First Edition: Nov. 2, 2020

KHN: Medicare Fines Half Of Hospitals For Readmitting Too Many Patients 
Nearly half the nation’s hospitals, many of which are still wrestling with the financial fallout of the unexpected coronavirus, will get lower payments for all Medicare patients because of their history of readmitting patients, federal records show. The penalties are the ninth annual round of the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program created as part of the Affordable Care Act’s broader effort to improve quality and lower costs. The latest penalties are calculated using each hospital case history between July 2016 and June 2019, so the flood of coronavirus patients that have swamped hospitals this year were not included. (Rau, 11/2)

California Healthline: California’s Progressive — And Expensive — Health Care Ambitions Rely On Biden Win
For deep blue California, where first-in-the-nation health care proposals regularly flood the Democratic agenda, there could not be more at stake in the presidential race. If Republican President Donald Trump prevails, Democratic state lawmakers worry, they’ll be forced to scale back their ambitious plans and play defense the next four years, battling Republican attempts to curtail federal Medicaid spending and further unravel the Affordable Care Act. (Hart, 11/2)

KHN: Hospitalized? You Can Still Vote In Most Parts Of The Country
Johnathon Talamantes, of South-Central Los Angeles, broke his hip in a car accident on Oct. 22 and underwent surgery five days later at a public hospital near downtown. His post-op recovery will keep him in the hospital, L.A. County+USC Medical Center, beyond Election Day, and as he prepared himself for the surgery, he wondered what that would mean. (Wolfson, 11/2)

KHN and KPCC: They Work In Several Nursing Homes To Eke Out A Living, Possibly Spreading The Virus
To make ends meet, Martha Tapia works 64 hours a week at two Orange County, California, nursing homes. She is one of thousands of certified nursing assistants who perform the intimate and physical work of bathing, dressing and feeding the nation’s fragile elderly. “We do everything for them. Everything you do for yourself, you have to do for the residents,” Tapia said. (Fortier, 11/2)

KHN: ‘An Arm And A Leg’: David Vs. Goliath: How To Beat A Big Hospital In Small Claims Court
When Jeffrey Fox and his wife got an outrageous medical bill for a simple test, he said to his wife, “No way am I paying this.” In a classic — and hilarious — David vs. Goliath story, Fox takes on a huge hospital, and wins. He’s a bit of an expert in using small claims court to get satisfaction and shared detailed instructions with the rest of us. (Weissmann, 11/2)

The Hill: US Records 97,000 New COVID-19 Cases, Shattering Daily Record 
The U.S. recorded roughly 97,000 new coronavirus cases Friday, shattering the previous record for the highest number of new cases in a single day. Data from the COVID Tracking Project showed there were 97,080 new cases Friday, ushering in an alarming new milestone that comes as dozens of states across the country see spikes in infections. The figure broke the previous record of 88,521 new coronavirus cases, which had been set on Thursday. (Axelrod, 10/30)

CNN: US Coronavirus: Nearly 50,000 Hospitalized With Covid-19 As Experts Warn Of Growing Healthcare Pressure 
The fall surge has left nearly 50,000 people hospitalized across the US due to Covid-19, and experts say the strain healthcare systems are under could soon get worse. Hospitalizations were on the rise in 47 states last month, according to the Covid Tracking Project, and a total of 47,502 people were hospitalized as of Sunday. The rates come alongside a surge of cases that made October a record setting month for coronavirus infections in the US. (Holcombe, 11/2)

Houston Chronicle: Texas Passes California For Most Coronavirus Cases Despite Smaller Population
Texas has passed California as the state with the most coronavirus cases, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University. As of 6 p.m. Saturday, California had reported 931,740 total cases since the pandemic began, while Texas hit 931,750 cases. California had held the top spot in the U.S. since mid July, when it passed New York. But as the most populous state in the country, California has a relatively low number of cases per capita. It currently has 2,366 cases per 100,000 residents, compared to Texas’ 3,282 cases per 100,000. (Mejia, 10/31)

