A senior Trump administration official said the president rebukes Fauci but supports Birx because 'she is charming and listens to him'

Connor Perrett  BUSINESS INSIDER MAY 16, 2020

Flanked by White House coronavirus response coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx (L) and Dr. Anthony Fauci (R), President Donald Trump delivers remarks about coronavirus vaccine development in the Rose Garden of the White House on May 15, 2020. Drew Angerer/Getty Images


The relationship between Dr. Deborah Birx and officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have sourced as Birx has become increasingly frustrated with the agency and its data, CNN reported.
Officials at the CDC have become irritated with Birx, believing she doesn't do enough to combat misinformation shared by the president, according to CNN.
While Trump has publicly criticized Dr. Anthony Fauci — as recently as Wednesday — he has steered clear of criticizing Birx, who "has his ear," an administration official told CNN.
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While the relationship between Dr. Deborah Birx and officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reportedly soured, Trump's pandemic adviser has remained in good favor of the president who has privately praised her, CNN reported Saturday.

Birx — the coordinator for the White House Coronavirus Task Force — has grown critical of the CDC, and in recent meetings has said she is frustrated with the agency, two senior administration officials told CNN. She has reportedly taken issue with the way in which the agency gathers data on COVID-19, and believes its data is inaccurate and involves delayed figures on deaths and cases of COVID-19, according to the report.

The CNN report Saturday echoes similar reporting from The Washington Post earlier in May. Birx, who has served as the global AIDS Coordinator for the US since 2014, reportedly told CDC Director Robert Redfield that there was "nothing" that she could trust from the agency.

According to the May 9 Washington Post report, Birx and other administration officials worry the CDC's data-tracking system is inflating coronavirus statistics by up to 25%.


Multiple officials and a source close to the White House task force told CNN said that Birx's tone toward Redfield has recently "shifted dramatically" since she in March defended the CDC for its issuing of faulty COVID-19 tests to states.

Still, Birx has maintained a good working relationship with Trump even when other health experts have drawn public criticism from him, according to the report.

"She is charming and listens to him," a senior Trump administration official told CNN. "She has found a way to shut down his bad ideas without making him feel diminished, unlike Fauci and some of the others."

According to the Saturday report, Trump on multiple occasions has praised Birx.


"It is clear that she has his ear," the official said, according to CNN.

On Wednesday, the president distanced himself from Dr. Anthony Fauci, the longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases who has been at the forefront of the administration's COVID-19 response. Trump disagreed with a portion of Fauci's testimony for Congress that involved the re-opening of schools.

"We have to get the schools open. We have to get our country open. We have to open our country," Trump told Fox News on Wednesday. "You're having bedlam already in the streets — you can't do this. We have to get it open. I totally disagree with him on schools."

He later told reporters: "I was surprised by his answer actually because to me, it's not an acceptable answer, especially when it comes to schools."


Officials told CNN that some within the CDC have grown frustrated with Birx over her apparent refusal to correct some of Trump's misinformation about the virus, while others in the administration reportedly believe Birx acts in her own self-interest.

"From the beginning of her role at the White House, Debbie Birx is out for Debbie Birx," an official said, according to the report.

'I see a danger in returning to a pre-Roe world:' Abortion advocates view coronavirus-era restrictions as a dark sign of what could come

Kayla Epstein BUSINESS INSIDER May 15, 2020

During the coronavirus pandemic, states unfriendly to abortion used the pandemic to further restrict access by arguing it was a non-essential service that needed to be delayed to preserve medical equipment.

Texas succeeded in banning procedures for a month, forcing women to travel hundreds of miles for care in other states. 

Arkansas now requires women to obtain a negative COVID-19 test to get a surgical abortion. 

Even though most restrictions have been lifted, women, abortion providers, and advocates remain on the defensive and fear that care could again be restricted during the pandemic.


The National Abortion Federation's Katherine Ragsdale told Insider she saw "a danger of ending up in sort of a pre-Roe world where access depends on where you live and what kind of resources you have."

In non-pandemic times, obtaining an abortion already presented serious legal and logistical challenges for millions of women. For patients who live in certain states, getting care means enduring state-imposed waiting periods, submitting to unnecessary ultrasounds, or rushing to receive care before an arbitrary legal deadline. For patients who already have children, care must be arranged. Those without a car need a ride, especially if the nearest clinic is hours away. Some need flights to more accommodating states. And many, many need funds.


But women seeking abortions since the coronavirus outbreak began faced a new challenge — states' attempts to temporarily limit or ban abortion outright by deeming them "non-essential" procedures, under the pretext of preserving medical supplies for COVID-19 treatment. These restrictions collided with the travel and social distancing restrictions put in place to limit the spread of the virus, leading to an even more precarious situation for abortion care than the one already in place.

To reach one of the abortion clinics in Planned Parenthood's Rocky Mountain network, one woman had to drive 16 hours from Texas to Colorado to obtain care, Dr. Kristina Tocce, Vice President and Medical Director at Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains, told Insider.


Tocce said that since February, the network, which has 24 clinics in Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming, and Southern Nevada, has seen a tenfold increase in women seeking abortions. Some of those women traveled hundreds of miles after neighboring Texas imposed a month-long ban on the procedures, citing the need to reserve medical equipment.

Another patient, unable to find care for a disabled family member, embarked on an "incredibly long road trip" with a relative to reach care in Colorado, Tocce said. She drove for two days.

Many more have sought care in New Mexico. Other women have taken the now-extraordinary measure of boarding planes to Denver.

"The pandemic, and some of the bans to essential care that politicians are trying to enforce, just exacerbates unjust laws that have already been passed," said Odile Schalit, executive director of the Brigid Alliance, which helps women travel for abortion care.

In states unfriendly to abortion, providers have had to scramble to arrange care, and organizations that help with logistics and funding have pivoted to a war footing. But at the national level, abortion advocates worry that red states' bold actions during the pandemic are just a preview of the obstacles to come.

