First Edition: July 31, 2020

Kaiser Health News: Avoiding Care During The Pandemic Could Mean Life Or Death
These days, Los Angeles acting teacher Deryn Warren balances her pain with her fear. She’s a bladder cancer patient who broke her wrist in November. She still needs physical therapy for her wrist, and she’s months late for a cancer follow-up. But Warren won’t go near a hospital, even though she says her wrist hurts every day. “If I go back to the hospital, I’ll get COVID. Hospitals are full of COVID people,” says Warren, a former film director and author of the book “How to Make Your Audience Fall in Love With You.” (Glionna, 7/31)

Kaiser Health News and Politifact HealthCheck: Don’t Fall For This Video: Hydroxychloroquine Is Not A COVID-19 Cure 
Millions of people, including the president of the United States, have seen or shared a video in which a doctor falsely claims there is a cure for the coronavirus, and it’s a medley starring hydroxychloroquine. The video shows several doctors in white coats giving a press conference outside the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. It persists on social media despite bans from Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, and it was published by Breitbart, a conservative news site. (Funke, 7/31)

The Hill: Global Coronavirus Infections Top 17 Million 
The number of confirmed coronavirus infections worldwide topped 17 million early Thursday morning, another grim global milestone as the pandemic continues. Data from Johns Hopkins University indicated the global total of confirmed cases reached beyond 17 million since the first cases were identified in Wuhan, China, last December. The worldwide death toll has reached at least 667,900. (Coleman, 7/30)

The Hill: Arizona, Mississippi, Florida See Record One-Day Coronavirus Deaths 
Arizona, Mississippi and Florida each recorded a record one-day increase in COVID-19 deaths on Thursday, as the south and western regions of the U.S. continue to face a surge in coronavirus cases. The Florida Department of Health reported 9,943 new coronavirus cases on Thursday and 253 deaths, its third-straight single-day record total of COVID-19 fatalities. The state has now reported a total of 461,379 cases and 6,586 deaths since the start of the pandemic. (Moreno, 7/30)

AP: 2nd US Virus Surge Hits Plateau, But Few Experts Celebrate
While deaths from the coronavirus in the U.S. are mounting rapidly, public health experts are seeing a flicker of good news: The second surge of confirmed cases appears to be leveling off. Scientists aren’t celebrating by any means, warning that the trend is driven by four big, hard-hit places — Arizona, California, Florida and Texas — and that cases are rising in close to 30 states in all, with the outbreak’s center of gravity seemingly shifting from the Sun Belt toward the Midwest. Some experts wonder whether the apparent caseload improvements will endure. (Stobbe and Forster, 7/31)

The Hill: Coronavirus Hotspots Ease, But Officials Warn Normal Is A Long Way Off 
The number of new coronavirus infections in some of the states hit hardest by the pandemic in the last month is easing, but public health officials warn that widespread transmission is still taking place, and that a return to normal life is a long way off. New daily case counts have declined in the last two weeks in eleven states where the virus surged after lockdowns eased and people began venturing out more, raising hopes that the second wave of infections has crested. (Wilson, 7/30)

The Hill: Trump Urges Recovered COVID-19 Patients To Donate Plasma 
Convalescent plasma is being studied as a possible treatment for COVID-19. Those who have had the virus and have recovered develop antibodies against the virus in the blood, which could be used to treat those still battling the disease. "We've seen that this is a safe treatment and we're encouraged by the early promising data that we've seen," Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Stephen Hahn said during a roundtable discussing the coronavirus. (Samuels, 7/30)

Politico: Trump Calls On Covid-19 Survivors To Donate Blood Plasma 
President Donald Trump on Thursday urged Americans who have recovered from Covid-19 to donate their blood plasma to help stem the pandemic. "If you have had the virus, if you would donate, it would be a terrific thing," Trump said during a roundtable at the American Red Cross headquarters, flanked by his team of coronavirus experts — including NIH leaders Francis Collins and Anthony Fauci, FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn and White House coronavirus coordinator Deborah Birx. (Brennan, 7/30)

