Saturday, April 25, 2020
"Please Don't": Doctors Forced to Speak Out as Trump Ponders Aloud Whether Injecting Disinfectants Could Treat Covid-19
"ALERT! Please do not ingest, inject, inhale, or otherwise use any disinfectant outside of its labeled instructions. And do not start using tanning beds or sunning without sunscreen."
by
Jake Johnson, staff writer
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/04/24/please-dont-doctors-forced-speak-out-trump-ponders-aloud-whether-injecting
President Donald Trump used the daily Coronavirus Task Force briefing Thursday night to once again speculate dangerously and ignorantly on possible treatments for the Covid-19, this time rambling about exposing patients to "tremendous" amounts of ultraviolet light or injecting them with household disinfectants.
"Sounds interesting to me," Trump added."I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute—one minute—and is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside, or almost a cleaning?" Trump asked, turning to William Bryan, a top scientist at the Department of Homeland Security. "Because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it would be interesting to check that."
The president's comments came after Bryan, acting undersecretary for science and technology at DHS, delivered a presentation on tests purportedly showing that sunlight and disinfectants like bleach can kill the novel coronavirus on surfaces.
Trump's response to Bryan's presentation horrified medical professionals, who rushed to social media and the press to warn against ingesting disinfectants or experimenting with extreme light treatments.
"ALERT! Please do not ingest, inject, inhale, or otherwise use any disinfectant outside of its labeled instructions," tweeted Dr. Rob Davidson, an emergency physician and executive director of the Committee to Protect Medicare. "And do not start using tanning beds or sunning without sunscreen."
"If today didn't convince networks to stop broadcasting the pressers," Davidson added, "nothing will."
"My concern is that people will die," Craig Spencer, director of global health in emergency medicine at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center, said in an interview with the Washington Post. "People will think this is a good idea. This is not willy-nilly, off-the-cuff, maybe-this-will-work advice. This is dangerous."
Esther Choo, an emergency physician and associate professor at Oregon Health and Science University, noted on Twitter that while Thursday evening was not the first time the president has touted untested treatments for Covid-19, Trump's recommendations are quickly becoming more bizarre and dangerous.
"We've gone from suggesting unproven treatments (hydroxycholorquine) to suggesting things that are known to have unequivocal harm (isopropyl alcohol, bleach)," Choo wrote. "What's next?"
Choo voiced her incredulity in an appearance on MSNBC following the White House briefing.
"Those are things we always worry that kids swallow accidentally," said Choo.
Watch:
'A Power Grab': Postal Union Slams Trump for Holding USPS Funds Hostage to Force 'Draconian Cuts'
"This administration is committed to fulfilling the decades-long pursuit by some to sacrifice our public Postal Service at the altar of private profit."
by
Jake Johnson, staff writer
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/04/24/power-grab-postal-union-slams-trump-holding-usps-funds-hostage-force-draconian-cuts
The 200,000-member American Postal Workers Union accused President Donald Trump of plotting to "sacrifice our public Postal Service at the altar of private profit" after the Washington Post reported late Thursday that the White House is considering using a $10 billion relief loan approved by Congress last month to impose long-sought changes on the popular agency.
"It's a power grab to destroy the public Postal Service. Shame on them," Mark Dimondstein, president of the APWU, said in a statement.
The $10 billion loan was authorized by the CARES Act, which President Trump signed into law last month after threatening to veto the bill if it included a $13 billion direct grant that Democratic lawmakers proposed. The loan is a fraction of the $75 billion the Postal Service has requested to avert total collapse by September.According to the Post, "officials working under Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who must approve the $10 billion loan, have told senior officials at the USPS in recent weeks that he could use the loan as leverage to give the administration influence over how much the agency charges for delivering packages and how it manages its finances."
Trump has openly dismissed calls to prioritize emergency funding for the Postal Service, whose finances have been shaken by a precipitous decline in mail volume caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Analysts have stressed that Congress is largely responsible for the popular agency's financial troubles: In 2006, lawmakers approved legislation that requires USPS to prefund its retirees' health benefits through the year 2056.
Dimondstein said Thursday that the Post's reporting confirms that the Trump administration is attempting to take advantage of the Covid-19 crisis to fundamentally transform USPS and force "draconian cuts." In 2018, a White House task force released a proposal that, if implemented, would eventually privatize the Postal Service and roll back postal workers' collective bargaining rights.
