CNN: Stimulus Package: McConnell Formally Unveils $1 Trillion HEALS Act 
Senate Republicans on Monday formally unveiled their roughly $1 trillion stimulus proposal, which includes a $400 cut in enhanced unemployment benefits, and will serve as an opening bid for bipartisan negotiations with Democrats while Congress scrambles to respond to the economic and public health crisis sparked by the coronavirus pandemic. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said in comments on the Senate floor, "The American people need more help," and that the GOP proposal will be called the HEALS Act, an acronym for Health, Economic Assistance, Liability Protection and Schools. (Foran and Mattingly, 7/27)

Stat: Covid-19 Relief Package Likely To Include Billions More For Vaccines, Testing
The latest round of Covid-19 relief could include a dramatic increase in new funding for public health initiatives, according to draft legislation released Monday by Senate Republicans. The proposed bill includes $20 billion for BARDA, the pandemic-response agency, to advance the development of Covid-19 vaccines and therapeutics, as well as $6 billion to coordinate vaccine distribution efforts through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Facher, 7/27)

The Associated Press: Mnuchin, Pelosi Talk Virus Relief; GOP Slashes Jobless Aid
While Senate Republicans struggled to roll out their own $1 trillion proposal, Pelosi implored the White House and GOP lawmakers to stop the infighting and come to the negotiating table with Democrats. Aid runs out Friday for a $600 weekly jobless benefit that Democrats call a lifeline for out-of-work Americans. Republican want to slash it to $200 a week, saying that the federal bump is too generous on top of state benefits and is discouraging employees from returning to work. “Time is running out,” Pelosi said. (Mascaro, 7/28)

MarketWatch: Republicans And Democrats Both Want Another Round Of Stimulus Checks — But Here’s Where They Disagree
Democrats want a second round of $1,200 stimulus checks, and Republicans agreed Monday as they unveiled their opening offer for another relief package. But stimulus checks 2.0 mean two different things under the approximately $1 trillion Republican bill and Democrats’ $3 trillion bill, underscoring the divides on what each party thinks the country needs — and what it supposedly can afford to pay — as the coronavirus pandemic continues. (Keshner, 7/28)

And response to the stimulus package —

The Hill: GOP Coronavirus Relief Package Gets Warm Welcome From Business Groups 
Business groups across hard-hit industries applauded provisions of the Senate Republicans’ roughly $1 trillion coronavirus relief package, which was rolled out on Monday. The GOP plan would extend Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) eligibility to nonprofit or quasi-governmental tourism marketing organizations, which the travel industry’s lobbying group has been pushing for since these businesses were left out of the COVID-19 aid package Congress passed in March. (Gangitano, 7/27)

The Hill: Not Extending Unemployment Plus-Up Would Be Devastating, Says Expert 
Stephanie Kelton, a professor of economics at Stony Brook University, said Monday it would be devastating if the $600 weekly unemployment benefits are cut in the next coronavirus relief plan. “It doesn’t take an economics degree to understand that this life line that was provided, this plus-up that you referred to, the $600 additional per week for unemployed people, has ... helped enormously for tens and millions of Americans,” Kelton said on The Hill.TV’s “Rising.” Kelton said the $600 additional checks for unemployed Americans helped millions of people who would have otherwise fallen into poverty or missed rent and mortgage payments. (7/27)

Politico: Drugmakers Refuse To Attend White House Meeting After Trump Issues Executive Orders On Costs 
A White House meeting with top pharmaceutical executives that President Donald Trump promised for Tuesday is off, five industry sources familiar with discussions told POLITICO. Three said the drug-pricing discussion was canceled because the major drug lobbies, reeling from Friday’s cluster of executive orders on the topic, refused to send any members. Drugmakers and Trump were slated to discuss an executive order, signed Friday but not yet released, that would order health officials to release a plan linking Medicare payments for certain medicines to lower costs paid abroad. The provision, known as a most-favored-nations rule, has been lambasted by the drug industry and some patient groups that say it would curb innovation and reduce drug access. (Owermohle, 7/27)

The Hill: Pharma Execs Decline Trump Offer For Meeting On Drug Prices 
A spokesman for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America did not directly address on Monday whether industry executives are willing to meet with the White House about the executive order. "Right now our industry’s sole focus is figuring out a way to beat COVID-19," the spokesman said. "The president’s plan to import policies from socialized health care systems abroad is disrupting our work and diverting our focus away from those life-saving efforts." (Sullivan, 7/27)

Also —

The Hill: Wall Street Journal Knocks Trump Drug Pricing Plan
The Wall Street Journal criticized President Trump’s moves on prescription drug pricing in a new editorial, accusing the president of favoring a “me-too Democratic plan.” The newspaper said the proposed price controls could lead to a decline in U.S. drugmakers' spending on research and development and faulted congressional Democrats and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden for supporting international drug price indexing. (Budryk, 7/27)

The Hill: Trump Hits Road To Tout Progress Toward Vaccine
President Trump and Vice President Pence hit the road on Monday to highlight progress on the development of a vaccine for COVID-19, seeking to project optimism about the administration's response to a pandemic that has killed more than 145,000 people in the U.S. Trump visited a biotech facility [in Morrisville, N.C.] to boast of the rapid progress on finding a vaccine to combat the pandemic, claiming his administration’s work through its vaccine development effort, Operation Warp Speed, had reduced the wait time by “years.” (Samuels, 7/27)

Bloomberg: China’s ‘Bat Woman’ Rebukes Trump, Denies Virus Link To Lab
China’s “bat woman” lashed out at Donald Trump, saying the U.S. president owes her country an apology as she again denied assertions that the novel coronavirus is linked to the Wuhan lab where she works. Shi Zhengli, deputy director of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, said in an interview published in Science magazine that she and her colleagues encountered the virus in December last year, when reports of the disease first emerged in the city. She said the lab hadn’t seen or studied the virus before that. (Sutherland, 7/28)

In other news from the Trump administration —

The Hill: Fauci Says Positive White House Task Force Reports Don't Always Match What He Hears On The Ground 
The positive messaging from the White House coronavirus task force doesn't always match the reality on the ground, Anthony Fauci says in a new interview with ABC News. In the interview, which is set to air Tuesday, Fauci says he doesn't have a "good answer" as to why the U.S. is still struggling with distributing personal protective equipment or why diagnostic test results are taking so long to turn around. “We keep hearing when we go to these task force meetings that these [issues] are being corrected,” Fauci said. “But yet when you go into the trenches, you still hear about that.” (Weixel, 7/27)

Politico: Trump Downplays National Security Adviser's Coronavirus Diagnosis 
President Donald Trump socially distanced himself from his own national security adviser on Monday after he tested positive for Covid-19. Asked about the positive test result for Robert O’Brien, Trump said he hadn't seen his top foreign policy aide recently. "I haven't seen him lately," the president said on Monday during a brief exchange with reporters on the South Lawn of the White House. "I heard he tested, yeah. I have not seen him." (Lippman, 7/27)

Politico: First Presidential Debate Moved To Cleveland Amid Pandemic Concerns 
The first presidential debate has been moved to Cleveland amid concerns about the coronavirus pandemic, organizers announced. The Commission on Presidential Debates, the nonprofit that has conducted the general election debates for decades, announced on Monday that Case Western Reserve University and Cleveland Clinic will co-host the first presidential debate on Sept. 29 between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden. (Montellaro, 7/27)

AP: 2nd Presidential Debate Host Withdraws Amid Virus Outbreak
The University of Notre Dame has become the second university to withdraw as the host of one of this fall’s three scheduled presidential debates amid the coronavirus pandemic. The university was set to host the inaugural face-off between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden on Sept. 29. The first debate will now be hosted by Case Western Reserve University and Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, the nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates announced Monday. (Miller, 7/27)

