A White House Butler Who Worked For 11 US Presidents Died Of The Coronavirus"His service to others—his willingness to go above and beyond for the country he loved and all those whose lives he touched—is a legacy worthy of his generous spirit," former first lady Michelle Obama said.

Posted on May 21, 2020

National Archives Catalog / Via catalog.archives.gov



Wilson Roosevelt Jerman

People around the world are remembering family and friends who have died during the coronavirus pandemic. BuzzFeed News is proud to bring you some of their stories. To support our coverage, become a member and sign up for our newsletter, Outbreak Today.


Wilson Roosevelt Jerman — who worked in the White House as a cleaner, butler, and maître d' for 11 US presidents over more than half a century — died Saturday from COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, his family said.

Jerman was 91, his granddaughter Shanta Taylor Gay said in a Facebook post.

"My grandfather is a family-loving, genuine man," Jamila Garrett, another granddaughter, told Fox 5 in DC. "He was always about service, service to others. It doesn't matter who you were or what you did or what you needed."

Jerman last worked in the White House for President Barack Obama and his family, who honored him with a plaque and 11 coins, each representing every US president he worked with.

"With his kindness and care, Wilson Jerman helped make the White House a home for decades for First Families, including ours," former first lady Michelle Obama said in a statement to BuzzFeed News. "His service to others—his willingness to go above and beyond for the country he loved and all those whose lives he touched—is a legacy worthy of his generous spirit. We were lucky to have known him. Barack and I send our sincerest love and prayers to his family."

Shanta Taylor Gay

on Tuesday

✨ ✨ Turn in tonight at 10pm on fox 5 new! My Grandfather (Wilson Jerman) story will be shared. On May 16 my grandfather passed 🕊💔due to Covid-19. He was the oldest Butler/Matri D for the WHITE HOUSE alive since Former President Eisenhower administration, he retired in 2012 with Former President Obama. Fox5 News was his favorite station. His legacy will live on!! RIP GRANDAD

-0:38

Facebook: shanta.taylorgay

Jerman began working at the White House in 1957 under President Dwight D. Eisenhower as a cleaner, then was promoted to butler under President John F. Kennedy.


Garrett told Fox 5 her grandfather was promoted in part thanks to Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

According to the White House Historical Association, Jerman worked full-time in the White House from 1957 to 1993.

He worked part-time beginning in 2003 and left the White House in 2012 under President Barack Obama.

Director Lee Daniels made a 2013 film, The Butler, about Eugene Allen, who also began working in the White House in 1952 and served under multiple presidents.

During his career, Garrett said he fostered relationships with the families of past presidents, particularly the Kennedys, the Bushes (during the administrations of George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush), and the Obamas.

A 2009 photo of the Obamas inside an elevator being operated by Jerman was included in Michelle Obama's book, Becoming.

Samantha Appleton/White House via Getty Images

His granddaughter Shanta Taylor Gay told CNN her grandfather had a stroke in 2011, and the Obamas looked after his well-being and sent flowers.

Garrett said despite working for US presidents, her grandfather's focus was service for others.

"I want the world to remember my grandfather as someone who was really authentic, always being yourself," Garrett said. "That's what he taught our family."

Salvador Hernandez is a reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in Los Angeles.
Contact Salvador Hernandez at salvador.hernandez@buzzfeed.com.

Wilson Jerman: Ex-White House butler dies of coronavirus

SAMANTHA APPLETON

Wilson Roosevelt Jerman with Michelle and Barack Obama

A former White House butler, who worked for 11 presidents in a career that spanned five decades, has died of coronavirus aged 91.

It was Jackie Kennedy who noticed Wilson Roosevelt Jerman while he was working as a cleaner in the White House.

The then First Lady had him promoted, and from then on he worked as a butler.

"She was instrumental in ensuring that that happened," his granddaughter, Jamila Garrett, told Fox 5.

Decades later Mr Jerman was commemorated by another First Lady, appearing in a photo in Michelle Obama's memoir Becoming.

Paying tribute after his death, Mrs Obama said her family were "lucky to have known him".

"With his kindness and care, Wilson Jerman helped make the White House a home for decades of First Families, including ours," she said in a statement to NBC News.

"His service to others - his willingness to go above and beyond for the country he loved and all those whose lives he touched - is a legacy worthy of his generous spirit."

He died with coronavirus last weekend.

COURTESY OF FAMILY

Wilson Roosevelt Jerman began working at the White House in 1957

Mr Jerman's family members say he stood out not just to the Kennedys, who were in the White House during 1961-63, and the Obamas, who lived there from 2009 to 2017, but others he met in his roles.

Mr Jerman's career began in 1957 during the Eisenhower administration. In his last position, he served as a maître d' in the Obama White House.

He left his position in 2012, and President Obama honoured him with a series of plaques, one that represented each of the presidents he had served, Mr Jerman's granddaughter Shanta Taylor Gay told CNN.

He remains an important figure for those who study the history of African Americans and their role in political life.

Like other African-American men of his generation, he showed dignity while serving in one of the few positions that was available to him at the time, said Ohio State University's Koritha Mitchell, author of From Slave Cabins to the White House.

