First Edition: May 1, 2020

Kaiser Health News: Lost On The Frontline
Two members of a close-knit team of EMTs. A firefighter and paramedic who loved helping people. A Boston woman who earned her nursing degree while working in public transit for 23 years. These are some of the people just added to “Lost on the Frontline,” a special series from The Guardian and KHN that profiles health care workers who die of COVID-19. (5/1)

Kaiser Health News: Do-It-Yourself Cheek Swab Tested As Next Best Thing To Detect Coronavirus
Coronavirus testing is commonly an unpleasant, even painful experience in which a health care provider pushes a torturously long swab up your nostril. President Donald Trump declared that submitting to the process was “a little bit difficult.” Since late March, three Southern California jurisdictions ― Los Angeles County, and the cities of L.A. and Long Beach ― have offered a more palatable alternative to this nasopharyngeal sampling, whose very name poses a challenge. (Tuller, 5/1)

Kaiser Health News and Politifact HealthCheck: Trump’s Claim That U.S. Tested More Than All Countries Combined Is ‘Pants On Fire’ Wrong
Responding to weeks of criticism over his administration’s COVID-19 response, President Donald Trump claimed at a White House briefing that the United States has well surpassed other countries in testing people for the virus. “We’ve tested more than every country combined,” Trump said April 27. It was a variation on claims he had made April 24, as well as on Twitter the day after — when he said the United States had tested “more than any other country in the World, and even more than all major countries combined.” (Luthra, 5/1)

Kaiser Health News: California To Widen Pipeline Of Psychiatric Nurse Practitioners
Jane Gunter, a nurse practitioner in Tuolumne County, California, has long wanted to specialize in mental health so she can treat patients who have anxiety, depression and more complicated mental illnesses. Her county, a rural outpost in the Sierra Nevada foothills with a population of about 54,000, has only five psychiatrists — “a huge shortage,” she said. But Gunter, 56, wasn’t about to quit her job at the Me-Wuk Indian Health Center in Tuolumne and relocate to some distant campus for two years to get certified as a psychiatric nurse practitioner. (Basheda, 5/1)

Kaiser Health News: KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: SCOTUS Decides An ACA Case. No, Not THAT Case.
The Supreme Court this week rejected the efforts of a Republican-controlled Congress in 2014 to cut off funding to insurance companies under a provision of the Affordable Care Act. In an 8-1 decision, the high court ruled that insurers must be paid the roughly $12 billion they are owed under the law’s “risk corridor” program. Meanwhile, the efforts to address the COVID-19 health and economic impact are becoming more partisan, with Democrats pushing to provide more funding to states and localities and Republicans urging liability waivers for employers whose workers get sick after being summoned back to the workplace. (4/30)

Stat: How High Will It Go? No Easy Answers As U.S. Covid-19 Death Toll Tops 60,000
When STAT first compared projected U.S. deaths from Covid-19, in early April, there seemed to be a glimmer of good news: A prominent model had just lowered its estimate for total deaths through Aug. 4 from about 100,000 to 60,000, reflecting the apparent success of three weeks of social distancing across much of the country. On Wednesday, April 29, the country blew past 60,000, more than three months before the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation projected. (Begley and Empinado, 4/30)

The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Deaths From Coronavirus Top 63,000 As Crisis Slams Economies
In the U.S., deaths attributed to Covid-19, the respiratory disease caused by the virus, have soared from about 4,000 at the start of April to more than 63,000 late Thursday, according to the Johns Hopkins data. The total exceeded some previous projections, a sign of the difficulty governments face in calculating the severity of the outbreak. Between 8 p.m. Wednesday and the same time Thursday, 1,984 people in the U.S. died from Covid-19, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of Johns Hopkins data, a fairly typical tally in recent weeks. (Calfas, Ballhaus and Jamerson, 5/1)

The Hill: Federal Government Ordered 100,000 New Body Bags For COVID-19 Victims In April: Report 
The Trump administration placed orders for more than 100,000 new body bags for coronavirus victims in April, according to documents and public records obtained by NBC News. The largest order of body bags was placed via purchase order the day after Trump said that the U.S. death toll from the coronavirus might not exceed 50,000 or 60,000 people. (Moreno, 4/30)