Also —

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: DNC: Face Masks, Daily COVID-19 Tests For 2020 Convention In Milwaukee
Face masks, questionnaires and daily tests for COVID-19 are part of the health protocols for attendees at next month's Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee. The stringent list will be in place when Democrats meet Aug. 17-20 at the Wisconsin Center in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic. Convention organizers released a fact-sheet Monday that provides details of public health measures to "curb the risk of disease spread among those attending the convention in Milwaukee, including guests, law enforcement, media, and staff." Everyone, from presumptive nominee Joe Biden on down, will have to wear a face mask. (Glauber, 7/27)

The Wall Street Journal: Democrats Fend Off Attempts To Back Medicare For All In Platform 
Democrats rejected efforts to amend the party’s platform to show support for Medicare for All and legalizing marijuana, as they moved the document closer to adoption by delegates to next month’s convention. The document, approved Monday by the party’s platform committee, aligns closely with presumptive nominee Joe Biden’s campaign proposals. The next step is for the platform to be voted on by nearly 4,000 Democratic delegates, which they will do by mail ahead of the convention where Mr. Biden is set to be formally named the party’s nominee. (Collins, 7/27)

The Hill: 360 Democratic Delegates Say They'll Oppose Party Platform That Does Not Include 'Medicare For All' 
Nearly 400 Democratic delegates plan to oppose any party platform that does not include "Medicare for All," saying the coronavirus pandemic illustrates the urgency. “This pandemic has shown us that our private health insurance system does not work for the American people. Millions of people have lost their jobs and their health care at the same time,” Judith Whitmer, a delegate for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) who chairs the convention’s Nevada delegation, told Politico. “There’s people leaving the hospital now with millions of dollars in medical bills. What are we going to do about that?” (Budryk, 7/27)

In other news from the Democrats —

The Hill: Biden Has 10-Point Lead Over Trump: 'It's The Virus, Stupid' 
Presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden leads President Trump by 10 points nationally in the latest Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll survey, with a strong majority of voters viewing Biden as better equipped to lead the country through the coronavirus pandemic and racial turbulence. The poll found Biden at 55 percent support, against Trump at 45 percent. That’s effectively unchanged from June, when Biden led by 12 points. (Easley, 7/27)

Stat: First U.S. Covid-19 Case Was Found In This Congresswoman's District 
Six months ago, the first Covid-19 case was diagnosed in the U.S. in a man who had returned home to Washington state from visiting family in Wuhan, China. The infection set off a flurry of local efforts to prevent the spread of the virus, while serving as a signal that the U.S. was not protected from the pathogen. STAT recently spoke with U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene, the Washington Democrat who represents the district where that first known case occurred, about the lessons learned from it, what the role of a member of Congress is during a pandemic, and what more lawmakers need to do to help the U.S. response. (Joseph, 7/28)

The Associated Press: Survey Shows Iowa Providers Don't Like Privatized Medicaid
A majority of health care providers are dissatisfied with Iowa’s privatized Medicaid program, saying access to care hasn’t improved for the more than 650,000 people who rely on the system and that reimbursements are slow and difficult to secure, according to a survey released Monday. State Auditor Rob Sand said his survey reinforces long-held complaints about the change from a state-run system in 2016. (Pitt, 7/27)

Stat: New York Panel Seeks Extra Medicaid Rebates From Biogen For Pricey Rare Disease Drug 
A New York State panel has recommended that officials seek a supplemental Medicaid rebate for a pricey rare disease drug sold by Biogen (BIIB), marking only the third time such a move was proposed because a medicine may cause the state Medicaid program to exceed a cap on drug spending. In a 14-to-0 vote last Thursday, the state’s Drug Utilization Review panel agreed that a rebate should be pursued for Spinraza, which is used to treat muscular spinal atrophy, an often-fatal genetic disease affecting muscle strength and movement. In its deadliest form, referred to as Type 1, the disease causes children to die by the time they turn 2 years old. (Silverman, 7/27)

Kaiser Health News: The COVID-19 Downturn Triggers Jump In Medicaid Enrollment
Reversing a three-year decline, the number of people covered by Medicaid nationwide rose markedly this spring as the impact of the recession caused by the outbreak of COVID-19 began to take hold. Yet, the growth in participation in the state-federal health insurance program for low-income people was less than many analysts predicted. One possible factor tempering enrollment: People with concerns about catching the coronavirus avoided seeking care and figured they didn’t need the coverage. (Galewitz, 7/28)

Stat: Pfizer And BioNTech Pick Covid-19 Vaccine And Begin Pivotal Study 
Pfizer and BioNTech are starting a large study of a vaccine candidate for Covid-19 aimed at securing approvals — but it’s not the one for which results were released earlier this month. The companies always said that they planned to pick from among four different candidates, all of which use a technology called messenger RNA to produce a protein on SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19. The vaccine is designed to lead the immune system to recognize the protein, and, it is hoped, to attack the virus. (Herper and Garde, 7/27)

CNBC: Pfizer And BioNTech Began Late-Stage Human Trial For Coronavirus Vaccine Monday
The trial will include up to 30,000 participants between the ages of 18 and 85 across 120 sites globally, including 39 U.S. states, the companies announced. If successful, they expect to submit it for final regulatory review as early as October. They plan to supply up to 100 million doses by the end of 2020 and approximately 1.3 billion doses by the end of 2021. (Lovelace Jr., 7/27)

Stat: Democratic Group Warns U.S. Unprepared To Distribute Covid-19 Vaccine
A Democratic group warned Tuesday that the U.S. is fundamentally unprepared to manufacture and distribute hundreds of millions of Covid-19 vaccine doses when one becomes available, urging Congress to step up preparedness efforts and spend $40 billion to quickly increase manufacturing and distribution capacity. In a 20-page report published by the Center for American Progress, two leading Democratic health policy figures called the current vaccine manufacturing setup “haphazard.” (Facher, 7/28)

The Philadelphia Inquirer: There Won't Be Enough Coronavirus Vaccine To Go Around. Who Should Get It First?
Whenever a vaccine for the coronavirus becomes available, one thing is virtually certain: There won’t be enough to go around. That means there will be rationing. Someone will have to decide which of the world’s 7.8 billion people gets first crack at returning to a more normal life. Infectious disease experts and medical ethicists say this exceptionally complex decision must weigh not only who is most at risk from the virus and who is most likely to spread it, but also who is most important for maintaining the medical and financial health of a nation as well as its safety. (Burling, 7/28)

In business news —

The New York Times: Corporate Insiders Pocket $1 Billion In Rush For Coronavirus Vaccine 
On June 26, a small South San Francisco company called Vaxart made a surprise announcement: A coronavirus vaccine it was working on had been selected by the U.S. government to be part of Operation Warp Speed, the flagship federal initiative to quickly develop drugs to combat Covid-19. Vaxart’s shares soared. Company insiders, who weeks earlier had received stock options worth a few million dollars, saw the value of those awards increase sixfold. And a hedge fund that partly controlled the company walked away with more than $200 million in instant profits. (Gelles and Drucker, 7/25)

Stat: Facebook's Vaccine Misinformation Problem Faces A New Test With Covid-19
As scientists begin to clear a path to a potential coronavirus vaccine, researchers and advocates are increasingly sounding the alarm over what they see as a looming threat: Facebook’s apparent inability to police dangerous falsehoods about vaccines. Since the outset of the pandemic, vaccine-related falsehoods have ballooned on the platform — and recent research suggests some of those inaccurate posts are gaining traction among people who weren’t previously opposed to vaccinations. Part of the problem appears to be the way Facebook’s algorithms capitalize on divisive or extremist content. (Brodwin, 7/28)

AP: Head Of China CDC Gets Injected With Experimental Vaccine
The head of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention says he has been injected with an experimental coronavirus vaccine in an attempt to persuade the public to follow suit when one is approved. “I’m going to reveal something undercover: I am injected with one of the vaccines,” Gao Fu said in a webinar Sunday hosted by Alibaba Health, an arm of the Chinese e-commerce giant, and Cell Press, an American publisher of scientific journals. “I hope it will work.” (Kang, 7/28)

