First Edition: June 1, 2020

Kaiser Health News and Politifact HealthCheck: Democratic Super PAC Uses Familiar Political Play To Hit Trump On Medicare
Priorities USA Action, a Democratic super PAC, announced a new digital and TV ad series criticizing President Donald Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. Among the ads is a 15-second spot, titled “Pause,” that alleges Trump is trying to cut Medicare during the global health emergency.“ Our lives are on pause. We’re worried about our health. So why is Trump still trying to cut our Medicare? $451 billion in cuts in the middle of a deadly pandemic. Trump is putting us at risk,” the commercial’s narrator says. (Knight, 6/1)

Kaiser Health News: Coronavirus Surprise: IRS Allows Midyear Insurance And FSA Changes
The economic upheaval and social disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic have upended the assumptions many people made last fall about which insurance plan to sign up for, or how much of their pretax wages to sock away in health or dependent care flexible spending accounts. You may find yourself in a high-priced health plan you can no longer afford because of a temporary pay cut, unable to get the medical care you might have planned and budgeted for, or not sending the kids to day care. Normally you’d be stuck with the choices you made unless you had a major life event such as losing your job, getting married or having a child. But this year, things may be different. (Andrews, 6/1)

Kaiser Health News: ‘Why Do We Always Get Hit First?’ Proposed Budget Cuts Target Vulnerable Californians
Shirley Madden, 83, relies on a caregiver and her two grown daughters to remain living at home — and not in a nursing home. Her daughters, 55-year-old Carrie and 60-year-old Kristy Madden, both use wheelchairs and need a second caregiver to help them navigate their own daily lives. But that critical caregiving support, along with other health care benefits for millions of Californians, could be scaled back to help plug a massive budget deficit triggered by the coronavirus. (Young, 6/1)

Kaiser Health News: ‘An Arm And A Leg’: The $7,000 COVID Test And Other Lessons From SEASON-19
Host Dan Weissmann spoke with three people who have very different reflections on what the COVID-19 pandemic is costing us. (Weissmann, 6/1)

Reuters: U.S. CDC Reports Total Of 1,761,503 Coronavirus Cases, 103,700 Deaths
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Sunday reported a total 1,761,503 cases of the new coronavirus, an increase of 23,553 cases from its previous count, and said that the number of deaths had risen by 915 to 103,700. The CDC reported its tally of cases of the respiratory illness known as COVID-19, caused by the new coronavirus, as of 4 p.m. EDT on May 30 versus its previous report released on Saturday. The CDC figures do not necessarily reflect cases reported by individual states. (5/31)

The New York Times: Is America’s Pandemic Waning Or Raging? Yes
In the weeks since America began reopening on a large scale, the coronavirus has persisted on a stubborn but uneven path, with meaningful progress in some cities and alarming new outbreaks in others. A snapshot of the country on a single day last week revealed sharply divergent realities. As the United States marked the tragic milestone of 100,000 deaths from the coronavirus on Wednesday, the contrasting picture was unmistakable — a murky, jumbled outlook depending on one’s location. Around Chicago, Wednesday was one of the most lethal days of the pandemic, with more than 100 deaths. Among the dead: a woman in her 30s, and four men past their 90th birthdays. (Bosman and Smith, 6/1)

The New York Times: Will Protests Set Off A Second Viral Wave?
Mass protests against police brutality that have brought thousands of people out of their homes and onto the streets in cities across America are raising the specter of new coronavirus outbreaks, prompting political leaders, physicians and public health experts to warn that the crowds could cause a surge in cases. While many political leaders affirmed the right of protesters to express themselves, they urged the demonstrators to wear face masks and maintain social distancing, both to protect themselves and to prevent further community spread of the virus. More than 100,000 Americans have already died of Covid-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus. People of color have been particularly hard hit, with rates of hospitalizations and deaths among black Americans far exceeding those of whites. (Rabin, 5/31)

