First Edition: Nov. 9, 2020

KHN: What To Know As ACA Heads To Supreme Court — Again
The Supreme Court on Tuesday will hear oral arguments in a case that, for the third time in eight years, could result in the justices striking down the Affordable Care Act. The case, California v. Texas, is the result of a change to the health law made by Congress in 2017. As part of a major tax bill, Congress reduced to zero the penalty for not having health insurance. But it was that penalty — a tax — that the high court ruled made the law constitutional in a 2012 decision, argues a group of Republican state attorneys general. Without the tax, they say in their suit, the rest of the law must fall, too. (Rovner, 11/9)

KHN: Search For A Snakebite Drug Might Lead To A COVID Treatment, Too 
Dr. Matthew Lewin, founder of the Center for Exploration and Travel Health at the California Academy of Sciences, was researching snakebite treatments in rural locations in preparation for an expedition to the Philippines in 2011. The story of a renowned herpetologist from the academy, Joseph Slowinski, who was bitten by a highly venomous krait in Myanmar and couldn’t get to a hospital in time to save his life a decade earlier, weighed on the emergency room doctor. (Robbins, 11/9)

KHN: Biden Wins, But His Health Agenda Dims With GOP Likely To Hold Senate 
Former Vice President Joe Biden secured the 270 electoral votes needed to capture the White House on Saturday, major news organizations projected,  after election officials in a handful of swing states spent days in round-the-clock counting of millions of mail-in ballots and early votes. The Democrat’s victory came after the latest tallies showed him taking an insurmountable lead in Pennsylvania, a state both Biden and President Donald Trump had long identified as vital to their election efforts.  Trump has signaled he will fight the election results in several states, filing a number of lawsuits and seeking recounts. (Rovner, 11/7)

AP: Global Coronavirus Case Total Tops 50 Million
The coronavirus has hit another sobering milestone: more than 50 million positive cases worldwide since the pandemic began. Johns Hopkins University’s coronavirus tracker reported more than 50.2 million COVID-19 cases globally as of Sunday. There have been more than 1.2 million deaths from the disease worldwide since the pandemic started. (11/8)

Reuters: Global Coronavirus Cases Exceed 50 Million After 30-Day Spike 
Global coronavirus infections exceeded 50 million on Sunday, according to a Reuters tally, with a second wave of the virus in the past 30 days accounting for a quarter of the total. October was the worst month for the pandemic so far, with the United States becoming the first country to report more than 100,000 daily cases. A surge in Europe contributed to the rise. (Maan, Ahluwalia and B, 11/8)

The New York Times: Covid-19 Latest News: U.S. Surpasses 10 Million Cases 
The United States reported its 10 millionth coronavirus case on Sunday, with the latest million added in just 10 days, as most of the country struggled to contain outbreaks in the third and most widespread wave of infection since the pandemic began. Case reports have soared in the last week, shattering records. The seven-day average of new cases now exceeds 100,000 per day, far more than any other country. The United States accounts for about one-fifth of all reported coronavirus cases in the world, a total that has passed 50.2 million. In Europe, which accounts for as much or more of the global number, many countries have imposed restrictions far more severe than the limits in force in patches of the United States. (11/8)

The Washington Post: Record-Breaking Wave Of Coronavirus Cases Continues To Sweep The Nation
A surge of cases revealed a snowball effect: It took only 10 days for the country to move from 9 million cases to what is expected to be its 10 millionth case Monday. By comparison, it took more than three months for the country to go from no cases to 1 million in late April. Public health officials reacted with dire warnings. “Down this current path lies [a] continued rapid rise in cases,” Tom Inglesby, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, wrote in an extended thread on Twitter. (Barnes, 11/8)

USA Today: US Sets Another Record With 126,742 New Cases; World Surpasses 50 Million Cases
The U.S. set another daily record for coronavirus cases and the world surpassed 50 million total cases Sunday as President-elect Joe Biden promised to do what President Donald Trump could not: "Get this virus under control." The U.S. recorded 126,742 cases Saturday, the third day in a row the total exceeded 120,000, according to data from Johns Hopkins. The United States, with about 4.3% of the world population, has about 20% of the cases. (Tucker, Aretakis and Bacon, 11/8)

