First Edition: June 16, 2020

Kaiser Health News: Wealthy Hospital Taps Small Craft Breweries For Financial Aid To Buy Masks, Gloves
As Inova Health System sought donations in March to buy personal protective equipment for its staff to treat COVID-19, Zach Mote, a police officer turned brewer, came to their aid. Even though his Water’s End Brewery taproom in this Washington, D.C., suburb had been forced to close, he enlisted the help of nearby Beltway Brewing to make a new ale, PPE beer. They’ve donated the more than $18,000 from its sales to the hospital system to help buy masks, gloves and other personal protective equipment. (Galewitz, 6/16)

Kaiser Health News: Health Experts Link Rise In Arizona COVID Cases To End Of Stay-At-Home Order
With new daily coronavirus cases rising in at least two dozen states, an explosion of new infections in Arizona is stretching some hospitals and alarming public health experts who link the surge in cases to the state’s lifting of a stay-at-home order a month ago. Arizona has emerged as one of the country’s newest coronavirus hot spots, with the weekly average of daily cases more than doubling from two weeks ago. The total number of people hospitalized is climbing, too. (Stone, 6/16)

The Wall Street Journal: Trump Presses Ahead With Plans For Tulsa Rally Despite Coronavirus Concerns
President Trump indicated he has no plans to postpone a campaign rally in Tulsa, Okla., this weekend despite mounting concerns from local officials and residents about the event’s potential to spread the new coronavirus. In recent days, the top health official in Tulsa, the local newspaper and the Trump administration’s top infectious disease expert have raised alarms about the plan for the president to convene thousands of supporters in an indoor arena on Saturday—an event Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines classify as “highest risk.” (Ballhaus, 6/15)

The Washington Post: Trump Signals A Move Past Coronavirus With Rallies, Even As Cases Spike In Many States
To observe Trump and his entourage this month as he prepares to resume normal campaign activity coast to coast could lead one to conclude that the coronavirus pandemic is over. In reality, the virus continues to ravage the United States and is fast spreading in some midsize and small cities that avoided bad outbreaks this spring. Recent spikes in coronavirus cases have been recorded in Arizona, Florida, North Carolina, Texas and Oklahoma — all states where Trump has said he plans to soon hold campaign rallies. (Rucker, Partlow and Stanley-Becker, 6/15)

Reuters: Trump Campaign To Give Tulsa Rally-Goers Masks, Fever Checks
People attending President Donald Trump’s campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Saturday will receive temperature checks, masks and hand sanitizer before entering the arena, the Republican’s campaign said. The campaign said there have been more than 1 million ticket requests for the indoor rally, Trump’s first in the three months since the new coronavirus curbed travel and shut down the economy. (6/15)

Politico: Trump Accuses Critics Of Attempting To 'Covid Shame' Upcoming Rally
In a tweet, the president complained about discrepancies in media coverage of his upcoming rally in Tulsa, Okla., compared with that of mass protests across the country over police killings of unarmed black Americans. “The Far Left Fake News Media, which had no Covid problem with the Rioters & Looters destroying Democrat run cities, is trying to Covid Shame us on our big Rallies,” he wrote, continuing a pattern of failing to distinguish between the majority peaceful protesters and those who engaged in property destruction and looting at some of the events. (Oprysko, 6/15)

The Associated Press: Oklahoma Governor Seeks Larger Event For Trump's Tulsa Rally
So many people have expressed an interest in attending President Donald Trump’s rally Saturday in Tulsa, Oklahoma, that the governor said he’s asked the campaign to consider a larger, outdoor venue to accommodate them. Gov. Kevin Stitt said Monday after talking with Trump and Vice President Mike Pence that nearly one million people have requested tickets to the event. Some Trump supporters have already started waiting in line outside the 19,000-seat BOK Center in downtown Tulsa. (Murphy, 6/16)

