On Politics: A Warning of ‘Needless Suffering and Death’ – The New York Times

Good morning and welcome to On Politics, a daily political analysis of the 2020 elections based on reporting by New York Times journalists.

Sign up here to get On Politics in your inbox every weekday.

• Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, plans to issue a stark warning to the Senate this morning over the dangers of reopening the country’s economy too swiftly. In an email to our reporter Sheryl Gay Stolberg last night, Fauci said that in his appearance before the committee on health, education and labor, he would caution against “the danger of trying to open the country prematurely,” warning that doing so could result in “needless suffering and death.” Those comments run counter to President Trump’s recent insistence that the nation must prioritize reopening, even if it causes more deaths. Fauci’s testimony, alongside other top health officials, will be his first appearance before Congress since Trump declared a national emergency in March.

• The coronavirus has spread most quickly in high-density urban settings, and it has been particularly vicious among people of color, many of whom were already at an elevated risk because of pre-existing conditions and a relative lack of quality health care. It just so happens that those populations also tend to vote Democratic. All of which is fueling a debate within the Republican Party over how much aid to send to the predominantly blue states that have been hardest hit by the virus. So far, Trump and his Republican allies in the Senate have been reluctant to send states anywhere near the $1 trillion in “direct and flexible relief” that a group of Western governors — all Democrats — said the 50 states really need. “The Republican states are in strong shape,” Trump said last month. “I don’t know — is that luck or is that talent?” But House Democrats continue to push for a stimulus package that would send an infusion of cash to state and local governments, as well as bolster social-safety programs. Steny Hoyer, the majority leader, told members of his caucus yesterday that they might vote on a new stimulus bill as early as the end of this week.

• New virus safety rules are in place at the White House, which is still reeling from the news that two aides have been infected. More West Wing staff members will work via teleconference going forward, and most of those who come to the office will be tested for the virus frequently. And masks are now a requirement — except, apparently, in the case of Trump, who was not wearing one at the news conference yesterday where he acknowledged ordering the new rules. At that briefing, he stood beside a poster proclaiming, “America leads the world in testing” — despite the fact that Germany, Russia, Spain, Canada, Switzerland and at least 20 other countries have actually issued more tests per capita than the United States. “We have met the moment and we have prevailed,” he declared triumphantly.

• Joe Biden is breathing a slight sigh of relief right now: His campaign and the Democratic National Committee raised over $60 million in April, a good enough number to partially quell Democrats’ fears over Trump’s still-daunting lead in the money race. Still, not to be outdone, Trump and shared committees with the Republican National Committee raised nearly $63 million last month; they recently started a $10 million ad blitz taking aim at Biden. For both sides, fund-raising in April was done almost entirely virtually. As Trump steers the country’s virus response, Biden is still struggling to break through on the national stage; most of his virtual campaign appearances in recent weeks have been related to fund-raising, and he has appeared on television sparingly.

President Trump walked into the Rose Garden to speak about coronavirus testing on Monday.

Remember back in January, when Trump was praising China for its efforts to contain the coronavirus? That feels like a distant memory now, doesn’t it?

Since then, he and members of his administration have accused the Chinese government of covering up information about the virus’s spread, and even suggested — without evidence — that the coronavirus might have been cultivated in a Chinese government lab.

Well, things just got even more tense. As David E. Sanger and Nicole Perlroth reported recently, the United States is now planning to publicly accuse China of trying to steal American research aimed at finding a coronavirus vaccine.

This is a complicated story with heavy geopolitical implications, so we asked David to break down what it all means. Here’s a slightly edited and shortened transcript of our conversation.

Hi David. Could you give us a rundown of what’s at issue here? What exactly is the United States accusing China of doing?

The F.B.I. and the Department of Homeland Security, which are responsible for investigating cybercrime and domestic cyberdefense, are expected to accuse China of trying to break into pharmaceutical companies, university laboratories and government networks to get information about research into coronavirus vaccines and therapeutics. It wouldn’t be the first time that China, or other countries, have used cybertheft for economic advantage. What’s different now is that all that energy is going into the biggest geopolitical and technological competition of the current era: a cure for the coronavirus.

When I hear that one country is blaming another for hacking into its coronavirus research, the naïve question that jumps to my mind is: What’s the big deal? Shouldn’t researchers all over the world be sharing information with one another, given that we’re all in pursuit of the same goal — a virus vaccine? What am I missing here?

It’s a great question. In most endeavors, the United States and China are technological competitors. That’s true in the military sphere; it’s certainly true when it comes to artificial intelligence, 5G networks and high-speed trains, to name just a few. But the hope is that, in an ideal world, a breakthrough for a coronavirus vaccine or an effective therapeutic treatment would be immediately shared, and that humanitarian instincts would win out over profit-making. Unfortunately, the fact is that the country that invents a vaccine or a cure first is going to be under great political pressure to treat its own population first.

As you and Nicole describe in your article, this isn’t just a U.S.-China thing: Countries all over the world appear to be deploying government hackers to intercept information about other nations’ virus responses. Is it just me, or is there a distinct lack of global cooperation here? What is causing that?

There is a distinct lack of cooperation, and when historians and political scientists look back at this moment they may well see a further fracturing of the post-Cold War era. In the years since 1945, it’s usually the United States that has taken the lead in helping nations find a global cure for some of the world’s worst diseases. It was only a few years ago that President Obama sent American troops to Africa to help mitigate the spread of Ebola. Part of that was a humanitarian effort. But part of it was a recognition that in a global economy in which people leap on and off airplanes, no disease stays out of the United States for long. So far, we have seen the United States announce that it is suspending aid to the World Health Organization; decline to join a communiqué from the G7 because it didn’t like the wording; and accuse China of hampering the investigation into the origins of the virus. Don’t get me wrong — China did everything it could to cover up what was happening. But there is a vacuum now in which China is acting selfishly, the United States is withdrawing, and no one is stepping in to play an organizing role in helping nations attack what they all call a common enemy.

In terms of the United States’ decision to publicly accuse China, how much of this is really about Chinese hacking, and how much of it is about the Trump administration’s desire to portray China as the leading American adversary — and as the country most responsible for the pandemic — as we head into a presidential campaign?

Look, I have no doubt that the Chinese are attempting to pry out American medical advances. But the timing is also politically convenient, at a moment when Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has claimed there is “enormous evidence” that the virus may have begun in a government laboratory in Wuhan, a charge he had to reel back in a few days ago. Trump wants to look tough on China and portray Joe Biden as soft. But remember, it was also Trump who in January praised how Xi Jinping was handling the crisis, and thanked him for his transparency. You might have already seen his words of praise for China running on some Biden ads.

On Politics is also available as a newsletter. Sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox.

Is there anything you think we’re missing? Anything you want to see more of? We’d love to hear from you. Email us at onpolitics@nytimes.com.