First Edition: Aug. 14, 2020

Kaiser Health News and The Guardian: ‘Is This When I Drop Dead?’ Two Doctors Report From The COVID Front Lines
Health workers across the country looked on in horror when New York became the global epicenter of the coronavirus. Now, as physicians in cities such as Houston, Phoenix and Miami face their own COVID-19 crises, they are looking to New York, where the caseload has since abated, for guidance. The Guardian sat in on a conversation with two emergency room physicians — one in New York and the other in Houston — about what happened when COVID-19 arrived at their hospitals. (Renwick, 8/14)

Kaiser Health News: COVID Data Failures Create Pressure For Public Health System Overhaul
After terrorists slammed a plane into the Pentagon on 9/11, ambulances rushed scores of the injured to community hospitals, but only three of the patients were taken to specialized trauma wards. The reason: The hospitals and ambulances had no real-time information-sharing system. Nineteen years later, there is still no national data network that enables the health system to respond effectively to disasters and disease outbreaks. Many doctors and nurses must fill out paper forms on COVID-19 cases and available beds and fax them to public health agencies, causing critical delays in care and hampering the effort to track and block the spread of the coronavirus. (Meyer, 8/14)

Kaiser Health News: Back To Life: COVID Lung Transplant Survivor Tells Her Story 
Mayra Ramirez remembers the nightmares.During six weeks on life support at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, Ramirez said, she had terrifying nightmares that she couldn’t distinguish from reality. “Most of them involve me drowning,” she said. “I attribute that to me not being able to breathe, and struggling to breathe.” (Herman, 8/14)

Kaiser Health News: KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: Kamala Harris On Health 
California Sen. Kamala Harris, the newly named running mate for presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, doesn’t have a lot of background in health policy. But that’s unlikely to prevent Republicans from using her on-again, off-again support for “Medicare for All” against her in the fall campaign. Meanwhile, with talks between Congress and the Trump administration over the next round of COVID-19 relief at a standstill, President Donald Trump is trying to fill the void with executive orders. What’s unclear is whether the president has the authority to do some of what he is proposing — or whether it will work to help people in dire economic and health straits. (Rovner, 8/13)

The New York Times: California Becomes First State To Report 600,000 Coronavirus Cases 
California on Thursday became the first state to surpass 600,000 reported coronavirus cases since the virus arrived at the beginning of the year, a New York Times database shows. With more than 10,800 fatalities, the state now ranks third in the country for the worst death toll, behind New York and New Jersey, which were overwhelmed with cases in the spring but have since managed to contain the virus’s spread. (8/13)

The Hill: California Coronavirus Case Count Tops 600,000 
California’s coronavirus case count topped 600,000 on Thursday, the first state to reach the grim milestone, according to data collected by The New York Times. The Golden State also has the third highest death toll in the U.S. with 10,800 COVID-19 fatalities, behind New York and New Jersey, which were hit hard by the disease early in on in the pandemic. California is among the states that experienced surges in cases in July, along with Texas, Florida and Arizona. (Coleman, 8/13)

USA Today: Late To Shut Down, First To Reopen, Georgia Reports Its Highest Daily Death Toll
It wasn’t easy for Jenny Hunter to send her kids back to school this fall, but she knew it was the better of two impossible choices for her family. "I’m well aware of the clinical risks for children," Hunter, a nurse and mother of two in Cherokee County, just outside Atlanta, told USA TODAY on Wednesday afternoon. "I'm not a teacher, and neither is my husband. I felt the benefit versus the risk was better to get them in person for their education."Minutes after hanging up, Hunter received a text from her son: His high school would be temporarily closing for two weeks after 14 students tested positive for the coronavirus. (Hauck, 8/13)

NPR: Joe Biden: For The Next 3 Months, All Americans Should Wear A Mask When Outside
Joe Biden is calling for everyone in the United States to wear a mask, well into the fall. "Every single American should be wearing a mask when they're outside for the next three months, at a minimum," Biden said Thursday afternoon in remarks in Wilmington, Del. "Every governor should mandate mandatory mask-wearing. The estimates by the experts are it will save over 40,000 lives."His comments came after a briefing on the coronavirus pandemic with his new running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris of California, and public health experts. More than 165,000 Americans have died because of COVID-19. (Khalid, 8/13)

