"OK, so the country has been shut down for about a month, and we're seeing cracks start to form. While some epidemiologists are talking about keeping things closed down for months longer, we're also seeing growing public protests around the nation, as people call for restarting things.

"Others shame them as 'virus deniers' and accuse the protesters of wanting people to die. But it's hard not to notice a class divide here. As with so many of America's conflicts, the divide is between the people in the political/managerial class on the one hand and the people in the working class on the other. And as usual, the smugness and authoritarianism are pretty much all on one side. ...

"There really are two Americas here: Those still getting a paycheck from government, corporations or universities, and those who are unemployed, or seeing their small businesses suffer due to shutdowns. And the America still getting paid is, so far, not showing a whole lot of sympathy for the America that isn't.

"That's a formula for disaster, and it has been made worse by the heavy-handed approach taken by some government officials enforcing quarantines. We've seen news story after news story of officials going after people whose actions pose no danger of contagion -- lone joggers on a beach, lone paddleboarders off the California coast, a father throwing a ball to his daughter in a public park -- and every time that happens the shutdown loses moral authority."

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"The White House and Congress have reached a deal on a new funding package that will replenish a lending program meant to aid small businesses hurt by the novel coronavirus outbreak, two administration officials confirmed Tuesday. ...

"The deal totals more than $480 billion and appropriates $320 billion for the Small Business Administration's Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), $60 billion of which is set aside for small lenders and community financial institutions. It also includes $60 billion for the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program; $25 billion for testing; and $75 billion for hospitals, according to details released later."

"The best economic idea we've heard in response to the coronavirus crisis is a payroll-tax suspension. President Trump restated his support for it at a recent press briefing, and for good reason: It would reward work and production rather than the growth of government. Republicans should rally around the idea as the centerpiece of their next economic revival plan.

"The plan we recommend would cancel all payroll-tax collections from May 1 to the end of the year. This would suspend the Social Security and Medicare tax, known as FICA, which takes 7.65% from a worker's paycheck, with another 7.65% paid by employers, up to $137,700 of income. Self-employed Americans, usually socked with the full 15.3% payroll tax, would also find relief.

"Every worker in America would get a substantial pay raise for the remainder of the year, but because the tax is regressive, lowest-wage workers would be helped the most. The majority of low- and middle-income workers pay more payroll tax than income tax. Even minimum-wage workers would see a nice boost in their paychecks while their employers would pay less too.

"By reducing employer payroll costs, this plan would encourage firms to start hiring. Several economic studies document what common sense would tell us: Lowering the tax on employment leads to more of it. Because the tax relief would be temporary, businesses would gain an incentive to hurry up and hire right away, or as soon as their work resumes. There is no time to waste: The U.S. needs to put perhaps 20 million people back to work."

"Preliminary results from government lab experiments show that the coronavirus does not survive long in high temperatures and high humidity, and is quickly destroyed by sunlight, providing evidence from controlled tests of what scientists believed -- but had not yet proved -- to be true.

"A briefing on the preliminary results, marked for official use only and obtained by Yahoo News, offers hope that summertime may offer conditions less hospitable for the virus, though experts caution it will by no means eliminate, or even necessarily decrease, new cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. The results, however, do add an important piece of knowledge that the White House's science advisers have been seeking as they scramble to respond to the spreading pandemic.

"The study found that the risk of 'transmission from surfaces outdoors is lower during daylight' and under higher temperature and humidity conditions. 'Sunlight destroys the virus quickly,' reads the briefing.

"While that may provide some good news about the outlook for outdoor activities, the Department of Homeland Security briefing on the results cautions that enclosed areas with low humidity, such as airplane cabins, 'may require additional care to minimize risk of transmission.'"

"Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) took aim at Democrats for stifling efforts to refund the popular small business lending program that ran out of $349 billion on Thursday.

"'One week ago Mr. President, I warned that the Paycheck Protection Program was running out of money. I tried to a pass clean funding bill. Senate Democrats blocked it,' McConnell said during a Senate 'pro forma' session on Thursday afternoon, after the Small Business Administrations announced Thursday morning that it had run out of cash by approving over 1.6 million loans.

"'Here's where we are, a week later, with absolutely no progress. This morning, the program ran out of money and shut down, just as I warned a week ago,' McConnell continued."

"EXCLUSIVE: There is increasing confidence that the COVID-19 outbreak likely originated in a Wuhan laboratory, though not as a bioweapon but as part of China's attempt to demonstrate that its efforts to identify and combat viruses are equal to or greater than the capabilities of the United States, multiple sources who have been briefed on the details of early actions by China's government and seen relevant materials tell Fox News.

