Food Rationing Is New Reality for Buyers Once Spoiled for Choice

Jen Skerritt and Deena Shanker Bloomberg April 21, 2020

(Bloomberg) -- At a Publix store in St. Petersburg, Florida, handmade signs limit customers to two packages of beef, pork and Italian sausage. In Toronto, shoppers at a west end Loblaws can’t buy more than two dozen eggs and two gallons of milk.

Spoiled for choice before the pandemic, North American shoppers are finding they can’t get everything they want as grocery stores ration in-demand items to safeguard supplies.

While the panic that swept through supermarkets in the first weeks of the coronavirus lockdowns has eased, people are still filling fridges and pantries with stay-at-home staples from flour and yeast to pasta sauce and meat.

The strong demand comes at a time of supply disruptions as food makers adapt to dramatic shifts in buying patterns and some processing plants close as workers fall ill. As a result, stores are restricting purchases to prevent items from vanishing from shelves. For shoppers, that can be unnerving.

“It’s not a shortage, it’s just that it needs to get from the supplier throughout the supply chain to the stores,” said Diane Brisebois, president and chief executive officer of the Retail Council of Canada. “There’s been an unexpected increase in demand for those products, and if those demands continue, it might take a bit longer to get them to the shelves.”

Overall, there’s enough retail supply, said Heather Garlich, a spokesperson for FMI, a food industry association that represents retailers and producers.

But there have been “sporadic challenges” with high-demand products, and 49% of U.S. shoppers report their supermarket has had products out of stock, according to the industry’s tracking. On popular items, “they could consider limits based on where the grocer may be located and when their supplier or wholesalers can get them product,” Garlich said.

The dizzying variety of foods on grocery shelves has long been a trademark of North American supermarkets. That’s now changing, leaving shoppers worried. Some manufacturers have shifted their focus to making more of just a few core products, which makes it easier for retailers to restock supplies.

“The thing I’m struck by, in the U.S., we’re so used to walking down a supermarket aisle and having thousands of choices,” said Heidi Heitkamp, a former North Dakota Senator and current member of alliantgroup’s strategic advisory board. “Now that’s not what people see on the shelves and it’s a little unnerving. But what everyone should be grateful for is that you can walk into any supermarket in a major metro area and you can find food to eat. That’s a critically important national security concern.”

There are signs that panic buying is waning and shoppers are returning to more traditional patterns. U.S. packaged food sales rose 24% in the week ended April 4 from a year ago, slowing from a gain of 32% a week earlier, according to data compiled by Nielsen. Limits on the number of visitors per store are also affecting sales.

Costco Wholesale Corp.’s sales rose in March but not as much as expected. Limits placed on its operations to cope with coronavirus-related demand slowed growth in the back half of the month.

“I honestly think rationing may disappear at some point over the next few weeks because expectations have changed a little bit,” said Sylvain Charlebois, director of the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. “People have come to accept what’s happening right now.”

And while meat aisles remain well-stocked, the spread of coronavirus among North American slaughterhouses is raising concerns of a shortfall in pork and beef at grocery stores. The shutdown of major U.S. processing plants, including JBS SA’s closure of its Worthington, Minnesota, pork plant this week, means more than 10% of the nation’s hog-slaughtering capacity is down.

“Once we see the impact of workers testing positive in the packing plants, we’re going to see a shortage of meat,” said Heitkamp, the former senator.

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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EMPLOYEES SAY SMITHFIELD PLANT IN WISCONSIN CONCEALED COVID-19 INFECTIONS

 PRESSURED THEM TO WORK ELBOW TO ELBOW WITHOUT PROTECTION

The closed Smithfield Foods plant in Sioux Falls, S.D., on April 15, 2020. Photo: Dan Brouillette/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Lee Fang -THE INTERCEPT-  April 19 2020

SMITHFIELD FOODS, the meat industry giant facing mounting questions over its handling of the coronavirus crisis, repeatedly failed to protect its workforce at a Wisconsin plant, according to workers who spoke to The Intercept.

The workers at the Patrick Cudahy factory, in Cudahy, Wisconsin, faced a Covid-19 outbreak weeks ago, but say managers initially concealed the number of infections, pressured employees to avoid quarantine measures, and failed to provide any face masks or dividers.

A recent outbreak at Smithfield’s pork processing plant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, is now one of the largest Covid-19 hotspots in the U.S., with 644 confirmed cases tied to the facility. The Smithfield outbreak represents nearly half of all confirmed cases in that state.

Now, the Wisconsin plant, which employs more than 1,000 workers, has more than two dozen confirmed cases and closed down on Wednesday for cleaning and sanitation. Workers at the plant, who spoke to The Intercept under condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal, say much more should have been done.

One plant worker with asthma said that when he asked for a mask last month, an official at the company declined his request because if he was provided one, Smithfield would “have to do it for everyone else.”

He said that one of his co-workers had brought his own mask and was reprimanded to Smithfield’s human resources department, which told him that wearing his own mask would result in suspension.

After days of back and forth between the plant managers and workers, the Cudahy plant allowed its workforce to bring its own masks. Some appeared at work with homemade cloth masks, but most continued to work without basic safety equipment, such as N95 masks.

“Eventually they tried to do some social distancing in the cafeteria, but actually, they’re working elbow to elbow on the line, so there’s no social distancing there,” said the sister of another plant worker. There are currently no Plexiglas dividers between workers, though UFCW Local 1473, which represents workers at the plant, has called for such safeguards to be installed.

“There’s been people sick at the plant. I know at least three people I know at work are sick,” said another worker, who explained that the company first refused to release information about infections at the plant and those who have been in contact with them.

