Corona crisis in the United States: President Donald Trump wants to prepare the United States for future epidemics.
- Most corona deaths continue to be registered in the United States worldwide .
- Therefore, US President Donald Trump * is increasingly criticized.
- The US president again announced a vaccine by the end of 2020 (see update from May 16, 12:34 p.m.).
- Here you will find the basic facts about the corona virus and the corona news from Germany *. You can also find current case numbers in Germany as a map. The following recommendations for Corona protective measures * are currently available.
- There is more on this topic and many other exciting stories in our app. How the app download works
May 16 update, 2:25 pm: Amid continuing tensions between China and the United States over the corona pandemic , Beijing has demanded that Washington pay all outstanding debts to the United Nations. In principle, all delinquent UN member states have to meet their payment obligations, according to a Chinese statement released at the UN headquarters in New York on Friday. Only the USA is mentioned as the only country. China owed these to the UN more than two billion dollars (1.85 billion euros).
The US representation at the UN rejected the Chinese figures. The government in Beijing is only trying to "distract from their misuse of Covid-19 again," she said.
Corona crisis: Trump promises vaccine by the end of 2020 - "we will save years"
Update of May 16, 12:34 p.m .: US President Donald Trump spoke again of wanting to deliver a vaccine against the novel corona virus by the end of 2020 . In order to achieve this goal, a project was started that had not existed "since the Second World War". His government has accordingly launched a project called Operation Warp Speed .
As soon as there is such a preparation, the military will also be involved in organizing the rapid distribution of the vaccine in the country. "We are preparing. It's risky, it's expensive, but we're going to save a lot of time. We'll save years if we do it right. ”
Trump promised that the United States wanted to work closely with other countries on this issue, regardless of who started developing a vaccine. "We have no ego in this regard."
Corona crisis: Trump threatens China - US investigators simply fired - "retaliation measure"
Update of May 16, 8:59 a.m .: Donald Trump fired an internal State Department investigator who launched an investigation into department head Mike Pompeo , according to a MP from the opposition Democrats . The State Department confirmed the release of Inspector General Steve Linick late Friday evening . The State Department did not state the reason for this. The chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Eliot Engel, said Linick opened an investigation into Pompeo as an internal investigator.
The kicking out evoked criticism. Firing Linick during an investigation "strongly" indicates that it is an "illegal retaliation" , said Engel. According to a Democrat employee in the US Congress who did not want to be named, Linick had followed up complaints about Pompeo , according to which the Secretary of State had an official take care of private matters for himself and his wife.
Opposition leader Nancy Pelosi said Linick had been punished for "honoring" her duty to "protect the US Constitution and protect our national security." With President Trump, there is a "pattern of retaliation" against officials that must stop urgently.
Update of May 16, 8.22 a.m .: The US House of Representatives, controlled by the opposition Democrats, has decided on a new, gigantic corona aid package , which is likely to be stopped by the Republicans in the Senate. On Friday, 208 MPs voted in favor of the package of $ 3 trillion (€ 2.8 trillion) in Washington, against 199. The money is intended to alleviate the social and economic consequences of the corona pandemic.
Corona crisis in the US: Trump is "very disappointed" with China - and threatens to be silent
Update 11:11 am: US President Donald Trump threatens China to break off state relations. The Fox Business broadcaster said in an interview released on Thursday that "at the moment" he did not want to speak to head of state and party leader Xi Jinping. "I am very disappointed with China, " said Trump. And warned: "We could break off the relationship completely."
Trump also reproached the People's Republic of China for the coronavirus pandemic . There, the spread of the Sars-CoV-2 was not stopped at the source, causing enormous damage. "It was either stupidity, incompetence, or it was deliberate," said Trump.
Meanwhile, in the United States, the effectiveness of the recently launched rapid tests for coronavirus infections is questioned . The fear is that the tests may be unreliable. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned Thursday (local time) that the coronavirus test system manufactured by Abbott's health firm may be delivering incorrect results. The FDA referred to several studies. Abbott had only received FDA emergency approval for the test in March. US President Donald Trump , Vice President Mike Pence and top employees are currently being tested daily for the corona virus infection using the rapid test.
US President Donald Trump is criticized.
© AFP / BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI
Corona virus: Trump wants to push the corona numbers
Update of May 15, 11:01 am: The United States continues to be severely affected by the coronavirus pandemic . According to Johns Hopkins University, there are currently 1,417,889 cases in 85,906 deaths in the United States ( as of May 15, 10:45 am ). US President Donald Trump now wants to counteract this - by improving the statistics.
