First Edition: April 9, 2020

Kaiser Health News: COVID-19 Crisis Threatens Beleaguered Assisted Living Industry
David Aguirre jumped in his truck and drove toward the hospital in the predawn darkness the minute he got the news: His 91-year-old mom was being rushed from her Texas assisted living facility to the emergency room. Estela Aguirre would be one of five residents to die and six others to be sickened by the novel coronavirus at The Waterford at College Station, part of a financially strapped chain of assisted living sites called Capital Senior Living. (Ungar and Hancock, 4/9)

Kaiser Health News: What Does Recovery From COVID-19 Look Like? It Depends. A Pulmonologist Explains.
Reports of recovery from serious illness caused by the coronavirus have been trickling in from around the world. Physicians are swapping anecdotes on social media: a 38-year-old man who went home after three weeks at the Cleveland Clinic, including 10 days in intensive care. A 93-year-old woman in New Orleans whose breathing tube was removed, successfully, after three days. A patient at Massachusetts General Hospital who was taken off a ventilator after five days and was doing well. (Graham, 4/9)

Kaiser Health News: What’s Missing In The Coronavirus Response
In the age of coronavirus, Americans are being told to stay home and wear masks outside. The federal government has made way for hospitals to treat patients in repurposed hotels and dormitories. Private companies are working to push out new diagnostic tests. But the national effort has been disorganized, relying heavily on state action, said health systems experts and public health researchers. That approach has fallen short, they assert. ... So what else should the United States be doing? (Luthra, 4/9)

Kaiser Health News: Retiree-Rich Palm Beach County Leads Florida In COVID-19 Deaths
No place in Florida has recorded more deaths from COVID-19 than Palm Beach County, the tropical vacation and retirement destination that bills itself — chutzpah notwithstanding — as “The Best of Everything.” As of Wednesday afternoon, 69 people in the South Florida county of 1.5 million had died after being infected with the novel coronavirus. The death toll outpaces the state’s two more populated counties, including Miami-Dade, which has nearly twice the population and 49 deaths. (Galewitz, 4/8)

Kaiser Health News: Newsom’s Ambitious Health Care Agenda Crumbles In A ‘Radically Changed’ World
This was supposed to be a big health care year for California. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom in January unveiled ambitious proposals to help him achieve his goal of getting every Californian health care coverage. Though it was far less than the single-payer promise Newsom had made on the gubernatorial campaign trail, his plans, if adopted, would have expanded the health care system as no other state has. (Hart, 4/9)

Reuters: Speed Of Coronavirus Deaths Shock Doctors As New York Toll Hits New High
New York state, epicenter of America’s coronavirus crisis, set another single-day record of COVID-19 deaths on Wednesday, as veteran doctors and nurses voiced astonishment at the speed with which patients were deteriorating and dying. The number of known coronavirus infections in New York state alone approached 150,000 on Wednesday, even as authorities warned that the official death tally may understate the true number because it omits those who have perished at home. “Every number is a face, “ said New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who ordered flags flown at half-staff across New York in memory of the victims. (Brown and Borter, 4/8)

The Wall Street Journal: New York Sees Another Day Of Record Coronavirus Deaths
For the fourth day in a row, more people died from the virus in New York than were admitted to hospitals for treatment. Gov. Andrew Cuomo said 779 people died on Tuesday from Covid-19, the respiratory illness caused by the pathogen. They include Richard Brodsky, a former state assemblyman from Westchester County. Mr. Cuomo said the rate of new hospitalizations has continued to slow, and that 586 people were admitted to hospitals in the state on Tuesday. The total death toll rose to 6,268, and nearly 150,000 people had tested positive for the virus. “We’re flattening that curve, and if anything, we double-down now on our diligence,” the Democratic governor said. (Vielkind, 4/8)

The Washington Post: Another Grave Milestone: More Than 10,600 Cases In D.C., Maryland And Virginia
The District, Maryland and Virginia surpassed another grave milestone in the coronavirus crisis Wednesday, as the tally of confirmed cases surged beyond 10,600, and Maryland reported more than 20 deaths in a single day for just the second time. So far, 227 people had died in the two states and the District combined as of Wednesday morning, as hospitalizations for covid-19 continued to rise and experts said the area has yet to reach the peak of the pandemic. (Cox, Harden, Nirappil and Vozzella, 4/8)

