Breaking News – Page 152 – The Pandemic Informer

March 3, 2020 4:10 amMarch 3, 2020 9:18 am

Top central banks primed to act to combat coronavirus risk

Absolutely its anther financial crises. 2008 all over again! AND they are not waiting this time for a Lehman moment. Central banks the world over have agreed to global coordinated Quantum easing on Steroids. It will make the coming depression far far worse. The depression has been put in remission for now!

TOKYO/FRANKFURT/WASHINGTON, March 2 (Reuters) – The world’s top three central banks look set to take steps to limit the economic damage from the fast-spreading coronavirus, with the heads of the European Central Bank and Bank of Japan issuing emergency statements on Monday that echoed one from U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell late last week. The day kicked off with BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda pledging to take actions as needed to stabilize markets jolted by the coronavirus outbreak, and ECB President Christine Lagarde followed suit late in the day with a comparable statement. Powell on Friday promised the Fed would “act as appropriate” to support the U.S. economy.

“We stand ready to take appropriate and targeted measures, as necessary and commensurate with the underlying risks,” Lagarde said in a statement issued shortly after U.S. stock markets closed. “The coronavirus outbreak is a fast developing situation, which creates risks for the economic outlook and the functioning of financial markets.”

The reassurances from the world’s leading finance officials were a main catalyst behind Monday’s global rebound in stock markets, which had suffered breathtaking losses in late February as it became evident the virus would not be contained to its original epicenter in China. Powell, Kuroda and Lagarde will also join finance ministers and other central bankers from the world’s seven largest economies on a call on Tuesday to discuss the widening crisis. The virus has spread to 60 countries, killed more than 3,000 people and has upended global supply chains. What action they will take and how soon remains an open question, especially given that all three are already operating with precious little ammunition in their policy arsenals. Of the three, the Fed is the only one with a policy interest rate above zero, and between them their balance sheets are stuffed with more than $14 trillion of assets.

Economists and investors have taken their statements and the hastily organized G7 call as a strong signal that coordinated policy action is coming sooner rather than later.

“The news of tomorrow’s G-7 finance minister and central banker call to discuss a coordinated response clearly increases the potential that the Fed could move this week,” JPMorgan’s chief U.S. economist Michael Feroli said in a note. “We believe a 25-basis point move would risk disappointing markets and thereby tightening financial conditions.” “Arguably the FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee) should do even more than the 50 basis points expected by us and the market.” Pricing in interest rate futures tied to the Fed’s policy support a 100% chance of a half percentage-point rate cut at the Fed’s March 17-18 meeting, and another half a percentage point-cut by July. The Fed’s current overnight borrowing rate is set in a range of 1.50-1.75%. Goldman Sachs’ economists Jan Hatzius and Daan Struyven said the Fed may not wait until its scheduled March meeting, however. “Chair Powell’s statement on Friday suggests to us that global central bankers are intensely focused on the downside risks from the virus,” Hatzius and Struyven said in a note. Lagarde’s hint that the bank would take “targeted” measures suggests it could opt for tools that more directly impact the ailing economy, such as ultra cheap loans tailored for firms or more liquidity operations to bolster the economy. They could also include further corporate debt purchases or an increase in the exemption from the ECB’s punitive charge on commercial banks’ excess reserves.

March 2, 2020 2:18 pmMarch 3, 2020 9:17 am

First Negative U.S. Yields Get Closer Amid Virus Fallout Fears

(Bloomberg) — The swirl of fresh coronavirus cases and growing risks to the global economy have some seasoned market strategists warning that U.S. growth could come to a halt this year and some Treasury yields may drop below zero for the first time. The warnings come as a rout in equities and climbing expectations for rate cuts as soon as this week drove long-term Treasury yields to unprecedented lows. Over the weekend, a gauge of Chinese manufacturing plunged to historic lows amid a surge in global virus cases and fatalities — including the first in the U.S. Money markets are pricing in a half-point rate cut by the Federal Reserve this month and an additional half-point by the end of July. These bets are building as investors see the U.S. economy slowing and potentially even slipping into recession by year-end. Scott Minerd, chief investment officer of Guggenheim Partners, said such expectations will push Treasury yields below zero for the first time.

