Mardi Gras is blamed for New Orleans coronavirus spread amid fears city with world's highest growth rate in cases will be next U.S. epicenter and hospitals could collapse in a week

New Orleans is experiencing the highest growth in coronavirus cases seen anywhere in the world

827 infections have been reported in the city as of Thursday morning 

Mardi Gras festivities last month are being blamed for the city's rapid outbreak
The New Orleans metro area accounts for about 70 percent of Louisiana's nearly 1,800 cases and 65 deaths

400 new cases were reported in 24 hours over Tuesday and Wednesday
State officials have warned that hospitals could collapse by April 4
Fears are mounting that the Louisiana outbreak may extend across the South

By FRANCES MULRANEY and MEGAN SHEETS FOR DAILYMAIL.COM and WIRES
PUBLISHED: 26 March 2020

New Orleans is on track to become the next coronavirus epicenter in the United States with one of the highest growth in cases seen anywhere in the world.

Authorities are warning that hospitals could collapse by April 4 and that the state will run out of ventilators by the first week of next month if the growth rate continues.

Nearly 1,800 people in Louisiana have tested positive for coronavirus and 65 have died in the two weeks since the first patient was reported on March 9 - an average daily growth rate of 65 percent.

The number of cases increased by 400 - or 30 percent - in the span of 24 hours between Tuesday and Wednesday.

The New Orleans metro area accounts for about 70 percent of Louisiana's infections - with 827 reported in the city to date, more than the total number in all but 15 states.

Orleans Parish, which borders the city, has suffered the highest number of deaths per capita of any county in the US with 37. Eleven of those deaths were reported at a nursing home, where dozens more residents tested positive for COVID-19.

As concerns grow that Louisiana could spark a larger spread across the southern states, experts say the crisis in New Orleans was likely accelerated by Mardi Gras, the iconic celebration that unfolds across the city over a period of several weeks, culminating on February 25 this year.

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A group of revelers on a balcony toss beads to the crowd below on Bourbon Street on Mardi Gras day in New Orleans which a month later is set to become a new coronavirus epicenter

A reveler makes their way through the French Quarter during Fat Tuesday celebrations on February 25. The city has now come to a halt as it registers the highest growth in coronavirus cases than has been seen anywhere else in the world amid fears the hospitals will collapse

Gov. John Bel Edwards holds a media briefing about Louisiana's response to COVID-19 on Wednesday in which he reveals that the state's largest problem is extreme lack of ventilators

New Orleans shuts down during coronavirus outbreak

On Tuesday, President Donald Trump issued a major federal disaster declaration for the state, freeing federal funds and resources. Only five states have been issued the declaration so far.

The escalating crisis in the state has dashed hopes that less densely populated and warmer-climate cities would not be hit as hard by the pandemic, and that summer months could see it wane.

The plight of New Orleans also raises fears it may be a powerful catalyst in speedily spreading the virus across neighboring southern states.

New Orleans is the biggest city in Louisiana, the state with the third-highest case load of coronavirus per capita in the US after the major epicenters of New York and Washington.

The ranking is particularly alarming given Louisiana's relatively small population of 4.6million. In contrast, Texas has a population of 29.4million but only 826 cases.

Governor John Bel Edwards warned in a press conference on Wednesday that people in the state need to 'make sure you’re doing what we ask'.

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards is holding daily press conference's as the state of Louisiana sees one of the worst coronavirus outbreaks in the United States and cases skyrocket

A man walks his dog past a boarded up business on Frenchmen Street Wednesday following the severe outbreak of the coronavirus disease in New Orleans in the past few days

Boarded up businesses are pictured on Frenchmen Street as the public are told to stay inside

New Orleans is next coronavirus epicenter as Carnival blamed

'This has spread across the state of Louisiana. One of the consequences of this is ventilator capacity,' he said.

'If our growth continues we could run out of ventilators in first week in April and that depends on whether the curve gets flattened and our ability to pursue and allocate additional ventilators.'

The governor expects to receive 100 further ventilators on Thursday and 100 more at the beginning of next week but warns that even if they are received it is still 600 short of what is needed in the New Orleans area alone.

'Quite frankly, it is not enough,' he concluded.

The growth rate in Louisiana tops all others, according to a University of Louisiana at Lafayette analysis of global data.

The culprit for the coronavirus in the Big Easy? Some blame Carnival.

'Mardi Gras was the perfect storm, it provided the perfect conditions for the spread of this virus,' said Dr. Rebekah Gee, who until January was the Health Secretary for Louisiana and now heads up Louisiana State University's health care services division.






She noted that Fat Tuesday fell on February 25, when the virus was already in the United States but before the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and national leaders had raised the alarm with the American public.

At this point, there were still less than 100 cases around the country.

'So New Orleans had its normal level of celebration, which involved people congregating in large crowds and some 1.4 million tourists,' Gee said.

'We shared drink cups. We shared each other's space in the crowds. We shared floats where we were throwing not just beads but probably coronavirus off Carnival floats to people who caught it and took it with them to where they came from.'

Gee said that the explosive growth rate of the coronavirus in the Mississippi River port city means 'it's on the trajectory to become the epicenter for the outbreak in the United States'.

