Still lagging is testing, but at least some movement finally to ease testing blocks.
Beleaguered President Trump has used his power to tell an adjourned Republican Senate and working House of Representatives that he is declaring that the outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the United States constitutes a national emergency. Our $19 trillion economy was expected to grow 2% this year. At 0% it equals more than $380 billion of losses.
This means that Trump is correcting or allowing to come about what were his previous misstatements this week, which caused a reign of confusion. Now the Secretary of Health and Human Services can exercise the authority to temporarily waive or modify certain requirements of the Medicare, Medicaid, and State Children’s Health Insurance programs and of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act Privacy Rule throughout the duration of the public health emergency declared in response to the COVID-19 outbreak.
FactCheck.Org on Trump Oval Office Speech
By Jessica McDonald, D’Angelo Gore and Eugene Kiely
“In a short primetime address, President Donald Trump provided false, misleading and incomplete information about the new coronavirus and actions his administration has taken or will take to staunch its spread:
“In announcing new restrictions on travel from Europe, Trump inaccurately said that the U.S. would suspend “all travel from Europe” for the next 30 days, excluding the U.K. In fact, the policy exempts other nations as well, and only applies to 26 so-called Schengen Area countries.
“Trump wrongly said that the European travel prohibitions would also pertain to a “tremendous amount of trade and cargo.” Goods are not affected by the policy.
“Referring to an earlier meeting about coronavirus-related health insurance coverage, the president incorrectly said that industry leaders had agreed to “waive all copayments for coronavirus treatments.” Those leaders only agreed to no copayments for coronavirus testing.
“The president repeated the disputed claim that his decision to impose restrictions on travel to and from China was a “life-saving move.” Experts say that determination can’t be made without more data.
“Trump said his administration has cut red tape “to make antiviral therapies available in record time,” without saying how soon. At best, an antiviral drug might be ready for production in June.
“The novel coronavirus, which emerged at the end of 2019 in Wuhan, China, has now infected more than 125,000 people across the globe, and led to more than 4,700 deaths. In the U.S., there have been at least 39 deaths and 1,500 cases. The pneumonia-like disease caused by the virus is known as COVID-19.”