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."
President Donald Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign was powered by a cell phone app that allowed staff to monitor the movements of his millions of supporters, and offered intimate access to their social networks.
Rep. Chris Pappas is optimistic that President Donald Trump will sign the bipartisan Veterans COMPACT Act to provide mental health care and prevent veteran suicides.
the Trump administration’s unwillingness to begin steps to transition power to President-elect Joe Biden is preventing him from creating a national response, said Kathleen Sebelius, former United States Secretary of Health and Human Services under President Barack Obama.
President-elect Joe Biden on Monday said his administration would strengthen the country's vulnerable economy despite the exploding pandemic as he pushed forward with the business of preparing to assume the presidency.
President Donald Trump has hailed developments in the race for a vaccine for the resurgent coronavirus. He delivered his first public remarks Friday since his defeat by President-elect Joe Biden, even as he refuses to concede the election.
The reason for such calm is that Wall Street doesn't see Trump's anger, tweets or legal actions changing the results. And encouraging data about a potential COVID-19 vaccine has renewed investors' optimism even though virus cases are on the rise.
Just days following the presidential election, Twitter has stepped up its efforts to crackdown on misinformation, but questions are being raised about how marketers and users will interact with social media platforms going forward. Cheddar's Michelle Castillo reports.
New York's Lieutenant Governor, Kathy Hochul, joined Cheddar to discuss new state guidelines set to take effect as COVID-19 cases spike nationwide.
The report by Deutsche Bank proposed a 5% daily tax on each employee that continues to work from home.
California Rep. Ami Bera joined Cheddar to discuss what a transition to the Biden administration could look like for Americans in regards to the coronavirus pandemic. Bera also discusses how a Biden administration will tackle COVID-19 with science.
