RIP
Victor Olaiya: Nigeria's 'evil genius' trumpeter who influenced Fela Kuti

THE DEVILS GABRIEL 

MYDRIM GALLERY 

YOUTUBE MUSIC AT THE END OF ARTICLES

Nigeria has been mourning music legend Victor Olaiya, who created Nigeria's highlife rhythms and influenced a generation of musicians including Fela Anikulapo-Kuti. Nduka Orjinmo looks back at the life of the trumpeter, who died last month at the age of 89.

Just like the well-turned out government filing clerk that he was, Olaiya always carried a pen in his breast pocket. This was not for noting instructions that had to be precisely followed, but rather because he needed to write down the musical notes and phrases as they came to him.

This was at the beginning of the 1950s, his early days as a performer, when the trumpeter was trying to create Nigeria's highlife rhythms.

More musician than bureaucrat

At this stage, music was something he did in his spare time and Olaiya thought he had lost his job in the civil service when his boss saw a newspaper photo of him performing at a nightclub.

Instead, he was told that he was a better musician than a bureaucrat at the survey department of Lagos mainland local government.

He left the job and took on music full time.

Olaiya's family Victor Olaiya

Born to wealthy Yoruba parents in the southern city of Calabar, Olaiya had an early start in music.

His father was a church organist and his mother a folk singer from the western city of Oyo.

He was also influenced by Caribbean calypso and included the popular song Sly Mongoose in his repertoire that he recalled first hearing when he was nine years old.

As a teenager, though, he was taught Western classical music, and played the clarinet and French horn in his school orchestra in eastern Nigeria.

Years later, wielding his gold trumpet and dabbing his face with a white handkerchief, Olaiya would perform a new type of music in Nigeria that would go on to inspire a young Fela Anikulapo-Kuti among others.

Victor Olaiya is hailed as the father of Nigerian highlife music

After his secondary school, Olaiya moved to Lagos where he joined the Lagos City Orchestra and then the band of composer Sammy Akpabot, playing ballroom music for wealthy urban audiences.

But it was as the head of Bobby Benson's Alfa Carnival Group that his talent would be properly nurtured.

Benson took a number of musicians under his wing and it was here that Olaiya polished the skills that would help him form his own band, the Cool Cats.

Listening to the recordings now, the gentle swinging rhythm and the prominence of the horn section, you sense a sepia tinge to Olaiya's songs.

MYDRIM GALLERY

Victor Olaiya rose to fame as Nigeria was moving away from British rule

They evoke memories of the fading British Empire and transition to independence, conjuring up images of afro hair combed into a dome, of middle-class Nigerians appearing overdressed in tuxedos and gowns with a cigarette neatly tucked between the fingers.

By the late 1950s, the colonial administrators were on their way out and a young generation of educated Africans was about to take over.

As the disco bars and ballrooms gradually thinned out of the British and their music, in stepped the elite class of Africans seeking that same high life but fused with their own culture.

And the bands responded to satisfy their new patrons, incorporating local rhythms and melodies into their repertoire.

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The songs were romantic and the lyrics, which to today's eyes appear sexist, often used erotic imagery.

Olaiya's 1961 track Adelebo Tonwoku (Single Lady Looking for a Husband) says that if a woman, referred to as "Cinderella shaking her buttocks", finds a husband she should "forgo education".

As a musical term, highlife was first used in Ghana in the 1920s to describe a band playing a fusion of foreign and local instruments driven by multiple guitars and horns.

Olaiya's influence came from Ghana, as he was a keen admirer of the Tempo band of highlife legend ET Mensah, who toured Nigeria multiple times from 1951.

When Olaiya formed his Cool Cats band, he adopted Mensah's style and had Ghanaian Sammy Lartey as saxophonist. Years later, Olaiya and Mensah would release a joint album.

In bombastic style, Olaiya was once described by a newspaper editor as "the evil genius of highlife", perhaps because once someone heard his music it was impossible not to dance.

His music became so popular that in 1960 he played at the party to celebrate Nigeria's independence in front of Queen Elizabeth's sister, Princess Margaret.

Fela comes to Olaiya

Olaiya was a multi-linguist and sang in Twi, Igbo, Efik, Pidgin and Yoruba and his band would go on to serve as a training ground for musicians who would revolutionise music in Africa.

Chief among those that interned with Olaiya was Fela, creator of the Afrobeat genre and arguably Nigeria's most influential musician.

Fresh from secondary school in 1957, Fela spent time playing with Olaiya's Cool Cats in Lagos and headed another of the maestro's bands.

Olaiya recognised a prodigy and gave him a platform, in the same way that he had been supported by Benson.

Fela's drummer, Tony Allen, was also among those who played with Olaiya. Other notable musicians that passed through his band were guitar wizard Victor Uwaifo, juju musician Dele Ojo and saxophonist Yinusa Akinnibosun.

MYDRIM GALLERY

Olaiya collaborated with American soul musician James Brown (R) for the 1970 album Up-To-Date Mover

By 1970, under the influence of James Brown, Olaiya had branched into soul and funk music. His Up-to-Date Mover album of that year included five tracks co-written with Brown.

But Olaiya will forever be associated with highlife, and this gradually faded from the scene until the genre became a stacked collection of dusty vinyl for senior citizens who hung onto the memories of an era when "things were good".

The Cool Cats were no longer cool, as first Fela's Afrobeat and later Afro hop swept succeeding generations off their feet.

Olaiya tried to keep up in later decades by doing things like shooting music videos but he never looked comfortable with the format.

He was used to the disco bars, the big orchestra and the larger-than-life bands performing for dandy crowds.

Recognised by a later generation

There were attempts to introduce his music to a new audience.

In 2013, Tuface Idibia, a music legend in his own right, remixed Olaiya's Baby Jowo. It was a homage to another era but only underlined how things had changed.

A handful of highlife musicians are still scattered in the eastern and western parts of Nigeria but their tunes are now mostly heard at funerals.

When Olaiya is laid to rest, perhaps a band led by an immaculately turned out trumpeter will be at the front of the procession?

And when he is lowered into the ground, it may be more than flesh that is returning to dust. The highlife music he pioneered may just be buried along with him.

Victor Olaiya - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Victor_Olaiya

Alhaji Alade Odunewu of the Daily Times described him as "The Evil Genius of Highlife." Contents. 1 Early life and career; 2 Personal life; 3 Music; 4 Discography; 5 Further reading; 6 References; 7 External links. Early life and career[edit]. Olaiya was born on 31 December 1930, in Calabar, Cross River ... During the Nigerian Civil War of 1967–70, Olaiya was given the rank of a ...

‎Early life and career · ‎Music · ‎Discography

Nigeria’s Victor Olaiya: Trumpeter and ‘evil genius’ of highlife music (1931-2020)
Olaiya revolutionized highlife dance music on the West African coast
Posted 19 February 2020 

Screenshot of a video about Victor Olaiya's history of album covers, by Andrew MusicOdyssey via YouTube.

Editor's note: This essay was written by Dami Ajayi and first published in the Lagos Review. This version was lightly edited and published here with permission by Dami Ajayi.

Victor Abimbola Olaiya, highlife maestro, trumpeter, vocalist and band leader, died in the afternoon of Wednesday February 12, 2020. He was 89 years old.

An accomplished trumpeter, Olaiya was one of the key figures of highlife, the popular dance music that became the rave on the West African Coast from the 50s.

Did this thread in 2018 on Highlife music and I recall it as I do a thread this morning on the Evil Genius of Highlife music himself, Victor “Papingo Devalaya” Olaiya.

Olaiya was born in Calabar to Yoruba parents and was a very brilliant chap growing up, with a love for music. https://t.co/N9zXX480yP
— Demola Olarewaju (@DemolaRewaju) February 14, 2020

Highlife as a musical form originated from Sierra Leone and Ghana, but it was in Ghana that it gained its name as a ballroom dance enjoyed by the “elitist natives.”

