Category: Breaking News

United States President Donald Trump announced on Thursday the country will suspend all travel from Europe, excluding the United Kingdom, for 30 days starting with Friday in order to contain the coronavirus outbreak. However, the import of goods and cargo won’t be stopped. Trump insisted the US has taken the “most aggressive effort to contain the foreign virus in modern history,” adding that the government responded with “great speed and professionalism.” He claimed the European Union failed to take the necessary precautions to prevent the virus from spreading, causing a large number of new clusters in the US to appear due to infected European travelers. Exemptions from the aforementioned measure, he said, will apply to American citizens returning home from Europe, while travel restrictions will also affect foreign nationals who traveled to the Schengen area in the last two weeks. The move failed to stem heavy losses on financial markets and prompted one top economist to warn that a global recession was now “highly probable”. In a sombre primetime address from the Oval Office on Wednesday evening, the US president boasted that the travel ban and series of other measures designed to cushion the economic blow of the outbreak amounted to “the most aggressive and comprehensive effort to confront a foreign virus in history”. Continue reading “US suspends all travel from Europe for 30 days – Trump”

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The White House has ordered federal health officials to treat top-level coronavirus meetings as classified, an unusual step that has restricted information and hampered the U.S. government’s response to the contagion, according to four Trump administration officials. The officials said that dozens of classified discussions about such topics as the scope of infections, quarantines and travel restrictions have been held since mid-January in a high-security meeting room at the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), a key player in the fight against the coronavirus. Staffers without security clearances, including government experts, were excluded from the interagency meetings, which included video conference calls, the sources said. “We had some very critical people who did not have security clearances who could not go,” one official said. “These should not be classified meetings. It was unnecessary.” The sources said the National Security Council (NSC), which advises the president on security issues, ordered the classification.”This came directly from the White House,” one official said. The White House insistence on secrecy at the nation’s premier public health organization, which has not been previously disclosed, has put a lid on certain information – and potentially delayed the response to the crisis. COVID19, the disease caused by the virus, has killed about 30 people in the United States and infected more than 1,000 people. HHS oversees a broad range of health agencies, including the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which among other things is responsible for tracking cases and providing guidance nationally on the outbreaks. The administration officials, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said they could not describe the interactions in the meeting room because they were classified. U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference on the coronavirus outbreak with U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Anthony Fauci, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Robert Redfield and U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams at the White House in Washington, U.S., February 29, 2020. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts Critics have hammered the Trump administration for what they see as a delayed response to coronavirus outbreaks and a lack of transparency, including sidelining experts and providing misleading or incomplete information to the public. State and local officials also have complained of being kept in the dark about essential federal response information. The meetings at HHS were held in a secure area called a “Sensitive Compartmentalized Information Facility,” or SCIF, according to the administration officials. SCIFs are usually reserved for intelligence and military operations. Ordinary cell phones and computers can’t be brought into the chambers. HHS has SCIFs because theoretically it would play a major role in biowarfare or chemical attacks. 00A high-level former official who helped address public health outbreaks in the George W. Bush administration said “it’s not normal to classify discussions about a response to a public health crisis.” Attendees at the meetings included HHS Secretary Alex Azar and his chief of staff Brian Harrison, the officials said. Azar and Harrison resisted the classification of the meetings, the sources said. Continue reading “Exclusive: White House told federal health agency to classify coronavirus deliberations – sources”

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told lawmakers during a House Oversight Committee hearing Wednesday that COVID-19 — the disease caused by the novel coronavirus — is probably about 10 times more lethal than the seasonal flu.

President Trump has often compared COVID-19 to the flu, which affects tens of thousands of Americans each year, in an effort to calm people down, but Fauci clearly wasn’t trying to downplay the seriousness of the virus’ spread. Fauci is a member of the White House’s coronavirus task force.

At the same time, he did clarify that 10 times figure actually brings the new coronavirus’ fatality rate lower than official estimates, which hover around 3 percent. The flu has a mortality rate of about 0.1 percent, so, when considering the likelihood that there are many asymptomatic or very mild cases that have gone undiagnosed, Fauci places the new coronavirus’ lethality rate at somewhere around 1 percent. While that’s a good deal lower than the current data suggests, it still would lead to significant numbers of fatalities, and makes the flu comparisons seem pretty questionable. Tim O’Donnell

Q: How does COVID-19 compare to other previous health situations — SARS, H1N1?

Dr. Fauci: “…It is 10 times more lethal than the seasonal flu. I think that’s something that people can get their arms around and understand.”

The coronavirus sweeping across the world is a pandemic, the World Health Organization declared today.

https://youtu.be/XnhxjYCVHp8

There are now over 118,000 cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, in 114 countries around the world.

BREAKING

“We have therefore made the assessment that #COVID19 can be characterized as a pandemic”-@DrTedros #coronavirus pic.twitter.com/JqdsM2051A

— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) March 11, 2020

The WHO continues to closely monitoring spread of the virus, said Tedros Adhanom, director general of the WHO, during the announcement. “We are deeply concerned both by the alarming levels of spread and severity, and by the alarming levels of inaction,” he said. “We have called every day for countries to take urgent and aggressive action.”There are large outbreaks of the virus in Italy, South Korea, and the United States. In the US, the slow rollout of testing and limited testing capacity has crippled response to the disease. The spread of the virus can still be controlled, Adhanom said. He pointed to both China and South Korea, where outbreaks appear to be declining. “It’s doable.” Continue reading “WHO declares coronavirus global pandemic”

Once the CDC designates the Coronavirus an influenza pandemic emergency, Trump is free to invoke The Stafford Disaster Relief Act. Then the fun really starts. Read it for yourself.

