First Edition: Sept. 11, 2020

Kaiser Health News: Kids Are Missing Critical Windows For Lead Testing Due To Pandemic
Families skipping or delaying pediatric appointments for their young children because of the pandemic are missing out on more than vaccines. Critical testing for lead poisoning has plummeted in many parts of the country. In the Upper Midwest, Northeast and parts of the West Coast — areas with historically high rates of lead poisoning — the slide has been the most dramatic, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In states such as Michigan, Ohio and Minnesota, testing for the brain-damaging heavy metal fell by 50% or more this spring compared with 2019, health officials report. (Zeltner, 9/11)

Kaiser Health News: Making Gyms Safer: Why The Virus Is Less Likely To Spread There Than In A Bar 
After shutting down in the spring, America’s empty gyms are beckoning a cautious public back for a workout. To reassure wary customers, owners have put in place — and now advertise — a variety of coronavirus control measures. At the same time, the fitness industry is trying to rehabilitate itself by pushing back against what it sees as a misleading narrative that gyms have no place during a pandemic. In the first months of the coronavirus outbreak, most public health leaders advised closing gyms, erring on the side of caution. As infections exploded across the country, states ordered gyms and fitness centers closed, along with restaurants, movie theaters and bars. State and local officials consistently branded gyms as high-risk venues for infection, akin to bars and nightclubs. (Stone, 9 /11)

Kaiser Health News: KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: The Politics Of Science 
The headlines from this week will be about how President Donald Trump knew early on how serious the coronavirus pandemic was likely to become but purposely played it down. Potentially more important during the past few weeks, though, are reports of how White House officials have pushed scientists at the federal government’s leading health agencies to put politics above science. Meanwhile, Republicans appear to have given up on using the Affordable Care Act as an electoral cudgel, judging, at least, from its scarce mention during the GOP convention. Democrats, on the other hand, particularly those running for the U.S. House and Senate, are doubling down on their criticism of Republicans for failing to adequately protect people with preexisting health conditions. That issue was key to the party winning back the House in 2018. (Rovner, 9/11)

Politico: What Did Trump Know And When Did He Know It? Inside His Feb. 7 Admission 
By the time President Donald Trump privately told journalist Bob Woodward on Feb. 7 that the coronavirus was “deadly stuff” transmitted by air, a threat “more deadly” than the flu, the warnings around him had been rampant. National security adviser Robert O’Brien had told Trump that Covid-19 would be the “largest national security crisis of your presidency.” Top trade adviser Peter Navarro was drafting urgent pleas to manufacture more medical supplies and personal protective gear in the U.S. Other worried senior aides were organizing meetings about the potential severity and spread of a pandemic. (Cook, McGraw and Cancryn, 9/10)

The Hill: Harris Calls It 'Outrageous' Trump Downplayed Coronavirus
Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), former Vice President Joe Biden’s running mate, called President Trump’s remarks to journalist Bob Woodward about the coronavirus pandemic “outrageous” on Thursday. The president told the longtime journalist in March “I wanted to always play [the virus] down. I still like playing it down, because I don’t want to create a pandemic.” (Budryk, 9/10)

The Hill: Biden Vows To Be 'Totally Transparent' On His Health If Elected 
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden vowed to be “totally transparent” on his health if elected. “I guarantee you, I will be totally transparent in terms of my health and all aspects of my health,” Biden told CNN’s Jake Tapper in an interview that aired Thursday. (Moreno, 9/10)

New York Daily News: Feds Secretly Withheld $4M From FDNY 9/11 Health Program 
The Trump administration has secretly siphoned nearly $4 million away from a program that tracks and treats FDNY firefighters and medics suffering from 9/11 related illnesses, the Daily News has learned. The Treasury Department mysteriously started withholding parts of payments — nearly four years ago — meant to cover medical services for firefighters, emergency medical technicians and paramedics treated by the FDNY World Trade Center Health Program, documents obtained by The News reveal. (McAuliff, 9/10)

