The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Coronavirus Deaths Near 80,000 As Mysterious New Symptoms Appear
With the U.S. death toll from the coronavirus pandemic approaching 80,000 and states trying to reopen, scientists and physicians continued to grapple with mysteries of how the pathogen attacks the human body, and how to fight back. In the U.S., total deaths reached 79,528, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. World-wide, nearly 283,000 people have perished in the pandemic. These numbers may undercount the true death toll, researchers say. (Lyons, 5/11)

Politico: Key Virus Model Notes States Where Jumps In Population Movement May Spread Disease
A closely watched model the White House has cited to predict the severity of the coronavirus outbreak has slightly increased its estimate of U.S. deaths while identifying five states where increased population mobility could pose a significant likelihood of new infections. Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, South Dakota, and Georgia have seen at least a 20 percentage point increase in mobility patterns in the past few weeks, in part due to the easing of social distancing restrictions, according to the the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. (Tahir, 5/10)

CNN: Predicted Covid-19 US Death Toll Keeps Rising With States Reopening And More People Moving Around
A leading model has upped its US coronavirus death toll projection again as governors continue lifting measures toward a reopening. The model from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington now forecasts more than 137,000 Americans will die by early August. That rise is largely due to Americans moving around more, IHME Director Dr. Christopher Murray said in a news release, adding that in some places the upward trend in movements began before statewide measures were relaxed. Researchers tracked that movement through anonymous cell phone data, according to the release. (Maxouris, 5/11)

The Washington Post: Coronavirus Flares As States And Countries Ease Social Distancing Guidelines
Easing of social distancing guidelines — whether by government edict or individual decision — has led to new coronavirus flare-ups in the United States and abroad, even as pressure builds to loosen restrictions that have kept millions isolated and decimated economies. Officials in Pasadena, Calif., warned Saturday against Mother’s Day gatherings after a cluster of new covid-19 cases was identified there among a large group of extended family and friends attending a recent birthday party, despite a stay-at-home order in effect. (DeYoung, Mettler and Kornfield, 5/9)

Los Angeles Times: Expert: California Coronavirus Cases Rising More Than Expected
California is one of a handful of states where coronavirus cases and deaths are rising faster than researchers expected, according to the latest calculations in a widely relied-upon model of the COVID-19 outbreak. Christopher Murray, director of the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, said Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation” that the institute’s latest projections suggested the nationwide fatality count would reach 137,000 by Aug. 4. It stands now at nearly 80,000. (Wigglesworth and King, 5/10)

The New York Times: ‘Scary To Go To Work’: White House Races To Contain Virus In Its Ranks 
The Trump administration is racing to contain an outbreak of the coronavirus inside the White House, as some senior officials believe that the disease is already spreading rapidly through the warren of cramped offices that make up the three floors of the West Wing. Three top officials leading the government’s coronavirus response have begun two weeks of self-quarantine after two members of the White House staff — one of President Trump’s personal valets and Katie Miller, the spokeswoman for Vice President Mike Pence — tested positive. But others who came into contact with Ms. Miller and the valet are continuing to report to work at the White House. (Shear and Haberman, 5/10)

The Washington Post: Trump's White House Rattled After Positive Coronavirus Tests And Officials Send Mixed Message On How To Respond
The White House on Saturday scrambled to deal with the fallout from two aides testing positive for the coronavirus, as officials who were potentially exposed responded differently, with some senior members of the pandemic task force self-quarantining while others planned to continue to go to work. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield, both task force members, said they are self-quarantining or teleworking for two weeks after exposure to a coronavirus case at the White House. (Kim, Dawsey and Goldstein, 5/9)

ABC News: Dr. Anthony Fauci Joins List Of Government Officials Entering Self-Quarantine Over COVID-19 Exposure 
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, entered a "modified quarantine" due to exposure to someone who tested positive for the novel coronavirus. He joins a growing list of administration officials taking precautions following the news of two known coronavirus cases at the White House, including the vice president's press secretary. (Osborne, Scott and Flaherty, 5/10)

The Hill: CDC Director Will Self-Quarantine After Contact With COVID-19 Positive Case 
Though the CDC did not specify who at the White House Redfield came into contact with, Katie Miller, Vice President Pence's press secretary, tested positive for the virus on Friday, and one of President Trump’s personal valets tested positive on Thursday. (Moreno, 5/9)

Politico: White House Adviser Hassett: 'It's Scary To Go To Work'
White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett acknowledged on Sunday it’s risky to work in the White House now that several staff have tested positive for the coronavirus. “It’s scary to go to work,” he said on CBS' "Face the Nation." ... "It's a little bit risky" to work in the West Wing during the coronavirus pandemic, given how small and crowded it is, said Hassett, who says he practices "aggressive social distancing." "But you have to do it because you have to serve your country." Hassett allowed there are ways to work securely remotely outside the White House, but "there is a reason why people need to go in." (Parthasarathy, 5/10)

The Associated Press: Pence Spends Weekend At Home After Exposure To Infected Aide
Vice President Mike Pence was self-isolating Sunday after an aide tested positive for the coronavirus last week, but he planned to return to the White House on Monday. An administration official said Pence was voluntarily keeping his distance from other people in line with guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He has repeatedly tested negative for COVID-19 since his exposure but was following the advice of medical officials. (Freking and Miller, 5/11)

Reuters: Pence Not In Quarantine, To Be At White House Monday, After Aide Tests Positive For Coronavirus
“Vice President Pence will continue to follow the advice of the White House Medical Unit and is not in quarantine,” spokesman Devin O’Malley said in a statement. “Additionally, Vice President Pence has tested negative every single day and plans to be at the White House tomorrow,” the statement added. The Trump administration has no plans to keep President Donald Trump and Pence apart, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters on Sunday, as concerns rise about the spread of the coronavirus within the White House. (Hesson, 5/10)

Politico: Pence Stays Away From White House After Aide Tests Positive For Coronavirus
So far, two White House staffers — one of President Donald Trump’s military valets, who serves him meals and drinks, and Katie Miller, Pence’s press secretary — have tested positive for the virus, launching it into Trump’s inner circle and the crowded halls of the West Wing. (Cook, 5/10)

The Hill: US Chief Of Naval Operations Self-Quarantining: Reports 
The head of U.S. naval operations is self-quarantining after coming in contact with a family member who has contracted coronavirus, according to multiple news outlets. Adm. Michael Gilday took a test for COVID-19 on Friday, which came back negative, but he will self-quarantine out of an abundance of caution, an official told CNN on Sunday. (Bowden, 5/10)

The Associated Press: New Week Brings New Challenges For White House
The Trump administration’s leading health experts on safely dealing with the novel coronavirus will be testifying in a Senate hearing by a videoconference this week after three of them and the committee’s chairman were exposed to people who tested positive for COVID-19. Adding to a string of potentially awkward moments for President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence himself self-isolated for the weekend after a staff member tested positive for COVID-19. Pence leads Trump’s coronavirus task force. (Freking, 5/11)

Stat: 14 Questions For Fauci, Redfield, And The Other Trump Officials On Covid-19 
The Trump administration figures who’ve led the federal government’s coronavirus response have escaped the wrath — and even the questions — of Congress. Until now. On Tuesday, Anthony Fauci, Robert Redfield, Stephen Hahn, and Brett Giroir are set to testify before the Senate’s main health committee. They’ll come face to face (or Zoom-to-face) with lawmakers who’ve been outspoken in their criticisms of the Trump administration’s coronavirus response, including Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and Patty Murray (D-Wash.) (5/11)

CNN: Lamar Alexander To Self-Quarantine After Staffer Tests Positive For Coronavirus
The upcoming hearing will give senators on the panel a chance to hear "about what federal, state and local governments are doing to help Americans go back to work and back to school as rapidly and safely as possible," according to a release from the committee.(LeBlanc, 5/10)

The Washington Post: Sen. Lamar Alexander Will Self-Quarantine, Chair Hearing With Anthony Fauci, CDC And FDA Heads Remotely
Sen. Lamar Alexander will self-quarantine “out of an abundance of caution” after one of his staff members tested positive for the coronavirus. The Tennessee Republican will chair a Senate health committee hearing Tuesday by video, a spokesman said Sunday. Alexander tested negative Thursday and does not have symptoms, his chief of staff said in a statement. All four top health officials scheduled as witnesses plan to make remote appearances as well after potential virus exposure in the White House. (5/10)

The Hill: Administration Health Officials To Answer Senators' Questions Via Videoconferencing 
“After consulting with Dr. [Anthony] Fauci, and in an abundance of caution for our witnesses, senators, and the staff, all four Administration witnesses will appear by videoconference due to these unusual circumstances,” Alexander said in a statement. The update follows Alexander's announcement on Saturday that FDA Commissioner Stephan Hahn and CDC Director Robert Redfield, who are both self-quarantining after exposure to COVID-19, would appear at the hearing through video conference. (Klar, 5/10)

Politico: Fauci And Birx's Public Withdrawal Worries Health Experts
President Donald Trump’s oscillations over the fate of his coronavirus task force have tapped into a growing fear within the nation’s public health community: That at a critical juncture in the pandemic fight, the government’s top health experts might still be seen, but increasingly not heard. The Trump administration in recent weeks has clamped down on messaging, largely shifting its focus to cheerleading a restart of the nation’s economy even as states and businesses clamor for guidance on how to do so safely. (Cancryn, 5/10)

The New York Times: F.D.A. Approves First Antigen Test For Detecting The Coronavirus
The Food and Drug Administration has approved the first antigen test that can rapidly detect whether a person has been infected by the coronavirus, a significant advancement that promises to greatly expand the nation’s testing capacity. The test, by the Quidel Corporation of San Diego, was given emergency use authorization late Friday by the F.D.A., according to a notice on the agency’s website. (Jacobs, 5/9)

The Wall Street Journal: U.S. States Move To Expand Coronavirus Testing Capabilities
State leaders across the U.S. moved to expand testing for the new coronavirus, while lifting some restrictions on travel and business that have crippled the nation’s economy. The moves come as confirmed infections topped 4 million across the world, and the U.S. death toll climbed above 78,000. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Saturday announced the opening of 22 new sites meant to provide coronavirus testing for thousands of residents and enable epidemiologists to trace the disease’s spread. (Chapman, Yoon and Kostov, 5/9)

The Washington Post: FDA Issues Emergency Approval Of New Antigen Test That Is Cheaper, Faster And Simpler
Antigen tests are a common screening tool that doctors use for other infections, such as influenza or strep throat, but this is the first antigen test specific to the coronavirus. It is conducted by a nasal swab and immediately tested in the doctor’s office or other point-of-care location, producing diagnostic results within minutes by quickly detecting proteins found on or within the virus. In a statement announcing the emergency authorization of Quidel Corp.’s kit, the FDA said that antigen tests are cheaper to produce, simpler to conduct and easier to implement at scale than the current testing apparatus, which has relied on polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests that detect genetic material from the virus. (Mettler, 5/9)

The Wall Street Journal: FDA Grants Emergency-Use Status For First Coronavirus Antigen Test 
San Diego-based Quidel, which specializes in tests for flu, strep and other infectious diseases, already has placed about 36,000 test-analyzer instruments around the U.S. in places like hospital labs, emergency departments and doctors’ offices. “We are ramping up manufacturing to go from 200,000 tests next week (week of May 11) to more than a million a week within several weeks,” said Douglas Bryant, Quidel’s chief executive. (Burton, 5/9)

The New York Times: F.D.A. Clears First Home Saliva Test For Coronavirus
The Food and Drug Administration said on Friday that it had granted emergency authorization for the first at-home saliva collection kit to test for the coronavirus. The test kit was developed by a Rutgers University laboratory, called RUCDR Infinite Biologics, in partnership with Spectrum Solutions and Accurate Diagnostic Labs. ​Rutgers received F.D.A. permission last month to collect saliva samples from patients at test sites but can now sell the collection kits for individuals to use at home. They must be ordered by a physician. (Kaplan and Singer, 5/8)

The Wall Street Journal: New York City Medical Examiner Doing Limited Coronavirus Testing On Dead
New York City’s Office of Chief Medical Examiner isn’t performing widespread postmortem Covid-19 tests on people who have died at home during the new coronavirus outbreak because of a national shortage of testing supplies, city officials say. Instead investigators from the office have mainly been determining whether home deaths are related to the virus through interviews with decedents’ families and, if available, medical records that could help inform an opinion, the officials say. If the investigators believe the virus played a role, then the deaths are labeled “Covid-probable,” the officials say. (Hawkins, 5/10)

The New York Times: Keeping Online Testing Honest? Or An Orwellian Overreach?
As Daniel Farzannekou prepared to take an online exam late last month in his naval science elective at the University of California, Los Angeles, the software directed him to pick up his laptop and scan his room, his desk, his ID and his face. “Ridiculous,” Mr. Farzannekou, a 20-year-old history major, fumed. He grabbed a notepad from his girlfriend, scribbled a two-word profanity in black ink and pointedly held it up to the webcam. Then he uninstalled the digital proctor software and fired off an email to his professor. The monitoring system was like something out of “communist Russia,” he wrote, demanding a less Orwellian test. (Hubler, 5/10)