Louisiana Senator John Kennedy also declared that people drinking during Mardi Gras caused coronavirus to spread in the state as they had weaker immune systems when they contracted the virus.

Kennedy then blamed the lack of information as to why people were so willing to travel to New Orleans to take part in the boisterous activities towards the end of February.

'We're a hot spot,' the conservative politician said in a segment with Fox News. 'It started in New Orleans. It's moving into the rest of the state.'

He continued: 'I think it has a lot to do with Mardi Gras. I think our friends in China were worried about their image more than the world's health and sat on the news about this virus for longer than they should have.

'We held Mardi Gras. People flew in from all over the world. We were in close quarters. One or two had too much to drink and lowered their immune system. They diminished their immune systems and we got a problem.'


'I think it has a lot to do with Mardi Gras,' claimed Louisiana Senator John Kennedy

Louisiana issues stay at home order after cases increase

Dr. Peter Hotez is the dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College, a renowned vaccine scientist and an expert on the coronavirus pandemic.

He said that the rapid grip the virus is gaining on New Orleans was deeply worrying and a possible harbinger for worse to come across the south and for less densely populated and warmer cities across America.

'There has been some research and data suggesting that warmer, more humid weather could slow this epidemic,' he said.

'The fact that this occurred on the Gulf Coast, which has some of the higher humidity and temperatures in the U.S., is a serious concern.'

Hotez noted that more research into how climate does or does not play a role in the spread of this coronavirus needs to happen, but acknowledged that experts hoped that warm weather and the coming summer months in the northern hemisphere would be natural buffers against it.

'If you look at this epidemic, we've not seen much in the hotter parts of the country. Texas has not had a lot. Arizona has not had a lot. Then all of a sudden - bam! - it appears in strength in New Orleans,' he said.

'We have to follow this trend closely.'

Police urge revelers to clear Bourbon Street on March 15th

Having an entirely new coronavirus epicenter kick off means that the United States may soon be dealing with multiple hot spots all at once, Hotez said, a worst-case scenario that could cripple healthcare systems.

If predictions were correct, the hospitals in New Orleans would struggle to manage past next week, Edwards told a news conference on Tuesday.

New Orleans could well be the first major domino to fall in the south, starting a chain reaction in other metro areas in the region, said Hotez.

That is a serious concern for Houston, the fourth-largest city in the country and a major center for the oil industry.

The two cities have historically strong links made even more so by an influx of New Orleans residents into Houston following hurricanes Katrina and Harvey.

On the ground in New Orleans' famed French Quarter, residents said they were definitely concerned, but that the virus was an entirely different threat from the natural disasters that routinely befall the city.

Jonathan Sanders, a 35-year-old general manager of the French Quarter brasserie Justine, said the city was calm and residents largely heeding authorities orders to stay inside.

'There is always something going on at all hours of the day or night. Now, without it all, it's very peaceful,' he said.

'You can park anywhere in the French Quarter.'

The virus, Sanders said, was so far easier to deal with than the death and destruction Hurricane Katrina unleashed in 2005, when over 1,800 people died along the Gulf Coast.

'When you think of the total destruction of Katrina... that was gut wrenching,' he said.

'We're fairly more resilient than other places that haven't had so many tragic things happen to their city.'

---30---

Trump administration 'ignored' advice of National Security Council's 2016 pandemic 'playbook', a color-coded step-by-step plan which urged buying masks early on

The 69 page guide used a color-coded step-by-step plan, Politico reports

A series of missteps at the nation’s top public health agency caused a critical shortage of reliable laboratory tests for the coronavirus, investigations found

Medics are now so desperate for personal protective equipment amid the viral pandemic that they’ve turned to the public for help in making them 

And the president has spent the last week going against the advice of medical experts and suggesting the lockdown could be lifted as soon as Easter

A spokesman for the NSC told Politico the document is 'quite dated'

The president has said: 'Nobody ever expected a thing like this'

By LAUREN FRUEN FOR DAILYMAIL.COM 26 March 2020

Donald Trump and his administration are said to have 'ignored' the advice of the National Security Council's 2016 pandemic 'playbook'.

The 69 page guide used a color-coded step-by-step plan to urge buying masks early on, told government to adopt a 'unified message' and instructed them to question testing capabilities, Politico reports.

A series of missteps at the nation’s top public health agency caused a critical shortage of reliable laboratory tests for the coronavirus, hobbling the federal response, an Associated Press review found.

Doctors and nurses are now so desperate for personal protective equipment amid the viral pandemic that they’ve turned to the public for help in making them, saying do-it-yourself face masks are better than nothing.

And the president has spent the last week going against the advice of medical experts and suggesting the lockdown could be lifted as soon as Easter.

Trump told Fox News: 'Nobody ever expected a thing like this.'


Donald Trump, pictured Wednesday, and his administration are said to have 'ignored' the advice of the National Security Council's 2016 pandemic 'playbook'

The 69 page guide used a color-coded step-by-step plan to urge buying masks early on, told government to adopt a 'unified message' and instructed them to question testing capabilities

A spokesman for the NSC told Politico: 'We are aware of the document, although it’s quite dated and has been superseded by strategic and operational biodefense policies published since.

