WASHINGTON — The Biden administration admonished the Republican governors of Texas and Florida on Friday for blocking local school districts from requiring masks or taking other measures to protect students from the coronavirus in the coming school year.
The secretary of education, Miguel Cardona, sent a pair of letters to the governors and their education commissioners, writing that he was concerned about recent executive actions taken by both governors.
Those orders, he wrote, prohibited districts from “voluntarily adopting science-based strategies for preventing the spread of Covid-19 that are aligned with the guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,” like universal masking. The letters were made public late Friday.
The debate over whether local school districts should be able to require masks has become highly partisan. Republicans have cast mask rules as an infringement on parental rights, while Democrats have said they are a matter of public health.
Last week President Biden also sharply criticized Republican governors like Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida and Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas who had banned mask mandates, saying they “are passing laws and signing orders that forbid people from doing the right thing.”
“If you aren’t going to help, at least get out of the way,” Mr. Biden said.
In one letter released Friday, Dr. Cardona criticized Governor DeSantis for threatening this week to withhold the salaries of district superintendents or school board members who defied his order.
The education secretary noted that the American Rescue Plan Act passed by Congress allocated more than $7 billion to the state for safety measures. None of the money has been made available to local districts, Dr. Cardona wrote, and it could be used to pay the salaries of school officials.
“In fact, it appears that Florida has prioritized threatening to withhold state funds from school districts that are working to reopen schools safely rather than protecting students and educators and getting school districts the federal pandemic recovery funds to which they are entitled,” Dr. Cardona wrote.
In his letter to Texas officials, Dr. Cardona criticized Governor Abbott’s executive order blocking mask rules in schools as well as other state guidance that makes contract-tracing optional.
Dr. Cardona said Governor Abbott’s order “may infringe upon a school district’s authority to adopt policies to protect students and educators as they develop their safe return to in-person instruction plans required by federal law.”
The offices of Governor DeSantis and Governor Abbott did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
He suggested that the state’s actions might imperil its federal relief funding. The policies, he wrote, appeared to “restrict the development of local health and safety policies and are at odds with the school district planning process,” which are required under the Education Department’s rules for receiving the relief funding.
Dr. Cardona said his department’s rules emphasize that districts have discretion over how to use their funding, and that contact tracing, indoor masking policies, and other C.D.C recommendations are permitted and encouraged.
Dr. Cardona added that the Biden administration would “continue to closely review and monitor” whether both states were meeting requirements under federal funding laws.
Dr. Cardona also expressed support for districts in both states that have defied the governors’ orders.
“The Department stands with these dedicated educators who are working to safely reopen schools and maintain safe in-person instruction,” he wrote.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) speaks with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) on the steps of the US Capitol.
Drew Angerer | Getty Images
A bipartisan infrastructure proposal by President Joe Biden and a group of senators has regained a foothold.
Even so, the Democrats’ plan to get it through Congress, along with a broader package to expand the social safety net and fight climate change, faces a well-known threat: Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell.
Biden’s proposal last week to veto the bipartisan framework unless lawmakers adopt other democratic priorities briefly threatened the deal. The president reassured some Republicans by making it clear that if passed alone, he would sign the bill. But McConnell insisted Monday that the Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill must also separate the two laws, increasing the risk that the deal could fail.
“The president has appropriately separated a potential bipartisan infrastructure bill from the massive, independent tax and spending plans that the Democrats want to pursue on a partisan basis,” the Kentucky Republican said in a statement. “Now I urge President Biden to engage Leader Schumer and Spokesman Pelosi and ensure that they follow his example.”
Biden’s statement “would be a hollow gesture” unless Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California, make the same commitment to the bipartisan plan without it Pass Democratic law, McConnell said.
CNBC policy
Read more about CNBC’s political coverage:
The statement by McConnell, who vowed to fight Biden’s economic agenda, underscores the dangers Democrats face in trying to enforce their priorities. Pressure from McConnell could undo the party’s delicate strategy of keeping its liberal and centrist members on board for both bills.
Representatives from Schumer, Pelosi and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
In a tweet on Monday, Connecticut Democratic Senator Chris Murphy offered his opinion on McConnell’s testimony, saying that “the all-consuming motivation of the GOP leader is to keep everything from happening when the Democrats are in control” .
Some progressives have threatened to oppose the bipartisan plan because it is not doing enough to combat climate change. A handful of middle-class Democrats have expressed doubts that without the Republicans they could be passing trillions of dollars in new spending.
