First Edition: March 11, 2020

Kaiser Health News: How To Avoid Coronavirus? Lessons From People Whose Lives Depend On It
Andrea Amelse knows hand-washing. For the past eight years, she’s been washing her hands pretty much every time she passes a sink. When she’s near a bottle of antibacterial gel, she uses it. She makes a point of avoiding people with contagious illnesses, even though it can be uncomfortable to ask to work from home or miss a date with friends. And she makes sure she gets plenty of sleep, not always easy at age 25. (Barry-Jester, 3/11)

Kaiser Health News: VCU Health Halts 30-Year Campaign That Seized Patients’ Wages, Put Liens On Homes
In one of the most sweeping moves yet by a nonprofit hospital system to reduce aggressive bill collection, VCU Health is halting seizure of patients’ wages and removing thousands of liens against patients’ homes, some dating to the 1990s. “Health care needs to be more affordable for patients, and we want to be part of the solution,” said Melinda Hancock, VCU Health’s chief administrative and financial officer. “We believe that no hospital bill should change the economic status of a family.” (Hancock and Lucas, 3/11)

Kaiser Health News: Crushed By A Hospital Bill? Stand Up For Yourself
The cost of medical treatment depleted Frances Edwards’ savings after she was diagnosed with stage 3 melanoma in October 2016 — even though she has insurance. In early 2019, she owed $6,400 in out-of-pocket charges for her first two cancer treatments of the year, and she knew there was no way she could pay. “I was like, ‘Oh, my God, how am I going to do this?’” recalls Edwards, 74, who lives in Cambria, on California’s Central Coast, and drives 450 miles round trip every five weeks for treatment at the University of Southern California’s Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center in Los Angeles. (Wolfson, 3/11)

The New York Times: Talks Begin On Stimulus Plan As Trump Plays Down Virus Threat
President Trump and lawmakers began negotiations on Tuesday for an emergency relief package to bolster an economy battered by the coronavirus crisis, with lawmakers and administration officials expressing optimism despite partisan divisions about what to include. Mr. Trump, after weeks of playing down potential effects of the virus, called for a temporary elimination of payroll taxes that could cost nearly $700 billion, rivaling both the financial bailout of 2008 and the economic stimulus measure that followed. (Stolberg and Tankersley, 3/10)

Reuters: Washington Considers Actions To Bolster U.S. Economy As Coronavirus Cases Mount
As U.S. coronavirus cases rose steadily, the White House and Congress negotiated measures on Tuesday to bolster the U.S. economy and Americans' paychecks against the outbreak's impact, although there was no immediate sign of a deal. The rise in the number of U.S. cases of COVID-19, a highly contagious and sometimes fatal respiratory illness, has concerned health officials and spurred calls within Congress for action to expand testing and avert an economic meltdown. (Holland and Cowan, 3/11)

The Associated Press: Lawmakers Resist Trump's Proposed Payroll Tax Break
President Donald Trump's proposed payroll tax break met with bipartisan resistance on Capitol Hill as pressure mounts on the administration and Congress to work more vigorously to contain the coronavirus outbreak and respond to the financial fallout. Flanked by his economic team, Trump on Tuesday pitched his economic stimulus ideas privately to wary Senate Republicans on another grueling day in the struggle against expanding infections. (Mascaro and Miller, 3/11)

Politico: Trump Seeks 'Big' Stimulus Steps But Aides Are Skeptical
At a meeting of top economic officials on Monday night, the president and aides like Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow and Acting Director of the Office of Management and Budget Russ Vought all broadly agreed on ideas such as paid sick leave for hourly workers and loans for small businesses affected by the coronavirus, according to two administration officials briefed on the meeting. But Mnuchin, Kudlow and Vought were far less enthusiastic about the temporary payroll tax cut idea, arguing it is too early to take that kind of measure. “The president seems to like the idea, but there are a number of people around him who were not as enamored of it,” said one administration official. (Cook, 3/10)

Los Angeles Times: Coronavirus: Trump Lobbies Republicans On Economic Stimulus
In the first sign of bipartisan cooperation to address the growing health crisis, Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin was dispatched to begin negotiating an economic package with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco). The pairing of Mnuchin and Pelosi (D-San Francisco) on a coronavirus bill comes as Republicans and Democrats are at loggerheads on an economic response. In addition to the payroll tax cut, the White House supports tax relief for the travel and tourism industries. (Haberkorn, 3/10)

