Expert raises concerns over protests’ risks
Pompeo claims evidence of outbreak’s origin in lab
As states face questions around reopening their economies, White House Coronavirus Task Force coordinator Deborah Birx said Sunday that it was “devastatingly worrisome” that protesters challenging stay-athome orders are gathering in proximity without masks or without heeding social distancing guidelines.
The demonstrators may unknowingly pass on the coronavirus to others, such as their vulnerable and elderly family members, Birx told Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace.
Protesters have gathered outside state capitols across the country in recent weeks, including in Michigan, where demonstrators criticized the state’s safety orders.
Wallace asked Birx whether the patchwork of stay-at-home measures put in place by many states, as opposed to a federally led effort, causes confusion among people about what rules to follow. She defended the fed
eral guidelines, saying that some areas are more affected than others.
Wallace asked Birx to advise viewers on a host of activities, including protesting and going to the beach. She insisted that it was up to states to decide on whether to reopen, but she cautioned that people should be prudent, even as they are able to go outside.
Birx said that going to a salon or barbershop “is not a good Phase 1 activity” even if the customers and staff members are wearing masks. She said protocol for reopening and visiting beaches should depend on whether people are observing social distancing.
As the U.S. continues its fight against the coronavirus, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo claimed Sunday that “enormous evidence” indicates that the outbreak originated at a laboratory in Wuhan, China.
“Remember, China has a history of infecting the world, and they have a history of running substandard laboratories,” Pompeo said on ABC’s This Week. “These are not the first times that we’ve had a world exposed to viruses as the result of failures in a Chinese lab.”
The U.S. intelligence community declined last week to specify the origin of the virus, saying it would “continue to examine” whether the outbreak began with an accident at the lab or through human contact with infected animals being sold at a public market.
Pompeo’s comments echoed those of President Donald Trump, who said he has seen evidence giving him a “high degree of confidence” that the outbreak originated at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which was studying the presence of the virus in bats.
“There’s enormous evidence that that’s where this began,” Pompeo said.
The secretary of state also said, twice, that he had “no reason to disbelieve” that the virus was “man-made or genetically modified.” Reminded that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence has said that the scientific consensus is that it was neither, he said: “That’s right. I agree with that.”
Amid criticism of the Trump administration’s response to the virus, Pompeo said the pandemic never would have happened, or would not have been so extensive, had China not “attempted to conceal and hide and confuse. It employed the World Health Organization as a tool to do the same.”
“I think the whole world is united in understanding that China brought this virus to the world,” he said. Asked whether he thought China “intentionally released” the virus, Pompeo said: “I don’t have anything to say about that. I think there’s a lot to know.”
The virus has now infected 3.5 million people and killed more than 247,000 worldwide, including more than 67,000 in the United States, according to the count by Johns
Hopkins University. The U.S. continues to see tens of thousands of new infections each day.
MEETING RESISTANCE
Elsewhere, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said he reversed course on requiring Ohioans to wear masks because people “were not going to accept the government telling them what to do.”
“It became very clear to me after we put out the order that everyone in retail who walked into a store as a customer — it became clear to me that was a bridge too far,” DeWine, a Republican, said on This Week. “It just wasn’t going to work. You got to know what you can do and what you can’t do.”
Asked about polls showing that Republicans were less willing to abide by social distancing recommendations, DeWine cited the ideological differences between the GOP and the Democratic Party.
“I think, generally, Republicans are less inclined to have the government tell them what to do,” DeWine said. “And that’s certainly how I am. I’m a conservative Republican. I think we’re better off not having the government tell us what to do. But we are in a health crisis.”
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, said on CNN’s State of the Union that recent demonstrations at the state Capitol are “not representative of who we are in Michigan.”
On Thursday, protesters gathered in Lansing to oppose the state’s stay-at-home order, which Whitmer later extended through May 15. Some of the protesters carried assault rifles, nooses, Confederate flags and swastikas.
“Some of the outrageousness of what happened at our Capitol this week depicted some of the worst racism and awful parts of our history in this country,” Whitmer said. “The behavior that you have seen in all of the clips is not representative of who we are in Michigan. And the fact of the matter is, I mean, we’re in a global pandemic. This isn’t something we just negotiate ourselves out of, and it’s a political matter.”
Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves, a Republican, said he wants to reopen his state as soon as possible, despite what he characterized as a “one-day blip” in which coronavirus cases soared over a 24-hour period last week. On Fox News Sunday, Reeves was questioned on whether the state should consider reopening since its cases haven’t declined over the past two weeks.
“Mississippi is different than New York,” Reeves responded, adding that his state’s hospitals aren’t at capacity. He said he has spoken to Birx and that they agreed Mississippi has never had an extreme outbreak.
WARNING IN N.Y.
Meanwhile, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo warned residents not to get complacent about the risks as the weather warms and the outbreak recedes substantially.
“My gut says the weather is going to warm, and people want this over,” the Democrat told reporters in New York City. “They see the numbers going down. They can take false comfort.”
The state, the center of the U.S. outbreak, recorded 280 new deaths Sunday, down slightly from the 299 reported the day before. The toll has been relatively steady at the lower levels after reaching as high as 799 in one day in mid-April.
Cuomo spoke a day after New Yorkers thronged to parks and beaches on a warm spring day. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said the “vast majority” of New Yorkers respected social distancing rules and wore masks, but city police issued more than 50 summonses.
Cuomo said he will continue to order police to enforce the rules.
“I know people want to get out of the house,” the governor said. “Fine. Wear a mask and socially distance. That is your social responsibility in the middle of this overall pandemic.”
He gathered, via video, the governors of New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Delaware to highlight their regional approach to reopening and greater bargaining power for purchasing medical supplies. Rhode Island and Massachusetts are also included in the effort.
In contrast to other parts of the country, none of the governors talked about an immediate reopening. New York is under lockdown until at least May 15 — and even then will reopen only in phases starting in less-populated areas that were not hit as badly.
AROUND THE WORLD
While millions of people took advantage of easing lockdowns to enjoy spring weather, some of the world’s most populous countries reported worrisome new peaks in infections, including India, which saw its biggest single-day jump yet.
India reported more than 2,600 new infections. Air force helicopters showered flower petals on hospitals in several cities to thank doctors, nurses and police at the forefront of the battle against the pandemic.
In Russia, new cases exceeded 10,000 for the first time. Russia’s latest tally of infections was nearly double the new cases reported a week ago. More than half of Russia’s new cases were in Moscow, where concern is rising about whether the capital’s medical facilities will be overwhelmed.
Another potentially troubling sign emerged in Afghanistan’s capital city, Kabul, where a third of the 500 people in random testing came up positive for the virus.
China, which reported only two new cases, saw a surge in visitors to newly reopened tourist spots after domestic travel restrictions were loosened ahead of a five-day holiday. Nearly 1.7 million people visited Beijing parks on the first two days of the holiday, and Shanghai’s main tourist spots welcomed more than 1 million visitors, according to Chinese media. Many spots limited daily visitors to 30% of capacity.
On the eve of Italy’s first steps toward easing restrictions, the Health Ministry reported 174 coronavirus deaths in the 24-hour period ending Sunday evening — the lowest day-to-day number since a national lockdown began March 10. Parks and public gardens were set to reopen today.
The confirmed death toll in Britain climbed near that of Italy, the epicenter of Europe’s outbreak. Nevertheless, Prime Minister Boris Johnson is under pressure to reveal how the country will lift its lockdown. The lockdown is due to last through Thursday, but with hundreds of deaths still being reported daily, it’s unclear how the country can safely loosen the restrictions.
Johnson, who spent three nights in intensive care while being treated for covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, told The Sun newspaper that he knew his doctors were preparing for the worst.
“It was a tough old moment, I won’t deny it,” he said. Information for this article was contributed by Jennifer Hassan, Katie Mettler, Marisa Iati, Meryl Kornfield, Siobhan O’Grady, Hannah Knowles, Karen DeYoung and Aaron Gregg of The Washington Post; by Frances D’Emilio, Pablo Gorondi and Danica Kirka of The Associated Press; and by Ian Fisher of Bloomberg News.