Politico: Biden, Harris Call For All States To Mandate Masks After First Joint Covid-19 Briefing 
“Wearing a mask will give the life of a clerk in your local store or your letter carrier, your child's teacher, it will increase their prospects of not contracting the virus,” Biden said. “Even though it's uncomfortable, and we're not used to it, wearing a mask is going to get our kids back to school sooner and safer. Every American wearing a mask outdoors is going to get our businesses back and to full strength.” (Miranda Ollstein, 8/13)

Politico: Trump Assails, Misrepresents Biden On Mask Mandate In Partisan White House Briefing 
President Donald Trump on Thursday launched a partisan attack on Joe Biden at a White House press briefing, inaccurately suggesting the presumptive Democratic nominee wanted a national mandate on mask wearing while assailing Biden as "regressive," "anti-scientific" and "defeatist." Speaking to reporters from the lectern in the James S. Brady briefing room, Trump claimed Biden advocated a national mask mandate to fight the virus — an act that Trump said ignored the different needs of individual states and trampled on governors' authority. Earlier Thursday, Biden and recently announced running mate Kamala Harris called on governors to issue mask mandates amid a national effort to curb the pandemic. (Choi, 8/13)

New York Post: Trump Plans To Deliver RNC Speech On White House Lawn
President Trump on Thursday confirmed to the The Post he intends to give his Republican National Convention speech from the White House lawn, defying critics who said the location was inappropriate. During an exclusive Oval Office interview, the president said he would visit the battlefield at Gettysburg at a “later date” and described his vision of a socially-distanced speech in front of supporters at the executive mansion in Washington, DC later this month. (Bowden and Nelson, 8/13)

Politico: Trump Requests Mail-In Ballot For Florida Primary 
The day before publicly opposing funding to accommodate an expected surge in Americans voting by mail in this year’s presidential election, President Donald Trump requested a mail-in ballot to vote in Florida’s upcoming primary. The elections website for Palm Beach County, Fla., where Trump is registered to vote, shows that mail-in ballots were requested for the president and first lady Melania Trump on Wednesday. The news was first reported by USA Today. (Semones, 8/13)

The Hill: Fauci Defends Voting By Mail If 'You Don't Want To Take The Chance' In Person 
Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious diseases expert, on Thursday invoked mail-in voting as an alternative for people who didn’t want to “take the chance” of contracting the coronavirus. Fauci, in an exclusive conversation with National Geographic as part of its event, “Stopping Pandemics,” said he believed in-person voting could be safely done with proper precautions. (Budryk, 8/13)

The New York Times: Trump Makes Clear His Opposition To More Money For USPS To Support Mail Voting 
President Trump stirred new questions on Thursday about whether he would seek to hold up new money to the Postal Service to impede mail-in voting this fall in the middle of the pandemic. Repeating the unfounded claim that the election could be riddled with fraud if mail ballots were widely used, he made clear that he opposed Democratic demands for additional funding for both the post office and election security measures because of his opposition to mail-in voting. (Cochrane and Fuchs, 8/13)

AP: Trump Admits He's Blocking Postal Cash To Stop Mail-In Votes
President Donald Trump frankly acknowledged Thursday that he’s starving the U.S. Postal Service of money in order to make it harder to process an expected surge of mail-in ballots, which he worries could cost him the election. In an interview on Fox Business Network, Trump explicitly noted two funding provisions that Democrats are seeking in a relief package that has stalled on Capitol Hill. Without the additional money, he said, the Postal Service won’t have the resources to handle a flood of ballots from voters who are seeking to avoid polling places during the coronavirus pandemic. (Riechmann and Izaguirre, 8/14)

Politico: Supreme Court Blocks GOP Bid To Restore Rhode Island Ballot Rules Waived Because Of Virus 
The Supreme Court has rebuffed an effort by Republicans to block Rhode Island officials’ agreement to waive mail-in ballot security measures due to the coronavirus pandemic. The high court on Thursday turned down an emergency application from the Republican National Committee and the Rhode Island state GOP seeking to preserve a requirement in state law that absentee ballot envelopes bear the signature of two witnesses or be certified by a notary public. (Gerstein, 8/13)

