First Edition: March 4, 2020

Kaiser Health News: Insurers Sank Connecticut’s ‘Public Option.’ Would A National Version Survive?
Health care costs were rising. People couldn’t afford coverage. So, in Connecticut, state lawmakers took action. Their solution was to attempt to create a public health insurance option, managed by the state, which would ostensibly serve as a low-cost alternative for people who couldn’t afford private plans. Immediately, an aggressive industry mobilized to kill the idea. Despite months of lobbying, debate and organizing, the proposal was dead on arrival. (Luthra, 3/4)

Kaiser Health News: Coronavirus Stress Test: Many 5-Star Nursing Homes Have Infection-Control Lapses
Long before the novel coronavirus made its surprise appearance, the nation’s nursing homes were struggling to obey basic infection prevention protocols designed to halt the spread of viruses and bacteria they battle daily. Since the beginning of 2017, government health inspectors have cited more nursing homes for failing to ensure that all workers follow those prevention and control rules than for any other type of violation, according to a Kaiser Health News analysis of federal records. (Rau, 3/4)

Los Angeles Times: Coronavirus Hits Critical Moment In U.S.: More Deaths, But There’s Still Time To Contain It
The battle against the coronavirus was reaching a critical moment in the United States, with the number of deaths rising Tuesday as public health leaders said there was limited window to contain the virus. It was a day of grim milestones, with more deaths tied to a nursing home in Washington state, a new quarantine in the suburbs of New York City and warning that many more cases were coming. “I want them to be prepared for the reality that they, there are going to be more cases in the community,” said Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “But I want them to continue their daily lives. I want them to be mindful of the opportunity again to prepare themselves and their families.” (Karlamangla, Read, Lin and Shalby, 3/4)

The New York Times: Trump Makes Room For Experts, But Still Takes A Leading Role On Coronavirus
At a campaign rally this week in North Carolina, President Trump reassured the crowd that he had jawboned the nation’s pharmaceutical companies into quickly tackling the coronavirus. “They’re going to have vaccines, I think, relatively soon,” he said. But “soon” was correct only if it meant 12 to 18 months from now. Both health officials and drug industry executives have repeatedly told Mr. Trump that a vaccine was still a long way off. Yet by promising a vaccine “soon,” the president almost certainly misled at least some of the public into thinking a solution to the outbreak was just around the corner. (Baker and Crowley, 3/3)

The Associated Press: A Disconnect Between Trump And Health Officials On Virus
Whom to believe on the coronavirus threat — the president saying one thing or the public health officials standing beside him and saying something a little different? President Donald Trump’s breezy talk Tuesday of a virus that's “got the world aflutter” contrasts with the gravity and caution conveyed by federal scientists as Americans look to the government not just for reassurance, but for realism. (3/3)

The Washington Post: Trump Coronavirus Effort Undermined By Mixed Messages And Falsehoods
When Anthony Fauci, clad in a white lab coat, invited an “NBC Nightly News” correspondent into his offices this week and described the coronavirus as an “outbreak” that was reaching “likely pandemic proportions,” the immunologist was acting as he long has during public health crises: delivering a fact-based warning to the public. But at the White House, the more politically minded officials overseeing the administration’s response were irritated that Fauci — the veteran director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases — had used the word “pandemic” without giving anyone on Vice President Pence’s staff a heads-up, according to two people familiar with the situation. (Rucker, Abutaleb and Parker, 3/3)

The Washington Post Fact Checker: No, Trump Didn’t Shut Down 37 Of 47 Global Anti-Pandemic Programs
Trump “shut down 37 of 47 global anti-pandemic programs.” — Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), in a tweet, Feb. 25, 2020. Murphy made this claim in a tweet that complained that President Trump had put no one in charge of dealing with the coronavirus — Vice President Pence has since been given the authority — and that Trump “made a choice to make us vulnerable … to this pandemic and the next one and the next one.” (Kessler, 3/4)

The New York Times: Waive Fees For Coronavirus Tests And Treatment, Health Experts Urge
New York is among the first states in the country to waive some fees and expenses for people who undergo testing for the coronavirus, as public health officials are increasingly worried that medical bills will discourage the poor and uninsured from getting medical care. The federal government is also considering paying for care for those affected, possibly based on funds available through federal disaster relief programs. There are “initial conversations,” Dr. Robert Kadlec, a senior official at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, told Congress on Wednesday. (Abelson and Kliff, 3/3)

