Gottlieb: 'Every Reason To Believe' Trump Will Recover

U.S. President Donald Trump has a "good chance of doing well" after he and First Lady Melania Trump announced they tested positive for the coronavirus, former FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb — a Trump appointee — said on CNBC's "Squawk Box" Friday. 

What Happened: Trump is in "good health by all reports" and will receive excellent care from White House staff, Gottlieb said.

Trump is also in a "high risk" group because of his age and an elevated body mass index.

Statistics out of the United Kingdom show that 11.6 out of 1,000 people in a similar age category will succumb to the virus, Gottlieb said.

Statistics out of Geneva, Switzerland point to a lower mortality rate in the age group, at 5.6%, while another in Spain showed 3.4%.

"[It's] not trivial, but there is every reason to believe the president would do well and recover," he said.

What's Next: Regardless of symptoms, Trump's doctors are likely considering having him take Gilead Sciences, Inc.'s

GILD 0.68% remdesivir, Gottlieb said.

Even though the treatment is meant for hospitalized patients, there is reason to believe taking it earlier in the infection period leads to improved outcomes, he said. 

Steroids are unlikely to be taken, as they are meant for sick people with an inflammatory response, the former FDA commissioner said. 

https://www.benzinga.com/media/20/10/17754332/ex-fda-commissioner-says-theres-every-reason-to-believe-trump-will-recover-from-coronavirus

Amazon Counts Over 19,000 Employees Infected By COVID-19

After being pressed by labor groups, regulators, and even politicians, Amazon.com AMZN 1.94% has finally disclosed the number of its workers infected by Covid-19. Amazon disclosed that more than 19,000 of its workers have contacted the virus in the period between March 1 and September 19. The exact number counts 19, 816 workers, which is 1.44% of the total number of Amazon employees in the U.S. 

Despite being pressed, Amazon has been resistant to release this data. It took the joint effort of its warehouse workers, who claimed that the company didn’t grant them sufficient protection from the pandemic, for Amazon to finally publish the figures. It turned out that warehouse workers convinced Amazon to react by compiling a crowdsourced database of infections. Until Thursday, Amazon was refusing to publish the number of infected and even said that these numbers could mislead the public. 

At least eight Amazon workers have died of Covid-19, but the company has yet to release an updated figure. Still, Amazon conducts thousands of tests daily and they expect that by November, 50,000 tests per day will be completed. 

According to the company, the rate of infection among its workers was 42% less than expected, with a company spokesman saying the have kept the situation “under control" and that the rate of infection in its warehouses is way lower than that in surrounding communities. Some Amazon employees like its warehouse workers in Minnesota dispute that claim.

https://www.benzinga.com/news/20/10/17757534/amazon-counts-over-19-000-employees-infected-by-covid-19

Court revives GlaxoSmithKline verdict against Teva

A federal appeals court on Friday reinstated a 2017 jury verdict that required Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd to pay GlaxoSmithKline Plc more than $235 million (182 million pounds) for infringing a patent for its blood pressure drug Coreg.

The 2-1 decision was issued by the U.S. Federal Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C.

https://www.marketscreener.com/quote/stock/GLAXOSMITHKLINE-PLC-9590199/news/GlaxoSmithKline-U-S-appeals-court-revives-GlaxoSmithKline-verdict-against-Teva-31465427/

House passes Democratic COVID-19 aid plan after bipartisan deal proves elusive

The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday approved a $2.2 trillion Democratic plan to provide more economic relief from the coronavirus pandemic, as a bipartisan deal continued to elude House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the White House.

Objections from top Republicans are likely to doom the House Democrats’ plan in the Senate. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has called the $2.2 trillion price tag “outlandish,” although Democrats have reduced the cost of their proposal by over a trillion dollars since May. The House vote was 214-207.

No Republican voted for the Democratic plan, although 18 Democrats voted no, many of them moderates from swing districts who have been urging Pelosi to bring a bipartisan proposal to the House floor.

“Today’s package is another partisan exercise that will never become law,” Representative Abigail Spanberger, one of the Democrats who voted no, said.

Republican President Donald Trump’s negotiating team has suggested a $1.6 trillion response, and the White House on Thursday dismissed Democrats’ $2.2 trillion plan as not serious.

Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin have talked every day this week, including a 50-minute phone call Thursday, in an effort to negotiate a bipartisan aid package to respond to the economic fallout from a pandemic that has killed more than 207,000 Americans and thrown millions out of work.

Congress and the White House approved more than $3 trillion worth of coronavirus relief measures earlier this year, but Mnuchin, as well as members of Congress from both parties, have argued more stimulus is needed.

Asked if there would be a resolution to her negotiations with the administration on Thursday evening, Pelosi told reporters, “No.” She gave no details of their talks but said: “Even if we came to some agreement, nothing is agreed to until everything is agreed to. It’s the language.”

