Pelosi calls state protests a ‘distraction’ as Congress appears close to $400 billion-plus coronavirus aid deal
"The president gets an 'F,' a failure, on the testing," Pelosi said of the administration's coronavirus testing efforts.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., on Sunday dismissed as a “distraction” the small groups of protesters across the country who are demanding governors reopen the American economy, later adding that the demonstrators were ignoring the advice of doctors and scientists.
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Her comments come as the Trump administration and congressional leaders say they are close to striking a $400 billion-plus deal to renew funding for a small-business loan program that ran out of money.
Pelosi panned President Donald Trump’s handling of coronavirus testing across the nation, arguing that the steps the administration has taken are far from adequate.
“We’re way late on it, and that is a failure,” the House speaker said in an interview on “Fox News Sunday.” “The president gets an ‘F,’ a failure, on the testing.”
Pelosi was responding to comments made by Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, on the White House’s unveiling last week of a proposal for states to reopen their economies in phases. Fauci had said: “If these things are done correctly, (which) I believe they can, we will have and there will be enough tests to allow us to take this country safely through Phase One.”
Pelosi on Sunday made note of Fauci’s use of the word “if.”
“Doctor Fauci’s right — ‘if it is done properly,'” Pelosi said. “It hasn’t been, and I think when he puts in the ‘if it’s done,’ (it) is an admission that it hasn’t been done.”
Vice President Mike Pence said Sunday that Trump’s “LIBERATE” tweets last week were meant to encourage governors to take steps to “safely and responsibly” reopen their states’ economies during the coronavirus pandemic.
In back-to-back tweets on Friday, Trump wrote, “LIBERATE MINNESOTA” and then, “LIBERATE MICHIGAN” and then, “LIBERATE VIRGINIA, and save your great 2nd Amendment. It is under siege!”
But the vice president did not say specifically whether the tweets were messages of encouragement for protesters in those states who defied social distancing orders to rally against the restrictions.
“The American people know that no one in America wants to reopen this country more than President Donald Trump. . . . And in the president’s tweets and public statements, I can assure you, he’s going to continue to encourage governors to find ways to safely and responsibly let America go back to work,” Pence said in an interview on “Fox News Sunday.”
Pence also said that the White House and congressional leaders were “very close” to a deal on replenishing the small-business loan fund. And he defended the administration’s efforts to expand coronavirus testing, saying that the United States is conducting 150,000 tests a day and that the number will soon be doubled.
Health officials in Florida and California this weekend published lists of nursing homes in their states that have had coronavirus cases, joining other states that have released at least partial lists.
While most states rely solely on the long-term-care facilities to notify residents and their families of the virus, officials in Florida and California made the nursing homes’ names public after facing pressure to be more transparent with families and to better understand the virus’s spread.
California officials said their list is only partial. Some other states, like New York and Georgia, also have released partial lists, while many others, such as New Jersey, have not publicly reported any nursing homes that have had cases.
Of more than 15,000 nursing homes in the United States, over 650 facilities have had infections, a review by The Washington Post found. Experts, noting inconsistent reporting to health officials, warn that the true number is probably higher. The virus has been especially deadly for older Americans.
Defending the limited data on nursing homes that New York has made public, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said during a Saturday briefing that most nursing homes are private and that if the state received a complaint that a facility was not reporting cases and deaths, officials would investigate.
“Any nursing home that thinks they’re going to sit there and people are not going to figure out how many people passed away in that nursing home are kidding themselves,” he said. “More than anything, it’s that they are overwhelmed.”
More than a week after New Jersey Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli warned nursing homes to be upfront with residents, staff members and families about cases and deaths, an anonymous tip led police to discover 17 bodies in an Andover nursing home’s small morgue.
The Navajo Nation, which has been hit harder by the novel coronavirus than any other Native American tribe, announced this weekend that it was ordering everyone on the reservation to wear protective masks when out in public to help fight the spread of the virus.
Issued by the Navajo Department of Health, the emergency health order for parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah comes as 1,197 tribe members have tested positive for coronavirus as of Saturday. According to the tribe and the Navajo Area Indian Health Service, there have been 44 deaths among members, with the average age being 66.
In a statement late Friday, Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez said all members should either buy masks or make their own to go out in public.
“Some individuals think we’re using scare tactics or extreme measures, but we are losing lives here on the Navajo Nation, and I’m going to do everything I can to help save lives,” Nez said.
Already under a daily nighttime curfew, Navajo residents who break the stay-at-home order face fines of up to $1,000 and 30 days in jail, according to the Associated Press.
As The Washington Post reported, experts say the more than 5 million people who identify as American Indian and Alaskan Native are especially vulnerable during the coronavirus pandemic.
“When you look at the health disparities in Indian Country — high rates of diabetes, cancer, heart disease, asthma and then you combine that with the overcrowded housing situation where you have a lot of people in homes with an elder population who may be exposed or carriers — this could be like a wildfire on a reservation and get out of control in a heartbeat,” said Kevin Allis, chief executive of the National Congress of American Indians.