The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Weighs Paying Hospitals For Treating Uninsured Coronavirus Patients
The Trump administration is considering using a national disaster program to pay hospitals and doctors for their care of uninsured people infected with the new coronavirus as concerns rise over costs of treating some of the 27 million Americans without health coverage, a person familiar with the conversations said. In natural disasters such as hurricanes, hospitals and medical facilities can be reimbursed under a federal program that pays them about 110% of Medicare rates for treating patients such as those evacuated from hard-hit areas. (Armour, 3/3)

The Wall Street Journal: Coronavirus Costs: Who’s Paying For All This?
For those who are sick and thinking of getting tested, one question quickly emerges: How much will I be billed? For now, most people with health insurance will likely have the cost of coronavirus testing covered in the way that any other type of care is covered—- including whatever they may owe in co-pays, co-insurance or under a deductible. According to the public-health lab laboratories group, “there is no cost to patients for Covid-19 testing performed by public health laboratories.” (Carpenter and Wilde Mathews, 3/4)

The New York Times: All Federal Limits On Testing Will Be Lifted, Pence Says.
Vice President Mike Pence said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was lifting all restrictions on testing for coronavirus, and would be releasing new guidelines to fast-track testing for people who fear they have the virus, even if they are displaying mild symptoms. “Today we will issue new guidance from the C.D.C. that will make it clear that any American can be tested, no restrictions, subject to doctor’s orders,” Mr. Pence told reporters at the White House. (3/3)

The Washington Post: Pence Says Americans Can Get Coronavirus Tests
“When I talked to some state officials, there was a sense that the tests would not be administered to people that were mildly symptomatic,” Vice President Pence told reporters in an off-camera White House briefing. “We’re issuing clear guidance that subject to doctors’ orders, any American can be tested.” Pence’s comments perplexed some public health officials, as physicians already have discretion to order testing. The announcement also raised questions about whether the government can rapidly accelerate the production of testing kits, as well as how much patients will ultimately have to pay for getting tested. (Kim, Sacchetti and Dennis, 3/3)

The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Coronavirus Cases Rise; First Deaths Earlier Than Officials Realized
Some Democratic lawmakers have expressed frustration the administration isn’t moving faster. Washington Sen. Patty Murray said Mr. Pence and other administration officials were unable to tell her and other lawmakers in a meeting Tuesday when “point-of-contact” tests are going to be available, or what people who fear they have been infected can do between now and then. The point-of-contact tests, which allow a patient to go to their doctor and be tested as they are for flu or strep throat, won’t be available for months, she said. “When I’m talking to families who have sick family members today, and I am, they seriously are calling their doctor who is telling them, ‘We don’t have [tests] available, call your county health officials.’ And they call them. They’re told to call a state officials. Nobody has the test,” Ms. Murray said. (Carlton, Calfas and Yang, 3/3)

The New York Times: Estimates Fall Short Of F.D.A.’s Pledge For 1 Million Coronavirus Tests
Does the United States really have the capacity to escalate its efforts and produce one million coronavirus tests by the end of this week, as the head of the Food and Drug Administration promised on Monday during a White House briefing? The figure includes orders for commercial tests that companies say are still weeks away from approval, and public health laboratories say their capacities don’t come close to that. (Thomas and Sheikh, 3/3)

The Associated Press: Frustration Rising Over Lack Of Access To Coronavirus Tests
Delays and missteps have put the U.S. behind other nations conducting thousands of tests. The head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Dr. Stephen Hahn, responded that the FDA has been working with a private company to get as many as 2,500 test kits out to labs by the end of the week. Each kit should allow a lab to run about 500 tests, he said. That would work out to 1.25 million tests. But when senators on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee pressed on whether the government will meet its self-imposed deadline, health officials avoided making hard promises. (Alonso-Zaldivar and Stobbe, 3/3)

The Hill: Vaccine Costs Emerge As Roadblock To Coronavirus Funding Deal 
Vaccine affordability has emerged as a final roadblock to getting a deal on billions in funding to combat the coronavirus. Negotiators in Congress are hoping to unveil a funding deal soon, but as of early Tuesday evening,  lawmakers and top staff were haggling over the final sticking points. (Carney, 3/3)

Politico: Coronavirus Emergency Bill Stalled Over Vaccine Cost Concerns
The biggest issue, according to several people familiar with negotiations, involves a Democratic attempt to control the costs of vaccines and other treatments that are developed in response to the outbreak. Other issues include details of hospital reimbursement for uninsured patients and whether to pay for a provision to help expand telemedicine, which would cost roughly $500 million. “Vaccines should be affordable. It’s just as simple as that,” Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), a top appropriator, said as she left a Democratic leadership meeting on Tuesday night. (Ferris, Caygle and Owermohle, 3/3)

