Coronavirus US Timeline

World cases

Timeline of US events in the coronavirus pandemic of 2020

美国在 2020 年冠状病毒大流行中的事件时间表

2017

  • 13 Jan 2017
    • ►Joint Obama-Trump transition-team exercise for pandemic preparedness, using a highly contagious respiratory pathogen as an example
  • mid-2017
    • ►US public health staff operating inside China cut by 2/3, from 47 to 14.
  • September
    • ►Federal contract granted to create a prototype reusable N95 mask
  • December
    • ►CDC banned from using the terms “evidence-based” or “science-based“

2018

  • 9 February
    • ►Administration cuts $1.35B from CDC’s Prevention and Public Health Fund
  • 8 May
    • ►The pandemic unit (“Directorate of Global Health Security and Biodefense”) in the National Security Council is disbanded.
  • September
    • ►Feds receive detailed proposal for high-capacity mask manufacturing (1.5M masks/day), but no further action taken

2019

  • July
    • ►Funding cut for US epidemiologist embedded in the Chinese disease-control administration
  • 1 December
    • ►Symptom onset of the first reported Wuhan COVID-19 patient. (Lancet, 15 Feb 2020)
    • ►Additional unrecognized cases may have existed from 17 Nov onward
    • ►Researchers later concluded that the coronavirus was present in live mammals sold in the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, China, in late 2019, resulting in at least two separate zoönotic transmission events into humans. (Scripps Research, 2022)
  • late November, early December
    • ►Pentagon’s National Center for Medical Intelligence circulates a report of an epidemic spreading in Wuhan beginning in late November 2019. Analysts conclude it could be a cataclysmic event. Late November NCMI “analyses said China’s leadership knew the epidemic was out of control even as it kept such crucial information from foreign governments and public health agencies,” ABC News reports.
  • 6 December
    • ►Human-to-human transmission appears to have begun in mid-December, after the first fatality’s wife developed symptoms.
  • 25 December
    • ►Medical staff in two Chinese hospitals are infected and quarantined
  • 30 December
    • ►Dr. Li Wenliang notifies colleagues of a new illness outbreak that resembles SARS.
  • 31 December
    • ►Chinese health officials inform the WHO about a cluster of 41 patients with a mysterious pneumonia, only 27 of whom were connected to the Huanan Seafood Market.
    • ►They also deny human-to-human transmission, or infected medical staff. “A key task for analysts during disease outbreaks is to determine whether foreign officials are trying to minimize the effects of an outbreak or take steps to hide a public health crisis.” (Harris, 2020)