"I see a danger in returning to a pre-Roe world," Reverend Katherine Ragsdale, president and CEO of the National Abortion Federation, said, in reference to the 1973 Supreme Court decision Roe V. Wade that legalized abortion nationwide and is perennially under legal siege.

States already unfriendly to abortion capitalized on the coronavirus pandemic to restrict care
 

An exam room at the Planned Parenthood South Austin Health Center is shown on June 27, 2016. REUTERS/Ilana Panich-Linsman/File Photo

During the outbreak, states like Texas, Ohio, Alabama, Iowa attempted to impose some sort of restriction on abortion during the coronavirus outbreak by deeming them non-essential procedures. In Texas, this ban extended to medication abortions as well as surgical ones, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Many of the initial restrictions have expired or eased, and some were struck down after legal challenges, but the episode has left women and abortion rights proponents on the defensive.

Arkansas is currently the only state that actively has abortion restrictions in place due to the coronavirus. A federal appeals court held up an initial ban on surgical abortions, but restrictions elective surgeries began to ease late last month. However, on April 27, the state's health department issued a rule that required a woman to receive a negative coronavirus test result 48 hours before an elective surgery. Arguing that this created a new hurdle to access at a time when the tests remain scarce, the American Civil Liberties Union challenged the case on behalf of Arkansas' last remaining clinic but a federal judge rejected the motion on May 7, the Associated Press reported.

The states issuing or attempting these orders said that they were necessary to preserve PPE, which in some locations has been in desperately short supply as states scramble to deal with their COVID-19 outbreaks.

Around the country, Americans have had to forgo medical care. These so-called "non-essential" services could range in severity from dental visits to cancer treatments because of the need to preserve vital PPE.

Abortion, however, is "a time-sensitive service for which a delay of several weeks, or in some cases days, may increase the risks or potentially make it completely inaccessible," the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and American Board of Obstetrics & Gynecology said in a joint statement in response to the attempted bans. "The consequences of being unable to obtain an abortion profoundly impact a person's life, health, and well-being."


And these new orders and legal battles threw the prospects for care for millions of women into flux.

The most well-known, and arguably impactful ban, was enacted in Texas this past March. On March 22, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott issued order GA-09, which halted all "all surgeries and procedures that are not immediately medically necessary." The order didn't specifically mention abortion, but Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton clarified that these procedures were covered by the order.


The order launched a month-long battle that only ended when it expired on April 21, but not before it threw the state, and the southwest, into chaos. A total of 55,440 abortions were performed in Texas in 2017, according to the Guttmacher Institute, constituting more than 6% of all abortions performed nationwide that year. Abortion advocates went to court to halt the order, which resulted in some delays, but Texas ultimately prevailed, leading to 30-days of on-again, off-again abortion access in a state that already been limiting access for years.

A new order, effective April 22, allows procedures that don't deplete necessary personal protective equipment (PPE) required to combat COVID-19. Abortion is permitted once again, but providers — and women seeking abortions — are still on edge after last month's experience.

"There were several days where we started seeing patients, and a decision was made by a court or something happened where we had to stop," Dr. Bhavik Kumar of Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast in Houston told Insider.

Kumar and his colleagues had to tell "hundreds" of women to go home, or spend hours on the phone re-scheduling appointments with no guarantee that they could provide care on the new date, either.

"They would ask questions like, 'where would we go?' 'What do I do now? I came here to get care.' 'What are my options?' 'Can I come back tomorrow?'" Kumar said.. They only had two options: Tell women to wait, even knowing that the state had a 20-week abortion ban and the longer a pregnancy continued, the more expensive abortions became; or travel out of state, which could require long — and costly — drives, expensive hotel stays, and the risk potential exposure to the coronavirus.

"I've never had to do anything like that before in my career," Kumar said.

The experience not only placed stress on women seeking care, but the uncertainty took a "huge emotional toll" on the clinic staff, too, Kumar said.

"We are used to taking care of people. We make them feel better, we can answer their questions," he said.. "When that's robbed of us...that leaves us feeling helpless."

Some communities were impacted more severely than others, deepening social fault lines that already played a role in abortion access.

"It's definitely the people who struggle the most normally, and it just becomes all the more desperate now," Bridget Schilling of the Clinical Access Support Network (CASN), a Houston based-organization that provides funding, logistical and transportation support for women seeking abortions and often refers women to Kumar's clinic.
Even without abortion bans, the unprecedented logistical challenges posed by the COVID-19 outbreak have complicated abortion access.

 

The Nuestra Clinica del Valle in San Juan, Texas, September 22, 2015. REUTERS/Delcia Lopez

Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast in Houston had to implement social distancing protocols, meaning fewer patients could be in the clinic at one time.

"Our capacity is very different than it would be outside the pandemic, and on top of that we have a lot more people who need care because there are a number of folks who have been waiting," Kumar said.

CASN had to temporarily suspend its volunteer driver program, which provided transportation to and from clinics, after Houston implemented its stay-at-home order. Because of safety concerns for volunteers, Schilling said, the service simply could not continue. Women who needed an abortion had to drive to neighboring states, making their travel arrangements more complicated and costly.

The Louisiana-based New Orleans Abortion Fund (NOAF), which has a similar mission to CASN, was receiving more calls, said Elizabeth Gelvin, NOAF's client services program coordinator.

NOAF has had to go to extra lengths to coordinate care for women from Louisiana, which only has three abortion clinics and already has numerous restrictions including a 20-week abortion ban.

In addition to providing funding for everything from Greyhound bus tickets, airfare, and childcare stipends, they went into overdrive helping to book hotels, and "really figuring out the nitty gritty of where someone needs to go and how best to get them there, and how most safely to get them there."

Women from the state often sought care in Texas, Gelvin said, but while the ban was in place that was not an option. Meanwhile, Arkansas, to the north, has also restricted the procedure.

