By Mike Hayes, Meg Wagner and Zamira Rahim, CNN
Some shops and restaurants at Universal Orlando's CityWalk in Florida will reopen today, Universal Orlando announced.
The nightclubs at CityWalk, as well as Blue Man Group and Universal Cinemark, will stay closed.
Visitors will be required to wear masks and their temperatures will be taken when they arrive. Diners and shoppers are encouraged to wash their hands often and keep six feet apart from others.
From CNN's Betsy Klein and Maegan Vazquez
President Trump appears to have misled when asked about funding to a Wuhan, China, laboratory during an interview with Fox Business.
Trump claimed the Wuhan lab received funding under the Obama administration and he cut it off.
“As I understand it, before I got here, $7.5 million in 2014. And look, they said they were studying different things that things like that happen. But you know, money was given by the Obama administration early on — I ended it.”
He later added, “Well I took a lot of heat, too. They said oh, we’re studying all sorts of stuff. You saw what happened.”
What we know: That lab, the Wuhan Institute of Virology, worked with American scientist Peter Daszak, who did research via a National Institutes of Health grant, according to CBS. It was partially responsible for remdesivir breakthroughs and had been working on research toward a coronavirus vaccine, Daszak told CBS 60 Minutes.
“The breakthrough drug, remdesivir, that seems to have some impact on Covid-19 was actually tested against the viruses we discovered under our NIH research funding,” Daszak told CBS.
Per CBS, the grant was “reauthorized and increased by the Trump administration.” And according to Snopes, that NIH grant wasn’t $7.5 million, it was $3.7 million, only a portion of which went to the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Trump was asked if it’s possible to continue to have a relationship with China amid its lack of transparency.
“May be hard to do but that’s okay with me,” he said.
From CNN's Adrienne Vogt
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said that the city is exploring how to reopen some of the retail sector safely by next month.
“We’re looking forward, hopefully as early as next month in June, if the health indicators continue to move in the right direction, we're going to talk about the things that we can start up again with a lot of social distancing, with a lot of precautions in place, where people do not have to gather in tight spaces in large numbers,” the mayor told CNN’s Alisyn Camerota.
De Blasio said that the city is also talking to restaurant owners on how to reopen safely, possibly with outdoor seating. He cautioned that any decision about reopening schools or holding events with large crowds will be months away.
“My Plan A is [to] open schools as normal … but only if we can do it safely,” he said.
He also called the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the state's stay-at-home order “dangerous.”
“A governor, a mayor, we're elected by the people to make decisions about health and safety. That's what we do. And for a court to interfere with that is very problematic. The idea of people rushing to gather together in a moment where the coronavirus is still alive and well, that worries me deeply,” de Blasio said.
De Blasio said that there needs to be more federal stimulus aid for the city and US economy to rebound. The city has lost more than $7 billion so far, and lost revenue alone over the next few years will be $17 billion, he said.
“Right now, if we don't get a massive infusion of federal support, we cannot go through this recovery. We cannot get our city back on our feet, because we won't be able to pay the basics,” he said.
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From CNN’s Anneken Tappe
Nearly 3 million people filed claims for unemployment benefits in the week ended May 9.
Altogether, more than 36.5 million Americans have sought initial unemployment aid since mid-March.
Continued claims rose to 22.8 million for the week ended May 2, a slight increase from the prior week.
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From CNN’s Brian Fung
Amazon said Thursday it will begin mass-producing hundreds of thousands of protective face shields for medical workers and, eventually, the general public.
The gear allows for plastic shields to snap onto a 3D-printed headpiece. More than 10,000 have been donated to health workers so far, with another 20,000 on the way, Amazon said in a statement.
The face shields are based on a collaboration with 3D printing hobbyists from Washington State, and the design has been approved by the National Institutes of Health, Amazon said.
The effort reflects how Amazon has sought to bring its massive logistics and supply chain operations to help fight the pandemic. The company has also previously said it is developing coronavirus testing capacity.
But Amazon has also faced probing questions from policymakers about its safety policies for its own front-line warehouse and delivery employees.
As capacity ramps up, Amazon said, it expects to list the face shields at cost.
“We are confident we will be able to list them at a significantly lower price – almost a third of the cost – than all other reusable face shields currently available to frontline workers,” wrote Brad Porter, an Amazon executive, in the statement.
From CNN's Betsy Klein
President Donald Trump has addressed concerns from Dr. Anthony Fauci that coronavirus spikes could turn into outbreaks as the country begins to open.
In an interview with Fox Business, Trump said he “totally” disagreed with the nation's top infectious disease specialist on reopening schools, claiming young people “are very little affected by this,” despite the facts that some young people have become very sick and that can spread the virus to other, more vulnerable people.
"I think that we have to open our schools, young people are very little affected by this. We have to get the schools open, we have to get our country open, we have to open our country. Now we want to do it safely, but we also want to do it as quickly as possible. We can’t keep going on like this, you’re having bedlam already in the streets, we can’t do this, we have to get it open,” he told Fox Business.
Trump claimed that the US could put out the “embers” of additional coronavirus cases.
“You know we’ve learned a lot. We didn’t know anything about it, this is a horrible disease… and we also know how to put it out but we have to open our country, we have no choice," he said.
The President said that he thinks critics want him to keep the country closed: “Yeah, I do, I think it’s a political thing.”
From CNN's Betsy Klein
President Donald Trump suggested the US is mobilizing its military for widespread coronavirus vaccination distribution once there is a vaccine, in an interview with Fox Business.
“I just literally left a meeting. We’re mobilizing our military and other forces, but we’re mobilizing our military on the basis that we do have a vaccine," he said, adding: "You know, it’s a massive job to give this vaccine. Our military is now being mobilized so at the end of the year, we’re going to be able to give it to a lot of people very, very rapidly,” he said.
Trump continued: “Assuming you get it (a vaccine), then you have to distribute it. And unless you’re mobilized and ready you’re not going to be able to do it for a long time. So we’re starting now.”
He said the US is working on the assumption that a vaccine will be ready by the end of the year and that the country would prioritize giving it to vulnerable populations at the outset.
“We have to be able to give it, to use it on most of our population. Now we’ll focus on elderly, we’re going to focus on nursing home and senior citizen centers,” he said.
Analysis by CNN's Stephen Collinson
President Donald Trump's repudiation of Dr. Anthony Fauci has long been probable. Once the trusted doctor warned of the human cost of Trump's push to quickly reopen the country, it became inevitable.
Trump broke with Fauci, who has served under six presidents, on Wednesday over the infectious disease expert's warnings that getting businesses and schools back open too quickly would lead to unnecessary suffering and death.
"I was surprised by his answer, actually," Trump said. "It's just -- to me it's not an acceptable answer, especially when it comes to schools."
The delicate dynamic between Fauci and Trump has been watched for months. Its latest fraying marks the most pronounced clash yet in the tussle between science and politics that has long plagued the administration's fight against the coronavirus.
Fauci's transgression is to base his evaluations -- after decades of public service and expertise fighting HIV/AIDS, Ebola, Zika and anthrax -- on facts and logic that conflict with Trump's chosen version of reality.
Fauci has long said that only the virus can decide when normal life -- things such as NFL games and schools reopening, for instance -- will be safe again.
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