The Wall Street Journal: Countries World-Wide Log Record Coronavirus Cases
The U.S. total is now more than the totals of Italy, Spain and Germany combined, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. The national death toll rose above 14,800 Thursday, a day after New York, New Jersey, Louisiana and Illinois reported their highest daily tallies. Globally, the number of confirmed cases approached 1.5 million, according to revised data from Johns Hopkins University. (Yoon, 4/9)

The Washington Post: As Social Distancing Shows Signs Of Working, What’s Next? Crush The Curve, Experts Say.
Most of us hadn’t heard the term “flatten the curve” before mid-March, and just a few weeks later, it’s already out of date. The new catchphrase in this coronavirus pandemic is “squash the curve.” Or “quash.” Or “crush.” Pick your verb, the idea is the same: We should not end social distancing and reopen the economy until we know the infection rate is nearly zero. Many infectious-disease experts are publishing research showing that, to limit the number of deaths from covid-19, the disease the virus causes, it’s not enough to slow the spread of new infections — the process known as flattening the curve. (Achenbach, 4/8)

The Wall Street Journal: How California Has Avoided A Coronavirus Outbreak As Bad As New York’s…So Far
Despite having the nation’s largest population, frequent travel with China and the first confirmed case of community spread in the country, California has only 15,865 cases of Covid-19 and 374 deaths as of Tuesday, compared with 138,863 cases and 5,489 deaths in New York state, according to their public health departments. Experts attribute the relatively low numbers to California taking some of the earliest and most aggressive social-distancing measures in the country, as well as to its cities having less dense populations than New York’s. But they caution that the state is still far from its projected peak in cases, which state officials currently put at mid-May, and that, if the situation takes a turn for the worse, the death toll in a state with 40 million people could be astronomical. (Lazo and Mai-Duc, 4/8)

The New York Times: Optimism Is Less Distant As Global Coronavirus Battle Rages On
The world began this week to see small but encouraging signs that concerted efforts to drastically change human behavior — to suspend daily routines by staying at home — are slowing the insidious spread of the novel coronavirus, which has killed tens of thousands and sickened more than a million others across several continents. But — a simple word that epidemiologists say cannot be emphasized enough — these early indications, while promising, must not be interpreted to mean that all will be well by summer’s first days. Although President Trump tweeted on Monday about a light at the end of a tunnel, the cautions of scientists and other government officials conjure one very, very long tunnel. (Barry, 4/8)

The Hill: Key Coronavirus Model Revised Downward, Predicts 60K Deaths In US By August 
A key forecasting model used by the White House has revised its prediction of COVID-19 deaths in the U.S., now estimating a peak of 60,415 by early August. The model created by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington had predicted a peak of 81,766 deaths in an update on Sunday. Public health experts, including Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, have previously estimated that as many as 100,000 to 200,000 Americans could die from the novel coronavirus. (Klar, 4/8)

The Hill: Washington, Oregon Show Promising Coronavirus Trends
Two states at the forefront of the coronavirus outbreak that has infected hundreds of thousands of people across the country are beginning to see infection rates slow as strict social distancing requirements show early results of paying off. Officials in Washington, the first state to see a confirmed COVID-19 case in the country, and neighboring Oregon say they are cautiously optimistic that the case curves in their states are beginning to bend downward. The number of new cases in both states has dropped for four consecutive days, and the most recent data shows new cases are just a fraction of what they had been at each state’s peak. (Wilson, 4/8)

The Wall Street Journal: In Washington, Why The Predicted Coronavirus Surge Hasn’t Hit
When coronavirus cases began mounting in Seattle in early March, Lisa Brandenburg, president of UW Medicine’s hospitals and clinics, asked a colleague for projections on how many more patients she should plan for. His estimate came in several days later: More than 900 in a health system whose roughly 1,550 beds were almost always full. Ms. Brandenburg was stunned. Nearly a month later, the projected tidal wave of sick patients hasn’t materialized in the Seattle area or anywhere else in Washington. (Frosch and Parti, 4/9)

