First Edition: Sept. 4, 2020

Kaiser Health News and Nashville Public Radio: Will Labor Day Weekend Bring Another Holiday COVID Surge? Jury’s Out.
Hopefully, summer won’t end the way it began. Memorial Day celebrations helped set off a wave of coronavirus infections across much of the South and West. Gatherings around the Fourth of July seemed to keep those hot spots aflame. And now Labor Day arrives as those regions are cooling off from COVID-19. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, warned Wednesday that Americans should be cautious to avoid another surge in infection rates. But travelers are also weary of staying home — and tourist destinations are starved for cash. (Farmer, 9/4)

Kaiser Health News: In Legislative Shuffle, California Prioritizes Safety Gear And Sick Leave During Crisis 
California lawmakers convened this year with big plans to tackle soaring health care costs, expand health insurance coverage and improve treatment for mental health and addiction.But the pandemic abruptly reoriented their priorities, forcing them to grasp for legislative solutions to the virus ripping through the state. (Bluth, Hart and Young, 9/4)

Kaiser Health News: HHS Plan To Improve Rural Health Focuses On Better Broadband, Telehealth Services  
Knowing it may be met with some skepticism, the Trump administration Thursday announced a sweeping plan that officials say will transform health care in rural America. Even before the coronavirus pandemic reached into the nation’s less-populated regions, rural Americans were sicker, poorer and older than the rest of the country. Hospitals are shuttering at record rates, and health care experts have long called for changes. (Tribble, 9/4)

Kaiser Health News: As Threat Of Valley Fever Grows Beyond The Southwest, Push Is On For Vaccine 
One New Year’s Day, Rob Purdie woke up with a headache that wouldn’t quit. Vision problems, body aches and a slight fever followed. At the emergency room, the Bakersfield, California, resident was given antibiotics, which didn’t touch his symptoms. His headache turned into cluster headaches and the fatigue became worse.“I was not really functional,” he said in a recent interview, recalling the beginning of his eight-year struggle with the mystery illness. (Robbins, 9/4)

CIDRAP: COVID-19 Total Passes 26 Million; Independent Review Panel Named 
The global COVID-19 total today topped 26 million, as the leaders of independent group reviewing the world's response announced the members of an 11-person panel and Sanofi and GSK announced the launch of the first human trial of its recombinant vaccine against the virus. In recent weeks, India has led the world with the most daily cases, and over the past day it reported a new daily high of 83,883 new cases. The country will soon pass Brazil to become the country with the second highest number of cases. The global total today reached 26,128,340 new cases and 865,132 people have died from their infections, according to the Johns Hopkins online dashboard. (Schnirring, 9/3)

AP: Members Named To Panel Probing WHO's Pandemic Response
An independent panel appointed by the World Health Organization to review its coordination of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic will have full access to any internal U.N. agency documents, materials and emails necessary, the panel said Thursday as it begins the probe. The panel’s co-chairs, former Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark, announced the 11 other members during a media briefing. They include Dr. Joanne Liu, who was an outspoken WHO critic while leading Medecins Sans Frontieres during the 2014-2016 Ebola outbreak in West Africa. (Cheng, 9/3)

Reuters: Pandemic Review Panel Named, Includes Miliband, Ex Mexican President 
“We intend to learn all that we can about (the pandemic’s) early emergence, global spread, health, economic and social impacts, and how it has been controlled and mitigated,” Clark said in a statement. ... The panel is to meet about every six weeks starting this month through to April and will make a presentation to the WHO’s executive board in October, it said. (9/3)

The Hill: 70 Percent Of New Coronavirus Cases Are Coming From Red States 
Red states in the U.S. are officially at the forefront of COVID-19 outbreaks, with 70 percent of new cases stemming from the nation's Republican-led areas. Still, many new COVID-19 cases are emerging in blue counties, while the majority of cases are concentrated in states that voted for President Trump in the 2016 election, The Washington Post reported. (Deese, 9/3)

The Washington Post: Governor’s Political Party Is Biggest Factor In Whether A State Has Imposed Mask Mandate, Study Finds 
States led by Republican governors have been slower than those led by Democrats to require residents to wear masks to protect against the novel coronavirus — if they have adopted such rules at all. New research finds that the governor’s political party was the biggest determinant of whether a state imposed a mask mandate between early April and mid-August, a factor outweighing others including a state’s number of coronavirus infections or deaths linked to the disease caused by the virus. (Goldstein, 9/3)