Inside Science: How A Strategy Based On Testing Helped Eradicate Smallpox 
"Testing, testing, testing" has become the mantra of the fight against the coronavirus. Scientific experts all seem to agree the virus cannot be controlled without adequate testing. If you want to know why, think of Ali Maow Maalin. Maalin, a young cook in the small coastal village of Merca, Somalia, was the last person to catch naturally transmitted smallpox. (Shurkin, 5/10)

The Hill: Alexander: People Will Return To Work If They Know Those Around Them Are Being Tested
Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) on Sunday said a “breakthrough” in coronavirus testing will be necessary to increase worker and consumer confidence enough to repair the U.S. economy.“ [I]f you take a test, and you know that you don't have COVID-19, and you know that everybody around you took a test that same day, you're going to have enough confidence to go back to work and back to school,” Alexander said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” (Budryk, 5/10)

The New York Times: Employers Rush To Adopt Virus Screening. The Tools May Not Help Much.
Bob Grewal recently began testing a new health-screening setup for workers at a Subway restaurant he owns in Los Angeles near the University of Southern California. When he stepped inside the employee food prep area, a fever-detection and facial recognition camera service, PopID, quickly identified him by name and gauged his temperature. Then a small tablet screen underneath the camera posted a message that cleared him to enter. (Singer, 5/11)

Boston Globe: Cambridge Says Coronavirus Tests Now Available To Those Eight Years Old And Older 
Coronavirus testing became available to the majority of Cambridge residents regardless of symptoms on Friday, according to city and health officials. The Cambridge Health Alliance began offering COVID-19 testing via a stand-alone testing center at the CHA East Cambridge Care Center on Gore Street. (Finucane and Berg, 5/8)

Stat: Plan To Distribute Covid-19 Drug Unveiled Amid Concerns Over Allocation
The federal government on Saturday announced a plan to distribute remdesivir, the antiviral drug used as a Covid-19 treatment, following nearly a week of chaos and confusion surrounding which hospitals and which states would receive the medication, and how they were chosen. While some hospitals in recent days had reported receiving allocations of remdesivir directly, others received none, leaving many doctors and hospitals across the country frustrated and in the dark as to when and they might receive supplies. (Facher, 5/9)

Politico: Trump Administration Announces Plan For Distributing Remdesivir After Chaotic Rollout 
HHS will ship 14,400 vials of the drug to state health departments, putting the onus on them to decide which hospitals get some of the country's limited supply. Previously the administration had sent a total of 35,360 vials straight to a handpicked list of hospitals, via its contractor AmerisourceBergen. The drug's maker, Gilead, has donated 607,000 vials of remdesivir to the United States government. That's enough to treat about 78,000 patients, HHS said. Gilead had previously said it would make 1.5 million vials available worldwide at no charge. (Roubein and Brennan, 5/9)

Reuters: U.S. To Allow States To Distribute Gilead's Remdesivir To Fight COVID-19
The Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA) on Thursday said it is asking for more information on the federal government’s plan for deciding how and where to distribute the drug. The federal government began distributing the drug this week but doctors across the country, particularly in COVID-19 hotspots like New York and Boston, became concerned after being denied their request to obtain the new therapy, IDSA president Dr. Thomas File told Reuters on Thursday. The IDSA on Wednesday called on the Trump Administration to explain how it will ensure equitable distribution of remdesivir to states and hospitals based on COVID-19 cases and hospitalization rates. (5/9)

Stat: Inside The NIH’s Controversial Decision To Stop Its Big Remdesivir Study
The drug maker Gilead Sciences released a bombshell two weeks ago: A study conducted by a U.S. government agency had found that the company’s experimental drug, remdesivir, was the first treatment shown to have even a small effect against Covid-19. Behind that ray of hope, though, was one of the toughest quandaries in medicine: how to balance the need to rigorously test a new medicine for safety and effectiveness with the moral imperative to get patients a treatment that works as quickly as possible. At the heart of the decision was a process that was — as is often in the case in clinical trials — by turns secretive and bureaucratic. (Herper, 5/11)

In other news —

ABC News: Triple Combination Therapy Shows Promise For COVID-19 Patients With Less Severe Illnesses 
As scientists scramble to find COVID-19 treatments among existing approved drugs, researchers in Hong Kong may have found a winning combination. Early data shows that a triple antiviral therapy may be safe and effective in treating patients with mild to moderate cases of COVID-19, according to a study published Friday in Lancet. All three drugs used in the study are already approved to treat other illnesses. Interferon beta 1b is a drug commonly used to treat multiple sclerosis, lopinavir-ritonavir is an anti-retroviral medication used to treat HIV and ribavirin is commonly used to treat hepatitis C. (Baldwin, 5/8)

New Orleans Times-Picayune: The Powerful Sedatives Necessary To Save Coronavirus Patients May Also Lead To A Difficult Recovery 
Many of the people he treated were on ventilators, which means that a large percentage were likely to succumb to the disease. But for those that make it, a long recovery in the hospital is likely to become an even longer recovery at home due to the excessive time spent on narcotics and breathing machines. (Woodruff, 5/8)

The New York Times: U.S. To Accuse China Of Trying To Hack Vaccine Data, As Virus Redirects Cyberattacks
The F.B.I. and the Department of Homeland Security are preparing to issue a warning that China’s most skilled hackers and spies are working to steal American research in the crash effort to develop vaccines and treatments for the coronavirus. The efforts are part of a surge in cybertheft and attacks by nations seeking advantage in the pandemic. The warning comes as Israeli officials accuse Iran of mounting an effort in late April to cripple water supplies as Israelis were confined to their houses, though the government has offered no evidence to back its claim. (Sanger and Perlroth, 5/10)

The Wall Street Journal: U.S. To Accuse China Of Attempts To Hack Coronavirus Research 
The alert, from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Department of Homeland Security, is expected to accuse Beijing of working to steal from American institutions intellectual property and health information related to coronavirus vaccines and treatment through hacking and other illicit means and may come within days, the person said. The warning was not finalized and plans around its release could change, the person said. Such a warning would increase tensions between the U.S. and China that have already deteriorated at a rapid clip in recent months as the coronavirus has unfurled across the globe. (Volz, 5/11)

In other news —

The Associated Press: AP FACT CHECK: Trump's Perfect China 'Ban,' Death Toll Myths
Truth often takes a beating when President Donald Trump talks about his administration’s response to the coronavirus and the subsequent death toll in the U.S. This past week was no exception. Over the weekend, the president claimed strong marks for himself for the handling of the pandemic after imposing a “very early ban of people from China.” It actually wasn’t a total ban and had plenty of gaps in containment. One of the government’s top health officials has described the China restrictions as too little, too late. (Yen and Woodward, 5/11)

The Washington Post: Project Airbridge: White House Pandemic Supply Effort Swathed In Secrecy, Exaggerations
Since the debut of Project Airbridge in March, the Trump administration has promoted the initiative as part of a historic mobilization “moving heaven and earth” to source and deliver vast amounts of medical supplies from overseas to pandemic hot spots in the United States. Widely credited to President Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, the plan harked back to storied U.S. wartime efforts such as the Berlin Airlift. It called for the federal government to partner with a handful of medical supply companies, which could purchase emergency masks, gowns and gloves in Asia. The government would pay to fly the supplies to the United States — bypassing weeks of shipping delays — as long as the companies sold half of the goods in parts of the country hit hardest by the pandemic. (Brittain, Stanley-Becker and Miroff, 5/8)

The Associated Press: Becoming 'King Of Ventilators' May Result In Unexpected Glut
As requests for ventilators from the national stockpile reached a crescendo in late March, President Donald Trump made what seemed like a bold claim: His administration would have 100,000 within 100 days. At the time, the Department of Health and Human Services had not ordered any new ventilators since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in January. But records show that over the following three weeks, the agency scrambled to turn Trump’s pledge into a reality, spending nearly $3 billion to spur U.S. manufacturers to crank out the breathing machines at an unprecedented pace. (Biesecker and Krisher, 5/10)

The Washington Post: In The Early Days Of The Pandemic, The U.S. Government Turned Down An Offer To Manufacture Millions Of N95 Masks In America
It was Jan. 22, a day after the first case of covid-19 was detected in the United States, and orders were pouring into Michael Bowen’s company outside Fort Worth, some from as far away as Hong Kong. Bowen’s medical supply company, Prestige Ameritech, could ramp up production to make an additional 1.7 million N95 masks a week. He viewed the shrinking domestic production of medical masks as a national security issue, though, and he wanted to give the federal government first dibs. (Davis, 5/9)

USA Today: U.S. Companies Kept Shipping Masks Overseas Even As Hospitals Ran Out And Despite Warnings
U.S. companies continued their massive sell-off of medical masks overseas throughout March, well after the coronavirus began infecting Americans and draining hospitals of critical supplies and even as White House officials raised red flags, a USA TODAY investigation found. America exported more protective masks — including disposable surgical masks and N95 respirator masks — this March than in any other month in the past decade. In all, $83.1 million worth were sent from the United States to the rest of the world, according to an analysis of the latest U.S. Census Bureau trade data. (Zhang, Wedell and Mansfield, 5/8)

The Hill: South Korea Sends 2M Masks To US To Fight Coronavirus
South Korea's foreign ministry said Sunday that it had donated two million medical face masks to the U.S. to help fill shortages in hospitals hit hardest by the coronavirus. A press release from the agency obtained by Yonhap News Agency confirmed that a cargo plane carrying the masks would arrive in the U.S. on Monday. (Bowden, 5/10)

The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Government Drafts Guidelines For Reopening Hard-Hit Nursing Homes
Federal health regulators are developing guidelines for reopening nursing homes, according to people with knowledge of the matter, proposing steps that would allow visitors to return to facilities that have been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic despite lockdowns. A draft version of the recommendations, which propose a multiphase reopening of nursing homes, is raising concerns among industry officials and infection-control experts worried that moving too fast in reopening these facilities could increase the risks for frail and elderly residents, who have been dying in the thousands due to the virus. (Wilde Mathews and Kamp, 5/10)

Reuters: New York Steps Up Coronavirus Protections For Nursing Home Residents
New York state on Sunday announced new coronavirus-safety measures to better protect nursing home residents, who are highly vulnerable to the respiratory illness and account for a large share of the nearly 80,000 Americans who have died from it. (Caspani and McKay, 5/10)

The Washington Post: Report Details Deficiencies At Sagepoint Senior Living, A Maryland Nursing Home With Highest Covid-19 Death Toll In The State
A report released by state regulators Friday offered more detail about claims of repeated deficiencies at the Maryland nursing home with the highest amount of covid-19 deaths of any facility in the state. The issues at Sagepoint Senior Living — which is facing tens of thousands of dollars in fines from the state — included staff leaving open the door of a feverish coughing man, residents who tested positive for the coronavirus not being separated from those who were negative, and staff, including the facility’s managers, not consistently wearing personal protective equipment, according to the report. (Chason, 5/9)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Senior Care Homes Face Staffing Crisis Amid COVID-19 Outbreak
As the coronavirus tears through the state’s long-term care system, 4,149 nursing home and assisted living residents have been infected and more than 659 have died. But front-line caregivers, many earning little more than minimum wage, are also getting battered, putting some facilities in crisis mode as they struggle to stay fully staffed 24 hours a day. The state’s count of infected long-term care workers has more than doubled since mid-April, reaching 1,824 as of Thursday. (Teegardin and Schrade, 5/8)

WBUR: For Most States, At Least A Third Of COVID-19 Deaths Are In Long-Term Care Facilities 
Coronavirus fatalities in long-term care facilities have surpassed a grim threshold in much of the country, accounting for at least a third of the deaths in 26 states and more than half in 14 of those. The data, which was published by the Kaiser Family Foundation, reports tallies from a variety of care facilities, including nursing homes, adult care residences, and other skilled nursing care settings. However, it does not break out those categories separately. (Romo, 5/9)

The New York Times: Putting A Dollar Value On Life? Governments Already Do
How much money is a life worth? To many, the answer is so obvious that the question is offensive: Life is immeasurably valuable. No price is too high. During the pandemic, some economists and health experts have said there’s not necessarily a need to weigh the balance between saving lives and saving the economy — that prioritizing fighting the coronavirus will benefit the economy. (Frakt, 5/11)

The Washington Post: As Deaths Mount, Trump Tries To Convince Americans It’s Safe To Inch Back To Normal
In a week when the novel coronavirus ravaged new communities across the country and the number of dead soared past 78,000, President Trump and his advisers shifted from hour-by-hour crisis management to what they characterize as a long-term strategy aimed at reviving the decimated economy and preparing for additional outbreaks this fall. But in doing so, the administration is effectively bowing to — and asking Americans to accept — a devastating proposition: that a steady, daily accumulation of lonely deaths is the grim cost of reopening the nation. (Dawsey, Parker, Rucker and Abutaleb, 5/9)

Politico: Trump Sticks With Positive Messaging As Coronavirus Misery Piles Up
Even as coronavirus deaths mount and infections make inroads into the White House, President Donald Trump is maintaining his upbeat message about reopening the country and restarting the economy. Trump has branded the moment a “transition to greatness,” casting himself as a “wartime president” and Americans as warriors in an epic battle against a disease for which there is still no vaccine. (Cook, 5/11)

