First Edition: May 21, 2020

Kaiser Health News: Scientist Has ‘Invisible Enemy’ In Sights With Microscopic Portraits Of Coronavirus
From her laboratory in the far western reaches of Montana, Elizabeth Fischer is trying to help people see what they’re up against in COVID-19. Over the past three decades, Fischer, 58, and her team at the Rocky Mountain Laboratories, part of the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, have captured and created some of the more dramatic images of the world’s most dangerous pathogens. (Hawryluk, 5/21)

Kaiser Health News: Reopening Dental Offices For Routine Care Amid Pandemic Touches A Nerve
Tom Peeling wanted his teeth cleaned and wasn’t going to let the coronavirus pandemic get in the way. Luckily, his six-month regular appointment was scheduled for earlier this month, just days after dental offices were allowed to reopen in Florida for routine services. In late March the state ordered dentists to treat only emergency cases as part of its efforts to keep residents at home and to preserve limited medical supplies, such as N95 masks, that might be needed to treat COVID-19 patients. (Galewitz, 5/21)

Kaiser Health News: Analysis: Get Ready For The Vaccine — They’re Never Simple
If there is a silver lining to the flawed U.S. response to the coronavirus pandemic, it is this: The relatively high number of new cases being diagnosed daily — upward of 20,000 — will make it easier to test new vaccines. To determine whether a vaccine prevents disease, the study’s subjects need to be exposed to the pathogen as it circulates in the population. Reopening the economy will likely result in the faster spread of the coronavirus and therefore more opportunities to test a vaccine’s efficacy in trial subjects. (Allen, 5/21)

The New York Times: Trump Makes False Claim About Michigan Secretary Of State And Mail Voting
President Trump on Wednesday escalated his assault against mail voting, falsely claiming that Michigan and Nevada were engaged in voter fraud and had acted illegally, and threatening to withhold federal funds to those states if they proceed in expanding vote-by-mail efforts. The president inaccurately accused Michigan of sending mail ballots to its residents, as his aides later acknowledged, and he offered no basis for his claims of illegal actions by either Michigan or Nevada. The Michigan secretary of state has sent ballot applications — not the ballots themselves — to registered voters, a growing practice among election officials, including in states led by Republicans. (Epstein, Corasaniti and Karni, 5/20)

The Wall Street Journal: Trump Upbraids Michigan, Nevada For Easing Vote By Mail
He also inaccurately said the state was sending out absentee ballots, rather than applications, before later on Wednesday deleting that tweet and correcting the error in another one. “President Donald Trump’s updated statement is also false,’’ said Jake Rollow, a spokesman for the Michigan Department of State. “Absent-voter applications are mailed nearly every election cycle by both major parties and countless advocacy and nonpartisan organizations. Just like them, we have full authority to mail applications to ensure voters know they have the right to vote safely by mail.” (Lucey, 5/20)

The Associated Press: Trump Threatens Funds For States Easing Voting In Pandemic
The president targeted Michigan with an inaccurate tweet on its voting plans and also went after Nevada in the latest — and the most confused — episode in his campaign against mail-in voting. As states have shifted to remote voting, following health officials recommendations on safety, Trump has denigrated the practice and sought to limit access. He has said repeatedly, without evidence, that mailed ballots allow widespread fraud and has worried publicly that wide availability could lead so many people to vote that Republicans would lose in November. His GOP allies, meanwhile, have fought changes to voting in court and opposed funding to expand mail-in voting in Congress. (Riccardi and Miller, 5/21)

Reuters: Trump Slams Michigan, Nevada For Expanding Voting By Mail, But Drops Funding Threat
Numerous studies have found little evidence of voter fraud connected to voting by mail. States have broad authority to set their own rules for voting. Many states have pushed to expand vote-by-mail options as a safer alternative in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak, sparking a growing partisan fight with Trump and his Republican allies. (Whitesides, 5/20)

Reuters: Trump Says His Hydroxychloroquine Regimen Finishes In The Next Day Or Two 
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday the regimen of an anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine that he is taking to ward off the coronavirus finishes in the next day or two. Trump revealed this week he was taking the drug despite medical warnings about potential serious side effects and questions about its effectiveness in preventing COVID-19. (5/20)