To make sure neither of the two plans fail, Pelosi said she would not accept either of the proposals in the House of Representatives until they both reach the Senate. Schumer plans to start voting on both measures next month.
It is unclear whether Schumer and Pelosi will stick to the strategy if it means they could lose GOP votes for the bipartisan plan. In the Senate split 50:50 according to parties, an infrastructure law needs at least 60 votes to overcome a filibuster.
On Monday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Biden had contacted Schumer and Pelosi about how to proceed.
The move would take 10 Republicans to back it, if all Democrats support it, and one more GOP vote for every Democratic defection. Eleven Republicans backed the bipartisan framework, and some of those lawmakers signaled they were still on board after Biden clarified his position.
“I was very happy to see the president clarify his remarks because it didn’t match everything we were told along the way,” Senator Rob Portman, R-Ohio, told ABC News on Sunday.
Biden will try to further show his commitment to the plan this week. He will travel to Wisconsin on Tuesday to discuss the potential benefits of the Infrastructure Bill.
The framework includes $ 579 billion in new spending on roads, bridges, railways, public transportation, electric vehicle systems, electricity, broadband and water.
Correction: This story has been updated to reflect Senator Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., is the Senate Majority Leader.
A dog handler checking luggage from the Ryanair plane in Minsk, Belarus, on Sunday.Credit…Onliner.by, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
International outrage mounted on Monday as new details emerged about a brazen operation by the strongman leader of Belarus to divert a Ryanair passenger jet and arrest a dissident Belarusian journalist traveling on board.
Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken condemned the forced diversion, saying it was a “shocking act” that “endangered the lives of more than 120 passengers, including U.S. citizens.”
He demanded the “immediate release” of the journalist, Roman Protasevich.
“Initial reports suggesting the involvement of the Belarusian security services and the use of Belarusian military aircraft to escort the plane are deeply concerning and require full investigation,” Mr. Blinken said.
Britain ordered that “airlines avoid Belarusian airspace in order to keep passengers safe,” the transportation secretary, Grant Shapps, wrote on Twitter.
Mr. Shapps said that the operating permit for Belavia Belarusian Airlines was being suspended.
Michael O’Leary, the chief executive of Ryanair, an Irish-based low-cost carrier, called theoperation, which was directed by President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko of Belarus, a “state-sponsored hijacking.”
Leaders from the European Union were expected to meet Monday night to discuss possible penalties.
Sofia Sapega, the girlfriend of the arrested journalist, was also detained when the plane landed in Minsk on Sunday after a bogus bomb threat during its flight from Athens to Vilnius, Lithuania, her university in the Lithuanian capital said.
Ms. Sapega, a Russian citizen, was detained at the Minsk airport along with Mr. Protasevich under “groundless and made-up conditions,” the European Humanities University in Vilnius said in a statement demanding her release.
There was no word Monday morning from the Belarusian authorities on their whereabouts.
Lawyers seeking to help Mr. Protasevich said he was believed to be in a jail in Minsk operated by the Belarussian intelligence service. The Russian Embassy in Minsk said that Belarus had notified it of Ms. Sapega’s detention.
Roman Protasevich at a court hearing in 2017.Credit…Reuters
Five people who boarded in Athens were not on the plane when it finally arrived in Vilnius, the Lithuanian police said on Monday.
Mr. O’Leary said some of the passengers may have been agents of the Belarusian intelligence service, which is still known by its Soviet-era initials.
“We believe there were some K.G.B. agents offloaded at the airport as well,” Mr. O’Leary told Irish radio on Monday.
Mr. O’Leary said Ryanair was in the process of debriefing its crew and that the European Union and NATO were “dealing with” the situation.
The Lithuanian government called for Belarusian airspace to be closed to international flights in response to what it called a hijacking “by military force.”
The Lithuanian police said they had opened a criminal investigation, on suspicion of hijacking and kidnapping. Of 126 passengers who took off from Athens, 121 arrived in Vilnius, the police said. (Officials had earlier said there were about 170 passengers on the plane, and that six had stayed behind in Minsk.)
The Lithuanian police spoke to the pilots after they landed in Vilnius on Sunday evening, Renatas Pozela, the Lithuanian police commissioner general, said in a telephone interview.
Police investigators would be interviewing the passengers this week, he said.
