The Hill: US Surpasses 1 Million COVID-19 Cases 
More than a million people in the United States have tested positive for the coronavirus, a sobering milestone that experts say represents only the beginning of a months-long battle to end the pandemic. The United States has now registered about a third of all confirmed cases of COVID-19 around the globe, according to data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. More than 57,000 people have died in the United States, about a quarter of the known COVID-19 deaths around the globe. (Wilson, 4/28)

CIDRAP: US Hits 1 Million COVID-19 Cases As States Take On Testing
In total, a tracker maintained by Johns Hopkins University shows 1,002,498 cases, including 57,533 fatalities. The milestone comes a day after the world surpassed 3 million cases in the 4 months since the virus was first detected in Wuhan, China. Less than 1 month ago—on Apr 2—the global total hit 1 million cases. (Soucheray, 4/28)

Reuters: U.S. Coronavirus Deaths Surpass Vietnam War Toll As Florida Readies Reopening Plan
The U.S. coronavirus death toll climbed above 58,000 on Tuesday, surpassing the loss of American life from the Vietnam War, as Florida’s governor met with President Donald Trump to discuss an easing of economic restraints. (Mason and Caspani, 4/28)

The Hill: Coronavirus Death Toll In US Now Exceeds That Of Vietnam War 
Johns Hopkins University’s death toll in the country reached 58,351 as of Tuesday night, surpassing the 58,220 who died during the Vietnam War that lasted almost 20 years, according to the National Archives. But the rate of deaths during the so far three-month-long coronavirus pandemic outpaces the fatality rate during the deadliest year during the war, NPR reported. The current death rate reaches 17.6 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, compared to in 1968, when 8.5 troops for every 100,000 residents were killed. (Coleman, 4/28)

The New York Times: U.S. Coronavirus Death Toll Is Far Higher Than Reported, C.D.C. Data Suggests
Total deaths in seven states that have been hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic are nearly 50 percent higher than normal for the five weeks from March 8 through April 11, according to new death statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That is 9,000 more deaths than were reported as of April 11 in official counts of deaths from the coronavirus. The new data is partial and most likely undercounts the recent death toll significantly. But it still illustrates how the coronavirus is causing a surge in deaths in the places it has struck, probably killing more people than the reported statistics capture. (Katz, Lu and Sanger-Katz, 4/28)

The New York Times: Coronavirus In The U.S.: Latest Map And Case Count
Those numbers do not include more than 5,300 people in New York City who died and are believed to have had the coronavirus. Many of those patients died without being tested, a consequence of a strained medical system and a persistent lack of testing capacity. (4/29)

The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Coronavirus Cases Top One Million As Some Lockdowns Ease
In recent days, U.S. governors have detailed phased reopening plans, in a patchwork of orders that vary by speed and approach. In states hit hardest by the pandemic, however, leaders have extended stay-at-home orders and warned that acting prematurely could hinder progress made against the virus. (Calfas, Jamerson and Xie, 4/28)

ABC News: Coronavirus Deaths 'Likely To Continue To Rise' In Coming Weeks, CDC Says 
A pandemic of the novel coronavirus has now killed more than 215,000 people worldwide... Since the first cases were detected in China in December, the United States has become the worst-affected country, with more than 1 million diagnosed cases and at least 58,365 deaths. (Winsor and Torres, 4/29)

ABC News: How Accurate Is The US Coronavirus Death Count? Some Experts Say It's Off By 'Tens Of Thousands' 
The novel coronavirus has already claimed the lives of more than 58,000 Americans. But experts fear that number could be far higher at this point in the outbreak -- perhaps by tens of thousands -- once the pandemic subsides enough for officials to go back and make a true reckoning of the dead. Experts are urging leaders to take measures right now to preserve data and medical specimens so that science has the chance to determine the precise number of people who succumbed during one of the most severe global pandemics in memory. (Abdelmalek, Francescani and Folmer, 4/29)

The Washington Post: Coronavirus Victims: Remembering The Americans Who Have Died
No infectious disease in a century has exacted as swift and merciless a toll on the United States as covid-19. With no vaccine and no cure, the pandemic has killed people in every state. The necessary isolation it imposes has robbed the bereaved of proper goodbyes and the comfort of mourning rituals. Those remembered in this continually updating series represent but some of the tens of thousands who have died. Some were well-known, and many were unsung. All added their stories, from all walks of life, to the diversity of the American experience. (4/24)

Politico: Trump’s Next Coronavirus Pivot: Celebrate America’s Grand Reopening
President Donald Trump is looking to the business executives of America to get him out of the coronavirus penalty box. With the U.S. economy stuck in a deep downturn, Trump is betting on his promotional skills — of corporate executives, small-business owners and American workers — to rescue his standing just six months before the general election. (Cook, 4/29)

The New York Times: Trump Administration’s Message On Reopening Continues To Be Contradictory
A week ago, President Trump chastised Georgia for starting to reopen. “It’s too soon,” he said. But on Tuesday, he cheered Texas as it began resuming business. “Great job,” he said. And Florida may be next as the president welcomed its governor to the Oval Office. White House guidelines urge states to retain coronavirus restrictions until they meet certain criteria, but Attorney General William P. Barr is now threatening to sue them if he deems those limits too strict. And even as the president talks about opening the country, he has ordered it closed to immigration, even suggesting on Tuesday that flights from Brazil be banned. (Baker, 4/28)

Stat: How A Los Angeles Doctor Got Swept Up In The White House's Covid-19 Response
He advised Joe Biden’s initiative to transform the fight against cancer. He interviewed Bill Clinton at last fall’s “Time 100” gala. And he’s treated patients with names so famous they don’t need titles: Steve Jobs, Lance Armstrong, Sumner Redstone, and Ted Kennedy. Now, David Agus — an accomplished Los Angeles cancer doctor, researcher, author, and TV pundit — has been swept up in the swirl of the Trump White House as it confronts the Covid-19 pandemic. (Robbins and Florko, 4/29)

Politico: Trump’s Allies Sound Alarm Over His Attacks On Independent Watchdogs
President Donald Trump’s recent hostility toward independent federal watchdogs has jolted the very Senate Republicans who are among his most outspoken defenders. Two months after acquitting Trump on charges of obstructing Congress, GOP senators are sounding subtle but unmistakable alarms about Trump’s efforts to brush back lawmakers’ oversight of the government’s behemoth, $3 trillion response to the coronavirus pandemic. And their warnings have grown more urgent as Trump mounts a concerted campaign against inspectors general, one of the last functional checks on his administration’s performance. (Desiderio, 4/28)

The New York Times: Trump’s Response To Virus Reflects A Long Disregard For Science
At a March visit with doctors and researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the public health agency at the heart of the fight against the coronavirus, President Trump spoke words of praise for the scientific acumen in the building — particularly his own. “Every one of these doctors said, ‘How do you know so much about this?’ Maybe I have a natural ability,” Mr. Trump said. It was a striking boast, even amid a grave health crisis in which Mr. Trump has repeatedly contradicted medical experts in favor of his own judgment. (Friedman and Plumer, 4/28)

The Washington Post: Recall Of West Point Cadets For Trump Address Creates Logistics Hurdles And Health Concerns
The day before the U.S. Military Academy announced it would proceed with plans for President Trump to deliver the commencement address, cadets joined a video call to learn about their return to the school’s campus outside New York, the American city hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic. The decision to hold an in-person graduation June 13 meant that nearly 1,000 graduating cadets would travel back to West Point from their homes, where they have been distance-learning since spring break, and undergo up to three weeks of quarantine at campus barracks and a nearby training site. (Ryan, Horton and Costa, 4/28)

NBC News: Trump Administration Asks Intelligence Agencies To Find Out Whether China, WHO Hid Info On Coronavirus Pandemic
The White House has ordered intelligence agencies to comb through communications intercepts, human source reporting, satellite imagery and other data to establish whether China and the World Health Organization initially hid what they knew about the emerging coronavirus pandemic, current and former U.S. officials familiar with the matter told NBC News. A specific "tasking" seeking information about the outbreak's early days was sent last week to the National Security Agency and the Defense Intelligence Agency, which includes the National Center for Medical Intelligence, an official directly familiar with the matter said. The CIA has received similar instructions, according to current and former officials familiar with the matter. (Dilanian, Kube and Lee, 4/29)

Reuters: Americans Losing Faith In What Trump Says About The Coronavirus: Reuters/Ipsos Poll
Americans appear to be losing faith in what President Donald Trump says about the coronavirus pandemic, with almost everyone rejecting Trump’s remark that COVID-19 may be treated by injecting infected people with bleach or other disinfectants, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Tuesday. The April 27-28 public opinion poll found that fewer than half of all adults in the U.S. - 47% - said they were “very” or “somewhat” likely to follow recommendations Trump makes about the virus. (Kahn, 4/28)

The Hill: Approval For Trump's Handling Of Coronavirus Drops 10 Points: Poll 
President Trump’s approval rating for his handling of the coronavirus dropped 10 points from last month after an initial bump, according to a new Emerson College poll. Thirty-nine percent of those surveyed approved of Trump’s efforts to tackle the outbreak, a drop from 49 percent last month. The poll, released Tuesday, found that 51 percent said they disapproved of the president's handling of the virus, a jump from 41 percent in March. (Axelrod, 4/28)

The New York Times: Pence Tours Mayo Clinic And Flouts Its Rule That All Visitors Wear A Mask
The Mayo Clinic, the renowned medical center in Minnesota, has a clear policy in place during the coronavirus outbreak that any visitor should wear a protective face mask. But when a delegation of Trump administration officials arrived at the clinic on Tuesday to thank the doctors there for their work on the virus, one person decided to flout the rule: Vice President Mike Pence, the chairman of the White House coronavirus task force. (Karni, 4/28)

The Associated Press: Pence Comes Under Fire For Going Maskless At Mayo Clinic
Video feeds show that Pence did not wear a mask when he met with a Mayo employee who has recovered from COVID-19 and is now donating plasma, even though everyone else in the room appeared to be wearing one. He was also maskless when he visited a lab where Mayo conducts coronavirus tests. (4/28)

The Washington Post: Pence Meets With Mayo Clinic Patients, Staff While Not Wearing Face Mask Despite Coronavirus Outbreak
Asked by reporters later about his decision not to wear a mask, Pence noted that he is frequently tested for coronavirus and so didn’t need to wear one. “As vice president of the United States, I’m tested for the coronavirus on a regular basis, and everyone who is around me is tested for the coronavirus,” Pence said. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance states that masks are helpful for preventing the transmission of the coronavirus because even people who do not show symptoms can still spread the virus, particularly in “public settings where other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain. (Sonmez, 4/28)

NPR: Pence Comments On Not Wearing Protective Masks
"And since I don't have the coronavirus, I thought it'd be a good opportunity for me to be here, to be able to speak to these researchers, these incredible health care personnel, and look them in the eye and say thank you." Instructions on the Mayo Clinic website request that all patients, visitors and personnel bring and wear a face mask to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus. (Wise, 4/28)

The Hill: Pence Flouts Mayo Clinic Policy By Not Wearing Face Covering
Pence and other top administration officials have seldom been seen wearing face coverings in public settings. President Trump announced on April 3 the new CDC guidance encouraging the use of masks to try and cut down on the spread of the coronavirus, particularly from those who may be asymptomatic. But Trump immediately undercut the advice by insisting he would not wear one himself. "I don't know, somehow sitting in the Oval Office behind that beautiful Resolute Desk ... I think wearing a face mask as I greet presidents, prime ministers, dictators, kings, queens, I don't know," he said. "Somehow, I don't see it for myself. I just don’t. (Samuels, 4/28)

Politico: ‘HHS Has Been Kicked In The Teeth’
The coronavirus outbreak burning its way through the United States has taken a different kind of toll on staff at the center of the nation’s response. Officials here, at the Health and Human Services department headquarters, have worked around the clock since mid-January to first prepare for the possible Covid-19 outbreak and then manage the pandemic it became. But the Trump administration’s repeated stumbles have provoked a daily deluge of attacks, watchdog probes and open speculation about the future of the department’s leader, Secretary Alex Azar, culminating in a spate of reports about how White House officials were discussing Azar’s potential replacements this past weekend. (Diamond, 4/28)

The New York Times: ‘Governors Don’t Do Global Pandemics’: Cuomo Faults Others Over Virus
A day after seemingly expressing regret for not sounding the alarm on the coronavirus crisis sooner, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York apparently decided on Tuesday that there was enough blame to spread far and wide. At his daily briefing, Mr. Cuomo faulted a raft of other forces, including the World Health Organization, various federal agencies and the news media, for not doing their part to caution the world of the pandemic threat. Specifically, Mr. Cuomo targeted the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control — “the N.I.H, the C.D.C., that whole alphabet soup of agencies,” he called them — and the nation’s intelligence community for not issuing more urgent advisories late last year, before health officials in China had even publicly identified the virus. (McKinley, 4/28)

The New York Times: Trump Signs Executive Order To Prevent Meat Shortage
President Trump on Tuesday declared meat processing plants “critical infrastructure,” in an effort to ensure that facilities around the country remained open as the government tried to prevent looming shortages of pork, chicken and other products as a result of the coronavirus. The action comes as meat plants around the country have turned into coronavirus hot spots, sickening thousands of workers, and after the head of Tyson Foods, one of the country’s largest processors, warned that millions of pounds of meat would simply disappear from the supply chain. (Swanson and Yaffe-Bellany, 4/28)

