| 'They know how to keep people alive': Why China's coronavirus response is better than you think Posted: 13 Mar 2020 02:17 PM PDT  China has become a popular scapegoat for the coronavirus pandemic. But there are many lessons to be learned from how Beijing has responded to the disease, according to the top World Health Organization epidemiologist working on the coronavirus response there.
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| Spain declares a state of emergency after the number of coronavirus cases surged across the country Posted: 13 Mar 2020 08:40 AM PDT  Spain has become the second-worst-hit country in Europe after Italy, with more than 4,200 cases and 120 deaths.
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| Pregnant teen falls from Texas border wall and dies as migrants take more risks to cross Posted: 13 Mar 2020 07:21 AM PDT  A 19-year-old pregnant Guatemalan who fell attempting to scale the border barrier near El Paso has died. Her fetus did not survive.
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| US general: 'fairly certain' North Korea has COVID-19 cases Posted: 13 Mar 2020 05:58 AM PDT  The top American general in South Korea said Friday he is fairly certain North Korea has not been spared by the COVID-19 outbreak that began in neighboring China, although the North has not publicly confirmed a single case. Speaking by video-teleconference from his headquarters in South Korea, Army Gen. Robert Abrams told reporters at the Pentagon that the North had halted military training for a month — including a 24-day hiatus in military flying — but has since resumed. Earlier this week, North Korean state media reported that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un supervised his second live-fire artillery exercise in a week.
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| Italy's coronavirus deaths surge as Lombardy seeks tougher curbs Posted: 13 Mar 2020 08:33 AM PDT  The death toll from coronavirus in Italy has jumped by 250 in the last 24 hours, the biggest daily increase ever recorded by any country, as the worst-affected Lombardy region asked for a complete shutdown of factories and offices. The government this week imposed drastic curbs nationwide, shutting bars, restaurants and most shops, and banning non-essential travel in an effort to halt the worst outbreak of the disease outside China. The measures so far show no sign of slowing the number of deaths, which rose by 25% in a day to 1,266, the head of the Civil Protection Agency said on Friday.
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| Poland to shut its borders to foreign travellers: PM Posted: 13 Mar 2020 02:56 PM PDT  Poland on Friday said it was shutting its borders to foreign travellers to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus, which has infected at least 68 people. It would also impose two weeks of quarantine on people returning from abroad, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki told reporters. "Most of the cases that have been propagating the coronavirus epidemic in Poland are imported cases," he said.
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| Trump disbanded pandemic unit that experts had praised Posted: 14 Mar 2020 07:24 AM PDT  Public health and national security experts disagreed when President Trump said the coronavirus "came out of nowhere" and "blindsided the world."
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| President Trump says he'll 'most likely' get tested for coronavirus Posted: 13 Mar 2020 02:32 PM PDT  President Trump said Friday afternoon that he would "most likely" be tested "fairly soon" for the coronavirus, reversing course from his administration's dismissal of the need to do so earlier in the week.
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| Carnival Cruise Line is banning certain customers and issuing mandatory pre-boarding temperature checks after Princess' ships were hit by a massive coronavirus outbreak Posted: 13 Mar 2020 10:51 AM PDT  Guests who visited certain countries at least 20 days before their departure date will either be not permitted on the ship or be subject to screening.
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| Coronavirus: Quebec leader asks seniors to stay in, 'snowbirds' to fly back to Canada Posted: 14 Mar 2020 01:03 PM PDT  Quebec's premier told seniors Saturday to stay home to avoid contracting the new coronavirus, and urged "snowbirds" -- retired Canadians who spend winters in sunny US states -- to fly back to Canada now. "If I were them, I'd come home as soon as possible," Legault also said about more than 300,000 Canadian "snowbirds" who live up to six months each year in the United States. As of 1300 GMT Saturday, said Health Canada, 193 cases of the COVID-19 virus have been confirmed in Canada, including one death.
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| 'We’re basing this on science': Ohio emerges as leader in U.S. coronavirus response Posted: 14 Mar 2020 07:57 AM PDT  Ohio's quick response to its first confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus was months in the making.
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| Democrat Biden tacks left, backs Warren bankruptcy plan with student loan relief Posted: 14 Mar 2020 02:03 PM PDT  "I've endorsed Elizabeth Warren's bankruptcy proposal, which ... allows for student debt to be relieved in bankruptcy and provides for a whole range of other issues," Biden said in a digital town hall in Illinois on Friday. Biden's decision to endorse Warren's bankruptcy plan is significant, showing she and Sanders have moved the party's policy discussions to the left.