She said he must have found it satisfying to end his career in the way that he did.

He was working for Mr Obama, "a dignified president who was also African American", she said, adding: "That must have felt like a victory."

These Are The Fake Experts Pushing Pseudoscience And Conspiracy Theories About The Coronavirus Pandemic

A guide to the spin doctors and conspiracy theorists clogging up your social media feed.

May 21, 2020

Ben Kothe / Getty Images, AP

Many of those who spread hoaxes and pseudoscience about the coronavirus pandemic can be hard to distinguish from medical authorities recognized by their peers as legitimate.

To help you cut through the misinformation, we're keeping a running list of the most prominent people who have pushed what scientists and professional fact-checkers have found to be demonstrably false claims about the outbreak — and who they really are. We’re also highlighting real experts whose words were taken out of context and deliberately distorted.
The Spin Doctors


David Calvert / AP

Name: Judy Mikovits

Who she is: Mikovits holds a PhD in biochemistry and molecular biology from George Washington University. She was formerly the research director at the Whittemore Peterson Institute. In 2012, Mikovits coauthored a controversial paper on chronic fatigue syndrome. Following its publication, the academic journal Science retracted it when the work of Mikovits and her colleagues could not be replicated. Before the retraction, Mikovits’ employer fired her, saying it was unrelated to the controversy around the research. In a 2014 book Mikovits coauthored, she claimed that Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, had personally barred her from the NIH premises. In 2018, Fauci categorically denied that claim to the fact-checking site Snopes, saying, “I have no idea what she is talking about.” Since 2014, she has been making appearances at a conference dedicated to denying vaccine science and saying that autism and vaccinations are connected, which is false, according to the CDC.

What she has said about the coronavirus: In the video titled “Plandemic,” she paints herself as a whistleblower, claiming the coronavirus pandemic was planned by shadowy global figures. Mikovits found an audience — it was shared, liked, and commented on over 20 million times on Facebook. In the video, Mikovits goes against scientific advice and claims that wearing a mask could make someone sick, that sand and water from the beach can help cure the coronavirus, and that yet-uninvented vaccines for it could be dangerous. Mikovits also misrepresents her research and arrest, not mentioning that her study was retracted and claiming she was held in jail without charges.

What authorities have said: In 2011, Mikovits was fired from the Whittemore Peterson Institute. Subsequently, the paper she coauthored was retracted, after it was found that samples were contaminated and other scientists, including those in her own lab, could not replicate the results. After her firing, Mikovits faced a lawsuit from her former employer for allegedly stealing lab equipment and data. She spent five days in jail in California being held as a fugitive, after which the charges were dropped in 2012. Mikovits filed a countersuit against her former employer that was dismissed in 2016 in part because she did not provide the necessary documentation.


Getty Images



Name: Shiva Ayyadurai

Who he is: A candidate for the GOP nomination for Senate in Massachusetts, who dubiously claimed to have invented email. He also dated, and reportedly married, actor Fran Drescher. In 2018, during a previous Senate bid, the city of Cambridge, Massachusetts, ordered him to remove a sign from his campaign bus that read "Only a REAL INDIAN Can Defeat the Fake Indian," referencing Sen. Elizabeth Warren. Ayyadurai sued, and the city backed down.

What he has said about the coronavirus: Ayyadurai accused Fauci of ties to Big Pharma without evidence, according to Politico, and called for him to be fired. He defined COVID-19 as “an overactive dysfunctional immune system that overreacts and that's what causes damage to the body," which is not accurate, according to medical experts. Ayyadurai has also claimed that vitamin C could be used to treat the disease, which is not true, according to the World Health Organization.

What authorities have said: Ayyadurai claims to have created an email program while in high school in the ‘70s and labeled himself “the inventor of email,” but that claim has been disputed by experts. Technology historian Thomas Haigh wrote that Ayyadurai "did not invent email. [...] The details of Ayyadurai’s program were never published, it was never commercialized, and it had no apparent influence on any further work in the field." In 2017, a judge dismissed a libel suit Ayyadurai brought over a Techdirt story that stated he did not invent email. Ayyadurai appealed that dismissal, and in 2019 Techdirt agreed to settle the case that meant that the news organization had to link to Ayyadurai’s claim of him inventing email on its stories about him.


Youtube/Dr Eric Nepute / Via youtu.be


Name: Eric Nepute

Who he is: A chiropractor with a degree from Logan University and accredited by the state of Missouri.

What he has said about the coronavirus: In a Facebook Live video viewed 2.1 million times, Nepute urged people to drink quinine and eat zinc to fight COVID-19. He also filmed a video with Sherri Tenpenny, who speaks against vaccine science, claiming the development of a COVID-19 vaccine was a plot to encourage mandatory vaccinations.

What authorities have said: As Snopes pointed out, he made pseudoscientific claims, including about the health benefits of tonic water: "You would need to drink more than 12 liters of Schweppes tonic water every eight hours to maintain those therapeutic levels of quinine (usually provided in pill form) from tonic water." In addition, Nepute claimed that quinine worked "similar-ish" to chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, the compounds under study as potential treatments for COVID-19, a claim which Snopes reported was inaccurate. The year before the pandemic, the Better Business Bureau challenged an advertising claim on Nepute's website, which stated, “Our ideal circumstance is what we call Preconception Care. This is when parents come to us at least 2 years before conceiving a child to first correct unidentified health issues with them in order to prevent those genes from being passed down.” According to the BBB, Nepute’s office initially replied but “did not respond to BBB’s request for substantiation/documentation.”


