Different Takes: COVID Is Giving New Look To Funding Of Health Care Industries; Pros And Cons Of A Changing Virus

Stat: Covid-19: Changing The Game For Health Care Companies, Investors 
Even as the health care industry has stepped up with an unprecedented response to the Covid-19 pandemic, health care companies are being undermined by a loss of revenue, splintering of their clinical workforces, and the disintegration of normal as we know it. For health-related entrepreneurs and startups, this means the rules of engagement with their stakeholders, including venture investors, are also changing. (Eric M. Stone, 6/5)

Bloomberg: Coronavirus: Post-Peak Lull In Cases Doesn’t Mean Weaker Virus 
It's natural to want some good news in troubling times. There are potential dangers in reading too much into things.  In Italy, there's an ongoing public debate about a possible encouraging shift toward a weaker version of Covid-19. A leading virologist and doctor have endorsed this idea as the number of deaths, cases, severely ill patients and viral load they’ve seen on swabs are declining or holding steady even as the country reopens. The virologist, Arnaldo Caruso, suggested that the virus could vanish even without a vaccine and that distancing and masks may no longer be needed soon. (Max Nisen, 6/4)

The Guardian: The Lancet Has Made One Of The Biggest Retractions In Modern History. How Could This Happen?
The Lancet is one of the oldest and most respected medical journals in the world. Recently, they published an article on Covid patients receiving hydroxychloroquine with a dire conclusion: the drug increases heartbeat irregularities and decreases hospital survival rates. This result was treated as authoritative, and major drug trials were immediately halted – because why treat anyone with an unsafe drug? Now, that Lancet study has been retracted, withdrawn from the literature entirely, at the request of three of its authors who “can no longer vouch for the veracity of the primary data sources”. Given the seriousness of the topic and the consequences of the paper, this is one of the most consequential retractions in modern history. (James Heathers, 6/5)

Los Angeles Times: How Fear Puts Us At High Risk For Trump's Magical Thinking
On Monday night, President Trump told the nation that he could stop the unrest from nationwide protests and restore security in America: “We will succeed 100%. We will succeed. Our country always wins.”Two weeks ago, he told the press he was taking hydroxychloroquine to ward off COVID-19. “I take it because I think I hear very good things,” he said. “I want the people of this nation to feel good. I don’t want them being sick.” So what if clinical tests have found the drug carried risks for coronavirus patients, with no benefits?Trump’s comments in these two instances and many others during his time in office are indicative of his magical thinking.Magical thinkers are impatient and go with their gut. And in the early days of the pandemic, Trump happily declared that the coronavirus would just disappear like miracle one day. (Michael S. Roth, 6/4)

Los Angeles Times: How To Make Sure Protests Don't Spread Coronavirus
When thousands of people started crowding city streets across the nation last week to protest the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers, where was the outcry about the risk of a new COVID-19 outbreak? Why weren’t the voices that were so quick to condemn the unmasked conservatives who protested pandemic shutdowns and the crowds of unmasked hikers and beachgoers speaking out again? It’s a good question that defies a simple answer. Was it the surprising escalation of protests? The protesters’ cause? Or the fact that it would come off as inexcusably tone-deaf to scold people about proper social distancing when they worry that they or their loved ones may be the next victims of a police shooting? (6/5)

The Hill: COVID-19 Deaths In ICE Detention Demands Medical Action Now 
As physicians and physicians-in-training at the Harvard Medical School’s Asylum Clinic, we have received urgent requests to speak on behalf of the needs of detainees living in circumstances promoting the rapid spread of COVID-19, such as crowded dormitory-style housing where detainees lack basic access to soap or masks. We cannot ignore these warnings any longer and need immediate action to release additional detainees and improve public health conditions inside detention centers. (Caroline Lee, Nishant Uppal, Parsa Erfani and Katherine Peeler, 6/4)

