First Edition: July 6, 2020

Kaiser Health News: What Seniors Should Know Before Going Ahead With Elective Procedures 
For months, Patricia Merryweather-Arges, a health care expert, has fielded questions about the coronavirus pandemic from fellow Rotary Club members in the Midwest. Recently people have wondered “Is it safe for me to go see my doctor? Should I keep that appointment with my dentist? What about that knee replacement I put on hold: Should I go ahead with that?” (Graham, 7/6)

Kaiser Health News: 2021 Health Plans Granted Leeway To Limit Consumers’ Benefit From Drug Coupons 
Without medication to manage her plaque psoriasis, Jennifer Brown’s face, scalp, trunk and neck periodically become covered in painful red, flaky patches so dry they crack and bleed. She has gotten relief from medications, but they come at a high price. For a while she was on Humira, made by AbbVie, with an average retail price of roughly $8,600 for two monthly injections. When that drug stopped working for her, Brown’s doctor switched her to a different drug. Today she is using another injectable, Skyrizi, also by AbbVie, which costs about $36,000 for two quarterly injections — nearly 40% more annually than Humira. (Andrews, 7/6)

Kaiser Health News: ‘I Couldn’t Let Her Be Alone’: A Peaceful Death Amid The COVID Scourge 
As her mother lay dying in a Southern California hospital in early May, Elishia Breed was home in Oregon, 800 miles away, separated not only by the distance, but also by the cruelty of the coronavirus. Because of the pandemic, it wasn’t safe to visit her mom, Patti Breed-Rabitoy, who had entered a hospital alone, days earlier, with a high fever and other symptoms that were confirmed to be caused by COVID-19. (Aleccia, 7/6)

Kaiser Health News: Coronavirus Crisis Disrupts Treatment For Another Epidemic: Addiction 
Shawn Hayes was thankful to be holed up at a city-run hotel for people with COVID-19. The 20-year-old wasn’t in jail. He wasn’t on the streets chasing drugs. Methadone to treat his opioid addiction was delivered to his door. Hayes was staying at the hotel because of a coronavirus outbreak at the 270-bed Kirkbride Center addiction treatment center in Philadelphia, where he had been seeking help. (Bruce, 7/6)

Kaiser Health News and Politifact HealthCheck: Social Media Image About Mask Efficacy Right In Sentiment, But Percentages Are ‘Bonkers’ 
A popular social media post that’s been circulating on Instagram and Facebook since April depicts the degree to which mask-wearing interferes with the transmission of the novel coronavirus. It gives its highest “contagion probability” — a very precise 70% — to a person who has COVID-19 but interacts with others without wearing a mask. The lowest probability, 1.5%, is when masks are worn by all.The exact percentages assigned to each scenario had no attribution or mention of a source. So we wanted to know if there is any science backing up the message and the numbers — especially as mayors, governors and members of Congress increasingly point to mask-wearing as a means to address the surges in coronavirus cases across the country. (Knight, 7/6)

The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Coronavirus Death Toll Nears 130,000 As Infection Rate Surges 
The U.S. death toll from the coronavirus pandemic neared 130,000, as surging infection rates in many parts of the country heaped more pressure on overstretched hospitals. The U.S. added more than 49,000 new cases on Sunday, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Cases in the U.S. account for about a quarter of the global total of more than 11.4 million infections. (Hall, 7/6)

The Washington Post: Coronavirus Updates: Seven-Day Average Case Total In The U.S. Sets Record For 27th Straight Day 
Officials in states with surging coronavirus cases issued dire warnings and blamed outbreaks on early reopenings Sunday as the seven-day average for daily new cases in the United States reached a record high for the 27th straight day. “We don’t have room to experiment, we don’t have room for incrementalism when we’re seeing these kinds of numbers,” said Judge Lina Hidalgo (D), the top elected official in Harris County, Tex., which encompasses the sprawling Houston metro area. “Nor should we wait for all the hospital beds to fill and all these people to die before we take drastic action.” (Hawkins, Iati and Dupree, 7/5)

