Coronavirus: Asia-Pacific nations unleash massive stimulus measures as scope of Covid-19’s economic impact grows clear

• From Singapore to Japan, governments are deploying billion-dollar rounds of fiscal stimulus to minimise economic pain for businesses and households
• But analysts say these measures are not without their downsides, and the way they are implemented can also be controversial

Bhavan Jaipragas Published: 8:00am, 8 Apr, 2020

A Thai man uses his mobile phone in a deserted street in Bangkok after shopping centres were closed to prevent the spread of Covid-19. Photo: EPA

Asia-Pacific economic policymakers who chose to keep their powder dry in the early days of the
Covid-19 pandemic have begun unleashing massive new rounds of fiscal stimulus as the full scope of the global health crisis’ financial impact becomes apparent.
With the fresh injections, spending boosts by the likes of
Japan, Malaysia,
Singapore and Thailand are now almost on equal footing – when compared to their respective gross domestic product (GDP) – as the so-called fiscal bazookas deployed by the
United States and the
European Union.


Asia-based economic watchers said while they welcomed the new economic measures, their hope was for regional governments to continue to view the public health crisis, and not the economy, as the biggest priority.

Coronavirus: Singapore unveils US$3.6 billion third stimulus package for battered economy
6 Apr 2020



Rajiv Biswas, chief Asia-Pacific economist at IHS Markit, said any amount of fiscal injections, liquidity boosts or interest rate cuts would not have as much impact as successfully containing the outbreak.

“Even with stimulus it’s really just about trying to keep the economy on hold, if you like, and mitigating the negative shock,” Biswas said. “You cannot offset the impact of escalating cases firstly of people being afraid to go out … and secondly of governments putting lockdowns in place.

“The bottom line of fiscal or monetary stimulus is that these are band-aids … the real recovery has to be linked to containing the number of cases until the caseload is very low.”

Workers load food onto a traditional boat at Sunda Kelapa port in Jakarta, Indonesia. Photo: EPA

Song Seng Wun, a Singapore-based economist with CIMB Private Banking, concurred with that position but added that governments were “doing what they have to do” – including putting aside concerns about fiscal sustainability – to minimise the economic pain for businesses and households

Few have argued about the crucial need for fresh injections, with more evidence surfacing every day on just how badly the pandemic will roil the world economy.

An April 1-3 snap poll by Reuters of over 50 economists in North America, Europe and Asia showed the global economy would shrink 1.2 per cent this year, compared with a 1.6 per cent expansion predicted in a survey just three weeks ago.

Coronavirus: Malaysia announces US$2.3 billion third stimulus package for economy
8 Apr 2020


Asian governments have signalled that they are ready to take more aggressive steps. Japan’s government on Tuesday approved an eye-popping 108 trillion yen (US$990 billion) package – worth about a fifth of its GDP.

In comparison, the US recently passed a stimulus package of US$2 trillion, which was worth about 10.5 per cent of American annual output.

Also showing off its fiscal firepower this week was Singapore, which unveiled its third set of measures in three months on Monday. In total, the city state’s total stimulus now stands at some S$60 billion (US$41.7 billion), or 12 per cent of GDP.

Also on Monday, Malaysia topped up its previously announced 250 billion ringgit (US$57.4 billion) stimulus with a further 10 billion ringgit to fund enhanced wage subsidies. That move followed complaints from the corporate sector that the initial measures did not pay enough attention to the needs of small and medium-sized enterprises

Rounding off the past two days of Asian stimulus blitzes is Thailand, which on Tuesday unveiled a new 1.9 trillion baht (US$58 billion) package – worth about 9 per cent of GDP – that is partly funded by US$30.6 billion of new borrowings.


Also on Tuesday in
Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s biggest economy, finance minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati hinted to lawmakers that the government might soon join its neighbours in further boosting stimulus measures.

Its 436.1 trillion rupiah (US$26.36 billion) worth of emergency health care and economic stimulus measures unveiled thus far amounts to just 2.5 per cent of GDP.

Analysts told This Week in Asia the stimulus measures were not without downsides. The way the injections are allocated by governments can also be a matter of controversy.

Terraces sit empty in riverside restaurants and bars at Boat Quay in Singapore. Photo: Bloomberg

Stephen Innes, global chief market strategist at forex trader Axicorp, said there could be a case of “policy fatigue setting in where [fiscal measures] are almost expected not to work”.

On how the funds would be used, Innes said governments needed to strike a balance between paying for wage subsidies so that companies – especially small firms – could retain workers, and handing out transfers directly to citizens. But a lot of such decisions had political undertones, he said.

Innes pointed to Malaysia’s initial 250 billion ringgit package, in which the direct fiscal injection of around 25 billion ringgit was skewed heavily towards citizens.

The measures were unveiled by Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin weeks after he seized power from elder statesman Mahathir Mohamad in a controversial political coup.

Compared with Singapore – which has allocated the bulk of its stimulus to wage subsidies – the “environment in Malaysia is riskier because there’s different political divisions”, Innes said.

Analysts are also keeping an eye on the fiscal health of countries as they roll out their respective borrow-and-spend measures.

In announcing the new stimulus round on Tuesday, Thailand’s finance minister Uttama Savanayana said its debt-to-GDP ratio was likely to rise to 57 per cent next year – below a self-imposed limit of 60 per cent.

Song, the Singapore-based economist, said with jobs and livelihoods at stake, even countries with the most vulnerable fiscal positions were throwing in the kitchen sink to deal with the economic fallout.

Things might get “tricky” if these countries found themselves needing external help, he said.

Like in the EU, where regional powerhouse Germany is resisting the idea of “European crisis bonds”, Asia’s wealthier nations might have little appetite to bail out at-risk neighbours, Song said. “I suppose this is where the multilateral institutions have to step up, whether the World Bank, Asian Development Bank or [the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank]”.