In 1952, Olaiya formed his own band called the Cool Cats, which was later renamed the All Stars Band.

Victor Olaiya's All Stars Soul International (CD digipack + 16 page booklet/Heavy vinyl LP gatefold) Vampisoul, 2009-04-21. Image credit: Paris DJs, used with permission.

Emmanuel Teytey Mensah, a Ghanaian pharmacist — famed to have knocked out his incisors for the greater calling of blowing the trumpet — is often seen as one of the founding fathers of highlife music. Another founding father was Bobby Benson whose Jam Orchestra was the stomping ground for some of the finest highlife musicians Nigeria has ever had.

A young Victor Olaiya played in Bobby Benson’s Jam Orchestra.

Historians are not exact about how highlife music became a Nigerian staple, but by the late 40s and 50s, this music held Nigeria’s nightlife by the scruff of the neck. Hotel dance halls and night clubs had resident bands and Saturday nights were special.

By the 50s, Victor Olaiya was already a highlife music star. A young Fela Kuti had a stint as a trumpeter in Olaiya’s Cool Cats band before his own career as a band leader took off.

Victor Olaiya played at the Independence Ball before important dignitaries.

If there is any music that encapsulates the nostalgia and optimism of Nigeria’s independence, it is highlife music. Imagine the piquant tunes of the trumpet piercing the night as the Union Jack was lowered and Nigeria’s National Flag was hoisted, fluttering bi-colour, triband and proud.

Screenshot of Victor Olaiya's album cover from YouTube video by Andrew MusicOdyssey.

When this optimism was dashed in the ethnic flavoured coup and countercoup that devolved into a civil war, highlife music also tracked this era.

War hardly provided an opportunity for nocturnal pleasures because curfews emptied the streets of people.

There was also the fact that a fine proportion of highlife musicians and instrumentalists were also from eastern Nigerian, hence their relocation behind the tentative territories of Biafra which brutally shrunk in a war that left millions of people dead.

Even though highlife music seemed intertwined with politics, it was in itself, deeply apolitical. It had no pretensions about what it was: it was dance music for dance halls, for socialites, for nocturnal men and women, for wiggling waists, for quivering buttocks and for theatrical leg works.

Victor Olaiya held Lagos down when the city became empty of highlife stars.

He had an honorary army title and his band played for the Nigerian troops to entertain them during the war. In terms of honour, he was also conferred an honorary doctorate degree at the First Jazz International Festival in Prague. By far his most enduring honour was being called the “evil genius” of highlife for his ability to keep people on their feet.

His style of music features a unique way of playing the trumpet and his ability to sing in several Nigerian languages made his highlife a somewhat nationalistic endeavor. The Stadium Hotel in Surulere, Lagos, perhaps so named for its proximity to the National Stadium, was a famous highlife spot during his active years.

Today, it stands in a state of quaint disrepair yet quite functional for the old heads and unusual young oddballs and inquisitive creatures who fancy highlife music.

Since old age and ill-health left Victor Olaiya a shadow of his old self, Bayowa Olaiya, banker by day and son of Victor Olaiya, holds court and renders some of the finest tunes of his now deceased father.

Victor Abimbola Olaiya (born 31 December 1930), also known as Dr Victor Olaiya, is a Nigerian trumpeter who plays in the highlife style. Though extremely famous in Nigeria during the 1950s and early 1960s, Olaiya received little recognition outside his native country. Alhaji Alade Odunewu of the Daily Times described him as "The Evil Genius of Highlife. Olaiya was born on 31 December 1930, in Calabar, Cross River State, the 20th child of a family of 24. His parents, Alfred Omolona Olaiya and Bathsheba Owolabi Motajo, came from Ijesha-Ishu in Ekiti State. Olaiya came from a very rich family. His father's house called Ilọijọs Bar stood on 2 Bamgbose Street, Lagos Island, until it was demolished on September 11, 2016. At an early age he learned to play the Bombardon and the French Horn. After leaving school he moved to Lagos, where he passed the school certificate examination in 1951 and was accepted by Howard University, US, to study civil engineering. Olaiya instead pursued a career as a musician, to the disapproval of his parents. He played with the Sammy Akpabot Band, was leader and trumpeter for the Old Lagos City Orchestra and joined the Bobby Benson Jam Session Orchestra.

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RIP Dr. Catherine Hamlin: Grief in Ethiopia as trailblazing Australian doctor dies

19 March 2020

GETTY

Dr Catherine Hamlin with staff and cured fistula patients in Addis Ababa in 2008

No-one came to meet Catherine Hamlin the day she arrived at a tiny airport in Ethiopia in 1959.

More than 60 years later, the news of the Australian gynaecologist’s death at the age of 96 was met with an outpouring of grief in the country she had made her home.

That is because of the work Dr Hamlin - along with her late husband, Reginald - did transforming and, in some cases, saving the lives of tens of thousands of women who had been cast out of their communities.

Treating obstetric fistulas - a preventable injury sustained in childbirth that leaves women incontinent and can lead to other infections - would become her life’s work.

"These are the women most to be pitied in the world," Dr Hamlin told the New York Times in 2003.

"They're alone in the world, ashamed of their injuries. For lepers, or Aids victims, there are organisations that help. But nobody knows about these women or helps them."
The 'cursed' women living in shame

Elinor Catherine Nicholson was born in Sydney in 1924, one of six children. She decided to train to be a doctor because she wanted to help women and children.

After she completed her training, she began work at Crown Street Women’s Hospital, where she met a doctor from New Zealand, Reginald Hamlin.

They were married in 1950, and had a son, Richard, two years later.
'We never came back'

But the two wanted to go and work in a developing nation, and one day an advert in British medical journal The Lancet caught their eye.

"It just read 'gynaecologist wanted in Ethiopia, Addis Ababa'," Dr Hamlin told the BBC in 2016. It was enough to pique their interest, and the couple applied.

"We felt we would like to do something to help people in the world, because we had had so many advantages," Dr Hamlin explained.

The idea was to stay for a couple of years. "But we never came back."

So they set off from Sydney, sending a cable from the middle of the Indian Ocean to let their new colleagues know of their imminent arrival. It didn’t quite go according to plan.

"The cable didn’t get there until three weeks after we did, so there was nobody to meet us."

GETTY Reginald (L) and Catherine (R) Hamlin during a visit to Australia in 1971

But they soon settled in, and it wasn’t long before they began to notice a number of women with a condition they had never seen before: obstetric fistula.

"We were touched and appalled by the sadness of our first fistula patient: a beautiful young woman in urine-soaked ragged clothes, sitting alone in our outpatients department away from the other waiting patients," Dr Hamlin later recalled to the Guardian.

"We knew she was more in need than any of the others."

Two million women live with the condition globally, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

Without help, many die. Those who survive - like the woman in the waiting room - are left with injuries that leave them incontinent, sometimes heavily.

In Ethiopia many were left with a deep sense of shame. They found themselves banished to the outskirts of their communities, abandoned by their husbands. The stigma and social isolation led some to end their lives.
'I felt so happy'

But the Hamlins knew it was both fixable and preventable - as they told Ethiopia's then ruler, Haile Selassie.

"He said, why do my women get this terrible thing where they can’t control their body waste?" Dr Hamlin told the BBC.

"We said, it is nothing to do with your women, it is to do with your lack of doctors in the countryside when they need to have a Caesarian section."

Mamitu Gashe was one of the women who Dr Hamlin and her husband treated in the early days, when they worked at Princess Teshai Hospital.

It was 1962, and Mamitu had suffered a fistula giving birth to her first child. It was a three-day labour, and the baby did not survive.

Dr Hamlin with Mamitu Gashe in 1994

Like so many other women in Ethiopia, she was left incontinent. But she had a sister in the capital, and her family took her to the city to find help.

It was then they discovered the Hamlins’ specialist ward.