ABC News: White House, Birx Now Say Detailed CDC Reopening Guidelines 'In The Editing Process' 
The White House on Friday echoed Dr. Deborah Birx, the coronavirus response coordinator, who said she's still working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on detailed reopening guidelines for states during the pandemic even though a White House task force official said the guidelines wouldn't be issued because those decisions are up to local officials. "We're working with the CDC on a whole series of products, from how to improve community mitigation, what to do about contact tracing, how to improve surveillance, and certainly these more detailed guidelines about child care and camps. Those are still being worked on. No one has stopped those guidelines. We're still in editing," she told CNN Thursday night. (5/8)

The Associated Press: Strangeness Of The Day: For Americans, An In-Between Moment
In coming years, when they write the narrative histories of the 2020 pandemic — those paperweight-level volumes that reconstruct these strange days in painstaking and vivid detail — the past week in American life will be a particularly curious moment to unpack. It was unlike what came before, and almost certainly unlike what is still ahead. On social media and in real life, Americans fought fervent pitched battles about getting back to their lives — when, where and under what conditions. Mostly, these battles were verbal. Sometimes, they got physical. (Anthony, 5/11)

The New York Times: How Pandemics End
When will the Covid-19 pandemic end? And how?According to historians, pandemics typically have two types of endings: the medical, which occurs when the incidence and death rates plummet, and the social, when the epidemic of fear about the disease wanes. “When people ask, ‘When will this end?,’ they are asking about the social ending,” said Dr. Jeremy Greene, a historian of medicine at Johns Hopkins. (Kolata, 5/10)

WBUR: Public Health Experts Say Many States Are Opening Too Soon To Do So Safely 
As of Friday in Texas, you can go to a tanning salon. In Indiana, houses of worship are being allowed to open with no cap on attendance. Places like Pennsylvania are taking a more cautious approach, only starting to ease restrictions in some counties based on the number of COVID-19 cases. By Monday, at least 31 states will have partially reopened after seven weeks of restrictions. The moves come as President Trump pushes for the country to get back to work despite public health experts warning that it's too soon. (Fadel, 5/9)

The New York Times: When Will New York City Reopen? The Path Will Be Difficult
Nearly 190,000 people were tested for the coronavirus in New York City over the past two weeks, a record number. The increase in testing, crucial for curbing the outbreak, came as Mayor Bill de Blasio announced plans to hire a small army of 1,000 disease detectives to track down the contacts of every infected New Yorker. The city is also paying for hotels to house people who cannot quarantine in their cramped apartments, and it may use the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens for the same purpose. (Goodman and Rothfeld, 5/10)

The New York Times: For Those Who Must Enforce Coronavirus Lockdowns In California, The Decisions Are Wrenching
How do you enforce a law that tramples the Land of the Free? This is the vexing question confronting Angela Alvarado again and again at her kitchen table, the improvised command post where she fields complaints about businesses and residents violating Santa Clara County’s strict lockdown order. Ms. Alvarado, a veteran prosecutor in the district attorney’s office, monitors two computers and a cellphone, and each time an email alert chimes, in sails another complaint. (Rusch and Smith, 5/11)

Kaiser Health News: How COVID Colors The Salon Experience
Blush Beauty Bar hair salon had been closed 48 days, a consequence of stay-at-home orders to stem the tide of the COVID-19 pandemic. But last Tuesday, the shop in this city of nearly 80,000, about 50 miles north of Denver, was finally reopening after the orders had been partially lifted on May 1. It was booked solid its first day — and for each day the rest of the month. After seven weeks of isolation, it seems people desperately want to get their hair cut. Still, as Colorado attempts a soft reopening, the three-person staff has had to adjust to a new way of doing business. (Hawryluk, 5/11)

Boston Globe: Does Rhode Island Meet The White House Criteria To Reopen? Pretty Much. 
Governor Gina M. Raimondo is starting a phased reopening of the Rhode Island economy Saturday, giving rise to the question: Does the state meet the suggested guidelines the White House coronavirus task force says should be met before easing restrictions?Pretty much. The Globe looked at the state’s coronavirus statistics as well as the standards established by Raimondo’s health experts, which they say are tailored to the state’s needs. (Milkovits, 5/8)

The Washington Post: Northern Va. Nowhere Near Ready To Reopen Under Northam Plan, Officials Say
Northern Virginia, the state’s economic engine, is nowhere near ready to reopen Friday when Gov. Ralph Northam plans to begin lifting shutdown restrictions, the region’s top elected officials said Sunday, citing the continuing increase in coronavirus infections and hospitalizations. (Olivo, Tan and Portnoy, 5/10)

Politico: New Jersey Almost Required Stricter Infection-Control Rules. But Then It Backed Off.
New Jersey officials swore it would never happen again. Almost a year after an adenovirus outbreak killed 11 children at a long-term care facility in northern New Jersey, Gov. Phil Murphy signed legislation requiring every such facility in the state to develop outbreak response plans to prevent future tragedies. (Sutton, 5/11)

The Washington Post: Polar Cave Ice Cream Parlor In Cape Cod Pauses After Reopening Because Employees Were Harassed, Owner Says
Friday was supposed to be a step back toward normal for Polar Cave Ice Cream Parlour. Instead, it turned into one of Mark Lawrence’s worst days in close to two decades serving award-winning desserts in Cape Cod. People disregarded a rule to order an hour before pickup and demanded their ice cream anyway, he wrote on his business’s Facebook page. (Knowles and Kornfield, 5/10)

CNN: Our Cities May Never Look The Same Again After The Pandemic 
For advocates of walkable, unpolluted and vehicle-free cities, the past few weeks have offered an unprecedented opportunity to test the ideas they have long lobbied for. With Covid-19 lockdowns vastly reducing the use of roads and public transit systems, city authorities -- from Liverpool to Lima -- are taking advantage by closing streets to cars, opening others to bicycles and widening sidewalks to help residents maintain the six-foot distancing recommended by global health authorities. And, like jellyfish returning to Venice's canals or flamingos flocking to Mumbai, pedestrians and cyclists are venturing out to places they previously hadn't dared. (Holland, 5/9)

ABC News: Bringing America Back: The Post-Pandemic Workplace  
New cleaning protocols. Employee temperature checks. Color-coding on floors to maintain social distancing. Those are just some of the measures that may come into play as COVID-19 helps shape the next evolution of the office. (Deliso, 5/11)

The New York Times: Concert To Test Whether America Is Ready To Rock Again
Being first is often a good thing, but the opening this week of what could be the first major concert in the United States is turning into a fraught affair. While the world’s big touring acts remain on hiatus or confined to sporadic online performances, Travis McCready, a country-rock singer, is set to take the stage Friday for an intimate acoustic live performance at a venue in Fort Smith, Ark. (Bowley, 5/10)

The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Falling Short On Needed Contact Tracers, Experts Say
When the coronavirus pandemic hit the U.S. in March, George Roberts, chief executive of the Northeast Texas Public Health District, set his three contact tracers to work tracking everyone who had been close to infected people. “They were absolutely overwhelmed within moments,” Mr. Roberts said. Desperate for help, he recruited employees of nearby Tyler, Texas, including police officers, firefighters and the district attorney’s office, beefing up his staff to 26. (Jamerson, 5/10)

The Hill: States Build Contact Tracing Armies To Crush Coronavirus 
State governments are building armies of contact tracers in a new phase of the battle against the coronavirus pandemic, returning to a fundamental practice in public health that can at once wrestle the virus under control and put hundreds of thousands of newly jobless people back to work... Contact tracing is a pillar of basic public health, a critical element in battling infectious disease around the globe. The goal is to identify those who have been infected with a virus and those with whom the infected person has come into contact. (Wilson, 5/10)

Politico: Virus Hunters Rely On Faxes, Paper Records As More States Reopen
A runaway global pandemic is killing tens of thousands of Americans, requiring one of the most cutting edge, data-driven national health responses in American history to stop the virus spread. So what are many public health officials using to share information? Fax machines and paper records. The nation's public health tech system, from the CDC down to local agencies, are relying on technology from the turn of the 21st century that’s slowing efforts to track infected people, gauge how fast the virus is spreading and coordinate resources. It's the result of years of missed opportunities and a technology blitz that modernized big parts of American medicine but left public health agencies behind. (Tahir, 5/10)

The Wall Street Journal: Curbing Coronavirus With A Contact-Tracing App? It’s Not So Simple.
Who would be interested in my exact whereabouts that morning? If I were to have subsequently tested positive for Covid-19, a contact tracer would. (Yes, shadier types might also be interested.) Think of a contact tracer like a public-health detective. They ask infected patients where they’ve been, who they’ve interacted with and when it happened. Then they track down those people and businesses to tell them about their exposure to the virus and to recommend quarantining or cleaning to slow the spread. (Stern, 5/9)

ABC News: COVID-19 Cluster Traced To Southern California Birthday Party: Health Department 
The Pasadena Public Health Department is reminding residents to stay home after a cluster of COVID-19 cases were traced to a birthday party in the Southern California city. More than five confirmed cases and "many more ill individuals" were tied to the party, the department announced. The party was held in early April, after the state's stay-at-home order went into effect. (Deliso, 5/10)

The New York Times: Pork Chops Vs. People: Battling Coronavirus In An Iowa Meat Plant
On April 10, Tony Thompson, the sheriff for Black Hawk County in Iowa, visited the giant Tyson Foods pork plant in Waterloo. What he saw, he said, “shook me to the core.” Workers, many of them immigrants, were crowded elbow to elbow as they broke down hog carcasses zipping by on a conveyor belt. The few who had face coverings wore a motley assortment of bandannas, painters’ masks or even sleep masks stretched around their mouths. Some had masks hanging around their necks. (Swanson, Yaffe-Bellany and Corkery, 5/10)

Reuters: As U.S. Meat Workers Fall Sick And Supplies Dwindle, Exports To China Soar
U.S. President Donald Trump ordered meat processing plants to stay open to protect the nation’s food supply even as workers got sick and died. Yet the plants have increasingly been exporting to China while U.S. consumers face shortages, a Reuters analysis of government data showed. (Polansek, 5/11)

Detroit Free Press: GM Restarts Its Parts Plants And Recalls Some Workforce At All Plants
General Motors is starting production at three of its North American parts plants on Monday. GM is also recalling its skilled trades workers and some production workers to most of its assembly and engine plants on Monday too to prep the equipment and the plants for restarting that production the week of May 18, a person familiar with GM's plans who declined to be named because they are not authorized to speak on the topic. (LaReau, 5/9)

The New York Times: Virus Conspiracists Elevate A New Champion
In a video posted to YouTube on Monday, a woman animatedly described an unsubstantiated secret plot by global elites like Bill Gates and Dr. Anthony Fauci to use the coronavirus pandemic to profit and grab political power. In the 26-minute video, the woman asserted how Dr. Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a leading voice on the coronavirus, had buried her research about how vaccines can damage people’s immune systems. It is those weakened immune systems, she declared, that have made people susceptible to illnesses like Covid-19. (Alba, 5/9)

The Washington Post: Who Is Judy Mikovits In ‘Plandemic,’ The Coronavirus Conspiracy Video Just Banned From Social Media?
[Judy Mikovits] has now accused the scientific establishment of conspiracy again. In a film called “Plandemic,” and in a recently published book that topped the Amazon bestsellers chart this week, she makes a bizarre and false claim: that the doctors and experts shaping public policy in response to the novel coronavirus pandemic have silenced dissenting voices and misled the public for sinister reasons. She falsely claims that wealthy people intentionally spread the virus to increase vaccination rates and that wearing face masks is harmful. The coronavirus-related theories Mikovits presented defy accepted science and wilt under scrutiny, according to dozens of experts who spoke up after “Plandemic” trended this week. (Shepherd, 5/8)

Meanwhile —

Los Angeles Times: Far Right Outing Those Reporting Coronavirus Violations
Aram Westergreen, a construction worker idled last month in the COVID-19 pandemic, filled out an online Washington state form recently to report a pawn shop open despite a ban on nonessential businesses. Westergreen lives in Tacoma, Wash., less than an hour from the nursing home where the first COVID-19 death in the United States was reported in late February. With more than 900 deaths statewide since, and a stay-at-home order in place since March 23, Westergreen, like many of his neighbors, has suffered from lost income, but regards social distancing as critical to slow the spread of the pathogen. (Read and Etehad, 5/10)

Politico: 'Abusive, Dictatorial, Tyrannical': Republicans Ramp Up Attacks On Lockdowns
In recent weeks, Republicans have been angrily lashing out at the media, local and state officials and House Democratic leadership over the continued shutdown — and are now actively encouraging the fired-up protesters swarming state capitols across the country. “It’s ludicrous, it’s arbitrary and it’s absolutely unnecessary,” said Rep. Jody Hice (R-Ga.), whose state has been one of the earliest to lift coronavirus restrictions. “In some cases, there’s no evidence whatsoever that they eliminate the spread of Covid-19. It’s just abusive, dictatorial, tyrannical-type leadership.” (Zanona, 5/11)

