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With help from Myah Ward
GEORGIA, UNMASKED — When my husband and I wandered around Atlanta’s Piedmont Park on Sunday, most people seemed unaware of the city’s four-day-old mask mandate. Rather than cracking down on this cavalier behavior, Georgia's Republican governor, Brian Kemp, just sanctioned it. After issuing a statewide order last night banning local mask mandates, he sued the city of Atlanta today for its mask mandate and pandemic recommendations.
In the face of rising Covid caseloads, hospitalizations and deaths, Republican governors in other states, including Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, issued statewide mask mandates. Kemp decided to go in the other direction: a statewide license to not wear a mask. He called city mask mandates a “bridge too far.”
Cities set the stage for a legal showdown earlier today: Before Kemp’s lawsuit, Atlanta’s Democratic mayor, Keisha Lance Bottoms, who announced she tested positive for Covid last week, said the city’s mask mandate would continue to apply, although she gave no details about how it would be enforced. Atlanta’s DeKalb County, and some Georgia cities said they would preserve their mask mandates, as well.
The suit does not go after business mandates, like the national wear-a-mask order issued by Walmart to its customers and employees. And a growing number of companies, including Publix and Kroger, two major grocery stores chains that operate in Georgia, said they would be implementing mask mandates.
When Kemp lifted the state’s stay at home order at the end of April, leaving almost no Covid restrictions in place, critics closely watched the state’s data to see whether there would be a spike in cases. But the state’s Covid infection rate and daily death rate didn’t jump in May. Data issues could be partly to blame — the state has been caught manipulating Covid data to paint a more favorable picture. Or maybe Georgia’s citizens didn’t need an order to stay home in the pandemic’s early weeks. Local officials may have played a role, too. Bottoms urged city residents to avoid going out and businesses to remain closed after Kemp lifted restrictions.
This time, things look different. Georgia appears to have suffered the same fate as other states with rapidly rising cases. As its city and state governments squabble over mask mandates, Covid testing remains inadequate. Most of the cars I saw over the weekend in the notoriously traffic jammed city were at overloaded testing sites.
And the virus continues to spread, with a third of new cases coming from six metro Atlanta counties. The state now has more than 131,000 confirmed cases and more than 3,100 recorded Covid deaths. On Wednesday new cases per capita in the state were on par with neighboring states like Florida, South Carolina and Alabama and higher than other hotspot states like Texas and California.
Welcome to POLITICO Nightly: Coronavirus Special Edition. Florida found that about a third of kids they tested are infected with Covid. Reach out rrayasam@politico.com or on Twitter at @renurayasam.
A message from PhRMA:
America’s biopharmaceutical companies are sharing manufacturing capabilities with each other so that once a treatment or vaccine is ready, they can get it to millions of people fast. And there’s no slowing down. America’s biopharmaceutical companies will continue working day and night until they beat coronavirus. More.
| FROM THE HEALTH DESK |
THE CDC STRIKES BACK — After the Trump administration ordered hospitals to change how they report coronavirus data to the government, effectively bypassing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, officials at the CDC made a decision of their own: Take our data and go home.
The sudden disappearance of the CDC’s coronavirus dashboards on Wednesday — which drew considerable scrutiny before the agency restored them on this afternoon — has become the latest flashpoint in the extraordinary breakdown between the Washington, D.C.-based federal health department and the nation’s premier public health agency, located in Atlanta, write Dan Diamond, Adam Cancryn, Darius Tahir and Rachel Roubein.
While Democrats and health care groups spent today blasting the Trump administration over the missing dashboards, which tracked critical data on coronavirus hospitalizations, officials at the Department of Health and Human Services insisted they were just as shocked when the CDC’s data disappeared from public view.
“No one came out of our conversations believing that CDC was going to stop doing analysis,” said one administration official who was involved in plans for shifting the data-reporting responsibilities away from CDC. The official, who requested anonymity, said the 24-hour disappearance of the agency’s dashboards was an unwelcome surprise.
BAD BLOOD — Last year, POLITICO broke the story that a top Trump administration health official — CMS chief Seema Verma — was using tax dollars to hire GOP consultants to boost her image. Today, the health department's inspector general released a report confirming the story. Adam and Dan explain why the controversy is relevant to the fight against the coronavirus pandemic in the latest POLITICO Dispatch.
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NEW THIS WEEK – POLITICO’S “FUTURE PULSE” NEWSLETTER : 2020 has wrought a global pandemic that has accelerated long-simmering trends in health care technology. One thing is certain: The health care system that emerges from this crisis will be fundamentally different than the one that entered. From Congress and the White House, to state capitols and Silicon Valley, Future Pulse spotlights the politics, policies and technologies driving long-term changes on the most personal issue for Americans: Our health. SUBSCRIBE TODAY.
| ON THE HILL |
THE START OF THE DEAL — President Donald Trump has signaled to Hill Republicans that he will not sign a new coronavirus stimulus package without the inclusion of a payroll tax cut, according to three sources close to the issue, John Bresnahan, Jake Sherman and Marianne LeVine write.