The Associated Press: WHO: Drug Trump Taking To Fight COVID-19 Best Left To Tests
The World Health Organization, which has come under repeated fire from U.S. President Donald Trump, says the science is still unclear on an old malaria drug he’s taking to try to defend against the novel coronavirus. It says it recommends the drug’s use for COVID-19 only in controlled clinical trials for now. (Keaten, 5/21)

The New York Times: For Spy Agencies, Briefing Trump Is A Test Of Holding His Attention
President Trump has blamed many others for his administration’s flawed response to the coronavirus: China, governors, the Obama administration, the World Health Organization. In recent weeks, he has also faulted the information he received from an obscure analyst who delivers his intelligence briefings. Mr. Trump has insisted that the intelligence agencies gave him inadequate warnings about the threat of the virus, describing it as “not a big deal.” Intelligence officials have publicly backed him, acknowledging that Beth Sanner, the analyst who regularly briefs the president, underplayed the dangers when she first mentioned the virus to him on Jan. 23. (Barnes and Goldman, 5/21)

Politico: Under Pressure, Trump Administration Weighs Extending National Guard Deployments
Trump administration officials are preparing plans to extend the federal deployment of more than 40,000 National Guard members performing coronavirus relief work across the country, after scores of lawmakers moved to pressure President Donald Trump to keep the Guards in place past June. Four people familiar with the matter said the administration is prepared to extend the deployments through July, which would maintain federal funding for troops administering Covid-19 tests, disinfecting nursing homes and performing other public safety duties in nearly every state and federal territory. (Ollstein and Lippman, 5/20)

The Washington Post: Ahead Of President’s Visit, Michigan Town Battles Racial Disparities In Coronavirus Deaths
In her two decades on the city council, Lois E. Allen-Richardson recalls using the word “racism” only once during official meetings in the city hall chamber. The 77-year old mayor pro-tem of this liberal, blue-collar town grew up here at a time when she and her neighbors were barred from downtown restaurants and dress shops because of their skin color. Though Allen-Richardson, who is black, walks freely now, she sees racism elsewhere: in the segregated neighborhoods, in the stories about black residents denied coronavirus testing, in the struggle to get a testing site in a neighborhood with among the highest infection rates. (Balingit, 5/20)

The Associated Press: Trump Tests Whether Incumbent Leader Can Tap Outsider Anger
President Donald Trump is running against himself. With his cries to “Reopen our country!” and his rebukes of the federal bureaucracy and health regulations amid the coronavirus pandemic, Trump has tried to tap into the same populist, anti-Washington anger he rode to victory in 2016. The difference: He is now, by definition, the face of government. (Lemire and Miller, 5/21)

Politico: Trump Tries On MAGA 2.0 For A Pandemic Era
With an economic crisis gripping the nation, President Donald Trump is reprising his 2016 slogan, with a twist: Make America Great Again, Again. Trump is trying to defy history by convincing Americans he can restore a coronavirus-decimated economy and become one of the only U.S. presidents to win reelection during a recession. His argument, which has met with skepticism from economists, is essentially: I’ve already built the economy once, I can build it a second time. (Kumar, 5/20)

The New York Times: G.O.P. Officials Quietly Consider Paring Back Convention
The money to pay for the Republican National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., is mostly raised, and contracts with hotels and local vendors are signed. The delegates are set to easily anoint a party nominee who fought tooth and nail for the title four years ago. But instead of preparing to celebrate President Trump, White House and Republican officials are now quietly looking at the likelihood of a pared-down convention, with the coronavirus appearing increasingly likely to still pose a serious threat in late summer. (Haberman and Karni, 5/21)

The New York Times: A New Entry In The Race For A Coronavirus Vaccine: Hope
In a medical research project nearly unrivaled in its ambition and scope, volunteers worldwide are rolling up their sleeves to receive experimental vaccines against the coronavirus — only months after the virus was identified. Companies like Inovio and Pfizer have begun early tests of candidates in people to determine whether their vaccines are safe. Researchers at the University of Oxford in England are testing vaccines in human subjects, too, and say they could have one ready for emergency use as soon as September. (Zimmer, Sheikh and Weiland, 5/20)

