The Associated Press: Supreme Court Set To Hear Obamacare Case Argued By Phone
The Supreme Court’s third day of hearing arguments by telephone is its first chance at a high-profile case, this one involving the Affordable Care Act. The justices are hearing a dispute Wednesday about Trump administration rules that would allow more employers who cite a religious or moral objection to opt out of providing no-cost birth control to women. (Gresko and Sherman, 5/6)

NPR: Supreme Court To Hear Arguments In Obamacare-Birth Control Case
At issue in the case is a Trump administration rule that significantly cuts back on access to birth control under the Affordable Care Act. Obamacare, the massive overhaul of the health care system, sought to equalize preventive health care coverage for women and men by requiring employers to include free birth control in their health care plans. Houses of worship like churches and synagogues were automatically exempted from the provision, but religiously affiliated nonprofits like universities, charities and hospitals were not. (Totenberg, 5/6)

Roll Call: Supreme Court To Hear Significant Birth Control Coverage Case
Opponents of the rules say they could have decreased access to contraceptives for hundreds of thousands of women. But supporters of the rules say they are needed to protect against religious discrimination for employers whose beliefs conflict with contraception. Multiple district courts issued nationwide injunctions against the rules. And in a case brought by Pennsylvania and New Jersey, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit continued to block the rules. (Raman, 5/5)

CNBC: Listen Live: Supreme Court Weighs Trump Contraceptive Coverage Rules
The two previous cases that came to the Supreme Court over the coverage mandate concerned whether Obama administration requirements imposed too harsh a burden on employers with religious objections to providing or facilitating contraceptive coverage. Wednesday’s case is the first to reach the Supreme Court under President Donald Trump, and asks the opposite question: Whether Trump administration rules released in 2017 provide too wide of a carve out for religious and moral objectors to deny women coverage.  (Higgins, 5/6)

In other news —

The New York Times: Trump Pushes Young Republicans Away. Abortion Pulls Them Back.
Jose Francisco Rodriguez supports a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. Mary-Faith Martinez supports a public health care option. Ethan Lucky supports criminal justice reform. Autumn Crawford wants government action on climate change. One thing they have in common? They’re all Republicans. Like millennials, who are now in their mid-20s to 30s, members of Generation Z — born after 1996 — tend to lean left. But there are still plenty of young Republicans, and the generational divide that is so apparent between younger and older Democrats is no less present on the other side of the aisle. It’s just less visible. (Astor, 5/6)

The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Deaths Top 71,000, As Impact On Nursing Homes Mounts
As the confirmed U.S. death toll from the new coronavirus grew to more than 71,000, new data showed the pandemic’s devastating impact on nursing homes. New York state has recorded at least 4,813 confirmed and presumed deaths related to the coronavirus at nursing homes and adult-care facilities, including 71 confirmed fatalities at one facility, according to state data released Monday night. The number has grown quickly. An April 22 tally showed 3,505 deaths in the facilities statewide. The figures included confirmed cases and probable cases from some nursing homes. Globally, the number of deaths rose past 254,000, with 3.6 million confirmed coronavirus cases, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. (Honan, Brody and Calfas, 5/5)

Los Angeles Times: California Sees First Drop In Weekly Coronavirus Deaths
California recorded its first week-over-week decline in reported coronavirus deaths, a promising if preliminary sign of progress as Gov. Gavin Newsom prepared to reopen some businesses this week. Two weeks ago, California reported its highest one-week death toll — 542 fatalities among people infected with the coronavirus between April 20 and April 26. Last week, the weekly death toll fell for the first time, dropping nearly 9% to 495 fatalities for the seven-day period that ended Sunday, according to a Times data analysis. (Lin and Lee, 5/5)

The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Coronavirus Cases Surpass 1.2 Million
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the U.S. passed 1.2 million, as the Trump administration said it was considering disbanding the White House coronavirus task force and various states and countries moved ahead with reopening plans. (Lin, 5/6)

The Wall Street Journal: The Tricky Math Behind Coronavirus Death Predictions
The near doubling of coronavirus death predictions in a closely followed model this week underscores a frustrating reality for officials weighing how and when to reopen society: Many basic facts about the new coronavirus remain unknown. Epidemiologists have created many computer models to predict surge capacity in the health-care system and guide policy-making. These seek to predict how many people might be infected, how many will die, and when and how transmission might slow or speed up. (Abbott and Overberg, 5/5)

The Hill: Models Under Scrutiny As Coronavirus Gets More Politicized
Models that estimate the rapid spread or quick extinction of the coronavirus have become the latest partisan flashpoint in a politicized pandemic that has Americans searching for answers — and finding sharply contrasting information... Conservatives contend that [models] are exaggerating the threat posed by the pandemic, spurring an economic catastrophe that will be worse than the virus itself. Those on the left see an administration downplaying the health risk and cherry-picking models that are hopelessly optimistic. (Wilson, 5/5)

Los Angeles Times: Coronavirus Could Make Southern California Heat Waves Deadlier
As summer descends on the U.S., public health experts are warning that the coronavirus could make intense heat waves deadlier, adding to the devastating death toll the country has suffered. High temperatures have rolled through the Southwest unusually early this year, scorching Phoenix and Las Vegas and sending droves of quarantine-weary Southern Californians to the beaches. (Phillips and Barboza, 5/5)

The Hill: White House Plans To Scale Back Coronavirus Task Force 
The White House is in the early stages of winding down its coronavirus task force, Vice President Pence's office confirmed Tuesday. The surprise decision comes as most states are preparing to loosen restrictions meant to slow the spread of the virus, while a number of areas continue to see increases in new COVID-19 cases and deaths. Pence's office told reporters at a limited briefing that his plan is to scale back the task force's role by Memorial Day. Pence has been leading the task force since late February. (Samuels and Moreno, 5/5)

The New York Times: Administration To Phase Out Coronavirus Task Force
Vice President Mike Pence, who has led the task force for two months, said it would probably wrap up its work around the end of the May, and shift management of the public health response back to the federal agencies whose work it was created to coordinate. Other administration officials said that under plans still in discussion, the White House would consult with medical experts on a more informal basis and that Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, would help oversee a group pushing for progress in developing a vaccine and treatments for the virus. (Weiland, Haberman and Sanger, 5/5)

Reuters: White House To Wind Down Coronavirus Task Force As Focus Shifts To Aftermath: Trump
Trump said Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx, doctors who assumed a high profile during weeks of nationally televised news briefings, would remain advisers after the group is dismantled. Fauci leads the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and Birx was response coordinator for the force. “We can’t keep our country closed for the next five years,” Trump said, when asked why it was time to wind down the task force. (Holland and Mason, 5/5)

NPR: Coronavirus Task Force To Wind Down Around Memorial Day
President Trump told reporters at an event in Phoenix Tuesday that the task force had done an "incredible job" boosting testing and ventilator production and now there is a shift in focus. "We're now looking at a little bit of a different form," he said, answering questions about why he was winding down the task force. "It's sort of a combination of safety and reopening, so we'll have something in a different form," Trump said, telling reporters that Drs. Birx and Anthony Fauci, who's director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, would remain involved, as would "other doctors and experts in the field." (Naylor, 5/5)

Politico: White House Plots Breakup Of Coronavirus Task Force
Inside the White House, there has also been discussion of creating a new and smaller group to supplant the task force and focus on developing a vaccine and therapeutics. The new group would work closely with administration officials already involved in Operation Warp Speed, a program that aims to manufacture 100 million coronavirus vaccine doses by November and 300 million by next January. Pence on Tuesday described it as “a Manhattan Project-style effort.” (Orr, Cook and Ehley, 5/5)

The Wall Street Journal: White House Discussing Phasing Out Coronavirus Task Force
Democrats criticized the decision, arguing that the task force is an essential part of the administration’s coronavirus response. “It is unthinkable that President Trump would shut down the main task force established to coordinate our nation’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic while we are still in the midst of figuring out the health and economic implications of this pandemic,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D., Md.) said in a statement. “It is a shameful abdication of responsibility.” (Restuccia, 5/5)

The Hill: Trump Ready To Turn Page On COVID-19, Despite Crisis-Level Cases 
“It's like disbanding the war cabinet in the middle of a war,” said Lawrence Gostin, a professor of public health at Georgetown University. “It’s not like we’ve conquered COVID, and it’s not like it’s even on the downward trend.” Gostin questioned the benefits of allowing federal agencies to manage the response, citing high-profile issues in the past few months. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) initial testing rollout was a debacle; the Food and Drug Administration has had difficulty regulating antibody tests and Health and Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar has seen his influence wane. (Samuels, 5/5)

Politico: Trump Says Fauci Will Testify Before Senate, Blasts House ‘Setup’
President Donald Trump on Tuesday confirmed Dr. Anthony Fauci would testify before the Senate in the coming days and defended his decision to block America’s top infectious disease expert from appearing before what he called the “Trump haters” in the House. “The House is a setup. The House is a bunch of Trump haters. They put every Trump hater on the committee. The same old stuff,” the president told reporters outside the White House, adding that Fauci “will be testifying in front of the Senate, and he looks forward to doing that.” (Forgey, 5/5)

ABC News: Trump To ABC's David Muir: 'Possible There Will Be Some' COVID-19 Deaths As Country Reopens
President Donald Trump said in an exclusive interview with ABC "World News Tonight" Anchor and Managing Editor David Muir on Tuesday that "it's possible there will be some" deaths as states roll back restrictions aimed at stopping the spread of the novel coronavirus, acknowledging that it was the choice the country faces to reopen and jumpstart the economy... "It's possible there will be some [deaths] because you won't be locked into an apartment or a house or whatever it is," Trump said. "But at the same time, we're going to practice social distancing, we're going to be washing hands, we're going to be doing a lot of the things that we've learned to do over the last period of time." (Phelps and Gittleson, 5/5)

The Hill: Trump: Some Will Be 'Affected Badly' As States Ease Coronavirus Restrictions 
He said that new cases and deaths as the nation reopens can be slowed through social distancing policies that will remain a part of life. "It’s possible there will be some because you won’t be locked into an apartment or a house or whatever it is," Trump said. "At the same time, we’re going to practice social distancing. We’re going to be washing hands. We’re going to be doing a lot of the things that we’ve learned to do over the last period of time." (Wise, 5/5)

ABC News: President Trump To Americans Who've Lost Loved Ones To The Coronavirus: 'I Love You'
President Donald Trump, criticized for an apparent lack of empathy during the crisis, has a new message for Americans who have lost a loved one to the coronavirus that has killed more than 70,000 people in the United States: "I love you." "We've lost more people now than we lost in the Vietnam War. What do you want to say to those families tonight?" ABC News' "World News Tonight" anchor David Muir asked in an exclusive interview with the president Tuesday in Phoenix, Arizona. "I want to say, ‘I love you.' I want to say that we're doing everything we can," Trump told Muir. (Gittleson and Phelps, 5/5)

The Hill: Trump Offers Support For Those Who Have Lost Family Due To Coronavirus
“You can never really come close to replacing, when you’ve lost someone, no matter how well we do next year — I think our economy is going to be raging, it’s going to be so good — no matter how well, those people can never, ever replace somebody they love,” Trump said. “And to the people that have lost someone, there is nobody — I don’t sleep at nights thinking about it — there is nobody that’s taking it harder than me.” Trump has caught flak for the administration's response to the pandemic from critics who claim he has not adequately acknowledged the tens of thousands of Americans who have died from the disease in a few short months. (Axelrod, 5/5)

Politico: While Trump Touted Reopening, His Team Was Sounding Alarms
President Donald Trump boasted on May 1 that his success in responding to the coronavirus pandemic has made ventilator, test kit and mask shortages a thing of the past, and that much of the country is ready to quickly send people back to work. “We’ve ensured a ventilator for every patient who needs one,” he said. “The testing and the masks and all of the things, we’ve solved every problem. We solved it quickly.” But that same day, his own health and emergency management officials were privately warning that states were still experiencing shortages of masks, gowns and other medical gear, according to a recording of an interagency meeting between FEMA and HHS officials across the country, conducted by conference call, which was obtained by POLITICO. (Ollstein and Cancryn, 5/6)

Reuters: Trump Renews Partisan Pandemic Commentary As Texas Moves To Further Ease Shutdown
President Donald Trump on Tuesday accused Democrats of hoping his coronavirus response fails “so they can win the election,” as the Republican governor of Texas moved to further relax business shutdowns aimed at quelling the pandemic. (Mason, 5/5)