The New York Times: 239 Experts With 1 Big Claim: The Coronavirus Is Airborne
The coronavirus is finding new victims worldwide, in bars and restaurants, offices, markets and casinos, giving rise to frightening clusters of infection that increasingly confirm what many scientists have been saying for months: The virus lingers in the air indoors, infecting those nearby. If airborne transmission is a significant factor in the pandemic, especially in crowded spaces with poor ventilation, the consequences for containment will be significant. Masks may be needed indoors, even in socially-distant settings. Health care workers may need N95 masks that filter out even the smallest respiratory droplets as they care for coronavirus patients. (Mandavilli, 7/4)

The Washington Post: Scientists Urge WHO To Consider Airborne Coronavirus In Clinical Infectious Diseases Paper 
More than 200 scientists from over 30 countries are urging the World Health Organization to take more seriously the possibility of the airborne spread of the novel coronavirus as case numbers rise around the world and surge in the United States. In a forthcoming paper titled “It is Time to Address Airborne Transmission of Covid-19,” 239 signatories attempt to raise awareness about what they say is growing evidence that the virus can spread indoors through aerosols that linger in the air and can be infectious even in smaller quantities than previously thought. (McAuley and Rauhala, 7/5)

Los Angeles Times: Scientists Challenge WHO On Risk Of Coronavirus Aerosols 
They say multiple studies demonstrate that particles known as aerosols — microscopic versions of standard respiratory droplets — can hang in the air for long periods and float dozens of feet, making poorly ventilated rooms, buses and other confined spaces dangerous, even when people stay six feet from one another. “We are 100% sure about this,” said Lidia Morawska, a professor of atmospheric sciences and environmental engineering at Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia. (Read, 7/4)

Reuters: Hundreds Of Scientists Say Coronavirus Is Airborne, Ask WHO To Revise Recommendations: NYT 
“We are aware of the article and are reviewing its contents with our technical experts,” WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic said in an email reply to a Reuters request for comment. (7/5)

Politico: Trump’s ’99 Percent’ Coronavirus Comment Finds Little Support 
On ABC’s “This Week,” co-anchor Martha Raddatz asked Hahn whether Trump’s statement was accurate. “Well, let’s talk about where we are right now. We’re seeing cases around the Sun Belt,” he said. “We are certainly concerned, at the White House corona task force, about this … We’ve sent teams into those states to actually help with taking care of the patients who are now with Covid-19.” (Dugyala and Forgey, 7/5)

The New York Times: Trump Falsely Claims ‘99 Percent’ Of Virus Cases Are ‘Totally Harmless’ 
Experts say the president appears to have seized only on a death rate estimate of 1 percent or less that does not capture the entire impact of the disease, and excludes a multitude of thousands who have spent weeks in the hospital or weeks at home with mild to moderate symptoms that still caused debilitating health problems. That death rate is narrowly focused on the number of people who die as a percentage of the total number of people affected — including those who are asymptomatic and do not experience any illness, and those with mild cases, who experience fleeting symptoms. (Caryn Rabin and Cameron, 7/5)

AP Fact Check: Trump Falsely Says 99% Of Virus Cases Benign
President Donald Trump is understating the danger of the coronavirus to people who get it, as more and more become infected in the U.S. In his latest of many statements playing down the severity of the pandemic, Trump declared that 99% of cases of COVID-19 are harmless. That flies in the face of science and of the reality captured by the U.S. death toll of about 130,000. Trump also sounded a dismissive note about the need for breathing machines. (Yen and Woodward, 7/6)

AP: Trump’s Leadership Is Tested In Time Of Fear, Pandemic
These are times of pain, mass death, fear and deprivation and the Trump show may be losing its allure, exposing the empty space once filled by the empathy and seriousness of presidents leading in a crisis. Bluster isn’t beating the virus; belligerence isn’t calming a restive nation. (Lemire and Woodward, 7/6)

The New York Times: Broadway Actor Nick Cordero Dead At 41 Of Coronavirus 
[Kloots] did not cite a cause, but he had been hospitalized for three months after contracting the coronavirus. Mr. Cordero’s experience with the virus, which included weeks in a medically induced coma and the amputation of his right leg, was chronicled by Ms. Kloots on Instagram. (Paulson, 7/5)

