First Edition: Aug. 19, 2020

Kaiser Health News: As Georgia Reopened, Officials Knew Of Severe Shortage Of PPE For Health Workers 
As the coronavirus crisis deepened in April, Georgia officials circulated documents showing that to get through the next month, the state would need millions more masks, gowns and other supplies than it had on hand. The projections, obtained by KHN and other organizations in response to public records requests, provide one of the clearest pictures of the severe PPE deficits states confronted while thousands fell ill from rising COVID-19 cases, putting health workers at risk. (Pradhan and Knight, 8/19)

Kaiser Health News and Politifact HealthCheck: Democratic Convention, Night 1: Hitting Trump Team On Pandemic Preparedness
On the first night of the Democrats’ 2020 national convention, one thing was clear. This time would be different. No crowds, buttons, placards or party swag. The coronavirus pandemic was an ever-present theme. Still, there was a virtual National Anthem and everyday people offering their thoughts on the upcoming election and the state of the nation. A young woman whose father, a Donald Trump voter, died of COVID-19, was among them. A list of marquee speakers including Sen. Bernie Sanders and former first lady Michelle Obama spoke directly into the camera. (8/18)

The Wall Street Journal: New U.S. Covid-19 Cases Jump As Fears Grow Over Campus Spread 
New coronavirus cases in the U.S. climbed higher, but remained below 50,000 for the fourth day in a row, as some universities and schools move classes online to avoid campus outbreaks. The U.S. reported more than 44,000 new coronavirus cases Tuesday, up sharply from the previous day’s 35,112, but lower than recent peaks this month and in July, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Total cases in the U.S. approached 5.5 million, while the nation’s death toll neared 172,000. (Hall, 8/19)

The Washington Post: WHO Warns Young People Are Emerging As Main Spreaders Of The Coronavirus 
The World Health Organization warned Tuesday that young people are becoming the primary drivers of the spread of the novel coronavirus in many countries — a worrisome trend experts fear may grow in the United States as many colleges and schools begin to reopen. Many nations in Asia, which had previously pushed infections to enviably low rates, have experienced surges in recent weeks at the same time that the age of those infected skewed younger. (Wan and Balingit, 8/18)

The Wall Street Journal: DNC Nominates Joe Biden To Lead Nation Through Pandemic 
[Dr. Jill] Biden said in the night’s final speech that profound moments of grief in her husband’s life—a 1972 car accident that killed his first wife and a daughter and the 2015 death of his son Beau from cancer—had made him an empathetic leader fit to lead the nation through the coronavirus pandemic that has claimed the lives of more than 171,000 Americans.“How do you make a broken family whole? The same way you make a nation whole. With love and understanding—and with small acts of kindness. With bravery. With unwavering faith,” Ms. Biden said, adding later: “I know if we entrust this nation to Joe, he will do for your family what he did for ours: bring us together and make us whole.” (Jamerson and Day, 8/19)

ABC News: Biden Discusses Healthcare Plan At Dem Convention 
Minutes after he received enough delegates to clinch the Democratic nomination, former Vice President Joe Biden discussed one of the top policy proposals: a revamp of the nation’s healthcare. In a town hall-style video chat with Americans who have dealt with serious health ailments, Biden vowed to strengthen the Affordable Care Act, which he and President Barack Obama helped pass in 2010. (Pereira, 8/18)

The Hill: Clinton Tears Into Trump Over COVID-19 Response In Convention Speech 
Former President Clinton ripped President Trump’s response to the coronavirus on Tuesday, accusing the president of dithering and spreading misinformation in the early days of the outbreak that he said resulted in the U.S. being hit harder by the pandemic. Speaking from his home in Chappaqua, N.Y., on the second night of the virtual Democratic National Convention, Clinton said that instead of turning the Oval Office into a “command center” to address the pandemic, Trump turned the White House into a “storm center” that created additional “chaos.” (Easley and Chalfant, 8/18)

The Wall Street Journal: USPS To Suspend Changes Until After Election 
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said the U.S. Postal Service is suspending operational changes, such as removal of mail processing equipment and collection boxes, until after the November election, as the agency tries to reassure Americans that it can handle the anticipated surge in mail-in voting. Calling the timely delivery of the nation’s election mail a “sacred duty,” Mr. DeJoy said the agency won’t change retail hours at post offices across the country or close any mail-sorting facilities. (Andrews, Corse and Ziobro, 8/18)