Last week, Fox6 News, a local news affiliate, reported on rising tensions within the Cudahy plant, with many workers expressing fear that the company was not doing enough to prevent an outbreak. Fox6 News obtained records from the Cudahy Health Department showing at least 28 cases at the facility. William Garron, a former union representative, also told Fox, “They really trying to hide the number.” Following the report, Smithfield announced plans to close the plant for cleaning and said only partial crews would work intermittently.

Read Our Complete CoverageThe Coronavirus Crisis


Wisconsin currently has over 3,555 confirmed cases of the coronavirus. Gov. Tony Evers has promoted telework and stay-at-home policies for nonessential businesses. The state’s response to the crisis has been the focus of national attention in recent weeks after Republicans on the state Supreme Court ruled that the state must proceed with April 7 in-person voting over protests from public health advocates and the governor.

Smithfield, which is owned by Chinese conglomerate WH Group, did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

The Cudahy plant and the town in which it is located is named after Patrick Cudahy, an industrialist who pioneered mass pork production across Wisconsin in the late 19th century. The company, which became a subsidiary of Smithfield in 1984, produces branded bacon and dry sausage at the plant, which is near the Milwaukee airport.

Smithfield, which owns meat plants across the country, has a long history of worker injuries and fatalities. The company often uses foreign guest workers, many of whom have reported abusive treatment. In 2007, a number of guest workers from Thailand working in Smithfield plants reported slave-like conditions. The workers later reached a confidential settlement with Smithfield and a recruiting company called Global Horizons.

In response to national attention to the spread of the disease at the South Dakota plant, Smithfield announced last week that it would temporarily close some plants in Missouri and North Carolina.

In a statement published on the Smithfield Foods website, CEO Kenneth Sullivan struck a defiant tone.

“We have a stark choice as a nation: we are either going to produce food or not, even in the face of COVID-19,” wrote Sullivan. The current push to temporarily close plants for cleaning, he added, “is pushing our country perilously close to the edge in terms of our meat supply.”

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

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Farmer: 61K Chickens Killed Due to Fall in Egg Demand
THE KRISIS OF KAPITALISM IS OVERPRODUCTION

(Peter Titmuss/Dreamstime)
By Tauren Dyson | Tuesday, 21 April 2020

A contract egg farmer in Minnesota said he had to euthanize 61,000 chickens after the coronavirus pandemic has driven down demand for their eggs, according to the Star Tribune.

"They come in with carts, put them all in carts, wheel them up to the end, put a hose in that cart and gas them, then dump them over the edge into a conveyor and convey them up into semis and the semis haul them out," Kerry Mergen, told the Star Tribune.

"I was in there for quite a while, and the longer I was there the more disgusted and disappointed I was knowing that I'm not going to see anything put back in my checkbook again, so after a while, I just simply left," he added.

Since Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz ordered a stay-in-place order for the state March 25, the demand for eggs, milk, and lettuce has dried up as the caterers, restaurants and schools have closed their doors.

"It is important to note that food-service orders have not stopped, but with the decline in food-service orders, Cargill and its egg suppliers are working diligently to rebalance supply to match these consumer and customer shifts," Cargill said in a statement.

According to Mergen, four other egg farms that were much larger had their chickens euthanized in the state recently.

Barb Mergen, Kerry's wife, said she would miss the money the chickens brought in more than the animals.

"Don't sugarcoat it. It is what it is," Barb told the Star-Tribune. "It's painless for the birds. I don't have a thing against that, but it's just that someone can come in so quickly and when they euthanized the birds, that was our paycheck euthanized."

IT IS NOT PAINLESS FOR THE CHICKENS, THAT'S A MYTH TO MAKE FARMERS FEEL BETTER ABOUT (MASS) MURDER MOST FOWL

UPDATED
Doctor says he was removed from federal post after opposing funding for unproven drugs

BY NATHANIEL WEIXEL - THE HILL - 04/22/20

The former head of the federal office that will be at the forefront of developing a cure for COVID-19 said he was forced out after he prioritized science instead of promoting unproven treatments.

In a statement, Rick Bright said he was removed as the director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) because he limited the broad use of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, two drugs that President Trump repeatedly pushed as potential cures without evidence.
The New York Times was the first to report Bright's statement.

Bright was moved to a narrower job at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

“I believe this transfer was in response to my insistence that the government invest the billions of dollars allocated by Congress to address the Covid-19 pandemic into safe and scientifically vetted solutions, and not in drugs, vaccines and other technologies that lack scientific merit,” he said.

Bright said he "resisted efforts to fund potentially dangerous drugs promoted by those with political connections."

"Specifically, and contrary to misguided directives, I limited the broad use of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, promoted by the administration as a panacea, but which clearly lack scientific merit,” Bright said.

Hydroxychloroquine is used to treat malaria and conditions such as lupus and arthritis, and has not been approved for COVID-19.

Trump has called it a "game changer" against COVID-19, despite limited anecdotal evidence that it works.

“While I am prepared to look at all options and to think ‘outside the box’ for effective treatments, I rightly resisted efforts to provide an unproven drug on demand to the American public," Bright said.

BARDA is a small agency within the Department of Health and Human Services that was created in 2006 to help invest in drug and vaccine development projects for pandemic diseases such as Ebola and Zika.

The agency is expected to be at the forefront of public-private partnerships to develop a treatment for COVID-19. The most recent stimulus bill gives the agency an additional $1 billion to research, develop, manufacture and purchase COVID-19-related materials.

"Sidelining me in the middle of this pandemic and placing politics and cronyism ahead of science puts lives at risk and stunts national efforts to safely and effectively address this urgent public health crisis,” Bright said.