The New York Times: Summer Heat May Not Diminish Coronavirus Strength
The homebound and virus-wary across the Northern Hemisphere, from President Trump to cooped-up schoolchildren, have clung to the possibility that the coronavirus pandemic will fade in hot weather, as some viral diseases do. But the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, in a public report sent to the White House, has said, in effect: Don’t get your hopes up. After reviewing a variety of research reports, a panel concluded that the studies, of varying quality of evidence, do not offer a basis to believe that summer weather will interfere with the spread of the coronavirus. (Gorman, 4/8)

The Associated Press: HHS: Federal Stocks Of Protective Equipment Nearly Depleted
The Strategic National Stockpile is nearly out of the N95 respirators, surgical masks, face, shields, gowns and other medical supplies desperately needed to protect front-line medical workers treating coronavirus patients. The Department of Health and Human Services told the Associated Press Wednesday that the federal stockpile was in the process of deploying all remaining personal protective equipment in its inventory. The HHS statement confirms federal documents released Wednesday by the House Oversight and Reform Committee showing that about 90% of the personal protective equipment in the stockpile has been distributed to state and local governments. (Biesecker, 4/9)

Los Angeles Times: States With Small Coronavirus Outbreaks Get Disproportionate Shares Of Federal Supplies
The distribution of scarce medical equipment has emerged as a key point of controversy in the administration’s response, as states have been left to scramble on their own to get what they need. The Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Health and Human Services have refused to divulge details of what equipment was going to what states. Government officials told The Times that FEMA and HHS considered the populations of states and major metropolitan areas as well as the severity of the coronavirus outbreak in determining how to allocate supplies. (Levey and Wilber, 4/8)

The Wall Street Journal: U.S. To Restrict Mask, Glove Exports For Four Months During Coronavirus Pandemic
The Trump administration is planning to restrict for four months the export of certain face masks and gloves designed to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus as the demand for personal protective equipment soars in the U.S. along with the number of cases. Under the temporary regulation, unveiled Wednesday, the Federal Emergency Management Agency will have to grant explicit approval for exports of the masks and gloves, with certain exceptions. The restriction shows that the U.S. is seeking to keep personal protective equipment, or PPE, available to U.S. citizens despite existing private contracts and international trade rules designed to protect global supply chains. (Mauldin, 4/8)

NPR: Critical Medical Supplies Need Approval Before Being Exported From The U.S.
The White House and FEMA have faced fierce criticism from some governors and others for not doing more, faster to get critical supplies into the hands of frontline medical workers. In a statement, CBP said the agencies are "working together to prevent domestic brokers, distributors, and other intermediaries from diverting these critical medical resources overseas." (Westervelt, 4/8)

ProPublica: A Company Promised Cheap Ventilators To The Government, Never Delivered And Is Now Charging Quadruple The Price For New Ones
The Dutch company that received millions of taxpayer dollars to develop an affordable ventilator for pandemics, but never delivered them, has struck a much more lucrative deal with the federal government to make 43,000 ventilators at four times the price. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced Wednesday that it plans to pay Royal Philips N.V. $646.7 million for the new ventilators — paying more than $15,000 each. The first 2,500 units are to arrive before the end of May, HHS said, and the rest by the end of December. (Callahan and Rotella, 4/8)

Los Angeles Times: Coronavirus: California Counties Scramble For Ventilators
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s decision to lend 500 state-owned ventilators to New York and other coronavirus hot spots outside California has caught some local officials in his own state off guard as they scramble to acquire the much-needed medical equipment, particularly in Riverside County. Riverside County officials said the state recently denied their request for an additional 500 ventilators, even though the county expects demand for the breathing machines at county hospitals and medical centers to exceed the supply in less than three weeks. (Willon and Shalby, 4/8)

The Associated Press: As Pandemic Deepens, Trump Cycles Through Targets To Blame
First, it was the media that was at fault. Then, Democratic governors came under fire. China, President Barack Obama and federal watchdogs have all had a turn in the crosshairs. And now it’s the World Health Organization that’s to blame. President Donald Trump is falling back on a familiar political strategy as he grapples with the coronavirus pandemic: deflect, deny and direct blame elsewhere. As he tries to distance his White House from the mounting death toll, Trump has cycled through a long list of possible scapegoats in an attempt to distract from what critics say were his own administration’s missteps in slowing the spread of the coronavirus on American shores. (Lemire, 4/9)

