First Edition: March 20, 2020

Kaiser Health News: As Coronavirus Spreads Widely, Millions Of Older Americans Live In Counties With No ICU Beds
More than half the counties in America have no intensive care beds, posing a particular danger for more than 7 million people who are age 60 and up ― older patients who face the highest risk of serious illness or death from the rapid spread of COVID-19, a Kaiser Health News data analysis shows. Intensive care units have sophisticated equipment, such as bedside machines to monitor a patient’s heart rate and ventilators to help them breathe. (Schulte, Lucas, Rau, Szabo and Hancock, 3/20)

Kaiser Health News: Mask Shortage Straps Pharmacists Who Need Them To Keep Medicines Pure
Pharmacy staff who prepare IV drugs inside hospitals are the latest health care workers decrying a shortage of masks as they scramble to prepare medications for patients with everything from cancer to COVID-19. The staffers wear surgical masks while preparing liquid medications injected into patients’ veins to avoid breathing any droplets of saliva into the formulas, a crucial step in ensuring the medication remains sterile. (Jewett and Lupkin, 3/20)

Kaiser Health News: Gig Economy Workers Hurt By Coronavirus Eye New Federal Funds For Relief
Being your own boss can mean missing out on benefits that many employees get on the job: paid leave when you’re sick or caring for a family member. That is scheduled to change under an emergency law enacted Wednesday that would provide financial relief for a broad swath of people affected by the novel coronavirus, including people who are self-employed. And a few states already offer paid leave programs that can help consultants, gig workers and other self-employed people in times like these. But they won’t provide immediate help for those who haven’t yet signed up. (Andrews, 3/19)

Kaiser Health News: Was The Novel Coronavirus Really Sneaky In Its Spread To The U.S.? Experts Say No.
Unveiling a series of policies meant to mitigate the threat of COVID-19, President Donald Trump also sought to respond to criticism that his administration has been slow to deal with what is now a worldwide pandemic. In particular, the president defended his administration on the issue of insufficient testing resources and what experts say is a looming shortage of medical equipment and personnel. (Luthra, 3/19)

Kaiser Health News: The Final Cut
The barber had with him his tools of trade: a black leather smock, a razor, clippers, scissors and tufts of black locks he had collected from the floor of his shop.He would use them to try to cover the bullet hole that tore through his client’s head. Antoine Dow owns a barbershop in the Druid Heights neighborhood of West Baltimore and has often been called upon to provide clients who have been gunned down with their final haircut. (Giles, 3/20)

Kaiser Health News: Sebelius, Looking Back At ACA, Says The Country’s Never ‘Seen This Kind Of Battle’
Kathleen Sebelius, who served as secretary of Health and Human Services under President Barack Obama, helped lead the administration’s negotiations with Congress over the Affordable Care Act and implementation of the law. Sebelius, who is also a member of the Kaiser Family Foundation board of directors, recently joined Julie Rovner, Kaiser Health News’ chief Washington correspondent, for a special edition of the “What the Health?” podcast dedicated to the ACA’s 10th anniversary. (3/19)

Kaiser Health News: KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: The Affordable Care Act Turns 10
The Affordable Care Act on March 23 will reach a milestone many thought unlikely — it turns 10. The past decade for the health law has been filled with controversy and several near-death experiences. But the law also brought health coverage to millions of Americans and laid the groundwork for a shift to a health system that pays for quality rather than quantity. (3/19)

The Associated Press: Trump's Team, Senators To Negotiate $1T Economic Rescue Deal
Members of President Donald Trump’s economic team convene Friday on Capitol Hill to launch negotiations with Senate Republicans and Democrats racing to draft a $1 trillion-plus economic rescue package amid the coronavirus outbreak. It’s the biggest effort yet to shore up households and the U.S. economy as the pandemic and its nationwide shutdown hurtles the country toward a likely recession. (Taylor and Mascaro, 3/20)