The New York Times: Trump’s Vaccine Chief Has Vast Ties To Drug Industry, Posing Possible Conflicts 
The chief scientist brought on to lead the Trump administration’s vaccine efforts has spent the last several days trying to disentangle pieces of his stock portfolio and his intricate ties to big pharmaceutical interests, as critics point to the potential for significant conflicts of interest. The scientist, Moncef Slaoui, is a venture capitalist and a former longtime executive at GlaxoSmithKline. Most recently, he sat on the board of Moderna, a Cambridge, Mass., biotechnology firm with a $30 billion valuation that is pursuing a coronavirus vaccine. He resigned when President Trump named him last Thursday to the new post as chief adviser for Operation Warp Speed, the federal drive for coronavirus vaccines and treatments. (Kaplan, Goldstein and Stevenson, 5/20)

The New York Times: Prototype Vaccine Protects Monkeys From Coronavirus
A prototype vaccine has protected monkeys from the coronavirus, researchers reported on Wednesday, a finding that offers new hope for effective human vaccines. Scientists are already testing coronavirus vaccines in people, but the initial trials are designed to determine safety, not how well a vaccine works. The research published Wednesday offers insight into what a vaccine must do to be effective and how to measure that. “To me, this is convincing that a vaccine is possible,” said Dr. Nelson Michael, the director of the Center for Infectious Diseases Research at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. (Zimmer, 5/20)

The Washington Post: Vaccine Misinformation Takes Root In Anti-Coronavirus Lockdown Facebook Groups
The question was posed bluntly to the nearly 100,000 members of a Facebook group devoted to ending Pennsylvania’s stay-at-home orders, with a user writing, “if there was a vaccine for coronavirus would you be likely to take it.”“Absolutely not.” “No.”“Never.” The resoundingly negative answers streamed forth, generating 1,700 comments and providing a window into brewing resistance to a potential coronavirus vaccine that experts say offers the surest path back to normal life. (Stanley-Becker, 5/20)

Reuters: Red Cross Aid Agency Warns Against Any Move To Limit Vaccine Access
The head of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) appealed on Wednesday for the world to work together toward a coronavirus vaccine, warning against any unilateral action that could prevent access for poor countries. “The reality is that there is this risk,” Francesco Rocca, who heads the world’s largest disaster relief network, told Reuters. “Everyone must have access to these lifesaving treatments.” (Nichols, 5/20)

Reuters: AstraZeneca To Make Billion COVID Vaccine Doses If Tests Succeed
AstraZeneca expects to be able to deliver a billion doses of a possible COVID-19 vaccine this year and next if tests are successful, adding on Thursday it should shortly get results of an early stage clinical trial. The British drugmaker said it had signed the first agreements to supply at least 400 million doses of the vaccine, which it is developing with Oxford University. (5/21)

Reuters: Top HIV Scientist Says He Wouldn't Count On A Vaccine For Coronavirus Soon
A top U.S. scientist said on Wednesday that governments should not count on a successful vaccine against COVID-19 being developed anytime soon when deciding whether to ease restrictions imposed to curb the pandemic. (Galloni, 5/20)

Reuters: U.S. Schools Should Only Reopen With Social Distancing As Benchmarks Met: CDC
U.S. schools shuttered by the coronavirus should pursue a carefully phased reopening only after public health benchmarks are met, and summer camps should be limited largely only to children from the immediate area, federal guidance recommends. The guidelines, released late on Tuesday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), come from a set of suggestions for specific settings, including restaurants, mass transit systems and employers with workers at high risk. (Brice, 5/20)

The Washington Post: Exactly What CDC Wants Schools To Do Before Reopening 
As communities consider a gradual scale up of activities toward pre-covid-19 operating practices in centers for learning, such as K-12 schools and summer day camps, CDC offers the following recommendations to keep communities safe while resuming peer-to-peer learning and providing crucial support for parents and guardians returning to work. (Strauss, 5/21)

Politico: California Education Chief Says Schools Can’t Open Without Masks
California has a major goal to meet before schools can reopen: acquiring masks for teachers and more than 6 million students. Local school districts will decide when they will welcome students back to physical classrooms and the state is not mandating a common opening date, state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond said Wednesday. But he made one thing clear: Personal protective equipment is a must. (Mays, 5/20)

Politico: Europe Learning The Dangers Of Going Back To School After Coronavirus
Europe has two problems when it comes to reopening schools. First, there's weighing the risks of opening the gates again against the potential damage done by keeping them closed, whether to economic recovery or mental health. Even more challenging may be convincing anxious parents that now is the time to send their children back to school. (Furlong, 5/20)