“The shorter-term securities are going to be negative,” Minerd, who oversees about $215 billion, said Sunday. He said the 10-year Treasury yield could drop to as low as zero, though it would be hard to drop below that.

“Even if you have the 10-year note yield at 25 basis points, you are going to have the majority of the curve at negative rates,” he said. The yield was still well above those levels Monday, at 1.07%, down about 8 basis points from the end of last week. Before last week, it had never been below 1.32%, a level it touched in 2016. Investors piling into Treasuries for safety have driven the 10-year rate down more than 80 basis points this year. The stock of global negative-yielding investment-grade debt has jumped back above $14 trillion, from just under $11 trillion in mid-January. However, most of that is concentrated in Europe where the European Central Bank’s benchmark rate is below zero. Negative rates have been long seen as an anathema in the U.S. With the economic impact of the outbreak rippling across the globe, a slew of Wall Street economists have turned more pessimistic and penciled in Fed rate cuts.

The Fed, the Bank of Japan and the Bank of England have promised to act as needed to stabilize markets rattled by the coronavirus, as the OECD warned the world economy faces its “greatest danger” since the financial crisis.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s economists on Sunday bumped up how much they expect the Fed to ease in 2020, after adjusting their forecast just last week. They now expect the central bank to cut by 50 basis points this month, followed by another 50 basis points in the second quarter. On Friday, they predicted a 25 basis point cut at the March meeting followed by 50 additional basis points through June. The 2-year Treasury yield on Monday fell to a level unseen since 2016. Traders see the Fed acting at least by their March 17-18 policy meeting. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said in rare unscheduled remarks Friday that the bank would act if needed. Since then, the U.S. reported its first fatality and Washington state’s governor declared a state of emergency. “It’s hard to imagine that the global recession of 2020 hasn’t already commenced,” said Jack Malvey, a debt veteran and former chief global fixed-income strategist at Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. “A decent part of the U.S. yield curve should end up in negative territory. The question really is only how far out the curve,” said Malvey, now counselor at the Center for Financial Stability Inc. He predicted negative rates are likely at least in the 3-year maturity. The news about the virus’s spread is destabilizing for markets, said Shaun Osborne, chief foreign-exchange strategist at Bank of Nova Scotia. “There is probably a bit more of a shake-out to come overall,” he said. “Yields should fall further and the haven currencies to keep appreciating.”

March 2, 2020 8:24 amMarch 2, 2020 9:16 am

China factory activity dives to worst on record as coronavirus paralyses economy – PMI

* Caxin Feb factory activity contracts at sharpest pace on record

* Output, new orders collapse to historic lows as virus jolts

* Exports and employment also in sharp contraction

* Economy paralysed by outbreak, sharp contraction seen in Q1

BEIJING, March 2 (Reuters) – China’s factories were dealt a devastating blow in February as the coronavirus epidemic triggered the sharpest contraction in activity on record, a private survey showed on Monday, with the health crisis paralysing large parts of the economy.

The Caixin/Markit Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) tumbled to 40.3 last month, the lowest level since the survey began in 2004, and down sharply from the 51.1 reading in January as well as the 50-mark that separates growth from contraction.

