First Edition: March 16, 2020

Kaiser Health News: And Then There Were Two: Biden, Sanders Debate With Coronavirus On Everyone’s Mind
In the midst of a global health crisis that has disrupted daily life and heightened anxieties for millions of Americans, former Vice President Joe Biden and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders on Sunday urged people showing symptoms of the novel coronavirus to seek medical attention without fear of the cost. But the remaining major Democratic candidates offered two starkly different images of leadership in a time of crisis. Biden insisted that the federal government should help pay consumers’ bills in this unusual time, while Sanders focused in particular on how the coronavirus pandemic underscores the need to reform the health system. (Huetteman, 3/16)

Kaiser Health News: Testing Shortages Force Extreme Shift In Strategy By Local Health Officials
Public health officials in California’s state capital region announced this week they have stopped tracing the contacts of patients diagnosed with the novel coronavirus. They’ve also ceased recommending quarantines for residents exposed to people confirmed to have the virus. It was a grim recognition of the virus’ infiltration — and is yet another sign of the detrimental effects of a lack of capability in the U.S. to test people for the deadly coronavirus as it continues to spread. (Gold and Barry-Jester, 3/13)

Kaiser Health News: How Intrepid Lab Sleuths Ramped Up Tests As Coronavirus Closed In
While officials in Washington, D.C., grappled with delays and red tape, two professional virus hunters raced to make thousands of tests available to detect the deadly new coronavirus sweeping the globe, hoping to stem its spread in the U.S. Dr. Keith Jerome, 56, and Dr. Alex Greninger, 38, of the esteemed University of Washington School of Medicine, have overseen the rollout of more than 4,000 tests, painstaking work that has confirmed the infection in hundreds of patients across the nation. (Aleccia, 3/16)

Kaiser Health News: Former Federal Virus Hunter Says U.S. Needs To Act Before New Germs ‘Kick Your Door In’ 
When the federal government decided to investigate the threat viruses in animals posed to humans, Dennis Carroll helped lead the charge. Carroll directed the pandemic influenza and emerging threats unit at the federal Agency for International Development (USAID) for nearly 15 years. In that time, he spearheaded Predict, a project that identified more than 2,000 zoonotic viruses, or germs in animals ― the viral “dark matter,” as he characterizes it — that could also sicken people. (Heredia Rodriguez, 3/16)

Kaiser Health News: The High Cost Of Being Trump’s Enemy
President Donald Trump makes his disdain for California clear, lashing out at the Golden State as a “filthy dirty” and “horrible” outpost cursed by homelessness and wildfires. California, in turn, has challenged the Trump administration dozens of times on issues such as auto emissions, immigration and union dues. But it’s not cheap being one of Trump’s favorite enemies. And nowhere is that more apparent than in health care. (Bluth, 3/16)

Kaiser Health News: Looking For Answers After Coronavirus Contact? Welcome To The Gray Zone
Liz Lucas got a call Tuesday afternoon from a friend she’d interacted with closely at a journalism conference in New Orleans days earlier who had tested presumptively positive for coronavirus. She wondered what this meant for her and those around her, so she reached out to local and state health officials in Missouri for guidance. But like many others across the nation with similar concerns, she didn’t get the answers she sought and had to decide for herself what to do. (Ungar, 3/13)

Kaiser Health News: Look-Up: Check Out Infection Records Of 15,000 U.S. Nursing Homes
This online map shows which of the 15,000 nursing homes in the U.S. have been cited for infection-control violations and how serious those infractions are. (3/13)

The New York Times: Biden And Sanders Assume Fighting Stances, A Healthy 6 Feet Apart
Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders began with an elbow tap. They stood behind lecterns six feet apart, in keeping with federal health guidelines. They rarely interrupted each other, initially, subsisting on mutually nonaggressive meditations on the menace of the coronavirus and how to corral it. “This is a national crisis,” Mr. Biden said early in Sunday’s debate. “I don’t want to get this into a back and forth in terms of our politics here.” (Flegenheimer and Ember, 3/15)

The New York Times: Biden And Sanders Fight Over Policy And Records In Head-To-Head Debate
Mr. Sanders called the coronavirus crisis an “unprecedented moment in American history,” and said it drew attention to the fact that the country lacked “a system that is prepared to provide health care for all people.” In an early barb directed at Mr. Biden, Mr. Sanders said it would take a direct confrontation with the insurance and pharmaceutical industries to remedy the situation, including enacting his proposal for a “Medicare for all”-style system that he has championed. (Burns and Martin, 3/16)

