First Edition: June 10, 2020

Kaiser Health News/The Guardian: Lost On The Frontline
A physician assistant who mentored residents at his hospital. A clinical interpreter who was “surprised at how much she could help." A friendly nursing assistant who worked into her 70s. A certified nursing assistant and endoscopy technician who cared for COVID-19 patients at both her jobs. These are some of the people just added to “Lost on the Frontline,” a special series from The Guardian and KHN that profiles health care workers who died of COVID-19. (6/10)

Kaiser Health News: New Coronavirus Hot Spots Emerge Across South And In California, As Northeast Slows 
Mass protests against police violence across the U.S. have public health officials concerned about an accelerated spread of the coronavirus. But even before the protests began May 26, sparked by the May 25 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, several states had been recording big jumps in the number of COVID-19 cases. The head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Robert Redfield, registered his concern at a congressional hearing Thursday. (Bebinger, Farmer and Fortier, 6/10)

Kaiser Health News: At-Home Care Designed For COVID Likely Here To Stay At Cleveland Hospital
In late March, Andrea Laquatra began to feel sick. At first, it was an overwhelming fatigue, and the 32-year-old Cleveland mother of two tried to push through it. A fever, headaches and body aches soon followed. Then she noticed she’d lost her senses of taste and smell. By March 23, Laquatra could no longer deny the nagging fear she’d had since first falling ill: She might have COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, which by then had been detected in every state. (Zeitner, 6/10)

Kaiser Health News/Politifact: Barr Says Police Didn’t Use Chemical Irritants To Clear Area By DC Church. They Did.
On a Sunday morning news show, U.S. Attorney General William Barr said federal officers used no chemical irritants to disperse a crowd of people near a Washington, D.C., church President Donald Trump was due to visit. Appearing on CBS News’ “Face the Nation,” Barr said the U.S. Park Police and Secret Service used “standard crowd control” methods during the June 1 action. Host Margaret Brennan reminded him that the Park Police had said chemical irritants were used. (Greenberg, 6/10)

The New York Times: G.O.P. Scrambles To Respond To Public Demands For Police Overhaul
Congressional Republicans, caught flat-footed by an election-year groundswell of public support for overhauling policing in America to address systemic racism, are struggling to coalesce around a legislative response. Having long fashioned themselves as the party of law and order, Republicans have been startled by the speed and extent to which public opinion has shifted under their feet in recent days after the killings of unarmed black Americans by the police and the protests that have followed. The abrupt turn has placed them on the defensive. (Edmondson and Fandos, 6/9)

Reuters: Washington, D.C. Approves Police Reforms After Days Of Protests Against Racism
The district council for Washington, D.C. on Tuesday approved a raft of police reforms after days of protests against police brutality and racism in the U.S. capital and nationwide, sparked by the death of African-American George Floyd in police custody. The emergency legislation, approved by a unanimous vote, comes as a number of cities rethink approaches to policing but falls short of calls by some civil rights activists to defund city police departments. (6/9)

The Washington Post: D.C. Council Passes Police Reform Legislation 
The unanimous action, part of a nationwide response to the protest movement, infuriated the D.C. police union yet left activists clamoring for more drastic steps, including a reduction in the police budget. The emergency legislation — which includes a ban on the use of chemical irritants or rubber bullets on peaceful protesters — passed with a veto-proof majority, despite a stern letter from Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) that urged lawmakers to slow down and hold public hearings. (Zauzmer and Nirappil, 6/9)

Los Angeles Times: L.A. Police Killings: Tracking Homicides In Los Angeles County Since 2000 
In the aftermath of George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis, The Times has compiled a database of cases where people died at the hands of law enforcement in Los Angeles County. Since 2000, there have been nearly 900 killings by local police that were ruled a homicide by county medical examiners. Almost all of the dead were men, nearly 80% were black or Latino. More than 98% were shot to death. (6/9)

The Associated Press: Trump Eyes Racial Equality Debate Through Economic Lens
In his comments since George Floyd died, President Donald Trump has shared lots of opinions about the need for “law and order,” about fighting crime and the dangerous ideas of the “liberal left.” When it comes to addressing racism, not so much. Trump has remained largely silent on that, except to argue that a strong economy is the best antidote. He insists he’s “done more for the black community than any president since Abraham Lincoln.” (Superville, Madhani and Lemire, 6/10)