'The plan we are executing now is a better fit, more detailed, and applies the relevant lessons learned from the playbook and the most recent Ebola epidemic in the [Democratic Republic of the Congo] to COVID-19.'

A health department spokesperson said the current strategy is dictated by more recent guides. 

But the handbook asks early one: 'Is there sufficient personal protective equipment for healthcare workers who are providing medical care?'

It adds: 'Early coordination of risk communications through a single federal spokesperson is critical.

'We recommend early budget and financial analysis of various response scenarios and an early decision to request supplemental funding from Congress, if needed.

'What is our level of confidence on the case detection rate? Is diagnostic capacity keeping up?'




It emerged earlier this month that President Trump ignored warnings from US intelligence agencies about the threat of a coronavirus pandemic, according to a report in The Washington Post.

One intelligence official and several Trump Administration officials spoke to the publication on the condition of anonymity, claiming the President downplayed the COVID-19 threat in spite of growing anxiety from aides and members of his own cabinet throughout January and February.

'Donald Trump may not have been expecting this, but a lot of other people in the government were — they just couldn't get him to do anything about it,' one official stated, adding: 'The system was blinking red.'

Officials were first alerted to reports about cases of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China on January 3, after a director at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention spoke with Chinese colleagues.

'Ominous, classified warnings' purportedly put together by the CIA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence began to increase over the course of the month.

'There was obviously a lot of chatter in January,' one of the officials told The Post.


Despite this, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar had trouble contacting Trump until January 18.

Two officials told The Post that when Azar finally got a hold of Trump over the phone and attempted to discuss the coronavirus, 'the President interjected to ask about vaping and when flavored vaping products would be back on the market'.

On January 27, several aides are reported to have gone to office of White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney to urge that senior officials do more about the threat of coronavirus.

Mulvaney soon began setting up regular meetings about COVID-19, but Trump was allegedly 'dismissive' in the initial phases 'because he did not believe that the virus had spread widely throughout the United States.'

As coronavirus continued to spread in February, and US agencies tracked its spread around the globe, Trump continued to publicly downplay the threat.

A spokesperson for White House spokesperson told The Post in a statement: 'President Trump has taken historic, aggressive measures to protect the health, wealth and safety of the American people — and did so, while the media and Democrats chose to only focus on the stupid politics of a sham illegitimate impeachment.

'It’s more than disgusting, despicable and disgraceful for cowardly unnamed sources to attempt to rewrite history — it’s a clear threat to this great country.'

Read more:
Trump team failed to follow NSC¿s pandemic playbook - POLITICO

‘They asked me to come in and talk — and I knew.’ Like millions of Americans, this 26-year-old lost her job due to coronavirus

Social distancing and shelter in place orders are taking their toll on jobs in industries like entertainment, retail and hospitality

Maile Mahelona, pictured, recently got laid off from her job as a booking agent at a small concert venue based in Portland, Ore. Maile Mahelona

March 26, 2020 By Elisabeth Buchwald BUSINESS INSIDER

Within hours after Maile Mahelona was laid off last week from her job as a booking-assistant show manager at a concert venue in Portland, she completed an application for unemployment benefits and food stamps.

Then she posted a video of herself on Twitter TWTR, +1.69%. “I officially got laid off from my job due to the f-ing coronavirus,” she paused to take a breath as tears rolled down her face. “I work — I worked — in the entertainment business.”


A week before, Mahelona, 26, moved into a new apartment in a suburb of Portland, Ore. For the first time, she could afford to live without roommates. Her rent went from $700 a month to $1,280 a month in her new apartment. Now she’s trapped into the lease without a steady stream of income.


‘They wanted to let me go sooner rather than later so that I could beat the rush of other people applying for new jobs.’

She is not alone. Initial unemployment claims jumped to 3.28 million last week from 211,000 three weeks ago and 282,000 two weeks ago, the Labor Department said Thursday. Businesses across the country have closed in an effort to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus, and millions of Americans have been advised to stay home and practice “social distancing.”


Mahelona wasn’t blind to the grim future for the industry in the coming months. She understands the importance of social distancing to protect people like her grandma who are both immunocompromised and elderly, from potentially contracting COVID-19, the disease caused by coronavirus, that has taken the lives of more than 1,000 Americans.

But that hardly made it any easier to get laid off from her dream job that she held for 10 months.


So how did it happen? “I went through the whole day as I normally would,” Mahelona said. “They asked me to come in and talk — and I knew.”

Her bosses pulled her into their office and shut the door, she said. “They said it didn’t have to do with my performance, it’s because business isn’t doing well. They said if things get better they’d love to have me back, but they wanted to let me go sooner rather than later so that I could beat the rush of other people applying for new jobs.”

She said she then asked her employers, “So should I clock out now?”

In moments like these, she normally would turn to her grandma, 68, a devout Catholic, for advice and support, but because her grandmother is immunocompromised she could not provide a shoulder to cry on, at least not in person. Her family has a group text where they check-in with her grandmother every day.


‘Right now, I’m looking for any job. My interests are not being considered for my next job.’

