The head of the World Health Organization, in charge of making life or death decisions on a grand scale, has been accused of covering up cholera epidemics, supporting a terrorist organization and inflating his resume to claim he conquered malaria and HIV.
Tedros Adhanom Ghegreyesus’ campaign to rewrite his questionable past has some wondering whether he is the right fit to lead the global agency through the coronavirus pandemic.
“Tedros is the second-to-last person who should be heading the world World Health Organization at this time,” foreign affairs expert Gordon Chang told Fox News. “The last person is (Chinese President) Xi Jinping.”
A collection of Second Amendment activists filed a pair of federal lawsuits on Friday targeting sheriffs in California and North Carolina over mandatory coronavirus-related shutdowns of gun stores and permit-purchase systems, respectively.
The suits come in the wake of California governor Gavin Newsom’s decision to allow local authorities to close gun stores under his emergency lockdown order. Los Angeles County sheriff Alex Villanueva, acting on Newsom’s guidance, mandated gun-store closures. A separate suit was filed in North Carolina after Wake County sheriff Gerald Baker (D.) refused to process new pistol-purchase and gun-carry permits starting on Tuesday.
The outcome of the cases will shape how local officials can restrict Americans’ access to constitutionally protected gun rights during the emergency response to the novel coronavirus. Gun stores and manufacturers are facing potential shutdowns in a dozen states even as Americans flood stores during the crisis. Gun store and permitting process shutdowns have thwarted buyers in parts of the country, leading gun-rights groups to take legal action.
Rhode Island plans to send the National Guard out to knock door-to-door in an attempt to hunt down anyone who has arrived in the tiny state from New York City during the coronavirus pandemic. State police, meanwhile, have begun pulling over cars with New York state plates.
Gov. Gina Raimondo said anyone traveling there from New York will be ordered to undergo a 14-day quarantine and could face fines or even jail time if they’re found to not comply.
“Right now we have a pinpointed risk,” Raimondo said at a news conference Friday. “That risk is called New York City.”
The Obama administration repeatedly sought to cut hundreds of millions of dollars in funding to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), yearly budget requests show — seemingly undercutting former Vice President Joe Biden’s repeated attacks on the Trump White House for its pandemic preparedness.
Numerous Democrats, including Biden, have falsely claimed that Trump slashed the CDC budget, and Biden has suggested that he would never pursue similar cuts. The Associated Press has noted that those claims “distort” the facts, with FactCheck.org pointing out that CDC funding has actually increased under the current administration, largely because Congress insisted on maintaining funding levels for both CDC and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Nevertheless, speaking to ABC News’ “This Week” on March 1, Biden claimed: “They’ve cut the funding for the CDC.” On Friday, Biden stepped up his attacks, writing on Twitter: “Donald Trump’s careless, shortsighted actions left our nation ill-prepared and now Americans are paying the price.”
On Friday, after a week of partisan squabbles and petty “wish lists,” the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed the historic $2 trillion economic stimulus package. President Trump signed it shortly after.
T Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) passed the House by a voice vote Friday, quashing an 11th hour effort by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) to require members to appear and vote in person, which would have been difficult given that certain members were under self-quarantine while others feared exposure to COVID-19.
“Leaders wanted to avoid a recorded vote because some members were self-quarantining or had concerns about risking exposure to the virus by traveling from their districts,” reported NPR. “Instead, leaders encouraged those who were at risk to stay home and post statements or videos on their position on the bill.”
Former Fox Business anchor Trish Regan is out at the network, according to statements from Fox Business and Regan.
Regan hosted “Trish Regan Primetime,” which was put on hiatus amid the novel coronavirus crisis. The show was put on pause two weeks ago because of the demands of coronavirus coverage, according to the network.
“Trish Regan Primetime” was paused after Regan made controversial comments about the novel coronavirus on March 9. Fox Business did not say this was what caused her hiatus, and announced Friday that the network had “parted way” with Regan.
She’s one sick human being. Even Americans getting sick are all twisted in her mind to her obsession with Trump. She’s also not looking at the deaths/death rate/per capita.