The Washington Post: How The Black Lives Matter Movement Went Mainstream
The three words were once a controversial rallying cry against racial profiling and police violence. Now, “Black lives matter” is painted in bright yellow letters on the road to the White House. Celebrities and chief executives are embracing it. Even Sen. Mitt Romney, a Republican former presidential candidate, posted the phrase on Twitter. (Del Real, Samuels and Craig, 6/9)

Politico: 'A Seismic Quake': Floyd Killing Transforms Views On Race
Public opinion on race relations and police misconduct has shifted dramatically since the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, with Americans significantly more likely to say they believe in systemic racism and side with the wave of protesters who have stormed the streets to demonstrate against police brutality. Six in 10 white Americans now say racism is “a big problem” in society, an enormous increase from polls taken when Barack Obama was president. More than 2-in-3 say Floyd’s killing reflects broader problems within law enforcement in the United States. (McCaskill, 6/10)

The Wall Street Journal: Coronavirus Obliterated Best African-American Job Market On Record
Near the end of a decadelong economic expansion, African-Americans were finally finding some financial stability. Unemployment had reached record lows, and their wages had begun rising modestly. Anthony Steward, 34, a Milwaukee cook, personified that progress. In 2018, he said, he left his $10.50-an-hour corporate-cafeteria job for one paying $15 at Fiserv Forum, home of basketball’s Milwaukee Bucks, serving steaks, chicken wings and eggplant mozzarella for luxury-box guests. (Morath and Omeokwe, 6/9)

Los Angeles Times: Despite Coronavirus, Experts Back Protests For Health Reasons
Any type of large gathering brings a risk of spreading the coronavirus. Yet a number of health experts are supporting protests being held nationwide in response to the death of George Floyd. Why is that? Many health experts note that racism is the root cause of longstanding public health disparities that date back to the founding of the United States. (Lin and Shalby, 6/9)

The New York Times: Where Protesters Go, Street Medics Follow
When Safa Abdulkadir, a first-year medical student at the University of Minnesota, attended a protest in Minneapolis in response to the killing of George Floyd, she had no intention of putting her medical knowledge to use. It was May 26, one day after Mr. Floyd was killed, and although Ms. Abdulkadir was attending the demonstration as a protester, she made a point of wearing her white lab coat, a common symbol of medical professionals and students. “I went more as a sign that there is someone in the medical community who is here supporting the cause,” Ms. Abdulkadir said. “I wanted my people to feel as though I was there and supporting them, and feel my presence.” (Grillo, 6/9)

Reuters: D.C. National Guard Responding To Protests Test Positive For Coronavirus
Some Washington D.C. National Guard troops have tested positive for the coronavirus after being deployed to the city to respond to protests over the death of an African-American man in police custody, the military said on Tuesday. About 1,300 D.C. National Guard troops were sent to the capital to back law enforcement during demonstrations that erupted over the death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man who died in Minneapolis police custody after being pinned beneath a white officer’s knee for nearly nine minutes. (6/9)

Politico: White House Goes Quiet On Coronavirus As Outbreak Spikes Again Across The U.S.
The coronavirus is still killing as many as 1,000 Americans per day — but the Trump administration isn’t saying much about it. It’s been more than a month since the White House halted its daily coronavirus task force briefings. Top officials like infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci have largely disappeared from national television — with Fauci making just four cable TV appearances in May after being a near fixture on Sunday shows across March and April — and are frequently restricted from testifying before Congress. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump is preparing to resume his campaign rallies after a three-month hiatus, an attempted signal to voters that normalcy is returning ahead of November’s election, and that he’s all but put the pandemic behind him. (Diamond, 6/10)

The New York Times: Fauci Warns That The Coronavirus Pandemic Is Far From Over
In a wide-ranging talk to biotech executives, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci delivered a grim assessment of the devastation wrought around the world by the coronavirus. Covid-19 is the disease that Dr. Fauci always said would be his “worst nightmare” — a new, highly contagious respiratory infection that causes a significant amount of illness and death. “In a period of four months, it has devastated the whole world,” Dr. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said on Tuesday during a conference held by BIO, the Biotechnology Innovation Organization. “And it isn’t over yet.” (Grady, 6/9)

Politico: Fauci Calls Coronavirus His 'Worst Nightmare' As Infectious Disease Expert
Fauci explained that he’d long feared the emergence of a brand new, respiratory-borne viral illness with both a significant degree of transmissibility and mortality. “We’ve had outbreaks that have had one or two or three of those three or four characteristics but never all four,” he said. Coronavirus, he noted, checked all of those boxes, and had “indeed turned out to be my worst nightmare.” (Oprysko, 6/9)