ProPublica/Chicago Tribune: Families Of Special Needs Students Fear They’ll Lose School Services In Coronavirus Shutdown
In Sangamon County in central Illinois, a father whose 10-year-old receives occupational and vision therapy at school was already concerned about how remote learning would affect his son and other students with disabilities. Then he got a letter from his son’s school district that made him worry even more. The letter asked parents to either accept the remote learning being offered, which amounted to a scaled-down version of what was provided when children were at school, or decline and acknowledge that they were “voluntarily waiving” their rights to a “free appropriate public education” and the ability to seek services from the school later. (Cohen and Richards, 5/20)

The Washington Post: Reopening Guidance For Churches Delayed After White House And CDC Disagree
Guidance for reopening houses of worship amid the coronavirus pandemic has been put on hold after a battle between the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the White House, which was resistant to putting limits on religious institutions, according to administration officials. The CDC this week issued a detailed road map for reopening schools, child-care facilities, restaurants and mass transit. On Tuesday night, the agency issued additional guidance in the form of “health considerations” for summer camps, including overnight camps, and youth sports organizations and colleges. (Sun, Dawsey and Boorstein, 5/20)

The New York Times: Lockdown Delays Cost At Least 36,000 Lives, Data Show
If the United States had begun imposing social distancing measures one week earlier than it did in March, about 36,000 fewer people would have died in the coronavirus outbreak, according to new estimates from Columbia University disease modelers. And if the country had begun locking down cities and limiting social contact on March 1, two weeks earlier than most people started staying home, the vast majority of the nation’s deaths — about 83 percent — would have been avoided, the researchers estimated. Under that scenario, about 54,000 fewer people would have died by early May. (Glanz and Robertson, 5/20)

ProPublica: States Are Reopening: See How Coronavirus Cases Rise Or Fall
Many states are lifting stay-at-home orders and other restrictions on social and business activity that were put in place to curb the spread of COVID-19. Questions linger, however, about whether some states meet criteria set by public health experts and the federal government for doing so. Experts are keeping a close eye on whether states that have reopened are seeing an uptick in cases or a worsening in other key metrics. To give people context on state reopenings, and what happens afterward, we are tracking metrics derived from a set of guidelines published by the White House for states to achieve before loosening restrictions. Even if these criteria are met, without a vaccine, reopening may cause an increase in cases. What’s more, some states may meet all of the criteria and still have a high infection rate. (Groeger and Ngu, 5/20)

The New York Times: All 50 States Are Now Reopening. But At What Cost?
In Connecticut, flags that had been lowered during the somber peak of the coronavirus pandemic were raised to full-staff on Wednesday to signal a return to business. In Kentucky, gift shops creaked open their doors. And across Alaska, restaurants, bars and gyms, which have been open to small numbers of customers for weeks, were getting ready to rev back up to full capacity. “It will all be open,” Gov. Mike Dunleavy announced, “just like it was prior to the virus.” (Mervosh and Harmon, 5/20)

The Wall Street Journal: All 50 States Have Now Taken Steps To Reopen
The U.S. hit a milestone in the coronavirus pandemic as all 50 states have now begun reopening, working to revive their economies after months of shutdowns designed to curb the contagion. Slight declines in new confirmed cases in some states have prompted governors from New York to Ohio to restart some services, with rules varying from place to place, including restaurants, churches and schools. On Wednesday, Connecticut became one of the last states to loosen restrictions. (Ansari, McKay and Calfas, 5/20)

The Wall Street Journal: Coronavirus Case Count Tops Five Million World-Wide
In the U.S., there are nearly 1.55 million confirmed infections and the death toll has passed 93,400, according to Johns Hopkins. Globally, more than five million people across 188 countries and regions have been infected by the novel coronavirus and more than 328,000 people have died. (Ping, 5/21)

The Washington Post: Coronavirus Second Wave: Parts Of Texas, Florida, Iowa And Nebraska Risk Case Spikes
Dallas, Houston, Southeast Florida’s Gold Coast, the entire state of Alabama and several other places in the South that have been rapidly reopening their economies are in danger of a second wave of coronavirus infections over the next four weeks, according to a research team that uses cellphone data to track social mobility and forecast the trajectory of the pandemic. The model, developed by ­PolicyLab at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and updated Wednesday with new data, suggests that most communities in the United States should be able to avoid a second spike in the near term if residents are careful to maintain social distancing even as businesses open up and restrictions are eased. (Achenbach, Weiner, Brulliard and Stanley-Becker, 5/20)

