Experts: Cruise ships no place for a coronavirus quarantine

By JAY REEVEStoday

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FILE - In this Feb. 11, 2020, file photo, the Grand Princess cruise ship passes the Golden Gate Bridge as it arrives from Hawaii in San Francisco. Scrambling to keep the coronavirus at bay, officials ordered the cruise ship to hold off the California coast Thursday, March 5, to await testing of those aboard, after a passenger on an earlier voyage died and at least one other became infected. (Scott Strazzante/San Francisco Chronicle via AP, File)

Cruise ships hit by coronavirus outbreaks have quickly found themselves with no ports for thousands of passengers as countries on four continents have quarantined vessels or kept them at sea for days.

Keeping all the passengers on board instead of letting them disembark on land is a strategy that can backfire, however, according to experts, because the ventilation systems and close quarters of cruise ships make them ideal places for illness to jump from one person to the next.

“They’re not designed as quarantine facilities, to put it mildly,” said Don Milton, an epidemiologist with the University of Maryland.

A ship with more than 3,500 people aboard was sailing in circles off the coast of California on Saturday after 19 crew members and two passengers tested positive for the new virus. Originally bound for San Francisco, the Grand Princess might be sent instead to a non-commercial port, officials said.

While restaurants and other shipboard locations were closed, passengers were able to watch TV and use the internet, or if they were lucky enough to have one, go outside on their balcony overlooking the water.

Passenger Karen Schwartz Dever said she and her husband were enjoying their balcony and keeping themselves busy with playing cards, while meals and water were being delivered by room service. But she worried about some of the other passengers.

“I met someone who is in the middle of chemo for cancer,” she said. “There are people on oxygen. There are also children on board. I can’t imagine what it’s like if they are in an inside cabin.”

While President Donald Trump has said he doesn’t want the Grand Princess to dock, he also said he would yield to the advice of health officials. Refusing to let the ship into port for an extended period could hasten the spread of the virus on board, experts said.

Milton, who studies the spread of virus particles in the air, said recirculating air on a cruise ship’s ventilation system, along with people living in close quarters and in communal settings, make the vessels vulnerable to the spread of infection.

“You’re going to amplify the infection by keeping people on the boat,” he said.

A Purdue University air quality expert said cruise ship air conditioning systems are not designed to filter out particles as small as the coronavirus.

“The passengers should be quarantined on shore if there is a suitable facility,” Qingyan Chen said in an email message. Grand Princess “should run 100% outdoor air in their air conditioning system and not use recirculated air.”

Top cruise line executives met Saturday with Vice President Mike Pence at Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, after which Pence announced “significant changes” to the industry going forward, but gave no indication what would happen next with the Grand Princess.

Pence said cruise officials agreed to enhanced entry and exit screenings and to establish shipboard testing for the virus, along with new quarantine standards established by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The industry also was asked to come up with and fund a new plan on how to transport cruise passengers who contract the disease.

Princess officials said the new protocols include asking all new passengers to sign a health declaration, and temperature screenings as passengers leave. Anyone coming from a “high-risk area is also undergoing a medical evaluation,” Dr. Grant Tarling, chief medical officer for Carnival Corporation, told reporters.

Government officials made it clear in their language that they were walking a fine line with industry officials about the best way to prevent the disease from spreading without causing significant economic hardship to cruise lines.

“We want to ensure the American people can continue, as we deal with the coronavirus, to enjoy the cruise line industry,” Pence said.

Meanwhile, Princess officials also appeared frustrated about the lack of detail on the Grand Princess’ next steps, repeatedly telling reporters they were waiting for definitive information about when and where the ship will dock, who will be tested, and whether passengers will be allowed to get off.

“We need to get the ship into a port as soon as possible,” said Jan Swartz, group president of Princess Cruises and Carnival Australia.

In Japan, leaders were criticized for confining more than 3,700 passengers and crew on the Diamond Princess for two weeks last month because of the virus. About 700 people were sickened on the ship and three died. Japanese health officials defended the quarantine as necessary and adequate.

In Asia, the Malaysian port of Penang turned away the cruise ship Costa Fortuna with 2,000 people aboard because there were 64 passengers from Italy, the center of Europe’s epidemic. It was the second port after Phuket in Thailand to reject the ship, which is now headed to Singapore.

In Egypt, a cruise ship on the Nile with more than 150 aboard was quarantined after 12 people tested positive for the virus. And on the Mediterranean in Malta, which reported its first case of the virus, the MSC Opera agreed not to enter port even though there were no infections confirmed on board.

Art Reingold, head of the epidemiology and biostatistics division at the University of California, Berkeley School of Public Health, said the burden is on authorities to coordinate the feeding and care of so many people without spreading the infection further.

“It’s obviously going to be a real challenge,” he said. “I don’t have any doubt that crew members interact with passengers, so it seems quite plausible there could be additional transmissions.”

The challenge is not an entirely new one: Ships have previously been affected by other diseases, such as norovirus, which causes vomiting and diarrhea and can spread quickly in the close quarters of a ship and among passengers with weakened immune system.