The New York Times: Trump Suggests He May Fire Fauci ‘After The Election’ 
President Trump suggested at a campaign rally early Monday morning that he might fire Dr. Anthony S. Fauci after Election Day, further escalating the tension between his administration and the nation’s top infectious disease expert as the number of new coronavirus cases in the United States reaches record highs. Mr. Trump spoke well past midnight at the Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport in Florida at his fifth and final rally of the day. At one point, he began reciting a familiar complaint about the news media’s continued coverage of the virus. (11/2)

The Wall Street Journal: Trump Suggested That He May Fire Dr. Fauci After Election
President Trump late Sunday night suggested he may fire the nation’s top infectious disease specialist after the election. During his fifth and final rally of the day in Opa-locka, Fla., his supporters began chanting “Fire Fauci” after Mr. Trump again complained about the daily media coverage of Covid-19. “Don’t tell anybody, but let me wait ‘til a little bit after the election,” the president responded. “He’s a nice man, though. He’s been wrong on a lot.” (Collins, 11/2)

Bloomberg: ‘Fire Fauci’ Chant Erupts At Trump Rally As Tensions Simmer
A “Fire Fauci” chant erupted at one of President Donald Trump’s campaign rallies, with the president quipping that he’d wait until after the election if he were to do anything. The chant, which started shortly after midnight Monday morning, was the latest development in Trump’s ongoing critique of Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who was once a prominent figure in Trump’s coronavirus response but who has since been marginalized. (Parker and Wingrove, 11/2)

The Hill: Fauci Rips White House Coronavirus Approach 
In a broad interview with the paper, Fauci warned of the country reaching a point where it could see more than 100,000 coronavirus cases recorded daily if it does not reverse course quickly when it comes to public health practices. His comments come shortly after the country recorded a surge in COVID-19 infections last week and as multiple states have reported record numbers of cases in recent weeks. Fauci said in the interview that Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s campaign “is taking it seriously from a public health perspective,” while President Trump is “looking at it from a different perspective” by focusing on “the economy and reopening the country.” (Folley, 11/1)

The Washington Post: Fauci Warns Of Covid-19 Surge, Offers Blunt Assessment Of Trump's Response 
President Trump’s repeated assertions the United States is “rounding the turn” on the novel coronavirus have increasingly alarmed the government's top health experts, who say the country is heading into a long and potentially deadly winter with an unprepared government unwilling to make tough choices. “We’re in for a whole lot of hurt. It’s not a good situation,” Anthony S. Fauci, the country’s leading infectious-disease expert, said in a wide-ranging interview late Friday. “All the stars are aligned in the wrong place as you go into the fall and winter season, with people congregating at home indoors. You could not possibly be positioned more poorly.” (Dawsey and Abutaleb, 10/31)

The New York Times: Dr. Scott Atlas, Trump’s Covid Adviser, Apologizes For Appearing On A Russian News Show
Dr. Scott W. Atlas, the White House coronavirus adviser, apologized on Sunday for appearing on a Russian state-sponsored news show that has been instrumental in an effort by the Russian government to spread false health information during the pandemic. Dr. Atlas did not, however, apologize for the content of the interview, where he continued a pattern as Mr. Trump’s adviser of downplaying the severity of the coronavirus pandemic, as well as asserting without evidence that lockdown measures used to contain the virus are “killing people.” (11/1)

NPR: WH Adviser Dr. Scott Atlas Apologizes For Interview With RT 
RT is one of more than a dozen media outlets that Facebook began labeling in June as under state control. RT's Twitter page is also labeled as "Russian state-affiliated media." "I regret doing the interview and apologize for allowing myself to be taken advantage of," Atlas said in a tweet. "I especially apologize to the national security community who is working hard to defend us."(Treisman, 11/1)

CNN: Scott Atlas Apologizes For Interview With Russian Propaganda Network 
Dr. Scott Atlas, an adviser on the White House Coronavirus Task Force, apologized after appearing in an interview with Russian state broadcaster RT, just days before Election Day. In his apology, Atlas claimed he was unaware RT was a registered foreign agent. RT is owned by Russian state-owned news agency RIA Novosti and subsidiary RT America is registered with the US Justice Department as an agent of the Russian government. The Kremlin uses RT to spread English-language propaganda to American audiences, and was part of Russia's election meddling in 2016, according to a 2017 report from the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence. (Goldman, Benveniste and Robertson, 11/1)

