The Times - UK (2020-08-01)

the times | Saturday August 1 2020 2GM 15

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over best treatment for Covid-

intensive care units in Marseilles died,

compared with 43 per cent in Paris.

Mr Hirsch said: “There are no pub-

lished studies which offer a compara-

tive analysis of the rates of mortality in

intensive care... between hospitals in

Paris and Marseilles”. He said the 43 per

cent figure came from a report pub-

lished by the Paris authority on April 14

but which had subsequently been re-

vised downwards. The death rate in in-

tensive care in Paris was now estimated

at between 25 and 35 per cent, he said.

Brice Grazzini, Professor Raoult’s

lawyer, said: “My client has been badly

treated throughout this crisis but until

now it’s been a question of scientific

controversies which have always

existed and which Professor Raoult has

always accepted. This time, it has gone

beyond the scientific world.”

hospitals had put in place a “very deter-

mined strategy which is to look for

everyone with symptoms and virus-

carriers in contact with them, but also

to investigate around the clusters”.

He said a similar strategy, which has

now been adopted nationwide, could

have been implemented this spring in

Paris and other cities. But it was post-

poned after Mr Macron’s scientific

committee counselled that widespread

testing was pointless at that time.

“It was me who explained to the

president for the first time that the PCR

[coronavirus test] is very simple and

that everyone can do it,” Professor

Raoult said, adding that Parisian

doctors had “not told the truth” about

the need for testing.

He went on to claim that 16 per cent

of Covid-19 patients admitted to

Millions of Americans were facing

potential financial disaster last night as

efforts to maintain a crucial pandemic

safety net collided with the conflicting

priorities of the White House and con-

gressional Democrats.

An emergency national unemploy-

ment benefits package that was agreed

in March expired yesterday but efforts

to renegotiate or extend the weekly

$600 payments stalled amid a blizzard

of mutual accusations from President

Trump’s team and Democratic leaders

on Capitol Hill.

Both sides accused the other of refus-

ing to compromise. “We don’t have

shared values, that’s the way it is,”

Nancy Pelosi, leader of the Democrat-

controlled House of Representatives,

said. “It’s not bickering, it’s standing our

ground,” she said after talks stalled

without an agreement.

Mark Meadows, the White House

chief of staff, said he had made “no less

than four” offers to Ms Pelosi and

Chuck Schumer, the Democrats’ leader

in the Republican-controlled Senate.

“Those have been rejected but more

importantly they’ve not even been

countered with a proposal,” Mr Mead-

ows said yesterday morning.

If the emergency federal benefit

lapses without a replacement about

25 million out of work Americans who

were receiving it will still get unemploy-

ment benefits paid out by their individ-

ual states, but these vary widely.

The typical average weekly package

is about $300 to $500 but in some states

it falls far below that and many impose

Recovering

Bolsonaro has

‘mouldy lungs’

President Bolsonao of Brazil has said he

believes he has “mould” in his lungs,

having spent weeks in isolation after

developing Covid-19.

Mr Bolsonaro, 65, a right-wing

former soldier who has consistently

played down the health risks of the

coronavirus, said that his doctors

“found a bit of infection” during a

check-up as he recuperated. “It must

have been those 20 days inside the

house,” he said.

His wife, Michelle Bolsonaro, 38, has

also tested positive for the coronavirus.

She was at an event in Brasilia on

Wednesday. The president’s press

office said that she was in good health

and would follow established protocols.

Brazil, population of 212 million, has

recorded more than 2.5 million cases of

the disease, and more than 90,

deaths. Five members of Mr Bolson-

aro’s cabinet are among those known to

have tested positive.

The president has used his own

apparently swift recuperation from ill-

ness as justification for his scepticism

over the value of lockdowns. He said he

believed that 70 per cent of Brazilians

would eventually get infected and that

people needed to accept that.

He has also, like President Trump,

suggested that the malaria drug

hydroxychloroquine be used to treat

the disease — even though numerous

clinical trials have failed to show that

the drug helps Covid-19 patients, and

several warnings of its potentially dan-

gerous side-effects have been issued.

Stephen Gibbs

than medical egos. Not only will it

shape the French response to a possible

second wave, it has also tapped into a

long-standing provincial hostility

towards Parisians, which has been

exacerbated by the health crisis.

Many provincials are convinced that

Professor Raoult has been frozen out by

the Parisian medical establishment

under the influence of the pharmaceu-

tical lobby.

However far-fetched the belief, it is

fuelling a centuries-old distrust of Paris

that is making it more difficult for

ministers to get the message across on

the need for anti-virus measures.