CNN: Once The Coronavirus 'Epicenter,' This American City Reversed Course
"Chaos" was how Dr. Kevin Hanson described his emergency department at EvergreenHealth hospital in suburban Seattle. Nearly 20 coronavirus patients were coming in every day. Staff members were running out of personal protective equipment. Even one of the doctors became severely ill with the virus. "It's very sobering," Hanson said. "It gave us all a lot of pause, saying 'are we doing the right thing?'"  But that was a month ago. Now, Hanson strolls past room after room with empty beds. The lights are off. The waiting room is nearly empty. (Kravarik and Sidner, 5/8)

The New York Times: In Chicago And Los Angeles, Virus Spread Is Slower, But Persistent
As cases of the coronavirus spiraled upward in New York City, leaders of other big cities watched with worry, searching for ways to avoid an escalation of the magnitude that might overwhelm hospitals. In Chicago, the nation’s third-largest city, fear of explosive growth — the kind that overtook New York City, Detroit and New Orleans — has faded in recent days, but the Chicago area has faced its own stubbornly high numbers. Cook County, Ill., which includes Chicago and its closest suburbs, has added more cases of the coronavirus than any other county in the United States on some recent days. On Friday, Cook County added more new cases than the five boroughs of New York City combined. (Bogel-Burroughs and Smith, 5/9)

CNN: South Dakota Sioux Tribe Refuses To Take Down Checkpoints That Governor Says Are Illegal 
The Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe in South Dakota is refusing to end coronavirus checkpoints declared illegal by the state's governor, saying they are the best tool they have to stop the virus from spreading. Gov. Kristi Noem sent letters Friday to the leaders of the Oglala Sioux and the Cheyenne River Sioux tribes demanding that the checkpoints along the US and state highways through tribal land be removed. Her office released an update Sunday clarifying the request: "The checkpoints on state and US highways are not legal, and if they don't come down, the state will take the matter to Federal court, as Governor Noem noted in her Friday letter." (Sidner, Perrot, Moshtaghian and Cullinane, 5/10)

The Washington Post: Street Sense Newspaper Was A Lifeline For The Homeless In D.C. Coronavirus Forced It To Stop The Presses.
After waking up on a recent Monday, Ron Dudley pulled on his Washington Nationals jersey and walked down his street, past a bus stop where he had slept one night, and stopped in front of Trader Joe’s for the first time in three weeks. “When Trader Joe’s opens, I open,” he thought that morning. But unlike every other time he had stood outside of the grocery store on 14th Street in Northwest Washington for the past three years, Dudley had not a single newspaper to sell. (Davies, 5/10)

The Associated Press: Shutdown Of Tribal Casinos Deals Blow To Indian Country
When the Kalispel Tribe of Indians closed its casino as the coronavirus took hold in Washington state, it essentially shut down its economy. That difficult choice has played out nationwide as some 500 Native American casinos have voluntarily closed during the pandemic, often taking away tribes’ main source of income in an effort to protect people’s health in communities with limited medical resources. (Geranios, 5/10)

Dallas Morning News: 423 Coronavirus Cases Reported In Federal Prison Outbreak In Tarrant County
Tarrant County reported 423 cases of coronavirus Sunday in a federal prison outbreak that led to the highest one-day increase in a North Texas county’s tally since the pandemic began. Two more coronavirus-related deaths were also reported in the county, bringing the total to 103 (Keomoungkhoun, Branham, Hoyt and Smith, 5/10)

Detroit Free Press: Michigan Ranks Highest For Prisoner Deaths From Coronavirus
The Michigan Department of Corrections has logged more coronavirus deaths than any other state prison system and ranks second nationwide behind New Jersey for prisoner deaths per capita, according to The Marshall Project, a nonprofit journalism outfit that reports on the criminal justice system and is tracking the virus in prisons across the country.  (Jackson and Tanner, 5/9)

Dallas Morning News: For Third Time, Dallas County Reports Single-Day High Of 10 Coronavirus Deaths; It Also Adds 249 Cases
Ten more Dallas County residents have died from the coronavirus, tying the county’s single-day high, officials said Friday. Six of the victims were residents of long-term care facilities: a Dallas man in his 60s, a Dallas woman in her 80s, a Duncanville man in his 40s, a Duncanville man in his 70s, a Garland man in his 90s and a Richardson woman in her 60s. (Steele and Marfin, 5/8)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: All Of Georgia’s 159 Counties Now Have At Least One Case Of COVID-19
The highly contagious disease has spared no corner of Georgia. Not metro Atlanta. Not the state’s coastal areas. And not its rural, out-of-the-way communities like Taliaferro and Glascock. As of Friday morning, 31,611 cases of COVID-19 had been confirmed in Georgia and 1,352 people had died from the disease, according to Georgia Department of Public Health data. (Redmon, 5/8)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Dentists Struggle To Meet New Infection-Control Measures
Less than three weeks ago, the Georgia Dental Association, which represents thousands of the state’s dentists, sent a letter to the governor’s office expressing concerns that most of its members would not be able to meet the CDC’s minimum requirements. Fears, echoed by industry leaders in other states, are that dentists could be subject to disciplinary action, and some could lose their licenses, if they are found to be in violation of the new requirements. (Berard, 5/9)

State House News Service: Mass. Virus Reporting Includes Big Gap: The Recovered 
A COVID-19 simulator built by Massachusetts General Hospital estimates that the number of active cases of COVID-19 in Massachusetts — meaning "anyone who is in the infectious period" — is roughly 6,200. But there is no real way to know for sure yet. Clinicians in Massachusetts are required to report positive cases of COVID-19, but are not required to report when a patient recovers and the Mass. Department of Public Health (DPH) does not track the number of recoveries in the state, a DPH spokeswoman said. (Young, 5/8)

WBUR: Worcester Leaders Say Coronavirus Measures Allow City To 'Do Wonders' For Homeless Community
City officials in Worcester say thorough testing for the coronavirus in the homeless community has allowed them to control the spread of the virus and get people help for other conditions as well. The most recent round of testing found just four out of the 59 people (7%) staying at the city's emergency adult shelter had the coronavirus, city leaders say. (Joliocoeur, 5/8)

WBUR: In Northern Virginia, A Grassroots Push To Help Latinos Combat Coronavirus 
As Latino households across the country are pummeled by the virus outbreak, staff from Neighborhood Health, a chain of medical clinics in northern Virginia, have stepped up testing efforts in areas where that community is hardest-hit. Of the health center's 30,000 patients, 50% are Latino immigrants hailing from Central America. They are predominantly low-income and uninsured. And though they make up half of the patient population, Latinos represent nearly 90% of those who have tested positive for COVID-19 at the group's clinics. (Simons, 5/9)

Detroit Free Press: Michigan’s Definition Of Coronavirus ‘Recovery’ Looser Than Others
As Michigan’s first and worst-hit coronavirus patients leave hospitals and rehab units and head back home, the disconnect between the state’s definition of “recovered” and their everyday life is startlingly clear. The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services counts those “who are 30 days out from their onset of illness” as recovered. In other words, unless the state receives a death certificate stating otherwise —  every person who tests positive is considered “recovered” 30 days after the onset of symptoms. (Erb, 5/10)

Bangor Daily News: State Says Ban On In-Person Church Services Is Constitutional 
Attorneys for Gov. Janet Mills on Friday said that her prohibition on in-person worship services do not violate the Constitution in light of the current health crisis as an Orrington church has claimed in a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday. (Harrison, 5/8)

The Oklahoman: Status Of School Reopenings Still Unclear In Oklahoma
COVID-19 has thrown Oklahoma school districts and state leaders into a whirlpool of contingency plans, as a model of the 2020-21 school year remains in flux. The ever-changing pandemic creates multiple possibilities, influenced by logistical and financial challenges, that could alter the course of the next school year. (Martinez-Keel, 5/10)

Bangor Daily News: What Doctors Need As Maine Begins To Test More People For The Coronavirus 
With Maine aiming to triple its coronavirus testing capacity by the end of next week, doctors are relieved that more will be diagnosed while warning that more protective equipment will be needed to treat an influx of patients. (Andrews, 5/9)

Las Vegas Review-Journal: Nevada To Begin Coronavirus Antibody Testing This Month 
The Nevada State Public Health Laboratory plans to begin antibody studies this month of those on the front lines of the pandemic and of the general public to better understand what portion of the population has been infected by the new coronavirus and may have developed some immunity. (Hynes, 5/8)

San Francisco Chronicle: California Is Ramping Up Antibody Tests. The Technology Is Promising, But Big Questions Remain
California public health officials have begun distributing tens of thousands of coronavirus antibody tests from Abbott Laboratories to more than a dozen labs across the state as counties prepare to reopen and allow people to return to work, school and recreation. Other testing and health service companies are promoting antibody testing as a way to help people feel safer, get back to work and establish “a path toward normalcy for Americans.” (Dizikes, 5/9)

San Francisco Chronicle: California Is Publicly Sharing Incomplete Data On Coronavirus Outbreaks At Nursing Homes 
California is publicly sharing an incomplete picture of how far the potentially deadly coronavirus has spread throughout skilled nursing facilities for the elderly. Experts say the state’s decision to publish only point-in-time data for each facility rather than case totals over time creates confusion about the scope of infections. Getting a handle on the true extent of the outbreaks at skilled nursing homes is crucial to containing the spread of the virus and saving lives. (Ravani and Thadani, 5/9)

KQED: Poll: Most California Voters Support Farmworker Protections During The Pandemic 
Most voters in California support greater economic protections and health care for farmworkers, as they continue to help feed the country through the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new statewide poll. The survey found that 71% of voters agree that agricultural workers who contract COVID-19 should have medical benefits and paid sick leave, even if they are undocumented immigrants. The poll, released Friday, was conducted by UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies and the California Initiative for Health Equity & Action. (Romero, 5/8)

San Francisco Chronicle: Bay Area Counties Start Reopening Stores, Slowly And Cautiously 
Glimmers of an economic reopening that could bring relief to small businesses and laid-off workers are spreading in the Bay Area, particularly in the more rural North Bay. Solano County said late Thursday it would allow some retailers to open, as well as manufacturers and some other businesses, provided they follow social distancing rules. Napa County suggested on its website that some businesses could reopen as soon as Friday, though it deferred to the state on which ones that might be. (Narayan, Phillips and Cassidy, 5/8)

New Orleans Times-Picayune: New Orleans To Spend $300K To Address Opioid Epidemic As Overdoses Spike Amid Coronavirus
New Orleans will spend $300,000 to address a health epidemic that has been overshadowed in recent months by the coronavirus: the city's opioid problem. The City Council has agreed to spend the cash on medication that can reverse opioid overdoses and on vaccines for hepatitis A, a virus common in people who inject drugs. (Williams, 5/10)

The Wall Street Journal: Democrats Push Ahead With Coronavirus Plan Amid Break In Talks
House Democrats are pushing to complete their next coronavirus-aid proposal this week in the face of deepening economic gloom, but talks with the White House and the Republican-controlled Senate are on ice over disagreements over the pace and content of the next package. Democrats argue for urgent new spending, on top of the roughly $3 trillion allocated so far for businesses, households, states and cities, among others. But some Republicans and President Trump counter that lawmakers should take a wait-and-see stance on more payments and have prioritized other policies, such as shielding businesses from liability. (Andrews, 5/10)

Reuters: White House Considers More Coronavirus Aid As Jobs Picture Worsens
The White House has begun informal talks with Republicans and Democrats in Congress about what to include in another round of coronavirus relief legislation, officials said on Sunday, while predicting further U.S. jobs losses in the coming months. (Morgan and Heavey, 5/10)

The New York Times: As Banks Stumble In Delivering Aid, Congress Weighs Other Options
When the federal government agreed to funnel $2.2 trillion in emergency aid to Americans devastated by the economic shutdown, the nation’s banks were given a central role. There were three main prongs of relief for taxpayers and American businesses, all routed through the banks in various ways: stimulus checks, a $660 billion package for small businesses, and unemployment benefits. Confronted with an unprecedented crush of need as millions of Americans lost their livelihoods, the banks stumbled in ways big and small. (Flitter and Cochrane, 5/11)

The Washington Post: Stimulus Impact On Deficit Drives Fears Among White House Conservatives
Senior Trump administration officials are growing increasingly wary of the massive federal spending to combat the economic downturn and are considering ways to limit the impact of future stimulus efforts on the national debt, according to six administration officials and four external advisers familiar with the matter. (Stein, Dawsey and Hudson, 5/10)

Politico: Lamar Alexander Warns 'Not Enough Money' To Help Everyone
Congress won't be able to appropriate enough money to help all those impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, Sen. Lamar Alexander warned on Sunday. "There's not enough money to help everybody hurt when you shut down the government," the Tennessee Republican said on NBC's "Meet the Press." (Parthasarathy, 5/10)

ProPublica: The Bailout Is Working — For The Rich
Ten weeks into the worst crisis in 90 years, the government’s effort to save the economy has been both a spectacular success and a catastrophic failure. The clearest illustration of that came on Friday, when the government reported that 20.5 million people lost their jobs in April. It marked a period of unfathomable pain across the country not seen since the Great Depression. Also on Friday, the stock market rallied. (Eisinger, 5/10)