Bhavan Jaipragas
Bhavan is Asia Correspondent for the SCMP, covering breaking news, politics,

US 'wasted' two months before preparing for the coronavirus pandemic and only placed bulk orders for N95 masks in mid-March after pleas from frontline workers 

A review of federal purchasing contracts shows federal agencies largely waited until mid-March to begin placing bulk orders of N95 respirator masks 

Federal agencies also held off on ordering mechanical ventilators and other equipment needed by front-line health care workers 

By that time, hospitals were treating thousands of infected patients and were pleading for shipments from the Strategic National Stockpile 

Cache of supplies was created more than 20 years ago to help bridge gaps in the medical and pharmaceutical supply chains during a national emergency 

HO declared the outbreak a global public health emergency on January 30 but Trump assured the American people that the virus was 'very well under control' 

Trump declared a national emergency on March 13 

'We basically wasted two months,' Kathleen Sebelius, health and human services secretary during the Obama administration, said

By ASSOCIATED PRESS PUBLISHED: 6 April 2020

As the first alarms sounded in early January that an outbreak of a novel coronavirus in China might ignite a global pandemic, the Trump administration squandered nearly two months that could have been used to bolster the federal stockpile of critically needed medical supplies and equipment.

A review of federal purchasing contracts by The Associated Press shows federal agencies largely waited until mid-March to begin placing bulk orders of N95 respirator masks, mechanical ventilators and other equipment needed by front-line health care workers.

By that time, hospitals in several states were treating thousands of infected patients without adequate equipment and were pleading for shipments from the Strategic National Stockpile.

That federal cache of supplies was created more than 20 years ago to help bridge gaps in the medical and pharmaceutical supply chains during a national emergency.

In this March 24, 2020, file photo stacks of medical supplies are housed at the Jacob Javits Center that will become a temporary hospital in response to the COVID-19 outbreak in New York. A review of federal purchasing contracts by The Associated Press shows federal agencies waited until mid-March to begin placing bulk orders of N95 respirator masks, mechanical ventilators and other equipment needed by front-line health care workers

Now, three months into the crisis, that stockpile is nearly drained just as the numbers of patients needing critical care is surging. Some state and local officials report receiving broken ventilators and decade-old dry-rotted masks.

'We basically wasted two months,' Kathleen Sebelius, health and human services secretary during the Obama administration, told AP.

As early as mid-January, U.S. officials could see that hospitals in China's Hubei province were overwhelmed with infected patients, with many left dependent on ventilator machines to breathe. Italy soon followed, with hospitals scrambling for doctors, beds and equipment.

HHS did not respond to questions about why federal officials waited to order medical supplies until stocks were running critically low. But President Donald Trump has asserted that the federal government should take a back seat to states when it comes to dealing with the pandemic.

Trump and his appointees have urged state and local governments, and hospitals, to buy their own masks and breathing machines, saying requests to the dwindling national stockpile should be a last resort.

'The notion of the federal stockpile was it's supposed to be our stockpile,' Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law and adviser, said at a White House briefing Thursday. 'It's not supposed to be state stockpiles that they then use.'

Experts in emergency preparedness and response have expressed dismay at such statements, saying the federal government must take the lead in ensuring medical supplies are available and distributed where they are needed most.

'The notion of the federal stockpile was it's supposed to be our stockpile,' Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law and adviser, said at a White House briefing Thursday. 'It's not supposed to be state stockpiles that they then use'

Jared Kushner gets masks to NYC hospitals at Trump demand

Now, three months into the crisis, that stockpile is nearly drained just as the numbers of patients needing critical care is surging. Some state and local officials report receiving broken ventilators and decade-old dry-rotted masks.

 'We basically wasted two months,' Kathleen Sebelius, health and human services secretary during the Obama administration, told AP. As early as mid-January, U.S. officials could see that hospitals in China's Hubei province were overwhelmed with infected patients, with many left dependent on ventilator machines to breathe. Italy soon followed, with hospitals scrambling for doctors, beds and equipment.

 HHS did not respond to questions about why federal officials waited to order medical supplies until stocks were running critically low. 

But President Donald Trump has asserted that the federal government should take a back seat to states when it comes to dealing with the pandemic. Trump and his appointees have urged state and local governments, and hospitals, to buy their own masks and breathing machines, saying requests to the dwindling national stockpile should be a last resort.

 'The notion of the federal stockpile was it's supposed to be our stockpile,' Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law and adviser, said at a White House briefing Thursday. 'It's not supposed to be state stockpiles that they then use.' 

Experts in emergency preparedness and response have expressed dismay at such statements, saying the federal government must take the lead in ensuring medical supplies are available and distributed where they are needed most. 

'The notion of the federal stockpile was it's supposed to be our stockpile,' Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law and adviser, said at a White House briefing Thursday. 'It's not supposed to be state stockpiles that they then use' 

 'The notion of the federal stockpile was it's supposed to be our stockpile,' Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law and adviser, said at a White House briefing Thursday. 'It's not supposed to be state stockpiles that they then use'

 'States do not have the purchasing power of the federal government. They do not have the ability to run a deficit like the federal government. They do not have the logistical power of the federal government,' said Sebelius, who served as governor of Kansas before running the nation's health care system.

Because of the fractured federal response to COVID-19, state governors say they're now bidding against federal agencies and each other for scarce supplies, driving up prices.

'You now literally will have a company call you up and say, "Well, California just outbid you,"' Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, D-N.Y., said Tuesday. 'It's like being on eBay with 50 other states, bidding on a ventilator.'

For nearly a month, Trump rebuffed calls from Cuomo and others to use his authority under the Defense Production Act to order companies to increase production of ventilators and personal protective equipment. He suggested the private sector was acting sufficiently on its own.

More than three months after China revealed the first COVID-19 cases, Trump finally relented last week, saying he will order companies to ramp up production of critical supplies. By then, confirmed cases of COVID-19 within the United States had surged to the highest in the world. Now, the number of people infected in the U.S. has climbed to more than 337,000 and deaths have topped 9,600.

Trump spent January and February playing down the threat from the new virus. He derided warnings of pandemic reaching the U.S. as a hoax perpetrated by Democrats and the media. As the World Health Organization declared the outbreak a global public health emergency on January 30, Trump assured the American people that the virus was 'very well under control' and he predicted 'a very good ending.'

His administration was so confident that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced on Febuary 7 that the government had airlifted nearly 18 tons of donated respirator masks, surgical masks, gowns and other medical supplies to China.

On February 24, the White House sent Congress an initial $2.5 billion funding request to address the coronavirus outbreak. The next day, federal health experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned that the virus was spreading quickly in the US and predicted that disruptions to daily life could be 'severe,' including school and business closures.

In this March 5, 2020, file photo, Dr. Deborah Birx, Ambassador and White House coronavirus response coordinator, holds a 3M N95 mask as Vice President Mike Pence visits 3M headquarters in Maplewood, Minnesota. The government still hadn't ordered supplies for frontline workers

Trump suggests NY healthcare workers may be stealing face masks

Unfazed, HHS Secretary Alex Azar told lawmakers on February 27 that 'the immediate risk to the American public remains low.'

