Brazil’s leader hasn’t fired coronavirus messenger ... yet

 - In this March 18, 2019 file photo, Brazil's Health Minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta, right, gives anti-bacterial gel to President Jair Bolsonaro as they give a press conference on the new coronavirus at Planalto presidential palace in Brasilia, Brazil. Mandetta criticized Bolsonaro’s dismissive handling of the COVID-19 pandemic on national television Sunday night, April 12, and the president’s repeated threats to fire him are worrying health experts who say that amid governmental chaos, the health minister's advice to limit contact and take the virus seriously has played a major role in preventing Brazil’s epidemic from being even worse. (AP Photo/Andre Borges, File )


RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and his health minister are in open conflict over the country’s coronavirus response, leading many to worry that the far-right leader could soon fire the official who has played a major role in containing the outbreak.

The public battle between a president notorious for his polarizing remarks and the more measured doctor has reminded many of a similar tug of war taking place in the United States, between President Donald Trump and his chief virus expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci. It has also raised concerns that efforts to prevent the spread of the virus in Latin America’s largest country could veer off track.


Bolsonaro has repeatedly called COVID-19 a “little flu,” fought for confining only “high-risk” Brazilians because more severe restrictions would cause too much economic damage, and touted the yet-unproven efficacy of an anti-malarial drug. For the second straight weekend, he hit the streets in defiance of federal recommendations for Brazilians to self-quarantine. During one outing, the president was filmed wiping his nose along the inside of his wrist, then turning to shake hands with an elderly woman and others.

Health Minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta, meanwhile, is the matter-of-fact promoter of the quarantine measures and has urged Brazilians to abide by the restrictions put in place by state governors, most of whom have taken a tougher line than Bolsonaro. The orthopedist who started his career working at an Army hospital has garnered popular support for his pandemic response — but still risks losing his job.

In a televised interview earlier this month, Bolsonaro said Mandetta had failed to show “humility” and that anyone can be fired. A few days later, Bolsonaro told a group of supporters that he would use his pen against officials in his government who “are full of themselves.”

Those comments were widely understood as signaling an end to Mandetta’s tenure, so much so that the minister said his subordinates cleaned out his desk.

In an interview aired Sunday by broadcaster Globo, Mandetta worried that the mixed messages mean Brazilians “don’t know whether to listen to the health minister or the president.”

But asked about the possibility of resigning recently, Mandetta said he learned from his teachers that a doctor never abandons his patient.

“The doctor doesn’t abandon the patient,” Bolsonaro later quipped in a video address on social media, “but the patient can change doctors.”

This weekend — with the split between Bolsonaro and the minister on display again — provided further evidence that Mandetta’s time is running out, according to Christopher Garman, managing director for the Americas at political risk consultancy Eurasia Group.

That moment hasn’t come, yet.

As is frequently the case with Bolsonaro, Brazilians see close parallels with his ally Trump, whose claims are often countered by governors and Fauci. On Sunday, Trump retweeted a call for Fauci’s firing, after the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said in an interview that appeals to implement broad shutdown measures had been resisted. The comments were interpreted by some as criticism of Trump.

Still, Trump has often shown an unusual amount of deference to Fauci in public, and the White House said any suggestion the doctor would be fired was “ridiculous.”

While rising quickly, the number of cases in Brazil is still relatively low in relation to the country’s massive population — more than 23,000 cases and 1,300 deaths for a country of 211 million. That means Bolsonaro hasn’t yet been forced to pivot in the same way as Trump to give Fauci more leeway, said Paulo Calmon, political science professor at the University of Brasilia.

For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness and lead to death.

Bolsonaro, a former Army captain, was a fringe lawmaker during his seven congressional terms, but became widely known because of a stream of offensive statements. In the 2018 election, popular support coalesced around his call for aggressive policing to combat high crime rates, plans to impose conservative cultural values, and promises to rejuvenate the economy.

Mandetta, a member of the center-right DEM party, found common cause with Bolsonaro when they were both lawmakers and opposed the welcoming of Cuban doctors by the government.

Mandetta has support from a coalition of politicians across the spectrum who believe it is the government’s duty to provide health care as well as from the scientific community, the military and, increasingly, investors, said the University of Brasilia’s Calmon.

While Trump’s skepticism has softened in recent weeks, Bolsonaro has doubled down, working to portray himself as a leader willing to adopt unpopular measures for the ultimate benefit of Brazilians and the economy.

It’s not clear it’s working.

He’s been met with regular evening protests by people leaning from their apartments to bang pots and pans, particularly when he’s taken to the airwaves for national addresses.

The Health Ministry’s handling of the coronavirus, meanwhile, received approval from 76% of Brazilians polled by Datafolha, and the same percentage supported quarantining people even if those measures would hurt the economy and increase unemployment. Bolsonaro’s performance was rated as good or excellent by just one-third of respondents. The poll, conducted in early April, has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

David Fleischer, professor emeritus at the University of Brasilia, says he would be surprised if Bolsonaro fires Mandetta, but he expects the president will continue to undermine him.

Bolsonaro has also been publicly feuding with the governors of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, who have imposed relatively strict measures in their own hard-hit states, and been rewarded with approval.

Bolsonaro’s supporters staged small protests in recent days that call for restrictions on transit and business to be lifted. In Rio, a group beat an effigy of the governor.

There are concerns that conflicting examples from Bolsonaro and Mandetta are undermining the response: Cell phone data tracked by São Paulo state show fewer people practicing social distancing versus the start of the month.

For now, Mandetta retains his chair. That could change, particularly if the man Bolsonaro openly admires dismisses his own expert.