AP: US Remembers 9/11 As Pandemic Changes Tribute Traditions
Americans are commemorating 9/11 with tributes that have been altered by coronavirus precautions and woven into the presidential campaign, drawing both President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden to pay respects at the same memorial without crossing paths. In New York, a dispute over coronavirus-safety precautions is leading to split-screen remembrances Friday, one at the Sept. 11 memorial plaza at the World Trade Center and another on a nearby corner. The Pentagon’s observance will be so restricted that not even victims’ families can attend, though small groups can visit the memorial there later in the day. (Peltz, 9/11)

Newsday: Amid Pandemic, 9/11 First Responders Face A Somber Anniversary
It remains unclear how the Sept. 11 Victims Compensation Fund, which provides financial assistance to those exposed to the pollutants emanating from the sites in lower Manhattan, the Pentagon near Washington, D.C., and Shanksville, Pennsylvania, will view the case of first responders with underlying WTC medical conditions who later died of COVID-19. ... A high percentage of the 9/11 health conditions are respiratory diseases such as asthma, COPD and interstitial lung disease. COVID-19 attacks that same organ, saving its most deadly consequences for victims with weakened immune systems, such as those going through chemotherapy, medical officials say. (Brodsky, 9/8)

Newsweek: Why The 9/11 Death Toll Is Still Rising Today
The death toll from the tragedy continues to rise to this day as those who worked at Ground Zero in the aftermath of the attack succumb to related illnesses. According to information supplied to Newsweek by the National Institute for Occupational Safety & Health (NIOSH), part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 3,946 members of the World Trade Center Health Program, which supports first responders and survivors on-site during and after the 9/11 attacks, have died. (Waterfield, 9/11)

WUSA9: 19 Years Later: Pentagon 9/11 Survivor Helps Fight Pandemic
Nineteen years after the devastating 9/11 attacks, Dr. Veena Railan can still remember distinct details of that Tuesday morning in 2001. "It was a beautiful morning. That’s something I never forget," she recalls. "It was beautiful sunshine, fall was just coming. It was green and gorgeous.” Dr. Railan worked inside the Pentagon as a medical officer at the facility's clinic. ... Almost two decades after the tragedy, Dr. Railan now serves on the front lines fighting the pandemic as a member of the Department of Defense. During the spread of coronavirus this year, she has helped organize public health education efforts and advised others on how to prevent getting the disease. (Dempsey, 9/10)

The Wall Street Journal: 9/11 Responders Give Assist To Coronavirus Essential Workers 
John Feal has spent much of the past 19 years advocating for victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and for Ground Zero workers, including successfully lobbying Congress alongside the comedian Jon Stewart for billions of dollars in support. But in 2020, Mr. Feal, himself severely injured as a demolition supervisor at the World Trade Center site, has been focusing much of his charitable attention on the new coronavirus pandemic. Through his FealGood Foundation, he has provided $50,000 of personal protective equipment to police and fire stations, among other places, in the New York metropolitan area. A 53-year-old resident of Nesconset, a hamlet on Long Island, Mr. Feal said the pandemic is an event that deserves the same spirit of goodwill as that which followed the 2001 terrorist attacks in New York, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania. (Passy, 9/10)

ABC News: 'Nothing Scares Me': For 9/11 Responder, COVID Was The Hardest Battle Yet 
For the last 19 years, Sept. 11 has cast a lingering shadow on John Feal.The Nesconset, New York resident and former construction worker suffered long-term health damage from working at Ground Zero and endured the emotional pain of seeing his fellow responders die from ailments contracted at the pile. Feal told ABC News that despite all of those hardships, one of the biggest challenges he's had to face was COVID-19, which he contracted in March. (Pereira, 9/11)