The Associated Press: Trump Order Keeping Meat Packing Plants Open Worries Unions
The order signed Tuesday uses the Defense Production Act to classify meat processing as critical infrastructure to try to prevent a shortage of chicken, pork and other meat on supermarket shelves. Unions fired back, saying the White House was jeopardizing lives and prioritizing cold cuts over workers’ health. More than 20 meatpacking plants have closed temporarily under pressure from local authorities and their own workers because of the virus, including two of the nation’s largest, one in Iowa and one in South Dakota. Others have slowed production as workers have fallen ill or stayed home to avoid getting sick. (Colvin, 4/29)

Reuters: Trump Orders U.S. Meat-Processing Plants To Stay Open Despite Coronavirus Fears
The order is designed in part to give companies legal cover with more liability protection in case employees catch the virus as a result of having to go to work. John H. Tyson, chairman of Tyson Foods, said on Sunday that the food supply chain was “breaking” and warned of the potential for meat shortages. Before issuing the executive order, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that signing the order, “... will solve any liability problems,” adding, “And we always work with the farmers. There’s plenty of supply.” (Mason and Polansek, 4/28)

The Washington Post: Trump Expected To Order Meat Plants To Say Open, Citing Defense Production Act
Worker safety experts say such an order would prevent local health officials from ordering meat companies to use their the most effective weapon available to protect their employees from the coronavirus — closures. They also fear that it would also undercut newly issued federal health guidelines designed to put space between plant workers. Trump has not publicly explained which provisions within the act he will rely on to compel plants to remain open or grant companies protection from workplace safety requirements. (Telford, Kindy and Bogage, 4/28)

The Wall Street Journal: Trump Takes Executive Action To Keep Meat-Processing Plants Open
The North American Meat Institute, a trade group representing U.S. meatpackers, said the order will help farmers and keep food flowing to consumers. “The safety of the heroic men and women working in the meat and poultry industry is the first priority,” Julie Anna Potts, the group’s chief executive, said Tuesday night “And as it is assured, facilities should be allowed to re-open.” The close-quarters work typical to meat processing, with line workers cutting carcasses side by side for hours at a time, has made meatpacking plants particularly susceptible to outbreaks. (Restuccia and Bunge, 4/28)

The Washington Post: Virus Spread At Virginia Chicken Plants Alarms Health Officials
Health officials on Virginia's Eastern Shore are increasingly worried that clusters of coronavirus tied to two poultry plants may overwhelm the one local hospital, even as the Trump administration insists such facilities remain open to keep the country fed during the crisis. The chicken plants, one operated by Perdue Farms, the other by Tyson Foods, have continued operating as the number of cases linked to them climbed in the past week, according to health officials. (Barrett, 4/28)

Politico: Workers Turn To Courts And States For Safety Protection As Trump Declines To Act 
President Donald Trump can force meatpacking plants to stay open during the pandemic, but his own administration hasn’t required employers to provide safety equipment to prevent the virus' spread. Now, workers in a range of industries are looking to states, Congress and the courts to step in. A judge this week ordered leading meat company Smithfield to follow federal safety recommendations at a plant in Missouri, and labor advocates hope to use the lawsuit as a model to force companies in other sectors to protect workers. (Rainey and Crampton, 4/28)

The Washington Post: FAQ: What Consumers Need To Know About The Meat Industry Right Now
The coronavirus pandemic is now endangering the U.S. beef, chicken and pork supply chain. Worker illness has shut down meat-processing plants and forced remaining facilities to slow production to accommodate absenteeism and social-distancing protocols. In an attempt to ward off potential food supply shortages, President Trump signed an executive order Tuesday evening that invoked the Defense Production Act to classify meat processing plants as essential infrastructure that must remain open. (Reiley, 4/28)

In other news on the supply chain —

Reuters: Toilet Paper Trophy Hunters On A Roll As U.S. Shortages Start Easing
U.S. consumers have begun spotting rare Quilted Northern and Charmin toilet paper rolls on store shelves across the United States, as stocks start building after weeks of severe shortages. (Geller and Baertlein, 4/28)

Stateline: Reopening Means Contact Tracing. Many States Aren't Ready.
Nationwide, contact tracing — which Clements and more than 2,000 other public health workers across the country perform on a regular basis — is the key to reopening businesses and resuming some form of normal life as the coronavirus pandemic begins to subside, epidemiologists say. But with no national plan and scant federal dollars on the horizon, states are funding their own initiatives for what experts predict will be a massive undertaking lasting 18 months to two years, until a vaccine is developed. (Vestal and Ollove, 4.29)

Stat: Bipartisan Group Pitches The White House On A $46.5 Billion Covid-19 Plan
In the past month, President Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner has fielded calls from at least three members of a new coalition pitching an aggressive plan to reopen America. The political backgrounds of Kushner’s callers diverged sharply: They ranged from Scott Gottlieb, a Trump appointee who ran the Food and Drug Administration until last year, to a pair of Obama-era health officials whose views diverge from the White House’s at nearly every turn. Their message, however, was largely the same: The White House should back a $46.5 billion effort to hire an army of 180,000 contact-tracers, book blocks of vacant hotel rooms so Americans sick with Covid-19 can self-isolate, and pay sick individuals to stay away from work until they recover. (Facher, 4/29)

CIDRAP: Study: Contact Tracing Slowed COVID-19 Spread In China
Isolation and contact tracing—which are now key topics as US officials discuss plans to open up the country—helped control the spread of COVID-19 in Shenzhen, China, according to a study published yesterday in The Lancet Infectious Diseases. In the first known coronavirus research of its kind, researchers studied 391 COVID-19 patients and their 1,286 close contacts—identified through symptomatic surveillance and contact tracing from Jan 14 to Feb 12—to characterize disease course, transmission, and the effect of control measures. (Van Beusekom, 4/28)

WBUR: San Francisco Enlists A Key Latino Neighborhood In Coronavirus Testing 
As public health experts plead for cities and states to dramatically increase the scale and speed of testing and contact tracing for the coronavirus, researchers in San Francisco, backed by dozens of volunteers, have launched an ambitious effort to test everyone older than 4 years old in a big part of one hard-hit neighborhood. They're calling the effort "Unidos en Salud – United in Health." (Westervelt, 4/28)

And in California —

San Francisco Chronicle: Thousands Of Bay Area Residents Will Be Tested For The Coronavirus In UCSF
UCSF and Stanford University will launch two studies in May that are among the nation’s first large-scale, long-term coronavirus research projects. They will follow participants over several months, retest them regularly and report real-time data to health officials — potentially shaping California’s phased reopening of the economy. The studies, to be announced Wednesday, will together test 7,500 Bay Area residents who previously tested negative for the coronavirus. One study will follow 4,000 members of the general population, and the other 3,500 health care workers. (Ho, 4/29)

The Wall Street Journal: Coronavirus Testing Capacity Is Going Unused
Many commercial and academic laboratories in the U.S. are processing coronavirus diagnostic tests far below their daily capacity, leaving tools crucial to slowing the virus’s spread unused. Some labs across the country say they are processing less than a quarter of the diagnostic tests for Covid-19, the illness caused by the new coronavirus, they are equipped to manage. Lab executives and public-health officials blame barriers including fragmented supply chains, relatively strict test guidelines, incompatible electronic systems and a lack of centralized data on where capacity exists. (Abbott and Krouse, 4/29)

CNN: Big Commercial Labs Given Priority For Coronavirus Testing Equipment By Feds
President Donald Trump said Monday that he is confident the US is conducting enough coronavirus testing to begin rebooting the economy, declaring at the White House press briefing that "testing is not going to be a problem at all." But hospitals, clinics and point-of-care medical centers across the country continue to grapple with critical shortages in testing supplies that have limited the number of tests they conduct, more than a dozen lab personnel, state officials and medical associations tell CNN. (Devine and Tolan, 4/28)

ABC News: White House Doubles Down On Coronavirus Testing Partnership With Retailers Despite Slow Start
President Donald Trump doubled down Monday on an effort to enlist major retailers to set up drive-through coronavirus testing locations around the country -- an undertaking that has shown only modest progress since the White House first announced the idea six weeks ago. "Testing is not going to be a problem at all," Trump said Monday, before inviting the CEOs of CVS, Walmart, Walgreens and Rite Aid to the podium to describe their plans to scale up the nasal-swabbing stations. (Rubin and Mosk, 4/28)

The Hill: Five Things To Know About Where The US Stands On COVID-19 Tests 
The White House is under enormous pressure to dramatically increase the nation’s capability to produce tests to control the coronavirus outbreak and safely reopen an economy shuttered by the pandemic. President Trump told reporters on March 6 during a visit to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta that “anybody that wants a test can get a test,” but that has been far from the reality. (Weixel, 4/28)

The Associated Press: Trump Says US Closer To Testing International Air Travelers
President Donald Trump said his administration is considering requiring travelers on certain incoming international flights to undergo temperature and virus checks to help stop the spread of the coronavirus. “We’re looking at doing it on the international flights coming out of areas that are heavily infected,” Trump said Tuesday at the White House. “We will be looking into that in the very near future.” (Colvin, Lemire and Freking, 4/29)

The Hill: Fauci Says US Will Have Needed Tests By End Of May, Beginning Of June 
Anthony Fauci on Tuesday said he hoped anyone who needed a coronavirus test should be able to get one by the end of May or early June. “Hopefully we should see that as we get toward the end of May, the beginning of June,” Fauci said when asked by CNN’s Jake Tapper, “When will everybody who needs to get a test be able to get one?” (Sullivan, 4/28)

Kaiser Health News: COVID Tests Are Free, Except When They’re Not
Even before a novel virus swept around the world, Anna Davis Abel wore a mask to protect herself from getting sick. The 25-year-old writer lives with lupus, a chronic autoimmune disease that makes her more susceptible to catching a virus or an infection. Davis Abel’s doctor cleared her to travel to a literary conference in San Antonio in early March. Then she developed a sore throat and low-grade fever several days after arriving home in Morgantown, West Virginia. (Rodriguez, 4/29)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Georgia Could Be At Risk For False-Negative COVID-19 Tests
As Georgia ramps up diagnostic testing for active coronavirus cases, some patients and public health experts fear a weakness in the state’s disease surveillance network isn’t just obtaining enough test kits and supplies but potential false negative results. It’s unclear how common false negative tests are in the U.S., though some preliminary research in China found inaccurate results as high as 30%, according to one survey. Doctors and public health experts say the culprits are a difficult process used to obtain most patient samples and the rapid deployment of test kits that haven’t been fully vetted by federal regulators. (Trubey, Schrade and Teegardin, 4/28)

Stat: Gilead Says Critical Study Of Covid-19 Drug Shows Patients Are Responding To Treatment
A government-run study of Gilead’s remdesivir, perhaps the most closely watched experimental drug to treat the novel coronavirus, showed that the medicine is effective against Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus.Gilead made the announcement in a statement Wednesday, stating: “We understand that the trial has met its primary endpoint.” The company said that the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which is conducting the study, will provide data at an upcoming briefing. (Herper, 4/29)

Reuters: Gilead Says Remdesivir Shows Improvement In COVID-19 Patients When Used Early
In Gilead’s study, 62% of patients treated early were discharged from the hospital, compared with 49% of patients who were treated late, the company said. The trial was testing 397 patients, evaluating the safety and efficacy of five-day and 10-day dosing regimens of remdesivir in hospitalized patients with severe manifestations of COVID-19. Interest in Gilead’s drug have been high as there are currently no approved treatments or preventive vaccines for COVID-19, and doctors are desperate for anything that might alter the course of the disease that attacks the lungs and can shut down other organs in extremely severe cases. (4/29)

CNBC: Gilead says early results of coronavirus drug trial show improvement with shorter remdesivir treatment
“These data are encouraging as they indicate that patients who received a shorter, 5-day course of remdesivir experienced similar clinical improvement as patients who received a 10-day treatment course,” said Aruna Subramanian, a lead investigator of the study. (Lovelace Jr., 4/29)

ProPublica: Health Insurers To Investors: We’re Good. Health Insurers To Lawmakers: Please Help.
Executives at Cigna, the health insurance giant, have signaled to investors that the coronavirus pandemic isn’t hurting the company’s business and might actually be a boon. But that hasn’t stopped the trade group that represents Cigna and other health insurers in Washington from asking lawmakers for aid. Last month, as the coronavirus outbreak sent the stock market into freefall, executives conferred with equity analysts at major investment banks — a key way for companies to communicate with investors. (Arnsdorf, 4/28)

Reuters: U.S. Health Insurers Benefit As Elective Care Cuts Offset Coronavirus Costs
UnitedHealth Group Inc, the largest U.S. health insurer, last week posted first-quarter earnings above Wall Street expectations and kept its profit forecast in place for 2020, despite an economy battered by massive layoffs and business shutdowns to slow the spread of the virus. When Anthem Inc, Humana Inc and Cigna Corp report their first-quarter results this week, Wall Street analysts expect a similar trend. CVS Health, a pharmacy company that owns health insurer Aetna, reports in May. (Maddipatla and Humer, 4/28)