The New York Times: Coronavirus Deaths Tied To Nursing Center Came Earlier Than Anyone Knew
The first public indication that something was wrong inside the Life Care nursing care center in Kirkland, Wash., came on Friday, prompting an alarming sign to go up on the front door: “WE ARE HAVING RESPIRATORY OUTBREAK.” Since then, officials have announced a series of coronavirus cases, some of them fatal, from the facility, which has become an ominous symbol of the dangers the virus poses. On Tuesday, the authorities made another jarring announcement: The first virus-related deaths tied to the nursing center occurred days earlier than previously known — and well before residents had been quarantined in their rooms. (Baker and Weise, 3/3)

Stat: Washington State Could See Explosion In Coronavirus Cases, Study Says
The coronavirus outbreak in the Seattle area is at a critical juncture and could see explosive growth in cases much like Wuhan, China, if public officials don’t take immediate, forceful measures, according to a new analysis of genetic data. The author of the analysis, a computational biologist named Trevor Bedford, said there are likely already at least 500 to 600 cases of Covid-19 in the greater Seattle area. He urged health authorities and the public to immediately begin adopting non-pharmaceutical interventions — imposing “social distancing” measures, telling the sick to isolate themselves, and limiting attendance at large gatherings. (Branswell, 3/3)

The New York Times: Coronavirus In N.Y.: Second Case Sets Off Search For Others Exposed
The public health authorities descended on a hospital, telling some nurses and doctors they would need to be quarantined. They ordered a synagogue to halt all services, and told attendants at a recent bat mitzvah to stay at home for the rest of the week. Disease detectives were monitoring lawyers at a small midtown law firm for signs of illness, and scrutinizing the risk of contagion at a university. The discovery of a second case of the new coronavirus in New York on Tuesday — a man of about 50 who lives in Westchester County, just north of New York City — quickly touched off an intense search by health investigators across the region to determine whether he had infected others, and who might have infected him. (Goldstein and McKinley, 3/3)

The Associated Press: San Antonio: CDC Planned To Drop Cruise Passengers At Mall
Federal health officials planned to drop off some cruise ship passengers at a shopping mall after their release from a two-week quarantine at a Texas air base, one of several reasons the city of San Antonio declared a public health emergency over the new coronavirus, a city spokeswoman said Tuesday. The city filed a lawsuit Monday to halt the plan after a woman was mistakenly released from quarantine at a health care facility over the weekend despite testing positive. (Webber, 3/3)

The New York Times: What It’s Like To Come Home To The Stigma Of Coronavirus
Frank King has gotten death threats. So many angry strangers have called his phone in recent weeks that he changed his number. And his neighbors have offered to bring food to his doorstep if he would just agree to stay inside his house. “I have a whole new respect for the plight of pariahs,” said Mr. King, who was among 650 Americans who returned to the United States last month after being stuck for more than a week on a cruise ship that no country initially allowed to dock because of fear of coronavirus. (Stockman, 3/4)

The New York Times: Global Mortality Rate Reaches 3.4 Percent
The head of the World Health Organization said on Tuesday that the global mortality rate for Covid-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, was 3.4 percent. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the organization’s director general, said in a news conference in Geneva that Covid-19 is deadlier than the seasonal flu, but does not transmit as easily. “Globally, about 3.4 percent of reported Covid-19 cases have died,” said Dr. Tedros. “By comparison, seasonal flu generally kills far fewer than 1 percent of those infected.” (3/3)

The Washington Post: How Bad Will The Coronavirus Outbreak Get In The U.S.?
The spreading coronavirus is shaping up as a pandemic of potentially historic proportions, possibly on the scale of the global outbreak of influenza in 1957 but unlikely to be as catastrophic as the Spanish flu of 1918, according to projections by infectious disease experts who are still struggling to understand this novel pathogen. The many unknowns about the virus impede efforts to predict its trajectory. Modeling new diseases is inherently uncertain, and scientists have at times overestimated the severity of epidemics, including in 2009, when the H1N1 flu (or “swine flu”) turned out to be milder than expected, and in 2014, when the Ebola outbreak in West Africa killed far fewer people than projected early in that crisis. (Achenbach, Bernstein, Satija and Wan, 3/3)