Reuters: Results Or Revolution? Biden, Sanders Present Dueling Visions While Blasting Trump's Coronavirus Response
After the debate, Sanders questioned the wisdom of holding the primaries after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Sunday recommended events with gatherings of 50 or more people be postponed or canceled over the next eight weeks. "I would hope that governors listen to the public health experts," Sanders said in an interview with CNN. "I’m thinking about some of the elderly people who are sitting behind the desks, registering people, doing all that stuff. Does that make a lot of sense? Not sure that it does." (3/16)

The New York Times: How Coronavirus Has Affected The 2020 Primary Campaign Calendar
As the coronavirus outbreak upends the presidential campaign, we’re keeping tabs on postponements and cancellations in the election calendar and on major changes for voting. Two states — Louisiana and Georgia — have postponed their presidential primary elections. But the four states scheduled to vote on Tuesday — Arizona, Florida, Illinois and Ohio — have all indicated they intend to hold their elections as planned. (Corasaniti and Saul, 3/16)

The New York Times: The 2020 Campaign Is Over. The Coronavirus Campaign Just Started.
The candidates remained their essential selves — even at a virtual, epidemiology-minded distance — as if straying from their preferred political brands would amount to coronavirus surrender. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont delivered a stern address about our national ills in front of well-placed flags in a Vermont hotel on Friday, instead of a stern address about our national ills in front of well-placed Ohioans or Floridians, talking up “Medicare for all” and polling support for his health care vision. (Glegenheimer, 3/15)

The New York Times: Louisiana Postpones April Primary As 4 More States Prepare To Vote On Tuesday
Louisiana will postpone its April 4 primary election for more than two months, officials announced on Friday, becoming the first state in the nation to adjust its elections in response to the coronavirus outbreak. The news comes as officials in the next four states scheduled to vote in the presidential primary — Ohio, Arizona, Florida and Illinois — have all indicated that they intend to hold their elections on Tuesday as planned, issuing a joint statement on Friday expressing confidence that ballots can be safely cast. (Corasasaniti and Mazzei, 3/13)

The Hill: CDC Recommends No Events Of More Than 50 People For Next Eight Weeks 
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Sunday called for the cancellation of in-person events of 50 or more people for the next eight weeks to try to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. The agency issued new guidance as governors across the country directed bars and restaurants to close down with the exception of carryout or delivery business. Arizona, Ohio and other states have shuttered schools for weeks to try to limit transmission of the virus. (Samuels, 3/15)

The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Officials Urge More Action To Combat Coronavirus
The federal government’s leading voice on infectious diseases said Americans—particularly younger people—must help prevent community spread of the virus, urging them to stay home and avoid unnecessary public outings. “Americans should be prepared that they are going to have to hunker down significantly more than we as a country are doing,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” Dr. Fauci, appearing on all the major Sunday morning television shows, warned that it could be several weeks to a few months before life in the U.S. begins to return to normal. (Kendall, Day and Leary, 3/15)

Politico: ‘Hunker Down’: U.S. Scrambles To Stem Virus Spread Through Extreme Measures
The nation’s top infectious diseases expert urged Americans on Sunday to hunker down as the U.S. scrambles to avoid an explosion of coronavirus cases that could kill hundreds of thousands, or even a million, people here. “I think Americans should be prepared that they are going to have to hunker down significantly more than we as a country are doing,” Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told NBC’s Chuck Todd on “Meet the Press.” (McCaskill and Cancryn, 3/15)

Politico: CDC Recommends Suspending Large Events For 8 Weeks
“This recommendation is made in an attempt to reduce introduction of the virus into new communities and to slow the spread of infection in communities already affected by the virus,” the CDC said. The agency cited conferences, parades and weddings as examples of large gatherings. The guidance was issued shortly after Trump administration officials warned that the outbreak is likely to worsen over the next several weeks. The officials also announced plans for a series of new testing sites around the country in hopes of more quickly identifying and treating high-risk patients and health care workers — and alleviating pressure on hospital emergency departments. (Cancryn, 3/15)