Modern Healthcare: Centene Expects Higher Revenue, Unchanged Earnings From COVID-19
Medicaid managed care insurer Centene Corp. escaped the first quarter of 2020 without much impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on its bottom line. While that could change over the course of the year, Centene executives suggested the insurer could ultimately benefit from the nation's increasing unemployment rates and lower use of healthcare services. During a call with investment analysts on Tuesday, Centene CEO Michael Neidorff said that while he expects the company's results "to be choppy from quarter to quarter," he believes it will still reach the full-year earnings expectations that it set in early March. The company also expects to bring in higher revenue in 2020 than previously projected. (Livingston, 4/28)

Politico: The Unlikely Alliance Trying To Rescue Workplace Health Insurance
Big businesses and powerful Democrats are aligning around a proposal to bail out employer health plans in the wake of staggering losses to the insurance industry, as some worry that a surge in uninsured Americans could give new life to a stalled push for “Medicare for All.” The business and labor interests, who have strong economic motives to keep the current system of employer-based care, are rallying behind a Democratic effort to subsidize temporary extensions of newly unemployed Americans’ workplace health plans in Congress’ next coronavirus rescue package. (Luthi, 4/28)

ProPublica: One Thing The Pandemic Hasn’t Stopped: Aggressive Medical-Debt Collection
Darcel Richardson knows she’s fortunate in one sense: She still has her job as a vocational counselor in Baltimore. But despite that, she won’t be able to make her rent payment this month because she’s not getting her full salary for a while. More than $400 per biweekly paycheck — about a quarter of her after-tax income — has been siphoned off by Johns Hopkins University for unpaid medical bills at one of its hospitals. Richardson, 60, got word of the garnishment from her employer just as the coronavirus pandemic was arriving in full force last month. (MacGillis, 4/28)

And in other news on health costs —

The Associated Press: Medicare Applications Raise Anxiety For Seniors In Pandemic
At greater risk from COVID-19, some seniors now face added anxiety due to delays obtaining Medicare coverage. Advocates for older people say the main problem involves certain applications for Medicare’s “Part B” coverage for outpatient care. It stems from the closure of local Social Security offices in the coronavirus pandemic. Part B is particularly important these days because it covers lab tests, like ones for the coronavirus. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 4/29)

Modern Healthcare: CMS Should Toss Proposed MFAR Rule, Experts Say
CMS' proposed Medicaid Fiscal Accountability Rule is impairing the ability of states and safety-net providers to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic effectively, according to some experts. States are footing the bill for many costs associated with treating COVID-19, while unemployment and Medicaid enrollment skyrocket and tax revenues drop off a cliff. That is putting tremendous strain on state and Medicaid budgets, both of which could negatively affect providers that increasingly rely on Medicaid to pay for the costs of care. (Brady, 4/28)

The Washington Post: Push To Reopen Economy Runs Up Against Workers And Consumers Worried About Risk
In the absence of a federal mandate, states are adopting varying approaches to the speed and pace of their commercial revivals. During a White House meeting with Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said he would make an announcement Wednesday on his state’s reopening plans. ... Plans for a swift reopening of malls, factories and other businesses accelerated Tuesday, but they quickly collided with the reality that persuading workers and consumers to overlook their coronavirus fears and resume their roles in powering the U.S. economy may prove difficult. (Lynch and Bhattarai, 4/28)

PBS NewsHour: Despite Widespread Economic Hardship, Most Americans Not Ready To Reopen, Poll Says 
While a growing number of American households have lost jobs due to COVID-19, a majority of U.S. adults say they still are uncomfortable with reopening the country, according to the latest PBS NewsHour/NPR/Marist poll. Since March, the nation’s economy has taken a major hit from stay-at-home orders and other measures taken to slow the spread of COVID-19. As a result, roughly 26 million Americans filed first-time unemployment claims over five consecutive weeks in late March and April, according to the latest Department of Labor figures, making this one of the worst economic periods in the nation’s history. (Santhanam, 4/29)

The Associated Press: Easing Lockdowns Makes Day-To-Day Choices More Complicated
Things were so much clearer when just about everything was locked down. Now, with states lifting coronavirus restrictions piecemeal and by often arbitrary timetables, Americans are facing bewildering decisions about what they should and should not do to protect their health, their livelihoods and their neighbors. (Johnson, Geller and Olson, 4/29)

The Wall Street Journal: A Guide To State Coronavirus Reopenings And Lockdowns
Most U.S. states have imposed lockdown measures restricting gathering and social contact, disrupting the lives of hundreds of millions of people and the operations of thousands of businesses. Some states, however, have announced or instituted plans to relax restrictions. This article will be updated as new information becomes available. (Gershman, 4/28)

The Hill: These States Have Reopened After Coronavirus Shutdown 
Multiple states have lifted some restrictions that were put in place to mitigate the spread of the deadly coronavirus. While most governors are planning a phased reopening, timelines vary by state. Some have allowed retail and hospitality businesses to open their doors to customers but with restrictions on capacity and types of services. Many states have allowed nonessential medical procedures to resume. (Cohn, 4/28)

The Washington Post: ‘Quarantine Fatigue’ Continues For Second Week, Showing A Worrisome Trend, Researchers Say
The number of U.S. residents showing “quarantine fatigue” by venturing out increased last week, when more governors reopened businesses closed for the coronavirus pandemic or announced plans to do so, according to researchers tracking smartphone data. Researchers say the cellphone location data for April 24 is significant because it marked the second Friday in a row when people stayed home less, illustrating the start of a trend rather than a one-week blip. (Shaver, 4/28)

Reuters: Hello, Social Distancing. Goodbye, Handshakes?
It started centuries ago as a symbol of peace, a gesture to prove you weren’t holding a weapon, and over time it became part of almost every social, religious, professional, business and sporting exchange. But the new coronavirus has forced a rethink of the handshake. No matter how friendly, it is an exchange of potentially infectious microorganisms. “Hands are like a busy intersection, constantly connecting our microbiome to the microbiomes of other people, places, and things,” a group of scientists wrote in the Journal of Dermatological Science. Hands, they said, are the “critical vector” for transmitting microorganisms including viruses. (Younis and Baldwin, 4/28)

WBUR: What To Do When People Don't Practice Social Distancing 
While people across the country are following the social distancing guidelines that health authorities say are necessary to keep the coronavirus from spreading, plenty of people are not. Some walk too close to others in the supermarket. Others bike or jog without masks, panting as they go by. Some people go so far in their defiance as to throw "coronavirus parties." (Socolovsky, 4/28)

CNN: If US Is Unprepared For A Second Wave Of Coronavirus, Fauci Warns Country Could Be In For 'A Bad Fall And A Bad Winter' 
A second round of the coronavirus is 'inevitable,' the nation's leading epidemiologist says, but just how bad it is will depend on the progress the US makes in the coming months. "If by that time we have put into place all of the countermeasures that you need to address this, we should do reasonably well," Dr. Anthony Fauci said. "If we don't do that successfully, we could be in for a bad fall and a bad winter." (Maxouris, 4/29)

Politico: Poll: Voters Expect Second Wave Of Coronavirus Cases
As governors across the country begin to reopen their states, a new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll shows that large majorities of voters favor continued social distancing to stop the spread of the coronavirus and expect a second surge of cases in the next year. Nearly three-in-four voters, 73 percent, think Americans should continue social distancing, even if it means continued damage to the U.S. economy. Just 15 percent say social distancing should end to boost the economy, even if the virus spreads. (Ward, 4/29)

CNN: What New York's Coronavirus Pandemic Reopening Will Look Like
With the coronavirus pandemic appearing to have passed its peak in New York, the gradual reopening of the epicenter of the national health crisis is starting to take shape. Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday outlined his most detailed plan for that reopening, starting with what he called lower risk businesses upstate getting back to work as early as mid May. (Sanchez, 4/28)

The New York Times: De Blasio Breaks Up Rabbi’s Funeral And Lashes Out Over Virus Distancing
Mayor Bill de Blasio lashed out at Hasidic residents of the Williamsburg section in Brooklyn late Tuesday night after personally overseeing the dispersal of a crowd of hundreds of mourners who had gathered for the funeral of a rabbi who died of the coronavirus. In a series of tweets, Mr. de Blasio denounced the gathering, which the police broke up, and warned “the Jewish community, and all communities” that any violation of the social-distancing guidelines in place to stop the spread of the virus could lead to a summons or an arrest. (Stack and Gold, 4/28)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Georgia Governor Weighs Next Steps Amid Conflicts Over COVID-19
Georgia recorded its 1,000th death from the new coronavirus Tuesday after state officials cited “encouraging data” to justify easing social-distancing measures. But many public health experts and scientific models cast doubts on the officials’ rosy conclusions. Ending a statewide lockdown too soon, experts said, could reverse any positive trends. (Judd and Hallerman, 4/28)

Boston Globe: We’ve Reached The Coronavirus Plateau. So When Will The Numbers Begin To Decline? 
Governor Charlie Baker has said he is not seeing improvements in key measures that he is scrutinizing for clues to when it will be safe to reopen the economy. With the death toll rising to more than 3,000 this week, Baker announced Tuesday that he was extending his non-essential business closure order and stay-at-home advisory until May 18. (Finucane, 4/28)

Boston Globe: When Massachusetts Goes Back To Work, It Won’t Be Business As Usual 
A picture of how working life may change emerges from interviews with more than a dozen CEOs and other executives planning for the day when the state begins easing COVID-19 restrictions. A common theme: Pre-coronavirus routines will give way to post-pandemic trial and error, a possibly shifting set of protocols, as businesses search for a new normal. (Edelman, Chesto and Leung, 4/28)

Boston Globe: Cautioning Against ‘Letting Up,’ Baker Extends Business Closures, Stay-At-Home Advisory To May 18 
Governor Charlie Baker on Tuesday ordered thousands of Massachusetts businesses to remain closed and urged people to remain home until at least May 18, extending by two weeks directives designed to limit the spread of COVID-19. Baker’s decision to continue his dual order and advisory, both of which had been slated to expire Monday, surprised few in the business and health communities amid the daily churn of grim data. (Stout, 4/28)

Boston Globe: Slight Drop In Deaths And COVID-19 Cases In Rhode Island For First Time In Weeks
The statistics remain grim, but Rhode Island’s daily death toll and new cases of coronavirus decreased Tuesday, hitting a low the state hasn’t seen in nearly three weeks. And that prompted Governor Gina M. Raimondo to suggest that she may lift her stay-home order May 8.Six more Rhode Islanders died, all of whom lived in nursing homes or congregant care. Another 218 people tested positive for COVID-19. (Milkovits, 4/28)

Las Vegas Review-Journal: Sisolak Teases Coronavirus Announcement, Trump Asks About Reopening 
Gov. Steve Sisolak on Tuesday teased on Twitter that he would announce a “Roadmap to Recovery” plan for Nevada on Thursday, starting with the resumption of medical and dental procedures that were delayed by the coronavirus outbreak. Thursday’s announcement will come on the day a series of his directives on social distancing, business closures and other restrictions related to COVID-19 are set to expire. (Saunders and Dentzer, 4/28)

New Orleans Times-Picayune: New Orleans Area Business Leaders Make The Case To Reopen As Coronavirus Slows
New Orleans area business leaders set out plans to re-open the economy in a report Tuesday, part of a growing clamor from the business community to begin loosening the clamp-down on public activities amid signs that the pace of coronavirus cases is slowing. (McCauley, 4/28)

The New York Times: Some Sports May Have To Skip This Year, Fauci Says
Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the leading public health expert on President Trump’s coronavirus task force, said this week that it might be very difficult for major sports in the United States to return to action this year. Various leagues have considered a number of options for restarting play that came to a halt in mid-March, as the extent of the coronavirus outbreak became increasingly apparent. (Wagner and Belson, 4/28)

The New York Times: Coronavirus Likely To Keep Schools Shut, Despite Trump's Wishes
With students languishing, the economy stagnating and working parents straining to turn their kitchen tables into classrooms, the nation’s public schools have been working to bring children back to their desks, lockers and study halls. But despite President Trump’s prediction that “I think you’ll see a lot of schools open up,” all but a few states have suspended in-person classes for the rest of the academic year, and some are preparing for the possibility of shutdowns or part-time schedules in the fall. (Hubler, Green and Goldstein, 4/28)

Politico: Teachers Union: 'Scream Bloody Murder' If Schools Reopen Against Medical Advice
The nation's two biggest teachers unions say they would consider strikes or major protests if schools reopen without the proper safety measures in place or against the advice of medical experts — raising the possibility of yet more school disruptions. American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, previewing a reopening plan first with POLITICO, said funding is needed for a host of public health measures for schools, including personal protective equipment. (Gaudiano, 4/28)

Meanwhile, in California, Gov. Gavin Newsom muses that schools may start their 2020 year as early as July to make up for a “learning loss” —

Reuters: California Plans To Reopen Some Retail, Manufacturing Within Weeks
California curbside retail, manufacturing and other “lower-risk workplaces” should reopen within weeks as coronavirus testing and tracing improves, Governor Gavin Newsom said on Tuesday. Non-essential businesses like offices where remote work is not possible and childcare facilities would be in the first phase of reopening, along with some parks, state health officer Sonia Angell told a news briefing. California schools could start their 2020 year as early as July to make up for a “learning loss” from closures and to allow the broader workforce to return to work, Newsom said. (Hay, 4/28)