The Wall Street Journal: McConnell Unveils GOP Stimulus Plan Amid Coronavirus Crisis
The plan Mr. McConnell introduced calls for taxpayers to receive up to $1,200, with married couples eligible to receive as much as $2,400 with an additional $500 for every child. Those payments will scale down for individuals who make more than $75,000 and couples that make more than $150,000. Individuals who make more than $99,000 and households that earn more than $198,000 won’t be eligible for direct assistance. Under the proposal, the government will provide $50 billion in loan guarantees for passenger air carriers, $8 billion for cargo air carriers and $150 billion for other large businesses, and the proposal authorizes the government to take equity stakes in them. The proposal also includes $300 billion for loan guarantees for small businesses. (Duehren, Hughes and Wise, 3/19)

The New York Times: Senate Rescue Package Includes Corporate Tax Cuts And $1,200 Checks
The proposal is different from one pitched on Thursday by Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, who said the administration wanted to send two waves of $1,000 checks to every American, one in April and one in May should the crisis persist. The Senate bill also includes a raft of temporary changes to the tax code that would reduce the tax liability of large corporations, many of them overriding provisions in the 2017 tax overhaul that were meant to raise revenue to offset corporate rate cuts. (Cochrane, Tankersley and Rappeport, 3/19)

The New York Times: 5 Takeaways From The Coronavirus Economic Relief Package
The Senate Republican plan curtails how much small businesses would have to pay employees who were forced to stay home because of the virus, revising a paid leave measure enacted just this week. The Senate plan would cap the amount an employer has to pay at $200 a day. The measure drew swift condemnation from Democrats, who have argued for substantial immediate relief for people who have had to miss work because of illness, to care for a family member or to follow public health guidelines intended to stop the spread of Covid-19. (Sullivan, 3/19)

The Washington Post: Senate Republicans Release Massive Economic Stimulus Bill For Coronavirus
Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), a close ally of the president’s, was among several GOP senators voicing concern or outright opposition Thursday to the idea of direct payments, even as McConnell unveiled the trillion-dollar stimulus plan that would be the starting point for negotiations with Democrats. McConnell called for those talks to start Friday, and senators said the situation was so dire that they should not recess until they have reached a deal to pass it. (Stein, DeBonis, Werner and Kane, 3/19)

Politico: Coronavirus Response Hinges On McConnell And Schumer 
Just two weeks ago, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was on the Senate floor haranguing his Democratic counterpart, Chuck Schumer, over the New York senator’s allegedly “threatening” comments toward two Supreme Court justices. Just before that, McConnell and Schumer were locked in a month-long bitter struggle over President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial. But as the United States confronts potentially devastating economic consequences from the coronavirus pandemic, the Senate leaders face a stiff challenge on whether they can come together to quickly finalize a massive economic stimulus package. Their ability to reach a bipartisan agreement will shape the crisis’ fallout for millions of Americans. (Levine, Desiderio and Bresnahan, 3/19)

Politico: ‘It’s Only A Down Payment’: Why A $1 Trillion Stimulus May Not Be Enough
As forecasts darken with estimates for huge spikes in unemployment and sharp drops in economic growth, economists and Wall Street analysts are warning that even the huge stimulus package now under consideration on Capitol Hill may only make a small dent. Some suggest the number needs to be at least $2 trillion or perhaps far more. “They should be doing much more than they are thinking about and doing it much quicker, at least $2 trillion with the promise of more to come,” said Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics. “We have whole industries like the restaurant industry that have been obliterated already. Jobless claims next week could be two or three million.” (White, 3/20)

The New York Times: Coronavirus Tests Are Now Free, But Treatment Could Still Cost You
Even if they shouldn’t, people may think twice about seeking testing or treatment for the coronavirus if they are worried about getting large medical bills, even when they have health insurance. “The problem is we have reams and reams of evidence that if people know they face hundreds or thousands of dollars in bills, they’ll hesitate, they’ll wait and see,” said Sabrina Corlette, a research professor at Georgetown University. (Abelson, 3/19)

The New York Times: Coronavirus Layoff Surge Overwhelms Unemployment Offices
The best place to get a job right now might be the unemployment office. In Washington State, where the coronavirus outbreak found its first foothold in the United States, officials are trying to fill multiple positions processing jobless claims. ... It’s only the start of what will be a hiring boom by these government offices, which have been running on skeleton crews after years of historically low unemployment. Illinois, Louisiana, Massachusetts and Nebraska have also posted openings. Texas said it was trying to add people, too. (Hsu and Siegel Bernard, 3/19)