Getty Images


Name: Rashid Buttar

Who he is: An osteopath who earned his degree from Des Moines University. In 2009, Buttar claimed to have treated a young woman who said she got dystonia and was unable to speak after receiving a flu vaccine. News reports at the time challenged the story, according to ABC News. Buttar has been a proponent of chelation therapy as a treatment for various illnesses and disorders, including autism, which involves administering IV or pills that bind to metals in a patient's blood. Other than as a treatment for lead or mercury poisoning, the Mayo Clinic does not recommend chelation therapy. Buttar has long spoken against vaccines and previously participated in a conference in which speakers linked autism to vaccinations, a claim for which the CDC has said there is no scientific evidence.

What he has said about the coronavirus: Buttar has made claims disputed by fact-checkers regarding the coronavirus, including that receiving a flu shot was tied to testing positive. Buttar also claimed that the coronavirus was a biological weapon. (A paper in the scientific journal Nature said the virus was “not a laboratory construct.”) Buttar called for Dr. Fauci to be jailed over a series of grants that were awarded after the 2003 SARS outbreak.

What authorities have said: In 2010, the North Carolina medical board reprimanded him for, among other complaints, treating three cancer patients with therapies that had “no known value for the treatment of cancer,” documents from the case said. According to a WCNC report at the time, “Buttar has spent years selling skin drops at $150 a bottle as a treatment for diseases ranging from autism to cancer.” In 2013, the FDA sent Buttar a warning letter for promoting and distributing unapproved medical products on his websites and YouTube videos. "The medical board and FDA have a responsibility to make sure doctors don't push too close to the edge," Buttar previously said in an emailed statement to BuzzFeed News. "The regulatory bodies serve an important function and are needed to safeguard the public."



Name: Dr. Artin Massihi

Who he is: The co-owner of Accelerated Urgent Care, a private clinic in Bakersfield, California.

What he has said about the coronavirus: Massihi and his partner, Dr. Dan Erickson, called a press conference on April 22 to share data they claimed showed that the lockdowns should end, that COVID-19 was less deadly than commonly thought, and that physicians were being pressured to list COVID-19 as the cause of death for patients who had not tested positive. Public health authorities and a wide range of experts in the relevant fields condemned their data and conclusions as deeply flawed, the Mercury News reported.

What authorities have said: Massihi’s comments about COVID-19 were condemned in a joint statement by the American College of Emergency Physicians and the American Academy of Emergency Medicine as “reckless and untested musings” that were “inconsistent with current science and epidemiology regarding COVID-19.”


Name: Dr. Dan Erickson

Who he is: A former emergency room physician who co-owns Accelerated Urgent Care, a private clinic in Bakersfield, California.

What he has said about the coronavirus: At the press conference Erickson made a statistical error when he said, “California is 12% positive. We have 39.5 million people. If we just take a basic calculation and just extrapolate that out, that equates to about 4.7 million cases throughout the state of California.” In fact, 12% of Californians who’d been tested were positive — a difference that undercuts his claim, according to public health professor Andrew Noymer.

What authorities have said: Kern Public Health, the local health authority, also said Erickson was wrong when he claimed its top doctor agreed with him about the need to end the lockdowns.



The 5G Conspiracy Theorists


AP



Name: David Icke

Who he is: Formerly a soccer player, sports broadcaster, and spokesperson for the UK Green Party, Icke is known for conspiracy theories that the Center for Countering Digital Hate has called anti-Semitic. He has suggested that interdimensional reptilian beings secretly control the world, that the moon is a spacecraft, and that the 9/11 attacks were not carried out by al-Qaeda, but by Israel. He also claimed to be the "son of God."
What he has said about the coronavirus: Icke has inaccurately claimed that Jews were behind the coronavirus, according to the BBC, and has promoted the conspiracy theory that 5G technology causes COVID-19. Following these claims, Facebook and YouTube suspended Icke’s pages. Spotify removed a podcast episode featuring an interview with Icke in which he doubted the existence of the virus.

What authorities have said: In 2017, the nonprofit Political Research Associates described Icke’s work as “a mishmash of most of the dominant themes of contemporary neofascism, mixed in with a smattering of topics culled from the U.S. militia movement.” In 2018, Jonathan Greenblatt, chief executive of the Anti-Defamation League, said of Icke, “There is no fair reading of Icke’s work that could be seen as not anti-Semitic.” UK media regulator Ofcom ruled last month that a London Live TV segment with Icke “posed threat to public health.” The Center for Countering Digital Hate has called on all major social media companies to deplatform Icke. After Facebook removed his official page, Icke tweeted, "Fascist Facebook deletes David Icke - the elite are TERRIFIED."


