Trump says WHO called bad plays
US president Donald Trump on Tuesday said that his administration would “look at ending funding” to the World Health Organization, though he admitted that the current coronavirus pandemic was “maybe not” the best time to freeze the US contribution. Trump had questioned what he called the “very China centric” WHO and its early advice on tackling the virus outbreak, says Politico. “They did give us some pretty bad play calling,” he is cited by CNBC as saying at his daily media briefing.
Plasma studies offer hope
Pilot studies at two separate hospitals in China have shown that giving so-called “convalescent plasma” to severely ill coronavirus patients has helped relieve symptoms and caused virus levels to drop rapidly. The Guardian explains that convalescent plasma treatments date back to before the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic. NBC News reports that the Mount Sinai Hospital System in New York has already tried “convalescent serum” transfusions on 20 patients and are “crossing fingers that this will be a game changer.” In an op-ed in The Washington Post infectious diseases specialist Faheem Younus says that the treatment “could be the bridge the world needs between now and the day we have an effective covid-19 vaccine.”
Latest figures
Health ministry figures released late on Tuesday afternoon show that there have been 2,970 confirmed covid-19 cases in Luxembourg (up from 2,843 on 6 April) and 44 deaths (up from 41). Worldwide, as of 6am on 8 April, there have been 1,429,437 confirmed cases, 82,074 deaths and 300,767 patients have recovered, according to the John Hopkins coronavirus resource center.
Johnson remains in intensive care
British prime minister Boris Johnson spent a second night in intensive care at St. Thomas’ hospital in London. The BBC and Politico report that Johnson’s condition was described as “stable” and he remained in “good spirits”, according to a Downing Street spokesman. Meanwhile, a power play drama seems to have broken out according to The Telegraph (paywall). It says that chancellor Rishi Sunak has been named as Boris Johnson’s second “designated successor”, after foreign secretary Dominic Raab, and that Michael Gove was “overlooked”.
European Research Council head resigns
Professor Mauro Ferrari resigned as president of the European Research Council on Tuesday. In a statement to the Financial Times (paywall), Ferrari said he had been “extremely disappointed” by the EU’s response to the coronavirus outbreak. “I arrived at the ERC a fervent supporter of the EU [but] the Covid-19 crisis completely changed my views,” he said. “Though the ideals of international collaboration I continue to support with enthusiasm.” Bloomberg and Science Business also report.
US acting Navy secretary resigns
Thomas Modly resigned from his post as the US acting Navy secretary on Tuesday amid a flurry of criticism of the way he relieved Captain Brett Crozier of his command of the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt. Reuters, The New York Times (paywall), and NPR have more details.
Dorsey publishes spreadsheet of $1 billion pledge
A Google Doc that Twitter founder Jack Dorsey has made public will show where the $1 billion he has pledged towards tackling the coronavirus pandemic will be spent. The funds, which Dorsey says represent approximately 28% of his wealth, are being handled by a limited liability company called Start Small. The document shows that the first hand-out of $100,000 was to America's Food Fund. CNN, Vox, the BBC, The Guardian and Forbes report.
Wisconsin voting chaos
Tens of thousands of Wisconsin voters, many wearing masks, stood for hours in social distancing compliant lines in order to cast their ballot in the state’s primaries on Tuesday, Reuters reports. They were forced to turn up physically after the Supreme Court rejected a ruling that would have given them additional time to return postal ballots. CNN sees the move as a “foreboding sign about the partisan rancor and confusion that could play out nationwide” in November’s presidential election. Vox argues that the ruling effectively cut many voters out of the election process. While in an op-ed on Fox News, Harmeet K. Dhillon, co-chair of the Republican National Lawyers Association, said that Democrats were attempting to use the covid-19 pandemic to “take over elections.”
Pink moon pictures
The pink supermoon enjoyed by Europe during the night from Tuesday to Wednesday has been captured in pictures. The BBC and The Guardian both have beautiful galleries.
Today’s breakfast briefing was written by Duncan Roberts