"This may be the 'costliest government cover-up of all time,' one of the sources said.

"The sources believe the initial transmission of the virus was bat-to-human -- a naturally occurring strain that was being studied there -- and that 'patient zero' worked at the laboratory, then went into the population in Wuhan.

"The 'increasing confidence' comes from classified and open-source documents and evidence, the sources said. Fox News has requested to see the evidence directly. Sources emphasized -- as is often the case with intelligence -- that it's not definitive and should not be characterized as such. Some inside the administration and the intelligence and epidemiological communities are more skeptical, and the investigation is continuing.

"What all of the sources agree about is the extensive cover-up of data and information about COVID-19 orchestrated by the Chinese government."

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"While the federal government has been appropriating trillions of borrowed dollars to deal with the massive economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic, state and local governments have failed to deal adequately with their skyrocketing expenses and shrinking revenues. We will all likely pay a heavy price.

"In an event not seen in any of our lifetimes, a virus has caused our booming economy to come to a screeching halt.

"Whether you agree with President Trump's response or not, the reality is that the federal government is the only entity that can simply print more money -- states, counties, cities, towns and other local governmental units cannot.

"The failure of state and local governments to act in the best interest of the taxpayers by addressing the economic challenges created by the coronavirus pandemic now -- rather than waiting until later -- is going to reverberate throughout our country for the foreseeable future.

"Governments reliant on sales tax revenues are going to be devastated, since millions of us are staying at home and only venturing out buy food and other essentials. Governments relying on income taxes will also take a big hit, since unemployed workers have much lower taxable incomes. Property tax collections are likely to also drop, since some jobless workers will be unable to pay their taxes on time."

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"For the first time, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has recommended that even seemingly healthy people wear masks over their mouths and noses when venturing out of their homes into places where it is difficult to maintain distance from other people. But there is still major debate over how much masks -- particularly the homemade fabric masks that the CDC recommends for the public -- can slow the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

"Researchers, writing in two new papers, attempt to tackle the efficacy of masks, one more rigorously than the other, and come to differing conclusions. One study examined the effect of masks on seasonal coronaviruses (which cause many cases of the common cold) and found that surgical masks are helpful at reducing how much virus a sick person spreads. The other looked particularly at SARS-CoV-2 and found no effect of either surgical or fabric masks on reducing virus spread, but only had four participants and used a crude measure of viral spread.

"The bottom line, experts say, is that masks might help keep people with COVID-19 from unknowingly passing along the virus. But the evidence for the efficacy of surgical or homemade masks is limited, and masks aren't the most important protection against the coronavirus.

"'Putting a face mask on does not mean that you stop the other practices," said May Chu, a clinical professor in epidemiology at the Colorado School of Public Health on the Anschutz Medical Campus who was not involved in either new study. "It does not mean you get closer to people, it does not mean you don't have to wash your hands as often and you can touch your face. All of that still is in place, this is just an add-on.'"

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"Dr. Scott Gottlieb, the former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, criticized the World Health Organization and the Chinese government on Sunday, saying that both stymied the global response to the novel coronavirus, likely allowing it to spread more dramatically across the globe.

"'China was not truthful with the world at the outset of this,' Gottlieb said in an interview on CBS's 'Face the Nation.'

"'Had they been more truthful with the world, which would have enabled them to be more truthful with themselves, they might have actually been able to contain this entirely.'

"Gottlieb, who left the Trump administration last year, said that the Chinese government delayed sharing two vital pieces of information that would have allowed other nations to prevent the spread of coronavirus: evidence that coronavirus could transmit through human-to-human contact and live samples of the virus, which began spreading from a wet market in Wuhan in November 2019."

"While many wait and watch for government to solve the coronavirus problem, rugged American individualism is already hard at work -- not just the labs and medical researchers that are working 24/7 on drugs to cure or prevent the disease but also the many individuals and companies that have quickly filled gaps and dislocations caused by the crisis.

"Where would we be without creative types who turned their perfume companies and distilleries into manufacturers of hand sanitizer? Automobile companies have been retooled to produce ventilators, and architects are busily running their 3D printers to create face masks. Restaurants quickly reinvented themselves for takeout and more recently have provided needed produce and other grocery items to their neighborhoods. Everything from how we educate to how we conduct funerals is being reinvented on the fly.

"Thank goodness for the speed and creativity of American individualism."

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