The Washington Post: Crowded Protests Spark Concerns About Fresh Outbreaks Of The Deadly Coronavirus
Outside Brooklyn's Barclays Center, thousands of protesters churned this weekend in tightly packed crowds, casting aside social distancing to express their rage and grief. In Minneapolis, ungloved demonstrators held hands as they marched. In Las Vegas, demonstrators roared their anger into the faces of police lined up just a few feet away. And in nearly two dozen U.S. cities, police grappled physically with more than 2,500 people arrested during often-violent protests over the death of a black man, George Floyd, in the custody of Minneapolis police on Memorial Day. (Bernstein, 5/31)

The Wall Street Journal: Protests Over Death Of George Floyd Threaten A Jump In Coronavirus Cases
“It’s a triple whammy of protests, plus raging pandemic, plus economic instability. Those three things together make for a perfect storm of viral transmission,” said Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease specialist at the University of California, San Francisco. He said he expects there will be a spike in cases due to protests. That would mirror patterns seen around the world after governments started lifting lockdown restrictions, but this time on a larger scale, he said, because the protests are happening across the country, often in hot spots of transmission, like the South and West. (Hernandez and Abbott, 5/31)

The Associated Press: Mass Gatherings, Erosion Of Trust Upend Coronavirus Control
Protests erupting across the nation over the past week — and law enforcement’s response to them — are threatening to upend efforts by health officials to track and contain the spread of coronavirus just as those efforts were finally getting underway. Health experts need newly infected people to remember and recount everyone they’ve interacted with over several days in order to alert others who may have been exposed, and prevent them from spreading the disease further. But that process, known as contact tracing, relies on people knowing who they’ve been in contact with — a daunting task if they’ve been to a mass gathering. (Stobbe, 6/1)

The Associated Press: US Heads Into A New Week Shaken By Violence And Pandemic
With cities wounded by days of violent unrest, America headed into a new week with neighborhoods in shambles, urban streets on lockdown and shaken confidence about when leaders would find the answers to control the mayhem amid unrelenting raw emotion over police killings of black people. All of it smashed into a nation already bludgeoned by a death toll from the coronavirus pandemic surging past 100,000 and unemployment that soared to levels not seen since the Great Depression. (Khalil, Morrison and Vertuno, 6/1)

The Washington Post: May Brought A Glaring Accrual Of Trauma And Grief To Black Communities
The whole city still smelled like fire, but Yvonne Passmore wanted to survey the damage wrought by days of violent protests. So she stood beside three neighbors in South Minneapolis, all of them black, all of them trying to process what had happened the past few days, and months, and years.“ First, we had the coronavirus, which is wiping us out,” said Passmore, 65, pushing down her mask so she could breathe a little better. “And now it’s this.” (Bailey, Gowen, Williams and Del Real, 5/31)

The Hill: Gottlieb: Need To Resolve 'Underlying Problems' Of Racial Inequity To Stop Coronavirus Pandemic
Former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said the “underlying problems” of racial inequity in the U.S. need to be addressed in order to stop the coronavirus pandemic which is impacting communities of color at disproportionate rates. “I think it's a symptom of broader racial inequities in our country that we need to work to resolve,” he said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” Gottlieb said the issue needs to be addressed at two levels: why there are higher rates of COVID-19 and higher death rates from the coronavirus among black Americans. (Klar, 5/31)

The Washington Post: Trump’s May Days: A Month Of Distractions And Grievances As Nation Marks Bleak Coronavirus Milestone
As the U.S. death toll from the coronavirus pandemic climbed toward the bleak milestone of 100,000 and nearly one-sixth of the nation’s workers were unemployed, President Trump’s mind on May 18 was elsewhere. He welcomed two of his 2016 political soldiers, Corey Lewandowski and David Bossie, to the White House for a nostalgia tour reminiscing about how he had vanquished Hillary Clinton. (Costa, Rucker, Abutaleb and Dawsey, 5/31)