Facebook



Name: Mark Steele

Who he is: Steele claims in videos and at conferences that he is a weapons expert. According to Vice, he works at Reevu, a UK-based firm that designs motorcycle helmets. Since 2018, Steele has harassed the town council of Gateshead, England, about 5G technology, according to Chronicle Live. The council published a Facebook post in 2018 denying it used 5G technology and rebuffing his other claims, like that street lights in town caused cancer.

What he has said about the coronavirus: Steele claimed that 5G cellular technology causes COVID-19, calling the disease a “genocide" carried by “the deep state.” An electrical engineer and a virologist told USA Today that 5G and the coronavirus are not linked. Steele also gave a speech about 5G at a 2018 conference for the Democrats and Veterans Party, an offshoot of the British far-right political party UKIP, that was featured prominently in a now-deleted viral video.

What authorities have said: In 2018, a British court convicted him for threatening two councilors in Gateshead. Steele is currently under an injunction to prevent him from harassing or threatening the town's councilors or staff but was allowed by the judge to continue speaking against 5G. According to Chronicle Live, Steele denied that he was harassing council members, saying he "acted proportionally."
The Misquoted


flickr/minnesotasenaterepublicans



Name: Sen. Scott Jensen

Who he is: Jensen is a longtime family physician in Minnesota and a Republican member of the Minnesota Senate, who was elected in 2016. He is not seeking reelection in 2020 and is rumored to be interested in a run for governor.

What he has said about the virus: On April 7, he gave a North Dakota TV interview in which he suggested that hospitals and physicians were being told by the CDC to list COVID-19 as the cause of death in cases where it might not be warranted. His comment that “Fear is a great way to control people” was picked up by InfoWars and QAnon supporters. He later appeared on Fox News and said hospitals get paid more if a patient is listed as having COVID-19 and is on a ventilator, which is true. He did not directly say hospitals are doing this for the money, just that it’s a concern. His TV appearances were used in the “Plandemic” video, but he disavows virus conspiracies. "I think that things are being taken out of context,” he told the Star Tribune.

What authorities have said: Jensen is a physician in good standing.


Youtube/Medscape / Via youtu.be



Name: Dr. Cameron Kyle-Sidell

Who he is: Kyle-Sidell is an emergency and critical care physician at Maimonides hospital in Brooklyn. In March and April, he worked in an intensive care unit dedicated to COVID-19 patients. He received his medical degree from Ben Gurion University of the Negev in Israel.

What he has said about the coronavirus: In a March 31 YouTube video, he questioned whether putting COVID-19 patients on ventilators was the right protocol and worried that this “misguided treatment will lead to a tremendous amount of harm to a great number of people in a very short time.” Since he raised the issue, other physicians have shared similar views. But his opinion has been misstated by conspiracy theorists to imply that the virus is not what the medical establishment says it is. On May 10, he tweeted that he had not consented to being included in “Plandemic,” saying, “I do not believe the narrative underlying the origin or spread of this terrible disease is one of human ill intent. We are fighting a virus not each other.”

What authorities have said: Kyle-Sidell is a doctor in good standing and his inclusion in “Plandemic” and other fringe narratives is the result of people misinterpreting or exaggerating his comments.


Jane Lytvynenko is a reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in Toronto, Canada. PGP fingerprint: A088 89E6 2500 AD3C 8081 BAFB 23BA 21F3 81E0 101C.
Contact Jane Lytvynenko at jane.lytvynenko@buzzfeed.com

Ryan Broderick is a senior reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in New York City.
Contact Ryan Broderick at ryan@buzzfeed.com.

Craig Silverman is a media editor for BuzzFeed News and is based in Toronto.
Contact Craig Silverman at craig.silverman@buzzfeed.com.

Democrats grill EPA chief on regulatory rollbacks during coronavirus outbreak
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic senators on Wednesday grilled Environmental Protection Agency chief Andrew Wheeler on the agency’s recent moves to roll back rules and halt enforcement actions and monitoring requirements during the coronavirus outbreak, saying they would especially harm minorities.

Andrew Wheeler, Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), speaks during a Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, U.S., May 20, 2020. Al Drago/Pool via REUTERS

Senators pressed Wheeler on the agency’s half dozen regulatory rollbacks since the coronavirus outbreak hit the United States, including for vehicle fuel efficiency standards and mercury limits from power plants.

They also criticized him for implementing a temporary policy on March 26 to enable companies to delay complying with air and water quality reporting and monitoring requirements during the health crisis.

“Your decisions make this pandemic worse,” said Senator Ed Markey, participating by video. He demanded that Wheeler apologize to minority communities for “harming the health of the most vulnerable people in our country right now as their lungs are being attacked by coronavirus.”


Wheeler testified before a nearly empty Senate environment and public works panel - attended by a handful of senators in person and the rest by video. He said the agency had approved disinfectants for use against the virus and worked to ensure drinking and wastewater services are operational during the health crisis.

He also denied that the EPA has relaxed enforcement during the pandemic.

He testified that since March, the EPA had opened 52 criminal enforcement cases, charged 10 defendants and secured $21.5 million in Superfund response commitments.

The panel’s top Democrat, Senator Tom Carper, said that early research, including a recent report by Harvard University, has shown that people exposed to more air pollution may have greater risk of coronavirus infection.