“It just outright sucks,” she said. Mahelona has held a variety of other jobs, including as a bank teller and a therapy-skills trainer in a psychological office. “I enjoyed them,” she said, “but didn’t have the passion for them at the time.”

“I have always been interested in music it’s been a personal passion of mine,” she told MarketWatch.”I’ve been influenced by my family friend, Amber Sweeney, who is a musician and my aunt is her manager so I’ve been around the industry secondhand and love it.”

To supplement the $16 an hour she made booking up-and-coming Portland artists, she also drove for Lyft LYFT, +7.12% at least 20 hours a week. “I stopped doing that completely because it can take over an hour just to find a ride,” she said.

Because so many people are working from home and avoiding bars and restaurants, the bottom fell out of that side gig. She said she took a Lyft the day before instead of driving herself or taking public transportation to support fellow Lyft drivers who can’t get rides.

With health authorities recommending people stay at least six feet apart to prevent the spread of COVID-19, also called severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 or SARS-CoV-2, a car service also seemed like the safer option.

None of her immediate friends have lost their jobs. One friend, she said, works in a clothing store and was able to pivot to working on the company’s online business. Other friends have had their hours cut, she added.

“Right now, I’m looking for any job,” she said. Her No. 1 priority is to make money. “My interests are not being considered for my next job,” she added.

---30---

Ann Coulter misread my chart on the dangers of the coronavirus, then tweeted about it — and it shows how easily misinformation can spread in a crisis
Andy Kiersz Mar 25, 2020

Ann Coulter. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Business Insider recently published a chart tracking death rates for different age groups from the flu in the US 2018-2019 flu season and comparing those to death rates in South Korea from the novel coronavirus.

The chart illustrates how dangerous the new disease is for patients at all ages, especially the elderly.

On Tuesday, conservative pundit Ann Coulter tweeted the chart out, claiming that it showed that the flu was more dangerous than COVID-19 (the disease caused by the coronavirus) for patients under age 60.

This is the opposite of what the chart shows.

Information and news are changing rapidly amid the evolving coronavirus pandemic, and it's important to present and parse that information correctly.

The crisis around the novel coronavirus pandemic is evolving incredibly quickly, with new information about the spread, effects, and lethality of COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, being released by medical professionals and government public health administrations at a rapid pace.

At Insider and Business Insider, we are doing our best to provide timely, accurate, and usable information to our readers. To further that goal, we've produced several charts and visualizations illustrating different aspects of the crisis, presenting numbers and data in a way that we hope is easily and quickly understood.

But those charts are not always parsed correctly.

On March 12, I wrote an article comparing the case-fatality rates from COVID-19 in South Korea as of that date to death rates from the seasonal flu in the United States, including a chart that showed death rates from both illnesses among various age groups. The stark takeaway from the chart was that COVID-19 was deadlier for nearly every age group than the flu, and is especially dangerous for older patients:

Business Insider/Andy Kiersz, data from CDC and KCDC

However, on Tuesday evening, conservative commentator Ann Coulter tweeted out that chart, along with a curious misinterpretation of the data presented: 

"For people under 60, coronavirus is LESS dangerous than the seasonal flu."
—Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) March 24, 2020

This is the exact opposite of what the chart shows. Death rates from the flu during the 2018-2019 US flu season were all well below 0.1% for each age group under 65 years old. COVID-19 death rates in South Korea as of March 12 among patients between age 30 and 60 were all higher than flu death rates for comparable age groups. However, South Korea has, as of March 25, registered no deaths among COVID-19 patients under age 30.

Notably, South Korea has consistently seen a lower case-fatality rate from COVID-19 than most other countries with comparably sized coronavirus outbreaks. This suggests that, globally, COVID-19 could be even more dangerous, including among patients under age 60, than the above chart suggests.

Several of the replies to Coulter's tweet criticized the apparent misreading of the chart. MSNBC producer Kyle Griffen simply tweeted, "That is not what the chart shows." Many other users replied along the same lines, noting that the chart shows that COVID-19 has higher death rates for patients between age 30 and 60 than the flu.

Business Insider reached out to Coulter via a contact form on her website and an email to her publisher. We did not receive a response by publication time, and this article will be updated with any reply.

Information flow in a crisis like the coronavirus pandemic is difficult. Even something as basic as the share of coronavirus patients around the world who have died from the illness changes from day to day as new cases and deaths are reported. In an environment like this, careful presentation and sharing of results is especially important.

One interesting reply to Coulter's tweet came from Georgetown public policy professor Don Moynihan. He noted a possible political aspect to the misinformation. He wrote that his research includes how "ideology shapes how people process data," and that Coulter's use of a chart showing the opposite of her claim "is the most amazing thing I've ever seen."
—Don Moynihan (@donmoyn) March 24, 2020

Several conservatives in the US have downplayed the severity of the outbreak in recent weeks. While several major colleges and universities have canceled in-person classes and shifted to online learning for the spring semester, Liberty University's staunchly conservative president Jerry Falwell Jr. announced that the school would remain open, and has suggested that coverage of the virus is a plot by the media to harm President Donald Trump.

In earlier weeks of the outbreak, Trump and several conservative media outlets suggested that the coronavirus was not especially deadly, but as US cases continue to climb, many have changed their tone.

