WASHINGTON (MaceNews) – The following is Friday’s status check of developments in the U.S. that can influence economic, health and political outcomes.
· President Trump went on Fox late Friday and for what was billed as on on-air health assessment – spoiler alert – he passed. The in-house doctor asked him some questions from the New York studio that up to now haven’t been answered. The president, in his first on-camera interview since testing positive, disclosed that he took the steroids to reduce swelling in the lungs and while he didn’t have a cough there was a little respiratory congestion that soon passed. He also suggested his doctors at Walter Reed wanted him to stay there longer but he wanted to stay only as long as they needed him to be there. The polyclonal antibody cocktail from Regeneron is, he said, “is a miracle cure.”
· Although Trump said in a White House video and on Fox Friday night that he is arranging for all Americans to get the Regeneron antibody cocktail if they need it and for free. Earlier in the day, though, former FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb told CNBC that advance manufacturing of the antibody cocktail wasn’t begun early enough so the existing supply will have to be rationed this year. He said one manufacturer has about a million doses and another about 300,000, not enough to meet what will be the demand. The manufacturers say after the initial government-paid supply, they will have to charge for any more. The next round of pandemic relief, it if happens, could include a subsidy. Now is the time, Gottlieb said, to make sure there’s enough supply for next year.
· President Trump will host his first live in-person event Saturday since testing positive, with 2,000 guests invited. In a more cautious approach than two weeks ago for the suspected superspreading debut of Amy Coney Barrett the president will stay up above the crowd on the South Portico, overlooking the audience below on the South Lawn. Has the president tested negative since being hospitalize? In that Fox interview he said he’s awaiting the results of the latest test. The course of the infection usually takes at least 10 days. The crowd will be asked to wear masks but not required to do so. So far more than two dozen denizens of the White House have tested positive.
· The New York Times reported Friday night the White House blocked the CDC from requiring masks be worn on public transportation.
· The rising number of coronavirus cases in the U.S. and worldwide suggests the fall will be a new challenge for the health care system. The New York Times virus tracker says over the past week there have been an average of 47,049 new cases a day in the U.S., up 12% from the average two weeks earlier and the flu season has not yet begun. The trend of increasing cases and a death toll that has stayed around 1,000 a day – 928 Thursday – is not following the prediction of the CDC director just a month ago of fewer cases and fewer deaths by now.
· President Trump, in a phone-in to the Rush Limbaugh radio program that lasted for two hours had a major announcement. ”I would like to see a bigger stimulus package frankly than either the Democrats or the Republicans are offering. I’m going to the exact opposite now, okay? … Don’t tell anybody else because maybe it helps or maybe it hurts negotiations.” The stock markets, already mildly positive, did not react, apparently taking the words with more than a grain of salt. Good thing, because later a White House spokesman said it was not literally true. In the early afternoon half-hour call between Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Stephen Mnuchin the White House offered a $1.8 trillion package, in no way larger than the $2.2 trillion Pelosi is demanding. And Pelosi’s office dismissed the offer, saying it did not contain a plan to “crush the virus.” The talks go on and the betting is that something will be worked out soon since many Senate Republicans are reported to be pressuring the White House to get something passed before the election.
· The debate between Sen. Lindsey Graham and Democratic candidate Jaime Harrison Friday night produced no surprises. The format had been changed when Harrison refused to appear next to Graham unless the South Carolina senator took a fresh coronavirus test which he refused to do, having taken one last Friday that showed a negative result. As chairman of a Judiciary committee with two members who have already tested positive, a positive result for Graham would likely postpone the four days of confirmation hearings for Amy Coney Barrett that are set to begin Monday at 9a ET.
· Hurricane Delta is making landfall at Lake Charles, Louisiana, at this hour with 330,000 people having already lost power, the same place Hurricane Laura hit six weeks ago.
· There’s a lot of economic data packed into four days next week, including retail sales, the CPI and the PPI. Kevin Kastner does an in-depth preview elsewhere on this macenews.com site.
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