The Wall Street Journal: Trump Administration Asks States To Keep Quiet About Jobless Figures
The Trump administration asked states to abstain from releasing unemployment-claims figures prior to the publication of a national compilation of weekly U.S. jobless claims, according to a state labor department official. The official cited an email sent on Wednesday from Gay Gilbert, an administrator at the U.S. Labor Department. The message, sent as states across the nation started reporting surges in claims tied to the coronavirus pandemic, said jobless claims are closely watched by policy makers and financial markets during a time of fast-changing economic conditions. (Chaney, 3/19)

The Washington Post: As Layoffs Skyrocket Because Of Coronavirus, The Holes In America’s Safety Net Are Becoming Apparent
As Americans turn to unemployment insurance, some are finding they do not qualify. Or if they do, the average payment of $385 a week is modest. In some states, there is a week-long waiting period before the first payment arrives. “Workers expect unemployment insurance to be there for them in a downturn. A bunch of workers are about to find out that it’s not,” said Martha Gimbel, a labor economist at Schmidt Futures who was formerly at Indeed.com. “This is a real-life nightmare. Every hole we allowed to grow in our social safety net is hitting us all at once.” (Long and Bhattarai, 3/19)

The New York Times: Coronavirus And Poverty: A Mother Skips Meals So Her Children Can Eat
With her six hungry children in the car, Summer Mossbarger was one of the first in line for lunch at the drive-through. Not at a fast-food restaurant, but outside Alton Elementary School. Alton was closed — all the public schools in Brenham, a rural Texas town of 17,000 about 90 miles east of Austin, have shut for the coronavirus — but one vital piece of the school day lived on: free lunch. Ms. Mossbarger rolled down the window of her used, 15-year-old S.U.V. as school employees handed her six Styrofoam containers. (Fernandez, 3/20)

NPR: U.S. Orders Up To A Yearlong Break On Mortgage Payments
Homeowners who have lost income or their jobs because of the coronavirus outbreak are getting some relief. Depending on their situation, they should be eligible to have their mortgage payments reduced or suspended for up to 12 months. Federal regulators, through the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, are ordering lenders to offer homeowners flexibility. The move covers about half of all home loans in the U.S. — those guaranteed by Fannie and Freddie. But regulators expect that the entire mortgage industry will quickly adopt a similar policy. (Arnold, 3/19)

ProPublica: Senator Dumped Up To $1.6 Million Of Stock After Reassuring Public About Coronavirus Preparedness
Soon after he offered public assurances that the government was ready to battle the coronavirus, the powerful chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Richard Burr, sold off a significant percentage of his stocks, unloading between $582,029 and $1.56 million of his holdings on Feb. 13 in 29 separate transactions. As the head of the intelligence committee, Burr, a North Carolina Republican, has access to the government’s most highly classified information about threats to America’s security. His committee was receiving daily coronavirus briefings around this time, according to a Reuters story. (Faturechi and Willis, 3/19)

NPR: Intelligence Chairman Raised Virus Alarms Weeks Ago, Secret Recording Shows
The chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee warned a small group of well-connected constituents three weeks ago to prepare for dire economic and societal effects of the coronavirus, according to a secret recording obtained by NPR. The remarks from U.S. Sen. Richard Burr were more stark than any he had delivered in more public forums. On Feb. 27, when the United States had 15 confirmed cases of COVID-19, President Trump was tamping down fears and suggesting that the virus could be seasonal. (Mak, 3/19)

The Washington Post: Sen. Burr Offered Dire Warning About The Coronavirus At Private Luncheon Three Weeks Ago
Critics of Burr, including the North Carolina Democratic Party, were quick to point out that the senator’s comments came on the same day that Trump publicly predicted that the coronavirus would “like a miracle” one day disappear. “Burr chairs the Senate Intel Comm so of course he knew how bad it could get,” Joyce Vance, a University of Alabama law professor and former federal prosecutor, said in a tweet. “The same day Trump said it would go away when the weather warmed up, almost 3 weeks ago, Burr was warning a wealthy slice of constituents, but not the rest of the country.” (Wagner, 3/19)

