FOR PROFIT CARE
Washington nursing home with deadly coronavirus cluster failed to flag illnesses, federal inspectors find
The Life Care Center home in Kirkland is owned by Life Care Centers of America, the country’s biggest privately held nursing home company, which says that it has more than 200 facilities across 28 states. The company has annual revenue of more than $3 billion, according to an estimate by Forbes.

jon.swaine@washpost.com
© Elaine Thompson/AP The Life Care Center in Kirkland, Wash.

A nursing home in Washington state failed to notify regional authorities that it was experiencing a surge in respiratory infections before it became the site of one of the nation’s deadliest coronavirus clusters, federal inspectors reported on Monday.

The Life Care Center home in Kirkland, which has so far been associated with 37 deaths from covid-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus, also failed to “rapidly identify and manage ill residents” and had no backup plan when its primary clinician became ill, according to the inspectors.

The preliminary findings were reported by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), which sent a pair of surveyors to review the facility in light of its extraordinary death toll. They were accompanied by state officials from Washington’s Department of Social and Health Services, the agency said.

Tim Killian, a spokesman for Life Care, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the CMS inspection findings. Killian previously said that managers of the home believed they were facing an increase in cases of influenza, which would have been typical for the season.

An examination by The Washington Post last week found that 17 days elapsed between Life Care beginning to discourage visitors on Feb. 10 because of the increase in respiratory illness and the company filing a report with authorities about it on Feb 27.

Nursing homes in King County, which encompasses Kirkland, are required to report suspected influenza outbreaks — defined as any two residents suffering from acute flu symptoms and fevers — to the county within 24 hours.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention previously said that it had identified 129 cases of covid-19 associated with the Life Care home — 81 residents, 34 members of staff and 14 visitors.

It found that eight other homes in King County had reported cases of covid-19. It attributed the spread to causes including a failure to recognize cases due to a “low index of suspicion,” staff working while symptomatic and staff working shifts in multiple homes.

Cheryl Strange, Washington’s social and health services secretary, said on Monday that state officials were inspecting every nursing home in the state to check their preparedness for covid-19.

“We have learned valuable lessons,” Strange said in a statement released by the CMS.

The CMS said Monday that its inspectors had made three findings at the Kirkland home that met the level of “immediate jeopardy,” meaning that a patient’s safety had been placed in imminent danger.

“Specifically, the facility’s failure to rapidly identify and manage ill residents, notify the Washington Department of Health about the increasing rate of respiratory infection among residents, and failure to possess a sufficient backup plan following the absence of the facility’s primary clinician, who fell ill,” the CMS announcement said in listing the findings.

King County authorities on Monday reported 12 new deaths from covid-19, bringing the county’s total to 87. The county said there were also 130 new covid-19 cases, making the county’s total number of cases 1,170.

The Life Care Center home in Kirkland is owned by Life Care Centers of America, the country’s biggest privately held nursing home company, which says that it has more than 200 facilities across 28 states. The company has annual revenue of more than $3 billion, according to an estimate by Forbes.

In a video message on the company’s website before the CMS findings were published, Life Care Centers of America president Beecher Hunter said covid-19 was frightening and asked viewers to pray for the safety and wisdom of their employees.

“Our staff members at every location are working hard to prevent incursion of the coronavirus, and the team members at Kirkland are heroic in their actions to protect and treat those entrusted to their care,” Hunter said.

The CMS also said Monday that it was launching a new wave of targeted inspections of nursing homes that were at a high risk for coronavirus infections. The agency said it was working with the CDC on the initiative.

“When gaps are identified, facilities will be required to take corrective actions to close the gaps,” the CMS said in a statement.

Trump Considers Reopening Economy, Over Health Experts’ Objections

Jim Tankersley, Maggie Haberman and Roni Caryn Rabin 24/3/2020



a group of people walking down the street in the rain: As large swaths of the economy shut down to contain the coronavirus, President Trump and others are beginning to question how long economic activity should remain frozen.3 SLIDES © Jordan Gale for The New York Times

As large swaths of the economy shut down to contain the coronavirus, President Trump and others are beginning to question how long economic activity should remain frozen.

WASHINGTON — As the United States entered Week 2 of trying to contain the spread of the coronavirus by shuttering large swaths of the economy, President Trump, Wall Street executives and many conservative economists began questioning whether the government had gone too far and should instead lift restrictions that are already inflicting deep pain on workers and businesses.


Consensus continues to grow among government leaders and health officials that the best way to defeat the virus is to order nonessential businesses to close and residents to confine themselves at home. Britain, after initially resisting such measures, essentially locked down its economy on Monday, as did the governors of Virginia, Michigan and Oregon. More than 100 million Americans will soon be subject to stay-at-home orders.

Relaxing those restrictions could significantly increase the death toll from the virus, public health officials warn. Many economists say there is no positive trade-off — resuming normal activity prematurely would only strain hospitals and result in even more deaths, while exacerbating a recession that has most likely already arrived.

The economic shutdown is causing damage that is only beginning to appear in official data. Morgan Stanley researchers said on Monday that they now expected the economy to shrink by an annualized rate of 30 percent in the second quarter of this year, and the unemployment rate to jump to nearly 13 percent. Both would be records, in modern economic statistics.

Officials have said the federal government’s initial 15-day period for social distancing is vital to slowing the spread of the virus, which has already infected more than 40,000 people in the United States. But Mr. Trump and a chorus of conservative voices have begun to suggest that the shock to the economy could hurt the country more than deaths from the virus.

On Monday, Mr. Trump said his administration would reassess whether to keep the economy shuttered after the initial 15-day period ends next Monday, saying it could extend another week and that certain parts of the country could reopen sooner than others, depending on the extent of infections.

“Our country wasn’t built to be shut down,” Mr. Trump said during a briefing at the White House. “America will, again, and soon, be open for business. Very soon. A lot sooner than three or four months that somebody was suggesting. Lot sooner. We cannot let the cure be worse than the problem itself.”