AP: Preliminary Results Show Record Turnout For Vermont Primary
Preliminary results from Vermont’s election Tuesday show a historic turnout for a primary in the state, Secretary of State Jim Condos said Wednesday. Condos said well over 155,000 Vermonters voted on or before the primary. The turnout figures will remain unofficial until all town and city clerks submit their official election results. (8/14)

AP: Dodger Stadium Vote Center Planned For Presidential Election
Dodger Stadium will serve as a vote center for the presidential election in November, making the Dodgers the first Major League Baseball team to make their venue available for voting. Any registered voter in Los Angeles County can visit the stadium over a five-day period. Parking will be free. (8/14)

Stat: Disability Advocacy Gains New Traction In Presidential Races
For decades, the disability advocacy community has fought for a permanent — and prominent — place in the mainstream political discussion. The 2020 presidential race has seen a sea change. Advocates gained new traction during the campaign, pushing the full slate of Democratic candidates to discuss and define their stances on disability policies like never before. (Isselbacher, 8/14)

Politico: As A Grim Fall Approaches, Trump Team Feels Increasingly Confident 
A pandemic summer marked by testing delays, supply shortages and continued spread of the coronavirus has set the stage for a disheartening start to the fall across much of the U.S., with the shuttering of schools and cancellation of college football seasons that officials had once hoped would herald a return to normalcy more than six months into the crisis. But inside the White House, Trump’s top political aides are increasingly assured about their response — feeling like they’re finally getting a handle on how to fight the disease. (Cook and Cancryn, 8/13)

AP: US Jobless Claims Fall Below 1 Million But Remain High
The number of Americans applying for unemployment dropped below 1 million last week for the first time since the coronavirus outbreak took hold in the U.S. five months ago, but layoffs are still running extraordinarily high. The figures show that the crisis continues to throw people out of work just as the expiration of an extra $600 a week in federal jobless benefits has deepened the hardship for many — and posed another threat to the U.S. economy. (Rugaber, 8/13)

Politico: Negotiators 'Miles Apart' On Covid Funding, With Little Hope For Deal Until September
White House officials and top Democrats concede that a coronavirus relief deal is still out of reach after six days without in-person meetings — leaving little hope that relief for millions of Americans will arrive by month’s end. As of Thursday, Washington’s top negotiators have no plans to meet in the coming days, putting an indefinite halt to sputtering talks to assemble the next economic rescue package amid a pandemic that has infected over 5 million Americans. Democrats are now insisting they won’t sit down with White House officials until the GOP agrees to spend at least $2 trillion, double the size of the GOP’s initial proposal, while Republican officials remain unwilling to raise the overall price tag. (Levine and Ferris, 8/13)

The Hill: Pelosi: COVID Talks Will Resume When GOP Offers $2T 
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Thursday that the high-stakes talks between the White House and Democrats on coronavirus relief will resume only when Republicans come to the table with at least $2 trillion. "When they're ready to do that, we'll sit down," Pelosi told reporters in the Capitol. (Lillis, 8/13)

The Wall Street Journal: When Will The Latest Coronavirus Unemployment Benefits Start? What We Know
President Trump signed an executive action on Aug. 8 for a federally funded $300 a week in enhanced unemployment benefits for workers laid off during the coronavirus pandemic. The payments would replace the $600 payments that expired last month. Mr. Trump called on states to provide another $100 a week, but administration officials said the state-funded benefit was optional. Here is what we know about how unemployment benefits will work under Mr. Trump’s latest executive actions. (Chaney, 8/12)

The Wall Street Journal: WSJ Survey: Benefits Of Extra Unemployment Aid Outweigh Work Disincentive 
An overwhelming majority of economists surveyed this month by The Wall Street Journal said the economic benefits of additional jobless benefits to help laid-off workers outweighed concern that the extra payments could deter people from going back to work. About 82% of economists in the Journal’s survey said they agreed more with the idea that the extra cash boosted the economy than the idea that it held back the labor market’s recovery. Many of them said the benefits should be extended to support the recovery. (Harrison and DeBarros, 8/13)