The Washington Post: Trump Postpones G-7 Until September After Merkel Declines Invitation, Citing Pandemic
President Trump says he will postpone until September the annual Group of Seven meeting of world leaders. The president had wanted to hold the gathering in-person by the end of June at the White House. But earlier Saturday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel declined his invitation, citing concerns about the coronavirus pandemic. (Hawkins, Adam, Berger, Buckner and Pell, 5/30)

Stat: When Did The Coronavirus Start Spreading In The U.S.? Likely In January, CDC Analysis Suggests
How early did local transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus begin in the United States? For the second time this week, scientists have proposed a new estimate. This one, from scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, suggests that transmission likely began in late January or early February on the West Coast and that the virus spread undetected for more than a month. (Branswell, 5/29)

The Washington Post: CDC Chief Defends Failure To Spot Early Coronavirus Spread In U.S.
The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday defended the agency’s failure to find early spread of the coronavirus in the United States, noting that surveillance systems “kept eyes” on the disease.“ We were never really blind when it came to surveillance” for covid-19, the disease caused by the virus, CDC chief Robert R. Redfield said. Even if widespread diagnostic testing had been in place, it would have been like “looking for a needle in a haystack,” he said. (Sun and Achenbach, 5/29)

The Associated Press: US Sends Brazil Malaria Drug Unproven For COVID-19 Treatment
No large, rigorous scientific studies have found the drug, hydroxychloroquine, safe or effective for preventing or treating COVID-19, and some smaller studies have indicated worse outcomes from those taking the drug. Brazil, now Latin America’s hardest-hit country, continues to see a surge in virus cases, and last week Trump announced that the U.S. was restricting travel from the country to prevent travelers from spreading the virus in the U.S. (5/31)

Reuters: U.S. Sends Brazil 2 Million Doses Of Hydroxychloroquine, Drug Touted By Trump 
The two countries will also conduct a joint research effort that will include “randomized controlled clinical trials,” the statement said, adding that the United States would soon send 1,000 ventilators to Brazil. Brazil reported a record 33,274 new cases of the novel coronavirus on Saturday, its Health Ministry said, and the death toll surpassed that of France and now ranks only below the United States, Britain and Italy. (Spetalnick, 5/31)

Reuters: U.S. Hospitals Slash Use Of Drug Championed By Trump As Coronavirus Treatment
U.S. hospitals said they have pulled way back on the use of hydroxychloroquine, the malaria drug touted by President Donald Trump as a COVID-19 treatment, after several studies suggested it is not effective and may pose significant risks. (Erman and Beasley, 5/29)

Reuters: Exclusive: Sanofi Stops Enrolling COVID-19 Patients In Hydroxychloroquine Trials
Sanofi has temporarily stopped recruiting new COVID-19 patients for two clinical trials on hydroxychloroquine and will no longer supply the anti-malaria drug to treat COVID-19 until concerns about safety are cleared up, it said on Friday. The moves come after the World Health Organization paused its large trial of hydroxychloroquine, prompting several European governments to ban the use of the drug, also used in rheumatoid arthritis and lupus. (Blamont, 5/29)

Reuters: Exclusive: Russia, After Approving Japanese COVID-19 Drug, To Roll Out 'Game Changer' Next Week
Russia will start administering its first approved antiviral drug to treat coronavirus patients next week, its state financial backer told Reuters, a move it described as “a game changer” that should speed a return to normal economic life. (Osborn, 6/1)

The New York Times: Blaming China For Pandemic, Trump Says U.S. Will Leave The W.H.O.
After spending weeks accusing the World Health Organization of helping the Chinese government cover up the early days of the coronavirus epidemic in China, President Trump said on Friday that the United States would terminate its relationship with the agency. “The world is now suffering as a result of the malfeasance of the Chinese government,” Mr. Trump said in a speech in the Rose Garden. “Countless lives have been taken, and profound economic hardship has been inflicted all around the globe.” In his 10-minute address, Mr. Trump took no responsibility for the deaths of 100,000 Americans from the virus, instead saying China had “instigated a global pandemic.” (McNeil and Jacobs, 5/29)

