First Edition: March 19, 2020

Kaiser Health News: Funeral Homes, Families Ponder Deaths In The Age Of COVID-19
As COVID-19 cases spread across the nation, disrupting daily routines for the living, growing numbers of U.S. businesses and families are changing how they deal with the dead.Funeral homes — already well-versed in ways to prevent disease — are implementing even stricter protocols to handle bodies infected with the novel coronavirus. Families of people who die from any cause, not just COVID-19, are being asked to scale back how they memorialize their loved ones by changing or postponing funeral services, limiting the number of people who can attend and increasingly using online tools. (Aleccia, 3/19)

Kaiser Health News: A View From The Front Lines Of California’s COVID-19 Battle
On Tuesday, Dr. Jeanne Noble devoted time between patient visits to hanging clear 2-gallon plastic bags at each of her colleagues’ workstations. Noble is a professor of emergency medicine and director of the UC-San Francisco medical center response to the novel coronavirus that has permeated California and reached into every U.S. state. The bags were there to hold personal protective equipment ¬— the masks, face shields, gowns and other items that health care providers rely on every day to protect themselves from the viruses shed by patients, largely through coughs and sneezes. (Barry-Jester, 3/18)

Kaiser Health News: Take A Deep Breath: Making Risk-Based Decisions In The Coronavirus Era 
Just last week, it seemed OK to have lunch out or maybe meet up with friends for a game of pickup soccer. Now, in the fast-moving world of the coronavirus response, that’s no longer the case. More and better social distancing is required. But what’s still acceptable? We reached out to public health experts, who, admittedly, vary in their recommendations. But their main message remains: The better individuals are now at social distancing to slow transmission of the virus, the better off we’ll all be eventually. (Appleby, 3/18)

The New York Times: Trump And Coronavirus: President Seeks $500 Billion In Payments For Americans
The Trump administration on Wednesday asked Congress for $500 billion to cover two separate waves of direct payments to American taxpayers in the next several weeks and another $300 billion to help small businesses meet payroll, outlining a sweeping $1 trillion economic stabilization package to respond to the coronavirus pandemic. The package, outlined in a document obtained by The New York Times, also calls for $50 billion for secured loans for the airline industry and another $150 billion for secured loans or loan guarantees for other sectors of the economy that have been devastated by the global economic shutdown as the virus spreads. (Cochrane and Fandos, 3/18)

The Associated Press: Trump's $1T Plan To Stabilize Economy Hit By Virus
Details on Trump’s economic rescue plan remain sparse — and it’s sure to grow with lawmaker add-ons — but its centerpiece is to dedicate $500 billion to start issuing direct payments to Americans by early next month. It would also funnel cash to businesses to help keep workers on payroll as widespread sectors of the $21 trillion U.S. economy all but shut down. In a memorandum, the Treasury Department proposed two $250 billion cash infusions to individuals: a first set of checks issued starting April 6, with a second wave in mid-May. The amounts would depend on income and family size. (Taylor and Mascaro, 3/19)

The Washington Post: Negotiations Intensify On Capitol Hill Over Massive Stimulus Legislation As Coronavirus Fallout Worsens
The White House is vetting these proposals with Senate GOP leaders before engaging more fully with Democrats, so the package is certain to evolve in coming days. Democrats, meanwhile, are eyeing their own priorities, largely aiming to shore up safety-net programs and the public health infrastructure, as well as send money directly to American taxpayers, while shunning corporate bailouts. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) proposed on Wednesday having the Federal Reserve send $2,000 to every American adult and $1,000 to every American child until the crisis ends. (Werner, Stein and DeBonis, 3/18)

The Washington Post: Trump Seeks $1 Trillion Stimulus Package To Combat Coronavirus -- A Gamble For Reelection
Trump’s ability to enact his plan and weather the turbulence could have an enormous impact on his political fate and determine whether he is remembered as this era’s Herbert Hoover, who was president at the onset of the Great Depression, or its Franklin Roosevelt, his successor who guided the nation out of economic and geopolitical turmoil. “This is Trump’s World War II,” said Stephen Moore, a Heritage Foundation fellow and an informal Trump economic adviser. “It’s really critical to not only whether he is reelected but how he will be judged by history.” (Costa and Rucker, 3/18)