The New York Times: Senator Richard Burr Sold A Fortune In Stocks As G.O.P. Played Down Coronavirus Threat
“His message has always been, and continues to be, that we must be prepared to protect American lives in the event of a pandemic or bio-attack,” Caitlin Carroll, a spokeswoman for Mr. Burr, said in a statement. “Since early February, whether in constituent meetings or open hearings, he has worked to educate the public about the tools and resources our government has to confront the spread of coronavirus.” In a series of posts on Twitter, Mr. Burr accused NPR of twisting his comments into a “tabloid-style hit piece.” He argued that the report made him look duplicitous for sharing information at a publicly advertised event that was consistent with the message members of the Trump administration were then trying to promulgate. He did not address his stock sales. (Lipton and Fandos, 3/19)

The Associated Press: Trump Focuses Attention On Possible Coronavirus Treatments
President Donald Trump focused attention on possible treatments for the new coronavirus on Thursday, citing potential use of a drug long used to treat malaria and some other approaches still in testing. At a White House news conference, Trump and Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn cited the malaria drug chloroquine, along with remdesivir, an experimental antiviral from Gilead Sciences, and possibly using plasma from survivors of COVID-19, the disease the new virus causes. Those treatments are among several being tested that might ease symptoms but do not stop the virus from spreading. (Marchione, 3/19)

The New York Times: With Minimal Evidence, Trump Asks F.D.A. To Study Malaria Drugs For Coronavirus
The malaria drugs, chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, are among the remedies that have been tried in several countries as the virus has spread around the world, killing at least 9,800. Doctors in China, South Korea and France have reported that the treatments seem to help. But those efforts have not involved the kind of large, carefully controlled studies that would provide the global medical community the proof that these drugs work on a significant scale. (Grady and Thomas, 3/19)

Politico: 'Bad Advice From The President': Trump Touts Unproven Coronavirus Drugs
President Donald Trump said he will "slash red tape like nobody has even done it before" in a bid to get unapproved coronavirus treatments to patients faster and identify effective drugs. The president said Thursday he directed the Food and Drug Administration to "eliminate out-of-date rules and bureaucracy so this can go forward fast" — but he did not offer any details. Instead, Trump and top health officials highlighted steps the government has taken in recent weeks to launch clinical trials of potential coronavirus treatments. (Owermohle, 3/19)

Stat: With The Coronavirus Surging, Trump Wants Science To Move Faster. It Can’t
For about 20 minutes on Thursday, President Trump undermined six decades of dogma on the development of safe and effective drugs. Trump, addressing a nation under shelter and quarantine from the coronavirus pandemic, said a new drug for Covid-19, yet to be proved safe and effective, was now “approved or very close to approved.” Another, also not approved for coronavirus, would be “available almost immediately,” in part because using it is “not going to kill anybody.” (Florko and Garde, 3/19)

The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Moves To Expand Array Of Drug Therapies Deployed Against Coronavirus
President Trump said Thursday he is directing the Food and Drug Administration to expedite testing and possible broader use of some investigational medicines to help treat patients diagnosed amid the pandemic of the new coronavirus disease. ... Mr. Trump specifically mentioned two drugs, chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, that have long been used for malaria but aren’t approved for the coronavirus, as well as an antiviral drug, remdesivir, that is currently being tested in clinical research on Covid-19, the coronavirus disease. (Burton, Restuccia and Hopkins, 3/19)

Financial Times: US Drugmaker Doubled Price On Potential Coronavirus Treatment
The only US drugmaker that makes a potential treatment for the coronavirus that was touted by President Donald Trump raised the price by almost 100 per cent in January, as the virus caused havoc across China. Rising Pharmaceuticals, a New Jersey based company, increased the price of chloroquine — an antimalarial, which is one of the drugs that is being tested against Covid-19 — on January 23, according to data from research firm Elsevier. The drug price rose 97.86 per cent to $7.66 per 250mg pill and $19.88 per 500mg pill. (Kuchler, 3/19)

Stat: Amid Coronavirus, A Drugmaker Rescinds Its Chloroquine Price Hike
In the past two weeks, Rising Pharmaceuticals slashed the price in half as interest in the drug — normally used as an antimalarial — erupted. “Once this whole issue started to explode with regard to the pandemic, we implemented a price decrease to effectively revert back to 2015 pricing across all customers,” Ira Baeringer, the company’s chief operating officer, said in an interview. (Facher, 3/19)