Reuters: Trump Cutting U.S. Ties With World Health Organization Over Virus
The move to quit the Geneva-based body, which the United States formally joined in 1948, comes amid growing tensions between Washington and Beijing over the coronavirus outbreak. The virus first emerged in China’s Wuhan city late last year. Speaking in the White House Rose Garden, Trump said Chinese officials “ignored their reporting obligations” to the WHO about the virus - that has killed hundreds of thousands of people globally - and pressured the agency to “mislead the world.” (Holland and Nichols, 5/29)

The Washington Post: Trump Says U.S. To Withdraw From World Health Organization And Announces New Broadsides Against Beijing
The president later issued a proclamation to protect sensitive American university research from Chinese spying and to bar an unspecified number of Chinese nationals from entering the United States for graduate study. He also directed an administration working group headed by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to evaluate Chinese corporations listed on U.S. financial markets as potential targets of future restrictions. (Lynch and Rauhala, 5/29)

Stat: Experts Warn Of Dire Global Consequences If U.S. Withdraws From WHO
An American withdrawal from the World Health Organization could wreak profound damage on the global effort to eradicate polio and could undermine the world’s ability to detect and respond to disease threats, health experts warned. The experts, from the United States and beyond, are aghast at President Trump’s announced intention to leave the organization, which he publicly blames for not being tougher on China in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic — at a time when he himself was praising China’s unprecedented efforts to control the SARS-CoV-2 virus. (Branswell, 5/30)

Reuters: WHO, 37 Countries Launch Alliance To Share Tools To Battle COVID-19
Thirty-seven countries and the World Health Organization (WHO) appealed on Friday for common ownership of vaccines, medicines and diagnostic tools to tackle the global coronavirus pandemic, taking aim at patent laws they fear could become a barrier to sharing crucial supplies. (5/29)

The New York Times: As Virus Toll Preoccupies U.S., Rivals Test Limits Of American Influence
With the United States preoccupied by the sobering reality of more than 100,000 Americans dead from the coronavirus, China has pushed in recent weeks to move troops into disputed territory with India, continue aggressive actions in the South China Sea and rewrite the rules of how it will control Hong Kong. At roughly the same time, Russian fighter jets roared dangerously close to American Navy planes over the Mediterranean Sea, while the country’s space forces conducted an antisatellite missile test clearly aimed at sending the message that Moscow could blind U.S. spy satellites and take down GPS and other communications systems. Russia’s military cyberunits were busy, too, the National Security Agency reported, with an innovative attack that may portend accelerated planning for a strike on email systems this election year. (Sanger, Schmitt and Wong, 6/1)

Reuters: Scientists Hunt Pandemic Hotspots In Race To Test Vaccines
The first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic may be waning. For vaccine developers, that could be a problem. Scientists in Europe and the United States say the relative success of draconian lockdown and social distancing policies in some areas and countries means virus transmission rates may be at such low levels that there is not enough disease circulating to truly test potential vaccines. They may need to look further afield, to pandemic hotspots in Africa and Latin America, to get convincing results. (Kelland and Steenhuysen, 6/1)

The Hill: Some Worry 'Operation Warp Speed' Plays Into Anti-Vaccination Movement's Hands 
President Trump’s rapid push for a COVID-19 vaccine by the end of the year may be playing into the hands of the anti-vaccine community, which has already used the coronavirus crisis to further its conspiracy claims about the safety of vaccines. The Trump administration is racing to get a vaccine to the market quickly with “Operation Warp Speed.” The project’s goal is to have 300 million vaccine doses available by January, an accelerated version of the administration’s previous projections of needing 12 to 18 months to get a vaccine ready for the public. (Weixel, 5/31)