The New York Times: Racing To Head Off Evictions And Foreclosures
The financial shock from the coronavirus pandemic threatens the housing security of millions of Americans, prompting federal, state and local officials — and even judges and the police — to move quickly to ward off foreclosures and evictions. On Wednesday, the federal agency overseeing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the giant government-run finance firms that back the mortgages of 28 million homeowners, ordered a suspension of foreclosures and foreclosure-related evictions for at least two months. The move is meant to keep people in their homes and avoid a housing squeeze like the one that followed the mortgage-fueled financial crisis of 2008. (Dougherty, Goldstein and Flitter, 3/18)

The New York Times: Fed Faces Pressure To Do More As Virus Demands A Response
Over a frenetic two weeks, as the coronavirus has upended American capitalism and changed every aspect of life, the Federal Reserve has taken drastic steps to keep money flowing throughout the financial system. It has cut interest rates to near-zero, introduced a huge bond-buying program, revamped a crisis-era emergency lending program to calm the market big businesses use to raise cash, and enacted major backstops in an attempt to restore order to Wall Street’s volatile inner workings. (Smialek and Tankersley, 3/19)

The Associated Press: Federal Reserve Launches 3rd Emergency Lending Program
The Federal Reserve announced late Wednesday that it will establish an emergency lending facility to help unclog a short-term credit market that has been disrupted by the viral outbreak. The Fed said it will lend money to banks that purchase financial assets from money market mutual funds, including short-term IOUs known as commercial paper. By facilitating the purchase of commercial paper, which is issued by large businesses and banks, the Fed hopes to spur more lending to firms that are seeking to raise cash as their revenues plummet amid the spread of the coronavirus. (Rugaber, 3/19)

Reuters: U.S. Senate Passes One Coronavirus Aid Package While Working On Another
The U.S. Senate overwhelmingly passed legislation on Wednesday providing billions of dollars to limit the damage from the coronavirus pandemic through free testing, paid sick leave and expanded safety-net spending. President Donald Trump signed the bill into law, and Congress and the White House are discussing additional stimulus measures that could cost more than $1 trillion. Lawmakers in the Republican-led Senate largely set aside their ideological divisions, passing the legislation by a bipartisan vote of 90-8, with all “no” votes coming from Republicans. The Democratic-controlled House of Representatives also passed the bill by an overwhelming bipartisan margin last Saturday. (Cowan and Morgan, 3/18)

Politico: Senate Passes Coronavirus Package As Treasury Proposes Rescue With Emergency Checks
Meanwhile, Senate Republicans were inching closer on Wednesday to unveiling their proposal for a third, even larger stimulus package to address the epidemic, which is likely to include some of Treasury's ideas. The Senate’s approval Wednesday of the House-passed coronavirus bill, known as “phase two,” comes as Republican senators are expected to begin negotiations with Democrats on a trillion-dollar “phase three” stimulus package as early as Wednesday night. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell backed the House bill, which grants paid sick leave to hourly employees and expands unemployment insurance. “It is a well-intentioned bipartisan product assembled by House Democrats and President Trump’s team that tries to stand up and expand some new relief measures for American workers,” McConnell (R-Ky.) said of the House bill, which House lawmakers passed early Saturday and later approved technical corrections on Monday. (Levine and Desiderio, 3/18)

Reuters: Explainer: What's In The U.S. Coronavirus Aid Bill That Just Passed Congress?
The bill would provide free coronavirus testing for those who need it. The Trump administration has struggled to make such tests available. The legislation would require private healthcare insurers to pay for all testing costs for beneficiaries with medical coverage. It also would cover testing costs for people who receive health care through government-run programs such as Medicare and Medicaid. It provides $1 billion to the National Disaster Medical System, a coordinated healthcare system and partnership involving several federal agencies, to cover costs for people without medical insurance. (Sullivan, 3/18)