The headline number was well off a Reuters poll forecast at 45.7 and even worse than the depths of the financial crisis in 2008-09, underlining the crippling effects of the virus across the country where authorities have imposed tough travel curbs and public health measures to contain the outbreak. The findings, which focus mostly on small and export-oriented businesses, were backed by an equally grim official survey released on Saturday, which showed the steepest contraction on record. Both the official and private surveys provide the first official snapshot of the state of China’s economy since the outbreak of the coronavirus epidemic which has killed almost 3,000 people in mainland China and infected about 80,000. The virus has also spread rapidly to dozens of countries. “China’s manufacturing economy was impacted by the epidemic last month. The supply and demand sides both weakened, supply chains became stagnant, and there was a big backlog of previous orders,” Zhengsheng Zhong, director of macroeconomic analysis at CEBM Group, said in comments on the survey. The survey showed factory production and new orders collapsing to the worst levels on record, while employment also took a heavy blow. There was no respite for exporters either, with new export orders sinking at one of the sharpest rates in the series history. The results underlined fears among global health authorities, policymakers and investors of a potential pandemic and its debilitating impact on the global economy. The anxiety sent financial markets into a tailspin last week with trillions of dollars wiped out of stocks. In response to signs of the deepening economic damage, Beijing has rolled out a steady stream of support measures to help businesses stay afloat, especially small enterprises which are facing a severe cash crunch but are a key source of employment. China’s central bank cut the benchmark lending rate last month to help lower financing costs and has said it would ensure ample liquidity through targeted reductions in banks’ reserve requirement ratios. Those support measures have buoyed business confidence, the private survey found, with the degree of optimism reaching a five year high. But in the short run, analysts expect the epidemic to deal a sharp blow to growth with many forecasting a severe downturn in the first quarter.

Travel restrictions also affected the supply of labour, with firms struggling to fill roles in February, the survey showed, with factories shedding jobs at the quickest rate in the series history.

Economic growth in China slowed markedly to 6.1% last year, the weakest pace in nearly three decades, amid a bruising trade war with the U.S and despite Beijing’s stimulus to boost sluggish investment and demand.

March 2, 2020 7:34 amMarch 2, 2020 9:15 am

Coronavirus may have spread undetected for weeks in U.S.

WASHINGTON — The coronavirus has been circulating undetected and has possibly infected scores of people over the past six weeks in Washington state, according to a genetic analysis of virus samples that has sobering implications for the entire country amid heightening anxiety about the likely spread of the disease. The researchers conducted genetic sequencing of two virus samples. One is from a patient who traveled from China to Snohomish County in mid-January and was the first person diagnosed with the disease in the United States. The other came from a recently diagnosed patient in the same county, a high school student with no travel-related or other known exposure to the coronavirus. The two samples look almost identical genetically, said Trevor Bedford, a computational biologist at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle who announced the results of the research on Twitter late Saturday night.

“This strongly suggests that there has been cryptic transmission in Washington State for the past 6 weeks,” Bedford wrote. “I believe we’re facing an already substantial outbreak in Washington State that was not detected until now due to narrow case definition requiring direct travel to China.”

Officials in Seattle and King County on Sunday announced that two more people have tested positive for the coronavirus, which causes the disease named covid-19. Both patients are men in their 60s and are in critical condition. That brings the outbreak in Washington state to eight cases, six of them in King County, including the first coronavirus death in the United States, which was announced Saturday. Health officials in Washington state and across the nation said they expect numbers will continue to rise in the wake of the decision by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week to widen testing guidelines. Over the weekend, new cases were reported in Americans who had recently traveled to South Korea and Italy, including one person in Rhode Island, the state’s first case. The health department in Santa Clara County, California, in the heart of Silicon Valley, announced three new coronavirus cases Sunday evening, bringing to seven the total number of cases there. The announcement gave few details about the cases.

The research is evidence that the highly contagious virus has eluded efforts to contain it through travel bans, quarantines and other interventions. The virus may have been spreading in parts of Washington state among people who didn’t realize they were infected by it

On Saturday, state and King County health officials reported a possible coronavirus outbreak at the Life Care Center in Kirkland, Washington, a long-term residential facility where more than 50 residents and staff are reportedly ill with symptoms associated with the novel virus. At least two of King County’s six confirmed cases are connected to the Life Care facility: a health-care worker in her 40s and a resident in her 70s.

Until a few days ago, the CDC had specific, narrow criteria for who should be tested for possible coronavirus infection — and most tests had to be sent to Atlanta due to faulty tests sent out to state labs. The focus was on people who had been to China or been in contact with someone who had traveled there. As a result, people with respiratory infections and fevers were not being widely tested for coronavirus. Last week, the CDC altered the criteria to expand testing.

“It’s almost impossible to get a damn test,” she said. The woman, a consultant who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of online harassment, said she normally commutes by train to downtown Washington to work but has self-quarantined since returning from Italy. Had she not chosen to do so, she said, “I could have been passing this all over D.C.”