The Washington Post: States Begin Imposing Harsher Measures To Contain Coronavirus As U.S. Cases Rise Sharply
State officials and mayors critical of the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic began imposing the most severe emergency measures to date on Sunday, with four governors effectively forcing restaurants, bars or other businesses to shut their doors. As the country braced for its first full week of widespread school and business closures, President Trump and other administration officials again gave mixed and sometimes confusing messages about the dangers ahead. At the White House, Trump told Americans to “relax” and stop panic-induced purchasing. (Miroff, Natanson, Bellware and Shaver, 3/16)

The New York Times: Coronavirus In N.Y.C.: Schools, Restaurants And Bars Are Shut Down
Facing mounting pressure, New York City officials announced on Sunday a sweeping shutdown of tens of thousands of bars and restaurants, and the closure of the city’s public school system — the largest in the nation — in an effort to suppress the spread of the coronavirus. From California to Washington, D.C., governors and mayors are grappling with how far government should go in constricting people’s daily lives to keep them home. (Ferre-Sadurni, 3/15)

The Associated Press: New York City Schools To Close Monday To Fight Coronavirus
New York City will close the nation's largest public school system on Monday, sending over 1.1 million children home in hopes of curbing the spread of coronavirus, the city's mayor announced Sunday, calling it a “very troubling moment.” A somber Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the decision to close schools through at least April 20 and possibly for the school year, following a growing number of school closures in communities and entire states nationwide and mounting pressure in New York from residents, City Council members and others. (3/15)

Reuters: New York City, Los Angeles Mayors Order Restaurants, Bars, Theaters Closed For Coronavirus
"The virus can spread rapidly through the close interactions New Yorkers have in restaurants, bars and places where we sit close together," said New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. "We have to break that cycle." Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said Sunday night that he was also ordering gyms closed, too. Both mayors said they were not making their decisions lightly. (3/16)

Los Angeles Times: To Help Fight Coronavirus, California Seniors Should Isolate And Bars Should Close, Gov. Gavin Newsom Says
[California Gov. Gavin Newsom's] office said his request for the elderly to remain at home also extended to residents with underlying health issues, such as blood disorders, chronic kidney disease, asthma, chronic liver disease, compromised immune systems, pregnancies in the last two weeks, metabolic disorders, heart disease and other conditions that make them more susceptible to serious illness from the coronavirus. (Willon, Myers, Luna and Chabria, 3/15)

The Washington Post: Life In The Time Of Coronavirus: Anxious Americans Pivot To New Routines
A neighborhood in Austin, as the nation’s coronavirus case count ticks into the thousands: There’s an hour-long wait for a table at 9 p.m., parking’s a bear, and the sidewalks teem with cuddling couples and loud groups of young partyers. A similar neighborhood in Northern Virginia: One of the toughest tables for miles around, Mama Chang, is nearly empty. In downtown Washington, many parking spaces are wide open on blocks drivers often circle in vain. At a nearby pharmacy counter, the chatty clerk, who usually spends the day exchanging horror stories about the president with his like-minded customers, says no one wants to talk — not politics, not sports, nothing. (Gowen, Hernandez and Fisher, 3/14)

The Wall Street Journal: Coronavirus Social-Distancing Forces Painful Choices On Small Businesses
Small-business confidence plunged in March to near its lowest levels in the past seven years, as business owners grappled with the effects of the novel coronavirus on their companies and the broader economy. Owners of businesses from restaurants and yoga studios to marketing and manufacturing firms are already making tough choices, as the fallout spreads from industries dependent on Chinese manufacturers to the broader U.S. economy. (Simon, 3/15)

The Washington Post: Why Outbreaks Like Coronavirus Spread Exponentially, And How To 'Flatten The Curve'
After the first case of covid-19, the disease caused by the new strain of coronavirus, was announced in the United States, reports of further infections trickled in slowly. Two months later, that trickle has turned into a steady current. (Stevens, 3/14)

Los Angeles Times: How One Man's Coronavirus Created A Global Web Of Potential Infection
Contracting the new strain of coronavirus was stressful enough for one 55-year-old Washington, D.C., aerospace consultant. But tracking down and calling the people he came into contact with may have been just as bad. “Are you sitting down? I got bad news,” he told people at least a dozen times. The consultant was diagnosed Friday with the illness, one among the early waves of known cases in the United States. (Bierman, 3/15)