Politico: Pro Sports Teams Offer Up Empty Arenas For Voting In The Fall 
The Election Super Centers Project has four NBA teams participating so far — the Indiana Pacers (Indianapolis), Los Angeles Clippers, Milwaukee Bucks and Washington Wizards — as well as the NFL’s Pittsburgh Steelers, MLB’s Boston Red Sox and the NHL’s New Jersey Devils (Newark) and Washington Capitals (who share an arena and owner with the Wizards). The Golden State Warriors are also in discussions to join the program. (Montellaro, 8/18)

Reuters: Pelosi Emphasizes Need For COVID-19 Deal 'Now' 
U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Tuesday that Democrats in Congress are willing to cut their coronavirus relief bill in half to get an agreement on new legislation, which a senior aide said did not signal a change to her position. “We have to try to come to that agreement now,” Pelosi said in an online interview with Politico. “We’re willing to cut our bill in half to meet the needs right now. We’ll take it up again in January. We’ll see them again in January. But for now, we can cut the bill in half.” (8/18)

The Washington Post: Trump Fetal Tissue Ethics Board Urges Rejection Of Most Research Proposals 
A new advisory board, created to review the ethics of proposed fetal tissue research grants, is urging the Trump administration to block government funding for nearly all of the applications — essentially seeking to ban support for most such scientific work. The recommendation that the National Institutes of Health withhold funds from all but one of a slate of 14 research proposals means that Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, who has the final say, would need to buck the will of a board he convened — and of social conservatives crucial to President Trump’s political base — for the projects to get federal support. (Goldstein, 8/18)

Reuters: More Infectious Coronavirus Mutation May Be 'A Good Thing', Says Disease Expert
An increasingly common mutation of the novel coronavirus found in Europe, North America and parts of Asia may be more infectious but appears less deadly, according to a prominent infectious diseases doctor. (8/17)

CNN: First Covid-19 Vaccine Trial Moving At A Good Clip, But Officials Still "Very Concerned" 
The first coronavirus vaccine trial in the US is moving along at a good clip, but needs more minorities to enroll if it is to succeed, officials tell CNN. While Black people and Latinos account for more than 50% of Covid-19 cases nationwide, so far they make up only about 15% of participants in the nation's first large-scale clinical trial to test out a coronavirus vaccine, according to data obtained by CNN from a government official. That could potentially delay a vaccine from getting to the marketplace. (Cohen, 8/18)

The Hill: Fauci Says He Does Not See US Mandating COVID-19 Vaccination For General Public 
Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious diseases expert, said Tuesday he doesn’t see the U.S. mandating a COVID-19 vaccine. “I don't think you'll ever see a mandating of vaccine particularly for the general public,” Fauci said during a livestreamed interview with Healthline. (Hellmann, 8/18)

Stat: Will Covid-19 Vaccines Be Safe For Children And Pregnant Women?
As potential Covid-19 vaccines speed their way through development, manufacturers and U.S. regulators have largely delayed testing in children and women who are pregnant, raising the possibility that experts will lack critical safety and efficacy data in those populations when there’s a pressing need to inoculate them. Vaccines are always tested first in healthy adults, a population that is most likely to provide a clear picture of whether a vaccine triggers protection. It’s also a population deemed to be at lowest risk should there be side effects from an experimental vaccine. (Branswell, 8/19)

CNN: Getting Vaccinated For The Flu This Year Is Particularly Important, WHO Officials Say
Getting the flu vaccine this year is important, experts at the World Health Organization said during a news briefing in Geneva on Tuesday. It appears that the circulation of flu in the Southern Hemisphere -- which includes Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, Chile, South Africa and Zimbabwe -- is low. However, making assessments of what will happen in the Northern Hemisphere -- which includes North America, Europe and much of Asia -- needs to be done carefully. (Thomas and Hetter, 8/18)