2020

  • 1 January
    • ►Dr. Li reprimanded
    • ►Hubei Provincial Health Commisssion attempts to suppress sequencing of further viral specimens after results had already been reported to hospitals
    • ►381 recognized cases in China
  • 2 January
    • ►Wuhan scientists complete the genome-map of the virus. This was not announced for another week.
  • 3 January
    • ►CDC Director Redfield is notified by the Chinese of the new coronavirus. Chinese reject the offer of a CDC team to be sent to China.
    • ►HHS Secretary Azar orders notification of the WH National Security Council; this would be the first notice to US President Donald J Trump (P45). From this point, the coming pandemic begins to be included in the Presidential Daily Briefing.
    • ►US killing of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani
    • ►Wuhan authorities still deny human-to-human transmission
    • ►A Hong Kong epidemiologist warns M Pottinger on the NSC that a serious epidemic similar to SARS in Wuhan is spreading faster than the Chinese government will admit. The scientist identifies asymptomatic person-person transmission.
  • 6 January
    • ►First report of a new viral illness in China by the NY Times.
    • ►NY Times repeats Chinese assurances that there is no human-to-human transmission.
  • 9 January
    • ►Chinese researchers publicly identify a novel coronavirus as the cause of illness
  • 10 January
    • ►First COVID-19 death recorded in China
  • 13 January
    • ►WHO reports that virus has spread beyond China
  • 16 January
    • ►Impeachment trial begins in the Senate
  • 17 January
    • ►CDC and CBP order symptom screening of arrivals from Wuhan at three US airports: SFO, JFK, and LAX.
    • ►WHO publishes n-Cov diagnostic PCR testing protocol based on European research. https://bit.ly/3bK8K6Q “Positive control material is available from Charité, Berlin, via EVAg”
  • 18 January
    • ►Azar’s first telephone discussion of the virus with P45, despite numerous attempts before this date. P45, then at Mar-a-Lago, steers the conversation toward “vaping,” dismisses coronavirus concerns as “alarmist.”
  • 20 January
    • ►First reported US case of coronavirus, in Snohomish County, Washington. This man had evacuated Wuhan and landed at Sea-Tac on 15 January. He developed symptoms on 19 January
    • ►Coincidentally, the first coronavirus case in South Korea was the same day. They handle the problem very differently, with drive-through screening and testing centers, and quarantines.
    • ►Chinese officials for the first time admit human-to-human transmission, in Guangdong Province
    • ►Around this time, US diplomats are returning home from Wuhan on chartered planes.
  • 22 January
    • ►City of Wuhan (11 million people) placed under quarantine; the entire province of Hubei follows only days later.
    • ►P45 states at Davos, “We have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China. We have it under control. It’s going to be just fine.” https://cnb.cx/3dJu91x “Do you trust that we’re going to know everything we need to know from China?” P45 replies: “I do. I have a great relationship with President Xi.”
  • 23 January
    • ►WHO reports R₀ of 1.4-2.5, with 25% of cases being severe, >1% fatal, and confirms human-human transmission.
    • ► P45 briefed that: corona virus was potentially going to spread globally; Beijing was not providing accurate numbers of people infected. https://wapo.st/39BZRL2
  • 24 January
    • ►P45: “It will all work out well.” https://bit.ly/2UsCHCv
    • ►P45: “China has been working very hard to contain the Coronavirus … The United States greatly appreciates their efforts and transparency. It will all work out well. In particular, on behalf of the American People, I want to thank President Xi!” — Twitter
    • ►CDC announces its diagnostic test for coronavirus, and seeks FDA permission to send it out to public labs; recommends very restrictive guidelines for testing, only those with recent travel to Wuhan or those who had come into contact with an infected person.
  • 27 January
    • ►COS Mulvaney attempts to intervene with P45 and senior WH officials to get more attention to the virus; gets fired a month later. Witnesses say the possible effect on P45’s reelection was discussed.
    • ►South Korea requests private labs to quickly develop testing kits for rapid approval
  • 28 January
    • ►NSA O’Brien tells P45 in Oval Office briefing: “This will be the biggest national security threat you face in your presidency. … This is going to be the roughest thing you face.” Deputy NSA Matthew Pottinger told the president that after reaching contacts in China, it was evident that the world faced a health emergency on par with the flu pandemic of 1918, which killed an estimated 50 million people worldwide. (Woodward)