"As soon as I arrived there, they treated me with compassion and I started to feel much better," she told the BBC after she was named one of the BBC's 100 Women 2018.

“They told me that I was not the only one suffering from this, that other women had this. As soon as they said that, I felt hopeful, I felt so happy."

But the Hamlins would not only help repair the damage; they also gave Mamitu - who has no formal education - a new career: she is now an internationally respected fistula surgeon, having been taught by the Hamlins.

"I couldn’t read or write," she explained in 2018. "Everything I knew, I knew from the Hamlins."

Mamitu was one of the staff members the Hamlins took to Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital when it opened in 1974.

'She broke our hearts'

In 1993, Dr Hamlin lost her beloved husband. Faced with a choice to stay or leave, she decided her work was not yet done.

In the following years, the Hamlin Foundation opened five rural hospitals offering healthcare to women, as well as a facility for long-term care patients. Then, in 2007, Dr Hamlin saw one of her initial dreams finally fulfilled: the Hamlin College of Midwives opened.

It is thought the organisation has treated more than 60,000 women for obstetric fistulas over the decades.

But in spite of these successes, Dr Hamlin was still disappointed at how little had been achieved,

"We had one little girl not too long ago, who had terrible injuries," she told the UN’s World Food Programme in 2011.

"She had been lying curled up for nine years on the floor on a mat. Her mother had been looking after her, thinking perhaps that the urine would dry up. She was in a state of malnutrition, 22kg (48lb), as she was carried on the back of her poor old mother, coming into the hospital.

"She broke our hearts."
Fighting fistula: Razia's brave recovery from pregnancy nightmare

And so, Dr Hamlin continued her fight for the women of Ethiopia to the end.

Last year, Ethiopia's Nobel Prize-winning Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed handed her a prestigious citizenship award - one of many she was given during her lifetime. Then, in January, she celebrated her 96th birthday. Mamitu was by her side.

“We called Catherine mum, because she is like our mother,” she explained to the BBC last year.

Dr Hamlin died on 18 March at her home in Addis Ababa, the place she made her home. She left behind her son, grandchildren and a dream she wants others to fulfil in her memory.

"My dream is to eradicate obstetric fistula. Forever," she said.

"I won’t do this in my lifetime, but you can in yours."

More on fistula
Occurs as a result of obstructed labour causing a hole in the bladder and/or bowel
Patient is constantly leaking urine and/or faeces
In most cases where it occurs, the baby dies during childbirth
Two million women living with the condition globally, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia
Up to 100,000 new cases globally each year
Condition is entirely preventable and treatable

Video Fistula: British doctors help sufferers in Africa
10 March 2014
Fighting fistula: Razia's brave recovery from pregnancy nightmare
10 December 2015
The 'cursed' women living in shame
10 March 2014
BBC 100 Women 2018: Who is on the list?
19 November 2018

Coronavirus: US Senators face calls to resign over ‘insider trading’

GETTY IMAGES

Richard Burr is chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee while Kelly Loeffler sits on the Senate Health Committee

Four US senators are under scrutiny over claims they used insider knowledge about the impending coronavirus crisis to sell shares before prices plummeted.

Republicans Richard Burr and Kelly Loeffler face calls to quit after selling millions in stocks last month.

James Inhofe, a Republican, and Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat, also reportedly sold holdings at the time.

It is illegal for Congress members to trade based on non-public information gathered during their official duties.

Mr Burr, of North Carolina, reportedly dumped up to $1.7m (£1.45m) of stocks last month.

Mrs Loeffler, of Georgia, is reported to have sold holdings worth up to $3m in a series of transactions beginning the same day as a Senate briefing on the virus.

Mr Burr, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has also come under fire after US outlet NPR obtained a recording of him warning a group of wealthy constituents last month about the dire economic impact of the coronavirus, at a time when the Trump administration was publicly downplaying the threat. He also told the group to curtail their travel.

Mr Burr has accused NPR of “misrepresenting” his speech.



The latest revelations come after an investigation by ProPublica into his financial filings.

As chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Mr Burr receives nearly daily briefings on threats to US national security.

On 7 February, shortly after the first case of coronavirus was reported, Mr Burr wrote on Fox News that the US government was “better prepared than ever” to tackle an outbreak.

But a week later, when President Donald Trump assured the public that the virus would not hit America hard, Mr Burr and his wife sold between $628,000 and $1.72m in stocks, including shares in two hotel groups. Two weeks after that, he gave the speech obtained by NPR.

Among those calling for his resignation and investigation are Fox News host Tucker Carlson, usually a supporter of Republicans.

The presenter said that unless an honest explanation for Mr Burr's stock sell-off was forthcoming, "he must resign from the Senate and face prosecution for insider trading".

Several of the stocks that Mr Burr sold, including in the hotel and travel industry, have since lost value.

On Friday, Mr Burr again responded, tweeting that his decision to sell stock was made "solely based on public news reports". He specifically cited the Asia coverage provided by the CNBC network.

"Understanding the assumption many could make in hindsight however," he said in a short statement, "I spoke with the chairman of the Senate Ethics Committee this morning and asked him to open a complete view of the matter with full transparency."
A recipe for political upheaval 

In these early days of the coronavirus crisis, the American people have shown a significant capacity to endure hardships to slow the spread of the virus. They've stayed in their homes and watched as the economy crumbled around them. Many have confronted the loss of income and wealth with no guarantee these setbacks are only temporary.

What they may not abide, however, is the prospect that the rich and influential have used their positions of power to avoid the worst consequences of this financial collapse - particularly as their leaders were telling them to hold fast.

That's why the stories of senators selling stock portfolios in anticipation of a market drop are so toxic. It's a controversy that cuts across normally impervious partisan lines and has even conservatives and those "close to the president" sharply criticising the Republicans, like North Carolina Senator Burr, at the centre of the fury.

This story comes on the heels of grumbling over how some of the well-connected were getting virus tests while most Americans had to wait. It's a sign that this pandemic could lay bare the sharp divides in the US between the haves and the have-nots and make more than a few realise that - perhaps to their surprise - they are among the latter, not the former.

That's a recipe for political upheaval.

Separately, an investigation by the Daily Beast found Mrs Loeffler, who sits on the Senate Health Committee, and her husband sold millions of dollars in stocks, beginning on 24 January, the day her panel received a private briefing on the coronavirus from top US public health officials.

In the weeks after the sale, she sought to downplay the virus’ impact on the economy and public health in a series of tweets.

“Democrats have dangerously and intentionally misled the American people on #Coronavirus readiness,” she tweeted on 28 February.

“Here’s the truth: @realDonaldTrump & his administration are doing a great job working to keep Americans healthy & safe.”

At least $100,000 of stock in a teleworking software company, Citrix, was also reportedly bought in Mrs Loeffler's name. The shares have risen during the pandemic.

Mrs Loeffler has called the Daily Beast's investigation a “ridiculous and baseless attack”.

In a statement, she said decisions about her investments were made by “multiple third party advisors without [her or her husband’s] knowledge or consent”.

GETTYMs Feinstein and her husband reportedly sold stock worth up to $6m

Mrs Loeffler is married to the chairman of the New York Stock Exchange and is thought to be the wealthiest member of Congress, with an estimated fortune of $500m.

Mr Inhofe sold $400,000 of stock at the end of January, according to a Senate disclosure report, including shares in Apple, PayPal and a real estate company.

The senator for Oklahoma responded in a statement that his financial adviser made the decisions for him, and he was "not aware of or consulted about any transactions".

GETTY James Inhofe of Oklahoma

The senator said he had told his adviser to move into mutual funds after he became chairman of the armed services committee in 2018, and he said these share sales were part of those transactions.

Top California Democrat Ms Feinstein and her husband meanwhile reportedly sold stock worth between $1.5m and $6m in a biotech company between the end of January and mid-February.

