First Edition: Dec. 1, 2020

KHN: Amid COVID And Racial Unrest, Black Churches Put Faith In Mental Health Care
Wilma Mayfield used to visit a senior center in Durham, North Carolina, four days a week and attend Lincoln Memorial Baptist Church on Sundays, a ritual she’s maintained for nearly half a century. But over the past 10 months, she’s seen only the inside of her home, the grocery store and the pharmacy. Most of her days are spent worrying about COVID-19 and watching TV. It’s isolating, but she doesn’t talk about it much. (Pattani, 12/1)

KHN: Where COVID Is On The Menu: Failed Contact Tracing Leaves Diners In The Dark
COVID-19 outbreaks have affected restaurants throughout Los Angeles County, from a Panda Express in Sun Valley to the University of California’s Bruin Cafe. If you live in Los Angeles, you can access health department reports about these outbreaks online. But in most of the country, diners are left in the dark about which restaurants have been linked to outbreaks of the virus. (Almendrala, 12/1)

KHN: How COVID-19 Highlights The Uncertainty Of Medical Testing 
Dr. Jacqueline Chu considered the man with a negative coronavirus test on the other end of the phone, and knew, her heart dropping, that the test result was not enough to clear him for work. The man was a grocery store clerk — an essential worker — and the sole earner for his family. A 14-day isolation period would put him at risk of getting fired or not having enough money to make rent that month. But he had just developed classic COVID-19 symptoms, and many others around him in Chelsea, Massachusetts, had confirmed cases. Even with the negative test, his chances of having the disease were too high to dismiss. (Ganguli, 12/1)

The New York Times: Scott Atlas, A Trump Coronavirus Adviser, Resigns 
Dr. Scott W. Atlas, the former Stanford University radiologist who espoused controversial theories and rankled government scientists while advising President Trump on the coronavirus pandemic, resigned his White House position on Monday. The move was not entirely unexpected. Dr. Atlas joined the White House in August as a special government employee for a limited term after he caught Mr. Trump’s eye with his frequent appearances on Fox News over the summer. Dr. Atlas’s term was set to expire this week. (Gay Stolberg, 11/30)

NPR: Dr. Scott Atlas, Special Coronavirus Adviser To Trump Resigns 
Throughout his tenure, he has insisted all of the guidance he's offered was based on scientific research. "I worked hard with a singular focus—to save lives and help Americans through this pandemic," Atlas wrote in a resignation letter posted to Twitter. He added that he "always relied on the latest science and evidence, without any political consideration or influence." (Romo, 11/30)

The Washington Post: Scott Atlas Resigns As Trump’s Coronavirus Adviser 
Atlas had become widely disliked in the White House — even among aides who shared his view that the country should reopen and that officials should not worry about young, healthy people contracting the virus, according to two senior administration officials, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters. Atlas’s resignation was first reported by Fox News on Monday evening. The White House declined to comment. (Dawsey and Abutaleb, 11/30)

NPR: Coronavirus Was In U.S. Weeks Earlier Than Previously Known, Study Says
The coronavirus was present in the U.S. weeks earlier than scientists and public health officials previously thought, and before cases in China were publicly identified, according to a new government study published Monday. The virus and the illness that it causes, COVID-19, was first identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019, but it wasn't until Jan. 19 that the first confirmed COVID-19 case, from a traveler returning from China, was found in the U.S. However, new findings published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases suggest that the coronavirus, known officially as SARS-CoV-2, had infected people in the U.S. even earlier. (Diaz, 12/1)

Bloomberg: U.S. Covid Cases Found As Early As December 2019, Says Study
Testing has found Covid-19 infections in the U.S. in December 2019, according to a study, providing further evidence indicating the coronavirus was spreading globally weeks before the first cases were reported in China. The study published Monday identified 106 infections from 7,389 blood samples collected from donors in nine U.S. states between Dec. 13 and Jan. 17. The samples, collected by the American Red Cross, were sent to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for testing to detect if there were antibodies against the virus. (12/1)

NPR: What Joe Biden's Election Means For Abortion Rights
Like many abortion rights opponents, Tom McClusky is feeling good about battles won under President Trump during his four years in office. "He has probably done more pro-life things than many Republicans who have had two terms," McClusky said. McClusky, vice president of government affairs at the March for Life, points to Trump's reinstatement and expansion of the Mexico City policy, which forbids foreign aid groups who provide or refer patients for abortion from receiving U.S. funds, and similar rules for domestic family planning providers who receive funds through the federal Title X program. (McCammon, 12/1)

