Herrera Beutler calls for reopening of national wildlife refuges
Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Battle Ground, is calling on the federal government to reopen national wildlife refuges to the public.
In a letter to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Regional Director Robyn Thorson, the congresswoman pointed to a recent decision from Washington’s governor to reopen state-run lands.
Gov. Jay Inslee’s order, which applies to all sites operated by the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife and state Department of Natural Resources, opens the land back up to visitors Tuesday.
Herrera Beutler wrote in her letter that accessing the federal reserves can boost physical and emotional health.
“The decision to close or restrict public access points on federal land was made in close proximity to state closures in March; consequently, I urge you to take all necessary actions to responsibly reopen federal land without unnecessary delay,” Herrera Beutler wrote.
The Pacific Region of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service covers 67 national wildlife refuges across Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Hawaii.
Inslee announced Monday that state lands would reopen to visitors, with the expectation they would stay vigilant with social-distancing protocols and remain at least 6 feet away from anyone they don’t live with.
His announcement restored daytime-only hunting, fishing and golfing on the state-run public sites, effective Tuesday.
“This is a data-driven decision,” Inslee said in his broadcast press conference. “This is a decision we make today, but if this virus were to spring back, we may have to roll back some of these measures again.”
In her letter to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Herrera Beutler emphasized the need to provide low-risk outdoor options.
“During this challenging time, public lands can provide an excellent opportunity for families and residents to safely get out of the house and enjoy our region’s beautiful wildlife, which would be a significant boost to their emotional and physical health,” Herrera Beutler wrote.
— The Columbian
FDA gives emergency approval to coronavirus antibody test with 100% accuracy claim
The Food and Drug Administration gave emergency approval to a coronavirus antibody test that has 100% accuracy, according to its Swiss manufacturer.
According to drugmaker Roche, their antibody test has an incredible success rate when determining whether or not someone has been infected with coronavirus. The test was 100% accurate in finding antibodies (evidence of a past infection) and 99.8% accurate in determining the lack of such antibodies.
The company said the test draws blood intravenously, which is more accurate than other methods of drawing blood.
“If you take blood from a finger prick, you will never be able to achieve the same level of specificity that you will achieve … when you take blood from the vein,” Thomas Schinecker, the company’s head of diagnostics, said.
“You have to have very, very high specificity. Even 0.1% or 0.2% makes a difference.”
Schinecker said, however, that the presence of antibodies does not necessarily mean that someone is immune from being reinfected and that more research on the topic was desperately needed.
The company said it would be manufacturing tests in the “high double-digit millions per month.”
— New York Daily News
January? Autumn? Doctors debate arrival time for COVID-19 vaccine
Researchers continue to debate how fast a coronavirus vaccine may be available as states and nations look for a fast track to recovery from the pandemic’s economic toll, with January or even the fall now on the timetable.
British scientists hope to see a “signal” on whether their vaccine candidate is working by June, John Bell, professor of medicine at Oxford University, said on Sunday.
The chances are “pretty good” of a vaccine within the year, Bell said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” He downplayed a colleague’s suggestion that there’s an 80% chance, though. Vaccines can typically take at least several years to develop.
The White House last week announced an initiative, dubbed “Operation Warp Speed,” to try to develop a vaccine and have enough doses for many Americans by January. Some 14 potential candidates will undergo testing, NBC News reported, before the contenders are whittled down to six or eight.
Dr. Deborah Birx, a member of the White House coronavirus task force, said that “on paper, it’s possible” that the unusually swift deadline could be met.
“The way that it’s possible is if you bring forward five or six different classes of candidates,” Birx said on “Fox News Sunday.”
“And then it’s about doing compressed phase one, phase two, phase three trials in an overlapping way, moving forward when you have a good safety and immunogenicity data, but not with the level of pauses that are often present in vaccine development,” she said.
Scott Gottlieb, former head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, said vaccines may be available in the autumn “in doses sufficient to ring-fence infections in cities” even as further testing is under way.
Multiple manufacturers by that time will have “cleared early stage safety trials and have millions of doses that could be deployed in large-scale studies,” Gottlieb predicted on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
The U.S. has more than 1.15 million confirmed cases of COVID-19, and has recorded over 67,000 deaths.
— Bloomberg News
Fauci nominated for an ‘Oscar’ of civil service
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Anthony Fauci, the doctor at the forefront of leading America through the coronavirus pandemic, was named Sunday as one of the finalists for the “Oscars” of the government workforce, an annual award ceremony recognizing the achievements of top public servants.
