First Edition: Oct. 7, 2020

KHN: Distrusting Trump, States Plan To Vet COVID Vaccines Themselves. Bad Idea, Say Experts. 
As trust in the Food and Drug Administration wavers, several states have vowed to conduct independent reviews of any COVID-19 vaccine the federal agency authorizes. But top health experts say such vetting may be misguided, even if it reflects a well-founded lack of confidence in the Trump administration — especially now that the FDA has held firm with rules that make a risky preelection vaccine release highly unlikely. (Aleccia and Szabo, 10/7)

KHN: Refuge In The Storm? ACA’s Role As Safety Net Is Tested By COVID Recession
The Affordable Care Act, facing its first test during a deep recession, is providing a refuge for some — but by no means all — people who have lost health coverage as the economy has been battered by the coronavirus pandemic. New studies, from both federal and private research groups, generally indicate that when the country marked precipitous job losses from March to May — with more than 25 million people forced out of work — the loss of health insurance was less dramatic. (Findlay, 10/7)

KHN: Lifetime Experiences Help Older Adults Build Resilience To Pandemic Trauma
Older adults are especially vulnerable physically during the coronavirus pandemic. But they’re also notably resilient psychologically, calling upon a lifetime of experience and perspective to help them through difficult times. New research calls attention to this little-remarked-upon resilience as well as significant challenges for older adults as the pandemic stretches on. It shows that many seniors have changed behaviors — reaching out to family and friends, pursuing hobbies, exercising, participating in faith communities — as they strive to stay safe from the coronavirus. (Graham, 10/7)

KHN: One School, Two Choices: A Study In Classroom Vs. Distance Learning
Cozbi Mazariegos stays in shape these days by running room to room inside her Marin City apartment to answer questions from her kids, ages 7, 10 and 12. They’re all working at home on laptops issued by their school, Bayside Martin Luther King Jr. Academy. Meanwhile, Shannon Bynum’s son, Kamari, 10, and daughter, Keyari, 8, who live nearby, are back on the Bayside MLK campus. Bynum had warned them, however, that if he heard they weren’t wearing masks, they’d have to learn remotely, too. (Glionna, 10/7)

KHN and Politifact: Fighting For Patient Protections While Attacking ACA — Hard To Have It Both Ways 
Throughout the 2020 election cycle, candidates’ positions on health care have been particularly important for voters with underlying and often expensive medical needs — in short, those with preexisting conditions. It’s no surprise, then, that protections for people who have chronic health problems like diabetes and cancer have become a focal point for candidates nationwide — among them, Matt Rosendale, the Republican contender for Montana’s only U.S. House seat. (Sakariassen, 10/7)

Politico: Coronavirus Looms Over Trump’s First Day Back At Work
President Donald Trump is back at the White House, trying to project a sense of normalcy. But the coronavirus still dominated his first day of work since leaving the hospital. The president, possibly contagious, spent the day sealed off in the second-floor residence with a downsized staff around him. He only met in person with a few PPE-clad top aides, including chief of staff Mark Meadows and assistant to the president Dan Scavino. Jared Kushner, Trump’s top aide and son-in-law, showed up at the White House, but only spoke to Trump by phone, despite working just a few hundred feet away from the president. (McGraw, 10/6)

The New York Times: Trump's Return From Walter Reed Leaves White House In Disarray 
The White House that President Trump woke up in on Tuesday morning was in full-blown chaos, even by the standards of the havoc of the Trump era. Aides said the president’s voice was stronger after his return from the hospital Monday night, but at times he still sounded as if he was trying to catch air. The West Wing was mostly empty, cleared of advisers who were out sick with the coronavirus themselves or told to work from home rather than in the capital’s most famous virus hot spot. Staff members in the White House residence were in full personal protective equipment, including yellow gowns, surgical masks and disposable protective eye covers. (Habermand Karni, 10/6)