Stat: Burr Could Be A Key Public Health Champion In 2020 — Or A Major Obstacle 
Ask some key public health officials, and they’ll warn you that next year, President-elect Biden’s public health agenda could face a formidable roadblock: an empowered Sen. Richard Burr, the North Carolina Republican with a long history of antagonizing the Food and Drug Administration and other key agencies. (Florko, 12/1)

The Washington Post: White House Planning A Packed Season Of Holiday Parties 
The White House began the annual holiday party season on Monday afternoon, officials said, kicking off a spate of indoor holiday parties that commemorate various religious traditions over the season. While many public health professionals have asked Americans not to congregate in large group settings and avoid travel over the holidays because of the coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 266,000 Americans and infected 13 million more, the White House is expected to throw more than a dozen indoor parties, including a large congressional ball on Dec. 10, officials say. (Dawsey, 11/30)

Politico: Bipartisan Senate Group Revives Coronavirus Relief Talks 
A bipartisan group of senators is trying to jump-start stalled coronavirus stimulus talks during the lame duck, with congressional leaders still at odds over providing more relief as cases and deaths spike ahead of the coming winter. The effort is an uphill battle given the entrenched positions of Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and his GOP conference and Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. So whatever this collection of senators can achieve is likely to be modest, if they can accomplish anything at all. (Everett, 11/30)

Politico: DeSantis Urges Congress To Pass Unemployment Relief
Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday urged Congress to move quickly to pass an unemployment relief package for people left jobless by the coronavirus pandemic. DeSantis made his remarks to reporters Monday in Kissimmee, a central Florida city that is home to thousands of Walt Disney World workers. The Walt Disney Co. has announced plans to lay off more than 30,000 employees, including 18,000 at the Orlando theme park. (Dixon, 11/30)

NPR: More Americans Pay Rent On Credit Cards As Lawmakers Fail To Pass Relief Bill
With their savings running out, many Americans are being forced to use credit cards to pay for bills they can't afford — even their rent. Housing experts and economists say this is a blinking-red warning light that without more relief from Congress, the economy is headed for even more serious trouble. There's been as much as a 70% percent increase from last year in people paying rent on a credit card, according to an analysis by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. (Arnold, 11/30)

The Washington Post: GAO Report Says Unemployment Numbers Have Been Inflated By Backlogs During Pandemic
The nation’s weekly unemployment statistics have been plagued by backlogs, fraud and inconsistent data reporting state by state, making them a seriously flawed measurement that has likely overstated the number of individuals claiming unemployment during the pandemic, according to a federal report released Monday. The Government Accountability Office, the nonpartisan auditing agency that works for Congress, was unsparing about the problems with unemployment statistics, as part of a lengthy report that looked at the country’s response to the coronavirus. (Rosenberg, 11/30)

Philadelphia Inquirer: ‘I Feel Stuck’: Philadelphians Struggle With The Effects Of Unemployment On Mental Health
Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate is 7.3% as of October, 2.7 percentage points higher from the same time last year. Unemployment rates spiked in April at 16.1%, and have gradually decreased since, although certain sectors such as hospitality and retail are still struggling to recover jobs lost in the spring. And last month Philadelphia introduced new restrictions to manage the rising number of COVID-19 cases, causing some employees in those industries to go through a second round of layoffs. (Ao, 12/1)

USA Today: First Responders? Long-Term Care Patients? CDC Committee Considering Who's In Group '1a' For COVID-19 Vaccine.
The committee that decides who gets the coronavirus vaccine first meets virtually Tuesday as officials prepare for distribution that could potentially come within two weeks. Look for discussion of two questions: Where should people in long-term care facilities be in the vaccine line and the power of states and governors to shift priorities for who gets immunized first. The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices is an independent group convened by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to offer advice on who should get specific vaccines and when. (Weise, 12/1)

The Hill: Bipartisan Senate Group Holding Coronavirus Relief Talks Amid Stalemate 
A bipartisan group of senators is holding discussions to try to get a deal on a fifth round of coronavirus relief amid a months-long stalemate between congressional leadership and the White House. The talks, confirmed to The Hill by four sources, are one of the first signs of life for a potential coronavirus agreement as congressional Democrats, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and the White House have remained far apart on both the price tag and the policy details. (Carney, 11/30)