Kaiser Health News: COVID Bailout Cash Goes To Big Players That Have Paid Millions To Settle Allegations Of Wrongdoing
The Trump administration has sent hundreds of millions of dollars in pandemic-related bailouts to health care providers with checkered histories, including a Florida-based cancer center that agreed to pay a $100 million criminal penalty as part of a federal antitrust investigation. At least half of the top 10 recipients, part of a group that received $20 billion in emergency funding from the Department of Health and Human Services, have paid millions in recent years either in criminal penalties or to settle allegations related to improper billing and other practices, a Kaiser Health News review of government records shows. (Pradhan and Schulte, 5/9)

The New York Times: Why Economic Pain Could Persist Even After The Pandemic Is Contained
The one great reason for economic optimism during this pandemic is that once public health concerns are addressed, the economy could quickly return to something like pre-crisis levels. After all, if there were a safe way to return to normal behavior, restaurants could fill up, planes could begin flying, and millions of workers could return to their posts. But even if that happens in the coming months, the United States will still be facing waves of second- and third-order economic effects that could last years. (Irwin, 5/11)

The Wall Street Journal: Reopening The Restaurant Wasn’t The Quick Fix Its Owners Needed
For Allie Lyons, co-owner of Table 20 in Cartersville, Ga., reopening her farm-to-table restaurant has turned out to be more challenging than shutting her dining room because of the coronavirus pandemic. “This is more terrifying than it was before,” said Ms. Lyons, who switched to takeout in mid-March after Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp ordered the state’s restaurants to close temporarily. “You are walking on eggshells.” (Simon, 5/9)

The Associated Press: Trump Advisers Cite Need To Stop 'Permanent' Economic Toll
Some of President Donald Trump’s top economic advisers emphasized on Sunday the importance of states getting more businesses and offices open even as the pandemic makes its way to the White House complex, forcing three members of the administration’s coronavirus task force into self-quarantine. The president and governors who will decide when to reopen their states are facing competing pressures. More economic activity and travel will likely lead to more people contracting COVID-19. (Freking, 5/11)

The Washington Post: Top Trump Economic Advisers Say Unemployment Rate Could Surpass 20 Percent, Job Market Could Worsen
Two of President Trump’s top economic advisers projected Sunday that unemployment will climb as the coronavirus pandemic continues its sweep across the United States, with one official predicting that the unemployment rate will jump to 20 percent by next month. (Gregg, Sonmez, Bernstein and Johnson, 5/10)

The Hill: Kudlow: 'Very Difficult' Unemployment Numbers Possible In May Too
White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said Sunday that the unemployment statistics in May could “also be very difficult" after a record 20 million people lost their jobs in April amid the coronavirus pandemic. Kudlow told ABC’s “This Week” that it will “take a while” for the reopening efforts underway in a number of states to have a positive effect on the U.S. economy and unemployment. (Coleman, 5/10)

The Wall Street Journal: Nearly A Third Of Kentucky Workers Seek Jobless Aid
Nearly a third of Kentucky’s labor force has filed for unemployment insurance, the largest share of any U.S. state, partly reflecting officials’ encouragement to do so and an early move to expand workers’ eligibility. Those factors, combined with a high concentration of factories and the postponement of the Kentucky Derby, caused about 671,000 state residents to seek jobless benefits in the seven weeks ended May 2, according to the U.S. Labor Department. That is equivalent to about 32% of the February workforce and well above the 20% for the U.S. overall. (Mackrael, 5/10)

The New York Times: Repeat After Me: The Markets Are Not The Economy
The stock market looks increasingly divorced from economic reality. The United States is on the brink of the worst economic collapse since the Hoover administration. Corporate profits have crumpled. More than a million Americans have contracted the coronavirus, and hundreds are dying each day. There is no turnaround in sight. Yet stocks keep climbing. (Phillips, 5/10)

WBUR: Where’s The Money? A Dispute Boils Between Doctors, Hospitals And Health Insurers In Mass. 
As the intense focus on preparing for the COVID-19 surge shifts, there’s mounting anger from providers directed at insurance companies. The providers’ main questions are: Where have you been, and where’s the money? Executives and advisers from eight hospitals across Massachusetts use phrases like “sucking us dry,” “bloodbath” and “shameful,” on background, to describe health insurers. None would talk on the record for fear of retaliation. (Bebinger, 5/8)

Modern Healthcare: Large Health Insurers Appear Immune To COVID-19
The largest national health insurers emerged from the first quarter of the year without so much as a scratch from the COVID-19 crisis. And while it’s unclear how long the pandemic will last and how many people will become infected, insurers are betting they ultimately will come out on top. (Livingston, 5/9)

San Francisco Chronicle: Coronavirus Costs Bay Area Hospitals Millions, Crippling Those That Serve Low-Income Patients
Bay Area medical centers have spent millions to prepare for a huge COVID-19 surge that hasn’t materialized, delayed thousands of nonemergency surgeries, and put off countless other in-person appointments. Now, health care providers of every kind are struggling to balance the books. San Francisco General Hospital, a city-subsidized nonprofit operation that usually earns too little to cover expenses, has lost $20 million since the shelter-in-place order took hold in mid-March, spokesman Brent Andrew said. (Moench, 5/10)

USA Today: Coronavirus: Should Rich Hospitals Bankroll Better Pandemic Plans?
Struggling hospitals and those hardest hit by COVID-19 should get more federal funding than nonprofit hospital systems with large endowments, patient safety advocates and other critics say. An analysis for USA TODAY by OpenTheBooks.com shows the 20 nonprofit hospitals ranked by investments reported more than $116 billion in investments, including endowments. And although flush with money, critics say the tax-exempt systems also failed to adequately invest in basic emergency planning before the pandemic. (O'Donnell, 5/10)

Kaiser Health News: ‘An Arm And A Leg’: Health Care Takes A Financial Hit In The Midst Of Pandemic
You’ve probably noticed that the U.S. economy is crashing. What you might not expect is that almost half of the economic devastation comes from just one sector — health care. That’s according to a first-quarter 2020 estimate of U.S. gross domestic product from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, which pundits later shared on social media. (Weissmann, 5/11)

ProPublica: Superintendent Bragged About VA Review Of Short-Staffed Soldiers Home. Two Months Later, 73 Veterans Are Dead.
On March 10, trustees of the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home in Massachusetts heard a glowing review of the facility’s operations. For the third year in a row, the home’s superintendent reported to the board, the 247-bed nursing home met or provisionally met the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs health care standards. We “are happy to report a ‘three peat,’” Superintendent Bennett Walsh told the board, according to minutes of the meeting. The VA inspection actually identified three minor deficiencies that didn’t meet standards, according to documents reviewed by ProPublica. (Armstrong, 5/11)

The New York Times: ‘The Whole Place Is Sick Now’: 72 Deaths At A Home For U.S. Veterans
The coronavirus has preyed on residents of nursing homes in New Jersey with lethal force, claiming more than 4,850 lives. Deaths at long-term care facilities now account for half of the state’s Covid-19 fatalities, well over the national rate. As of Sunday, 15 nursing homes had reported 30 or more deaths apiece, including four with more than 50 deaths, state records show. But nowhere has the devastation been starker than at the New Jersey Veterans Home at Paramus, a state-run home for former members of the U.S. military. (Tully, 5/10)

In other veterans' health news —

The Associated Press: Schumer Calls On VA To Explain Use Of Unproven Drug On Vets
The Senate’s top Democrat on Sunday called on the Department of Veterans Affairs to explain why it allowed the use of an unproven drug on veterans for the coronavirus, saying patients may have been put at unnecessary risk. Sen. Charles Schumer of New York said the VA needs to provide Congress more information about a recent bulk order for $208,000 worth of hydroxychloroquine. President Donald Trump has heavily promoted the malaria drug, without evidence, as a treatment for COVID-19. (Yen and Balsamo, 5/11)

Kaiser Health News: Keeping The COVID Plague At Bay: How California Is Protecting Older Veterans
Dr. Vito Imbasciani has been at war with viruses since he was 5. Growing up near the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in New York, he contracted polio in 1952 and couldn’t walk for two months. In medical school in Vermont 30 years later, he witnessed AIDS steal the lives of otherwise healthy gay men. Now, Imbasciani, secretary of California’s Department of Veterans Affairs, and his staff are responsible for keeping the novel coronavirus away from the state’s eight veterans homes. California’s defenses are holding. (Morain, 5/11)

The New York Times: Surviving Covid-19 May Not Feel Like Recovery For Some
When Morena Colombi tested negative for the coronavirus on March 16, the official tallies counted her among the Covid-19 recoveries, a success amid the tragedies overwhelming Italy. But she was nowhere near recovered, her cough and crippling fatigue nowhere near gone. Five weeks later, on April 21, she returned to her job developing colors for a cosmetics company, but with shortness of breath and aching muscles, she found herself unable to take even short walks. (Horowitz, 5/10)

The Washington Post: How Coronavirus Attacks The Human Body
Deborah Coughlin was neither short of breath nor coughing. In those first days after she became infected by the novel coronavirus, her fever never spiked above 100 degrees. It was vomiting and diarrhea that brought her to a Hartford, Conn., emergency room on May 1. “You would have thought it was a stomach virus,” said her daughter, Catherina Coleman. “She was talking and walking and completely coherent.” But even as Coughlin, 67, chatted with her daughters on her cellphone, the oxygen level in her blood dropped so low that most patients would be near death. (Bernstein and Cha, 5/10)

The New York Times: Mysterious Coronavirus Illness Claims 3 Children In New York
A mysterious syndrome has killed three young children in New York and sickened 73 others, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said on Saturday, an alarming rise in a phenomenon that was first publicly identified earlier this week. The syndrome, a toxic-shock-like inflammation that affects the skin, the eyes, blood vessels and the heart, can leave children seriously ill, with some patients requiring mechanical ventilation. Many of the symptoms bear some resemblance to a rare childhood illness called Kawasaki disease, which can lead to inflammation of the blood vessels, especially the coronary arteries. (Jacobs and Sandoval, 5/9)

The Wall Street Journal: Some Doctors Pull Back On Using Ventilators To Treat Covid-19
It is another medical mystery of the coronavirus pandemic: Large numbers of Covid-19 patients arrive at hospitals with blood-oxygen levels so low they should be unconscious or on the verge of organ failure. Instead they are awake, talking—not struggling to breathe. Although nobody is quite sure what about the coronavirus causes these patients to react this way, they are rapidly changing how many doctors are treating the disease. Instead of rushing to put such patients on mechanical ventilators for fear of them suddenly getting worse and dying, some doctors are now holding off on the invasive treatment, believing that many of these patients will do just fine without them. (Toy and Roland, 5/10)

Modern Healthcare: Finding Answers About COVID-19 Risk In The Data
Physicians and data experts at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, located in one of the first COVID-19 hot spots, have developed a risk score that aims to maximize resources and direct treatment.They devised a set of criteria that typically indicate how sick COVID-19 patients will get. If they are male, over the age of 60, have a body-mass index of at least 30 and have comorbidities like diabetes or heart conditions, they are more likely to get sick, Santa Clara Valley Medical Center experts’ analysis of nearly 7,000 emergency department visits revealed. (Kacik, 5/9)

ABC News: People With Coronavirus Are Dying 10 Years Earlier Than They Would Have Naturally: Study 
Even as the global death toll from COVID-19 continues to rise, the impact of the virus may actually be understated, according to a new study from the University of Glasgow. Using a statistical measure called "years of life lost," researchers found that COVID-19 strips more than a decade away from a person's life, on average. For men, the viral infection takes away about 13 years of potential life lived. For women, it's more like 11 years. Both numbers account for underlying long-term conditions. (Amin, 5/10)

The Associated Press: AP FACT CHECK: Trump Falsely Declares Kids Safe From Virus
President Donald Trump is falsely suggesting that children are safe from the coronavirus as he pushes to reopen the country now and schools in the summer or fall. Although Trump is broadly correct that the disease is most deadly to the elderly and to people with existing health problems, his statement that “the children aren’t affected” is heedless. Some have died from it. His recent comments also skirt the threat to healthy adults in their 50s and younger. (Woodward, 5/7)

Los Angeles Times: Coronavirus: Black Angelenos Fear Another Tuskegee Experiment
The invitation to participate in a COVID-19 antibody study arrived in Jacquelyn Temple’s inbox early last month. Initially, the 72-year-old Leimert Park resident felt hope. She wondered whether the study and accompanying blood test could answer why she had been experiencing months of respiratory problems, even through her coronavirus test had come back negative. Maybe, she thought, the test would reveal that she had been exposed and recovered. (Jennings, 5/10)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Race Disparity In Pandemic Triggers Questions
In Georgia, a very limited study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found African Americans made up 83% of 305 Georgians who had been hospitalized with COVID-19 and whose ethnicity was known. A broader sampling of incomplete state data suggests that, in cases where the race is known, black males make up 33.47% of positive male tests and black females make up 39.56% of positive female tests. Georgia’s population overall is about 32.4% African American. (Suggs, 5/10)