Reuters: Moderna Starts Dosing Patients In Mid-Stage Coronavirus Vaccine Study
Moderna Inc said on Friday it had started dosing patients in a mid-stage study with its experimental coronavirus vaccine and eventually plans to enroll 600 patients for the trial. There are currently about 10 coronavirus vaccines being tested in humans and experts have predicted that a safe and effective vaccine could take 12 to 18 months from the start of development. Earlier this month, Moderna had released here early-stage data that showed the vaccine, mRNA-1273, was safe and produced protective antibodies in a small group of healthy volunteers. (5/29)

Reuters: Chinese Vaccine Could Be Ready By Year-End, Government Body Says
A Chinese-made coronavirus vaccine could be ready for market as early as the end of this year, China’s State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) said in a social media post. In trials, more than 2,000 people have received vaccines developed by the Wuhan Institute of Biological Products and the Beijing Institute of Biological Products. (Harney and Liu, 5/30)

Politico: Roberts Joins Court's Liberals To Deny California Church's Lockdown Challenge
A sharply divided Supreme Court late Friday turned aside a church's urgent plea that California's coronavirus lockdown orders are putting an unconstitutional burden on religious freedom. Chief Justice John Roberts sided with the court's liberals in rejecting a San Diego church's request for relief from Gov. Gavin Newsom's most recent directive limiting churches to 25% of their normal maximum capacity, with an absolute maximum of 100 people at any service. (Gerstein, 5/29)

The Washington Post: Trump Is Pushing Churches To Open. Black Pastors In Hard-Hit St. Louis Are Preaching Caution.
On any given Sunday, the soaring sanctuary of St. Louis’s Church of God in Christ echoes with thundering sermons, joyful music and ecstatic professions of faith. Just not this week. Or next. Silent since March, the church will stay that way until Bishop Elijah H. Hankerson III deems it safe — even though local authorities have authorized places of worship to reopen and President Trump has prodded them to do it fast. (Witte, 5/31)

The New York Times: Amid Riots And A Pandemic, Church Attendance Resumes In ‘A Very Broken World’
With their most vulnerable members at home, their community in the streets, and their nation wracked by a pandemic, riots and political polarization, Pastor Samuel Rodriguez’s congregation went to church here on Sunday, at times violating state health rules in the interest of unity. “Outside the confines of these walls we hear the sound of a very broken world,” preached Mr. Rodriguez, an evangelical minister. “Outside these corridors of worship we hear the sound of desperation. Throughout America today we hear the sounds of a nation torn apart by the devil of racism.” (Hubler and Rojas, 5/31)

The Washington Post: On This Pentecost, Christians Who Came To Church Were Wary And Grateful
Andre Kuhner and his family used to go to Mass every day. So when the Army logistics expert figured out Sunday morning that the Catholic Diocese of Arlington was reopening and that their 2½ -month Communion drought was over, he was like a shot out of a cannon. “I ran around the house and said: ‘Get dressed, we’re going to Mass!’ ” he said Sunday, with his wife, Renata, and two young sons all beaming outside the Cathedral of St. Thomas More in Arlington, where they’d just gone back to in-person services. (Boorstein, 5/31)

The New York Times: Testing Is Key To Beating Coronavirus, Right? Japan Has Other Ideas
As the world tries to get a handle on the coronavirus and emerge from paralyzing lockdowns, public health officials have repeated a mantra: “test, test, test.” But Japan went its own way, limiting tests to only the most severe cases as other countries raced to screen as many people as possible. Medical experts worried that the approach would blind the country to the spread of infection, allowing cases to explode and swamping hospitals. It hasn’t happened. (Dooley and Inoue, 5/29)

The Washington Post: Why Aren't More People Seeking Covid-19 Tests In D.C.? 
On a recent morning at a free walk-up coronavirus testing site in the District of Columbia, blue-gowned workers wearing face shields and masks often stood by with nothing to do. They mostly outnumbered those seeking tests. Between the District’s public lab and those associated with hospitals and other care providers, officials say there is capacity to test about 5,500 people a day. But the number of people asking for tests hasn’t reached anywhere near that figure. (Thompson, 5/30)