The Washington Post: Nick Cordero, Tony-Nominated Broadway Star, Dies At 41 Of Coronavirus 
Nick Cordero, a Canadian actor who earned a Tony nomination for the 2014 musical “Bullets Over Broadway” and seemed on the cusp of an even more prominent career before being hospitalized with the coronavirus, died July 5 at a hospital in Los Angeles. He was 41. His death was announced on Instagram by his wife, Amanda Kloots. Mr. Cordero had been hospitalized in late March and was subsequently diagnosed with covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. He reportedly had no underlying health conditions but, after being put on a ventilator, developed blood clots that forced doctors to amputate his right leg. (Smith, 7/5)

The New York Times: Joe Biden Supporters Are Worried About The Health Risks Of Voting
Identifying likely voters is a challenge for pollsters in every election. This year, the coronavirus, mail voting and a surge in political engagement may make it even harder than usual. For now, Joe Biden’s nine-point lead across the critical battleground states is so significant that it is essentially invulnerable to assumptions about turnout, according to New York Times/Siena College surveys of the states likeliest to decide the election. But Mr. Biden’s supporters are far more likely to be concerned about in-person voting during the pandemic, and his wide polling lead among registered voters could narrow if their concerns persist to the election. (Cohn, 7/3)

Politico: Health Secretary Focuses Trips On Swing States Needed By Trump 
In the midst of a coronavirus pandemic, the nation’s top health official is focused on showing his face in states that President Donald Trump needs to win for reelection. Since late April, HHS Secretary Alex Azar has made 11 trips to states — including nine to key battlegrounds in the 2020 campaign: Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Maine and North Carolina, as well as two trips apiece to Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. One of the other two trips was a visit to Buffalo, N.Y., the hometown of a top aide who recently joined the department at Trump’s request and personally arranged Azar’s visit to the city. The other was to Boston, the media market for yet another battleground state, New Hampshire. (Diamond, 7/2)

Politico: Kim Guilfoyle, Campaign Official And Girlfriend Of Trump Jr., Tests Positive For Coronavirus In South Dakota 
Kim Guilfoyle, the girlfriend of Donald Trump Jr. and a top Trump campaign official, tested positive for coronavirus ahead of the president’s speech in South Dakota on Friday, POLITICO confirmed. Guilfoyle, who traveled to Mount Rushmore to attend President Donald Trump’s July 4 kickoff address, was not in contact with the president and did not travel on Air Force One. (Muller, 7/3)

AP: Trump To Hold Outdoor Campaign Rally In Portsmouth, N.H.
President Donald Trump is set to hold an outdoor rally Saturday in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, according to the president’s campaign. The campaign rally at Portsmouth International Airport will come three weeks after an indoor rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the president’s first of the COVID-19 era, drew a smaller-than-expected crowd amid concerns of rising infections in the region. (Madhani and Miller, 7/6)

Politico: White House 'Free Marketeers' Raised Concerns Over Coronavirus Price-Gouging Crackdown 
In late March, the Justice Department rolled out a task force that would focus on hoarding and price-gouging. Attorney General William Barr touted its work at a White House news conference, and deputized Craig Carpenito — the U.S. attorney for New Jersey — to lead the nationwide effort. But behind the scenes, according to people familiar with the discussions, some White House officials expressed reservations and concerns about the task force’s approach, and some disagreed with DOJ officials about how to use one particular legal authority. The people helming the response faced a brave new legal challenge: how to target price-gougers and hoarders under the Defense Production Act, a decades-old law that grants the feds broad authority over the private sector during national emergencies. (Woodruff Swan and Gerstein, 7/3)

Politico: Congress Stares Down Funding Cliff For Coronavirus Aid 
As the U.S. enters its sixth month of grappling with the coronavirus pandemic — with cases soaring and unemployment claims hovering in the millions — Congress is again facing a double-barreled dilemma: how to address both the health and economic catastrophes threatening the country. And in typical Congress fashion, lawmakers have teed up a crunch time crisis this month, giving themselves just a few weeks to wrangle together a massive bipartisan coronavirus relief deal and ship it to President Donald Trump. (Caygle, Levine and Ferris, 7/2)

Politico: Democrats Dodge Abortion Fight With Plan To Keep Hyde Amendment 
House Democrats will keep a decades-old ban on government funding for abortion in spending bills this year, dodging an election-year clash with Republicans and disappointing liberal lawmakers and activists. Senior Democrats had been considering scrapping the so-called Hyde amendment, which has restricted federal funding for most abortion services since 1976, amid a hard push from the party’s left flank. (Ferris and Caygle, 7/2)

