Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
'I Think It’s Going To End Badly': Health Experts Decry States' Rush To Reopen, Saying It's Based On Politics, Not Science
The New York Times: As States Rush To Reopen, Scientists Fear A Coronavirus Comeback
Millions of working people and small-business owners who cannot earn money while sheltering at home are facing economic ruin. So dozens of states, seeking to ease the pain, are coming out of lockdown. Most have not met even minimal criteria for doing so safely, and some are reopening even as coronavirus cases rise, inviting disaster. The much-feared “second wave” of infection may not wait until fall, many scientists say, and instead may become a storm of wavelets breaking unpredictably across the country. The reopenings will proceed nonetheless. The question now, scientists say, is whether the nation can minimize the damage by intelligently adopting new tactics. (McNeil, 5/11)
The Associated Press: Workplace Worries Mount As US Tracks New COVID-19 Cases
Even as President Donald Trump urges getting people back to work and reopening the economy, thousands of new coronavirus infections are being reported daily, many of them job-related. Recent figures show a surge of cases in meat-packing and poultry-processing plants. There’s been a spike of new infections among construction workers in Austin, Texas, where that sector recently returned to work. Even the White House has proven vulnerable, with positive coronavirus tests for one of Trump’s valets and for Vice President Mike Pence’s press secretary. (Crary, 5/12)
CNN: 5 Common Arguments For Reopening The Economy -- And Why Experts Say They Are Flawed
The economy is plummeting, and tens of millions of Americans need to get back to work. But at what cost? We know there are health consequences to keeping the economy closed, and some say thousands of Americans are at risk of "deaths of despair." But as states try to balance saving lives and saving livelihoods, experts say some arguments for reopening the economy now are short-sighted or flawed. (Yan, 5/11)
The Hill: Coronavirus Cases Expanding In States Preparing To Reopen
New coronavirus hot spots are emerging in rural and non-metropolitan counties across the country, including many states that are taking steps to slowly reopen their economies after weeks of stay-at-home orders. A new analysis by Brookings Institution demographer William Frey shows two-thirds of Americans live in counties with a high prevalence of coronavirus spread, where more than 100 cases have been diagnosed per every 100,000 residents. The analysis illustrates the spread of the virus from early epicenters in New York, Seattle, New Orleans and Albany, Ga., into neighboring and more sparsely populated areas, both inside state boundaries and across state lines. (Wilson, 5/11)
Reuters: Trump Wades Into Pennsylvania Coronavirus Plan, Governor Pushes Back
President Donald Trump accused Democrats of moving to reopen U.S. states from coronavirus lockdown measures too slowly for political advantage on Monday, as Pennsylvania’s governor hit back against Republicans pushing a faster timetable. (Chiacu, 5/11)
The Hill: Trump Targets Pennsylvania Over Coronavirus Restrictions
President Trump on Monday backed Pennsylvania residents who oppose restrictions intended to slow the spread of the coronavirus in the state and accused Democratic governors of leaving such measures in place "for political purposes." "The great people of Pennsylvania want their freedom now, and they are fully aware of what that entails," Trump tweeted. "The Democrats are moving slowly, all over the USA, for political purposes. They would wait until November 3rd if it were up to them," he added, referring to Election Day. "Don’t play politics. Be safe, move quickly!" (Samuels, 5/11)
The New York Times: Coronavirus In Washington, D.C.: Capital Moves To Reopen, While City Hesitates
As the Trump administration pushes for the federal government to lead the nation in reopening the doors to daily business, the leaders of the capital region that would live with the consequences are fragmented on how to move forward. This city, home to 700,000 people, anchors one of the most interconnected metropolitan regions in the nation, with a total population nearly 10 times larger than the District of Columbia. Washington and the close-in counties within Virginia and Maryland have a shared Metro system and populations that move daily across their borders, a large number of them workers for the government. (Steinhauer, 5/11)
The New York Times: New York To Begin Limited Reopening In Upstate Region
In the most concrete step toward restarting his battered and shuttered state, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said on Monday that large chunks of New York State’s central interior will be allowed to partially reopen construction, manufacturing and curbside retail this weekend. The move toward a limited, regional reopening came 10 weeks after the state’s first confirmed case of the coronavirus, which has killed more than 26,000 people in New York and sickened hundreds of thousands more. That toll has been largely borne by New York City and its populous suburbs, with far fewer cases and fatalities thus far in the state’s more rural communities and smaller cities. (McKinley, 5/11)
Politico: New York City Could Begin To Ease Coronavirus Restrictions In June
New York City will remain largely shut down at least into June, but could begin to ease some restrictions next month if progress in combating the coronavirus pandemic continues, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Monday. “We’re clearly not ready yet,” de Blasio told reporters at a press briefing Monday. (Durkin, 5/11)
The New York Times: A Red Corner Of A Blue State Fights To Reopen
To understand why Mayor Nate Duckett wants Farmington, N.M., to reopen while the governor wants it shut, it helps to know something about what he calls his city’s “death spiral.” Perched in a rural corner of northwest New Mexico, Farmington watched its wealth vanish as its oil and gas industries went elsewhere. Its population is one of the fastest-shrinking in America. What keeps the lights on in Farmington is a coal-fired power plant whose fate remains uncertain. And all of that was before the virus leveled what remained of Farmington’s economy. (Casey, 5/12)
The New York Times: ‘These Are Not Numbers. These Are Souls.’ Georgia Pastors Say No To Reopening.