The Washington Post: Coronavirus Crisis Highlights Trump’s Resistance To Criticism — And His Desire For Fervent Praise
President Trump has lambasted governors whom he views as insufficiently appreciative. He has denigrated — and even dismissed — inspectors general who dared to criticize him or his administration. And he has excoriated reporters who posed questions he did not like. The coronavirus pandemic has crystallized several long-standing undercurrents of the president’s governing ethos: a refusal to accept criticism, a seemingly insatiable need for praise — and an abiding mistrust of independent entities and individuals. (Parker and Gearan, 4/8)

The Washington Post: Trump Preparing To Unveil Second Coronavirus Task Force, Officials Say
President Trump is preparing to announce as soon as this week a second, smaller coronavirus task force aimed specifically at combating the economic ramifications of the virus and focused on reopening the nation’s economy, according to four people familiar with the plans. The task force will be made up of a mix of private-sector and top administration officials, including chief of staff Mark Meadows — whose first official day on the job was last week — Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and national economic adviser Larry Kudlow, a senior administration official said. (Parker, Dawsey and Abutaleb, 4/8)

Politico: The Briefings Aren’t Working: Trump’s Approval Rating Takes A Dip
Donald Trump isn’t benefiting from what political scientists refer to as a “rally ‘round the flag” effect — a traditional surge in popularity as the nation unites behind its leader during an emergency situation. Even as the country confronts the greatest disruption to daily life since World War II, a series of new polls released this week show Trump’s approval ratings plateauing in the mid-40s, roughly where his approval rating stood a month ago, before the coronavirus shuttered much of the nation’s economic and social activity. (Shepard, 4/8)

Politico: Verma-Azar Feud Extends Into Coronavirus Era
Even in the midst of coronavirus, the Trump administration's top health officials are competing for attention. Medicare administrator Seema Verma announced on Tuesday night that hospitals could tap $30 billion in “no-strings-attached” coronavirus grants — a move that won her plaudits from health care providers but also one that her rival, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, had planned to make, according to three people close to the situation. Azar, however, was away from Washington because of the death of his father, and two of his advocates in the agency insist Verma should have waited for his return the next day. (Diamond, 4/8)

Politico: How The CDC Director Became The MAGA Whisperer On Coronavirus
Since his agency bungled the coronavirus testing rollout, CDC Director Robert Redfield has rarely been seen at the White House podium or on national television. Normally the leader of the Centers for Disease Control would be the face of a global public health response. But his agency’s stumbles early in the pandemic — on testing, the Diamond Princess cruise ship evacuation and blunt messaging on the worsening outbreak that got ahead of the White House — sidelined him. He does few national interviews, and while he attended Wednesday's White House coronavirus briefing, he's been a sporadic presence in that venue. (Tahir, 4/9)

The New York Times: Trump Slammed The W.H.O. Over Coronavirus. He’s Not Alone.
President Trump unleashed a tirade against the World Health Organization on Tuesday, accusing it of acting too slowly to sound the alarm about the coronavirus. It was not the first time in this pandemic that the global health body has faced such criticism. Government officials, health experts and analysts have in recent weeks raised concerns about how the organization has responded to the outbreak. In Japan, Taro Aso, the deputy prime minister and finance minister, recently noted that some people have started referring to the World Health Organization as the “Chinese Health Organization” because of what he described as its close ties to Beijing. (Hernandez, 4/8)

The Washington Post: Trump’s Resistance To Independent Oversight Draws Bipartisan Scrutiny
President Trump is coming under bipartisan scrutiny in Congress after he ousted two inspectors general and publicly criticized a third — actions that have left lawmakers wrestling yet again with an administration that has repeatedly flouted efforts at independent oversight since Trump took office. His resistance to the watchdog system established after the ­Watergate scandal come on two fronts that have largely defined the Trump presidency: His impeachment, which was triggered by his attempts to pressure Ukraine into conducting a political investigation of one of his domestic rivals; and his administration’s management of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, in which trillions of taxpayer dollars are being disbursed. (Kim, Dawsey, Hamburger and DeBonis, 4/8)