Fox News: Fauci Warns Coronavirus Cases Are 'Unacceptably High' As Labor Day Weekend Approaches
Dr. Anthony Fauci has warned that coronavirus cases remain “unacceptably high” as the nation heads into the Labor Day weekend. During an interview this week, Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a member of the White House's Coronavirus Task Force, urged Americans to follow health and safety measures to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, as this weekend will affect how the virus spreads in the upcoming fall and winter seasons. (McGorry, 9/3)

Reuters: Exclusive: U.S. Threat To Pull WADA Funding Could Leave Americans Out Of Olympics 
America’s top athletes could be banned from the Olympics and other major international sporting events if the United States follows through on its threat to withdraw funding from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), anti-doping leaders told Reuters. The U.S. threat has sent shockwaves through the anti-doping community and prompted several governments to urge WADA to introduce legislation that would find the U.S. non-compliant with the WADA Code, effectively barring American athletes from international competition. (Keating, 9/3)

The Daily Beast: U.S. Could Be Thrown Out Of Olympics Over Trump Funding Threats, World Anti-Doping Agency Warns
American athletes could be banned from the Olympics if the Trump administration follows through on its threats to pull U.S. funding from the World Anti-Doping Agency, the group’s leader has warned. Earlier this year, a report by the White House’s Office of National Drug Control Policy suggested that the U.S. withhold its WADA funding to strong-arm the agency into giving the U.S. more representation on its boards and committees. WADA President Witold Banka told Reuters that the consequences of such a funding withdrawal could be “severe and far reaching for American athletes,” adding that he’s considering making non-payment of a contribution a contravention of the World Anti-Doping Code. (Ross, 9/4)

Politico: Federal Court Blocks Trump's Abortion 'Gag' Rule
The ruling applies just to Maryland, but it creates a split in the judiciary — the 9th Circuit previously allowed the funding restrictions to move forward. That makes it more likely the Supreme Court will take up challenges to the Trump rules. (Miranda Ollstein, 9/3)

AP: Court Blocks Trump Administration Abortion Rules In Maryland
A divided federal appeals court on Thursday upheld a lower court’s decision blocking the enforcement in Maryland of Trump administration rules that prohibit taxpayer-funded family planning clinics in the Title X program from making abortion referrals. The Richmond, Virginia-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed an existing permanent injunction. It wrote that the administration’s rules “failed to recognize and address the ethical concerns of literally every major medical organization in the country” and “arbitrarily estimated the cost” of implementing part of the rules. (Rankin, 9/3)

CIDRAP: COVID-19 Remains Key Election Issue For Biden, Trump
With talk of a vaccine in time for Election Day ramping up, both Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and incumbent Donald Trump continue to confront the pandemic as a major talking point for the presidential election, now 2 months away. Yesterday, during a campaign speech, Biden called Trump’s failure to safely open schools, especially elementary schools, a "national emergency." (Soucheray, 9/3)

Politico: Trump Spins Rumors About His Own Health Into New Attack On Biden
President Donald Trump on Thursday parlayed rumors over his health into another hit on Joe Biden, spinning a highly scrutinized visit to Walter Reed hospital last year into an attack on his Democratic presidential rival during a campaign event. Speaking at an airport hangar to a packed-in crowd in Latrobe, Pa., Trump claimed journalists had spread rumors of the president having "mini-strokes" because "they want to try and get me to be on Biden's physical level." (Choi, 9/3)

USA Today: Trump Rallies In Latrobe, Pennsylvania, As Race With Biden Tightens
President Donald Trump dismissed questions about his own health and mocked his Democratic opponent for wearing a mask in a freewheeling rally Thursday in Pennsylvania that came as polls show a tightening race. For a second day, Trump dismissed questions about an unscheduled visit he made to Walter Reed Medical Center in November, brushing aside a report about the visit as a conspiracy concocted by critics. At the same time, Trump raised unfounded questions about Joe Biden's own health, and criticized his mask-wearing. (Fritze and Jackson, 9/3)

The New York Times: Trump Vaccine Chief Casts Doubt On Coronavirus Vaccine By Election Day 
Dr. Slaoui confirmed that the two main candidates, referred to as Vaccine A and Vaccine B, were being developed by Pfizer and Moderna. He said that there was “no intent” to introduce a vaccine before clinical trials were completed, and that trials would only be completed when an independent safety monitoring board, separate from the government, affirmed the effectiveness of the vaccine. (9/3)