Similar views are emanating from parts of corporate America, where companies are struggling with a shutdown that has emptied hotels, airplanes, malls and restaurants and sent the stock market tumbling so fast that automatic circuit breakers to halt trading have been tripped repeatedly. Stocks have collapsed about 34 percent since the coronavirus spread globally — the steepest plunge in decades — erasing three years of gains under Mr. Trump.



Lloyd Blankfein, the former chief executive of Goldman Sachs, wrote on Twitter that “crushing the economy” had downsides and suggested that “within a very few weeks let those with a lower risk to the disease return to work.”

Even Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York, whose state has emerged as the epicenter of the outbreak in the United States, has begun publicly floating the notion that, at some point, states will need to restart economic activity and debating how that should unfold.

“You can’t stop the economy forever,” Mr. Cuomo said in a news conference on Monday. “So we have to start to think about does everyone stay out of work? Should young people go back to work sooner? Can we test for those who had the virus, resolved, and are now immune and can they start to go back to work?”

Any push to loosen the new limits on commerce and movement would contradict the consensus advice of public health officials, risking a surge in infections and deaths from the virus. Many economists warn that abruptly reopening the economy could backfire, overwhelming an already stressed health care system, sowing uncertainty among consumers, and ultimately dealing deeper, longer-lasting damage to growth.

The recent rise of cases in Hong Kong, after there had been an easing of the spread of the virus, is something of an object lesson about how ending strict measures too soon can have dangerous consequences. Yet places like China, which took the idea of lockdown to the extreme, have managed to flatten the curve.

“You can’t call off the best weapon we have, which is social isolation, even out of economic desperation, unless you’re willing to be responsible for a mountain of deaths,” said Arthur Caplan, a professor of bioethics at NYU Langone Medical Center. “Thirty days makes more sense than 15 days. Can’t we try to put people’s lives first for at least a month?”

For the last four days, some White House officials, including those working for Vice President Mike Pence, who leads the coronavirus task force, have been raising questions about when the government should start easing restrictions.

Among the options being discussed are narrowing restrictions on economic activity to target specific age groups or locations, as well as increasing the numbers of people who can be together in groups, said one official, who cautioned that the discussions were preliminary.

Health officials inside the administration have mostly opposed that idea, including Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, an infectious diseases expert and a member of the White House coronavirus task force, who has said in interviews that he believes it will be “at least” several more weeks until people can start going about their lives in a more normal fashion.

Dr. Deborah L. Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, said the United States had learned from other countries like China and South Korea, which were able to control the spread of the virus through strict measures and widespread testing.

“Those were eight- to 10-week curves,” she said on Monday, adding that “each state and each hot spot in the United States is going to be its own curve because the seeds came in at different times.”

Dr. Birx added that the response “has to be very tailored geographically and it may have to be tailored by age group, really understanding who’s at the greatest risk and understanding how to protect them.”

Other advisers, including members of Mr. Trump’s economic team, have said repeatedly in recent months that the virus does not itself pose an extraordinary threat to Americans’ lives or the economy, likening it to a common flu season. Some advisers believe the White House overreacted to criticism of Mr. Trump’s muted actions to deal with the emerging pandemic and gave health experts too large a sway in policymaking.

On Monday, Mr. Trump echoed those concerns, saying that things like the flu or car accidents posed as much of a threat to Americans as the coronavirus and that the response to those was far less draconian.

“We have a very active flu season, more active than most. It’s looking like it’s heading to 50,000 or more deaths,” he said, adding: “That’s a lot. And you look at automobile accidents, which are far greater than any numbers we’re talking about. That doesn’t mean we’re going to tell everybody no more driving of cars. So we have to do things to get our country open.”



Slide 1 of 51: A woman walks her dog under a "don't panic" sign hanging at the entrance of a food market that was shut down in order to reduce the spread of the coronavirus, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Monday, March 23, 2020. In Israel daily life has largely shut down with COVID-19 cases multiplying greatly over the past week.
1/51 SLIDES © Oded Balilty/AP Photo


Mr. Trump has watched as a record economic expansion and booming stock market that served as the basis of his re-election campaign evaporated in a matter of weeks. The president became engaged with the discussion on Sunday evening, after watching television reports and hearing from various business officials and outside advisers who were agitating for an end to the shutdown.

Casey Mulligan, a University of Chicago professor who served as chief economist for Mr. Trump’s Council of Economic Advisers, said on Monday that efforts to shut down economic activity to slow the virus would be more damaging than doing nothing at all. He suggested a middle ground, one that weighs the costs and benefits of saving additional lives.

“It’s a little bit like, when you discover sex can be dangerous, you don’t come out and say, there should be no more sex,” Mr. Mulligan said. “You should give people guidance on how to have sex less dangerously.”

Many other economists say the restrictions in activity now are helping the economy in the long run, by beginning to suppress the infection rate.

“The idea that there’s a trade-off between health and economics right now is likely badly mistaken,” said Jason Furman of Harvard University, a former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Barack Obama. “The thing damaging our economy is a virus. Everyone who is trying to stop that virus is working to limit the damage it does to our economy and help our eventual rebound. The choice may well be taking pretty extreme steps now or taking very extreme steps later.”

Mr. Furman and other economists have pushed Mr. Trump and Congress to ease the economic pain by offering trillions of dollars in government assistance to affected workers and businesses. As lawmakers tried to negotiate an agreement on such a bill Monday, an influential business lobbying group, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said it supported restrictions on the economy to slow the virus.

“Our view is, when it comes to how you contain the virus, you do everything the public health professionals say to contain the virus,” said Neil Bradley, the chamber’s executive vice president and chief policy officer.

The president’s suggestion that the response may be an overreaction plays into doubts already held by some Americans suffering the economic consequences. Among the self-quarantined, some have questioned the purpose of isolating themselves if the virus is already circulating widely. Students sent home from college have wondered whether they are more likely to infect higher-risk older adults at home.

Dan Patrick, Texas’ lieutenant governor, said Monday on Fox News that he was in the “high-risk pool” but would be willing to risk his life to preserve the country for his children and grandchildren.

“We are going to be in a total collapse, recession, depression, collapse in our society,” said Mr. Patrick, who turns 70 next week. “If this goes on another several months, there won’t be any jobs to come back to for many people.”

But public health officials stress that there would be consequences to ending the measures too quickly. In a tweet on Monday morning, Thomas P. Bossert, the former homeland security adviser who for weeks has been vocal about the need for the U.S. government to take stricter measures, said: “Sadly, the numbers now suggest the U.S. is poised to take the lead in #coronavirus cases. It’s reasonable to plan for the US to top the list of countries with the most cases in approximately 1 week. This does NOT make social intervention futile. It makes it imperative!”

Mr. Trump’s interest in potentially easing some of the restrictions met with pushback from one of his close allies, Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, who himself self-quarantined after a potential exposure. “President Trump’s best decision was stopping travel from China early on,” Mr. Graham tweeted on Monday. “I hope we will not undercut that decision by suggesting we back off aggressive containment policies within the United States.”

Health officials remain largely united in defense of sustaining the restrictions.

“There is a way to think through how and when to start reopening our economy and society, and it’s important to get this right,” said Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, a former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Dr. Tom Inglesby, the director of the Center for Health Security at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, pointed to the experience of countries like Italy, which did not institute aggressive measures to stop the spread of the virus and saw infection rates and deaths soar as a result.

The United States will need “a couple weeks” to see positive effects from its measures, Dr. Inglesby said, and abandoning them would mean “patients will get sick in extraordinary numbers all over the country, far beyond what the U.S. health care system will bear.”

Reporting was contributed by Carl Hulse, David E. Sanger, Amy Harmon and Eduardo Porter.

Carl Hulse, David E. Sanger, Amy Harmon and Eduardo Porter contributed reporting.

Pompeo Cuts $1 Billion in Afghan Aid as 2 Leaders Reject Push for Unity


Mujib Mashal and Lara Jakes
2 hrs ago














Eric Weissberg, ‘Dueling Banjos’ musician, dies at 80

New storm to bring severe weather to the Heartland






Ashraf Ghani standing in front of a laptop: President Ashraf Ghani of Afghanistan during his March 9 swearing-in ceremony at the presidential palace in Kabul.

3 SLIDES © Jawad Jalali/EPA, via Shutterstock

President Ashraf Ghani of Afghanistan during his March 9 swearing-in ceremony at the presidential palace in Kabul.

KABUL, Afghanistan — The State Department said it was cutting $1 billion in aid to Afghanistan this year, and potentially another $1 billion in 2021, after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo failed to persuade rival Afghan leaders in a meeting on Monday in Kabul to support a unified government, which American diplomats consider crucial to preventing peace negotiations from falling apart.

Mr. Pompeo’s announcement came as he was flying back to the United States after meeting with President Ashraf Ghani and the Afghan former chief executive, Abdullah Abdullah, in an attempt to mediate between the two rivals who both claim to be the legitimate president — a crisis that threatens to split the government apart and sink hopes of ending the war.

For the top American diplomat to travel halfway around the world in the middle of the global coronavirus epidemic signaled how seriously the United States was taking the internal Afghan bickering and the risks posed for both countries. And the cutoff in aid, a major blow to the Afghan government, revealed just how frustrated the United States was with the impasse, which further imperils an already precarious peace deal.

“The United States is disappointed in them and what their conduct means for Afghanistan and our shared interests,” Mr. Pompeo said in a statement. “Their failure has harmed U.S.-Afghan relations and, sadly, dishonors those Afghan, Americans and coalition partners who have sacrificed their lives and treasure in the struggle to build a new future for this country.”

“This leadership failure poses a direct threat to U.S. national interests,” Mr. Pompeo said.

Speaking to reporters aboard his plane, Mr. Pompeo would not say from where the $1 billion would be cut but made clear that American support for Afghan security forces would continue. “We are going to continue to do everything we need to do to support those Afghan security forces,” he said. “It is central.”

The money could be restored, Mr. Pompeo said, if “Afghan leaders choose to form an inclusive government that can provide security and participate in the peace process.”

He also said the United States will send $15 million to the country to help stop the spread of the coronavirus

Mr. Ghani was declared the winner of a bitterly disputed election last month and was inaugurated on March 9. His opponent, Mr. Abdullah, also declared himself winner and held his own inauguration next door, on the same day.

Days of American efforts, into the early hours of inauguration day, failed to prevent the announcement of two presidents and keep the country’s elite united around the peace process.

During his eight hours in Kabul, Mr. Pompeo met with both Afghan leaders, separately and then together, in an attempt to find a way to get them to work together.

But Mr. Pompeo was unable to persuade them, and left the capital with the political crisis unresolved.

On his way back to Washington on Monday night, Mr. Pompeo stopped in Doha, Qatar, to meet with Taliban officials who have been negotiating with American envoys on a peace process.

Mr. Pompeo seemed to indicate that the Taliban had been a better partner in the peace process than the government in Kabul.

“They committed to reducing violence and they’ve largely done that,” Mr. Pompeo said when asked if the Taliban had lived up to its pledges in the peace agreements. “And they are working towards delivering their team to the ultimate negotiations.”

The secretary of state’s visit came a day after Afghan government officials met with Taliban delegates to discuss details of a prisoner release that is a part of the deal. Balancing coronavirus concerns with fears that a painstakingly negotiated peace deal could fall apart, the two sides met by videoconference on Sunday — a notable approach, given the Taliban’s origins as a national government that largely banned television and music.

Though the meeting between the Taliban and government officials was not the formal start of direct talks between the two sides — that step is predicated on reaching agreement on the prisoner exchange — the technical discussion was the first negotiating meeting between them since the United States and the insurgents signed a deal last month.

The prisoner exchange, involving up to 5,000 Taliban prisoners and 1,000 Afghan government prisoners, as called for in the deal the Americans signed, has been an extreme point of contention. The prisoners were supposed to have been released before the beginning of Afghan negotiations on March 10.