The Washington Post: Britain Races To Become The First Western Country To Approve A Coronavirus Vaccine 
Britain could become the first Western country to approve a coronavirus vaccine, with the highest hopes resting on Pfizer's candidate and the homegrown offering from Oxford University and AstraZeneca. Those hopes persist, accompanied by much flag waving, despite questions about the Oxford vaccine’s trials and effectiveness. (Bpoth and Adam, 11/30)

Bloomberg: Pfizer, BioNTech Seek Clearance to Sell Covid Vaccine in Europe
Pfizer Inc. and partner BioNTech SE sought regulatory clearance for their Covid-19 vaccine in Europe, putting the shot on track for a potential approval there before the end of the year. The formal application submitted on Monday caps a rolling review process that started on Oct. 6 and allowed Europe’s drugs regulator to examine data on the vaccine as it emerged. In November, a study of almost 44,000 people showed the shot prevented 95% of symptomatic coronavirus cases. There were no significant safety problems. (Kresge, 12/1)

The Washington Post: Moderna, Pfizer Vaccines Head To FDA Review, Setting Speed Records 
No vaccine can arrive soon enough to blunt an anticipated blitz of coronavirus cases seeded by Thanksgiving travels and gatherings — a surge expected to materialize in the coming days and weeks. But less than a year after a novel virus began hopscotching around the world, U.S. government officials project an unprecedented scientific accomplishment: Approximately 40 million doses of two remarkably effective vaccines could be available by year’s end, enough for 20 million people to receive full protection. Manufacturing will continue to ramp up through early next year, and other vaccines are expected to follow to steadily increase the supply available each month. (Johnson, 11/30)

NPR: A COVID-19 Vaccine Has Come Quick, But Expert Says That's No Reason To Fear It 
Two COVID-19 vaccines are moving toward an emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration, and both have been found to be more than 94% effective. Yet despite progress on the vaccine front, misinformation continues to spread, fueling doubts among skeptics who may decide not to take the vaccine at all. Heidi Larson, the director of the Vaccine Confidence Project and author of the book Stuck: How Vaccine Rumors Start and Why They Don't Go Away, has seen this before. As an anthropologist who has spent years traveling the globe studying vaccine misinformation, she says "any news about vaccines always raises questions." (Silva, 11/30)

NPR: Some Health Care Workers Are Wary Of Getting COVID-19 Vaccines
Health care workers are expected to be first in line to be offered a COVID-19 vaccine when one is available. It makes sense: Getting a safe, effective vaccine would help keep them and their patients healthy. Seeing doctors, nurses and medical aides getting COVID-19 vaccines would also set an example for the community. But the speed of COVID-19 vaccine development, along with concerns about political interference with the process, has left some health care workers on the fence about COVID-19 vaccines. (Huang, 12/1)

AP: Beware Of COVID-19 Scams As Vaccine Approaches FDA Approval
The coronavirus vaccine inching toward approval in the U.S. is desperately anticipated by weary Americans longing for a path back to normal life. But criminals are waiting, too, ready to use that desperation to their advantage, federal investigators say. Homeland Security investigators are working with Pfizer, Moderna and dozens of other drug companies racing to complete and distribute the vaccine and treatments for the virus. The goal: to prepare for the scams that are coming, especially after the mess of criminal activity this year with phony personal protective equipment, false cures and extortion schemes. (Long, 11/3)

The Hill: US More Than Doubles Highest Number Of Monthly COVID-19 Cases 
The U.S. more than doubled its highest number of monthly new COVID-19 cases in November, according to data from NBC News. As of 9 a.m. on Monday, the country has confirmed more than 4.2 million coronavirus cases this month, easily topping the record from October of almost 1.95 million, according to NBC News’s count. Before the fall, July had the most confirmed new cases with almost 1.93 million. (Coleman, 11/30)

The Hill: Pentagon Reports 12th Military COVID-19 Death 
The Defense Department has reported a 12th service member killed by the coronavirus, the fourth such military death reported this month. The latest fatality was included in Monday’s update of the online chart the Pentagon maintains of COVID-19 connected to the department. (Kheel, 11/30)

The Hill: Hospitals Brace For COVID-19 Surge 
Hospitals are facing rising pressure from a surge of coronavirus cases that is threatening to overwhelm their capacity, as the country braces for further escalation following Thanksgiving. Over 93,000 people are in the hospital with coronavirus, a record level, and the number is only continuing to rise, according to data from the COVID Tracking Project. (Sullivan, 11/30)