The Washington Post: Coronavirus Hospitalizations On The Rise In Nine States Since Memorial Day
As the number of new coronavirus cases continues to increase worldwide, and more than a dozen states and Puerto Rico are recording their highest averages of new cases since the pandemic began, hospitalizations in at least nine states have been on the rise since Memorial Day. In Texas, North and South Carolina, California, Oregon, Arkansas, Mississippi, Utah and Arizona, there are an increasing number of patients under supervised care since the holiday weekend because of coronavirus infections. The spikes generally began in the past couple weeks and in most states are trending higher. (Pell, Buckner and Dupree, 6/9)

Reuters: Arizona Calls For Emergency Plan As COVID-19 Spikes After Reopening
Arizona again told hospitals to activate the coronavirus emergency plans after cases spiked following reopening, turning it into a U.S. virus hotspot along with neighboring Southwest states. The state’s stay-at-home order ended on May 15, and its cases have increased 115 percent since then, leading a former state health chief to warn Arizona may need new social distancing measures or field hospitals. (Hay, 6/9)

Stat: ‘We Don’t Actually Have That Answer Yet’: WHO Clarifies Comments On Asymptomatic Spread Of Covid-19
A top World Health Organization official clarified on Tuesday that scientists have not determined yet how frequently people with asymptomatic cases of Covid-19 pass the disease on to others, a day after suggesting that such spread is “very rare.” The clarification comes after the WHO’s original comments incited strong pushback from outside public health experts, who suggested the agency had erred, or at least miscommunicated, when it said people who didn’t show symptoms were unlikely to spread the virus. (Joseph, 6/9)

Politico: WHO Backs Off Claim That People Without Virus Symptoms Aren't Transmission Risk
The controversy comes at a tumultuous time for the WHO. President Donald Trump said last month blasted the agency's coronavirus response and said the U.S. would withdraw its support. A Trump administration official confirmed U.S. funding to the WHO has been suspended. Several prominent Republicans jumped on Van Kerkhove’s initial statements as evidence the United States could safely, and completely, reopen. “Good News! People who catch coronovirus but have no symptoms rarely spread the disease. Translation: sending kids back to school does not require millions of test kits,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) tweeted on Monday. His tweet has been shared more than 11,000 times and liked at least 25,000 times as of Tuesday afternoon. (Ehley, 6/9)

The New York Times: In The W.H.O.'s Coronavirus Stumbles, Some Scientists See A Pattern
Even as the World Health Organization leads the worldwide response to the coronavirus pandemic, the agency is failing to take stock of rapidly evolving research findings and to communicate clearly about them, several scientists warned on Tuesday. In a news briefing on Monday, a W.H.O. official asserted that transmission of the coronavirus by people without symptoms is “very rare.” Following concerted pushback from researchers, officials on Tuesday walked back the claim, saying it was a “misunderstanding.” (Mandavilli, 6/9)

Reuters: Coronavirus Patients Most Infectious When They First Feel Unwell: WHO
Studies show people with the coronavirus are most infectious just at the point when they first begin to feel unwell, World Health Organization (WHO) experts said on Tuesday. This feature has made it so hard to control spread of the virus that causes COVID-19 disease, but it can be done through rigorous testing and social distancing, they said. “It appears from very limited information we have right now that people have more virus in their body at or around the time that they develop symptoms, so very early on,” Maria van Kerkhove, a WHO epidemiologist and technical lead on the pandemic, told a live session on social media. (Nebehay, 6/9)

The New York Times: Georgia Voting Meltdown Leads To Uproar: ‘I Refuse Not To Be Heard’
Georgia’s statewide primary elections on Tuesday were overwhelmed by a full-scale meltdown of new voting systems put in place after widespread claims of voter suppression during the state’s 2018 governor’s election. Scores of new state-ordered voting machines were reported to be missing or malfunctioning, and hourslong lines materialized at polling places across Georgia. Some people gave up and left before casting a ballot, and concerns spread that the problems would disenfranchise untold voters, particularly African-Americans. Predominantly black areas experienced some of the worst problems. (Fausset, Epstein and Rojas, 6/9)