CNN: Intel Shared Among US Allies Indicates Virus Outbreak More Likely Came From Market, Not A Chinese Lab 
Intelligence shared among Five Eyes nations indicates it is "highly unlikely" that the coronavirus outbreak was spread as a result of an accident in a laboratory but rather originated in a Chinese market, according to two Western officials who cited an intelligence assessment that appears to contradict claims by President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. "We think it's highly unlikely it was an accident," a Western diplomatic official with knowledge of the intelligence said. "It is highly likely it was naturally occurring and that the human infection was from natural human and animal interaction." (Marquardt, Atwood and Cohen, 5/5)

The Hill: Joint Chiefs Of Staff Chairman Says Evidence Suggests Coronavirus Was Not Man-Made Or Released From Lab
The Pentagon’s top uniformed official on Tuesday maintained that available evidence indicates the virus that has caused a global pandemic was natural and not man-made or released purposely from a Chinese lab. “The weight of evidence — nothing’s conclusive — the weight of evidence is that it was natural and not man-made,” Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Army Gen. Mark Milley said of the coronavirus. (Mitchell, 5/5)

And other administration news —

Politico: ‘Very Difficult And Emotional’: Pandemic Expert Leaves Trump Administration
A disaster response official who previously led a global health directorate disbanded by the Trump administration is leaving the government. Timothy Ziemer’s departure robs the Trump administration of another expert as it tries to battle the coronavirus pandemic. The former Navy rear admiral is highly regarded and has decades of government service, although he has been somewhat sidelined during the ongoing crisis. (Toosi, 5/5)

The New York Times: Trump Gives Phoenix Mask Factory Visit A Campaign Feel
President Trump ventured beyond the Mid-Atlantic on Tuesday for the first time in more than two months, turning an official appearance at an Arizona factory producing respirator masks into an event with a campaign rally feel. In his latest show of support for returning to normal life even as the coronavirus continues to spread, Mr. Trump took a day trip to Phoenix to visit a Honeywell International plant that manufactures N95 masks and to hold a round table on Native American issues. (Crowley, 5/5)

The Hill: Trump, Officials Don't Wear Masks On Trip To Mask-Making Facility 
Trump and the other officials on the tour wore safety googles, but no masks during the visit. Throughout the factory there were multiple signs instructing employees to wear masks, with one reading: "Please wear your mask at all times." (Johnson, 5/5)

The Associated Press: Trump Tours, Touts Mask Factory — But No Mask For Him
Trump had said he would don a face mask if the factory was “a mask environment,” but in the end he wore only safety goggles during a tour of the Honeywell facility. Nearly all factory workers and members of the press as well as some White House staff and Secret Service agents wore masks. Senior White House staff and Honeywell executives did not. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended that all Americans wear cloth masks when they can’t socially distance, such as in supermarkets, especially in places with high transmission rates. (Miller, Colvin and Superville, 5/6)

Reuters: Trump Tours New Face-Mask Factory In Arizona But Does Not Wear One
Vice President Mike Pence said on Sunday he erred in not wearing a face mask to the Mayo Clinic last month. His decision not to wear the mask had drawn widespread criticism. The White House did not immediately respond to a query on why Trump did not wear a face mask at the Honeywell plant. Trump has sought to give an optimistic view about the country’s ability to recover from the virus and is eager for states to reopen businesses whose lockdown closings have crushed the economy and left millions unemployed. (Mason, 5/5)

The Hill: Trump Touts Federal, Private Efforts To Combat Coronavirus In First Major Trip During Pandemic 
President Trump on Tuesday declared the country in the “next stage of the battle” as he highlighted efforts by the federal government and private industries to combat the novel coronavirus. “To defeat the virus, we are harnessing the unrivaled power of American industry,” Trump said during an address at Honeywell International in Phoenix, a facility that has produced N95 masks, a critical piece of medical equipment used by front-line hospital workers treating patients with COVID-19. (Chalfant and Samuels, 5/5)

The Wall Street Journal: Trump Travels To Arizona In First Foray From East Coast Since Coronavirus Lockdown
Like most Americans, Mr. Trump has been mostly stuck at home as the contagion has swept the country. During that time, opinion polls have shown him falling so far behind likely Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden that Republican allies complained he was jeopardizing the party’s chances to win key Senate races, including in Arizona, people familiar with the matter said. (Bender, 5/5)

PBS NewsHour: After ‘Cutthroat’ Global Competition For PPE, U.S. Seeks To Make More At Home 
On Tuesday, President Trump traveled to Arizona to visit a Honeywell factory where the crucial N95 face masks are manufactured. The administration is pushing to move production of medical equipment to the U.S., after the coronavirus pandemic sparked a global battle for critical resources -- many of which are made in China. Nick Schifrin reports on challenges of both production and politics. (Schifrin, 5/5)

The Wall Street Journal: ICE Partners With Amazon, 3M To Identify Counterfeit Coronavirus Gear
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and companies including 3M Co., Amazon.com Inc. and Pfizer Inc. said they are working together to curtail the flood of counterfeit masks, coronavirus tests and other equipment entering the country. The agency’s center for intellectual-property protection said Tuesday that it was working with companies to identify suspicious shipments and take down suspect online listings for masks and other gear. The intellectual-property unit said the companies have agreed to share information and best practices with it to combat such trade. (Huford, 5/5)

ABC News: Have Mixed Messages On Masks, A Critical Tool To Slow Pandemic, Slowed Widespread Adoption? 
Public health experts agree that the continued wearing of masks and other face coverings in public will be a critical tool in slowing the spread of the novel coronavirus as many states begin to reopen their economies. But mixed messages from national and local leaders appears to have slowed their widespread adoption. (Rubin, Kim and Faulders, 5/6)

CNN: Coronavirus, Face Masks And America's New Fault Line
Face masks, it seems, have become a new fault line in America. The decision to wear or avoid them in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic signals whether people have chosen to adhere to public-health guidelines -- a stress that's playing out on personal and political levels. (Tensley, 5/5)

The New York Times: Who Is Rick Bright? The Coronavirus Whistle-Blower Who Said The Trump Administration Steered Contracts To Cronies
A federal scientist who says he was ousted from his job amid a dispute over an unproven coronavirus treatment pushed by President Trump said Tuesday that top administration officials repeatedly pressured him to steer millions of dollars in contracts to the clients of a well-connected consultant. Rick Bright, who was director of the Department of Health and Human Services’ Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority until his removal in April, said in a formal whistle-blower complaint that he had been protesting “cronyism” and contract abuse since 2017. (Stolberg, 5/5)

Politico: Ousted Vaccine Expert Accuses HHS Of Political Pressure In Formal Complaint
Bright has previously said he believed he was removed from his BARDA role overseeing billions of dollars of vaccine, drug and test funding, because of his hesitation to back hydroxychloroquine. Others within HHS have disputed his accusation, saying he signed off on the request for the FDA to authorize emergency use of the drug in late March. By the time the coronavirus pandemic began mounting in January, Bright said leaders including Azar and Kadlec were gunning for his removal, after multiple disputes over funding contracts with political or personal ties. (Owermohle, 5/5)

The Associated Press: Senior Scientist Says Administration Ignored Virus Warnings
“I witnessed government leadership rushing blindly into a potentially dangerous situation by bringing in a non-FDA approved chloroquine from Pakistan and India, from facilities that had never been approved by the FDA,” Bright said Tuesday on a call with reporters. “Their eagerness to push blindly forward without sufficient data to put this drug into the hands of Americans was alarming to me and my fellow scientists.” Bright filed the complaint with the Office of Special Counsel, a government agency that investigates retaliation against federal employees who uncover problems. He wants his job back and a full investigation. (Alonso-Zaldivar, Balsamo and Long, 5/6)

Reuters: Ousted U.S. Whistleblower Says Trump Health Official Played Down Coronavirus Threat
Rick Bright says in the complaint filed with a government watchdog that he warned about the virus in January and was met with hostility from Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar and other high-ranking officials in the agency. “Dr. Bright acted with urgency to begin to address this pandemic but encountered resistance from HHS leadership, including Secretary Azar, who appeared intent on downplaying this catastrophic threat,” reads the complaint, which his lawyers filed with the U.S. Office of Special Counsel. (Wolfe, 5/5)

Stat: Vaccine Expert Says Demotion Followed Criticism Of Coronavirus Response
The explosive complaint also contains a number of highly detailed accusations of nepotism surrounding Bob Kadlec, the assistant secretary for preparedness and response at HHS. The complaint alleges Kadlec repeatedly pressured Bright over the course of a number of years to fund scientifically dubious projects connected to personal friends. (Florko, 5/5)

The Washington Post: HHS Official Rick Bright Alleges He Was Demoted For Resisting Push For Hydroxychloroquine
Bright portrays himself in the 89-page complaint as an administration health official trying to sound the alarm about the virus beginning in early January. He said he called for the rapid development of treatments and vaccines, as well as the stockpiling of additional N95 face masks and ventilators, at a time when HHS political leadership, including Secretary Alex Azar, appeared to him to be underestimating the threat. (Abutaleb and McGinley, 5/5)

The Wall Street Journal: Vaccine Expert Alleges Top U.S. Health Officials Resisted Coronavirus Warnings
Dr. Bright alleged that HHS supply-chain officials “pushed back” on continuing warnings about mask shortages, according to the complaint, “insisting that there was no indication of a supply chain shortage or of issues with masks, and therefore there was no need to take immediate action.” The officials said the CDC would tell people not to wear masks if they don’t need them, according to the complaint. Dr. Bright said he responded, “Do you really believe that changing a CDC guideline to tell people not to wear masks would reduce the panic people would feel once this virus spreads?” (Armour, Berzon and Grimaldi, 5/5)

NPR: Rick Bright, Former Top Vaccine Scientist, Files Whistleblower Complaint
"Once the COVID-19 pandemic hit, however, Dr. Bright became even more alarmed about the pressure that Dr. Kadlec and other government officials were exerting on BARDA to invest in drugs, vaccines, and other technologies without proper scientific vetting or that lacked scientific merit," the complaint continues. "Dr. Bright objected to these efforts and made clear that BARDA would only invest the billions of dollars allocated by Congress to address the COVID-19 pandemic in safe and scientifically vetted solutions and it would not succumb to the pressure of politics or cronyism." (Wamsley, 5/5)

CNN: Ousted Vaccine Director Files Whistleblower Complaint Alleging Coronavirus Warnings Were Ignored
Bright told reporters he and fellow scientists found the administration's "eagerness to push blindly forward without sufficient data" on chloroquine "alarming." "I could not in good conscience ignore the scientific recommendations to limit access to those drugs under the direct care of a doctor, and instead allow political ambition and timelines to override scientific judgment. And that was just one of the many improper things I pushed back on with senior leadership within HHS," he said. (Collins, Diamond and Liptak, 5/5)

In other news —

The Hill: GOP Lawmaker Calls For Probe Into VA Referrals During Pandemic 
Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), the chairman of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, is calling for an investigation into the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) over its handling of referrals for veterans to receive care amid the coronavirus pandemic. In a letter to VA Inspector General Michael Missal on Tuesday, Biggs noted that a top VA official in March instructed leadership at regional care systems "to pause the use of access standards to authorize referrals to the Veterans Community Care Program (VCCP).” (Brufke, 5/5)

The New York Times: How Kushner’s Volunteer Force Led A Fumbling Hunt For Medical Supplies
This spring, as the United States faced a critical shortage of masks, gloves and other protective equipment to battle the coronavirus pandemic, a South Carolina physician reached out to the Federal Emergency Management Agency with an offer of help. Dr. Jeffrey Hendricks had longtime manufacturing contacts in China and a line on millions of masks from established suppliers. Instead of encountering seasoned FEMA procurement officials, his information was diverted to a team of roughly a dozen young volunteers, recruited by the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and overseen by a former assistant to Mr. Kushner’s wife, Ivanka Trump. (Confessore, Jacobs, Kantor, Kanno-Youngs and Ferre-Sadurni, 5/5)

The Washington Post: Kushner Coronavirus Effort Said To Be Hampered By Inexperienced Volunteers
About two dozen employees from Boston Consulting Group, Insight, McKinsey and other firms have volunteered their time — some on paid vacation leave from their jobs and others without pay — to aid the Trump administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, according to administration officials and others familiar with the arrangement. Although some of the volunteers have relevant backgrounds and experience, many others were poorly matched with their assigned jobs, including those given the task of securing personal protective equipment (PPE) for hospitals nationwide, according to a complaint filed last month with the House Oversight Committee. (Abutaleb and Parker, 5/5)