    • ►L Borio (formerly at NSC) and S Gottlieb (formerly at FDA) warn in a WSJ op-ed that if virus is widespread, “the CDC will struggle to keep up with the volume of screening. Government should focus on working with private industry to develop easy-to-use, rapid diagnostic tests that can be made available to providers.” https://on.wsj.com/2JyVohr
    • ►Earliest posts of the “Red Dawn” email thread
  • 29 January
    • ►WH announces its coronavirus task force led by Sec’y Azar. P45 attends the first meeting, and tweets that the experts “are on top of it 24/7.”
    • ►Trade Rep. P Navarro warns in a memo in the WH:
      • “This lack of [immune] protection elevates the risk of the coronavirus evolving into a full-blown pandemic, imperiling the lives of millions of Americans.”
      • Warns of as many as half a million deaths and trillions of dollars in economic losses
      • Aides raised the memo directly with P45 at the time, and he was unhappy that Mr. Navarro had put his ideas in writing.
  • 30 January
    • ►WHO declares a “public-health emergency of international concern.”
    • ►Hours later P45 says in Michigan, “We’re working very strongly with China on the coronavirus … We think we have it very well under control. … We think it’s going to have a very good ending for it. So that, I can assure you.”
    • ►Trade Rep. Navarro warns of a possible pandemic during a call to Air Force One. P45 dismisses the warning as “alarmist.”
    • ►P45: “We think we have it very well under control. We have very little problem in this country at this moment — five. And those people are all recuperating successfully. But we’re working very closely with China and other countries, and we think it’s going to have a very good ending for it. So that I can assure you.” https://politi.co/3axUyxp
    • ►CDC’s first confirmed case of person-to-person transmission inside the United States
    • ►Commerce Sec’y Ross states in a TV interview that he thinks the virus will be good for US jobs and supply chain.
  • 31 January
    • ►P45 restricts entry to the US by any foreign national who had been in China during the previous two weeks. The US was the 45th country to do so. P45’s announcement follows Delta and American’s independent decisions to do so. After these restrictions take place, another 40,000 people enter the US from China, since the ban only applied to foreign nationals. https://nyti.ms/3aNRXj0
    • ►Azar declares a public health emergency. “The declaration triggered emergency testing protocols, which increased restrictions on which labs could make a coronavirus test. Any lab would be required to acquire an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) from the FDA to perform testing for covid-19. The FDA granted the CDC the first EUA.” (Kelly, WaPo)
    • ►CDC would distribute test kits to qualified state labs. Other expert virology labs could not do so without special permission from FDA. These additional regulations, and baroque application procedures, stall the efforts of clinical and research labs to test and study.
    • ►Eight cases of CV19 have been confirmed in the US
  • 2 February
    • ►P45: “Well, we pretty much shut it down coming in from China. … We can’t have thousands of people coming in who may have this problem, the coronavirus. So we’re gonna see what happens, but we did shut it down, yes.” https://nyti.ms/3azUihq
    • ►Stanford develops its own test for virus, but runs into regulatory roadblocks at FDA
    • ►Gottlieb tweets, “Since CDC and FDA haven’t authorized public health or hospital labs to run the tests, right now #CDC is the only place that can. So, screening has to be rationed. Our ability to detect secondary spread among people not directly tied to China travel is greatly limited.”
  • 4 February
    • ►FDA approves the CDC test, while WH remains focused on 10 cases aboard the Diamond Princess in Japan
    • ►In the WH, policy director Joe Grogan worries that there aren’t enough tests to determine the rate of infection
  • 5 February
    • ►P45 acquitted in the Senate
    • ►By early February, the majority of US intelligence daily briefings and digests are concerned with the threat of COVID-19.
    • ► Sen. Chris Murphy: “Just left the Administration briefing on Coronavirus. Bottom line: they aren’t taking this seriously enough. Notably, no request for ANY emergency funding, which is a big mistake. Local health systems need supplies, training, screening staff etc. And they need it now.” —Twitter