The Associated Press: UN Health Agency On Defensive After Trump Slams It On Virus
In a heartfelt plea for unity, the World Health Organization’s chief sought Wednesday to rise above sharp criticism and threats of funding cuts from U.S. President Donald Trump over the agency’s response to the coronavirus outbreak. The vocal defense from the WHO director-general came a day after Trump blasted the U.N. agency for being “China-centric” and alleging that it had “criticized” his ban of travel from China as the COVID-19 outbreak was spreading from the city of Wuhan. (Keaten, 4/8)

Stat: WHO's Coronavirus Response Guided By Rules The U.S. Helped Write 
Once again, the World Health Organization finds itself in the crosshairs — the target of harsh criticism this week from President Trump. It is a position the global health agency has found itself in frequently. Sometimes it has deserved criticism, as when it was slow to recognize the seriousness of the West Africa Ebola outbreak in 2014. But more often, it draws blame because it’s an easy target – an international body that seems to have more power than it actually does. (Branswell, 4/8)

Politico: Oversight Sputters As Trump Starts Doling Out Billions In Coronavirus Aid
Congress assured America that its frenzied rush to deliver $2 trillion in coronavirus relief wouldn't lead to waste, fraud or abuse because they packed the sprawling law with powerful safeguards. Yet, as the Trump administration begins pumping billions of taxpayer dollars into the economy, none of the built-in oversight mechanisms are even close to functional. And their absence will soon be glaringly obvious as the gusher of cash and extraordinary new power granted to the administration fuels massive logjams, headaches and fear across overburdened hospitals, overcrowded unemployment offices and many sectors of the ailing economy. (Cheney, 4/8)

Politico: Recovery Bill Allows The Fed To Spend Billions Without Keeping Records
Tucked into the recent recovery bill was a provision granting the Federal Reserve the right to set up a $450 billion bailout plan without following key provisions of the federal open meetings law, including announcing its meetings or keeping most records about them, according to a POLITICO review of the legislation. The provision, the existence of which has not been previously reported, further calls into question the transparency and oversight for the biggest bailout law ever passed by Congress. (Severns and Guida, 4/9)

NPR: IRS Scrambles To Get Out Cash Payments But Faces Staffing And Systems Challenges
The Internal Revenue Service is under huge pressure to quickly disperse the $1,200 payments promised to most people in the $2.2 trillion coronavirus relief bill. Experts say it could take months for everyone to get checks — with some people possibly waiting until after they file their taxes next year. Over the past 10 years the IRS budget has been reduced by roughly 20%, leaving the agency with aging technology and forcing it to cut back on staff and training, according to experts. The added stress of the coronavirus is already causing customer service headaches. (Snell, 4/9)

The Associated Press: Congress In Standoff On Virus Aid, But First Checks Coming
Congress is rushing headlong into a conflict over the next coronavirus aid package as the White House wants to pump $250 billion into a small business fund but opposes Democrats’ proposal to tack on billions for protective gear, food stamps and support to state and local governments. An attempt for a Thursday vote in the Senate will pose a first test. (Mascaro, 4/9)

The Washington Post: Showdown Heats Up Between White House, Pelosi And Schumer Over Coronavirus Small Business Funds
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said any package that included $250 billion in new small-business funding would need to include more than $250 billion in extra money for hospitals, state and local governments and food stamp recipients. President Trump and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin are seeking the extra small-business money after banks fielded more than 400,000 loan requests in less than a week for firms trying to navigate the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. Mnuchin told Democrats on Wednesday that already $100 billion in loans had been approved, and the program was authorized for $349 billion in funding as part of the $2 trillion law that passed last month. (Werner, DeBonis and Kim, 4/8)

The Washington Post: Pelosi Urges GOP To ‘Come To The Table’ And Continue Talks On Small-Business Funds
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) nonetheless plans to move ahead on Thursday and will attempt to approve Mnuchin’s plan by unanimous consent, a dynamic by which legislation can pass as long as individual senators do not object. When asked whether Senate Democrats should object, Pelosi said she always avoids meddling in the affairs of the other congressional chamber but reiterated that she finds Mnuchin’s request deeply flawed. (Costa, 4/8)