A view of the Costa Fortuna cruise ship, near Phuket, Thailand, Friday, March 6, 2020. Thailand has denied entry to passengers and crew of a cruise ship that arrived at the popular Andaman Sea resort island of Phuket. (AP Photo)

Frustration mounts over virus-stalled ship in California

By DAISY NGUYEN and JANIE HARan hour ago

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This photo provided by Michele Smith, shows a deserted lounge area on the Grand Princess cruise ship Friday, March 6, 2020, off the California coast. Scrambling to keep the coronavirus at bay, officials ordered a cruise ship with about 3,500 people aboard to stay back from the California coast until passengers and crew can be tested, after a traveler from its previous voyage died of the disease and at least two others became infected. A Coast Guard helicopter lowered test kits onto the 951-foot (290-meter) Grand Princess by rope as the vessel lay at anchor off Northern California, and authorities said the results would be available on Friday, March 6, 2020. Princess Cruise Lines said fewer than 100 people aboard had been identified for testing. (Michele Smith via AP)

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Cruise officials and passengers confined to their rooms on a ship circling international waters off the San Francisco Bay voiced mounting frustration as the weekend wore on with no direction from authorities on where to go after 21 people on board tested positive for the new coronavirus.

The Grand Princess was forbidden to dock in San Francisco amid evidence the vessel was the breeding ground for a cluster of about 20 cases that resulted in at least one death after its previous voyage. The ship is carrying more than 3,500 people from 54 countries.

Jan Swartz, group president of Princess Cruises and Carnival Australia, told reporters Saturday that cruise officials want guests and crew off the ship so they can receive proper care and evaluation, but they are awaiting direction from federal and state officials.

“Our preference is to get the guests and crew off the Grand Princess as soon as possible,” she said.

The U.S. death toll from the virus climbed to 19, with all but three of the victims in Washington state. The number of infections swelled to more than 400, scattered across states. Pennsylvania, Indiana, Minnesota, Nebraska and Kansas reported their first cases.

In California, officials to bring the 951-foot (290-meter) Grand Princess cruise ship to a non-commercial port and test those aboard.

Vice President Mike Pence said at a Saturday meeting with cruise line executives in Florida that officials were still working on a plan.

“All passengers and crew will be tested for the coronavirus and quarantined as necessary,” Pence said.

As people pleaded Saturday with elected officials to let the ship dock, cruise officials disclosed more information about how they think the outbreak occurred.

Grant Tarling, chief medical officer for Carnival Corporation said it’s believed a 71-year-old Northern California man who later died of the virus was probably sick when he boarded the ship for a Feb. 11 cruise to Mexico.

The passenger visited the medical center the day before disembarking with symptoms of respiratory illness, he said. Others in several states and Canada who were on that voyage also have tested positive.

The passenger likely infected his dining room server, who also tested positive for the virus, Tarling said, as did two people traveling with the man. Two passengers now on the ship who have the virus were not on the previous cruise, he said.

Princess said the ship is about 50 miles (80 kilometers) off the coast of San Francisco. It said a critically ill passenger was taken from the ship to a medical facility for treatment unrelated to the virus.

 

In this image from video, provided by the California National Guard, a helicopter carrying airmen with the 129th Rescue Wing flies over the Grand Princess cruise ship off the coast of California Thursday, March 5, 2020. Scrambling to keep the coronavirus at bay, officials ordered a cruise ship with 3,500 people aboard to stay back from the California coast Thursday until passengers and crew can be tested, after a traveler from its previous voyage died of the disease and at least two others became infected. Airmen lowered test kits onto the 951-foot (290-meter) Grand Princess by rope as the vessel lay at anchor off Northern California, and authorities said the results would be available on Friday. Princess Cruise Lines said fewer than 100 people aboard had been identified for testing. (California National Guard via AP)

While health officials said about 1,100 crew members will remain aboard, passengers could be disembarked to face quarantine, possibly at U.S. military bases or other sites, as were hundreds of Americans exposed to the virus on another cruise ship in January.

Passenger Karen Dever of Moorestown, New Jersey, agreed she should be tested but wants officials to let her go if her results come back negative.

“Fourteen more days on this ship, I think by the end I will need a mental health visit,” she said with a laugh. “I’m an American. I should be able to come home.”

Rex Lawson, 86, of Santa Cruz County in California, said he and his wife were lucky to have a balcony and fresh air. But he feels for travelers confined to interior rooms.

“It’s quite anxious because we don’t know what’s going on. I guess nobody knows what’s going on,” he said. “It looks like we get information from the television first and then the captain.”

President Donald Trump, speaking Friday at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, said he would prefer not to allow the passengers onto American soil but will defer to medical experts.

“I don’t need to have the numbers (of U.S. cases) double because of one ship that wasn’t our fault,” Trump said while touring the CDC in Atlanta. “And it wasn’t the fault of the people on the ship either. OK? It wasn’t their fault either.”

Another Princess ship, the Diamond Princess, was quarantined for two weeks in Yokohama, Japan, last month because of the virus. Ultimately, about 700 of the 3,700 people aboard became infected in what experts pronounced a public-health failure, with the vessel essentially becoming a floating germ factory.

Experts say recirculated air from a cruise ship’s ventilation system, plus the close quarters and communal settings, make passengers and crew vulnerable to infectious diseases.

They said cruise ship conditioning systems are not designed to filter out particles as small as the coronavirus, allowing the disease to rapidly circulate to other cabins.

“The passengers should be quarantined on shore if there is a suitable facility,” said Qingyan Chen, a Purdue University air quality expert, in an email.

Worldwide, the virus has infected 106,000 people and killed nearly 3,600, the vast majority of them in China. Most cases have been mild, and more than half of those infected have recovered.

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A previous version of this story incorrectly reported President Trump made his comments about the cruise ship in an interview with Fox News. He said it during a tour of the CDC in Atlanta.