Politico: VA Orders $300,000 Worth Of Body Bags
The Department of Veterans Affairs ordered nearly $300,000 worth of body bags this month, according to a contracting document reviewed by POLITICO. The department ordered the body bags from a major contractor called ISO Group because of the coronavirus pandemic, according to the site. The contract was reached on April 15. The order came as the VA has seen a growing number of deaths due to the pandemic. More than 8,500 patients of the VA have been diagnosed with Covid-19 and nearly 500 have died, according to data on the department’s website Thursday morning. (Woodruff Swan, 4/30)

The New York Times: Find A Vaccine. Next: Produce 300 Million Vials Of It.
In the midst of national shortages of testing swabs and protective gear, some medical suppliers and health policy experts are looking ahead to another extraordinary demand on manufacturing: Delivering a vaccine that could potentially end the pandemic. Making a vaccine is not easy. More than two dozen companies have announced programs to develop a vaccine against the coronavirus, but it may still take a year or more before one passes federal safety and efficacy tests in humans and becomes available to the public. (Sheikh, 5/1)

Stat: Infect Volunteers With Covid-19? A Proposal Lays Bare A Minefield Of Issues
In 2016, a team of scientists asked the National Institutes of Health for permission to develop a “human challenge model” for Zika virus infections — a sometimes controversial tool to fast-track research on vaccines and drugs. Under the model, healthy volunteers would be infected in a highly controlled setting. An ethics panel denied the application in January 2017, saying that deliberately infecting volunteers with Zika — which is innocuous to most people but can profoundly damage the brains of fetuses infected in the womb — would pose too much risk to the participants and their sexual partners. More than three years later, other scientists are advocating for human challenge trials to test vaccines against the coronavirus that causes Covid-19 — an infection that is far more dangerous than the one caused by the Zika virus. (Branswell, 5/1)

The Washington Post: Administration Describes A Dash For A Coronavirus Vaccine That Would Be Available In January 
The Trump administration is racing to develop a coronavirus vaccine that could be fielded nationwide by January, U.S. officials said Thursday, as national stay-at-home guidance expired. The January timeline represents a fast pace for vaccine development but still means there would be no fail-safe protection from the novel coronavirus until long after most Americans are likely to have returned to work or school and until after the November presidential election. (Gearan, Sonmez and Werner, 4/30)

NPR: Millions Of Coronavirus Vaccine Doses Could Be Available By January, Fauci Says
Fauci, who heads the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, noted that the ideal plan for a potential vaccine is to ensure it is safe and effective — and can be rapidly scaled up for distribution. Of course, the Food and Drug Administration has not approved a vaccine for the coronavirus. Noting that vaccine trials are still in the early phase, Fauci added that to accelerate production, the companies making the medicine would need to do so "at risk." (Booker, 4/30)

Politico: Why One Breakthrough Drug Won't End The Pandemic
The nation’s top health officials say they’re rushing to make sure Americans can get widespread access to the experimental drug remdesivir after a study showed that it shortens the recovery time for some coronavirus patients. The push to give the drug the regulatory approval it needs for broader distribution comes a day after the government’s top infectious disease expert, Anthony Fauci, called the drug “an important proof of concept” and compared it to the discovery of the earliest HIV treatments in the 1980s. Investors sent U.S. stocks surging after the news was announced. (Brennan and Owermohle, 4/30)

Reuters: Gilead To Work With Partners To Ramp Up Production Of Potential Coronavirus Treatment
Gilead Sciences Inc maker of the closely-watched experimental coronavirus drug remdesivir, on Thursday said it will work with international partners to expand production of the potential COVID-19 treatment. The company said it still expects to have more than one million remdesivir treatment courses manufactured by December, “with plans to be able to produce several million treatment courses in 2021.” By the end of next month, Gilead said it expects to have manufactured enough of the drug to treat more than 140,000 patients, and it plans to donate that supply to hospitals. (Beasley, 4/30)