The Washington Post: Should I Get Tested For Coronavirus? Here’s When To Stay Home, Or To See A Doctor.
By now, you may have memorized some of the most common symptoms of coronavirus: fever, cough and a runny nose. In other words, many of the same symptoms as the common cold or the flu. But as the coronavirus outbreak progresses, experts say it’s increasingly likely that you might have the new illness. “This is much more widely spread than people realize,” said Amesh Adalja, an infectious-disease expert at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. “The events in Washington state really show that this has established itself in our communities and will continue to do so.” (Iati, 3/3)

The Wall Street Journal: Coronavirus Misinformation Lives Online, Despite Efforts To Stamp It Out
Facebook and other technology giants have vowed to fight misinformation related to the coronavirus epidemic on their platforms. Yet even as they remove fraudulent posts, listings and other content, conspiracy theories and false information continue to proliferate online. Facebook said it has tweaked search results for “coronavirus” to direct users toward recognized and authoritative medical sources. The company says it contracts people throughout the world to look at content and determine whether it is misleading, and that it is also removing misleading content flagged by major health organizations. (Herrera, 3/3)

The Hill: Facebook To Give 'WHO As Many Free Ads As They Need' For Coronavirus Response 
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg pledged Tuesday that his company would help the World Health Organization (WHO) and other health agencies with free ads to help stop the spread of the novel coronavirus outbreak. In a post Tuesday evening, Zuckerberg wrote that his company was "focused on making sure everyone can access credible and accurate information" amid fears of an outbreak worsening in the U.S. (Bowden, 3/3)

The New York Times: What Are The Symptoms Of A Coronavirus Infection?
As the coronavirus continues to spread across the globe, the news is coming at a fast and furious pace. But don’t let the volume send you into a panic about your health and that of your loved ones. “The mantra is, ‘keep calm and carry on,’” said Dr. Marguerite Neill, an infectious disease expert at Brown University. Here’s a list of frequently asked questions about the coronavirus outbreak and its symptoms. (3/3)

The New York Times: Iran’s Coronavirus Response: Pride, Paranoia, Secrecy, Chaos
Nearly three dozen Iranian government officials and members of parliament are infected and a senior adviser to the supreme leader has died. The Health Ministry has proposed sending 300,000 militia members door-to-door on a desperate mission to sanitize homes. The top prosecutor has warned that anyone hoarding face masks and other public health equipment risks the death penalty. (Fassihi and Kirkpatrick, 3/3)

The Washington Post: IOC Vows Olympics Will Start On Schedule Amid Coronavirus Concerns
The International Olympic Committee stridently doubled down on its stance that the coronavirus will not affect the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, even after a Japanese official raised the possibility of a postponement during a government hearing. The IOC Executive Board, holding a scheduled meeting at its headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland, released a statement Tuesday expressing “full commitment to the success” of the Tokyo Olympics taking place from July 24 to Aug. 9 as originally planned. (Kilgore, 3/3)

Reuters: World Bank Announces Up To $12 Billion In Immediate Funds For Coronavirus
The World Bank on Tuesday announced an initial $12 billion in immediate funds to assist countries grappling with the health and economic impacts of the coronavirus virus outbreak that has spread quickly from China to some 80 countries. World Bank President David Malpass said there were still "many unknowns" about the fast-spreading virus and "much more" aid might be required, but he declined to elaborate. (3/3)

The New York Times: How To Threaten A Political Movement, 30 Seconds At A Time
[A] 30-second ad, titled “Opposite,” was shown during the Democratic primary debate in Nevada; another, “Priorities,” ran during the one in South Carolina, part of a multimillion-dollar ad campaign in early battleground states. They were promoted online, across Facebook, Snapchat and Twitter, and in paid slots on YouTube’s home page. A similar ad, in Spanish and featuring a Hispanic mother and daughter, ran on Univision and on Spanish-language websites. All this was purchased by the Partnership for America’s Health Care Future, a group formed in 2018 and funded, you will not be shocked to learn, largely by groups representing the hospital, insurance and pharmaceutical industries. “Opposite” is notionally about health care, but if the sound was turned off, you would hardly know it. There are no hospitals or patients, no sickness or injury, no healing. (Yes, there’s the doctor, but she’s alone.) It’s as if the ad knows, deep down, that presenting a rosy picture of an actual American health care access scenario would risk too many viewers erupting in laughter. (Baker, 3/4)

The New York Times: The Wall Some Texans Want To Build Against Abortion
A small group of women at a recent City Council meeting held hands and offered hushed prayers in an otherwise silent room. Everyone was waiting for the council members to decide whether their community would become the next “sanctuary city for the unborn.” No one was trying to build an abortion clinic in the Texas community of Lindale, population 6,000. But they wanted to keep it that way. (Searcey, 3/3)