A 30-year-old man who flew from virus-stricken Japan into Newark, New Jersey’s airport on Tuesday said he checked into NYU Langone’s emergency department in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, with a 102-degree fever and cough. But because he did not meet the criteria as set at that time by the CDC — he lacked chest pains or shortness of breath — he was not tested for covid-19.

The man, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he did not want to be associated with the outbreak, told The Washington Post he would be self-quarantined in his Brooklyn apartment for the next two weeks.

“My thought process was: Whatever I had, now it’s starting to get worse, so I better go to the hospital.” He wrote about his experience on the social media site Reddit.

After he arrived at the hospital, he was tested for flu strains and dozens of other microbes, all of which came back negative. A chest X-ray also returned negative. On Thursday he was informed that the CDC had not approved his case for testing because his symptoms were too mild.

He was sharing his story because he “wanted people to realize that there are probably more people like me.” His flight from Japan into Newark on Tuesday was full, he said.

“At no point am I saying ‘I have coronavirus.’ I’m just saying I have symptoms that are like it, and no one is testing me,” he said. “All NYU Langone Health facilities follow the testing guidelines and infection prevention protocols issued by the CDC and state and city Departments of Health,” Lisa Greiner, a spokeswoman for NYU Langone, said in a statement. “As the situation concerning COVID-19 remains fluid, we are continually aligning our testing protocols to ensure the safety and welfare of our patients and staff.” Although the World Health Organization has declined to describe covid-19 as pandemic, the illness has spread to every continent but Antarctica, and there is widespread agreement among infectious disease experts that a significant fraction of the human population could become exposed to it in the coming year or two.

March 2, 2020 7:10 amMarch 2, 2020 9:14 am

Nike closes European HQ as employee contracts COVID-19

Major corporations around the world are putting in place extraordinary measures to try and limit the spread of novel coronavirus. Travel bans and remote working policies have been introduced in recent days and offices have been closed, as companies to try and protect employees from COVID-19. Twitter (TWTR), Amazon (AMZN), Google (GOOG), Goldman Sachs (GS), and Nike (NKE) are among the global businesses that have introduced extra measures. The precautions come as infection numbers continue to rise and some staff members at the likes of Amazon, Google, and Nike have tested positive for COVID-19. Twitter said in a blog on Sunday it was “suspending all non-critical business travel and events” as part of efforts to ensure “the health and safety of our employees and partners is not compromised”. Amazon has told staff not to travel domestically or internationally until further notice, according to the New York Times. Job interviews are also being changed from face-to-face to video conferences. A spokesperson declined to comment on the measures. Separately, the tech giant announced that two employees in Italy had tested positive for COVID-19. “We’re supporting the affected employees who were in Milan and are now in quarantine,” a spokesperson for Amazon told Yahoo Finance UK. Google is restricting staff from travelling to Iran, parts of Italy, South Korea, and Japan over concerns about coronavirus outbreaks in these regions, according to Business Inside. It comes after a staffer at the tech giant reportedly tested positive for the COVID-19 disease in Google’s Zurich office. Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Nike has closed its Oregon headquarters and its European headquarters in Amsterdam for deep cleaning, according to reports, after a US-based employee who had visited the Netherlands tested positive for the virus. Nike didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Fastly (FSLY), a Nasdaq-listed cloud computing business, said in a blog on Sunday it was closing all offices in favour of remote working, banning all non-essential travel, cancelling Fastly-sponsored events, and discouraging staff from attending any other industry events. “Given that the situation related to COVID-19 is rapidly evolving, we believe an abundance of caution is prudent,” Fastly chief executive Joshua Bixbey wrote. Banks are also scrambling to ensure traders can work from home or at back-up trading floors, according to the Financial Times. Open trading floors, which can house thousands of workers, are seen as high-risk for the spread of coronavirus but regulators must approve any traders that work outside of bank’s authorised premises. Yahoo Finance UK understands that staff at JP Morgan are being encouraged to test their laptops to ensure they can remotely access company systems in case of emergency. A spokesperson declined to comment. Goldman Sachs told staff on Saturday it was banning all “non-essential” travel and putting in place specific restrictions on travel to China, South Korea, Italy, and Iran, according to a memo seen by Yahoo Finance UK. Staff who have recently visited China and South Korea have also been told to self-isolate away from the office for two weeks. “We are closely monitoring new developments regarding COVID-19 and calibrating the firm’s global response on a daily basis,” the bank wrote in the memo to staff. Goldman Sachs declined to comment. The extra precautions come as the deadly coronavirus continues to spread globally. The number of new cases rose by 2,358 on Sunday, almost double the average recorded over the previous five days. There have now been just over 89,000 cases worldwide and over 3,000 people have died from COVID-19.