The Hill: Trump Volunteers Kept 'VIP' List Of Leads For Medical Supplies: Report
Volunteers who helped oversee the Trump administration’s supply-chain task force were encouraged to prioritize assistance and tips from political allies and associates of President Trump, The New York Times reports. The volunteers tracked those whose assistance they prioritized on a “VIP Update” spreadsheet, The Times reported, citing documents and emails it obtained. Included on the list were Republican members of Congress, conservative activist Charlie Kirk and Tana Goertz, a former “Apprentice” contestant and Trump surrogate. (Axelrod, 5/5)

Meanwhile —

Modern Healthcare: Johns Hopkins' Ideas For Better Preparedness After COVID-19
An action plan published Tuesday by researchers at Johns Hopkins University offers wide-ranging solutions for both the private healthcare sector and the federal government in response to the shortcomings that have come to light in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. "The COVID pandemic has clearly demonstrated the need for more robust healthcare preparedness and some fundamental changes in U.S. health policy," the report by the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security said. (Castellucci, 5/5)

The New York Times: Trump’s Inspector General Pick Vows Independence From The White House
President Trump’s nominee to serve as the special inspector general for the Treasury Department’s $500 billion pandemic recovery fund vowed on Tuesday to be fair and impartial in his efforts to combat misuse of the bailout money, telling a Senate committee that he would resign if the White House pressured him to overlook wrongdoing. During two hours of intense questioning at his confirmation hearing, Brian D. Miller, who currently serves as a White House lawyer, tried to defuse fears that he would not be independent enough for the prominent oversight role and to alleviate concerns among senators and watchdog groups that he put Mr. Trump’s interests ahead of those of American taxpayers. (Rappeport, 5/5)

The Associated Press: Trump Pick To Oversee Virus Spending Pledges Impartiality
Brian Miller, a lawyer in the White House counsel’s office, told the Senate Banking Committee during his confirmation hearing that “independence is vital” for the special inspector general for pandemic recovery. The post would place him in charge of overseeing a roughly $500 billion Treasury fund for industry created as part of the economic rescue law approved in late March. In written testimony, Miller pledged to be vigilant in protecting the integrity and independence of his office and vowed “to seek the truth in all matters that come before me and to use my authority and resources to uncover fraud, waste and abuse.″ (Daly and Jalonick, 5/6)

The Wall Street Journal: Trump Nominee Tells Senate Panel He Will Act Independently In Auditing Coronavirus Stimulus
“Do you plan to gain presidential approval before investigating contracts, issuing reports or communicating with Congress?” Sen. Nevada Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto asked Mr. Miller in the hearing. “No, senator,” Mr. Miller replied. Asked if he would immediately notify Congress if the White House or any agency asked him to withhold information, Mr. Miller responded, “Yes, senator.” (Kiernan, 5/5)

The Hill: Trump Pick For Pandemic Response Watchdog Pledges Independence Amid Democratic Skepticism 
Democrats have expressed deep skepticism that Miller, a White House lawyer since 2018, could be trusted to hold Trump accountable after the president purged several inspectors general (IGs) and dismissed two whistleblowers from their positions in his administration. (Lane, 5/5)

The New York Times: With Crispr, A Possible Quick Test For The Coronavirus
A team of scientists has developed an experimental prototype for a fairly quick, cheap test to diagnose the coronavirus that gives results as simply as a pregnancy test does. The test is based on a gene-editing technology known as Crispr, and the researchers estimated that the materials for each test would cost about $6. “We’re excited that this could be a solution that people won’t have to rely on a sophisticated and expensive laboratory to run,” said Feng Zhang, a researcher at the Broad Institute in Cambridge, Mass., and one of the pioneers of Crispr technology. (Zimmer, 5/5)

ABC News: Roche CEO Severin Schwan Says Producing New Antibody Test Part Of Busiest Time In His Career
Severin Schwan, the CEO of Swiss drugmaker Roche, says employees from across the company are coming together to contribute to meeting the aggressive manufacturing targets the company has promised after receiving emergency Food and Drug Administration approval for its COVID-19 antibody test on Sunday. "I mean, even in the packaging lines, we have our employees who come from all over the place, who raised their hand and who say ... 'Can I help out in the warehouse?'" Schwan said in an interview with ABC News. "The engagement is -- and the commitment and the passion is -- really enormous. I can't tell you how proud I am of the organization and how they excel during this difficult, unprecedented time." (Bolton, 5/5)

Boston Globe: Waltham’s PerkinElmer Gets Emergency Approval For COVID-19 Antibodies Test 
PerkinElmer, the Waltham-based diagnostics maker, said Tuesday that a subsidiary has obtained an "emergency use authorization” from the Food and Drug Administration for a test that detects antibodies in the blood of people who fought off COVID-19. The test made by EUROIMMUN, a subsidiary based in Lubeck, Germany, is one of a dozen made by different companies that have won such approvals, according to the FDA website. (Saltzman, 5/5)

Cincinnati Enquirer: COVID-19: Who's At Fault When A Negative Test Is False? Maybe Nobody
When a Hyde Park woman was tested for COVID-19 and the test came back negative despite her symptoms, she was perplexed, disappointed and anxious. She was clearly sick and doctors ultimately decided to treat her. So who was at fault? Maybe nobody. That's because even a good test can end in a bad or faulty result. Improving test reliability is important, as Ohio, Kentucky and other states start to loosen restrictions on business and rely on tests to find people who need treatment. (Mitchell, 5/5)

Politico: Bubble Bursts On Cuomo’s Hope Of 'Immunity' Testing
As his state was being ravaged by the worst coronavirus outbreak in the country in early April, Gov. Andrew Cuomo offered a glimpse of hope to those looking for a quick restart of New York’s economy: An antibody test, developed in a state laboratory, may be able to confirm immunity for a vast number of New Yorkers. By last week, Cuomo and other officials had retreated from the approach, pointing instead to other metrics that may indicate the best way to avoid future waves of the virus. Cuomo is now describing the immunity idea as little more than a “theory.” (Gronewold and Young, 5/5)

WBUR: Florida Boosts COVID-19 Testing, Sending New-Case Rate To A Record Low
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says his state has hit a new record low in the rate of positive test results for COVID-19, as only around 2.5% of nearly 24,000 tests confirmed an infection on Monday. The test results were the most Florida has received in a single day. The governor celebrated the good news, which emerged one day after Florida relaxed shutdown restrictions on restaurants and retail stores in much of the state. (Chappell, 5/5)

Stat: Gilead Signals Steps To Widen Global Access To Remdesivir
Amid questions about access to remdesivir, its treatment for Covid-19, Gilead Sciences (GILD) says it is pursuing several steps, including licensing agreements with several unnamed companies, to ensure the medicine is supplied to countries beyond the U.S. Although details were scant, the drug maker indicated there are plans to issue voluntary licenses with “leading chemical and pharmaceutical” manufacturers to produce remdesivir for Europe, Asia and the developing world through 2022. Similarly, negotiations are under way to issue licenses to several generic drug makers in India and Pakistan in order to supply the drug to developing countries. (Silverman, 5/5)

The Wall Street Journal: Gilead Seeks Deals With Other Drugmakers To Boost Supply Of Covid-19 Drug
Gilead Sciences Inc. said Tuesday it will join with other drugmakers to manufacture and sell its Covid-19 treatment remdesivir outside of the U.S., farming out production of the medicine to ensure supply meets global demand. Gilead said it is in discussions with pharmaceutical- and chemical-manufacturing companies to license the rights to make the drug remdesivir for Europe, Asia and in the developing world through at least 2022. (Walker, 5/5)

Stat: CytoDyn CEO Made $12M On Stock Sale, And Explanation Raises Questions
CytoDyn chief executive Nader Pourhassan’s lucrative sale of company stock was confirmed in a regulatory filing Monday night. His explanation for profiting from the coronavirus epidemic — while urging outside investors to buy — remains a shifting and troubling narrative. (Feuerstein, 5/5)

Bloomberg: Regeneron Covid-19 Antibody Treatment Could Be Available By Fall
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. said an experimental antibody treatment for Covid-19 could be available as soon as this fall, an expedited timeline for a drug that’s scheduled to be studied in humans for the first time in June. To meet the fall time line will “depend on a lot of factors,” including whether the treatment works as well as hoped, “and there is obviously a lot of risk,” Regeneron Chief Scientific Officer George Yancopoulos said Tuesday on a conference call with investors. “We’ve sort of done it before but now we are trying to take it to the next level.” (Court, 5/5)

KQED: Can Blood Plasma From Recovered Patients Help Treat COVID-19? UCSF Is Testing It Out
Scientists hope antibodies from the blood of recently recovered patients can help fight off COVID-19 in others. Under the FDA's expanded access authorization, doctors at UCSF have begun treating some of their sickest COVID-19 patients with blood plasma donated from people who have recovered from the virus. (Arcuni, 5/5)

Stat: Mounting Promises On Covid-19 Vaccines Are Fueling False Expectations, Experts Say
Vaccines to prevent Covid-19 infection are hurtling through development at speeds never before seen. But mounting promises that some vaccine may be available for emergency use as early as the autumn are fueling expectations that are simply unrealistic, experts warn. (Branswell, 5/6)

Bloomberg: Pfizer Starts U.S. Trials Of Experimental Covid-19 Vaccine
Pfizer Inc. has administered the first U.S. patients with its experimental vaccines to fight the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, part of a bid to shave years off of the typical time it takes to develop a new inoculation. The trials are being conducted at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine and the University of Maryland School of Medicine, the drugmaker said Tuesday. “The short, less than four-month time-frame in which we’ve been able to move from preclinical studies to human testing is extraordinary,” Chief Executive Officer Albert Bourla said in a statement. (Koons, 5/5)

NBC News: Pfizer, NYU Working On Innovative Coronavirus Vaccine That Could Be Ready By End Of Summer
The vaccine, which carries genetic code known as messenger RNA, attempts to reprogram the deadly pathogen rather than manipulate the live virus. "It is probably the fastest way of having a vaccine available to stem this pandemic, based on the data that I have seen," said Kathrin Jansen, who leads vaccine research for Pfizer. (Costello and Stelloh, 5/5)

Reuters: Most Americans Would Take Coronavirus Vaccine If Deemed Safe: Reuters/Ipsos Poll
Three-quarters of Americans would take a coronavirus vaccine after receiving certain assurances that it was safe, and another 9% would take one as soon as it was available, a Reuters/Ipsos poll released Tuesday showed. (Bernstein, 5/5)

Politico: Trump Softens Promise Of Coronavirus Vaccine By End Of Year
President Donald Trump on Tuesday softened his ambitious pledge from just days earlier that there could be a coronavirus vaccine by year’s end. “You can never be convinced,” Trump, during a trip to Arizona, told ABC News’ David Muir in an interview when asked whether he was still firm in that declaration, contending that “we have a really good shot of having something very, very substantial.” (Oprysko, 5/5)

The Associated Press: 'It's Gone Haywire': When COVID Arrived In Rural America
The reverend approached the makeshift pulpit and asked the Lord to help him make some sense of the scene before him: two caskets, side by side, in a small-town cemetery busier now than ever before. Rev. Willard O. Weston had already eulogized other neighbors lost to COVID-19, and he would do more. But this one stood as a symbol to him of all they had lost. The pair of caskets, one powder blue, one white and gold, contained a couple married 30 years who died two days apart, at separate hospitals hours from each other, unaware of the other’s fate. The day was dark. There was no wind, not even a breeze. It felt to some like the earth had paused for this. (Galofaro, 5/6)

The Associated Press: US Infection Rate Rising Outside New York As States Open Up
Take the New York metropolitan area’s progress against the coronavirus out of the equation and the numbers show the rest of the U.S. is moving in the wrong direction, with the known infection rate rising even as states move to lift their lockdowns, an Associated Press analysis found Tuesday. New confirmed infections per day in the U.S. exceed 20,000, and deaths per day are well over 1,000, according to figures from Johns Hopkins University. And public health officials warn that the failure to flatten the curve and drive down the infection rate in places could lead to many more deaths — perhaps tens of thousands — as people are allowed to venture out and businesses reopen. (Forster, Johnson and Stobbe, 5/6)

The New York Times: With New Hot Spots Emerging, No Sign Of A Respite
In New York City, the daily onslaught of death from the coronavirus has dropped to half of what it was. In Chicago, a makeshift hospital in a lakefront convention center is closing, deemed no longer needed. And in New Orleans, new cases have dwindled to a handful each day. Yet across America, those signs of progress obscure a darker reality. The country is still in the firm grip of a pandemic with little hope of release. (Bosman, Smith and Harmon, 5/5)