The Associated Press: Supreme Court Takes Up First Big Abortion Case Of Trump Era
The Supreme Court is taking up the first major abortion case of the Trump era, an election-year look at a Louisiana dispute that could reveal how willing the more conservative court is to roll back abortion rights. The outcome could have huge consequences at a time when several states have passed laws, being challenged in the courts, that would ban abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected, as early as six weeks. (Sherman, 3/4)

The New York Times: Chemical Industry Executive Nominated To Lead Consumer Watchdog Agency
President Trump has tapped Nancy B. Beck, a former chemical industry executive, to lead the Consumer Product Safety Commission, an independent federal agency charged with protecting the public against dangers like toxic substances in products. Dr. Beck previously led the Environmental Protection Agency’s office of chemical safety, a position she came to after serving as the senior director of regulatory science policy at the American Chemistry Council, a lobbying group for the chemical industry. (Friedman, 3/3)

The Associated Press: States Scramble To Prepare Ahead Of Food Stamps Rule Change
Having food stamps offers Richard Butler a stability he’s rarely known in his 25 years. He was in state custody at age 2, spent his teen years at a Chicago boys’ home and jail for burglary, and has since struggled to find a permanent home. The $194 deposited monthly on his benefits card buys fresh produce and meat. “It means the world to me,” said Butler, who shares a one-bedroom apartment with two others. “We can go without a lot of things, like phones and music. We can’t go without eating.” (3/4)

The New York Times: When A Drug Study Abruptly Ends, Volunteers Are Left To Cope
On March 21, 2019, the staff at the Penn Memory Center in Philadelphia was scrambling to learn more about an early-morning announcement: Two pharmaceutical companies, Biogen and Eisai, would discontinue their clinical trial of a drug intended to slow the progression of early Alzheimer’s disease. A “futility analysis” had shown that aducanumab, being studied in more than 3,200 people worldwide, would not prove effective. It was yet another disheartening result; after decades of drug research, one medication after another — hundreds of them — had failed to prevent, arrest or cure Alzheimer’s. (Span, 3/3)

The Associated Press: Medication Fog Can Mimic Or Worsen Dementia In The Elderly
Claire Dinneen's daughters thought that worsening dementia was causing her growing confusion, but her doctor suspected something else. Dr. Pei Chen asked them to round up medicines in the 89-year-old woman's home and they returned with a huge haul. There were 28 drugs ordered by various doctors for various ailments, plus over-the-counter medicines. Chen spent a year sorting out which ones were truly needed and trimmed a dozen. (Marchione, 3/3)

The Associated Press: ADHD Diagnoses Increasing In Black Kids, Report Suggests
For the first time, a U.S. survey found that black children appear to be more likely than white kids to be diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and other learning disabilities. Previous studies had found the diagnosis was far more likely in white kids. It's not known what might have driven the change described in Wednesday's report, said lead author Benjamin Zablotsky of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Stobbe, 3/4)

The Hill: Maine Vaccination Law Survives Referendum Vote 
A Maine law that imposes strict vaccination requirements survived a referendum on Tuesday, with voters keeping the measure that eliminates religious and philosophical exemptions. Gov. Janet Mills (D) had strongly urged Mainers not to reject the law, set to take effect September 2021, citing the spread of the coronavirus. After the virus was first identified in China, she noted that “one of the first things that public health officials did was begin to work on a vaccine because vaccines save lives,” The Associated Press reported. (Budryk, 3/3)

The Associated Press: Washington Legislature Ease Penalties For HIV Exposure
The Washington Legislature on Tuesday approved a bill that reduces the crime of intentionally exposing a sexual partner to HIV from a felony to a misdemeanor. Supporters of the change to the rarely used law say the current penalties don’t have an effect on reducing transmissions or improving public health. Opponents argued the move diminishes the significance of the impact on a person who is unknowingly infected. (3/3)

Los Angeles Times: Shelter Openings Mark Progress In L.A.'s Homelessness Response
At a town hall 16 months ago, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and City Councilman Mike Bonin endured a public flogging from residents who were incensed by a plan to build a homeless shelter across the street from some of the priciest real estate in Venice. The opposition continued, first with a scathing social media campaign and then with a lawsuit. But all that was only a bittersweet memory last week, when Garcetti and Bonin stood before an appreciative crowd of homeless advocates and service providers to open Pacific Sunset, a 154-bed bridge home shelter for men, women and young adults. (Smith, 3/3)