A spokesman for the senator, who is a member of the intelligence committee, told the New York Times her assets were in a blind trust and she had "no involvement in her husband's financial decisions".

The US government has come under criticism for its early response to the outbreak - testing and tracing for the virus has lagged far behind that of other countries, and the president initially downplayed the threat caused by the virus.

More than 14,000 cases of coronavirus have been reported in the US, along with 205 virus-related deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.


Watchdog group files complaints against Burr, Loeffler over stock sales in run-up to coronavirus crisis

***https://www.commondreams.org/views/2020/01/06/meet-corporate-war-profiteers-making-killing-trumps-attacks-iran 

The watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) filed a complaint with the Senate Ethics Committee Friday against Sens. Richard Burr, R-N.C., and Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga., suggesting they may have engaged in insider trading based on their knowledge about the coronavirus pandemic.

News reports surfaced Thursday and Friday about how Burr and Loeffler, along with Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., sold large amounts of stock before the market crashed due to concerns about the coronavirus, igniting accusations from critics of possible insider trading. The complaint says Burr and Loeffler may have violated the 2012 STOCK Act, a law that bans insider trading by members of Congress.

The senators have denied wrongdoing, but the watchdog group is calling for a probe.

© Provided by FOX News Senators selling stocks before the coronavirus pandemic rocked the markets have renewed attention on something called the STOCK Act. Here's what you need to know.

"If Senator Burr had inside information about how bad the coronavirus outbreak could be and used it to protect his personal fortune, while reassuring the public that the government was prepared for the disease, that would be a shocking violation of the public trust and may have been a violation of the law,” CREW Executive Director Noah Bookbinder said in a statement Friday.

On Loeffler, a release from CREW says that Loeffler "attended a briefing on the situation as a member of the Senate HELP Committee. That same day, she and her husband made the first of dozens of stock sales executed between then and February 14, worth up to $3.1 million. She also purchased several stocks during this period, including Citrix, which produces teleworking software and could have been impacted by the coronavirus outbreak."

All four senators have defended their actions, with Burr -- who says that he based his decisions on news reports and not information he learned through his job -- taking the most drastic step of calling for a Senate ethics investigation into himself in order to clear the air.

He sold between $628,000 and $1.72 million in stocks on Feb. 13, according to ProPublica. According to Roll Call, Burr's net worth was approximately $1.7 million in 2018.

WHAT IS THE STOCK ACT?

SEN BURR SEEKS ETHICS REVIEW OF HIS STOCK SALES IN RUN-UP TO CORONAVIRUS CRISIS, AFTER SCATHING REPORT

"I relied solely on public news reports to guide my decision regarding the sale of stocks on February 13,” Burr said in a Friday statement defending himself. “Specifically, I closely followed CNBC’s daily health and science reporting out of its Asia bureaus at the time."

A Feinstein spokesman said all of her assets are in a blind trust so she doesn't make those financial decisions. Inhofe also said he does not have anything to do with his financial decisions. Loeffler, who sold millions of dollars worth of stock -- but is so rich that the investment moves add up to a very small percentage of her net worth -- also said that she has no involvement with investment decisions that are made by her financial advisors.

"This is a ridiculous and baseless attack. I do not make investment decisions for my portfolio. Investment decisions are made by multiple third-party advisors without my or my husband's knowledge or involvement," she said in a tweet early Friday morning. "As confirmed in the periodic transaction report to Senate Ethics, I was informed of these purchases and sales on February 16, 2020 — three weeks after they were made."

While CREW refrains from making outright accusations that the senators made their trades with corrupt intention, it does say the developments are concerning and urgently calls for investigations.

"The job of a U.S. senator is to serve the American people,” Bookbinder said. “It appears that in a time of crisis, these senators chose instead to serve themselves, violating the public trust and abdicating their duty. They must be immediately investigated."

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell below 20,000 for the first time since 2017 this week after expectations earlier this year were that it could hit 30,000 any day. Additionally, the New York Stock Exchange has seen four stoppages of trading due to sharp sell-offs in the last two weeks. As of Friday afternoon, the Dow is down more than 700 points on the day.

Fox News' Dom Calicchio and Adam Shaw contributed to this report.

Sens. Richard Burr, Kelly Loeffler Face Calls to Resign Over Stock Sales

Senators Richard Burr and Kelly Loeffler have faced calls to resign after it was revealed that the Republican lawmakers sold off stock holdings before the COVID-19 epidemic crashed markets.

Both of the senators reportedly attended briefings on the novel coronavirus outbreak and publicly sought to calm nerves as they dumped chunks of their portfolios ahead of market turmoil in March.

ProPublica reported on Thursday night that North Carolina Sen. Burr, the Senate Intelligence Committee chairman, sold between $628,000 and $1.7 million worth of stock on February 13.

The stock dump came days after he co-authored a Fox News op-ed claiming the United States was "better prepared than ever before to face emerging public health threats, like the coronavirus."

Following the news of Sen. Burr's stock sell off, the Daily Beast reported that Sen. Loeffler of Georgia recorded a sale of stock on January 24 — the day of an all-senators briefing with administration health officials that covered the COVID-19 outbreak.

In a Thursday night Twitter post reacting to the news of the stock dumps, former Democratic primary candidate Andrew Yang said: "If you find out about a nation-threatening pandemic and your first move is to adjust your stock portfolio you should probably not be in a job that serves the public interest."

"Burr knew how bad it would be. He told the truth to his wealthy donors, while assuring the public that we were fine," Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) tweeted on Thursday. "THEN he sold off $1.6 million in stock before the fall. He needs to resign."

The freshman congresswoman also called on Sen. Loeffler to resign over her stock dump in a later tweet.

"Senators Burr and Loeffler should be investigated by authorities and the Senate Ethics Committee," the Obama-era Housing Secretary Julián Castro said. "If the evidence suggests they engaged in insider trading, they should be charged and stand trial."

Preet Bharara, former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, simply tweeted: "Members of Congress should not own individual stocks, period."

The Republican lawmakers were also hit with criticism from the right, with the Students for Trump Chair Charlie Kirk calling on them to resign and saying: "I don't care if you're Republican or Democrat. If you trade with inside info to enrich yourself during a crisis you are a disgrace."

Fox News host Tucker Carlson also called for Burr to leave office if he had no "honest explanation" for his decision to dump millions in stocks before the COVID-19 pandemic struck markets.

"He had inside information about what could happen to our country, which is now happening. But he didn't warn the public," Carlson said on his show Thursday night.

He later added: "Instead, what did he do? He dumped his shares in hotel stocks so he wouldn't lose money, and then he stayed silent. Now, maybe there's an honest explanation for what he did. If there is, he should share it with the rest of us immediately. Otherwise, he must resign from the Senate and face prosecution for insider trading."

Reacting to a clip of Carlson condemning the senators, the author Matt Stoller said: "Tucker Carlson is calling for an important Republican Senator to be put in jail for #PandemicProfiteering. He's right. And it's not a partisan issue. This behavior is rancid."

At the time of writing, Burr is ninth in the U.S. Twitter trending charts amid criticism of his reported stock sell-off.

Newsweek has contacted the offices of both senators for comment, and will update this article with any response.

In a statement posted on social media overnight, Sen. Loeffler said: "This is a ridiculous and baseless attack. I do not make investment decisions for my portfolio. Investment decisions are made by multiple third-party advisors without my or my husband's knowledge or involvement."

Sen. Loeffler also claimed that she was informed of the sales "three weeks after they were made."

"Senator Burr filed a financial disclosure form for personal transactions made several weeks before the U.S. and financial markets showed signs of volatility due to the growing coronavirus outbreak," his spokesperson told ProPublica.

"As the situation continues to evolve daily, he has been deeply concerned by the steep and sudden toll this pandemic is taking on our economy."