The Washington Post: Americans Remain Deeply Wary Of Reopening The Country, New Poll Shows
Americans remain deeply wary of eating at restaurants, shopping at stores and taking other steps to return to normalcy, a poll shows, even as the White House is contemplating shutting down its coronavirus task force. With several covid-19 models taking a wrenching turn toward bleaker death forecasts in recent days because of reopening moves in some states, most Americans say they worry about getting the virus themselves and they oppose ending the restrictions meant to slow its spread, according to the Washington Post-University of Maryland poll. (Zapotosky, Wan, Balz and Guskin, 5/5)

CIDRAP: Despite Steps To Reopen, Most In US Still Wary Of COVID-19 Risks
A new poll from the Washington Post–University of Maryland shows most Americans are still too hesitant about the novel coronavirus to eat in restaurants or shop in stores. Of those polled, 67% said they would be uncomfortable going to a retail store, and 78% say they would be uncomfortable in a sit-down restaurant. Fifty-six percent of participants, however, said they were comfortable going to a grocery store. Gyms and movie theaters ranked high on the list of businesses Americans say are not safe to reopen. (Soucheray, 5/5)

CNN: US Is Unprepared To Protect Residents From Virus While States Are Reopening, Former Acting CDC Director Says 
With more than half the country now into at least the first stage of reopening, one expert says the US still hasn't done enough to protect residents from the coronavirus. "I don't think you can say, how much suffering are you willing to bear in order to restart the economy until you have done everything possible to ensure that every single person in American can take measures to protect their own health, the health of their families and the health of their communities," Dr. Richard Besser, the former acting director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told CNN Tuesday. "That's just not the case right now." (Maxouris, 5/6)

The Wall Street Journal: In Nebraska, A City With Many Essential Workers Charts Its Own Way To Fight Coronavirus
In this small city near the Platte River, the largest employers are deemed essential and the region’s workforce continues to fill its meatpacking plants and manufacturing floors. Local officials have now confirmed hundreds of coronavirus cases, with more than 200 linked to a local JBS USA beef plant and another 40 to area nursing homes. There were 1,228 Covid-19 cases as of Tuesday in a city of roughly 51,000, according to the regional health department. That puts its per capita rate of infection well above that of New York, the hardest-hit state in the nation by the coronavirus pandemic. (Ailworth, 5/6)

NPR: Illinois Announces It Will Reopen In Phases As It Battles The Coronavirus
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced Tuesday his five-phase reopening plan, while the state saw its highest daily death toll from COVID-19. Over the last 24 hours, 176 residents died, said Illinois Public Health Director Ngozi Ezike, who joined the governor at his daily briefing. That brings the number of deaths in the state to more than 3,800. (Corley, 5/5)

Reuters: New York To Work With Gates Foundation To 'Reimagine' Schools: Governor
New York will work with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to “reimagine” the state’s school system as part of broader reforms in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, Governor Andrew Cuomo told a daily briefing on Tuesday. Cuomo, who has emerged as a leading national voice on states’ efforts to battle the crisis, said he believed people were starting to see the pandemic as a rare opportunity to make large-scale changes. (Layne and Singh, 5/5)

The Washington Post: Ocean City Reopening As Virginia, Maryland, D.C. Weigh Shutdown Restrictions
Leaders in the greater Washington region wrestled with the uncertainties of reopening their economies Tuesday, balancing residents’ desires to resume a more normal life as summer approaches against the continued spread of coronavirus infections and deaths. Mixed messages on the wisdom of continued closures emerged as the region’s death toll from the pandemic reached 2,367, with more than 52,000 known infections. A day after Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D) said he expects to ease some restrictions on nonessential businesses by mid-May, D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) warned in television and radio interviews that it was too soon for District residents to begin letting down their guard. (Jamison and Hedgepeth, 5/5)

CNN: Coronavirus School Closures Might Continue, Pediatrics Group Says
Schools should be ready to phase in their reopenings, perhaps starting with reduced hours, before returning to full activity amid the coronavirus pandemic, pediatricians said Tuesday. Schools should also plan for intermittent closures in the future if the virus begins to rebound, the American Academy of Pediatrics said in new guidance. (Fox, 5/5)

The New York Times: Protesters Say The NYPD Uses Social Distancing To Justify Coronavirus Crackdown
Ann Northrop has not left her home often during the coronavirus epidemic. “I’m old,” the 72-year-old from Manhattan said. “I don’t want to get sick.” But Ms. Northrop still showed up to a small protest on Sunday to criticize New York officials for allowing a religious organization that opposes gay rights to treat coronavirus patients. She felt safe, she said, because her fellow protesters wore face coverings and stood several feet apart. (Paybarah, 5/5)

The Washington Post: Video Of Violent Donni Wright Arrest In NYC Sparks Anger And Frustration Over Social Distancing Enforcement
A video of a violent weekend arrest in Manhattan that left a man injured and an officer taken off patrol duty came as frustration and anger build over how social distancing orders are being enforced. As New York state remains the hardest-hit area of the U.S. coronavirus outbreak, tensions are especially high in New York City, which accounts for roughly half of the more than 321,000 confirmed cases and over 25,000 deaths statewide. (Bellware, 5/5)

The Associated Press: 'Hard To Be Home': Real House Arrest Veterans Mull Isolation
States have called them stay-at-home orders or shelter-in-place orders. People are calling it isolating or quarantine. But now that many Americans are entering a second month of being in their homes and away from people, some think stronger words are more appropriate: like lockdown. Or house arrest. Being told to stay home to slow the spread of the coronavirus may be wearing on millions of Americans, even as some states move to reopen. But the restrictions are familiar for tens of thousands of Americans who were already under court-ordered house arrest before the pandemic began. (Gresko, 5/6)

Politico: States Cut Medicaid As Millions Of Jobless Workers Look To Safety Net
States facing sudden drops in tax revenue amid the pandemic are announcing deep cuts to their Medicaid programs just as millions of newly jobless Americans are surging onto the rolls. And state officials are worried that they’ll have to slash benefits for patients and payments to health providers in the safety net insurance program for the poor unless they get more federal aid. State Medicaid programs in the last economic crisis cut everything from dental services to podiatry care — and reduced payments to hospitals and doctors in order to balance out spending on other needs like roads, schools and prisons. (Roubein and Goldberg, 5/5)

Modern Healthcare: Trump Administration Takes First Step Toward Medicaid Provider Grants
The Trump administration is collecting information that could be used to distribute COVID-19 provider relief grant funds to providers that serve Medicaid enrollees.CMS on Friday asked states to submit provider-level Medicaid payment information by Tuesday. That signals the administration is currently working on Medicaid-centric distribution of provider relief funds, though details are still unclear. (Cohrs, 5/5)

Bangor Daily News: More Mainers Turn To The State’s Safety Net As The Pandemic Drags On 
The need for Maine’s social safety net is steadily increasing as the coronavirus pandemic continues, with applications for food and cash assistance doubling since February and the state’s expanded Medicaid program seeing its biggest enrollment jump since implementation last year. (Andrews, 5/6)

Politico: 9 States Seek $36B In Federal Advances For Unemployment Claims
Nine states have told the Department of Labor they plan to ask for $36 billion in federal advances to cover the astronomical cost of unemployment payouts amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to new information provided to POLITICO Tuesday night by federal officials. Illinois, which had fiscal problems before the coronavirus, tops the list with an $11 billion request in May and June. (Murphy, 5/5)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Georgia Budget Writers Back Federal Aid To Pandemic-Plagued States 
The leaders of the Georgia House and Senate budget committees this week joined the chorus of state and local officials asking Congress to back more aid to local governments in the wake of the coronavirus recession. The economic shutdown brought on by the pandemic has led to mass unemployment, and some businesses remain closed. Many of those that have opened are doing limited business. (Salzer, 5/5)

Stateline: Some States Let Vulnerable Workers Turn Down Jobs
As governors start to allow businesses to reopen, they’re under pressure to clarify whether people can refuse a job offer and stay on unemployment if they’re afraid of catching the coronavirus at work. States generally cut residents from their unemployment insurance rolls if they turn down a job offer that matches their skill set and work history. But the coronavirus pandemic has raised new questions about whether it’s safe for people — particularly older, sicker people — to return to work, and what employers must do to keep workers safe. (Quinton, 5/6)

Cincinnati Enquirer: Coronavirus In Ohio: State Asks Employers To Report Employees Who Don't Return To Work
As Ohio reopens some businesses, employees who don't return to work could lose unemployment benefits – even if they have a health condition that makes them more susceptible to the novel coronavirus or problems getting child care. Ohio Department of Job and Family Services is asking employers to report workers who quit or refuse work – potentially cutting those former employees off from unemployment benefits. Those not eligible for unemployment in Ohio would also lose access to the additional $600 a week approved in the federal stimulus package. (Balmert, 5/5)

The Associated Press: States With Few Virus Cases Get Big Share Of Relief Aid
Alaska, Hawaii, Montana and Wyoming are not epicenters of the coronavirus pandemic. Yet these four states scored big this spring when Congress pumped out direct federal aid, while the two hardest-hit states, New York and New Jersey, got comparatively little given the vast numbers of cases and deaths they have seen. An Associated Press analysis shows that some states with small populations like these took in an out-sized share of the $150 billion in federal money that was designed to address coronavirus-related expenses, when measured by the number of positive tests for the COVID-19 disease. (Mulvihill, 5/5)

ABC News: Over 5,000 Corrections Officers Have Contracted COVID-19 
As the novel coronavirus ravages prisons around the country, over 5,000 state and federal correctional officers have tested positive for the virus, data compiled by ABC News shows. There have been 5,002 cases, including over 4,600 state correctional officers that have contracted the virus, with New York being the state with the most correctional officer cases. (Barr, 5/5)

Kaiser Health News: When Prisons Are ‘Petri Dishes,’ Inmates Can’t Guard Against COVID-19, They Say
On April 6, an inmate named Dennis stayed up late at Indiana’s Plainfield Correctional Facility. He wrote to his wife, Lisa, and told her he was scared. “I can tell you right now, with nearly 100% certainty, that I am going to get this virus,” he wrote. Lisa said Dennis suffers from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which could cause complications if he contracts COVID-19. (Harper, 5/6)

San Francisco Chronicle: Coronavirus And Jails: California Supreme Court Rejects Prisoner Release Lawsuit
The California Supreme Court refused Monday to order state officials to release large numbers of inmates from local jails and juvenile detention centers to ease crowded conditions that spread the coronavirus. The court redirected inmate advocates to the counties that run the facilities, but did not rule out further lawsuits against the state.The claims in the statewide lawsuit “call for prompt attention in a manner that considers the diversity of local conditions throughout the state,” the justices said in a unanimous order. (Egelko, 5/4)

Express News: Most Inmates At Bexar County Jail Who Test Positive Show No Symptoms Of Coronavirus As Outbreak Claims Another Life
About 75 percent of the inmates at Bexar County Jail who have contracted the novel coronavirus showed no symptoms, partly explaining how the outbreak there has spread rapidly. The latest figures come a day after an inmate in the jail’s custody died, the second death linked to the downtown lockup, where hundreds of inmates and deputies have tested positive for COVID-19. (Eaton, 5/5)

Modern Healthcare: Colorado Tables Public Option Bill Thanks To COVID-19
Colorado lawmakers put their controversial public option plan on ice Monday, saying that consumers, providers and other stakeholders haven't been able to weigh in on the bill because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The bill's sponsors promised to resurrect the effort next year, arguing that the economic fallout from the outbreak demonstrates that there's a need for more affordable health coverage options in the state. (Brady, 5/5)

WBUR: Here's How Coronavirus Contact Tracing Works In Massachusetts 
It’s been a month since Gov. Charlie Baker announced a dramatic expansion of efforts to reach everyone who tests positive for the coronavirus, make sure they are in isolation and then track and test all of their close contacts to stop the spread. It's called contact tracing and Baker says it's a key piece of his strategy to control the coronavirus and reassure the public. (Bebinger, 5/5)

WBUR: Almost 1,000 Prisoners Released In Mass. Amid Pandemic 
Close to 1,000 Massachusetts prisoners have been released in the past month, according to a state report on releases and testing for the coronavirus. The report, from the state Supreme Judicial Court, says 993 prisoners have been released from Massachusetts jails and prisons since April 3. It's not clear how many people were let out solely because of the pandemic or how many were previously scheduled to be released. (Becker, 5/5)