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| Surprising Facts You Didn't Know About Pi Posted: 14 Mar 2020 08:00 AM PDT |
| How the U.S. Can Stop the Surge of Deadly Rocket Attacks in Iraq Posted: 13 Mar 2020 08:47 AM PDT  Americans in Iraq are being killed by Islamic State terrorists and government-backed Shiite militias. Is there a better response than more missile strikes?
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| Lawyer: Man killed by officer was asleep when police fired Posted: 13 Mar 2020 12:49 PM PDT  A Maryland man who was shot and killed by a police officer was asleep in his bedroom when police opened fire from outside his house, an attorney for the 21-year-old man's family said Friday. The Montgomery County Police Department said in a news release Friday that Duncan Socrates Lemp "confronted" police and was shot by one of the officers early Thursday. Rene Sandler, an attorney for Lemp's relatives, said an eyewitness gave a "completely contrary" account of the shooting.
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| Is coronavirus 'just a cold' or a reason to self-quarantine? Trump supporters seem split. Posted: 13 Mar 2020 12:08 PM PDT  The worsening coronavirus outbreak has prompted some of Trump's allies and aides to self-quarantine — while other supporters continue to publicly minimize the risk.
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| The first COVID-19 case originated on November 17, according to Chinese officials searching for 'patient zero' Posted: 13 Mar 2020 08:19 AM PDT  It wasn't until late December that Chinese officials realized they had a new kind of virus on their hands.
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| Philippine capital to impose night-time curfew over virus Posted: 14 Mar 2020 06:39 AM PDT  Manila will impose a night-time curfew in the city of 12 million, officials said Saturday, as the Philippines steps up efforts to curb the spread of the new coronavirus. The measure takes effect Sunday along with President Rodrigo Duterte's order to seal off the capital from the rest of the country which has recorded 111 virus cases, including eight deaths. Mayors of Manila's 17 local government areas are also pushing for shopping malls -- a popular source of entertainment in the country -- to be temporarily shuttered.
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| Utah bill forcing women to see baby on ultrasound before having abortion passes, despite walkout protest by female senators Posted: 13 Mar 2020 09:24 AM PDT  The entire female body of the Utah Senate staged a walkout in protest of an abortion bill mandating women to be shown the fetus on an ultrasound before being allowed to have the procedure.
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| Guatemala bans arrivals from U.S., Canada to fight coronavirus Posted: 13 Mar 2020 05:43 PM PDT  Guatemala will from Monday widen travel restrictions to fight the spread of coronavirus, banning arrivals from the United States and Canada, President Alejandro Giammattei said on Friday. "We are therefore announcing that everyone who arrives from Canada and the United States between now and midnight on Monday will be subject to quarantining," Giammattei said in a televised address. The president said he had also asked the Mexican government to halt deportations of migrants by land to Guatemala.
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| In California: Closed, canceled and possible state takeovers in a time of coronavirus Posted: 12 Mar 2020 06:15 PM PDT  Disneyland, March Madness, NHL, NBA: canceled. And Gov. Gavin Newsom follows up a public health directive that events over 250 people should be canceled or postponed with an executive order that allows the state to take over private assets for coronavirus treatment. But the Razzies must go on.
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| Ruling protecting Cambodian refugees might benefit others, lawyers say Posted: 13 Mar 2020 03:21 PM PDT  A federal court ruling could have broader implications for other groups facing final orders of removal, one expert says.