Also —

The Philadelphia Inquirer: How To Join A Coronavirus Vaccine Clinical Trial
If you want to be among the first to get a vaccine for the coronavirus, joining a clinical trial might be your best bet. Vaccine makers are going to need thousands of volunteer testers over the next few months. As with any clinical trial, these new vaccines are experimental, so they may not work. And thousands may also be in the placebo group, so they will have no extra protection against the virus. There’s also a risk of nasty side effects, but clinical trial participants may feel good about doing something concrete to fight COVID-19. (Burling, 7/27)

CNN: Vaccines Are Remarkably Safe, Review Finds 
Vaccine label changes have made vaccines even safer than they were before, and they remain "remarkably" safe, Israeli-based researchers reported Monday. A review of 58 different changes to labels on vaccines made between 1996 and 2015 has shown very few dangers in vaccination, and changes that were made were mostly to ensure people vulnerable to side effects or allergies were protected, they found. (Thomas, Lin Erdman, Kane and Hetter, 7/27)

The Washington Post: Wearing Masks Might Help You Avoid Major Illness Even If You Get Coronavirus, Experts Say 
As health experts urge the public to wear masks to slow the spread of the coronavirus, they continue to get pushback. Among the arguments of skeptics: If masks can’t fully protect me against covid-19, what is the point of wearing them? Scientists’ counterargument is that masks can help reduce the severity of the disease caused by coronavirus even if you get infected. (Lin II, 7/28)

The New York Times: Research Boosts Evidence Of Masks’ Utility, Some Experts Say 
Researchers have long known that masks can prevent people from spreading airway germs to others. But now experts are pointing to evidence suggesting that masks also protect the people wearing them, lessening the severity of symptoms, or in some instances, staving off infection entirely. Different kinds of masks “block virus to a different degree, but they all block the virus from getting in,” said Dr. Monica Gandhi, an infectious disease physician at the University of California, San Francisco. If any virus particles do breach these barriers, she said, the disease might still be milder. (7/27)

Bloomberg: Mask Advocates Cite Plane Transmission Study In Call For Mandate
The 44-year-old man was chatting with his wife and son on a flight from Singapore to China earlier this year when he let his guard down, allowing his face mask to slip below his nose. That lapse appears to have been how he became infected with Covid-19. The case, cited in a recently published study of an outbreak among passengers on a January flight, is one of the first to document a probable transmission on an airliner and is reviving calls for government rules requiring masks. It comes as safety concerns raise questions about whether passengers will return in sufficient numbers to keep airline companies from collapsing. (Levin, 7/28)

The Washington Post: What You Need To Know About Wearing A Mask During The Covid-19 Pandemic 
It appears face masks are here to stay.The New York Times surveyed 511 epidemiologists, and more than half of them predicted that masks will be necessary for at least the next year, if not longer. Colleges are requiring students to wear masks on campus when classes start back up in the fall. The World Health Organization now recommends that everyone wear a mask while out in public. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says organizers of large gatherings should “strongly encourage” the use of masks at events. (Amenabar, 7/27)

In mask news from the states —

AP: Georgia Governor Backs Out Of Hearing On Atlanta Mask Order
Georgia’s governor said he’s withdrawing a request for an emergency hearing in a lawsuit that aims to block the state’s largest city from ordering people to wear masks in public or imposing other restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Gov. Brian Kemp earlier this month sued Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and the City Council, but a spokesman announced late Monday that the governor wanted “to continue productive, good faith negotiations.” As a result, the governor decided to withdraw the request for a hearing that was scheduled for Tuesday morning, spokesman Cody Hall said. (Brumback and Amy, 7/28)

AP: Medical Groups Call For Iowa Governor To Require Masks
Iowa physician groups are urging Gov. Kim Reynolds to order the public to wear masks as cases continue to rise. The Des Moines Register reports that the Iowa Medical Society and 14 other health-professional groups said Monday in a letter to the governor that “widespread use of cloth masks in public settings will dramatically slow the spread of COVID-19 and save lives.” (7/27)

The Washington Post: States With Stricter Covid-19 Restrictions Watch Lax Neighbors Warily, Knowing The Virus Does Not Respect Borders 
Sarah Poe watched with rising alarm as coronavirus cases began to spiral last month in rural Malheur County, Ore., turning the remote region bright red on maps of hot spots. The county health director knew locals were ditching masks and isolation. But she also saw a threat directly across the Snake River: Idaho. Half the workforce in Malheur, where the minimum wage is $4 higher than across the border, lives in Idaho. Other Idahoans come for Oregon’s sales-tax-free shopping and legal marijuana. But the intermingling looks more menacing to Poe and other Malheur officials these days — because unlike in Oregon, masks are not mandated across the border and the coronavirus metrics there are far bleaker. Now, the public health department in that Oregon county has traced cases to origins in Idaho. (Brullliard and Weiner, 7/27)

AP: Wyoming To Distribute 500,000 Face Masks To Schools
Wyoming officials plan to distribute 500,000 face masks to school districts around the state to help schools reopen during the coronavirus pandemic.The cloth face coverings will be washable and help school districts to meet safety standards for reopening schools this fall, state officials said Monday. The Wyoming Department of Health and Wyoming Office of Homeland Security obtained the face masks through the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Schools will get the face masks in early August. (7/27)

Bloomberg: Tighter Rules Slow Virus In U.S., But Victory Still Far Away
The coronavirus pandemic is reaching a plateau in some of the hardest-hit U.S. states after public officials imposed unpopular public-health measures, like closing bars and requiring masks. Now, those officials wonder whether they can force infection rates down again, as they did in the spring -- and this time, make them stick until a vaccine arrives. (Baker, Levin and Raimonde, 7/27)

AP: 2 Of Maine's Hardest Hit Counties To Get Testing Help
A medical center that serves two of the hardest-hit counties in Maine is slated to receive a boost from the federal government to offer more coronavirus testing. Community Clinical Services in Lewiston has been awarded more than $320,000 to expand testing and training capacities, Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King said Monday. The center serves Androscoggin and Cumberland counties, which are two of the three hardest hit counties in the state of Maine in terms of caseload. (7/28)

Los Angeles Times: Newsom To Send 'Strike Teams' To Fight COVID-19 In Central Valley 
Gov. Gavin Newsom said Latinos in the Central Valley have been disproportionately harmed by the spread of COVID-19, prompting the governor to send “strike teams” to eight counties while asking the California Legislature to approve $52 million to improve testing, tracing and isolation protocols in those regions. Newsom said the targeted approach on eight counties — San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Merced, Madera, Fresno, Kings and Tulare, and Kern counties — comes as the state is seeing widening disparities in deaths and infections of Latinos statewide. Those increases are particularly felt in the Central Valley, where Latinos make up a higher percentage of residents. (Gutierrez, 7/27)

In related news —

NPR: With Testing Delays And Cases Surges, Contact Tracing Is Stymied In Some States 
When the coronavirus pandemic began, public health experts had high hopes for the United States. After all, the U.S. literally invented the tactics that have been used for decades to quash outbreaks around the world: Quickly identify everyone who gets infected. Track down everyone exposed to the virus. Test everyone. Isolate the sick and quarantine the exposed to stop the virus from spreading. The hope was a wealthy country like the United States would deploy those tried-and-true measures to rapidly contain the virus — like quickly dousing every ember from a campfire to keep it from erupting into a forest fire. (Stein, 7/27)

The Wall Street Journal: Suffering From Covid For Months—And Battling Murky Test Results Too 
Jenny Berz woke up on March 27 with a fever, headache and shortness of breath. Four months later she is still sick, struggling with fatigue, sinus pain, blurred vision, gastrointestinal issues, and pain and numbness in her hands. She loses her sense of smell every few days. Ms. Berz, a 50-year-old clinical psychologist in Brookline, Mass., believes she is suffering from long-term symptoms of Covid-19, and her primary care doctor does too. Her husband tested positive for Covid about a week after she fell ill. But the four antibody tests Ms. Berz has taken came back negative, as did a diagnostic test she took in the emergency room in late March. (Reddy, 7/27)