Boston Globe: Massachusetts Lawmakers Will Debate Bill To Provide Marijuana Businesses With Coronavirus Relief Funds
Massachusetts lawmakers will hold a virtual hearing Tuesday to discuss a proposal to establish a state-level coronavirus relief program that would extend benefits to the marijuana industry and other businesses that are currently excluded from receiving federal COVID-19 funds. The Joint Committee on Community Development and Small Businesses won’t meet in person due to the pandemic, but they will hold a Zoom hearing to debate the bill, which was filed by Chairwoman Diana DiZoglio last month. (Jaeger, 5/5)

Boston Globe: Mass. Dentists Gearing Up For Expanded Services Amid Coronavirus Pandemic 
Virtual waiting rooms. Patient and staff temperature checks. Workers outfitted with gowns, gloves, masks and hairnets. Glass partitions at the front desk. Longer periods between patients, so employees can sanitize treatment areas. Those are just a few of the safeguards being implemented by dentists around the state amid the COVID-19 pandemic, before the May 18 date designated by the Massachusetts Dental Society as the target for practices to resume offering elective and non-urgent care, in addition to emergency procedures that have continued during the health crisis. (Andersen, 5/5)

Boston Globe: Raimondo Orders All R.I. Residents To Wear Masks In Public; Coronavirus Deaths Reach 355
With “phase one” of Governor Gina Raimondo’s plan to reopen Rhode Island’s economy set to begin this weekend, Raimondo announced Tuesday that she will sign an executive order requiring all residents to wear a mask whenever they are in public to slow the spread of the coronavirus. The order, which will take effect Friday, expands on an existing policy that requires employees at “customer-facing” businesses to wear masks. Raimondo has previously urged all residents to wear masks in public, but the policy was not mandatory. (McGowan, 5/5)

ABC News: As NYC Subways Prepare For Disinfecting, Homeless Will Have To Find Alternate Refuge 
The New York City subway system will close overnight for the first time in at least 50 years when workers in the fight against COVID-19 begin daily cleanings of the system's 472 stations Wednesday. To accomplish the cleanings, which will take place each day from 1-5 a.m. until further notice, authorities will remove scores of the city's homeless who have been sleeping on the nearly-empty trains. (Torres and Katersky, 5/5)

KQED: California, City Attorneys Sue Uber And Lyft Over Worker Misclassification 
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, joined by city attorneys in San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego and other jurisdictions across the state, filed a lawsuit against Uber and Lyft over their use of contractors. The suit aims to force the two companies to recognize their workers as employees under the authority of Assembly Bill 5, a state law that went into effect this year that significantly limits which workers can be classified as contractors. (Harnett, 5/5)

Los Angeles Times: Coronavirus: Appeals Court Rules ICE Doesn't Have To Immediately Release Migrants
A panel of three 9th Circuit Court of Appeals judges on Tuesday overruled a lower court’s order to significantly reduce the number of detainees held at the Adelanto ICE Processing Facility northeast of Los Angeles. The decision by judges Barry Silverman, Jacqueline Nguyen and Daniel Collins came in response to an emergency request by the Trump administration to halt the April 23 preliminary injunction ruling by U.S. District Judge Terry Hatter while it appeals his order. A preliminary injunction is temporarily issued early in a lawsuit to stop defendants from continuing harmful actions as the case moves forward. (Castillo, 5/5)

PBS NewsHour: When Lifesaving COVID-19 Care Arrives By Helicopter
Regional and rural hospitals can be ill-equipped to handle serious coronavirus cases -- so additional care comes to the patient. Jennifer Adamski is a critical care nurse practitioner with the Cleveland Clinic, an Ohio-based hospital system that dispatches her far and wide to retrieve patients in need, often via helicopter. (Brangham and Kane, 5/5)

The Washington Post: Trump’s Demand For Payroll Tax Cut Is Rebuffed On Capitol Hill As Lawmakers Spar Over Next Virus Aid Bill
President Trump’s latest red line for the next phase of coronavirus legislation — a payroll tax cut for workers — has few fans in Congress even among Republicans, further complicating the path toward a new rescue package as House Democrats rush to release their own plan as early as next week. (Kim, DeBonis and Werner, 5/5)

Politico: Trump's Tax Cut Dreams Hit Republican Resistance
"Right now, not much," the Senate Finance Committee chairman said, worrying that the tax cut could drain retirement funds or leave older Americans with the view that Congress doesn’t take “seriously” the plight of the Social Security Trust Fund. “I’m going to give it due consideration, if I can see a strong group of people who think it’s the right thing to do,” added Grassley (R-Iowa), whose committee handles federal tax policy. But he said the president’s preference wouldn’t be the last word — a sentiment shared by many in the Senate GOP: “The president proposes, we dispose.” (Everett, 5/5)

The Associated Press: Pelosi Pushes Ahead On Massive Virus Bill, But GOP Wary
Even in absentia, House Democrats are seeking to drive the debate on the fifth coronavirus response bill, promising to produce a mega-package stuffed with Democratic priorities even as a chorus of GOP leaders voices hesitation about more spending. Pelosi promises that the Democratic-controlled House will deliver legislation to help state and local governments through the COVID-19 crisis, along with additional money for direct payments to individuals, unemployment insurance and a third installment of aid to small businesses. The amount of funding is to be determined. (Taylor, 5/6)

Reuters: Republicans Seek Tax Cuts In Next Coronavirus Bill; Senator Warns Congress May Spread Virus
U.S. Republicans underscored the need for tax cuts and business liability protections in any new coronavirus legislation on Tuesday, while blocking a Democratic attempt to require transparency for a $650 billion-plus program for struggling small businesses. (Morgan and Cornwell, 5/5)

Politico: Chamber, Trial Lawyers Group Each Say Public Is On Their Side In Coronavirus Liability Fight
As they prepare to face off over the next coronavirus relief bill, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and a trial lawyers group are each trying to convince lawmakers that the American public is on their side. The Chamber and its allies are lobbying Congress to make it harder for workers and customers to sue companies they blame for giving them the virus, arguing that such provisions will protect businesses as the economy reopens. The American Association for Justice, which represents trial lawyers, is fighting back, saying such proposals would shield reckless companies from being held responsible. (Meyer, 5/6)

The Hill: Battle Brewing Over How To Get More Relief Money To Americans 
A fight is emerging in Washington over how best to get more money into people’s pockets to weather the coronavirus pandemic. President Trump is making a payroll tax cut a priority for a future recovery package, but Democrats, as well as some Republicans, are not keen on that idea. Democrats argue that a better option is to provide Americans with direct payments like the ones mandated by the $2.2 trillion coronavirus relief package Trump signed on March 27. (Jagoda, 5/5)

The Washington Post: Protect And Compensate Federal Workers On The Coronavirus Front Lines, Senators Say 
Stronger steps are needed to protect and compensate federal employees in front-line positions at risk of exposure to the coronavirus, a group of senators said in a letter sent Tuesday to senior Trump administration officials. Federal agencies also should be further pushed to allow full-time telework by all employees eligible to work remotely and to keep employees in paid status if they cannot telework but must stay home because they personally are at high risk, says a letter from Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and 18 other senators, most of them Democrats. (Yoder, 5/5)

The New York Times: Senators Descend On Quiet Capitol, Sacrificing Pomp For Safety’s Sake
Lawmakers donned face masks. Congressional employees’ desks were ensconced in plexiglass shields. The floors and sidewalks of Capitol Hill were marked with circular panels emblazoned with images of feet to show lawmakers and aides where to stand to keep a safe social distance — like dance-step diagrams, but for trying to avert the transmission of a lethal virus. With the Senate back in Washington for a session that Congress’s top doctor said carried health risks given the continued spread of the coronavirus, the chamber has quickly resumed a semblance of its routine, but with some trappings that cast an eerie pall on the proceedings. (Cochrane, 5/5)

The Wall Street Journal: Justice Department Eyes Fraud In Lending Program For Small Businesses Hit By Coronavirus Crisis
Federal prosecutors are mounting a broad search for fraud in emergency lending programs designed to assist businesses battered by the coronavirus crisis, a top Justice Department official said Tuesday. The Justice Department “has a lot of leads and there are multiple ongoing investigations of individuals and small businesses,” Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski said in an interview. Prosecutors also will apply scrutiny to the activities of banks, which are charged with disbursing the funds in some of the programs, he added. (Michaels, 5/5)

The New York Times: Pair Is Arrested On First Fraud Charges Tied To Small-Business Loan Program
Two New England men were arrested on Tuesday on charges of attempting to defraud the government’s small-business lending program, marking the first federal fraud charges related to the $660 billion program that was aimed at helping businesses hurt by the coronavirus pandemic but has been riddled with problems. The case against the men, David Staveley of Andover, Mass., and David Butziger of Warwick, R.I., is part of the Justice Department’s broad effort to fight coronavirus-related crimes, including health care fraud, hoarding, price gouging and scams devised to steal money both from people and from federal economic assistance programs for businesses in need of aid. (Benner, 5/5)

The Hill: McConnell Pressed To Expand Coronavirus Testing In Senate 
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is coming under pressure to increase testing for the coronavirus in the Senate amid concerns that the Capitol could become a hot spot and wind up spreading infection around the country. Senate Health Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), one of McConnell’s close allies who is retiring at the end of this Congress, pressed the GOP leader on Tuesday to have all members of the upper chamber tested for the highly contagious virus before flying back to their home states. (Bolton, 5/5)

The Hill: Health Chairman Warns Senate Could Become 'Virus-Spreading Machine' Without Testing 
Senate Health Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) is urging Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to accept testing kits offered by the White House so lawmakers can be tested for the coronavirus before flying back to their homes states. Alexander told reporters after a Republican lunch Tuesday that he has advised McConnell that it would be wise for senators and House members to get tested for the virus after spending time in Washington, a COVID-19 "hot spot." (Bolton, 5/5)

The New York Times: He Was Ready To Retire. But The Coronavirus Took Him.
Just off Wyoming Street in Pennsylvania’s hilly, working-class city of Hazleton, Laury Sorensen and her husband, Emil, lugged groceries from a pickup truck upstairs to her parents’ wood-frame home. They sought to spare Ms. Sorensen’s father, Rafael Benjamin, a trip to the supermarket in a time of infectious plague. He ran enough risk working for Cargill Meat Solutions in an industrial park outside the city. The Pennsylvania governor had issued a shutdown order but exempted Cargill, which packages meat in plastic wrap. (Powell, 5/5)

Politico: Grim Business Outlook Clouds Trump’s Hopes For ‘Tremendous Rebound’
The stock market is defying coronavirus gravity and President Donald Trump is promising a “tremendous rebound” in the economy in the second half of the year. But investors could be in for another shock as Covid-19 continues to kill Americans and devastate the private sector. A parade of companies, including some of the nation’s largest profit machines, are reporting lower profits or warning that earnings could struggle in the coming months as consumers stay cautious and businesses assume the crash position. Many other CEOs are simply throwing up their hands and offering a giant shrug. (White and Ward, 5/5)

Reuters: Expect A Bumpy Recovery? Exchanges May Provide An Upside
As market volatility has eased after the mayhem of March, investors betting on a rocky economic recovery from the coronavirus crisis are buying shares of exchanges that are poised to profit if more turmoil ensues. (Westbrook, McCrank and Dogra, 5/6)

NPR: IRS Sends Some $1200 Checks For Coronavirus Pandemic Relief To Deceased People
The IRS has paid out more than $207 billion in Coronavirus relief payments to individual taxpayers, as part of the $2 trillion package passed by Congress known as the CARES Act. And among the recipients of those $1,200 payments are the bank accounts of dead individuals — a problem that could impact millions of American families. (Mak, 5/6)

The Washington Post: U.S. Citizen Children With Undocumented Parents Unfairly Denied Coronavirus Relief, Federal Lawsuit Asserts
Legal advocates at Georgetown University Law Center filed a constitutional challenge Tuesday on behalf of millions of children who are U.S. citizens and have been denied $500 coronavirus economic relief payments because one or both of their parents are undocumented immigrants. The lawsuit argues that a provision of the federal Cares Act “violates the equal protection principles” of the Fifth Amendment by prohibiting payments for children of parents who file taxes using an individual taxpayer identification number, a substitute for a Social Security number that is used mostly by immigrants without legal status. (Hsu, 5/5)

The Washington Post: Big Companies Are Paying Shareholders Dividends And Laying Off Thousands Of Workers
Since the coronavirus pandemic was declared, Caterpillar has suspended operations at two plants and a foundry, Levi Strauss has closed stores, and toolmaker Stanley Black & Decker has been planning layoffs and furloughs. Steelcase, an office furniture manufacturer, and World Wrestling Entertainment have also shed employees. (Whoriskey, 5/5)