The Hill: Trump Says He Can't Assure School Safety Amid Pandemic: 'Can You Assure Anybody Of Anything?' 
President Trump, who has pressed for schools to open this fall despite the coronavirus pandemic, said Thursday that he couldn't offer assurances that holding in-person classes would be safe. “Can you assure anybody of anything?” Trump said in response to a question about how he could assure people that schools can safely be reopened. At the same time, Trump falsely claimed that young people are “almost immune” to the virus. (Hellmann, 7/30)

The Hill: Fauci Says Eye Protection Can Help Prevent Spread Of Coronavirus 
Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert and a key member of the White House coronavirus task force, said Wednesday that the U.S. could eventually reach a point where it recommends the use of eye goggles to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. During an interview with ABC News medical correspondent Jennifer Ashton, Fauci was asked whether the U.S. would one day recommend eye protection due to the pandemic. "You know, it might," Fauci said, noting that it would offer an added layer of protection. (Wise, 7/30)

The Hill: Birx Recommends Face Shields In Addition To Masks 
Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, is recommending the use of face shields along with masks to protect against COVID-19 infection. Face shields can offer more protection to the wearer than cloth face coverings, which are intended to prevent asymptomatic individuals from spreading coronavirus to others. (Hellmann, 7/30)

The Hill: Birx Says State And Local Leaders Should Issue Mask Mandates As Cases Rise 
Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, said governors in several states experiencing upticks in COVID-19 cases should mandate mask wearing in public. “We believe if the governors and mayors of every locality right now would mandate masks for their communities and every American would wear a mask and socially distance and not congregate in large settings where you can't socially distance or wear a mask, that we can really get control of this virus and drive down cases, as Arizona has done,” Birx said on "Fox & Friends" Thursday morning. (Hellmann, 7/30)

AP: Fauci Back On Capitol Hill As Virus Surge Drives New Fears
The government’s top infectious disease expert is testifying alongside Dr. Robert Redfield, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Admiral Brett Giroir, a Health and Human Services official and physician serving as the “testing czar.” The panel, the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, is divided about how to reopen schools and businesses, mirroring divisions among Americans. (Alonso-Zaldivar and Perrone, 7/31)

The New York Times: Fauci To Testify Before Congress On Coronavirus Response 
Two days after U.S. deaths surpassed 150,000, three familiar federal health officials, including Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, will return to Capitol Hill to testify in front of a new audience: the House’s special select committee investigating the Trump administration’s response to the pandemic. Dr. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, will be joined on Friday morning by Dr. Robert R. Redfield, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Adm. Brett P. Giroir, the assistant secretary for health and the administration’s point person on coronavirus testing. (7/30)

The Hill: Senate Rejects Dueling Coronavirus Bills As Unemployment Cliff Looms 
The Senate on Thursday rejected two competing proposals for coronavirus relief as the deadline for extending enhanced unemployment benefits looms and Congress struggles to break an impasse over a fifth stimulus bill. The floor drama comes as the $600 federal boost to unemployment benefits passed as part of the March bill is set to expire on Friday with no consensus in Congress about how to replace it. (Carney, 7/30)

AP: Trump Offers, Democrats Reject Fix For $600 Jobless Benefit
With aid expiring, the White House offered a short-term extension Thursday of a $600 weekly unemployment benefit that has helped keep families and the economy afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic, but Democrats rejected it, saying President Donald Trump’s team failed to grasp the severity of the crisis. Democratic leaders panned the idea in late-night talks at the Capitol, opting to keep the pressure on for a more sweeping bill that would deliver aid to state and local governments, help for the poor and funding for schools and colleges to address the pandemic. Without action, the benefit runs out Friday. (Taylor and Mascaro, 7/31)