An NIH spokesperson said on Tuesday that Bright would be working to accelerate the development and deployment of new point-of-care coronavirus testing platforms.

In a statement sent late Wednesday, an HHS spokeswoman said it was Bright's support for chloroquine that directly led to the agency's acquisition of the drug.

"As it relates to chloroquine, it was Dr. Bright who requested an Emergency Use Authorization from the Food and Drug Administration for donations of chloroquine that Bayer and Sandoz recently made to the Strategic National Stockpile for use on COVID-19 patients," Caitlin Oakley said. "The EUA is what made the donated product available for use in combating COVID-19."

Bright is represented by attorneys Debra Katz and Lisa Banks of Katz, Marshall & Banks.

In a statement, Katz and Banks said Bright's removal was "retaliation plain and simple. The results from the Administration’s refusal to listen to the experts and to sideline those like Dr. Bright who point out any errors in the government’s response will continue to be catastrophic for the American people."

Katz and Banks said they will request that the Office of Special Counsel seek a stay of Bright's termination, and that he be permitted to remain in his position pending an investigation.

Top House Democrat calls for investigation of HHS vaccine chief's reassignment

BY NATHANIEL WEIXEL - 04/23/20 

© Greg Nash

A top House Democrat is calling for an investigation into the ouster of vaccine expert Rick Bright from his role leading the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA).

Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.) wrote a letter Thursday asking the Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Inspector General to investigate Bright's abrupt transfer to a more narrow role at the National Institutes of Health.

Pallone said he is concerned that the Trump administration has been politicizing public health agencies.

"Removing Dr. Bright in the midst of a pandemic would raise serious concerns under any circumstances, but his allegations that political considerations influenced this decision heighten those concerns and demand full accountability," Pallone wrote.

Pallone asked the OIG to look into who made the decision to reassign Bright, when it was made, and whether any political considerations affected the decision.

Bright on Wednesday alleged he was pushed out because he stood up for science, and limited the broad use of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, drugs being pushed without evidence of effectiveness by President Trump and other administration officials and allies.

“I believe this transfer was in response to my insistence that the government invest the billions of dollars allocated by Congress to address the COVID-19 pandemic into safe and scientifically vetted solutions, and not in drugs, vaccines and other technologies that lack scientific merit,” Bright said in a statement.

But Bright's ouster is complicated. An HHS spokeswoman said it was Bright's support for chloroquine that directly led to the agency's acquisition of the drug.

Bright has hired a pair of prominent D.C. lawyers and said he will be requesting whistleblower status.

Bright said he will be asking the OIG to "investigate the manner in which this administration has politicized the work of BARDA and has pressured me and other conscientious scientists to fund companies with political connections and efforts that lack scientific merit."

Pallone's request for an investigation follows one made Wednesday by Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.)

---30---

Trump reportedly threatened to fire a top doctor at the CDC for sounding the alarm about the coronavirus in February

Grace Panetta BUSINESS INSIDER APRIL 20, 2020

President Donald Trump. Drew Angerer/Getty Images

President Trump threatened to fire a top CDC official after her blunt warnings that COVID-19 would become a pandemic caused the stock market to plunge, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Trump was on a state visit to India when Dr. Nancy Messonnier sounded the alarm about the severity of the coronavirus outbreak during a February 26 press conference.
The Journal reported that Trump then called Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar on his trip back and threatened to oust Messonnier from the CDC altogether.
While Trump did not end up firing Messonnier, The New York Times reported that the entire episode effectively killed any efforts to persuade Trump to take decisive action to mitigate the virus.

President Donald Trump threatened to fire Dr. Nancy Messonnier, a top official at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, after her blunt warnings about the severity of COVID-19 caused the stock market to plunge in February, The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.

Many of the details on the episode surrounding Messonnier were also reported in a lengthy New York Times investigation into all the times Trump brushed aside warnings of the severity of the coronavirus crisis, failed to act, or was delayed by significant infighting and mixed messages from his aides at the White House.

The bulk of The Wall Street Journal's Wednesday report focused on the role of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar in directing the Trump administration's coronavirus response before he was pushed aside after a series of crucial missteps he made — in addition to his clashing with Trump.

Both The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times reported that the defining event that led to Azar's role being diminished was when a top CDC official broke from the administration's otherwise optimistic messaging on the coronavirus.

Trump was on a state visit to India when Messonnier, the director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the CDC, publicly sounded the alarm about the severity of the coronavirus outbreak in a February 26 press conference, saying that the outbreak would soon become a pandemic.

"It's not so much a question of if this will happen anymore but rather more a question of exactly when this will happen and how many people in this country will have severe illness," Messonnier said.

The Times reported that Trump spent the plane ride stewing in anger over both Messonnier's comments and the resulting plummet of the stock market. He called Azar "raging that Dr. Messonnier had scared people unnecessarily," The Times said.

Trump also threatened to fire her from the CDC altogether, according to The Journal.

That day, Azar tried to fix some of the damage by giving a follow-up press conference, but Trump was still incensed.

While Trump did not end up firing Messonnier, The Times reported that the entire episode effectively ended any efforts to persuade Trump to take decisive action to mitigate the virus' spread and led to Azar being sidelined in favor of Vice President Mike Pence.


After three crucial weeks, Trump finally announced nationwide stay-at-home and social-distancing measures on March 16.

In the time between Messonnier's remarks and mid-March, the number of confirmed cases in the US surged from just 15 to over 4,200.

Expert claims reprisal for opposing virus drug Trump touted

RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR,
Associated Press•April 22, 2020

WASHINGTON (AP) — The head of a government agency combating the coronavirus pandemic alleged Wednesday that he was ousted for opposing politically connected efforts to promote a malaria drug that President Donald Trump touted without proof as a remedy for COVID-19.