The New York Times: Why Doctors Aren’t So Sure Trump Is Feeling Better From Covid-19 
Without critical data about his lung function, medical experts in Covid-19 and lung disease said they were struggling to piece together an accurate picture of how Mr. Trump is faring. They noted that while most patients with the virus do recover, it was premature to declare victory over an unpredictable, poorly understood virus that has killed more than 210,000 people in the United States. ... Far from having vanquished Covid-19, the outside doctors said, Mr. Trump is most likely still struggling with it and entering a pivotal phase — seven to 10 days after the onset of symptoms — in which he could rapidly take a turn for the worse. He’s 74, male and moderately obese, factors that put him at risk for severe disease. (Thomas, 10/6)

Stat: 8 Questions We Still Have About Trump's Case Of Covid-19 
Over the weekend, as news about President Trump’s case of Covid-19 grabbed global attention, STAT outlined some of the key unknowns about the president and his health. Consider this a sequel. Below, we sort through some of our biggest remaining questions about Trump and his infection, some of which could be answered in the coming days. (Joseph, 10/7)

USA Today: Trump Blasted China For COVID-19 'Secrecy.' Now WH Is Called Evasive
For months President Donald Trump has insisted that Chinese President Xi Jinping's administration needs to be held fully accountable for what he has declared is the "secrecy, deception and cover-up" that enabled COVID-19 to spread all over the world. In the early days of the pandemic, China arrested and then silenced doctors who expressed concern about a strange new respiratory illness that appeared to be upending patterns of life and work across the sprawling city of Wuhan.  Now it's the Trump administration that appears to be hush-hush when it comes to revealing information about how coronavirus spread all over the White House. (Hjelmgaard, 10/6)

Politico: Trump Is His Own Covid Messenger. Allies Say That’s The Problem.
In the days after Donald Trump revealed he was infected with coronavirus, the president’s aides have given out misleading information, contradicted each other and refused to answer questions about an infection timeline. Trump’s doctor even admitted he had misled Americans in an attempt to reflect an “upbeat attitude.” It was all for Trump. (Kumar, 10/6)

AP: Experts Call Trump's Rosy Virus Message Misguided
It is true that the vast majority of people who get COVID-19 develop only mild symptoms. But experts can’t predict which patients will develop dangerous or deadly infections. And only a small percentage of Americans have been sickened by the coronavirus, meaning the vast majority are still at risk for infection. It is true, as Trump said in the video, that medicines have been found that can treat the virus, reducing chances for severe illness and death. But there is still no cure for it and no definitive date for when an effective vaccine might become widely available. (Tanner, 10/6)

AP: Trump's Faulty Claims On Flu And Coronavirus
President Donald Trump is back to making false comparisons between COVID-19 and the flu, contradicting science and even himself. TRUMP: “Flu season is coming up! Many people every year, sometimes over 100,000, and despite the Vaccine, die from the Flu. Are we going to close down our Country? No, we have learned to live with it, just like we are learning to live with Covid, in most populations far less lethal!!!” — tweet Tuesday. THE FACTS: First, he’s overstating the U.S. death toll from the seasonal flu. The flu has killed 12,000 to 61,000 Americans annually since 2010, not 100,000, a benchmark rarely reached in U.S. history. (Woodward, 10/6)

The Wall Street Journal: Facebook Removes Trump’s Post About Covid-19, Citing Misinformation Rules 
Facebook Inc. said it took down a post by President Trump playing down the deadliness Covid-19 Tuesday because it contained misinformation about the dangers of the coronavirus. The social-media giant said its decision Tuesday was based on its policy against users spreading information deemed both wrong and harmful. Facebook said it makes determinations based on guidance from public-health authorities including the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization. (Horwitz, 10/6)

The New York Times: In Reversal, White House Approves Stricter Guidelines For Vaccine Makers 
The move, which was cleared by the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, appeared to be an abrupt reversal a day after The New York Times reported that White House officials, including Mark Meadows, the chief of staff, were blocking the guidelines. Top F.D.A. officials were caught by surprise when they learned midafternoon that the new guidelines had been cleared. The new recommendations, which do not carry the force of law, call for gathering comprehensive safety data in the final stage of clinical trials before an emergency authorization can be granted. (Zimmer and Weiland, 10/6)