The Hill: Democrats Reject Short-Term Deal Ahead Of Unemployment Deadline 
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said on Thursday night that Democrats rejected a short-term deal as negotiators remain at loggerheads over the next coronavirus relief bill. "We made a proposal for a short-term deal. And as of now they've repeated they don't want to do that," Mnuchin told reporters after a nearly two-hour meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer (N.Y.) and Meadows. (Carney, 7/30)

The Washington Post: Public Health Experts Issue Urgent Call For Change Of Course As U.S. Economy Tanks 
Public health experts called for urgent new measures Thursday to halt the spread of the coronavirus amid warnings the U.S. economy is in a historic and devastating contraction as covid-19 is killing Americans at the rate of about one every minute. The stock market took a dive after the Commerce Department reported the economy shrank by 9.5 percent in the second quarter, the biggest recorded decline since the government began keeping track 70 years ago. The government also reported jobless claims climbing again last week by 1.4 million, another sign the recovery is fizzling. GDP shrank at an annual rate of 32.9 percent, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. (Morello, 7/30)

The Hill: GOP Lawmakers Comply With Pelosi's Mask Mandate For House Floor 
Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) new mask requirement for the House floor had its intended effect Thursday: For once, there was effectively universal compliance. The new requirement came after Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) tested positive for the coronavirus the day before, rattling lawmakers and staff across the Capitol complex. (Marcos, 7/30)

The New York Times: Louie Gohmert’s Coronavirus Case Reveals A Dangerous Reality In Congress 
Representative Louie Gohmert, a mask-shunning Republican from Texas, might never have known he had the coronavirus had he not had a mandatory rapid test at the White House in line with its strict protocols put in place to protect President Trump. So when he tested positive this week, prompting alarm and anger on Capitol Hill, his case exposed a dangerous reality that lawmakers, aides and other staff members have quietly fretted over for months: that Congress, which is tasked with shepherding the nation through the pandemic, itself lacks consistent procedures for protecting its members and its work force. (Fandos and Edmondson, 7/30)

Politico: The Congressional Underclass Erupts In Fury After Gohmert Gets Covid-19
The revelation Wednesday that Texas Republican Louie Gohmert, a renegade lawmaker known for stalking the halls of Congress without a mask, tested positive for Covid-19 has unleashed a fusillade of anger on Capitol Hill — a sudden release of built-up tension over how the institution has dealt with the coronavirus pandemic within the confines of its own workplace. For months, the leaders of Congress have allowed lawmakers to enter the Capitol without being screened for the deadly virus, rejecting an offer from the White House to provide rapid testing while trusting that the thousands who work across the massive complex of offices, meeting rooms and hallways will behave responsibly. (Palmer, 7/30)

The New York Times: Will Herman Cain’s Death Change Republican Views On The Virus And Masks? 
The death of Herman Cain, attributed to the coronavirus, has made Republicans and President Trump face the reality of the pandemic as it hit closer to home than ever before, claiming a prominent conservative ally whose frequently dismissive attitude about taking the threat seriously reflected the hands-off inconsistency of party leaders. Mr. Cain, a former business executive and candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012, had an irreverent, confrontational style that mirrored the president’s own brand of contrarian politics. (Peters, 7/30)

The Washington Post: Herman Cain, Pizza Executive And 2012 GOP Presidential Hopeful, Dies At 74 Of Covid-19 
Drawing on his up-from-poverty story, his experience as a pizza-chain executive and even his resonant singing voice, Herman Cain launched an unlikely run for the presidency that briefly landed him at the top of the polls for the Republican nomination early in the 2012 campaign. If nominated, he would have been the first Black GOP presidential nominee, but his candidacy soon ran aground amid charges of sexual harassment. By the end of 2011, Mr. Cain had dropped out of the race, and the GOP nomination ultimately went to Mitt Romney. (Schudel and Langer, 7/30)

The Hill: Trump Testing Czar Says 56 Percent Of COVID-19 Results Coming Back Within Three Days 
The Trump administration official in charge of the United States's COVID-19 testing strategy said Thursday backlogs are improving and most lab results are coming back within three days or less. COVID-19 outbreaks in the south and west have strained laboratory testing capacity, leading to turnaround times of several days or even weeks, hampering efforts to contain the spread of the virus. (Hellmann, 7/30)

