A gym in Bellmawr that reopened Monday, violating an executive order from the governor, was shut down Thursday morning by the state and county health departments.
“Alright guys, so we arrived at the gym this morning to Governor Murphy’s dirty tricks, playing with his power in the health department,” the gym’s owners posted on its Instagram page Thursday. “For right now, the gym will be closed. We have a full cleaning crew inside, once again going above and beyond.”
Orange stickers from the Camden County Health Department declaring an embargo and a four-page notice from the state Department of Health were taped to the door.
The signs were placed on the storefront overnight “with no inspection of the building or anything,” Co-owner Frank Trumbetti told FOX 29.
Trumbetti said he doesn’t know what the embargo means and the state health department notice referred to a statute involving infectious disease.
A call to an attorney for the gym was not immediately returned.
The county and state department of health spokespersons also could not be reached immediately.
Atilis Gym in Bellmawr allowed a limited number of members to use the facility beginning Monday. Their temperatures were checked as they entered and they were required to wear face coverings and follow other rules. Co-owner Ian Smith said they were limiting capacity to 20% or about 44 people at a time.
Murphy was asked Monday during his coronavirus briefing about the gym’s reopening and he suggested the efforts to enforce the closure order may ramp up.
Agents from Keller Williams Realty Group of Limerick participate in a recent Zoom meeting. Real estate agents from across the region can perform sales and other activities now that Gov. Tom Wolf has issued an order allowing the activities to resume, with limitations.
By Donna Rovins The Times Herald
Many real estate professionals got back to work within hours after Gov. Tom Wolf reversed himself and issued an executive order allowing the industry to reopen immediately.
Real estate sales and related activities can resume in areas that are still in the red zone, as long as steps are taken to minimize the spread of the coronavirus.
The executive order followed the governor’s earlier veto of legislation on the same issue — making Tuesday a bit of a “roller coaster,” according to Terese Brittingham, broker/owner of Keller Williams Realty Group in Limerick.-
“The reopening was much-needed,” she said, adding that real estate is an essential service. “These agents rely on their commissions as income. This is an opportunity to let them get back and what they do — which is sell houses.”
Seth Lejeune is a team leader/associate for RE/MAX HomePoint in Royersford. He said he was “excited” when the news came on Tuesday.
“My reaction? I went to my wife and said ‘It’s go time,’” he said. “I do believe in my bones real estate is no more hazardous than other things. However, I spent most of my time being cognizant of how scared people were.”
“I was shocked in a good way,” said Meredith Jacks, broker/owner of Styer Real Estate in South Coventry. “I think I was anticipating some parts of real estate would reopen or there would be some kind of change. Just as quickly as we shut down we were reopened.”
Christopher Benedict is the broker/owner of RE/MAX HomePoint in Royersford and owner of BIG Realty Property Management. He said he didn’t have a problem initially with taking a pause to get a sense of the coronavirus issue, but added the governor’s order should have come three weeks ago.
“When everyone started to open as an essential service — we were the only state in the country, then the only couple of counties that were still closed,” he said.
Jacks said the part of her job she enjoys the most is dealing with people, which has been missing since March.
“I was never opposed to portions of the job being done virtually but the human element was missing for me,” she said. Facetime and Skype didn’t deliver the same quality of service real estate agents want to provide.”
Brittingham said with the region remaining in the red phase, there will still be uncertainty, adding that her agency will continue to perform many things virtually to protect the agents and clients.
In-person real estate sales and activities have been prohibited since mid-March, which has caused problems for many home buyers and sellers.
Lejeune said that has been one of the drivers for getting back to work.
“It wasn’t about getting out to make another commission. I have some people with real problems,” he said, including one client that inherited a house she can’t afford, and a rental tenant with roommate problems but couldn’t move. “I’m pumped and excited to go and solve problems.”
Bob Smith discusses the effect of coronavirus on the state legislature, the budget, and a new recycling bill being drafted for his Environment and Energy Committee
By Frank Brill, EnviroPolitics Editor
We had a chance last week to speak, via Zoom, with Bob Smith, who is chairman of the sometimes contentious but always lively Senate Environment and Energy Committee.
The main topic, of course, was the coronavirus which has supplanted every other news topic for months. Senator Smith discusses the effects of the pandemic on the state legislature and its delayed 2020-2021 state budget that has lawmakers facing very difficult financial decisions.
He also has an answer to when, at long last, we might see his committee return to action and he also provided a teaser on an upcoming recycling bill that’s likely to be of considerable interest to both the environmental and business communities.
Subscribers to our daily EnviroPolitics newsletter got to see the video last week. You can join them in future previews by trying EnviroPolitics for a full month. Free. No obligation.