“The pilots were the priority,” Mr. Pozela said. “We wanted to hear their stories. How did they see the situation? What did they do? Were there other planes?”
Mr. Pozela said he was not yet authorized to disclose any findings of the investigation.
An opposition rally to reject the presidential election results and to protest against the inauguration of President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko in Minsk, Belarus, in 2020.Credit…Tut.By, via Reuters
The chorus of condemnation and outrage from across the European Union swelled on Monday as leaders began discussing possible penalties they could direct at Belarus for its forcing down of a civilian passenger jet.
However, they are somewhat limited in the actions at their disposal, because there are already E.U. sanctions against Aleksandr G. Lukashenko, the brutal and erratic leader of Belarus who has clung to power despite huge protests against his government last year, and dozens of his immediate associates.
In a summit scheduled to take place Monday evening, European leaders are expected to discuss adding aviation-related sanctions.
The options may include designating Belarusian airspace unsafe for E.U. carriers; blocking flights from Belarus from landing in E.U. airports, and sanctions against the national flag carrier, Belavia.
E.U. leaders also called for an investigation into the circumstances of the incident by the International Commercial Aviation Organization.
While the European Union considered its options, Lithuania — the original destination of the Ryanair flight and one of the countries that shares a border with Belarus — has said it is banning flights over Belarus and strongly advising its citizens not to travel there.
Gabrielius Landsbergis, Lithuania’s minister for foreign affairs, said in a tweet that the government was responding to “unprecedented threats” from Belarus and would push for the European Union to impose further measures.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis of Greece, where the flight originated, said it was critical the European Union take specific action, especially in the context of the bloc’s frequent paralysis over foreign-affairs issues including a recent failure to agree on a statement regarding the Middle East conflict.
“Our inability to reach a consensus on recent events in Israel and Gaza — where as a union we failed to present a unified stance — must not be repeated,” Mr. Mitsotakis told the Financial Times. “The forcible grounding of a commercial passenger aircraft in order to illegally detain a political opponent and journalist is utterly reprehensible and an unacceptable act of aggression that cannot be allowed to stand.”
Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm, also promised action at the leaders’ summit.
“The outrageous and illegal behavior of the regime in Belarus will have consequences,” she said in a tweet Sunday evening, adding that there must be sanctions for those “responsible for the #Ryanair hijacking.”
President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko of Belarus in April. Rather than try to blunt diplomatic fallout on Monday, he signed new laws cracking down further on dissent.Credit…Pool photo by Sergei Sheleg
Aleksandr G. Lukashenko, the strongman ruler of Belarus and the most enduring leader in the former Soviet Union, appeared undeterred by the international outcry that has erupted after his country forced a civilian passenger jet to land and then arrested a dissident journalist who was onboard.
Rather than try to blunt diplomatic fallout on Monday, he signed new laws cracking down further on dissent.
The country placed bans on publishing unauthorized public opinion polls, on the livestreaming of unauthorized protests, and even on posting links to “banned” information.
The Belarusian Foreign Ministry’s spokesman, Anatoly Glaz, insisted that what happened to the jet was in strict accordance with aviation rules and said the country was prepared to host international experts “in order to rule out any insinuations.”
Russia, Mr. Lukashenko’s main ally, stood by him.
Maria Zakharova, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s spokeswoman, compared Sunday’s incident to the forced diversion of a plane carrying Bolivia’s president, Evo Morales, which made an unscheduled landing in Austria when he was flying home from Moscow in 2013 after other European countries refused it permission to refuel or to use their airspace.
“I’m shocked that the West is calling the incident in Belarusian airspace ‘shocking,’” Ms. Zakharova wrote on Facebook.
Dmitri S. Peskov, the Kremlin’s spokesman, also refused to join the chorus of condemnation in the West.
“The international aviation authorities need to evaluate whether or not this followed or did not follow international norms,” he told reporters. “I cannot comment on anything in this situation.”
Passengers from the diverted flight arriving in Vilnius, Lithuania, its original destination. Credit…Petras Malukas/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
The tray tables were being raised and the seat backs returned to the upright position as passengers on Ryanair Flight 4978 prepared for the scheduled landing in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius. Then, suddenly, the plane made an abrupt U-turn.
There was no explanation given.
It would be roughly 15 minutes before the pilot came over the intercom and announced that the plane would be diverting to Minsk, the capital of Belarus, according to those on board.