CIDRAP: Study: COVID-19 Inflammatory Syndrome In Kids Not Kawasaki Disease
The multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) associated with COVID-19 appears to be an abnormal immune response to the novel coronavirus, similar to but distinct from Kawasaki disease, according to a research letter published today in Nature Medicine. Led by researchers at King's College London, the study evaluated the clinical characteristics and immune profiles of 25 UK children hospitalized for MIS-C from Apr 27 to May 25. (8/18)

The Washington Post: Researchers Are Training Dogs To Sniff Out People Infected With The Coronavirus 
The black Labrador circled a giant horizontal metal wheel, sniffing the cans at the end of each spoke before stopping abruptly in front of one. Head up and ears pricked, Blaze froze, staring intently ahead. “That’s amazing! Just amazing!” exclaimed Cynthia Otto, director of the Penn Vet Working Dog Center at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine. Blaze is one of nine dogs enrolled in a University of Pennsylvania study into whether dogs can detect a distinct smell in people infected with the novel coronavirus. (Stead Sellers, 8/18)

CIDRAP: Reading Levels Of US, Global COVID-19 Websites Too High For Many
A review of 18 US and international public health and governmental websites with COVID-19 information for the public—including those of the World Health Organization and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)—has found that all exceeded the recommended reading level and used sentence structures and technical terminology that would hinder understanding. The review, published today in JAMA Network Open, used five common readability formulas and health readability guidelines to evaluate the websites of three public health agencies and 15 official governmental sites of countries with English-language guidelines and at least 5,000 confirmed coronavirus cases as of Apr 5. (8/18)

CIDRAP: Study Finds No Race Difference In COVID-19 Hospital Deaths 
After adjusting for sociodemographic factors and underlying conditions, black COVID-19 patients were no more likely than white patients to die of any cause in hospitals, a retrospective study published today in JAMA Network Open has found. Researchers at Ascension Health in St. Louis analyzed data from 11,210 adults with COVID-19 in 92 hospitals in 12 states from Feb 19 to May 31. (Van Beusekom, 8/18)

CNN: MIT Researchers Created A Reusable Face Mask That Works Like An N95 Respirator 
Nurses and doctors have gone to creative extremes to reuse the same masks, gloves and scrubs they need to treat contagious coronavirus patients. But if a prototype mask created by researchers proves widely effective, it may be a safer alternative for health care workers. (Andrew, 8/19)

AP: Montana Assisted Living Facility Told To Enforce Mask Rules
An assisted living facility in Montana has been ordered to comply with state and local requirements for employees to wear masks while at work to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The Missoula City-County Health Department issued the order Friday to Ty Harding, owner of the Beehive Homes franchise in Missoula. (8/18)

Los Angeles Times: How Many People Really Wear Masks? We Counted. It Wasn’t Pretty
We visited a trendy Venice shopping district, Main Street in Huntington Beach, and a leafy public park in north Long Beach. We monitored each location six times between July 23 and July 28, tracking a total of 3,026 passersby in two-hour shifts. While our results are limited to a small selection of locations in the populous and diverse region of Southern California, it is modeled on studies conducted by academics to offer a more scientific answer to the question of how residents are responding to the pandemic. Here's what we found. (Miller, 8/19)

The Wall Street Journal: What Derailed America’s Covid Testing: Three Lost Weeks 
Alex Azar’s face reddened when he heard the news: The only federally authorized tests to detect whether Americans were infected with the new coronavirus were flawed, and officials couldn’t identify what was causing the problem. The Health and Human Services secretary listened on a speaker phone with advisers on Feb. 18, according to an attendee, as a senior Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official told him the agency hadn’t yet found a fix to the problem in the CDC-designed test. (Armour, Abbott, Burton and McKay, 8/18)

The Washington Post: Notre Dame Halts In-Person Teaching For Two Weeks Amid Coronavirus Outbreak 
Notre Dame ordered extensive testing of students for the novel coronavirus before the school year started. Out of 11,836 who were tested, 33 were confirmed as positive cases. Those students were not allowed onto campus until cleared by medical professionals. But that was not enough to extinguish the threat. “Our contact-tracing analysis indicates that most infections are coming from off-campus gatherings,” said the Rev. John I. Jenkins, president of Notre Dame. “Students infected at those gathering passed it on to others, who in turn have passed the virus on to others, resulting in the positive cases we have seen.”