AP: White House Faces Skepticism Over Prospects For A Vaccine
Could the U.S. really see a coronavirus vaccine before Election Day?A letter from federal health officials instructing states to be ready to begin distributing a vaccine by Nov. 1 — two days before the election — has been met, not with exhilaration, but with suspicion among some public health experts, who wonder whether the Trump administration is hyping the possibility or intends to rush approval for political gain. (Johnson and Smith, 9/3)

NPR: Top Adviser To Operation Warp Speed Calls An October Vaccine 'Extremely Unlikely'
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is asking states to have a plan in place to distribute a COVID-19 vaccine as soon as late October — but that doesn't mean an effective treatment will be ready quite so soon. In separate interviews Thursday with NPR, the chief scientific adviser to the Trump administration's vaccine development effort and the former director of the CDC's office of public health preparedness cautioned that an effective vaccine is likely still months away. (Silva, 9/3)

The Hill: Fauci Says He 'Would Not Hesitate For A Moment' To Take Coronavirus Vaccine 
Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious diseases expert, said he would feel comfortable taking a coronavirus vaccine if one is approved by the government. “I mean I will look at the data and I would assume and I’m pretty sure it’s going to be the case that a vaccine would not be approved for the American public unless it was indeed both safe and effective. And I keep emphasizing both safe and effective. If that’s the case, Jim, I would not hesitate for a moment to take the vaccine myself and recommend it for my family,” he told CNN anchor Jim Sciutto on Thursday. (Axelrod, 9/3)

Politico: HHS Secretary Insists No Politics At Play In Coronavirus Vaccine Race 
“I think it’s very irresponsible how people are trying to politicize notions of delivering a vaccine to the American people,” Azar told “CBS This Morning” in an interview. ... Although Azar said it was unclear when the data from those studies would be reported, he argued that “if we get a vaccine, we need to be ready to distribute that.” (Forgey, 9/3)

CIDRAP: CEO Says Pfizer Won't Cut Corners In COVID Vaccine Race 
The head of US drug maker Pfizer said today that his company would not submit a COVID-19 vaccine for approval or emergency use authorization (EUA) if its scientists don't have data from large phase 3 trials showing safety and efficacy. "We will never submit for authorization or approval any vaccine before we feel that it is safe and effective," Albert Bourla, DVM, PhD, chairman and CEO of Pfizer, said in a press briefing organized by the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations. "We will not cut corners." (Dall, 9/3)

Fox News: Phase III Trials Of Coronavirus Vaccine To Take Place At 5 US Military Sites, Pentagon Confirms 
“The Department of Defense continues to play a key role in the development of a potential COVID-19 vaccine,” Tom McCaffery, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, said in the release. “Now that vaccines have passed the first phases of testing for safety, dosing and response, we are ready to move into the next phase where volunteers are needed to join large clinical studies. We are excited to have several sites identified to support the next steps in the vaccine development process,” McCaffery, said in the press release. (McGorry and Tomlinson, 9/3)

Stat: Expert Panel Outlines Steps Before Future 'CRISPR Babies' Attempts 
Nearly two years after the birth of the first “CRISPR babies” stunned the world, an international group of experts on Thursday warned such human experimentation — in which the DNA of embryos is edited before starting pregnancies — should not be conducted because of unresolved scientific and ethical issues. But the group’s eagerly awaited report detailed the steps that scientists should go through before attempting to create gene-edited babies should countries ever greenlight the procedure. (Joseph, 9/3)

AP: Still Too Soon To Try Altering Human Embryo DNA, Panel Says
It’s still too soon to try to make genetically edited babies because the science isn’t advanced enough to ensure safety, says an international panel of experts who also mapped a pathway for any countries that want to consider it. Thursday’s report comes nearly two years after a Chinese scientist shocked the world by revealing he’d helped make the first gene-edited babies using a tool called CRISPR, which enables DNA changes or “edits” that can pass to future generations. He Jianqui did this to three babies when they were embryos to try to make them resistant to infection with the AIDS virus and described it in exclusive interviews with The Associated Press. (Marchione, 9/3)