The Wall Street Journal: Gilead To Expand Manufacturing Of Covid-19 Drug Remdesivir
Gilead is talking with other drug-makers to help organize supply chains that can help get remdesivir to patients globally, Chief Financial Officer Andrew Dickinson said on a conference call with analysts to discuss first-quarter earnings. He cautioned, though, that some of the substances used to make remdesivir are scarce, and the company wants to be careful not to disrupt its own supply chain, which is the quickest route to get the drug to patients. “Our primary focus is on providing access to patients around the world,” said Mr. Dickinson. (Walker and Maidenberg, 4/30)

The New York Times: Old Drugs May Find A New Purpose: Fighting The Coronavirus
In the early 1950s, psychiatrists began treating schizophrenia with a new drug called chlorpromazine. Seven decades later, the drug is still used as an anti-psychotic. But now scientists have discovered that the drug, also known as Thorazine, can do something entirely different. It can stop the new coronavirus that causes Covid-19 from invading cells. Driven by the pandemic’s spread, research teams have been screening thousands of drugs to see if they have this unexpected potential to fight the coronavirus. (Zimmer, 4/30)

Politico: The Latest Obstacle In The Search For A Coronavirus Treatment: Too Many Drug Trials
Scientists and drug companies searching for a coronavirus treatment have launched so many clinical trials that some now fear they will run out of patients to enroll, trial sites or personnel to carry out the tests. There are more than 70 coronavirus drug and vaccine trials now registered with the Food and Drug Administration. Many, but not all, are taking place in the U.S. Although the number of new coronavirus infections nationwide is still climbing, the frenetic pace at which trials are launching — and the number that are potentially redundant or don’t involve enough patients to reach accurate conclusions — could prevent some of these studies from producing useful results. (Brennan, 4/30)

The New York Times: Labs Across U.S. Join Federal Initiative To Study Coronavirus Genome
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday announced a national initiative to speed research into how the coronavirus was spreading around the country, bringing together at least 75 public health, academic and commercial institutions studying its genome. As the virus replicates, tiny mutations accumulate in its genetic code. Those differences help scientists trace patterns of transmission and investigate outbreaks. They also provide an understanding of how the virus is evolving, which can affect the accuracy of diagnostic tests and the effectiveness of treatments and vaccines. (Fink, 4/30)

Politico: CDC Eyes Tracking Coronavirus Through Human Waste
The federal government is eyeing a new strategy for monitoring the spread of the deadly coronavirus. It involves poop. The U.S. has struggled to keep pace with other advanced countries on coronavirus testing, and now is considering tracking the spread of the virus through sewage systems as a way to predict where the next hotspot may be. (Woodruff Swan, Lippman and Snider, 5/1)

The New York Times: Amid A Rising Coronavirus Death Toll, Trump Leaves The Grieving To Others
One morning this week, President Trump called food sector executives. That afternoon, he met with corporate leaders at the White House. The day before, he paraded small-business owners in the East Room, and the day before that, he showcased executives from retail giants like Walgreens and Walmart in the Rose Garden. As he presides over the coronavirus pandemic and resulting economic collapse, Mr. Trump has hosted or called many people affected by the devastation, including health company executives, sports commissioners, governors, cruise boat company heads, religious leaders, telecommunications executives and foreign heads of state. (Baker, 4/30)

The Washington Post: As White House’s Social Distancing Guidelines Expire, Health Experts Worry Mixed Messages Will Spur Public Complacency
Administration officials say the distancing measures have been replaced by White House guidance on how states should reopen — which include less stringent social distancing recommendations. But health experts say that does not offer individuals clear recommendations about how to navigate their daily lives and could unleash new outbreaks in states that push to reopen too early and too fast. (Abutaleb and Weiner, 4/30)