New York Post: 9/11 Ground Zero Responders Suffer Early Dementia Risk: Researchers
The Sept. 11 terror attack didn’t just sicken first responders who desperately searched for victims at Ground Zero — it also appears to be robbing them of their mental faculties, disturbing new research shows. A study conducted by Stony Brook University has found that people who worked amid the rubble of the Twin Towers are suffering cognitive decline far earlier than normal. “It’s two to three times more likely that 9/11 responders are likely to have mild cognitive impairment — a precondition of dementia — than the general population that is ten to twenty years older,” said chief researcher Dr. Sean Clouston. (Campanile, 9/10)

AP: 10 Dead As California Fire Becomes Deadliest Of Year
A Northern California wildfire that destroyed a foothill hamlet has become the state’s deadliest blaze of the year with 10 people confirmed dead — and the toll could climb as searchers look for 16 missing people. The North Complex fire that exploded in wind-driven flames earlier in the week was advancing more slowly Friday after the winds eased and smoke from the blaze shaded the area and lowered the temperature, allowing firefighters to make progress, authorities said. (Beam and Melley, 9/11)

USA Today: 'War Zone': Deadly Wildfires Rage In Western States: At Least 23 Dead, Hundreds Of Thousands Evacuated
Wildfires raced through more than a dozen Western states Thursday, incinerating homes, forcing hundreds of thousands of evacuations, and burning a swath of land almost the size of New Jersey. At least 23 people have died and hundreds of homes have been destroyed by more than 100 major fires that have consumed nearly 7,000 square miles. Authorities in Oregon say more than 500,000 people statewide have been forced to evacuate because of wildfires - over 10% of the state’s 4.2 million population. (Bacon, Hughes and Ortiz, 9/10)

AP: 'Evacuate Now:' Wildfires Grow In Oregon As 500K Flee
Deadly wildfires in heavily populated northwest Oregon were growing, with hundreds of thousands of people told to flee encroaching flames while residents to the south tearfully assessed their losses. People evacuated statewide because of fires had climbed to an estimated 500,000 — more than 10 percent of the 4.2 million people in the state, the Oregon Office of Emergency Management reported late Thursday. (Flaccus and Selsky, 9/11)

The Hill: Trump Administration Issues First COVID-19 Fine To Smithfield For Failing To Protect Workers
The Sioux Falls plant was the site of a coronavirus outbreak in April and OSHA cited the company for one violation of the general duty clause for failing to provide a hazard-free workplace. At least 1,294 Smithfield workers contracted coronavirus, and four employees died from the virus in the spring of 2020, OSHA confirmed. Smithfield responded on Thursday that the OSHA citation is “wholly without merit,” and that it plans to contest it. Smithfield has 15 business days from receipt of the citation and penalty to comply, request an informal conference with OSHA, or formally contest the findings. (Gangitano, 9/10)

AP: Smithfield Foods Pork Plant Faces OSHA Fine From Outbreak
Federal regulators said Thursday they have cited Smithfield Foods for failing to protect employees from exposure to the coronavirus at the company’s Sioux Falls plant, an early hot spot for virus infections that hobbled American meatpacking plants. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration found that employees were working closely together and exposed to the coronavirus. It also found that leading up to the first known infections at the plant on March 23, Smithfield did not do enough to space them out or provide other safety measures like face coverings or physical barriers. (Groves, 9/10)

Reuters: Senate Defeat Of 'Skinny' Coronavirus Aid Bill Puts It On 'Dead-End Street'
The U.S. Senate on Thursday killed a Republican bill that would have provided around $300 billion in new coronavirus aid, as Democrats seeking far more funding prevented it from advancing. By a vote of 52-47, the Senate failed to get the 60 votes needed in the 100-member chamber to advance the partisan bill toward passage, leaving the future of any new coronavirus aid in doubt. “It’s a sort of a dead-end street,” Republican Senator Pat Roberts told reporters following the vote. (Cowan and Zengerle, 9/10)