Politico: Supreme Court Sidesteps Abortion Cases, Shortly After Striking Louisiana Restrictions
The Supreme Court on Thursday declined to take up several abortion cases, just days after striking down a Louisiana law in the first major abortion decision since President Donald Trump’s two appointees joined the bench. (Ollstein, 7/2)

The Wall Street Journal: Coronavirus Researchers Compete To Enroll Subjects For Vaccine Tests 
Vaccine researchers are trying new tacks in an unprecedented effort to recruit the tens of thousands of healthy volunteers needed to finish testing coronavirus shots in late stages of development. Quickly lining up all the subjects for so many studies at the same time poses several challenges, creating competition among companies. (Hopkins and Loftus, 7/5)

Stat: Data Show Panic, Disorganization Dominate The Study Of Covid-19 Drugs
In a gigantic feat of scientific ambition, researchers have designed a staggering 1,200 clinical trials aimed at testing treatment and prevention strategies against Covid-19 since the start of January. But a new STAT analysis shows the effort has been marked by disorder and disorganization, with huge financial resources wasted. (Herper and Riglin, 7/6)

The New York Times: Did A Mutation Help The Coronavirus Spread? More Evidence, But Lingering Questions 
For months, scientists have debated whether a variant of the coronavirus that has come to predominate in much of the world did so partly because it is more transmissible than other viruses. On Thursday, a team of researchers reported new evidence that is likely to deepen the debate rather than settle it, experts said; too many uncertainties remain, in a pandemic that changes shape by the day. (Carey, 7/2)

The New York Times: DNA Linked To Covid-19 Was Inherited From Neanderthals, Study Finds 
A stretch of DNA linked to Covid-19 was passed down from Neanderthals 60,000 years ago, according to a new study. Scientists don’t yet know why this particular segment increases the risk of severe illness from the coronavirus. But the new findings, which were posted online on Friday and have not yet been published in a scientific journal, show how some clues to modern health stem from ancient history. (Zimmer, 7/4)

The New York Times: How A Covid-19 Contact Tracer Spends Her Sundays 
Kimberly Jocelyn is a contract tracing supervisor with New York City Health and Hospitals Test & Trace Corps, which has, since May, employed more than 3,000 researchers, callers and field workers in an attempt to stop the spread of Covid-19. Earlier this year, Ms. Jocelyn, 29 and a recent graduate of Columbia University’s School of Public Health, worked at the CDC Quarantine Station at Kennedy International Airport. Now she is working from her home in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, where she leads a team of 15 contact tracers. Most Sundays she is on the job, but she doesn’t mind. (La Gorce, 7/3)

Politico: Why The U.S. Still Hasn't Solved Its Testing Crisis 
The United States still doesn’t have a handle on testing six months into the coronavirus pandemic. The nation has conducted more than 4 million tests in the past week, more than ever before. But big jumps in testing capacity have been effectively erased by record-breaking increases in new infections as states reopen their economies. The supply chain problems that hampered testing early on never entirely went away and still threaten the ability of labs to conduct testing for everyone asking. (Lim and Miranda Ollstein, 7/5)

The Washington Post: Medical Assistants, Cooks And Cleaners Also Face Risks On The Front Lines Of The Covid-19 Crisis, But With Low Pay And Little Recognition 
When a Waldorf car dealership advertised discounts for medical workers battling the novel coronavirus, Latasha Currie hoped to eke out a hard-won benefit after months on the front lines. The medical assistant, 31, didn’t tell the salesman how her 10-year-old cried for days after patients with covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, began to roll into the D.C. clinic where she works. “She kept saying she didn’t want mommy to die,” Currie said. (Jouvenal, 7/4)

The Washington Post: Hospital Ratings Often Depend More On Nice Rooms Than On Health Care
As research findings go, this was a Holy Yikes. A study of 50,000 patients throughout the United States showed that those who were the most satisfied with their care (the top quartile) were 26 percent more likely to be dead six months later than patients who gave lower ratings to their care. The most satisfied patients not only died in greater numbers but racked up higher costs along the way. (Glicksman, 7/4)