The Washington Post: White House Signals Stronger Coronavirus Precautions, But Trump Continues To Resist
The White House offered an informal nod to coronavirus best practices Tuesday, with mask-wearing prevalent after months of flouting public health recommendations and new internal guidelines for interacting with President Trump, who tested positive for the virus late last week. But the biggest source of resistance appeared to be Trump himself, who, despite having just come home from a three-night hospitalization, was defiant — lobbying to return immediately to work in the Oval Office, discussing an address to the nation as early as Tuesday evening and clamoring to get back on the campaign trail in the coming days. (Parker and Dawsey, 10/6)

The New York Times: Trump May Have Covid, But Many Of His Supporters Still Scoff At Masks
Entering Ted’s Bar and Grill on Monday, Tim Girvin briefly slid on a “Trump 2020” face mask, before whisking it off to join friends at a table for lunch. He said those few seconds were the only time he wore a mask all day. “I have my own business and I don’t have anybody wear a mask in my business,” said Mr. Girvin, a used-car dealer. “I don’t buy into it. When you look at the facts, with how many people die of influenza every year. Obesity kills more people than the Wuhan virus does.” (Gabriel, 10/6)

The New York Times: Most Patients’ Covid-19 Care Bears Little Resemblance To Trump’s 
As a buoyant President Trump emerged from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center this week, appeared on a balcony at the White House, and proclaimed on Twitter that the public should have no fear of the coronavirus, many Americans saw few parallels between Mr. Trump’s experience with the virus and their own. One man in Texas said he understood why the president of the United States would have top-flight doctors, but could not help comparing the place where Mr. Trump was treated with the facility where his 87-year-old mother became sick. “He’s got the best care in the world,” said Samuel Roy Quinn, whose mother died at a nursing home in April. “I’m not sure that my mom got the best care in the world at that facility she was staying at.” (Bosman, Mervosh, Harmon and Bogel-Burroughs, 10/6)

The Atlantic: Donald Trump’s Gold-Plated Health Care 
Shortly after returning to the White House last night, Donald Trump tweeted out a triumphant video in which he urges Americans not to let the coronavirus “dominate your life,” because “we have the best medicines in the world.” That was true of Trump’s stay at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, during which doctors threw the kitchen sink of COVID-19 medicines at him while he relaxed, knowing his bills would be covered. [But] for the average person hospitalized for the virus, specialized treatment for COVID-19 would be less immediately accessible, less comprehensive, and much more expensive. (Khazan, 10/6)

USA Today: Donald Trump's COVID-19 Treatment Is Similar To The Average American Hospitalized With Coronavirus. Only Faster.
President Donald Trump has had the best possible care for his COVID-19, his doctors have repeatedly assured America. "He's on a routine regimen of COVID therapy," his physician Sean Conley said Monday. It's true that while he's had outstanding care, Trump's therapies have been similar to those available to most other hospitalized COVID-19 patients – with two major exceptions. (Weintraub, 10/6)

AP: Ethicists Say Trump Special Treatment Raises Fairness Issues
The special treatment President Donald Trump received to access an experimental COVID-19 drug raises fairness issues that start with the flawed health care system many Americans endure and end with the public’s right to know more about his condition, ethics and medical experts say. Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. revealed on Tuesday how rare it was for anyone to get the drug it gave Trump outside of studies testing its safety and effectiveness. The drug, which supplies antibodies to help the immune system clear the coronavirus, is widely viewed as very promising. (Marchione, 10/7)

Politico: Top Trump Aide Stephen Miller Tests Positive For Covid
Stephen Miller, a top aide to President Donald Trump, said on Tuesday he had tested positive for Covid-19.Miller, a senior adviser to the president with a wide-ranging portfolio in the White House, joins Trump’s wife, press secretary, campaign manager, party chair, counselor and numerous other staffers who have tested positive for coronavirus. Trump himself spent his first full day at the White House on Tuesday after a three-day stay at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center while being treated for the disease. (Lippman, 10/6)