The New York Times: Search For Coronavirus Vaccine Becomes A Global Competition
A global arms race for a coronavirus vaccine is underway. In the three months since the virus began its deadly spread, China, Europe and the United States have all set off at a sprint to become the first to produce a vaccine. But while there is cooperation on many levels — including among companies that are ordinarily fierce competitors — hanging over the effort is the shadow of a nationalistic approach that could give the winner the chance to favor its own population and potentially gain the upper hand in dealing with the economic and geostrategic fallout from the crisis. (Sanger, Kirkpatrick, Wee and Bennhold, 3/19)

The New York Times: Before Virus Outbreak, A Cascade Of Warnings Went Unheeded
The outbreak of the respiratory virus began in China and was quickly spread around the world by air travelers, who ran high fevers. In the United States, it was first detected in Chicago, and 47 days later, the World Health Organization declared a pandemic. By then it was too late: 110 million Americans were expected to become ill, leading to 7.7 million hospitalized and 586,000 dead. That scenario, code-named “Crimson Contagion” and imagining an influenza pandemic, was simulated by the Trump administration’s Department of Health and Human Services in a series of exercises that ran from last January to August. The simulation’s sobering results — contained in a draft report dated October 2019 that has not previously been reported — drove home just how underfunded, underprepared and uncoordinated the federal government would be for a life-or-death battle with a virus for which no treatment existed. (Sanger, Lipton, Sullivan and Crowley, 3/19)

The Washington Post Fact Checker: Was The White House Office For Global Pandemics Eliminated?
“The Obama-Biden Administration set up the White House National Security Council Directorate for Global Health Security and Biodefense to prepare for future pandemics like covid-19. Donald Trump eliminated it — and now we’re paying the price.” — Former vice president Joe Biden, in a tweet, March 19, 2019. Several readers have written The Fact Checker, saying they were confused by dueling opinion articles that appeared in The Washington Post concerning the National Security Council office highlighted in Biden’s tweet. (Kessler and Kelly, 2/20)

Stat: Who’s Who, Among The Trump Administration’s Coronavirus Response Team
Vice President Mike Pence is in charge of the Trump administration’s response to the coronavirus. But so is Deborah Birx, the physician and diplomat who the Trump administration brought on as its response “coordinator.” Then there’s health secretary Alex Azar, the chair of the Trump administration’s Coronavirus Task Force. And of course, Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, to whom they all seem to defer. (Facher, 3/20)

The Washington Post: CDC Is Sidelined By White House During Coronavirus Pandemic
As the United States enters a critical phase in fighting the coronavirus pandemic, the country’s leading public health agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, appears to be on the sidelines, with its messages increasingly disrupted or overtaken by the White House. Neither CDC Director Robert Redfield nor Anne Schuchat — the principal deputy director who has played key roles in the agency’s emergency responses stretching back two decades, including the 2009 influenza pandemic — have appeared on the podium during White House briefings by the coronavirus task force for more than a week. (Sun, 3/19)

The Washington Post: Trump Takes Aim At China Over Coronavirus As Known U.S. Infections Double
President Trump took direct aim at China on Thursday for allowing the spread of the coronavirus that has sickened Americans, shut down much of daily life and pushed the U.S. economy toward recession, while deflecting criticism that his administration was caught flat-footed by the outbreak. The president dug in on his use of the term “Chinese virus” to describe the novel coronavirus that was first detected in Wuhan, China, late last year and did not rule out directing economic retaliation toward Beijing. (Gearan, 3/19)

Politico: ‘We’re Not A Shipping Clerk’: Trump Tells Governors To Step Up Efforts To Get Medical Supplies
President Donald Trump on Thursday put the onus on governors to obtain the critical equipment their states need to fight the coronavirus pandemic, telling reporters that the federal government is “not a shipping clerk” for the potentially life-saving supplies. Appearing at the daily press briefing of the White House coronavirus task force, the president defended his decision to invoke the Defense Production Act — which would allow the administration to direct U.S. industry to ramp up production of emergency medical provisions — without actually triggering the statute. (Forgey, 3/19)