In the absence of a deal with the White House, and with lawmakers preparing to leave Washington for the remaining weeks of the 2020 presidential and congressional campaign, the Democratic-majority House went ahead and passed the Democrats’ proposal.

“Frankly if we had reached a bipartisan agreement...we wouldn’t have this bill on the floor,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said. “But we also want to let the American people know where we stand.”

Pelosi and Mnuchin differed over aid to state and local governments, Democratic demands for a child tax credit and stronger worker safety protections, healthcare provisions and help for small businesses.

After Pelosi and Mnuchin’s phone call Thursday afternoon, Pelosi’s deputy chief of staff Drew Hammill wrote on Twitter: “The two discussed further clarifications on amounts and language, but distance on key areas remain.”

White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany dismissed the Democratic proposal as “not a serious offer.”

Pelosi said of the White House proposal on Bloomberg TV: “This isn’t half a loaf. What they’re offering is the heel of the loaf.”

Republican Senator Mike Braun told CNBC on Thursday that a deal worth over $1.6 trillion could be rejected by one-third to one-half of Senate Republicans. That would still allow a bill to pass with support from Democrats.

Lawmakers and securities analysts viewed talks as a last-gasp effort to secure relief ahead of the Nov. 3 election for tens of millions of Americans and business including U.S. airlines, which have begun furloughing over 32,000 workers.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-usa-congress/u-s-house-passes-democratic-covid-19-aid-plan-after-bipartisan-deal-proves-elusive-idUSKBN26M68G

Schools in suburbs, small cities reopening without COVID spike; big cities up next

U.S. schools from kindergarten to high school have avoided a spike in COVID-19 cases, early data show, but medical experts say the real test is coming as students in large densely-populated cities such as New York and Miami return to classrooms.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week said more than 270,000 COVID-19 cases had been reported in children aged 5-17 since March. Cases in school-age children ticked slightly higher in mid-September as more schools reopened, but remains well below the peak set in mid-July.

Over 700 primary, middle and high schools that have at least partially reopened, reported that 0.07% of students and 0.14% of staff had a confirmed coronavirus infection in the first half of September, according to data collected by Brown University bit.ly/3kWpwnJ.

While the Brown sample is a fraction of the United States, and national statistics are scarce, a study by Switzerland's Insights for Education of 191 countries found reopening schools here is not linked to an increase in COVID-19 rates.

“There is starting to be some reassuring data that when you put in place the right measures - and have control of community spread ... you can open schools safely,” said Dr. Nathaniel Beers, co-author of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ school opening guidelines.

Tougher days may be ahead.

Attendance so far has been mostly voluntary and reopenings concentrated in suburbs and smaller cities. Medical experts said additional challenges for big cities include space constraints, older buildings with painted-shut windows, inadequate air circulation, little outdoor space and limited funding for efforts such as tracking down contacts of those infected.

The $2 trillion federal stimulus package passed in March included $13.2 billion for K-12 education, but progress on another bill has stalled.

“Many urban school districts are struggling,” Beers said. “The COVID-19 virus has had a disproportionate impact on Black, brown and indigenous people as well as lower socioeconomic groups.”

New York City, the largest public school district in the United States, this week began reopening here after two delays. Infections have spiked in some neighborhoods, though, and officials have said they could reverse course if that endures.

In response to criticism that poorer students were being hurt the most in the Los Angeles area, county elected officials this week agreed to consider reopening early grades for a limited number of schools and expressed caution.

“We have to remember that with every re-opening there is increased risk for COVID-19 transmission,” the public health director, Barbara Ferrer, said in a statement.

Florida’s Miami-Dade County, the fourth largest school district, plans to return students to classrooms on a staggered basis starting next week. The state required its public schools to reopen in August, but areas where the virus was too prevalent - such as Miami - were exempted.

Florida's September cases in school-age children fell over the month, as measured by seven-day averages of new cases, according to epidemiologist Jason Salemi at the University of South Florida. New case rates during the month were steady to down in elementary-age kids with more variation in middle and high school populations. They are down dramatically from mid-July. here

“If you implement as many mitigation strategies as you can, I believe you can be relatively safe in bringing kids back to school,” Salemi said.

The American Federation of Teachers union lost a lawsuit to delay Florida reopenings, but President Randi Weingarten said stricter adherence to virus mitigation measures lowered infections in August and September.

“The lessons are that masks work and physical distancing works ... But if you take your foot off the cautionary safeguards then woe is us,” Weingarten said.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-usa-schools/u-s-schools-in-suburbs-small-cities-reopening-without-covid-spike-big-cities-up-next-idUSKBN26N1TP