"This new lack of access isn't going to go away quickly"

Organizations at the national level have watched states' attempts to limit abortion during the coronavirus outbreak with apprehension.

Pandemic aside, conservatives and anti-choice lawmakers have already instituted a slew of laws aimed at making it more difficult to get an abortion. Seventeen states already ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, though Supreme Court precedent keeps abortion legalized in all 50 states. Many states have tried to impose six-week bans or eliminate the procedure altogether, though these efforts invariably wind up blocked in court. Meanwhile, states like Tennessee pass flagrantly unconstitutional abortion restrictions with the hope of overturning Roe v. Wade through a legal challenge that escalates to the Supreme Court, which now has a 5-4 conservative tilt.

But during the pandemic states like Texas and Arkansas had managed to do the constitutionally impossible: temporarily halt abortions in the state, by using the coronavirus crisis as justification.

While abortion is currently available in all 50 states, organizations like the National Abortion Federation are preparing for a drawn-out fight as the pandemic continues. It could take more than a year to develop a vaccine for the coronavirus if one can be made at all. And during that time, abortion access could remain in flux.

"Those of us in touch with reality are talking about the understanding that we're not gonna suddenly be back to normal in May or June, probably for at least a year," said NAF's Katherine Ragsdale. "[There's] a danger of ending up in sort of a pre-Roe world where access depends on where you live and what kind of resources you have."

"This new lack of access," Ragsdale said, "isn't going to go away quickly."

SEE ALSO: 'We're so slammed right now': Texas' abortion ban is sending women scrambling to clinics in other states during a pandemic 

SEE ALSO: States are including abortion bans in their coronavirus legislation. Judges struck them down in Ohio and Alabama — but Texas is keeping its ban in place. 

Fox News coronavirus coverage dropped by 20% as the network shifted to 'Obamagate' and hosts focused on anti-lockdown stories
Ellen Cranley BUSINESS INSIDER 5/16/2020

A view outside Fox News studios during the coronavirus pandemic on May 13, 2020 in New York City. Noam Galai/Getty Images

Coronavirus coverage on Fox News has been cut by 20% over the last month, according to data reported by Media Matters for America. 

The network has traded coverage of the virus for stories on anti-lockdown protests and echoes of President Donald Trump's comments that stand in contrast to recommendations from leading experts in recent weeks. 

Fox News has been criticized over the past two months for its coronavirus coverage that has included downplaying death totals and pushing back against social distancing guidelines even though its own employees are under a work-from-home order until at least June 15. 

Fox News has cut its coronavirus coverage by more than 20% in recent weeks, according to data reported by Media Matters for America.

According to the conservative media research group, 95% of weekday segments aired on Fox from March 12 through April 10 were related to the novel coronavirus. But just a month later from April 13 through May 11, coronavirus-related coverage dropped to 74% of weekday segments, and by the middle of May, "coronavirus-related weekday segments accounted for only 56% of all output from the network."

The network's coronavirus coverage is significantly smaller when compared to that of CNN, which, according to the data since March 12, had 90% of all weekday coverage except for one feature coronavirus-related stories, according to Media Matters. For MSNBC, coronavirus-related coverage accounted for more than 80% of each day's programming in the same period, the report said.

Fox News initially sparked criticism by downplaying death totals and pushing back against social distancing guidelines in mid-March before on-air talent took a sharp pivot to more serious coverage of the novel coronavirus pandemic as outbreaks took hold of cities across the US through April.

However, on-air figures like host Tucker Carlson repeated calls for President Donald Trump to lift lockdown measures and open businesses across the country, apparently echoing comments by Trump that are in direct opposition to recommendations from leading experts as coronavirus cases steadily rose.

The remaining coverage on the network has focused less on scientific findings behind the pandemic, but instead on pushing stories on the political divide under existing lockdown measures and favorable looks at anti-lockdown protests, though Fox employees are under a work-from-home order through at least June 15.

In the first weeks of May, the network's shrinking coverage of coronavirus-related stories turned toward new revelations like the Department of Justice's attempt to drop the case against retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, and its significance in special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe.

As the death toll among Americans passed 84,000 in the second week of May, the network, alongside Trump's Twitter account, latched on to an "OBAMAGATE" scandal.


After Republican senators released a list of administration officials under former President Barack Obama who worked to unmask an American from intelligence reports who turned out to be Michael Flynn, Trump began tweeting harsh but vague allegations against Obama his former Vice President Joe Biden.

The collective push from Fox News and Trump's Twitter over the last week appears to be a narrative related to the decision in 2017 to publicly reveal Flynn's identity and aimed at eroding Obama's significance ahead of the 2020 presidential election.
—Maria Bartiromo (@MariaBartiromo) May 14, 2020

A progressive entrepreneur makes the case for a $25 minimum wage so workers 'can literally survive'

 

#FIGHTFOR25 

BE REALISTIC DEMAND THE IMPOSSIBLE!

Joseph Zeballos-Roig 5/16/2020
Joe Sanberg. Larry French/Getty Images for Jefferson Awards Foundation


Progressive entrepreneur Joe Sanberg says it's time to pay workers a $25 minimum wage.
"[Coronavirus] has thrown everything into disrepair and uncertainty — this is the moment to rebalance things," Sanberg told Business Insider.

A $25 minimum wage won't become a reality anytime soon, but economists and researchers are starting to understand more of the effects around boosting pay for workers

A progressive entrepreneur says it's time to raise wages for workers who have been squeezed by an economy that's left many of them behind.

It's not Fight for $15. Instead, Joe Sanberg believes it should be Fight for $25.

Sanberg, a Los Angeles-based investor and co-founder of online banking service Aspiration, recently made the case for a $25 minimum wage over Twitter.

