the times | Wednesday April 8 2020 2GM 15
News
President Trump’s trade adviser told
the White House in January that
coronavirus could kill 500,000 Ameri-
cans and cost almost $6 trillion.
The memo from Peter Navarro and a
follow-up he wrote on February 23 are
in contrast to President Trump’s public
reassurances at the time that the out-
break was “very much under control”.
On January 29 Mr Navarro wrote:
“The lack of immune protection or an
existing cure or vaccine would leave
Americans defenceless in the case of a
full-blown coronavirus outbreak on US
soil. This lack of protection elevates the
risk of the coronavirus evolving into a
full-blown pandemic, imperilling the
lives of millions of Americans.”
His second memo was addressed
directly to the president and said that
up to two million Americans could die.
A day later Mr Trump tweeted that the
outbreak was “very much under con-
trol” and that the stock market was
“starting to look very good to me”.It’s all under control, Trump said
after warning of 2m US fatalities
David Charter, Henry Zeffman
Washingtoned: “The WHO really blew it. For some
reason, funded largely by the United
States, yet very China centric. We will
be giving that a good look. Fortunately
I rejected their advice on keeping our
borders open to China early on. Why
did they give us such a faulty recom-
mendation?”
Mr Trump also retweeted a post by a
Michigan state representative who
thanked him for saving her life because
she recovered from Covid-19 after
taking hydroxychloroquine, a drug that
he had promoted as a “game changer”
but which is still in clinical trials.
The virus is hitting African-Ameri-
cans especially hard. In Chicago, where
about 30 per cent of people are black,
72 per cent of those who have died are
black. The picture is similar in Louisi-
ana, where 32 per cent of the popula-
tion is African-American, but they
account for 70 per cent of deaths.
Mr Trump said that black Americans
were “getting hit very very hard” and
dying from coronavirus in “very nasty
numbers”.
Daniel Finkelstein, page 23The first big federal government order
for facemasks was made on March 4 and
the White House issued guidelines on
social distancing on March 16.
The memos were addressed to the
National Security Council and were
circulated around the White House. It
is not known if Mr Trump read them.
Steve Bannon, the former White
House chief strategist, told Axios, a news
website, that internal divisions, includ-
ing suspicion of Mr Navarro over his
anti-China views, hindered the response
to his “prophetic” memos. Mr Bannon
added: “There was total blockage to get
these facts in front of the president.”
Mr Navarro called for a ban on flights
from China, which Mr Trump intro-
duced two days after the first memo. At
his briefing last night Mr Trump said he
had not yet seen Mr Navarro’s memos.
Yesterday Mr Trump turned on the
World Health Organisation (WHO) for
disagreeing with his decision to stop
flights from China and said he was put-
ting a “very strong hold” on funding for
the body while the US investigated why
“they called it wrong”. Earlier he tweet-Japan declares state of emergency
Richard Lloyd Parry, Adam Sage
Richard Spencerhowever, instead relying on social
pressure. In Japan there have been
3,500 confirmed cases of coronavirus
and 100 deaths. The state of emergency
is scheduled to end on May 6.patagonia
Twenty-three French pensioners went
to Patagonia on March 10 to escape the
coronavirus in France, but one was
already infected. The region in which
they are staying is now in lockdown to
stop the spread of the virus and the
group is stuck in a luxury hotel. Several
members of the group have picked up
Covid-19 and one is in intensive care.israel
Yad Vashem, the museum dedicated to
the Holocaust, is marking this year’s
national remembrance day — or Yom
Hashoah — by asking people to film
themselves reading the names ofvictims aloud. The usual range of
commemorations, on the night of April
20 to that of April 21, will be restricted
because of the coronavirus.
Community gatherings will not be
allowed because of social distancing
requirements. The March of the Living,
an annual event at Auschwitz, has also
been cancelled.new zealand
The health minister has been demoted
for going to the beach during the
lockdown. David Clark drove 12 miles
to take his family out on the South
Island. Under lockdown rules it is not
permitted to drive long distances for
non-essential purposes.
