On Monday, Georgia allowed restaurants and movie theaters to begin reopening to the public. That move, which follows the reopening of several other types of businesses on Friday, has been widely criticized.
Even President Trump, who had been tweeting at different states to 'LIBERATE' themselves, said that he disagreed strongly with Georgia's Governor Brian Kemp on his timing on easing restrictions.
But renowned neurosurgeon and Trump's Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Dr. Ben Carson said that the rest of the country will gain a lot of insight from Georgia's experiment if it leads to success or added hardship.
"I think we'll soon know the answer to that. Either way, we're going to get some beneficial information," Carson told Cheddar over the phone Monday. "If what they did results in a thick spike and a horrible situation, then that tells everybody else, 'hold on.'"
Georgia also has one of the highest African-American populations in the country. Carson discussed the higher mortality rate observed particularly among black and Hispanic populations is actually a problem known about for a long time, yet little has been done to address it.
"Minority communities have a much higher mortality rate because of the underlying diseases," Carson said, listing hypertension and heart disease as examples. "We haven't done what we need to do to change the environments… If we don't go to the very foundation of the problem, then it's just patchwork."
Carson's Twitter feed itself is filled with positive stories of 'Neighbors Helping Neighbors,' a campaign his office is promoting amid the pandemic. The former brain surgeon also said there have been positive developments taking place regarding the virus.
"There are a number of [treatments] that are on the horizon that actually look extremely promising," he said.
Carson credited another government agency, the FDA, for being aggressive in allowing more treatments to be studied faster.
"Some of the double-blind studies are being done now on things that are controversial," Carson admitted. "In another month or two, we'll have the information on whether certain things are helpful or not helpful."
Researchers call the opposite of a double-blind study, open-label, where health care providers and patients are all aware of the experiment taking place. Georgia's experiment certainly will be visible to an entire country watching.
"We're gonna learn either way," Carson said.
Albania's Prime Minister Edi Rama says his new Cabinet will include an artificial intelligence “minister” in charge of fighting corruption. The AI, named Diella, will oversee public funding projects and combat corruption in public tenders. Diella was launched earlier this year as a virtual assistant on the government's public service platform. Corruption has been a persistent issue in Albania since 1990. Rama's Socialist Party won a fourth consecutive term in May. It aims to deliver EU membership for Albania in five years, but the opposition Democratic Party remains skeptical.
The Trump administration has asked an appeals court to remove Lisa Cook from the Federal Reserve’s board of governors by Monday, before the central bank’s next vote on interest rates. Trump sought to fire Cook Aug. 25, but a federal judge ruled late Tuesday that the removal was illegal and reinstated her to the Fed’s board.
President Donald Trump's administration is appealing a ruling blocking him from immediately firing Federal Reserve Gov. Lisa Cook as he seeks more control over the traditionally independent board. The notice of appeal was filed Wednesday, hours after U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb handed down the ruling. The White House insists the Republican president had the right to fire Cook over mortgage fraud allegations involving properties in Michigan and Georgia from before she joined the Fed. Cook's lawsuit denies the allegations and says the firing was unlawful. The case could soon reach the Supreme Court, which has allowed Trump to fire members of other independent agencies but suggested that power has limitations at the Fed.
Chief Justice John Roberts has let President Donald Trump remove a member of the Federal Trade Commission, the latest in a string of high-profile firings allowed for now by the Supreme Court.
President Donald Trump has fired one of two Democratic members of the U.S. Surface Transportation Board to break a 2-2 tie ahead of the board considering the largest railroad merger ever proposed.
The Rev. Al Sharpton is set to lead a protest march on Wall Street to urge corporate America to resist the Trump administration’s campaign to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. The New York civil rights leader will join clergy, labor and community leaders Thursday in a demonstration through Manhattan’s Financial District that’s timed with the anniversary of the Civil Rights-era March on Washington in 1963. Sharpton called DEI the “civil rights fight of our generation." He and other Black leaders have called for boycotting American retailers that scaled backed policies and programs aimed at bolstering diversity and reducing discrimination in their ranks.