Reuters: Long Lines, Voting Machine Problems Fuel Investigations In U.S. State Of Georgia
The missteps in Georgia, which had delayed its primary from March, are likely to raise alarms about how well states will handle voting if the coronavirus is still raging when Republican President Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden meet in the Nov. 3 presidential election. Many voters complained of hours-long waits and voting machines that were not operating. Raffensperger said the problems were most acute in metropolitan Atlanta’s Fulton and DeKalb counties, although the Georgia Democratic Party said it received reports of problems “in every corner of the state.” (Whitesides and Cornwell, 6/9)

The Associated Press: 'Chaos In Georgia': Is Messy Primary A November Harbinger?
It raised the specter of a worst-case November scenario: a decisive state, like Florida and its “hanging chads” and “butterfly ballots” in 2000, remaining in dispute long after polls close. Meanwhile, Trump, Biden and their supporters could offer competing claims of victory or question the election’s legitimacy, inflaming an already boiling electorate. “I feel like we’re struggling as a country right now to hear people who really need to be heard,” said Atlanta resident Ross Wakefield, a 28-year-old white software engineer who waited nearly four hours to vote and watched others “peace out and bail” on the line. “This does not give me a lot of confidence that we’re doing that.” (Barrow, 6/10)

The Washington Post: In Georgia, Primary Day Snarled By Long Lines, Problems With Voting Machines — A Potential Preview Of November
Many new poll workers brought on to replace those who had bowed out because of fears of the virus were unfamiliar with new ballot-marking devices that were deployed statewide for the first time Tuesday, replacing a paperless electronic voting system that a federal judge had declared insecure. Even before the pandemic struck, election security experts had questioned whether officials had enough time to provide adequate training for their use in the primaries. (Gardner, Lee, Willis and Glionna, 6/9)

The Washington Post: GOP Expects To Move Its Convention To Jacksonville After Dispute With North Carolina Over Pandemic Safeguards 
Seeking a city willing to allow a large-scale event amid the coronavirus pandemic, Republicans have tentatively settled on Jacksonville, Fla., as the new destination for the premier festivities of the Republican National Convention in August, according to three Republican officials briefed on the plans. (Linskey and Dawsey, 6/9)

The Washington Post: Senators Seek Investigation Into Project Airbridge Deliveries Of Protective Medical Gear
Three Democratic senators on Monday requested an independent investigation into the arrangement forged between the federal government and six for-profit companies to rapidly transport protective medical gear from overseas to the front lines of the U.S. coronavirus pandemic. The Trump administration has said it created the initiative — called Project Airbridge — to ease crippling shortages of personal protective equipment, or PPE. Under the arrangement, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has spent approximately $154 million to fly supplies secured by the six companies from overseas into the United States. (Brittain and Stanley-Becker, 6/9)

The Associated Press: VA Says It Lacks Adequate Medical Gear For 2nd Virus Wave
The Veterans Affairs Department on Tuesday defended itself against criticism of past shortages of masks and other medical gear to protect employees from the coronavirus but acknowledged its current supplies may not be enough to handle a second wave. Dr. Richard Stone, the top health official at VA, said at the height of the pandemic its 170 medical centers were going through 250,000 N95 masks per day — a “daunting amount.” (Yen, 6/9)

The New York Times: U.S. Limits Virus Aid For Masks, Gloves And Other Medical Gear Abroad
Relief workers are broadly restricted from using United States funding to buy surgical masks, gloves and other protective medical gear to confront the coronavirus overseas, in order to keep that equipment available for health providers in America, according to regulations issued Tuesday by the United States Agency for International Development. The new rules did grant an exception: The money can be used to buy equipment if it is produced in the part of the world where it would be used. (Jakes, 6/9)

The New York Times: Can A Vaccine For Covid-19 Be Developed In Record Time?
In the history of medicine, rarely has a vaccine been developed in less than five years. Among the fastest to be developed was the current mumps vaccine, which was isolated from the throat washings of a child named Jeryl Lynn in 1963. Over the next months, the virus was systematically “weakened” in the lab by her father, a biomedical scientist named Maurice Hilleman. Such a weakened or attenuated virus stimulates an immune response but does not cause the disease; the immune response protects against future infections with the actual virus. Human trials were carried out over the next two years, and the vaccine was licensed by Merck in December 1967. (6/9)