The first two deaths in the US were recorded over the weekend. The World Health Organisation (WHO) raised its coronavirus threat assessment level to “very high” on Friday.

Last week US oil giant Chevron, advertising agency OMD, and law firm Baker McKenzie all sent home London staff as a precaution after employees reported flu-like symptoms. The epidemic has also led to the cancellation of major industry events such as Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the Geneva Motor Show, and Facebook’s (FB) F8 developer conference.

March 1, 2020 10:34 pmMarch 2, 2020 1:31 pm

Coronavirus: Nasa images show China pollution clear amid shutdown

Satellite images have shown a dramatic decline in pollution levels over China, which due to an economic slowdown prompted by the coronavirus, US space agency Nasa says. Nasa maps show falling levels of nitrogen dioxide this year. It comes amid record declines in China’s factory activity as manufacturers stop work in a bid to contain the coronavirus. China has recorded nearly 80,000 cases of the virus since the outbreak began. It has spread to more than 50 countries but the vast majority of infections and deaths are in China, where the virus originated late last year. Nasa scientists said the reduction in levels of nitrogen dioxide – a noxious gas emitted by motor vehicles and industrial facilities – was first apparent near the source of the outbreak in Wuhan city but then spread across the country. Nasa compared the first two months of 2019 with the same period this year.

The space agency noted that the decline in air pollution levels coincided with restriction imposed on transportation and business activities, and as millions of people went into quarantine. “This is the first time I have seen such a dramatic drop-off over such a wide area for a specific event,” Fei Liu, an air quality researcher at Nasa’s Goddard Space Flight Center, said in a statement. She added that she had observed a decline in nitrogen dioxide levels during the economic recession in 2008, but said that decrease was more gradual. Nasa noted that China’s Lunar New Year celebrations in late January and early February have been linked to decreases in pollution levels in the past. But it said they normally increase once the celebrations are over. “This year, the reduction rate is more significant than in past years and it has lasted longer,” Ms Liu said. “I am not surprised because many cities nationwide have taken measures to minimise spread of the virus.”

March 1, 2020 3:07 pmMarch 1, 2020 4:32 pm

Empty streets, economic turmoil as virus alters daily life

TOKYO (AP) — The coronavirus has claimed its first victim in the United States as the number of cases shot up in Iran, Italy and South Korea and the spreading outbreak shook the global economy. Governments stepped up efforts to contain the disease. Saudi Arabia closed Islam’s holiest sites to foreign pilgrims. In Japan, professional baseball teams played in deserted stadiums. The French government advised the public to forgo customary greeting kisses. Ireland and Ecuador among the countries reporting their first cases Saturday. More than 85,000 people worldwide have contracted the virus, with deaths topping 2,900. China recorded 573 new virus cases and 35 more deaths in the 24 hours through midnight Saturday, according to the National Health Commission. That raised the total for the country where the disease emerged in December to 2,870 deaths and 79,834 cases. In the United States, a man in his 50s in suburban Seattle became the first coronavirus death on U.S. soil. Officials say they aren’t sure how the man acquired the virus because he had not traveled to any affected areas. “Additional cases in the United States are likely, but healthy individuals should be able to fully recover,” President Donald Trump said. Officials announced heightened warnings about travel to certain regions of Italy and South Korea as well as a ban on travel to Iran. Many cases of the virus have been relatively mild, and some of those infected are believed to show no symptoms at all. But that can allow for easier spread, and concern is mounting that prolonged quarantines, supply chain disruptions and a sharp reduction in tourism and business travel could weaken the global economy or even cause a recession. South Korea, the second hardest hit country after China, reported 376 new cases on Sunday morning, raising its total to 3,526. Most of the cases in South Korea have been reported in the southeastern city of Daegu and nearby towns. Italian authorities say the country now has more than 1,100 coronavirus cases, with 29 deaths so far. Iran is preparing for the possibility of “tens of thousands” of people getting tested for the virus as the number of confirmed cases spiked again Saturday, an official said. So far, the virus and the COVID-19 illness it causes have killed 43 people out of 593 confirmed cases in Iran.