Trump therefore demands that the dead only be included in the count if they have previously tested positive for the corona virus. He also wants to delete people who have died with Covid-19 but who have had previous illnesses.
The Republican justified the counting with a hypothetical case that someone would have tested positive and then break his neck if he fell down a flight of stairs, according to a report by The Daily Beast.
The news website relies on sources in the White House as well as in the CDC epidemic control center . The two parties - government and scientists - are said to be in dispute over the actual number of US citizens who died from Covid-19 .
While Trump wants to lower the number of corona deaths , the CDC experts mean more cases than previously known. This is justified by the fact that only the figures from New York City are reliable, since dead people in other states are often not correctly included in the statistics.
Trump wants to do the numbers, while the disease control center expects more cases - the conflict between politics and scientists seems to continue.
Corona: Trump wants to prepare the US for future epidemics - "national inventory" planned
May 15 update, 6:30 am: "I am determined that America will be fully prepared for any future outbreaks (of diseases) that we hope there will be none," Trump said on Thursday Appears in Allentown, Pennsylvania .
"Our effort begins with the dramatic increase in our reserves." No president will ever inherit empty shelves or expired products - at least not in the coming years, Trump promised. The White House had previously announced that the government was working on a “fully stocked, resilient national inventory, ” such as protective masks.
Trump has accused the previous Barack Obama government of the corona pandemic of being responsible for his government's difficulties in starting the crisis, such as initial problems with tests that had produced erroneous results. In late April, Trump said the last government had left its own "bad, broken tests" despite the fact that the corona virus first appeared late last year. Critics accuse Trump of not responding energetically enough to the crisis, leaving the virus largely unprepared for the United States.
In Pennsylvania, Trump visited a company that sells drugs and medical products. Because of the Corona crisis, trips by the President have become a rarity. Supporters lined the streets, sometimes crowded, to greet Trump.
Corona in the US: Trump wants to comment on the WHO contribution freeze
Update from May 14, 9:10 p.m .: Further allegations are made from the USA that China has artificially bred the corona virus . US President Donald Trump's trade advisor Peter Navarro told Fox News that the Middle Kingdom created the virus "probably in this weapons laboratory in Wuhan in November."
Then the country " hid the virus behind the protective shield of the World Health Organization for two months ", "sucked up" and "hoarded" protective equipment from all over the world, killed people and finally made profit from the crisis. "Now Chinese government hackers are trying to steal information about the vaccine so that it can be made first."
Update of May 14, 2020, 7.42 p.m .: US President Donald Trump has announced an announcement after the US freeze on contributions to the World Health Organization (WHO). "We'll be making an announcement to the World Health Organization shortly, soon, probably sometime next week ," Trump said in the White House garden on Thursday.
Update from May 14, 2020, 5:14 p.m .: Tensions between the USA and China due to the corona crisis are intensifying. He said he didn't want to speak to Chinese President Xi Jinping "right now," US President Donald Trump told Fox Business on Thursday. He was " very disappointed " with Beijing's handling of the coronavirus pandemic. He has a "very good relationship" with Xi, but does not want to talk to him at the moment.
When asked about possible US retaliation against China, Trump did not take specific steps, but struck a threatening tone: " There are many things we could do. We could break all ties. "
The Corona crisis has put a severe strain on the relationship between the two countries. US President Trump has accused Beijing of lacking transparency in the spread of the virus since January. Among other things, Trump expressed suspicions that the virus came from a laboratory in the central Chinese metropolis of Wuhan and had not spread from a wild animal market there, as has been widely assumed so far. Trump has so far not provided any evidence of this allegation.
Corona in the USA: More than 36 million citizens lose their jobs
Update of May 14, 2020, 3:37 p.m .: Millions of Americans have once again made an initial application for unemployment benefits as part of the corona pandemic . Almost three million new applications were registered in the week up to and including May 9, the US Department of Labor said. In the seven weeks before, more than 33 million people had already made such an application - more than ever before in such a short time. As a result, more than 36 million people in the United States have lost their jobs since mid-March .
Corona in the US: Expert warning "unacceptable" according to Trump
Update of May 14, 2020, 11:21 a.m .: US President Donald Trump contradicted the advice of his chief adviser in the corona crisis, Anthony Fauci, on Wednesday. Trump called the warnings of the internationally recognized epidemiologist " unacceptable ".
"We open our country, people want it open, schools will be open," the president told reporters in the White House. According to excerpts from an interview with Fox Business Network, the president also said he was "totally different" about schools from Fauci.