Politico: Scott Atlas Apologizes For Interview With Kremlin-Backed RT 
In the interview on Saturday, Atlas said there was no understating the pandemic, noting the U.S. death toll. “It’s tragic. There’s no question about that,” he said. “But if you wanna know what’s happening right now, I think there’s a gross distortion that has sort of been typical of the reporting on this. And that is that there’s this frenzy of focusing on the number of cases when we see a lot of reasons to be sort of, you know, cautiously optimistic here rather than fearful.” (McCaskill, 11/1)

Politico: Trump Adviser Doubles Down On Baseless Trump Claim Doctors Are Profiting Off Coronavirus Deaths 
A senior adviser to President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign doubled down Sunday on baseless allegations leveled by the president that U.S. doctors are inflating coronavirus deaths for profit as the country sees record levels of new infections. “I don't think he was attacking anybody. He was talking about how most Americans want to safely and securely reopen the country,” Jason Miller said on ABC’s “This Week” when shown video of Trump’s claims from a campaign rally Friday. (Oprysko, 11/1)

The New York Times: Texas Court Denies G.O.P. Push To Throw Out Votes 
The Texas Supreme Court denied an effort by Republicans to throw out more than 120,000 votes that had already been cast at drive-through locations in Harris County, leaving Republicans’ only remaining option at the federal level. The ruling from the court came without comment. The effort to get rid of the votes from largely Democratic Harris County now hinges on a nearly identical effort at the federal level, where a judge has called an election-eve hearing for Monday. (11/1)

Reuters: U.S. Judge Orders USPS To Reinforce 'Extraordinary Measures' Ballot Delivery Policy 
The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) must remind senior managers they must follow its “extraordinary measures” policy and use its Express Mail Network to expedite ballots ahead of Tuesday’s presidential election, under an order signed by a U.S. judge. U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan’s order on Sunday, to which the USPS agreed, said the postal service must reinforce its “special procedures” to ensure it “delivers every ballot possible by the cutoff time on Election Day.” USPS will also reinforce to managers that “all ballots with a local destination must be cleared and processed on the same day or no later than the next morning for delivery to local offices, from now through at least November 7.” (Shepardson, 11/1)

The Washington Post: Polling Places Are Unable To Avoid The Politics Of Mask-Wearing
When Elizabeth Cooper walked into her neighborhood community center in central Houston to cast her ballot, she was impressed. Each poll worker sat at an individual table, spaced far apart and shielded by plexiglass. One handed Cooper a wipe and a finger covering. Most important, she said of her experience, “everyone had a mask on.” Not so in the West Texas town of Big Spring on the day Rebecca Paige Evers voted at the county courthouse. She said she and her husband were the only ones masked. “Honestly, it just did not feel like a safe environment to vote,” Evers said. (Satija, Brown, Kranish and Reinhard, 11/1)

AP: Pre-Election Virus Spike Creates Concerns For Polling Places
A surge in coronavirus cases across the country, including in key presidential battleground states, is creating mounting health and logistical concerns for voters, poll workers and political parties ahead of Election Day. In Iowa, where both presidential campaigns are competing feverishly, county officials said they were preparing for scores of confirmed or potentially infected people to vote curbside. It’s an option typically used by disabled people that must be available outside every polling place. (Foley, 11/1)

The New York Times: In Texas, The Polls Open For A Graveyard Shift 
Felix Sylvester drove straight to the polling site after work and cast his ballot in a matter of minutes. There was no line, perhaps because it was a few minutes past 3 a.m. The parking lot was lit up in the predawn darkness by towering light poles. Most of Houston was asleep — most, but not all. Mr. Sylvester, 65, voted early Friday at one of eight polling places across Harris County that, five days before the election, stayed open all night. For him, it was about more than convenience; it was probably the difference between voting and not voting. (Fernandez and Kalifa, 11/1)

