Fauci concerned about misleading information being given to Trump

President Trump is sometimes getting information that is out of context or downright wrong, Dr. Anthony Fauci said Monday.

CNN’s Brian Stelter asked Fauci if he’s worried that Dr. Scott Atlas is sharing misleading information with the President. “Well yeah, I’m concerned that sometimes things are said that are really taken either out of context or actually incorrect,” Fauci answered.

Fauci said he did not see it as a matter of conflict. 

“If I have an issue with someone, I’ll try and sit down with them and let them know why I differ with them and see if we can come to some sort of resolution,” Fauci said. “So, I mean my differences with Dr. Atlas, I’m always willing to sit down and talk with him and see if we could resolve those differences.”

Stelter asked if there could be legitimate disagreements about issues such as masks.

“When it comes to a mask…I can just tell you how I feel. And what I feel is not very much different from what has been expressed by Dr. Deborah Birx and Dr. Robert Redfield, the director of the CDC. Masks are critically important in preventing the transmission and acquisition of SARS coronavirus 2. The data are strong. There’s no doubt about that.”

More on this: US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Robert Redfield is concerned that Atlas, a White House coronavirus task force member, is providing Trump with misleading information about Covid-19, a federal official told CNN.

NBC News reported Monday that Redfield was overheard during a phone call in public on a commercial airline to say, “Everything he says is false.” NBC News, which heard the comment, said Redfield acknowledged after the flight from Atlanta to Washington, D.C., that he was speaking about Dr. Scott Atlas, a neuroradiologist who joined the White House coronavirus task force in August.

NBC said that Redfield, in a conversation with a colleague that took place on Friday, suggested Atlas is providing Trump with misleading data about the efficacy of masks, young people’s susceptibility to the coronavirus and herd immunity.

In a statement to CNN, a CDC spokesman did not deny the conversation took place.

In a statement sent Monday afternoon, the CDC acknowledged Redfield and Atlas have “different positions” on some issues: “The article quotes Dr. Redfield as saying “Everything he says is false” but it cannot supply the context for that statement since only one side of the private conversation being eavesdropped on was heard. Positions on three issues, the value of wearing a mask, youth COVID-19 infections, and where we are currently with herd immunity, are the positions that Dr. Redfield has different positions on than Dr. Atlas. The doctors agree on many other issues.”

A federal health official tells CNN, more broadly, “bottomline, the story is accurate.”

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President Trump announced a plan to deploy 150 million rapid coronavirus tests from Abbott to states across the nation to help with school reopening efforts.

Trump claims the testing effort would “allow every state on a very regular basis test every teacher who needs it.”

“I’m pleased to report we’re announcing our plan to distribute 150 million Abbott point of care tests in the coming weeks,” Trump said in the Rose Garden Monday.

Trump outlined that 100 million of the tests will be sent to states and territories, 50 million tests will go to protect the most vulnerable communities, 18 million will go to nursing homes, 10 million to hospice and home health, and one million for historically black colleges and tribal nation colleges.

The White House announced Aug. 27 that the federal government would purchase the tests but offered few details on rollout in the following days. 

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar provided some details on the ramp-up during a call with the nation’s governors on Aug. 31.

“There’s a ramp-up right now. We certainly expect that by late October, November, we’ll be getting into the 30-40 million per month and it will top at 48 million per month,” he said, according to audio obtained by CNN, adding that factories in Maine and Illinois are “just getting up” but “will achieve a mass of about 48 million (tests) within the next several months.” 

And Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said on CNBC Sept. 14 that the tests would go to schools and nursing homes.

Adm. Brett Giroir, the administration’s coronavirus testing czar, said Monday that governors will have flexibility regarding deployment of the Abbott BinaxNOW tests, but offered some prioritization guidance. 

Giroir said that this was communicated to governors during a Monday call led by Vice President Mike Pence.

Minutes later, Trump criticized some governors for not reopening their states quickly enough.

“We have too many states that are locked down right now… nobody knows what the governors are doing actually,” Trump said.

His remarks come as cases are rising over the last week in 21 states.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story included the wrong number of rapid tests that will be deployed to states. The Trump administration plans to deploy 150 million rapid coronavirus tests.

Citing “sufficient progress in the fight against Covid-19,” Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced the easing of phase four guidelines for businesses starting Oct. 1.  

Restaurants will be allowed to expand indoor capacity to 40%, bars can reopen for indoor service, and may serve until 1 a.m, according to a news release. Class sizes for fitness and after-school programs will be allowed to expand and personal services that require the removal of a mask allowed to resume.  

The city has issued additional guidelines for businesses and customers:

Kenya will extend its nightly Covid-19 curfew for another 60 days with shortened hours from 11 p.m. to 4 a.m. local time, but bars and the sale of alcohol in ordinary eateries will be permitted effective Tuesday, President Uhuru Kenyatta said in a televised address on Monday. 