The Washington Post: Penn State Clarifies Remark By Doctor About Myocarditis And Covid-19 Positive Big Ten Athletes 
Penn State clarified a comment by an official who stated earlier this week that cardiac MRI scans revealed that roughly a third of Big Ten athletes who tested positive for the coronavirus and were scanned appeared to have myocarditis. The comment by Wayne Sebastianelli, the school’s director of athletic medicine, came Monday as he spoke to a local school board about high school preparations and precautions. According to a Penn State Health spokesman, Sebastianelli was speaking about “initial preliminary data that had been verbally shared by a colleague on a forthcoming study” and was not aware that it had been published, showing a rate of close to 15 percent among athletes, most of whom had experienced mild or no symptoms. Neither Sebastianelli nor Penn State conducted that study and he apologized for the confusion. (Boren, 9/3)

The Hill: Penn State Doctor: 'Alarming' Number Of Heart Inflammation In Athletes With COVID-19 
An "alarming" percentage of student athletes with COVID-19 are also developing heart inflammation known as myocarditis, according to a Penn State doctor, though he later clarified that the percentage is not as high as he initially said. Wayne Sebastianelli, Penn State’s director of athletic medicine, said during a board meeting Monday night that around 30 percent of student athletes with COVID-19 who were given cardiac MRI's were found to have heart inflammation. (Sullivan, 9/3)

Stat: ‘Carnage’ In A Lab Dish Shows How Coronavirus May Damage Hearts 
Maybe we should think of Covid-19 as a heart disease. When SARS-CoV-2 virus was added to human heart cells grown in lab dishes, the long muscle fibers that keep hearts beating were diced into short bits, alarming scientists at the San Francisco-based Gladstone Institutes, especially after they saw a similar phenomenon in heart tissue from Covid-19 patients’ autopsies. Their experiments could potentially explain why some people still feel short of breath after their Covid infections clear and add to worries that survivors may be at risk for future heart failure. (Cooney, 9/4)

CIDRAP: Indiana Data: Non-Whites, Older People Much More Likely To Die Of COVID-19
The COVID-19 case-fatality rate (CFR) in community-dwelling Indiana residents was three times higher in non-whites and 2.5 times higher than that of flu in people 65 years and older, a study published yesterday in the Annals of Internal Medicine found. Indiana University researchers analyzed coronavirus prevalence estimates of people 12 years and older from a random sample taken across their state and COVID-19 tests from Apr 25 to 29. Nursing home residents, which made up 54.9% of the state's deaths at that time, weren't counted because they would have been unable to leave their facilities for testing. (9/3)

Fox News: 'Ultra-Processed' Foods Could Accelerate Biological Aging, Study Finds 
Three or more servings per day of what researches call “ultra-processed food” – mass-manufactured foods containing oils, sugars, fats, starch and little nutrients – may lead to changes in chromosomes linked to aging, scientists at the European and International Conference on Obesity reported at an online medical conference Tuesday. The research, from a study published earlier this year in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, found that having multiple daily servings of junk food, like cookies, chips, fast-food burgers or other processed meals, doubles the chance that certain strands of DNA, called telomeres, would be shorter than those who ate healthier. (Settembre, 9/3)

Fox News: Belly Fat May Increase Death From Prostate Cancer: Study
Researchers at the University of Oxford found that fat concentrated around the belly and waist has been linked to an increased risk of death from prostate cancer. The study involved more than 200,000 men from the U.K., and is being presented this week at the European and International Conference on Obesity (ECOICO). The team of researchers followed the subjects, who were between the ages of 40-69, for a 10-year period, according to a media release. The volunteers for the study were cancer-free at the time. (McGorry, 9/3)

Fox News: Drinking 1 Or More Alcoholic Beverages Daily Increases Chance Of Obesity, Metabolic Syndrome
Drinking more than two alcoholic beverages a day can increase risk of obesity and metabolic syndrome by more than 30% in some people, according to a recent report that was presented this week during the European and International Congress on Obesity. The study also found consuming as little as half a typical alcoholic drink each day, which is equivalent to 7g of pure alcohol, can increase the chances of metabolic syndrome and obesity in men and women, according to a study. (McGorry, 9/3)