The New York Times: Washington Weighs Big Bailouts To Help U.S. Economy Survive Coronavirus
The scale of the problem is unlike anything Washington has faced before: The financial crisis, which sent unemployment skyrocketing to 10 percent, centered on foreclosures and the banking sector while this crisis is springing from dozens of places at once, as restaurants and movie theaters shut down, factories close and airplanes, public trains and buses run nearly empty of passengers. (Tankersley and Casselman, 3/18)

The Associated Press: Virus Poses A Test: Can Fractured Washington Still 'Go Big'?
The fast-moving coronavirus upending every facet of American life is testing whether Washington, a capital city fractured by years of bitter partisanship and inaction, can still do big things. Not since the Great Recession of 2008, and before that the 9/11 attacks, has the federal government attempted to mount such an ambitious response to an emergency, and so quickly. The country’s once-revered, now often maligned institutions — from the White House to Congress to the Federal Reserve — are being summoned into action to shoulder the lift. (Mascaro and Taylor, 3/19)

Reuters: Two Members Of U.S. Congress Test Positive For Coronavirus
Two members of the U.S. House of Representatives, Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida and Ben McAdams of Utah, said on Wednesday they had tested positive for the coronavirus, becoming the first members of Congress known to have contracted the respiratory illness. (3/18)

The Associated Press: Trump Taps Emergency Powers As Virus Relief Plan Proceeds
Describing himself as a “wartime president” fighting an invisible enemy, President Donald Trump on Wednesday invoked rarely used emergency powers to marshal critical medical supplies against the coronavirus pandemic. Trump also signed an aid package — which the Senate approved earlier Wednesday — that will guarantee sick leave to workers who fall ill. (Lemire and Colvin, 3/18)

The Washington Post: Trump Invokes Rare Powers To Combat Coronavirus Outbreak He Previously Downplayed, Calling It 'War'
The Defense Department said Wednesday it was preparing two Navy hospital ships for deployments, including one slated to go to New York to boost the state’s medical capacity amid fears that the virus could become overwhelming should it spread among the millions of people who live in and around New York City. The Pentagon also said this week it would be making 5 million masks and 2,000 ventilators available for use by health workers.The measures aim to ramp up what state and local officials have described as Washington’s frustratingly slow and disjointed early response to the epidemic, which they have said was plagued by inadequate testing and an ignorance about the prospect of widespread shortages in medical equipment and facilities. (Olorunnipa, Miroff and Lamothe, 3/19)

Vox: Coronavirus: The Defense Production Act, Explained
The DPA was inspired by laws from 1941 and 1942 that gave the White House the ability to tell private companies what to make for the good of the country. Think, for example, of how Ford Motor Company made nearly 300,000 vehicles — including tanks — for World War II. As the Cold War heated up in the late 1940s and the Korean War began in June 1950, President Harry Truman’s administration thought it should codify those powers into law. With Congress’s help, the DPA was signed into law in September 1950. It’s been amended and altered over the years, but the general thrust remains the same. Specifically, the DPA allows the federal government to skip the line, so to speak, when it makes requests of private industries. But Trump can’t just go to a company and say “produce this.” He delegates those requests to federal agencies, and the one that does the vast majority of the ordering is the Defense Department. (Ward, 3/18)

Politico: The 5 WWII Lessons That Could Help The Government Fight Coronavirus
As the globe confronts the coronavirus pandemic, one urgent problem is the shortage of key pieces of equipment, including high-quality masks, test kits and—perhaps most important of all—ventilators. It seems hundreds of thousands of lives might be saved, if only manufacturers could quickly ramp up the production of such equipment, perhaps by a factor of 100 or 1,000, within a few weeks. The United States has done something similar, on a nationwide scale, once before—eight decades ago during the emergency of World War II. At that time, there was a desperate need to radically accelerate the output of items such as ships, tanks and bombers. With decisive government action, including taking a little bit of control from corporations, this effort was hugely successful. (Wilson, 3/19)

