Supreme Court hears Obamacare contraceptive case; Bright files whistleblower complaint; Democratic bill with new PPP oversights blocked; US coronavirus task force to ‘continue on indefinitely’
NewsHero - May 6, 2020 - Issue 92
Welcome to today’s edition of NewsHero for May 6, 2020.
We’d like to take a moment to encourage those readers who took us up on our offer for a free trial subscription to consider making it official and coming aboard as a weekly or annual subscriber. We’re fully aware that these are trying times and finances have been impacted. If you’re wanting to continue as part of the NewsHero team but don’t have the means, please let us know. We’re all in this together and will gladly help out.
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At NewsHero we put the heroes in the headlines and give them the attention that they deserve. Our coverage puts the focus on those who are helping, over those causing harm. Here you’ll find the same top-priority issues, but you won’t find clickbait, and what you read won’t be driven by ad sales.
Cady Chaplin claps during the seven-o’clock tribute to health care professionals and other workers. “I think it’s cathartic for people to let it all out for two minutes,” she says. (Photo: New Yorker)
NewsHero Notes
Nurses! - 🦸♀️🦸♀️🦸♀️
It’s National Nurses Week, May 6-12, and over at Newsweek we noticed some great deals and freebies available for registered nurses. Also, click here to read about the history of National Nurses Week from the National Nurses Association. Thank you, RNs!
Environmental advocates - 🦸♀️🦸♀️🦸♀️
According to a report from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA), using data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), CBS News says: “Renewable energy has now produced more electricity in the U.S. than coal for 40 days straight.”
Afternoon Brief
Women’s rights supporters - 🦸♀️🦸♀️🦸♀️
U.S. Supreme Court justices heard arguments Wednesday in a dispute involving Trump administration rules that would allow more employers who cite a religious or moral objection to opt out of providing no-cost birth control to women.
With arguments conducted by telephone because of the coronavirus pandemic, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg joined in from the Maryland hospital where she was being treated for an infection caused by a gallstone. The court said she expected to be in the hospital for a day or two.
The case stems from the Obama-era health law, under which most employers must cover birth control as a preventive service, at no charge to women in their insurance plans.
Under the Affordable Care Act, the Obama administration exempted houses of worship, such as churches, synagogues and mosques, from the requirement. It created a way by which religiously affiliated organizations including hospitals, universities and charities could opt out of paying for contraception, but women on their health plans would still get no-cost birth control. Some groups complained the opt-out process violated their religious beliefs.
Rick Bright - 🦸♀️🦸♀️🦸♀️
The ousted director of a U.S. agency responsible for developing drugs to fight the coronavirus pandemic filed a whistleblower’s complaint on Tuesday accusing the Trump administration of retaliating when he voiced concerns.
Rick Bright says in the complaint filed with a government watchdog that he warned about the virus in January and was met with hostility from Secretary of Health and Human Services (HSS) Alex Azar and other high-ranking officials in the agency.
“Dr. Bright acted with urgency to begin to address this pandemic but encountered resistance from HHS leadership, including Secretary Azar, who appeared intent on downplaying this catastrophic threat,” reads the complaint, which his lawyers filed with the U.S. Office of Special Counsel.
Bright’s lawyers argue that his removal as director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, a division of HHS, violated a federal law protecting government whistleblowers.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the top Democrat in the U.S. Congress, called Bright’s disclosures “very damaging.”
“But you know the thing is that this points to the larger issue: Where are the ethics in all of this?” she told MSNBC. “This is not a market opportunity for business, it is a moral imperative for public health in our country. The last thing we need is political interference into science.”
Voter’s rights advocates - 🦸♀️🦸♀️🦸♀️
A U.S. judge has reinstated a presidential primary canceled last week by New York state over concerns that voting would have been an unnecessary risk amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Former Vice President Joe Biden is already the presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party, which led Douglas Kellner, a co-chair of the New York Board of Elections, to say the New York primary was “unnecessary and frivolous.”
However, Analisa Torres, a judge of the U.S. District Court for New York’s Southern District, granted a preliminary injunction and ordered the board to hold the election on June 23 among presidential and delegate candidates who were “duly qualified” as of April 26.
“I’m glad that a federal judge agreed that depriving millions of New Yorkers of the right to vote was wrong,” said former presidential candidate Andrew Yang, who brought the lawsuit.
He and his pledged delegates had argued the cancellation violated their rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. constitution. The First Amendment includes free speech rights.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo told CNN the primary would proceed as ordered on Tuesday, but pointed to the potential for an appeal.
Democratic Bill With New PPP Oversights Blocked By Rubio
White House coronavirus task force to ‘continue on indefinitely’
Nurse practitioner Capri Reese, right, gives a pep-talk to nurse Tamara Jones after a 56-year-old woman in the COVID-19 unit prompted a rapid response (AP)
NewsHero is continuing to offer a compilation of stories and resources that best represent the current state of the coronavirus pandemic, centered on those individuals, institutions, and organizations stepping up to end this crisis as quickly and effectively as possible. The public, too, has a duty. This includes staying responsibly informed and taking the situation seriously, while remaining as cool-headed and as isolated as possible. These are strange and difficult times, but we will endure.