Asian shares and Wall Street futures fell on Wednesday, as growing scepticism about Washington’s stimulus package to fight the coronavirus outbreak knocked the steam out of an earlier rally.

The markets were expecting Trump to come forward with concrete packages. Instead Vice President kiss ass told them to not shake hands

Markets had been recovering from a brutal global selloff on Monday that was triggered by the double shock of an oil price crash and the worsening outbreak. Those gains faded away in Asia, with U.S. stock futures falling 3% and MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan down 1.3%. Australian shares were down 3.6%, while Japan’s Nikkei stock index slid 2.27%. Euro Stoxx 50 futures were up 0.17%, but German DAX futures were down 0.2%, and FTSE futures fell 0.56%. Earlier this week, U.S. President Donald Trump said he would take “major steps” to ease economic strains caused by the spread of the flu-like virus. Headlines focused on discussions of payroll tax cut, which helped lift market sentiment. Continue reading “Stocks wilt on growing doubts about U.S. virus response”

Older Americans, especially those with underlying health conditions, should stockpile supplies and avoid unnecessary travel, a top official at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Monday. Most Americans are likely at risk of catching the novel strain of the coronavirus, said Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. Older Americans are especially susceptible to serious outcomes. “As the trajectory of the outbreak continues, many people in the U.S. will at some point in time this year or next be exposed to this virus, and there’s a good chance many will become sick,” Messonnier said. “The reason to stock up now is to kind of stick close to home.” Messonnier said global data from Japan and South Korea show that people younger than 60 generally have better outcomes if they catch the virus. However, people older than 60 are at higher risk for serious illness, especially if they have underlying health conditions such as diabetes, heart disease or lung disease, Messonnier said. Younger people with underlying health problems are also at risk, but older people with health problems are the most vulnerable. She added that her parents are in their 80s, and even though they don’t live in an area where there is currently community spread of the virus, she advised them to stay close to home. “The highest risk is those who are older and with underlying health conditions,” Messonnier said. “I think if you’re in one of those groups, separately or together, you need to be thinking towards what personal protections you want to take.” Messonnier’s warning follows new guidance from the CDC that emphasized that older adults and people with underlying health conditions are most at risk for severe disease caused by the coronavirus, and should avoid crowded places, long plane trips and “especially” cruise ships. Health officials have steadily ratcheted up their warnings to the public, even as some in the Trump administration attempt to downplay the severity and impact of the virus. Officials have also begun moving toward a strategy of mitigation, after efforts to contain the virus to just a few areas have failed.

People walk in an almost empty St. Mark’s Square in Venice, Italy, Monday, March 9, 2020. Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte says he is restricting travel nationwide to try to stop the spread of the new coronavirus. Conte said Monday night a new government decree will require all people in Italy to demonstrate they need to work, have health conditions or other limited legitimate reasons to travel outside their home areas. The battle to halt the coronavirus brought sweeping new restrictions Monday, with Italy expanding a travel ban to the entire country, Israel ordering all visitors quarantined just weeks before Passover and Easter, and Spain closing all schools in and around its capital. Even as workers in Beijing returned to their jobs and new infections in China continued to subside, Italians struggled to navigate the rapidly changing parameters of the nation’s self-imposed lockdown.

The fears fanned by the virus sent Wall Street stocks tumbling to their biggest drop since 2008, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 7.8%. Global oil prices suffered their worst percentage losses since the start of the 1991 Gulf War. Continue reading “Italy expands lockdown to whole country”

European equity indices were red across the board at the open on Monday as the coronavirus outbreak coupled with crashing oil prices rattled markets. Adding to the turmoil were plunging Treasury yields with the 10-year US Treasury note dropping below 0.4% for the first time ever. Brent futures for May settlement were down 25.98% to $33.51 per barrel at 8:48 am CET, while West Texas Intermediate for April tumbled 27.91% to $29.76 a barrel at the same time. The drop in prices comes after last week’s failed OPEC+ meeting, which led Saudi Arabia to slash crude prices for April. The DAX sank 7.47% at the open, as the FTSE 100 lost 1.82% in the first minute of trade, only to fall nearly 9% minutes later. The euro gained 1.13% against the dollar at 9:05 am CET, buying 1.14335. At the same time, the pound advanced 1.10% versus the greenback to go for 1.31762.

America has the lowest testing rate in the civilized world and they are covering it up

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has tested 1,583 people for the coronavirus since the first cases were identified in the U.S. in January, health officials said Saturday. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Stephen Hahn told reporters at the White House that figure would increase as more tests are shipped nationwide to address demand. But officials made clear that an individual could be tested only if it was approved by a doctor or public health official, contradicting President Trump’s pervious claims about test availability. Meanwhile, the CDC had recently shipped enough kits to public health labs to test 75,000 patients, Hahn said. The CDC and public health labs had run 5,861 tests for the coronavirus as of Friday, Hahn said, though officials could not say how many total patients have been tested. Nineteen people have died in the U.S. from the coronavirus, and more than 300 cases have been confirmed domestically, including community outbreaks spread in Washington state and California and a growing number of cases in New York state. After facing criticism over the CDC’s slow pace of testing in the U.S., the FDA made it easier for commercial labs to manufacture and perform their own tests. More than 2.1 million of those tests will be shipped by Monday to commercial labs, Hahn said, which would translate to roughly 850,000 people who could be tested because current CDC guidelines require two swabs per patient.
Continue reading “CDC has tested ONLY 1,583 people for coronavirus”