The Wall Street Journal: America’s New Coronavirus Strategy Stresses Social Distancing Over Broad Testing
The Trump administration plans to emphasize social distancing as the primary method to contain the new coronavirus, a shift away from its recent focus on widespread testing as a containment tool. Top White House officials have recently started saying testing will prioritize seniors aged 65 and older, front-line health care workers and patients hospitalized with symptoms amid a dwindling national supply of testing chemicals and ingredients. State health departments in Utah and Minnesota have said they must limit who gets tested, and a senior Trump administration official said most people will face a long wait for testing if they aren’t in the prioritized categories. (Armour, 3/19)

Politico: Trump Team’s New Mission: Defend The ‘Wartime President’
When America is at war, voters prefer not to swap presidents in the middle of battle. James Madison sailed to reelection after launching the War of 1812. Abraham Lincoln delivered his second inaugural address a month before the Confederacy surrendered at Appomattox. In the shadow of World War II, Franklin D. Roosevelt notched a third term. And the year after deploying troops to Iraq, George W. Bush defeated a war veteran, Democrat John Kerry. What if the enemy is invisible? Not a foreign country, or the perpetrators of a brazen terrorist attack, but a lethal disease that forces Americans to shelter in place indefinitely as their health, jobs and wages hang in the balance? (Orr and Seligman, 3/19)

Politico: Coronavirus Shelves Trump's Barrage On Biden
President Donald Trump’s top political advisers in recent weeks envisioned unleashing a massive advertising campaign against Joe Biden to define him for the general election before he had a chance to recover from the primary. Then the novel coronavirus arrived. (ISenstadt and Korecki, 3/19)

The New York Times: Trump Defends Using ‘Chinese Virus’ Label, Ignoring Growing Criticism
President Trump on Wednesday defended his increasingly frequent practice of calling the coronavirus the “Chinese Virus,” ignoring a growing chorus of criticism that it is racist and anti-Chinese. “It’s not racist at all,” Mr. Trump said, explaining his rationale. “It comes from China, that’s why.” But the term has angered Chinese officials and a wide range of critics, and China experts say labeling the virus that way will only ratchet up tensions between the two countries, while resulting in the kind of xenophobia that American leaders should discourage. (Rogers, Jakes and Swanson, 3/18)

The New York Times: The President Vs. The Experts: How Trump Downplayed The Coronavirus
From the start of the coronavirus outbreak, statements from the presidential pulpit have been far out of step with those of health experts and many inside the administration. President Trump contradicted some officials while they were standing right next to him. Here is a sampling of what Mr. Trump has said compared with statements made by prominent officials. (Qiu, Marsh and Huang, 3/18)

The New York Times: There Aren’t Enough Ventilators To Cope With The Coronavirus
As the United States braces for an onslaught of coronavirus cases, hospitals and governments are confronting a grim reality: There are not nearly enough lifesaving ventilator machines to go around, and there is no way to solve the problem before the disease reaches full throttle. Desperate hospitals say they can’t find anywhere to buy the medical devices, which help patients breathe and can be the difference between life and death for those facing the most dire respiratory effects of the coronavirus. (Kliff, Satariano, Silver-Greenberg and Kulish, 3/18)

Politico: FDA Turns To Twitter To Help Track Testing Supply Shortages
The FDA is so desperate for information about shortages in coronavirus testing supplies that it is turning to an unlikely source of information: Twitter. Wading into the Wild West of social media for help during a global pandemic may seem unsophisticated for an agency charged with regulating the nation’s drugs and medical devices. But thanks to a decades-old law, the FDA cannot require device manufacturers to report shortages in the same way it can for drugmakers. (Lim, 3/18)

Politico: Will Trump Be Able To Get Emergency Medical Supplies Fast Enough?
The Trump administration has yet to complete a comprehensive assessment, despite weeks of discussion about using the act to help prevent the medical system from being overrun, according to current and former administration officials. Even Trump said on Wednesday that he's in no hurry to order the supplies. In an executive order issued Wednesday afternoon, Trump granted authority primarily to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar to determine “the proper nationwide priorities” and to allocate all necessary health and medical resources and services. Azar will work with Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and the heads of other agencies as appropriate, the order says. (Bender and Cassella, 3/18)

