The New York Times: U.S. Coronavirus Cases Reach Another Daily Record, Passing 59,000 
As President Trump continued to press for a broader reopening of the United States, the country set another record for new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, with more than 59,400 infections announced, according to a New York Times database. It was the fifth national record set in nine days. (7/8)

Politico: U.S. Coronavirus Cases Pass 3 Million 
It took less than a month for the national case count to rise to that level from 2 million, on June 11. With cases and hospitalizations spiking in states including Arizona, California, Florida and Texas, some public health officials have predicted the pace could further intensify and perhaps reach 100,000 new cases a day if the virus isn't controlled. (7/8)

Politico: Grim Projection: 200,000 Dead By Election Day
As the United States surpasses 3 million coronavirus infections, forecasters are updating their models to account for the recent resurgence and reaching a grim consensus: the next few months are going to be bad. The national death toll is now expected eclipse 200,000 by Election Day, according to the latest models. (Goldberg and Cancryn, 7/8)

The Hill: Florida Emerges As World's New Epicenter For COVID-19 
Florida has emerged as a global epicenter of the latest coronavirus surge, raising questions about the safety of major events that relocated to the state. As coronavirus cases surged throughout much of the Northeast in April and May, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) declared victory. Florida was one of the last states to impose a stay-at-home order, and one of the first to reopen. (Weixel, 7/8)

Texas Tribune: Texas Coronavirus Cases Make Up Nearly 14% Of New U.S. Cases
With the daily number of new coronavirus infections in Texas now exceeding that of most other states, experts say Texas has become a hot spot of the global pandemic and that more aggressive measures are needed to slow the virus’ spread. Texas’ new confirmed cases of the coronavirus now make up around 14% of the U.S. total — measured by a seven-day average — a significantly higher proportion than its 9% share of the nation’s population. Since July 1, the U.S. has reported 358,027 new infections. Of those, 50,599 were in Texas. (Champagne, Walters and Cai, 7/8)

Reuters: Global Coronavirus Cases Rise To More Than 12 Million 
Global coronavirus cases exceeded 12 million on Wednesday, according to a Reuters tally, as evidence mounts of the airborne spread of the disease that has killed more than half a million people in seven months. (Issa, 7/8)

ABC News: Despite World's Highest COVID-19 Death Toll, US Is 'The World Leader In The Pandemic' Response: Pompeo 
The United States is leading the world in the number of COVID-19 deaths and cases, but Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that doesn't mean the U.S. isn't also leading the world's response. During a press conference Wednesday, he defended America's role in the world amid the global shock at what many see as the botched U.S. response to the pandemic and President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from the World Health Organization. (Finnegan, 7/8)

The Hill: Why The US Is Falling Behind In COVID-19 Fight 
The United States is falling further behind the rest of the world in fighting the coronavirus as cases set new domestic records. New daily cases in the U.S. have spiked to a high of around 50,000, a glaring contrast with the European Union, where new case growth has largely been flattened and suppressed. (Sullivan, 7/8)

CNN: Trump Now In Open Dispute With Health Officials As Virus Rages 
Five months into a still-raging pandemic that has killed more than 130,000 Americans, the long-simmering tensions between President Donald Trump and the health experts who staff his government have escalated from private griping to shrugging disagreement to now open dispute. The result, people at those agencies say, is a new sense of demoralization as they continue their attempts to fight a once-in-a-generation health crisis while simultaneously navigating the whims of a President who has shown little interest or understanding of their work. (Liptak and Valencia, 7/8)

CNN: US Coronavirus: Health Expert Warns Country Needs To Get A Handle On Virus Before Conditions Return To Spring Levels 
With the summer months shaping up to be full of harrowing Covid-19 milestones, the fall could look a lot like March and April if the US doesn't "get our arms" around this pandemic, a top infectious disease expert warns. Already, records for daily cases are being set, ICUs are reaching capacity and most states are seeing spikes again, recalling the fear and uncertainty of earlier this year when the virus first broke out in the country. (Holcombe, 7/9)

AP: Health Official: Trump Rally 'Likely' Source Of Virus Surge
President Donald Trump’s campaign rally in Tulsa in late June that drew thousands of participants and large protests “likely contributed” to a dramatic surge in new coronavirus cases, Tulsa City-County Health Department Director Dr. Bruce Dart said Wednesday. Tulsa County reported 261 confirmed new cases on Monday, a one-day record high, and another 206 cases on Tuesday. By comparison, during the week before the June 20 Trump rally, there were 76 cases on Monday and 96 on Tuesday. (Murphy, 7/8)

Reuters: Trump's Campaign Rally In Tulsa May Have Contributed To COVID-19 Spike: Health Official 
Asked by a reporter if Trump’s campaign event at the Bank of Oklahoma Center on June 20 could be responsible for that surge, [Dr. Bruce Dart, health director for the city and county] said: “In the past few days, we’ve had almost 500 cases. And we know we had several large events a little over two weeks ago, which is about right. So I guess we just connect the dots,” Dart said, apparently referring to the rally and accompanying protests. (Whitcomb, 7/8)

Also —

NPR: Trump Concedes GOP Convention May Need To Be 'Flexible' 
President Trump is acknowledging that he may have to temper his expectations, adamant at times, that his acceptance speech at the 2020 Republican National Convention should be a big event in front of thousands of people. "We're very flexible," Trump said when asked during an interview Tuesday with Gray Television whether he may not have as big a gathering next month as he's planned on to celebrate his renomination to lead the GOP presidential ticket. (Gonyea, 7/8)

Dallas Morning News: Houston Cancels In-Person Texas GOP Convention Amid Coronavirus Epidemic
Houston officials canceled the state GOP convention Wednesday over coronavirus concerns, a move that comes just a week before thousands of Texas Republicans were expected to arrive in the city. (Morris, 7/8)

The Associated Press: Court: Some Employers Can Refuse To Offer Free Birth Control
The Supreme Court ruled broadly Wednesday in favor of the religious rights of employers in two cases that could leave more than 70,000 women without free contraception and tens of thousands of people with no way to sue for job discrimination.In both cases the court ruled 7-2, with two liberal justices joining conservatives in favor of the Trump administration and religious employers. (Gresko, 7/9)

Fox News: Supreme Court Rules In Favor Of Little Sisters Of The Poor In ObamaCare Contraception Case
The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that the Trump administration acted within its authority when it expanded exemptions to the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) requirement for employers to provide insurance coverage that includes contraception —  in a victory for Little Sisters of the Poor, the Catholic group that has been at the center of the national debate over the mandate. The court ruled 7-2 in favor of the Trump administration and the Catholic charity that cares for the elderly in two related disputes against Pennsylvania, which sued over the validity of a rule from the Trump administration that allowed religious-affiliated groups and some for-profit companies to opt-out of providing contraception coverage to employees. (Olson, Blitzer and Bream, 7/8)

The Washington Post: Supreme Court Says Employers May Opt Out Of Affordable Care Act’s Birth Control Mandate Over Religious, Moral Objections 
The issue has been at the heart of an intense legal battle for nine years — first with the Obama administration sparring with religious organizations who said offering contraceptive care to their employees violated their beliefs, and then with the Trump administration broadening an exemption, angering women’s groups, health organizations and Democratic-led states. (Barnes, 7/8)

Kaiser Health News: High Court Allows Employers To Opt Out Of ACA’s Mandate On Birth Control Coverage
Wrote Justice Clarence Thomas in the majority opinion, “We hold today that the Departments had the statutory authority to craft that exemption, as well as the contemporaneously issued moral exemption.” (Rovner, 7/8)

NPR: Supreme Court Undercuts Birth Control Access Under Obamacare
The case now goes back to a lower court, which the Supreme Court ordered to lift an injunction that had prevented the implementation of the exception. Justices Elena Kagan and Stephen Breyer, two of the court's four liberals, did not join the majority opinion, but said they agreed with the conservatives to send the case back to the lower court. (Totenberg, 7/8)