  • 6 February
    • ►Posthumous viral testing shows that in retrospect the first known death was in a 57-year-old woman who died at home in Santa Clara CA
  • 7 February
    • ►Death of Chinese whistleblower, Dr. Li Wenliang, due to COVID-19 contracted during patient care. He had been reprimanded by authorities for “false comments” a month before.
    • ►P45 admits privately to Bob Woodward: “This is deadly stuff. … You just breathe the air and that’s how it’s passed. … And so that’s a very tricky one. That’s a very delicate one. It’s also more deadly than even your strenuous flu.” “This is more deadly [than seasonal flu]. This is 5% [deadly], versus less than 1%.”
    • ►P45, publicly: “Nothing is easy, but [Chinese President Xi Jinping] … will be successful, especially as the weather starts to warm & the virus hopefully becomes weaker, and then gone.” P45 was being warned by intelligence agencies that Beijing was not providing accurate numbers of people who were being infected or who had died. https://bit.ly/2UvtWYi
    • ►US government airlifts nearly 18 tons of donated respirator masks, surgical masks, gowns, and other medical supplies to China.
  • 8 February
    • ►NYC Health Dept technicians determine that the CDC viral test is faulty (failure of the negative control).
  • 10 February
    • ►P45: “I think the virus is going to be — it’s going to be fine.”
    • ►P45: Now, the virus that we’re talking about having to do—you know, a lot of people think that goes away in April with the heat—as the heat comes in. Typically, that will go away in April. We’re in great shape though. We have 12 cases—11 cases, and many of them are in good shape now.” “When it gets a little warmer, it miraculously goes away.”
    • ►WH proposes a 16% cut in CDC funding
  • 11 February
    • ►WHO dubs the disease caused by novel coronavirus “COVID-19”
  • 12 February
    • ►Incidence of COVID-19 begins to spike in South Korea. Widespread testing is implemented as a response, eventually reaching 10,000 rapid tests daily.
    • ►CDC discloses that its test kits sent to state labs are faulty, all the while fielding complaints from labs around the country that screening criteria are too restrictive
    • ►By this time, only about 2,000 tests have been performed in the US. South Korea was already testing 1,000 people a day, and would have that ramped up to 10,000 by the end of February. WHO has already delivered 250,000 tests to 70 labs around the world. A WHO spokesman says there were no discussions between CDC and WHO about WHO providing tests to the US.
  • 13 February
    • ►Senate Intelligence Chair Richard Burr sells stock based on previous classified briefings from HHS and CIA about a “serious” threat.
  • 14 February
    • ►P45: “We have a very small number of people in the country, right now, with it. It’s like around 12. Many of them are getting better. Some are fully recovered already. So we’re in very good shape.” https://bit.ly/3bONJIf
    • ►CDC announces a surveillance testing plan. A month later it still says it hopes to “begin rolling out” the program.
    • ►Without surveillance testing in place, we can infer that WH messaging about “a very small number of people” could not have been based on data.
  • 16 February
    • ►By this time, only about 800 people in the US have been tested; South Korea had done 64 times as much per capita testing. South Korea found its first case on the same day as the US.
    • ►Sec’y Azar is unable to push either FDA or CDC to speed up testing or change course, despite appeals to the WH. There is no intervention by the President.
  • 19 February
    • ►Outbreak begins in Iran
    • ►P45: “I think it’s going to work out fine. I think when we get into April, in the warmer weather, that has a very negative effect on that and that type of a virus. So let’s see what happens, but I think it’s going to work out fine.”
  • 21 February
    • ►Spike in the number of cases in Italy
    • ►Marked increase in stock market volatility between 21 Feb and 3 Mar. https://nyti.ms/2VeXEji
    • ►Dr. Kadlec convenes an urgent Task Force meeting to address the necessary lock down measures to control spread
  • 23 February
    • ►HHS (Dr. Kadlec) aware of asymptomatic person-to-person spread of virus https://nyti.ms/2xdgqjq
    • ►Attempts by Dr. Kadlec to recommend mitigation measures are rebuffed by the administration. P45 appears unwilling or unable to absorb the warnings being delivered.
    • ►Another Navarro memo in the WH, warning of an “increasing probability of a full-blown COVID-19 pandemic that could infect as many as 100 million Americans, with a loss of life of as many as 1 [to] 2 million souls.”