In this Thursday, March 5, 2020, photo, released by the California National Guard, Guardian Angels, a group of medical personnel with the 129th Rescue Wing, working alongside individuals from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, don protective equipment after delivering virus testing kits to the Grand Princess cruise ship off the coast of California. Passengers on a cruise ship off the California coast were instructed to stay in their cabins as they awaited test results Friday that could show whether the coronavirus is circulating among the more than 3,500 people aboard. (Chief Master Sgt. Seth Zweben/California National Guard via AP)

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Associated Press writers Olga Rodriguez in San Francisco; Julie Walker in New York City; Tom Strong in Washington, D.C.; Gene Johnson, Martha Bellisle and Carla K. Johnson in Seattle; Adriana Gomez Licon in Miami; and Rachel La Corte in Olympia, Washington, contributed to this report.

The Associated Press receives support for health and science coverage from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

HE MAY BE A GENIUS BUT HE IS AN IDIOT

Taleb says Musk’s comment on coronavirus panic being ‘dumb’ is what’s dumb

Mathematician Nassim Nicholas Taleb suggests Elon Musk doesn’t understand the spread of risk in complex systems


Nassim Nicholas Taleb. Mohd Zakir/Hindustan Times/Getty Images

Nassim Nicholas Taleb, whose book “The Black Swan” foreshadowed the 2008 global financial crisis, responded to Elon Musk’s tweet about what he called a panic over the coronavirus with a brief lesson on probability and human endurance over the millennia.
“[T]he coronavirus panic is dumb,” Musk, the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla TSLA, -2.90%, had said Friday on Twitter.

The noted mathematician’s equally terse reply:
‘Saying the coronavirus panic is dumb is dumb.’— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Musk didn’t elaborate in his tweet, which came the same day as the S&P 500 SPX, -1.70% fell another 1.7% to finish the week 12% below its Feb. 19 closing record, with the period between that date and Friday marked by some of the biggest swings in stock prices since the darkest days of 2008.

Companies from Apple AAPL, -1.32% to Alphabet GOOG, -1.56% GOOGL, -1.44% said over the past few days that they’d close their offices and ask employees to work from home to curtail the spread of the novel virus, which has led to more than 3,000 deaths around the world since the beginning of January.

Shoppers in the U.S. cleared store shelves of food, disinfectants and toilet paper amid concern that supply chains will be disrupted. Meanwhile, President Trump signed an $8 billion–plus emergency package to combat the coronavirus outbreak.

Taleb, a professor and investor whose work has focused on the risks of unexpected events, followed up in a Saturday tweet: “If the word ‘panic’ means ‘exaggerated’ reaction, could be so at the individual level but NOT at the collective one. ... We have survived for zillion years thanks to ‘irrational’ ‘panics.’”

To act “rational” during a viral outbreak that has few consequences for the individual could lead to greater overall death, Taleb explained.

That’s because if one fails to panic and act in an “ultraconservative” manner, he said in a Twitter thread that links to a March 5 tweet, a virus can spread more easily and become a “severe” source of risk for the entire system — or, in this case, society.

Musk, meanwhile, was preparing on Friday for the final mission of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, which has been delivering cargo to the International Space Station since the company won a NASA contract in 2008.

The SpaceX founder’s eventual goal is to colonize Mars to save humanity. As he said Sept. 27, 2016, at the 67th annual International Astronautical Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico, if humans don’t populate another planet, “[w]e stay on Earth forever, and some eventual extinction event wipes us out.”

These nine companies are working on coronavirus treatments or vaccines — here’s where things stand

The list includes Gilead Sciences Inc. and Moderna Inc. along with smaller biotechs

March 8, 2020 By Jaimy Lee

Getty Images

A mix of legacy drugmakers and small startups have stepped forward with plans to develop vaccines or treatments that target the infection caused by the novel coronavirus.

COVID-19, which was first detected in December in Wuhan, China, has sickened more than 100,000 people worldwide and killed at least 3,400. There are no Food and Drug Administration-approved vaccines or therapies for the disease.

In the U.S., the companies that are initiating development have received funding from two organizations: the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), which is a division of the Department of Health and Human Services, and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), a division of the National Institutes of Health. Some companies have received funding from Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), a global organization based in Oslo. Other companies are funding trials by themselves or through partnerships with other life sciences companies.


Here are some of the companies developing treatments or vaccines in the U.S. for COVID-19:

Company: Gilead Sciences Inc. GILD, +5.37%


Type: Treatment

Stage: Phase 3 clinical trials

Name: remdesivir

Background: Gilead is a longtime drug maker that is best known for developing the first major cure for hepatitis-C in Sovaldi, a therapy that changed the standard of care for that disease but also kicked off the national debate about drug pricing. The company has experience developing and marketing HIV drugs, including Truvada for pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), its preventive HIV medicine. Along with U.S. trials, Gilead is conducting a randomized, controlled clinical trial in Wuhan, testing remdesivir as a treatment for mild to moderate forms of pneumonia in people with the virus. The trial was given the go-ahead by China’s Food and Drug Administration in February.

Clinical trials:

1. On Feb. 21, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases started enrolling patients in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase 3 trial evaluating 394 hospitalized patients with COVID-19 at up to 50 sites worldwide. The trial is expected to conclude April 1, 2023. Sites include the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., (not recruiting), the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha (recruiting), the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston (not recruiting), and Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane (recruiting).

