First Edition: Aug. 7, 2020

Kaiser Health News: Test Sites Quickly Attract Thousands For COVID-19 Vaccine Study
Dr. Eric Coe jumped at the chance to help test a COVID-19 vaccine. At his urging, so did his girlfriend, his son and his daughter-in-law. All received shots last week at a clinical research site in central Florida. “My main purpose in doing this was so I could spend more time with my family and grandchildren,” Coe said, noting that he’s seen them only outside and from a distance since March. (Galewitz and Aleccia, 8/7)

Kaiser Health News: Your Favorite Store Or Restaurant Is Open. How Do You Know It’s OK To Go In? 
Just because many businesses are open again doesn’t mean the pandemic is over. The coronavirus is still on the loose — actually surging in many locations — which means people have to make serious choices about their health all day, every day. Nothing in life is without risk, and decisions ultimately hinge on individual calculations. But, according to the public health experts we consulted, there are steps you can take — and signs to look for — to make you feel comfortable and help you decide whether to open the door and walk in. Sometimes, you may want to opt out. First and foremost, assess your personal situation. (Appleby, 8/7)

Kaiser Health News and KBIA: In Rural Missouri, Latinos Learn To Contain And Cope With The Coronavirus 
Francisco Bonilla is a pastor in Carthage, Missouri, tending to the spiritual needs of the town’s growing Latino community. He’s also a media personality, broadcasting his voice far beyond the walls of Casa de Sanidad. Bonilla runs a low-power, Spanish-language radio station from the church. He mainly uses the station to broadcast sermons and religious music. But these days he is also focused on COVID-19: explaining the illness and its symptoms, updating his listeners with the newest case counts and bringing on guests. He has broadcast interviews with a local nurse and with investigators from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Martinez Valdivia, 8/7)

The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Covid-19 Death Toll Tops 160,000
The U.S. death toll from the coronavirus pandemic passed 160,000, as parts of the country showed signs that the virus’s spread was easing. The U.S. reported more than 59,000 new coronavirus cases, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Globally, the total number of confirmed cases surpassed 19 million, with the U.S. making up about a quarter of the tally. (Hall, 8/7)

Reuters: University Of Washington Forecasts 300,000 U.S. COVID-19 Deaths 
Nearly 300,000 Americans could be dead from COVID-19 by Dec. 1, University of Washington health experts forecast on Thursday, although they said 70,000 lives could be saved if people were scrupulous about wearing masks. The latest predictions from the university’s widely cited Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) comes as top White House infectious disease advisers warned that major U.S. cities could erupt as new coronavirus hot spots if officials there were not vigilant with counter-measures. (Chiacu and McKay, 8/6)

Los Angeles Times: California Tops 10,000 Coronavirus Deaths 
The death toll from the coronavirus in California surpassed 10,000 people on Thursday, a mark that underscores how a state that was once hailed as a pandemic success story is now struggling to slow outbreaks. The surge of the coronavirus in California over the last two months had several causes, including the reopening of the economy that allowed COVID-19 to spread rapidly among low-wage workers, many of them Latino essential workers whose employers haven’t followed new infection control rules. But summer celebrations among young people is also a recurring problem, and one particularly frustrating to officials trying to slow outbreaks. (Greene, Lin II, Shalby and Lee, 8/6)

Politico: Fauci Says Nation Can Survive Covid-19 Without Another Shutdown
Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious-disease expert, says the United States is facing a "concerted challenge" to navigate the resurgent Covid-19 outbreak — but if Americans band together, the nation can avert another extended shutdown. "There seems to be a misperception that either you shut down completely and damage a lot of things, mental health, the economy, all kinds of things, or let it rip and do whatever you want," Fauci told POLITICO’s “Pulse Check” podcast on Wednesday. "There's a stepwise fashion that you can open up the economy successfully." (Diamond, 8/6)

The Hill: Fauci Says Virus May Never Be Eradicated, Contradicting Trump 
Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, said COVID-19 will likely never be eradicated, a statement that contradicts President Trump’s claims that the coronavirus will “go away.” “I don't think we’re going to eradicate this from the planet ... because it's such a highly transmissible virus that that seems unlikely,” Fauci said in an interview with Reuters. “But what I think we can do with a combination of a good vaccine and attention to public health measures — and by attention I don't mean shut down, I mean things that are just prudent — then I think we can get behind this." (Gstalter, 8/6)

The New York Times: With Old Allies Turning Against Her, Birx Presses On Against The Coronavirus 
As Dr. Deborah L. Birx was taking heat from both President Trump and Speaker Nancy Pelosi this week, the Democratic governor of Kentucky spoke up in her defense. Dr. Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, had visited his state in late July, after he issued a statewide mask order and was contemplating even more aggressive steps, including closing down bars, Gov. Andy Beshear recounted on a private conference call with Vice President Mike Pence and the rest of the nation’s governors. It was a difficult move for a Democrat in a Republican state, but Dr. Birx provided him cover. (Gay Stolberg, 8/6)

The Hill: Birx Warns Of Uptick In Coronavirus Cases In 9 Cities 
White House coronavirus task force coordinator Deborah Birx is warning of an uptick in coronavirus cases in nine U.S. cities. “Many of the Sun Belt states have made substantial progress with their mitigation efforts,” Birx told state and local officials on Wednesday, according to a copy of the call obtained the Center for Public Integrity, referring to a slew of Southern states that experienced surges earlier this summer. But Birx said that the percentage of coronavirus tests coming back positive is increasing in nine U.S. cities as well as California's Central Valley. (Moreno, 8/6)

Stat: Trump Orders Government To Buy Certain Drugs Solely From U.S. Factories, Setting Up Major Shakeup For Industry
President Trump signed an executive order Thursday directing the federal government to buy certain drugs solely from American factories. The so-called “Buy American” order could represent a seismic shakeup of the drug industry: No one knows exactly how much of the American drug supply chain is produced abroad, but some experts insist up to 90% of critical generic drugs are made at least partially abroad. (Florko, 8/6)

The Washington Post: White House, Democrats Fail To Reach Agreement On Virus Relief Bill, And Next Steps Are Uncertain 
White House officials and Democratic leaders ended a three-hour negotiation Thursday evening without a coronavirus relief deal or even a clear path forward, with both sides remaining far apart on critical issues. “We’re still a considerable amount apart,” said White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows after emerging from the meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. President Trump called into the meeting several times, but they were unable to resolve key issues. (Werner, Stein and Kane, 8/6)

Politico: Covid Talks Going Nowhere As Deadline Nears
Negotiations between the White House and Democratic congressional leaders on a new coronavirus relief package were on the brink of failure Thursday night, both sides said after a fruitless three-hour meeting in Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office. The apparent deadlock in the high-level talks now shifts the focus back to President Donald Trump, who warned earlier in the day that he will issue a series of executive orders to address the economic crisis facing millions of Americans if no deal can be reached with Congress. Trump could issue these orders as early as Friday, senior administration officials said. (Bresnahan and Levine, 8/6)

The Washington Post: In A Divided Capitol, Lawmakers Can’t Agree On Coronavirus Safety Measures — Down To The Best Kind Of Thermometer 
As coronavirus cases continue to mount, the Senate Rules Committee has drafted a preliminary plan for a rapid testing system for that side of the U.S. Capitol — but on the other end of the building, the House Administration Committee has deemed the approach impractical for such a massive complex. Other safety issues have been punted to the Office of Attending Physician of Congress, run by a reclusive doctor who is accountable only to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). That has meant health and safety guidance that often differs depending on location, with masks mandatory on the House floor and only recommended for the Senate. (Kane and Bade, 8/6)

CNBC: U.S. Weekly Jobless Claims Total 1.186 Million, Lowest Level Of The Coronavirus Pandemic
Weekly jobless claims hit their lowest level of the pandemic area, totaling 1.186 million last week, well below Wall Street expectations. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been looking for 1.42 million. The level for the week ended Aug. 1 represented a drop of 249,000 from the previous period. Amid worries that the employment picture was faltering after two record-breaking months of job creation, the claims number indicates some momentum. Continuing claims, or those who have collected benefits for two straight weeks, dropped by 844,000 to 16.1 million. (Cox, 8/6)

Politico: A Growing Side Effect Of The Pandemic: Permanent Job Loss
Tens of millions of Americans have lost their jobs in the coronavirus recession, but for many of them the news is getting even worse: Their positions are going away forever. Permanent losses have so far made up only a fraction of the jobs that have vanished since states began shutting down their economies in March, with the vast majority of unemployed workers classified as on temporary layoff. But those numbers are steadily increasing — reaching 2.9 million in June — as companies start to move from temporary layoffs to permanent cuts. The number is widely expected to rise further when the Labor Department reports July data on Friday. (Cassella, 8/6)

The New York Times: Amid Dire Jobless Numbers, Small-Business Relief Program Nears End 
In early April, three weeks after Connecticut issued shutdown orders, Ken Bodenstein borrowed $148,000 from the federal government to help cover payroll expenses at the Westport day care center he runs with his wife, Kristen. The small-business loan, along with the Bodensteins’ own cash reserves, allowed the couple to continue to pay their 21 workers for nearly three months. But by June 5, the day the money ran out, only 11 of the 75 children who attended the day care before the pandemic had returned, forcing the Bodensteins to furlough or lay off all but nine employees. (Cowley, 8/6)

AP: 'Worst Nightmare': Laid-Off Workers Endure Loss Of $600 Aid
An unemployed makeup artist with two toddlers and a disabled husband needs help with food and rent. A hotel manager says his unemployment has deepened his anxiety and kept him awake at night. A dental hygienist, pregnant with her second child, is struggling to afford diapers and formula. Around the country, across industries and occupations, millions of Americans thrown out of work because of the coronavirus are straining to afford the basics now that an extra $600 a week in federal unemployment benefits has expired. (Skidmore Sell and Wiseman, 8/7)

The New York Times: ‘It’s Time For A Change’: Workers Idled By The Virus Try New Careers 
As a national lockdown was imposed in March, a food deliverer, Hanna Scaife, watched her weekly hours plummet from 30, to five, then zero as restaurants across Teesside, in northeast England, shut their doors. Business hasn’t gotten much better since then. “It’s been really tough,” said Ms. Scaife, who has worked for over a year delivering food by car to customers’ doorsteps. (Abdul, 8/6)

The Washington Post: Center For Voter Participation Absentee Ballot Applications Spark Panic In Virginia 
A voter registration group with a history of sending error-ridden mailers has again sown confusion in Virginia, this time tapping into concerns about mail-in ballots sparked by President Trump’s repeated allegations — without evidence — of election fraud. The Washington-based Center for Voter Information, a nonprofit geared toward increasing voter participation among underrepresented groups, mailed 2.25 million applications for absentee ballots to voters across the state, with a quarter of them containing a return envelope addressed to the wrong election office, the group said Thursday. (Olivo, 8/6)

The Washington Post: More States Are Using Ballot Drop Boxes For Absentee Voters, But The Boxes Are Already Drawing Skepticism 
Elections officials across the country are accelerating their efforts to install ballot drop boxes, a move they hope will make absentee voting simple and safe for those wary of the mail or fear exposure to the novel coronavirus at polling places. The efforts come as voters voice concerns about timely delivery of mail ballots. Already, postal workers are reporting days-long backlogs of mail across the country, calling into question whether ballots will arrive at elections offices in time to be counted in November. President Trump has also ramped up attacks on the integrity of mail voting, in a year when more voters than ever are expected to choose that method because of the pandemic. (Ye Hee Lee, 8/6)

Politico: The World Has Shown It's Possible To Avert Covid-Caused Election Meltdowns. But The U.S. Is Unique.
With less than six weeks before early voting starts in the U.S. presidential election, the risk of an electoral meltdown is rising along with the country’s coronavirus caseload. As they scramble to avert disaster, American officials may want to look overseas for guidance. Since the pandemic shut down daily life around the globe in March, 17 countries have managed to pull off successful nationwide elections, albeit on a far smaller scale than the U.S. one scheduled for Nov. 3. (Heath, 8/6)

The Washington Post: State Department Lifts Blanket International Travel Advisory After Nearly Five Months 
The State Department lifted its blanket international travel advisory Thursday, almost five months after first urging Americans against overseas travel due to the coronavirus pandemic. Instead, the department will revert to issuing recommendations on a country-specific basis. The department cited “health and safety conditions improving in some countries and potentially deteriorating in others” in its decision to alter the advisory system and said the change in method will allow travelers to make “informed decisions” based on the situation in specific countries. (O'Grady, 8/6)

AP: US Rescinds Global 'Do Not Travel' Coronavirus Warning
The Trump administration on Thursday rescinded its warnings to Americans against all international travel because of the coronavirus pandemic, saying conditions no longer warrant a blanket worldwide alert. The State Department lifted its level-four health advisory for the entire world in order to return to country-specific warnings. That move came shortly after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revised its COVID-19 travel advisory information. The CDC lifted “do not travel” warnings for about 20 locations but advised staying away from the vast majority of the world. (Stobbe and Lee, 8/6)

Stat: FDA Chief Pressured To Stick To Science For Covid-19 Vaccine Approvals
As pressure mounts to develop a successful Covid-19 vaccine, Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn insisted any agency approval would “adhere to standards” that ensure safety and effectiveness. But Hahn left the door open to a so-called emergency use authorization, raising concerns the FDA might still face political pressure to approve a vaccine before the November elections. (Silverman, 8/6)

NPR: Vaccine Prices For COVID-19 Begin To Emerge 
How much will vaccines against the coronavirus cost? Even though none has finished clinical testing, some clues about pricing are starting to emerge. Cambridge, Mass.-based Moderna, one of the leading horses in the vaccine race, has already made deals at between $32 and $37 per dose of its experimental coronavirus vaccine in agreements with some foreign countries, rattling consumer advocates, who fear an unfair deal for U.S. taxpayers. (Lupkin, 8/6)

NPR: A Key Ingredient For Making A COVID-19 Vaccine Work 
There are many approaches to making a vaccine against COVID-19. Some use genetic material from the coronavirus, some use synthetic proteins that mimic viral proteins and some use disabled versions of the virus itself. But before any of these approaches can generate the antibodies to the coronavirus that scientists say are essential to protecting people from getting sick, the immune system has to be primed to make those antibodies. Palca, 8/6)

Stat: The Story Of A Scientist’s Mea Culpa On Covid-19 Vaccines
The development of Covid-19 vaccines is progressing at an unprecedented speed. Vaccines that were mere blueprints in January when the coronavirus began spreading globally already have advanced into massive Phase 3 clinical trials. The U.S. government wants hundreds of millions of doses of Covid-19 vaccine or multiple vaccines ready to distribute by January. Many experts have raised concerns about this highly compressed development schedule. (Feuerstein, Robbins, Garden, 8/7)

The New York Times: The Coronavirus Is New, But Your Immune System Might Still Recognize It
Eight months ago, the new coronavirus was unknown. But to some of our immune cells, the virus was already something of a familiar foe. A flurry of recent studies has revealed that a large proportion of the population — 20 to 50 percent of people in some places — might harbor immunity assassins called T cells that recognize the new coronavirus despite having never encountered it before. (Wu, 8/6)

The New York Times: Even Asymptomatic People Carry The Coronavirus In High Amounts 
Of all the coronavirus’s qualities, perhaps the most surprising has been that seemingly healthy people can spread it to others. This trait has made the virus difficult to contain, and continues to challenge efforts to identify and isolate infected people. Most of the evidence for asymptomatic spread has been based on observation (a person without symptoms nevertheless sickened others) or elimination (people became ill but could not be connected to anyone with symptoms). (Mandavilli, 8/6)

The New York Times: Gov. Mike DeWine Of Ohio Tests Positive, Then Negative, For Coronavirus 
Gov. Mike DeWine tested negative for the coronavirus hours after a positive rapid-result test had prevented him from welcoming President Trump to Ohio on Thursday, a whiplash reversal that reflected the nation’s increasingly complex state of testing. In a high-profile example of a new testing frontier, Mr. DeWine first received an antigen test, which allows for results in minutes, not days, but has been shown to be less accurate. The positive result came as a “big surprise,” said Mr. DeWine, a Republican, who had not been experiencing symptoms other than a headache. (Mervosh, 8/6)

Politico: Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine Says Second Covid-19 Test Is Negative
Gov. Mike DeWine of Ohio announced late Thursday that he had tested negative for coronavirus, only hours after he had tested positive on the day President Donald Trump was set to touch down in the state and meet with him. “In a second COVID-19 test administered today in Columbus, Governor Mike DeWine has tested negative for COVID-19,” DeWine wrote on Twitter. “First Lady Fran DeWine and staff members have also all tested negative.“ (Oprysko, 8/6)

AP: Kansas House Speaker Had Coronavirus; Governor To Get Tested
A top Republican legislator in Kansas was hospitalized last month after testing positive for the novel coronavirus and didn’t disclose it to colleagues until this week. The state’s Democratic governor declared Thursday that she’ll get tested because the two of them attended a meeting together after he was hospitalized. Kansas House Speaker Ron Ryckman Jr.’s delayed acknowledgment of his hospitalization — in an email to fellow House Republicans after Tuesday’s primary — concerned colleagues, particularly Democrats. Gov. Laura Kelly called his decision to attend a July 29 meeting at the Statehouse “reckless and dangerous.” (Hanna, 8/7)

The Oklahoman: Stitt Says He Got COVID-19 From Tulsa Friends
Gov. Kevin Stitt contracted COVID-19 after hugging some friends from Tulsa who were visiting him, the governor said Thursday. “I thought I got it down in Lawton because I was touring different facilities,” Stitt said in a brief interview at the state Health Department's new contact tracing center in Oklahoma City. “But anyway, some of my buddies from — some older gentlemen from Tulsa came down to see me. They wanted to talk to me about a new ministry that they had in Tulsa between the police and the African American community and building bridges and so they came down to see me. I hadn’t seen them in a long time and broke my own rule, gave them all hugs. I’ve known them for years. And they ended up having it. So that’s how I got it.” (Casteel, 8/7)

The New York Times: Fast, Less Accurate Coronavirus Tests May Ease The U.S. Backlog, Experts Say 
For months, the call for coronavirus testing has been led by one resounding refrain: To keep outbreaks under control, doctors and researchers need to deploy the most accurate tests available — ones reliable enough to root out as many infections as possible, even in the absence of symptoms. That’s long been the dogma of infectious disease diagnostics, experts say, since it helps ensure that cases won’t be missed. During this pandemic, that has meant relying heavily on PCR testing, an extremely accurate but time- and labor-intensive method that requires samples to be processed at laboratories. (Wu, 8/6)

NPR: Survey Of Contact Tracing Workforce Shows Little Growth, Despite Surging Cases
The country needs as many as 100,000 contact tracers to fight the pandemic, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told Congress in June. We need billions of dollars to fund them, public health leaders pleaded in April. But in August, with coronavirus cases increasing in more than half of states, America has neither the staff nor the resources to be able to trace the contacts of every new case — a key step in the COVID-19 public health response. (Simmons-Duffin, 8/7)

AP: Utah No Longer Recommends Modified Quarantine In Schools
Utah will no longer recommend that schools allow students who have been exposed to COVID-19 to come to class following pushback from doctors and educators, state officials said Thursday. The state issued a new recommendation Thursday that any student or teacher who has come into close contact with a confirmed case should quarantine at home for 14 days. (Eppolito, 8/6)

AP: Arizona Sets Virus Spread Guidelines For School Reopenings
Arizona’s top health official and the state’s education chief laid out a series of guidelines Thursday that public schools were urged to use when deciding whether coronavirus infection rates are low enough to safely reopen for full in-person learning. The officials, however, said parents should not expect to see a return to normal at their child’s school anytime soon. (Cooper and Christie, 8/7)

The Washington Post: Virus Keeps Spreading As Schools Begin To Open, Frightening Parents And Alarming Public Health Officials 
Even before President Trump admonished his top coronavirus adviser for saying the country was entering a "new phase" of widespread infection, patients at Mississippi's only Level 1 trauma hospital were already on a wait for ICU beds. “Our ICUs have been full for weeks,” LouAnn Woodward, a vice chancellor at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, said Thursday. “It’s a very acute issue we’re facing here.” (Fowler, Gearan and Weiner, 8/6)

The New York Times: ‘I Was A Little Scared’: Inside America’s Reopening Schools
It was the purple Powerade that convinced her. Kennedy Heim’s first day of high school was last Thursday. By the weekend, her school in central Indiana had already closed its doors, after a staff member tested positive for the coronavirus and other employees were required to quarantine. Kennedy’s mother got a call from a contact tracer saying her daughter, a 14-year-old freshman, might have been exposed. So on Monday, they went for testing at the National Guard Armory, just down the street from her school. Wednesday morning, they got the results: Kennedy had tested positive. (Wren and Levin, 8/6)

Los Angeles Times: California Colleges Scramble To Open Lacking State Rules 
Just days before the fall semester is set to begin, California colleges and universities are scrambling to finalize reopening plans that affect thousands of students as top leaders say the state’s lack of guidance for weeks has frustrated efforts to bring back limited in-person learning and dorm living. Many campuses, including USC and Claremont McKenna, say the lack of clear and timely state guidance has caused them to spend enormous energy and money preparing for varying reopening scenarios — without knowing what will be allowed amid a surge of COVID-19 infections. (Watanabe, Agrawal and Willon, 8/6)

The Washington Post: Johns Hopkins University Takes Classes Online Because Of Covid-19 
Johns Hopkins University will hold its fall semester entirely online for undergraduates, a reversal of plans and the latest sign of the turmoil caused by the coronavirus pandemic. School officials strongly urged students not to return to Baltimore. They also acknowledged the change of plans — coming just weeks before classes resume — would create a real hardship for many families and announced efforts to ease that burden. (Svrluga, 8/6)

AP: Evers Hands UW $32 Million To Prepare For Students' Return
Gov. Tony Evers divvied out about $32 million in federal aid Thursday to University of Wisconsin System schools to cover coronavirus tests and personal protective equipment when students return to campuses next month. The money will come from the coronavirus relief bill that Congress passed in May. UW-Madison will receive about $8 million. The other 12 regional campuses will get $24 million. (8/6)

The New York Times: How To Proactively Prepare For Distance Learning
Normally we rely on teachers and counselors or coaches and people in our communities to help us spot problems, then identify solutions. We try to build a village to not have to do everything alone. But now the village is quarantined, and it’s increasingly clear it’s still on us to try and make the best decisions for our families — though it feels like there are 200,000 new choices to make every day. (Anderson, 8/5)

Los Angeles Times: UCLA's Chip Kelly Tested Positive For Coronavirus In March 
The UCLA football coach tested positive for the novel coronavirus in late March after campus was shut down, according to multiple people close to the football team who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss a private health issue.Kelly does not know how he contracted the virus, the people close to the team said. He was tested after experiencing mild symptoms and having followed all public health recommendations, including physical distancing, wearing a mask outside his home and not socializing or going anywhere except to obtain essentials such as groceries. His wife, Jill, also tested positive and recovered at home. (Bolch, 8/6)

The Wall Street Journal: The Marlins Return From Coronavirus—With 17 New Players 
They will participate in their fourth game of the season on Tuesday with 30 players in the clubhouse—except more than half of them will be different, effectively turning the Marlins into a patchwork cover band of themselves. “Some of the guys I’ve never met,” manager Don Mattingly said Monday, about 24 hours before they would be sitting an appropriate social distance away from him in the Marlins’ dugout. That is because Mattingly, like all of the Marlins, spent the better part of the past week quarantined in his Philadelphia hotel room after his team’s coronavirus outbreak threw the entire industry into turmoil. (Diamond, 8/4)

The Washington Post: Union Says 56 NFL Players Have Tested Positive For The Coronavirus Since Training Camps Opened 
The NFL Players Association announced that 56 players had tested positive for the novel coronavirus since the opening of training camps, in the first set of results released publicly since the NFL and its players’ union put their testing program into effect. The NFLPA said the results were from July 21 through Wednesday. The figure represents about 2 percent of the approximately 2,600 players on training camp rosters for the 32 NFL teams. (Maske, 8/6)

The Washington Post: A Pregnant Woman With Covid-19 Was Dying. With One Decision, Her Doctors Saved Three Lives.
On a bright October day last fall, Ebony Brown-Olaseinde and her husband, Segun Olaseinde, found out that their longtime dream had finally been realized: They were going to be parents. After three years spent trying to conceive, they had succeeded through in vitro fertilization — and they soon learned that their twins, a boy and a girl, were due in June 2020.By the beginning of March, Ebony, 40, an accountant in Newark, was feeling grateful that her high-risk pregnancy had progressed so easily. Segun, 43, an operations manager for UPS, couldn’t wait to be a father. Ebony’s doctors told the couple that she’d reached an important milestone: At 24 weeks, their twins were viable, more likely to survive if they arrived early. (Gibson, 8/6)

The Washington Post: Released From Jail At Height Of Pandemic, Alexandria Rape Suspect Allegedly Killed His Accuser 
The incident in Karla Dominguez’s apartment last October was violent, and it was not consensual, she testified in Alexandria District Court in December. The man she accused was indicted on charges including rape, strangulation and abduction and jailed without bond in Alexandria. Then the coronavirus pandemic hit. Ibrahim E. Bouaichi’s lawyers argued that the virus was a danger to both inmates and their attorneys, and that Bouaichi should be freed awaiting trial. On April 9, over the objections of an Alexandria prosecutor, Circuit Court Judge Nolan Dawkins released Bouaichi on $25,000 bond, with the condition that he only leave his Maryland home to meet with his lawyers or pretrial services officials. (Jackman, 8/6)

Stat: As Headspace Booms, The App's Popularity Outpaces Its Evidence
This has, by all accounts, been a banner year for Headspace. Demand for the mindfulness and meditation app has skyrocketed since the Covid-19 pandemic and its ripple effects began taking a brutal toll on mental health. Downloads have jumped dramatically in recent months, and Headspace has been flooded with requests from companies looking to buoy their staffs’ well-being while they work from home. (Isselbacher, 8/7)

The New York Times: Is Your Child An Orchid, A Tulip Or A Dandelion? 
The new mother from a rural area near Burlington, Vt., noticed that her toddler’s behavior didn’t seem to fit the descriptions in the child-rearing books she was reading. Her daughter would burst into tears when she heard a loud bird call or a person singing out of tune, or if she wore scratchy clothes. And she always demanded to be carried by her mother and never left alone. These constant demands were exhausting. (Schiffman, 8/6)

The Washington Post: Michelle Obama Says She Has Low-Grade Depression 
Elder Atum Azzahir first heard about the former first lady’s comments when a friend called to talk to her about it on Wednesday night. Azzahir, 77, is the founder of the Cultural Wellness Center in the Twin Cities in Minnesota, a place she built to help African American women and their communities heal. Her friend, who is almost 80, wanted to talk about Michelle Obama’s revelation — that she’s been dealing with “low-grade depression” these past few months. (Youn, 8/6)

The New York Times: Five-Minute Coronavirus Stress Resets
In this emotional equivalent to an ultramarathon, it’s key to have some stress-reducing strategies available that work quickly and efficiently to help you hit the reset button. Here’s why: Struggling with chronic worry gets in the way of effectively managing your emotions. Unfortunately, many people who experience distress try to escape their unpleasant emotions by distracting themselves in ways that ultimately backfire. (Taitz, 8/6)

CIDRAP: First US Case Of Resistant Bacterial Meningitis Noted 
A new study in the Journal of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society describes what is believed to be the first case of bacterial meningitis caused by beta-lactamase–producing, ciprofloxacin-resistant Neisseria meningitidis in the United States. The case occurred this January in a previously healthy 5-month-old Maryland boy who was treated in the emergency department at Children's National Hospital in Washington, DC. Although the boy was treated with broad-spectrum antibiotics and released after 7 days in the hospital, susceptibility testing of bacterial samples from the boy revealed resistance to five antibiotics—including penicillin and ciprofloxacin, which are typically used for treatment of people with confirmed N meningitidis infections and for prevention in those who've been in close contact with infected patients. (Dall, 8/6)

The Wall Street Journal: There’s A New Quarantine Sheriff In Town, As New York Ramps Up Compliance
The Sheriff’s office of New York City is assuming new duties to control the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, including social-distancing enforcement and the operation of checkpoints, to ensure compliance with quarantine orders applying to out-of-state visitors. The new roles are an expansion of responsibilities for the Sheriff’s office, a division of the city’s Department of Finance led by Sheriff Joseph Fucito—a career law-enforcement officer who began working in the Sheriff’s office at age 18 and was appointed to his current role by Mayor Bill de Blasio in 2014. (Chapman, 8/6)

AP: Inslee Releases Virus Guidelines For Nursing Home Visitors
Calling it a “big step forward,” Washington Gov. Jay Inslee on Thursday announced how visitors may return to nursing homes and other long term care operations — six months after the country’s first known coronavirus outbreak devastated a Kirkland facility. “We have come far enough in both our restraint in the pandemic and in our ability to develop protocols that will work,” Inslee said at a news conference. (Ho, 8/6)

Los Angeles Times: L.A. Homeless People Are Taking Their Lives By Hanging 
Increasingly, homeless people in Los Angeles and its environs are dying by hanging. Over 4½ years ending in mid-June, 196 people experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles County took their lives. In 2016, 40% of the suicides were by hanging; so far this year, it’s 55%, according to a Times analysis of coroner’s reports. Many homeless people hanged themselves in public — on a freeway off-ramp or sidewalk, in an alley, field or vacant lot — but their deaths went largely unremarked. (Holland, 8/6)

The Associated Press: State Spent Millions On Arena Hospital That Saw 9 Patients
Doctors arrived at an arena-turned-medical center in Sacramento in mid-April and were told to prepare for 30 to 60 coronavirus patients to arrive within days. They spent the weekend working feverishly to get ready. State officials envisioned the cavernous Sleep Train Arena and an adjoining facility as a place where hundreds of patients could be treated, but in the first week just one arrived. The pace never increased, and the 250 assembled medical workers — physicians, nurses, pharmacists and administrative staff — found themselves wondering what to do. ... Ultimately, just nine patients arrived over 10 weeks. The cost to care for them was a staggering $12 million. (Ronayne, 8/6)

The Washington Post: Sturgis Motorcycle Rally In South Dakota Expected To Draw 250,000 Despite Coronavirus 
Health officials are still warning against even small gatherings, and states with relatively low spread of the coronavirus are ordering visitors from hot spots to self-quarantine. But come Friday, about 250,000 people from across the country are still expected to start descending on a roughly 7,000-person community in South Dakota for one of the biggest motorcycle rallies in the world, a 10-day extravaganza so deeply rooted that Sturgis calls itself the City of Riders. (Knowles, 8/6)

The New York Times: Why Influencers Won’t Stop Partying Anytime Soon 
In late July, dozens of social media stars flocked to the Hype House, a Hollywood Hills mansion where several top TikTok creators live, for a birthday party. The décor was glittery and pink, with balloons and silver streamers strewn about. Hello Kitty strobe lights pulsed over a crowded dance floor. The scene, as portrayed on social media, had an air of pre-pandemic normalcy. In several videos from the party, no one is wearing a mask. (Lorenz, 8/6)