U.S. intel says China's cover-up made it worse; Trump downplays

Otherwise, Trump sees 'good' relationship

President Donald Trump evidently agrees with intelligence assessments that China lowballed disclosures of the severity of the coronavirus epidemic in the city of Wuhan late last year. He just doesn't seem to want to make that big a deal about it.

A classified report for the White House from the U.S. intelligence community concluded that China deliberately concealed the extent of the outbreak in late 2019, underreporting both COVID-19 cases and deaths, Bloomberg News reported. China publicly has reported only about 82,000 cases and 3,300 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Stacks of thousands of urns outside funeral homes in Hubei province, where Wuhan is the largest city, are among factors that have driven public doubt of Beijing’s official story.

“Without commenting on any classified information, this much is painfully obvious: The Chinese Communist Party has lied, is lying and will continue to lie about coronavirus to protect the regime,” said Sen. Ben Sasse, a Nebraska Republican.

Earlier this year, Trump seemed to be accepting the reports and thanked President Xi Jinping for China's "transparency." Now officials suggest they were lulled into underestimating the danger. Coronavirus went from epidemic to pandemic. More than 4,000 Americans are dead, and projections for U.S. fatalities top 100,000. 

Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, said Tuesday: “The medical community made — interpreted the Chinese data as: This was serious, but smaller than anyone expected.” Vice President Mike Pence said Wednesday on CNN: “The reality is that we could have been better off if China had been more forthcoming.”

But Trump, during Wednesday's coronavirus briefing at the White House, said he hadn't seen the intelligence report and didn't want to dwell upon the underreporting charge. He told reporters that Beijing’s tally appeared “to be a little bit on the light side, and I’m being nice when I say that, relative to what we witnessed and what was reported.” But what Trump wanted to stress more was his "very good" relationship with Xi.

"We had a great call the other night,” Trump said. “We are working together on a lot of different things including trade. They’re buying a lot, they’re spending a lot of money. They’re giving it to our farmers.” He added: "As to whether or not their numbers are accurate, I’m not an accountant from China.”

Stockpile shockers

Officials at the Department of Homeland Security acknowledge that the government’s emergency stockpile of respirator masks, gloves and other medical supplies is running low and is nearly exhausted, The Washington Post reported. That has left the federal government and the states no alternative but to compete in a global marketplace rife with profiteering and price-gouging.

“The stockpile was designed to respond to handful of cities. It was never built or designed to fight a 50-state pandemic,” said a DHS official. 

During Wednesday’s briefing, Trump confirmed the federal stockpile is nearly depleted, telling reporters his administration has sent supplies “directly to hospitals.”

The New York Times reports that thousands of the 10,000 ventilators in the stockpile aren't available because no maintenance has been performed on them since a contract lapsed last summer. The revelation came after state officials reported that some of the ventilators they received didn't work.

Janison: Playing catch-up

By now it is clear for all to see that the coronavirus got a major head start on the Trump administration and on communities across America. Also clear, writes Newsday's Dan Janison, is how hard it is now to catch up with a runaway disease.

State officials say FEMA has been competing with them on equipment purchases. Not only is a nationwide need for ventilators for COVID-19 patients unresolved, but there are reported scarcities of related drugs that the federal government may soon need to address.

Politico quoted an administration official describing an odd episode. Seeking protective gear for American doctors and nurses, the official appealed to Thailand for help — only to be told that a U.S. shipment of the very same supplies was on its way to Bangkok. That led aides to scramble for more coordination. 

The president in mid-March announced a partnership with big retailers like Walmart, Walgreens, CVS and Target to set up drive-thru testing sites around the country. But the Department of Health and Human Services confirmed to CNN that only five of the 30,000 locations are offering drive-thru testing, and none is open to the general public.

All the coronavirus news

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo on Wednesday painted a bleak portrait of the coronavirus crisis in the hardest-hit state, saying deaths and cases continue to spike with nearly 400 new fatalities, the peak is likely to come in late April, and the crisis could last until early summer. 

For a roundup of major pandemic developments, see the story from Newsday's reporting staff, written by Bart Jones.

For a complete list of Newsday stories, click here.

No Obamacare, no care?

The Trump administration decided earlier this week not to reopen this year's Obamacare enrollment for Americans seeking health coverage during the pandemic.

Asked several times during Wednesday's briefing what those uninsured should do, Pence wouldn't give a direct answer. That drew an admiring aside from Trump.

"I think that's one of the greatest answers I've ever heard because Mike was able to speak for five minutes and not even touch your question," Trump said. "I said that's what you call a great professional."

Trump's answer? "We'll look at it."

Infrastructure in the works?

The White House and House Democrats have begun talking about another mega-stimulus bill for infrastructure, but Republicans on Capitol Hill say it's too soon, Newsday's Tom Brune reports.

Trump on Tuesday talked about an infrastructure bill costing $2 trillion, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday touted her already proposed $770 billion bill as a starting place. Pelosi said the Democrats' bill is for five years, while the president's is for 10 to 20 years.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said they should wait until the $2.2 trillion from last week's economic stimulus get out the door. "The speaker is already talking about phase four," McConnell said. "Well, we may need a phase four, but we’re not even fully into phase three yet.”

Hang on, 'Sleepy?'

White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said on "Fox & Friends" Wednesday morning that instead of criticizing Trump's crisis management, “why doesn’t Vice President [Joe] Biden call the White House today and offer some support?” 

Biden called the bluff. Deputy campaign manager Kate Bedingfield said Biden would be willing to call Trump and discuss how to help contain the spread of the virus.

So would Trump take the call? When the question was put to him at the briefing, the president said at first: "Sleepy Joe, did he write the statement or did some PR person write it?” 

But then he said, "Oh, absolutely. I'd love to speak to him, sure." Trump added, improbably, "I always found him to be a nice guy. I don't know him very well, frankly. But I think he's probably a nice guy. No, if he'd like to call, I'd absolutely take his call."

What else is happening:

• The Treasury Department is scrambling to get tech systems in place to send Americans the promised $1,200-per-adult stimulus checks this month, The Washington Post reported. Those whose bank account data isn't on file with the government may have to wait months. The IRS has posted an information sheet.
• Trump said that he is weighing grounding domestic flights between coronavirus hot spots. Limited flights continue to run between cities like New York and Detroit, though passenger counts have plummeted across the nation.
• Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government's top infectious-diseases expert and the face of the U.S. response to the pandemic, is facing growing threats to his personal safety, prompting the government to step up his security, The Washington Post reported.
• Biden said on MSNBC Tuesday night that “it’s hard to envision” the Democratic National Convention taking place as planned in July. But Republicans, taking their cue from Trump, are pushing ahead with plans for their convention in August, The New York Times reported.
• Trump tweeted a call for Congress to restore tax deductions for companies spending money at restaurants and on entertainment. "This will bring restaurants, and everything related, back — and stronger than ever," he wrote. The deductions were scaled back drastically as part of the Republicans' 2017 tax overhaul.
• White House economists published a study last September that warned a potential pandemic disease could kill a half-million Americans and devastate the economy, but it went unheeded inside the administration, The New York Times reported.