This new red line from the White House serves to illustrate the challenges that lie ahead in negotiating another Covid-19 relief package. GOP and Democratic congressional leaders are trillions of dollars apart in funding goals for the package, as well as how those funds will be spent. Republicans have pushed for an overhaul to liability laws, which Democrats are skittish of, and Democrats are insisting on state and local funding, and enhanced unemployment benefits, which Republicans are cool to.
Trump's thinking, of course, is always evolving. The president has been fixated on a payroll tax cut for months, even though it has fallen on deaf ears on Capitol Hill — Senate Republicans and House Democrats don't care for the proposal, and have resoundingly rejected it.
However, Vice President Mike Pence told House Republicans in a conference call this week that they should be advocating for a payroll tax, according to sources on the call.
| FIRST IN NIGHTLY |
HOSPITAL BILLS COME DUE — Cash-strapped hospitals are sending emails and buying ads to entice patients back from Covid-19 lockdowns with a plaintive reminder: It’s time to fix that hernia.
But the effort to recover some of the tens of billions the industry says it lost from the cancellation of elective surgeries is colliding with a burst of new coronavirus cases in most of the country — and again putting economic recovery in conflict with disease prevention, health care reporter Rachel Roubein writes.
Hospitals until now were recession-proof and remain among the biggest employers in some communities. The pandemic brought historic levels of layoffs and furloughs among health care workers; the March jobs report showing the worst loss in health care jobs in at least 30 years.
If the hospitals close back down, it could drive up unemployment and the number of uninsured — as well as prolong delays in needed but non-emergency care. But trying to restore some postponed business could put more stress on health workers and possibly expose non-Covid patients in wards to the virus.
| FOUR SQUARE |
THE ZOOM PANEL — Eugene Daniels, Tim Alberta, Ryan Lizza and Laura Barrón-López discuss the impact of the Twitter hack on the election and the battle against disinformation on the latest episode of Four Square.
| AROUND THE NATION |
PITCH PERFECT — Two days after Lisa Baird became the National Women’s Soccer League commissioner in March, she shut down the league. Now, the NWSL is the first U.S. professional sports league to return to play. The league’s Challenge Cup started at the end of June in a quarantine bubble in Utah. Quarterfinals start Friday.
The league’s restart hasn’t been entirely smooth. The Orlando Pride withdrew from the four-week tournament after players and staff tested positive. And big stars like Megan Rapinoe have opted out of play.
Baird talked to your host about life in the league’s quarantine bubble, the decision to apply for federal bailout money and the advice she has for NBA commissioner Adam Silver. This conversation has been edited.
Why did you decide to restart the league so quickly?
Our objective was not to be first. We just had no sight line into what would happen in the fall and winter. It just felt like we had a bit of a window.
Why Utah?
The Covid spread earlier on was very much in control. While it has increased, if you look at the magnitude of it, it’s still at a level that’s far lower than other states where we have teams.
Tell me about life in the bubble.
Everybody has braved the medical protocols — PPE, masks, sanitization, hygiene, staying in your unit, no excursions. There’s a pretty lengthy list and there’s been no issues.
One of the core principles for our bubble is each team stays with each team. There's no excursions and it’s sad because Utah is such a great place. There’s a lot of movie nights and Netflix and books. Lots of book exchanges are going on.
Why did you allow players to bring their kids to the tournament?
We know how hard that is to be away from your family for a month. A lot of our athletes do that because they go to the Olympic Games and World Cups. If we could create a tournament here at home where you're not taking your child to a foreign country with all the complexity that that has, why wouldn't we do that? We've created a special and gentler testing protocol for the kids and it’s been really working out.
Why did you apply for funds through the Paycheck Protection Program?
When we shut down, we didn't have the sponsors we had. We had a very barren outlook like many other small businesses. When we made the decision to apply for the PPP, we didn't have a season, we didn't have sponsors, we didn't necessarily have any broadcast money coming in because that depends on whether you play games. You're talking about a lifeline that we needed because we did not want to disrupt compensation for our players. We had no revenue coming in, or not enough to pay the players. That bought us time.
Any advice to other professional sports league commissioners?
I don't think a 12-week commissioner is going to be telling Adam Silver or Don Garber or Roger Goodell anything that they don't already know.