Mr. Ghani’s government has vehemently disagreed with the terms the United States agreed to with the Taliban, delaying the future steps of the peace deal. The United States’ special envoy, Zalmay Khalilzad, has been in Kabul for several weeks trying to find a solution to the prisoner release and calm the political crisis

After much shuttle diplomacy, Mr. Ghani agreed only to a phased release of the prisoners in small batches and conditioned it on the Taliban halting their attacks — something the insurgents have said goes against what they have signed with the United States.

In his statement Monday, Mr. Pompeo criticized the Afghan government for refusing to “take practical steps” to release prisoners as a confidence-building step for peace negotiations. But most of his criticism was leveled at Mr. Ghani and Mr. Abdullah for failing to unite and appoint a team of negotiators that would represent all sides of the Afghan government.




Slide 3 of 35: Photo by WATAN YAR/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock (10573985c) Afghan security officials patrol in Helmand, Afghanistan, 04 March 2020.Violence surged in Afghanistan just days after the agreement was signed, with the Taliban ending a partial truce and resuming fighting with Afghan government troops. A US forces spokesman said they launched an air strike on 04 March 2020 in response to Taliban fighters attacking Afghan forces in Helmand province. On 03 March 2020 alone, he said, the Taliban had launched 43 attacks on checkpoints belonging to Afghan forces in Helmand. Afghan security officials patrol in Helmand, Afghanistan - 04 Mar 202 1/35 SLIDES © Watan Yar/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

The United States signed a peace agreement with Taliban militants on Feb. 29, aimed at bringing an end to 18 years of bloodshed in Afghanistan and allowing U.S. troops to return home from America's longest war.

(Pictured) Afghan security officials patrol in Helmand, Afghanistan, on March 4. Violence surged in Afghanistan just days after the agreement was signed, with the Taliban ending a partial truce and resuming fighting with Afghan government troops. A US forces spokesman said they launched an air strike on March 4 in response to Taliban fighters attacking Afghan forces in Helmand province. On March 3 alone, he said, the Taliban had launched 43 attacks on checkpoints belonging to Afghan forces in Helmand.Slideshow by photo services

In the Sunday videoconference between the Taliban and the government, an American team led by Mr. Khalilzad and a team of Qatari diplomats facilitated the discussions.

“Today, the US and Qatar facilitated the first Afghan government to Taliban technical talks on prisoner releases, via Skype video conferencing,” Mr. Khalilzad wrote in a series of Twitter posts late on Sunday. “Everyone clearly understands the coronavirus threat makes prisoner releases that much more urgent.”

Suhail Shaheen, a spokesman for the Taliban’s negotiating team, said the talks had “solely focused on prisoner release, and there were initial agreements on some issues regarding the release of prisoners.”

Mr. Shaheen said the sides would hold another videoconference on Tuesday.

Hamdullah Mohib, Afghanistan’s national security adviser, suggested that the call had covered other issues to make the prisoner release possible.

“All sides emphasized the importance of a reduction in violence, direct negotiations, and a permanent and comprehensive cease-fire,” Mr. Mohib said in a statement on Twitter.

In the days before signing the deal with the United States, the Taliban observed a partial cease-fire with the Afghan government. But that deal included no agreement on a lasting violence reduction that was envisioned as part of the ensuing talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban.

In recent weeks, the Taliban have made clear that they see violence as a major part of their leverage in talks, and have intensified their operations across Afghanistan. The Afghan government forces have largely remained in a defensive mode and are beginning to suffer heavy casualties.

In one of the most brutal Taliban attacks since the group signed the deal with the United States, insurgents stormed an outpost in southern Zabul Province and killed at least 24 members of the Afghan security forces on Thursday, torching their outposts and burning the bodies to a point that many were unrecognizable.

The Taliban have also ramped up attacks in the north. In response to an overnight Taliban attack in Kunduz Province that had begun late on Saturday in Imam Saheb district, Afghan forces called for an airstrike on Sunday that resulted in the deaths of at least nine civilians — including four women and two children — according to Gul Bai, a local police commander.

Mujib Mashal reported from Kabul, Afghanistan, and Lara Jakes from Washington. Najim Rahim contributed reporting from Kunduz, Afghanistan.

DIDN'T GET THE MEMO
Target is apologizing after selling coveted N95 masks to the public while health care workers across the country run out

Michelle Mark 22/3/2020

© Reuters/Nicholas Pfosi

Target apologized on Saturday for selling N95 masks in Seattle stores while health care workers around the country have been running out amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The company said the masks were put on shelves "in error," and said they have since been donated to Washington state health officials.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee also tweeted about the incident, saying his staff "stepped in" once they learned the Target stores were selling the masks.

"Those masks are now on their way to the health care workers who desperately need them," Inslee said.

Washington state officials intervened on Saturday to stop Target stores in Seattle from selling N95 face masks to the public, while doctors and other health care workers suffered from a nationwide shortage.

"We heard reports that a @target in Seattle was selling n95 masks. My staff and others stepped in," Washington Gov. Jay Inslee tweeted Saturday. "Those masks are now on their way to the health care workers who desperately need them."

Target issued multiple apologies via Twitter on Saturday, saying it was a mistake to put the masks on shelves.

Photos posted on social media showed Target shelves stacked with what appeared to be dozens of N95 masks made by the company 3M.


Tall stacks of N95 masks @Target in Seattle, despite a shortage at hospitals. #CoronavirusPandemic pic.twitter.com/YJy0wsJjjy— Ann Dornfeld (@anndornfeld) March 21, 2020

"Today in select Seattle stores, N95 masks were available for purchase in error," the company tweeted in response to irate Twitter users. "We're removing & donating them to the WA State Dept. of Health. We're also reviewing inventory for additional masks to be donated. Target's commitment to communities is unwavering & we apologize."

N95 masks are highly valuable personal protective equipment in the global fight against the novel coronavirus.

Unlike other types of masks, N95 masks are designed to form a tight seal around the wearer's mouth and nose, filtering out smaller particles.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention currently only recommends N95 masks for health care workers, not the general public.

Hospitals have been running out of the coveted masks, and health care workers have resorted to begging on social media for mask donations.

President Donald Trump has invoked the Defense Production Act to push private companies to pivot to producing critical items, including masks, but it's unclear how long it could take for those masks to be available to frontline health care workers.

