The Trump administration announced plans Friday to speed up coronavirus testing, introducing an emergency hotline for companies and private laboratories developing quicker tests and seems on a path to a multi-billion-dollar federal plan with Congress amid reports the president will declare a national emergency later today.
"I hope he does it, it's the right thing to do, it will free up states and local communities to act more aggressively," Rep. Ami Bera (D-Calif. 7th District) told Cheddar on Friday.
The administration is catching up to warnings health officials have been making for weeks about the United States's lack of preparedness for what is now a pandemic. Bera, a physician himself, said the new measures will allow community health centers taking care of Medicaid patients to be reimbursed for telemedicine.
"If you can manage [sick patients] using technology, using telehealth, telemedicine and they can stay at home, that is actually a good thing, that will help slow the spread," he said.
Though telemedicine may help treat patients without potentially infecting those they come in contact with, a lack of test kits will impede physicians’ ability to track patients.
"What I’ve suggested to the administration is, look, if South Korea can do it, pick up the phone, call the Korean company that’s making these tests and see if you can’t just license those tests and get it sent over here if it’s taking so long for us to do it," he said.
While health workers attempt to slow the spread of the virus, politicians are still at work on a bill, which appeared to hit a roadblock today over disagreements about paid sick leave. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin have been negotiating the plan, which House Democrats are expected to vote on today.
"We're told that they're pretty close," Bera said. "Workers, families, those hourly wage folks, they're going to be hurt immediately. This is America, we don't let people fall down like that."
Jarrod Loadholt, Partner at Ice Miller, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where he breaks down the latest proposal by the SEC and explains how it could allow the agency to make major regulatory moves within the cryptocurrency space if approved.
Personal data platform Caden raised $3.1 million in pre-seed funding. Caden says its service allows users to have complete control over their data and earn a profit from it by sharing certain data with trusted brands, while never relinquishing ownership. The company also says its goal is to transform the internet and the use of personal data and make a better system for both consumers and brands. Caden founder and CEO John Roa joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
The leaders of Russia and China have declared their joint opposition to any expansion of NATO and affirmed that the island of Taiwan is a part of China.
U.S. employers stepped up hiring in January, adding 467,000 jobs despite a wave of omicron inflections that sickened millions of workers, kept many consumers at home and left businesses from restaurants to manufacturers short-staffed.
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President Joe Biden is committing to reduce the cancer death rate by 50% over the next 25 years. That's a new goal for the “moonshot” against the disease that was announced in 2016 when Biden was vice president.
A major winter storm with millions of Americans in its path brought a mix of rain, freezing rain and snow to the middle section of the United States as airlines canceled hundreds of flights, governors urged residents to stay off roads and schools closed campuses.
Russia says it will relocate naval exercises off the coast of Ireland after Dublin raised concerns about them amid the tense dispute with the West over expansion of the NATO alliance and fears that Russia is preparing to invade Ukraine.
he Australian government has pledged to spend another 1 billion Australian dollars ($704 million) over nine years on improving the health of the Great Barrier Reef after stalling a UNESCO decision on downgrading the natural wonder’s World Heritage status.