The Associated Press: AP FACT CHECK: Trump's False Security On Kids And COVID-19
President Donald Trump may be giving parents a false sense of security when it comes to kids and COVID-19. In remarks Monday, Trump expressed a desire to have K-12 schools reopen in the fall in “full blast” while minimizing the risk that children and adults who are around them may face from the coronavirus. TRUMP, on children: “They’ve come out of this at a level that’s really inconceivable. By the way, the regular flu, other flus, other things, SARS or H1N1, any of them, if you look at the young people they were affected like everybody else, but for whatever reason with respect to COVID, the numbers are very, very low.” (Yen, 6/15)

The New York Times: Pence Misleadingly Blames Coronavirus Spikes On Rise In Testing
Vice President Mike Pence encouraged governors on Monday to adopt the administration’s explanation that a rise in testing was a reason behind new coronavirus outbreaks, even though testing data has shown that such a claim is misleading. “I would just encourage you all, as we talk about these things, to make sure and continue to explain to your citizens the magnitude of increase in testing,” Mr. Pence said on a call with governors, audio of which was obtained by The New York Times. “And that in most of the cases where we are seeing some marginal rise in number, that’s more a result of the extraordinary work you’re doing.” (Rogers and Martin, 6/15)

NPR: Trump To Sign Executive Order On Police Reform After George Floyd Killing
The president on Monday gave scant detail of the new executive order. But as he has done consistently in the weeks since Floyd's killing, Trump gave an indication of his priorities for reform, forcefully defending law enforcement officers and sharply criticizing protesters against police brutality. "We need great people in our police departments. And we have mostly great people, I would say that. I would say that with certainty. We have mostly great people. ... But we will do better, even better." (Wise, 6/15)

The Washington Post: Trump To Unveil Police Reform Proposals That Fall Short Of What Activists Have Demanded
Trump’s order, the product of collaboration with law enforcement groups and families of suspects killed by police, aims to address the mass protests over police brutality that have convulsed American cities. Yet even as the president described his measures as “pretty comprehensive,” they are expected to fall far short of the kind of sweeping reforms that activists from Black Lives Matter and other social justice groups have demanded — such as significantly reducing funding for police departments and directing the money to social programs. (Nakamura, 6/15)

The Wall Street Journal: Trump To Sign Executive Order On Policing
“We’re going to be talking about things that we’ve been watching and seeing for the last month, and we’re going to have some solutions, I think some good solutions,” Mr. Trump told reporters Monday afternoon.“ The overall goal is we want law and order,” he said. “But it’s about justice also. And it’s about safety.” He added that there are “mostly great people” in law enforcement, saying, “we will do better.” White House officials said the order was crafted in consultation with law enforcement and the families of victims killed by police. (Leary, 6/15)

The Associated Press: Senate GOP To Restrict Police Chokeholds In Emerging Bill
Driven by a swift-moving national debate, Senate Republicans are on the brink of introducing an extensive package of policing changes with new restrictions on police chokeholds and other practices as Congress rushes to respond to mass demonstrations over the deaths of George Floyd and other black Americans. (Mascaro, 6/16)

Politico: Senate Unlikely To Take Up Police Reform Bill Until After July 4 Recess
The Senate is unlikely to take up a police reform bill until after the Independence Day recess, Republican leaders said on Monday, raising the prospect that it could be a month or longer before a measure heads to President Donald Trump’s desk. A group of GOP senators, led by Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), is expected to file legislation this week that would address policing practices in the aftermath of the May 25 killing of George Floyd, an unarmed African-American, at the hands of law enforcement. But according to GOP leaders, any floor votes would likely have to wait until at least the week of July 20, after senators return from a two-week recess. (Desiderio and Everett, 6/15)

NPR: Bans On Police Use Of Chokeholds And Other Neck Restraints Difficult To Enforce
In the wake of George Floyd's death, a flashpoint in the debates over police reform has been the push to ban chokeholds nationwide. Advocates for the idea believe that enshrining a ban into law will deter police violence. And it's gaining traction: Congressional Democrats have proposed a legislative package that calls for a ban on all neck restraints. President Trump, though he stopped short of full support of a ban, said late last week that police should avoid using chokeholds. And the state of New York passed a law banning the tactic. (Evstatieva and Mak, 6/16)