“Maria Antonieta Alva, the 35-year-old finance minister of Peru, is steering an ambitious recovery package during a devastating pandemic, and she’s winning praise for its generosity to small businesses and ordinary citizens,” said Bloomberg News in an Instagram post on Alva’s rise in popularity.
Democrats tried to pass a bill bringing new oversight requirements for the Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster Loans, but Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, chairman of the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee, blocked the attempt, reports The Hill.
Apropos of National Nurses Week, “Nike is donating 30,000 pairs of shoes—specifically designed for health care workers—to health systems and hospitals in the United States,” CNN posted on Instagram. Nike said in a statement, it’s the “first shoe designed for the healthcare athlete, an everyday hero.”
Vice President Mike Pence honored a General Motors employee who delayed retirement to help with ventilator production amid the coronavirus pandemic. At the GM/Ventec Ventilator Production Facility in Indiana, Pence thanked George Vandermeir for his hard work, according to an Instagram post from Fox News.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation issued an update on the Therapeutics Accelerator, launched on March 10 to fund the development of drugs and other antiviral treatments for COVID-19: “We’re preparing for 2021 today.”
“States facing sudden drops in tax revenue amid the pandemic are announcing deep cuts to their Medicaid programs just as millions of newly jobless Americans are surging onto the rolls,” reports Politico.
In this Thursday, April 30, 2020, photo, Linda Silva, a nurse’s assistant, poses for a portrait in the Queens borough of New York. Silva, who tested positive for COVID-19, returned to work after recovering. It’s been more than a month since she has hugged her two sons or her husband. (AP/Frank Franklin ll)
Facebook says it has removed several groups, accounts and pages linked to QAnon, taking action for the first time against the far-right U.S. conspiracy theory circulated among Trump supporters.
“Less than a day after signaling the White House task force on coronavirus would be disbanded, President Donald Trump said Wednesday the group will ‘continue on indefinitely’ and shift focus to reopening the country and manufacturing vaccines,” reports USA Today.
Jay Rosen posted over at PressThink—a project of the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at New York University—a piece called “The plan is to have no plan.” It’s a reasonable summation of the current predicament in the U.S.
CovidActNow.org has available an interactive map detailing state-by-state the risk levels associated with re-opening during the pandemic.
Here is “Science at work,” the latest edition of the Corona Daily newsletter.
It would be wrong to leave out this one we saw from The Guardian. Apparently, while Donald Trump was touring an N95 mask manufacturing plant in Arizona—not wearing a mask, of course—the background music blasting throughout the facility was “Live and Let Die.” *chef’s kiss*
Extra! Extra!
We were going to use this opportunity to remark on the city in Sweden that has been employing chicken poop to encourage folks to maintain their distance socially. You can read about that one here on CNN.
There’s a comment in that story though that got us thinking: “We don't want to become an epicenter for coronavirus so we are doing what we can to fertilize the lawn and keep people safe.”
Apart from the “fertilize the lawn” part, the rest applies to the country’s goals for handling the pandemic. Sweden, however, has taken some heat for its seemingly reluctant or lax approach to locking down.
For more on that issue, we point you to The Daily Show. Or as it’s known these days, The Daily Social Distancing Show. In this clip, “Sweden state epidemiologist Dr. Anders Tegnell discusses his country’s decision not to impose quarantine in the face of coronavirus and its consequences.”
Sources:
National Nurses Week 2020 Deals and Free Items for Healthcare Workers at Dunkin', Subway, Starbucks and More - Newsweek
History of National Nurses Week - American Nurses Association
Renewable energy has now produced more electricity in the U.S. than coal for 40 days straight - CBS News
Supreme Court set to hear Obamacare case argued by phone - AP News
U.S. Supreme Court hears Obamacare contraception mandate dispute - Reuters
Supreme Court to hear arguments on Trump administration-Obamacare dispute over birth control - NBC News
Ousted HHS official Rick Bright files whistleblower complaint - Fox News
Ousted vaccine director files whistleblower complaint alleging coronavirus warnings were ignored - CNNPolitics
Rick Bright, Former Top Vaccine Scientist, Files Whistleblower Complaint - NPR
Ousted U.S. whistleblower says Trump health official played down coronavirus threat - Reuters
Senior scientist says administration ignored virus warnings - AP News
New York Must Hold Democratic Presidential Primary, Judge Rules - The New York Times
Judge rules New York Democratic presidential primary will take place as planned - CNNPolitics
Judge reinstates New York presidential primary canceled by state - Reuters
Coronavirus: Trump says task force will continue indefinitely - USA Today
Peru’s 35-year-old finance minister is suddenly a rock star - Bloomberg Business
Senate GOP blocks Democratic oversight bill for small-business aid - The Hill
Nike is donating 30,000 pairs of shoes… - CNN
Vice President Mike Pence honored a General Motors employee… Fox News
“We’re preparing for 2021 today”: An update on the Therapeutics Accelerator - Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
States cut Medicaid as millions of jobless workers look to safety net - Politico
The plan is to have no plan - PressThink
Facebook removes accounts linked to QAnon conspiracy theory - AP News
Is your community ready to reopen? - CovidActNow
Live and Let Die plays as Trump visits mask factory without a mask - The Guardian
Science at work - Coronadaily
Swedish city of Lund uses chicken manure to encourage social distancing - CNN Travel
Dr. Anders Tegnell - Sweden’s Decision Not to Impose Quarantine - The Daily Social Distancing Show