For many passengers, it seemed, at first, it was most likely just one of those unexpected delays that can be part of airline travel — perhaps a technical problem, some speculated.
For one passenger, however, the situation was clear. And frightening.
Roman Protasevich, a prominent Belarusian opposition journalist who had been living in exile since 2019, started to panic.
“He panicked because we were about to land in Minsk,” Marius Rutkauskas, who was sitting one row ahead of Mr. Protasevich, told the Lithuanian broadcaster LRT upon arrival in Vilnius. “He said: ‘I know that death penalty awaits me in Belarus.’”
Once in Belarus, Mr. Protasevich’s worries appeared more real than ever. The plane was surrounded by Soviet-looking officials in green uniforms, along with dogs, fire crews and technical workers from the airport.
Saulius Danauskas, a passenger who spoke to Delfi, a news website, after arriving safely in Vilnius, said it quickly became apparent to him that the notion of a bomb threat was all a ruse.
“When we landed people were standing around the plane doing nothing, looking pleased with themselves,” Mr. Danauskas said. “They didn’t let us out for half an hour,” he added. “If there was a bomb on the plane, why would they not let us out?”
Passengers were eventually told to descend in groups of five with their luggage, which was thoroughly checked by security officials.
Mr. Protasevich’s luggage was checked twice, passengers recalled. Then a security officer escorted him to the terminal, where he was arrested.
Most of the rest of the passengers were kept standing in a dark corridor for three hours. Some had to stand with their children. Guarded by security officials, they had no access to food, water or a toilet.
In retrospect, passengers noted how weird it all was.
Mantas, a passenger on the plane, told a Lithuanian news website that the pilot was “visibly nervous” during the landing in Minsk.
Alyona Alymova, one of the passengers, wrote about the experience in a Facebook post, noting that for much of the time there was only “light anxiety.”
“There was no clear understanding of what was going on,” she wrote.
Some passengers learned about the bomb threat only hours later, when they could connect to the internet.
In an Instagram post, one passenger said that they were “treated as prisoners in Minsk.” Hours later, they were allowed in an airport lounge area with a small cafeteria.
“I want to see who will be responsible for this chaos,” she said.
Roman Protasevich is a co-founder of a channel on the social media app Telegram that become a popular conduit for President Aleksandr Lukashenko’s foes to share information and organize demonstrations.Credit…EPA, via Shutterstock
A day after the dissident journalist Roman Protasevich was detained in a plot that most Hollywood producers would have dismissed as improbably dramatic, there has been no word about where he is, how long he could be held, or what will happen to him.
Mr. Protasevich, an exiled opposition figure, was taken into custody on Sunday after the flight he was on was intercepted while traveling from Athens to Vilnius, Lithuania, by a MIG-29 fighter jet under orders from the strongman president of Belarus, Aleksandr G. Lukashenko, and diverted to Minsk.
Mr. Protasevich is a co-founder and a former editor of the NEXTA channel on the social media platform Telegram, which has become a popular conduit for Mr. Lukashenko’s foes to share information and organize demonstrations.
Mr. Protasevich became a dissident as a teenager, drawing scrutiny from law enforcement. He was expelled from a prestigious school for participating in a protest rally in 2011.
He fled the country in 2019, fearing arrest. But he has continued to roil Mr. Lukashenko’s regime while living in exile in Lithuania, to the extent that he was charged in November last year with inciting public disorder and social hatred.
Also in November, the government’s main security agency in Belarus, called the K.G.B.,placed Mr. Protasevich’s name on a list of terrorists. If he is convicted of terrorism, he could face the death penalty.
The charges of inciting public disorder and social hatred carry a punishment of more than 12 years in prison.
Sofia Sapega, a 23-year-old Russian citizen and the girlfriend of Mr. Protasevich, was traveling with him on the flight, and she was also detained, according to a statement from the European Humanities University in Lithuania, where she is a student. The university said she was detained on “groundless” conditions and pleaded for help in securing her release.
An international arrivals board at Vilnius Airport, Lithuania, on Sunday, with the diverted flight at the top.Credit…Andrius Sytas/Reuters
Shortly after Ryanair Flight 4978 crossed in the airspace of Belarus, an alarming message came crackling over the radio.
The pilots were told of “a potential security threat on board.” A possible bomb.