Researchers reported the death rate may be lower than initially feared as more mild cases are counted.

A study by Chinese researchers published Friday in the New England Journal of Medicine analyzing 1,099 patients at more than 500 hospitals throughout China calculated a death rate of 1.4%, substantially lower than earlier studies that focused on patients in the central city of Wuhan, where it started and has been most severe.

Assuming there are many more cases with no or very mild symptoms, “the case fatality rate may be considerably less than 1%,” U.S. health officials wrote in an editorial in the journal.

That would make the new virus more like a severe seasonal flu than a disease similar to its genetic cousins SARS, severe acute respiratory syndrome, or MERS, Middle East respiratory syndrome.

Also Saturday, a survey of Chinese manufacturers showed activity plunged in February by a wider margin than anticipated, adding to the virus’s mounting economic toll.

The monthly purchasing managers’ index issued by the Chinese statistics agency and an industry group fell to 35.7 from January’s 50 on a 100-point scale on which numbers below 50 indicate activity contracting.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced a 270 billion yen ($2.5 billion) emergency economic package to help fight the virus. Abe said at a news conference that Japan is at critical juncture to determine whether the country can keep the outbreak under control ahead of the Tokyo summer Olympics.

Abe, who earlier announced plans to close all schools for more than a month through the end of the Japanese academic year sparked public criticism, said the package includes financial support for families and their employers affected by the closures.

“Frankly speaking, this battle cannot be won solely by the efforts of the government,” Abe said. “We cannot do it without understanding and cooperation from every one of you, including medical institutions, families, companies and local governments.”

Even in isolated, sanctions-hit North Korea, leader Kim Jong Un called for stronger anti-virus efforts to guard against COVID-19, saying there will be “serious consequences” if the illness spreads to the country.

In other areas caught up in the outbreak, eerie scenes met those who ventured outside.

Streets were deserted in the city of Sapporo on Japan’s northernmost main island of Hokkaido, where a state of emergency was issued until mid-March. Tokyo Disneyland and Universal Studios Japan announced they would close, and big events were canceled, including a concert series by the K-pop group BTS.

In France, the archbishop of Paris advised parish priests not to administer communion by placing the sacramental bread in worshippers’ mouths. Instead, priests were told to place the bread in their hands. The French government cancelled large indoor events.

Saudi Arabia closed off Islam’s holiest sites in Mecca and Medina to foreign pilgrims, disrupting travel for thousands of Muslims already headed to the kingdom and potentially affecting plans later this year for millions more ahead of the fasting month of Ramadan and the annual hajj pilgrimage.

Tourist arrivals in Thailand are down 50% compared with a year ago. In Italy, which has the most reported cases of any country outside of Asia, hotel bookings are falling. Premier Giuseppe Conte raised the specter of recession.

The head of the World Health Organization on Friday announced that the risk of the virus spreading worldwide was “very high.” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the “window of opportunity” for containing the virus was narrowing.

Economists have forecast global growth will slip to 2.4% this year, the slowest since the Great Recession in 2009, and down from earlier expectations closer to 3%. For the United States, estimates are falling to as low as 1.7% growth this year, down from 2.3% in 2019.

Despite anxieties about a wider outbreak in the U.S., Trump has defended measures taken and lashed out at Democrats who have questioned his handling of the threat.

Trump has accused Democrats of “politicizing” the coronavirus threat and boasted about preventive steps he’s ordered in an attempt to keep the virus from spreading across the United States.