Politico: Terminal Crush: Air Passengers Caught In Trump's Travel Ban
Massive lines ballooned across several U.S. airports this weekend as European travelers made a mad dash for home — a situation created by the quick rollout of the Trump administration’s European travel ban and exacerbated by chronic airport staffing shortages. Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf said on Sunday evening that the problems had been addressed, and that wait times were down to an average of 30 minutes for passengers to get through Customs at the 13 airports where flights from Europe are being funneled. About 40,000 travelers arriving from Europe were screened Saturday. (Mintz, Snyder and Ehley, 3/15)

The Wall Street Journal: Fliers Returning From Abroad Face Long, Crowded Lines At Airports
Thousands of travelers returning to the U.S. from abroad this weekend have confronted significant waits as screening aimed at preventing the spread of the new coronavirus created major bottlenecks. Chaos and confusion ensued at airports across the country, including New York, Chicago and Dallas/Fort Worth, as anxious passengers waited sometimes for hours in long and cramped customs lines. Passengers said they mingled with others who appeared sick and received brief, inconsistent medical checks. Airports are bracing for the next wave of international flights to land, hoping that efforts Sunday to boost staffing and slow down the flow of passengers will help avoid more snarls. (Sider and Hackman, 3/15)

Politico: Fauci To Americans Abroad: ‘You Will Be Able To Get Back’
America’s top infectious diseases expert expressed concern over the crush of travelers stuck in airports trying to return home in light of new travel restrictions from Europe, urging Americans to remain calm and not overwhelm the world’s airports. This weekend’s implementation of the restrictions announced only days earlier has spurred a mad dash of Americans abroad returning home, causing backups and massive crowds in airports across the country. (Oprysko, 3/15)

The New York Times: Pence Pledges High-Speed Coronavirus Testing From 2,000 Labs This Week
Federal officials are moving ahead with plans to address the screaming shortage of testing for the coronavirus by setting up many more drive-through testing centers around the country and speeding the capability of commercial laboratories to process multiple samples at once. Adm. Brett P. Giroir, the assistant secretary for health at the Department of Health and Human Services, said at a White House briefing with Vice President Mike Pence that starting on Monday, 2,000 commercial labs would begin to perform coronavirus tests using high-speed machines that can process many samples at once. Those labs are expected to add somewhere from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of tests a week to the nation’s capacity, and 1.9 million tests should be available by the end of the week, Admiral Giroir said. (Grady, 3/15)

The Washington Post: Essential Details On White House Coronavirus Testing Still Murky After Pence News Conference
At a news conference, Vice President Pence and federal health officials said the first people allowed to use drive-through testing will be health-care workers and first responders, as well as people over 65 who have symptoms consistent with the virus, such as a cough. The officials did not explain exactly where or in how many states the drive-through tests would begin, other than to say it would be in hard-hit areas. And they backed away from an announcement by Trump on Friday that Google was on the verge of releasing a website through which any American could type in symptoms and learn whether they warranted a test. (Goldstein and McGinley, 3/15)

The Associated Press: Gov't Virus Testing Will Prioritize Medical Staff, Elderly
The federal government's effort to rapidly expand testing for the coronavirus will initially focus on screening health care workers and the elderly, Trump administration officials said Sunday. Broad-scale testing is a critical part of tracking and containing pandemics. But the U.S. effort has been hobbled by a series of missteps, including flaws with the testing kits first distributed by the federal government and bureaucratic hurdles that held up testing by private laboratories. (Perrone, 3/15)

Los Angeles Times: She Couldn't Get A U.S. Coronavirus Test So She Flew To China, Officials There Say
A Chinese citizen living in Massachusetts became ill this month, with symptoms consistent with the coronavirus. She went to a local hospital and asked to be tested three times, but was denied. Frustrated, she flew to China — and tested positive upon arrival. According to Chinese officials, who provided the details, she is one of the nation’s 114 imported coronavirus cases, the newest concern for the country where the coronavirus global pandemic began. (Su, 3/15)

Politico: Trump Finds His MAGA Movement Fracturing Over Coronavirus
Just two weeks after President Donald Trump rallied conservatives to focus on the threat of socialism, his followers are splintering over the coronavirus pandemic. On one side are those like Bill Mitchell, who dismiss it as nothing worse than the flu, and the drive to eradicate it as “climate change 2.0” — as in, a media-lefty mass hysteria. On the other side are pro-Trump fixtures like Trump campaign adviser Jason Miller, who had been sounding the alarms on the coronavirus since January, and are calling for harsher lockdowns and urging social distancing. (Nguyen, 3/18)