NPR: West Point Cadets To Gather 50 Miles From Coronavirus Epicenter For Trump Speech
Top U.S. Army leaders insisted Thursday that the June 13 graduation ceremony they have announced for West Point cadets — after President Trump declared on April 17 he would be the commencement speaker — will take place in a "safety bubble" of measures aimed at preventing a further spread of the coronavirus. "We will conduct the ceremony much like the Air Force Academy did on April 18 in honoring completion of their 47-month journey to enter the Army ranks," Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy told reporters at the Pentagon, "including at this unprecedented time for our country." (Welna, 4/30)

The Washington Post: Chinese Lab Conducted Extensive Research On Deadly Bat Viruses, But There Is No Evidence Of Accidental Release
For nearly a decade, a team of scientists from Wuhan, China, crisscrossed southern Asia in a high-stakes search for bats and the strange diseases they harbor. They crawled through caves, catching the razor-toothed mammals with nets and scooping up liters of their excrement. They trapped insects and mice living near bat roosts and collected blood from villagers who hunt bats for food or folk medicine. They returned to their state-of-the-art laboratory in central China with tubes and vials containing known killers — pathogens associated with diseases that are deadly in humans — and also a few surprises. On multiple occasions, their takings included exotic coronaviruses previously unknown to science. (Warrick, Nakashima, Harris and Fifield, 4/30)

The Wall Street Journal: In Rare Move, U.S. Intelligence Agencies Confirm Investigating If Coronavirus Emerged From Lab Accident
The U.S. intelligence community publicly confirmed it is trying to determine whether the coronavirus may have escaped from a laboratory in Wuhan, the city where the pandemic began. In an unusual public statement, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, or ODNI, also said that U.S. intelligence agencies concur with the broad scientific consensus that “the Covid-19 virus was not manmade or genetically modified.” (Strobel and Volz, 4/30)

The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Probes University Of Texas Links To Chinese Lab Scrutinized Over Coronavirus
The Education Department has asked the University of Texas System to provide documentation of its dealings with the Chinese laboratory U.S. officials are investigating as a potential source of the coronavirus pandemic. The request for records of gifts or contracts from the Wuhan Institute of Virology and its researcher Shi Zhengli, known for her work on bats, is part of a broader department investigation into possible faulty financial disclosures of foreign money by the Texas group of universities. (O'Keeffe, 5/1)

The Washington Post: Trump Administration Launches Major Effort To Force China To Pay Over Coronavirus
Senior U.S. officials are beginning to explore proposals for punishing or demanding financial compensation from China for its handling of the coronavirus pandemic, according to four senior administration officials with knowledge of internal planning. The move could splinter already strained relations between the two superpowers at a perilous moment for the global economy. (Stein, Leonnig, Dawsey and Shih, 4/30)

The New York Times: Mike Pence Wears Face Mask On Visit To Indiana Ventilator Plant
Vice President Mike Pence was photographed on Thursday wearing a mask while visiting a General Motors plant in Indiana in what appeared to be a tacit acknowledgment of the criticism he has received for traveling the country without one. Mr. Pence drew intense criticism for flouting the guidelines of the Mayo Clinic, which asks all visitors to its campus in Minnesota to wear masks, during a stop there this week. It was not the first time he has refused to don a mask since resuming a heavy travel schedule representing the administration at graduations, hospitals and factories across the country. (Karni, 4/30)

The Washington Post: Pence Staff Threatens Action Against Reporter Who Tweeted About Visit To Clinic Without Surgical Mask
Vice President Pence’s office has threatened to retaliate against a reporter who revealed that Pence’s office had told journalists they would need masks for Pence’s visit to the Mayo Clinic — a requirement Pence himself did not follow. Pence’s trip to the clinic Tuesday generated criticism after he was photographed without a surgical mask — the only person in the room not wearing one. The Minnesota clinic requires visitors to wear masks as a precaution against spreading the coronavirus. (Farhi, 4/30)

NPR: Trump Announces Panel To Look At Nursing Home Responses To Coronavirus Outbreak
President Trump Thursday announced the formation of an independent commission to look at the response of nursing homes to the coronavirus. The move comes after nursing home operators have been clamoring for more equipment and testing. In comments at a White House event, Trump acknowledged that nursing homes were "a spot that we have to take care of. I guess you could call it a little bit of a weak spot, because things are happening at the nursing homes that we're not happy about." (Jaffe, 4/30)