The Wall Street Journal: Obama-Era Policing Proposals Find Some Success, But Ambitious Ideas Are Slow-Moving
After the 2014 police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., President Obama created a task force that offered 59 recommendations for better policing and building public trust. Eric Jones, the chief of police in Stockton, Calif., has implemented just about all of them. Chief Jones required officers to undergo implicit-bias training and learn about past police abuses. He’s adopted antidiscrimination procedures that promote fair enforcement. (Kendall, 6/15)

The Associated Press: Could The Police Shooting In Atlanta Have Been Prevented?
It started off as routine: a man asleep in his car in a fast-food drive-thru. But it rapidly spun out of control when Atlanta police tried to handcuff and arrest Rayshard Brooks for being intoxicated. Video of the scene from late Friday shows the 27-year-old black man wrestling with two white officers, taking a Taser from one of them, running a short distance through the Wendy’s parking lot, and then pointing the stun gun toward one. That officer shot him twice in the back, killing him. (Pane, 6/16)

Reuters: Supreme Court Rejects Cases Over 'Qualified Immunity' For Police
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear eight cases involving a legal defense called qualified immunity that can be used to shield government officials from lawsuits, including seven involving police accused of excessive force or other misconduct. (Hurley and Chung, 6/15)

Reuters: New York City Police Disband Rough Street Unit Amid Pressure For Reform
The New York Police Department is disbanding its aggressive anti-crime unit, a move aimed at turning alienated residents into crime-stopping allies, part of a nationwide push for policing reforms following the killing of George Floyd. In a major redeployment, the country’s largest police force will reassign some 600 plainclothes officers in the anti-crime unit, the target of numerous complaints, to other duties, effective immediately, Commissioner Dermot Shea said on Monday. (Szekely, 6/15)

NPR: U.N. Human Rights Council To Hold Urgent Debate On Police Brutality, Racism
The United Nations Human Rights Council has decided to hold a urgent debate on racism and police brutality in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd. The proposal, made by a group of African countries led by Burkina Faso, was approved on Monday by the U.N.'s top human rights body. The debate on "the current racially inspired human rights violations, systemic racism, police brutality and the violence against peaceful protests" is scheduled for Wednesday. (Horn, 6/15)

Stat: Health Care Workers Say Protesting Racial Injustice Should Be Part Of The Job
Amid the dual crises of a global pandemic and a reckoning with systemic racial injustice, health workers and health educators are grappling with a momentous question that hovers between personal and professional: how much of an activist should a health care worker be? Doctors, epidemiologists, and nurses are increasingly abandoning their characteristic reticence in favor of direct advocacy. (Hailu, 6/16)

The Associated Press: Poll: Black Americans Most Likely To Know A COVID-19 Victim
African Americans are disproportionately likely to say a family member or close friend has died of COVID-19 or respiratory illness since March, according to a series of surveys conducted since April that lays bare how black Americans have borne the brunt of the pandemic. Eleven percent of African Americans say they were close with someone who has died from the coronavirus, compared with 5% of Americans overall and 4% of white Americans. (Stafford and Fingerhut, 6/15)

NPR: SPLC Announces $30 Million To Help Register Southern Voters Of Color 
The Southern Poverty Law Center says it will make $30 million in grants available to nonprofit groups in five Southern states to help register and mobilize voters of color. The campaign will go through this year's election, as well as the 2022 midterm elections. "The United States has a long history of denying voting rights to its citizens, especially black and brown people, returning citizens and young people," said SPLC president Margaret Huang. (Fessler, 6/15)

Los Angeles Times: Attorney General, FBI To Monitor Inquiry Into Robert Fuller’s Hanging Death 
Authorities said Monday that the cause of death of Robert Fuller, who was found hanging from a tree in Palmdale, has been deferred pending further investigation as the state attorney general sends investigators to assist in determining whether the young Black man died by suicide or was the victim of foul play. Sheriff’s homicide investigators plan to survey the area for surveillance video, conduct a forensic analysis of the rope used in the man’s death and research his medical history locally, as well as in Arizona and Nevada, where he had lived in the past, Capt. Kent Wegener said. (Money, Tchekmedyian and Chabria, 6/15)