The Associated Press Fact Check: Trump, Dems And Politics Of The Pandemic
Americans normally hear from President Donald Trump when he is opining on Twitter, riffing from a rally stage or otherwise improvising. This past week was different as he sat in the Oval Office with a script laid out for him to read on a matter grave enough for a prime-time address to the nation. He addressed the coronavirus crisis that is spreading germs and fear. But his words were as factually fraught as many of his tweets. (3/16)

Politico: Trump’s Florida Sanctuary Becomes A Gilded Petri Dish For A Global Disease
Mar-a-Lago, the crown jewel of President Donald Trump’s real estate empire, has been his refuge and sanctuary throughout his time in office. Unlike in Washington, where the president is mostly cloistered inside the White House and interacts with a constant stream of aides and lawmakers, he gets to rub elbows and hobnob with his friends and other glitterati at his Palm Beach estate — showing off a real estate beauty to other elites. (McGraw, 3/15)

The New York Times: Trump Is Tested For Coronavirus, And Experts Ask: What Took So Long?
After hosting a gathering with guests later found to be infected with the coronavirus, President Trump refrained from getting tested, let alone from self-quarantine, even as administration officials urged Americans to adopt stern new precautions. Mr. Trump finally underwent testing for the virus on Saturday morning and was reported to be negative on Saturday evening. Still, the episode has startled and disconcerted medical experts, who worry that it sets a poor example for Americans and suggests that the president still does not fully understand the risks the country faces. (Rabin, 3/14)

The New York Times: Fact Check: Trump's Claims About His Response To The Coronavirus
WHAT MR. TRUMP SAID: “I don’t take responsibility at all because we were given a set of circumstances and we were given rules, regulations, and specifications from a different time.” False. The Food and Drug Administration issued a “draft guidance” in 2014 in which it sought to extend its authority to regulate laboratory-developed tests. But it’s wrong to blame that effort for the scattered and insufficient delivery of coronavirus tests as the guidance was not particularly relevant to emergency situations and was never finalized or generally enforced. (Qiu, 3/13)

The New York Times: To Keep Credit Flowing, The Fed Dusts Off Its Crisis Playbook
If the Federal Reserve’s surprise Sunday evening announcement of sweeping efforts to guard the economy from coronavirus reminded you of the 2008 global financial crisis, you’re not alone. In that episode, policymakers’ tendency to make surprise weekend announcements became a running joke. But the similarities between the Fed then and now go deeper than the timing of news conferences. (Irwin, 3/15)

The Associated Press: AP Explains: What Did The Federal Reserve Do Sunday And Why?
Brandishing an array of financial weapons, the Federal Reserve announced extraordinary action Sunday to try to blunt the heavy damage the coronavirus outbreak has begun to inflict on the U.S. economy. It's slashing its benchmark interest rate to near zero. It’s buying $700 billion in bonds. It’s moving aggressively to smooth disruptions in the Treasury market. And it's prepared to do more. (Rugaber, 3/16)

Reuters: Trump Congratulates Fed For Rates Cut, Calls Action 'Terrific'
U.S. President Donald Trump said the Federal Reserve's decision on Sunday to cut interest rates was "good news" and "makes me very happy" as he congratulated the central bank for taking further action aimed at helping shore up the U.S. economy amid the global coronavirus pandemic. "It's really good news. It's great for the country," Trump, who had publicly pressed the Fed to slash rates to boost the economy during the fast-escalating coronavirus outbreak, told a White House news conference. (3/16)

The Washington Post: U.S. May Run Out Of Hospital Beds And Ventilators To Save Those Severely Infected
For weeks now, America’s leaders and its public have been obsessed with one set of numbers: How many people have died? How many confirmed cases? And in what states? But to understand why experts are so alarmed and what may be coming next, the public needs to start paying attention to a whole other set of numbers: How many ventilators do we have in this country? How many hospital beds? How many doctors and nurses? And most importantly, how many sick people can they all treat at the same time? (Wan, Cha and Sun, 3/13)

The New York Times: The V.A. Prepares To Back Up A Health Care System Threatened By Coronavirus
The Department of Veterans Affairs, legally designated as the backup health care system in national emergencies, is preparing to absorb the overflow of coronavirus patients from private hospitals if — or when — they become strained to the breaking point. It would be the biggest test the sprawling and sometimes troubled government hospital system has faced. The department is experienced in managing an older and vulnerable population, and in many ways, it could be better prepared than the rest of the health care system to take on the task. It has a surplus of beds in many of its 172 hospital centers and a robust number of special rooms for patients with breathing disorders. Leaders at the agency say they have a surplus of supplies that they have been ordering since the beginning of the year. (Steinhauer, 3/15)