CNN: Trump Trashes CDC School-Reopening Guidelines -- Then CDC Updates Them 
After President Donald Trump tweeted Wednesday that he disagreed with US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines for safely reopening schools because they are "very tough" and "expensive," the agency said it would issue new recommendations next week. The move came as the Trump administration makes a concerted push for schools to reopen by the fall, even as cases surge in some parts of the country. (Klein and Liptak, 7/8)

The Hill: CDC To Issue More Guidance On School Openings Amid Trump Criticism 
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will issue additional guidance next week on reopening schools, Vice President Pence said Wednesday, hours after President Trump criticized the agency’s current guidelines as “very tough and expensive.” Pence appeared to frame the upcoming guidance as a response to Trump’s criticisms, saying they would offer “more clarity.” But just a day earlier he had said the CDC would be releasing additional guidelines on school openings that would address face coverings, symptom screening, school settings and “decisionmaking tools” for parents and caregivers. (Samuels and Hellmann, 7/8)

The Associated Press: Trump To US Schools: Reopen Or You May Lose Federal Funds
Determined to reopen America’s schools despite coronavirus worries, President Donald Trump threatened Wednesday to hold back federal money if school districts don’t bring their students back in the fall. He complained that his own public health officials’ safety guidelines are impractical and too expensive. (Binkley, 7/9)

CNBC: CDC Director Says There's No Data Children Drive Coronavirus Spread — But The U.S. Isn't Testing Many Kids
The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Robert Redfield, said Wednesday there’s no evidence that children drive the spread of the coronavirus. But that’s likely because the U.S. hasn’t tested enough kids to know one way or the other. “We really don’t have evidence that children are driving the transmission cycle of this,” Redfield said at a White House Task Force briefing to address school reopenings. (Feuer, 7/8)

The Hill: House Chairman Blasts Trump's Push To Reopen Schools As 'Dangerous' 
House Education and Labor Committee Chairman Bobby Scott (D-Va.) on Wednesday blasted President Trump's push for schools to fully reopen in the fall despite rising coronavirus cases in the U.S. as a dangerous move that could pose health risks to students and educators. Vice President Pence said earlier Wednesday that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will issue additional guidance next week on reopening schools after Trump criticized the agency's current recommendations as "very tough and expensive." Trump also threatened to withhold funding for schools that don't fully reopen for in-person instruction. (Marcos, 7/8)

The Associated Press: Schools Or Bars? Opening Classrooms May Mean Hard Choices
President Donald Trump insists that schools reopen this fall. Many parents, educators, doctors and economists want the same thing. But getting children back to school safely could mean keeping high-risk spots like bars and gyms closed. A growing chorus of public health experts is urging federal, state and local officials to reconsider how they are reopening the broader economy, and to prioritize K-12 schools — an effort that will likely require closing some other establishments to help curb the virus spread and give children the best shot at returning to classrooms. (Smith and Johnson, 7/9)

In other news —

The Hill: States Say Education Department Is Illegally Diverting Pandemic Relief To Private Schools 
A coalition of blue states sued the Department of Education on Tuesday, saying that coronavirus aid has been illegally diverted by department officials toward private schools, some of which have already received assistance during the pandemic. The Associated Press reported that five states led by California Attorney General Xavier Becerra (D) and Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel (D) allege that the Education Department is using $13.2 billion in Title I funding set aside for low-income areas and attempting to distribute it based on total population, instead of targeting schools that need the aid the most. (Bowden, 7/8)

AP: US Rule Targets Disease-Stricken Countries To Deny Asylum
The Trump administration on Wednesday proposed empowering border authorities to deny asylum to people from countries with widespread communicable disease, its latest in a string of regulations before the November elections to dramatically raise the bar on who qualifies for humanitarian protections. The Homeland Security and Justice departments said in a joint proposal that denying asylum to people from high-risk countries would combat disease in the United States, in some cases stopping it before it reaches American soil. Their argument rests on experiences with the coronavirus pandemic. (Spagat, 7/8)

NBC News: Trump Admin Plans To Block Asylum Seekers From U.S. By Citing Public Health Risk Of COVID-19
The rule would apply to immigrants seeking asylum and those seeking "withholding of removal" — a protected immigration status for those who have shown they may well face danger if returned to their home countries. The determination of whether migrants pose a public health risk would be made at the "credible fear" screening — essentially the first interview of the application process to determine an immigrant has a credible fear of returning to their home country — not in immigration court. (Ainsley and Kaplan, 7/8)

In other news about the federal government —

The Hill: Governors Demand Trump Renew Public Health Emergency 
The National Governors Association (NGA) is demanding Wednesday that President Trump’s administration renew the public health emergency past its July 25 deadline, although officials have indicated it will likely be extended. The organization of the 55 U.S. governors of states and territories called on officials to officially extend the public health emergency declared for the coronavirus pandemic, saying it is “far from over.” (Coleman, 7/8)

Kaiser Health News and Politifact HealthCheck: Could Trump’s Push To Undo The ACA Cause Problems For COVID Survivors? Biden Thinks So. 
The same day the Trump administration reaffirmed its support of a lawsuit that would invalidate all of the Affordable Care Act, Joe Biden sharply warned that the suit endangers millions of Americans. The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee said the law is even more important now, more than a decade after it was enacted, as the COVID-19 epidemic sweeps the U.S. The virus has killed more than 130,000, and Biden noted that some who survive may have long-lasting health problems. (Appleby, 7/9)

AP: China Defends WHO, Lashes Out At US Move To Withdraw
China defended the World Health Organization and lashed out at the U.S. decision to withdraw from the U.N. body, adding to a litany of disputes between the world’s largest economies and increasing geopolitical rivals.Foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said the move was “another demonstration of the U.S. pursuing unilateralism, withdrawing from groups and breaking contracts.” (7/9)

The Hill: Pompeo: State Department 'Will Work With Congress' On Pledged Funding To WHO 
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Wednesday that his department “will work with Congress” in regards to the delivery of U.S. funds earmarked for the World Health Organization (WHO), as the Trump administration begins the formal process of withdrawing from the global health body. The U.S. owes an estimated $203 million as part of its assessed contributions to the WHO for its two-year operating budget. The amount also includes funds that have yet to be paid for the 2019 operating year. (Kelly, 7/8)

AP: Walgreens Dives Into Primary Care With Clinic Expansion
Walgreens will squeeze primary care clinics into as many as 700 of its U.S. stores over the next few years in a major expansion of the care it offers customers. The drugstore chain said Wednesday that it will partner with VillageMD to set up doctor-led clinics that also use nurses, social workers and therapists to provide regular treatment for patients. (Murphy, 7/8)

Crain's Chicago Business: Walgreens, VillageMD Plan Hundreds Of In-Store Doctor Offices
Walgreens Boots Alliance is investing $1 billion in a Chicago-based primary care startup as the pair plan to open at least 500 clinics at stores in more than 30 U.S. markets. The deal expands on the Deerfield-based drugstore chain’s partnership with VillageMD, which started with five in-store clinics in the Houston area. (Goldberg, 7/8)

In other health industry news —

Crain's Chicago Business: NorthShore University HealthSystem To Buy Northwest Community Healthcare
Another health network is bidding farewell to its independence. Arlington Heights-based Northwest Community Healthcare has agreed to join five-hospital NorthShore University HealthSystem. Wednesday’s merger announcement comes at a particularly challenging time for hospitals and clinics, as COVID-19 drives up costs and drains revenues. But even before the pandemic, community hospitals were under pressure to address mounting operating costs and curb overall medical spending. (Goldberg, 7/8)

The Oklahoman: OKC Hospital, Management Company And Physician Group To Pay $72.3 Million Settlement Over Alleged Kickback Scheme
An Oklahoma City hospital, physician group and management company have reached a $72.3 million settlement over allegations of a kickback scheme brought forth by a whistleblower. Oklahoma Center for Orthopaedic and Multi-Specialty Surgery, and its part-owner and management company, USP OKC Inc. and USP OKC Manager Inc., along with Southwest Orthopaedic Specialists and two of their physicians, will pay the massive settlement to resolve allegations under the False Claims Act and the Oklahoma Medicaid False Claims Act. (Dulaney, 7/9)