During those crucial early weeks when the US could have been tracking the spread of the disease and containing it, hardly anyone was being tested after a series of federal blunders led to a shortage of tests and testing capacity, as AP reported last month.

Without data showing how widespread the disease was, federal and state governments failed to prepare.

By the middle of March, hospitals in New York, Seattle and New Orleans were reporting a surge in sick patients. Doctors and nurses took to social media to express their alarm at dwindling supplies of such basic equipment as masks and gowns.

Trump accused some Democratic governors of exaggerating the need and derided those that criticized the federal response as complainers and snakes.

'I want them to be appreciative,' Trump said on March 27.

At the start of the crisis, an HHS spokeswoman said the Strategic National Stockpile had about 13 million N95 respirator masks, which filter out about 95 per cent of all liquid or airborne particles and are critical to prevent health care workers from becoming infected. That's just a small fraction of what hospitals need to protect their workers, who normally would wear a new mask for each patient, but who now are often issued only one to last for days.

Trump during a White House briefing on March 26 claimed that he had inherited an 'empty shelf' from the Obama administration, but added that 'we´re really filling it up, and we fill it up rapidly.'

Federal purchasing records, however, show the Trump administration delayed making big orders for additional supplies until the virus had taken root and was spreading.

By the middle of March, hospitals in New York, Seattle and New Orleans were reporting a surge in sick patients. A patient is loaded into an ambulance, Tuesday, March 10, 2020, at the Life Care Center in Kirkland, Washington on March 10

Paediatric nurse speaks out on the N95 masks shortage

HHS first announced its intent to purchase 500 million N95 masks on March 4, with plans to distribute them over the next 18 months. The following day, Congress passed an $8.3 billion coronavirus spending bill, more than three times what the White House had originally asked for.

Eight days later, on March 13, Trump declared the outbreak a national emergency. That was almost six weeks after the WHO's action. By then, thousands of U.S. schools had closed, the National Basketball Association had put its season on temporary hiatus and there were 1,700 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the country.

The government had already sent tens of thousands of masks, gloves and gowns from the stockpile to Washington state, which was hit early with a coronavirus outbreak. But state officials even then said the supplies weren't enough.

Federal contracting records show that HHS had made an initial order March 12 for $4.8million of N95 masks from 3M, the largest U.S.-based manufacturer, which had ramped up production weeks earlier in response to the pandemic. HHS followed up with a larger $173 million order on March 21, but those contracts don't require 3M to start making deliveries to the national stockpile until the end of April. That's after the White House has projected the pandemic will reach its peak.

On Thursday, Trump threatened in a Tweet to 'hit 3M hard' through a Defense Production Act order, saying the company 'will have a big price to pay!' He gave no specifics.

HHS declined this past week to say how many N95 masks it has on hand. But as of March 31, the White House said more than 11.6 million had been distributed to state and local governments from the national stockpile - about 90 percent of what was available at the start of the year.

Dr. Robert Kadlec, the assistant secretary for preparedness and response at HHS, testified before Congress last month that the country would need roughly 3.5 billion N-95 respirators to get through the pandemic, but the national supply chain then had just about 1 percent of that amount.

Federal contracting records show that HHS had made an initial order March 12 for $4.8million of N95 masks from 3M. In this March 24, 2020, file photo stacks of medical supplies are housed at the Jacob Javits Center

Stacks of medical supplies are housed at the Jacob Javits Center that will become a temporary hospital in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, Tuesday, March 24, 2020, in New York

Greg Burel, director of the Strategic National Stockpile from 2007 until his retirement at the start of this year, said the cache was only ever intended to serve as a short-term 'bridge-stock.'

The stockpile was created in 1999 to prevent supply-chain disruptions for the predicted Y2K computer problems. It expanded after 9/11 to prepare for chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear attacks. Congress provided money in 2006 to prepare for a potential influenza pandemic, though Burel said much of that stock was used during the H1N1 flu outbreak three years later.

'There's never enough money to buy everything that we want to see on those shelves,' said Burel, who stressed the stockpile uses its annual funding to prepare for a wide array of potential threats.

'Most of the time, commercially available products like masks can be bought in quantity at the time of an event.'


This time, it hasn't worked out that way. As AP reported last month, much of the world´s supply of N95 masks and other basic medical supplies is made in China, the first nation hit by COVID-19. As a result, the Chinese government required its producers to reserve N95 respirators for domestic use. China resumed exports of the precious masks only in recent days.

Experts are now worried the U.S. will also soon exhaust its supply of ventilators, which can cost upward of $12,000 each.

The White House said Tuesday that it had already distributed nearly half the breathing machines in the stockpile, which at the beginning of March had 16,660; some of them dated back to the flurry of post-9/11 purchasing. An additional 2,425 were out for maintenance.

Cuomo said New York may need as many as 40,000 ventilators to deal with the outbreak that is already overwhelming hospitals there.

Medical workers take in patients at a special coronavirus intake area at Maimonides Medical Center in the Borough Park neighborhood which has seen an upsurge of (COVID-19) patients during the pandemic on April 5, in the Brooklyn Borough of New York City

Throughout March, governors and mayors of big cities urged Trump to use his authority under the Defense Production Act to direct private companies to ramp up production of ventilators. It wasn't until last week that Trump finally said he would use that power to order General Motors to begin manufacturing ventilators - work the company had already announced was underway.

The federal government had made an effort to prepare for a surge in the need for ventilators, but it was allowed to languish. Since 2014, HHS has paid a private company, Respironics Inc., $13.8 million to develop a cheaper, less complicated ventilator that could be bought in bulk to replenish the national stockpile. In September, HHS placed a $32.8 million order with the Dutch-owned company for 10,000 of the new model, set for delivery by 2022, federal contracts show.

Respironics' parent company, Royal Philips, said it's planning to double U.S. production of ventilators to 2,000 a week by the end of May.

Steve Klink, a spokesman for Royal Philips in Amsterdam, said the company is now focused on producing its other commercial models and will deliver the first ventilators to the national stockpile by August, long after the White House projects COVID-19 cases will peak.

Trump, who pledged on March 27 that his administration would ensure that 100,000 additional ventilators would be made available 'within 100 days,' said on Thursday that he'll use the Defense Production Act to order Respironics and other ventilator makers to step up production.

