| Seizing on hopes of relief from coronavirus misery in states that took the brunt of the U.S. contagion, President Trump, his infectious disease advisers and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) on Tuesday said antibody tests will let much of America get back to work, most likely by the fall. Amid discussions about where COVID-19 infections and fatalities are on the rise, officials said plans have begun to restart the idled economy. Key to getting New York City, neighboring New Jersey and parts of Connecticut back to work will be antibody tests, Cuomo said, echoing the medical experts and researchers who want to see if COVID-19 survivors have the kind of immunity that could shield them from future outbreaks of the coronavirus and allow them to be on the front lines of the nation’s economic revival. On Tuesday, the governor took aim at a goal that seems, this month at least, a distant reality: testing every person in the tri-state area to determine if they contracted COVID-19 and developed antibodies or if they dodged the virus and remain at risk of infection. The results of that kind of mass testing, Cuomo said, will be key to developing new guidance for his state. Trump, who is impatient to shift beyond the worst of the pandemic and eagerly bats away any naysayers, demurred when asked if he’d formed a special economic task force to game out the gradual restart of the U.S. economy. “We want to get it open soon,” he told a reporter. Appearing on Fox News with Sean Hannity hours later, Trump said he wanted to reopen the economy with “a big bang,” if possible. "We're looking at two concepts. We're looking at the concept where you open up sections and we're also looking at the concept where you open up everything" (The Hill). Vice President Pence said the administration has a “dual track that the president has already initiated” among his economic advisers, businesses and states to be ready to ease stay-at-home advisories as soon as the public health data improves. Returning students and teachers to classrooms “will be part of what we’re looking at,” he added. Pence said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) today will issue new guidance for people who have been in proximity to someone confirmed to have contracted COVID-19 who is asymptomatic. That guidance, which will be useful as people get back to work, the vice president said, will recommend that individuals in that situation wear facial protection in public or around other people and monitor their temperatures regularly. Anthony Fauci, director of the Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, when asked about whether parents can plan for the school year this fall, suggested that while summer plans will remain in flux, life for many families will feel different in five months. “I fully expect that by the time we get to the fall ... this will be under control enough” to plan because the pandemic situation by then “will not be like now,” Fauci said. “There is no absolute prediction, but I think we’re going to be in good shape,” he said (The Hill). “It’s just the creativity and the ingenuity of the American people to phase back without just saying,’OK, all bets are off. We’re going right back to normal,’ “ Fauci explained during a Wall Street Journal podcast. “There’s an antibody test that will be widely distributed pretty soon, in the next few weeks, that will allow you to know whether or not you have been infected. ...Then you can hug the heck out of your grandmother and not worry about it.” Deborah Birx, who coordinates health policy for the president’s coronavirus task force and is an immunologist, cautioned Americans not to jump the gun to try to test their own antibody status by searching the internet and buying whatever they can find. “Please wait until we have those tests available and validated,” she said. The Hill: CDC begins testing blood for antibody coronavirus treatment. On Tuesday, Cuomo put out an all-call to companies that can manufacture tens of millions of reliable antibody tests for his region, noting that he’s coordinating with the governors of New Jersey and Connecticut to plan for the eventual return of millions of workers to the Big Apple. In Finland, for example, random antibody testing of the working-age populace has already begun, with a strategy in place to expand the testing to everyone else in the country gradually (YLE). Germany announced last month that it will use “immunity certificates” similar to vaccination certificates that will allow citizens who have coronavirus antibodies return to work (The Telegraph). The U.S. economic fallout, meanwhile, continues to concern the president and members of Congress. Trump on Tuesday embraced the push for additional stimulus spending, including expansive infrastructure spending, which he said could benefit from low or zero interest rates. In theory, there’s momentum in Congress for a fourth phase of relief legislation, but Republicans and Democrats have different ideas about the ingredients, the price tag and the amount of time it would take to work out (The Hill). One idea gaining traction among Democrats is suspension of mortgage payments, which would spiral into suspension of rent payments. The costs to the Treasury would be gargantuan, however. Happening much more quickly in Congress, however, will be approval of additional federal appropriations for more small-business lending, with backing from Trump and the Treasury Department. The administration will ask for an additional $250 billion in funding for loans to small businesses to meet their scramble for relief