The plane, headed from Athens in Greece to Vilnius in Lithuania, would have to be diverted to Minsk, the capital of Belarus.
And if there was any doubt about the seriousness of the situation, the pilots only needed to look out of their window, where a MIG-29 fighter had suddenly appeared to escort them.
Aleksandr G. Lukashenko, the ruler of Belarus who is often referred to as “Europe’s last dictator,” personally ordered the fighter jet to intercept the passenger plane — a fact his office proudly noted in a news release.
According to the statement, Mr. Lukashenko gave an “unequivocal order” to “make the plane do a U-turn and land.”
After the plane was forced to land, Roman Protasevich, a dissident journalist, was arrested. His girlfriend, Sofia Sapega, was also on the flight, and she, too, did not board the plane again.
The country’s interior ministry announced Mr. Protasevich’s arrest in a statement that was later deleted from its official Telegram channel.
After about seven hours on the ground in Minsk, the passenger jet, a Boeing 737-800, took off for Vilnius, landing there safely 35 minutes later.
No bomb was found on board, according to law enforcement authorities in Belarus. The Investigative Committee, Belarus’s top investigative agency, said it had opened a criminal case into a false bomb threat.
“Nothing untoward was found,” Ryanair said in statement.
Wizz Air, a discount carrier based in Hungary, said on Monday it had rerouted a flight from Kyiv, Ukraine, to Tallinn in Estonia to avoid flying in Belarus airspace.Credit…Andrew Boyers/Reuters
Some airlines in Eastern Europe began diverting their planes to avoid Belarus airspace on Monday, a day after that country’s leader sent a fighter jet to force down a Ryanair flight, allowing the authorities to seize an opposition journalist on board.
The shocking move has unleashed a storm of criticism against Aleksandr G. Lukashenko, the Belarus president who has clung to power despite huge protests last year. The European Union is considering penalties against the country.
At least two airlines said that they were diverting flights away from Belarus airspace as a precaution, but most carriers seem to be waiting to be told what to do by the European authorities.
Later in the day, Lithuania’s transport commissioner announced that all flights to and from Lithuanian airports must avoid the airspace of neighboring Belarus, Reuters reported. The minister, Marius Skuodis, said the ban would begin Tuesday at 3 a.m. local time.
Ryanair’s chief executive, Michael O’Leary, on Monday condemned the actions of the Belarus authorities, who ordered the plane, flying from Athens to Vilnius, Lithuania, to land in the Belarus capital of Minsk and then arrested Roman Protasevich, a dissident journalist on board, and his companion.
“This was a case of state-sponsored hijacking, state-sponsored piracy,” Mr. O’Leary told interviewers on Newstalk, an Irish radio broadcaster.
Mr. O’Leary, however, said he was waiting for instructions from European Union authorities in Brussels about whether to steer other flights away from Belarus.
He added that it would be an easy matter for his flights to avoid Belarus. “We don’t fly over Belarus much,” he said. “It would be a very minor adjustment to fly over” Poland instead, he added. Ryanair, a discount airline based in Ireland, describes itself as Europe’s largest airline group.
Some analysts say that the European Union may be reluctant to ban flights over Belarus because such a move would create difficulties for European airlines. Airlines are already avoiding Ukraine, the country’s southern neighbor, because of conflict with Russia, and so putting Belarus air space off limits as well would present serious routing difficulties on flights between Europe to Asia.
“Flying to Asia from Europe without crossing Belarus is likely too costly and challenging,” wrote analysts from Eurasia Group, a research firm, in a note on Monday.
Other airlines, flying shorter routes, are already making changes.
AirBaltic, the Latvian national airline, said that its flights would avoid entering Belarus airspace “until the situation becomes clearer or a decision is issued by the authorities.” The rerouted flights include ones from Riga, the airline’s home base, to Odessa in Ukraine and Tbilisi in Georgia.
Another airline that flies in the area, Wizz Air, said that it would alter the path of a flight from Kyiv in Ukraine to Tallinn in Estonia so as to skirt Belarus.
“We are continuously monitoring and evaluating the situation,” a spokesman for Wizz Air, which is based in Hungary, said.
Peter Thiel, Co-Founder and Chairman of Palantir Technologies Inc., speaks during a press conference in Tokyo, Japan on Monday, November 18, 2019.
Kiyoshi Ota | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Tech investor Peter Thiel criticized major US tech companies for being too close to China when they appeared at a virtual Richard Nixon Foundation event on Tuesday.