  • 24 February
    • ►P45: The pandemic is “very much under control in the USA. … Stock Market starting to look very good to me!” https://bit.ly/3bE7tOC
    • ►Assoc. of Public Health Labs complains to CDC, “we are now many weeks into the response with still no diagnostic or surveillance test available outside of C.D.C. for the vast majority of our member laboratories.” Separately, the head of the C.D.C. boasts to Congress about his agency’s “aggressive response” to screening.
  • 25 February
    • ►P45: “You may ask about the coronavirus, which is very well under control in our country. We have very few people with it, and the people that have it are … getting better. They’re all getting better. … As far as what we’re doing with the new virus, I think that we’re doing a great job.” https://bit.ly/2wOh9qV
    • ►Nancy Messonnier, a senior CDC official, sounds perhaps the most significant public alarm to that point, when she tells reporters that the coronavirus is likely to spread within communities in the United States and that disruptions to daily life could be “severe.” “I had a conversation with my family over breakfast this morning, and I told my children that while I didn’t think that they were at risk right now, we as a family need to be preparing for significant disruption of our lives.”
    • ►P45 calls Azar on his way back from a trip to India and complains that Messonnier is scaring the stock markets, according to two senior administration officials. https://wapo.st/2Jyrfiw
  • 26 February
    • ►P45: “Because of all we’ve done, the risk to the American people remains very low,” he says. “When you have 15 people, and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero. That’s a pretty good job we’ve done.” https://bit.ly/2UMt8gF
    • ►From this point, the WH takes control of all press briefings on coronavirus.
    • ►Sec’y Azar is replaced by VP Pence as head of WH Task Force.
  • 27 February
    • ►Sen. Burr to his NC donors at a private lunch in DC: Coronavirus is “much more aggressive in its transmission than anything that we have seen in recent history” and “is probably more akin to the 1918 [influenza] pandemic.”
  • 28 February
    • ►P45: “It’s going to disappear. One day — it’s like a miracle — it will disappear.” https://cnn.it/2WTkFuM
    • ►At a campaign rally in SC, P45 politicizes concerns about his handling of the growing crisis as a Democratic “hoax.” https://politi.co/3bAxgXR
    • ►By this time WHO has shipped testing kits to 60 countries, but the US has declined to use it. The administration has never explained its rationale.
  • 29 February
    • ►First reported US death, at EvergreenHealth in Kirkland, Washington. [This has been superseded by posthumous viral testing showing a death at home on 6 Feb in California.]
    • ►Most US states have declared a state of emergency
    • ►FDA finally relaxes rules for some labs, to allow them to test before getting agency approval, under a set of significantly less restrictive protocols. This was six weeks after the first US case; a month after public health experts publicly urged harnessing private industry to develop “easy-to-use rapid diagnostic tests.”
  • 1 March
    • ►First case reported in NYC
  • 3 March
    • ►Restrictions on who qualifies for a COVID test are finally eliminated. By this time there are 13 deaths in the US.
  • 4 March
    • ►Stock market begins a precipitous slide. By 23 March it has lost a third of its value.
  • 5 March
  • 6 March
    • ►White House task force receives results from a new study by the Imperial College of London projecting that the government’s failure to act swiftly and aggressively could result in more than 2 million American deaths.
    • ►At CDC in Atlanta, P45: “Anybody that needs a test, gets a test. They’re there. They have the tests. And the tests are beautiful.” This is false. About 1,100 people have been tested in the US by this date.
    • ►P45 spends a long weekend at Mar-a-Lago, playing golf and hosting friends, which itself turns into a coronavirus petri dish.
  • 9 March
    • ►Italy locks down all 60 million residents
    • ►P45: “The Fake News Media and their partner, the Democrat Party, is doing everything within its semi-considerable power … to inflame the CoronaVirus situation.” — Twitter
    • ►P45: “So last year 37,000 Americans died from the common Flu. It averages between 27,000 and 70,000 per year. Nothing is shut down, life & the economy go on. At this moment there are 546 confirmed cases of CoronaVirus, with 22 deaths. Think about that!” — Twitter