Los Angeles Times: Coronavirus: Military Medical Teams Arrive At Two L.A. County Hospitals 
Medical professionals from the military have arrived in Los Angeles County to reinforce the ranks of two hospitals. The Department of Defense sent the Air Force teams last week to Los Angeles County-USC and Harbor-UCLA medical centers, said Brian Ferguson, a spokesperson for the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services. ... Ferguson said state authorities requested the support through the Federal Emergency Management Agency. (Sheridan, 7/27)

AP: Monument Health Hospitals Allowing Visitors Again
All five Monument Health hospitals are allowing visitors once again. Opening the hospitals to visitors beginning Monday is part of a phased-in approach for the health care provider which began allowing one visitor per patient at the John T. Vucurevich Cancer Care Institute in Rapid City [South Dakota] last Monday. As for the hospitals, bedside visiting and accompanying someone for emergency care, surgery or other procedures is now permitted, KOTA-TV reported. (7/27)

Boston Globe: Doctors Uneasy About Uptick In State Coronavirus Cases
The reported rate of positive COVID-19 cases in Massachusetts has crept up over the past week, heightening an uneasiness among some doctors who fear that they might be seeing a return of the virus that has spread so quickly around the nation this summer. In e-mails, phone conversations, and on social media, the doctors say they’re seeing emergency rooms getting busier with feverish patients and more imaging tests coming back with distinctive signs of coronavirus infection. It’s too soon to say whether their anecdotal observations, along with the recent uptick in state data, are the tip of an emerging iceberg or simply a temporary blip. (Lazar and Moore, 7/27)

Kaiser Health News and Politifact HealthCheck: Biden Is Right. Pay For Home Health Workers Is Paltry. 
In a speech this month, former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, offered the third installment of a four-part economic plan being rolled out in advance of the Democratic National Convention in August. This set of proposals focused on caregivers — whether for children, older adults or people with disabilities — and is about “easing the squeeze on working families who are raising their kids and caring for aging loved ones at the same time,” Biden said. His campaign’s sweeping set of initiatives, which represent a $775 billion expenditure in a variety of programs, aims to get significant traction among middle-class voters, whose struggles with caregiving issues have been exacerbated during the coronavirus pandemic. (Stapleton, 7/28)

In obituaries —

The Washington Post: Joseph Costa, ICU Doctor At Mercy Medical Center, Dies Of Coronavirus 
A physician who headed the intensive care at Baltimore’s Mercy Medical Center has died of the novel coronavirus, a hospital spokesman said Monday. Dr. Joseph J. Costa, who was chief of the hospital’s Critical Care Division, died about 4:45 a.m. Saturday in the same ICU he supervised. He was attended by his partner of 28 years and about 20 staff members, who placed their hands on him as he died. Costa was 56. (Kunkle, 7/27)

Stat: Covid-19 Leaves Its Impact On The Heart, Raising Fears Of Lasting Damage
Two new studies from Germany paint a sobering picture of the toll that Covid-19 takes on the heart, raising the specter of long-term damage after people recover, even if their illness was not severe enough to require hospitalization. One study examined the cardiac MRIs of 100 people who had recovered from Covid-19 and compared them to heart images from 100 people who were similar but not infected with the virus... More than two months later, infected patients were more likely to have troubling cardiac signs than people in the control group: 78 patients showed structural changes to their hearts, 76 had evidence of a biomarker signaling cardiac injury typically found after a heart attack, and 60 had signs of inflammation. (Cooney, 7/27)

CIDRAP: Research Reveals Heart Complications In COVID-19 Patients 
Two German studies published today in JAMA Cardiology show abnormal heart imaging findings in recently recovered COVID-19 patients, and cardiac infections in those who have died from their infections. The first, an observational cohort study, involved 100 unselected coronavirus patients identified from the University Hospital Frankfurt COVID-19 Registry from April to June, 57 risk factor-matched patients, and 50 healthy volunteers. (Van Beusekom, 7/27)

CIDRAP: Study Finds COVID-19 Symptoms Linger In 35% Of Outpatients
Interviews of COVID-19 patients with mild illness found that more than a third had symptoms that lasted for 2 to 3 weeks after testing positive, including 1 in 5 previously healthy adults, researchers reported late last week in the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC's) Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR). Of 582 patients in 13 states who were contacted by the CDC COVID-19 Response Team, 292 patients responded. The interviews were conducted 14 to 21 days after the first positive test for SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) and included questions about baseline demographics, baseline chronic medical conditions, symptoms present at time of testing, and whether those symptoms had resolved and patients had returned to their usual state of health by the time of the interview. The median age of the 292 respondents was 42.5 years, and 53% reported one or more chronic medical conditions. The median interval from test to interview date was 16 days. (7/27)

CIDRAP: Analysis Of Remdesivir COVID-19 Trials Posts Encouraging Results
In a comparative analysis published late last week in Clinical Infectious Diseases, the antiviral drug remdesivir was linked to significantly greater recovery and a 62% lower death rate by day 14 versus standard treatment in hospitalized adults with severe COVID-19. Researchers used data from 298 participants in an ongoing phase 3 trial of remdesivir at 45 international sites, as well as retrospective data from an ongoing real-world longitudinal study of 816 patients given standard treatment at 16 international sites. (7/27)

CIDRAP: Most COVID-19 Clinical Studies Produce Poor-Quality Evidence, Analysis Finds
Less than one-third of clinical COVID-19 studies yielded evidence strong enough to potentially change clinical practice, an analysis of 1,551 studies published today in JAMA Internal Medicine found.Researchers at Stanford University and Yale School of Medicine searched coronavirus studies registered on ClinicalTrials.gov from Mar 1, 2011 to May 19, 2020. Of the 1,551 studies, only 451 (29.1%) could potentially yield Oxford Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine (OCEBM) 2011 level 2 results, the highest level of individual study evidence. And only 75 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) (11.3%) were placebo-controlled and blinded and had two or more study centers (60 had more than 100 participants, while 24 had more than 500). (7/27)

The New York Times: The Doctor Behind The Disputed Covid Data 
A college degree at 19. A medical school graduate with a Ph.D. at 27. By the time he completed training in vascular surgery in 2014, Dr. Sapan Desai had cast himself as an ambitious physician, an entrepreneur with an M.B.A. and a prolific researcher published in medical journals. Then the novel coronavirus hit and Dr. Desai seized the moment. With a Harvard professor, he produced two studies in May that almost instantly disrupted multiple clinical trials amid the pandemic. (Gabler and Caryn Rabin, 7/27)

Boston Globe: Stick-On Body Sensors Offer New Hope Against COVID-19
You can’t cure COVID-19 with a Band-Aid. But you might be able to detect it. Dermal Photonics of Peabody says it has made a new kind of temperature sensor that’s attached to the body like an adhesive bandage, and can quickly detect changes in body heat that may indicate the onset of an infection. Compared to the smart watches and fitness trackers that are now being tested as possible COVID-19 detectors, the patch, called NIRA Temp, is smaller, simpler and a lot cheaper. (Bray, 7/27)

The New York Times: A Possible Weapon Against The Pandemic: Printing Human Tissue 
As shortages of personal protective equipment persist during the coronavirus pandemic, 3-D printing has helped to alleviate some of the gaps. But Anthony Atala, the director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, and his team are using the process in a more innovative way: creating tiny replicas of human organs — some as small as a pinhead — to test drugs to fight Covid-19. The team is constructing miniature lungs and colons — two organs particularly affected by the coronavirus — then sending them overnight by courier for testing at a biosafety lab at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va. While they initially created some of the so-called organoids by hand using a pipette, they are beginning to print these at scale for research as the pandemic continues to surge. (Rosen, 7/27)

WBUR: Mass. Biotech Funding Is Off To A Strong Start This Year Despite The Pandemic
In just the first six months of this year, the Massachusetts biotech sector has already raised more than two-thirds of the venture capital it raised for all of 2019, according to a new report by the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council. The findings show that investment in the industry remained strong despite the economic uncertainty caused by the coronavirus pandemic. (Enwemeka, 7/28)