Co-founder of PayPal and after an early investment on the Facebook board of directors, Thiel is an outspoken voice in the technology investment world known for opposing opinions and conservative leanings. He has supported defense companies like Palantir and publicly endorsed former President Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.
On Wednesday, the Nixon session focused on China, and he was accompanied by former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien.
Thiel criticized Google for its work on artificial intelligence with Chinese universities, in part based on conversations it allegedly had with insiders of the company, according to a transcript of the CNBC-reviewed event.
“Since everything in China is a civil-military merger, Google has worked effectively with the Chinese military, not the American military,” said Thiel. He’s also sad that Google “insiders” told him they worked with the Chinese because “they thought they might as well hand the technology off on their doorstep because if they didn’t give it, it would be stolen anyway . “
A Google spokesman told CNBC, “These allegations are baseless. We do not partner with the Chinese military. We are proud to continue our long history of working with the US government, including the Department of Defense, in many areas, including cybersecurity , Recruitment and health care. “
Thiel had already criticized Google in 2019 and said that the FBI and the CIA should investigate Google and ask whether it had been compromised by Chinese spies.
Thiel also said Apple is unlikely to confront China due to its massive supply chain for making iPhones and other products in the country. He noted that other big tech companies like Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft don’t have as extensive business interests in the country, in some cases because the Chinese government has curtailed their options there.
He called on the US to put “a lot of pressure” and control on Apple because there is a labor supply chain in the country.
“Apple is probably the one that is structurally a real problem, since the entire iPhone supply chain consists of China,” said Thiel. “Apple has real synergies with China.”
During the conversation, he also appeared to change his position on Bitcoin. Thiel has invested in Bitcoin companies and previously said he was “Long Bitcoin” and considered it the “digital equivalent of gold”.
On Tuesday, Thiel said that Bitcoin is threatening the US dollar.
“Although I’m a kind of pro-crypto-pro-Bitcoin maximalist, I wonder if Bitcoin should also be partially thought of as a Chinese financial weapon against the US, where it threatens fiat money, but it threatens the US in particular Dollars, and China wants to do things to weaken it, so China’s long Bitcoin, “said Thiel.
Texas governor Greg Abbott Thursday criticized President Joe Biden for calling his decision to lift Covid-19 restrictions and masking mandates earlier this week “Neanderthal thinking,” making undocumented immigrants for the persistent Outbreak of the state responsible.
Abbott’s comments come after its much-criticized decision on Tuesday to lift most of the state’s Covid-19 restrictions, including a statewide mask mandate. Texas businesses will be allowed to open “100%” starting March 10, he said. Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves took a similar move around the same time.
Biden on Wednesday hit governors for a “big mistake”, adding that “the last thing we need is Neanderthal thinking”.
Abbott told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that the comment was “not the kind of word a president should use” and accused immigrants crossing the southern border of spreading the coronavirus. The Republican governor said the Biden government “refused to test them for the virus.”
“The Biden government has released immigrants in South Texas who exposed Texans to Covid. Some of those people were put on buses and took that Covid to other states in the United States,” Abbott told CNBC. “This is a Neanderthal approach to dealing with the Covid situation.”
While the Republican governor failed to provide details, Telemundo reported Tuesday that some migrants released by Border Patrol in the Texas city of Brownsville subsequently tested positive for Covid-19. Since testing began in the city on January 25, 108 migrants have tested positive for Covid-19, which corresponds to 6.3% of all test subjects, according to the report.
“The Biden government must stop importing Covid into our country,” Abbott said.
Senior U.S. health officials have repeatedly urged states not to lift Covid-19 restrictions as statewide coronavirus cases and deaths stall and highly communicable variants threaten to “hijack” the recent decline in infections.
Abbott, however, defended his decision to repeal the state’s mask requirements, claiming that Texans already know that “the safe standard is to wear a mask, among other things.”
“Do you really need the state to tell you what you already know for your personal behavior?” Abbott told CNBC.
The governor added that the state’s coronavirus infections are “at a four-month low” and Texas hospitals stand ready to treat an influx of patients if needed. According to a CNBC analysis of the CNBC analysis compiled by Johns Hopkins University, Texas reports a daily average of around 7,265 new cases over the past week. That’s a decrease from the high of more than 20,400 daily cases the state reported in January.