Churches in Albany, Ga., have been devastated by the coronavirus. As the state reopens, pastors are uniting to keep people home. (Englebrcht and Reneau, 5/12)
Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Kemp Set To Extend Restrictions On Bars, Nightclubs Amid Pandemic
Georgia is among the first states to reopen broad parts of its economy that were closed during the pandemic, but Gov. Brian Kemp is likely to announce Tuesday that he will keep bars and nightclubs shuttered until the outbreak subsides. The governor is expected to extend restrictions announced in early April that closed bars, nightclubs and live performance venues. He’s also set to renew safety requirements for other businesses that are scheduled to expire Wednesday. (Bluestein, 5/12)
CBS News: Elon Musk Restarts Tesla Plant In California, Disregarding Stay-At-Home Order
Telsa CEO Elon Musk continued to defy California and Alameda County authorities by restarting production at the company's Fremont assembly plant Monday, saying he was ready to be arrested himself if necessary, CBS San Francisco reported. The announcement came days after Musk filed a lawsuit against the county to reopen the factory, which is Tesla's only vehicle assembly plant in the U.S. Shift workers were seen streaming in and out of the sprawling plant in the pre-dawn hours, filling up the employee parking lot. The company reportedly has deployed additional PPE masks and taken other measures similar to those used to reopen the automaker's plant in Shanghai, China. (5/12)
The Wall Street Journal: Texas Businesses Defy Coronavirus Shutdown
A Dallas beauty-salon owner was arrested last week for opening before the state lifted its shutdown, sparking national outrage. A bar and gym in Odessa opened, aided by men who drove hundreds of miles to stand outside the businesses with guns. State lawmakers near Houston defied the governor of their own party as they got illegal haircuts on camera and tweeted about it. Across Texas—a state that has long embraced defiance as a motto, with its unofficial state slogan “Come and Take It”—business owners are pushing against the state’s coronavirus shutdown orders and its phased reopening plan. (Findell, 5/11)
The Washington Post: Northam Confirms Northern Virginia Likely To Be Excluded From Initial Reopening
Gov. Ralph Northam confirmed Monday that he expects to hold Northern Virginia out of the gradual, “phase one” reopening of the rest of the state later this week, describing a state starkly cleaved in two by the novel coronavirus. Of nearly 1,000 new coronavirus infections reported in the state Monday, almost three-quarters of them were clustered in the D.C. suburbs, which account for about 40 percent of the state’s population. (Miller, Schneider and Nirappil, 5/11)
The Washington Post: C&C Coffee And Kitchen Defies Colorado Governor After Illegally Reopening With Zero Social Distancing Precautions
A day after C&C Coffee and Kitchen defied Democratic Gov. Jared Polis’s executive Safer at Home order — packing the restaurant with hundreds of customers on Mother’s Day — the regional health department ordered the business to shut down immediately until authorities could determine if the business was in compliance with coronavirus-related restrictions, according to a statement from the agency. (Klemko, Flynn and Craig, 5/11)
Reuters: U.S. Auto Industry Workers Return To Jobs Amid Concerns Of Second Virus Wave
Factory workers began returning to assembly lines in Michigan on Monday, paving the way to reopen the U.S. auto sector but stoking fears of a second wave of coronavirus infections as strict lockdowns are eased across the country. (Klayman, 5/11)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Evers Plans Wisconsin Reopening, And Coronavirus Deaths Show Patterns
As of Friday, 384 Wisconsinites had died of coronavirus. Almost all of them suffered from at least one underlying health condition such as diabetes, high blood pressure, congestive heart failure, pulmonary disease or obesity, according to an analysis of state data and a spreadsheet created by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel to track COVID-19 deaths statewide. (Barton, 5/8)
Bangor Daily News: Maine Joins Small Group Of States In Reopening Some Regions Before Others
Maine has become one of at least a dozen states that are beginning to ease restrictions on businesses in rural areas with fewer cases of the coronavirus while many rules will be in place in more heavily populated areas until June. ...The regional reopening has come at least partly at the urging of people in Maine’s hospitality and tourism industries and Republicans who have hammered the Mills administration for the economic harm that they said could result from continuing the restrictions. (Eichacker, 5/8)
New Hampshire Public Radio: It's Business As Not-Quite-Usual Today, As N.H. Loosens Some Limits On Economy
New Hampshire retail stores, hair salons, and barbershops will be permitted to allow customers back inside on Monday for the first time since Gov. Chris Sununu instituted limits to curtail the spread of coronavirus nearly two months ago. But it won’t be business as usual. Starting Monday morning, employees will be required to wear masks, and customers are encouraged to as well. Capacity at businesses is limited to 50%. Facilities are asked to make one-way aisles for customers, wherever possible. And hand sanitizer should be available at the entrance. (Bookman and Ropeik, 5/11)