INSIDER TRADING BY ANY OTHER NAME
Four Senators Sold Millions In Stocks Ahead Of Coronavirus Market Crash

By Llowell Williams 03/20/20

KEY POINTS 

Sen. Burr sold up to $1.7 million in shares ahead of the market crash

Sens. Loeffler, Inhofe and Feinstein also sold millions in stocks

These lawmakers had attended private briefings about the coronavirus crisis

Democrats, conservatives both calling for investigations, resignations

Damning new reports show that at least four senators, including a Democrat, reportedly offloaded millions worth of shares just ahead of the severe crash that hit Wall Street last month over fears of the novel coronavirus pandemic. Now figures on both sides of the political spectrum are calling for them to resign, if these allegations prove true.

North Carolina Republican Sen. Richard Burr, who serves as a chairman on the Senate Intelligence Committee, reportedly gave a closed door briefing to a group of individuals on Feb. 27. During that meeting, which was secretly recorded, Burr can be heard explaining that the coronavirus situation would end up being far more dire than he’d told the public.

In early February, Burr had helped co-author an editorial for Fox News in which he explained that the United States was “better prepared than ever before” to tackle a crisis like the coronavirus pandemic.

Senate records show that on Feb. 13, Burr sold as much as $1.72 million of his personal stocks – just days before the markets cratered on Feb. 20. Most of the stocks were in hotel and resort companies. 

In 2012, Burr voted against a bill which would forbid lawmakers from participating in insider trading.

Sen. Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga., is facing similar allegations. The freshman senator is accused of selling as much as $100,000 in stocks owned jointly by her and her husband on the same day that she attended a private briefing held by health officials on the coronavirus crisis on Jan. 24.



Loeffler continued to sell her stocks over the next month, but did make some purchases: She bought as much as $250,000 in Citrix Systems (NASDAQ: CTXS), a company that specializes in providing technology used in telecommuting work. Citrix stocks have since risen about 5% as of Thursday's close, as American businesses began asking their employees to work from home.

Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., also appears to have sold at least $180,000 in stocks days after the coronavirus briefing.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., is also facing allegations of dropping a great deal of stocks ahead of the market crash, selling at least $1.5 million in January and February. 

UNRELATED TO THE GOP INSIDER TRADING THOUGH SHE TOO SITS ON THE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE, HER STOCKS ARE IN A BLIND TRUST. THAT TRUST BUYS AND SELLS INDEPENDENT OF THE SENATOR

Since these senators sold their stocks, the markets have contracted nearly 30%.

Several lawmakers are now calling for Burr to be investigated and to possibly resign. Reps. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-NY, have said Burr’s stock selloff needs to be examined. Ocasio-Cortez tweeted that the senator “told the truth to his wealthy donors, while assuring the public that we were fine. Then he sold off $1.6 million in stock.”

Fox ew host Tucker Carlson has also come out as a conservative voice calling for Burr to be probed. During his show Thursday night, Carlson blasted Burr. “There is no greater moral crime than betraying your country in a time of crisis, and that appears to be what happened,” he said.

Sen. Richard Burr resists calls to resign over coronavirus insider trading -- scandal could affect control of Senate

By DAVE GOLDINER
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS |
MAR 20, 2020

Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., second from right, greets Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Principal Deputy Director Anne Schuchat, left, as she and National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci, right, appear before a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing on the coronavirus on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, March 3, 2020, in Washington.(Andrew Harnik/AP)

Sen. Richard Burr pushed back against growing calls to quit Friday over his massive sale of stock after he learned of the severity of the coronavirus crisis -- and the scandal could impact the fight for control of the Senate.

The North Carolina Republican was slammed by conservative commentator Tucker Carlson and a chorus of pundits and ordinary Americans for profiteering off the pandemic and a source close to President Trump said he wants him to quit.

Burr, who dumped up to $1.7 million in stocks, Friday asked the Senate Ethics Committee Friday to investigate whether his actions were improper or illegal.

He did not say he was considering stepping down.

President Trump called Burr and three other senators who sold stock after the coronavirus crisis spread are “honorable people” and ignored a question about whether he should resign.

He struck a partisan tone by only naming Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein and sparring with a reporter who asked about Burr and Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Georgia)

“They said they did nothing wrong,” he said. “I’ll have to look into it.”

If Burr quits, Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper would appoint a replacement who would serve until the November general election, but it would have to be a Republican.

That’s because North Carolina’s heavily gerrymandered GOP-controlled state legislature passed a 2017 law mandating that in case of a vacancy the governor must appoint one of three candidates put forward by the party of the outgoing senator.

North Carolina’s other senator Thom Tillis is already facing a contentious battle for reelection against Democrat Cal Cunningham.

If Burr’s seat were also up for grabs, it could dramatically improve the odds of Democrats seizing control of the Senate in November.

Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.) also sold significant amounts of stock since hearing about the coronavirus crisis, but his transactions were not big enough to trigger mandatory disclosure, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

Perdue, who insists he did nothing wrong, is facing what could be a tricky reelection fight against former Congressional candidate Jon Ossoff, who accused Perdue of unethical behavior.

“Instead of warning us, he downplayed the threat, sold casino stock, & bought up to $260,000 in pharma stock,” Ossoff wrote.

My opponent Sen. Perdue was briefed on the severe threat of COVID-19.

Instead of warning us, he downplayed the threat, sold casino stock, & bought up to $260,000 in pharma stock.

If this isn’t a crime, it should be. Donate to kick him out of the Senate: https://t.co/GwoLTQ1CQr— Jon Ossoff (@ossoff) March 20, 2020

Burr was one of just three senators to vote against a 2012 law banning lawmakers from

trading on information they receive through their official capacities.

The drive-in, relic of yesterday, finds itself suited to now

Viewers in parked cars watch the animated film "Onward" at the Paramount Drive-In Theatres, Thursday, March 19, 2020, in Paramount, Calif. The drive-in theater, long a dwindling nostalgia act in a multiplex world, is experiencing a momentary return to prominence. With nearly all of the nation’s movie theaters shuttered due to the pandemic, some drive-in owners think they’re in a unique position to give moviegoers a chance to do something out of the house but stay within prudent distance from one another. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

NEW YORK (AP) — The drive-in theater, long a dwindling nostalgia act in a multiplex world, is experiencing a momentary return to prominence.

With nearly all of the nation’s movie theaters shuttered due to the coronavirus pandemic, some drive-in owners think they’re in a unique position to give moviegoers a chance to do something out of the house while keeping distance from others. This weekend, some drive-ins aren’t the only show in town. They’re the only show in the country.

The Showboat Drive-In Theater in Hockley, Texas, about a 30-minute drive outside Houston, normally sees ticket sales go down about 40% on a weekend when they don’t have any new movies. Last weekend, they saw a 40% increase, says the theater’s owner, Andrew Thomas. Usually open weekends, Thomas has kept screenings going through the week.


“Obviously this isn’t the way you’d want it to occur, but I’m excited for the idea that there may be a new generation of people that will get to experience going to a drive-in theater and — I was going to say catch the bug,” said Thomas, laughing. “Maybe some other turn of phrase.”

There are just over 300 drive-ins left in the country. They constitute a small, oft-forgotten flicker in today’s movie ecosystem that hardly competes with the megawatt glare of the megaplex and the nation’s 5,500 indoor theaters. But through decades of disruption and change in American life, they have managed to survive. They’ve somehow clung to life as relics of past Americana only to find themselves, for a brief moment anyway, uniquely suited to today

Not many drive-ins are open. It’s a seasonal business to begin with, with many drive-ins not planning to open until April. John Vincent, president of the United Drive-in Theater Owner Association, estimates about 5-10% were open as of last weekend, and some of those are closing due to the pandemic. In states like California and New York, restrictions on movement and gathering are being ramped up that mandate closures. As infections rise in other parts of the country, Vincent suspects the drive-in’s window is already closing.

“We’d love the drive-ins to shine but this is probably not the moment,” said Vincent, who owns Wellfleet Cinemas on Cape Cod.