It's not clear that Trump's order would translate into the 100,000 new ventilators he promised. In a House Oversight and Reform Committee briefing last week, top Federal Emergency Management Agency officials hedged, saying 100,000 ventilators would be available by late June 'at the earliest.'

Cuomo predicted on Friday that New York would run out within days. With coronavirus deaths in his state surging, the governor vowed to use his authority to seize ventilators, masks and protective gear from private hospitals that aren´t utilizing them.

Meanwhile, federal health authorities are lowering standards.

New guidance from the Food and Drug Administration allows hospitals to use emergency ventilators typically used in ambulances and anesthesia gas machines in place of standard ventilators. The agency also said nightstand CPAP machines used to treat sleep apnea and snoring could also be used to keep coronavirus patients breathing, as a last resort.

The CDC advised health care workers last month to use homemade masks or bandanas if they run out of proper gear. Across the country, hospitals have issued urgent pleas for volunteers who know how to sew.

President Trump provided his own input, suggesting that Americans without access to factory-produced masks could cover their faces with scarves.

'A scarf is highly recommended by the professionals,' Trump said during a White House briefing Wednesday. 'And I think, in a certain way, depending on the fabric - I think, in a certain way, a scarf is better. It´s actually better.'

HOW NEW YORK IS USING BIPAP MACHINES AS VENTILATORS TO SAVE COVID-19 PATIENTS AND HOW THE TWO DEVICES DIFFER

As a critical shortage of ventilators looms, New York Governor Andre Cuomo revealed Friday that the state will begin repurposing BiPAP machines to sustain severely ill coronavirus patients.

Last week, the state resorted to converting anesthesia machines to supplement its stockpile of an estimated 6,500 ventilators.

Thursday, Cuomo said he wasn't sure if BiPAP machines could or would be used as ventilators, but by Friday the state had included them in the list of alternatives it was pursuing.

WHAT IS A BIPAP MACHINE?

BiPAP is an acronym for bilevel positive airway pressure. These and continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machines are used to treat patients with sleep apnea.

People with sleep apnea may stop breathing during while asleep for a number of reasons, and the machine ensures they continue to have normal respiration.

One of the machine's positive pressure airways helps to push air into the lungs while a second is set to a lower pressure that makes it easier for a patient to breathe out normally.

The alternation of these two components is set to match the patient's normal inhalation and exhalation pattern, which makes it feel more comfortable and similar to natural breathing when in use.

Pressure is delivered through a tube connected to a face mask that's worn at night.

HOW IS A BIPAP MACHIE DIFFERENT FROM A VENTILATOR?

Ventilators are typically reserved for only the sickest patients who may not be able to breathe on their own at all, as opposed to sleep apnea patients, whose breathing is abruptly interrupted periodically, but whose lungs are generally functional.

So-called mechanical ventilation is both more invasive and more forceful than a BiPap.

Patients on ventilators are intubated, meaning a tube is threaded through the mouth and airway and the machine creates the contraction and expansion action their lungs are no longer able to do on their own.

They can, however, be used less invasively, with a mask like patients on BiPAP machines use.


HOW CAN A BIPAP MACHINE BE USED AS A VENTILATOR?

Both machines broadly help the lungs when they're struggling to function.

For one, the settings have to be adjusted to not just augment the patient's inhalations and exhalations, but to do the work for them.

To convert BiPAPs, which are typically used with masks, to be used on intubated patients, scientists at Northwell Health in New York City 3-D printed a T-shaped adapter.

Their method has been tested successfully on dozens of patients.

At the University of California, Berkeley, team reconfigured a BiPAP machine so that it can take in oxygen from a tank, rather than just drawing on the air around it.

Endotracheal tubes that go down the windpipe were then attached in addition to a double-filtering system to ensure that pathogens like the coronavirus don't get in or out.

Already, the FDA has cleared the way for sleep apnea machines like these to be used as ventilators, a previously unapproved use for BiPAP or similar CPAP machines.


DO FACE MASKS MAKE A DIFFERENCE AND WHAT SHOULD YOU WEAR IF YOU CAN'T GET ONE?

Americans are increasingly being spotted wearing face masks in public amid the coronavirus pandemic, as are people are around the globe.

Soon, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) may advise all Americans to cover their faces when they leave the house, the Washington Post reported.

The agency is weighing that recommendation after initially telling Americans that they didn't need to wear masks and that anything other than a high-grade N95 medical mask would do little to prevent infection any way.

FACE MASKS DO HELP PREVENT INFECTION - BUT THEY'RE NOT ALL CREATED EQUAL

Research on how well various types of masks and face coverings varies but, recently, and in light of the pandemic of COVID-19, experts are increasingly leaning toward the notion that something is better than nothing.

A University of Oxford study published on March 30 concluded that surgical masks are just as effective at preventing respiratory infections as N95 masks for doctors, nurses and other health care workers.

It's too early for their to be reliable data on how well they prevent infection with COVID-19, but the study found the thinner, cheaper masks do work in flu outbreaks.

The difference between surgical or face masks and N95 masks lies in the size of particles that can - and more importantly, can't - get though the materials.

N95 respirators are made of thick, tightly woven and molded material that fits tightly over the face and can stop 95 percent of all airborne particles, while surgical masks are thinner, fit more loosely, and more porous.

This makes surgical masks much more comfortable to breathe and work in, but less effective at stopping small particles from entering your mouth and nose.

Droplets of saliva and mucous from coughs and sneezes are very small, and viral particles themselves are particularly tiny - in fact, they're about 20-times smaller than bacteria.

For this reason, a JAMA study published this month still contended that people without symptoms should not wear surgical masks, because there is not proof the gear will protect them from infection - although they may keep people who are coughing and sneezing from infecting others.

But the Oxford analysis of past studies - which has not yet been peer reviewed - found that surgical masks were worth wearing and didn't provide statistically less protection than N95 for health care workers around flu patients.

However, any face mask is only as good as other health and hygiene practices. Experts universally agree that there's simply no replacement for thorough, frequent hand-washing for preventing disease transmission.

Some think the masks may also help to 'train' people not to touch their faces, while others argue that the unfamiliar garment will just make people do it more, actually raising infection risks.

If the CDC does instruct Americans to wear masks, it could create a second issue: Hospitals already face shortages of masks and other PPE.

WHAT TO USE TO COVER YOUR FACE IF YOU DON'T HAVE A MASK

So the agency may recommend regular citizens use alternatives like cloth masks or bandanas.

