POLITICO's Pulse Check

Host Dan Diamond, Maya King and Jeremy Siegel discuss new CDC data that shows that Covid-19 is affecting black Americans at at higher rates and how the Trump administration — and specifically, Surgeon General Jerome Adams — are responding to criticism.

Stay up-to-date on the latest Covid-19 news by subscribing to the POLITICO Nightly and POLITICO Pulse newsletters.

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Dan Diamond is host of POLITICO Pulse Check and author of the POLITICO Pulse newsletter.
Maya King  is the Campaign 2020 reporting fellow at POLITICO.
Jeremy Siegel  is a host for POLITICO Dispatch.
Annie Rees is a producer for POLITICO audio. 
Jenny Ament is the senior producer of POLITICO audio.
Irene Noguchi is the executive producer of POLITICO audio.

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Host Dan Diamond and Dispatch host Jeremy Siegel examine how previous presidential administrations prepared — or didn’t — for the possibility of a pandemic… and how those actions led to the crisis today.

Stay up-to-date on the latest Covid-19 news by subscribing to the POLITICO Nightly and POLITICO Pulse newsletters.
 

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• Dan Diamond talked to top officials from three administrations for his deep investigation tracing the disease preparedness plans over the last 20 years.

Dan Diamond is host of POLITICO Pulse Check and author of the POLITICO Pulse newsletter.
Jeremy Siegel  is a host for POLITICO Dispatch.
Annie Rees is a producer for POLITICO audio. 
Jenny Ament is the senior producer of POLITICO audio.
Irene Noguchi is the executive producer of POLITICO audio.

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Host Dan Diamond and White House reporter Nancy Cook talk about President Donald Trump versus ... everyone else in a conversation with Dispatch host Jeremy Siegel.

The White House's coronavirus strategy has stirred rebukes from career health officials. Meanwhile, Trump attacked the HHS inspector general after the watchdog's survey on coronavirus readiness.

Stay up-to-date on the latest Covid-19 news by subscribing to the POLITICO Nightly and POLITICO Pulse newsletters.

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Dan Diamond and Nahal Toosi describe the process of getting the secret "pandemic playbook" from sources — while keeping a safe six-feet social distance, of course. 

Plus, Dispatch host Jeremy Siegel asks Dan and Nahal about the shadow coronavirus task force being headed by Jared Kushner.

Stay up-to-date on the latest Covid-19 news by subscribing to the POLITICO Nightly and POLITICO Pulse newsletters.

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Dan Diamond and Nahal Toosi broke the story of the NSC's pandemic playbook — a document the Trump administration largely ignored.

Jared Kushner has emerged as a central figure coordinating the coronavirus response.

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"We can't afford to let this happen again," said the former FDA commissioner, offering advice on next steps.

Dan Diamond sits down with Gottlieb, who's become one of the most prominent voices publicly on coronavirus while privately advising the Trump administration on its response.

Gottlieb discussed his new travel routine (starts at the 1:15 mark), the tragedy unfolding in New York City (4:15), the next cities he thinks are at risk, (11:30), his aggressive warnings on coronavirus (16:10) and his advice to the administration and whether he'd go back inside (23:45).

Stay up-to-date on the latest Covid-19 news by subscribing to the POLITICO Nightly and POLITICO Pulse newsletters.

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Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Gottlieb and Luciana Borio on Jan. 28 urged leaders to "act now to prevent an American epidemic."

Gottlieb and fellow former FDA Commissioner Mark McClellan this week issued a road map to combat COVID-19.

POLITICO called Gottlieb "the shadow coronavirus czar" — a term he disputed.

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Dan Diamond and Dispatch host Jeremy Siegel provide a truth check on some of President Trump’s most recent claims and tell us where the U.S. coronavirus outbreak is heading.

Stay up-to-date on the latest Covid-19 news by subscribing to the POLITICO Nightly and POLITICO Pulse newsletters.

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Dan detailed Trump's focus on short-term decision-making and the risk to long-term coronavirus planning.

Health officials want the president to double down on public health interventions, not lighten up, POLITICO's Adam Cancryn and Nancy Cook report.

"If it were possible to wave a magic wand and make all Americans freeze in place for 14 days while sitting six feet apart, epidemiologists say, the whole epidemic would sputter to a halt," Donald G. McNeil Jr. writes at the New York Times.

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U.S. health officials have told Americans to begin preparing for the coronavirus outbreak. What's the current risk to the United States — and what is the Trump administration doing to protect us? 

David Lim joined Dan Diamond to discuss the state of public health, Trump's response and POLITICO's own reporting about the spreading outbreak.

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David was first to report that problems with CDC lab tests were delaying efforts to expand U.S. screening for coronavirus. In a follow-up story, David reported that the CDC wasn't ready to detect stealth coronavirus spread — hours before a new case of "unknown origin" was announced in California, after testing had been delayed for days. 

Dan reported on the growing scrutiny on whether CDC was adequately prepared to fight the virus and on how the Trump administration was increasingly seeing the outbreak as the biggest threat to the president's re-election. 

Dan also joined POLITICO's Nancy Cook to scoop that the White House was considering a shake-up to the coronavirus task force, hours before President Donald Trump announced that Vice President Mike Pence would oversee efforts instead of HHS Secretary Alex Azar.

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As Louisiana health secretary, Rebekah Gee oversaw Medicaid expansion, struck a novel drug-pricing deal — and faced constant Republican attacks over her pro-abortion-rights record — before resigning last month. Gee sat down with POLITICO's Dan Diamond to reflect on her four years leading Louisiana's health department and what she's learned about public health and politics.

After the break, POLITICO's Alice Miranda Ollstein walks through the case previously known as June Medical v. Gee, one of the most anticipated Supreme Court cases this year, which could reshape abortion access in America.

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Gee oversaw Louisiana's Medicaid expansion, which has enrolled more than 400,000 people, amid criticism from Republicans.

Gee also hammered out a novel "subscription" model to rein in spending on Hepatitis C drugs.

A New York Times op-ed writer named Gee as one of five people who "spread hope" in 2019.

Gee split with her boss, Gov. John Bel Edwards, over whether to allow a proton beam imaging center.

Chosen as Louisiana health secretary in 2016, Gee faced persistent criticism from anti-abortion groups.

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More than 100 people are dead from a new virus that originated in Wuhan, China, and thousands of others around the world are infected as the outbreak spreads quickly. How worried should we be?

Chris Meekins, who served as a top emergency-response official at HHS, joined POLITICO's Dan Diamond to explain what we know about the new coronavirus and how his former HHS team fights viral outbreaks like this one.

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The health department has warned that the virus is a threat but stressed that Americans should not be worried about their personal safety.

U.S. officials have praised China's response on the coronavirus outbreak — up to a point.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, campaigning for Democrats' presidential nomination, released a new plan to fight infectious disease.

The U.S. government has a secret stockpile of drugs and supplies meant to save us in a bioterror attack, Lena Sun wrote last year in the Washington Post.

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Sarah Owermohle, who's led POLITICO's coverage of the teen vaping epidemic, and Paul Demko, who edits the Pro Cannabis team, joined Dan Diamond to review  the recent outbreak of vaping-linked illness, President Donald Trump's resulting plan to crack down e-cigarettes, how vaping and marijuana are playing in the 2020 campaign and whether young Americans remain at higher risk of nicotine addiction.

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