Los Angeles Times: President-Elect Biden Appoints COVID Task Force, Taking First Step Toward New Administration
President-elect Joe Biden, whose promise to bring competence to the federal government’s pandemic response was a central theme of his campaign, appointed an advisory board Monday of top public-health experts to guide his transition team’s COVID-19 planning. The unveiling of the names came as the first public act of the Biden-Harris transition, signaling the urgency of the issue and its importance in propelling Biden to the White House. The president-elect’s first public appearance since declaring victory is scheduled to be a speech later Monday about his plan to beat the pandemic. (Halper, 11/9)

AP: Biden Seeks To Move Quickly And Build Out His Administration
Biden senior adviser Ted Kaufman said the transition team will focus on the “nuts and bolts” of building the new administration in coming days. Biden may not make top Cabinet choices for weeks. But he built his presidential run around bipartisanship and he has spent the days since Tuesday’s election pledging to be a president for all Americans. That suggests he could be willing to appoint some Republicans to high-profile administration positions. Many former Republican officeholders broke with Trump to endorse Biden’s campaign. Biden’s selection of some of them to join the new government could appease Senate Republicans, who may have to confirm many of Biden’s choices for top jobs. The GOP could retain control of the chamber after two special elections in Georgia on Jan. 5. (Weissert, Jaffe and Madhani, 11/8)

Axios: Biden Names COVID Crisis Team As Cases Surge 
President-elect Joe Biden declared tackling the pandemic "one of the most important battles our administration will face" as he announced a new 12-member Transition COVID-19 Advisory Board on Monday. ... The task force will be led by three co-chairs: former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner David Kessler and Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith from Yale University — as Axios' Hans Nichols first reported Saturday. Beth Cameron, who served as senior director for global health security and biodefense in the Obama administration, and Rebecca Katz, co-director of the Center for Global Health Science and Security at Georgetown University, are advisors to the Transition on COVID-19 and will work closely with the advisory board. (Falconer, 11/9)

USA Today: Biden Cabinet Picks: Who May Be Tapped For Leadership Roles
Here are some of the choices Biden faces in filling his Cabinet: ... Health and Human Services: Ezekiel Emanuel, the white vice provost for global initiatives at the University of Pennsylvania who served as a health adviser to Biden's campaign. He was a special adviser for health policy in the White House Office of Management and Budget during the Obama administration; Vivek Murthy, a trustee of the Rand Corp. and health adviser to Biden's campaign. Murthy, whose parents are from India, was surgeon general during the Obama administration; New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, whom Biden considered as vice president, is the first Latina Democrat to the post, previously was a state Cabinet secretary for the Department of Aging and Long-term Services from 2002 to 2004 and the Department of Health from 2004 to 2007. (Jansen, 11/8)

Politico: Californians Eye Biden Jobs After Years Of Trump Attacks
California is about to come in from the cold. After almost four years of President Donald Trump's taunts as a state that's "going to hell,'' California is poised to be powerhouse with a Biden administration. ... California is home to some of the nation's leading universities and the globe's most-recognized tech firms, and the stars of its biotech, alternative energy and environmental policy scenes had clout in Democratic administrations under Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. (Marinucci, 11/8)

Reuters: Biden Team Held COVID-19 Talks With Operation Warp Speed Drugmakers Before Election 
U.S. President-elect Joe Biden’s healthcare advisers have held talks with drugmaker executives on the U.S. government’s Operation Warp Speed program to accelerate development of a possible COVID-19 treatment, a Biden spokesman said on Sunday. ... Biden’s advisers met with companies that have COVID-19 vaccines or therapies in late-stage clinical trials in September and October, Bloomberg News had reported earlier. (11/8)

Fox News: Biden's First Move As President-Elect? Mask Mandate For All. Here's How He Plans On Doing It.
One of Joe Biden's first priorities as president-elect will be implementing mask mandates nationwide by working with governors. The future 46th president, however, says if they refuse than he will go to mayors and county executives and get local masking requirements in place. (Manfredi, 11/9)