'Homemade masks theoretically could offer some protection if the materials and fit were optimized, but this is uncertain,' Dr Jeffrey Duchin, a Seattle health official told the Washington Post.

A 2013 study found that next to a surgical mask, a vacuum cleaner bag provided the best material for a homemade mask.

After a vacuum bag, kitchen towels were fairly protective, but uncomfortable. Masks made of T-shirts were very tolerable, but only worked a third as well as surgical mask. The Cambridge University researchers concluded that homemade masks should only be used 'as a last resort.'

But as the pandemic has spread to more than 164,000 people worldwide, it might be time to consider last resort options.

US 'wasted' two months before preparing for coronavirus pandemic and ordered N95 masks in mid-March

The EPA’s “Enforcement Moratorium” During The Coronavirus Outbreak Is Coming Under Fire
ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION AGENCY
“This pandemic isn’t an excuse for polluters to ignore the law and for EPA to let them get away with it,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren said.

Zahra Hirji BuzzFeed News Reporter Posted on April 6, 2020

Drew Angerer / Getty Images
EPA head Andrew Wheeler testifies at a Congressional hearing in March 2020. 

WHEELER IS A FOSSIL FUEL LOBBYIST

Lawmakers are pushing back against a sweeping rollback of pollution regulations recently announced by the Environmental Protection Agency in response to the coronavirus pandemic, according to a letter from Massachusetts Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Edward Markey shared with BuzzFeed News.

On March 26, the EPA announced a temporary relaxing of enforcement rules, allowing factories, power plants, and other companies to stop conducting routine tests for pollutants and reporting them to the agency if they could claim the pandemic had led to a shortage of staff or other operational challenges.

“This pandemic isn’t an excuse for polluters to ignore the law and for EPA to let them get away with it,” Warren told BuzzFeed News in an email. “It’s absurd that Donald Trump and former coal lobbyist Andrew Wheeler are using this public health and economic crisis as a cover to roll back environmental laws. The government should be focused on protecting public health now, not making it worse.”

The new EPA rule states that the agency would not issue fines for "violations of routine compliance monitoring, integrity testing, sampling, laboratory analysis, training, and reporting or certification obligations in situations where the EPA agrees that COVID-19 was the cause of the noncompliance.” The guidance is retroactively effective to March 13 with no current end date in place.

Companies are still being required to maintain various records and must turn them over to the agency upon request, according to the EPA. Moreover, companies are being told to “make every effort to comply with their environmental compliance obligations.” EPA has said it will review all identified violations on a case-by-case basis.

“The claims made by the Senators’ are false,” an EPA spokesperson told BuzzFeed News in an email. “EPA’s enforcement authority and responsibility remains active. It is not a nationwide waiver of environmental rules.”

In their letter, Warren and Markey asked the EPA to respond to six questions about the rationale for the new policy and who weighed in on it, clarification on how it will be carried out, and what will factor into the decision to end it.

“Did you meet with or communicate with officials or lobbyists representing the oil and gas, coal, automobile, or other polluting industries prior to announcing this decision? Please provide a record of all meetings and communications regarding this decision with these industry representatives,” the senators wrote.

The EPA is refusing to say how many companies have requested noncompliance waivers under the new policy, E&E News has reported.

The senators also asked about whether the agency conducted any analyses to determine how the policy will impact pollution levels and what that could mean for environmental justice communities.

Some public health experts have warned that people suffering from lung damage due to poor air quality, such as from air pollution, could experience serious complications if they contract the coronavirus.



Zahra Hirji is a science reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in Washington, DC

Nation: “We Are Very Worried”
FARM WORKERS ARE NOT PROTECTED WHILE WORKING IN YOUR FIELDS
“I’m scared of getting sick. I don’t have any type of health insurance, anything to help me.”

Adolfo FloresBuzzFeed News Reporter
Hamed AleazizBuzzFeed News Reporter
 Posted on April 6, 2020

Andrew Cullen for BuzzFeed News

As many in the US stayed at home to protect themselves from the global coronavirus pandemic, Teresa Mendoza, a 58-year-old undocumented farmworker from Mexico, spent six days a week picking green onions in Kern County, California, cleaning them, and tying them into bunches, just a few feet away from others like her.

Faced with the possibility of having to spend weeks in quarantine, people across the US have rushed to grocery stores to panic-buy food and supplies to tide them over while hunkered down.

Yet the agriculture and food processing plants, like meatpacking facilities, have been deemed essential by the federal government amid the pandemic, creating working conditions that most people in the US have been told to avoid. And it’s only going to get worse as thousands of migrant workers are expected to return to the US as the summer harvest picks up.

Meanwhile, for employees at food processing plants, some of which have already had cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, social distancing is virtually impossible. And farmworkers with few safety nets should they fall ill say they are toiling in fields with no information on how to protect themselves.

“We are very worried,” Mendoza, who lives in Kern County and has worked in the agricultural industry for 15 years, told BuzzFeed News. “I’m scared of getting sick. I don’t have any type of health insurance, anything to help me.”

In recent days, Mendoza switched jobs and began weeding in the blueberry fields, a more lucrative job that also allowed her more space from other workers. Still, she’s afraid: “I don’t know if someone will come to work who is sick — I just don’t know.”

BuzzFeed News spoke with multiple fieldworkers who agreed to only use their first names because of their undocumented status.

There are an estimated 2.4 million farmworkers in the US, and about half are undocumented. One of the precautions health officials have instructed people take against the coronavirus, social distancing, is difficult for them. In addition to working close to one another, they often travel to work sites in packed buses or other shared vehicles, advocates said.

Over a third of the US’s vegetables and two-thirds of the country's fruits and nuts are grown in California, according to 2018 figures from the California Department of Food and Agriculture. Mendoza said she’s continuing to work because she needs the income to survive. She also realized that her work helps a supply chain struggling to feed a country during a pandemic.

“I feel proud,” said Mendoza, who makes just over $500 a week. “I know that we are doing important work that is feeding the rest of the country. There are a lot of workers in the field. We are essential workers that this country needs.”


Andrew Cullen for BuzzFeed News
Teresa Mendoza, a vegetable picker in California's Central Valley.

Teresa Romero, president of the United Farm Workers union, has been calling on agriculture employers to extend sick leave and provide easy access to health services, since many workers are undocumented and live in rural areas.