The Associated Press: Trump Urges States To Do More As Hospitals Sound Alarms
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week issued guidance telling health care workers that if no masks are available, they could turn to “homemade” options “(e.g., bandana, scarf) for care of patients with COVID-19 as a last resort.” But Trump insisted against the evidence Thursday that there are more than enough supplies available to meet needs. And he said that it was up to states to obtain them. While willing to “help out wherever we can,” he said “governors are supposed to be doing a lot of this work.” “The federal government’s not supposed to be out there buying vast amounts of items and then shipping,” Trump said. “You know, we’re not a shipping clerk.” (3/20)

The Washington Post: Change In U.S. Law Will Make Millions More Masks Available To Doctors And Nurses, White House Says
Vice President Mike Pence said Thursday that new legislation will allow tens of millions more protective masks to reach U.S. healthcare workers each month, beginning immediately, but it was still unclear whether total production will be enough to meet demand. New legislation signed Wednesday provides manufacturers of N95 face masks protection against lawsuits when selling certain masks to healthcare workers, Pence said. That will free producers including 3M and Honeywell to sell tens of millions more masks per month to hospitals, Pence said, helping alleviate alarming shortages that have surfaced in recent weeks amid the coronavirus crisis. (Whalen, 3/19)

The Wall Street Journal: Lawmaker Requests Probe Into Government Failure To Deliver Coronavirus Tests
A U.S. senator from Washington, the state hardest hit by the spreading coronavirus pandemic, on Thursday requested an investigation into the federal government’s failure to deliver badly needed tests that detect the new virus, according to the lawmaker. “I am still hearing from people that they go to their health-care provider and they say, `Gosh, we don’t have any test kits available,’ ” said Democratic Sen. Patty Murray in an interview Thursday. (Weaver, 3/19)

The Associated Press: Cuomo Emerges As Democratic Counter To Trump Virus Response
Before President Donald Trump stepped into the White House briefing room to provide an update on the coronavirus, an opening act was broadcast across cable news of another chief executive calmly reciting statistics and safety tips. For the second straight day, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s matter-of-fact and slightly scolding demeanor from an epicenter of the pandemic was a stark contrast Thursday to the often haphazard and hyperbolic messages coming from Trump. (Lemire, 3/20)

The New York Times: ‘Chilling’ Plans: Who Gets Care When Washington State Hospitals Reach Their Max?
Medical leaders in Washington State, which has the highest number of coronavirus deaths in the country, have quietly begun preparing a bleak triage strategy to determine which patients may have to be denied complete medical care in the event that the health system becomes overwhelmed by the coronavirus in the coming weeks. Fearing a critical shortage of supplies, including the ventilators needed to help the most seriously ill patients breathe, state officials and hospital leaders held a conference call on Wednesday night to discuss the plans, according to several people involved in the talks. The triage document, still under consideration, will assess factors such as age, health and likelihood of survival in determining who will get access to full care and who will merely be provided comfort care, with the expectation that they will die. (Weise and Baker, 3/20)

The Associated Press: As Virus Spreads, VA Gets Set To Back Up Taxed US Hospitals
The Department of Veterans Affairs is bracing for a potential surge of 1 million veterans infected by coronavirus and at the same time is preparing for the possibility it may have to absorb overflow civilian patients if private hospitals are overrun by the pandemic. Based on a “worst case” scenario that up to 1 in 5 of its mostly elderly population of veterans will need coronavirus care, the government-run hospital system is seeking $16.6 billion in emergency money, according to a VA document submitted to Congress and obtained by The Associated Press. (Yen, 3/19)

NPR: VA Secretary Wilkie: 'We Are The Surge Force'
In an interview with NPR News, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert Wilkie said the VA stands ready to back up the nation's health care system, but has not yet been asked to deploy resources by the Department of Health and Human Services. "We have been preparing for what has been coming for a while now," Wilkie said. "In war and in case of natural disaster or an epidemic, we are the surge force." (Lawrence, 3/19)