The biggest issue that sports has, which is not yet solvable, is the fact that the states are going to make their own regulations. So you're trying to come in with a national approach because teams have to cross state lines to play. We opted early on to just go to one state and have the bubble.
| ON THE ECONOMY |
Nightly’s Myah Ward asked: How would the end of pandemic unemployment benefits, an additional $600 a week scheduled to expire at the end of July, affect the economy?
“That would be the withdrawal of about $800 billion at an annual rate from the incomes of the unemployed. And while they have seemingly built up pretty good balances so far, it’s unlikely that they would be able to handle that. So that would probably drag down their capacity to consume, and that would be a drag on the economy. On the other hand, many of them would have a better chance of getting back into work. We know that $600 is too high. And so you have those two competing forces. On balance, a cliff is too sharp and it would be a negative. But I certainly think it should be reduced and phased out over the second half of the year.” — Douglas Holtz-Eakin, president of the American Action Forum and chief economist of the Council of Economic Advisers under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2002
“As I estimated in an analysis for the Peterson Institute for International Economics: The ‘expiration of benefits would reduce GDP by 2.5 percent on average in the second half of 2020, costing an average of 2 million jobs over the next year and raising the unemployment rate by up to 1.2 percentage points. These costs would be borne not only by the currently unemployed (who would receive smaller benefits) but also more broadly across the economy.’” — Jason Furman, economic policy professor at Harvard and chair of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Barack Obama from 2013 to 2017
| ASK THE AUDIENCE |
Nightly asks you: Do you support more or fewer pandemic restrictions in your area? Which ones do you think are most important or least necessary? Let us know your thoughts in our form, and we’ll include select answers in Friday’s edition.
Are you a health care worker? As the pandemic worsens in some regions and stabilizes in others, POLITICO is continuing to track the ability of hospitals, nursing homes and other care providers to manage the crisis — and also how the pandemic is affecting workers on the frontline. Tell us about your experiences and your facility’s response, and share this survey with any colleagues who may be interested.
BECOME A CHINA WATCHER: Expert views of Beijing are quickly darkening. How should the U.S. deal with Xi Jinping’s regime? Join the conversation and gain expert insight from informed and influential voices in government, business, law, tech and academia. China Watcher is as much a platform as it is a newsletter. Subscribe today.
| NIGHTLY NUMBER |
$75 billion
The amount the U.S. would need to spend in order to fix the nation’s Covid-19 testing system, according to a report released by The Rockefeller Foundation.
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The Bishop of Manchester leads a memorial service for the victims of coronavirus at Manchester Cathedral in the United Kingdom. | Getty Images
| PARTING WORDS |
OUT-OF-OFFICE MESSAGE — Nightly’s Tyler Weyant writes:
There are things I miss about POLITICO’s newsroom, though they probably aren’t the things you’d expect. I miss the one faucet in the gentlemen’s washroom that only has very hot water, and saying aloud to no one, “Boy, that’s hot.” I miss having passive-aggressive chats about conference rooms that are double booked. I miss the fact that the floor is somewhat uneven in some places.
But most of all, in these four months, I miss the social aspects of office life. And I suspect I am not alone: D.C.’s vast cubicled workforce gets its work done because of, not in spite of, inane chatter and casual musings that turn into actual professional accomplishments. The artful work of Washington jobs is done in the in-between moments.
And Covid has made these moments, if not impossible, very different. Zoom and Slack chats, as the kids say, hit different. We’re both never and always at the office now, and can’t discuss possible hiring choices or different work processes with Fido while he’s at the water bowl. This transition hasn’t been easy. I have heard from many inside and outside of my company about their difficulty transitioning to this style of work.
The future of working in political D.C., though, may be better for it. Maybe the newfound mobility of work will allow more folks into the process of contributing to our national discussion. Private Slack conversations aside, perhaps we’ll do a little less casual sniding against our fellow workers. We can’t complain about someone not cleaning up spills at the coffee machine if we’re the only one doing the spilling.
It’s fun to be in the office. I miss the snacks and the yuks. But the in-between moments, the gossip and the camaraderie, were also a way of unknowingly excluding people unfamiliar with the terrain. I’ve seen the future where we’re not in office as much, and I am here for it.
A message from PhRMA:
America’s biopharmaceutical companies are sharing their knowledge and resources more than ever before to speed up the development of new medicines to fight COVID-19. They’re working with doctors and hospitals on over 1,100 clinical trials.
And there’s no slowing down. America’s biopharmaceutical companies will continue working day and night until they beat coronavirus. Because science is how we get back to normal.
See how biopharmaceutical companies are working together to get people what they need during this pandemic.
And there’s no slowing down. America’s biopharmaceutical companies will continue working day and night until they beat coronavirus. Because science is how we get back to normal.
See how biopharmaceutical companies are working together to get people what they need during this pandemic.
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