The Hill: GOP Senators Say Coronavirus Deal Dead Until After Election 
Republican senators on Thursday declared a fifth coronavirus relief bill all but dead, the latest signal that Congress is unlikely to pass any further pandemic assistance before the November election. Senate Democrats on Thursday rejected a pared down GOP relief bill brought to the floor amid a weeks-long stalemate in discussions between congressional Democrats and the White House that shows no signs of breaking. (Carney, 9/10)

The New York Times: Investigation Of Medicare Chief Seema Verma Exposes Underside Of Washington 
A girls’ night at the Georgetown home of a prominent journalist, a lobbying push for soft-focus features in glossy magazines, a professional makeup artist and invitations to awards dinners and prestige panels. The smorgasbord that expensive consultants laid out for Seema Verma, President Trump’s Medicare chief and a new arrival in town, proved to be enticing. The tab — $6 million in less than two years — fell to the federal taxpayer. (Williamson, 9/10)

The Hill: Fauci Warns US Needs To 'Hunker Down' For Fall, Winter: 'It's Not Going To Be Easy' 
Fauci also reiterated that different U.S. cities should expect to see post-Labor Day surges, with the expert saying last week that the country was heading into the fall with an “unacceptably high” level of COVID-19 cases. “We're right around 40,000 new cases, that's an unacceptably high baseline,” Fauci said at the time. “We've got to get it down, I'd like to see it 10,000 or less, hopefully less.” (Castronuovo, 9/10)

Stat: Anthony Fauci On Lessons Learned So Far In The Covid-19 Pandemic
Six months since Covid-19 was declared a pandemic, the world has learned difficult lessons on how to respond — and not respond — to such a crisis... In a Harvard Medical School Grand Rounds session on Thursday, [Anthony] Fauci shared his takeaways on how Covid-19 has been handled and what this crisis can tell us about how to combat the next one. His remarks have been lightly edited for clarity. (Gopalakrishna, 9/10)

The Hill: CDC Report: Dining Out Increases Risk Of Contracting Coronavirus More Than Other Activities 
Dining out is one of the riskiest possible activities during the coronavirus pandemic, according to a report issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Thursday, citing the fact that masks are not used while people are eating and drinking. CDC officials interviewed about 314 people who experienced symptoms of the virus and got tests, about half of whom were positive. Both the positive and the negative subjects said they had engaged in activities such as attending church and in-person shopping. However, people who tested positive were about twice as likely than those who tested negative to say they had dined at a restaurant. (Budryk, 9/10)

Stat: Persistent Post-Viral Symptoms Are Common But Hard To Study 
From 2014 to 2018, DePaul University psychologist Leonard Jason and colleagues collected personal information and blood samples from more than 4,500 healthy college students. They followed the group as some students contracted mononucleosis and a small proportion of those subsequently developed chronic fatigue syndrome — the debilitating disease also called myalgic encephalomyelitis, or ME/CFS, that is frequently triggered by an acute viral illness. (Tuller, 9/11)

CIDRAP: Another Possible COVID Complication: 'Punctured Lung'
As many as 1 in 100 hospitalized COVID-19 patients may experience a pneumothorax, or punctured lung, according to a multicenter observational case series published yesterday in the European Respiratory Journal. Pneumothorax usually occurs in very tall young men or older patients with serious underlying lung disease. But University of Cambridge researchers identified COVID-19 patients with neither of those traits who had a punctured lung or pneumomediastinum (air or gas leakage from a lung into the area between the lungs) from March to June at 16 UK hospitals. (Van Beusekom, 9/10)

The New York Times: Coronavirus Can Be Deadly For Young Adults, Too, Study Finds 
The coronavirus may be best known for the brutal toll it has taken on older adults, but a new study of hospital patients challenges the notion that young people are impervious. The research letter from Harvard found that among 3,222 young adults hospitalized with Covid-19, 88 died — about 2.7 percent. One in five required intensive care, and one in 10 needed a ventilator to assist with breathing. (9/10)