The Washington Post: Peaceful March To The Polls In North Carolina Is Met With Police Pepper Spray And Arrests, Causing Outcry On Eve Of Election
The voters came in black sweatshirts emblazoned with the mantra of the late Georgia congressman and civil rights icon John Lewis, who celebrated "good trouble." Fists and iPhones raised, they chanted “Black lives matter” and promised “power to the people,” as they made their way from a Black church to the base of a monument to a Confederate soldier. In its shadow, they paused for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, honoring George Floyd, the Black man killed by a Minneapolis police officer who knelt on his neck for what was later determined to be 7 minutes and 46 seconds. The participants in Saturday’s “I Am Change” march had intended to conclude at an early-voting site to emphasize turnout in the final days of the presidential campaign. Those plans were thrown into disarray when law-enforcement officers in riot gear and gas masks insisted demonstrators move off the street and clear county property, despite a permit authorizing their presence. (Yeoman and Stanley-Becker, 11/1)

The Hill: 18 Trump Rallies Have Led To 30,000 COVID-19 Cases: Stanford University Study
A new study from Stanford University found that 18 of President Trump’s campaign rallies have led to more than 30,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and likely led to more than 700 deaths. Researchers examined rallies held between June 20 and Sept. 22, 2020, only three of which were held indoors. The researchers then compared spread of the virus in the counties that held the rallies to counties that were on similar case trajectories before the rallies occurred. (Williams, 10/31)

The Washington Post: Jockeying Underway For Jobs In A Biden Administration 
As Biden hopscotches around the country in the campaign’s final weekend, his allies are jockeying over Cabinet appointments, ambassadorships and other plum positions, while Biden’s advisers have quietly begun mapping out an administration, according to people familiar with the activities. ... Biden’s team hopes to quickly name a White House chief of staff, according to allies with knowledge of the situation. An early favorite is Ron Klain, who was Biden’s chief of staff when Biden was vice president and also served as Obama’s “Ebola czar,” which means he has experience dealing with pandemics. (Linskey and Sullivan, 11/1)

Politico: White House Plots Possible Second-Term Cabinet Purge 
President Donald Trump and his top aides are planning a huge overhaul of his Cabinet if he wins a second term, scuttling officials in key health-related and intelligence jobs who Trump views as disloyal, slow-acting or naysayers. The shift would amount to a purge of any Cabinet member who has crossed the president, refused to mount investigations he has demanded, or urged him to take a different, more strict tack on the coronavirus response. (Cook, 11/1)

Stat: 8 Of The Scientific Institutions And Traditions On The Line On Tuesday
It’s impossible to overstate the impact of Tuesday’s presidential election on the health and science landscape. It’s a contest between a candidate who says he’ll give federal scientists a major say in national policy and a president whose top aides have boasted that he wrested control of the U.S. “back from the doctors” in the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic. (Facher, 11/2)

Politico: 'The Virus Is Kind Of Tough To Talk Down': Trump Can't Shake Covid In Final Sprint 
Trump’s claim Friday that “doctors get more money if someone dies from Covid” drove headlines throughout the weekend, with a senior adviser, Jason Miller, amplifying the baseless accusation Sunday. The White House picked a fight over the weekend with Anthony Fauci, the infectious disease expert whose public approval rating on the virus is far better than the president’s. And on a frigid day in Michigan on Sunday — one day after the state recorded a record number of new coronavirus cases — Trump said again that the country is “rounding the turn.” (Siders and Shepard, 11/1)

The Hill: Biden And Trump Closing Arguments Diverge Sharply On COVID-19 
President Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden are digging in on their vastly different coronavirus messages in the waning days of a bruising campaign. Even as COVID-19 cases rise to record levels across the nation, Trump repeatedly insists the country is “rounding the turn” on the pandemic. He is pressing ahead with large-scale campaign rallies, showing no signs of backing off his plans to hold 14 major campaign gatherings in the three days leading up to the election. (Chalfant and Weixel, 10/31)

AP: Video Altered To Make It Look Like Biden Greeted Wrong State
It’s an awkward moment when a presidential candidate greets the audience at a rally and names the wrong state. Fortunately for Democratic nominee Joe Biden, that didn’t happen to him this week, despite a widely shared video that appears to show him saying “Hello, Minnesota” to a crowd in Florida. It turns out he was, indeed, in Minnesota. The video that was shared had been altered to change the text on a sign and the podium to refer to Tampa, Florida, instead of Minnesota. (Swenson, 11/2)