The New York Times: Biden’s Plan For Day 1 In The White House
In the first hours after he takes the oath of office on Jan. 20, Mr. Biden has said, he will send a letter to the United Nations indicating that the country will rejoin the global effort to combat climate change, reversing Mr. Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris climate accord with more than 174 countries. He has also vowed that on Day 1 he will move rapidly to confront the coronavirus pandemic by appointing a “national supply chain commander” and establishing a “pandemic testing board,” similar to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s wartime production panel. (11/9)

NPR: President-Elect Biden Has A Plan To Combat COVID-19. Here's What's In It
Biden's plan calls for empowering scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to help set national, evidence-based guidance to stop outbreaks as well as making significant investments in vaccine distribution, testing and the creation of a public health workforce to carry out contact tracing and other services. (Aubrey, 11/8)

Vox: President-Elect Joe Biden’s Health Care Plan, Explained In 800 Words 
Joe Biden has proposed a health care plan that could cover 25 million uninsured Americans. The question now that he’s won the White House is whether he can pass it. The Democratic president-elect has put forward a plan that would build on the Affordable Care Act (ACA). That means much of the existing US health care system would remain in place: Most working people would continue to get their health insurance through their employer, Medicare and Medicaid would be preserved, and the ACA would be expanded. (Scott, 11/6 )

The New York Times: What Are Joe Biden's Policies? 
Progressives think President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s policies do not go far enough. President Trump and his administration have called Mr. Biden a Trojan horse for the radical left. Since the primary, Mr. Biden has shifted leftward on issues including health care, climate change and education. But even then, he has hardly embraced the bold agenda of progressives like Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. Here is where Mr. Biden actually stands on several key issues: the coronavirus, health care, the economy, taxes and climate change. (Ember, 11/8)

USA Today: Biden's Approach To Tackling COVID-19 Will Be Dramatically Different, And Quickly Apparent
The day President Donald Trump turns the White House over to Joe Biden, COVID-19 will remain just as big a threat to Americans. But the strategy for tackling it will change dramatically. ... The shift is expected to be swift once Biden takes office. "The public will immediately notice a vast change in science messaging from the White House," said Lawrence Gostin, director of Georgetown University’s O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law. "The Biden administration will both convey pro-science messages and model the best behavior from among all White House and Cabinet staff." (Weintraub and Weise, 11/8)

The New York Times: Can Joe And Mitch Get It Done? 
Unless Democrats pick off two Senate seats in Georgia to be decided in runoff elections on Jan. 5, Mr. Biden will have to navigate a Senate narrowly controlled by [Sen. Mitch] McConnell, who has happily turned the chamber into a graveyard for Democratic legislation. The likelihood of a Senate under Republican rule severely constrains Mr. Biden’s legislative and personnel agenda from the start, dashing the hopes of those anticipating a post-Trump opening for bold initiatives on health care, taxes and the environment and an administration populated by progressive icons. (Hulse, 11/8)

The New York Times: A ‘Terrifying’ Coronavirus Surge Will Land In Biden’s Lap 
Hours after President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. declared the coronavirus a top priority, the magnitude of his task became starkly clear on Sunday as the nation surpassed 10 million cases and sank deeper into the grip of what could become the worst chapter of the pandemic yet. The rate of new cases is soaring, and for the first time is averaging more than 100,000 a day in the United States, which has reported more Covid-19 cases than any other country. An astonishing number — one in 441 Americans — have tested positive for the virus just in the last week. (Mervosh, Smith and McDonnell Nieto del Rio, 11/8)

Stat: Before Biden Takes Office, A Precarious 10 Weeks For Covid-19
Even many public health experts who celebrated President-elect Biden’s win this week turned their immediate focus to the crisis it might create: A 10-week transition period during which Covid-19 cases and deaths skyrocket, and the outgoing Trump administration doesn’t take additional action to stop the surge. From a public health standpoint, the presidential election could not have come at a worse time. (Facher, 11/7)

