Coronavirus: The Hill and the Headlines, November 13 2020

In Washington:

• Two public health experts on President-elect Biden’s COVID-19 task force rejected the idea of broad “lockdowns” like those seen in the spring designed to slow skyrocketing case numbers. Celine Gounder told CNBC Friday that Biden’s panel supports “targeted” closures of businesses that are primarily spreading the virus, including indoor dining. Taskforce co-chair Vivek Murthy made similar comments Friday. “We’re not in a place where we're saying, ‘shut the whole country down,’ ” said Murthy, a former surgeon general. Their comments come a day after task force member Michael Osterholm suggested a four-to-six-week national lockdown.
• More than 16 GOP governors have rejected President-elect Joe Biden’s suggested statewide mask mandates in order to curb the pandemic despite their states are seeing a massive surge in new outbreaks and news CDC guidance emphasizing the importance of masks for both wearer and surrounding people.  As reported yesterday, Republican governors in the states of UT, IA, and OH. have issued new mask mandates, but not necessarily sweeping statewide orders.
• The incoming chief of staff Ron Klain said on MSNBC that Biden will appoint a White House coronavirus response coordinator who will provide him daily briefings and oversee a team of people dedicated to the pandemic. The official would coordinate vaccine distribution, fixing the current supply chain problems and problems that the U.S. is having with testing 
• Testing Labs processing COVID-19 tests are concerned that there will be a delay in testing and supply chain shortages as the U.S. continues to see a mounting number of cases.  Politico reports that testing has only increased 12.5 percent last week while confirmed cases rose over 40.8 percent.  
• Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito said on Thursday that the COVID-19 pandemic has caused "previously unimaginable" restrictions on liberty. Alito addressed the conservative Federalist Society’s annual meeting via video. “We have never before seen restrictions as severe, extensive, and prolonged as those experienced for most of 2020,” Alito said. “The COVID crisis has served as sort of a constitutional stress test.” Alito lamented the impact of the restrictions on religious events such as Easter Sunday and Yom Kippur. “It pains me to say this,” he added, “but in certain quarters, religious liberty is fast becoming a disfavored right.” Alito’s remarks coincide with the reimposition in many states of stricter lockdowns as coronavirus cases climb.
• More than 130 Secret Service officers are said to be infected with coronavirus or quarantining in the wake of Trump’s campaign travel.  This has impacted ten percent of the agency’s core security team.   

In the News:

• The number of online grocery store shoppers using Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, or food stamps, has risen sharply amid the coronavirus pandemic. According to Bloomberg, the number of U.S. households using food stamps each month to buy groceries online has increased 50-fold this year after the Department of Agriculture (USDA) expanded online shopping options for benefit recipients. Most shoppers have made their purchases through Amazon and Walmart. More than 1.1 million households used food stamps to buy groceries online in September. In total, an estimated 22 million households receive SNAP benefits.
• Israel has agreed to purchase enough of Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine candidate to inoculate 4 million of its citizens, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Friday. The deal would give the country 8 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine starting in January, pending approval of the candidate by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Israeli health authorities, according to the New York Times. 

• Government officials in the United Kingdom said COVID-19 infections are going up but at rates slower than previous weeks. Officials noted the virus’s reproduction rate is between 1.0 and 1.2 throughout the U.K., meaning that every 10 infected people can spread the virus to another 10 to 12 people, Bloomberg reported. That is lower than last week's estimated rate of 1.1 to 1.3, a small but noticeable change in the right direction.
• More than 2,000 Pennsylvania nurses plan to go on strike next week. Professional nursing groups say nurses are being "pushed to the brink by unsafe staffing that seriously undermines patient safety." 
• California became the second state after Texas to surpass 1 million Covid-19 infections since the start of the pandemic.  More than 5,000 new cases and 18 new deaths were reported on Thursday, for a total of 1,000,631 confirmed cases and 18,126 deaths statewide, according to Johns Hopkins University data.
• Detroit said its public schools would shift to remote learning until January. New York City is considering closing schools.

Authored by Ivan Zapien