Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Administration Considers Collecting Contact Info On Incoming Travelers
NBC News: DHS Mulling Plan To Collect Phone Numbers From All Arriving Air Travelers For COVID-19 Tracing
Federal health and homeland security officials are considering a contact tracing program that would require all incoming air travelers to the United States — including American citizens — to hand over phone numbers and email addresses regardless of whether they have contracted COVID-19, according to government and airline officials. The policy under consideration by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Homeland Security is intended to allow airlines to alert travelers who may have come in contact with an infected passenger, but two sources with knowledge of the program say the information could be accessed by law enforcement agencies, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and potentially used to track the arriving air travelers. (Strickler and Ainsley, 8/27)
The Hill: Democrats Press Esper On 'Concerning' Rise In Pentagon's COVID-19 Cases
A group of Senate Democrats is reviving its concerns about the Pentagon’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, citing a spike in cases in July. In a letter to Defense Secretary Mark Esper, the nine senators called reports of a rise in cases among service members “concerning.” (Kheel, 8/27)
In other news from the Trump administration —
AP: US Detaining More Migrant Children In Hotels Despite Outcry
The Trump administration has sharply increased its use of hotels to detain immigrant children as young as 1 before expelling them from the United States during the coronavirus pandemic despite facing outcry from lawmakers and human-rights advocates. Federal authorities said they detained 577 unaccompanied children in hotels through the end of July, up from 240 in April, May and June, according to a report published late Wednesday from a court-appointed monitor for detained immigrant youth. (Merchant and Sanon, 8/27)
Stat: New Polling Shows Wide Support For Several Trump Drug Pricing Reforms
Voters in several battleground states overwhelmingly support several of President Trump’s recent proposals to drastically cut drug prices. But they’re markedly less enthusiastic about his plan to end drug rebates, according to a new poll shared first with STAT. (Florko, 8/28)
Also —
The New York Times: How Dr. Fauci Found Himself Talking To Julia Roberts, Lil Wayne And Just About Any Podcaster Who Asked
On March 15, as the novel coronavirus was beginning to surge in the United States, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci accomplished a rare Washington feat: He appeared on all five major Sunday talk shows. But the White House worried that Dr. Fauci might upstage (and sometimes contradict) President Trump, and soon his media handlers were no longer approving his high-profile interview requests. So Dr. Fauci found another way to get his message out: He said yes to pretty much every small offer that came his way: academic webinars, Instagram feeds and niche science podcasts, as well as a few celebrity interviews. (Bui, Sanger-Katz, Gay Stolberg, Weiland and Bennett, 8/27)