However, new infections are creeping back across the state, with the average daily new cases increasing nearly 13% from a week ago.
Abbott said most of the state’s coronavirus that spread over the holidays was being driven by indoor gatherings, not restaurants and other businesses. The newly lifted restrictions “aren’t really that transformative” because the state’s mask mandate was not enforced and businesses were already 75% busy, he said.
“Maybe it seems like a big difference to the people in New York,” Abbott said.
WASHINGTON – President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. criticized the speed of vaccine distribution under the Trump administration on Tuesday, pledging to accelerate the pace of his inauguration while issuing a sober warning of the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic.
Making a grim assessment of the months ahead, Mr Biden said this would be “a very difficult time for our nation” and admonished Americans to make the sacrifices necessary to overcome the destruction of the virus.
“It will take all of the determination and determination that we as Americans have to make this happen,” he said.
He warned that if the current pace of vaccine administration continues under President Trump, “it will take years, not months” to vaccinate the nation. And he said he directed his team to prepare for a more aggressive effort after taking office in three weeks, and promised to “move heaven and earth to point us in the right direction”.
“This will be the greatest operational challenge we have ever faced as a nation,” said Biden during a speech in Wilmington, Delaware, “but we will make it.”
Mr Biden will assume the presidency during a health crisis that has killed more than 338,000 people in the United States and caused widespread economic disruption. The distribution of vaccines to the American people will be an early test for him.
Earlier this month, federal officials announced that 20 million people would receive their first vaccinations by the end of the year. As of Monday morning, 11.4 million doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines had been shipped across the country, but only 2.1 million people in the US had received their first dose, according to a dashboard published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is being managed This most likely reflects a reporting delay of several days.
Mr Biden has vowed to get 100 million vaccine shots in the arms of Americans in his first 100 days in office. Vaccination currently requires two shots, which suggests that around 50 million people would be vaccinated during that time.
On Tuesday, Mr Biden announced new members to his Covid-19 response team, including vaccination, testing and supply chain management coordinators.
Operation Warp Speed, the Trump administration’s drive to accelerate vaccine development and adoption, spent billions of dollars to help drug companies test and manufacture their vaccines and ensure they have a buyer. These investments have helped vaccines become available much faster than many experts had predicted.
Even so, the launch of these vaccines has started slower than federal officials had hoped.
“We are certainly not at the numbers we wanted at the end of December,” said Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the government’s foremost infectious disease expert, on CNN Tuesday. But he added, “I think when we get into January we will see an increase in momentum.”
Moncef Slaoui, the scientific advisor to Operation Warp Speed, said just last week that the chances were good that the first 100 million people in the US would be vaccinated by the end of March.
Michael Pratt, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services, defended the pace of vaccine adoption. In a statement, he said it was “evidence of the success of Operation Warp Speed” that 20 million cans had already been made available to states and other jurisdictions. (Not all cans have been shipped.) And Mr Trump said in a tweet that it was “a matter for states to distribute the vaccines as soon as they are brought into designated areas by the federal government.”
The pace of vaccination in the United States is expected to accelerate in the first few months of next year as more vaccines become available and more facilities distribute them to a wider range of Americans. To date, vaccines have mainly been given to healthcare workers in hospitals, as well as residents of nursing homes and other long-term care facilities.
Updated
Apr. 29, 2020, 10:06 am ET
In his remarks on Tuesday, Mr Biden said he could “return to normal next year”, but also offered a threatening prognosis for the near future. The next few months could be “the toughest in this entire pandemic,” he said, adding, “I know it’s hard to hear, but it’s the truth.”
“We have to steel our spikes for what lies ahead,” he said.
He expressed hope that Mr Trump, who refused to wear a mask and made fun of Mr Biden during the campaign to wear a mask, could continue to make a positive impact on the public.
“It would make a big difference for President Trump to say, ‘Wear masks,'” said Biden. “I hope the President will clearly urge all Americans to take the vaccine when it becomes available.”
Hours before Mr Biden spoke, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris received her first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine. The recording was televised, as was Mr. Biden’s last week when he received the Pfizer vaccine in a Delaware hospital.
Ms. Harris received the Moderna vaccine at United Medical Center, a public hospital in southeast Washington. She encouraged Americans to get vaccinated too, saying, “It’s relatively painless. It goes very quickly. It’s safe. ”Her husband, Doug Emhoff, also received the vaccine Tuesday.