Rick Bright, former director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, said in a statement that he was summarily removed from his job on Tuesday and reassigned to a lesser role. His lawyers, Debra Katz and Lisa Banks, called it “retaliation plain and simple.”

Controversy has swirled around the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine since Trump started promoting it from the podium in the White House briefing room.
BARDA, the agency that Bright formerly headed, is a unit of the Department of Health and Human Services created to counter threats from bioterrorism and infectious diseases. It has recently been trying to jump-start work on a vaccine for the coronavirus.

“I am speaking out because to combat this deadly virus, science — not politics or cronyism — has to lead the way,” Bright, who has a doctoral degree in immunology, said in his statement, which was released by his lawyers.

“Specifically, and contrary to misguided directives, I limited the broad use of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, promoted by the administration as a panacea, but which clearly lack scientific merit,” Bright said.

“I also resisted efforts to fund potentially dangerous drugs promoted by those with political connections,” he added.

Bright and his lawyers are requesting investigations by the HHS inspector general and by the Office of Special Counsel, an independent agency that has as part of its charge the protection of government whistleblowers.

“While I am prepared to look at all options and to think ‘outside the box' for effective treatments, I rightly resisted efforts to provide an unproven drug on demand to the American public,” Bright wrote.

He also alluded to “clashes with HHS political leadership” over his efforts to “invest early in vaccines and supplies critical to saving American lives.” One of the major criticisms of the Trump administration's pandemic response is that little was done in the month of February to stockpile needed equipment.

“Science, in service to the health and safety of the American people, must always trump politics,” Bright said.

There was no immediate response from HHS to Bright's allegations. The HHS inspector general's office had no response to his request for an investigation.

Trump has repeatedly touted the malaria drug during his regular coronavirus briefings, calling it a “game changer,” and suggesting its skeptics would be proved wrong. He has offered patient testimonials that the drug is a lifesaver.

But a recent study of 368 patients in U.S. veterans hospitals found no benefit from hydroxychloroquine — and more deaths. The study was an early look at the medication, which has prompted debate in the medical community, with many doctors leery of using it.

Hydroxychloroquine was given to patients in the New York area, the nation's most intense COVID-19 hot spot. It is usually administered in combination with the antibiotic azithromycin.

Early in the outbreak, there were some reports that doctors overseas had found it useful.

Bright's allegations were first reported by The New York Times.

An official biography describes him as a flu and infectious-disease expert who joined the agency 10 years ago and was focused on vaccine development. He also held the title of HHS deputy assistant secretary for preparedness and response, reporting to Dr. Robert Kadlec. Bright's new position is with the National Institutes of Health.

The White House appears to have silenced the surgeon general for his remarks on racial disparities in the coronavirus outbreak, as data shows black communities are hardest hit
Julian Kossoff,Ashley Collman Business Insider•April 21, 2020

US Surgeon General Jerome Adams speaks at a coronavirus briefing at the White House on March 14, 2020, as Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin listens in the background.
Alex Brandon/AP


The White House appears to have silenced Surgeon General Jerome Adams after he publicly remarked on how the coronavirus pandemic is impacting minority groups in the US.

Adams hasn't attended a press briefing since April 10, when he made controversial remarks suggesting that minority communities were engaging in risky behaviors that might make them more prone to catching the virus.

But health officials told Politico that Adams's silencing is a loss because he is one of the few members in the US government discussing the outbreak's impact on communities of color.

One former health official told the outlet that Adams sometimes goes "off-script," but said "his heart is in the right place." 

Limited data has shown that African Americans are being disproportionately impacted by the outbreak



The White House appears to have silenced Surgeon General Jerome Adams, one of the only voices speaking about how the coronavirus outbreak is impacting minority communities, according to a new report from Politico. 

Adams hasn't attended a press briefing since April 10, when he made controversial remarks about the transmission of coronavirus in minority communities, suggesting that they were engaging in behaviors that might make them more prone to catching the disease.

"Avoid alcohol, tobacco and drugs," Adams had advised communities of color at that news conference. "We need you to do this, if not for yourself, then for your abuela. Do it for your granddaddy. Do it for your Big Mama. Do it for your Pop-Pop."

Since then, he hasn't been invited to take part in a White House coronavirus press briefing, and has gone from making more than ten TV appearances in a week to just one last week.

The White House and Surgeon General's office did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

People wait in line in their cars to get tested for COVID-19 at Roseland Community Hospital on April 3, 2020.E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images

Health officials told Politico that Adams' silencing has been a loss, as he's been a major advocate for communities of color, and one of the few members in the US government discussing the outbreak's impact on minority groups.

"No one at the task force is really talking about this, consistently, but Jerome," one official at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) told Politico. 

Another former HHS official told the outlet that Adams tends to get in trouble when he goes "off-script," but said "his heart is in the right place." 
The report comes as limited data shows African Americans dying of the coronavirus at disproportionately higher rates

While there remains limited information on the disease's impact by race in the US — just four states have broken down their coronavirus cases by race so far — existing data shows that African Americans have an outsize risk of getting a case of COVID-19 so severe that it leads to death.

Data from Michigan shows that while African Americans make up 14% of the state's population of 1.4 million, they represent 40% of the coronavirus deaths in the state
—Mark D. Levine (@MarkLevineNYC) April 3, 2020

It is a similar story in Illinois, where 528 African Americans have died out of a recorded 1,349 deaths, representing 39% of the total figure. The black community in the state numbers 1.8 million, or 14.6% of the population.

The African American community has been disproportionately affected in Kansas and North Carolina as well, according to the data released by the two states. 