Modern Healthcare: Oklahoma City Hospital, Physician Group To Pay $77 Million False Claims Settlement
The Department of Justice has reached a $77.2 million settlement over false claims submitted between an Oklahoma City specialty hospital and physician group. The agreement announced Wednesday resolves False Claims Act allegations covering Medicare, Medicaid and Tricare claims submitted by the Oklahoma Center for Orthopaedic and Multi-Specialty Surgery, its part-owner and management company, USP, Southwest Orthopaedic Specialists and two physicians. (Bannow, 7/8)

Modern Healthcare: Ohio Lawmakers Question ProMedica, University Of Toledo Medical Center Affiliation
Ohio policymakers continue to scrutinize an academic affiliation between University of Toledo Medical Center and ProMedica, claiming that ProMedica has ulterior motives that will decimate the academic medical center. ProMedica and the University of Toledo College of Medicine and Life Sciences signed a 50-year academic affiliation agreement in 2015, which allowed UT students and residents to train at ProMedica as well as provide financial support to "ensure the long-term strength and expansion of educational and financial opportunities for the University's College of Medicine and Life Sciences," the university wrote in its 2019 earnings report. (Kacik, 7/9)

The Hill: Scientists Highlight Potential Link Between COVID-19 And Brain Damage 
Scientists are calling attention to a potential link between COVID-19 and brain damage after a study released Wednesday found more evidence to suggest that the virus can cause neurological issues. Researchers at the University College London (UCL) conducted the study involving 43 patients with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 infections who developed neurological symptoms, like inflammation, psychosis and delirium. The study was published in the journal Brain. (Coleman, 7/8)

CIDRAP: Study Details Neurologic Complications In COVID-19 Patients
Of 43 patients with neurologic symptoms studied at the University College London, 29 tested positive for COVID-19, 8 with probable infections and 6 with possible infections. Ten of the 43 patients presented with delirium or psychosis, and 12 had inflammatory central nervous system (CNS) syndromes. Eight patients had strokes, and eight others had nerve damage, mostly caused by Guillain-Barre syndrome. (7/8)

Reuters: Scientists Warn Of Potential Wave Of COVID-Linked Brain Damage 
“Whether we will see an epidemic on a large scale of brain damage linked to the pandemic – perhaps similar to the encephalitis lethargica outbreak in the 1920s and 1930s after the 1918 influenza pandemic – remains to be seen,” said Michael Zandi, from UCL’s Institute of Neurology, who co-led the study. (Kelland, 7/7)

Politico: FDA Official Casts Doubt On 'Challenge Trials' For Covid Vaccine
A top FDA official overseeing vaccine approvals raised doubts Wednesday about the possibility of intentionally infecting people with the coronavirus to see whether vaccines work, saying that could represent “ethical heartburn” because there's still no easy way to treat the potentially severe disease. (Owermohle, 7/8)

Boston Globe: 11 Coronavirus Vaccines To Keep An Eye On
Federal officials have repeatedly expressed optimism that at least one vaccine against the novel coronavirus will be proven effective and ready for market by early 2021. As of July 7, pharmaceutical companies worldwide were working on 160 candidate vaccines, including 21 that are being tested in people, according to the World Health Organization. ... Each prospective vaccine goes through three phases of study in humans. To speed the process, some vaccine developers are conducting two of the phases simultaneously. Here’s an overview of each phase. (Freyer and Saltzman, 7/9)

The Hill: US Investing $42M To Help Company Ramp Up Syringe, Needle Production Ahead Of Vaccination Push 
The U.S. government is investing $42 million to help Becton, Dickinson and Company, known as BD, ramp up its production of syringes and needles ahead of the future coronavirus vaccination push. The U.S.’s Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), committed to providing $42 million for a $70 million project to expand BD’s manufacturing operations in Nebraska, according to a press release. (Coleman, 7/8)

PBS NewsHour: How A Coronavirus Vaccine Will Get To Market 
With new daily case counts of novel coronavirus on the rise in nearly every state, as well as Puerto Rico, the consequences of reopening much of the country without first stopping the spread has made one thing clear: An unlocked United States will likely continue to suffer from the deadly virus until a safe and efficient vaccine is finally distributed to a majority of the population. There are lots of different ways to formulate a vaccine, and all of them are now being considered for coronavirus. Some vaccines use common methods to confer immunity, while others are entirely experimental — they’ve never before been approved for use. (Isaacs-Thomas, 7/8)

CNN: Covid-19 Vaccine Trials: Here's How To Volunteer 
If you want to be one of the first to receive an experimental vaccine for Covid-19, now's your chance. Wednesday, a new website -- coronaviruspreventionnetwork.org -- went live allowing people in the United States to register to take part in clinical trials for vaccines. The website will handle registration for the four large vaccine studies that are expected to start this summer and fall, and any others that follow. (Cohen, 7/8)

In other vaccination news —

Kaiser Health News: Shingles Vaccination Rate Soars But Leaves Many Behind 
Worried about the high cost of the copayment for the shingles vaccine, Jacky Felder, a Medicare beneficiary, opted against getting immunized last year. Last month, the Green Bay, Wisconsin, woman developed the disease, which left a painful, itchy rash across her abdomen. “Luckily, I’ve had a relatively mild case, but it’s been a week and half with a lot of pain,” said Felder, 69. (Galewitz, 7/9)

AP: WHO Says Sri Lanka And Maldives Eliminate Measles, Rubella
Sri Lanka and Maldives have become the first two countries in the World Health Organization’s South-East Asia region to eliminate both measles and rubella ahead of a 2023 target, the U.N. health agency announced Wednesday. (Mallawarachi, 7/8)

The New York Times: Study Of 17 Million Identifies Crucial Risk Factors For Coronavirus Deaths 
An analysis of more than 17 million people in England — the largest study of its kind, according to its authors — has pinpointed a bevy of factors that can raise a person’s chances of dying from Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. The paper, published Wednesday in Nature, echoes reports from other countries that identify older people, men, racial and ethnic minorities, and those with underlying health conditions among the more vulnerable populations. (Wu, 7/8)

ABC News: Asymptomatic And Presymptomatic People Transmit Most COVID-19 Infections: Study 
Silent transmission of the novel coronavirus could account for more than half of infections, according to one new mathematical model by U.S. and Canadian researchers. The researchers utilized data on asymptomatic and presymptomatic transmission from two different epidemiological studies and estimated that more than 50% of infections were attributable to people not exhibiting symptoms. (Schumaker, 7/8)

CIDRAP: Symptoms Not Enough For 911 COVID-19 Screening, Study Finds 
Screening based on conventional COVID-19 symptoms may not be sensitive enough to identify which 911 patients should be tested for infection, a retrospective cohort study published today in JAMA Network Open found. In the study, researchers in Seattle evaluated data from surveillance systems and the electronic medical records of 124 patients with COVID-19 seeking 911 emergency medical services (EMS) in King County, Washington, from Feb 1 to Mar 18. (Beusekom, 7/8)

WBUR: How Generation Z Is Handling Pandemic, Protests Against Racial Injustice 
Americans of all ages are grappling with the emergence of a deadly pandemic and a nationwide protest movement against racial injustice. But how does Generation Z — those born after 1996 — feel about it all? Here & Now checked in with three teenagers to hear their thoughts on COVID-19, anti-racism protests and the 2020 presidential election. (Hobson, 7/8)

CNN: Anxiety Makes Us Bad Decision-Makers. Here's How To Do Better 
Just before the lockdown began, London-based writer Valentina Valentini made the choice of a lifetime: She agreed to marry her partner. She didn't think twice about it. A few weeks later, Valentini was struggling with pandemic-related anxiety that made even the most basic decisions seem daunting. "It was just sort of this anxiety around everything," she said. "Sometimes it can manifest itself in the smallest ways, like 'I don't know what to eat right now.' I can't choose the simplest thing." (Smith, 7/9)