As Americans weather an economic fallout and stay isolated in their homes, away from family and friends, with growing uncertainty about their future, one former presidential candidate turned their misery into ammunition against the president.
Hillary Clinton, who lost to President Trump in 2016 after calling half of the country a “basket of deplorables,” received news that the United States now had the most confirmed cases of the Wuhan Coronavirus. Instead of offering support or comfort in a time of fear and tragedy, however, the former Secretary of State chose to weaponize the news of nearly 90,000 sick Americans against the president.
‘He did promise ‘America First,'” Clinton shared on Twitter, along with a news article confirming that her own country led the world in confirmed cases of COVID-19. That tweet was preceded by another jab at Trump, chastising his optimistic hope of re-opening the countries frozen economy as soon as possible.
Violent clashes erupted on a bridge between China’s virus-stricken Hubei province and neighbouring Jiangxi province, days after authorities relaxed an epidemic lockdown.
Police vehicles were overturned and police scuffled with each other amid large crowds of shouting people, according to a series of videos posted to Chinese social media. The confrontation came after authorities in Jiangxi blocked entry to people from Hubei, local media reported.
Hubei this week lifted its lockdown of areas of the province outside Wuhan.
But deep distrust has taken root across China toward people from Hubei, fuelled by fear of COVID-19, which spread widely in the province, as well as skepticism of official reassurances that the epidemic has been successfully suppressed. People from Hubei have been refused entry to hotels and their homes, even if they were not in Hubei during the past two months. On social media, people have reported being barred from entering Beijing merely because their hometown is in Hubei.
President Trump on Friday used his powers under the Defense Production Act for the first time to order General Motors to start producing ventilators to deal with the worsening coronavirus pandemic.
The president said the administration had been negotiating with GM, but that the process wasn’t moving fast enough, so he directed Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar to require GM to speed up production.
“Our negotiations with GM regarding its ability to supply ventilators have been productive, but our fight against the virus is too urgent to allow the give-and-take of the contracting process to continue to run its normal course,” Trump said in a statement.
“GM was wasting time. Today’s action will help ensure the quick production of ventilators that will save American lives.”
Rep. @AOC: "What did the Senate majority fight for? One of the largest corporate bailouts with as few strings as possible in American history. Shameful!" pic.twitter.com/oLJJu6wUlG
But Democrats ultimately voted for it, so talk to them. She’s such a child.
Watch on silence, then read:
"It has been a lifetime struggle. A never-ending fight. I say to you, and you will understand that it is a privilege to fight! We are warriors! Salesmen of north-eastern Pennsylvania, I ask you once more: Rise and be worthy of this historical hour!" https://t.co/Vo58NwiOH1
The Seattle Police Officers Guild criticized Thursday night the recent decision of the local National Public Radio station’s decision to stop broadcasting the daily White House coronavirus task force briefings.
“In light of the recent decisions made by a public news affiliate, SPOG will be live streaming all the White House’s press COVID-19 briefings on our social media channels,” SPOG president Mike Solan said in a statement. “This is not a time to play partisan politics. Seattle community members deserve the most up to date information during this crisis; this includes life saving medical information from our nation’s Surgeon General and top doctors.”
So if Trump suggests possibly lifting some restrictions in consultation with the medical experts, he wanted to kill everyone. So now what will the media say that Cuomo is also saying the same thing?
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Thursday that his stay-at-home order for the entirety of New York State was “probably not the best public health strategy.”
In a press conference in Albany, Cuomo said the smartest way forward would be a public health strategy that complemented a “get-back-to-work strategy.”
“What we did was we closed everything down. That was our public health strategy. Just close everything, all businesses, old workers, young people, old people, short people, tall people,” said Cuomo. “Every school closed, everything.”
“If you rethought that or had time to analyze that public health strategy, I don’t know that you would say quarantine everyone,” Cuomo admitted. “I don’t even know that that was the best public health policy. Young people then quarantined with older people was probably not the best public health strategy because the younger people could have been exposing the older people to an infection”