after being hit hard by state and local stay-at-home orders (The Washington Post). Without addressing the hardships among the nation’s small businesses, which include restaurants, bars, salons and small retail shops, the president pointed to the enormous volume of applications that seek to qualify for loans. “It’s really popular,” Trump said. “It’s hundreds of thousands of applications. They really like it.” Asked on Tuesday if the administration believes a new infusion of funds will be enough for small business lending, which would bring the federal total to $600 billion, Trump said. “We’re going to find out.” Separately, lawmakers and the IRS are beginning to focus on the potential for scams as millions of Americans prepare to receive federal stimulus deposits of $1,200 or more beginning this month and continuing into the fall. Lawmakers are encouraging Americans to be vigilant about scammers and fraudsters and urging federal agencies to formulate plans that can stop criminals from preying on vulnerable recipients (The Hill). The Hill’s Memo: Coronavirus challenges, both political and medical, weigh heavily on Trump’s goal of reopening the American economy as soon as possible. The Hill: Trump took aim on Tuesday at the World Health Organization (WHO), suggesting along with some GOP senators, that the United States will not appropriate additional cost-sharing without an examination of WHO’s stance toward China. Trump asserts that the global health organization is biased in favor of China and has been “wrong about a lot of things,” including the worldwide threat posed by COVID-19, which originated in China. The Hill: The president, vice president and Fauci foreshadowed U.S. coronavirus data they said will show a heavy price paid by African Americans as measured by fatalities and serious respiratory distress when hospitalized with COVID-19. “They’re very nasty numbers,” Trump said. Pence said the government is assembling the information from public health officials now, and Fauci said the results will be made public “as soon as we have enough data.” African Americans suffer because of their overall health conditions, Fauci said, which often include diabetes, hypertension, asthma and other diseases that lead them to get into “serious trouble and die” at higher rates than other demographics when infected. The coronavirus, he added, “is shining a bright light on how unacceptable that is” that blacks in 2020 continue to experience stark health care disparities. A Washington Post analysis of available data shows that counties that are majority-black have three times the rate of infections and almost six times the rate of deaths as counties where white residents are in the majority. Washington, D.C., anticipates the peak of its contagion in May or June, and the normally tourist-focused city already is fighting violations of social distancing orders and seeks to strictly enforce stay-at-home instructions. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) announced that nearly 1 in 7 Washington residents is likely to be infected with the coronavirus by the end of the year, with a worst-case projection of more than 1,000 deaths based on disease models (The Associated Press). The Hill: Hospitals are running short of the drugs that help coronavirus patients who must be intubated and connected to ventilators. The Hill: Meanwhile, states continue to blame global supply chain shortages and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which has become a rival with states for supplies, as the hunt continues to purchase sufficient personal protective equipment and ventilators during the pandemic. To substitute for in-person gatherings this month, millions of people are using online company Zoom for virtual worship, funerals, celebrations, education and meetings (The Hill). Self-isolation to mitigate the pathogen has rattled houses of worship across the United States. They worry about declining attendance and revenues as one of the busiest religious seasons of the year approaches. Small churches are particularly vulnerable (The Hill). 
© Getty Images More administration news: > West Wing: Trump and his new White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, announced a change-up in White House communications (The Hill). White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham will become first lady Melania Trump’s chief of staff, and Kayleigh McEnany moves over from the president’s campaign to become the fourth Trump press secretary (The Hill). > Inspector generals: Trump, who has likened executive branch inspectors general to partisan spies, replaced the Pentagon’s watchdog, who as inspector general played an oversight role over the government’s $2.2 trillion in economic relief funding (The Hill). The president, selecting IGs he believes will be loyal to him, said he is nominating to the Senate seven candidates to serve as inspectors general around the agencies and departments. > U.S. Navy: Acting Navy chief Thomas Modly resigned on Tuesday following nearly a week of controversy about his dismissal of USS Theodore Roosevelt Captain Brett Crozier, who is recovering in Guam from infection with COVID-19 along with 172 of the sailors from the nuclear aircraft carrier. Modly publicly called Crozier “stupid” and later apologized under pressure before resigning. Trump said he had no role in Modly’s decision. “I think he did it just to end that problem,” the president said. Crozier, Trump repeated, “made a mistake” when he raised an alarm in writing about his sickened crew in a way that leaked to the news media (The Hill). | 
