Intelligence report concludes Covid-19 was not 'manmade or genetically modified' – as it happened

Live reporting on the coronavirus continues in Friday’s blog:

• Donald Trump implied that he’d seen evidence proving the unproven theory that the coronavirus originated at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. He also repeated claims that China favored Joe Biden over him in the election, during a White House event to review the government’s efforts to protect senior citizens. Trump announced the creation of the Coronavirus Commission for Safety and Quality in Nursing Homes.
• The office of the director of national intelligence said the intelligence community does not believe coronavirus was manmade. The new statement comes amid reports that Trump has asked intelligence officials to investigate whether the virus originated from a Chinese government laboratory.
• Armed protestors demonstrated against the extension of shelter in place orders in Michigan. The demonstrators, some of whom were carrying assault rifles, compared the state’s Democratic governor Gretchen Whitmer to Hitler.
• Another 3.8 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week, according to the latest data from the labor department. More than 30 million Americans have submitted unemployment claims in the past six weeks.
• Georgia will lift its statewide shelter-in-place order for most residents starting tomorrow. Republican governor Brian Kemp said the order remained in effect for the elderly and the “medically fragile,” and he urged residents to still stay at home as much as possible.
  

Looking for coronavirus updates from around the world? Catch up on The Guardian’s global liveblog:

1 May 202019.24 EDT

Armed protesters demonstrate against Covid-19 lockdown at Michigan capitol

Lois Beckett

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Hundreds of protesters, some armed, gathered inside Michigan’s state capitol on Thursday as state lawmakers debated the Democratic governor’s request to extend her emergency powers to combat coronavirus.

A tightly packed crowd of protesters, some carrying rifles, attempted to enter the floor of the legislative chamber, and were held back by a line of state police and capitol staff, according to video footage posted by local journalists.

“Let us in! Let us in!” the protesters chanted, as they stood shoulder-to-shoulder inside the statehouse. Few of them were wearing face masks.

Some of the protesters shouted anti-government slogans, including comparing the state’s Democratic governor, Gretchen Whitmer, to Hitler.

Joe Biden is expected to address allegations of sexual misconduct tomorrow on MSNBC.

In recent days, new information has emerged about an allegation of sexual assault against Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, made by Tara Reade, a former aide. A former neighbor od Reade’s told NPR on Wednesday that the two had spoke about the alleged assault 25 years ago.

Health officials in Germany, the UK and the US are looking at antibody testing to figure out when and how their countries could open back up. Some authorities are even considering issuing “immunity passports” that would help key workers safely and quickly return to their jobs.

But some early Covid-19 antibody tests, and the research that hinges on them, have been deeply flawed. Infectious disease experts warn that while reliable antibody tests could eventually reveal much about how the disease spreads and how deadly it is, it is too early to draw any definitive conclusions from screening studies.

Here’s what you need to know:

The Democratic National Committee’s War Room director condemned Trump’s scapegoating of China.

“Trump finally admitted the truth: he rolled over for China. Trump put his political fortunes first and our public health last,” said Daniel Wessel in a statement to The Guardian. “He refused to call out China on its coronavirus response and delayed taking action to mitigate the crisis out of fear of upsetting his trade deal that has gone largely unfulfilled. Now Americans are suffering the consequences.”

Although Trump has taken an increasingly hostile stance toward China in recent days, a month ago, the president complimented the country’s handling of the coronavirus crisis.

During the White House event, Trump said that China would want his opponent Joe Biden to win the election. The president has recently been pushing the idea that China’s handling of the coronavirus is proof that Beijing “will do anything they can” to make him lose his re-election bid in November.

The Guardian’s Alison Rourke and Lily Kuo report:

In an interview with Reuters, the US president said he was looking at different options in terms of consequences for Beijing over the virus. “I can do a lot,” he said, without going into detail.

Trump has increasingly blamed China for the pandemic and on Wednesday again said Beijing should have let the world know about the coronavirus much sooner. He also speculated about retaliation: “There are many things I can do,” he said. “We’re looking for what happened.”

For the first time, Trump linked Beijing to his re-election chances in November. “China will do anything they can to have me lose this race,” he said, adding that he believed China wants his Democratic opponent, Joe Biden, to win the race to ease the pressure on US-China trade relations.

“They’re constantly using public relations to try to make it like they’re innocent parties,” he said of Chinese officials.

Donald Trump has concluded his White House event to address protections for seniors. Although this was not billed as a coronavirus briefing, like his White House event yesterday — it really seemed like one.

Trump veered off-topic, took questions from reporters, made the same misleading assertions he’s made at previous coronavirus briefings ( I’ve fact-checked a few of them below).

Before signing off the president wondered out loud whether he should wear a mask when he travels to Arizona next week, leaving Washington for the first time in more than a month, in order to visit a Honeywell aerospace facility that has transitioned to producing N-95 masks.

“I’ll have to see the climate,” Trump said, adding that he would “have no problem wearing a mask.”

“Should I speak in a mask?” he asked. “Is that politically correct?

A Democratic congressional candidate is arguing that a member of the committee in charge of overseeing stimulus money should step down over past comments she made on vaccines.

The Guardian’s senior political reporter Daniel Strauss reports:

The candidate, Democrat Suraj Patel, is running for New York congresswoman Carolyn Maloney’s seat. On Wednesday, Maloney was appointed to the select committee on the coronavirus crisis, a new oversight committee.

Here’s Patel’s statement:

Carolyn Maloney spent decades as an anti-vaccine movement leader giving validity to a dangerous creed threatening public health and the most vulnerable.

The history of Maloney’s anti-vaccine stances is long and dangerous: she authored ani-vaccine legislation; angrily berated a CDC Director during a congressional hearing because the CDC Director would not agree that vaccines cause autism; led a radical group of activists in a ‘Green the Vaccine’ rally outside of the steps of Congress; hosted radical anti-vaccine activists in Congress; and regularly claimed vaccines were as dangerous as smoking.

It is dangerous and unthinkable to elevate her anti-science voice during the coronavirus crisis. The world is waiting on a vaccine to bring this horror to an end. This is no time to hand the mic to someone who endangers public health by questioning science. Appointing her to this position begs the question: How is a committee tasked with overseeing the development of a COVID-19 vaccine credible if Maloney, an anti-vaccine activist that questions the CDC’s scientific findings on vaccines, is one of its leaders?

Now more than ever we need elected officials who trust doctors, medicine, and science. Maloney does not fit the bill. I call on Speaker Pelosi to remove Representative Maloney from the Select Committee on the Coronavirus Crisis sending a message to America’s doctors and scientists: we will always follow your lead.

Maloney, who’s been a member of Congress for over 25 years, has had to walk back past statements questioning the safety of vaccines for children. In a 2012 congressional testimony on autism, according to the New York Post, Maloney said:

And you’ve got to listen, you know, to — I remember smoking. I was on the City Council. I sat through so many hearings where they vowed smoking was not bad for your health. It’s common sense it was bad for your health...The same thing seems to be here with vaccinations. There’s too much verbal evidence coming from parents where they break down,[and say], ‘I had a normal child, I gave him a vaccination, and then they came down with autism.’

More recently a spokesperson for Maloney has said she does not believe there’s a link between vaccinations and autism.

On Wednesday Maloney was named by the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, to the bipartisan select committee on the coronavirus crisis. Maloney is one of seven Democrats named to the committee. The committee is a high profile perch for a member of Congress. It is charged with oversight of the coronavirus stimulus package passed in Congress.