Politico: Newsom: California To Begin Reopening In Weeks, May Start School Year In July
With health care capacity and hospitalizations stabilizing, Newsom said the state is "weeks, not months" away from making “meaningful modifications” to a statewide order that has relegated Californians to their homes for nearly six weeks. On Tuesday, Newsom said schools could start the next academic year early, possibly in late July or early August, though he did not specify how much instruction could occur on campuses. (White and Mays, 4/28)

ABC News: COVID-19 Outbreak Infecting Over 500 Prisoners May Have Come From Staff: Medical Director 
A novel coronavirus outbreak that has sickened 583 inmates at a Tennessee prison could to have come from members of the staff, according to the facility's medical director. The alarming cluster of infections at the Bledsoe Correctional Complex in Pikeville, Tennessee, accounts for 99% of the 588 total positive cases of coronavirus in all of Bledsoe County, according to the Tennessee Department of Corrections and the state Department of Health. (Hutchinson, 4/28)

WBUR: Mass. Prisons And Jails Among Hardest Hit By Coronavirus In U.S. 
Five Massachusetts correctional institutions appear to be among the hardest hit by coronavirus infections among inmates and staff thus far at the roughly 4,900 jails and prisons in the United States. Those include the Shirley, Framingham and Bridgewater state prisons, as well as the Essex and Middlesex county jails, according to data compiled by WBUR from local, state and federal government websites and media reports. (Healy, Becker and Willmsen, 4/28)

WBUR: Mass. High Court Urges Governor To Use His Powers To Release Prisoners Because Of COVID-19 
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court says it's up to Gov. Charlie Baker to take further steps to release more prisoners because of the coronavirus pandemic. The court, in an opinion addressing a request to revisit a previous decision on the matter, said that a broader release of prisoners is up to the executive, not judicial, branch of government. (Becker, 4/28)

Las Vegas Review-Journal: Meeting On Coronavirus In Nevada Prisons Slated  
For the second time in two weeks, the Nevada Sentencing Commission is scheduled to examine efforts to control the spread of the coronavirus in the criminal justice system. Earlier this month, the group narrowly recommended that the Board of Pardons Commissioners — composed of seven Nevada Supreme Court justices, Gov. Steve Sisolak and Attorney General Aaron Ford — decide the criminal justice system’s steps in response to the outbreak. (Ferrara, 4/28)

The New York Times: When N.Y. Needed Hospital Space, Film Location Scouts Pitched In
Jennifer Lyne, a location scout for film and television, knows New York in an unusually granular way. Always on the lookout for the perfect spot, she is constantly schmoozing with property managers, gathering contact information and snapping photos. That is how she was able to find a period-perfect restaurant bar for the television series “Boardwalk Empire” and the alley where Harrison Ford’s detective investigates a murder in the movie “Random Hearts.” (Margolies, 4/29)

WBUR: Major Boston Hospitals Are Virus Testing Pregnant Patients Arriving To Give Birth 
Major hospitals across Greater Boston have a new admissions step for patients who arrive in early labor: a coronavirus test. Most hospitals already had its workers meet pregnant women and some trans men at the entrance before then directing those with symptoms to isolation rooms. Now, a diagnostic nasopharyngeal swab is part of admissions for all patients admitted for delivery — whether they have symptoms or not — at many of the state’s largest maternity care facilities. (Bebinger, 4/28)

Boston Globe: Amidst Coronavirus, Church Shifts Gears To Continue Support Of Victims Of Trauma 
The pandemic and the resulting economic collapse are causing significant stress for almost everyone. But the circumstances can be especially difficult for people who were already dealing with trauma, said Roxbury Presbyterian Church’s Rev. Liz Walker. Now, a program Walker started years ago to help people navigate life after trauma is finding its way in a world increasingly filled with it. Walker, the first Black woman to coanchor a newscast in Boston, started the Cory Johnson Program for Post-Traumatic Healing at the church six years ago, and named it for Jefferson Cory Johnson, a 27-year-old killed in Roxbury in 2010. (Lotan, 4/28)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Lack Of Eviction Ban Leaves Georgia Renters Vulnerable
Eviction filings continue pouring in across metro Atlanta with limited protections for renters, and little if any enforcement of the safeguards that have been put in place since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of the thousands of filings are legal, despite a statewide judicial emergency that suspended all but essential court functions. (Lutz, 4/28)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Food Stamp Applications Soar As Georgia Economy Struggles Amid Pandemic
More applications were filed by those seeking food stamps in the month after most Georgians began social distancing to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus than in the first two and a half months of the year. About 183,000 households applied for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as SNAP, between March 13 and April 17, according to data from the state Division of Family and Children Services. About 118,000 applications were approved during that time period. (Prabhu, 4/28)

Cincinnati Enquirer: Coronavirus In Ohio: Gov. Mike DeWine Reverses Course On Face Coverings Mandate
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine reversed course Tuesday, saying face coverings and masks were strongly recommended but not required for retail customers.The change of heart came after DeWine received criticism for requiring face masks and coverings during a Monday news conference. The message that day was: “No mask, no work, no service, no exception.”But by Tuesday afternoon, DeWine had backed off that message. (Balmert and Borchardt, 4/28)

Las Vegas Review-Journal: Nevada Officials Warn Of Fake Unemployment Websites
Those looking for unemployment insurance benefits should watch out for illegitimate websites, according to a release from the Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation. The only place to file for unemployment online in the state is through http://ui.nv.gov, but DETR says websites are cropping up that “appear to look like legitimate government websites.” (Schultz, 4/28)

Las Vegas Review-Journal: Stimulus Check Delays Frustrate Nevadans 
Frustrated people have been calling the IRS and congressional offices, seeking an update about their delayed coronavirus relief checks. In Nevada, lawmakers report multiple calls every day from people with difficulty navigating the Internal Revenue Service website, or in some cases receiving only partial payments for money they are eligible to receive for dependents. (Martin, 4/28)

Houston Chronicle: Harris County Creates $15M Pandemic Relief Fund Aimed At Most Vulnerable Residents
Low-income families, residents in the country illegally, victims of domestic violence and children aging out of foster care are the target audience for a $15 million coronavirus relief fund Harris County Commissioners Court created Tuesday. The fund, proposed by Precinct 1 Commissioner Rodney Ellis, aims to assist residents who are ineligible for federal aid through the CARES Act or for whom the $1,200 stimulus payments are insufficient. (Despart, 3/28)

Modern Healthcare: CHS Seeks To Sell Hospitals Under New Texas COPA Law
Community Health Systems wants to sell two hospitals under a new Texas law that avoids federal antitrust scrutiny. The Franklin, Tenn.-based hospital chain has proposed two separate hospital sales that, if approved, would make the buyers the only acute-care hospital operators in their respective cities. It wants to do so using a type of law that helps states dodge the Federal Trade Commission's authority to challenge deals it deems anticompetitive. (Bannow, 4/28)

The Wall Street Journal: Race For Coronavirus Vaccine Accelerates As Pfizer Says U.S. Testing To Begin Next Week
The race for a vaccine to combat the new coronavirus is moving faster than researchers and drugmakers expected, with Pfizer Inc. joining several other groups saying that they had accelerated the timetable for testing and that a vaccine could be ready for emergency use in the fall. Pfizer said Tuesday it will begin testing of its experimental vaccine in the U.S. as early as next week. On Monday, Oxford University researchers said their vaccine candidate could be available for emergency use as early as September if it passes muster in studies, while biotech Moderna Inc. said it was preparing to enter its vaccine into the second phase of human testing. (Hopkins and Rockoff, 4/28)

Houston Chronicle: Texas A&M To Lead Testing Of TB Vaccine Against COVID-19 
Texas A&M University researchers have begun recruiting health care workers to test whether a century-old tuberculosis vaccine can help in the fight against the coronavirus, scientists’ latest attempt to repurpose a drug to fend off the deadly pandemic. The researchers, who are teaming with Harvard University, MD Anderson Cancer Center and Baylor College of Medicine, say the expectation isn’t so much that the vaccine will prevent people from becoming infected as that it could result in fewer hospitalizations and deaths from COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus. The vaccine, given to millions of people every year, has a proven track record of providing benefits not primarily intended by the intervention. (Ackerman, 4/29)

The Associated Press: Groups Sow Doubt About COVID Vaccine Before One Even Exists
A coronavirus vaccine is still months or years away, but groups that peddle misinformation about immunizations are already taking aim, potentially eroding confidence in what could be humanity’s best chance to defeat the virus. In recent weeks, vaccine opponents have made several unsubstantiated claims, including allegations that vaccine trials will be dangerously rushed or that Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious diseases expert, is blocking cures to enrich vaccine makers. (Klepper and Dupuy, 4/29)

The New York Times: Airborne Coronavirus Detected In Wuhan Hospitals
Adding to growing evidence that the novel coronavirus can spread through air, scientists have identified genetic markers of the virus in airborne droplets, many with diameters smaller than one-ten-thousandth of an inch. That had been previously demonstrated in laboratory experiments, but now Chinese scientists studying real-world conditions report that they captured tiny droplets containing the genetic markers of the virus from the air in two hospitals in Wuhan, China, where the outbreak started. Their findings were published Monday in the journal Nature. (Chang, 4/28)

The Washington Post: Covid-19 Appears Far More Lethal Than Flu Based On Antibody Test Results
Results from coronavirus antibody tests have started to trickle in, and they bolster the consensus among disease experts that the virus is significantly more lethal than seasonal flu and has seeded the most disruptive pandemic in the past century. “I think it is the worst pandemic since 1918,” said Cecile Viboud, an epidemiologist at the National Institutes of Health’s Fogarty International Center, alluding to the “Great Influenza” pandemic that claimed an estimated 675,000 lives in the United States. (Achenbach, 4/28)

The Washington Post: Cancer Patients Are Nearly Three Times More Likely To Die Of Covid-19, Study Says
Cancer patients — especially those with blood or lung malignancies, or tumors that have spread throughout the body — have a higher risk of death or other severe complications from covid-19 compared with those without cancer, according to a study published Tuesday. The study, which involved 14 hospitals in the Hubei province in central China, where the pandemic emerged, included 105 cancer patients and 536 non-cancer patients of the same age — all of whom had covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. (McGinley, 4/28)

CIDRAP: COVID-19 Not Linked To Poor Outcomes In Pregnant Women, Study Finds
Pregnant women hospitalized with COVID-19 had similar clinical illness and outcomes as nonpregnant women of reproductive age and did not pass the virus to their newborns, according to a retrospective study published yesterday in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases.The researchers studied the electronic medical records of 28 infected pregnant women and 54 nonpregnant peers hospitalized in the Central Hospital of Wuhan, China, from Jan 15 to Mar 15. (4/28)

WBUR: As Patients Recover From Coronavirus, Doctors Wonder About Long-Term Health Impacts
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is reporting nearly 1 million known cases of COVID-19 in the United States. Of those, about 139,000 are listed as recovered. But experts are warning of possible long-term effects for patients after they’ve survived the coronavirus. Doctors know now that the disease attacks many systems within the body — from the lungs and heart to the liver and kidneys, says Yale cardiologist Dr. Harlan Krumholz. (Young and Raphelson, 4/28)

PBS NewsHour: The Dangerous Global Flood Of Misinformation Surrounding COVID-19 
Misinformation and conspiracy theories about COVID-19 have spread rapidly online, creating what some experts are now calling an “infodemic.” Health officials across the globe are scrambling to refute a flood of bogus claims, some of which could have harmful consequences. (Yang, Lane and Fritz, 4/28)

The New York Times: Coronavirus Antibody Test: What You Need To Know
As states across the country weigh options for reopening after weeks of stay-at-home orders, antibody tests have emerged as a potential pathway on how — and when — to do it. But there are many caveats, as a recent study found that many of the antibody tests available currently provided inaccurate results. Antibody tests look for signs in the blood that a person has been exposed to the novel coronavirus. (Herrera, 4/29)

NBC News: What Is Antigen Testing? How A New Test Could Help Track The Coronavirus Outbreak
Cities and states across the country are looking to expand coronavirus testing as part of efforts to emerge from lockdowns, but two major barriers remain: how to screen huge parts of the population and how to do it quickly. Antigen testing, which can offer faster results with less lab work, is the newest idea beginning to take hold. (Chow, 4/28)

ProPublica: What Antibody Studies Can Tell You — And More Importantly, What They Can’t
In the past two weeks, researchers across America have begun announcing results from studies showing that there have been many more coronavirus infections in their communities than were previously recorded. Findings have come in from Santa Clara County, California, as well as Los Angeles, New York, Chelsea, Massachusetts, and Miami-Dade County, Florida. The debates began immediately. What did the study results actually mean? If more people were infected than previously known, did that mean the death rate is actually lower than previously thought? Is the coronavirus actually more like the flu, after all? (Chen, 4/28)

Politico: House Investigators Grill Companies Marketing Questionable Coronavirus Antibody Tests
A House subcommittee is driving up pressure Wednesday on companies marketing coronavirus antibody tests that may fail to meet "a reasonable standard of accuracy." Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), chairman of the House Oversight subcommittee on economic and consumer policy, wrote to four companies — including one that's issuing tests in partnership with a major American medical tech company — requesting details of the firms' contact with the FDA, data supporting the accuracy of their tests and a list of medical facilities who have purchased test kits from the companies. (Cheney, 4/29)