Politico: Hospitals Need A Surge — Of Doctors
Hospitals are struggling to find enough doctors, nurses and other health care workers to care for mounting numbers of critically ill coronavirus patients. The staffing problems are on top of the equipment problems — the lack of ICU beds, ventilators, and masks and other protective equipment needed to prevent the healers from becoming patients. (Roubein and Kenen, 3/18)

The New York Times: A Nebraska Hospital Aimed To Contain The Coronavirus. But It Had Already Spread.
Just a month ago — back when hardly anyone in the United States had tested positive for the coronavirus, back when the federal government spoke hopefully about keeping the virus from spreading in American cities, back when the mass cancellation of school and work and basketball seemed unimaginable — a small hospital ward in Omaha was at the center of the country’s effort to quash the illness. Nebraska Medicine’s Biocontainment Unit is where the federal government sends people with the most fearsome pathogens. In 2014, its doctors and nurses treated Americans who contracted Ebola in Liberia and Sierra Leone. (Smith, 3/18)

Los Angeles Times: Coronavirus: Homeless People Could Be Tipping Point For Hospitals
The catastrophic potential is painful to consider: State models show that 60,000 homeless people could be hit by the novel coronavirus, with up to 20% of them needing hospitalization. That would mean California would need 12,000 hospital beds just for those living on the streets — a formidable task for a state that is already struggling to find extra capacity to manage the pandemic before it’s too late and hospitals become overwhelmed by too many patients. (Chabria, 3/18)

Stat: ‘It’s Been Kind Of Rough’: At The Epicenter Of The Pandemic, A Seattle ICU Nurse Treats Two Patients At A Time
Stephanie Bandyk is on the front lines of the Covid-19 pandemic: A registered nurse who works in the intensive care unit of Seattle’s Swedish Hospital, she has helped treat some of the earliest patients infected with the novel coronavirus in the U.S. She has been working overnight shifts, from 7 p.m. to 7:30 a.m. in the state hardest hit by the new disease. There have been more than 1,000 cases of Covid-19 reported in Washington state, and at least 52 deaths. (Keshavan, 3/18)

The Washington Post: ‘Dad, Are You Okay?’: Doctors And Nurses Fighting Pandemic Fear Infecting Their Families
It is a grim sentiment shared by thousands of health care workers on the front line of a pandemic that is expected to deluge the nation’s hospitals with new patients in the coming weeks. The people treating them understand what that means. They have read the stories from Italy, about doctors dying. They have heard of the findings from Wuhan, China, where nearly 1 in 5 health workers who caught the virus ended up in severe or critical condition. In the United States, where everyday activities have almost skidded to a halt, the virus has upended the lives of doctors and nurses more than anyone else. (Cox, Miller and Jamison, 3/18)

ProPublica: Congress Passed $8.3 Billion In Emergency Coronavirus Funding, But First Responders Still Can’t Buy Masks
The Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriations Act, which became law March 6, only invests $10 million for “training” of first responders, money they will have to share with hospital employees and other health care workers. “I think we know how to put our protective gear on,” said Gary Ludwig, chief of the Champaign Fire Department in Illinois, calling that part of the bill “ridiculous.” “They don’t need to teach us that,” said Ludwig, who is also president of the International Association of Fire Chiefs. “We need more stuff, is what we need.” (Allen, Sapien and Sanders, 3/18)

Reuters: Meet The Americans Still Going Out And Gathering In Large Groups
As people in San Francisco shelter in place and New York City was warned to prepare for a similar measure, some 40 people met in New Mexico for an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting on Wednesday amid White House pleas to avoid groups as the country battles coronavirus. Officials are telling Americans they must practice social distancing and avoid groups of more than 10 people to slow the spread of the pandemic. But in many places, especially outside large centers, people are defying the message. Among the reasons: The urgency has been slow to become apparent; they do not believe in the steps; or their livelihoods depend on ignoring the guidance. (Hay and Resnick-Ault, 3/18)