Kaiser Health News: Behind The Byline: ‘Everybody Hit Record’ 
Although the coronavirus pandemic shut down many organizations and businesses across the nation, KHN has never been busier ― and health coverage has never been more vital. We’ve revamped our Behind The Byline YouTube series and brought it to Instagram TV. Journalists and producers from across KHN’s newsrooms take you behind the scenes in these bite-size videos to show the ways they are following the story, connecting with sources and sorting through facts — all while staying safe. (7/9)

Boston Globe: Contact Tracing For Coronavirus In Mass. Significantly Downscaled As Leaders Report Chronic Problems 
Massachusetts is significantly scaling back its first-in-the-nation partnership with Partners in Health to track down people infected by the coronavirus, as the rate of positive cases in the state has held steady at or below 2 percent since mid-June. Hundreds of contact tracers hired since the program was launched in April were recently laid off, and leaders in several cities and towns that collaborate with the Boston-based global health organization have expressed frustrations about problems with the initiative. Some have dropped out. (Lazar, 7/8)

Modern Healthcare: Some States Cement COVID-19 Telehealth Expansions
Some states that expanded telehealth access and coverage during the COVID-19 pandemic are moving to make those changes permanent.Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signed a bill on Monday that expands telehealth access by barring insurers from requiring that patients have a pre-established relationship with a virtual care provider or imposing additional location, certification or licensure requirements on providers as a condition for telehealth reimbursement. The new law, which applies to state-regulated health plans and Medicaid, adds remote patient monitoring as a covered service and does away with restrictions on the technology used for telehealth visits. (Livingston, 7/8)

CNN: Prisons Have Higher Coronavirus Infection And Death Rates, Analysis From JHU Says 
The coronavirus pandemic is having a significant impact on the nation's prison system, causing higher rates of infection and death compared to the general population. "The number of US prison residents who tested positive for Covid-19 was 5.5 times higher than the general US population," according to an analysis led by researchers at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. (Watts and Erdman, 7/8)

AP: Feds Charge Florida Man, Sons With Selling Fake Virus Cure
A Florida man and his three sons are facing federal charges that they illegally sold a bleachlike chemical mixture as a miracle cure for the new coronavirus and other diseases, federal prosecutors said Wednesday. The substance marketed as Miracle Mineral Solution was sold nationwide through an entity called the Genesis II Church of Health and Healing in Bradenton, Florida, according to a criminal complaint. (Anderson, 7/9)

The Washington Post: Senator Merkley Wants To Ban Middle Seats After Packed American Airlines Flight 
One day after American Airlines resumed booking flights to capacity, ending its effort to cap the number of passengers on board in response to the pandemic, Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) experienced the policy change firsthand.Instead of finding his connecting flight to Texas mostly empty, as he had flying American recently, Merkley saw passengers shoulder to shoulder. (Compton, 7/8)

NPR: Starting A COVID-19 'Social Bubble'? How Safe Sex Communication Skills Can Help
Ina Park has been in a monogamous marriage for more than 15 years, but she feels like she has been having one safe sex conversation after another these days. There was the time she and some close friends spent a few hours together without wearing masks, and she later realized she needed to ask: "Are you seeing other people?" (Dembosky, 7/8)

Boston Globe: Say ‘Ahhh’ To The Smartphone: A New Tool For Detecting COVID-19
Sonde Health is one of several companies pioneering a new kind of diagnostic tool called “vocal biomarkers.” These are subtle changes in a person’s voice that can be identified by a computer. These changes could indicate the presence of illness —not just COVID, but also other lung and heart ailments, and even anxiety and depression. (Bray, 7/9)

In other news —

The New York Times: A Shot To Protect Against H.I.V.
A single shot every two months prevents H.I.V. better than the most commonly used daily pill, Truvada, researchers reported on Tuesday. At the moment, Truvada and Descovy, made by Gilead Sciences, are the only drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration for prevention of H.I.V. infection, a strategy called PrEP. Gilead has heavily been criticized for setting a high price for the pills. (Mandavilli, 7/7)

AP: Safe Injection Sites May Curb Opioid Deaths, Report Suggests
A safe haven in the U.S. where people can give themselves heroin and other drugs has observed more than 10,500 injections over five years and treated 33 overdoses with none proving fatal, researchers reported Wednesday. The injection site is unsanctioned and its location hasn’t been revealed. The researchers say the results, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, show the potential for such places to curb deaths from the opioid epidemic. (Marchione, 7/8)

NPR: Top Pediatrician Says States Shouldn't Force Schools To Reopen If Virus Is Surging
President Trump issued a forceful call this week for America's K-12 schools to reopen full time for all children in the fall. ... On Wednesday, [Dr. Sally] Goza [the president of the American Academy of Pediatrics], spoke with Morning Edition host David Greene about that guidance and whether she's concerned that schools may be pressured into reopening too quickly. (Greene and Turner, 7/8)

The New York Times: N.Y.C. Public Schools Will Not Fully Reopen In September 
About four months after 1.1 million New York City children were forced into online learning, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on Wednesday that public schools would still not fully reopen in September, saying that classroom attendance would instead be limited to only one to three days a week in an effort to continue to curb the coronavirus outbreak. (Shapiro, 7/8)

Politico: NYC Schools To Stagger Classes, Stay Partially Remote In September
The nation’s largest school system will not be able to fully reopen for its 1.1 million students because of the coronavirus pandemic, Mayor Bill de Blasio said. It will use a “blended learning” approach to keep numbers lower and allow social distancing between students, with children in school buildings part of the time and learning online at other times. (Durkin, 7/8)

The Washington Post: Arizona Delays Opening Of 2020-2021 School Year As Coronavirus Cases Spike. Other States And Districts Are Too.
Arizona is delaying the start of the 2020-2021 school year as the number of coronavirus cases spikes around the state. West Virginia is doing the same thing even as President Trump is encouraging all schools to fully open for all students as soon as possible. (Strauss, 7/9)

NPR: When It Comes To Reopening Schools, 'The Devil's In The Details,' Educators Say
Dozens of teachers, parents and district leaders around the country told NPR that the back-to-school season — that beloved annual ritual-- has fogged over with confusion. States, districts and the federal government are pushing and pulling in different directions. Scientists are updating their advice to reflect emerging research and the changing course of the pandemic. And parents and educators are finding it hard to make decisions in the murk. (Kamenetz, 7/9)

USA Today: 'Scared For My Life,' But Needing A Salary: Teachers Weigh Risks As COVID-19 Looms
As directives shift, teachers like [Christy] Karwatt are desperately trying to figure out what the next school year will look like and if it is worth returning to potentially dangerous classrooms, or if they should walk away from a job that many view as a calling.In a USA TODAY/Ipsos poll in May, 1 in 5 U.S. teachers said they were unlikely to go back to school if their classrooms reopened in the fall.It's a question that many still don’t know how to answer. (McKinnon and Aspegren, 7/9)

San Francisco Chronicle: New SF Guidelines To Reopen Schools: Masks All Day For Students And Teachers 
San Francisco health officials released guidelines Wednesday on how to reopen city schools that include a strong recommendation that all students and teachers wear masks and stay 6 feet away. Backed by several months of science on how COVID-19 is spread and what it takes to stop it, health officials point out that the adults are at greater risk of spreading the virus than students. They’re also at greater risk of falling seriously ill from it. (Tucker, 7/8)

CNN: A Summer Camp In Missouri And Another In Arkansas Close Due To Covid-19 Outbreaks 
A summer camp in Arkansas and another in Missouri have closed down after campers and staff tested positive for Covid-19. At the Kanakuk K-2 Camp in Lampe, Missouri, 82 campers, counselors and staff tested positive for Covid-19, according to a Facebook post by the Stone County Health Department. (Lee, 7/8)

CNN: A California Security Guard Was Charged With Murder After Fighting With A Customer Over Face Mask Rules 
A security guard at a Southern California market is charged with murder after allegedly fighting with a customer who wasn't wearing a face mask. Umeir Corniche Hawkins shot 50-year-old Jerry Lewis on July 5, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office said. Prosecutors say the two men began arguing when Lewis entered the market without wearing a face mask. Lewis then left the market but when he returned the two fought again and Hawkins fatally shot him as he walked away, prosecutors said. (Selva, 7/9)

