The Wall Street Journal - 07.04.2020

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A4| Tuesday, April 7, 2020 PWLC101112HTGKRFAM123456789OIXX ***** THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.


CAPITAL JOURNAL
By Gerald F. Seib

Coronavirus Daily Update


As of 11:01 p.m. EDT
April 6

1,347,
World-wide cases

368,
U.S. cases

74,
World-wide deaths

10,
U.S. deaths

277,
World-wide recoveries

Source: Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering

More than 130,000 New York
state residents have tested posi-
tive for the virus, and 4,758 peo-
ple have died, he said.
“While none of this is good
news, the possible flattening of
the curve is better than the in-
creases that we’ve seen,” Mr.
Cuomo said.
Mr. Cuomo warned it was pos-
sible New York’s crisis could be
plateauing at a high level that
was still too difficult for the
health-care system to manage.
He ordered nonessential busi-
nesses and schools to remain
closed through April 29, and in-
creased state-mandated fines for
violating social distancing rules
from $500 to $1,000.
“This is an enemy that we’ve

underestimated since day one,
and we have paid the price
dearly,” Mr. Cuomo said.
Other cities and states have
also ramped up protective mea-
sures. South Carolina Gov.
Henry McMaster issued a state-
wide stay-at-home order Mon-
day, joining the majority of U.S.
states that have issued similar
mandates.A9p.m.curfewin
Boston will take effect Monday
night, while checkpoints
opened along the Texas-Louisi-
ana border Sunday to monitor
travelers coming into Texas.
Health officials said the
number of new cases would
start to stabilize if people fol-
low state government orders to
stay home.

Anthony Fauci, the nation’s
top immunologist, said he was
encouraged by trends on Mon-
day and said there was a
chance total deaths could total
less than the estimates of
100,000 because of mitigation
measures.
Ahead of an expected surge
in patients, officials across the
U.S. have worked to increase
hospital capacity—turning are-
nas into temporary wards and
seeking to reopen shut-down
hospitals. They have also sought
to fill in gaps of much-needed
medical equipment; California,
Washington and Oregon have
said they would loan ventilators
to other states.
Senate Minority Leader

THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC


A Simple Mask Can Be a Powerful Symbol


ment by declaring that he
wouldn’t wear a
mask: “Somehow, I don’t see
it for myself....I won’t be do-
ing it personally.”
It was an opportunity lost.
Mr. Trump might have pulled
on a mask to demonstrate
that Americans shouldn’t feel
awkward about wearing one,
and said: This is what we are
going to do for one another.
Oh, and it is also critical that
we do this if we want to get
our economy running again
sooner rather than later,
which we all really want.
Masks are beautiful right
now, because wearing them is
a sign of doing something not
for yourself but for your fel-
low Americans. They are a
sign not of selfish behavior,
but of the opposite: of citizens
acting for the common good
in a time of shared sacrifice.
Unless you are wearing a
high-grade N95 mask, sup-
plies of which need to be pre-
served for health profession-
als, wearing a cloth mask
can’t guarantee that you
won’t take in the virus. But a

cloth mask can greatly reduce
the chance that you will
spread it through your own
coughing, sneezing, or even
talking, if you are an unknow-
ing transmitter of the vi-
rus. Wearing one is, in short,
something you do for oth-
ers—and a sign of patriotism.

S


urgeon General Jerome
Adams made that case
at the same briefing
where Mr. Trump announced
the new guidance: New stud-
ies have shown that a signifi-
cant portion of Americans
carry the coronavirus but
show no symptoms, meaning
they are spreading the virus
unknowingly, he said. Thus,
it is critical that people wear
masks “in public settings
where other social-distancing
measures are difficult to
maintain.”
First lady Melania Trump
took the message to heart,
twice tweeting out over the
weekend messages encourag-
ing people to wear masks: “I
ask that everyone take social
distancing & wearing a