The Washington Post: A Little-Known Trump Appointee Is In Charge Of Handing Transition Resources To Biden — And She Isn’t Budging
A Trump administration appointee is refusing to sign a letter allowing President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team to formally begin its work this week, in another sign the incumbent president has not acknowledged Biden’s victory and could disrupt the transfer of power. The administrator of the General Services Administration, the low-profile agency in charge of federal buildings, has a little-known role when a new president is elected: to sign paperwork officially turning over millions of dollars, as well as give access to government officials, office space in agencies and equipment authorized for the taxpayer-funded transition teams of the winner. (Rein, O'Connell and Dawsey, 11/8)

The Washington Post: White House Hit With Fresh Outbreak Of Coronavirus Cases 
The White House has been hit with a fresh wave of coronavirus infections, an administration official said Saturday, with Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and five other Trump aides having received positive test results in the period around Election Day. Meadows, who tested positive Wednesday, at first told others not to disclose his condition. But after his diagnosis became public late Friday, the official confirmed that a broader outbreak threatens to create a new crisis in the West Wing just as Meadows and other top aides are trying to help President Trump navigate a bitter loss at the polls to Democratic President-elect Joe Biden. (Gearan and Dawsey, 11/7)

The New York Times: Six In White House, Including Trump’s Chief Of Staff, Have The Coronavirus 
Six White House aides and a Trump campaign adviser — including Mark Meadows, President Trump’s chief of staff — have contracted the coronavirus, officials said, raising fears of another outbreak sweeping through the ranks of the nation’s top officials as cases surge to record levels in the country. Mr. Meadows, who routinely shrugged off the need to wear masks and embraced Mr. Trump’s strategy of playing down the threat from the coronavirus over the summer, informed a small group of White House advisers that he had tested positive for the virus on Wednesday, a senior administration official said late Friday. (Haberman and Shear, 11/6)

Bloomberg: Trump Aides Frustrated After Meadows’s Silence on Infection
Some of Donald Trump’s White House and campaign aides are frustrated that the president’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, didn’t issue a statement after he tested positive for coronavirus this week, instead informing only a close circle of advisers. ... He spent time upstairs in the White House residence on Tuesday with Trump’s family, including all of his adult children, according to people familiar with the matter. He helped persuade Trump to deliver brief remarks to the country at 2:30 a.m. from the White House East Room. Meadows attended the speech, where the president claimed he had won the election before races had been called in key battleground states where votes were still being counted. Meadows returned to campaign headquarters on Wednesday, again without wearing a mask, two people familiar with the situation said. (Jacobs, Pager and Parker, 11/6)

Politico: Gaetz Tests Positive For Coronavirus Antibodies
Two more Florida Republican members of Congress have tested positive for Covid-19, including Rep. Matt Gaetz. Gaetz, a close ally of President Donald Trump, said he tested positive for the virus antibodies on Election Day, a likely sign he previously contracted the virus. (Dixon, 11/7)

Quartz: How To Clean A Covid-19 Infested White House For The Next Resident
Even though the Covid-19 virus only survives outside the body for a limited amount of time (28 days in lab conditions, much less in regular ones), it would be understandable if Joe Biden, his family, and staff wanted to make sure the White House was completely sanitized before they moved in. Luckily, that isn’t hard to do. According to Juan Ventura, who runs Paracas Group, a large Milan-based professional cleaning service that has been sanitizing private and corporate spaces during northern Italy’s devastating Covid-19 outbreaks, all it takes it a little time and some hydrogen peroxide. (Merelli, 11/7)

Politico: Missouri Senator Says ‘Normal Inauguration’ Planned Despite Coronavirus Spikes
Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) said Sunday morning that the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies is planning for a normal inauguration ceremony, despite the spikes in coronavirus cases across the country in the past week. “The six-person committee — three senators, three House members — that I chair, we're moving forward anticipating an outside full-scale inauguration,” Blunt told George Stephanoplous on ABC’s “This Week.” (Bice, 11/8)