The Washington Post: Retail Workers Increasingly Being Drawn Into The Stressful Job Of Mask Enforcement 
It’s been nearly a week since the city of Mobile, Ala., began requiring masks in public. But inside the discount store where Kae Palmer works, not much has changed. Most shoppers still come in without face coverings. Workers are quick to remove masks when they’re not on the sales floor. Palmer, who brings her own masks from home, worries about her health but doesn’t feel like there’s much she can do about it. Corporate guidance, she says, has been, “Just serve the customer and don’t talk about their lack of a mask.” (Bhattarai, 7/8)

Politico: New Jersey To Require Face Coverings While Outdoors
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said Wednesday that he will sign an executive order requiring residents and visitors to the state to wear face coverings while outdoors if they’re in a location where they can’t maintain at least six feet of separation, the latest effort to help slow the spread of the coronavirus. (Sutton, 7/8)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Atlanta Mayor Requires Face Masks In Public To Fight Coronavirus
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms issued a mandate late Wednesday night requiring people in the city to wear masks in public to prevent the spread of COVID-19, a move that follows a number of other local governments that are openly defying Gov. Brian Kemp. So far, Kemp has encouraged the use of masks, but not required them, and has said local municipalities can not create stronger provisions than those that are in his emergency order. (Deere, Bluestein and Oliviero, 7/8)

The New York Times: Grave Shortages Of P.P.E. Gear Flare Again As Covid Cases Surge 
As coronavirus cases surge across the country, hospitals, nursing homes and private medical practices are facing a problem many had hoped would be resolved by now: a dire shortage of respirator masks, isolation gowns and disposable gloves that protect front-line medical workers from infection. (Jacobs, 7/8)

Houston Chronicle: How An Air Filter Made By University Of Houston Researchers Could Trap And Kill COVID-19 Germs 
Catch and kill — that’s the mission of a new air filter designed to eliminate COVID-19 virus particles. Heated foam air filters created by University of Houston physics researchers and Medistar, a Houston real estate developer specializing in medical buildings, could be key to disinfecting heating and cooling systems of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19, according to a peer-reviewed study in Materials Today Physics, a science journal. (Wu, 7/8)

Stateline: Factory Jobs Catch Bounce From PPE Manufacturing
As factories start bringing back workers laid off at the beginning of the pandemic, some are retooling to meet coronavirus-related demands. Designetics, a firm near Toledo, Ohio, that makes windshield coating systems, now has about half its 73 workers trained to make custom protective barriers to prevent coronavirus transmission. The switch started when a local hospital asked for a particular size barrier for ultrasound sessions with expectant mothers. Orders flowed in from grocery stores, restaurants and beauty salons. Even an Tucson, Arizona, art gallery ordered transparent barriers to keep its artwork visible. (Henderson, 7/9)

The New York Times: Ivy League Holds All Sports Until January 
The Ivy League presidents placed all sports on hold Wednesday until at least January, making it the first Division I conference that will not play football as scheduled in the fall because of the coronavirus pandemic. (Witz, 7/8)

NPR: College Sports Falling Victim To Coronavirus And Financial Stresses 
The Ivy League Council of Presidents said in a statement that their institutions are implementing campus-wide health and safety policies that will make it impossible for sports teams to compete before the end of the fall semester. "With the information available to us today regarding the continued spread of the virus, we simply do not believe we can create and maintain an environment for intercollegiate athletic competition that meets our requirements for safety and acceptable levels of risk, consistent with the policies that each of our schools is adopting as part of its reopening plans this fall," they wrote. (Treisman, 7/8)

Los Angeles Times: College Football Parents Take Note Of Ivy League Suspending Fall Sports Amid Pandemic 
On Wednesday, Ohio State and North Carolina became the latest schools to suspend voluntary workouts due to alarming numbers of positive test results. In a statement, Ohio State said the athletes who are infected will self-isolate for 14 days and receive daily check-ups from the school’s medical staff. (McCollough, 7/8)

AP: 'Heartbreaking Day' — Stanford Drops 11 Sports To Cut Costs
Stanford was already facing some difficult financial choices as it tried to support one of the nation’s largest athletics departments. The coronavirus pandemic forced a dramatic and painful decision: Faced with a nearly $25 million deficit next year, Stanford became the first known Power Five school to eliminate athletic programs because of the pandemic, announcing Wednesday that 11 of its 36 varsity sports will be shuttered next year. (Marshall, 7/9)

Dallas Morning News: UIL Updates Summer Workout Guidelines To Include Face Mask Requirement As Texas Coronavirus Cases Surge
The UIL on Wednesday updated its summer workout guidelines for strength and conditioning to include mask wearing for every participant over the age of 10 years old, the organization said Wednesday on its website. The requirement for masks — which previously had not been mandatory — was one of several changes the UIL made for strength and conditioning and skill-specific workouts amid the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. (Caplan, 7/8)

AP: Officer To Floyd: 'It Takes ... A Lot Of Oxygen To Talk'
As George Floyd told Minneapolis police officers that he couldn’t breathe more than 20 times in the moments before he died, the officer who pressed his knee against Floyd’s neck dismissed his pleas, saying “it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk,” according to transcripts of body camera video recordings made public Wednesday. (Forliti, 7/9)

NPR: Transcripts Of Police Body Cams Show Floyd Pleaded 20 Times That He Couldn't Breathe 
As officer Derek Chauvin had Floyd pinned under his knee, face-down to the pavement and complaining that he could not breathe, Lane, who was holding Floyd's legs, asked Chauvin whether the suspect should be moved. (Neuman, 7/8)

The Washington Post: George Floyd Warned Police He Thought He Would Die Because He Couldn’t Breathe, According To Body Cam Transcripts 
The transcripts make clear that Floyd was trying to cooperate with police but was deathly afraid of them, at times telling them that he had had covid-19 and was worried that he was going to die because he couldn’t breathe while in their custody. As one of the officers — Derek Chauvin — pressed a knee into his neck and held Floyd on the ground, he told Floyd that he must be okay because he was able to speak, saying that he was using up a lot of oxygen pleading for help. (Bailey, 7/8)

In other news on violence and racial justice —

ABC News: 'No Question' COVID-19 A Factor In Recent Violence In Chicago, Says Mayor Lori Lightfoot 
The mayor of Chicago said there's "no question" that the coronavirus pandemic, and the way it has impacted policing and jailing, is a factor in the recent violence her city has experienced. "We had to rethink what policing meant in the middle of this horrific pandemic for which there was no — there still is no cure. So that absolutely affected it," Mayor Lori Lightfoot, a Democrat, told ABC News' "Powerhouse Politics" podcast. (Scanlan, 7/8)

AP: Little Rock Passes Arkansas' First Hate Crime Law
Little Rock became the first city in Arkansas to pass a measure with increased penalties specifically for hate crimes that target people based on their race, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability. (7/8)

The Wall Street Journal: Justice Department Finds Massachusetts Police Department Used Excessive Force 
Officers in the narcotics section of the Springfield, Mass., Police Department routinely violate the constitutional rights of citizens by using excessive force without accountability, the Justice Department said Wednesday in announcing the findings of an investigation into the police department’s practices. (Gurman, 7/8)

KQED: A Socially Distanced Block Party Calls For Justice For Sean Monterrosa 
As a national protest movement formed around the police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor in recent weeks, local activists have also rallied around Sean Monterrosa and Erik Salgado, two Latino men in their early 20s killed by Bay Area law enforcement just days apart in June. Vallejo police officer Jarrett Tonn shot Monterrosa, a San Francisco resident, through his car’s windshield while Monterrosa was on his knees with his hands up. (Voynovskaya, 7/8)

San Jose Mercury News: Coronavirus: Californians Believe State Is Moving Too Fast, Poll Says
A new majority of Californians believe the state is reopening too quickly, while three in four are concerned about themselves or a family member catching the virus, according to a new poll released Wednesday. The California Health Care Foundation, in partnership with Ipsos, asked Californians in a tracking poll the past two months about the rate at shelter-in-place restrictions were being lifted. The number of respondents who said they believed the state was moving too quickly increased 10 points from a plurality of 43% on June 19 to a majority of 53% in the latest poll released Wednesday, while 27% believe the state is reopening at the right pace, and 18% believe it isn’t moving fast enough. (Webeck, 7/8)