The Wall Street Journal: Trump Struggles To Balance Mitigating Epidemic, Protecting Economy
The White House has struggled to strike a balance between mitigating the epidemic and protecting the economy. It swiftly cut off travel to affected countries, which seemed overly aggressive at the time but no longer does. It has since bent over backward to downplay the risk and prevalence of the disease in the U.S., at times with misleading information. Mr. Trump’s focus on the stock market led him to insist that the main economic remedy was for the Fed to cut interest rates. He is still obsessed. On Tuesday he renewed attacks on the Fed, calling on it again to lower rates more than it has done so far. “Our pathetic, slow moving Federal Reserve, headed by Jay Powell, who raised rates too fast and lowered too late, should get our Fed Rate down to the levels of our competitor nations,” he tweeted. (Ip, 3/10)

Politico: Exclusive: Email Crash Impeded HHS Response To Coronavirus
As health department officials worked quickly to negotiate an emergency funding package to fight the spreading coronavirus outbreak on Feb. 23, they came to a frustrating realization: Their email system had crashed. The outage in the Health and Human Services secretary’s office stretched on much of the day, with some messages delayed up to 11 hours, creating frustration and slowing the Trump administration’s coronavirus response. (Diamond, 3/10)

Politico: Exclusive: U.S. Coronavirus Testing Threatened By Shortage Of Critical Lab Materials
A looming shortage in lab materials is threatening to delay coronavirus test results and cause officials to undercount the number of Americans with the virus. The slow pace of coronavirus testing has created a major gap in the U.S. public health response. The latest problem involves an inability to prepare samples for testing, creating uncertainties in how long it will take to get results. CDC Director Robert Redfield told POLITICO on Tuesday that he is not confident that U.S. labs have an adequate stock of the supplies used to extract genetic material from any virus in a patient’s sample — a critical step in coronavirus testing. (Lim and Ehley, 3/10)

ABC News: Coronavirus Testing On The Rise In US, But Experts Say It’s Not Enough 
As state and federal officials race to mitigate the spread of novel coronavirus, an ABC News analysis of all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico indicates more than 6,600 tests for the disease have been administered across the country -- a figure that continues to sharply rise as testing kits become more readily available. Officials in Washington, the state hit hardest by the virus thus far, have tested more than 1,300 patients. California has tested more than 900 patients, while Florida, Oregon, New York, Illinois, Colorado and Texas have each tested more than 100 patients. (Bruggeman, 3/10)

The New York Times: As Coronavirus Worries Grow, Biden And Sanders Have Kept Shaking Hands
Outside a polling place, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont did a few fist bumps. He clasped some shoulders. There were high fives and, yes, he shook a couple hands. At an auto plant that is under construction, former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. shook hands and posed for pictures as workers in hard hats and fluorescent vests crowded around him. Fears about the coronavirus, which is often spread through person-to-person interaction, led Mr. Sanders’s campaign to announce on Tuesday afternoon that it was canceling a rally that night in Cleveland. Soon after, Mr. Biden’s campaign canceled its own Tuesday night rally in Cleveland. (Epstein and Kaplan, 3/10)

The Associated Press: Sanders, Biden Cancel Ohio Rallies Over Coronavirus Concerns
The Democratic National Committee also announced that the party's next debate, being held Sunday in Arizona, would not have a live audience, “at the request of both campaigns and out of an abundance of caution. ”The moves suggest the coronavirus could upend the Democratic primary at a pivotal time in the race for both candidates. Sanders is trying to regain some momentum in the latest round of voting Tuesday night, while the former vice president is looking to further pad his delegate lead. (Jaffe and Weissert, 3/10)