2. On March 3, Gilead said a randomized, open-label Phase 3 trial will evaluate remdesivir in 600 patients with moderate COVID-19. The trial is expected to start enrolling patients in March, with results to come in May.

3. On March 3, Gilead said a randomized, open-label Phase 3 trial will evaluate remdesivir in 400 patients with severe COVID-19. The trial is expected to start enrolling patients in March, with results in May.

Year-to-date stock performance: Shares of Gilead are up 17.6%.


Company: GlaxoSmithKline GSK, -0.49%
Type: Pandemic adjuvant platform for vaccines

Name: AS03 Adjuvant System

Background: GSK is another leading vaccine maker, having brought to market vaccines for human papillomavirus (HPV) and the seasonal flu, among others. On Feb. 3, it said the CEPI-funded University of Queensland will have access to the British drugmaker’s vaccine adjuvant platform technology, which is believed to both strengthen the response of a vaccine and limit the amount of vaccine needed per dose. On Feb. 24, GSK said that Clover Biopharmaceuticals Inc., a Chinese biotechnology company, is also using adjuvant technology in combination with its vaccine candidate, COVID-19 S-Trimer, in preclinical studies. Dr. Thomas Breuer, chief medical officer for GSK Vaccines, is leading work on vaccines and the adjuvant platform.

Year-to-date stock performance: Shares of GSK have tumbled 12.8%.


Company: Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc. INO, +43.77%

Type: DNA-based vaccine

Stage: Preclinical

Name: INO-4800

Background: Another CEPI grantee, Inovio has said it already began preclinical testing and small-scale manufacturing.

Timeline: Inovio develops immunotherapies and vaccines but hasn’t yet had a product approved for treatment. For INO-4800, preclinical testing was performed between Jan. 23 and Feb. 29. The company plans to begin clinical trials in the U.S. with 30 participants in April. It also plans to launch human trials in China and South Korea that same month, and that it has a total of 3,000 doses prepared for the trials in the three countries. Inovio said it expects to have the first results from the trial in the fall and to have 1 million does of the vaccine ready for additional clinical trials or emergency use by the end of the year.

Year-to-date stock performance: Shares of Inovio have soared 278.2%.


Company: Johnson & Johnson JNJ, +0.01%

Type: Vaccine

Name: TBD (“We are still in the process of identifying a vaccine candidate, so no there is no name at this time,” a spokesman said March 4.)

Background: On Feb. 11, J&J said it is working with BARDA to test its vaccine candidate, with both organizations providing funding for research and development and the public-health organization funding the Phase 1 trials. Similar to GSK, J&J’s AdVac and PER. C6 technologies are used to improve the development process for a vaccine and were also used to develop J&J’s experimental Ebola vaccine. “We are also in discussions with other partners, that if we have a vaccine candidate with potential, we aim to make it accessible to China and other parts of the world,” Dr. Paul Stoffels, J&J’s chief scientific officer, said in a statement. J&J also said Feb. 18 that it is partnering with BARDA on a project that aims to screen existing antiviral medications, including experimental or approved therapies, that may be effective against COVID-19.

Timeline: The company aims to start a Phase 1 clinical trial by the end of 2020, “compared to the typical five to seven years it takes for this milestone in vaccine development,” Stoffels said on Dr. Paul Stoffels, J&J’s chief scientific officer and leader of J&J’s global COVID-19 response, said March 2.

Year-to-date stock performance: Shares of J&J are down 4.8%.


Company: Moderna Inc. MRNA, +5.71%

Type: RNA-based vaccine candidate

Stage: Preclinical

Name: mRNA-1273

Background: On Jan. 23, Moderna received funding from CEPI to develop an mRNA vaccine against COVID-19. On Feb. 24, it said it had shipped the first batch of mRNA-1273 to the NIAID for a Phase 1 clinical trial in the U.S.

Clinical trials: On Feb. 21, the NIAID said it would begin enrolling 45 healthy adult patients in an open-label Phase I clinical trial at one location to test mRNA-1273 as a vaccine for COVID-19 on March 19. The trial is expected to conclude June 1, 2021. Participants will be followed for one year. The trial will be conducted at Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute in Seattle.

Year-to-date stock performance: Moderna’s shares have gained 45.7%.


Company: Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. REGN, +1.28%

Type: Treatment

Stage: Preclinical

Name: No name yet

Background: On Feb. 4, Regeneron announced it is working on developing monoclonal antibodies as treatments for COVID-19. The company’s VelocImmune platform uses genetically-engineered mice with humanized immune systems in preclinical testing. “We are aiming to have hundreds of thousands of prophylactic doses ready for human testing by end of August,” a spokesperson said. Christos Kyratsous, VP of infectious disease R&D and viral vector technology, is running the project.

Year-to-date stock performance: Regeneron’s shares are up 27.8%.

Company: Sanofi SNY, -3.00%

Type: Vaccine

Stage: Preclinical

Name: No name yet

Background: Starting Feb. 18, Sanofi is working with BARDA to test a preclinical vaccine candidate for severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) for COVID-19 using its recombinant DNA platform. It has a long history of producing vaccines in its Sanofi Pasteur business and acquired this candidate through its 2017 acquisition of Protein Sciences for $750 million. The French drugmaker previously worked with the organization on flu vaccines. Scientists in Meriden, Ct., are working on the vaccine; David Loew, Sanofi Pasteur’s EVP, is leading the project.

Timeline: A spokesperson said Sanofi aims to put a vaccine into a Phase 1 clinical trial between March 2021 and August 2021.