NPR: California Hospitals In COVID-19 Surge. ICUs May Soon Be Overwhelmed 
California hospitals are in a new surge of COVID-19 cases, and if trends continue, state intensive care units could be overwhelmed by Christmas Eve. The state saw a new daily high for coronavirus cases, reaching 14,034 and an overall total of 1,212,968. An additional 20 deaths were reported for a total of 19,141.As of Monday, 8,578 people are in California hospitals with COVID-19. Overall, 75% of ICU beds are occupied — and without intervention could reach 112% by Dec. 24, according to projections shared by Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday. (Oxner, 11/30)

Philadelphia Inquirer: With Rising Hospitalizations And Thanksgiving Over, Officials Warn Public Not To Travel In December
More than 4,400 Pennsylvania coronavirus patients were in hospitals on Monday morning, a record increase that the state’s top health official called “a concerning milestone,” while New Jersey sharply cut the number of people allowed to gather outdoors and nixed high school ice hockey until January. While too early to know how much the virus had spread at Thanksgiving celebrations, officials advised anyone who traveled to quarantine and were already asking people to begin preparing to stay home for Christmas, Hanukkah, and other winter celebrations. (McDaniel, Steele, McCarthy and Laughlin, 11/30)

CIDRAP: COVID-Related Nursing Shortages Hit Hospitals Nationwide 
COVID-19–related shortages of personal protective equipment and drugs continue to plague the US healthcare system, but now in the third US pandemic wave, nursing and other staffing shortages are sweeping the country. An Associated Press report found that at Hurley Medical Center in Flint, Michigan, the nurse-to-patient ratio went from its recommended 1:1 to 1:4, and Andrew Pavia, MD, chief of the pediatric infectious disease division at the University of Utah School of Medicine said it's the same in his state. (McLernon, 11/30)

The Hill: Health Experts Warn Of Tough Holiday Season For Seniors 
Health experts are warning that the holiday season poses an increased COVID-19 threat to older Americans, who are already one of the most vulnerable demographics. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than 1 million coronavirus cases have been reported since Nov. 23, despite recommendations that people forgo traveling for Thanksgiving and limit celebrations to members of their household. But many are still holding family gatherings outside the CDC guidelines with people in the high-risk 65-and-up age group. (Baker and Bautista, 11/30)

NPR: So You Traveled Over Thanksgiving. Now What? 
Despite the repeated warnings of public health experts and officials, millions of people traveled for Thanksgiving. Perhaps you're one of them. So what should you do now to keep from creating the "surge upon a surge" of coronavirus cases that Dr. Anthony Fauci is warning the U.S. could soon face? (Wamsley, 11/30)

Bloomberg: Thanksgiving Travel Data Point To Surge In Covid Infections And Deaths
Coronavirus infections are already reaching unprecedented levels throughout the U.S. Now with Thanksgiving in the rearview mirror and Christmas and New Year’s just around the curve, the question is: Just how much worse is the pandemic going to get? The latest travel data out Monday suggest that things are looking grim. Between 800,000 and 1.1 million people flew in the days leading up to and after the holiday, according to data released by the Transportation Safety Administration. Though those numbers are a fraction of typical Thanksgiving travel patterns, they are far higher than public health officials and epidemiologists hoped to see. (Brown, 11/30)

NPR: Why Our Brains Struggle To Make Sense Of COVID-19 Risks
Millions of Americans traveled for Thanksgiving despite pleas not to do so from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Dr. Deborah Birx of the White House Coronavirus Task Force says if you're one of them, assume you're infected, get tested and do not go near your friends or family members without a mask on. Because COVID-19 is a largely invisible threat, our brains struggle to comprehend it as dangerous. Dr. Gaurav Suri, a neuroscientist at San Francisco State University, explains how habits can help make the risks of the virus less abstract. (11/30)

The Wall Street Journal: For Covid Long-Haulers, A Little-Known Diagnosis Offers Possible Treatments—And New Challenges 
Some patients with long-term Covid symptoms are getting more potential treatment options as doctors diagnose them with a little-known syndrome called POTS. It’s a disorder of the autonomic nervous system that can have a variety of causes, and it existed before Covid. One common trigger is an infection, such as a virus. Now some doctors believe that the coronavirus is triggering the disorder in some people, providing an explanation for debilitating symptoms including dramatically elevated heart rates from small movements, dizziness and extreme fatigue after even minor physical activity. (Reddy, 11/30)