“If Trump fires Fauci, Mandetta will fall,” Calmon predicted.

___ Associated Press writer Marcelo de Sousa contributed to this report.

CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY
Detained immigrants plead for masks, protection from virus

AMERICA CRIMINALIZES REFUGEES ASYLUM SEEKERS REFUSES THEM HUMANITARIAN AID 

FILE - This July 10, 2018 file photo shows a sign that reads "Families Belong Together" on a fence outside the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Wash. Immigrant rights groups want U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to release detainees at its Washington state jail who are at high risk from the coronavirus. In a letter sent to ICE late Monday, March 9, 2020, the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington, the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project and Columbia Legal Services said ICE should release on parole any detainees who are older than 60, pregnant, or who have underlying conditions such as a weakened immune system or heart or lung disease. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)

HOUSTON (AP) — Elsy was on the phone in an immigration detention center when guards showed up with face masks and forms to sign.

The asylum-seeker from El Salvador and others had resorted to tearing their T-shirts into face coverings after a woman in their unit tested positive for COVID-19. But the guards would not give out the masks until the detainees signed the forms, which said they could not hold the private prison company running the detention center in San Diego liable if they got the coronavirus, according to Elsy and two other detainees, including one who read the form to The Associated Press over the phone.

When they refused Friday, the guards took away the masks, said Elsy, who spoke on condition that her last name be withheld for fear of retribution.

While U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has started to lower the number of detainees to reduce the risk of people getting sick, those held in immigration jails and their advocates say there’s not enough protective gear, cleaning supplies or space to allow for social distancing. They fear the number of coronavirus cases will sharply rise in the coming weeks as it has in jails and prisons nationwide.
FILE - In this June 9, 2017, file photo, a vehicle drives into the Otay Mesa detention center in San Diego. The coronavirus is spreading in immigration detention including the Otay Mesa detention center, with more than 70 detainees in 12 states testing positive and hundreds of others under quarantine. (AP Photo/Elliot Spagat, File)

The Otay Mesa Detention Center, where Elsy is held, jumped from one confirmed case last week to 12. There are 72 detainees in 12 states who tested positive and hundreds of others under quarantine.

Detainees in at least four states say they have been denied masks, even as the White House has urged face coverings in public.

Private prison company CoreCivic, which operates Otay Mesa, denied that masks were withheld unless detainees signed waivers. Spokeswoman Amanda Gilchrist said Monday that detainees were given an “acknowledgment form” that a mask alone could not protect them from the virus.

“It was not the intent of the previous form to require detainees to relinquish all rights related to COVID-19,” Gilchrist said, adding that the company has stopped using it. “Detainees are only required to initial documentation evidencing they were issued a mask.”

While jails and prisons are releasing some non-violent offenders, ICE says it has freed 160 people so far and instructed field offices to review the cases of people over 60 or those with certain medical conditions.

The number of people in ICE detention now totals 33,800, down from about 37,000 a few weeks ago. Though the Trump administration has effectively shut down new asylum claims during the pandemic, it’s still holding people who were apprehended months or years earlier for civil violations, including over 5,800 people who passed government asylum screenings.

Opponents argue that ICE could release thousands of people who aren’t accused of a crime, have cleared asylum screenings or won their cases but are being detained while the government appeals.

“Immigrant detainees do not need to be in a detention center in order to be monitored by ICE,” said Margaret Cargioli, managing attorney at the Immigrant Defenders Law Center. “This pandemic can only be adequately managed if everyone is healthy and everyone is in a safe environment.”

Andrew Arthur of the Center for Immigration Studies, which favors restricting immigration, argued that detainees have constant access to medical care and that ICE and prison companies have an interest in limiting the spread of the virus because “they want to continue that business of detention.”

A central problem is access to protective equipment, which even medical workers have struggled to get. ICE did not respond to questions about masks.

“The officers have masks and we don’t,” a woman detained at the Montgomery Processing Center north of Houston said in a video posted by the advocacy group RAICES Action. Another woman in the video holds a sign in Spanish saying she’s pregnant and fears for her baby’s life.

In Louisiana, which has become a hot spot for cases and where more than 6,000 immigration detainees are held mostly in rural jails, an asylum-seeker said he and others confined to their unit in the Pine Prairie jail pleaded for masks and more cleaning supplies. More than 50 men sleep on bunk beds.

“We don’t have any social distance within us,” said the detainee from Cameroon who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution. “We are just living by the grace of God.”

Four immigration jails in Louisiana, including Pine Prairie, have confirmed cases of COVID-19.

In Florida, some detainees said in a complaint filed by immigrant rights groups that they had been denied masks and gloves, even when they tried to buy them in the commissary.

“I sleep on a bunk bed and am surrounded by multiple other bunk beds, all occupied by inmates. It is not possible to stay six feet away from cellmates,” Juan Carlos Alfaro Garcia, 39, said in the complaint.

At Otay Mesa in San Diego, a detainee from El Salvador who asked to be identified only by his first name, Jose, for fear of retribution, said jail guards had searched his cell and touched his belongings without wearing masks or gloves.

“They put the virus in here,” Jose said. “The only way we can get the virus is because they brought the virus.”

Elsy, who is seeking asylum because she said she was persecuted for her sexual orientation in El Salvador, still doesn’t have a jail-issued mask. Meanwhile, she says a guard threatened to write up her and others for tearing T-shirts to use as face coverings.

“The fear of all this makes me think that we won’t be out of here alive, but dead,” she said.

___

Associated Press reporter Adriana Gomez Licon in Miami contributed.