Carper asked whether the EPA would further study those links, and if Wheeler would stop writing rules “that make things actually worse, not better.”

Wheeler did not commit to the research and responded, “All of our rules make things better, sir.”

FORMER COAL LOBBYIST
EPA chief defends lifting of regulations during pandemic
TRUMPS DECONSTRUCTION OF GOVERNMENT

EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler adjusts his mask at an oversight hearing Wednesday on Capitol Hill. Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI | License Photo
May 20 (UPI) -- Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler testified to Congress on Wednesday about the regulations his agency has lifted in recent weeks to give companies greater freedoms during the coronavirus pandemic.

He touted the agency's approval of hundreds of disinfectants since early March and a change to the Clean Water Act that lifts protections for streams and wetlands. Wheeler said the latter benefits American farmers and businesses currently experiencing economic hardship because of the pandemic.

He made the comments during an EPA oversight hearing of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.

Chairman John Barrasso, R-Wyo., praised the EPA's "good work" protecting the country's natural resources and providing the public with information about safe cleaning products during the COVID-19 crisis.

"In addition to its work on the virus, the agency has pursued policies to protect the environment, while supporting the economy," he said in his opening remarks.

"EPA has replaced punishing regulations that harmed the coal industry, farmers and ranchers, and many small businesses in my home state of Wyoming and across the country."

Wheeler's appearance before the committee came one day after President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing federal agencies to review hundreds of regulations that have been suspended in response to the pandemic. He wants his administration to make those suspensions permanent where possible.

"With millions of Americans forced out of work by the virus, it's more important than ever to remove burdens that destroy American jobs," Trump said.

Wheeler said the EPA lifted 18 regulations last year and is working on lifting another 45.

Democrats on the Senate committee criticized the EPA for lifting environmental protections they say could exacerbate the effects of COVID-19.

"We are in the middle of a health crisis attacking people's lungs," Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass., said. "The EPA is supposed to be an air quality fire department. Instead, you're throwing gasoline on a burning building, knowing that breathing bad air can make the impacts of coronavirus worse."

"Preliminary studies are showing a higher rate of mortality from COVID-19 among people with chronic diseases that are linked to long-term exposure to poor air quality," Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., added. "It's not hard to connect the dots ... this should be a major wake-up call."

Scientists Studying The Coronavirus Say Some States Are Censoring Them
State officials in Florida, Arizona, and Georgia have reportedly been censoring scientists or providing questionable COVID-19 case data while pushing for early reopenings.

Posted on May 20, 2020

Florida Department of Health / Via experience.arcgis.com

Disputes over coronavirus case counts in reopening states like Georgia, Arizona, and Florida are worrying public health experts, who fear public trust in health agencies is being destroyed by moves to silence or obscure unwelcome data.

“Ultimately this is going to kill people,” said biostatistics professor Ruth Etzioni of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle. “People are going to see low numbers from these reports with manipulated numbers, go outside when they should stay in, get ill, and die.”

As those three states pushed to ease stay-at-home orders in recent weeks, they have each reportedly taken steps to obscure data that would have run counter to their plans, hiding or misapplying complete numbers of those who have died or become ill from COVID-19. The White House’s April guidelines to states called for a 14-day downturn in case counts before reopening, but the three states and others have proceeded before that happened.

Most public health projections see cases dipping nationwide from the effects of the past stay-at-home orders, but then climbing as May ends as people get sick from new exposures during reopenings. The data problems in Georgia, Arizona, and Florida come as overall US coronavirus cases counts stand at more than 1.5 million, with over 92,000 deaths. New US case reports have declined to less than 25,000 new cases a day in May, however, down from more than 35,000 a day in late April. More than 40 states have in the last month reopened businesses after widespread stay-at-home orders in March led to staggering US unemployment and financial losses.



Among the hard-hit states is tourism-heavy Florida, which reopened on May 4. The head of the state’s widely praised coronavirus dashboard, Rebekah Jones of the Florida Department of Public Health, reported in an email update on Friday that she had been removed from her role for "reasons beyond my division’s control." Jones, who had previously won praise from White House coronavirus task force leader Deborah Birx, later told a local TV station that the state had asked her to “manually change data to drum up support for the plan to reopen.”

The Florida Department of Public Health did not respond to a query from BuzzFeed News over whether it had manipulated data to make reopening more attractive. A statement sent from Helen Ferré of the office of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said “Rebekah Jones exhibited a repeated course of insubordination during her time with the Department, including her unilateral decisions to modify the Department’s COVID-19 dashboard without input or approval from the epidemiological team or her supervisors.” Ferré added that Jones had until Thursday to resign or would face termination.

Jones did not respond to requests for comment. An email sent to her work address bounced back on Wednesday morning.

The Sunshine State was criticized in April for pressuring medical examiners not to release their COVID-19 death counts, then 10% higher than official state figures. A Tampa Bay Times report on Wednesday concluded that COVID-19 had likely led to “hundreds” of unreported deaths in Florida since March.