The Associated Press: Hurry Up And Wait? Why Relief To Small Businesses Has Lagged
Speed is of the essence if a federal relief program for small businesses is going to be effective in combating the damage wrought by the coronavirus lockdowns. Yet, days into the program, many Main Street businesses are still waiting for the cash infusion necessary to stay alive. Others say they haven’t even been able to apply for loans under what’s called the Paycheck Protection Program. The problems range from the technical to the bureaucratic, although the Small Business Administration says it has corrected those on its end. (Rosenberg and Sweet, 4/9)

The Hill: CDC Issues New Guidance For Essential Workers Exposed To Coronavirus 
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday issued new guidelines aimed at getting workers who have been exposed to the coronavirus in critical fields back to work faster. Under the old guidance, workers were told to stay at home for 14 days if they were exposed to someone who had tested positive for coronavirus. The new guidelines will allow critical workers who have been exposed go back to work as long as they are asymptomatic and follow conditions like taking their temperature before going to work, wearing a face mask at all times and practicing social distancing at work as much as possible. (Sullivan, 4/8)

The Associated Press: Feds Loosen Virus Rules To Let Essential Workers Return
The new guidelines are being issued as the nation mourns more than 14,000 deaths from the virus and grapples with a devastated economy and medical crises from coast to coast. Health experts continue to caution Americans to practice social distancing and to avoid returning to their normal activities. At the same time, though, they are planning for a time when the most serious threat from COVID-19 will be in the country’s rear-view mirror. President Donald Trump said that while he knows workers are “going stir crazy” at home, he can’t predict when the threat from the virus will wane. (Miller, Riechmann and Stobbe, 4/9)

The New York Times: More Coronavirus Vaccines And Treatments Move Toward Human Trials
As the coronavirus pandemic spreads at unprecedented rates, invading the lungs of people of all ages, ethnicities and medical histories, companies are ratcheting up their efforts to fight the disease with accelerated schedules for creating new vaccines, and beginning clinical trials for potential treatments. On Wednesday, Novavax, a Maryland-based biotech company, said it would begin human trials in Australia in mid-May for its vaccine candidate. Novavax is one of more than two dozen companies that have announced promising vaccine programs that are speeding through the early stages of testing unlike ever before. (Sheikh and Thomas, 4/8)

The Associated Press: Second US Study For COVID-19 Vaccine Uses Skin-Deep Shots
U.S. researchers have opened another safety test of an experimental COVID-19 vaccine, this one using a skin-deep shot instead of the usual deeper jab. The pinch should feel like a simple skin test, a researcher told the volunteer lying on an exam table in Kansas City, Missouri, on Wednesday. (Neergaard, 4/8)

The New York Times: Hydroxychloroquine And Coronavirus: Fact-Check On The Malaria Drug Trump Keeps Pushing
There is no proof that any drug can cure or prevent infection with the coronavirus. But in the face of an exploding pandemic with a frightening death toll, people are desperate for a bit of hope, a chance to believe there is something that will help. The drug that has received the most attention is hydroxychloroquine, which President Trump has recommended repeatedly, despite warnings from his own health officials that there is little data to support its widespread use as a treatment against the virus. (Grady, Thomas and Lyons, 4/8)

The New York Times: C.D.C. Releases Early Demographic Snapshot Of Worst Coronavirus Cases
On March 1, there were 88 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the United States. By month’s end, there were more than 170,000. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has compiled data on people who were hospitalized from the virus during that month to get a clearer demographic picture of infected patients who have required the most serious medical care. Approximately 90 percent of the 1,482 hospitalized patients included in the study released Wednesday had one or more underlying medical conditions. (Waldstein, 4/8)

The New York Times: Virus Is Twice As Deadly For Black And Latino People Than Whites In N.Y.C.
The coronavirus is killing black and Latino people in New York City at twice the rate that it is killing white people, according to preliminary data released on Wednesday by the city. The disparity reflected longstanding and persistent economic inequalities and differences in access to health care, Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Wednesday morning. “There are clear inequalities, clear disparities in how this disease is affecting the people of our city,” Mr. de Blasio said. “The truth is that in so many ways the negative effects of coronavirus — the pain it’s causing, the death it’s causing — tracks with other profound health care disparities that we have seen for years and decades.” (Mays and Newman, 4/8)