Fox News: Severe Coronavirus More Deadly Than Heart Attacks Among Young Adults: Study 
While this in-hospital mortality rate was less than reported figures for older coronavirus patients, it doubled the death rate for young adults with acute myocardial infarction or heart attacks. "Given the sharply rising rates of COVID-19 infection in young adults, these findings underscore the importance of infection prevention measures in this age group," study authors wrote. (Rivas, 9/10)

The New York Times: Why Coronavirus Tests Come With Surprise Bills 
For months, Americans have been told not to worry about the costs of coronavirus tests, which are crucial to stopping the pandemic’s spread. ... Patients, whether with or without insurance, are beginning to find holes in those new coverage programs. Nationwide, people have been hit with unexpected fees and denied claims related to coronavirus tests, according to dozens of bills that The New York Times has reviewed. Insurers have told these patients they could owe from a few dollars to thousands. (Kliff, 9/9)

The Washington Post: Maryland Buys 250,000 Rapid-Detection Coronavirus Tests For Mass Screenings 
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan announced Thursday that the state has ordered 250,000 rapid coronavirus tests that can deliver results in 15 minutes and will be deployed for mass screenings at nursing homes across the state. The rapid antigen tests, less sensitive than lab-based diagnostic tests that take hours, are newly approved by federal regulators for broad screenings and can be run on a handheld device. (Cox, Sullivan, Hedgpeth and Schneider, 9/10)

The New York Times: Missed Vaccines, Skipped Colonoscopies: Preventive Care Plummets 
When the coronavirus pandemic hit, Americans vastly scaled back their preventive health care, and there is little sign that this deferred care will be made up.Vaccinations dropped by nearly 60 percent in April, and almost no one was getting a colonoscopy, according to new data from the nonprofit Health Care Cost Institute. (Kliff, 9/11)

The Hill: Researchers Begin Clinical Trials Examining Blood Thinners As Coronavirus Treatment 
U.S. researchers are beginning two clinical trials examining the use of blood thinners to treat COVID-19, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced Thursday. One study will focus on people who were hospitalized for COVID-19 and the other will focus on those who were infected, but not hospitalized. (Moreno, 9/10)

CIDRAP: WHO Says Sepsis Causes 20% Of Global Deaths 
The World Health Organization (WHO) yesterday released its first report on the global epidemiology and burden of sepsis, estimating that the life-threatening reaction to infection causes 1 in 5 deaths worldwide. Data from 2017 show that sepsis affected 49 million people and was linked to approximately 11 million deaths worldwide—roughly 20% of annual global deaths. The report also reveals that sepsis disproportionately affects children and vulnerable populations living in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Twenty million of all estimated sepsis cases worldwide, and 2.9 million deaths, occurred in children under 5 in 2017, while roughly 85% of sepsis cases and related deaths occurred in low-resource settings. (Dall, 9/10)

Stat: Remote Monitoring Technology Raises Questions About Inclusivity, Usability
Remote monitoring technologies let doctors keep tabs on how you’re doing, even when you’re nowhere near the doctor’s office. It’s been touted as a potentially revolutionary development in health care, one with profound implications for getting tangible, objective data to clinicians, in real time. And as Mintu Turakhia, a cardiac electrophysiologist who is the executive director of Stanford’s Center for Digital Health, points out, it’s not even that new of an idea — cardiologists have been monitoring heart rhythms with sensors since the 1990s. (9/10)

Stat: As Health Tech Soared, Teladoc And Livongo Saw A Chance To ‘Accelerate’
It took a lot of late-night and early-morning Zoom calls plus some socially distanced in-person meetings to create the first health tech giant, all conducted during a pandemic and in near-total secrecy. Now that telemedicine provider Teladoc Health and diabetes coaching company Livongo are moving closer to clinching their $18.5 billion deal later this year, leaders of both companies say they’re ready to provide a single solution for care that will satisfy consumers, providers, and payers. (Cooney, 9/10)