The Hill: Democrats Call Trump's COVID-19 Response 'Among The Worst Failures Of Leadership In American History' 
House Democrats on the committee overseeing the coronavirus crisis released a report Friday calling the Trump administration’s response “among the worst failures of leadership in American history.” The report from the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis comes four days before Election Day, in a campaign where Democrats have hammered President Trump over his response to a virus that has killed more than 228,000 people in the U.S. (Sullivan, 10/30)

The Hill: Senate Candidates Focus Closing Arguments On Health Care, Experience 
Senate candidates are rolling out their closing ads of the 2020 campaign, with Democrats honing in on health care and Republicans promoting their own political profiles. With highly competitive races in nearly a dozen states, senators and their challengers from both parties are touting their achievements, incorporating a positive message as Americans grapple with a pandemic — and largely avoiding mentions of President Trump. (Manchester, 11/1)

Politico: Gottlieb Predicts Thanksgiving Will Be 'Inflection Point' For Winter Coronavirus Surge 
Former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb warned Sunday that the Thanksgiving holiday could be the “inflection point” of a dangerous surge in coronavirus cases that has already begun.“ Things are getting worse around the country,” Gottlieb said in an interview on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” predicting: “December is probably going to be our toughest month.” (Oprysko, 11/1)

The Hill: Chris Wallace 'Pissed Off' First Family Didn't Wear Masks During Debate, Suggests Trump Has 'Daddy Issue' 
Fox News's Chris Wallace said he was “pissed off” when he learned the first family had disregarded the rules and not worn masks during the first presidential debate. In an Instagram Live interview with Washington Post reporter Geoff Edgers posted Sunday, Wallace, who moderated the debate, said he was “not fully conscious of the fact they weren’t wearing masks” because he was focused on his preparation. (Choi, 11/1)

AP: Trump Admin Funds Plasma Company Based In Owner's Condo
When the Trump administration gave a well-connected Republican donor seed money to test a possible COVID-19-fighting blood plasma technology, it noted the company’s “manufacturing facilities” in Charleston, South Carolina. Plasma Technologies LLC is indeed based in the stately waterfront city. But there are no manufacturing facilities. Instead, the company exists within the luxury condo of its majority owner, Eugene Zurlo. (Lardner and Dearen, 11/1)

Modern Healthcare: Trump Admin To Provide Vaccine Supply Kits For Providers
The Trump administration will provide ancillary supply kits for healthcare workers to administer COVID-19 vaccines, HHS said Friday. McKesson Corporation will produce, store and distribute kits containing enough supplies to administer up to 100 vaccine doses. The kits will include needles, syringes, alcohol prep pads, surgical masks and face shields, vaccine record cards and a needle information card. McKesson will also make mixing kits available for vaccines that require reconstitution.

The New York Times: Tests Show Genetic Signature Of Coronavirus That Likely Infected Trump
President Trump’s illness from a coronavirus infection last month was the most significant health crisis for a sitting president in nearly 40 years. Yet little remains known about how the virus arrived at the White House and how it spread. The administration did not take basic steps to track the outbreak, limiting contact tracing, keeping cases a secret and cutting out the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The origin of the infections, a spokesman said, was “unknowable.” But one standard public health technique may still shed some light: tracking the cluster’s genetic fingerprints. (Glanz, 11/1)

The Washington Post: When Election Day Is A Stark Choice Between Voting And An Unemployment Check
The Saturday before the election, Anthony Rolls, 46, was among the millions of Americans who have lost their jobs because of the coronavirus and found themselves caught in a social safety net that is failing under a new burden. Rolls’s unemployment benefits stopped nearly seven weeks ago because of bureaucratic confusion. He is two months behind on rent. His phone only works now on WiFi, which means he’s been chained to his townhouse’s 1,344 square feet, firing off emails to elected officials for help and waiting for the phone call from the Maryland department that might fix the situation, while constantly watching election coverage on television. He has voted in every presidential election — until now. Because he moved since the last cycle, he has to go in person on Election Day to register to vote. He is weighing whether he should go to the polls and risk missing that call. "How’s that not voter suppression?" he said. “There are probably hundreds, maybe thousands, of us in this situation and there’s nothing we can do but take it.” (Swenson, 11/1)