The Washington Post: These Are The Top Coronavirus Vaccines To Watch
The worldwide effort to create a vaccine for the novel coronavirus kicked off in January, soon after scientists in China posted online the genome of a virus causing a mysterious pneumonia. Vaccine development usually takes years and unfolds step by step. Experimental vaccine candidates are created in the laboratory and tested in animals before moving into progressively larger human clinical trials. These steps are now overlapping in the race to find a vaccine for a global disease that has killed hundreds of thousands of people. (8/13)

Politico: The Next Unprecedented Vaccine Hurdle: Making Hundreds Of Millions Of Doses 
The U.S. government has now signed six deals with vaccine-makers to produce coronavirus shots, even before it’s clear any are effective — and with a risk the companies won’t be able to ramp up production in time to deliver hundreds of millions of doses. Some of the experimental vaccines use technology that has never before reached the market, so there is no precedent for producing hundreds of millions of doses. Other potential bottlenecks include a global sand shortage that could throttle the production of glass vials, and limited supplies of chemicals called adjuvants that are sometimes used to boost a vaccine’s ability to provoke an immune response. (Brennan, 8/12)

Reuters: China Sinopharm's Potential COVID-19 Vaccine Triggers Antibodies In Clinical Trials: Journal
A coronavirus vaccine candidate developed by a unit of China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm) appeared to be safe and triggered antibody-based immune responses in early and mid-stage trials, researchers said. The candidate has already moved into a late-stage trial, one of a handful of candidates being tested on several thousand people to see if they are effective enough to win regulatory approval. (8/14)

AP: Indonesia Takes Part In Late-Stage China Vaccine Trial
More people in Indonesia rolled up their sleeves Friday to test a potential coronavirus vaccine developed by a Chinese company. The Indonesian government announced the partnership between state-owned enterprise Bio Farma and the Chinese company Sinovac BioTech in early July. As part of the deal, Indonesia recruited 1,620 volunteers for the trial. The first 20 were injected with the candidate vaccine in Bandung, West Java province, on Tuesday, and more followed suit. (Tarigan and Milko, 8/14)

Stat: Covid-19 Clinical Trials Are Failing To Enroll Diverse Populations
It’s been well-established that Covid-19, at least in the United States, has disproportionately affected people of color. And yet clinical trials of treatments and vaccines for Covid-19 have so far failed to enroll diverse populations that actually reflect society. (Feuerstein, Garde and Robbins, 8/14)

Reuters: UK Buys More Potential COVID-19 Vaccines From J&J And Novavax 
Britain will buy potential COVID-19 vaccines from U.S. drugmakers Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N) and Novavax Inc (NVAX.O), the companies said on Friday, bringing the total number of deals by the UK government to six as the race for shots heats up. Johnson & Johnson said its Janssen Pharmaceutica unit will supply the UK government with its candidate known as Ad26.COV2.S with an initial sale of 30 million doses on a not-for-profit basis for emergency pandemic use. (Smout and Mason, 8/14)

Stat: Large Study Suggests Blood Plasma Can Help Treat Covid-19, With Caveats
Infusing hospitalized Covid-19 patients with blood plasma from people who recovered from the disease appeared to show a benefit in a nationwide study, but the study’s lack of a placebo group left several experts struggling to interpret the data. The study, which enrolled more than 35,000 patients, found that quickly administering so-called convalescent plasma had a marked effect on mortality for patients with severe cases of Covid-19. Those who received transfusions within three days of diagnosis had a seven-day death rate of 8.7%, while patients who got plasma after four or more days had a mortality rate of 11.9%. The difference met the standard for statistical significance. (Garde and Herper, 8/13)

The Wall Street Journal: A Deadly Coronavirus Was Inevitable. Why Was No One Ready? 
Hunkered around conference tables at the World Health Organization’s Geneva headquarters, a group of scientists debated which of the world’s most frightening epidemic diseases deserved the greatest attention. Ebola, a ferocious killer that drains its victims of bodily fluids, made the list. So did Nipah, which makes the brain swell before most of its victims die. So, too, did severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, which burrows into the lungs, leaving the sick gasping for air. At the end of the two-day gathering in February 2018, the group topped the list off with the most terrifying entry of all: Disease X. (McKay and Dvorak, 8/13)