AP: Virus Testing Turnaround Times Reveal Wide Disparity
Cameron Settles was swabbed for COVID-19 in mid-June at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando and it took him eight days to get the results. “They originally told him that it would be five days,” said Jenna Settles, his wife. “Then when he went to log in, it said six days, then seven days. He eventually had to call and wait on hold for three or four hours to get his result.” (Lush, 7/31)

NPR: New Trump COVID-19 Hospitalization Data System Is Not Faster Nor More Complete 
Earlier this month, when the Trump administration told hospitals to send crucial data about coronavirus cases and intensive care capacity to a new online system, it promised the change would be worth it. The data would be more complete, transparent, and an improvement over the old platform run by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, administration officials said. Instead, the public data hub created under the new system is updated erratically and is rife with inconsistencies and errors, data analysts say. (Huang and Simmons-Duffin, 7/31)

The Washington Post: Supreme Court Again Splits On Coronavirus-Related Election Issue 
The Supreme Court on Thursday shut down a lower court’s decision that cited the coronavirus pandemic as reason to ease the rules on gathering signatures for a citizens ballot initiative. The case from Idaho was the latest example of the high court deferring to state officials, rather than lower-court judges, in how to deal with election-related issues caused by the outbreak of covid-19. The justices put on hold a lower-court order that Idaho officials either put on the ballot an education initiative promoted by a group called Reform Idaho or allow the group to gather signatures electronically, although the deadline had passed. (Barnes, 7/30)

The New York Times: Children May Carry Coronavirus At High Levels, Study Finds 
It has been a comforting refrain in the national conversation about reopening schools: Young children are mostly spared by the coronavirus and don’t seem to spread it to others, at least not very often. But on Thursday, a study introduced an unwelcome wrinkle into this smooth narrative. Infected children have at least as much of the coronavirus in their noses and throats as infected adults, according to the research. Indeed, children younger than age 5 may host up to 100 times as much of the virus in the upper respiratory tract as adults, the authors found. (Mandavilli, 7/30)

CNN: Why Some People Who Haven't Had Covid-19 Might Already Have Some Immunity 
The immune systems of some people who have not been exposed to the novel coronavirus could have some familiarity with the pathogen -- possibly helping to reduce the severity of illness if that person does get Covid-19, a new study suggests. The study, published in the journal Nature on Wednesday, found that among a sample of 68 healthy adults in Germany who had not been exposed to the coronavirus, 35% had T cells in their blood that were reactive to the virus. (Howard, 7/30)

The New York Times: A Covid Patient Goes Home After A Rare Double Lung Transplant
The last thing that Mayra Ramirez remembers from the emergency room at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago is calling her family to say she had Covid, was about to be put on a ventilator and needed her mother to make medical decisions for her. Ms. Ramirez, 28, did not wake up for more than six weeks. And then she learned that on June 5, she had become the first Covid patient in the United States to receive a double-lung transplant. On Wednesday, she went home from the hospital. (Grady, 7/30)

AP: COVID Patient Didn't Recognize Body After Double Transplant
A Chicago woman who last month became the nation’s first COVID-19 patient to undergo a double lung transplant said Thursday that she woke up days later, unaware about the surgery and unable to “recognize my body.” Mayra Ramirez said that before she fell ill she was an independent, active person who moved from North Carolina to Chicago in 2014 to work as a paralegal. She said she had an autoimmune condition, but was otherwise healthy. She had gone on a three-mile run shortly before becoming ill and heading for the hospital. “I was told to hurry up (and) change,” she said. (7/31)