The New York Times: Sanders And Biden Cancel Events As Coronavirus Fears Upend Primary
The disruption to traditional campaigning was the first powerful sign that the virus is changing American politics, coming at the height of a primary season as Senator Bernie Sanders and former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. battle for the Democratic nomination. Mr. Sanders especially relies on huge rallies to energize his base of younger voters — the kind of barnstorming he needs to halt Mr. Biden’s growing momentum in the race. Mr. Sanders, quickly followed by Mr. Biden, called off events scheduled for Ohio just hours before they were set to begin and as the candidates awaited the results of voting in six other states. Gov. Mike DeWine of Ohio, a Republican, had asked earlier Tuesday for all major indoor events to be canceled. The Sanders and Biden campaigns indicated they would evaluate future events; the Biden campaign added one for Tuesday night in Philadelphia. (Ember, Karni and Haberman, 3/10)

The New York Times: Avoid Flights And Crowds? Try Telling That To Congress
Public health officials concerned about the new coronavirus have been warning people over 65 to avoid crowds, limit physical contact with others and skip “nonessential travel.” Yet this week, a group of Americans 65 and older who fly frequently between cities — shaking hands with many strangers as they go — have been meeting in large groups to conduct their work. Between the U.S. House and Senate, there are almost 200 of them. When a reporter in the Capitol asked Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma, 85, what precautions he was taking to protect himself from the disease known as Covid-19, he said none — and extended his arm with confidence: “Wanna shake hands?” (Fandos and Sanger-Katz, 3/11)

The Associated Press: As Americans Take Virus Precautions, Trump Flouts Advice
At the Pentagon, top military brass have been begun “social distancing" to avoid spreading disease. At the Capitol, legislators have been encouraged to forgo hand shakes and flash the “Star Trek” Vulcan greeting instead. But at the White House, President Donald Trump is flouting his own government's advice on how to stay safe. He continues to shake hands with supporters and visitors, hold large events and minimize the threat posed by a coronavirus outbreak that has infected more than 115,000 people and killed over 4,000 worldwide. (Colvin, 3/10)

Politico: Trump's Life During Coronavirus: Same Routine, More Purell
Before President Donald Trump took photos with about 100 VIP donors at his South Florida Mar-a-Lago resort Sunday afternoon, staffers gave them each a squirt of hand sanitizer and a form to list recent international travel. That was the exception. As the novel coronavirus quickly spreads across the U.S., schools are closing, employees are working remotely and major conferences are being canceled. But for the White House and Trump, changes have been limited — and inconsistent. (Kumar, 3/10)

The Washington Post: Two Trump Allies Got Coronavirus Tests Despite Shortage And Lack Of Symptoms
Two close congressional allies of President Trump underwent coronavirus testing in recent days in apparent defiance of federal recommendations reserving those tests for patients exhibiting symptoms of infection — and amid growing concerns about the availability of testing for Americans who are sick. Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), the latter of whom Trump named last week as the next White House chief of staff, both said in statements that the tests showed no infection after exposure to a coronavirus carrier at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference last month in suburban Washington. (DeBonis and Johnson, 3/10)

The New York Times: ‘It’s Just Everywhere Already’: How Delays In Testing Set Back The U.S. Coronavirus Response
Even now, after weeks of mounting frustration toward federal agencies over flawed test kits and burdensome rules, states with growing cases such as New York and California are struggling to test widely for the coronavirus. The continued delays have made it impossible for officials to get a true picture of the scale of the growing outbreak, which has now spread to at least 36 states and Washington, D.C. Dr. Robert R. Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in an interview on Friday that acting quickly was critical for combating an outbreak. “Time matters,” he said. He insisted that despite the rocky start, there was still time to beat back the coronavirus in the United States. “It’s going to take rigorous, aggressive public health — what I like to say, block and tackle, block and tackle, block and tackle, block and tackle,” he said. “That means if you find a new case, you isolate it.” (Fink and Baker, 3/10)

Los Angeles Times: True Number Of U.S. Coronavirus Cases Is Far Above Official Tally, Scientists Say
An analysis of the novel coronavirus’ spread inside the United States suggests that thousands of Americans are already infected, dimming the prospects for stomping out the outbreak in its earliest stages. Researchers estimate that by March 1, the virus had already infected about 1,000 to 10,000 people who have not yet been accounted for. At the start of this month, about 80 U.S. cases had been confirmed and officials were still expressing confidence they could contain the new virus. (Healy, 3/10)