The Associated Press: Hospitals Fear Any Surge Of Virus Cases, Supply Shortages
Government and hospital leaders are increasingly sounding the alarm about the health care system in the U.S. and its readiness to absorb waves of patients in the worst-case scenario involving the new coronavirus outbreak.Authorities nationwide already are taking major steps to expand capacity with each passing day, building tents and outfitting unused spaces to house patients. They also are urging people to postpone elective surgeries, dental work and even veterinarian care. New York's governor called for using military bases or college dorms as makeshift care centers. (Sewer, 3/15)

NPR: The U.S. Medical Stockpile Can't Solve The Coronavirus Crisis
The U.S. government maintains an enormous stockpile of emergency medical supplies, and officials have already started dipping into it to help fight the novel coronavirus. But while having a stockpile is better than not having it, experts say, there's a limit to what a stockpile can do in this crisis. "It's never going to be as big as you want, because it's just too expensive to do that," says Tara O'Toole, a former homeland security official who is now executive vice president at a nonprofit called In-Q-Tel. (Greenfieldboyce, 3/14)

The Washington Post: Spiking U.S. Coronavirus Cases Could Force Rationing Decisions Similar To Those Made In Italy, China
In the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, doctors made life-or-death decisions last month when 1,000 people needed ventilators to support their breathing, but only 600 were available. In Iran, where numerous high-level officials have been infected, doctors sought unsuccessfully to get the international community to lift sanctions so they could purchase more lifesaving machines. And in northern Italy, doctors took the painful step last week of issuing guidelines for rationing ventilators and other essential medical equipment, prioritizing treatment for the young and others with the best chance of survival. Such tough choices could well be ahead for the United States, a nation with limited hospital capacity and grim epidemiological projections estimating that as many as 40 to 60 percent of the country’s population of 327 million could eventually become infected. (Cha, 3/15)

The Wall Street Journal: Silicon Valley Ramps Up Efforts To Tackle Virus
The country’s tech giants have joined with the White House in a task force to fight the new coronavirus, as Silicon Valley escalates its efforts to tackle the fast-moving pandemic, according to people familiar with the group. The companies, including Facebook Inc., Alphabet Inc.’s Google unit, Microsoft Corp. and Amazon.com Inc., AMZN 6.46% on Sunday conducted a nearly hourlong meeting with White House officials, including Michael Kratsios, chief technology officer of the U.S., one of these people said. Forty-five people joined. (Grind and Winkler, 3/15)

The Wall Street Journal: As Virus Spreads, Governments Rush To Secure Ventilators
Europe’s first cases of the novel coronavirus sparked a rush for face masks. Now, with hundreds dying every day, governments are racing to stock up on ventilators, a crucial piece of medical equipment needed to save patients with acute instances of the disease it causes. For the handful of companies that manufacture such devices, this has meant working overtime to satisfy a demand peak none of them have ever experienced. The German government last week ordered 10,000 ventilators from Drägerwerk AG, the company’s biggest contract ever, worth roughly a year’s production, according to a company spokesman. (Bender and Lotfus, 3/15)

Reuters: Google Coronavirus Website Touted By Trump Opens For Two California Counties
Google sister company Verily launched a website late on Sunday that invites adults in northern California to answer questions about their recent health and travel that could result in their getting a free coronavirus test. U.S. President Donald Trump had thanked Google on Friday for developing a website that he said would help people determine whether they needed a coronavirus test. (3/16)

The New York Times: U.S. Offered ‘Large Sum’ To German Company For Access To Coronavirus Vaccine Research, German Officials Say
The Trump administration attempted to persuade a German firm developing a possible vaccine for coronavirus to move its research work to the United States, German officials said, raising fears in Berlin that President Trump was trying to assure that any inoculation would be available first, and perhaps exclusively, in the United States. The offer arose from a March 2 meeting at the White House that included the chief executive of the German firm CureVac, Daniel Menichella. President Trump briefly attended the meeting and Vice President Mike Pence, who heads the White House coronavirus task force, was also there. (Bennhold and Sanger, 3/15)