Chicago Tribune: ‘Everything Happened So Quickly’: COVID-19 Patients Who Were First In U.S. To Undergo Double Lung Transplants At Northwestern Share Their Stories 
In June, [Mayra] Ramirez became the first COVID-19 patient in the U.S. to undergo a double lung transplant after her lungs were severely damaged by the disease. Ramirez and Brian Kuhns — a Lake Zurich man who was the second COVID-19 patient to receive a double lung transplant — spoke publicly about their experiences for the first time at a news conference at Northwestern on Thursday. Such transplants aren’t right for every critically ill COVID-19 patient, but can be a lifeline for some, said Dr. Ankit Bharat, chief of thoracic surgery and surgical director of the Northwestern Medicine Lung Transplant Program. (Schencker, 7/30)

WJXT/WCWJ: UF Health Shands Has Successful Double-Lung Transplant On COVID-19 Survivor
A first-of-its-kind procedure in the Southeast — a double-lung transplant — by UF Health Shands Hospital has given a COVID-19 survivor a second chance at life. The patient, a man in his 50s from Texas, tested positive for COVID-19 in April and the virus significantly damaged his lungs. Once it became clear that the damage from the virus to the lungs was permanent, a double transplant option was put on the table. UF Health said it was the first successful surgery of its kind in the Southeast region on a patient who has survived COVID-19. (Barney, 7/30)

AP: Medicare Coverage For Alzheimer Brain Scans In Question
A big study to help Medicare officials decide whether to start covering brain scans to check for Alzheimer’s disease missed its goals for curbing health care costs, calling into question whether the pricey tests are worth it. The results announced Thursday are from a $100 million study of more than 25,000 Medicare recipients. It’s been closely watched by private insurers too, as the elderly population grows and more develop this most common form of dementia, which currently has no cure. (Marchione, 7/30)

Stat: The Drug Industry’s New Tactic In Washington: Calling Trump’s Bluff 
The pharmaceutical industry has sparred with President Trump for four years over drug pricing. Now it’s taking its biggest gamble yet: calling the president’s bluff. The most brazen move came this week: Unlike most CEOs, who jump at the chance to visit the White House, pharmaceutical executives — newly empowered by their high-profile efforts to respond to the coronavirus and fed up with President Trump’s repeated threats — responded to his latest invitation with open contempt. (Florko and Facher, 7/31)

The Hill: Johnson & Johnson's Single-Shot Coronavirus Vaccine Has Begun Human Trials 
Johnson & Johnson’s experimental coronavirus vaccine entered human trials this month after an early study showed it helped protect a group of primates with a single shot. According to a study published in the medical journal Nature, all of the animals that had been exposed to the pandemic six weeks after the injection were immune except for one, which showed only low levels of the virus. The results prompted the health care firm to begin human trials last week in Belgium and earlier this week in the U.S. (Axelrod, 7/30)

Politico: Vaccine Distribution Will Be ‘Joint Venture’ Between CDC And Pentagon 
Nationwide distribution of any coronavirus vaccine will be a “joint venture” between the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which typically oversees vaccine allocation, and the Department of Defense, a senior administration official said today. The Department of Defense “is handling all the logistics of getting the vaccines to the right place, at the right time, in the right condition,” the official said in a call with reporters, adding that CDC will remain in charge of tracking any side effects that emerge post-vaccination and “some of the communications through the state relationships [and] the state public health organizations.” (Owermohle, 7/30)

Boston Globe: Prominent Hospital Leader Resigns From Moderna Board
Dr. Elizabeth Nabel, president of Brigham and Women’s Hospital, said Thursday she was resigning from Moderna’s board of directors after the Globe inquired about whether her role at the Cambridge biotech company was a conflict of interest with her hospital’s participation in a large study of Moderna’s experimental COVID-19 vaccine that just got underway. The hospital said in a statement Thursday that when Nabel joined Moderna’s board in 2015, Brigham and Women’s parent company put several guardrails in place to prevent a conflict of interest. More safeguards were imposed when the hospital was named one of 87 clinical sites for the late-stage trial trial that began Monday, it said. (Saltzman, 7/30)