Virus fuels pot industry’s push for online sales, delivery

In this Wednesday, April 8, 2020, photograph, Ben Prater shows where one of the social distancing markers is placed on the floor and the traffic flow that he encourages at his marijuana dispensary as a statewide stay-at-home order remains in effect in an effort to reduce the spread of the new coronavirus in Denver. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people, but for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

DENVER (AP) — Colorado has made online sales of recreational marijuana legal during the coronavirus pandemic, fulfilling one of the pot industry’s biggest wishes and fueling its argument for more concessions that could be made permanent when the crisis eases.

It’s one of several signs emerging from the virus outbreak of just how far ingrained marijuana has become in mainstream life in several states. Dispensaries are being designated “critical businesses” and are allowed to operate through statewide stay-at-home orders. Large markets such as California, Washington state and Oregon are allowing curbside pickup during the crisis.

Now under Colorado’s emergency rules, customers can pay for marijuana online and then pick up their purchase at the store.

“We have an opportunity to prove that cannabis businesses can run these operations and do so effectively under extremely dire circumstances,” said Morgan Fox, a spokesman for the Denver-based National Cannabis Industry Association.

Massachusetts, Michigan, Illinois and Oregon also allow online recreational marijuana sales. But the practice nonetheless remains severely limited because credit card companies tend to shy away from dealing with a drug that is still illegal under U.S. law.

Fox said easing restrictions on dispensaries is a step, but he doubts credit card companies will embrace the marijuana industry unless lawmakers provide some cover by passing the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act, which aims to protect financial institutions that serve cannabis-related businesses.


In this Wednesday, April 8, 2020, photograph, Ben Prater checks over his stock at his marijuana dispensary as a statewide stay-at-home order remains in effect in an effort to reduce the spread of the new coronavirus in Denver. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people, but for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

In this Wednesday, April 8, 2020, photograph, spots are marked to maintain proper social distancing for customers at a marijuana dispensary run by Ben Prater as a statewide stay-at-home order remains in effect in an effort to reduce the spread of the new coronavirus in Denver. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people, but for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

One example is Cannabis Station by Rocky Mountain High, a dispensary housed in an old filling station in downtown Denver. The dispensary has been providing curbside pickup after Gov. Jared Polis’ March 20 directive, but it hasn’t delved into online sales because it hasn’t found a credit card company willing to process the transactions.

The dispensary’s manager, Ben Prater, said he believes the state should allow deliveries during the crisis, as well. Home delivery of marijuana, which is already allowed in several states, was not covered by Polis’ order.

“We need to be able to have as little contact as possible to people. If people are sick or if they’re immunocompromised, they don’t need to be leaving their house during this time. So I think that delivery is just kind of a necessity at this point,” he said.

Colorado lawmakers last year legalized delivery but left it up to municipalities to decide if they want it. The state law allows for the delivery of medical marijuana this year and recreational cannabis in 2021.

In this Wednesday, April 8, 2020, photograph, Ben Prater checks over his stock at his marijuana dispensary as a statewide stay-at-home order remains in effect in an effort to reduce the spread of the new coronavirus in Denver. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people, but for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

In California, the Bureau of Cannabis Control endorsed a rule in January 2019 that allowed home marijuana deliveries statewide, even into communities that banned commercial pot sales. But even though the state has allowed broad legal marijuana sales since 2018, it remains unavailable in large areas where local governments have banned commercial activity or have not set up rules to allow sales.

“Delivery and access really need to be made available in every corner of the state,” especially during a pandemic, San Francisco-based cannabis attorney Nicole Howell said.

The coronavirus has provided the opportunity, however grim, to make that argument loud and clear — and not just in California.

Rachel Gillette, a Denver-based cannabis attorney and a board member of Colorado’s chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, said she and the group have asked local elected officials to draft ordinances or resolutions to allow delivery of medical marijuana. But she acknowledged that could be difficult given the times.

“They may have a lot of other things on their plate than trying to figure out how to facilitate delivery for marijuana businesses,” she said, adding that allowing recreational pot delivery before next year would require legislative action.

The Colorado governor’s office said in an email there are no plans to allow businesses to apply for recreational marijuana delivery licenses before 2021, and online sales of recreational marijuana would not be allowed after the executive order expires.

The Marijuana Enforcement Division can’t authorize online recreational sales without a change in state law, but it will continue to evaluate whether the emergency rules should be amended, renewed or repealed, according to the governor’s office.

Under state law, emergency rules can only stay in effect for 120 days.





___

Associated Press writer Michael R. Blood in Los Angeles contributed to this report.


AP

Trump’s disdain for ‘Obamacare’ could hamper virus response

By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR

In this image provided by U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Service, the website for HealthCare.gov is seen. The Trump administration’s opposition to “Obamacare” could become an obstacle to helping millions of uninsured people in the coronavirus outbreak, as well as many workers who are losing coverage because of the economic shutdown. Experts say the Affordable Care Act’s insurance markets provide an infrastructure for extending subsidized private coverage in every state. (U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Service via AP)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration’s unrelenting opposition to “Obamacare” could become an obstacle for millions of uninsured people in the coronavirus outbreak, as well as many who are losing coverage in the economic shutdown.

Experts say the Affordable Care Act’s insurance markets provide a ready-made infrastructure for extending subsidized private coverage in every state, allowing more people access to medical treatment before they get so sick they have to go to the emergency room. In about three-fourths of the states, expanded Medicaid is also available to low-income people.


But the Trump administration has resisted reopening the ACA’s HealthCare.gov marketplace for uninsured people who missed the last sign-up period. And it doesn’t seem to be doing much to inform people who lost job-based coverage that they’re eligible for insurance now through the ACA.

