In Washington

• The House of Representatives, in a 257-150 vote, passed legislation providing US$25 billion to the United States Postal Service and bans any operational changes to the agency, while reversing already-enacted measures such as removing mail-sorting machines and collection boxes. White House chief of staff Mark Meadows described the bill passed Saturday as “a largely messaging bill" as it is unlikely to pass the Republican-controlled Senate. Senate Majority Leader Mitchell McConnell expressed opposition to the legislation in a tweet just minutes after the vote. President Trump has threatened to veto the measure.
• Senior Food and Drug Administration health officials were caught off guard on Sunday, when White House trade adviser Peter Navarro accused them as being part of the “deep state” in a meeting on Monday, 17 August and told them they needed to get “on Trump Time.” President Trump on Saturday then tweeted Friday that the “deep state, or whoever at the” FDA was attempting to halt a life-saving, pandemic-altering coronavirus treatment to keep him from winning the 2020 elections. On Sunday, Commissioner Stephen Hahn announced that the agency had reversed course and issued an an emergency use authorization (EUA) for investigational convalescent plasma for the treatment of COVID-19. The FDA had previously put the EUA on hold, but Commissioner Hahn tweeted Monday afternoon that they reevaluated the EUA “based upon new incoming data” that the agency received.
  • In a Sunday statement, the FDA said the data “does not yet represent a new standard of care based on the current available evidence.” In a follow-up tweet Monday, Hahn said the agency “continues to support ongoing clinical trials for convalescent plasma.” Other FDA officials have warned more rigorous studies are needed to prove whether the treatment, while safe, is in fact effective. Janet Woodcock, the head of the agency’s drug division, said Friday that plasma has not been “proven as an effective treatment.”
  • Navarro is being accused of exaggerating the efficacy of blood plasma as a coronavirus treatment Monday morning. “There should absolutely be no controversy about CP," Navarro told reporters outside the White House. "The odds of it hurting you are close to zero. The odds of it helping you are close to 100 percent. The only issue is how much it can help." Navarro said anyone questioning the FDA’s decisions is politicizing the issue “at the cost of American lives.”
  • President Trump tweeted that he plans to hold an "Important White House News Conference at 5:30 (sharp) today. Very good news!" as White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany tweeted, "News conference with President @realDonaldTrump at 6 pm tomorrow concerning a major therapeutic breakthrough on the China Virus. Secretary Azar and Dr. Hahn will be in attendance."
• White House chief of staff Mark Meadows traveled to Capitol Hill this weekend to pressure Congress on another coronavirus package. The GOP released a skinny relief bill last week, but Democratic leaders rejected it as insufficient. “I don't know that Speaker Pelosi is willing to entertain a targeted relief package yet,” Meadows told reporters in the Capitol. “But I do think there is ... a growing consensus that if we want to do something on postal, we ought to do something on other small businesses and enhanced unemployment — at least pick the things that we think we can agree upon and put that bill on the floor.”
• Postmaster General Louis DeJoy testified before the House Oversight Committee, stating the same opening remarks that he gave in his Senate testimony. In the contentious hearing, the Postmaster repeated that he does not plan on replacing the removed sorting machines. Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and committee Democrats accused DeJoy of downplaying the reductions in mail delivery since July when he took over the agency and asked why he withheld the memo proving those reductions. Democrats believe there are additional internal decision-making documents that have not been disclosed and say they are willing to subpoena Dejoy to obtain them. DeJoy says he did not direct the removal of equipment and mailboxes, cut back overtime at post offices, and eliminate any cutback in overtime.

In the News

• The global death toll from the coronavirus surpassed 809,000 on Saturday, data collected by Johns Hopkins University shows, while the number of confirmed cases across the world shot past 23 million. According to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, the U.S. has over 5.7 million infected and killed close to 177,000 people in the United States.
• The University of Hong Kong researchers said Monday that a 33-year-old man living in Hong Kong had Covid-19 twice this year, according to preliminary research. The pre-print study that will be published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases found that the man’s second case of Covid-19 occurred 142 days after the first.
• Louisiana and other Gulf states are bracing for a more significant public safety threat state braces for Tropical Storms Marco and Laura’s expected landfalls. The virus also poses issues for evacuation in California as wildfires ravage the state.
• A Florida judge struck down an order requiring schools to physically open, ruling that it was unconstitutional because it “arbitrarily disregards safety” and denies local school boards the ability to decide when students should return to classrooms. The ruling was a victory for the American Federation of Teachers who sued Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) he education commissioner, over the order last month.
• Zoom outages disrupted meetings and classes around the U.S. for about four hours on Monday, highlighting Americans’ growing reliance on video software to keep things running during a public health crisis. Zoom says it has fixed the partial outages.

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