The New York Times: Coronavirus Vaccine Tracker
Researchers around the world are developing more than 125 vaccines against the coronavirus. Vaccines typically require years of research and testing before reaching the clinic, but scientists are racing to produce a safe and effective vaccine by next year. Work began in January with the deciphering of the SARS-CoV-2 genome. The first vaccine safety trials in humans started in March, but the road ahead remains uncertain. Some trials will fail, and others may end without a clear result. But a few may succeed in stimulating the immune system to produce effective antibodies against the virus. Here is the status of all the vaccines that have reached trials in humans, along with a selection of promising vaccines still being tested in cells or animals. (Corum and Zimmer, 6/10)

The Wall Street Journal: Coronavirus Vaccine Candidates’ Pivotal U.S. Testing To Start This Summer
The federal government plans to fund and conduct the decisive studies of three experimental coronavirus vaccines starting this summer, according to a lead government vaccine researcher. These phase 3 trials are expected to involve tens of thousands of subjects at dozens of sites around the U.S., John Mascola, director of the vaccine research center at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in an interview. Meant to determine a vaccine’s safety and effectiveness, they would mark the final stage of testing. (Loftus, 6/10)

NPR: Producing Enough Vaccine For The Coronavirus Means Companies Have To Start Now
Once upon a time, developing a new vaccine was a step-by-step process that went from concept, to design, to tests in humans, to regulatory approval, to manufacturing. It was a process that could take a decade or more. But the urgent need for a COVID-19 vaccine has radically changed all that. Now, the hope is the entire process can be completed in a year or less. (Palca, 6/10)

Reuters: Potential COVID-19 Vaccine From China Shows Promise In Animal Tests
A potential COVID-19 vaccine being developed by Chinese researchers showed promise in trials in monkeys, triggering antibodies and raising no safety issues, researchers said, and a human trial with more than 1,000 participants is under way. The vaccine candidate, called BBIBP-CorV, induced high-level neutralising antibodies that can block the virus from infecting cells in monkeys, rats, guinea pigs and rabbits, researchers said in a paper published in online by the medical journal Cell on Saturday. (6/10)

Reuters: Japan's AnGes Speeds Towards 2021 Rollout In Coronavirus 'Vaccine War'
Japanese biotech AnGes Inc expects its coronavirus vaccine to be ready as early as the first half of 2021, if it can overcome supply chain and production hurdles, the company’s founder said. The Osaka-based firm had a headstart in the potential COVID-19 vaccine development by repurposing its hypertension vaccine that had already passed through high safety and regulatory standards and other hurdles. (Swift, 6/10)

Reuters: Gilead's Remdesivir Prevents Lung Damage In COVID-19 Study On Monkeys
Gilead Sciences Inc’s (GILD.O) antiviral drug remdesivir prevented lung disease in macaque monkeys infected with the new coronavirus, according to a study published in the journal Nature on Tuesday. The findings were first reported in April by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) as a “preprint,” prior to traditional academic validation provided by a medical journal. (6/9)

Reuters: Temasek-Backed Tychan To Start Human Trials Next Week For COVID-19 Treatment
Singapore’s Tychan, a biotechnology firm backed by state investor Temasek Holdings, said it will begin human clinical trials next week for a potential monoclonal antibody treatment for COVID-19. The first phase of the trial to be conducted on 23 healthy volunteers will take about six weeks to evaluate the safety and tolerability of TY027 - a monoclonal antibody that specifically targets SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. (6/10)

The New York Times: Exploring The Links Between Coronavirus And Vitamin D
In the past decade, studies have found that taking vitamin D can lower the odds of developing respiratory infections like the cold and the flu, especially among people who have documented deficiencies. Now scientists are trying to find out whether vitamin D might also help protect against Covid-19. Some scientists believe that people with vitamin D deficiencies have weak or abnormal immune responses that make them more susceptible to developing Covid-19 and experiencing severe symptoms. (O'Connor, 6/10)

Reuters: Widespread Mask-Wearing Could Prevent COVID-19 Second Waves: Study
Population-wide face mask use could push COVID-19 transmission down to controllable levels for national epidemics, and could prevent further waves of the pandemic disease when combined with lockdowns, according to a British study on Wednesday. (Kelland, 6/9)

CNN: Face Masks Make Sex Safer In The Time Of Covid-19, New York City Health Department Advises 
The New York City Health Department is encouraging people to "be creative" in its updated guidelines to help people have safer sex during the Covid-19 pandemic. While the department still urges people to stay home as much as possible and minimize contact with others, the guidance says that during the pandemic people "will and should have sex." The guidelines were created to reduce the risk of spreading Covid-19. They've been updated periodically to reflect the changing understanding of the disease. (Christensen, 6/10)