Politico: U.S. Tops Grim Coronavirus Milestone: 1,000 Cases
Hopkins compiled the numbers using data from local and national health departments including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which has lagged the Hopkins count, and from local news reports of confirmed cases. The count has risen in part because hospitals, labs and other public health facilities finally now have access to more testing kits after weeks of confusion and delay. Public health experts believe the ongoing testing problems mean that unknown numbers of cases have gone undetected. At least 28 people have died from the disease in the United States, according to the Hopkins database, though public health officials expect that toll to rise. (Choi, 3/10)

The New York Times: Governors Seeking Coronavirus Help Can’t Keep Trump At Arm’s Length
Vice President Mike Pence, fresh from a conference call with nearly all of the nation’s governors, spoke this week about how much those governors appreciated President Trump’s leadership in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak. “The president’s leadership has made the difference here,” Mr. Pence said at a White House news conference on Monday. “I heard it again today from 47 governors.” On the whole, the feelings of America’s governors, whose health departments are on the front line of the escalating health crisis, are complicated when it comes to Mr. Trump and his federal response to the outbreak. (Fausset and Bosman, 3/11)

The Associated Press: US States Race To Contain Coronavirus As Cases Near 1,000
As coronavirus cases crop up across the United States, some governors and other leaders are scrambling to slow its spread, banning large public gatherings, enforcing quarantines and calling National Guard troops. With new deaths reported and the number of confirmed U.S. cases closing in on 1,000, lawmakers and health officials set up containment zones and quarantine areas and sought to limit contact with those who might be infected. (Villanueve and Rodriguez, 3/11)

The New York Times: Coronavirus In N.Y.: ‘Containment Area’ Is Ordered For New Rochelle
The National Guard will move in. Schools, churches and synagogues will be shut down. Large indoor gatherings will be officially banned. The sights and rituals of life in this New York City suburb, which had already been altered, took an eerie turn on Tuesday when Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced a drastic new step to try to control the spread of the coronavirus in the largest cluster in the United States. (Nir and McKinley, 3/10)

Los Angeles Times: California Retreats From Containment, New York Sends In National Guard
In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo sent the National Guard to a suburban enclave northeast of New York City to prevent COVID-19 from infecting more people there, after 108 residents tested positive in recent days. In Santa Clara, where California is experiencing its largest outbreak of the virus with 45 positive cases confirmed, health officials continued to direct residents not to congregate, following a ban on large events earlier this week. (Chabria, Gutierrez, Baumgaertner and Karlamangla, 3/11)

The Wall Street Journal: How Biogen’s Strategy Meeting Spread Coronavirus In Massachusetts And Beyond
A strategy meeting for senior managers at Boston-area biotech Biogen Inc. late last month has emerged as a hotbed for novel coronavirus infections, resulting in dozens around the country so far, according to public-health and company officials. The spread of coronavirus infections from the meeting highlights the potential dangers in going ahead with the gatherings and conferences that are a staple of conducting business but that also threaten to amplify epidemics. (Walker and Abbott, 3/10)

Stat: U.S. Cities Are Braced For The Coronavirus. Seattle Is Already In The Thick Of It
As much of the United States prepares to see large clusters of Covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus that’s circling the globe, this city and the surrounding area are already in the thick of it. As of Tuesday afternoon, 190 people had tested positive for the coronavirus in King County, which includes Seattle, and 22 had died, including the first fatal case in the country. State and local health officials here have already issued emergency declarations, set up quarantine sites, and asked the public to avoid large, nonessential gatherings. (Buch, 3/10)

The New York Times: U.S. Coronavirus Cases Surpass 1,000: Full Map
As America scrambled to understand the scope of an escalating public health crisis, the number of known coronavirus cases surpassed 1,000 on Tuesday, signaling that the virus was spreading widely in communities on both coasts and in the center of the country. (3/10)

Politico: CDC Director Breaks With Trump On Claim That Border Wall Will Help Stop Coronavirus
Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Tuesday he was unaware of any indication from his agency that physical barriers along America’s borders would help halt the spread of the coronavirus in the U.S. — contradicting an assertion President Donald Trump made earlier in the day. Appearing before House lawmakers to testify about the public health crisis and the White House’s budget request for his agency, Redfield was asked by Rep. Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) whether the CDC’s recommendations for combating the coronavirus addressed whether “structural barriers” at the borders “would be of any use in mitigating” the growing outbreak. (Forgey, 3/10)