Boston Globe: Korro Bio Raises $90 Million To Fix Mutations That Cause Diseases
Korro Bio, a Cambridge biotechnology firm, said Thursday it has raised more than $90 million in venture capital to advance its technology to repair genetic mutations that cause a variety of diseases.The startup, which was founded in 2018 by Cambridge venture capital firm Atlas Venture, hopes to treat disorders through RNA editing, a cutting-edge approach that makes changes to the molecular messengers that create proteins implicated in various illnesses. (Saltzman, 9/10)

Boston Globe: Casma Brings In Another $50 Million To Target Muscular Dystrophy
Casma Therapeutics, a Cambridge biotech trying to develop new medicines based on discoveries about how cells detoxify and repair themselves, has raised $50 million in fresh venture capital and wants to use the money to create drugs for treating muscular dystrophy. It’s the second fund-raising round for Casma, which was launched by Boston-based Third Rock Ventures in 2018 with $58 million in venture capital. (Saltzman, 9/10)

Stat: How Lyft's Health Business Is Trying To Close Gaps In Access To Care
When Megan Callahan was weighing whether to join Lyft’s burgeoning health care business two years ago, she was attracted by the idea of being able to work more closely with patients — and make the process of getting care easier for them. Just a few years earlier, Callahan, now the vice president of health care at Lyft, had been diagnosed with breast cancer. She saw firsthand how much of a barrier transportation could pose to care. (Gopalakrishna, 9/10)

Stat: Novartis, Roche Are Fined $528 Million For Anti-Competitive Practices
France’s anti-trust regulator fined Roche (RHHBY) and Novartis (NVS) a combined $528 million for conspiring to boost sales of a pricey treatment for a serious eye disease by discouraging unapproved uses of a less expensive medication. At issue is a long-running drama over Lucentis, which is used to treat age-related macular degeneration, a common disease among the elderly that can lead to blindness. (Silverman, 9/10)

Los Angeles Times: L.A. County Schools Won't Fully Reopen Until November
No campus in Los Angeles County will be allowed to reopen to all K-12 students until at least November, although schools can begin to offer small in-person classes for children with special needs at no more than 10% of capacity at one time, county Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said Thursday. The news will be a blow to students, parents and educators who have been hoping that progress against the coronavirus might allow for campuses to reopen on a faster tract. However, the small in-person classes for children who need special services, announced last week, could allow at least 200,000 students back to campus across the county. (Blume, 9/10)

AP: Reynolds: Des Moines Students Must Return To Classroom
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds on Thursday urged Des Moines school officials to give up their effort to educate all students remotely because of the coronavirus, after two judges decided that the state can impose its rules on school districts. Reynolds said the state’s largest district is alone in refusing to develop a plan for in-person instruction and needs to work with the state to develop a plan for students to safely return to school. (Pitt, 9/10)

The New York Times: Des Moines Schools Defy Governor's Reopening Order Amid Coronavirus 
No matter how much tension has surrounded the reopening of schools during the coronavirus pandemic, most state and local officials have found a way to arrive at some sort of plan by the first day of classes. But not in Des Moines, where school began this week with local officials openly defying Iowa’s governor and a judge’s order by teaching remotely. The decision puts the district’s funding and administrators’ jobs at risk, and leaves students locked out of athletics and their parents uncertain whether online classes will even count. (Levin and Taylor, 9/10)

Politico: Florida Schools Defy DeSantis Order To Keep Virus Stats Under Wraps
Florida school districts are defying Gov. Ron DeSantis and publicly reporting new Covid-19 cases among students and staff that the state government considers confidential. The state Department of Health has tried to directly quash reporting on the virus in some instances, after DeSantis said K-12 testing data “needs to be put in the right context.” (Atterbury, 9/10)

The Washington Post: Remote-Learning Health Tips To Prevent Neck Pain And Eye Strain In Children 
This spring, adults suddenly working from home full-time got a lesson in ergonomics the hard way. This fall, make sure your kids don’t have to. To ensure learning from home isn’t a pain in the neck (or strain on the eyes), we turned to experts in ergonomics and children’s health. They prioritize two conditions for healthy learning: frequent movement throughout the day and a screen at eye level. (Long, 9/10)