The Washington Post: Social Distancing Strictures Fall Away As Crowds Gather To Party And Protest
Melissa Shapiro, 26, sat in the sun under a sign suggesting social distancing at the Redhead Lakeside Grill on Saturday, as dozens stood shoulder-to-shoulder in waist-deep water before her. “We’re not in L.A. or New York,” she observed. “We’re at Lake of the Ozarks, and if there were as many people here as there was last weekend, we’d leave.” Besides, Shapiro said, “we’re millennials, we’re healthy,” and she and her friends planned to isolate themselves for 14 days after returning home to St. Louis. (DeYoung, James, Schneider and Farwell, 5/30)

The Washington Post: D.C. Area Leaders Fear Virus Surge After Protests, But Md. Suburbs Continue To Prepare For Reopening
Washington-area leaders on Sunday raised alarms that widespread protests against police brutality could lead to a new wave of coronavirus infections, wiping out progress as the region began reopening over the weekend. “When you put hundreds or thousands of people together in close proximity, when we’ve got this virus all over the streets, it’s not healthy,” Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) said during an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “There’s about a 14-day incubation period, so, two weeks from now, across America, we’re going to find out whether this gives us a spike and drives the numbers back up or not.” (Nirappil, 5/31)

Stat: Anthony Fauci On Covid-19 Reopenings, Vaccines, And Moving At ‘Warp Speed’
Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has seen the photos of bars packed with mask-less patrons. He was not impressed. He was similarly unenthused about a decision by the biotech company Moderna to issue snippets of early data from the vaccine trial his agency has been conducting — without waiting for fuller results. That said, these days, Fauci sees reason for cautious optimism about Moderna’s vaccine, and others. The idea of having a vaccine by the end of the year is “aspirational, but it’s certainly doable,” he told STAT in a wide-ranging interview. (Branswell, 6/1)

ProPublica/New Mexico In Depth/ The News & Observer: Nursing Homes Fought Federal Emergency Plan Requirements For Years. Now, They’re Coronavirus Hot Spots.
On Dec. 15, 2016, the nation’s largest nursing home lobby wrote a letter to Donald Trump, congratulating the president-elect and urging him to roll back new regulations on the long-term care industry. One item on the wish list was a recently issued emergency preparedness rule. It required nursing homes to draw up plans for hazards such as an outbreak of a new infectious disease.Trump’s election, the American Health Care Association, or AHCA, wrote, had demonstrated that voters opposed “extremely burdensome” rules that endangered the industry’s thin profit margins. (Furlow, Brosseau and Arnsdorf, 5/29)

The New York Times: It’s Not Whether You Were Exposed To The Coronavirus. It’s How Much.
When experts recommend wearing masks, staying at least six feet away from others, washing your hands frequently and avoiding crowded spaces, what they’re really saying is: Try to minimize the amount of virus you encounter. A few viral particles cannot make you sick — the immune system would vanquish the intruders before they could. But how much virus is needed for an infection to take root? What is the minimum effective dose? A precise answer is impossible, because it’s difficult to capture the moment of infection. Scientists are studying ferrets, hamsters and mice for clues but, of course, it wouldn’t be ethical for scientists to expose people to different doses of the coronavirus, as they do with milder cold viruses. (Madavilli, 5/29)

Reuters: New Coronavirus Losing Potency, Top Italian Doctor Says
The new coronavirus is losing its potency and has become much less lethal, a senior Italian doctor said on Sunday. “In reality, the virus clinically no longer exists in Italy,” said Alberto Zangrillo, the head of the San Raffaele Hospital in Milan in the northern region of Lombardy, which has borne the brunt of Italy’s coronavirus contagion. “The swabs that were performed over the last 10 days showed a viral load in quantitative terms that was absolutely infinitesimal compared to the ones carried out a month or two months ago,” he told RAI television. (5/31)