GLOBAL CAPITALISM IS CORONAVIRUS CRISIS
Tens of millions face losing jobs in escalating coronavirus crisis

By Stephanie Nebehay and Lucia Mutikani,Reuters•March 26, 2020



Tens of millions face losing jobs in escalating coronavirus crisis
FILE PHOTO: A view of an empty shopping mall is seen after Gujarat state government banned public gatherings to avoid the spreading of the coronavirus, in Ahmedabad

GENEVA/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Global job losses from the coronavirus crisis could far exceed the 25 million estimated just days ago, U.N. officials said on Thursday, as U.S. jobless claims surged to record levels, starkly showing the scale of the economic disaster.

The International Labour Organization, a U.N. agency, had estimated a week ago that, based on different scenarios for the impact of the pandemic on growth, the global ranks of the jobless would rise by between 5.3 million and 24.7 million.

However Sangheon Lee, director of the ILO's employment policy department, told Reuters in Geneva on Thursday that the scale of temporary unemployment, lay-offs and the number of unemployment benefit claims were far higher than first expected.

"We are trying to factor the temporary massive shock into our estimate modelling. The magnitude of fluctuation is much bigger than expected," he said.

"The projection will be much bigger, far higher than the 25 million we estimated."

By comparison, the 2008/9 global financial crisis increased global unemployment by 22 million.

In the United States, where, as in many parts of the world, measures to contain the pandemic have brought the country to a sudden halt, the number of Americans filing claims for unemployment benefits surged to more than 3 million last week.

That shattered the previous record of 695,000 set in 1982. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast claims would rise to 1 million, though estimates were as high as 4 million.

The data added to an alarming scenario spelled out by James Bullard, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, who warned that up to 46 million people in the country - nearly a third of U.S. workers - could lose their jobs in the short term.




INDIAN LOCKDOWN

Countries across the world are feeling the intense human and economic pain wrought by the coronavirus, which has infected more than 470,000 people, killed more than 21,000, and is expected to trigger a global recession.

In India, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a 21-day nationwide lockdown this week to stem the spread of the disease, industry groups warned job losses could run into the tens of millions.

Garish Oberoi, treasurer of the Federation of Associations in Indian Tourism & Hospitality, told Reuters that the trade group estimates that about 38 million jobs could be lost in the tourism and hospitality sector alone.

Among those hardest hit will be India's estimated 120 million migrant labourers, for whom the lockdown means wages are disappearing. Many cannot afford rent or food in the cities and, with transport systems shut down, many have now begun to walk hundreds of miles to return to their villages.

In Europe, France is pulling out the stops to persuade companies not to fire their employees, including through a scheme that allows businesses to reduce worker hours without the employee taking a massive pay hit.

The Labour Ministry said nearly 100,000 French companies have asked the government to reimburse them for putting 1.2 million workers on shorter or zero hours since the outbreak, with more than half of requests coming on Monday and Tuesday.


'UNEMPLOYMENT CRISIS'

In Britain, the government said 477,000 people had applied over the past nine days for Universal Credit, a payment to help with living costs for those unemployed or on low incomes. The Resolution Foundation think-tank said that was an increase of more than 500 percent from the same period of 2019.

It said the jump showed that the country was "already in the midst of an unemployment crisis that is building much faster than during the financial crisis".

Ireland's unemployment rate could meanwhile soar to around 18% by the summer from 4.8% last month, the Economic and Social Research Institute think-tank said on Thursday, projecting a recession with output contracting by 7.1% in 2020.

"Unemployment is extremely sensitive and volatile in response to economic activity, that is quite worrisome in our view," said Lee of the International Labour Organization.

"The sentiment among businesses is maybe it will take more time to get back to normal activities," he said. "They are making quick decisions to adjust their workforce rather than keeping workers."

(Additional reporting by Dan Burns in New York, Euan Rocha in Mumbai, Graham Fahy in Dublin and Richard Lough in Paris; Writing by Pravin Char; Editing by John Chalmers and Nick Tattersall)

JINGOIST RACISM 
U.S. insisting that the U.N. call out Chinese origins of coronavirus

Josh Lederman, NBC News•March 25, 2020

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is pushing the U.N. Security Council to call attention to the Chinese origins of the coronavirus, four diplomats posted to the United Nations told NBC News, triggering a stalemate as the global body seeks to cobble together a response to the pandemic.

Talks among U.N. Security Council nations over a joint declaration or resolution on the coronavirus have stalled over U.S. insistence that it explicitly state that the virus originated in Wuhan, China, as well as exactly when it started there. China's diplomats are enraged according to the diplomats, even as they seek to put their own language into the statement praising China's efforts to contain the virus.

The dispute at the United Nations comes amid growing finger-pointing between Washington and Beijing over the coronavirus.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly blamed China for its spread, accusing Beijing of concealing early knowledge of the virus. But after reports of a rise in racism and attacks against Asian Americans emerged, Trump tweeted this week that it was "NOT their fault" and said he'd no longer call it the "Chinese virus."

"Everyone knows it came out of China," Trump said Tuesday. "But I decided we shouldn't make any more of a big deal out of it."