ProPublica: Millions Still Haven’t Gotten Stimulus Checks, Including Many Who Need Them Most
It’s been 217 days since Congress instructed the IRS to send $1,200 stimulus checks to every citizen below a certain income threshold. And yet, it’s likely as many as 12 million people — including those who most need a financial boost — never got the cash. The reasons include confusion about how the complex program works, IRS missteps, technical snafus and Treasury Department policy decisions that cut out large groups of people altogether. Those who fell through the cracks have until Nov. 21 to claim the money or risk losing out on any second round of stimulus payments, which Congress has been negotiating for months. (DePillis, 10/30)

USA Today: 'It's Certainly Going To Get Worse': Businesses Plan More Layoffs, Hiring Freezes In 2020 As COVID-19 Escalates
The economic devastation wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic is far from over. Nearly one in 10 U.S. businesses planned to lay off workers during the final three months of the year as a result of the outbreak, according to a survey of human resource executives at 330 companies conducted by The Conference Board last month. The 9% of companies cutting employees in the fourth quarter avoided layoffs earlier in the health crisis, when 29% of firms eliminated staff, according to the survey, whose results were provided exclusively to USA Today. Another 13% of firms plan major restructurings this quarter that could include some layoffs not already counted in the 9%, says Robin Erickson, principal researcher in human capital for The Conference Board. (Davidson, 11/2)

AP: 2nd Study Testing A COVID-19 Antibody Drug Has A Setback
For the second time, a study testing an experimental antibody drug for COVID-19 has been paused to investigate a possible safety issue in hospitalized patients. Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. said Friday that independent monitors had recommended placing on hold enrollment of the most severely ill patients -- those who need intense oxygen treatment or breathing machines -- because of a potential safety problem and unfavorable balance of risks and benefits. (Marchione, 10/30)

Reuters: Russian Firm Seeks To Produce COVID-19 Drug Without Patent, Vedomosti Reports
Russian drugmaker Pharmasyntez has asked the Kremlin for permission to produce a generic version of U.S. firm Gilead Sciences's COVID-19 treatment remdesivir without а patent, the Vedomosti newspaper reported on Monday. Siberia-based Pharmasyntez previously approached Gilead requesting a voluntary licence to produce and distribute the drug in Russia, the company’s director, Vikram Punia, had told Reuters this year. (11/2)

Modern Healthcare: HHS Says Providers Can Use COVID-19 Relief Grants For Vaccine Distribution
Healthcare providers that received COVID-19 relief grants can use the funds to pay for supplies needed for vaccine distribution, HHS said. The agency in recent weeks has issued guidance on what expenses and lost revenues healthcare providers can legally count toward the COVID-19 Provider Relief Fund grants they received beginning in April. Congress set aside $175 billion for provider grants, and HHS as continually updated guidance since the funds were issued. (Cohrs, 10/30)

NPR: Who Should Get The COVID-19 Vaccine First? CDC Advisory Group Mulls Strategy
States should be working toward being ready to give out COVID-19 vaccines by Nov. 15, according to a target date made public by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday. That's an aspirational date so far — there is still no vaccine approved for use, and there may not be one until later this year or beyond. But, in preparation for that day, the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, a group composed mainly of doctors and public health experts outside of CDC, met virtually Friday and debated how best to distribute such a vaccine when it becomes available, weighing who would be in line to get it first. (Neel and Huang, 10/30)

The New York Times: Will The Hardest-Hit Communities Get The Coronavirus Vaccine? 
It is an idea that may never have been tried in wide-scale vaccine distribution: Citing principles of equity and justice, experts are urging that people living in communities hardest-hit by the pandemic, which are often made up of Black and Hispanic populations, get a portion of the first, limited supply of coronavirus vaccines set aside just for them. A committee of experts advising Dr. Robert R. Redfield, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is considering the idea. But as it comes into focus, its underlying concepts and execution must be further defined, and the approach may then face legal and political challenges, even as the medical system grapples with the anticipated logistical hurdles of distributing new vaccines. (Kolata, 10/30)