ABC News: Democrats Question Accuracy Of New Coronavirus Antibody Tests 
The House Oversight Committee sent letters to four companies manufacturing and distributing antibody tests with concerns about their results on Tuesday, after a recent preliminary study of more than a dozen tests found that many were less sensitive than advertised, leaving risks of false-negative or positives. The panel is “concerned that [the Food and Drug Administration] is not conducting substantive review of serological tests that it has allowed on the market and that those tests may not meet a reasonable standard of accuracy,” Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Illinois, the chairman of the panel’s Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy, said in letters to the companies. (Siegel, 4/29)

Kaiser Health News: Consumer Beware: Coronavirus Antibody Tests Are Still A Work In Progress
After hearing for months about serious access issues involving tests that diagnose COVID-19 based on swabs from the nose or throat, Americans are being inundated with reports about promising new tests that look for signs of infection in the blood. There are high hopes for these antibody tests, which detect proteins that form in blood as part of the body’s immune response to an invading virus. (Aleccia, 4/27)

The Wall Street Journal: Mitch McConnell Wants To Shield Companies From Liability In Coronavirus-Related Suits
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told Republican lawmakers on a private call that he wants to shield companies from liability over pandemic-related suits and doesn’t support including an infrastructure package in a coronavirus relief bill, according to people familiar with the call, despite President Trump’s push for infrastructure investment. The Kentucky Republican is responding to a major push by American businesses, which are getting hit with lawsuits as workers in meat-processing facilities, grocery stores, retailers and other locations get sick or die from Covid-19. (Andrews, 4/28)

The Hill: McConnell Draws 'Red Line' On Coronavirus Bill: It Won't Pass Without 'Liability Protection' 
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Tuesday that the next coronavirus bill has to include liability protections for employers or it will not pass the Senate. "My red line going forward on this bill is we need to provide protection, litigation protection, for those who have been on the front lines. ... We can't pass another bill unless we have liability protection," McConnell said during an interview on Fox News, calling the additional legal protections a "condition" for the bill. (Carney, 4/28)

The New York Times: Businesses Seek Sweeping Shield From Coronavirus Liability Before They Reopen
Business lobbyists and executives are pushing the Trump administration and Congress to shield American companies from a wide range of potential lawsuits related to reopening the economy amid the coronavirus pandemic, opening a new legal and political fight over how the nation deals with the fallout from Covid-19. Government officials are beginning the slow process of lifting restrictions on economic activity in states and local areas across the country. (Tankersley and Savage, 4/28)

Politico: Democrats Dismiss McConnell's 'Sad' New Coronavirus Offer
Democratic leaders are panning Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's offer to marry new liability protections with aid to state and city governments, signaling a tough fight for Congress' next round of coronavirus aid. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said in an interview on Monday afternoon that he is "going to insist" that providing liability protections to businesses and employees be part of the next bill that will provide billions to local governments. But Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) may not go along. (Everett and Caygle, 4/28)

Politico: Trump Suggests Federal Bailout For States Could Hinge On Sanctuary City Policies
President Donald Trump on Tuesday suggested that state and local bailout money from the federal government could hinge on whether the immigration policies of the individual governments seeking relief align with Trump administration priorities. From skyrocketing health care expenses to the costs of an unprecedented economic shutdown, the coronavirus has imperiled state and local budgets across the country, prompting calls for federal relief. (Ward, 4/28)

The Hill: Schumer Ramps Up Offensive On Lack Of GOP Oversight Of Trump's Coronavirus Response 
Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Democratic colleagues sent a letter Tuesday to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Republican chairmen urging them to hold oversight hearings on the Trump administration’s handling of the coronavirus crisis. In a follow-up phone call with the Senate Democratic Conference Tuesday afternoon, Schumer told colleagues that Democrats will make oversight of the Trump administration’s handling of the crisis a major issue in the weeks ahead. (Bolton, 4/28)

Reuters: U.S. House Not Returning Next Week, Trump Says Democrats On 'Vacation'
Lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives will not return to Washington next week as planned, due to the continuing risk of coronavirus infection, Democratic leaders said on Tuesday, a reversal of plans outlined only a day earlier. (Cornwell and Morgan, 4/28)

The Washington Post: House Drops Plans To Return To D.C., Citing Virus Risk; McConnell Vows Senate Will Vote Monday
With proposed changes allowing for more significant remote work on hold amid a partisan uproar, the House will remain largely sidelined while Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) brings his chamber into session next week to process President Trump’s judicial nominees and start work on a new coronavirus relief bill. The House decision, announced by Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) on a Tuesday morning call with reporters, came less than a day after he told lawmakers to prepare to return to Washington on May 4. (DeBonis and Kim, 4/28)

The Hill: House Reverses, But Senate To Return Despite COVID Threat 
House Democrats on Tuesday reversed course on plans to bring the chamber back into session next week as Senate Republicans vowed to return despite a growing number of coronavirus cases in Washington, D.C. The contrasting approaches of the two chambers over whether it’s safe for Congress to be in session served as a microcosm of the broader partisan fight over how and when to reopen the nation’s economy. (Marcos and Lillis, 4/28)

Politico: House Drops Plan To Return After Lawmaker Backlash
“We made a judgment that we will not come back next week but that we hope to come back very soon,” Hoyer told reporters on a press call. Hoyer said he and Pelosi made the decision to halt plans to return after consulting Monday evening with the Capitol’s attending physician, who warned that lawmakers could be at risk given the still-rising number of coronavirus cases in the Washington, D.C. area. Nearly 4,000 people have tested positive in D.C., as of Monday, plus thousands more in the Maryland and Virginia suburbs. (Ferris, Caygle and Zanona, 4/28)

The Associated Press: GDP Report To Show A Damaged Economy Sliding Into Recession
The U.S. economy began 2020 riding the crest of a record-long expansion with every expectation that its 11th year of growth would not be its last. Then the economy screeched to a sudden halt. And now it’s in free-fall. On Wednesday, the government will offer a glimpse of how dark the picture has grown and how much worse it could get as the coronavirus pandemic inflicts ruinous damage. (Crutsinger, 4/29)

The Wall Street Journal: Coronavirus Likely Led To Biggest Quarterly GDP Decline In Decade
Economists expect first-quarter U.S. gross domestic product, the broadest measure of goods and services produced across the economy, contracted at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.5% in the first three months of the year. The Commerce Department is due to release its initial estimate of first-quarter GDP on Wednesday. The report is likely to show the early impact of widespread disruptions in the U.S. economy caused by business and school shutdowns, social distancing and other initiatives aimed at containing the virus. These responses to the pandemic started in the final three weeks of the first quarter and were an abrupt shift from steady economic activity before the virus arrived. (Torry, 4/29)

NPR: GDP Forecast: Economy Shrank In 1st Quarter. But Worst Is Still To Come
Forecasters say even though that shock affected only the last few weeks of the quarter, it was more than enough to erase the gains of the previous 2 1/2 months. Daco estimates the nation's gross domestic product — the broadest measure of economic activity — shrank an an annual rate of more than 5% during the quarter. That would be the first quarterly contraction since 2014. Unfortunately, he said, that's "only the tip of the iceberg." (Horsley, 4/29)

Politico: Economists Urge Republicans To Ignore The Deficit
As economists urge Congress to infuse the economy with more funds to shield the nation from the coronavirus pandemic, Republican lawmakers have begun to waver, citing a familiar but long-neglected concern: the federal budget deficit. Both chambers are eyeing the next phase of a coronavirus relief package, on top of nearly $3 trillion already authorized. But Republicans are beginning to suggest Congress should hit a temporary pause button on spending, warning that all of the red ink could deal a crushing blow to the economy down the road. (Guida and Levine, 4/29)

Reuters: Much Of U.S. Economy Still Plugging Along Despite Coronavirus Pain
The coronavirus crisis would appear to have put the entire U.S. economy on ice. Twenty-six million people have filed for unemployment in just a month, with millions more likely waiting in electronic queues at overtaxed state unemployment systems. Still the U.S. job count stood at more than 152 million as of February. Paychecks are arriving for tens of millions of government workers, hospital, sanitation, utility and other employees deemed to be doing essential jobs; an army of employees working from home; and even chefs cooking for carry-out. (Schneider, 4/29)

The Associated Press: Consumer Confidence Plunges In April As Millions Lose Jobs
U.S. consumer confidence plunged in April as millions lost their jobs and there was an unprecedented deterioration of an index that monitors their attitudes about current business and work conditions. The Conference Board said Tuesday that its confidence index tumbled to a reading of 86.9, the lowest level in nearly six years and down from 118.8 in March. The index is composed of consumers’ assessment of present conditions and expectations about the future. (4/28)

The Hill: IRS Gets Coronavirus Payments Out Quickly But Imperfectly
In the month since President Trump signed a record $2.2 trillion coronavirus relief package, the IRS has been scrambling to implement key aspects of the measure at a time when most Americans are desperate for government aid. The IRS has won praise from experts for its ability to start implementing the law quickly, but its work hasn’t been perfect. The agency has been a source of frustration for tens of millions of Americans who are still awaiting their direct payments from the CARES Act that was signed into law on March 27. (Jagoda, 4/28)

The New York Times: Federal Reserve Discusses Crisis, And Powell Will Meet Press
Federal Reserve officials are wrapping up meetings on Wednesday after two months of nonstop action to avert financial calamity as the coronavirus roiled markets and upended the world economy. The gathering is a chance to consider how to position monetary policy for the trials ahead. The Fed is now back on its regular schedule after two emergency meetings in March. (Smialek, 4/29)

The Washington Post: His Name On Stimulus Checks, Trump Sends A Gushing Letter To 90 Million People
President Trump pushed to have his name printed on the economic stimulus payments the IRS is sending to tens of millions of Americans. Now he’s written a gushing letter to almost 90 million people, with his jagged signature in thick black pen. The one-page letter, with one side printed in English and the other in Spanish, was required by the coronavirus economic package approved by Congress as a record of a deposit from the Treasury Department. The law does not say who should mail the letter. (Rein and Singletary, 4/29)

USA Today: Coronavirus: COVID-19 Provides 'Opportunity' For US To Fight Poverty
Jeremiah Newson, 25, moved here from Chicago last year to be closer to his girlfriend and baby. He found a homeless shelter that helped him get three meals, transportation and medical care. When COVID-19 hit and he wasn't allowed to leave the shelter, Newson started sleeping on the streets where he thinks he's less likely to catch the coronavirus that causes the disease. But the poverty and homelessness he's faced since high school puts him and his immune system at high risk of other chronic health conditions that make him more vulnerable wherever he goes. (O'Donnell, 4/28)

NPR: As Governors Urge Businesses To Reopen, Workers May Be Pushed Off Unemployment
There's a call Laura Jean Truman is dreading and she's convinced it's just a matter of time before it comes. Truman, who's a server at Manuel's Tavern in Atlanta, Ga., says the source of her angst is the fear that sometime in the next few weeks her boss is going to call and say it's time to go back to work, putting her in the position of having to make a choice between her own safety and being able to pay the bills that continue to arrive despite the coronavirus. (Romo, 4/29)

PBS NewsHour: More States Lift Restrictions, As Small Businesses Struggle To Secure Relief
Nine states have begun lifting pandemic restrictions in a bid to revive struggling economies. Many small businesses have tried to secure financial relief from the federal government’s Paycheck Protection Program -- but the initiative’s second round has been plagued with technical problems. Meanwhile, some officials worry that without expanded testing, reopening is unsafe. (Nawaz, 4/28)

The Washington Post: Pandemic Triage: 29 Plans, 29 Different Approaches For Allocating Ventilators In The Event Of A Shortage
Who is given preference if there’s a shortage of ventilators? Who is not? Since the early days of the novel coronavirus pandemic, hospitals have been scrambling to update documents that describe how they would allocate scarce resources. Citing the sensitive nature of their life-or-death deliberations, many hospitals have declined to talk on the record about their plans. Now, a paper published in the Annals of Internal Medicine gives the first broad look at some of those rationing documents. (Cha, 4/28)

The Associated Press: Airway Experts' Work Puts Them Inches From Where Virus Lives
It starts with pulling on head-to-toe protective gear. Then comes a brisk walk down a hospital corridor, triple-gloved hands pushing a rattling anesthesia cart toward a door that leads to a frightened patient, gasping for air. Hundreds of times every week during this pandemic, doctors and nurses treating critically ill COVID-19 patients steel themselves for a procedure that remains anything but routine. (Tanner, 4/29)

Kaiser Health News: Widely Used Surgical Masks Are Putting Health Care Workers At Serious Risk
With medical supplies in high demand, federal authorities say health workers can wear surgical masks for protection while treating COVID-19 patients — but growing evidence suggests the practice is putting workers in jeopardy. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently said lower-grade surgical masks are “an acceptable alternative” to N95 masks unless workers are performing an intubation or another procedure on a COVID patient that could unleash a high volume of virus particles. (Luthra and Jewett, 4/28)