ProPublica/The Texas Tribune: Texas Still Won’t Say Which Nursing Homes Have COVID-19 Cases. Families Are Demanding Answers.
As elderly and vulnerable citizens continue to die from COVID-19 in closed-off long-term care centers around the country, many of their relatives have begged elected leaders to release the locations of these outbreaks. Their pleas have carried weight with governors in Georgia, New York, Oklahoma and Florida, among others, who mandated an accounting of where the virus had spread. Not in Texas. (Kriel, Davila and Walters, 4/30)

The Washington Post: Reopening Of America: More Than Half Of States Will Lift Coronavirus Restrictions By The End Of This Week
Many U.S. states are relaxing their restrictions, with more than half set to be partially reopened by the end of this week. But governors have taken different approaches to loosen restrictions amid the pandemic. Some states have formed regional pacts, working together to decide how to safely lift restrictions. Others have faced criticism for allowing nonessential businesses and recreational activities to start up again, despite cases continuing to increase. (Armus, Farzan, Berger and Brice-Saddler, 4/30)

Reuters: Half Of U.S. States Easing Coronavirus Restrictions As Jobless Numbers Grow
The enormous pressure on states to reopen, despite a lack of wide-scale virus testing and other safeguards urged by health experts, was highlighted in new Labor Department data showing some 30 million Americans have sought unemployment benefits since March 21. The jobless toll amounts to more than 18.4% of the U.S. working-age population, a level not seen since the Great Depression of the 1930s. (Chiacu and Caspani, 4/30)

The Washington Post: Fauci Warns States Rushing To Reopen Amid Coronavirus Pandemic: ‘You’re Making A Really Significant Risk’
With the White House’s social distancing guidelines expiring Thursday, leaving states largely in charge of deciding how to move forward, Anthony S. Fauci warned local leaders to avoid “leapfrogging” critical milestones in an effort to reopen their economies amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. “Obviously you could get away with that, but you’re making a really significant risk,” Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Thursday evening on CNN. (Chiu, 5/1)

The Hill: The Surprising Popularity Of The Great Lockdown
There is at least one political surprise amid the coronavirus crisis — the Great Lockdown is popular among Americans. People are, of course, hardly thrilled by stay-at-home orders, closed schools and the myriad other uncertainties of the current situation. But there is a resilient consensus around the need for such measures — even as President Trump promises a swift return to normal, many states ease restrictions, and the economic effects of the battle against COVID-19 bite deeper and deeper. (Stanage, 4/30)

ABC News: Americans Uneasy About Returning To Normal As Restrictions Loosen: POLL 
Despite the damaging economic toll of the coronavirus, the country remains apprehensive about a return to normal, with Republicans far more likely to be willing than Democrats to restart day-to-day activities immediately, as states begin to loosen restrictions, according to a new ABC News/Ipsos poll released Friday. A minority of Americans said that if the emergency orders put in place to curb the spread of the coronavirus were lifted the next day, they would be likely to go out in public to eat at a restaurant (44%), go to a bar (21%), attend a sporting event in a large stadium (20%), go to a gym or health club (29%), stay in a hotel (30%), go to a movie theatre (24%), attend church (46%), go bowling (22%), fly on an airplane (29%), or send their child to school (45%). (Karson, 5/1)

The New York Times: Gavin Newsom Orders Orange County Beaches Closed Due To Coronavirus
The salty breeze and ocean waves have beckoned stir-crazy residents of the coast back to their beloved beaches, social distancing norms be damned. But how to prevent beach blankets and lawn chairs from becoming new founts of coronavirus infection has become a flash point for governors in Florida, California and other coastal states, who must balance demands from constituents for relief from the escalating spring heat against the horrified reaction of the general public to photos of sweaty, swimsuit-clad bodies packed towel to towel. Gov. Gavin Newsom of California stepped in on Thursday to shut down the beaches in Orange County, rolling back earlier attempts at giving people there a chance to stroll along the shore while staying a safe distance away from one another. (Mazzei, Hubler and Fuller, 4/30)

