Coronavirus: The Hill and the Headlines, January 28 2021

In Washington:

• Several Democratic and Republican members from the group of sixteen bipartisan senators working on the COVID-19 relief bill met for Wednesday night for dinner.  Punchbowl News reports that some Republicans are frustrated that Democrats appear to be moving toward a unilateral approach to COVID-Relief.  Sens. Susan Collins (ME), Rob Portman (R-OH), and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) are concerned with how quickly Democrats are moving on reconciliation.  In a press conference on Thursday,  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said, “Legislatively, we are grateful to our Committee Chairs, who are working on coronavirus relief legislation as a basis for reconciliation, should that step be needed.  We hope and expect Republicans in Congress will support assistance that will bring relief to their communities.  But the need for action could not be more urgent, and Democrats will not take any tools off the table as to how the House and Senate can get this package done.”  Pelosi told reporters that she would prefer a bipartisan bill over having to use reconciliation as a backstop.

• Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) on Thursday warned that Democrats are willing to pass the next coronavirus relief package without Republican votes. "The dangers of undershooting our response are far greater than overshooting ... so the Senate as early as next week will begin the process of considering a very strong COVID relief bill," Schumer said from the Senate floor. He added that if Republicans "decide to oppose this urgent and necessary legislation, we will have to move forward without them." 

• Meanwhile, White House officials on Thursday shot down a Politico report suggesting that the administration was prepared to break off and individually pass smaller pieces of a coronavirus relief package, amid difficulty getting Republican support. But Brian Deese, the head of the National Economic Council and one of the key administration figures involved in negotiations, tweeted, "The needs of the American people aren’t partial; we can’t do this piecemeal." Other officials echoed his comments in the media.

• On Thursday, President Biden signed an executive order directing federal agencies to open a special enrollment period for the Affordable Care Act (ACA) exchanges from Feb. 15 to May 15 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The order also requires agencies to review existing health care policies enacted by the Trump administration that critics charge limited access to health care.

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Rochelle Walensky is advising citizens against traveling as she and other health experts worry about the potential spread of more transmissible COVID variants across the country. Walensky said, “now is not the time to travel” on a Wednesday press conference.  There have been 308 confirmed cases of a U.K. variant identified in 26 states. The U.S. also this week reported the first case of a Brazilian strain.

• The U.S. economy shrank 3.5 percent in 2020 as the coronavirus pandemic shuttered much of American life, marking the first annual contraction since the Great Recession, according to data released by the Commerce Department on Thursday. U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) suffered its largest annual decline since 1946. COVID-19 caused the steepest economic collapse since the Great Depression, wiping out more than 20 million jobs and years of economic growth within two months. But U.S. GDP increased by an annualized rate of 4 percent in the final three months of 2020, according to the data. 

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Rochelle Walensky is advising citizens against traveling as she and other health experts worry about the potential spread of more transmissible COVID variants across the country. Walensky said that “now is not the time to travel” on a CNN press call on Wednesday.  There have been 308 confirmed cases of a U.K. variant identified in 26 states. The U.S. also this week reported the first case of a Brazilian strain.  Meanwhile, Dr. Anthony Fauci warned that getting a vaccination does not provide a free pass to travel or dismiss current health measures.   “You can get some degree of protection that isn’t durable ten days to 14 days after the first dose, but you can’t rely on that,” said Dr. Fauci. “The maximum immunity begins about ten days to two weeks and beyond following the second dose. That goes for anyone, regardless of whether you want to travel or not.”

In the News:

• The administration of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) undercounted the number of COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes by as much as 50 percent, according to a new report from New York state Attorney General Letitia James (D). New York counted only residents who died on nursing home property, rather than any who were transferred to hospitals. But according to the report, most of the deaths occurred in hospitals. In some instances, nursing homes reported handfuls of on-site deaths but later reported dozens more at hospitals. COVID-19 has in total killed 8,600 New Yorkers in nursing homes. 

• The first cases of a coronavirus variant first identified in South Africa have been found in the United States, the South Carolina health department said Thursday. The department found two cases, adding that there is no connection between the two and no known travel history, indicating that more cases could soon be found. Health experts say this variant is more contagious. Early studies also show a reduction in the antibody response from vaccines to the variant. Pfizer and Moderna say their vaccines are still effective against the variant.

• A group of Oregon healthcare workers who were stuck in the snow about 30 miles from their destination decided to offer coronavirus vaccinations to their fellow stranded drivers to avoid potentially wasting their remaining doses of the medicine.

Authored by Ivan Zapien