Reuters: Some Scold, Others Cheerlead: U.S. States Tackle Reopening Differently
The two most populous U.S. states took markedly different approaches to reopening on Monday with New York scolding local governments for not enforcing social distancing and California encouraging counties to restart economies if they met criteria. Scenes of merrymakers gathering outside bars prompted the governor of New York, the state hardest hit along with New Jersey by the coronavirus pandemic, to urge local officials and businesses on Monday to strictly enforce reopening guidelines. (Caspani and Allen, 6/15)

The Washington Post: Coronavirus Recommendations Ignored As Case Numbers Rise
Coronavirus infections continued to rise in many parts of a divided nation on Monday, with public health recommendations under attack from communities tired of staying home and officials eager to restart local economies. Even as the number of infections rose and hospital beds filled in some places, voices clamored for an end to mandatory mask-wearing. And relaxation of restrictions designed to curb the novel coronavirus continued. (Bernstein, Weiner and Achenbach, 6/15)

The Wall Street Journal: New Coronavirus Cases Climb In More Than A Dozen States
New coronavirus cases have accelerated in more than a dozen U.S. states as summer weather and reopenings have prompted throngs of people to gather across the country and officials to weigh next steps. The U.S. coronavirus death toll passed 116,000 while reported cases topped 2.1 million Monday, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Confirmed cases world-wide exceeded 7.9 million, and more than 434,000 people have died. Experts say the exact tally might be higher, as testing capabilities and reporting standards differ across U.S. states and countries. (Calfas, 6/15)

Reuters: New Projection Puts U.S. COVID-19 Deaths At Over 200,000 By October
A new forecast projects 201,129 deaths due to COVID-19 in the United States through the beginning of October mainly due to reopening measures under way, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington said on Monday. The IHME raised its estimate by 18 percent from 169,890 and said Florida would be among the hardest hit states, with an estimated 18,675 deaths, up 186 percent from a previous estimate of 6,559 on June 10. (6/15)

The New York Times: New York Flattened The Coronavirus Curve. Now They’re Dropping Their Guard.
The critical indicators surrounding the coronavirus crisis in New York have clearly turned a corner: Deaths have slowed to a trickle, new cases have declined sharply and the numbers of hospitalizations and intubations have eased. But over the weekend, a more ominous sign emerged. Throughout New York City, many people openly disregarded social-distancing rules, prompting state officials to threaten to reinstate restrictions in the city to guard against a second wave of infections. “We have 22 states where the virus is increasing,” Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said at a news conference on Monday. “It’s a dramatic national turnaround. We don’t want the same plight of these other states.” (McKinley and Ferre-Sadurni, 6/15)

The Wall Street Journal: Governor Tells New York City To Curb Gatherings Outside Bars
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Monday told local governments, particularly New York City, to “do your job” in stopping large gatherings outside bars and restaurants to reduce the spread of the new coronavirus. Photos and videos shared on social media over the weekend showed hundreds of people drinking on St. Mark’s Place, a popular nightlife corridor in Manhattan’s East Village, and in other parts of the city. Many of the revelers weren’t wearing masks or practicing social distancing, which the state still requires as the city and other regions emerge from a two-month lockdown over the pandemic. (Li, Vielkind and Honan, 6/15)

Politico: Trump’s Coronavirus Message Gets Tested In Key Swing State
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis proudly welcomed the Republican National Convention to Jacksonville last week. On Sunday, he marked the official return of audience-attended professional sports in Florida by waving the green flag to start the NASCAR Cup Series Dixie Vodka 400 race at Homestead-Miami Speedway. In between, he urged schools to reopen next fall. DeSantis’ moves to return his state to normal have been as aggressive as any governor, but there’s one inconvenient fact: Florida’s coronavirus cases are rising to record levels and the percentage of positive tests has been steadily climbing ever since the state fully implemented the first phase of its reopening May 18. (Caputo, 6/16)