The Washington Post: Hundreds Of Young Americans Have Now Been Killed By The Coronavirus, Data Shows
For the very young — people under the age of 20 — death is extremely rare in the current pandemic. But it happens: The Post identified nine such cases. The risk appears to rise with every decade of age. The Post found at least 45 deaths among people in their 20s, at least 190 deaths among people in their 30s, and at least 413 deaths among people in their 40s. Determining a precise number for each category is difficult because of the divergent ways states present age groups. But The Post found at least 102 other deaths that occurred among people younger than 50. (Mooney, Deenis and Kaplan, 4/8)

The Washington Post: CDC Officials Trace Large Chicago Outbreak To Family Gatherings
In February, family members gathered for a Chicago-area funeral. A family friend who had been out of state attended and was just a bit sick with mild respiratory symptoms. Before long, 16 people between the ages of 5 and 86 had been infected with the novel coronavirus (seven confirmed and nine probable), and three had died. The case study, published Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is one of the most detailed looks at how covid-19 moves through communities and shows how a single person can set off a chain reaction of infections. (Cha, 4/8)

Reuters: From Fine To Flailing - Rapid Health Declines In COVID-19 Patients Jar Doctors, Nurses
One medical worker called it “insane,” another said it induces paranoia - the speed with which patients are declining and dying from the novel coronavirus is shocking even veteran doctors and nurses as they scramble to determine how to stop such sudden deterioration. Patients “look fine, feel fine, then you turn around and they’re unresponsive,” said Diana Torres, a nurse at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, the epicenter of the pandemic in the United States, where the virus has infected more than 415,000 people. “I’m paranoid, scared to walk out of their room.” (Brown and Beasley, 4/8)

The New York Times: Most New York Coronavirus Cases Came From Europe, Genomes Show
New research indicates that the coronavirus began to circulate in the New York area by mid-February, weeks before the first confirmed case, and that travelers brought in the virus mainly from Europe, not Asia. “The majority is clearly European,” said Harm van Bakel, a geneticist at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, who co-wrote a study awaiting peer review. A separate team at N.Y.U. Grossman School of Medicine came to strikingly similar conclusions, despite studying a different group of cases. Both teams analyzed genomes from coronaviruses taken from New Yorkers starting in mid-March. (Zimmer, 4/8)

Stat: Doctors Fume At Government Response To Coronavirus Pandemic 
Even before the pandemic, burnout, anxiety, and disillusionment were already endemic in the medical community. Then came the hit-or-miss response to Covid-19, which has left U.S. health workers exposed to infection — and ill-prepared to care for thousands of vulnerable patients. Now, there’s simmering anger, and a deep sense of betrayal among health professionals who say they feel forsaken by their government. (Keshavan, 4/9)

Reuters: U.S. Nurses Who Can't Get Tested Fear They Are Spreading COVID-19
In New York City, an intensive care nurse treated patients for three days after she started displaying symptoms of COVID-19 - but couldn’t get a test from her hospital. In Georgia, a nurse was denied a test after treating an infected patient who died. In Michigan, one of the few hospital systems conducting widespread staff testing found that more than 700 workers were infected with the coronavirus - more than a quarter of those tested. (Borter, 4/8)

The New York Times: Volunteers Rushed To Help New York Hospitals. They Found A Bottleneck.
When Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo called for medical workers around the country to come to New York last month and join the fight against the coronavirus, Bevin Strickland was ready to help. Ms. Strickland, a former pediatric intensive care unit nurse in High Point, N.C., spent hours trying to submit her volunteer application online, and then emailed city and state representatives. She never heard back. Frustrated, she reached out directly to Mount Sinai Queens hospital in New York City. A manager told her to use a private recruiting agency, which the hospital had used for years to bring in temporary staff. (Hong, 4/8)