The Hill: Coronavirus Cases May Have Been Spreading In Wuhan And Seattle Weeks Before First Detected: Researchers 
Thousands of cases of the novel coronavirus may have circulated undetected in both Wuhan, China, and Seattle early in the pandemic, according to research from the University of Texas-Austin published in The Lancet. The research suggests that by the time lockdowns were imposed in both cities, the early epicenters of their respective countries, the virus may have been spreading for weeks. (Budryk, 8/13)

The New York Times: One I.C.U., Five Patients: A Different View Of The Virus’s Toll 
A hospital is an invaluable vantage point from which to understand an epidemic. It provides a glimpse of the severity of an illness in a geographic area, a sense of whether cases are going up or down, insights on which segments of the population are most affected and clues to how well the health care infrastructure is holding up.S oon after coronavirus cases began emerging in the United States, my editor, Rebecca Corbett, suggested reporting from within a hospital, to bring to bear my training as a physician and my prior work as a reporter on infectious disease outbreaks. (Fink, 8/14)

The New York Times: You Probably Won’t Catch The Coronavirus From Frozen Food 
Amid a flurry of concern over reports that frozen chicken wings imported to China from Brazil had tested positive for the coronavirus, experts said on Thursday that the likelihood of catching the virus from food — especially frozen, packaged food — is exceedingly low. “This means somebody probably handled those chicken wings who might have had the virus,” said Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at Columbia University. “But it doesn’t mean, ‘Oh my god, nobody buy any chicken wings because they’re contaminated.’” (Wu, 8/13)

The Hill: FDA Warns About Second Toxic Chemical In Some Hand Sanitizers 
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has added to its list of potentially deadly hand sanitizers and is warning about a second toxic chemical found in some products. In an announcement on Thursday, the FDA said it has seen a spike in the number of hand sanitizer products labeled to contain ethanol but have tested positive for methanol, which can be toxic when absorbed through the skin or ingested. (Moreno, 8/13)

Stat: Most Doctors Say They're Not Part Of The Problem Of Antibiotic Resistance
Amid growing concerns over antibiotic resistance, a new survey finds the vast majority of doctors acknowledge a problem exists and believe inappropriate prescribing most often occurs in physician offices. But at the same time, many doctors do not believe their own practices are to blame, a lack of recognition that contributes to a worsening public health crisis. (Silverman, 8/13)

CIDRAP: Survey Highlights Stewardship Barriers In Primary Care 
A new survey of US primary care physicians shows that a vast majority recognize that antibiotic resistance and inappropriate prescribing of antibiotics are problems in the nation's outpatient settings. The issue is that far fewer see it as their problem. In the survey of 1,500 primary care physicians, conducted by the Pew Charitable Trusts and the American Medical Association (AMA) from August 2018 through October 2018, 93% agreed that antibiotic resistance is a problem in the United States, and 91% agreed that inappropriate antibiotic prescribing is a problem in outpatient healthcare. (Dall, 8/13)

KTVQ: In Montana, Doctors Aren't Required To Tell Women They Have Dense Breast Tissue - A Known Risk For Cancer
Research shows that women with dense breast tissue are at a higher risk for breast cancer. But in Montana, they may not know that risk because their healthcare providers aren't required to tell them. Montana continues to be one of a handful of states that doesn’t require healthcare providers, doctors and hospitals to notify women of the cancer risk associated with breast density. (Lutz, 8/13)

Stat: Teladoc Rival MDLive Is Preparing To Go Public Next Year
On the heels of Teladoc’s landscape-shifting deal to buy Livongo, telemedicine rival MDLive is setting its sights on a public offering early next year, the company’s chief executive officer told STAT. The offering, which is still in the early stages, would take place some time in January or February of next year, according to CEO Charles Jones. (Brodwin, 8/13)

Star-Tribune: County Commission Votes To Sell Wyoming Medical Center To Banner Health 
The $200 million deal to sell Wyoming Medical Center’s assets to Banner Health was approved Thursday by the Natrona County Commission, clearing the way for the facility to become a part of Banner’s growing system. The commission’s five members all voted unanimously, after the county’s separate hospital board also gave its approval. The deal will see $120 million go to the county’s coffers, plus roughly $40 million dispatched to the hospital’s reinforced foundation. Banner will also absorb $50 million in debt left over from WMC construction and the purchase of Mountain View Regional two years ago. (Nimmo, 8/13)