KQED: Inside SF's New Biosafety Lab, Where Scientists Wrangle Live Coronavirus
There’s so much scientists still don’t know about the novel coronavirus: basic stuff, like how exactly it invades a host’s healthy cells, the molecular interactions that enable it to spread through the body and why it affects some people more than others. But a handful of labs in the Bay Area, including ones at UCSF and UC Berkeley, are trying to gain a better understanding of how SARS-CoV-2 behaves by doing basic research with live virus. The work could help scientists develop and test new treatments or vaccines to target the virus more effectively. (Arcuni, 7/27)

USA Today: Hand Sanitizer Warning: FDA Issues Alert Of Sanitizers With Methanol
The Food and Drug Administration issued another warning Monday to not use certain hand sanitizers that may contain methanol or wood alcohol, a toxic substance when absorbed through skin or ingested. The FDA is continuing to update its "do-not-use list of dangerous hand sanitizer products," which included 87 varieties of hand sanitizer that should be avoided, some which have already been recalled, and other products being recommended for recalls as they may contain the potentially fatal ingredient. (Tyko, 7/27)

The Wall Street Journal: Google To Keep Employees Home Until Summer 2021 Amid Coronavirus Pandemic 
Google will keep its employees home until at least next July, making the search-engine giant the first major U.S. corporation to formalize such an extended timetable in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. The move will affect nearly all of the roughly 200,000 full-time and contract employees across Google parent Alphabet Inc. and adds pressure to other technology giants that have slated staff to return as soon as January. (Copeland and Grant, 7/27)

AP: Sinclair Says It Won't Air Fauci Conspiracy Theory Segment
The Sinclair Broadcast Group says it will not air a segment on its “America This Week” program in which a conspiracy theorist speculates about Dr. Anthony Fauci and the coronavirus. Over the weekend, Sinclair said it was delaying the story for a week after it attracted media attention. But in a tweet late Monday, Sinclair said that given the nature of Judy Mikovits’ claims to correspondent Eric Bolling, the segment was “not appropriate” to air. (Bauder, 7/28)

Politico: National Guard Officer Calls Treatment Of Lafayette Square Protesters 'Deeply Disturbing' 
A District of Columbia National Guard officer claimed law enforcement used excessive force on peaceful protesters in Lafayette Square last month, directly disputing the White House’s account of events that led to a photo-op during the height of demonstrations against racial injustice. Adam DeMarco, a major in the D.C. National Guard and Iraq War veteran, will testify on Tuesday in front of the House Natural Resources Committee that he observed a brutal law enforcement reaction against protesters exercising their First Amendment rights. DeMarco was among the D.C. National Guardsmen stationed at Lafayette Square on June 1 when federal authorities used tear gas and flash-bang grenades to clear peaceful demonstrators. (Cohen, 7/27)

Houston Chronicle: WHO Introduces Alternatives To Handshakes, Hugs And High Fives In The Wake Of COVID-19
The World Health Organization (WHO) recently shared alternatives to handshakes, hugs and high fives for individuals to consider during COVID-19. The novel coronavirus has changed many facets of our daily routines from the way we introduce ourselves with a welcoming handshake to the celebratory high fives seen in Major League Baseball. Some of the suggestions the WHO shared include the wave, the namaste greeting and a "what's up" nod. (Ramirez, 7/27)

The Atlantic: You Can Stop Cleaning Your Mail Now
As a covid-19 summer surge sweeps the country, deep cleans are all the rage. National restaurants such as Applebee’s are deputizing sanitation czars to oversee the constant scrubbing of window ledges, menus, and high chairs. The gym chain Planet Fitness is boasting in ads that “there’s no surface we won’t sanitize, no machine we won’t scrub.” New York City is shutting down its subway system every night, for the first time in its 116-year history, to blast the seats, walls, and poles with a variety of antiseptic weaponry, including electrostatic disinfectant sprays. And in Wauchula, Florida, the local government gave one resident permission to spray the town with hydrogen peroxide as he saw fit. “I think every city in the damn United States needs to be doing it," he said. (Thompson, 7/27)

Also —

AP: Virus Exacts A Heavy Toll In Queens Neighborhood Of Corona
Damiana Reyes is back at work at a busy Manhattan hair salon, making highlights, blowouts and extensions. But her mind often drifts to her father, with whom she lived in Queens, before he succumbed to the coronavirus at age 76. “All my clients ask about him and then, when I return home, people ask me in the street where he is. It’s a constant reminder that he is not around anymore,” said Reyes, who thinks her father got sick while playing dominoes at a day care center for elders. The pandemic has changed Reyes’ life and those of many in Corona, a Latino neighborhood in Queens that was among the hardest hit places in the world. (Torrens, 7/28)

Los Angeles Times: Poll: Latinos In California Worry More About Coronavirus 
Latinos are much more anxious that they will become sick or affected financially by the novel coronavirus than their fellow Californians, according to a new poll by the Public Policy Institute of California. The poll, released Monday, found that 61% of Latinos respondents were worried that they or their family members would get sick with the virus, compared with just 28% of Black and white Californians and 37% of Asian American residents. (Reyes-Velarde, 7/27)

CNN: Back To School: Some Kids Scared As Adults Debate Reopening Risks 
Teachers and parents who are currently weighing their options when it comes to school reopenings in the middle of a deadly pandemic may have one additional challenge ahead: children who are fearful of returning to school. Like the rest of us, children in this country have been told to stay inside, to wash their hands and to wear a mask for months now. For some kids, the restrictions, what they've heard on the news and their own personal experience with Covid-19 have made the outside world feel like a dangerous place. (Bracho-Sanchez, 7/28)

San Jose Mercury News: Homeschool Parents' Advice For Surviving Online Learning
With the coronavirus keeping millions of California school children stuck at home when the new school year starts, it’s good to know there are some parents out there who not only survive the experience on a year-round basis, but purposely choose it. Helping kids through classes at home has become a strange new reality for most families in the Bay Area. But it doesn’t have to be all bad — homeschoolers say there are plenty of ways to keep kids focused and learning at the kitchen table. Until schools can reopen, here are some tips from teachers and homeschooling parents on how to make the most of it. (Wu, 7/27)

Cincinnati Enquirer: Coronavirus: Schools Re-Evaluate Return Plans Amidst Safety Concerns
Two weeks ago, nearly every major school district throughout Southwest Ohio and Northern Kentucky planned to send students back to school full time. Others still had rules in place that only strongly recommended masks for students. A week later, the landscape surrounding school reopening had shifted. Fewer schools are planning on a five-day-a-week return. Mask requirements have gotten stronger in many areas. A few districts recently have elected to skip returning in person altogether, opting for a virtual reopening, an Enquirer survey of area schools reveals. What's causing these rapid shifts in reopening plans? The continued spread of the virus and the evolving advice about the balancing act for schools seeking to reopen. (Headley, 7/27)

Boston Globe: For Many Massachusetts Districts, School Year Might Start 2 Weeks Late
School districts across Massachusetts will be allowed to delay the opening day for students this fall up to 10 days — and students won’t have to make up the lost time — under a deal finalized Monday that aims to give districts more time to prepare for a safe return. Under the deal — struck between state education officials and the state’s three largest teacher unions — districts can use the first 10 days of the school year to provide teachers and staff with time to redesign classroom lessons, learn techniques to help students overcome trauma they may have experienced during the pandemic, and to learn an array of new safety and health protocols developed to keep students safe from the coronavirus. (Vaznis, 7/27)

The Hill: Atlanta Mayor: 'As A Mother Of Four Children I Do Not Trust This President With Their Lives' 
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms (D) criticized President Trump’s push for schools to reopen in the fall amid surging coronavirus cases — as both a lawmaker and a mother. “As a mother of four children I do not trust this president with their lives,” Bottoms said Monday on a call with reporters. Bottoms said her family is a “prime example” of what can happen when children are sent back into “unsafe classrooms.” One of her four children was infected with COVID-19 but was asymptomatic. (Klar, 7/27)