Stat: Doctors Race To Understand What Covid-19 Means For People With HIV
Larry Pike has already survived one pandemic. The 76-year-old Seattle retiree has been living with HIV for 22 years. When Covid-19 hit Seattle, he grew worried. “Just like HIV,” he said, “there’s that ‘Who’s next?’ sort of thing.” Sure enough, on March 4, the day Amazon asked area workers to stay home, Starbucks announced it would hold a “virtual only” annual shareholders meeting, and Boeing asked its employees not to fly, Pike woke up with a sore throat and a cough. He was alarmed, but then felt better in a day and a half. “I thought, OK, I missed that,” he recalled. (McFarling, 6/10)

Reuters: Retracted COVID-19 Studies Expose Holes In Vetting Of Data Firms
The scramble to research the novel coronavirus has exposed weaknesses in the vetting of healthcare data being supplied by a growing number of U.S. firms, a flaw that forced two of the most respected medical journals to pull studies last week. The Lancet and the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) retracted COVID-19 studies over questionable patient health data supplied by a small company called Surgisphere. (Humer and Taylor, 6/9)

NPR: After COVID-19 Contact Tracing Comes Quarantine. Here's How That Works
As an infectious disease nurse during the COVID-19 pandemic, Debbie Sorensen works as a memory detective on a tight deadline. The mystery she's trying to untangle is where an infected person has been and who's been with them. Her sleuthing tools include a telephone, a wall calendar and the firm, but calming voice that comes with 20 years of experience with the Salt Lake County Public Health Department in Salt Lake City. (Becker, 6/10)

The Associated Press: Outcry As Some Nursing Homes Try To Grab Stimulus Checks
Compounding the hardships of the coronavirus, some nursing homes have demanded that low-income residents turn over their $1,200 economic stimulus checks, a cash grab lawmakers want to halt. On Tuesday, Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., called on the Health and Human Services inspector general’s office to issue a warning to nursing homes and assisted living facilities that such practices are “improper and unlawful.” (Alonso-Zaldivar, 6/9)

The Washington Post: Safety Net Providers Get $25 Billion To Keep Them Going
Federal health officials announced a new round of financial help Tuesday to ease the financial strains on safety-net health-care providers in the coronavirus pandemic, committing $25 billion to hospitals and other providers of care for the nation’s poorest patients. The Department of Health and Human Services plans to devote $10 billion of that amount to about 750 hospitals that treat many patients on Medicaid or who are uninsured, officials said. (Goldstein, 6/9)

The New York Times: How’s The Economy Doing? Watch The Dentists
If not for coronavirus, you’d expect your local dentist office to be doing just fine. Dentist offices tend to be stable businesses that stick around for decades, unlike restaurants that open and close frequently. Dentists earn a healthy salary — a median of $159,000 — and offer services with no clear substitute. If you need your teeth cleaned or a cavity filled, the dentist is the only option. This makes them, in the eyes of some economists, the perfect barometer for gauging the country’s recovery from the shock of the pandemic. (Kliff, 6/10)

The Wall Street Journal: Hassett Sees Another Stimulus Bill From Congress Before August Recess
A top economic adviser to President Trump said the White House “would definitely support” another round of aid to shore up the economy as U.S. businesses begin to reopen amid the coronavirus pandemic. White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett said Tuesday the odds of a “Phase Four” stimulus package “are very, very high,” even if data on output and jobs continue to surpass expectations. On Friday, the Labor Department reported that U.S. employers added 2.5 million jobs in May and that the unemployment rate, which economists had expected to soar to 19.5%, instead fell to 13.3%. (Kiernan, 6/9)

Reuters: With Crisis Response In Place, Fed Looks To Long Term
The Federal Reserve completes its latest policy meeting on Wednesday with attention turning from its massive response to the coronavirus pandemic and toward its still-developing plans to strengthen and lengthen a nascent economic recovery. (Schneider, 6/10)

The Wall Street Journal: Fed Debates How To Set Policy For The Post-Pandemic Economy
Federal Reserve officials could take preliminary steps Wednesday to clarify how they will provide more support to the economy now that interest rates are pinned near zero. The Fed is unlikely to announce major policy changes after its policy meeting Wednesday but will explain its thinking through Chairman Jerome Powell’s news conference and its new economic projections. (Timiraos, 6/10)