— Klepper reported from Providence, R.I. Associated Press writers Joe McDonald in Beijing, Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, John Leicester in Paris, Deb Riechmann and Darlene Superville in Washington, Adam Geller, Joseph Pisani and Edith M. Lederer in New York, Hyung-jin Kim and Tong-hyung Kim in Seoul, South Korea, Renata Brito and Giada Zampano in Venice, Italy, Frances D’Emilio in Rome, Paul Wiseman, Christopher Rugaber in Washington, Marilynn Marchione in Milwuakee and Frank Jordans in Berlin contributed to this report.

March 1, 2020 7:42 amMarch 1, 2020 11:12 am

Coronavirus unlikely to vanish next year-NIH’s Fauci

WASHINGTON, Feb 28 (Reuters) – A senior U.S. health official told lawmakers that the coronavirus that is spreading globally is unlikely to disappear next year and that many more cases should be expected in the United States, according to a source who attended a briefing on Friday.

Anthony Fauci, who heads the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious diseases, also told House of Representatives members in a closed briefing that the United States currently does not have enough coronavirus testing resources.

March 1, 2020 6:37 amMarch 1, 2020 11:11 am

Trump Calls Coronavirus Fear The Dems’ ‘New Hoax’ As More Cases Confirmed

President Donald Trump accused Democrats of a new “hoax” over criticism of his handling of the coronavirus threat, as US health officials reported Friday a fourth case of novel coronavirus of unknown origin, indicating the disease was spreading in the country. The latest case is a boy under 18 in Washington State who tested “presumptive positive” and is currently in home isolation in Snohomish County. The high school he attends will be shut until March 3 while it is deep cleaned, the Washington State Department of Health said. A positive test is treated as “presumptive” until the results have been confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Earlier Friday, Californian health authorities said an older woman was confirmed infected with unknown origin — the second such case in the northern part of the state. “This new case indicates that there is evidence of community transmission but the extent is still not clear,” said Sara Cody, director of public health for Santa Clara County. “What we know now is that the virus is here, present at some level, but we still don’t know to what degree,” she added. The latest infections have heightened fears of an outbreak across the country. President Donald Trump and his administration have come under fire for a slow response to the coronavirus. Lawmakers say that his proposed $2.5 billion injection to boost defenses against the virus is not enough.

Trump, however, has responded to criticism of his response to the coronavirus by blaming others. He said that Democrats were politicising the virus, even calling it the Democrats’ “new hoax”.

“They’re doing everything they can to instill fear in people, and I think it’s ridiculous, and I think they’re very disreputable,” he told reporters. According to the Centers for Disease Control more than 60 people are infected with the disease in the United States, the majority of them in California. The state’s governor Gavin Newsom said on Thursday 33 people had tested positive for the virus, and five of them had left California. Worldwide offically close to 90,000 people have been infected and over 3,000 have died. The UN has said that the window of opportunity for containing the virus is narrowing, while the World Health Organisation has announced that there is a high risk of the virus spreading worldwide. The escalating number of cases has sent stock markets tumbling, with Wall Street plunging to its worst week since the financial crisis. Tourism has plunged in economies around the world. Economists have forecast a drop in global growth to 2.4%, the slowest since the 2009 recession.

March 1, 2020 6:07 amMarch 1, 2020 11:10 am

Inside Trump’s frantic attempts to minimize the coronavirus crisis

WASHINGTON – Minutes before President Donald Trump reassured a skittish nation about the coronavirus threat, he received a piece of crucial information: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had identified in California the first U.S. case of the illness not tied to foreign travel, a sign that the virus’ spread in the United States was likely to explode. But when Trump took to the lectern for a news conference intended to bring transparency to the spiraling global crisis, he made no explicit mention of the California case and its implications – and falsely suggested the virus might soon be eradicated in the United States. “And again, when you have 15 people – and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero – that’s a pretty good job we’ve done,” he said.

Trump’s playing down of the California patient at his news conference underscores the administration’s slapdash and often misleading attempts to contain not just the virus, but also potential political damage from the outbreak – which has tanked financial markets, slowed global commerce and killed some 3,000 people worldwide, including the first U.S. death, announced Saturday.

