wave – of coronavirus cases. During a media briefing on Monday, Dr. Mike Ryan, executive director of WHO’s Health Emergencies Programme, said right now, we are “right in the middle of the first wave, globally.” “We’re still very much in a phase where the disease is actually on the way up,” he added.

Ryan warned that a second peak or wave could come during the normal influenza season, “which will greatly complicate things for disease control.” Maria Van Kerkhove, a WHO infectious disease epidemiologist, said “all countries need to remain on high alert here. All countries need to be ready to rapidly detect cases, even countries that have had success in suppression. … Even countries that have seen a decline in cases must remain ready.” Van Kerkhove said if given the opportunity, the virus will start an outbreak. “A hallmark of coronaviruses is its ability to amplify in certain settings, its ability to cause transmission – or super spreading events. And we are seeing in a number of situations in these closed settings. When the virus has an opportunity, it can transmit readily,” she said.

Shi Zhengli, a virologist renowned for her work on coronavirus in bats, said in an interview on Chinese state television that viruses being discovered now are “just the tip of the iceberg” and called for international cooperation in the fight against epidemics. Known as China’s “bat woman,” the deputy director of the Wuhan Institute of Virology said research into viruses needs scientists and governments to be transparent and cooperative, and that it is “very regrettable” when science is politicized. “If we want to prevent human beings from suffering from the next infectious disease outbreak, we must go in advance to learn of these unknown viruses carried by wild animals in nature and give early warnings,” Shi told CGTN. “If we don’t study them there will possibly be another outbreak.” Her interview with TV channel CGTN coincided with the start of the National People’s Congress, an annual meeting of China’s top leadership in Beijing. This year’s NPC comes as the country’s relationship with the U.S. turns increasingly frayed, with President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Michael Pompeo both saying the coronavirus sweeping the world is likely linked to the Wuhan laboratory. China has rejected the accusations. Shi has said that the genetic characteristics of the viruses she’s worked with didn’t match those of the coronavirus spreading in humans. In a social media post, she wrote she would “swear on my life” the pandemic had nothing to do with her lab. In another interview with CGTN over the weekend, the director of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, Wang Yanyi, said the idea that the virus escaped from the lab was “pure fabrication.” The outbreak has infected more than 5.4 million people worldwide and killed over 345,000.

https://youtu.be/1HaGFJoJUDg

 

After 100 years in business, Hertz filed for bankruptcy on Friday, proving to be yet another casualty during Covid-19. The old-time entity now joins the likes of J.C. Penney, J. Crew, Neiman Marcus, Gold’s Gym, Pier 1 and the McClatchy newspaper chain—companies that have all sought bankruptcy protection in recent weeks. Hertz was just another victim of the pandemic, people will say. It’s easy to blame the company’s misfortunes, as well as the other corporate casualties, on the pandemic. The reality is a different story.

The failures of Hertz and the others have more to do with their own arrogant inertia and inability to recognize the fast-changing trends and a refusal to adapt their business models accordingly.

Back in the day, Avis was Hertz’s major rival. Avis branded itself as the scrappy underdog and adopted the advertising tagline, “We Try Harder.” It was meant to convey that the folks at Avis will do whatever it takes to make its customers happy. Hertz’s slogan should’ve been “We Didn’t Try Hard Enough.” The Wall Street Journal reported, “Hertz Global Holdings Inc., one of the nation’s largest car-rental companies, filed for bankruptcy protection Friday, saddled with about $19 billion in debt and nearly 700,000 vehicles that have been largely idled because of the coronavirus.” The company has lost money for the past four consecutive years, including $58 million in 2019.Back in March, responding to the deteriorating economic circumstances, Hertz laid off 12,000 workers and furloughed an additional 4,000 employees—25% of its workforce. Car rental companies are heavily dependent upon travel. People will rent cars for family vacation. A business person flying out to a client will go to a Hertz and rent a car for the duration of their visit. With air travel coming to a near halt, the need for car rentals has plummeted. It’s true that Covid-19 has had an impact on Hertz—as well as an array of other large and small companies—but it was suffering long before we even heard of the coronavirus. Hertz had to contend with tough competition in the car-rental space, in addition to the onslaught from Uber and Lyft. Customers preferred the ease of use with car-sharing apps. There wasn’t a need to take the time to fill out long and one-sided contracts, wait for your car then have to drive it yourself in an unfamiliar location. Compared to this experience, it’s much more convenient to open an app, request a ride and get whisked to your location. Some of Hertz’s problems have been self-inflicted. The company, which was founded in 1918, recently went through a number of restructures and four CEOs have gone through the turnstile. A private equity firm heaped a whole lot of debt on Hertz, which didn’t help matters. Hertz’s bankruptcy will have a big impact. It’s likely that there will be future layoffs, in addition to the 16,000 employees who have already lost their jobs or have been furloughed. It’s reasonable to believe that the hours of the remaining staff will be reduced and furloughed workers won’t be asked to return. Hertz bought and leased cars from General Motors and other carmakers. Now, it won’t be, which will hurt the automakers and all of their parts suppliers. Hertz will be forced to sell parts of its fleet of cars. This will put downward pressure on the used-car market. People who have considered selling their cars—to earn money because they may have lost their jobs—will not receive much for it, as there will now be an overabundance of used cars for sale. An unlikely group has also lost out due to Hertz’s bankruptcy filing. Robinhood, the trading app, had about 45,000 day traders holding stock in the company—most of whom presumably lost money while betting on the chance of a resuscitation for the car rental company. Creditors to the company will also lose out under the Chapter 11 restructuring and be forced to accept less repayments.