AP: Stimulus Money Could Pose Dilemmas In Nursing Homes
Nursing home residents are among the Americans getting $1,200 checks as part of the U.S. government’s plan to revive the economy. But with many long-term care facilities under lockdown to prevent COVID-19 outbreaks, what are the rules around how the money is handled? The situation underscores the vulnerability of many elderly residents and potential confusion about what homes can and can’t do with residents’ money. (Choi, 7/5)

The Wall Street Journal: Chinese Research Papers Raise Doubts, Fueling Global Questions About Scientific Integrity 
Internationally peer-reviewed journals published more than 100 scientific research papers from China-based authors that appear to have reused identical sets of images, raising questions about the proliferation of problematic science as institutions fast-track research during the coronavirus pandemic. The cache of 121 papers, credited to researchers from hospitals and medical universities across roughly 50 cities in China, all shared at least one image with another—a sign that many were likely produced by the same company or “paper mill,” said Elisabeth Bik, a California-based microbiologist and image-analysis expert who identified the trove. (Xiao, 7/5)

The Washington Post: Coronavirus Vaccine Research: Scientists Pursue RNA To Trigger Covid Immune Response
In the global race to beat back the coronavirus pandemic, scientists in Britain, Germany, China and the United States are pushing to develop, and possibly manufacture, millions of doses of vaccine in a completely new way. This promising — but unproven — new generation of vaccine technologies is based on deploying a tiny snip of genetic code called messenger RNA to trigger the immune system. It has never before been approved for use. But almost overnight, these cutting-edge RNA vaccine efforts have leaped forward as top candidates to fight covid-19. (Booth and Johnson, 7/5)

Reuters: Britain Nears $625 Million Sanofi/GSK COVID-19 Vaccine Deal: Report 
Britain is close to a $624 million supply deal with Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline for 60 million doses of a potential COVID-19 vaccine, the Sunday Times reported. Clinical trials are due to start in September and Sanofi has said it expects to get approval by the first half of next year, sooner than previously anticipated. (Smout, 7/5)

Reuters: British Consortium Ends After Making Over 13,000 Ventilators 
A British consortium formed by a group of aerospace, automotive and engineering firms to build ventilators for the country’s health service said on Sunday it would end after delivering over 13,000 devices. VentilatorChallengeUK said its production had more than doubled the stock of ventilators available for use in the National Health Service. (7/5)

Politico: Fire Season Could Raise Stakes In Battle Against Covid-19 
As states begin to hit their peak wildfire season, experts and officials are warning about another level of concern this year: air pollution that threatens to increase Covid-19 in states already struggling with an explosion in cases. (Bustillo, 7/5)

The New York Times: Are Protests Unsafe? What Experts Say May Depend On Who’s Protesting What 
As the pandemic took hold, most epidemiologists have had clear proscriptions in fighting it: No students in classrooms, no in-person religious services, no visits to sick relatives in hospitals, no large public gatherings. So when conservative anti-lockdown protesters gathered on state capitol steps in places like Columbus, Ohio and Lansing, Mich., in April and May, epidemiologists scolded them and forecast surging infections. When Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia relaxed restrictions on businesses in late April as testing lagged and infections rose, the talk in public health circles was of that state’s embrace of human sacrifice. (Powell, 7/6)

The New York Times: All Eyes On Bars As Virus Surges And Americans Go Drinking
When the bars in Michigan reopened in June, Tony Hild forgot about face masks, social distancing and caution and headed out to Harper’s Restaurant and Brewpub, a popular spot in the college town of East Lansing. There was a line out the door. Inside were 200 people dancing, drinking and shouting over the music. “It was just so crowded, and I’m like, ‘This is going against everything I’m told not to do,’” Mr. Hild, 23, a college student, said. “But I didn’t think I was going to get it.” (de Freytas-Tamura, Searcey and Healy, 7/2)

The New York Times: Bettors Gamble With Their Money, And The Virus, As Atlantic City Reopens
Terril Tate left his house an hour before dawn on Thursday to be one of the first players at a craps table when the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino reopened at 6 a.m. He was hoping for a win, and maybe a date. But Mr. Tate, 41, said he was also on a mission to pave the way for people who don’t yet feel safe enough — he called them “worry bots” — to venture into indoor recreational and leisure spaces. (Tully, 7/3)