Since Trump touched down from a two-day trip to India early Wednesday morning, the administration struggled to cope with the fallout from the crisis – shaking up and centralizing its coronavirus response team under the leadership of Vice President Mike Pence, floating plans to stabilize the markets and publicly seeking to minimize the threat posed by the potential pandemic.

Interviews with nearly two dozen administration officials, former White House aides, public health experts and lawmakers – many speaking on the condition of anonymity to share candid assessments and details – portray a White House scrambling to gain control of a rudderless response defined by bureaucratic infighting, confusion and misinformation.

“It’s complete chaos,” a senior administration official said. “Everyone is just trying to get a handle on what the [expletive] is going on.”

Trump grew frustrated as he watched the markets plummet and was particularly fixated on Nancy Messonnier, the director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, who in a briefing Tuesday warned that the virus’ spread to the United States was no longer a question of “if” but “exactly when this will happen.”

“We are asking the American public to prepare for the expectation that this might be bad,” Messonnier said at the time. Trump is furious over what he considered an alarmist response by his administration and also thought he was being treated unfairly by the media. He was eager to inject his own voice into the unfolding drama and scheduled the White House news conference for Wednesday evening. When Trump stepped in front of the cameras he offered an account that was, by turns, misleading and sanguine. “Well, I don’t think it’s inevitable,” Trump said, contradicting Messonnier and the health officials who spoke after him Wednesday. “It probably will, it possibly will. It could be at a very small level or it could be at a larger level. Whatever happens, we’re totally prepared.” Republican senators have voiced a variety of concerns. They fretted about the administration’s level of preparation to date, communication failures with Capitol Hill and, in the words of Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby, R-Ala., the “lowball” funding request. Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah – a target of Trump’s ire for his vote to convict the president of an impeachment charge – was among those who stood in the private briefing to register objections. “One, I’m very disappointed in the preparation that’s been done over the last few years anticipating the potential of an outbreak of substance,” Romney said in an interview later. “We’ve had SARS, we’ve had MERS, Ebola,” Romney continued, rattling off previous global outbreaks. “We should have stockpiled the kind of protective gear that our medical professionals will need and our citizens will need, and we haven’t. And looking forward, the [spending] number that’s being suggested strikes me as being inadequate to the level of risk.” Trump did not, however, name a single “czar,” as some previous administrations have done during health emergencies. The president decided against that option after worrying that bringing in a person from outside the administration might be seen as a failure – and wondering whether such a person would be loyal to him, according to those familiar with the debate.

Azar, who had previously been in charge, found out about his de facto demotion just moments before Trump publicly announced it. But two senior administration officials said Azar found it empowering to have the vice president formally join the response. “He’s not in control anymore, and that’s clear,” a senior HHS official said of Azar, who remains chairman of the administration’s coronavirus task force. “You need HHS at the table – he’s just not going to be the one guiding the administration through the response.” The decision to tap Pence and streamline all communication through the vice president’s office was primarily driven by a potent combination of a lack of leadership and structure inside the White House, four senior officials said, as well as a faulty CDC coronavirus diagnostic test, botched and conflicting messaging from senior health officials, and Trump’s obsession with the falling financial markets, two senior administration officials said. Many HHS employees fretted that financial concerns, rather than public health considerations, were dictating the administration’s response, one of the officials added. Some of Pence’s own advisers wondered whether having Pence in charge was a good idea, given the messy situation and a lack of experience in his office on the topic. But, ever loyal, the vice president accepted the role assigned by Trump.

Another failure in the U.S. response has been a faulty CDC coronavirus diagnostic test. The United States has tested far fewer people than other nations have, and the criteria for who gets tested remained exceedingly narrow until Thursday.

When Pence finally took over the response midweek, he hosted a Thursday meeting at the HHS that some officials said was intended to undermine Azar and make clear that Pence was now in charge; others described it as a show of support. The combination of Azar, Birx and Pence all in leadership roles, however, also prompted a new round of confusion among officials struggling to determine how the response would be run.

Continue reading “Inside Trump’s frantic attempts to minimize the coronavirus crisis”