In Kansas, where just 6.1% of the state's population is black, 31 out of the total 100 coronavirus deaths were African-American. 

In North Carolina, black people make up 39% of the total coronavirus cases, despite only accounting for 22% of the total population. 

Dr. Lisa Cooper, a medical expert and social epidemiologist with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told US News & World Report that broader social disadvantage was the reason black people are worse hit.

She noted that "as a group, African Americans in the US have higher rates of poverty, housing and food insecurity, unemployment or underemployment, and chronic medical conditions, and disabilities."

Dr. Camara Jones, a family physician, epidemiologist, and visiting fellow at Harvard University, also told ProPublica: "This is the time to name racism as the cause of all of those things. The over-representation of people of color in poverty and white people in wealth is not just a happenstance … It's because we're not valued."

A phenomenon called the "Tuskegee Effect" — a phenomenon referring to African Americans being less likely to seek medical help for ailments because of a mistrust of a historically racist US health system— has also been cited.

President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence at a White House coronavirus briefing on March 26, 2020.More Drew Angerer/Getty Images

It is also possible, however, that the Illinois and Michigan data are skewed by the fact that the largest coronavirus outbreaks in those states are in Chicago and Detroit, which both have large African American populations.

While it appears that black communities are being harder hit by the outbreak, demographic information has by and large been a missing puzzle piece to the understanding of the virus. 

According to data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Sunday, 65% of the cases had no specified race. 

Kristen Clarke, executive director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, said it was "astounding" that the CDC has not collected more complete demographic data, according to Politico. 

"The department of Health and Human Services has not offered a concrete plan about how it intends to tackle the problem in front of us," Clarke told reporters on Monday.

"The fact [is] they do not have race information tied to all of their data. We know that our communities are being ravaged by COVID and the federal government has a role to play."

Kirsten Nordlund, a spokesperson for the CDC, told Politico that it has been a challenge to get demographic information from health systems that are extremely busy tackling the pandemic. 

"Health departments try to get complete information on every case, but during a large-scale pandemic it is understandable that these health departments may not be able to gather all the information about each case," Nordlund said.

"We are exploring using other avenues to supplement this information when possible."

Read the original article on Business Insider


Under Trump, coronavirus scientists can speak — as long as they mostly toe the line

Trump claims his CDC director was 'misquoted' on second wave of covid-19

WASHINGTON POST APRIL 22, 2020

Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, issued a candid warning Tuesday in a Washington Post interview: A simultaneous flu and coronavirus outbreak next fall and winter “will actually be even more difficult than the one we just went through,” adding that calls and protests to “liberate” states from stay-at-home orders — as President Trump has tweeted — were “not helpful.”

The next morning, Trump cracked down with a Twitter edict: Redfield had been totally misquoted in a cable news story summarizing the interview, he claimed, and would be putting out a statement shortly.

By Wednesday evening, Redfield appeared at the daily White House briefing — saying he had been accurately quoted after all, while also trying to soften his words as the president glowered next to him.

“I didn’t say that this was going to be worse,” Redfield said. “I said it was going to be more difficult and potentially complicated because we’ll have flu and coronavirus circulating at the same time.”

He added: “ ‘It’s more difficult’ doesn’t mean it’s going to be more impossible.”© Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post President Trump listens as Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, at a coronavirus briefing at the White House Wednesday.

The remarkable spectacle provided another illustration of the president’s tenuous relationship with his own administration’s scientific and public health experts, where the unofficial message from the Oval Office is an unmistakable warning: Those who challenge the president’s erratic and often inaccurate coronavirus views will be punished — or made to atone.

In a statement Wednesday, for example, Rick Bright — who until recently led the agency working on a coronavirus vaccine — said he was removed from his post for resisting efforts to “provide an unproven drug on demand to the American public.”

The result is a culture in which public health officials find themselves scrambling to appease and placate Trump, a mercurial boss who is focused as much on political and economic considerations as scientific ones.

An internal White House “Covid Mail” email address, for instance, exists to receive queries and suggestions from “friends and family” as well as random individuals — including doctors and business owners — from around the country who have reached out to White House officials. Those emails then get farmed out to the appropriate agencies — from the Food and Drug Administration to the Department of Health and Human Services — but some officials have privately worried that these missives receive priority and distract from more crucial scientific pursuits.


NEW YORK, NEW YORK - APRIL 22: Hotel room lights in the shape of a heart on the side of the Standard Hotel in the Meatpacking District during the COVID-19 pandemic on April 22, 2020 in New York City. COVID-19 has spread to most countries around the world, claiming over 185,000 lives with infections over 2.7 million people. (Photo by Gotham/Getty Images)

In another instance, Nancy Messonier, the CDC’s director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, was removed from her post as her agency’s coronavirus response head after sounding early alarms that Americans should begin preparing for “significant disruption” to their lives from a “severe illness.” The CDC held its last daily briefing on March 9 — a forum through which the nation would normally receive critical public health information — in part out of a desire not to provoke the president.

“I think the main media briefing has been the task force briefing,” Redfield said in his interview with The Post on Tuesday, asked about the now-defunct CDC briefing. “A lot of the flow of the briefings probably had to do with where the response was grounded.”

And Surgeon General Jerome Adams seemed to go out of his way to lavish praise on Trump in an interview on CNN last month, claiming the 73-year-old president was “healthier than what I am” — a comment the 45-year-old physician later walked back in a number of tweets.

“We hope that science and the public health experts are leading the politicians, that their voices are in the foreground, and that the politicians follow their advice,” said Matt Seeger, who has researched crisis and emergency risk communication for the past 35 years at Wayne State University. “But in this case, the political agenda seems to be setting the agenda for the subject matter experts, which is exactly the opposite of the way we would expect to have this happen.”