Allis added, “We could get wiped out.”
Europe has more than 1 million confirmed coronavirus cases and almost 100,000 deaths, according to figures released Sunday by the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control.
The ECDC, an independent agency of the European Union, published data on its website that listed 1,018,221 confirmed cases on the continent and 98,852 deaths.
The announcement came while national governments released their own figures on new cases and deaths, as experts watched closely to see whether the strict lockdown measures in many Western European nations were slowing the outbreaks.
Italy’s Civil Protection Agency announced 433 new deaths on Sunday, its second-lowest daily tally this month, bringing the total death toll in the country to 23,660. A total of 3,047 new cases were confirmed, bringing the number in the country to 178,972.
Meanwhile, Britain announced 596 new deaths from the coronavirus as the country’s death toll from the pandemic reached 16,060. The number of new deaths was down significantly from Saturday, when 888 were announced. The government also announced 5,850 new cases, bringing the total to 120,067.
Spain, which a few weeks ago was struggling with an unbearable daily death toll, reported Sunday that 410 people had died of covid-19, down from 565 the day before, according to authorities. It is the lowest daily increase in a month and a far cry from a high of 950 two weeks earlier.
Spain has been one of the hardest hit countries, with more than 20,000 deaths since the outbreak started more than a month ago. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said Saturday that despite the falling numbers, the lockdown would continue, though with more flexible restrictions.
In contrast, Russia reported Sunday a jump in cases, with some 6,060 new infections over the previous 24 hours. Its nationwide tally is at 42,853, with a total of 361 dead, the Russian coronavirus crisis response center said according to Reuters.
The Moscow Times reported Sunday that Russian President Vladimir Putin and French President Emmanuel Macron have discussed holding a video summit of key U.N. Security Council members to discuss the pandemic. The Russian leader also canceled a landmark military parade to mark the 75th anniversary of Soviet victory in World War II.
Doubts linger in many countries about the full extent of the outbreak, and when the lockdowns can be relaxed is a matter of dispute.
Italy’s representative to the World Health Organization said Sunday that it was too early to lift restrictions. “We have to wait until we can count the number of new cases on one hand, not the four-digit growth that we are having,” Walter Ricciardi told SKYTG 24, the Associated Press reported.
Senior British cabinet minister Michael Gove on Sunday confirmed a report by the Sunday Times that Prime Minister Boris Johnson missed five consecutive meetings of the national crisis committee as the coronavirus crisis started to unfold in the United Kingdom, according to British media reports.
Gove initially refused to comment on the report that Johnson, who contracted the virus in late March and spent three nights in intensive care, was absent from the high-level meetings known as “Cobras,” short for cabinet office briefing rooms. On the BBC’s “The Andrew Marr Show,” however, Gove, who holds the cabinet role of chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, said the claims were accurate.
Gove said missing Cobra meetings was normal for a prime minister, the Guardian reported.
“Most Cobra meetings don’t have the prime minister attending them,” he said, according to the Guardian.
The Times report said the committee, which includes ministers, intelligence chiefs and military generals and meets at times of great peril, is usually chaired by the prime minister. The article said that during most of February, Johnson was preoccupied with Brexit and vacationing at a country retreat.
As the number of coronavirus cases and deaths in Britain continues to rise, the government has faced criticism over its initial response to the pandemic. The opposition Labour Party has accused Johnson of being “missing in action” during the crucial weeks when the first cases of the virus emerged in the country.
Pope Francis, the leader of the Catholic Church, ventured outside the Vatican for the first time in more than a month to give a sermon this Divine Mercy Sunday.
At the Santo Spirito in Sassia church in Rome, the pope spoke at length about the coronavirus pandemic and inequality, warning that forgetting the less fortunate during a recovery would be a “worse virus” than the outbreak itself.
“The risk is that we may then be struck by an even worse virus, that of selfish indifference,” Francis said, according to a translation from Crux. This attitude is spread “by the thought that life is better if it is better for me, and that everything will be fine if it is fine for me,” he continued.
“It begins there and ends up selecting one person over another, discarding the poor, and sacrificing those left behind on the altar of progress,” Francis said, later adding that the “time has come to eliminate inequalities, to heal the injustice that is undermining the health of the entire human family.”
The Mass at the church, a few blocks from the Vatican, was lightly attended but also live-streamed around the world. Francis had last visited Rome on March 15, when he prayed at two shrines for an end to the pandemic.
The pope used much of his homily to talk about Thomas, the disciple who did not believe Jesus Christ had been resurrected as described in the Bible’s New Testament. Jesus had been patient with Thomas, Francis said, because he would not abandon someone who had been left behind.
“This is not some ideology; it is Christianity,” the pontiff said.
The Washington Post’s Felicia Sonmez, Ruth Eglash and Timothy Bella contributed to this report.
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