A new study finds that due to job losses caused by the coronavirus pandemic, an estimated 5.4 million Americans had their health insurance dropped between February and May.
The analysis was conducted by Families U.S.A., a nonpartisan consumer advocacy group, and will be released on Tuesday. During the recession of 2008 and 2009, 3.9 million adults lost their health insurance, and study author Stan Dorn told The New York Times he knew the current numbers "would be big. This is the worst economic downturn since World War II. It dwarfs the Great Recession. So it's not surprising that we would see the worst increase in the uninsured."
The study looked at laid-off adults younger than 65, when Americans become eligible for Medicare, and found that people in California, Texas, Florida, New York, and North Carolina accounted for 46 percent of coverage losses from the pandemic. In 13 states that did not expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, 43 percent of laid-off workers became uninsured, nearly double the amount in the 37 states that did expand Medicaid. Catherine Garcia
John Barsa, acting deputy administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), told staffers during a phone call on Monday that they won't work with the incoming Biden administration until another Trump appointee signs paperwork formally ascertaining the winner of the election, three people familiar with the phone call told The Washington Post.
Once the administrator of the General Services Administration signs that paperwork, the transition between administrations starts — in this case, President-elect Joe Biden's team would have access to government agencies, computers, office space, and appropriated funds. GSA Administrator Emily Murphy, a Trump political appointee, has declined to do this.
The Free Beacon obtained a recording of Barsa's call, during which he is heard saying, "The only official announcement about an election result that matters is from the head of GSA. So until the head of GSA makes a determination as to who won an election, nothing changes — there is no transition in place." Two officials told the Post in other conversations, Barsa has asserted that Biden has not won the election. During Monday's phone call, he also announced that three Trump loyalists are being moved into top agency positions.
Last week, Barsa was set to step down as acting administrator, and took on his current role after the former deputy administrator, Bonnie Glick, was fired by the White House. USAID sends billions of dollars out every year in humanitarian assistance, and over the last few months officials put together a 440-page document that would help both the incoming Biden administration and Trump's team, had he won re-election. Catherine Garcia
Attorney General William Barr sent a memo to federal prosecutors authorizing them to pursue "substantial allegations" of voting irregularities if they are able to find any.
On Saturday, projected victories in Pennsylvania and Nevada gave Democrat Joe Biden the electoral votes to clearly become president-elect. President Trump and allies like Rudy Giuliani have loudly been claiming there was widespread voter fraud, without providing evidence.
Barr's memo, obtained by The Associated Press, states that investigations "may be conducted if there are clear and apparently-credible allegations of irregularities that, if true, could potentially impact the outcome of a federal election in an individual state." Any allegations that would "clearly not impact the outcome of a federal election" should be delayed until after the elections are certified, Barr added, with prosecutors then opening preliminary inquiries to see if there is evidence of wrongdoing.
Barr did not share any examples of alleged voter fraud in his memo. Heading into the election, Barr echoed Trump's claims about mail-in ballots being easily manipulated. AP notes that election officials across the country — Democrats and Republicans alike — have said the 2020 election went pretty smoothly, especially during a pandemic, despite some instances of broken machines and lost ballots.
In response to the memo, the Justice Department official who oversees voter fraud investigations, Richard Pilger, stepped down, The New York Times reports.
Biden campaign attorney Bob Bauer said in a statement it was "deeply unfortunate that Attorney General Barr chose to issue a memorandum that will only fuel the 'specious, speculative, fanciful, or far-fetched claims' he professes to guard again. Those are the very kind of claims that the president and his lawyers are making unsuccessfully every day, as their lawsuits are laughed out of one court after another. But, in the end, American democracy is stronger than any clumsy and cynical partisan political scheme." Catherine Garcia
The Food and Drug Administration announced on Monday that it has granted emergency authorization of Eli Lilly's COVID-19 treatment for use in certain cases.
The treatment is called bamlanivimab, and it has been approved for use in people who have tested positive for the coronavirus, are 12 and older, and at risk for developing a severe form of COVID-19 or being hospitalized, The New York Times reports. This includes people who are 65 or older and obese, as early studies have shown they can benefit the most from this treatment. It should be administered to a person as soon as possible after they test positive, and within 10 days of developing systems.
In a statement, Eli Lilly CEO David Ricks said bamlanivimab was developed quickly because of "collaboration across the industry and the urgent work being done by the government to ensure appropriate allocation to patients who need it the most." Last month, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) received the treatment on an emergency basis after he tested positive for COVID-19.
The treatment consists of one antibody that is designed to block virus attachment and entry into cells, neutralizing it. Eli Lilly said it expects to have enough treatments to distribute to one million people by the end of the year. On Monday, more than 100,000 new coronavirus cases were reported in the United States, and at least 59,000 people are hospitalized across the country. Catherine Garcia
In October, lawyers who are trying to reunite migrant families separated at the U.S.-Mexico border stated that they haven't been able to track down the parents of 666 children, NBC News reports.
The parents were separated from their children in 2018 as part of the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" policy. In a court filing from earlier in October, the lawyers said they had not yet found the parents of 545 children, as two-thirds had been deported to Central America without their children.
In an email to Justice Department attorneys obtained by NBC News, Steven Herzog, the lawyer leading efforts to reunite the families, wrote that the number increased from 545 children to 666 children because the new group includes those "for whom the government did not provide any phone number." He added that his team "would appreciate the government providing any available updated contact information, or other information that may be helpful in establishing contact for all 666 of these parents."
The "zero tolerance" policy was in place from April to June 2018, with a pilot program beginning earlier in the El Paso sector. The organization Justice in Motion is searching in Mexico and Central America for the parents whose children remain in the United States, saying in a statement last month that it's "an arduous and time-consuming process on a good day." President-elect Joe Biden has promised to set up a government task force that will reunite the children with their parents. Catherine Garcia