    • ► From this we infer that he has no understanding of exponential growth, or the reproduction number of a virus.
  • 10 March
    • ►P45: “We’re prepared, and we’re doing a great job with it. It will go away, just stay calm. It will go away.” https://on.msnbc.com/2QTTKes
    • ►VP Pence promises that 4 million tests will be distributed by the end of the week. This never occurs.
  • 11 March
    • ►WHO declares the COVID-19 outbreak a ‘pandemic’
    • ►In a nationally televised speech, P45 bans travel to US from Schengen-Area European countries; misstates that European cargo will be blocked; misstates that insurance will waive copays for treatment. No announced plans for social distancing, school closures, or other economic disruptions. Stock futures took a nosedive while the President was speaking.
    • ►The following day, passport control areas of major US airports are overwhelmed by delays, forcing crowds of arriving passengers to stand together for hours.
  • 12 March
    • Dr. Fauci testifies before Congress that the testing system has failed, revealing deep structural flaws in the US public health system.
  • 13 March
    • ►US national emergency is declared, triggering the Stafford Act. This is seventy days after P45 was first notified on 3 Jan.
    • ►P45 refuses to invoke the Defense Production Act to mobilize national resources
    • ►P45 deflects blame for his administration’s lagging ability to test Americans for the coronavirus outbreak: “I don’t take responsibility at all.” https://politi.co/39vi6BS
    • ►Asked whether closing the NSC global health unit [in 2018] slowed the U.S. response, P45 calls it a “nasty” question. “I don’t know anything about it.”
    • ►P45: The FDA, “will bring, additionally, 1.4 million tests on board next week and 5 million within a month. I doubt we’ll need anywhere near that.”
    • ►The result is a lost six or seven weeks, in which the US has squandered its best chance of containing the virus’s spread through testing and contact tracing. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2020.3864
  • 16 March
    • ►Imperial College London releases prediction that US will suffer 2.2M deaths if no control measures are taken (500k in the UK) https://bit.ly/3dOtfRm
    • ►In a reversal, P45 recommends 15 days of social distancing. By this time, US cases number 4,226.
    • ►On a conference call with governors, P45 tells them to get their own ventilators, “We will be backing you, but try getting it yourselves.” At this point, the federal government has still not placed large-scale orders for PPE or ventilators.
  • 17 March
    • ►100th US death due to CV19
    • ►A leaked federal plan warns that the pandemic “will last 18 months or longer”, with “multiple waves” of infection. Warns of potentially critical shortages, and danger to critical infrastructure
    • ►https://nyti.ms/3dJ6DSe
    • ►https://bit.ly/2X1KfxT
    • ►P45: “I felt it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic.” — News conference
    • ►Polling shows that while 56% of Americans consider CV a “real threat” (down 10% from the previous month), there is a stark partisan difference, with a majority of Republicans saying it is overblown, while the vast majority of Democrats consider it a legitimate threat. https://n.pr/3aIQ879
  • 18 March
    • ►P45: “I always treated the Chinese Virus very seriously, and have done a very good job from the beginning, including my very early decision to close the ‘borders’ from China – against the wishes of almost all.” — Twitter
    • ►P45 admits privately to Woodward that he deliberately minimized the danger. “To be honest with you, I wanted to always play it down. I still like playing it down because I don’t want to create a panic.”
  • 21 March
    • ►HHS places its first large-scale order for N95 masks
    • ►P45 blames the Chinese government for withholding information as the reason for his delayed action
  • 23 March
    • ►New York City confirms 21,000 cases, becomes a national epicenter
    • ►In another reversal, P45 says, “America will, again, and soon, be open for business. Very soon… We cannot let the cure be worse than the problem itself.” https://nyti.ms/2QTUikw
  • 24 March
    • ►P45 says he wants the country “back to work” by Easter (12 April). “Easter is a very special day for me,” he says. “Easter Sunday, and you’ll have packed churches all over our country.” https://abcn.ws/2WTlEes
  • 26 March
    • ►US-incidence surpasses China and Italy, with 86,000 cases
    • ►Univ of WA-IHME releases model of peak incidence, nationally and state-by-state. https://covid19.healthdata.org/projections