NPR: Dual Infections: When Coronavirus And Flu Virus Compete
With the annual flu season about to start, it's still unclear exactly how influenza virus will interact with the coronavirus if a person has both viruses. Doctors around the world have seen some patients who tested positive for both influenza virus and the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. At least a couple of dozen cases have been reported — although that's not a lot, given that over 26 million people have tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. (GreenfieldBoyce, 9/3)

Reuters: Roche Receives U.S. Emergency Approval For Coronavirus Vs. Flu Test 
Drugmaker Roche (ROG.S) on Friday said it had received Emergency Use Authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for a test to quickly detect whether a patient has SARS-CoV-2 or one of two forms of influenza. "With the approaching flu season, this new test is particularly important as SARS-CoV-2 and influenza infections can hardly be differentiated by symptoms alone. Now, with a single test, healthcare professionals can confidently provide the right diagnosis and most effective treatment plan for their patients,” Roche diagnostics head Thomas Schinecker said in a statement. (9/4)

Stat: Amarin Loses Appeal Over Heart Drug Patent, Dashing Its Commercial Hopes
Amarin failed to convince a federal appeals court to revive key patents covering its heart drug Vascepa. The decision, announced Thursday, exposes the company’s only drug to generic competition in the U.S. (Garde, 9/3)

Boston Globe: Biofourmis Raises $100 Million For Remote Patient Monitoring Tools
Biofourmis, a Boston startup that makes technology to remotely monitor patients with chronic conditions and dangerous diagnoses, announced Thursday that it has taken in $100 million in new investment to help it advance products in the fields of cardiology, respiratory, oncology, and pain management. The company, which moved to downtown Boston from Singapore last year, uses wearable sensors to understand patients’ vital signs and help doctors make decisions about their care from afar. (Rosen, 9/3)

Stat: Oncorus, Three Other Biotechs Got Venture Funding A Year Ago. Did It Help?
Most biotech startups are free to tell the world as little or as much as they want about their work or their investor’s expectations. Unlike major pharmaceutical companies, which are legally required to report regularly to tens of thousands of investors, a biotech company’s immediate goals are often hinted at only in intermittent press releases. Usually the emphasis is on announcing an influx of new cash from venture capitalists, not detailing their business plans. (Sheridan, 9/4)

Politico: DeVos To Enforce School Testing Mandates Amid Pandemic 
The Trump administration plans to enforce federal standardized testing requirements for K-12 schools despite the pandemic, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos announced to state leaders on Thursday. DeVos told state school chiefs in a letter that they should not expect the Education Department to again waive federal testing requirements as it did this spring amid sudden school closures. (Stratford, 9/3)

The New York Times: A Few Students Threw Parties. Now An Entire SUNY Campus Is Shut Down. 
In late August, less than a week after classes started, the State University of New York at Oneonta suspended five students who, officials said, had organized parties in the upstate town that might have led to a coronavirus outbreak on campus. But it was already too late. Five days later, the outbreak was out of control, with nearly 400 virus cases among a campus student population that is usually around 6,000. As a result, officials announced on Thursday that they were canceling in-person classes for the fall semester and sending students home, making Oneonta the first SUNY campus to shut down because of the virus after trying to reopen for classes. (Rose, 9/3)

Fox News: Colleges Curtail Coronavirus Outbreaks Through Wastewater Surveillance Systems
Sewage surveillance to detect coronavirus is being used on certain college campuses to determine if the novel coronavirus is present in dormitories and college communities. The University of North Carolina Charlotte and the University of Arizona have both confirmed to Fox News that they are using this surveillance system to help contain the spread of COVID-19. (McGorry, 9/3)

AP: University Of Oklahoma Students: Virus Response Inadequate
More than a dozen students gathered outside the University of Oklahoma’s administration building Thursday to protest what they say is an inadequate response to the coronavirus pandemic. Students are violating the university and the city of Norman’s mask mandates at bars, restaurants and at fraternity and sorority functions, OU student Kellie Dick, a senior from Shawnee, told The Associated Press. (Murphy and Miller, 9/3)

AP: Nevada Lawmakers Fund Teacher Testing Plan As Schools Reopen
Nevada lawmakers allocated $6.2 million in federal relief dollars to a program that will test thousands of teachers across the state as they return to classrooms for in-person instruction. The program will pay for personnel, test kits, test processing and surveillance for up to 62,500 teachers and support staff throughout Nevada. It will be administered by the Clark County Teacher’s Health Trust, the largest public school employee health plan in the state. (Metz, 9/4)