However long it lasts, the drive-in is for now, in certain parts of the country, one of the only remaining refuges of public entertainment — of getting out the house to do something while still staying inside your car. At the Paramount Drive-in near Los Angeles, Forrest and Erin McBride figured a drive-in movie was one of the only ways they could responsibly celebrate their anniversary.


“We were like, what can we do? Everything’s closed,” said Forrest before a showing of “Onward” on Thursday night. “We were like, ‘Well, a drive-in theater is kind of like a self-quarantined movie date.’”

Aman Patel, a 25-year-old from Los Angeles, attended his first drive-in with his roommate and friends. “I always wanted to do it,” said Patel.

Drive-ins aren’t without their own virus concerns. Concessions and restrooms, in particular, still pose issues. All owners interviewed for this article said they were spacing out cars, reworking how customers could order food (sometimes via text messages) and limiting restroom occupancy.

Chris Curtis, owner of the Blue Moon Drive-in in Guin, Alabama, said he was doing something that has long been anathema to drive-ins: allowing outside food and drink in. “In fact, we suggest it,” reads the Blue Moon’s Facebook page. Like indoor theaters, drive-ins make their money almost entirely by concessions.

“We’re just trying to pay the power bill and the water bill and get through this, and give the community something to do at a time when there’s not a whole lot to do,” said Curtis, who’s owned the Blue Moon for 24 years. “It’s not about the movies anymore. It’s about having something to do.”

Curtis is concerned that too many people could show up this weekend, given the responses he’s gotten. To keep the Blue Moon uncrowded, Curtis launched online ticketing for the first time. “I don’t want people driving from long distances just to see that we’re sold out,” he said.

There are few movies left for drive-ins to play. For now, they can still screen recent releases like “Onward” and “The Hunt,” but those movies are already available on various digital platforms as studios have funneled their films to homes due to the virus. Earlier this week, all of the nation’s movie chains shuttered following federal guidelines that urged against gatherings of more than 10 people. The studios have cleared out their release calendars into May.

Those postponements have extended all the way to major summer releases, including Marvel’s “Black Widow” (previously slated for May 1). Eating into spring releases will be hard enough for drive-ins, but summer is when they sell most of their tickets. Owners say that if they manage to remain open in the coming weeks, they could potentially play older films (though those cost almost as much as new releases to play).

“We don’t know how long we’re going to have to live this way,” said Thomas. “Everybody’s wrestling with what it is going to be like in the middle of the summer when normally everyone is high-fiving and having a good time because the box office is going crazy. It’s when you go: This is why I got into this business.”

Drive-ins could also improvise in other ways. Lisa Boaz, who with her husband has operated the Monetta Drive-in in Monetta, South Carolina, since 1999, said they’ve been contacted by churches interested in using the drive-in for Sunday services. Parishioners would listen to sermons from their cars through the drive-in’s FM-radio transmitters.

“We’re kind of playing it by ear right now,” said Boaz.

Boaz said they had opened the Monetta earlier in March, hopeful for a good year. They have stacks of souvenir cups with “2020 season” printed on them. She’s not sure how long the Monetta will stay open, and — like other owners — said she would be quick to follow any state-ordered shelter-in-place guidelines. Deciding just to open this weekend, she said, was difficult. And she’s worried that other drive-ins won’t be able to withstand a few dark months.

But so long as it’s safe, Boaz appreciates the irony that in the year 2020, the best — and in many cases only — way to see a movie outside the house is at the drive-in. The pandemic hasn’t proven the supremacy of streaming as much as it’s shown how indomitable the urge is to spend a night at the movies.

“It is kind of nice that we’re getting a little bit of extra attention. Maybe people don’t want to stay inside as much as they thought they did,” said Boaz. “The old ways are the best ways.”

___

Associated Press Television News Producer Marcela Isaza contributed to this report from Los Angeles

___

Viewers in a parked car watch the animated film "Onward" at the Paramount Drive-In Theatres, Thursday, March 19, 2020, in Paramount, Calif. The drive-in theater, long a dwindling nostalgia act in a multiplex world, is experiencing a momentary return to prominence. With nearly all of the nation’s movie theaters shuttered due to the pandemic, some drive-in owners think they’re in a unique position to give moviegoers a chance to do something out of the house but stay within prudent distance from one another. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Andrea Wyatt of Inglewood, Calif., wears a mask as she collects her concessions at the Paramount Drive-In Theatres, Thursday, March 19, 2020, in Paramount, Calif. The drive-in theater, long a dwindling nostalgia act in a multiplex world, is experiencing a momentary return to prominence. With nearly all of the nation’s movie theaters shuttered due to the pandemic, some drive-in owners think they’re in a unique position to give moviegoers a chance to do something out of the house but stay within prudent distance from one another. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

A movie screen at the Paramount Drive-In Theatres is reflected in rainwater before opening, Thursday, March 19, 2020, in Paramount, Calif. The theatre was scheduled to shut down Friday after California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a statewide stay-at-home order due to the coronavirus. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

FILE - In this July 26, 2013 file photo, patrons watch a movie as the sun sets over Bengies Drive-In Theatre in Middle River, Md. The drive-in theater, long a dwindling nostalgia act in a multiplex world, is experiencing a momentary return to prominence. With nearly all of the nation’s movie theaters shuttered due to the pandemic, some drive-ins are the only show in town. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)

FILE - In this June 26, 2014, file photo, movie-goers watch "How to Train Your Dragon 2," at the Saco Drive-In in Saco, Maine. The drive-in theater, long a dwindling nostalgia act in a multiplex world, is experiencing a momentary return to prominence. With nearly all of the nation’s movie theaters shuttered due to the pandemic, some drive-ins are the only show in town. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File)

One Southern California drive-in movie theater this week became the perfect spot for "a self-quarantined movie date." But after strict "safer at home" restrictions went into effect across the state, the Paramount Drive In Theater is now closed. (March 20)

USA

Returning troops denied water, bathrooms under quarantine

This photo provided by the U.S. Army shows large tents The 82nd Airborne Division has established to provide accommodations for up to 600 soldiers, shown March 17, 2020 at Fort Bragg, N.C. In one of Bragg's remote training areas, large tents have popped up over the last few days to house hundreds of 82nd Airborne Division troops that are returning to the base from Afghanistan and other Middle East deployments. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Zach VanDyke via AP)


WASHINGTON (AP) — It wasn’t the welcome home that U.S. soldiers expected when they returned from war zones in the Middle East in the past week.

When their planes landed at Fort Bliss, Texas, they were herded into buses, denied water and the use of bathrooms, then quarantined in packed barracks, with little food or access to the outdoors. “This is no way to treat Soldiers returning from war,” one soldier told The Associated Press in an email.

The soldiers posted notes on social media about the poor conditions. Their complaints got quick attention from senior Army and Pentagon leaders. Now changes are under way at Fort Bliss and at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, where the first soldiers placed under quarantine also complained of poor, cramped conditions.

Quarantining troops on military bases is becoming a greater challenge for military officials. While continuing missions and training, they also have to try to prevent the spread of the highly contagious coronavirus by enforcing two-week quarantines of soldiers who have spent months overseas.

In one of Bragg’s remote training areas, large white tents have popped up over the past few days to house hundreds of 82nd Airborne Division troops returning to the base from Afghanistan and Middle East deployments. The tent city, being called Forward Operating Base Patriot (FOB Patriot), materialized almost overnight, after commanders realized the limits of the barracks when troops began arriving on Saturday.

Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy said senior leaders were looking into soldiers’ complaints and seeking answers from Fort Bliss. Pentagon chief spokesman Jonathan Hoffman told reporters that Defense Secretary Mark Esper had heard about the problems and “his response is, we can do better and we need to do better.”

Hoffman said the commander at Fort Bliss has met with all of the quarantined soldiers and “talked through some of their concerns. The spokesman added, “We are going to do better. This is something unusual for all these bases to be handling, and they are doing the best they can.”