The New York Times: A Small Georgia City Plans To Put Students In Classrooms This Week 
When Jennifer Fogle and her family moved from Indiana to Georgia 13 years ago, they settled in Jefferson, a small, handsome city an hour’s drive from Atlanta, because they had heard about the excellent schools. And until recently, they had little to complain about. The teachers are passionate and committed, and the facilities rival those found at some private schools. But in recent days Ms. Fogle found herself uncharacteristically anxious, after learning that Jefferson City Schools planned to offer face-to-face instruction in the midst of a resurgent coronavirus pandemic that has seen thousands of new cases reported daily in Georgia. (Fausset, 7/27)

In higher-education news —

Politico: For HBCUs, The Coronavirus Pandemic Hits Especially Close To Home
Leaders of historically Black colleges and universities are grappling with a challenge others in higher education don’t fully share: how to reopen their campuses to a population that has proven especially vulnerable to Covid-19. Black people are dying at 2.5 times the rate of white people, according to the Covid Racial Data Tracker. And nearly a third of deaths among nonwhite Americans were in people younger than 65, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, compared with 13 percent among white people under that age. (McCaskill and King, 7/27)

The Wall Street Journal: Miami Marlins’ Virus Outbreak Throws MLB’s Pandemic Season Into Turmoil 
Five days after Major League Baseball began its attempt to stage a season amid the coronavirus pandemic, its plan was thrown into turmoil following an outbreak of positive tests on the Miami Marlins. Tests showed that a dozen or more players and staff members from the team have contracted Covid-19, prompting MLB to postpone two games previously scheduled for Monday, several people familiar with the matter said. (Diamond and Radnofsky, 7/27)

Dallas Morning News: Allowing Fans At Cowboys Home Games Would Be Same ‘High-Risk Conduct’ NFL’s COVID-19 Protocols Prohibit
The Cowboys have yet to formalize how many — if any — fans they will allow at home games this fall. But should they or any other NFL team have fans in attendance, they will be inviting and profiting from the sort of activity they prohibit and deem “high risk” for players for COVID-19 transmission. New restrictions have been imposed on what sort of activities players can engage in off the field. They were part of an agreement of rules and protocols that NFL owners and players recently finalized following months of discussion on how to proceed with football during the viral pandemic. (Gehlken, 7/27)

USA Today: Cruise Ships Update Air Ventilation Systems To Help Fight COVID-19
While much public discussion around cruises restarting have centered on the visible changes that passengers might see – mandated masks and social distancing as well as staggered embarkation and capacity limits – cruise lines are examining harder-to-see improvements, such as upgrades to the ship's ventilation system, reports Cruise Critic. The move is being driven by scientific research, which is now focusing more on aerosol spread of COVID-19, as opposed to surfaces. In fact, 239 doctors across 32 countries submitted a petition calling on the World Health Organization to recognize the COVID-19 coronavirus as being potentially transmitted through microdroplets in the air, which the agency now says "cannot be ruled out." (Saunders, 7/28)

Sacramento Bee: Water Park Open During COVID-19 To Lose Permit: CA Officials 
A California water park that’s stayed open despite COVID-19 rules will lose its permit, officials say. WaterWorks Park in Redding opened on June 5 in violation of California’s coronavirus rules and “repeated direction” not to do so, according to the Shasta County Health and Human Services Agency. It has continued to operate since then — sparking a nearly two-months long battle with health officials. (Aldridge, 7/26)

The New York Times: Chainsmokers Concert In Hamptons Is Under Investigation By Cuomo 
A charity concert on Saturday night in the Hamptons featuring performances from the chief executive of Goldman Sachs and the D.J. duo The Chainsmokers drew widespread outrage and a state investigation after video footage showed attendees appearing to ignore public health precautions. (7/27)

San Francisco Chronicle: How Safe Are Outdoor Gatherings? Bay Area Struggles To Find The Balance
The science remains the same: The virus doesn’t spread as easily outdoors as it does indoors, but it can still spread. The way people act significantly affects risk. “People being out in the park, wearing masks and walking by each other is quite safe, as long as they’re being thoughtful,” said Robert Wachter, chairman of the UCSF Department of Medicine. (Vaziri, 7/27)

PBS NewsHour: 2 Disability Rights Activists On The Power Of The ADA — And Where It Falls Short
On the 30th anniversary of the groundbreaking Americans with Disabilities Act, we consider how this legislation changed the lives of people with mental or physical impairments -- and where it falls short. Civil rights activist Judy Heumann, previously a special advisor to the State Department, and Keri Gray of the American Association of People with Disabilities join Judy Woodruff to discuss. (7/27)

WBUR: BU Prof: Nursing Home COVID Deaths Point To Discrimination Against People With Disabilities
But some people are questioning just how much the ADA is being honored when it comes to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. WBUR's Jack Lepiarz spoke with George Annas, professor of health law, ethics and human rights at Boston University, about whether, in the face of COVID-19, the law is working. (Jolicoeur and Lepiarz, 7/27)

CNN: Florida Covid-19 Cases In Children: Hospitalizations Among Kids Jump 23% 
Just weeks before schools must open across Florida, the numbers of new cases and hospitalizations due to Covid-19 have surged. On July 16, the state had a total of 23,170 children ages 17 and under who had tested positive since the beginning of the pandemic, according to the Florida Department of Health. By July 24, that number jumped to 31,150. (Flores, Weisfeldt and Yan, 7/27)

The Hill: Kentucky Orders Bars To Close, Restaurants To Reduce Indoor Capacity 
All bars in Kentucky will be shut down for the next two weeks in an effort to slow the spread of coronavirus, Gov. Andy Beshear (D) announced Monday. The move, effective Tuesday, marks the second time that bars have been shut in the state and comes amid a major uptick in coronavirus cases. Indoor dining at restaurants will be reduced to 25 percent capacity, Beshear said. Outdoor seating can remain at full capacity as long as physical distancing is enforced, and everyone needs to be seated. (Weixel, 7/27)

The Hill: Tennessee Governor Shoots Down Birx Recommendation To Close Bars At Joint Press Conference 
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee (R) shot down White House adviser Deborah Birx’s recommendation to close bars and limit indoor seating at restaurants during a joint press conference on Monday. Birx, the coordinator of the White House coronavirus task force, made her recommendation to shut down bars and limit indoor dining during the press conference, warning that Tennessee was on the verge of rapid COVID-19 spread. (Coleman, 7/27)

Iowa City Press-Citizen: Iowa Bar Exam: Law School Grads Prepare Amid COVID-19 Pandemic
About 200 law school graduates will sit in a room together in the Airport Holiday Inn in Des Moines for their bar exam Tuesday and Wednesday, two weeks after Iowa saw its highest number of COVID-19 cases reported in a single day. "I really don't think it's safe," said recent University of Iowa College of Law graduate Anna Burke, who will be taking the exam. (Ojeda, 7/28)

Boston Globe: Maine Governor Rips State GOP Over Call To Allow Rhode Island And Mass. Visitors Without Quarantining 
Maine’s Democratic governor on Monday blasted state Republicans for proposing a loosening of travel restrictions amid the COVID-19 pandemic, calling the idea a “Donald Trump-style assault” on public health measures that have protected Mainers. Gov. Janet Mills’ statement came in response to a proposal from Maine Republican lawmakers to add Massachusetts and Rhode Island to the list of states exempt from a requirement that visitors to Maine quarantine for 14 days or show proof of a negative test 72 hours before coming into the state, the Portland Press Herald reported. (Anderson, 7/27)

Kaiser Health News: In Texas, More People Are Losing Their Health Insurance As COVID Cases Climb
During the pandemic, nearly 700,000 additional Texans have lost health insurance. The Lone Star State already had more uninsured people than any other. It has given people with COVID symptoms pause before seeking medical care. (Lopez, 7/28)