The Wall Street Journal: Second Pandemic Wave Would Inflict Big Economic Cost, Says OECD
A second wave of lockdowns to counter a resurgent novel coronavirus would deal a terrible blow to a global economy already facing a severe contraction, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said Wednesday. In its latest report on the global outlook, the Paris-based research body released one of the gloomiest forecasts for growth yet published by an international financial institution. The OECD said it expected the global economy to contract by 6% this year if a second wave of infections and containment measures can be avoided. (Hannon, 6/10)

The Wall Street Journal: Fastest-Rising Food Prices In Decades Drive Consumers To Hunt For Value
Food makers are designing value packs, and supermarkets are restoring promotions, aiming to offset disruptions wrought by the coronavirus pandemic that have led to the fastest rise in food prices in more than four decades. While food companies and supermarkets say they have reopened plants and resolved supply constraints that contributed to higher prices, they also expect prices to remain elevated because of increased costs for labor and transportation. Companies are buying equipment and reconfiguring factories and stores to keep people safe from the new coronavirus. Some of those changes are adding costs that are trickling down to shoppers. (Gasparro and Kang, 6/9)

Politico: In Absence Of Federal Action, Farm Workers’ Coronavirus Cases Spike
Coronavirus outbreaks among farm workers are popping up in rural communities across the country, sparking fears within the agriculture industry that cases will skyrocket as harvest season stretches into summer. In the coming weeks, more crews will be sent into fields to pick, pack and ship ripening crops. About a quarter of the 2.5 million-person workforce follows the harvest into other regions, bringing concerns that migratory workers could spread the disease to more farms and states. (Crampton, 6/9)

Los Angeles Times: Salinas Farmworkers Crowd Homes, Spreading Coronavirus
A bed fills most of the room that Odilia Leon shares with her five children. In one corner, a dresser spills over with clothes. For the cramped room in a two-bedroom unit behind a house in east Salinas, she pays $1,050 a month. It’s what she can afford as a fieldworker picking strawberries, her job for the last nine years. A couple with three children rents the other room. In all, 11 people share a living room and kitchen. There is one bathroom. (Gomez, 6/9)

The New York Times: What It Looks Like Inside An Amazon Warehouse Now 
After months of being embattled over its response to the coronavirus, Amazon is working to convince the public that its workplaces — specifically, the warehouses where it stores everything from toys to hand sanitizer — are safe during the pandemic. The giant internet retailer has started running television ads that show that its warehouse and delivery employees have masks and other protective gear. It has pushed out segments to local news stations touting its safety improvements. It has asked journalists to visit its warehouses to see for themselves. (Weise, 6/9)

CNN: It's Still Safe To Perform CPR During The Pandemic, Study Says 
Imagine taking a walk in your neighborhood, carefully staying 6 feet apart from others to ensure social distancing. You see an elderly man collapse on the sidewalk, having a heart attack. Everything you've heard of late tells you to avoid close contact with strangers, especially the elderly, during the pandemic. Is it safe to perform CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) to try to save his life? Or are you risking being infected with the novel coronavirus or giving it to a dying man? (Prior, 6/10)

The New York Times: Farewell To Gummy Bear Jars: Tech Offices Get A Virus Safety Makeover
When employees at Salesforce, the cloud software giant based in San Francisco, eventually return to their office towers, they may find that the fun is gone from their famously fun-loving workplaces. No more chatting in the elevator. No hugging. No more communal snack jars.Before employees can even go into the office, they will be required to fill out online health surveys and take their temperature. If they pass the health screening and have a good reason to go in, Salesforce will schedule their shifts — and send them digital entry tickets for the lobby with an arrival time. In the lobby, employees will be asked to wait for the elevator on social-distancing floor markers and stand on other markers once inside the elevator. (Singer, 6/10)

The New York Times: What Jury Service During The Coronavirus Pandemic Looks Like
Dylan Potter, a public defender in Portland, Ore., found himself in late April searching for case law on what had been an obscure legal question: whether witnesses are allowed to wear masks. He found one decision on whether a confidential informant could testify in a ski mask (no), and another on whether Islamic veils were permitted in court (it depends). But nothing addressed what Mr. Potter was about to encounter: a jury trial in the midst of a pandemic in which face coverings have become a matter of health and safety. (Dewan, 6/10)