Fauci is one of 27 finalists for the Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals, also known as the Sammies, which honor America’s top federal employees whose work has had a lasting impact on improving the government. Fauci, who’s had a 36-year career as an infectious disease expert, is nominated for the Paul A. Volcker Career Achievement medal.
“We have a government with lots of Tony Faucis that are doing their jobs in extraordinary ways, and then until something brings them to the public’s attention, you don’t know that they’re actually there,” said Max Stier, president and CEO of the Partnership for Public Service, the nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that presents the awards. “The way we’re going to help make our government better is by spotlighting those that are doing it already.”
Fauci, 79, was catapulted into the headlines as a trusted voice for Americans after COVID-19 upended daily life across the country. As the director for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Fauci has handled several outbreaks, including H.I.V, swine flu, Zika and Ebola, under six different presidents.
The achievements of this year’s finalists range from America’s response to the dangers of vaping for young people, to developing tools to assist law enforcement in preventing mass shootings in schools, offices and public places. The finalists come from a host of different federal agencies, including the State Department, Justice Department, National Institutes of Health, NASA and the Department of Veterans Affairs.
The awards are divided into several categories, including Emerging Leaders, Science and Environment and Management Excellence. All finalists, including Fauci, are competing for the top medal, Federal Employee of the Year. The recipients of the awards are chosen by a committee made up of leaders from several industries, including government, media and academia. Winners will be announced in the fall of 2020.
The public also gets to weigh in on who is their favorite public servant. All 27 finalists are eligible for the People’s Choice Award, which allows the public to vote online for a federal employee whose work they believe has significantly improved their lives. Voting begbega on Sunday, and the winner will be announced this summer.
— Bloomberg News
Trump criticizes George W. Bush over call for unity amid coronavirus
George W. Bush’s evocative three-minute coronavirus video went out of its way to avoid controversy.
The former president didn’t mention President Donald Trump or any political leaders during his “Call for Unity” message. Instead, Bush praised the American spirit and vowed that the nation would beat the pandemic.
Trump’s reaction? Bush should have backed the president during his impeachment fight.
“He was nowhere to be found in speaking up against the greatest Hoax in American history!” Trump wrote on Twitter.
Bush’s video appeared to be specifically designed to avoid any hint of criticizing Trump’s controversial handling of the pandemic.
Narrated by the familiar soothing voice of the former president, it detailed the pain Americans are going through and offered hope that the nation can come together to put the pandemic behind us.
The former commander in chief reminded Americans “how small our differences are in the face of this shared threat” in the video shared by his the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas.
But for Trump and some of his most ardent supporters, there is no forgiving Bush for breaking with the current president on other issues.
Trump was apparently triggered to comment on Bush by Pete Hegseth, a Fox News contributor who reminded viewers that Bush did not oppose Trump’s impeachment.
— New York Daily News
White House disclaims projection showing surge in virus outbreak
WASHINGTON, D.C. — An internal projection created by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows the U.S. coronavirus outbreak vastly accelerating by June to more than 200,000 new cases and 2,500 deaths per day — far more than the country is currently experiencing.
The White House disclaimed the projection, calling it an “internal CDC document” but saying it had not been presented to President Donald Trump’s coronavirus task force and didn’t comport with the task force’s own analysis and projections.
It isn’t clear who produced the document, obtained and published earlier by The New York Times, or what assumptions underlie the forecasts. The projections, on two slides of a 19-slide deck, are dated May 1 and attributed to a “data and analytics task force.” The document carries the seal of both the Health and Human Services Department and the Homeland Security Department.
The CDC projection contains a range of estimates. The forecast of 200,000 new cases and 2,500 deaths per day are around the middle of the range.
The documents are labeled “for official use only.” The CDC did not respond to a request for comment.
“This is not a White House document nor has it been presented to the Coronavirus Task Force or gone through interagency vetting,” Judd Deere, a White House spokesman, said in a statement. “This data is not reflective of any of the modeling done by the task force or data that the task force has analyzed.
“The president’s phased guidelines to open up America again are a scientific driven approach that the top health and infectious disease experts in the federal government agreed with,” Deere said.
There is a history of the CDC overestimating disease outbreaks. In 2014, the agency said that in a worst case, there might be more than half a million cases of Ebola from an outbreak that began in West Africa. The actual number of total cases in the outbreak ended up being about 28,600, according to the CDC.
— Bloomberg News