The Washington Post: Starbucks Will Reopen 85 Percent Of Its Coffee Shops, But With New Protocols
Starbucks plans to reopen 85 percent of its U.S. coffee shops by the end of this week, with an emphasis on mobile ordering, contactless pickup and cashless payments, as more cities and states ease lockdown restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic. The company’s mobile app — which is already used by roughly 20 million customers — will include new options for voice ordering and curbside pickup, chief executive Kevin Johnson wrote in a letter to customers Monday. (Bhattarai, 5/5)

ABC News: Tribes Will Begin To See Some Of Coronavirus Relief Money Owed By Federal Government 
Native American tribes were expected to see some long-awaited relief money from the federal government trickle in as soon as Tuesday, according to the Treasury Department -- but the battle is long from over with no timetable set for the remaining funds and a court fight over some of that cash potentially going to for-profit corporations. The nearly 600 federally recognized tribes in the U.S. have not yet received any of the $8 billion set aside for tribes in the CARES Act, which passed over a month ago, despite the devastation Native American tribes have disproportionately experienced from coronavirus. (Haslett and Romero, 5/6)

The New York Times: Irish Return An Old Favor, Helping Native Americans Battling The Virus
More than 170 years ago, the Choctaw Nation sent $170 to starving Irish families during the potato famine. A sculpture in County Cork commemorates the generosity of the tribe, itself poor. In recent decades, ties between Ireland and the Choctaws have grown. Now hundreds of Irish people are repaying that old kindness, giving to a charity drive for two Native American tribes suffering in the Covid-19 pandemic. As of Tuesday, the fund-raiser has raised more than $1.8 million to help supply clean water, food and health supplies to people in the Navajo Nation and the Hopi Reservation, with hundreds of thousands of dollars coming from Irish donors, according to the organizers. (O'Loughlin and Zaveri, 5/5)

ABC News: Doctors Rush To Understand COVID-19's Second-Week Crash
Scientists and doctors are learning more about the novel coronavirus responsible for COVID-19 with each passing week. Doctors have now described alarming situations in which patients with COVID-19 suddenly and inexplicably become critically ill around the eighth day after being infected with the virus. (Baldwin, 5/6)

Politico: A New Study Shows Just How Badly Black Americans Have Been Hit By Covid-19
Counties across the country with a disproportionate number of African American residents accounted for 52 percent of diagnoses and 58 percent of coronavirus deaths nationally, according to a new study released Tuesday. The study, conducted by epidemiologists and clinician-researchers at four universities in conjunction with the nonprofit AIDS research organization amFar and PATH’s Center for Vaccine Innovation and Access, attempts to fill in the blanks as states report piecemeal data on race and ethnicity. (Barron-Lopez, 5/5)

The New York Times: Coronavirus Symptoms: 11 People On How It Actually Feels
There is a clinical list of Covid-19 symptoms that includes a dry cough, a fever and shortness of breath. And then there is how the disease actually feels. It is like a lengthy hangover. An anvil on your chest. An alien takeover. It is like being in a fight with Mike Tyson. More than a million people in the United States have become unwilling hosts to the coronavirus. We spoke with some who were sickened by it — in many cases severely — and have since recovered. In vivid terms, they described what it was like to endure this scary and disorienting illness. (5/6)

The Washington Post: Americans Are Told To Wash Hands To Fight Coronavirus. But Some Don’t Trust The Tap.
For the Chavez family and many others in California’s fertile San Joaquin Valley, bottled water is the toilet paper of their coronavirus pandemic — an everyday necessity that vanished from supermarket shelves. In the Navajo Nation, where about a third of the population lacks indoor plumbing, volunteers are creating public hand-washing stations by repurposing detergent bottles as makeshift faucets. (Sellers, 5/5)

The New York Times: Herd Immunity, Or Big 2nd Wave? Israel Antibody Testing Hopes To Find Out
Israel, whose aggressive response to the coronavirus has held its fatality rate to a fraction of those of the United States and other hard-hit nations, is readying a nationwide serological test of 100,000 citizens to see how widely the virus has spread across its population and how vulnerable it may be to a new wave of the contagion. The survey, to be conducted at clinics run by Israeli H.M.O.s beginning in a week or two, is one of the largest efforts yet to determine the prevalence of antibodies to Covid-19. Germany has also announced antibody testing using a representative nationwide sample. (Halbfinger, 5/5)

CNN: How To Improve Your Respiratory Health In Case You Get Covid-19 
Covid-19 is a respiratory illness, meaning if a person is infected, the condition of their respiratory system is one determinant of how they'll fare with the disease. [T]here are things you can do to improve respiratory health, just by changing a few lifestyle factors, according to Dr. Robert Eitches, an allergist and immunologist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Enhancing your respiratory health doesn't prevent you from getting infected, he said. But it does have benefits that may reduce the severity of the illness if you are infected, and therefore your exposure to the virus. (Rogers, 5/6)

The New York Times: How To Talk About Coronavirus
The coronavirus pandemic has upended all kinds of human behavior, including speech. Conversations are mediated by masks and screens, their sentences strung together with new vocabulary: medical terms, political mandates and slang devised to take the clinical edge off. This new vernacular has many people playing virologist in the group chat, with talk of contact tracing and antibody tests; planning “socially distant” activities like Zoom birthday parties and drive-by greetings; and tweeting about life under “quar,” a pet name for “quarantine” (the term for an imposed period of isolation after exposure to a contagion that has become a catchall for life at home). (Mooney, 5/5)

NPR: ICUs Transformed To Care For COVID-19 Patients
Intensive care teams inside hospitals are rapidly altering the way they care for patients with COVID-19. The changes range from new protective gear to new treatment protocols aimed at preventing deadly blood clots. "Things are moving so fast within this pandemic, it's hard to keep up" says Dr. Angela Hewlett, an infectious diseases physician at University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha and medical director of the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit. To stay current, she says, ICUs are updating their practices "on an hourly basis." (Hamilton, 5/5)

NPR: Wildland Fire Camps Need Dramatic Change Amid COVID-19 Pandemic
When a wildfire explodes out of control and threatens property and lives, thousands of firefighters and support crews rush to the scene from around the country and even the world. Almost overnight a small city sprouts up, with firefighters camped in dense rows of tents in fields and eating in crowded mess halls. There are the caterers, the contractors, the crew bosses huddled around laptops at the command post. (Siegler, 5/6)

The New York Times: New Studies Add To Evidence That Children May Transmit The Coronavirus
Among the most important unanswered questions about Covid-19 is this: What role do children play in keeping the pandemic going? Fewer children seem to get infected by the coronavirus than adults, and most of those who do have mild symptoms, if any. But do they pass the virus on to adults and continue the chain of transmission? The answer is key to deciding whether and when to reopen schools, a step that President Trump urged states to consider before the summer. (Mandavilli, 5/5)

The New York Times: What Is Kawasaki Disease? Children And Ailment Related To Coronavirus
One child, 8 years old, arrived at a Long Island hospital near death last week. His brother, a boy scout, had begun performing chest compressions before the ambulance crew reached their home. In the past two days alone, the hospital, Cohen Children’s Medical Center, has admitted five critically ill patients — ages 4 to 12 — with an unusual sickness that appears to be somehow linked to Covid-19, the disease caused by coronavirus. In total, about 25 similarly ill children have been admitted there in recent weeks with symptoms ranging from reddened tongues to enlarged coronary arteries. (Goldstein and Belluck, 5/5)

The New York Times: New Report Says Coronavirus May Have Made Early Appearance In France
Weeks before Chinese authorities acknowledged that the coronavirus could be transmitted by humans, and nearly a month before the first officially recorded cases in Europe, a 42-year-old fishmonger showed up at a hospital in suburban Paris coughing, feverish and having trouble breathing. It was Dec. 27. Now doctors in France say that the December patient may have been the earliest known coronavirus case in Europe. If confirmed, the case of the fishmonger, Amirouche Hammar, would mean the deadly virus made an appearance on the continent long before officials there began tackling it. (Nossiter and Breeden, 5/5)

CIDRAP: Study: COVID-19 Detected In France In Late December
COVID-19 has been retrospectively diagnosed in a man treated in an intensive care unit (ICU) near Paris after coughing up blood on Dec 27, 2019—4 days before the novel coronavirus cluster was identified in Wuhan, China. This finding, published this week in the International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents, suggests that the coronavirus was already circulating undetected in France well before the first cases were reported there on Jan 24 in two returned travelers from Wuhan. (Van Beusekom, 5/5)

The Hill: Coronavirus Started Infecting People Globally Late Last Year: Study 
The coronavirus has been circulating among people since late 2019 and appears to have experienced a highly rapid spread after the first infection, according to a new genetic analysis of 7,600 patients around the world. Researchers in Britain wrote in a report published Tuesday in the journal Infection, Genetics and Evolution that they examined samples taken at different times and from different places, concluding that the virus first began infecting people late last year. (Axelrod, 5/5)

The Washington Post: Researchers Hypothesize That A Highly Contagious Strain Of The Coronavirus Is Spreading, But Other Experts Remain Skeptical
A research paper from scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory, not yet peer-reviewed, reports that one strain of the novel coronavirus has emerged in Europe and become dominant around the planet, leading the researchers to believe the virus has mutated to become more contagious. The bold hypothesis, however, was immediately met with skepticism by many infectious-disease experts, and there is no scientific consensus that any of the innumerable mutations in the virus so far have changed the general contagiousness or lethality of covid-19, the disease caused the coronavirus. (Kaplan and Achenbach, 5/5)

The New York Times: How Small Physician Practices Are Struggling To Survive During Coronavirus Pandemic
Autumn Road in Little Rock, Ark., is the type of doctor’s practice that has been around long enough to be treating the grandchildren of its eldest patients. For 50 years, the group has been seeing families like Kelli Rutledge’s. A technician for a nearby ophthalmology practice, she has been going to Autumn Road for two decades. The group’s four doctors and two nurse practitioners quickly adapted to the coronavirus pandemic, sharply cutting back clinic hours and switching to virtual visits to keep patients and staff safe. (Abelson, 5/5)

ABC News: New Bill Would Forgive Medical School Debt For COVID-19 Health Workers
Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., introduced a bill Tuesday to forgive student loan debt for health care workers treating patients on the COVID-19 front line, many of whom still owe hundreds of thousands of dollars from medical school. The legislation comes in response to doctors and nurses speaking out against hazard pay, a 50% bonus Gov. Andrew Cuomo proposed the federal government give front-line workers for risking their lives during the pandemic. (Schumaker, 5/5)

The Associated Press: Here Come COVID-19 Tracing Apps - And Privacy Trade-Offs
As governments around the world consider how to monitor new coronavirus outbreaks while reopening their societies, many are starting to bet on smartphone apps to help stanch the pandemic. But their decisions on which technologies to use — and how far those allow authorities to peer into private lives — are highlighting some uncomfortable trade-offs between protecting privacy and public health. (O'Brien and Larson, 5/5)

Stat: Will Employers Still Pay For Health Tech Benefits In An Unemployment Crisis?
It’s the oldest, most reliable strategy for building a business in health tech: Sell to employers, who will pay to make your products and services available to their workers. Now, as the economy buckles under the strain of the Covid-19 pandemic, many employers are cutting costs and laying off their employees in droves. The new mood of austerity raises a crucial question for health tech companies: Is targeting the employer market still a viable strategy if a record number of Americans aren’t employed anymore? (Robbins, 5/6)

Los Angeles Times: How Coronavirus Outbreak Upended The Entire U.S. Food System
Near downtown Los Angeles, a meat processing plant ramped up production even as it worked to keep frontline employees separated from one another. In Salinas, Calif., a lettuce grower hustled to redirect supply after being forced to plow under unused crops. In the Bay Area, a food distributor that previously served restaurants started selling produce boxes directly to consumers. Near the Mexico border, a food bank expanded distribution to meet an explosion of need. And in Hollywood, a nonprofit that has served sit-down meals to homeless people for 33 years shifted to takeout. (Rector, 5/5)

Politico: USDA To Buy $470M Of Produce, Dairy And Seafood
The Agriculture Department said Monday that it will spend $470 million to buy more surplus food amid the widespread disruption to the food supply as a result of the coronavirus. The move comes a week after POLITICO reported the department had been slow to make such purchases even though demand at food banks has surged. The purchases will target fruits and vegetables, meat, dairy and seafood — which have seen their markets turned upside down as restaurants and other food service businesses have closed. (Evich, 5/4)

