Coronavirus: The Hill and the Headlines, October 8 2020

In Washington:

• The Commission on Presidential Debates announced Thursday that it would be changing the debate format for Oct. 15 to a virtual “town meeting" with President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden appearing from separate remote locations due to the President being infected with COVID-19.  President Trump rejected the new format in an interview on Fox Business, saying, “I’m not going to waste my time on a virtual debate. That’s not what debating is all about."  Given the President’s refusal to participate in a virtual debate, Biden’s campaign said they would attend a town hall event hosted by ABC News on Oct. 15 and asked to turn the scheduled debate for the 22nd into a town hall event.  Trump’s campaign manager said that they agree with Biden’s request and suggested for a third debate to be shifted to Oct. 29, but Biden’s campaign manager Kate Bedingfield rejected the proposal to move the third debate.  

• Treasury Secretary Steven reached out to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to inform her that talks for a more comprehensive coronavirus relief bill are back on. The move was prompted by President Trump, who phoned House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA)  and indicated he was worried by the stock market reaction and wanted a "big deal" that went beyond airline aid with the Democrats.  Trump, during an interview on Fox Business Thursday, said his team was "starting to have some very productive talks" on a bill. Timing to negotiate and pass a comprehensive bill is now is a tall order with only 26 days before the elections.  Senate Republicans are sending no signals that hey would be willing to change course and vote to passing another massive relief package. 

• Speaker Pelosi rebuffed passing a stand-alone bill for assisting the airline industry unless the administration agrees to a broader stimulus package.  “I have been very open to having a single standalone bill for the airlines or part of a bigger bill. But there is no standalone bill without a bigger bill,” Pelosi told reporters Thursday at her weekly press conference, “If we don't have a guarantee that we're going to be helping our state and local employees, that we're not going to be able to crush the virus, that we're not going to be able to have our children go to school safely, that we're not going to have safety in the workplace, that we're not going to address unemployment.”   Senate Republicans Mike Lee (UT) and Pat Toomey (PA) have expressed opposition to using taxpayer money to bail out the airline industry, making it questionable whether the Senate could pass the stand-alone legislation. 

• President Donald Trump said that contracting the coronavirus was a “blessing from God” in a new video released Wednesday, as he talked up a treatment from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and said it should be free. Trump said, “I think this was a blessing from God that I caught it,” since it educated him about treatments. Trump also touted that the experimental drug he took from Regeneron was a “cure” to COVID-19. “To me, it wasn’t therapeutic — it just made me better, OK? I call that a cure,” said Mr. Trump.  Trump claimed that he had personally chosen the not-yet-approved drug to be a part of his treatment.  The President also touted “similar” drugs and promised to work it so that Americans would receive the drug for “free.” 

• During a Thursday morning interview on Fox Business, President Trump implied that he might have been infected by Gold Star families that attended an event held the day after the SCOTUS nomination ceremony for Judge Amy Coney Barrett.   Trump insisted that he might have contracted the virus because the family members attending the event “come within an inch of my face,” and “they want to hug me and they want to kiss me.”  

• Health officials in the administration are rushing to deliver on the President’s promise to deliver $200 drug-discount cards to seniors before Election day.  The nearly $8 billion initiative would be paid for by tapping Medicare’s trust fund.  The administration plans to send letters next week to Medicare beneficiaries, but the actual cards, which are expected to be branded with Trump’s signature,  are unlikely to reach recipients before Nov. 3.  Democrats have denounced the cards as an election gimmick. 

• The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and CDC are improving their efforts to detect the presence and spread of COVID-19 infections in water systems.  The agency hopes that by developing methods to quantify the level of virus seen in untreated wastewater it will be able to provide information about infection trends.

In the news:

• A new study finds that out of the more than a billion airplane passengers that few in 2020, just 44 are suspected to have contracting COVID-19 as a result of flying.   The study, released Thursday by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and aircraft manufactures, credits measures such as contactless check-in and customs procedures, significantly boosted sanitation, and required masks married with constant air circulation and the plane’s layout for the low infection rates.  The study notes that airplane ventilation systems fully replace the air in the cabin every two to three minutes.

• Federal authorities charged six men for allegedly plotting to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer from her vacation home in retaliation for her COVID-19 lockdown and other measures, with one of the defendants allegedly saying they would then try Whitmer for “treason,” officials revealed Thursday. Seven other men known to be members or associates of the militia group Wolverine Watchmen, were charged under Michigan’s anti-terrorism law. According to the FBI, the men also discussed attacking the Michigan state Capitol using Molotov cocktails to destroy police vehicles. The plot allegedly included one of the men surveilling Whitmer’s vacation home.

• COVID-19 is hitting nonprofits large and small, including Susan G. Komen, one of the largest and best-known breast cancer organizations. Donations are down due to canceled or virtual events for all nonprofits. Soon after the pandemic hit, Komen decided to bring its 60 field offices into its national organization to form a single entity. The result was a 23 percent reduction in staff. Remaining employees are all virtual, which will help bring down real estate costs.


• With the coronavirus pandemic continuing to take a toll on the economy, Ruby Tuesday has become the latest large restaurant chain to seek protection under the U.S. bankruptcy code. While many of its restaurants will close, others will remain open as the company restructures its business. Meanwhile, California Pizza Kitchen, which announced its bankruptcy filing in July, has now canceled its planned auction after no bidders came forward and is turning ownership over to its lenders, according to published reports.

Authored by Ivan Zapien