The New York Times: Is The Five-Day Office Week Over? 
Most American office workers are in no hurry to return to the office full time, even after the coronavirus is under control. But that doesn’t mean they want to work from home forever. The future for them, a variety of new data shows, is likely to be workweeks split between office and home. Recent surveys show that both employees and employers support this arrangement. And research suggests that a couple of days a week at each location is the magic number to cancel out the negatives of each arrangement while reaping the benefits of both. (Miller, 7/2)

The Wall Street Journal: Businesses Tackle Internet Shortfalls As Remote Work Grows More Remote 
Companies are facing added difficulty staying connected to work-from-home employees in remote areas, where internet services can be slow and at times patchy, technology executives and analysts say. Though not new, the problem has become more pressing as the number of Covid-19 cases surges in rural states that had largely been spared the pandemic. The increase has prompted local officials to impose preventive measures that will likely keep employees at businesses headquartered in these regions from returning to the office. (Loten, 7/2)

Politico: 'How The Hell Are We Going To Do This?' The Panic Over Reopening Schools 
From social distancing to health checks, the list of concerns is seemingly endless as school districts draft their plans, many of which are still in the development stages. Those concerns are only intensifying as Covid-19 cases begin to skyrocket. "There are no plans for most of these places,” said Lily Eskelsen García, president of the National Education Association, the nation’s largest union. “People are panicked and parents should be panicked.” (Gaudiano and Perez Jr., 7/4)

AP: Debates Turn Emotional As Schools Decide How And If To Open
School districts across America are in the midst of making wrenching decisions over how to resume classes in settings radically altered by the coronavirus pandemic, with school buses running below capacity, virtual learning, outdoor classrooms and quarantine protocols for infected children the new norm. The plans for the upcoming school year are taking shape by the day, and vary district to district, state to state. The debates have been highly emotional, with tempers flaring among parents and administrators, and have been made all the more vexing by record numbers of COVID-19 cases being reported each day. (Whittle and Thompson, 7/5)

AP: Amid Pandemic, Fewer Students Seek Federal Aid For College
The number of high school seniors applying for U.S. federal college aid plunged in the weeks following the sudden closure of school buildings this spring — a time when students were cut off from school counselors, and families hit with financial setbacks were reconsidering plans for higher education. In the first weeks of the pandemic, the number of new applications fell by nearly half compared to last year’s levels, fueled by a precipitous decline among students at low-income schools, according to an Associated Press analysis of federal data. The numbers have risen as states and schools have launched campaigns urging students to apply for aid, but they remain down overall from last year. (Binkley and Fenn, 7/6)

NPR: Georgia Universities Won't Require Face Masks This Fall — And Faculty Are Livid
As the coronavirus infection rate in the U.S. surpasses 50,000 new cases a day, colleges and universities around the country are trying to figure out how to educate their students this fall while still keeping their campus communities safe. That balancing act sometimes causes consternation. At the Georgia Institute of Technology, which is scheduled to hold in-person classes, more than 800 of its 1,100 faculty members have published a letter outlining their concerns. The letter, reported by Georgia Public Broadcasting, criticizes the state university system for mandating statewide reopenings this fall that "do not follow science-based evidence, increase the health risks to faculty, students and staff, and interfere with nimble decision-making necessary to prepare and respond to Covid-19 infection risk." (Schwartz, 7/5)

NPR: 121 University Of Washington Students Infected In Greek Row Outbreak
The University of Washington announced on Sunday that at least 112 fraternity house residents north of its Seattle campus have tested positive for COVID-19, bringing the total number of students infected on Greek Row so far to 121. The nine additional students who tested positive were close contacts of the residents, but do not live in the fraternity houses, according to a statement from The University of Washington. (Treisman, 7/5)

The Washington Post: Kids May Lessen Anxiety If They Can Take Some Risks 
“Helicopter parenting” has gotten a bad rap for producing children who leave the nest with few real-world skills. But what if its drawbacks go beyond kids’ inability to, say, find a summer job or do chores? Psychologist Anne Marie Albano suggests that managing your child’s life could have another drawback — it could set the stage for a serious problem with anxiety. (Blakemore, 7/4)