ProPublica: COVID-19 Took Black Lives First. It Didn’t Have To.
Larry Arnold lived less than a mile from a hospital but, stepping out of his South Side apartment with a 103-degree fever, he told the Uber driver to take him to another 30 minutes away. Charles Miles’ breathing was so labored when a friend called to check on him that the friend called an ambulance. Still, Miles, a retired respiratory therapist, was reluctant to leave his home. Close family support had helped Rosa Lynn Franklin recover from a stroke several years ago, but when she was admitted to the hospital in late March, her daughter could do little more than pat her on the back and say goodbye. (Eldeib, Gallardo, Johnson, Waldman, Martin, Buford, Briscoe, 5/9)

The New York Times: Questions Of Bias In Covid-19 Treatment Add To The Mourning For Black Families
Long dissatisfied with the doctor treating his diabetes, Reginald Relf decided to fight through whatever was causing his nagging cough. But then his temperature spiked and his breathing became so labored that he reluctantly took his sister’s advice to visit a doctor. The staff at an urgent care clinic in suburban Chicago sent him home, without testing him for Covid-19 but after advising him to quarantine. (Eligon and Burch, 5/10)

ProPublica: Early Data Shows Black People Are Being Disproportionally Arrested For Social Distancing Violations
On April 17 in Toledo, Ohio, a 19-year-old black man was arrested for violating the state stay-at-home order. In court filings, police say he took a bus from Detroit to Toledo “without a valid reason.” Six young black men were arrested in Toledo last Saturday while hanging out on a front lawn; police allege they were “seen standing within 6 feet of each other.” In Cincinnati, a black man was charged with violating stay-at-home orders after he was shot in the ankle on April 7; according to a police affidavit, he was talking to a friend in the street when he was shot and was “clearly not engaged in essential activities.” (Kaplan and Hardy, 5/8)

The Washington Post: Social Distancing Enforcement Is Ramping Up. So Is Concern That Black And Latino Residents May Face Harsher Treatment. 
A New York City police officer on a social distancing patrol pushes a black man to the ground, slaps him repeatedly and kneels on his neck in an incident captured on video. In Illinois, two black men wearing surgical masks filmed themselves at Walmart being trailed by a police officer who rested his hand on his gun. The men said in the recording the officer told them they couldn’t wear masks and had to leave the store. (Jouvenal and Brice-Saddler, 5/10)

Stat: What The World Learned In Eradicating Smallpox: Unity Mattered 
Forty years ago, the world celebrated the vanquishing of a formidable foe, smallpox, which had maimed and killed millions for centuries. On May 8, 1980, the World Health Organization declared that smallpox had been eradicated. That milestone, reached while the Cold War still raged, is an example of what the public health world can achieve when it works together — and is particularly resonant in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. The campaign against smallpox took 21 years and required not just vaccinations but tracking and isolating new cases. (Branswell, 5/8)

CIDRAP: COVID-19 Battle Echoes Smallpox; Concerns Rise Over Domestic Violence In Lockdown
Marking the 40th anniversary of smallpox eradication today, the World Health Organization (WHO) director-general said the same solidarity that powered the final steps to victory over smallpox is needed now to defeat the COVID-19 pandemic. The agency also voiced concern over increased reports of domestic violence in nations under stay-at-home orders. (Schnirring, 5/8)

USA Today: 'Deaths Of Despair': Coronavirus Pandemic Could Push Suicide, Drug Deaths As High As 150K, Study Says
The federal mental health czar is calling for more money to expand services to help people suffering amid the social isolation imposed by the coronavirus pandemic, as a new study estimates related deaths from alcohol, drug overdose and suicide could reach 150,000. "We see very troubling signs across the nation," said Dr. Elinore McCance-Katz, assistant secretary at Department of Health and Human Services and head of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration. "There's more substance abuse, more overdoses, more domestic violence and neglect and abuse of children." (O'Donnell, 5/8)

ABC News: Children’s Mental Health Emergency Department Visits Have Skyrocketed Over Last Decade 
Children with mental health disorders are seeking emergency medical care at an increasing and alarming rate, and many hospitals are not adequately prepared to treat them, according to a new study published today in Pediatrics. "We're seeing more and more children presenting with mental health disorders," said Dr. Rachel Stanley, senior author of the study and Chief of Emergency Medicine at Nationwide Children's Hospital. Her emergency department in Ohio typically sees "20 or 30 kids a day" for mental health reasons, she said. (Nunneley, 5/11)

ABC News: You May Want To Ditch That Valve Face Mask: The Pros And Cons 
The novel coronavirus pandemic brought society a new definition of normal which now includes wearing face masks. While the benefits of masks are clear, widespread use unearthed a host of drawbacks: face irritation, difficulty breathing, moisture buildup and the dreaded foggy glasses. One type of mask called a "valve mask" helps solve some of these problems, but is now under fire for not protecting the public as it should -- drawing into question whether they should be used at all. (Anoruo, 5/9)

The Washington Post: How To Stay Safe When You Need Non-Covid Medical Care
Palm Sunday was a beautiful day in New York’s Hudson Valley, a little more than two hours north of New York City where the country’s largest coronavirus pandemic was then raging. Amy Barr, observing the state’s stay-at-home order with her husband, two sons, and a daughter-in-law, joined in a family game of pickle ball in the afternoon. “I ran backwards to hit the Wiffle ball and I slipped, fell and broke my fall with my left wrist,” she told me. She was in enough pain to know an X-ray was in order, but did she dare go to the emergency room, where she could be exposed to the novel coronavirus? (Petrow, 5/10)

The Washington Post: Home Covid-19 Deaths: She Begged Her Husband To Go The Hospital. He Refused Until It Was Too Late.
Julio Ayala first felt the ache in his bones during back-to-back shifts behind the wheel of a delivery truck and a janitor’s mop. By the time he returned to his East Boston apartment one evening last month, a fever had seized his large frame. The Salvadoran immigrant called in sick the next day. When his longtime partner, Idalia, made him food, the barrel-chested 45-year-old had no appetite. Then Julio lost his sense of smell and taste. (Miller, 5/7)

Kaiser Health News and Politifact HealthCheck: COVID Survivors’ Blood Plasma Is A Sought-After New Commodity
Diana Berrent learned she had tested positive for COVID-19 on a Wednesday in mid-March. Within a day, she had received 30 emails from people urging her to donate blood. Friends and acquaintances, aware of her diagnosis, passed along a pressing request from New York’s Mount Sinai Health System, one of the first centers to seek plasma, a blood component, to be used in a therapy that might fight the deadly disease. Berrent, 45, said she immediately recognized the need for the precious plasma — and the demand that would follow. (Aleccia, 5/11)

CNN: Creating Your Advance Directive Or Will During A Pandemic 
Dr. Ami Mac was hospitalized in March with symptoms identical to Covid-19. The 44-year-old doctor in Palo Alto, California, has an underlying immune deficiency, but has "never had shortness of breath before," she said... She's nervous about her future during the pandemic, and she recently contacted her friends to discuss her own end-of-life decisions, she said. In the past, she's had these kinds of discussions with patients many times. (Prior, 5/7)

NPR: The People Flying During The Pandemic And How Airlines Are Trying To Protect Them
In recent years, airlines have been cramming more seats onto planes and squishing passengers ever closer to one another. The entire airport experience isn't much better, with overcrowded eateries and bookshops, as well as tightly packed lines of people queuing up at check-in counters, at security checkpoints and on the jet bridge for boarding. But that's not the case anymore. (Schaper and Baker, 5/10)

Kaiser Health News: Southwest CEO’s Boast About Airplanes’ Low COVID Risk Flies By Key Concerns
During a May 3 appearance on “Face the Nation,” Southwest CEO Gary Kelly said that he believed it was safe for Americans to fly during the coronavirus epidemic and that a plane is as safe as any other space. “I don’t think the risk on an airplane is any greater risk than anywhere else, and in fact, you just look at the layered approach that we use. It’s as safe as an environment as you’re going to find,” said Kelly. (Knight, 5/11)

The Washington Post: School Coronavirus Closings May Worsen Childhood Obesity
School is still in session, albeit online, but many American children are no longer sitting in a traditional classroom with scheduled gym periods or the chance to run around at recess. They are distance learning at home, where it’s tempting to snack all day in front of a screen. Prompted by fears of coronavirus transmission, numerous schools shut down in March, stretching the usual two-to-three-month interval at home into five months or longer. (Cimons, 5/10)

Politico: Why The US Isn't Prepared To Meet Overwhelming Demand For A Coronavirus Vaccine
Meeting the overwhelming demand for a successful coronavirus vaccine will require a historic amount of coordination between scientists, drugmakers and the government. The nation’s supply chain isn’t anywhere close to ready for such an effort. The nation is already grappling with a shortage of the specialized glass used to make the vials that will store any vaccine. Producing and distributing hundreds of millions of vaccine doses will also require huge quantities of stoppers — which are made by just a handful of companies — as well as needles and refrigeration units. Low stocks of any one of these components could slow future vaccination efforts, much as shortfalls of key chemicals delayed widespread coronavirus testing. (Owermohle, 5/11)

ABC News: Drug Treatment A Stopgap For Vaccine To Eradicate COVID-19: Chief Scientific Officer 
Johnson & Johnson's chief scientific officer said it's unlikely the coronavirus will be eradicated without a vaccine. Dr. Paul Stoffels, appearing on ABC's "This Week" Sunday, responded to comments from President Donald Trump last week that, "With or without a vaccine, it's going to pass, and we're going to be back to normal. "(It) would be great if the disease goes away very quickly, but we don't think so," Stoffels told ABC News chief anchor George Stephanopoulos. "It's now spreading around the world so fast." (Arnholz, 5/10)

Stat: Routine Vaccinations For U.S. Children Have Plummeted Amid The Pandemic
Routine vaccination of children in the United States appeared to have declined dramatically in March and April, in the weeks after Covid-19 was declared a pandemic and the United States government declared a national emergency, a new study published Friday shows. The authors, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other institutions, used vaccine ordering data from pediatricians who administer vaccines through the Vaccines for Children Program, which provides government-purchased vaccines to about half of the children in the United States. The study, published by the CDC in its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, compared orders for the period from Jan. 7 through April 21 this year to the same period last year. (Branswell, 5/8)

The Washington Post: CDC Warns Of Potential Measles Outbreaks As Kids Fail To Get Vaccines
The decline in vaccines was not as severe for children under 2, and vaccination numbers for that group have begun to tick back up, the study found. But as of mid-April, about 1,500 young children a week were getting measles vaccines at sites tracked by the CDC, compared with 2,500 a week before the pandemic. Among older children, the numbers are much worse — only a few hundred a week are getting their measles vaccines, instead of thousands. The researchers credited intensive efforts to get vaccines to younger children through well-children visits and direct outreach to families. (Weiner, 5/8)

The Associated Press: South Korea Nightclub Cases Highlight Fear Of Virus 2nd Wave
The difficulty in trying to reopen economies without rekindling coronavirus outbreaks was highlighted on Monday as concern grew in South Korea about a second wave of infections that was spread through newly reopened nightclubs. South Korea’s government had felt confident enough to reopen much of its economy after several weeks of seeing cases increase by just a handful each day. But on Monday, new cases jumped by at least 35 after the outbreak in the nightclubs, which have been temporarily closed down again. (Perry and Merchant, 5/11)

The Wall Street Journal: South Korea’s Early Coronavirus Wins Dim After Rash Of New Cases
More than 50 cases have been linked to a 29-year-old man who, in a single night last weekend, visited five clubs and bars in a popular Seoul neighborhood, health officials said. He tested positive on Wednesday—the same day the South Korean government rolled out relaxed social-distancing measures. The fresh virus cases, following days of no reported local infections, show how difficult it might be to return to normalcy. (Martin and Yoon, 5/10)

The Washington Post: A Tale Of Two Epidemics: Scientists In Sweden And Britain Fight Over Who Took The Right Public Health Path
Now that the first waves of infections and deaths have peaked and lockdowns are being lifted, scientists around the world have begun to skirmish over which countries have pursued the best strategies to protect their people. One of the most contentious confrontations has been between leading infectious-disease specialists in Sweden and Britain, who each claim their approach is right. The two countries went in two very different directions. After a weeks-long delay, Britain ordered a strict lockdown in late March. Sweden has glided along with much more relaxed, voluntary guidance, trusting its citizens to use their common sense and maintain reasonable social distancing. (Booth, 5/8)

Reuters: China's Wuhan Reports First Coronavirus Cluster Since Lifting Of Lockdown
Wuhan reported five new confirmed cases, all of whom live in the same residential compound. One of them was the wife of an 89-year-old male patient reported a day earlier in the first confirmed case in the city in more than a month. “At present, the task of epidemic prevention and control in the city is still very heavy,” said the Wuhan health authority in a statement. “We must resolutely contain the risk of a rebound.” (5/10)

Reuters: Italy's Daily Coronavirus Death Toll And New Cases Fall
Deaths from the COVID-19 epidemic in Italy rose by 165 on Sunday, against 194 the day before, the Civil Protection Agency said as the daily tally of new cases fell to 802 from 1,083 on Saturday. The total death toll since the outbreak came to light on Feb. 21 now stands at 30,560 the agency said, the third highest in the world after those of the United States and Britain. (5/10)

Reuters: France Emerges Cautiously From Coronavirus Lockdown
France tiptoed out of one of Europe’s strictest coronavirus lockdowns on Monday, reopening shops, factories and some schools to revive the economy but wary of the risks of a second wave of infections. (Rose, 5/10)