Reuters: Young Doctors Brave Overwhelming Coronavirus Crisis
For young doctors like 26-year-old Christian Vigil, battling on the frontline against the new coronavirus is a journey back in time to an era they can scarcely imagine. “We feel like doctors a century ago when we didn’t have antibiotics,” said Vigil, who works in intensive care at Madrid’s overloaded October 12 Hospital. He, like other doctors and nurses of his generation, trained in an age when medicine is at the peak of its powers, with a huge arsenal of life-saving treatments and equipment. (Landauro, 4/9)

The New York Times: Republicans Pursue Limits On Voting By Mail, Despite The Coronavirus
President Trump and his Republican allies are launching an aggressive strategy to fight what many of the administration’s own health officials view as one of the most effective ways to make voting safer amid the deadly spread of Covid-19: the expanded use of mail-in ballots. The scene Tuesday of Wisconsinites in masks and gloves gathering in long lines to vote, after Republicans sued to defeat extended, mail-in ballot deadlines, did not deter the president and top officials in his party. Republican leaders said they were pushing ahead to fight state-level statutes that could expand absentee balloting in Michigan, Minnesota, Arizona and elsewhere. (Rutenberg, Haberman and Corasaniti, 4/8)

The New York Times: Eight U.K. Doctors Died From Coronavirus. All Were Immigrants.
The eight men moved to Britain from different corners of its former empire, all of them doctors or doctors-to-be, becoming foot soldiers in the effort to build a free universal health service after World War II. Now their names have become stacked atop a grim list: the first, and so far only, doctors publicly reported to have died after catching the coronavirus in Britain’s aching National Health Service. For a country ripped apart in recent years by Brexit and the anti-immigrant movement that birthed it, the deaths of the eight doctors — from Egypt, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Sudan — attest to the extraordinary dependence of Britain’s treasured health service on workers from abroad. (Mueller, 4/8)

The Wall Street Journal: Rural Hospitals Unsure Coronavirus Aid Is Coming
Embattled rural hospitals, some on the front lines of the coronavirus crisis, stand to lose out on billions of dollars in federal aid, with industry experts worried that financial lifelines could come too late—or not at all. A lack of clarity on what the government will pay for, and when, means that money isn’t available for the hospitals that need it right now, said Andrew Helman, a bankruptcy lawyer and co-chair of the American Bankruptcy Institute’s health-care committee. Bankruptcy lawyers across the country are badgering lawmakers, wooing creditors and asking banks to take risks to keep small hospitals alive until aid money comes through. (Brickley, 4/9)

The Wall Street Journal: Small Tennessee Hospital Faces Crunch Time As Coronavirus Hits
Keeping federal money away from small hospitals that have survived against the odds isn’t a smart move during the coronavirus crisis, bankruptcy lawyers say. Lauderdale Community Hospital in Ripley, Tenn., is one of many rural medical centers trying to figure out what to do next amid the pandemic. The hospital has made a turnaround since its March 2019 bankruptcy filing, climbing out of a financial hole that had forced it to close its emergency room. Several bidders were preparing to show up for a bankruptcy auction this March, but the coronavirus pandemic put a stop to that. (Brickley, 4/9)

The Wall Street Journal: Veterans Affairs Hospitals Facing ‘Serious’ Shortage Of Protective Gear, Internal Memos Show
The Department of Veterans Affairs is experiencing serious shortages of protective gear for its medical workers treating patients infected by the new coronavirus, according to excerpts of internal memos shared with The Wall Street Journal. The memos’ concerns are mirrored by VA doctors and nurses working in several of the agency’s hospitals around the country. In Kansas City, Mo., doctors have to store their used N95 protective masks in paper bags in between shifts. (Kesling, 4/8)

The New York Times: ‘It’s Hit Our Front Door’: Homes For The Disabled See A Surge Of Covid-19
The call came on March 24. Bob McGuire, the executive director of CP Nassau, a nonprofit group that cares for the developmentally disabled, received a report from a four-story, colonnaded building in Bayville, N.Y., that houses several dozen residents with severe disabilities ranging from cerebral palsy to autism. For many of them, discussions of social distancing or hand washing are moot. “Bob, we’re starting to see symptoms,” Mr. McGuire was told. Fevers were spreading. Within 24 hours, 10 residents were taken to the hospital. Now, little more than two weeks later, 37 of the home’s 46 residents have tested positive for the coronavirus. (Hakim, /48)