CNN: Lorna Breen, An ER Doctor Who Continued To Treat Patients After She Recovered From Covid-19 Has Died By Suicide
A New York City emergency room doctor who recovered from Covid-19 and continued to treat coronavirus patients has died by suicide, her father confirmed to CNN. Dr. Lorna Breen, 49, died a hero, said her father, Philip Breen. "She was in the trenches," he said. "She was a hero." (Romine, 4/28)

The Washington Post: Nurses Are Trying To Save Us From The Coronavirus Virus, And From Ourselves 
First, arrive at work before dawn. Then put on a head cover, foot covers, surgical scrubs, and a yellow plastic gown. Next, if one is available, the N95 mask. Fitting it to your face will be the most important 10 seconds of your day. It will protect you, and it will make your head throb. Then, a surgical mask over the N95. A face shield and gloves. Cocooned, you’ll taste your own recycled breath and hear your own heartbeat; you’ll sweat along every slope and crevice of your body. (Zak and Hesse, 4/28)

ABC News: The Grim Task Of Processing Death Certificates During The Coronavirus Pandemic 
Krista Martino is on a team of six at the Meriden City Hall in Connecticut. As part of social distancing measures during the coronavirus pandemic, they're divided equally into two shifts, each working two-and-a-half days a week. Martino doesn't know if they could handle working any more than that right now. As an assistant city clerk, the Connecticut resident signs marriage licenses, birth certificates and, with increasing frequency, death certificates. (Deliso and Wagschal, 4/28)

Kaiser Health News: Lost On The Frontline: A 9/11 First Responder, He Answered The Call During The Pandemic
America’s health care workers are dying. In some states, medical staff account for as many as 20% of known coronavirus cases. They tend to patients in hospitals, treating them, serving them food and cleaning their rooms. Others at risk work in nursing homes or are employed as home health aides. Some of them do not survive the encounter. Many hospitals are overwhelmed and some workers lack protective equipment or suffer from underlying health conditions that make them vulnerable to the highly infectious virus. (4/29)

Detroit Free Press: Feds: Allure Medical Employees With COVID-19 Treated Patients
Patients filled waiting rooms at Allure Medical's clinics, sitting next to each other and not adhering to social distancing recommendations aimed at preventing the spread of COVID-19. Employees worked without proper personal protective equipment, in close contact with each other and patients. Five employees tested positive for the coronavirus yet continued to work and treat mostly older patients, dozens of them in many cases. (Hall, 4/29)

KQED: Though Widely Discredited, Bakersfield Doctors' COVID-19 Test Conclusions Spread Like Wildfire 
They dressed in scrubs. They sounded scientific. And last week’s message from two Bakersfield doctors was exactly what many stuck-at-home Americans wanted to hear: COVID-19 is no worse than influenza, its death rates are low and we should all go back to work and school. ...But public health experts were quick to point out the major flaws in the doctors’ methodology – namely that only a tiny percentage of Californians have actually been tested, a group that is more likely to test positive and is not representative of the larger population. (Ostrov, 4/28)

San Francisco Chronicle: Bay Area Hospitals Slash Workers’ Pay As Losses From Coronavirus Pile Up 
Since mid-March, Bay Area hospitals have delayed most surgeries and turned away many face-to-face visits with nonemergency patients. The mandatory safety measures cost the medical centers their primary source of revenue as they prepared for the COVID-19 surge that, for the most part, never came. (Moench, 4/28)

Politico: How The Coronavirus Is Upending Medical Privacy
Apple and Google are building massive coronavirus tracking apps. Government officials are disclosing infections to the public and pitching "immunity passports" and gadgets that can tell if an infected person leaves their house. It’s all in the name of public health. And it’s a privacy nightmare — a setback for pre-pandemic efforts to create new safeguards for digital medical data and update the HIPAA privacy law. (Tahir and Ravindranath, 4/28)

The New York Times: A Scramble For Virus Apps That Do No Harm
Faced with a growing coronavirus threat, the governor of North Dakota last month posed a question to a friend from his private-sector days. The friend, a software engineer, had once created a location-tracking app for football fans at North Dakota State University who liked to meet up when traveling to big games. “Can you track people for Covid?” asked the governor, Douglas Burgum. Within days, the engineer, Tim Brookins, had reworked the football app to do just that, he recalled in an interview. The app is now being used in North and South Dakota as part of statewide efforts to ramp up contact tracing for people infected with the coronavirus. (Valentino-DeVries, Singer and Krolik, 4/29)

The New York Times: Why Zoom Is Terrible
There are reasons to be wary of the technology, beyond the widely reported security and privacy concerns. Psychologists, computer scientists and neuroscientists say the distortions and delays inherent in video communication can end up making you feel isolated, anxious and disconnected (or more than you were already). You might be better off just talking on the phone. The problem is that the way the video images are digitally encoded and decoded, altered and adjusted, patched and synthesized introduces all kinds of artifacts: blocking, freezing, blurring, jerkiness and out-of-sync audio. These disruptions, some below our conscious awareness, confound perception and scramble subtle social cues. Our brains strain to fill in the gaps and make sense of the disorder, which makes us feel vaguely disturbed, uneasy and tired without quite knowing why. (Murphy, 4/29)

Stat: In Fading Steel Towns, Chronically Ill Patients Hope Video Visits Stay 
Ordinarily Trueman Mills makes the trek to his cardiologist by car. He lives in rolling hills at the edge of Allegheny National Forest, about 90 miles from his doctor in Pittsburgh. It is a setting as beautiful as it is inconvenient for patients with congestive heart failure, a condition that in late March caused Mills’ legs to swell into balloon-like shapes he could barely recognize. Luckily for him, the Covid-19 pandemic came with a big silver lining: His doctor, Ravi Ramani, offered to examine him via video conference. (Ross, 4/29)

Calmatters: Telehealth Is Having A Huge Moment During Coronavirus Crisis 
California doctors are diagnosing anything from appendicitis to strep throat with only a phone during the coronavirus pandemic. Video visits and conversations are the closest doctors can get to patients who are sheltering in place and avoiding potential exposure from doctor visits. (Ibarra and Aguilera, 4/28)

Politico: ‘The Nightmare Scenario’: How Coronavirus Could Make The 2020 Vote A Disaster
For a certain segment of the American electorate, the onset of the coronavirus pandemic birthed a 2020 nightmare scenario, with an embattled President Donald Trump delaying the November election. But the prospect that terrifies election experts isn’t the idea that Trump moves the election (something he lacks the power to do); it’s something altogether more plausible: Despite an ongoing pandemic, the 2020 election takes place as planned, and America is totally unprepared. (Stanton, 4/28)

WBUR: States Expand Internet Voting Experiments Amid Pandemic, Raising Security Fears 
Election officials nationwide are preparing for what may the highest election turnout in modern history in the middle of a pandemic. In response, several states will be turning to a relatively new and untested form of Internet-based voting to aid the voters who may have the most trouble getting to the polls.In the latest demonstration of the technology, Delaware will allow voters with disabilities to return their ballots electronically in its primary election next month, becoming the second U.S. state to do so. The decision comes despite grave warnings from the cybersecurity community that the technology doesn't offer sufficient safeguards to protect the integrity of an election. (Parks, 4/28)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin Coronavirus Deaths Hit 300; Fauci: In-Person DNC Possible
Milwaukee hosting an in-person Democratic National Convention isn't off the table, one of the nation's top health officials said Tuesday, even as the state works to control the pandemic that has now killed 300 in Wisconsin. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel it is still possible that Milwaukee will be able to host an in-person 2020 DNC, something others have cast doubt upon.  (Hauer and Glauber, 4/28)

The New York Times: ‘A Terrible Price’: The Deadly Racial Disparities Of Covid-19 In America
When the Krewe of Zulu parade rolled out onto Jackson Avenue to kick off Mardi Gras festivities on Feb. 25, the party started for black New Orleans. Tens of thousands of people lined the four-and-a-half-mile route, reveling in the animated succession of jazz musicians, high-stepping marching bands from historically black colleges and universities and loose-limbed dancers dressed in Zulu costumes, complete with grass skirts and blackface makeup, an homage to the Zulu people of South Africa and, for some, a satirical spit in the eye to the past, when Mardi Gras was put on by clubs of white men who barred black people from taking part. (Villarosa, 4/29)

The 19th: Black Activists And Officials See A Major Threat In South’s Plans To Reopen
As Southern governors are reopening the region this week, black activists are joining with local and federal lawmakers to sound the alarm about what they see as a looming threat to the Black Belt. They say the mostly white, male Republicans — who were reluctant to close their states but are now eager to reopen — are effectively issuing a “death sentence” for millions of black Americans who have been disproportionately impacted both economically and medically by coronavirus. (Haines, 4/28)

ABC News: COVID-19 Exposes Mistrust, Health Care Inequality Going Back Generations For African Americans 
Tanya Fields had textbook COVID-19 symptoms. She was lethargic, and experienced chills, body aches, fever and a dry cough. Rather than going to the hospital, she opted to recover in her three-bedroom South Bronx apartment with no real way to isolate from her six children. "Black folks don’t get treated well in hospitals and so if I can stay at home and get better, if I don't need a prescription from the hospital, why the hell am I going?," Fields, an activist, told ABC News. (Harper, 4/28)

In other news on disparities —

Politico: The Next Pandemic: Rising Inequality
With social distancing here to stay for the foreseeable future, it’s becoming increasingly clear that the next stage of the pandemic is going to change many lives for the worse. Specifically, it’s going to exasperate existing inequalities, as the privileged buffer themselves against its pernicious effects while the world’s most vulnerable struggle not to fall through the rapidly widening economic fissures. Take schools. Even as some countries reopen classrooms — some with limited attendance, or alternated timetables — there’s still uncertainty about how and when a generation of young people, from nursery age to postgraduate, will be able to get their education permanently back on track. (Cooper, 4/28)

Modern Healthcare: Nearly A Third Of Americans Have Put Off Healthcare During COVID-19
Around 1 in 3 Americans are delaying medical care as they cope with the financial losses and stress caused by COVID-19, new studies show. Thirty-one percent of more than 9,000 adults surveyed in late March and early April said they haven't had medical care in the past month, are unable to pay their rent, mortgage or utility bills, or don't have access to enough nutritious food, according to a new poll by the Urban Institute. In another survey released Tuesday, 29% of more than 2,200 adults surveyed said they had avoided medical care because they are concerned about contracting the virus, according to a Morning Consult-American College of Emergency Physicians poll conducted last week. (Kacik, 4/28)

NPR: Survey: Seniors Say They Put Off Some Medical Treatments During Social Isolation
More than half of older Americans, many with chronic conditions, put off medical treatment during the first month of social distancing. That's according to a nationwide survey funded by the SCAN Foundation and the John A. Hartford Foundation, both of which focus on improving care for older adults. (Jaffe, 4/28)

The New York Times: ‘Will You Help Save My Brother?’: The Scramble To Find Covid-19 Plasma Donors
The doctor was dying. Without a way to improve his breathing, Dr. Vladimir Laroche was not likely to survive Covid-19. An internist who spent almost four decades caring for the sick, Dr. Laroche contracted the disease last month while treating patients at a health center and drive-up testing site for the novel coronavirus. In a week’s time, he quickly spiraled. He went from noticing a stubborn sore throat to experiencing flulike symptoms that forced him to leave work early to fighting the virus in the intensive care unit of a Florida hospital. (Burch and Harmon, 4/29)

The Wall Street Journal: The Roads Are Quieter Due To Coronavirus, But There Are More Fatal Car Crashes
Fewer drivers are hitting the road during the pandemic, yet police in some places have made an unexpected discovery: an increase in deadly car crashes. Minnesota and Louisiana recorded more traffic fatalities during the coronavirus crisis than in the same periods of past years, even though there were far fewer drivers on the road because of stay-at-home orders. In states including Missouri, fatality rates increased even as total crash deaths declined, according to state officials. (Calvert, 4/29)

The Washington Post: Cities Fear Heat Waves Will Quickly Become Deadly.
The windowless corridor on a 20th floor in the Mott Haven Houses — a cluster of public-housing towers in the South Bronx — felt like a thoroughfare, even in the middle of a pandemic when residents are supposed to be avoiding one another. People and their dogs poured out of the elevator, joining others in an already crowded hallway. Many residents kept their apartment doors open, allowing for a slight breeze even though the air stank of urine in some places and bleach in others. (Yuan, Craig and Bailey, 4/28)

Stat: Patients, Drug Makers Grapple With Cancer Clinical Trials During Coronavirus
The coronavirus pandemic has thrown a wrench into plans for hundreds of clinical trials seeking therapies for diseases beyond Covid-19. But some investigators and sponsors are trying to push ahead, tailoring ways to keep patients enrolled while keeping them safe and to ensure the trial can still produce rigorous evidence of whether or not a drug works. (Joseph, 4/29)

The Wall Street Journal: Harlem Pastor Increases Focus On Church’s Mental Health As Covid-19 Takes Toll
The Rev. Michael Walrond Jr. spent the earliest days of the pandemic getting used to remote church services. Since then the outreach strategy has changed, giving has slipped and encouragement has become a theme in sermons. The crisis has taken a prolonged toll on the people who attend First Corinthian Baptist Church in Harlem, where Mr. Walrond serves as senior pastor. This has him increasingly focused on addressing the long-term issues that will result from coping with anxiety and loss. (Johnson, 4/29)