The Washington Post: Miami Spring Breakers Say Coronavirus Hasn’t Stopped Them From Partying
Not even a pandemic could prevent Brady Sluder from partying in Miami for spring break. An Ohio native, Sluder had been planning the getaway for about three months, according to Reuters, when Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) ordered all the state’s bars and nightclubs to shut down for 30 days to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. It unfolded as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urged a nationwide halt to gatherings of more than 50 people for the next eight weeks. (Bella, 3/19)

The Washington Post: Social Distancing Conflicts With Human Evolution As A Social Species
Consider the wild tiger. It consorts with fellow tigers only to mate or, if female, to briefly raise cubs. Otherwise, the tiger roams solo. Tigers are great at social distancing. We are not tigers. Amid a novel coronavirus pandemic, some of us have defied public health officials’ exhortations and headed to bars to be with other members of our species. More of us have stared into the weeks to come and wondered how we will cope without basketball games, book groups, worship services, yoga classes and dinners with friends. (Brulliard, 3/17)

The New York Times: Which Country Has Flattened The Curve For The Coronavirus?
Just a few weeks ago, China was overwhelmed by the coronavirus pandemic that began in Wuhan. Since then, it has drastically reduced the number of new cases, what is known as flattening the curve. (Lai and Collins, 3/19)

The Wall Street Journal: America Needed Coronavirus Tests. The Government Failed.
When cases of the new coronavirus began emerging several weeks ago in California, Washington state and other pockets of the country, U.S. public-health officials worried this might be The Big One, emails and interviews show. The testing program they rolled out to combat it, though, was a small one.Limited testing has blinded Americans to the scale of the outbreak so far, impeding the nation’s ability to fight the virus through isolating the sick and their contacts, public-health officials say. As of early Wednesday, about 6,500 people in the U.S. had tested positive, data compiled by Johns Hopkins University show, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had reported only about 32,000 tests conducted at its facilities and other public-health labs. (Weaver, McKay and Abbott, 3/18)

Reuters: Special Report: How Korea Trounced U.S. In Race To Test People For Coronavirus
In late January, South Korean health officials summoned representatives from more than 20 medical companies from their lunar New Year celebrations to a conference room tucked inside Seoul’s busy train station. One of the country’s top infectious disease officials delivered an urgent message: South Korea needed an effective test immediately to detect the novel coronavirus, then running rampant in China. He promised the companies swift regulatory approval. Though there were only four known cases in South Korea at that point, “we were very nervous. We believed that it could develop into a pandemic,” one attendee, Lee Sang-won, an infectious diseases expert at the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told Reuters. (Terhune, Levine, Jin and Lee, 3/18)

The New York Times: Coronavirus Test Obstacles: A Shortage Of Face Masks And Swabs
Just as the nation’s ability to test for coronavirus is expanding, hospitals and clinics say another obstacle is looming: shortages of testing swabs and protective gear for health care workers. At the UCSF Health — a San Francisco hospital system at the heart of one of the nation’s coronavirus outbreaks — officials said they would have to stop testing patients in about five days because they will run out of nasopharyngeal swabs, which are inserted into the nasal passage of patients to get samples for testing. Other hospitals elsewhere in the country were ending their practice of using a second swab to test for the flu in an effort to preserve their supply. (Thomas, 3/18)

The New York Times: Need A Coronavirus Test? Being Rich And Famous May Help
Politicians, celebrities, social media influencers and even N.B.A. teams have been tested for the new coronavirus. But as that list of rich, famous and powerful people grows by the day, so do questions about whether they are getting access to testing that is denied to other Americans. Some of these high-profile people say they are feeling ill and had good reason to be tested. Others argue that those who were found to be infected and then isolated themselves provided a good example to the public. (Twohey, Eder and Stein, 3/18)

The Associated Press: Celebrities Get Virus Tests, Raising Concerns Of Inequality
Asked about the issue Wednesday, President Donald Trump said the well-to-do and well-connected shouldn’t get priority for coronavirus tests. But the wealthy former reality star conceded that the rich and famous sometimes get perks. “Perhaps that’s been the story of life,” Trump said during a briefing at the White House. “That does happen on occasion. And I’ve noticed where some people have been tested fairly quickly.” (Biesecker, Smith and Reynolds, 3/19)