"We must protect all Americans during this pandemic, both medically & financially. Those who still have jobs & show up to do them at great risk to themselves should be able to afford life's basic needs," he said in a May 6 tweet. "This shouldn't be controversial. Plus, it's good for the wider economy."
—Joe Sanberg (@JosephNSanberg) May 6, 2020

In an interview with Business Insider, Sanberg said the US is entering a once-in-a-generation moment as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

"We're at a crossroads in American society unlike perhaps anything we've seen since the Great Depression," the anti-poverty advocate said. "We're gonna define the kind of economic system we'll have for the next century. [Coronavirus] has thrown everything into disrepair and uncertainty — this is the moment to rebalance things."

Read more: Buy these 13 tech stocks that are abnormally disconnected from Wall Street's expectations for profit growth and poised to rocket higher, Credit Suisse says

Nationally, the minimum wage stands at $7.25 and Congress hasn't bumped it upward since 2009 — the longest stretch without a wage increase for hourly workers from the federal government. Over much of the last decade, state and municipal governments have taken the lead to increase wages on their own, per the Pew Research Center.

Scores of states and cities have rolled out plans to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, ABC News reported. New York City and Seattle are among the cities that already mandate that businesses pay the rate.

The Congressional Budget Office projected last year that raising the minimum wage would shed 1.3 million jobs from the economy, but also lift an equal amount of people out of poverty.

Opponents have attacked the idea of a $15 minimum wage as a job killer. Sanberg says he doesn't buy that. He argues that people with more money in their pockets would ultimately spend more, culminating in higher revenues for companies and more employment.

Read more: Warren Buffett calls the prospect of negative interest rates the 'most interesting question I've seen in economics.' We had 5 financial experts weigh in on how they could impact the investing world as we know it.


"The problem with that analysis is it takes a static picture of the present revenue level of businesses, but that's not what happens when everyone earns a living wage," he said. "They spend money, which generates more sales for companies, and they can hire more people."

A $25 minimum wage won't likely become a reality anytime soon, but researchers are beginning to understand more of its effects as wages for workers steadily increase across the country.

An analysis from the Boston Fed and a group of MIT economists published last year found raising the minimum wage leads consumers to spend more, particularly in areas where a greater share of workers are paid hourly.

Another study published last year in The Quarterly Journal of Economics scrutinized the effects of 130 minimum wage increases since 1979, and found that a decline in jobs that paid below the wage were counteracted by the creation of additional jobs that paid a little higher than the new minimum wage. Most of those wage increases, however, were modest.

Mail carriers say the USPS is making it hard to take sick leave in the coronavirus pandemic, contrary to its public claims

Ashley Collman MAY 16, 2020

Workers in masks and gloves at a USPS processing and distribution center in Oakland, California, on April 30, 2020. None of the workers pictured in this article are in the story.

Ben Margot/AP


On April 30, the United States Postal Service said that it had "updated our leave policies to allow liberal use of leave" during the coronavirus pandemic.
The reality looks very different. Some employees say they are finding it very hard to take sick leave, even if they have been exposed to someone with COVID-19.
Business Insider spoke to two USPS mail carriers, who said managers are making workers jump through hoops to take time off. The USPS has not responded to a request for comment.

One carrier in Massachusetts said his coworker, who had direct contact with a coronavirus patient, was told he could go back to work.

Another carrier in California said he had not been paid for 14 days he recently took off after his coworker tested positive. He was feeling sick, and that his bosses are now ignoring him.

Despite the United States Postal Service's assurances that employees will be allowed "liberal" sick leave during the coronavirus pandemic, mail carriers say their bosses are making it incredibly difficult for them to take time off.

Business Insider spoke to two mail carriers, in California and Massachusetts, who detailed similar experiences. Both requested to remain anonymous to avoid retribution, but their identities are known to Business Insider.

The carrier in California, who works in a station outside Stockton, said he has yet to be paid for the 14 days he recently took off after a coworker tested positive for the coronavirus and he started feeling sick himself.

Meanwhile, the carrier in Massachusetts — who has worked for the service for 33 years — spoke of another employee who was told to come back to work after he was exposed to an infected customer.

USPS claims 'liberal' time off being allowed

These stories are at odds with the April 30 statement put out by the USPS, which said employees would not have a hard time taking sick days during the pandemic.

A United States Postal Service (USPS) worker works in the rain in Manhattan during the coronavirus outbreak in New York City. Reuters

According to the statement, the service had "updated our leave policies to allow liberal use of leave and to therefore give our employees the ability to stay home whenever they feel sick, must provide dependent care, or any other qualifying factor under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act."

"We have entered into agreements with our unions to provide 80 hours of paid leave to non-career employees for issues related to COVID-19, and have expanded the definition of sick leave for dependent care for covered employees to deal with the closures of primary and secondary schools across the country," the statement added.
Told to return after exposure to COVID-19

The Massachusetts carrier told Business Insider one of his coworkers had decided to go home after learning he was exposed to an infected customer.


While that coworker was on the phone to his doctor, trying to figure out what to do, he received a call from a manager at the station saying he could return to work.

"He wanted to get the opinion of his medical professional ... and they were literally trying to get him to turn around and go back to work," the carrier told Business Insider.

"It was just an awful situation."

The coworker decided to stay at home and self-quarantine after speaking to his doctor, who had said, "absolutely do not go back to work."

A USPS employee in Manhattan during the coronavirus pandemic. Mike Segar/Reuters

The Massachusetts carrier said while he has not requested any time off during the pandemic, he knows the USPS is making it incredibly difficult.

"They really push for documentation. You gotta jump through a couple hoops before they check the box," he said.

He says the USPS has always been this way.

"They've never been very considerate about sick leave," he said. "My experience through the years up until now is that if you call in sick, they question what's wrong."

"They're not supposed to, but they do. It's a small guilt trip."

Waiting to get paid

The California carrier said his managers made it very difficult for him to get paid sick leave when he took time off after being exposed to an infected coworker, and experiencing symptoms himself. It took place recently, around the same time as the April 30 statement.