The Associated Press: Where's The Beef? Production Shutdown Leads To Shortages
The effects of the coronavirus pandemic have moved beyond meat processing plants and are now hitting dinner plates. Several U.S. production plants have been temporarily shuttered in the last two weeks after hundreds of workers were sickened by the virus. That has led to meat shortages, with Wendy’s pulling some burgers off its menus and Costco limiting pork sales. Fake meat companies, meanwhile, are making their moves to capture some of those lost sales. (Durbin, 5/5)

Reuters: Tyson Foods To Resume Limited Production At Largest U.S. Pork Plant
The company said all employees returning to work had been tested for COVID-19 and that any employee who tested positive would remain on sick leave until released by health officials to return to work. The statement did not provide further details. Tyson Foods has also increased short-term disability coverage for employees to 90% of normal pay until June 30, the company said, adding that it had performed an additional deep clean and sanitization of the entire facility while the plant was idled. (5/5)

The Hill: Over Half Of Workforce At Tyson Plant In Iowa Tests Positive For Coronavirus 
More than half of the workforce at a Tyson Foods pork processing plant in Perry, Iowa, has tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. The Iowa Department of Public Health reported on Tuesday that a total of 730 workers at the plant had contracted the virus, representing 58 percent of its staff, according to local news reports. The department also noted that more than 1,600 workers at four meatpacking plants across the state had suffered infections. (Wise, 5/5)

WBUR: Meatpacking Workers Are Struggling To Protect Themselves During The Pandemic 
Meatpacking workers are scared to work as the coronavirus ravages plants. Many of them are immigrants or refugees, and language and cultural barriers make protecting themselves more challenging. (Payne, 5/5)

Reuters: Pandemic Pushes Some Iraqis, Broken By Conflict, Into Poverty
When shops and homes shutter at curfew, some Iraqis in this Baghdad district say it reminds them of past traumas that destroyed lives and livelihoods: sectarian death squads, foreign invasion, and the ruin wrought by international sanctions. (Davison, 5/6)

Reuters: PM Ardern Touts New Zealand As 'Safe Haven' For Investment
New Zealand’s success in curbing the coronavirus has given it a “safe haven” advantage, allowing the country to be open for investment, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Wednesday. (5/6)

The Associated Press: 2 Russian Doctors Dead, 1 In ICU After Mysterious Accidents
Two Russian doctors have died and one remains in the intensive care unit in serious condition after falling out of windows in hospitals under mysterious circumstances. The tragic incidents last week made national headlines, with media reports saying all three have come under pressure from their superiors over working conditions amid the coronavirus pandemic. (Litvinova, 5/6)

The Associated Press: Palestinians Fear Outbreak In Jerusalem's 'No Man's Land'
As the coronavirus pandemic gathered strength last month, community leaders in a Palestinian neighborhood on the outskirts of Jerusalem tried to impose lockdown and quarantine measures to protect residents. The problem: there were no police to enforce the measures. (Daraghmeh and Kraus, 5/6)

CIDRAP: As Exponential COVID-19 Spread Hits Parts Of Africa, WHO Issues Advisory On Traditional Medicines
COVID-19 activity in parts of Africa has grown exponentially over the past 2 weeks, raising worries that the region could become the next pandemic epicenter in the weeks and months ahead, according to an update from the World Health Organization (WHO). The world's case total climbed to 3,646,206, and at least 255,096 have died from their infections, according to the Johns Hopkins online dashboard. (Schnirring, 5/5)

Reuters: Transgender People Face Discrimination, Violence Amid Latin American Quarantines
Alis Nicolette Rodriguez is bracing themself, nervously looking over their shopping list and preparing in case someone tries to bar their way at the grocery store. It has happened before. (Cobb, 5/5)

The Washington Post: Kim Jong Un Didn't Have Heart Surgery, South Korea Says, Tying Absence To Coronavirus Fears
South Korea's spy agency told lawmakers Wednesday it does not believe North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had heart surgery last month, and determined that his three-week absence from public view was probably linked to fears over the coronavirus pandemic. Officials of the National Intelligence Service told a parliamentary committee that the reports of heart surgery, first carried by South Korean website Daily NK and then amplified by Western media into talk that Kim was gravely ill or even dead, were “groundless,” according to a lawmaker on the intelligence committee. (Denyer and Kim, 5/6)

The Associated Press: UK Scientist Who Warned Over Virus Quits For Lockdown Breach
Britain’s health secretary said Wednesday that national lockdown rules were “for everyone,” after one of the government’s key scientific advisers quit for receiving secret visits from his girlfriend amid the coronavirus pandemic. (Lawless, 5/6)

Stat: Watchdog Scolds HHS For Lacking Plan To Incentivize Antibiotic Development
Amid growing anxiety over a lack of antibiotics, a new report from a Congressional watchdog found that the Department of Health and Human Services lacks an overarching strategy for developing new incentives to manufacturers. In particular, the Government Accountability Office argued in a new report that the HHS so far hasn’t agreed about the need to offer certain types of so-called pull incentives, which could be offered to companies to help cover manufacturing and marketing costs after antibiotics have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration and reached the market. (Silverman, 4/29)

Stat: Orphan Drugs Improve Health — But Aren't Priced Cost-Effectively
As regulators approve a growing number of orphan drugs, prices for these medicines, which treat small groups of patients with rare diseases, have been climbing ever higher. And a new study finds that, while the drugs may offer larger health gains than other medications, they are not nearly as cost-effective. (Silverman, 5/4)

Stat: With Remdesivir, Gilead Finds Itself At Strategic Crossroads
Never in modern times have such high hopes for millions of lives rested on one single company. As the world struggles to fight off Covid-19, Gilead Sciences has been thrust in the spotlight with remdesivir, the antiviral drug that on Friday the Food and Drug Administration gave emergency authorization to treat coronavirus patients. Doctors are already preparing for a surge of requests from potential patients. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, is sounding close to buoyant. The markets are showing signs of recovery. And President Trump, who has vilified the drug industry since before his election, welcomed Gilead CEO Daniel O’Day to the Oval Office. (Florko and Garde, 5/5)

Bloomberg: Anti-Malaria Drug Hydroxychloroquine Coronavirus Demand Plunges
President Donald Trump has stopped talking about the decades-old antimalarial drug he once touted as a “game changer” for Covid-19, but it won’t be as simple for the rest of the health system to just move on. When Trump first began touting the drug in mid-March, a frenzy ensued as hospitals, patients and doctors raced to secure supplies. Many believed even if the drug didn’t turn out to be an effective coronavirus treatment, it might be able to ward off infection. (Edney, 5/5)

Modern Healthcare: Insurers Deny 25% Of Medication Claims For Infant Respiratory Illness
Respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, contributes to about 57,000 hospitalizations among children younger than five each year in the U.S. Virtually all children will get the infection before they are two and most of the time the symptoms are mild but in severe cases it can lead to bronchiolitis or pneumonia. There is no vaccine for RSV but the medication palivizumab is recommended for use by the American Academy of Pediatrics among infants born before 29 weeks or infants with congenital heart disease or chronic lung disease because they are vulnerable to severe cases of the virus. Despite its recommended use, 25% of palivizumab prescriptions for babies born before 29 weeks gestation were denied by commercial insurers from January to December 2019, according to a report from the not-for-profit Institute for Patient Access. The analysis includes 1,031 commercial claims. (Castellucci, 4/28)

Stat: The Cost Of Some Cancer Drugs Doesn't Line Up With The Benefit
As payers increasingly demand good value for medicines, a new analysis found that costs for dozens of cancer drugs in the U.S. were 2.3 times higher than in four wealthy European nations. And at the same time, there was generally no association between the clinical benefits of the drugs and the monthly treatment costs in most of the countries. (Silverman, 4/30)

Bloomberg Law: Generic Drug Decisions Stall As Virus Forces Patent Court Delays
Patients with cancer, kidney disease, and other ailments could pay higher drug prices for months longer than they otherwise would thanks to court delays caused by the coronavirus outbreak. At least six patent infringement lawsuits over brand-name drugs are at risk of surpassing—or are already set to exceed—Food and Drug Administration timelines for approving generic versions, according to a Bloomberg Law analysis of court dockets. Depending on how long the pandemic goes on, that list could grow. (Bauman, 5/4)

Stat: Biogen’s Blockbuster Rare Disease Drug Could Be In Trouble
The success of Biogen’s spinal muscular atrophy treatment Spinraza has been among the few bright spots in a trying few years for the company. But new data from a competing medicine suggests diminishing returns in the future, a problem that could be exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic. (Garde, 4/29)

Bloomberg: Bayer CEO Werner Baumann Wins Investor Vote Amid Roundup Talks
Bayer AG’s chief executive officer won a key confidence vote from shareholders, a show of support that eluded him last year and affirms his efforts to pull the company out of the Roundup crisis. About 93% of shareholders gave their backing to Werner Baumann and other managers. The positive result is typically a foregone conclusion in corporate Germany, but the CEO lost the vote last year as shareholders revolted over the fallout of the $63 billion Monsanto takeover. (Loh, 4/28)

Bloomberg: AbbVie Wins U.S. Antitrust Nod For Botox Maker Allergan
AbbVie Inc. won U.S. antitrust approval for its acquisition of botox maker Allergan Plc, clearing the last major hurdle from competition regulators to the $63 billion deal. The companies said Tuesday that the Federal Trade Commission approved the takeover after they agreed to sell assets to AstraZeneca Plc and Nestle SA to resolve competition concerns from the tie-up. (McLaughlin, 5/5)

Bloomberg: German Drugmaker Stada Seals Deal To Sell Cough Syrup In China
Stada Arzneimittel AG has signed a partnership agreement with a unit of Shijiazhuang Yiling Pharmaceutical Co. to sell its cough and cold syrups in China. The cooperation will help Stada, which is owned by private-equity firms Bain Capital and Cinven, as it seeks to expand in the country, according to Carsten Cron, the German drugmaker’s executive vice president for emerging markets. Along with selling the locally-produced syrups in the world’s most populous country, the partnership will enable Stada to pursue a strategy in China’s e-commerce market for consumer health care brands, and for Stada and Yiling Pharmaceutical to jointly develop high-potency raw materials, he said. (Baigorri, 4/29)

Newsweek: Outsourcing U.S. Drug Manufacturing To China Was A Mistake—A Lethal One
Most products we use include a country-of-origin label, from your Costa Rican fruit to Ethiopian coffee to even your Canadian car doorframe. Unsurprisingly, many of these goods sport the "Made in China" label.While the American public and political leaders have long lamented the exodus of American manufacturing overseas, rarely has it put us in mortal danger. But the COVID-19 pandemic shows how the departure of one specific sector—pharmaceuticals—has left the U.S. dangerously exposed, at a fearsome cost. It has literally cost us lives. The U.S. Government and private industry need to immediately recognize this problem and join together to create a new plan to build and protect manufacturing of life-saving medication domestically. (Lee Rosebush, 5/5)

The Hill: The Unintended Consequences Of A Proposed Cure For COVID-19
The very discussion of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine as therapeutic options against COVID-19 has decreased their availability for proven treatments, exacerbated global shortages, fueled an already rampant counterfeit drug market in Africa and worsened trade tensions. Each day in Africa, more than 1,000 people die of malaria, in part driven by shortages of these proven anti-malarial treatments. (Samantha McBirney, Sangita Baxi, Krishna B. Kumar and Todd Richmond, 4/29)

Bloomberg: Operation Warp Speed Needs To Waste Money On Covid Vaccines
The U.S. may waste a tremendous amount of taxpayer money preparing to produce failed Covid-19 vaccines. That is a smart strategy. The Trump administration is putting together an initiative called Operation Warp Speed, involving companies, government agencies and the military, aimed at collapsing the time required to create a novel vaccine against Covid-19. The goal is to have one ready for most Americans by the end of this year. (Max Nisen, 4/30)

Health Affairs: What Do High Drug Prices Buy Us?
US patients pay far more for the same brand-name drugs than do patients in other affluent countries; these prices are often well out of proportion to the clinical benefits they offer. Recent legislation passed by the House of Representatives would give the federal government the authority to negotiate prices on a modest number of costly brand-name medications, based on factors such as the drug’s effectiveness, the adequacy of alternative treatments, and market size. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that such negotiation would reduce taxpayer spending on prescription drugs by about $456 billion over 10 years. (Richard G. Frank, Jerry Avorn and Aaron S. Kesselheim, 4/29)