mask/face covering seriously.
#COVID19 is a virus that can
spread to anyone.”
Beyond those health and
social-welfare arguments, the
economic one figures to be-
come compelling in coming
weeks.
It seems less and less
likely that there will come
some magical moment when
the president can flip a
switch and the nation can be
reopened for business.
Rather, the country is more
likely to go through a stag-
gered restart, with select
groups of employees return-
ing in stages to get plants,
factories and stores off life
support and moving again.
Masks may prove invaluable
to helping Americans move
through those stages earlier
and more safely.
Right now, the country is
braced for what Dr. Adams
on Sunday called “our 9/
moment,” a week in which
deaths and confirmed cases
both are expected to soar.
Yet deaths and cases both re-
flect problems encountered—

and, frankly, mistakes
made—two to four weeks
ago, when the virus was im-
planting itself faster and
wider than many realized.
Alongside the grim picture
of this week and next are
some glimmers of hope that
social distancing and the
painful shutdown of wide
swaths of the American
economy are slowing the
spread of the virus.

P


erhaps those glimmers
of hope also carry the
promise that the coun-
try’s economy can start to
reopen in a few weeks. But
that can happen only if
Americans have figured out
ways to be out and about
without sparking a new wave
of coronavirus. Once the
now-famous curves of infec-
tions and deaths start to
move down, they still can go
back up.
America’s response to the
coronavirus has been admi-
rable in many ways. But the
political response has had its
low points. The president de-

claring from the White
House lectern that he doesn’t
want to talk to governors
who are critical of him cer-
tainly was one of those low
points (though Vice Presi-
dent Mike Pence, in his un-
derstated way, has made
clear that he continues to
talk to those governors).
Democrats trying to jam
ideologically charged initia-
tives into a stimulus package
was another.
Still, the president and
congressional leaders from
both parties have come to-
gether rapidly three times to
enact economic rescue legis-
lation. Perhaps they all can
do the same with a message
on masks.
Maybe masks will become
the symbol of how Ameri-
cans banded together in this
moment, much like women
rolling bandages during
World War I and citizens
planting Freedom Gardens
during World War II. Mr.
Trump had a chance to
model that behavior; he still
does.

At the regular White
House coronavirus briefing
Friday, President Trump an-
nounced that the Centers for
Disease Control and Preven-
tion, after
weeks of con-
flicting ad-
vice, had
changed its
guidance to
Americans
about wearing face masks to
this: Wear them in public.
That will help reduce the
spread of the disease to new
victims from people who
don’t know they are carrying
the virus.
But then the president un-
dercut his own announce-

President Trump said the
government would buy nearly
167 million masks from3M Co.
during the next three months,
resolving a spat with the indus-
trial conglomerate over efforts
to ramp up supply of gear for
front-line workers confronting
the coronavirus pandemic.
Mr. Trump criticized 3M’s
mask-making efforts last week
and invoked the Defense Pro-
duction Act against the com-
pany. That Korean War-era law
gives the president power to
compel manufacturers to make
operational changes in the na-
tional interest. Health workers
across the country are running
short on masks as well as the
gowns, ventilators and face
shields they need to treat the
sickest patients with Covid-19,
the disease caused by the virus.
An official on Monday said
the Trump administration didn’t
plan to take any further action
against 3M under the DPA in ad-
dition to the mask purchases.
The administration will buy 55.
million masks from 3M in each
of the next three months, the of-
ficial said.
“The 3M saga ends very hap-
pily,” Mr. Trump said at a brief-
ing on Monday. “We’re very
proud to be dealing now with
3M and its CEO, Mike Roman. I
just spoke with him and I
thanked him for getting it done.”
Mr. Roman had pushed back
against Mr. Trump’s criticism
last week, telling The Wall
Street Journal that his company
was doing everything possible
to increase mask production.
3M, which confirmed the pur-
chase, has doubled its produc-
tion of masks in recent months
to about 100 million N95 masks
globally each month, including
35 million in the U.S. 3M said
last week that it would raise
production in the U.S. to a
monthly rate of 40 million
within weeks, and that it also
would import 10 million masks
from its operations in China
with the administration’s help.
Other manufacturers includ-
ing Honeywell International
Inc. are raising mask output in
the U.S. The Department of
Health and Human Services esti-
mated in March that the U.S.
would need about 300 million
N95 masks a month to deal with
a pandemic.
The Trump administration’s
order with 3M, for 166.5 million
face masks total, includes respi-
rators that are approved under
the typical N95 standard—so
called because those masks
block 95% of very small parti-
cles—as well as orders for prod-
ucts certified under a similar
standard used in China.
These respirators are in high
demand because they are de-
signed to keep health-care work-
ers safe. Surgical masks and
even simpler cotton masks are
intended to prevent the spread
of disease from wearers.
Mr. Trump, who initially was
reluctant to invoke the DPA, also
has invoked it to compel compa-
nies to work faster to make ven-
tilators.