ABC News: More Children Ingesting Hand Sanitizers Due To Manufacturing Lapses: FDA 
As the novel coronavirus epidemic continues, horrific stories have been reported of children becoming sick from drinking hand sanitizers. This week, the Food and Drug Administration warned that some of the 1,500 hand sanitizer manufacturers are skipping a vital step in production -- omitting the denatured alcohol that's needed to make the product bitter and less appealing to consume. (Taghipour, 4/28)

PBS NewsHour: ‘Truly The Last Safe Haven’: Libraries Serve Vulnerable Communities During The Pandemic 
Like so many other services, libraries around the country have had to quickly adapt to the shutdowns and distancing measures put in place as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, but also to figure out how to reach the most vulnerable members of their communities under the new restrictions. In Carroll Country, people are using the new curbside book pickup, set up by Thornton’s staff in response to the virus. Community members can also still access critical digital services, like WiFi, in light of the economic downturn. (Vinopal, 4/28)

The New York Times: Pug In North Carolina Tests Positive For The Coronavirus, Researchers Say
A pug in North Carolina named Winston has tested positive for the coronavirus in what is apparently the first known case in which the virus was detected in a dog in the United States, researchers at Duke University said on Tuesday. The dog belongs to a Chapel Hill family participating in a research study at the university, in which researchers were trying to understand how humans respond to different types of infection. Three of the family members, Dr. Heather McLean, Dr. Samuel McLean and their son Ben McLean, were also infected by the virus. (Hauser and Gross, 4/28)

WBUR: Child Sexual Abuse Reports Are On The Rise Amid Lockdown Orders 
There has been a rise in the number of minors contacting the National Sexual Assault Hotline to report abuse. That's according to RAINN, the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network, which runs the hotline. By the end of March, with much of the country under lockdown, there was a 22% increase in monthly calls from people younger than 18, and half of all incoming contacts were from minors. That's a first in RAINN's history, Camille Cooper, the organization's vice president of public policy, tells NPR. (Kamenetz, 4/28)

KQED: Isolated COVID-19 Deaths Have People Asking About Right-To-Die Medications 
Healthy callers are asking for advice about how to write into their advanced directives for medical care that they want to take life-ending medication if they became ill from the coronavirus to ensure a quick, peaceful death. Dembosky, 4/28)

Kaiser Health News: The Challenges Of Keeping Young Adults Safe During The Pandemic
Last month, after California Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered most of the state’s residents to stay home, I found myself under virtual house arrest with an uncomfortably large number of Gen Zers. Somehow I had accumulated four of my children’s friends over the preceding months. I suppose some parents more hard-nosed than I would have sent them packing, but I didn’t have the heart — especially in the case of my daughter’s college roommate, who couldn’t get back to her family in Vietnam. (Wolfson, 4/29)

Boston Globe: Airline Catering Workers Getting Infected, Hospitalized At High Rate, Union Says
Airlines are carrying only a fraction of the passengers they did before the coronavirus pandemic struck, but thousands of airline catering workers are still on the job, preparing meals, packaging snack boxes, filling carts with drinks — and loading them on planes flying all over the world. This largely hidden workforce, made up primarily of immigrants and people of color, many of whom can’t afford health insurance, is at great risk of contracting the virus, according to one of the unions that represent them. Which means the passengers they’re feeding could be at higher risk, too. (Johnston, 4/28)

The New York Times: ‘Life Has To Go On’: How Sweden Has Faced The Virus Without A Lockdown
Trust is high in Sweden — in government, institutions and fellow Swedes. When the government defied conventional wisdom and refused to order a wholesale lockdown to “flatten the curve” of the coronavirus epidemic, public health officials pointed to trust as a central justification. Swedes, they said, could be trusted to stay home, follow social distancing protocols and wash their hands to slow the spread of the virus — without any mandatory orders. And, to a large extent, Sweden does seem to have been as successful in controlling the virus as most other nations. (Erdbrink and Anderson, 4/28)

CNN: Sweden Says Its Coronavirus Approach Has Worked. The Numbers Suggest A Different Story
Sweden has been an outlier during the coronavirus outbreak. The country has not joined many of its European neighbors in imposing strict limits on citizens' lives, and images of people heading to work on busy streets, or chatting at cafes and bars have raised eyebrows. ... The death rate in Sweden has now risen significantly higher than many other countries in Europe, reaching more than 22 per 100,000 people, according to figures from Johns Hopkins University, controlled for population. (Reynolds, 4/28)

The New York Times: Greece Curbs Coronavirus, Defying Expectations
For years, Greece has been seen as one of the European Union’s most troubled members, weighed down by a financial crisis, corruption and political instability. But in the coronavirus pandemic, the country has emerged as a welcome surprise: its outbreak appears to be far more limited than what was expected. As the virus spread across Europe, many Greeks feared the worst: They would be the next Italy or Spain. (Magra, 4/28)

The Associated Press: Making Public Transport Safe Next Hurdle In Easing Lockdowns
In cities around the world, public transport systems are the key to getting workers back on the job and restarting devastated economies, yet everything from trains to buses to ferries to bicycles will have to be re-imagined for the coronavirus era. In Europe in particular, public transport is shaping up as a new front line in the battle to tame the pandemic that has already killed over 120,000 of its citizens. (Corder, Charlton and Blake, 4/29)

The Associated Press: China To Convene Congress, Showing Confidence In Virus Fight
China, taking a step toward a return to business as normal, announced Wednesday that its previously postponed national legislature session will be held in late May. The National People’s Congress, delayed from early March because of the coronavirus outbreak, will start on May 22, the official Xinhua News Agency said. It wasn’t immediately clear whether the 3,000 or so delegates would come to Beijing for what is the biggest political meeting of the year, or if it would be held virtually through videoconference. (Moritsugu, 4/29)

The New York Times: Coronavirus Diplomacy: How China’s Red Cross Serves The Communist Party
Donations flooded in to fight the virus devastating the city of Wuhan, and the ruling Communist Party directed them to a group it could trust: the Chinese Red Cross. Bearing the familiar red-and-white logo, it looks just like any Red Cross group that rushes to disasters, deploys medics and raises funds across the world with political neutrality and independence. But there is a big difference: China’s Red Cross has been built, funded and directed by the Chinese Communist Party — effectively making it an arm of the state, and at times pitting the group’s goal of helping people against the party’s interests in maintaining control over society. (Hernandez and Wee, 4/28)

The Associated Press: UN: New Polio Outbreak In Niger After Vaccination Suspended
The World Health Organization says Niger has been struck by a new outbreak of polio, following the suspension of immunization activities during the COVID-19 pandemic. (Cheng, 4/29)

The Associated Press: IOC Official Disagrees COVID-19 Vaccine Needed For Olympics
The head of the IOC’s coordination commission for the Tokyo Olympics said Wednesday he disagrees with suggestions by some scientists and doctors that a vaccine for COVID-19 is needed to hold the games. John Coates, an International Olympic Committee member from Australia who is a lawyer, said he had seen the opinion but didn’t agree. (4/29)

The Associated Press: Virus Lockdown Worsens Suffering For Johannesburg Beggars
The country’s far-reaching restrictions have been in effect since March 27 and residents must stay home, except for visits to grocery stores, pharmacies and health facilities. The lockdown will be eased starting May 1, but this is unlikely to help the beggars, because people will still be required to stay home. (Janssen, 4/29)

Stat: California Fines A Dozen Drug Makers For Not Providing Drug Pricing Data
Over the past six months, California state authorities fined more than a dozen drug makers a total of $17.5 million for failing to report price hikes as required by law, and more than half of the penalties were levied since the beginning of the year, according to data obtained by STAT. To date, the state has only collected $4.8 million, as some fines were settled for lower amounts and other companies have yet to either make a payment or reach a settlement, according to a spokesperson for the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development, which administers the law. (Silverman, 4/28)

Stat: Most Americans Believe Trump Hasn't Made Progress On Drug Prices
More than one-third of U.S. adults believe that prescription drug prices have increased a lot since 2017, the first year of the Trump administration, and only 7% think prices have dropped at all, a new poll finds. Consequently, 65% of Americans say the administration has not made very much progress or no progress at all in limiting the rising cost of medicines. (Silverman, 4/28)

Bloomberg: When Will Virus Vaccine Be Ready? Group Says Maybe This Year
A vaccine to halt the coronavirus pandemic could be available as early as this year for vulnerable groups such as health-care workers, even faster than initially thought, according to a key group at the heart of the global development effort. The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, which is funding nine different coronavirus vaccine projects, has previously suggested a shot could be ready within 12 to 18 months, an already ambitious target. That assessment didn’t account for the possibility of companies working closely together to accelerate the process, faster enrollment in human trials and other factors, according to Richard Hatchett, the head of the Oslo-based organization. (Paton, 4/27)

Stat: The Coronavirus Pandemic Could Shrink Biotech Startup Valuations 
Determining a private company’s value means estimating how and when it might be able to start and then complete successful clinical trials, or when it will get a regulator’s approval to manufacture and sell a drug. But the coronavirus pandemic means every step in that process has become far more uncertain in the past two months — and that added uncertainty means some biotech companies may be worth less on paper than they were before. (Sheridan, 4/23)

Bloomberg: Chinese Alzheimer’s Drug Gets U.S. Approval For Stateside Trial
A Chinese drugmaker has received approval from the Food and Drug Administration to start clinical trials in the U.S. for a breakthrough Alzheimer’s drug as it seeks global validation for the controversial therapy. Shanghai Green Valley Pharmaceutical Co. got clearance on April 8 for the U.S. part of a global trial that seeks to enroll more than 2,000 patients with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer’s across North America, Europe and Asia, according to a company statement Sunday. (4/26)

Stat: Cystic Fibrosis Drug Needs To Be Cheaper To Be Cost-Effective, Analysis Finds
Anewly approved treatment from Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX) that targets roughly 90% of all cystic fibrosis patients may be a groundbreaking therapy, but requires a steep discount of at least 73% to be cost effective, a new analysis finds. And three older cystic fibrosis treatments sold by the company would also have to be similarly discounted in order to justify their pricing. Notably, the Trikafta medication, which was approved last fall by the Food and Drug Administration amid widespread praise, would need to be priced at $67,900 to $85,500 a year, according to the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review, a nonprofit that conducted the analysis. This is dramatically less than the current wholesale price of $311,740 for the drug, which patients must take for their entire lives. (Silverman, 4/27)

Bloomberg: Teva Wins Ruling On Patents For Bendeka Cancer Drug
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. won a ruling that could keep its cancer drug Bendeka free from generic competition for more than a decade. A federal judge in Delaware on Monday ruled that proposed generic versions of Bendeka by Mylan NV, Fresenius SE’s Fresenius Kabi, closely held Apotex Inc. and Slayback Pharma LLC infringe as many as four Teva patents on the drug, which has generated more than $2 billion in sales since its 2016 launch. (Yasiejko,m 4/27)

Stat: Gilead Sues U.S., Claiming It 'Secretly' Obtained Patents On HIV Research That Led To Truvada
Gilead Sciences (GILD) has accused the U.S. government of breaching several contracts and “secretly” obtaining patents stemming from research that led to the ground-breaking Truvada HIV-prevention pill. In a lawsuit filed late Friday, the drug maker claimed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention violated the terms of a 15-year-old collaboration by failing to notify the company of patents that were later sought and awarded on the research. (Silverman, 4/26)

Bloomberg: Coronavirus Vaccine News: Sanofi Says Manufacturing A Hurdle
As others squabble over the timing and details of how to develop such a vaccine, Sanofi Chief Executive Officer Paul Hudson points further ahead to the continent’s ability to produce enough to meet demand. "There is less concern about finding a successful vaccine than there is about making the volumes needed,” Hudson told reporters on Friday. “The biggest untold story in Europe right now is the one about the number of doses.” Sanofi is working with rival GlaxoSmithKline Plc to develop a vaccine against the new coronavirus, racing against other pharma giants such as Johnson & Johnson as well as nimbler biotechs such as Moderna Inc. Most of them aim to deliver a shot sometime next year. (Paton, 4/24)

Stat: If A Vaccine Quenches Covid-19, What Will Pharma Want In Return?
Make no mistake: The only long-term solution to the Covid-19 pandemic is a safe and effective vaccine. The current focus on identifying effective treatments, while important, serve only as a temporary Band-Aid. We don’t know yet if hydroxychloroquine, remdesivir, or any of the other repurposed drugs currently being tested in a blitzkrieg of quickly designed clinical trials are going to work and save lives. It’s highly likely that most of them, if not all of them, will fail or be only marginally helpful. Plasma obtained from people who have beaten Covid-19, filled with virus-neutralizing antibodies, is likelier to be of some help. (Stewart Lyman, 4/21)

Stat: The Success Of A Covid-19 Vaccine Will Hinge On Its Delivery
The lesson learned from a long history of using vaccines to fight massively disruptive diseases like smallpox and Ebola is that the vaccine itself is not enough. Like a good punch line, it’s all about the delivery. The smallpox vaccine was an average one with a limited supply. But small, dedicated teams implemented a winning strategy for it. They focused on rapidly identifying individuals with smallpox and then vaccinating people in their circle or “ring” of potential contacts, creating a cordon of immunity that kept the disease out. The same strategy was recently employed with impressive results in the fight against Ebola. (Lois Privor-Dumm, Naor Bar Zeev and Maria Deloria Knoll, 4/25)

