POLITICUSUSA
Speaking on Good Morning America, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s leading Covid-19 expert, said the high death toll in the United States did not have to happen, though he did not directly assign blame to former President Donald Trump or the Trump administration.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio criticized Governor Andrew Cuomo amid reports that Cuomo threatened a lawmaker who opposed the state’s decision not to immediately release data on Covid-19-related deaths in nursing homes.
Arizona Republican Debbie Lesko has come under fire for her rhetoric regarding Hispanic immigrants after she suggested during a hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Committee on February 11 that they are “good workers” but suggested that they’re not American citizens.
President Joe Biden announced he would reopen the federal health insurance marketplace for three months, emphasizing the importance of ensuring more Americans have access to health care as the nation continues to contend with the realities of the coronavirus pandemic.
President Joe Biden continues to get high marks overall, according to a special online edition of the CNBC All-America Economic Survey, which found he has a 62% percent approval rating, a rating higher than those of the last four presidents.
President Joe Biden‘s administration has announced the first at-home Covid-19 test. The test has a 95% accuracy rate and can generate a result in 15 minutes.
According to Andy Slavitt, a temporary Senior Adviser on Covid-19, the test “was created on a testing platform developed in the NIH RADx Initiative.”
Democrats are pushing President Joe Biden to support $2,000 monthly stimulus payments, what they say would amount to a vital lifeline to Americans who have been adversely impacted by the economic fallout in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Pfizer Chief Executive Officer Albert Bourla announced that the pharmaceutical company will supply the United States with 200 million Covid-19 vaccine doses sooner than expected. It will make deliveries to the U.S. and the European Union before the end of the second quarter.
President Joe Biden will sign two executive orders on Covid-19 relief that aim to provide vital economic relief to Americans weathering the economic freefall caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
The orders will expand food stamps and also ensure that anyone working for the federal government makes at least $15 an hour. These orders will provide a “critical lifeline” to Americans in need, said National Economic Council Director Brian Deese, though he stressed that these orders would not be a “substitute” for a trillion-dollar stimulus package many Americans are depending on.
President-elect Joe Biden is expected to ask Surgeon General Jerome Adams to resign after he is sworn in later today in what is seen as further indication of the incoming administration’s decision to break away from the Trump administration’s Covid-19 response.
President-elect Joe Biden has selected Dr. David Kessler, former Food and Drug Administration (FDA) chief, to spearhead the United States‘ vaccination effort as the incoming administration readies its plans to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic from day one.
Unemployment claims have spiked again.
The Department of Labor (DOL) reports that unemployment claims in the first full week of January spiked to a seasonally adjusted 965,000, Additionally, non-adjusted claims rose to 1.2 million and the number receiving Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) rose to 284,500.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading coronavirus expert, says his top priority working with President-elect Joe Biden‘s administration will be “to expeditiously get people vaccinated” against COVID-19.
Vice President-elect Kamala Harris and her husband Doug Emhoff will receive their first round of the Covid-19 vaccine today. Harris will receive the vaccine live on camera from Washington, D.C., a transition official said.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) urged President Donald Trump to authorize $2,000 direct payments to Americans after he expressed his dissatisfaction with the bipartisan Covid-19 stimulus package that lawmakers approved late Monday.
Speaking to CNN, Rochelle Walensky, President-elect Joe Biden’s choice to run the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said that public briefings would resume under her leadership. That’s an about-face from current policy: The CDC has halted most of its briefings during the Covid-19 pandemic and most communication about the agency’s response to the crisis has been left to President Donald Trump and the White House coronavirus task force.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading coronavirus expert, says it is “an honor to be part of this process” after he received the first dose of the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine in Bethesda, Maryland.
President Donald Trump appeared to take credit for the approval of two Covid-19 vaccines that have been approved in recent weeks, commenting, as many people begin vaccinations against the virus that “Our Country, and indeed the World, will soon see the great miracle of what the Trump Administration has accomplished.”
United States Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has confirmed that Americans could see $600 stimulus checks as soon as next week. The funds are part of a $900 million virus relief package that lawmakers agreed on last night; final votes will be tallied today ahead of a midnight deadline.
On Friday, News Corp Chairman Rupert Murdoch was vaccinated against COIVD-19. The media mogul received the inoculation in England, where due to his age, he qualified to get the vaccine early on.
The 89 year-old man receiving the treatment would not be a big deal if Murdoch didn’t own Fox News. He is, however, is in charge of a network that has done everything in its power to spread misinformation about the coronavirus.