“Some of us are blessed with the opportunity to work from home and maintain social distance to protect ourselves. Unfortunately not everyone is that lucky,” Romero said on a call with reporters. “Unfortunately, farmworkers are uniquely vulnerable in the pandemic because they work in cramped, substandard, and unsanitary conditions.”

If farmworkers are deemed essential because they help get food to the public, Romero said, then it’s important to extend protections for them because it not only affects them and their families, but the food supply.

“Farmworkers have been deemed essential workers, and they’re right — they’re the people that produce all of the food in the country,” Romero said.

The United Farm Workers union (UFW) is also asking employers to eliminate the 90-day waiting period for new workers to be eligible for sick pay, stop requiring doctors’ notes when farmworkers claim sick days, clean and disinfect frequently touched surfaces multiple times a day, and arrange for daycare assistance since schools are closed.

“Many farmworkers are single mothers,” Romero said. “They have to continue working to provide for their families, so they’re being forced to leave children at home … because they don’t have family support.”

Jim Cochran, owner of Swanton Berry Farm, an organic strawberry operation and a UFW-represented grower outside of Santa Cruz, California, said his farm is fortunate enough to provide housing for the 25 year-round employees in an isolated area, which could help decrease the chances of someone contracting the coronavirus.

Even before President Trump signed a sick pay bill, Cochran told his employees that if they got sick and needed to stay home for a few weeks, he would cover their wages.

"I couldn't afford to do it, but I offered to do it anyway," Cochran said. "It's a constant balancing act and that's what makes it interesting, because you have the human needs of your employees and the market needs and every day something is changing."


Andrew Cullen for BuzzFeed News
Farmworkers install irrigation pipes in a lettuce field in California's Central Valley during the 2020 COVID-19 outbreak.


Leticia, a 31-year-old mother of four in Bakersfield, California, normally works as a mandarin orange picker in the winter and picks blueberries in the summer. In recent days, however, she stopped working because of fears she would bring home the virus and potentially expose her 3-year-old boy, who has asthma.

Leticia, who is undocumented, said that the decision costs her family upward of $600 a week, but it was the safer choice. The family has had to cut down on expenses and rely solely on her husband, who works as a forklift driver.

“I’m really worried. I was afraid something might happen to my son,” Leticia said. “It’s been very difficult.”

Paula Schelling, acting chairperson for the National Joint Council of Food Inspection Locals for the American Federation of Government Employees, said her 6,500 members want to continue to do their jobs, but they're not being given any protective gear against COVID-19 by the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service.

"The one thing the agency keeps saying is follow the CDC guidelines, follow the CDC guidelines," Schelling told BuzzFeed News. "But social distancing is virtually impossible."

A food safety inspector has already died of COVID-19 in New York City, Schelling said. Four additional inspectors have since tested positive for COVID-19 at other sites.

"Ultimately, there's people out there ensuring the food is being processed safely and they need to be protected," Schelling said.

At least eight employees at a date packinghouse in Coachella, California, tested positive for COVID-19, said Lee Ellis, accounting manager at SunDate. After conducting a deep cleaning, which the company does every day, Ellis said, the packinghouse reopened.

Salvador, an undocumented 31-year-old mandarin picker also in Bakersfield, said work has picked up in recent weeks, forcing him to show up each day in the orchards. While he is separated from others while picking citrus, the drives to work are crammed with up to seven workers in a van.

“If I don’t work, my family does not eat,” said Salvador, who has four young children at home. “If the farmworkers don’t work, then the fruits and vegetables don’t arrive.”


Andrew Cullen for BuzzFeed News
Mandarin trees in California's Central Valley are shrouded in netting that keeps bees from pollinating their blooms, resulting in seedless fruit.

Earlier this month, Salvador’s children have asked him why he’s going to work if others are being told to stay home. Among his biggest worries is what his family would do if they get sick from coronavirus.

“What would happen to our expenses? How would we deal with bills? We don’t have family,” said Salvador.

While the agriculture industry is expected to receive $23.5 billion in aid as part of the $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus package, half of farmworkers won't qualify for federal stimulus benefits because they're undocumented.

The New American Economy, an immigration think tank, estimated that in 2018, undocumented immigrants contributed $20.1 billion in federal taxes and $11.8 billion in state and local taxes.

On Wednesday, Trump was asked how undocumented immigrants, millions of whom pay taxes using an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, will survive the economic slump caused by COVID-19.

“We have a lot of citizens right now that won't be working, so what are you going to do?” he told reporters. “It’s a tough thing, it’s a very terrible, it’s a very sad question. I must be honest with you, but they came in illegally.” ●


MORE ON IMMIGRATION
Trump Ordered All Immigrants Caught Entering The US Illegally To Be Turned Back To Ward Off Coronavirus SpreadAdolfo Flores · March 20, 2020
The Trump Administration Is Now Deporting Unaccompanied Immigrant Kids Due To The CoronavirusHamed Aleaziz · March 30, 2020
Three Unaccompanied Immigrant Children In US Custody Have Tested Positive For The CoronavirusHamed Aleaziz · March 26, 2020

Adolfo Flores is a reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in McAllen, Texas..

Hamed Aleaziz is a reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in San Francisco.

SEE  

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=SMITHFIELD

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=TYSON

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=MEAT+PACKING

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=COVID19

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=JBS


https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=UFW

Amazon Will Give Partial Pay To Employees It Sends Home With Fevers During The Coronavirus Pandemi

The decision is a departure from the company's previous policy.

Caroline O'DonovanBuzzFeed News Reporter Posted on April 7, 2020


Angela Weiss / Getty Images
Workers at Amazon's Staten Island warehouse protest after the company refused to shut down the facility for a deep cleaning after one staffer tested positive for COVID-19 on March 30.

Following outcry, Amazon is now providing some pay to employees sent home with fevers during the coronavirus pandemic, the company confirmed to BuzzFeed News Tuesday.

Last week, an Amazon spokesperson said that employees sent home with fevers were "welcome to use paid and unpaid time off options.” After BuzzFeed News reported last Thursday that some employees with fevers were being sent home without pay, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders posted on Facebook Friday calling on the company to change its policy, saying, “Jeff Bezos, the single richest man in the world, can damn well afford to guarantee paid sick leave to all of his workers.”

The new policy, according to a spokesperson for Amazon, is that “if an employee has a fever they will be sent home and will be paid up to five hours of their scheduled shift that day.” 