Politico: Notre Dame, Michigan State Suspend In-Person Instruction 
“The virus is a formidable foe," [University of Notre Dame President and Rev. John] Jenkins said. "For the past week, it has been winning.” All of the cases, except for one, are students infected with the coronavirus. Most of those students resided off campus, the university said, adding that the infections were linked to "off-campus gatherings where neither masks were worn nor physical distancing observed." (Perez Jr. and Quilantan, 8/18)

NPR: UNC In-Person Class Cancellation A Lesson To Other Colleges, Faculty Chair Says 
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill made it one week into the fall semester before scrapping plans for in-person instruction. It's an experience that other large campuses should learn from, Mimi Chapman, chair of the UNC-Chapel Hill faculty, told NPR's All Things Considered on Tuesday. (Treisman, 8/18)

The New York Times: ‘Frats Are Being Frats’: Greek Life Is Stoking The Virus On Some Campuses 
The concerns over Greek life come amid reports of virus outbreaks at fraternities and sororities across the country. Universities are struggling with how to prevent tightly packed sorority and fraternity houses from turning into coronavirus clusters. At the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, officials abruptly called off in-person classes on Monday after identifying four clusters in student housing facilities, including one at the Sigma Nu fraternity. (Harmon, Robles, Blinder and Fuller, 8/18)

CNN: US Coronavirus: Covid-19 Infections Among Students Have Already Caused Some Colleges To Halt In-Person Classes
Just days before classes are slated to resume, colleges across the country are finding it may be next to impossible to create a coronavirus-free environment on campus. Young people -- who US officials say helped drive a nationwide surge of new coronavirus cases over the summer -- are now returning to college campuses across the country. With them have come reports of hundreds of infections. (Maxouris, 8/19)

Politico: Health Adviser To De Blasio Warns Schools Will Become 'Hotbeds' For Coronavirus
A long-time public health adviser to Mayor Bill de Blasio warned Tuesday that sending kids back to school in the fall could accelerate a second wave of the coronavirus, as City Hall tries to manage the herculean task of partially reopening schools come September. New York City, once the national epicenter of the coronavirus crisis, has maintained low Covid-19 transmission rates since June. But public health experts are girding for a resurgence when temperatures drop this fall and more people stay indoors. (Eisenberg, 8/18)

The New York Times: ‘I’m Only One Human Being’: Parents Brace For A Go-It-Alone School Year 
Parents across America are facing the pandemic school year feeling overwhelmed, anxious and abandoned. With few good options for support, the vast majority have resigned themselves to going it alone, a new survey for The New York Times has found. Just one in seven parents said their children would be returning to school full time this fall, and for most children, remote school requires hands-on help from an adult at home. (Cain Miller, 8/19)

The Washington Post: Florida Education Chief Tells Districts: Don’t Rush To Close Schools When Covid-19 Cases Appear
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and his administration are doubling (or tripling?) down on opening schools during the coronavirus pandemic and keeping them open even when cases of the disease are diagnosed. On a phone call with school district superintendents late last week, Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran urged them to be “surgical” when dealing with covid-19 cases, as opposed to “sweeping” — and told them not to close a school without calling state officials first to discuss it. (Strauss, 8/18)

CNN: What Happened When Children Went To School During The 1918 Pandemic
This isn't the first time leaders have struggled with deciding whether to keep schools open in a pandemic. During the influenza pandemic in 1918, even though the world was a very different place, the discussion was just as heated. That pandemic killed an estimated 5 million people worldwide, including 675,000 Americans, before it was all over. While the vast majority of cities closed their schools, three opted to keep them open -- New York, Chicago and New Haven, according to historians. (Waldrop, 8/19)

The New York Times: How Children’s Sleep Habits Have Changed In The Pandemic 
So how are you sleeping these days? Some children — and adolescents — may actually be getting more sleep, or better sleep, while others are struggling with disrupted routines, anxiety and electronics, sometimes all at the same time. And even for those who have settled into new schedules that leave them reasonably well rested, back-to-school season may mean a possibly problematic reset. (Klass, 8/17)