Politico: Spotty Virus Tracking In Schools Is Leaving Millions In The Dark On Infection Rates 
The data on how coronavirus is spreading at schools and colleges is inconsistent, erratic — and sometimes purposely kept out of the public’s reach. Federal rules don’t specifically require tracking or reporting the numbers by school or college, despite pressure from President Donald Trump and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to open schools and colleges for in-person classes. The result is a distorted picture of how and where the virus may be spreading, not just for parents, teachers, students and professors, but the cities and towns where campuses are located. (Quilantan and Goldberg, 9/10)

USA Today: COVID Cases At Colleges Fuel Top US Outbreak Rates, Tracker Shows
About three weeks ago, the University of Mississippi started its fall semester, bringing students from around the country back to Lafayette County. The university had hoped its mix of in-person and online classes and mask-wearing guidelines, among other measures, would be enough to prevent an outbreak. On paper, the college appears to be doing well. According to recent numbers, the University of Mississippi has recorded about 430 confirmed cases since Aug. 24, the first day of classes in Oxford, and still has plenty of housing for those who have been infected or exposed to the virus.  (Quintana and Stucka, 9/11)

AP:  2 South Carolina Football Players Test Positive
South Carolina football coach Will Muschamp said two players have tested positive for COVID-19 while another nine are being held out because of possible contact with the infected players. Muschamp gave the update Thursday night. The Gamecocks open the season at home Sept. 26 against No. 25 Tennessee. (9/11)

The New York Times: The University Of Illinois At Urbana-Champaign Had A Great Coronavirus Plan, But Students Partied On 
At the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, more than 40,000 students take tests twice a week for the coronavirus. They cannot enter campus buildings unless an app vouches that their test has come back negative. Everyone has to wear masks. This is one of the most comprehensive plans by a major college to keep the virus under control. University scientists developed a quick, inexpensive saliva test. Other researchers put together a detailed computer model that suggested these measures would work, and that in-person instruction could go forward this fall. But the predictive model included an oversight: It assumed that all of the students would do all of the things that they were told to. (Chang, 9/10)

The New York Times: How The N.F.L. Started Football Season On Time In The Pandemic 
The N.F.L. opened its season Thursday night with a game between the Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs and the Houston Texans, a milestone reminder of normalcy during a completely abnormal time. The kickoff, which came after the Texans remained in their locker room during the national anthem and one member of the Chiefs knelt during the playing of it, marked the culmination of months of intense planning and negotiations between the league and its players’ union, who sought to resolve a central question: How could a sport contested by players who slam into one another on every play begin safely amid the coronavirus pandemic? (Shpigel, 9/10)

St. Paul Pioneer Press: Inspectors Checked MN Bars And Restaurants For COVID Compliance. Just Over Half Were OK.
State and local inspectors Wednesday reported results for coronavirus compliance checks at 167 bars and restaurants in selected parts of Minnesota outside the east metro. Just over half were in compliance. (Orrick, 9/10)

AP: Florida Bars Allowed To Reopen Next Week At 50% Capacity
Florida bars will be allowed to reopen at 50% capacity starting Monday, state officials announced Thursday.At the direction of Gov. Ron DeSantis, Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation Secretary Halsey Beshears issued an emergency order rescinding a previous order that halted the sale of alcohol at bars, an agency news release said. (Spencer, 9/11)

The Hill: Zuckerberg Says Facebook Won't Remove Anti-Vaccine Posts Amid Coronavirus Pandemic 
Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg says in a new interview that the social media giant has no intention of removing anti-vaccination posts. Zuckerberg's remarks come as several companies, such as Moderna, AstraZeneca and Pfizer, are in the late stages of clinical trials for their COVID-19 vaccine candidates. (Kelley, 9/10)