The Washington Post: Joint Chiefs Officers In Isolation After Coast Guard Admiral Tests Positive For Coronavirus, Pentagon Says 
The White House’s handling of an event for the family members of deceased U.S. troops was thrust into a new light on Tuesday amid the disclosure that a Coast Guard admiral who attended has tested positive for the novel coronavirus, forcing some of the military’s top generals and admirals into quarantine. The Sept. 27 ceremony, held on Gold Star Mother’s and Family’s Day with dozens of people in attendance, recognized the families of 20 deceased service members, according to a copy of the event program obtained by The Washington Post. (Lamothe and Ryan, 10/6)

Politico: Top Military Leaders In Quarantine After Coast Guard Admiral Tests Positive For Covid-19
The nation’s top military leaders, including Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley, are self-quarantining after coming into contact last week with the Coast Guard's No. 2 officer, who tested positive for Covid-19 on Monday, according to administration officials. Senior military leaders who attended several meetings at the Pentagon last week with Adm. Charles Ray, the vice commandant of the Coast Guard, tested negative for Covid-19 on Tuesday but are self-quarantining as a precaution, a defense official said. (Cammarata, Seligman and Feldscher, 10/6)

Politico: California Congressman Says He Got Coronavirus After Sen. Mike Lee Interaction
Rep. Salud Carbajal announced Tuesday he tested positive for the coronavirus and said it came after he interacted indoors with Sen. Mike Lee, who revealed he had Covid-19 hours after President Donald Trump said he was diagnosed with the disease. Carbajal, a Central Coast Democrat, said in a statement that he began to experience "mild symptoms" and subsequently tested positive after being exposed to someone with the virus. (White, 10/6)

Politico: The 34 People Who Have Tested Positive In The Trump Covid Outbreak
Here’s who has tested positive thus far, the day we learned about their result and what we know about their condition. (Niedzwiadek, 10/6)

The Washington Post: White House Clears Food And Drug Administration Coronavirus Vaccine Standards It Tried To Derail
The White House on Tuesday, after weeks of delay, approved tough new standards for coronavirus vaccines — but only after the Food and Drug Administration unilaterally published the guidelines on its website as part of briefing materials for outside vaccine advisers. The standards, which would be applied to an emergency use authorization for a vaccine, are the same as ones the agency proposed weeks ago. In many ways, they are similar to the standards for a traditional approval. But the White House, worried that the criteria would delay authorization of a vaccine, presumably beyond the Nov. 3 election, decided to sit on the guidance. (McGinley, Abutaleb and Johnson, 10/6)

The Washington Post: Coronavirus Dominates Campaign As Trump And Biden Take Vastly Different Approaches. 
President Trump’s hospitalization has returned the coronavirus to the forefront of the presidential campaign, with him and Democrat Joe Biden on Tuesday promoting their dramatically divergent views on how to handle the deadly pandemic and how to approach the presidency. In the face of polls that showed a hardening of the presidential contest in Biden’s favor and suggested broadening paths for victory for the former vice president, Trump stuck with a months-old message that has found wide support among his loyalists but has turned off other voters he needs to secure a second term. (Viser and Sullivan, 10/6)

The Washington Post: Trump’s Determination To Attend Next Week’s Debate Seen As Part Of Pattern Of Recklessness 
President Trump’s tweet Tuesday that he looks forward to next week’s presidential debate alarmed some medical and public health experts, who warned that his coronavirus infection might still be contagious then and could endanger others. A day after the president was discharged from a three-night hospital stay, during which he was put on an aggressive mix of treatments usually reserved for the most severe cases of covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, he continued to project an image of being fully in charge and able to conduct all of his regular activities. (Goldstein and Stead Sellers, 10/6)

Politico: Biden: If Trump Still Has Covid, Call Off The Debate 
Joe Biden said on Tuesday that the next presidential debate should be called off if President Donald Trump is still positive for Covid-19. “I think if he still has Covid, we shouldn’t have a debate,” Biden told reporters, according to a press pool report. “We’re going to have to follow very strict guidelines. Too many people have been infected. It’s a very serious problem.” (Choi, 10/6)

The New York Times: Biden Questions Idea Of Debating Trump Next Week 
Asked by reporters on Tuesday night whether he would feel safe debating Mr. Trump, who was hospitalized last week with the coronavirus, Mr. Biden responded: “I think if he still has Covid, we shouldn’t have a debate.” But Mr. Biden said his decision would be guided by the Cleveland Clinic and doctors. (10/6)