State-run exchanges prominently promote the availability of coverage, but users of HealthCare.gov have to go through a series of clicks to get that information.

“There is definitely a greater prioritization of coronavirus on the state exchange websites,” said Katherine Hempstead of the nonpartisan Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. “The state exchanges put a message about coronavirus along the top of their home page — ‘above the fold’ — while on HealthCare.gov it appears that it’s business as usual until you scroll down.”

On Monday, leading congressional Democrats wrote Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar to urge reopening HealthCare.gov and a focused effort to inform people who lose job-based coverage of their rights to an ACA plan.

“Many remain unaware of how to sign up or the existence of financial assistance to lower their costs,” wrote Reps. Richard Neal, D-Mass., Frank Pallone, D-N.J., and Bobby Scott, D-Va, along with Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Patty Murray, D-Wash.

Some of the biggest coverage gains under the Obama-era law came among African Americans and Hispanics, groups that face grave complications from coronavirus infections due to high rates of underlying diseases like diabetes.

In a statement, HHS did not address the question of opening the health insurance marketplaces, as several states have. The agency referred people who have lost job-based coverage to a page on the HealthCare.gov site.

Instead of taking a similar approach as states like New York and California, the Trump administration has directed hospitals to use part of a $100 billion health system relief fund to offset costs of treating uninsured patients with COVID-19.


The American Medical Association says that money won’t be enough. COVID-19 treatment for the uninsured could cost from $14 billion to $48 billion, according to a recent estimate from the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation. And Congress intended the stimulus bill to help hospitals and medical offices meet basic operating costs.


“We need to leverage the Affordable Care Act so it can serve as the strong safety net that our country needs, especially given the job disruption that is causing many Americans to lose their health insurance,” said AMA President Dr. Patrice Harris.

The American Hospital Association supports opening up HealthCare.gov and a new, separate fund to pay for treating the uninsured.

The Trump administration is facing three big challenges with uninsured people and with those who’ve been laid off and lost coverage:

— Before the coronavirus outbreak about 28 million people were uninsured. Many would have been eligible for Obamacare but failed to sign up. Without a new enrollment period, most are out of options. If they get infected by the coronavirus, they might postpone seeking help until they get really sick, hurting their own chances and exposing others to infection.

— Another group of between 12 million and 35 million people could lose workplace coverage, according to an estimate by the research and consulting firm Health Management Associates. People in this group are entitled to a special sign-up opportunity through HealthCare.gov and some may be eligible for Medicaid. That’s if they know about these options.

— It’s unknown how well HealthCare.gov would handle a wave of sign-ups outside the normal open enrollment season. Democratic Reps. Mark Pocan of Wisconsin and Jan Schakowsky of Illinois recently raised concerns about the potential for coronavirus to spread at call centers that service Obamacare and Medicare. Officials with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services say the agency is protecting workers and moving to facilitate telework.

Officially, the Trump administration remains committed to overturning the Obama-era health law, which will soon face another test at the Supreme Court.

But President Donald Trump has sent plenty of signals that he’s aware the cost of coronavirus treatment could become a political problem.

He’s successfully pressed insurers to waive copays and deductibles for testing, and he’s pushing on treatment costs as well. Yet if there’s a surge of uninsured people unable to afford treatment it could overtake the White House as rapidly as the outbreak itself did.

“The fact that we have a health crisis in combination with an economic crisis is going to put the issue of health coverage more prominently on the agenda again,” said Drew Altman, president of the Kaiser Family Foundation.

With more than 1 in 10 workers recently losing jobs, the mainstay of employer coverage will shrink. Government programs are intended to take up the slack. How much, and how smoothly that happens, will have political ramifications for November’s elections.

New Jersey Democratic Rep. Pallone said expanding coverage under the Obama health law “is the practical thing to do” and called the Trump administration’s efforts “patchwork.”

Democrats want to make health care a central element of the next coronavirus bill.

“We want to open up the enrollment again so people can sign up,” Pallone said.

Virus closes some meat plants, raising fears of shortages

By JOSH FUNK APRIL 12, 2020

Amid concerns of the spread of COVID-19, Belia Alvarado wipes the meat counter display at El Rancho grocery store in Dallas, Monday, April 13, 2020. (AP Photo/LM Otero)
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Some massive meat processing plants have closed at least temporarily because their workers were sickened by the new coronavirus, raising concerns that there could soon be shortages of beef, pork and poultry in supermarkets.

The meat supply chain is especially vulnerable since processing is increasingly done at massive plants that butcher tens of thousands of animals daily, so the closure of even a few big ones can quickly be felt by customers. For instance, a Smithfield Foods plant that was forced to close in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, after nearly 300 of the plant’s 3,700 workers tested positive for the virus produces roughly 5% of the U.S. pork supply each day.

In addition, conditions at plants can be ripe for exploitation by the virus: Workers stand shoulder-to-shoulder on the line and crowd into locker rooms to change their clothes before and after shifts.

The virus has infected hundreds of workers at plants in Colorado, South Dakota, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Mississippi and elsewhere. The capacity of plants that remain open has also been hurt by workers who are sick or staying home because of fears of illness — though it’s not clear by how much.

While company owners promise to deep clean their plants and resume operations as quickly as possible, it’s difficult to keep workers healthy given how closely they work together.

“There is no social distance that is possible when you are either working on the slaughter line or in a processing assignment,” said Paula Schelling, acting chairwoman for the food inspectors union in the American Federation of Government Employees.

The reduced production so far has been offset by the significant amount of meat that was in cold storage, said Glynn Tonsor, an agricultural economist at Kansas State University. Producers are also working to shift meat that would have gone to now-closed restaurants over to grocery stores.