The Washington Post: Face Masks In National Stockpile Have Not Been Substantially Replenished Since 2009
The H1N1 influenza pandemic of 2009 triggered the largest deployment in U.S. history of the Strategic National Stockpile, the federal government’s last-resort cache of drugs and medical supplies. The stockpile distributed 85 million N95 respirators — fitted face masks that block most airborne particles — along with millions of other masks, gowns and gloves. The gear to protect medical personnel came from multibillion dollar emergency funding authorized by Congress in 2007 and 2009, leading to calls for the government to better prepare for the next outbreak. (Reinhard and Brown, 3/10)

The Washington Post: CDC Says Surgical Masks Can Replace N95 Masks For Coronavirus Protection In Some Cases
A shortage of specialized masks has prompted federal health officials to loosen their recommendations on the face protection that front line health-care workers should use to prevent infection from the highly contagious disease caused by the novel coronavirus. Instead of recommending that health-care workers use specialized masks known as N95 respirators, which filter out about 95 percent of airborne particles, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention posted new guidelines Tuesday that said “the supply chain of respirators cannot meet demand” and that looser fitting surgical face masks “are an acceptable alternative." (Sun, 3/10)

The Wall Street Journal: Regeneron, Sanofi To Test Arthritis Drug As Coronavirus Treatment
Drugmakers Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Sanofi SA are racing to launch clinical trials exploring whether their arthritis drug could treat symptoms of novel coronavirus infections. The study preparations mark the latest effort in an emerging front in researchers’ hunt for effective treatments for Covid-19, the respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus. In the U.S., there aren’t any drugs or vaccines approved for the condition. The research aims to see whether certain drugs already on the market to tackle immune disorders like rheumatoid arthritis could help ease damage to the lungs and respiratory system caused by the immune system’s overreaction to the virus causing Covid-19. (Walker, 3/10)

The New York Times: Flattening The Coronavirus Curve
At the end of February, Drew Harris, a population health analyst at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, had just flown across the country to visit his daughter in Eugene, Ore., when he saw an article on his Google news feed. It was from the Economist, and was about limiting the damage of the coronavirus. The accompanying art, by the visual-data journalist Rosamund Pearce, based on a graphic that had appeared in a C.D.C. paper titled “Community Mitigation Guidelines to Prevent Pandemic Influenza,” showed what Dr. Harris called two epi curves. (Roberts, 3/11)

Stat: 'Flattening The Curve’ May Be The World’s Best Bet To Slow The Coronavirus
For many countries staring down fast-rising coronavirus case counts, the race is on to “flatten the curve. ”The United States and other countries, experts say, are likely to be hit by tsunamis of Covid-19 cases in the coming weeks without aggressive public health responses. But by taking certain steps — canceling large public gatherings, for instance, and encouraging some people to restrict their contact with others — governments have a shot at stamping out new chains of transmission, while also trying to mitigate the damage of the spread that isn’t under control. (Branswell, 3/11)

The Washington Post: Social Distancing Could Buy U.S. Valuable Time Against Coronavirus
With coronavirus cases in more than 30 states and the District of Columbia already starting to strain limited resources, including masks and lab tests, the United States is at a make-or-break moment that will depend on one of the most basic, but inconvenient and disruptive, public health tools in the book: social distancing. The best way to prevent a catastrophic explosion of cases in the next few weeks, many experts think, is to break potential chains of transmission by preventing infected people from coming in close contact with healthy ones, whether it means canceling conferences or relying on individual decisions to avoid crowded public transportation or postpone weddings. (Johnson, Sun and Freedman, 3/10)

Stat: Simple Math Offers Alarming Answers About Covid-19, Health Care 
Much of the current discourse on — and dismissal of — the Covid-19 outbreak focuses on comparisons of the total case load and total deaths with those caused by seasonal influenza. But these comparisons can be deceiving, especially in the early stages of an exponential curve as a novel virus tears through an immunologically naïve population. Perhaps more important is the disproportionate number of severe Covid-19 cases, many requiring hospitalization or weekslong ICU stays. What does an avalanche of uncharacteristically severe respiratory viral illness cases mean for our health care system? (Specht, 3/10)