The Washington Post: Crowds Celebrating Biden Win Prompt Warnings And Accusations Of Hypocrisy
The gleeful celebrations of victory that spontaneously erupted in cities from Portland to Philadelphia this weekend over media announcements of Joe Biden’s win prompted warnings from wary health officials — and raised eyebrows among conservatives. “As a reminder, public celebrations where people are close to each other, unable to stand 6ft apart, cheering & shouting, especially without face coverings is high risk for transmission of COVID-19,” the Los Angeles County Public Health Department warned residents on Saturday afternoon, as U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams issued a reminder that “the virus doesn’t care about why you are gathering.” (Farzan, 11/9)

USA Today: Kayleigh McEnany Called Joe Biden Celebrations 'Superspreader Events'
White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany ripped the celebrations that occurred after news spread of President-elect Joe Biden's victory, calling them "superspreader events" and asking Biden to denounce them. ... "Where is @JoeBiden calling on the massive Super Spreader events held in his name to end," McEnany tweeted, sharing a video of the massive crowd that had gathered outside the White House in Black Lives Matter Plaza in support of Biden. (Miller, 11/8)

AP: Trump's Election Night Party Adds To Virus Scrutiny
It was supposed to be a scene of celebration. Instead, the Trump campaign’s election night watch party in the White House East Room has become another symbol of President Donald Trump’s cavalier attitude toward a virus that is ripping across the nation and infecting more than 100,000 people a day. Polls suggest that attitude was a serious drag on the president’s reelection bid as voters chose to deny Trump a second term in favor of his Democratic rival, now President-Elect Joe Biden. And the party — with few masks and no social distancing — is now under additional scrutiny after the president’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, became the latest top White House official to contract the virus, which has now killed more than 237,000 people in the U.S. alone. (Colvin, 11/8)

The Washington Post: How Trump’s Erratic Behavior And Failure On Coronavirus Doomed His Reelection 
Air Force One was descending into Detroit when President Trump posed a question that would come to define his entire approach to the deadly coronavirus pandemic: “Do you think I should wear a mask?” he asked the aides and advisers gathered in the plane’s front cabin. Trump was headed to visit a Ford Motor plant in Ypsilanti, Mich., which by May was already a coronavirus hot zone, with more than 5,000 dead, thousands more sickened — and cases still spiking — in the critical Midwest battleground state. But the responses were nearly unanimous, with senior White House officials arguing that wearing a mask was unnecessary and would send a bad signal to the public about the magnitude of the crisis. You’re the leader of the free world, they told him, and the leader of the free world doesn’t need a mask. (Parker, Dawsey, Viser and Scherer, 11/7)

Politico: Inside Donald Trump’s 2020 Undoing 
Brad Parscale was on the phone with President Donald Trump and top White House officials in mid-February when someone on the line asked the campaign manager what worried him the most. Parscale, speaking from his Arlington, Va., apartment, had just told the president how good his internal poll numbers looked. But now he had an urgent message: The coronavirus was a big problem — and it could cost him reelection. (Korecki, Isenstadt, Kumar, Orr, Cadelago and Caputo, 11/7)

The Wall Street Journal: Affordable Care Act Faces Latest Test In Supreme Court 
A week after President Trump’s electoral defeat, the Supreme Court will hear arguments on one of the principal goals of his 2016 campaign—eliminating the Affordable Care Act—in the midst of an intensifying pandemic. The president and Senate Republicans never found a path to repeal or replace the Obama-era health-care law. But by reducing to zero the penalty for failing to maintain health insurance, they effectively removed the piece they found most objectionable. (Bravin and Armour, 11/8)

The Washington Post: The Affordable Care Act Returns To The Supreme Court In The Shadow Of A Pandemic
When the Supreme Court hears a case Tuesday that could abolish the Affordable Care Act, the stakes will be higher than ever, coming amid a historic health and economic crisis that has deprived millions of Americans of insurance and cast a neon light on health care’s importance. A decision this term to strike down the entire ACA — unlike when justices upheld the law on different grounds in 2012 and 2015 — would upend the health-care system in ways that touch most people in the United States. (Goldstein, 11/7)