The Wall Street Journal: Drugmakers Race To Build Covid-19 Vaccine Supply Chains 
Pharmaceutical companies that are racing to develop vaccines for the coronavirus are already working behind the scenes to build the supply chains needed to deliver their drugs to billions of people as rapidly as possible. To serve global demand once a vaccine is approved, a complicated and high-stakes supply chain would kick into gear on a scale that the drug industry has rarely seen. The preparations involve lining up raw materials and factory capacity to manufacture a vaccine in large volumes, and the equipment needed to transport many millions of doses at once through distribution channels that will be subject to tight security and temperature controls. (Chen, 7/30)

The New York Times: Old Vaccines May Stop The Coronavirus, Study Hints. Scientists Are Skeptical. 
Billions of dollars are being invested in the development of vaccines against the coronavirus. Until one arrives, many scientists have turned to tried-and-true vaccines to see whether they may confer broad protection, and may reduce the risk of coronavirus infection, as well. Old standbys like the Bacille Calmette-Guerin tuberculosis vaccine and the polio vaccine appear to help train the immune system to respond to a broad variety of infections, including from bacteria, viruses and parasites, experts say. (Caryn Rabin, 7/29)

The Hill: FDA Chief: Hydroxychloroquine Use A Decision Between Doctor And Patient 
Stephen Hahn, the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), on Thursday declined to take a definitive stance on whether people should take hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for the coronavirus, instead saying that decision should be made between a doctor and a patient. “We had data that when this drug was combined with others, there was some risk associated with that. But the question you’re asking me is a decision between a doctor and a patient,” Hahn said on NBC’s “Today” show. (Axelrod, 7/30)

USA Today: 'America's Frontline Doctors' Tout Hydroxychloroquine: Who Are They?
Tech platforms scrambled this week to delete a video featuring seven doctors who claimed their front-line knowledge of the pandemic contradicts the guidance of public health experts – even as President Donald Trump, his son and other political allies sought to amplify the video. The event suggested the doctors' personal experience gave them a valuable perspective on the public health crisis that they said was not being taken seriously. (Miller and Shannon, 7/30)

The Hill: Ohio Pharmacy Board Backtracks, Withdraws Rule Barring Use Of Hydroxychloroquine To Treat Coronavirus
The State of Ohio Board of Pharmacy on Thursday withdrew a rule that would have barred pharmacists, licensed distributors of drugs and medical institutions from prescribing the controversial anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine to treat or prevent the novel coronavirus after Gov. Mike DeWine (R) voiced concerns. The state pharmacy board said in a memo on Wednesday that the rule would, in general, prohibit the use of hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine for the treatment or prevention of COVID-19... But the rule quickly met with pushback from DeWine (R), who urged the state board to reconsider the decision the day it went into effect. (Wise, 7/30)

Stat: Cerevel Therapeutics To Raise $445 Million To Develop Brain Drugs 
Cerevel Therapeutics, a Boston neuroscience company spun out from Pfizer in 2018 and led by the well-known CEO Tony Coles, is going public. The method of the public offering is somewhat unusual: Cerevel will raise roughly $445 million by merging with a public shell company launched by the hedge fund Perceptive Advisors in June — that shell company has already raised $130 million — and by raising a private investment from other investors to make up the rest of the amount. (Garde and Herper, 7/30)

Stat: Medical Nonprofits Forced To Scale Back As Pandemic Upends Fundraising
Medical charities have long relied on black-tie galas, golf tournaments, and bike-a-thons to fund their operations. But as with so many other in-person events, Covid-19 has cancelled those plans this year, leaving nonprofits with a funding shortfall that has forced them to cut staff, end grant funding, scale back activities, and in at least one case, shut down entirely. (Robbins, 7/31)

AP: Tyson Foods To Increase Virus Testing In US Meat Plants
Tyson Foods says it plans to administer thousands of coronavirus tests per week at its U.S. facilities under an expanded effort to protect workers and keep plants running. The Springdale, Arkansas-based company, which processes about 20% of all beef, pork and chicken in the U.S., will randomly test employees who have no symptoms, as well as those with symptoms. Workers will also be tested if they were near someone who tested positive or displayed symptoms. (Durbin, 7/30)