The Washington Post: Coronavirus Pandemic Is Worsening Transgender Mental Health To Alarming Levels 
The surgery was supposed to be a turning point.Brenda Emery spent a year preparing for the vaginoplasty. To save up for it, she took jobs in food service straight out of college and moved in with her mother. She talked at length to therapists and medical experts to make sure the procedure to modify her lower body was what she really wanted as a transgender woman. ... Then came the novel coronavirus, halting all non-emergency surgeries. (Fowers and Wan, 8/18)

Stat: LGBTQ Youth Say Cost, Parent Consent Pose Barriers To Mental Health Care
The Covid-19 pandemic stands to exacerbate the existing mental health crisis among LGBTQ youth, who are at far higher risk of suicide than their peers. But it might also yield lessons in how to surmount the barriers to counseling they so often encounter. (Isselbacher, 8/18)

The Hill: Anderson Cooper To MyPillow CEO: 'You Really Are Like A Snake Oil Salesman' 
CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Tuesday slammed MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, an ardent President Trump supporter, for pushing an unproven therapeutic treatment for coronavirus, sales of which could benefit him. “You really are a snake oil salesman. I mean, you could be in the Old West standing on a box telling people to drink your amazing elixir that there's no proof [of],” Cooper told Lindell in an interview. (Klar, 8/18)

AP: Drug Treatment Firm Co-Founder Sentenced For Fraud Scheme
A New Jersey man who co-founded a Pennsylvania-based drug rehabilitation firm that made millions through a wide-ranging fraud scheme has been sentenced to three years in federal prison and must pay more than $9 million in restitution. Jason Gerner, 46, of Shamong, will also forfeit $444,983 and must serve three years of probation once he’s freed from prison under the sentence imposed Monday. He had pleaded guilty in August 2019 to conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. (8/18)

Reuters: Reliance Buys Majority Stake In Online Pharmacy Netmeds For $83 Million 
India’s Reliance Industries Ltd has bought a majority stake in online pharmacy Netmeds for 6.2 billion rupees ($83 million), facing up to Amazon.com in the competition for the country’s fast-expanding online drug market. The deal will give the oil-to-telecoms conglomerate a 60% stake in Netmeds, which sells both over-the-counter medication and more than 70,000 prescriptions drugs, Reliance said here late on Tuesday. (Ravikumar, 8/18)

Stat: DOJ Alleges Teva Used Charities To Pay Kickbacks To Medicare Patients
Federal authorities alleged that Teva Pharmaceuticals (TEVA) donated hundreds of millions of dollars to a pair of foundations, but the payments were actually kickbacks to Medicare patients and designed to cover their out-of-pocket costs for a pricey medicine. In a lawsuit filed in federal court in Boston, the Department of Justice accused the drug maker of paying hundreds of millions of dollars to the charities — the Chronic Disease Fund and The Assistance Fund — to ensure that, from 2006 through 2015, Medicare patients did not have to make a co-payment or deductible for the Copaxone multiple sclerosis drug. (Silverman, 8/18)

The Washington Post: ‘Monsters Were Real’: Victims Confront The Golden State Killer For First Time 
Roughly four decades after Joseph James DeAngelo, 74, carried out a string of 13 murders and nearly 50 rapes across a wide swath of California, his victims described the impact of one of the nation’s worst serial predators. Tuesday marked the first of three days of testimony from dozens of victims, some of whom recalled in detail the searing experience of waking in their own beds to find the man who would later become known as the Golden State Killer standing over them. DeAngelo is expected to be sentenced Friday to life without parole. (Jouvenal, 8/18)

NPR: There's A Better Way To 'Dub' Movie Audio For Visually Impaired Fans
Most people never have to explain why they enjoy going to the movies. But, Denise Decker sometimes needs to do that. The retired federal worker, who lives in Washington, D.C., says some sighted people don't understand how someone who is blind can appreciate watching film. "Those of us who are vision impaired enjoy going to the movies probably as much as anyone else does and we probably go as much as some sighted people do," she says. (Strother, 8/19)