Mr Clark said: “I’ve let the team
down. I’ve been an idiot.” Jacinda
Ardern, the prime minister, has also
stripped him of another role, as asso-
ciate finance minister.japan
The Japanese public have been urged
not to stockpile food and essential
goods after Shinzo Abe, the prime
minister, declared a state of emergency.
“The biggest thing we have to fear is
fear itself,” Mr Abe said, citing Franklin
D Roosevelt. “The most important
thing now is for each citizen to change
our actions. If each of us can reduce
contact with other people by at least
70 per cent... we should see a peak in
the number of infections in two weeks.”
The emergency declaration applies
to the cities of Tokyo and Osaka and to
five other prefectures, and is accompa-
nied by a 108 trillion yen (£800 billion)
economic support package.
Few of the measures are backed up by
penalties or enforceable under the law,American healthcare workers wear pictures of themselves without their protective equipment to put patients at ease
News
CAPTAIN_WOLFGlobal cases
1.42m
81,
Global deaths
Japan 3,906 92 31 0.
Morocco 1,184 90 32 2
Norway 5,953 89 1,098 16
Czech Rep 4,944 88 462 8
Greece 1,832 81 176 8
Israel 9,248 65 1,068 8
Iraq 1,122 65 28 2
Malaysia 3,963 63 122 2
Serbia 2,447 61 280 7
Russia 7,497 58 51 0.
Pakistan 4,035 57 18 0.Argentina 1,628 56 36 1
Panama 2,100 55 487 13
Colombia 1,780 50 35 1
Australia 5,919 48 232 2
Hungary 817 47 85 5
Ukraine 1,462 45 33 1
Luxembourg 2,970 44 4,745 70
Chile 5,116 43 268 2
Saudi Arabia 2,795 41 80 1
Slovenia 1,059 36 509 17
Finland 2,308 34 417 6Cases
Fewer than 1,
Over 100,
1,000 to 9,
10,000 to 99,
AUSTRALIA
NEW
ZEALANDSource: Worldometer, Apr 7, 11pmFINLAND
POLAND
CHINA
INDIA
MALAYSIA
SINGAPOREIRAN
ROMANIA
CROATIA
PAKISTAN
UAE
THAILAND
UKRAINE
AUSTRIA
RUSSIA
HONG KONG
PHILIPPINES
JAPAN
SOUTH KOREA
INDONESIA
SWEDEN
NORWAY
have ventilators. The average
American hospital has more
intensive care beds than most
African countries. Kenya, one of the
richer states, has only 130.
In Zimbabwe, which is under
lockdown, Oppah Muchinguri, the
defence minister, said the
devastation wrought by the
pandemic in the West was “the
work of God punishing countries
who imposed sanctions on us”.
President Magufuli of Tanzania
will not shut churches. “That’s
where there is true healing,” he
said. On Sunday the virus reached
its 51st African country, South
Sudan, which has four ventilators
for a population of 11 million.No new deaths in China
For the first time since the
coronavirus outbreak started no
deaths have been reported in
China over a 24 hour period, a
breakthrough for the country
where it began (Didi Tang writes).
The number of new infections
rose by 32, all of whom were
international travellers. Although
the first cases were reported in
early December, Beijing did not
publish death tolls and new case
numbers until January. Its official
death toll is at 3,331.
The milestone, if it is real, has
been reached a day before Wuhan
reopens its railway stations and
airport, two and half months after
the city where the outbreak began
was sealed off. Those who want to
leave must have a “health code”
showing that they are well.
Nine provinces reopened their
schools yesterday for students in
their final year, whose university
entrance exams have been
postponed by a month to July.
Qinghai, a sparsely-populated
western province, was the first to
reopen schools. last month, and
another 20 have resumed classes.
However, China’s biggest cities
— Beijing, Shanghai and
Guangzhou — have tightened their
measures because of the risk of
international travellers infecting
residents. Anyone who travels to
China is banned from leaving
within 14 days.
Rising global discrimination
against the Chinese has given rise
to a T-shirt that says “I am not
Chinese”. Politicians around the
world have blamed the Chinese
government for failing to disclose
the scope of the outbreak
before it became a pandemic.South Africa is in lockdown, left, while
people in Angola are more concerned
about queueing for food handouts
than practising social distancingNIC BOTHMA/EPA