CIDRAP: Study Shows Higher COVID-19 Exposure Rates In Pregnant Black, Hispanic Women
Pregnant black and Hispanic women at two Philadelphia hospitals were five times more likely than their white and Asian peers to have been exposed to COVID-19, according to a study published yesterday in Science Immunology. Overall, 80 of 1,293 pregnant women (6.2%) who went into labor from Apr 4 to Jun 3 tested positive for coronavirus antibodies. But 9.7% of black women (95% confidence interval [CI], 7.3% to 12.5%) and 10.4% of Hispanic women (95% CI, 5.7% to 17.1%) tested positive, versus only 2.0% of white women (95% CI, 0.9% to 3.8%) and 0.9% of Asian women (95% CI, 0.0% to 5.1%). (7/30)

The Washington Post: An Infant Died After Her Mother Drank Beer And They Shared A Bed. Maryland’s Highest Court Said It Wasn’t A Crime. 
The Maryland woman had just wrapped up a virtual happy hour on Facebook, drinking a couple of beers on the porch while her infant daughter and 4-year-old slept. She changed the baby’s diaper, pumped breastmilk, took out the trash and locked the doors before climbing into bed next to her baby girl. By morning, Muriel Morrison’s daughter was listless, her lips blue. Morrison was charged and convicted by a jury in the co-sleeping death of her infant, who suffocated while she slept beside her mother.Maryland’s highest court this week threw out Morrison’s 2013 conviction and 20-year sentence. ... The judges were not prepared to criminalize co-sleeping in the same bed as an infant. (Marimow, 7/30)

Los Angeles Times: Men Are Dying Of Coronavirus At Higher Rates In L.A. County 
Men have a mask problem.That is the view of Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and health officials, who are urging guys to cover their faces in public to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Men outside of institutional facilities are dying from COVID-19 at a higher rate than women in Los Angeles County, and recent polling has found that American men are less likely to always wear masks than women. (Money, 7/30)

The Wall Street Journal: In Lawsuit, More Than 50 Former University Of Michigan Students Say Doctor Sexually Abused Them 
Former University of Michigan students, including more than two dozen football players, filed a lawsuit against the school on Thursday, alleging a prominent team doctor sexually abused them during physical exams while coaches and administrators turned a blind eye. The 53 plaintiffs allege that Dr. Robert Anderson, who worked at the school for nearly 40 years until 2003, molested them and that the behavior was reported to famed football coach Bo Schembechler and athletic director Don Canham, among others. (Belkin, 7/30)

Reuters: Seasonal Flu Reports Hit Record Lows Amid Global Social Distancing
Global social distancing rules targeting coronavirus have pushed influenza infection rates to a record low, early figures show, signalling that the measures are having an unprecedented impact on other communicable diseases. In China, where the earliest wide-scale lockdown measures began, new reports of diseases including mumps, measles and some sexually transmitted diseases, have declined significantly, though influenza cases have seen the sharpest drop off. (Cadell, 7/31)

The New York Times: The Pandemic’s Toll On Children With Special Needs And Their Parents 
Franscheska Eliza has a 9-year-old son with autism spectrum disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, anxiety and sensory issues. Before the pandemic, he was in a program in the Bedford, Mass., public schools designed for children with autism. This meant her son, Rafael, was in a special classroom, but also was a member of the regular third-grade class, and could join them for morning meeting or some academic subjects. He had a dedicated aide who worked with him when he got anxious. This was his first year in the school, and the beginning of the year was tough, but by March, things were going well.Then came Covid-19. (Klass, 7/27)