AP: Fewer Will Attend Camp This Summer; Some Camps Won't Survive
Camp Winnebago was founded during the Spanish Flu and weathered all manner of health scares from polio to the swine flu over a century. It wasn’t about to let the coronavirus stop the fun. But things will be different this summer at this camp and others that buck the trend and welcome children. The vast majority of overnight camps are closed due to the pandemic. (Sharp, 7/5)

The Wall Street Journal: How The Coronavirus Has Affected Family Planning 
Trish Bordeaux, 32, gets anxious every time she puts on her green Starbucks apron. As a person with asthma and as a woman trying to get pregnant, she is worried about contracting Covid-19. But she needs the work because her primary job, as a second-grade teaching assistant, doesn’t offer health insurance that covers fertility treatments. Neither does her husband Derek’s job as a machine operator at a beverage manufacturing company. The Bordeaux, who live in Marietta, Ga., have been struggling to get pregnant for two years. Despite their anxiety, they didn’t want to put their efforts on pause because of the pandemic. (Pohle, 7/2)

The Wall Street Journal: Masks And Makeup Don’t Mix, So Cosmetic Fans Seek Permanent Fix 
After months of living in a pandemic, Liqing Ye got fed up with her lipstick always smearing under a face mask—revealed when unmasking at dinner with friends or in meetings. She hit upon a solution: getting her lips tattooed with a semi-permanent coral hue. (Li and Perez, 7/5)

The Wall Street Journal: After Reopenings Stall, Can Restaurants Survive A Second Coronavirus Blow?
Restaurants that survived the coronavirus hit in March and April are reeling from a second punch that could put more eateries out of business.Many restaurants that were just starting to recover some sales are bracing for another, potentially existential round of restrictions as a resurgence in coronavirus cases in the U.S. prompts a pullback in reopening plans. (Haddon, 7/5)

NPR: Are Gyms Safe Right Now? What To Know About COVID-19 Risk While Working Out 
Exercise is good for physical and mental health, but with coronavirus cases surging across the country, exercising indoors with other people could increase your chance of infection. So, as gyms reopen across the country, here are some things to consider before heading for your workout. (Neighmond, 7/5)

The New York Times: Chicago Gun Violence Spikes And Increasingly Finds The Youngest Victims 
As Yasmin Miller drove home from a laundromat in Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood last weekend, a gunman in another car peppered her red Hyundai sedan with bullets, grazing her head and striking her son, Sincere Gaston, in the chest. Sincere died in his car seat. He was 20 months old. On June 20, a man fired gunshots through the back of a dark blue SUV, wounding the 27-year-old man driving and hitting his stepson, Mekhi James, in the back, killing him. Mekhi was three. (MacFarquhar and Chiarito, 7/5)

The New York Times: The Fullest Look Yet At The Racial Inequity Of Coronavirus 
Early numbers had shown that Black and Latino people were being harmed by the virus at higher rates. But the new federal data — made available after The New York Times sued the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — reveals a clearer and more complete picture: Black and Latino people have been disproportionately affected by the coronavirus in a widespread manner that spans the country, throughout hundreds of counties in urban, suburban and rural areas, and across all age groups. (Oppel Jr., Gebeloff, Lai, Wright and Smith, 7/5)

The New York Times: Seattle Protester, Summer Taylor, Dies After Being Struck By Car 
One of two people who were seriously injured early Saturday when a car drove into a protest on a closed section of Interstate 5 in Seattle has died, the authorities said on Sunday. Summer Taylor, 24, of Seattle died Saturday night at Harborview Medical Center, a UW Medicine spokeswoman said. The other injured protester, Diaz Love, 32, of Portland, Ore., was hospitalized in serious condition, the spokeswoman said. (Waller, 7/5)

AP: Virus, Floyd Death Merge In Brutal Blow To Black Well-Being
Doctors have known it for a long time, well before the resounding cries of “Black Lives Matter”: Black people suffer disproportionately. They face countless challenges to good health, among them food, transportation and income. The stress of living with racism has very real, physical effects. And they are especially prone to diabetes, hypertension and other chronic diseases that can be tricky to manage even in normal times. (Tanner, 7/5)

Reuters: Gap In U.S. Black And White Unemployment Rates Is Widest In Five Years 
The United States saw the widest gap in unemployment rates for African Americans and whites in five years in June, underscoring an uneven nascent recovery from historic job losses triggered by the coronavirus pandemic. (Marte, 7/2)