NPR: Head Of National Guard Says Tens Of Thousands Could Be Called Up
Tens of thousands of guardsmen could be called up to help state efforts to combat the coronavirus in the coming weeks and months, the head of the National Guard Bureau said. "This could quickly blossom," Gen. Joseph Lengyel told Pentagon reporters Thursday. At the moment, just over 2,000 members of the National Guard are assisting governors in 27 states, doing things such as helping with testing and transportation. Lengyel said that number could double by this weekend. (Bowman and Kennedy, 3/19)

The New York Times: Doctors Say Shortage Of Protective Gear Is Dire During Coronavirus Pandemic
The Open Cities Community Health Center in St. Paul, Minn., is considering shutting its doors, because of a dwindling supply of face masks. Doctors at Barnes Jewish Hospital in St. Louis have been forced to perform invasive procedures with loose fitting surgical masks rather than the tight respirator masks recommended by health agencies. At one Los Angeles emergency room, doctors examining a suspected coronavirus patient were given a box of expired masks. When they tried to secure them to their faces, the elastic bands snapped. (Jacobs, Richtel and Baker, 3/19)

The New York Times: ‘It Feels Like A War Zone’: Doctors And Nurses Plead For Masks On Social Media
An intensive-care nurse in Illinois was told to make a single-use mask last for five days. An emergency room doctor in California said her colleagues had started storing dirty masks in plastic containers to use again later with different patients. A pediatrician in Washington State, trying to make her small stock last, has been spraying each mask with alcohol after use, until it breaks down. (Padilla, 3/19)

ProPublica, The Times-Picayune and The Advocate: As Doctors And Nurses Grow Desperate For Protective Gear, They Fear They’re Infecting Patients
Emergency room physician John Gavin can’t identify the exact patient from whom he contracted the coronavirus, but he’s confident he picked up the illness working one of his 12-hour shifts in Amite, Louisiana’s small, rural emergency room. “There were just so many people who had so many vague symptoms that any of them could have been that person,” he said. “We see a lot of viral-type illnesses.” But Gavin, 69, is certain that before his coronavirus diagnosis on March 9, officials at Hood Memorial Hospital, where he works, hadn’t made any specific changes to protocols or procedures to protect doctors and nurses from contracting the disease. (Sanders, Miller, Churchill and Armstrong, 3/19)

Reuters: Faced With A Shortage Of Face Masks, Some U.S. Doctors Make Their Own
Doctors in Seattle have been reduced to making their own face masks out of sheets of plastic, after a global shortage of medical protective gear has hit Washington state, an epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic in the United States. Ahead of an anticipated shortage of medical supplies, hospital staff met in a conference room south of Seattle to make homemade masks for the doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals on the frontline of tackling the coronavirus outbreak. (Bloom, 3/19)

The Washington Post: Hospital Workers Battling Coronavirus Turn To Bandannas, Sports Goggles And Homemade Face Shields Amid Shortages
One Seattle-area hospital system has set up its own makeshift assembly line — using parts purchased from Home Depot and craft stores — to create protective face shields for workers. Boston nurses are gathering racquetball glasses to use in place of safety goggles. In New York, a dialysis center is preparing to use bandannas in place of masks as protection against the novel coronavirus. Just 11 weeks into a pandemic crisis expected to last months, the nightmare of medical equipment shortages is no longer theoretical. Health-care workers, already uneasy about their risk of infection amid reports of colleagues getting sick and new data showing even relatively young people may become seriously ill, are frustrated and fearful. (Eunjung Cha, Miller, Rowland and Sun, 3/19)

The New York Times: Gov. Gavin Newsom Of California Orders Californians To Stay At Home
America’s most populous state is ordering its residents to stay indoors. Gov. Gavin Newsom of California on Thursday ordered Californians — all 40 million of them — to stay in their houses as much as possible in the coming weeks as the state confronts the escalating coronavirus outbreak. The order represents the most drastic measure any governor has taken to control the virus, and a decision that Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York, which has far more cases than California, has resisted taking. (Arango and Cowan, 3/19)