Emboldened wild animals venture into locked-down cities worldwide

Maanvi Singh in San Francisco,The Guardian•March 22, 2020

Photograph: Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images

As cities around the world mandate lockdowns, quarantines and social distancing, social media posts about animals frolicking through deserted cities have enchanted people anxiously seeking silver linings.

We must sadly report that many of these optimistic posts have turned out to be fake – there were no dolphins in Venice’s celebrated canals, or drunken elephants ambling through China’s Yunnan province.

But as the coronavirus crisis changes the rhythms of urban life, there are some early signs that animals – especially the creatures that lurk in the periphery of big cities and suburbs – are feeling emboldened to explore.

In Nara, Japan, sika deer wandered through city streets and subway stations. Raccoons were spotted on the beach in an emptied San Felipe, Panama. And turkeys have made a strong showing in Oakland, California, home of one Guardian editor.

Spotted on the playground at the elementary school next door, which has been closed for several days ... wild turkeys! That’s a first. #coronavirus #westoakland pic.twitter.com/tGA4y1l09c
— Charlotte Simmonds (@CharSimmonds) March 20, 2020

“Normally, animals live in the parts of our cities that we don’t use,” said Seth Magle, who directs the Urban Wildlife Institute at the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago. “It makes them an unseen presence, kind of like ghosts.”

Gangs of wild turkeys aren’t an uncommon sight in parts of the Bay Area but it seems they’ve got a bit more room to wander through neighborhoods they might not normally visit. Boars have been known to descend upon European cities – but Barcelonans on lockdown have marveled at how the wild animals romp through quiet, deserted streets.

In American cities under shelter in place orders, walks and jogs are one of the few excuses for people to go outside. “It’s going to be a really cool time to spot wildlife,” Magle said.

In San Felipe, where restaurants and bars have closed and tourist traffic is almost nonexistent, Matt Larsen has noticed some new visitors on the beach near his home. “There were three raccoons, just frolicking along right at the edge of the surf,” said Larsen, the director of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama. “I’ve lived here six years, and it was something I had never seen before.”

Related: 'Nature is taking back Venice': wildlife returns to tourist-free city

The beach, which is right by the presidential palace, is usually kept clear by security guards, said Larsen, who directs the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama. “But normally there are people all around; the streets are almost always crowded with foreign visitors and Panamanian tourists,” he said.

Larsen, who has been teleworking from home with his wife, was happy to see “nature maintaining itself”, he said. “It was nice to see something a little out of the ordinary.”

Quarantines could continue to affect wildlife in unexpected ways, said Paige Warren, an ecologist at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. “I’ll be interested in whether creatures like coyotes and foxes start acting more bold in American cities,” she said. At the same time, fewer people in the streets could drive some species away, she said, especially those who subsist on whatever humans feed them – or leave behind in the trash.

That is the case in Nara Park, where the sika deer – which look like Bambi – have grown accustomed to tourists lining up year-round to feed them rice crackers. Now that the park is devoid of human visitors, the deer have begun wandering into the city looking for food. They’ve been spotted crossing city streets and walking through subway stations, snacking on potted plants.

Less tourists in Nara = less people feeding the deer in the parks 🌷🌱 Now they're venturing out into the city eating flowers and plants, per Fuji TV #coronavirus#新型コロナウイルス の影響で海外観光客の減少が続く奈良公園で、鹿せんべいをもらえなくなってしまったシカちゃん達 😢 pic.twitter.com/yUFWJ4S9sj
— Kurumi Mori (@rumireports) March 6, 2020

In Lopburi, Thailand, the absence of tourists and their tasty snacks left local monkeys brawling over what appeared to be a cup of yogurt.

But just as many urban animals have adapted to humans, they’ll find ways to adjust during the quarantine, said Warren.

Monkeys hang from cables on a street in front of Prang 

Sam Yod temple amid declining tourism in Lopburi, Thailand. 

Photograph: Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters

Magle concurred: “As they said in Jurassic Park, life tends to find a way.” Though his team in Chicago has been working from home and practicing social distancing, Magle said they were trying to find a way to set up equipment around Chicago for their annual study of urban wildlife and track how the coronavirus crisis may shift animal behavior.

The changes will probably be subtle, the researchers said. Urban foxes and coyotes might venture out of their hiding spots a bit more. Birds might roam, graze and hunt new pastures.

The narrative that wildlife populations will dramatically rebound and retake cities is fantasy – albeit one that might comfort those looking for meaning amidst the crisis. “If anything, these times may serve as a reminder that animals have always lived in our area,” Magle said. “We may not think of our cities as a part of nature, but they are.”

Penguins roam free in closed Chicago aquarium
A pair of rockhopper penguins were allowed to waddle around the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago together. The facility is closed amid the coronavirus pandemic.

ANIMALKIND, USA TODAY Mar. 17, 2020

Bank of Canada Expands Authority to Buy and Sell Securities

Erik Hertzberg

 BloombergMarch 23, 2020

(Bloomberg) -- The Bank of Canada has expanded its authority to buy and sell securities outright, according to a public notice by the central bank.

The central bank added the right to buy and sell the debt of companies and municipalities, along with other instruments when it is “addressing a situation of financial system stress that could have material macroeconomic consequences,” according to the March 13 notice in the Canada Gazette issued by Governor Stephen Poloz. Those amendments add to the central bank’s power to conduct buybacks on various products, including corporate debt.

“The ability to purchase securities outright is a crucial step in arresting the impairment in system-wide liquidity in Canada” Ian Pollick, Global Head of FICC Strategy at the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, said by email. “Price-discovery has collapsed on the back of these stresses, so it is crucial for the Bank to respond in-kind with a program that targets both public and private sector assets.”

Spokeswoman Louise Egan confirmed the amendments were made primarily to enable the central bank to conduct operations under its new Bankers’ Acceptance Purchasing Facility. The changes are significant because the central bank can now make outright purchases of securities that were previously only allowed to be acquired via term repo buybacks.

