Coronavirus update: Ex–FDA officials call out political interference at FDA, CDC
The global death toll from the coronavirus-borne illness COVID-19 climbed to 1.008 million on Wednesday, while the U.S. death toll rose above 206,000, and the first presidential debate found President Donald Trump again blaming China for the outbreak, while opponent Democrat Joe Biden slammed Trump’s handling of the crisis.
A group of seven former U.S. Food and Drug Administration commissioners added their voices to the chorus on Wednesday in an op-ed in the Washington Post, in which they warned that political interference from Trump administration officials is undermining the credibility of the country’s leading public health agencies.
“This came in the wake of acknowledged acts of political influence on the FDA’s coronavirus communications, significant misstatements by the secretary and other political leaders about the benefits of hydroxychloroquine and convalescent plasma, and the overruling of FDA scientists on the regulation of covid-19 laboratory tests. At risk is the FDA’s ability to make the independent, science-based decisions that are key to combating the pandemic and so much more,” the doctors wrote.
Latest tallies There are now 33.7 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide, the Johns Hopkins data shows. At least 23.4 million people have recovered. Moderna Inc. MRNA, +3.34% said early-stage data suggests its COVID-19 vaccine can generate neutralizing antibodies in older and elderly adults at levels comparable to those in younger adults. The study was published in The New England Journal of Medicine.
By company size, job growth at small firms job continued to lag behind bigger firms. Small businesses added 192,000 jobs in September, while medium firms added 259,000 jobs and large firms adding 297,000 jobs.See:Protect the economy or the population? The coronavirus dilemma facing governments as protests escalate
The decline in gross domestic product, the official scorecard of the U.S. economy, was previously put at 31.7% during the months of April, May and June.
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