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| Coronavirus US live: Trump reportedly knew pandemic was likely in January | Coronavirus US live: Trump reportedly knew pandemic was likely in January |
| (32 minutes later) | |
| Memos from trade adviser Peter Navarro, published by Axios, warned Trump of a likely pandemic months ago | Memos from trade adviser Peter Navarro, published by Axios, warned Trump of a likely pandemic months ago |
| Here’s a report from Sam Levine, our voting rights reporter, on a dramatic and bizarre day in Wisconsin yesterday and what’s to come today: | |
| Oddly enough, Donald Trump has a recommendation for Wisconsin conservatives: | |
| Here’s more key reading from Sam, on Wisconsin and threats to the right to vote: | |
| Here’s a tweet thread that Donald Trump may not like too much. It’s about Gretchen Whitmer, Democratic governor of Michigan, a state in which more than 17,000 Covid-19 cases have been confirmed and 727 people have died, according to Johns Hopkins figures. | |
| Trump’s distaste for Whitmer is well-known – he called her “that woman from Michigan” at one White House briefing. Detroit journalist Chad Livengood is following her interview on 1320 WILS-AM, “Lansing’s More Compelling Talk Radio”. It’s fascinating reading. | |
| “Whitmer cites [University of Michigan] modeling that Michigan’s coronavirus outbreak won’t peak until late April,” Livengood writes. “She was asked about what plans there are to restart the economy: ‘It is too early to start implementing anything. We know yesterday we had 110 Michiganders lose their battle with Covid-19.’” | |
| Donald Trump was warned at the end of January by one of his top White House advisers that coronavirus had the potential to kill hundreds of thousands of Americans and derail the US economy, unless tough action were taken immediately, new memos have revealed. | Donald Trump was warned at the end of January by one of his top White House advisers that coronavirus had the potential to kill hundreds of thousands of Americans and derail the US economy, unless tough action were taken immediately, new memos have revealed. |
| The memos were written by Trump’s economic adviser Peter Navarro and circulated via the National Security Council widely around the White House and federal agencies. They show that even within the Trump administration alarm bells were ringing loudly by late January, at a time when the president was consistently downplaying the threat of Covid-19. | The memos were written by Trump’s economic adviser Peter Navarro and circulated via the National Security Council widely around the White House and federal agencies. They show that even within the Trump administration alarm bells were ringing loudly by late January, at a time when the president was consistently downplaying the threat of Covid-19. |
| The memos, first reported by the New York Times and Axios, were written by Navarro on 29 January and 23 February. The first memo, composed on the day Trump set up a White House coronavirus task force, gave a worst-case scenario of the virus killing more than half a million Americans. | The memos, first reported by the New York Times and Axios, were written by Navarro on 29 January and 23 February. The first memo, composed on the day Trump set up a White House coronavirus task force, gave a worst-case scenario of the virus killing more than half a million Americans. |
| According to the Times, it said: “The lack of immune protection or an existing cure or vaccine would leave Americans defenseless in the case of a full-blown coronavirus outbreak on US soil. This lack of protection elevates the risk of the coronavirus evolving into a full-blown pandemic, imperiling the lives of millions of Americans.” | According to the Times, it said: “The lack of immune protection or an existing cure or vaccine would leave Americans defenseless in the case of a full-blown coronavirus outbreak on US soil. This lack of protection elevates the risk of the coronavirus evolving into a full-blown pandemic, imperiling the lives of millions of Americans.” |
| The second memo went even further, predicting that a Covid-19 pandemic, left unchecked, could kill 1.2m Americans and infect as many as 100m. | The second memo went even further, predicting that a Covid-19 pandemic, left unchecked, could kill 1.2m Americans and infect as many as 100m. |
| This was not the first time Trump and his White House team were warned that the virus had the potential to devastate the US and needed to be dealt with quickly and firmly. Senior scientists, epidemiologists, and health emergency experts in the US and around the world delivered that message clearly early on in the crisis, only for Trump to continue belittling the scale of the threat which he compared falsely to the dangers of seasonal flu. | This was not the first time Trump and his White House team were warned that the virus had the potential to devastate the US and needed to be dealt with quickly and firmly. Senior scientists, epidemiologists, and health emergency experts in the US and around the world delivered that message clearly early on in the crisis, only for Trump to continue belittling the scale of the threat which he compared falsely to the dangers of seasonal flu. |