The central bank has taken a series of measures to inject liquidity into the country’s financial system, to prevent funding markets from seizing up. Analysts say it may be forced to introduce a more formal quantitative easing program as the country contends with a dramatic rise in unemployment.

Bank economists now expect the Canadian economy to shrink between 10% and 24% on an annualized basis, a recession deeper than the worst of the 2008-09 financial crisis. Many see it as inevitable that Poloz and his governing council will cut the overnight rate to near zero, then start rummaging deeper into their toolbox.

“We think the bank will be forced to adopt QE and that they’ll look to ultimately buy up to C$150 billion in securities,” said TD Securities macro strategist Robert Both in an email. “We think it is a question of when and not if.”

Sharp Economic Slide

Quantitative easing, which sees central banks buy government bonds as part of an effort to keep borrowing costs low for a prolonged period of time, would be a first for the Bank of Canada, which didn’t follow its peers to such lengths during the 2008 crisis.

The global outlook is deteriorating rapidly, forcing central banks into new territory. The Federal Reserve said Monday it will buy unlimited amounts of Treasury bonds and mortgage-backed securities to suppress borrowing costs and ease the flow of credit amid a historic economic shock.

The Bank of Canada’s governing council often distances itself from monetary policy decisions south of the border. But the Fed’s move opens the door to a more robust response from Canadian policy makers.

“The Bank of Canada doesn’t like being pushed by the Fed, but now it’s global,” said Benjamin Reitzes, an economist at Bank of Montreal, which sees an 80% chance the central bank will need to start quantitative easing.

“The question is why they’d wait until April -- given the broad shutdowns it’s already clear that conditions have deteriorated sharply,” he said.

While Poloz said last week that other options are on the table, he made it clear the measures the bank has taken so far -- including upping the purchases of mortgage-backed securities -- don’t constitute quantitative easing.

“The programs the bank has introduced are very important in unlocking funding markets,” Pollick said. “The problem is, liquidity is so distressed that they are not working as planned. They need to bring out the Canadian bazooka,” adding that he’s certain the central bank will “imminently” launch QE.

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

USA
The coronavirus crisis could see 37 million jobs lost, and these workers will be the hardest hit, chart shows

U.S. Private Sector Job Quality Index estimates that some 37 million domestic jobs are vulnerable to layoffs


Which jobs will be at risk? AP
The scale of job losses is likely to hit unprecedented levels in the coming weeks and months as business activity in cities, municipalities and states is brought to a sudden halt in an attempt to lessen the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Industries from energy and airlines to cruise operators are being hammered and a recent research piece by the developers of the U.S. Private Sector Job Quality Index estimates that some 37 million domestic jobs are vulnerable to layoffs due the temporary shutdowns created by the viral outbreak. COVID-19 was first identified in Wuhan, China, in December and has infected more than 318,000 people worldwide and claimed nearly 14,000 lives, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University as of Sunday afternoon.


“There is a subset of these workers, in jobs often offering substantially less income than the above average, who are particularly vulnerable to cessation of economic activity due to the spreading pandemic,” wrote officials at the private-sector job quality index created by researchers at Cornell Law School, including Daniel Alpert, Jeffrey Ferry, Robert Hockett and Amir Khaleghi.

Hardest hit would be limited- and full-service restaurants, with some 9 million jobs at risk of layoffs in the near term. Fields such as education have some 3.2 million jobs at risk, while general stores have 2.8 million, according to the report.


Check out the complete list attached:



The report comes as economists are bracing for a wave of job losses that could drive claims for jobless benefits to the highest level in recent memory.


David Choi, an economist from Goldman Sachs, says initial claims for the week ending March 21 may jump to a seasonally adjusted 2.25 million, basing his analysis on recent anecdotes and news reports.

States around the country are already reporting a massive surge in the number of people applying for jobless benefits. MarketWatch’s Jeff Bartash writes that claims for people receiving unemployment benefits could blow past a record peak of 6.6 million in 2009, if early figures hold.

The about-face for the jobs market, which had been a pillar of strength in an 11-year economic expansion , comes amid growing concerns about the domestic and global impact of COVID-19 on global supply chains and economies.

Those worries helped the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -3.03%, the S&P 500 index SPX, -2.92% and the Nasdaq Composite Index COMP, -0.27% put in their worst weekly drops since the 2008 financial crisis.

Some market participants and economists say that this crisis is so significant because it combines the financial and economic pain endured during the 2007-09 recession with the temporary restrictions on travel and movement that were present during the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Outside the Box
Opinion: Don’t use coronavirus to bail out oil and gas companies

The fossil-fuel industry’s problems were self-inflicted, and it’s barreling us toward the next crisis

March 23, 2020 By Basav Sen

In 2008, the U.S. economy went into its deepest recession since the Great Depression, brought low by reckless financial institutions, deregulation, and lax regulatory enforcement. The recession led to millions losing their homes to foreclosure.

The federal government could have stepped in and rescued struggling homeowners. That would have kept families in their homes, and preserved the tax base and social fabric of communities.

Instead, they handed out $700 billion in public money to the very banks responsible for the crisis (not counting more than $3 trillion in zero or very low interest rate loans), allegedly because that was the only way to avert a deeper recession. But the recession worsened, and the “too big to fail” banks became even bigger.

This scenario is replaying itself today, with even higher stakes. We’re facing down not just a pandemic and a global economic meltdown, but an unraveling of our planet’s entire life support systems.

Those are the stakes of a proposed bailout of the oil and gas industry by the Trump administration, using as its excuse the double whammy of the coronavirus-induced recession and the recent decision of key oil-producing countries to ramp up production, depressing already low oil prices CL00, 4.452% .

The rapid spread of the coronavirus is, for good reason, causing a global panic. Infection and death rates are climbing at alarming levels, with the disease rapidly spreading to new areas. Already, it has caused a serious economic downturn in many countries, including the United States, with the weekly unemployment claims data released on March 14 showing a 33% increase over the prior week.

Stories of businesses closing or running on skeleton crews abound. Businesses where office goers would typically purchase lunch or coffee are facing financial challenges and laying off workers. With conferences and vacations cancelled, hotels are laying off staff. Public transit systems have plummeting ridership, transit systems are cutting service, and mass transit layoffs could be just around the corner.