Reuters: Coronavirus Infection Rate May Shift Toward Younger Ages; Death Risk Higher In Cancer Patients
Coronavirus infection burden may shift to younger age groups. As the coronavirus infection rate in Washington State passed its peak, cases in people over age 60 fell 10%, while infections among younger age groups rose steadily, researchers say. The nation's first known major outbreak took place at a nursing home in the state. Later in the outbreak, however, infections rates among those under age 40 increased from 20% to 40% of total cases, according to a report posted on Thursday without peer review on the medRxiv preprint server. (Lapid, 5/29)

The New York Times: Do Runners Need To Wear Masks?
Jane Rosen began yelling sometime in April. By May, it had become routine. The incidents usually occur near her minivan, which she parks alongside Central Park in New York City. As she attempts to enter or exit the vehicle, a cyclist or a runner will whiz by, so close she can practically smell them. “I scream, ‘Where is your mask?’” said Ms. Rosen, 73. Her daughter warned her that these confrontations could end badly. (Murphy, 5/30)

The Associated Press: States, Cities Plead For Virus Aid As Congress Faces Crises
One small-town Oklahoma mayor testified before Congress she’s worried the city’s 18-bed hospital can’t handle a second Covid-19 wave. Many counties are slashing sizable chunks of their government work force. States are staring down red ink as the fiscal year comes to a close. As local leaders are pleading for more federal aid — even before protests over police violence erupted in almost every corner of the country — the Senate resumes session Monday with no immediate plans to consider a fresh round of relief. (Mascaro, 6/1)

Reuters: House Democrats Launch Inquiry Into Medicare Stimulus Payouts
Two U.S. House of Representatives Democrats on Friday launched an inquiry into whether the Health and Human Services Department misdirected billions of dollars in coronavirus stimulus money to healthcare providers facing criminal or civil fraud investigations. (Lynch and Taylor, 5/29)

The New York Times: Grateful For Aid, But Worried About What Comes Next
The Paycheck Protection Program, the federal government’s ambitious effort to keep workers at small businesses off the unemployment rolls through the worst of the pandemic, has provided a financial safety net to more than four million companies. For many, the money was a lifeline. It let a trucking company keep paying drivers who would otherwise have been laid off and gave a group of therapists time to adjust to telemedicine and connect with new clients. But the pandemic’s devastation continues. (Cowley, 5/31)

The Associated Press: Primaries Become Test Run For Campaigning During Coronavirus
Tuesday’s primaries in eight states are the biggest test to date of campaigning during the coronavirus era, a way for parties to test-drive new ways of getting out the vote during a time when it can be dangerous to leave your home. Voters from Pennsylvania to Iowa to New Mexico will cast ballots in both the Democratic presidential contest, where former Vice President Joe Biden is the only contender with an active campaign, and a host of down-ballot primaries for everything from governors to state representatives. (Riccardi and Levy, 6/1)

The New York Times: In Seeking To Hold Michigan, Trump Can Be His Own Worst Enemy
A day before his visit in May to Michigan, where unemployment has climbed to 23 percent and flooding had grown severe enough to make national headlines, President Trump threatened to “hold up funding” for a state he almost certainly must carry to win re-election. The rationale behind this extraordinary warning and apparent act of self-sabotage? Two years after Michigan residents overwhelmingly approved no-excuse absentee voting, the secretary of state, Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, said she would send absentee ballot applications to all voters. (Martin and Gray, 5/31)

The Associated Press: Many States Scrambling To Update Hurricane Plans For Virus
Officials across the U.S. South are still scrambling to adjust their hurricane plans to the coronavirus. The big unknown: Where will people fleeing storms go? The Associated Press surveyed more than 70 counties and states from Texas to Virginia, with more than 60% of coastal counties saying as of late May that they’re still solidifying plans for public hurricane shelters. They’re also altering preparations for dealing with the sick and elderly, protective equipment and cleanup costs. (Borenstein, 5/31)