State and local officials have long said they need more money to distribute and administer vaccines. The $ 900 billion aid package that Mr Trump put into law on Sunday provides more than $ 8 billion for vaccine distribution, roughly equivalent to the $ 8.4 billion health departments have asked Congress to do . The CDC sent $ 200 million to the states for the effort in September, followed by another $ 140 million this month.
The government has said the goal is to have anyone wanting a vaccine able to have a vaccine by June, but it has not yet provided enough vaccines to be approved for use. The United States is committed to receiving enough vaccines to vaccinate 200 million of the approximately 260 million American adults who are eligible for the vaccination.
Moderna has agreed to ship 200 million doses of its vaccine to the US, with the first half scheduled for late March and the second half at the end of June.
Pfizer has also agreed to provide 200 million doses. With each person taking two shots, 120 million cans are running out.
In the summer, before the vaccine was shown to be effective, Pfizer agreed to give the United States an initial 100 million doses. At that time, the government passed on an offer from Pfizer to secure additional supplies.
However, when it became clear that more doses were needed, the government resumed talks with Pfizer. In a deal announced last week, Pfizer agreed to provide an additional 70 million doses by the end of June and an additional 30 million doses by the end of July.
Under the deal, the government agreed to invoke the Defense Equipment Manufacture Act, a Korean War-era law that allows the government to secure critical supplies faster by forcing suppliers to place orders from a specific contractor prioritize. Operation Warp Speed has applied the Defense Production Act 18 times to date, including making glass vials and syringes, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.
Mr Biden said Tuesday that when he takes office he will also apply the Defense Production Act and said he will “instruct private industry to expedite the manufacture of the materials and protective equipment needed for the vaccines”.
The government has some means of providing vaccines to 60 million American adults that are not covered by existing contracts with Pfizer and Moderna.
It may be possible to exercise options to buy more doses of Pfizer or Moderna. The government could also turn to third-party vaccines that are expected to report late-stage results in the coming weeks. Johnson & Johnson is expecting results from a study late next month on its single vaccine, a format that is easier to dispense than Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. A US study evaluating a two-shot vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford could yield results in February.
On Tuesday, Mr Biden admitted he was not yet in control of the government’s virus response, saying, “My ability to change the direction of this pandemic will begin in three weeks.” And he made it clear that next year he would need help from Congress to provide additional funding to carry out his plans.
But even when he warned of the difficult weeks and months, he was optimistic in the long term.
“We’ll get through this,” he said. “The days are brighter.”
Thomas Kaplan reported from Washington and Rebecca Robbins from Bellingham, Wash.
Former Health and Social Services Officer Dr. Mario Ramirez told CNBC that he was “concerned” about equitable access to Covid-19 resources around the world and criticized the Trump administration for not participating in the multilateral COVAX facility.
“One of the things that was regrettable about the Trump administration’s approach to the pandemic was that they chose not to attend the COVAX facility,” said Ramirez, a former coordinator for the HHS Pandemic and Emerging Threats Office of Global Affairs. “The COVAX facility was an opportunity for emerging economies to jointly invest in vaccines and gain access to all of these resources.”
According to a report by NBC News, poorer countries around the world may have to wait years to get vaccines while vaccines are currently being rolled out in rich countries like the US and the UK.
In a comprehensive interview on Wednesday evening during The News with Shepard Smith, Ramirez also discussed his experience with Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine. One of tens of thousands of Americans who have now received it, he said he felt “great” after having “a little pain in his arm”.
All 50 states have now started giving Pfizer’s vaccinations. An FDA advisory committee will meet Thursday to discuss whether or not to give Moderna’s vaccine the go-ahead just two days after announcing the shot is highly potent. If the panel approves the Moderna vaccine, nearly 6 million doses will be deployed across the country next week. The federal government has already signed deals with Pfizer and Moderna to deliver a total of 200 million vaccine doses by the first quarter of the new year.
Ramirez told Shepard Smith that there are several systems in place to ensure people get their critical second dose of the Covid vaccine. He was given a physical paper dosage card and said it was part of the process to remind people to get their second dose. The ambulance added that he also receives regular feedback from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention through his V-Safe app. Ramirez said another critical aspect of helping people remember they received the second dose was to sign up for the first dose.
“For example, we know from previous studies with the HPV vaccine that complying with this second visit is a big contributor to compliance,” Ramirez said.
