A Mixed Administration Message: Prepare for Week of Hell; Stay Optimistic

BY JACK CROWE

April 06, 2020

SURGEON GENERAL JEROME ADAMS'S comments on Fox News Sunday provide a neat distillation of the administration's tone and outlook as we enter the fourth week of the coronavirus shutdown. Asked by host Chris Wallace to lay out just how bad the pandemic is likely to get — and how long it will take to reach that low point — Adams invoked two of most tragic days in the nation's history as points of comparison before reminding Americans that they are not powerless in the face of the pandemic.

"Well, it's tragically fitting that we are talking at the beginning of Holy Week because this is going to be the hardest and the saddest week of most Americans' lives, quite frankly," Adams said. "This is going to be our Pearl Harbor moment, our 9/11 moment, only it's not going to be localized, it's going to be happening all over the country and I want America to understand that."

Immediately after urging Americans to gird themselves for a week from hell, Adams pivoted, striking an optimistic tone as he reminded viewers that the response of all levels of government and the cooperation of the public can dampen the impact of the virus.

For his part, President Trump emphasized the optimistic side of the ledger while addressing the nation during an impromptu Sunday press conference, explaining that the model the White House has been relying on to predict hospital capacity may have been too extreme in its prediction that cities like New York would quickly run out of hospital beds. "It's turning out that we need less hospital beds," Trump said at the coronavirus task force's daily press briefing. "We may have models, but we've been sort of saying that. In New York, we were saying we think you're gonna need less." The model Trump was referring to, which was developed by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, predicted New York would need 65,400 available hospital beds by April 4. Roughly 15,905 were actually used.

Trump was echoing New York governor Andrew Cuomo, who announced on Sunday that the state's death toll dropped for the first time on Saturday. Five hundred ninety-four New Yorkers succumbed to the virus compared to 630 deaths on Friday. Similarly, hospitalizations fell from 1,095 on Friday to 574 on Saturday.

Like Adams, Cuomo was more reticent than the president to cast the data as a solid indicator that New York had seen and survived its peak.

"What is the significance of that?" he asked. "It's too early to tell."

New York now accounts for roughly 40 percent of the nation's 321,700 cases, and, according to the governor, the state will reach its peak within a "seven day range" if it hasn't already. As Cuomo and other officials have repeatedly pointed out, the situation in the Empire State provides the rest of the country with a grim look into one possible future, provided there are no treatment breakthroughs or drastic seasonal effects that knock down the virus.

The administration is now engaged in a heated debate over the degree to which it should prioritize and pursue proactive experimental measures — such as the use of anti-malarial drugs or reliance on newly developed serology tests designed to detect those who have already contracted and recovered from the virus without knowing it — over more conservative, proven approaches. The administration's top health official, Dr. Anthony Fauci, reportedly sparred with top trade advisor Peter Navarro during a Saturday situation room meeting. According to Axios's Jonathan Swan, Navarro cited folders of research that supposedly prove the efficacy of chloroquine in treating coronavirus. Fauci pushed back, pointing out that the research Navarro was touting was done overseas and that many of the studies lacked a control group.

While it remains unclear whether the drug will end up playing a significant role in the fight against the virus, researchers at the University of Albany's School of Public Health have begun monitoring 4,000 patients in the state who are being treated with chloroquine, and expect they will have "answers" for the public at the end of an eight-week trial that should conclude sometime in early summer.

Iranian Health Official Calls Chinese Coronavirus Stats a 'Bitter Joke'

Iranian health ministry spokesman Kianush Jahanpur on Sunday criticized the Chinese government for downplaying the scale of the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak, blaming Beijing for lulling other countries into a false sense of security.

"It seems statistics from China [were] a bitter joke, because many in the world thought this is just like influenza, with fewer deaths," Jahanpur said during a video conference in remarks translated by Radio Farda. "This [impression] were based on reports from China and now it seems China made a bitter joke with the rest of the world."

Boris Johnson Remains in Hospital with 'Persistent' Coronavirus Symptoms

British prime minister Boris Johnson remains in the hospital with persistent coronavirus symptoms as of Monday morning, after being admitted Sunday as a "precautionary step."

Communities secretary Robert Jenrick said on Monday that the admission "wasn't an emergency," but had been "planned" for Johnson "to have some routine tests." He added that the prime minister "remains in charge" of the British government from the hospital, where he was taken Sunday night.

"I know for him personally it will be very frustrating that he's had to go to the hospital to have these tests, and he'll want to be back in Number 10 (Downing Street ) leading from the front, which is his way," Jenrick told the BBC's Today program on Monday morning.

Biden: DNC 'Should Be Thinking About' Holding Virtual Democratic Convention

Former vice president Joe Biden suggested on Sunday that the Democratic National Committee may need to hold a virtual presidential convention later this year, saying "we may not be able to put 10, 20, 30,000 people in one place."

Biden, appearing on ABC's This Week, said that party officials "should be thinking about that right now." Last week, the DNC announced that it was pushing back its scheduled date by over a month to August 17, despite claiming before that the Milwaukee convention would be held as planned.

Sanders Campaign Manager, Advisers Urge Him to Drop Out of Presidential Race

Senator Bernie Sanders's (I., Vt.) campaign manager and other top advisers are urging him to consider dropping out of the Democratic presidential primary, the Washington Post reported on Saturday.

Campaign manager Faiz Shakir and Sanders ally Representative Pramila Jayapal (D., Wash.) have reportedly come out in favor of exiting the race. Political stragetist Jeff Weaver, a longtime Sanders ally, has also made the case for dropping out, saying an exit now would leave the Vermont senator on friendlier terms with rival Joe Biden and secure more leverage for negotiations over the Democrats' political platform.

NY Health Officials Studying Anti-Malarial Drug Touted by Trump as Coronavirus Treatment

New York's health department has treated "4,000 patients to date" with doses of hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malarial drug promoted by President Trump, to study its effectiveness against coronavirus, officials said.

Officials told the New York Post that DOH has shipped doses of hydroxychloroquine to 56 hospitals across New York, with patients receiving doses over durations of either four- or 10-day regimens.

The University of Albany's School of Public Health is observing the drug's impact on the patients, with preliminary results weeks away. "Time is of the essence,'' Albany's public health dean, David Holtgrave, said in a statement. Holtgrave is on the state's research team.

New York University's Langone Medical School is conducting its own random trial to see if the drug has preventive characteristics, and is using 2,000 volunteers that have been exposed to someone who have a confirmed or pending coronavirus diagnosis.

Politico: CDC begins blood tests to find undetected coronavirus cases

The CDC has started conducting antibody tests to help determine how many people have been infected with the coronavirus — including those who never developed symptoms, an agency spokesperson confirmed.

The test analyzes antibodies in a person's blood to detect if they have been exposed to the coronavirus. identifying people who have recovered from infection and likely have some degree of protection from reinfection is a possible key to opening back up the country's workforce.

Associated Press: U.S. 'wasted' months before preparing for virus pandemic

WASHINGTON (AP) — After the first alarms sounded in early January that an outbreak of a novel coronavirus in China might ignite a global pandemic, the Trump administration squandered nearly two months that could have been used to bolster the federal stockpile of critically needed medical supplies and equipment.

A review of federal purchasing contracts by The Associated Press shows federal agencies largely waited until mid-March to begin placing bulk orders of N95 respirator masks, mechanical ventilators and other equipment needed by front-line health care workers.