He said the day after he learned about the coworker getting sick, he came down with a mild fever, fatigue, and started showing redness in his legs and eyes.

So he decided to call in sick, both to recuperate and to make sure he didn't accidentally transmit the coronavirus to anyone if he had contracted it.

He was immediately told that in order to get paid sick leave, he would need a doctor's note. Because he doesn't have health insurance, he paid out of pocket to see a doctor and get a note.

A USPS letter carrier crosses a quiet Boylston Street with greatly reduced foot and vehicle traffic in Boston on March 18, 2020. Lane Turner/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

After self-isolating at home for about two weeks, the carrier said he checked his employee profile online and saw that he still wasn't being paid for his sick leave.

He has since been told that his doctor's note specifically needed to have a coronavirus diagnosis on it, he said.

This, in turn, has been almost impossible.

"I tried calling the doctor back and he said two things: One, the CDC for six weeks now is asking doctors not to give out any notes at all because it's a waste of valuable time and resources; and two, they would never write your medical details down on a note as those are private," he said.
'A toxic environment from the top down'

Since returning to work this week, the California carrier said his bosses have been avoiding him, and he is not hopeful that he will ever get paid for taking that time off.

"I know 100% they're going to fight tooth and nail just to ignore me," he said.

Hygiene at his station has also been dire. In a previous interview with Business Insider, he described a lack of masks, social distancing, and having to stand "nearly shoulder to shoulder with everyone all the time" at his station.

He has become so fearful of the conditions there he's even resorted to looking for a new job.

"It's the worst possible time, but I'm already looking for other positions," he said. "They don't have my back. They don't have anybody's back at this point."

"It looks like a toxic environment from the top down."

The USPS has not responded to Business Insider's request for comment.

As unemployment continues to rise, the US could face another crisis: Homelessness across the country could increase by 45%

Sarah Al-Arshani May 14, 2020  INSIDER

Pedestrians walk to the edge of the sidewalk to avoid stepping on people in tents and sleeping bags in the Tenderloin area of San Francisco. AP Photo/Ben Margot


Homelessness in the US could go up by 45% as a result of unemployment due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new study from an economics professor at Columbia University. 

More than 800,000 people could be homeless by the summer. 

The unemployment rate in the US reached 14.7%, which hasn't been seen since the Great Depression.
Homelessness in the United States could increase by as much as 45% by the end of this year, according to a new study from a Columbia University economics professor.

Millions of Americans have filed for unemployment as many businesses across the country shutter due to stay-at-home orders and closures of non-essential businesses in an effort to limit the spread of the new coronavirus.

The report by Dan O'Flaherty, who is an expert on the economics of homelessness, "projects an increase in homelessness by 40-45% this year over January 2019."

That means around an additional 250,000 people will be without housing, "if homelessness follows unemployment the way that it has done so in the earlier part of this century," according to the model used for this study.

According to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, 568,000 people were homeless in January 2019. According to the study, more than 800,000 people could be homeless by this summer.

Some have already been forced to live in their cars or on the streets as a result of losing their job during the pandemic. One couple in Los Angeles previously told Business Insider that they lost their part-time jobs as security guards at a restaurant early into the pandemic and have been forced to live in their car.

The study notes that the unemployment rate in the US reached 14.7%, which hasn't happened since the Great Depression. The rate has not peaked yet, and California alone has already predicted that its unemployment rate could peak at 24.5%.

"This is unprecedented," O'Flaherty said, according to the study. "No one living has seen an increase of 10% of unemployment in a month."

According to the Los Angeles Times, California, which already has a quarter of the country's homeless population would likely see a "smaller increase in homelessness than the nation overall."

The study estimates that the state would see a 20% increase from 150,000 to 180,000 people. That's because the study mostly looked at a constant rise in unemployment across the US, so states that had fewer homeless people would likely see a larger increase.

More than 36 million Americans applied for unemployment during the last two months.

According to the LA Times, some economists say that the economic toll of the pandemic is likely to only get worse.

On Wednesday, citing a separate Federal Reserve survey, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said: "Among people who were working in February, almost 40% of those in households making less than $40,000 a year had lost a job in March."

"This reversal of economic fortune has caused a level of pain that is hard to capture in words, as lives are upended amid great uncertainty about the future," Powell added.

Australian investigation alleged that Cardinal George Pell knew about abuse within the Catholic church for decades. 

One of the pedophile priests he allegedly helped protect has been sentenced to more jail time for his crimes.

Rosie Perper
May 14, 2020

Cardinal George Pell AP


An 85-year-old priest from Victoria, Australia, has been sentenced to more jail time after admitting to further abuse against young boys in the 1970s.
Ridsdale has been in prison since 1994 and has been convicted of 179 offenses against 69 victims between the years of 1961 and 1988.
On Thursday, Victorian County Court Judge Gerard Mullaly extended Ridsdale's sentence for at least another three years, making his earliest release date 2025. He said the extended sentence meant Ridsdale is "more likely to die in custody."
An unredacted Australian Royal Commission investigation released earlier this month found that senior figures in the Catholic Church, including Cardinal George Pell, knew about Ridsdale's abuse and protected him.

An 85-year-old priest from Victoria, Australia, has been sentenced to more jail time after admitting to further abuse of young boys in the 1970s.

According to court documents, Gerald Ridsdale was ordained as a Catholic priest in 1961 and jumped from parish to parish in several cities, including Ballarat and Warrnambool, allegedly committing sexual offenses at each one.

Ridsdale has been in prison since 1994 and has been convicted of 179 offenses against 69 victims between the years of 1961 and 1988. His offenses include dozens of counts of indecent assault and child sexual abuse.

On Thursday, Victorian County Court Judge Gerard Mullaly extended Ridsdale's sentence for at least another three years, making his earliest release date 2025.
Mullaly said that the extended sentence "may well mean that you are, as a consequence, more likely to die in custody."

