 Welcome to Monday’s Overnight Health Care. There are more than 3.3 million confirmed COVID-19 cases in the U.S. and nearly 135,500 deaths. California Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered a slew of indoor establishments to close their doors. The White House is taking their criticisms of Dr. Anthony Fauci public in an apparent attempt to undermine the nation’s leading infectious disease expert. And mask-wearing is still a partisan issue. Let’s start with Fauci: White House goes public with attacks on Fauci Tensions between the White House and Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious diseases expert, are spilling into the open as officials publicly attack the doctor for his health advice during the coronavirus pandemic. For example: Dan Scavino, deputy chief of staff for communications, shared a cartoon on his Facebook page that depicted Fauci as a faucet flushing the U.S. economy down the drain with overzealous health guidance to slow the spread of the pandemic. Adm. Brett Giroir, the administration’s testing czar, downplayed any riff within the White House coronavirus task force before offering some criticism of Fauci. “I respect Dr. Fauci a lot, but Dr. Fauci is not 100 percent right and he also doesn't necessarily, and he admits that, have the whole national interest in mind,” Giroir told “Meet the Press” on Sunday. “He looks at it from a very narrow public health point of view.” Support from scientists: Public health experts have leaped to Fauci’s defense. Dr. Ashish Jha, director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, noted that while Fauci’s track record isn’t perfect “it’s just better than anyone else I know.” Fauci has served six presidents working on HIV, Ebola, Zika and countless other infectious diseases with little controversy until now. Fauci’s response: Fauci has tried to stay above it all, continuing his warnings that the pandemic is growing worse, despite the rosy outlook portrayed by the White House. He said Monday during a Q&A hosted by Stanford that: “We haven't even begun to see the end of it yet.” Read more here. Related: Trump says he has a 'very good relationship' with Fauci amid White House criticism.
Newsom orders California to shut down indoor activities, all bar operations California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) on Monday ordered several indoor activities and all bar operations to shut down across the state as it grapples with growing coronavirus case numbers. The governor announced in a press briefing that restaurants, wineries, movie theaters, family entertainment venues, zoos, museums and card rooms will shut down all indoor operations. He also said that bars must close down entirely. Restaurants will still be permitted to provide service for outdoor dining and take-out. Newsom described the move as a "dimmer switch" version of his stay-at-home order from earlier this year. The new order is expected to stay in effect for at least three weeks, he said. "We've made this point on multiple occasions and that is we're moving back into a modification mode of our original stay-at-home order," the governor said. Context: California is averaging more than 8,000 new COVID-19 cases a day. Other states, including Texas and Florida, are experiencing larger outbreaks, but Newsom is the first governor to go quite this far in shuttering businesses that had been reopened. Read more here. Senate Democrats call for $25B for vaccine production, distribution in next relief package Senate Democrats want Congress to provide $25 billion in emergency funding for production and distribution of a coronavirus vaccine ahead of negotiations on an upcoming response package. In addition to the development of the vaccine itself, a massive and complex undertaking is required to manufacture the millions of needed doses, ensure the supply of supporting materials like needles and syringes, and then distribute the vaccine all across the country for people to be vaccinated. The $25 billion would be used in part to ramp up production of supplies like vials, syringes and rubber stoppers. What they want: Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Patty Murray (Wash.), the top Democrat on the Senate Health Committee, are calling for the $25 billion in funding to be included in the next coronavirus response package, expected to be put together later this month, as well as policy changes. They are also calling for a requirement that the administration release a comprehensive plan for “every phase of the vaccine enterprise” by Aug. 7. A similar Democratic push for requiring an administration plan on testing was a sticking point in a previous coronavirus response bill. Read more here. Trump administration extends support for Texas COVID-19 testing sites The federal government will extend support for coronavirus testing sites in Dallas and Houston until at least the end of the month, after an initial plan to discontinue funding received bipartisan pushback. Federal support for testing in Texas was previously in jeopardy when the Trump administration in late June said it would stop directly funding 13 testing sites, including seven in Texas, and transfer the sites to state control. Politicians including Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner (D) urged continued federal support for testing. Read more here. | 
No comments:
Post a Comment