Whether shoppers start to see more empty shelves or higher prices will depend on how many plants close and for how long.

At least half a dozen plants have closed temporarily, but that’s across the pork, chicken and beef sectors, and Tonsor said the industry can manage for now.

“You could shut multiple plants down for a day or two, and we’ve got wiggle room to handle that,” said Tonsor. “But if you took four or five of those big plants ... and they had to be down for two weeks, then you’ve got a game changer.”

Still, the reduced meat processing capacity is already driving down the prices farmers and ranchers receive for cattle, hogs and chickens.

“It’s like people on an escalator. Stopping the pork chain at the top of an escalator is just going to cause all sorts of tragedy and disaster all the way back up the system,” said Dermot Hayes, professor of economics and finance at Iowa State University.

Farmers are being forced to kill baby pigs because the space in the barns where they were supposed to go is still filled by the pigs that should have been slaughtered last week, Hayes said. The meat from those baby pigs cannot be sold.

That has driven prices for those feeder pigs — which generally are fattened over the course of six months — to zero, Hayes said. The value of those big enough for the market is down about 50% from a month ago. The value of the meat is down about 30%.

Lower prices for producers could mean higher prices for consumers eventually, if production falls off, according to Chad Hart, an agricultural economist at Iowa State University.

Tyson, Cargill and other major meat processing companies say they are adopting several measures: taking the temperature of everyone entering plants, adding clear plastic shields between work stations and erecting tents to allow workers to spread out more at lunch. But critics worry that workers too often continue working in close proximity and that measures are being adopted piecemeal.

The League of United Latin American Citizens recently asked federal regulators to establish uniform rules after a number of immigrant workers complained to the rights group about tight quarters.

The new coronavirus is highly contagious. For most people, it causes mild or moderate symptoms, but for some, especially older adults and people with health problems, it can cause more severe illness and lead to death.

Federal health officials do not consider COVID-19 to be a food safety concern, but they recommend that workers maintain a safe distance from one another.

But Lily Ordaz Prado, who recently quit her job at the Smithfield plant in Sioux Falls, said she didn’t see those recommendations being put into practice, noting the crowded conditions in locker rooms and on assembly lines. The 30-year-old called her decision to leave “the best decision that I have ever made.”

Smithfield officials have defended operations in Sioux Falls and said the company is taking “the utmost precautions and actions to ensure the health and wellbeing of our employees.”

Meanwhile, Hector Gonzalez, senior vice president of human resources at Tyson Foods, said the food giant is making important changes for its roughly 140,000 workers, such as slowing down production lines and adding plastic barriers between work stations.

Other meat companies say they have stepped up the cleaning of their plants and prohibited visitors. Several major meat companies are also paying workers more for continuing to work during the pandemic. For instance, JBS USA is paying workers a one-time $600 bonus. Cargill has temporarily boosted pay by $2 an hour.

Most major meatpacking companies also have relaxed attendance and sick leave policies to ensure that workers can receive at least some pay if they have to stay at home after testing positive or coming in contact with someone who has.

“Most of the employers that we deal with right now are really making a solid attempt to try and fix stuff,” said Marc Perrone, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers union. “We’re just working as hard as we can to protect as many people as possible right now and make sure that we keep the food supply open.”

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Associated Press writers David Pitt in Des Moines, Iowa, and Stephen Groves in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, contributed to this report.

SEE  

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

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

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

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


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

Virus exposes US inequality. Will it spur lasting remedies?

By PAUL WISEMAN 4/13/2020

FILE - In this April 3, 2020, file photo, the seating area is closed-off at a food court in Assi Plaza during the coronavirus outbreak in Niles, Ill. For years, financial inequality has widened in the United States and elsewhere as wealth and income have become increasingly concentrated among the most affluent while millions struggle to get by. Now, the coronavirus outbreak has laid bare the human cost of that inequality, making it more visible and potentially worse. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The sick who still go to work because they have no paid leave.

Families who face ruin from even a temporary layoff.

Front-line workers risking infection as they drive buses, bag takeout meals and mop hospital floors.

For years, financial inequality has widened in the United States and elsewhere as wealth and income have become increasingly concentrated among the most affluent while millions struggle to get by. Now, the coronavirus outbreak has laid bare the human cost of that inequality, making it more visible and potentially worse.

Congress, the Trump administration and the Federal Reserve have mounted the largest financial intervention in history — a full-scale drive that includes mandating sick leave for some, distributing $1,200 checks to individuals, allocating rescue aid to employers and expanding unemployment benefits to try to help America survive the crisis.

Yet those measures are only temporary. And for millions of newly unemployed, they may not be enough.

The disaster that is igniting what’s likely to be a deep recession also raises the question of what happens once life begins to edge back to normal. Will the U.S. remain an outlier among wealthy countries in providing limited protections for the financially vulnerable? Or will it expand the social safety net, as it did after the Great Depression of the 1930s but largely did not after the Great Recession that ended in 2009?




“Maybe there will be a cultural shift,” said Elise Gould, senior economist at the progressive Economic Policy Institute. “I see it as a great opening to try to (provide) those labor protections that low-wage workers didn’t have before.’’

Gould notes that the government’s suddenly expanded role now in distributing relief checks, expanding health benefits and sick leave and supplementing state unemployment aid would make it easier to extend such programs even after a recession has ended. Doing so could have the longer-term effect of reducing financial inequalities.

Whether the government ends up adopting any long-lasting policy reforms will depend in part on which party controls the White House and Congress beginning in January. In the meantime, the topic is sure to drive much of the campaign rhetoric as the presidential race moves toward the November election.