The Associated Press: African Nations Seek Their Own Solutions In Virus Crisis
A loud hiss and grunt come from a green bag pressing air through a tube, as Senegalese researchers work to develop a prototype ventilator that could cost a mere $160 each instead of tens of thousands of dollars. The team is using 3-D printed parts as it works to find a homegrown solution to a medical shortfall that has struck even the richest countries: how to have enough breathing machines to handle an avalanche of COVID-19 patients who need the devices to help increase their blood oxygen levels. (Petesch, 5/11)

The Associated Press: Ukraine's Hospitals Under Strain, Even With Few Virus Cases
Medical workers in homemade protective masks and suits, with plastic bags over their shoes. A hospital intended for 150 coronavirus patients now holding 250. A lack of filtration systems that forces autopsies to be done outside, under the trees, instead of in the hospital morgue. Ukraine’s troubled health care system has been overwhelmed by COVID-19, even though it has reported a relatively low number of cases — 15,232 infections and 391 deaths as of Sunday. (Chernov and Karmanau, 5/11)

Reuters: Madagascar Coronavirus Herbal Mix Draws Demand From Across Africa Despite WHO Misgivings
Madagascar is putting its self-proclaimed, plant-based “cure” for COVID-19 on sale and several countries in Africa have already put in orders for purchase, despite warnings from the World Health Organisation that its efficacy is unproven. (Rabary, 5/8)

The New York Times: As Europe Reopens Schools, Relief Combines With Risk 
It was Lea Hammermeister’s first day back at school after almost two months at home and she was already preparing for a test. Not a math or physics test. A coronavirus test — one she would administer herself. Ms. Hammermeister, a 17-year-old high school junior, entered the tent erected in the schoolyard along with some classmates — all standing six feet apart — and picked up a test kit. (Bennhold, 5/10)

The New York Times: Europe’s Battle-Hardened Nations Show Resilience In Virus Fight
As the coronavirus has hopscotched the world, a paradox has emerged: Rich nations are not necessarily better at fighting the crisis than poorer ones. Wealthier countries, traditionally able to deploy resources quickly and fortified by well-funded state mechanisms intended to weather crises, have generally not managed the coronavirus pandemic well. In Europe, the disease has been burning through Britain, France and Italy, three of the continent’s four biggest economies. (Stevis-Gridneff, 5/10)

Reuters: All Masks, No Fireworks: Shanghai Disneyland In Muted Reopening After Coronavirus Closedown
Thousands of visitors streamed into Shanghai Disneyland on Monday for the first time in three months as the Chinese park became the first reopened by Walt Disney Co (DIS.N) after the coronavirus pandemic brought the Magic Kingdom to a standstill. (Horwitz, 5/10)

The Washington Post: While Other Countries Look To Open Up, Brazil Can’t Find A Way To Shut Down
In Europe, parks are reopening, and people are taking back the streets. Australia has announced plans to jump-start tourism. Restrictions are easing in the United States. But while much of the world is negotiating the terms of reopening, Brazil, which has registered nearly 11,000 dead and become the world’s latest coronavirus hot spot, still cannot find a way to properly shut down. (McCoy, 5/10)

The Associated Press: In Japan, Pandemic Brings Outbreaks Of Bullying, Ostracism
The coronavirus in Japan has brought not just an epidemic of infections, but also an onslaught of bullying and discrimination against the sick, their families and health workers. A government campaign to raise awareness seems to be helping, at least for medical workers. But it’s made only limited headway in countering the harassment and shunning that may be discouraging people from seeking testing and care and hindering the battle against the pandemic. (Yamaguchi, 5/11)

The New York Times: China Is Defensive. The U.S. Is Absent. Can The Rest Of The World Fill The Void?
When Australia started pushing for a global inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic, no other countries were on board, and officials had no idea how it would work or how harshly China might react. Europe soon joined the effort anyway, moving to take up the idea with the World Health Organization later this month. And Australia, in its newfound role as global catalyst, has become both a major target of Chinese anger and the sudden leader of a push to bolster international institutions that the United States has abandoned under President Trump. (Cave and Kwai, 5/11)

The New York Times: Taiwan’s Weapon Against Coronavirus: An Epidemiologist As Vice President
The calls come at night, when Taiwan’s vice president, Chen Chien-jen, is usually at home in his pajamas. Scientists seek his advice on the development of antiviral medications. Health officials ask for guidance as they investigate an outbreak of the coronavirus on a navy ship. Like many world leaders, Mr. Chen is fighting to keep the coronavirus at bay and to predict the course of the pandemic. He is tracking infections, pushing for vaccines and testing kits, and reminding the public to wash their hands. (Hernandez and Horton, 5/9)

CIDRAP: Global COVID-19 Total Passes 4 Million Cases
The global COVID-19 total topped 4 million cases today, and in the United States, New York officials said three children have died from what might be a recently identified inflammatory complication in pediatric patients. It took 12 days for the pandemic total to jump from 3 million to 4 million, the same number of days it took for the total to rise from 2 million to 3 million. The total stands at 4,020,878, and 279,007 people have died from their infections, according to the Johns Hopkins online dashboard. (Schnirring, 5/9)

The Washington Post: During Coronavirus Outbreak, Trump And Democrats Struggle Over How To Hold Political Conventions
The Republican National Committee has asked the federal government to provide personal protective gear for political conventions this summer, underscoring the challenges of staging the quadrennial events during a pandemic that has already caused the deaths of more than 78,000 Americans. RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said in an interview that the gear was needed for both conventions because they are “national security” events and that she had recently begun talking to Trump administration officials about such a request. (Dawsey, Scherer and Linskey, 5/10)

The Washington Post: Republicans Grow Nervous About Losing The Senate Amid Worries Over Trump’s Handling Of The Pandemic 
Republicans are increasingly nervous they could lose control of the Senate this fall as a potent combination of a cratering economy, President Trump’s handling of the pandemic and rising enthusiasm among Democratic voters dims their electoral prospects. In recent weeks, GOP senators have been forced into a difficult political dance as polling shifts in favor of Democrats: touting their own response to the coronavirus outbreak without overtly distancing themselves from a president whose management of the crisis is under intense scrutiny but who still holds significant sway with Republican voters. (Kim and DeBonis, 5/10)

The Washington Post: Obama Says End To Michael Flynn Case Puts Rule Of Law At Risk, Calls Covid-19 Response A ‘Disaster’
Former president Barack Obama ... appeared to slam the Trump administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic as an “absolute chaotic disaster,” offering the sort of blistering criticisms he has rarely aired in public. Obama said shortly before President Trump took office that he would only weigh in on his successor’s actions when he believes “our core values may be at stake.” (Knowles and Kornfield, 5/9)

Reuters: In Leaked Call, Obama Describes Trump Handling Of Virus As Chaotic 
Former President Barack Obama described President Donald Trump's handling of the coronavirus pandemic as "chaotic" in a conference call with former members of his administration, a source said on Saturday. (Holland, 5/9)

Modern Healthcare: Healthcare Loses 1.4 Million Jobs In April As Unemployment Rate Hits 14.7%
Healthcare employment held remarkably steady during the Great Recession of 2008 and 2009. Not so with the COVID-19 pandemic.The healthcare industry lost 1.4 million jobs in April, preliminary data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show. The numbers lay bare COVID-19's economic damage, as businesses shuttered amid stay-at-home orders implemented in mid- to late-March. The healthcare economy tends to be largely immune to reductions in consumer demand from income drops, said Neale Mahoney, a health economist at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. (Bannow, 5/8)

Los Angeles Times: L.A. Nurse Dies After Treating A Coronavirus Patient
The decision that Celia Marcos made, the one that would ultimately steal years from her life, had been hard-wired after decades working as a nurse. On the ward that she oversaw at Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center, a man with COVID-19 had stopped breathing. Marcos’ face was covered only with a thin surgical mask, and obtaining a more protective N95 mask before entering his room would have wasted valuable time, her colleagues say. (Karlamangla, 5/10)

The New York Times: Paramedics, Strained In The Hot Zone, Pull Back From CPR
The calls for patients in cardiac arrest came in one after another. A 39-year-old man, followed by a 65-year-old, whose neighbor called 911 after getting no response when he rang the doorbell. Then a 52-year-old woman’s heart stopped, as did that of a 90-year-old, who had collapsed on her bedroom floor. The ambulances turned on their sirens and screamed through red lights. But what the paramedics did after rushing to the victims — or more precisely, what they did not do — is a window into how a deadly virus has reshaped emergency medicine. (Callimachi, 5/10)

Modern Healthcare: After Weeks Of Dire Hospital Conditions, Doctors And Nurses Face Their Own Mental Health Crisis
For Dr. Joseph Herrera, the past eight weeks have seemed like a lifetime. Herrera used to spend his days treating sports injuries as chairman of rehabilitation medicine at Mount Sinai Health System. Then the number of Covid-19 cases started to rise. Hospitals reached capacity in a matter of days as an invisible enemy stormed emergency rooms. ...Herrera fears he will bring home the virus. He strips down in his garage, then gets straight in the shower. He agonizes over refusing to see his mother, who had a stroke in August, as she recovers with other family members. But he wants her to live. (Henderson, 5/7)

CNN: Doctors Without Borders Dispatched To New Mexico To Help The Navajo Nation 
At least two teams from Doctors Without Borders are working with Native American communities in New Mexico to help curb the spread of coronavirus, the organization told CNN. A nine-person team arrived in Gallup late April and has been working with the Navajo Nation since, said aid worker Jean Stowell, who heads the organization's US Covid-19 response team. The team expects to remain there until June. (Spells, 5/11)

Boston Globe: From The Field To The Front Line: Senior College Athletes Jump Into Service At Area Hospitals 
Senior student-athletes working in the healthcare field have lost their graduations, senior weeks, and final season of organized athletics, but instead of sulking, they have exchanged helmets and gloves for protective masks and face shields. Early mornings and late nights on practice fields and in gyms have been replaced by shifts on COVID-19 floors. (Chase, 5/8)

Boston Globe: Harvard Medical School Student Creates COVID-19 Resources In Over 30 Languages 
Compelled by the COVID-19 outbreak, Pooja Chandrashekar spoke to mobile health clinic workers across the city about their needs during the pandemic. ...She decided to take action, creating the COVID-19 Health Literacy Project. Chandrashekar rallied a group of students from more than 30 universities to create fact sheets in languages not commonly represented in the American health care system. She tweeted about her effort on March 14 and included an interest form in a subsequent tweet that garnered more than 500 responses. From there, she formed a still-growing coalition of over 175 medical students. (Griffin, 5/10)

Boston Globe: Young Medical Residents Worry Their Lives Are On The Line As They Treat Coronavirus Patients 
Resident doctors, like Wood, finished with schooling and training for specialized medical careers, are on the front lines of the coronavirus crisis gripping the nation. Their jobs were notoriously punishing long before the pandemic began. Residents frequently log 80-hour weeks for little more than minimum wage, once all their working hours are tallied, while carrying mountains of student loan debt. It’s a system designed to test the physical and mental limits of the next generation of health care providers — and to instill an ethic of professional sacrifice, for when sacrifice is required. (Pan, 5/9)

WBUR: 'It Just Broke Me': Health Workers On The Front Lines Struggle For Time To Grieve Patients Lost To COVID-19 
Clinicians on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic are seeing patients pass away at what can feel like an extreme rate. They have to handle the grief of those deaths while tending to other patients that still need their care. For many, it’s a struggle to manage those emotions. For some health workers, it can have devastating consequences for their emotional health and well-being. (Chen, 5/11)

Stateline: Hospice Care Continues — Without The Human Touch 
If anyone in the health care industry might have been expected to be prepared to face the grim toll from COVID-19, it was hospice care providers whose purpose even in normal times is to usher the dying to peaceful, pain-free endings. Yet even hospice care workers have found their professional lives altered in unimagined ways. The pandemic introduces fear and risk into their daily routines while limiting the arsenal of customary tools they wield to bring comfort to the dying and bereaved. (Ollove, 5/1!)