In the early days of the quarantine, soldiers at Fort Bliss posted photos on social media showing foam food trays dotted with small piles of peas and rice. On Thursday, in an email statement, Fort Bliss described changes that have been made.

“The dining facility we initially used could not keep pace with demand,” said the statement. “The portions were inadequate, and led to our number one complaint. Fort Bliss leaders saw photos and immediately took action.”

One soldier, in an email to the AP, said when soldiers got off the plane from Afghanistan, they were loaded onto buses and did not get water or permission to use the bathroom for hours.

“We can’t walk down the hall, go outside, or exercise. We finally received drinking water at 0900 this morning,” said the soldier, describing Day Two. “The Army was not prepared, nor equipped to deal with this quarantine instruction and it has been implemented very poorly. ”

The AP is not identifying soldiers who described the conditions, in order to protect their identity so they could speak freely and not worry about potential reprisals.

Fort Bliss said that the food service plan has already increased to give troops three hot meals a day and that soldiers are now getting donated snacks and are allowed to order food and have it delivered to a central location. The troops are also allowed to go outside more and will get more access to gym equipment.

Another soldier at Bliss, who had been deployed to Kuwait, said in a message that the food has gotten better and troops are now allowed to go outside more. But as they begin Day Six there, packages have been held up and there has been no access to laundry facilities.

At Fort Bragg, some of the first soldiers to return on Saturday were sent to rooms in barracks that had been quickly emptied. Soldiers previously living in those rooms were moved to make room. 

According to officials, soldiers are being separated into groups that returned from overseas together for the two-week quarantine. But realizing the need for more space, the 82nd Airborne decided on Saturday to build a new facility, and on Monday morning the first tent stakes were being pounded into the ground.

Because the area has been used for training in the past, workers were able to quickly bring in and hook up shower and toilet trailers and set up food tents and other facilities. By Thursday, several hundred troops had already moved in.

The 82nd Airborne’s 3rd Brigade has been deployed to Afghanistan, and is steadily returning home. Members of the 1st Brigade had gone to Kuwait and Iraq to help bolster security due to threats from Iranian-backed militias. Some members of that group have also come home.

According to Army Lt. Col. Mike Burns, a spokesman for the 82nd Airborne, FOB Patriot will be able to hold as many as 600 soldiers, but numbers have been changing as adjustments are made. He said Maj. Gen. James Mingus wanted to ensure that the returning troops knew “we were proud of what they accomplished and were doing everything we can to take care of them and stop the spread of the virus.”

Of the 1,700 82nd Airborne troops that have returned so far to Bragg, a bit less than half are housed in barracks and at FOB Patriot, and the rest are in quarantine in their homes. As of Friday about 200 were at FOB Patriot.

Anyone who exhibits symptoms of the virus will go into isolation and medical treatment.

For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia. The vast majority of people recover from the new virus. According to the World Health Organization, people with mild illness recover in about two weeks, while those with more severe illness may take three weeks to six weeks to recover.

Imports of medical supplies plummet as demand in US soars

FILE - In this March 17, 2020, file photo, a traveler uses hand sanitizer from a dispenser at Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix. The Associated Press has found that the critical shortage of testing swabs, protective masks, surgical gowns and hand sanitizer can be tied to a sudden drop in imports of medical supplies. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

The critical shortage of medical supplies across the U.S., including testing swabs, protective masks, surgical gowns and hand sanitizer, can be tied to a sudden drop in imports, mostly from China, The Associated Press has found.

Trade data shows the decline in shipments started in mid-February after the spiraling coronavirus outbreak in China led the country to shutter factories and disrupted ports. Some emergency rooms, hospitals and clinics in the U.S. have now run out of key medical supplies, while others are rationing personal protective equipment like gloves and masks.

The United States counts on receiving the vast majority of its medical supplies from China, where the coronavirus has infected more than 80,000 people and killed more than 3,200. When Chinese medical supply factories began coming back on line last month, their first priority was their own hospitals.


The government required makers of N95 masks to sell all or part of their production internally instead of shipping masks to the U.S.

The most recent delivery of medical-grade N95 masks arrived from China about a month ago, on Feb. 19. And as few as 13 shipments of non-medical N95 masks have arrived in the past month — half as many as arrived the same month last year. N95 masks are used in industrial settings, as well as hospitals, and filter out 95% of all airborne particles, including ones too tiny to be blocked by regular masks.

Governors across the country are becoming panicked as states run out of equipment. President Donald Trump has urged them to buy masks on the open market, but few if any are available.

“Without adequate protection, more of our hospital staff could become ill, which would mean there wouldn’t be people to care for patients,” said Nancy Foster, the American Hospital Association’s vice president of quality and patient safety policy.

Some hospitals are down to just a day or two of personal protective equipment, she said.

The AP found that in the past month, hand sanitizer and swab imports both dropped by 40%, N95 mask imports were down 55%, and surgical gowns, typically sourced from China, were at near normal levels because the sourcing was shifted to Honduras.

Typically, medical supplies are delivered along both coasts. But almost all the supplies that did arrive in the past month came into Newark, New Jersey, across the country from the earliest and most severe coronavirus outbreaks.

The AP identified the falling imports by looking at shipment data maintained by ImportGenius and Panjiva Inc., services that independently track global trade.

In mid-February, the World Health Organization warned that global demand for safety gear for medical providers was 100 times higher than normal. Prices were 20 times higher, stockpiles were depleted and there was a four- to six-month backlog. Despite this, federal contracting data shows there was no big effort at that point to submit orders.

Trade policies haven’t helped. Tariffs on medical supplies made them more expensive, and they were only lifted March 5, even though health care associations asked the administration last year to exempt items like masks, gloves and gowns. And now countries including South Korea, India and Taiwan are blocking exports of medical supplies to save them for their own citizens, leaving the U.S. with fewer options.

“The lag time could be weeks. It could be upward of months,” said Khatereh Calleja, CEO of the Healthcare Supply Chain Association.

Doctors, nurses and first responders in the U.S. are resorting to spraying their masks with bleach at the end of each day and hanging them up at home to dry to use for another day, according to the American College of Emergency Physicians.

“There is a little bit of anxiety, as you can imagine, going to work and not knowing if you will have enough personal protective equipment,” said Dr. David Tan, president of the National Association of EMS Physicians.

The decline in swabs included multiple varieties, not just ones needed to test for COVID-19. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has for weeks warned state and local health departments about shortages of swabs, which are needed for the testing that is critical to containing the pandemic.

Even over-the-counter medical shipments are decreasing. Ten shipping containers filled with medical thermometers arrived at U.S. ports a year ago this month. But in the last 30 days, there were just five.

Hand sanitizer, also commonly sourced from China, has disappeared from U.S. stores, and it may stay scarce. Last year by this time, 223 shipments had arrived. This year, since January, just 157 shipments have come.

The shortages affect patients because they can’t get tested and their providers may be carrying the virus from one person to the next. But the far greater risk is to medical personnel: Already, there are reports of dozens of doctors, nurses and medical staff who have contracted the virus.


Nurses across the country report that they are not receiving the proper personal protective equipment and their hospitals don’t have the isolation rooms they need to safely care for COVID-19 patients, according to National Nurses United, the largest union of registered nurses in the U.S.

“It’s not safe at all. Nobody is safe,” said Consuelo Vargas, an emergency room nurse at Cook County Hospital in Chicago. On Friday morning, after a possible exposure at work, she went to a local hardware store and bought all the painter booties and jumpsuits they had to wear while caring for people.

“It’s so frustrating because we feel like health care workers are being asked for a lot — and that’s fine, we can do our job. We’re just asking for the equipment we need,” she said.