Ridsdale pleaded guilty to 14 sexual offenses against four young male victims from 1970 to 1979. According to Mullaly, Ridsdale befriended one of his victim's families and frequently visited their home. Two other victims were brothers.

In Ridsdale hearing last month, the court heard that one of the victims, who was seven years old at the beginning of the abuse, never learned to read or write because Ridsdale used to read to him during his assaults.

Ridsdale's defense said that when things escalated in one particular city, the priest knew he would be moved on to another parish.

During Ridsdale's sentencing in 2006, Judge Bill White said that his conduct "plummets to the depths of evil hypocrisy." White criticized the Catholic church for not taking action on complaints made about Ridsdale's known activities.

"The Catholic Church cannot escape criticism in view of its lack of action on complaints being made as to your conduct, the constant moving of you from parish to parish, providing you with more opportunity for your predatory conduct, and its failures to show adequate compassion for a number of your victims," White said in 2006.

An unredacted Australian Royal Commission investigation released earlier this month found that senior figures in the Catholic Church, including Cardinal George Pell, knew about Ridsdale's abuse and protected him.

The commission alleged that Pell should have done more to prevent sexual abuse and remove clergymen who were known to have committed sexual abuse.

Pell has continuously denied knowing about sexual abuse in Ballarat churches while he served as a priest there in the 1970s and 1980s.

According to The Guardian, the commission noted allegations that Pell tried to bribe a sexual abuse survivor from Ballarat named David Risdale into keeping quiet about his abuse at the hands of Ridsdale, who is his uncle.

The commission said it was satisfied that Pell "turned his mind" to Ridsdale taking the boys on overnight camps. The report said that Pell acknowledged that the likely reason for this "was the possibility that if priests were one-on-one with a child then they could sexually abuse a child or at least provoke gossip about such a prospect."

Pell was previously convicted of sexually abusing two 13-year-old boys at a Melbourne church, though his historic conviction was overturned last month.

Director Eugene Jarecki Explains Why He Mounted a ‘Trump Death Clock’ in Times Square

“Our government is showing no accountability,” the documentarian says of his sign counting American lives he says were lost to Trump’s slow response to COVID-19

https://www.thewrap.com/trump-death-clock-eugene-jarecki/

Lifestyle influencers are using COVID-19 to spread 

QAnon conspiracy theories: 'I truly believe I owe it to my audience to be more for them during this turning point in our culture' 

THE PRETENSION IS OVERWHELMING 

Rachel E. Greenspan
May 15, 2020

Snapchat

The QAnon conspiracy theory movement is spreading to some of Instagram's fashionable influencers. @jalynnschroeder/Instagram; @luvbec/Instagram; @krystaltini/Instagram


QAnon, a conspiracy theory deeply engrained with religious conservatives, is no longer just a fringe movement. Now, lifestyle influencers are spreading Q's gospel with their followers.
During the coronavirus pandemic, many QAnon believers have promoted conspiracy theories about "the great awakening" and a supposed plot against Donald Trump.
"I truly believe I owe it to my audience to be more for them during this turning point in our culture," Rebecca Pfeiffer of @luvbec told Insider in an email.
The spread represents a dangerous trend towards belief in unverified information online, that has spurned some Q followers into potentially violent action.
Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.


At first glance, Rebecca Pfeiffer's Instagram appears just like any other lifestyle influencer's feed. Pfeiffer's page @luvbec, which has 104,000 followers, is full of sepia-toned images of a happy family, denim and camouflage jackets, aesthetically pleasing kitchen decor, and sponsored posts with big brands, including Walmart.

But one post from April 7 stands out. Pfeiffer is wearing a bikini and a baseball cap adorned with the letter Q, designed with the American flag, and the words "where we go one, we go all," one of the QAnon conspiracy theory movement's top catchphrases.

"Humbled daily by your messages of awakening, of truth telling, of God-bearing grace," the caption reads, with the hashtags #wwg1wga, #qanon, #qdrops, and #thegreatawakening.

Pfeiffer is a follower of QAnon, the conspiracy theory movement that believes an embedded "deep state" operative sympathetic to the Trump administration is sending coded messages fateful for our culture and politics via an anonymous message board. Of the movement's many bizarre theories, most revolve around the idea that there is a secret plot against President Donald Trump.


QAnon has "no apparent foundation in reality," as NBC News noted, and it's possible that Q, the anonymous figure or group of people posting "Q drops" with new information for followers online, started as a trolling incident. The movement began in 2017 in the wake of the Pizzagate theory on 4chan, an anonymous online message board that is often a breeding ground for hateful vitriol and conspiracy theories.

There have been multiple incidents of QAnon supporters committing violence, including murders and attempted kidnappings, according to progressive research nonprofit organization Media Matters for America.

An FBI field office in Phoenix referred to QAnon as a potential domestic terrorism threat in 2019. "The FBI assesses these conspiracy theories very likely will emerge, spread, and evolve in the modern information marketplace, occasionally driving both groups and individual extremists to carry out criminal or violent acts," an FBI document obtained by Yahoo News said.
Pfeiffer is part of a small but mighty group of lifestyle influencers on Instagram who talk about QAnon in between fashion and parenting posts.

Pfeiffer's QAnon stories and posts are remarkably unspecific, and use religious rhetoric that paints QAnon as "the great awakening" of our time. Followers often times come off as missionaries of sorts, spreading the gospel of Q, as detailed in a recent Atlantic piece.


"I only started sharing this information recently when I started feeling that I had a moral obligation to my audience to share more important content, given the current circumstances," Pfeiffer told Insider via email. "I truly believe I owe it to my audience to be more for them during this turning point in our culture."

The proliferation of conspiracy theories on Instagram is far from novel, as misinformation and far-right ideologies have continued to spread on the app for years. And Pfeiffer is certainly not the sole influencer espousing these beliefs, though the trend is not yet widespread. One comment on her April 7 post, from a micro-influencer with 1,460 followers, reads: "Your posts have been so refreshing to see on an influencers platform... bravo."