Alone among advanced economies, the United States doesn’t require employers to grant sick leave and paid time off. America’s system for providing unemployment aid, a patchwork of state programs, isn’t as generous or efficient as European government programs that subsidize wages or provide safeguards to limit layoffs.

America’s minimum wages also lag far behind those in most of Europe, though many states have raised their minimums in recent years. In 2018, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development concluded that the U.S. national minimum wage paid 33 cents for every $1 earned by workers in the middle of the earnings spectrum. That contrasted with 46 cents in Germany, 54 cents in the United Kingdom and 62 cents in France.

The coronavirus has struck at the most vulnerable. African-Americans account for 42% of the nearly 3,300 COVID-19 deaths that The Associated Press reviewed — twice their share of the population in the areas covered by the analysis. Blacks as a group earn less, endure higher rates of unemployment and have less access to health care than other Americans. They also suffer disproportionately from the underlying conditions that make them more vulnerable to COVID-19: Diabetes, obesity, asthma.

The financial pain, too, has landed hardest on the neediest as the economy locks down to fight the outbreak. The United States last month lost 713,000 private sector jobs. Jobs in leisure and hospitality (mostly restaurants and hotels) accounted for 64% of the losses. And those workers earn an average of just $16.83 an hour, 41% less than the average American.


They are people like Alexi Ajoste, who worked at a Panera Bread shop for three years before being furloughed late last month. Ajoste, a 20-year-old from Tempe, Arizona, has filed for unemployment benefits.

“I have a savings account and have money backed up for emergencies, but it scares me,” Ajoste said. “I don’t know if my savings account is enough for all of this. I feel like the unemployment checks will be enough for the next couple of months....As long as it doesn’t last four or five months, I think I’ll be good.”

Congress’ rescue plans are intended to ease the pain. They require companies with fewer than 500 workers to offer paid sick leave, although employers with fewer than 50 can seek an exemption. The government is sending $1,200 checks to Americans who earn up to $75,000 and smaller checks to many who earn more.

The rescue plan extended unemployment benefits for the first time to part-time and gig workers such as Uber drivers. And it added $600 a week to existing state unemployment payments. But states have been swamped by claims for jobless benefits — nearly 17 million over the past three weeks — and are struggling to deliver the new federal aid.

Shamira Chism, for example, who was laid off from her job as a line cook at a Nashville restaurant three weeks ago, says she’s getting by on state unemployment benefits of $275 a week. But she’s still waiting for Tennessee to upgrade its systems to deliver the additional $600 a week in federally provided benefits.

Throughout U.S. history, economic catastrophes have sometimes led to lasting programs to benefit ordinary people — and sometimes have not. President Franklin D. Roosevelt drove through a series of lasting changes to the economy after the Depression struck, to provide Social Security pensions, for instance, and to make it easier for workers to form unions and bargain for higher wages and better working conditions.

President Barack Obama countered the Great Recession with a stimulus package and pushed through legislation that provided health insurance coverage to millions of Americans. But a backlash by conservative critics, decrying what they called meddlesome and costly government programs, stymied further action. The government ended up doing less to help the economy recover from the Great Recession than it had after previous downturns.
This time, said Alexandra Cawthorne Gaines of the liberal Center for American Progress, “What we want to see are long-term structural changes,” including expanding access to health care. In light of the crisis, she said, there may be more willingness, from Republicans and Democrats alike, to better protect the neediest.

Gould at the Economic Policy Institute said the country needs to strengthen its social safety so the needy aren’t left so vulnerable in the next public health crisis.

“This is not the last time this is going to happen,” she said.

___

AP writers Travis Loller in Nashville, Tennessee, and Anne D’Innocenzio in New York contributed to this report.

AP

Coronavirus spurs 'massive shift' in alcohol supply chain not seen since Prohibition: Drizly CEO

Daniel HowleyTechnology Editor Yahoo Finance April 12, 2020


With people across the U.S. facing orders to remain in their homes, and bars and restaurants closed as part of the ongoing effort to quell the coronavirus outbreak, alcohol sales have gone through the roof.

And at least one service is reaping the benefits of that increased demand.

Alcohol delivery app Drizly says it saw sales explode in the last week of March, climbing 537% above the company’s expectations, which it calculates based on sales from the previous 8 weeks.

What’s more, 42% of those orders came from new accounts. In fact, the company says new buyers on the platform jumped 900% year-over-year. (The company, however, wouldn’t provide its exact revenue or user numbers.)

“This is a supply chain that hasn't changed a whole lot in the 90 plus years since Prohibition was repealed,” Drizly CEO Cory Rellas told Yahoo Finance’s “On The Move” last week. “What we’ve seen is just a massive mix shift from drinking at bars and restaurants, to home.”

‘We need to lean on technology’

Drizly, which is available on Android, iOS, and the web, works with more than 2,200 retailers across the U.S. to deliver beer, wine, and other alcohol to consumers via in-person drop-offs. The company says it’s working with its retail partners to come up with new ways to provide contactless deliveries amid the coronavirus pandemic.

“We've used technology as well as partnered with our liquor stores on the other side to effectively make them e-commerce distribution centers to keep up with demand,” Rellas said. “As in-store traffic falls, we need to lean on technology to bring all of this together and be able to provide deliveries to the house within two hours.”

A customer wearing a glove grabs the wine "No Curfew" at the Total Wine & More liquor store in South Beach, Miami, on March 19, 2020. - Liquor sales have exploded in the United States since a national emergency was declared with the closure of many theatres, bars and restaurants, while virtual cocktail parties with "quarantinis" are on the rise. (Photo by Leila MACOR / AFP) (Photo by LEILA MACOR/AFP via Getty Images)

Drizly isn’t the only game in town, though. The company has to contend with competition from DoorDash and Postmates, which are offering alcohol from restaurants in states that have relaxed their regulations to help keep impacted businesses afloat.