At a Senate hearing, the epidemic expert warned against a premature loosening of the corona restrictions and an early opening of schools and universities.
The growing divisions between the president and his adviser had already become clear during the Senator video hearing on Tuesday. Fauci warned of "really serious" consequences of loosening the corona measures too quickly. There is the "real risk" of a new wave of infections that cannot be controlled.
Trump, on the other hand, is constantly pushing for the restrictions to be relaxed. The decision is largely not his responsibility, but that of the individual states and administrative districts. Last but not least, the president is waiting impatiently for the US economy to start up again. Last but not least, he has the election in November in mind, in which he is fighting for a second term.
With around 84,000 fatalities and 1.39 million confirmed cases of infection, the United States is by far the most affected country by the pandemic.
Corona crisis in the USA: expert warns of "darkest winter in recent history"
May 14, 2020, 7:30 am update: There is little time for the US government , senior health official Rick Bright warns. He believes that the “darkest winter in recent history” could be imminent for the United States . Especially if the flu breaks out at the same time as the coronavirus.
Without a coordinated strategy, the pandemic would lead to unprecedented levels of disease and death , Bright said in a pre-release statement for a House committee. In his prepared statement, Bright Trump's corona policy was sharply criticized. The country was paralyzed because of Trump's misleading communication and lack of a nationwide strategy, he said. Scientific knowledge should define the strategy for the fight against the novel corona virus, "not politics and nepotism," he wrote. "Without clear planning and implementation of the steps that I and other experts have explained, 2020 will be the darkest winter in recent history," he warned.
Bright said he was fired as director of an agency under the Department of Health in April for refusing to support unsupported treatments for Covid-19 lung disease, which US President Donald Trump has promised. Bright was transferred to a position at the National Health Institute (NIH). Trump in turn said at the time that he didn't know the official at all.
Corona virus in the US: Trump reports journalist "nasty question"
First report from May 13, 2020 :
Munich / Washington - In times of the coronavirus pandemic, there are not a few people who are afraid of the future. The uncertainty, the changes, the lack of social contacts, all of this is not easy to deal with *. Each person reacts differently because each person channels their fears differently *.
Describing Donald Trump * as a fearful person now would probably be wrong. The US president obviously has problems other than fear of the corona virus or its consequences. Thereby acts Trump still thin-skinned than before in recent weeks. You can also read this in our old US ticker on the Corona crisis.
Corona crisis in the USA: Trump scandal - US President breaks off PK after argument with journalist
He also stated on Monday the brevity of his patience thread under evidence, when the US President at the press conference to Corona pandemic outside the White House, a war of words with a US journalist provided.
The reporter Weijia Jiang by the TV station CBS News had Trump asked why he capacities in the United States compare with the virus tests positive with other countries, as if we are dealing with an international competition. There was a banner on Trump's back that said, "America is leading the world in tests."
Trump just barked back. This may be "a question you should ask China ," the US president said . Jiang then responded by asking why the president was making this note to her - she was suggesting that this had to do with her Chinese origins.
Corona crisis in the USA: Donald Trump reacts thinly to criticism
And again Trump reacted little de-escalating. He says this "to anyone who would ask me such a nasty question." Jiang was born in China but grew up in the United States .
After @weijia asks President Trump why he sees the pandemic response as a "global competition," he tells her: "Maybe that's a question you should ask China. Don't ask me, ask China that question, okay?" https://t.co/9T8aUPjUrs pic.twitter.com/aDQ5cwWvn0
- CBS News (@CBSNews) May 11, 2020Trump tried to speak to another journalist while Jiang kept talking and asking. Shortly afterwards, Trump broke off the press conference in the Rose Garden of the White House and went back inside the building.
Corona crisis in the US: Criticism of Trump increases enormously - US President shoots back
Throughout his tenure, Trump has carried out massive attacks against large parts of the US media and has repeatedly dealt with individual journalists. In the Corona crisis , he responded to allegations that he was too late in spreading the spread of the new virus, including angry attacks against parts of the media that treated him "brutally".
Another major target of Trump's attacks in the corona crisis is China , where the virus was first found in humans *. The US president accuses Beijing of informing the world too late about the pathogen and of not disclosing the extent of its spread.
Germany is pushing ahead with its plans to open the border - concrete data are already available.
The corona virus is apparently also transmitted via aerosols - this would make the distance rule useless.
smk / afp
* Merkur.de is part of the nationwide Ippen-Digital network
Rubric list image: © dpa / Alex Brandon