The New York Times: An Upstate N.Y. Backlash Over Virus Shutdown: ‘It’s Not Up Here’
Scott Tranter knows how deeply the coronavirus has affected New York, with 300,000 people testing positive in the state, 18,000 dead and the economy shut down. But as he surveyed his empty diner last week, it made little sense to him why businesses like his could not reopen, since the virus has barely touched his part of the state. “Enough is enough,” said Mr. Tranter, the owner of Crazy Otto’s Empire Diner, a popular vintage diner that, like all restaurants, can only offer takeout. (McKinley and Gottlieb, 5/1)

The Washington Post: Deadliest Coronavirus Day In D.C., As Pressure Mounts On Hogan To Open Maryland
The greater Washington region reported nearly 2,000 new coronavirus cases Thursday, with the District recording its worst day for fatalities, as Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) came under increasing pressure from fellow Republicans to reopen his state’s economy. With the virus having killed 1,929 residents of the District, Maryland and Virginia, area leaders said it’s unlikely they would soon lift shutdown orders that have stunted the local economy — even as nearly 119,000 more local residents lost their jobs last week. (Olivo, Wiggins and Nirappil, 4/30)

The New York Times: Michigan Governor Reinstates State Of Emergency As Protests Ramp Up
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, a prime political target in partisan clashes over stay-at-home orders during the coronavirus outbreak, signed three executive orders on Thursday to reinstate a state of emergency during the coronavirus pandemic. Her order came on a day when protesters, some of them armed, gathered at the State Capitol in Lansing to oppose stay-at-home orders. State Senator Dayna Polehanki, a Democrat, shared a photograph of protesters with rifles inside the building, as well as a video of hundreds of people outside. (Fortin, 5/1)

The Associated Press: GOP Lawmakers Reject Michigan's Virus Order; Whitmer Unfazed
The governor, unfazed, responded with orders stating under one law that an emergency still exists, while declaring a new 28-day state of emergency under another law. The declarations are important because they are the foundation for Whitmer’s stay-at-home measure, which will remain in effect through May 15, and other directives aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus. The virus that causes COVID-19 has infected more than 41,000 Michigan residents and contributed to the deaths of 3,789, many in the Detroit area. (Eggert and Householder, 5/1)

Reuters: Hundreds Protest In Michigan Seeking End To Governor's Emergency Powers
Many people at Thursday’s “American Patriot Rally”, including militia group members carrying firearms and people with pro-Trump signs, appeared to be ignoring state social-distancing guidelines as they clustered together within 6 feet of each other. “Governor Whitmer, and our state legislature, it’s over with. Open this state,” Mike Detmer, a Republican U.S. congressional candidate running for the state’s 8th District spot held by Democrat Elissa Slotkin, told the crowd. “Let’s get businesses back open again. Let’s make sure there are jobs to go back to.” (Martina and Herald, 4/30)

The Wall Street Journal: New York Seeks Solutions For Coronavirus Dead After Bodies Found By Brooklyn Funeral Home
New York politicians are seeking answers on how to handle the growing number of corpses left by the coronavirus pandemic, after dozens of bodies were discovered decomposing in rental trucks outside a Brooklyn funeral home. New York Police Department officers, responding to a 911 caller, discovered dozens of corpses in body bags piled inside two vehicles outside Andrew T. Cleckley Funeral Services in the Flatlands neighborhood Wednesday morning, police officials said. (Chapman, 4/30)

The New York Times: ‘We Ran Out Of Space’: Bodies Pile Up As N.Y. Struggles To Bury Its Dead
The 40-foot trailer has been there for weeks, parked outside the Leo F. Kearns Funeral Home in Queens. Its refrigerator hums in an alley next to a check-cashing establishment. Thirty-six bodies, one atop the other, are stacked on shelves inside. The funeral director, Patrick Kearns, has barely slept since the day he took charge of them. As he lies awake in the middle of the night, he knows there will be more. “It weighs on you, having so many cases in your care,” he said. “The death rate is just so high, there’s no way we can bury or cremate them fast enough.” (Feuer and Rashbaum, 4/30)