As the Post noted, "if Mnuchin were to gain greater control through the new loan, a slew of Postal Service management decisions, including the terms of major contracts and collective bargaining strategy, could require Treasury's approval."
"Postal workers provide an absolutely essential service to everyone in the country—no matter how rich or poor we are or where we live," said Dimondstein. "During this pandemic, postal workers have continued to bind the nation together and deliver essential medicine, supplies, and information to a public that is confined to their homes."
"At a time when the country needs us now more than ever," Dimondstein added, "Mnuchin and his Wall Street cronies are attempting to exploit the crisis to raise prices, demonize heroic postal workers, and cut service, all so private delivery companies can profit."
Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) told the Post that he hopes USPS will tell Mnuchin that "they're not going to agree to unacceptable conditions, and that means Mnuchin will have on his hands the disruption of services this fall."
"I think it's time to stare him down and this White House down, and for Congress to decide [if we are] going to stand with the Postal Service as we know it," Connolly said. "This is an essential service and it needs to be treated as such. My hope would be that the Postal will stare him down. If they don't, it's tantamount to handing over day-to-day management to the Treasury Department."
In an email to supporters on Thursday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said that if Congress "can bail out large corporations, we can damn well help the Postal Service—the most popular government agency in America—from going bankrupt because of this horrific pandemic."
"The USPS is expected to lose about 50% of its revenue due to a loss of mail volume during the pandemic. And what most people do not know is that the USPS does not run on taxpayer dollars—it relies completely on revenue created by postage and postal services," Sanders wrote. "If the Postal Service goes under, universal and affordable delivery would no longer be a guaranteed public service."
Massive Backlog of Unpaid Jobless Benefits Leaves 'A Nightmare' for Millions on Brink of Financial Ruin
"I was finally able to sit on hold almost four hours. Then I got disconnected," said one Arizona man attempting to apply for benefits.
by
Jake Johnson, staff writer
2 Comments
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/04/24/massive-backlog-unpaid-jobless-benefits-leaves-nightmare-millions-brink-financial
An unprecedented avalanche of jobless claims over the past month due to the coronavirus pandemic has overwhelmed state governments' antiquated unemployment systems and produced an enormous backlog of unpaid benefits, leaving millions of people on the brink of financial ruin with another rent payment due in just a week.
According to a Washington Post analysis published Thursday, "the economic carnage wrought by the coronavirus has resulted in a national backlog of at least 3 million unpaid jobless claims."
"The figure reflects claims made by April 4," the Post reported. "The true backlog is probably far greater, following the release of new federal data Thursday showing an additional 4 million people who filed for unemployment last week." More than 26 million people in the U.S. have filed jobless claims over the past month, according to the latest Labor Department data.
"Those who have been paid represent just 6 percent of the total number of filings," the Tampa Bay Times reported.The backlog of benefits is most severe in Florida, where Republican political leaders have imposed punitive restrictions on unemployment insurance and refused to modernize the state's crumbling technological infrastructure. More than 1.7 million Floridians have filed for unemployment since mid-March, but state data released Thursday showed that just over 108,000 people have received benefits.
As of this writing, the Florida unemployment website is down for maintenance and will not be back online until Monday, April 27. New applicants can still file for benefits, but those who have already submitted applications cannot currently check the site for status updates.
An anonymous adviser to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, blamed previous GOP Gov. Rick Scott for the state's broken unemployment system.
"It's a shit sandwich, and it was designed that way by Scott," the DeSantis adviser said of the unemployment system in an interview with Politico earlier this month. "It wasn't about saving money. It was about making it harder for people to get benefits or keep benefits so that the unemployment numbers were low to give the governor something to brag about."
Anecdotal accounts from people in Florida and across the nation who are desperately attempting to obtain their benefits paint a portrait of a fragmented and deficient U.S. unemployment system, which is overseen by the federal government but administered by individual states with significant leeway to expand or restrict eligibility.
The CARES Act, which President Donald Trump signed into law last month, authorized a temporary $600-per-week increase in unemployment on top of the sum that states already provide, which varies widely state by state.
"I've gone on every day since and checked my application status," one laid-off Florida worker who applied for benefits in late March told The Guardian last week. "Just to go on and get logged in takes sometimes 45 minutes to an hour. You have to keep hitting refresh."