USA Today: Ten Years After Passage, Affordable Care Act Seems Likely To Survive Latest Supreme Court Challenge
When the Supreme Court rescued the Affordable Care Act five years ago from the second concerted effort to have it struck down, Associate Justice Antonin Scalia mused, "We really should start calling this law 'SCOTUScare.'" The quip from the leader of the court's conservative wing, who died the following year, was in response to his colleagues' dual rulings in 2012 and 2015 upholding President Barack Obama's signature legislative achievement, which came to be known as Obamacare. (Wolf, 11/8)

AP: Without Ginsburg, High Court Support For Health Law In Doubt
Until six weeks ago, defenders of the Affordable Care Act could take comfort in some simple math. Five Supreme Court justices who had twice preserved the Obama-era health care law remained on the bench and seemed unlikely votes to dismantle it. But Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death in mid-September and her replacement by Amy Coney Barrett barely a month later have altered the equation as the court prepares to hear arguments Tuesday in the third major legal challenge in the law’s 10-year existence. (Sherman and Alonso-Zaldivar, 11/7)

Politico: Forget Medicare For All — Even A Public Option Will Be Tough To Pass 
For President-elect Joe Biden, creating a public option to compete with private health insurance may be no easier to pass than it was a decade ago. His promise to lower Medicare’s eligibility age and advance a robust public option to compete with private health insurance was seen as an olive branch to progressives agitating for a total government overhaul like “Medicare for All.” But Biden’s more incremental approach still will face opposition from Republicans and powerful health care lobbies, which have spent the past two years preparing a furious assault against further expansion of government coverage if a Democrat took back the White House. (Luthi, 11/7)

AP: Medicare's 'Part B' Outpatient Premium To Rise By $3.90
Medicare’s ‘Part B’ monthly premium for outpatient care will go up by $3.90 next year to $148.50, officials announced late Friday afternoon. For most retirees, the health care cost increase will claim a significant slice of their Social Security cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA. It works out to nearly 20% of the average retired worker’s COLA of $20 a month next year. (11/7)

Forbes: Medicare Part B Premiums To Rise 2.7% In 2021, With Premiums For Highest-Income Couples Topping $12,000 A Year
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has announced Medicare Part B premiums for 2021, and the base premium increases just 2.7% from $144.60 a month to $148.50 a month. That $3.90 monthly increase compares to a big $9.10 monthly increase last year, after a $1.50 monthly increase the year before. Meanwhile high earners are still getting used to income-related surcharges that kicked into higher gear in 2018, and those have been bumped up again too. The wealthiest senior couples will be paying more than $12,000 a year in Medicare Part B premiums. Part B (the base and the surcharge) covers doctors’ and outpatient services. (Ebeling, 11/6)

CNBC: Medicare Part B Premiums Will Rise By 2.7% In 2021
The $3.90 increase is 2.7% more than the 2020 figure of $144.60, according to information released by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The deductible for Part B, which covers outpatient care, durable equipment and some other services, will be $203 next year, up $5 from $198 in 2020. Meanwhile, the deductible for Medicare Part A (hospital coverage), which is per benefit period (which generally starts when you are admitted to the hospital) will be $1,484 in 2021, up $76 from this year’s $1,408. (O'Brien, 11/6)

NPR: HHS Released More Coronavirus Vaccine Contracts As Election Results Unfolded
While the country was focused on the outcome of the election Saturday, the Department of Health and Human Services released a trove of new Operation Warp Speed documents. The newly released contracts include the crash program's $1 billion agreement with Johnson & Johnson, which was issued through a third-party firm and lacks some customary protections against potential future price-gouging. (Lupkin, 11/8)

NPR: Federal Supply Deal For COVID-19 Antibody Treatment Lacks Some Customary Protections
Regeneron, maker of the experimental coronavirus antibody treatment President Trump received, released on Thursday its $450 million federal contract to supply up to 300 million doses of the medicine to the government for national distribution. The contract, which the government hasn't made public, includes weaker than usual protections for taxpayers' interests. Drug policy experts said that could make it more difficult for the government to restrain pricing if Regeneron were to engage in price gouging down the road. (Lupkin, 11/6)