In an effort to ensure New Jersey residents are able to maintain a supply of the medicines they need during the COVID-19 pandemic, Assembly members Verlina Reynolds-Jackson, Annette Quijano and Andrew Zwicker sponsored a bill mandating health insurance coverage of certain prescription refills during an emergency. The legislation unanimously passed both the Assembly and the Senate on Thursday.
The bill (A3970 / S2344) requires Medicaid and other health insurance carriers offering a health benefits plan in New Jersey that provides coverage for pharmacy services or prescription drugs, to cover refills that would give individuals at least a 30-day supply of prescription medicines or a 90-day supply of maintenance medications, in the event a public health emergency or state of emergency is declared.
Insurance carriers would have to cover a refill that fulfills the minimum 30-day requirement even if the person had not yet reached their scheduled refill date. In addition, no fees could be applied for the delivery of these medicines.
Upon the bill’s passage, the three sponsors issued the following statements:
“Whenever our state is facing an emergency situation that will go on for some time, it’s important to make sure residents have access to the medicines they need throughout the crisis,” said Assemblywoman Reynolds-Jackson (D-Hunterdon, Mercer). “Especially in the event of an infectious pandemic, limiting the number of times an individual has to go out in public to obtain the essential supplies they need can help slow the spread of the virus.”
“By mandating coverage of prescription refills even before the usual refill date, we can help residents stock up on critical medications at fewer intervals,” said Assemblywoman Quijano (D-Union). “This will allow them to stay home for longer periods of time without having to face adverse health effects from either a lack of medicine or increased exposure to the virus.”
“As legislators, we have the responsibility to help make sure New Jersey residents are taken care of during public health emergencies such as the one we are currently facing,” said Assemblyman Zwicker (D-Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex, Somerset).”This legislation is one way we can help keep more residents safe during these uncertain times.”
The bill’s senate sponsors are Nellie Pou (D-Paterson), Robert Singer (R-Lakewood) and Joseph Vitale (R-Woodbridge)
An opened box of protective masks sits on a pallet at Direct Relief’s distribution center in Santa Barbara, Calif., on Wednesday, April 1, 2020. An Associated Press investigation has found millions of medical masks, gloves, gowns and other supplies being used in hospitals across the country are counterfeits, putting lives at risk. (Jonathan Ingalls/FRONTLINE/PBS/GRC via AP)
This story is part of an ongoing investigation by The Associated Press, FRONTLINE, and the Global Reporting Centre that examines the deadly consequences of the fragmented worldwide medical supply chain.
On a day when COVID-19 cases soared, healthcare supplies were scarce and an anguished doctor warned he was being sent to war without bullets, a cargo plane landed at the Los Angeles International Airport, supposedly loaded with the ammo doctors and nurses were begging for: some of the first N95 medical masks to reach the U.S. in almost six weeks.
Already healthcare workers who lacked the crucial protection had caught COVID-19 after treating patients infected with the highly contagious new coronavirus. That very day an emergency room doctor who earlier texted a friend that he felt unsafe without protective supplies or an N95 mask, died of the infection. It was the first such death reported in the U.S., according to the American College of Emergency Physicians.
But the shipment arriving that night in late March wasn’t going to solve the problem. An Associated Press investigation has found those masks were counterfeits — as are millions of medical masks, gloves, gowns and other supplies being used in hospitals across the country, putting lives at risk.
Before the pandemic, federal trade law enforcement agencies were focused on busting knockoffs such as luxury goods and computer software, mostly from China. As America fell sick, the mission shifted to medical supplies. To date, Operation Stolen Promise, spearheaded by Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations, has netted 11 arrests and 519 seizures. And yet counterfeit goods continue to pour in — not just masks, but also mislabeled medicines, and fake COVID-19 tests and cures, according to the agency.
“It’s just unprecedented,” said Steve Francis, HSI’s assistant director for global trade investigations. “These are really bad times for people who are out there trying to do the right thing and be helpful, and they end up being exploited.”
The story of how one brand of counterfeits has infiltrated America’s supply chains illustrates how the lack of coordination amid massive shortages has plunged the country’s medical system into chaos.
Ear Loops
AP identified the counterfeit masks when reviewing film of the Los Angeles shipment. The telltale sign: these masks had ear loops, while authentic ones have bands that stretch across the back of the head, making for a tighter fit.
The blue and yellow boxes being unloaded in a Southern California warehouse bore the name of the Chinese factory Shanghai Dasheng. The masks inside were stamped as if approved by the U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health — signifying they had been certified by the U.S. government as safe for workers in health care settings. N95 masks filter out 95% of all airborne particles, including ones too tiny to be blocked by looser fitting surgical masks.
But the day before they arrived, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a very specific warning: all Shanghai Dasheng N95 masks with ear loops were counterfeit.