The pain, in other words, is being felt first and worst by low-wage service workers, who are economically insecure to begin with. When they lose their jobs, they face the prospect of eviction or foreclosure, losing health coverage, energy and water utility shutoffs, and other dire consequences.

But Trump administration and Republican Senate, which have taken huge sums from the fossil fuel industry, are using the possibility of a recession to bail it out. The proposals include a purchase of 30 million barrels of oil (an amount that could go up to 77 million barrels) for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, an emergency stockpile of oil held by the U.S. Department of Energy.

Other proposals reportedly being considered include low-interest loans and trade barriers.

This is an outrage.

For starters, the problems of the U.S. oil and gas industry are largely self-inflicted.

The current oil price slump is occurring at a time of already low prices, for which U.S. overproduction is largely to blame. The U.S. is now the world’s largest producer of both oil and gas, and is expected to account for 70% of the increase in global oil production and 75% of the growth of liquefied natural gas trade over the next 5 years.

And much of this oil and gas production binge has been fueled by debt, based on promises of future profit that haven’t materialized.

So let’s not blame a virus, or Russia, or Saudi Arabia. If U.S. oil and gas producers are in trouble, they are the ones at fault, and it takes nerve on their part to ask the government for a handout. While oil and gas workers facing layoffs deserve assistance, their undeserving bosses do not.

Then, consider what science tells us about this industry. A healthy future for oil and gas inevitably means a bleak future for most humans and for ecosystems. At precisely the time that scientists say we should be phasing out oil and gas production, a bailout to this destructive industry is a giant step backwards.

A much smarter use for stimulus funds would be major investments in renewables and energy efficiency, industries that employ far more Americans than fossil fuels without harming the planet. If fossil-fuel workers are being displaced, they can be fast tracked into jobs growing these industries that are vital for our future.

Let’s not repeat the mistakes of 2008. Emergency funds should be freed up for direct assistance to those workers and communities who need it most. In the longer term, stimulus funds should be used to build just and effective solutions for the other looming crisis humanity faces: the climate crisis.

Basav Sen directs the Climate Policy Project at the Institute for Policy Studies.

Dispatches from a Pandemic
‘The CDC actually said to use scarves and bandanas if we are out of masks,’ says emergency room doctor on the front lines of coronavirus fight‘I come in to work, do my job and don’t complain’: a MarketWatch question-and-answer session with an emergency-room doctor

Hospital workers exit a tent set up in front of the emergency 

room at EvergreenHealth Medical Center in Kirkland, Wash.,

 near Seattle. Associated Press

My brother-in-law, John Velasquez, is an ER doctor on the front lines of the response to COVID-19. He just finished a series of night shifts at Lawnwood Regional Medical Center in Florida and is heading north for a week working at St. Luke’s University Health Network in New Jersey. I checked in with him at the end of one of his shifts.

MarketWatch: How busy was it today?


John Velasquez: Initially, volume was up, and everyone was coming to check if they had COVID, even without symptoms. When more and more people realized we had limited tests and could only test high-risk patients, less people started coming. In the past few days, volume in general has been less busy, especially at night due to the statewide curfews, which has helped tremendously, in my opinion.

MarketWatch: How was the health of the patients?


Velasquez: For the most part, patients that need to be in the emergency department are being seen (like heart attacks, strokes, trauma, etc.), and the nonemergent [patients] are staying away. People are starting to realize that if they come they might actually contract COVID, and they may not get the test unless they meet strict criteria, like fever or respiratory distress. The COVID testing has been an issue in itself. After WHO declared a COVID pandemic, most hospitals were undertesting, and, when testing became more widespread, results have been backlogged for over a week.


‘Intubation is the highest-risk procedure in terms of catching this disease as patients can cough directly into your face while you are trying to insert a tube down their trachea.’

MW: How are you and your colleagues holding up?


Velasquez: PPE [or personal protection equipment] has been the biggest issue. I don’t know if you have heard about the hoarding going on here with everything from toilet paper [to] guns [and] ammo, but it seems that even masks for PPE have been hoarded and stolen from the hospitals. I have spoken to friends in different states who work in numerous other hospitals, and they are all going through the same issues.

There are many reports that people with COVID can be asymptomatic, and the most frustrating part is that lack of PPE.

In the ER, we often intubate patients in respiratory distress and place them on ventilators. Intubation is the highest-risk procedure in terms of catching this disease as patients can cough directly into your face while you are trying to insert a tube down their trachea.

MW: What is the mental state of staff and patients?

Velasquez: For the most part, I come in to work, do my job and don’t complain. The staff goes on like business as usual. That’s how the culture is in the ER, though. One minute, we are coding someone with a GSW [gunshot wound], and the next minute I can be sedating a kid to reduce a dislocated joint, or something as minor as informing a patient that they have a sprained ankle.


‘I come in to work, do my job and don’t complain. The staff goes on like business as usual. That’s how the culture is in the ER.’

There’s a growing concern about the lack of PPE from everyone in the department, especially as people are becoming critically ill. Two ER docs are in critical condition (one in his 40s).

MW: Are you guys worried?

Velasquez: I think I speak for my colleagues as well when I say that, in general, we aren’t too worried — even though we should be — about working on the front lines. We all took the Hippocratic oath, and we try to be ready for whatever comes through those doors. The only thing we ask for is to have some form of protection. In regards to the PPE shortage, the CDC actually said to use scarves and bandanas if we are out of masks. This is truly absurd, if you ask me.

Not only are we risking our lives, but we are endangering our loved ones. I fly up to see my daughters in [New Jersey] every month and visit my mother, who just turned 83. Because I don’t know if I am an asymptomatic carrier, I will only plan to see them at a distance.


A vehicle from the hard-hit Life Care Center at Kirkland, Wash., outside the EvergreenHealth Medical Center last week. Associated Press

My wife, as you know, is an ER doc as well, so if one of us gets it, we’re pretty much screwed. At least we won’t have to practice social distancing with each other.