Still, his administration has continued working to brand it as a Chinese-created crisis, with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo again Wednesday referring to "the Wuhan virus" and "this crisis that began in Wuhan, China." He also did not dispute a German news report that he'd pressed G-7 leaders to include language about the "Wuhan virus" in a joint statement.

At the Security Council, the administration's push to name China as the source of the virus started in recent weeks when Estonia, a rotating member of the council, began drafting a declaration for the council to issue.

Although the U.N. has a separate public health body — the World Health Organization — the Security Council has sought to warn how ongoing global conflicts could exacerbate the crisis and undermine the response.

France, a permanent member of the council, proposed a version demanding a "general and immediate cessation of hostilities in all countries," including a 30-day humanitarian pause in conflicts, to allow coronavirus-related supplies to flow, according to a text reviewed by NBC News.

But the U.S., in various drafts and edits circulated among the countries, sought to insert references to "the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Wuhan, Hubei province in the People's Republic of China (PRC) in November 2019." The PRC is China's formal name.

Another U.S. draft encouraged the U.N. to build on lessons learned in the past, "especially from the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV) coronavirus outbreak originating in Guangdong Province in the PRC in 2011."

Those demands have hit a wall with China, a veto-wielding member of the Security Council, whose diplomats accused the U.S. of "irresponsible practices" in a blistering email to other nations' diplomats this week obtained by NBC News.

"We are astonished by the choice of the United States to use this opportunity for politicizing the outbreak and blaming China, which we strongly oppose," China's mission to the U.N. wrote. "The groundless accusations and malicious fabrication from the U.S. aim at shirking its own responsibilities, which severely poisoned the atmosphere of global cooperation in containing the outbreak."

A U.S. diplomat with knowledge of the discussion said the National Security Council had directed the U.S. mission to the United Nations to advocate for the language, with support from Pompeo.

The U.S. mission didn't respond to a request for comment. But a senior Trump administration official said a key element of Trump's effort to address coronavirus is to convene global experts "to better understand the coronavirus."

"Our goal is to gather the data, information and samples needed to understand the evolutionary origins of the virus so we can effectively combat the pandemic and prepare for future outbreaks," the official said.


Complicating efforts has been Russia's insistence that ambassadors show up in person at the Security Council to vote, contradicting public health guidance urging people to stay home and not to congregate in groups, diplomats from three Security Council nations said.

For more than a week, as other countries on the council directed nearly all their staff to work from home, Russia's diplomats were still showing up at their mission in New York, the diplomats said. Meanwhile, they argued that virtual meetings were untenable, citing technical issues with the videoconferencing equipment.

Russia's mission to the U.N. didn't respond to a request for comment. But on Tuesday, the Russians dropped their insistence on in-person meetings, several diplomats said. The shift came the same day that Russian President Vladimir Putin, wearing a full protective suit and a respirator as he visited a hospital, was told by Moscow's mayor that Russia has significantly more coronavirus patients than its official tally shows.

In Washington, the Trump administration has bristled at an unsubstantiated suggestion by China's Foreign Ministry that it might have been the U.S. Army that brought the coronavirus to Wuhan.

"You see it. You see it on social media," Pompeo said Wednesday, accusing Beijing of an "intentional disinformation campaign" even as he insisted that now wasn't the time to point fingers. "You see it in remarks from senior people inside the Chinese Communist Party talking about whether this was a — U.S. brought to China. This is crazy talk."

In discussions about a Security Council declaration or resolution, Chinese diplomats have had their own wish list, two diplomats familiar with the talks said: references to the success of China's extensive efforts to control the crisis once the virus was identified. After enforcing a strict lockdown in Hubei province, the center of the crisis in China, authorities have started easing restrictions as the number of new cases has fallen to nearly zero.

A diplomat involved in the Security Council talks said other nations were encouraging a compromise in which China and the United States would drop their insistence on language that would be inevitably problematic for the other.

China's mission to the U.N. didn't respond to a request for comment.

USA
Workers of color in the low-wage workforce taking major hit as the economy suffers

About 70 percent of the nation’s hotel maids are people of color — as are 57 percent of those working as restaurant head chefs and cooks, and 42 percent of all waitstaff.Janell Ross, NBC News•March 25, 2020

People of color make up a disproportionate share of workers in the industries where layoffs are the most intense and only expected to get worse. And while all of America will feel the economic effect of the pandemic, experts warn that lower-income workers of color could be hit particularly hard.

“In terms of the economic situation, all you have to do is look around the corner and you can see that for us, for people of color, we are overrepresented in the low-wage workforce and in the very industries we already know to be taking serious hits,” Marc Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League, said. “Without federal relief, the right type at the right time, this could be entirely catastrophic.”

As of now, the nation’s latest $2 trillion coronavirus relief bill includes a four-month income replacement allowance for many of those out of work because of the COVID-19 pandemic. It also expands unemployment benefits and provides direct supplement payments to many American households. Most workers earning $75,000 or less will receive $1,200, according to the bill, with the benefit amount scaling down for people earning more. Many families will receive a $500 direct payment for each child. The bill will also send cash to businesses, hospitals and states to cover some costs associated with the crisis and lost tax revenue. Provision for immigrants — documented and undocumented — were not clear as of Wednesday afternoon.