The Hill: COVID-19: Time To Reexamine The Orphan Drug Act And Find An Alternative
The COVID-19 pandemic has shown the resiliency of the U.S. health care system — particularly the innovative public and private efforts to develop new treatments and vaccines and the strength of the drug supply chain to ensure access to essential medications. Publicly and privately funded researchers around the world have been working on vaccines and treatments for COVID-19 at speeds that would have seemed unthinkable before this crisis. The FDA has found ways to fast track these drugs for eventual approval.  However, the pandemic has also highlighted some of the system’s flaws — like the Orphan Drug Act (ODA). (Mathew Lane, 4/25)

Bloomberg: Novartis Keeps 2020 Forecasts On Gains From Key Drugs
A study evaluating a Novartis AG cholesterol drug stopped enlisting patients due to Covid-19, the latest example of how the pandemic is hampering research across the industry. The Swiss drugmaker has paused new enrollment in a large U.K. clinical trial called Orion-4 that’s evaluating the experimental heart drug inclisiran, Chief Executive Officer Vas Narasimhan said in a Bloomberg Television interview. The potential blockbuster was central to Novartis’s $9.7 billion takeover of Medicines Co. last year. Novartis is far from alone as regulators around the world ask researchers to avoid in-person interactions and try using telephone or video instead, and as medical centers focus on tackling the coronavirus. (James Paton, 4/28)

Stat: The Covid-19 Pandemic Could Be The Start Of The 'Biotech Century'
If you had infinite foresight and knew a pathogen like Covid-19 was coming, what would you do to prepare? You’d certainly stockpile N95 masks and ventilators. But you’d also invest billions of dollars, or perhaps even trillions, in biopharma research and development to get ready to fight back. The latter is exactly what we have done. Since 1995, businesses and government agencies have spent almost $2 trillion on health-related R&D in the United States alone. From that spending has come a series of scientific and medical successes, including the sequencing of the human genome, the taming of HIV, a cure for hepatitis C, the slow rollout of gene therapies, immunotherapy for cancer, and more. (Michael Mandel, 4/27)

Stat: Primary Care Must Be Saved From Being Devastated By Covid-19 
As the U.S. nears 60,000 deaths due to Covid-19, primary care could be among its next casualties. Half of the primary care practices in America are small businesses, which means they are battling the virus on the frontlines even as they are on the verge of going out of business. The reason for this dynamic is that most of these practices, and much of our health care system, rely on an outdated payment model: Each in-person visit with a patient generates a payment. Without in-person visits, there is little to no revenue. (Daniel Horn, Wayne Altman and Zirui Song, 4/29)

Modern Healthcare: Mandating Advanced Payments Would Hurt Insurers' Ability To Deliver For Patients
The near disappearance of routine care and elective surgeries as well as sharply higher supply and labor costs to prepare for a potential influx of critically ill COVID-19 patients have delivered a major blow to hospitals and other care providers. That's why health insurance providers supported massive federal financial support for hospitals, and many are working locally to speed reimbursement and deliver other assistance to providers. (Matt Eyles, 4/28)

The Washington Post: Beware Of Studies Claiming Covid-19 Death Rates Are Smaller Than Expected 
The covid-19 pandemic is sowing death, suffering and economic devastation across the world. Containing its deadly march will require answers to many questions, most of which we are only beginning to chip away at. Among the most critical: How many people have been infected, and how many are going to die? Does the virus kill in 1 in 20 or 1 in a 1,000? Two recent studies from California, using antibody tests designed to look for immune markers of previous infections, seem to suggest that the virus is much less deadly than many previously thought. But beware of these findings: They have not been vetted and should be recognized as such. (George Q. Daley, Stephen Elledge, Galit Alter and Michael Springer, 4/28)

Stat: People With Disabilities Are At A Disadvantage With Covid-19 
I have nightmares, whether I’m asleep or awake, as do many of us as we endure the trials of the Covid-19 pandemic. Will it strike us, our families, our friends? Social isolation weighs on, but not as much as the fear of being isolated from those we love in illness and in death. Mothers like me of children with significant mental or cognitive disabilities have yet another fear: If my child gets ill and needs hospitalization, especially when resources are scarce, the outcome is almost certain to be tragic, and I won’t be able to be there. (Eva Feder Kittay, 4/29)

The Hill: COVID-19 Going Forward — A US Perspective
COVID-19 is a grave pandemic, the worst we have seen since the 1918 flu pandemic. Its virus is not only harming and killing hundreds of thousands of us, but it is also creating despair and poverty. Its economic and mental health harms are incalculable... I have chosen not to summarize the harms but to ask what we can do to vanquish this invisible scourge over the next year. (Dr. Jonathan E. Fielding, 4/28)

The New York Times: Why Zoom Is Terrible
Last month, global downloads of the apps Zoom, Houseparty and Skype increased more than 100 percent as video conferencing and chats replaced the face-to-face encounters we are all so sorely missing. Their faces arranged in a grid reminiscent of the game show “Hollywood Squares,” people are attending virtual happy hours and birthday parties, holding virtual business meetings, learning in virtual classrooms and having virtual psychotherapy. But there are reasons to be wary of the technology, beyond the widely reported security and privacy concerns. Psychologists, computer scientists and neuroscientists say the distortions and delays inherent in video communication can end up making you feel isolated, anxious and disconnected (or more than you were already). You might be better off just talking on the phone. (Kate Murphy, 4/29)

Houston Chronicle: Health Care Workers Shouldn’t Have To Decide Between Their Own Health And That Of Patients. Period. 
From organizations like the Houston Food Bank stocking families’ pantries, to alcohol producers like Gulf Coast Distillers donating hand sanitizer, to a personal protective equipment (PPE) drive at Minute Maid Park — these stories are a reliable source of comfort amid so much uncertainty. As Texans work together to flatten the curve and support one another, I’m continuing the fight in Congress to get the resources our health care workers and local leaders need. (John Cornyn, 4/28)

Detroit Free Press: When It Comes To Emergency Food, Many People Can't Afford To 'Stay Home, Stay Safe'
The governor has urged Michiganders to “stay home, stay safe,” yet in this age of extreme social distancing, acquiring adequate food and supplies for vulnerable households becomes a challenge. For low-income individuals, the public health recommendations to stay home, limit food trips, and buy in bulk are nearly impossible. The current emergency food system is fragmented by rules, eligibility and limits on the quantity of food given, requiring families to navigate a complex system with varying days, times, and locations, often changing schedules from day to day. (Jennifer F. Lucarelli, 4/28)

Los Angeles Times: Trump's Meat Supply Fix Is A Recipe For Coronavirus Disaster
Dozens of beef, chicken and pork processing and packing plants have shut down across the nation as COVID-19 infections soar among workers. More plants are on the verge of closing on account of sick workers or facilities that need to be sanitized. Left with few buyers for their animals, farmers have begun to kill and dispose of healthy livestock while they wait for slaughterhouses to reopen. ...Unless plants are required to build coronavirus safeguards into their production lines, forcing them to stay open will be a recipe for disaster, not just for workers at the plant but for the communities in which they live. (4/29)

The Hill: As Slaughterhouse Workers Get Sick, Where Are The Food Regulators? 
In the past few weeks, the meat industry has quickly emerged as a new hotbed for COVID-19. At least 80 meatpacking plants have been idled by the virus as workers crammed together are sickened. Farmers with no place to slaughter animals are euthanizing them en masse, and the bottleneck is causing major meat companies like Tyson Foods to warn of meat shortages, a prospect not faced by Americans in generations. With the food system under threat, where are the food regulators? (Sarah Sorscher, 4/28)

Stat: We Need The Real CDC Back, And We Need It Now
As political leaders discuss relaxing social distancing restrictions and opening up the economy again, a majority of Americans are concerned about whether it is safe to do so. They have fundamental questions about how the nation is doing, what will happen after it opens up, whether we will be able to keep people safe, and could we have to shut down again. As we struggle our way through this, an essential element is missing: strong, effective leadership from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the premier public health agency in the world. (Ashish K. Jha, 4/29)

New York Daily News: That Unmasked Man: Mike Pence Misleads By Example
Vice President Mike Pence, White House coronavirus task force chair, daily doler-out of advice to defeat what his boss calls the “invisible enemy,” Tuesday toured Minnesota’s world-renowned Mayo Clinic, a hospital packed to the gills with infected people and caregivers. He interacted with doctors, nurses and sick patients. And, on the day confirmed U.S. cases topped 1 million, he did it without wearing a face covering. (4/28)

The Hill: 'Phase One' And Sports Arenas Don't Mix 
Last week, the Trump administration released the framework for states to use as they plan to restart the economy again... Phase one is extremely conservative, still emphasizing limiting private group gatherings to 10 or less, continuing physical distancing measures in public spaces, and minimizing non-essential travel. Schools and organized youth activities are to remain on hold. But within these guidelines are also the suggestion that large venues, including sporting venues, can begin to operate again under strict physical distancing guidelines. (Dr. Chad T. Carlson, 4/28)

Boston Globe: Exporting The Coronavirus Is Reckless 
The continued deportations are especially hypocritical for a White House that has used the threat of spreading coronavirus to crack down on immigration — for instance, by suspending the issuance of some green cards. But by continuing deportations flights, it’s the Trump administration that risks spreading the disease across international borders. (4/29)

The Hill: Congress Must Now Address This International Coronavirus Threat
With the new relief bill passed by Congress, the coronavirus has inspired four different packages of emergency legislation in less than two months. The first one focused on prevention, preparation, and response. It was a costly recognition that the United States was caught unprepared against the known danger of the pandemic. Meanwhile, work on other legislation has been pushed back, and funding of vital priorities has been delayed. (Iain King, 4/28)

Dallas Morning News: Gov. Greg Abbott’s Plan To Reopen Texas Requires Extensive Coronavirus Testing And Tracing
The transition from sheltering in place was never going to be without complications. Indeed, there is a lot of uncertainty at this point and that is fully understandable. No one knows whether businesses can operate at reduced levels or whether customers will be comfortable to seek a sit-down meal or roam a mall for the first time in weeks. The shelter-in-place orders had to end at some point and the state had to formulate a strategy on how to safely refuel a stalling economy. To make Gov. Greg Abbott’s reopening strategy work, testing and contact tracing to determine the virus’s spread also must be expanded quickly and efficiently. (4/29)

Dallas Morning News: Parkland Sees Rapid Increase In COVID-19 Cases With Most Intubations Yet
It is all but impossible to truly know where we stand in the fight against the coronavirus.Restrictive social distancing policies that have come at great economic cost clearly have helped lower infection rates across the country. In Dallas, we have not seen the surge in cases that officials rightly prepared for. But the growing sense that we are out of the woods as a community could be misleading, and one important data point shows us why. (4/28)

St. Louis Post Dispatch: Addressing The Threat Of Gun Violence During At-Home Isolation
When governors across the nation began to close schools, a positive thought flickered through my mind that at least we’d see a respite in nationwide school shootings this year in addition to slowing the spread of the coronavirus. But as quickly as it entered my head, a sobering realization followed. In our need to protect our community from disease, we might trade one gun-violence problem for an uptick in a larger one: gun violence at home. People often harbor the false impression that school shootings are the top gun violence threats to children. In reality, they account for a small percentage of gun violence deaths. According to Everytown for Gun Safety, firearms are the leading cause of death among children and teens in Missouri. That means we must seriously look at guns in our houses since firearms are the second-leading cause of death among children and teens. (Cynthia Changyit Levin, 4/28)

St. Louis Post Dispatch: Safely Resuming Classes Will Require Expert Advice, Not Presidential Musings.
As he tends to do, President Donald Trump on Monday injected an arbitrary and potentially dangerous proposition into the fight against the coronavirus. In a conference call with governors, he made the baffling suggestion to reopen schools before summer, reasoning that “young children have done very well in this disaster.” A few problems: One, as more information becomes available about this pandemic, it’s clear that the young aren’t as safe as once thought. Two, even kids who aren’t stricken can carry the virus asymptomatically, bringing it home to parents and grandparents. And, three, the school year is almost over. What, exactly, is the advantage in taking even a moderate risk of reopening now, only to have classes end in a few weeks? (4/28)

Kansas City Star: Missouri Could Pay A Steep Price For Gov. Mike Parson’s Rush To Reopen Businesses
Missouri Gov. Mike Parson on Monday released what he called a “phased approach” to relaxing coronavirus restrictions in the state.The order is dangerous at best. Parson said thousands of Missourians can return to working and playing on May 4, although with some restrictions. (4/28)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Free Enterprise Is Responding Well To COVID Crisis
Over the last few weeks, the power of free enterprise has been on full display as companies around the world have shifted, planned, reprogrammed and adjusted to protect employees and customers across a very different economic landscape. At the same time, we have witnessed small businesses and gig workers struggle in the economic aftermath of coronavirus. Thankfully, government leaders at the local, state and federal levels moved swiftly to enact major legislation saving thousands of U.S. companies, their employees and families. Though the road ahead will be difficult, the combined forces of a democratic republic and free enterprise will overcome. (Chris Clark, 4/28)