The Associated Press: Back To Business, But Not Business As Usual As Nations Open
This is what “normal” will look like for the foreseeable future. In Connecticut, restaurants are reopening with outdoor-only dining and tables 6 feet (2 meters) apart. In Beverly Hills, California, the rich and glamorous are doing their shopping from the curb along Rodeo Drive. And preschools around the U.S. plan to turn social distancing into an arts-and-crafts project by teaching kids how to “create their own space” with things like yarn and masking tape. (Crary, Collins and Winfield, 5/21)

Reuters: Michigan Governor Whitmer Faces Mainstream Backlash Against Shutdown
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer is facing an increasingly mainstream backlash against her stay-at-home orders, with a growing number of local officials and business leaders arguing the restrictions have outlived their usefulness. (Martina and Klayman, 5/20)

The Wall Street Journal: New York To Allow Small Religious Gatherings, As Coronavirus Cases Fall
Religious services with 10 or fewer people will be permitted again in New York state, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Wednesday, as restrictions related to the new coronavirus are relaxed. The Democratic governor already had said that Memorial Day celebrations with that number of people could take place in the coming days. Services can resume starting Thursday, Mr. Cuomo said, as long as participants stay apart and wear masks. Drive-in services also are permitted. (Vielkind, 5/20)

The Associated Press: Lessons From '18: Old Pandemic Is A Murky Guide For Sports
The image is striking: Fans watching a college football game in the midst of a pandemic, wearing masks with a smidge of social distance between them on row after row of bleacher seats. The photo is 102 years old. The Georgia Tech alumni Twitter feed posted a black-and-white photo of the scene at Grant Field in 1918. (Gelston, 5/21)

Reuters: U.S. Nursing Homes Plagued By Infection Control Issues Pre-COVID-19: Report
U.S. nursing homes have been plagued with infection control deficiencies even before the coronavirus pandemic turned them into hotspots for COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the virus, a government report said on Wednesday. Eighty-two percent of all nursing homes had an infection prevention and control deficiency cited in one or more years from 2013-2017, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office. (5/20)

NPR: Ideal Nursing Homes Put Quality Of Life Before Profits
The stunning death toll has brought scrutiny to an industry that many believe is due for an overhaul. Questions about the way its paid for, staffing levels, adequate training for staff, effective regulations and oversight all are raging as states battle to control the ravages of the pandemic. "There's lots of hubbub" around nursing homes, says Dr. Louise Aronson, a geriatrician, professor of Medicine at UC San Francisco, and author of Pulitzer Prize finalist Elderhood. And it's important, she says, that the public keep that focus. (Jaffe, 5/21)

The New York Times: The Striking Racial Divide In How Covid-19 Has Hit Nursing Homes 
In the suburbs of Baltimore, workers at one nursing home said they were given rain ponchos to protect from infection. Twenty-seven employees at the facility, where most residents are African-American, tested positive for the coronavirus. One of the many black residents of a nursing home in Belleville, Ill., died in April amid a coronavirus outbreak. But his niece complained that he was never tested for the virus. In East Los Angeles, a staff member at a predominantly Latino nursing home where an outbreak emerged said she was given swimming goggles before professional gear could be obtained. She said she later tested positive for the virus. (5/21)

Stat: Coronavirus Hijacks Cells In Unique Ways That Suggest How To Treat It 
A deep dive into how the new coronavirus infects cells has found that it orchestrates a hostile takeover of their genes unlike any other known viruses do, producing what one leading scientist calls “unique” and “aberrant” changes. Recent studies show that in seizing control of genes in the human cells it invades, the virus changes how segments of DNA are read, doing so in a way that might explain why the elderly are more likely to die of Covid-19 and why antiviral drugs might not only save sick patients’ lives but also prevent severe disease if taken before infection. (Begley, 5/21)

Reuters: Monkeys Infected With COVID-19 Develop Immunity In Studies, A Positive Sign For Vaccines
Two studies in monkeys published on Wednesday offer some of the first scientific evidence that surviving COVID-19 may result in immunity from reinfection, a positive sign that vaccines under development may succeed, U.S. researchers said on Wednesday. (Steenhuysen, 5/20)

