White House tries to distance Trump from Navarro op-ed ripping Fauci
Director of the National Trade Council Peter Navarro looks on as President Donald Trump meets with supply chain distributors in reference to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, in the Cabinet Room in the West Wing at the White House on Sunday, March 29, 2020.
Pete Marovich | Getty Images
The White House said that it didn’t approve a scathing op-ed from President Donald Trump’s trade advisor Peter Navarro, who wrote that Dr. Anthony Fauci “has been wrong about everything I have interacted with him on.”
The op-ed in USA Today “didn’t go through normal White House clearance processes,” White House spokeswoman Alyssa Farah said on Twitter. The piece is “the opinion of Peter alone,” she said.
The administration’s efforts to distance itself from Navarro’s article came days after the White House denied it is seeking to discredit Fauci, who has provided at-times dire warnings about the coronavirus that clash with Trump’s more optimistic rhetoric.
But other White House officials have taken shots at Fauci in recent days. A White House official gave NBC News a list resembling an opposition research-type document used in political campaigns, highlighting Fauci’s past comments about the virus.
Trump’s close aide Dan Scavino also reportedly shared a political cartoon mocking Fauci by portraying him as a faucet whose spout drips alarming messages about the pandemic – such as “Schools stay closed this fall!” and “Indefinite lockdown!” – that threaten to drown the economy. — Kevin Breuninger
24 Min Ago
Covid-19 is upending health insurance for 2021
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The Covid-19 pandemic has caused so much disruption to the economy and non-coronavirus medical care that it is upending the outlook for next year’s employer health coverage.
Insurers can’t forecast how much elective surgical care will rebound in the second half of this year. With rising infection rates in southern and western states, that could spook patients to continue to postpone care until 2021.
Meantime, large employers are unsure about the economy and whether they’ll need to make more job cuts, are taking longer to lock in commitments for next year.
With 2021 open enrollment three months away for many of us, a lot remains in flux. —Bertha Coombs
28 Min Ago
U.S. factory output rose more than expected in June, but spike in new cases overshadows the recovery
U.S. manufacturing output rose in June for a second straight month, but the persistent surge in new coronavirus infections put the nascent recovery in the manufacturing sector in doubt, Reuters reported.
Factory output was boosted by an improvement in manufacturing activity, as production picked up amid the reopening of businesses.
The Federal Reserve said manufacturing production jumped 7.2% last month, while the increase in May was unrevised at 3.8%. Economists polled by Reuters had expected output to climb 5.6% in June. Overall industrial production rose 5.4% in June after increasing 1.4% a month earlier. —Terri Cullen
2 Hours Ago
Chipotle pledges to hire 10,000 new workers
Add Chipotle Mexican Grill to the list of restaurant chains looking to hire thousands of new workers as the hospitality industry attempts a comeback from virus-related shutdowns. The restaurant company plans to hire 10,000 employees over the next several months.
Chipotle’s hiring announcement comes as the chain sees strong growth in its digital sales — and as millions of restaurant workers have lost their jobs due to the pandemic. The U.S. unemployment rate is 11.1%, according to the Department of Labor.
While some fast-food chains have announced plans to hire thousands of new workers, the surge of new Covid-19 cases in some parts of the country and subsequent reclosures of restaurants could complicate those plans. —Amelia Lucas
2 Hours Ago
Moderna executive says company has an ‘ethical obligation’
Biotech firm Moderna has an “ethical obligation” to develop a coronavirus vaccine as quickly as possible, while also doing so responsibly, Tal Zaks, the company’s chief medical officer, said in an interview with CNBC’s Meg Tirrell.
“I believe we have an ethical obligation to advance this vaccine as fast as possible given the unmet need on one hand and given what science enables us to do on the other,” he said on “Squawk Box.” “I think it is incumbent upon us to do this in a manner that’s responsible, judicious and accounts for the emerging understanding of the safety profile and I think we’re doing that by ensuring that our phase three is a large phase three.”
On Tuesday, Moderna said that its potential vaccine to prevent Covid-19 produced a “robust” immune response in all 45 patients in its early stage human trial, according to data published in the peer-reviewed New England Journal of Medicine. Shares of Moderna were up more than 17% in premarket trading Wednesday. —Will Feuer
3 Hours Ago
U.S. reports another record one-day spike in cases
The United States reported 67,417 new cases of the coronavirus on Tuesday, setting a fresh record for new cases reported in a single day, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University.
The U.S. has reported an average of about 62,210 new cases per day over the past seven days, up more than 21% compared with the seven-day average a week ago, according to a CNBC analysis of the data from Hopkins. The U.S. conducted 760,282 tests on Tuesday, the second-highest number of tests conducted in a single day, according to data compiled by the Covid Tracking Project.
Texas, California and Florida accounted for 31,847 of the total new cases on Tuesday, nearly half of all new cases reported across the country. —Will Feuer
Read CNBC’s previous coronavirus live coverage here: Moderna says all patients produced neutralizing antibodies