CIDRAP: SARS-CoV-2 May Enter The Brain Through The Nose
A small German autopsy study of COVID-19 victims in Nature Neuroscience today demonstrates the presence of SARS-CoV-2—the virus that causes COVID-19—in nasal structures and the brain, suggesting that the virus crosses into the central nervous system (CNS) via nasal surfaces that contain nerve endings for smell. (11/30)

CIDRAP: Estradiol Hormone Therapy May Protect Against COVID-19 Death
A study late last week in BMC Medicine found that pre-menopausal women with higher natural levels of the sex hormone estradiol are 15% more likely to be infected with SARS-CoV-2 than men but less likely to become seriously ill or die, pointing to a potential protective role of sex hormones in COVID-19 outcomes. The study also found that estradiol hormone therapy for peri- and post-menopausal women significantly improves survival rates for infected women. (11/30)

CIDRAP: Black Kids Bear Brunt Of Severe COVID-Linked Syndrome
A study of 223 patients younger than 20 years hospitalized with the rare but serious COVID-19–related multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) in New York City found that black children were disproportionately affected. The population-based cohort study, published as a research letter today in JAMA Network Open, involved analysis of the medical records and lab data of all pediatric MIS-C patients reported to the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene from Mar 1 to Jun 30. (Van Beusekom, 11/30)

Boston Globe: Doctors Have Message For Patients: Don’t Skip Non-Urgent Appointments
Health leaders, even as they confront a tidal wave of COVID-19 infections, are urging anxious patients not to defer critical screenings and appointments as they did during and in the weeks after the spring surge of the virus. Across the country, non-urgent surgeries and other medical appointments were halted in March to free up health care workers to treat COVID-19 patients and to conserve precious protective equipment like masks and gowns. But when the surge ebbed in May, droves of patients still shied away from doctors’ offices and outpatient hospital visits for such things as childhood vaccines and cardiac care, fearful of being infected with the virus by other patients or caregivers. (Lazar, 11/30)

Stat: The PPE Crisis Didn’t Go Away: Across The U.S., Grassroots Supply Networks Are Trying To Fill The Void
Christine Garcia was scrambling. As the San Francisco regional director at an agency for children with mental health and behavioral issues, Garcia and her colleagues had seen the latest guidelines from local health agencies mandating the use of masks at facilities like theirs. It seemed like common sense, except for one thing. “There were no masks to be had,” Garcia recalled. (Hwang, 12/1)

AP: First Blood Test To Help Diagnose Alzheimer's Goes On Sale
A company has started selling the first blood test to help diagnose Alzheimer’s disease, a leap for the field that could make it much easier for people to learn whether they have dementia. It also raises concern about the accuracy and impact of such life-altering news. Independent experts are leery because key test results have not been published and the test has not been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration — it’s being sold under more general rules for commercial labs. But they agree that a simple test that can be done in a doctor’s office has long been needed. (Marchione, 11/30)

The New York Times: Berry-Flavored H.I.V. Medication Is Ready For Babies 
The first infant formulation of dolutegravir, an important first-line H.I.V. medication, will be available soon under an agreement between several pharmaceutical companies and global health initiatives. The new formulation will be strawberry flavored and come in a tablet that dissolves in water or juice so babies can swallow it. (McNeil Jr., 11/30)

Stat: Medicines Patent Pool Expands Deal For Access To Key HIV Drug
In a bid to expand access to a key AIDS drug, ViiV Healthcare and the Medicines Patent Pool reached an agreement that will allow generic manufacturers to provide the Tivicay treatment to four upper-middle-income countries by 50% to 70% off existing pricing. The arrangement will make it possible for lower-cost versions to reach Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Malaysia after the countries balked at being excluded from a 2014 licensing agreement that covers dozens of lower and middle-income nations. (Silverman, 11/30)

Reuters: AstraZeneca Sells Former Blockbuster Cholesterol Drug For $320 Million
AstraZeneca said on Tuesday it would sell rights to its erstwhile blockbuster cholesterol drug, Crestor, to German pharmaceutical company Gruenenthal GmbH for an upfront payment of $320 million as the British drugmaker focuses on its cancer treatments portfolio. (B, 12/1)