Giving evidence to a parliamentary

committee set up to investigate the

handling of the epidemic in France in

June, Professor Raoult said that at the

start of the crisis in March Marseilles’

Americans

aim to see the

world, in 2022

Will Pavia New York

When the pandemic is over Jeremy

Bassetti plans to travel through China,

up into Tibet and across the Himalayas

into Nepal. “Maybe into India as well,

depending on how long it takes.”

A professor of humanities at Valencia

College in Florida, he is one of many

Americans planning grand tours in

2021 or 2022. “A lot of people are pent

up and frustrated,” he said. “My wife

and I are. We want to get out and see the

world but we want to do so safely.”

Florida is one of the hotspots of the

pandemic in the US, having passed

New York in reported cases, and more

than 470,000 people have tested posi-

tive. Dr Bassetti, who hosts a podcast

with travel writers, said he felt that

many of his state were not yet taking

the precautions adopted elsewhere.

The lockdowns, and fears of more to

come, have prompted some to push

trips as far forward as 2022. They have

also boosted rural retreats, in the US

and abroad. Jeremy Jauncey, a Scottish

former rugby player who runs Beautiful

Destinations, has shared on Instagram

pictures from his first trip in four

months, “a two-hour drive out of New

York” to a resort in the Hudson Valley.

Nick Westwood, of the British luxury

travel company Red Savannah, said the

pandemic had been a boon for remote

villas where travellers did not have to

share a hotel lobby or pool. “In Prov-

ence, Tuscany, Andalusia,” he said.

“Places really away from the cities in

more isolated locations where there are

fewer people and so there is less risk.”

fiji

Fiji announced its first coronavirus

death yesterday, but health officials

assured citizens that the country

was not on the verge of a major

outbreak. Ifereimi Waqainabete,

the health minister, said the victim

was a 66-year-old man who tested

positive after returning from India,

where he had surgery for a long-

standing heart condition. He had

been held in quarantine.

saudi arabia

Muslim pilgrims took part in the

“stoning of the devil” yesterday,

using sanitised pebbles in the last

important ritual of the scaled-down

haj. Masked pilgrims, clad in white

and observing social distancing,

threw seven stones each at a pillar

symbolising Satan.

nepal

Nepal has reopened its mountains

including Everest for the autumn

trekking and climbing season in an

attempt to boost the struggling

tourism sector, despite uncertainty

over coronavirus. The government

will permit international flights to

land in the country from August 17.

The decision comes despite more

than 1,000 new coronavirus

infections reported this week.

vietnam

Vietnam has reported the country’s

first death to coronavirus as it

struggles with a renewed outbreak

after 99 days without any cases. The

70-year-old man was being treated

for a kidney illness in Danang,

where more than 90 cases have

been reported this week.

Global cases 17,106,

Global deaths 668,

World update

Countries reporting

most deaths

US 4,388,566 150,054 453

Brazil 2,552,265 90,134 424

UK 303,181 46,119 679

Mexico 408,449 45,361 352

India 1,638,870 35,747 26

Cases Deaths

Deaths/

1m pop

Most new cases

276

1

2

3

33

66

Brazil

US

India

UK

China

880

Reported new cases

Source: WHO

55,

69,

65,

News

US jobless set to

lose aid package

strict restrictions on which unem-

ployed people are eligible.

Massachusetts pays some benefits of

more than $1,200 a week, the highest

ceiling of any state. At the other

extreme Mississippi caps unemploy-

ment benefit at $235 a week.

Even with the supplementary federal

benefit in place, for the past four

months the US economy has contract-

ed at a record-breaking pace, shrinking

at a 32.9 per cent annual rate from April

to the end of June, the Bureau of Eco-

nomic Analysis said this week.

The negotiations in Washington will

continue over the weekend and come

as the pandemic rages across the coun-

try, leading to increased restrictions on

business openings and movement.

An estimated 1,000 Americans are

dying each day and almost 4.5 million

have been infected.

Both sides agree a new package is

required but Republicans had been

fighting to trim back the $600 jobless

benefit, which they regard as a disincen-

tive for many to return to the job market.

Facing dire opinion polls and an elect-

ion in less than 100 days Mr Trump has

indicated he supports an extension of

the full $600 benefit. “We want a tempo-

rary extension of enhanced unemploy-

ment benefits,” he said this week. “This

will provide a critical bridge for Ameri-

cans who lost their jobs to the pandemic

through no fault of their own.”

However, Democrats have pressed

for a more sweeping package that

would deliver aid to state and local gov-

ernments, help for the poor and fund-

ing for schools and colleges.

Trump election call, pages 40-

Ben Hoyle Los Angeles

THOMAS MUKOYA/REUTERS; FIRDIA LISNAWATI/AP; JUAN BARRETO/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES