First Edition: July 30, 2020

Kaiser Health News: Namaste Noir: Yoga Co-Op Seeks To Diversify Yoga To Heal Racialized Trauma 
Beverly Grant spent years juggling many roles before yoga helped her restore her balance. When not doting over her three children, she hosted her public affairs talk radio show, attended community meetings or handed out cups of juice at her roving Mo’ Betta Green MarketPlace farmers market, which has brought local, fresh foods and produce to this city’s food deserts for more than a decade. Her busy schedule came to an abrupt halt on July 1, 2018, when her youngest son, Reese, 17, was fatally stabbed outside a Denver restaurant. He’d just graduated from high school and was weeks from starting at the University of Northern Colorado. (Thomas Whitfield, 7/30)

Kaiser Health News: Medi-Cal Agency’s New Head Wants To Tackle Disparities And Racism
When Will Lightbourne looked at the statistics behind California’s coronavirus cases, the disparities were “blindingly clear”: Blacks and Latinos are dying at higher rates than most other Californians. As of Monday, Latinos account for 45.6% of coronavirus deaths in a state where they make up 38.9% of the population, according to data collected by the California Department of Public Health. Blacks account for 8.5% of the deaths but make up 6% of the population. (Young, 7/30)

Kaiser Health News: Missourians To Vote On Medicaid Expansion As Crisis Leaves Millions Without Insurance
Haley Organ thought she had everything figured out. After graduating from a small private college just outside Boston, she earned her master’s degree, entered the workforce and eventually landed a corporate job here as a data analyst. Life seemed to be going as planned until the national retailer that Organ worked for announced furloughs during the coronavirus pandemic. After nine weeks of mandatory leave, the 35-year-old was laid off. The company gave her a severance package and put an expiration date on her health insurance plan. (Anthony, 7/30)

Reuters: U.S. Records A Coronavirus Death Every Minute As Total Surpasses 150,000 
One person in the United States died about every minute from COVID-19 on Wednesday as the national death toll surpassed 150,000, the highest in the world. The United States recorded 1,461 new deaths on Wednesday, the highest one-day increase since 1,484 on May 27, according to a Reuters tally.U.S. coronavirus deaths are rising at their fastest rate in two months and have increased by 10,000 in the past 11 days. (Shumaker, 7/29)

The Washington Post: Covid-19’s Toll So Far: Nearly 150,000 Dead Americans
Of the nearly 150,000 Americans who have died of covid-19, more than 6,100 have died in Texas, and 302 of those deaths have occurred in Hidalgo County, along the country’s southern border. Forty-five of those bodies are in a refrigerated 18-wheeler that Aaron Rivera bought three weeks ago, when the phone was ringing off the hook at his Rivera Funeral Home in McAllen. The funeral director had no choice but to tell families that their loved ones could not be cremated, could not be buried, could not be put anywhere but in a truck in his back lot. There were so many bodies in his building that there was no place else for them to go. (Fisher and Dixon, 7/29)

The Wall Street Journal: New U.S. Coronavirus Cases Surpass 70,000 
New coronavirus cases in the U.S. climbed back above 70,000 as some states reported record death tolls, while parts of Asia faced a resurgence in infections. Total confirmed coronavirus cases world-wide rose above 17 million Thursday, with the U.S. accounting for more than a quarter of that number, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. The U.S. death toll neared 151,000. (Hall, 7/30)

Reuters: California, Florida And Texas See Record Rise In COVID-19 Deaths 
California, Florida and Texas, the three largest U.S. states, all set one-day records for fatalities from COVID-19 on Wednesday, a Reuters tally showed, and the Miami-area school district said students would not return to classrooms when the new academic year begins as deaths from the virus spiked nationwide. The United States has registered 10,000 deaths over the last 11 days, the fastest surge since early June, prompting heated debates between the American public and its leaders over the best course forward. New infections do not appear to be rising at the same pace. (Shumaker and McKay, 7/29)

The New York Times: A Viral Epidemic Splintering Into Deadly Pieces 
To assess where the country is heading now, The New York Times interviewed 20 public health experts — not just clinicians and epidemiologists, but also historians and sociologists, because the spread of the virus is now influenced as much by human behavior as it is by the pathogen itself. Not only are American cities in the South and West facing deadly outbreaks like those that struck Northeastern cities in the spring, but rural areas are being hurt, too. In every region, people of color will continue to suffer disproportionately, experts said. (McNeil Jr., 7/29)

The Washington Post: Coronavirus Relief Talks Hit Impasse On Capitol Hill 
After a day of meetings, all parties declared their differences all but irreconcilable. Democrats shot down the idea of a short-term fix for unemployment insurance and the eviction moratorium, which President Trump had announced earlier Wednesday he would support. And the two parties remained far apart on a larger bill, with Democrats standing by their wide-ranging $3 trillion proposal even as Republicans struggled to coalesce around a $1 trillion bill released by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Monday. Each side said the other was to blame for the failure. Paying the price will be the unemployed at a moment of deep uncertainty and fear, with coronavirus cases spiking and states pulling back on reopening as deaths near 150,000 in the United States. The talks could get back on track in coming days, but the signs Wednesday were not promising. (Werner, Stein, Min Kim and Bade, 7/29)

The New York Times: As Trump Undercuts Aid Talks, White House Says Extra Jobless Benefits Will Lapse 
With negotiations barely started to find a middle ground between Republicans’ $1 trillion plan and Democrats’ $3 trillion package, Mr. Trump poured cold water on the entire enterprise, saying that he would prefer a bare-bones package that would send “payments to the people” and protect them from being evicted. “The rest of it, we’re so far apart, we don’t care,” Mr. Trump said before leaving the White House for an event in Texas. “We really don’t care.” (Cochrane and Tankersley, 7/29)

The Hill: Meadows Says Benefits To Expire As Negotiators Struggle To Get Deal 
White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said Wednesday that added unemployment benefits will formally expire on Friday as negotiators appear to be struggling to make any progress toward a bipartisan deal. "Enhanced unemployment insurance provisions will expire," Meadows told reporters after a meeting with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.). Asked if he believed that it would happen now, he added: "I do." (Carney, 7/29)

The Hill: McConnell Opens Door To Smaller Coronavirus Relief Deal 
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Wednesday appeared to open the door to a smaller coronavirus relief package than the proposal unveiled by Republicans earlier this week. McConnell, asked about soon-to-expire unemployment benefits, said that neither party wants them to expire, which is set to formally happen on Friday. "Many things around here happen at the last minute. This is only Wednesday, so hope springs eternal that we'll reach some kind of agreement either on a broad basis or a more narrow basis to avoid having an adverse impact on unemployment," McConnell told "PBS NewsHour." (Carney, 7/29)

The Hill: House Approves Two Child Care Bills Aimed At Pandemic 
The House passed two bills aimed at easing the financial burden for child care amid the coronavirus pandemic on Wednesday. The first, titled Child Care Is Essential Act, would provide grant money to child care providers in an effort to help the facilities reopen safely amid the coronavirus pandemic and stabilize the sector’s operations on Wednesday. The second, called the Child Care for Economic Recovery Act, includes a number of tax provisions that are aimed at making child care more affordable for families and providing assistance to child-care providers. (Jagoda and Brufke, 7/29)

The Hill: Powell: Social Distancing Is Crucial To Fast Economic Recovery 
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said Wednesday that social distancing and other measures meant to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus are crucial to the U.S. economy’s recovery from the pandemic. During a Wednesday press conference, Powell argued that coronavirus-related restrictions that may seem damaging to the economy are essential to repairing the damage wrought by the pandemic. (Lane, 7/29)

The Hill: Pelosi To Require Masks On House Floor 
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced Wednesday that masks will be mandatory on the House floor, after a GOP lawmaker who has at times flouted the health recommendation tested positive for COVID-19 earlier in the day. "Members and staff will be required to wear masks at all times in the hall of the House except that members may remove their masks temporarily when recognized,” Pelosi said from the House floor. (Marcos, 7/29)

The Washington Post: Pelosi Makes Mask Wearing Mandatory For Anyone On The House Floor 
Pelosi, with her own mask pulled down below her chin, informed her colleagues from the speaker’s chair that all members and their staff must wear a mask inside the chamber and may remove it temporarily only when recognized to speak. She said she expects everyone to “adhere to this requirement as a sign of respect for the health, safety and well-being of others present in the chamber and surrounding areas.” (Kane and Itkowitz, 7/29)

The Hill: Hoyer: Maskless Republicans A Public Health Threat 
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said Wednesday that those congressional Republicans still refusing to wear masks amid the coronavirus pandemic are, themselves, a public health threat. For members of a Republican Party that often touts the importance of personal responsibility, those lawmakers have exhibited "no personal responsibility or consideration for others," Hoyer charged. (Lillis, 7/29)

The Hill: Gohmert Says He Will Take Hydroxychloroquine As COVID-19 Treatment 
Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) said Wednesday he will take an anti-malaria drug that experts have warned doesn’t treat the coronavirus after he tested positive for the virus. "My doctor and I are all in," Gohmert said about hydroxychloroquine during a Wednesday evening interview with Fox News, according to Newsweek. "I got a text before I came on from a friend doctor who just found out he had it, and he started the regimen too — zinc and hydroxychloroquine. And that will start in a day or two, so thank you," the congressman added. (Klar, 7/29)

The Hill: Louisiana Republican Self-Quarantining After Exposure To Gohmert 
Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) said he is self-quarantining for 14 days out of caution due to exposure to Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) who tested positive for the coronavirus on Wednesday. Johnson said he is exhibiting no symptoms but is self-quarantining since he had dinner with Gohmert and a small group of others on Monday night. He said the group was distanced, but they did not have masks on since they were eating. He said he was seated next to Gohmert at the dinner. (Klar, 7/29)

The Washington Post: Ginsburg Back In Hospital For A Nonsurgical Procedure 
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is in the hospital again, this time for a “minimally invasive” nonsurgical procedure, the Supreme Court announced Wednesday night. Ginsburg was treated at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, where she received a bile duct stent a year ago.“ According to her doctors, stent revisions are common occurrences and the procedure, performed using endoscopy and medical imaging guidance, was done to minimize the risk of future infection,” court spokeswoman Kathleen Arberg said in a statement. “The justice is resting comfortably and expects to be released from the hospital by the end of the week.” (Barnes, 7/29)

The New York Times: Justice Ginsburg In The Hospital Again 
Justice Ginsburg, who is 87 and the senior member of the court’s liberal wing, has been hospitalized several times in recent months. In May, she participated in oral arguments from her hospital room at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, where she was being treated for a gallbladder condition. (Liptak, 7/29)

AP: Trump Vs. Biden: Where They Stand On Health, Economy, More
President Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, both promise sweeping progress over the next four years –- via starkly different paths. Trump, like many fellow Republicans, holds out tax reductions and regulatory cuts as economic cure-alls and frames himself as a conservative champion in seemingly endless culture wars. But the president, still trying to fashion himself as an outsider, offers little detail about how he’d pull the levers of government in a second term. Biden, for his part, sounds every bit the Democratic standard-bearer as he frames the federal government as the collective force to combat the coronavirus, rebuild the economy and address centuries of institutional racism and systemic inequalities. A veteran of national politics, Biden also loves framing his deal-making past as proof he can do it again from the Oval Office. (Barrow and Madhani, 7/30)

The Hill: Pence Met With Doctors From Viral Video Containing False Coronavirus Claims 
Vice President Pence on Tuesday met with doctors from the viral video that social media platforms have removed for spreading misleading information about coronavirus. The doctors, who are members of the group America’s Frontline Doctors, posted on Twitter promoting the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine, which has not been proven to effectively treat COVID-19, to Pence during a meeting. (Coleman, 7/29)

AP: Misinformation On Coronavirus Is Proving Highly Contagious
As the world races to find a vaccine and a treatment for COVID-19, there is seemingly no antidote in sight for the burgeoning outbreak of coronavirus conspiracy theories, hoaxes, anti-mask myths and sham cures. The phenomenon, unfolding largely on social media, escalated this week when President Donald Trump retweeted a false video about an anti-malaria drug being a cure for the virus and it was revealed that Russian intelligence is spreading disinformation about the crisis through English-language websites. (Klepper, 7/29)

The Washington Post: Madonna Keeps Making Controversial Covid-19 Claims, Calling Stella Immanuel Her ‘Hero’ 
Pop star Madonna built a career partly on controversy, so it may come as little surprise that she has continuously made controversial claims about the coronavirus. On Tuesday night, she shared a viral video of Stella Immanuel, a member of the self-dubbed America’s Frontline Doctors who recently spoke on the steps of the Supreme Court and claimed that neither masks nor shutdowns are required to fight the pandemic, despite widespread evidence to the contrary. Immanuel further made the unsubstantiated claim that hydroxychloroquine is a “cure for covid,” despite there being no known cure for the disease. (Andrews, 7/29)

The New York Times: Spring School Closures Over Coronavirus Saved Lives, Study Asserts 
In a new analysis, pediatric researchers have estimated that the states’ decisions to close schools last spring likely saved tens of thousands of lives from Covid-19 and prevented many more coronavirus infections. The findings come amid a worldwide debate on whether, when and how to reopen schools, including for some 56 million American students, kindergarten through high school. (Carey and Belluck, 7/29)

Stat: Spring School Closures Tied To Drastic Decrease In Covid-19 Cases, Deaths
When state officials were deciding whether to shutter their schools back in March, the evidence they had to work with was thin. They knew kids easily catch and spread influenza — and that school holidays and closures have helped slow its spread. But they weren’t sure if the same was true for Covid-19. Now, a study published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association shows that closing all of a state’s schools was associated with a drastic decrease in both Covid-19 cases and deaths. (Boodman, 7/29)

The Washington Post: Young People Are Infecting Older Family Members In Shared Homes 
As the death toll escalates in coronavirus hot spots, evidence is growing that young people who work outside the home, or who surged into bars and restaurants when states relaxed shutdowns, are infecting their more vulnerable elders, especially family members. Front-line caregivers, elected officials and experts in Houston, South Florida and elsewhere say they are seeing patterns of hospitalization and death that confirm fears this would happen, which were first raised in May and June. That was when Florida, Texas, Arizona, California and other states reopened in efforts to revive their flagging economies. (Bernstein, 7/29)

The New York Times: What Teachers' Unions Are Fighting For As Schools Plan A New Year 
As the nation heads toward a chaotic back-to-school season, with officials struggling over when to reopen classrooms and how to engage children online, teachers’ unions are playing a powerful role in determining the shape of public education as the coronavirus pandemic continues to rage. Teachers in many districts are fighting for longer school closures, stronger safety requirements and limits on what they are required to do in virtual classrooms, while flooding social media and state capitols with their concerns and threatening to walk off their jobs if key demands are not met. (Goldstein and Shapiro, 7/29)

The Hill: Baylor To Mail All Students Mandatory Coronavirus Tests 
Baylor University is mailing students COVID-19 test kits and is requiring that all students have a negative test before returning to campus. The Texas-based school will begin mailing the mandatory test kids to students starting next week, according to a Tuesday announcement. Baylor said students should take the test as soon as they receive it. The kit will include a package for overnight shipping for students to send the test to a lab, and the school said it will take 48 hours to process the test from the date the lab receives it. (Klar, 7/29)

The Washington Post: Georgetown University Reverses Plans, Will Start Fall Semester Online 
Georgetown University will begin the school year online, the campus’s president announced Wednesday, rescinding previous plans to conduct courses online and in-person this fall. The school joins George Washington University this week in amending its plans for the fall as novel coronavirus cases continue to rise across the country. (Lumpkin, 7/29)

AP: Kansas Allows Fall High School Sports Amid Pandemic
The Kansas State High School Activities Association is allowing all fall high school sport competitions in Kansas to move forward as scheduled despite the coronavirus pandemic. Its executive board on Tuesday narrowly defeated a motion that would have delayed the start of fall competitions, the Lawrence Journal-World reported. The decision means fall sports and activities programs can start practices on Aug. 17 and competitions can move forward as scheduled. However, local school boards will still be able to change sports schedules within their own districts. (7/29)

The Atlantic: As U.S. Schools Reopen, Will Kids Socially Distance? 
Across the country, schools have outlined the precautions they’ll take as they reopen their campuses this fall. If and when kids return, schools are planning outdoor “mask breaks” in Denver, one-way hallways in Northern Virginia, and shortened in-person school weeks in New York City, among many, many other safeguards against coronavirus outbreaks. Included in these reopening plans are a number of measures whose implementation will fall to students themselves. The basic trinity of pandemic safety—distancing, hand-washing, and masking—dictates a new set of cautious behaviors that will be expected of children on school grounds. Kids will also be expected to refrain from many once-normal activities—hugging, sharing toys, trading food at lunchtime, and so on. K–12 students may generally be capable of doing what public-health experts ask, but not all of them, not everything, and not all the time. (Pinsker, 7/29)

The Washington Post: In Detroit Summer School, Temperature Checks And Health Questions Before Math And Reading 
A morning line of second-graders waits patiently outside the entrance of Munger Elementary-Middle School on the city’s southwest side. Milagra Fernandez steps forward, and a staff member in a blue T-shirt emblazoned with “Auntie” starts running through her questions.“No cough, sore throat or runny nose?” she asks. “No upset stomach? Having any problems with taste or smell?” The staffer is wearing a white N95 mask. Milagra sports a rainbow-sequined version. The 7-year-old answers “no” again and again and then steps onto the sidewalk sticker that will keep her six feet from the boy who had just gone through the same drill. (Ruble, 7/29)

Politico: DeSantis Touts The Return Of In-Person Classes As Schools Say They’ll Go Online
Florida’s largest school district will begin the fall semester with remote classes, joining others that are keeping campuses closed even as Gov. Ron DeSantis insists the state will have in-person learning. Miami Dade County schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho announced the move Wednesday, a day after nearby Monroe County said it would rely on digital instruction for the immediate future. School leaders in Broward and Palm Beach counties, which along with Miami are the state’s hottest Covid-19 spots, also intend to start the school year with online courses. (Atterbury, 7/29)

The New York Times: One In Three Children Have Unacceptably High Lead Levels, Study Says 
Lead contamination has long been recognized as a health hazard, particularly for the young. But a new study asserts that the extent of the problem is far bigger than previously thought, with one in three children worldwide — about 800 million in all — threatened by unacceptably high lead levels in their blood. The ubiquity of lead — in dust and fumes from smelters and fires, vehicle batteries, old peeling paint, old water pipes, electronics junkyards, and even cosmetics and lead-infused spices — represents an enormous and understated risk to the mental and physical development of a generation of children, according to the study, released late Wednesday. (Gladstone, 7/29)

Stat: Cancer Drug Is First Therapy To Emerge From 23andMe-GSK Deal 
The pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline is starting human trials of the first medicine, a cancer drug, that has emerged from its two-year-old collaboration with consumer genetics firm 23andMe. The novel partnership focuses on using 23andMe’s massive genetic database, composed of the test results and self-reported health data from 12 million consumers who have taken its tests to learn about their ancestry and a smattering of disease-related genes, and who have said their samples could be used in research. (Herper, 7/29)

Stat: Drug Maker Settles Charges Of Offering 'Bogus' Research Grants
In the latest imbroglio involving drug makers and kickbacks, Pacira Biosciences (PCRX) has agreed to pay $3.5 million to resolve allegations of paying doctors bogus research grants to persuade them to prescribe its only medicine, the Exparel painkiller, which is used during various surgical procedures. From late 2012 through early 2015, Pacira approved and funded the grants despite receiving little or no documented description of any proposed research and then conducted little to no follow up to ensure the work was being done, according to court documents filed by the Department of Justice. In some cases, grant recipients did not conduct any research, at all. (Silverman, 7/30)

Stat: Lawmakers In Two States Release Bills To Ban Most Gifts To Doctors
Over the past month, lawmakers in two states have introduced bills that would ban drug makers from giving most gifts to doctors, although they are responding to different hot-button issues that continue to vex Americans: the rising cost of prescription medicines and the ongoing opioid crisis. In Michigan, state Rep. Douglas Wozniak, who sponsored the legislation, complained that drug prices have increased “astronomically” and there is a need to eliminate what he called “exorbitant incentives” that pharmaceutical companies are providing prescribers. His bill is part of a legislative package designed to hold all companies in the “supply chain” accountable for rising costs. (Silverman, 7/29)

Stat: MacKenzie Scott, With Amazon Fortune, Emerges As Health Philanthropist
You may not know the name MacKenzie Scott — the author just started going by her new name this week, after all — but you should: She’s one of the richest people on the planet and is emerging as a significant donor in the world of public health. Scott, who went by MacKenzie Bezos while she was married to Amazon founder and chief executive Jeff Bezos, has donated more than $128 million to public health nonprofits in recent months, she announced on Medium on Tuesday. (Robbins, 7/29)

The Wall Street Journal: Health-Care Startup Ro Raises $200 Million In New Funding
Ro, an online health-care startup, said Monday that it raised $200 million in a new funding round, bringing its total raised to $376 million. The new round values Ro at $1.5 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. The New York-based company said it will use the new funding to invest in technology, such as remote patient monitoring, and double its 70-person engineering team. Ro runs a digital-health site for men and another one for women. A network of health-care professionals diagnoses patient conditions and prescribes medicines, which Ro distributes. The company says its ability to care for patients from an initial evaluation to treatment delivery sets it apart. (McCormick, 7/28)

Stat: VCs Are Still Showering Biotechs With Cash, Even Amid Coronavirus
Venture capitalists are still spending big on biotech companies, even four months after the coronavirus pandemic cratered global markets. Venture capitalists have already signed 240 biotech deals this year, collectively worth more than $10 billion, according to a recent SVB analysis. The average valuation for those companies has also increased since January, despite concerns about the potential impact of clinical trial delays. (Sheridan, 7/30)

CIDRAP: Predicting Risk Of COVID-19 Infection Through App Inexact, Study Finds
Tracking COVID-19 symptoms through an app may not be a good predictor of the spread of the disease, according to a research letter published yesterday in Family Practice. Researchers in Switzerland and France analyzed data from a Nature Medicine study published on May 11 that suggested that a prediction score combining loss of smell and taste, fatigue, cough, and loss of appetite collected in real time through an app could identify people at risk for COVID-19. (7/29)

Stat: ‘A Huge Experiment’: How The World Made So Much Progress On A Covid-19 Vaccine So Fast
Never before have prospective vaccines for a pathogen entered final-stage clinical trials as rapidly as candidates for Covid-19. Just six months ago, when the death toll from the coronavirus stood at one and neither it nor the disease it caused had a name, a team of Chinese scientists uploaded its genetic sequence to a public site. That kicked off the record-breaking rush to develop vaccines — the salve that experts say could ultimately quell the pandemic. (Joseph, 7/30)

The Hill: Most In Poll Say They're Willing To Wait For COVID-19 Vaccine To Be Fully Tested 
More than 6 in 10 voters say a coronavirus vaccine should be fully tested, even if doing so delays its release and potentially allows the virus to spread further, according to a new poll. The Politico/Morning Consult poll released Wednesday found that 64 percent favor fully testing any potential vaccine, while 22 percent said it should be made available as early as possible. (Deese, 7/29)

The Hill: COVID-19 Vaccines Must Go To Rich And Poor Countries, Warns Advocate 
The world will not return to normal until a vaccine against the coronavirus is distributed widely and not just to developed nations, one of the leading vaccine experts said in a wide-ranging interview Wednesday. Seth Berkley, who heads the vaccine alliance Gavi, said he was encouraged by the pace of scientific progress toward a vaccine, but that he is concerned that wealthy nations may snap up all the available supply, leaving poorer and developing nations to struggle through the pandemic without the proper aid. (Wilson, 7/29)

CIDRAP: Invasive Ventilation, Older Age, Dialysis Tied To COVID-19 Death In Germany
An observational study of 10,021 COVID-19 patients admitted to 920 German hospitals has found that patients requiring mechanical ventilation were at highest risk for death—especially those 80 years and older and those needing dialysis. The study, published yesterday in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine, examined claims data from hospitalized coronavirus virus patients from Feb 26 to Apr 19. Of the 10,021 patients, 2,229 (22%) died. (7/29)

CIDRAP: COVID-19 Risk Factors Vary For Nursing Home Staff, Residents 
A study published yesterday in the Journal of Infection has found that staff working at more than one London nursing home during the peak of the UK COVID-19 outbreak had a quadruple risk of infection. Also, JAMA Network Open today published a research letter showing that US nursing homes that reported COVID-19 cases also had high numbers of deficiencies and substantiated complaints citing failures to comply with federal infection-control requirements. (Van Beusekom, 7/29)

CIDRAP: As Pandemic Rages, PPE Supply Remains A Problem 
One of the more unsettling images from the early days of the coronavirus pandemic in the United States came from New York in late March. In a photo that quickly went viral on social media, nurses from Manhattan's Mount Sinai Hospital were seen wearing surgical masks, face shields, gloves, and trash bags over their scrubs. "NO MORE GOWNS IN THE WHOLE HOSPITAL" read the caption in the image, which was later deleted. (Dall, 7/29)

CNN: 1,000-Year-Old Medieval Remedy Could Be Potential Antibiotic, Scientists Say 
A 1,000-year-old natural remedy made from onion, garlic, wine and bile salts has shown antibacterial potential, with promise to treat diabetic foot and leg infections, new research published Tuesday suggested. Known as Bald's eyesalve, the treatment has the potential to tackle biofilm infections — communities of bacteria which resist antibiotics — making them much harder to treat, the researchers said. (Hunt, 7/28)

The Washington Post: Montreal Cognitive Assessment Test Trump Brags About Is A Traumatic Experience For People With Dementia
Jay Reinstein remembers the day he took the cognitive test President Trump keeps bragging about. “One of the questions was to draw a clock at a certain time, and I’m staring at the circle and can’t figure out where the small hand goes,” said Reinstein, 59, who was eventually diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. “I have a bachelor’s and master’s. … And I can’t draw a damn clock. I felt so frustrated, ashamed.” (Wan, 7/29)

The New York Times: Michael Phelps Documentary Criticizes U.S. Olympic Committee On Mental Health 
The relationship between the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee and its most decorated Olympian, Michael Phelps, has been rocky for years. The more Phelps won, and did he ever win, racking up 28 Olympic medals across five Games, the more he became the organization’s poster child, worthy of whatever special treatment it could provide. Or, from Phelps’s perspective, he was the latest and greatest commodity that Olympics promoters cared about only as a medal-producing swimming machine. Phelps distills that dynamic near the end of “The Weight of Gold,” the HBO Sports documentary he narrates about depression and other mental illnesses with which Olympians struggle. (Futterman, 7/29)

New York Post: Depression Caused A Woman To Believe She Was A Chicken
When being a human gets too hard, the brain will cope with psychological stress in fascinating ways. While most of the 260 million people worldwide who suffer from depression will have common symptoms, such as sadness, fatigue, disinterest and sleeplessness, an exceedingly rare few could lose their humanity completely — by assuming the identity of an animal, according to researchers at KU Leuven in Belgium.In the Dutch medical journal Tijdschrift voor Psychiatrie, psychologists described the case of one 54-year-old woman, unnamed in their case study, who was found in her garden “clucking and crowing like a rooster”  — a condition called zoanthropy, or the delusion of believing oneself is not human, but animal. (Sparks, 7/28)

The New York Times: Is Your Blood Sugar Undermining Your Workouts? 
People with consistently high levels of blood sugar could get less benefit from exercise than those whose blood sugar levels are normal, according to a cautionary new study of nutrition, blood sugar and exercise. The study, which involved rodents and people, suggests that eating a diet high in sugar and processed foods, which may set the stage for poor blood sugar control, could dent our long-term health in part by changing how well our bodies respond to a workout. (Reynolds, 7/29)

The Hill: Virginia Governor, Senators Request CDC Aid With Coronavirus Outbreak At Immigrant Detention Facility 
Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D) and Sens. Mark Warner (D) and Tim Kaine (D) requested aid from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in response to a coronavirus outbreak in an immigration detention facility. Northam, in a letter to President Trump last week obtained by The Washington Post, requested CDC intervention at the privately owned facility in Farmville. Immigration advocates have called the facility a “tinderbox.” At least 262 detainees there have tested positive for the coronavirus, according to the Post. (Budryk, 7/29)

The Washington Post: Covid-19 Outbreak Inside Immigration Facility Prompts Northam, U.S. Senators To Ask CDC For Help 
Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam and the state’s two U.S. senators are urging President Trump to send the country’s top public health agency to respond to a coronavirus outbreak inside a privately owned immigrant detention center in the town of Farmville that immigrant advocates have called “a tinderbox” of infection. The outbreak at the Farmville Detention Center is the largest at any such facility in the country, with 262 undocumented immigrants there being monitored after testing positive for the coronavirus, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. (Olivo and Schneider, 7/29)

The Washington Post: Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan Expands Coronavirus Mask Order, Issues Travel Advisory 
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) on Wednesday expanded the state’s mandate for face coverings, requiring residents older than 5 to wear masks while indoors in public spaces and outdoors when social distancing is not possible. Hogan also warned against travel to states with high levels of novel coronavirus infections, ordering residents to be tested and quarantine until they receive results. The directives are the latest actions taken across the greater Washington region to slow the spread of the virus. (Wiggins, Brice-Saddler, Sullivan and Hedgpeth, 7/29)

The Hill: Governors' Approval Ratings Drop As COVID-19 Cases Mount 
Voters growing weary after months of the coronavirus pandemic are increasingly critical of their governors, especially in states where those governors raced to reopen the economy and are now suffering a surge in new cases. A major survey conducted by researchers at Harvard, Northeastern, Northwestern and Rutgers found Americans in 44 states now have a lower opinion of the way their governor is handling the coronavirus outbreak than they did in April, at the height of the first wave of the pandemic. (Wilson, 7/29)

The Washington Post: Tommy Tuberville, Alabama U.S. Senate Candidate, Defies D.C. Quarantine Order On Fundraising Visit 
Alabama GOP Senate candidate Tommy Tuberville is fundraising and holding face-to-face meetings in Washington this week, defying orders from the city that visitors from certain coronavirus hot spots quarantine upon arrival. Tuberville spent at least some of his time in D.C. at the Trump International Hotel, according to a photo posted to Facebook by Arkansas GOP Rep. Bruce Westerman showing the two men in the hotel lobby on Tuesday night. In the photo, neither man is wearing a mask. ... The former Auburn University football coach, who is running to unseat incumbent Sen. Doug Jones (D), is taking a victory lap following his primary victory on July 14 over former Trump administration attorney general Jeff Sessions. (Itkowitz, 7/29)

AP: Gary Closes Its Lake Michigan Beaches Due To COVID-19 Surge
The city of Gary’s beaches along Lake Michigan were closed Wednesday for two weeks due to a surge in new COVID-19 cases in the northwestern Indiana city. Mayor Jerome Prince cited the beaches’ crowded conditions on Tuesday in ordering their closure. His order took effect Wednesday and shuttered Gary’s beaches, including the popular Marquette Park Beach, and their parking lots. (7/29)