The New York Times: As The Nation Begins Virus Tracing, It Could Learn From This N.J. City
The Uber driver had lost his sense of smell and taste but otherwise felt fine. He kept driving passengers in this small, industrial city until last week, when he took a test for Covid-19. By Friday, Jean Mugulusi of the Paterson Health Department was on the phone with him, breaking the news that he had tested positive and asking for a list of his recent passengers. He gave her eight phone numbers. “You came into contact with somebody who tested positive for Covid-19, so I need you to self-isolate,” Ms. Mugulusi told one of those passengers, a young man who worked in a factory. (Otterman, 5/21)

The Wall Street Journal: Superspreader Events Offer A Clue On Curbing Coronavirus
Some scientists looking for ways to prevent a return to exponential growth in coronavirus infections after lockdowns are lifted are zeroing in on a new approach: focus on avoiding superspreading events. The theory is that banning mass public events where hundreds of attendees can infect themselves in the space of a few hours, along with other measures such as wearing face masks, might slow the pace of the new coronavirus’s progression to a manageable level even as shops and factories reopen. (Pancevski, 5/20)

The Associated Press: Detective, Nurse, Confidant: Virus Tracers Play Many Roles
Health investigator Mackenzie Bray smiles and chuckles as she chats by phone with a retired Utah man who just tested positive for the coronavirus. She’s trying to keep the mood light because she needs to find out where he’s been and who he’s been around for the past seven days. She gently peppers him with questions, including where he and his wife stopped to buy flowers on a visit to a cemetery. She encourages him to go through his bank statement to see if it reminds him of any store visits he made. (McCombs, 5/21)

Reuters: Apple-Google Contact Tracing Tech Draws Interest In 23 Countries, Some Hedge Bets
Authorities in 23 countries across five continents have sought access to contact tracing technology from Apple Inc and Alphabet Inc’s Google, the companies announced on Wednesday as they released the initial version of their system. (Dave, 5/20)

The Wall Street Journal: Apple, Google Unveil Technology For Covid-19 Exposure Alerts
The tech giants, which make the world’s dominant smartphone operating systems, jointly developed the protocol for apps that can use Bluetooth signals from mobile devices to identify those that have been near each other. U.S. states including North Dakota, Alabama and South Carolina, as well as 22 countries, have requested and received access to the newly released technology, the companies said. (Haggin, 5/20)

The Washington Post: How Many People Are Infected With The Coronavirus? A Major Study Will Attempt To Provide An Answer. 
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is embarking on an expansive study of the prevalence of novel coronavirus antibodies in people in 25 metropolitan areas, an effort to provide long-awaited insight into the way the virus is spreading and its presence in communities. The study, which plans to test 325,000 people by fall 2021, will build on an antibody study that has been underway in six of those cities since March, according to Michael Busch, who is overseeing the study and is director of the Vitalant Research Institute. CDC spokeswoman Kristen Nordlund confirmed plans to announce the study but declined to discuss details. (Janes, 5/20)

The Associated Press: Deliberative Senate Declines To Debate More Coronavirus Aid
As Americans confront a crisis unlike any in modern times, the world’s greatest deliberative body is doing almost anything but deliberate the coronavirus. It’s as though the challenge has split the U.S. Senate into two. On one side is a Senate clamoring for a quick response to the virus outbreak at its door. On the other is the wait-and-see Senate hitting pause on swift action and carrying on with non-pandemic business. (Mascaro, 5/21)

The Wall Street Journal: Some Senate Republicans Urge Quicker Action On Coronavirus Aid
Some vulnerable Senate Republicans expressed frustration over the party’s go-slow approach on the next round of coronavirus relief, urging quicker action to counter the pandemic as re-election concerns start to play a more prominent role on Capitol Hill. In tweets and comments to reporters, Sen. Cory Gardner (R., Colo.) said the Republican-controlled Senate shouldn’t go on recess until it passed more legislation related to the coronavirus response. He said he planned to block a unanimous consent motion to adjourn for the planned Memorial Day recess, a move that could delay the break. (Wise and Hughes, 5/20)

