CDC triples number of possible coronavirus symptoms . . . Its website says fever, cough,  shortness of breath, chills, repeated shaking, muscle pain,  headache, sore throat and new loss of taste or smell could all be symptoms that appear between two and 14 days after exposure. Fox News

 

A million in NYC likely exposed to virus . . . The city believes a million New Yorkers have already been exposed to coronavirus and that as many as half will eventually become infected. “It wouldn’t surprise me if, at this point in time, we have probably close to a million New Yorkers who have been exposed to COVID-19,” Health Commissioner Dr. Oxiris Barbot said during a briefing Thursday.

 

Meat shortages loom . . . Americans could start to see shortages of pork, chicken and beef on grocery shelves as soon as May as major packing plants swept by the coronavirus remain shuttered and the nation’s massive stockpiles of frozen meat begin to dwindle. Any empty shelves to date have been the result of bumps in the supply chain, with stores being unable to restock as quickly as customers are buying. But bacon, pork chops and ham could be the first to face actual shortages: The amount of frozen pork in storage nationwide — more than 621 million pounds — dropped 4 percent from March to April, the USDA reported this week. Slaughter rates are down 25 percent, and 400,000 animals are backed up in slaughterhouses. Politico

 

Trump floats using UV light or disinfectant injections to fight COVID-19 . . . President Trump asked during his Thursday coronavirus briefing whether UV light or injections of disinfectant might be used to cure COVID-19 patients, blindsiding his medical advisers and unleashing a torrent of ridicule on social media. He suggested the unorthodox treatments after being shown research suggesting the virus was susceptible to sunlight, heat, and humidity. Once again, it meant scientists on his coronavirus task force had to sidestep his words delicately as he flouted crisis communications convention — and the idea that leaders should stick to facts and avoid false hope — to brainstorm publicly. “That’s all I have,” he said. “I’m just here to present talent, I’m here to present ideas. Because we want ideas to get rid of this thing.” Washington Examiner

 

 

FBI insisted on including Steele dossier in Russia interference assessment . . . Officials included a reference to the anti-Trump dossier in the intelligence community’s 2017 Russia election assessment only as a “compromise” with the FBI, which “would have had a major problem” if the document was ignored, according to a Senate report. The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence report makes clear that the CIA and other intelligence agencies had little interest in folding dossier author Christopher Steele’s various allegationst. But the FBI, which had begun what would be a long investigation into President Trump and his campaign, insisted. CIA Director John O. Brennan and others agreed to allow a two-page dossier summary to appear. Washington Times

 

 

Biden says Trump will try to delay election . . . Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden on Thursday predicted President Donald Trump will try to delay the 2020 presidential election in a ploy to snag a reelection victory. “Mark my words, I think he is gonna try to kick back the election somehow, come up with some rationale why it can’t be held,” Biden said, according to a pool report of an online campaign event. “That’s the only way he thinks he can possibly win.” Politico
 

 

Biden builds early lead against Trump in battleground states . . . Former Vice President Joe Biden is leading in key battleground states that President Trump must win to secure a second term in office. Polls released this week have mostly bad news for Trump, who finds himself trailing in new surveys of Florida, Michigan and Pennsylvania. The president won all three states in 2016 and they will be among the most hotly contested battlegrounds in November. Biden is benefitting from having a higher favorability rating as the country grapples with the coronavirus pandemic. The Hill

 

 

Biden won't commit to picking woman of color . . . Biden’s history-making pledge to tap a woman as his running mate isn’t enough for women of color who are demanding the presumed Democratic presidential nominee’s pick comes from their community. Mr. Biden has refused to make that commitment and said this week that he plans to set up a vetting committee by May 1 — intensifying a debate that has been raging on over what he needs most to strengthen the ticket. Stacey Abrams, a former Georgia gubernatorial candidate and voting rights activist, turned up the pressure this week when she said she is concerned about Mr. Biden “not picking a woman of color. Washington Times

 

 

Trump owes tens of millions to Bank of China and loans are due soon . . . Donald Trump is warning “China will own the United States” if Joe Biden is elected president. But Trump himself is tens of millions of dollars in debt to China: In 2012, his real estate partner refinanced one of Trump’s most prized New York buildings for almost $1 billion. The debt includes $211 million from the state-owned Bank of China — its first loan of this kind in the U.S. — which matures in the middle of what could be Trump’s second term, financial records show. Politico

 

Obama weighs in against Trump . . . Barack Obama said Wednesday that the United States is still waiting on "a coherent national plan to navigate" the coronavirus pandemic. "States like Massachusetts are beginning to adopt their own public health plans to combat this virus––before it's too late," Obama said. "Enduring the pain of lockdown without a path to a virus-free future—that’s where we, across the U.S., find ourselves today. Our country was woefully unprepared for an epidemic like this. We didn’t have enough masks to protect our health-care workers, or enough testing kits. The truth is that we hadn’t invested enough in our public-health system." Washington Examiner

 

The deficiencies began during your administration. And who asked you anyway?