The Washington Post: Pence, Harris Teams At Odds Over Plexiglass At Debate 
The Commission on Presidential Debates said Tuesday night that Vice President Pence had dropped his objections to a plexiglass barricade on his side of the stage for Wednesday’s debate after viewing the setup during a walk-through of the debate hall. The disclosure, by commission co-chair Frank Fahrenkopf Jr., came after a long day of posturing between the Trump and Biden campaigns over whether the barriers were needed to protect the participants from the coronavirus. Advisers to Pence maintained that there was no need for a barrier on his side of the stage. (Scherer and Dawsey, 10/6)

Politico: Another Political Fault Line In The Era Of Coronavirus: Plexiglass 
Plexiglass is the new mask when it comes to pandemic-inspired precautions dividing Republicans and Democrats. The campaigns of President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden are faced with an unprecedented problem. After a coronavirus outbreak at the White House, the president is ill with Covid-19 and many of his closest allies have been exposed or even tested positive. But time is running out to quarantine and postpone debates ahead of the Nov. 3 election. (Murray, 10/6)

The Hill: Trump Says He Will Back Specific Relief Measures Hours After Halting Talks 
President Trump late Tuesday signaled he would support specific measures on stimulus checks, help for the airline industry and small business loans, hours after cutting off bipartisan talks for more coronavirus relief. “The House & Senate should IMMEDIATELY Approve 25 Billion Dollars for Airline Payroll Support, & 135 Billion Dollars for Paycheck Protection Program for Small Business. Both of these will be fully paid for with unused funds from the Cares Act. Have this money. I will sign now!” Trump tweeted Tuesday, referring to the coronavirus stimulus package passed in March. (Axelrod, 10/6)

Politico: Trump Ends Coronavirus Relief Talks Amid Stalemate With Pelosi
President Donald Trump said Tuesday he is ending negotiations with Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Democratic leaders over a new economic aid package to respond to the coronavirus until after Nov. 3, a momentous decision that will impact the millions of Americans suffering from the pandemic and could sway the outcome of the election. One day after being released from the hospital after contracting Covid-19, Trump blamed Pelosi for the failure to reach an agreement on the coronavirus relief legislation. But in reality the two sides have remained hundreds of billions of dollars apart through high-level discussions that have dragged on since July. (Bresnahan, Caygle and Ferris, 10/6)

The Washington Post: Trump Abruptly Cuts Off Coronavirus Aid Talks, But Tweets Send Mixed Messages
Coronavirus relief talks came to an abrupt halt Tuesday as President Trump ordered Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to stop negotiating with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi until after the November election. Hours later, however, Trump appeared to contradict himself in a series of tweets that called for Congress to “IMMEDIATELY” approve additional aid for small businesses and airlines. (Noori Farzan, 10/7)

Washington Post: ‘Doomed To Fail’: Why A $4 Trillion Bailout Couldn’t Revive The American Economy
The four spending bills that Congress passed earlier this year to address the coronavirus crisis amounted to one of the costliest relief efforts in U.S. history, and the undertaking soon won praise across the political spectrum for its size and speed. ... Six months later, however, the nation’s coronavirus battle is far from won, and if the prodigious relief spending was supposed to target the neediest and move the country beyond the pandemic, much of the money missed the mark. (Whoriskey, MacMillan, O'Connell, Shin and Pascual, 10/5)

The New York Times: Jerome Powell, Fed Chair, Says Economy Has 'A Long Way To Go' As Trump Calls Off Stimulus Talks
Hours after the Federal Reserve chair, Jerome H. Powell, warned that the economy could see “tragic” results without robust government support, President Trump abruptly cut off stimulus talks, sending the stock market sliding and delivering a final blow to any chance of getting additional pandemic aid to struggling Americans before the election. (Smialek, Cochrane and Tankersley, 10/6)