MW: Are there any other shortages?

Velasquez: There are staffing shortages throughout the country especially in the New York metro area. This is mainly due to the volume of patients and health-care workers being quarantined for 14 days if they treated a patient that tested positive for COVID. I’ve heard that they have granted docs in with licenses from other states, and they’re also asking retired doctors to help out.


‘The CDC actually said to use scarves and bandanas if we are out of masks. This is truly absurd, if you ask me.’

MW: Are there any signs of things getting better?

Velasquez: I feel like, as a country, we are a few weeks, maybe months, out from things going back to normal, if we are taking what happened in China and Europe as an example. I know, from speaking with ER docs in N.Y., that they seem to be getting hit pretty hard compared to [Florida]. They are running low on ventilators and have a lot of critical patients. This might be true with many metropolitan areas.

MW: What else stood out today?

Velasquez: My last set of shifts, I can’t recall. ... I try to have short-term memory, and it helps me keep my sanity after a busy day in the ER.

MW: Thanks, John.

Duncan Mavin is a London-based editor for MarketWatch and the Barron’s Group.

'Our number is bad': Over a million small business workers could lose jobs amid coronavirus

Alexis Keenan Reporter Yahoo Finance March 20, 20

Outlook on small businesses as weekly jobless claims jump amid COVID-19

A majority of U.S. unemployment benefit claims filed in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak could come from employees of small businesses, according to one estimate — further hurting a sector that has been losing ground to major corporations over the past several decades.

“Our number is bad. It’s in the millions,” Steve King, Director for Emergent Research, told Yahoo Finance about his firm’s projections for unemployment insurance claims expected over the coming weeks and months.

In past recessions, small firms have laid off people faster than bigger firms, resulting in a relatively high share of early applicants for unemployment benefits, according to King, whose firm focuses on the small business economy.

NEW York, NY - MARCH 18: A general view of a sign inside the window of Juniors Cheesecake that because of COVID-19 they are closed until further notice on March 18, 2020 in New York, NY. (Photo by Rich Graessle/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

“Based on what we are seeing and hearing, this is happening again,” King said, cautioning that until the data starts coming out over the next couple of weeks the projection is uncertain. “Our guess would be somewhere around 60%-70% of the unemployment insurance claims over the next few weeks will come from employees of small businesses.”

Bank of American on Friday said it estimates 3 million total jobless claims to be filed for the week ending March 21. Over the next two to three weeks, Emergent estimates 2 to 3 million claims for unemployment insurance.

And over the next two to three months, if the shutdown of many businesses persists, Emergent estimates 24 million workers will file, representing nearly half of the 58 million Americans who work for private companies with fewer than 500 employees. The numbers do not include the full- and part-time gig workers who are ineligible for unemployment compensation.
‘Small business formation has been in decline’

Members of the National Federation for Independent Business (NFIB) are expressing great concern over keeping their doors open, according to Holly Wade, director of research and policy analysis for the small business advocacy organization. A slide in the number of existing small firms would exacerbate their already waning stake in the U.S. economy, she added.

“The churn of small business formation has been in decline for decades now,” Wade said. “And that's been the focus of a lot of academic research to figure out why this trend is happening.”

“So when we go through something like this, an economic crisis, like we did with the financial crisis, on the other side, we want to make sure that the landscape to start a business and define market opportunities is easily accessible and that there are very low barriers to entry to get the small business sector moving again,” Wade said.

The majority of firms will need to make quick decisions about whether to remain in business because most keep 30 days of full reserves, King said, noting that labor-intensive companies such as restaurants tend to keep less in reserves.





Small and medium-sized companies' role in the U.S. economy

Why small businesses need a lifeline

On Thursday, lawmakers introduced a new relief package proposal with additional life lines for small businesses, including $300 million in stimulus funds, part of which offers grants and loans to certain small businesses that keep their employees on their payrolls during the crisis, and penalty-free delays for tax filings and payments. The Small Business Administration also began approving disaster loans to eligible applicants.



A sign announcing that Tribeca Kitchen and Bar is closed because of the coronavirus outbreak is displayed on a door in Seattle, Washington, U.S., March 13, 2020. REUTERS/Brian Snyder

In an email Deutsche Bank Securities Chief Economist, Torsten Slok, emphasized the critical need to keep small business afloat. “The U.S. economy mainly consists of small businesses...and this is a challenge in a situation where policymakers want to quickly get money into the hands of the corporate sector either via fiscal policy or monetary policy.”

On Thursday, jobless claims for the week ending March 14 jumped to 281,000 from 211,000 the prior week. The 33% increase outpaced the largest increase during the Great Recession of 14%. But those numbers fail to represent the reality of what’s coming, King said.

“Based on everything we're hearing, this week started the layoff week,” he said. “I don't think it will be reflected in the numbers for another two weeks.”

“With an average of 30 days reserves, if your revenue is cut by 50 or 60% you're gonna have to move quickly and you're gonna have to lay people off,” King said. “The good news is there's a bunch of businesses that aren't shut down.”
‘The mergers will come’

Still, the eventual recovery could lead to even more consolidation of businesses, Mark Cooper, CEO of P.J. Solomon, told Yahoo Finance’s The First Trade, noting that mergers typically happen after a downturn.

“The mergers will come, in my view, in a few flavors. One will be ... in difficult industries like retail and site-based oriented businesses, movie theaters, amusement parks, and the like. Those might have companies coming together to show greater strength and have synergies in order to withstand the difficult marketplace,” he said.

Already, bigger businesses seem to be benefitting from the coronavirus shutdowns even as small businesses suffer. This week, mega corporations Walmart (WMT) and Amazon (AMZN) announced they planned to hire due to a surge in business. Walmart said it would bring on 150,000 workers, while Amazon reported plans to hire 100,000 full- and part-time warehouse workers.

Read more:

COVID-19 could make a resurgence this fall depending on U.S. response

What to do if you are laid off from work due to COVID-19

The U.S. government clarifies when workers must get paid amid coronavirus shutdowns

Alexis Keenan is a New York-based reporter for Yahoo Finance and former litigation attorney.