Fox News: Aspirin Being Tested In Coronavirus Patients For Potential Treatment
A common painkiller is being tested as a potential treatment for hospitalized coronavirus patients to see if it reduces the risk of blood clots, according to researchers. Aspirin, a known blood thinner, will be given to patients enrolled in the RECOVERY trial in the U.K., according to a news release. The researchers plan to give aspirin to about 2,000 patients in the trial in addition to standard-of-care treatment. The results will be compared with 2,000 patients who only receive standard-of-care treatment and assess for mortality after 28 days, as well as the impact on hospital stay and need for ventilation. (Hein, 11/7)

The New York Times: An Explanation For Some Covid-19 Deaths May Not Be Holding Up 
Medical researchers are raising significant doubts about whether an agent of the human immune system causes some coronavirus patients to end up in the hospital with injured lungs and other organs, struggling to breathe. What remains is a continuing mystery about what causes certain people to die from Covid-19, and how best to prevent that. A hypothesis that emerged early in the pandemic involves cytokine storms, an immune system response that is often invoked to explain severe viral infections, and to many doctors it seemed to make perfect sense: Patients who died from Covid were found to sometimes have little or no virus in their bodies. Their immune systems got rid of it. But in doing so, the hypothesis went, their body’s defenses went rogue, spewing out powerful compounds — cytokines and other drivers of inflammation — that fatally damaged tissues and organs in a storm. (Kolata, 11/8)

The New York Times: Covid Infections In Animals Prompt Scientific Concern 
The decision this week by the Danish government to kill millions of mink because of coronavirus concerns, effectively wiping out a major national industry, has put the spotlight on simmering worries among scientists and conservationists about the vulnerability of animals to the pandemic virus, and what infections among animals could mean for humans. (Gorman, 11/8)

The New York Times: F.D.A. Panel Declines To Endorse Controversial Alzheimer’s Drug 
In a seven-hour virtual meeting on Friday, the panel showed pointed skepticism, which contrasted markedly with a presentation by Dr. Billy Dunn, director of the Food and Drug Administration’s office of neuroscience, who said that “the evidence supporting its approval appears strong.” Overwhelmingly, the panel members disagreed. (Belluck, 11/6)

AP: FDA Panel Urges Rejection Of Experimental Alzheimer's Drug
Government health advisers sharply criticized a closely watched Alzheimer’s drug on Friday, concluding there wasn’t enough evidence that the experimental drug slowed the brain-destroying disease. The panel of outside experts for the Food and Drug Administration agreed that a pivotal study in patients failed to show “strong evidence” that the drug worked. The experts warned of multiple “red flags” with the data, which did not initially show any benefit until another analysis with later results. ... Much of panel’s commentary was a rejection of the FDA’s viewpoint. Earlier in the day, the FDA’s chief staff reviewer gave a glowing review of the drug, calling study data submitted by Biogen “exceptionally persuasive,” “strongly positive” and “robust.” (Marchione and Perrone, 11/6)

The Washington Post: Anti-Racist Education Sought In Medical Schools 
Faculty members and student activists around the country have long called for medical schools to increase the number of students and instructors from underrepresented backgrounds to improve treatment and build inclusivity. But to identify racism’s roots and its effects in the health system, they say, fundamental changes must be made in medical school curriculums. (Lawrence, 11/8)

The Washington Post: Alex Trebek, Quintessential Quizmaster As ‘Jeopardy!’ Host For Three Decades, Dies At 80 
Alex Trebek, who became known to generations of television viewers as the quintessential quizmaster, bringing an air of bookish politesse to the garish coli­seum of game shows as the longtime host of “Jeopardy!,” died Nov. 8 at his home in Los Angeles. He was 80. The official “Jeopardy!” Twitter account announced the death without further details. Mr. Trebek had suffered a series of health reversals in recent years, including two heart attacks and brain surgery, and he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2019. He continued to host new episodes of his show until production was suspended in March because of the coronavirus pandemic, and then filmed socially distanced episodes that began airing Sept. 14. (Langer, 11/8)