And it’s not just Drizly that is reporting a massive increase in alcohol sales amid the coronavirus. According to research firm Nielsen, sales of alcoholic beverages in the U.S. were up 22% year-over-year in the final week of the March.

Online alcohol sales, meanwhile, jumped 291%, as more cities and states allow for restaurants and bars to offer alcohol deliveries, Nielsen’s data shows.
Software as a service for booze

Alcohol listed in the Drizly app isn’t marked up from in-store prices — it just includes a $4.99 fee that goes to liquor stores to pay for delivery costs. Users are able to tip drivers, as well.

Drizly, the CEO explained, makes its cash by charging retailers a licensing fee for the use of its software. Fees range from state to state based on alcohol regulations. Some states may require a percentage fee, a fee for each transaction, or a tiered fee structure.

“There's no built-in margin into this supply chain. It's more about enabling liquor stores to come online, accessing consumers where they are, and providing a platform to do something they really haven't done prio,” Rellas said.

Of course, the extended lockdowns coupled with an on-demand alcohol delivery service raise fears of alcohol abuse, and the potential long-term effects increased consumption can have on consumers ranging from heart to liver problems. To that end, groups like Alcoholics Anonymous have taken to Zoom to help members stay in touch during the ongoing lockdowns

Rellas, for his part, says Drizly is providing a consumer good that is in high demand.

“I think that needs to come with awareness, I think that needs to come with education, and some messaging on our side to imbibe healthfully and think how it can complement the good times in your life, and bring this to the social aspect when we’re largely distanced from each other rather than than something as a coping mechanism,” he said.


In for the long haul?

While the increase in demand for services like Drizly may be soaring due to lockdowns, there is bound to be a drop-off when bars and restaurants reopen, and people can go about their daily lives again. So where does that leave the firm?

Rellas says he’s not sure.

“I think one thing is for sure, awareness for the legality of e-commerce has grown, awareness for Drizly the platform and why it's potentially opening up avenues you couldn't do within a liquor store has grown,” he said.

Where that puts the company when the country opens up for business again, is anyone’s guess.

Women's invisible labor is keeping America going

Zoe Fenson

Illustrated | iStock/d_rich, iStock/Vadzim Kushniarou, Keystone Features/Getty Images
April 8, 2020

For the past week, I've been making fabric masks. I didn't want to, even as my fellow American sewists joined craftivist collectives and bought up the country's entire supply of braided elastic. But in this time of rapidly-changing and conflicting information, the CDC has abruptly conceded the wisdom of wearing masks in public, an about-face in messaging from "unnecessary and ineffective" to "probably crucial, and certainly better than nothing."

So I've been sitting down every day at my sewing machine, with a pile of quilting cotton scraps and a pattern printed from a stranger's blog. There's something almost sweet about this notion of contributing to the "war effort" while otherwise hunkering down at home — at least, if you ignore the terrifying implications of resorting en masse to making our own personal protective gear out of cotton scraps and hair ties.

But that sentimental filter obscures the sheer amount of work involved in making mask after mask — not just the manual labor, but also the mental strain of sifting through an internet's worth of muddled and conflicting information. Which mask style is best — boxy, pleated, or curved? Which of the zillion online patterns for each style is better? What fabrics are most suitable, or even remotely effective? Elastic or fabric ties? Twist ties, pipe cleaners, or skip the nose wire altogether? All while trying to source or substitute materials that are rapidly selling out everywhere.

And — you knew this was coming — I've noticed a pattern. Of the people I know who are making masks in enough volume to give them away, almost none is a cisgender (STRAIGHT/HETEROSEXUAL) man. In the realm of hobbies, sewing is perhaps one of the most strongly feminized. The push for fabric masks is being fueled by an army of female and non-binary sewists. Much of this labor is unrecognized; almost all of it is unpaid. The overall narrative involves goodness of hearts, housebound hobbyists getting their sewing fix with the side perk of saving the world.

It's not just masks, either. Now that so many of us have been driven indoors for the foreseeable future, we're getting an object lesson in just how much labor goes into holding our domestic lives together — and how gendered that balance of labor is. This is something that has long been rendered invisible in our cultural paradigms of crisis. In the words of journalist Laurie Penny, "emotional and domestic labor have never been part of the grand story men have told themselves about the destiny of the species."

I'm the first to admit the ways in which my privilege has colored these experiences. My cisgender male spouse and I both have white-collar jobs that can easily be done from home. We have health insurance and ample savings. We have access to everything we need, and many things we want, in order to shelter comfortably at home. Our nearest and dearest are, for the most part, in a similar boat. (And, it's worth acknowledging, we have historically outsourced some aspects of house maintenance — like periodic professional cleanings and handyman repairs — that would otherwise break along decidedly gendered lines.)



And yet, even in these relatively rarefied circumstances, I see inequities creeping in. My husband has done his best to step up around the house, both before and after coronavirus hit our shores. But it's not a 50-50 split. Take food, for example (already a gendered topic in our household). Now that we're charged with feeding ourselves at home for every single meal, we're trying to share the load. But I'm the one who knows how many cans of tuna we have in our pantry, or how long the broccoli has been in the fridge, or how many meals we can get out of a pound of pasta. When I'm on tap to figure out a meal, I'll cook (with all the cascading mental labor involved) or identify leftovers that need eating. When it's his turn, he opens a can of soup or orders takeout. The result is arguably the same — we get fed — but the amount of mental energy we're each willing to devote to the task is markedly different.