AP: Minnesota Schools Get Some Flexibility On Back-To-School
Minnesota state officials on Thursday unveiled a plan to reopen schools this fall that gives districts some flexibility to toggle between in-person and online learning, but reserves the right for the state to step in if the coronavirus gets out of control. Gov. Tim Walz acknowledged the importance of schools and the value of in-person learning, but said the state’s top priority is safety. Districts will work with the state Health and Education departments to determine whether to use in-person instruction, online learning or a hybrid model, and will have the ability to become more or less restrictive depending on the virus. (Ibrahim, 7/30)

USA Today: COVID Online School Impacts Kids' Mental Health. What Can Teachers Do?
When her South Carolina high school went online this spring, Maya Green struggled through the same emotions as many of her fellow seniors: She missed her friends. Her online assignments were too easy. She struggled to stay focused. But Green, 18, also found herself working harder for the teachers who knew her well and cared about her. "My school doesn't do a ton of lessons on social and emotional learning," said Green, who just graduated from Charleston County School of the Arts, a magnet school, and is headed to Stanford University. (Richards, 7/31)

The New York Times: Worried Your Kid Is Falling Behind? You’re Not Alone 
The other day my mother gave me a book called “What Your Second Grader Should Know.” A quick flip through it revealed that a few weeks from now, my son would need to label an insect’s thorax, know the names of a dozen Greek gods and discuss the role of Dolley Madison in the War of 1812. In the wake of some serious distance learning burnout, the most educational thing we’d done all summer had been a contact-free library pickup of the latest “Captain Underpants.” I suddenly wished we’d done a little more. If you’re concerned that remote learning may have set your child back academically, brace yourself: It probably has. (Burns, 7/30)

CIDRAP: Physical Distancing In COVID-19 Pandemic Varies Strongly By Income, Research Finds
A modeling study published yesterday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) has revealed another burden for low-income communities amid the COVID-19 pandemic: less ability to limit virus exposure by staying home and physical distancing. Researchers at the University of California at Davis who analyzed mobile device location data from January to April of this year found that, in a complete reversal, wealthy communities went from being the most mobile before the coronavirus pandemic to the least, while residents of poorer neighborhoods went from least mobile to most mobile. (7/30)

AP: MLB Postpones Blue Jays-Phillies Series After More Positives
Major League Baseball has postponed this weekend’s scheduled series between Toronto and Philadelphia because of concerns about the coronavirus after two Phillies staffers tested positive. “Major League Baseball will coordinate with health experts and the Major League Baseball Players Association in planning for the Phillies’ resumption of play, and will provide further scheduling updates as necessary,” the league said in a statement Thursday. (Seiner, 7/30)

AP: Detroit Plans To Keep Poll Workers, Voters Safe From Virus
Elections officials in Detroit are preparing for the challenges that come with voting during a national health crisis that has killed more than 150,000 Americans.All of Detroit’s 503 voting precincts will be open and equipped with sanitizing stations and face masks to reduce the risk of spreading the coronavirus, City Clerk Janice Winfrey told reporters Thursday. “We know there are some people who don’t want to wear a mask,” she said. “If you don’t want to wear a mask, you don’t have to, and you can still vote a regular ballot.” (Williams, 7/30)

AP: 1st Dog That Tested Positive For COVID-19 Dies In New York
A German shepherd in New York that had the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in a dog in the U.S. has died. Robert and Allison Mahoney of Staten Island told National Geographic that their 7-year-old shepherd, Buddy, developed breathing problems in mid-April after Robert had been sick with the coronavirus for several weeks. A veterinarian tested Buddy in May and found him positive for the virus. (7/30)

The Washington Post: Security Guards, Not Retail Workers, Should Be Responsible For Enforcing Mask Rules, Union Leader Says 
As more major U.S. retailers require their customers to wear masks, a growing number of store employees are being confronted by unruly and sometimes violent customers who refuse to comply. Now, the head of the largest union representing retail workers said businesses have unfairly burdened their employees with enforcing mask-wearing policies, to the detriment of workers and customers alike. Employers bear the responsibility to provide a safe workplace, said Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, who called for companies to hire security staffers to enforce a store’s mask policies or task members of management with the role. (Bellware, 7/30)