USA Today: Alex Trebek Dead At 80: Why Pancreatic Cancer Is So Deadly
About 47,050 people will die this year from pancreatic cancer, according to the American Society of Cancer, and among them will be Alex Trebek, the beloved "Jeopardy!" host. ... Fewer than 10 percent of people live five years after being diagnosed, according to American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO). A lack of cost-effective screenings that can reliably detect cancer for people without symptoms make it difficult to diagnose. As a result, most cases are diagnosed at advanced stages — often Stage 4, when the cancer has spread to other parents of the body. (Peter, 11/8)

Yahoo Entertainment: Al Roker Has Been Diagnosed With Prostate Cancer, Says ‘It’s A Little Aggressive’
Al Roker has revealed he has prostate cancer. The Today show weatherman, 66, made the announcement Friday on the morning show. He said he will be undergoing surgery next week to have his prostate removed. “After a routine checkup in September, turns out I have prostate cancer,” Roker shared. “It’s a good news, bad news kind of thing. Good news is, we caught it early. Not great news is that it’s a little aggressive.” (Byrne, 11/6)

New York Post: Notre Dame Fans Storm Field After Clemson Win Amid COVID-19 Spike
Notre Dame’s double-overtime upset over No. 1-ranked Clemson ended on a frightening note on Saturday evening. Pandemonium broke out moments after the No. 4-ranked Fighting Irish secured a 47-40 victory, as thousands of students in the stands rushed onto the field in a scary mob scene with many either not wearing masks properly or not wearing them at all. The Tigers were already playing shorthanded with quarterback Trevor Lawrence sidelined while recovering from COVID-19.Attendance at the game in South Bend, Ind. was 11,011 and was limited to students, faculty, university personnel and families of players. (Previte, 11/8)

The State: Notre Dame Fans Stormed Field During COVID-19. Here’s What Dabo, Kelly Said About It
“When they stormed the field you got a sense of a special moment at Notre Dame,” [Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly] said. “I told our team in our walk-thru today, I said, ‘Listen, when we win this thing, the fans are going to storm the field. With COVID being as it is, we’ve gotta get off the field and get to the tunnel.’ Now I beat them all to the tunnel, so that didn’t go over so good.” Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said, who was shown on TV trying to navigate his way off the field, said he didn’t have a problem with the celebration that came as new COVID-19 case counts are surging across the United States. (Connolly, 11/8)

The Wall Street Journal: Covid-19 Cases Are Surging In America—And The NFL 
When the NFL returned to play in the middle of a pandemic, it could control how often its players were tested and when they had to wear masks. But there was one thing it had absolutely zero power over: the state of the pandemic in the U.S. Now Covid-19 cases are rapidly rising in America. They are rising in America’s most popular sport, too. (Beaton, 11/6)

AP: Tigers, Lugnuts Open Ballparks For Flu Shot Clinics
Take me out to the ballpark — for a flu shot. Flu shots will be available Monday and Tuesday at Comerica Park in Detroit and Jackson Field in Lansing. The doses will be provided by the state of Michigan and administered by Meijer pharmacy teams. The clinics are for everyone, including people who are uninsured or have limited health insurance. (11/7)

AP: AEA: Doctors Letting Quarantined Kids Return Early To School
An organization for Alabama teachers is expressing concern that children are being allowed to return to school before completing required COVID-19 quarantine periods, potentially putting the health of students and school employees at risk. The Alabama Education Association sent a Thursday to the Alabama Board of Medical Examiners. The educator organization said they learned some doctors are writing excuses for students to return to school before mandated quarantine periods expired. (11/8)

AP: Nursing Home COVID-19 Cases Rise Four-Fold In Surge States
Despite Trump administration efforts to erect a protective shield around nursing homes, coronavirus cases are surging within facilities in states hard hit by the latest onslaught of COVID-19.An analysis of federal data from 20 states for The Associated Press finds that new weekly cases among residents rose nearly four-fold from the end of May to late October, from 1,083 to 4,274. Resident deaths more than doubled, from 318 a week to 699, according to the study by University of Chicago health researchers Rebecca Gorges and Tamara Konetzka. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 11/7)