Modern Healthcare: Federal IT Road Map Should Add COVID-19 Lessons, Groups Say
Healthcare organizations are encouraging HHS' Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology to incorporate lessons from the novel coronavirus pandemic into its five-year strategic plan for federal agencies. ONC in January—just days before the first reported COVID-19 case in the U.S.—published a draft of a five-year road map designed to align health IT goals across the federal government. Although the plan focuses on strategies for federal agencies, ONC said it hopes the release of the final plan will serve to signal the government's priorities to the private sector. (Cohen, 5/8)

Modern Healthcare: Lurie Children's Sued Over Two Recent Data Breaches
The parent of a pediatric patient seen at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago is suing the hospital over two recent data breaches. An unnamed Jane Doe and her daughter, an unnamed Baby Doe, filed the complaint against Lurie Children's and two former employees accused of viewing thousands of patient records without a valid reason in the Circuit Court of Cook County on Friday. The plaintiffs, represented by law firm Edelson P.C., are seeking class action status. (Cohen, 5/8)

The New York Times: How To Make The Coronavirus Pandemic Even Worse
Having a pandemic is really bad. Having a pandemic and a civil war together is really, really bad. Welcome to Donald Trump’s America 2020. If you feel dizzy from watching Trump signal left — issuing guidelines for how states should properly emerge from pandemic lockdowns — while turning right — urging people to liberate their states from lockdowns, ignore his own guidelines and even dispute the value of testing — you’re not alone. Since Trump’s pronouncements are simultaneously convoluted, contradictory and dishonest, here’s my guess at what he is saying. (Thomas L. Friedman, 5/10)

The Washington Post: How The White House Coronavirus Response Presents Us With A False Choice
The coronavirus, to date, has taken the lives of more than 79,000 Americans. One of every 5 U.S. workers has filed for unemployment — with the unemployment rate now the highest since the Great Depression. It is an extraordinary moment — the kind that begs for urgent, steady, empathetic, unifying leadership.But instead of unifying the country to accelerate our public health response and get economic relief to those who need it, President Trump is reverting to a familiar strategy of deflecting blame and dividing Americans. His goal is as obvious as it is craven: He hopes to split the country into dueling camps, casting Democrats as doomsayers hoping to keep America grounded and Republicans as freedom fighters trying to liberate the economy. (Joe Biden, 5/11)

Fox News: Coronavirus Reopening – Democrats Resist, Americans Persist.
Can you feel it? Can you feel the pace quickening? More cars on the road, more people in the stores, more ads crowding your inbox. Activity is picking up, even in my state of New York, where we’re still under lockdown. It’s palpable; Americans everywhere are going back to work. Democrats don’t like that one little bit. The worse things are, the better their chances in November. (Liz Peek, 5/11)

The Washington Post: Six Flaws In The Arguments For Reopening
Most states are reopening to some degree this week, even as public-health experts warn that it’s too soon. Proponents of early reopening use some variation of six arguments. Here is what’s wrong with each of them: Instead of preventing covid-19, we should let people infect each other to achieve herd immunity. “Herd immunity” occurs when enough people in a community — generally 60 percent to 80 percent — develop antibodies to an illness, either through vaccination or recovery. (Leana S. Wen, 5/10)

CNN: Trump's Message On Opening Contradicted By White House Covid Cases 
The White House Covid-19 outbreak is undermining President Donald Trump's narrative that it's safe to open up the country and that diagnostic testing is of limited importance. The news of three top health officials, all members of the administration's coronavirus task force, self-quarantining in some form after one of Trump's valets and another West Wing aide tested positive is jarring alongside Trump's desire to move on from the pandemic and to concentrate on the staggering economic dimension of the crisis. The latest developments pose an essential question: If people around Trump are not protected from the virus in the most highly secured workplace in the country, how can it be safe for anyone else to go back to work? (Stephen Collinson, 5/11)

The Hill: Are Americans Ready To Return To Normal As States Move To Reopen?
States across the country have started the first stages of reopening, but are Americans ready to resume the “normal” activities taken for granted before the coronavirus? That is the exact question that my firm looked to answer in a recent survey to understand public perceptions and behavior surrounding the pandemic. We found that Americans are not quite ready to return to normal just yet. Indeed, 30 percent of adults polled say that, even after the stay home orders are lifted, they would remain in isolation. Furthermore, a significant majority of Americans say that they prioritize protecting public health above reopening the economy. (Douglas Schoen, 5/10)

St. Louis Post Dispatch: The Virus Has Reached The White House. Now Will Trump Take It Seriously?
Like a close brush with a potential assassin, President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence experienced firsthand the extreme dangers of the coronavirus pandemic after aides to each of them tested positive for the disease late last week. In Trump’s case, the aide was a personal valet, someone who had been in very close contact with the president. For Pence, the aide was his press secretary, prompting at least some of his staffers to exit the vice president’s plane Friday because they had come in contact with her. The Centers of Disease Control and Prevention has issued a wide range of protocols that all Americans should follow in this pandemic, including observing a 14-day quarantine after being exposed and, of course, wearing face masks in public to prevent transmission. (5/9)

Stat: Three Traps For The Unwary In HHS' Provider Relief Fund 
In its rush to offer a lifeline to U.S. health care providers struggling under the crushing financial impact of the Covid-19 crisis, the federal government has unleashed a provider relief package that may do more harm than good. The problem? A flawed distribution process that has already resulted in the improper distribution of $30 billion through automated direct deposits, setting unwary providers up for a legal quagmire. (Mark Hedberg, James Pinna and Sean O'Connell, 5/11)

Los Angeles Times: California Lucky To Have Gavin Newsom Coronavirus Leadership 
It has become a pandemic staple: Every day at noon, Gov. Gavin Newsom stands before a camera, usually in the state’s emergency operations center, for a digital-age version of the fireside chat. In his trademark stream-of-consciousness style, Newsom delivers an overview of the coronavirus’ effects on the Golden State to thousands of people watching on social media or tuning in on TV. He gives the grim tally of confirmed COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths, outlines the latest steps by state government to help Californians cope, and assesses what’s going on in the state that day. The governor uses no script during these daily briefings, riffing extemporaneously as if he’s live-streaming all the data, facts and figures he’s absorbed over the last 24 hours of meetings and reports. More often than not, he breaks a bit of news. (5/10)

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Larry Householder’s Defiant, Confrontational Approach On Coronavirus Strategy Raises The Risks As Ohio Reopens 
rGov. Mike DeWine came out swinging Thursday when asked about House Republicans’ rebellious efforts to override state health mandates. The usually laid-back, folksy Ohio governor was uncharacteristically vehement in leaving no doubt that he would veto the House amendment -- or any similar measure -- that might get to his desk. “Any bill or any attempt that gets in the way of our ability to protect the people of the state of Ohio is a bill that I will be forced to veto to protect the people of the state of Ohio,” DeWine said. (5/10)

Detroit Free Press: Blanchard: Recovery Hinges On Federal Support For Mayors, Governors
By now we all know that Harry Truman’s old desk sign, “The buck stops here,” is not Donald Trump’s motto for leadership. “Pass the buck to anyone and everyone” is Mr. Trump’s standard practice.Fortunately, in addition to our health care experts and scientists, we have our nation’s governors to thank for their leadership during this incredibly challenging covid-19 crisis. Governors of both parties. They may have different philosophies and styles and come from different regions, but they deserve our respect. That’s why governors across the country are receiving higher approval ratings from the public on their handling of the crisis, around 75%—the president is receiving 47%. (James Blanchard, 5/7)

Los Angeles Times: How To Prepare For Second Pandemic — Of Mental Health Issues 
When she was in her late 70s, my late grandmother Henrietta became an unofficial mental health provider. Often housebound because of physical ailments, Grandma needed a volunteer effort she could do from her living room, so she became involved with the Jewish Family Services agency, calling half a dozen seniors every week. The people she was assigned needed a sympathetic ear, and she’d talk for hours with them — about family, memories and the things that mattered in their lives. My grandmother was the “service provider,” but she received as much as she gave. She had no formal training or license, just the gift of connecting and the will to help. (Darrell Steinberg, 5/11)

Dallas Morning News: Coronavirus’s Next Victim? Our Mental Health
The coronavirus has delivered traumatic blows to our collective mental well-being that are as invisible as the virus itself, and in many ways, just as damaging. Devastating job losses and the coronavirus’s lethal toll have led to increased anxiety, depression, addiction and other psychological trauma. While it may not be as obvious as job losses and coronavirus fatalities, the nation is on the cusp of a spiraling mental health crisis, experts say. These warnings should not go unheeded, mostly because history is a good teacher. The World Trade Center attacks, mass shootings, the Great Recession and massive hurricanes all triggered serious depression, anxiety, domestic violence, child abuse and other behavioral disorders. In each instance, the negative impact on mental health persisted over long time periods, and there is no reason to think that this crisis will be different. (5/11)

The Wall Street Journal: More Covid-19 Patient Data, Please
President Trump said last week that he plans to refocus the White House coronavirus task force on reopening the economy, and one area that deserves more attention is data collection. More states are starting to gather information on the underlying health conditions of people who get sick with coronavirus. That will help doctors identify and treat high-risk patients, but information on the habits of infected individuals will also be important to guide reopening plans. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has directed hospitals to begin asking new coronavirus patients for their occupation, usual transportation mode and neighborhood. Although New York has been shut down for seven weeks, several thousand people are still testing positive and hundreds are being hospitalized each day. (5/10)

The New York Times: Leave NYC's Coronavirus Contact Tracing To The Pros 
Much is uncertain about New York City’s future amid coronavirus — the timeline for reopening, the timeline for development of treatments and a vaccine. But one thing has remained clear: In order to safely reopen, cities like New York must develop the capacity to regularly test portions of the population, trace the spread of the virus and isolate those who have been exposed. And as the count of those struggling both in health and finances continues to mount, time is of the essence. New York needs contact tracing quickly. (5/10)

The Wall Street Journal: Antibody Knowledge Can Be Power
Covid-19 may be here for a long time. As work and activities begin to resume, there will continue to be risk and many new precautions. But for people who were exposed to the virus and recovered, the risk is much lower. Knowing if you had the infection and recovered will soon take on added importance. There are two main types of immunity to an infection. Innate immunity comes from circulating cells that attack any invader the body views as foreign. Adaptive immunity is specific to the pathogen presented. Through adaptive response, immune cells are programmed to secrete antibodies that are primed to target a viral invader. (Scott Gottlieb, 5/10)

Stat: A Global Pathogen Shield: The Health Security Step To 'Never Again' 
In the name of strategic defense, the world’s nations have amassed enough nuclear weapons to destroy human civilization. We accept the massive financial investment involved. Yet no country has developed the capacity to protect itself against a novel, lethal infectious disease. It’s time to start. (Ara Darzi and Noubar Afeyan, 5/11)

The New York Times: The Hunger Pains Of A Pandemic
Have you ever been hungry? Truly hungry? Not the hunger one gets in anticipation of a meal, but the kind that pinches the stomach when you know no food is forthcoming. It is the kind of pang you take to bed with you, the kind that greets you when you rise. It is a bitter physical deprivation that gnaws at not only the gut but the spirit. It makes you sad. It makes you angry. I grew up having to stay one step ahead of hunger. It was like running ahead of tireless hounds through a dark wood. (Charles M. Blow, 5/10)

The Hill: Disruption — The New Normal 
Dictionary definitions of “disruption” cast the term in a negative light, while the late Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen, in his seminal work “The Innovator’s Dilemma,” applies “disruption” to the creation of new markets and value networks, shaking up the existing order. Airbnb’s challenges to the hotel industry and Uber’s and Lyft’s to the taxi industry are prime examples. As the world contends with the galloping spread of COVID-19, one is hard-pressed to identify which regions, communities, sectors, firms and peoples have not been slammed by this plague. While there are many major and far-reaching impacts of the coronavirus worldwide, several merit special attention, as they are directly related to post-pandemic economic recovery. (Jerry Haar and Altug Ulkumen, 5/10)

St. Louis Post Dispatch: Just When It Seemed The Anti-Vax Movement Was Dead, It Rises Anew 
Logic suggests that the anti-vaccination movement would be a spent force after the coronavirus pandemic ravaged the nation and ended any doubt that preventive measures are essential to fend off this global contagion. Even the normally sensationalistic New York Post declared last month that the current pandemic could deal a death blow to the “anti-vax” movement. But no. The movement has united with promoters of wild government conspiracy theories in organizing protests to reopen state economies, leading to a resurgence of uninformed assertions that vaccines are the problem rather than the cure. (5/10)

The Hill: Federal Health IT Rules Remain On Track To Improve Care And Public Health 
At a time when the novel coronavirus has made visiting a doctor’s office a risky proposition, more patients than ever are turning to telemedicine to get the care they need without leaving their homes. This rapid shift has shined a spotlight on an ongoing problem that both hampers routine care and introduces challenges in fighting a pandemic: the inability to effectively share health data across medical organizations and with patients. (Ben Moscovitch and Lisa Bari, 5/10)

Boston Globe: Giving Birth During A Pandemic Has Particular Risks For Women Of Color 
Nationally, hospitals and health care systems have enacted social distancing and strict visitor policies in order to slow the spread of COVID-19. Here in Massachusetts, many hospitals are allowing just one person to accompany a laboring woman, forcing some pregnant women to choose between doulas and partners, or to connect with coaches and family members online during and after labor. It’s understandable that health officials want to contain the spread of COVID-19 in the hospital, but pregnant women who are already at risk of being ignored or having worse health outcomes are being made even more vulnerable by visitation policies, according to midwives, some healthcare professionals, and other advocates. (Katrina Miles, 5/8)

Boston Globe: Hospitals Are Separating Mothers And Newborns During The Coronavirus Pandemic — With Little Evidence It Will Help Slow The Spread Of Disease
Maternity wards in wealthy and poor countries alike are introducing sudden changes to the ways women and newborns are cared for in an effort to prevent the spread of COVID-19. In some settings, these emergency measures include compulsory or strongly encouraged induction of labor, reliance on forceps and cesarean deliveries that are not medically necessary, separation of mother and newborn, prohibition of birth companions, and restrictions on breastfeeding. (Kate Mitchell, Hagar Palgi Hacker, Tejumola Adegoke, and Katharine Hutchinson, 5/9)