BYALEXLEARY
ANDAUSTENHUFFORD

3M Will


Supply


Millions


Of Masks


Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) has
urged the White House to ap-
point a czar to oversee medical-
equipment production and dis-
tribution. In a call with White
House chief of staff Mark Mead-
ows on Sunday night, Mr.
Schumer suggested the czar
should be a senior military offi-
cial and provided a list of
names for a potential appointee.
The White House said Mr.
Meadows had many calls with
members of Congress, includ-
ing one with Mr. Schumer, but
wouldn’t comment further.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi
(D., Calif.) on Monday provided
new details on the fourth bill
that Congress will take up to
combat the economic impact of
the pandemic. Mrs. Pelosi told
the Democratic caucus in a call
that she sees the next bill
amounting to at least $1 trillion
and that there must be more
assistance for small businesses
and for those who rely on food
stamps, according to multiple
Democratic aides.
The speaker also said in the
call that the onetime checks be-
ing sent to many Americans
will likely not be enough to
help, according to aides.
Strict containment measures
appeared to be helping to curb
the spread in Europe’s worst-
hit countries.
In Italy and Spain, the rate
of infection has slowed, with
the number of confirmed cases
increasing less than 5% from
the previous day in both coun-
tries. They are now recording
fewer daily deaths than they
have in over a week.
Meanwhile, countries in Asia
that have avoided harsh restric-
tions on activity are now tight-
ening controls after new infec-
tions and lax observance of
voluntary curbs threatened their
success in checking the virus.
Japanese Prime Minister
Shinzo Abe said he would de-
clare an emergency in the To-
kyo and Osaka areas on Tues-
day, empowering local
authorities to order residents to
stay home and close schools.

The U.S. coronavirus death
toll surpassed 10,000 at the
start of a week that officials
predicted would be America’s
most difficult yet during the
global pandemic.

Confirmed infections in the
U.S. were more than double that
of any other nation, at more
than 368,000, with the death
toll at more than 10,900, ac-
cording to data Monday from
Johns Hopkins University.
In the 24 hours ending 8
p.m. on Monday, 1,164 people
died from the coronavirus ac-
cording to a Wall Street Journal
analysis of Johns Hopkins
data—roughly even with the
prior four days’ death counts.
The U.S. milestone came as
some Asian countries readied
for a surge in new infections
and European nations showed
signs that restrictions were
helping to slow the spread of
the disease there.
Globally, more than 1.3 mil-
lion people have been infected
by the coronavirus as of Mon-
day, according to the data from
Johns Hopkins. More than
74,800 people have died of
Covid-19.
U.S. Surgeon General Jerome
Adams said Sunday that this
week would be “the hardest
and saddest week of most
Americans’ lives.”
Infections in some of the
worst-hit American cities, in-
cluding New York, Detroit and
New Orleans, are expected to
peak in the coming days, new
models suggested.
New York Gov. Andrew
Cuomo said the number of
daily deaths from Covid-19 has
been “effectively flat” in his
state for the past two days,
suggesting stringent social-dis-
tancing measures have proved
effective. The number of daily
hospitalizations, intubations
and people in intensive-care
units is also down.

ByJennifer Calfas,
Chong Koh Ping
andNick Kostov

U.S. Coronavirus Death Toll Passes 10,


Texas troopers monitored travelers entering the state from Louisiana. Below, an emergency medical technician brought a patient to a hospital in Brooklyn, N.Y.

FROM TOP: DAVID J. PHILLIP/ASSOCIATED PRESS; BRYAN R. SMITH/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES

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