Los Angeles Times: Domestic Violence Rose During Lockdown — And Injuries Are Dramatically More Severe, Study Finds
A new study found that, as the tightest restrictions on nonessential activities began to lift in Massachusetts, physicians at a large hospital in Boston saw a near-doubling of the proportion of domestic abuse cases that resulted in physical injury in comparison with previous years. The injuries were also dramatically more severe, prompting concerns that victims had delayed seeking care even as the violence against them escalated. Experts on intimate partner violence have feared that such abuse would increase during the COVID-19 pandemic, despite the fact that fewer victims appeared to be coming forward for fear of being infected in a clinic, shelter or hospital emergency department. (Healy, 8/18)

ABC News: Gun Suicide Rates Were Rising Even Before The Pandemic: CDC 
Even before the pandemic, suicide rates in the United States were rising, according to a new government report. While suicide rates in both urban and rural areas rose steadily between 2000 and 2018, the pace of increase quickened in rural areas after 2007, rising 3% every year compared to the 1% increase seen each year between 2000 and 2007, the National Center for Health Statistics report found. (Schumaker, 8/19)

ABC News: Like The Virus, Coronavirus Pandemic Mental Stress Hits Latinos More: Study
Experts are sounding the alarm that beyond the physical and mortal toll the coronavirus has taken on Americans, its impact on mental health can be severe as well, especially for Latinos as that population remains disproportionately affected by the virus. A survey released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) last week revealed that 41% of respondents reported symptoms of some mental disorder, including trauma-related symptoms, depression and anxiety. (Romero, 8/18)

NPR: Staying Strong During Lockdown Means Reaching Out — And Working Your Mind, Too
It can be tempting, as the pandemic wears on, to shut down — to escape into TV binging, social media and other inadequate ways of blocking out the stress and fears of illness or economic disaster. Dr. Maryland Pao, the clinical director of the National Institutes of Mental Health Intramural Research Program and a psychiatrist who regularly sees children with life-threatening illnesses, says she's seen striking similarities between the ways her young patients deal with their diagnoses, and how lots of people are responding as we roll past month 5 of the pandemic. (Fulton, 8/18)

ABC News: Teletherapy Meets Teens Where They Live: On-Screen 
Due to the coronavirus, many teens have been missing their proms, graduation ceremonies, daily routines and their friends. These missed events and social interactions are only adding to the additional stress many adolescents are facing amid the pandemic, health experts say. (Bhatt, 8/19)

AP: Teens Struggle To Balance School, Family, Work Amid COVID-19
With her baby brother in her arms, Kara Apuzzo tried to follow along in an online class as he squirmed or slept. Other times, the 18-year-old rushed to get ready for work at a front-line job at Target as her virtual high school lessons were still wrapping up. Last school year was further complicated by computer issues that kept her from logging in and online tools that bedeviled even her teachers. Before the coronavirus pandemic, Apuzzo, who lives in New Haven, Connecticut, knew she wanted to go to college right after high school. Now, she’s not so sure. (Whitehurst, 8/18)

The Wall Street Journal: Connecticut’s Covid-19 Plan Left Out Nursing Homes, Report Finds
Connecticut health officials failed to develop a plan to protect nursing homes in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic and were also hampered by an outdated outbreak-monitoring system, according to an independent, state-funded report. The Connecticut Department of Public Health produced an emergency-response plan focused exclusively on hospitals that didn’t meaningfully address long-term-care facilities, according to an interim-report released Tuesday by Mathematica Policy Research, a research firm. That plan also incorrectly assumed that there would be sufficient personal-protection equipment, such as masks and gowns, available and that only noninfected staff would work in health-care facilities. (De Avila, 8/18)

The Hill: West Virginia Sues CVS, Walmart For Aiding Opioid Epidemic 
West Virginia's attorney general filed lawsuits Tuesday against Walmart and CVS, alleging the companies helped create the state's devastating opioid epidemic. Patrick Morrisey, a Republican, said in separate lawsuits that the companies should remediate what has become a public health and financial crisis. (Weixel, 8/18)