Year-to-date stock performance: Shares of Sanofi are down 4.3%.


Company: Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Ltd. TAK, +0.78%

Type: Treatment

Stage: Preclinical

Name: TAK-888

Background: Takeda is one of the most recent entrants to the race to develop a treatment for COVID-19. The Japanese drugmaker said March 4 it plans to test hyperimmune globulins for people who are at high risk for infection. As part of its research, which will be performed in Georgia, Takeda said it would need access to plasma from people who have recovered from COVID-19 or those who have received a vaccine if one is developed. Dr. Rajeev Venkayya, president of Takeda’s vaccine business, is the co-lead of the company’s COVID-19 response team. Like J&J, Takeda plans to examine whether other therapies, both experimental or with regulatory approval, may have treatment potential.

Year-to-date stock performance: Shares of Takeda are down 8.7%.

Company: Vir Biotechnology Inc. VIR, +4.38%

Type: Treatment

Stage: Preclinical

Background: Vir said Feb. 25 it is collaborating with Shanghai-based WuXi Biologics to test monoclonal antibodies as a treatment for COVID-19. If the treatment is approved, WuXi will commercialize it in China, while Vir will have marketing rights for the rest of the world. The preclinical company is run by George Scangos, the former CEO of Biogen.

Year-to-date stock performance: Vir shares have jumped 279%.

'Staggering failure': Environmentalists slam House Democratic flagship climate bill

by Abby Smith WASHINGTON EXAMINER| March 09, 2020 

Climate activists are issuing a warning shot to Democratic lawmakers, calling for them to propose dramatically more aggressive policies to tackle greenhouse gas emissions.

The flagship climate bill House Democrats are promoting thus far, the CLEAN Future Act from lawmakers on the Energy and Commerce Committee, “represents a staggering failure of ambition and leadership,” write a coalition of environmental groups in a letter Monday to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

The legislation, led by Chairman Frank Pallone, a New Jersey Democrat, jeopardizes Pelosi’s promise of "ambitious leadership on climate" during her second tour as speaker, the groups write. The coalition includes Friends of the Earth, Center for Biological Diversity, 350.org, and the New Jersey chapters of the Sunrise Movement.

Their letter comes as the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis is preparing to release its report later this month, in which they’re expected to propose broad policy approaches to tackle greenhouse gas emissions. Democratic Florida Rep. Kathy Castor, who's chairwoman of the committee, is copied on the letter to Pelosi.

Pallone’s proposal “set the starting point for the Democratic position on climate in 2021 and beyond. He set that starting point in the worst possible place imaginable,” said Lukas Ross, a senior policy analyst at Friends of the Earth.

“Frankly, we badly want the House select committee and Congresswoman Castor to succeed where he so clearly failed,” Ross added.

Ross outlined three major areas where he and other activists would like to see Democrats outline stronger policy. First, the 2050 deadline set in the CLEAN Future Act is way too late, he said, arguing for a 2030 deadline that progressive lawmakers like New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have set in their proposals.

The House Energy and Commerce bill also shouldn’t rely on market mechanisms to reduce emissions, Ross added, pointing in particular to the clean electricity standard the bill would set up to target carbon emissions from the power sector.

That program would require utilities to produce 100% clean power by 2050, and it sets up a trading scheme to allow companies flexibility in how they comply. Any company that fails to meet its targets under the program would pay “alternative compliance payments” that would contribute to a fund used to support clean energy projects.

Ross said analysis shows, though, that the way the program is currently set up in the bill would reduce power sector emissions little beyond business as usual.

“Nothing would be required to happen beyond today’s announced retirements” of coal-fired power plants, said Bruce Buckheit, former director of the air enforcement division at the Environmental Protection Agency during the Clinton years. Buckheit is consulting with Friends of the Earth, and he conducted an analysis on the CLEAN Future Act’s clean electricity program.

What he found is that the program, as written in the draft bill, wouldn’t get any additional emissions reductions through 2030 over what is projected by the Energy Information Administration’s Annual Energy Outlook.

That’s because the carbon intensity rate used by the Democrats’ program would allow natural gas to earn credits as “clean” generation, Ross said.

According to Buckheit, that means the program would squeeze states such as Montana, West Virginia, and Missouri that have a lot of coal-fired power, but “essentially lets the Northeast off the hook.”

It also isn’t clear to Buckheit that any company would have to pay alternative compliance payments.

“Today’s market forces continue to lead the operations of those coal plants to reduce utilization and ultimately retire,” he said. “That is expected to continue, which frees up allowances for some period of time and leads to a glut.”

Buckheit acknowledged that “some of the drafting in the bill is poor, and I don’t know exactly what they mean to accomplish.” He said he has sent House Energy and Commerce Committee staff suggestions to correct the program.

But as written, “this build a bridge to a world of nuclear, renewables, and natural gas,” he said. “At the end of the day, this is not carbon neutral.” The overall stated goal of the CLEAN Future Act is to bring the U.S. economy to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

Ross, of Friends of the Earth, was more directly critical. He pointed to draft legislation from Ocasio-Cortez and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who is vying for the Democratic nomination, that would outright ban fracking.

Compared to the Energy and Commerce bill, that draws a stark contrast “around what climate leadership looks like and what we expect from our climate champions,” Ross said. “We want a ban on fracking, not a bill that would subsidize fracking.”