Dallas Morning News: Texas Sets New COVID-19 Records Wednesday In Key Metrics
Two key metrics Gov. Greg Abbott has used to judge the coronavirus epidemic in Texas hit record highs Wednesday. More than 9,600 people were hospitalized. And over the past week, 15% of reported coronavirus tests have come back positive -- the highest rate since the epidemic began. Texas also hit another grim record Wednesday: 98 people died of COVID-19. (Morris and Garrett, 7/8)

AP: Nebraska Surpasses 20,000 Positive Cases Of Corornavirus
State figures released Wednesday show Nebraska has surpassed 20,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus since the outbreak began earlier this year.The state’s online virus tracker shows 155 cases were reported on Tuesday, bringing the state total to 20,201. Of the total, nearly 15,000 have recovered from the virus. The total number of deaths attributed to COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, had reached 282 by the end of Tuesday. (7/8)

Detroit Free Press: Coronavirus In Michigan Nursing Homes: Some Could Get Emergency Staff
The state health department says it will provide rapid response staffing for nursing homes and other long-term health care facilities in 11 Michigan counties if they are hit by a COVID-19 outbreak and face a staff shortage. The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services said it will provide staffing for up to 72 hours through 22nd Century Technologies Inc., a national firm that provides clinical staffing support for medical facilities nationwide. (Dale, 7/8)

Detroit Free Press: Michigan Reports 610 New Coronavirus Cases, Highest Total Since May
The Michigan health department reported an additional 610 coronavirus cases Wednesday, increasing the state's total to 67,237. This is the highest daily total since May 20, which was 659 cases. This increases the 7-day average to 444, which is the highest it's been since May 24. The 7-day average was as low as 152 on June 15. (Stitt, 7/8)

San Francisco Chronicle: Coronavirus Patients From Overwhelmed Imperial County Fill Bay Area Hospital Beds 
Overflowing hospitals in Southern California are sending critical COVID-19 patients to the Bay Area for treatment, where record numbers of local patients are already putting the health care system under strain. As of last Thursday, 15 patients from hard-hit Imperial County, which borders Mexico, had transferred to Bay Area hospitals, according to California Emergency Medical Services Authority. (Moench, 7/8)

CNN: Virginia Eliminated Its Rape Kit Backlog, Attorney General Says 
Virginia has eliminated its backlog of rape kits, processing thousands of tests in a five-year project, Attorney General Mark Herring said. "Virginia's backlog of untested rape kits has been completely eliminated and it's never coming back," Herring said Wednesday at a press conference in Richmond, Virginia. (McMenamin, 7/9)

The Washington Post: Maryland To Open All Polling Places On Election Day, Mail Application For Absentee Ballot To Each Voter
Maryland will conduct November’s election as a “normal” affair, Gov. Larry Hogan (R) said Wednesday, opening every precinct and early-voting center while arming election workers with protective equipment to limit spread of the novel coronavirus. (Cox, 7/8)

The New York Times: Pandemic Plunges Puerto Rico Into Yet Another Dire Emergency 
With hundreds of thousands of people suddenly out of jobs in Puerto Rico, Luciano Soto, a tour guide who has not worked in nearly four months, wanted to be first in line at the Puerto Rico Convention Center, now outfitted as an unemployment office. He showed up at 8 p.m. one night a few weeks ago, with a lunchbox full of snacks, prepared to spend the night, so that he could find out why the unemployment benefits he had applied for months earlier had never arrived. By 5 a.m., more than 400 others were also at the convention center, and many furious people were turned away. (Rosa and Robles, 7/8)

NPR: Brazil's Bolsonaro Sued For Unmasking As He Announced Positive Test For COVID-19
A group representing Brazilian journalists says it will file suit against the country's president, Jair Bolsonaro, after he took off a protective mask as he spoke with reporters about his COVID-19 diagnosis. The Brazilian Press Association, or ABI, said in a statement that Bolsonaro had unnecessarily endangered a small group of journalists who interviewed him at his official residence. (Neuman, 7/8)

AP: Serbia Eyes Restrictions; Virus Spreads In US, Brazil, India
The European nation of Serbia mulled how to curb accelerating coronavirus infections following two nights of clashes involving anti-lockdown demonstrators, while the virus showed no sign of slowing Thursday in the countries with the highest caseloads — the United States, India and Brazil. The three nations on separate continents are accounting for more than 60% of new confirmed cases, according to recent tallies from Johns Hopkins University. India on Thursday reported 25,000 new cases; the United States on Wednesday reported just short of the record 60,000 cases set a day earlier, and Brazil reported nearly 45,000. (Gec and Perry, 7/9)

Politico: American, United Stop Flying To Hong Kong Amid Crew Testing Requirements 
United Airlines and American Airlines have temporarily halted flights to Hong Kong after its government imposed coronavirus testing requirements for airline crews, the latest twist in a simmering scuffle between the U.S. and China over access to aviation markets. (Mintz and Gurciullo, 7/8)

AP: The Latest: Tokyo Sees Most New Virus Infections Since April
The Japanese capital has confirmed more than 220 new coronavirus infections, exceeding its previous record.The number reported Thursday exceeds 206 daily cases recorded on April 17 when Tokyo’s infections were at their peak. (7/9)

AP: Burial Traditions Clash With Coronavirus Safety In Indonesia
The mob of over 150 people who forcefully took Muhammad Yunus’ cadaver from a hospital in eastern Indonesia thought it was impossible that the 49-year-old Islamic preacher could have died from the coronavirus. He had always washed his hands, worn a mask and followed health protocols issued by the government, according to local residents. (Karmini and Milko, 7/9)

CNN: Localized Lockdowns Show That We're In The Most Complex Phase Of Coronavirus Yet 
From English cities to the Spanish seaside and Australian housing estates, local lockdowns are cropping up all over the world as countries ease restrictions only to encounter new coronavirus outbreaks. After months of closures, governments are eager to reopen schools and businesses to allow people to get on with their lives. But fresh clusters of infection have seen leaders forced to reimpose restrictions in some hotspots, even as rules are eased elsewhere in the same country. (Reynolds, 7/9)

CIDRAP: Korean Nightclub-Goers Linked To 246-Person COVID-19 Outbreak
At least 246 COVID-19 cases have been tied to reopened nightclubs in Seoul, South Korea, after the April 30 to May 5 Golden Week holiday, with 61% among contacts of nightclub revelers, according to a research letter published yesterday in Emerging Infectious Diseases. Coronavirus cases in South Korea had plateaued in April, and nightclubs reopened on April 30. People from around the country visited the Itaewon neighborhood, known for its diversity and home to a US Army base and several embassies, in downtown Seoul over the holiday. On May 6, several COVID-19 cases were confirmed among nightclub visitors. (7/8)

The Washington Post: Robots Are Being Reimagined In The Time Of Social Distancing 
As the coronavirus pandemic rewrites the rules of human interaction, it also has inspired new thinking about how robots and other machines might step in. The stuff of the bot world — early factory-line automation up to today's artificial intelligence — has been a growing fact of life for decades. The worldwide health crisis has added urgency to the question of how to bring robotics into the public health equation. (Denyer, Kashiwagi and Joo Kim, 7/8)

In other global health news —

AP: WHO Says Sri Lanka And Maldives Eliminate Measles, Rubella
Sri Lanka and Maldives have become the first two countries in the World Health Organization’s South-East Asia region to eliminate both measles and rubella ahead of a 2023 target, the U.N. health agency announced Wednesday. (Mallawarachi, 7/8)

AP: UK Report: Medical Treatments Caused Many 'Avoidable Harm'
Hundreds of women and their babies suffered “avoidable harm” because Britain’s healthcare system ignored serious concerns raised about some medical treatments, a scathing review into three National Health Service scandals found Wednesday. (Kirka, 7/8)