“The Covid positivity rate has fallen from 13% in June, 7% in August and is now at 4.4% in September,” President Kenyatta said. 

The size of public gatherings for weddings and funerals will also be allowed to increase. 

“The possibility of a second wave is real,” President Kenyatta said as he urged Kenyans to maintain caution and continue preventative measures in this “new normal.”

The nationwide curfew was previously from 9 p.m. — 4 a.m. local time.

“Myrtle Beach Bike Week,” an annual fall motorcycle rally, is underway Sept. 28 through Oct. 4 outside of city limits in Horry County, South Carolina. This year, the event required a special waiver from the state — all events with more than 250 people require such a waiver. 

One of the organizers of the event, Sonny Copeland, is located in North Carolina. Copeland told CNN the event actually spans 70 miles and often sees up to 25,000 people across the entire journey throughout the week.

When asked about special protocols during Covid-19, Copeland said he tells people to “use common sense,” and that mask wearing is up to the individual.

“I think people are smart enough to take care of themselves,” Copeland said.

But Alex Clark, director of marketing and communications for the South Carolina Department of Commerce, said no event would be granted a waiver without including plans for the requirement of face coverings in accordance to local ordinances. The approved event on South Carolina’s website is listed as having social distancing and face mask requirements.

Clark said the application for the South Carolina event waiver shows both indoors and outdoors activity. She told CNN the indoor capacity limit is 300, while the outdoor portion will be hosted on 2.43 acres, holding approximately 2,900 safely, with 6-foot social distancing at all times.

Kelly Moore, director of public information in Horry County, SC, said the county has issued two special event permits to businesses. This is fewer than the five permits issued for the same event last year.

Horry County, SC does have a face covering ordinance, which states that a person who fails to comply shall be guilty of a civil infraction, punishable by a fee of $25.00 for a first offense, $50.00 for a second offense, and $100.00 for a third and subsequent offense.

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New York state is making 200 rapid testing machines immediately available Monday to the top zip codes with the highest percentage positivity for Covid-19, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said.

The public and private schools in those zip codes are strongly encouraged to request a rapid testing machine, which can do four tests per hour, and start testing students.

“The key with these clusters is to jump on them quickly, attack them from all sides, get the testing so you can do contact tracing and you can isolate, get mask compliance up, hand sanitizer, and gathering compliance bars restaurants, et cetera,” he said. 

The state will contact local government and schools but to accelerate this plan the governor is calling on local governments to contact the state. 

The top 20 of the states total 1,769 zip codes in the state have an infection rate of about 10%, the governor said.

The infection rate in the top 10 zip codes is about 15%. Those top 10 zip codes represents 2.9% of the state’s population and 25% of the cases.

Among those referenced by the governor explicitly:

#Hotspots##

United Airlines has agreed to not furlough any of its pilots until at least next June, according to a union email obtained by CNN. United planned to furlough 2,850 of its 13,000 pilots in only three days when CARES Act pandemic payroll support expires.

Some context: CNN analysis finds at least 50,000 airline workers are facing furloughs that start on Thursday. Airline CEOs and labor groups are lobbying Congress for a six-month extension of the Payroll Support Program costing $28 billion.

The incidence of Covid-19 among adolescents appears to be much higher than what’s seen among younger children, according to a new report from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The report, published on Monday, found the average weekly incidence of Covid-19 among adolescents ages 12 to 17 between May and September was about 37 cases per 100,000 children—nearly double the 19 cases per 100,000 children ages 5 to 11.

“Although mortality and hospitalization in school-aged children was low, Hispanic ethnicity, Black race, and underlying conditions were more commonly reported among children who were hospitalized or admitted to an ICU, providing additional evidence that some children might be at increased risk for severe illness associated with COVID-19,” the report said.

More on this report: The report included data on 277,285 laboratory-confirmed Covid-19 cases among school-aged children in the United States from March 1 to Sept. 19. Among those cases, 37% were in children ages 5 to 11 and 63% were in adolescents. 

The report also noted that the weekly incidence and percentage of positive Covid-19 tests among the school-aged patients appeared to vary over time and by region.

Overall, 58% of the patients reported at least one Covid-19 symptom, 5% reported no symptoms and information was missing or unknown for the rest of the cases. The data also showed that 1.2% were hospitalized, including 404 patients who required ICU admission and 51 patients who died of Covid-19.

At least one underlying health condition was reported for 3% of all the cases, such as asthma, diabetes, psychological conditions, cardiovascular disease and severe obesity, according to the report.

The data might underestimate the true incidence of disease among school-aged children, as testing was often prioritized for people with symptoms and those without symptoms may not have been tested as often, the researchers noted.

Yet overall, the CDC researchers wrote, “These findings can provide a baseline for monitoring national trends.”

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo extended residential tenant eviction protections amid the pandemic through Jan. 1.

The “Safe Harbor Act” protects tenants from Covid-19 related residential evictions and foreclosures. 

Commercial eviction protection had already been extended, he said.