Arizona started a limited reopening plan on May 8. Four days earlier state officials directed Arizona State University and University of Arizona researchers modeling the projections for state coronavirus cases to “pause” all their work. “Also, we have been asked to pull back the special data sets which have been shared under this public health emergency effort,” the order said, according to a copy obtained by BuzzFeed News.

The university models had suggested the only way to keep deaths from rising in the state was to delay reopening until the end of May, but the state officials had said they wanted to rely on federal models instead. After the researchers said they planned to continue releasing their projections anyway, the state backed down from the pause order.

Georgia was among the first states to reopen business, on April 27. The state was criticized last week for mistakes in its data just ahead of its reopening, showing that new cases in counties with the highest infection rates had been in a steady two-week decline when in fact they’d stayed flat. The same errors were made three times. Critics suggested that the mixed-up dates and incorrect case counts were part of misleading bids to suggest that fewer people were getting sick just ahead of reopening.


AJC@ajc
Gov. Brian Kemp’s office issued an apology after a Georgia Public Health Department chart wrongly reported a downward trend in #coronavirus cases. The error was at least the third in as many weeks: https://t.co/wbYapZikxU01:30 PM - 17 May 2020
Reply Retweet Favorite


The accuracy of case count data is essential for safe state reopenings, which rely on declining case numbers, accurate testing data, and hospitalization rates to proceed in states like Virginia and California, still under regional lockdowns.

A recent Georgia Tech report suggested that people staying at home rather than readily mixing after Georgia’s reopening would cut the peak of June and July cases in the state by 40%. That makes strong public messages about physical distancing and staying at home crucial during any reopenings, the report concluded.

“When public health agencies are not being transparent, not being complete and accurate over the long term, they are fundamentally undermining the trust of the public,” said George Washington University health policy professor Jeffrey Levi. The pandemic will likely see repeated periods of calls for stronger physical distancing to blunt future outbreaks, making this particularly dangerous, he added. “The next time you tell them to trust your data, they won’t.”

The pandemic is already a tough situation for collecting accurate data, Levi noted. Many people don’t get tested because of a lack of symptoms or poor access to tests, and reports from New York, New Jersey, and Michigan have suggested large undercounts of deaths are likely. A healthcare company in Florida reported on Tuesday that as many as 33,000 people there were given unreliable diagnostic tests, not the first time that unreliable tests have muddied the waters for epidemiologists.

Most worrisome, the three-week lag between the onset of a COVID-19 outbreak and deaths in hospitals shooting upward makes maintaining public trust in public health agencies even more crucial, said Levi. He called the allegations being raised against the state public health agencies altering data and censoring scientists "unprecedented."


“Anything short of full transparency does not serve the public good,” American Public Health Association President Lisa Carlson told BuzzFeed News. “People make mistakes; people dispute data. What’s important is to get to, and to maintain, accurate, timely, and complete data — and transparency.”

Zahra Hirji contributed reporting to this story.

Dan VerganoBuzzFeed News Reporter

Brazil to boost aid for informal workers, formal jobless insurance claims surge 76.2%
BRASILIA (Reuters) - The mounting pressure on Brazil’s workforce from the unfolding economic crisis during the new coronavirus outbreak was highlighted on Thursday as figures showed a 76% surge in formal unemployment insurance claims, and the Economy Ministry said it will increase emergency aid for informal workers.

Latin America’s largest economy is expected to shrink more than 5% this year, its steepest economic downturn since records began in 1900, and central bank president Roberto Campos Neto said this week that the unemployment rate will likely exceed 15%.

Economy Ministry figures showed that formal unemployment insurance claims in the first two weeks of May totaled 504,313, a rise of 76.2% from the same period a year earlier.

Some 77.5% of these claims were made online, the ministry said, compared with 1.7% a year ago, because of social isolation and quarantine measures in place across Brazil.

The year-to-date total to mid-May was also up from a year ago, by 9.6% to 2.84 million claims, the figures showed.

The figures were released shortly after the Economy Ministry said that total emergency measures taken so far amount to 344.6 billion reais ($62 billion), which will have an impact on this year’s primary budget worth 4.7% of gross domestic product.

Officials told reporters in Brasilia the emergency payments for low-paid, informal workers scheduled to be rolled out over three months will now total 151.5 billion reais.

That is up from 98.2 billion reais originally, then a revised 123.9 billion reais, due to more claims than forecast.

Asked if it could be extended further, Waldery Rodrigues, special secretary to the ministry, said care that for the most vulnerable in society must be accompanied by a “diligent and cautious” eye on the government’s fiscal position.

U.S. senators urge Delta, JetBlue to restore employee hours
(Reuters) - A group of U.S. senators is urging Delta Air Lines Inc (DAL.N) and JetBlue Airways Corp (JBLU.O) to immediately reverse their decisions to reduce employees’ hours, calling them contrary to the requirements of taxpayer-funded payroll assistance.

FILE PHOTO: Delta Air Lines passenger planes are seen parked due to flight reductions made to slow the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), at Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport in Birmingham, Alabama, U.S. March 25, 2020. REUTERS/Elijah Nouvelage/File Photo

Delta and JetBlue have already received a portion of $25 billion in CARES Act money meant to protect airline workers’ jobs and pay rates until Sept. 30 as the industry weathers a severe business slump during the coronavirus crisis.