USA Today: Amid COVID Surge, Hospitals Seek Temporary Nurses To Bridge Care Gap
As the United States adds a new coronavirus case every second, hospitals from West Texas to Wisconsin are overwhelmed with the soaring number of critically ill Americans. In many cases, it’s not a lack of hospital beds, therapies or equipment that worry managers amid the surge, with more than 229,000 deaths from COVID-19 in the U.S. It’s the depleted and exhausted hospitals staffs needed to care for those who need life-sustaining treatment. (Alltucker, 10/31)

The Wall Street Journal: Staffing At Some Nursing Homes Plummeted During Early Covid-19 Outbreaks 
The ranks of caregivers at dozens of nursing homes plunged to dangerously low levels on some of the deadliest days of the pandemic, undercutting care for vulnerable residents at these facilities, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of new federal data. The Journal found that as the novel coronavirus tore through states like New Jersey and New York in April, as many as 127 hard-hit nursing homes on a single day had nurse-staffing levels that fell at least 25% below their levels for the comparable days in 2019, a sign that experts say points to a significant shortage. On many days in April the number of facilities with Covid-19 outbreaks that had such shortfalls was more than twice what was typical at those same facilities in the months before the pandemic, the data show. (Weaver and Mathews, 11/1)

The Wall Street Journal: Doctors Begin To Crack Covid’s Mysterious Long-Term Effects
A leading explanation for long-Covid symptoms is that immune-system activity and ensuing inflammation continue to affect organs or the nervous system even after the virus is gone, researchers said. Some of the most compelling evidence for the inflammation theory comes from Covid-19 patients with signs of heart inflammation and injury months after illness. One study looking at 100 Covid-19 patients two months after getting sick found that 78 had abnormal findings on cardiac magnetic resonance imaging, while 60 had cardiac MRIs indicating heart-muscle inflammation. The study included hospitalized, nonhospitalized and asymptomatic patients. (Toy, Reddy and Hernandez, 11/1)

AP: More US Patients To Have Easy, Free Access To Doctor's Notes
More U.S. patients will soon have free, electronic access to the notes their doctors write about them under a new federal requirement for transparency. Many health systems are opening up records Monday, the original deadline. At the last minute, federal health officials week gave an extension until April because of the coronavirus pandemic. (Johnson, 10/31)

CIDRAP: Telemedicine Linked To More Appropriate Antibiotic Prescribing For UTIs
Telemedicine visits for urinary tract infections (UTIs) were associated with more appropriate antibiotic prescribing and decreased use of diagnostic and follow-up resources than virtual visits, according to the results of a primary care network study published yesterday in Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology. The retrospective cohort study, conducted at Mercy Health Physician Partners, a primary care network in western Michigan with 44 outpatient sites and one virtual visit platform, compared guideline-concordant antibiotic prescribing among adult women diagnosed as having an uncomplicated UTI during an office visit or a virtual visit in 2018. (10/30)

The Washington Post: Artificial Intelligence And Covid-19: Can The Machines Save Us? 
Early this spring as the pandemic began accelerating, AJ Venkatakrishnan took genetic data from 10,967 samples of the novel coronavirus and fed it into a machine. The Stanford-trained data scientist did not have a particular hypothesis, but he was hoping the artificial intelligence would pinpoint possible weaknesses that could be exploited to develop therapies. He was awed when the program reported back that the new virus appeared to have a snippet of DNA code — “RRARSVAS” — distinct from its predecessor coronaviruses. This sequence, he learned, mimics a protein that helps the human body regulate salt and fluid balance. (Eunjung Cha, 11/1)

Stat: Purdue Law Firm Hires Government Lawyer Who Investigated The Firm 
A prominent law firm that represents Purdue Pharma has hired a former Department of Justice lawyer who, as recently as seven months ago, was investigating the drug maker for its opioid marketing. In a court filing, King & Spalding disclosed that its new partner is Ethan Davis, a former acting assistant attorney general in the Department of Justice Civil Division, whose work probing Purdue ended last March, before he began negotiating for a position with the law firm. Davis wrote us that he left the department last month. (Silverman, 10/30)