 

US warship sails thorugh Taiwan strait for second time in a month . . . A U.S. warship has sailed through the sensitive Taiwan Strait for the second time in a month, Taiwanese and U.S. militaries said on Friday, amid heightened tensions between Taiwan and China and as a Chinese aircraft carrier passes near the island. China, which considers Taiwan its own, has been angered by the Trump administration’s stepped-up support for the island, such as more arms sales, U.S. patrols near it and a visit to Washington by Vice President-elect William Lai in February. Taiwan’s Defence Ministry said the U.S. warship had transited the narrow Taiwan Strait that separates the island from its giant neighbour China in a southerly direction and was continuing to sail south. Reuters

 

Coronavirus cases begin to soar in Africa . . . Africa’s reported number of coronavirus cases soared by more than 40 percent in the last week, stoking concerns that the continent could become the epicenter of the pandemic at a time when hunger is rising and doctors fear a resurgence of malaria deaths.Confirmed cases have surpassed 25,000 among Africa’s 1.3 billion people, and the death toll has exceeded 1,200. Dozens of nations have “very, very limited” capacity for testing, said John Nkengasong, director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, at a Thursday briefing. The lack of tests could be obscuring a larger danger. Washington Post

 

Trump administration planning major health deregulation push . . . The White House is planning an overhaul of healthcare regulations based on what it sees as the success of waiving restrictions during the coronavirus emergency, according to a senior adviser to President Trump. In an interview with the Washington Examiner, acting Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers Tomas Philipson said the waivers, from expanding telemedicine to helping accelerate vaccine development, enabled a more “nimble or faster” response to the unfolding pandemic. “The president enabled a great set of deregulations to take place through the emergency declaration he made,” Philipson said. “The question is, how can we learn from that experience to basically deregulate healthcare more going forward.” Washington Examiner

 

Working from home adds hours per day on the job . . . An executive at JPMorgan Chase & Co. gets unapologetic messages from colleagues on nights and weekends, including a notably demanding one on Easter Sunday. A web designer whose bedroom doubles as an office has to set an alarm to remind himself to eat during his non-stop workday. At Intel Corp., a vice president with four kids logs 13-hour days while attempting to juggle her parenting duties and her job. Six weeks into a nationwide work-from-home experiment with no end in sight, whatever boundaries remained between work and life have almost entirely disappeared. America’s always-on work culture has reached new heights. The 9-to-5 workday, or any semblance of it, seems like a relic of a bygone era. Long gone are the regretful formalities for calling or emailing at inappropriate times. Burnt-out employees feel like they have even less free time than when they wasted hours commuting. Bloomberg

 

Ousted HHS official hires Chrstines Blasey Ford legal team for whistleblower complaint . . . Rick Bright, who was a registered Democrat until at least the 2016 election, was ousted on Tuesday as director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, a vaccine development and procurement office at the Department of Health and Human Services. He was transferred to another position at the National Institutes of Health. Bright has retained prominent Democratic activist lawyers Debra Katz and Lisa Banks, who previously represented Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh's sexual assault accuser Christine Blasey Ford. Bright said he plans to file a whistleblower complaint with the HHS inspector general. Washington Free Beacon

 

Finance cruch could wipe out many small churches . . . About a third of all congregations have no savings, according to the 2018-2019 National Congregations Study. Just 20 percent streamed their services, and 48 percent were able to accept donations electronically, the study found, making it more challenging to serve the faithful and gather their donations during the virus shutdown. The blow has been hardest on the nation’s many small congregations (about half of U.S. congregations are the size of Stuckey’s or smaller). Some experts think the coronavirus could reshape the country’s religious landscape and wipe out many small houses of worship. These are places where members typically go to seek guidance and comfort, but members are now finding closed buildings and desperate pleas for funds. Washington Post

 

Apple phone email app flaw poses risk . . . Apple said on Thursday it has found “no evidence” a flaw in its email app for iPhones and iPads has been used against customers, and that it believes the flaw does “not pose an immediate risk to our users." San Francisco-based cybersecurity firm ZecOps on Wednesday detailed a flaw that it said may have left more than half a billion iPhones vulnerable to hackers. 

Zuk Avraham, ZecOps’ chief executive, told Reuters he found evidence the vulnerability was exploited in at least six cybersecurity break-ins. Reuters

 

Colleagues see man watching porn on laptop screen during work . . . With a number of countries still on lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic, many people are currently working from home. Undoubtedly this means many will take advantage of the opportunity to stay in bed all day or wear hoodies to work everyday. But one man decided to do something a bit more x-rated while out of the office. The man, known only as Callum, appeared to suffer a rather embarrassing work from home blunder after a colleague informed him they could all see what was on his laptop screen. And it turned out that in between doing his regular tasks, Callum had been watching porn. A screenshot of an email sent to him about the incident was shared on Reddit. Mirror