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Lack of paid leave will leave millions of US workers vulnerable to coronavirus

Low-wage workers in service industries without proper medical benefits and sick leave will risk getting sick or spreading the virus

Many low-wage workers, such as airport workers, are on the 

frontlines of the coronavirus outbreak, yet are left unprotected

 from contracting the virus. 

Photograph: Elaine Thompson/AP

Michael Sainato Published Mon 9 Mar 2020

For over 30 years, Joyce Barnes has worked as a home healthcare aide in Richmond, Virginia without any paid sick days. She makes $8.25 an hour and often works through illnesses because she can’t afford to lose income from taking the time off.

“I can’t afford to miss pay so I have gone to work before several times sick as a dog, masked up so my patients wouldn’t catch what I have,” Barnes said. “Everyday I pray and I ask God to give me strength that I won’t get sick so I can keep on making it and that’s the way we have to do it.”

Last July, Barnes contracted an illness from one of her patients that caused her a stay in a hospital for over a week. She relied on family members to help with bills to make up for the income she lost from missing work, and still has to make regular monthly payments toward the thousands of dollars of medical debt she accrued, despite having health insurance.


“I have a lot of medical debt I have to pay. They had to do a test on my stomach when I was sick. That one test cost me $3,000 and I’m still paying it because I can’t afford to pay everything back,” Barnes added.

As the coronavirus outbreak (Covid-19) has begun to spread through the United States, millions of low-wage workers in service industries are left vulnerable due to lack of proper medical benefits and paid sick leave. There are growing concerns that these workers will be extra vulnerable to the disease themselves, or, due to lack of health insurance and poverty, help its spread by continuing to work while ill.

Over 32 million workers in the US have no paid sick days off, and low-wage workers are least likely to have paid sick time. These workers are also significantly less likely to have access to healthcare and medical benefits, making them potentially especially vulnerable to the coronavirus outbreak as it spreads.

According to the latest data available from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 69% of low-wage workers, those in the tenth lowest percentile of median wage earners in the US civilian workforce, do not receive paid sick leave benefits.

“Their earnings are low so they can’t afford to take unpaid leave and when they are sick they have to keep working and expose other people in the process,” said Harry Holzer, a professor of public policy at Georgetown University.

“That’s the reason advocates for paid leave make the case, it’s not just for the worker, it’s for the public good. There’s a reason for the government to help provide it.”

Dr Erica Groshen, a senior extension faculty member at the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations, explained changes in technology have made it easier for more professional workers to work from home, making them less vulnerable to getting sick and able to cope with the potential quarantine conditions of a coronavirus epidemic. Already King County in Washington state – which includes Seattle – has recommended its residents work from work.

But low-wage workers are increasingly more vulnerable as they feel the pressure of the threat of having their work outsourced to contractors. They also often do work – fast food jobs, manual labor, care work – that cannot be done from home. That means the coronavirus could cost them their livelihoods, as well as their health.

“That’s what we’re seeing, a widening of inequality on that front,” said Dr. Groshen.

Many low-wage workers, such as airport workers, are on the frontlines of the coronavirus outbreak, yet are left unprotected from contracting the virus or receiving adequate medical treatment.

Leila Benitez, an airplane cabin cleaner at Miami International Airport for eight years, has no health insurance or paid sick leave.

“When I finally do take a day off because I’m so sick, I have to pay hundreds of dollars in medical bills to get a doctor’s note,” said Benitez. She often travels to the Dominican Republic, where she is from, to receive medical care because treatment and prescriptions costs a fraction of prices in the US.

“When I’m cleaning the planes, there are bodily fluids, trash, dirty tissues. We don’t get enough time to wash our hands in between planes. The protective gloves are thin, and often don’t fit correctly.”

Several states and cities around the US have passed laws mandating employers provide workers with paid sick leave. A 2017 study published in the Journal of Public Economics found US cities that mandated sick leave for workers experienced up to 40% declines in seasonal flu rates. But many low-wage workers in these areas are still in positions where they have to work through an illness.

In Maryland, the state passed a paid sick leave law in 2018 under which employers must provide one hour of paid sick leave for every thirty hours worked, but adjunct professors often only accrue a few hours every semester and have restrictions on when and how they can use it.

“This past month, I had to teach while sick and it prolonged my illness. I was worried my students were going to contract it. I felt like I couldn’t take off because I can’t afford to lose the money,” said Val Pappas-Brown, an adjunct professor in the Baltimore area for two years.

Joan Bevelaqua, an adjunct professor at several different colleges in Maryland for 20 years, explained she has never taken sick time off for fear of losing income. She currently has health insurance through medicare, but is now missing work due to a fractured femur.

She is currently trying to schedule extra courses to teach over the summer to try to make up for the income she is losing this semester, while pushing state legislators to pass the Time to Care Act, which would set up a sick leave insurance program for workers in Maryland.

“Being an adjunct, we all went into this profession hoping to become full-time professors and more and more you remain an adjunct,” she added. “We are much cheaper, they don’t pay benefits, and we don’t have adequate sick leave so we come to school sick.”

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Leaked coronavirus plan to quarantine 16m sparks chaos in Italy

Thousands tried to flee south after decree to confine people until 3 April was revealed

Angela Giuffrida in Rome and Lorenzo Tondo in Palermo

Mon 9 Mar 2020
 

Italian carabinieri block a road in Casalpusterlengo, 

northern Italy. Photograph: Matteo Corner/EPA


Italy experienced its highest day-on-day rise in deaths from coronavirus on Sunday and was plunged into chaos after details of a plan to quarantine more than 16 million people were leaked to the press, sending thousands into panic as they tried to flee.