Politico: Dems Ask DOJ For Answers Over Barrett's Abortion Ad Omission 
Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats pressed the Justice Department Tuesday to explain the omission of a 2006 anti-abortion newspaper advertisement signed by Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett, in her materials to the committee. In a letter to Assistant Attorney General Beth Williams, led by Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, the top Democrat on the Committee, members voiced concern that more information could be missing from the Supreme Court nominee’s questionnaire. (Levine, 10/6)

NPR: Duckworth: Block Supreme Court Pick Who Thinks 'My Daughters Shouldn't Even Exist' 
A Democratic U.S. senator who has spoken openly about motherhood and giving birth at age 50 is asking her Republican colleagues to reconsider their support for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett in light of the judge's ties to an organization that has publicly opposed some types of fertility treatments. In a letter to her colleagues, Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois describes the role of in vitro fertilization, or IVF, in helping her conceive her two daughters, now 5 and 2. In 2018, Duckworth famously brought her newborn daughter, Maile, on the Senate floor after lobbying for a rules change. (McCammon, 10/6)

Politico: House Democrats Seek To Block Funds For 'Defeat Despair' Covid Ads 
House Democrats overseeing the Trump administration's coronavirus response will introduce a largely symbolic bill intended to limit the administration's ability to spend federal funds on certain coronavirus-related advertisements before the election, according to a draft shared first with POLITICO. The Defeat Pandemic Propaganda Act of 2020 is authored by Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), joined by Reps. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y), Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) and Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.). The Democrats' bill would bar HHS from using taxpayer funds on an ad campaign to "positively influence public perception regarding the Covid–19 pandemic," specifically distort any facts or encourage risky behaviors amid the outbreak. (Diamond, 10/6)

Stat: Rick Bright, Federal Vaccine Expert Turned Whistleblower, Resigns NIH Post
Rick Bright, the Trump administration vaccine expert turned whistleblower, resigned from the federal government Tuesday, according to a press release from his lawyer. Bright, who headed the powerful Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, was abruptly reassigned in April to a lesser position at the National Institutes of Health. Bright has alleged he was moved after raising concerns about the Trump administration’s response to Covid-19 and nepotism within the Department of Health and Human Services. In May, he filed a formal whistleblower complaint against his former employer. (Florko, 10/6)

The New York Times: Whistle-Blowing Scientist Quits Government With Final Broadside 
Rick Bright, a senior vaccine scientist who said he was demoted this spring for complaining about “cronyism” and political interference in science, resigned his final government post on Tuesday, saying he had been sidelined and left with nothing to do. In a new addendum to the whistle-blower complaint he filed in May, Dr. Bright’s lawyers say officials at the National Institutes of Health, where he worked after his demotion, rejected his idea for a national coronavirus testing strategy “because of political considerations.” He also accused them of ignoring his request to join the $10 billion effort to fast-track a coronavirus vaccine, known as Operation Warp Speed. (Gay Stolberg, 10/6)

Politico: Trump’s Workplace Watchdog Assailed For Lenient Penalties On Covid Safety Violators 
The federal agency charged with workplace safety has done little to punish companies when their workers get sick or even die from the coronavirus, as major employers and President Donald Trump’s political appointees have pushed for a much more lenient approach to handling risks like Covid-19 on the job than previous administrations. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has received 10,485 complaints and referrals about Covid-19 risks at workplaces and closed 8,702 of them during the pandemic. But in these cases -- some involving companies worth millions -- the agency hasn't proposed a single penalty greater than $30,000 for coronavirus-related risks. (Rainey, 10/6)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: OSHA Eases Reporting Requirements On Worker Infections
The state’s worst coronavirus outbreak at an assisted living facility was at Arbor Terrace at Cascade. There, 54 residents and 36 staff members have tested positive, and 17 residents died.Now, the Fulton County facility is facing a federal fine for failing to protect its workers. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the nation’s workplace safety regulator, is proposing a penalty of $13,494 — OSHA’s ceiling amount for a single “serious” violation, though that can be negotiated down. (Edwards, 10/5)