"Is it enough? I can not say that it is," Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.), chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, said Wednesday. She said the Caucus, along with other groups, was reviewing the bill and working to identify issues to address in subsequent bills.

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Because of a long history of occupational segregation, a term economists use, people of color more often work in industries that provide few benefits and chronically low pay.

“Segregation is the right term,” said Valerie Wilson, an economist and director of the program on race, ethnicity and the economy at the Economic Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank on the needs of low- and middle-income workers. “A lot of the patterns we currently observe in our workplaces are historic patterns going back to the time when people were literally prohibited from having certain jobs or having access to certain jobs, and those patterns have persisted because as much as we may have tried to do with policy, there are still various challenges and barriers that people face.”

A doorman looks out from an empty hotel lobby in Herald Square in Manhattan during the coronavirus outbreak in New York City on March 18, 2020. (Mike Segar / Reuters)

Now the wave of shutdowns, layoffs and furloughs sweeping hotels, restaurants and entertainment venues means that many who have experienced that occupational segregation have lost their source of income. The numbers, as they so often do, tell the tale.

People of color together make up almost 40 of the nation’s population and about a third of the nation’s workforce.

In the hospitality industry alone, 51 percent of clerks and front-desk staff are people of color, with black and Latino workers each making up about 23 percent of this group. A full 49 percent of hotel maids are Latino while nearly 30 percent of all bellhops, concierge and porter staff are black. In the casino world, just over 59 percent of workers are people of color. About 20 percent of these workers are black and 27 percent are Latino.

Outside of the hospitality industry, those in personal transportation and related industries have also faced layoffs now that the nation’s day-to-day activity is grinding to a halt. A full 56 percent of those working in parking lots and as parking garage attendants are people of color, about 31 percent of whom are Latino. Just over 66 percent of those driving taxis and cars for hire are people of color. Nearly 30 percent of those drivers are black.

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Then there are the workers who provide personal services, such as attendants and nannies — about 45 percent of whom are people of color. Barbers, beauticians and massage therapists are included in that category. Nearly 79 percent of all manicurists and estheticians are people of color and 59 percent of these workers are Asian.

Even more broadly, many Americans enter this possible recession in a fragile economic condition: Thirty-nine percent said that if they faced a $400 unexpected expense they would either be unable to cover it, would have to sell something to do so or borrow, according to a 2019 report from the Federal Reserve.

Adding to that, only about 10 percent of workers earning $10.48 an hour or less have health insurance, according to a Economic Policy Institute analysis completed last week. That means they are also more likely to enter the crisis without a primary care doctor or carefully monitored health. Workers of color are again overrepresented in this group: About 25 percent of the nation’s low wage workforce is Latino, 15 percent is black and 15 percent is Asian, together totaling 55 percent of those working for limited wages, according to a November 2019 Brookings Institution analysis.

“I think almost any time we have an economic crisis — speaking more specifically about black folks and Latinos — the same groups of people are going to be severely harmed because in the best of times, they are subjected to marginalization,” said Sandy Darity, an economist at Duke University who researches economic stratification as well as the way race shapes economic and social policy. “The pattern is clear. Everyone loses work, but people of color lose more of them. This time it seems the job losses will be really severe for some, while others are called upon to possibly put themselves at greater risk.”

What the nation has long needed, Darity said, is a federal work guarantee program. In good times, few people would need to do work directed by the federal government and collect wages from the same source. In bad times, like the current pandemic and the likely recession to follow, that infrastructure could expand to put even more people to work on critical priorities and needs.

The potential severity of the impact on workers of color is a matter of deep concern to some of the nation’s leading civil rights organizations. Last week, representatives of the NAACP and the National Urban League joined a conference call with dozens of civic organizations and members of the Democratic Senate leadership.

“We have no information at this time that, in terms of infection rates, the problem is any more severe among one community than another,” Morial said. “But we do want to be a voice for an organized and equitable testing and treatment operation and getting that moving as soon as possible to reach as many people as possible.”

Existing inequities make that a challenge, NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson said. Johnson also worries about echoes of previous crises that have already begun to surface: abundant concern about industry broadly and comparative frugality when it comes to workers. He also sees some members of Congress engaged in policy debates that do not take into account the real relationship between race, ethnicity and economic wherewithal.

“In black America, a high percentage of elderly population also suffers from compounding health challenges, respiratory issues, high blood pressure and heart disease,” Johnson said. “We have to include that in our plans and response. And as we talk about bail-out funds or industries such as the airlines, I am concerned with what sort of support will be provided to hourly workers, low-wage workers who load the bags, who sell the airport gifts and bottles of water and will also be deeply impacted if trends continue.

“Their budgets have no wiggle room.”

U.S. files drug trafficking charges against Venezuelan president

THE NARCO EMPIRE OF THE WORLD ATTACKS VENEZUELA DURING PANDEMIC THEY HAVE NO SHAME

Pete Williams and Tom Winter, NBC News•March 26, 2020


The Trump administration unsealed criminal charges Thursday against senior officials of the government of Venezuela, including president Nicolás Maduro, accusing them of taking a leading role in the country's illegal drug trafficking.