Stat: Bullish On Its Asthma Treatment, Kinaset Forges Ahead In Unusual Times
Launching a clinical trial for a drug intended to treat severe asthma during a respiratory pandemic — particularly one that seems to hit people with some types of asthma particularly hard — could be a risky move. But that’s precisely what Kinaset Therapeutics is planning to do early next year. (Sheridan, 11/30)

The Washington Post: Money Trouble Can Precede Dementia Diagnosis By Years, Study Finds 
The anecdotes Lauren Nicholas was hearing were all similarly alarming: People with dementia were experiencing “catastrophic financial events” — often before they or their loves ones knew there was anything wrong with them. “Once you miss a bunch of payments, the bank owns your house or you can’t get credit anymore, so I think we were kind of concerned about why this is able to happen,” said Nicholas, a health economist and associate professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Deteriorating financial capabilities have long been considered one of the earliest signs of cognitive decline, but Nicholas noted that experts still had “relatively limited understanding of how frequent it is and when it’s happening.” (Chiu, 11/30)

The New York Times: New Guidelines Cover Opioid Use After Children’s Surgery
Opioids are very effective drugs for managing pain, but they can also be scary drugs, with their potential for misuse and abuse. Given the current opioid epidemic in the United States, some parents worry about whether they are safe for children, while many pain experts worry that fear of opioids among parents and among physicians may contribute to the undertreatment of pediatric pain. In new guidelines published in November in the journal JAMA Surgery, a panel convened by the American Pediatric Surgical Association Outcomes and Evidence-based Practice Committee set out some guidelines for how to think about — and prescribe — opioids for children to relieve pain after surgery. (Klass, 11/30)

Modern Healthcare: Assistance Programs Not Enough For Children Affected By Opioid Crisis
Researchers say the opioid epidemic has resulted in a rise in children living with unmet social needs that any aid programs are ill-equipped to address. An estimated 8.7 million children ages 17 and younger currently live in households with at least one parent with a substance use disorder, according to a new report released Monday by the Urban Institute. Among those with substance use disorder, about 623,000 parents had an opioid use disorder and lived with children. (Ross Johnson, 11/30)

Modern Healthcare: Physician Fee-Schedule Changes Could Upend Compensation, Experts Say
Providers are struggling to predict how changes to primary- and specialty-care payments will shake out, because nobody knows how COVID-19 will affect their practices in the next two quarters. They have a month to prepare. The proposed rule would lower the fee schedule's conversion factor from $36.09 to $32.26, a decrease of $3.83 or 10.6%. It would also make several changes to evaluation and management services and codes, including increases in their relative value and changes to coding criteria. Those moves would probably help clinicians that deliver a lot of those services, but proceduralists will see their revenues decline if CMS doesn't make significant changes in its final rule. (Brady, 11/30)

Modern Healthcare: COVID-19 Surge Threatens Hospital Finances
Hospital operating margins are poised to fall as COVID-19 cases increase, new data show. Although the federal relief funding buoyed hospitals, the median hospital operating margin still dropped 1.2 percentage points (8.5%) year over year, and 1.7 percentage points (18.7%) for January through October compared to the same prior-year period, according to Kaufman Hall's analysis of around 900 hospitals. (Kacik, 11/30)

Crain's Cleveland Business: Ohio Hospitals Had Healthy Profit Margins Before Pandemic
The Ohio Health Market Review 2020 offers a snapshot of where hospitals in the state stood before the pandemic, as well as a glimpse into how health insurers fared in the first half of 2020. Hospital profitability increased last year in the Cleveland/Akron, Columbus and Cincinnati/Dayton areas, according to the review, which is the 15th report from Allan Baumgarten, a Minnesota-based independent healthcare analyst who publishes reports on the markets in Ohio and a few other states. (Coutré, 11/30)

AP: Study: Students Falling Behind In Math During Pandemic
A disproportionately large number of poor and minority students were not in schools for assessments this fall, complicating efforts to measure the pandemic’s effects on some of the most vulnerable students, a not-for-profit company that administers standardized testing said Tuesday. Overall, NWEA’s fall assessments showed elementary and middle school students have fallen measurably behind in math, while most appear to be progressing at a normal pace in reading since schools were forced to abruptly close in March and pickup online. (Thompson, 12/1)