    • ►P45 casts doubt on expert projections and state governors: “I have a feeling that a lot of the numbers that are being said in some areas are just bigger than they’re going to be.” … “I don’t believe you need 40,000 or 30,000 ventilators. You know, you go into major hospitals sometimes they’ll have two ventilators, and now all of a sudden they’re saying, ‘Can we order 30,000 ventilators?’” https://wapo.st/2Uy8oKM
  • 27 March
    • ►P45, talking about governors of different states, says, “I want them to be appreciative.” He also says, “if they don’t treat you right, I don’t call.”
    • ►P45 signs the CARES Act
    • ►Dr. Deborah Birx of the WH Task Force appears on the evangelical CBN network: “[P45 is] so attentive to the scientific literature & the details & the data. I think his ability to analyze & integrate data that comes out of his long history in business has really been a real benefit”
  • 29 March
    • ►P45 reverses, extends social distancing to 30 April; posits that keeping US deaths below 100,000 would be a “very good job.” This was 86 days from when P45 was first notified on 3 Jan.
    • ►P45 suggests that masks, gowns, and gloves are in short supply because hospital staff are stealing them.
    • ►He has spent nearly two months (since 22 Jan) giving confusing and contradictory messages that minimized the scale of the crisis.
    • ►Widespread testing is still not in place, as efforts are hampered by lack of supplies of testing materials and PPE. We may never have an accurate count of how many Americans contracted the virus.
  • 30 March
    • ►WH projects a best-case scenario of 100,000 to 240,000 US deaths, even while maintaining long-term social distancing. ICL previously put forward a worst-case scenario of 2.2M US deaths in the absence of mitigation efforts. No one can discern what data and assumptions the WH projection is based on.
    • ►P45 call with governors: “I haven’t heard about testing in weeks,” … “We’ve tested more now than any nation in the world. We’ve got these great tests, and we’ll come out with another one tomorrow that’s, you know, almost instantaneous testing. But I haven’t heard anything about testing being a problem.” https://wapo.st/2wU5s1P Several governors go on to do media interviews contradicting P45.
  • 2 April
    • ►J Kushner: “The notion of the federal stockpile was it’s supposed to be our stockpile. It’s not supposed to be states’ stockpiles that they then use.”
    • ►DPA is finally invoked to procure N95 masks, and ventilators
  • 3 April
    • ►Unemployment rises to an estimated 13%
    • ►3M publicly protests the administration for attempting to embargo medical exports to Canada, where it has manufacturing facilities.
  • 6 April
  • 7 April
    • ►Reports emerging of racial disparities in infection and fatality rates
    • ►P45 attacks the WHO for its handling of the coronavirus outbreak and its criticisms of his policy, threatens to cut its funding
    • ►P45 removes the DoD IG from the Pandemic Response Accountability Council, on suspicion of bias
    • ►Wisconsin holds its in-person election after the governor’s efforts to delay and count all pending mail-in ballots are blocked by SCOTUS.
    • ►Republicans make clear that they oppose mail-in elections as generally unfavorable to their electoral chances; still use discredited claims of voter fraud and states’ rights;
    • ►Concerns that the US Postal Service may cease operations by summer; WH rejects any bailout
  • 8 April
    • ►Bernie Sanders drops out of the Democratic primary
  • 9 April
  • 10 April
    • ►Asked what metrics he’ll use to decide when to relax social distancing, P45 points to his head and says, “the metric is right here. That’s my metrics. That’s all I can do.”
    • ►The US is doing about 130,000 of the roughly 1M-10M daily tests needed to contain CV19 until a vaccine is ready. https://bit.ly/3b1uIlH
  • 12 April
    • ►Dr Fauci states on TV, “[If] you started mitigation earlier, you could have saved lives. Obviously no one is going to deny that. … But there was a lot of push back for shutting everything down back then.”
  • 23 April
    • ► P45 dangerously suggests that the coronavirus be treated with bleach injections. Shortly after this, WH press briefings are suspended. https://bit.ly/31pqJNB
  • 20 June
    • ►At a rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, P45 offered that, “testing is a double-edged sword … when you do testing to that extent, you’re going to find more people; you’re going to find more cases. So I said to my people, ‘Slow the testing down please.’” https://bit.ly/2QnHqCK

Sources

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