AP: South Dakota Tallies 460,000 Vehicles During Sturgis Rally
This year’s Sturgis Motorcycle Rally drew more than 460,000 vehicles during the 10-day event, according to a count South Dakota transportation officials released Tuesday. ... The South Dakota Department of Health issued a warning on Tuesday that one person who spent several hours at a bar on Main Street in Sturgis has tested positive for COVID-19 and may have spread it to others. With people traveling to the rally from all over the country, the mass gathering has raised concerns it could become an epicenter of infections that are hard to track, but spread quickly as rallygoers travel home. (8/18)

Los Angeles Times: Slowing COVID-19 Has California Weighing Next Reopening Steps 
California health officials are beginning to mull what the next phase of reopening may look like, offering a glimmer of hope for places like Los Angeles County. For more than a month, the bulk of the state’s 58 counties have been on a watchlist of municipalities with worrisome COVID-19 statistics. Health officials weigh key metrics to gauge the virus’ spread in the community and the county’s ability to respond to it. Counties that don’t meet the state’s criteria are restricted from fulling opening all parts of the economy. (Serna, 8/18)

Los Angeles Times: More Than 30 Fires Burning In California Amid Heat Wave 
Gov. Gavin Newsom has declared a statewide emergency in order to help California respond to the fires burning across the state amid an extreme heat wave that brought more warnings about power outages on Tuesday. More than 30 wildfires are burning across California, including nearly a dozen that started in the last two days, according to officials with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and a Times analysis. (Shalby, Miller and Lin II, 8/18)

AP: NJ Theaters Will Remain Closed, Federal Judge Says
Movie theaters in New Jersey will remain closed, a federal judge ruled on Tuesday. The decision upholds Gov. Phil Murphy’s executive order that kept theaters closed even as other public places were allowed to reopen. Several national movie theater chains challenged the order in court in July. (8/18)

CNN: Navy Pier To Shut Down Temporarily After Labor Day Due To Covid-19 Pandemic 
Chicago's Navy Pier, a popular tourist attraction, will temporarily close starting September 8 due to the pandemic. Pier officials made the announcement on Tuesday, saying that the closure is "an effort to limit the financial burden and impact of the ongoing Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on the organization." (Asmelash, 8/18)

AP: Mosquitoes Carrying West Nile Virus Found In E. Washington
State health officials say mosquitoes carrying West Nile virus are being reported in Eastern Washington’s Benton and Yakima counties. The Washington Department of Health said Tuesday that seven positive samples have been reported in Washington so far this year. No human cases have yet been reported. (8/19)

CIDRAP: WHO Urges Global Coordination Of Vaccine Rollout, Notes COVID In Caribbean
As the global COVID-19 total today neared 22 million cases, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) warned about "vaccine nationalism" and previewed a basic strategy for deploying vaccine, once available, that not only protects those at greatest risk, but also helps reduce the threat for all countries. In another development, the WHO's Americas regional office said Caribbean countries are now reporting case rises. The current pandemic total is at 21,974,393 cases, with 776,154 deaths according to the Johns Hopkins online dashboard. (Schnirring, 8/18)

The Hill: WHO Warns Against 'Nationalism' In Coronavirus Fight 
The World Health Organization (WHO) is warning countries that hoarding supplies and an eventual coronavirus vaccine will prolong the epidemic at a steep cost to poor and developing nations. Speaking to reporters Tuesday, Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said his agency is developing plans to distribute the vaccine equitably across the globe, once the science shows that a potential candidate is both effective at generating an immune response and safe in humans. (Wilson, 8/18)

AP: Millions Of Women Lose Contraceptives, Abortions In COVID-19
Millions of women and girls globally have lost access to contraceptives and abortion services because of the coronavirus pandemic. Now the first widespread measure of the toll says India with its abrupt, months-long lockdown has been hit especially hard. Several months into the pandemic, many women now have second-trimester pregnancies because they could not find care in time. (Ghosal and Anna, 8/19)

Reuters: New Zealand Court Rules Part Of Early Coronavirus Lockdown Was Illegal 
A New Zealand court on Wednesday found the first nine days of a hard lockdown put in place by the government earlier this year requiring people to isolate at home was justified, but unlawful. The ruling comes after Wellington lawyer Andrew Borrowdale challenged the legality of steps taken in the early stages of the five-week lockdown, including calls by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and other officials between March 26 and April 3 telling New Zealanders to stay at home. (Menon, 8/18)