Another fashion and lifestyle influencer, Jalynn Schroeder, began sharing QAnon theories in March. "One week ago today, my eyes were opened," she captioned a video in which she explained her new belief system. The 14-minute video has a thumbnail showing a quote from Maya Angelou that reads, "We are only as blind as we want to be." While the late poet and author had no connection to QAnon, Schroeder, who did not return Insider's request for comment, used it to demonstrate her own so-called "awakening."



Krystal Tini, an entrepreneur and model whose Instagram page has nearly 100,000 followers, is another believer in QAnon who has shared conspiracy theories like the baseless idea that 5G technology causes COVID-19, which has led to people burning down 5G cellular towers.


Tini told Insider in an email that she became interested in QAnon because it "gets people to think for themselves and not become a slave to the mainstream media," but she said she's not "100% convinced it's 100% true." Tini added that she never would have shared her perspectives prior to COVID-19.

"If anything, it has piqued my curiosity about all that has been going on 'behind the scenes' for quite some time and also it has provided information I wouldn't otherwise have never known," she said.



Originally, believers in QAnon considered themselves to be on the margins of US culture and considered those in the mainstream society as "normies."

Marc Tuters, a lecturer in the University of Amsterdam's Media Studies program who researches radical political subcultures online, has dubbed the phenomenon of QAnon entering mainstream consciousness as "normiefication," as influencers spreading these beliefs are actually sharing "vague ideas" rather than specifics. Tuters said there's been a "gradual translation to less and less extreme versions, until all that's really left is just the slogans."


These women clearly believe what they're spreading, but their explanations of Q are much easier to swallow than the notion that the Clintons and Obama were involved in a child sex ring.
Social media platforms have struggled to tamp down the spread of these theories during the coronavirus pandemic, as many of them are harmful to public health.

During the coronavirus pandemic, influencers, politicians, and celebrities have been posting misinformation and unproven treatments for the virus.

An April report by researchers from the Reuters Institute at Oxford University found that influencers are part of a group responsible for the most engagement with coronavirus misinformation and conspiracy theories on social media. While politicians, celebrities, and influencers made up only 20% of false claims, their posts accounted for 69% of social media engagement with such theories.

Federal agencies have also put out warnings against false treatment claims. "What we don't need in this situation are companies preying on consumers by promoting products with fraudulent prevention and treatment claims," Federal Trade Commission Chairman Joe Simons said in a March Food and Drug Administration press release.


But these types of unsubstantiated claims have only gotten worse since March. In a 26-minute viral video dubbed the "Plandemic," anti-vaxxer Judy Mikovits, identified as a doctor in the documentary-style short, claims that wearing a mask can increase chances of contracting COVID-19.

Carmella Rose, a fitness and lifestyle influencer with more than two million followers, shared the short documentary with her followers in Instagram stories on May 12. "Everyone needs to check out this video," she wrote. "It keeps getting taken off of YouTube and Facebook when getting millions of views, time to wake up."

Screenshots from Carmella Rose's Instagram stories show her support for QAnon. @carmellarose/Instagram

Indeed, Facebook has been working to remove the video. "Suggesting that wearing a mask can make you sick could lead to imminent harm, so we're removing the video from Facebook and Instagram," a Facebook company spokesperson told Insider. YouTube said it has also sought to remove posts of the video, which contains "content that includes medically unsubstantiated diagnostic advice," Reuters reported.
Amid the coronavirus pandemic, QAnon has officially become mainstream. Even President Trump is publicly acknowledging the movement's conspiracy theories.

Alexander Reid Ross, a researcher who tracks white nationalism and a doctoral fellow at the Centre for Analysis of the Radical Right, said that it's clear that the QAnon movement has wormed its way into mainstream culture.


"When you've got the president of the United States promoting these themes and theories ... You can say that they're fringe, in terms of the competent, rational mind, but you can't say that they're out of the mainstream," said Reid Ross.

In addition to the Plandemic, Rose, who did not respond to requests for comment, shared posts about "Obamagate" on her stories. "Obamagate," a conspiracy theory that alleges President Barack Obama and his administration illegally targeted the Trump administration in investigations (such as the Mueller probe), has been touted by President Trump.

Sen. Rand Paul tweeted on May 13 encouraging Congress to find out "what did the former president know." Then, Trump tweeted on May 14 urging Congress to investigate the "biggest political crime and scandal in the history of the USA."

35 current or former candidates for Congress have appeared to support QAnon, according to Media Matters for America, as reported by The Atlantic.
—Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) May 13, 2020


While Trump has continuously spread the Q-derived "Obamagate" theory, he has been unable to answer questions from reporters concerning crimes Obama allegedly committed.
—Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 14, 2020


Tini said there are certain QAnon theories surrounding Obama that are particularly appealing to her, because of the president's Secret Service code name, "Renegade," which is defined by the Oxford dictionary as "a person who deserts and betrays an organization, country, or set of principles."

"That right there has me asking," Tini said, "why would a president of the United States of America choose such a word to represent him?"
QAnon followers are particularly emboldened during the coronavirus pandemic, which is a "perfect storm for conspiracy theories," according to Tuters.

Pfeiffer told Insider that she only recently became interested in QAnon "when the narrative we were being presented through mainstream media didn't seem to be adding up."


Though she would have never previously shared political ideology with her followers, she feels it's her duty. "I only started sharing this information recently when I started feeling that I had a moral obligation to my audience to share more important content, given the current circumstances."

Tini echoed that sentiment, writing in an email to Insider that her decision to share QAnon with her Instagram followers "comes strictly from passion to pursue the truth as opposed to so many people being controlled by fear" during the coronavirus pandemic.

Tuters also said it makes sense that people are turning to QAnon during the coronavirus pandemic, as the world remains uncertain and people are searching for beacons of hope and guidance. "[Conspiracy theories] are simplistic narratives that people come up with to kind of connect their political beliefs with something bigger," Tuters said.