Jeffrey Swartz of Clarkdale, Arizona told The Arizona Republic Wednesday that his efforts to navigate the state's unemployment system have been "a nightmare so far."
"Today alone, I was finally able to sit on hold almost four hours," said Swartz. "Then I got disconnected."
The CARES Act is supposed to expand benefits to freelancers and gig workers, but many have reported experiencing significant delays in receiving payments.
"We still don't know how we're going to survive this," Mekela Edwards, a Lyft and Uber driver in California, told Politico last week. "Me personally, I don't know how I'm going to survive this."
Michele Evermore, a senior policy analyst and researcher with the National Employment Law Project, said in a statement Tuesday that a "perfect storm of unemployment benefit cuts and access restrictions so destabilized the foundation of the unemployment insurance program that we are now witnessing its dysfunction in real time."
"We've reached the point where it's too late to prepare states in advance for the massive tsunami of unemployment that is rocking the economy and state unemployment systems," said Evermore.
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Calif.) and more than a dozen other Democratic senators sent a letter to congressional leaders earlier this week demanding that the next Covid-19 stimulus package include additional funding to ensure that states have the resources to accommodate the surge in unemployment claims.
The senators also said federal digital resources should be made readily available to help state and local governments modernize their unemployment systems.
"News reports abound showing hours-long hold times for Americans seeking assistance with unemployment claims, small business loans and grants, and other emergency programs," the letter states. "These federal programs, which are administered by the states, are of the utmost importance to American workers and businesses. They must be able to serve this skyrocketing need, per congressional intent in the CARES Act."
Highest Levels Since Great Depression, 'Sobering' CBO Analysis Projects 16% Unemployment in US This Year
"For the first time a federal agency is saying we likely face a major economic downturn for well over the next year and a half."
by
Julia Conley, staff writer
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/04/24/highest-levels-great-depression-sobering-cbo-analysis-projects-16-unemployment-us
New analysis by the Congressional Budget Office offered "incredibly sobering" projection for unemployment levels for the coming two years as the U.S. recovers from the coronavirus pandemic.
According to the nonpartisan government office, the unemployment rate is projected to average 14% in the second quarter of 2020 and reach 16% by the end of the third quarter.
The unemployment rate for 2021 is projected to be 10.1% at the end of that year—slightly higher than the worst monthly rate during the Great Recession that resulted from the 2008 economic meltdown. During that crisis, the highest unemployment rate was 10%, a rate which lasted for one month.
The analysis "means at least a year of unemployment that's worse than the Great Recession," Washington Post correspondent Heather Long tweeted.
The agency's projection contrasted sharply with the rhetoric of the Trump administration. President Donald Trump on Thursday suggested many jobs would be filled again by August, and told reporters, "I think our economy will start to pick up very substantially, as soon as the states get open."
The CBO's analysis is "incredibly significant," wrote PBS Newshour correspondent Lisa Desjardins, as it counters the president's overall message about the state of the economy and the ability the government has to safely order businesses to reopen and Americans to return to daily life.
Although the CBO wrote in its analysis that economic activity is expected to increase in the third quarter of 2020, it emphasized that "challenges in the economy and the labor market are expected to persist for some time."
The high unemployment rates in the second and third quarters of this year will reflect "a projected loss of nearly 27 million in the number of people employed and the exit of roughly 8 million people from the labor force."
Currently, more than 26 million Americans have filed jobless claims in the past five weeks as businesses were forced to close to slow the spread of the coronavirus. That brought the unemployment rate to an estimated 13%—already the highest level since the Great Depression.
As Common Dreams reported earlier this month, food banks have reported huge increases in the number of people they are serving as workers are laid off or furloughed, with one investigation finding that a third of people using food banks at the beginning of April—when the number of unemployment claims stood at 6.6 million—had never before needed assistance.
'We Need Congress to Get a Grip': Democrats Urged to End Delay, Fight Like Hell for Covid-19 Relief That Puts People First
"If these are truly legislative priorities for members of Congress, as they should be, they need to start fighting for them."
by
Jake Johnson, staff writer
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/04/24/we-need-congress-get-grip-democrats-urged-end-delay-fight-hell-covid-19-relief-puts
Progressive frustration with the Democratic leadership is boiling over following the House's near-unanimous passage Thursday of an interim coronavirus relief package that provides no direct relief to vulnerable people and kicks life-or-death priorities to next month even as tens of millions of people and families don't know how they're going to afford rent and other basic necessities.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck (D-N.Y.) both promised that while they failed to secure funding for states and localities, an increase in nutrition assistance, or protections for frontline workers in the interim bill, they will be sure to push for the inclusion of those proposals in the next Covid-19 package.