Delta is set to receive $5.4 billion and JetBlue $935 million.

“You should not take one penny more of bailout funds unless you are prepared to protect your workers’ jobs, pay and benefits,” 13 senators including Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris, all Democrats, wrote to the airlines in two letters.

They said cutting employee hours was potentially illegal.

“Delta’s work hour reductions, which comply with the CARES Act, ultimately protect jobs,” Delta said in a statement.

• JetBlue’s Founder Helped Fund A Stanford Study That Said The Coronavirus Wasn’t That DeadlyStephanie M. Lee · May 15, 2020

U.N. rejects U.S. claim it is using coronavirus to promote abortion

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The United Nations rejected on Thursday an accusation by the United States that the world body was using the coronavirus pandemic as an opportunity to promote access to abortion through its humanitarian response to the deadly global outbreak.

The U.N. is seeking some $6.7 billion for its coronavirus response plan and has so far received $1 billion, of which $172.9 million was given by the United States. A Reuters tally shows the coronavirus, or COVID-19, has infected some 5 million people globally and caused almost 327,000 deaths.

“Any suggestion that we are using the COVID-19 pandemic as an opportunity to promote abortion is not correct,” U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

“While we support healthcare that prevents millions of women from dying during pregnancy and childbirth and protects people from sexually transmitted infections, including HIV, we do not seek to override any national laws,” he said.

In a letter to U.N. chief Antonio Guterres on Monday, acting USAID Administrator John Barsa said the world body’s plan - announced two months ago - gave sexual and reproductive health services the same level of importance as food insecurity, essential healthcare, malnutrition, shelter, and sanitation.

Washington has long-viewed “sexual and reproductive health services” as code for abortion.

“The U.N. should not use this crisis as an opportunity to advance access to abortion as an ‘essential service,’” wrote Barsa, adding that it was “most egregious” that the plan “calls for the widespread distribution of abortion-inducing drugs and abortion supplies, and for the promotion of abortion.”

The United Nations plan is to help 63 states, mainly in Africa and Latin America, combat the spread and destabilizing effects of the pandemic. Guterres has raised concerns about inadequate support for poor countries and lamented a lack of leadership by world powers in the coronavirus fight.

USAID accuses U.N. of using pandemic to promote abortion

May 18 (UPI) -- The Trump administration on Monday urged the United Nations to stop "promoting abortion," accusing it of using the coronavirus pandemic to advance access to the medical practice.

In a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, the U.S. Agency for International Development chastized the organization for including sexual and reproductive health services within its Global Humanitarian Response Plan to COVID-19, urging all of its references and its derivatives be removed from the document.

While the Global Humanitarian Response Plan makes no direct reference to abortion, it calls for the continued supply of essential health services, including reproductive health services, amid the pandemic. It says virus containment measures affect pregnancy and safe delivery while a lack of such care is a gender inequality issue.

The United Nations announced the plan in March and is seeking $6.7 billion from the international community for its funding.

John Barsa, the acting administrator of the USAID, wrote to Guterres in the letter that the United States gave the United Nations more than $3.5 billion last year and has allocated $650 million supplemental funding to combat the pandemic, calling for the U.N.'s plan to "remain focused on addressing the most urgent, concrete needs that are arising out of the pandemic."

"Therefore, the U.N. should not use this crisis as an opportunity to advance access to abortion as an 'essential service,'" Barsa said. "Unfortunately, the Global HRP does just this by cynically placing the provision of 'sexual and reproductive health services' on the same level of importance as food-insecurity, essential healthcare, malnutrition, shelter and sanitation."
Quoting President Donald Trump's address to the U.N. General Assembly last year, Barsa wrote the United Nations has "no business attacking the sovereignty of nations that wish to protect innocence life," calling on the organization to not "intimidate or coerce" member states that have not legalized the medical practice.

"To use the COVID-19 pandemic as a justification to pressure governments to change their laws is an affront to the autonomy of each society to determine its own national policies on healthcare," Barsa said. "The United States stands with nations that have pledged to protect the unborn."
He said sexual and reproductive health services' inclusion as an essential service in the plan will provoke controversy at a time when the organization should be avoiding doing just that.

"The Global HRP, and the activities of U.N. agencies and bodies moving forward, should use clear language and take clear action to address the real needs of vulnerable people around the world without promoting abortion," Barsa said. "Now is not the time to add unnecessary discord to the COVID-19 response.

The letter was sent on the same day the United States criticized the World Health Organization, a U.N. agency, over its response to the pandemic, stating its "failure cost many lives."

The United States has frequently leveled criticism at the WHO in the past weeks with Trump having pulled U.S. funding to the organization last month, accusing it of "mishandling" the pandemic and aiding China in an alleged cover-up.

The WHO has also called for women's choices and rights to sexual and reproductive healthcare be protected during the coronavirus crisis.

In the United States, several lawsuits have been brought against states that have included abortion as an essential medical service that may continue amid lockdown measures to prevent the spread of the virus.