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| New Zealand PM makes 'no apologies' after announcing 'toughest border restrictions' in the world amid coronavirus fears Posted: 14 Mar 2020 05:22 AM PDT  Countries around the world continued Saturday to enact strict measures such as border closures and flight cancellations to combat the spread of the novel COVID-19 coronavirus.That includes New Zealand, whose Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced Saturday the government will implement a policy under which all travelers, even New Zealanders, must self-isolate upon their arrival in the country for 14 days starting Sunday at midnight.Ardern said New Zealand, along with Israel and several Pacific Island nations, "will have the widest ranging and toughest border restrictions of any country in the world," adding that she's not making any apologies in this "unprecedented time." All cruise ships will be banned from coming to New Zealand until June 30, as well. There are only six confirmed cases and no deaths attributed to COVID-19 in New Zealand so far.Ardern has proven herself to be a swift actor in the past. Almost exactly one year ago, a white nationalist gunman killed more than 50 people at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, prompting Ardern to usher in a ban on semiautomatic rifles and institute mandatory buybacks in less than a week. It's no surprise she's not taking her time this time, either. Read more at Reuters and New Zealand Herald.More stories from theweek.com Trump just gave the worst speech of his presidency Mitch McConnell is aiding and abetting the spread of coronavirus White House will extend Europe travel ban to Ireland, UK, considering domestic restrictions
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| Sasse Rips Pelosi for Trying to Smuggle Hyde Amendment Loophole into Coronavirus Package Posted: 13 Mar 2020 06:36 AM PDT  Senator Ben Sasse (R., Neb.) slammed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) and Democrats for reportedly trying to ensure federal funding for abortion as part of the coronavirus economic stimulus plan."While schools are closing and hospitals are gearing up, Speaker Pelosi is waging unnecessary culture wars. Speaker Pelosi should be fighting the coronavirus pandemic, not politicizing emergency funding by fighting against the bipartisan Hyde Amendment," Sasse told National Review in a statement. "We need to be ramping up our diagnostic testing, not waging culture wars at the behest of Planned Parenthood. Good grief."Pelosi attempted to secure a funding stream of up to $1 billion for reimbursing laboratory claims. According to White House officials who spoke with the Daily Caller, that provision would establish a precedent under which health claims for all procedures, including abortion, could be reimbursed with federal funds. That precedent would render the Hyde Amendment, which blocks taxpayer funding for abortion clinics, obsolete.Pelosi resisted efforts by Democrats to end the Hyde Amendment in recent months, with progressives being forced to abandon an attempt to "ensure" abortion coverage for people using federal health programs as part of a $190 billion budget bill passed in July."It is the law of the land right now, and I don't see that there's an opportunity to get rid of it with the current occupant of the White House and this U.S. Senate," Pelosi said at the time, adding that she does not support the Hyde Amendment herself.But Pelosi's tactics were seemingly confirmed by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.), who claimed in an interview on Fox News Thursday night that "right now we are hearing that some of the fights and some of the gridlock is because people are trying to put pro-life provisions into this."> .@AOC talking about the response to Coronavirus with @BretBaier pic.twitter.com/WcXWvI3g62> > -- Benny (@bennyjohnson) March 12, 2020Pelosi went back and forth with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin Thursday, ultimately coming close to a deal, with the House set to vote on the package Friday after the Speaker reportedly dropped the matter."We've resolved most of our differences, and [for] those we haven't we'll continue the conversation, because there will obviously be other bills," Pelosi told reporters on Thursday.
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| AP FACT CHECK: Trump misrepresents Obama's actions on H1N1 Posted: 13 Mar 2020 01:05 PM PDT  The next day, he pronounced the testing system inadequate, and assailed the public-health bureaucracy, Barack Obama and Joe Biden for not fixing it before he became president. Trump has been saying inaccurately for days that the public health system was up and ready to give access to diagnostic tests for COVID-19 for everyone who needed them. In tweets Friday, he switched to blaming the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Obama administration, and seemed to hold them responsible for needless deaths in another pandemic.
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| U.S. sanctions 'severely hamper' Iran coronavirus fight, Rouhani says Posted: 14 Mar 2020 04:08 AM PDT  President Hassan Rouhani said Iran's fight against the coronavirus was being "severely hampered" by U.S. sanctions, as state television reported that the death toll from the illness rose on Saturday to 611, up nearly 100 from a day earlier. State media said Rouhani wrote to a number of world leaders, without naming them. "In (a) letter to counterparts @HassanRouhani informs how efforts to fight #COVID19 pandemic in Iran have been severely hampered by US sanctions, urging them to cease observing them," Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Twitter.
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| Las Vegas is still loaded with tourists. Who's partying through the coronavirus pandemic? Posted: 14 Mar 2020 10:57 AM PDT  Fear and loathing in Las Vegas? Not among the tourists partying through the coronavirus pandemic.
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| During 'Fox & Friends' interview, Jerry Falwell Jr. suggests the coronavirus is a plot to hurt Trump and says Liberty University will continue to hold in-person classes Posted: 13 Mar 2020 08:09 AM PDT  Jerry Falwell Jr. spread misinformation about the coronavirus during a segment on 'Fox & Friends' this morning.