The Washington Post: CDC: Cruises Can Begin Phased Return Starting Nov. 1 Under New Protocols 
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Friday announced that it will lift its no-sail order on cruises, which banned large cruise ships from operating in U.S. waters since March. Effective Nov. 1., the ban will be replaced with a “conditional sailing order,” a phased return to cruising that includes new health protocols, such as mandatory testing and capacity restrictions. But that does not include passengers just yet. The CDC says the initial phases are for crew only, which is “to ensure adequate safety and health protocols through a series of mock voyages with volunteers who will play the role of passengers,” said Martin Cetron, the CDC director for the division of global migration and quarantine. The CDC does not have a timeline for a return for passengers, Cetron said. (McMahon, 10/30)

The Washington Post: A Woman Died Of Coronavirus On A Plane. Her Fellow Passengers Were Never Notified.
When Spirit Airlines learned that a Texas woman had died of covid-19 on one of its flights in July, the airline said it alerted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and received an acknowledgment from the agency. But Spirit spokesman Erik Hofmeyer said it was never asked by health authorities to share passenger manifests to aid in tracking down people who might have been exposed. State health officials in New Mexico, where the woman was declared dead after the Dallas-bound flight was diverted to Albuquerque, acknowledged they failed to investigate, as did the CDC. (Duncan, 10/31)

USA Today: 'American Idol' Alum Nikki McKibbin, Who Competed Against Kelly Clarkson, Dies At 42
Nikki McKibbin, who finished in third place behind Kelly Clarkson and Justin Guarini on the first season of "American Idol," has died, according to a Facebook post from her husband. She was 42. Craig Sadler shared Saturday on social media that McKibbin "suffered an aneurysm on Wednesday" and had been kept on life support before an operation early Sunday morning to give "her final gift" as an organ donor. 

The Washington Post: Poor And Minority Children With Food Allergies Are Overlooked And In Danger
As Emily Brown stood in a food pantry looking at her options, she felt alone. Up to that point, she had never struggled financially. But there she was, desperate to find safe food for her young daughter with food allergies. What she found was a jar of salsa and some potatoes. “That was all that was available,” said Brown, who lives in Kansas City, Kansas. “It was just a desperate place.” When she became a parent, Brown left her job for lack of child care that would accommodate her daughter’s allergies to peanuts, tree nuts, milk, eggs, wheat and soy. When she and her husband then turned to a federal food assistance program, they found few allowable allergy substitutions. The closest allergy support group she could find was an hour away. She was almost always the only Black parent, and the only poor parent, there. (West, 11/1)

The New York Times: States Undercount Positive Rapid Tests, Masking The Spread Of Disease
As rapid coronavirus tests are becoming more widely available, delivering results in minutes for patients in doctor's offices, nursing homes, schools and even the White House, officials warn of a significant undercount, blurring the virus's spread nationally and in communities where such tests are more commonly used. Public health officials say that antigen tests, which are faster than polymerase chain reaction (P.C.R.) tests but less able to detect low levels of the virus, are an important tool for limiting the spread of the coronavirus. But they caution that with inconsistent public reporting, the case undercount may worsen as more “point-of-care” antigen tests, as well as D.I.Y. and home test kits, come on the market. (Schoenfeld Walker, Waananen Jones and Patel, 11/1)

The New York Times: 2 Warehouse Halloween Parties Attended By Nearly 1,000 Are Shut Down 
Two Halloween parties with hundreds of guests dancing and drinking inside warehouses were broken up by New York City authorities this weekend, as officials strive to curb behavior that they worry could fuel a second wave of the pandemic. A party in Brooklyn with nearly 400 people was broken up by city sheriffs early Saturday morning. About 24 hours later, the sheriff’s office shut down another party with more than 550 people in the Bronx. (Zaveri, 11/1)

The New York Times: In San Francisco, Virus Is Contained But Schools Are Still Closed 
As a third wave of coronavirus infections has begun to take off across much of the country, San Francisco has been a bright spot. After experiencing a surge of cases over the summer, the city has tamped down infections to near their lowest levels since the pandemic began. Restaurants, movie theaters, and museums are open at 25 percent of capacity. One crucial part of the city, however, remains firmly closed: The public schools. (Taylor, 11/1)