COVID-19 news: Federal officials expect new wave of pandemic deaths as some states 'reopen'

While the COVID-19 pandemic is slowing, finally, in New York City, pandemic numbers continue to rise elsewhere across the country as new infections are reported at a rate of 25,000 a day. Even though New York City is bringing the pandemic under control, the escalating cases in other hot spots, including in rural counties, are continuing to push up national case counts.

A summary of today's pandemic news:

• Leaked audio recordings of federal conference calls reveal administration health officials expect a new wave of cases and deaths as states "reopen" even as their rate of the pandemic continues to rise, including modeling that projects another ventilator shortage "by the first week of June."

• New York health officials are examining a recent string of severe illnesses in children between the ages of 2 and 15 that may be linked to COVID-19, but presents in a manner similar to Kawasaki disease or toxic shock syndrome. Parents are being urged to seek medical care if their children have high fever, abdominal pain, or develop rashes.

• A new Axios story reports that Trump intends to begin "publicly questioning" the reported pandemic death toll, possibly including a new claim that doctors and hospitals are inflating the number of COVID-19 deaths to defraud the government. There is absolutely zero evidence for this toxic claim.

• Republican leaders moving to reopen state economies are being blunt about the prospects of workers who fear returning to unsafe working conditions during the pandemic. Refusal to return counts as a "voluntary quit," and people who voluntarily quit don't get unemployment relief. In Ohio, state officials are asking employers to report workers who refuse to return so they can be stripped of unemployment benefits.

• Five Republican governors published a self-praising editorial declaring their refusals to issue statewide stay-at-home orders a "model for success." Rising infection numbers in their states, however, do not immediately suggest "success."

• Those that demand states "reopen" to save the economy even if it means more American deaths fail to understand that more American deaths aren't likely to boost the economy no matter how many are sacrificed.

• A new ACLU, Human Rights Watch, and National Immigrant Justice Center report details how the Trump administration's massive expansion of immigration detention facilities "laid the groundwork" for the large-scale COVID-19 infections now being reported.

• During a Tuesday night interview, Trump told ABC's David Muir that "I think in a certain way, maybe our best work has been on what we've done with COVID-19."

• A tour of a Honeywell factory producing masks took a surreal turn on Tuesday as a maskless Trump and entourage examined masks while the Trump rally playlist blared from factory loudspeakers. The song: "Live and Let Die."

• Republican senators are panning a new Trump demand for a payroll tax cut in the next pandemic relief package—a tax cut that would be useless to those no longer on a payroll. Instead, Republicans are pressing for businesses to be exempted from liability claims if workers or customers die as a result of coronavirus exposure on their premises.

• Pandemic job losses continue to soar, with unemployment figures now dwarfing unemployment during the 2008 Great Recession.

• U.S. citizen children who have been blocked by the Trump administration from receiving pandemic relief because their parents are undocumented workers are now suing Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to overturn those policies.

• 27 service members, Department of Defense employees, and dependents have now died after contracting COVID-19, and nearly 800 veterans have died inside the Veterans Administration's medical system.

• While Trump insisted that "the people" want businesses to reopen, polling continues to show majority support for shelter-in-place orders.

• Coal mining companies, including two with links to the Trump administration, have received $31 million from the Small Business Administration-run Paycheck Protection Program.

• A Black man jogging in Glynn County, Georgia, during the early days of the pandemic was executed by two white men who claimed they believed he was a burglar. After public outrage, a district attorney finally announced that grand jury charges would be pursued—once grand juries are allowed to meet again.

• A Colorado anti-lockdown protester attracted FBI attention for claiming he was organizing an armed response to shelter-in-place orders. At his home, agents discovered "a large cache" of homemade pipe bombs.

• A Native American health board requested coronavirus tests from the government. They instead received a box of body bags.

• The San Francisco police chief has banned officers from wearing police union-distributed "thin blue line"-themed medical masks due to the symbol's strong political associations. Officers are not allowed to express political opinions while in uniform.

• 20% of Republicans currently claim they will refuse to be vaccinated for COVID-19 when such a vaccine becomes available.

• Dennis Ruhnke, a Kansas farmer who dropped out of college 50 years ago after his father died suddenly, was presented an honorary degree from Kansas State University after his letter to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, accompanying a donated mask, was publicly honored by the governor. Ruhnke left college just two units short of his bachelor's degree.

from Daily Kos https://ift.tt/2SI7Pga