USA Today: COVID-19 Quarantine Increases Risks Of Eating Disorders, Experts Say
Eating disorders thrive in isolation. Which explains why health experts have seen a surge in people seeking help amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The National Eating Disorders Association has reported steep increases, up to 78% during some months, in the number of calls and online chats compared to a year ago as millions of Americans quarantine to slow the spread of the virus. (Flores, 9/11)

Fox News: Brain-Eating Amoeba Claims Life Of Florida Boy, 13
A brain-eating amoeba claimed the life of a 13-year-old boy in Florida, according to multiple reports. The parents of Tanner Lake Wall told Florida news outlet News4Jax that their son contracted the amoeba, Naegleria fowleri, when he was swimming at a campground in North Florida near Tallahassee just a few days before his death. “He swam in a lake there Friday and Saturday with 50-plus kids and our daughters were there, my husband was there, no one else got it, and he’s the only one," Alicia Whitehill, Tanner’s mother, said in an interview with the TV news outlet. (McGorry, 9/10)

AP: Food Plant Cited For Failing To Protect Workers From Virus
California’s workplace safety regulator has cited a frozen food manufacturer and its temporary employment agency for failing to protect hundreds of employees from the coronavirus at two Los Angeles area plants. California’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued citations this month to Overhill Farms and Jobsource North America and proposed over $200,000 in penalties for each company. (9/10)

The Washington Post: High Numbers Of Los Angeles Patients Complained About Coughs As Early As December, Study Says 
The number of patients complaining of coughs and respiratory illnesses surged at a sprawling Los Angeles medical system from late December through February, raising questions about whether the novel coronavirus was spreading earlier than thought, according to a study of electronic medical records. The authors of the report, published Thursday in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, suggested that coronavirus infections may have caused this rise weeks before U.S. officials began warning the public about an outbreak. But the researchers cautioned that the results cannot prove that the pathogen reached California so soon, and other disease trackers expressed skepticism that the findings signaled an early arrival. (Guarino, 9/10)

Los Angeles Times: Low-Income Seniors Lose Food Deliveries As Coronavirus Peaks 
Tens of thousands of low-income California seniors stopped receiving home deliveries of free food just as COVID-19 cases and deaths in the state were peaking, thanks to a century-old federal policy to include surplus cheese in government aid packages. As the coronavirus began to spread in March and Gov. Gavin Newsom called on millions of seniors to self-isolate, these needy Californians initially were able to have a box of dried food delivered to their homes each month at no cost because federal regulators granted a state request to temporarily waive certain rules governing the Commodity Supplemental Food Program. The three-month exemption allowed food banks to remove cheese — the only perishable item in the boxes — and then use private companies or volunteers to deliver the monthly aid to clients’ homes. ... But in July, the federal waiver ended and U.S. Department of Agriculture officials refused to extend it, meaning cheese must again be included and, more problematically, refrigerated in transit.. (Wire, 9/10)

The New York Times: The Nursing Home Workers Who May Spread The Coronavirus 
Health policy analysts say that poorly paid staff members working two or more nursing home jobs may be significant contributors — usually unwittingly — to the spread of the virus. Several nursing home employees in Florida have been terminated after being accused of coming to work sick. “Unfortunately, staff have been the largest vector towards bringing Covid into nursing homes around the country,” David Grabowski, a professor of health care policy at Harvard Medical School, said. (de Freytas-Tamura, 9/10)

AP: Nebraska To End Nearly All Social Distancing Restrictions
Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts will end nearly all of his state’s social-distancing restrictions on Monday even as the number of new coronavirus cases has trended upward over the last few months. The new rules will still limit the size of large indoor gatherings, such as concerts, meeting halls and theaters, but will drop all other state-imposed mandates in favor of voluntary guidelines, as other conservative states have done.“We are loosening the restrictions further on Sept. 14,” Ricketts said at a news conference. (Schulte, 9/10)