( LABOUR LAW IN CANADA IT IS THE STANDARD THAT IF THERE IS NO WORK AND YOU ARE SENT HOME YOU GET PAID THREE HOURS OF WORK)

Amazon instituted fever screenings last week in an attempt to prevent the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, through its fulfillment centers and delivery stations, which have been deemed essential and remain open during the pandemic. As traditional retail stores remain closed and more and more Americans avoid the grocery store, demand for Amazon deliveries has surged, and with it, growing fears that the virus could spread among its employees. “Implementing daily temperature screenings in our operations sites is an additional preventative measure Amazon is taking to support the health and safety of our customers and employees, who continue to provide a critical service in our communities,” the Amazon spokesperson said in a statement.


A human resources employee at an Amazon facility in the Midwest told BuzzFeed News that she was instructed in a meeting on Monday to authorize up to three days' worth of “non-working paid time” for employees who show up at work with fevers above 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit.

But human resources staff elsewhere received written instructions on Friday saying “an associate who is sent home for a fever at or above 100.4°F / 38.0°C degrees is paid for their scheduled shift that day, up to five hours maximum.”

“During that time,” the instructions continue, “they can use paid time off (if available) and may be eligible to take leaves of absence as appropriate.

Amazon declined to comment on whether staff at some facilities were instructed to give more than five hours of pay to employees sent home with fevers.

“No one is on the same page it seems,” said a Pennsylvania-based Amazon employee who’s been in contact with Amazon human resources locally.

More than 50 cases of COVID-19 have confirmed Amazon facilities, with one facility in Staten Island reporting more than a dozen infected employees.

Despite the new policy, some employees still haven’t been paid. An Amazon employee at the Staten Island facility who was sent home with a fever told BuzzFeed News that her paycheck last week did not include paid time off even though she had missed work after being ordered to self-isolate by a doctor. She opened a case with Amazon human resources last week but hadn’t heard back as of Monday afternoon. Other employees awaiting some type of payment reported similar delays.

When Amazon warehouse associates report to work, they must wait in line 6 feet apart to have their temperatures taken at so-called fever stations. These are operated by Amazon employees in some facilities and by third-party contractors in others; temperature testers stand behind a piece of plexiglass that separates them from employees being screened. Employees are also being asked to bring masks from home or wear those provided by Amazon, if available.

Despite these measures, many Amazon employees and labor advocates say they fear the company isn’t taking stringent enough measures to protect them from the coronavirus. The World Health Organization says that infected people can be asymptomatic but contagious — and able to infect other people — for up to 14 days before symptoms appear.

Employees in Staten Island walked off the job in protest of Amazon’s refusal to close the warehouse for sanitation for the third time on Monday, while employees in Chicago held their fourth walkout over the weekend.

Amazon has said that it’s taking “extreme measures” to protect workers such as staggering shifts and rearranging break rooms to encourage social distancing, providing masks, and conducting “enhanced cleaning.” So far, all of its facilities except one shuttered by health officials in Kentucky remain open for business.

Caroline O'Donovan is a senior technology reporter for BuzzFeed News 

and is based in San Francisco.

MORE ON THIS

Some Amazon Employees With Fevers Are Being Sent Home Without Pay

Caroline O'Donovan · April 2, 2020

As More Amazon Employees Contract The Coronavirus, Workers Are Walking Off The Job

Caroline O'Donovan · March 31, 2020

The Coronavirus Is Continuing To Spread Through Amazon's Facilities

Caroline O'Donovan · March 25, 2020

Amazon Is Scrambling To Improve Warehouse Safety Following Employee OutcryCaroline O'Donovan · March 18, 2020

Coronavirus In The Workplace: BuzzFeed News looks at how companies and employees are handling the coronavirus pandemic.

As More Amazon Employees Contract The Coronavirus, Workers Are Walking Off The Job

Amazon Said That During The Pandemic, Sales Are Soaring. Workers Say They Feel Unsafe.

These Retailers Have Been Staying Open. Employees Say They’re Afraid For Themselves And Others.

Starbucks Employees Got Sick. Starbucks Stores Stayed Open.

Costco Made Corporate Staff Come To The Office. An Employee Died Of COVID-19. The Office Is Still Open.

HONG KONG

Finally officials have woken up to the need for wage subsidies
For some it may be too little, too late but at least the government now is willing to share the pain that this unprecedented lockdown has brought to businesses and workers
SCMP Editorial
Published: 8 Apr, 2020

Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, meets the 

press at the Central Government Offices in Tamar.

 Photo: May Tse

The need for financial subsidies had become ever more evident as Hong Kong extended a sweeping lockdown to curb the spread of Covid-19 infections.

The HK$137.5 billion (US$17.74 billion) rescue package announced on Wednesday is the biggest move yet by the government to support the floundering economy. But for many who have already been hardest hit by the pandemic, the relief may be too little, too late.

Describing the impact as “disastrous”, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said such an unprecedented challenge called for extraordinary measures.

The lion’s share of the second round of support goes toward subsidising up to HK$9,000 in wages for each worker affected by the lockdown to help prevent mass lay-offs. Industries that were omitted in the first round of relief measures will also be covered. Together with the support in the first package and the budget, the total cost has reached HK$287.5 billion, or 10 per cent of Hong Kong’s GDP.


Hong Kong domestic helpers adapt to life under coronavirus restrictions

With Singapore, Britain and Australia having adopted similar measures, the latest step, along with a 10 per cent pay cut for the ministerial team for a year, is overdue. But the direct subsidy is a remarkable shift from the targeted approach of the past. It is also the most encompassing yet in terms of scope and spending.

This would not be possible without the robust fiscal reserves accumulated over the years. Even though it is going to push the budget deficit to a record high of more than HK$276 billion, the reserves will still sit comfortably at HK$900 billion after the spending.

The lukewarm response underlines the depth of the discontent in society. Many businesses and workers have been left struggling on their own for months. The wage subsidies will take weeks to reach the affected businesses and account for a fraction of the operating costs. Many also find the details and eligibility clauses confusing.

Separately, the extended restrictions on social distancing, including another U-turn to
ban beauty and massage parlours for 14 days, have understandably fuelled concerns.


Coronavirus: Hongkongers clap to support health care workers on front lines of Covid-19 fight

The two industries were initially spared despite a small number of infections linked to a beauty centre. But they are nonetheless required to shut down as part of an extended ban until at least April 23.