"That will be the centerpiece of our next legislation," Pelosi said in a speech Thursday.
"'Just wait until the next bill' is not good enough anymore," Morris Pearl, chair of the Patriotic Millionaires, said in a statement. "If these are truly legislative priorities for members of Congress, as they should be, they need to start fighting for them."Outside advocacy groups and a handful of progressives in Congress are expressing outrage at the Democratic leadership's repeated "we'll do better next time" approach in the middle of a deadly pandemic. The House is not expected to return to Washington, D.C. again until May 4 at the earliest.
"It is absurd that over a month into a national lockdown, we still do not have universal paid sick leave, forcing essential workers who feel ill to put themselves and everyone around them at risk just to pay their bills," said Pearl. "It is absurd that as bills continue to accumulate for millions without steady streams of income, the federal government is giving no more than a one-time payment of $1200."
George Goehl, director of People's Action, urged Congress to quickly pass three bills that have already been introduced in the House: Rep. Ilhan Omar's (D-Minn.) plan to cancel all rent and mortgage payments for the duration of the coronavirus crisis; Reps. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) and Rashida Tlaib's (D-Mich.) plan to provide all U.S. households with $2,000 monthly payments; and Jayapal's plan to provide no-cost emergency healthcare for all.
Progressives are also demanding that Congress approve emergency funding for the U.S. Postal Service, money for nationwide vote-by-mail, funding for cities and states, hazard pay for frontline workers, an increase in federal nutrition assistance, and more.
"Speaker Pelosi and Democrats have made big promises for the next rescue package," said Goehl. "The people of this country have shown incredible patience, but that patience is wearing thin. When we get to the next CARES Act, it better be one hell of a package, because [the interim bill] is a raw deal when we need the next New Deal... We need Congress to get a grip."
In a letter (pdf) to Pelosi and Schumer on Friday, nearly 50 progressive advocacy groups said that as Republicans attempt to exploit the coronavirus crisis to "further enrich their already-wealthy donors, and undermine democracy," Democrats "must put forth and fight for a relief package that puts people first."
"We need Democrats to be bold and fearless in fighting for our families and our communities, advancing solutions that are commensurate with the scale of the crisis we face and helping us build toward a better future for our people, our economy and our democracy," the groups wrote.
Pearl wrote in an op-ed in Common Dreams Friday that Republicans' demand for hundreds of billions more in small business funding was "the single biggest piece of leverage House Democrats had to negotiate a better deal for workers."Prior to the passage of the $480 billion interim coronavirus package, which President Donald Trump signed into law Friday, progressive activists warned that rubber-stamping Republican funding priorities without including money for vulnerable people would leave Democrats with little leverage in negotiations over the next spending package—assuming there is one.
"Instead of using that leverage," Pearl wrote, "Democrats told Americans who work for a living to just wait until the next bill for the changes they desperately need."
After the interim bill passed the House Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.)—suddenly concerned about the growing national debt now that he has secured money for big corporations and the rich—made clear that he is in no rush to approve any additional relief spending.
Congress should "press the pause button" on new coronavirus aid, McConnell said shortly after new Labor Department data showed that more than 26 million Americans have filed jobless claims since mid-March.
In a speech on the House floor Thursday, Pelosi accused McConnell of "notion mongering to get attention" and promised that the next bill—which she dubbed the Heroes Act—is coming soon.
"Let us be clear, the health and safety of our country will be endangered if we cannot pay the heroes who sacrifice to keep us safe," Pelosi said, referring to frontline workers.
Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), Omar, and Tlaib—collectively known as "The Squad"—are pressing the Democratic leadership to provide a clear timeline on when the next relief package will come together and get a vote. Ocasio-Cortez was the only House Democrat to vote against the interim bill.
"Congress just voted for the first time in a month on a bill that doesn't address the core issues facing working families. Then they adjourned again until further notice," Ocasio-Cortez tweeted Thursday. "'Someday' and 'next time' doesn't cut it. Struggling families need a timeline."
Jayapal and Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), co-chairs of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said in a joint statement Thursday that House Democrats "must lead with vision and urgency" by passing legislation that "meets the immense needs of this moment."