The Associated Press: California Governor Defends Reopening, Urges Public Caution
Following a weekend that saw California’s broadest reopening yet since the coronavirus pandemic shuttered businesses, Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday defended the state’s pace and said the economic harm from isolation can have negative health outcomes, too. “We have to recognize you can’t be in a permanent state where people are locked away for months and months and months and months on end,” he said. Newsom’s remarks came in his first news conference in 10 days, just days after most California counties began reopening bars, wineries, hotels and other services. (Ronayne, 6/16)

Los Angeles Times: Hundreds Of L.A. County Restaurants Breaking Coronavirus Rules 
As more sectors of the economy are poised to reopen in Los Angeles County this week, public health officials visited some of the establishments that are already open to check whether they are meeting the county’s requirements to do business. Officials visited roughly 2,000 restaurants over the weekend and found that half of them were not in compliance with the county’s guidelines. Health officials expressed alarm at the findings, stressing it is essential that both customers and merchants follow safety guidelines to avoid new coronavirus outbreaks as the economy reopens. (Shalby and Wigglesworth, 6/15)

The Associated Press: Colorado To Relax Social, Business Coronavirus Restrictions
Colorado will soon enter a new phase with loosened coronavirus-related social and business restrictions, Gov. Jared Polis announced Monday. Under the next phase, which the Democratic governor calls “Protect our Neighbors,” individual counties will be able to make their own decisions to reopen businesses or social gatherings at the end of June or early July — if they have the adequate public health capabilities to respond to possible outbreaks. (Nieberg, 6/15)

The Associated Press: Gov. Ricketts Easing Virus Restrictions In Nebraska
Nebraska bars, restaurants and other venues will soon be able to allow more people inside under relaxed rules Gov. Pete Ricketts outlined. The new rules take effect next Monday across 89 of the state’s 93 counties. Restaurants and bars will be allowed to use their full capacity as long as establishments practice social distancing and ensure additional hygiene practices. And gatherings of up to 10,000 people will be allowed as long as indoor venues remain at 50% of their capacity and outdoor venues limit attendance to 75% of their capacity. (Funk, 6/15)

Los Angeles Times: Arizona Bars Are Packed. The State Is A Coronavirus Hot Spot 
On Friday night, like nearly every other weekend for the past month, the bars and nightclubs in downtown Scottsdale were packed. Dance floors were jammed. Lines to get in stretched for blocks. And almost nobody wore masks or gloves. When Gov. Doug Ducey lifted Arizona’s stay-at-home order May 15, giving the green light for much of the state’s economy to restart, he said residents had the right and responsibility to gauge the risks posed by the novel coronavirus and to act accordingly. “What an Arizonan decides to do is up to them,” he said. (Linthicum, 6/15)

CIDRAP: COVID-19 Hot Spots Emerge In South, Southwest
States in the South and Southwest continued to track a spike in COVID-19 activity over the weekend, with Alabama and South Carolina recording record numbers of new cases and Arizona tripling the daily average of COVID-19 cases seen in the state in the last 2 weeks. Today the Arizona Department of Health Services confirmed 1,014 new cases of the virus, raising the state's total to 37,705 confirmed cases. (Soucheray, 6/15)

The New York Times: FDA Revokes Emergency Coronavirus Use Of Malaria Drugs
The Food and Drug Administration said on Monday that it was revoking emergency authorization of two malaria drugs to treat Covid-19 in hospitalized patients, saying that they are “unlikely to be effective” and could carry potential risks. The drugs, hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, were heavily promoted by President Trump after a handful of small, poorly controlled studies suggested that they could work against the disease caused by the coronavirus. Mr. Trump said he took hydroxychloroquine after he had been exposed to two people who tested positive for the coronavirus. (Thomas, 6/15)

Politico: FDA Ends Emergency Use Of Hydroxychloroquine For Coronavirus
After reviewing new information from large clinical trials the agency now believes that the suggested dosing regimens "are unlikely to produce an antiviral effect," FDA chief scientist Denise Hinton said in a letter announcing the decision Critics have accused the agency of caving to political pressure when it authorized use of hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine in hospitalized Covid-19 patients in late March despite thin evidence. More recent randomized controlled trials have found the drugs do not benefit coronavirus patients, and doctors have reported that hydroxychloroquine can cause heart problems. (Owermohle, 6/15)