The Wall Street Journal: Gov. Cuomo Orders New York Businesses To Keep Half Their Workforces At Home
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo tightened restrictions on businesses Wednesday, telling them to allow employees to telecommute or otherwise keep half their workforce home at any one time, as governors across the tri-state area grappled with increased coronavirus cases. Grocery stores, pharmacies, shipping companies and other essential services would be exempt from the rule Mr. Cuomo imposed through executive order to help curb the transmission of the virus. (Berger and Vielkind, 3/18)

The Wall Street Journal: New York City Weighs Turning Hotels Into Hospitals
New York City is working with the hospitality industry to possibly convert entire hotels into hospitals for patients without the novel coronavirus, in an effort to increase capacity at medical facilities as the outbreak grows. The city’s emergency management commissioner, Deanne Criswell, said in an interview Wednesday that hotels could be vital as New York City needs more beds to treat those with Covid-19. (Honan, 3/18)

The New York Times: Coronavirus Cases In N.Y.C. Near 2,000 As Testing Expands
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York provided new numbers on Wednesday that showed 2,382 people in the state had tested positive for the coronavirus, an increase of more than 1,000 since Tuesday. Mayor Bill de Blasio said later in the day that 1,871 people in New York City had tested positive, compared with 814 on Tuesday. Mr. Cuomo attributed much of the jump to an increase in testing. Of the 14,597 people to be tested so far, nearly 5,000 were tested on Tuesday. (3/18)

Los Angeles Times: 46 New Coronavirus Cases In L.A. County As Deaths In California Rise To 17
With nearly 9 million Californians living under orders to stay home as much as possible, state and county leaders are preparing for what could be next in the coronavirus pandemic. Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday evening said the state has asked the Department of Defense to deploy the Navy’s Mercy hospital ship and two mobile hospitals to California to help care for the expected surge in hospitalizations of residents stricken by the novel coronavirus. (Lin, Shalby, Blume and Fry, 3/18)

Los Angeles Times: Battling Coronavirus, California Asks Navy For Hospital Ship And Two Mobile Hospitals
Gov. Gavin Newsom said Wednesday that the state has asked the Department of Defense to deploy the Navy’s Mercy hospital ship and two mobile hospitals to California to help care for the expected surge in hospitalizations of residents stricken by the novel coronavirus. (Willon, 3/18)

Politico: Why Texas Is So Far Behind Other States On Virus Response
Texas is a big state with a proud small-government philosophy. And that’s being tested by the Covid-19 pandemic. Strict bans on public gatherings to curtail the virus' reach and widespread testing and treatment run counter to the politics of top Texas officials. Instead they're calling on local officials to lead the response. As governors in states including New York and California have imposed statewide measures such as closing schools and limiting commerce, Texas leaders have been reluctant to set restrictions conservative voters might consider draconian and business leaders oppose. They’ve also opposed steps to expand health insurance coverage. (Rayasam, 3/18)

Politico: Coronavirus Surfaces In 19 Elder Care Facilities In Florida
Nineteen long-term care facilities in Florida have either a suspected or confirmed case of the coronavirus, including two confirmed cases in Duval and Broward counties. Agency for Health Care Administration Secretary Mary Mayhew said she could not divulge the name or addresses of the nursing facilities, citing patient privacy requirements. She said she would look into providing more information in aggregate. (Glorioso, 3/18)

Politico: Wasserman Schultz Slams Florida Governor Over Sluggish Response To Coronavirus
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, on a call with fellow lawmakers and Florida state officials, accused Gov. Ron DeSantis of failing to acknowledge the coronavirus is spreading in the state even among people who haven’t traveled overseas. In a recording of the briefing obtained by POLITICO, Wasserman Schultz tried without success to get state Surgeon General Scott Rivkees, a DeSantis appointee, to commit to informing the public about community spread in Florida. (Dixon, 3/18)