Politico: McConnell Vows End To Enhanced Unemployment Benefits
Mitch McConnell promised House Republicans on Wednesday that the beefed up unemployment benefits enacted earlier this spring "will not be in the next bill." The Senate majority leader told the House GOP minority in an afternoon phone call that he is comfortable waiting to see how the nearly $3 trillion in coronavirus spending previously approved plays out before moving forward on the next relief legislation. And he told them the ultimate end-product won't look anything like House Democrats' $3 trillion package passed last week, according to a person briefed on the call. (Everett, 5/20)

Reuters: Trump Ouster Of Inspectors General Threatens Coronavirus Stimulus Watchdog
President Donald Trump’s purge of several internal watchdogs at U.S. agencies could hobble anti-fraud oversight for the $3 trillion in federal relief measures aiding businesses, state governments and others hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. These inspectors general, known as IGs, have been appointed by presidents or agency heads since the late 1970s to serve in various federal departments and agencies to guard against illegal conduct and mismanagement. (Lynch, 5/20)

The New York Times: A Wave Of Small Business Closures Is On The Way. Can Washington Stop It? 
One of the great threats to the post-pandemic economy is becoming clear: Vast numbers of small and midsize businesses will close permanently during the crisis, causing millions of jobs to be lost. The federal government moved with uncharacteristic speed to help those businesses — enacting the Paycheck Protection Program, with $669 billion allocated so far. But there is a problem. The structure of the program is not particularly well suited to the type of crisis that millions of businesses face. (Irwin, 5/21)

Reuters: U.S. Weekly Jobless Claims Remain High As Backlogs, Layoffs Linger
Economists said claims numbers were staying high also as states were now processing applications for gig workers and many others trying to access federal government benefits. These workers generally do not qualify for regular unemployment insurance, but to get federal aid for coronavirus-related job and income losses they must first file for state benefits and be denied. (Mutikani, 5/21)

The Wall Street Journal: Workers File Another 2.4 Million Unemployment Claims
Hundreds of thousands of self-employed and gig-economy workers are receiving unemployment benefits for the first time through a temporary coronavirus-related program, but those claims aren’t reflected in overall totals since the pandemic started more than two months ago. The Labor Department’s weekly jobless claims report, due out Thursday, is expected to show that millions of workers filed claims again last week. Initial weekly claims have been declining since a peak of nearly seven million at the end of March, but have remained historically high. (Chaney and King, 5/21)

The Wall Street Journal: The Day Coronavirus Nearly Broke The Financial Markets
An urgent call reached Ronald O’Hanley, State Street Corp.’s chief executive, as he sat in his office in downtown Boston. It was 8 a.m. on Monday, March 16. A senior deputy told him corporate treasurers and pension managers, panicked by the growing economic damage from the Covid-19 pandemic, were pulling billions of dollars from certain money-market funds. This was forcing the funds to try to sell some of the bonds they held. But there were almost no buyers. Everybody was suddenly desperate for cash. (Baer, 5/20)

NPR: Researchers: Nearly Half Of Accounts Tweeting About Coronavirus Are Likely Bots
Nearly half of the Twitter accounts spreading messages on the social media platform about the coronavirus pandemic are likely bots, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University said on Wednesday. Researchers culled through more than 200 million tweets since January discussing the virus and found that about 45% were sent by accounts that behave more like computerized robots than humans. (Allyn, 5/20)

NPR: As States Locked Down In March, Motor Vehicle Fatality Rate Spiked By 14%
In March, as states around the country began implementing stay-at-home orders and commuters got off the road, traffic dropped, but a new National Safety Council report finds that the number of motor vehicle fatalities per miles driven increased by 14% compared to the March 2019 rate. The total number of motor-vehicle-related deaths dropped by 8% in March of this year compared to March 2019, but the number of miles driven dropped by over 18%, due to myriad COVID-19 related impacts. (Hagemann, 5/20)

NPR: The Smithsonian Is Collecting Coronavirus 'Artifacts' To Document The Pandemic
If you were designing a museum exhibit that would explain the coronavirus pandemic to future generations, what would you put in it? Smithsonian curators in Washington, D.C., are trying to answer that question, even as the virus continues to spread in some states. The National Museum of American History and the Anacostia Community Museum have recently launched coronavirus collection projects. A third effort from the National Museum of African American History and Culture will kick off in June. (Lefrak, 5/20)