The New York Times: After Meat Workers Die Of Covid-19, Families Fight For Compensation 
After Saul Sanchez tested positive for the coronavirus at a hospital in Greeley, Colo., he spoke to his daughter on the phone and asked her to relay a message to his supervisors at work. “Please call JBS and let them know I’m in the hospital,” his daughter Beatriz Rangel remembered him as saying. “Let them know I will be back.” The meat-processing company JBS had employed Mr. Sanchez, 78, at its plant in Greeley for three decades. He was one of at least 291 people there who tested positive for the coronavirus, according to data from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. (Fortin, 10/6)

Politico: Fauci: There Could Be 300,000 To 400,000 Covid Deaths Unless Precautions Taken
Dr. Anthony Fauci offered a grim image of the coronavirus pandemic, telling students Tuesday that between 300,000 and 400,000 people could die from the disease in the United States. Speaking at a virtual event hosted by American University, the White House coronavirus specialist said: "If we don't do what we need to in the fall and winter, we could have 300,000-400,000 Covid-19 deaths," according to excerpts tweeted by the school. (Choi, 10/6)

The New York Times: In ‘Fauci,’ A Doctor Whose Work And Mission Have Been Shaped By Politics 
Anthony Fauci has been at the helm of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases through the emergence of H.I.V., SARS, avian bird flu, swine flu, Ebola, Zika. He is “America’s doctor,” Michael Specter, a staff writer at The New Yorker, says in his new audiobook, “the essential first biography,” according to its publishers. “We don’t have an actual leader,” Specter said in April. “Fauci is the closest thing.” Biography might be a generous description of this book. “Fauci” faithfully follows Specter’s profile of the doctor published in The New Yorker this spring. The White House tightly controlled his access to Fauci; despite knowing each other for decades, the men were not able to meet in person. It is the story of the public life we receive, delivered in broad, reverent strokes, frank hagiography. (Sehgal, 10/6)

The Atlantic: What Makes Osteopathic Doctors Different 
After three of Andrew Taylor Still’s children died of spinal meningitis in 1864, the midwestern healer turned against mainstream medicine. Eschewing drugs and surgery, Still gravitated toward the wellness offerings of his era, dabbling in magnetic healing and hydrotherapy, before outlining a philosophy of his own. Drawing from the teachings of his Methodist-preacher father and his own experiences farming on the frontier, Still argued that the body was a self-healing machine. When physical, psychological, and spiritual afflictions interfered, a doctor’s job was to gently return a patient to homeostasis, usually through hands-on manipulation of the spine. Still called this new discipline osteopathy. (Cummins, 10/6)

AP: US Surgeon General Cited For Being In Closed Hawaii Park
The U.S. surgeon general was cited for being in a closed Hawaii park in August while in the islands helping with surge testing amid a spike in coronavirus cases, according to a criminal complaint filed in court. A Honolulu police officer cited Jerome Adams after seeing him with two men “looking at the view taking pictures” at Kualoa Regional Park on Oahu’s northeastern coast, the citation said. The park in a rural area offers a picturesque view of Mokolii island, known as Chinaman’s Hat for its cone shape. (Kelleher, 10/7)

The New York Times: The White House Bet On Abbott's Rapid Tests. It Didn't Work Out. 
After months of crowded events and often maskless encounters, a growing number of top government officials, including President Trump, and their close contacts have tested positive for the coronavirus. The fault for the outbreak lies in no small part with an ill-conceived disease-prevention strategy at the White House, health experts said: From the early days of the pandemic, federal officials have relied too heavily on one company’s rapid tests, with little or no mechanism to identify and contain cases that fell through the diagnostic cracks. (Wu, 10/6)

Stat: AstraZeneca Vaccine Trial Hold Leaves U.S. Participants In Limbo
For the 20-something-year-old Hispanic man, volunteering for AstraZeneca’s Phase 3 Covid-19 vaccine study was an easy decision. His father, after all, had been briefly hospitalized with Covid-19, and, even beyond that personal motivation, signing up was “the right thing to do,” he told STAT. The clinical trial participant, who lives in the western U.S., got his first shot in early September — he doesn’t know if he got the actual vaccine or a saline placebo, in line with the study’s double-blinded design — and he had been expecting to get a booster shot about four weeks later. (Robbins, 10/6)