As hunger spreads under lockdown, Guatemalans and Salvadorans raise white flag

Sofia Menchu, Nelson Renteria
MAY 21, 2020 

GUATEMALA CITY/SAN SALVADOR (Reuters) - Strict coronavirus lockdowns in Guatemala and El Salvador have so battered local economies that hundreds of families are flying white flags outside their homes or waving them in the street: not in surrender, but to seek food and assistance.



Residents of the Las Victorias neighbourhood, most of them informal sellers, wave white flags as a sign asking for food, since the government suspended the movement of people due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Soyapango, El Salvador May 19, 2020. REUTERS/Victor Pena

After 50 days of lockdown that has snuffed out their livelihoods, Ana Orellana and three neighbors put up a white flag and a sign asking for food on the graffiti-scrawled concrete boarding house they share in central San Salvador, the capital of El Salvador.

Orellana, a street vendor of coffee, said that since the government ordered people to stay home in March, she has had no income to pay for food or the $75 monthly rent on the room she inhabits alone in the building. Now she takes turns with her neighbors to scavenge throwaway food at a city market.

“I go looking through the bins where the rubbish is,” the 51-year-old said. “I go to the Tiendona market to get stuff, because we really don’t have tomatoes or onions now, and we make a tomato stew here without oil, just parboiled.”

Alongside the white flag is a misspelled sign over a boarded up window saying “we were not beneficiaries” to signal they did not receive a $300 voucher issued in March by President Nayib Bukele to 1.5 million poor families, about three-quarters of the population.

The bleak outlook for Orellana and her companions extends deep into Central America and much of Latin America, where the pandemic threatens to worsen chronic poverty among the millions of people who live hand-to-mouth.


Food protests have broken out in countries including Venezuela and Chile. El Salvador and neighboring Guatemala, two of the poorest countries in the Americas, have borne some of the strictest quarantine measures.

In towns and villages across the two countries, hundreds of signs have gone up asking for food, and people have taken to the streets to wave white flags in distress.

Food parcels from the national government and donations from ordinary people have helped to alleviate some of the want, but resources are stretched.

“We’re worried about the virus and food, because if the virus doesn’t kill us, hunger will,” said Jose Rodriguez, 69, a street vendor who lives in another San Salvador boarding house with 100 other people. “We desperately need things to eat.”

Guatemala’s government says it has delivered nearly 190,000 food boxes to over 1.2 million people, about 7% of the population. In El Salvador, security forces began handing out 1.7 million bags of food to the poor on Sunday.

COLOR CODING

After Guatemala’s government erected the first sanitary cordon around the impoverished municipality of Patzun on April 5 to contain the virus, hundreds of cut-off residents began putting up rags and white cloths in a call for help.

Pictures of the houses festooned with white signs began to circulate on social media, and the phenomenon soon spread to other parts of Guatemala, and eventually, El Salvador.

Micaela Ventura, a 24-year-old shoe seller in Guatemala City, started using a flag about six weeks ago.

“We put it out because we need food,” she said, “because we have nothing to give our children, and can’t pay for our room.”

A color coding system has developed in Guatemala. Red flags indicate medicines are needed, black alert the police to violence, and yellow ones to attacks on children.

Guatemala has reported 45 deaths and 2,265 infections from the virus, while El Salvador has confirmed 32 fatalities and 1,640 cases. Neighboring Honduras, where the poor have also gone out to beg for food, has registered 3,100 cases and 151 deaths.

Traditionally, those who see no future for themselves in the three countries, which have long been plagued by violence, have emigrated to the United States by any means possible.


Slideshow (17 Images) https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-guatemala-elsalvad/as-hunger-spreads-under-lockdown-guatemalans-and-salvadorans-raise-white-flag-idUSKBN22X2GP

Maria Jauria, a 21-year-old housewife and mother of two living in the central Guatemalan department of Chimaltenango, said there was so little work that her bricklayer husband has had to start selling the very things he needs for his job.

“We’ve been going out with the white flags for a month, and yes, some people have helped us out with food,” she said. “But the truth is, my husband has been selling his tools so we have something to eat.”


Reporting by Sofia Menchu in Guatemala City and Nelson Renteria in San Salvador; Writing by Adriana Barrera; Editing by Dave Graham and Rosalba O'Brien
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

JBS resumes chicken slaughtering at Brazil plant after COVID-19 outbreak: statement  

FILE PHOTO: The logo of Brazilian meatpacker JBS SA is seen in the city of Jundiai, Brazil June 1, 2017. REUTERS/Paulo Whitaker
SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazilian meatpacker JBS SA (JBSS3.SA) said on Thursday that operations at its plant in Passo Fundo, in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, were allowed to resume after the facility was closed by authorities due to an outbreak of the novel coronavirus.

Slaughtering resumed on Wednesday at the plant that has the capacity to process 320,000 birds per day, the company said in a statement sent to Reuters. It had been closed since April 24.

The company said it has “promoted a rigorous screening process to certify that only employees in good health returned to work.”

The company’s protocol does not involve testing of employees for the COVID-19 respiratory illness, a spokeswoman said.

At that facility alone, JBS employs more than 2,600 people, in addition to 600 integrated producers, the statement said. The Passo Fundo unit has operated for more than 35 years in the region, JBS said.