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| Trump Says U.S. to Waive Interest on Student Debt in Virus Plan Posted: 13 Mar 2020 01:12 PM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. government will waive interest on federal student loans as part of a broad response to the coronavirus emergency, President Donald Trump said Friday.Several days of turmoil on financial markets have pushed the White House to expand its response to the virus, which threatens to bring the U.S. and world economies to a halt. Trump also announced plans Friday to expand access to medical treatment and buy oil for strategic reserves.American students owe $1.6 trillion in student debt. The Treasury owns about three-quarters of those loans, and is the guarantor for most of the rest.In 2018, the government collected roughly $20 billion in interest charges as part of some $80 billion it received in overall repayments, according to a Moody's report last year.\--With assistance from Alex Tanzi.To contact the reporter on this story: Saleha Mohsin in Washington at smohsin2@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Margaret Collins at mcollins45@bloomberg.netFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| New rockets target Iraq base where US, UK troops killed Posted: 13 Mar 2020 05:32 PM PDT  It was the 23rd such attack since late October on installations across Iraq where American troops and diplomats are based, with the latest rounds growing deadlier. At least 33 rockets hit Iraqi air defence units at the Taji air base on Saturday, the country's military said, in one of the largest such volleys yet. "The initial toll is two wounded Iraqi Air Defence personnel who are in very critical condition," said Tahsin al-Khafaji, spokesman for Iraq's Joint Operations Command.
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| Why Washington state is at the center of the US coronavirus outbreak Posted: 14 Mar 2020 01:00 AM PDT  High numbers can be attributed in part to the fact that the state reported the first case in the US and jumpstarted testingOn Saturday, Alexandria, 22, was struggling to breathe, so she called 911 and was rushed to an isolation unit at a Seattle hospital.She had had a fever for days and was tested for the flu and strep throat, and given a chest X-ray. But, she said, the doctors told her she would not be tested for coronavirus because she hadn't traveled to China and was not in the at-risk age range.After being discharged with a diagnosis of a viral infection, with no recommendations about home isolation, she was escorted out of the hospital, where she waited on the street for her partner to pick her up.It took four days before another physician heard her symptoms, sent her in for coronavirus testing, and she was diagnosed positive.Since January, when Washington reported the first case of coronavirus in the US, the state has been the central focus of the American outbreak, documenting the most cases and deaths associated with the infection in the country. Its position in what has now been declared by the World Health Organization as a pandemic can be attributed to everything from individual missed opportunities for diagnosis and state funding gaps to restrictive federal guidelines for testing.But at the same time, those high numbers can also be attributed to the simple fact that the state diagnosed its first case before the rest of America and was forced to jumpstart its testing and surveillance response.Dr Scott Lindquist, the Washington state epidemiologist for communicable disease, explained that Washington is not at the country's center of this outbreak, but rather at the "leading edge"."We are leading the rest of the country," he said. "They are using all our experience… as they're finding the same amount of activity in their state."As of Thursday, state officials have confirmed 457 cases in Washington across 13 counties, including 31 deaths.Following guidelines from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), early testing in Washington was done through the CDC and limited to individuals who had symptoms and a travel history to China or contact with a known case. These guidelines have since broadened, allowing academic and corporate labs to conduct testing and healthcare providers to decide who is eligible for the test.Janet Baseman, the associate dean for the University of Washington's School of Public Health, said she doesn't think there's anything that could have been done differently at the state and local level, as officials were following the federal guidelines. But if there had been more people tested earlier it could have had an important impact on exposure."We would have found the cases earlier, and if we would have found the cases earlier, people who tested positive would have been able to take extra precautions to isolate themselves and to possibly keep other people from becoming exposed, thereby limiting transmission," she said.The University of Washington's virology lab was one of those spaces that was prepared early to contribute to additional testing. Keith Jerome, the head of the virology division at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, said developed a test that detects the virus and worked with the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) through February to get approval to start testing.But the lab wasn't able to start until 2 March, after the FDA changed its policy to say labs that have validated tests could begin testing immediately.The University of Washington lab can currently handle about 1,000 samples a day, and by next week may be able to process as many as 4,000 samples. Jerome said they're working toward being able to test 10,000 samples a day, but also to simply get the word out that there are labs with plenty of capacity for testing.According to the CDC website, between 18 January and 10 March, the highest number of samples collected for testing in a single day was 404.Jerome said right now it's not a priority to look at how the situation should or could have been handled, since they need to focus on responding to the