Financial Post: Our Drug Discovery System Seems Broken
COVID-19 is causing odd behaviour on the part of some firms. Drug companies with remedies to sell, or who hope for a remedy or vaccine, are making conciliatory gestures of great generosity in the markets for their products. Gilead Sciences Inc. has one of the most promising treatments, Remdesivir. It petitioned the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to retract the “orphan drug” designation benefiting Remdesivir and in any event has waived the exclusive rights, tax deductions and regulatory benefits that attend that designation, which allows preferential treatment of drugs for rare diseases. (Richard C. Owens, 5/5)

Columbus Dispatch: Drug Price Controls Could Stifle New Drug Development
The U.S. faces a dilemma. It can either continue the economic shutdown to try to slow the spread of the coronavirus, or it can open up the economy and risk accelerating the number of cases. Neither option is attractive. People will suffer and die in both scenarios. States across the country are beginning to open up their economies to various degrees. President Donald Trump, who wants to start opening the economy back up as soon as possible, recently laid out a three-phase timeline to do so. He reiterated his admonishment that the cure of shutting down the economy can’t be worse than the disease. (Dr. Nicole Johnson, 4/30)

The Washington Post: As States Reopen, Here’s How You Protect Yourself From The Coming Surge 
The federal government’s social distancing guidelines ended last week. As states lift their shelter-in-place orders and reopen parts of their economies, I am deeply worried that the next phase of the coronavirus pandemic will bring much more suffering and many more preventable deaths. What should concerned policymakers and residents do? Two things: First, prepare for a massive surge. (Leana S. Wen, 5/5)

The Detroit News: American Workers Need Protection
The coronavirus pandemic continues to affect hardworking Americans’ everyday life. Despite a plateauing of new cases, the toll this scourge is enacting on the public is immense. That’s why the Teamsters are pushing even harder now to protect our way of life. Congress is returning to the nation’s capital, and we need lawmakers to get down to business so they can help both workers and those who worked hard all their lives. That means taking additional steps to make workplaces safer; protecting the hard-earned pensions of workers and retirees; and ensuring state and local governments have the funds they need to pay their employees so they can keep serving their constituents. (James Hoffa, 5/5)

Philadelphia Inquirer: Meat Crisis Undoes Lesson Of Classic 1906 Novel
I read something that seemed particularly apt, given the ongoing global pandemic and the horrific impact it’s been having on America’s meatpacking industry, where thousands – many of them immigrants – have fallen ill to COVID-19 and at least 20 have died:. “Here was a population, low-class and mostly foreign, hanging always on the verge of starvation, and dependent for its opportunities of life upon the whim of men every bit as brutal and unscrupulous as the old-time slave drivers.” To be clear, I read that sometime in the mid-1970s, when I was a high school student. And the classic work of literature it comes from – Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle – was published way back in 1906, a bygone era of runaway capitalism creating vast contrasts of wealth and poverty, where a poor, largely immigrant labor force desperate to feed its families was often exploited. (Sounds familiar.) (Will Bunch, 5/5)

The Hill: Paid Sick Days And Paid Leave Are Health And Economic Recovery Requirements 
Recent stories of grocery, retail, fast food, warehouse, healthcare and meatpacking workers compelled to work despite having coronavirus symptoms shock the conscience... Despite concerns from workers and consumers, and with only weak plans to reduce health risks, President Trump and many governors are pushing to reopen the economy. Congressional Republicans now want immunity for employers who reopen — without providing any additional worker or consumer protections. That’s absurd and dangerous. (Vicki Shabo and Steven Findlay, 5/5)

The Washington Post: The Covid-19 Pandemic Has Shocked The Mental-Health System Out Of Complacency 
A year ago, I met a 20-something man in the far corner of a Tennessee hospital’s emergency department. He had come in that morning seeking help for intrusive suicidal thoughts and panic attacks. He was stuck in a freezing, too-bright room, appearing cowed by his hospital-issue, paper-thin scrubs, and his sense of urgency had given way to sullen indifference. He waited all day before a credentialed mental-health crisis worker arrived to assess his needs. All he wanted by then was to get out of there, and he left without so much as a referral for therapy. The scene was maddening. But after more than a decade of reporting on the mental-health beat, I knew it was not unusual. The system is cautious, often for good reasons. But that conservative approach often means throwing up hurdles that keep vulnerable people from getting the care they need. (Jason Cherkis, 5/5)

Stat: As A Nurse, My Hospital's Leaders Frighten Me More Than Covid-19 
I’ve been a nurse for almost 10 years, working mainly on a hospital’s cardiac floor. One day I was assigned to a makeshift intensive care unit that had previously been an observation unit for highly stable patients waiting for test results. Many of the patients in this new Covid-19 unit were intubated, with ventilators breathing for them. (Jaclyn O'Halloran, 5/6)

St. Louis Post Dispatch: Is Your Daughter, Husband, Grandparent Worth Sacrificing For A Hasty Reopening? 
Nationwide coronavirus deaths are now forecast to reach roughly double their current daily number, and new cases could reach 200,000 daily within the next month, according to a government draft report. The reason for these radically higher numbers is singular: the bid by President Donald Trump and governors of 27 states to reopen the economy, even if it means thousands more people will die. There’s no question that Gov. Mike Parson and other state leaders feel immense political pressure to get people back to work. (5/5)

Detroit Free Press: They Run Shelters For Domestic Violence Victims. Here's What Scares Them Now.
What scares Barbara Niess-May is how quiet things have been. Niess-May is the executive director of SafeHouse Center, an Ann Arbor-based shelter and support center for survivors of domestic violence. "We have people in our shelter, we have people calling us, but not at the same volume, and not at the same length of time," she said. When survivors call, she says, they say, "'I just can't get away.' "This is what keeps me awake at night." It has been the same across the state since the COVID-19 pandemic began. At SafeHouse, Niess-May says, shelter occupancy is down about 30%. At the Women's Resource Center in Traverse City, it's down about 33%. (Nancy Kaffer, 5/4)

Des Moines Register: COVID-19 In Iowa: Don't Raise Costs For Nursing Home Residents
Iowa’s retirement communities and nursing homes are under attack from COVID-19.  Over half of the state’s coronavirus cases have come from within their walls. Sadly, rather than equip these senior care facilities with more tools to combat this pandemic and protect their high-risk residents, bureaucrats within the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS, are instead trying to tax them into oblivion. (Thad Nearmyer, 5/5)

Boston Globe: A Leaderless Nation Adrift In A Crisis
It’s the agony and the tragedy of America. At a time when we long for hope, we’re getting depressing news. At a time when we need a high-minded leader to unify the country, we have a president consumed with his own political prospects.And as a consequence, at a time when we need to pull together as a nation, it sometimes feels as though the United States is coming apart at the regional, ideological, and generational seams.In the midst of this crisis, against the backdrop of a traumatized nation, we saw on Tuesday what this president is really about. Explaining his refusal to let Dr. Anthony Fauci testify before the House of Representatives, Trump said that House Democrats “frankly want our situation to be unsuccessful, which means death.” (Scott Lehigh, 5/5)

Stat: Expertise Can Help Save Us From Covid-19 — If We Use It Right 
Today, everyone is desperate for reliable information. We want to know how the virus spreads, what new treatments might be effective against it, how long until we have a vaccine, and how to get the economy going again. And we want answers from people who really know what they’re talking about. Yet the anti-expertise sentiment that was brewing before Covid-19 struck is still with us. (Paul Todd, 5/6)

CNN: Opening America Now Is Ludicrous 
Does the President have any sense of what's at stake? While the University of Washington's coronavirus model -- one often cited by the White House -- is predicting American deaths will be nearly twice as high as it had previously predicted, and the New York Times reports that the White House's own internal documents say the death toll could rise to 3,000 deaths every day by June 1, President Donald Trump is telling the American people that it's time to ease the social distancing protocols. What could go wrong? (Jill Filipovic, 5/5)

Los Angeles Times: Should Fauci And Birx Stick By Trump Or Quit On Principle?
How long can Deborah Birx and Anthony Fauci keep this up? We’ve been watching their faces, and we know as surely as we know ourselves that they are in agony working for an administration ruled by chaos and led by an irresponsible enemy of science who gets his facts wrong, contradicts himself and steps clumsily on their life-or-death message. The two eminent doctors have obviously made the calculation that they’re more valuable on the inside than the outside, and that they’ll make compromises and put up with a measure of indignity to remain in the inner circle of power. But surely late at night, they must have moments of moral doubt, looking hard into the mirror and asking themselves whether they’ve made the right decision to stick by President Trump’s side. (Nicholas Goldberg, 5/6)

CNN: Why House Democrats Need To Put Up A Fight On Fauci's Testimony
House Democrats last week sought testimony from Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, about the Trump administration's handling of the coronavirus crisis. The White House quickly stepped in to block it, claiming that Fauci's testimony would be "counter-productive." Now the ball is back in the House Democrats' court, and they've given no indication of doing anything more than dropping it and skulking away. (Elie Honig, 5/5)

Stat: A Lesson On Activism From Legendary Physician John Chiphangwi 
Five years ago, I was a doctoral student studying the history of medicine in Malawi, one of the planet’s poorest countries. I spent my days in a dusty archive, surrounded by the soft rustle of turning pages. It was there I learned about the activism of John Chiphangwi, an obstetrician who worked in an overcrowded and underequipped maternity ward in Blantyre, a center of commerce in Malawi. When the country’s murderous dictator, Hastings Kamuzu Banda, arrived for his annual Christmas rounds in 1978, Chiphangwi had a plan. (Luke Messac, 5/6)

USA Today: Coronavirus: Reopening Too Soon Will Harm Those With Fewest Choices
One might think it’s good news that more than half of all states are either partially reopening or have plans in place to reopen after a nearly two-month COVID-19 shutdown. If those states were truly ready, this would be good news. But many of the plans being rushed out now are almost certain to fall hardest on those people who will not be able to protect themselves or their families. Whether because of lack of access to health care, low household income, immigration status, racial discrimination, disability, lack of safe or affordable housing or myriad other factors, millions of people are going to pay for our nation’s entrenched inequities that have existed for generations but have become even more apparent and appalling during this pandemic. (Dr. Richard E. Besser, 5/5)

The Wall Street Journal: California’s Lockdown Liberation
Credit to California Gov. Gavin Newsom for agreeing Monday to lift the state’s strict lockdown later this week and let lower-risk counties further relax their restrictions. This is a concession to political and public-health reality, and we hope other Democratic governors follow. Mr. Newsom spurred a wave of state lockdowns by ordering all citizens to stay home. The state’s initial dire predictions of surging fatalities and infections overwhelming hospitals have not come to pass. California’s fatality rate (5.8 per 100,000 people) is much lower than those of New York (127.4), Massachusetts (59.9) and even Colorado (15.4), whose Democratic Governor is letting businesses reopen. (5/5)

The New York Times: Don’t Be Fooled By America’s Flattening Curve
During the early days of the pandemic, the public’s attention was fixed on various models, each showing a steep upswing, with cases steadily increasing each day, followed by the tail-end of the curve as cases fade away. Americans saw, with increasing dread, the predicted upswing in the national numbers. Then, over the last couple of weeks, it stopped. And yet, forecasters are projecting even more deaths on the horizon. A leaked document obtained by The New York Times projected more than 3,000 people could die each day by the end of May. Another historically conservative model, favored by the Trump administration, just doubled its projected death toll, too. The tail-end of the national epidemic is not materializing. (Nathaniel Lash, 5/6)

Chicago Tribune: Why It Matters When Gov. J.B. Pritzker Wears A Mask
The lack of common knowledge is an underappreciated reason why it is so difficult for society to quickly adjust to emergencies such as COVID-19. People care about doing right, but also about how they are perceived. You may know wearing a mask or not letting your kids attend a play date is responsible, but wouldn’t these be easier choices if you knew others were going to do likewise? For us to do right as a community, it is not enough for us each to know what is right. We also need to know that others know it. While the death toll from COVID-19 may be slowly moving us toward new norms of behavior, we aren’t there yet. (Ethan Bueno de Mesquita and Mehdi Shadmehr, 5/1)

The Hill: The US Should Follow Sweden's Approach To Combating COVID-19 
Many governors are refusing to lift their COVID-19 shelter-in-place decrees until long lists of conditions are met... As a matter of science, the governors are wrong. They assume that they are making a tradeoff of a short-term reduction in employment for a long-term reduction in age-specific mortality. They are actually making a tradeoff of a short-term reduction in COVID-19 deaths for a long-term increase in age-specific mortality for working people and their families. (Alexander Galetovic and Stephen Haber, 5/5)