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"It is vital to avoid the collapse of any country's medical system - given the explosive impact that will have on death, suffering and wider contagion. In a context of global pandemic, impeding medical efforts in one country heightens the risk for all of us."The sanctions have already damaged Iran's ability to procure crucial equipment, including respirators and protective suits needed to fight the deadly disease. Apart from the scale of the outbreak in the country, the shortages might be behind the high death toll among its healthcare workers. The standing "variety of sanctions" against nations such as Cuba, North Korea, Venezuela, and Zimbabwe could impede their medical efforts as well, Bachelet added.
Nine members of Congress have signed on to a letter asking the Trump administration to suspend U.S. sanctions on Iran amid the COVID-19 crisis. The letter, which was sent to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin:Times like these seem to bring out the best and worst in people. Is it more than a choice?"Rather than continue to pile on sanctions in the Iranian people's hour of need, we urge you to substantially suspend sanctions on Iran in a humanitarian gesture to the Iranian people to better enable them to fight the virus, it reads. Sanctions relief should encompass major sectors of the Iranian economy, including those impacting civilian industries, Iran's banking sector and exports of oil, and should last for at least as long as health experts believe the crisis will continue. Failure to do so risks inhibiting the delivery of key humanitarian goods, and putting the Iranian people into further health and economic peril."It was signed by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VT), Representative Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Representative Jared Huffman (D-CA), Senator Ed Markey (D-MA), Representative Joaquin Castro (D-TX), Representative Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), and Representative Barbara Lee (D-CA).
Activists have launched a "80 Hours for 80 Million Lives" campaign, which calls on individuals to collectively make 80 hours of calls to the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and demand an end to the sanctions. They've also scheduled a "Twitter storm" for this afternoon using the hashtag #EndCOVIDSanctions.
Narges Bajoghli, an assistant professor of Middle East studies at Johns Hopkins University, and Mahsa Rouhi, a research fellow at the Nonproliferation and Nuclear Policy program at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, detail the the horrific reality in todays New York Times:"The Trump administration claims that its sanctions do not hinder medicine and humanitarian trade. But since the sanctions prevent international financial transactions and shipping, any trade, including that of medicines and medical equipment, is almost impossible. Several companies that supply the medical equipment required to fight coronavirus have stopped shipping to Iran because their banks refuse to handle the transactions.
"The Trump administration's unwillingness to ease restrictions when Iran faces this debilitating crisis will severely hobble efforts at engagement for years to come and stain the reputation of the United States as a global leader."
Wall Street was up and down on Wednesday after a historic surge in the previous session that saw the Dow Jones Industrial Average soaring more than 2,000 points in its best one-day percentage gain since 1933.Asian markets soared. And European stocks rose too.
The Dow jumped 700 points from the opening bell before retreating into negative territory. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite also traded lower.
On Wednesday, the US Senate and the White House reached a deal on a massive $2 trillion relief bill to combat the economic impact of the coronavirus outbreak.
We have to get our country back to work. Our country wants to go back to work.
White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow, director of the National Economic Council, said that congressional leaders are close to striking a deal on a $2 trillion-plus fiscal stimulus package to try to assist workers and businesses who have been adversely affected by the coronavirus outbreak. He said the package is "absolutely essential" to the reopening of the economy.
"After the 15-day period is over, which I guess ends [at] the end of this week or the weekend, we will take another look at the possibility of targeting areas that are safe enough. We have to do this with the assent and help of the health specialists — there's no question about that."
He said they're hearing from a lot of small businesses who want to see if they can "liberalize" and "target more" and "stop as many shutdowns as we have. That doesn't mean [we're] going to leave social distancing; that doesn't mean we're going to walk away from the mitigating advice that we've received from our health specialists and so forth. It just means we're going to take a slightly different look at this and I think the president would like to do something in the next couple of weeks. We know small businesses have been shut in, we know that a lot of workers are either furloughed or laid off."
Coupled with $4 trillion of lending authority for the Federal Reserve, the stimulus could add up to about $6 trillion, or 30% of GDP.
"This is the largest Main Street assistance package in the history of the country. Here we are with a $6 trillion package and we may be taking a new look at the shut-ins around the country. But let's get this thing passed. Let's just get this bill passed. It's so important."
Mr. Kudlow said a $500 billion stabilization fund for businesses, states and localities is not a "slush fund," as Democrats have described it. "This is aboveboard. Everyone will get a chance to see it. Nothing's going to be hidden, and we're just trying to get the basic essentials of the economy."
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