| But the emergence of the memos from such a senior aide within the White House will make it much more difficult for Trump to claim – as he has done on multiple occasions – that nobody was able to predict the severity of the disease. As the pandemic has swept across the country, the president has come under mounting criticism for having done too little, too late in response, leading to mass shortages of diagnostic testing, protective gear for frontline health workers and ventilators for the very sick. | But the emergence of the memos from such a senior aide within the White House will make it much more difficult for Trump to claim – as he has done on multiple occasions – that nobody was able to predict the severity of the disease. As the pandemic has swept across the country, the president has come under mounting criticism for having done too little, too late in response, leading to mass shortages of diagnostic testing, protective gear for frontline health workers and ventilators for the very sick. |
| …and welcome to another day of coverage of the coronavirus outbreak in the US. Figures, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins University, first: | …and welcome to another day of coverage of the coronavirus outbreak in the US. Figures, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins University, first: |
| Cases confirmed: 368,036 | Cases confirmed: 368,036 |
| Deaths: 10,982 | Deaths: 10,982 |
| Cases in New York, the worst-hit state: 131,815 | Cases in New York, the worst-hit state: 131,815 |
| Deaths in New York: 4,758 | Deaths in New York: 4,758 |
| Other states are struggling too, of course: there have been more than 1,000 deaths in New Jersey and Michigan, California and Louisiana are also particularly hard hit. And case and death numbers will no doubt increase today. | Other states are struggling too, of course: there have been more than 1,000 deaths in New Jersey and Michigan, California and Louisiana are also particularly hard hit. And case and death numbers will no doubt increase today. |
| There are all sorts of news lines out there of course, perhaps the biggest being British prime minister Boris Johnson’s admission to intensive care. Here’s the latest report from our London office. And here’s the UK live blog with constant updates. | There are all sorts of news lines out there of course, perhaps the biggest being British prime minister Boris Johnson’s admission to intensive care. Here’s the latest report from our London office. And here’s the UK live blog with constant updates. |
| In the US, Julia Carrie Wong has an in-depth look at Donald Trump’s support for hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malaria drug that has not been shown to be safe or effective against Covid-19 but which the president wants Americans to take: | In the US, Julia Carrie Wong has an in-depth look at Donald Trump’s support for hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malaria drug that has not been shown to be safe or effective against Covid-19 but which the president wants Americans to take: |
| The president pushed the drug again at his White House briefing on Monday, a briefing which was also, by the by, attended by Chanel Rion, a correspondent from One America News Network whose presence at briefings and leading questions to Trump have caused consternation in the mainstream media. Here’s Adrian Horton’s write-up of what John Oliver had to say about that and OAN in general on Sunday night. | The president pushed the drug again at his White House briefing on Monday, a briefing which was also, by the by, attended by Chanel Rion, a correspondent from One America News Network whose presence at briefings and leading questions to Trump have caused consternation in the mainstream media. Here’s Adrian Horton’s write-up of what John Oliver had to say about that and OAN in general on Sunday night. |
| We have a lot more this morning, of course, including: | We have a lot more this morning, of course, including: |
| Michael Sainato on Amazon workers who say the company values profit over their safety amid the pandemic. | Michael Sainato on Amazon workers who say the company values profit over their safety amid the pandemic. |
| A devastating report from Oliver Laughland in Reserve, Lousiana, aka Cancer Alley but now home to a new foe. | A devastating report from Oliver Laughland in Reserve, Lousiana, aka Cancer Alley but now home to a new foe. |
| Another dispatch from a frontline nurse: The ER Diaries: ‘I have come to embrace that we’re at war’. | Another dispatch from a frontline nurse: The ER Diaries: ‘I have come to embrace that we’re at war’. |
| The Axios website, meanwhile, is out with a major scoop: Democrats including Nancy Pelosi have consciously echoed the famous Watergate question – What did the president know and when did he know it? – when investigating the White House’s lagging response to the emerging threat of Covid-19. | The Axios website, meanwhile, is out with a major scoop: Democrats including Nancy Pelosi have consciously echoed the famous Watergate question – What did the president know and when did he know it? – when investigating the White House’s lagging response to the emerging threat of Covid-19. |
| On Monday night, Axios published memos from trade adviser Peter Navarro which warned Trump of a likely pandemic in January. Axios’s newsletter headline on Tuesday morning? “POTUS Knew!” | On Monday night, Axios published memos from trade adviser Peter Navarro which warned Trump of a likely pandemic in January. Axios’s newsletter headline on Tuesday morning? “POTUS Knew!” |
| Ed Pilkington will have more on that shortly… | Ed Pilkington will have more on that shortly… |