Different Takes: Task Force Mission Accomplished? Not So Fast; Time To Show The Evidence About Wuhan Lab Theory

The New York Times: Coronavirus Task Force Gets Its ‘Mission Accomplished’ Moment 
On Tuesday, as the number of reported deaths from Covid-19 in the United States topped 70,000, the Trump administration declared “mission accomplished” for Phase 1 of its fight against the coronavirus. Specifically, President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence announced that the coronavirus task force, which Mr. Pence oversees, had been so successful in getting the pandemic under control that the group would most likely disband within the month, to be replaced by a new panel focused on getting America back to work. (5/6)

The New York Times: The Virus Is Winning
When Michael T. Osterholm, a prominent epidemiologist, heard that the White House coronavirus task force was “ramping up” its work this month, he was elated. Maybe now the United States would finally tackle the virus with the seriousness needed. Then he realized that he had misheard. The task force wasn’t “ramping up” but “wrapping up.”“I was in shock,” said Osterholm, a professor at the University of Minnesota. “We’re just in the second inning.” (Nicholas Kristof, 5/6)

Los Angeles Times: Politics Is Why Trump Is Ending Coronavirus Task Force Early
Vice President Mike Pence confirmed to reporters on Tuesday afternoon that the White House might look to close down the special coronavirus task force he’s been leading, possibly in early June.Why, you might ask?Well, there are a couple of explanations.“It really is all a reflection of the tremendous progress we’ve made as a country,” Pence said. “The president stood up the White House coronavirus task force … to marshal a national response.”  (Scott Martelle, 5/5)

The Wall Street Journal: The Wuhan Lab Theory
The evidence is clear that the Chinese Communist Party covered up for weeks the extent of the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, but what we don’t know is why. One emerging theory is that the virus originated in a Wuhan lab. Beijing denies it, but the world deserves a full accounting of what China knew and when.President Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have both said in recent days that they’ve seen evidence the coronavirus did come from a Wuhan lab. Mr. Trump said it appears to be an accidental release. If they don’t want the issue to be dismissed as an anti-China campaign ploy, they should make the evidence public. (5/6)

The Hill: Tests For COVID-19: Has The FDA Said Yes Too Many Times? 
There are many controversies about the coronavirus, but there is one point of consensus: We need testing, testing, and then more testing. But yesterday, in response to criticisms from chairs of two House health subcommittees, the FDA tightened their standards for antibody tests intended to identify people who were previously exposed to the coronavirus. Why? (Robert M. Kaplan and Diana Zuckerman, 5/6)

The Washington Post: Trump Went Ballistic At Me On Twitter. Here’s Why He Reacts With Such Rage.
Americans died from covid-19 at the rate of about one every 42 seconds during the past month. That ought to keep any president awake at night. Not Donald Trump. Just days ago, the president flipped out at a detailed New York Times article that described how he watches television at all hours, obsessed about how he’s covered in the news. As though to prove the story’s thesis, Trump rage-tweeted that it was a “phony story” and that the media would say “Anything to demean!” And then, as though to prove the point again, at 12:46 a.m. on Tuesday, Trump went ballistic on Twitter — at me. (George T. Conway, 5/6)

CNN: This Is The Worst Possible Moment To Try To Kill Obamacare
What is the worst time to overturn a law that provides healthcare for the uninsured? Surely, topping any list of answers would be: in the midst of the pandemic that is quickly becoming the leading cause of death in America. Yet, the Trump administration is pushing forward with their position to invalidate the Affordable Care Act (ACA), with the Supreme Court due to hear the case in the fall. (Leana S. Wen, 5/6)

The Washington Post: Governors Should Trust Mayors And County Officials On Reopening. California Shows Why.
Just as the decision to order “shelter-in-place” shutdowns began at the local level, so should the decision of when to reopen. On March 16, the seven counties that constitute California’s Bay Area issued a legal order — the first of its kind in the United States — requiring residents to shelter in place. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) expanded the order to the entire state days later, and other state governments followed suit thereafter. Judging from the Bay Area counties’ flattened curve of confirmed infections, theirs was the right decision, at least from a public health standpoint. But in the state’s more rural counties, such as Fresno, where I live, there hasn’t been much of a curve to flatten. (Aris Janigian, 5/6)

The Hill: Business Interruption Insurance Bills Will Help Small Businesses Through National Emergencies 
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected every aspect of our lives. One of the hardest hit has been our small businesses... During a time like this, most businesses would look to access their business interruption insurance, to help them through weeks of lost income... Unfortunately, most insurance companies have stated that claims related to the COVID-19 pandemic are not covered under business interruption insurance. (Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick and Rep. Mike Thompson, 5/6)

The Washington Post: Save Us All From Jared Kushner 
Whenever a member of the Trump family gets involved with a project, it is always smart to keep an eye out for the grift. We might have hoped that a pandemic that has already cost more than 70,000 Americans their lives would be an exception to this rule. But no. President Trump’s decision to again put his unqualified son-in-law, Jared Kushner, in charge of a team charged with a vital national security interest — this time, procuring crucial supplies and protective equipment for hospitals and others on the front lines of fighting the coronavirus — is producing the usual results: incompetence and cronyism. (Karen Tumulty, 5/6)

The Hill: COVID-19 Fear Syndrome
The death toll has not been as catastrophic as predicted by the initial models. The optimistic models predicted 100,000 deaths by now. Pessimistic ones predicted millions. In reality, 60,000 souls have been lost. That is a terrible toll, but far less than initially projected.  Our hospitals are not overwhelmed as models projected. In fact, all over the country most of them are just the opposite. (Dr. Thomas W. Lagrelius, 5/6)

The Detroit News: Keep Guns Out Of State Capitol
Nothing ruins a good protest like a gun. The anti-shutdown protesters who have been showing up in Lansing armed to the teeth are hurting their own presumptive cause.It's hard to take anything else they stand for seriously when they appear this way at the Capitol.Their guns, not their message, draw all of the attention. And they overshadow the other protesters who have legitimate gripes about the way Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is exercising her emergency powers. So instead of serving the purpose of applying public pressure to the governor to be more reasonable with her orders, the Open Carry crowd makes it easy to ignore the entire demonstration, or to write it off as the work of a bunch of right-wing paramilitary wackos. (5/6)