Los Angeles Times: Amid Coronavirus, Reopening States Look To Contact Tracers
With governors around the nation lifting stay-at-home orders implemented to slow the spread of coronavirus, many are now seeking new combatants: contact tracers. These hired public health officials work with patients to help them recall everyone they had close contact with during the time when they were most infectious. It’s no easy task. (Lee, 4/30)

The Wall Street Journal: New York To Hire ‘Army Of Tracers’ To Combat Coronavirus
New York will hire up to 17,000 contact tracers as part of a statewide effort to combat the novel coronavirus pandemic by tracking down people who have gone near those infected by Covid-19. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said at a Thursday press conference that the state needs at least 30 tracers for every 100,000 people to follow the path of those infected and determine whether their contacts should be isolated. (Li, 4/30)

Reuters: Special Report: FDA's Lax Rules On Coronavirus Blood Tests Open U.S. Market To Dubious Vendors
As the coronavirus pandemic engulfed the United States, Joe Shia, a consultant to Chinese medical companies, said he was bombarded with inquiries from American firms who saw a golden opportunity in selling tests to determine coronavirus immunity. Unlike his typical clients, some firms seeking his help had never before sold medical equipment. Others wanted to register test kits with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration without approval from the manufacturer, or to offer home-based tests, which are not allowed by the FDA. One was in the window business, he said. (Humer, Tanfani and Liu, 4/30)

Politico: Democrats Push For Federal Control During Medical Supply Shortage
A pair of Democrats are mounting an aggressive push for the federal government to take over buying and distributing much-needed medical supplies, as states continue to battle one another for precious equipment to fight the coronavirus. Rep. Anthony Brown (D-Md.) is leading the effort with a bill that would give the Federal Emergency Management Agency control over supplying medical equipment to states — from ventilators and X-ray machines to masks and gloves — during this and future pandemics. (Caygle, 5/1)

The Associated Press: Pelosi: States, Cities Seek $1T To Avoid Layoffs From Virus
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that state and local governments are seeking up to $1 trillion for coronavirus costs, a stunning benchmark for the next aid package that’s certain to run into opposition from Senate Republicans. Pelosi acknowledged the federal government may not be able to provide that much. But she said money for “heroes” is needed to prevent layoffs as governors and mayors stare down red ink in their budgets. (Mascaro and Schreiner, 5/1)

The New York Times: Democrats Assail Mitch McConnell For Bringing Senate Back Amid Pandemic
Senate Democrats assailed Senator Mitch McConnell on Thursday for insisting on bringing the Senate back to Washington in the thick of the coronavirus pandemic, saying it could imperil not only senators and their aides, but also large numbers of low-level employees, including racial minorities at higher risk of infection and death from Covid-19. With coronavirus cases in the District of Columbia and neighboring Maryland and Virginia continuing to rise, and the region still on lockdown, senators in both parties are grappling with how to respond to the decision by Mr. McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, to put them back to work on Monday. (Stolberg, 4/30)

The Washington Post: Democrats Question McConnell’s Decision To Return Senate To Business
A prominent Democrat suggested Thursday that the Senate’s return to work next week would put support workers on Capitol Hill — many of them racial minorities — at undue risk of contracting covid-19. The comment from Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), a former presidential candidate, was an implicit criticism of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s decision to convene the chamber after a month-long hiatus prompted by the coronavirus pandemic, and it highlighted significant discomfort on Capitol Hill over a return to legislative business — even with social distancing precautions in place. (DeBonis and Kane, 4/30)

The Wall Street Journal: McConnell Defends Decision For Senate To Convene Amid Coronavirus
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell stood by his decision to convene the Senate next week, saying it was elected officials’ duty to return to work amid the coronavirus outbreak, despite criticism from Democrats that it will put lawmakers and staff at risk. Mr. McConnell said Thursday the Senate needs to return to confirm judges and other nominations. (Andrews, 4/30)