Reuters: Nonprofits Urge Johnson & Johnson To Halt Sales Of Baby Powder Globally 
More than 170 nonprofit groups on Wednesday called for Johnson & Johnson to stop selling its talc-based Johnson’s Baby Powder world-wide, citing concerns that it contains cancer-causing asbestos, according to a statement from advocacy group Black Women for Wellness. (O'Donnell, 7/8)

Stat: International Trade Judge Suggests A 10-Year Ban On A Botox Rival
In a boost for AbbVie (ABBV), a U.S. International Trade Commission judge this week made an initial determination that sales of a competing version of its best-selling Botox treatment should be banned for 10 years. The ruling came in response to a complaint filed last year by Allergan, which AbbVie has since acquired, that a pair of rival companies — Evolus (ELOS) and Daewoong Pharmaceuticals — allegedly stole trade secrets that were used to develop a new wrinkle-smoothing product. A final decision from the ITC, however, is not due until November. (Silverman, 7/8)

The New York Times: Judge Puts Cloud Over Settlement Of Roundup Cancer Claims 
An agreement to pay more than $10 billion to settle thousands of claims that the popular weedkiller Roundup causes cancer is at risk of unraveling. Although the bulk of the complex deal between Roundup’s manufacturer, the German conglomerate Bayer, and a raft of plaintiff lawyers does not require court approval, one crucial piece does: a plan for handling future claims from customers who develop the form of cancer known as non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. (Cohen, 7/7)

In science news —

The New York Times: 8 Questions From A Disease Detective On The Pandemic’s Origins 
For decades, Dr. Daniel R. Lucey, an infectious disease specialist at Georgetown University, has crisscrossed the globe to study epidemics and their origins. His attention now is on the Covid-19 pandemic, which first came to public notice late last year in Wuhan, China. Its exact beginnings are sufficiently clouded that the World Health Organization has begun a wide inquiry into its roots. The advance team is to leave for China this weekend, and Dr. Lucey has publicly encouraged the health agency to address what he considers eight top questions. (Broad, 7/8)

Stat: Gene-Editing Find Could Point To Cures For Mitochondrial Diseases 
Biologist David Liu was in the middle of his morning commute to the Broad Institute two summers ago when he opened the email. We just discovered a new toxin made by bacteria, explained the note from a researcher Liu had never spoken to, and it “might be useful for something you guys do.” Intrigued, Liu phoned the sender, biologist Joseph Mougous of the University of Washington, and it quickly became clear that the bacterial toxin had a talent that was indeed useful for what Liu does: invent ways to edit genes. On Wednesday, they and their colleagues reported in Nature that they had turned the toxin into the world’s first editor of genes in cell organelles called mitochondria. (Begley, 7/8)

NPR: The Pandemic Is Pushing Scientists To Rethink How They Read Research Papers
The coronavirus pandemic has posed a special challenge for scientists: Figuring out how to make sense of a flood of scientific papers from labs and scientists unfamiliar to them. More than 6,000 coronavirus-related preprints from researchers around the world have been posted since the pandemic began, without the usual peer review as a quality check. Some are poor quality, while others, including papers from China from early in the course of the epidemic, contain vital information. The beauty of science is the facts are supposed to speak for themselves. (Harris, 7/7)

Stat: Women Researchers Are Publishing Less Since The Pandemic Hit
As Covid-19 has shuttered schools across the globe, leaving parents to pick up childcare responsibilities, a handful of studies have converged on the same grim picture: Women in academic science and medicine are publishing far less since the pandemic hit. Two studies published in May looked at preprint servers and found that women in life and medical sciences aren’t seeing the same gains in publishing compared to their male peers since the pandemic started. (Isselbacher, 7/9)

CIDRAP: Obese COVID-19 Patients At Risk For Respiratory Failure But Not Hospital Death
A retrospective cohort study of 1,687 COVID-19 patients at two New York City hospitals published yesterday in the Annals of Internal Medicine revealed that 31% were obese, and obese patients were at higher risk of respiratory failure. Researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine studied the electronic medical record data of adults hospitalized with the novel coronavirus from Mar 3 to May 15 for outpatient body mass index (BMI) measurements recorded within 3 months after hospitalization. They defined obesity as a BMI of 30 or higher, and 31.1% of patients fit that category, with 5.4% of all patients being morbidly obese. (7/7)

NPR: New Clues To ALS And Alzheimer's From Physics 
The same process that causes dew drops to form on a blade of grass appears to play an important role in Alzheimer's and other brain diseases. The process, known as phase transition, is what allows water vapor to condense into liquid water, or even freeze into solid ice. That same sort of process allows brain cells to constantly reorganize their inner machinery. (Hamilton, 7/8)

American Academy of Pediatrics: Clinical Features Of E-Cigarette, Or Vaping, Product Use–Associated Lung Injury In Teenagers 
Diagnosis of EVALI (electronic cigarette, or vaping, product use–associated lung injury) should be suspected on the basis of vaping history and clinical presentation. Glucocorticoid treatment led to an improvement in symptoms and lung function. The 6-minute walk test may help determine oxygen needs at discharge.

American Academy Of Pediatrics: Improving HPV Vaccination Rates: A Stepped-Wedge Randomized Trial 
Multilevel interventions that include provider education, data feedback, tailored systems changes, and early initiation of the human papillomavirus vaccine series may improve vaccine series initiation and completion beyond the conclusion of the intervention period. (Perkins et al, 7/1)

Bloomberg: Racial Health Disparities Exposed By U.S. Covid-19 Outbreak
Covid-19 rarely assaults children with the force it uses against adults, especially older people. But some kids who have been infected with the coronavirus develop a potentially fatal condition that brings fever, shock and organ failure. For some reason, this rare “multisystem inflammatory syndrome” afflicts Black children at significantly higher rates than White children. The disparity is not confined to children. Across the U.S., Covid-19 poses a broader threat to people of African ancestry. Studies and data from several states show that Black Americans contract coronavirus at rates much higher than their share of the population. Their death rates are higher, too, especially in middle age; adjusted for age, Black death rates are 3.6 times those of Whites. Medicare data suggest that, among elderly Americans, being Black is a Covid-19 risk factor almost as great as being over the age of 85. (7/8)

Stat: To Thrive, Black And Latinx Physicians Need Their Communities 
I was working at the nurses’ station in the emergency department when the elderly man in Room Four smiled at me. I had noticed him watching me sometime between my third and seventh trip to the department. It was near the end of a long day about halfway through my neurology training, and I’d spent it crisscrossing the hospital to see a multitude of patients, sprinting from one stroke code to the next and responding to the ceaseless buzz of my pager. (Diana M. Cejas, 7/9)

Los Angeles Times: Have I Recovered From Coronavirus? That's Not Easy To Answer 
“Are you recovered yet?” I can’t count how many times I’ve been asked this question in the three months since I came home from the hospital after a near-death experience with COVID-19. I’m grateful for the concern. I don’t know if I would have made it through those 17 days in the hospital, including almost a week on a ventilator, without the thoughts, prayers and other support that I received from family, friends and strangers. But when I answer this question, explaining the state of my lungs, cough, vocal cords and muscle weakness, I sometimes feel I’m disappointing the questioner, who just wanted a simple “yes.” So why can’t I just say “yes” when asked if I’ve recovered? Because, to be honest, I don’t know if that’s true.  (David Lat, 7/9)

Stat: It's Time To Begin A National Wastewater Testing Program For Covid-19
As the Covid-19 pandemic marches across America, causing record-breaking numbers of cases, almost every solution for controlling the disease includes more testing, especially as cities and states try to reopen. But with states hitting their limits on testing, we need new tools for understanding Covid-19 transmission. A national wastewater surveillance program offers a cost-effective approach to track Covid-19 across the majority of the U.S. population and provide early warnings of resurgence. (Anna Mehrotra, David A. Larsen and Ashish K. Jha, 7/9)

CNN: Even Without A Covid-19 Vaccine, There's Reason For Hope
A lot of hope has been placed on the possibility of a Covid-19 vaccine by the end of this year. However, overcoming the technical challenges of developing a vaccine -- and the safety issues inherent in making one that works for the populations most at risk -- is no easy feat. (William Haseltine, 7/8)