New England Journal of Medicine: The Legal Authority For States’ Stay-At-Home Orders
In March 2020, when many U.S. states and localities issued their first emergency orders to address Covid-19, there was widespread acceptance of the government’s legal authority to respond quickly and aggressively to this unprecedented crisis. Today, that acceptance is fraying. As initial orders expire and states move to extend or modify them, legal challenges have sprouted. The next phase of the pandemic response will see restrictions dialed up and down as threat levels change. As public and political resistance grows, further legal challenges are inevitable. Legal Challenges to Public Health Orders.The shape of these challenges is already morphing. Early cases alleged that stay-at-home orders violate individual rights. ...To prevent officials from trampling civil liberties during emergencies, some checks on their power are essential, but we believe the Wisconsin court grossly misapprehended how such checks ought to function. (Mark A. Hall, Michelle M. Mello, and David M. Studdert, 6/3).

The Hill: The Intellectual Disability Community Needs COVID Tracking 
Despite some states showing a flattening of the curve of COVID-19, hot pockets of vulnerability continue to report increases in cases and deaths. But not all vulnerable populations are even counted. A recent report by the Chicago Tribune and ProPublica highlighted concerns of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families. The report shows  21.5 percent of persons residing in large residential state developmental centers have tested positive for COVID-19. (Laura Vanpuymbrouck and Sarah Ailey, 6/4)

New England Journal of Medicine: Of Heroes And Cowards 
I write this from a beige-themed medicine call room in a Santa Monica hospital. Before starting, I did a quick pass over the desk, keyboard, and phone with a germicidal wipe — a new ritual performed when settling into a workspace. Harsh, unflattering fluorescent light beams down from above. It’s 10 p.m. on an April evening, and I’m a second-year internal medicine resident at UCLA. This spring should have seen the triumphant debut of my new-found residency self-confidence. Why? Because I’ve finally completed at least once every rotation I’ll have to weather as a senior resident, an important benchmark as I progress through my medical training. Have there been lukewarm and critical evaluations along the way? Of course. Did I stress myself into dyspepsia while leading a code? Yep. Have I syncopized while admitting a patient in the emergency department? Double yep. But I made it through each new rotation, my confidence slowly building and my anxieties diminishing as the year progressed. After all, there can be no more fear of the unknown when there is no more unknown, right? Enter a viral pandemic. (Shire Lynn Beach, 6/3)

The Hill: The World Will Starve If We Keep Ignoring Disease Outbreaks 
The global coronavirus pandemic is exposing vulnerabilities in many of the systems we normally take for granted. Hospitals in New York, northern Italy and other disease epicenters have been overwhelmed with patients, putting doctors in the grim position of having to ration medical supplies and care. Food systems are also under strain, as panic buyers empty store shelves of staple products like flour and eggs, and lockdowns lead to farm labor shortages and slower international trade. In low-income countries, the situation is even more critical — business shutdowns and movement restrictions are leaving millions without any source of income, and without government safety nets, many are at risk of hunger and sliding deeper into poverty. (Elwyn Grainger-Jones, 6/4)

The Hill: The Crisis Within A Crisis: Panic And Pandemic 
The COVID-19 pandemic links the fates of individuals, communities and economies worldwide. But for those among us struggling with mental illness, their plight is particularly precarious. And just as the pandemic caught many hospitals and health systems unprepared, a crashing wave of suffering has entirely overwhelmed what meager systems are in place to deal with the mentally ill. If COVID-19 offers a wake-up call about our fragile human condition it is that the illness and suffering of one eventually touch us all, and that community health requires that we address the urgent needs of marginalized populations most in peril. (Garen Staglin and Former Rep. Patrick Kennedy, 6/3)

Boston Globe: Release The Holyoke Soldiers’ Home Report 
What did Baker administration officials know about the coronavirus crisis at the Soldiers’ Home in Holyoke and when did they know it? More than two months after that crisis erupted, there are still no straight answers from Governor Charlie Baker to those questions. Baker ordered an investigation into the matter on April 1, but the findings have yet to be released. (6/4)