The Washington Post: FDA Pulls Emergency Approval For Hydroxychloroquine, Which Trump Touted For Covid-19
The FDA had authorized the antimalarial drugs in late March for hospitalized covid-19 patients after small studies indicated they might provide a benefit. But the decision quickly became a scientific flash point, with critics, including former FDA officials, calling the evidence scant and accusing the agency of buckling to political pressure from the White House. Several argued that what was at stake was larger than just the emergency approvals, in terms of the public’s ability to trust the federal response to the pandemic was based on the best available evidence. (McGinley and Johnson, 6/15)

Reuters: Trump Critical Of FDA Decision To Revoke Emergency Use Of Drug He Has Promoted For COVID-19
Hydroxychloroquine’s anti-inflammatory and antiviral properties suggested it might help COVID-19 patients, and the FDA authorized its emergency use in March at the height of a pandemic for which there were no approved treatments. The early enthusiasm was partly based on laboratory experiments in which the drug appeared to neutralize the virus. Chloroquine, which is not approved for any use in the United States and has more side effects, has not fared any better in human clinical trials. (Beasley and Mishra, 6/15)

The Associated Press: US Revokes Emergency Use Of Drugs Touted By Trump Vs. Virus
FDA’s move means that shipments of the drugs obtained by the federal government will no longer be distributed to state and local health authorities for use against the coronavirus. The decades-old drugs are still available for alternate FDA-approved uses, so U.S. doctors could still prescribe them for COVID-19 — a practice known as off-label prescribing. (Perrone, 6/15)

Reuters: Trump Touts Hydroxychloroquine Even As U.S. Revokes Emergency Use Status
President Donald Trump said on Monday other countries had provided great reports on the effectiveness of malaria drug hydroxychloroquine for treatment of the deadly coronavirus, complaining that only U.S. agencies have failed to grasp its benefit. His remarks, delivered to reporters at the White House, came hours after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration revoked its emergency use authorization for hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19, despite Trump’s frequent praise of the drug’s usefulness for staving off the disease. (6/15)

Politico: Nursing Homes Go Unchecked As Fatalities Mount
Thousands of nursing homes across the country have not been checked to see if staff are following proper procedures to prevent coronavirus transmission, a form of community spread that is responsible for more than a quarter of the nation’s Covid-19 fatalities. Only a little more than half of the nation’s nursing homes had received inspections, according to data released earlier this month, which prompted a fresh mandate from Medicare and Medicaid chief Seema Verma that states complete the checks by July 31 or risk losing federal recovery funds. (Roubein and Severns, 6/15)

ProPublica: 'Fire Through Dry Grass': Andrew Cuomo Saw COVID-19’s Threat To Nursing Homes. Then He Risked Adding To It.
On April 3, Stephanie Gilmore, a 34-year-old nurse working at the Diamond Hill nursing home in Troy, New York, was summoned to a supervisor’s office. The home’s administrator and nursing director were there to relay some distressing news. Gilmore said they told her that a resident in the home had recently gone to the hospital, where she tested positive for COVID-19. The resident was set to return to Diamond Hill, making her the first confirmed COVID-19 case at the 120-bed facility north of Albany. (Sapien and Sexton, 6/16)

ABC News: Nursing Homes Got Masks That 'Probably Should Have Never Gone Out': Official 
Federal officials are trying to correct errors that resulted in shipments of outdated or impractical equipment to America’s hard-hit nursing homes in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, according to an audio recording obtained by ABC News of a call between a top government official and advocates for those in nursing care. Col. Brian Kuhn, the defense logistics official overseeing the shipments, acknowledged that some nursing homes received respirator masks that were “way expired” and "should have never gone out," according to the recording of a call with members of LeadingAge, an association of nonprofit providers of aging services that includes many nursing homes. The group also posted the audio of the call online. (Pecorin, Freger, Romero and Mosk, 6/16)