AP: Police Use Of Spit Hoods Scrutinized After Black Man's Death
Not five minutes after police slipped a “spit hood” over Daniel Prude’s head, the 41-year-old Black man went limp. A week later, he was taken off life support. Prude’s suffocation in Rochester, New York, in March has drawn new attention to the hoods — mesh bags that have been linked to other deaths — and the frequent reliance on police to respond to mental health emergencies. (Sisak and Balsamo, 9/4)

NPR: 7 Rochester Police Officers Suspended Over Asphyxiation Death Of Daniel Prude 
The mayor of Rochester, N.Y., has ordered the immediate suspension of seven police officers over the death of Daniel Prude, a Black man who died of asphyxiation after being restrained during his arrest in March. Police body camera footage of the encounter was released Wednesday, prompting protests and calls for transparency and justice. ... Rochester police arrested Prude in the early hours of March 23 after his brother, concerned about his sibling's safety, had called 911. Prude, 41, had left his brother's house in below-freezing temperatures wearing long johns and a tank top. He had been released from Rochester's Strong Memorial Hospital earlier that night after expressing suicidal thoughts. (Treisman, Fanelli and Moule, 9/3)

The Hill: Democrats Unveil Plan Declaring Racism A Public Health Issue 
A trio of Democratic lawmakers introduced legislation Thursday that would label racism as a nationwide public health crisis. The bill, titled the Anti-Racism in Public Health Act, was created by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Reps. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) and Barbara Lee (D-Calif.). (Johnson, 9/3)

AP: Black Veteran Was 2nd Person In Mental Crisis Deputy Killed
A Texas sheriff’s deputy who fatally shot a troubled Black veteran last week near San Antonio also shot and killed a man suffering from a mental health crisis 10 years ago. The Bexar County Sheriff’s Office identified John A. Rodriguez, 52, a 14-year member of the force, as the deputy who fired the shot that killed a knife-wielding 30-year-old Damian Daniels on Aug. 22 as he and two other deputies struggled to detain Daniels for mental health treatment. (9/3)

AP: Tyson Foods To Open Medical Clinics At Some Meat Plants
Tyson Foods is planning to open medical clinics at several of its U.S. plants to improve the health of its workers and better protect them from the coronavirus. The Springdale, Arkansas-based company, which processes about 20% of all beef, pork and chicken in the U.S., said its plan to open the clinics near its plants was in the works before the coronavirus struck this year, but that they will undoubtedly help the company respond to the pandemic. (Funk, 9/3)

The Hill: Tyson Announces Plan To Open Medical Clinics At Several Meat Plants 
Tyson Foods announced Thursday plans to open medical clinics at several meat packaging plants to better provide for workers' health and protection from COVID-19, according to a press release.The company, based out of Springdale, Ark., processes nearly 20 percent of all pork, beef and chicken in the nation. (Deese, 9/3)

The Washington Post: Are Haircuts Safe During Coronavirus Pandemic? Experts Weigh In. 
In the months since salons and barbershops shut their doors due to the coronavirus pandemic, some people have caved, spontaneously snipping their hair until it looked passable for a Zoom call. Others thoughtfully watched YouTube tutorials, ordered professional-grade equipment off Amazon and tried to copy experts.And a few (including this writer) decided to just avoid mirrors. (Kornfield, 9/3)

The Washington Post: Coronavirus Is Ruining Our Sleep, And Could Imperil Our Health 
Sara Tibebu tried bubble baths. She curated playlists of low-fi beats, followed guided meditation videos and paid for virtual therapy. In desperation, she even plucked and dried lavender to make sachets to place inside her pillowcase. But every night, she still found herself staring at the ceiling — wide-awake. For five months, all Tibebu has wanted is a decent night of shut-eye. (Brulliard and Wan, 9/3)

The Washington Post: Robert Pattinson Tested Positive For Covid-19, Halting Production Of “The Batman” 
Actor Robert Pattinson and the cast and crew of “The Batman” had been outside London filming the superhero film for almost three months when production suddenly halted in March as the novel coronavirus spread through parts of Europe. At the time, the studio said that filming would shut down for just two weeks. Instead, the film didn’t return to set until earlier this week. Now, days after restarting production, the film has shut down yet again, this time because its star reportedly tested positive for covid-19, Vanity Fair first reported, derailing the studio’s hopes for another global blockbuster. (Peiser, 9/4)