Thankfully, the number of new daily infections have somewhat eased. But the threat is far from over. With double-digit rises every day, it is not the time to lower our guard. The thousands of warnings for breaches of compliance show the rules on social distancing are still not being fully observed.

With more financial support and stronger antivirus measures, the city has a greater chance of rebounding from this unprecedented health crisis.

Children at low risk for COVID-19, but can get seriously ill, new data show

Children are less likely to be infected by COVID-19, but still can become seriously ill, new data suggests. File photo by Peter DaSilva/UPI | License Photo

April 8 (UPI) -- Children seem to be at lower risk for catching COVID-19, but they still can become seriously ill, a new study from Spain has found.

Fewer than 1 percent of more than 4,695 confirmed cases of the disease in the Madrid region -- epicenter of the outbreak in Spain -- in early March involved patients under age 18, according to research published Wednesday by JAMA Pediatrics.

Of these cases, 60 percent were hospitalized, and nearly 10 percent needed ventilators to address breathing problems, researchers said.

The findings from Madrid mirror those reported earlier this week by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which suggested that some 2 percent of COVID-19 cases across the country involved children, and that up to 20 percent of them required hospitalization.

However, the agency emphasized that its findings were based on limited data available for younger patients with the disease.

"The amount of children with severe disease is much smaller than adults, but a few children need hospitalization and intensive care -- around 1 million children live in Madrid, and less than 100 have been hospitalized due to COVID-19," Dr. Alfredo Tagarro, co-author of the Spanish study and a physician and researcher at Hospital Universitario Infanta Sofía, told UPI.

Globally, through Wednesday, nearly 1.5 million people have been diagnosed with the disease caused by the new coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2. More than 80,000 have died.

As in Wuhan, China, where the pandemic started, the vast majority of those infected have been adults. Those with severe disease tend to be older, and have underlying health conditions, like diabetes and heart disease.

However, the analyses from Madrid and the CDC indicate that children are hardly immune to COVID-19.

Tagarro and his colleagues assessed data from the nearly 5,000 suspected cases recorded between March 2 and 16 in the Spanish capital. The total included 365 children, 41 of whom, or 0.8 percent, later were found to have test-confirmed COVID-19.

The percentage of confirmed cases in children was much lower than the nearly 4 percent reported in Wuhan, the authors noted. However, Tagarro said, this is because the Spanish researchers "only tested children with a high likelihood of hospitalization or children with previous diseases."

In other sites, like China or Korea, researchers also tested children with few symptoms or asymptomatic contacts, or even just asymptomatic children living in an epidemic area," Tagarro added.

In all, 25 of the 41 children -- median age 3 years -- were hospitalized, and four were admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit and required ventilator support. Only one of the four had a prior health condition, which was recurrent wheezing, and none of them died, the authors said.

In terms of symptoms and disease progression, the Spanish researchers found that 14 of the 41 confirmed cases in children had an upper respiratory tract infection, while 11 had a fever, six had viral-like pneumonia, five had bronchiolitis, two had gastroenteritis or vomiting, and two had bacterial-like pneumonia. In addition, two patients had a co-infection with influenza type B.

Meanwhile, among the nearly 2,600 COVID-19 cases in children in the United States assessed by the CDC -- with a median age of 11 -- data on signs and symptoms was available for only 291.

Of these, the agency noted, 56 percent reported fever, 54 percent had a cough and 13 percent had shortness of breath, while for adults, these figures were 71 percent, 80 percent and 43 percent, respectively.

The CDC estimates that between 6 percent and 20 percent of children infected with COVID-19 require hospitalization, while up to 2 percent need to be treated in the ICU. For adults, up to 33 percent need to be hospitalized and up to 5 percent need to be admitted to the ICU.

Notably, children less than 1 year of age accounted for the highest percentage -- up to 62 percent -- of hospitalizations among pediatric patients with COVID-19.

Early CBD patient Charlotte Figi, 13, dies of cardiac arrest, family says

Charlotte Figi, 13, whose epilepsy seizure relief from CBD was an early inspiration for medical cannabis treatments, died Tuesday. Photo by Nichole Montanez, courtesy of Greg Iafeliece

DENVER, April 8 (UPI) -- Charlotte Figi, 13, the Colorado child whose seizure relief inspired Charlotte's Web medical marijuana and CBD, died in Colorado Springs of cardiac arrest, her family said.Charlotte had been hospitalized after flu-like symptoms struck the family, her stepfather, Greg Iafeliece, said. The child then was released to go home. On Tuesday, she was found unresponsive and taken back to the hospital, where she died, Iafeliece said. While no cause of death was given, the family believes she suffered cardiac arrest due to her fragile health condition, he said.

Family members had been dealing for weeks with symptoms that could have been related to COVID-19, Iafeliece said. The rest of family has recovered, he said.

After symptoms worsened earlier this month, Charlotte was hospitalized "in a regular nursing unit," Iafeliece said.

"Her mother had been traveling on airplanes, and we knew what we had our symptoms, but we were told, 'Well, you haven't come into contact with anyone from China, so you're not going to get tested,'" Iafeliece said.

RELATED FDA inches closer to CBD rules for dietary supplements

"[Charlotte] was a light that lit the world. She was a little girl who carried us all on her small shoulders," a statement on the Charlotte's Web website said.

Charlotte's life "created a revolutionary movement in legitimizing cannabis as a therapeutic option," said a Facebook post from Realm of Caring, a non-profit medical marijuana advocacy group founded by Paige Figi, Charlotte's mother.

"Charlotte is no longer suffering. She is seizure-free forever," family friend Nichole Montanez posted on Facebook.As an infant, Figi suffered from grand mal seizures from a severe form of epilepsy called Dravet syndrome. Her parents turned to CBD, then a low-THC-strain of hemp-derived medical marijuana, after years of trying other medications.

The CBD cure had reduced her seizures to three or four per month, her family said.

RELATED Vaping-linked lung injury less common in states with legalized marijuana

CBD is derived from hemp, a cousin of the cannabis plant that contains psychoactive THC. Charlotte's Web sells products made of strains of medical marijuana with low THC and CBD, with little or trace amounts of THC.

Charlotte's story inspired other families with seizure-prone children to move to Colorado after the state legalized marijuana in 2014.

Boulder-based Charlotte's Web's low-THC medical marijuana was developed by six southern Colorado siblings, and is now one of the best-selling CBD brands in the United States.

RELATED Conflicts of interest common in CBD research, study says