The New York Times: Flu And Coronavirus: Similar Symptoms, Different Fears
Is it the flu, a cold or the new coronavirus? Patients and doctors alike are parsing signs of illness to figure out who needs what tests or care and how worried they should be. "You have three different major viruses floating around at the same time," causing somewhat similar symptoms — but different levels of concern, said Dr. Gary LeRoy, president of the American Academy of Family Physicians. (3/10)

The Wall Street Journal: Coronavirus Vs. Flu: Which Virus Is Deadlier?
The new coronavirus and the seasonal flu are similar in many ways. Both are respiratory diseases that spread through droplets of fluid from the mouth and nose of someone who is infected. Both are contagious, produce similar symptoms and can be deadly. But there are some major differences. While both produce many of the same symptoms—fever, cough and muscle aches—and are particularly hard on the elderly, they come from two different families of viruses. People have more protection from the flu because there is a vaccine and they are exposed to flu viruses every year. (McKay, 3/10)

The Washington Post: Who's At Greatest Risk From Coronavirus And How They Should Protect Themselves
The coronavirus is most brutal to the old and the chronically ailing. That is a vast cohort in the United States — millions of people — who are not blessed with youth and good health and who now face an enigmatic pathogen that no human immune system has ever encountered and for which there is no vaccine. Late Monday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new coronavirus guidelines that attempted to describe who is at higher risk and provide common-sense counsel on how everyone can protect themselves and their families and communities from covid-19, the flu-like disease caused by the novel coronavirus. (Achenbach and McGinley, 3/10)

The Washington Post: Why Doesn’t Coronavirus Make Kids Sick With Covid-19?
One of the few mercies of the spreading coronavirus is that it leaves young children virtually untouched — a mystery virologists say may hold vital clues as to how the virus works. In China, only 2.4 percent of reported cases were children and only 0.2 percent of reported cases were children who got critically ill, according to the World Health Organization. China has reported no case of a young child dying of the disease covid-19. (Wan and Achenbach, 3/10)

The Wall Street Journal: How Vulnerable Are Children To The New Coronavirus?
Only 2% of the patients in a review of nearly 45,000 confirmed Covid-19 cases in China were children, and there were no reported deaths in children under 10, according to a study published in JAMA last month. (In contrast, there have been 136 pediatric deaths from influenza in the U.S. this flu season.) Three percent of Covid-19 cases occurred in people over 80, while 87% were in those 30 to 79 years-old.About 8% of cases were in people in their 20s. Those 10 to 19 years old accounted for 1% of cases and those under 10 also accounted for only 1%. A separate study looking at the number of infants hospitalized for Covid-19 in China between Dec. 8 and Feb. 6 found only nine infected babies. (Reddy, 3/10)

The New York Times: How Coronavirus Hijacks Your Cells
The intricate journey of the virus that causes Covid-19. (Corum and Zimmer, 3/11)

The Wall Street Journal: Amazon Battles Counterfeit Masks, $400 Hand Sanitizer Amid Virus Panic
As the coronavirus outbreak expanded across the globe, anxious shoppers turned to Amazon.com Inc. for face masks, hand sanitizer and other products promising to help protect against the virus. The problem: Many didn’t have federal certifications for the safety standards they were touting, some were counterfeit or deceptively labeled, and others were being sold at many times their usual prices. More than 100 safety masks and respirators on Amazon were counterfeit or had unverifiable protection and certification claims, a Wall Street Journal investigation found. (Berzon and Hernandez, 3/11)

The Washington Post: FDA Suspends Overseas Drug Inspections Because Of Coronavirus
The Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday that it is postponing most inspections of foreign manufacturers of pharmaceutical products, medical devices and food imported into the United States. The inspections will be suspended through April. The agency said the postponements involve routine surveillance inspections of outfits that make FDA-regulated products. “For cause” inspections — ones in which the FDA is investigating a specific problem, for example — will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. (McGinley, 3/10)

The New York Times: F.D.A. Halts Overseas Inspections Of Drugs And Devices, Citing Coronavirus
The agency had already pulled back its inspectors from China, which is the largest source of raw ingredients for many drugs, like aspirin, ibuprofen and penicillin. But this global action means that F.D.A. inspections would also be discontinued in India, the world’s leading manufacturer of generic drugs. Last year, the agency said it conducted 3,103 inspections at overseas plants. In addition to overseas inspections, the agency also screens samples of food, drugs, tobacco, veterinary products and cosmetics imported into the United States. In recent years, several types of drugs have had to be recalled because of contamination at the production level, many of which contained ingredients made in China. Those recalls prompted the F.D.A. to revamp some of its procedures. (Kaplan and Thomas, 3/10)