Earlier this month, the Progressive Caucus unveiled a slate of demands for the next coronavirus package that includes $2,000 monthly stimulus payments to all U.S. households, opening Medicare to the unemployed and uninsured, and suspension of all consumer debt collection.
"More than 47,000 Americans have died, 26 million people are unemployed, and there is no end in sight to this crisis," said Jayapal and Pocan. "Congress must do far more to direct relief to the everyday families who need help the most."
Calling US Postal Service 'A Joke,' Trump Demands Four-Fold Price Hike for Customers Amid Covid-19 Pandemic
Such a move, say critics, "would be a disaster for millions of Americans who rely on USPS."
by
Jessica Corbett, staff writer
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/04/24/calling-us-postal-service-joke-trump-demands-four-fold-price-hike-customers-amid
President Donald Trump on Friday threatened to withhold all future Covid-19 relief funding from the U.S. Postal Service unless the federal agency dramatically raises its shipping prices—a demand that critics say is ludicrous given the economic calamity the American people and the post office are now facing.
"The post office should raise the price of a package by approximately four times," the president added. "Four or five times, that's what it should be—or let Amazon build their own post office, which would be an impossible thing to do, because the post office is massive and serves every little piece of the country."After U.S. Secretary Steven Mnuchin fielded a question about relief funding for USPS from a reporter at the White House during a bill signing ceremony Friday, Trump declared that "the Postal Service is a joke, because they're handing out packages for Amazon and other internet companies, and every time they bring a package they lose money on it."
Trump accused USPS of refusing to raise package prices "because they don't want to insult Amazon and they don't want to insult other companies perhaps that they like." He also said the agency "should raise the price of the packages to the companies, not to the people."
As the Washington Post reported Friday:
Trump and his allies have frequently claimed that higher package rates on internet shipping companies—Amazon, in particular—could ease the Postal Service's financial troubles. But higher package rates could hurt the agency by artificially raising its prices above those of United Parcel Service and FedEx, analysts say. Higher prices also could impact Amazon, which acts as both retailer and shipper, by forcing it pass off higher costs on its customers to compete.
Critics quickly responded to Trump's comments with warnings about how a price hike could impact both the USPS and consumers.
"At a time when millions of Americans are stuck at home and can't work, Trump is demanding what is basically a tax hike on mail," tweeted the The Atlantic staff writer Adam Serwer, referencing the ongoing coronavirus-related lockdowns and job losses.
Other critics accused Trump of trying to destroy the USPS "to suppress mail-in votes." The public health crisis has sparked calls to rapidly and significantly expand vote-by-mail nationwide to ensure that everyone can safely particpate in future elections. Trump has baselessly attacked mail-in voting as insecure.
The president tweeted Friday afternoon: "I will never let our Post Office fail. It has been mismanaged for years, especially since the advent of the internet and modern-day technology. The people that work there are great, and we're going to keep them happy, healthy, and well!"
The USPS, for its part, recently reiterated its policy of delivering absentee and mail-in ballots "even if no postage has been affixed or if the postage is insufficient." That statement on Wednesday was widely welcomed, with people across the country thanking the agency for "working to save democracy."
U.S. Mail Not for Sale, a worker-led campaign sponsored by the American Postal Workers Union and the National Association of Letter Carriers, circulated a petition urging Congress to provide USPS with "urgent and ongoing financial support from the federal government during this public health and economic crisis."
The Postal Service—already under financial duress due to a 2006 congressional mandate requiring the agency to fund retirees' health benefits through 2056—warned earlier this month that without an infusion of cash, the agency could soon face a complete collapse due to revenue loss related to the coronavirus pandemic.
The president's comments from the Oval Office came after the Post reported on Thursday night that Trump was considering using a $10 billion congressionally approved loan to force changes at the Postal Service. That loan was part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act Trump signed last month.
Mnuchin, who has to sign off on the loan to USPS, confirmed to reporters at the White House that the administration will impose certain criteria, though he declined to share details. Trump, however, jumped in and said, "if they don't raise the price, I'm not signing anything... and I'm not authorizing you to do anything, Steve."
Sen. Bernie Sanders shared the Post's reporting on Twitter and declared that "it is disgusting that Trump would exploit this pandemic" to force changes at USPS.
Sanders on Tuesday hosted a virtual town hall with the leaders of the nation's top postal unions to discuss how to save USPS.
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