Scientist forced to defend himself from attacks by Trump allies and says ‘I can’t be bothered with getting distracted’
Anthony Fauci has described attacks on him from Republicans as “bizarre”, after a barrage of criticism from senior GOP figures.
Related: ‘There is a solution’: a Covid survivor’s life-or-death battle for Medicare for All
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Joe Biden touts $1.9tn Covid rescue package on anniversary of Affordable Care Act
Administration also extended the enrollment period for registering for subsidized health insurance coverage until 15 August
Joe Biden marked the 11th anniversary of the signing of the Affordable Care Act with a trip to Ohio on Tuesday, touting his efforts to reverse many Trump-era measures aimed at weakening the landmark health reform law, and pledging that his $1.9tn Covid rescue package would build on the ACA’s promise.
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Biden calls on Congress to pass assault weapons ban after Boulder shooting – live
President also urges Senate to pass bills to close background checks loopholes
- Biden team turns focus to $3tn infrastructure plan
- Senate confirms Boston mayor Marty Walsh as labor secretary
- Photos show migrants held in overcrowded Texas facility
- Biden strikes new tone but Mexico remains US’s wall against migrants
Americans can now sign up for health insurance plans under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) until 15 August. The window to sign up for insurance through the program normally closes on 15 February, but the Department of Health and Human Services has initially moved the deadline to May, before extending it to the summer.
The extension will give Americans who lost health coverage during the pandemic more time to sign up, and allow more Americans to take advantage of new federal subsidies to reduce insurance premiums granted via the coronavirus relief package.
Asked about the push from senators Tammy Duckworth and Mazie Hirono for Joe Biden to appoint more AAPI to his administration, and the senators’ pledge to vote against Biden nominees until the president pays heed, Biden dodged:
“We have the most diverse cabinet in history. We have a lot of Asian Americans that are in the cabinet and in sub-cabinet levels,” he said, according to the White House press pool reports.
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Covid cases fall over 80% among US nursing home staff and residents
Despite vaccine hesitancy, figures show a big drop in infections – giving hope that, after a brutal year, an end is in sight
Joan Phillips, a certified nursing assistant in a Florida nursing home, loved her job but dreaded the danger of going to work in the pandemic. When vaccines became available in December, she jumped at the chance to get one.
Months later, it appears that danger has faded. After the rollout of Covid vaccines, the number of new Covid cases among nursing home...
Republicans want to make it harder to pass ballot initiatives. That should alarm us | David Daley
State legislators are trying to make it more difficult for citizens to take action when their own representatives won’t
They walked through Michigan college football games dressed as gerrymandered districts. They crisscrossed Idaho in a decades-old RV dubbed the Medicaid Express. In Florida, they united black and white, left and right, Trump-loving “deplorables” and radical criminal justice reformers into a mighty moral movement to end an ugly vestige of Jim Crow.
Related: The...
The Ten Year War review: Obamacare, Trump and Biden’s battles yet to come
Jonathan Cohn’s study of the fight for healthcare coverage delivers depth, dish and much for Democrats to ponder
Once upon a time, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was unpopular, viewed by many as welfare redux. Barack Obama’s promise that “If you like your healthcare plan, you’ll be able to keep your healthcare plan”, didn’t exactly work out. By the middle of the 2010s, so-called Obamacare had cost the Democrats both houses of Congress.
Related: The Good American review: Bob Gersony and a better foreign policy
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Biden to set out his foreign policy in state dept speech – live updates
President has promised US will re-engage globally after isolationist Trump era
- No Republican action against Cheney or extremist Greene after vote
- Indigenous Americans dying from Covid at twice rate of white Americans
- Canada designates Proud Boys as terrorist organization
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A Texas county judge has temporarily blocked the state’s efforts to remove Planned Parenthood from Medicaid, report CNN. Caroline Kelly writes:
A slew of Texas Planned Parenthood affiliates asserted in a lawsuit filed Wednesday that the Texas Health and Human Services Commission failed to issue “a proper notice of termination” from the program. The state had promised to remove the groups from the Medicaid program Thursday.
The chief press officer for the Texas Health & Human Services Commission, Christine Mann, declined to comment on the case citing pending litigation.
Sam Baker and Andrew Witherspoon have a relatively upbeat analysis of the coronavirus situation across the US today for Axios. They write:
New coronavirus infections slowed by nearly 16% over the past week, continuing a trend of rapid improvement. The US still has a ton of coronavirus, and there’s still the potential for dark days ahead. But this is progress, and the improvement is significant. If this trend keeps going, the country will be in a far better and safer position as vaccines continue to roll out.
Nationwide, the US is averaging about 139,000 new cases per day — a 16% improvement over last week, which was a 16% improvement over the week before. The number of new hospitalizations was also down last week, by just over 26%. And deaths fell by about 6%, to an average of 3,097 deaths per day.
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Don’t swerve the culture war – that’s the lesson from Joe Biden to UK progressives | Owen Jones
The Democrats’ victory involved working with minorities and helping the working class. Keir Starmer, take heed
“Culture war” used to be a term inextricably linked with the maelstrom of US politics. Popularised by American sociologist James Davison Hunter in his 1991 book Culture Wars: The Struggle to Define America, it described how socially progressive and conservative coalitions were locked in a seemingly eternal conflict. It could make for surprising alliances, he noted, citing Pr...
US detects two cases of South Africa Covid variant as Biden aims to expand healthcare – live
- Two unconnected cases of variant identified in South Carolina
- US economy shrank by 3.5% in 2020, worst year since second world war
- Biden to reopen Obamacare markets for special Covid coverage
- US death toll predicted to hit 500,000 by February
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South Carolina state health officials said Thursday that two cases of the coronavirus variant identified in South Africa had been detected in the state- the first time the variant has been found in the US.
South Carolina’s department of health and environmental control said the two cases don’t appear to be connected and the two people affected did not have a history of recent travel. One was detected by the state’s public health lab and the other by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Survivors of the 2018 mass shooting in Parkland, Florida, asked congressional Republicans to publicly censure Marjorie Taylor Greene for suggesting the school shooting was a “false flag” and for harassing a teenage survivor on Capitol Hill in 2019.
House Republicans this week announced that Greene, a newly elected Georgia congresswoman, had been appointed to the House Education and Labor Committee.
House EdLabor committee chair @BobbyScott on Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s appointment to the committee:
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“House Republicans have appointed someone to this Committee who claimed that the killing of 20 children and six educators at Sandy Hook... was a hoax” pic.twitter.com/VoPgJ3tSLF
Georgia to uphold Biden’s win as Birx says states abandoned prevention tactics – live
- Raffensperger: ‘We counted three times and results remain unchanged’
- Sunday saw 175,663 new US Covid cases and 1,113 deaths
- Biden prepares for Republicans try to block cabinet picks
- Trump: Rudy Giuliani has coronavirus
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Donald Trump once again lashed out against Georgia’s Republican governor, as the state prepares to recertify Joe Biden’s victory there.
“The Republican Governor of Georgia refuses to do signature verification, which would give us an easy win. What’s wrong with this guy? What is he hiding?” Trump said in a tweet.
The Republican Governor of Georgia refuses to do signature verification, which would give us an easy win. What’s wrong with this guy? What is he hiding?
Xavier Becerra pledged to ensure Americans’ access to quality health care if he is approved as secretary of health and human services.
In Congress, I helped pass the Affordable Care Act. As California's Attorney General, I defended it. As Secretary of Health and Human Services, I will build on our progress and ensure every American has access to quality, affordable health care—through this pandemic and beyond.
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