The New York Times: States Warn That Virus May Doom Climate Projects
Connecticut is preparing to build a first-of-its-kind underground flood wall. Virginia has planned an intricate system of berms, pump stations and raised roads to keep the flood-prone city of Norfolk dry. Louisiana has broken ground on a new community for people forced to flee a village on its sinking coast, the country’s first government-resettled climate migrants. Projects in 13 cities and states, which were part of the Obama administration’s push to protect Americans from climate change after the devastation from Hurricane Sandy, are now in jeopardy because of the coronavirus pandemic, state and local officials warn. And they need Republicans in Congress to save those projects. (Flavelle, 6/1)

The Associated Press: Virus-Proofing Sports Facilities Presents A Big Challenge
The jersey-wearing camaraderie. The scent of sizzling sausages. The buzz before a big game. The distinctive atmosphere of live sports, that feeling in the air, will return in time as pandemic restrictions are eased. But will that very air be safe in a closed arena with other fans in attendance? The billions of dollars spent on state-of-the-art sports facilities over the last quarter-century have made high-efficiency air filtration systems more common, thanks in part to the pursuit of green and healthy building certifications. (Campbell, 6/1)

The Associated Press: US Food Prices See Historic Jump And Are Likely To Stay High
As if trips to the grocery store weren’t nerve-wracking enough, U.S. shoppers lately have seen the costs of meat, eggs and even potatoes soar as the coronavirus has disrupted processing plants and distribution networks. Overall, the cost of food bought to eat at home skyrocketed by the most in 46 years, and analysts caution that meat prices in particular could remain high as slaughterhouses struggle to maintain production levels while implementing procedures intended to keep workers healthy. (Pitt, 5/30)

The Associated Press: Oklahoma Prisons To Reopen To Visitors
State prisons in Oklahoma will reopen for inmate visitation starting next weekend, but with precautions to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, according to the state Department of Correction. Visitors must remain in their vehicle until called, wear a mask provided by the facility, complete a health-screening, show no symptoms of the virus and maintain social distancing, the department said Friday. Visitors will be allowed to carry only an identification card, car key, and baby care items if a young child is present. (5/30)

The New York Times: Can 8 Million Daily Riders Be Lured Back To N.Y. Mass Transit? 
As New York City prepares to reopen after enduring one of the worst coronavirus outbreaks in the world, officials are scrambling to avoid a new disaster — the gridlock that could result if many people continue to avoid public transportation and turn to cars instead. Before the crisis, eight million people in the region each weekday — including over 50 percent of the city’s population — used a complex network of subways, buses and railways that has long been a vibrant symbol of the largest metropolis in the United States. After the outbreak hit, though, ridership plummeted as workers stayed home to slow the spread of the virus. (Goldbaum, 6/1)

Reuters: Workers Living In Mexico Helping California's Pandemic Health Response
Hundreds of Mexicans and Americans who live south of the border enter southern California’s hospitals every day. But these are not the patients — they are medical workers and support staff keeping a saturated healthcare system running amid the coronavirus pandemic. Over a thousand nurses, medical technicians, and support workers who live in the Mexican border towns of Tijuana, Tecate and Mexicali work in the United States, Mexican census data shows. They staff emergency rooms, COVID-19 testing sites, dialysis centers and pharmacies. (Gottesdiener, 5/31)

The Associated Press: Navajo Nation Reports 105 New COVID-19 Cases, 10 More Deaths
The Navajo Department of Health has reported 105 new cases of coronavirus on the Navajo Nation and 10 more known deaths. That pushes the numbers to 5,250 positive COVID-19 cases and 241 known deaths as of Saturday night. (5/31)

The Associated Press: After Criticism, Russia Expands Stats On Virus-Linked Deaths
The Russian government on Friday presented more detailed mortality figures for last month that include more deaths linked with the coronavirus, in a bid to dispel suspicions from some Russian and Western experts that authorities were trying to lower the toll for political reasons. But officials also defended the way they register deaths, which only includes people confirmed to have died of COVID-19, and not those who succumbed to other causes — even if they also tested positive for the virus. (Isachenkov, 5/29)