"People seek some kind of sense of certainty, understandably so, and explanations that can sort of fit things into a more coherent framework," he said, "and that's what attracts people to conspiracy theories in general."

Read more:
Facebook banned a cluster of 'fringe conspiracy' QAnon pages for breaking its rules on manipulation

QAnon conspiracy theorists are telling people to drink bleach as a cure against the deadly Wuhan coronavirus

A QAnon conspiracy theory about Oprah Winfrey went so viral that it provoked her to respond, showing the scope of coronavirus misinformation

Celebrities, politicians, and influencers are largely accountable for the spread of false coronavirus information, according to a new study

This Priest Squirted Holy Water At Churchgoers At A Socially-Distanced Service And He's Now A Meme
Father Tim Pelc told BuzzFeed News he's amazed at how widely the photo is being shared. "It even had two hits in the Vatican," he said, "which sort of concerned me but I haven’t heard anything yet."
Posted on May 16, 2020

Courtesy Larry Peplin

Father Tim Pelc tries to stay off social media when possible, but recently, it's become unavoidable. Thanks to the photos from his socially-distanced Holy Week service in Michigan, which involved a water gun full of Holy Water, Pelc has become a meme.

The photos, which were taken by parishioner Larry Peplin, received some attention when they were first posted by St. Ambrose Parish on Facebook in April. But they have recently gone viral on Twitter, and even sparked a Reddit Photoshop Battle.


Jeff Barnaby@tripgore
A Priest giving social distance blessings with a squirt pistol and what, I'm assuming, is Holy water. 2020 folks.07:29 PM - 15 May 2020

The sudden internet popularity has come as a pleasant surprise to Pelc, 70, who's been with the parish in Detroit for 30 years and prides himself on having a "pretty wacky mind and pretty accepting congregation."

"The original idea was to do something for the kids of the parish," Pelc told BuzzFeed News. "They were about ready to have an Easter unlike any of their past, so I thought, what can we still do that would observe all the protocols of social distancing?"

Pelc came up with the idea of using a water gun to bless his parishioners' Easter baskets from a safe distance, and consulted with his friend, an emergency room doctor in Detroit, to ensure it was safe to do so.

"He said, 'not only is this safe, this is fun,' and he came with his kids," Pelc said. "He provided me with all the personal protection stuff that I needed. The sun was out, we had a nice turnout. It was a way of continuing an ancient custom, and people seemed to enjoy it."

Pelc said he's been amazed at how widely the photos have been shared, and how much they've resonated with people all over the world.

"It was a good news story and people were in the mood for something like that," Pelc said.

They noticed that the photos on Facebook had a wide reach.

"It was big in Ukraine, and the Germans are funny, that led to a whole sub discussion about the types of water pistols," he added. "It even had two hits in the Vatican, which sort of concerned me but I haven’t heard anything yet."

Christine Busque, who manages the church's Facebook page and posted the original photos, said the response has been overwhelmingly positive, and she's thrilled to see others appreciate Father Pelc's trademark thoughtfulness and creative flair.

“People wanted to have a bright side to the things that are happening in the world right now," Busque said. "They saw that, and I think they saw that he cared about his parishioners enough to want to keep his traditions alive but work [within] the CDC guidelines of being safe."

Facebook: stambroseparish

Pelc said he thinks the photos have taken off online because not only are they fun, they've also provided a bit of optimism for those feeling a sense of hopelessness during the coronavirus pandemic.

"I’m not objecting to it, this whole idea of combating evil is a good one," Pelc said. "When Jesus dies he doesn’t just lay around doing nothing, he goes down to hell and kicks the doors in, he really wrestles with evil. We all want to believe that the devil is not the most powerful force on the earth and neither is COVID-19."


Imgur / Via imgur.com
Father Tim Pelc's personal favorite photoshopped image.

While the Holy Saturday service was a bit tongue-in-cheek, Pelc said he's happy to see his parishioners and his city taking the pandemic seriously.

"Detroiters are taking lockdown very seriously," Pelc said. "Michigan’s got a public face of a lot of people with their assault rifles protesting, but here in south eastern Michigan that’s not the mood I’m getting."

While his parish may reopen for public masses as soon as next Sunday, with reduced capacity, Pelc said he's tried calling around for people to help put on and attend the service and been turned down.

"People are saying they don’t want to come out just yet," Pelc said. "There’s still a lot of fear out there and I don’t blame them."

Michigan currently has the fourth-highest COVID-19 death toll in the United States, with more than 4,800 deaths and over 50,000 cases.

Pelc and the St. Ambrose Parish have been honoring the state's COVID-19 victims with blue ribbons tied around trees on the church's property.

"When the lockdown started we tied a blue ribbon on one of our trees and the first week we had six ribbons, then 60, then 675, now it’s close to 5,000," Pelc said. "Each of those pieces of ribbon represents someone who was loved and had a family, it brings tears to your eyes."

Facebook: stambroseparish


While the parish waits to resume normal services, Pelc has been adapting with a mix of livestreamed and pre-taped Sunday services. The church's livestreams have become so popular — with as many as three masses worth of people watching tuning into a Facebook livestream, Pelc said – that the parish is looking at permanent camera placements to broadcast to people even after the pandemic ends.

"We don’t think we can put the toothpaste back in the tube," Pelc said. "Our broadcasts equal the number of people electronically as I would have on a normal weekend physically, and that tells me that there’s an audience out there."

As for his newfound internet stardom and meme-ification, Pelc is still getting used to it.

"I'm a little reluctant, if I didn’t have a mask on in these photos I probably wouldn't be as happy," Pelc said. "But I'm perfectly happy being the masked avenger here."

Olivia Niland BuzzFeed News Reporter
Olivia Niland is a news reporter and curation editor for BuzzFeed News and is based in Los Angeles.