The New York Times: Coronavirus Study: 1 In 5 People Worldwide At Risk
In just six months, nearly 8 million people worldwide have been stricken with confirmed cases of Covid-19, and at least 434,000 have died. But those deaths have not been distributed evenly; among the most vulnerable are people with underlying health conditions, such as diabetes and diseases that affect the heart and lungs. According to a new modeling study, roughly 1.7 billion people around the world — 22 percent of the global population — fall into that category. That estimate, published today in The Lancet Global Health, excluded healthy older individuals without underlying health conditions, a group also known to be at risk because of their age. It also did not take into account risk factors like poverty and obesity, which can influence a person’s susceptibility to disease and access to treatment. (Wu, 6/15)

The Associated Press: Coronavirus Death Rate Is Higher For Those With Chronic Ills
Death rates are 12 times higher for coronavirus patients with chronic illnesses than for others who become infected, a new U.S. government report says. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report released Monday highlights the dangers posed by heart disease, diabetes and lung ailments. These are the top three health problems found in COVID-19 patients, the report suggests. (Tanner, 6/15)

The Washington Post: Patients With Underlying Conditions Were 12 Times As Likely To Die Of Covid-19 As Otherwise Healthy People, CDC Finds
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released data on more than 1.7 million coronavirus cases and 103,700 deaths from covid-19, the disease caused by the virus, reported to the agency from state and territorial health departments from Jan. 22 through May 30. The data is consistent with earlier reports showing the disproportionate impact the pandemic has had on people with underlying medical conditions. The report also highlighted the disease’s stark disparities between whites and minority groups. Among nearly 600,000 people who were sickened and for whom the CDC has race and ethnicity information, 33 percent of patients were Hispanic, although they make up 18 percent of the U.S. population; 22 percent were black, while they constitute 13 percent of the population; and 1.3 percent were Native American or Alaskan Natives, nearly double their representation in the overall population. (Sun, 6/15)

Reuters: Virus More Efficient At Infection After Mutation; Diseased Lungs More Receptive To Virus
A genetic mutation in the new coronavirus that significantly increases its ability to infect cells may explain why outbreaks in Northern Italy and New York were larger than ones seen earlier in the pandemic. Scientists at Scripps Research in Florida say the mutated virus was seen infrequently in March, but by April accounted for some 65% of cases submitted from around the world to the GenBank database run by the National Institutes of Health. The mutation, designated D614G, increased the number of "spikes" the virus uses to bind to and break into cells, and made them more stable, researchers found in the study undergoing peer review. (Lapid, 6/15)

The Washington Post: Volunteers Sign Up To Put Lives On The Line For Coronavirus Vaccine
Lehua Gray, a 32-year-old product manager in Austin, wants to risk her life for a coronavirus vaccine. A cloud of potentially deadly microbes would be spritzed up her nose — if she’s allowed to participate in what’s called a human challenge trial. It’s built on a deceptively simple premise: Researchers inject healthy volunteers with an experimental vaccine and then expose them to a pathogen. If the vaccine prevents volunteers from getting sick, the study can accelerate development of a promising formula. This approach has been used to test malaria and cholera vaccines — and now, in laboratories and conference rooms, preliminary discussions are unfolding about the feasibility of employing it in the quest to find a weapon against the novel coronavirus. (Guarino and Johnson, 6/15)

Reuters: AstraZeneca COVID-19 Vaccine To Be Shared Across Europe, Says France
A deal between AstraZeneca and four European countries for COVID-19 vaccines involves doses being shared by European Union members on a pro rata basis based on population, a source at the French President’s office said on Monday. (Rose and Blenkinsop, 6/15)

Reuters: Singapore Scientists To Start Human Trials Of COVID-19 Vaccine In August
Singapore scientists testing a COVID-19 vaccine from U.S. firm Arcturus Therapeutics (ARCT.O) plan to start human trials in August after promising initial responses in mice. More than 100 vaccines are being developed globally, including several already in human trials from the likes of AstraZeneca (AZN.L) and Pfizer (PFE.N), to try and control a disease that has infected more than 8 million people and killed over 430,000 worldwide. (6/16)