The New York Times: Coronavirus Spurs U.S. Efforts To End China’s Chokehold On Drugs
The global spread of the coronavirus is reigniting efforts by the Trump administration to encourage more American manufacturing of pharmaceuticals and reduce dependence on China for the drugs and medical products that fuel the federal health care system. The effort includes a push by the White House trade adviser Peter Navarro to tighten “Buy American” laws so federal agencies are required to purchase American-made pharmaceuticals and medical equipment, according to people with knowledge of the plans. (Swanson, 3/11)

The Washington Post: Federal Government Telework Could Become More Widespread To Limit Coronavirus Outbreak
The Trump administration is racing to develop contingency plans that would allow hundreds of thousands of employees to work remotely full time, an extreme scenario to limit the coronavirus that would test whether the government can carry out its mission from home offices and kitchen tables. The Office of Personnel Management, which oversees policy for the workforce of 2.1 million, has urged agency heads in recent days to “immediately review” their telework policies, sign paperwork with employees laying out their duties, issue ­laptops and grant access to computer networks. (Rein, 3/10)

The Wall Street Journal: How China Slowed Coronavirus: Lockdowns, Surveillance, Enforcers
When China’s Communist Party locked down an entire city to fight the outbreak of a new coronavirus there, some global public-health officials warned that the iron-fisted approach ignored world-wide norms for responding to epidemics and could make things worse. Now, with the number of new cases across China dwindling—and rising outside its borders—the nation’s hard-line response to the pathogen is challenging decades of conventional wisdom about how best to handle infectious diseases. (Lin, 3/10)

Reuters: UK Health Minister Dorries Diagnosed With Coronavirus
British junior health minister Nadine Dorries has tested positive for coronavirus and is self-isolating, she said on Tuesday. Dorries said she took "all the advised precautions" as soon as she was told of her diagnosis. "Public Health England has started detailed contact tracing and the department and my parliamentary office are closely following their advice," she said in a statement issued through the UK's health department. (3/10)

The New York Times: Message Received: Italians Are Staying Home
Italy got the message. On the first day of Europe’s first nationwide restriction on movement and public gatherings to stem the rampant spread of the coronavirus, Italians steered clear of their streets, shops, churches and soccer fields. They obeyed the government’s “I Stay Home” decree, announced on Monday night by Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte with a plea for common sacrifice to safeguard the country’s elderly population and to save the health system from collapse. (Horowitz, 3/10)

The New York Times: California Cracks Down On Alternative Health Plans
California state officials said on Tuesday they were ordering a major Christian group to stop offering an alternative to health insurance, joining several states scrutinizing these cost-sharing programs that provide limited coverage. The plans, which have become increasingly popular, rely on pooling members’ contributions to cover their medical expenses, but they are not required to meet standards for traditional insurance plans. (Abelson, 3/10)

Reuters: White House Says Has Sent 'Principles' For Drug Pricing Reform To Congress
President Donald Trump has sent "principles" for drug pricing reform to lawmakers, White House spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham said in a statement on Tuesday. (3/10)

The New York Times: A Call To Arms: Under Attack, Pro-Vaccine Doctors Fight Back
Brad Bigford, a traveling nurse practitioner from Boise, Idaho, jumped at the invitation: spend an afternoon at Fred’s Reel Barber Shop in nearby Meridian, offering the flu vaccine to customers. “Ladies, send your guys for a trim and a flu shot,” Mr. Bigford posted on Facebook. He added, “Anti-vaxxers need not reply.” Within hours, his Facebook page was swarmed with hundreds of vitriolic comments, even violent threats from people opposed to vaccines. Vicious reviews on Yelp and Google about his urgent-care business, Table Rock Mobile Medicine, popped up from “patients” as far away as Los Angeles, Texas and Australia. Protesters circulated his cellphone number, hometown and wife’s name. (Hoffman, 3/10)