Wednesday, April 29 coronavirus updates
Hello, welcome to The Daily Moth! It is Wednesday, April 29. Here are coronavirus updates.
As of this afternoon, there are over 60,000 deaths from COVID-19 in the U.S. Over 1 million people are confirmed to be infected. 117,000 people have recovered. Almost 6 million people have been tested. It has only been 100 days since the first U.S. case of coronavirus emerged in Washington state and we are at 60,000 deaths.
White House adviser Jared Kushner, who is President Trump’s son-in-law, said in an interview that the federal government’s response to the pandemic is a “great success story,” that they have saved hundreds of thousands of American lives, and predicted that the country would be back to normal by June and “rocking again” by July. Naturally there was a lot of criticism by those who said the federal response is not a success story, citing the amount of infections and deaths.
The FDA said they would grant emergency authorization for an experimental antiviral drug called remdesivir to treat patients with COVID-19. Dr. Anthony Fauci said he hopes the drug can help reduce the death toll.
The U.S. economy shrank 4.8 percent. You can see in this graphic from The New York Times that since 2014, the economy has been growing, outlined in green bars. We’re now slumped, according to the yellow bars. The 4.8% number is how much our gross domestic product (GDP), a measure of the goods and services our country produces, has gone down.
There are viral videos of large crowds of Hasidic Jewish people who congregated on streets in Williamsburg, Brooklyn for a funeral for a rabbi who died from COVID-19. The New York Mayor Bill de Blasio was enraged and tweeted a warning to the “Jewish community” that they and any other community could be summoned or arrested for violating social-distancing guidelines. Police broke up the crowds. There was criticism against the mayor for singling out Jewish people because there have been other instances of people congregating in crowds. The mayor apologized for broadly using the term “Jewish community” and explained that it was “tough love.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D) announced she would establish a new House committee that would oversee and investigate the distribution of the $2 trillion CARES Act. The chair of the committee will be Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-SC).
ABC News reported that Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) announced a G.I. Bill for front-line workers during the pandemic such as hospital workers, nursing home employees, grocery store workers, those delivering supplies, and trash collectors. The bill would provide those individuals an opportunity to get a college degree without paying tuition.
A pregnant female federal prisoner, Andrea Circle Bear, passed away from COVID-19 after her baby was delivered via cesarean section when she was on a ventilator. She is the 29th federal inmate to die from the virus and the first female. She was from South Dakota. It is not known the condition of the baby.
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeted “FREE AMERICA NOW” and praised Texas for allowing some businesses to open this Friday. He tweeted an agreement to a pro-Trump supporter who said the “scariest thing about this pandemic is not the virus itself, it is seeing Americans so easily bow down & give up their blood bought freedom to corrupt politicians who promise them safety.” Many people criticized Musk including Rep. Illhan Omar (D-Minn) who said “billionaires want to continue profiting off your labor even if it means risking millions of lives.”
Now here are two news briefs not related to the coronavirus.
Indian actor Irrfan Khan, best known for his roles on “Life of Pi” and “Slumdog Millionaire,” has passed away at the age of 54. NPR explained that he died at a hospital in Mumbai after contracting a colon infection and had a rare type of cancer in the past. He has died at a young age.
The Pentagon has released three videos of unknown flying objects that many think is alien UFOs. The videos are not new — they have been leaked in the past — but now the Pentagon is officially confirming the footage is real. It was filmed in 2004 and 2015 by Navy pilots. The Pentagon called the objects “aerial phenomena” and said they were unidentified. The “UFOs” are seen moving at very high speeds and rotating.
That’s all the top news updates for today. Check out our Deaf News stories. See you tomorrow and stay with the light!
https://www.axios.com/kushner-trump-administration-coronavirus-response-ae277165-a525-4c50-8417-37576902f21c.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/29/us/coronavirus-usa-cases-deaths.html?action=click&module=Spotlight&pgtype=Homepage
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/house-coronavirus-committee-pelosi-announces-democratic-members/
https://abcnews.go.com/Health/coronavirus-updates-us-federal-inmate-dies-covid-19/story?id=70399771&cid=clicksource_4380645_2_heads_hero_live_hero_hed
https://twitter.com/Ilhan/status/1255525844774203393?s=20
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/04/29/coronavirus-federal-inmate-who-gave-birth-while-ventilator-dies/3046282001/
https://www.npr.org/2020/04/29/847793840/irrfan-khan-dies-indian-actor-appeared-in-crossover-hit-slumdog-millionaire
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52457805