Ear loop masks are less expensive to manufacture because the straps are attached with glue to the face covering, while headbands on genuine N95s, also called respirators, must be stitched, stapled or soldered to establish a tighter seal over the nose and mouth.
And even if the electrocharged fibers in the fabric are the same, masks with ear loops are not as effective because tiny airborne droplets carrying the virus can get sucked through the cracks.
“Fluid follows the path of least resistance: If someone is breathing and the respirator doesn’t have a good fit, it will just go around,” said infectious disease expert Shawn Gibbs, the dean of Texas A&M University’s school of public health.
AP tracked other shipments of Shanghai Dasheng ear loop N95 masks as they entered the vast U.S. medical system. Shipping labels and invoices, certified letters and interviews with more than a dozen buyers, distributors or middlemen pointed to the corporate headquarters and busy factory of Shanghai Dasheng Health Products Manufacture Company.
The company did not respond to AP’s queries about its masks. And AP could not independently verify if they are making their own counterfeits, or, as the CDC said in a published warning, someone is using Shanghai Dasheng’s certification numbers “without their permission.”
The CDC separately told AP it has been in talks with Shanghai Dasheng about authenticity issues.
“Recently, NIOSH has received reports stating there is product being obtained directly from the Shanghai Dasheng factory, labeled as NIOSH-approved, with ear loops,” said agency spokeswoman Katie Shahan in an email to the AP. Shahan said Shanghai Dasheng’s N95s with ear loops are counterfeit.
On their own website, Shanghai Dasheng warns: “WE DON’T HAVE ANY DISTRIBUTORS, DEALERS OR BRANCH FACTORIES. BEWARE OF COUNTERFEIT!”
Florida-based importer Mark Kwoka said he believes the Shanghai Dasheng masks with ear loops that he obtained came from their factory, based on information he received from his partners in China.
“This is kind of getting out of control,” said Kwoka, who made a career in bridal gown design and manufacturing in China but turned to masks earlier this year.
State Department Inspector General Steve Linick leaves Capitol Hill after holding a briefing with lawmakers on Oct. 2, 2019. (Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images)
By Hannah KnowlesWashington Post May 16, 2020 at 3:47 p.m. EDT
Two top Democrats have told the Trump administration to preserve all records related to the Friday removal of the State Department’s inspector general, a late-night move that led House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to warn of an acceleration in a “dangerous pattern of retaliation” against federal watchdogs.
Rep. Eliot L. Engel (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) launched an investigation Saturday into the ouster of Steve Linick, the latest in a string of weekend removals of oversight officials who have clashed with the Trump administration. Engel, the chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, claimed Linick was fired after opening an investigation into Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and said the timing suggested “an unlawful act of retaliation.”
“President Trump’s unprecedented removal of Inspector General Linick is only his latest sacking of an inspector general, our government’s key independent watchdogs, from a federal agency,” he wrote with Menendez in an open letter.
Linick, a 2013 Obama appointee who has criticized department leadership for alleged retribution toward staffers, will be replaced by Stephen J. Akard, a State Department spokesperson confirmed Friday. The State Department did not explain Linick’s removal or respond to further questions, and the White House did not respond to inquiries.
A Democratic congressional aide said Linick was looking into Pompeo’s “misuse of a political appointee at the Department to perform personal tasks for himself and Mrs. Pompeo.”
President Trump said in a Friday letter to Pelosi that the inspector general no longer had his “fullest confidence” and would be removed in 30 days, the required period of advance notice to lawmakers.
Menendez, the ranking Democrat of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, called the firing “shameful” in a late Friday tweet. “Another late Friday night attack on independence, accountability, and career officials,” he wrote. “At this point, the President’s paralyzing fear of any oversight is undeniable.”AD
Menendez and Engel wrote to the White House, Department of State, and the State Department Office of Inspector General requesting officials turn over information to their committees by May 22.
The firing came weeks after Trump moved to replace Christi Grimm as principal deputy inspector general for the Department of Health and Human Services after Grimm’s office criticized the administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic — detailing “severe shortages” of testing kits, delays in getting coronavirus results and “widespread shortages” of masks and other equipment at U.S. hospitals. Trump had lashed out publicly at Grimm.Election warning signs emerge for Trump | The 2020 FixThe Fix’s Natalie Jennings analyzes what recent polling and the economic fallout from coronavirus could mean for President Trump’s reelection chances. (JM Rieger, Blair Guild/The Washington Post)
Last month the president ousted intelligence community Inspector General Michael Atkinson, who handled the explosive whistleblower complaint that led to Trump’s impeachment. He also pushed out Glenn Fine, the chairman of the federal panel Congress created to oversee his administration’s management of the government’s $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus package.
