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."
One day after saying that the COVID-19 task force would be winding down, President Donald Trump says it would continue on indefinitely, but focus on rebooting the economy.
David Banmiller, an airline industry insider and former CEO of Pan Am, doesn't like referring to the $25 billion of relief the airline industry got from the federal government as a 'bailout.'
An Associated Press analysis finds that taking the New York metropolitan area’s progress against the coronavirus out of the equation shows the rest of the U.S. moving in the wrong direction, with the infection rate rising even as states move to lift their lockdowns.
Stocks closed higher on Wall Street but gave up about half of their early gains in a late-afternoon bout of selling. The S&P 500 rose 0.9% Tuesday after being up 2% earlier.
Vice President Mike Pence says the White House coronavirus task force could wind down its work by early June.
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, told Cheddar on Tuesday that they were not prepared to switch so quickly and have been working well with what they have, but online learning simply isn't the same as teaching in person.
The trip means a small army of advisers, logistical experts and security staff will also resume regularly hitting the road and taking a measure of risk to assist Trump.
Stocks are rallying worldwide on Tuesday as more countries relaxed restrictions on businesses, raising hopes for a recovery from the historic plunge sweeping the global economy.
As governments around the world consider how to monitor new coronavirus outbreaks while reopening their societies, many are starting to bet on smartphone apps to help stanch the pandemic. But their decisions on which technologies to use — and how far those allow authorities to peer into private lives — are highlighting some uncomfortable trade-offs between protecting privacy and public health.
The stock market shook off a weak start and ended with modest gains Monday, thanks to another solid showing from big technology companies.