Seeger, who has watched the daily White House briefings and said he has seen some of the administration’s health professionals speak in other forums, added that “it’s very clear the public health professionals have been self-censoring their statements.” They are, he added, “being very thoughtful and measured and probably adjusting their statements they don’t run the risk of running afoul of the political agenda. That’s very problematic.”

The White House dismissed the idea there was any undue pressure on public health officials from the president.

“Despite the media’s ridiculous efforts to somehow create distance between the president and his top health experts, it is simply fake news,” White House spokesman Judd Deere said in a statement. “President Trump has relied on and consulted with Dr. Adams, Dr. Birx, Dr. Fauci, Dr. Hahn, Dr. Redfield, and many others as he has confronted this unforeseen, unprecedented crisis and put the full power of the federal government to work to slow the spread, save lives, and place this great country on a data-driven path to opening up again.”

One senior administration official said Trump is also more receptive to the scientists and doctors in private than his public statements indicate. He is especially respectful of Deborah Birx, who oversees the administration’s coronavirus response, and has figured out a way to gently push back against the president, the official said.

The president has described Birx in positive terms to other confidants and always wants her at the briefing lectern, even as his opinion wavers on other task force members. She regularly spends several hours a day with the president and top aides, including Trump son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner.

During Tuesday’s coronavirus news conference, Birx seemed hesitant to directly contradict Trump — who has made clear he is eager to see states begin to reopen their economy as quickly as possible — when asked about the plans by Georgia’s governor to reopen places like gyms and nail and hair salons.

“So if there’s a way that people can social distance and do those things, then they can do those things,” Birx said. “I don't know how, but people are very creative.”

During Wednesday’s task force meeting, a White House official said, the group discussed Georgia’s plans, as well as their concerns that the state’s proposal does not necessarily allow for safe and responsible distances to be maintained, or for good hygiene practices. And during the briefing Wednesday, Trump also addressed his concerns with the plan, claiming he told Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) he strongly disagrees with his decision, which he called “too soon.”

This month, Anthony S. Fauci, an infectious disease expert and coronavirus task force member, began a briefing by offering a seeming apology for comments he had made to CNN’s Jake Tapper, in which he said that earlier mitigation efforts “could have saved lives.” Fauci said he had not intended to criticize Trump in responding to a hypothetical question with “the wrong choice of words,” but stressed that his clarification was entirely “voluntary.”

On Wednesday, asked if health professionals are unable to speak freely in Trump’s administration, Fauci dismissed the suggestion, saying, “Here I am.”

© Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post President Donald J. Trump listens to Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, at a coronavirus task force briefing Friday, April 17, 2020.

Many public health experts, however, say they are frustrated at what they see happening during the daily briefings, with the scientists being sidelined. According to a Post analysis, since the federal guidelines were announced on March 16, Trump has spoken 63 percent of the time, compared with Birx at 10 percent and Fauci at 5 percent.

“For most of us in the field, there’s frustration with the dance that we’re seeing,” said Jeanne Marrazzo, director of the Division of Infectious Diseases at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine. “Most of us in the field are incredibly frustrated that they are being put in that position, but also incredibly grateful that they are willing to do it.”

Trump also regularly tells visitors to the Oval Office that he is in touch with doctors in New York — including his own — and many others he knows personally.

Guidelines that were drafted by the CDC and Federal Emergency Management Agency for safely reopening the country were watered down by White House officials before they were published, officials say. A person involved in the White House revision of the guidelines, however, said the goal was simply to make them understandable to the public.

Bright, the former director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority who was moved to a narrower role at NIH this week, had expressed opposition to the way hydroxychloroquine was being politicized by the president and others in the administration, according to two people familiar with the discussions. Two senior administration officials said he repeatedly clashed with his boss, Robert Kadlec, the HHS assistant secretary for preparedness and response. One person familiar with the situation said Bright’s departure was long discussed among top HHS officials because of dissatisfaction with his job performance.

In a statement, an HHS spokeswoman seemed to dispute Bright’s assertions that he was removed because of his opposition to the anti-malaria medications chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine. The spokeswoman said Bright requested an authorization from the FDA that enabled officials to add chloroquine to the national stockpile of emergency medical equipment and medications.

An adviser familiar with the virus response said the doctors were attempting to communicate with the country and follow crisis management guidelines. The president, on the other hand, this person said, “is trying to win a political battle.”

“He’s broken every rule of maintaining public trust, if you’re trying to do crisis communications for the entire public,” the adviser said, speaking anonymously to share a candid assessment. “I’m not sure that is what he’s trying to do.”

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, who once led the coronavirus response meetings as chairman of the task force, attends most in person but sometimes attends via phone or teleconference. An HHS spokeswoman said other officials also sometimes attend remotely.

The White House also recently installed Michael Caputo, a longtime Trump loyalist, to run communications at HHS.

Within the agencies, less public-facing health officials are also struggling with the requests coming from the White House. Ideas passed along through the internal “Covid Mail” email system are routed largely to the health agencies. There have been messages to the FDA on testing, to the CDC on surveillance and epidemiology; and to NIH on vaccines.

Because the missives are coming from the White House, agency officials imbue them with a sense of urgency. “And then everyone has to drop what they’re doing,” a senior administration official said.

OUCH 

CNBC's Cramer: White House coronavirus task force briefings 'unwatchable'

BY JOE CONCHA - THE HILL - 04/23/20 

CNBC's Jim Cramer called the daily White House coronavirus task force briefings "unwatchable," with the "Mad Money" host arguing that you "can't tell whether things are great or things are catastrophic."