My friends and colleagues have voiced similar frustrations. The phrase "1950s housewife" is being thrown around with increasing regularity. With schools and daycares closed, many male-female co-parents I know have fallen into an achingly familiar pattern: the male partner focuses primarily on his job and pitches in when he has breaks, while the female partner attempts to homeschool and entertain the children while also fulfilling the bare minimum of her professional obligations, attempting to keep the house clean and get food into every belly in the house three times a day.

Even for the non-parents in my social circle, the labor of readying and maintaining a house for indefinite lockdown is not symmetrical. During our first week of sheltering in place, I made a frantic inventory of every item in our house that might run out in the near future, and figured out how much of each item to purchase (and from where) without tipping too far into hoarding territory. My husband focused on technology, setting up our living room and his office for near-constant video chatting. Again, the effort expended here is arguably similar; but the shape of the work, and the amount of the overall household mental load that it absorbs, is not.



This might sound trivial. But America, from its founding to its current late-stage catastrophe, has run on this kind of unacknowledged and under-compensated labor. As jobs like delivering mail or stocking store shelves become a matter of literal life and death, this machinery is suddenly harder to ignore. And gender is far from the only axis along which these inequities run. But every little bit is worth paying attention to. And this invisible labor is not simply a matter of choice; it is spider-silk holding our households together in uncertain and frightening times. We do this work because we fear that if we didn't, it would not get done.

The CDC's recommendations for cloth masks include no explicit acknowledgement of how individuals are supposed to acquire them. But it does include instructions for making them oneself. The implication, to me, is clear: Someone in our lives is supposed to manufacture these masks for us by hand. Overwhelmingly, that "someone" will be a woman.

FAUCI RECANTED FASTER THAN ZINOVIEV AT HIS SHOW TRIA

Fauci says he used the 'wrong choice of words' when describing 'pushback' from White House

Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty ImagesDuring Monday's White House coronavirus briefing, Dr. Anthony Fauci said comments he made over the weekend were not meant to be jabs against President Trump.

Fauci is director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a member of the White House coronavirus task force. While appearing on CNN's State of the Union on Sunday morning, Fauci told host Jake Tapper that in February, there was "a lot of pushback" to the idea of enacting social distancing guidelines, and "you could logically say that if you had a process that was ongoing and you started mitigation earlier, you could have saved lives." The White House issued social distancing guidelines on March 16.

On Monday, Fauci said he was answering a "hypothetical question," and stating that there was "a lot of pushback" was "the wrong choice of words." When asked if Trump suggested he offer the clarification, Fauci responded, "Everything I do is voluntarily. Please. Don't even imply that." Catherine GarciaTrump attacks Dr. Fauci and the New York Times

Trump on Sunday reposted a tweet calling for Dr. Anthony Fauci to be fired, and slammed a New York Times report that detailed how he was warned about the likelihood of a global pandemic but repeatedly resisted the advice of health care and intelligence experts.

In an interview with CNN, Fauci conceded that “logically” fewer people would have been infected if stay-at-home and social-distancing measures had been imposed in February, instead of mid-March. Fauci went to great lengths to explain that the decision was based on many considerations, but Trump still retweeted a message from former Republican congressional candidate, DeAnna Lorraine.

“Fauci was telling people on February 29 that there was nothing to worry about and it posed no threat to the U.S. at large,” said the tweet, which had the hashtag: Time to #FireFauci.”

Trump also attacked Fox News Anchor Chris Wallace for covering the New York Times article and for commenting that at his daily briefings, he’s been “getting into fights with governors he did not think were sufficiently appreciative or reporters.”

It was not the first time that Trump has bashed Wallace, whom the president said will never live up to his father’s legacy and should go work for one of the “fake news” networks.

Capitol Report
Fauci says he used poor choice of words when describing Trump coronavirus efforts

Published: April 13, 2020 By Robert Schroeder
White House says Trump won’t fire doctor after critical retweet


Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

AFP via Getty Images

Dr. Anthony Fauci on Monday tried to clarify comments he made in a Sunday interview about the Trump administration’s coronavirus response, and said he used a “poor choice of words.”

At a White House news conference, Fauci, a health-policy adviser to Trump, said he wanted to clear up an answer to a “hypothetical question,” in which he said earlier coronavirus mitigation efforts would have saved more lives.

“That was taken as a way that maybe somehow, something was at fault,” he said. Fauci added that Trump approved social distancing the first time he recommended it. He said his statement that there was “pushback” to early recommendations was a “poor choice of words.”

“You could logically say that if you had a process that was ongoing and you started mitigation earlier, you could have saved lives,” Fauci said on CNN on Sunday.

Fauci on Monday said he did not know the date that he and another official went to Trump to make a recommendation.

Earlier Monday, the White House said Trump wouldn’t fire Fauci, after the president retweeted a critic who called for the doctor to be dismissed after he said lives could have been saved if the administration had acted more quickly.

Trump told reporters, “I like him,” adding: “Not everyone’s happy with Anthony. Not everybody is happy with everybody.”

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued emergency use authorizations for medical devices, allowing them to decontaminate N95 or N95-equivalent respirators so that they can be reused by health care workers. The first was granted to Steris Corp. STE, -2.08%, the second to Advanced Sterilization Products INc., a unit of Fortive Corp. FTV, -2.65%

THEY ARE USING VAPORIZED HYDROGEN PEROXIDE, HP IS ALSO THE BEST DISINFECTANT TO USE AS AN ALTERNATIVE TO BLEACH OR QUATS