The whole of Lombardy, including the financial capital of Milan, and 14 provinces across the worst-affected northern regions, have been shut down until 3 April as Italy grapples to contain the spread of a virus as deaths rose from 233 to 366, a rise of more than 50% in 24 hours, with the total number of cases so far at 7,375.

Thousands crowded train stations or jumped into their cars after a draft decree banning people from leaving or entering the region was revealed by Corriere della Sera late on Saturday afternoon.

In Italy’s south dozens of police officers and medics wearing masks and hazmat suits waited in Salerno, Campania, for passengers who had boarded overnight trains from Lombardy as fears mount over the virus’s potential spread.

“What happened with the news leak has caused many people to try to escape, causing the opposite effect of what the decree is trying to achieve,” warned Roberto Burioni, a professor of microbiology and virology at Vita-Salute San Raffaele University in Milan. “Unfortunately some of those who fled will be infected with the disease.”Q&A
How can I protect myself from the coronavirus outbreak?Show

The northern regions of Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna and Veneto account for 85% of the cases and more than 90% of the deaths. Puglia in the south has had 26 cases, while the provinces of Basilicata and Calabria have had just three and four.
A medical officer on board a high-speed train

 in Salerno during checks on passengers 

from the red zone. 

Photograph: Ivan Romano/Getty Images

Michele Emiliano, the president of Puglia, signed an order on Sunday obliging all those arriving from the north in the coming hours to go into quarantine.

“Get off at the first train station, don’t take planes to Bari and Brindisi, go back by car, get off the bus at the next stop,” he wrote on Facebook, mostly addressing people from the region who live in the north. “Do not bring the Lombardy, Veneto and Emilia epidemic to your Puglia. You are carrying the virus into the lungs of your brothers and sisters, your grandparents, uncles, cousins and parents.”

Three inmates died after a riot at a prison in Modena broke out when detainees were informed that the emergency decree banned visits from relatives to reduce infections.

Under the decree police and armed forces will patrol Lombardy’s access points, such as train stations and motorway entrances and exits, as well as border areas of the 14 provinces under lockdown across Emilia-Romagna, the second-worst outbreak zone, Veneto and Piedmont.

People will only be able to leave the areas for emergency reasons and face fines and up to three months in jail for breaking the quarantine rules. There has been some local opposition to the measures, including from the head of Veneto, Luca Zaia, who described the inclusion of three provinces in his region, including Venice, as “scientifically disproportionate”.

Checkpoints at motorways, train stations and airports are expected to be introduced on Sunday evening but the impact on flights is unclear, with local judicial authorities to decide whether to suspend or not. Alitalia on Sunday said it would suspend all national and international flights from Milan’s Malpensa airport and operate only a reduced service for domestic flights from the city’s Linate airport.

Serie A football matches were played behind closed doors despite a call from the country’s sports minister to stop the championship.

Parma and Spal play their Serie A football 

match in the empty Tardini stadium. 

Photograph: Piero Cruciatti/AP


Some of those who remained in the quarantine area expressed support for the measures to contain Europe’s worst coronavirus outbreak. “Of course, I feel a little anxious and scared,” said Alessia Scoma, 30, a business consultant in Milan. “But I agree with this measure and I feel ashamed for those who left Lombardy and fled so irresponsibly. They risk infecting their loved ones and this is something that, in their shoes, I could never forgive myself.”

Outside the quarantine area there was concern for those now unable to leave. “My mother stayed in Bergamo,” said Francesca Nava, 45, a journalist in Rome. “She is 70 years old and has survived a serious illness. The idea of not being able to reach her, for weeks, or maybe months, the idea that something might happen to her, this feeling of total impotence, leaves me breathless.”

The decree was approved by all national political parties and approved by the council of ministers on Sunday afternoon.

“The fact that the epidemic is still increasing substantially obliges us to take these measures to limit the freedom of people, which of course are very extreme measures that I don’t think have ever been taken in any other democratic country,” Walter Ricciardi, an adviser to the Italian health ministry on the coronavirus outbreak and member of the World Health Organization, told the Guardian.

 Passengers get off the train arriving from

 Milan in Naples. Photograph: Cesare Abbate/EPA

“We have to be responsible and being responsible means taking measures in the interest of people, even if sometimes it is hard to understand.”

The leak of the decree and ensuing panic however sparked harsh criticism from officials. Ricciardi, who was among the team of scientists who signed it, said that he assumed it must have leaked when the prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, sent the draft to the regions to get their consent. “It means that sometimes both people from the institutions and people from the press do not feel a sense of responsibility,” he said. “These kinds of procedures have to be taken very confidentially in order not to provoke panic among the people and inappropriate behaviours.”


Conte said the leak was “unacceptable”. “This news created uncertainty, insecurity and confusion, and we cannot tolerate this,” he said on Sunday.

Schools and universities were already closed across Italy, but the decree closes cinemas, museums, theatres, gyms, swimming pools and ski resorts in the new quarantine zones.

Bars and restaurants can only open between 6am and 6pm, while shops must guarantee that customers stand at least one metre apart. Weddings and funerals have also been banned. Public transport services within all territories under quarantine are expected to continue. 

A woman wears a mask as she walks in Milan. 

Photograph: Antonio Calanni/AP

Beppe Sala, the mayor of Milan, called for a “change of lifestyle” in the city. “We need to avoid contacts that are not strictly necessary,” he said in a video on Facebook. “Please, remain in your homes as much as you can.”