The Associated Press: 'Still Scared': Health Workers Feel The Toll Of Virus Fight
Outside a back door to a hospital where the coronavirus hit like a hurricane, a half-dozen staffers gathered recently to look back, and look inward. “I am still scared,” Dr. Gwen Hooley told her colleagues at Elmhurst Hospital, which was swamped with patients in late March as the virus rampaged through New York. Physician’s assistant Diane Akhbari recalled her husband leaving food on the cellar stairs while she isolated herself for months for fear of infecting her family: “I felt like an animal,” she said, her voice cracking. (Peltz, 6/16)

NPR: Medical Schools Taken To Task Over Racism, Hazing And Other Abuse
As doctors and nurses across the United States continue to gather outside hospitals and clinics to protest police brutality and racism as part of the White Coats for Black Lives movement, LaShyra Nolen, a first-year student at Harvard Medical School, says it's time to take medical schools to task over racism, too. The fight for equality in medical education isn't new, says Nolen, the first black woman to serve as Harvard Medical School's student council president. But she's hopeful that the national conversation around racism in society will force hospitals and medical schools to address racism within their own institutions. (Gordon, 6/16)

The New York Times: Most Coronavirus Tests Cost About $100. Why Did One Cost $2,315?
In a one-story brick building in suburban Dallas, between a dentist office and a family medicine clinic, is a medical laboratory that has run some of the most expensive coronavirus tests in America. Insurers have paid Gibson Diagnostic Labs as much as $2,315 for individual coronavirus tests. In a couple of cases, the price rose as high as $6,946 when the lab said it mistakenly charged patients three times the base rate. The company has no special or different technology from, say, major diagnostic labs that charge $100. (Kliff, 6/16)

The Associated Press: Many Businesses Ask Customers, Workers To Waive Legal Rights
As businesses reopen across the U.S. after coronavirus shutdowns, many are requiring customers and workers to sign forms saying they won’t sue if they catch COVID-19. Businesses fear they could be the target of litigation even if they adhere to safety precautions from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and state health officials. But workers’ rights groups say the forms force employees to sign away their rights should they get sick. (Krisher and Sherman, 6/16)

The New York Times: Congress Steps Up Pressure As Trump Administration Evades Bailout Oversight
House Democrats opened an investigation on Monday into the distribution of more than $500 billion in small-business loans under a pandemic relief program, escalating a clash with the Trump administration as it resists oversight of trillions of dollars in coronavirus assistance funds. The announcement from the seven Democrats on a committee created to scrutinize how the administration is spending pandemic relief money came as Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, abruptly pivoted under pressure from lawmakers and said he would work to disclose more about where government-backed money was going through the lending initiative, the Paycheck Protection Program. (Cochrane and Rappeport, 6/15)

The Associated Press: House Demands Coronavirus Loan Info From Treasury, Banks
A House subcommittee investigating billions of dollars in coronavirus aid is demanding that the Trump administration and some of the nation’s largest banks turn over detailed information about companies that applied for and received federal loans intended for small businesses. The requests Monday came after Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told Congress last week that the names of loan recipients and the amounts disbursed as part of the $600 billion-plus Paycheck Protection Program are “proprietary information” and do not have to be made public. Democrats say there is nothing proprietary or confidential about businesses receiving millions of taxpayer dollars. (Jalonick and Daly, 6/15)

The Washington Post: Inspectors General Warn That Trump Administration Is Blocking Scrutiny Of Coronavirus Rescue Programs
In a letter to four congressional committee chairs Thursday, two officials in charge of a new government watchdog entity revealed that the Trump administration had issued legal rulings curtailing independent oversight of Cares Act funding. The letter surfaced amid growing bipartisan frustration over the administration’s decision not to disclose how it is spending hundreds of billions in aid for businesses. On Monday, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin appeared to bow to that pressure, saying he would work with Congress on new oversight measures. But some Democrats have said the White House is not taking disclosure requests seriously enough. (Hamburger, Stein, O'Connell and Gregg, 6/15)