And in news from Western states —

AP: Cleanup From Hanna Spurs Fear Amid COVID-19 Surge In Texas
As recovery and cleanup efforts got underway Monday in South Texas in the wake of a downgraded Hanna, worried residents confronted the prospect of undertaking the effort amid a surge in coronavirus cases that has left many fearful about their health. For 66-year-old, Nora Esquivel, who has mostly stayed in her home in Weslaco, Texas, in Hidalgo County since March because of the pandemic, flooding damage to her home from Hanna meant greater chance of exposure to the virus. “No contact with nobody, only my daughter once in a while, and now with this, I have to allow people to come into my house, the insurance and all this and I’m scared,” said a tearful Esquivel, who takes heart medication and had to be rescued from her home Sunday morning by her son on a kayak. (Mone and Lozano, 7/28)

The Hill: Oregon Officer In Isolation After Suspect With Coronavirus Allegedly Spit And Coughed On Them 
An Oregon officer was put in isolation after a suspect with coronavirus spit and coughed on them during a Sunday incident. The Tigard Police Department alleges the suspect, identified as Miguel Hernandez-Cuesta, 24, intended to infect the officer with COVID-19, according to a release. (Coleman, 7/27)

AP: Montana Has More Than 350 COVID Cases, 1 Death Over Weekend
Montana testing confirmed more than 350 cases of COVID-19 over the weekend while the state reported its 47th death due to the respiratory virus. A woman in her 90s died at a Billings hospital on Saturday, the Yellowstone County health department said Monday. The woman’s death was the 18th in 20 days in the county. Fifteen of those deaths are tied to an outbreak at Canyon Creek Memory Care in Billings, officials have said. (7/27)

AP: Nevada Scraps Phased Reopening Plan, Unveils New Approach
Gov. Steve Sisolak announced plans to implement a long-term reopening strategy that allows for more granular decision-making as the coronavirus continues to spread and leaves Nevada unable to follow its original reopening plan. “We’ve learned a lot about this virus in the last five months. While phases made sense at the time, we’ve got to be flexible and responsive to what we’re seeing now,” the governor said. (Metz and Ritter, 7/28)

Stat: Generic Group Fails Again To Block California Law That Bans Pay-To-Delay Deals 
A federal appeals court denied a bid by a pharmaceutical industry trade group to block a closely watched California law that bans so-called pay-to-delay deals between drug makers, a contentious issue that has factored into the larger debate over the cost of prescription medicines. The ruling, which was issued Friday, came in response to a lawsuit by the Association for Accessible Medicines after California passed its law last fall. The state became the first in the nation to outlaw pay-to-delay deals, and California officials explained the step was necessary in order to prevent drug companies from thwarting competition and maintaining higher prices. (Silverman, 7/27)

San Francisco Chronicle: California May Offer $600 A Week In Extra Jobless Benefits If Congress Doesn’t Act
If Congress doesn’t act to extend an extra $600 in weekly benefits for unemployed Californians, state legislators say they’re ready to jump in to prevent benefits from plunging during the pandemic. The expanded federal unemployment benefits, which began in April, are set to expire Friday. That will reduce the average jobless payment in California to about $338 a week. (Gardiner, 7/27)

San Francisco Chronicle: California Vs. New York: One State's Pandemic Has Been Deadlier, But The Numbers Are More Complex Than Case Counts
Their journeys began at about the same time, but California and New York immediately diverged down two very different paths during the coronavirus pandemic. California started in January, with travelers from China carrying a new virus into the Bay Area. New York was probably only a few weeks behind, its virus arriving from Europe. From there, California’s trajectory was a gentle upward bend in case counts, a long plateau, and then — the surge. New York’s was the classic curve: a sharp climb in cases followed by a long and bumpy descent. (Allday, 7/27)

Politico: Pet Cat In England Tests Positive For Covid-19 
A pet cat in England has tested positive for Covid-19, the first confirmed case in an animal in the U.K. and one of very few worldwide. The U.K.'s Chief Veterinary Officer Christine Middlemiss said that it was "a very rare event" and there was no evidence to suggest that pets transmit the coronavirus to humans. The cat is thought to have contracted the virus from its owners, who had tested positive and since made a full recovery — as has the cat. (Cooper, 7/27)

AP: 80,000 People Fleeing Vietnamese City After New Virus Cases
About 80,000 people, mostly local tourists, are being evacuated from the popular Vietnamese beach city of Da Nang after more than a dozen people there were confirmed to have COVID-19, the government said Monday. Vietnam, widely seen as a success in dealing with the coronavirus, reimposed a social distancing order in Da Nang following the confirmation of the cases, the first known to be locally transmitted in the country in over three months. (Dinh, 7/27)

Reuters: Taiwan Probes Possible First Local Virus Case In One Month As Imported Cases Rise 
Taiwan on Tuesday was investigating its first possible local coronavirus infection in more than a month, a Thai man who tested positive last week, as the island also faces a rise in cases brought from overseas. Taiwan’s early response was effective in keeping the pandemic at bay, with just 467 infections and seven deaths. Most of the cases have been imported and have recovered. (7/28)

AP: Concern Grows In Bosnia Over Mounting COVID-19 Cases
The rising number of coronavirus cases in Bosnia prompted the World Health Organization on Monday to call on authorities to increase contact tracing and testing, or the Balkan country risks being faced with overfilled and understaffed hospitals. “We see a really sharp increase and concern is that this will lead to an overcrowding of hospitals,” Victor Olsavszky, the head of the WHO office in Bosnia. (7/27)

AP: Faithful Return To Mexico City Churches With Masks, Gel
Temperatures taken and anti-bacterial gel applied, the faithful passed through a disinfecting arch set up in front of centuries-old wood-and-stone doors. Inside, they sat spaced out on pews while robed priests donned face masks. In another church, a glass partition separated people from the altar. Mexico City’s Roman Catholic churches, including its main cathedral, began celebrating Mass again Sunday after three months of pandemic lockdown with a “new normal” that seemed to have more rules than faithful in the pews. (Verza, 7/27)

In other global news —

AP: Virus-Linked Hunger Tied To 10,000 Child Deaths Each Month
The lean season is coming for Burkina Faso’s children. And this time, the long wait for the harvest is bringing a hunger more ferocious than most have ever known. That hunger is already stalking Haboue Solange Boue, an infant who has lost half her former body weight of 5.5 pounds (2.5 kilograms) in the last month. With the markets closed because of coronavirus restrictions, her family sold fewer vegetables. Her mother is too malnourished to nurse her. (Hinnant and Mednick, 7/27)

The New York Times: Poland Considers Leaving Treaty On Domestic Violence, Spurring Outcry 
The Polish government, emboldened by a narrow election victory this month and undeterred by criticism from European Union leaders, is considering withdrawing from a treaty aimed at curbing domestic violence and protecting women’s rights, with the country’s minister of justice filing paperwork on Monday to start the process. The move came just one week after European Union leaders, bowing to pressure from Poland and Hungary, relaxed demands that were supposed to tie funding in the bloc’s long-term budget to issues related to rule of law. (Santora, 7/27)

The Washington Post: Mask Mandates Won’t Work — Unless They Are Enforced 
We are at war with a silent and ruthless enemy, and mask mandates are among our best weapons to win the fight. But they have to have teeth to work. Facing a global pandemic with flu season on the near horizon, our nation’s governors and mayors must quickly align common sense with the common good. That means balancing personal liberty with the clear and present public health danger presented by the spread of covid-19. We can no longer afford to be confused by false choices and false information. In short, warnings to anyone not wearing a mask need to be backed up with the threat of fines and, for chronic offenders, even arrest. There is no time to waste on half-measures. (Miami Mayor Francis Suarez and Vin Gupta, 7/27)