It’s been months since the outspoken filmmaker left his building, but he’s kept busy podcasting, writing, producing—and rankling fellow lefties. Looking to November, Moore questions if Biden will still be running and worries Trump will throw a wrench in the works. Michael Moore, for decades on the political front lines, is hunkered down inside, riding out the pandemic from his Upper West Side apartment. “I literally have not stepped outside the door of my apartment building in 71 days,” he told me this week. He’s had one visitor in that time—a handyman—and sees his doorman from a distance when retrieving a package. Kind neighbors have dropped goodies outside his door. “I think they’re worried about me,” he says dryly. He fortunately has a balcony, a coveted feature for many sun-starved New Yorkers, and it’s there where he gets his daily exercise, walking back and forth in the small outdoor space until he’s logged a mile or two. “The people across the street,” he said with a laugh, “it must look like there’s a lunatic who lives across the street from them.” Last month, on his 45th day in isolation, Moore turned 66, and his age and past bout with pneumonia make him a prime candidate to get hit hard by the virus. After spending much of the fall and winter stumping through Iowa and New Hampshire on behalf of Bernie Sanders, Moore opted not to travel ahead of the Super Tuesday primaries being held in early March, wary of a coronavirus crisis that was only just coming into focus in the United States. Moore recalled getting scared straight after talking to experts and academics and seeing “a runaway train heading in our direction.” To Moore’s friends it seemed like uncharacteristic alarmism. At that point in February, there had yet to be a death from COVID-19 reported in the U.S.; “social distancing” was still weeks away from entering the lexicon. “Everybody was like, ‘Dude, this doesn’t sound like you,’” Moore said. “I said, ‘No, I know, but I’m just using my own instinct here. I’m not a scientist.’” What Moore had to figure out then was where to quarantine. A doctor recommended Michigan, where the Flint native has a home, cautioning that New York’s hospital system could be overwhelmed. But Moore had visions of the virus bringing about chaos and unrest, even angry mobs, a scene straight out of The Day of the Locust. He concluded that “it would be actually more dangerous to be in the place where people are carrying a lot of guns.” “This was all before we watched all the people I went to high school with show up at the state capitol with their guns,” he said, referring to the anti-lockdown protests in Michigan that have drawn some rifle-toting demonstrators and President Donald Trump egging them on with a call to “liberate” the state.

Defense Secretary Mark Esper declared Friday that a government task force charged with developing a COVID-19 vaccine would have a widely available injection by the end of the year. But a leaked Pentagon memo shows that behind the scenes, senior leadership have been planning for the possibility that the services could be contending with coronavirus until well into next year. The memo, first reported by Task and Purpose, warns of not only a resurgence of the virus, but the “real possibility” that a viable vaccine won’t be available until “at least the summer of 2021.” “Therefore, we must now re-focus our attention on resuming critical missions, increasing levels of activity, and making necessary preparations should a significant resurgence of COVID-19 occur later this year,” the memo reads, though it doesn’t bear Esper’s signature. Kenneth Rapuano, assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense and global security, prepared the memo, Task and Purpose reported. “We can confirm we continue to develop plans that address operating in the COVID-19 environment,” Pentagon spokesman Chris Garver told Military Times on Tuesday, though he could not confirm the specific memo draft. “Senior DoD officials have discussed the development of a plan to reduce Health Protection Conditions around the world and continue the 2020 summer move cycle safely. The plans have not been approved by senior DoD leaders yet, and we’re not going to discuss what might be in the final version of those plans.” The memo details requirements for expanded testing, surveillancing and contact tracing procedures, while at the same time preparing for new outbreaks, shortages of personal protection equipment and insufficient immunity to the virus into summer 2021.

“All indications suggest we will be operating in a globally-persistent COVID-19 environment in the months ahead,” the memo reads. “This will likely continue until there is wide-scale immunity, through immunization, and some immunity post-recovery from the virus.” Continue reading “Leaked Pentagon memo warns of ‘real possibility’ of COVID-19 resurgence”