Coronavirus is wreaking havoc on Italy’s already fragile economy, especially as the northern regions produce the largest share of the country’s GDP. The government on Thursday approved a €7.5bn (£6.5bn) package of financial measures to help the economy withstand the impact.

“We are facing an emergency but locking down a quarter of the country will cause immeasurable damage to Italian families,” Sala said. “People risk losing their jobs. I expect the government to move quickly to make the funds available. Like it or not, Milan is the heart of this country.”

Burioni said sacrifices were needed to halt the spread. “The most important thing at this time is that each and every one of us stay home,” he added. “We’ve seen rigorous behaviour in China that has had a very good impact – we need to do the same.”

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Barclays boss Jes Staley's links to Jeffrey Epstein investigated
City watchdog and Bank of England examine bank CEO’s ties to disgraced US financier


Kalyeena Makortoff Banking correspondent 

 

Jes Staley says he developed a relationship with

 Jeffrey Epstein in 2000 through his work at JP Morgan. 

Photograph: Evan Agostini/Invision/AP


The City watchdog and the Bank of England are investigating the Barclays chief executive, Jes Staley, over his links to the sex offender and disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.

The inquiry was launched after emails between the two men were handed to the UK regulators by their counterparts in the US.

Barclays revealed the existence of the investigation in a statement to the stock exchange. It said the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), part of the Bank of England that oversees banks, had launched the investigation in December.

Barclays said it focused on Staley’s “characterisation to the company of his relationship with Mr Epstein and the subsequent description of that relationship in the company’s response to the FCA”.

The American banking boss, who joined Barclays in 2015, says he developed a relationship with Epstein in 2000 when he was hired to lead the private bank at JP Morgan which deals with wealthy customers. Epstein was already a JP Morgan client when Staley joined.

It is common for bankers to work closely with wealthy clients, whose accounts are lucrative for the business. But Staley stayed in touch with Epstein for seven years after the financier was convicted of soliciting prostitution from a minor in 2008. Staley visited Epstein in Florida while he was still serving his sentence and out on work release in 2009.

The relationship did not end after Staley left JP Morgan for hedge fund BlueMountain Capital in 2013. The Barclays boss said the relationship started to “taper off’” after he left the US bank, with contact becoming “much less frequent” before it ceased altogether two years later.

But the pair remained close enough that Staley’s final visit involved sailing his own yacht, the Bequia, to Epstein’s private Caribbean island in 2015.

Staley said his final contact with the financier was in “middle to late 2015”, shortly before he took over as Barclays’ chief executive in December. It is not clear why Staley decided to cut ties with the former banking client.

Staley volunteered to explain his ties to Epstein last summer, when the media cast a fresh spotlight on their relationship.

The chief executive shared his account with key executives and the Barclays chairman, Nigel Higgins, and told the board he had made no contact with the financier since joining the UK bank.

Epstein died in prison in August 2019 while awaiting trial on charges of sex-trafficking underage girls. A US medical examiner ruled he killed himself.

It is understood the email exchanges, first reported by the Financial Times, suggest the two men were closer than Staley had said.

As the investigation was revealed on Thursday, Staley said he regretted his ties with Epstein. “Obviously I thought I knew him well, and I didn’t. And for sure with hindsight of what we all know now, I deeply regret having had any relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.”

Barclays said it had conducted an internal review and had no concerns over the way its chief executive had characterised his dealings with the convicted sex offender.

A spokesman said the bank had been aware of the relationship with Epstein before Staley’s appointment in October 2015.

Barclays added that Staley had “confirmed to the board that he had no contact whatsoever with Mr Epstein at any time since taking up his role as Barclays Group CEO in December 2015”. Barclays has seen the email exchanges sent to the regulators.

The board said it “believes that Mr Staley has been sufficiently transparent with the company as regards the nature and extent of his relationship with Mr Epstein. Accordingly, Mr Staley retains the full confidence of the board, and is being unanimously recommended for re-election at the annual general meeting.”

News of the Epstein investigation comes less than two years after Staley was personally fined almost £650,000 for attempting to unmask a whistleblower at Barclays in 2016.

An FCA spokesman said: “The FCA and PRA confirm there is an investigation concerning Mr Staley. We are unable to comment any further.”Sign up to the daily Business Today email or follow Guardian Business on Twitter at @BusinessDesk

Staley said: “It’s been very well known that I had a professional relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. It goes back to the year 2000 when I was asked to run the JP Morgan private bank. And he … already was a client when I joined the private bank. The relationship was maintained during my time at JP Morgan, but as I left Morgan the relationship tapered off quite significantly. We occasionally stayed in contact, and that all ended in late 2015.”

Staley added that the investigation “is focused on my transparency and openness with the bank regarding my relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. I feel very comfortable, that, going all the way back to 2015, I have been very transparent.”


The news overshadowed the release of the bank’s annual earnings, which showed pre-tax profit rose 25% to £4.4bn. Excluding legal and conduct costs, profit rose 9% to £6.2bn.

Staley received a pay package worth £5.9m in 2019, up from £3.4m a year earlier. That figure was due to a long-term incentive plan worth £1.5m. His bonus also rose to £1.7m.

When asked whether any of Staley’s pay would be impacted by the regulatory investigation, a Barclays spokesman said: “There is always the option to make an adjustment in future if it’s called for.”

Barclays shares closed down nearly 2% at 176p .