The New York Times: Can’t Get Tested? Maybe You’re In The Wrong Country
Scientists around the world were waiting at their computers in early January when China released the coronavirus genetic code, the blueprint for creating tests and vaccines. Within days, labs from Hong Kong to Berlin had designed tests and shared their research with others. Within about two weeks, Australia had its own tests, and even citizens in the most far-flung regions of the country could be tested. Laboratories in Singapore and South Korea ramped up test kit production and ordered extra supplies. That quick work allowed them to test hundreds of thousands of people, isolate the sick and — so far, at least — contain the spread of the disease. (Apuzzo and Gebrekidan, 3/20)

The Wall Street Journal: California Orders Lockdown For State’s 40 Million Residents
In a letter to President Trump, California Gov. Gavin Newsom said he estimated 56% of the state’s population, or 25.5 million people, would be infected over an eight-week period. Mr. Newsom sent the letter—asking that a naval hospital ship be deployed to Los Angeles to increase health-care capacity—before the lockdown order. In calling for people to stay home, Mr. Newsom asked the state’s residents to “bend the curve together.” Nearly half of residents in America’s most populous state had already been given stay-at-home orders from local cities and counties, including Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area. (Calfas, Stancati and Yap, 3/19)

Reuters: How One Elite New York Medical Provider Got Its Patients Coronavirus Tests
As U.S. authorities scrambled to ramp up the nation’s capacity to test for coronavirus last week, at least 100 executives and other New Yorkers of means had easy access to testing, according to two sources familiar with the activities of a little-known medical service catering to the affluent. (Irrera and Qing, 3/20)

ProPublica: Elections May Have To Change During The Coronavirus Outbreak. Here’s How.
As the novel coronavirus spreads through the U.S. during presidential primaries, election and government officials are scrambling to figure out how to allow voters to cast their ballots safely ― or postpone primaries altogether. Managing in-person voting during an unprecedented pandemic has forced authorities to overcome new virus-related hurdles: providing sufficient cleaning supplies to polling places, moving polling places out of nursing homes and ensuring there are enough poll workers. There’s also a huge open question: If the virus continues to infect large numbers of people, how can the general election take place safely this fall? (Glickhouse, 3/19)

The New York Times: Complacency, Not Panic, Is The Real Danger
The sight of empty grocery shelves — widely shared on social media — combined with the dread of an invisible threat seem a perfect recipe for widespread hysteria. But, so far, despite mixed messages from government officials and shortages of tests and hospital capacity, there is little evidence of widespread panic. (Carey, 3/19)

The Washington Post: Operation Cancel Spring Break: Floridians Fret Over Coronavirus As Young Revelers Try To Keep The Party Going
In a state plagued by killer storms, dog-eating pythons and the clickbait tales of “Florida man,” the coronavirus has put the fate of Floridians at least partly in the hands of responsibility-challenged teenagers and 20-somethings. Authorities are telling the tens of thousands of young revelers who regularly descend here this time of year to do the right thing: follow national guidelines and emergency laws to limit gatherings, social contact, and to Wash. Those. Hands. A statewide edict has forced bars and nightclubs to shutter. Miami-Dade County on Thursday ordered the closure of all beaches and county parks. Mayors have told the raucous visitors in no uncertain terms: Go home. (Faiola, Mekhennet, Strickland and Rozsa, 3/19)

The New York Times: You Can Help Break The Chain Of Transmission
After studying infectious diseases, epidemiologists like Helen Jenkins, of Boston University, and Bill Hanage, of Harvard, who are married, typically go one of two ways. “They either become completely and utterly infection conscious,” Dr. Hanage said, “or they are the type of person who drops the toast and picks it up and wipes it off and eats it.” “We would mostly be in the second category, but this has pushed us into the first category fairly visibly,” he continued, adding, “when the facts change, I update my priors” — a statistician’s term for what one believes and expects. (Roberts, 3/19)

The New York Times: Young Adults Come To Grips With Coronavirus Health Risks
Until several days ago, some bars and restaurants were still packed with St. Patrick’s Day crowds. Beaches were full. And it seemed as though many young adults were slow to take steps to curb the spread of the coronavirus. “I kept hearing, ‘Eighty percent of cases are mild,’” said Christian Heuer, 32, of Los Angeles, who tested positive for the virus last week and has been running a low-grade fever for six days. “But this is not just a sniffly runny nose. It’s the real deal. You’re really sick.” (Rabin, 3/20)