Stat: Race For Covid-19 Vaccine Slows As U.S. Officials Tap The Brakes
The race for a Covid-19 vaccine slowed on Tuesday, as both U.S. regulators and the head of the Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed initiative tapped ever so softly on the brakes. The Food and Drug Administration released strengthened rules for authorizing any Covid-19 vaccine on an emergency basis. And Moncef Slaoui, co-chair of Operation Warp Speed, revealed that the government’s vaccine fast-tracking effort has urged manufacturers not to apply for emergency use authorization until they have significant amounts of vaccines to deploy. (Branswell and Herper, 10/6)

The Hill: FDA Asking COVID-19 Vaccine Developers For Two Months Of Safety Data, Raising Doubts About Approval By Election Day 
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) wants coronavirus vaccine developers to submit two months of safety data before applying for emergency approval, circumventing the White House, which has expressed concerns about the stringent requirements. The FDA, in documents posted online Tuesday, advised drugmakers conducting COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials to monitor patients for at least two months to assess potential negative effects from their candidates. (Hellmann, 10/6)

Stat: Can A Recruiter For A Covid-19 Vaccine Trial Overcome Distrust? 
Whenever his mother told him about her newfound mistrust of vaccines, Jorge David Gutierrez saw it as a kind of cognitive dissonance. She was proud of him, the first person in their family to graduate from college — Brown University, no less, in neuroscience. He was applying to medical school. Here he was, in the meantime, working on a clinical trial for Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She valued the work he did. Yet friends also sent her posts on social media. She trusted her friends, so she trusted what they sent. It frustrated him. (Boodman, 10/7)

The New York Times: 'I Won't Be Used As A Guinea Pig For White People' 
The recruiters strode to the front of the room, wearing neon-yellow vests and resolute expressions. But to the handful of tenants overwhelmed by unemployment and gang violence in Northview Heights, the pitch verged on the ludicrous. Would you like to volunteer for a clinical trial to test a coronavirus vaccine? On this swampy-hot afternoon, the temperature of the room was wintry. “I won’t be used as a guinea pig for white people,” one tenant in the predominantly Black public housing complex declared. (Hoffman, 10/7)

The New York Times: The Virus Moved Female Faculty To The Brink. Will Universities Help?
The pandemic has laid bare gender inequities across the country, and women in academia have not been spared. The outbreak erupted during universities’ spring terms, hastily forcing classes online and researchers out of their laboratories. Faculty with young or school-aged children — especially women — had to juggle teaching their students with overseeing their children’s distance learning from home. Multiple studies have already shown that women have written significantly fewer papers than their male counterparts during the pandemic. (Kramer, 10/6)

AP: Fairview Health To Close 16 Clinics, Cut 900 Jobs
A Minneapolis health care system says the coronavirus pandemic has caused deep operating losses, forcing it to close 16 clinics in Minnesota and Wisconsin and reduce its workforce by 900 employees. Fairview Health also plans to shut down Bethesda Hospital in St. Paul that had been handling COVID-19 patients and transfer that care to St. Joseph’s Hospital. Inpatient mental health care will continue at the downtown St. Paul hospital at least through 2021. (10/6)

Boston Globe: Biotech Looking To Fight Kidney Disease Launches With $51 Million
A Cambridge biotech that’s working on drugs to reverse kidney disease — rather than merely slow its progression ― was unveiled Tuesday after raising $51 million in venture capital. Walden Biosciences was created by Chicago-based ARCH Venture Partners and UCB Ventures, of Belgium. Both venture capital firms funnel early-stage funding to promising startups. (Saltzman, 10/6)

Stat: Health Coaching Startup Virta Expands Into Prediabetes And Obesity
Virta Health, a San Francisco startup that has made headlines with bold claims that it can “reverse” type 2 diabetes, announced plans Wednesday to expand its offerings, including new services for patients with prediabetes. The virtual care platform — which connects patients with health coaches over laptops and smartphones — is adding new programs that target obesity and prediabetes, citing early research that suggests its approach could benefit people with those conditions as well. The company is also adding a line of services geared at people with type 2 diabetes who are not yet ready to pursue reversal, but want support in managing their medications and symptoms. (Brodwin, 10/7)