Maduro "helped manage and ultimately lead" a criminal organization known as the Cartel of the Suns, according to an indictment that was made public Thursday. Under his leadership, the cartel "sought not only to enrich its members and enhance their power, but also to flood the United States with cocaine and inflict the drug's harmful and addictive effects on users in this country," according to the indictment.

An indictment filed in federal court in Manhattan said Maduro and other cartel members "prioritized using cocaine as a weapon against America and importing as much cocaine as possible into the United States."

The charges marked a new low in U.S. relations with Venezuela, which have been deteriorating since 1999, when Hugo Chavez, Maduro's predecessor, became president. He villainized the US and other countries he accused of taking advantage of Venezuela.
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The U.S. and Maduro have long been at odds over the country's extensive corruption. The Trump administration backed a leader of the opposition, Juan Guaidó, instead of Maduro. The United States is among more than 50 countries that have refused to recognize Maduro as head of state.

The criminal charges said Maduro personally negotiated multi-ton shipments of cocaine and coordinated relations with Honduras and other countries to facilitate the illegal drug trade.

During a news conference streamed online, Attorney General William Barr said the Maduro regime is allowing members of the FARC terror group "to use Venezuela as a safe haven from which they can continue to conduct their cocaine trafficking." He said the group flies or ships up to 250 metric tons to the US each year, which amounts to 30 million lethal doses.

Federal prosecutors also unsealed criminal charges against 13 other current and former Venezuelan officials including the president of Venezuela's National Constituent Assembly, the chief justice of the country's supreme court, the minister of defense and the former director of the country's military intelligence agency.

"Maduro is currently in Venezuela, but he may travel outside of Venezuela," said Geoffrey Berman, the U.S. Attorney in Manhattan, which would give the U.S. the chance to arrest him. The State Department is offering a reward of up to $15 million for information that leads to his arrest and conviction.

Maduro denounced the charges in a tweet. "As the head of the state, I have an obligation to defend the peace and stability of the entire country, whatever circumstances are presented."

Coronavirus: Mexicans demand crackdown on Americans crossing the border

BBC•March 26, 2020

A border wall divides Nogales, Arizona from the Mexican state of Sonora

Mexican protesters have shut a US southern border crossing amid fears that untested American travellers will spread coronavirus.

Residents in Sonora, south of the US state of Arizona, have promised to block traffic into Mexico for a second day after closing a checkpoint for hours on Wednesday.

They wore face masks and held signs telling Americans to "stay at home".

Mexico has fewer than 500 confirmed Covid-19 cases and the US over 65,000.

The border is supposed to be closed to all except "essential" business, but protesters said there has been little enforcement and no testing by authorities.

The blockade was led by members of a Sonora-based group, Health and Life, who called for medical testing to be done on anyone who crosses from the US into Mexico.

Mexico City seemingly unconcerned by COVID-19 warnings

Residents mostly going about their business despite government social distancing measures to combat coronavirus

Jose Luis Hernandez, a group member, told the Arizona Republic: "There are no health screenings by the federal government to deal with this pandemic. That's why we're here in Nogales. We've taken this action to call on the Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to act now."

The Mexican president has been criticised for his response to the pandemic, as has US President Donald Trump.

Mr Hernandez said the Wednesday demonstrations were a "first warning" to Mr Lopez Obrador, popularly known by his initials, Amlo.

The group has called for enforcement of the crossing ban on all US or Mexican citizens for tourism or medical reasons, including those who cross the border every day to attend school or work in the US.

Authorities must also conduct medical testing on Mexicans deported from the US, they said.

The group have vowed to block the DeConcini checkpoint again after shutting it down on Wednesday afternoon.

President Trump has made cutting the number of people crossing the border from Mexico into the US a centrepiece of his administration. He blames border-crossers from the south for bringing economic and social problems into the US.

He announced last week that the frontier was to close due to coronavirus.

Across the border, Arizona has recorded over 400 infections and has reported one Covid-19 case in every county bordering Mexico, according to the Republic. The US has the third highest number of recorded infections from the coronavirus in the world.

Sonora has only recorded four cases state-wide. The first case was confirmed on 16 March as an elderly man who had recently returned from the US.

Amlo has been criticised at home and abroad for his slow response to the pandemic and his willingness to continue attending rallies, shaking hands and kissing babies, while much of the world has begun to shelter in their homes.

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Trump makes thinly veiled attack at AOC during coronavirus briefing after she suggests stimulus bill overly favours corporations

John T Bennett, The Independent•March 26, 2020


Donald Trump took a veiled jab at New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, beloved by the far left, calling her a "little grandstander" over her threats to delay passage of a coronavirus economic aid package.

Ms Ocasio-Cortez, known colloquially as "AOC," has complained that she is concerned the bipartisan measure, which cleared the Senate on a 96-0 vote, is too friendly to large corporations. She wants more provisions to help workers and those who have lost their jobs due to the super bug outbreak.

Mr Trump again said "we have to get back to work," saying the people of the United States are not suited to "sit around."

Earlier in the day, the White House released outlines of a plan to assess counties one-by-one, ranking them into three risk categories. The president told reporters during his daily virus briefing that his team will release more information about that plan nex