The New York Times: Younger Adults Comprise Big Portion Of Coronavirus Hospitalizations In U.S.
American adults of all ages — not just those in their 70s, 80s and 90s — are being seriously sickened by the coronavirus, according to a report on nearly 2,500 of the first recorded cases in the United States. The report, issued Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, found that — as in other countries — the oldest patients had the greatest likelihood of dying and of being hospitalized. But of the 508 patients known to have been hospitalized, 38 percent were notably younger — between 20 and 54. And nearly half of the 121 patients who were admitted to intensive care units were adults under 65, the C.D.C. reported. (Belluck, 3/18)

The New York Times: Your Questions About Life Under Coronavirus, Answered.
The world has changed a lot in the last few weeks. We’re here to help. (3/18)

The Wall Street Journal: Trump Sought To Expand Virus Drug Tests Over FDA Objections
The White House considered issuing an executive order greatly expanding the use of investigational drugs against the new coronavirus, but met with objections from Food and Drug Administration scientists who warned it could pose unneeded risks to patients, according to a senior government official. The idea to expand testing of drugs and other medical therapies was strongly opposed by the FDA’s senior scientists this week, the official said, and represented the most notable conflict between the FDA and the White House in recent memory. (Burton, 3/18)

The New York Times: A Promising Treatment For Coronavirus Fails
Antiviral drugs that had held promise as a potential treatment for the coronavirus did not work in one of the first major studies in seriously ill patients, researchers from China reported on Wednesday. “No benefit was observed,” the researchers wrote in The New England Journal of Medicine. The study tested Kaletra, a combination of two antiviral medicines, lopinavir and ritonavir, that are normally used to treat H.I.V. (Grady, 3/18)

The Hill: Top Health Official Pushes Back Against Theory That Ibuprofen Worsens Coronavirus 
Dr. Anthony Fauci, one of the faces of the Trump administration's coronavirus response, is pushing back against warnings that an anti-inflammatory drug like ibuprofen could worsen the effects of the infection. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Wednesday that the suggestion was a "little bit urban legend" and that there was no "solid evidence" to support the theory after France's health minister urged people to avoid the drug. (Wise, 3/18)

Stat: Biopharma Groups Push For Industry Exceptions To 'Shelter-In-Place' Orders 
As more regional governments consider ordering residents to largely stay inside their homes to try to slow the spread of the coronavirus, drug industry trade groups are pushing to ensure such orders make exceptions to allow the employees of biotech and pharma companies to travel to and from work. The first “shelter-in-place” orders in the U.S. have come over the past few days in the Bay Area and other parts of Northern California. (Robbins and Sheridan, 3/18)

Stat: Survey: Coronavirus To Have 'Big Impact' On A Third Of U.S. Clinical Trial Sites
Nearly one-third of clinical trial sites expect the novel coronavirus will have a “big or extremely big” impact on their ability to recruit patients for new trials or keep patients already enrolled in existing studies compliant with scheduling, a new survey finds. In addition, 39% of 170 clinical trial sites surveyed in the U.S. believe patients will be much less or somewhat less likely to enroll in new clinical research trials. And 25% of the sites expect patients currently enrolled in a trial to be much less or somewhat less willing to continue their participation. (Silverman, 3/18)

The Associated Press: How Long Will Americans Be Fighting The Coronavirus?
How long will this last? Scientists say there isn’t a simple answer. “In many ways, this situation is unprecedented – we’re trying to take some actions to curb the spread and timing of this pandemic,” said Stephen Morse, a disease researcher at Columbia University in New York. Yes, there have been past disease outbreaks that scientists can draw some lessons from but, in those cases, the disease was largely allowed to run its course. “So those models don’t precisely apply,” Morse said. (Larson and Smith, 3/19)

The New York Times: Can Smart Thermometers Track The Spread Of The Coronavirus?
A company that uses internet-connected thermometers to predict the spread of the flu says it is tracking the coronavirus in real time — something that had been impossible, given the lack of testing for the disease. Kinsa Health has sold or given away more than a million smart thermometers to households in which two million people reside, and thus can record fevers almost as soon as consumers experience them. (McNeil, 3/18)