The New York Times: Stymied In Seeking Benefits, Millions Of Unemployed Go Uncounted
With a flood of unemployment claims continuing to overwhelm many state agencies, economists say the job losses may be far worse than government tallies indicate. The Labor Department said Thursday that 3.8 million workers filed for unemployment benefits last week, bringing the six-week total to 30 million. But researchers say that as the economy staggers under the weight of the coronavirus pandemic, millions of others have lost jobs but have yet to see benefits. (Schwartz, Hsu and Cohen, 4/30)

The Washington Post: Iowa, Oklahoma And Other States Signal They Could Strip Unemployment Benefits From People Who Don’t Return To Work
Iowa, Oklahoma and other states reopening soon amid the coronavirus outbreak are issuing early warnings to their worried workers: Return to your jobs or risk losing unemployment benefits. The threats have been loudest among Republican leaders in recent days, reflecting their anxious attempts to jump-start local economic recovery roughly two months after most businesses shut their doors. In Iowa, for example, state officials even have posted a public call for companies to get in touch if an “employee refuses to return to work.” (Romm, 4/30)

The New York Times: #CancelRent Is New Rallying Cry For Tenants. Landlords Are Alarmed.
As unemployment soars across the country, tenants rights groups and community nonprofits have rallied around an audacious goal: to persuade the government to halt rent and mortgage payments — without back payments accruing — for as long as the economy is battered by the coronavirus. The effort has been brewing on social media, with the hashtag #CancelRent and online video rallies, as well as a smattering of in-person protests, frequently held in cars to maintain social distancing. (Haag and Dougherty, 5/1)

The Washington Post: D.C. Tenants Plan Rent Strikes, Hoping For City’s Help As Coronavirus Shutdown Continues
With evictions banned during the coronavirus pandemic in the nation’s capital, D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) advised tenants this week to “stay current” on rental payments “to the best of your ability.” But the D.C. Tenants Union is offering renters different advice: to strike. (Lang, 4/30)

The Washington Post: As Produce Rots In The Field, One Florida Farmer And An Army Of Volunteers Combat ‘A Feeling Of Helplessness’ — One Cucumber At A Time
Hank Scott believes the bright green rows of ripening cucumbers are the best yield on his land since his father started the farm in 1963. During any other spring, he'd oversee an army of workers harvesting cucumbers and shipping truckloads to pickling companies along the East Coast. But the coronavirus pandemic has closed or crippled the businesses where his produce would end up. So instead, Scott, 64, invited volunteer pickers with the Society of St. Andrew, a Christian hunger relief organization, to glean as much produce as they could and donate it to nearby food banks. (Wootson, 4/30)

The New York Times: For Most Food Stamp Users, Online Shopping Isn’t An Option
Whether they need more yeast for stress baking or the comfort of Kraft macaroni and cheese, Americans sequestered by social distancing are shopping for groceries online. But for many low-income households using food stamps, that can happen only in person. About 38 million people receive benefits through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, but how they can use them is often limited by technology or government policy. That means they must walk the aisles, increasing the possibility of coronavirus exposure for a group of Americans that includes the poor, older people and those with disabilities. (Bernard, 5/1)

The Associated Press: Front-Line Work During Pandemic Falls On Women, Minorities
As America tentatively emerges from weeks of lockdowns, the pandemic has taken its toll on workers who have been on the front lines all along. They have been packing and delivering supplies, caring for the sick and elderly, and keeping streets and buildings clean. They have also watched their co-workers fall ill. Thousands have gotten sick themselves. Many have died. (Anderson, Olson and Kastanis, 5/1)

The New York Times: Who Should Wear Masks On Planes? More Airlines Say Everyone
After flight attendants and pilots criticized them for not doing more to protect employees, large airlines in the United States and around the world announced this week that they would require their crews and passengers to wear masks. American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines all said on Thursday that they would start requiring all passengers to wear a face covering in the coming weeks, a policy that will apply to their flight attendants and some other workers, too. (Chokshi, 4/30)