USA Today: COVID-19 Tests, Quarantines: States' Rules Can Confound Travelers
When New York announced last month that Washington state residents could visit without quarantining for two weeks, Seattle-based labor lawyer Michael Subit sprang into action. He started planning a six-day cross-country driving trip with his wife and Bernese Mountain dog to visit his elderly parents. His 91-year-old father was just discharged after four months without visitors at a Veterans Administration hospital, where he was treated for a bone infection. His mother, 83, has diabetes, survived several strokes and heart attacks and is at high risk of COVID-19. (O'Donnell and Rodriguez, 9/4)

The Wall Street Journal: Is It Safe To Go To A Live Sporting Event? These NFL Teams Say Yes 
Back in June, the Miami Dolphins opened up Hard Rock Stadium as a drive-in movie theater—and as an experiment. The 500 or so people who paid $39 per car to watch movies like “Jurassic Park” on the stadium floor were also helping the team answer a question worth billions of dollars to the NFL: Is there a safe way to have fans at stadiums in 2020? (Beaton, 9/3)

AP: Sports Teams Scramble To Calculate Magic Attendance Number
The Kansas City Chiefs examined the layout of Arrowhead Stadium and did some math. They talked with state and local health officials, monitored the spread of COVID-19 over the summer, then did some more calculations. All that work spit out the most seemingly random number: 22. That’s the percentage of capacity that the Chiefs will allow through the gates at Arrowhead next week when they raise their Super Bowl championship banner before opening the NFL season with a Thursday night game against Houston. The number equates to roughly 17,000 fans — another seemingly random number — in the cavernous stadium. (Skretta, 9/3)

USA Today: South Dakota, COVID-19 Hot Spot, Follows Sturgis Rally With State Fair
South Dakota is one of the nation's hot spots for COVID-19 infections. That didn't stop another large-scale event from kicking off Thursday.The rural South Dakota State Fair, which reported an attendance of 205,000 people last year, is set to run through Labor Day with more hand-washing stations, social distancing reminders and an encouragement — but not a requirement — for attendees to wear masks. It comes on the heels of the state's two largest events: The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally and the The Sioux Empire Fair. (Shannon, 9/3)

AP: California Prison's Dental Clinic Cited For COVID-19 Risks
The prison in the San Francisco Bay Area is the California lockup hit hardest by the coronavirus. More than 2,200 inmates — about two-thirds of the prison population — have been infected, along with nearly 300 employees. Twenty-six inmates — including several on death row — have died from confirmed or suspected infections. (9/4)

Politico: 'Galvanize This Moment': California Lawmaker Hopes Newborn Speech Will Propel Family Leave
It was a revolution with a baby and a blanket. California Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks became an international symbol for working moms this week when she made a state Capitol floor speech just before midnight while holding her swaddled 1-month-old, Elly, and wearing a mask in the midst of the pandemic. After a whirlwind of interviews, spurred by a Hillary Clinton tweet, Wicks wants to use the moment to force changes in Washington and Sacramento that will help working parents. It comes as families are already overburdened with trying to balance parenting demands and work as school campuses remain closed and many child care centers have shut down. (Marinucci and Murphy, 9/3)

The New York Times: Buffy Wicks Voted On The Floor With A Newborn In Her Arms 
Ms. Wicks, a veteran of the Obama and Clinton presidential campaigns, said she had never expected to become a symbol when she took her month-old child with her to vote on several crucial bills on Monday, the last day of the legislative session. Ms. Wicks lives in Oakland, just over an hour southwest of the capital, Sacramento. Since she was elected to the State Assembly in 2018, she has managed to make it home nearly every night before her older daughter’s bedtime. In other words: Juggling isn’t new. (Medina, 9/3)

Fox News: Texas Woman Uses Hand Sanitizer, Then Burned While Lighting Candle: Report
A Texas woman says she was severely burned earlier this week after the hand sanitizer on her skin reportedly caught fire and exploded while she was lighting a candle. "Everywhere I had hand sanitizer on my hand, it just lit my hand with fire,” Kate Wise told KHOU-TV in Houston. “It obviously went all over my face. And, in like a matter of five seconds, my whole body was just consumed in flames.” The nearby bottle also exploded when the flames spread, she said. (Stimson, 9/4)