Stat: A Moment Of Truth Arrives For CytoDyn. Don’t Let Spin Obscure It
CytoDyn is nearing the completion of a clinical trial investigating the use of leronlimab, its repurposed and still experimental HIV drug, to treat patients with Covid-19. When results of the study read out in the next few weeks, leronlimab is unlikely to show meaningful benefit. Should CytoDyn be trusted to offer an honest summary of its clinical trial? I have doubts. (Adam Feuerstein, 7/8)

The Washington Post: Undeterred By The Last Uproar, Trump Is Again Considering Family Separation
Apparently undettered by the uproar it triggered by separating migrant children from their families two years ago, the Trump administration is considering whether to push for more of the same. Again, teens, tweens, toddlers and babies may be removed from their parents, as a means of deterring further illegal immigration. Again, the president’s unbridled animus toward mainly brown-skinned migrants may result in an episode of cruelty that would shock the civilized world. The administration’s latest threat to break up families arises from a federal court order last month by U.S. District Judge Dolly M. Gee, in Los Angeles. Judge Gee, alarmed at the rapid spread of the novel coronavirus at family detention centers run by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, gave the agency until next Friday to release scores of children held at the facilities. (7/8)

Dallas Morning News: A Biotech Facility At Texas A&M Is “Ready To Save The World,” Which Is Only Partly Hyperbole
Could Texas Aggies save the world from COVID-19? That’s the bold takeaway from a recent news release about the Texas A&M University System’s Center for Innovation in Advanced Development and Manufacturing. One of four such facilities in the U.S. constructed following the 2009 swine flu epidemic, the center will serve as a major manufacturer of COVID-19 vaccines, once they’re developed. (7/9)

Los Angeles Times: Supreme Court Birth Control Ruling Not The Trump Win It Seems 
A divided Supreme Court appeared to hand a major victory to President Trump and the religious right Wednesday when it ruled that the administration could, in fact, undermine the mandate that employer-provided health insurance plans cover birth control for women with no out-of-pocket costs. But the ruling appears to give the next president the power quickly to reverse much of Trump’s initiative. And in the meantime, it left the door open for proponents to keep fighting on behalf of contraceptive coverage for all female employees. (Jon Healey, 7/8)

Fox News: Supreme Court Ruling In Little Sisters’ Case Is A Victory For Religious Freedom
The Supreme Court bolstered its standing as a defender of religious liberty with two decisions Wednesday vindicating that ideal. One of them, Little Sisters of the Poor Saints Peter and Paul Home v. Pennsylvania, presents a particularly poignant story that fortunately has a happy ending.F or seven years, the Little Sisters of the Poor, an order of Roman Catholic nuns that homes for the elderly poor all over the world, have found themselves fighting in the courts against the government’s efforts to force them to comply with ObamaCare’s contraceptive mandate. (Frank Scaturro, 7/9)

The New York Times: Roberts Supreme Court Curtails Birth Control Access. Again. 
Well, that didn’t take long. Only days after surprising the nation by striking down a strict anti-abortion law in Louisiana, the Supreme Court under Chief Justice John Roberts reminded Americans once again that it is no friend to reproductive rights, or to the vast majority of women who will use some form of birth control in their lifetime. In a decision Wednesday, the justices dealt another blow to the birth control mandate under the Affordable Care Act. In the wake of the 7-to-2 ruling in Little Sisters of the Poor v. Pennsylvania, “between 70,500 and 126,400 women would immediately lose access to no-cost contraceptive services,” Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg noted in her dissent, citing a government estimate. (7/8)

Los Angeles Times: Does SCOTUS Think Birth Control Isn't Preventive Healthcare? 
The Supreme Court just gave its blessing to a wide range of companies refusing to offer their female employees health insurance that covers birth control, even when they could do so without compromising their religious or moral beliefs. The losers in Wednesday’s decision are the millions of women whom Congress intended to protect through the 2010 Affordable Care Act, which requires new insurance policies to cover preventive healthcare services with no out-of-pocket costs. (7/9)

The Washington Post: The Contraception War That Just Won’t End 
Given that more than two-thirds of Americans believe, in principle at least, that private health insurance plans should cover contraception, it’s strange that we can’t seem to settle the matter. You would think a functioning democracy could work this issue out in a reasonable way that respected the rights of women as well as the rights of those with religious objections to contraception.Instead, the question of whether health plans issued under the Affordable Care Act should cover birth control has been the subject of an ongoing, maximalist culture war. The Supreme Court’s decision on Wednesday will make things worse. (E.J. Dionne Jr., 7/8)

CNN: Court's Contraception Ruling Leaves Vulnerable Americans Even More At Risk
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court gave a green light to the Trump administration's rules allowing employers to deny their employees insurance coverage for birth control on moral or religious grounds. Unfortunately, that's no surprise. The Republican Party has long opposed the birth control benefit in the Affordable Care Act, requiring coverage for birth control, and Republican leaders including President Trump have made it a priority to stack federal courts with judges hostile to social progress and ready to assert control over the bodies of women. (llyse Hogue, 7/8)

The Washington Post: If Trump Wants To Reopen Schools, Here’s What His Administration Needs To Do
Vice President Pence says it is “absolutely essential that we get our kids in the classroom for in-person learning.” His remarks Wednesday followed President Trump’s announcement that “we’re very much going to put pressure on governors and everybody else to open the schools” — and a follow-up tweet threatening to cut off funding if schools remain closed. Pence and Trump are right about the importance of in-person instruction. But the Trump administration can’t just set a timeline without committing to the necessary work to ensure the health and safety of students, teachers and their families. (Leana S. Wen, 7/8)

Fox News: Kids Should Go Back To School -- Guess Who Is Opposed To That Simple Idea 
It seems like a pretty obvious position. But suddenly, it's not. Many people violently disagree with it for reasons that still are not clear, but definitely are not rational. ...So, who is opposed to opening schools? Take a guess. The teachers unions. The teachers unions' position on every question is always the same. They would like less work, no accountability, and much more pay. At least one chapter, the American Federation of Teachers is planning to go on strike if they have to work this fall. So many administrators and school districts have no choice but to obey their demands. (Tucker Carlson, 7/8)

St. Louis Post Dispatch: Ignore Those 3 Million Virus Cases. Trump Says It's Time Kids Get Back To School. 
The desire to get kids back into classrooms is not in dispute. Parents and pediatricians increasingly feel that children are suffering for lack of educational and social stimuli. Teachers want professional fulfillment. Taxpayers want to know their money isn’t being wasted on a bunch of empty buildings. And politicians mindful of November elections, including President Donald Trump and Missouri Gov. Mike Parson, are anxious to produce symbols of America’s economic revival.But no matter how overwhelming the desire, the simple scientific facts cannot be ignored: The pandemic continues to rage out of control, with conservative states in the South and West leading the country in new infections and hospitalizations. (7/8)

Tampa Bay Times: Re-Open Florida’s Schools Responsibly, But Re-Open Them 
No local institution is more important than our public schools. Even as COVID-19 cases continue to spike throughout Florida and Tampa Bay, school officials need to find a way for schools to open safely next month, with masks, social distancing, lower capacity on school buses, distance-learning as appropriate and whatever else is necessary to cut the danger to responsibly manageable levels. They also must plan for what happens when students and staffers inevitably test positive. Shutting down and starting over is not the answer. (7/9)

USA Today: College Football: Ivy League Decision Sure To Impact Other Conferences
On March 10, a day before the NBA shocked the nation by suspending operations due to a player’s positive coronavirus test, the Ivy League canceled its men’s and women’s basketball tournament.Two days later, the rest of the nation canceled every men’s and women’s basketball game, including the NCAA tournaments. On March 11, the Ivy League canceled all spring sports. A few days later, every college and high school in the country canceled all spring sports. On Wednesday afternoon, the Ivy League told schools that it was canceling football and other fall sports. If past is prologue, we will soon be hearing that the rest of the college sports world is considering canceling all fall sports.  (Christine Brennan, 7/8)