The shortage doesn’t affect only health care. The humanitarian medical firm Direct Relief thought it was heading into 2020 well-stocked, with several million N95 masks. The organization had increased its orders in 2019 after massive wildfires in the West filled cities with smoke, squeezing its supplies in recent years.

But then bushfires overwhelmed Australia with smoky skies and so Direct Relief began sending the masks there, vice president Tony Morain said.

When the coronavirus hit China, the organization began shipping the masks to Wuhan — the outbreak’s epicenter — in an effort to contain the disease.

Morain said they’ve ordered 2 million more masks and are awaiting the shipments. Those typically take at least five weeks to arrive: two weeks to make the masks, two weeks of shipping and a week to get through the port. Meanwhile, he said, Direct Relief has received well over 100 requests from hospitals and health centers down to their last boxes.

In an effort to fill the gap, Minnesota-based 3M is running its Aberdeen, South Dakota, plant around the clock, producing millions of N95 masks per month. The company is also ramping up production of surgical masks and commercial cleaning solutions, CEO Mike Roman said.

Nonetheless, one federal contract with 3M for $4.8 million of N95 masks dated March 12 says the masks will be delivered April 30 — seven weeks later, according to public contract data.

A number of Chinese companies told the AP this week that they will be resuming exports — which bring higher prices — but that they are overwhelmed and can’t meet demand.

“Chinese mask manufacturers have received too many orders from abroad, but have no time to produce all of them and make a delivery,” said David Peng, manager of Ningbo Buy Best International Trading Co. Ltd.

Trade data shows importers have managed to maintain some supplies by shifting to factories outside China. Shipments of surgical gowns, for example, have dropped less than 5% since December, since they are now coming from Honduras. The same is true for medical gloves, which are now primarily coming from South Korea.

The federal government said a national stockpile was being made available at the state level, but governors said they weren’t getting what they need.

“I think every governor in the United States has been banging on the door of the federal government with respect to the stockpile. We certainly have, and we’re going to continue to,” Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker said at a news conference this week.

Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious-disease specialist at the University of California-San Francisco, said he was alarmed by new CDC advice for hospitals that run out of masks.

“For the CDC to say people can wear bandanas is actually quite frightening,” he said. “I never thought the CDC would say something like that. We’re in the United States of America in 2020, and we have a recommendation to use bandanas?”
US virus testing faces new headwind: Lab supply shortages

FILE - In this Wednesday, March 11, 2020 file photo, a technician prepares COVID-19 coronavirus patient samples for testing at a laboratory in New York's Long Island. Wide scale testing is a critical part of tracking and containing infectious diseases. But the U.S. effort has been plagued by a series of missteps, including accuracy problems with the test kits the CDC sent to other labs and bureaucratic hurdles that slowed the entrance of large, private sector labs. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)


WASHINGTON (AP) — First, some of the coronavirus tests didn’t work. Then there weren’t enough to go around. Now, just as the federal government tries to ramp up nationwide screening, laboratory workers are warning of a new roadblock: dire shortages of testing supplies.

The shortages are the latest stumble in a botched effort to track the spread of coronavirus that has left the U.S. weeks behind many other developed countries. Dwindling supplies include both chemical components and basic swabs needed to collect patient samples.

There are “acute, serious shortages across the board” for supplies needed to do the tests, said Eric Blank, of the Association of Public Health Laboratories, which represents state and local health labs.

\Late Friday, Blank’s group and two other public health organizations recommended that testing be scaled back due to “real, immediate, wide-scale shortages.” The groups said only patients with COVID-19 symptoms who are elderly, have high-risk medical conditions or are medical staff should be tested.

“Testing for individuals who are not in these three groups is not recommended until sufficient testing supplies and capacity become more widely available,” said the joint statement, issued with the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials and the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists.

Testing is a critical part of tracking and containing infectious diseases like COVID-19. But the U.S. effort has been plagued by a series of missteps, including accuracy problems with tests the CDC sent to other labs and bureaucratic hurdles that slowed the entrance of large, private sector labs.

With the virus spreading, officials in the U.S. have shifted focus from tracking the virus to extraordinary measures to blunt its damage. On Thursday California’s governor told its 40 million residents to stay home indefinitely and venture outside only for essential jobs.

But public health experts stress that policymakers are “flying blind” in deciding how to manage the pandemic.

“The only way to get through it without testing is to keep the entire country quarantined for the next 18 months” said Dr. Ashish Jha, a Harvard University global health professor. “That obviously is untenable.”

Jha and his colleagues say the U.S. should be screening 100,000 to 150,000 people per day. The current rate is roughly 20,000 per day, he estimates, though it is accelerating as larger commercial companies ramp up testing.

The director of Missouri’s state lab said Friday that his facility is facing shortages of swabs, liquids to store patient samples and kits to develop the results. Many labs are having similar problems, said Bill Whitmar.

“Quite frankly, 95% to 98% of the talk between lab directors has been about the shortage of supplies,” Whitmar said.

At this point only 500 swabs are available. And the lab only has supplies to last through Tuesday, he reported.

The Jefferson City lab does only a fraction of the coronavirus testing performed in Missouri, with commercial labs now doing the largest share. But Whitmar’s lab is where tests are run on the people most likely to be infected in that state.

The shortages have become a central concern in increasingly urgent communications among governors and federal officials.

“Most of my phone calls today have been about swabs,” Gov. Gina Raimondo of Rhode Island said during a Tuesday news conference. “That’s our big issue at the moment.”

The Trump administration’s top health official suggested Friday that the “anecdotal” reports of shortages are caused by confusion about how to find alternative supplies.

“Usually it’s that the lab people do not understand that there are alternative supplies in the marketplace that they are perfectly free to use,” Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar told reporters in a briefing at the White House. He said the federal government is purchasing and shipping swabs to states.

Whitmar, the Missouri lab director, said many suppliers just don’t have the products in stock.

“An order is not a swab in hand,” he said.

On Friday, New York City health officials directed medical providers to limit COVID-19 testing to people sick enough to require hospitalization, saying wider testing is exhausting supplies of protective equipment. The city’s health department said unnecessary testing was contributing to a shortage of masks, gowns, collection swabs and other supplies.

The coronavirus test uses a chemical chain reaction to detect tiny traces of the virus’ genetic material and reproduce it many times. State and local health labs follow the technique first developed by the CDC, which calls for a specific genetic kit made by German diagnostic firm Qiagen. Labs around the globe are reporting shortage of those kits.

Qiagen said this week it is trying to boost production from normal levels, which are capable of testing 1.5 million patients per month, to amounts that would allow for testing more than 10 million patients by the end of June.

The World Health Organization has instructed countries to “test, test, test” to track and isolate those carrying the virus. But the evolving message from U.S. decision-makers acknowledges that many suspected cases will likely go untested.

The White House has increasingly emphasized that testing should prioritize the elderly and health care workers who have symptoms of the virus. While most cases of COVID-19 are mild and tens of thousands of people have recovered, older people and those with underlying health problems are at higher risk for more serious problems, such as pneumonia.

“We don’t want everyone to go out and get a test because there’s no reason for it,” President Donald Trump told reporters in a briefing Friday. (Two weeks ago, Trump declared “anybody who wants a test can get a test.” But his deputies later walked back that statement.)

The CDC tells people to seek testing if they have certain symptoms of the flu-like illness caused by the coronavirus – fever, cough and trouble breathing – and if they have traveled recently to an outbreak area or have been in close contact with someone who is infected. They should first be tested for the flu and other routine infections.

While doctors are supposed to decide who ultimately gets tested, many state labs have adjusted their guidelines depending on testing availability.

The Trump administration is expected to soon announce the rollout of nearly 50 community-based testing centers around the country, including drive-thru sites.
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Some experts worry the introduction of convenient, mass screening will divert supplies from people with severe symptoms to those who face lower risks.

“It’s taking supplies that are already in very short supply away from the testing laboratories that are doing necessary testing,” said Blank, of the public health labs association.


The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.