outbreak at hand. But, in the future, when officials do take a careful look at how the outbreak developed, he said it's very possible that they'll determine that more people should have been tested sooner.He said it's also possible they conclude that "we should have tapped into the tremendous expertise that certain academic laboratories have in this kind of thing. To kind of keep them out of the response in the early days may not have been the right decision."But the factor that may have truly solidified the state's central position in the outbreak of coronavirus in the US was when the infection struck an acute nursing home in Kirkland, Washington, on the outskirts of Seattle.Although most coronavirus infections cause mild symptoms, for people older than 60 years and those with chronic illness or weakened immune systems, it can cause more severe issues.Over the last three weeks, the facility has seen 13 people associated with the center be diagnosed with coronavirus and die. Originally home to 120 residents and 180 employees, the center has now seen those numbers drastically reduced, with 63 residents testing positive for the virus and 66 employees showing symptoms, according to a report released by the facility on Thursday.Washington state's health department said Saturday that 18 CDC employees had been at the facility, and they along with Seattle and King county public health have provided technical assistance to the center's staff. The department said it has also provided the facility with an infection control expert, and there is a team of clinicians on site from the US health and human services department.The state's health department has spent $3.4m on coronavirus response. Lawmakers are currently in the process of approving $200m to go toward fighting the outbreak.Lindquist said the public health system in Washington has been severely underfunded for years. If the funds they've requested in the past had been approved and in place at the start of this outbreak, they would have been more prepared to handle it.For example, during the 2019 legislative session, local health partners advocated for $100m in ongoing funding to support activities in such areas as communicable disease. The final budget included $22m in funding, according to the state health department."I think we would have had more people working here, so we could have processed things with the latest technology instead of having to upgrade as we're going along in this," he said. "We would have had enough machines to do this, we would have had enough staff to do this, we would have had enough epidemiologists to give help to the counties that were overly burdened."
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| China Launches a Fake News Campaign to Blame the U.S. for Coronavirus Posted: 13 Mar 2020 01:32 AM PDT  HONG KONG—Bombastic Chinese government officials are laying the groundwork to blame the United States for the global coronavirus pandemic, and in turn extricate the Chinese Communist Party from any blame. Trumpian rhetoric, it seems, has a clear mirror reflection on the other side of the globe. The American president calls the pandemic sweeping the globe "a foreign virus"? The Chinese are calling it an American one.Zhao Lijian, the spokesperson of the Chinese foreign ministry and face of the CCP, insinuated by tweet in both English and Chinese on Thursday that the United States is behind the the novel coronavirus outbreak in China: "CDC was caught on the spot. When did patient zero begin in U.S.? How many people are infected? What are the names of the hospitals? It might be U.S. army who brought the epidemic to Wuhan. Be transparent! Make public your data! U.S. owe us an explanation!"The rant was inexplicably paired with a video clip from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield's testimony before Congress on Wednesday, subtitled in Chinese, about Americans who may have been misdiagnosed with the flu when they actually had COVID-19, the disease brought on by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2.Zhao's creeping escalation of rhetoric is the latest example of the Chinese Communist Party's attempt to shift blame after its officials bungled efforts to contain the virus at the onset of the outbreak. And who better than its key geopolitical foe—the United States—to be the scapegoat?The claim by Zhao was first seeded in late February, when Zhong Nanshan, a seasoned epidemiologist and pulmonologist who identified the SARS virus in 2003, said that the coronavirus "may not have originated in China" even though the first known cases were in the city of Wuhan and the majority of confirmed infections were there and in the rest of Hubei province.It didn't take long for state media and Chinese trolls to grab hold of Zhong's talking point, merging it with the crackpot theory that the coronavirus is a bioweapon. Soon they were asking which nation has sophisticated biowarfare capabilities and can release its viral weapons to wipe out an unsuspecting population. The obvious conclusion, for them, was the United States.Simultaneously, on Chinese social networks like Weibo, hashtags for the "Japanese virus" and the "Iranian virus" helped shape the narrative that SARS-CoV-2 could be of foreign origin, and China merely got a raw deal. Now, the "Italian virus" tag is doing the same.Never mind that Chinese researchers, like Shi Zhengli, the "Bat Woman" virologist profiled by Scientific American, have conducted field research in China's rural areas to locate and identify dozens of lethal viruses that are similar to SARS and the coronavirus that is now infecting many around the world. They recognize that there are many more strains that could make the leap to humans, causing new viral outbreaks like the one China went through in the past three months.Like Trump, Zhao has a history of posting combative outbursts on Twitter, which is banned in China except for some of the party's officials. He is one of the first Chinese diplomats to register and run an official account on Twitter—and the first to weaponize his feed, rallying China's paid trolls through talking points spewed onto the social network. Last August, he was promoted from his post as deputy chief of mission in Pakistan to become deputy director of the Chinese foreign ministry's information department.That's all to say, in an age of post-truth misinformation and disinformation, Zhao is Beijing's vociferous master of spin. Other Chinese officials often echo his talking points online. There is little doubt that the CCP's ranks coordinate the content of their Twitter feeds.As new infection numbers taper off to mere dozens per day in China, the pandemic is politicized more than ever. Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Wuhan this week in what was essentially a victory tour for the country's "war" against the virus. To prevent the embarrassing situation from the previous week, where residents shouted "It's all fake!" from their balconies when a CCP official staged a photo op, two police officers were stationed in every apartment near locations where Xi was set to appear.Right now, people in mainland China and Hong Kong are baffled by the current situations in Western Europe and the United States. There have been months of warnings from Asia, and thousands have died from COVID-19, yet all of that was insufficient for many nations in the West to prepare for the virus' landfall."If it were purely a financial crisis in Asia—an illness of capital," a venture investor said to me offhandedly this week, "institutions [in Europe and America] like banks and hedge funds would have reacted with no delay." But public health, she suggested, wasn't as much of a concern even in an era of globalization, when, normally, many millions of people are moved across continents each day.In the past three months, some of those who suffered in China thought their cases would be signals of a global threat. That their warning signs were mostly ignored may serve to feed Zhao's disinformation suggesting the U.S. is behind it all.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Air Force dismisses cadets due to 'inability' to carry out social distancing amid coronavirus pandemic Posted: 13 Mar 2020 10:56 AM PDT  The Air Force Academy said the decision was made to allow its senior class of cadets to graduate on time.
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| Trump attacks Obama, Biden over swine flu after calling for unity in coronavirus pandemic Posted: 13 Mar 2020 05:10 AM PDT  President Trump is lashing out at former President Obama and former Vice President Joe Biden after calling for unity in the coronavirus pandemic. Trump in a tweet on Thursday night attacked "Sleepy Joe Biden" for the Obama administration's response to the swine flu, suggesting his own administration's response to the coronavirus pandemic is drawing high approval ratings. On Friday morning, an ABC News poll found a majority of Americans, 54 percent, disapprove of Trump's response to the coronavirus pandemic compared to 43 percent who approve. Trump in his tweet suggested he has a 78 percent approval rating on his coronavirus response, but the poll he cites was conducted in February prior to the first death in the U.S. from the novel coronavirus, CNN's Daniel Dale notes. It found that 77 percent of Americans were confident in the federal government's ability to handle a coronavirus outbreak, not mentioning Trump.On Friday morning, Trump also lashed out at the CDC for doing "nothing about" its testing system and again attacked the Obama administration over the swine flu, calling their response a "full scale disaster" and claiming Obama "made changes that only complicated things further" when it comes to testing.Trump had previously been placing blame on Obama amid scrutiny over the amount of coronavirus tests being made available in the United States, recently claiming the former president "made a decision on testing that turned out to be very detrimental." CNN writes that "there is no Obama-era decision or rule that impeded coronavirus testing. The Obama administration did put forward a draft proposal related to lab testing, but it was never implemented."The Washington Post notes that Trump's tweets swiping Obama and Biden came after his Wednesday Oval Office address, during which he said now is the time to "put politics aside, stop the partisanship, and unify together as one nation and one family."More stories from theweek.com Trump just gave the worst speech of his presidency Mitch McConnell is aiding and abetting the spread of coronavirus White House will extend Europe travel ban to Ireland, UK, considering domestic restrictions
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| U.K. Delays London Mayoral Election in May Due to Coronavirus Posted: 13 Mar 2020 09:17 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Boris Johnson delayed U.K. local elections scheduled for May 7, including the London mayoral vote, due to the growing coronavirus crisis.While the prime minister has so far taken a softer approach to tackling the virus than other European leaders, the decision to postpone the polls is the latest evidence of how national life is being disrupted. The votes were due to take place at about the time the government expects the outbreak to peak.Earlier on Friday, England's Premier League canceled all soccer matches until April 4, while several members of Parliament are self-isolating, either with symptoms or due to exposure to someone diagnosed with the disease. Queen Elizabeth II also postponed two upcoming visits "as a sensible precaution," her office said.Johnson's decision -- confirmed by his office -- came after the main opposition Labour Party threw its support behind the Electoral Commission's call for all council, mayoral and police and crime commissioner elections to be delayed until the fall.To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Morales in London at amorales2@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Tim Ross at tross54@bloomberg.net, Stuart Biggs, Thomas PennyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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