Monday, May 18, 2020
5:06 pm ET: Trump Says He's Taking Malaria Drug in Case He Gets Virus
President Donald Trump said Monday that he is taking a malaria drug to lessen symptoms should he get the new coronavirus, even though the drug is unproven for fighting COVID-19.
Trump told reporters he has been taking the drug, hydroxychloroquine, and a zinc supplement daily “for about a week and a half now.” Trump spent weeks pushing the drug as a potential cure for COVID-19 against the cautionary advice of many of his administration's top medical professionals. The drug has the potential to cause significant side effects in some patients and has not been shown to combat the new coronavirus. Read more...
— The Associated Press
4:58 pm ET: Disney Springs Reopening Comes With a Warning About Risk
As Walt Disney World prepares to allow some third-party shops and restaurants to open at its entertainment complex later this week, it's posting a warning.
While enhanced safety measures are being taken at Disney Springs, “an inherent risk of exposure to COVID-19 exists in any public place where people are present," the company said Monday on a website for the entertainment complex. Read more...
— The Associated Press
4:30 pm ET: Former N.M. Gov. Richardson: Navajo Nation Faces 'Enormous Devastation'
Even as some states begin the process of reopening their economies, Native American tribes are dealing with disproportionate challenges during the pandemic. The Navajo Nation, in particular, has suffered greatly.
"The native communities are the ones that are suffering the most from the virus," former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson told Cheddar. "Close to 30 to 40 percent of those that are afflicted are tribal members, especially the Navajo Nation."
Richardson described "enormous devastation" from the coronavirus, and said that the extraordinary difficulties stem from being overlooked by state and federal government, the lack of infrastructure, and demographic issues.
"Forty percent of all families in the Navajo Nation in four states, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona, don't have running water at all," Richardson said. "We neglect this community. As a nation we always have."
The Navajo Department of Health tallied more than 4,000 cases and 140 deaths from COVID-19 as of Sunday. Read more...
— Mike Nam
3:55 pm ET: Around the World in 90 Seconds
China pledges $2 billion for global COVID-19 response as more than 100 countries call for an inquiry into the origin of the coronavirus. Here are your coronavirus headlines from around the world.
— Megan Pratz
12:55 pm ET: House Dems, Senate GOP Clash Over Cannabis Provisions
The U.S. House of Representatives narrowly approved a $3 trillion coronavirus stimulus bill on Friday that includes provisions for cannabis banking, even as opposition to the measure builds in the Republican-controlled Senate.
The bill called the "HEROES Act" passed 208 to 199.
But Senate Republicans, led by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), seem to have made up their minds about some of the more ambitious asks in the HEROES Act, including cannabis protections. Read more...
— Chloe Aiello
12:39 pm ET: WHO Chief Pledges Probe of Virus Response
The head of the World Health Organization says he will begin an independent evaluation of the U.N. health agency’s response to the coronavirus pandemic “at the earliest appropriate moment.”
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus made the pledge Monday after an independent oversight advisory body published its first interim report about the U.N. health agency’s response to COVID-19 from January to April.
The 11-page report raised questions such as whether WHO’s warning system for alerting the world to outbreaks is adequate, and suggested member states might need to “reassess” WHO’s role in providing travel advice to countries. Read more...
— The Associated Press
10:51 am ET: Moderna Reports Early Coronavirus Vaccine Results Are Encouraging
An experimental vaccine against the coronavirus showed encouraging results in very early testing, triggering hoped-for immune responses in eight healthy, middle-aged volunteers, its maker announced Monday. Read more...
— The Associated Press
10:15 am ET: Stocks Open Higher on Wall Street, Extending Global Gains
Stocks are opening higher on Wall Street, extending a global rally as the U.S. market bounces back from its worst week in two months. The S&P 500 rose 2.5% in the first few minutes of trading Monday. Investors were encouraged to see that European countries were taking more steps to lift lockdowns put in place to contain the coronavirus outbreak. Over the weekend Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell expressed optimism that the U.S. economy could begin to recover in the second half of the year. Once the outbreak has been contained, he said, the economy should be able to rebound “substantially.” Read more...
— The Associated Press
8:00 am ET: Lockdown Fatigue, Obama Cut Loose & Start Your Engines!
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LOCKDOWN FATIGUE SETS IN: A gorgeous spring weekend across most of the country made clear that the strict lockdowns that defined the first two months of the pandemic in the U.S. are unlikely to continue into the summer in the same form. More than two-thirds of states have made significant changes to their stay-home orders. A small number of businesses in some states have started to reopen in defiance of the orders, causing governors to weigh criminal charges. CNN
COVID TREATMENT LATEST: A small biotech company called Sorrento says it has developed an antibody drug that showed “100% inhibition” of the coronavirus within four days in pre-clinical tests. The test still needs to be conducted in animals in order to gain FDA approval for human trials. Several other larger companies are also aggressively working on antibody approaches that could become the basis for a vaccine. INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY
OBAMA CUT LOOSE: President Obama delivered the keynote address at two virtual commencement ceremonies over the weekend, in which he mixed typical graduation advice with blistering attacks on the government’s pandemic response. Without mentioning President Trump by name, Obama said current leaders “weren’t even pretending to be in charge.” Trump responded by calling Obama “grossly incompetent.” POLITICO
TROPICAL STORM ARTHUR: The first named storm of the year is here — the sixth year in a row the Atlantic has had one before the official hurricane season begins on June 1. Tropical Storm Arthur is currently churning off the coast of Georgia with 45 mph winds. Arthur is not forecast to make landfall, but will bring heavy rain, wind and high surf to the coast of North Carolina later today. LATEST TRACK
JCPENNEY BANKRUPTCY: JCPenney is now the largest retailer by far to fail during the pandemic. The century-old department store chain, struggling long before coronavirus, filed for bankruptcy on Friday, unable to make the interest payments on its massive debt load. Penney says it will try to avoid liquidation by reducing its store footprint, which has already been shrinking for years. Its online store will remain open for now. USA TODAY
FACEBOOK BUYING GIPHY: Facebook on Friday announced it was buying Giphy, the popular platform for shareable GIFs often used in this newsletter, for a reported $400 million. It’s unclear whether Giphy’s integration within many other apps and services — including Twitter, TikTok, iMessage, Tinder and Slack — will be affected, or whether those services will become hesitant to host a Facebook-owned product on their own platforms. THE VERGE
BASEBALL RULES: The MLB has drafted more guidelines for what a shortened baseball season would like. Players wouldn’t be allowed to shower after games, they’d be prohibited from spitting sunflower seeds in the dugout, chewing tobacco would be banned, as would high fives and hugs. YAHOO SPORTS
IN MEMORIAM: FRED WILLARD: Fred Willard, the comic actor known for his supporting roles in Best in Show, Anchorman, and on TV series like Everybody Loves Raymond and Modern Family, has died. Willard was once noted as playing characters “gloriously out of their depth.” He was 86. OBIT
STREAMING TRIPLE PLAY: Right now, you can get a subscription to ad-free Hulu, Disney+ and ESPN+ together for the price of a basic Netflix membership. Disney, which owns all three streaming platforms, is offering the $13/month deal if you bundle all three services together, though it’s unclear for how long. DECIDER
LEFTOVERS: START YOUR ENGINES! Even if you’re not a NASCAR fan, there was something comforting about seeing the sport’s return to the racetrack. Driver Kevin Harvick won the Real Heroes 400 at Darlington Raceway. The grandstands and infield were both devoid of cheering fans, but the race itself went out mostly without a hitch — a hopeful precursor for the safe return of more leagues in the coming weeks and months. ESPN