NPR: 'Some Good News': Student Reading Gains Are Steady, While Math Slows Down
A sweeping new review of national test data suggests the pandemic-driven jump to online learning has had little impact on children's reading growth and has only somewhat slowed gains in math. That positive news comes from the testing nonprofit NWEA and covers nearly 4.4 million U.S. students in grades three through eight. But the report also includes a worrying caveat: Many of the nation's most vulnerable students are missing from the data. "Preliminary fall data suggests that, on average, students are faring better than we had feared," says Beth Tarasawa, head of research at NWEA, in a news release accompanying the report. (Turner, 12/1)

The Wall Street Journal: School Shutdowns Weigh On Test Results 
American children performed nearly as well on average this fall as last fall on a widely used test in reading, but achievement slowed in math since the coronavirus shut schools in the spring, a nationwide report on test results shows. The report, released Tuesday, looked at results for nearly 4.4 million public-school children in grades three through eight who took the online tests at school and from home. It found most students made progress in reading and math since the pandemic started, though their gains in math were slower on average than usual. (Brody, 12/1)

Politico: California Families Sue State Over Distance Learning Inequities
Seven families took California to court Monday, accusing the state of failing to ensure "basic educational equality" during a prolonged period of remote learning brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic. The plaintiffs say the state isn't providing the equipment, training and support that low-income families desperately need and that it has left it up to districts and teachers to navigate the challenges on their own, providing scant guidance or oversight. Meanwhile, they say, families have been forced to pay for basic school supplies or make do without a computer for each child or reliable internet access. (Murphy, 11/30)

The New York Times: Ways To Get Your Kids Moving 
As any parent overseeing homeschool knows: Zoom P.E. is hardly a hard-driving Peloton class. It’s more like your kid lying on the floor of the living room doing halfhearted leg-lifts by the light of her laptop. Many students, particularly tweens and teens, are not moving their bodies as much as they are supposed to be — during a pandemic or otherwise. (60 minutes per day for ages 6 to 17, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.) A March 2020 report in The Lancet offers scientific evidence as to why your kids won’t get off the couch: As children move through adolescence, they indeed become more sedentary, which is associated with greater risk of depression by the age of 18. Being physically active is important for their physical health as well as mental health. (Levin, 11/28)

The Washington Post: No Game Days. No Bars. The Pandemic Is Forcing Some Men To Realize They Need Deeper Friendships.
For more than a decade, psychologists have written about the “friendship crisis” facing many men. ... Male friendships are often rooted in “shoulder-to-shoulder” interactions, such as watching a football game or playing video games, while women’s interactions are more face-to-face, such as grabbing a coffee or getting together for a glass of wine, said Geoffrey Greif, a professor at the University of Maryland School of Social Work who wrote a book about male friendship. ... Because of this, many men have probably had a harder time than women figuring out how to adapt their friendships in a pandemic that is keeping them apart. (Schmidt, 11/30)

The Atlantic: Are COVID-19 Bubbles A Good Idea?
Americans’ social lifelines are beginning to fray. As the temperature drops and the gray twilight arrives earlier each day, comfortably mingling outside during the pandemic is getting more difficult across much of the country. For many people, it’s already impossible. To combat the loneliness of winter, some of us might be tempted to turn to pods, otherwise known as bubbles. The basic idea is that people who don’t live together can still spend time together indoors, as long as their pod stays small and exclusive. And pods aren’t just for the winter: Since March, parents have formed child-care bubbles. Third graders have been assigned to learning pods. Some NBA teams were in a bubble for months. A July survey of 1,000 Americans found that 47 percent said they were in a bubble. (Gutman, 11/30)

Politico: Newsom Considers Stay-Home Order For California Counties
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday said he’s considering imposing stay-at-home orders on California counties to curb an explosion in coronavirus cases that threaten to overwhelm hospitals by Christmas. Newsom said he could impose the additional restrictions within the next couple of weeks. He suggested that the state could target the orders in areas where hospitals are most at risk of being overwhelmed by Covid-19 patients. (Colliver, 11/30)

Politico: Cuomo Unveils 5-Point ‘Winter Plan’ To Combat Covid-19 In New York
With more than 3,500 New Yorkers hospitalized for Covid-19, health systems across the state must begin preparing to increase their bed capacities, balancing patient loads and identifying staff — including retired nurses and doctors — to work at emergency field facilities if they are needed, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Monday. The governor announced the actions as part of a new five-pronged “winter plan” that seeks to combat Covid-19 through a new Department of Health initiative on hospital capacity, enhanced testing, K-8 in-person learning, a public education campaign on small gatherings and vaccine distribution. (Young and Gronewold, 11/30)