ProPublica: This Coronavirus Is Unlike Anything In Our Lifetime, And We Have To Stop Comparing It To The Flu
As a longtime health care reporter, I see the unfolding coronavirus pandemic as representing everything I’ve read about — from the early days of epidemiology to the staggering toll of the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic — but had not covered in my lifetime. And still, I have been caught off guard by the pushback from top elected officials and even some friends and acquaintances who keep comparing it to the flu. (Ornstein, 3/14)

The New York Times: Mapping The Social Network Of Coronavirus
The offices of the Network Science Institute at Northeastern University sit 10 floors above Boston’s Back Bay. Wraparound windows offer a floating panorama of the city, from Boston Common to Fenway Park, as a half-dozen young analysts toil quietly at computers. At 10 a.m. on a recent morning, with the early calls to the World Health Organization and European doctors complete and the check-in with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention scheduled for later, Alessandro Vespignani, the institute’s director, had some time to work the room. In a black blazer and jeans, he moved from cubicle to cubicle, giving each member of his team the latest updates on the coronavirus pandemic. (Carey, 3/13)

CNN: How To Keep Coronavirus Fears From Affecting Your Mental Health 
Coronavirus! Yes, it's a serious situation, and yes, it deserves your vigilance and attention. But the constant spring of information, precautions and warnings, whether it's straight from the CDC or some recirculated, dubiously-sourced post on Facebook, can take a real toll on your mental health.When does caution become overreaction? When does staying informed cross the line into, well, too much information? (Willingham, 3/14)

The New York Times: How To Protect Older People From The Coronavirus
Amid the uncertainty swirling around the coronavirus pandemic stands one incontrovertible fact: The highest rate of fatalities is among older people, particularly those with underlying medical conditions. Of the confirmed cases in China to date, nearly 15 percent of patients over 80 have died. For those under 50, the death rate was well below 1 percent. There is no evidence yet that older people are significantly more likely to acquire the coronavirus than younger people. But medical experts say that if people over 60 are infected, they are more likely to have severe, life-threatening disease, even if their general health is good. (Hafner, 3/14)

The New York Times: What Are The Rules For Play Dates During The Coronavirus Crisis?
Schools and day care centers are closing, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is telling us to limit close contact with others if the coronavirus is known to be spreading within our community. But what does close contact mean, exactly? Should we stop letting our kids have play dates? Is it OK to go to the museum or playground or indoor trampoline park? And what about birthday parties? (Moyer, 3/13)

The New York Times: The Workers Who Face The Greatest Coronavirus Risk
Nurses and doctors rank high. But so do hairdressers and dentists. (Gamio, 3/15)

The New York Times: 5 Ways To Help Your Community Combat Coronavirus (While Still Social Distancing)
The number of coronavirus cases in the United States is ticking steadily upward, and with it are Americans’ collective anxiety levels. But stockpiling massive caches of toilet paper and bottled water for insular forts will only lead to more shortages and more stress. Instead, the best way for us all to prepare is by looking out for one another. (Misra, 3/15)

The New York Times: Coronavirus Testing Goes Mobile In Seattle
On an overcast day in Seattle, a few dozen medical staff members, students and emergency workers with symptoms of the fast-spreading coronavirus spent their lunch break driving to a parking garage. The UW Medicine’s Medical Center Northwest has turned part of the first floor of their four-story parking garage into a mobile testing clinic. Think fast-food drive-through, but instead of getting served a juicy burger, nurses come to take a nasal swab. In about a day, patients find out whether they have the coronavirus. (Yan, 3/13)

The New York Times: The Man With 17,700 Bottles Of Hand Sanitizer Just Donated Them
A Tennessee man who became a subject of national scorn after stockpiling 17,700 bottles of hand sanitizer donated all of the supplies on Sunday just as the Tennessee attorney general’s office began investigating him for price gouging. On Sunday morning, Matt Colvin, an Amazon seller outside Chattanooga, Tenn., helped volunteers from a local church load two-thirds of his stockpile of hand sanitizer and antibacterial wipes into a box truck for the church to distribute to people in need across Tennessee. (Nicas, 3/15)

The New York Times: Coronavirus Travel Restrictions And Bans Globally: Updating List
Countries across the world have imposed travel restrictions to curb the spread of the coronavirus. This list, pulled from official government reports and the United States State Department, will be updated as new measures are announced. (Londono and Ortiz, 3/15)