Why it matters: Despite murmurs of an impending economic crash, the U.S. has seen strong job growth and record low unemployment as trade wars, sweeping technological change and new media consumption habits are changing the American economy.
An Abbott Laboratories logo on a smartphone. Photo: Igor Golovniov/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
Abbott Laboratories says it has received emergency authorization from the FDA to produce portable novel coronavirus tests, which the company indicates can detect the virus within five minutes and will be available starting next week.
Why it matters, via Axios' Sam Baker: The U.S. doesn't have the capacity to do enough COVID-19 testing right now, and the tests that are available can take a week to produce results. Closing both of those gaps will be key to getting the virus under control.
Trish Regan. Photo: Roy Rochlin/Getty Images
Fox Business announced Friday that the cable news network "parted ways" with anchor Trish Regan, after she called the novel coronavirus a "scam" on-air March 9.
The big picture: Conservative commentators, including syndicated radio personality Rush Limbaugh and Fox News' Sean Hannity, have come under fire for minimizing the threat of COVID-19. "For two crucial weeks in late February and early March, powerful Fox hosts talked about the “real” story of the coronavirus: It was a Democratic- and media-led plot against President Donald J. Trump," The New York Times writes.
Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios
One-third of Americans say they or someone in their household has either lost a job or taken a pay cut since the novel coronavirus outbreak began, according to a study from Pew Research.
The big picture: During the 2008 financial crisis, people were able to leave their homes in search of jobs, but that's currently difficult with local and statewide stay-at-home orders and quarantine mandates, The New York Times writes.
Photo: Patrick Pleul/picture alliance via Getty Images
Grocery stores across the United States are facing an on-shelf shortage of eggs, as quarantined Americans stockpile and "stress-bake," before Easter Sunday — April 12, The Washington Post reports.
The state of play: Vital Farms, the biggest supplier of naturally raised eggs in the country, shipped 15 million eggs to 13,000 groceries last week, per the Post. That's 150% more than what the company typically ships, per CEO Russell Diez-Canseco. And retailers have already burned through that extra inventory.
GM and Ventec Life Systems are partnering to build ventilators in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Photo: Ventec
President Trump on Friday ordered General Motors to make ventilators to help coronavirus patients — something the automaker was already on track to do.
Why it matters: The United States was caught flat-footed by the surge in demand for medical supplies. If the federal government had enlisted manufacturers earlier, when the virus was beginning to spread throughout the world, GM and other manufacturers could already be producing thousands of ventilators per month.