Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Dems Wants White House To Present Evidence On Chinese Lab Theory Or Stop Hyping 'Dangerous' Myth
Politico: Democrats Demand Intel On Coronavirus Origins
Top Democratic lawmakers say the Trump administration should share with Congress the allegedly “enormous” evidence showing that the coronavirus sprang from a Chinese lab. Otherwise, they warn, the administration should quit hyping questionable information. The demands come as President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo push the theory that Covid-19 somehow emerged from a Chinese lab that studied such viruses. Their claims are leading some critics to draw comparisons to the misleading way the administration of George W. Bush argued the case for the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq. (Toosi and Bertrand, 5/6)
ABC News: Pompeo Says No 'Certainty,' But 'Significant Evidence' Virus Came From Chinese Lab
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo doubled down on his assertion that there's "significant evidence" the novel coronavirus first infected a human in a biomedical laboratory in China, even after other senior U.S. officials such as Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, have said scientific evidence suggests otherwise. Pressed on his comment on ABC's "This Week" this past Sunday that the U.S. has "enormous evidence" supporting the lab theory, the top U.S. diplomat lashed out at reporters and said his position was "entirely consistent" with Fauci and others -- instead, a difference in "confidence." (Finnegan, 5/6)
The Wall Street Journal: Coronavirus Casts Deep Chill Over U.S.-China Relations
Relations between the U.S. and China, strained for years, have deteriorated at a rapid clip in recent months, leaving the two nations with fewer shared interests and a growing list of conflicts. The Trump administration has moved to involve much of the U.S. government in a campaign that includes investigations, prosecutions and export restrictions. Nearly every cabinet and cabinet-level official either has adopted adversarial positions or jettisoned past cooperative programs with Beijing, an analysis of their policies showed. (O'Keeffe, Bender and Wong, 5/6)
NPR: U.S. Was Behind On Payments To WHO Before Trump's Cutoff
In mid-April, when President Trump declared, "Today I'm instructing my administration to halt funding of the World Health Organization," Jimmy Kolker did a double take. "We were already in arrears before he said anything," says Kolker, who was an assistant secretary for global health affairs during the Obama administration. (Welna, 5/7)