Stat: Many Psoriasis Patients Are Paying Higher Prices Than Ever For Drugs
Over the past decade, wholesale prices for self-administered psoriasis medicines rose substantially, underscoring the ongoing financial burden for many patients, according to a new analysis. Since 2009, the annual mean increase in price ranged from 4% to 12% for nine different psoriasis medicines, although some of the drugs were launched more recently. For instance, the largest rise in wholesale price was for Cimzia, which exceeded $94,000 last year, compared with just under $40,000 when the drug became available 11 years ago. (Silverman, 8/13)

The Hill: Top Trump Official 'Really Tired Of Hearing' Criticism Over COVID-19 Testing 
The Trump administration official in charge of the country's COVID-19 testing strategy said Thursday that the U.S. is doing enough testing and dismissed critics who say otherwise. “It is just a false narrative — and I’m really tired of hearing it by people not involved in the system — that we need millions of tests every day,” said Adm. Brett Giroir, assistant secretary of Health and Human Services, on a call with reporters. “If that were true, we would not be reversing the outbreaks we have,” he added. (Hellmann, 8/13)

Politico: Testing Mess Leaves Texas In The Dark As Cases Spike 
Covid-19 testing is a mess in Texas. More than one-in-five Texans who are tested for coronavirus are positive, the worst statewide rate in the country. But the number of people getting tests has plummeted in the last two weeks, which could understate how widespread the virus really is as schools reopen and hospitalizations and deaths remain near record highs. (Goldberg, 8/13)

The New York Times: On Native American Land, Contact Tracing Is Saving Lives 
The coronavirus is raging through the White Mountain Apache tribe. Spread across a large reservation in eastern Arizona, the Apaches have been infected at more than 10 times the rate of people in the state as a whole. Yet their death rate from Covid-19 is far lower, just 1.3 percent, as compared with 2.1 percent in Arizona. Epidemiologists have a hopeful theory about what led to this startling result: Intensive contact tracing on the reservation likely enabled teams that included doctors to find and treat gravely ill people before it was too late to save them. (Kolata, 8/13)

NPR: Should You Get Tested For Coronavirus Before You Travel To Visit Family?
Like everything with this pandemic, the answer is complicated. The infectious disease experts I spoke to told me there are two reasons why testing might not be very helpful. The first has to do with the length of time it takes to get your test results back these days — up to a week or more in some places for PCR tests. By the time you get your results back, you could have unknowingly been exposed to the virus, making the original test irrelevant. (Davis, 8/13)

AP: Fresno County School That Opened Classrooms Ordered To Close
A private school in California was ordered to close Thursday after it reopened classrooms in violation of a state health order aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus. Fresno County issued a health order against Immanuel Schools in Reedley, ordering it to close its classrooms until the county is removed from a state monitoring list for two weeks. Violating the order could lead to fines of up to $1,000 per violation per day. (8/14)

The Hill: California Slams 'Inaccurate And Outdated Beliefs' Of Parents Suing To Reopen Schools 
California in a legal brief is slamming the “inaccurate and outdated beliefs” of parents who are suing the state to force schools to reopen amid the coronavirus pandemic. The state fired back after more than a dozen parents filed a lawsuit last month requesting a temporary restraining order on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D) order for schools in counties on the state’s watch list to conduct virtual learning. (Coleman, 8/13)

AP: Tulsa Commits $5.6M Of Virus Relief To Get Students Online
Tulsa will spend $5.6 million of the $30 million in federal coronavirus relief funds it received to provide internet services for public school students, Mayor G.T. Bynum said Thursday. “Through the use of CARES dollars, we will be providing better opportunity and internet access for more than 22,000 Tulsa families, providing a clear path for our children to receive the help they need with their education during this critical time,” Bynum said in a statement. (8/13)

Idaho Statesman: GOP Legislators Look To Strip School Closure Authority From Idaho’s Health Districts
Legislators warned of abuses of power and concerns about totalitarianism Monday as a legislative working group pushed to take away health districts’ ability to close schools. The Education Working Group requested the Legislature take up the issue of school closure authority when Gov. Brad Little convenes an extraordinary session of the Legislature the week of Aug. 24. (Corbin, 8/10)