USA Today: COVID-19: Masks Work, Infection Trends In My Own Hospital Prove It
Close your eyes, take a few breaths and count the number of people you love that aren’t in your life because of COVID-19. Keep your eyes closed, take a few more breaths and remember what community was like for you before COVID-19. Hold on to that. Don’t you want it back? I do, and I know how to get there, but I need all of you. You need to choose to wear a mask. I am a doctor at Massachusetts General Hospital and a faculty member at Harvard Medical School. I have access to the best medical minds, diagnostic tests and medical equipment in the country. My hospital has led many scientific advances during COVID-19. However, they all pale in comparison to my hospital’s decision to lead the way on universal masking. (Daniel Horn, 7/28)

The New York Times: Teachers Will Get Covid-19. What Will Schools Do?
The logistics of reopening schools are daunting. Plans are full of details about which days kids will be eligible for, and pages and pages on preventing students and staffs from getting sick. What kind of limits will be placed on class sizes? What kind of cleaning? Will there be symptom checks or temperature screens? Masks for everyone or just adults? These plans are important and necessary. But there is an issue that we aren’t talking enough about: What happens when there is a Covid-19 case in a school? The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released its first guidelines on this topic last week, a long-overdue step toward getting schools to take this question seriously. (Emily Oster, 7/28)

The Washington Post: We Can — And Must — Reopen Schools. Here’s How. 
We have limited time and funds to get students and teachers back to school safely, but we can — and must — do it. Here’s how. Start with the fact, as 239 scientists recently wrote to the World Health Organization (WHO), that airborne transmission of the novel coronavirus is happening. This is not to be feared; it just requires adding some new strategies to our arsenal in addition to hand-washing, distancing and other measures to keep community spread to a minimum. (Just because we reopen schools doesn’t mean we should reopen elsewhere.) (Joseph G. Allen and Richard Corsi, 7/27)

Louisville Courier-Journal: Teachers: Distance Learning Should Be Implemented Across Kentucky
Dear Superintendent: We are all well aware that Kentucky is seeing ever-increasing numbers of cases of COVID-19.  We are setting new records for infections daily. We would like to thank the districts that have taken the responsible steps by following the CDC guidelines to ensure everyone’s safety by beginning their school year virtually. According to the benchmarks set out by the White House pandemic task force, in conjunction with Gov. Andy Beshear, we have yet to achieve Phase 1 criteria for a safe reopening of our state. That’s all the more reason for superintendents across Kentucky and the Kentucky Department of Education to take the lead in a safe reopening for schools. Teachers across our state are concerned for our students, their families and our communities. (Kentucky Educators United, 7/27)

Dallas Morning News: Dallas Teachers Want To Work, But Coronavirus Has Made Many Wary Of Getting Back Into The Classroom
Last week, the Dallas school board voted 8-0 to delay the start of school until Sept. 8 in the hope that coronavirus infections in North Texas would subside and that an additional three weeks would allow the district to better prepare for a tumultuous school year. It seems many teachers aren’t so certain that this delay is sufficient, and that adds another wild card to the school district’s already complicated return-to-education strategy. Before the vote, board members heard remotely from dozens of angry, frustrated and distressed instructors who delivered a singular message: We are scared to return to the classroom. (7/27)

Sacramento Bee: Can Governor Gavin Newsom Reverse CA Coronavirus Trends? 
Even before the coronavirus pandemic hit California, some Sacramento insiders were using a curse word – one defined by the Cambridge Dictionary as “a situation or event that is badly organized, unpleasant, and full of confusion” – to describe Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration. The first half of the word: “S---.” The second half: “show.” (Gil Duran, 7/27)

Stat: Boosting The Promise And Reining In The Peril Of Covid-19 Preprints 
There’s a common refrain in engineering: When it comes to the triple goal of “faster, better, cheaper,” you can really ever achieve only two of the three. This wisdom applies as well to the rapidly moving field of scientific preprints — fast-turnaround, web-based publications of research findings that have not yet been subjected to review by outside experts. (Rick Weiss and Jonathan Moreno, 7/28)

The Washington Post: Let’s Throw The Kitchen Sink At Covid-19 And Get Back To Normal By October
Any day now, the United States will cross another grim threshold of death from the coronavirus: 150,000 people lost. By contrast, South Korea has lost 299 people, Germany 9,125. Per million population, the United States has lost 423.6, Germany 110 and South Korea 5.8. Behind these statistics lies the epic failure of President Trump and his administration to mount a national response in the face of catastrophe.The experience of other nations in fighting outbreaks — even raging outbreaks — should make Americans realize: It doesn’t have to be this way. (7/27)

The Hill: We Need An Independent Public Health Agency 
As the Trump administration seizes and buries the Centers for Disease Control's public health data and tries to isolate and undermine Dr. Anthony Fauci, we are now seeing a dangerous battle between political expediency and sound science. But it is not altogether new. And there are institutional solutions in sight. (Christopher Robertson and Richard Carmona, 7/27)

Stat: Quality Issues May Be A Stumbling Block For Contact Tracing Apps 
The world is in a rush to find ways to fight Covid-19. This urgency makes sense for a pandemic that has killed more than a half-million people since it began in late December. But if the quality of these solutions is subpar, then users may turn away not only from these faulty solutions but may lose confidence in broader efforts and scientific development to combat Covid-19, putting public health at significant risk. (Elissa M. Redmiles, 7/28)

The New York Times: The Cult Of Selfishness Is Killing America 
America’s response to the coronavirus has been a lose-lose proposition. The Trump administration and governors like Florida’s Ron DeSantis insisted that there was no trade-off between economic growth and controlling the disease, and they were right — but not in the way they expected. Premature reopening led to a surge in infections: Adjusted for population, Americans are currently dying from Covid-19 at around 15 times the rate in the European Union or Canada. Yet the “rocket ship” recovery Donald Trump promised has crashed and burned: Job growth appears to have stalled or reversed, especially in states that were most aggressive about lifting social distancing mandates, and early indications are that the U.S. economy is lagging behind the economies of major European nations. (Paul Krugman, 7/27)

CNN: Trump, GOP Senators Again Put Economic Openings Ahead Of Suppressing Virus 
President Donald Trump and his allies on Capitol Hill are still fighting the pandemic they wish existed, rather than a virus that unfolds at its own pace and is oblivious to their artificial political and economic timetables. Despite his supposed turn to taking the coronavirus more seriously, Trump on Monday warned some governors should be quicker in opening up their states, ignoring the fact his previous advice on such lines helped spark a surge in cases in the sunbelt. (Stephen Collinson, 7/28)

CNN: Why The National Security Adviser's Covid-19 Infection Is A National Security Problem
With coronavirus casualties at sickening levels, Americans learned on Monday that no one is safe from Covid-19 -- not even the man who's supposed to be keeping Americans safe. News that US National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien has tested positive for the virus presents an immediate health risk within the walls of the White House while serving as a worrisome metaphor for the administration's coronavirus crisis management more generally. If the government couldn't keep a top-ranking official like O'Brien healthy, that doesn't instill confidence it can do the same for us. (Samantha Vinograd, 7/27)

Dallas Morning News: As Coronavirus Cases Rise, Prison Population Should Not Be Forgotten
Texas has had the highest number of deaths among prison inmates of the 50 states. At 94 deaths and with nearly a quarter of the populations infected with the coronavirus, the prison system must reconsider how it ensures the health and well-being of its inmates.Texas can’t forget its prisoners. It’s no secret that prisons are crowded and that spread among facilities is inevitable, but more can be and needs to be done to limit infection. (7/27)

Los Angeles Times: Trump's Disturbing Rationale For His Drug Price Reform
If the Trump administration succeeds in lowering the prices of some popular prescription drugs this year, you can apparently thank the Supreme Court and its decision to restore the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.This was the bizarre and disturbing position that President Trump advanced Monday when chatting briefly with reporters on the White House lawn. The president signed four executive orders last week that aim to slash the premium prices that Americans pay for insulin and other medications, a laudable goal that has met with stiff resistance from elements of the pharmaceutical industry. Although all of these proposals have been in the works for years, they have foundered in the face of industry objections and, more notably, serious implementation challenges. (John Healey, 7/27)