Cramer made the comments to CNBC "Squawk Box" co-host Aaron Ross Sorkin during an appearance on that show on Thursday, where they discussed when drugmakers would be able to come up with a vaccine, which has the potential to change people's behavior.

"In terms of changing people’s behavior, I’m not sure that’s built into the market right now," Sorkin noted. "I think there is a sense in the marketplace that come the end of this summer people are going back to some normal, no?”

"Dr. Fauci completely just made us feel awful again by talking about how horrible it’s going to be in the fall," Cramer replied, referring to comments made on Wednesday by Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious diseases expert and a member of the coronavirus task force, about a potential resurgence of the virus in the fall.

"These press conferences or shows, whatever you call that, are now unwatchable," Cramer continued. "They are unwatchable because you can't tell whether things are great or things are catastrophic. So I’d rather just turn them off and focus on [a replay of] the 1984 NCAA finals.”

Fauci on Wednesday said he was "convinced" the coronavirus would revive in the fall.

“We will have coronavirus in the fall. I am convinced of that,” he said. “Whether or not it’s going to be big or small is going to depend on our response."

At the same briefing on Wednesday, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield tried to temper remarks he made to The Washington Post about the threat of a second wave of the coronavirus, saying the thrust of his comments was meant to urge Americans to embrace the vaccine for the flu.

“I didn’t say that this was going to be worse. I said it was going to be more difficult and potentially more complicated because we would have flu and coronavirus circulating at the same time,” Redfield said at the top of a White House briefing.

IN BUSINESS CIRCLES CRAMER IS BELIEVED MORE THAN HIS OLD PARTNER; KUDLOW

The daily briefings on the pandemic have drawn criticism for spreading misinformation at times and being too political.

Overall, the daily briefing has averaged 8.5 million viewers, although some networks, including CNN, have cut in and out of the briefings.

The late afternoon briefings are attended by President Trump and Vice President Pence, along with a rotating number of task force members and other speakers.

RIGHT ON SISTER
Ocasio-Cortez: GOP governors 'sending vulnerable workers to die'

BY ZACK BUDRYK - THE HILL - 04/23/20 

© Getty Images
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) on Thursday blasted plans by Republican governors to reopen businesses in the immediate future, saying these plans would send “vulnerable workers to die.”

“Trump has NO PLAN to get people safely back to work. GOP Govs like [Brian] Kemp are sending vulnerable workers to die w/ false claims of safety,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted Thursday in response to a tweet by former White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders accusing her of wanting to Americans to “boycott work.”

“Trump also pushed an unproven, dangerous treatment as a “cure” & firing experts who want to vet claims,” she added. “Last thing you care abt is safety.”

And by the way, setting up vulnerable workers to grind 70 hours a week to barely survive and STILL not have health insurance is unsafe too.— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) April 23, 2020

“And by the way, setting up vulnerable workers to grind 70 hours a week to barely survive and STILL not have health insurance is unsafe too,” she added.
Kemp, Georgia’s governor, has announced the state will begin rolling back restrictions on some businesses, including tattoo parlors, hair salons and bowling alleys, beginning Friday. Democrats have criticized the plan, as have President Trump and Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.), a vocal Trump ally who is challenging Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.) for her seat.

Trump has repeatedly promoted the use of the drug hydroxychloroquine, frequently prescribed to treat lupus and malaria, as a potential cure or treatment for the virus despite

limited anecdotal evidence of its efficacy. The largest analysis to date of the drug as a treatment for coronavirus found no evidence of benefit and increased deaths.

Ocasio-Cortez’s tweet also alluded to Rick Bright, a doctor who has claimed he was removed as the director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority for prioritizing scientific research over funding for hydroxychloroquine in the search for cures and treatments for coronavirus.

SEE  https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=AOC

SENATOR FROM KENTUCKY TELLS HIS STATE TO GO BANKRUPT DON'T CALL HIM

Cuomo slams McConnell: States declaring bankruptcy is 'one of the really dumb ideas of all time'
BY REBECCA KLAR - THE HILL - 04/23/20 

© Screenshot

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) slammed Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Thursday for saying he supports allowing states to declare bankruptcy amid the coronavirus pandemic.

“This is one of the really dumb ideas of all time,” Cuomo said during his daily press briefing.

“Not to fund state and local governments is incredibly short-sighted. They want to fund small businesses, fund the airlines, I understand that, but state and local governments fund police and fire and teachers and schools. How do you not fund police and fire and teachers and schools in the midst of this crisis?” Cuomo added.

He said if the federal government doesn't fund the states, the states can’t fund the vital services.

Additional funding for state and local governments has turned into a point of contention as lawmakers negotiate federal coronavirus relief. The National Governors Association sent a letter to McConnell and other congressional leaders Tuesday asking Congress to approve $500 billion "in direct federal aid that allows for replacement of lost revenue."

A $484 billion bill passed by the Senate on Tuesday and expected to clear the House Thursday did not include any new funding for state and local governments despite Democrats' initial demands. Congress provided $150 billion for state and local governments as part of last month’s $2.2 trillion coronavirus bill and it is expected to be a key issue when lawmakers turn toward a "phase four" stimulus bill.

“It makes no sense that the entire nation is dependent on what the governors do to reopen… but then you're not going to fund the state government. You think I’m going to do it alone? How do you think this is going to work?” Cuomo said.

He also said that allowing states to declare bankruptcy would be devastating to the national economy.

“You want to see that market fall through the cellar — let New York state declare bankruptcy,” Cuomo said.

McConnell on Wednesday told radio host Hugh Hewitt that he supported allowing cash-strapped states to declare bankruptcy.