AP: Schools Mull Outdoor Classes Amid Virus, Ventilation Worries
It has been seven years since the central air conditioning system worked at the New York City middle school where Lisa Fitzgerald O’Connor teaches. As a new school year approaches amid the coronavirus pandemic, she and her colleagues are threatening not to return unless it’s repaired. Her classroom has a window air conditioning unit, but she fears the stagnant air will increase the chances that an infected student could spread the virus. (Spencer, 8/13)

NPR: Online Classes, Homeschooling, Pods: Options For Your Child This Year 
There are no easy answers, and this is not one-size-fits-all. So we came up with a list of questions to help you think through your options. (Kamenetz, 8/13)

AP: Boston University Faculty Protest Reopening Plan
Members of Boston University’s faculty are raising concerns about the school’s plan to reopen the campus this fall amid the coronavirus pandemic. Faculty held a drive-by rally Thursday calling on the school to provide employees the option to work from home and provide free personal protective equipment to all faculty, staff and students. They are also demanding free COVID-19 testing for residents of the neighborhoods surrounding the university. (8/14)

Politico: CDC: One Quarter Of Young Adults Contemplated Suicide During Pandemic 
One in four young adults between the ages of 18 and 24 say they've considered suicide in the past month because of the pandemic, according to new CDC data that paints a bleak picture of the nation's mental health during the crisis. The data also flags a surge of anxiety and substance abuse, with more than 40 percent of those surveyed saying they experienced a mental or behavioral health condition connected to the Covid-19 emergency. The CDC study analyzed 5,412 survey respondents between June 24 and 30. (Ehley, 8/13)

The Hill: Coronavirus Pandemic Leading To Depression And Drinking, CDC Says 
Americans are struggling to cope with the coronavirus pandemic after months of harsh lockdowns, widespread disease and economic suffering that has fallen disproportionately on the young, minorities and those who are most vulnerable to financial shocks. A new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) finds the number of Americans reporting adverse mental health or behavioral changes — like drinking or drug use — on a perilous rise in recent months. (Wilson, 8/13)

The Washington Post: Covid-19 Surges Back Into Nursing Homes In Coronavirus Hot Spots 
The novel coronavirus is surging back into U.S. nursing homes, where it killed tens of thousands at the start of the pandemic and now once again threatens some of the people most vulnerable to covid-19, the disease caused by the virus. The development is a discouraging result of widespread community transmission of the virus in many parts of the country and in hot spots where it is even less controlled. With staff — and in some cases patients and visitors — entering and leaving facilities, the community-acquired infection almost inevitably finds its way inside. (Bernstein, 8/13)

The Washington Post: California Wildfire Rages As Heat Wave Bakes West 
Exceptionally hot temperatures are baking parts of the West, bringing hazardous conditions to many and contributing to wildfires. The sizzling heat is worsening what’s already been the hottest summer on record for some, while fostering explosive wildfire growth in California. The unbearable temperatures come amid a Southwest monsoon that never got started, leaving much of Arizona and New Mexico especially parched. (Cappucci, 8/13)

USA Today: 'Hard To Predict' Lake Fire In Southern California Grows To 11,000 Acres With 5% Containment
A Southern California wildfire that has threatened more than 5,000 structures in rural Los Angeles County continued to rage Thursday, with Angeles National Forest officials describing its movements as "hard to predict." The Lake Fire, burning between Lake Hughes and Lake Castaic, about 65 miles north of Los Angeles, had grown to about 11,000 acres and was 5% contained as of 7 p.m. PDT. The blaze has destroyed three structures and forced evacuations near Lake Hughes. (Aspegren, 8/13)

The New York Times: Prison Inmate Hanged Himself With Coronavirus Mask, Officials Say 
A prison inmate in Connecticut this week hanged himself in his cell with a cloth mask that had been issued to him as part of an effort to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, correction officials and the state’s chief medical examiner said. The inmate, Daniel Ocasio, died on Wednesday after he was found at 5:07 a.m. with a ligature around his neck while he was sitting on a bunk at the Corrigan-Radgowski Correctional Center in Uncasville, Conn., the state’s Department of Correction said. (Vigdor, 8/13)