"I would certainly be in favor of allowing states to use the bankruptcy route. It saves some cities. And there’s no good reason for it not to be available. My guess is their first choice would be for the federal government to borrow money from future generations to send it down to them now so they don’t have to do that. That’s not something I’m going to be in favor of," McConnell said.

Cuomo on Thursday also slammed McConnell for his office branding the push for more state funding as “blue state bailouts.”

Cuomo said it’s not a time for McConnell’s “political obsessive bias and anger.”

“Just think of what he's saying. People died, 15,000 people died in New York, but they were predominantly Democrats so why should we help them. I mean for crying out loud if there was ever a time...to put aside your pettiness and your partisanship,” Cuomo said.

Cuomo said he has not contacted McConnell and does not intend to do so.

A spokesperson for McConnell’s office was not immediately available for comment in response to Cuomo’s comments.

McConnell even received some heat within his own party over his comments. Republican New York Rep. Pete King on Wednesday said McConnell’s support for states declaring bankruptcy made him the “Marie Antoinette of the Senate.”

New York Gov. Phil Murphy (D) has similarly criticized McConnell, calling his support for allowing states to declare bankruptcy “completely and utterly irresponsible.”

GOP lawmaker calls McConnell remarks on state bankruptcy 'shameful and indefensible'

BY REBECCA KLAR - 04/22/20 

Rep. Pete King (R-N.Y.) slammed Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) comments after the senator said that he’s in favor of allowing states to declare bankruptcy in the wake of coronavirus responses that have seriously diminished state budgets.

“.@senatemajldr McConnell’s dismissive remark that States devastated by Coronavirus should go bankrupt rather than get the federal assistance they need and deserve is shameful and indefensible,” King tweeted Wednesday.

“To say that it is ‘free money’ to provide funds for cops, firefighters and healthcare workers makes McConnell the Marie Antoinette of the Senate,” he added.

...cops, firefighters and healthcare workers makes McConnell the Marie Antoinette of the Senate.— Rep. Pete King (@RepPeteKing) April 22, 2020

McConnell said Tuesday in an interview with radio host Hugh Hewitt that he supports letting states declare bankruptcy as they face budget constraints in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

A $484 billion bill passed by the Senate on Tuesday and expected to clear the House on Thursday did not include any new funding for state and local governments.

Congress provided $150 billion for state and local governments as part of last month's $2.2 trillion coronavirus stimulus package.

Democrats have said additional funding for state and local governments is a top priority for the next coronavirus relief bill, and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and President Trump have appeared open to including such funding in the next package Congress passes.

King’s home state of New York is the hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.

New York reported a total of 257,216 confirmed COVID-19 cases and a total of 15,302 deaths on Wednesday.

US Supreme Court hands environmentalists a win in water pollution case

BY JOHN KRUZEL - THE HILL - 04/23/20 

The Supreme Court on Thursday sided with environmentalists by giving a broad reading to the types of water-borne pollution covered by the Clean Water Act.

In a 6-3 decision, the justices held that a permit is required for either a direct discharge of pollutants into federally regulated rivers and oceans or its “functional equivalent.”

“Suppose, for example, that a sewage treatment plant discharges polluted water into the ground where it mixes with groundwater, which, in turn, flows into a navigable river, or perhaps the ocean,” Justice Stephen Breyer wrote for the majority."


“Must the plant’s owner seek an EPA permit before emitting the pollutant?” he continued, referring to the Environmental Protection Agency. “We conclude that [a permit is required] if the addition of the pollutants through groundwater is the functional equivalent of a direct discharge from the point source into navigable waters.”

At issue in the case was whether Maui County in Hawaii violated the Clean Water Act, the landmark 1972 environmental law, by injecting wastewater underground without a permit that then seeped into the Pacific Ocean.

In siding with environmental groups, Breyer was joined by his fellow liberal justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, as well as more conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh and Chief Justice John Roberts.

The decision returns the case, County of Maui, Hawaii v. Hawaii Wildlife Fund, to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to apply the new “functional equivalent” test.

David Henkin, an attorney with Earthjustice who argued the case on behalf of environmental groups, celebrated the win.

“This decision is a huge victory for clean water,” he said in a statement. “The Supreme Court has rejected the Trump administration’s effort to blow a big hole in the Clean Water Act’s protections for rivers, lakes, and oceans.”

Justice Clarence Thomas wrote a dissent that was joined by Justice Neil Gorsuch, and Justice Samuel Alito wrote a separate dissenting opinion that accused the majority of going beyond the text of the Clean Water Act.

"If the Court is going to devise its own legal rules, instead of interpreting those enacted by Congress, it might at least adopt rules that can be applied with a modicum of consistency,” Alito wrote. “Here, however, the Court makes up a rule that provides no clear guidance and invites arbitrary and inconsistent application.”

Michael Kimberly, an attorney at McDermott Will & Emery who co-authored an amicus brief in support of the Maui County, criticized the majority opinion as setting an “amorphous” new environmental standard.

“Not only is the decision vague, but it leaves countless responsible landowners potentially liable for discharges from ‘point sources’ to ‘navigable waters’ that aren’t actually anything of the sort,” he said.

The case arose in the spring of 2012, when four Hawaii environmental groups sued Maui County to stop a municipal water treatment plant from pouring millions of gallons of wastewater each day into wells running hundreds of feet deep, where the treated sewage combined with groundwater.

A study showed some of the wastewater later surfaced at popular beach areas, and the environmental groups said pollutants contained in the discharge had interfered with nearby coral reef and triggered invasive algae to bloom. They argued the county was operating in this way without a federal permit, in violation of the Clean Water Act.

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals eventually sided with the environmental groups, prompting an appeal to the Supreme Court.

Updated at 12:14 p